“…Hey, which one is the ino no m? There’s supposed to be a pattern that brings happiness, right?”
“Come to think of it, there was talk like that.”
I said it while pretending not to be interested.
“Do you know what kind of pattern an ino no m is, Izuta-kun?”
“Uh, no, what was it again…”
I hoped it would end ambiguously, but it didn’t go that way. Iwama took out her smartphone and started looking it up.
“…Did you figure it out?”
When I asked, Iwama looked at the screen for a while and then nodded.
“Yeah. ino no m is written as ‘boar’s eye’ and apparently refers to a heart-like pattern.”
“Ah, I see. That’s why the cherry blossom viewing platform is also shaped like a heart.”
“Oh right, that might be it!”
My acting skills aren’t great, but the innocent Iwama didn’t seem to suspect my pretense of not knowing.
Iwama turned her gaze from the smartphone screen back to the cherry blossoms.
“But it’s strange, I don’t really see any ino no m-like shape… maybe that large gap between the two trees is it?”
The paired cherry trees each spread their branches in full bloom, filling the field of vision with light crimson. Between the two was an empty hole where the blue sky was cut out and visible. However, it was a distorted inverted triangle. No matter how you interpreted it, it wasn’t a shape that could be called a heart—or rather, an ino no m.
“It would be hard to call that an ino no m.”
“Yeah, I suppose…”
I heard a more subdued voice than expected and turned to look at Iwama.
It might have been the cherry trees’ bad joke. But Iwama’s face seemed to have a slight shadow cast over it.
I see.
Unlike me, who hadn’t expected anything at all, Iwama had been looking forward to the happiness-bringing pattern.
—High school life, I want it to start off well, you know!
I recalled Iwama’s words from before we entered the mountain. The honest honor student heard an interesting rumor and climbed the back mountain seeking happiness, even if it was just at the level of a charm.
But such happiness didn’t exist.
Mizusaki had said it. Whether ino no m or heart, no one had been able to see it this year. It had surely already been lost. That guy committed a terrible sin. Just to make fun of me, he dragged Iwama into it and made her chase after an unattainable happiness.
Having expectations betrayed is far more painful than not having expectations from the start.
I searched for words to somehow encourage her.
“The wind was strong this winter. Maybe branches broke and the hea—the ino no m collapsed too. Look, even a tree has fallen.”
I pointed at the fallen tree blocking the path just ahead.
“But… the fallen tree didn’t hit the cherry blossoms, right?”
As Iwama said, the positional relationship between the fallen tree and the two cherry trees was such that they didn’t seem likely to make contact.
“There’s still the possibility that cherry branches broke in the wind. It can’t be helped.”
Iwama still had her hand on her chin, staring intently at the cherry trees.
“I wonder if that’s really true. We still don’t know. We haven’t found any traces of broken branches.”
“A-ah…”
A confused sound escaped me involuntarily.
Something was off. Iwama’s gaze was more serious than I’d ever seen it.
It wasn’t the profile of the cheerful girl who came to the back mountain to see the happiness cherry blossoms, but the profile of a researcher I knew well.
“…Ah! Sorry!”
Suddenly Iwama returned to her usual face and looked at me.
“Forget it! I have this bad habit of getting serious as soon as there’s something I don’t understand… The weather might get bad, so let’s head back!”
Her smile was bright, but I noticed it was different in nature from the previous “did you see that smile?”
At least now, she wasn’t smiling from the heart.
The weather still seemed okay. Even if I couldn’t help her grasp happiness, there’d be no harm in keeping her company until she was satisfied.
“No, I think we could verify what we can verify here before heading back. It’s not like I have anything to do afterward. According to Mizusaki, the cherry ino no m was visible for 19 years until last year. If it suddenly became invisible this year, there must be some reason.”
There was a brief moment where she seemed to be gauging my true intentions.
“…You’ll investigate with me?”
“Yeah. If it’s analysis related to plants, I might be able to help a little.”
“Really…?”
She kept confirming. Well, just checking whether branches are broken shouldn’t take much time. I nodded.
The “did you see that smile?” returned brightly to Iwama’s face.
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“Thank you! Then let’s investigate… scientifically!”
The words that suddenly came out made me feel somewhat bewildered.
“Scientifically?”
“Yeah. The ino no m that should have been visible until now suddenly became invisible this year—I want to properly figure out why, with a scientific attitude.”
Using the word “scientific” to solve a small mystery around us seemed like quite a grandiose way to put it.
Iwama had already transformed enough to call it a form change.
She was leaning forward, or rather, could only see what was ahead, and in any case, I could feel a kind of heat surging that couldn’t be contained within the framework of an honor student.
I thought she was interesting.
As subtly emerged from bits of conversation, Iwama must be quite a science enthusiast. As someone in the sciences myself, accompanying her on this inquiry wouldn’t be bad.
“Alright. Then first, let’s check whether branches are broken or not. We can’t see well from here. Should we get closer to the cherry trees?”
“Yeah! …But we have to be careful not to step on the flowers.”
At Iwama’s words, I looked at the ground. Katakuri flowers blooming evenly along the mountain path. Perhaps because of the good sunlight, they grew so densely off the path that it would be impossible to avoid stepping on katakuri.
“Is there somewhere we can approach the cherry trees without stepping on flowers?”
While saying this, Iwama immediately started examining the surroundings. The mountain path curved around while maintaining a certain distance from the two cherry trees. From what I could see, katakuri were blooming almost everywhere.
“Ah, Izuta-kun! Beyond this fallen tree, it looks like we might be able to go!”
Called by Iwama, I peered beyond the fallen tree. Indeed, there was a part where no katakuri flowers were blooming at all, and going through there, we could probably get somewhat close to the cherry trees.
“But this fallen tree has no-entry tape—”
“It doesn’t say no entry. It’s just striped yellow and black!”
A dangerous statement flew out, shocking me. Iwama’s spirit of inquiry seemed extraordinary. But I might have used the same logic if my companion weren’t Iwama.
“…Isn’t it dangerous?”
“It’s fine, it’s fine! Izuta-kun, could you hold this for a second?”
Saying this, Iwama entrusted her school bag to me and placed her hands on the fallen tree with a matter-of-fact expression.
She skillfully maneuvered her body to avoid branches while placing her foot on the trunk.
“Wait, it’s dangerous.”
Iwama stopped moving and looked back puzzled.
“Huh, but the branches seem sturdy…”
“That’s not it… um, how do I say this…”
I cut off my words finding it hard to say, but since I’d started saying it, I couldn’t leave it vague.
“…Look, your skirt…”
I took a step back and pointed while averting my gaze. If Iwama took one more step, it would almost certainly enter my field of vision.
“Ah…”
Iwama hurriedly came back down from the fallen tree.
“I’m sorry! I was so absorbed I didn’t notice. Oh man, I was conflicted, but maybe I should have gone with slacks after all.”
Well, I could have just turned around, but perhaps Iwama also had her pride as a girl—crossing the fallen tree to the other side was cancelled. After receiving the school bag back from me, Iwama opened its zipper with red ears.
“Come to think of it, I have binoculars. They might be useful.”
What she took out was a compact, foldable type of binoculars.
She was far too prepared.
“Why are you carrying binoculars around?”
“Well, you know, like during the commute, there are times you want to see birds, right?”
“…Really?”
Perhaps because of the skirt incident, Iwama was somewhat flustered.
“Um, my father bought them for me as an enrollment gift.”
She showed me the binoculars with a beautiful dark green body. Swarovski. I don’t know if Iwama herself knows this, but they should be quite a luxury item.
Various questions raced through my mind—what kind of father is he, is it even okay to bring such things to school, does she really do birdwatching during her commute? But here, I should ignore trivial matters and focus on solving the problem.
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