Stealing Spree

After getting their agreement, I gestured to the president of the Kendo Club, a tall, skinny guy who seemed the least nervous of the group. He leaned forward slightly, resting his elbows on his knees as he spoke.

"In the past two weeks, we've had several shinai, our practice swords, go missing. At first, we thought it was just a mistake, someone taking them home by accident or not returning them after practice. But it kept happening. We lock up the equipment after every practice, and only the club members and our advisor have access to the room. It's starting to affect our training sessions."

Two weeks? So, this wasn't a recent occurrence. How intriguing. Who could do such a thing and be undetected until now?

I looked at the other club presidents and they seemed to be agreeing to him as if they'd experienced something similar.

I recalled the last time I visited the Drama Club for Misaki. It was only a few days ago... But there seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. Likewise, when I visited the Photography Club with Juri. Everything seemed fine.

I made a mental note to look into whether the security of their clubrooms had been compromised. It didn't seem likely that the same person could be involved in all this, but the pattern was troubling.

I'd applaud the culprit if it's a single person.

Next, the president of the Photography Club, Juri's junior, Kokonoe Marin, spoke up. "I... How should I start? You've visited our club once with Juri-senpai. But at that time... there was already an incident. A few cameras and tripods either go missing or end up in weird places. Like, recently, one of our old cameras. The one you saw me working on was found in the art supply closet two days ago. Another one, thankfully a cheap model, disappeared entirely last week. While not everything was lost, I couldn't handle the stress anymore. Onoda-kun, can you do something?"

I raised an eyebrow and then consoled her, "Isn't that why you're here, senpai? Let me help you figure it out. But you mentioned the art supply closet. It was on the same floor but that's quite a distance from your clubroom, right?"

It wasn't something from the Art Club, It was located in one of the clubrooms turned into a storage room for what some clubs discarded for decluttering.

She nodded, clearly frustrated. "Exactly. None of us have any idea how it ended up there."

Next, it was the Drama Club's president's turn. She stared for a while as if she was trying to sync her memory of me to the one standing in front of her now.

"It's the same with us. Costumes and props go missing from inside our clubroom. Then they'll show up in random places days later. Sometimes in the Theater Club's. It's weird that they seemed to be not affected. Misaki-chan helped me double-check with everyone to ensure they were not just being left behind or borrowed without permission. Don't you think it's weird, Onoda-kun?"

"Indeed it's weird. What about you, senpai?" I said before turning to the last president who had yet to speak."

"T-that... it's fairly similar to the others." His voice was low, almost whispering as though he was too ashamed to speak. I could see him already sweating in his seat. "Some of our tools and pieces of equipment are going missing only to show up days later."

This guy... He's a reclusive introvert, huh? Was he spending most of his time in his lab?

In any case, there seemed to be not any need to push him to talk more.

I nodded and signaled to him that it was fine. I already got the information I needed from him.

After that, I took a step back to contemplate for a while, piecing together the information. The pattern was clear: items were going missing or being moved, but no one seemed to have a solid explanation for why or how it was happening. There was no clear motive.

It didn't seem like typical theft, especially since most of the items eventually turned up again. But the disruptions were too frequent to be random mistakes.

As I thought this over, Komoe raised her hand, bringing in her insight, "Ruki, could it be that someone's trying to mess with the clubs on purpose?"

"That's one possibility," I replied, tapping my chin. "But the question is why. If this is sabotage, who stands to gain from it? Seniors, do any of you have a grudge with someone?"

The club presidents exchanged uncertain glances, but none of them had an immediate answer.

"Not that I know of. Can I count those envious of us?" The Drama Club president answered.

"We had a conflict with some delinquents but those guys were afraid of you and the Student Council President. They wouldn't mess with official clubs." The Kendo Club president added.

I then looked at the Marin-senpai and the Science Club dude and they both shook their heads. With that, I decided to shift the focus.

"Alright. Let's change the approach. Have any of you noticed anything unusual? Maybe someone who doesn't belong to your club hanging around the clubrooms, or anything else that stands out?"

The Kendo Club president spoke first. "Now that you mention it... there's been this one girl. She's not in our club, but she's always hanging around after practice. I thought she was just a fan or something. She's showing up every other day."

"Oh. There is one like that to us too," the Drama Club president added. "There's this girl who keeps showing up during rehearsals, clapping at our performance. She never causes trouble, but it's strange."

Marin-senpai frowned. "Now that I think about it, I've seen someone like that too. A girl who always seems to be nearby when we're setting up for shoots, but she never interacts with us directly. She's just looking from afar."

The Science Club dude was the only one who had nothing to say. Either he didn't notice anyone or he was too focused on his experiments to be aware of someone lingering around his club.

But that's enough. Three out of four of them spoke of a certain girl...

I narrowed my eyes as I continued to connect the dots. "A girl, huh? Could this be the same person?"

The presidents exchanged uneasy looks, but none of them could say for sure. None of them knew her name or had interacted with her directly, but the description they provided. A slender girl with black hair seemed to match. But there are a lot of girls like that in our school. And then as my eyes wandered to my desk where Ryouko-san left the folder, something clicked in my mind. A girl causing trouble but staying under the radar, moving between different clubs...

It can't be that girl, right? That's too much of a coincidence.

No. It can also be because she's starting to cause trouble again that they're pushing me to deal with her.

Still, it's just a suspicion but it is worth pursuing.

I walked to my desk, picked up the photo attached to the file, and presented it to them.

"Is this her?" I asked, my voice firm.

I thought I already had it but surprisingly, all three of them knit their brows and shook their heads.

Strange... If not her, then who?

"Alright. Komoe, could you look into this and try to identify her?" I asked, turning to my lovely and enthusiastic assistant.

She nodded eagerly, already pulling out her phone to send a message to someone. Most likely to Watanabe who's always up for something interesting.

While Komoe worked, I turned back to the club presidents. "In the meantime, I'll visit and inspect your clubrooms. See if there's anything unusual that might point us in the right direction. I'll have to coordinate with your advisors as well. Please make sure they're informed of what's going on."

The club presidents agreed, though they still looked uneasy. It was clear this situation had been wearing on them for a while.

As the presidents began to leave the office, I couldn't shake the nagging suspicion that Minami Shouko was somehow involved.

Her reputation for stirring trouble, her disregard for authority, and her tendency to manipulate situations seemed to align with what was happening here. But I didn't want to jump to conclusions just yet. I'd need more evidence.

"Komoe," I called after the last president had left, "we're going to visit these clubs during patrol. Let's see if we can't catch this mystery girl in the act."

Komoe grinned, clearly excited by the idea of playing detective. "Yes, Ruki! I'll do my best!"

With that, we prepared for a moment as I read through Minami Shouko's file and then left the office together to start our patrol.

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