“Just as you have discovered, Suzumiya-san came to the same conclusions, that’s why she didn’t say what she wanted to say. She didn’t want to report us, or maybe she wanted to protect her companions.”
Koizumi said without doubt. I still couldn’t accept this. My cerebral neocortex hasn’t aged to such an extent to be fooled by this second fake deduction.
“Hmph.”
I mumbled and stared at Koizumi.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t believe you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think, after coming up with a flawed deduction, you’ve created a second theory to try and deceive everyone, but I won’t be fooled by such rhetoric.”
Don’t I look cool right now? Then allow me to continue.
“Think about where the whole problem is! Let’s start with the murder itself. How can such a case happen under such perfect conditions?”
This time it was Koizumi’s turn to remain silent, urging me to go on.
“The typhoon may be random or created by Haruhi, but that’s not important. The key is that what’s happened has created a body.”
I paused and licked my lips.
“You may think that this is exactly what Haruhi wished for. But no matter how much bullshit that girl comes up with, Haruhi wouldn’t really wish for anyone to die. You can tell just by looking at her. This means the one who created this incident isn’t Haruhi. Besides, our arrival at the scene of crime wasn’t coincidental either.”
“Huh?” Koizumi said, “And why is that?”
“The one who started this incident……or to be exact, this summer field trip for the SOS Brigade, is none other than you, am I right?”
As if being caught red handed, Koizumi’s smiling face stiffened for a few seconds, but……
Koizumi began to giggle.
“I surrender. How did you find out?”
Koizumi looked at me, his eyes were the same as I saw them when in the Literary Club room.
My cerebral grey matter isn’t just there for looks, you know. I felt relaxed for a bit then said,
“At that time, you asked Nagato for the body temperature.”
“And what’s wrong with that?”
“You deduced the time of death based on that.”
“Yes, I did.”
“Nagato is a very useful person. As you well know, she can tell us almost anything. Instead of asking her for the body temperature, you should’ve asked Nagato for the approximate time of death. No, I think she would even tell us the exact time rounding off to the nearest second.”
“That makes sense.”
“If you had asked for the time of death, Nagato would simply reply that the person isn’t dead. Moreover, never once did you refer to Keiichi-san in that state as a ‘body’.”
“That was a fair way to do it then.”
“And I may not look like it, but I do pay attention to things that matter, especially the interior of Keiichi-san’s room door. From your deduction, the door should have landed on the hilt of the knife with a great impact, great enough to thrust the knife into a person’s body. If that were true, there should be at least a dent on the door. Yet the door surface looked brand new.”
“Such amazing skills of observation.”
“One more thing, there’s something strange with Arakawa-san and Mori-san. They both claim to only work here for less than a week. They were hired a week ago and came to this island, is that right?”
“Yes, is something wrong with that?”
“Of course there is, because your attitude was too suspicious. On the day when we first arrived, do you remember what you said to Arakawa-san and Mori-san who were waiting for us as we got off the ferry?”
“What did I say?”
“You said ‘It’s been a while.’ Don’t you find that strange? How can it be possible for you to say this to them? You’ve also said this is the first time you’ve been to this island, so it should be the first time you have met them. So how can you go and chat with them as though you’ve known them for some time?”
Koizumi only giggled.
This meant he had no intention of arguing with me. I understood everything as I began to feel exhausted. Koizumi then opened his mouth,
“Yes, this was all previously arranged. A ridiculously short play. I just didn’t expect you to find out.”
“Don’t underestimate me.”
“I do apologize. Though I admit I’m surprised. I had wanted to find a time to eventually confess, I never thought the truth would be revealed so soon.”
“Does that mean Tamaru-san, Mori-san and the rest are all your accomplices? Your comrades in that ‘Organization’ of yours?”
“That’s correct. For a bunch of amateurs, don’t you think their acting’s superb?”
The knife on the chest actually had a retractable blade; the blood is actually some red dye; Keiichi-san was of course faking his death; while Yutaka-san was merely hiding on the other side of the island with the speedboat.
Koizumi cheerily revealed the truth.
“Why did you do all this for?”
“To cure Suzumiya-san’s boredom, as well as reducing the burden on our shoulders.”
“What do you mean?”
“Maybe I should tell you. To put it simply, to prevent Suzumiya-san from coming up with any funny ideas, we had prepared some entertainment for her. Right now isn’t Suzumiya-san thinking about this the whole time?”
Haruhi seemed to believe that we were the killers, was it necessary to go this far?
Afterwards, Haruhi was unusually gentle. I really felt uncomfortable with that.
“Then we ought to move our plans forward.” Koizumi said, “According to our original plans, as we returned by ferry to Honshu island, Tamaru Keiichi-san, Yutaka-san, Mori-san and Arakawa-san would be greeting us cheerfully at the harbour there. Of course, they would conceal everything about the ‘Organization’. As of right now, they’re still my distant relatives.”
What a surprise party.
I sighed deeply. This sort of prank only works on Haruhi. If Haruhi got pissed as a result, then you’re responsible for dousing the flames, because I’ll be running for my life.
Koizumi winked and smiled,
“Oh dear. I think I’d better apologize to her. I’ll go and confess to her right away with Tamaru-san and the rest. It must be tiring for him to play a dead body for so long.”
I silently looked out of the window.
What would Haruhi do? Would she be furious at being deceived? Or would she appreciate the joke and laugh out loud? No matter what the result, her inconsistent mental state sure is easy to predict today. Koizumi smiled wryly,
“We even prepared people playing detectives and forensic experts, but it seems our hard work will go to waste. I never thought it would end in such a whimper. Our plan was to include a thorough search of the mansion and crime scene, such a pity.”
That would be because you didn’t plan far enough.
I looked at the gloomy sky and thought, how fine will the weather become in the next few hours?
In the end, Koizumi didn’t lose his vice-commander badge. After the typhoon left, on the ferry trip home under the clear blue skies, Haruhi was in a good mood all the way until we parted at the station. It’s good that Haruhi has a simple mind of treating a joke as such.
Of course, Koizumi had to end up buying boxed lunches and juice cans for everyone. For things to end so smoothly, I felt he had gotten off lightly.
Nagato probably knew the truth from the beginning, and maintained her reactionless attitude. While Asahina-san yelled, “How can you do this?” after waking up and protested cutely. But when Koizumi, the Tamaru brothers and the two servants both lowered their heads and apologized, she quickly apologized back, “Ah, i…it’s alright, don’t let it bother you.”
By the way, after taking a photo on the deck on the ferry trip back to Honshu island, Haruhi made her booking,
“We’re counting on yo
u for the winter field trip, Koizumi-kun. Next time come up with a more shocking script! We’re going to the mountain villa next time, and it has to be in a blizzard. If you don’t come up with a haunted mansion that suits my expectations, I’ll really be mad. Hmm, I’m so looking forward to it!”
“Erm……what should I do?”
Like a rookie Nazi officer being told by the Führer to lead just a single Panzer division to capture the Allied commander on the western front at the end of the Second World War, Koizumi smiled awkwardly and turned to beg me for help.
I looked at Koizumi, who was like a defender trying to stop what seemed like a great goal near the end of a soccer match when the scores are even after overtime, and said without hesitation,
“Well, I’m also looking forward to it, Koizumi.”
I look forward that it will be a game that I could at least solve and not end up in a mess.
At the same time, this is also the best way to stop Haruhi from getting too bored and coming up with any funny ideas.
Author’s notes
I’m not too sure about the details, but it seems to be standard practice to write some sort of notes at the end of each book, everyone’s so used to this practice that they’ve taken it for granted already. The editor even told me, “Write as many pages as you like,” But this time, I’ve decided to let this opportunity pass this time, and instead write some comments regarding the short stories compiled in this volume just to make up the pages.
I’ll be putting down some brief thoughts about these stories, so I won’t be stuffing you with the usual rubbish of “One year has already passed so quickly, let alone two months,” so here we go.
The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi
This story carries the same title as the book itself. This is the first story where the reader gets reacquainted with the SOS Brigade. I think this story was published on the Sneaker magazine two months before “The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi” got published.
At first I was quite worried, since it didn’t make sense to release a sequel before the main story even got published. Yet it seems I was the only person who was worried, as no one else seems to have any problems with it, I was relieved as well. As this story was thought up and written very quickly in a short time, I was concerned as to how well it would do. In the end no one said anything bad or good about it, at least I never heard anyone’s comments, so I told myself that this isn’t too bad either.
By the way, as far as I can remember in my life, I’ve participated in not more than ten baseball tournaments. As a second baseman who couldn’t catch any flying balls, there was nothing I did to make myself renowned. I also recently discovered that I have never scored a run before, though it’s too late for me to be thinking of this, I’m still stunned whenever I think about it.
Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
At first I wanted to call this story “The Apprehension of Asahina Mikuru,” but then I thought people wouldn’t be able to recognize this as part of a series, hence the name change. At that time I never intended that a short story I had just published would have a sequel. I still remember how surprised I was when I saw the magazine print the words, “To be continued” at the end of the story. That feeling is still fresh in my mind.
As there was a time traveler, it didn’t make sense not to have a story about time traveling, so I came up with this story. Yet deep inside I hoped that this would become the prelude to what’s to come later on.
Mysterique Sign
Due to chance, this story took the least time from the moment I thought of it to its completion. Just as I was wondering what the characters should be doing, I realized I had already finished the story. Ever since publishing this story, I had wanted to change the series title to “Fight on, Nagato-san,” but this way the story would end up in a dead-end, so I abandoned that idea in the end. However, of all the characters, she has the most potential for development, even I am expecting a lot from her. Nagato-san, please fight on. By the way, what should I do with the glasses? Would she look better with them after all?
I had originally intend to give more scenes to the Computer Group president, but right now my thoughts are too disorganized, who knows how he’ll develop.
Lone Island Syndrome
As a matter of fact, I started writing this before “Mysterique Sign,” and had intended for this to be published first, but then I realized this story was getting longer as I kept writing. Due to my nature of wanting to take full responsibility for my works, this story has exceeded the pages originally intended for a short story. And as a result, this story has become the longest story in this book, a “bonus” that is neither too long nor too short. I still have a lot to learn from this lesson. I’m always thinking of ways to try and improve the way I work, but that’s easier said than done. When I look back at my life, there were only a handful of times where I actually fulfilled what I told myself to do. For this reason alone, my brain has already regressed to that of an amoeba.
Is there anyone out there willing to provide a luxury living quarters in a lone island for me to stay for one week? If you need a witness, I think I’m more than capable of doing the job. Of course, it’s possible I would spend the whole day sleeping instead.
And so, I’m very lucky to have published my third book. This is all thanks to everyone. I’d really like to list out everyone’s names, job titles and even nicknames. This includes all my readers, though I don’t think I could ever find out their names, all I can do is give you my most sincere thanks.
Let us meet again in another place.
—Tanigawa Nagaru
Table of Contents
Volume 3 Title
Prologue
The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi
Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
Mystérique Sign
Lone Island Syndrome
Author’s notes
The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi
Bamboo Leaf Rhapsody
Mysterique Sign
Lone Island Syndrome
Volume 3 - The Boredom of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 19