Chapter 168: Volume 4.5 Chapter 6 Part 4

The concert hall past 2am.

I quietly opened the heavy door.

In this large room there was only one person, sitting with her back facing towards me.

While quiet enough that even my footsteps on the carpet seemed to be ringing, I approached that person.

“It isn’t allowed for students to leave their rooms at this time.”

“Don’t say that. We have no chance to be alone for certain except now.”

“You’ll take responsibility if someone sees us right? Chabashira-sensei.”

Chabashira didn’t even try to turn around.

“Don’t worry. The teachers’ patrols only last until twelve.”

“Then that’s fine. So, why did you go out of your way to call me here?”

“After this summer break the 2nd term will begin. Then the next exam will begin.”

“Yeah. Last year we had the sports festival like that.”

“Yeah. But this year is different. Before that a single special exam will be held.”

“Is it okay to give me such information?”

It shouldn’t be allowed for teachers to give particular students information that would give them an advantage over the rest of the class.

“Or has the next special exam already begun?”

“No – that’s not true.”

Then calling me to this place and telling me this was all Chabashira’s judgement. For a homeroom teacher who usually doesn’t really back up her class, this is unexpected.

As if she was thinking of something, she suddenly became silent.

There was nothing I could do even if I continued standing beside her, so for no real reason I headed for the stage.

Usually, this concert hall was for students to appreciate music.

A large and high-grade grand piano was placed there.

Perhaps because there was a performance tonight as well, naturally, there was no dust on it at all.

“Acting Director Tsukishiro went so far as to move on his own in order to try to eliminate you on the island. Even if your father is a famous person, that persistence is abnormal.”

“That is true. But if I had a correction, it would be that Tsukishiro had never had any interest in being the Board Chairman from the beginning. He simply used that post for my elimination and nothing more.”

“You mean that much influence was in play?”

Chabashira-sensei didn’t understand completely. She crossed her arms.

“Do you feel like talking yet?”

“…Yeah.”

Chabashira paused for a breath and slowly started talking.

“What’s your analysis of your class?”

“Analysis, means?”

“Do you think they have the power to ascend to A-Class?”

“Is that something you ask a student from your own class?”

“I want to hear it from you.”

Rare, is what this wasn’t.

Chabashira-sensei was just thinking of something to that extent.

“I see. I think that they have the highest potential within the 2nd year without a doubt. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that if left alone they will ascend to A-Class. It’s next to impossible to catch up to them with Sakayanagi leading.”

The teachers should understand this school well.

“I believe the minimum condition is for our class to be united. And Chabashira-sensei, you’re included in that.”

After I said that, Chabashira looked at me in surprise. A face that said she knew that herself.

“I’m… For you, what kind of teacher do you see me as?”

If I had to say, Chabashira has interacted with my classmates cool-headedly until now.

If anything she passed everyday as if detaching herself from, as if abandoning us.

“A teacher who can’t throw away hope even though she thinks she can’t win. That’s how I would say it in a few words.”

“How harsh.”

“The fact that you tried to use me and the impression I got from that still hasn’t changed at all, even now.”

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“Yeah, it’s as you say.”

As long as she didn’t correct that mistake from her heart, Chabashira wouldn’t change.

“Don’t make the students work hard because you want to reach A-Class yourself. Work hard for the sake of the students who dearly wish to reach A-Class.”

“Ayanokouji…”

“If you do that, the natural answer will come. That’s what I think.”

“…You said our class had to become one.”

“Yes.”

“And you are naturally included there.”

“That is a matter of course.”

Our gazes blended together. Chabashira took a deep breath.

“What if I said that I would throw away my old self?”

Eyes that looked as if they were questioning my resolve.

I should think that any lies here would be seen through.

“If you say you’ll throw it away, I intend to throw away my way of thinking until now, all at once. If you earnestly aim for A-Class, then I have no intention of holding back.”

“…Okay.”

Did something in Chabashira change or not with these words?

I still don’t know but…

“At the time you started facing forward, the class surely, truly began to change.”

“…That’s true.”

Chabashira looked up at the high ceiling and closed both of her eyes.

It’s certain that in her heart, deep shadows were falling.

I should have disappeared like that, but this time for some reason my mood was a little different from how it usually was.

My low evaluation of Chabashira as a homeroom teacher hadn’t changed.

Even so, when I saw her as another human being, though slowly my evaluation of her began to change.

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Far more fragile than I thought, as if she was a person who had only become an adult on the outside.

I sat on the chair and opened the lid to the keyboard.

“…What are you doing? Could it be that you know how to play the piano?”

Without any answer to that question, I ran my index finger and started playing a piece.

I finished my performance. Chabashira clapped despite herself.

“It’s not as if I’m well versed in music but that was splendid. Even if I practiced, I probably wouldn’t be able to reach that level in my entire life. If I’m correct, that song was-“

Then, in the silent concert hall, a small sound was heard from the back.

Chabashira stood up and turned around, panicking.

The figure appearing out of the darkness was a smiling Tsukishiro.

“Beethoven, For Elise. Although the difficulty of the piece isn’t high in itself, showing such a perfect rendition of it takes excellent skill. Though I appreciated it, it is truly a waste for only Chabashira-sensei and I to hear. But at this time, imprudent outings by students are prohibited. You do know that punishment awaits you if you so easily violate that?”

“Acting Director Tsukishiro, this is…”

Chabashira panicked and tried to give an excuse, but Tsukishiro gently stopped her.

“Be calm. On the present date I have been dismissed as Acting Director. It has been decided that Chairman Sakayanagi would be reinstated, and so now I am simply an unrelated ordinary person. I will not report this to the school.”

“…Is it okay to trust you?”

“There is no need to trust me or anything of the sort. However, from the moment I showed myself here Ayanokouji has noticed me. If a disturbance arises in one’s feelings it reflects in their performance. But your performance was not disturbed at all… why is that?”

“That is simple. Even if you could give me a punishment you cannot give me an expulsion. The fight between you and I only revolves around whether or not I will be expelled. There’s no meaning in reproaching and punishing me for going out without permission, is there.”

“Even if you had understood that, the usual reaction to being seen at a place where one does not wish to be seen is panic. Could you have gotten that courage from your father?”

“Sadly, I have no memory of being raised.”

I closed the lid and took a distance from the piano.

“Tomorrow I will not be able to talk with you again. Thinking that, I thought that I would come one last time.”

There are a great many surveillance cameras installed within the ship.

He was going so far as to constantly check the hallway to my room huh. He must have some free time.

“If it is better for me to leave, I will excuse myself.”

“No, it’s okay. It would be more inconvenient for Ayanokouji-kun to be left alone with me. As a teacher charged with protecting her students, you should stay in this place.”

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Tsukishiro came near us and sat two seats away from Chabashira.

“Is the concert finished already?”

“If you have something to discuss then please do so quickly.”

Since I understood that he was joking, I urged Tsukishiro to talk more quickly.

“Because it couldn’t hurt, I came to negotiate one last time. Do you not feel like withdrawing from school and going home?”

“Acti- Tsukishiro-san. What on earth is your motive?”

Hearing the phrase withdrawing from school, Chabashira-sensei wedged herself into the space between him and me with slight anger.

“What did you mean by, what?”

“You intervened in a special exam without permission and tried to have Ayanokouji expelled. Properly speaking, that alone is an action I cannot tolerate.”

“That goes for you too Chabashira-sensei. Did you not try to speak to me regarding the next special exam because of your personal feelings?”

The details are unclear, but Tsukishiro himself seems to have seen through Chabashira’s objective.

“Indeed, it is not something to be praised. But I did not do that in order to give you an advantage.”

“That might be true for you, but you cannot prove it. My coincidental appearance here prevented unfairness before it could be created.”

“That is…”

“And you haven’t done one sin. You understand right?”

Presently, Chabashira’s sin was calling a student out at this time when leaving one’s room was prohibited.

Even supposing that this relationship was that between a teacher and her student, the fact that we are a man and a woman was a point that can’t be overlooked.

Tsukishiro could also persist on that small gap.

“The one who would be troubled by you making a fuss is not me, Chabashira-sensei, but you. And Ayanokouji-kun as well.”

If an uproar about obscenity with a teacher was raised, a warning would not be enough to settle it.

If you understand then don’t interject, Tsukishiro warned.

“Kuu…”

Having previously forgotten, Chabashira understood the position she had put herself in and took a step down.

“That is fine.”

Without his smile faltering, Tsukishiro drew near to me until the distance between us was two meters.

“I do not have anything planned here. Please be at ease.”

“No matter what the situation, you’d do what benefits you. That’s how I’ve analyzed you.”

“Does that mean you have a high opinion of me to some extent?”

Until now, I’ve somehow been dodging Tsukishiro’s schemes.

However, that was because to the end, Tsukishiro insisted on plans that couldn’t be called unorthodox.

Unfairly manipulating tests, violence, kidnapping or otherwise. That sort of thing.

If it had crossed this man’s fancy, it probably wouldn’t have ended as it has.

“I will not withdraw.”

“That is unfortunate, but there is nothing I can do. Then that means you will remain in this school until you graduate.”

“I intend to. As long as I conform to the rules of the school and don’t get expelled.”

“No matter how much you wish to remain in this world, I indeed will not deny you.”

Neither of us said it here, but the shadows of white room students are scattered around us.

“You are smart. And strong. For those who know your true strength, you are excellent enough for anyone to think that.”

Finally, Tsukishiro stood before my eyes.

“But no matter how excellent, you are a child in the end. It is better for you to understand that person sent me while factoring in that strength of yours.”

In other words, that man foresaw the future in which I would repel Tsukishiro like this…?

“If you want to live your school life even one day longer, then you’d do well to think about that.”

“I will bear it in mind.”

Tsukishiro gave a shallow laugh. As if he had thought about something, he laughed by himself.

“But this school is more interesting than I had thought. Even in the entire world, this school is likely the only one to be able to hold the special exam on the uninhabited island after all. I remembered when I was small and absorbed in the boy scouts.”

Saying that, Tsukishiro held out his left arm in front of me.

“This time, this is goodbye Ayanokouji-kun. Will you shake my hand?”

I could not think of the left hand he presented as a simple salutation.

I stuck out my left hand in the same way and grasped his. Tsukishiro nodded, satisfied.

“Now then – eventually, let us meet 『again.』”

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Finally, he tapped my left shoulder with his left palm. Then he turned back.

“Aah, and make sure to disperse within five minutes. If not, I will report you.”

Chabashira and I saw Tsukishiro off until he could no longer be seen.

“It’d be understandable to worry about the small details, but to think that he would want a handshake with that left arm. Perhaps it meant that he bore hostility towards you until the end.”

Usually, a handshake would be done with the right hand.

Well, these days people don’t pay attention to that sort of thing so they might not know the meaning.

“I don’t think so.”

“What do you mean?”

The thing Tsukishiro said out of the blue about being absorbed in boy scouts. Usually a handshake with one’s left hand would be considered disrespectful, but boy scouts were an exception.

The meaning of that was-.

“Please forget it. It would be useless to think about that man’s thoughts.”

Though she awaited the meaning, it may have also been very well meaningless.

“I will go back first.”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

Since we’ve been spotted by Tsukishiro, ignoring his warning here would be nothing but a risk.

“Sorry about that. Because I called you out irresponsibly, I ended up giving Tsukishiro a gap that he took advantage of.”

“I don’t mind. I don’t quite know why, but I got to see something.”

As I approached the door, I left Chabashira with those words without turning back.

“You said it earlier as well. Whether this class sinks or swims isn’t irrelevant to you. It owuld be better for you to understand that.”

No matter what sorts of special exams await them, the students have no choice but to look forward and advance.

There is no one who can stand at the fore and pull them along but the teachers.