“Iroha and I will take part in the ceremony.”
It was a few hours before the ceremony. At my words, the room descended into chaos.
“You’re finally gonna marry her, huh?! Yes!” Ozu pumped his fist into the air.
“W-Wait, why? That’s a dumb idea. Unless... Aki, you don’t...” Mashiro was composed of equal parts rage and sadness.
“Sounds good. Oh, wait. Does that mean you like Iroha-chan? Oh my God, really?!” Sumire just sounded confused.
Everyone reacted just as I expected them to. Everyone except Iroha herself.
“W-Wait, Senpai. A-Are you saying—Huh. I guess you really do wanna marry me. Makes sense. I am super cute, after all!” Her words were fine, but she seemed kind of taken aback. Her eyes were darting all over the place, and her face was a little flushed. She was always teasing me about us getting together or whatever, so she probably found it hard to take the topic seriously. It was kind of a relief, to be honest. It showed me she didn’t have any intention of getting involved with me.
“Don’t be dumb. Of course I don’t wanna marry you. We both know that there’s something fishy behind this whole Ceremony of Knots thing, right?”
It didn’t matter what that something fishy was either. If we thought too hard about it and bottled out, we’d lose our chance here, and we wouldn’t be able to free Sumire.
“When I said we were gonna ‘take part’ in the ceremony, I meant it more like we’re gonna make use of it.”
“What are you planning?” Sumire cocked her head at me anxiously.
I smiled. “We’re gonna expose a Kageishi family secret.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Kageishi has clung fast to its traditions for generations and forced its children to do the same. But what if the very people imposing these rules aren’t what they seem? What if there’s something more, something shady, behind the scenes? Some sort of weakness we can use?”
“Then I’d have no reason to follow the rules anymore.”
“Right. You’d have an excuse not to, at least, which would be what you need to reject the tradition and set yourself free. That’s why I want you to search the main Kageishi residence.”
“Search?”
Everyone else in the room began to whisper to each other. I couldn’t blame them; it was a suggestion bordering on criminal. That’s why I chose Sumire.
“No one else can do this but you, Sumire-sensei. It makes the whole thing a little less illegal, since you’re family. Almost the whole village will be out for the procession during the Ceremony of Knots, so the house should be empty.”
“That’s true. That’s why you want me to switch places with Iroha-chan, right?”
“Yup. It’s not like you can take part in the ceremony and search the house at the same time.”
“C-Can’t I switch with Sumire-sensei?” Mashiro spoke up timidly.
“I need someone who can pull off a convincing impression of her. Someone with acting ability. Otherwise no one’s gonna fall for it.”
“R-Right...”
“Wait, about this whole searching thing... What am I supposed to be looking for? I know my grandfather. I don’t think he’s the kind to just leave secret stuff lying around.”
She was right. That man was built like a bear and had a voice that sounded like a demon from hell. I doubted he had much to hide. But there was something I noticed these past few days. It was a small hope, but one I had no choice but to bet on.
“I noticed something when I spoke to your grandfather, Sumire-sensei. Something that didn’t quite align with the values you told me about. If I’m right, it’s the perfect place to strike. That’s the secret I want you to look for.”
“But what is this secret?”
Sumire, Iroha, Mashiro, and Ozu all stared at me, waiting for my next words with bated breath. I met each of their gazes in turn. And then I opened my mouth.
“Child porn.”
Everyone stared at me, their movements and the expressions on their faces frozen.
“You’re kidding, right, Senpai? I thought you were taking this seriously!”
Don’t make it sound like I just told a joke which totally flopped!
“I am serious! You can’t tell me that the entire Kageishi family, especially Kou, aren’t a bunch of lolicons at least, if not pedophiles!”
“That makes it even worse! You really gonna deploy the whole of the Alliance just to prove that some guy’s a lolicon? It’s July, not April first!”
“Shut up! I keep telling you it’s not a joke! We find something like child porn at the Kageishi residence, and they’re finished, right? They’ll have to let Sumire-sensei move on and start a new life as a character designer!”
“I mean, it’s true, but...why do you even think this guy’ll have that kinda stuff lying around in the first place, Senpai?”
“Three reasons.” I held my fingers up. “First up was his tolerance towards student-teacher relationships.”
The Kageishi family was so conservative in every other way. So why did its head not care about his granddaughter marrying a minor? He even said there were previous cases in their family of teachers marrying students.
“Uh, I’m not convinced. I mean, people used to get married when they were still kids in the past, right? What else have you got?”
“The second is the way he speaks.”
“The way he speaks?”
“Usually his speech is pretty formal and proper right? But from time to time he slips in words that only teenagers use. That means he must be speaking to young people who use that kinda language, which is kind of fishy for an old dude who lives out in the middle of nowhere.”
“That makes sense. Just being a teacher doesn’t mean you’ll pick up on how the kids speak. Still kinda a weak argument, though.” Iroha paused thoughtfully. “I mean, you could say he tries to talk like a teenager to build a rapport with his students or whatever.”
“The last point is more of a deduction than anything else, but,” I looked at Sumire, “this guy shares his DNA with Sumire-sensei. She’s as perverted as they come, so it’s only natural to think that he is too.”
“Oh! I got you. The guy’s totally a pedo!”
“Excuse me?!” Tears sprang up in Sumire’s eyes.
“Think about it for a second,” Iroha said. “You didn’t just decide overnight you were going to be a perv, right? It’s probably something in your DNA. I bet you every other member in your family is also hiding some kinda loli or shota fetish!”
“They can’t be! You’d think I’d know. I grew up with those guys!”
“Sure, but Midori-san grew up with you, and she doesn’t know about your sexual appetites.”
“Ngh! You’re right!”
Children often resemble their parents, sometimes in ways that aren’t immediately obvious. In Sumire’s case, her family were so strict and bound by tradition, that she hid anything that went against those traditions as best she could. That was how she developed her cool, beautiful exterior while burying her perversion deep inside.
Was Sumire the only one in her family putting on an act? What if every single member of her family was the same, hiding their true selves because of their traditions? What lay behind their masks? What if we crushed Sumire’s need to follow the same rules that had been holding her back for so long?
“It’s a gamble, I know. You might not find anything we can use. If you don’t, we’ll just have to come up with something else. We’re gonna go all in with this chance, and if we screw up, we screw up together. What say you, Murasaki Shikibu-sensei?”
“Aki...” For a while, she stared at me in shock, her eyes wavering with indecision.
I wondered what was going through her head. Maybe nothing. Her lips were pressed together, and her hands curled tightly into fists. Eventually, and ever so slowly, her brow relaxed, and the light of determination flared in her gaze.
“I’ll take a risk and go along with your plan. And I’m doing it all for my own future! Nobody else’s!”