Asahina-san stepped back instinctively.
“T-that’s…”
“A miko outfit. A miko!”
A wicked smile lit up Haruhi’s face. It was a smile that appeared whenever she had one of her brilliant ideas. Thrusting the miko outfit into Asahina-san’s arms, Haruhi said:
“Since we’re going on an exorcising trip, this is the best costume we have. If only I had known earlier, I would have definitely prepared some religious robes. Since we can’t have Mikuru-chan dress up like a nun or monk because it’s too embarrassing, the only choice we have left is to have her dress up as a miko… How’s that, Kyon? I’m not one who would bring in different costumes without considering! Isn’t this costume just perfect for the occasion?”
Even though school was already over, I still felt it was better to discuss whether the maid outfit or the miko one would draw more attention from the students. However, before I had a chance to express my thoughts, Haruhi had already shooed me and Koizumi out of the club room.
The sounds of Haruhi’s glorious shouts, mingled with Asahina-san’s cute yet horrified screams, soon drifted out of the club room.
“Koizumi.”
“Yea? Before you ask, let me first clarify that I don’t think spirits are involved.”
Koizumi said as he brushed his hair, and once again revealed his trademark, fox-like smile.
“So what do you think it is this time?”
“I can’t guarantee anything at this point. All I can do is make educated guesses.”
Ah, whatever. Just spill it.
“From what Sakanaka-san said, there was a place many dogs couldn’t enter. That brings me to my question. What do animals, especially cats and dogs, have that’s superior to us humans?”
“The sense of smell?”
“That is correct. There should be something on that path that dogs do not like, or perhaps something buried there.”
Koizumi tidied his hair once again, and said while smiling:
“The first thing that came into mind would be a gaseous bomb, or something of the sort. Maybe it had fell off an army truck while being shipped to who knows where.”
You moron. If something as sensitive as a bomb could fall off the back of the truck, what was the point of using the truck to transport it in the first place?
“Another possibility would be radioactive materials. However, I have no idea how keen animals are towards radiation.”
Let’s just ignore gas bombs and radioactive substances for a while. I find something like an unexploded bomb to be much easier to believe.
“Hmm, that’s actually possible too. What about this one? Maybe a bear happened to hibernate nearby after coming down from the mountains. Now that it’s going to awaken anytime soon, the dogs are all fleeing in fear…”
Don’t be ridiculous! We don’t even have wild boars nearby, never mind wild bears.
“That’s why,” Koizumi said as he elegantly crossed his arms, “If the only clue we have is that there’s something going on that’s related to smell, it would be possible to formulate all sorts of wild theories. The only way to solve this mystery would to be to gather all the information possible, analyze it with a calm and deductive mind, infer a plausible hypothesis with the help of an imaginative mind, and finally follow the line that your gut tells you to. Only when such procedures come together can we unveil the truth. So for the first step, we have to make sure all the information comes from a reliable source. Do we have all the information needed now? There’s no way to know. That’s why it’s not as easy to solve a mystery as it looks.”
If you want to give your opinions on deducing and inferring, you should go to a research facility. What was the point of bringing it up here? Just like Haruhi said, all we needed to do was head to the scene of the crime, and search for anything suspicious, as simple as that. For all we know, Haruhi might end up digging up something weird, like ancient coins from the Chinese Empire. If that really happened, the archeologists over the world would probably be stumped, so it’s better not to hope for something like that to happen.
To make a long story short, if you want to make any deductions, or as you call them, educated guesses, Koizumi, save them for the next club meeting.
“Finding out the truth via simple logic, that could very well be one of the greatest secrets of deduction. But then again, if the truth could be unveiled that easily, then this case would be far too unentertaining, eh?”
As Koizumi was muttering some complicated-sounding crap again, I felt the door I was leaning on suddenly budge, as it began slanting sideways.
And, as the door opened, an energetic brigade commander tugged a miko version of Asahina-san out to meet us.
“Preparations complete! You look good in that, Mikuru-chan! Any wandering spirit would certainly be shocked right back to the afterlife!”
“Sob……”
Asahina-san lowered her head in embarrassment as she stood out for our viewing pleasure, looking very wobbly. After the Hinamatsuri festival on the 3rd of March, I once again got to see her in such an outfit.
When was that kimono made, I wonder? It was downright similar to those kinds of kimonos used only by shrine maidens, complete with one of those ceremonial staves, and if she performed a miko-mai in this while reciting random incantations, I don’t think evil spirits were the only ones who would descend to the afterlife. Simply put, this outfit was so cute, it was made for the kill.
Behind the both of them was Sakanaka-san, who was frantically saying “Erm… There’s no need to go this far actually…” and Nagato, who was not transparent but who’s existence resembled a spirit. As all of them left the club room, it appeared that all preparations to leave the school were indeed complete.
Are we really going off to exorcise spirits? Asahina-san was forced to become a miko now, and if this part-time miko did indeed wave that exorcising staff around in a miko-mai, I fear that she’d accidentally hit her shoulders with it or something. To all the real priests and exorcists out there, we’re terribly sorry for the humiliation.
Finally, early spring had come. During this season, it was common to exhibit strange behaviors, be it people, cats or dogs.
Theoretically, that is.
Haruhi had a very excited expression on her face as our search began. I felt as if we were going to be dragged into some other strange event again, for the other brigade members Koizumi, Asahina-san and even Nagato had begun operating individually. Sometimes I wonder if I should actually do something instead of just standing around.
However, I was the only brigade member that wasn’t bound to any faction, so the only thing I was capable of doing was standing here and fiddling with my own thoughts.
And come to think of it, the one who was leading us was no more than an ordinary dog-loving female classmate of mine. Based on the story Sakanaka-san had told us, I wondered if spirits would really materialize before our eyes.
If spirits that couldn’t be exorcised by Asahina-san’s incantations did exist and were really floating all around town, they would have floated all the way into the club room a long time ago. The most important thing was that such a festival for ghosts had yet to appear.
No, wait. I take that back. The most important thing might very well be—-
Something even harder to explain than spirits, who had conveniently not materialized since none of us had even thought about it.
After walking down the steep slope beyond North High, we boarded a train at the train station, switched railways once, and finally took a different train to the area where Sakanaka-san lived. Since it was located in the opposite direction from the train station the SOS Brigade used to meet, I had never been to that area before. All I knew was that it was a high-class residential area.
Since there were plenty of rich businessmen living in the area, it was obvious that Sakanaka-san was pretty rich herself. Her father was the CEO of some large company, while her brother was pursuing a degree in medicine at a famous university
. I can’t believe that I only noticed I had such a rich classmate at the end of the term.
“It’s nothing much actually.”
Sakanaka-san said as she clutched her hands humbly on the train.
“My father’s only managing a small company, while my brother’s studying at a local university.”
That is to say that aside from her family being rich, her brother was also a smart guy. I wonder if Sakanaka-san calls her brother “Onii-chan”? I’m beginning to miss that calling now.
An image of my sister smiling popped into my mind. I dismissed it by glancing all around the train.
Since all of us were headed to Sakanaka-san’s house, it was natural that the five members of the SOS Brigade, plus one of my classmates, were huddled together in one spot. For some people, six may seem too big a company, but thankfully, there were other students boarding the same train. Since most of them were girls from Kouyouen High School, we North High students were forced to a corner. But even in a train full of high school students, I felt that we were definitely drawing in too much attention.
“Sob……”
That would be due to Asahina-san sobbing as she tightly held on the handrails. That can’t be helped. There was no way a sobbing girl in a miko outfit boarding a public train wouldn’t attract any sort of attention.
Asahina-san had once boarded a train in a bunny-girl outfit, and was even forced to run round the shops in that area in the same outfit. That’s why I wanted to console her by telling her she was far better off this time. At least she was dressed in a costume that didn’t reveal much skin.
“Mikuru-chan, do you know any incantations, spells, verses, or anything of the sort?”
“… Sob… N-no…”
Asahina-san said softly as she lowered her head.
“Well that’s to be expected.”
Even though she faced an ashamed Asahina-san, Haruhi didn’t bother lowering her voice. She certainly didn’t care how Asahina-san felt, all right.
“What about you, Yuki? Have you read about anything to do with exorcism in your books before?”
“………”
Nagato was staring at the passing scenery outside the train window when Haruhi asked her. She spent two seconds to briefly shake her head, before resuming her original pose once again.
I had a feeling I knew what Nagato was about to say. It appeared that Haruhi did too, as she said:
“Is that so. Well, I guess it’s only natural that no one remembers any spells or incantations. But fortunately for you Mikuru-chan, I happen to recall a small portion of an incantation, so repeat after me…”
What type of incantation are you planning on teaching Asahina-san anyway? If that incantation turns out to be some sort of summoning spell, don’t try to blame Asahina-san when something happens. And don’t bother looking for me either, as I’ll be the first one to run away.
“Don’t be stupid.”
Haruhi said happily.
“If I did know such a powerful incantation, I would have tried it out ages ago. Now that you mention it, I remember buying a spell book when I was in junior high. Even though I followed everything written on it, nothing happened. So I came to the conclusion that those spell books you buy in shopping districts can’t be genuine.”
“Hmm, I’ve just thought of something fun.”
For a fleeting moment, I pictured a light bulb suddenly lighting up above Haruhi’s head.
“For our next city-wide search, why not head to some old bookstores or antique shops? We’ll be targeting suspicious old shop owners, and asking them to hand out their genuine magic spell books or magical artifacts! If we’re lucky, maybe genies will appear after we give the artifacts a rub!”
If a genie would grant me three wishes and then quietly retreat back into his lamp for another thousand years of slumber, then I might have been interested. Unfortunately, I had a feeling that the genies Haruhi had in mind were those dark sorcerers who were sealed into lamps during ancient times which, upon being released, would proceed to wreak havoc upon the entire Earth. Thinking about this, I was a little uncertain about having Haruhi venture into some old antique store and proceed to give everything around her a rub. All I wished for was for the “old bookstores” and “antiques shops” of Haruhi to quickly close their shops for the day before Haruhi suddenly changed her mind and decided to organize a city search today.
Needless to say, our conversation had already drifted away from “magical incantations” and was now focused on “magical artifacts”.
“Huhuhu~”
As if reading my mind, Koizumi let out one of his “Huhuhu~” laughs. Since he had both of his hands full, he wasn’t able to grab a hold of the handrail and as such wobbled dangerously as the train ran along its tracks. He had his own bag in one hand, and Asahina-san’s in the other. And since we’re on the topic of bags, aside from my own schoolbag which was sitting in my right hand, I had another bag slung over my shoulder. Inside that bag was Asahina-san’s school uniform. Asahina-san needed to change into her school uniform before she went back home, right? If we had left her uniform at school, she would be forced to either wear the miko costume to school or skip school altogether. And since any sane person would choose to skip school, I had no doubt that Asahina-san would too. If that were to happen, what would become of my daily dose of Asahina-san’s tea? What would I drink to quench my dry throat then?
“Relax. I can handle that for you if such a situation ever arises.”
Koizumi said to me, sounding quite relaxed for someone who just offered to shoulder a big responsibility.
“Even though I’m no good at making tea, I have ways to make sure Asahina-san attends school. I can arrange a car to pick her up if you wish.”
Faced with such an offer, all I did was remain silent.
The person driving would most likely be someone from the ‘Organization’ anyway. Now if it were Arakawa-san, I would have no qualms with it, but if it were Mori-san, whose age remained a well-kept secret, I would feel uneasy about it. Sometimes I wonder if she’s Koizumi’s superior. If it were someone else from the ‘Organization’, I would definitely be worried about letting them send Asahina-san to school. Even though they once assisted us during the Asahina Michiru kidnapping incident, I still couldn’t bring myself to fully trust them.
Koizumi went “Huhuhu~” again, as he said:
“That’s a pity then. And after all the trouble I went of asking Mori-san for help. It seems that I’m going to be a laughingstock at the office again.”
The train made a creaking noise, as it shook and slowly decelerated. It seemed that we had reached our destination at last.
Now’s not the time to worry about Koizumi’s ‘Organization’, or whatever Haruhi had in mind for our next city-wide search.
It was time to find out what was bothering Sakanaka-san’s dog so badly.
After stepping out from the station, all of us proceeded to follow Sakanaka-san as she led us to her house. Although it was located uphill, it wasn’t as steep as the mountain leading to North High, and maybe it’s just me, but why are the girls here prettier than usual?
Luckily, no one stopped to glare at Asahina-san’s miko costume, nor did any police officers take us into custody for suspected kidnap of a shrine maiden. After 15 minutes or so, we finally made it to Sakanaka-san’s house.
“Here we are.”
After seeing Sakanaka-san casually point at the huge building before us, multiple synonyms of the word “unhappiness” immediately ran through my mind. The building before us was undoubtedly a grand bungalow, and it was painfully obvious that whoever lived in there must have been really rich. The walls, the door, and even the front gate of the three-storey bungalow radiated an aura of superiority, and to top it off, it also had a huge garden in the front yard.
Although it wasn’t as wide as Tsuruya-san’s traditional-style mansion in terms of land, it nevertheless displayed a sense of modernity and class that even an outsider like me c
ould detect. By the door was the obligatory security company label, and in the huge, roofed garage, two cars were parked. One of them was a locally-made car, and the other was an imported one. By the looks of the garage, it seemed that it could still accommodate a third car. I wonder how much karma I needed to amass before I could be born and raised in a wealthy family like this.
As I was wallowing in my self pity for not being born rich, Sakanaka-san quickly opened the front gate, and beckoned for Haruhi to enter. Haruhi, being her usual self, strode royally into Sakanaka-san’s house, as Nagato, Koizumi and Asahina-san followed tightly behind, with me at the rear.
“Please wait a moment.”
Sakanaka-san withdrew a set of keys from her bag, and proceeded to open the front door, which, by the way, had three sets of different locks.
“This is so annoying…”
Sakanaka-san said as she began unlocking the door. Could it be that no one was at home? Nah, that can’t be it. Sakanaka-san mentioned earlier that her mother was in. It was probably a habit to lock all the doors tightly even though there was someone in then.
“Where’s your dog you mentioned earlier?”
“Erm, he’ll be here soon.”
Sakanaka-san pushed open the doors, as—-
“Woof woof!!”
With a series of excited barks, a small, white furred dog leapt out of the door, and began wagging its tail and playfully nipping at Sakanaka-san’s skirt.
“Kyaa~ It’s so cute~”
Asahina-san’s eyes gleamed as she knelt down and began patting the puppy. The puppy peered at Asahina-san with its small, black eyes and placed its paw upon Asahina-san’s hand. It then proceeded to run in circles around the miko-outfit clad Asahina-san. No matter how you look at it, this was one normal puppy, and I bet that there was a certificate somewhere in Sakanaka-san’s house that proved that it was a pure breed.
“Rousseau, sit.”
Upon hearing its owner’s command, Rousseau immediately sat down on all fours. It was clear that this was a well-trained puppy. Asahina-san took this opportunity to once again pat its head.
Volume 8 - The Indignation of Suzumiya Haruhi Page 14