Table of Contents
1
There had been no indications of winter until the end of December, but the weather instantly became freezing cold when the year changed, as if it had been waiting for that very moment. I didn’t know how or where she had spent her winter vacation, but the instant we met in school at the start of the third trimester, Osanai-san spoke with a sulky look on her face.
“There’s a shop I want to visit on the way back, so please escort me there.”
“Sure, but… when?”
“After school today.”
“That’s sudden.”
Apparently not having expected such a response, her eyes widened, and she asked timidly.
“You’re right, it might be a bit sudden… is that a no?”
I’d done some part-time work around the end of the year, so my wallet had money to spare, and I had no plans today. For Osanai-san, who was not afraid of acting on her own, to purposely ask me out to eat something sweet, there must be some circumstances behind it. However, given that our reciprocal relationship had been going on for quite a lengthy period of time now, there was no need to pry into her matters.
“No, I can make it. Alright, let’s go.”
Osanai-san smiled upon hearing my words, her bob cut swaying as she gave a brief nod.
Thus we decided to meet in front of the entranceway. I headed over there to wait right after my classes ended, but it turned out to be a bad location. The chilly, dry wind buffeted me incessantly, and it was really, really cold. Even though it was winter, you could usually get by without cold weather gear during this time period. Due to a mixture of carelessness and bravado, I’d come to school with only a muffler, but it was so cold today that I even felt concerned for my safety. Hugging myself, I restlessly peered at the hallway to see if the person I was waiting for would soon arrive. I looked right, then left, then right again, and she appeared before my eyes.
“Sorry to make you wait.”
Osanai-san had spared no effort to protect herself from the cold. She was wearing a dark blue duffel coat and cream-colored earmuffs, her hands were wrapped in hemmed fur gloves of the same color, and a tartan checkered muffler covered the bottom of her face, up to her eyes. Her small body was bundled up so much that she looked puffy, but her eyes gave off a proud air.
“You seem warm.”
I stated my impression of her appearance, but she tilted her head that was buried in her muffler.
“Eh? It’s winter, so I’m cold.”
Osanai-san retorted.
She had on a pair of thick, ink-black tights, but her shoes were loafers that didn’t look like it offered any resistance to the cold. The two of us exited out of the school gate together, upon which Osanai-san went in front and started walking off at a brisk pace without telling me where she was headed to. She was never a person of many words, so it wasn’t particularly strange for her to be silent, and on top of that, it was bothersome for me to open my mouth in the frigid environment, so we single-mindedly plodded on without exchanging a word while the cold winds tormented us.
It seemed that our destination was in the direction of the station. The number of shops on either side of the road gradually increased, and before I knew it, the sign for the shopping arcade was above my head. Though they weren’t wrapped up as tightly as Osanai-san, the people passing by were all wearing proper cold weather gear, making me feel awfully bleak, since all I had was a muffler.
Eventually, Osanai-san stopped in front of a shop. From its signboard I could tell that it was a Japanese sweets parlor, and arranged in its showcase were samples for sweet red bean soup, dango and the like.
“Here?”
She nodded.
“It’s the New Year.”
I see. I thought it was rare for Osanai-san, who leans more towards Western sweets, to visit a Japanese sweets parlor, but it was apparently an arrangement for her to eat mochi, as one would ordinarily do when welcoming the New Year.
The door rattled as Osanai-san slid it open, and warm air flowed out. It was a small shop with only about six tables, and only one was empty. The tables were all meant for four, which made me understand why Osanai-san refrained from going alone. Many of the customers were elderly, and everyone was enjoying the sweet desserts with joyful expressions.
“Welcome. Here is your table.”
The waiter who ushered us in was equipped with a cheerful voice and dexterous movements, and looked to be a university student. The table we were led to was close to the air conditioner, causing me to let out a sigh of relief as the back of my neck was bathed in warm winds. Osanai-san did not remove her earmuffs or muffler but at least took off her duffel coat. She then picked up a nearby menu and started reading it earnestly. I wanted to take a look at it too.
“Inaka shiruko1…”
“I’ll go with that too.”
“Or gozen shiruko2…”
“I’ll go with that too.”
Osanai-san stared at me reproachfully.
“Kobato-kun, do you have no individuality?”
Well, I’d like to take a look at the menu.
I looked around to see that the names of items that could be ordered were written down on strips of paper and pasted on the amber-colored walls, so I decided to order based off that. In the end, Osanai-san ordered an inaka shiruko, while I ordered a gozen shiruko. For some reason, she looked at me resentfully.
“Oh, so you’re going with koshian3. If we were a bit closer we could have asked to share it.”
She remarked. I was about to say that we could order one each, but Osanai-san would probably end up getting two bowls, and that would result in her being unable to eat dinner. Taking her nutritional balance into consideration, I decided to keep quiet.
Nevertheless, Osanai-san seemed a little weird today. She didn’t look very happy even when she was in a sweets shop she’d taken the trouble to visit, or rather, she seemed too stressed to enjoy herself. When the red bean soup finally arrived, she stared at it, then put her hands together in prayer. She was the type of person to say, “Let’s eat”, but this was the first time I’d seen her offer up a prayer so zealously. Without thinking, I asked.
“Why so serious?”
Osanai-san went, “Hmm”, apparently wondering if she should tell me or not, then sighed and gave a quick reply, as if she didn’t want to waste time with a bowl of red bean soup in front of her.
“It’s my first dessert of the year, so I prayed for misfortune to go away.”
So she was opening the dessert4? I’ve never heard of such a custom, though.
“I had very few opportunities to eat sweet desserts with peace of mind last year. The second half of the year was especially terrible.”
With just those words, Osanai-san removed her muffler and picked up the wooden spoon. She scooped up some of her tsubushian, blowed on it a few times, then brought it to her mouth. That was because of her cat’s tongue5.
When she mentioned that the second half of last year was terrible, she was probably referring to the time when she visited Kogi-san’s middle school during its Cultural Festival to relish some New York Cheesecake, and had planned to enjoy it one more time before heading home, but was unexpectedly abducted, causing her to be unable to fulfill her wish. There was also that incident with the Newspaper Club. What about early autumn? A popular store opened a branch in Nagoya, so we traveled there to order macarons, and we received four macarons when there should have been only three. Osanai-san and I had no choice but to find out why that was so, but it wasn’t the case that she didn’t get to eat the macarons.
“Patisserie Kogi was good, wasn’t it?”
I asked, causing Osanai-san to stop moving her spoon in midair.
“Right…”
“Was there something you were dissatisfied with?”
“Those fantastic autumn-exclusive macarons were in front of me, but I wasn’t focused enough. All I can remember is the ring… but regret is futile.”
She ended her answer with a phrase that wouldn’t be out of place in a martial arts school.
Since my shiruko had also arrived, I tried a spoonful. The heat and sweetness of the soup drove the cold away from my body, sending a thrill down my spine. Facing each other, the two of us said nothing and only moved our spoons for a moment. After taking a deep breath, I picked up my chopsticks and ate the golden brown mochi, which was very satisfying with its exquisite springiness.
“So…”
I started.
“There must be some catalyst that made you feel that last year was unlucky, right?”
I didn’t have a deep basis for that. If she always thought that she was unlucky last year, praying for her misfortunes to go away and for this year to be better only in the third trimester seemed a little late, at least to me. Osanai-san stopped moving her spoon and looked at me with upturned eyes.
“…As I thought, you’re perceptive.”
“Thanks.”
“I like perceptive people, as long as they don’t see through me.”
Osanai-san put down her spoon and retrieved a thin magazine from her bag. It was a mini-media6 magazine at train stations and bookstores.
“Look at the first article.”
I did as told and flipped the page. An article stating that an Italian-Japanese pasticciere gathering was held in Nagoya caught my eye. “Pasticciere” is the Italian word for “patissier”, and according to the article patissiers from Japan and Italy spent some time at a pleasant stand-up party. I was about to ask what this meant to Osanai-san, but realized that instantly hearing the answer was no fun, so I decided to try and figure out what exactly it was in the article that provoked her.
Reading the article, I found that it hardly touched upon the gathering’s opening ceremony or guest speeches; the paper space was mainly allocated to the cuisine served at the party, as well as the desserts. Oh? I flipped back to the table of contents, which listed topics like information of a newly open cake shop and an introduction to new gift products. It seemed that this magazine was created for people who like sweets. Since it was an Italian-Japanese gathering, multiple Western confectioneries in the city flexed their strength to prepare Italian desserts. I had no idea what zuppa inglese7 or zabione8 were, but I at least knew tiramisu and panna cotta. Could Osanai-san have suddenly thought herself to be pathetic after reading about such glamorous Italian sweets? That didn’t seem like it, though…
Vexed by me being unable to get the gist of it, Osanai-san uttered one word.
“Photos.”
Ah, the photos. I hadn’t taken a good look at them. The photos were probably taken in a hotel somewhere, for the floor was spacious and carpeted, and a dazzling chandelier was hanging from the ceiling. One photo depicted a gigantic shachihoko9 leaning backwards on a table, though I couldn’t tell if it was a sculpture or candy fashioned into that shape. That obviously represented Nagoya, so I thought there would be something representing Italy, but no such object was shown in the pictures. The cakes displayed in other photos all looked delicious, and were not all exotic goods, but also included those that I was familiar with, like cream puffs. In another picture, a bearded young white man and a middle-aged man who looked to be Japanese were laughing with wineglasses in their hands, and behind them was a girl in a sailor uniform looking up at an angle and grinning from ear to ear as if something interesting had just happened. On top of that photo was a caption “High Spirits at the Gathering Party”, with the word “Party” being right on top of the girl’s head.
Wait, this girl…
“Is that Kogi-san?”
Kogi Cosmos-san was a middle school student we met last year in autumn under unexpected circumstances. I thought I’d seen that sailor uniform before, and it turned out to be the uniform for Reichi Middle School, which Kogi-san attends.
“Yep.”
Osanai-san replied, then furrowed her brows and scooped some red bean soup into her mouth. I see, basically…
“You’re jealous, aren’t you?”
“I’m envious.”
She must have felt a little depressed comparing herself from last year with this Kogi-san who could unreservedly appreciate Italian sweets and smile in a formal event. The pace of Osanai-san’s spoon movements increased.
“I had a fever when I saw that article. I was lying in bed thinking about how terrible it was, and that there would be good things when I recover because if not there wouldn’t be balance in the world. That was when I read the article about that wonderful party and saw Kogi-san in a picture with cream on her cheek.”
Now that she mentioned it, Kogi-san’s cheek, or rather the side of her lips did have some cream stuck to it, again making her look like she was having a great time.
“And you were jealous of that, right?”
“No, I was envious.”
Is there such a big difference between the two…10
“Just to be sure, has your fever subsided?”
“Osanai-san’s eyes widened a little.
“Yes, I’m fine now. Thank you.”
You’re welcome. Osanai-san quickly ate her mochi, picked up a bit of shibazuke11 which came as garnish, then took a deep breath.
I closed the magazine and studied the cover that included its name, Orca. It had an actress whose name I didn’t know, smiling with a parfait in front of her.
“This magazine’s amazing. Is Orca some kind of term for cakes or something?”
Osanai-san replied while scooping some shiruko.
“Killer whale.”
Come to think of it… since it was a mini-media magazine from Nagoya, they probably used a name that would bring Nagoya to mind12. Osanai-san munched on candied chestnuts, drank some tea, then waved her left index finger.
“Orca used to be a normal mini-media magazine, but about six years ago their editor-in-chief changed, and they started concentrating on sweets. Thanks to that specialization, they’ve started selling outside the city now.”
“Ah, it wasn’t distributed free of charge?”
“Kobato-kun, you’re not going to secretly take it away, right?”
No way I’d do something like that. Waving her left index finger again, Osanai-san continued.
“…In particular, Orca’s annual year-end sweets shop ranking is unexpectedly influential, and it’s said that shops that rise in the rankings get calls from department stores in Tokyo and Osaka. Until last year, Yagoto’s Marronnier Champs got first place for three consecutive years, but that changed this year.”
I could tell where the story was going.
“Could it be Kogi-san?”
She nodded in a satisfied manner.
“So you understand, Kobato-kun. Yes, Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko took first place this year.”
It had only opened in autumn last year, so suddenly snagging first place in the year-end rankings was quite the shocking advance. Osanai-san had rushed to that shop right after it opened, which proved how sensitive her antenna was.
“That’s amazing. It’s good that we went there.”
Those words came straight from my heart, but Osanai-san’s countenance unexpectedly clouded over.
“Yeah… but it would be a lot better if we could have just left saying it was delicious.”
Ah, she became gloomy again. She took a big gulp of tea from her teacup, then put it back on the table with a thump.
“…Anyway, I was hoping that good things will happen this year. I want to say that nothing weird was in my sweets, that my precious strawberry tarts weren’t stolen, that I didn’t suddenly get abducted when I simply wanted to eat cake, and that ‘I’ve had enough, thank you very much’ after being satisfied with tasting as many wonderful desserts as I want.”
Imogayu13?
“On that point, today seems fine.”
I replied, meaning to encourage her. Osanai-san nodded after a short pause to think.
“Yeah, the shiruko is really tasty. It warms you up.”
Even as she said that, she didn’t seem to be truly satisfied. Believing it to be good luck, she “opened the dessert” and ate mochi at the start of the year, and while it was in fact delicious, her actions and expressions were slightly different from that of a person experiencing samadhi14. After hearing such a pitiable story, it wasn’t the time to worry about dinner. I offered a suggestion to Osanai-san, who had quickly emptied her bowl and was now glancing at my gozen shiruko.
“How about ordering one more?”
“Eh… but that’s… I can’t do that, Kobato-kun. But… really?”
Who was she showing that troubled pose to? Shouldn’t she just act if she’d already made her decision? In fact, she did just that, and raised a hand to call over a waiter. At that moment, a low groan reached my ears. It was a sound signifying an incoming call or message, from a mobile phone that had been set to manner mode. I instinctively reached for my phone, but it was not moving. Osanai-san retrieved her phone from her skirt pocket and checked the display.
“Speak of the devil.”
She said. Basically, it was a phone call from Kogi-san. Osanai-san stood up from her seat.
“I’ll go out for a bit.”
It was good that it arrived after she’d polished off her red bean soup. After watching her open the sliding door and step outside, I turned towards my gozen shiruko. The bowl was still warm, and even though the smooth soup was very sweet, I didn’t grow tired of it. I never thought of going to a shop to eat red bean soup, but this experience taught me that it could be a good thing. The sour shibazuke was also a good palate cleanser, and the tea that I would occasionally sip started feeling uncharacteristically tasty. Ah, my body got warmed up.
That was what I thought, when a chilly wind blew in. Osanai-san had opened the sliding door and returned to the store. She seemed to be feeling quite cold, for she was hugging herself with her arms. It was only natural, since she’d gone outside without her winter gear. She had a dark look on her face when she slowly sat down in her chair, likely related to the fact that my bowl was now empty, but that didn’t seem to be the sole reason.
“What’s the matter?”
I asked, and Osanai-san took a mouthful of warm tea before tilting her head.
“I’m not too sure myself, but…”
She stared at her mobile phone as if the answer was written there, then returned it to her pocket with its display turned off.
“Kogi-san was suspended from school. She was crying a lot – and she said she was innocent.”
2
On the following Saturday, I met up with Osanai-san in the morning, and we took the Tokaido line heading to Nagoya.
When I was a middle school student, all sorts of things happened around me. Events that I don’t want to remember… and… erm… I suppose they were all events I don’t wish to recall. Anyway, I knew some schoolmates who went against societal norms, and they may have received harsh reprimands at the Student Counseling Room, but none of them were ever suspended from school. The middle school Osanai-san and I attended was a public one, so prohibiting a student from getting their mandatory education would have been problematic. The punishment that Kogi-san had received was specifically called “Home Learning”, but it was essentially a suspension, and I was strangely impressed by this measure that could only be exerted in a private school.
It wasn’t unnatural for Osanai-san to go comfort a grief-stricken Kogi-san. However, I was also called over this time. I was under the impression that Kogi-san didn’t think highly of me, but in Osanai-san’s words…
“She did seem to have some reservations, but she was the one who asked you to come over. You tried to help me out during the Cultural Festival, right? Her perception of you changed slightly because of that. She wants you to listen to her situation with me.”
That fulfilled my self-esteem, making me happy… but I couldn’t say that. Kogi-san hadn’t committed any crime, but being depended on by a complete stranger made me remember something unpleasant – of the me from back then who made a pact with Osanai-san for his goal of becoming a petit bourgeois. However, I didn’t feel like I should cherish myself so much to turn down such a request.
With Osanai-san, who was as expected wrapped up in a fluffy bundle, I dove underground from Nagoya Station and traversed a labyrinthine route to emerge at Kakuouzan Station of the Higashiyama Subway Line. We ascended to the surface to see that the winter sky was appallingly crisp and clear. On both sides of the wide road stood apartment buildings five to six storeys high. Osanai-san had come here once before, so she said, “This way” and moved off after only a singular sweeping glance at our surroundings.
After leaving the arterial road, it suddenly became quiet all around. The asphalt showed signs of fading, and the stop sign was a little tilted. There were many detached houses, and leaves that had dropped from the shrubberies slid along the road, propelled by the cold wind. Osanai-san stopped in front of a white apartment building, and stood in front of a glass door. It did not open.
“…Huh?”
“I’m not sure since it’s my first time here, but isn’t it an autolock?”
Without a word, she pressed some buttons on a panel on the side of the glass door, as if she’d planned to do that from the start. A muffled reply immediately sounded.
“Yes?”
“Hello. Osanai Yuki here.”
Joy seeped through the panel.
“Ah, yes! I’ll open the door!”
The glass door swung open, and I caught Osanai-san saying, “Open sesame,” in a small voice at that very moment.
Kogi-san’s house was the corner unit on the top floor, which seemed like a favorable location, though I wouldn’t profess to have much knowledge in that area. Osanai-san had told me that Kogi-san’s father is called Kogi Haruomi, a famous patissier who runs a shop in Tokyo. I’d heard that he was born in Nagoya, so I was surprised to see an apartment. I’d imagined that they would live in an aged, semi-detached house.
In front of the dark brown door, Osanai-san pushed the intercom.
“Hello. Osanai Yuki here.”
The door was flung open.
“Yuki-chan-senpai!”
Kogi-san exclaimed as soon as she saw Osanai-san, and hugged her while in tears. Visibly flustered, Osanai-san raised a hand in an awkward manner, timidly placed it on Kogi-san’s head and stroked it gently.
Kogi-san showed us to the living room. The room design seemed to be based on the motifs of white and glass, for the walls, ceiling and furniture all contained some degree of transparency. The only black object in the room was the television which was not turned on. While I thought it was a pristine space, I couldn’t help but associate it with a hospital room. A vividly-colored bunch of flowers was placed in a vase on the center table, which only served to strengthen that impression rather than weaken it.
There was a glass photo stand on the sideboard, but it was flipped upside down. A digital clock was mounted on a wall, and displayed the current time: eleven o’clock. Kogi-san brewed some hot tea, which Osanai-san and I received while sitting on the white sofa. After some meaningless chatter essential to communication about how the weather was cold and how it would clear up soon, we got down to business.
“I’ve read your message, but…”
Osanai-san broached the subject.
“Tell us again why you got suspended.”
Kogi-san, who was sitting alone on a cushion, nodded obediently.
“On New Year’s Eve, some people in my class went to a party. They got together with friends from other schools, and I don’t know much about it, but they apparently did a countdown, among other activities. I also heard that it livened up, and they drank champagne.”
They certainly sounded possible. We nodded silently, and tears started forming in Kogi-san’s eyes in a twinkle.
“But that had nothing to do with me. I was making osechi15 alone on New Year’s Eve. Father would return when the new year began, and we were to visit Grandfather’s house to greet him, and Spring Cleaning wasn’t finished yet, so I was really busy. But the teachers at school assumed that I also went to a party and drank alcohol, and didn’t listen to me at all!”
Tears reached her cheeks. Without displaying any emotion on her face, Osanai-san asked.
“You mentioned the school’s teachers. Who told you that you were suspended?”
“My homeroom teacher, Fukaya-sensei. He said that it was already decided so there’s nothing I can do or say about it… That teacher hates me!”
I didn’t know if that was true, but the words he used when letting Kogi-san know about her punishment slightly piqued my interest. Going by a straightforward interpretation, it sounded like he wasn’t the one who decided on the suspension, and that he was just a messenger.
Kogi-san’s voice became strikingly high-pitched.
“There’s no helping it if I get punished for something I did, but I didn’t do anything! I wanted to go to Grandfather’s house on New Year’s Eve, but I worked hard because Father entrusted me with the house! And yet they say I went to the party! That’s unacceptable!”
“You’re right.”
Osanai-san quietly spoke.
“That’s certainly unacceptable.”
For a few moments, the sounds of Kogi-san sobbing reverberated in the living room. I didn’t say anything, and Osanai-san had her lips sealed. There was nothing we could do for now but keep quiet.
After Kogi-san calmed down, she wrung out some words, even while she was still heaving with sobs.
“Yuki-chan-senpai, I’m just really frustrated. Someone told them that I went to the party. But who… and why would they do such a thing…”
“…You want to find out?”
Osanai-san spoke in a whisper.
“Based on what you said, I can only imagine that someone told a lie. As for who it was… who set a trap for you and undermined you… it might be possible to find that out.”
Kogi-san stared at Osanai-san with bright red eyes.
“So, Kogi-san, do you really want to find out who your enemy is?”
The answer was clear, and came almost instantly.
“Yes!”
I knew that Osanai-san actually wanted Kogi-san to give up. She wanted her to accept it as something that could happen to anyone, and to become a petit bourgeois. That was why she repeated her question.
“When trying to unearth something that has been hidden, you often have to pay a price. You might not want to go so far to find the truth? So are you willing to do that? No matter what happens?”
But Kogi-san did not falter.
“No matter what happens!”
She howled.
“I mean, it’s unacceptable, isn’t it!”
“…Yeah.”
Osanai-san looked down, so I couldn’t tell the expression she had on her face. Was she sad, or was she laughing? Sitting on the white sofa, she spoke.
“Alright, I’ll help you.”
Four people were suspended from school in this case: Kayazu Mitsuki, Sada Nanako, Tochino Mio and Kogi Cosmos. They were all third-year students from the same class.
Excluding Kogi-san, the leader out of the other three was supposedly Kayazu-san.
“I hardly talked to them, but I don’t think I’m mistaken. The other two seemed to be sticking to Kayazu-san…”
Kogi-san remarked. Osanai-san asked what impression they gave off, prompting Kogi-san to bring out some photographs. They seemed to be pictures of her classmates during the Sports Festival, for everyone was in their gym clothes.
“This is Kayazu-san.”
I thought she would have a stylish appearance since she got suspended for drinking alcohol at a New Year’s party, but my simplistic expectation was promptly shattered. Come to think of it, the school that Kogi-san attends, Reichi Middle School, is quite a strict one, so no student would be allowed to sport any outrageous appearance during a school event. Kayazu-san, who was in the center of what looked to be a photo of a relay event, had long arms and legs. She also had her hair tied up at the back, but it would probably be quite long if it was untied. Her facial features gave off a mature image, but still showed signs of her being a middle school student.
“I’ve remembered her face.”
Osanai-san said, but I asked to borrow that photo. There might be a chance to show it to someone, after all.
Sada-san was shown seated in the cheering section, but she gave off a sharp atmosphere. Or perhaps she noticed the camera pointing at her and glared at it because she didn’t like having her photo taken. Her face was somewhat round, but based on another photo of her standing up, she didn’t look to be plump. Tochino-san seemed to have a big forehead, but that was likely because her hair was combed to the back. Her skin was darkly tanned, and the photo depicted her with a frustrated countenance, evidently having been on the losing side in a game of tug-of-war.
“You say that you hardly talked to them, but are you on bad relations with Kayazu-san’s group?”
I asked just in case, but Kogi-san shook her head.
“Not really. We would cooperate during class events, and I would talk to her if I needed something of her.”
To me it seemed like there was some distance between them, but she’d answered my question honestly. There was now no doubt in my mind that she truly wanted to consult me about her problem.
“But we never met a single time out of school. I don’t know why I was thought to be part of Kayazu-san’s group.”
It was a statement that didn’t seem to have any points of uncertainty, but Osanai-san edged in with a sharp question.
“…Really, not even once?”
Kogi-san’s face stiffened. I thought that her way of speaking was a little rigid, but it turned out that it wasn’t because she was nervous talking to a guy, but because she was lying. That was something I couldn’t tell.
“If you don’t tell us everything, we won’t be able to help. Kobato-kun and I don’t intend to criticize you no matter what you say, so no more lies.
Kogi-san looked down, her face red.
“…We did go out for karoake once. It was Cultural Festival after-party, and about half the class was there… but we didn’t drink alcohol!”
Osanai-san smiled gently.
“I know. Anything else you forgot? Were you not just connected to Kayazu-san, but also to Sada-san or Tochino-san?”
“Umm… I don’t think I’ve talked to Sada-san a single time. As for Tochino-san, she seemed to be interested in making sweets so I thought I would be good friends with her, but our personalities somehow didn’t match. I don’t think she hates me, but she’s keeping me at a respectful distance.”
Kogi-san’s possessed a genuine procifiency in making sweets. If Tochino-san’s interest only went as far as baking cookies, it was natural for her to keep a respectful distance.
“So it’s Kayazu-san, huh…”
Placing a thumb on her lips, Osanai-san muttered. She glanced at me from under her fringe.
“Kobato-kun, do you think we can lie in wait even if we’re not familiar with the area?”
She asked.
“I don’t think it’s impossible. Osanai-san, you want to get in contact with Kayazu-san, right?”
“Yup.”
“Lying in wait is fine, but how about this?”
I directed my question at Kogi-san.
“Do you know Kayazu-san’s phone number? If you do, you could tell her you want to talk.”
Osanai-san clapped her hands, as if saying, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Having ambushes and stakeouts be the first ideas that come to mind is unbecoming of a petit bourgeois. I should have a thorough chat with her about it later. Kogi-san nodded, and immediately took out her mobile phone.
3
Kayazu Mitsuki-san readily acceded to Kogi-san’s request. It was around lunchtime, so it was decided that we would meet in a cafe at the Nagoya Station Underground Mall at one o’clock after getting lunch on our own. According to Kogi-san, it was not a very popular place, so we would be able to get in on a Saturday afternoon with no problems.
Kogi-san would not be coming along for this meeting. If word got out that Kogi-san, who was supposed to be under “Home Learning”, had come into contact with Kayazu-san, it would be like giving the stamp of approval to the notion that she was a member of Kayazu-san’s group. Kogi-san said that her older cousin would meet on her behalf, a caveat that Kayazu-san agreed to.
So we left Kogi-san’s apartment and returned to the Nagoya Station. Though we got lost in the Underground Mall for a bit, we eventually reached the designated cafe. It was called “Fugaku”16, which was quite old-fashioned, and so was its interior design, background music, and taciturn, mustached shopkeeper. Even though I only ordered a coffee, it also came with toast, a mini-salad, boiled eggs and inarizushi17. Only Osanai-san was supposed to directly contact Kayazu-san, so I was to sit at a nearby table with my ears pricked up.
Osanai-san took a four-seater sofa, explaining that another person would be coming over later. She sent me a message with her mobile phone saying, “There’s pudding à la mode.” so I replied with “You should get lunch.” Seemingly having had no intention of substituting a dessert for a meal, she ordered sandwiches. After Osanai-san and I finished our meals without mishap, she ordered a hot cocoa, while I asked for a refill of my coffee, as we waited for the appointed time.
Showing unexpected civility, Kayazu-san arrived on the dot. The girl I saw in the photograph had her hair down today, and was wearing a fur-lined blouson. She looked around the shop interior that wasn’t very spacious, noticed that Osanai-san was the only female customer sitting on her own, then moved over to her with a dubious frown.
“…You’re Kogi’s older cousin?”
She said with a sharp voice. Osanai-san, who was holding her cup of cocoa with both hands and blowing on it, looked up.
“Yes, I’m Osanai Yuki. You must be Kayazu-san. Thank you for coming over on a weekend.”
Kayazu-san did not reply and sat on the sofa before being offered to. I could see Kayazu-san’s face, but only the back of Osanai-san’s face from where I was sitting. Kayazu-san ordered a banana juice from a waiter, wiped her hands with a wet towel, then spoke.
“Is Kogi alright?”
Probably not having expected such a question, Osanai-san’s answer came a beat late.
“She’s depressed.”
“Figures. Poor thing.”
She studied Osanai-san intently, then asked another question.
“You’re the same age?”
“I’m in high school.”
Kayazu-san waved her hands, as if saying, “Whatever.” She probably didn’t believe it.
The banana juice was placed on the table, and Kayazu-san drank almost half of it at once. Osanai-san started the ball rolling.
“I heard from Cosmos that you and your friends drank some alcohol on New Year’s Eve, but she also got suspended from school even though she doesn’t remember joining you. Could you let me know if there was anything wrong in what I said?”
“Sure, but nothing’s wrong. We had a countdown party in my friend’s house, so there was champagne and cider, and we had a sip. Kogi wasn’t there, but it was assumed that she was with us, and she also got suspended. It all fits.”
Kayazu-san leaned back on the sofa lackadaisically.
“There were also rumors that boys were at the party as well, but that’s ridiculous. Well, there was one, but he’s seven, I think. He fell asleep halfway during the party, so we went to the nearby park to mess around with fireworks.”
It was bad that they drank alcohol, but that seemed like quite the fun gathering. Osanai-san piled on the questions.
“How many people were there?”
“About twelve or thirteen, I reckon. It wasn’t so crowded that I wouldn’t know if Kogi was there.”
“So you were hanging out with your friends, right? How did the school find out?”
Kayazu-san looked up at the ceiling.
“Cos there was an idiot there. Taking photos is fine, but she just had to upload them on the net. So, they were found, and some meddling fool reported it to the school. We were called for student counseling, where they showed us the photos and said, ‘You know about this, right?’”
“I see… I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Well, can’t be helped.”
How understanding of her. Or perhaps she was merely putting on a brave front. She might become wary if I raised my head too much, so I stared at my coffee, though that might be perceived as eccentric behavior as well.
“Er, do you have the photos that got uploaded?”
“Ah, I dunno, we took a lot of photos… Gimme a moment.”
She took her mobile phone out from her blouson and pushed some keys on it for a while.
“Ah, found ‘em. Here’s everyone making a toast.”
Kayazu-san turned her phone towards Osanai-san. After a short moment, Osanai-san remarked.
“Cosmos isn’t in the photo.”
Kayazu-san immediately retorted in an exasperated tone.
“Course she isn’t, she wasn’t there. That’s what we were talking about, right?”
“But Cosmos got suspended, even though she wasn’t in the photo… Why was that? Do you know, Kayazu-san?”
“Can’t say I know. The day after we were suspended, we were called to school, and the student counselor Sanpongi said, ‘Kogi was there as well, right?’”
She raised her voice.
“Just saying, I told him that Kogi wasn’t with us. I couldn’t get out of it, not that I felt like trying. But I had no intention of getting Kogi wrapped up in this, so I repeated many times that she wasn’t there. And he stubbornly insisted, saying, ‘Don’t lie,’ and stopped listening to what I had to say.”
“Does this Sanpongi-sensei always not listen to students like this?”
Osanai-san asked coldly, but Kayazu-san shook her head.
“Not really… It’s not always like that. I mean, he’s the student counselor, so he has to look tough. He has a loud and terrifying voice, so I hate him, but he’s not the type to go hysterical and say all kinds of things. There are others exactly like that, so I can clearly tell Sanpongi’s not that type.”
She then put on a slightly bitter smile.
“But then again, I also said that Marro and Nana weren’t at the party. If that’s what made them not believe me, then I’m sorry to Kogi.”
“Marro? Nana?”
Osanai-san parroted.
“Ah, right. Marro is Tochino, Nana is Sada, cos she’s Nanako. As for Marro… I can’t remember. Everyone just calls her that.”
Insisting that Tochino-san and Sada-san were not at the party even though evidence proving otherwise had already been shown would certainly make the student counselor deem her statements to be absolutely untrustworthy. I don’t think that it would necessarily disadvantage Kogi-san, though.
Osanai-san considered for a moment.
“Could you send me that picture?”
She asked. While it was the reason why she got suspended from school, Kayazu-san did not seem to be on guard at all.
“Sure, why not?”
The two of them then spent a while with the data transfer. Finally, Kayazu-san spoke.
“Do cheer Kogi up. I don’t think she’s used to this kinda thing.”
She finished her banana juice in one go, then left the exact cost for her drink in small coins on the table.
After watching Kayazu-san leave the store, I informed a waiter that I wanted to change my table, and sat opposite Osanai-san. With the cup of cocoa in hand, she asked.
“Did you hear that?”
“Yup, all of it.”
“We have to meet with Sanpongi-sensei.”
“Finally, a glimmer of light.”
Osanai-san nodded. Since Kayazu-san had been suspended from school with that photo as evidence, it was difficult to imagine that Kogi-san had been suspended without some sort of proof as well. And if we were to believe that she was innocent, that evidence had to be fabricated, meaning that someone had committed such an act, and that they would have left behind footprints. Those could be traced.
“But coming into contact with him will be hard.”
“Yeah…”
Schools are closed spaces. Non-related parties cannot gain access to it, except on the days of the Cultural Festival. Osanai-san had talked to Kayazu-san under the pretext of being “Kogi-san’s worried older cousin”, but we wouldn’t be able to do that with Sanpongi-sensei. We probably wouldn’t even be able to get someone to act as an intermediary for us.
Osanai-san expressionlessly put down her cup and placed both hands on her head. Was she cradling her head to say, “It’s up to you,” or was she massaging her head to get some ideas? It was probably the former, because to talk to Sanpongi-sensei, we absolutely needed an appropriate position.
“We could tail Sanpongi-sensei…”
No, we should refrain from tailing, for it could make the problem bigger. I drank some of my coffee that was going cold, and spoke without much thought.
“The only people who could ask for a talk are the guardians, I suppose.”
No matter how well Osanai-san or I exercised our acting chops, neither of us would look like Kogi-san’s guardian. I said that to mean that our hands were tied, but Osanai-san suddenly piped up.
“Ah, you’re right. As expected of Kobato-kun. We just have to work with Kogi-san’s guardian. That’s simple.”
“I’m not sure. Kogi-san’s father is a patissier who owns a shop in Tokyo, right?”
“He’s called Kogi Haruomi. After a long wait, he finally opened Patisserie Kogi, and…”
“Thank you. I remember your last lecture.”
Apparently, Kogi Haruomi only returned to his Nagoya home on rest days, but that wouldn’t mean weekends, which is the busiest and most profitable period for retail stores, so he wouldn’t be here on a Saturday like today. Additionally, Kogi-san’s mother was deceased.
“Come to think of it, how does Kogi-san normally manage? She’s only in middle school, but she’s living on her own in that apartment.”
I remarked, and noticed an utterly cold gaze directed at me.
“Why are you saying this now?”
She was basically implying, “This is something you should have known about since last autumn, isn’t it?” That was probably true, but I’d never cared about Kogi-san’s living situation until now.
“Her grandfather and grandmother live in a detached house nearby, and they help take care of her. She also told me that her father invited her to live with him in Tokyo, but she has friends here, she’s worked hard to get admitted into her current school, and she has just one year left, so she’s been torn about what to do for a while now.”
“I see.”
I wasn’t exactly worried about Kogi-san, but that made me feel a little relieved. The two of us brought our drinks to our mouths. Eventually, Osanai-san spoke.
“We have one way to do it, then.”
I knew exactly what she was referring to.
“Yes, there is only one way.”
Even if we asked her grandparents living nearby to cooperate, we probably wouldn’t be able to break through the school’s sturdy gates. The most we could achieve would be to receive a message saying, “We understand your concern, but communication with the school should be done by a guardian.” Here, we needed the position of a parent no matter what.
Kogi Haruomi was thinking of marrying Tasaka Ruriko, a patissier working in his shop. If they’d completed the registration procedures, Tasaka Ruriko would be Kogi Cosmos’ mother on the family register. Additionally, as the head of Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko which opened last year, she would be in this city. However, there was one matter of concern.
“I wonder if Kogi-san would be willing to ask for her help. She was against her father remarrying, wasn’t she?”
Kogi-san definitely wouldn’t like Tasaka Ruriko being involved in her problem. But Osanai readily asserted.
“Of course she won’t like it. But that’s the only way. First, we need to check with her if they did get married.”
Osanai-san stood up, then said to the austere shopkeeper, “I’ll make a phone call outside,” and left the shop. Well, I suppose that’s how it would go. Kogi-san asked Osanai-san for help, and Osanai-san responded to that request. If so, we should not hesitate when there is a solution to the problem – no matter what Kogi-san thinks of it.
Osanai-san returned in an instant.
“We’re good to go.”
Great. I drained the rest of my coffee and stood up. I couldn’t really tell the distance since we were underground, but Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko shouldn’t be far from here.
4
We exited the underground area to be blasted by eddies of winter wind flowing around the tall buildings. After equipping herself with a mask, earmuffs, muffler and gloves, Osanai-san walked off with apparent resolve.
“Kogi-san was surprised by the phone call, right?”
I asked while following her, and she nodded.
“She asked why I would ask about something like that.”
“How did you answer?”
“I said it was necessary.”
You could treat your junior a little kinder. As I had that thought, Osanai-san suddenly whipped out her mobile phone. She glanced at the monitor, then returned it to her pocket.
“Was that from Kogi-san?”
“Yup. She said, ‘Please don’t do anything if you’re talking to that person.’”
Well, of course she would say that.
“Yet we’re still going?”
Osanai-san looked up at me with accusatory eyes, as if saying that I already knew the answer to my own question.
“She did say to find the truth no matter what happens.”
So she did. She had to be responsible for her words, and she had even been kindly warned that pain might befall her. Osanai-san did not slow down her footsteps in the slightest. She looked like she might run onto the road on a red light with her speed, so I grabbed her collar and pulled her back.
Along the way, she asked.
“Was there anything weird about Kayazu-san’s story?”
There was indeed something.
“Kayazu-san and her friends received punishment from Sanpongi-sensei, while Kogi-san received notice of her punishment from her homeroom teacher, Fukaya-sensei. But that might have been based on who was free at the time, or perhaps that was because Kayazu-san and her friends were deemed to be problem children. I don’t think it’s an important difference.”
Osanai-san nodded.
“However, I think the time difference between Kayazu-san and Kogi-san is strange.”
She clumsily tilted her head that was buried in her muffler.
“Time difference…?”
“Kayazu-san got suspended because the photo of them at the party was uploaded on the internet. It was probably the same for Tochino-san and Sada-san. But it was different for Kogi-san. She was the only person to be suspended one day late. Why is that, I wonder?”
Osanai-san nodded, a satisfied look in her eyes.
“I didn’t pay attention to that. That’s impressive, Kobato-kun.”
Oh, cut it out.
I still had no clear idea what this time difference meant. I had a few theories, but more investigation had to be done for us to properly discuss them, and more importantly, this road was not a good place to do it, with its eddies of wind spiraling around. A familiar junction soon came into view.
Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko, which took up the first floor of a building facing an intersection and was decorated with brick-styled tiles, was almost full, despite the coldness of this winter. The dining area had all its seats filled, and the showcase had a line of customers assessing the cakes and macarons with smiles on their faces. The waiters displayed nary a hint of panic as they handled each and every order. After waiting for one of them to empty their hands, Osanai-san pulled down her muffler and approached them.
“Excuse me, is the manager in?”
“The manager?”
Even with that reply, the waiter answered Osanai-san’s question without seeming suspicious of her.
“Sorry, she’s out at the moment.”
Looking at the wall clock, it was a little past two. That was likely to be an excuse, and she was probably taking her afternoon break at the back. Osanai-san seemed to have the same thought, for she retrieved a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to the waiter.
“Could you pass this to the manager when she returns? I’m a friend of Kogi Cosmos-san, and I urgently need to speak with her.”
A suspicious expression finally drifted onto the waiter’s face, but probably because Osanai-san had used the owner’s name, Kogi, they said, “Please wait for a moment.” While watching the waiter disappear into the back of the shop, I asked.
“When did you write that note?”
Osanai-san put on a light grin.
“When was it, I wonder?”
That’s absurd, did I really not notice the whole time I was with her…? Before long, the waiter returned and said, “This way, please.”
In contrast to the shop which gave off a modern and clean feel, the back was just like a normal building. After going through a door which had no knob and could be opened from either side, we reached a small office. The first things to hit my eyes were a folding chair and a small table on which you could lay out one bento. Behind that table was another bland office desk that had documents haphazardly piled up on it, and one woman was sitting down on the opposite side of those documents. That was probably the manager. She had a nameplate on her chest which spelled out her full name, Tasaka Ruriko, so I understood that she still went by the name of Tasaka in the workplace regardless of what was on the official register.
Tasaka-san smiled and said, “Thank you,” to the waiter that led us here, who bowed and returned to the shop. Now that the compact room contained only three people, Tasaka-san spoke.
“Please, take a seat.”
Osanai-san and I unraveled our mufflers, and Osanai-san removed her mask, earmuffs and gloves. After that, we each grabbed a folding chair and sat down.
Tasaka Ruriko-san had a narrow face, and her hair was combed to the back. Her eyebrows were thin, her eyes looked somewhat melancholic, and her lips were small. She had both her hands on the desk, with her right hand encasing her left. She seemed to have no makeup on, and her voice was serene.
“I hear that you’re Cosmos-san’s friends.”
“Yes.”
“I see…”
A silence descended as we felt each other out.
“So…”
Tasaka-san was the one to break the ice.
“What can I do for you?”
Osanai-san was narrowing her eyes as if she was trying to read Tasaka Ruriko-san’s inner thoughts, but since we were asked about our purpose for coming here, she answered without hesitation.
“Kogi Cosmos-san was suspended from school because she was suspected of drinking alcohol. However, she claims to be innocent, and the group that actually drank alcohol said that she was not in the location where they did it. The school should have evidence of Kogi-san being in that location, but we believe in her innocence, so we think that evidence is forged. We want to ask the school for more details about the situation, but for that we need a guardian of Kogi-san to launch an inquiry.”
Slight agitation ran through Tasaka-san’s eyebrows.
“…So why did you come here?”
Osanai-san instantly answered.
“Because you are a guardian of Cosmos, Tasaka-san.”
A small sigh escaped from Tasaka-san’s lips.
“Did Cosmos-san say that?”
“All she said was that you married Kogi-san. That girl doesn’t know that we came here. She probably wouldn’t allow us to if she did.”
Tasaka-san crossed her fingers so that her left hand became visible. I couldn’t see a ring. She most likely didn’t wear it while working.
“…Suspended, you say? I didn’t know.”
I didn’t fail to catch the colors of self-deprecation on her normally calm, tranquil face as she uttered those words. However, I managed to muster the minimum level of self-restraint required to not point that out aloud.
As she lamented her unreasonable suspension, Kogi-san called Osanai-san in tears, but did not mention it at all to Tasaka-san. That was natural. On the other hand, it was difficult to imagine Kogi Haruomi, who was working in his shop in Tokyo, to be unaware of his daughter’s suspension. Even if his daughter tried to hide it, the school would have contacted him. Yet he didn’t inform his new wife about his daughter’s situation… I didn’t want to stick my nose into another family’s matters, but I started feeling some disdain for Kogi Haruomi, though I’d never met him before.
“I understand.”
Confusion and hesitation were wiped clean from Tasaka-san’s voice.
“So what should I do?”
I couldn’t deny that Osanai-san had a small body and childlike facial features. Her actions were also not always composed – she would go all soft if she sees numerous macarons, for example. That was the first time I’d seen an adult trust this Osanai-san on their first meeting, and even ask her for instructions. Osanai-san was a little bewildered herself, but eventually replied.
“Please make a phone call to the school, and speak with Sanpongi-sensei from the Student Counseling Department. Tell him that you want to meet with him in person to discuss the case of Kogi-san’s suspension.”
“Sanpongi-sensei, correct?”
“If you get them to agree, I’ll follow you to meet them. It should be fine if I go as Kogi-san’s older sister, right?”
Tasaka-san stared at Osanai-san for a moment, probably contemplating if she should act as a younger or older sister. She then shifted her gaze to a calendar hanging on a wall.
“Our rest day is Wednesday, but a TV crew will be coming here next Wednesday, so after that…”
Tasaka-san started, but Osanai-san interrupted her.
“No, the sooner we do this, the better. And if possible, now.”
“Now?”
Tasaka-san frowned, which was expected. There was no way a shop manager could leave on a weekend during operating hours. Her eyes wandered.
“But there is no school on a Saturday. That teacher might not be around.”
“That might be so, but many teachers go to work on Saturdays. We can’t do anything if he isn’t present, but we should first check if he is.”
Osanai-san probably knew that the problem wasn’t whether Sanpongi-sensei was in school, but whether Tasaka-san could leave the store on a Saturday. On top of that, she wanted Tasaka-san to hurry. What she said was valid, but it looked grim. People usually can’t take action that quickly.
However, Tasaka-san silently nodded. She reached for a mobile phone on the office desk and made a call. No one told her anything important, but she still had the phone number to Kogi-san’s school registered on her mobile phone. In almost no time at all, the call went through.
“Hello. Sorry to bother you when you are busy. I am Ruriko…”
For a moment, she was at a loss for words.
“…mother of Kogi Cosmos from Class 3-E. I understand that it is a rest day, but is Sanpongi-sensei from the Student Counseling Department in?”
The conversation continued for a while, so we waited. Osanai-san took a breath, then started looking around the office curiously. It was just a prosaic office, but she was probably fascinated because it was her first time at the back of a patisserie.
Eventually, the phone call ended, and Tasaka-san announced while holding her phone.
“He’s in school. Let’s go.”
Would the shop would be fine without her… no, it wouldn’t, but Tasaka-san had made the decision to go. There was no need for me to ask unnecessary questions.
5
Only Tasaka-san and Osanai-san would be entering Reichi Middle School, so I had to wait outside. We couldn’t possibly all tag along behind Tasaka-san and introduce ourselves as a mother, an older sister, and an incompetent older brother, so there was no helping it.
In the meantime, I returned to Nagoya Station and killed time at the shopping mall there. I thought about sitting in a cafe, but considering that I’d spent money on the train ride here and on coffee at Fugaku, I decided to tighten my purse’s strings a little. I rode the elevator to the top floor to get to the bookstore, and found it to be rather packed, as one might expect of a Saturday, with a long line at the register. As I cooled down in the corner for newly published paperbacks, I did some contemplation.
The question of who set this trap for Kogi-san with bad intentions still could not be considered at this point in time. That was due to a lack of information, but we were steadily gathering information pertinent to the case. I should have already known, but the initiative Osanai-san displayed was astonishing, and even though I’d taken the trouble to travel to Nagoya on a weekend, I’d had almost no opportunities to show off my prowess. That was quite unsatisfying… even I wouldn’t have that thought. I also understood the frustration of getting punished for no reason.
While reaching out for a paperback that caught my eye, I was struck by another realization. I scanned the bookstore, found a “Study Reference” sign hanging from the ceiling, and headed to that section. The third trimester was a short one, meaning that it would soon be time for the end-of-year exams, but I was worrying about something else. Looking at a shelf that contained college entrance exam workbooks and problem sets, I searched for my target.
“There it is.”
I found a shelf lined with English-Japanese dictionaries, but somehow felt apologetic taking one out of its box, so I gently pulled out a dictionary that came without a box. I flipped to the pages for words starting with “M”, but instantly realized that it wouldn’t work. The word I wanted to look up probably wasn’t in English. After thinking for a brief moment, I picked up a Japanese dictionary and looked at the words under “ma”.
“…So it was as I thought.”
I closed the dictionary and returned it to its shelf. I’d managed to learn an interesting fact, though I still couldn’t say if it bore any relation to Kogi-san’s suspension…
By the way, it would have sufficed to look up the word with my mobile phone, but I was unable to be contained by arrows or shields18, and went straight to a dictionary once I remembered that word. I felt it wouldn’t be right if I simply left after gaining information from browsing at this bookstore, so to make up for it, I retraced my steps to the bookshelf of paperbacks, and purchased the short story collection I’d had my eye on for some time now. While I was having a cover fitted on the paperback, I received a notification on my mobile phone. I glanced at the monitor to find that Osanai-san had sent me a message.
I walked out of the bookstore to read it.
“We’re done. Let’s meet at Kakuouzan Station, kay?”
Her message had a weird ending; perhaps it was caused by Autocorrect.
Since it was my second time in the Nagoya subway, I didn’t get lost that badly. When I arrived at Kakuouzan Station, I looked around, wondering where we would meet, and spotted a thickly dressed Osanai-san sitting on a bench and looking towards the ground, at one end of the platform that was illuminated by LED lights. She didn’t stand up when I approached, and since it would be awkward if I was the only one standing, I sat down next to her.
“What happened to that person?”
I asked, and Osanai-san answered through her muffler, still staring at her feet.
“She went back to the store.”
Tasaka-san was away from the store for a full two hours. Just because she was the manager didn’t mean that she could leave whenever she wanted, and she’d probably taken her break in the afternoon. Thus she returned to the store, as expected.
“She said not to tell Kogi-san that she was involved in this.”
“Got it. So, what was the result?”
“Superb.”
A train arrived at the inbound line platform, and it left in a few dozen seconds as a bell sounded. After waiting for the noise to fade, I asked.
“Could you tell me how it went?”
Osanai-san nodded, then started speaking in a muffled voice.
“We immediately met Sanpongi-sensei. There was no staff member to show us the way on a Saturday, so we were told to go directly to the reception room. There were also no guards, and I was surprised by how easy it was to get in. Sanpongi-sensei was in the reception room and he seemed to be doing some kind of work. He kept the documents laid out on the table in his bag when Tasaka-san knocked on the door and we entered. As expected of a private school, the room was impressive. The tables were heavy, the sofas were fluffy, and the carpet had long hairs.”
There were now no other people on the platform. Only cold beams of LED light shone down on us.
“Sanpongi-sensei was about forty, I think. I was under the impression that he would look stern, but that was an assumption I had after hearing that he was the type of teacher to yell at students. He didn’t try to hide the fact that he felt bothered by this meeting and didn’t serve tea, but said to Tasaka-san, ‘Please, sit down.’ He only took a glance at me, and didn’t ask who I was.”
It seemed that the title of “guardian” was really effective. I should have come along as well if we didn’t have to identify ourselves.
“In conclusion, it was as we deduced, and Kogi-san was suspended because they were sent a photo of her at a party. Sanpongi-sensei said he couldn’t reveal the sender’s name, but that was probably because he forgot, or because they sent the photo anonymously. Tasaka-san said that Cosmos wasn’t at that location, but Sanpongi-sensei got annoyed and retorted that we can’t make excuses for her because the photo exists.”
“…Did he not ask if Tasaka-san was with Kogi-san on New Years’ Eve?”
“Yeah, he didn’t. I think it’s because he wouldn’t be able to do anything if she claimed they watched the Red and White Song Battle together.”
That made sense.
“Sanpongi-sensei insisted that kids at her age are good at lying so we shouldn’t listen to what she has to say, and also mentioned that though the school is trying its best, guidance at home is also important. That got Tasaka-san angry. She accused the teacher of trying to push through the decision without doing proper investigation.”
That got Tasaka-san angry, huh? Her choice of words implied something else.
“You didn’t think so?”
In the gap between her fringe and her muffler, Osanai-san grinned with her eyes.
“He showed us the photographic evidence when we asked him to, and when we asked to borrow it, he printed it out for us. That’s the first time I’ve seen such a conscientious teacher. I can’t get angry at someone like that.”
That’s impressive.
“Even if you used the title of a guardian, he still handed information to outsiders. He’s actually a good person. I suppose we can say the negotiations went very well?”
“Though I did say I wanted to confront Cosmos with the evidence because she kept insisting that she didn’t go to the party.”
“He probably took your word for it.”
“…I did a bad deed.”
She must have felt guilty for telling a lie, with the other person believing it wholeheartedly.
A bell chimed again, and an outbound train arrived at the platform, accompanied by a rush of wind. The platform’s doors opened, prompting several people to board and alight from the train. It felt like quite a long period of time passed before it eventually moved off, but was it because the train was waiting for us to get on, or was it just my imagination? When silence descended on the platform, Osanai-san spoke.
“Anyway, here’s the photographic evidence.”
She showed me a photograph printed on copy paper. The image quality was poor, but just enough for one to make out what was depicted on it, which was a girl holding a wine glass, a bottle of wine or champagne, and Kogi-san with a wide smile on her face. At first glance, there didn’t seem to be anything suspicious about it – meaning that it was quite the elaborate fabrication.
It was cold and dark at the subway bench. Not a suitable place to examine a photo.
“Incredible. I didn’t imagine we would get these so quickly… right, shall we go?”
Osanai-san wordlessly nodded and slowly stood up.
On the bench was a disposable heat pack. It seemed that Osanai-san had been sitting on that the whole time. With a innocent look on her face, she retrieved the heat pack and said in a low voice.
“The real battle starts now.”
Thus, the two of us returned to Kogi-san’s apartment.
Kogi-san received us with a wistful look in her eyes. She probably wanted to say something to us about arbitrarily contacting Tasaka-san. However, after taking one look at the evidence photograph Osanai-san peremptorily thrust at her, she exclaimed in a shrill voice.
“That’s a lie! It’s fake!”
Her eyes twinkled with tears.
“I mean, I didn’t do anything like this! This… Yuki-chan-senpai, it’s a lie!”
Osanai-san looked Kogi-san straight in the eye and spoke.
“That’s what I think.”
“…Eh?”
“I also think this photo is a lie.”
Kogi-san hurriedly wiped the corners of her eyes and asked, clearly surprised.
“Why?”
“You’re innocent, aren’t you? So it has to be a fake.”
It was a way of speaking that showed not a hint of pretense, over-eagerness or doubt. Kogi-san only managed a “Yuki-chan-senpai” before lapsing into silence, and seemed to be temporarily rendered speechless.
In the meantime, Osanai-san and I observed the photo again under a bright light. Osanai-san then operated her mobile phone and brought up the photo that Kayazu-san had sent her. The photos didn’t need to be compared; they were completely different.
Kayazu-san’s photo depicted her, Sada-san and Tochino-san each posing with a glass in one hand, as well as a table in front of them that had a bottle of wine or some similar substance placed on top. Only Tochino-san posed with her mouth touching her glass. The three of them were standing next to a wall, so I couldn’t tell the size of the room they were in, and all I could see was that the wallpaper had a striped pattern.
The photo obtained from Sanpongi-sensei showed Kogi-san looking slightly upward and to her right and smiling with a satisfied look on her face. She had a glass in her right hand, and was making a peace sign with her left. She was clad in a sweater and skirt, with the sweater being decorated with a big black ribbon. Near her, Kayazu-san was filling up a glass with champagne, and behind Kogi-san was a girl sipping from a glass and also looking at the camera. The room’s wallpaper had a striped pattern.
The photos seemed to be taken at the same room, but the angles they were taken at and their subjects were different. The only common person to both photos was Kayazu-san, and besides that, the other common factor was that they depicted a person drinking something that looked to be alcohol.
“Now that we can see the two pictures together, the one you received is a little strange.”
Osanai-san asked.
“Where?”
I pointed at Kogi-san’s left hand.
“She made a peace sign, so she should know that her photo was being taken. Yet she was looking upward and to the side, so I find that weird.”
“…Yeah, that’s certainly weird.”
Kogi-san seemed to have finally calmed down, so I asked her a question.
“Kogi-san, are these clothes yours?”
Her face still red, she peeked at the photo and shook her head.
“No, I don’t have clothes like these.”
“Meaning that they only cropped your head in.”
Once again, I looked at the photo and focused only on Kogi-san’s head. The image quality was bad, but once I knew what to look out for, I noticed that her head’s contour lines were slightly blurred, and seams could be seen at her neck. Additionally, I found that something yellowish was stuck to her cheek. What was that?
“The question is…”
Osanai-san murmured.
“Who was able to take the party photo? Only the person with the original photo could have produced this fake.”
That was true, but…”
“Everyone at Kayazu-san’s New Year’s Eve countdown party could have taken the photo. She said there were twelve or thirteen people in total, right?”
Kogi-san piped up with enthusiasm.
“So we just need to ask everyone about who took the photo, right?”
“We can’t do that.”
I replied, causing Kogi-san to knit her eyebrows and fall silent. Osanai-san explained from the side.
“That would be very difficult. Even Kayazu-san doesn’t seem to know who exactly attended the party on that day, and more importantly it would be a nuisance for them, so we might not get an answer if we ask. On top of that, if the photo was uploaded on the internet, it’ll be almost impossible to figure out who downloaded it.”
“Is that so…”
Kogi-san stared at the printed photograph.
‘Why did I have to get into this mess? You’re saying that someone who attended the party hated me and did this, right…”
“Any ideas?”
Osanai-san asked, but Kogi-san shook her head weakly.
“No. But who would hate…”
Her voice rose again.
I’d perceived hidden enmity multiple times before. I’d detected intentions to undermine someone behind the facade of a smiling face. However, I’d never witnessed someone on the on the receiving end react to that animosity before. Kogi-san should have already known that she’d been entrapped by someone else, but only now was her heart wildly shaken with the fruit of that hostility, the falsified photograph, before her. So that’s how it goes.
I was just a petit bourgeois, or if not, just an impertinent sleuth. Could I do anything at all to help? Would Kogi-san be able to relax a little more if I revealed who was harboring enmity towards her… I had some doubts about that.
But Kogi-san did say that she wanted to find her adversary no matter what it takes. Thus, I shouldn’t hesitate at this point.
“That’s not like you, Osanai-san.”
I said, causing the two girls to look at me in unison.
“The question is not just, ‘Who was able to take the party photo?’ What we should be focusing on is, ‘Who could take a photo of Kogi-san smiling like this?’ and ‘Who could get their hands on both the party photo and Kogi-san’s photo?’ Kogi-san, do you happen to know where this was taken?”
Having a question suddenly directed at her, Kogi-san replied in a somewhat nervous manner.
“Eh? The photo was taken well, so it could have been at the Cultural Festival, or after school…”
“Look at it carefully. There’s something stuck on this cheek.”
“Cheek?”
After asking in return, she moved her eyes closer to the photograph. Osanai-san had good eyesight, but also peeked at it in the same way. Kogi-san muttered.
“You’re right. That’s embarrassing.”
Suddenly, the two of them raised their heads at the same time.
“Ah!”
“Kobato-kun, this means!”
Osanai-san seemed to be on the right track. She continued in a firm voice.
“Kogi-san, you have the latest issue of Orca, right? Bring it over.”
“Right!”
A copy of the mini-media magazine Orca was instantly placed on the table. The top article of the latest issue was the Italian-Japanese pasticciere gathering. It contained photos of the gathering party held at a hotel in the city, of neatly arranged Italian desserts, and of the smiling participants. Behind two men who were having a pleasant chat while holding wineglasses in their hands, Kogi-san was smiling as if there was nothing more blissful in the world than this, with cream stuck to her cheek.
I compared that photo published in Orca with the fabricated image. The angle of Kogi-san’s eyes and position of the cream on her cheek were exactly the same.
“This is it. It must be embarrassing that you didn’t notice.”
Osanai-san said earnestly.
Orca was not just sold within Nagoya, but also in the neighboring cities, so anyone could have gotten hold of that photo. By turning the relevant picture into data by scanning or taking a photo of it, one could combine it with the countdown party photo to produce fake evidence. However, covering a part of Kogi-san’s head was the word “Party” from the caption “High Spirits at the Gathering Party”. It wouldn’t be impossible to remove that word with a computer, but the culprit’s image editing technology was at the level where they were unable to remove the seams from Kogi-san’s neck without making the picture feel strange. It was quite unlikely that they created the fake photograph by scanning the magazine. Meaning…
“The culprit is someone from the editorial department…?”
Kogi-san muttered. That was not impossible, but it was difficult to think of a common thread between Orca’s editorial department, the countdown party and the culprit being someone with enmity towards Kogi-san.
“Or it could be someone who received the photo data from Orca’s editorial department.”
“…Is that something you can simply receive?”
“I think Kogi-san could get it easily if she requests for it. She is one of the subjects, after all. Likewise, the other people in this photo could obtain this photo’s data.”
I pointed at the two men conversing with wineglasses in their hands. One of them was a middle-aged man who looked to be Japanese, while the other was a young bearded white man.
“These two should be patissiers, but do you know any of them?”
Without hesitation, Kogi-san pointed at the middle-aged man.
“This person…”
She spoke, her face pale and her voice trembling.
“I remember him. I don’t know his name, but when I ate a cream puff, he came over and said, ‘So there are uncultured stores that would serve cream puffs for an Italian sweets gathering.’”
“Do you know which store served those cream puffs?”
“…Ours.”
That probably meant that person knew that Kogi-san was the daughter of Patisserie Kogi’s owner, and intentionally approached to make a snide remark.
“At that time, I was just having fun so I didn’t think much about it, and I replied that I heard that cream puffs were brought to France by a princess from Florence. That person then left without saying another word.”
Osanai-san frowned.
“He probably felt humiliated… but did he create the fake photo and send it to the school just for that? And how did he get the countdown party photo?”
I could answer that question. Placing my hand on the issue of Orca, I replied.
“Kogi-san, call the Orca editorial department and ask them if they sent photos from the Italian-Japanese pasticciere gathering to Patissier Tochino from Marronnier Champs.”
Kogi-san’s eyes widened. It seemed like she needed some time to digest my words.
6
The sun had completely set when we boarded the Tokaido line train to get back to Kira City. The train was full, but we fortunately managed to sit next to each other. Sitting opposite us was a pair who looked to be university students, both listening to music on their earphones. I was reluctant to discuss the case in a crowd of people, but this made it easier to do so.
After receiving the phone call from Kogi-san, Orca’s editorial department answered her question without seeming suspicious of her, saying that they did send that photo’s data to Patissier Tochino. They also offered to send it to her, but Kogi-san politely refused and ended the call. She looked a little pale after it all.
Only Patissier Tochino would be able to obtain both the pasticciere gathering photo and the countdown photo. He received the former from Orca’s editorial department, and the latter from his daughter, Tochino Mio. Mr Tochino likely already harbored resentment towards Patisserie Kogi from a while ago. As Osanai-san had told me, Marronnier Champs took first place at Orca’s influential annual sweets shop ranking for three years in a row, but fell due to the opening of Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko.
On top of being humiliated at a formal party by the daughter of Kogi, whom he already hated, his own daughter got suspended from school for drinking alcohol. It is impossible to stop a rumor, so if word would get out that the daughter of Marronnier Champs was suspended for drinking alcohol, he wanted to spread the disgrace to Patisserie Kogi. Either that, or… the culprit could be Tochino Mio. Since she had already gotten suspended, she schemed to take the daughter of a hated rival store down with her.
Creating fake evidence from the two photographs seemed like the work of an adult to me, and the idea of getting a suspension with the false charge of drinking alcohol felt like it came from a middle school student. Meaning it was also plausible that father and daughter were working together. Well, we had already sufficiently fulfilled our goal, so there was no need to figure out which of them was the main culprit.
“Kobato-kun.”
Osanai-san whispered in the rocking train car.
“I’m surprised you knew that Tochino is the patissier of Marronnier Champs.”
She probably didn’t have peace of mind, given that she was beaten to the punch in knowledge about patissiers, of all things. But she had the wrong idea.
“It’s not that I knew, I just thought that might be the case.”
“So it was just a hunch?”
“Not really. I had more basis for that to call it a hunch.”
Osanai-san tilted her head, muffler and all, so I explained my train of thought.
“Earlier, while you and Tasaka-san were in Reichi Middle School, I did some digging. Tochino-san’s nickname, Marro, somehow caught my attention. Why is it Marro? Come to think of it, didn’t I recently hear some word that starts with Marro… that was what I thought. Kogi-san also said that Tochino-san was interested in making sweets, so I made a guess, and it turned out to be spot on.”
“What do you mean by digging?”
“It’s simple… I looked up ‘Tochi’ in a dictionary.”
There were definitions like “deciduous tree” and “native to mountainous areas”, but at the end…
“It can refer to ‘marronnier’, which is another name for the horse chestnut tree.”
Osanai-san let out a small groan.
There was a student with the name of Tochino related to the case, a shop called Marronnier Champs which was dethroned by Kogi, and also the fact that marronnier means horse chestnut tree. I thought that those three signs could not be a coincidence, and speculated that Tochino-san’s father is the patissier of Marronnier Champs. After learning that Kogi-san’s face in the fabricated photo was originally taken at the Italian-Japanese pasticciere gathering, the problem was not a difficult one to solve.
We now knew the culprits, and pretty much figured out their motive. Did Kogi-san cheer up from that? Or – did she get assaulted by a sense of futility knowing that the situation was beyond redemption even after learning the names of her enemies?
Before leaving, Osanai-san had given Kogi-san some advice. Since she had the fabricated photograph as evidence, she could send it to Orca’s editorial department. All she had to do was write in to expose what Patissier Tochino did. Marronnier Champs’ treatment in the magazine would probably change.
“Say, Osanai-san.”
“Yes?”
“Do you think Kogi-san will write in to Orca?”
For the sake of revenge.
Osanai-san seemed to be somewhat sleepy. With heavy eyes, she replied.
“I don’t think so. She’s a good kid, after all.”
With just those words, she lapsed into silence. She was probably tired and fell asleep. I would have to wake her up later, so I should not sleep as well. The packed train trundled its way back to Kira City – leaving behind Kogi Cosmos alone for the night.
7
Osanai-san and I were invited to Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko the following Wednesday. Though it was their designated rest day, some recording was being done for a television program, so Tasaka Ruriko-san was present, and she let us in after the shoot was over.
“It’s because Yuki-chan-senpai helped me out so much.”
There were no clouds in Kogi-san’s beaming face as she spoke. As for how she handled the fabricated photo, or what she said to her classmate Tochino-san… neither Osanai-san nor I asked her about that. We’d carried out her request. We didn’t want to know more, or talk about it.
In place of a uniform, Tasaka Ruriko-san was wearing a black apron. She gracefully smiled.
“Really, thank you so much.”
I felt uncharacteristically happy upon seeing Kogi-san and Tasaka-san smile together. Up till last Saturday, Kogi-san hated Tasaka-san, and Tasaka-san was hesitant to interact with Kogi-san, yet the two of them were now in the same space. We never told Kogi-san that Tasaka-san had cooperated with us to obtain the fake photo, but the two of them must have exchanged words in some shape or form – and at the very least, the distance between them seemed to have shortened.
Osanai-san probably didn’t notice that. As soon as she entered the store, her body started trembling, and she froze in place, speechless.
The interior of Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko was decorated with sweets. Pastel-colored macarons, marble-patterned macarons, macarons that were closer to the primary colors. There was also a whole cheesecake, a tower of cream puffs that had chocolate drizzled from the top – I later learned that it was called a croquembouche. Finally, there were some items that Patisserie Kogi Annex Ruriko, a French dessert shop, would usually not have, Berliner Pfann… what were they called again? I suppose I’ll just call them Berlin agepan.
“It’s all for Yuki-chan-senpai!”
“These were used for filming, so they won’t be served in our store. Please have as much as you like.”
Osanai-san opened her mouth and tried to say something, but all she could produce was a strange utterance that sounded like, “Awawa”.
Kogi-san had consulted me on the phone about how to thank Osanai-san, and my advice was to treat her to sweets. That was when I told her about the trouble with the Berlin agepan. I’d thought that Osanai-san would be happy… but it was impossible to deduce that she would be so overjoyed.
With both hands on her mouth and her eyes teary, she barely managed to speak.
“Um… am, am I dead?”
Kogi-san gave a peal of laughter. It became exactly six, and the melody of Oh, The Meadows Are Green from the large clock outside filled the store.
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Editors (Tier 2): Dedavond, Egi Pratama, Pearl H Nettle, Sworderline
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- Sweet red bean soup (made with chunky sweet bean paste and water) with mochi.
- Sweet red bean soup (made with smooth sweet bean paste and water) with shiratama (rice flour dumplings).
- The mixture of smooth sweet bean paste and water in gozen shiruko. The mixture in inaka shiruko is tsubushian.
- A play on “opening the mirror”, which is a ceremony where kagami mochi (“Mirror mochi” that usually consist of two round rice cakes, the smaller placed on top of the larger, and a Japanese bitter orange with an attached leaf on top) are broken open.
- Japanese saying to describe a person who cannot take hot food because their tongues are heat-sensitive.
- Meaning very small circulation, as opposed to mass media.
- Layers of custard and sponge cake dipped in liqueur.
- A dairy-free, light custard dessert made with egg yolks, sugar, and a sweet wine.
- A sea monster in Japanese folklore with the head of a dragon or tiger or lion and the body of a carp covered entirely in black or grey scales. They are often constructed in a male and female pair at each end of the roof ridge as protector spirits of the castles. The most famous shachihoko today is the kin shachi (golden dolphins) at Nagoya castle, which are plated in 18 karat gold, 0.15 millimeters thick.
- Jealousy implies a certain amount of resentment towards the other party as compared to envy.
- Kyoto-style chopped vegetables pickled in salt with red perilla leaves.
- Killer whale is shachi, which is the first two syllables of shachihoko.
- Refers to a short story by Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (regarded as the father of the Japanese short story), about a poor samurai who is obsessed with imogayu (yam gruel) and wishes for more of it, but loses his appetite when he sees a plentiful amount of it. In the story there is a line similar to “I’ve had enough, thank you very much”, though it is in more archaic Japanese.
- A state of perfect spiritual concentration.
- Traditional Japanese New Year foods.
- Fugaku, or the Nakajima G10N Fugaku, was a planned Japanese ultra-long-range heavy bomber designed during World War II.
- Sushi made of deep-fried tofu stuffed with rice. If you’re wondering why there are so many food items, there is a tradition in Nagoya (and the Tokai region in general) called Morning where coffee comes with a bunch of complimentary food.
- Meaning that he was impatient.