Vol 1 Chapter 2 (1/2)

Chapter Two: Don’t Twirl Your Pigtails (first half)

—It would seem that Amemura Saho had attempted suicide.

The following day, the whole school was buzzing over Saho’s suicide attempt.

I was bewildered when I heard this from my cla.s.smates, just as soon as I’d walked into the cla.s.sroom that morning.

But why? It was only yesterday that the teachers and I had talked about the unlikelihood of it being a suicide.

“I heard that Amemura-san was being bullied.”

After I heard that, my confusion increased. My heart clenched in pain.

Even though she was an honor student, or maybe because of that fact, she had been bullied by a group of other students.

Sometimes even with direct violence.

I had no idea about any of this.

Thinking back on it now, I had noticed that something seemed off. I had seen fresh bruises on her arms before. But whenever I asked about them, she’d always just tell me it was nothing.

She must have been trying hard to hide it from everyone else.

“So that’s why she tried to end her suffering with suicide…”

“There’s no way that’s true!”

Before I could even object to my cla.s.smate’s words, Touka beat me in denying it.

“Saho isn’t that weak…..”

I waited until it was break time to ask Touka about it.

“Yeah, I knew alright.”

As I’d thought, Touka had known about Saho being bullied. And up until now, she had stood up for Saho a countless number of times.

However, Saho had never wanted Touka to help her.

“Even though that girl’s usually so mature, she becomes stubborn over the strangest things.”

Saho had said that she’d manage by herself, and that she had to solve this and overcome it on her own.

“That idiot. Even with how much she was looking forward to the Akebi Festival,”

Touka muttered quietly.

Saho probably wouldn’t be able to attend the festival.

It seemed that she still hadn’t regained consciousness.

Touka seemed to be trying to dispel her anger and irritation by busying herself with Akebi Festival Executive Committee duties. And since I was a bit worried for her, I tried to help out with her work after school that day.

Tables, chairs, cardboard, doc.u.ments, wood, instruments, costumes, equipment that I wasn’t even sure the use for.

From here to there.

From there to here.

Not unlike an apprentice, I worked hard to move all these different things around.

However, since I wasn’t particularly strong, I didn’t feel like I was helping all that much.

“It’s heavy by yourself, isn’t it?”

Touka, who was on the way to the incinerator to throw out the trash leftover from the booth preparations, came to my aid.

Even though she’s so small, where does she get all that horsepower from! That’s all I could think about when I saw the amount of trash she was carrying with her.

Despite the fact that I was trying to help her out, she was now helping me instead.

I suddenly remembered that since I still hadn’t finished what I needed to do for the Art Club, this certainly wasn’t the time to helping someone else. I couldn’t help but become anxious.

I could hear mixed voices of joy and distress coming from each cla.s.sroom as they rushed with the preparations.

Someone knocking over paint, or accidentally hitting their fingers with hammers, and in the midst of it all, another confessing to the girl he liked. There was no shortage of things to see.

A free bazaar, a booth selling handmade sweets, and more—there was a variety of different booths between each cla.s.s.

“Woah! Touka-chan, check it out! This cla.s.s has a car’s steeling wheel! Are they selling it? Oh, they have the tires, too! Ah, and even the engine.”

“Did they really just take apart an entire car and bring it here?! As a member of the Executive Committee, I won’t allow that!”

“Looks like they’re trying to open up a hole in the floor of this cla.s.sroom to make a pitfall to the first floor. I wonder why—”

“That’s out of the question!”

Although there was some misdirection, everyone seemed enthusiastic about the Akebi Festival.

By the way, my cla.s.s had decided to run a café.

“I’m understand that what a café is and all, but…. What’s a ‘Youkai Jazz Café’ supposed to be?”

A wrinkle formed on Touka’s forehead as she sighed.

“It’s a jazz café run by youkai.”

“Yeah, I got that much, at least.”

Because the cla.s.s couldn’t agree on whether to do a haunted house or a café, we had compromised and decided on a Youkai Jazz Café.

“The youkai are happy to serve you! Once you drink this excruciatingly delicious youkai coffee, you’ll go to heaven!”

The cla.s.s had united with that theme.

“It’s weird, isn’t it?!”

“Yeah, you’re right. It’s weird. Youkai don’t go to heaven, do they?”

“That’s weird too, but not exactly what I meant.”

“By the way, Touka-chan, what youka were you dressing up as again?”

“……Kejourou.”

Kejourou is a female youkai with long hair that flows all the way down to her ankles.

According to ”The Ill.u.s.trated One Hundred Demons from the Present and the Past” by the Edo ukiyo-e artist, Toriyama Sekien, he had run up to a woman who, from behind, looked like someone he knew, only to find a prost.i.tute with hair that covered her entire face, hence being named Kejourou (“hair prost.i.tute”).

“Never heard of it! Why couldn’t you have choosen a more well-known youkai, like the Hitotsu-me Kozou (“little one-eyed boy”) or Rokuro Kubi (“long-necked woman”)!”

“Well I like her! The Edo ukiyo-e artist, Utagawa Toyokuni, used Kejourou as the subject of a love story—”

“You sure know a lot…..”

“It’s just what I’ve heard from a friend.”

We headed down to the first floor as we talked, but suddenly, we were stopped.

There were countless sheets of paper spread out in the middle of the hallway, blocking us from going any further.

A single male student was writing something on those papers with an ink brush.

“Brother, what do you think you’re doing?”

At Touka’s abrupt words, the student stopped writing and looked up. He had very deep facial features.

“Ah, sister, what a way to greet your older brother.”

Come to think of it, I remembered Touka mentioning before that she had a brother. It would seem that this person would be that brother, then.

“I’m Inukai Juurou. Thanks for always looking after my sister. She must be hard to see since she’s so small.”

“Oh, no, not at all. Actually, there are times I want to pick up Touka-chan like a cat and spin her around, but since I’ll just be scratched, I refrain from doing so.”

“Hibari, have you really felt that kind of impulse when you’re around me?!”

Oh, how careless.

“So, Juurou-senpai, what are you doing here?”

“I’ve been steadily carrying out my job,”

Saying this, he picked up one of the papers he’d just finished writing on and held it out for us to see.

In large, heavy print, this was what was written:

“Please do not remove too many wood sliding panels!”

“Every year, there’s always people that go overboard and end up damaging school property, whether it’s equipment or gla.s.s windows. Well, damage to school property is one thing, but it’ll be no joke if someone gets hurt. That’s why I’ve decided to deter any misconduct by putting these posters up all over the school. As the president of the Disciplinary Committee!”

Only the last part was said in an excessively loud voice. Touka, clearly annoyed at her brother, shouted at him,

“Your explanation was too long! If you’re going to talk, then say it in less than five words, stupid brother.”

That hardly seemed like enough words to explain with.

“By the way, my brother’s always been good with his hands, if nothing else, so I often had him make posters and origami rings and things. But regardless, whether you’re the president of the Disciplinary Committee or the Discipline-airy Committee, you’re in the way! Go to the back! Like you would before a feudal lord’s procession!”

“What was that, sister of mine! Have a taste of that petting attack you hate so much—!”

It then took five minutes to break up the sibling fight that had suddenly started.

“S-speaking of which—”

After being thrown over his sister’s shoulder once, Juurou-senpai dusted off his school uniform while wearing a calm guise.

“Are you the rumored pigtail girl that found and saved Saho-chan?”

“I hardly did any saving. I was just the first to discover her. Um, do you know Saho personally?”

“Of course. When we were little, she often came over to play with Touka. Back then, I’d tag along to play with them, too. I still have many heartwarming memories of when we’d mix gunpowder that we hid from our father’s workplace, or that time we tried to ride a raft we’d made ourselves down Sumida River and nearly drowned.”

As if her own memories had been triggered by her brother’s words, a tired expression emerged on Touka’s face. It would seem that Juurou-senpai was the only one that found those memories to be heartwarming.

“Actually, what did you mean by ‘rumored pigtail girl’?”

“You mean you don’t know? ‘Well done, pigtail girl! The savior of a female student!’ That’s how they’re all writing it up in the school newspaper.”

Since when had this happened? Once the teachers read the latest newspaper and find out about Saho’s case spreading throughout the school, they’ll probably all have a fit. But even without the aid of the newspaper, word of the incident had already begun to spread in the early stages.

“Are my pigtails really my only distinguis.h.i.+ng feature…?”

“That’s not true. You have that mole under your eye too, don’t you? It’s a symbol of a good woman. Oh, but if your pigtails fell off for some careless reason and you came to school to school the next day, I probably wouldn’t be able to recognize you.”

What a terrible thing to say. In the first place, pigtails don’t go falling off just like that.

“In any case, thank you for saving Saho-chan! I’m really glad that the worst didn’t happen. I was… pretty worried myself this time, and I felt frustrated by it, too.”

As he spoke, his voice gradually grew softer. Was he frustrated because of her bullying?

“Juurou, I finished putting up all the posters you gave me,”

And then appeared Igaras.h.i.+-senpai.

“Igaras.h.i.+-senpai, are you helping out too?”

“Yes, as a member of the Executive Committee, I feel it’s imperative that any accidents during the festival be prevented.”

I was honestly impressed with the extent in which the Executive Committee carried out their job.

“Um…”

“What is it?”

I pointed at Igaras.h.i.+-senpai’s hand.

“I’ve been wondering since yesterday but, did you injure your hand?”

There were bandages wrapped lightly around his left hand.

“Yeah, it happened when I was carrying some equipment. Just a minor wound. Executive Committee members end up helping out with a lot of things, you see, depending on wherever help is needed.”

Certainly, I could relate very well with that notion right now.

“If the number of injured can be reduced with my labor instead, it’s a small price to pay. And anyway, Ex might make some kind of move during the festival. No, I’m certain that they’ll try to pull something, and I want to prevent that, at all costs.”

“I’ll give a hand however I can, as well,” added Juurou-senpai,

“Leave patrol on the festival day to the Disciplinary Committee! That Ex fellow is cunning. He’s constantly making statements around the school, as if to sew shut our watchful eyes. Like Yuuma said, we have to keep our guards up while the festival’s going on.”

Right, tomorrow would finally be the day of the Akebi Festival.

That day, in order to finish up everything before the festival, many of the students stayed behind at school until sunset to do last minute preparations.

I took the initiative to stay behind, but since there was a notice telling non-boarding students to go home as soon as possible, I had no choice but to leave.

Yue saw me off with a wave at the entrance. Since she stayed in the on-campus dormitory, it looked like she would still be staying at school.

I waved back from afar and shouted,

“Yue-chaaan, when you see the station name, Ochanomizu, don’t you feel thirsty—?”

“Is that really something to be asking now—?”

After leaving the school, I obediently headed for home—no, of course not.

Today, I would be taking the familiar route to visit the author’s house again.

Along the way, I saw a huge group of people heading down the street. They wore helmets, and carried a large banner. The students that protested the vote for a new Security Treaty.

I didn’t know much about politics, but they were talking more eagerly than I could have imagined, and seemed to be carrying out their activities. Now and then, I would overhear talk of something dangerous. I was afraid that someone might turn up dead by the end of it.

I couldn’t predict what kind of radical action that Ex, who seemed to be imitating these people with his activities at school, might pull again. In which case, it didn’t seem unnatural that there was some circ.u.mstance for what had happened to Saho.

“Sensei—! I’ve come to see you again today. Have you become all shriveled up like a malnourished dried sardine—?”

Once I threw open the door of the study as soon as I arrived at the mansion, I saw a man with his back facing this way. However, it wasn’t Kudou-sensei’s back.

“My, you seem cheerful as always,”

The man spoke in a slightly husky, almost whisper-like voice.

Messy hair, round gla.s.ses, and an indigo garment that exposed his chest.

“Kares.h.i.+ma-san, I didn’t even know you were here!”

I couldn’t believe that he’d just seem me act so shamelessly!

Quickly, I patted down my hair and skirt, and corrected my posture.

This man, with his friendly appearance and an other-worldly atmosphere about him, is Kares.h.i.+ma Soutatsu, the respectable owner that runs “Kokuudou,” the antique bookstore in Kanda Jinbouchou.

He’s known Kudou-sensei since their college days, and they share a senior-junior relations.h.i.+p.

Just like his appearance, he’s always calm, and even speaks kindly to me. I could never understand why someone as good-natured as Kares.h.i.+ma-san would continue to stay friends with that author for so long.

“Unlike Sensei, you’re always really gentle, and it’s calming being together with you, Kares.h.i.+ma-san. It’s like walking in the clear, shallow waters of a river upstream.”

“Hmph. And what’s so gentle about being in the company of this giant salamander of a man?”

“Oh, Sensei. So you were here, after all.”

When I looked over, I saw that the author was sitting in his work chair, reading a book.

“What’s with that att.i.tude, after rus.h.i.+ng into someone else’s home?”

“More importantly, what do you mean by ‘giant salamander’? Kares.h.i.+ma-san and giant salamanders don’t have a single thing in common,”

I objected such to the author’s metaphor, but Kares.h.i.+ma-san himself seemed unfazed.

“Perhaps he refers to how I live quietly while swaying to and fro,”

And to top it off, he was even acknowledging it.

“You see? It’s impossible to figure out what he’s thinking every day, and his ecology is shrouded in mystery. He’s practically the giant salamander of the antiquarian street.”

“Then how about changing the name of the store to Hanzaki Daimyoujin?”

Hanzaki is another name for the j.a.panese giant salamander. It’s said that even if you were to cut it in half, it won’t die, hence being nicknamed hanzaki (“torn in half”), however, it’s uncertain whether or not that theory is correct.

This mysterious creature has been the subject of legends and folklore, and a long time ago, it was widely told that in a place called Ryuuto-no-fuchi (“Dragon’s Head Abyss”) in Okayama Prefecture, there lived a colossal salamander that measured nearly ten meters in length, which they called Hanzaki Daimyoujin.

“—and that’s it. I haven’t left anything out, right?”

“Nope. It was a fine explanation, Hibari-chan.”

“Ehehe. Well, it’s mostly just what I’ve heard from you, Kares.h.i.+ma-san.”

Before inheriting Kokuudou from his father, Kares.h.i.+ma-san was an aspiring folklorist, and traveled to various places across j.a.pan to do fieldwork. Naturally, he’s frighteningly well-informed when it comes to folklore, indigenous beliefs, and youkai.

The truth is, the fact that I’ve come to know so much about youka is due to his influence.

“By the way, Kares.h.i.+ma-san, what brings you here today?”

“I came to bring the book materials that Senpai asked for.”