The Swindler, the Vanishing Man, and the Pretty Boys

23. The Twenties

Whether it was thanks to the quality of the bedsprings or because his legs are that powerful even in a reclining position, he literally sprang to his feet─a reaction so excessive that I half wondered if he’d bust through the canopy like some cartoon character.

“I did say ‘the Twenties,’ but I don’t have a lolicon,” Mr. Lolicon countered curtly.

“Never mind that, you did say ‘the Twenties’!” Mr. Bare-Legs shouted, instantly shaking off all signs of sleepiness as he raced over to Sakiguchi with incredible, and unnecessary, speed.

But maybe his reaction wasn’t excessive after all.

Since during the Pretty Boy Detective Club’s last tangle with the organization in question, it was Mr. Bare-Legs─angel on the surface, physical dynamo underneath─who laid his life on the line more than any of us, and it would come as no surprise if that experience had traumatized him.

The Twenties.

I don’t even know how to properly describe them─but basically, they’re a criminal organization.

A bona fide criminal organization, though you’d never guess it from that poppy name of theirs, which makes them sound like a baseball team or something─and they’d kidnapped Sotoin and me with unimaginable aplomb.

Mr. Bare-Legs had fallen into their clutches as well, in his attempt to rescue us─but if that experience was etched into his mind…

“So, then, I get to see Rei again?! That gorgeous woman?! The one with the revealing outfits?! The Rei-vishing Beauty with Twenty Faces?!”

…There was no sign of any emotional scarring as he leaned forward eagerly and inquired about his erstwhile captor. Well, I suppose that level of victimization might not inflict much trauma on a guy who’d been kidnapped three times already.

To the contrary, the enemy’s ringleader had stolen his heart.

Though I have to admit she’s the kind of jaw-dropping beauty who could put just about any guy under her spell…

“No, you will not get to see her,” Sakiguchi scolded him sharply─and with impressive rationality. He, at least, was apparently immune to the charms of jaw-dropping leaders of criminal organizations.

Or maybe that was his standard stance with regard to older women?

“That would not be a desirable outcome,” he continued, “which is why I’ve been attempting to devise a strategy that allows us to avoid any further contact with her organization.”

“Oh,” Mr. Bare-Legs muttered, losing interest immediately.

But instead of returning to the bed, he sat down on the sofa, snatched the plate of yakisoba the child genius had been in the middle of eating, and began scarfing it down without so much as a by-your-leave.

What a free spirit.

“Then I won’t get to see those voluptuous legs again? Just because you prefer slender legs─”

“I most certainly do not prefer slender legs. The legs of the young lady my parents selected as my fiancée just happen to be slender, that’s all.”

If you ask me, that explanation just happened to be rather suspicious… So suspicious, in fact, that if I had a cell phone, I’d have reported him to the police immediately.

But maybe since Sakiguchi is closer to a criminal than any of us, he’s also more hostile toward other criminals, and more likely to take the moral high ground─in fact, our leader Sotoin had made some comments that suggested he wasn’t entirely disapproving of Rei himself.

Which was perhaps what motivated his next words.

“Ahem. Nagahiro, do tell. How are the Twenties involved with the casino?” he asked with interest─although our boundlessly curious leader seems interested in just about everything.

“I’ll explain everything in good time… And Hyota, please feel free to continue your nap. We’ve had quite enough of your refreshing perspective.”

“Thanks, I’m good. But don’t worry, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself,” Mr. Bare-Legs replied, rejecting the suggestion from Sakiguchi, who was apparently tired of being interrupted─although he’d shared plenty of his refreshing perspective already.

The delinquent, meanwhile, was providing refreshment of a different sort in the form of another round of tea─as long as he kept his mouth shut, he came off like a genuine waiter.

Sakiguchi shrugged and continued.

“In our last encounter, we successfully─or rather, fortuitously─managed to drive back the Twenties, but I feared we would not be so lucky next time,” he began. “To put the matter in extreme terms, even engaging with that woman and her organization would be a defeat of sorts─in this world, there are certain people with whom one should never get involved.”

He sounded deadly serious.

And coming from the vice president of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, which everyone at school said you should never get involved with, those words bore all the more weight.

The fact is, he was probably right.

The last time I saw Rei, she’d hinted that our paths would cross again, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more than to avoid such a reunion.

“And so I decided to request Sosaku’s assistance in investigating her organization─its structure, its activities, its scale... The likelihood of crossing paths once more, and if we do, how to extricate ourselves from the situation... The two of us have been secretly looking into these matters.”

They had?

True enough, that was work for the vice president of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, not the student council president. And just like last time, he’d gotten the child genius (and his formidable foundation) to help.

I couldn’t help wondering why he hadn’t called on the Yubiwa Foundation for help in investigating Kamikazari Middle School as well, but he seemed to keep the two completely separate in his mind.

His conscientious personality might’ve had something to do with that, but it was also probably related to the odd relationships between the members of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, which is to say, the fact that when they weren’t at HQ or doing club work, they refused to have anything to do with one another.

The club existed entirely thanks to its leader.

Sakiguchi and the child genius had no direct connection─even I could say that much.

“And? Did ya find anything out?” asked the delinquent, who was even more at odds with the student council president outside the art room than any of us (inside it, he was our waiter).

“We did,” Sakiguchi nodded. “Simply put, the Twenties are, as you may recall, a delivery service─their business is to bring whatever they are asked to bring, be it people or goods, to the location where they are asked to bring it. They appear to have no political positions or ideology whatsoever.”

“Hmmm. And yet, I sensed a certain faint aesthetic,” Sotoin mused.

His standard for making such judgements was hard to grasp, but to tell the truth, I got what he was trying to say─after all, Rei could have treated us far worse when we were at her mercy.

It’s true that they transported us like a bunch of parcels, but we were actually handled with a fair amount of care.

“Yes indeed. They certainly have standards, if not exactly an aesthetic─call it the pride that professional criminals take in their work. At the very least, I do not believe they will seek revenge on us. That should offer some sense of relief.”

Interesting… So revenge was the thing he was most worried about, having run afoul of a criminal organization. A few superficial wins are no better than a loss if you have to spend the rest of your life watching your back─I’d assumed everything was over, and hadn’t really been thinking about revenge, but I guess it was a pretty obvious concern.

Given how careful Sakiguchi had to be that his reputation wasn’t ruined by the situation with his fiancée, I wasn’t surprised he was on top of risk management─too bad for him he still couldn’t rest easy when it came to the fiancée thing, though.

“As long as we proceed with caution, we will not cross paths with the Twenties again. I can guarantee you that much.”

“…”

His statement was meant to be reassuring, but considering that the Pretty Boy Detective Club didn’t know the first thing about proceeding with caution, that condition left me a little anxious.

Still, if that had been all he had to say, I would’ve taken it as good news, but Sakiguchi’s expression remained dark.

“Well,” he continued. “In the course of our investigation, we came across a piece of unexpected information, totally by accident─and that information made the whole situation infinitely more complex and suggestive.”

“Suggestive, like Rei’s figure?”

“Hyota. We’re finished talking about Rei. She wasn’t even included in the illustrations, now, was she?”

“Hmph. What’s your problem? Just because you prefer a boyish figure─”

“If by boyish figure you are referring to the fiancée that my parents chose for me without my permission, then in the name of her honor, I would like to point out that her figure is not all that boyish─but as for the unexpected information, it had to do with Kamikazari Middle School.”

“Kamikazari Middle School? Oho, and where might that be?”

The leader’s eyes sparkled.

Does he have amnesia or something?

His curiosity must only have one channel─to put a positive spin on it, he’s got an excellent capacity for concentrating on the matter at hand, but how could he have so quickly forgotten the name of the school where we’d just been conducting an undercover investigation?

And on top of that, our schools are neighbors!

But the leader’s scatterbrained reaction was an unexpected blessing, because it helped soften my own shock.

What on earth did the Twenties have to do with Kamikazari Middle School?

“We arrived at this information in the course of investigating the nature of the Twenties’ activities. At the time, I couldn’t believe my ears, but the source was a very reliable one─there is evidence that Fudatsuki, the school’s current student council president, is engaged in business dealings with the Twenties.”

“Business dealings…?”

A middle school student doing business with a criminal organization?

My first reaction was to blurt out that the very idea was ridiculous, but while Fudatsuki may be a middle school student, he’s a middle school student who runs a casino in the school gym at night, along with a variety of other activities. Doing business with criminals might not be so surprising for a guy like him─in fact, even if it was total coincidence that his business partner was the Twenties, it actually seemed natural that he would be involved with an illegal organization.

“The Twenties being essentially a delivery service, they’re acting as middleman in this situation─they seem to be making regular deliveries to Fudatsuki.”

“He’s m-meeting with her regularly…? That bastard, meeting with Rei?”

Mr. Bare-Legs seemed mysteriously jealous (honestly, “that bastard”?), but that aside─deliveries?

“You mean like the slot machines and poker tables? So that’s how he got his hands on that stuff!”

“Yes, Michiru. I do believe the Twenties acted as middleman in those transactions as well─otherwise, it would be almost inconceivable for a middle school student to put together that kind of facility. That is not the essential point here, however─you see, a…private-sector company seems to be sending him consignments of products they have in development.”

Hm?

For once, the skilled orator stumbled, and seemed for a moment to be at a loss for words… What was going on here?

The involvement of the Twenties, who were up to their elbows in illegal activity, was definitely a problem, but having business dealings with a private company didn’t in and of itself seem like anything to get so worked up about.

“They appear to be paying Fudatsuki to beta test items under development─and it seems that the student council president’s main source of income derives from reporting his impressions of the products he’s tested.”

“What the hell? That’s his main source of income? So all he’s gotta do is say if it was easy to use or not? Tell them whether he liked it or not?”

Sounds like one hell of a cushy job, the delinquent added sardonically.

“And that’s how he’s able to run the casino?”

“To the contrary, I’d say that’s why he’s running the casino─to test the product he’s currently been commissioned to report on,” Sakiguchi answered. “Those invisible black clothes Ms. Dojima told us about, the ones the kuroko was wearing.”