Vol 1 Chapter 1 (1/2)

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, friends.h.i.+p, 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 Igaras.h.i.+ 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 Igaras.h.i.+-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, Igaras.h.i.+-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,”

Igaras.h.i.+-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 Igaras.h.i.+-senpai.

“So, Touka-chan, what do you need with Igaras.h.i.+-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 Igaras.h.i.+-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 Igaras.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+nbas.h.i.+.

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 Mitsukos.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+rt 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.