The Swindler, the Vanishing Man, and the Pretty Boys

11. Territory

So said not some great man, but our school’s resident satirist─though considering that even middle school students have territories they forbid one another to enter, what can you really say about it?

But that night, the Pretty Boy Detective Club (myself included) barged calmly across the line separating the territory of the private Yubiwa Academy from that of the private Kamikazari Middle School.

Even disguised as a boy, my heart was pounding.

I felt like I was doing something much worse than sneaking onto the school roof in the middle of the night─not to mention that I was about to enter a middle school I didn’t even attend.

“H-Have you all been here before? I mean, inside Kamikazari Middle…”

Their bold attitude made me think one of their past cases must have involved such a thing, but I was wrong.

“Oh no, never,” replied Sakiguchi. “We’ve had some interactions with them in the past, it’s true, but this is our first time visiting the premises.”

Which meant that while these pretty boys may not have been curvaceous, they were certainly courageous─for my part, I was terrified about what might wait in store for us.

“Have no fear. I am still the president of the student council─and if I say I’m here to look into reports of unrest occurring near our school, they’ll believe me.”

The vice president used his trusted and powerful position in the official world with surprising savvy─although in terms of “unrest,” the Pretty Boy Detective Club caused plenty of it themselves.

“Ha ha ha. Relax, young Dojima. No one will give us any trouble. Unless being beautiful is a crime, that is!” The excited president completely ignored the vice president’s words.

I don’t know about beauty being a crime, but one reason he didn’t feel especially guilty sneaking into another middle school was probably that he traipsed around ours all the time like he owned the place, even though he was only in fifth grade.

“You seem to be having fun, too, Sosaku. Excellent. At this rate, we may just be lucky enough to witness one of your patented soft-shoe routines tonight!”

As far as I could tell, the child genius looked the same as always, but anyway…

A soft-shoe routine?

The child genius? Dancing??

Or was the president talking about Sosaku making him a pair of slippers?

“You’re talking about sneaking in, Dojima, but the gates are wide open. And I didn’t see a single car in the lot, so the dear teachers must’ve all gone home. You ask me, this feels like a warm welcome,” the delinquent announced, though I’m not sure if his confidence came from being a member of a detective organization or being part of the criminal underworld. Apparently, he’d been casually keeping an eye on our surroundings on the way in.

Well, we had been invited.

If the gate had been closed, that would have been the end of it─which would’ve been great, but then this book would never have been written. So we walked onto the grounds of that middle school that wasn’t ours, followed the map printed on the invitations, and arrived at Gymnasium #2.

According to some fairly plausible rumors circulating among the girls at our school, the inside of Kamikazari Middle should’ve resembled a drawing of hell, but actually, the row of buildings, the tidy flower beds, and even Gymnasium #2 were very clean and neat─rumors can be so unreliable.

As for the veracity of the rumors about the Pretty Boy Detective Club─well, for the present, I’ll withhold judgement.

“Looks like they’ve got curtains up so we can’t see what’s going on inside─guess our only choice is to head on in.”

Mr. Bare-Legs─who was bare-legged even in the middle of a near-winter night─actually sounded excited.

The boy with the beautiful legs liked to gambol, so maybe he liked to gamble, too.

Of course, if I felt like it (and took off my glasses) I could have looked through not just the heavy curtains but the walls themselves to see what was happening inside the gym, but there was no point in spoiling their fun.

We walked around to the front of the gym, reached for the steel doors that were shut as tight as the curtains─and.