Shin2 Dan: Chapter 35: Secrets Behind the Exam (8)
Chapter 35 - Secrets Behind the Exam (8)
“We managed to ask all of the suspects one by one and they replied the same thing.” Yamada writes on the white board.
It was already after school, Yamada and Kamiki stays back at the headquarter to relay the information to Fukuda. All of the keitai are spread on the table as Fukuda curiously open each one. Her eyes shine brightly as she excitedly handles them carefully. Being rich must be nice, beside from the one belonging to Sakamoto Shogo, all the models are the newest ones on the market. It’s too bad that she can only play with them for less than a day.
“Are you listening?” Yamada cleared his throat, causing her to turn to him. She actually wasn’t listening at all, but scanning what he wrote on the white board, she innocently nods.
Rolling his eyes, Yamada continues, “From what we’d know, they are all blackmailed into hiding the same way. And all of the students reported on getting to the website at a random time, but the same computer.”
“But from their dialogues, there’s also another differences.” Kamiki stands up and walks toward the white board, “The prices of the tests keep increasing.”
On the board, Kamiki wrote:
Sakamoto Shogo - 0 yen
Hanazono Momotarou - 200 yen
Tatsuki Yuki - 500 yen
Kuroda Tomoki - 1000 yen
Nagumo Shu - 1500 yen
Aoki Kohei - 2000 yen
“Why?” asked Fukuda, her hand still holding on to one of the keitai.
“Well, we’ve come up with several hypotheses.” Kamiki turns to Yamada, “Perhaps, the seller want to see how much students are willing to pay for success. The second is that he may actually make fun of them.”
“Make fun?” Fukuda raises an eyebrow.
“He’s probably laughing that they have too much money on their hand to spend.” Yamada answers, “Though those hypotheses don’t sound very convincing. That’s why we thought, there’s a possibility that the seller want to continue on the business if the school doesn’t find out. To test the water and see how much a student is willing to spend, for example.”
After concluding, Yamada and Kamiki turns to Fukuda for her input, but they only see that she’s still playing with the keitai on the table. Her face fills with a happy expression, like a child playing with her new toys.
“Mamayu!” Yamada sounding irritate.
She turns to him; the smile can’t seem to wipe off from her face. “Huh?”
“Focus!” He reprimanded, “Look up the info about who the emails belong to!”
With a pout, she open up her netbook and connect the cable to one of the keitai, typing a bit and then switch over to the next, and then the next. While the two boys watch, she continues to work like that until all of the keitai have been connected and then disconnected.
“Hmm…”
“What is it?” excited, Kamiki asked, “Did you find something?”
“Well,” Fukuda slowly nodded, “From the look of it, the emails all come from the same IP address.”
“We already know that without you telling us.” Yamada rolled his eyes, “After all, they all came from the same person.”
“No, don’t you see?” Fukuda turns her netbook to the boys, “Even though he did so many things to try to hide the information of the website from me, but why did he not take careful action with the email?”
“That is indeed strange.” Yamada nodded.
The room fell into silence as each of them try to think up of their own answer. After a while, Kamiki speaks, “Maybe… Just maybe, he wants people to find out that it’s him.”
“Why would he want to do that?” Fukuda asked, “That’s just like bringing trouble to himself if he did get caught.”
“Well,” Kamiki tries to explain as he turns from Yamada to Fukuda, “Don’t you do things sometimes secretly, but you put some kind of hints in there so that people might know it’s you?”
“I kind of get it.” Yamada nodded, “Like you’re putting a copyright on it.”
“What?”
“You know,” Yamada said, “Like when you’re supposed to do something anonymously, but you’re so proud of your work, so you made sure to put something that relates it back to you.”
Kamiki nods at Yamada’s explanation, but Fukuda just looks at the two of them with skeptical eyes.
“Anyways, Mamayu, continues to look into that.” Yamada cleared his throat, “On the other hand, did your research yield any results?”
“Like it was mention before,” Fukuda stands up and walks toward the computers, the others follow. On the monitors are images from the Library’s cameras at different times, showing the suspected students. Fukuda continues, “The website is always at computer #16 at random times each day. After browsing it, they will always close the browser. However, 3 days before the mock exam, the website is looked at the last time by Hongo Kanata.”
“Are you saying he might be the seller?” Yamada asked.
“Why would he need it?” Kamiki asked, “Before Nakajima-san came, he’s the top 2 isn’t he?”
“The point is that it’s strange that he didn’t use it because he’s the top 2.” Yamada shakes his head, “Nobody want to be 2nd their whole life, so why didn’t he jump at the chance?”
“I also thought it was strange.” Fukuda said.
Kamiki thought back for a bit, but somehow, their reasoning doesn’t seem to connect, “Maybe you’re being too sensitive. He can’t be the culprit because he understands the consequences more than anyone.” After all, if Hongo-san got the questions ahead, why didn’t he use it when he has that promise with Shida-san?
“If he’s considered a suspect,” Kamiki continues, “Then wouldn’t 90% of the people in school also a suspect? You said it before right? Nobody wants to be behind somebody.”
“If you said it like that,” Fukuda replied, “Then already 89% are already off the suspect list because they are either not smart enough, rich enough, or calculating enough to do it.”
“How would you know if he’s a calculating person?”
“Because I don’t, that’s why he’s a suspect.” Fukuda looks at Kamiki with suspicion, “Why are you standing up to him anyways?”
“Yea, do you know anything?” Yamada asked.
Kamiki shakes his head, even though he has a very good reason, but it’s not something he can disclose readily to another. “No, I just… I just think it’s wrong to push the blame on him, especially when we don’t have concrete evidences.”
“About that…” Fukuda begins typing something on the computers while the boys watch.
“Is this good enough evidence for him to be a suspect?” she grins.
-------------
Author's Notes: Fukuda finally showing her otaku-ness after so long. D: I bet you almost forget about it. ^^;;
Oh, speaking of keitai....
Secret Files of Shin2 Dan:
Kamiki's keitai, Sorachin is Docomo Style Series SH-05A.
Fukuda's and Yamada's keitai, Yukitan (white) and Kuroko (black), are Docomo Prime Series SH-03A.
I guess you can imagine my surprise when Kamiki used almost the exact phone as Sorachin in "Kokoro no Ito"... :x Purely coincidence.