"Kagami-kun should come to our Hokkaido University!"
"Kyoto folk despise Tokyo folk the most."
"They love nothing more than sniping at Tokyo people with passive-aggressive jabs."
"Our Hokkaido University is different."
"Our university is the most inclusive of all!"
"You stinking Hokkaido lot, coming to Kyoto to beg for scraps!"
"You'd have Kagami-kun go off to Hokkaido and live like a savage?"
At this point another Kyoto University professor chimed in to back him up.
Watching the professors from Kyoto University and Hokkaido University start squabbling,
several professors from the University of Tokyo and other Tokyo universities looked on cheerfully, as if it were none of their business.
The tourists and reporters, too, watched the scene in utter bewilderment.
Wasn't this supposed to be about inviting a genius high schooler to attend their universities?
How had it turned into university versus university, region versus region—a mudslinging match of regional prejudice and discrimination?
"Cameraman, hurry up and swing the lens over there!"
"Stop filming that high schooler."
"Quick, look—they're about to come to blows!"
"Oh ho, now THIS is what you call big news!"
The reporters from several TV stations excitedly directed their own cameramen to hurry and capture footage of the professors' brawl.
At this point Professor Kosaka, who hadn't managed to get a word in this whole time, drew a deep breath, then bellowed out with full force from his diaphragm.
"Everyone, stop fighting!"
"Dignified professors—what a disgraceful sight!"
"And in a place like this, no less!"
Hearing someone finally call for a halt, the professors—who had been held back and forced into reluctantly trading blows—at last had a way to back down gracefully.
After both sides were pulled apart by the others, they still kept hurling at each other the foulest, most cutting passive-aggressive jabs steeped in regional-discrimination stereotypes.
At this point Professor Kosaka stepped forward before the crowd.
"Kagami-kun was invited here by me."
"As his elder, allow me to say a word right here."
"Kagami-kun's focus right now is on his studies; it's still a long way off before the time comes to choose where to apply."
"Later on, he'll have his own thoughts about it."
"There's no need for all of you to fret over nothing."
At this moment Tsushima Kagami noticed everyone's eyes turning toward him once again.
He felt Professor Kosaka's attempt to defuse things just now hadn't been much use.
Tsushima Kagami could only give an awkward smile.
"All of your universities are fine universities, professors."
"I admire them all in my heart, too."
"But whether I can get in still depends on the future national unified exams."
"So when you all ask me now, it's not even certain whether I could pass into your universities' faculties at all."
"So for the time being, I don't dare think too much about it."
"As much as possible, I should still focus on my studies."
After hearing Tsushima Kagami explain it this way, the seated professors regained their reserve and one after another expressed their understanding.
At this point Professor Ogasawara continued speaking.
"Kagami-kun, you still haven't given this waka a title."
"Have you thought of a name for it?"
Tsushima Kagami nodded, and once again picked up that writing brush.
In the upper-right corner of the gasenshi paper, he wrote vertically—Thunder God Tanka.
Everyone looked at the name and nodded one after another.
The name was indeed apt.
At this point Professor Ogasawara, smiling, looked at Tsushima Kagami and the group of girls standing behind him and said:
"This should be a love poem, shouldn't it?"
The girls, too, all looked at Tsushima Kagami in surprise.
Tsushima Kagami also nodded with a smile and said.
"That's right."
"The first half is the woman asking, and the second half is the man answering."
"The rough meaning is this."
"It seems to be thundering a little; look how the dark clouds are gathering—it'll probably rain soon. Why don't you not leave?"
"There is indeed a bit of thunder; but even if it doesn't rain, if you stay, then I'll stay too."
Once this plain-language rendering was laid out, everyone present understood.
It truly had the flavor of an ancient folk song.
Then came another round of applause.
Now and then, people would glance with knowing, wordless smiles at the girls standing behind Tsushima Kagami.
They just couldn't tell which girl this high schooler had actually meant to write it for.
Compared with calligraphic accomplishment and ancient waka, the onlooking tourists, as expected, far preferred romantic gossip between men and women.
At this point Professor Kosaka also said with a laugh.
"Kagami-kun, go ahead and write the signature too."
So Tsushima Kagami once again lifted the brush and, in the lower-left corner, wrote vertically in small characters his name, the time, the season, and the place.
After he finally finished, Tsushima Kagami looked at it and felt something was still missing.
Just as he was wondering what was still lacking—
One of the nearest reporters, from the Yomiuri Shimbun head office, was scribbling away furiously when he suddenly stopped, remembering that he'd been so busy writing his report that he hadn't really taken any photos yet.
So he picked up the Sony camera hanging around his neck.
Just as he was about to remove the lens cap, he got bumped by other TV-station reporters and cameramen squeezing in this way.
The lens cap he'd just taken off went rolling round and round, straight behind Tsushima Kagami.
At this point Professor Kosaka leaned in close to Tsushima Kagami's ear, making a shielding gesture with his hand, and said softly with a laugh.
"Dassai-ya-sensei, it's time to stamp the seal."
Only then did Tsushima Kagami suddenly realize—he remembered that after the signature he still had to stamp the seal.
Although he had a carved seal reading [Master of Dassai-ya], he naturally couldn't stamp that one.
He was just about to turn around and get his seal from Yukinoshita Shizuku, who usually carried it for him.
But just then he saw a person who looked like a reporter crouching behind him, which gave Tsushima Kagami a start.
Only then did Professor Kosaka also discover there was actually someone behind them.
The reporter looked up at the two of them and grinned, baring his teeth.
"Sorry, the lens cap rolled over here."
"I came to pick it up."
After saying this, he even held up the lens cap he'd just retrieved and gave it a little wave.
Then he stood up, bowed to the two of them, returned to one side, picked up his camera, and started snapping photos of the pair.
Tsushima Kagami and Professor Kosaka both paid it no mind.
So they both nodded with a smile.
Then Tsushima Kagami walked toward Yukinoshita Shizuku.
Yukinoshita Shizuku seemed to have known his intention all along.
She had already taken his seal case out of the bag she carried.
"Here you go."
"Thank you."
Tsushima Kagami opened the seal case, took out his seal, worked it into the seal paste beside him until the paste formed a ball, lightly patted and pressed the seal against it for a moment, and only then pressed the seal down firmly beneath the signature he'd just written.
The tourists in the side hall, along with the professors and judges, all broke into applause.
At this point the reporter from before set down the camera in his hands and quickly walked out of the side hall.
He came to the restroom inside the art museum, and even deliberately checked whether anyone was in the stalls.
Only after confirming no one was around did this reporter take out a cell phone.
He dialed a string of numbers.
"Hello, Editor-in-Chief."
"I think I may know who Dassai-ya-sensei really is."
"Yes, it's the author of that novel, No Longer Human."
"I'll send the account of what happened, my notes, and the other photo materials to your email later."
"So I'll go organize the materials now."
"Goodbye."
After this Yomiuri Shimbun head-office reporter finished the call, he put the phone away.
As he was leaving, he once more confirmed that there was no one in the restroom, and that no one had come in while he was on the phone.
Only then, with an excited look on his face, did he walk out of the restroom and leave the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art outright.
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