V2C2

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Pre-chapter Eccentricities:

Beat Takeshi: some famous Japanese guy; a comedian to the Japanese, a director to some other people.

Helmet-like hair: as far as I can tell, this means hair similar to Bruce Lee’s in Enter the Dragon.

Later, once sixth period had ended and we’d safely cleaned our homeroom, all we had to do was wait for Tachibana-senpai’s visit. Nao had gone to call Hinata over from class 1, but had returned empty handed.

“She says she’s busy with newspaper club activities.”

“That’s too bad,” Junka responded lightly.

Hinata was a member of the detective association, but she was also a part of the newspaper club. The latter had won the place of highest priority.

The students going home and heading out for club activities were all causing a ruckus. Having calmed down, the once cramped classroom seemed open and wide. Only three girls remained aside from us, and they were amusing themselves with gossip.

“Sorry, eh, Kiriki. Kept you waiting.”

Tachibana-senpai’s face peeked around the sliding door. The hair that reminded me of freshly pickled vegetables swayed as she quickly took a nearby seat.

Junka cut to the chase, “So, your request…”

“Wait,” Nao pushed in, “Tachibana-senpai, I am Iida Nao of the detective association. This here is Suzaku Rouji-kun. We shall be the ones to listen to your request.”

Tachibana-senpai was obviously disappointed.

“Hey, if you aren’t Kiriki, you can leave. The recruitment poster should only have had his name on it. Also…”

Her expression darkened.

“Also, this is a very personal matter, so I don’t want many people to know.”

“If that’s how it is,” Junka paused, “You need not worry. Both Rouji-kun and Iida-san are members of the detective association. They will take the request with sincerity and diligence. They definitely will not tell anyone anything. You can rest assured.”

Junka started shouting “Duncan! This bastard’s Duncan!” Beat Takeshi style.

He must’ve really been into that one.

“Besides, even if you only spoke to me, I would inform Rouji-kun and the rest later. Please do not be pressured by unease, Tachibana-senpai. We can keep a secret.”

It looked like Tachibana-senpai accepted it. Well, if she hadn’t things would’ve just ground to a halt.

“Fine. No time, anyway. So here’s the request.”

She leaned in a little so nobody else would hear.

“I confessed to Yamakawa Sousuke, a classmate.”

Her cheeks twinged pink. I could understand why she didn’t want a lot of people to know.

“And, he turned me down.”

Tachibana-senpai’s eyes flashed a twinge of both anger and sadness.

“So I asked Yamakawa, ‘What’s so bad about me?” and he responded, ‘it’s not you, it’s me. I’m the one that’s bad.'”

I slowly repeatedI jumped in, “‘I’m bad…'”

“Yeah, so I asked right then, ‘so you have someone else you like?’ Yamakawa seemed really regretful and his face made it look hard for him to say that, ‘I can’t tell you.'”

I thought it was strange. The easiest way to reject someone was probably with the ‘I like someone else,’ line, but Yamakawa-senpai had opted for the much muddier ‘I can’t say.’ It was natural for Tachibana-senpai to wonder why.

“Then what?”

Tachibana-senpai leaned her full weight on the back of the chair, and waved a hand.

“That’s it. It was clearly a rejection, so I couldn’t stand to be there anymore and left… but after thinking about it, it’s gotten more and more frustrating. Saying ‘I’m the one that’s bad’ is way too vague and a pretty wishy-washy rejection reason. That’s all I could think of for a few days, and even today. All just anger at Yamakawa, so that’s where my request comes in,” Tachibana-senpai straightened up, “I want to know the specific reason why Yamakawa turned me down. You’ll accept the request, right? You are the detective association after all.”

Perhaps relating to it, Nao raised her arm, “Naturally. We have accepted your request, Tachibana-senpai.”

As the sun set over the road home, Junka and I inevitably walked shoulder to shoulder thanks to the fact that we were next-door neighbours. Junka asked me for my opinion, which was a rarity coming from him.

“So, what’ll you do, Rouji-kun? Other than taking it on without my involvement, what are your personal thoughts?”

“Well, I decided to, eh,” I expressed my intention, “Ask Yamakawa directly, that is. I don’t really need to mention Tachibana-senpai at all. I can just go ‘why’d you reject a confession,’ and cut straight to the point. Not that there’s really another way to do it.”

Junka nodded.

“That’s true. I thought the same thing.”

For some reason, we’d had the same thought process. It made me a little proud of myself.

“You want to tag along?”

“Nah, I’m good. Just go with Iida-san. I’ll stay out of this one.”

The following morning, I took Nao with me to 2, 1. Her expression was stiff.

“It’s kind of nerve-wracking, eh?”

The thought of shoving our way into an upperclassmen’s homeroom and questioning a total stranger did get to me a little.

“It’ll be fine, just leave it to me.”

“I’ll be counting on you, then, Suzaku-kun.”

I ended up being relied on. With light steps, I made my way to our destination. Arriving early, I pulled aside a suitable upperclassman and confirmed Yamakawa-senpai’s identity.

“I’m Yamakawa Sousuke, and?”

The one we were directed to was a second year with black hair like a helmet. He had a weak jawline and somehow romantic eyes. He couldn’t be described as a looker, but he wasn’t abnormal.

“Why are you first years here?”

“We’d like to talk with you privately, if you don’t mind.”

“All right.”

We went with Yamakawa-senpai to a landing halfway down a staircase. Passerbys were sporadic, so it seemed suitable. I stopped and turned.

Then, in one breath, “Yamakawa-senpai, you were recently confessed to by a girl, no?”

First we had to confirm. Yamakawa-senpai started to sweat a little.

“I’m impressed you knew that.”

Nao pressed on, “And you rejected her, right, Senpai?”

“Yeah, I did. Did she tell you?”

By ‘she’ he clearly meant Tachibana-senpai, but I did not nod to confirm it.

“May I ask why you did that, Yamakawa-senpai?”

Yamakawa-senpai wiped his forehead with his handkerchief.

“Why… does this have anything to do with you two?”

“We’re friends with the girl you rejected,” came the verbal jab from Nao that hit him straight in the chin.

“She’s been sighing about not knowing why she got rejected, and we can’t just leave her be. Why did you reject her?”

Having been put in the corner, Yamakawa-senpai firmed up his guard.

“I’m the problem. It isn’t her fault. Can you let me off with that much?”

Nao struck over his guard.

“We’ve heard that much. Just what about you is the problem, or so bad? It isn’t like you already have a partner, right?”

“Of course not.”

“Anybody else you like?”

“I can’t say.”

There it was, his equivocal answer. Nao was incensed.

“Say it clearly. A reason I can accept, please.”

Yamakawa-senpai seemed finally penned in.

“That’s…”

After several seconds of silence, he suddenly burst out with a loud voice, “This isn’t a joke! As if I could say it!?”

Yamakawa-senpai had suddenly thrown down the gloves.

“I’m going back. Morning homeroom’s about to start. You two go back to your floor.”

Nao stopped Yamakawa-senpai as he tried to leave the ring.

“Please wait, you have yet to adequately respond.”

“Shut it!”

Yamakawa-senpai shook her off and hurried down the stairs without turning back.

The female boxer he’d left in the ring put her arms together dissatisfied.

“This won’t work. Asking him seems useless.”

As her chief second, I gave her a suitable out, “Let’s go back Iida-san. We didn’t get anything, though…”

Translator’s Note:

In general, I have no idea what’s going on with the hair. Usually I rely on doing some searching in Japanese, but it isn’t like the Japanese themselves ever ask about obscure literary hair metaphors. Dictionaries certainly don’t include that stuff, and image searches provide too many variant styles that aren’t even primarily described how I searched. When in doubt, go with Bruce Lee.

I asked one of my Japanese friends about seaweed hair. The initial response was (translated to English, of course) : “It’s not good. Definitely an insult… wait, it might not be to a Japanese person. You see, we Japanese have straight hair, so it might refer to something -makes motion of tousling hair- So it really could go either way.”

Editor’s Note:

I get the feeling [helmet-like hair] very very short hair that covers his head kind of like a helmet, either that or something close to a bowl cut.

Translator’s Note:

I edited the editor’s note for clarity after adding an anecdote that made the context a little distant.

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