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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 3 Chapter 5.2

“TRANSLATOR:Foxsunes/EDITOR TheNix”

  ｢So, Jyuugo. What’ the reason behind you buying that juice?｣

Why you ask, hmm I don’t know either. I wonder what the reason is. 

  ｢Hmmm…..oh wait. This vending machine is near the point where I distribute the flyers and I see people buying and drinking juice from inside this damn hot costume. And the juice looks really good whenever I see others drinking it.｣

  ｢Ah, my reason is same as Yama.｣ Said Ibara-senpai and D’arc next to her nodded. 

  ｢The reason why I drink this is somewhat similar, this vending machine is near my work-place and this keeps catching my attention.｣

  ｢In my case, it is probably because I heard the owner of the coffee shop complaining that the sales of his juice isn’t that good because of the vending machine in front of the shop.｣

  ｢Isshin recommended this juice, I have been drinking this since then.｣ Kagetora-senpai added. 

I see, a black vending machine.

  ｢…..Isn’t this a similarity too?｣

  ｢Yama, what are you talking about?｣

  ｢It’s about the similarity between our job, isn’t it a similarity that we have a black vending machine near our working place?｣

Ibara-senpai seemed amazed by my stupidity. ｢Do you seriously think that’s the similarity we are looking for?｣ She’s right, this can’t be it. 

We looked at the black vending machine nearby without giving it a thought.

  ｢Speaking of the vending machine, that pattern of the machine has always caught my attention since it has a number hiding in it.｣

The black vending machine was painted with white lines and stars and if you look carefully you could see  a number appear and that number is 37. It seems like a trick art that utilizes the property of how our brain perceives stuff. It’s fun to look at it when people don’t have much to do.

  ｢Hey…I don’t think the number on the vending machine in front of my workplace is 37. I think it was 23.｣

D’arc spoke up. 

  ｢The number on the vending machine in front of my workplace was different too. Oh yeah, it was 76.｣ President Yuiga muttered and everyone around him started looking at each other.

The reason everyone is into this juice is because we all saw people drinking it while we were at work. We can get it from a black vending machine. Black vending machine and the number on it….

  ｢Can it be that…..these numbers on the vending machines are the hint?｣

***

Next day after school, we all gathered at the same place. Tsurezure-senpai who was done with his research spread out a map of the south red mall (from the mall’s pamphlet). He marked a couple of areas with pen and wrote the numbers next to them. 

1, 2, 6, 16, 23, 37, 76, 78, 0.4 and a weird curved line. 

  ｢Kagetora, were there only ten black vending machines in the mall?｣

  ｢Yeah, there isn’t an error in that.｣

  ｢I see, it’s quite funny that the numbers don’t show any uniformity.｣

The numbers are all different and they aren’t showing any consistency either. It even has a  number in decimal and there’s also this weird curved line. I can’t see any pattern. But it seems likely that this is the hint Nanana-chan was talking about. But like, who would’ve thought that something like this would be the hint that’s going to lead us to the ruin. I wouldn’t have guessed it without Nanana-chan’s trial.

  ｢What’s this weird line though? This one didn’t have any trick art around it and was written as it is.｣

President Yuiga pointed at the weird line at the end. It looked like a line in the electrocardiogram in a hospital scene in the dramas. The lines that make a beep sound while moving left to right. 

  ｢Considering the numbers and the decimal unit, it is the mathematical symbol for root.｣

Tensai pointed it out. I see, it would look weird alone but if it is root then everything would make sense. 

  ｢Now that we’ve figured it out, we need to find out what to do with these numbers.｣ 

The root symbol alone can’t solve anything so there must be a way to arrange the numbers, I think we can get the hint if we arrange the numbers properly. 

  ｢Any ideas how to arrange these numbers, Yama?｣

Ibara-senpai stared at me. 

  ｢No, I have no clue whatsoever.｣

  ｢How about you, shorty?｣

  ｢Don’t call me shorty, Ibara-dono!Call me a girl who’s going to get a nice body in a year!…..The pattern that ten numbers can be arranged are aah 3628800. Well root can’t possibly be at the end so it would be 326590 patterns. It isn’t something we can solve just by rearranging them without any plan. There must be a hint other than this.｣

Tensai lowered her gaze on the map where ten points were marked with the pen, everyone followed her gaze and looked down. Wait a minute, didn’t she calculate something tremendous in her head just now?

President Yuiga pointed at the dot on the map. 

  ｢If we draw a line from the smallest to the biggest number, some sort of hidden clue would….nah, it wouldn’t appear.｣

They are on different floors so it would be pointless to connect them that way. 

  ｢How about we take these numbers as vertex and connect them with a line, their center might hold a clue.｣

Tsurezure-senpai suggested. I stared at the map and imagined a three dimensional diagram of the mall and imagined the center of the vending machines. 

  ｢Let’s go and check it out..｣

President Yuiga suggested and we all went towards that point but there was nothing but a small candy store. 

  ｢Hoga, fugagaga.｣

  ｢Detective, eat the sweet first then talk!｣

I thought it couldn’t possibly be the hint we were looking for. We returned to the meeting space to brainstorm. 

We started discussing holding the juice from the same old black vending machine in our hand arguing about what the numbers meant or how black vending machines were the hint but none of our ideas seemed right. It seemed like all we did was waste our time.

  ｢Is it possible that our initial assumption about those black vending machines being the hint was wrong?｣

Nobody responded to Ibara-senpai’s question. I didn’t know what to think and thought that she might be right about it.I looked at the vending machine with the number 37 on it without giving it a thought. 

Ummm, I wonder what the numbers mean. I kept staring at the vending machine and saw staff pulling a cart towards the vending machine. Seems like the person is a worker who is there to put fresh fruits inside the vending machine. 

…..No, he seems quite young so he’s probably a part-timer. 

I stood up from the chair. 

  ｢What’s wrong, Jyuugo?｣

Tensai asked and I pointed my finger towards the part-timer. 

  ｢There is something bothering me so I want to go see it for myself.｣

  ｢What’s bothering you?｣

  ｢It’s just that I can’t see any keyholes in the vending machine.So I was wondering how people open it up.｣

I examined the vending machine carefully a few moments ago to see if there’s a hint anywhere but I couldn’t find anything shaped like a keyhole on it. There was a handle on it to open it up so it isn’t like it’s designed to stay shut but I couldn’t find a way to open it up. It seems like it runs in the family, I can’t help but be curious about things like that. 

Everyone nodded at me and looked at the part-timer who was going to refill the machine. The part-timer took out the keyholder, held it in his right hand and inserted a key inside the vending machine just like that. 

  ｢Wait a minute…Yama, are your eyes just for decoration? He’s opening it up normally with a key.｣

  ｢No, really, I checked it multiple times but I couldn’t find a keyhole anywhere!｣

I pleaded not guilty but nobody seemed to believe me. 

  ｢Woah, you guys are really cold towards me.｣

  ｢Ha, that’s because of your past deeds.｣

You’re not the one to speak, supersleuth. But it’s true that I can’t argue about it. 

  ｢Wait, I’ll go check it out.｣

So, I went towards the vending machine all alone to see what was up with the machine.

  ｢Good afternoon.｣

I asked the brown-haired part-timer about the keyhole. 

  ｢Oh, so you want to know about this?｣

He smiled. 

  ｢It’s fun so look at this.｣

He was done with refilling so he pulled out the key but to my surprise I couldn’t see a keyhole anywhere. 

  ｢Hm? Why!?｣

Part-timer looked satisfied with my reaction, I was frowning at what I had just witnessed.