chapter02 · 058-ep52
Episode 52: Midterm Week
Monday. First period: math.
The moment I flipped the test sheet open, question one was a quadratic translation.
There it is.
For x: plus moves it left. Minus moves it right.
I glanced over — Yano was staring at her sheet, one tiny fist pump.
Not a sound out of her, but the shape of her mouth said there it is.
She'd probably be fine.
I gripped my pen again.
One problem at a time. Certain.
During midterm week: two subjects a day, done by lunch.
Monday, math and classical. Tuesday, English and world history. Wednesday, modern lit and biology. Thursday and Friday, the remaining four. The last of all: Friday chemistry.
When school ends at noon, the classroom goes loud all at once.
"Did you get the last math problem?"
"No chance."
"Classical — that auxiliary verb one......"
"Don't. What's done is done — don't say it!"
Monday at noon, as I was leaving the classroom, Yano came running up.
"Ichinose-kun — the translation! It showed up!"
"It did. Dead center."
"I got it right, probably. Flipped the x properly."
"Ohh — look at you."
"Thanks to you, Ichinose-kun!"
Yano smiled, delighted.
From behind, Matoba shuffled over, wrecked.
"...Classical killed me."
"The auxiliary verbs?"
"...Couldn't tell keri and ki apart."
"Past tense and the exclamatory one."
"Telling me that NOW doesn't help!"
In the afternoons, I went home and reviewed the next day's two subjects.
Silently, steadily, going back over my notes.
—That part was only half true.
The whole afternoon was free.
Riding home, pedaling along, I noticed myself doing math in my head.
School ends at noon; take the train to Toda and you're there by one-thirty. Dive in from the Floor 125 transfer circle, gather up some deep-floor drops, cash them in.
480,000.
One day would probably cover it.
"No. No no."
I shook my head, right there on the bike.
I'd decided: after the tests. That's what I told big sis. That's what I told Seina.
Besides — if she found out I'd been diving during test week, Akane-senpai would kill me.
Straight home, straight to the desk.
Tuesday, the same. Wednesday, the same.
School ends at noon. On the way home, I think about Toda. I shake my head. I get home and review the next day's subjects.
But inside the school, the air was shifting, little by little.
The trend that had run since Sunday morning hadn't settled by Monday night — the TV news picked it up, and it spread even further.
Walking the halls, upperclassmen I didn't know stared at me more and more.
"...That's him. The one almost at C-rank."
"A first-year?"
"They're saying once in a decade."
The whispers stung my back.
I'm still D-rank, you know.
By Wednesday morning, a handful of adults with cameras stood outside the school gate.
TV crews.
But three or so teachers were planted at the gate, turning them away flat: "We refuse all interviews with students."
The homeroom teacher said one thing at morning homeroom.
"There've been media people around the school lately. If anyone calls out to you, you don't have to answer. Focus on your tests."
For one instant, the whole class's eyes gathered on me.
The homeroom teacher didn't say anything more than that.
Only, as homeroom ended, passing me by, she said it small:
"Ichinose-kun. If anything happens, you come tell me."
"Yes. Thank you very much."
She smiled — a smile as gorgeous as her blackboard writing.
Thursday, noon.
I was changing shoes at the lockers when Akane-senpai and Tono-senpai came past.
"...You."
Akane-senpai glared over at me.
"You haven't been to a dungeon during test week, have you."
"I haven't. This time — really."
"...Really?"
"Really. Even with school out at noon, I go straight home."
"...Fine, then."
Akane-senpai sniffed — hmph.
Then, dropping her voice a little.
"...Those media people at the gate. You okay?"
"Eh?"
"You've been on TV, right? A first-year, dealing with all that — that's rough."
That caught me off guard.
I'd braced for a scolding — and what I got was worry.
"I'm okay. The teachers have been turning them away."
"...I see."
Akane-senpai looked away.
"...If you're ever in trouble, tell Akari or me. This kind of thing — we're used to it."
"Thank you very much. That's incredibly reassuring."
"N-not for your sake or anything! If an underclassman got crushed by it, it would just leave a bad aftertaste, that's all."
Beside her, Tono-senpai was laughing, quietly.
"Akane — when Ichinose-kun came up on the TV news, you were fidgety the whole time."
"Akari!"
"'I hope he's okay' — you said it three times."
"I did NOT!!"
Akane-senpai seized Tono-senpai's arm and made off from the entrance at a run.
It meant a lot.
Genuinely.
Friday.
The last test: chemistry.
Three mole problems.
Exactly what I'd taught Kuzumi, Nishino, and Yano at the study group.
One glance — diagonally behind me, Kuzumi was moving his pen in silence. Not a trace of hesitation.
I finished the last problem, checked it over, and set my pen down.
The chime rang.
"Alright, that's time. Pass them up from the back."
The answer sheets flowed from the back of the room to the front.
The instant the last one reached the teacher's hand—
"...IT'S OVEEERRRR!!"
Someone screamed.
On that signal, the classroom detonated.
"Done!"
"Freedooom!"
"Chemistry — the moles. Did you get them?"
"No answer-checking! None!"
Me too — I leaned back in my chair and looked up at the ceiling.
Done.
Every subject, studied properly. Every problem, solved properly.
It hadn't felt bad.
"Ichinose-kun."
Yano turned her whole chair toward me.
"Chemistry — the mole problems showed up!"
"They did. The bulk-buying kind."
"I got all three. Probably!"
"All three? Look at you."
From the seat behind, Kuzumi said it small:
"...All three for me, too."
"Kuzumi, too — well done!"
"...Thanks to Ichinose."
One corner of Kuzumi's mouth lifted, just a little.
When the classroom racket had settled down some, Yano abruptly went serious.
"...Ichinose-kun."
"Hm? What's up?"
"I said I'd tell you when the tests were over, right."
"Ah — yeah. You did."
Yano's gaze swam, just a little.
Then, like she'd steeled herself, she looked me dead in the eye.
"...I want to try going to a dungeon too."
"Eh — a dungeon?"
"I'm thinking about registering as an explorer."
Yano kept going, fast.
"You know how, at karaoke, at the study group — whenever you talk about dungeons, Ichinose-kun, you get this face like you're having so much fun? The Golden Week stories, the Toda stories. Watching that, I don't know — I started wanting to see what kind of place it is, with my own eyes."
I was so surprised my mouth hung half open.
"N-not that I want to become amazing like you or anything! I just want to see it a little. F-rank is fine. Just once!"
Yano's face had gone just a little red.
I see.
When I was talking about dungeons, Yano had listened, the whole time, quietly.
She'd been listening — really listening.
"I think that's great!"
My voice bounced, higher than even I expected.
"I think it's really, really great. Dungeons are honestly fun."
"...Really?"
"Really, really. When you register — anything you don't understand, ask me anything. For F-rank there's Moriyama and the other beginner-friendly ones, and also—"
"...Ichinose-kun, you're talking fast again."
"I am. But I'm happy — can't be helped."
Yano snorted a laugh.
"...Then teach me all about it, sometime."
"Leave it to me!"
Out the entrance, the May sky was infuriatingly clear.
The tests were over.
On the bike, out the school gate. The media weren't there today.
Pedaling, I lined up the to-dos in my head.
Tomorrow, Saturday.
First: the stream. Then: the rest of the taxes.
Stream while running Toda's deep floors, and it'll probably be reached.
And when it is—
C-rank.
"Heh heh."
I grinned, right there on the bike.
This time, I didn't shake my head.
The tests were over, after all.