"So, you two are already here?"
While Rinji and Akazawa were talking, the café door opened.
Sakakibara Koichi, Mochizuki Yuuya, and Teshigawara Naoya walked in. Seeing Rinji and Akazawa, Naoya greeted them.
Akazawa glanced at him but said nothing, silently standing and moving to sit beside Rinji.
"Hey, hey, hey, do you hate that much?" Naoya asked helplessly.
"Do you want to say it out loud?"
"…Forget it."
Koichi looked at the two of them curiously, then asked Rinji, "What about Misaki? She's not coming?"
"i said she wouldn't. She doesn't like crowded places."
"That does fit her personality," Koichi said with a laugh, clearly used to i's ways. He turned back to Rinji.
"Honestly, I'm surprised you ca, Takamine. You don't usually enjoy talking to classmates."
"Learning a bit of useful information won't hurt."
Rinji tapped the table lightly with his finger and looked around. "Let's share everything we know and see if we can integrate it."
Everyone sat down, and Mochizuki spoke first.
"Actually, the main reason I asked you all here is because… this incident might involve my sister."
"Your sister?"
"Yes," Mochizuki said. "She's the manager of this café."
"You an Inose-san?" Naoya asked. "Why would she be involved in this?"
"Because… in the end, I couldn't hide it from her."
"Hold on, one thing at a ti," Rinji said, opening his notebook and starting to take notes.
"First, I'll tell you what I know. Ever since I learned about this incident, I had my father's connections outside Yomiyama investigate everyone in Class 3-3, including the horoom teacher. Because information might get overwritten inside this city, I had to use outside sources. But when the data ca back, there were clear discrepancies."
He looked up.
"What I found is this: information gets distorted the mont it enters Yomiyama City."
"I see… so records outside the city remain correct, but they can't be brought in?" Koichi mused.
"Didn't anyone check outside back then?"
"High schoolers here are all locals. Their families rarely leave town, let alone have access to governnt population records," Akazawa explained. "This year's situation is unusual—first with Sakakibara transferring from Tokyo, and then Takamine, an even more outrageous foreigner."
"I only ca here to investigate this matter," Rinji said. Then his eyes sharpened.
"There's sothing else I didn't get to ask before. Now's a good chance."
"What is it?"
"I rember you, Akazawa, said there wasn't an extra desk in the classroom."
"Yes. But after you and Sakakibara transferred…"
"So you believe this disaster began after Sakakibara and I arrived?"
"Though it sounds rude, I do think so." She nodded. "After you two transferred, the desks decreased, which ant the 'dead' had entered."
"But what if I told you the disaster started before either of us transferred in?"
"What?"
Not just Akazawa, but the other three boys froze as well.
Looking at their confusion, Rinji said slowly: "Before, you treated i as the 'nonexistent one,' so I didn't bring it up. The truth is, she has a younger sister. About two weeks ago, her sister had several accidents—falling from a Ferris wheel, then suffering complications from leukemia… though I saved her each ti, it was far too abnormal to be called simple bad luck."
"…"
"And the period when her sister was in danger…" Rinji lifted his head and stared at them. "Was before Sakakibara even transferred. I only enrolled after him. You see the tiline now, right?"
"No way…"
"So the disaster started that early?"
"I thought it began with Takabayashi's death…"
Ignoring their shocked expressions, Rinji went on: "So back to the earlier point—if the disaster had already begun before Sakakibara and I entered, and back then no desks were missing, doesn't that an there was no 'dead student'?"
"That…"
"Impossible!"
Naoya jumped to his feet.
"If there wasn't a dead student, then why would the disaster still happen?"
"Calm down. I didn't say there's no 'dead one.'"
Rinji's lips curled into a faint smile.
"I'm saying the dead one might not be a student. A class doesn't only consist of students."
"…Takamine, you an the 'dead one' could be a teacher?" Akazawa caught on imdiately.
"That's my thought, at least."
Leaning back in his chair, Rinji spread his hands.
"That's all the information and reasoning I have. Anything to add?"
After hesitating, Koichi finally spoke. "I have sothing."
"Go on."
"My aunt… was once a student in Class 3-3 of Yomiyama North."
"And?"
"Uh… that's all."
"Useless. Next."
Mochizuki raised his hand. "."
"Speak."
"What I said earlier wasn't finished. My sister also knows about this," he said quietly. "About a week ago, a custor ca here at night for drinks. He seed to be a forr Class 3-3 student from a few years ago."
"So what? Just serving a forr student isn't much."
"No." Mochizuki shook his head, face grave.
"Better if my sister tells you herself. At the ti, that custor said sothing very strange."
"What?"
"He said, 'If it weren't for , the disaster wouldn't have ended so quickly.'"
"…So you an…"
"You an that custor might know how to end the Class 3-3 disaster," Mochizuki said.
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