Vol 6 Chapter 2 (1/2)

The Mirror Can’t Reflect (镜不能鉴 / 鏡には映らない)

1

It all began on a Sunday

I was out buying so that day The tip of the G pencil I had been carefully using had finally reached its limit I intended to stock up on carbon paper, and had also been stricken with a sudden, inexplicable desire to purchase a brand new coeneral store I alent to, Iabout drawing on a coo and take a look at the prices Even though e space was too s it unsuitable for art

Though everyone said that the cost of co, my allowance was still too little for me to afford one If I were to include a tablet to complete the set, there was no way that I could pay for all that fuku-chan ht knoays to make it cheaper, but even if the price was halved, I still couldn’t afford it all There went e -– as an to leave the store, a familiar face appeared in front of me

“Well, if it isn’t Ibara? Long time no see!”

Although they er to reciprocate the gesture It was my middle school class make-up, I couldn’t tell who she was at first

Inwith everyone in class, and she hadn’t been a flashy person I felt that she had changed since then, and it wasn’t due to the coloured hair or the make-up

“Ah, long time no see” I waved as I spoke I wouldn’t call us close friends, but our relationshi+p wasn’t sour by any means She was a normal friend I just happened to be classmates with inher after such a long tiic

“What’re you doing?”

“I was thinking about buying a computer”

“Woah~? Which kind?”

“They’re too expensive here, so I’ll probably decide next time”

“Right? It’s all too expensive, huh!”

Ikehira gave an exaggerated reply before looking at

“What did you buy then?”

“Um, it’s…”

The moment I was hit with this unforeseen question, I was at a loss for words I’d kepta secret from my middle school classmates The only people who knew about it were fuku-chan, Oreki, and a few good friends It wasn’t a bad hobby, but if someone found out about it, more often than not, they’d ask, “can I take a look?’ That was just too e

“Stationery”

It wasn’t a lie

Despite the dull reply, Ikehira nodded with an easygoing expression

“Oh, of course You were always a smart one, Ibara”

If these words had been said back in middle school, they would have contained a lot of hidden feelings When the jealousy towards good grades rades, there was bound to be an indescribable dejection

However, Ikehira’s voice was light and indifferent There was no need for h I didn’t consider h school wasmodest noould just invite conteraduation, and yet, here ere, having a natural conversation Perhaps we’d matured a bi

t since then

There was still the issue of s that weren’t for school work, but instead, special ‘stationery’ I felt like I had lied, and was souilty as I asked,

“What did you buy, Ikehira?”

“Oh Initially, I wanted to get a video camera, but the price is 1000 yen more than what I expected”

“A video camera?”

“Yeah!” Her tone perked up “I’ in a band now, you know? But, my technique sucks So, I decided to record , aren’t I?”

I laughed in response If ere to talk about drawing a, there were countless people who’d blithely say “I want to draw” and yet never put in time to practice Co

“What do you play?”

“Bass But, our lead singer left us…”

As she said this, Ikehira’s expression suddenly brightened

“That’s right! Ibara, you’re good at singing! Have you joined a club?”

How did this become the topic?!

I’? Where had this misconception come from? The only reason I could think of was that I had been the conductor for the choir once That was only because no one else had been willing to do it

I hastily replied, “Yes, yes, I have I’m so busy after school that I don’t even have ti”

“Ah? Really? Is it a sports club?”

“Nope It’s a literary club You know some of the other members too”

“Oh? Who?”

“There’s fukube… and Oreki,” I said,their names casually

As I spoke, Ikehira raised her eyebrows in shock It was too late to regret it –

“Oreki? That guy’s there too?” Ikehira retorted with scorn

Then, she seemed to misunderstand, because she spoke orry in her voice, “So that’s how it is… Oreki’s around too That’s just super unlucky”

“Ah Mm”

Ikehira stepped closer, lowering her voluh I don’t knohat club this is… if he gets too… you know… you should just kick hi to help you, but I’m sure there must be someone who’ll lend you a hand”

Sing down the words in ive a silent nod

After that, we exchanged a feweach other farewell On the way hohts couldn’t help but drift to Oreki

Ikehira’s response wasn’t an overreaction That year, the third years of Kaburaya Middle School had all had a reason for despising Oreki

Or, to phrase itstudents had all had a reason to despise him

I hadn’t forgotten what had happened back then But…

I could still feel Ikehira’s harsh, chilling response as I plodded along That incident raduation but, as I recalled, it hadn’t been in January or February My memory was a little hazy, but it seemed to have happened at the end of November

2

There was a tradition in Kaburarya Middle School Every year, the class of graduating students would have to create a graduation piece

Because every cohort did so different, a lot of ideas had already been used over the last ten years The seniors who had graduated last year had done ‘tree-planting’ One sapling was passed down through all the two hundred or so graduating students, transferred from one student to the next until it reached the last person, who then planted it in the soil This was the ‘graduation piece’ from the entire year, which was honestly a shallow effort

I don’t knoe came to a decision on what to do I suppose that the school’s office had been in charge of it since the project had involved an expenditure ofon what had happened in the previous year, and our graduating class resolved to raduation piece’

“Our final decision is a big mirror How does that sound?”

When the class chairperson, Sajima-san, announced this, frustration descended across the entire roo a mirror, nor was there anyone who kne to

Sajiot red easily At that moment, he must have been flushed as he explained, “Imirror”

Hearing that, we finally got the idea

We would create a decorative wooden frae of one portion of the wood carving When it was done, the mirror and its decorative frame would be left in Kaburaya Middle School, to forever shi+ne down upon our juniors

If you were to ask ood or bad, I’d say it was a bad choice Even though it was better than nothing, it was useless and it felt like after a few years, it would unfortunately becohost stories

With that decided, the first step of the actual project was for everyone to design it

“Class 2’s Takasu-san will be in charge of the design”

Once I heard this, I understood the reason behind the decision Ami Takasu-san had won the silver prize in the city’s art coned the mascot for the sports fair all by herself She probably had thein our entire year

Takasu-san’s design was divided into ten parts, which were evenly distributed to each of the five classes Each class would then be responsible for dividing the work and carving out their segment

Once every part was pieced back together, it would be successfully completed

This didn’t see that period, we also had to prepare for our high school entrance exa ourselves for battle Everyone ht the same way – if the idea was too troublesoreeraduation project

Takasu-san’s design had an orthodox taste to it - trailing grape vines wound around the middle of the fra, and fruits hung fro a lush is and butterflies, while a few birds hovered at others

Though I say all this, in actual fact, I had only seen the full design after the project had been finished At the start, we only received wooden squares that were ten centin of the section ere in charge of

Our group had been allocated the design for the left side of the mirror Sajima had told us that the ns, whereas the right and left portions were less so Hence, we held a discussion and decided that the group as in charge of a top or bottoroups doing the right and left parts would have to work on tooden pieces

Of the two parts ere assigned, one depicted coiling vines and luscious, flourishi+ng leaves This was considered one of the easier sections However, the other piece’s design showed a bird pecking at the grapes growing on a vine

The boys in the group had grumbled:

“Why’re we the only ones carving a bird, huh?”

“Everyone else just needs to carve out vines How are we gonna’ do this?”

Even though these words were off-putting, they had a point My group’s design had been u distributed evenly was indeed true

But–

“– No one said it was going to be fair, did they?”

This rebuttal was just as valid I was usually the one who said these things

Once they heard this, the boys quieted down When they realised that they didn’t need to do the work the secretly in their hearts The co into account all these factors, leaving this job to the boys who had no experience with carving would be taking too big a risk

Previously, fuku-chan had said that what I valued the most was ‘impartiality’ Because I didn’t like to talk aboutabout it now, it was obvious that fuku-chan really did understand me

But when faced with the unequal job allocation for the graduation project, the only thing I could do was to accept it

Fortunately, I was considered quite adept at carving and Mishi+roup Her specialty was actually in etching, but she was stillThe tooden squares were a piece of cake to the both of us – though, ad the process

Mishi+ht be speaking out of turn, Mishi+uarded and closed off froether to finish the graduation project, I felt that we had exchanged our share of secrets with one another She learned of a artist, at any rate Mishi+ma didn’t tease me about it, nor did she tell ht She just sh”

The bird had been carved by Mishi+ma At the time, I hadn’t knohat type of bird it was I’d asked:

“Is it a s?”

“I think so”

“Alright, then it is”

We started referring to it as a s after this brief conversation Thinking about it now though, it bird

For ood memory

There had also been onethe final stages of our carving, one of the boys who had never come to lend a hand suddenly complained:

“You know, the talented people are the onesthis whole project If this wasthe people with no skills participate”

I remember that this hat he’d said

Why hadn’t you said that earlier, then? You even chose to wait till the last s I wanted to say Also, I used to be even more blunt than hoas now

“Are you stupid?”

That was probably the only thing I’d said to him

And so, we finished carving the tooden pieces without a hitch The portion that I had carved wasn’t as good as Mishi+n I was satisfied

The other groups co and curling grapevines, the single, large grape that took up more than half of the space on the board, each and every piece gradually caether

Finally, the day to submit the fruits of our labour had arrived

The probleroup that had kept pushi+ng back finishi+ng their part of the fra that caused everyone’s jaw to drop

That group had been responsible for the design of the botton, the vines weredown abruptly and then curve back up a little A horizontal tree branch was supposed to be placed where the vine had begun to hang down Even though it would be difficult tovine look natural, compared to our 's’, it was considered a much easier task

Despite that, on the wooden board they had handed over, there was only one pencil-straight, horizontal vine No, you couldn’t even tell that it was supposed to be a vine An extre stick had been carved into the middle of the board

This carving hadn’t followed the design at all It was a product of slacking off As I recalled, when Saji out with fury

“What the hell is this? Why didn’t you tell us you couldn’t do it – why does it look con?!”

On the other hand, the boy who had handed in the wooden board was unmoved

“Because it was too troublesoo up and down,” he had said

This had been Oreki’s part in the graduation piece

There was no ti The mirror’s frame had to be completed before theit Oreki’s carving had to be included in the frame

I had also helped to put the fray our work Once the newspapers had covered enough area, we placed all the pieces carved by each class on top of it Because every board had a corresponding nuned to it, we just had to follow the nuether

Once every segether with adhesive The adhesive was very strong,it a little hazardous Because of this, the task was left to the teacher Wearing gloves and using a brush, the teacher bent over and glued the wooden boards together piece by piece The students who had helped to sort the pieces out stood aside and quietly watched hi the winter, the days were very short I remembered that at the tiht have been snowing too

At last, the teacher finished applying the adhesive He slowly straightened his back and said,

“Alright It’s done”

As eren’t allowed to , we stood in our places and sized up the mirror frame left on the newspapers Before then, I felt that we hadn’t needed so ether

But, I thought that all the students that had been there in the gym must have felt a sense of achievement that went beyond words I heard a few boys besideabout it

“It’s not that bad”

“Yeah”

Honestly, for so made by a bunch of ood

In the finished product, the parts that Mishi+e of stood out It didn’t matter if this praise had come from me I was completely contented with how it looked Our part stood head and shoulders above all the segood

However, there were also parts out of the ten wooden boards that hadn’t been done well They had been crudely put together - some vines looked shoddy because they had been carved too thin, and at other sections, the leaves hadn’t been connected to the vines,However, there was no question that the “stick” Oreki had carved was the sloppiest

Still, I could relax a little now It was true that if someone were to try to connect all the curves of the art piece together, the only ugly aspect was Oreki’s straight vine However, this s of a flahen you saw the entire frame Luckily, Oreki’s wooden board was on the lower part of the rapevines were all joined froin with As such, hopefully, nobody was going to say that “only Class 5 slacked off”

Because it would take two or three days for the glue to dry, we had done all we could that day Afterwards, e had cleaned up the newspapers and were about to disym

Even though I knew of the famous Takasu-san, we had never been in the same class and so I hadn’t been able to put a face to the naination, Takasu-san had the slender figure of an artist I wouldn’t have guessed that she had such a sharp and hardened face I only realised that the girl was Takasu was I heard one of the helpers whisper, “Oh, it’s Takasu-san”

She wasn’t alone, but was accoirls who seemed to be her friends She shouted at one of the helpers, asking:

“How is it? Is it done?”

Her tone was unbelievably flippant I couldn’t help but feel a wave of discomfort wash over nified design of the grapevines that had grabbed everyone’s attention, and her laughter They seemed to have come from two separate people

The group of four chattered and laughed as they approached the mirror frame

I had thought that the finished product would make Takasu-san happy Even if there were so that was h we didn’t replicate Takasu-san’s design down to a tee, I felt that the result was a coe of all our abilities The rest of the students who had helped to put the fraether had all fallen into complete silence

However, the , the smile on her face instantly froze

“Um…”

A chill ran downher face darken, I learned what the phrase “losing all spirit”that, she suddenly swayed on her feet

Takasu-san raised her ar

“What… what happened here?!”

The section she was pointing at was Oreki’s half-assed work Takasu-san’s bawling voice resounded through the gym

“What happened? Why is it like that?! This is going too far! Don’t joke with me! It’s really too much!”

Seeing her becoirls is like “What’s the matter?” and “Calm down, okay?”

However, in the end, Takasu-san cried She covered her face, and the next instant was already choking out sobs Having reached their wits’ end, the girls turned around and snapped at the helpers:

“What’s theof this? Who did this?”

“This is her last memory of middle school! You all had better think of a solution!”

“Apologise! Apologise to Ami now!”

Even if she were to say that, the one who had carved that part wasn’t even around No one was able to resolve the situation, and Takasu-san continued to wail out tears by herself She didn’t even stop when the teacher tried to calm her down

At last, the teacher looked at the group of people who had helped to piece the parts together and said:

“Which class was in charge of this section?”

Everyone apart froe looks with one another In the e

Now that I think about it, it had taken me less than ten seconds –

“Class 5”

Once I reported the class in question, the three girls glared daggers at me

They began spouting threatening things like, “I’ll beat you to death” or “Why don’t you just drop dead?”, only ceding when the teacher came to my rescue and said, “That wasn’t done by Ibara”

During the graduation project, Class 5 had slacked off This caused the designer, Ahout the entire year by the second day Class 5 had offered up the name of the perpetrator, and everyone came to know Oreki as the ‘villain’

Several people in class condemned Oreki

“You have to take responsibility”

“Go and apologise now”

“Class 5’s got a bad reputation now thanks to you”

That guy conored all of their words

No one had defended Oreki During breaks, Oreki was seldom in class Because I was in the library society, I knew that he went to the library He didn’t go to the library to borrow books, but to read his own – I had seen this happen multiple times

In my opinion, what had happened couldn’t be pinned solely on Oreki He wasn’t the only one in charge of that section It had been done by his entire group, after all In Class 5, every group consisted of six members, which meant that apart from Oreki, there were five others who had to bear an equal araduation project This was clearly the case, and yet, all that blame had been pushed onto Oreki It wasn’t fair To be frank, whenever I saw even Oreki’s group him, I felt incredibly sick

However, I didn’t think that Oreki was an innocent victim of all this He’d definitely ed eye contact with hi in the library

The days of Oreki enduring the bla After the incident, Kaburaya Middle School entered winter break After the end of the break, we began the third school ter that, no one could spare the effort to harp about the graduation project, because…

the high school entrance exaht in front of us

On the evening of the day I met Ikehira, I sat before the desk in ht about these past events

Since I had entered high school, joined the Classic Literature club, and got on speaking terraduation incident Even though I had never thought that Oreki was the only one in the wrong, at that ti because it was troublesome, and so he’d done his job with apathy That made him an irresponsible person

After that, s happened

The only reason I entered the Classics Club was to be closer to fuku-chan I didn’t care about Oreki at all However, after I saw hi in the effort to resolve several incidents, I now felt that I didn’t understand hiht Or, it was in with

He’d worked with us to solve the reason behind Chi-chan’s grief

And then, he went through the co a class of seniors They had practically been strangers to us, and yet he’d helped them to complete their unfinished movie

A nuain I was co all these probleuy like Oreki be so proactive? – those had been est toelse that had happened

“… I remember it was around here…”

Iit tidy was the result of ilant care It tookfor

A copy of ‘Hyouka’ It was an odd anthology that had never even settled on what topic it would focus on As a matter of fact, last year, I did all the editorial work for it myself I had made an incredibly careless mistake when it came time to print the volumes Afterwards, I had jalance, up until today

There was no need to flip it open I could still ree portion of its contents

What I found strange was how meticulously Oreki had written his y

Whenever soy and enthusias the sports festival, or attending the wedding of your relative These were both typical scenarios If someone heard, “Oh God, someone died in a locked roo This was an incredibly normal reaction too

Co an article was a vastly different experience Under such circuetic Take fuku-chan as an exath before he could produce a manuscript for ‘Hyouka’ Because I liked him, I sat him down in the clubroom and scolded him

“I told you, fuku-chan I told you at the start Did you listen carefully? Didn’t I already tell you that just writing about ‘so’ won’t do? The proble, but it isn’t just about being interesting Listen, what you’ve written here isn’t co unimportant, you have to do your work properly It’s all because you didn’t listen carefully that you’re short on time now You better reflect on what you’ve done Have you reflected? You’ve ht, then I’ll help you think Sit over here!”

It had played out like that

I wasn’t saying that fuku-chan was hopeless It would be better to see this as a normal occurrence Coa Society was even more… no, I shouldn’t think too much about that

Back on topic, Oreki had an impatient look on his face as he said “here”, and passed the otiating with the printer and hadn’t even set a date for the manuscripts to be submitted My face had been expressionless but, underneath that, I felt incredibly surprised The lines that he always recited to act cool – “What I have to do, I do the simple as it? – I had always assumed that they were the words of a lazy person Only then did I realise that Oreki abided by his catchphrase He wouldn’t avoid doing so he had to do Probably

Looking back at the time I spent in the Classics Club, which was also the year that I started to notice Oreki’s pitiful self, I started thinking about that incident once more

The graduation project had been important to all the third years Was Oreki the sort ould choose to slack off even during such significant event? Was he lazy to that extent?

I flipped over on my bed

“So’s off”

I felt that so? He must have had a plan Only now,hiding? Itto do hy Oreki had acted so indifferent

Even though it had been so long ago, I wanted to find out what happened

3

On the first day ofobstacle

I reached the Geography Rooht after class on Monday Since it had to do with Oreki, I could just ask hiht up to reveal the whole truth This was my initial plan

Oreki was the only one in the clubroom If this were any other day, I’d lament at my bad luck But, today, it was instead a perfect opportunity As usual, Oreki sat next to the third table, reading the book on his hand in that dull way of his When I entered the room, heto his book This happened usually too

So, when I placeddown and approached Oreki, he didn’t pay ? I tilted ear had turned in hted inal position Oreki wouldn’t bring a questionable book to school, so as he trying to hide? As I thought about this, htly:

“I have a question for you”

I ation

“A question for me?” Oreki pointed at himself and ask, both puzzled and dazed Even if this was Oreki, I had to ad

“U to criticise you I just wanted to ask you so about the past”

“So about the past…”

As he said this, Oreki placed his book on the table – not forgetting to hide its cover

“If it’s about history, Satoshi+ knows more than me”

I didn’t have the patience to play along in a double act I pulled a chair up and sat right in front of Oreki

“It’s about what happened during middle school”

“Satoshi+ knows more about that too”

“It’s about the graduation project”

Oreki i his face Slowly, he said, “Doesn’t Satoshi+ know more about that than me?”

He was right fuku-chan had been part of the organising co up fuku-chan’s naingtoo much?

I said to Oreki bluntly, “It’s about you Don’t you dare say that fuku-chan knows better again”