Perhaps the job of assisting the police is exhausting…Or perhaps it was hard to be a detective. I didn’t know which one was more troublesome.
Nowadays, Aunt Yuka always arrived home late at night.
It was a habit of my dad, which he picked up after Aunt Yuka moved over, to greet her and offer a drink after dinner. Such a harmonious atmosphere had become the usual scene at our home during the evening. Just as before, I would retreat to my room as soon as dinner was over. Almost every night, I would be lulled to sleep by the happy laughter of my dad and aunt from downstairs. However, that day, as soon as she got home, Aunt Yuka immediately climbed up the stairs in a hurry.
It was a habit of my aunt to take a shower when she got home, however, her flustered footsteps indicated that she was in a hurry about something. And when she knocked on the door to my room, my heart thumped as I realized the reason for her hurried footsteps.
“Tomohiro-kun? It’s Aunt Yuka. Can I come in?”
“Uh, yeah. Please come in.”
“Sorry to interrupt your study! Tomohiro-kun, you’re a student at Shikabone Junior High School, right?”
“…Yeah.That’s right.”
“Today, we received a report that a suspicious person had entered the classrooms at school. Have you heard anything about it?”
…I would have never dreamed in a million years that our silly prank would be reported to the police.
Perhaps we went overboard with the prank…? Anxiety gripped me, although knowing there wasn’t any evidence. And that proof was that she was asking the perpetrator.
Besides, didn’t we just plan the whole thing to experience excitement and thrill…?
As the purpose came to mind, I regained a bit of composure.
After that, I asked Aunt Yuka what was the matter. Listening to her in detail, I realized that it wasn’t that important.
The school authority reported to the police that they saw the character ‘骨’ scrawled on the blackboards of six classrooms as soon as they entered school. (Of course, we were responsible for all of this.)
The teachers thought it was a silly prank played by a student, however, because it was a large-scale incident that spanned multiple classrooms, and because they doubted whether the perpetrator would take the trouble to come to school early in the morning just to commit such a prank, they suspected that a suspicious person had sneaked into the school early in the morning, and reported the incident to the Board of Education just in case. It seemed that the police did not start an investigation just because an incident occurred.
Aunt Yuka must have overheard the report at the police station.
As I heard the details of my own doing from someone else, a detective nonetheless, I felt like I got the taste of forbidden honey. Although it sounded strange and ridiculous, the fact that I was the culprit which they were unaware of made the whole situation even more exciting.
…However, it would be arrogant of me to say that I would never get caught.
Even if no one at school knew, my parents knew that I got up early in the morning and also left early “to meet a friend.”
Realizing that my identity as the culprit could be revealed in an unexpected way which I was unaware of, I could comprehend that the situation was far from optimistic…
“I was asleep so I didn’t know, but… Tomohiro-kun, I heard that you went to school quite early this morning?”
It seemed Aunt Yuka was slowly going deeper into the matter. Although I was prepared, my heart still skipped a beat.
‘Could it really be that I would suddenly be found out?’
Cursing my stupidity, I pondered why I didn’t think of anything before I fell into the predicament. If we were to pull a prank on such a large scale, there was a good chance that it would reach the police’s ears.
I should have been able to predict that it would reach Aunt’s ears and I could get caught in this.
However… All I did was write a character on the blackboard to scare my classmates. Even if I were found out, I could just apologize for doing so. It wasn’t like I would be taken into custody for something so insignificant…
As I sorted out everything I was aware of like that, I began to feel that the Aunt’s questioning was just an extension of our play.
Damn it… why am I behaving like a coward… I couldn’t believe just playing a prank could make me so fearful…. I guess I would never be a proper prankster…
There was nothing I should be afraid of. Rather, I should enjoy the thrill this moment brought…
Slowly exhaling to suppress the bubbling anxiety, I finally regained a little bit of calmness.
“Yeah, I had promised one of my friends, who’s in the soccer club, to meet early in the morning. I just wanted to borrow something from him…. I wasn’t the one who scribbled on the blackboard…”
…I should not have been so straightforward but… Is it too stupid to claim myself innocent?
Second passed by as Aunt Yuka remained silent, even the ticking of the clock felt incredibly long.
Unable to bear the tension of that brief moment, I attempted to cover up my lame lie with an even lamer lie. Only then Aunt Yuka started smiling like usual. Such a sudden change of expression was unexpected, I was rather astonished.
“Oh! Sorry, sorry, that’s not what I meant, Tomohiro-kun. I wasn’t accusing you of being the culprit, I was just wondering if you might have passed the suspicious person since you went to school early in the morning. Aunt Yuka doesn’t suspect you at all. Did you think I suspected you? Did you? Ah, I’m extremely sorry.”
…It seemed Aunt Yuka is a very honest person by heart.
For some reason, the fact that I’m a petty person dawned on me. I never thought I would be cut out for dirty tricks.
A bit of embarrassment arose as my pettiness was revealed to me. Moreover, I was also a bit resentful of myself for not being able to pull off the prank with more precision.
“It’s okay Aunt Yuka. I know you’re a detective. So it’s only natural that you would think that I was suspicious.”
“Oh, sorry, sorry! Please don’t take it to heart!”
As she said so, she hugged me to her bosom, laughing as if to lift up the mood.
My face was pressed against Aunt Yuka’s large chest, and my heart couldn’t help but pound wildly at the close proximity of a girl. For a moment, I once again realized that Aunt Yuka is a young woman…
“Uh, I’m really sorry! But, Tomohiro-kun, do you know anything? Have you seen any suspicious people at school that you’ve never seen before?”
“No, not at all.”
“I don’t think strangers can enter the school as they pleased… Could it be that someone at school pulled off the prank…?”
“Well, it’s natural to think that. If no one entered the school from outside then, the culprit must be someone from the school…”
At her own hypothesis, Aunt Yuka’s expression turned stern.
The expression on her face was completely different from when she inquired me, suspecting that I was the culprit a moment earlier.
…So this is the true appearance of Aunt Yuka, no… it was the usual appearance of Detective Miyajima.
Muttering to herself, Aunt Yuka crossed her arms and began pacing around the room.
“Then the culprit is probably… closer in age to Tomohiro-kun than I thought.”
“I-I guess so.”
“By the way, do you know what the character ‘骨’ implies?”
“Huh? W-what do you mean…?”
“No, I was just speculating. The character ‘骨’ was scrawled on the blackboards of six classrooms. When I asked the teachers, they said that some students sometimes do such a thing to take out their frustrations on the school. One time they even broke the glass of a window so…”
“It isn’t unusual for students to write strange things on the school’s walls. However, words like ‘fool’, ‘idiot’ or other vulgar words have far fewer strokes and should be easier to write. Despite this, the culprit has chosen to write one of the most difficult-to-write characters ‘骨’ (bone). I think there must be some meaning behind the character….Tomohiro-kun, I may not know the meaning of the strange word but you must know, right? Maybe it’s some sort of slang or trend that only kids understand… or quotes from anime or manga… I feel like the answer lies somewhere around there. ”
“Yeah, I wonder what it means. But writing the character ‘骨’ so many times is kind of creepy. I hope it’s not an ominous thing.”
“…It doesn’t have any meaning, does it?”
“I think it’s just a prank pulled by a student. I don’t think it has any special meaning.”
“No, it does. It must have a meaning. I’m sure of it.”
Her denial came pretty quickly….I wondered how Aunt Yuka could evaluate so sharply even though she hadn’t actually been on the scene. Goosebumps rose over my body at her sharp assessment.
“W-w-why do you think that, Aunt Yuka?”
“If you line up the classrooms where the character ‘骨’ had been written on a school map, you will see that some of them are very far from each other. In other words, it’s not unlikely that multiple perpetrators split up and did the work. They scattered around the school, made sure there were no people around, and then wrote it to the nearest classroom. Although I can’t be sure since I haven’t seen them myself, I believe writings in each classroom must have different handwriting.”
“Well, I guess so… it’s quite hard to write the character ‘骨’. If there was one perpetrator, he probably wouldn’t have had time to go around six classrooms… But how can Aunt Yuka evaluate that it could have a meaning?”
“The fact that multiple perpetrators wrote the set character ‘骨’ means that they had a common purpose for writing it. In other words, it wasn’t just done for fun, but that they had an agreement that they had to write it. If that’s the case, then the character ‘骨’ must contain a meaning to them.”
“It’s just I can’t understand why did they specifically chose the character ‘骨’. What purpose do they have in promoting it? Was it a symbol to some yakuza or teenage gangs? Yakuza and the likes are popular among the children nowadays. They also go around writing graffiti of their gang’s initials everywhere. Could it be something like that? Like the Bone Yakuza or something. Maybe I should ask the juvenile division… ”
My mouth formed an ‘O’ hearing her muttering to herself.
Aunt Yuka was quite impressive.
Although it would be arrogant of me to say it was something great, it’s still impressive that she was able to analyze what amounted to nothing more than a prank without even seeing the scene, and that’s also only based on a report she received…
Is this how a detective is? I honestly couldn’t help but admire her…. However, I was also a bit creeped out at her stern evaluation.
But at the same time, I found it amusing.
After all, the culprit was right in front of her, and she was discussing her hypothesis with him. Nothing could compare the thrill and amusement to this….I felt like I was the main villain in a detective story.
But I also knew that I would be in a big trouble if I was found out.
But that was my concern for the future. There was no way that a professional detective like Aunt Yuka would investigate such an insignificant matter. The police are there to investigate crimes, not to find out which child pulled off a prank. They don’t have the time to worry about a prank that happened at school. So it was no use for Aunt Yuka to brag about her sharpness in front of me. Right. If I thought about it calmly, there was nothing I should have feared from my aunt’s deductive reasoning.
The more I thought about it, the more I regained my composure and the space to enjoy the situation. Well…. It was just a prank. It’s not like we did a terrible offense. I was just playing with my aunt…
“…Ah, that’s right, Aunt Yuka….that, um… I guess it’s not related but…”
“Hmm? What is it, Tomohiro-kun? Tell me if there’s anything you’re curious about.”
“No, I’m sorry if it’s completely unrelated…. I don’t remember whom I heard it from… I think it’s probably a lie, but… Do you know about the story of ‘The Curse of Ohone-sama’…?”
“What? ‘The Curse of Ohone-sama’… What’s that??”
Although it was us three who decided on it ourselves…it really sounded stupid.
Aunt Yuka showed a curious look, although she didn’t suspect it like before, she never looked like she was uninterested in the content.
