“So this is a painting! I always thought it was wallpaper.”
As Mr. Bare-Legs’ comment vividly conveys, the painting was enormous─a layperson like me has no place even taking a stab at it, but the canvas must have been at least a size 1,000, maybe even 2,000.
Its presence was so overwhelming that it paradoxically melted into the background.
Actually, I’d never paid much attention to it during assemblies.
Look, a painting. That was about it.
But when I actually gave it a good look, I realized that even aside from the size, it was pretty strange.
Not in the same way as the thirty-three paintings in the art room; it wasn’t like something was missing─it was weirder in a more concrete way.
Right below the painting was an inconspicuous plaque that did indeed name “Kowako Towai” as the artist. Above that was the title, which reflected the strangeness of the painting admirably.
The Auditorium in the Auditorium.
Just as the title suggested, it was a painting of an auditorium─this auditorium.
Not the outside, either, but the inside where we all stood─it was like a matryoshka doll, or two mirrors facing each other.
Needless to say, there was a huge painting of an auditorium on the wall of the auditorium in the painting─and while the next iteration wasn’t as crisp, it went on like that ad infinitum.
“The auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium in the auditorium…” Sotoin muttered, craning his neck up at the sprawling canvas─like he was naïvely enjoying himself.
Us middle school students were all sick of looking at it, but I guess an elementary kid seeing it for the first time would find it novel.
Ms. Towai had painted this picture.
Although the ratio of height to width was different, I think the dimensions were more or less on the same scale as the ceiling mural the child genius was working on─which made me curious to know what he thought of it, but his face as he stood looking up at the painting alongside the leader was unreadable.
“It’s so damn huge, ‘whoa’ comes to mind before anything like ‘it’s good.’”
This was the delinquent’s take.
I doubt he came up with it on the spot. He’d probably been thinking the same thing for a long time─and true enough, painting something this big would definitely require skill in its own right.
But unlike the thirty-three canvases from the crawl space, this one (because it was one painting, no matter how big) surely wasn’t based on a famous masterpiece.
After all, there was no way some illustrious artist whose name now graced the pages of history had stopped by Yubiwa Academy to paint a picture of its auditorium─the school wasn’t that old to begin with, and even if it were, the brushwork on this painting seemed to have nothing in common with the set of thirty-three smaller canvases.
“That reminds me, Sotoin, you said you saw a similarity between the thirty-three paintings in the art room. Do you see the same thing in The Auditorium in the Auditorium?” I asked.
“Huh? Did I say that? When? Where? How many times has the Earth spun since then?”
I might as well have been speaking another language.
He acted so confused that I started to think I must’ve been mistaken, but no. He definitely said that. It was part of the foundation our whole theoretical exercise had been based on!
You can’t just flip the script on us like that.
Now our only option was to rely on Sakiguchi.
Our student council president, Nagahiro Sakiguchi.
He still hadn’t explained how he felt able to conclude that Kowako Towai had painted the thirty-three pictures.
“Not conclude. I can only conjecture, based on hearsay, that the likelihood is very high.”
“Quit grandstanding, Nagahiro. Conjecture? Earlier you said you’d confirmed it. I don’t know what you’re waffling about, but keep up this mealy-mouthed crap and before you know it, your fiancée will be all grown up.”
“Hyota, please don’t mock me. And for the record, nothing would please me more than for my fiancée, who was chosen by my parents without my consent, to be all grown up.”
Meeee neither.
Anyway, Hyota’s prodding seemed to have firmed up the councilman’s resolve.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he began─in a beautiful voice.