Petit Bourgeois Volume 6 Part 1 Chapter 3: Should We Really Have Met?

Chapter 2 | Contents | Chapter 4

The light that streamed in through the open curtains hurt my eyes. The door opened, and the nurse with very short hair entered.

“Good morning. Did you sleep well last night?”

I did open my eyes once, but excluding that I’d slept for almost half a day.

“Yes, very well.”

The nurse put on a businesslike face.

“That’s good to hear. Now, time to take your temperature.”

She said while passing me a thermometer, then started replacing the fluid of the IV drip.

The thermometer was the type that measures temperature under the armpit, and I have no idea how it works, but it produced a result quite a lot faster than the one I had at home. At about the same time that the fluid replacement was complete, a series of electronic beeps signaled that the measurement was complete. I handed the thermometer back to the nurse.

“Your temperature is a little high. Does it hurt anywhere?”

Of course, I had a few pain points.

“My leg hurts and feels hot. I think it might be swollen.”

“I see.”

“My head also hurts a little.”

“Anything else?”

“And it’s really quite distressing to be unable to change my position.”

“Please bear with it.”

As instructed, I’d told her my pain points, but gained nothing from it. The nurse wiped the thermometer and returned it to her pocket, then turned her gaze to the head of my bed and let out a light smile.

“That’s a cute stuffed toy.”

The wolf plushie was sitting on the table, looking small and quiet. I asked just to make sure.

“Am I allowed to have this here?”

“No problem, but you didn’t have it yesterday.”

“It seems like someone came to visit last night and left it.”

“I see. Did you get to talk with them?”

I smiled wryly.

“I was asleep, so I didn’t even know that they came. It was already placed here when I woke up.”

The nurse beamed, then changed the subject.

“Your rehabilitation will start today. Please do your best.”

I was a little surprised. I didn’t expect rehabilitation to start so soon, when I’d only had the surgery two days ago.

“Like yesterday, breakfast is at eight o’clock.”

She said, then quickly left the room. Since I was admitted into hospital, I hadn’t seen any other nurses. She was probably in charge of me. Soon after, breakfast was delivered, but everything, including the raising and lowering of the meal table, was handled by that nurse with very short hair.

After finishing breakfast, Miyamuro-sensei came over to give me a checkup. I’d only just come to understand, but he seemed to be an orthopedic surgeon. He took a look at my leg.

“Your foot is swollen, and has a high temperature. Does it hurt?”

He asked. I’d already told the nurse about whether I was hurting anywhere, but it seemed that information was not necessarily shared swiftly. I told Miyamuro-sensei that it did indeed hurt, and he nodded.

“From today, we will take you off the drip for pain relief, so we will give you some medicine to be taken orally. Please drink it if the pain feels strong. After that, we will wrap the wound using a bandage. Do you have any concerns?”

It seemed that I didn’t fully understand, but if they would be doing it later, did it mean that my wound was currently not wrapped in a bandage? I was worried about that point, yet I was also afraid that my question would be answered with a yes, so I did not dare to ask.

“Let’s do our best so you can be quickly discharged.”

The doctor said.

Rehabilitation took place in the forenoon.

The physiotherapist was a man with a big body like that of a wrestler, and his name tag read Mabuchi. While he had an intimidating face and a deep, powerful voice, Mabuchi-san was very amicable.

“Since you’re young, Kobato-san, your muscles are slow to atrophy, but if you lie down for too long your muscles could atrophy more than expected. Due to the observation of your mental faculties, we’re starting a day late, but if we do not increase your range of motion¹, you may end up not being able to walk the way you want to even if the bone heals fully. So, let’s try our best to make this work.”

That meant rehabilitation was usually done a day after surgery.

I’d always thought rehabilitation to be painful and tough, but under Mabuchi-san, all I had to do were stretches where I swung my uninjured left leg around, which was an extremely light exercise. Perhaps that was because my right leg still hurt, and was not at the state where it could do tough exercise.

Since I could not move out of my bed, the rehabilitation was done on top of the bed. How many days will this go on for? I asked that question, prompting Mabuchi-san to reply in a tone one would use when chatting about the weather.

“That’s dependent on the orthopedic surgeon’s judgment.”

I persisted, asking how long it would normally take.

“There are not many cases of people in their teens getting their thighs broken, and there is a lot of variance between individuals, so I really can’t say.”

That was all I got for an answer. Objectively speaking, it was a sincere response.

After rehabilitation ended, there was nothing for me to do until lunch. With this boring period of time dragging on and on, I picked up one chocolate bonbon Osanai-san had given.

Forgetting the notice that I was limited to one per day, I’d chosen one without thinking. The chocolates looked like dice when they were in the box, but after picking one up, I realized that they weren’t cubical, but were actually rather flat. The surface of these chocolates had protruding lines, which, according to the information booklet, you could tell the flavor from. The one in my hand was apparently “vanilla”. It was probably my first time seeing the vanilla flavor stated as “vanilla”. When I put it in my mouth, a soft fragrance spread as the chocolate started dissolving. Eventually, it completely unraveled and disappeared, causing a sweet and bitter taste to linger on my tongue.

I reluctantly stared at the remaining seven chocolate bonbons. Soon after, the pain in my leg returned, but I felt a lot better after drinking some medicine I’d received from the nurse with very short hair. While staring out the window at the winter streetscape, my consciousness was pulled back to the events of three years ago. After wiping the remaining chocolate from my fingers, I picked up my notebook.

The day after I heard that Hisaka-kun had gotten into a hit-and-run accident, the rumors disappeared as if they were smoke.

No one brought up his name. Not because there was a reason to shy away from the rumors, but because there was no reason to talk about them at all – basically, everyone had already digested Hisaka-kun’s hit-and-run accident as an event of the past, in only one day. If I approached Ushio-kun and his friends, who had so enthusiastically gotten on the idea of catching the criminal themselves, and inquired about the progress of their investigation, they would have probably asked me what I was talking about.

The only time Hisaka-kun’s name cropped up was when one of the students who visited him in hospital suggested that we make a thousand paper cranes for him, but the class reaction was mixed. On one hand, something as simple as that should be done as a show of concern towards our classmate, but it was clear from the stiff silence and wandering gazes that no one really wanted to do it deep down. Someone said, “I want to do it, but won’t it be troubling for Hisaka-kun on the receiving end?”, and an atmosphere of relief openly spread throughout the class. Thus the suggestion was dispersed like smoke, and from what I could tell, even the person who had made the suggestion seemed to be relieved that their idea had been shot down.

Of course, I continued investigating.

First, I looked for Fujidera Makoto, the second-year student who had witnessed the accident. From that name I couldn’t tell if they were male or female, but I figured that I would find out when I met with them. Ushio-kun hadn’t told me their class, but since each grade had six classes, it wouldn’t take that long to figure it out by going round to each class.

After the first period ended, I went to class 2-1 and asked a nearby second-year student, “Is Fujidera in this class?” There was no satisfactory response, so I traveled to class 2-2, and repeated my question. This time, I received an answer, “By Fujidera, do you mean Fujidera Makoto? They’re in 2-5, I think.” I looked at my watch to see that the break would be over in two minutes, so I decided to visit class 2-5 during the next break, and returned to my classroom.

The third-year classrooms were all located on the second floor of the school building. In that second floor corridor, I came across a group of students in gym clothes. It seemed that a class was about to take a lesson in physical education. Though they didn’t look to be particularly looking forward to it, everyone in that group had a bright look on their face.

There were four girls in that group who were walking side by side in the corridor, so I walked past them while leaning close to the windows. Wanting to hurry back to class, I quickened my pace, but almost collided into a petite girl who suddenly appeared from behind the four girls.

“Ah, sorry.”

I immediately apologized.

The lesson in the second period was English, and during that, I learned the word “quickly”. When it ended, I lost no time in heading to class 2-5, but the next lesson for that class was apparently to be held in a different classroom, for students were streaming out. Even if I singled out Fujidera Makoto, he probably wouldn’t have time to listen to what I had to say, so I watched them leave. I had to move to a different classroom for the next lesson, so in the end, it was only during the lunch break when I was able to achieve my goal.

At the entrance of the 2-5 classroom, I asked a nearby student about Fujidera. Without being suspicious of my question, that second-year student turned to the interior of the classroom and shouted.

“Fuji! A senpai’s here for you!”

I still didn’t know Fujidera’s gender. I was wondering which one it would be, when Fujidera eventually appeared and turned out to be a boy. He had a short stature and quiet appearance, and was looking at me with overt suspicion.

“Erm… Are you the senpai who was looking for me?”

He’d probably wanted to ask, “Who are you?” but after noticing that I was a third-year student from the badge on my lapel, had chosen a more appropriate line. I wasted no time beating around the bush.

“I’m a classmate of Hisaka-kun. You’re the one who witnessed him in a hit-and-run accident, right?”

Upon hearing that question, Fujidera-kun displayed even more caution, and even retreated slightly.

“Erm…”

“I’m not here to cause you any trouble. I heard that you witnessed the accident, so I just want to confirm that.”

“Er… Yes, I saw it.”

What exactly was Fujidera-kun so afraid of? Was it so pressurizing to be suddenly grilled by a senior? Well, in any case, I’d determined that he was a witness. I instantly followed up with another question.

“What time did Hisaka-kun get run over?”

“About 5:06 in the evening.”

He immediately gave me a precise number. Eerily precise, I should say.

“…You remembered it well.”

Fujidera-kun slightly averted his eyes.

“I was questioned about it by the police. I have talked about it many times already, so of course I would remember.”

“I see. That must have been tiring.”

“It wasn’t that bad. Is that all?”

Obviously, that was not all I had to ask.

“You saw the car that hit Hisaka-kun. What was the number on its license plate?”

“I cannot remember. It was a four digit number, I believe.”

“What was the car’s model?”

“The only one I can tell by appearance is the DeLorean².”

I fell silent for a while, because I thought I would have been able to tell the model of a car at a glance. I knew the Prius, Jeep… hang on, is Jeep even considered a car model?³ In any case, it seemed that the car that ran over Hisaka-kun was not a DeLorean.

“So, what kind of car was it?”

“It was small light car.”

Light cars and regular cars are differentiated not by size, but by their engine displacement⁴. Just to be sure, I asked.

“Could it have been a regular car that happens to be small?”

Fujidera-kun’s answer was succinct.

“No, it was a light car. The license plate was yellow.”

There was no doubt about it, then.

“Didn’t you say earlier that you don’t remember the license plate?”

“Your earlier question was about the number on the license plate.”

Well, perhaps I had phrased the question like that. Fujidera-kun looked timid, but wasn’t he quite a wily individual?

While looking at the accident scene yesterday, I’d predicted that the hit-and-run vehicle was a light car. And now Fujidera-kun was telling me that it was indeed a light car. I’d made a deduction based on observation, and that was now corroborated by testimony. There was no doubt that Hisaka-kun was run over by a light car.

It seemed that Fujidera-kun intended to not say anything more than what was asked of him. Thus, I should ask more questions.

“So the car that hit Fujidera-kun was a light car. You said you don’t know what model it was, but was there anything else? Was it a truck⁵, or did it have some kind of unique seal, or were there yellow numbers on a black background? Was there anything like that?”

Yellow license plates can refer to black numbers on a yellow background, or yellow numbers on a black background. In the latter case, it signifies that the car is for commercial use by a logistics provider. Fujidera-kun did not hesitate.

“No, there was nothing like that. It was black numbers on a yellow background. Also, erm, it was a wagon car.”

“What color?”

“It was light aqua, I think.”

“You think?”

“It was evening, so I may have been slightly mistaken about its color. I also said as much to the police.”

I nodded. The culprit’s car was written as “blue” in the newspaper article, and Hisaka-kun described it as “sky-blue”. Saying that it was light aqua did not contradict either piece of information.

It was about time to get to the main topic.

“So, about the time Hisaka-kun was hit…”

I started, but unexpectedly, another voice was directed at me.

“Excuse me.”

The voice belonged to a girl with a second-year badge. Since Fujidera-kun and I were talking in the doorway, it seemed that she had been unable to get into the classroom.

“Ah, sorry.”

I apologized while retreating to the corridor. Apparently wanting to end the conversation, Fujidera-kun tried returning to his classroom. He probably didn’t want to recall the events of the accident, but I could not let him escape.

“Please wait. Just a little while more.”

With a frown, he reluctantly turned around.

“You say that you are Hisaka-senpai’s classmate, but what will you do after hearing about the accident?”

“Of course, I’ll search for the culprit.”

With such a straightforward answer thrust at him, Fujidera-kun was left dumbfounded, so I continued on.

“I won’t be able to catch them, but I can let the police know if I learn something about their identity. I can’t just sit still and keep silent when something like that happens to my classmate. Fujidera-kun, you’re the only one who witnessed the hit-and-run, so I’d like you to talk about what you saw.”

I also wasn’t lying this time.

Fujidera-kun looked down, seemingly in a dilemma. One more push was all I needed. Just when I was considering if I had anything to persuade him with, he started talking, apparently having made up his mind.

“I understand. But I do not have that much to say. After club activities ended, I headed home, and I noticed that Hisaka-senpai was walking in front of me. There seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary. As usual, cars drove past on the embankment road, and I was walking while looking at my feet… but all of a sudden, I heard an incredibly loud braking sound come from one of the vehicles, and I looked up to see that Hisaka-senpai was being hit by the car. It stopped for a moment, but soon fled the scene.”

Fujidera-kun closed his mouth. As I’d thought, he didn’t want to talk about everything, so I had to drag the answers out.

“Did you see the culprit’s face?”

Surprised by that question, he nodded.

“Yes, I did.”

“Wha… What kind of person were they?”

I asked in a flustered manner, but Fujidera-kun was not very articulate in his response.

“He was wearing a pair of sunglasses that were pale orange in color. That was the only thing that left a strong impression about them, and there was nothing else. I instantly thought they were male, so I think they had short hair.”

“I don’t mean to nitpick, but what of the possibility that they were a woman with short hair?”

“Of course, that is possible.”

I considered the relative positions of the people involved. If Hisaka-kun had gotten hit from the front while he was walking ahead of Fujidera-kun, it was no wonder that Fujidera-kun could see the driver’s seat. It was also not unreasonable to only catch sight of the sunglasses as a characteristic of the driver and be hazy about anything else. Even so, it was a shame. Could I glean any more information from him?

“Was there anyone else sitting in the front passenger’s seat or the back seats?”

“I don’t remember.”

“What about the driver’s height and body size? Were they fat or thin?”

Fujidera-kun waved his hand in a frustrated manner.

“Like I said, I don’t remember. The driver looked like a man at first glance, so I don’t think they were small. I was also asked about this by the police, but that was all I could recall… please, just leave me be.”

He now had a really disgruntled look on his face. I probably wouldn’t be able to pull more information about the culprit from him. I changed the direction of my questions.

“I heard that Hisaka-kun was walking downstream. It was the same with you. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“Do you use that path every day to get home?”

“No, I just happened to use it that day. Grandma… I was to have dinner at my grandmother’s house, and that is the only path I know to get there.”

I probably didn’t have to ask why he had to eat at his grandmother’s house.

“How far apart were the two of you?”

Fujidera-kun had apparently been asked this question by the police as well, for he showed no hint of having to think about his response.

“About 30 to 40 meters.”

“That’s pretty far.”

“So it is.”

The unspoken words, “So what?” were not lost on me, and an awkward silence fell. I changed the subject.

“Which direction did the car escape to?”

“It drove off in the opposite direction of where we were facing, so upstream, which is north.”

Since Hisaka-kun got run over from the front while he was walking downstream, the car would certainly have fled upstream.

“Just to be sure, who made the report?”

“It was Hisaka-senpai who called for an ambulance on his own. After that, he called the police. I was about to make a call but I did not because I saw that senpai was already doing it himself. Thinking that the car that ran into him would come back, I was looking at the road.”

According to the newspaper, Hisaka-kun had called for an ambulance on his own, but it seemed that he’d actually called for an ambulance, then for the police in that order, all by himself.

“So, the ambulance came, right?”

“Yes. While the paramedics were loading senpai onto a stretcher, some police cars arrived. The police and the paramedics got into some sort of argument, with the police asking if they could wait a little before transporting Hisaka-senpai, and the paramedics asking if they could make a U-turn on that road. In the end, both were denied, and senpai got transported away.”

That would mean Fujidera-kun was left alone at the accident scene.

“They must have asked you a good number of questions.”

As if recalling that moment, Fujidera-kun put on a sour face.

“Well… they did. They asked all sorts of questions.”

“That’s good.”

Eyewitness interviews are wonderful, are they not?

“No, not at all. It was somewhat frightening.”

Well, it was not unreasonable for him to think that way. Perhaps I was a little insensitive there.

“So, you were at that spot for a while. Was it for about ten minutes?”

“It was for more than that. After that, some people in what looked like work clothes arrived. They started going down on their hands and knees to investigate the road, so I was left alone for that period of time… in the end, I stayed there for about thirty minutes.”

“Would those people not get run over when they got down on their hands and knees?”

An exasperated look was directed at me.

“Of course, they stopped the cars. They alternated traffic on a single lane.”

“Oh, so they put up police tape?”

“Well, yes, they did.”

It would again be insensitive to say that I wanted to see that, so I swallowed my words.

Now I roughly understood the circumstances of the accident, with the exception of one point.

“Thank you for everything. But there is just one last thing I would like to ask for posterity’s sake.”

“What is it?”

For some reason, Fujidera-kun’s gaze seemed to wander restlessly. Perhaps he was worried that the lunch break was ending.

“You don’t have to brace yourself like that, it’s just a simple question. Hisaka-kun was alone, right?”

A strained smile drifted onto Fujidera-kun’s visage.

“It might not be related, or rather I don’t think it is related at all, but there was a girl who climbed up the stairs to the embankment between me and Hisaka-senpai. She was wearing our school uniform.”

“A girl, you say!”

At the back of my mind, I recalled the vocabulary book I’d found at the accident scene. I had a hunch that she was the owner of that vocabulary book.

“You’re sure that she was wearing our school uniform, right? What happened to her?”

As if shocked by my forcefulness, he faltered.

“Erm… she fell off the embankment road when she tried to get away from the aqua-colored car.”

“She fell?”

The aqua-colored car ran into Hisaka-kun, caused the mystery girl to fall from the embankment road, then escaped past Fujidera-kun in the upstream direction… Didn’t that make the girl another victim of the accident!

My goodness! So I’d found a lost article of an unknown victim! I certainly hadn’t expected to make such a major accomplishment.

“You also told the police about that girl, right?”

Fujidera-kun gave a small nod. One thing finally made sense to me. Yesterday, while talking about Hisaka-kun’s accident, the teacher had asked for eyewitnesses to come forward. In other words, the police knew that there was another student related to Hisaka-kun’s case in this school, and had probably asked the staff to look for that student.

“So what happened? Was that girl injured?”

But Fujidera-kun cradled his head for a moment. Come to think of it, his attitude was a little weird since the beginning of our conversation. It wasn’t just that he didn’t want to recall the accident, but I could sense that there was something he didn’t want to talk about. Eventually, he bitterly answered my question.

“I don’t know. She disappeared. I ran over to Hisaka-senpai who had just been hit and was about to call for an ambulance, but he did it all by himself. When I finally remembered that there was a girl who fell off the embankment, I went to take a look, but no one was there. Really, I should… I should have gone to look for her earlier.”

So Fujidera-kun was having feelings of guilt towards not helping that girl. Was that the reason for his anxious attitude?

“What do you remember about that girl?”

He shook his head.

“After getting up the stairs, she started walking in my direction, so while I saw her face, I don’t remember it. I would have probably recognized her if she’s in the same year, so she’s probably a first-year student.”

Fujidera-kun then continued in a voice lacking in energy.

“Is that all? Lunch break is ending, and I have to prepare.”

“…Yes, you may go. Thank you, and sorry for taking up your time.”

I gave a light bow as Fujidera-kun returned to his classroom. Looking at the clock installed on the classroom wall, I gathered that lunch break was ending in one minute.

Within the time limit, I’d asked all that I wanted to. You could say that it was a fruitful lunch break indeed.

After school, I did some thinking while preparing to head home.

I’d investigated the accident scene, and met with the victim, as well as an eyewitness. What should I do next? What about finding the one car that had run over Hisaka-kun – Fujidera-kun hadn’t mentioned that he’d been hit by two or more cars – and handing the mystery person in sunglasses to the police? It was a monumental task, but I’d already found a few clues, and I might be able to find some more in the future. To that end, what measures should I take?

The first thing that came to mind was to find the girl who had dropped her vocabulary book.

Once again, I thought about where the people involved were located relative to one another. Before the accident, Fujidera-kun was walking behind Hisaka-kun on the footpath. In between them, the mystery girl went up to the embankment and started walking in the opposite direction from the other two.

It can be assumed that the mystery girl tried to evade the car right as the accident occurred. If so, she would have seen the car in question up close.

According to Fujidera-kun, that girl was wearing our school uniform.

Additionally, he’d mentioned that he thought the girl to be a first-year student, but I’d found a vocabulary book with words that third-year students would learn. I should value the physical evidence here, rather than Fujidera-kun’s opinion. But would I be able to find that girl? With that thought, I stopped stuffing my textbooks into my bag.

Hisaka-kun’s hit-and-run accident had almost ceased to be a rumor. However, that only applied to today, and it was quite a big topic the day before. It had set the class, even the entire school abuzz. But why was there no one talking about the fact that Hisaka-kun was not the only victim, but another girl had almost been run over?

I could think of two theories for this.

The first was that such a rumor had flown around, but had not reached my ears. I had to admit that there was a difference in the bounds of information transmitted among girls and among boys. News of the girl almost being run over had only spread between girls, and as a boy, I had no way of knowing about that.

That sounded plausible. But there was another way I could think about it.

What if news of the girl had not surfaced at all, and why would that happen? A simple answer would be that Fujidera-kun had told a lie. If the girl who had almost gotten run over did not exist, she would obviously not become a topic of conversation. However, that would make the vocabulary book I’d found at the embankment just a coincidence, and the school administration would have had no deeper reason to search for eyewitnesses of the accident.

To consider another possibility, what if the mystery girl had not told a single person that she had almost gotten hit by a car?

The only people at the scene of the hit-and-run were Hisaka-kun, Fujidera-kun, the mystery girl, and the culprit – there might have been more than one person in the culprit’s car, but for now I assumed that the culprit was alone. Since the girl had her near-miss after Hisaka-kun got run over, it was no wonder that he didn’t know about her. As for Fujidera-kun, if my deductions were correct, he was feeling guilty for not helping the girl, so it was natural for him to keep mum about her presence. In other words, as long as the mystery girl did not shout, “I was almost run over and fell down from the embankment road!” for the entire world to hear, there would be no way for others to find out.

If that line of thought was correct, why did the mystery girl keep quiet about her close shave? Did she simply not want to stand out? Or did she perhaps have an extremely poor social standing in school, such that she was in no state to raise her voice? Or… did she have some other reason?

The items I wanted to bring home were now all packed in my bag. As I was about to leave the classroom, I noticed Ushio-kun’s group directing cold stares at me. However, none of them spoke up, so I also said nothing.

Before leaving school, I thought of stopping by the library. There was something I wanted to find out.

The library after school was fairly packed. Even though the end-of-term tests were still quite far off, many students were studying with their notebooks open beside them, I headed to the front counter and asked a question of the bored-looking librarian.

“Where can I find the books about cars?”

The librarian, whom I could tell to be a second-year student from the badge, answered in an annoyed manner.

“Books about cars? We don’t have any, do we?”

Thinking that to be impossible, I decided to search on my own.

Each bookshelf had a piece of paper stuck on the sides which indicated the taxonomy of books. According to those, the books allocated with numbers in the 500s were related to technology and engineering, while those that were numbered in the 600s were books on manufacturing. The latter seemed like it would include books regarding the production of automobiles, but I wasn’t looking for a book about Toyota car production, so I moved towards the bookshelf with books numbered in the 500s.

I was not someone who often used the library, and it was probably my first time searching for a book there. The library was quiet, with narrow and dark gaps between bookshelves. There were not many books numbered in the 500s. That couldn’t be helped, since there probably weren’t many middle school students who required books on technology and engineering. Out of them, there was a book titled “A Simple Introduction to Engines”. The label pasted to its spine had 533 written on it. Close by, there was another book with the name “Bicycle Maintenance From A to Z”. It felt like I was getting warmer.

“It should be around here somewhere.”

I muttered while squatting down to look at the lower section of the bookshelf, and I finally found it. The book had a very impressive-sounding title “Dramatic, Simple, Easy-To-Understand Technicolor Perfect Explanations: The Mechanism of Cars”. For now, I pulled the book from its shelf and stood up.

As its title suggested, the book was in full color. It also had many photographs and illustrations, making it undoubtedly a useful reference to middle-school students with an interest in cars. From the table of contents, I found the chapter on braking systems.

Automobiles have two types of braking systems, the disk brake and the drum brake. However, it is easy for the structure of a drum brake to retain heat, and overheating causes performance to drastically decline (Brake fade), so the disk brake is mainly used today.

That passage was followed with simple illustrations of how the disk brake and drum brake were used to stop a car. Reading further, I learned that disk brakes were originally used in aircraft. In the case of automobiles, disk brakes were first utilized in racing cars, then gradually installed in passenger cars. It was quite an interesting topic, but what I wanted to find out still had not appeared. I pressed on.

These braking systems are operated by leg power, so they are called foot brakes. To produce a large damping force from a small amount of power, most cars today have brake boosters. Vacuum brake boosters are most commonly used, but there is also the hydraulic brake booster and the air brake booster. These brakes are installed on all four tires of the vehicle.

“This is it.”

In a small voice, I muttered.

Four skid marks were left behind at the accident scene. At first, I thought that it was natural, but I started having doubts afterwards. I didn’t know if it was natural for four skid marks to appear after hard braking was done on a four-wheeled vehicle not installed with ABS.

If it was just to stop the car, it was enough for the brakes to be applied to only the front or back wheels, and if so, only two skid marks should have been left on the road. But there were four – meaning that the car in question had brakes installed on all four wheels, and if that was in the minority, it would be a very important clue in narrowing down the culprit’s car.

However, according to “Dramatic, Simple, Easy-To-Understand Technicolor Perfect Explanations: The Mechanism of Cars”, brake systems are installed on all four wheels of a car. It seemed that my idea of narrowing down the type of car by the number of skid marks it had left was mistaken. Well, that happens. By exploring all possible avenues, I would occasionally be off the mark, and I would probably draw the winning ticket eventually. In the dim light, I closed the book.

– I noticed that something was off from the corner of my eye.

Something was there… no, someone.

With the book still sandwiched between both my hands, I turned my head.

Someone was standing right behind me in the narrow space between bookshelves. It was a girl about half a head shorter than I was. She had trimmed bangs and was wearing the winter uniform, which was predominantly a shade of dark blue close to black.

I’d seen her before. She was a third-year student. Why was she behind me?

Since we were in the library, perhaps she’d come to look for a book. One numbered in the 500s, about technology and engineering. Of course, it wouldn’t be strange for that to be the case. Everyone is free to read whatever they want. But something else caught my attention. Why was she in the winter uniform? It was already June, so boys and girls should have changed to the summer uniform, which was mainly white in color. There was no rule saying that students could continue wearing the winter uniform based on their personal preferences. Did this girl like the winter uniform so much that she would risk getting scolded just to wear it?

Or perhaps my thinking was wrong from its basis.

It wasn’t that she’d intentionally put on the winter uniform, but that was the only thing she could wear today.

Why was that?

Because her summer uniform had gotten dirty. The summer uniforms she had were either being washed or at the cleaners’, so after a discussion with the school teachers, she had no choice but to put on her winter uniform. Was that not the case?

But why then, did her summer uniform get dirty? …What if, for example, she fell off the embankment road and into a pool of collected rainwater?

It took me roughly three seconds to reach that conclusion. During that time, the girl kept silent as she looked at me with upturned eyes. Was she waiting for me to say something, or did she get surprised when I suddenly turned around?

In any case, I was the first to speak up.

“You’re the girl who almost got run over by a car?”

She looked slightly offended by my words.

“That’s not my name.”

“Sure, but I don’t know your name.”

The two of us were standing quite close to one another. The girl retreated a little, leaving an appropriate distance between us.

“I’m Osanai Yuki, from class 3-4.”

She beat me to introducing herself. Belated as it was, I followed suit.

“I’m Kobato Jougorou from class 3-1.”

The girl named Osanai gave a small nod. Did she mean that she now knew my name, or that she’d known it already?

After a short period of silence, I asked a question.

“So, did you need something from me?”

She shook her head and pointed at the book in my hands.

“I need that book.”

“This? ‘Dramatic, Simple, Easy-To-Understand Technicolor Perfect Explanations: The Mechanism of Cars’?”

“Yes.”

At that moment, I had a hunch.

“What do you need the book for?”

She did not say that it was none of my business, but answered as if she’d expected that question.

“The car that almost hit me left behind four skid marks, and I wanted to know if that’s normal.”

If so, I could tell her the answer.

I woke up in darkness.

I tried recalling the time at which I’d fallen asleep. I could remember eating dinner. The main was ginger pork. After that, I drank water as instructed, then received the nurse’s assistance in brushing my teeth… so when did I drift off? Dinner had started at about six in the evening, and it was now growing light outside. Could I have really slept for ten hours? Perhaps due to sleeping too much, I was feeling a little dazed. My body that had been restricted from moving complained about its dissatisfaction by way of creaking. Going against the doctor’s directions a little, I wriggled it about.

That’s it. I was recalling the events of three years ago after dinner, about Hisaka-kun… and about the day I met with Osanai-san. We met in the library after school, and found out about each other’s goals.

Should we really have met?

There were things that we could do only because we were together. We spent our time in high school making use of each other, sometimes staying apart and sometimes going back to normal. However, if I’d never met Osanai-san in that library after school… I would have definitely been overwhelmed by my failures. Would that have led to a better result, I wonder?

At that moment, I sensed a refreshing citrus fragrance.

There was something under my pillow. In the darkness, I groped around for the source of that fragrance.

Before long, I found the round fruit. It was round, but was bulging at the calyx. Was it a dekopon⁶?

Tucked away underneath that orange was a small envelope. I opened it up to find yet another tiny message card. With my eyes that had adjusted to the darkness, I relied on the faint light coming from outside to read the characters written on the message card.

Here’s a get-well gift. It’s delicious. Osanai

It was an exceedingly simple message, stating that the orange was delicious. Let’s eat it when day breaks… if my ribs can withstand the task of peeling the orange skin.

I turned the card around. One more line was appended there.

I’m checking the camera.7

I knew what that meant. Three years ago, we’d also checked a camera, or to be precise, a security camera. As for that video footage… right, Osanai-san had gotten her hands on it.

But I was too sleepy to take a stroll down memory lane. I hoped that this refreshing citrus scent would bring about quality sleep and sweet dreams.

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Chapter 2 | Contents | Chapter 4

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1. The extent or limit to which a part of the body can be moved around a joint or a fixed point.
2. A Back To The Future fan, I presume.
3. Jeep is technically a brand, but can also refer to military light utility vehicles.
4. Measurement of the total volume of all an engine’s cylinders, usually written in cubic centimeters (cc) or liters. The larger this volume is, the more air and fuel a piston can move.
5. There are indeed light trucks produced in Japan that are no more than 3.4m long and 1.48m wide.
6. A seedless and sweet variety of satsuma orange that has a large protruding bump at the top of the fruit which would be connected to the stem (calyx).
7. Errata: This line used to say, “It was caught on camera.” but thanks to saharasaku who pointed it out, I read ahead and realized that my translation was wrong. To be honest, I had never seen or heard that phrase before, but it’s cool to learn something new too.