The next day, my morning meeting and classes went by as
usual, but I was a nervous wreck after school.
"…S-s-so what should we do?"
"Y…yeah, Tomozaki! What would be good?"
I was sitting in the stairwell next to our classroom. It led
away from the main entrance, so it was fairly deserted.
Sitting right next to me—was Mimimi.
"Y-you wanted to do a comedy skit, right?"
"Y-yeah!"
The air was cool in the unheated stairwell. Now and then,
some students who were working on festival prep passed by
without paying much attention to us as we had our
"meeting."
"D-do you have any ideas?"
"Um, well…I did think of something."
"Yeah?"
"But then I thought about it more, and now I'm not
sure…"
"O-oh."
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We avoided eye contact as we sputtered out a kind of half
conversation. Weird. The day before at lunch, we'd been
acting fairly normal, but now this was going horribly. I
wonder if this kind of progress gets reset every night.
"Wh-what about you, B-Brain?"
"Umm…I'm just the helper."
"Y-yeah, guess that's true."
The conversation was full of awkward pauses, which we
noticed, which made us more awkward, which sent us into
an infinite spiral of awkwardness. All I could think of was
filling the gaps, so I couldn't keep up my normal energy.
I mean, here we were, a guy and a girl sitting alone in a
nearly deserted stairwell. I'd be nervous no matter who I was
with, but it was Mimimi, the person who was most on my
mind. Of course the words got stuck in my throat.
The classroom was too full of festival decorations and
people working on projects for us to really talk, but going to
the cafeteria just felt…I dunno, like way too much, so we'd
decided on this spot near the classroom. Now that was
creating its own kind of weird, abnormal vibe.
Plus, the festival was only two weeks off. We were cutting
it a bit close if we wanted to put together something to
perform for the whole school.
"Uh, I'd be interested to hear the idea you had…"
"Oh…you want to hear it?"
For some reason, she didn't seem to want to tell me.
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"Y-yeah, just to get started. Do you mind?"
It had to be better than starting from zero. I knew zilch
about comedy skits, so I had no idea where to even begin.
Mimimi rubbed her neck awkwardly. "Um, well, we're
always talking about it, so I was thinking of a couple skit…"
That word made me even more aware of our whole
predicament. "C-couple…"
Wait a second. She did casually joke around about that a
lot, but in this context, it took on a different meaning.
She blushed and laughed to cover it up. "B-but then I
changed my mind. Ah-ha-ha…"
"Oh…yeah."
Another awkward silence.
What do I say? What's off-limits? What's okay?
An uncomfortable mood descended, like we were trying to
feel each other out.
And then…
"…I was thinking," she mumbled, staring straight ahead
without making eye contact. I think she was trying to fix the
mood.
"What?" I answered, tense from the vaguely pensive
atmosphere.
"Remember what I said?"
My heart skipped a beat. She must be talking about that.
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"You mean…," I asked hesitantly.
Her breath hitched, and then it was like a bubble suddenly
burst.
"I said I like you," she whispered, looking away.
"Y-yeah."
My emotions flared up at hearing the words again.
Her voice became gradually more emotional. "How did
you feel?"
"…About what?"
"How did you feel…to hear that?" She scratched at her
knee just below her skirt.
"Um…"
I didn't know what I should say, but I did know I should
be honest. That's all I knew how to do in this kind of
situation.
"I was happy… Really happy."
"Uh-huh." She kept staring straight ahead.
"But the truth is…I still don't know what to do… I mean…"
"…Oh, okay."
Mimimi's head drooped. I glimpsed her profile through
the hair hanging in front of her face. It was beautiful but told
me nothing else—I had no way of knowing what was going
through her mind.
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"But, Brain, you…" She stopped.
Wh-what?
Suddenly, she pivoted her body toward me.
"Are you okay?! I'm so annoying these days!" she teased,
but her eyes were locked on me. Her cheeks were pink, and I
was sure mine were on fire.
What the heck did she mean by "annoying"? I was a total
newbie at this love thing, so I had no idea. Although, it was
easier to handle when she asked me things straight-out like
this.
"Annoying…? Why?" I asked back.
She sagged again, this time in relief. "R-really? …Then
never mind."
"Oh, okay."
Silence again.
Maybe because we were talking about this particular
topic, a new sense of embarrassment hovered around us, on
top of the awkwardness from before.
The people walking past us on the stairs threw us a glance
and then went on like they hadn't noticed anything unusual.
I'm sure they had no idea what we were talking about, but
every time someone came by, I tensed up and straightened
my back.
But what about her question?
What did I think?
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I couldn't keep dithering forever.
"Can I ask you something?" I asked.
"…What?"
I'd tried to keep as calm as possible, but she'd paused a
second before answering.
I summoned all my courage and turned toward her.
"Wh-what do you think it means for a guy and a girl to ddate?"
I stuttered a little, which was par for the course for me,
but I managed to get the words out well enough.
My question might count toward my assignment of asking
about her must-haves. But really, I just wanted to know
Mimimi's thoughts.
Partly, it would help me come up with an answer, and
partly, it would help me decide if her answer was compatible
with me.
"O-oh, that's what you wanted to know! D-d-d-dating,
huh?"
"Y-yeah. What it means, or…"
She sounded as much like a scratchy record as I usually
did, but she was mulling it over. "Hmmm. Th-the meaning,
huh…?" She scratched her nose awkwardly, then glanced at
me for just a second. "Can I be real with you?"
"…Sure."
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The mood suddenly shifted. I couldn't quite see her eyes
behind her long lashes, but they seemed distant. The smooth
line of her chin was beautiful—that was the only word for it.
"So you know what I said the other day?"
"…Yeah?"
She didn't even say the words, but just moving in that
direction turned me into a quavering mess. At this point, I
wasn't even capable of reading her expressions—all I could
do was listen to her pleasant voice.
"The truth is, I kind of just said it on the spur of the
moment."
"Oh."
Her words hit like a kick in the chest. If she'd said it on
the spur of the moment, then maybe she was going to take it
back? I knew I was being weak, but my will wasn't strong
enough to shut those thoughts down.
"But afterward, I thought some more, and…it was like, I
still felt the same. Know what I mean?"
"Uh, um, yeah."
I was incredibly relieved the second she said that, but
there was something pitiful about that emotion. I'd been
telling myself I couldn't give her an answer because I didn't
know how I felt, but subconsciously, I wanted her to feel a
certain way.
Unaware of my internal turmoil, she kept laying out her
heart on the table, little by little.
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"And I… Okay, like. I haven't had my big break, right?"
"Um, do you mean…what we talked about that one time?"
"Yeah. Like, if I'm not number one, I'm nothing."
"…Yeah."
It was back when Mimimi was having issues with Hinami.
She'd talked about that a lot—the feeling that she wasn't
special, that she couldn't be the main character.
That was why she wanted to be the best at something.
She was talking more slowly and carefully than usual, like
she wanted me to understand exactly how she felt.
"I knew I shouldn't think like that, but it's really hard to
change something so deeply ingrained."
She raised her gaze to the ceiling, like she was
remembering something.
"You…were the person who gave me the chance to
change."
"…You mean during the election?"
She nodded. "And also with Tama and Erika… A lot of
times, actually."
"Really…?"
I got what she meant about the election, but I hadn't done
anything special when Tama-chan and Konno were fighting.
If anything, it was the opposite—I'd been with Tama-chan all
the time, and we even hid the situation from Mimimi so she
didn't get worried. Of course, she found out about
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everything later.
Mimimi giggled at my confusion. "But that's just how I see
it!"
"Y-yeah?"
Mimimi smiled kindly, almost reflectively. "I felt so
helpless, but you changed the world to solve the problem."
"…Oh."
I nodded, thinking about Tama-chan.
True enough, that situation had ended near inconceivably
well, but that was only because Tama-chan was so strong…
and something else.
"I think the reason it all worked out was because you
stood by Tama-chan the whole time."
Mimimi scratched her nose happily.
"Maybe you're right. Thanks," she said, before shaking her
head modestly. "But that was all I could do."
"What was?"
"Y'know, buy her some time, back her up from the
shadows, slow and steady… I can't flip everything on its head
like Tama and the Brain!" She grinned, despite what she was
saying. "That's why I think you guys are amazing."
"O-oh."
She nodded. "And…I wanted to be more like you."
Once again, I thought about how many times Mimimi had
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said that Tama-chan and I were similar.
"All I want is to be like you two…but I can't."
"…Mm-hmm."
I wasn't sure I agreed on that, but I understood her point.
My strengths were her weaknesses, and my weaknesses
were her strengths. It would be hard for either of us to
become like the other.
She went on, carefully putting her feelings into words.
"So I did say it on the spur of the moment, but when I
really thought about it…I realized how I felt was the same."
"…It was?"
She nodded and looked straight at me.
"I honestly love both of you."
She smiled a little—not panicking and more just shy.
"…Thanks."
"Uh-huh."
When I thanked her, she seemed to come back to herself
and raised her head with a flustered expression.
Then she looked back at me in a joking way and said
reproachfully, "And I bet you'll disappear if I take my eyes
off you!"
"Huh?"
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She pouted at my confusion. "I mean, you changed so fast!
Your vibe, the way you act, everything!"
"Oh…"
That made sense. My clothes, my conversational skills,
and my social life had all changed. I'd even gone to a festival
at a girls' school with Mizusawa. I was like a totally different
person than I'd been six months earlier. I was surprised
about the changes myself, so for Mimimi, who'd known me
this whole time, it probably seemed almost impossible.
"I just didn't want to worry about that! …The end!"
"Oh, um…okay." I didn't know how to react, so I gave an
ambivalent reply. That seemed to make her panic again.
"Oh no! Am I being annoying?!"
"N-no, you're not annoying, but…"
"But?! Don't leave me hanging!"
She really latched on to that word, and her face was bright
red. I was sure it was redder than mine, and I knew I was
blushing again, too.
"It's the opposite of annoying. I'm really grateful you let
me know all this stuff that's been on your mind…"
Her blush deepened. "R-really? Are you sure I didn't just
overshare and shoot myself in the foot?! Are you sure you're
okay?!"
"Um, yeah. I'm good…"
"That wasn't a very confident answer! Say it again! Loud
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and proud!"
"Uh…" I was confused by her request, but I went along
anyway. "Okay. Yes. I'm fine. Really."
"Good! I can believe that!"
The whole exchange was mystifying, but going with the
flow was a necessity in conversations with Mimimi.
Suddenly, she bounced to her feet and turned toward me.
"Welp, that was super embarrassing, so please forget
about half of everything I just said!"
"Huh…? Uh, okay."
I nodded confusedly, and she rushed to give me more
instructions.
"B-but not all of it! I'll be sad if you forget everything!"
"What are you talking about…?"
"You'll never know the woes of a damsel…"
"Yeah, yeah…"
Things were getting silly and fun again, and the tension
was finally, finally melting.
"Well, Brain, make sure you sleep under plenty of
blankets tonight!"
"Ha-ha-ha, what the heck? You too."
"Sure thing!"
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With that, she bounded off out of sight, and I was left with
the lingering vestiges of all that energy and excitement.
That seemed like a really honest conversation, but
something still felt unsettled in my chest.
We'd barely made any progress on the comedy skit, and I
had a mountain of things to think over.
I stayed sitting in that cold corner of the stairs.
I felt like I understood a tiny bit better now.
Hinami had said that we had good chemistry.
Before, I couldn't have said why a bright, popular, pretty,
cool girl like Mimimi would fall for someone like me. But…
what she said just now shed a bit of life on that.
She could do everything, but she felt like she wasn't
special.
Tama-chan and I were the opposite. We were clumsy and
bad at everything but saying what we thought, and yet we
had this baseless confidence in who we were.
Maybe some would say she was crying for the moon.
But in her eyes, I'm sure we shone like stars.
And just maybe…if she did have a "special reason" for
choosing me…then this was probably it.
"…Man, this is tough."
Because in that case…
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…what was my reason?
* * *
At my morning meeting the next day, when I told Hinami
that I'd sort of asked Mimimi about her "must-haves," she
widened her eyes in surprise.
"Wow. I was sure you'd only work on Fuka-chan."
"Well, it just kinda happened…"
Hinami snorted. "It did, huh?"
She eyed me suspiciously, but I looked straight back at
her.
"I wasn't really thinking about the assignment. I just
asked her because I wanted to," I retorted defensively.
She nodded. "Right. Well, there's nothing wrong with
that, if it helps keep your motivation up." She raised one
eyebrow in a challenging way before continuing. "So?"
"So what?"
"Do I have to ask?" she sighed, pointing to my chest.
"Have you made a choice yet?"
Her gaze seemed soft on the surface, but the strength in it
still made it feel like a push instead of a stab.
"…Not really," I answered vaguely.
She turned up the pressure. "Do you plan to waffle around
forever?"
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"No, but…" The pressure was about to crush me.
"Didn't you say you wanted to decide based on your own
feelings?"
"Yeah, but…" I trailed off. "It's hard to know how I'm
feeling."
She nodded slowly, with satisfaction. "Hmph. Well, that
tracks."
"What's that supposed to mean? …Do you have any
brilliant solutions?" I shot back, turning to my senior in the
game of life for advice. She pressed her lips together.
"Solutions?"
"How can I know my emotions clearly? Is there some
efficient way of examining them?" I asked more specifically.
She pouted, hesitating.
That's what I needed—an efficient way of getting at my
own emotions. This girl was a professional at treating
matters of the heart from a logical perspective, which was
why I thought asking for her help on the subject would be
the fastest route to success.
"You're saying you don't know what your own feelings
are?" she mused, like she was trying to get her mind around
the problem.
"…Yeah."
She rested her finger softly on her chin. "Right…but
that's…" She sighed and turned her gaze down with a more
sober expression, thinking silently for a moment.
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"…That's what?" I prompted. Finally, she looked up at me
again.
What was that emotion in her eyes? It almost seemed
defeated.
"That's—something I don't know."
Her voice wasn't so much impassive as empty. The hollow
force of her words, too cavernous for me to see the bottom,
took any reply right out of my mouth.
"O-oh."
She always spoke forcefully, but this force felt different.
Normally, it was intimidating, like an enormous rock, but
now it was more like an enormous hole trying to suck me in.
If I slipped and fell in, I might never come out again.
But the next instant, her usual forge-ahead spirit was
back.
"Yes. So I need you to keep moving toward those
goalposts we've set up."
"Oh right. I guess that's what you've gotta do…"
I still wasn't sure about what just happened, but she'd
managed to keep me in line. And so began another day.
* * *
That day after school, Kikuchi-san came to me with an
unexpected request.
"You want to know…about Hinami?"
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We were sitting across from each other in the library.
"Yes… I want to know what kind of person she is, and how
she thinks." There was an intensity in Kikuchi-san's eyes, the
same kind she always got when we talked about writing.
"You mean, for the play?"
Yes, that was her reason.
In terms of rehearsal, she believed we needed to have a
script we could show to the class fairly soon. But she also felt
she didn't have enough to write the ending yet—and that was
why she wanted more details about Hinami, who was
playing Alucia.
"I want to bring out her humanity a bit more."
"That's true. As it stands now, she does seem to be more
in the background than Libra and Kris."
"Yes, exactly."
She was Libra's childhood best friend and Kris's tutor—
definitely a main character. She played a big role after they
were discovered sneaking into the garden. If Libra's
impurity had turned out to be the reason the dragon couldn't
fly, she would have been in the middle of the drama, pushing
forward the story.
But somehow, she felt more like a role than a character.
"I'm having a hard time coming up with something
similar to Libra's growth and mixture of honesty and
awkwardness, or Kris's fear of the outside world. But I know
I'll need that for the conclusion."
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She touched her slender finger to her lips. Her eyes were
cast down but sharp, like she was searching for something.
"Hmm. She's too strong right now, isn't she?"
"Definitely."
She was born in the castle and educated as a gifted child.
Blessed not only with an ideal environment but also with
considerable talent, she absorbed everything she was
exposed to. Her sharp mind was evident to everyone, and
she sometimes outdid even her own parents, as when she
cleverly persuaded her father not to execute Libra.
"Libra is clumsy, and Kris is a coward…but Alucia has no
weakness."
"I know what you mean," I agreed.
"At first, I emphasized her strength because I wanted her
to be that kind of character, but…"
"What kind of character?"
"Strong. It was on purpose."
"…Oh, okay."
I remembered something. "When you revised the play,
Alucia was the only one who actually got stronger."
The first time she revised the script, Libra and Kris had
been redrawn with more human weaknesses—but Alucia's
strength had been taken to an extreme.
It sounded like she'd intended for that strength to be a
theme in the play.
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"But as I was writing, I started to have more and more
doubts…"
"How so?"
When Kikuchi-san answered, it was like she was seeing
into the future, warping the very air around us.
"I wondered how Alucia even could be that strong."
Her clear voice filled the room like a bell exorcising evil.
Her words had the power to drag out whatever was hidden
at the root of the matter.
But I was certain the answer was a black box; no one
could see into it.
"And that's why you wanted to know about Hinami?" I
asked.
She nodded, her face troubled. "Yes. I wanted to know
how strong people think… And Hinami-san is the strongest
person I know."
"Yeah…"
I agreed so completely that it was almost funny. Out of all
the people I'd ever met, I thought Hinami was the closest to
Alucia in her strength.
"That's why I wanted to find out more about her. As a
reference."
"I see… But you know…"
I understood why she'd asked me about Hinami, and I
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agreed it was necessary. But there was one problem.
"To tell you the truth, there's a lot I don't know about
Hinami myself…"
And there it was.
I knew what she was like as NO NAME, and I knew about
her hyper-calculating, ambitious, stoic side beneath her
perfect-heroine act.
But I suspected that was only another mask underneath
the mask. I had no idea what was beneath that—the reason
for her strength.
"Hinami is probably one of my closer friends, and I might
know some things about her that other people don't know,
but…"
"What?"
"But when it comes to why she works that hard or where
her motivation comes from…I don't have a clue."
"…So you don't know, either," she said, staring ahead as if
an endless abyss was in front of her. And the deepest depths
of Hinami's heart really were an abyss. No one has ever
shone a light into that.
"Nope. There's not much I can tell you."
"I see…"
For a second, she seemed ready to drop the matter, but
then the spark returned to her eyes.
It was the brilliant light her eyes got whenever she talked
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about writing.
"Tomozaki-kun."
"…Yeah?"
Her gaze was overwhelming, but at the same time, it was
like her passion was gradually spreading to me. This quiet
fire and the power of her story were what had gotten me this
far.
"If we don't know…"
An excited, intrepid smile spread over her lips, which was
unusual for her.
Her next words felt like a challenge.
"…why don't we just ask her?"
* * *
Kikuchi-san and I were standing in the hallway outside
the classroom, facing Hinami.
"Am I in trouble?!" Hinami joked, taking an exaggeratedly
cautious stance.
"No, no, we want to interview you!"
"Oh! Am I a candidate for Ms. Sekitomo High School?"
"Wrong again. Wait, you entered the contest?"
Everything she said was a joke, but I could tell she was
trying to grab control of the conversation.
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"Ah-ha-ha. If I didn't, it would be an insult to the winner."
"W-wow, I can't believe you said that."
Apparently, she was insinuating that the winner might not
consider it a legitimate win if they didn't beat Hinami.
Honestly, this girl was terrifying. Especially since the
roundabout, smooth way she said it kept the comment from
sounding too insulting.
"That's me! Anyway, what is this about?" she said,
keeping the conversation rolling.
"Um, well…"
For a second, her question threw me off, and I stumbled
over my words.
It was exhausting to interact with Hinami's public
persona, because she always stole the initiative.
"We just…wanted to interview you so we could get some
insight for the class-play script… Is that okay?" I asked.
Kikuchi-san was watching Hinami, too, but Hinami didn't
seem at all uncomfortable.
"Yes, is it okay…?" Kikuchi-san asked timidly.
Hinami giggled. "Oh, that's what this is about. No
problem! I've got some student council work to do after this,
but I should be okay for half an hour or so!" she answered,
cheerfully accepting the idea but placing a time limit on it.
"Th-thank you so much!"
With that, Kikuchi-san began her interview with Hinami.
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But…
"Well, first, I'd like to ask…"
"Yes?"
Basically, the interview did not go in the direction I'd been
hoping for.
"What gives you the ability to work so hard?"
"Well, lately, I'd have to say a big part of it is that
everyone expects so much of me. At first, I was like, If I'm
gonna do something, then I want to be the best at it. So I
worked hard. Once everyone got used to me being that way,
I didn't want to let them down, you know?!"
Another example.
"What does effort mean to you?"
"Let me think. I'd have to say it's like a habit now. People
say it's important to set up the right environment and
routines if you want to get a lot done, right? So I'd, like,
decide on a set time when I'd work hard, or put myself in
situations where people would get mad at me if I didn't push
myself, and after a while, that just felt normal. When I really
think about it, I might not actually like putting in effort. Am
I being too honest? I mean, I'd love to take it easy if I could!
That's about it. Ha-ha-ha."
Or this.
"What is your ultimate goal?"
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"My goal? I have so many. Some are more concrete, like I
want to get a good score on the next test! And some are
more nebulous, like I want to be happy! I'd have a hard time
pinning down exactly what my one goal is, but I think the
reason I work so hard is to give myself more choices. You
know? It's like, even if I don't know what my goal is right
now, when I do figure it out, I don't want to be like Oh no, I
can never get there now! So that's another reason I think
the smartest thing to do is try my best right now. Wait a
second, I sound like a monk or something!"
Everything she said was along those lines.
In other words—
—snake oil, snake oil, and more snake oil.
She gave us some nice-sounding words, then added in just
a dash of believable darkness so it would really sound good.
But as someone familiar with her real character, I can tell
you there wasn't a drop of honesty in any of it. To be
completely precise, she did drop a couple hints of truth here
and there, but that was only because a few of her real
feelings happened to work as good sound bites. Her
intentions had nothing to do with it.
Of course, what she said did make sense for "the perfect
heroine of the school who worked extraordinarily hard," and
no contradiction existed between the principles and
processes she claimed to hold and the actual results she
produced. I wouldn't be surprised if some people heard her
answers and innocently thought, Huh, so that's why she's
able to work so hard. I mean, that would probably be the
normal reaction.
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"That's all the questions I have. Thank you so much!"
"No, thank you so much for asking!"
That's why I felt almost sorry afterward.
If Kikuchi-san used Hinami's made-up answers to develop
the inner world of Alucia, the personification of strength—if
she used those lies to change her depiction of Alucia—the
play would be weaker for it.
The picture Hinami painted was all a fairy tale, a hollow
story with the edges rounded off to please the masses and
just a pinch of imperfection for extra flavor. I'd even say it
totally lacked the sort of menace necessary to explain
Hinami's monstrous level of motivation and effort.
Sure, Hinami's answers were convincing in their way. But.
In terms of the elements that Kikuchi-san's story needed
—they weren't quite right.
But I couldn't exactly signal that to her during the
interview, so I had no choice but to sit and grit my teeth.
* * *
Afterward, we went to our usual spot in the library.
"Wow, I never thought you'd actually go ask her straightout," I remarked.
As the only person who knew the truth, I was trying to
steer the conversation away from it and fill the space with
something entirely unrelated. I mean, how could I explain it
to her?
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Kikuchi-san set the script on the table and stared at it
with a solemn expression.
"…I know," she replied, writing something down as she
spoke. Maybe she was taking notes on the interview.
"H-how do you think it went? Did you learn anything
useful?"
I tried to sound normal, despite the guilt nagging at me.
Kikuchi-san kept writing for a moment—then crossed
everything out with two lines before looking straight at me.
"I think Hinami-san was lying to us."
Her eyes were as sharp as her words.
Her expression was so confident, strong, and weighty,
there was no misinterpreting what she'd meant.
"…What?" I was a little taken aback.
The truth had revealed only the tiniest glimpse of its tail
on the far side of the darkness, but Kikuchi-san nevertheless
grasped it with total ease. She studied the script with
focused intensity.
"…What do you mean, lying?" I asked, somewhat
overwhelmed.
How had she realized? What parts did she think were lies?
Based on what?
I was dying to know. I mean, Hinami's answers had been
practically perfect. I was sure there weren't any cracks
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someone could discover through logic.
Kikuchi-san wrote a few words in one corner of the script,
circled them, and connected the circle to another one. Then
she nodded slightly and looked up at me.
"She didn't give us the tiniest glimpse of the core."
"What's do you mean?"
"I wanted to see her deepest root motivation."
"The motivation…"
Kikuchi-san had mentioned that before once. She wanted
to know what motivated Hinami to go that far.
"She kept talking and talking, but I never saw what was at
the heart of it…which makes me certain she's either hiding
something or lying. But she was so nonchalant the whole
time…so I think she must have been lying about some of it."
She was going mostly on intuition.
Logically, if someone talked in that much detail, you'd be
able to get a sense of their core, but she hadn't.
Which meant that person was either lying or hiding
something. At a glance, the logic seemed sound.
It was a powerful theory built on Kikuchi-san's belief in
her intuition, and it cut close to the truth.
"But…I still feel like I'm understanding Alucia better."
"What? Really?"
She nodded. "Yes. Alucia is simply being shaped by her
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circumstances. She's not working hard because she has some
sense of mission or anything like that…"
She set her pen down and returned her attention to me.
"It's not normal. I'm certain of it."
Kikuchi-san's voice was filled with confidence.
I realized that my mind was swapping the name Alucia
with another name, but I was deeply impressed by Kikuchisan's keen insight.
"I agree… You could be right."
I had a hunch. This ability of Kikuchi-san to guess
everything based on one short conversation, this fairy-like
skill of hers—this writer's gift?
Maybe it could help me answer the questions I'd started
to have during the Tama-chan incident—and find out what I
wanted to know.
"…Kikuchi-san."
That's why I said her name.
When she looked over at me, I screwed up my courage
and met her gaze with newfound purpose.
"How about we do a little more poking around? Into
Hinami's background, I mean."