🎶春日の響きと記憶の音 — Chapter 143

🌸✨ In this alternate universe, Mio and みお are twin sisters, set in a unified world where the virtual singers of Crypton Future Media, Team TWINDRILL, INTERNET Co., Ltd., and the characters of Project SEKAI: Colorful Stage! feat. Hatsune Miku coexist. 🌙🎶 💜💗💜💗💜 Story 💗💜💗💜💗 Class 2-A’s Board Game-Style Puzzle Shiraishi An led everyone to a group of seats by the window. Several classroom desks had been pushed together to form one large table, and a hand-drawn map board was spread across the center. The map showed a simplified floor plan of Kamiyama High, with the classrooms, hallways, courtyard, stairs, library corner, and school festival headquarters all marked out. Beside it were event cards, location cards, testimony cards, and small round pieces for hints. Although they had all been handmade by the students in the class, they looked surprisingly well put together. The moment Teto saw the tabletop, her eyes lit up. “Wow, it’s a board game-style puzzle!” Rin also leaned closer excitedly. “There’s a map, and cards too! This feels super challenging!” Seeing that the two of them were already about to reach out, Len reminded them, “Don’t touch anything randomly yet. Wait for An to explain the rules.” “We know!” Although Rin said that, her eyes were already glued to the game pieces. Seeing everyone’s reactions, An smiled happily. “This group of seats should fit all of you. Come on, sit down first. I’ll explain.” Miku and みお sat by the window, and Mio sat beside みお. Rin and Teto naturally sat closest to the cards, while Len sat beside them, as though ready to stop them from messing up the game pieces at any moment. KAITO and MEIKO sat on the other side of the table, while Luka and Gakupo sat slightly farther out, where they could see the entire map board clearly. みお looked at the little components and said softly, “They’re so cute… Are they all handmade?” An nodded. “Mm, everyone in the class made them together. They aren’t as polished as a real board game, but we worked hard to make it look like an official game.” Mio looked at the school building map on the board. “This design is really complete.” KAITO also picked up the instruction sheet and glanced over it. “The rules don’t look too difficult, but there seem to be quite a few clues.” MEIKO smiled. “It seems perfect for everyone to discuss together.” When An heard that, she immediately nodded. “Exactly! We wanted to make it something everyone could play together, not the kind of puzzle where only one person solves it while everyone else just watches from the side.” Teto immediately raised her hand. “Then can I be in charge of drawing cards?” Len glanced at her. “You just want to be the first one to touch the cards, don’t you?” Teto did not deny it at all. “Because drawing cards feels ceremonial!” Rin also raised her hand. “Then I want to be in charge of moving the game piece!” Len immediately said, “Listen to the rules first.” An smiled and clapped her hands, bringing everyone’s attention back. “Okay, I’ll start explaining now.” She placed the event card in the center of the map board. Written on the card was: “Case: The Missing School Festival Stamp” An pointed at the card and said, “The story is that Class 2-A originally prepared a commemorative school festival stamp, planning to let guests who cleared the game stamp it onto their commemorative cards. But before the school festival began, the stamp suddenly disappeared.” Rin immediately got into the story. “So we have to find out where the stamp is?” “Exactly,” An nodded. “But this time, instead of searching around the classroom, you’ll solve it through the board game process.” She picked up a magnifying glass-shaped game piece and placed it on the starting point of the map board. “You’re all one investigation team. Each time, you can choose one location to investigate and flip over the corresponding location card. The location card will tell you what testimony you can obtain, or what item you find.” Miku looked seriously at the map. “So in other words, we have to decide where to investigate first.” An nodded. “Right. Some clues can only be understood when combined with certain items, and some testimony needs to be compared with other cards. In the end, you have to use all the clues to deduce where the stamp was hidden and who was the last person to touch it.” Teto’s eyes shone even brighter. “We even have to find out who touched the stamp! It really feels like we’re investigating a case!” Len said flatly, “Don’t immediately accuse the first suspicious person you see.” Teto immediately replied, “I won’t! I’ll reason carefully!” Rin looked at her. “Then who do you think is suspicious?” Without hesitation, Teto answered, “The person who took the most snacks!” Len held his forehead. “The game hasn’t even started yet.” Everyone could not help laughing. An laughed too, then pushed the small round hint pieces to the center of the table. “These are for hints. If you really get stuck, you can use one to ask me for a hint. But if you use fewer of them, the reward for clearing the game will be a little better.” Teto immediately sat up straight. “So that means we can’t use hints carelessly.” Rin nodded seriously too. “For the sake of the reward, we have to solve it ourselves.” Len looked at how suddenly serious the two of them had become and said calmly, “The motivation is simple, but at least the direction is correct.” Next, An placed the open clues on the table where everyone could see them. They read: “The stamp was last seen in a place where the stars can be seen.” “Three colors decide the direction.” “The largest words are not necessarily the most important. The small marks beside them are the key.” Rin blinked. “A place where the stars can be seen?” Teto immediately looked at the map. “Where in the school building are there stars?” みお quietly read another clue aloud. “Three colors… decide the direction.” Mio looked over the areas on the map board. “Maybe we need to look for places on the map with color markings.” KAITO nodded lightly. “It might also be the order of colors on the cards.” MEIKO looked at the map board. “There really are quite a few small symbols on the map.” Luka leaned in a little and looked at the corner of the map. “There are stars, footprints, keys, and a few color markings.” Gakupo also looked over the tabletop and spoke naturally. “It looks like a simple board game, but there are a lot of details. We probably shouldn’t only look at the surface.” Hearing that, An smiled with a sense of accomplishment. “Right, that’s exactly the feeling! When we were making it, we wanted people to slowly discover details while they played.” She placed the answer sheet at the edge of the table. “At the end, you just need to write your answer and reasoning on this sheet. You can’t just guess—you have to write which clues you based your reasoning on.” Len looked at Rin and Teto. “Did you hear that? You can’t rely on instinct.” Rin immediately straightened her back. “I can reason too!” Teto also said, “My instincts are sometimes very accurate!” Len fell silent for a moment. “That sentence itself is worrying.” Everyone laughed again. Just as An was about to continue explaining, another group of guests suddenly called out from the entrance. “Excuse me, can we still join?” The classmate in charge of reception at the door was busy collecting the previous group’s answer sheet, and a few more people had peered inside beside them. It looked as though they were a little short-handed. An turned to look, a slightly apologetic expression appearing on her face. “Sorry, we’re a bit short on staff today. I’m going to go welcome the group next to you first, so you can start by discussing the open clues and the map.” She pointed to the cards and map board on the table. “Once you decide which location you want to investigate first, you can wait for me to come back and flip the card for you, or you can ask the student at the entrance to help. Don’t worry, I won’t go far.” Miku nodded. “Okay, An. Go ahead and take care of them first.” MEIKO also said gently, “Don’t worry. We’ll organize the clues first.” KAITO added with a smile, “Your activity is this popular. You must be working hard.” Hearing that, An immediately regained her energy. “Thank you! Then you all start first. I’ll come back later to check your progress!” She looked toward Mio and みお and added especially for them, “Mio, みお, don’t be nervous. This is a game for everyone to discuss together, so you can say anything that comes to mind.” Mio nodded lightly. “Mm. Thank you.” みお also said quietly, “I’ll try thinking together with everyone.” An smiled and made a cheering gesture. “Great! Then I’m leaving it to you, investigation team!” After saying that, she turned and walked toward the entrance to welcome the other group of guests who had just arrived. After An left, the area around the large table by the window became a little quieter. The map board, cards, and small round hint pieces lay quietly on the table in front of everyone. The lively sounds from the hallway still drifted in faintly from outside, and the other guests inside the classroom were also discussing their own puzzles in low voices. Every now and then, someone would exclaim, “Ah, so that’s it!” That atmosphere made them become serious without even realizing it. Rin placed both hands on the edge of the table, fighting spirit burning in her eyes. “All right! Let’s begin!” Teto temporarily set her camera aside and looked at the tabletop carefully. “This time, I’m going to reason seriously. I can’t use hints carelessly just for the reward.” Len looked at her. “The fact that you can say that already counts as progress.” Teto immediately gave a proud smile. “Right?” Miku lined up the open clues neatly and read them aloud again. “The stamp was last seen in a place where the stars can be seen. Three colors decide the direction. The largest words are not necessarily the most important. Look at the small marks beside them.” KAITO looked at the map board. “Let’s first look for places related to stars on the map.” MEIKO pointed to one corner of the map. “There’s a star symbol beside the school festival headquarters.” Luka noticed another place too. “There’s also a star beside the library corner, but it’s smaller.” Gakupo lowered his head and observed for a moment, then spoke naturally. “Let’s not decide too quickly. The clue says ‘a place where the stars can be seen.’ That doesn’t necessarily mean the place with the most star symbols. It might also be a description on one of the cards.” Len nodded. “True. With only the map, we can’t judge yet.” Rin looked at the color markings on the map. “What about the three colors? There are color dots here, here, and here.” Teto leaned closer to look. “Red is in the hallway, blue is in the library corner, and yellow is in the courtyard.” Miku picked up a pencil and wrote them down in the blank space. “Red is the hallway, blue is the library corner, and yellow is the courtyard.” みお looked at the map and suddenly said quietly, “It says three colors decide the direction… Could it mean we shouldn’t look at the locations, but at the order of the colors?” Everyone’s gaze turned toward her at once. Being looked at made みお a little nervous, and her ears twitched slightly. “I-I just thought… if it’s red, blue, and yellow, maybe we’re supposed to follow them in some kind of order?” Mio immediately followed up gently, “I think that’s possible. Like a movement route on the board game map—maybe you start from red, then go to blue, and finally yellow.” KAITO nodded. “That’s a good idea.” MEIKO also smiled. “You’re observing very carefully, みお.” みお’s cheeks flushed slightly. “Thank you…” Miku looked at her with a very gentle smile. “Then should we investigate the hallway with the red mark first?” Rin immediately raised her hand. “I agree! If there’s an order, we should start with red!” Teto nodded too. “And the hallway sounds like the kind of place someone would pass through after taking the stamp!” Len looked toward Gakupo. “What do you think?” Gakupo looked at the map and thought for a moment. “That works. If we investigate the hallway first, at the very least we can confirm whether the colors are directional clues.” Luka nodded with a smile. “Then let’s start with the hallway.” Mio looked toward みお. “Your idea was accepted.” みお felt a little embarrassed, but she showed a small smile. “I hope it’s right.” Teto immediately clenched her fist. “It’s okay! Board game-style puzzles are all about trying things one step at a time!” Rin added, “Investigation team, set out!” Len reminded her flatly, “We’re playing while sitting down. We don’t actually need to set out.” Rin froze. “Oh, right.” Everyone laughed. Miku moved the magnifying glass piece beside the “Hallway” area on the map. And just like that, the puzzle-solving at the table officially began. To Mio and みお, this board game-style puzzle was not just another school festival activity. It was also their first time sitting at the same table with everyone, offering their thoughts, being listened to seriously, and moving toward the same answer together.