Looking out of the window, the sky above the ski slopes is about as bright as the kind of uniform blue you get when someone sprays blue paint over a polyester board, but today skiing is prohibited.
“I am still a bit worried about Yuki, so let’s stay indoors today.”
With that, Haruhi proclaims the skiing ban. Nagato has been using her expressionless look to try and convince Haruhi, who wants to drag her off to see a doctor, that ‘I am all right’, but there is no one that can reverse the decision made by our own chief.
“Hear this! No outing at least for today! Before I am sure that you have fully recovered, any contact sport or anything that might get adrenaline pumping are not for you, okay?”
Nagato looks at the eyes of Haruhi, which are as wide as the moon, and then turns her vision towards the rest of us lined up on the side. It is almost as if she is asking ‘I am fine with this, but how about you?’
It seems that there is more than one person that shares Haruhi’s sentiment.
“I wholeheartedly agree. We would be worried if we were to leave Nagato-san aside while the rest of us go out. All for one and one for all… it might make for quite a tale,”
Koizumi crisply responds. The non-full members, being my sister and Tsuruya-san, both readily agree. I don’t know why it is that I can’t be sure of Shamisen’s opinion, who my sister is carrying right now, but he didn’t even make a sound, so I assume he has no comment.
“Why don’t we push the schedule ahead then?” Koizumi’s vision heads out of the window. “It’s fine to have the detective game, originally set to start this evening and end at midnight, start early.”
Can we begin now? Please do this before Haruhi’s burning eyes, glimmering in anticipation, start to roast my nerve cells.
“I apologize, but it is best to wait until snow starts to drift again. The weather forecast suggests that it will snow in the afternoon so please wait until then.”
I had only dragged that ridiculously heavy Shamisen along because you’re the one who said that a cat is required. Now you say that you need to have it snowing. What is this? If you want snow, there’s a pile of the stuff outside.
“I need a condition of non-stop snowfall. Ahh, I cannot go on any further, for it is a part of the deception.”
Having said that, Koizumi smiles at the bright calico in my sister’s arms and grabs the hiking backpack next to the heater.
“Having anticipated such a situation, I have brought several games with me, which should be enough to keep everyone busy even for an entire day.”
I expected something like this, but with him taking out one board game after the other, I wonder if Koizumi simply detests video games?
We can really enjoy ourselves, but what of Mori-san and Arakawa-san? Arakawa, the butler who doubles as head chef and the ever busy maid Mori-san who has been constantly tending to our needs are both actually members of the ‘Organization’ that Koizumi is a part of, tasked to keep an eye on Haruhi.
The demeanor of the two is so reserved that I feel rather apologetic about it. Just as I was about to lend them a hand with the cooking as well as with the cleaning duties —
“There is no need. I sincerely thank you for your goodwill.”
The demure pair politely rejected my offer.
“These are duties within our competence and are our responsibility.”
Eh? Are the two of them actually butler and maid in real life? Were they hired by Koizumi and his cohorts to come here just to put on a show?
Perhaps seeing my concern, Arakawa-san removed the professional mask and put a full smile on his face.
“Our appearance is all due to having gone through professional training,”
He explained to me. At the moment, the two are nowhere to be seen in this public area and are probably busy in the kitchen.
As for the other two actors — Tamaru Keiichi-san who had made his vast fortune that affords him a lone island as a summer resort from the field of biotechnology, along with his brother Yutaka-san — they have yet to appear. Their arrival will mark the climax of Haruhi’s career in the field of tabletop games. The nerve-wrecking tradition that is to be the after-meal exercise and uses punishment games as the bet is set to begin by two o’clock in the afternoon. Meanwhile Haruhi is becoming a billionaire as the rest of us fall knee-deep in debt.
The two guests are led to the public area by Arakawa-san, who went out to greet them, and they chat with us a little.
“If not for the train delay due to the snow, we would have arrived in the morning.”
Tamaru Keiichi-san, who appears to be an ordinary uncle no matter how you look at him, has as warm a smile as in the summer.
“Ahh, hello everyone, it’s been a while.”
Tamaru Yutaka-san, the sunshine boy, shows an exaggerated smile to Koizumi as he waves to us, and then addresses Tsuruya-san:
“Hi, my name is Tamaru, pleased to meet you, and thank you for your hospitality. To be invited to the Tsuruya family’s retreat is an honor.”
“Not at all, don’t be so modest!”
Tsuruya-san happily continues:
“You are all friends of Koizumi-kun and with the entertainment that you’ve all prepared, I am more than happy about everything! I love a good show!”
No matter who she talks to, Tsuruya-san seems to have a way of turning the other person into a friend in about fifteen seconds. She must be like that in Asahina-san’s class. I am quite envious of the male students in that class.
Mori-san and Arakawa-san greet the Tamaru brothers once again.
“We welcome your arrival, dear guests.”
“Sorry to trouble you all even in winter.” Keiichi-san gives an awkward smile. “Thanks for everything, Arakawa.”
“Have you all had lunch by now?”
Mori-san inquires with a smile. Yutaka-san replies.
“We already ate on the train. Please bring our luggage to our rooms.”
“Of course, please leave it to me.”
Arakawa-san returns a deep bow as he suddenly gives Koizumi a look.
“Well then, everyone,”
Koizumi stands up like the the priest in a marriage ceremony-
“With everyone so anxious to start, let us begin the game. Of course that might be an inconvenience to the Tamaru brothers who have just arrived.”
His smile seems a little stiff. Could it be that Koizumi lacks confidence with the game arrangements or that some awkward situation is awaiting us?
“Let me state that the only victim will be Keiichi-san. This will not become a serial murder case. And there is only one murderer so please rule out the possibility of multiple suspects. As for motivation… you can ignore it as there is no meaning in that. Lastly, once we start setting the stage-” He points to the clock of the wall, “-which should begin between two and three in the afternoon, save Arakawa-san and Mori-san, no other person may leave this public area for the duration. Yutaka-san is to stay here as well. If there is anything that needs to be attended to before we begin, please see to it now. Can all of you abide by those rules?”
Everyone nods.
“There are still seven minutes till two o’clock, but that’s not a problem. Let us begin.”
Koizumi gives a nod to Tamaru Keiichi-san.
“Well then-”
Keiichi scratches his head with an awkward look, as he is once again the center of attention, repeating the role of the victim as in the summer. He stands up and then talks to us as if he is baiting us:
“I suppose that my room is the small hut outside the main house.”
“Yes, please follow me,” Mori-san says.
“I would like to take a little nap. Having to wake up so early this morning left me sleep deprived. I might also have caught a cold, as my nose is acting up.”
“Oh yes, Keiichi-san is allergic to cats. This might have been caused by the cat.”
Even for an act, this is getting too carried away.
“Might be. Ahh, d
on’t worry too much about it. My cat allergy is not all that serious. It is a pain to be in a small room, but it isn’t much of a problem if we are in a wide open space.”
After that he gives a reminder:
“Oh yes, can you come and wake me at about four-thirty? Is that ok? At four-thirty?”
“Of course.”
Mori-san bows, then stands up straight and elegant as she walks out.
“Please follow me. This way.”
Hurrying to catch up to Mori-san, Keiichi-san disappears into the hallway after having spewed out a whole bunch of long-winded lines. The whole interlude screams, “All’s right with the world!”
“I will take my leave then. Yutaka-san, I will help you with the luggage.”
Arakawa-san the butler gives a full ninety-degree bow and quickly leaves with the bag and coat.
Having seen them all off with his eyes, Koizumi faked clearing his throat:
“With that, scene one has come to an end. Please enjoy yourselves on this wide-open floor.”
“Hold it,”
Haruhi objects.
“What’s with the hut? Where is it if it exists?”
“Oh yeah,” Tsuruya-san responds, “it was not built with the house, it’s just a very small extension. Eh? Did none of you spot it?”
“Not at all. Koizumi-kun, to hide any lead is against the rules. Not telling us is just not fair. Let’s all go and take a look.”
“I had planned to take everyone there later on…”
Koizumi’s smile is rather forced with how fast the pacing of things has become. However there seems to be room to salvage the situation after he has a look at the clock.
“I understand. It’s not a problem to go and have a look right now.”
“Over here!”
Tsuruya-san heads out in the lead. Everyone else naturally follows. Even my sister has come along while hugging Shamisen. Although I don’t really think that the girl and the cat will be of any help with the deduction.
Just beyond the public area is a walkway ending on the central courtyard. The exterior wall is glass, and so the view of the courtyard outside is crystal-clear.
I don’t know exactly when, snow had begun to drift from the sky.
The accumulated snow was already knee-deep. The landscaping is Japanese in style and it’s only because of the snowfall that it seems to be totally white everywhere. Within this white scene, a small building that looks to be a hut stands by itself.
After a short walk, Tsuruya-san opens the door leading to the courtyard and points to the building.
“That is the hut that my grandfather uses to meditate. He hates noise and in order to escape from the clamors of the villa, he locks himself inside whenever we come here on vacation. Don’t come if you don’t like the noise! But it’s odd not to invite him. He’s a tough old geezer to please.”
Tsuruya-san might be complaining about it, but her tone is filled with a sense of longing as well.
I carefully observe every detail without overlooking anything. There is no solid wall anywhere on the passage between the door from the villa to the hut. Only the roof keeps out the snow. Thanks to that, the stone path from the house to the small hut is covered by snowflakes. Thank goodness that there’s only light snowfall today as things won’t be so good in a blizzard.
The subzero air that blows in from the wide open door freezes us without any jacket to death, especially Shamisen who is struggling about in a bad mood as he wants to get back to his warm bed. My sister finds Shamisen in this mood to be highly amusing, and before I can stop her, she heads out of the walkway after putting on her slippers and pushes Shamisen close to the piles of snow.
“Hey, Shami, this is snow. Want to eat it?”
Shami shakes about like a carp trying to break free from the fishing wire, and the moment that he gets free of my sister’s arms, he gives a ‘umeow~’ in a show of his own dissatisfaction and storms back to the house, vanishing without a trace. No doubt he is going back onto the heated floor to continue with his sleep.
“Ara.”
Mori-san, after having led Keiichi-san to his room, comes toward us on the stone pavements with a movement so light it’s as if she’s weightless. This beauty of age unknown gives us a charming smile.
“Is there something that I can help you all with? If you need to find Keiichi-sama, he would be inside the hut.”
“You sure?” Haruhi questions with her face showing a sceptical look.
“I am positive.” Koizumi answers instead. “That is because the script is set up this way.”
When we return to the public area, the clock points exactly to two o’clock. Koizumi sighs apparently in relief.
“Allow me to remind everyone not to leave on your own before three o’clock. If you have to do so, please allow me to escort you.”
Koizumi walks to the bag over in the corner and starts to take things out of it. Why not just take everything out at once?
“Hmm?”
I notice something. Shamisen is nowhere to be seen. Koizumi has placed things over by the heater, and the cushion that is placed over the heat vent is the preferred seating of the cat. I thought that he’d be laying there still by this point. Although this concern-
“Let’s play this to pass the time. Is that alright, Suzumiya-san?”
vanishes without a trace with Koizumi’s comments.
“Sure.” Haruhi seems to be in high spirits for some reason. “It might be a bit early, but we’d be playing later on anyway, so might as well. Koizumi-kun, gimme that.”
Haruhi grabs a paper bag from Koizumi and takes out some strange things from it, a few pieces of paper that might be for sketching and the same number of envelopes. I suddenly feel a sense of anxiousness that is kind of hard to describe.
“This is Fukuwarai.” Says Haruhi. “Did you all play it when we were kids? This is meant for tomorrow, but it would be a waste of time to not play it right now.”
This is obvious just from the looks of the setup. Be it the facial features or the hairline, all of these are cute versions of our portraits. The outlines are actually very true to the original, quite identifiable even without facial features such as eyes or nose. That could be the reason why Haruhi’s so very smug right now.
“This is my work. I did it myself! And it’s all done by hand. There’s even one for Tsuruya-san. I even did one for for your sister knowing that she’s coming along. Sorry about that Yutaka-san ~ I don’t have much of an impression of your face…”
“No worries.” Yutaka-san sounds quite relaxed about it. “It is natural for you not to have much of an impression of my look.”
“I suppose.”
Haruhi looks at us members with a smile.
“Not bad huh? We can play the game with our faces. But let me tell you that there’s no going back. The faces when they’re done will be glued and put to display in the clubroom, so you better take this seriously or the portraits that will be put to display for generations to see will be some cubist impressionist work.”
Her head is always thinking of the silliest things. Well Haruhi’s got quite the artistic talent, with her capturing our features really well. If we put the pieces together right, it should be easy to identify these as our caricatures. That point alone means that we can’t let Haruhi down.
However, just how does she find the kind of time to do this stuff?
“Who wants to start first?”
Tsuruya-san bravely raises her hands the moment Haruhi asks that question.
Tsuruya-san, while she does not seem to be an average person, has no x-ray vision. After having been blindfolded by a towel, she arranges a laugh riot of a portrait beautifully and makes the room catch infectious laughter, which of course drives her to hilarity having seen the final results as she tosses about on the ground. Not even with laugh bags can you crack up like that.
The second-up is Koizumi. His handsome face is ruined in an instant. After having taken off his shroud and getting a look
at his final works, he shakes his head with innumerable woes, but knowing that I come next makes me unable to really laugh about it.
What a game this is, making me feel butterflies in my stomach. As I mentally prepare myself-
“Pardon me for a second.” Koizumi whispers to me. “I need to talk to Arakawa-san and the others about tomorrow’s arrangements, so I will excuse myself for now.”
With that, he walks out of the public area. I have no idea what it is that he needs to talk about, but that isn’t terribly important. How will my personal portrait appear when it is enshrined in the clubroom is now totally up to my ability of spacial orientation.
My self-portrait ends with a burst of laughter. Oh well, it’s better than making an absolutely plain face and chilling the room to below freezing anyway. Although Tsuruya-san, aren’t you laughing a bit too hard over this?
As I take off the towel and hearing Tsuruya-san’s high-pitch squeals, I see that Koizumi is back. I look at the clock out of reflex.
The time is slightly past two thirty.
“Pardon me.”
Without knowing what he’s planning, Koizumi somehow returns with Shamisen who disappeared into nowhere only just a while ago. Just what’s Koizumi doing with him?
“Nothing. He wouldn’t let go of Mori-san in the kitchen.”
Koizumi puts Shamisen directly on the cushion at the heater and he curls up into a ball having being bathed in the warm wind. Putting the cat somewhere warm while it has a full stomach is a sure-fire way to tame it.
“How are the results?”
Koizumi sits right next to me and looks toward the hearth. Tsuruya-san and Koizumi as well as my portraits have already been vandalized by my little sister and are now glued and ready for display. Instead of posting these, I suggest posting something else such as full-size shots of Asahina-san’s cosplay photos.
…judging from Nagato’s expression, she has no idea why is it that her own self-portrait tickles at people’s funny bone as she stares at her own seemingly ‘happy’ work.
Volume 6 - The Wavering of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 13
