Zaregoto

Volume 1 Chapter 4: Savant Blue (Part 4)

So as not to let this opportunity slip through my fingers, I immediately made my way out of the dining room and back to Kunagisa's room. As I expected, she was still face-to-face with her workstation. It didn't seem right to be such a shut-in while also being a guest in another person's home, but I guess we just had different values.

Kunagisa looked back at me.

"Oooh, Ii-chan. Welcome back. How was it? Did you run into anyone?"

"Almost everyone. Today I've seen everyone except Teruko-san and Iria-san. Oh yeah, Yayoi-san, too."

But having eaten her food, I felt as if I had met her.

"Hmm, well, that's almost perfect."

"What is?"

"Your score in the Meeting Everyone on Wet Crow's Feather Island by Mid-Morning Contest."

What a crappy-sounding contest.

But anyway.

There were currently twelve people on the island. Artist Ibuki Kanami-san, chef Sashirono Yayoi-san, Sonoyama Akane-san of the Seven Fools, fortune-teller Himena Maki-san, and engineer Kunagisa Tomo. Then there was Sakaki Shinya and me, the tagalongs. Then there were the original residents of the island, starting with Akagami Iria, who owned the island and the mansion, plus head maid Handa Rei-san and the three all-purpose maids, Chiga Akari-san, Chiga Hikari-san, and Chiga Teruko-san.

A total of twelve people.

In an ordinary-sized house, things would've already gotten quite cramped, but in this oversized palace, there was still an excess of space.

That's when I remembered.

"Hey, Kunagisa. How long were you planning to be here again?"

"Another four days. So for a week, yeah?"

"Shinya-san was asking me about something," I explained to her what Shinya-san had talked to me about. The rumor about Iria-san's favorite jack-of-all-trades coming to town. Kunagisa, however, seemed uninterested, tuning out the majority of my story.

"Is that really important? It's all really vague information, so it's hard to say. but I don't think we really need to meet this person. I didn't really come here to meet any geniuses, and I'm not really interested."

"Well, yeah, but, hey, speaking of that, I've been meaning to ask for a while, why exactly did you come here? If you're not interested in that kind of thing, what were you so interested in?"

I couldn't figure out why someone who hated leaving the house as much as Kunagisa did would accept an invitation like this. She tilted her head a bit, and after a moment's pause said, "Eh, just 'cuz." A nonanswer. "There's no particular reason, really. Or are you the type of guy who always needs there to be one for everything?"

I shrugged.

No way.

"As long as there's a network, it doesn't really matter where I am. Home is the best in the end, though," she said in spite of still being on vacation.

Well, whatever. She was just being her usual whimsical self. I didn't particularly mind, and it wasn't like I was supposed to, either. I sprawled myself out on the pure white carpet and stared up at the chandelier on the ceiling. Man, what an unrealistic scene. Then again, if you asked me what would be a realistic scene, I wouldn't know what to say.

Kunagisa looked at me sprawled on the floor. "Ii-chan, I don't suppose you're bored?"

"I'm bored with life."

"Y'know, that's really unattractive."

Huh.

She laid it right out for me.

"If you're free, why not read a book? I brought a few."

"A book, huh? Whatcha got?"

"Um, a Japanese-English dictionary, the Statute Books, and a modern Japanese dictionary."

"Man, bring that stuff in digital form."

Who has fun reading that kind of stuff?

Oh, right. She does.

Half giving up and half-fed up, I rolled over.

"Huh? Ii-chan, your watch is broken, isn't it?"

"Eh?"

I took a look at my watch. That's right. Come to think of it, I had meant to ask her to fix it. After running into so many people this morning, I'd forgotten all about it.

"Lemme see. I'll fix it for you."

"Here. Maybe the battery's dead."

"Hmm…" She held the watch up to the light. "Nope, something else is wrong. Did you bump it into something hard? Anyway, I think it'll be a quick fix. But you know, wristwatches have become a sort of an anachronism these days. Most people just get by with their cell phones. Huh? Speaking of which, where's yours?"

"I left it at home."

"You should bring it. That's what makes it a mobile phone."

"But what if I dropped it?"

"Well, I guess, but—"

"And it would be out of service here anyway. It would take a phone like yours to get any signal here."

Kunagisa uses a phone that receives signals from relay satellites anywhere in the world. Even on a deserted island in the middle of nowhere, her phone didn't know the meaning of the phrase "out of service."

Of course, it didn't come cheap. It was a terrible waste of money for an anti-socialite like Kunagisa, but she wasn't the type to give much thought to such matters.

"Hmm, maybe so. Well, it's not like being an anachronism is a bad thing."

She narrowed her big eyes and placed my watch next to the computer rack.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Kunagisa showed no response whatsoever, so I had no choice but to open it myself. The visitor was none other than Hikari-san, cleaning supplies in tow.

"Hello. Thanks so much." I invited her in.

"Yo, Hikari-chan, ciaooo!" Kunagisa welcomed her with a full-faced grin. Hikari-san responded in likewise fashion. For some reason, these two girls were strangely friendly with each other. They just plain got along. It's a rare thing for someone to be able to become so friendly with Kunagisa in such a short period of time, so I couldn't help but be a little surprised.

"What are you up to, Tomo-san?"

"I'm making some game software right now. I'm creating an application that converts text to music. I figured I'd give it to Iria-san as a memento of my visit."

"What kind of game is that?" I asked.

"Well, shall I explain? Okay, um, okay, so, Ii-chan, what's the longest book you've ever read?"

"I quit halfway through The Tale of Genji and Don Quixote, so… Tolstoy's War and Peace. Man, that was long."

"Okay. So let's say you converted that whole book into a text document, whether by using a scanner or by typing it all by hand. Then you do a digital-to-analog conversion, like where 'i' is 'do,' 'ro' is 're,' 'ha' is 'me,' and so on. If you do that, you end up with the 'War and Peace Song.' For that much text, it would probably come out to around… an hour, maybe? Of course, in reality, it's more complicated than that. The code conversions and sessions and everything has to be wholly consistent. But still, it turns books into music. Sounds fun, right?"

"Well, definitely sounds interesting, anyway. What programming language are you using? VB? C?"

"Machine language."

An extremely basic-level coding language. I didn't think anybody used that kind of language these days.

"Man, it's like you can communicate with the machine like it's just some close buddy of yours."

"Heh heh heh." she laughed, just a little boastfully.

Seemingly even more ignorant than I about computers, Hikari-san wore an inscrutable expression, not revealing whether she was following the conversation, and said nothing more than "Wow."

"Seriously," I said. "But what's actually fun about this game? I guess I don't really get it."

"Making it is fun."

It was a solid reason. I couldn't object.

Hikari-san listened with apparent interest, but then seemed to remember something. "Oh, right."

She turned to me. "Would it be all right if I cleaned your room later on? I stopped by the storeroom a little earlier, but you were out."

"Sure, no problem."

I sure didn't know what cleaning there was to be done in that room, though. Hikari-san politely thanked me and resumed cleaning Kunagisa's room.

After a single sweep of the room, she stopped and crouched to the floor with a sigh.

"I apologize. I'm just… A little exhausted."

"Why not take a break?"

"No, I'll be fine. Rei-san would get mad anyway. I've said it before, but she's so strict. I'll be fine. I'm peppy. That's my one positive trait. I'm fine. Please forgive me for causing you concern," she said firmly, then exited the room.

I let out a sigh. "Sure seems to have it tough. Maybe it's just my assumption, but seeing her like that, it seems as if she's bearing an awfully big load on her own."

"Do you feel a little like you're watching yourself?"

"It's not like that, but y'know, I do feel a bit of sympathy for her." She did seem to be miserable, after all. Rei-san and Akari-san seemed to have a distinct division in their heads that this was just "work," but Hikari-san didn't seem to be able to mentally process it that way. It was like the concept of work hadn't been figured into her internal "circuit." Perhaps there were circumstances surrounding that.

As for the other maid, Teruko-san, I wasn't sure what she was thinking, so I couldn't comment.

"Everybody's suffering through something, Ii-chan," Kunagisa said knowingly. "Everybody knows hardship, or even if they don't, they're at least exerting effort somewhere. Hikari-san, your pal Nao-kun, Akane-chan—everyone.. If there's anyone who lives without suffering or exerting effort, it's probably me."