𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬

file 036 | intentionally causing problems

"What? You got hold of clues to those guys?" Agasa gasped as they went over to a computer, Suzume inserting the disk, and working to open the files. "Suzume, you're not pulling my leg, are you?"

"I'm not, which is why I'm glad Ai's busy right now. If she knew, she'd worry too much, so it's best for me to look without her around," Suzume explained. "Alright, two years ago." She grinned when she found what she was looking for. "Here we go."

"March 7th, a man with a Kansai dialect suddenly came to see me. It seems that he was after a system software which was under development, but as soon as he found out that my vision had gone bad and I gave up the development, he left. This man was dressed in black from head to toe. I never want to see him again."

"A diary?" she murmured, raising an eyebrow.

Agasa hummed as she scrolled further down. "There seems to be nothing more written about the big man in the diary in the days following after," he noticed. "This Itakura guy sure must've been some unreliable character."

Suzume made a confused noise.

He pointed at the screen. "Look, the space between the written and unwritten pages of the book is disorganized. If it were me, I wouldn't be able to stand not placing everything in order."

Come to think of it, he said that Itakura-san would get upset even if his papers were moved ten centimeters out of place, Suzume recalled as Agasa's words triggered something in the back of her mind. "Now I see. The space between the pages isn't disorganized." She smiled as he gave her a confused look. "Watch this. You move the cursor over the open space like this, drag the mouse along, and then highlight it."

Agasa sputtered in shock. "This is..."

"'I'm pooped. If this keeps up, I'll probably be killed one day'," Suzume read aloud. "It's called invisible writing. It's a technique frequently used when people want to hide what is written on things like an internet website."

"But why would Itakura-san do something like this in his own diary?" Agasa wondered.

"Probably as camouflage just in case somebody took a look at it," Suzume surmised.

"Suzume, don't tell me that the person is..."

She smirked. "I'm sure he didn't want them to see it." She scrolled a little. "It looks like he started using invisible writing ten days after the man came. It goes on to say..."

"March 16th. The pen on my desk has been moved another five centimeters. It seems that someone's been sneaking into my office after all.

"April 15th. Somebody has snuck into my house this time. The police won't take it seriously. I guess it couldn't be helped because there were no traces of a break-in or anything being taken.

"June 11th. I changed the locks and set up hidden surveillance cameras, but to no avail.

"July 6th. Who is it? Show yourself!

"November 19th. I'm pooped. If this keeps up, I'll probably be killed one day.

"January 6th. In order to free me from this terror, I inserted a message addressed to the intruder in the desk. I wrote that I would go along with their demand.

"January 8th. I got an answer earlier than expected. In place of the message I inserted, there was a memo from the intruder. 'OK' was written in red, along with a mysterious phone number. The red words were probably written with blood. It probably means, 'Tell no one or you're dead.'