“C’mon, what are you all doing? This is important,” I said, quietly comforting it as I lifted it up.
“Just a minute!”
“Yes?” I looked up at the shrill voice to see a tall, long-haired girl glaring at me. Her lightly tanned skin and plump lips looked distressingly mature. Had she seen me talking to the penguin and been taken aback by how creepy it was?
“Don’t yes me! You touched my butt just now, didn’t you?!”
She stared directly at me. Perhaps because she was so loud, some of the passengers around us shot glances our way.
“That’s not true!” I raised my hands in denial, dropping the penguin as I did.
“Stop lying! You were just groping all around back there, weren’t you?!” She took a step forward and glared at me, unknowingly grinding her foot down on the penguin.
“Th-there’s been a misunderstanding!” Obviously, I could not tell her, It was that penguin-like thing that you’re stomping on that did it, and I’m honestly not sure I would count as that thing’s owner. Of course, no one else could see the penguins in the first place, and I wasn’t sure if they were even tangible.
“Then, what was it?” she demanded. “Come on now, spit it out!”
I shrank back, unable to even grimace. I knew that in cases like this, once you accepted the blame it was all over, but then again, I did feel somewhat responsible, as the penguin’s caretaker.
Just as I was about to give up hope, I felt a presence at my back. A low voice spoke.
“That was probably my bad.” Kanba had a listless way of speaking, one which barely concealed a bright and mischievous air.
“Huh?” asked the girl, looking beside me.
There stood my brother, attempting to hide something.
“My bag was caught. I was just trying to pull it free, so that might be what happened. I didn’t mean anything by it. Still, if I made you feel uncomfortable, then I should apologize.” Kanba gazed at the girl with anxious eyes and said sincerely, “I’m sorry.”
It rung out as grandly as though they were the words of a lover, finally reunited after making his beloved wait for him for twenty years. My jaw dropped, forgetting myself as I looked at my brother, who acted like a completely different person.
“Well, in that case, I guess there’s nothing to apologize for. With your bag getting stuck and all,” the girl said haughtily, her cheeks flushing.
“I really am sorry.” My brother, having repeated himself for assurance, glanced at me and gave a mischevious grin. It was, without a doubt, the face of a scoundrel.
“Shinjuku Gyouenmae, Shinjuku Gyouenmae,” the train’s speakers intoned. Once more the train came to a stop.
“Oh, this is our stop, then,” said the girl, turning back to the friend who boarded with her and calling, “Let’s go, Ringo.”
Kanba and I looked at each other in shock. She definitely said “Ringo.”
“You go,” he said hurriedly, scooping up the penguin and handing it to me. “That uniform belongs to Oukagyoen Girls’ School.”
“What about you?”
“I need to make some arrangements.”
My brother practically shoved me out into Shinjuku Gyouenmae Station, and, left with little choice, I began running after the two girls. The round, elastic penguin was oddly heavy, and carrying it was difficult, but I learned from our first encounter that it couldn’t keep up with me while running.
As I hurriedly passed through the gate and exited above ground, I saw the long-haired girl again, and next to her, the girl I assumed was Oginome Ringo. They weren’t far ahead. I could definitely catch up with them.
“Goood morniiing!”
Yamashita appeared in front of me, calling out in a carefree voice.
“Yamishita, stop it!” I stared at Ringo’s back as she steadily moved away from me, trying to fend off Yamashita, who abruptly grabbed at me.
“What’s with you? Lookin’ all gloomy first thing in the morning. ’Sup, you havin’ girl problems?”
Seriously, was there anything besides girls and romance in Yamashita’s head?
“Sorry, just go on without me!” I said, running off and leaving him behind. I could not allow myself to lose sight of Oginome Ringo, the Penguindrum, or Himari’s life.
“My, my! What’s this? Has love finally found our little lord Shoma?” I heard Yamashita’s voice from behind as I ran after the girls. How wonderful it would’ve been if this were truly something so frivolous.
As the name suggested, Oukagyoen Girl’s High School was an all-girls’ school. While it had been relatively easy to follow Oginome Ringo nearly to the school gates, now we were surrounded by throngs of girls wearing the identical uniforms. I hid in the shadow of a telephone pole, lost for what to do. I was very clearly a suspicious person—what was I doing here, and why? There was no way I could possibly find Oginome Ringo again without being a spy or a detective or something. But I could not afford to give up without doing anything.
I snuck up to the rooftop of a building near Oukagyoen. As I gazed at the buildings, which were far more beautiful than that of our school, I texted Kanba my location and waited, bored.
I leaned over the fence, taking in the autumn breeze. The penguin at my feet spaced out as well, as if mimicking me.
“An all girls’ school, huh?” I said dazedly. “What do I do? Do I need to dress in drag?” I asked the penguin, but it only looked back up at me, giving no response.
“Do you want to dress in drag?”
I flinched, turning around at the sudden voice. Kanba looked at me suspiciously, carrying a large paper bag.
“K-Kanba! Where have you been?!” I put my hand to my chest.
“Around. Anyway, take a look at this.”
He pulled a laptop out of the paper bag, opened it smoothly, then took a USB stick from his pocket and loaded it up.
I held the penguin and gazed at the screen as a roster of individuals appeared: photos of the students of Oukagyoen. He flipped past several and stopped on what appeared to be Oginome Ringo’s page.
“Is this a… roster? Where and how did you get something like this?”
“Hm? I’ve got an old girl who’s good at this kind of thing.”
“Good at what?” Was there a spy or detective amongst the number of my brother’s ex-girlfriends? It was beyond imagining.
“Hacking,” he said plainly.
“Isn’t that illegal?” My face stiffened; that was distinctly more terrifying than what I imagined.
“Oi, lemme see yours for a sec,” said Kanba, squeezing the penguin out of my arms. He pulled out a big, fat marker, and, perplexingly, wrote a “2” on its back.
“My penguin’s number one, and this one’s number two. The one back home with Himari is three. Better not to bother about it.”
This made things less complicated, yes, but it wasn’t very appealing. Wouldn’t it be better to give them names? They didn’t have to be complicated ones.
“Here we go,” he said quietly.
He began pulling assorted electronics out of the bag and lining them up on the ground. He used duct tape to afix transceivers to the penguins’ backs and small cameras to their heads.
“That should work.”
Of course. It seemed his idea was to have the invisible penguins search inside of the school for us. He briskly gave the penguins a set of directions, and took a transceiver in one hand, switching the laptop screen to a feed of images captured by the two cameras.
“Will this really be okay?” The penguins were not especially quick-witted. My stomach started to ache from anxiety.
“Yep, that’s good. Keep going straight ahead. Don’t look around too much,” Kanba said coolly into the walkie-talkie, not displaying a hint of worry.
The image swayed as the penguins tottered along, continuing down the tidy, spacious hall, just as they were told.
“Right there. Go up those stairs. Then, the third classroom on the left, that’s class 1-C.”
I scratched at my stomach in boredom—and also because the two camera images were swaying terribly, and staring at them was making me queasy.
“Head for the seat by the window,” Kanba urged the penguin with certainty, flipping through the roster.
Suddenly, Penguin No. 1 looked up at the studious face of Oginomeringo, or rather, Oginome Ringo.
“Bingo,” said Kanba.
She had thick bangs that hung just above strong-willed eyes. Maybe she did possess the Penguindrum.
“Now, look through her stuff. Check every nook and cranny and see if there’s anything suspicious.”
I looked up from the screen as he said this, startled.
“H-hey, are you sure it’s okay to be doing this?” My voice fell softer as I spoke.
“What else are we supposed to do? We’re investigating a total stranger.”
I didn’t have any other ideas, and it wasn’t as if I had the means to get close to her on my own. Still, that was not the issue. As I fell silent, Kanba sighed softly.
“As long as we don’t get caught, it’s fine. It’s not like we’re hurting anyone.”
“That’s not the problem. I’m saying this is morally wrong. Just because no one else can see the penguins doesn’t make it okay. Or legal.”
Just as I wondered where exactly Penguin No. 1 positioned itself, given it was rather dim, suddenly her knees came into view from a strangely low angle. However, the next moment things went dark again, and I realized that it was rolling around on the floor. No. 2 appeared to have its eye on her commuter bag hanging from the side of the desk. It appeared to be trying to jump higher, so that it could peek inside, but it still could not reach. What on earth was it trying to do?
“So, what do we do?” Kanba asked flatly. “If we can’t get the Penguindrum, Himari’s gonna die. If this Oginome Ringo does have something so amazing, there’s no way she’d just happily hand it over it us just because we asked. Do we really have a choice here?”
I knew he was right. We didn’t have a plan, but morals were not going to be enough to protect Himari in these dire circumstances. Still, was this really alright?
As I fell silent again, Kanba said softly, “We have to do this.” I glanced at his face. “It’s for Himari.”
Seeing his firm expression, his brows furrowed, I gave up. Now wasn’t the time for any pointless arguments.
Somehow, No. 2 seemed to have managed to stick its head into her bag, but from there we could only see it squirming about, and the investigation could not continue.