You Saw Right Through Me

After the Trial

I remembered the horror I saw when I walked into the library that day. Rantaro's dead body, and Kaede's execution. I could barely bear thinking about it.

I had taken the floor plans from Miu since she claimed that she no longer needed it, and I was examining the track made on top of the bookcase, thinking back on the investigation Shuichi and I conducted on Rantaro's body.

"The wound was on the back of the head..." I muttered. "How did Kaede hit it? Especially since it doesn't seem like the end of the book track and Rantaro's body lines up." I sighed and leaned back on my couch. "I get that figuring this out doesn't really do much..." I looked at Rantaro's necklace and Kaede's hair clip next to me. "But I really don't think Kaede murdered Rantaro. Sure she attempted it, but..." I shook my head.

I sat down at my couch and heard a crumple of paper. I looked next to me and saw a small piece of paper wedged in the couch cushion. I pulled it out and saw some handwriting on it.

Dear Y/N,
I'm not entirely sure why I had the urge to do this, but I wanted to give you this. I originally wanted friendship bracelets or something, but you know why that can't happen. Think of this as... our friendship charm or something. I'm not sure I'll make it out of this alive, but I wanted you to have this.
From Rantaro

I teared up. "I guess that's why this was here." I said as I held up Rantaro's necklace.

After a while, I got up and went outside for some fresh air. "Hey, Gonta!" I greeted. "What are you doing?" Gonta looked at me and smiled. "Is Y/N okay now? Y/N no look so good before." I nodded and thanked him for his concern. "Gonta is looking for bugs. There is trees, grass, water, and sun, but no bugs." I looked on the ground. It is a bit peculiar.

"Hm... what is that?"

I turned to Gonta. "What do you mean?" He pointed to this stone tablet on the floor. "H-O-R-S-E-A." I read aloud. What does that mean? I looked back at the dormitory building. "Um... I'll be right back, okay Gonta?" I went inside and rang Shuichi's doorbell. Repeatedly. "I-I'm coming!" I heard from inside. I heard footsteps come closer and closer to the door until it opened. "Good morning, Shuichi!" I said.

He invited me inside. "You seem... happier today." He noticed. "Not happier... particularly. Just refreshed."

I had only told Shuichi what I was doing, and he personally agreed. "It just seemed too... easy to do." He had stated. I told him about the numbers on the stone tablet outside. "I wonder if we have to rearrange them in some way..." He said.

We then heard another ring from his doorbell. I opened the door. "Shuichi what are- what are you doing here, Y/N?" It was Kaito. He had a rather... suspicious look on his face.

"We're not doing anything weird, Kaito!" I yelled as I slapped his arm. "Alright, alright." He raised his hands. "I went looking for you guys. I wanted to eat breakfast with everyone but you guys weren't in the dining hall. Gonta told me that you went into the dormitory building, but you weren't in your room so I decided to check Shuichi's room. I didn't expect you to be here though."

I looked at Shuichi. "Wanna have breakfast with the others? I don't really eat breakfast." Shuichi nodded. "I don't either." Kaito looked surprised at our statements. "What do you eat in the morning then?" Shuichi and I looked at each other, uncomfortably. Nothing...? "Let's just head down to the dining hall." Kaito said.

I reached out to get Shuichi's hat for him, but he put his hand on my shoulder. "I don't need that anymore." I smiled and nodded. We followed Kaito to the dining hall. "W-wait, I need to get something from my room first."

After I got the thing from my room, we went down and heard that Gonta was telling everyone about the writing on the stone tablet. "Atua says it's just graffiti. So it's nothing we gotta worry about!" Angie said.