Yes, I can,” the monkey replied, his expression unchanged. “There’s one other thing I need to
apologize to you for. When I broke into your place, I wasn’t planning to take anything besides the
nametags, but I was so hungry I ended up grabbing two bananas that were on the table. They just
looked too good to pass up.”
“The nerve of this guy,” Mr. Sakurada said, slapping the black nightstick against his palm a
couple of times. “Who knows what else he swiped? Want me to grill him a little to find out?”
“Take it easy,” Mr. Sakaki told him. “He confessed about the bananas voluntarily, and, besides,
he doesn’t strike me as such a brutal sort. Let’s not do anything drastic until we hear the facts. If
they find out that we mistreated an animal at the ward office we could be in deep trouble.”
“Why did you steal the nametags?” Mizuki asked the monkey.
“It’s what I do,” the monkey answered. “I’m a monkey who takes people’s names. It’s a sickness
I suffer from. Once I fix on a name, I can’t help myself. Not just any name, mind you. I’ll see a
name that attracts me, and then I have to have it. I know it’s wrong, but I can’t control myself.”
“Were you trying to break into our dorm and steal Yuko’s nametag?”