Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Tabi ni Deyou:Afterword

2011-10-15T03:34:26Z

Eccles19:

I wrote this book one month before the deadline of the Dengeki Novel Prize.

I had almost completely given up my hope because I had come to a dead end in the novel I had been writing since a year in every detail.

The remarks of my friends, such as "Oh, there's only one month left until the deadline," or "I'll be baffled if you manage in time starting now," were got me writing.

And because I had no time, I just started noting down a prologue without setting any story elements, without setting any names, just placing a hero and a heroine, and that's when I stroke on the idea of writing a light novel without any proper nouns. In a way you could say that this novel was born by that close deadline.

"How would you spend today if you knew you would die tomorrow?"

We come across this question from time to time. But how about this:

"What would you do if you could leave nothing behind after dying?"

That was kind of the start point of this novel.

A boy and a girl go on a journey to find the answer. However, they aren't trying to find the answer somewhere on the way, but to find out through making the experience of traveling. That's what I consider is the way they have chosen.

I still remember the day I submitted this novel. I wasn't aiming for a prize (only in my fancies), not 1‰. Honestly though, I remember that I thought my story might make it about to the second round.

I had not taken part in any contest like the Dengeki Novel Prize before anyway, and didn't know how my skill compared to the others. I actually thought it was some sort of nuisance phone call when I was told that I made it to the final selection.

Anyway, I was able to publish this novel only thanks to my friends who helped me spice up the text, the editorial team who supported this slow-witted writer and everyone who rooted for me. The number of directions I cannot stretch my legs out in at night has grown quite a bit during this year.

By the way, I am still searching for the answer of my aforementioned question myself. As I love making things, I really don't want to suffer from the 'vanishing'. I give it my all not to come to the conclusion of "idling away while giving myself to my desires".

Well, it's time to say goodbye.

I hope that my poor writing skills have served you to kill some time.

- Tadahito Yorozuya[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0328.jpg|thumb|I am Houmitsu and had the honor of drawing the illustrations. I really love this story, so I gave it my best.
I just hope that I managed to portray their journey satisfactory…. May their journey go on—]]

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Tabi_ni_Deyou:Epilogue|Epilogue]]
| Return to [[Tabi ni Deyou, Horobiyuku Sekai no Hate Made|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Tabi ni Deyou:Afterword

2011-10-15T03:29:14Z

Eccles19:

I wrote this book one month before the deadline of the Dengeki Novel Prize.

I had almost completely given up my hope because I had come to a dead end in the novel I had been writing since a year in every detail.

The remarks of my friends, such as "Oh, there's only one month left until the deadline," or "I'll be baffled if you manage in time starting now," were got me writing.

And because I had no time, I just started noting down a prologue without setting any story elements, without setting any names, just placing a hero and a heroine, and that's when I stroke on the idea of writing a light novel without any proper nouns. In a way you could say that this novel was born by that close deadline.

"How would you spend today if you knew you would die tomorrow?"

We come across this question from time to time. But how about this:

"What would you do if you could leave nothing behind after dying?"

That was kind of the start point of this novel.

A boy and a girl go on a journey to find the answer. However, they aren't trying to find the answer somewhere on the way, but to find out through making the experience of traveling. That's what I consider is the way they have chosen.

I still remember the day I submitted this novel. I wasn't aiming for a prize (only in my fancies), not 1‰. Honestly though, I remember that I thought my story might make it about to the second round.

I had not taken part in any contest like the Dengeki Novel Prize before anyway, and didn't know how my skill compared to the others. I actually thought it was some sort of nuisance phone call when I was told that I made it to the final selection.

Anyway, I was able to publish this novel only thanks to my friends who helped me spice up the text, the editorial team who supported this slow-witted writer and everyone who rooted for me. The number of directions I cannot stretch my legs out in at night has grown quite a bit during this year.

By the way, I am still searching for the answer of my aforementioned question myself. As I love making things, I really don't want to suffer from the 'vanishing'. I give it my all not to come to the conclusion of "idling away while giving myself to my desires".

Well, it's time to say goodbye.

I hope that my poor writing skills have served you to kill some time.

- Tadahito Yorozuya[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0328.jpg|thumb|link=]]

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Tabi_ni_Deyou:Epilogue|Epilogue]]
| Return to [[Tabi ni Deyou, Horobiyuku Sekai no Hate Made|Main Page]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

2011-08-07T15:07:11Z

Eccles19: /* Volume 1 (Full Text) (PDF) */

The ''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria'' series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria ~Versión Española~|Español (Spanish)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria Bahasa Indonesia|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]

(Note: Translation progress varies for each version.)
----
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako4_1.jpg|thumb|Volume 4 Cover|250px]]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (空ろの箱と零のマリア) is a light novel series written by Eiji Mikage and illustrated by Tetsuo (formerly known as 415).

==Story Synopsis==
''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria,'' or ''The Empty Boxes and The Zeroth Maria,'' tells the sinister story of Kazuki Hoshino, who is almost madly attached to his everyday life, and his antagonist Aya Otonashi, who suddenly transfers into his class—for the 13,118<sup>th</sup> time. She majestically announces to “break” him, without paying heed to anyone else around them.

This is but the start of a dark roller coaster ride that turns the two against themselves, the people around them and the one who may be god. Read on as their relationship slowly changes and they go against their most basic values in their struggle against the world itself.

==Character Introduction==
<div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kazuki Hoshino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kazuki.jpg|left|link=]]
A completely ordinary high school student who loves idle chatter with his friends and Umaibôs, a Japanese snack. One day, he is suddenly antagonized by Aya Otonashi — although he has never met her before. She threatens to “break” him.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Aya Otonashi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Aya.jpg|left|link=]]
A beautiful but unsociable girl with a resolute personality. She transferred into Kazuki’s class on March 2<sup>nd</sup> — almost at the end of the school year. Right after her arrival she announces to “break” Kazuki.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Daiya Oomine</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Daiya.jpg|left|link=]]
A self-centered and arrogant student who dyes his hair silver and wears three piercings in his right ear. He is also the class president and a shrewd friend of Kazuki’s.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Haruaki Usui</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Haruaki.jpg|left|link=]]
A cheerful but frivolous baseball fan. He often hangs out with Kazuki and Daiya.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kokone Kirino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kokone.jpg|left|link=]]
A bright and beautiful girl who cares a lot for her friends, but is meddlesome at times.<br /> She and Daiya have known each other since childhood, and their mutual verbal abuse has become legendary among their classmates ever since.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kasumi Mogi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kasumi.jpg|left|link=]]
The girl that has won Kazuki’s heart. She is docile, silent and expressionless.

</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
</div>

== Translation ==
===[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|Registration]]===
Translators are asked to [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on (see the [[Format_guideline#Translators|Guideline]] page for usage rules).

Also see [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Guidelines|Project Guide]] for guidelines specific to this translation.
=== Format Standards ===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the agreed points highlighted in the below guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

== Updates ==
*Currently, there are no more novels that could be translated
*2nd August 2010 - Volume 4 completed
*25th July 2010 - Volume 4 Chapter 1 completed
*02nd July 2010 - Volume 4 Game Explanation and Prologue completed

Older Updates can be found on the [[Utsuro no Hako:Updates|Utsuro no Hako updates page]]

==''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria '' by Eiji Mikage==

===Volume 1 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1|(Full Text)]] [http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oi86ba1xc7gclxh (PDF)]===

*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume1_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time|1<sup>st</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 23rd time|23<sup>rd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1050th time|1,050<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 13118th time|13,118<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10876th time|10,876<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8946th time|8,946<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2601st time|2,601<sup>st</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2602nd time|2,602<sup>nd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 4609th time|4,609<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5232nd time|5,232<sup>nd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time|27,753<sup>rd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Interlude|Interlude]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time (2)|27,753<sup>rd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time|27,754<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 3087th time|3,087<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time (2)|27,754<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time|0<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (2)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (3)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (4)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time (2)|0<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5000th time|5,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 6000th time|6,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 7000th time|7,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8000th time|8,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9000th time|9,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9999th time|9,999<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10000th time|10,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (5)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27756th time|27,756<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time (2)|1<sup>st</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1_Author's_Notes|Author’s Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Translator's Notes|Translator’s Notes]]

===Volume 2 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 29|April 29 (Wednesday) Shōwa Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 30|April 30 (Thursday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 1|May 1 (Friday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 2|May 2 (Saturday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 3|May 3 (Sunday) Constitution Memorial Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 4|May 4 (Monday) Greenery Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 5|May 5 (Tuesday) Children's Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 18|May 18 (Monday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 3 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Beginning|Beginning]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 1|Round 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 2|Round 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 3|Round 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 4 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Game Explanation|Game Explanation]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Translators===
:*[[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Editors===
:*[[Kadi]]

== Series Overview ==

* Volume 1 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア1 (January 07, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-867461-4)
* Volume 2 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア2 (September 10, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-868012-7)
* Volume 3 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア3 (January 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-424115-5)
* Volume 4 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア4 (June 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-868595-5)

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

2011-08-07T15:06:35Z

Eccles19: /* Volume 1 (Full Text) (PDF) */

The ''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria'' series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria ~Versión Española~|Español (Spanish)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria Bahasa Indonesia|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]

(Note: Translation progress varies for each version.)
----
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako4_1.jpg|thumb|Volume 4 Cover|250px]]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (空ろの箱と零のマリア) is a light novel series written by Eiji Mikage and illustrated by Tetsuo (formerly known as 415).

==Story Synopsis==
''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria,'' or ''The Empty Boxes and The Zeroth Maria,'' tells the sinister story of Kazuki Hoshino, who is almost madly attached to his everyday life, and his antagonist Aya Otonashi, who suddenly transfers into his class—for the 13,118<sup>th</sup> time. She majestically announces to “break” him, without paying heed to anyone else around them.

This is but the start of a dark roller coaster ride that turns the two against themselves, the people around them and the one who may be god. Read on as their relationship slowly changes and they go against their most basic values in their struggle against the world itself.

==Character Introduction==
<div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kazuki Hoshino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kazuki.jpg|left|link=]]
A completely ordinary high school student who loves idle chatter with his friends and Umaibôs, a Japanese snack. One day, he is suddenly antagonized by Aya Otonashi — although he has never met her before. She threatens to “break” him.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Aya Otonashi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Aya.jpg|left|link=]]
A beautiful but unsociable girl with a resolute personality. She transferred into Kazuki’s class on March 2<sup>nd</sup> — almost at the end of the school year. Right after her arrival she announces to “break” Kazuki.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Daiya Oomine</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Daiya.jpg|left|link=]]
A self-centered and arrogant student who dyes his hair silver and wears three piercings in his right ear. He is also the class president and a shrewd friend of Kazuki’s.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Haruaki Usui</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Haruaki.jpg|left|link=]]
A cheerful but frivolous baseball fan. He often hangs out with Kazuki and Daiya.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kokone Kirino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kokone.jpg|left|link=]]
A bright and beautiful girl who cares a lot for her friends, but is meddlesome at times.<br /> She and Daiya have known each other since childhood, and their mutual verbal abuse has become legendary among their classmates ever since.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kasumi Mogi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kasumi.jpg|left|link=]]
The girl that has won Kazuki’s heart. She is docile, silent and expressionless.

</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
</div>

== Translation ==
===[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|Registration]]===
Translators are asked to [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on (see the [[Format_guideline#Translators|Guideline]] page for usage rules).

Also see [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Guidelines|Project Guide]] for guidelines specific to this translation.
=== Format Standards ===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the agreed points highlighted in the below guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

== Updates ==
*Currently, there are no more novels that could be translated
*2nd August 2010 - Volume 4 completed
*25th July 2010 - Volume 4 Chapter 1 completed
*02nd July 2010 - Volume 4 Game Explanation and Prologue completed

Older Updates can be found on the [[Utsuro no Hako:Updates|Utsuro no Hako updates page]]

==''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria '' by Eiji Mikage==

===Volume 1 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1|(Full Text)]] [http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oi86ba1xc7gclxh (PDF)]===

*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume1_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time|1<sup>st</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 23rd time|23<sup>rd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1050th time|1,050<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 13118th time|13,118<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10876th time|10,876<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8946th time|8,946<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2601st time|2,601<sup>st</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2602nd time|2,602<sup>nd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 4609th time|4,609<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5232nd time|5,232<sup>nd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time|27,753<sup>rd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Interlude|Interlude]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time (2)|27,753<sup>rd</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time|27,754<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 3087th time|3,087<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time (2)|27,754<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time|0<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (2)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (3)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (4)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time (2)|0<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5000th time|5,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 6000th time|6,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 7000th time|7,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8000th time|8,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9000th time|9,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9999th time|9,999<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10000th time|10,000<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (5)|27,755<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27756th time|27,756<sup>th</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time (2)|1<sup>st</sup> time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1_Author's_Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

===Volume 2 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 29|April 29 (Wednesday) Shōwa Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 30|April 30 (Thursday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 1|May 1 (Friday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 2|May 2 (Saturday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 3|May 3 (Sunday) Constitution Memorial Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 4|May 4 (Monday) Greenery Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 5|May 5 (Tuesday) Children's Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 18|May 18 (Monday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 3 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Beginning|Beginning]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 1|Round 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 2|Round 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 3|Round 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 4 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Game Explanation|Game Explanation]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Translators===
:*[[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Editors===
:*[[Kadi]]

== Series Overview ==

* Volume 1 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア1 (January 07, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-867461-4)
* Volume 2 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア2 (September 10, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-868012-7)
* Volume 3 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア3 (January 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-424115-5)
* Volume 4 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア4 (June 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-868595-5)

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

2011-08-07T14:48:42Z

Eccles19: /* Story Synopsis */

The ''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria'' series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria ~Versión Española~|Español (Spanish)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria Bahasa Indonesia|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]

(Note: Translation progress varies for each version.)
----
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako4_1.jpg|thumb|Volume 4 Cover|250px]]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (空ろの箱と零のマリア) is a light novel series written by Eiji Mikage and illustrated by Tetsuo (formerly known as 415).

==Story Synopsis==
''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria,'' or ''The Empty Boxes and The Zeroth Maria,'' tells the sinister story of Kazuki Hoshino, who is almost madly attached to his everyday life, and his antagonist Aya Otonashi, who suddenly transfers into his class—for the 13,118<sup>th</sup> time. She majestically announces to “break” him, without paying heed to anyone else around them.

This is but the start of a dark roller coaster ride that turns the two against themselves, the people around them and the one who may be god. Read on as their relationship slowly changes and they go against their most basic values in their struggle against the world itself.

==Character Introduction==
<div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kazuki Hoshino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kazuki.jpg|left|link=]]
A completely ordinary high school student who loves idle chatter with his friends and Umaibôs, a Japanese snack. One day, he is suddenly antagonized by Aya Otonashi — although he has never met her before. She threatens to “break” him.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Aya Otonashi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Aya.jpg|left|link=]]
A beautiful but unsociable girl with a resolute personality. She transferred into Kazuki’s class on March 2<sup>nd</sup> — almost at the end of the school year. Right after her arrival she announces to “break” Kazuki.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Daiya Oomine</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Daiya.jpg|left|link=]]
A self-centered and arrogant student who dyes his hair silver and wears three piercings in his right ear. He is also the class president and a shrewd friend of Kazuki’s.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Haruaki Usui</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Haruaki.jpg|left|link=]]
A cheerful but frivolous baseball fan. He often hangs out with Kazuki and Daiya.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kokone Kirino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kokone.jpg|left|link=]]
A bright and beautiful girl who cares a lot for her friends, but is meddlesome at times.<br /> She and Daiya have known each other since childhood, and their mutual verbal abuse has become legendary among their classmates ever since.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kasumi Mogi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kasumi.jpg|left|link=]]
The girl that has won Kazuki’s heart. She is docile, silent and expressionless.

</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
</div>

== Translation ==
===[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|Registration]]===
Translators are asked to [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on (see the [[Format_guideline#Translators|Guideline]] page for usage rules).

Also see [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Guidelines|Project Guide]] for guidelines specific to this translation.
=== Format Standards ===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the agreed points highlighted in the below guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

== Updates ==
*Currently, there are no more novels that could be translated
*2nd August 2010 - Volume 4 completed
*25th July 2010 - Volume 4 Chapter 1 completed
*02nd July 2010 - Volume 4 Game Explanation and Prologue completed

Older Updates can be found on the [[Utsuro no Hako:Updates|Utsuro no Hako updates page]]

==''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria '' by Eiji Mikage==

===Volume 1 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1|(Full Text)]] [http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oi86ba1xc7gclxh (PDF)]===

*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume1_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time|1st time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 23rd time|23rd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1050th time|1050th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 13118th time|13118th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10876th time|10876th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8946th time|8946th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2601st time|2601st time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2602nd time|2602nd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 4609th time|4609th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5232nd time|5232nd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time|27753rd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Interlude|Interlude]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time (2)|27753rd time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time|27754th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 3087th time|3087th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time (2)|27754th time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time|0th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time|27755th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (2)|27755th time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (3)|27755th time (3)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (4)|27755th time (4)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time (2)|0th time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5000th time|5000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 6000th time|6000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 7000th time|7000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8000th time|8000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9000th time|9000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9999th time|9999th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10000th time|10000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (5)|27755th time (5)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27756th time|27756th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time (2)|1st time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1_Author's_Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

===Volume 2 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 29|April 29 (Wednesday) Shōwa Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 30|April 30 (Thursday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 1|May 1 (Friday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 2|May 2 (Saturday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 3|May 3 (Sunday) Constitution Memorial Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 4|May 4 (Monday) Greenery Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 5|May 5 (Tuesday) Children's Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 18|May 18 (Monday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 3 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Beginning|Beginning]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 1|Round 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 2|Round 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 3|Round 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 4 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Game Explanation|Game Explanation]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Translators===
:*[[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Editors===
:*[[Kadi]]

== Series Overview ==

* Volume 1 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア1 (January 07, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-867461-4)
* Volume 2 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア2 (September 10, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-868012-7)
* Volume 3 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア3 (January 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-424115-5)
* Volume 4 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア4 (June 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-868595-5)

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria

2011-08-07T14:47:13Z

Eccles19: /* Character Introduction */

The ''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria'' series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria ~Versión Española~|Español (Spanish)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria Bahasa Indonesia|Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)]]
*[[Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]

(Note: Translation progress varies for each version.)
----
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako4_1.jpg|thumb|Volume 4 Cover|250px]]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (空ろの箱と零のマリア) is a light novel series written by Eiji Mikage and illustrated by Tetsuo (formerly known as 415).

==Story Synopsis==
"Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria", or "The Empty Boxes and The Zeroth Maria", tells the sinister story of Kazuki Hoshino, who is almost madly attached to his everyday life, and his antagonist Aya Otonashi, who suddenly transfers into his class—for the 13118th time. She majestically announces to "break" him, without paying heed to anyone else around them.

This is but the start of a dark roller coaster ride that turns the two against themselves, the people around them and the one who may be god. Read on as their relationship slowly changes and they go against their most basic values in their struggle against the world itself.

==Character Introduction==
<div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kazuki Hoshino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kazuki.jpg|left|link=]]
A completely ordinary high school student who loves idle chatter with his friends and Umaibôs, a Japanese snack. One day, he is suddenly antagonized by Aya Otonashi — although he has never met her before. She threatens to “break” him.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Aya Otonashi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Aya.jpg|left|link=]]
A beautiful but unsociable girl with a resolute personality. She transferred into Kazuki’s class on March 2<sup>nd</sup> — almost at the end of the school year. Right after her arrival she announces to “break” Kazuki.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Daiya Oomine</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Daiya.jpg|left|link=]]
A self-centered and arrogant student who dyes his hair silver and wears three piercings in his right ear. He is also the class president and a shrewd friend of Kazuki’s.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Haruaki Usui</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Haruaki.jpg|left|link=]]
A cheerful but frivolous baseball fan. He often hangs out with Kazuki and Daiya.
</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kokone Kirino</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kokone.jpg|left|link=]]
A bright and beautiful girl who cares a lot for her friends, but is meddlesome at times.<br /> She and Daiya have known each other since childhood, and their mutual verbal abuse has become legendary among their classmates ever since.
</div>
<div style="float: left; width: 350px; margin: 5px 20px;">
<b>Kasumi Mogi</b>
[[Image:UtsuroNoHako_Kasumi.jpg|left|link=]]
The girl that has won Kazuki’s heart. She is docile, silent and expressionless.

</div>
<br style="clear: both;" />
</div>

== Translation ==
===[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|Registration]]===
Translators are asked to [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Registration Page|register]] which chapters they're working on (see the [[Format_guideline#Translators|Guideline]] page for usage rules).

Also see [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Guidelines|Project Guide]] for guidelines specific to this translation.
=== Format Standards ===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the agreed points highlighted in the below guidelines'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]

== Updates ==
*Currently, there are no more novels that could be translated
*2nd August 2010 - Volume 4 completed
*25th July 2010 - Volume 4 Chapter 1 completed
*02nd July 2010 - Volume 4 Game Explanation and Prologue completed

Older Updates can be found on the [[Utsuro no Hako:Updates|Utsuro no Hako updates page]]

==''Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria '' by Eiji Mikage==

===Volume 1 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1|(Full Text)]] [http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?oi86ba1xc7gclxh (PDF)]===

*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume1_Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time|1st time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 23rd time|23rd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1050th time|1050th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 13118th time|13118th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10876th time|10876th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8946th time|8946th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2601st time|2601st time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 2602nd time|2602nd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 4609th time|4609th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5232nd time|5232nd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time|27753rd time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Interlude|Interlude]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27753rd time (2)|27753rd time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time|27754th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 3087th time|3087th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27754th time (2)|27754th time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time|0th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time|27755th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (2)|27755th time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (3)|27755th time (3)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (4)|27755th time (4)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 0th time (2)|0th time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 5000th time|5000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 6000th time|6000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 7000th time|7000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 8000th time|8000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9000th time|9000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 9999th time|9999th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 10000th time|10000th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27755th time (5)|27755th time (5)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 27756th time|27756th time]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 1st time (2)|1st time (2)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1_Author's_Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume1 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

===Volume 2 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 29|April 29 (Wednesday) Shōwa Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 April 30|April 30 (Thursday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 1|May 1 (Friday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 2|May 2 (Saturday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 3|May 3 (Sunday) Constitution Memorial Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 4|May 4 (Monday) Greenery Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 5|May 5 (Tuesday) Children's Day]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 May 18|May 18 (Monday)]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume2 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 3 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Beginning|Beginning]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 1|Round 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 2|Round 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Round 3|Round 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Epilogue|Epilogue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume3 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]

===Volume 4 [[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4|(Full Text)]]===
*[[Utsuro no Hako:Volume4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Game Explanation|Game Explanation]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Prologue|Prologue]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Author's Notes|Author's Notes]]
*[[Utsuro_no_Hako:Volume4 Translator's Notes|Translator's Notes]]

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Translators===
:*[[user:EusthEnoptEron|EusthEnoptEron]]

===Editors===
:*[[Kadi]]

== Series Overview ==

* Volume 1 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア1 (January 07, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-867461-4)
* Volume 2 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア2 (September 10, 2009, ISBN 978-4-04-868012-7)
* Volume 3 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア3 (January 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-424115-5)
* Volume 4 - 空ろの箱と零のマリア4 (June 10, 2010, ISBN 978-4-04-868595-5)

Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi

2011-08-05T14:17:25Z

Eccles19: /* Volume 2 - The > Rising Noon Break (Full Text) (Discussion Thread) */

[[Image:Itsuten v1 cover.jpg|200px|thumb|Cover for Itsuten Vol 1]]

The ''Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi'' series is also available in the following languages:
*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Tiếng Việt|Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)]]

(Note: Translation progress varies for each version.)
----

'''''Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi''''' (いつか天魔の黒ウサギ) is a Japanese light novel series written by Kagami Takaya (鏡貴也), who is also the author of the 伝説の勇者の伝説 ([[Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu|Densetsu no Yūsha no Densetsu/The Legend of the Legendary Heroes]]) series, with illustrations by Kamiya Yuu (榎宮祐), published by Fujimi Shobo under their Fujimi Fantasia Bunko label.

==Story Synopsis==
A freshman of Miyasaka High, Kurogane Taito was average at everything. And all this while, he had believed himself to be an ordinary regular guy. But, he was wrong. The reason was because of a certain event 9 years ago. For the sake of a promise he had made then, he had already stopped being ordinary a long time ago. However, not a single fragment of his memory about that promise remained. Who had stolen his memory and to what ends? One day, as a consequence of a certain event that had descended upon his ordinary life, his memories were restored. That marked the beginning of his “extraordinary” life...

<center>'''''--- you’ve finally died. I’ve been long waiting for this day ---'''''</center>

<center>''I’ve always thought that I’m a supporting character in life.''</center>

<center>''But once again, it starts from here.''</center>

<center>''My story.''</center>

<center>'''''I’ll “die 7 times” for your sake'''''</center>

<center>Everything starts from that promise. A story of a reverse school fantasy!</center>

(Thanks to [[user:ShadowZeroHeart|ShadowZeroHeart's]] contribution to the previous version of the synopsis :])

You can still tell us what you think of the series by '''[http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=4240 polling here]''' and [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4239&start=30 discussing it here].

== Translation & Editing==

===Dedicated & Drive-By Editors Needed===
A guideline for dedicated editing will be created in weeks to come. '''In the meantime, any drive-by-editing of obvious typos, bad grammar, spelling, or missing words or any obvious mistakes will be much appreciated.'''

=== Translators Needed ===
This series is in need of translators. If you would like to help translate this series, please post in the forums [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4239 here], and we will help you get started. Thank you.

=== [[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Registration Page|Registration]] ===

Those who wish to contribute are asked to first notify a supervisor beforehand via the [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4239 here] forum.

'''Translators are asked to [[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Registration Page|register]] for chapters they want to work on'''

===Format Standards===
'''Every Chapter (after editing) must conform to the general format guidelines.'''
*[[Format_guideline|General Format/Style Guideline]]
*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Guidelines|Project Specific Guidelines]] (contains spoilers)

== Misc Project Management ==
* To Do List (to be created)
* [[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Archive|Archive Page]]

==Updates==
* '''1-Aug-2011:'''
**Volume 3 Chapter 1 completed.

* '''31-Jul-2011:'''
**Volume 3 Prologue 1 completed.

* '''27-Jul-2011:'''
**Volume 2 Chapter 6 completed.
**Volume 2 Afterword completed.

* '''20-Jul-2011:'''
**Volume 2 Chapter 4 completed.
**Volume 2 Chapter 5 completed.

* '''16-Jul-2011:'''
**Volume 2 Chapter 3 completed.

* '''11-Jul-2011:'''
**Volume 2 Chapter 2 completed.

Older updates can be found on the [[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Updates|Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Updates page]].

==The ''Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi'' series by Kagami Takaya==
Volume 1 PDF was re-made so it now contains the double lined words, sorry for the inconveniences. Please re-download and report any errors [http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4484 here].

<span id="itsuten_v1"></span>
===Volume 1 - 900 Seconds Of Afterschool Time ([[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1|Full Text]]) ([http://www.mediafire.com/?hvrkzq22it6hn3r PDF]) ([http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4512 Discussion Thread])===

::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Prologue|Prologue - The Tenma Yet Unsung]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: Chance Meeting]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: 900 Seconds Of Afterschool Time]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Gekkou's Lightning]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: The Scarlet Witch]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: The Moon Illuminating The Night]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Epilogue|Epilogue: The Tenma Yet Unsung ---]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 1 Afterword|Afterword]]

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===Volume 2 - The «Moon» Rising Noon Break ([[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2|Full Text]]) ([http://www.baka-tsuki.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4515 Discussion Thread])===

::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Prologue|Prologue - The Sky Seen By Tsukuyomi Is Crimson]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: Incursion]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: The Silver Servant]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: The Moon Rises]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: The Moon Sways]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: The Moon Falls]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Chapter 6|Chapter 6: And Then The Tenma Is Sung]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 2 Afterword|Afterword]]

<span id="itsuten_v3"></span>

===Volume 3 - The School Road Of Spiriting Away===

::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Prologue 1|Prologue: The Usual School Road ---]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Chapter 1|Chapter 1: The Sun Returns]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Chapter 2|Chapter 2: Jet Black and Deep Crimson]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Chapter 3|Chapter 3: Crow and Rabbit]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Chapter 4|Chapter 4: Shigure Haruka and Saitohimea]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Chapter 5|Chapter 5: Wish and Price]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Prologue 2|Prologue: --- The School Road of Spiriting Away]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 3 Afterword|Afterword]]

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===Volume 4: The Student Council Room Of A Moonlight Flit===

::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 4 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 4 Prologue|Prologue: School of << Bliss >> ---]]
::*Chapter 1: Travelling to Outside of Human World
::*Chapter 2: Consideration of Daily Routine Management
::*Chapter 3: The Spell Bite of Deep Entwinement
::*Chapter 4: The Student Council Troupe That Does A Moonlight Flit
::*Chapter 5: Disguising the Inside of Darkness
::*Chapter 6: The Organization That Erases The World’s Terribleness
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 4 Epilogue|Epilogue: --- School of << Despair >>]]
::*Afterword

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===Volume 5: The Catastrophe of Summer Vacation===

::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 5 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 5 Prologue|Prologue: --- The Start of Premonition Dreams]]
::*Chapter 1: Red Examination Script
::*Chapter 2: Blue Summer Vacation
::*Chapter 3: White Demon
::*Chapter 4: Black Rabbit
::*Prologue: The Start of Nightmare ---
::*Afterword

<span id="itsuten_v6"></span>

===Volume 6: The Absent Rabbit===

::*Novel Illustrations
::*[[Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi:Volume 6 Prologue|Prologue: --- This Darkness]]
::*Chapter 1: The Summer Vacation’s Student Council Room
::*Chapter 2: The Absent Rabbit
::*Chapter 3: Ancient Dragon
::*Chapter 4: Two Witches
::*Chapter 5: The << Posion’s >> Promise
::*Epilogue: --- The Sword That Sunders Night
::*Afterword

<span id="itsuten_v7"></span>

===Volume 7: Goodbye By Second Trimester===

::*Novel Illustrations
::*Prologue: --- The Decided Future
::*Chapter 1: The End of Summer
::*Chapter 2: Attack
::*Chapter 3: The Crow and Rabbit That Accepts The Oracle
::*Chapter 4: Goodbye By Second Trimester
::*Afterword

===Volume 8: The Witch, Fireworks, and Girl's School===

::*Novel Illustrations
::*?????????
::*Afterword

==Project Staff==

*Project Administrator:
*Project Supervisor: [[User:larethian|larethian]]

===Translators===
'''ACTIVE'''
:*[[User:larethian|larethian]]

===Editors===
All editors that speak English proficiently are welcomed.

'''ACTIVE'''

'''INACTIVE'''
:*[[User:bzk3000|bzk3000]]
:*[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]]

==Series Overview==
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 1 (November 20, 2008 ISBN 978-4-8291-3347-7)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 2 (January 20, 2009 ISBN 978-4-8291-3367-5)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 3 (March 19, 2009 ISBN 978-4-8291-3385-9)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 4 (July 25, 2009 ISBN 978-4-8291-3419-1)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 5 (September 19, 2009 ISBN 978-4-8291-3441-2)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 6 (May 20, 2010 ISBN 978-4-8291-3523-5)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 7 (January 20, 2011 ISBN 978-4-8291-3603-4-C0193)
*Itsuka Tenma no Kuro Usagi Vol. 8 (July 20, 2011 ISBN 978-4-8291-3658-4-C0193)

Gekkou:Volume 1 Confession

2011-07-18T02:55:18Z

Eccles19: /* [Confession] */

==[Confession]==

Two days later, when Yōko Tsukimori came to school again, even students from other classes came in crowds to our classroom to catch a glimpse of her.

One after the other expressed their condolences, showing nothing but expressions of pity.

Kamogawa’s voice could be heard from the human ring that had formed around the center of the room.

“School without you is like a night without moon! Please Tsukimori, cheer up and light my footsteps in the dark as tenderly as you used to do!”

Oh how I would love to see him stumble in the dark and get stuck in a gutter.

A group of guys, Kamogawa among them, was trying to appear appealing, talking wildly to her. Taking advantage of a girl’s weakness might be a usual and practical strategy, but I just couldn’t endure watching their pathetic and honorless behavior.

“You are quite the poet, aren’t you Kamogawa-kun? Thank you for worrying about me.”

However, Tsukimori dealt with each of them with utmost politeness, not showing the slightest frown—no, even smiling. Once again I came to understand why she was so popular.

Many people could not possibly behave as she did. At least I wouldn’t have been able to. After all, I was already annoyed and I was just watching her.

As soon as the wave of visitors broke off, Tsukimori stood up and, for some reason, headed towards me with a smile on her face.

“It’s quite unusual for you to approach me spontaneously.”

“But you came to my father’s funeral, didn’t you? I wanted to say thanks.” She sat down on Usami’s empty chair and smiled cheerfully at me. “So, thanks for coming, Nonomiya-kun.”

“No, it’s nothing that would deserve your appreciation. I merely attended as the representative for the class.”

“But it is. I was somehow relieved at seeing you being as laid-back as usual.”

“Oh I’m sorry for being such a cold-hearted guy. I was worried about you in my own way, though, you know? Too bad you didn’t notice,” I said and shrugged uncomfortably, whereupon Tsukimori laughed cheerfully: “I don’t think of you like that!”

“Have things settled down at home?”

“There are still a lot of things that need to be taken care of, but for the time being, yes.”

“I see. You must have experienced some troublesome days, I guess. Well, school must has its troublesome aspects too, for someone as popular as you.”

Tsukimori shook her head, making her soft hair sway.

“I am very grateful that everyone is so worried about me.”

“It’s nice when others feel concerned about you, indeed, but there are limits that have to be respected, right? Aren’t those fanatic fans of yours a bother? Especially Kamogawa. Or Kamogawa.”

“I’m actually quite fond of that cute side of boys.”

I tried to find out her true thoughts by agitating her, but Tsukimori’s smile remained unchanged like an iron wall.

“Your mature behavior is remarkable.”

“I am happy that you view me like that, Nonomiya-kun.”

She accepted even my rather baffled words with a happy tone.

“—Nonomiya-kun,” Tsukimori said my name all of a sudden, “do you remember your promise?”

“…Promise?”

I didn’t remember ever making a promise with her.

“If I’m troubled—”

“—Ah, I see.”

In the midst of her reminding me, I recalled a certain conversation I had with her one morning.

“Right, that promise.”

“Well, I promised indeed. Ask for whatever you like, as long as I can help you with it.”

It was a seed I had sowed myself, but deep in my heart I hoped that she would not have a bothersome request.

“It is something I would rather not talk about in the classroom,” explained Tsukimori with a subdued voice so faint that no one else other than me could hear her.

The next instant, I was tense from tip to toe.

“…I’ll be waiting for you in the library after school,” she whispered and left the classroom elegantly with her hair streaming out behind her.

The palm of my hand was drenched in sweat. Apparently, I was tenser than I had thought.

Her dubious attitude had instantly reminded me of the murder recipe.

I sensed curiosity rising in me and hoped to get to the core of this affair at last. But at the same time, I was also alarmed because nobody, naturally including Tsukimori, should have known that the murder recipe was in my hands. My tension was proof that wariness exceeded my curiosity, I suppose.

“What if Tsukimori knows that I have her murder recipe…?” I thought to myself, picturing an unhappy scenario.

The funeral of her father had been conducted without incident, she had become a character akin to a heroine of some dramatic play and was on everyone’s lips. Could one of her plans possibly fail in the first place? Looking at how she had everything, that was the impression I got.

The only two things that were in her way were the murder recipe that had gone lost and I, since I knew what was written in it.

As soon as she got rid of these two unsafe aspects, she would have conducted the perfect crime and obtain her own “ideal world”.

…perhaps she was planning on killing me in due time.

I gulped down and my heartbeat got faster.

And then—I laughed.

I didn’t want to die. And I also had to admit that it was quite an absurd thought, but: I was intrigued. I was intrigued by how she would hunt me down.

Where else in my environment could I find such a stimulus? Furthermore, the opponent was Yōko Tsukimori—I couldn’t have wished for anyone better.

I was convinced: this was the best time I’d had in the seventeen years of my life so far.

I took a deep breath and stepped into the library.

The room was filled with the scent of paper as dry as fallen leaves. It was not a smell I disliked. At other times, I might have started leisurely browsing the library, but not now.

Even though I was moving leisurely, my eyes were restlessly searching for Tsukimori.

And before long, I found her.

She was sitting further inside at a desk for studying, reading a book with an elegant cover.

As classes had already ended and this was a library, it was already silent anyway, but that silence was even stronger around Tsukimori, as if I had entered a different realm.

Bewitched by her pure appearance that made her hard to approach, I just stood there holding my breath for a while.

Her long-lashed eyes closed and opened softly as she blinked, and from time to time she led her hand to the edge of the page and smoothly turned to the next one. Her profile looked like the finest glass work, though definitely not created by man but a miracle brought forth by god. “I would be a rich man if I could cut this scene out and put it in frame,” I thought.

I confirmed that nobody was there except for Tsukimori and me.

“Once again, I’m sure the recent days have been hard for you—,” I leaned against a book shelf as I addressed her, “—losing your father in an ''accident'' and all.”

Tsukimori clapped her book shut and slowly turned towards me.

“Yes, especially for my mother. I have never seen her that down-hearted.”

She gave a weak, tired laugh.

“How about you?”

“I’m sorry. But I have not recovered enough to talk about it yet.”

Tsukimori shook her head with a troubled mien. It was a rather noncommittal answer.

“No, it was a rude question on my part. I beg your pardon.”

I bowed my head.

“By the way, what is your request?” I brought up the main topic after a breath, “You specially called me out to the library for this, so I should think it’s something quite delicate?”

“You told me to ask for your help if I am troubled.”

“Yeah, and you answered that you would consult me directly.”

“Exactly. That’s why I would already like to get back to your offer, Nonomiya-kun. Please lend me a hand.”

Then she spoke as if humming a tune:

“I want you to go out with me.”

Her completely unexpected words made my mind go blank.

To be sure I chose to ask, “Where to?” but Tsukimori only bewilderedly replied: “You aren’t funny,” and shook her neat chin left and right.

“I suppose I’m not the person to criticize you, having already asked a tactless question just earlier, but you do realize that you lost your father only some days ago?”

Unlike Tsukimori I had to feign composure; I was observing all of her movements with greatest attention in order to read her intentions while my brain ran full throttle.

[[Image:Gekkou-056.jpg|thumb]]

“Do you want to say I am imprudent?”

“If you talk in extremes, yes.”

“Then you are misunderstanding me! Precisely because my father has passed away, I thought that I’d need someone for support. Isn’t it romantic if you call it ‘the support of my heart’? I am not as strong as everyone believes, you know?”

Indeed, this was a good reason, but there were still too many points that didn’t match.

“Then, why does it have to be me? I fail to understand why a popular girl like you would choose someone like me.”

Tsukimori giggled, “I didn’t know you were so gauche, Nonomiya-kun. It seems you don’t understand a woman’s heart at all if you ask for a reason why she confessed.”

I found her attitude a little irritating.

“But you don’t seem to understand a man’s heart at all, either. At least I’m not so simple as to have no doubts whatsoever when a beauty asks me to go out with her all of a sudden. There’s always a catch to attractive deals, isn’t there?” I sneered at her as payback.

“Is that so? I was sure that boys never feel bad being confessed to by a girl?”

The certainty in her tone made me lose my words for a moment.

“Indeed…we are simple enough to be happy about it, but the reply is a different matter.”

I didn’t want to admit it, but she was right. I unintentionally prided myself on the confession that everyone would envy me for. Was it the difference of our experience points? My chances were awfully worse when it came to love.

“Is there a girl you are fond of, Nonomiya-kun?” Tsukimori suddenly asked—as easily as a waitress who confirms a customer’s order.

“There isn’t.”

Usami’s face came to mind for a split second, but neither did I like her enough to mention her distinctly, nor was I straightforward enough to answer honestly.

“Is there a girl you go out with, then?”

“…isn’t the order of questions a bit awry? Usually it would be the other way round, wouldn’t it?”

“Is that so? Maybe you are going out with someone you don’t love?” she answered with a wondering mien.

“…I think I finally understood why the guys say that all rumors about you might be true.”

I shrugged over-exaggeratedly. 

“Those rumors are nothing but that, rumors, and you are not the type of person that is swayed by them, Nonomiya-kun.”

“What makes you so sure? Even I watch my step if I hear some bad rumors, you know?”

“If you want, I can tell you which of them are true and which are not? In return—”

“—I hope you don’t want to make dating you the condition.”

“Our chemistry is right!”

Tsukimori showed no sign of timidity, instead she even smiled brightly.

“As if I’d ever accept such an unfair condition!” This time it was me who was taken aback. “…I didn’t know you were this kind of girl.”

She made me dance to her tune from start to finish. All the possible replies I had simulated in advance for this conversation were going to waste one after another.

“This is my way of paying respect to you, Nonomiya-kun! You are the person I wish to go out with. I think there is no point in showing you only a superficial side.”

“I’m sorry about your respect, but haven’t you thought about the possibility that I might refuse?”

“I am ready to accept some amount of damage in order to obtain what I want. If you are afraid to get hurt, you won’t obtain what you really desire. Well, revealing a few of my cards does not even count as damage anyway.”

“Exceptional self-confidence, indeed! No wonder that the girls of your grade add a ‘-san’ to your name.”

“I didn’t know you were such an uptight person either. I was sure you were rather the type that lets things take their course.”

“I’m much more sensible than you may think. And a little contrary, too. And I’m definitely not daring enough to get myself involved in affairs that make no sense to me or that can't agree to.”

“Aren’t you just averse to doing things you are not interested in?”

“I won’t deny that! At any rate, if I go out with you, I won’t have my peace any more. I’m simply not leading my life actively enough as to take to attracting attention, that’s all.”

“It’s a shame that you are so stubborn, Nonomiya-kun…,” she said and fell silent.

We shared a painful silence.

Even the shouts of the sports clubs from the grounds seemed loud inside the soundless library and I heard the rustling of her skirt all too clearly when Tsukimori crossed her slender legs the other way around.

Tsukimori’s gaze was listlessly wandering about in the air, hesitating about something.

Even such trivial gestures looked like a scene of a movie, sweetening the time until her next words and keeping me from getting bored.

Then I saw her lips move calmly.

“—if I tell you the reason why I chose you, will you be more open towards my request?”

I gulped down. In my imagination she got straight to the point and proclaimed that the reason was that I had the murder recipe.

Such an answer would naturally be quite absurd, but as Tsukimori seemed to be an unpredictable person, I couldn’t deem it impossible any more. Tsukimori’s hidden character was bold, determined, and outstandingly clever on top of it.

That was the kind of girl approaching me. I couldn’t help but suspect some kind of catch in her request to go out with me.

“—More than now,” I replied, choosing my words carefully.

I had hardly finished speaking when she squinted one of her almond eyes and smiled mischievously.

“Because I like your looks. It would be even better if you weren’t a quibbler.”

Her reply caught me so flat-footed that I would have liked to fall on the floor, but I contained myself and launched a counterattack.

“What a coincidence. I also think you’re not half bad, save for your personality.”

“We would make a well-matched couple then, wouldn’t we?”

“In the sense of awful, sure.”

Her constantly playing around with me had completely cooled me down.

Suspecting Yōko Tsukimori to be a “father murderer” suddenly felt terribly idiotic and embarrassing.

Indeed, Tsukimori was a determined and bold girl, but I also knew that she was definitely not foolish. Even if she hypothetically had considered her father an eyesore, she would have found many other ways of getting rid of him without choosing the means of “murder”.

In the first place, could someone who had committed murder remain that composed? She was a peculiar girl, but I couldn’t sense even a shred of shadiness or malicious emotion in her.

Suddenly——something touched my bangs. I reflexively jumped backward.

“—I’m sorry.”

After taking a look, I noticed that Tsukimori had stood up from her chair and had stretched her smooth white fingers towards me.

“Your hair looked so beautiful that I badly wanted to touch it.”

Tsukimori gave me a bewitching smile, beautiful like the light of the moon.

—A shiver ran down my spine.

To me, that girl didn’t seem to be from the same world.

“Please think about it seriously,” Tsukimori said and moved toward the exit.

While she passed me by, her hair stroked my cheek and left behind a strong scent of roses.

Even though I had planned to learn more about her, I now understood Yōko Tsukimori even less than before.

Then I recalled how Kamogawa had compared her to wine.

Indeed.

I was intoxicated by Yōko Tsukimori’s fragrance.

<noinclude>
{{Navigation|Gekkou|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Live|Live]]|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 In The Café|In The Café]]}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Live

2011-07-18T02:27:52Z

Eccles19: /* [Live] */

==[Live]==

The first lesson was English, but I don’t remember anything of it. I was pondering the accident of Yōko Tsukimori’s father.

I also played with the thought of browsing some news sites on my mobile phone—hidden from the eyes of the teacher, of course—but I decided against it because I was known as a fairly well-behaving student. I kept telling myself that I was keeping the best for last and spent a painful hour like this.

The very moment the English lesson ended, I rushed out of the classroom, fired up for details about the accident, and headed straight to the library room.

It should have today’s newspaper, and since there was a casualty, there had to be an article about it.

And just as I had expected, there was an article that dealt with the accident in question. I was a bit disappointed when I started reading; there was an article, sure, but it was a short one and written very briefly in a corner of the local news page.

However, as I read on, my heartbeat became faster. In the text I found some of the keywords I was looking for.

“…on his way home on a mountain pass…”

“…a sharp curve with poor sight distance…”

“…there have already been casualties before…”

“…too much speed due to the slope…”

There were several text passages that reminded of the “Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe” as noted in the murder recipe. I couldn’t help getting excited at the thought that “Yōko Tsukimori had executed her murder plan.”

…and also, I couldn’t help feeling a chill run down my spine when I imagined the accident with that thought in mind.

Just as important were the unwritten facts.

The article wouldn’t have been this tiny if the Police had considered the possibility of murder. Similarly, I wouldn’t have remained unknowing until arriving at school.

Had I gotten something fatally wrong?

The plan looked childish at first glance, like an uncertain trick that relied on multiple occasional aspects.

But maybe she executed that plan exactly because of those flaws?

Who would presume the existence of such a clumsy murder plan?

Who would see a schemed murder in something that looked like nothing but an accident?

And the facts showed: the police were convinced that it was but a traffic accident. The same applied to my classmates; everyone considered Tsukimori a poor girl who had lost her father in an accident.

I bet even the killed person himself wouldn't have dreamed of her being a murderer.

Nor would I have, if I hadn’t known of the murder recipe.

Probably it wouldn’t even have been much of a problem if the plan had failed. It was based on luck anyway; if you look only at the probability, it was unlikely to succeed in the first place.

But exactly that aspect was the point of the murder recipe.

There were multiple plans written in it that were all dependent on random external circumstances. So wasn’t she expecting them to fail from the very beginning?

Tsukimori’s target was her father—someone who was always close to her and, hence, gave her countless opportunities to kill him. It may be a coarse expression, but you could say that “even a bad shot hits the mark given enough tries.”

Tsukimori did certainly not intend to just pull it off as fast as possible. She merely wanted him to die sooner or later. I guess that’s what she felt about it.

She did, however, not want to get busted for it.

I had noticed from the time I had first read the recipe that the plan was not chiefly designed for killing, but rather for living on normally after executing it.

In that case, the result made it evident. Tsukimori did it—

—the perfect murder.

I couldn’t help thinking so.

Of course, this was all just a product of my mind and far too baseless to be considered certain.

I knew her no better than my classmates. When it came to her, Kamogawa was actually much more knowledgeable than I. These thoughts were merely an extension to my usual “imagine and enjoy” pastime and not something upright like “solving a case”.

However, for some reason I just couldn't call my guess a cheap delusion and call it quits.

The homeroom after that day’s classes was about Tsukimori’s father’s death.

“I think everyone knows of the passing of Tsukimori’s father. A funeral is being held tomorrow afternoon, which I am going to attend. Thus, the fifth lesson, biology, is going to be self-study.”

When the word “self-study” left our class teacher Ukai’s mouth, a wave of joy went through the ranks of my classmates.

“Hey, that's called ''tactless,'' you know? Empathize a little with Tsukimori who has just lost one of her parents!” Ukai rebuked us—not with an especially strong tone, but the classroom became silent. It was a heavy silence.

Apparently contended with the unexpected contemplation of his students, he closed this matter.

“Moreover, the class officers are required to come along to the funeral as the representatives of the class. I’m counting on you. Okay, homeroom’s closed.”

Right when Ukai was about to finish: “Sensei!” Usami raised her hand, “The female class officer is Yōko herself.”

“Aah, you’re right. Well then, Usami, may I ask you?”

“Ah, yes.”

“The other one was you, Nonomiya, right? I expect you to be there.”

“Yes.”

I nodded calmly and secretly grinned to myself.

It was exactly what I had wished for. I had not even dreamed that I would have the chance to attend the funeral officially like this.

Actually, after I reading the article in the library I had pondered about how I might be able to go to the funeral, because I wanted to gain more information about Tsukimori. While I had reckoned that the ceremonies would be beyond reach, I had thought that I could at least attend the wake of the deceased.

“Only the two of you?! That’s not fair!”

After making sure that Ukai had left, Kamogawa scowled alternately at Usami and me.

“Who was the irresponsible guy again that proposed me as the class officer at the beginning of the term?”

Just this once I was grateful for that irresponsible personality of his, though.

“Dunno? I’m a man who doesn’t look back at times gone past.”

“Your irresponsibility deserves admiration. In a bad sense.”

“It’s an honor!!”

I could only smile wryly at Kamogawa’s haughty answer.

“Kamogawa, you brute! Didn’t you listen to Ukai-sensei? You’re being tactless…” pouted a serious Usami on noticing his easy-going attitude.

“This is a misunderstanding, Usami. I am merely worrying about a fellow classmate who has lost a dear one, you know?” Kamogawa assured us with a meek expression.

“That’s a lie. It’s clear that you only want to meet Yōko-san because of your ulterior motives!” claimed Usami.

“No, idiot! I would never have ulterior motives! I simply wish to soothe Tsukimori in these hard times,” he objected instantly, “Well, but sure, I would not be averse to her falling in love with me in the process, heh!”

“You really are a brute, Kamogawa!”

Usami seemed completely dumbfounded. As was I.

“Kamogawa, perk your ears: that’s what we call an ulterior motive.”

“Ahaa, I see! You never stop learning, do you?”

Kamogawa evaded my remark with feigned ignorance. There’s no cure for a Kamogawa.

“…I hope you don’t have an ulterior motive too, Nonomiya?”

She realized that Kamogawa was beyond hope and set me as her new target.

“Of course not. I am going to the funeral ceremony because I’m a class officer, not because I wish for it myself,” I put on a powerless smile. “Also, I don’t like the gloomy air at funerals. To be honest, I would rather not go.”

“Right? I knew you weren’t like Kamogawa!”

Usami flashed a brilliant smile as if she herself had been praised.

“Your attitude towards me and Nonomiya is way too different! I sense discrimination! If I were from America, I would take you to court right now!”

“But you’re Japanese from head to toe. And it’s the difference of your daily behaviors that distinguishes you from Nonomiya. Blame yourself?”

While of a completely different nature, I had an ulterior motive too. To tell the truth, I loved funerals. Especially because you could sneak a peek at all kinds of humans.

I was looking forward to the next day’s funeral with the same sentiment as going to a concert of my favorite artist.

After ending the third lesson, Usami and I were brought to the funeral home in Ukai’s car. There was not one cloud in the broad blue sky outside the window.

During the ride I was able gather some details about Tsukimori’s family environment from Ukai.

Her family consisted of her two parents and herself, their only child. This was actually quite surprising to me because her mature behavior had led me to believe that she’d have someone to look after, such as a younger sibling.

Apparently her father had been the head of a construction design company. Since my own father worked at a bank near that company, I planned on asking him about it afterward.

As soon as we had arrived at the funeral home and had gone through the formalities at the entrance, we proceeded to the hall that was marked with a sign reading “Tsukimori.”

A lot of flower offerings were being made, so that the line led out of the hall. It was as though I was watching the scene of an arcade that installed a new game machine.

The dim, wide room was packed with people in mourning dresses. The altar seemed much more magnificent to me than the ones in any past funeral I had visited.

We sat down in the seats that had been prepared for common attendants and waited patiently for the beginning of the ceremony.

My eyes searched for Tsukimori and found her sitting near the altar where the relatives had gathered. She was comforting the woman beside her who hung her head, supporting her and stroking her back.

From the look of it, I suspected it could be her mother. It was a beautiful lady who resembled Tsukimori.

I was, however, surprised at how composed Tsukimori apparently was.

It was then that I recalled that I had once asked Usami why all the girls called Tsukimori with a “-san” added to her name. Her answer had been: “Yōko-san may be the same age as us, but doesn’t she kind of look mature and also behave that way? So basically, someone started calling her Yōko-san, which then led to the current state.”

Indeed. I was almost unsure about who the mother and who the daughter was.

“…I’m so sorry for Yōko-san.”

I looked to my side and found Usami with watery eyes. She did not only give the feel of “born to be a little sister,” but actually had an elder brother.

“You’re quite a sissy, aren’t you?” I said and produced a handkerchief.

“Just look at how she’s keeping calm though she’s bound to be sad in reality! If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to…”

Usami seized the handkerchief from my hands and rubbed her eyes with it. Certainly, Usami would probably cry her lungs out.

But I was reluctant to agree with her that Tsukimori was saddened about her father’s death.

If I was right on Tsukimori wishing for his death…then she was pleased rather than sorrowful, because in that case this funeral was actually an event to celebrate the success of her murder plan.

As time went by, the seats of the hall gradually filled and before I knew it, the whole hall was painted black.

From every direction I could hear whispers that had been lowered in respect of the solemn mood that accompanied funeral homes. I decided to listen attentively to that chattering as a combined means of killing time and gathering information.

I focused on the conversation of two women that were meekly talking right in the row before me. I would have loved to jot it down!

Their chatter was interrupted midways. I would have preferred to listen a little longer, but there was no helping it since the ceremony had begun.

The sutra conducted by the priest resounded clearly throughout the hall.

The solemn mood set my mind at rest and thus produced the perfect environment for indulging myself in my thoughts. I chose to replay the conversation I had just heard in my mind and put the data in order:

Her father’s reputation was extremely good.

First they had talked about his looks, which wasn’t too surprising, considering he was Tsukimori’s father. A glance at the picture on the altar showed that he had looked like some performer and made me comprehend why he was popular with them.

Then, they continued with his company’s and his family’s economic situation. While it was a S.M.E., the business went smoothly and their private living standard was quite high as well. Apparently, their home had been newly built two years ago, with a complex design as one would expect from the director of a construction design business.

Lastly, they had talked about his family itself. Both father and mother had been fairly sociable and on good terms with their neighbors. The women had also raised the subject of Tsukimori. She was valued as a beautiful daughter with good manners.

I let out a sigh.

Admittedly, I was happy that I could get my hands on new information, but there had been nothing that could ignite my fantasies. The newspaper had gotten me too excited and caused me to have too high expectations of the funeral.

I breathed in the silent air of the hall.

Pulling myself together, I decided to give myself over to the tranquil mood of the room again. It was a promising funeral, after all! It would be a waste not to take advantage of the occasion and spy on some human relationships.

No need to rush things. The longer this game of ours lasted, the better.

When I turned my gaze towards the area near the altar, I noticed that Tsukimori’s mother had broken out in tears.

Her wailing was apparently also the reason why the women in my surrounding provided me with a background of sobbing voices. By the way, Usami was still crying as well.

However, there were no tears in Tsukimori’s eyes.

Her gaze was captivatingly fixed on the altar.

Because her black mourning dress emphasized the brightness of her skin, it almost seemed as though Tsukimori herself was gleaming. More than the deceased man himself, more than the richly decorated altar or the whining mother or everyone else in the room, it was Tsukimori and her silent appearance that stood out.

To me, Tsukimori appeared like the moon late at night.

Stunningly beautiful.

It was time for the coffin’s departure. While sounding its loud and sober horn, the hearse departed before the eyes of the people in black.

The relatives of the deceased, with Tsukimori among them, left the hall temporarily and headed to the crematory. The three of us decided that we would wait for her return so that we could at least exchange a few words with her.

“You two must be hungry, right? Let me treat you to lunch today. But keep it a secret from the others, okay?”

“Yay! You heard this, Nonomiya?” Usami rejoiced without any restraint. This must be one of those infamous mood swings.

Well, being fond of the word “secret”, I also gladly accepted his offer.

Moments later, we were slurping ramen in a shop near the funeral home.

“—You two may not be quite aware of it yet, but death is an inescapable part of life,” Ukai said suddenly, his glasses fogged by the steam of his soup. “Saying this may be tactless towards Tsukimori, but still I would like you to treasure the impressions of this very uncommon and sad happening: the passing of a comrade’s father.”

Usami nodded earnestly, her mouth stuffed with noodles like a squirrel.

“Indeed. I was reminded that there is a limit to our lives—and also that this makes life all the more valuable.”

Being in my class teacher’s company, I chose my words carefully when relaying my impressions.

“You’re amazing, Nonomiya,” Usami praised me with wide eyes after gulping down her noodles.

“Of course. Unlike you, I wasn’t crying all the way through the ceremony.”

“I-I had lots of thoughts crossing my mind, too!”

“For instance?”

“Eh? Ah, um, that I’m sorry for her…”

“What else?”

“…T-That I’m sorry for her?”

“I heard that already.”

“N-No, don’t get me wrong! In truth I have been thinking about much more than this, it’s just that I can’t put it into words as well as you!”

Ukai laughed from listening to our conversation.

“Well, well, let’s settle down with the conclusion that both of you had their respective thoughts, okay? Nonomiya was more analytical and Usami more emotional.”

Ukai went between and solved it like a teacher.

–Life’s interesting because there’s a limit to it. The thrill of not knowing when it ends is what gives you the awareness of being alive.

At first glance it might seem contradicting that death, the antithesis of life, highlights the value of life, but it actually makes sense. I even conceived the idea that most things in the world might work in a similar way.

At that very moment, enthralled by the risky murder recipe—I was most definitely living.

We greeted Tsukimori when she came back to the hall.

Ukai first expressed his deepest sympathy before assuring her: “Don’t be concerned about school. Take your time and return when you’re comfortable.”

“Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness. However, I have it in mind to attend school normally from the day after tomorrow because I think it will help me to distract myself.” She smiled weakly. “…I am a little anxious about leaving my mother alone at home, as she has been hit especially hard, but the siblings of hers and my father respectively assured me that they will be supporting her for a while.”

Tsukimori seemed exhausted. From the look of it, she hadn’t slept properly.

But while knowing it was pretty tactless, I couldn’t help being under the impression that her white face, now accentuated by her mourning dress, looked even more sensual than at school.

“I see. At any rate, be sure not to over-strain yourself and feel free to consult me anytime.”

Ukai patted her on the shoulder.

“Thank you for coming as well, Chizuru, Nonomiya-kun.”

“Everyone in the class is worrying about you.”

“I feel blessed.”

“Yōko-san…”

Usami was on the verge of tears again, apparently moved by Tsukimori’s brave behavior.

I poked her head and said: “Shouldn’t you calm down a bit? You wanted to express your condolences properly, right?”

“…Yeah,” Usami nodded teary-eyed. “Um…Yōko-san, it will be hard on you, but…i-it will whe hard on yhew, but…”

Usami began weeping mid-sentence because she couldn’t bear it anymore.

Tsukimori didn’t hesitate to embrace Usami’s round head and comforted her, “Thank you, Chizuru. I’m very happy that you are so worried about me.” While stroking her head like a loving sister, she murmured, “…I think you can consider yourself happy if you have someone that worries about you.” After that, she whispered her thanks to Usami again and again.

The gentle and fragile girl at that moment did not look in the least like someone who would plan a murder to me.

<noinclude>
{{Navigation|Gekkou|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe|Murder Recipe]]|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Confession|Confession]]}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe

2011-07-18T02:14:57Z

Eccles19:

==[Murder Recipe]==

There was no day I’d miss hearing that name.

“Tsukimori is so lovely…,” muttered my classmate Kamogawa mixed with a sigh, upon which the other male students around him nodded deeply.

“Listen guys: don’t let that slender body deceive you! Got me? She’s also got…boobs!”

Their insolent gazes were focused on the girl in debate, Tsukimori, who was surrounded by a group of girls, chattering. If I were to describe Yōko Tsukimori in one word: she was eye-catching.

“Don’t you agree Nonomiya?”

“If you say so.”

“Wow, now that’s a cold reply! Are you really a man? If there’s a mountain, climb it! If there’s a beautiful chick, fall for her! Isn’t that what it means to be a man?”

The guys, led by Kamogawa, began to show over-exaggerated reactions to my indifferent answer.

“Well, I just thought she’s perfect.”

She had a beautiful face, supplemented by a nice figure and outstanding grades. Even in regards to her personality she was rather popular. Apparently, she was also good in sports. Yōko Tsukimori seemed to be a perfect girl without anything to complain about.

“How’s that bad?”

“I never said it’s bad. It’s just that I can’t relax around her.”

“Aah, that’s true. Tsukimori is a girl beyond our reach after all…”

Fortunately, Kamogawa interpreted my statement to his convenience.

My honest impression was that she was so perfect it was boring and being around her would be suffocating. Maybe it’s just that my personality is a little warped, but I’ve secretly been keeping a distance from Tsukimori because I couldn’t discover a common ground between us.

However, the guys seemed to be highly interested in the famous girl and started discussing rumors about Tsukimori as if they were gossiping about some star.

“But I heard she has a boyfriend in college?”

“Student ‘K’, was it? That guy who’s three years older than her?”

“Eh? I heard she was the lover of a company president…”

“Aah, so that’s why she gets ¥200,000 in allowance every month?”

“No joking? But I heard someone spotted her together with math teacher Kumada when they came out of a love hotel!”

There was no need for a metaphor anymore—she really was a star. I once more realized how special she was.

But then again, she might not have been happy about that special status. At least I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

“It’s all just rumors without any credibility whatsoever.”

A short laugh escaped my mouth because they were discussing this stuff all too seriously and lively.

“Why don’t you just ask her directly?”

Therefore I confronted them with that question. Just for fun. And as expected, my idea was rejected with vigor close to booing. “As if we could ask her something like that!!” Because I was so amused by their reaction, I spurred them on a little more.

“If you want, I can go ask as the representative of the class?”

“Wait wait wait!! Nonomiya! Don’t rush things! What are we gonna do if the rumors turned out to be true?” Kamogawa rebuked me in a hurry.

“Maybe they really are just rumors?”

“But maybe it’s all true!”

The other guys nodded in agreement to Kamogawa, “Possible. If it’s Tsukimori, very possible!”

Sure enough Yōko Tsukimori stood out in this class. You could even say she was of a different nature. No wonder that everyone was under the impression that she had already experienced a world unbeknownst to high school students, considering that she acted so maturely it was hard to believe that she was our age.

“The truth is hidden in the dark, huh.”

Whatever that truth might have been, I could take it easy since I wouldn’t be hurt anything like Kamogawa et al.

“The truth isn’t always what’s best, is it?”

But it looked like they couldn’t take it as easily since the truth would bother them much more.

“Don’t you find this unproductive? If you keep your eyes averted from the truth, you won’t ever be able to obtain what you seek!”

“We don’t care! A couple of days ago, some idiot confessed to her and got dumped badly. If you carelessly try to reach out for something on a different level, you’re only going to fall down and hurt yourself. I prefer the ideal over the truth! You could even say we want Tsukimori to remain the source of our fantasies for all eternity.”

I was so amazed at this bunch that I could only laugh.

“Adolescence is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Hey, we’re seventeen! Leave us our dreams!”

Apparently I wasn’t supposed to laugh.

“I shall not bother you anymore if you all insist.”

“We do, we do! Don’t crush the dreams of us delicate boys.”

“You mean ‘tainted high school boys’.”

“Who is our dear Nonomiya fond of then? No celebrities allowed, by the way.”

Kamogawa launched an unexpected counterattack. The other guys, too, jumped at the chance and closed ranks by leaning forward and urging, “Tell us! Tell us!”

“Well, let’s see—”

To tell the truth, there was no girl in specific who I could have mentioned, but looking at the situation I didn’t believe those tainted high school boys would content themselves with that.

“—I think Usami’s cute.”

I merely spoke out the first name that came to mind right then, but they all seemed rather disappointed and made awkward faces.

“How unthrilling. It couldn’t get any more ordinary, could it? You’re so boring,” complained Kamogawa.

“So you claim that it’s ''not'' ordinary to feel attracted to Tsukimori?”

“I admit she’s also an ordinary target, but her quality, so to speak, is on a whole different level from Usami’s! If Usami was orange juice, Tsukimori would be wine.”

“Then don’t you agree that orange juice suits us minors?”

“No, you idiot, you don’t get it. I’m talking about the, um, well, that certain appeal of alcohol because you actually shouldn’t drink it, you know? Like, you’re curious about the forbidden world that opens there and…can you follow me?”

“I certainly know what you mean. But ''I'' still like orange juice. Don’t you?”

“Um, well, sure, I like orange juice too, but…”

Kamogawa’s guys-alliance grumbled and contorted their faces.

While Tsukimori was an exceptional girl indeed, Usami was very charming, too—for an ordinary girl. Their reaction originated from not wanting to admit that I was right while being unable to deny it.

Feeling like the winner, I said, “Let’s toast with some orange juice and wine, then.”

You could say I tasted the “splendid wine of victory.”

“You’re a pretty damn devious guy, you know that?”

“Thank you.”

“I ain’t praising you.”

Kamogawa was still a little sour, but I had succeeded in getting the air out of him.

“—Hey, boys! Get back to your seats! Afternoon classes are starting!”

Driven by this sudden voice, the guys turned their looks towards the clock at once. They reacted that sensitively because the warning came from the girl they had just talked about.

“She’s right. Let's follow the advice of the Orange Juice and wait at our seats,” said Kamogawa, whereupon everyone returned to their respective desks.

“Orange Juice…?” wondered Orange Juice a.k.a. Chizuru Usami and tilted her round head. “…I bet you’ve been talking bad about me or something, haven’t you?”

Usami, sitting beside me, pursed her lips.

“We merely talked about beverages.”

“That’s a lie. If a couple of boys gather, they talk about either perverted or idiotic stuff,” she claimed.

That was a fairly unfair preconception, I had to say. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t deny it.

“…what kind of tragic life have you gone through, Usami? I’ve just become quite worried about you.”

[[Image:Gekkou-017.jpg|thumb]]

“Don’t pity me, Nonomiya! Idiot. I’m normal! Your average high school girl!”

Usami always got all worked up in no time whenever I teased her. And once she was worked up, she was like a little animal—pretty amusing to watch, really.

“Listen, you should visit a hospital before it’s too late. If it’s too embarrassing to go alone, I can also accompany you there, but—”

“—I won’t! Stop looking at me with those commiserating eyes!”

She pushed my peeking head away with her palm: “Go away!”

“Rejoice, Usami. It seems Nonomiya is fond of orange juice!”

Kamogawa, who had been watching us, laughed with a face that made him seem like he’d only talk about perverted or idiotic stuff.

“Tell me already, what’s the thing with that orange jui—”

Usami swallowed her words mid-sentence. Our math teacher, Kumada, had entered the classroom.

The only sounds in the classroom were Kumada’s weak voice and the chalk hitting the blackboard.

Apparently our conversation was still bothering Usami; she kept stealing glances at me.

After some minutes had passed, she finally lost patience. She leaned her upper body a little towards me and whispered, “What was that about?”

“I’m trying to concentrate on the lesson, Usami-san,” I answered without removing my eyes from the blackboard.

“…don’t be mean~”

Because I kept silent, she started poking my side with her mechanical pencil. The tip pierced through the fabric of my uniform and stuck into my skin.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Then don’t ignore me,” sulked Usami. “During lunch break, you boys were talking about Yōko-san, weren’t you?”

“Oh, were we?”

“…you always try to slip off like this, Nonomiya. Actually, I know that you were gossiping about her!”

“You eavesdropped on us? I am shocked.”

“That’s not it! I only heard Yōko-san’s name by chance! Because you boys were talking so loud!”

“Usami,” I called for her attention because Kumada had turned towards the class. She sat up in a hurry and pretended to be copying what was written on the blackboard.

After some moments of silence: “…Say, Nonomiya. You prefer girls like Yōko-san too, don’t you?” muttered Usami while looking down at her notes.

I glanced towards the front right. Yōko Tsukimori—the girl in question—stared charismatically at the blackboard. From the side her face looked intelligent, giving her a little of the feel of the anchorwoman from the news.

Sitting in the very middle of the room, her outstanding aura made it feel as though she was the heart of the classroom.

Indeed, she was someone special. Although I personally avoided excess contact with her, I could very well comprehend why everyone seemed to adore her.

“—No, not particularly.”

I don’t like trouble, but I became interested in how Usami would react.

“Is that so?”

She made a smile, seeming somehow relieved.

“We discussed this allegory: if she were a beverage, Tsukimori would be wine.”

—What kind of reaction is she going to show me, I wonder?

“And, by the way, you’d be orange juice.”

Beside me I heard the sound of a pencil lead breaking.

“Ah yeah?”

Usami played with the pencil between her fingers, feigning indifference. However, I didn’t overlook that moment when her cheeks blushed.

After that Usami’s questioning stopped.

Her honest reaction had something that calmed my mind. I had only given her name back then to put them off, but perhaps I had actually revealed my true thoughts which I had been unaware of myself.

At least at that very moment I felt that I liked Usami.

“…by the way.”

I considered our conversation finished, but she still wanted to say something it seemed.

Usami whispered with a serious expression on her face, “I-I’m normal, you know? A normal girl! Not some strange girl like you assumed earlier! I don’t want to be misunderstood, okay?”

I accidentally smiled because of Usami's lovely words.

Her honesty was very comfortable to me—almost like tasting a glass of delicious orange juice.

I wished I could fall in love with her.

After the monthly class officers’ regular meeting I watched the female officer of my class leave in a hurry and strolled back to our classroom.

Having reached the empty room, I prepared myself to leave as well. As I was in no club, I had nothing to do at school anymore. What was left was going home and prepare for my part-time job.

When I stood up from my seat, I noticed a university notebook on the floor. I immediately noticed whom it belonged to. Its front page read “Yōko Tsukimori”.

I looked around in the room, but she wasn’t there. I decided to put it on her desk before leaving.

But just when I was about to do so, I registered a scrap of paper that looked out from the notebook. I grasped the scrap, thinking nothing of it, and pulled it out.

“…now that’s unexpected,” I unintentionally let out.

It turned out to be a folded A4 report sheet. The “caption” written there matched neither the Tsukimori everyone talked of nor my personal image of her.

After making sure nobody was watching, I stowed it away in my bag. I did so because I presumed it would take quite some time to read all of the tightly-written text.

You could say I succumbed to temptation.

No, at that very moment I felt not even a speck of guilt whatsoever. It was but pure curiosity.

I didn’t have anything against wine. To begin with, I couldn’t possibly judge without ever having taken a sip. It’s just that my attachment to the familiar drink won over my wariness of the unfamiliar one.

In short, I was interested in the wine everyone praised so highly.

“Alright, what kind of secret of our idol is going to come to light…?”

I left the classroom as I always did.

It was past 10 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">p.m.</span> when I returned home after finishing my work at the café.

When I arrived there I had completely forgotten about the sheet. I had been looking forward to reading its contents, but the various stimuli at the café drove its existence into a corner of my memory.

I like to observe people. You might even call it my hobby.

Part of the reason why I chose to work in a café surely was simply that I like coffee, but more than that I found the different types of people you meet there interesting.

A young woman who always takes the same seat and just keeps gazing outside. A man in the prime of his life who changes the girl at his side each visit. The cooled-down relationship of a couple that had been deeply in love just half a year ago. And many more.

It was something that exalted my imagination—a favorite pastime of mine.

In reality though, I was no different from Kamogawa et al. I, too, was just an ordinary 17-year-old teenager. I did not want to know the truth. I simply wanted to enjoy wallowing in my fantasies.

I was in the middle of relaxing, taking a warm bath, when I remembered the sheet I had picked up after school.

With my body still warm I dove onto my bed and unfolded the paper. While holding myself back from hurrying things, I slowly glanced over the title.

“The Murder Recipe”

I felt like reading a mystery novel of some popular author. Maybe this was due to the title actually sounding like a novel’s.

A scrap of paper that appeared from the notebook of the person who was on everyone’s lips—Yōko Tsukimori.

There seemed to be no end to the rumors dealing with her vivid love life, but her image still remained mostly irreproachable. She was by no means a girl the word “murder” would have suited.

Perhaps, it was this fact that piqued my curiosity. Contrasts like this have a sort of magic to them that sucks you in—be it for the good or the bad.

My gaze skimmed over the text, completely absorbed by it. Faithful to its title “The Murder Recipe”, it introduced different ways of killing someone.

I noticed that parts of the text had been erased and corrected, indicating that the recipe had been revised several times. I could virtually sense the breath of the person who wrote down these rather messy characters. It had something vivid to it, so to speak.

While reading on, I discovered something that all of the approaches had in common.

The most important objective appeared to be eliminating the target without getting one’s own hands dirty. It was not a text written by a human who is fond of killing—who sets the act of killing as his highest objective.

“…is she really aiming to become a mystery author?”

These seemed exactly like tricks made for a mystery story. However, they were written rather clumsily and were far from perfection.

To present an example: there was one way of killing titled “The Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe”. The content was most simple.

* On a road over a steep mountain pass.

* Disturb the driver somehow.

* Make him lose control of the steering wheel.

It was written in bullet points like this. Additional remarks like “Phone the driver in order to make him lose concentration?” or “Put some hindrance on the road?” were very sparsely added.

As can be seen, the grade of completion was very low. Maybe she was still in the stage of collecting together various ideas, trying to perfect it?

The risk was reduced to a minimum, but I didn’t think the plan was likely to succeed either. I could see she tried, but this was one weak plan if she was to really kill someone.

I dropped the murder recipe onto my desk.

Having had high expectations, the letdown was great. The all too childish contents of the recipe had killed my interest.

“This just spoiled my after-bath-bliss.”

After complaining aloud, I reached out for my bookshelf to remove the bad taste by reading a real mystery novel.

“…no, hold on a sec.”

However, I stopped my hand and started thinking. A new thought lifted my spirits to new heights again.

Who was the owner of this “Murder Recipe”?

It was Yōko Tsukimori!

What if, purely hypothetically, she had written this because she seriously wanted to kill someone…? That thought made the clumsy text feel rather realistic at once.

Leaving aside the reason for now, there was a person whom Tsukimori wanted to die and she had desperately written a murder plan to make it happen.

''Tsukimori'' had! That perfect, stylish, beautiful, intelligent “Tsukimori” who was adored by everyone!

And she had edited such an immature murder plan over and over.

“…now, aren’t we cute?”

If this guess turned out to be true, I’d almost become a big fan of hers.

My imagination was put in motion. I started puzzling over all kinds of questions, like the person she wanted to kill, her potential motive and her hidden personality. I kept playing this game until the sky started to dawn in the east.

The next morning I went to school later than I usually did.

By the time I entered the classroom, most of my classmates were already present. Of course, Tsukimori was among them as well.

While walking to my seat, I secretly glanced at her. She was putting the things in her desk in order. At least to others it looked like such a perfectly normal action.

Not to me.

“Good morning, Tsukimori.”

I greeted her as always. She stopped peeking into her desk, tilted her head and looked at me while using her little finger to brush her elegant, long hair out of her face.

“Good morning, Nonomiya-kun.”

She showed me her mature smile as always.

Usually, our conversation would have ended right there. We knew each other only well enough to exchange greetings.

“Are you looking for something?”

However, that morning I didn’t want to let it end there. My curiosity was vexing me, for I suspected that she might be searching for the “Murder Recipe”.

I intensively stared at her, not wanting to miss the slightest stir.

“No, I am just sorting my desk.”

Sadly, her smile was left unchanged.

I told her, “I see,” and headed to my own seat, while thinking to myself that reality was so boring compared to imagination.

“But…,” she suddenly called me from behind, “why did you think I was searching for something?”

I was desperate not to break into a broad smile.

It was a feeling as though prey had hopped readily into my trap. Whatever her sentiments were, I started getting in high spirits just by the expectation of some amusing developments.

“No, I’m afraid there’s no particular reason,” I turned around towards her, playing dumb. “But let me return that question: why do you ask?”

I decided to probe lightly.

“I had no particular reason, either.”

“I see.”

Before me was only her unchanged mature smile. I felt the desire to make that smile freeze, but I didn’t intend to get to the core just yet. I thought it was best to keep my trump card for the very end.

“But if…,” I began, “if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help.”

“What’s the matter, Nonomiya-kun? I don’t remember you being this gentle?”

“I’m gentler than you believed, that’s for sure.”

“I beg your pardon. I’ll be sure to remember that then.”

“Of course the decisive factor was getting a girl of outstanding popularity like you indebted to me, though.”

Tsukimori giggled.

“Thank you. I will directly consult you then, Nonomiya-kun, should I ever be troubled.”

Tsukimori smiled with her almond eyes half closed.

It didn’t look like she ''wasn’t'' scheming something. I won’t deny the influence of my wishful thinking on this assessment, though.

Our conversation ended because our class teacher, Ukai, had appeared in the classroom.

My mood was quite good on that day. Kamogawa and his comrades were annoying when they came to question me about my conversation with Tsukimori in the following break, but I considered it a good harvest because I had discovered how thrilling and amusing it was to talk to her.

Well, it was just me savoring the thrill produced by my own fantasies, though.

Still, it was much better than a boring reality.

Without any progress or new information, my peaceful daily routine went on and, before I knew it, two weeks had passed since finding the murder recipe.

As there wasn’t anything to stir up my imagination, my excitement subsided and I was about to forget the very existence of the recipe.

Because I had kept holding back my trump card, the game had stopped slowly and quietly. It was a truly pathetic situation.

However, a change occurred all of a sudden.

Perhaps…the game had not even started yet.

I went to school as always, and the classroom was ever noisy. But Tsukimori was nowhere in sight. Her seat was empty.

I was puzzled, but the answer wasn’t long in coming.

“Hey, Nonomiya! Have you heard?”

It was Kamogawa.

“Can’t say I have.”

Of course I had no idea what he was talking about because his sentence lacked the object.

“Someone from Tsukimori’s family is dead.”

I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

“Who?” I asked while suppressing the arising excitement.

“Her dad, it seems. It was a traffic accident. Yōko-san has my fullest sympathies…,” answered Usami with a sad face.

“Really, I feel sorry for her. To lose one’s father at this age, that’s…”

Unlike his usual behavior, even Kamogawa showed a mournful mien. That must be the normal reaction.

“…Indeed. Let’s all support her.”

However, I answered with different emotions from the others. Yōko Tsukimori, traffic accident, death—these keywords led me straight to the murder recipe.

I desperately suppressed the grin that was about to flash over my face.

''It’s getting interesting.''

<noinclude>
{{Navigation|Gekkou|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Live|Live]]}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe

2011-07-18T01:57:43Z

Eccles19: /* [Murder Recipe] */

==[Murder Recipe]==

There was no day I’d miss hearing that name.

“Tsukimori is so lovely…,” muttered my classmate Kamogawa mixed with a sigh, upon which the other male students around him nodded deeply.

“Listen guys: don’t let that slender body deceive you! Got me? She’s also got…boobs!”

Their insolent gazes were focused on the girl in debate, Tsukimori, who was surrounded by a group of girls, chattering. If I were to describe Youko Tsukimori in one word: she was eye-catching.

“Don’t you agree Nonomiya?”

“If you say so.”

“Wow, now that’s a cold reply! Are you really a man? If there’s a mountain, climb it! If there’s a beautiful chick, fall for her! Isn’t that what it means to be a man?”

The guys, led by Kamogawa, began to show over-exaggerated reactions to my indifferent answer.

“Well, I just thought she’s perfect.”

She had a beautiful face, supplemented by a nice figure and outstanding grades. Even in regards to her personality she was rather popular. Apparently, she was also good in sports. Youko Tsukimori seemed to be a perfect girl without anything to complain about.

“How’s that bad?”

“I never said it’s bad. It’s just that I can’t relax around her.”

“Aah, that’s true. Tsukimori is a girl beyond our reach after all…”

Fortunately, Kamogawa interpreted my statement to his convenience.

My honest impression was that she was so perfect it was boring and being around her would be suffocating. Maybe it’s just that my personality is a little warped, but I’ve secretly been keeping a distance from Tsukimori because I couldn’t discover a common ground between us.

However, the guys seemed to be highly interested in the famous girl and started discussing rumors about Tsukimori as if they were gossiping about some star.

“But I heard she has a boyfriend in college?”

“Student ‘K’, was it? That guy who’s three years older than her?”

“Eh? I heard she was the lover of a company president…”

“Aah, so that’s why she gets ¥200,000 in allowance every month?”

“No joking? But I heard someone spotted her together with math teacher Kumada when they came out of a love hotel!”

There was no need for a metaphor anymore—she really was a star. I once more realized how special she was.

But then again, she might not have been happy about that special status. At least I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

“It’s all just rumors without any credibility whatsoever.”

A short laugh escaped my mouth because they were discussing this stuff all too seriously and lively.

“Why don’t you just ask her directly?”

Therefore I confronted them with that question. Just for fun. And as expected, my idea was rejected with vigor close to booing. “As if we could ask her something like that!!” Because I was so amused by their reaction, I spurred them on a little more.

“If you want, I can go ask as the representative of the class?”

“Wait wait wait!! Nonomiya! Don’t rush things! What are we gonna do if the rumors turned out to be true?” Kamogawa rebuked me in a hurry.

“Maybe they really are just rumors?”

“But maybe it’s all true!”

The other guys nodded in agreement to Kamogawa, “Possible. If it’s Tsukimori, very possible!”

Sure enough Youko Tsukimori stood out in this class. You could even say she was of a different nature. No wonder that everyone was under the impression that she had already experienced a world unbeknownst to high school students, considering that she acted so maturely it was hard to believe that she was our age.

“The truth is hidden in the dark, huh.”

Whatever that truth might have been, I could take it easy since I wouldn’t be hurt anything like Kamogawa et al.

“The truth isn’t always what’s best, is it?”

But it looked like they couldn’t take it as easily since the truth would bother them much more.

“Don’t you find this unproductive? If you keep your eyes averted from the truth, you won’t ever be able to obtain what you seek!”

“We don’t care! A couple of days ago, some idiot confessed to her and got dumped badly. If you carelessly try to reach out for something on a different level, you’re only going to fall down and hurt yourself. I prefer the ideal over the truth! You could even say we want Tsukimori to remain the source of our fantasies for all eternity.”

I was so amazed at this bunch that I could only laugh.

“Adolescence is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Hey, we’re seventeen! Leave us our dreams!”

Apparently I wasn’t supposed to laugh.

“I shall not bother you anymore if you all insist.”

“We do, we do! Don’t crush the dreams of us delicate boys.”

“You mean ‘tainted high school boys.’”

“Who is our dear Nonomiya fond of then? No celebrities allowed, by the way.”

Kamogawa launched an unexpected counterattack. The other guys, too, jumped at the chance and closed ranks by leaning forward and urging, “Tell us! Tell us!”

“Well, let’s see—”

To tell the truth, there was no girl in specific who I could have mentioned, but looking at the situation I didn’t believe those tainted high school boys would content themselves with that.

“—I think Usami’s cute.”

I merely spoke out the first name that came to mind right then, but they all seemed rather disappointed and made awkward faces.

“How unthrilling. It couldn’t get any more ordinary, could it? You’re so boring,” complained Kamogawa.

“So you claim that it’s ''not'' ordinary to feel attracted to Tsukimori?”

“I admit she’s also an ordinary target, but her quality, so to speak, is on a whole different level from Usami’s! If Usami was orange juice, Tsukimori would be wine.”

“Then don’t you agree that orange juice suits us minors?”

“No, you idiot, you don’t get it. I’m talking about the, um, well, that certain appeal of alcohol because you actually shouldn’t drink it, you know? Like, you’re curious about the forbidden world that opens there and…can you follow me?”

“I certainly know what you mean. But ''I'' still like orange juice. Don’t you?”

“Um, well, sure, I like orange juice too, but…”

Kamogawa’s guys-alliance grumbled and contorted their faces.

While Tsukimori was an exceptional girl indeed, Usami was very charming, too—for an ordinary girl. Their reaction originated from not wanting to admit that I was right while being unable to deny it.

Feeling like the winner, I said, “Let’s toast with some orange juice and wine, then.”

You could say I tasted the “splendid wine of victory.”

“You’re a pretty damn devious guy, you know that?”

“Thank you.”

“I ain’t praising you.”

Kamogawa was still a little sour, but I had succeeded in getting the air out of him.

“—Hey, boys! Get back to your seats! Afternoon classes are starting!”

Driven by this sudden voice, the guys turned their looks towards the clock at once. They reacted that sensitively because the warning came from the girl they had just talked about.

“She’s right. Let's follow the advice of the Orange Juice and wait at our seats,” said Kamogawa, whereupon everyone returned to their respective desks.

“Orange Juice…?” wondered Orange Juice a.k.a. Chizuru Usami and tilted her round head. “…I bet you’ve been talking bad about me or something, haven’t you?”

Usami, sitting beside me, pursed her lips.

“We merely talked about beverages.”

“That’s a lie. If a couple of boys gather, they talk about either perverted or idiotic stuff,” she claimed.

That was a fairly unfair preconception, I had to say. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t deny it.

“…what kind of tragic life have you gone through, Usami? I’ve just become quite worried about you.”

[[Image:Gekkou-017.jpg|thumb]]

“Don’t pity me, Nonomiya! Idiot. I’m normal! Your average high school girl!”

Usami always got all worked up in no time whenever I teased her. And once she was worked up, she was like a little animal—pretty amusing to watch, really.

“Listen, you should visit a hospital before it’s too late. If it’s too embarrassing to go alone, I can also accompany you there, but—”

“—I won’t! Stop looking at me with those commiserating eyes!”

She pushed my peeking head away with her palm: “Go away!”

“Rejoice, Usami. It seems Nonomiya is fond of orange juice!”

Kamogawa, who had been watching us, laughed with a face that made him seem like he’d only talk about perverted or idiotic stuff.

“Tell me already, what’s the thing with that orange jui—”

Usami swallowed her words mid-sentence. Our math teacher, Kumada, had entered the classroom.

The only sounds in the classroom were Kumada’s weak voice and the chalk hitting the blackboard.

Apparently our conversation was still bothering Usami; she kept stealing glances at me.

After some minutes had passed, she finally lost patience. She leaned her upper body a little towards me and whispered, “What was that about?”

“I’m trying to concentrate on the lesson, Usami-san,” I answered without removing my eyes from the blackboard.

“…don’t be mean~”

Because I kept silent, she started poking my side with her mechanical pencil. The tip pierced through the fabric of my uniform and stuck into my skin.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Then don’t ignore me,” sulked Usami. “During lunch break, you boys were talking about Youko-san, weren’t you?”

“Oh, were we?”

“…you always try to slip off like this, Nonomiya. Actually, I know that you were gossiping about her!”

“You eavesdropped on us? I am shocked.”

“That’s not it! I only heard Youko-san’s name by chance! Because you boys were talking so loud!”

“Usami,” I called for her attention because Kumada had turned towards the class. She sat up in a hurry and pretended to be copying what was written on the blackboard.

After some moments of silence: “…Say, Nonomiya. You prefer girls like Youko-san too, don’t you?” muttered Usami while looking down at her notes.

I glanced towards the front right. Youko Tsukimori—the girl in question—stared charismatically at the blackboard. From the side her face looked intelligent, giving her a little of the feel of the anchorwoman from the news.

Sitting in the very middle of the room, her outstanding aura made it feel as though she was the heart of the classroom.

Indeed, she was someone special. Although I personally avoided excess contact with her, I could very well comprehend why everyone seemed to adore her.

“—No, not particularly.”

I don’t like trouble, but I became interested in how Usami would react.

“Is that so?”

She made a smile, seeming somehow relieved.

“We discussed this allegory: if she were a beverage, Tsukimori would be wine.”

—What kind of reaction is she going to show me, I wonder?

“And, by the way, you’d be orange juice.”

Beside me I heard the sound of a pencil lead breaking.

“Ah yeah?”

Usami played with the pencil between her fingers, feigning indifference. However, I didn’t overlook that moment when her cheeks blushed.

After that Usami’s questioning stopped.

Her honest reaction had something that calmed my mind. I had only given her name back then to put them off, but perhaps I had actually revealed my true thoughts which I had been unaware of myself.

At least at that very moment I felt that I liked Usami.

“…by the way.”

I considered our conversation finished, but she still wanted to say something it seemed.

Usami whispered with a serious expression on her face, “I-I’m normal, you know? A normal girl! Not some strange girl like you assumed earlier! I don’t want to be misunderstood, okay?”

I accidentally smiled because of Usami's lovely words.

Her honesty was very comfortable to me—almost like tasting a glass of delicious orange juice.

I wished I could fall in love with her.

After the monthly class officers’ regular meeting I watched the female officer of my class leave in a hurry and strolled back to our classroom.

Having reached the empty room, I prepared myself to leave as well. As I was in no club, I had nothing to do at school anymore. What was left was going home and prepare for my part-time job.

When I stood up from my seat, I noticed a university notebook on the floor. I immediately noticed whom it belonged to. Its front page read “Youko Tsukimori.”

I looked around in the room, but she wasn’t there. I decided to put it on her desk before leaving.

But just when I was about to do so, I registered a scrap of paper that looked out from the notebook. I grasped the scrap, thinking nothing of it, and pulled it out.

“…now that’s unexpected,” I unintentionally let out.

It turned out to be a folded A4 report sheet. The “caption” written there matched neither the Tsukimori everyone talked of nor my personal image of her.

After making sure nobody was watching, I stowed it away in my bag. I did so because I presumed it would take quite some time to read all of the tightly-written text.

You could say I succumbed to temptation.

No, at that very moment I felt not even a speck of guilt whatsoever. It was but pure curiosity.

I didn’t have anything against wine. To begin with, I couldn’t possibly judge without ever having taken a sip. It’s just that my attachment to the familiar drink won over my wariness of the unfamiliar one.

In short, I was interested in the wine everyone praised so highly.

“Alright, what kind of secret of our idol is going to come to light…?”

I left the classroom as I always did.

It was past 10 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">p.m.</span> when I returned home after finishing my work at the café.

When I arrived there I had completely forgotten about the sheet. I had been looking forward to reading its contents, but the various stimuli at the café drove its existence into a corner of my memory.

I like to observe people. You might even call it my hobby.

Part of the reason why I chose to work in a café surely was simply that I like coffee, but more than that I found the different types of people you meet there interesting.

A young woman who always takes the same seat and just keeps gazing outside. A man in the prime of his life who changes the girl at his side each visit. The cooled-down relationship of a couple that had been deeply in love just half a year ago. And many more.

It was something that exalted my imagination—a favorite pastime of mine.

In reality though, I was no different from Kamogawa et al. I, too, was just an ordinary 17-year-old teenager. I did not want to know the truth. I simply wanted to enjoy wallowing in my fantasies.

I was in the middle of relaxing, taking a warm bath, when I remembered the sheet I had picked up after school.

With my body still warm I dove onto my bed and unfolded the paper. While holding myself back from hurrying things, I slowly glanced over the title.

“The Murder Recipe”

I felt like reading a mystery novel of some popular author. Maybe this was due to the title actually sounding like a novel’s.

A scrap of paper that appeared from the notebook of the person who was on everyone’s lips—Youko Tsukimori.

There seemed to be no end to the rumors dealing with her vivid love life, but her image still remained mostly irreproachable. She was by no means a girl the word “murder” would have suited.

Perhaps, it was this fact that piqued my curiosity. Contrasts like this have a sort of magic to them that sucks you in—be it for the good or the bad.

My gaze skimmed over the text, completely absorbed by it. Faithful to its title “The Murder Recipe,” it introduced different ways of killing someone.

I noticed that parts of the text had been erased and corrected, indicating that the recipe had been revised several times. I could virtually sense the breath of the person who wrote down these rather messy characters. It had something vivid to it, so to speak.

While reading on, I discovered something that all of the approaches had in common.

The most important objective appeared to be eliminating the target without getting one’s own hands dirty. It was not a text written by a human who is fond of killing—who sets the act of killing as his highest objective.

“…is she really aiming to become a mystery author?”

These seemed exactly like tricks made for a mystery story. However, they were written rather clumsily and were far from perfection.

To present an example: there was one way of killing titled “The Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe.” The content was most simple.

* On a road over a steep mountain pass.

* Disturb the driver somehow.

* Make him lose control of the steering wheel.

It was written in bullet points like this. Additional remarks like “Phone the driver in order to make him lose concentration?” or “Put some hindrance on the road?” were very sparsely added.

As can be seen, the grade of completion was very low. Maybe she was still in the stage of collecting together various ideas, trying to perfect it?

The risk was reduced to a minimum, but I didn’t think the plan was likely to succeed either. I could see she tried, but this was one weak plan if she was to really kill someone.

I dropped the murder recipe onto my desk.

Having had high expectations, the letdown was great. The all too childish contents of the recipe had killed my interest.

“This just spoiled my after-bath-bliss.”

After complaining aloud, I reached out for my bookshelf to remove the bad taste by reading a real mystery novel.

“…no, hold on a sec.”

However, I stopped my hand and started thinking. A new thought lifted my spirits to new heights again.

Who was the owner of this “Murder Recipe”?

It was Youko Tsukimori!

What if, purely hypothetically, she had written this because she seriously wanted to kill someone…? That thought made the clumsy text feel rather realistic at once.

Leaving aside the reason for now, there was a person whom Tsukimori wanted to die and she had desperately written a murder plan to make it happen.

''Tsukimori'' had! That perfect, stylish, beautiful, intelligent “Tsukimori” who was adored by everyone!

And she had edited such an immature murder plan over and over.

“…now, aren’t we cute?”

If this guess turned out to be true, I’d almost become a big fan of hers.

My imagination was put in motion. I started puzzling over all kinds of questions, like the person she wanted to kill, her potential motive and her hidden personality. I kept playing this game until the sky started to dawn in the east.

The next morning I went to school later than I usually did.

By the time I entered the classroom, most of my classmates were already present. Of course, Tsukimori was among them as well.

While walking to my seat, I secretly glanced at her. She was putting the things in her desk in order. At least to others it looked like such a perfectly normal action.

Not to me.

“Good morning, Tsukimori.”

I greeted her as always. She stopped peeking into her desk, tilted her head and looked at me while using her little finger to brush her elegant, long hair out of her face.

“Good morning, Nonomiya-kun.”

She showed me her mature smile as always.

Usually, our conversation would have ended right there. We knew each other only well enough to exchange greetings.

“Are you looking for something?”

However, that morning I didn’t want to let it end there. My curiosity was vexing me, for I suspected that she might be searching for the “Murder Recipe.”

I intensively stared at her, not wanting to miss the slightest stir.

“No, I am just sorting my desk.”

Sadly, her smile was left unchanged.

I told her, “I see,” and headed to my own seat, while thinking to myself that reality was so boring compared to imagination.

“But…,” she suddenly called me from behind, “why did you think I was searching for something?”

I was desperate not to break into a broad smile.

It was a feeling as though prey had hopped readily into my trap. Whatever her sentiments were, I started getting in high spirits just by the expectation of some amusing developments.

“No, I’m afraid there’s no particular reason,” I turned around towards her, playing dumb. “But let me return that question: why do you ask?”

I decided to probe lightly.

“I had no particular reason, either.”

“I see.”

Before me was only her unchanged mature smile. I felt the desire to make that smile freeze, but I didn’t intend to get to the core just yet. I thought it was best to keep my trump card for the very end.

“But if…,” I began, “if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help.”

“What’s the matter, Nonomiya-kun? I don’t remember you being this gentle?”

“I’m gentler than you believed, that’s for sure.”

“I beg your pardon. I’ll be sure to remember that then.”

“Of course the decisive factor was getting a girl of outstanding popularity like you indebted to me, though.”

Tsukimori giggled.

“Thank you. I will directly consult you then, Nonomiya-kun, should I ever be troubled.”

Tsukimori smiled with her almond eyes half closed.

It didn’t look like she ''wasn’t'' scheming something. I won’t deny the influence of my wishful thinking on this assessment, though.

Our conversation ended because our class teacher, Ukai, had appeared in the classroom.

My mood was quite good on that day. Kamogawa and his comrades were annoying when they came to question me about my conversation with Tsukimori in the following break, but I considered it a good harvest because I had discovered how thrilling and amusing it was to talk to her.

Well, it was just me savoring the thrill produced by my own fantasies, though.

Still, it was much better than a boring reality.

Without any progress or new information, my peaceful daily routine went on and, before I knew it, two weeks had passed since finding the murder recipe.

As there wasn’t anything to stir up my imagination, my excitement subsided and I was about to forget the very existence of the recipe.

Because I had kept holding back my trump card, the game had stopped slowly and quietly. It was a truly pathetic situation.

However, a change occurred all of a sudden.

Perhaps…the game had not even started yet.

I went to school as always, and the classroom was ever noisy. But Tsukimori was nowhere in sight. Her seat was empty.

I was puzzled, but the answer wasn’t long in coming.

“Hey, Nonomiya! Have you heard?”

It was Kamogawa.

“Can’t say I have.”

Of course I had no idea what he was talking about because his sentence lacked the object.

“Someone from Tsukimori’s family is dead.”

I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

“Who?” I asked while suppressing the arising excitement.

“Her dad, it seems. It was a traffic accident. Youko-san has my fullest sympathies…,” answered Usami with a sad face.

“Really, I feel sorry for her. To lose one’s father at this age, that’s…”

Unlike his usual behavior, even Kamogawa showed a mournful mien. That must be the normal reaction.

“…Indeed. Let’s all support her.”

However, I answered with different emotions from the others. Youko Tsukimori, traffic accident, death—these keywords led me straight to the murder recipe.

I desperately suppressed the grin that was about to flash over my face.

''It’s getting interesting.''

<noinclude>
{{Navigation|Gekkou|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Live|Live]]}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Live

2011-06-26T00:43:17Z

Eccles19: changing the dumb quotes to smart quotes, also minnor grammatical corrections

==[Live]==

The first lesson was English, but I don’t remember anything of it. I was pondering over the accident of Yôko Tsukimori’s father.

I also played with the thought of browsing some news sites on my mobile phone—hidden from the eyes of the teacher, of course—but I decided against it because I was known as a fairly well-behaving student. I kept telling myself that I was keeping the best for last and spent a painful hour like this.

The very moment the English lesson ended, I rushed out of the classroom, fired up for details about the accident, and headed straight to the library room.

It should have today’s newspaper, and since there was a casualty, there had to be an article about it.

And just as I had expected, there was an article that dealt with the accident in question. I was a bit disappointed when I started reading; there was an article, sure, but it was a short one and written very briefly in a corner of the local news page.

However, as I read on, my heartbeat became faster. In the text I found some of the keywords I was looking for.

“…on his way home on a mountain pass…”

“…a sharp curve with poor sight distance…”

“…there have already been casualties before…”

“…too much speed due to the slope…”

There were several text passages that reminded of the “Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe” as noted in the murder recipe. I couldn’t help getting excited at the thought that “Yôko Tsukimori had executed her murder plan.”

…and also, I couldn’t help feeling a chill run down my spine when I imagined the accident with that thought in mind.

Important were the unwritten facts.

The article wouldn’t have been this tiny if the Police had considered the possibility of murder. Similarly, I wouldn’t have remained unknowing until arriving at school.

Had I gotten something fatally wrong?

The plan looked childish at first glance, like an uncertain trick that relied on multiple occasional aspects.

But maybe she executed that plan exactly because of those flaws?

Who would presume the existence of such a clumsy murder plan?

Who would see a schemed murder in something that looked like nothing but an accident?

And the facts showed: the police were convinced that it was but a traffic accident. The same applied to my classmates; everyone considered Tsukimori a poor girl who had lost her father in an accident.

I bet even the killed person himself wouldn't have dreamed of her being a murderer.

Nor would I have, if I hadn’t known of the murder recipe.

Probably it wouldn’t even have been much of a problem if the plan had failed. It was based on luck anyway; if you look only at the probability, it was unlikely to succeed in the first place.

But exactly that aspect was the point of the murder recipe.

There were multiple plans written in it that were all dependent on random external circumstances. So wasn't she expecting them to fail from the very beginning?

Tsukimori’s target was her father—someone who was always close to her and, hence, gave her countless opportunities to kill him. It may be a coarse expression, but you could say that “even a bad shot hits the mark given enough tries.”

Tsukimori did certainly not intend to just pull it off as fast as possible. She merely wanted him to die sooner or later. I guess that’s what she felt about it.

She did, however, not want to get busted.

I had noticed from the time I had first read the recipe that the plan was not chiefly designed for killing, but rather for living on normally after executing it.

In that case, the result made it evident. Tsukimori did it—

—the perfect murder.

I couldn’t help thinking so.

Of course, this was all just a product of my mind and far too baseless to be considered certain.

I knew her no better than my classmates. When it came to her, Kamogawa was actually much more knowledgeable than I. These thoughts were merely an extension to my usual “imagine and enjoy” pastime and not something upright like “solving a case.”

However, for some reason I just couldn't call my guess a cheap delusion and call it quits.

The homeroom after that day’s classes was about Tsukimori’s father’s death.

“I think everyone knows of the passing of Tsukimori’s father. A funeral is being held tomorrow afternoon, which I am going to attend. Thus, the fifth lesson, biology, is going to be self-study.”

When the word ''self study'' left our class teacher Ukai’s mouth, a wave of joy went through the ranks of my classmates.

“Hey, that's called ''tactless,'' you know? Empathize a little with Tsukimori who has just lost one of her parents!” Ukai rebuked us—not with an especially strong tone, but the classroom became silent. It was a heavy silence.

Apparently contended with the unexpected contemplation of his students, he closed this matter.

“Moreover, the class officers are required to come along to the funeral as the representatives of the class. I’m counting on you. Okay, homeroom’s closed.”

Right when Ukai was about to finish: “Sensei!” Usami raised her hand, “The female class officer is Yôko herself.”

“Aah, you’re right. Well then, Usami, may I ask you?”

“Ah, yes.”

“The other one was you, Nonomiya, right? I expect you to be there.”

“Yes.”

I nodded calmly and secretly grinned to myself.

It was exactly what I had wished for. I had not even dreamed that I would have the chance to attend the funeral officially like this.

Actually, after I reading the article in the library I had pondered about how I might be able to go to the funeral, because I wanted to gain more information about Tsukimori. While I had reckoned that the ceremonies would be beyond reach, I had thought that I could at least attend the wake of the deceased.

“Only the two of you?! That’s not fair!”

After making sure that Ukai had left, Kamogawa scowled alternately at Usami and me.

“Who was the irresponsible guy again that proposed me as the class officer at the beginning of the term?”

Just this once I was grateful for that irresponsible personality of his, though.

“Dunno? I’m a man who doesn’t look back at times gone past.”

“Your irresponsibility deserves admiration. In a bad sense.”

“It’s an honor!!”

I could only smile wryly at Kamogawa’s haughty answer.

“Kamogawa, you brute! Didn’t you listen to Ukai-sensei? You’re being tactless…,” pouted a serious Usami on noticing his easy-going attitude.

“This is a misunderstanding, Usami. I am merely worrying about a fellow classmate who has lost a dear one, you know?” Kamogawa assured us with a meek expression.

“That’s a lie. It’s clear that you only want to meet Yôko-san because of your ulterior motives!” claimed Usami.

“No, idiot! I would never have ulterior motives! I simply wish to soothe Tsukimori in these hard times,” he objected instantly, “Well, but sure, I would not be averse to her falling in love with me in the process, heh!”

“You really are a brute, Kamogawa!”

Usami seemed completely dumbfounded. Same here.

“Kamogawa, perk your ears: that’s what we call an ulterior motive.”

“Ahaa, I see! You never stop learning, do you?”

Kamogawa evaded my remark with feigned ignorance. There’s no cure for a Kamogawa.

“…I hope you don’t have an ulterior motive too, Nonomiya?”

She realized that Kamogawa was beyond hope and set me as her new target.

“Of course not. I am going to the funeral ceremony because I’m a class officer, not because I wish for it myself,” I put on a powerless smile. “Also, I don’t like the gloomy air at funerals. To be honest, I would rather not go.”

“Right? I knew you weren’t like Kamogawa!”

Usami flashed a brilliant smile as if she herself had been praised.

“Your attitude towards me and Nonomiya is way too different! I sense discrimination! If I were from America, I would take you to court right now!”

“But you’re Japanese from head to toe. And it’s the difference of your daily behaviors that distinguishes you from Nonomiya. Blame yourself?”

While of a completely different nature, I had an ulterior motive too. To tell the truth, I loved funerals. Especially because you could sneak a peek at all kinds of humans.

I was looking forward to the next day’s funeral with the same sentiment as going to a concert of my favorite artist.

After ending the third lesson, Usami and I were brought to the funeral home in Ukai’s car. There was not one cloud in the broad blue sky outside the window.

During the ride I was able gather some details about Tsukimori’s family environment from Ukai.

Her family consisted of her two parents and herself, their only child. This was actually quite surprising to me because her mature behavior had led me to believe that she’d have someone to look after, such as a younger sibling.

Apparently her father had been the head of a construction design company. Since my own father worked at a bank near that company, I planned on asking him about it afterwards.

As soon as we had arrived at the funeral home and had gone through the formalities at the entrance, we proceeded to the hall that was marked with a sign reading “Tsukimori.”

A lot of flower offerings were being made, so that the line led out of the hall. It was as though I was watching the scene of an arcade that installed a new game machine.

The dim, wide room was packed with people in mourning dresses. The altar seemed much more magnificent to me than the ones in any past funeral I had visited.

We sat down in the seats that had been prepared for common attendants and waited patiently for the beginning of the ceremony.

My eyes searched for Tsukimori and found her sitting near the altar where the relatives had gathered. She was comforting the woman beside her who hung her head, supporting her and stroking her back.

From the look of it, I suspected it could be her mother. It was a beautiful lady who resembled Tsukimori.

I was, however, surprised at how composed Tsukimori apparently was.

It was then that I recalled that I had once asked Usami for the reason why all the girls called Tsukimori with a “-san” added to her name. Her answer had been: “Yôko-san may be the same age as us, but doesn’t she kind of look mature and also behave that way? So basically, someone started calling her Yôko-san, which then led to the current state.”

Indeed. I was almost unsure about who the mother and who the daughter was.

“…I’m so sorry for Yôko-san.”

I looked to my side and found Usami with watery eyes. She did not only give the feel of “born to be a little sister,” but actually had an elder brother.

“You’re quite a sissy, aren’t you?” I said and produced a handkerchief.

“Just look at how she’s keeping calm though she’s bound to be sad in reality! If it was me, I wouldn’t be able to…”

Usami seized the handkerchief from my hands and rubbed her eyes with it. Certainly, Usami would probably cry her lungs out.

But I was reluctant to agree with her that Tsukimori was saddened about her father’s death.

If I was right on Tsukimori wishing for his death…then she was pleased rather than sorrowful, because in that case this funeral was actually an event to celebrate the success of her murder plan.

As time went by, the seats of the hall gradually filled and before I knew it, the whole hall was painted black.

From every direction I could hear whispers that had been lowered in respect of the solemn mood that accompanied funeral homes. I decided to listen attentively to that chattering as a combined means of killing time and gathering information.

I focused on the conversation of two women that were meekly talking right in the row before me. I would have loved to jot it down!

Their chatter was interrupted midways. I would have preferred to listen a little longer, but there was no helping it since the ceremony had begun.

The sutra conducted by the priest resounded clearly throughout the hall.

The solemn mood set my mind at rest and thus produced the perfect environment for indulging myself in my thoughts. I chose to replay the conversation I had just heard in my mind and put the data in order:

Her father’s reputation was extremely good.

First they had talked about his looks, which wasn’t too surprising, considering he was Tsukimori’s father. A glance at the picture on the altar showed that he had looked like some performer and made me comprehend why he was popular with them.

Then, they continued with his company’s and his family’s economic situation. While it was a S.M.E., the business went smoothly and their private living standard was quite high as well. Apparently, their home had been newly built two years ago, with a complex design as one would expect from the director of a construction design business.

Lastly, they had talked about his family itself. Both father and mother had been fairly sociable and on good terms with their neighbors. The women had also raised the subject of Tsukimori. She was valued as a beautiful daughter with good manners.

I let out a sigh.

Admittedly, I was happy that I could get my hands on new information, but there had been nothing that could ignite my fantasies. The newspaper had gotten me too excited and caused me to have too high expectations of the funeral.

I breathed in the silent air of the hall.

Pulling myself together, I decided to give myself over to the tranquil mood of the room again. It was a promising funeral, after all! It would be a waste not to take advantage of the occasion and spy on some human relationships.

No need to rush things. The longer this game of ours lasted, the better.

When I turned my gaze towards the area near the altar, I noticed that Tsukimori’s mother had broken out in tears.

Her wailing was apparently also the reason why the women in my surrounding provided me with a background of sobbing voices. By the way, Usami was still crying as well.

However, there were no tears in Tsukimori’s eyes.

Her gaze was captivatingly fixed on the altar.

Because her black mourning dress emphasized the brightness of her skin, it almost seemed as though Tsukimori herself was gleaming. More than the deceased man himself, more than the richly decorated altar or the whining mother or everyone else in the room, it was Tsukimori and her silent appearance that stood out.

To me, Tsukimori appeared like the moon late at night.

Stunningly beautiful.

It was time for the coffin’s departure. While sounding its loud and sober horn, the hearse departed before the eyes of the people in black.

The relatives of the deceased, with Tsukimori among them, left the hall temporarily and headed to the crematory. The three of us decided that we would wait for her return so that we could at least exchange one or two words with her.

“You two must be hungry, right? Let me treat you to lunch today. But keep it a secret from the others, okay?”

“Yay! You heard this, Nonomiya?” Usami rejoiced without any restraint. This must be one of those infamous mood swings.

Well, being fond of the word ''secret,'' I also gladly accepted his offer.

Moments later, we were slurping ramen in a shop near the funeral home.

“—You two may not be quite aware of it yet, but death is an inescapable part of life,” Ukai said suddenly, his glasses fogged by the steam of his soup. “Saying this may be tactless towards Tsukimori, but still I would like you to treasure the impressions of this very uncommon and sad happening: the passing of a comrade’s father.”

Usami nodded earnestly, her mouth stuffed with noodles like a squirrel.

“Indeed. I was reminded that there is a limit to our lives—and also that this makes life all the more valuable.”

Being in my class teacher’s company, I chose my words carefully when relaying my impressions.

“You’re amazing, Nonomiya,” Usami praised me with wide eyes after gulping down her noodles.

“Of course. Unlike you, I wasn’t crying all the way through the ceremony.”

“I-I had lots of thoughts crossing my mind, too!”

“For instance?”

“Eh? Ah, um, that I’m sorry for her…”

“What else?”

“…T-That I’m sorry for her?”

“I heard that already.”

“N-No, don’t get me wrong! In truth I have been thinking about much more than this, it’s just that I can’t put it into words as well as you!”

Ukai laughed from listening to our conversation.

“Well, well, let’s settle down with the conclusion that both of you had their respective thoughts, okay? Nonomiya was more analytical and Usami more emotional.”

Ukai went between and solved it like a teacher.

–Life’s interesting because there’s a limit to it. The thrill of not knowing when it ends is what gives you the awareness of being alive.

At first glance it might seem contradicting that death, the antithesis of life, highlights the value of life, but it actually makes sense. I even conceived the idea that most things in the world might work in a similar way.

At that very moment, enthralled by the risky murder recipe—I was most definitely living.

We greeted Tsukimori when she came back to the hall.

Ukai first expressed his deepest sympathy before assuring her: “Don’t be concerned about school. Take your time and return when you’re comfortable.”

“Thank you very much for your thoughtfulness. However, I have it in mind to attend school normally from the day after tomorrow because I think it will help me to distract myself.” She smiled weakly. “…I am a little anxious about leaving my mother alone at home, as she has been hit especially hard, but the siblings of hers and my father respectively assured me that they will be supporting her for a while.”

Tsukimori seemed exhausted. From the look of it, she hadn’t slept properly.

But while knowing it was pretty tactless, I couldn’t help being under the impression that her white face, now accentuated by her mourning dress, looked even more sensual than at school.

“I see. At any rate, be sure not to over-strain yourself and feel free to consult me anytime.”

Ukai patted her on the shoulder.

“Thank you for coming as well, Chizuru, Nonomiya-kun.”

“Everyone in the class is worrying about you.”

“I feel blessed.”

“Yôko-san…”

Usami was on the verge of tears again, apparently moved by Tsukimori’s brave behavior.

I poked her head and said: “Shouldn’t you calm down a bit? You wanted to express your condolences properly, right?”

“…Yeah,” Usami nodded teary-eyed. “Um…Yôko-san, it will be hard on you, but…i-it will whe hard on yhew, but…”

Usami began weeping mid-sentence because she couldn’t bear it anymore.

Tsukimori didn’t hesitate to embrace Usami’s round head and comforted her, “Thank you, Chizuru. I’m very happy that you are so worried about me.” While stroking her head like a loving sister, she murmured, “…I think you can consider yourself happy if you have someone that worries about you.” After that, she whispered her thanks to Usami again and again.

The gentle and fragile girl at that moment did not look in the least like someone who would plan a murder to me.

<noinclude>
{{Navigation|Gekkou|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe|Murder Recipe]]|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Confession|Confession]]}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Category:Gekkou

2011-06-25T23:28:46Z

Eccles19: Created page with "Pages relating to ''Gekkou.''"

Pages relating to ''Gekkou.''

Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe

2011-06-25T23:24:42Z

Eccles19: changing the dumb quotes to smart quotes, also minnor grammatical corrections

==[Murder Recipe]==

There was no day I’d miss hearing that name.

“Tsukimori is so lovely…,” muttered my classmate Kamogawa mixed with a sigh, upon which the other male students around him nodded deeply.

“Listen guys: don’t let that slender body deceive you! Got me? She’s also got…boobs!”

Their insolent gazes were focused on the girl in debate, Tsukimori, who was surrounded by a group of girls, chattering. If I were to describe Yôko Tsukimori in one word: she was eye-catching.

“Don’t you agree Nonomiya?”

“If you say so.”

“Wow, now that’s a cold reply! Are you really a man? If there’s a mountain, climb it! If there’s a beautiful chick, fall for her! Isn’t that what it means to be a man?”

The guys, led by Kamogawa, began to show over-exaggerated reactions to my indifferent answer.

“Well, I just thought she’s perfect.”

She had a beautiful face, supplemented by a nice figure and outstanding grades. Even in regards to her personality she was rather popular. Apparently, she was also good in sports. Yôko Tsukimori seemed to be a perfect girl without anything to complain about.

“How’s that bad?”

“I never said it’s bad. It’s just that I can’t relax around her.”

“Aah, that’s true. Tsukimori is a girl beyond our reach after all…”

Fortunately, Kamogawa interpreted my statement to his convenience.

My honest impression was that she was so perfect it was boring and being around her would be suffocating. Maybe it’s just that my personality is a little warped, but I’ve secretly been keeping a distance from Tsukimori because I couldn’t discover a common ground between us.

However, the guys seemed to be highly interested in the famous girl and started discussing rumors about Tsukimori as if they were gossiping about some star.

“But I heard she has a boyfriend in college?”

“Student ‘K’, was it? That guy who’s three years older than her?”

“Eh? I heard she was the lover of a company president…”

“Aah, so that’s why she gets $2,000 allowance every month?”

“No joking? But I heard someone spotted her together with math teacher Kumada when they came out of a love hotel!”

There was no need for a metaphor anymore—she really was a star. I once more realized how special she was.

But then again, she might not have been happy about that special status. At least I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

“It’s all just rumors without any credibility whatsoever.”

A short laugh escaped my mouth because they were discussing this stuff all too seriously and lively.

“Why don’t you just ask her directly?”

Therefore I confronted them with that question. Just for fun. And as expected, my idea was rejected with vigor close to booing. “As if we could ask her something like that!!” Because I was so amused by their reaction, I spurred them on a little more.

“If you want, I can go ask as the representative of the class?”

“Wait wait wait!! Nonomiya! Don’t rush things! What are we gonna do if the rumors turned out to be true?” Kamogawa rebuked me in a hurry.

“Maybe they really are just rumors?”

“But maybe it’s all true!”

The other guys nodded in agreement to Kamogawa, “Possible. If it’s Tsukimori, very possible!”

Sure enough Yôko Tsukimori stood out in this class. You could even say she was of a different nature. No wonder that everyone was under the impression that she had already experienced a world unbeknownst to high school students, considering that she acted so maturely it was hard to believe that she was our age.

“The truth is hidden in the dark, huh.”

Whatever that truth might have been, I could take it easy since I wouldn’t be hurt anything like Kamogawa et al.

“The truth isn’t always what’s best, is it?”

But it looked like they couldn’t take it as easily since the truth would bother them much more.

“Don’t you find this unproductive? If you keep your eyes averted from the truth, you won’t ever be able to obtain what you seek!”

“We don’t care! A couple of days ago, some idiot confessed to her and got dumped badly. If you carelessly try to reach out for something on a different level, you’re only going to fall down and hurt yourself. I prefer the ideal over the truth! You could even say we want Tsukimori to remain the source of our fantasies for all eternity.”

I was so amazed at this bunch that I could only laugh.

“Adolescence is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Hey, we’re seventeen! Leave us our dreams!”

Apparently I wasn’t supposed to laugh.

“I shall not bother you anymore if you all insist.”

“We do, we do! Don’t crush the dreams of us delicate boys.”

“You mean ‘tainted high school boys.’”

“Who is our dear Nonomiya fond of then? No celebrities allowed, by the way.”

Kamogawa launched an unexpected counterattack. The other guys, too, jumped at the chance and closed ranks by leaning forward and urging, “Tell us! Tell us!”

“Well, let’s see—”

To tell the truth, there was no girl in specific who I could have mentioned, but looking at the situation I didn’t believe those tainted high school boys would content themselves with that.

“—I think Usami’s cute.”

I merely spoke out the first name that came to mind right then, but they all seemed rather disappointed and made awkward faces.

“How unthrilling. It couldn’t get any more ordinary, could it? You’re so boring,” complained Kamogawa.

“So you claim that it’s ''not'' ordinary to feel attracted to Tsukimori?”

“I admit she’s also an ordinary target, but her quality, so to speak, is on a whole different level from Usami’s! If Usami was orange juice, Tsukimori would be wine.”

“Then don’t you agree that orange juice suits us minors?”

“No, you idiot, you don’t get it. I’m talking about the, um, well, that certain appeal of alcohol because you actually shouldn’t drink it, you know? Like, you’re curious about the forbidden world that opens there and…can you follow me?”

“I certainly know what you mean. But ''I'' still like orange juice. Don’t you?”

“Um, well, sure, I like orange juice too, but…”

Kamogawa’s guys-alliance grumbled and contorted their faces.

While Tsukimori was an exceptional girl indeed, Usami was very charming, too—for an ordinary girl. Their reaction originated from not wanting to admit that I was right while being unable to deny it.

Feeling like the winner, I said, “Let’s toast with some orange juice and wine, then.”

You could say I tasted the “splendid wine of victory.”

“You’re a pretty damn devious guy, you know that?”

“Thank you.”

“I ain’t praising you.”

Kamogawa was still a little sour, but I had succeeded in getting the air out of him.

“—Hey, boys! Get back to your seats! Afternoon classes are starting!”

Driven by this sudden voice, the guys turned their looks towards the clock at once. They reacted that sensitively because the warning came from the girl they had just talked about.

“She’s right. Let's follow the advice of the Orange Juice and wait at our seats,” said Kamogawa, whereupon everyone returned to their respective desks.

“Orange Juice…?” wondered Orange Juice a.k.a. Chizuru Usami and tilted her round head. “…I bet you’ve been talking bad about me or something, haven’t you?”

Usami, sitting beside me, pursed her lips.

“We merely talked about beverages.”

“That’s a lie. If a couple of boys gather, they talk about either perverted or idiotic stuff,” she claimed.

That was a fairly unfair preconception, I had to say. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t deny it.

“…what kind of tragic life have you gone through, Usami? I’ve just become quite worried about you.”

[[Image:Gekkou-017.jpg|thumb]]

“Don’t pity me, Nonomiya! Idiot. I’m normal! Your average high school girl!”

Usami always got all worked up in no time whenever I teased her. And once she was worked up, she was like a little animal—pretty amusing to watch, really.

“Listen, you should visit a hospital before it’s too late. If it’s too embarrassing to go alone, I can also accompany you there, but—”

“—I won’t! Stop looking at me with those commiserating eyes!”

She pushed my peeking head away with her palm: “Go away!”

“Rejoice, Usami. It seems Nonomiya is fond of orange juice!”

Kamogawa, who had been watching us, laughed with a face that made him seem like he’d only talk about perverted or idiotic stuff.

“Tell me already, what’s the thing with that orange jui—”

Usami swallowed her words mid-sentence. Our math teacher, Kumada, had entered the classroom.

The only sounds in the classroom were Kumada’s weak voice and the chalk hitting the blackboard.

Apparently our conversation was still bothering Usami; she kept stealing glances at me.

After some minutes had passed, she finally lost patience. She leaned her upper body a little towards me and whispered, “What was that about?”

“I’m trying to concentrate on the lesson, Usami-san,” I answered without removing my eyes from the blackboard.

“…don’t be mean~”

Because I kept silent, she started poking my side with her mechanical pencil. The tip pierced through the fabric of my uniform and stuck into my skin.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Then don’t ignore me,” sulked Usami. “During lunch break, you boys were talking about Yôko-san, weren’t you?”

“Oh, were we?”

“…you always try to slip off like this, Nonomiya. Actually, I know that you were gossiping about her!”

“You eavesdropped on us? I am shocked.”

“That’s not it! I only heard Yôko-san’s name by chance! Because you boys were talking so loud!”

“Usami,” I called for her attention because Kumada had turned towards the class. She sat up in a hurry and pretended to be copying what was written on the blackboard.

After some moments of silence: “…Say, Nonomiya. You prefer girls like Yôko-san too, don’t you?” muttered Usami while looking down at her notes.

I glanced towards the front right. Yôko Tsukimori—the girl in question—stared charismatically at the blackboard. From the side her face looked intelligent, giving her a little of the feel of the anchorwoman from the news.

Sitting in the very middle of the room, her outstanding aura made it feel as though she was the heart of the classroom.

Indeed, she was someone special. Although I personally avoided excess contact with her, I could very well comprehend why everyone seemed to adore her.

“—No, not particularly.”

I don’t like trouble, but I became interested in how Usami would react.

“Is that so?”

She made a smile, seeming somehow relieved.

“We discussed this allegory: if she were a beverage, Tsukimori would be wine.”

—What kind of reaction is she going to show me, I wonder?

“By the way, you’d be orange juice.”

Beside me I heard the sound of a pencil lead breaking.

“Ah yeah?”

Usami played with the pencil between her fingers, feigning indifference. However, I didn’t overlook that moment when her cheeks blushed.

After that Usami’s questioning stopped.

Her honest reaction had something that calmed my mind. I had only given her name back then to put them off, but perhaps I had actually revealed my true thoughts which I had been unaware of myself.

At least at that very moment I felt that I liked Usami.

“…by the way.”

I considered our conversation finished, but she still wanted to say something it seemed.

Usami whispered with a serious expression on her face, “I-I’m normal, you know? A normal girl! Not some strange girl like you assumed earlier! I don’t want to be misunderstood, okay?”

I accidentally smiled because of Usami's lovely words.

Her honesty was very comfortable to me—almost like tasting a glass of delicious orange juice.

I wished I could fall in love with her.

After the monthly class officers’ regular meeting I watched the female officer of my class leave in a hurry and strolled back to our classroom.

Having reached the empty room, I prepared myself to leave as well. As I was in no club, I had nothing to do at school anymore. What was left was going home and prepare for my part-time job.

When I stood up from my seat, I noticed a university notebook on the floor. I immediately noticed whom it belonged to. Its front page read “Yôko Tsukimori.”

I looked around in the room, but she wasn’t there. I decided to put it on her desk before leaving.

But just when I was about to do so, I registered a scrap of paper that looked out from the notebook. I grasped the scrap, thinking nothing of it, and pulled it out.

“…now that’s unexpected,” I unintentionally let out.

It turned out to be a folded A4 report sheet. The “caption” written there matched neither the Tsukimori everyone talked of nor my personal image of her.

After making sure nobody was watching, I stowed it away in my bag. I did so because I presumed it would take quite some time to read all of the tightly-written text.

You could say I succumbed to temptation.

No, at that very moment I felt not even a speck of guilt whatsoever. It was but pure curiosity.

I didn’t have anything against wine. To begin with, I couldn’t possibly judge without ever having taken a sip. It’s just that my attachment to the familiar drink won over my wariness of the unfamiliar one.

In short, I was interested in the wine everyone praised so highly.

“Alright, what kind of secret of our idol is going to come to light…?”

I left the classroom as I always did.

It was past 10 <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">p.m.</span> when I returned home after finishing my work at the café.

When I arrived there I had completely forgotten about the sheet. I had been looking forward to reading its contents, but the various stimuli at the café drove its existence into a corner of my memory.

I like to observe people. You may even call it my hobby.

Part of the reason why I chose to work in a café surely was that I simply like coffee, but more than that I found the different types of people you meet there interesting.

A young woman who always takes the same seat and just keeps gazing outside. A man in the prime of his life who changes the girl at his side each visit. The cooled-down relationship of a couple that had been deeply in love just half a year ago. And many more.

It was something that exalted my imagination—a favorite pastime of mine.

In reality though, I was no different from Kamogawa et al. I, too, was just an ordinary 17-year-old teenager. I did not want to know the truth. I simply wanted to enjoy wallowing in my fantasies.

I was in the middle of relaxing, taking a warm bath, when I remembered the sheet I had picked up after school.

With my body still warm I dove onto my bed and unfolded the paper. While holding myself back from hurrying things, I slowly glanced over the caption.

“The Murder Recipe”

I felt like reading a mystery novel of some popular author. Maybe this was due to the title actually sounding like a novel’s.

A scrap of paper that appeared from the notebook of the person who was on everyone’s lips—Yôko Tsukimori.

There seemed to be no end to the rumors dealing with her vivid love life, but her image still remained mostly irreproachable. She was by no means a girl the word “murder” would have suited.

Perhaps, it was this fact that piqued my curiosity. Contrasts like this have a sort of magic to them that sucks you in—be it for the good or the bad.

My gaze hasted over text, completely absorbed by it. Faithful to its title “The Murder Recipe,” it introduced different ways of killing someone.

I noticed that parts of the text had been erased and corrected, indicating that the recipe had been revised several times. I could virtually sense the breath of the person who wrote down these rather messy characters. It had something vivid to it, so to speak.

While reading on, I discovered something that all of the approaches had in common.

The most important objective appeared to be eliminating the target without getting one’s own hands dirty. It was not a text written by a human who is fond of killing—who sets the act of killing as his highest objective.

“…is she really aiming to become a mystery author?”

These seemed exactly like tricks made for a mystery story. However, they were written rather clumsily and were far from perfection.

To allege an example: there was one way of killing titled “The Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe.” The content was most simple.

* On a road over a steep mountain pass.

* Disturb the driver somehow.

* Make him lose control of the steering wheel.

It was written in bullet points like this. Additional remarks like “Phone the driver in order to make him lose concentration?” or “Put some hindrance on the road?” were very sparsely added.

As can be seen, the grade of completion was very low. Maybe she was still in the stage of collecting together various ideas, trying to perfect it?

The risk was reduced to a minimum, but I didn’t think the plan was likely to succeed either. I could see she tried, but this was one weak plan if she was to really kill someone.

I dropped the murder recipe onto my desk.

Having had high expectations, the letdown was great. The all too childish contents of the recipe had killed my interest.

“This just spoiled my after-bath-bliss.”

After complaining aloud, I reached out for my bookshelf to remove the bad taste by reading a real mystery novel.

“…no, hold on a sec.”

However, I stopped my hand and started thinking. A new thought lifted my spirits to new heights again.

Who was the owner of this “Murder Recipe”?

It was Yôko Tsukimori!

What if, purely hypothetically, she had written this because she seriously wanted to kill someone…? That thought made the clumsy text feel rather realistic at once.

Leaving aside the reason for now, there was a person whom Tsukimori wanted to die and she had desperately written a murder plan to make it happen.

''Tsukimori'' had! That perfect, stylish, beautiful, intelligent “Tsukimori” who was adored by everyone!

And she had edited such an immature murder plan over and over.

“…now, aren’t we cute?”

If this guess turned out to be true, I’d almost become a big fan of hers.

My imagination was put in motion. I started puzzling over all kinds of questions, like the person she wanted to kill, her potential motive and her hidden personality. I kept playing this game until the sky started to dawn in the east.

The next morning I went to school later than I usually did.

By the time I entered the classroom, most of my classmates were already present. Of course, Tsukimori was among them as well.

While walking to my seat, I secretly glanced at her. She was putting the things in her desk in order. At least to others it looked like such a perfectly normal action.

Not to me.

“Good morning, Tsukimori.”

I greeted her as always. She stopped peeking into her desk, tilted her head and looked at me while using her little finger to brush her elegant, long hair out of her face.

“Good morning, Nonomiya-kun.”

She showed me her mature smile as always.

Usually, our conversation would have ended right there. We knew each other only well enough to exchange greetings.

“Are you looking for something?”

However, that morning I didn’t want to let it end there. My curiosity was vexing me, for I suspected that she might be searching for the “Murder Recipe.”

I intensively stared at her, not wanting to miss the slightest stir.

“No, I am just sorting my desk.”

Sadly, her smile was left unchanged.

I told her, “I see,” and headed to my own seat, while thinking to myself that reality was so boring compared to imagination.

“But…,” she suddenly called me from behind, “why did you think I was searching for something?”

I was desperate not to break into a broad smile.

It was a feeling as though prey had hopped readily into my trap. Whatever her sentiments were, I started getting in high spirits just by the expectation of some amusing developments.

“No, I’m afraid there’s no particular reason,” I turned around towards her, playing dumb. “But let me return that question: why do you ask?”

I decided to probe lightly.

“I had no particular reason, either.”

“I see.”

Before me was only her unchanged mature smile. I felt the desire to make that smile freeze, but I didn’t intend to get to the core just yet. I thought it was best to keep my trump card for the very end.

“But if…,” I began, “if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help.”

“What’s the matter, Nonomiya-kun? I don’t remember you being this gentle?”

“I’m gentler than you believed, that’s for sure.”

“I beg your pardon. I’ll be sure to remember that then.”

“Of course the decisive factor was getting a girl of outstanding popularity like you indebted to me, though.”

Tsukimori giggled.

“Thank you. I will directly consult you then, Nonomiya-kun, should I ever be troubled.”

Tsukimori smiled with her almond eyes half closed.

It didn’t look like she ''wasn’t'' scheming something. I won’t deny the influence of my wishful thinking on this assessment, though.

Our conversation ended because our class teacher, Ukai, had appeared in the classroom.

My mood was quite good on that day. Kamogawa and his comrades were annoying when they came to question me about my conversation with Tsukimori in the following break, but I considered it a good harvest because I had discovered how thrilling and amusing it was to talk to her.

Well, it was just me savoring the thrill produced by my own fantasies, though.

Still, it was much better than a boring reality.

Without any progress or new information, my peaceful daily routine went on and, before I knew it, two weeks had passed since finding the murder recipe.

As there wasn’t anything to brisk up my imagination, my excitement came to an end and I was about to forget the very existence of the recipe.

Because I had kept holding back my trump card, the game had stopped slowly and quietly. It was a truly pathetic situation.

However, a change occurred all of a sudden.

Perhaps…the game had not even started yet.

I went to school as always, and the classroom was ever noisy. But Tsukimori was nowhere in sight. Her seat was empty.

I was puzzled, but the answer wasn’t long in coming.

“Hey, Nonomiya! Have you heard?”

It was Kamogawa.

“Can’t say I have.”

Of course I had no idea what he was talking about because his sentence lacked the object.

“Someone from Tsukimori’s family is dead.”

I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

“Who?” I asked while suppressing the arising excitement.

“Her dad, it seems. It was a traffic accident. Yôko-san has my fullest sympathies…,” answered Usami with a sad face.

“Really, I feel sorry for her. To lose one’s father at this age, that’s…”

Unlike his usual behavior, even Kamogawa showed a mournful mien. That must be the normal reaction.

“…Indeed. Let’s all support her.”

However, I answered with different emotions from the others. Yôko Tsukimori, traffic accident, death—these keywords led me straight to the murder recipe.

I desperately suppressed the grin that was about to flash over my face.

''It’s getting interesting.''

<noinclude>
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[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]|
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[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe

2011-06-25T21:58:28Z

Eccles19: changing the dumb quotes to smart quotes, also minnor grammatical corrections

==[Murder Recipe]==

There was no day I’d miss hearing that name.

“Tsukimori is so lovely…,” muttered my classmate Kamogawa mixed with a sigh, upon which the other male students around him nodded deeply.

“Listen guys: don’t let that slender body deceive you! Got me? She’s also got…boobs!”

Their insolent gazes were focused on the girl in debate, Tsukimori, who was surrounded by a group of girls, chattering. If I were to describe Yōko Tsukimori in one word: she was eye-catching.

“Don’t you agree Nonomiya?”

“If you say so.”

“Wow, now that’s a cold reply! Are you really a man? If there’s a mountain, climb it! If there’s a beautiful chick, fall for her! Isn’t that what it means to be a man?”

The guys, led by Kamogawa, began to show over-exaggerated reactions to my indifferent answer.

“Well, I just thought she’s perfect.”

She had a beautiful face, supplemented by a nice figure and outstanding grades. Even in regards to her personality she was rather popular. Apparently, she was also good in sports. Yōko Tsukimori seemed to be a perfect girl without anything to complain about.

“How’s that bad?”

“I never said it’s bad. It’s just that I can’t relax around her.”

“Aah, that’s true. Tsukimori is a girl beyond our reach after all…”

Fortunately, Kamogawa interpreted my statement to his convenience.

My honest impression was that she was so perfect it was boring and being around her would be suffocating. Maybe it’s just that my personality is a little warped, but I’ve secretly been keeping a distance from Tsukimori because I couldn’t discover a common ground between us.

However, the guys seemed to be highly interested in the famous girl and started discussing rumors about Tsukimori as if they were gossiping about some star.

“But I heard she has a boyfriend in college?”

“Student ‘K’, was it? That guy who’s three years older than her?”

“Eh? I heard she was the lover of a company president…”

“Aah, so that’s why she gets $2,000 allowance every month?”

“No joking? But I heard someone spotted her together with math teacher Kumada when they came out of a love hotel!”

There was no need for a metaphor anymore—she really was a star. I once more realized how special she was.

But then again, she might not have been happy about that special status. At least I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

“It’s all just rumors without any credibility whatsoever.”

A short laugh escaped my mouth because they were discussing this stuff all too seriously and lively.

“Why don’t you just ask her directly?”

Therefore I confronted them with that question. Just for fun. And as expected, my idea was rejected with vigor close to booing. “As if we could ask her something like that!!” Because I was so amused by their reaction, I spurred them on a little more.

“If you want, I can go ask as the representative of the class?”

“Wait wait wait!! Nonomiya! Don’t rush things! What are we gonna do if the rumors turned out to be true?” Kamogawa rebuked me in a hurry.

“Maybe they really are just rumors?”

“But maybe it’s all true!”

The other guys nodded in agreement to Kamogawa, “Possible. If it’s Tsukimori, very possible!”

Sure enough Yōko Tsukimori stood out in this class. You could even say she was of a different nature. No wonder that everyone was under the impression that she had already experienced a world unbeknownst to high school students, considering that she acted so maturely it was hard to believe that she was our age.

“The truth is hidden in the dark, huh.”

Whatever that truth might have been, I could take it easy since I wouldn’t be hurt anything like Kamogawa et al.

“The truth isn’t always what’s best, is it?”

But it looked like they couldn’t take it as easily since the truth would bother them much more.

“Don’t you find this unproductive? If you keep your eyes averted from the truth, you won’t ever be able to obtain what you seek!”

“We don’t care! A couple of days ago, some idiot confessed to her and got dumped badly. If you carelessly try to reach out for something on a different level, you’re only going to fall down and hurt yourself. I prefer the ideal over the truth! You could even say we want Tsukimori to remain the source of our fantasies for all eternity.”

I was so amazed at this bunch that I could only laugh.

“Adolescence is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Hey, we’re seventeen! Leave us our dreams!”

Apparently I wasn’t supposed to laugh.

“I shall not bother you anymore if you all insist.”

“We do, we do! Don’t crush the dreams of us delicate boys.”

“You mean ‘tainted high school boys.’”

“Who is our dear Nonomiya fond of then? No celebrities allowed, by the way.”

Kamogawa launched an unexpected counterattack. The other guys, too, jumped at the chance and closed ranks by leaning forward and urging, “Tell us! Tell us!”

“Well, let’s see—”

To tell the truth, there was no girl in specific who I could have mentioned, but looking at the situation I didn’t believe those tainted high school boys would content themselves with that.

“—I think Usami’s cute.”

I merely spoke out the first name that came to mind right then, but they all seemed rather disappointed and made awkward faces.

“How unthrilling. It couldn’t get any more ordinary, could it? You’re so boring,” complained Kamogawa.

“So you claim that it’s ''not'' ordinary to feel attracted to Tsukimori?”

“I admit she’s also an ordinary target, but her quality, so to speak, is on a whole different level from Usami’s! If Usami was orange juice, Tsukimori would be wine.”

“Then don’t you agree that orange juice suits us minors?”

“No, you idiot, you don’t get it. I’m talking about the, um, well, that certain appeal of alcohol because you actually shouldn’t drink it, you know? Like, you’re curious about the forbidden world that opens there and…can you follow me?”

“I certainly know what you mean. But ''I'' still like orange juice. Don’t you?”

“Um, well, sure, I like orange juice too, but…”

Kamogawa’s guys-alliance grumbled and contorted their faces.

While Tsukimori was an exceptional girl indeed, Usami was very charming, too—for an ordinary girl. Their reaction originated from not wanting to admit that I was right while being unable to deny it.

Feeling like the winner, I said, “Let’s toast with some orange juice and wine, then.”

You could say I tasted the “splendid wine of victory.”

“You’re a pretty damn devious guy, you know that?”

“Thank you.”

“I ain’t praising you.”

Kamogawa was still a little sour, but I had succeeded in getting the air out of him.

“—Hey, boys! Get back to your seats! Afternoon classes are starting!”

Driven by this sudden voice, the guys turned their looks towards the clock at once. They reacted that sensitively because the warning came from the girl they had just talked about.

“She’s right. Let's follow the advice of the Orange Juice and wait at our seats,” said Kamogawa, whereupon everyone returned to their respective desks.

“Orange Juice…?” wondered Orange Juice a.k.a. Chizuru Usami and tilted her round head. “…I bet you’ve been talking bad about me or something, haven’t you?”

Usami, sitting beside me, pursed her lips.

“We merely talked about beverages.”

“That’s a lie. If a couple of boys gather, they talk about either perverted or idiotic stuff,” she claimed.

That was a fairly unfair preconception, I had to say. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t deny it.

“…what kind of tragic life have you gone through, Usami? I’ve just become quite worried about you.”

[[Image:Gekkou-017.jpg|thumb]]

“Don’t pity me, Nonomiya! Idiot. I’m normal! Your average high school girl!”

Usami always got all worked up in no time whenever I teased her. And once she was worked up, she was like a little animal—pretty amusing to watch, really.

“Listen, you should visit a hospital before it’s too late. If it’s too embarrassing to go alone, I can also accompany you there, but—”

“—I won’t! Stop looking at me with those commiserating eyes!”

She pushed my peeking head away with her palm: “Go away!”

“Rejoice, Usami. It seems Nonomiya is fond of orange juice!”

Kamogawa, who had been watching us, laughed with a face that made him seem like he’d only talk about perverted or idiotic stuff.

“Tell me already, what’s the thing with that orange jui—”

Usami swallowed her words mid-sentence. Our math teacher, Kumada, had entered the classroom.

The only sounds in the classroom were Kumada’s weak voice and the chalk hitting the blackboard.

Apparently our conversation was still bothering Usami; she kept stealing glances at me.

After some minutes had passed, she finally lost patience. She leaned her upper body a little towards me and whispered, “What was that about?”

“I’m trying to concentrate on the lesson, Usami-san,” I answered without removing my eyes from the blackboard.

“…don’t be mean~”

Because I kept silent, she started poking my side with her mechanical pencil. The tip pierced through the fabric of my uniform and stuck into my skin.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Then don’t ignore me,” sulked Usami. “During lunch break, you boys were talking about Yōko-san, weren’t you?”

“Oh, were we?”

“…you always try to slip off like this, Nonomiya. Actually, I know that you were gossiping about her!”

“You eavesdropped on us? I am shocked.”

“That’s not it! I only heard Yōko-san’s name by chance! Because you boys were talking so loud!”

“Usami,” I called for her attention because Kumada had turned towards the class. She sat up in a hurry and pretended to be copying what was written on the blackboard.

After some moments of silence: “…Say, Nonomiya. You prefer girls like Yōko-san too, don’t you?” muttered Usami while looking down at her notes.

I glanced towards the front right. Yōko Tsukimori—the girl in question—stared charismatically at the blackboard. From the side her face looked intelligent, giving her a little of the feel of the anchorwoman from the news.

Sitting in the very middle of the room, her outstanding aura made it feel as though she was the heart of the classroom.

Indeed, she was someone special. Although I personally avoided excess contact with her, I could very well comprehend why everyone seemed to adore her.

“—No, not particularly.”

I don’t like trouble, but I became interested in how Usami would react.

“Is that so?”

She made a smile, seeming somehow relieved.

“We discussed this allegory: if she were a beverage, Tsukimori would be wine.”

—What kind of reaction is she going to show me, I wonder?

“By the way, you’d be orange juice.”

Beside me I heard the sound of a pencil lead breaking.

“Ah yeah?”

Usami played with the pencil between her fingers, feigning indifference. However, I didn’t overlook that moment when her cheeks blushed.

After that Usami’s questioning stopped.

Her honest reaction had something that calmed my mind. I had only given her name back then to put them off, but perhaps I had actually revealed my true thoughts which I had been unaware of myself.

At least at that very moment I felt that I liked Usami.

“…by the way.”

I considered our conversation finished, but she still wanted to say something it seemed.

Usami whispered with a serious expression on her face, “I-I’m normal, you know? A normal girl! Not some strange girl like you assumed earlier! I don’t want to be misunderstood, okay?”

I accidentally smiled because of Usami's lovely words.

Her honesty was very comfortable to me—almost like tasting a glass of delicious orange juice.

I wished I could fall in love with her.

After the monthly class officers’ regular meeting I watched the female officer of my class leave in a hurry and strolled back to our classroom.

Having reached the empty room, I prepared myself to leave as well. As I was in no club, I had nothing to do at school anymore. What was left was going home and prepare for my part-time job.

When I stood up from my seat, I noticed a university notebook on the floor. I immediately noticed whom it belonged to. Its front page read “Yōko Tsukimori.”

I looked around in the room, but she wasn’t there. I decided to put it on her desk before leaving.

But just when I was about to do so, I registered a scrap of paper that looked out from the notebook. I grasped the scrap, thinking nothing of it, and pulled it out.

“…now that’s unexpected,” I unintentionally let out.

It turned out to be a folded A4 report sheet. The “caption” written there matched neither the Tsukimori everyone talked of nor my personal image of her.

After making sure nobody was watching, I stowed it away in my bag. I did so because I presumed it would take quite some time to read all of the tightly-written text.

You could say I succumbed to temptation.

No, at that very moment I felt not even a speck of guilt whatsoever. It was but pure curiosity.

I didn’t have anything against wine. To begin with, I couldn’t possibly judge without ever having taken a sip. It’s just that my attachment to the familiar drink won over my wariness of the unfamiliar one.

In short, I was interested in the wine everyone praised so highly.

“Alright, what kind of secret of our idol is going to come to light…?”

I left the classroom as I always did.

It was past 10 p.m. when I returned home after finishing my work at the café.

When I arrived there I had completely forgotten about the sheet. I had been looking forward to reading its contents, but the various stimuli at the café drove its existence into a corner of my memory.

I like to observe people. You may even call it my hobby.

Part of the reason why I chose to work in a café surely was that I simply like coffee, but more than that I found the different types of people you meet there interesting.

A young woman who always takes the same seat and just keeps gazing outside. A man in the prime of his life who changes the girl at his side each visit. The cooled-down relationship of a couple that had been deeply in love just half a year ago. And many more.

It was something that exalted my imagination—a favorite pastime of mine.

In reality though, I was no different from Kamogawa et al. I, too, was just an ordinary 17-year-old teenager. I did not want to know the truth. I simply wanted to enjoy wallowing in my fantasies.

I was in the middle of relaxing, taking a warm bath, when I remembered the sheet I had picked up after school.

With my body still warm I dove onto my bed and unfolded the paper. While holding myself back from hurrying things, I slowly glanced over the caption.

"The Murder Recipe"

I felt like reading a mystery novel of some popular author. Maybe this was due to the title actually sounding like a novel's.

A scrap of paper that appeared from the notebook of the person who was on everyone's lips—Youko Tsukimori.

There seemed to be no end to the rumors dealing with her vivid love life, but her image still remained mostly irreproachable. She was by no means a girl the word "murder" would have suited.

Perhaps, it was this fact that piqued my curiosity. Contrasts like this have a sort of magic to them that sucks you in—be it for the good or the bad.

My gaze hasted over text, completely absorbed by it. Faithful to its title "The Murder Recipe", it introduced different ways of killing someone.

I noticed that parts of the text had been erased and corrected, indicating that the recipe had been revised several times. I could virtually sense the breath of the person who wrote down these rather messy characters. It had something vivid to it, so to speak.

While reading on, I discovered something that all of the approaches had in common.

The most important objective appeared to be eliminating the target without getting one's own hands dirty. It was not a text written by a human who is fond of killing—who sets the act of killing as his highest objective.

"...is she really aiming to become a mystery author?"

These seemed exactly like tricks made for a mystery story. However, they were written rather clumsily and were far from perfection.

To allege an example: there was one way of killing titled "The Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe". The content was most simple.

* On a road over a steep mountain pass.

* Disturb the driver somehow.

* Make him lose control of the steering wheel.

It was written in bullet points like this. Additional remarks like "Phone the driver in order to make him lose concentration?" or "Put some hindrance on the road?" were very sparsely added.

As can be seen, the grade of completion was very low. Maybe she was still in the stage of collecting together various ideas, trying to perfect it?

The risk was reduced to a minimum, but I didn't think the plan was likely to succeed either. I could see she tried, but this was one weak plan if she was to really kill someone.

I dropped the murder recipe onto my desk.

Having had high expectations, the letdown was great. The all too childish contents of the recipe had killed my interest.

"This just spoiled my after-bath-bliss."

After complaining aloud, I reached out for my bookshelf to remove the bad taste by reading a real mystery novel.

"...no, hold on a sec."

However, I stopped my hand and started thinking. A new thought lifted my spirits to new heights again.

Who was the owner of this "Murder Recipe"?

It was Youko Tsukimori!

What if, purely hypothetically, she had written this because she seriously wanted to kill someone...? That thought made the clumsy text feel rather realistic at once.

Leaving aside the reason for now, there was a person whom Tsukimori wanted to die and she had desperately written a murder plan to make it happen.

''Tsukimori'' had! That perfect, stylish, beautiful, intelligent "Tsukimori" who was adored by everyone!

And she had edited such an immature murder plan over and over.

"...now, aren't we cute?"

If this guess turned out to be true, I'd almost become a big fan of hers.

My imagination was put in motion. I started puzzling over all kinds of questions, like the person she wanted to kill, her potential motive and her hidden personality. I kept playing this game until the sky started to dawn in the east.

The next morning I went to school later than I usually did.

By the time I entered the classroom, most of my classmates were already present. Of course, Tsukimori was among them as well.

While walking to my seat, I secretly glanced at her. She was putting the things in her desk in order. At least to others it looked like such a perfectly normal action.

Not to me.

"Good morning, Tsukimori."

I greeted her as always. She stopped peeking into her desk, tilted her head and looked at me while using her little finger to brush her elegant, long hair out of her face.

"Good morning, Nonomiya-kun."

She showed me her mature smile as always.

Usually, our conversation would have ended right there. We knew each other only well enough to exchange greetings.

"Are you looking for something?"

However, that morning I didn't want to let it end there. My curiosity was vexing me, for I suspected that she might be searching for the "Murder Recipe".

I intensively stared at her, not wanting to miss the slightest stir.

"No, I am just sorting my desk."

Sadly, her smile was left unchanged.

I told her, "I see," and headed to my own seat, while thinking to myself that reality was so boring compared to imagination.

"But...," she suddenly called me from behind, "why did you think I was searching for something?"

I was desperate not to break into a broad smile.

It was a feeling as though prey had hopped readily into my trap. Whatever her sentiments were, I started getting in high spirits just by the expectation of some amusing developments.

"No, I'm afraid there's no particular reason," I turned around towards her, playing dumb. "But let me return that question: why do you ask?"

I decided to probe lightly.

"I had no particular reason, either."

"I see."

Before me was only her unchanged mature smile. I felt the desire to make that smile freeze, but I didn't intend to get to the core just yet. I thought it was best to keep my trump card for the very end.

"But if..," I began, "if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help."

"What's the matter, Nonomiya-kun? I don't remember you being this gentle?"

"I'm gentler than you believed, that's for sure."

"I beg your pardon. I'll be sure to remember this then."

"Of course the decisive factor was getting a girl of outstanding popularity like you indebted to me, though."

Tsukimori giggled.

"Thank you. I will directly consult you then, Nonomiya-kun, should I ever be troubled."

Tsukimori smiled with her almond eyes half closed.

It didn't look like she ''wasn't'' scheming something. I won't deny the influence of my wishful thinking on this assessment, though.

Our conversation ended because our class teacher, Ukai, had appeared in the classroom.

My mood was quite good on that day. Kamogawa and his comrades were annoying when they came to question me about my conversation with Tsukimori in the following break, but I considered it a good harvest because I had discovered how thrilling and amusing it was to talk to her.

Well, it was just me savoring the thrill produced by my own fantasies, though.

Still, it was much better than a boring reality.

Without any progress or new information, my peaceful daily routine went on and, before I knew it, two weeks had passed since finding the murder recipe.

As there wasn't anything to brisk up my imagination, my excitement came to an end and I was about to forget the very existence of the recipe.

Because I had kept holding back my trump card, the game had stopped slowly and quietly. It was a truly pathetic situation.

However, a change occurred all of a sudden.

Perhaps... the game had not even started yet.

I went to school as always, and the classroom was ever noisy. But Tsukimori was nowhere in sight. Her seat was empty.

I was puzzled, but the answer wasn't long in coming.

"Hey, Nonomiya! Have you heard?"

It was Kamogawa.

"Can't say I have."

Of course I had no idea what he was talking about because his sentence lacked the object.

"Someone from Tsukimori's family is dead."

I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

"Who?" I asked while suppressing the arising excitement.

"Her dad, it seems. It was a traffic accident. Youko-san has my fullest sympathies...," answered Usami with a sad face.

"Really, I feel sorry for her. To lose one's father at this age, that's..."

Unlike his usual behavior, even Kamogawa showed a mournful mien. That must be the normal reaction.

"...Indeed. Let's all support her."

However, I answered with different emotions from the others. Youko Tsukimori, traffic accident, death—these keywords led me straight to the murder recipe.

I desperately suppressed the grin that was about to flash over my face.

''It's getting interesting.''

<noinclude>
{{Navigation|Gekkou|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]|
[[Gekkou:Volume 1 Live|Live]]}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]