Himari wanted to beg him not to involve her brothers in this, but she was too terrified to speak. Only the quiet presence of No. 3 at her feet allowed her to keep any manner of cool.
“I’ll send a map. I’d suggest coming straight away. It’s been sixteen years, after all. I’m already fed up with waiting.” He hung up before Kanba could reply, finally breathing a small sigh. He really was tired of waiting. He had spent all this time keeping up the act of the vapid, grinning schoolteacher, hiding his true intentions even from Tokikago Yuri, but he hadn’t forgotten his purpose for even a moment.
He remembered the feeling that had overtaken him when he first laid eyes on Shoma and Kanba as their teacher. Greeted with the reality that he finally had the opportunity to deliver punishment, it was a trivial matter for Tabuki to keep on acting as their teacher, instructing them with a smile. After all, it was easy for people to smile and act kindly when faced with an inferior opponent.
“Tabuki-san!”
“Yes?” Tabuki sweetly replied, finally becoming aware of Ringo’s shouting.
“Their father has been missing for years. Didn’t you know that?”
“I knew.” This was a tedious line of questioning, as far as Tabuki was concerned.
“Then isn’t it pointless to tell them to bring him here?”
“I wonder.”
“So if Kanba-kun somehow brings his father here, what are you going to do?” The worst possible answer came immediately to the forefront of Ringo’s thoughts. However, his reply was a vague one.
“I’ll find out what it was that Momoka wanted me to live for.” Momoka rescued him from the Child Broiler, then left him all alone in the world. There could be no reason for her to have done so, other than for him to punish the Takakuras.
But then, did anything truly mean anything in his world?
Himari sat on the floor of the gondola like a little bird, staring at the bumpy iron sheeting beneath her. She had no idea what to think or how to feel. She had no idea where her father was, nor even whether he was alive. She couldn’t imagine that Shoma or Kanba knew his whereabouts, either.
She tried wiggling her own chilling toes inside her boots, but she felt strangely detached from her own body. It didn’t feel quite real that she was here, swaying in this gondola. Yet at the same time, it felt as though she had already been here for days.
Her visit to the craft store with Ringo, and her time in her hospital bed just before that, seemed like reveries of some distant past.
No. 3 huddled up to Himari.
“Are you cold?” she asked softly, stroking its head.
The sky was already pitch-black. She could see countless buildings, including Tokyo Tower, shining in the distance.
Ringo scanned every inch of the elevator’s interior, but it didn’t look like the doors would open from the inside. There were large gaps in the scaffolding making up the roof, and she tried as hard as she could to squeeze her way out, but her attempts were ultimately fruitless.
Had Tabuki always intended to “deliver punishment” on the members of the Takakura family? Tabuki said he was surprised to have ended up as Shoma and Kanba’s homeroom teacher, but that was probably a lie. He had probably become their teacher intentionally. Or maybe it was a cruel trick of fate that once he happened to encounter them, all the darkness within his heart suddenly had a purpose.
Tabuki stood straight as a board, not moving a muscle as the wind howled against him, his expression unchanging. He stared at nothing in particular, thinking to himself that it was growing cold. Quite cold, in fact. He recalled the spacious living room at his and Yuri’s flat, which was also a rather cold room.
Tabuki turned only slightly to look as he heard the clanging of someone running up the emergency stairs. Ringo, who sat in the elevator beside the stairs, reflexively stood up as well.
Kanba, along with Penguin No. 1, came barreling out from the stairwell, his shoulders heaving.
“Kanba-kun!” Ringo cried out.
“Where’s Himari?!” he forced out, trying to steady his ragged breath. His lungs ached. No. 1 rolled on the ground, gasping, not moving for some time.
“Over there! In there!” Ringo pointed to the gondola swaying from the end of the crane. It was only then that she realized that her hands were shaking.
“Kan-chan?” Himari said softly from the gondola. She stood and clung to the rails, her face pale. The gondola swayed dramatically with her movement.
“Stop! Don’t move!” Kanba shouted immediately, running toward the gondola.
“Well, hello there,” came a familiar voice. Kanba turned around to see Tabuki in the shadow of the crane.
“Tabuki-sensei? Why are you…?” He stopped mid-sentence. It didn’t matter who it was. Anyone who hurt Himari would pay for it. But why would Tabuki Keiju of all people be doing something like this? Kanba’s face tensed, remembering the words “sixteen years” that he heard over the phone.
“Where is Takakura Kenzan?” Tabuki’s voice was the same as always: quiet and somehow a little sluggish.
“He’s not here. I have no idea where he is.” Sweat began to form on Kanba’s hands and back, different from the kind he had from running here, and he felt the heat rush from his body as the sweat quickly dried.
“I see,” Tabuki softly replied. He looked down at the remote control in his right hand and sighed. He pushed one of the buttons, and one of the wires holding up the gondola violently snapped.
“Ahhhhhh!” Himari let out a loud scream.