Not a detective

"Why is the prisoner so careless with his notices? This isn't the first time he's made a mistake."

"So a bold idea popped into my head: the love letter might actually be fake."

"The first thought came to me when I was at the detective agency. Well, I'll explain about that later. Anyway, in that cheating investigation, I discovered that it was all a misunderstanding from beginning to end. The ring was fake, the love letter was fake... Bang! The thought that the love letter was fake suddenly rushed into my mind."

"From that point on, everything became suspicious."

"I remembered that the love letter had more than just the mistake of 'killed' and 'disappeared'. There was another mistake: 'seven days later' and 'the seventh day'."

“I mentioned it to you before. But right after I mentioned it, the letter disappeared. It’s a very strange phenomenon. Now that I think about it, you must have stolen it.”

"If it's a human doing it, I'll definitely notice. But if it's a ghost or monster going through the envelopes in my bag, it's very simple; I won't be able to detect it."

"You realized your mistake and rushed to clean up the evidence... Let me put it more clearly, Chizuko, that love letter was forged by you."

"Evidence? It's simple. Remember Thursday? We were planning to go off-campus to investigate after school, but I was called in for a talk by the teacher and principal. I sent you a message explaining why I was late, and your reply was, 'Okay.' 'Then, the club activity will be postponed to tomorrow.' Hmm, so far, everything is normal."

"However, a few minutes after those two messages, you sent two more: 'Today, Alice will be selling her spring limited-edition strawberry tarts. They're loaded with strawberries. Today is the first day, so if you're 20 minutes late, they might sell out.' And the other one was 'I'm going now.'"

“You hesitated, Chizuko. These two lines shouldn’t take several minutes to type, nor is there any need for you to think about them. You’re hesitating about the wording.”

"Today is the hottest first day... You suddenly forgot which is the correct usage: 'first day' or 'one day later'? It seems silly, even a primary school student can understand this grammar, but people's minds can go haywire when they're nervous. You were worried that I would catch you making a mistake again, so you hesitated for a moment before choosing the correct usage."

"So, at this point I'm pretty sure you wrote this love letter... It's a bit far-fetched, isn't it? Because this is just the first step in raising suspicion."

"The real, decisive basis was discovered by me after conducting my own investigation—"

"Actually, there was no such thing as a 'murder-predicted love letter incident' at all. The real name of that incident a year ago should be called the 'mystery club's paranormal disappearance incident,' right?"

Earth Spider Spring: Earth Spider Spring AFTER4

"After I became suspicious, I conducted my own investigation. I have to thank my friend Hirata Hirokichi, who helped me find out a lot of information."

"The official name for that incident a year ago was the 'Metropolitan XX Middle School Student Disappearance Incident,' but in the rumors at our school, it was called the 'Detective Club Paranormal Disappearance Incident'... The only thing I couldn't find out about was the 'Murder Prediction Love Letter Incident,' and there were no results when I searched online, because it was completely fabricated."

"The Mystery Club Disappearance Case is one of the school's seven mysteries. It tells the story of a mystery club founded a year ago with eight members. However, apart from the club president, Kazamatsuri Chizuko, all the other members disappeared, leaving only the president unharmed... As a result, you became the center of rumors and the object of fear."

"The Spider Woman captured seven members but not you. Perhaps seven puppets were enough, or perhaps your strength was too great for her to touch."

"This good fortune has turned into misfortune."

"Many people believe that you cursed those students. After all, only you were unharmed, and your monster-like constitution gives people a creepy feeling. So they started to fear you and the mystery club. That's why they ignored and bullied you, and that's why I was called in for a talk by the teachers and the principal after I joined the mystery club."

"I only found out about these things after my investigation. In fact, there was no love letter at all in the story of the 'Mystery Club's Supernatural Disappearance Case'."

"The seven victims, Takahiro Uemura, Yoshihiko Arimura, Tetsuji Sugino, Kentaro Yamane, Airi Hirata, Yumiko Ezaki, and Kaori Hino, did not receive any 'murder warning love letters.' Their real commonality is that they were all once members of the mystery club."

"Of course, from your perspective, you are innocent. These seven classmates are all partners who love reasoning as much as you, and they were also the original members who formed this club. You couldn't possibly curse or hurt them... But arguing and explaining are useless in this kind of thing. No one will believe your story."

"You can only make a plan, a plan for revenge. It's not only to avenge these victims and, if possible, to bring them back, but also to avenge yourself. No one can stand being watched like this by the whole school. You have to find the real culprit and make her pay the price for framing you..."

"Take care of the real culprit and bring the truth to light, and the curse surrounding you will naturally be lifted, allowing you to find a place to stay in this school."

"And so, the spider began to weave its web."

"I've been thinking about it ever since. I'm not good at reasoning, nor am I a detective, but even I figured out the truth. Did you really not find out the truth, senior?"

“You made the wrong deduction that the culprit is Tsuchigumo. No, you have a whole year more time to investigate than I have. Even if you don’t understand the Vtuber clue, it doesn’t matter. You know a lot about yokai, and you know Tsuchigumo even more, so you shouldn’t make such a basic mistake.”

"That investigation note is a forgery, and your reasoning is also fabricated. I once admired your investigation note for being so well-written, so interesting and engaging to read, like a detective novel. Now it seems it really is a fabricated novel."

"With the unreasonable abilities of a monster, even a thorough search of Tokyo would be enough to find the culprit within a year. Actually, you found the Spider Woman's lair a long time ago. I don't know the exact time, but it must have been before I enrolled. Although you were eager for revenge and wanted to rescue the trapped classmates, you were unsure of the opponent's strength and dared not rush in. Just then, I enrolled, and you came up with a safe and reliable method."

“There is a Chinese idiom called ‘driving a tiger to devour a wolf,’ or you may have heard of ‘using a borrowed knife to kill someone’ in Sun Tzu’s Art of War. You learned about my past deeds through some unknown channel, and decided to use my power to take revenge. It’s like a spider manipulating two insects, creating a desperate struggle for survival in its web.”

"Before the start of the semester, you forged a survey notebook and a love letter... no, it should be two love letters."

"The content above is all about 'I will kill you in seven days.' Now that I think about it, it shouldn't be a mistake. 'Killing you' sounds much more serious than 'making you disappear.' It can stimulate my sense of crisis more strongly. In addition, you keep emphasizing the danger of this event in my ear. So, under the influence of this, I will definitely develop hostility towards the criminal."

"You probably put the other love letter in the 'spider's nest'."

"The Spider Woman also saw the love letter that said, 'I will kill you in seven days.' For her, who suffers from paranoia, this is a terrible death warrant. She must have been filled with immense fear and anxiety, and immediately thought of eliminating the threat. If I'm not mistaken, this love letter should also be signed with my name. How thoughtful of me."

"So she set her sights on me, and I was made the victim this year."

"This is entirely the result of your scheme and manipulation. You forced me and Spider Woman to stand on opposite sides, using only two love letters."

“When I was captured by Spider Woman, she said, ‘The power of transfer comes from that letter.’ I thought she was referring to the letter I received in the shoe cabinet, but no, she was actually referring to the letter I sent to her, the challenge you sent.”

"At this point, the initial plan has been successfully completed. You used a combination of persuasion and coaxing to pull me into the mystery club, constantly instilling in me the fictional concept of the 'murderous love letter incident,' all to solidify my belief that 'I am the victim, and I must solve the Tsuchigumo case.'"

"Even at this point, you still dare not let your guard down. To ensure the plan is foolproof, you have scouted the location many times in advance."

“You’ve told me many times that your home is far away and that you have a strict upbringing, so you need to go back early. But actually, you have the power of a demon to protect you. With that ghost, which fingerless thug would dare to mess with you? On Thursday, I was called away by the principal for a talk. You seemed to have gone to a dessert shop to eat the spring limited-edition strawberry tart, but actually, that was just a picture posted online by someone else.”

"How do I know? Because I checked. And you ate two strawberry tarts on Friday. No matter what, eating like that two days in a row would make even the best desserts taste cloying."

"Don't say things like 'delicious desserts never get old.' If that's the case, you shouldn't have put blueberries in the fruit served with lunch on Friday; you should have put strawberries in it instead, right? Besides, even though it's the second time you've had strawberry tarts, you acted like you were really excited and enjoying them. That doesn't seem normal at all."

"On Friday, during the off-campus investigation, you deliberately sent me away. It was indeed to test my escape ability and physical fitness, to see if I was as good as the rumors suggested. Although you used me, you didn't want me to get hurt, so you needed to make sure I was really capable of fighting before you could feel at ease. At the same time, you probably didn't stay in Shibuya, but went there again, right?"

"I have no idea what you were doing on Saturday. I'm afraid that you were going to scout the location repeatedly because you were worried about the safety of the hostages, and that the Spider Woman might give up and do something reckless."

"But as I said, even with so much evidence, I still don't want to doubt you, but the one thing... you shouldn't have come to save me."

“You said, ‘There is a mountain boy hiding at my feet.’ Once you said that, I could be sure that my reasoning was true.”

"Because you also said that [the monsters are afraid of me and dare not approach me], just like that ghost Kiku. If it weren't for your order, she would have resisted carrying me through the wall. How could that little mountain child dare to follow me alone? The truth is, you knew from the beginning that I would be teleported there and rushed over immediately."

"I heard that? Yes, it might seem like I was talking to myself to you, but I had just stepped out the door. My hearing is very good, so I remembered what I said."

"These two sentences are completely contradictory, so from that moment on I was certain that you had been using me all along, and that this was all a scheme you set up."

"You are the real spider behind the scenes, Kazamatsuri Chizuko."

Earth Spider Spring: Earth Spider Spring AFTER5

"You said you're not good at reasoning... Actually, you're quite good at reasoning, Asakawa-kun."

Chizuko-senpai finally spoke, wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes with a handkerchief.

"Thanks to your guidance," Asakawa Riku said calmly.

During this month, through Chizuko's introduction, he crammed on a lot of mystery novels, including popular award-winning works as well as obscure and lesser-known ones.

At first, he couldn't come up with such a logically clear conclusion. Over the course of the month, his doubts gradually transformed into sentences.

“Impressive…really impressive, they predicted everything correctly,” Chizuko murmured, looking out the window. “This is what I did.”

The cherry blossom color in her hair gradually faded; it turned out that Asakawa Riku had been talking for a long time, and now it was dark.

The campus was shrouded in night, with an eerie atmosphere that lingered.

And this is the source of all the eerie atmosphere.

XX Middle School, the Mystery Club. Legend has it that anyone who joins this club will involuntarily disappear within seven days.

The seven students from last year are the best proof. They became one of the school's seven wonders, and the most recent, freshest, and most terrifying one at that.

Rumor has it that the president of the mystery club is a girl as beautiful as a doll, expressionless and emotionless, the daughter of a shrine, and possesses a terrifying curse power.

...She's a monster! Some people even said that.

She lured seven students into joining the detective club, then killed them and made them disappear. Many people were convinced of this, and reports were even filed with the school and the police.

In such a collective atmosphere, even the most absurd rumors can become a widely accepted belief.

Thus, an invisible wall was erected, isolating Chizuko from the other students. They would not engage in any real bullying or physical conflict, because this kind of bullying was actually out of fear: if they were to fight back, would they also disappear? So fear made them ignore and run away, and this became the four-sided wall.

If anyone dared to lay a hand on her, Chizuko could retaliate decisively, but this constant setback left her feeling utterly powerless.

No matter where she wanted to escape to, there were walls standing in her way. Her classmates resisted her, and even asking her teachers and the principal for help was futile.

The police naturally ignored this absurd report, but what could the school do? All they could see was that [several members of the mystery club had indeed gone missing].

Even the instructor of the mystery club was forced to be replaced by the vice principal, because no other teacher was willing to take the position.

Therefore, Chizuko had no one to turn to for help, and the four walls shrank her space, ultimately trapping her in this activity room.

This activity room, which appears to have a "door" and can also have a "window," is clean and bright, without any foul odor, and even has a faint fragrance from Chizuko-senpai.

But in reality, this place is no different from the Spider Woman's "nest".

They are all spiders, trapped in their own little world, earth spiders sealed by invisible oppression and hostility.

But they chose different paths.

Spider Woman buried herself in the dark underground, kidnapped seven innocent students, and forced them to become her puppets and costumes. Like a Russian nesting doll, she sealed herself off layer by layer. She appeared to be a victim of persecution, but in reality, she committed heinous crimes.

Chizuko did not choose to give up. She was not content with her current situation and desperately wanted to stand in the sunlight, so she devised this plan.

She wants to avenge herself, avenge the missing members of the mystery club, clear the club of suspicion, and let everyone see the truth.

That's the difference between them.

"This plan is really amazing." Suddenly, Asakawa Riku started to praise her in a business-like manner: "The layout is clear and the steps are progressive. If it weren't for a series of coincidences, I wouldn't have been able to see the intricacies of this web. At that time, I would probably have thought that you were a little angel who helped me cross the street and that you really happened to kindly help me solve this problem."

"...Crossing the street?"

Chizuko was a little confused by this analogy.

Asakawa Riku said, "Actually, if you had explained things clearly to me from the beginning, I probably would have helped you."

"Really?" Chizuko shook her head with a wry smile. "But I heard you haven't made a move in a long time... Didn't you just want to be an ordinary student?"

It seems she knows a lot.

Monsters are really annoying.

Asakawa Riku fell silent. Was she wrong? In truth, he couldn't quite bring himself to refute her.

He's not the meddlesome person he used to be. Didn't he already decide on his desire to "be an ordinary student" on the very first day of school?

If he hadn't been dragged into this, and if Chizuko hadn't orchestrated this, would he really have stepped in to help?

So, Asakawa Riku continued, "Yamawara, you once told me about the 'Yamawara' spirit. They are mountain spirits with great strength. Although they sometimes play pranks, they are friendly to people and help the woodcutters in the mountains carry wood. Afterwards, you can give them rice balls as a reward... It seems that I am just like a Yamawara."

"You've taken advantage of me without my knowledge. The lunch I get every day is just rice balls for the mountain boy."

Chizuko's eyes welled up with tears again as she argued:

"I...I didn't mean that!"

“That’s the truth.” Asakawa Riku said calmly, “The ingenuity of this scheme lies in how cleanly you absolve yourself. You used the conflict between me and the Spider Woman to force us into a fight between the snipe and the clam. All you did was cut off a few of her fingers. Not to mention that it was done by a ghost, you wouldn’t have left any trace.”

He stared at the panicked and bewildered man and smiled: "In that case, even if I call the police, it will be me, the murderer, who gets arrested, not you, right?"

"I...I'm not like that..."

Chizuko had just opened her mouth when she lowered her head again, her short hair falling to her ears as if it were about to be stuck together by tears.

It's like we've gone back to the beginning, when no matter how much we argued, we couldn't clear things up: "I understand, Asakawa-kun, hit me then. If that makes you feel better, treat me like a spider and break my arms and legs..."

The girl huddled in the corner, trembling, seemingly deeply affected by Asakawa Riku's violent actions.

"Playing the victim... If I were to actually do it, I might lose two fingers."

"It's no use, I couldn't speak before Kiku counted to two..."

"Is that so? But I won't do that, senior."

"……Why?"

“If you were a completely bad woman, it would be easy for me to deal with you, but the problem is that you are too complicated, senior.”

Asakawa Riku shook his head: "After the incident ended, I waited for a whole month. During that month, you not only didn't mention it, but you even brought me food as usual and still took me to club activities after school. Logically speaking, I was the only one who could possibly know the truth of the incident. For safety's sake, you should have gotten rid of me too. That would have been the right choice for [Spider]. But you not only didn't get rid of me, you didn't even kick me out of the mystery club."

At the time, Riku Asakawa said he would become a "temporary member" and leave after the term ended, so Chizuko could easily find an excuse to dissolve the relationship.

There was no need to continue delivering lunches, but she continued for another month.

"I don't understand why, senior, why do you continue this relationship? It's clearly unsafe, it doesn't align with Spider's values..."