Chapter 4.3: Who is Nakamura?

I and Arai walked side-by-side to the faculty room

to withdraw the case, however, we were both
quiet.
We were silent for the same reason—the enigma
known as Nakamura Eiya.
He managed to outmaneuver Class Beta in two
days, despite being a member of Class Epsilon.
He did so without even breaking a sweat, it made
me wonder. The plan itself wasn’t all too amazing,
it was mostly provocation.
However, the sheer deduction that was done
shocked me—he figured out there was a
mastermind and that this case was Arai’s plan.
While I would have chosen a different approach—
finding the mastermind and ask him to stop—I
knew that wouldn’t have worked, in truth
Nakamura’s method might have been fastest,
however…
Who is Nakamura?
No matter how you spin it he shouldn’t be in Class
Epsilon, he has an athletic build and is quite
obviously observant and intelligent.
So then why is he in Class Epsilon?
Wait, don’t tell me…Is he like me?
We arrived at the faculty, of course Jackson-sensei
was still around since teachers stayed in school till
7PM.
“Back so soon I see,” Jackson-sensei smirked.
A smirk? I’ve never seen that before, I thought she
was incapable of such.
This reminds me of the first faculty meeting we
had for this case. But I just thought that it was a
hallucination.
Seems like I was wrong.
“Yes—”
“We want to withdraw.”
Arai cut me off before I could speak, though it
made the whole process easier.
We were urged to sign a contract which implied
that this case can never be brought up unless the
student council is involved.
After signing I and Arai were about to leave until—
“Ito, stay back.”
“Huh? Ok, well see you later Arai.”
“…Ok.”
He must still be glum about what happened with
Nakamura, now that he’s signed, I feel kinda bad
but still I’m thankful to Nakamura.
Anyway, I wonder what Jackson-sensei wants to
say.
“Sit down.”
The faculty room had many couches despite being
for one teacher—as each one had their own faculty
room—so I sat at the one closest to her.
“Yes ma’am.”
“I’ll cut to the chase. About this case, you won
because of Nakamura, right?”
“No, it was me who did it.”
“Lies.”
I can’t believe I’m lying to a teacher, well,
Nakamura said I shouldn’t tell anyone, so I won’t.
I can’t go back on my word, no matter what.
“I don’t have the energy to believe your lies,” she
continued.
“Why would I lie to you?”
“You’re a good person, also, I’m sure he implied
that he doesn’t want to be figured out.”
Her guesses are so precise. Does she have access
to the surveillance cameras in the hallway?
No, she might be bluffing or just guessing.
“I’m telling you he didn’t.”
“I don’t have energy for this. Tell you what, I’ll give
you 100,000 Rp if you agree.”
What? I do need it especially with how things are.
Yeah, I should take it.
“No.”
As if I would betray my own classmate, one who
swore me to secrecy.
“Of course you’d say that. After all, you are the
savior of Class Epsilon.”
“You wanted me to say that?”
“Yes, actually it makes everything clear. I’ll make
this easier for you, Ito. I know about you’re past
and why you’re in Class Epsilon.”
“…”
“Now, let’s just have a truthful talk about
Nakamura and we can all be happy.”
This woman…She talks about it like she’s talking
about the weather, with that high-pitched voice of
hers.
“…”
“Ito, it’s not a suggestion, it’s a threat.”
“…”
What should I do? Should I record this and
blackmail her? Use violence? No, I can’t do such
underhanded things but what can I do?
“Also, don’t think about recording this or your
secret is out. It seems you don’t care about your
secret; I’ll post it on—”
“Fine, he ended the case,” I cut her off.
“Of course, I’m aware but that isn’t important.
What’s important is the fact that he’s in Class
Epsilon.”
“What’s wrong with him being in Class Epsilon?”
“Are you retarded, or you can’t process
information, which is it?”
“None?”
Why is this woman like this?
“Do you think a student like that is supposed to be
in our class can do what he did?”
“I mean what he did was impressive, but it isn’t
that special. What if that’s the only thing he’s good
at?”
“Not convinced, huh? I guess I’ll have to tell you a
little more about him. To be frank, he barely made
into this school.”
“Huh?”
“He got barely above the pass mark—60%, he got
65%. He failed so effortlessly; he even missed his
interview and as for a physical test he also doesn’t
have one. His saving grace was getting 75% in
academics.”
“Then how did he even enter? How did he get into
the school? How did he get 65%”
“To be honest I don’t know, I think he’s on
probation or something.”
“Can that even happen?”
“I’m not sure, I didn’t know that we did probation.
My working theory is his mark for academics was
high enough so we let him by just giving him the
pass mark.”
“And you think he’s faking? Why would someone do
that?”
“To blend in.”
Why would he do that? I suppose she wouldn’t
know that, if she did then I wouldn’t be here, but
why am I even here?
“Jackson-sensei, why are you telling me all this?”
“Well, to be honest, I’m scared of someone who
can fool the school ranking system,” she looked at
me, since she wasn’t only referring to Nakamura.
“So I want you to make Nakamura into someone
that can help the class.”
“Help the class?”
“Yes, I want us to even surpass Class Alpha.”
Can he actually do it? Can he achieve my dream?
No, what am I saying, Nakamura isn’t capable of
such. Think Yuuto think, give up on that pipe
dream.
“Will he even agree?” I asked.
“That doesn’t matter.”
“Actually, it does I don’t want to venture on a
fruitless endeavor.”
I’m willing to help the class, in fact I’ll help anyone
in this school, but I won’t arbitrarily help someone
who blackmailed me.
“I don’t care, just do it.”
That being said, someone blackmailed doesn’t
really have a choice.
“Do you at least have a plan?”
“It’s simple really, just try and try again till you get
him to agree. I don’t care how long it takes,” she
said, her voice being serious.
So, you don’t actually have a plan, huh? I suppose
it doesn’t matter; I’ll just stall till my graduation or
expulsion.
“I see, well I’ll do my best,” I said.
“Good, now leave.”
I was basically chased out. I left the school and
walked back to the dormitory but on my way, I saw
Nakamura sitting on a bench.
“Hey,” I said, sitting beside him.
“Oh hey, how were the results?” he asked.
“Oh, we both withdrew like the way you planned.”
“Perfect, I guess.”
“Hey Nakamura, let’s walk back together.”
“U-Uh sure.”
While his intelligence might be amazing, his
demeanor is scarier.
It disarms and protects any preconceived notion
you had about him—making him appear average,
perhaps even below the average person.
The more I learn, the more I want to know.
We walked side-by-side with Nakamura looking lost
in thought, he eventually came back to reality, but
he still remained quiet and even blushed a bit.
I wanted to just stall, but now I feel drawn like a
moth to a flame, It’s now or never.
“Nakamura.”
“Yeah?”
“Can you explain your plan to me?”
There were some things in Nakamura’s plan I
needed clarification for.
I actually knew there answers but wanted to hear
him answer.
“Huh? Ok, it’s simple, I provoked Shimuzu and Arai,
that’s all.”
“Yeah, but how’d you know about the
mastermind?”
“Well, as a kid I was good at puzzles, so I just
guessed so.”
“Oh really?”
“Yeah.”
I’m sure he found out through that girl who
greeted us, she was holding her waist as she ran to
us as we were leaving.
I thought she was bullied but I couldn’t report the
case because according to her classmates she was
unresponsive and had no friends.
So I planned to wait till the case ended to address
it with a teacher, but I didn’t have any proof of
bullying, so I put the thought away for now.
I’m sure he must have guessed they had a
mastermind through her behavior and the class’s
behavior.
Though I always suspected Class Beta had a
mastermind, since almost every class had one
except ours of course.
However, it seems they thought Class Beta thought
we didn’t know.
“Anyway, today before you came Shimuzu and I
were arguing in the faculty room about the times
they harassed us, except for everything I said he
had a response to it,” I said.
“Oh really, that their mastermind is really
something, huh?”
“Yeah, he is, isn’t he? Strange thing that happened,
the map of the school outlines six main pathways.
There’s the one made for everyone and there’s one
for each class and you happened choose the one
that Class Beta used.”
“Wow, what a coincidence.”
“Yeah, and in the morning as I was talking to you, I
heard some rustling, do you think someone—
perhaps Shimuzu—was in the bushes?”
“Who knows? Maybe he was eavesdropping or
maybe it was a rodent like you said, I wouldn’t
know,” he answered like he was talking about the
weather.
“Yeah—when are going to just cut the shit?” I
stopped walking and looked directly at him.
“Huh?” he stopped walking also.
“I know about your plan.”
“Yeah, I told you it,” he said.
“No, I mean your real plan.”
“I don’t know what you mean by real plan.”
“Sure, you don’t.”
Despite being questioned, he remains calm. This
guy might be something that can actually help this
class…Maybe he can achieve my goal.
However, he still denies my claims. Maybe I’m
wrong and I’m just getting too excited.
After all, there’s no real proof that he did any of
what I said, what if he just got lucky?
But his entry into this school is still suspicious.
“Nakamura, can’t you just stop lying?”
To be frank, I’m not even sure I’m right anymore.
“…” he kept quiet, giving an unreadable
expression.
“So, you won’t answer.”
“…” he kept the same expression.
“How about this, I ask one question and if you
answer honestly then I’ll leave.”
“Well, I have been honest but please go on.”
“Just answer this Nakamura. Who are you?”