Editing A Simple Survey:Volume1 End4 (section)

===Part 1===

“Oh, you got similar results to me. I guess strange things do happen sometimes,” said the girl with the 21st century name of Aisu.

Before Anzai could say anything in response, Harumi stuck her hand into the air and said, “That was completely different from me.”

“It was nothing like mine either,” said Kozue.

“Can’t we talk about this after we get to the coffee shop? They like to close up if they get a chance, so we need to hurry,” said Hotaru.

And so they left the auditorium.

The campus coffee shop was part of an international chain, but it was famous for ignoring its official hours and closing up early.

“Oh, have you heard the rumors about the secret menu there?”

“I thought that was nothing more than the manager failing at making an espresso and trying to pass it off as some secret drink.”

“…Huh?” said Anzai.

He stuck his hands in his pockets, and then checked in his small bag.

It was not there.

“Did I leave my cell phone somewhere?”

“Is it in the auditorium, perhaps?” asked Aisu, but Anzai shook his head.

“No, I don’t remember looking at it during the survey. …Maybe it’s in the lecture hall.”

“Can you search for it using GPS?”

“I’ve turned off all the tracking functions. Those kinds of things scare me.”

“You sound like a virgin girl,” commented Harumi.

Anzai scratched at his head and said, “I’m gonna go check the school building. Sorry, but I’ll have to skip out on the coffee shop.”

“Eh?”

“Harumi, given the circumstances, we can’t stop him.”

“I think I should help him.”

“Oh, dear. Having him walking through the dark with just Kozue would put him in too much danger, so I think I should go too.”

Anzai wanted to deal with the cell phone problem as soon as possible, so he gave a casual goodbye to the girls and left. He walked down the chilly and almost entirely pitch black path. Normally, it might have seemed a bit creepy, but the pressing realistic concern swept anything of that sort away.

He then heard a voice from behind him.

“Hey, wait up!”

“?”

He turned around to find the (tanned) cabaret club girl named Aisu jogging up from behind. And Kozue was with her.

“What?”

“Kozue’s kind heart (with an ulterior motive hidden below) would not let her relax, so just let us help out.”

“That is not true.” Kozue seemed a bit sullen. “And I would like for you to stop using me as cushioning to soften the blow whenever something makes you embarrassed.”

“Mgh!? Wh-what are you talking about!? Ga ha ha!!”

“Whenever that cushioning habit of yours shows itself, the level of danger you attribute to me shoots up without end! The people hanging around me might be public safety officials!”

“Oh, but it is true that you follow people around, Kozu-…Gyah gyah gyah!?”

Aisu let out a static-like scream when Kozue used her small hands to dishevel the cabaret club girl’s hair.

“I see. So why are ''you'' here?” Anzai asked Aisu.

“Hm? I just don’t often get a chance to enter a liberal arts building.”

“No fair! You always take the cool answer for yourself!”

“Stop, stop!! A-anyway, it was just curiosity. Ha ha ha!!”

That must have meant Aisu was in the sciences. Despite looking like a cabaret club girl. But she would have looked out of places in liberal arts as well.

“Surprised?”

“I guess…” said Anzai noncommittally. “Hotaru…-san was it? The tall one with the black hair. She’s the one I would have assumed was in the sciences.”

“Despite how she looks, Hotaru is quite the romanticist. Her major is French literature.”

“Now, that’s surprising.”

“Yes, she would look more at home creating artificial humans in some creepy lab.”

The way they could say such horrible things so casually likely meant they had either known each other a long time or knew each other really well.

“Harumi and Hotaru went on to the coffee shop. If they did not grab a table, the manager really would close up. Let’s find your phone and get back so we can talk.”

“Eh? We’re still doing the coffee shop?”

As they spoke, Anzai and the two girls entered the university building. Since graduate students would sleep over year round, the door was not locked and a smattering of rooms had the lights on.

“By the way, what is your major?” asked Aisu.

“Sociology. But I’m a freshman, so I’m still taking nothing but general education.”

“You’re a freshman?”

“It took two years before I made it into the university.”

“General education courses, hm? When I first got here, I was surprised to find you had to take a physical education class. Putting on a track suit and running long distance is not what I would call intelligent.”

“Kozue, do not get angry at running just because you have nothing that bounces as you run.”

“It is not intelligent.”

No one was in the lecture hall, but it was not locked. After a short search of the room, Anzai found his cell phone almost too easily. It had fallen below the desk he had been in.

“That is a relief.”

“How about you check the log? You want to make sure no one suspicious entered the passcode.”

Anzai used his thumb to check on some things, but there was no sign of anyone having messed with it.

“Looks fine.”

“Then I will email Harumi and Hotaru to tell them we are on our way.”

“Come to think of it,” muttered Anzai as they walked back out into the hallway. “Maybe we should report to the office that the auditorium is unlocked. That professor just went off somewhere without dealing with it.”

“It is nearby, so we can easily stop by.”

“The way he gathered the surveys and then disappeared makes me think of the black code stories.”

At any university that was even slightly well known, rumors of that sort would spread. Things like a leading earthquake researcher suddenly disappearing. This university was no exception. It was possible that referring to it as “that university” would be enough for anyone in Japan to know which university you were talking about.

As Aisu typed out the email with her thumb, she said, “Yes, I have heard the story. There are over 1000 reports submitted each year here, but the story goes that there is a shelf filled with the few ones that have contents simply too dangerous to reveal to the general public.”

“I have heard that one such report contains data taken while investigating the truth behind a certain mysterious killer bacteria,” said Kozue.

“What I heard was that a professor half-jokingly added the question ‘have you ever stabbed someone?’ into a survey he gave his students. He got some unthinkable results and was never seen afterwards,” said Anzai.

While speaking, they had arrived before the office. They could see light coming from around the door, so there must have been at least one worker still there.

Anzai gave a light knock and then entered. When they spoke with the middle-aged woman working there, she frowned and said, “But we never gave authorization to use the auditorium tonight.”