Composed by Yuki Neco
Sakura and Li sneaked in relativistic theory class instructed by Dr. Ken Matthews that Lumina attended, even in secret to Lumina. Observing her from the backmost seat, the two student detectives could see Lumina was boring. She must have mastered the subject before her entering the university, but she had to attend the class to earn the credit according to the university regulations.
“Hey, look,” Li tapped Sakura on the shoulder and whispered, “A boy is sitting next to her. Is he her boyfriend or something?”
“No, that must be Ted FitzGerald who saved her from the attacker yestrerday,” Sakura whispered. “He wasn’t recognized as a classmate by her before she was attacked. But after that he tags around her.”
“Hmm, that is the guy who saved her, huh...” Li mumbled.
“And look, that professor is awesome,” Sakura said in starry eyes to look at the good-looking Ken Matthews with glossy curly long hair, “I thought scientist was careless of appearance, but I was wrong. He looks terrific like a movie star. I know how Lumina feels for him from the way she talks of him. She must be in love.”
“Okay, it’s good we can see Matthews and FitzGerald at one time,” Li brusquely said, “Let’s go out to get reputations.”
“Uh, Lumina, we just saw Margaret O’Reilly. Is she your friend from high school?” Sakura asked.
“Don’t be stupid!” Lumina shouted, as everybody in the library looked at her with irritated look. Feeling embarrassed, she rolled her eyes twice with a sweatdrop, before taking a deep breath to calm herself down.
“Ah-hem, I am really sorry about that. So resume your reading, please, people.”
“Hmm, sounds disgusting, but she’s like she was brought up in a proper family,” Li ironically whispered.
“Margaret O’Reilly is no friend,” Lumina denied with irritation.
“I don’t totally believe her, but in Margaret’s story you were a miss contest crasher and a vampire that seduces another girls’ boyfriends,” Li said in a whispering voice.
“That was all her misunderstanding,” Lumina denied, “I’m not that naughty girl like she said.” Lumina continued, “That day, three years ago, when I was a junior of high school, Madison and I visited Millington High School Festival. In the festival, Madison told me to participate in the Miss Millinton High Festival Grand Prix.”
“Oh, I know that. Miss Millington High Fetival accepts intramural and extramural entries,” Sakura joined the explanation, “Madison and I visited a year earlier, and she insisted I participate in it.”
“No kidding. Did you participate in it, Sakura?” Lumina asked.
“No, I was embarrassed and said no,” Sakura replied.
“So I could have said no, then,” Lumina mumbled sheepishly.
“Oh, come to think of it, the elected Miss Millington High Festival was Margaret O’Reilly,” Sakura added what she just remembered.
“Yes, she was the queen of Millington High School,” Lumina explained. “She won the championship three years in a row. Plus, she was the chairperson of student council for two years. Literally, the queen of Millington High School.”
“Margaret O’Reilly said that you took her boyfriend when the Miss Millington High Festival Grand Prix was over, and I think it’s her misunderstanding, right?” Sakura asked.
“Of course I didn’t!” Lumina strongly answered. “Actually, a member of the managing council of the Miss Millington High Festival was one of Margaret’s boyfriends.”
“One of...?!” Sakura asked for confirmation.
“Yeah, I definitely think Margaret has plural boyfriends,” Lumina replied. “Anyway, when the Grand Prix was over, the member of the managing council came to the greenroom to see me. He pestered me for my phone number and e-mail addy. Margaret came to see the scene, she thought I seduced him.”
Lumina flashbacked the scene she first met Margaret O’Reilly. That was three years before. She participated in Miss Millington High Festival as an extramural entry, as Madison Taylor’s suggestion. People said it’s rather a rare case for an extramural entry, but Lumina won the third prize. When the Grand Prix was over, she was left in the greenroom alone; then a good-looking boy with keen eyes came in with a knock on the door.
“Oh, you’re here,” the boy with brown straight hair said to Lumina, “You’re Lumina Allison from Hornway High School, right?”
“Yeah, thanks. I’m now leaving here,” Lumina is about to leave the greenroom.
The boy stood in the doorway, saying, “You won the third prize, and it was close. I thought you would win the first prize. Hey, may I exchange phone numbers and e-mail addys, huh?”
“Excuse me, I’m leaving.”
The obnoxious boy pretended not hearing her, and continued, “Blazer, your uniform looks good on you.” He touched her hair, then making her feel chill throughout the spinal cord.
“I’m gonna scream!” she warned him.
He wouldn’t listen and stepped slowly toward her. She snatched a box beside her and threw it. At this time, the door swung open. It was Margaret O’Reilly. Thank God, Lumina thought.
“Hey, who’s still in here?” Margaret stepped in the room, and opened her almond eyes even wider with surprise at her finding.
“What in the world are you doing here?” she shouted.
Yes, thanks, Margaret O’Reilly, Lumina thanked the rescuer at the moment.
“I’m talking to you!” Margaret shouted at Lumina, “Are you seducing my boyfriend?”
“I’m seducing? Can’t you see this state?” Lumina retorted.
“Can it! You’re Lumina Allison from Hornway High School. Hmm, I remember a disgusting girl’s name right away. I don’t like you from the first sight of you.”
“Uh, anyway, whether I was a seducer or not will be uncovered by questioning this kinky fella,” Lumina suggested, but the guy who had approached her was gone.
“Kinky fella... what kind language are you speaking to call my boyfriend? You should be ashamed!” The amber haired girl turned even madder at Lumina’s words, and continued:
“You’re such a naughty girl that seduces the boyfriend from the champion of Miss Millington High Festival. Oh, no wonder, you’re from Horny High School, aren’t you,” Margaeret laughed aloud in a mean attitude.
“Hornway High School!”
“Whatever, I don’t think it’s a good idea to take part in the Miss Queen contest held in another school and look for trouble,” Margaret spat out.
“Oh, well? As you well know, Miss Millington High Festival Gran Prix accepts extramural entries. And this year’s contest includes 8 extramural entries among 17 entries.”
“Oh, you have a nerve to retort me, huh? Between the girls: one who won the first prize, and the other won the third prize at most. Who do you think which one is beautiful, and which one is ugly, little Lumina Allison girl?” Margaret provoked her opponent.
“What? With your burning-red hair and provocative sharp eyes, you can’t be a heroine in a manga. You can be at most a malicious character!” Lumina spoke back.
Everybody must be crazy to have given this stubborn fool the first prize, Lumina thought.
Everybody must be crazy to have given this slut the third prize, Margaret thought.
“Uh, hello, Lumina, wake up,” Sakura called Lumina.
“Uh... I’m sorry, I just remembered one disgusting thing,” Lumina said pressing her hand on the forehead. “Yes, she’s disgusting.”
Li started to talk, “We have investigated and listed up the people who might be related to the matter. Let me report the people we listed so far.” Li began to read the name of the people and their data. Those data are as follows:
Michael Allison is Lumina’s father who is the famous physicist as the author of his guide books to theoretical physics. He tends to hide away to finish his paper or book when the deadline is around the corner. He never told his hiding place to anyone, not even to Lumina. He has been hiding away for a few weeks, and some unusual things began to happen around Lumina almost the same time.
Ken Matthews is new substitute instuctor of theory of relativity and quantum mechanics classes, who was Dr. Allison’s former assistant. In the days as his assistant, he went hiding away with Dr. Allison to finish his paper; however, he doesn’t know about his hiding place this time. So he called Lumina to his office in order to obtain the information about his hiding place. It may be possible that he’s planning to steal Dr. Allison’s research.
“Hey, wait a minute. Are you suspecting Dr. Matthews?” Lumina halted the report, and questioned pointing her finger at Li.
“Calm down, it’s only a possibility,” Sakura explained.
“A good-looker like him can’t be the one who did it,” Lumina said closing her eyes, in the attitude
of a dreaming girl in love.
“Okay, you keep dreaming,” Li said kind of annoyed, and continued.
Ted FitzGerald is a classmate of Lumina’s. But this poor guy wasn’t recognized as a classmate by Lumina until recently. However, he isn’t a shy type; conversely, he started up the paranormal studies club last spring, and gathered members of the club. The club consists of 10 members; within them 7 members are girls. That’s a mystery. We haven’t found any possible motive, but his appearance is timely enough to be suspicious. We have to investigate his club in more detail.
Margaret O’Reilly is Lumina’s rival for feminine attractiveness. She is escorted by some good-looking boys she called boyfriends. But I think they’re just for her ego trip. She was brought up in a wealthy family like Madison Taylor, but she’s arrogant unlike Madison Taylor. It’s possible that she bears a grudge on Lumina since she misunderstood Lumina took her boyfriend three years ago.
Unindentified two guys attacked Lumina when she was on the way to Dr. Matthews’ office. In my opinion, they are just punks—I mean—someone else must be behind. They lured her with fictitious Dr. Matthews’ message and ambushed her; that might imply that they were working under the command of another person than Dr. Matthews.
After looking at Sakura by a glance, Li looked at Lumina when he said, “Among the listed people, we’re interested in your father for our investigation. I mean we need to get a clue of Dr. Allison’s hide-away.”
“So, Lumina, please come with us to Dr. Allison’s laboratory at Krudeland University,” Sakura continued. “With Dr. Allison’s daughter, I think it’s easier for us to get information from his assistant.”
“So do you want me to make an appointment?” Lumina asked.
“No, we gotta visit his laboratory without appointment,” Li answered shaking his head. “And I want to go just right now.”
“Right now?!”
She showed him her student ID to identify herself. Looking into Lumina’s face and the ID to compare, he smiled at her, “Welcome, Lumina. Dr. Allison told me to guide you to his office when you are here.”
“How long has he been out?” Li asked.
“For a few weeks,” the assistant answered, “ah, he just dropped by three days ago.”
The assistant unlocked Dr. Allison’s office and let the three students in. The moment Lumina stepped in, he whispered in her ear, “I’ve got a message: the key to the truth lies on the foundamental forces of the universe.”
“Huh?” Lumina turned back.
“You will find out, Dr. Allison said that,” the assistant replied smiling.
“Dr. Allison left some clue in this room, didn’t he?” Sakura said.
“Positively,” Li said, “that’s why he left his assistant a message so Lumina can find the clue.”
“Oh, no!” Lumina gasped.
“What’s the matter?” Sakura asked turning to the blond-haired girl.
“Someone else than Dad was in the room before us,” Lumina said trembling in fear.
“How’d you know?” Li asked.
“The pencil stand is on the right corner of the desk. But my Dad is left-handed; it’s quite strange,” she answered with her eyes widely opened.
“It must be the attacker. They must have tried to look for something in this room. I hope they didn’t find anything,” Li mumbled.
“Look!” Sakura pointed the desk drawer with four dials on it. Each dial had roman alphabets on it instead of numerals.
“This must be the key to something important Dad is hiding,” Lumina said excitedly, “but talking about the patterns written with four arbitrary alphabets, the number of possible permutations is 26 to the four, that is equal to... 450,000! It would take about a month to try and check all the patterns without any rest, assuming a check of one pattern needs five seconds.”
“The key to the truth lied on the fundamental forces may be the clue to unlock the drawer,” Sakura straightly looked at the dials, “fundamental forces like, wind, water, fire, and earth.”
“Good guess, Sakura. But Dr. Allison is an expert of modern physics,” Li continued, “So it must be, strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and gravitation.”
“Yes, Li. I think the same,” Lumina agreed.
“Umm, what’s it all about?” Sakura asked in a puzzled look.
“Universe is ruled by the four fundamental forces: strong nucluear force bonds protons and neutrons together to form atomic nuclei like carbon and oxygen. Weak nuclear force triggers radioactive decay. Electromagnetic force is the force of electricity and magnet. Gravitation is the force acting between an apple and the earth, academincally identified by Issac Newton,” Lumina explained.
She continued, “So the dial must be arranged with S-W-E-G. The number of possible permutations is 24.”
“So, we gotta try 24 patterns until it’s unlocked at the worst case?” Li asked with a sigh.
“You’re right, but it’s much easier than 450,000 patterns,” Lumina said in an affected manner.
“But we gotta do if it’s the only way,” Sakura encouraged Li.
“Don’t worry. Actually, I’ve got an idea,” Lumina confessed teasingly with a grin. “Try, S-E-W-G in this order.”
Li spun the dial to set the key as the blond-long-haired girl said.
“It doesn’t work,” he shook his head.
“Then, try G-S-W-E.”
Li spun the dial to set the key, and there was a click inside.
“It worked!” Li and Sakura exclaimed. The drawer opened.
“How’d you know the right alignment?” Sakura asked Lumina with the starry eyes.
“It’s the chronological order of emergence in the early universe,” she answered.
Inside the drawer was a piece of paper and an SD memory card. The paper was written with the following message:
Good job, Lumina, you found this.
My seclusion has induced a bad thing I didn't even expect.
I didn't mean to drive you to a dangerous state, but I know
someone is after you. I am really sorry, my sweetheart.
You have to take this SD memory card, and always keep it with you.
You'll find a way to contact me soon.
“Not just a coincidence,” Lumina mumbled hopelessly when she took the SD memory card. “Dad’s seclusion is the cause of the weird things that have been happening.”
“Look at the bright side, Lumina,” Sakura encouraged the girl, “good of us to be here. Now you grab the clue of the truth.”
“She’s right,” Li added, “even though you’re in danger, we’re here to help you. Don’t be afraid.”