Alongside our attack, I was running a plan of my own: keeping tabs on Nanaougi.
Our latest scheme of passing out test booklets was a lot like our last one involving the receipts. I thought that chances were high her response would be similar, too.
I felt like I needed to know more about her. What was she really after? What was that cold gleam in her eyes at the graveyard? I wanted to unravel the mystery surrounding her motives.
The moment Kurumi and I put our plan into action, I began watching Nanaougi to see if she’d do anything unusual. I’d pretend to go to the bathroom, then swing by Class 2-1 instead, or act like I was stopping by the faculty office only to scope out the guidance room.
And sure enough, after school on the day of our attack, my hunch paid off.
I spotted Nanaougi in the hall, holding one of our test booklets. She was with a couple of teachers, walking slowly. The first was Ookuma again. The other was the head teacher for our grade. That alone told me this was a response to our attack.
Was she friend or foe? I thought it was high time we settled the matter.
I decided to follow her, hoping to figure out her goal. I tailed them, pretending I was simply on my way out of the building. I stayed far enough back to avoid suspicion, but close enough that I wouldn’t lose sight of them. Fortunately, they turned a lot of corners, so I was able to avoid discovery.
For a while, they moved against the flow of students, heading away from the crowds. Then, a few minutes later, they stepped into a room. But it wasn’t the student guidance office this time. Instead, it was an empty classroom at the far end of a building that didn’t see any use during summer lessons.
If they just wanted to chat, the guidance office would have sufficed. There was no need to go this far out of the way. They were probably about to have a conversation they didn’t want anyone to overhear. And if Nanaougi had dragged two teachers along, it had to be something important.
This was what I had been waiting for. I felt certain whatever I learned here would explain Nanaougi’s baffling actions and why she was so eager to get in touch with us.
I slipped into the adjoining preparations room. There were no other students in this area, so it was nice and quiet. If I listened closely, I should be able to hear what was being said.
Just in case, I took out my phone and started recording. Then I put my back to the wall and pricked up my ears.
“Teacher, enough is enough.” The first thing I heard was Nanaougi’s voice. She sounded pretty upset. “This only happened because you use the same problems every year.”
I heard pages flipping. I’d seen our test booklets in her hand, so I figured she was showing them to the teachers.
“I borrowed test problems from a third-year student, and they’re exactly like the ones in this booklet. The problems in the summer curriculum textbooks are identical to the ones on the tests—why?”
“It’s hardly a mystery,” said a young woman. This was most likely Ookuma. “It’s a courtesy to those who attend the summer lessons. It’s school tradition. That’s just how things work here.”
“And maintaining that rotten tradition left you exposed to student pranks. Now the whole school is riled up. Can’t you see that?”
“I can… That’s why we put measures in place to stop this from happening…”
“But it still happened.”
“…Well,” Ookuma hemmed.
Nanaougi kept pressing her point. “I think it’s high time you abandoned this tradition. That’ll resolve the students’ frustrations, and then they’ll settle down. Problem solved.”
“But the students expect the textbook problems to show up on the test…”
“All you have to do is warn them that it’ll be tougher this year. What’s wrong with that?”
“Oh, hmm. Maybe, but…”
Even from the next room, I could feel the weight of the ensuing silence.
“Why are you so angry, anyway, Nanaougi? I hate to put it this way, but you’ve got good grades. What do you care what’s on the test?”
“I said it before. I don’t like it when there’s unrest at school. And besides, if other students are raising their scores by just copying answers from the textbook, it devalues my own efforts.”
“Right…”
Ookuma had made an attempt to deflect, but Nanaougi shut her down.
“The point is, you need to make proper tests this year. Okay?”
“Well, um… I can do that for my subject, but…”
“Why just your subject, Ms. Ookuma? Why not all of them?”
“Er, um… Because I’m not the one making the other ones…”
“That’s not my problem.”
Nanaougi’s words cut through the surrounding air like a blade, provoking another long silence.
Here, for the first time, I heard a gruff male voice. It belonged to the last one taking part in this discussion: the head teacher for our grade.
“Nanaougi, the faculty will handle this matter. For now…”
“I wanted to discuss this with Ms. Ookuma because she’s closer to my age. I’m not talking to you.”
“U-understood. Feel free to discuss the matter with her again later. But for today…”
He was clearly trying to talk her down, repeatedly urging an end to the discussion. They went back and forth a few times, but it was like listening to a member of some customer support team trying to deal with malicious harassment. Everything he said was toothless.
After a while, the door opened. I heard Nanaougi excuse herself and realized that was the end of it.
…What did it all mean? I’d expected to get to the heart of the matter, but when I peeled back the curtains, what I found had only left me more confused.
She didn’t like unrest at school? It would devalue her scores if everyone else raised their grades by copying the textbook?
Nanaougi had said both those things…but did she really mean them?
I didn’t believe her. She had an arrogant streak, and she excelled at everything she did. A bump in the average score would hardly amount to a blip on her radar. There had to be something else going on.
She’d mentioned that she chose to talk to Ms. Ookuma because the teacher was closer to her in age. I imagined they’d had a similar conversation about the receipt… But I didn’t have enough information to draw any conclusions.
While I was considering this and that…
“…?!”
…I saw a shadow stop near the classroom’s entrance, right next to my hiding spot.
Crap! She found me! I barely stifled a yelp.
But it was futile. She knew I was there.
Framed by the light of the hall, Nanaougi was looking right at me. She flashed me a grin, then whispered, “’Sup, Ren?”
My cover was totally blown. She knew I’d been eavesdropping.
And that meant she’d known all along. When had she noticed? No one had spotted me while I was tailing them…or had she just let me think that?
“Did you know I was in here the whole…?”
Before I could finish, Nanaougi knelt down. Her slender frame slipped right up to mine, completely ignoring the concept of personal space.
Her eyes glowed with a bewitching light, mere centimeters from my own. Something was definitely up.
…What the hell is this? Is she about to grab a fistful of my shirt?
I was sitting on the floor, so I couldn’t really get away.
I stiffened up, ready for anything…
“…Mm?! …Mmmph?!”
A sweet scent wafted past my nose as something soft touched my lips.
Wait. Stop. Again? I’d been sure we were done with this. At the graveyard she’d sworn she was joking!