Disclaimer: I do not own Love Live! School Idol Project (nor do I own Tantei Opera Milky Holmes, just in case people wonder)
As you might tell from the title, my inspiration comes from Milky Holmes, particularly its Extra Classes, a hilarious series featuring the Milky Holmes seiyuus. Enjoy!
The beloved summer vacation had just begun for Otonokizaka Academy. Instead of enjoying a temporary escape from the hectic school days, Nico Yazawa had to attend remedial math classes at school as her grades were hovering over the passing margin. After the two-hour battle with trigonometry and lethargy, Nico strode towards the club activity room to prepare for another private war. She sat before the computer, crossed her fingers and mentally worked out the tactics for the upcoming fierce competition – getting a ticket for A-RISE's Summer Live, which would be available for sale on the Internet from noon. She knew well how fervent A-RISERS - herself included, had been. The tickets for A-RISE's previous live performance had been sold out in ten minutes (including a few minutes of server congestion) after they had become available. Using the fastest internet connection available (with the computer in her club activity room), the "F5 law of rapid refreshing" and the simplest payment method, she had barely managed to get a seat close enough to clearly see the trio's faces. Despite her panic, she had some confidence in buying a ticket with her years of experience in ticket wars. Besides, buying a single ticket involved fewer difficulties than buying tickets for consecutive seats. It was an advantage for people who watched live performances alone.
Assuming success, Nico had never envisaged the situation she got into – she could not log into the computer with the usual password. After a few failed attempts, she hammered the keyboard with frustration. Calming down a little, she fondled the keyboard and apologized to it. Nico wondered if some other μ's members had changed the password, so she asked via their LINE chat group. None had idea, and some said it might be a technical problem. Seconds and seconds were slipping away and Nico knew she ought to have internet access in an hour.
Nico considered the alternatives. According to her knowledge, there were two old computers in the library, yet the only browser they provided was Internet Explorer. Nico had never hoped so desperately that the school could get richer. She then estimated that if she left immediately, she could arrive at the nearest Internet café in twenty minutes, but internet transactions on public computers involved some security risks. Hence, Nico concluded that fixing her computer was the best available solution. Knowing there were always some student council members around, she decided to seek some technical help. A second-year student was the only person she found in the student council room.
"Good morning, Yazawa-senpai!" the shorthaired girl greeted. "Can I help you?"
"There's a technical issue with the computer in my club activity room." Nico explained, trying her best to inform in a calm tone. "I couldn't login the computer despite entering the correct password multiple times."
"Well…" the short-haired girl replied. "I'm not an expert in computers but I can certainly come and take a look at your problem."
"Thank you so much! You are… Mitsuki Tachibana-san, right?"
"Yes, I am! I'm glad you remembered me!"
They went to the Idol Research Club room and checked the computer. Nico first entered the usual password "niconiconii" but it still didn't get her to the loading page. Mitsuki then tried by entering the standard password for school-owned computers. Login failed. She then entered "idolresearchclub". Login failed, so she tried "muse". Same result. She made a few more attempts – "password", "123", "otonokizaka", "alpaca", "dumplings", "yuri", but did not succeed in logging in.
"I've tried the most typical passwords including those that follow the standard format. So I suppose it's not any staff who has changed the password on this computer."
Hearing Mitsuki's deduction, Nico pondered with a frown.
"Yazawa-senpai, when did you last log into the computer with the original password?"
"The day before yesterday," Nico answered, "and it was the last time I had access to this computer."
"Ah." Mitsuki took out a barely observable post-it from underneath the monitor. "Would it be a note for the new password?"
She gave Nico the post-it. It wrote, "Until you get better grades~".
"What? It basically means forever… Argh, you got to be kidding me… You're killing me!" Nico exclaimed in a slightly tremulous voice that carried anger and anxiety. "Who the hell did this? Out of all opportunities… why do it when I'm going to do some super important business!" Nico sat on the floor hopelessly and muttered in an about-to-cry tone. "Damn, this is the only computer I can use… Please don't go, Tsubasa, Anju, Erena…"
Mitsuki hesitated for a moment and attempted to soothe Nico by stroking her back. Nico noticed the tiny words at the bottom of the post – "or if you could find the password~ \(^_^)/".
Nico jumped up with the urge to tear the post-it into pieces at the very moment, but Mitsuki took the post-it and flipped it over.
"Look." She said to the furious Nico in a calm tone.
The back of the post-it wrote, "The twelve shards of the key are scattered all over the campus. To begin the detective journey, the written guidance has to be found."
"What is this? I don't get it!" Nico exclaimed.
"I'm not sure what's going on but it seems trou- complicated." Mitsuki said. "Hmm… I guess it implies that the guidance is at the starting point?"
"Starting point… The post-it is found here, so I guess the room is the starting point?" Nico deduced. "Maybe we should look around."
While they were searching around, someone opened the door.
"Good morning." Umi greeted politely as she closed the door. She was bearing her bow carrier on a shoulder, apparently having had kyuudo practice. "Oh, Tachibana-san, I didn't expect to see you here."
Mitsuki approached Umi and hung an arm over her shoulders.
"Umi-chan, good afternoon~" she spoke in a slightly-more-than-friendly tone. "I'm also happily surprised to see you here~"
Umi stood awkwardly with facial expressions rapidly adjusting.
"Nico, is the problem solved?" Umi asked in a calm tone, ignoring Mitsuki's display of fondness.
Nico observed Umi for a while. She could tell the well-mannered Umi was neither the actress type nor a liar. So apparently, she was innocent.
"No, I got into trouble." Nico said. "A wicked prank…"
Umi escaped from Mitsuki's arm and approached Nico. She scanned the post-it and spoke to Nico.
"Although it's not very appropriate to make unauthorized changes to a club-owned property, I appreciate the person's motive."
"Umi, obviously she has a bad intention! Or else why would there be a way to 'find' the password by searching around! I don't know who exactly did this, but among people I know, only Nozomi could be this keen on pranking… Wait." Nico turned to Mitsuki. "Is she on campus?"
"Um… no, I don't see her around." Mitsuki replied. "She's probably having a date with Eli-senpai elsewhere."
"I already knew this woman…" Nico clenched her fists and muttered with a dark aura walling about her. She then slapped the post-it onto the table and declared. "Wait and see, Nozomi… I'm gonna find the password, crush your conspiracy and get a ticket to A-RISE's Summer Live!"
"Had there been a curtain covering the door glass?" Umi pointed out, staring at the unfamiliar cream-colored cloth on the side door.
Nico quickly lifted the thin cloth, but all she saw was the door glass through which she could look into the other side of the club activity room. She then noticed some words on the revealed side of the cloth. Since it was attached to the glass with plastic tapes, Nico pulled it out at ease. The cloth appeared to be the "written guidance" the post-it was talking about. It wrote, in marker pen:
"The magic wand is asleep at the standing green fountain.
Obtain it to gain the detective magic power!
Where the fluffy couple resides is protected by a magic barrier.
Read the enchantment to recruit the primary trio.
On the aerial territory rests a small piece of condensed cloud.
Only when it rained could the clue be revealed.
The final pieces of the key lie in the unstable bridge of darkness and light.
Its beautiful spell shall tell you the answer~"
"I understand every single word but I've absolutely no clue what the whole thing's about…" Nico stated with her eyes rapidly blinking and her hands shivering.
"What does it say?" Mitsuki leaned close to Nico and read the cloth. "Um… I believe this… is supposed to be understandable."
Umi also read the content thoroughly and brainstormed.
"The 'fluffy couple' reminds me of the alpacas we keep." Umi said. "The guidance seems to suggest different places on campus."
The other two were enlightened.
"Okay, I've no idea what the others are. Maybe I should check the alpaca shelter out first." Nico said and strode towards the door.
"Nico." Umi spoke. "I'm going with you."
"Umi? But that's my business, you don't have to…" Nico's voice tailed off as she saw the worry and determination in Umi's eyes.
"I'm in." Mitsuki added. "Although it's not exactly what the student council is responsible for, I would be happy to help my schoolmates."
"Thanks…" Nico muttered with eyes looking away.
"The clue story is a fascinating mystery!" Umi lifted her ardent eyes from the instruction cloth and said enthusiastically. "I feel the urge to unveil it!"
"You really love challenges don't you…" Nico remarked with a facepalm.
The three "detectives" first investigated the alpaca shelter. It seemed as usual where the white alpaca was staring with gleaming eyes at the three curiously while the brown one was hiding behind with a "grumpy" face. The trio thought the "magic barrier" was referring to the fence so they observed it, and soon they found some unobvious colored strips tied onto the vertical wooden bars.
"So which of these knots could the 'primary trio' be referring to?" Nico wondered.
"Let's see… there are red, yellow, green, blue and white knots." Mitsuki pointed out. "There seem to be more red ones."
Umi counted the number of knots.
"There are a total of eighteen knots."
The three began digesting the new information. Nico then counted the number of knots for each color.
"Seven red, six yellow, two green, two blue and a white."
Umi kept on whispering "primary trio" while Mitsuki remained staring at the fence.
"What of these could be related to 'trio'?" Nico wondered. "What sort of things does? A-RISE? Perfume? The three teams in AKB? The first, second and third-year trios in μ's? The three colors of our ribbons…" an idea flashed in her mind. "Blue Red and Green?"
"Color!" Umi was also inspired. "The 'primary trio' might be an implication of the primary colors!"
"Hey, sounds right! So it means we only need to count those!"
"There are two blue, seven red and two green." Nico said. "The order of the three primary colors is RGB right?"
"Yes, it is."
"Yay!" Nico took her notebook out and jotted down the three numbers with "RGB" written below. "It does seem like a component of a computer password to me… Aaah!"
Nico was shocked to find the white alpaca's face a few inches from hers when she lifted her head from the notebook. The girls sensed without seeing the brown alpaca's eyes that it was glaring at them.
"Per… perhaps we are disturbing them." Umi uttered.
"We - whoa! We should go..." Nico backed a few steps to dodge the alpaca's kiss and said. "Oh right, the knots!"
With a mixed feeling that involved courtesy and fear they hurriedly removed the strips from the fence and fled. As they searched around, they wondered since when there had been any fountain around.
"A 'standing fountain' sounds an oxymoron." Umi said. "If a fountain is supposed to depict the dynamic rise and fall of a water pillar, would a 'standing fountain' be a motionless fountain, perhaps a frozen fountain? Yet if so the 'greenness' remains unjustified."
"It's summer." Nico countered.
"Could it be some sort of chemical substances?" Mitsuki suggested, clinging onto Umi's arm.
"It might be easier for us to think outside the box if we tried to look at the three words individually." Umi advised while subconsciously moving away from Mitsuki. "We can first consider the 'standing' things there are around."
"People?"
"Buildings?"
"Chairs? Tables?"
"Doors? Gates?"
They could not come up with an agreeable answer.
"Things that are 'green'?"
"Plants."
"Third-years' ribbon."
"Blackboard."
"Hanayo."
"Leaves."
"That's similar to 'plants' -"
"Wait."
The two looked at Umi who seemed to have some thought.
"Water falls from the optimum height of a fountain. Leaves fall from trees." Umi described.
A thought struck Umi and she dragged the two to the oldest tree on campus –where the μ's members often gathered for lunch or filming.
"Its shape – the rising trunk with branches and leaves stretching outwards… does resemble a fountain metaphorically." Umi explained with a contented face, feeling successful for figuring out the seemingly nonsensical clue.
They then found an envelope that wrote "To Idol Research Club" (crossed out with pen) and "Magic Wand" lying on the concrete surface. Nico was confused and amazed, at both the designer of the instruction and Umi who could guess it right. The dumbfounded girls credited insanity for Umi's success. Nico opened the envelope to find a short sharpened pencil.
"She was overestimating my imagination…" Nico mumbled as she stared at the "magic wand".
They sat and discussed their next step. To the trio, "aerial territory" and the "unstable bridge of darkness and light" didn't sound anything like things that exist on campus, but using the brainstorming method Umi recommended, the statement might turn out to be logical like the "fountain" did. Unfortunately, they couldn't come up with any plausible answer.
"We should try another approach." Nico proposed. "Since it's probably Nozomi who created all the fuss, I guess the places she has chosen are places she's been familiar with."
"Sounds reasonable." Mitsuki approved.
Nico looked around nervously and mumbled with a frown. "Somehow I have this creepy feeling that we're being watched... Anyways, I guess when she has made so much effort in preparing the game, she's probably not trying to make me lose. She could just change the password, give me no clue and make me beg her for computer use. That would be much easier and effective, wouldn't it? If it's not merely a prank, what exactly is she scheming?"
Umi listened to Nico's analysis and observed her serious expression. She smiled upon learning about the logical and clever side of the childlike senior.
"Humph, never mind, there's no way I'm gonna give up anyway." Nico stated with determined eyes. "I'll win the game."
"We will." Umi looked at Nico with a pair of gentle eyes and said to her in a supportive tone.
Smiling, Nico raised a fist to her chest level and pointed it at Umi. Seeing Umi's puzzled expression, Nico's put down her fist out of awkwardness.
"I thought people who do sports should know about fist bumps, but yeah, kyuudo is a traditional sport after all." Nico shyly darted her stare around and began her explanation. "Fist bump is like… a form of handshaking with fists instead of palms. It's hard to explain to you what it exactly means… but it's a friendly gesture... So you know what I mean."
Nico stared and pointed her friendly fist at Umi. The latter smiled knowingly and gently touched the smaller fist with her own. Nico chuckled lightly upon the fist bump and turned to Mitsuki. Exchanging a friendly smile, they also did a fist bump. Mitsuki found herself experiencing an unexpected flash of coyness. She could not identify the source of her shyness, but she knew she had enjoyed observing the other two. The idols' interaction reminded her of that between her fellow student council members – the president and the vice-president, which was one of her favorite observations. Suddenly remembering the investigation, she led the other two back to the topic.
"Well... are we going somewhere?"
"We got to find the mid-air floor!" Nico instructed.
"It wrote 'aerial territory'." Umi reminded.
"Oops, my bad, I was confused." Nico replied with a pout. "Wait, 'mid-air floor'?"
The two second-years stared at their senior while the latter was brainstorming. Nico turned to the two.
"That place!"
Author's note: In case you're wondering, Mitsuki Tachibana is not an OC, she appears and has a few lines in S1 Ep8 of the Love Live anime as "Student A". This name I created for the character is merely an inspiration from her seiyuu's name. So that particular seiyuu who made me feature this nameless character in the story was Izumi Kitta, who voiced Cordelia (one of the protagonists) in Milky Holmes. Congrats if you already knew it! *highfive* You're on the way to becoming a detective! (Levels can range from Milky Holmes' to Sherlock Holmes')