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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 5 Chapter 2.3

For me, it’s a great help. Above all everyone that lives in this room… or rather the other person who is possessing this space is also very happy.

「After all, it’s fun when everyone is here. 」

The smiling Nanana-chan happily inserts the spoon she is holding into the pudding container. Ryugajo Nanana, the earthbound spirit girl who was killed in this room 10 years ago. Her favorite food, or rather the only food she can eat is pudding. As I’m still smiling I think, isn’t it strange that an earthbound spirit can eat pudding?

Nanana-chan is a very lonely person. That’s why she’s so happy just to have Tensai and others come to eat dinner like this.

「Come to think of it Tensai-chan, a while ago you said you were looking for a kid named Yun-chan. Has the investigation progressed? 」

In response to Nanana-chan’s question, Tensai (with a mouth full of hamburger) snorted. ‘Fufufu’

「Yeah, I just figured out that Saki Yoshino is hiding in Kita Ward. 」

「Oh? You’re making good progress. 」

When Nanana-chan responded, I frowned and said, ‘huh?’

I can’t help but look at Tensai who is munching on hamburger.

「Hey Tensai, did I just say something funny? 」

「What is it Juugo? Things move fast. 」

「Didn’t you just say that Yun-chan is in Kita Ward? 」

「Yeah I did. 」I’m even more confused by Tensai’s words as she asks D’arc to wipe the sauce from around her mouth.

「No it’s just… Yun-chan left Nanaejima to go back to her parents’ house, didn’t she? How is it that Yun-chan still on the island? 」

After I asked Tensai gave me a grin as if she was going to devour me.

「Well I wonder why that is…」

Apparently she found something out.

「Just tell me why. 」

「Hmmm, what should I do? 」

You’re so damn pompous. Even though I don’t usually ask this kind of thing, she gives me this attitude as soon as I want to know.

「OK, I’ll give you one of my hamburg steaks. So tell me. 」

「Hmm Juugo. Maybe you should grovel at my feet. This great detective, Ikkyu Tensai, is about to show off her deductive reasoning, Fwahahaha! 」

「Yeah I knew it. Even while spitting out cool lines, I knew she would reach out with her chopsticks and grab my hamburg steak and stick it in your mouth while talking. Shouldn’t you have more self-control, goddamn it! 」

「Munch Munch. Heh, I never thought you would set such a psychological trap for me. 」

「You just had a plate with side dishes for dinner and you went that far? 」

「It’s ok, I was going to talk anyways. 」

Then tell me from the beginning. Then I won’t lose my dinner.

「Oh, I’m looking forward to hearing Tensai-chan’s reasoning」, said Nana-chan chan with sparkling eyes as she claps her hands.

「Fufufu. You can expect big things and I will deliver, Nanana-chan. 」

Tensai who confidently puts up a hurdle of expectation began to talk about her investigation.

「First let’s review. What do you think is the basis for Saki Yoshino leaving the island in the first place? 」

「? What? Don’t we already know this? 」

「Not exactly…」

「Yoshino submitted a leave of absence notice and was absent from school. On top of that, there is information from the ferry leaving the island right?. 」, Tensai says to D’arc.

Oh, is that what she said?

「I went to see Yun-chan’s homeroom teacher and all of us confirmed that the notice of leave of absence had been submitted. I haven’t heard anything about the ferry. 」 D’arc answered the question.

「I investigated that. After finding out that Yoshino-san had submitted a leave of absence I checked the boarding record of the ferry that Yoshino-san used to leave the island. That’s when I found out that Yoshino-san left the island last Saturday. 」

Speaking of Saturday, isn’t that the day after Yuiga was stabbed?

Tensai continues, 「Nanaejima has checkpoints at the entrance and exit of the island, so there seems to be no doubt that Saki Yoshino left the island on that date. Those records are in the database. 」

There are records about entering and leaving Nanaejima in the ferry boarding database? That seems pretty solid. …actually, is that the kind of information that someone can easily look up? Well, the investigative abilities of the people here is top notch, so it can’t be helped.

「If that’s the case then there should be no doubt that Yun-chan left the island right? 」

「According to the records. 」

「…that’s a strange way of saying it. Well, from what we’ve said so far does that mean it’s wrong? 」

Tensai nods.

「At first when I received the report from D’arc, I thought about Saki Youshino escaping the island. 」

「Same for me. Yun-chan, after stabbing President Yuiga on Friday, would flee from Nanaejima. 」

「But what is strange about that is the notice of leave of absence. Juugo must have noticed, but the leave of absence was submitted before Yuiga-dono was stabbed. To be exact, 4 days before on Tuesday. At that time we were working part-time at South Red Mall. 」

「Ahh, the day where Tensai was fired 10 minutes after starting her job. 」

「I don’t remember unimportant things. Anyways though, if the leave of absence notice had been submitted on that date an obvious question would arise. 」

「Why did she decide to leave the island even before stabbing Yuiga? 」

「That is a question that only those of us who know she stabbed Yuiga-dono would ask. 」

「That’s what I mean. Why didn’t anyone know that she submitted a notice of leave of absence? 」

「That’s just how it is」, Tensai nodded.

「That’s exactly what we don’t know. 」

I can’t help but to sigh at the question that has had us stuck since we left the staff room.

「Just to confirm, did Juugo know about it? 」

「I didn’t know. 」

「What about Tetsunoshin? 」

「It seems he didn’t know either. 」

「And even her roommate Aya Suruga didn’t know. I mean, nobody knew. 」

「However the fact is the notice of absence was issued on that date. 」

「So I investigated the leave of absence notice. It turns out that none of the people working in the Nanaejima 3rd High School’s administration department received a leave of absence notice from Saki Yoshino. 」

「…SERIOUSLY?! 」

「Seriously. There were a total of five office clerks working, but they all said that they did not receive any leave of absence notices from any students on that date. 」

「But Yun-chan’s homeroom teacher heard from the administration department that she received a notice of leave of absence, right? 」

「Yes. Not directly, but by email from the administrative department. 」

I remember that. Come to think of it, what we were shown was computer data. I think that…

「Did someone tamper with the data in the administration office and send an email to Yun-chan’s homeroom teacher? 」

「Probably not. If that was the case you could mess with the submission date as much as you like. But when that happens, the ferry boarding record becomes suspicious. I checked it again but there is still the boarding record. However there was no evidence that Saki Yoshino boarded a ferry. 」

「How do you know that? 」

「The security camera footage. I checked the video of the checkpoint at the port. Supposedly Saki Yoshino left the island on Saturday, but there is no footage of her passing the checkpoint on Saturday. 」

「But there is a record of passing through? 」

「So that’s the problem. 」

「Got it. Does that mean it was tampered with by someone? Is the security on this island that bad? 」

「Don’t joke around. Nanaejima doesn’t allow intrusion from outside the island easily. It’s the same with the network. As far as I know the security on the island is world-class. 」

「So is the person who did this a hacker who can break through the world’s top class security or something? This person is amazing. 」

「It’s possible, but realistically speaking, it’s more likely the other way around. 」

「There’s another possibility? 」

「I see, it’s possible that there is an insider. Right Tensai-chan? 」, said Nanana-chan.

「That’s right Nanana-dono. In other words someone who has the authority to modify the entry records has modified the database. 」

I see, instead of intruding from the outside and rewriting the information, someone who manages the data intentionally rewrote the information. Well sure, in that case security isn’t the problem.

「But there won’t be any traces left after rewriting the record right? 」

「Unfortunately I didn’t get that far. After all, unless you have fairly high authorization such a thing is impossible. 」

「So what was the point of all this? 」

「Of course it’s to hide Saki Yoshino, the culprit who stabbed Yuiga-dono. 」

「If that happened, it means that there’s someone who’s helping Yun-chan escape. 」

「Or more like, it’s hard to think that she’s doing this alone. 」

「Do you have any ideas? 」

「Unfortunately not. Is it some kind of big organization, or just a fugitive who specializes in that sort of thing? 」

A mysterious organization that hid Yun-chan. Moreover, based on Tetsu-kun’s reaction it’s probably not the Three Skulls. Who the hell is it then?

「Well I understand now that Yun-chan is still on Nanaejima. What is the reason for limiting Yun-chan’s hiding place to Kita Ward? 」

「This is it. 」

Tensai took out a cute piece of writing paper, the one that Yun-chan sent to Suruga-chan.

「See the postmark? 」