A Deadly Class Relationship? (Makoto Naegi x Male Reader)

Chap. 1 Class Trial Part 4

"I found a notepad during my search," Kyoko admitted after a minute of silence, "and I shaded in the top sheet with a pencil. And these are the words that appeared."

"Oh man," Hina said in surprise, "I've totally seen people do that on detective shows! When you write, it can leave an imprint. Sketch over the next sheet of paper, and you can see the words! When I saw that, I was like, " Holy crap! I better make sure I rip the paper out before I use it from now on!"."

"It's a pretty old fashioned technique, but even the classics can be surprisingly useful sometimes. Oh, and I should also mention . . . I found the notepad on the desk in Makoto's room."

"Huh?" Makoto repeated, his voice filled with the same amount of shock.

"Which means," Kyoko continued to explain, "only someone who had been in Makoto's room before the incident could have written it."

Byakuya pushed up his glasses. "Then either it was Makoto, who lived there, or Sayaka, who switched rooms for a single night. . . ."

"So, Makoto . . ." Kyoko started, looking at said boy now, "did you write this?"

"N-No," Makoto stuttered, "I didn't. But-"

"Of course you didn't," she interrupted. "Because the note also bears a perfectly legible signature -- Sayaka's signature." So she really did write the note? What for?

"B-But why?" Makoto asked. "Why would she write that?"

"The note was likely her way of getting in touch with a certain someone. She must have slid it under their door to let them know she wanted to meet them in secret."

"If you got an invitation like that from the Ultimate Pop Sensation," Hifumi started, now sweating a little, "what young man could resist?" He then confidently placed his hands on his hips. "Of course, I'm only into 2D so it wouldn't have any effect on me!"

". . . But can we be sure anyone even got this note?" Celeste asked. "And honestly, even if they did, I do not think they are at all involved in what happened."

"Huh?" Chihiro gasped. "What makes you say that?"

"Hmhm. . . ." Celeste interlocked her finger and placed them under her chin, as if she were holding her head up. "Would you like to hear what I have to say? Very well then. Pay attention!

"Sayaka and Makoto switched rooms, correct? But in the note, the place they were asked to come to. . . . It specifically says, "my" room."

Chihiro nodded. "I see. . . . So if someone read that note . . . then they would have gone to Sayaka's room!"

"Exactly. The room that Makoto was staying in."

"The nameplates on my and Sayaka's rooms got switched." Makoto interrupted quickly.

Celeste looked shocked. "They got . . . switched?"

"That's right," Kyoko began. "The nameplates got switched, just like the rooms themselves. As a result, the nameplate on Sayaka's room actually had Makoto's name. And the name on Makoto's room had Sayaka's."  She showed a picture of the two doors belonging to Makoto and Sayaka for reference. The door on the right had Sayaka's nameplate and the door on the left had Makoto's.

"So what you're saying is," Byakuya started to summarize, "the room Sayaka was staying in, was actually marked as her room."

"Then . . ." Chihiro jumped in, "if someone *did* do what the note said, they would end up at Makoto's room, where Sayaka was. . . ."

Kyoko nodded with a hand on her chin. "Plus, their rooms are right next to each other. So switching the nameplates would be no problem. And the one who switched the names was. . . ." She glanced at Makoto. "Well of course it wasn't you, right Makoto?"