Blades of Despair

-Chapter Sixty-One-

Yoneda's Clue

(This chapter is told from Ori's perspective)

Nishi, Mina and I had been in Yoneda's dormitory for some time, reading through his folder for any information about the three numbers that were in his note: eleven, thirty and seven. What could those numbers mean? What significance did they have for the crime that was committed? Did they even have anything to do with Yoneda's murder? The three entries in his folder that corresponded to these numbers had not contained any information pertinent to anything we had discussed or learned during the first investigation, nor the class trial.

"Have you guys found anything?" I asked for the umpteenth time, not even bothering to look up from the stack of pages I was holding in my hands. We had each taken a third of the papers inside Yoneda's file and resolved to read independently, which was now the task that occupied all three of us.

"No," Mina admitted miserably, "I've found nothing!"

"I hate to be the bearer of further bad news, but I've also not found anything about those numbers," Nishi added, brushing his long hair behind his broad shoulders. I groaned, slamming the papers down in my lap.

"I'm just reading the same thing over and over again," I cried, startling the other two. "How is nothing here important? Are we missing something?"

"What could those numbers even signify, even if we were to find something in these files?" Nishi pondered aloud. "I first thought that they might be a code, but for what?"

"I've read all of my papers," Mina said. "And there was no mention of codology or cryptology in there, so I don't think it was a code."

"However, Yoneda did solve both of those codes we found that the Ultimate Cryptologist wrote, albeit with Morino's help," Nishi reminded us. "Those numbers could mean something that we aren't thinking of."

"But how can we think of something we can't think of?" Mina persisted awkwardly.

"I'm not sure," I said, "but we have to. Our lives are at stake. However, I wonder if..."

"Ori?"

"It's just... something doesn't add up. Why did Yoneda even write those numbers down?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" Nishi asked.

"Yoneda was very intelligent, and we know from experience that he can commit large portions of text to memory - I suppose that's a skill you acquire when you're the Ultimate Polyglot."

"Oh, I see!" Mina exclaimed. "If his information recollection was so good, why did he feel the need to write those three numbers specifically?"

"Exactly! There must have been a purpose to that note."

"Perhaps he was going to give it to someone," Nishi offered. I contemplated the idea, but then I shook my head.

"Yoneda didn't want anything to do with us, and we didn't trust him. I doubt very much that we would have paid attention to him if he tried to give us a scrap of paper with three numbers written on it. No, there was a reason he kept that note on his person and didn't tell us."

"You don't think... No, that can't be right," Nishi shook his head fervently, but I asked him to tell us what he was thinking. "It's just, when I was helping Yoneda to make that fire, he said something that I found odd. He knew that you guys would come after him that morning, which is why his plan was almost successful. Do you think it's possible that Yoneda knew that at some point his life would be taken still, and he planted that note on himself for us to find in the event of his death?"