After unexpectedly losing her bicycle, getting anywhere had become considerably more inconvenient for a certain someone.
She lined up at the tram station platform near Sakugawa Middle School and bought a one-way ticket, which cost only a third of a regular bus fare.
Even with the speed limits for trams within the city, it was still twice as fast as the average bus.
The spot she wanted to check out wasn't especially far, but since Natsume Sonoko found a tram stopping right near Sakugawa Middle School, she couldn't be bothered to walk the whole way.
The tram wasn't much different from the usual Japanese bullet trains, most of its tracks built on elevated bridges separated from the residential areas below.
Natsume Sonoko used to worry about these trams derailing and falling, but she'd never actually seen any news reports about something like that happening.
Boarding the tram, Sonoko found it practically empty.
Not many students were still wandering around at this hour; it was mostly teaching staff, who didn't need to attend club activities.
'My first club activity is done, now all that's left is the investigation report,' Natsume Sonoko mulled over her club duties.
Once she handed the report to the club president, Senpai Amakusa Yu, she could secure her credit points for the month.
She wasn't the least bit worried about the report. There was still plenty of time left in the month. Her top priority now was investigating the mysterious case of her missing bicycle.
'It's already been documented? They work shockingly fast.' Sitting on the tram, Sonoko opened the Urban Legend website and stared somewhat resentfully at a newly added section.
[OMG, What Secrets Lie Behind the Unexplained Disappearance of Bicycles?]
Clickbait again?
Sonoko clicked the link to the main page. Besides detailed introductions and investigation updates, she could browse various related posts below, each one objectively chronicling countless tales of woe.
--+--
[According to reliable sources, a certain careless Tokiwadai girl's bicycle vanished mysteriously while she was withdrawing money from an ATM. Reporting live from the scene!]
[School District 7, Third Commercial Avenue: A Nagatenjouki Academy student witnessed a 'ghost bicycle' moving on its own while she was buying cake!]
[Sakugawa Middle School Third-Year's Year-Long Savings Gone! Newly Purchased Bicycle Disappears Without a Trace!]
[I lost my bicycle. So unlucky.]
--+--
Ignoring the last post, which was pure complaint, Sonoko felt convinced there must be a mole close to her. 'A certain careless Tokiwadai girl'—without a doubt, that was her.
Sonoko quietly sent the link to that particular post to Maeda-senpai. Not long after, she received a picture in reply showing Maeda-senpai busy, completely avoiding a direct answer.
She had originally thought she could build an urban legend out of these bicycle disappearance cases, but it seemed her resourcefulness was no match for sheer, overwhelming bad luck.
"Natsume-san, are you there?"
Just as Sonoko closed the website on the tram, she received a message from Kongou-senpai.
It had been nearly a week since Kongou-senpai was attacked. Sonoko wondered if the ink on her face had faded yet.
"I'm here. What is it, Kongou-senpai?"
"Natsume-san, due to certain circumstances, I'm temporarily unable to go out for a few days. So, utterly helpless, I must ask for a tiny little favor from you," Kongou-senpai continued messaging.
"What favor?" Natsume-san tilted her head.
"Just help me buy some things."
"Oh, shopping? No problem at all, Senpai. What do you need me to buy?" Natsume Sonoko readily agreed. She didn't understand why Kongou-senpai didn't just have her family's helicopter deliver whatever it was, but she figured Senpai must have her reasons.
"Please buy some food that Little Ekaterina likes from the pet store. The dormitory stocks are all gone. You know how she's growing right now, her appetite is getting bigger and bigger."
One could sense Kongou-senpai's lack of calm from between the lines; she seemed genuinely happy about Little Ekaterina's growth spurt.
"Twenty packs of vacuum-sealed frozen white mice, sixty in total."
"...Alright, no problem. I'll bring them when I come to school tomorrow." Sonoko's finger hovered over the send button for a moment before finally tapping it.
'Buying frozen mice at a pet store,' Sonoko repeated silently in her mind.
While she had a natural fear of creepy crawlies, surely pre-packaged ones couldn't be that scary, right?
The tram arrived at its stop. Since most passengers were students and staff, the stations along the route were mostly named after various schools.
"Yamagami Middle School."
Sonoko recalled the map she had just checked. The area near this middle school was a hotspot for the theft cases.
Before the tram doors even opened, Sonoko carefully checked her appearance in the reflection on the window—a girl with intensely bright eyes stared back.
Passing the unfamiliar Yamagami Middle School, she could see middle school students still engaged in club activities inside. The track and field team members, being closer to the school fence, looked back at her with some curiosity through the bars, noting her unfamiliar uniform.
'Besides this middle school, there are five high schools around here,' Sonoko thought. The student and faculty dormitories nearby basically served these schools.
But her target wasn't the schools themselves; it was the surrounding student and faculty dormitory areas.
'It looks so small on the map, but the actual area is bigger than the School Garden.' She hadn't walked far before Sonoko couldn't help but complain.
The place was full of dormitory buildings, with all necessary shops nearby. But the most noticeable thing was the significant number of high school students milling about.
Japanese high school students were a peculiar breed. You'd find them saving the world, but you'd also find plenty skipping classes and club activities to hang out.
Sonoko hadn't walked far before she spotted three such high school students, who had clearly skipped their club activities, walking towards her. They had their arms around each other's shoulders, looking like the best of friends.
"Hey, Kamijou, we skipped class just to help you look for your bike. Pretty decent of us, right?"
This one wore light blue sunglasses and a school uniform. He was tall with a yellow spiky hairstyle, but he looked like a delinquent.
"Yeah, Kamijou, we skipped today because of you. You're treating us to dinner this week," a high school student with blue hair and earrings chimed in immediately. As he spoke, he pulled the other two closer, a warm smile on his face.
"Aogami, you've got some nerve saying that! If I hadn't gone to buy instant noodles for you, my bike would never have gone missing!" The black-spiky-haired boy walking at the front retorted, exasperated. Here he was, suffering enough, and these guys still wanted him to pay for a meal.
"Hey, look, an elementary school kid. Is there an elementary school around here?"
The blue-haired, earring-wearing high school boy had also noticed Natsume Sonoko approaching and whispered—rather poorly—to his two companions.
"What elementary school kid? That's a Tokiwadai uniform. And your 'whispering' is way too loud!" the black-spiky-haired boy snapped. After all the trouble that middle school Electromaster girl had given him, how could he not recognize that uniform?
"Oh, you're right, it is the Tokiwadai uniform. Hair buns, underclassman, ojō-sama," the blue-haired high school student murmured to himself.
"Keep your anime references down, you otaku!" The black-spiky-haired boy was getting seriously annoyed.
How utterly infuriating.
Natsume Sonoko gritted her teeth internally, shooting the trio a sharp glare before deciding they weren't worth her time. Her own business was more important.
The two parties passed each other amicably, as if nothing of note had happened.
'Still no clues at all. But I won't give up.' Taking a sip of soda, a finally somewhat re-energized Natsume Sonoko gave herself a pep talk.
After walking a huge loop around the area, Sonoko felt like her feet were about to fall off. Fortunately, there was a small park nearby.
She bought a soda from the vending machine and sat down on a park bench to rest.
It was already after school. Middle and high school students who had finished with club activities were trickling back to their dorms. Even the small park was starting to see groups of students passing through.
"Hup, hup, hup..."
A rhythmic grunting sound reached Sonoko's ears.
Not far away, a little girl in a pink dress was struggling to drag several oversized shopping bags, stumbling unsteadily as she passed through the park.
A few drink cans fell out of one bag when she wasn't paying attention.
'Is there really an elementary school around here?' A question popped into Sonoko's head.
If there weren't, elementary school students basically wouldn't appear here, since there were no parents around.
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T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.