“Riochi doesn’t know about this yet. There’s no way she could. She hasn’t been told that Mizzucchi heard about the cherry blossom heart collapse incident from me, she hasn’t seen the fluorescent pen frame around Euler’s identity, and the poster in front of the biology room was removed long ago. If you don’t tell her, she won’t know.”
“…You’re asking me not to tell her?”
“Yep. If Del-chi and Nabichi cooperate, you should be able to keep it hidden. It’s not difficult. Del-chi notices the details, and Nabichi is good at using lies. Can I count on you?”
I thought about it. If I kept Hongou-senpai’s plan secret, would Iwama remain happy?
Seeing me agonize, Hongou-senpai smiled faintly. She probably expected that after much hesitation, I would say “I understand” with a bitter expression.
And that was probably the right path.
Iwama was satisfied with the current situation. She had been happy that she was able to make a decision for herself. For me to reveal “actually, there was this background to it all” would be completely unnecessary.
I knew that well. I didn’t live in a way that involved myself in others’ lives enough to choose an action that could potentially ruin Iwama’s happiness.
But—
Living happily atop soil where secrets are buried—that’s not a scientific attitude at all.
“I’ll tell her.”
“Eh?”
Hongou-senpai’s eyebrows moved slightly at my response, which must have been completely unexpected.
“I’ll tell Iwama everything.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s not someone who can be happy with lies and secrets.”
The private room was wrapped in silence for a while. Senpai’s face became stern, and the carefree gal atmosphere disappeared.
“…Can you really take responsibility after revealing the truth? Are you okay with Riochi living the rest of her life carrying that burden in her heart?”
“Yes. I’ll take on that responsibility. After telling her everything, if Iwama still decides to join the biology club—”
Smoothly,
“I’ll make Iwama happy myself.”
Those words came out of my mouth so naturally.
Only after saying it did I realize what I had just blurted out.
I couldn’t say anything after that, and Hongou-senpai looked at me with a slight furrow between her brows.
“Then,”
It was Mikage who broke the silence.
“I will tell Iwama-san the truth… I believe that’s the least we can do as sincerity toward her, after using her as we pleased.”
I looked at Mikage.
With her usual expressionless face, Mikage nodded at me.
The next day during lunch break, Mikage called out to Iwama. She said something about eating lunch together, and the two left the classroom. I simply watched their backs.
When Iwama returned to the classroom at the end of lunch break, she didn’t seem particularly shocked.
But after school,
“Hey, Del-chan, want to go home together today too?”
she invited me. This wasn’t the time to worry about what Mizusaki or Kannabi might think. I nodded, and the two of us quickly left the school.
It wasn’t like we had anything to hide, but we veered off the usual route and somehow ended up jumping on a bus heading toward the station. We sat in the back seats. It was completely unplanned, and I didn’t really know what we wanted to do. Since it wasn’t a route used for commuting to school, no other students from Tsunagai High got on.
The bus was the type that didn’t go through the station shopping district but went to the neighboring station instead. I thought about getting off at the entrance to the station shopping district, but that would just mean we took a detour by bus on a route we could walk. Since Iwama didn’t stand up, I remained seated about half a person’s width away from her.
“So, what should we do?”
I said while watching Tsunagai Station recede into the distance.
“To the last stop,”
Iwama smiled.
There were a few elderly people sitting quietly in the bus. We somehow refrained from conversation and got off at the last stop, Koshizaki Station. When we exited the bus, bright sunlight poured straight down from the clear blue sky.
Koshizaki was a small station in the opposite direction from Ebiwakagawa, which Iwama used, and Sasui, which Kannabi used. Since there was no particular reason to visit, it was my first time there too. There were almost no people.
Iwama looked around happily and started walking. I followed leisurely. We crossed the railroad crossing and entered a sprawling park built in a pine forest along the coast.
“Have you been here before?”
“Nope, not at all.”
“Then someone recommended it?”
“No. This is our decision alone.”
That was good.
The wind was a bit strong, but the ocean view was nice. Under the solid blue sky, the Pacific Ocean spread out in a slightly deeper blue. Several white yachts floated here and there.
Since we’d left right after school, the sun was still high. The clear blue weather felt remarkably pleasant.
“It feels nice.”
Iwama spread her arms wide in the sea breeze. I mimicked her slightly from behind. The cool wind made our uniforms flutter. When I took a deep breath, I could faintly smell the sea.
We bought carbonated drinks from a vending machine and sat on a bench where the Japanese black pines blocked the wind and sunlight, slowly drinking while watching the ocean.
Little by little, we began the conversation we needed to have.
Iwama said that Mikage had confessed the truth to her. I didn’t talk much on my end, thinking that asking how much she knew might stir up trouble.
“Basically, the senpai made various plans because they wanted me to join the biology club, right?”
“I’d say they made plans rather than ‘made plans for you.'”
Iwama nodded and turned toward me.
“Mikage-san said she decided to join the chemistry club instead of the physics club.”
That was news to me.
“Really? I thought she’d definitely join the physics club… Her brother is there, and she said she liked mathematics.”
“That’s exactly why. She wanted to overturn the senpai’s expectations, so she decided on the chemistry club. When she told her brother that, apparently he cried.”
So that guy cries, huh.
“I see. Overturning expectations…”
I understood the feeling well. She must have wanted to at least scratch the result of “everything went according to the senpai’s will.” While being used conveniently, Mikage had made her own small act of rebellion.
Iwama slowly brought it up.
“Mikage-san told me. She said Del-chan got angry for my sake.”
So she told her that much, I thought.
Surely she didn’t tell her that I presumptuously said I would make Iwama happy.
Not knowing what to say, I took a sip of cola. The sweetness of the artificial sweetener slid across my tongue without lingering. My shame dissolved slightly in the fizzing carbonation.
“…Thank you. When I heard that, I was really happy.”
“It’s not like… I didn’t get angry for your sake. I just said what terrible things they did because I thought what they did was terrible.”
Iwama laughed a little.
“There aren’t many people who would genuinely get angry for me. They tell me I’m walking the right path, so I should hold my head high… I’m happy about it, but it’s always things like that.”
From that fact, I could glimpse Iwama’s suffering.
It was a world I couldn’t imagine at all, but I thought about it a little.
Walking proudly in the sunlight, like an idol or hero—who could get angry on behalf of someone they see as an overwhelming powerhouse?
Hadn’t I gotten angry because I knew Iwama had been struggling, because I knew the weakness she had shown just slightly?
If it had been for the cherry blossom blooming confidently in the sunlight, I wonder what I would have done.
“Having to always hold your head high must be tough.”
“Maybe so.”
What Iwama was drinking was C.C. Lemon. When she opened the cap, it made a modest fizzing sound.
“You haven’t submitted your club application yet, right?”
“No.”
“Just so you know… you can still go back.”
I tilted my face slightly to look at Iwama beside me.
“Even if you don’t join the biology club, I won’t be upset. Mizusaki wouldn’t either. Kannabi would understand too. Starting over from scratch wouldn’t be a bad thing either.”
Iwama turned to me with a slightly sad expression.
“Even if I don’t join, Del-chan wouldn’t be lonely?”
Those unexpected words made me realize I was flustered.
“Ah, no, that’s… well, maybe a little…”
“Sorry, I was joking.”
What a terrible joke. I was being serious here.
“I’m happy you’re saying I can reconsider, but I’m still going to join the biology club.”
“…Even after learning the truth?”
“Yeah. Well, there are lots of things like that in life, aren’t there? No matter what choice you make, it’ll have some flaws.”
“I see.”
She could think about it in such a detached way. She was probably much more mature than me.
With the sea breeze blowing through her bangs, Iwama drank her C.C. Lemon deliciously.
“I think the biology club really does suit me, just like the senpai thought. And you know, right now I really, really want to do surveys and research with everyone.”
“…Then I’m glad.”
I didn’t say it out loud, but I felt the same way.
If I could do research together with Iwama, who knows a world I don’t, it would surely be fun.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
After taking in a sufficient amount of sea breeze, we headed to Koshizaki Station. Since Iwama could ride straight home from there, we decided to use the train for the return trip.
The station building was unmanned. It was desolate enough to be unbelievable for a station next to Tsunagai. However, from the plastic benches on the platform, you could see the ocean beyond the tracks. Since there was time until the next train, we sat there and slowly sipped the rest of our carbonated drinks.
“You know, I tried making a pressed leaf specimen.”
Iwama suddenly brought it up.
“Of the katakuri?”
“Yeah.”
I remembered that day we went to see the cherry blossoms, when I gave the katakuri I’d dug up to Iwama. Not even as a bouquet, but the bulb with soil still attached, handed over in a used convenience store plastic bag. I still occasionally regret that foolish act.
“…You didn’t throw it away.”
“Huh?! I wouldn’t throw it away! If I were going to throw it away, I’d eat it instead.”
That wasn’t what I was worried about. Iwama looked at me strangely as I laughed involuntarily.
“Sorry. I was wondering if it wasn’t a nuisance, being given something like that by someone you’d basically just met.”
“Of course it wasn’t a nuisance. I tried it myself afterward, and digging up katakuri roots is really difficult… I ended up respecting Del-chan for digging it out so easily.”
There was a trick to it, but explaining it here would be unnecessary.
“I’m honored if it was useful.”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
After watching the ocean for a while, Iwama turned her face slightly toward me.
“Del-chan, do you know the flower language of katakuri?”
“…No, I don’t.”
After saying that, I realized. With that foolish act, might I have given Iwama a flower? Even if it wasn’t “suffering for generations,” the thought of some strange flower language made me shudder.
“Um, sorry, I wasn’t really conscious of it, the flower language.”
“Of course I know. I figured as much.”
Iwama chuckled softly, and then,
“Enduring loneliness”
She said it slowly, as if savoring the words.
“So that’s the flower language of katakuri?”
“Yeah. For eight years after germination, katakuri only spreads its leaves in spring, storing nutrients underground. From summer to winter, it stays in the soil. If it doesn’t bloom, insects won’t come, and no one will pay it any attention. One theory says that the way katakuri patiently endures until it blooms is the origin of this flower language.”
“I see, that’s quite—”
“Scientific!”
I hadn’t meant to prompt her, but somehow it ended up that way.
“That’s why I was so happy, in that sense too.”
“……What do you mean?”
Iwama hesitated slightly before opening her mouth with a shy smile.
“Ah, I thought maybe now I could finally bloom too.”
An announcement began flowing through the station—the train would arrive soon—and I found myself at a loss for words. But perhaps that was just as well.
I remembered the words I’d seen written on an ema before I got to know Iwama.
──May I do well in high school
Since she wrote “in high school,” there must have been something she hadn’t done well before.
In middle school, Iwama must have had some bitter experiences. There must have been something in her past equivalent to those eight years katakuri spends underground. But I didn’t yet have the courage to dig that up.
“Let’s do our best.”
“Yeah!”
That was about all I could say.
The rattling sound approached. Finally, the train was coming along the seaside tracks.
The turnbull blue surface of the sea sparkled cheerfully under the blue sky.
It looked like we’d be able to get home while it was still light today.
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