"I"m back."
When she returned, Tsutako-san was not alone.
"Pardon me."
Shouko-chan hesitantly entered into the room on the second floor of the Rose Mansion. Almost as though she"d heard the gossip that had been said about her just before.
"I ran into her not long ago, so I dragged her along. Ah, Mami-san."
Tsutako-san noticed her cla.s.smate and said, "Gokigenyou," to her. After responding to the greeting in kind, Mami-san looked at Shouko-chan and nodded slightly to her. As though to say, "Sorry about before."
However Shouko-chan didn"t notice this at all, instead she fidgeted with her fingers as her gaze darted around the room. Just like Mami-san had said, there were brand new, oversized band-aids visible on the palms of her hands.
"What"s wrong? Are you feeling out of place, surrounded by second-years?"
Shimako-san asked as she pulled an empty chair out from the table, offering it to Shouko-chan, who seemed a bit taken aback.
"Ah, no. Sorry. I"m just a bit nervous being here in the Rose Mansion."
"Wha - ?"
Yumi called out instinctively. Because it was so contrary to her expectations. After all, this wasn"t Shouko-chan"s first time in this room, and she"d kept her cool remarkably well for a first-year the last time she"d been there.
Shouko-chan had definitely changed since last time.
"Here, have some tea."
"Ah, thank-you... Oh, it"s hot."
She then placed her finger through the handle of the cup as though she were about to lift it to drink, stared idly at a spot on the table, and repeated a question again and again as though she wasn"t following the conversation when someone talked to her. It could be summed up in a single word as "absent-mindedness."
It seemed unlikely that she had been unaware of the pain from the grazes on her hands when she had dealt with Katsura-san in a brisk, secretary-like fashion (since she had already been injured at that point). Well, Tsutako-san couldn"t just leave her alone, so had to bring her along - that was understandable.
"Ah, that"s right."
Yumi took the roll of film out of her pocket and handed it to Tsutako-san.
"What should we do with this?"
"What"s that?"
Mami-san asked with a great deal of interest, not knowing the story.
"Earlier today I was given this by an unknown first-year. Because it"s got Takeshima Tsutako written on it, see. But Tsutako-san says it"s not hers."
"Well, that"s interesting. A bit of a mystery. I can tell by their faces that Yoshino-san and Shimako-san have taken an interest in it too."
"Right?"
Just as she was saying this, a voice unexpectedly called out from outside the group of boisterous second-years.
"Umm, you should take it to lost property."
That was a surprise. It was Shouko-chan. A little while ago, she hadn"t been partic.i.p.ating in the conversation at all, but now she seemed to have lost her absent-mindedness. She"d spoken quite loudly too.
"Well, that was the plan."
Tsutako-san said, and Yumi, Shimako-san and Mami-san all nodded in agreement. There was only one second-year who was shaking her head.
"But if the lost property office finds the owner, we"ll probably never find out who it was."
It was Yoshino-san.
"Well, that would only be if the person in question asked them not to say anything, right?"
It"s not like the lost property office would refuse to give the item back if the owner didn"t open themselves up to public gossip. Probably.
"Hmph. So we"d never know the truth? Isn"t that awful? Even though we went to all the effort of picking it up."
Literally speaking, Yoshino-san, it was the group of three unnamed first-years that had picked it up, not you. Furthermore, you weren"t even the person they entrusted it to. - Things would have taken a turn for the worse if Yumi were to poke at Yoshino-san by saying something like that, so she kept silent. Everyone else was undoubtedly thinking a similar retort too. The silence of "&h.e.l.lip;" was proof of that.
"At the very least, Tsutako-san has a right to know, doesn"t she? See, they"re defrauding her by using her name."
So transparent, Yoshino-san. Your real intention was to secretly listen in if they did happen to tell Tsutako-san.
"A name alone doesn"t make it fraud."
Was Tsutako-san"s opinion. Well that was true. They didn"t have any proof that there were no other students with the same name at school.
"Then, what? You"re still clinging to the theory that someone else has the same first and last name as you?"
Yoshino-san laughed loudly, highlighting the fact that Takeshima Tsutako was hardly a common name.
"There are other possibilities."
Tsutako-san said, a.s.serting that it was better to leave it to the proper authorities.
"But the lost property office aren"t magicians, so they"re not going to know the owner if we just hand it over. They"ll be in the same boat as us. And since it has the name Takeshima Tsutako written on it, they"ll match it to Takeshima Tsutako-san in the second-year pine group and won"t search any further, right?"
"And if they do?"
Yumi asked. What happened to the items in lost property whose owner couldn"t be found? It"s not like it could be sold at the bazaar during the school festival once its custody period had elapsed. It wasn"t a new sheet or towel.
"In the end, one of the teachers might take it to a photo processing shop and get it developed."
Unlike other lost items like a handkerchief or a hair-clip, a roll of film held information inside it.
"In that case, it should be fine for Tsutako-san to go ahead and do the job of developing the film, no?"
"Absolutely not."
Tsutako-san flatly rejected Yoshino-san"s suggestion. Even without getting into the photographer"s code of practice, the moral and ethical questions around that behavior would rule it out. It was a matter of the owner"s privacy.
"I agree."
Everyone except for Yoshino-san concurred with Tsutako-san, and Yoshino-san turned away and said, "I was just putting it out there."
"Ah, I think we should hand it over to lost property quickly. It"s possible that the person who lost it has already reported it as missing."
Shouko-chan said.
"Oh, I see. The longer we hold on to it, the longer it will probably take to get back to its rightful owner."
Even so, school had already finished for the day. There was no guarantee that there would be anyone in lost property.
"We"ll take it first thing tomorrow morning."
"That would be best."
The decision was made by majority rule.
But still, the film remained in front of them. Thoughts about it filled Yumi"s mind, perhaps exacerbated by the notion that this was a mystery they were unlikely to be able to solve by themselves.
"I wonder what kind of person dropped this."
Yumi"s words were met with a unanimous, "Hmmm," and contemplation.
"It"s hopeless. Whatever I imagine, Tsutako-san"s face is the only one that comes to mind."
Mami-san said, then sighed and flopped down over the table. It could belong to someone from a broad range of groups: students, teachers, clerks, nuns, but it sounded like they all ended up with Tsutako-san"s face in Mami-san"s mind.
"Are you sure it"s not Tsutako-san"s?"
Yoshino-san sought confirmation once more. Apparently neither she nor Mami-san could exclude Tsutako-san from the equation that easily. Yumi was having the same problem herself.
"That"s what she said."
Still, the a.s.sumption that it was Tsutako-san"s was hard to dislodge.
"Give it a rest. I told you it"s not mine."
The other second-years looked skeptically at Tsutako-san, who had risen from her seat. Looking at her behavior, it was easy to judge whether or not she was lying. Her eyes were trustworthy.
Still, it seemed rather farfetched to think that there was no connection between Tsutako-san and the "Takeshima Tsutako" written on the roll of film.
And yet, Tsutako-san maintained that it was not hers. How to resolve this apparent contradiction?
"I guess there could be another Tsutako-san."
It wasn"t this Tsutako-san who dropped the film, but the other one. Which was why she had no memory of it.
"Basically it"s the doppelganger theory then."
"Doppelganger?"
Tsutako-san had been looking disinterested, but the moment she heard the word "doppelganger," her face lit up, like a switch had been thrown.
"Ah, a doppelganger is like this."
"No need to explain. I know what one is."
While she said this, Tsutako-san reached into her paper bag and rustled through the envelopes of photographs until she finally found the one she was after.
"I just remembered it when you said "doppelganger.""
She took a single photo out of the envelope and held it up in front of Yumi.
"Take a look at this."
- She said.