v5 01 May 2007 10:26 pm
Declaration of Disbanding 1
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“What wouldn’t be a crime?”
All of the sudden from behind us was a throaty voice.
“Eh!?”
Whoa! Ch-ch-ch-ch-chuzai!
“Why are you so startled?”
It was more of an impossibility to say not to.
“W-we. We weren’t…”
“We weren’t discussing anything bad!”
Takaaki… It’s almost as if you’re saying we were totally discussing bad things that way.
“Hmm? You guys are suspicious…”
Our suspicion meant that he hadn’t heard our conversation. But everyone was so startled that they seemingly couldn’t make that kind of judgment. To have a policeman in a discussion on stealing. There wasn’t a worse combination.
“Wwwwww, www-ww-ww, we weren’t doing anything!”
Stuttering away.
“No… I heard steal or something?”
As one would expect from a police officer, he was sensitive to these kinds of words.
“T-that’s not right. We were saying we want to eat some veal. Right?”
“R-right, right. That’s right. We were all just discussing eating some steal!”
Hey hey. They’re getting mixing up.
“And larceny…?”
“It-it’s like a set with the veal. A veal and brownie set! It’s surprisingly good.”
“T-t-t-that’s right. Summertime is the best time for the wheel and arsenic set… I-it’s surprisingly good. Really.”
Saijoh. You stop talking already.
“No. Since you guys are together, it’s no mistake that you guys are discussing something bad.”
“W-what are you saying to virtuous high schoolers…?”
“Ha ha. If you guys are virtuous, then Shocker is a charitable institution.”
Chuzai-san laughed through his nose. Nevertheless, it was the first time I had heard “Shocker” from the mouth of a policeman.
“E-enough about us, what are you doing here, Mr. policeman?”
“Y-yeah yeah. Isn’t this out of your jurisdiction? Hurry back and go protect the safety of our town.”
Why did that sound like a line out of “Tanken Boku no Machi*1“?
“I’m off-duty till evening today. See, because Minako-chan is going back to Tokyo soon, she said she wanted to say her farewells to Saijoh before that. I just brought her here.”
“What? Minako-san?”
“I have her waiting in the hospital lobby right now. When I inquired to your room, they said that you were in the inner courtyard.”
“And then. I ran into this conspiring suspicious scene, is what happened. Why are you guys together? Every one of you.”
“What? Like I said… w-we were just about to do radio exercises… Hey, everyone ready?”
“Y-yeah. Ready anytime! Give us a stamp*2!”
“I still think number one is a little cooler than number two. Number one, it’s all about number one when it comes to radio exercises.”
“What a lie! At any rate, there were this many of you crawling around. It’s pretty amazing seeing you guys in the light. Well, as they say, for every one Saijoh you see, there are thirty times more. Wa ha ha.”
Treated like cockroaches… I think the reason for our war with Chuzai-san not being able to end had its root around here.
“By the way, Mr. policeman.”
Takaaki-kun asked.
“Where are you supposed to turn in petitions for fireworks?”
“Fireworks? You don’t need a petition for stuff like your fountains.”
“No, I meant like in the case of bigger fireworks.”
“Hm. You’re supposed to address it to the head of the jurisdiction, but why?”
“U-u-u-um, it’s summer homework. It’s called “Our Town and Fireworks”.”
What’s with… that title…
“What a low level high school.”
We were being dissed.
“A-and, can you fill out a petition and send it in even during break?”
“Hm. You can send a petition even during break. And you need a meeting notification if you’re meeting… but the most important for fireworks is probably the fire department… but why do you ask?”
“L-like I said, it’s summer homework! It’s called “Our Town and Petitions”.”
Hey, hey. The title’s changed!
“Even then. You can turn in a petition, but getting permission is a different story. It probably won’t happen during the break.”
As we thought.
“Even before that, you guys are minors. I’m not sure what you’re trying to do, but they won’t accept most of your petitions.”
What Saijoh-kun had said was true. We sent signals to each other with our eyes.
That’s right. It was the sign for “we have no other choice.”
But first, we had to release ourselves from Chuzai-san’s suspicions.
“M-Mr. policeman. You’re not taking Obon off?”
“Well. We really can’t take it off. There’s a lot during the summer. There’s more crimes and accidents too…”
“Is that so?”
“On top of that, there’s more events. Like the fireworks festival in Y-City the day after tomorrow…”
“Hwva!?”
“What are you so surprised about?”
“Are you going… to the fireworks festival?”
“Of course. The majority of police around here are going. After all, it’s a big event where tens of thousands of people come.”
“Ah! Let me say one thing, you guys don’t come. You’ll increase my workload.”
Who were we, to be told “not to come” by the police…
Either way, it ended up that we asked a crucial question to our “mortal enemy.” I had a really bad feeling about this.
*1 An educational TV program that was aired from 1984 to 1991 for third grade social study class.
*2 During summer vacation, kids from the neighborhood get together and do the radio exercise together. With every attendance, kids get a stamp, at the end of summer vacation, they can receive some reward according to the number of stamps they received.
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