Ayame's Detective Notebook

"The class fund envelope has vanished."

On Thursday after school, a crisp, icy voice sliced through classroom 5-2 just as the evening light began slanting across the desks.

Standing before the teacher's podium was class president Ayame Kujo.

Her straight black hair was trimmed with surgical precision and tied with a neat violet ribbon. Clad in her navy pinafore dress and crisp white blouse, she held her signature leather-bound detective notebook and fountain pen poised in her hands.

"The class funds...? You mean that envelope with the bus money for next week's field trip?!"

Taiga Inukai's loud voice boomed from the front row.

"Precisely. It is the envelope Ms. Mori placed into the podium drawer before heading to the staff meeting. Inside was forty thousand yen—the collected fee for every single student."

The classmates lingering in the room exchanged uneasy, anxious glances.

Ayame surveyed the classroom with a sharp, calculating gaze behind her glasses, then flipped a page of her notebook with a crisp snap.

"Homeroom concluded at 4:15. Afterward, Ms. Mori went to the teachers' lounge, and the classroom should have been completely empty. However—at approximately 4:30, exactly one person returned to this room."

Ayame's gaze shifted, locking straight onto Koharu.

"...Huh? Me?"

"Miss Hoshikawa. You."

"W-Well, yeah... I realized I forgot my recorder by my desk again, so I ran back to grab it, but..."

"The envelope disappeared from the drawer sometime between 4:15 and 4:45. You are the sole individual who entered this room during that timeframe. The circumstantial evidence points squarely at you."

"N-No way...! I didn't steal anything! I didn't even touch the teacher's desk!"

Koharu waved her hands frantically in the air. A sharp ache tightened in her chest, and the world seemed to spin white before her eyes.

"Hey, President! There's no way Koharu would do something like that!"

Taiga slammed both hands down onto his desk and surged to his feet.

"Koharu might be clumsy and forgetful, but she'd never steal from anyone! I swear on my life!"

"Emotional appeals are utterly meaningless, Inukai."

Ayame didn't twitch an eyebrow as she replied with icy composure.

"Evidence never lies. I place my trust solely in facts and recorded data."

"Why, you little...!"

"Taiga, wait."

Koharu caught Taiga by the arm, holding him back.

Being suspected hurt terribly, and the shock felt like a punch to the gut.

Yet, deep in Ayame's eyes, Koharu thought she caught a faint glimmer of hesitation. Ayame wasn't doing this to be cruel. As class president, she was simply shouldering the heavy responsibility of uncovering the truth.

"Miss Kujo."

Koharu drew in a deep breath and looked directly into Ayame's eyes.

"I truly didn't take it. So please—let's find the real truth together!"

Ayame's eyes widened by a fraction, and then she let out a quiet, measured sigh.

"...Very well. If you wish to prove your innocence, I shall accompany you."

---

The investigation of the classroom began.

Pacing around the teacher's desk, Ayame let her pen fly across the notebook.

"The drawer was unlocked. There are no signs of wiped fingerprints on the brass handle. And then... the window."

Ayame walked over to the windowsill and pointed at the bottom frame.

"The window is ajar by roughly ten centimeters. A powerful south wind has been blowing in from the sea today. If a sudden gust swept through the room..."

"Sniff, sniff... Hey, I smell something!"

Taiga, who had dropped to his hands and knees on the floor, suddenly cried out.

"Inukai, that is unhygienic. Please cease sniffing the floor at once."

"I'm serious! My nose is as sharp as a police dog's! There's a sweet scent of bread... and the dry scent of old paper leading straight out the window!"

Taiga's words struck Koharu like a lightning bolt.

(The bread smell must be the melon bread crumbs in my pocket... But the scent of paper is...!)

Koharu leaned out the window and peered down.

Their classroom was on the second floor. Directly below lay the lower grades' flowerbeds, and just beyond them was the animal pen—the rabbit hutch.

And that was when it happened.

Dong, dong, dong...

From the hillside speakers, the evening chime began to play. A gentle, music-box melody signaling five o'clock.

The sky flared into a brilliant sunset orange, and the evening breeze turned pleasantly crisp.

Twilight time had arrived.

...Flap, flap... The wind is so cold... Little bunnies, please don't step on me...

Deep in Koharu's mind, a faint, papery whisper rustled like wings in the breeze.

"I heard it...!"

Perched at Koharu's collar, Pocke poked its head out of her pocket and pricked up its little knitted ears.

Koharu! The scent of paper is drifting from the backyard grass-pock!

"Yeah! The envelope is in the backyard! Right near the rabbit hutch!"

When Koharu shouted the news, Ayame stared at her in utter disbelief.

"The envelope's voice? Miss Hoshikawa, I cannot possibly entertain such unscientific occult nonsense."

"Just come on! It's the honest truth!"

Grabbing Ayame by the wrist, Koharu dragged her out the classroom door.

---

Dusk was rapidly gathering over the school's backyard.

Behind the wire mesh of the hutch, fluffy white and brown rabbits were twitching their little pink noses.

Koharu peeked into the dense shrubbery beside the enclosure.

"Found it!"

Snagged among the low branches of a bush lay a large brown envelope. Scrawled across the front in Ms. Mori's neat handwriting was Class Funds — Class 5-2.

"It's really here...!" Ayame gasped, placing a hand over her chest in visible relief. "A gust of wind must have carried it out the window, and it caught on the branches on the way down..."

She turned toward Koharu, her shoulders dropping slightly.

"Miss Hoshikawa, you were telling the truth. To have suspected you—"

Whooosh!

Before she could finish, a thick, murky plume of black fog erupted from the dark overgrown grass behind the hutch.

"Eek?!"

Ayame let out a startled shriek and stumbled backward.

From the churning darkness, something hauled itself out with a sickening scrape: drag, drag, drag...

It was a colossal creature fashioned from tattered cloth, caked in mud and rotting leaves.

A frayed blue fabric sack, its single severed drawstring thrashing through the air like an angry serpent. In the middle of the tattered pouch gaped two enormous, sorrowful eyes.

As Ayame reached to grab the envelope, the monster reared back and lashed its cord like a whip!

"YAAAGH! It's here! A-A-A GHOOOST!"

Taiga screamed at the top of his lungs, clutching his head in terror.

Ayame went dead pale and collapsed where she stood, her knees shaking uncontrollably.

"A-A ghost...?! S-Such an unscientific entity... I refuse to acknowledge it! I will not accept this...! Eek! Stay back!"

All of her usual icy composure vanished in a heartbeat. Ayame clamped both hands onto the hem of Koharu's cape and squeezed her eyes shut in sheer panic.

(Ayame is terrified of ghosts!)

I have to protect her.

Even though she had been suspected, Ayame had stayed by her side to uncover the truth. She was a precious classmate.

Koharu planted herself firmly in front of Ayame and thrust her left hand forward.

"Leave that lost thing to me — I'll bring it home! Pocke, let's go!"

"Leave it to me-pock!"

Pocke leaped into Koharu's left hand, snapping snugly into place as a warm red knitted mitten.

"Star Glass, open!"

Chime—!

The brass star flared with brilliant golden light, spreading into Koharu's sunset-orange detective cape.

Her star-crested beret appeared upon her head.

Enraged, the massive sack Stray charged forward, whirling its heavy cord like a hurricane.

"Whoa!"

The sheer wind pressure nearly swept Koharu off her feet. Cords lashed out from every direction, blocking any path forward!

Right then—

Behind Koharu, the trembling Ayame snapped her eyes wide open.

Behind her spectacles, her sharp intelligence overcame her paralyzing fear.

"...Miss Hoshikawa! Look at the knot on the right side!"

"Huh?!"

"Its left drawstring is severed, meaning it loses its balance whenever it leans onto its right! Strike the moment that right cord tangles around the rabbit hutch post!"

Ayame's clear, ringing voice sliced through the twilight air.

Incredible...! Even while shaking with fear, she watched its movements and found its weakness!

"Got it! Let's go, Pocke!"

The instant the Stray swung its right cord in a massive sweep, the rope coiled tightly around the wooden support beam of the rabbit hutch.

"Now's our chance-pock!"

Koharu lunged forward, thrusting the Star Glass toward the center of the Stray's chest.

---

Beyond the star-shaped lens, the Stray's forgotten memories came rushing into view.

A bright spring morning, ten years ago.

A little girl holding a gym clothes pouch stood weeping before the rabbit hutch.

What should I do? My favorite gym pouch is gone... Mom sewed that cute little patch on it just for me...

The little girl had searched high and low, but never found it.

It had slipped deep into the overgrown grass, buried beneath seasons of rain and soil.

I was so lonely... Please come find me... I was right here the whole time...

"I found you."

Koharu raised the Star Glass high, wiping away a stray tear as she called out with all her love:

"You waited so patiently for ten long years. — Welcome home, lost thing!"

Flash—!

A dazzling torrent of golden light burst from the Star Glass, bathing the Stray in a tender embrace.

The mud and black fog flaked away like dust, dissolving into countless shimmering motes of light.

...Thank you...

Along with the faint echo of a young girl's grateful voice, the particles soared into the dusk, dancing across the rooftops of Tsukimizaka.

All that remained in the twilight grass was a peaceful hush—and the perfectly intact class fund envelope.

"We did it-pock! A roaring success-pock!"

Pocke did a joyful midair flip. The transformation dissolved, leaving Koharu back in her familiar yellow cape.

"...Miss Hoshikawa."

Ayame climbed slowly to her feet, her shoulders hunched as she looked down at Koharu.

Her neat violet ribbon was slightly crooked.

"I am truly sorry. To have labeled you a culprit based solely on circumstantial evidence... I said terrible things to you."

"No way! Your deduction was totally amazing!"

Koharu stepped forward and grabbed both of Ayame's hands in a tight squeeze.

"If you hadn't spotted its weakness, that cord would have sent me flying! Oh, Miss Kujo... wait, no—Ayame!"

"Wh-What...? A-Ayame...?!"

Ayame's pale cheeks flushed a shade redder than the sunset sky.

"H-How inappropriately informal! We have merely collaborated on a single investigation! It is not as though we have become intimate friends, or... or anything like that!"

She turned her head away with a haughty sniff, but she didn't let go of Koharu's hands.

Seeing her flustered expression, Koharu and Taiga looked at each other and burst into warm laughter.

Afterward, the three of them climbed the hill to visit the Lost-and-Found Hall.

The moment Ayame stepped inside the red-brick mansion, her eyes widened in astonishment, and she whipped open her notebook.

"A Taisho-era railway station...? The interior dimensions clearly exceed the exterior volume... Highly unscientific, yet undeniably magnificent architecture..."

And then, the second she laid eyes on Pocke nibbling on a melon bread crust atop the counter—

"I am Pocke-pock! Nice to meet you-pock!"

Watching Pocke twitch its little ears as it offered a cheery greeting, Ayame froze mid-breath.

Pocke bobbed its fluffy white wrist cuffs, holding a crumb with both paws, its round black eyes sparkling like gemstones.

(Wh-What on earth is that magnificent ball of fluff...?!)

Ayame's inner turmoil was written across every inch of her face.

(Red yarn... fluffy white collar... ears twitching like that... S-So cute...! I want to squeeze it... I want to take it home...! No, compose yourself, Ayame Kujo! A cool, composed class president cannot lose her dignity...!)

Ayame strained with all her might to maintain an impassive poker face, her lips quivering faintly.

"Pfft... Ahaha! Ayame, you can pet Pocke if you want!"

"W-Who would want to pet such a thing?! I have no interest in frivolous, cute novelties... Though, perhaps I could offer a brief stroke of courtesy!"

Gingerly reaching out a single fingertip, Ayame stroked the top of Pocke's head.

"...It is delightfully soft," she murmured, her eyes shining with quiet wonder.

Watching the scene, Shiori smiled with serene warmth.

"Ayame. For those clear, discerning eyes that seek the truth, I would like you to have this."

Shiori presented a gorgeous notebook bound in violet leather.

"This is the Unforgettable Notebook. Whatever truth is inscribed upon these pages shall never be erased by any magic of oblivion."

"The Unforgettable Notebook..."

Ayame cradled the violet volume against her chest with deep reverence.

"All right!"

Taiga puffed out his chest and gave it a solid thump.

"Koharu's Star Glass, the President's notebook, and my supersonic legs and nose! That officially marks the founding of the Lost-and-Found Detectives!"

"Excuse me, do not make arbitrary decisions on our behalf, Inukai!"

"I love it! The Lost-and-Found Detectives! It sounds so cool!"

Laughter echoed warmly throughout the twilight-lit hall.

Late that night.

Sitting at her bedroom desk, Ayame uncapped her fountain pen and began writing across the pristine pages of her violet Unforgettable Notebook.

At the very top of the page, in her flawless handwriting, she inscribed:

Unsolved Case: Regarding Phantom Thief Midnight.

When he stole Ms. Mori's memories, why did he leave behind a hint revealing the location of the sheet music? It was almost as though he wished for us to retrieve it. What is his true objective?

Setting down her pen, Ayame gazed out the window into the quiet night.

The wind blowing through the town of Tsukimizaka was growing just a little bit colder.