Chapter One: Let Me Go Make You Some Coffee

The first Monday of May. An early morning.

Because I had something in particular to take care of, I was carrying a canvas and art supplies under my arm up to the roof.

I had a feeling that I would be able to paint a nice picture from up there.

I had already decided on my model, right from the very beginning.

However, because I knew that that person would never agree to be my model even if I asked them to, I had no choice but to rely on memory and just let the brush take its course. It was a sad thing to do, but this way, I could paint anywhere I wanted to. And wouldn’t it be nice to paint up on the roof for a change of pace?

And so with that logic, I, Hanamoto Hibari, was heading up the stairs of the school building. Since I’d woken up especially early for this, I wanted to use my time efficiently.

It was 5:30 in the morning. There could be no morning earlier than this. And with that thought, I yawned.

It was my first time coming to school this early, so I was a little nervous. Although still able to yawn.

In front of the gates, the old janitor had been silently doing morning radio exercises, but all the way up, I hadn’t pa.s.sed by a single student.

On the stair landing, there were a ridiculous number of handmade posters pasted all around.

Drama Club. Wind Orchestra Club. Photography Club. Tea Ceremony Club. Debate. Judo. Kendo. Archery.

Other this and that’s. An endless number of this and that’s.

And on every simple poster, there were the words “Akebi Festival” stamped on them.

Before I explain what the Akebi Festival is, let me give a brief explanation about the school I attend.

Akebi Private High School. It was founded 40 years ago. The student population consists of both males and female, coming out to be about 800 students. Including clubs, there are many extracurricular activities; even I don’t know how many there are exactly. By the way, I’m in the Art Club. Our school motto is “diligence, friendship, and pa.s.sion.” To represent the meaning of those three words, the school flag is decorated with silver, gold, and scarlet leaves.

And now, finally, the Akebi Festival is what everyone commonly calls the culture festival that takes place at Akebi High every year in May.

During the period leading up to the festival, the battle of appeal between each individual club at school reaches its peak. Basically, it’s a territory battle with posters.

Also, each club has to come up with their own project for the festival, and the fact that everyone just advertises in every which way shows how completely unregulated it is within the school.

Ever since it was founded, my school runs on high school spirit. And since it can’t be controlled once everyone’s all fired up, even the school faculty have stopped trying to restrain the students.

It seems the topic of suppressing the excessive activities and freedom of expression has been debated throughout the school for many years.

Nimbly, I stepped over some equipment and spare chairs piled up in the middle of the stairs.

“I’ll paint it real nice in a fresh…. environment!”

I threw open the door to the roof excitedly and was met with a cool wind on my cheeks.

It was still chilly this early in the morning.

For the Akebi Festival, each member of the Art Club had decided to exhibit at least one work. However, I had yet to submit even a single one.

The reason for that was because my model had been uncooperative, but my lack of artistic skill also played a big part in it.

With that in mind, it might’ve been a bit naïve of me to come up to the roof, thinking that a change of pace would solve things.

It was cold.

I squinted my eyes up at the brand-new sky, brought in by the sunrise just moments before.

“Achoo!”

I sneezed.

Maybe I ought to go back to the room, after all. As I thought this, I lowered my gaze to ground level.

And there—

“……Eh?”

In the center of the roof, a female student had collapsed on the dull, grey concrete.

Unconsciously, I dropped my canvas.

Blood. There was a pool of blood on the ground.

Spreading out from her head as the center—

It had to be only my imagination that her arms were bent in the wrong direction.

The female student was wearing only one slipper. No, only one slipper had come off. Her other shoe lay on the ground quite a distance from her.

It was a subtle detail.

Once I’d thought of it this way, I couldn’t see it any other way.

I looked up. I did exactly that, looking up directly above the collapsed student.

“……Did she fall?”

Other than the sky that was slowly turning blue, there was nothing else there.

But still, she had fallen.

Straight down from the sky.

“Saho!”

As I rushed forward, I called out the name of my friend.

That day after school, I was called to the Guidance Office. The reason, of course, was because of the female student who had collapsed on the roof.

There, my homeroom teacher, Kurotani, and the school princ.i.p.al were waiting, and both of them said to me, “Don’t talk to anyone else about what happened with Amemura.”

Amemura Saho.

A quiet girl with good grades, a model honor student, and part of the Gardening Club.

She’s a second year like me, and although we’re in different cla.s.ses, we’re friends. There have been times when we’ve eaten lunch up on the roof with our mutual friends together. Maybe I couldn’t call her my closest friend, but she’s still my friend. At the very least, that’s what I believe.

And that very same Saho had come falling from the sky.

When I’d found her, Saho had still been breathing, fortunately. I immediately ran to the night watchman’s room, explained the situation, and they had called the doctor.

After about thirty minutes, I saw a black Crown car come in through the rear gate. And from it, an elderly doctor slowly stepped out, and began to make his way up to the roof, gasping for breath the entire time. A male student with strong-looking arms followed after as an a.s.sistant.

By the time I was watching them take Saho to the hospital, many other students were already beginning to come on campus.

The roof was immediately blocked off, and although I had only seen some of the teachers on the scene, there was still a bit of commotion at school after that.

Because of this, I wasn’t able to concentrate on any of my morning or afternoon cla.s.ses.

“Hey, Hibari-san, you were the first one to find her right? Was there a lot of blood? Like a sea of blood? Well—?”

At first, I was annoyed by my cla.s.smates’ insensitive questions, but I soon grew tired of them, and decided to avoid them altogether. But even avoiding them was a bone-breaking task.

No, the one with the broken bones here was Saho.

It seemed that she still hadn’t regained consciousness.

I’d heard that rather than the blood loss, the bruises on her entire body were more severe, and she had bone fractures in more than just a couple places.

But when I was told that her life wasn’t in danger even in spite of all that, I heaved a sigh of relief right there in the Guidance Office.

“Listen, don’t casually go around and talk about what happened this morning. That’ll only needlessly upset the other students.”

I was pressured even more to leave.

After saying, “Please excuse me,” I left the Guidance Office. Although I didn’t remember doing anything that required being excused for.

As I tottered down the hallway, I tried to think of why the teachers were so insistent on keeping quiet about this incident.

It had to because of those words—

There could be no other reason. It had been clearly written on Kurotani and the princ.i.p.al’s faces.

The teachers were very concerned about the message that Saho had left behind.

Yes, the message—

Saho had to have been the one that left it.

Just two dark red, warped words—

Written in blood.

“It’s X,” was what it had said.

What could be the meaning behind those words?

“X…… Ex……?”

From what Saho’s parents had said at the hospital, she had been studying at home as usual the previous Sunday, and eaten dinner with the rest of the family as she always did. She hadn’t said much that day, but since she didn’t have a very bright and lively personality to begin with, they hadn’t thought much of it.

Also, she had told her mother that she was going to school early the next day to prepare for the Akebi Festival, and gone to bed early. By the time her mother had woken up the next morning, Saho had already left the house.

But, had she actually left that early in morning to do preparations?

As I thought about this, I neared the stairs.

“Hibari-chan, good work today,”

I heard my name called, and looked up to see a female student standing on the stair landing. It was a fair-skinned girl with delicate-looking eyes.

“Yue-chan! I’m back—!”

I ran up the stairs and jumped into her arms.

The girl that had the appearance of a j.a.panese doll caught me with a troubled smile.

Mizorogi Yue.  She’s the daughter of a good family from the neighboring prefecture, and ever since the very first day of school, we’ve gotten along well. She must have been waiting for me, worried about how I’d suddenly been called away by the teachers after school.

“Here’s your bag,”

I was touched that she had gone and brought my bag from the cla.s.sroom for me. I felt my heart swell at all the kindness she had shown me today.

“This too. You’re going to bring it home with you today to paint on, right?”

She had even brought my canvas, which was still completely blank.

“Yue-chan, if I’m ever reborn as a boy, please marry me,”

I joked with all my might.

“Hmm. Mizoroji Hibari doesn’t have such a bad ring to it.”

“So I’m marrying into your family?”

As always, she made a gentle, yet sharp counterattack. I think of this as another one of her charms.

Sunlight streamed in through the window on the landing.

From far away, we could hear the melody that the Wind Orchestra Club was playing. We made comments like, “What was the t.i.tle of this song again?” and “I like the sound of clarinets,” as we walked to the entrance together.

“Oh?”

Yue suddenly looked ahead of us. I followed her gaze. Standing against the shoe cupboards was a tall, male student.

“Oh, h.e.l.lo,”

He said with a face that indicated he’d only just noticed us.

“Are you Ms. Hanamoto Hibari?”

“Umm…”

I found myself at a loss for words.

Did I know him?

I couldn’t remember.

“I’m Igarashi Yuuma, a third year. It’s nice to meet you.”

I’m sure there must have been question marks in my eyes. He seemed to have noticed this, and quickly introduced himself.

After hearing his name, Yue seemed to recognize him,

“It’s Igarashi-senpai, the president of the Akebi Festival Executive Committee.”

He had somewhat light hair, and square gla.s.ses. His demeanor was calm, just like his appearance.

“Hahah. The president of the Executive Committee, hm? And what is it that you need? Or could it be that… Have I done something to interfere with your executive duties!?”

I wavered at the end of my sentence, but Yue stood up to my defense.

“Senpai, you’re so terrible! This girl is completely vulnerable after being stepped on and kicked around since this morning. Just look at her! Right now, she’s like a slug that’s had salt sprinkled on it! And yet you still have the heart to blame her!?”

“Slug……”

I didn’t think I looked that bad.

“Please, calm down. You haven’t done anything to interfere. I just wanted to ask something about the incident from this morning. About… that student you found on the roof—what happened to her? The teachers won’t tell us anything…… It’s not like I’m trying to pry or anything. It’s just, because of my position…. you know?”

“You’re worried about what impact it might have on the Akebi Festival, right?”

“That’s very perceptive of you.”

“If that’s the case, I don’t think there’s going to be any problems. From what I heard, she seemed fine, and should recover normally.”

I figured it was safe to say this much.

“I see…… Thank you. Another member on the committee has been worrying constantly since this morning, as well. I’m really glad she’s alright,”

After saying this, Igarashi-senpai removed his gla.s.ses and rubbed his eyes a couple times. I noticed that there was a white handkerchief wrapped around his left hand, but what caught my attention more was the redness of his eyes.

For a second, I thought he’d been so overcome with emotion from the news that he’d started crying, but that wasn’t the case. It seemed that he was just lacking a bit of sleep.

“I stayed up late checking the schedule for the day of the festival while listening to the radio.”

“Radio? You mean S-Edition Hour?”

S-Edition Hour. A radio program that was on air late Sunday nights.

“Yeah. As usual, they were playing songs by artists like Presley and Dinah Sh.o.r.e,”

Igarashi-senpai said while smoothing down his hair with both hands.

“I listen to it often, too. I always fall asleep when it gets too late, though,”

I raised up both of my hands cheerfully.

Maybe because my father has always played records, I’ve loved to listen and sing songs since I was young.

Even though you’re not very good at it, I like your singing, Hibari-chan! Even though you’re not good!

That was the honest a.s.sessment of the friend who stood beside me, Yue.

“Senpai! So this is where you’ve been wasting time?”

It was then that a female student with a bobbed haircut appeared.

“Ah, it’s Touka-chan.”

Inukai Touka. We’re in the same cla.s.s together.

Contrary to her very pet.i.te build and wonderfully adorable facial features, she’s the star performer in the Judo Club and frighteningly strong. Strong enough to earn the t.i.tle of Akebi High’s Pro Fighter Honor Student. Although it seems that she’s reluctant to take this t.i.tle.

“Is it true that you can take down Tokyo Tower with an Osoto Gari throw on a good day?”

“Bring the one who spread that rumor here right now. I’ll take them down with an Osoto Gari throw.”

“Oh, that’s good! I’d like one, please!”

“One of what!?”

“We’re talking about judo, right?”

After I thoroughly enjoyed this heartwarming exchange with Touka, I turned my attention back to Igarashi-senpai.

“So, Touka-chan, what do you need with Igarashi-senpai? Oh, right, aren’t you on the Executive Committee too?”

“That’s right.”

She folded her arms lightly across her chest and looked stubbornly at Igarashi-senpai. Her family has been in the fireworks business for generations, and her strong-minded personality takes after her father.

“Senpai, this isn’t the time to be standing around making small talk. You were supposed to check the strength of the arc for the front gate, weren’t you? So you shouldn’t have the free time to be fooling around here! I looked all over you! Could you please not make me work extra hard like this!?”

“A-ahh, sorry. Was I gone that long?”

Although he was supposed to her senior, he was clearly overwhelmed by her outburst.

“Yes, you were. Come on, let’s get going, right now!”

She sure was being harsh. Touka is always pretty strict, but today, she seemed especially so.

“Hibari, today was misfortunate, wasn’t it?”

As she pulled Igarashi away, Touko mumbled this to me without looking back.

“Touka-chan seemed a bit annoyed, hm? The committee members sure are busy.”

Yue said this as she watched the two leave, but I knew the real reason for Touka’s irritation.

She must have been devoting herself to the Akebi Festival preparations to avoid thinking about it—the condition of her close, childhood friend, Amemura Saho.

“See you tomorrow!”

After I waved goodbye to Yue in front of the school gates, I then hopped into a streetcar in Shinbashi.

As I swayed with the vehicle’s movement, I looked out at cityscape dyed in a soft golden hue.

Recently, there were more people using cars or buses, so even the subways weren’t that crowded. This somehow relaxed s.p.a.ce felt comfortable.

There were people waiting for the water bus to go to Asakusa.

And people busily coming and going from a newspaper company.

A goldfish stand in the middle of the bridge trying to attract pa.s.sing children.

I had a feeling that even now, there would be the delicious smell of pork sauté drifting out of the diner.

In the streets were scooters, trucks, and bicycles, and if you closed your eyes, you could always hear some hit song coming from a dance hall crowded with young people.

I’m sure that enough years have pa.s.sed for it not to be considered the postwar era anymore.

I was a little late coming back from school today. I wonder if that person has been lonely without me.

That would be nice. Although I didn’t think it was possible….

As that person’s face came to mind, my downcast mood since this morning was immediately lifted up. Without thinking, I began humming to “Let’s Meet in Yurakucho.”

“This is Ginza, you know!”

Although the kid sitting in front of me pointed that out, I told him not to mind the little details and continued singing regardless.

The streetcar moved along leisurely, pa.s.sing by Mitsukoshi Department Store.

I got off at Kanda Station and walked on foot.

Going along with my now-uplifted mood, I chased after my long shadow as I ran. I found it funny that each time, my pigtail braids would bounce like ears of fresh rice. I breathed in timing with the bouncing of my braids.

Taking deep breaths, I headed into a maze of alleys.

I made my through those narrow streets without getting lost.

As I pa.s.sed by an old house, a dog in the garden started barking happily. By the time the dog’s barks had become far away, I had arrived in front of a western-style house.

The outer wall of pale brown brick was covered with ivy, and the sorry excuse of a garden was full of plants and trees. The building had two stories, but the structure itself was small, with windows covered by thick curtains. As a whole, the house looked as old as the tattered shoes of someone who had gone on a long journey. What a shady building it was.

Truthfully, everyone that uses these alleys usually looks at this house with suspicious eyes. And there are also rumors about a bad person living in this mansion.

A bad person. In other words, a monstrous doctor who creates mad inventions, or a painter that squeezes the blood of kidnapped children for the sake of art—basically, the type of bad people that you would see in picture-story shows.

But in reality, the person that lives here is neither of these, and well, from a certain perspective, he’s far stranger than any of those fictional characters.

Dusk was already approaching. The clouds in the sky looked like an intricate maze, or even a magic circle, and somehow, that made the building in front of me seem even more mysterious, but still, I pushed open the front door without hesitation. Inside, there was a narrow entrance hall, and on the right, a staircase that led to the second floor. Beneath my feet was a red carpet. On the ceiling were four simple light fixtures.

As I slowly made my way down the corridor that continued throughout the length of the first floor, a heavy door with a beautiful wood grain appeared on my left hand side.

He should be in here. When I was outside, I had seen the lights turned on in this room.

After straightening my skirt, wiping away my sweat, and taking a deep breath, I knocked lightly on the door.

There was no answer, but I paid that no mind and opened the door.

“Sensei!”

I entered the room with the urgency of a detective arriving on the scene.

“Sensei, listen to this! Today, something strange….”

I started to report about today’s happenings first thing. However, I was unable to find my next words.

It wasn’t a misunderstanding or some kind of illusion. There was a bear standing right in the middle of the room.

Not just a man that looked like a bear, but an actual bear.

In the center of the western-styled room, a bear stood dauntingly on its hind legs.

It had to be at least two meters tall.

Its front legs were raised up proudly, as if to say, “I’m a bear! Scared, aren’t ya!”

I jumped once, and then stood completely frozen at the sight of its wide, open mouth and the admirable set of fangs inside.

Uwaaah, it’s a bear! It is a bear, right? Not just a burly weasel? Or an overgrown dog? Ahh, it’s so brown. Come to think of it, it takes so long for the sun to set now. Well, it’s May, after all. I’d better work hard for the Akebi Festival. Uwaaah, it’s a bear!

I couldn’t move a single step, or even utter a scream; only the thoughts in my head kept going around in circles.

It was then that I heard a voice from right behind me.

“Oh? There’s a stuffed model of Hibari-kun standing in a place like this? It looks rather well made,”

Hearing that voice, I was finally able to break free of my paused state.

When I turned around, I saw a man standing there.

He was slender, with a high stature——

Wearing a open-collared shirt and black vest——

A wrinkle of displeasure between his eyebrows——

And yet, he had a sharp smile on his face.

“Sensei!”

There stood Kudou Renma.

“It’s a bear! A bear! Like, roar! And grrr! I’ll figure something out, so please escape through the back door! It’s alright! I’ll manage somehow with the kendo I learned from my grandpa! Ah, wait! I don’t have a bamboo sword! P-please bring me another rod-like object to use instead! Hurry, bring me a something rod-like of the appropriate length!”

“You’re noisy!”

“Oww…”

He pulled on my cheek with a tug.

“Quite a talkative stuffed model. It’s even noisier than the real thing,”

After saying this, he patted my cheek and then walked towards the bear.

“As I thought, stuffed models are best when quiet.”

“Sensei, it’s dangerous!”

“Stuffed model.”

He stood in front of the fearsome-looking bear, gazing up at it leisurely.

“Sensei, it’s going to eat you whole!”

“Like I said, it’s a stuffed model.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a stuffed brown bear.”

He said this, and as if knocking on a door, he rapped his knuckles against the bear’s belly. Come to think of it, the bear hadn’t moved an inch since the very beginning.

“Wh-why is there a stuffed bear….”

“It’s for my work.”

“Eh?”

“In my next work, the main plot point is a trick that uses a stuffed bear. And in order to research how a real stuffed bear is made, I went and acquired one from a certain trade.”

“What… did you just say? For a trick? Sensei, you bought a brown bear… so that you could write your novel? An entire brown bear… just for that?”

“Just for that? It was all for the sake of my work. That is more important than anything,”

The author affirmed this in an unwavering tone.

I heaved a huge sigh and sank down.

I thought I’d figured out how his mind worked, but once again, he had amazed me.

“I’m sure that the only mystery writer who would go that far is you….”

Kudou Renma.

A mystery writer who has published many full-length novels, as well as short stories. 

Of those, his “Musui (Sleepless) Series,” a series of mystery light novels featuring the great detective, Habikino Musui, in stories such as “The Serial Murder Case at Rokudo Island” and “The Spiriting Away Case at The House of Ten Bulls” has gained frenzied support from a portion of his readers.

However, because the contents are often so strange and bizarre, they aren’t very well accepted with the general public.

For example, the entire novel could be written as one long, continuing text with no periods, or there would be plays within plays that repeat well over thirty times to confuse the readers.

“It perfectly reflects the writer’s eccentric personality, doesn’t it…..”

“Did you say something?”

“No, nothing at all! I was simply realizing anew the reason why Sensei’s books don’t sell very well.”

“Of course not. This kind of sublime work isn’t something that can be so effortlessly understood by the ma.s.ses! In the first place, those broad-minded, sharp individuals with such artistic sensibility aren’t to be counted among the ordinary ma.s.ses.”

It was useless.

I had already given up on trying to blame him for his actions. No matter what I say, he barely acknowledges it at all. That’s the kind of person that Kudou Renma is.

If it’s for the sake of his work, absolutely nothing is too outrageous.

Yes, like preparing a bear for writing a trick in his novel, and even wielding a saw in his hands——

“…..A saw?”

Although I had overlooked it before, I now saw that Sensei held a huge saw in his hands.

“I went to the storeroom earlier to retrieve this.”

“What do you intend to do with it…?”

“Quite clearly, I’m going to dismantle this stuffed model. I’ll chop of its head, cut open its stomach, and see what it looks like inside.”

“Waaah——!”

I lunged recklessly at him, s.n.a.t.c.hing the saw away.

“What are you thinking! Even if it’s only a stuffed model now, you can’t do something like that! Sensei, you demon! You dismantling fiend!”

“Don’t interfere. I want to see the structure of the inside of a stuffed bear with my own two eyes! I also want to know how long it takes for a single man to dismantle one to pieces. That’s the very reason I’ve prepared this stuffed model and saw for!”

“You can’t!”

“Come now, Hikari-kun, hold down the front legs for me.”

“No—!”

“Fine. I’ll wrap up the head in newspaper for you to take home as a souvenir.”

“Don’t wrap it up!”

“Do you intend to take it home as is!? An adolescent girl and a freshly-severed bear head. When you think about it, that doesn’t sound so bad, either!”

“Don’t do such terrible things to k.u.mamichi!”

“Don’t go giving it a name!”

After going back and forth like this for a while, we finally calmed down. In the end, we settled on keeping the stuffed bear as a decoration in the corner of the room.

“I’m glad it all worked out, k.u.maemon.”

“What happened to k.u.mamichi?”

With a tremendously displeased face, the author undid one of the b.u.t.tons on his shirt, took a fistful of coffee beans straight from the small bottle on the table, and began gnawing on them.

No matter how you looked at it, this behavior was abnormal. If someone saw this when meeting him for the first time, nine of the ten people would probably already have one foot out the door, and immediately excuse themselves from this mansion, saying with a forced smile that they’d just remembered an errand (even if they didn’t actually have one).

Crunch crunch, grind grind—

It was almost like he was possessed by something.

“Let me go make you some coffee,”

I turned around and hurried towards the kitchen.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I took coffee beans and a hand-net from the cupboards, and immediately started to roast the beans. After a few minutes, the thin skins of the beans began to peel.

Whenever he’s in a particularly bad mood, or hasn’t drunken any coffee in a long time and wants to right away, Kudou-sensei would chew on coffee beans instead.

Also, there is a subtle difference between the way he chews if it was the former or latter, and I know that difference.

Just now, that way of chewing was because he’d been so focused on his ma.n.u.script since this afternoon and hadn’t had any coffee in a long time.

As for his displeased face, that’s how he always is, so I paid it no mind.

After being deeply roasted, the beans would be ground coa.r.s.ely, and the water quickly poured at a high temperature. These are the steps to bring out the flavor that he likes.

But even so, he’s such a strange person. As I recalled the incident with the bear, I sighed.

He’s a strange and troublesome person.

Mean-spirited.

Overbearing.

Sharp-tounged.

Oblivious.

Only thinking of his work all the time.

If he hadn’t become an author, I honestly think he would have become a big-time villain.

The beans slowly changed color, and a fragrant scent rose up.

My relationship with the author goes back to when I was little.

My house is in the corner of Kanda Jinbocho, and my father uses part of the house as a coffee shop. The shop was run by my grandpa before the war, and after the war ended, my father succeeded it. At that time, I hadn’t even entered elementary school yet, and was only just beginning to understand what went on around me.

The name of the store is “Tsuki Fune.”

For a while after the war, it seemed that there were still many troubles. The Allied Occupation forces would try to sell unwanted government a.s.sets to the customers, and they would also have to subst.i.tute soy beans in place of coffee beans.

And the regular of that “Tsuki Fune” had been the young Kudou-sensei, who had only just started out as an author.

This is why I’ve known him from since back then, and he also knows me from when I used to be a crybaby.

The beans made a popping sound, and after I let them soak for a moment longer, I turned off the stove.

I learned everything about making coffee from my father.

I have no mother.

Seated deeply in the black sofa and with his arms crossed, the author watched the steam rise from the coffee I had made, as if gazing at a beautiful piece of fine art.

Behind me, there were rows of tall bookshelves that towered over me. Not unlike a library.

And if that wasn’t enough, the books that didn’t fit in the shelves were scattered everywhere around the room. It was a sight I was used to.

“And then, when I went out on the roof, I saw my friend collapsed—”

Because of the stuffed bear model, I’d had to postpone it a great deal, but now, I finally explained to the author about what had happened this morning. However, from the moment I’d begun speaking, he had picked up a book that was lying on the table—Yokomizo Seishi’s new work—and started to read it. At intervals, he took sips from his coffee.

“Sensei! Would you please listen to me?!”

I accused him as I was nearing the end of my speech.

“And you want to say that she fell from the sky, don’t you?”

He told me flatly. So he had actually been listening, then.

All the while that I’d been talking, he had continued to flip through the pages of the books at a constant rate, making me wonder what the inside of this person’s head looked like. Once again, I found him strange. Rather than the inside of the stuffed bear model, I was much more interested in the inside workings of his head.

“Do you think that people can just come falling down like that?”

“You witnessed it yourself, didn’t you? Weren’t you the first one on the scene?”

“Well, that’s true, but…..”

“Listen, in most of the cases where humans exceed their boundaries and try to force themselves into heaven, they bring unto themselves the wrath of G.o.d. Like with Icarus, who flew too close to the sun, and the Tower of Babel from the Old Testament.”

“And like with the Spider’s Thread, right?”

“That’s something entirely different.”

“Eh~”

In any case, I understood that angering G.o.d usually wouldn’t bring anything good.

“In some cases, they’re cast down to the ground from heaven. People call thattenbatsu. Divine punishment.”

“Divine… punishment?”

“Now didn’t you say that there was a message left behind?”

——It’s X.

“Ah! Batsu! Another way to read X is batsu, meaning punishment!”

“It just means that’s one way to look at it. In the first place, do you really believe G.o.d granted that student divine punishment and dropped them to the ground?”

“Well, no, I don’t, but….. I thought maybe some unknown power could have thrown Saho up into the air and….”

And then I realized something.

“I know! It was the wind! What if she got caught up in a huge gust of wind?”

I blurted out as soon as the thought came to me.

“If there had been a wind strong enough to lift a person, there would have been other damage at that place to prove it,”

He simply laughed off my idea.

“And from what I’ve heard, it doesn’t seem likely that a strong wind would only blow in that place, so I don’t think so.”

I was satisfied with the mere fact that he’d even considered the possibility.

“Anyway, if it is ‘punishment,’ then the meaning deepens a lot. I’d thought for sure that X meant Ex.”

“Ex? Oh, that fake activist?”

The author immediately guessed what I was talking about.

“The one you’re always mentioning these days.”

“Yes. The unidentified activist, Ex, who’s been the topic of talk at Akebi High. ‘Ex has appeared again! A fearless confession of crime!’ and so on—the newspaper club is always writing about it every week.”

Was it a man, or a woman? A student, or a teacher? At the time, it was a person shrouded in complete mystery. No one even knew if it was only one person, or actually a group.

In places like the walls at school, or on the princ.i.p.al’s desk, Ex would leave radical messages directed at the school. Sometimes, they even hijacked the school broadcast system and played the “International School Song.”

Their main claim was this.

——The current chairman, as well as the school princ.i.p.al, are puppets of the United States of America.

——Year after year, they steal freedom from the students, and are tumors that need to be removed.

Because of those claims, it was clear that the school would want to catch the culprit as soon as possible. As a result, their control over the student body had become stricter.

Students that showed shady behavior. Students that brought strange objects to school. One after another, questionable students were brought to the Guidance Office.

However, each of those ended in nothing, and presently, Ex continued their activities while evading the eyes of the students and teachers.

“A child’s play that the Student Council Federation longs for,” is what the teachers called it outright.

The Student Council Federation, the full name being the National Federation of Student Councils. This federation had been formed several years after the war, consisting of over 140 members of the student councils in j.a.pan.

Recently, they’ve engaged in various operations going against the j.a.pan-US Safety Treaty, and in the spring, there had been a violent collision with the police.

By the way, half of what I know concerning these matters is what the author has told me.

In any case, it was true that the entire school body was embracing that radical impression.

“I thought that there might be some kind of connection between Ex and that message……”

X meant punishment. After hearing the author’s interpretation, I wasn’t so sure anymore.

“By the way, which do you think it is this time?”

“What do you mean?”

I was startled by the sudden question.

“The case of this student named Amemura, was it an accident? A suicide? Or perhaps a murder?”

“Th-that’s……”

Honestly, I didn’t know. The school seemed to be trying to pa.s.s it off as an accident, but in reality, none of us had any idea.

“Hey, wait a minute! Saho is still alive, you know! Whether it was a suicide or a murder, at least call it an attempt!”

“It doesn’t matter either way.”

What an insensitive person. And crude, too. Is he really a mystery novelist?

“But if you really think about it, it’s not likely to have been a suicide. If it was, then she would have jumped properly from the rooftop to the garden to end things.”

Although it felt weird to phrase it as “jumped properly.”

“And if you consider how there was a message written in blood left behind, she seems to have fallen on the roof involuntarily. If it really was a suicide, she could have just written a suicide note. I wouldn’t think that she would go to the trouble to use her own blood to leave behind a message.”

In that case, there was a high possibility that someone else had meant to do her harm.

“I don’t know what method they might have used, but in that case, Ex is suspicious, after all.”

“Then that would make this Ex a huge fool.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because they failed to kill her,”

With wise eyes, the author said this, and then silently folded his arms across his chest.

“If this really is the work of someone else, it would have been a failed murder, disregarding whatever trick he’d set up in this mysterious crime scene, in a school where he could be easily seen by others, no less. It would be the pinnacle of a failure.”

He did have a point, though.

“Sensei, are you trying to understand it from the culprit’s point of view?”

He seemed like the type that would admit to killing outright.

“Such rudeness! I would never do the dirty work myself!”

“Is that something you should be saying proudly?!”

Still, just like he’d said, why had they chosen the school?

“According to your story, there weren’t many other students around when you went to the school early in the morning?”

“Yes. I didn’t see anyone else on my entire way up to the roof.”

“What time do the school gates open?”

“At 5 AM. It seems that they’re opening it a bit earlier this week for the Akebi Festival preparations. When I arrived at school, it was around 5:20.”

The author closed the book that he had been reading from beginning to end throughout our entire conversation, and placed it back down on the table.

“Don’t tell me…… You finished reading that book while we’ve been talking this whole time?”

“Yes, I did, and what of it?”

He made a face as if to tell me not to ask pointless things. It’s been so since a long time ago, but the author’s ability to speed-read is like some kind of magic trick.

“So, what about other routes to go up to the rooftop?”

“Eh? Th-there aren’t any!”

I hurried to answer, and the author continued after resting his slightly narrow chin in his hand.

“If I remember, wasn’t there another school building?”

“There’s the north building and the south building. Both have four floors, and the one that Saho had collapsed on was the south building.”

There’s a corridor that connects the two buildings.

“If all four floors are connected by corridors, it would be simple to come and go between the two buildings using those—”

“The only corridor connecting the buildings is on the first floor.”

When moving between cla.s.ses, you have to go down to the first floor in order to use the corridor to go to the next building.

“What a troublesome building!” The author childishly cried out in complaint.

We heard the pendulum sounding 6 PM from the hallway.

“……Um, could this be one of those extremely bizarre and troublesome cases?”

The culprit, method, and motive—all of them were unknown.

In the first place, we had only come to the conclusion that it was a crime committed by someone through the process of elimination. All in all, it was only a baseless a.s.sumption.

Even if we treated it as an accident, we didn’t know how she had fallen onto the roof.

“Hey.”

And if it was a suicide, along with the mystery of the situation that had been created, we didn’t know why she had chosen that way of killing herself.

“If someone had been trying to harm her, then…… Saho must have been called out by someone and……”

“Hey!”

“Eh?”

When I looked up, the author was making a genuinely displeased face.

Ah, this was the face he makes when he’s truly annoyed.

“Hibari-kun. Are you perhaps trying to meddle and solve this mystery on your own?”

It was a lucky guess.

Or rather, I didn’t realize it until he’d said so,

Before I’d noticed, I had become engrossed in tackling this mystery by myself.

“For goodness sake. It’s become a bad habit of yours now. Your love for mystery novels in a problem, as well. Whenever you see any kind of strange event, you immediately immerse yourself in it. You meddle without even thinking of the consequences! Do you think that deductive reasoning is really a feat that a bean girl such as you could pull off? You have to observe the world in front of you brutally, and be willing to doubt everything. It’s impossible for you, who, in the first place, can’t even view the world obliquely.”

“Wh-what!? I was just concerned about my friend….. And anyway, Sensei! Aren’t you always happy to fuel my sloppy reasoning?!”

“That’s only something I do when I have the free time. However, I’m busy with writing today. Because of you preventing me from dismantling the bear, I have to come up with a different trick. And also, just like every other day, your pigtails are as unappealing as the shrine rope at a deserted shrine.”

“My pigtails have nothing to do with this!”

It seemed he still held a grudge over me because of the bear.

“Since it can’t be helped, let me tell you an innovative solution. As soon as you hear it, this situation, which can barely even be called a case, will be solved in an instant,”

After a.s.serting this, the author leaned close to me.

Close close way too close!

Without thinking, I leaned back to look up at him.

Somehow, he seemed different than before.

“Hibari-kun.”

“Y-yes?!”

“Do you know what the smartest solution to a real case is?”

“That would be…. A great detective would figure out the real culprit based on even the smallest clue……”

He slowly shook his head. There was a daring confidence in his eyes.

“No, you should have the victim directly tell you who the culprit is,”

He said confidently.

For a while, I was speechless, forgetting to close my mouth that hung open.

“Th-that’s just cruel! Nothing’s going to come out of that!”

“The victim would have witnessed the incident from the very beginning, so that would be the best way. In most of the cases where the victim survives, they’ll know who the culprit is. The victim’s life is saved, and the culprit will be caught immediately. That’s the ideal outcome, isn’t it? Of course, if this were a detective novel, it would be a very boring work. See? This way, there’s no more reason to worry. Simply wait for that student to regain consciousness and ask her for the truth.”

“But—!”

“Now then, my throat’s gone dry again after talking so much. Hibari-kun, go make me another cup of coffee.”

The author held no regard for my feelings and waved his empty cup at me.

“I refuse! Go make it for yourself!”

“Hmph, how impudent. In that case, we’ll decide it with this,”

Saying this, he ignored my complaints and extended his hand.

Whenever there was something to decide on, he would always suggest this. And as I already knew this, I agreed without question.

“……We’ll settle this in one match.”

“Of course.”

After a second,

“Rock, paper—”

“Scissors!”

I played scissors. It was a quite a fine-looking scissors, if I did say so myself. The shape wasn’t bad at all.

However—

“Ahaha! Looks like it’s my win.”

What the author had played was—something I didn’t quite understand.

“Sensei…… What is that?”

“It’s a fox.”

Honk honk.

And with that said, he clamped my nose shut with his hand in that form.

“Wha? s...o...b..dat—! Stop that—!  What do you mean, a fox?! Why would there be a fox in a game of rock-paper-scissors?!”

“Foxes are tricksters. And because you were tricked by the fox, you lost. Now then, go and make me that coffee. And after that, go straight home.”

“Ugh! Fine, I get it already!”

In actuality, I didn’t get any of this. I just no longer had the energy to go against the author’s words anymore, which were unreasonably about twelve percent of the time. Ten percent of that twelve either consisted of far-fetched arguments, and the remaining two percent were usually tall tales .

I went back to the kitchen again.

As I poured the second cup of coffee, I thought about Saho, and about G.o.d.

Was it Ex? Or was it punishment?

If it was punishment, did that mean divine punishment?

Had Saho received some kind of punishment?

It would seem that G.o.d hated those who tried to get too close to Him. Those that feared the legends would say as much.

Even if I wasn’t a G.o.d, naturally, I would get angry if someone just came and sat themselves at the door of my house, but even so, it was just too unreasonable.

Say, G.o.d, didn’t those people who tried to get close to heaven all have their own circ.u.mstances and reasons for doing so?

Some secret, serious, and clear circ.u.mstance. 

———

translation notes:

Osoto Gari (大外刈): In judo, a major sweeping leg throw.

Sensei (先生): the t.i.tle that Hibari calls Kudou out of respect. Used for people that are experts of their profession, such as teachers, professors, doctors, and also writers and authors. I thought “Author” sounded kind of weird, and since I plan on keeping honorifics like -kun, -san, -senpai, and since the story is set in j.a.pan and wouldn’t look too out of place as is, I just decided to keep it.

Hibikino Musui (羽曳野無睡) the detective in Kudou’s novel series. His first name, “Musui,” is written with kanji that means “sleepless.”

Rokudou (六道): In Buddhism, the “six paths” or six realms in which people go after death.

Ten Bulls (十牛 / jyuugyuu): ten ways of herding ox. Used as an a.n.a.logy for training the mind to reach enlightenment.

k.u.ma (クマ): means “bear.” Since they were names, I just decided to keep them too.

Batsu: in j.a.panese, the word batsu can mean the an “X” (as in the shape), or “punishment (罰)”