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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 10 Chapter 5.3

Reluctantly, I turned on my heels and was about to head for the door of the room but stopped. It was when I saw Tensai. Tensai was clenching her fists and glaring at me. It was an expression I had never seen before. It wasn’t a usual joking or playfully indignant attitude. Tensai was glaring at me with genuine, intense resentment.

「Ah, that’s right. I haven’t told you what happened to the people who picked a fight with me before, have I?」

Behind me, while I couldn’t’ take my eyes off Tensai, Shunju Ikkaku spoke.

「I’ve made everyone lose equally. There are no exceptions. It’s the same with Nanana.」

I involuntarily turned around.

Did this guy just say that they had defeated Nanana?

「As I said earlier, I will not get involved in this matter. That is a decision I made myself.」

「…..」

「That’s why I’m bringing in a substitute.」

「A substitute?」

「Let me introduce her…. Actually, you already know her.」

Shunju Ikkaku’s gaze looked up and past me. I looked at the girl standing there.

「Tensai Ikkyuu, my daughter, is my substitute.」

「Your daughter?」

Regarding the Nanana matter, I’ve entrusted everything to Tensai.」

Turning around again, I saw Tensai, who looked surprised and bewildered. Shunju said to her, 「I’m counting on you, Tensai.」

After a moment of hesitation at those words, Tnsai looked up.

「Leave it to me.」

A hint of happiness was evident in her expression.

************************************************************

The setting was Shunjuu Ikkaku’s office, after Juugo and Tensai had left.

After the two had gone, Yuuya Hitotsubashi immediately asked Ikkaku, 「Was that alright, Ikkaku-san?」

「He’s not the kind of man to go blabbing about the adoption matter.」

「That’s not what I mean. I mean about the rights to the Nanana collection.」

「Oh, that.」

「As things stand, we could have confiscated everything at any time if we had a reason.」

「That’s true.」

「But to deliberately allow something like that…」

「In a way, don’t you think it’s become easier, Yuuya?」

「…What do you mean by that?」

「With the issuance of the certificate, the Nanana collection has become a formal right. In other words, it means they’ve entered our playing field.」

「?」

「Yuuya, which do you think is more troublesome for us as rulers of this island? A wise man or a bandit?」

That’s when Yuuya realized something.

「Lawless individuals who act solely on their desires are troublesome. You can’t reason with them, and the only way to make them list is to expose them and use force. But with intelligent people who can be reasoned with, you can handle things through negotiation.」

「I see.」

「And in that arena of negotiation, there’s absolutely no way we can lose.」

Hearing Ikkaku’s confident assertion, Yuuya’s expression softened with relief.

「We’ve always really love Haru-san’s smile.」

「You think so?」

Ikkaku continued working as if nothing had happened, and Tsuki watched his profile for a while.

3

It is evening. As the time for the fireworks display to begin drew near, Tensai and I walked side-by-side, heading back to the Happiness Dorm. Just the two of us, walking along a deserted road.

「Juugo, when did you realize that I had started searching for the person who killed Nanana-dono?」

「From the very beginning.」

「What!?」

He grinned at the astonished Tensai.

「Well, I’d like to say something cool like some famous detective, but what I said was a lie. I only found out when I went around getting signatures from Futaba and Mutsumi. Neither of them mentioned any names, but they hinted that there was a student who had come to see them. In my mind, there was only one person I could think of who would do something like that.」

「I see. So, from there, you deduced who commissioned me to do it, is that right?」

「I didn’t do anything so elaborate. That’s why I set a trap. I invited you to go with me Tensai.」

「If I didn’t to agree, would that really be solid proof of my connection to Ikkaku-san? That’s no basis for anything. It’s an uncertain and ambiguous reason, dependent solely on my mood.」

「But you did follow me, didn’t you Tensai?」

「Hmph. I told you, that was just a coincidence.」

「That’s right. By coincidence, you were curious about how I managed to get Rakuichi-Rakuza approved by the governing council, and by coincidentally, I said I was going to meet Shunju Ikkaku, the head of the governing council, and that’s why Tensai followed. You succumbed to your inherent curiosity.」

「…So, you weren’t trying to provoke a reaction from me, but rather you were targeting me personally?」

「During the <<game>>, I knew there seemed to be some connection between you and Shunju Ikkaku. So, I’ll ask again what I asked at the end of the <<game>>. What exactly is your relationship with Shunju Ikkaku? You said you were his daughter, but you’re not really his biological daughter, are you? Considering your age.」

「……」

「Ah, never mind. It’s rude to ask about things you don’t want to talk about.」

「I am Ikkaku’s adopted daughter.」

The answer from Tensai made me stop in my tracks.

「An adopted daughter? Then what about your real parents?」

「I’m an orphan. I don’t have any one I can call a parent.」

I fell silent. Of course, there was surprise at the circumstances of her upbringing, but at the same time, the faces of two other people who had been in similar circumstances flashed through my mind.

Then, in an unusually calm tone, she began to speak.

「I don’t mean to say that my upbringing was particularly special. But I do think I was in a far less fortunate environment than those who are called ordinary people. That’s why, from a young age, I was engrossed in things that could be obtained regardless of one’s birth. Acquiring knowledge, studying, education… you can call it whatever you want. That was the only way I, as a child, knew how to enhance my self-wroth, and the only way I could prove myself to those around me.」

「…..」

「There were definitely results. In terms of the metrics used to rank people’s abilities, I had become overwhelmingly superior to ordinary people my age.」

Tensai muttered this quietly. However, there was not a trace of the usual self-assertion or pride in her voice that she usually has as she spoke of herself. She simply recounted her past dispassionately, as if it were something she didn’t particularly want to remember.

As Tensai continued speaking, she looked up at the evening sky where the stars were beginning to twinkle.

「It was when I was in junior high school that Ikkaku-san appeared before me.」

「…..」

「How should I describe it? Should I call it a kind of scouting program? By becoming Ikkaku-san’s adopted daughter, I came to Nanaejima as a kind of special student.」

「A special student?」

「I can’t go into detail, but I… or rather, my siblings and I have been granted a certain privilege. How we use it is up to us. It’s a power that an ordinary student couldn’t obtain. No, ‘authority’ would be more accurate. It’s similar to the power held by the student council president of Nanaejima High School. A right that students acquire through their own merit. Depending on how it’s used, it could even be considered omnipotent on this island. It’s just like the Nanana collection that Nanana-chan hid on this island.」

The Nanana collection that Nanana-chan hid so that all the students could fulfill their dreams. On the other hand, what Shunju Ikkaku prepared is a power and a right given to students when they hone their skills and are recognized. In a way, their feelings and the power they wield are at opposite extremes.

「Was that power granted to them by becoming part of the Ikkaku family?」

Tensai smiled ambiguously.

「Well, even within our family, my siblings and I each have different perspectives on what family means. There’s my sister who is happy to have a family, rejoicing that it’s a right she’s earned through her own efforts, regardless of her birth or upbringing. Then there’s my brother who only sees the connection as a mere formality and doesn’t truly acknowledge it. And then there’s another brother who, while he does acknowledge it to some extent, doesn’t cherish this connection.」

「Is it just me, or do the two older brothers seem to be in a rather precarious position compared to their older sister amidst this disaster?」

Tensai laughs at my honest observation.

「My sister is in a league of her own.」

「So? What does Tensai herself think about that connection?」

Tensai looks down while thinking about my question.

「I don’t really know.」

「…I see.」

That was all I could say in response to the detective’s murmur of an answer.

It might be easy to say comforting words, but I felt that this wasn’t a matter I should casually intrude upon. And more than anything, I thought that there was no way that I could understand something that this great detective couldn’t.

「Stop patting me on the head.」

「Well, I feel like it.」

「…..」