What in the world had the offending student said to set him off that way? She couldn’t imagine.
However— With this, she thought, his isolation at school was bound to grow even deeper.
“Elliot Nightray…”
As he stood there, in the alley, Josephine quietly spoke his name. She wondered what he was doing. Elliot was facing the alley wall, and his expression was blank and cold; she couldn’t read any emotion in it. At his feet sat a small wooden crate.
Hearing a “mew” from the box, Josephine murmured, “An abandoned cat…?”
A cat, abandoned in the rain.
Elliot seemed to be looking at it from under his umbrella.
Involuntarily, Josephine held her breath, gazing intently at the scene. She didn’t realize that her heart had begun to beat just a little faster.
Before long, Elliot reached into the crate and picked up the cat. He hugged it to his chest. Since he was holding the umbrella in one hand, he seemed to have a little trouble holding the cat, and she thought he was probably getting his clothes wet, but he didn’t seem to care.
Ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp ba-dmp.
Josephine’s heart was beating fast.
Not realizing he was being watched, Elliot’s face abruptly softened. —Heh.
It was a gentle expression he’d never shown at school.
His lips moved, very slightly, as though he was talking to the cat.
You’re just like me, aren’t you?
There was no knowing whether Elliot had really said that.
In fact, he probably hadn’t.
Still, that was what Josephine had heard. Like glad tidings from heaven. A portrait of a juvenile delinquent (or, no, Elliot Nightray), with a sad little smile on his lips, confiding the loneliness he couldn’t discuss with anyone to an abandoned cat.
Josephine felt a poignant twinge, deep in her heart.
It wasn’t love. It was more like…admiration for something exalted.
Finally, Elliot returned the cat to the crate.
Setting his umbrella over it so that the cat wouldn’t get any wetter, he ran away down the alley, not caring that he was getting wet himself. He ran as if he was trying to shake off a lingering regret. The Lutwidge Academy dormitories didn’t allow pets. There was no way he’d be able to take care of it.
Looking into the depths of the alley where Elliot had disappeared, Josephine murmured.
She murmured to the figure that seemed burned into her eyelids. That shape like a flower blooming nobly in the shadows.
“Master……Blue Rose…”
That was it.
The historic incident that became the beginning of the Blue Rose Club.
“…phine-sama? Josephine-sama.”
Hearing her name called repeatedly, she returned from where she’d been wandering in memory. The common room on the third floor of the girls’ dorm. The members of the Blue Rose Club were already assembled there. Josephine, who was a prefect, had used her authority to borrow the room temporarily.
A low glass table sat in the center of the room, with sofas arranged around it in a hollow square.
The table held steaming teacups and a plateful of cookies for light refreshment.
Everything was ready.
“Everyone has arrived, I see. All right. Let’s begin.”
Smiling, Josephine opened the meeting.
“Yes, let’s,” responded ladylike voices, but one girl looked perplexed:
“Why are we meeting here today?”
At the question, Josephine glanced at Matilda, who was sitting quietly in a corner seat.
“Because today’s assembly is a rather special one.”
At the word “special,” a slight stir ruffled the elegant atmosphere. Every face held great expectations. However, Josephine was perfectly composed. The special report—the main dish—must be presented at the proper time.
When Josephine prefaced her remarks with the statement that the news would be revealed last, all the girls looked disappointed.
“Now then. Who will go first…?”
As Josephine looked around, a hand shot up energetically from a seat on the sofa.
“Yes! Um! I’d like to, if I may!”
“Heh-heh, yes, Mia-san. Go ahead.”
Encouraged, the girl called Mia bounced up from the sofa.
She was the only first-year member of the Blue Rose Club, and the newest member of the group. She was a little flighty and tended to chase after anything popular, and this sometimes made her stand out uncomfortably; however, the older students thought of her as a sort of pet and were quite fond of her.
“You have a report, Mia-san?”
“That hasn’t happened in ages.”
In the midst of these and similar comments, Mia puffed out her chest proudly.
“I’ve found something fantastic.”
Something fantastic? Josephine tilted her head, perplexed. Yes, Mia nodded enthusiastically; she reached into a paper bag she’d set on the floor, rummaged around in it, then pulled something out. For a moment, nobody knew what it was. The first to identify it was Josephine.
“Is it a blue…bookmark?”
“Yes! Everyone knows, right? About the bookmark in the book Master Blue Rose was reading today, I mean. This is just like that one!”
As Mia held up the leather bookmark triumphantly, cries of “My!” rose up.
“I guess it’s fairly rare; it was rather difficult to find. Still, I managed to buy it!”
“That’s…something Master Blue Rose received from ‘the other’ and uses with great care…”
The girls gazed at it with envious eyes. Words of praise were on all their lips.
“That’s quite marvelously rare.”
“The very best, I should say.”
“Ahhhh, would that I had one.”
“Truly.”
“Truly.”
“Truly.”
“But they’re quite difficult to find, aren’t they?”
In response to the group’s voices, Mia shook her head happily—“No, no”—and reached into the bag on the floor once more. Then she pulled her hand out again, quickly. The girls’ eyes were drawn to that hand. It held several bookmarks. “My, my, my!” Several cries of astonishment went up.
“‘Sharing happiness under the auspices of Master Blue Rose’… Is that not what the Blue Rose Club is?!”
Even though she was the youngest member, Mia stated the club’s founding principle eloquently, drawing admiring applause.
Mia began handing bookmarks to each member. The bookmarks didn’t look cheap, and several voices wondered if they hadn’t been quite expensive, but Mia answered cheerfully: “Please don’t worry about it.” As the bookmarks made their way around, one of the girls who held one suggested that if everyone had one, it might be nice to make the bookmark a symbol of membership.
No one objected. Josephine herself agreed that it was a good idea.
It was unanimous. Mia seemed deeply moved that the bookmarks she’d provided were being treated this way.
“—The Blue Rose Emblem.”
Matilda, sitting in the corner, murmured it quietly, and everyone approved of the name as well. Some gazed at their bookmarks in delight, while others hid theirs away in their breast pockets, and still others shut theirs in the volumes of poetry they’d brought with them. The atmosphere in the common room had never been so scintillating.
Watching the scene with a smile of satisfaction, Josephine urged them on: “All right, does anyone else have any news?”
A voice spoke from nowhere in particular.
“Now that you mention it…” said the slightly perplexed voice.
“I hear Master Blue Rose was sighted running around the school today—”
Elliot Nightray
It was a good thing he’d left Leo in the dorm’s entrance hall, Elliot thought.
He was running full tilt, chasing after t
he white cat, which still had the bookmark in its mouth. In contests of pure physical strength, Elliot outmatched Leo, thanks to his swordsmanship training. If he’d brought Leo along, he was sure they would have lost sight of the cat long ago.
The white cat was agile, and on top of that, it ran easily through places that weren’t well suited to human runners. Of course Elliot chased it, along the tops of walls and over storehouse roofs.
When the white cat ran into a space between two buildings that was too narrow for Elliot, he’d run around to the other side and wait for it. However, maddeningly, he wasn’t able to catch it. By this time, he had no idea where on campus he’d run. Finally, the white cat veered off the path and dove into the bushes.
“……You’re n—……”
He tried to say it aloud, and almost choked.
You’re not getting away!!
He screamed it inside his head.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Elliot dove in, too. His uniform coat and trousers were covered with leaves. He cut the back of his hand on some sharp weeds. Blood beaded up. He didn’t have the time or energy to feel the pain. He lost sight of the white cat in the grass several times, but he found it again through sheer grit and tenacity, and he kept chasing it.
“Wa–Wait, you…!”
He started coughing before he was able to get the “little” out.
In contrast to the desperate, frantic Elliot, the white cat ran as lightly as if it were dancing, and it seemed to be enjoying itself.
It might have felt as if it was in the middle of a fun game of tag.
With a terrific leap, the white cat burst from the bushes. Elliot barreled straight ahead as well, running out of the bushes, and there—
He was in that back garden. Small flower beds, a shadowed space. It seemed deserted.
“…………!?”
He hadn’t been far behind the white cat, but he didn’t see it. Gasping for breath, Elliot hunted doggedly for the white cat, radiating a frenzied aura.
“Oh, Elliot-kun—”
A voice spoke behind him. Ada Vessalius’s voice.
Elliot turned; his gaze was sharp enough to cut. “Ahn?” Ada looked as if she’d just reached the back garden herself. Seeing Elliot suddenly plunge out of the bushes had obviously startled her. The sight of Elliot—out of breath, shoulders heaving—seemed to bewilder her.
Wearing an expression that declared she had absolutely no idea what was going on, she pointed at the bushes from which Elliot had emerged:
“Elliot-kun, did you just…come from there—?”
As she spoke, Ada seemed to come to some realization. Her cheeks suddenly flushed red.
Very softly, her lips mouthed the words “Secret date…” Ada looked down, folding her hands in front of her, fidgeting with her fingers.
Elliot didn’t know what her reaction meant, and he had something far more urgent to worry about. Irritated, he glanced around the area.
Fidget fidget, fidget fidget. As Ada fidgeted, she spoke:
“……Ah. Um. Lutwidge Academy doesn’t prohibit students from seeing each other, but, um, you really shouldn’t, um… Not in the bushes… Um, that…that sort of…i-immoral buh…behavior isn’t something I can allow as a disciplinary committee member, so to speak—Aaaaaaaaauau!”
Ada was in full confusion mode; her eyes were spinning.
“……………………………………………………………………What are you talking about?”
Elliot’s face was cold.
“Huh?”
Ada looked blank. With a merciless sneer, Elliot spoke:
“Hah! So the Vessalius girl’s head is always full of flower fields. It must be real nice to have things that easy. I don’t care if you play disciplinary committee member, but at least do a decent job. Thanks to you, I’ve been……!”
If the disciplinary committee had found the white cat promptly and caught it before it met Elliot…
This wouldn’t even be happening!
His logic was pure misdirected anger, but Elliot had a sharp tongue. He couldn’t possibly have been more irritated. Even as she shrank back a bit under his harsh words, Ada echoed the end of Elliot’s sentence: “Thanks to me, you’ve been—?”
Elliot had no intention of telling her, and he couldn’t have done so in any case.
“…Elliot-kun?”
“I told you, don’t say my—”
Name like we’re friends, Elliot was about to say.
But.
—Moon?!
Behind Ada’s back, he saw the white cat slip smoothly into the school building.
Puzzled, Ada was still waiting for the words that came after “don’t say my,” and when Elliot suddenly made a mad dash at her, she gave a little shriek and almost fell over. However, Elliot didn’t even seem to see her anymore; he ran right past her and away.
“Elliot-kun…?!”
On reflex, Ada called for him to stop. However, without turning back, Elliot yelled at her over his shoulder and disappeared into the school building.
“Don’t let me see your face again, you addlepated disciplinary committee member!”
It was magnificently trenchant abuse. …And then Ada was left all alone.
Under the cloudy sky. Standing dumbfounded in a cold wind that was beginning to carry hints of the chill of night, she repeated:
“‘Addlepated’…”
Why had he said that to her? She worried a bit, but before long, she understood.
Oh, I see! Elliot-kun was—
Ada Vessalius
Back inside the school building, Ada strode enthusiastically down the corridor.
She was raring to go, and she exuded an imposing aura that said “Discipline must be maintained!” That said, she hadn’t discarded her usual soft, benevolent atmosphere, which meant something about her felt undeniably mismatched. Still, Ada herself was attempting to seem as strict as she possibly could.
Elliot-kun cheered me on. “Do a decent job,” he said. I’ve got to do my best!
She’d looked out into the back garden a little while ago because she’d been worried about Elliot and the someone he was waiting for. She’d tried to arrange it so that people wouldn’t go to the back garden, but she wasn’t sure it had worked. Were they having a wonderful time, undisturbed?
I wonder what sort of person Elliot-kun was waiting for…
That curiosity had also been there, in a corner of her mind.
He must have seen through it. That was why he’d scolded her so harshly.
“I don’t care if you play disciplinary committee member, but at least do a decent job.
“Don’t let me see your face again (until you finish your job)!”
She was sure that was what he’d meant.
In that case, she thought, after she’d fully performed her duties as a disciplinary committee member, she’d go to see him again, and she’d greet him properly this time. She was positive he’d return her greeting then. …After all, she was sure he was a good person. No doubt they could become friends.
Although she wasn’t aware of it, it was more that Ada wanted to believe this than that she actually did believe it.
And so, first of all, she’d perform her disciplinary committee duties properly—
As she was thinking this and similar things, she turned a corner in the corridor and came face-to-face with Elliot again. Elliot was running without looking where he was going, and they very nearly collided.
“Waugh!” Their voices overlapped.
I’m sorry, Elliot was about to apologize, when he realized it was Ada.
“You?!”
“Wa-wa-wa, I didn’t meet you, I haven’t seen you, I—”
“……Huh? Dammit, whatever, just move!”
She’d thought she’d be scolded again, but Elliot only pushed her out of the way and ran off, without taking the time to yell at her. He was looking this way and that, and he wasn’t watching where he was going. Ada tilted her head
, puzzled. What had happened to the secret date? Was it over?
No, that wasn’t it. She remembered their exchange in the back garden.
“What are you talking about?” As he’d responded to Ada’s unfounded suspicions, Elliot’s face and voice had been cold.
From what she could tell from her memories, that had been an honest reaction.
In that case, her idea about a secret date might have been mistaken. In that case, what was he doing? He’d seemed to be looking for something. If he was, in fact, looking for something, she wanted to help him. …She did want to, but Ada shook her head, erasing the thought.
I have to perform my own duties properly.
He was kind enough to scold me, after all. He wouldn’t want me to set aside my work as a disciplinary committee member to help him. I’ll do my best at my own job.
Right! Ada thought, firing herself up again, and began to walk faster.
And then.
Everywhere she went, Ada ran into Elliot.
She ran into him in a deserted classroom, peering under the teacher’s desk. When he saw Ada, Elliot started, sent a sharp glance her way, and went off somewhere.
She ran into him outside the bathrooms. Unless she’d been imagining things, Elliot had just emerged from the girls’ lavatory. As before, when Elliot noticed Ada, he was startled, but this time he ignored her and ran off.
The next place she saw him was outside another restroom. She began to worry that his stomach might be troubling him—But, again, Elliot saw Ada, started, glared at her fiercely, and ran off.
She ran into him in the cafeteria, where preparations for the evening meal were being made. She ran into him in the chapel. And in the music room. And in the reference room. She ran into him everywhere. Every time they met, Elliot started, and every time, he seemed to have grown more tired.
Finally, as Ada was passing by the main gate, there was Elliot again—
The instant he met her eyes:
“…You…!”
This time, Elliot didn’t ignore her. He strode up to her, as if he couldn’t take it anymore.
PandoraHearts ~Caucus Race~, Vol. 2 Page 5