Saki had found Kumagawa's words to be really concerning. An enemy that a Hero should cut down would be a Demon King, but she doubts things would proceed in such a direction of a fantasy.
But it would be rude to press Kumagawa about such a matter and probably also very offensive. So she decided to not ask about it.
Saki:So, Kumagawa-kun. Where are we heading now? Since it doesn't seem like you're particularly hesitating in your footsteps. Kumagawa-kun, do you perhaps have an idea of your own? Regarding the location of the Hero's Sword.
Kumagawa:[I don't have any ideas. I don't have any familiarity with this place, either. It's just that I do have some knowledge of Anshin'in-san. So I can more or less read her habits.]
Saki:Habits?
Kumagawa:[Yep. Kind of like that tendency of hers I mentioned earlier, I suppose? I can read them even better than Teppou-chan, who is one of Anshin'in-san's terminals. Although I can't deny that Anshin'in-san is probably intentionally making it easy to read her.]
Saki...Then isn't she just making you into one of her toys?
Kumagawa:[That could be it. I'm just one of Anshin'in-san's toys that she's playing around with. Like, se se se no yoi yoi yoi, ocharaka hoi.]
She knows he probably just meant as a joke. But that has absolutely no relation to a toy, it's just the chant kids use when playing rock-paper-scissors.
Kumagawa:[But I have no intention of ending up as a simple toy. And I plan on making sure that she knows that. After all, toys can sometimes bite the hand that plays with them.]
Saki:But anyways, I wonder when that person even hid something like the Hero's Sword in Suisou Academy? She must have made preparations for this game at least a couple days in advance. Perhaps that could be useful as a hint in figuring out where it's hidden.
Kumagawa:[Unfortunately, Anshin'in-san isn't someone that's restricted to the confines of time. She's someone that can make as many alibis as she wants. I wouldn't even be surprised if she set this up a hundred years ago.]
Saki:A hundred years ago...
Suidou Academy didn't even exist back then. She's surprised about how far back he'd go, even as a joke.
However, other thoughts preocupied her mind wgen sge noticed wgere Kumagawa was headed. She decided to voice tgem out.
Saki:...Um, Kumagawa-kun. Um, it's not a good idea. Right now, they should be having club activities over there...And it's forbidden for anyone to observe those club activities outside of any related parties.
Club activities were a big thing at Suisou, even members of the Student Council can't just join in. So they'd have to wait until they finish and the club members leave.
Kumagawa:[Don't worry, and rest assured, Saki-chan. Not even I spent all day stylishly asleep in the Student Council office, you know.]
Saki:Well, of course, something that uncool couldn't have been stylish at all...Eh? Then, what were you doing?
Kumagawa:[I put out an order to halt those club activities for today.]
It was a very opressive and tyrranical order. Perhaps Kumagawa and Aki weren't so different, after all.
However, that does settle the problem. But why does he think that the Hero Sword would be at the pool.
As she followed Kumagawa inside Saki decided she'd apologizs to the Swimming Club later in his behalf, knowing he was never going to apologize. They entered in the room with the unattended 25 meters pool and Kumagawa seems to think it must be at the bottom of the pool.
Saki:At the bottom of the pool...I can't see it, though.
Kumagawa:[There's no other option but to dive in.]
Kumagawa was quite serious about this by the looks of it. He was doing his streches beside her right now.
Kumagawa:[Normally, this would have been a fanservice scene where you would change into a swimsuit and take on this job instead, but unfortunately, it didn't seem like you brought along your swimsuit with you.]
Saki:Well, I certainly didn't, but...
He didn't bring one either, he was doing his streches in his uniform. Surely, he didn't plan to swim naked.
Saki:Or rather, I wouldn't do it even if I did bring it, okay? And I wouldn't put on a bikini, either, okay?"
Kumagawa:[I didn't ask you to wear a bikini, though.]
Saki:But, Kumagawa-kun, why the pool?
Kumagawa:[Hm?]
Saki:I'm asking why you chose the Swim Club first, over the Kendo Club or the Iaido Club. Even going as far as sending out an order to halt their activities...
Kumagawa:[I happen to know a few of the words that Anshin'in-san likes, you see. And among those words is this. Since you're rather studious, I'm sure you've heard it before, too. It's a phrase that shows up in classical Chinese texts, "kè zhōu qiú jiàn".]
Saki:Kè zhōu qiú jiàn...
She certainly has. It literally meant marking a ship to look for a sword".
Kumagawa:[Splendid. Do you remember what the story behind it was?]
Saki:Yeah...Once upon a time, a man crossing the Yangtze River by boat accidentally dropped a treasured sword that he owned into the river. And the sword sunk like that down to the riverbed. Panicking, the man quick-wittedly carved a mark on the side of the boat, saying, "This mark will tell me where I dropped the sword"
Kumagawa:[Right. That's about the gist of it. And the mysterious part of this story is, how did the man manage to carve a mark into the boat after losing his sword?]
Saki:Um, that's not really all that mysterious...
Kumagawa:[So is the moral of the story that we should always carry two swords with us?]
Saki:Of course not...In the first place, I don't think this is supposed to be a story that has a moral. If anything, it's just a funny story where you go "Even if you make a mark, the boat's still moving, right?" and laugh. So, what about it?
Kumagawa:[Like I said, Anshin'in-san happens to like this particular episode. And Teppou-san didn't give us any more hints after telling us to look for the Hero's Sword, right? She told us to look for it with no hints, right?]
Saki:She did...And?
Kumagawa:[When she told us to look for a sword without any hints or signs, I couldn't help but be reminded of that idiom, you see. And so, it made me want to search in the water. Since there's no way there could be a river flowing through a school, then why not a pool?]
YOU ARE READING
I became the Strongest Minus's mother!
FanfictionOn an usual everyday an woman with an passion for manga and the likes is crushed by a truck. When she woke up in a hospital she thought she might've been saved. Turns out that she was reborn in one of Nisio Isin greatest works with quiet an unique r...
