I was wrong.
Not that my entire theory was wrong, but there were some things I’d unknowingly ignored.
Just as sachertorte on its own looked like nothing more than plain chocolate but actually had apricot jam spread between the base and fondant, a large mystery was linked to the destruction and revival of Shima Taiga’s objet, and I’d turned a blind eye to that.
Who was the extortioner?
What was their goal?
If I were to give an excuse, I would say that I hadn’t had a single chance to come in contact with the actual threatening letter. After being delivered to the school, it had probably been circulated to the principal, vice-principal, and year heads, and had not been made public to students. However, just because I didn’t have access to the clue didn’t mean that I should give up thinking about the extortioner. I’d simply turned my back from something that was out of my control. At some point in time, I should have at least had this doubt in my mind – if the school had concealed the threatening letter’s existence, why had the rumors spread?
I knew that no matter what I noticed or said, there was nothing I could do to change anything. I might not have even wanted to change anything. Simply put, I was left dumbfounded by the sudden turn of events.
In July, when the study period for end-of-term exams was about to begin, we were informed in homeroom that Koumura-sensei would be retiring at the end of the first trimester.
According to the rumors, he wasn’t leaving of his own volition, but was made to leave. The reason for that varied depending on the rumor, and all of them were completely unbelievable.
If he was indeed leaving the school, there was something I wanted to ask. With that thought, I headed to the staff room to visit Koumura-sensei after lessons ended. Hirata-sensei, who taught Japanese History, told me that Koumura-sensei should be in the Art Room.
The only person in the Art Room was Koumura-sensei.
During the exam study period, school lessons only lasted for half a day. After-school club activities were prohibited, so there were no Art Club members in the room. It was slightly before one in the afternoon, and with the Art Room being on the highest floor of the four-storey building, the heat from the sun beating down on the rooftop radiated through, making it unbearably hot. Koumura-sensei had opened all the windows of the Art Room and rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt. He was holding a clipboard and making some sort of list. When I said, “Excuse me,” and entered the Art Room, his eyes narrowed.
“Oh, it’s you. Did you forget something here?”
That was probably true, in another sense.
“I heard that you are leaving the school. Is that true?”
“So you came all the way here just to check? That’s conscientious of you, I suppose. It’s true. I’ve got some family matters to attend to.”
I couldn’t take those words at face value.
“…Were you made to take responsibility for making a replica of Shima Taiga’s objet without his permission?”
Koumura-sensei stopped moving his hands, and looked at me intently. I pressed on.
“Constructing the replica should not have been only your decision, Koumura-sensei. Is it not ridiculous that you had to take sole responsibility for that?”
The art teacher laughed quietly.
“I was wondering what you were going to say. But that’s impressive. No other student noticed that it was a replica.”
“I think that is only natural.”
“Not really. There was a world of difference between the original and the replica I made, whether you’re considering texture or transparency. To the trained eye, the sphere was of a blatantly lower quality. But you didn’t compare the replica you saw in the Art Preparation Room with the original, correct?”
I nodded, and Koumura-sensei placed his clipboard face down on the teacher’s desk.
“So you noticed after seeing that the objet that should have been damaged was fixed in one night? Did you tell any other student about this?”
I’d told Osanai-san, but answered in the contrary.
“No.”
“Good. Continue keeping it to yourself. Saying it out won’t benefit anyone, anyway.”
He then fell into thought for a short while.
“You thought I was unjustly dismissed, so you came over here to find out what happened. You didn’t seem like a student who would do such a thing, though.”
Now that he mentioned it, I myself didn’t really know why I’d taken this course of action. Perhaps it was simply because I didn’t like the string of events surrounding the speech coming to a close while there were things I didn’t fully understand.
Koumura-sensei rubbed his chin.
“Leaving the school is a private matter. But you having incomplete information could lead to some sort of misunderstanding. It’ll be troubling if any weird rumors about it spread, so fine, I’ll tell you. You seem to have a good head on your shoulders, so you’ve noticed that there really was a threatening letter, right?”
I nodded. Koumura-sensei smiled as if to say, “Of course.”
“You knew because I misspoke at the Art Preparation Room. So, who do you think sent the letter?”
I likely didn’t have enough information on hand to identify the extortioner. However, at this point in time, there was a name I could bring up.
“…I think there is a possibility it was you, Koumura-sensei.”
He shrugged cheerfully.
“Why do you think that?”
“Earlier, the Newspaper Club found a painting drawn by Shima Taiga when he was a student. When suspicions about it being plagiarized came up, you did not try to clear his name. On top of that, you said something along the lines of him being able to handle his own problems as an adult, and you let the news of the supposed plagiarism spread.”
The smile disappeared from Koumura-sensei’s face, as if it had been wiped off. After taking a small breath, I continued.
“I heard that you, Hirata-sensei and Shima Taiga were schoolmates from the same year. Koumura-sensei, you… you don’t think highly of Shima Taiga being a world-renowned sculptor.”
“So you’re saying that I was jealous, and that was why I sent the threatening letter?”
A word I never used came out of Koumura-sensei’s mouth. Though hesitant, I nodded. The teacher narrowed his eyes and stared at me.
“I see, that makes sense. Let me tell you just one thing.”
A wry smile played across Koumura-sensei’s lips.
“Shima’s life work, the ‘Gaze and Shell’ series, originated from me.”
I was at a loss for words. Koumura-sensei continued in a somehow cheery manner.
“The works of the ‘Gaze and Shell’ series share a common mechanism, something that no one notices, and exists purely for self-satisfaction. It is…”
Osanai-san and I had already ascertained that.
“All of them have something hidden within.”
Koumura-sensei stared at me with his mouth wide open, and I could feel my pride being slightly satisfied by that. Eventually, he praised me, seemingly not joking at all.
“Well done noticing that. It’s a shame you didn’t choose art as your elective. You’re completely right. The original source was a treasure box I made in high school just for fun. The box itself was designed to appeal to everyone, while the contents were designed to my personal taste. Shima was inspired by that, and copied that idea.”
That was not written in the magazine Osanai-san and I had found at the library. It had said that the first step to Shima Taiga discovering his theme was eating delicious fortune cookies in San Francisco when he was a kid, and meeting a chef who focused on improving the taste of the cookie even though everyone else only cared about the fortune inside.
I didn’t know which was true. But to Koumura-sensei, Shima Taiga copying him was an unshakable truth.
The art teacher let out a short sigh.
“Keeping that in mind, I want you to consider. Would I threaten my own workplace to cancel a speech due to jealousy towards a friend?”
I was unable to answer. Koumura-sensei looked at my face and smiled derisively.
“It seems that you’ve also noticed. This jealousy is a weak motive. My life isn’t so cheap for me to throw caution to the wind simply for a relationship from decades ago. Though it is demanding, being a civil servant is a stable job, and throwing that away for a momentary surge of emotions would be a waste. This momentary surge of emotions is not very vivid, anyway.”
After saying all that, Koumura-sensei abruptly lowered his tone.
“…But, it’s close. You’re on the right track.”
He looked at me with a probing gaze.
“Yes, for example…”
The art teacher seemed to be unsure if he should go on. All I could do was stand in silence.
Eventually, he appeared to make up his mind, but still spoke carefully.
“Let’s say there was a student who likes me, and let’s call them S-kun. They would strike up conversations with me, approach me whenever they get the chance, and send me letters, saying things like, ‘I’ll be making scones in class, so look forward to them.’ I don’t want to be rude to them, so I just brush them off casually. Near the speech, S-kun…”
Koumura-sensei brought his face closer to mine.
“Just like you, they are hypersensitive, so they sense the already faded emotion I have towards Shima, and overinterprets it. And then…”
I knew what happened without needing to hear him say it out loud. He spread out his arms in a joking manner.
“With the best of intentions, they send a letter saying that Shima Taiga is a plagiarist, and threatening the school to cancel his speech.”
“Sawami-san?”
“S-kun. Let’s call them S-kun.”
The penny dropped. Now, I understood better why a replica was made. I’d been thinking that making a replica just because of one threatening letter was a bit of an overreaction.
“Koumura-sensei, you made the replica because you thought S-san would really break the objet, is that correct?”
Koumura-sensei grinned, his silence taking the place of an affirmation. I asked another question.
“On the day of moving the objet, was it a coincidence that S-san was on class duty?”
“How would I know?”
I couldn’t help but feel that it wasn’t a coincidence. It would have been a simple matter for Sawami-san to ask the actual person on duty to swap with her.
Sawami-san was probably also the one who had spread the rumor among the students. With that and the threatening letter itself, she’d wanted to put pressure on the school.
A damp breeze flew in through the big windows. I could feel sweat trickling down my temples. Koumura-sensei placed one hand on the teacher’s desk and spoke wearily.
“Think about it. A student likes me and is keeps aggressively making moves on me. How do you think I feel, with my back against the wall?”
I heard that love is a wonderful thing.
“…On top of the world?”
Koumura-sensei guffawed uproariously.
“Kobato-kun, are you bad at Japanese? Of course that’s not it! The correct answer is ‘like treading on thin ice’. Or ‘like carrying a ticking time bomb’! How ignorant are you to not know who will get criticized when word gets out that a student has a crush on a teacher!”
Even so, it didn’t really click for me.
“If that is the case, can you not just turn them down? Because you played along with them…”
His smile faded.
“Listen, Kobato-kun.”
The teacher took one breath, then slowed down his words, as if he were emphasizing important vocabulary that would often appear in a test.
“S-kun is also a student. A person who alienates a student due to personal reasons has no right standing in front of a classroom.”
I suddenly felt like I was the biggest idiot in the entire country.
But if so…
“…Koumura-sensei, why are you leaving?”
He replied quietly.
“Of course, I’ve reported to the school about S-kun. They also slightly suspect S-kun of being the one who sent the threatening letter. If no one claims responsibility for that, S-kun will face disciplinary action sooner or later. I do hope it stops at a suspension…”
Unexpectedly, a playful tone returned to Koumura-sensei’s voice.
“Kobato-kun, have you ever daydreamed of being attacked by suspicious individuals and criminals in school? Or have you ever imagined that while everyone else is running about aimlessly, only you are resolutely standing your ground?”
“No.”
Though I do always imagine that I solve mysteries faster than anyone else.
“I see. Never mind, then. Everyone has their own dreams, after all.”
Koumura-sensei’s smile deepened.
“And… it is the dream for a teacher to resign for the sake of protect a student.”
He peered at my face, and grinned kindly.
“You don’t have to make that face.”
“…”
“My family runs a furniture workshop. They told me before that I don’t have to succeed it, but my parents are getting old, and with their bodies growing weaker, they got scared and recently told me to come back if I can. Well, our furniture isn’t cheap. It’s made of 100% domestically produced lumber, and we only choose the best. Kobato-kun, become a good adult, and buy our furniture.”
At that moment, I realized that there was nothing more for me to ask. The questions of who sent the threatening letter, who destroyed the objet and who restored it had become crystal-clear. I took one step back and stood right in front of Koumura-sensei.
“Thank you very much. I will be heading home.”
He nodded.
“Be careful of cars on your way back. Focus on your studies during this test preparation period and don’t go out at night.”
“I will. Excuse me.”
I bowed, and added in a voice low enough that Koumura-sensei wouldn’t hear… Goodbye.
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Editors (Tier 2): Dedavond, Pearl H Nettle
Assistants (Tier 1) : Rolando Sanchez, Lilliam, Yousef, Maria C
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