Despite the elder Asahina's warning to keep my eyes open, I didn't notice anything unusual on the walk to school. To the contrary, the enormous hill remained as usual as ever. That could have changed with my permission, but it was every bit as steep and long as it had been for close to a year now.
Nor did anything seem unusual about the school when I arrived. The old familiar faces were entering the gates along with me. The number of classrooms was the same as usual; after the disappearance I'd learned to count the windows carefully. The only thing new was a duplicate masonry gate post sitting behind the gates in the shade of a tree. That didn't seem sinister or dangerous at all. The school might have found something wrong with the existing post and was preparing to replace it.
When I got to class Haruhi was there, and she was her usual self- or, at least, one of her usual selves. I'd noticed four moods she alternated through, each almost well-defined enough to be personalities. There was the quiet, unresponsive Haruhi that came out when she had a scheme cooking but not yet ready. Then there was the eager, excited Haruhi when the scheme finished forming itself in her head, or whenever she discovered something unusual. Then there was the bossy, angry Haruhi who drove the members of the SOS Brigade to make that scheme a reality. Finally there was the quiet sulky Haruhi, between schemes, not thinking, just bored and resentful of the world.
Today it was the excited Haruhi- possibly the most dangerous version.
"Have you heard?" she asked eagerly as soon as I sat in my chair. "Yuki's class has a new substitute teacher?"
Not all that surprising. Her teacher might have caught the flu, considering how chilly and damp late February was this year.
"But that's not all! The substitute is a foreigner! Nobody's ever seen or heard of him before! But he speaks Japanese without any accent or hesitation at all!"
It's amazing how you can learn all this in a few minutes before class begins on Monday.
"That's because I listen and pay attention to things going on around me! That's why you'll never make it as an investigator!"
Right. Like I wanted to spend my entire life poking and prodding into the private lives of others. Then again, considering how the past year had gone, maybe being an investigator wouldn't be a bad career for me. The subjects would probably track me down so they could reveal their innermost secrets for no good reason.
Yeah, as if.
"Anyway, I'm going to go meet him at lunch," Haruhi said. "Who knows? He might be a spy, or something even more mysterious?"
I didn't bother to argue the point with Haruhi. After a year of chasing after her I knew that the best way to get a stupid idea out of her head was to let it run its course, for good or ill. Pushing against her only made her more stubborn, and so long as it didn't involve anyone else it wasn't worth it.
But still... what kind of foreign spy would choose North High School as a hiding place?
Homeroom class went as usual, but after the first period ended Tsuruya stopped by. "Hiyas, Kyon, Haru-nyan," she said, her usually cheerful greeting mixed with concern. "Have you heard anything from Mikuru today? She wasn't in class."
Before Haruhi could say anything, I spoke up. "She called me early this morning. Apparently she had to go out of town for a few days. She didn't explain herself, but I think it was family troubles." There. That explanation would satisfy Tsuruya, especially since I'd claimed that a time-displaced duplicate Mikuru was a long-lost twin sister just two weeks before.
Of course it didn't satisfy Haruhi. "What's this?" she snapped. "She called you, but not me? And she wouldn't explain why? I call that suspicious! What are you plotting, Kyon? I won't stand for it!"
With Haruhi in this tone, of course Tsuruya was going to have her own fun. "That's right! Kyons will have to do a lot more explaining than that! Tell us her exact words!"
I don't know which is worse- Haruhi in a cross-examining mood, or Tsuruya egging her on so she can watch and be amused. Wait, I do know- Tsuruya beyond a doubt. Upperclassmen should be more mature and considerate of others.
The interrogation was cut off by the beginning of second period, but I could tell by Haruhi's glare that the subject hadn't been dropped. Fortunately she vanished at lunchtime, not even waiting to eat before dashing off to investigate the new teacher. I didn't see her until the end of lunch, when she entered the classroom along with a tall, strange man in a neat black suit.
Otami-sensei waved Haruhi to her seat before addressing the class. "North High has a new teacher to fill a vacancy," he said. "Fortunately we've had the luck to find someone expert in languages and history. This is Mr. Strame."
What an unusual name, I thought. Its owner was just as unusual. He was clearly European, with dark gray-streaked hair brushed backwards from forehead and temples. He wore a thin mustache and a black goatee with two streaks of white hair bracketing his chin. The most arresting thing about him, though, was his eyes- slightly bulging eyes around a beak-like nose. He resembled a hawk or falcon in certain ways, particularly the eyes that, if you stared into them, made you feel the return stare like an assassin's dagger.
Fortunately he only glanced at me. I was beneath his notice.
"Thank you, Otomi-san," Mr. Strame said. "I'll be taking over class 1-6 for this period while Otomi covers for 1-5. Today we'll be reviewing the end of the Warring States Period- in particular the role of betrayal in the rise of the Tokugawa shogunate."
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(Posted Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:36)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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