Chapter 46: Kimura's Lie
âHello, Senpai! YĹsuke-kun, youâre here so early too! Wow, it looks like everyoneâs here already. I guess Iâm the last one. Sorry!â Junko chirped, sticking her tongue out playfully. She was, by habit, an early bird, but today, she was the final member to arrive.
The reason for their collective punctuality was palpable. Ĺgami YĹsukeâs ominous words on Sunday had ignited everyoneâs curiosity to a fever pitch. And so, the moment the final school bell had rung, they had all made a beeline for the clubroom, hungry for a resolution. Even Kana, who had been treating Ĺgami YĹsuke with a noticeable frostiness lately, seemed desperate to know the truth behind the unsettling tale of the sleepwalker.
Seeing that the quorum was complete, Yomikawa Tsuko crossed her legs, cleared her throat, and waited for the expectant chatter to die down. When the room was finally, completely silent, she turned her cool, appraising gaze to Ĺgami YĹsuke. âĹgami-kun, the stage is yours. You can now present the results of your investigation into the Kimura sleepwalking incident, can you not? We have been waiting, with what I must admit has been a great deal of patience, since Sunday. Anything less than a satisfying conclusion will simply not do.â
âThatâs right, thatâs right! I was so worked up about this, I didnât even eat my breakfast this morning,â Takada chimed in, crossing his brawny arms and nodding with an emphatic gravity.
âWell, Iâm absolutely certain it wonât disappoint Takada-san,â Junko said, leaning in close to Ĺgami, a dazzling smile on her face. âYĹsuke-kun will provide a clear, rational explanation for everything, wonât you, YĹsuke?â
The sudden proximity clearly flustered Ĺgami YĹsuke a little. A faint blush crept up his neck, and he leaned back slightly to create a more comfortable distance before scratching the back of his head. âIn any case,â he began, his voice calm and steady, âKimura-sanâs situation is not nearly as complicated as it has been made to seem.â
âHey, hey, whatâs all this? Shouldnât you two wait until after the club meeting is over to start your flirting?â Takada scoffed, his tone a familiar, grating mixture of disapproval and thinly veiled envy.
âEh? Does this mean you two investigated together over the weekend, Ĺgami-san?â Kana asked, her eyes narrowing slightly. Junkoâs tone, her easy confidence, implied she already knew everything. Either she had grilled Ĺgami about his findings beforehand, or she had been a direct participant in the investigation herself.
âHehehe, well, something like that,â Junko said with a bashful, noncommittal grin. âAnyway, letâs all just listen to what Ĺgami-kun has to say.â
Finding himself the undisputed center of attention, Ĺgami YĹsuke didnât waste any time with further pleasantries. He got straight to the point.
âWhen we parted ways on Sunday,â he began, his voice taking on a more formal, almost professorial tone, âI presented two distinct possibilities.â
âThe first possibility: Kimura-san was not lying. Everything he experiencedâthe cave, the curse, the sleepwalkingâwas, in some form, real.â
âThe second possibility: Kimura-san was lying, for a specific, and as yet unknown, purpose.â
Kana nodded slowly. âThatâs right. And you also said that if it was the second possibility, the situation would be much, much worse.â
Ĺgami YĹsuke grunted in affirmation. âTwo possibilities, leading to two vastly different potential outcomes. To distinguish between them, my first logical step was to analyze what happened to ItĹ-san and Fujita-san.â
âItĹ-san was injured by a freak accident, falling glass, during his morning run. Fujita-san was injured by a falling chandelier in his own home.â
âThese two unfortunate and seemingly random accidents happened at almost the exact same time. The reason Kimura-san provided for these events was that they had learned the full, detailed story of his ordeal, and had therefore, as a direct result, suffered misfortune.â
âIâve already gone over the logical fallacies inherent in that part of the narrative, so I wonât repeat myself. But more importantly, let us compare their experiences to our own. A full week has passed since we all learned the very same âfull story.â And yet, it seems no one here has suffered any similar, catastrophic misfortune, correct?â
Takada ShĹji was, as always, the picture of vibrant health, not a single scratch on his tanned skin. As for Junko, far from suffering misfortune, she was practically glowing with the happiness of a girl in love, a sight that was almost irritatingly cheerful.
âWell, I was suddenly and rather violently scared by a dog last weekend,â Kana offered, raising her hand quickly. âDoes that count as misfortune? Oh, and I did break a bowl after dinner.â
âAnd if I had to name some misfortune of my own,â Yomikawa Tsuko added, her tone laced with a dry, almost imperceptible amusement, âI suppose it would be catching a rather sudden and inconvenient cold over the weekend.â
âHey, hey, have some respect for ItĹ and Fujita!â Takada couldnât help but interject, a frown on his face. âThey were seriously, genuinely injured! What you guys experienced can only be classified as⌠minor bad luck!â
âPrecisely,â Ĺgami said, his voice sharp, cutting through their lighthearted banter. âUsing ItĹ-san and Fujita-sanâs injuries as our established baseline, what Senpai and Kana-san experienced is clearly, and significantly, different. Therefore, based on our own direct, empirical experiences, the component of Kimura-sanâs story about âknowing the full story brings misfortuneâ can be confidently and conclusively dismissed as false.â
Takada frowned. âI can agree with you on that point, Ĺgami-san. But then how do you explain ItĹ and Fujitaâs injuries? To write them off as a mere coincidence⌠that seems a little too far-fetched, doesnât it?â
âI will get to that part later,â Ĺgami said, holding up a hand to signal for patience. âFor now, there are two remaining, and more critical, parts of Kimura-sanâs story that we need to verify. First, is there, or is there not, a strange, eerie cave on Mount Karasu-Go? And second, did he, or did he not, actually sleepwalk? And if he did, was it in any way connected to that supposed cave?â
âLast Friday, after school, my father happened to be reviewing some research materials on the topic of somnambulism. And so, I took the opportunity to discuss the matter with him, and I related to him the details of Kimura-sanâs experiences. To my surprise, he immediately, and with great interest, suggested that we go to Mount Karasu-Go and see for ourselves.â
âAlthough neither of us was particularly familiar with the mountainâs terrain, Karasu-Go isnât that large, and searching it proved to be a relatively simple affair. We first located the secret hideout that ItĹ-san had mentioned, the one the three of them had built as children, located about halfway up the mountain.â
âThen, using the hideout as our central starting point, we began to search in ever-widening, concentric circles, all the way up to the summit, paying special, meticulous attention to the area near the sheer cliff face of Ĺkarasu. We found a few small, natural caves, yes. But we found absolutely nothing that even remotely resembled the L-shaped, man-made sacrificial site that ItĹ-san had so vividly described.â
In other words, that part of the story, the very heart of the supernatural tale, was also a lie. Kimura was fabricating his story from whole cloth.
âAfter confirming that critical point, the probability of Kimura-san actually sleepwalking decreased significantly in my estimation. But I still felt it was necessary to be thorough. I went to see Officer Kishida and requested his assistance in obtaining a portion of the relevant surveillance footage, in an attempt to reconstruct Kimura-san supposed sleepwalking routes.â
âThe results were⌠exactly as I had by then come to expect. There are not many primary routes leading from Kimura-sanâs house towards Fura Ward. Officer Kishida and I reviewed the footage from each of them, one by one. We found no trace of Kimura-san. Then, I had him pull the footage from the security cameras in Kimura-sanâs own immediate neighborhood. And this time⌠this time, I saw him.â
âOn the night of his first supposed sleepwalking episode, around four oâclock in the morning, he was just⌠loitering nearby. He was probably a bit cold, because he was so lightly dressed, and he kept moving around, shifting his weight, to stay warm. And he had his phone with him that night. The surveillance footage captured him, on several distinct occasions, taking it out of his pocket to check the time.â
âMy belief is this,â Ĺgami concluded, his voice firm, resolute. âIn a series of incredible, unbelievable events like this, if you can prove, with hard, verifiable evidence, that even one part is fake, you can, by extension, essentially prove that the entire story is fake. It is like in a court of law. If even one piece of the prosecutionâs evidence is found to be fraudulent, then all their other evidence, however compelling it might seem on the surface, can be considered invalid as well.â
Since there was now irrefutable, video evidence, the truth seemed clear.
After Ĺgami finished his presentation, Takada ShĹji frowned, deep in thought, clearly reprocessing everything he had just heard. Kana, however, looked a little⌠disappointed. âNo way⌠Is the incident really that simple? Just⌠a lie? But why? Why would Kimura-san do all this?â
âThe truth is that simple. All the available evidence points, unequivocally, to this single conclusion,â Ĺgami said with a final, weary shrug. âAs for why Kimura-san did it⌠well, I believe it was because of ItĹ-san and Fujita-san.â
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