HaruChika

Chapter 2

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I cannot accept this kind of love triangle.

It happened in the autumn of my first year in high school.

I stood in front of the door of apartment number 205 and took a deep breath. Looking from the outside, the dark room was closed off by thick curtains.

I rang the intercom. There was no response. I barraged the b.u.t.ton as if I were in a buzzer quiz. I was unexpectedly amused, but once again there was no reaction. I knew he was locking himself up in this room. Hey, come out.

Having come all the way to this place I was reminded of the legend of Amaterasu who hid herself in the heavenly rock cave. The fact of the matter is that it was this guy who told me that. "Actually..." It is common knowledge that Amaterasu is a female G.o.d, however, apart from the Genpei Seisuiki, the G.o.d appears as an androgyne in the Nichiiki Hongi. To think that conversation foresaw this situation is --

I slipped my hand into the pocket of my uniform and decided to use my cellphone.

I had called him five times and the sixth call was fruitless. It switched over to a mechanical voice along with a message recording. At that moment I heard a whistle-like sound from the kitchen. It was a chord. Do kettles these days make those sort of sounds when it"s boiling? Hmm. Really? I sensed that the gas burner stopped and it became as silent as the grave.

I knocked and exclaimed, "I"m coming in."

My footsteps resounded as I noisily entered. Is he in a hurry at this time? It"s already too late. I opened the door with a duplicate key I borrowed from his parents. I was stopped by the door chain. Then I remembered the advice I got when I went to borrow the key. As told, I scooped it up with my index finger through the gap and was able to release it without any difficulties. Wooden constructions that were built 30 years ago and ripe for reconstruction aren"t particularly sophisticated.

"No way."

With a very miserable voice a pajama-clothed Haruta fell on his backside. His eyes shuddered with dread. He had been absent from school for a week without leaving any notice. No, it"s more correct to say that he cooped himself up in this room for a week. Even if the rent was 12.000 yen and his parents provided for half for it, renting an apartment with the social standing of a cla.s.smate instead of staying in his own room, is something I cannot tolerate. In this guy"s case the circ.u.mstances were only a bit complicated, but...

My daunting pose cast a shadow.

While remaining on his backside Haruta shrunk away from my shadow in order to flee and retreated back inside his room.

I took off my shoes and entered the room. After I opened the curtains and the window with both of my hands, the sunlight and the pleasant air flowed in. The room looked unexpectedly tidy for a week-long confinement. He called it a study room, so he didn"t place any unnecessary furniture from the very start. There was a kitchen s.p.a.ce with a modest sink and a gas burner, a single closet s.p.a.ce, a low dining table that was picked up at a garbage dump site, a book rack, a mini component, and a sleeping bag that was warmed up by his body heat until just now.

Haruta, who had returned to in front of the low dining table on all fours, brushed back his bed hair and looked into my direction.

"Since you went through the trouble of barging in, let"s have something to drink."

"There"s no need for that."

I placed the bottle of diet tea which I bought at a nearby convenience store on the table.

"That one"s fine. I got really thirsty just now."

Haruta rose and cheerfully brought a mug from the kitchen.

"Give me half."

I silently poured it into the mug.

"Thank you," Haruta said, sat down and began to wet his lips a bit by bit.

Speaking of his bed hair, I was nearly charmed by his silky, glossy hair and androgynous features. Although he was worried about his short height, he had a slim body build, a smooth skin, a straight nose bridge, long eyelashes, and genuine double eyelids. The female me would gladly be reborn with the hopeless parts replaced by all that the male Haruta had. There was also a time when I wondered in a delusion what would happen if I got entangled and fell down a stairway together with that guy like in the "Transfer Student" film. I"d like to think of that as a momentary delusion.

"Well?" Haruta said. His gaze on me genuinely conveyed "What have you come here for?".

There were so many things I wanted to tell. I retrieved the notebook containing notes from the blackboard out of my school bag and spoke as calmly as I could.

"Sensei is very worried."

Haruta was taken aback and nodded profoundly.

"Also, everyone in cla.s.s is reflecting on their actions."

Haruta turned to look at me with skeptical eyes.

To begin with, the reason why Haruta refused to go to school is this: Haruta has unrequited love for someone at our school. He took peep photos with his cellphone - no no - One of his daily routines is that he privately looks at the photos he stealthily took of that person for his own modest pleasure. Though he usually locked it firmly with a pa.s.sword, he forgot it one day and on top of that he lost the cellphone at school. Haruta desperately looked for it with bloodshot eyes. It was no good that the one who found it was a boy from our cla.s.s. Half-interested, he sneaked a look at the photo alb.u.m and saw the photos of that person he had unrequited love for. Not to mention that there were a lot of those too. I could understand that boy"s confusion very well. Surely it must have felt like opening the box of Pandora. The cla.s.sroom was filled with commotion, confusion and cheers. Suddenly, Haruta was surrounded by our cla.s.smates as if he were caught in the eye of a typhoon.

"I"ve made my decision. I"m going to quit school," Haruta muttered with a distant look in his eyes.

"Haah?"

"I see. You don"t understand my feelings, Chika-chan. If I go to school and get cold stares from various students, I would have to endure it again and again."

I firmly stared at this strange childhood friend who still called me "Chika-chan".

"While I was taking a break from school, I kept wondering whether I could avoid the cold stares of our cla.s.smates for even for just a little. But it was useless. Before I can be myself, there"s the me who is weak to how others perceive me. When I, as an observed being, the world that divided the nonself who threatened that being, will..."

I tightened the cap of the bottle and threw it at him. I gave him no time to avoid it.

"I"m sorry," Haruta curled himself up and apologized. What a bad habit. To avoid his true feelings to be understood by others, he"d confuse them with fastidious talk.

"Anyway," I said. "If it"s about that then there"s already no need to worry."

"What do you mean?"

"I deceived everyone in cla.s.s in the past week. I told them that there was a girl that you liked and that the images in the cellphone were something that my friend asked from the softhearted Haruta."

"Chika-chan..."

For one moment I thought he was grateful, but it turned out to be different.

"I don"t remember asking you to lie for me."

I slapped my hands on the table and grabbed Haruta"s collar.

"-- See? You made a friend worry to the point that she"ll lie for you."

Haruta furiously nodded his head.

"It"s close to the cultural festival too. Do you understand what I"m getting at?"

Haruta nodded deeply. He looked frantic. I let go of him because it looked like his head could hurt any time soon. Haruta sat down as if he"d lost his nerve, and at last a sign of remorse showed on his face.

"... Now that you mention it, Chika-chan. You"re a member of the culture festival"s executive committee, aren"t you?"

"Believe it or not, but I"m busy. Ah, so busy, so busy. Well, are you coming to school? Are you not coming? Which is it?"

Haruta looked downward and stayed silent.

"There will be plenty to be embarra.s.sed about when you"re a teen."

When I said this to the good-for-nothing, Haruta lifted his head with a defeated expression.

"You"re way too blunt."

"Have any complaints about that?"

Haruta was about to say something, but closed his mouth. Thinking about it, I felt sorry for him. If I were in his shoes, I wouldn"t know if I"d be able to go to school again.

"I"ll give you a chance at a honorable recovery."

"Honorable recovery?"

"A chance to lift your reputation."

He looked at me with doubtful eyes, so I reseated myself and solemnly continued.

"It looks like the cultural festival will be cancelled."

"Huh," Haruta looked blankly at me. "And why"s that?"

"Someone put up a threatening letter on the bulletin board."

Haruta wasn"t perturbed. "According to a senpai, this seems to happen every year, doesn"t it?"

"Since the year before last. The way they operate is always the same. They clipped out characters from a newspaper, copied and enlarged the characters, and pasted it on coa.r.s.e paper. It says, "If you don"t accept the demands, I"ll poison the food in the stalls"."

"If I remember correctly last year it was --"

"Crepes."

"The year before that?"

"Takoyaki."

"This year it"s?"

"Yakisoba."

I endured Haruta"s giggling.

"Well, I"ll hear you out, but what are this year"s demands?"

"The vice princ.i.p.al"s hair wig. The staff room has been wrapped in an unprecedented air of tension by the greatest taboo in the history of the school."

In short, it was that kind of prank.

"... Chika-chan. Hopeless idiots are found at every school. Those idiots will do stupid things and enjoy it. The guy who came up with that joke of sending threatening letters each year is also such an idiot. No, he"s truly a magnificent idiot."

"But you know, nothing happens each year and it"s unknown who did it," I continued, interrupting Haruta"s amus.e.m.e.nt. "Hopeless idiots truly exist in this world. There have been phone calls and mails sent that said something like "If you don"t cancel the cultural festival or athletic festival I will commit suicide or I will kill a student." A majority of the schools who get those advance notices will end up cancelling or postponing. I think that all the students at those schools feel frustrated. The idiot who sends threatening letters every year to our cultural festival is also of a different degree of the same kind. Even though I know that he"s pulling mere pranks and jokes, the teachers and us are enduring it, coming to grips with it and coping with the situation. We"re doing our best not to have the cultural festival shut down."

"But."

I was about to make gesture to say that Haruta wasn"t following me and refute him. However, he didn"t say anything beyond that. Perhaps it was because he looked straight at my face. Unconsciously, bitter tears were about to well up in my eyes.

"... Hm. So this year"s for real?"

I returned a nod. "Well. Do you remember? The exhibition of the Chemistry Club we saw at the preparation of the cultural festival. You said that you wanted to see the Levitation Stone. Didn"t it have a coveted crystal?"

The Levitation Stone appeared in the animation film t.i.tled "Castle in the Sky" which Haruta liked; it was a jewel that held the power to float in the sky. The transparent, beautiful blue crystal was also popular with the Chemistry Club and every year they attempted to grow a big crystal. It was an established practice to display the item, so to speak.

"Is there something going on with that?"

"Apparently they lost it."

"They lost it? Are you sure?"

"It"s a copper sulfate crystal."

Haruta was taken aback.

"That"s a strong poison."

I lowered my eyes and nodded. "Yesterday after school, the student in charge of the surveillance left the science room for a moment and it disappeared while no one was looking for about five minutes. Currently, everyone in the executive committee is desperately looking for it." I swallowed my saliva and continued, "... We kept quiet about it to the teachers."

"If it"s a theft of strong poison, you must contact the police at once."

I showed a frail smile on my mouth.

"Haha. If we did that, wouldn"t they cancel the cultural festival?"

"Are you sane? Chika-chan!"

"I"m sorry." I hung my head like a wilted flower. "Me and others are trying to cope with it. It"s very scary. We don"t know what"s the right thing to do and we"re being driven into a situation about which we can do nothing about."

I looked up at a rigid Haruta who was at a loss for words and spoke with a low voice.

"... Come on. Help us out, Haruta."

Next: The Crystal Thief 2
TRANSLATOR"S NOTES
- Amaterasu Oomikami is the Sun G.o.ddess in j.a.panese mythology.
- Ama no Iwato is the Heavenly Rock Cave.
- The Genpei Seisuiki as well as the Nichiiki Hongi are j.a.panese historical doc.u.ments.
- Tenkousei (Transfer Student) is a movie in which a boy and a girl exchange bodies when they fall down the stairs of a temple.
- The Levitation stone makes its appearance in the Castle in the Sky, a Ghibli movie by Hayao Miyazaki.
- Copper sulfate crystal: See Wikipedia for more details.

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