Chapter 37

Sora's POV

The repetitive clacking of two pairs of footsteps was the only sound echoing throughout the empty second-year school building. Around ten minutes prior, I had left the cafeteria after becoming angered by Class E's defective girls clique. I couldn't stand being in their presence for even a second longer.

I walked slowly down the school corridor with my beautiful younger sister, Shiro, while carefully observing my surroundings. I decided to use the rest of my lunch break on the assignment I had been given by Light.

Realistically, Light didn't need me to do this anymore since he had already executed his plan. However, I still thought it'd be best to complete the task just so we'd have the information ready for the future. Also, it wouldn't hurt for him to look more convincing during his trial.

I peered into the final classroom on the corridor and, after looking in for a few seconds, took out a folded A3 sheet of paper from my pocket and used a red marker to write on it.

"That's the last one on this floor, Shiro." I said to my cute little sister who was holding my hand tightly.

"Right," she replied quietly.

She was quieter than normal. It was something that she was trying to hide, and no one but me would've been able to notice the difference. However, I knew everything there was to know about Shiro by now. She couldn't hide anything from me.

"Are you still thinking about lunch earlier?" I asked her softly.

Shiro gave a small nod in reply. Due to her past experiences, Shiro was hit particularly hard by the encounter. I felt my hand tighten on its own around the paper in my hand, but I forced myself to remain calm for Shiro's sake.

"You shouldn't think about it. Our class wouldn't act like that, you know?" I reassured her.

"Really?"

"Yeah. Have more faith in our classmates."

The school wouldn't have allocated someone with aggressive tendencies to our so-called 'genius' class. Furthermore, after being around them for two months now, I could say with certainty that none of our five classmates would ever bully another person.

Shiro and I climbed the staircase to the third floor. On this floor in the first-year block, our classroom was located, which made me mildly curious as to whether there was also an unused classroom on the corresponding floor in the second-year block.

I led Shiro down the corridor, adding markings to my paper as we went. This floor was a staff floor, which meant that most rooms couldn't be mapped, however the most important part was probably the corridor itself. Students wouldn't often find themselves in these staff rooms anyway.

We turned the corner, and I noted down one last marking when I got to the end of the L shape. Sure enough, though, there was an unused classroom lying in wait around the corner of the second-year block third floor as well. This would probably be the room we'd be given during our second year. I looked into the room and added a red marking to the page.

"The roof is the final location, then?" Shiro whispered as we turned around.

"Yeah. Then, we're done."

The roof was locked after hours, but during lunch the students were free to use it. That meant that this was the ideal time to complete the task I'd been assigned. I could get it done all in one go without having to come back to do the roof later.

Shiro and I arrived back at the U-shaped staircase at the end of the main corridor, and ascended upwards toward the roof. As we climbed the stairs, I noticed something odd and stopped Shiro by pulling her hand lightly with mine. She looked at me quizzically.

"Look. The door's open. That means there's probably someone up there. No one who comes up here would leave it open after leaving." I explained my thought process in a hushed voice.

Tugging Shiro along gently, I crept up the stairs until I could glance through the half-open doorway. There, I laid my eyes on a well-endowed girl with waist-length pink-tinted hair. She appeared to be alone, and was leaning on the railing, gazing out towards the campus.

"Ichinose?" Shiro whispered questioningly.

I nodded in affirmative. Out of everyone, she was one of the ones I'd least expected to be up here. What was she doing up here? Was she meeting someone? Or did she just come up here to eat lunch alone? I didn't see any food anywhere.

No, don't be an idiot, Sora. This is the second-year building, of course she's meeting someone!

They say that curiosity killed the cat, but I couldn't quell mine after making this discovery. I could probably just use the excuse that it was a calculated risk in order to gain information if anyone questions me.

"Come," I said to Shiro in a low voice, descending the stairs.

"Where?" she asked.

"It would be bad if we were spotted here, but I'm still curious. It'll be enough just to find out who she's meeting, though, so let's just wait around the corner until the person she's waiting for shows up."

"She's meeting someone?"

"Yeah. Why else would she choose the second-year building? She probably doesn't want anyone in the first-year to see her."

"But how do you know the first-year roof wasn't just already occupied?"

"Balance of probability. The roof isn't used much on any building. Also, do you think Ichinose is the type of person to avoid all of her friends just so she can eat alone? I don't think so. It's more likely that she's come here to rendezvous because it's out of the way." I explained as we reached the corner of the L-shape.

Shiro looked impressed by my deduction. "You make a lot of deductions based on probability," she observed.

"I'm not the only one. In the books, Sherlock makes many deductions based off of probability. I'd bet L makes a lot of conclusions on a probability-basis as well."

"L... He's supposedly the best detective in the world, isn't he?"

"Yep. Even though he hides his identity, he's clearly very good at what he does. I'd wager that he thinks like me. It's much more effective to think up lots of possibilities using assumptions and probability and then ruling them out as you gather contradictory evidence than it is to look specifically for evidence to support the one possibility with the least guesswork involved."

Shiro was about to respond, when the tapping sound of shoes began to echo out from the floor below. I put my hand around her shoulder and pulled her behind the corner, and peeked out. Nobody would notice me from this far away, even if they looked down the corridor for whatever reason.

The visitor's blond hair and well-built figure eventually came into view as he ascended to the third floor, before carrying on to the roof. That was our mystery visitor that Ichinose was meeting with, then.

"Nagumo." I said, a triumphant smirk creeping on to my face.

"This pretty much confirms that our fifth question was accurate, doesn't it?" Shiro asked as Nagumo ascended to the roof.

"Yeah. Nagumo would have no reason to secretly call Ichinose out here if he didn't force her to do something for him in order to join the council. He's probably gonna tell her to keep her mouth shut." I inferred confidently.

Nagumo Miyabi was a very shady individual. He was also very overconfident. Even though any observant person would've been capable of figuring out that he was the one who accepted Ichinose secretly, he never considered that an outsider would discover him. Similarly, I was able to deduce that he asked something of Ichinose just because I knew that he was the kind of person to go behind his superior's back.

Overconfidence is an extremely brittle weapon to wield, Nagumo Miyabi.

"Are you going to go and spy on them?" Shiro asked.

"No. Just knowing that my suspicions were correct is enough for me. I'll find out what exactly Nagumo asked of her another time." I responded.

You can never be too cautious, and trying to spy on them would be overstepping massively here. It's best for me to just be content with coincidentally finding out anything at all.

Before long, Ichinose and Nagumo returned from the roof. Shiro and I watched as they descended the stairs together and listened to the clacking of their shoes as they left.

After the footsteps faded, Shiro and I walked to the stairs and ascended to the roof. I took a quick glance around and added one last red marking to my paper before turning around to make my way back.

When Shiro and I arrived back at the second floor, I immediately spotted a big problem. Nagumo had left, but Ichinose had stayed behind and was leaning against the wall, deep in thought. I thought I could just sneak back upstairs without being seen, but it seemed that fate had other plans.

"Sora-kun and Shiro-san, right? What are you two doing here?" The strawberry-haired girl noticed us and immediately asked.

There was a slight hint of panic in her tone, which indicated straight away that she was worried that I'd seen her meet with Nagumo. That pretty much confirmed to me that they had spoken about something confidential.

Time seemed to slow down as I kicked my brain into gear. I took into account Ichinose's non-confrontational and excessively kind and trusting personality, and began thinking of the best possible reason to give her for our presence.

I couldn't use an excuse like "I was called to a staff room," for instance, because this was the second-year building. If a teacher did actually need to talk to me, I would've been called to the third floor of the first-year building. I wasn't sure how gullible Ichinose actually was, so it probably wasn't worth destroying any chance of her ever trusting me just so I can try that excuse.

That meant that I needed a different excuse for why I'd be on the staff floor of the second-year building. Ichinose knows that I wasn't up there for lunch, otherwise she would've encountered me on the roof. Basically, there really was no reason at all to why I was on that floor.

My only option was just to tell her the truth, then. I produced the folded sheet of paper from my back pocket and opened it up, pointing it in her direction as I walked over.

"I was creating a map." I said in a neutral tone.

"A map? Why would you need to map out this building? Isn't there already a map of the school in the handouts we were given during the entrance ceremony?" Ichinose asked in confusion.

"Ah, it's not just any map," I said as I reached her side. "Look. All of the red dots I've put onto it represent a surveillance camera."

I decided that she'd be more likely to trust me if I told her the truth and let her in on some of Class D's affairs.

"You're mapping out surveillance cameras?" She asked quizzically.

"That's right. To be more precise, every student in my class has been doing so for the past week or so. This was one of the last places in the school that we hadn't mapped." I explained.

"I see..." Ichinose, who was usually a good conversationalist from what I've heard, trailed off and looked down, seemingly not knowing what to say.

After a few moments, she looked back up and made eye contact with me. "Did you see?"

"Yeah," I admitted. Might as well be straightforward.

"I suppose it isn't too bad if it's Sora-kun. You already had your suspicions, right?"

I nodded affirmatively in response. Ichinose was there when I confronted Manabu and Nagumo, so there was really no point hiding anything from her.

thought you two were amazing when you came into the student council room. Just by knowing that I was initially rejected, you figured pretty much everything out." Ichinose praised Blank's deductive powers.

"The only question left unanswered is 'what did Nagumo ask you to do?'" I replied.

I noticed Ichinose's expression subtly shift into one of slight discomfort after I mentioned Nagumo. Clearly, it wasn't something she wanted to be reminded of.

"Of course, I won't ask you what it is. It's your private business." I quickly added, trying to lighten the atmosphere.

"Thank you," Ichinose sighed in relief.

Ichinose's pleasant smile returned, and the mood immediately brightened up. I silently started walking back toward the stairs, my hand still interlocked with Shiro's, and Ichinose matched my pace and started walking beside me.

"Say, Sora-kun," she said, pulling out her phone. "I still don't have the contact information of anyone in your class. Could I have yours? You as well, Shiro-san."

"Sure. There's no reason to refuse." I replied, pulling out my phone as Shiro also took out hers.

The three of us traded our contact information as we descended the steps to the ground floor and walked towards the building's exit. When we were done, we put our phones away and Shiro asked me a question.

"Nii, what will you do about Nagumo? Should we expel him?"

A rather outrageous suggestion came from my little sister's cute mouth. Ichinose seemed similarly incredulous.

"Expel him? No. Why would I ever want to get rid of such an entertaining opponent?" I replied with a grin. "He's underhanded and manipulative! Just think about how fun it will be when we play against him!"

Ichinose probably couldn't decide whether to be more shocked by Shiro's question or my answer. This, though, is just how Blank operates. Our main focus is having fun. Ichinose will hopefully come to realize this eventually. From what I've seen, Nagumo could provide me with quite a bit of fun.

Besides, as far as potential opponents go, Nagumo was nowhere near the most dangerous of everyone I've encountered so far.