This Japanese Monogatari Isn't Lame
Chapter 76. The Notebook with Flaws

Chapter 76: Chapter 76. The Notebook with Flaws

Sakura Yuki?

Beichuan Si paused slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he asked with an extraordinarily calm demeanor, "You mean to say, your name is Sakura Yuki?"

He pronounced each word distinctly and clearly, ensuring the female ghost before him could hear clearly.

"Yes... yes," Sakura Yuki nodded gently.

Seeing her expression, Beichuan Si took out his phone again, opened the photo gallery, and compared the face of Sakura Yuki in the photo with the one before him.

Neat and tidy short straight hair, the same scholarly air.

The Sakura Yuki in the photo was not exactly the same as the one in front of him, but they were already eight or nine tenths similar.

After all, the picture on Beichuan Si’s phone was an ID photo, so a slight deviation was understandable.

Could it be that Sakura Yuki was really dead already?

Beichuan Si’s face remained impassive, yet his mind was racing to think through this unexpected result.

This had caught him somewhat off guard.

Because all of Beichuan Si’s previous deductions had been based on the premise "Sakura Yuki is still alive," but now Sakura Yuki was dead. So who was the Sakura Yuki who had been directing Ishikawa Kaoru to kill and commit crimes from the shadows?

The more he investigated, the case seemed to sink deeper still.

Mist...

Everything from that year was still submerged in fog.

Seeing Beichuan Si with his eyebrows tightly furrowed, Sakura Yuki timidly called out, "Um..."

Can I go now?

She couldn’t quite get the words out.

Beichuan Si didn’t leave Sakura Yuki waiting too long before he looked up and asked again,

"Do you know Ishikawa Kaoru?"

Upon hearing Beichuan Si’s question, Sakura Yuki placed her index finger on her lips, pondered for a moment, and said, "Ishikawa Kaoru? Ah... you mean Ishikawa-kun? He’s in Class 2B with me, I do have some recollection of him, I remember him as a rather gloomy person."

Beichuan Si fell silent.

It appeared that the person before him had no problems with her memory and recognized Ishikawa Kaoru.

But...

Beichuan Si was acutely aware.

After hearing the name Ishikawa Kaoru, she only had the recollection that comes with hearing a familiar name, but completely lacked the sentimentality of recalling a ’friend.’

Not even a trace of shock or surprise.

This was highly suspicious.

Given Ishikawa Kaoru’s diary, there was a complicit relationship between Sakura Yuki and him, and Sakura Yuki had even kissed Ishikawa Kaoru. But the Sakura Yuki before him showed no hint of that familial old acquaintance upon hearing the name Ishikawa Kaoru.

Beichuan Si rubbed his fingers together, his gaze subtly brightening.

He entertained a conjecture that was beyond the reach of the ordinary person.

’What if from the start, there were two Sakura Yukis?’

Beichuan Si felt his brain tremble slightly, but his expression grew all the more cool.

He looked up and asked coldly,

"Who was your first kiss?"

Ah?!

Hearing Beichuan Si’s question, Sakura Yuki’s mouth fell open in astonishment, staring incredulously at him. After a long moment, she called out in a mix of embarrassment and anger, "I haven’t had my first kiss yet!"

It was truly strange for her to utter such words.

Because she was now a ghost, she was unable to give away the first kiss she’d preserved for over twenty years.

"You still have your first kiss?" Beichuan Si’s eyes lit up.

"..." Sakura Yuki.

Feeling Beichuan Si’s intense ghost-piercing gaze, Sakura Yuki shrank her neck and clutched her ethereal hands tightly over her mouth, refusing to give her first kiss to this reasonably handsome, poker-faced man—even in death.

But Beichuan Si didn’t care about her small gestures. He simply took Ishikawa Kaoru’s diary out of his pocket.

Sure enough, the words of Sakura Yuki diverged once again from what was written in Ishikawa Kaoru’s diary.

This further confirmed the thought in Beichuan Si’s mind.

Besides the Sakura Yuki in front of him, there had to be another person.

"That..." Sakura Yuki fumbled with her mouth again.

I really want to leave...

"What was your status in the class?" Beichuan Si asked another question.

"Status...?" Sakura Yuki touched her little head and, after a while, replied, "It shouldn’t have been low... I remember I was quite popular in class because I once won a silver award in the youth category of a literature prize. I was the type who, if I suggested to the class where we should go hang out, everyone would agree."

"Then do you remember how you died?" Beichuan Si threw out the last question.

Sakura Yuki’s death must have been related to another ’Sakura Yuki.’ If she remembered how she had died, Beichuan Si wouldn’t have to beat around the bush like this.

"How did I die?"

Upon hearing this, a look of confusion appeared on Sakura Yuki’s elusive face. She couldn’t help but twirl the strands of hair by her ear, lost in thought.

After a long while, Sakura Yuki couldn’t help but look back at Beichuan Si and ask,

"Yeah, how did I die, come to think of it?"

Beichuan Si looked at her expressionlessly.

Sakura Yuki felt like Beichuan Si was looking at her as if she were an idiot.

Err... Not knowing how she died did seem a bit idiotic.

Sakura Yuki coughed awkwardly a couple of times.

But Beichuan Si couldn’t be bothered with her.

He calmly answered with all seriousness, "I don’t know how you died."

Sakura Yuki had no memory of her death...

Beichuan Si shook his head and moved to walk outside.

He had basically asked everything he needed and didn’t plan to stay in the library any longer—he urgently needed a quiet environment to sort through the information he’d received from Sakura Yuki.

From Sakura Yuki’s words, Beichuan Si could also deduce that the Xucha High School fire incident was most certainly carried out by students from Xucha High School.

He guessed that after the perpetrator had killed Sakura Yuki, they then gathered the students of sophomore class B under the guise of Sakura Yuki’s name before setting the place ablaze...

But another question arose quickly.

Ishikawa Kaoru, as a classmate of Sakura Yuki, should have known Sakura Yuki and recognized her.

Yet Ishikawa Kaoru’s notebook repeatedly mentioned Sakura Yuki, though she had no impression of him. The only reasonable explanation was that the identity of ’Sakura Yuki’ had been usurped by the killer.

However, this explanation contradicted the fact that the third party had clearly met with Ishikawa Kaoru.

It wouldn’t make sense for Ishikawa Kaoru to be so foolish as to not even recognize people, would it?

This was also thanks to the Sakura Yuki lurking in the background; otherwise, Beichuan Si would still be utterly confused.

"It’s getting late as well." Beichuan Si glanced at his watch, pondered for a moment, and decided to leave it at that for the day and head home.

Originally, he had planned to visit sophomore class B at Xucha High once more, but now he had gathered enough information. It would be best to organize it well before going to sophomore class B at Xucha High.

But just as Beichuan Si reached the entrance of the library, a figure chased after him from behind.

It was Sakura Yuki!