“10x magnification. If we look at the cherry blossoms with those, we should be able to check the condition of the branches from here.”
“Yeah, let’s try it.”
Iwama peered through the binoculars and adjusted the focus with practiced hands.
“Let’s see… um… huh? Hmm…”
After searching for a while, Iwama lowered the binoculars and held them out to me.
“I couldn’t tell if any were broken. Izuta-kun, you look too.”
“…No, I’m fine.”
There was, how should I put it, some resistance to peering through binoculars that a female classmate had just been looking through.
“It lowers the possibility of oversight, so here!”
She seemed to want to investigate quite rigorously. Since I had no reason to refuse that strongly, I accepted the binoculars. I raised my glasses to my forehead and looked through them.
“…Amazing. For this size, they show things so clearly.”
It wasn’t to hide embarrassment, but my first impression of the binoculars came out.
“Right?! Even though they’re compact, they’re bright and you can see well even in the forest.”
We got sidetracked. I carefully observed the branches of the cherry trees where the sparrows were playing. Indeed, there were no traces of major damage to the branches.
“You’re right, Iwama-san. It doesn’t seem to be broken.”
“Then why isn’t it an ino no m anymore? Maybe last year the branches grew too much?”
I thought about it a bit. That possibility seemed low.
“That’s not it. Cherry blossoms bloom on branches from the previous year—branches that grew the year before. All the parts with flowers aren’t that long. When a tree gets this big, it’s unlikely for the branch tips to suddenly grow and change the tree’s shape all at once. Even if they did grow, I don’t think the overall shape of the ino—the boar’s eye would change.”
“Wow… you can tell all that!”
Maybe that was a bit too much specialist knowledge.
I thanked her briefly and returned the binoculars to Iwama. Iwama immediately used those binoculars to look at the cherry blossoms. As I put my glasses back on, I felt an itchiness around my eyes that wasn’t from cedar pollen.
“Hmm, so it didn’t break, and it didn’t grow too much either…”
Iwama lowered the binoculars and muttered.
“Then why did the inome disappear?”
Why had the shape of the area cut out by the pale crimson changed?
While being showered with falling cherry blossom petals and listening to the sparrows chirping, I thought about it.
And then—
“I see… I think I’ve figured it out.”
At that, Iwama whirled around to face me with incredible force.
“The reason why the inome disappeared?”
“Yeah. And also how to see the heart properly. Borrowing your words, Iwama-san, I think I can explain it somewhat scientifically.”
“Heart?”
“Oh, sorry. I meant the inome. Not heart.”
That’s important.
“So, why is it?”
Asked by Iwama, I pointed not at the sky where petals danced, but at the ground.
“The hint wasn’t in the cherry blossoms. It was in the katakuri.”
At my roundabout way of saying it, Iwama’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Huh?! What do you mean?”
“The cherry blossom branches hadn’t broken, and they hadn’t grown much either. If the cherry tree’s shape hadn’t changed, then what did change?”
Iwama still looked like she hadn’t had her eureka moment. I continued.
“It was our side—us viewing the cherry blossoms.”
A moment of silence.
“…Wait, you mean the viewing position was different?”
“That’s right. That’s the only explanation. If your standing position is different, naturally the shape you see will change too.”
“But then, this observation platform…”
“This year, the position of this observation platform changed. And what tells us the correct position is—”
I pointed at the katakuri blooming around the observation platform again.
“The katakuri.”
Iwama still looked like she hadn’t caught on. I continued.
“Katakuri are spring ephemerals. To bloom, they need about eight years of photosynthesizing only in early spring and storing nutrients. But what if there was an observation platform there?”
Iwama seemed to realize it too, as her cheeks flushed slightly pink.
“If the platform was there, they couldn’t get sunlight, so they couldn’t photosynthesize!”
“Right. The inome cut out by the cherry blossoms was visible every year for nineteen years until last year. The observation platform was in the correct position for a long time. In other words, at the correct position where the observation platform was, the katakuri couldn’t have bloomed this year.”
“Amazing, that’s so scientific!”
Apparently, Iwama really loved the word “scientific.”
“In this area where katakuri are blooming all over, there’s just one spot where, for some reason, no katakuri are blooming, right? If we stand there, we can test this hypothesis.”
“Beyond the fallen tree…!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
Iwama started moving as if she couldn’t wait. I followed. When we looked past the fallen tree, there existed a section on the side of the mountain trail where the pale crimson of katakuri flowers was completely absent.
The reason Iwama had tried to climb over the fallen tree was because she was trying to approach the cherry tree from this flowerless area.
This place was probably the original position of the observation platform. In other words, if I hadn’t stopped her, Iwama would have discovered the inome.
Feeling responsible, I climbed over the fallen tree first.
Then I extended my hand to Iwama.
“This way, you don’t need to worry about your skirt.”
“Thank you!”
Iwama grabbed my hand without hesitation. At the feel of her hand, my arm tensed up for a moment.
We climbed over the fallen tree together. We let go of hands immediately.
Iwama quickly stood in the area cut out by pale crimson and gazed at the cherry blossoms.
“Hey, Izuta-kun, this is amazing! A beautiful inome!”
I stood next to Iwama and looked where she was pointing.
I was immediately captivated.
Two cherry trees stood close together like a married couple, their branches adorned with pale crimson flowers overlapping.
Between them was a cloudless blue sky. It was magnificently cut out by the cherry blossoms into the shape of a heart.
“…So this really was the correct position.”
Iwama said quietly. I nodded.
“Because of the fallen tree being dangerous, some inconsiderate person probably moved the observation platform.”
It was surely done with the safety of students coming to see the cherry blossoms in mind. So they wouldn’t have to climb over the fallen tree, someone moved the observation platform in front of it during winter. But when spring actually came, because that position had shifted slightly, the cherry blossom heart could no longer be seen.
Iwama clasped both hands in front of her chest, even getting tears in her eyes.
“Amazing! To notice the katakuri—that’s all thanks to you, Izuta-kun!”
Iwama made a fist with her right hand and held it out toward me. I also modestly made a fist with my right hand and lightly bumped it against hers.
“This is your achievement too, Iwama-san. I definitely wouldn’t have thought to cross the fallen tree by myself. I probably wouldn’t have checked if the branches were broken either.”
“Really? Then it’s both our achievement.”
Iwama said with a smile, then turned back toward the cherry blossoms and put her hands together. She closed her eyes as if offering a prayer. She seemed to be making some kind of wish.
While gazing at the cherry blossoms, I wished that this straightforward girl’s high school life would be a blessed one.
“Thank you for coming with me.”
When Iwama thanked me again, I didn’t know how to respond.
“No, it’s… I had fun too. To think that if you really investigate something thoroughly, you can solve mysteries like this.”
“It’s a victory for science!”
This was also an exaggerated way of putting it, but it wasn’t exactly wrong.
When you have a problem or question, first observe the subject, mobilize all the knowledge you’ve learned to objectively narrow down the possibilities. Then formulate hypotheses and test them. Though different in scale and timespan from research activities, this inome hunt could be called a scientific endeavor to a certain degree.
“That’s a very ex-science club way of expressing it.”
A gentle breeze blew through, and cherry blossom petals enveloped us. Iwama said cheerfully.
“I love science. Using the wisdom gathered by people all over the world, you can face everyday mysteries. Standing on the shoulders of giants, you can look out over your own town. There’s nothing more fun than that.”
I ruminated on Iwama’s words. From the shoulders of giants, looking at your own town—interesting.
As expected of Tsunagai High School. I never imagined there would be a classmate with such a unique way of thinking.
I felt my heart naturally beat faster at the good fortune of meeting such a person so soon after enrollment.
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