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Spoiler Courtesy
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Trigger Warnings
Summary of trigger warnings
Discussion of topics including:
Bullying
Suicide
Abortion
Proper Nouns
Will be added to throughout the book.
Name
Reading
Notes
波多 野祥吾
はたの しょうご
Narrator of Part 1 - one of the 6 candidates
嶌 衣織
しま いおり
One of the 6 candidates - Narrator of Part 2
九賀 蒼太
くが そうた
One of the 6 candidates
袴田 亮
はかまだ りょう
One of the 6 candidates
矢代 つばさ
やしろ つばさ
One of the 6 candidates
森久保 公彦
もりくぼ きみひこ
One of the 6 candidates
鴻上 達章
こうがみ たつあき
Hiring Manager
相楽 ハルキ
さがら はるき
Famous singer
波多野 芳恵
はたの よしえ
Younger sister of 祥吾
鈴江 真希
すずえ まき
Employee at スピラリンクス in Part 2
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Finished! Not sure this half of this chapter was as good as the first one, although still good.
Thoughts
Although really? They have 嶌 wondering what the password could be, and then following that up by drinking Jasmine Tea immediately, and then not entering it! I swear this happened last week as well.
Anyway, in more important matters, we have evidence that the photo taking timeline wasn’t what it seemed! And to top it all off, 嶌 seems to have uncovered the mystery! Of course, the rest of us mortals might not find that out till next week, but still. I’m hoping this time it might actually be the real discovery, but then, there’s still quite a lot of space left to go in the book, so there’ll be more after that as well I’m sure.
That leaves the question - who is the criminal? Surely all signs point to it being 袴田, with the other 3 having been apparently threatened into manipulating the timeline. It might be all too simple, but maybe 嶌 uncovered what conclusively shows it’s him?
Finished too ! I agree that it wasn’t as good as last week, mainly because this was dragging a lot. The same amount of info could have been written in 2/3rd of this week’s text length….
Thoughts
There is NO way the password isn’t « Jasmine Tea ». Not only what you said but I lost count of how many occurrences of ジャスミンティー there are in this section (Kindle to the rescue : there are 5. Within 26 pages….)
As for the photo : this could go both way. The obvious explanation as to why the culprit didn’t chose the first picture is that they are somehow in the background. How big are those walking groups ? Is it possible that 波多野 met someone from Spira/the recruitees before and didn’t realise it ? Also, you’d have to be very knowledgeable about 波多野’s past life to know precisely where to look for that picture ! Or, maybe whoever set up the site is the culprit ? I guess that would point to 森久保. Or…. 波多野 really is the culprit… because realistically he would be the most obvious person to know about that particular incident.
Loved the part where Shima thinks about how she dealt with this unpleasant matter the same way she does with condiments over the best-before date - by ignoring it until it’s at the point where it has to be dealth with. Relatable. a
The culprit’s method of giving instructions by putting little cards in the envelopes seems super risky. If I were in the situation where you have to open one of those letters, my first reflex would have been to take everything out and put it on the table.
Only 5? It felt like 20 By the end of this chapter, I wanted to poke her and tell her to enter the bloody password already.
Speaking of things that get mentioned with suspicious frequency (ok, twice), I wonder if the application forms still hold a clue. Particularly Hatano’s because it’s the only one Shima hasn’t read yet.
Either that, or the culprit took the picture themselves and still had it, so they didn’t even have to check the website. Either way, it seems worth taking a closer look at the member list of the hiking club to see if there are any familiar names on it.
If it was him, I still don’t understand why he self-sabotaged so badly. Except, of course, in some ways he doesn’t seem to be the brightest candle on the cake.
There’s something that doesn’t add up in the whole scheme : 波多野 gets designated as the culprit, and loses his chance at a job with Spira. He then goes on to (we now know) an equally prestigious job at another IT firm. He gets sick and, presumably, decides to get to the bottom of the story. He finds out who the culprit is… if it’s 嶌, and he really only does this for his own sake, why does he leave the envelope at his parent’s place ? After all, he knows very well where 嶌 works. He could either send her directly the material, or keep it for himself.
As for the envelope, it’s adressed 「犯人、嶌衣織さんへ」…
Here’s my theory : the envelope is adressed to 嶌 AND to the culprit (it could have been labeled 犯人の嶌衣織さんへ otherwise), or to 嶌 to explain to her who the culprit was; after all, if the culprit isn’t 嶌, 波多野 may not know where to find them. If so, the password isn’t ジャスミンティー and we, poor readers, are once again the victims in a game of misdirection. My guess if this theory is correct : the password is フェア, and the culprit is 九賀 ! Also supporting this : in this week’s reading, 嶌 says that she can’t really see if 九賀 has a second slip of paper in his envelope, so we can’t really be sure he was threatened into agreeing on the timeline
There’s a lot about this that doesn’t add but, but since so many reviewers mentioned that they didn’t find the conclusion convincing, I’m trying not to get my hopes up too high that everything will be resolved.
That’s a cool theory, except I can’t see a motive for any of them. Kuga had a serious chance to get the job and destroyed it with the whole envelope thing. As for Hatano, I think this would raise more questions than it answers. Labelling the zip file in such a misleading way would have raised the chance that no-one would ever be able to open it, thus making the whole file pointless in the first place. If he knew the culprit was Kuga, then why not put that in the file name and/or send the file to him directly?
As for why he left the files at his parents’ place: Maybe he wanted his sister to find it and nag Shima about it to increase the chance that she researches the matter. Or maybe he intented to send it but died sooner than he expected. (Normally, I’d also consider that he might be faking his death and is trying to see how Shima reacts, but his family seem to be honestly grieving)
While we’re at it, here’s another theory I hope doesn’t come true, because it’s also flimsy as hell: The culprit is Yashiro, and her main target is Hakamada, the others are collateral damage. She knew she didn’t have a chance to get the job and doesn’t want him to have it, either. She hates him, because she found out about his bullying (bonus point if she knew his victim), and she hates bullies, because she was bullied as well. She put his secret into Kuga’s envelope, because she thought he’d likely be the first one to open it, being a proactive leader type and all. The whole thing with the threatening cards is a case of 4D chess gone wrong - she meant to reveal her card at the end and get the others to show theirs to frame Hakamada as the culprit, but ran out of time. Optional: The password is Hermes.
Actually, I don’t think that’s flimsy at all. It is by far the most solid theory, because she had the strongest reaction of any to 袴田’s secret, if we exclude the recruitees finding out 森久保 put the enveloppe there. Link to the victim ? Step-sister, or full sister actually, cousin, girlfriend, best friend, neighbour, anything works. And she doesn’t care about who gets the job as long as it’s not 袴田.
I also entertained this possibility, and, to be fair, haven’t completely ruled it out.
Agreed. To be honest, I was thinking of what could be the password if it’s not ジャスミンティー, and the first thing that popped in my mind was フェア, because it’s also hammered as something 九賀 likes. But in order to figure out the password, then, 嶌 needs to know who the culprit is, and it kind of defeats the whole purpose of the zip file
I loved that they found a new clue from the video! Was wondering what was the point of having them, and also thought that we already had all the available clues at hand, so it was a nice surprise.
Replies
Last week it was a bit more subtle, it was mentioned only the times were she was not thinking about the password. But this time wow, it’s the cat playing with its food at this point!
I like this theory. Also because it says specifically “the thing the 犯人 likes” and not “the thing 嶌 likes”. Maybe 嶌 will use the 2nd try with Jasmine Tea, and then leave the 3rd try for the real answer.
I like this one too! And supporting the theory is the fact that he opens his envelop first.
There’s definitely something still fishy with her, especially at the beginning before the interview when she was looking under the door in the bathroom (or something like that).
I feel like a lot of things were really dependent on having the discussion go the exact right way. Many people already mentioned in earlier weeks that opening all the envelopes at once would have made the discussion go a different direction, and now the threat of releasing the secrets on the tiny card is also dependent on a lot of things: they have to see it before they mention anything about the picture, and they have to read it in a way that doesn’t alert any of the others.
If it really is 袴田, I would be shocked. His secret was arguably the most heavy one, I doubt he would reveal that about himself.
And I also don’t think it’s 矢代, she seemed too candid during the discussion, although it’s still possible it’s her.
I can‘t see 森久保 either, why would he accuse 嶌 in the interview if he could just pretend it’s 波多野, who can’t dispute it anymore after his death?
This means it would only be 久賀 remaining in my theory. (Or someone unrelated, or someone from Spira)
I also like the theory that the password is フェア
By the end of this chapter, I wanted to poke her and tell her to enter the bloody password already.