Vol 5 Chapter 4 (1/2)
It is easy to trick a genius
It is difficult to trick an idiot
It is i
1
When there was less than an hour left, I returned once more to Neo-san's private room Neo-san and Kouta-san went to a separate roo to do next -- that next presu an afterwards coisa and I -- and so I was left alone in this roos,alone to myself
The sound of the clock ticking away the seconds was loud I felt like I should have prepared for this and brought a digital watch But Kunagisa had customized that so much that it had beco watch was a gift froation, so I did not have a choice after all
”A choice -- but itto even have one choice”
Choose
The action of choosing
I pulled out Misachi-san's Jericho from my belt and stared at it It had a very boorish for as I did not let myself lose my calm as Misachi-san had done earlier -- was not too difficult Practicing even without reaching the levels of being called training would be enough to give ood aim
”This country is reeally peaceful”
Thethat Kouta-mentioned was quite simple First, she pulled the unconscious Misachi-san and shi+to-kun inside the ward, and tied up Misachi-san with a PC cable She said Misachi-san probably would not awaken for half a day anyways, but it was just for insurance As for shi+to-kun, Kouta-san tossed him to me (literally, tossed him), and made me carry him on my back
”I support the feminist movement That men and women should be equal”
”Then it is right for you to carry him, dear friend,” Kouta-san smiled ”As men and women are equal, it is clear who between you and I has authority”
Indeed
It was, of course, not like Kouta-san had handed shi+to-kun to aki shi+to-kun's role was to be a key His unconscious eye was for the retina scanner We then used the card he carried around, and I had heard the ID nuh times to have remembered it I was a bit unsure of whether it was ikwe9f2ma444 or ikwe9mada423 but Kouta-san hurried me and I was able to remember It was the same for the memorized number I was a lot more worried about this one (I felt like it would be really handy to have Kunagisa in these cases) but it seemed I was correct However, both the number and the ID were just bonuses for the security systes were the card, the retina check -- and the voice In other words, the real proofs of identity Of these, ere able to clear the card and the retina check, but there was no chance of forcing the unconscious shi+to-kun to speak--
”Oogaki shi+to My ID is ikwe9f2ma444”
Kouta-san said, changing her voice
”Voice and retina confirmed Please wait”
The synthetic voice responded, and the door opened
”Why are you surprised? Aikawa Jun does not need to have monopoly over vocal mimicry, does she?” Kouta-san stated ”Even I can trick a machine These are consummately simple constructs”
”You know Aikawa-san?”
Kouta-san htly displeased expression at my question, but she quickly recovered, and said, ”I have heard about her through the grapevine”
”I had a feeling you meant that notorious Aikawa Jun when you mentioned a contractor -- of course, if it were her, she would deceive not justor the door will shut Ahh, leave shi+to-kun there, will you? We've tied up his hands and his feet, so he can do nothing”
In other words, this time it was shi+to-kun and Misachi-san ere captured While ould be found out eventually, it was best delayed as much as possible Even if the Professor would eventually realize the tere iven a bit of reprieve until the time limit Well, perhaps that is too much to hope for, but in any case, that was how Kouta-san and I succeeded in escaping the seventh ward
””
-- so now, a question
Ishi+maru Kouta, who meticulously infiltrated this facility, and even succeeded in reone outside The Machiavellist, the schemer, the sly, the resourceful, the veteran Ishi+maru Kouta Do you really think that Ishi+ardless of how iht have been) and accidentally set off the alaro further, Misachi-san aside, what if she (bearing inconversation with the untrained shi+to-kun simply to learn his voice--
How terrifying What waselse was not her action (-- after all, Aikawa-san would do soisa would have been able to calculate that much of an escape route--) but rather her audacity to do all of that with such nonchalance It would be neither praise nor critique to say that her plan had not at all a high probability of success If Misachi-san had opted for escape, then that would have been the end of it, and there was no guarantee that only a small number of people would come There were plenty of other issues hidden away Of course,on est problem of all If I were to have come up with this plan myself it would have been without a doubt foolishness This sort of heroic absurdity is insoh the only method possible, but I still would not think that to be the case I risked my life -- no, Iabandoned my life to jump from the sixth ward to the seventh ward, but I would not be surprised if someone were to ask if this was not on par with that decision
””
However, Kouta-san's scheme succeeded beautifully, and so here we are
After our escape, Kouta-san contacted Neo-san with her wireless, and Neo-san stepped outside as if to see off the visiting (or ai-san, and let us in on the way back in
In the end, Kouta-san was certain ould succeed, and I was not Even before deter or not, I was unable to come up with such an audacious idea
”-- I suppose that is the difference between a completed work and a perfect work”
And the difference in those who can see things and those who cannot Perhaps that was all that was behind this Utsurigi Gaisuke crucifixion incident That the suspect was seeing so that an ordinary person likeof the corpse and the destruction of the corpse, and the taking of the are, all of it all, may have been for some purpose
” one hour twenty-five ”
Or if I were to say Dead Blue-style, one hour twenty-four minutes forty-six point seventy-seven seconds However, after thinking for two-and-a-half hours and not co to coatively was not going to progressin that direction
”shi+ogi-chan -- if you were in my position, even in this worst of positions in the worst of situations, would you be able to come up with the most effective clever scheme that could exist?”
Well, of course you would
However, it is impossible for me
It seeist even rei-chan
For exaether Let h that I would be able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with even Professor Kyouichirou Yes, for exaWhat would happen if ere to suppose her as the suspect?
One cannot say it impossible After all, Professor Kyouichirou does not know of her existence, and within this facility the only one who knows about her is the corrupt Neo-san (although currently shi+to-kun and Misachi-san would also be in the know) And unlike the researchers, Kouta-san was not restricted to any research ward As a result, there are less obstacles for her being suspected than any other suspect And that thinking speed, that wisdo that she had just shownup with such an unsolvable crime a piece of cake--
” such hideous nonsense”
I forced shut the forced theory There was only so far I could handle the lack of logic I did not intend to respect Professor Kyouichirou any, but the Professor's forced theory about Kunagisa To the suspect was much more believable Truly, this world had no lack of mysterious respect
”In that case, Neo-san would, under the same reason well, there is one more bizarre theory”
That would simply be the possibility that I myself am the suspect Would it not be a rather tasteful twist if I, a isa Toi Gaisuke? Of course, that would siless I know that I am not the suspect, and while I harbored hostility toward Utsurigi, I did not harbor any intent to murder
However
In this case, whether an action took place did notas soic could be followed--
”I as”
I mumbled, and then I found a phone in the room I own a cell phone, but I had left it in the wooden apart the satellite cell phone that Kunagisa used (which Professor Kyouichirou confiscated) aside, there was no way I could get signal here so deep in the mountains However, phone companies are bound by law, such that noa lonely island in the ion of a ated to connect the phone line As a result, even this Shadow Kyouichirou Research Facility was connected to the outside via a network, and that hy Neo-san's private room had a phone
And then it hit me Usually, phone lines in these sorts of facilities are designed not to have access to outside networks, but this facility was designed to house a ridiculously small number of employees In other words, that phone probably did connect outside By the tiht, I had already moved to the phone, and picked up the receiver
As for the nuers stoppedup the phone Come to think of it, it was not reasonable to hope for a proper conversation with that person That person does not speak when they do not want to speak, and that person does not speak even when they want to speak, and yet while that would be acceptable if they were listening to what I was saying, that person does not listen to any orders from anyone other than their master, and that person does not even pay attention to theirabout it so that the phone would even be picked up by that person in the first place Worst case, it ht even be that crazy fortune-teller What would that clairvoyant say about ining what she ht say
”Yet, Miiko-san is out and she does not carry a cell phone”
And Miiko-san has instincts as sharp as Oni to say that she would not sense Suzunashi+-san having been locked up in a cage Considering the iine that leading to anything good After pondering, I ended up deciding to dial Hime-chan's cell phone
”hello hello?” answered a so even a second time ”Who is this?”
”A man who seeks world domination”
”Ahh, Master Hullo good day,” Hime-chan sounded relieved ”I was surprised by the unknown number, Master What's up? Weren't you supposed to be in the oya Prefecture?”
”Yes Pretty much,” I answered, and tilted oya a prefecture Pretty sure she is wrong But for soht noell,I a”
”Mhm Guess that's why it's unknown Ahh, you know, perfect ti”
”What?”
”Souvenir Can you bring back five bars of uirō[2]?”
”Oh? Did His?” I asked while I tried to reht This is the Aichi Prefecture Nagoya is just a city here It is not Nagoya Prefecture, after all ” by uirō do youthat looks like yōkan[3]? Do you like that stuff, Hime-chan?”
”Nope, Hime-chan's friend does Do you re Hiot that when Hioya Prefecture she started going on about uirō Hime-chan doesn't need them, but five bars for my friend Colorful ones, if you can Master's sucked away plenty of ht?”
”I would rather you not ht, if I can return safely, I will buy you five hundred bars”
”No way I'ayu[5]”
iawa
I corrected her, like a Master
”Was that so But Master, whatcha mean by that? If I can return safely You ht not”
”Who knows They say there're green mountains wherever you are in the world, so it's no surprise that you can die anywhere, too” Indeed, no surprise Especially when it comes to someone like me ”But if I am not to return, you can do whatever you ith the stuff in my room”
”Really?” Hime-chan sounded excited ”Then I can take the weird T-shi+rts and weird jeans and weird jackets and weird socks?”
”Avoid calling other peoples' stuff weird” and what did she want to do with socks anyways? ”Yes In exchange, Hi off the apart away the trash and that sort of stuff”
”Ehhh,” Hime-chan suddenly sounded displeased How mercenary ”But you know, Master, you sound serious Are you in a bind? Were you in a building when a terrorist started attacking or did a plane co in?”
”No, nothing like that, this ti similar”
Mmhmm, Hime-chan did not sound appeased
”Master's pretty s anything like her age ”Hime-chan's an idiot but not stupid So Hiht now”
”Uh huh Well that is nice Does that mean you can help?”
”Of course not I have class soon”
What a pure-hearted reason
”Ah, I see Hime-chan is at school,” I said as I checked the wristwatch Hi cell phones to school”
”Yeah yeah I get it, Master,” and then I heard a chi with Hi, so Hio now, Master”
”Yes, farewell”
Keeping with the politeness of being the caller, I placed the receiver back down And then I felt like soed a bit I sighed deeply enough that it felt like I was blowing out all the air in s, and then I returned to the sofa
That was fine
That should be fine
As someone who had never truly trusted the individual known aslike confidence It was not that there was any falsehood behind the words I had said to Kouta-san soo, but ret and repentance That hy That hy in the event of failure, or perhaps in the event of guilt, when I repent, there should not be anything for me to have left undone
I had finished wrapping up loose ends
Now I just need to do what I want
” e once and talk to Kunagisa”
If one were to talk about a reht in that category Cooped up in her mansion, unable to even descend stairs by herself Yet that very Kunagisa Tomo also attained and controlled worldly infore (even if she were not to the level of Chii-kun) If I were to input the data I had gathered in the past two and a half hours, maybe she could come up with some sort of answer
That said, going back to the fourth ward after Kasugai-san has returned would be quite risky I do not think Kasugai-san would use the stairs, so it should be soht, but I could not help but err on the side of caution given that it would be an irreversible risk
”No point in fretting over it, though”
Hime-chan is in class, anyways, Ithat would not knohat I ht about discussing it with Kouta-san However, before I could even reach for the doorknob, the door opened toward the other side Huh Was this door automatic? I had unfortunately never encountered one before, but they do say the world has automatic doors that do not open sideways -- no, I do not recall this door being of suchto enter the room from the hallway And as expected, Kouta-san looked at me ide eyes
”--there?”
”No, I was just thinking of returning to the cages once I wanted to ask for Kunagisa and Suzunashi+-san's opinions However, that is a dangerously dangerous act, so I ondering what to do”
”No, I do not think that a bad idea at all,” Kouta-san said ”And, that works out quite well”
”Quite well? Speaking of which, did you finish speaking to Neo-san?”
”I wouldn't call it finish so uely ”Took a small break A visitor arrived in the middle There was a call fro to be co here for some purpose But it's not like I can let Koutari-san seeto use this room, so I've been told to take you out”
”Uh huh”
Koutari-san
Myether theory about Koutari Hinayoshi+ being the suspect Kouta-san had instantly kicked away the idea of using his hair as a rope, but that did not mean all suspicion could be lifted There was still the possibility that Koutari-san had used a different i At the very least, it seei were not on friendly ter was on friendly teri
”Not one--,but you know,” a question crept upjust fine with Kokoromi-sensei”
”Utsurigi-san may have deliberately distanced himself from others,” Kouta-san said ”Would it not be best to just ask Kunagisa-san about that? Of course, Kunagisa-san does not seei-san”
”It cannot be helped She is pretty clu, or say nothing, and only one or the other Fuzzy things like I can say this much are incomprehensible to her”
”Like bool Or perhaps I should say like blue?”
”Both, of course”
I left the room and moved to the side of the hallway near Kouta-san And then I came up with one not-that-bad idea Of course, I could not run into Koutari-san here, but at the sa that I could not do I wanted to hear what Koutari-san had to say, for infor purposes And if I am not to be allowed, then--
”Kouta-san”
”Accepted”
Before I could say anything, Kouta-san pulled out a wireless from her coat It was smaller than a cell phone and basically shaped like a board There were four knobs in the place of buttons, and Kouta-san tweaked them It hat she had used to coht except of the thief Kouta-san, she had her share of secret gadgets
”Yes -- correct, Neo-san Please, go on like that”
After exchanging two, three lines, Kouta-san received agreement -- or rather, acceptance, from Neo-san
”Then let us wait on the rooftop Other rooms would do, but if Koutari-san were to open any doors for no reason, everything would end on the spot”
”Uh huh” the rooftop again ”However, hoould we hear them from the rooftop?”
”We shall use this wireless for that If we keep it on a receiving channel they will not hear our voices, after all Well, the one thing to worry about is that so the radio waves but that is not a significant worry here”
Said Kouta-san as she began cli the stairs to the rooftop
”If anything, I worry more about the two of them”
”shi+to-kun and Misachi-san?” I asked as I followed her in cliht? You beat them so unnecessarily, after all”
”My, my It is not consummate to deliberately speak of one like a sadist I did not use any more violence than necessary”
”Leaving Misachi-san aside, I think you went too far with shi+to-kun You kept striking at his internal organs It would have sufficed to strike his head once He will be in quite some pain for a while”
”Keep talking as you wish You shall find out soon enough how kind I am”
Kouta-san replied with an inexplicable retort We finished cli the stairs, opened the door, and then Kouta-san took off her coat and spread it out on the ground before sitting I did the sa with the knobs on the wireless
” come to think of it, this place has security systems but no security cameras,” I said out of boredom ”This suits Kouta-san and I just fine, but is that not a security problem?”
”From an administrative standpoint that is more consu her eyes off the device ”There are probably sos they would rather not be recorded For exa important Basically, that is how it is”
”Everything and everything is recorded in their individual brains”
To begin with, is that h?
Kouta-san see the channels, as she placed the wireless device smack dab in thethat sounded like so Perhaps Neo-san had placed a wireless in his pocket, too
”Hmm It's a bit off”
Kouta-san tilted her head to the side as she turned a knob just a bit And then, it see up what sounded like a person's voice
” like so utari-San”
”No clue”
”However, it seems you took your ti how precise you are with time”
”For some reason the elevator was broken”
Neo-san and Koutari-san's voices It did not sound like they were talking as they alking, so it sees
” so, what did you want, Koutari-san?”
”About the research, of course”
And then the two of theether what see circuit, and other such things of that lingo) I listened intently for a while, but there is nothingto words that you do not understand This radually began losing interest in their conversation
” it seems like this was a complete waste of effort,” Kouta-san seemed to feel the way, as she h we did not really usethat they can continue talking about such a pointless topic Do they find it a?”
”Do you understand bits of it? It sounds like a foreign language to me”
”It is because I understand bits of it that I find it boring,” Kouta-san said ”Boring even if you understand, boring if you don't, it's the worst”
”I cannot shake the feeling that this is a waste of tie the subject to the incident”
”If he were to shi+ft the subject now, it would be quite unnatural That person has his own sets of issues At the very least, he cannot afford to show his cards yet”
”I understand that, but then, Kouta-san Can I leave this place to you?” I stood up ”I shall head back to the cage to check on Kunagisa”
”Dividing up now It is not consu task to me, but at this point, I suppose it cannot be helped There is thetime, after all”
I looked at my watch An hour and fifteen minutes remained
”Ah but, if Kouta-san taking out shi+to-kun acts as a cae,if the Professor were to panic over it, then row a bit”
”Or it could do the opposite,” Kouta-san adjusted her cap a bit and looked at me ”The tent to check on the seventh ward do not show any signs of returning This is extremely suspicious Of course, if he were to trust the two, there is a large possibility that the Professor si were to happen, the two of them would deal with it, so in this case they are probably just investigating the ward carefully”
”Trust I think he believes the The line that Kouta-san said when she was taking on Misachi-san ”By the way, Kouta-san, what did you mean by that?”
”What do you mean by that?” she asked back, intentionally ”I do not reh with you to be able to understand what your pronouns refer to Or perhaps that is what you wish, dear friend?”
”Please do not deflect the question You said to Misachi-san while pointing to shi+to-kun And be used in one of the Professor's hu down over here”
I said,Kouta-san's sarcastic tone of voice I felt like I replicated her voice fairly well, but for whatever reason, she simply made a face I cleared my throat, and then forced the conversation to continue ”What did you mean by that?”
”There is noIt is consummate to take it literally,” Kouta-san seemed to have been extremely bothered, as she answered with a disaki shi+to-kun was a subject just the sai Gaisuke Of course, in his case, you could find plenty of replacements, so it wouldn't be entirely accurate to call them just the same, but he is an extraordinary existence nonetheless”
”Extraordinary existence”
That is probably the truth I had not yet been able to see the wisdom of shi+to-kun yet, but that was si a talented hu was proven just by the fact that he lived in this facility
However, if the terined, then perhaps things would begin to take a differentAn experimental specimen for the Professor and to be a research subject In other words,
”A Genius Creation Project -- perhaps?” Kouta-san kept an ear to the wireless device as she spoke in a so tone ”However, can we speak about that when everything is over? Even you cannot think that why Oogaki shi+to exists in this facility and what role he takes, has anything to do with Kunagisa Toi Gaisuke, can you?”
Maybe I did not know I do not know that, either I did not know anything I did not know anything at all
And just then
My thoughts froze at the words spoken by Koutari-san across the wireless device
”Neo About this incident”
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