Monogatari Series - Volume 17 - Chapter 1.08

008

“We’re gathered here today to find the culprit,” Oikura began before I could even take a seat, while the three girls who’d found me had followed Shui’s lead and done so. Completely ignoring that I was just standing there, dumbfounded by the bizarreness of everyone being in class despite school having ended, the class president continued, “Understand that no one will be allowed out of this classroom until we find the culprit, or the culprit comes forward.”

Her tone was harsh─even I’d rarely heard her speak that way, and she considered me an enemy. Her voice told you she’d accept no counterargument. She had no intention of coming to a compromise, and to be frank, this soured the mood inside the classroom. The air was the very picture of hostility─though I guess you can’t illustrate air.

“This is a secret meeting of the class council, no outsiders allowed. Please turn off your cell phones and participate once you have cut off all external communication─Araragi. What are you doing?” said Oikura, finally turning to me. “Close the door. Can you not even close a door?”

I thought she was going to suggest that I sit, but was scolded instead for leaving the door open. I felt like bitching─it wasn’t as if leaving the door open would cause any problems, but maybe she was expressing her determination not to let anyone out.

Then I noticed that all the windows were shut too. This was summer, and locking down a classroom with no air conditioning was a pretty rough thing to do to yourself… Was she trying to create the most inhospitable environment possible? Did she think that she might get lucky and induce the culprit to come forward? And wait, what was this stuff about a culprit? Could she be talking about a mystery novel? No─that wasn’t something you’d gather everyone to discuss after school, was it?

I took a look at the seat farthest to the back on the gym side─six rows behind Fukado’s, it belonged to Hitagi Senjogahara. The fragile-looking, most beautiful girl in class, whom I’d been too frightened to speak to, who seemed somehow noble and extremely sickly, like the heroine in a piece of sanatorium literature, who in fact skipped school all the time─it felt like she’d been absent for more than half of first term. If she was in attendance, it had to be pretty serious.

Someone could suffer heat stroke in a classroom as hot as ours, especially the sickly Senjogahara…

“President Oikura. What do you mean, ‘find the culprit’?”

“Shut up. Please, just don’t talk. I’m about to explain. I’m following a plan.”

Scolded. Sternly, too. Even if you asked her weight, no normal girl would answer in such a tone. I fell silent─what else was I going to do in response to her request─but let me tell you, I didn’t recall doing anything to her that merited such hatred. Most of the hostility she directed at me was unearned.

While I fell silent, hoping not to trouble the vice president by daring to ask another question─

“Come on, Oikura. What’re you talking about? Why do you get to run this?” a voice seemed to taunt the teacher’s desk from right in front of it. It was Okitada Koma. His legs crossed and looking as annoyed as could be, he objected, “You’re one of the suspects, too─in fact, aren’t you the prime suspect? Everyone’s just too scared to say it.”

The air grew even more tense. Normally, Koma’s voice was too gorgeous to have this effect on anyone, no matter how harsh the words─but even his angel’s voice couldn’t gloss over or cover up the nerve-wracking content here. I didn’t understand what was going on, but I guess he decided to say what everyone was thinking and hit a sore spot? Few others in our class could do this. Certainly not me, especially when I didn’t understand the situation─though it seemed I was the only one in the dark. Had it been explained to everyone while I was on my way? That would suck… Did they lasso me in here and leave me out of the loop at the same time?

“Yes, Koma, I understand that,” Oikura agreed. “Thank you for fulfilling your role as a student on day duty and voicing your honest opinion.”

Compared to the way she spoke to me, she was polite with him for some reason─in fact, I was the only boy she was rude to as far as I knew. Why the special treatment? I wished I could tell her to stop, but of course I didn’t.

“I’m only here in this position provisionally as we begin this session. I’ll be handing it over and stepping down once I do─however, as a concerned party, and especially, as you point out, as the most likely suspect, I thought it’d be appropriate for me to give an overview of the situation. I know you’re eager to get to cram school, but please, would you zip your mouth up for just a little longer?”

“Kch,” Koma muttered in lieu of a response, but went quiet─seemingly annoyed that she’d brought up his cram-school attendance. He was an unusual case, a student who’d applied to Naoetsu High as a backup. Since he was here, he’d failed to get into his first choice─making it a bit hard for him to blend into our class. In fact, his conceited attitude reflected this and also helped him speak out against Oikura without fear. But even he couldn’t make the class president back down. There’s nothing wrong with a first-year attending cram school (at Naoetsu High, it’s deemed praiseworthy), but then again, everyone has his own complexes.

“We got off track thanks to Araragi and Koma─but allow me to explain once more since not everyone seems to understand the situation,” Oikura oh-so-subtly shifted the blame before beginning.

Still, I had to give credit where credit was due because she laid it out in simple terms.

“The incident occurred last Wednesday. All of you recall the open signups for the study sessions to be held in this classroom, correct?”

I didn’t. In fact, I knew nothing about it. When were there signups? They were doing something without telling me? A study session? Last Wednesday, meaning right before finals─to prepare for our tests, then.

“Raise your hand if you took part in the study session,” requested Oikura, and half the class did. Their hands came down too fast for me to count, but there’d been more than fifteen─a session of a decent size.

Of course, that also meant that about half of the class, myself included, had skipped it─Koma, who’d just spoken up, hadn’t raised his hand, for example.

Oikura hadn’t either but said, “Yes. And of course, I did too.”

I didn’t see why this was supposed to be obvious. Because she would have organized the event, as a matter of course? Because raising your hand was an unladylike pose? Whatever the reason, I found it unpleasant. She was implicitly blaming anyone who hadn’t participated─you uncooperative, selfish bunch, she seemed to be saying. True, I, at least, was guilty as charged…

“For anyone who was absent, the session was primarily for the purpose of studying mathematics.”

Putting aside the fact that not participating in a voluntary session had suddenly turned into an absence─yes, we had two tests the next day, Thursday: math, as well as health and physical education. Health and P.E. first period, then math second period. Thus, the study session had been limited to math─no one would group up to study health and physical education.

“It was a truly wonderful session, where we learned from one another concepts we didn’t understand, teaching and furthering each other─I’m very proud to have been able to hold such an event,” Oikura stated as if she deserved all the credit. Well, she probably did. Though she wasn’t exactly popular, there was a reason an unpopular person had been voted class president in a fair election.

“However, something occurred that cast a shadow on this auspicious event─which is why I’ve gathered you all here today. I believe it’s our duty as Naoetsu High students to gather at such times, to deal with such situations.”

“Um,” a voice asked to speak as a timid hand rose. It belonged to Hayamachi, a girl who sat next to Koma right in front of the teacher’s desk. “Maybe I’m too stupid to understand, Oikura… But if this is a problem that occurred at the study session, shouldn’t the students at the study session work it out themselves? I didn’t even know there was a study session…”

I had an ally. Not that Hayamachi─Seiko Hayamachi─saw me as anything close to an ally.

“Miss Hayamachi. First of all, please retract your statement, ‘I’m too stupid to understand.’ It’s offensive to the rest of the class,” Oikura said. Offensive because Hayamachi was something of a genius, despite her appearance─not the politest thing to say, but that’s how students at Naoetsu High see any classmate who comes to school with painted nails, more-than-light makeup, and hair dyed brown. Actually, she was more of the hardworking type than a genius…but in terms of how unpleasant Oikura found her, she must’ve been right next to Koma (in addition to their physical positions, in other words).

That said, Oikura didn’t seem to hate her as much as me─the class president didn’t just find me unpleasant, but offensive.

“Well, I only said I was stupid because I am stupid,” replied Hayamachi, not retracting her statement at all as she twirled her hair.

“The problem is what happened after our math tests were returned,” Oikura said, ignoring her unrepentant classmate. “Every one of you conscientious students who participated in the study session got a good score─a wonderful thing. But that’s where a problem arose. No, let’s call it a suspicion, not a problem. A suspicion arose.”

“Suspicion?” I reacted to the word.

Oikura glared at me. Unconscientious students weren’t even allowed to mutter a word in reaction, it seemed. I noticed Tetsujo looking at me with sympathy in her eyes. Komichi Tetsujo. Member of the softball team. If Oikura was the leader of our class, she was the mediator. Given her personality, she was concerned about the friction between me and Oikura, but at the moment, meeker than usual, she wasn’t speaking up. Was a sympathetic look the most she could do for me here? Sorry, but it meant nothing. Though maybe it beat jumping in and starting a heated argument with the class president─not that there could ever be one between the sharp-tongued Oikura and the above-the-fray Tetsujo.

“To put it plainly, this suspicion is a suspicion of cheating. Compared to those who were absent from the study session, the test scores of the students who did participate were too high,” Oikura said. “There is a gap of about twenty points on average between students who participated and those who were absent. A ten-or-so point difference could be credited to a study session, but a twenty-point difference is too significant to ignore. Some form of foul play must have occurred.”

“…”

Foul play─cheating.

So “finding the culprit” was about figuring out who cheated─wait, but in this case…

“Hold on, izzat what’cha call cheating? I thought cheating was like, taking a peek at someone’s answers during a test,” piped up Mebe, who sat behind Tetsujo─Miawa Mebe. A student from the west side of Japan nicknamed Whip. Nothing in her name referred to whip(ped cream), but she’d gotten a dessert-related nickname thanks to her friendship with Tone. Her approachable personality meant a reasonably friendly relationship with even Oikura (a miracle in my eyes─I wanted to beg her to teach me but had never spoken to the girl, who was approachable) and being able to make her point frankly.

“You’re right.”

Sure enough, Oikura stayed calm. Wait, had Mebe attended the study session? I hadn’t paid too much attention when everyone raised their hands, so I couldn’t be sure…

“My suspicion is that the foul play took the following form. A certain someone,” Oikura worded it in a way that exuded intense animosity─on par with what she felt for me, “acquired the test questions from the teachers’ room, then quietly introduced their contents into the study session. As a result, all of the students who participated got higher scores.”

“Huh? But why’d you wanna do that?” Mebe tilted her head. “Test questions? If you got ’em unfairly, why not keep ’em to yerself? Teaching everyone in the session would be like─”

“I can think of a number of reasons why someone would do that and cannot pick just one. Camouflage, perhaps, or it might’ve been for the thrill of it,” answered Oikura, only giving two possible reasons. I guess listing every reason she could think of was too laborious, and her plan was to consider motive later. “In any case, it’d be unforgivable if someone did indeed sully our sacred study session along with our inviolable final exam─and I don’t want any of you who were absent to assume this has nothing to do with you, either. This is a problem for all of Year 1 Class 3. To repeat myself…”

She banged on the table. For some reason, Sodachi Oikura glared at me as she continued─like it was a declaration of war.

“Understand that no one will be allowed out of this classroom until we find the culprit, or the culprit comes forward.”