Now that he mentioned it…
There didn’t appear to be a painting based on the Mona Lisa among the thirty-three canvases lined up in the art room.
“What’s the problem with that, Mr. President? Plenty of other paintings didn’t make the cut. Like Munch’s The Scream, for example.”
The delinquent had put my own thoughts into words, but at the same time, I did kind of see where Sotoin was coming from.
If you were selecting thirty-three masterworks from the history of art, would anyone really leave out the Mona Lisa?
Of course, everyone has their preferences, and the world’s a big place, so I suppose there must be someone out there who refuses to acknowledge the artistic value of the Mona Lisa.
The delinquent’s example of The Scream was just one of countless other paintings the artist hadn’t chosen─it wasn’t like the Mona Lisa was the only one.
That was all well and good from an objective perspective─but the truth was, as a member of the Pretty Boy Detective Club, I did feel it was odd that the one painting known even to our leader, Manabu the Illiterate, sorry, the Aesthete, hadn’t been included in the collection.
Again it felt like something was missing.
“…Perhaps we can use that omission as a clue to deduce the identity of the artist,” the vice president said, seeming to choose his words with care. “As far as I can see, these thirty-three paintings represent a wide variety in terms of both era and technique. We have landscapes, nudes, abstracts, portraits, genre paintings, historical paintings, war scenes, Japanese paintings, ink wash paintings… There appears to be no unifying characteristic whatsoever─but if we carefully analyze the criteria by which these paintings were selected, I do believe our chances of arriving at the identity of the artist are quite high.”
Really?
I couldn’t help feeling skeptical, but on the flip side, even Sakiguchi the strategist could see no other lead worth pursuing.
Well, it was definitely true that if we figured out who the painter was, we’d solve all the other mysteries at the same time─the paintings may have been old, but it wasn’t like we’d dug them up from an ancient tomb or something.
Most likely the artist was still alive, which meant once we identified him or her, we should be able to get the story straight from the horse’s mouth. Even if they weren’t student projects, the fact that they were stored in the crawl space above the art room meant the artist must have some connection to Yubiwa Academy.
And if the artist was connected to Yubiwa Academy, then we could probably go through the child genius to get in touch, seeing as he was heir to the school’s parent organization─just as I was starting to see a glimmer of hope for our investigation, a sound chimed out over the speakers, one of the few remaining signs that this thoroughly redecorated art room was actually still a classroom.
It was the bell signaling that everyone had to leave the school.
“Well, sounds like it’s time to wrap up. That’s enough for today. Please continue contemplating the problem for homework.”
“Really? We can go home already?”
The leader’s words caught me so off guard that I accidentally let slip my secret desire to leave─ordinarily, this bunch of scofflaws who called themselves the Pretty Boy Detective Club gleefully ignored the bell that sent everybody home.
The very fact that they’d commandeered the art room was itself against school rules, and I myself had spent the better part of the night with them in this room on previous occasions─not to mention that the mere presence of our elementary school leader on middle school grounds violated the Yubiwa Academy code of conduct.
But now the members of that very same club were trotting off home just because the bell had rung? Since when were we an association of good little boys and girls?
Normally the end-of-the-day bell was no more than a reminder that it was time for dinner─and I’d secretly been dying to see what the delinquent, aka Michiru the Epicure, was going to treat us to today!
I’d never been so disappointed in my life!
And now Sotoin was giving us homework?
But the Pretty Boy Detective Club is no democracy─for this group of good little outlaws, the leader’s word is absolute.
“Well, we can’t finish the mural until we do something about these bizarro paintings anyway. Guess I might as well try using my brain for once.”
“A fine idea. For my part, I will use my authority as student council president to investigate on the school end of things─perhaps something happened when the art room was shuttered.”
“I think I’ll pull a couple art books off the shelf at home and have a look at the originals. It’s been a while, and comparing them with the copies might help me figure something out. Taking the nudes out of nude paintings is a serious crime! It’s unforgivable!”
Mr. Bare-Legs seemed to be motivated by something slightly different from the rest of us, but I realized that at this point, objecting would be futile.
Purely in terms of personal benefit, I wouldn’t get anything out of putting up a fight right now─because if I said I didn’t give a damn about these weird paintings and we might as well stuff them back in the crawl space and get on with the mural, and for some reason they actually listened to me, I’d be forced back into my miserable position as artist’s assistant.
And depending on how things went, that could take all night.
No joke.
Whatever change had taken place in the mind of our leader, I figured I’d better take advantage of it and go home if he’d let me─I was only kicking the can down the road, but maybe, just maybe, tomorrow after class I’d manage to slip past the delinquent and Mr. Bare-Legs and make my escape.
“For once, our resident contrarian seems to be without an objection. It’s decided then!”
The leader clapped his hands to punctuate his words.
Apparently they called me “our resident contrarian” behind my back─well, the name does fit.
Just then, I realized we hadn’t heard the child genius’s opinion yet. Of course, it was customary for the silent artist (who was particularly silent toward me) to keep his thoughts to himself in situations like this, but that custom also included our telepathic leader sometimes expressing the child genius’s thoughts for him.
Did that mean the leader was taking advantage of the child genius’s silence to ignore his opinion? Speaking as someone who was regularly ignored by the child genius, turning the tables on him like that would give me a certain sense of satisfaction. On the other hand, since Sosaku the Artiste was the linchpin of this particular investigation, as the discoverer of the paintings it made me wince a little.
Knowing him, he probably didn’t care one bit for a bunch of old canvases and just wanted to get on with painting the ceiling─but if so, shouldn’t I fulfill my role as “our resident contrarian” after all?
The thought of not going home broke my heart, but I honestly did want to see him finish the mural.
Bearing witness to the birth of a magnificent work of art, and assisting in its completion, would bring joy even to a twisted human being like me─well, a little, anyway.
That’s why I was about to stop the leader, who was already gathering his things to go, as well as the delinquent, the councilman, and Mr. Bare-Legs─when I realized something.
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
What if I was wrong─what if his thoughts had already been expressed?
What if Sotoin had already told us the child genius’s opinion─what if he, more than anyone, actually wanted to investigate the true nature of the canvases we’d discovered?
What if the reason Sotoin’s early dismissal seemed so uncharacteristic was that it was in fact the child genius who had suggested we investigate the problem as a homework assignment?
I turned toward Yubiwa.
But he was expressionless as ever, and even with my glasses off, I couldn’t decipher his thoughts.
Nor his wishes.