February 12, 1991, Seika Academy, High School Division.
In mid-February, a third-year classroom should not have had this many people.
Under normal circumstances, by this time at Seika Academy's High School Division, the graduating class would have already entered the "free attendance" phase.
Students preparing for university entrance exams could study at home, students who had received recommendations only needed to attend on designated days as arranged by the school, and students whose families had already decided to send them overseas mostly would not be sitting in the classroom every day either.
Based on past experience, for Year 3 Class A at this time of year, having two-thirds of the classroom filled was already considered showing great respect to the homeroom teacher.
After all, students at Seika Academy were never "good kids" in the ordinary sense; many students had family arrangements behind them, and the school was accustomed to leaving a little leeway between the rules and decorum.
But today, Year 3 Class A was fully present.
And it was not just today.
It had been like this all week.
Sugiura Sawako stood in front of the podium, looking at the students sitting neatly below, her feelings difficult to describe.
She, of course, knew why these students were here.
Some had already received a recommendation for Keio but were holding reference books and claiming that "the school environment is better for studying"; some had long since had their post-graduation overseas studies arranged by their families but suddenly said they wanted to cherish their final time in high school; and a few students who usually loved treating free attendance as true freedom were actually sitting in their seats on time every day for the past few days, without even being late.
The reasons were varied and seemed quite convincing.
But Sugiura Sawako had been a teacher for twelve years, so of course, she did not truly believe them.
She had even heard that the neighboring classes had been much livelier than in previous years these past few days.
The reasons were equally sufficient: some came to ask teachers about their future paths, some came to submit missing graduation documents, and some came to participate in non-existent independent study groups.
Then, during the break, those students would pass by the door of Year 3 Class A quite naturally, their pace neither fast nor slow, but their gazes would always drift into the classroom.
There was only one thing they wanted to see.
Or rather, there was only one person they wanted to see.
Saionji Satsuki.
Sugiura Sawako placed the chalk into the chalk tray below the blackboard, forcing herself to pull her attention back to the textbook.
Today, she was teaching modern Japanese literature, an excerpt from Ryūnosuke Akutagawa's Rashomon.
This piece was not difficult to teach.
At least, it was not difficult for an ordinary class.
The problem was, today's Year 3 Class A was not an ordinary class.
Sawako, while speaking about the psychological changes of the "servant," could not help but let her peripheral vision drift to the corner by the window.
Saionji Satsuki was sitting there, her uniform worn neatly, with a textbook, notebook, and a fountain pen on her desk.
She was not secretly reading financial newspapers like other students, nor was she striking any particular pose; she was simply listening to the lecture very quietly.
Satsuki had been back at school for a week.
During this week, Sugiura Sawako had originally made all sorts of preparations.
She had thought Satsuki might only come for half a day and then leave, she had thought Satsuki might bring an administrative assistant to handle all the school documents, and she had even thought she might act like those students spoiled by their families, appearing impatient with ordinary lessons.
None of that happened.
Satsuki arrived at school on time every day, left only when it was time to leave, greeted the teacher before entering the classroom, talked to classmates during breaks, and stayed in the classroom normally during lunch breaks.
She did not make things difficult for anyone, and even when surrounded by people trying to talk to her, she could maintain a very appropriate smile.
Of course, there was absolutely no one who would want to make things difficult for her.
And then, it only took her one week to re-establish a small circle within Year 3 Class A.
This did not really exceed Sawako's expectations.
Children from the old Kazoku typically were a cut above others in terms of etiquette and social skills.
Satsuki spoke gently, carried herself with elegance, and possessed a sense of distance that made people dare not underestimate her.
She did not need to do anything proactively; just by sitting there, others would naturally want to draw close to her.
What truly surprised Sawako was her learning ability.
Because Satsuki had been absent for so long, Sawako was initially very worried that she would not be able to keep up with the curriculum.
Although the school had been receiving the reports and assignments she submitted late, paper materials were one thing, and actually sitting in the classroom was another.
To avoid embarrassing this Eldest Miss in class, Sawako had even specifically used the guise of "pre-graduation review" to reorganize the knowledge points that needed to be confirmed for the third-year Japanese curriculum.
As it turned out, after a week, she found her worries were somewhat unnecessary.
In the short test a couple of days ago, Satsuki's grades had ranked directly among the top in the entire grade.
When that test paper was graded, Sawako had specifically flipped back to check the answer sheet to confirm that the name had not been mistaken.
The multiple-choice questions were almost all correct, and the answers to the reading comprehension questions were also very beautiful—especially the analysis of the article's structure and character psychology in the last question, which was written more maturely than many students who attended class normally every day.
If one only looked at the grades, Satsuki did not seem like a student who had only attended for forty-two days in three years at all.
She was more like the type of student who had already scanned through the entire curriculum and only occasionally returned to school to confirm that it was still there.
However, these were not the problems giving Sawako the biggest headache right now.
What she was truly struggling with now was whether or not to call on Satsuki to answer a question.
Logically speaking, if a student had good grades and listened attentively in class, it was very normal for a teacher to call on her to answer when asking a question.
But once the subject changed to Satsuki, a normal matter suddenly became not-so-normal.
If she did not call on her, would someone in the class think she was deliberately ignoring her?
If she did call on her, what if she happened to ask a question she did not know?
Even if the question was not difficult, what if she did not answer well enough, felt she had lost face in front of the whole class, and decided not to come next week?
Sawako felt that her small frame simply could not bear such a heavy burden.
While she thought about these things in her heart, she still had to continue teaching.
"We were just saying that when the servant was taking shelter from the rain under Rashomon, he did not make a choice immediately at first."
"He knew that if he did not want to starve to death, he had to find a way to survive, but he was unwilling to admit that he would go so far as to steal. This hesitation is actually the most important psychological foundation for the first half of the entire text."
Sawako picked up the chalk and wrote the two characters for "hesitation" on the blackboard.
"And after the old woman appeared, this hesitation changed."
"The old woman's act of pulling hair from the dead made the servant feel angry, but the explanation the old woman gave turned his anger into something else."
As she said this, following the habit she had developed over many years of teaching, she naturally paused and turned to look at the students below.
"Alright, is there any student who can answer why the servant's psychology here shifted from anger to action? How did the author write this change?"
As soon as the words left her mouth, Sawako regretted it.
She had forgotten that today's classroom was not the usual classroom.
This question itself was not difficult; usually, if she randomly picked any student, they could answer seven or eight percent of it.
But now the whole class was sitting neatly, and Satsuki was among them.
Sawako suddenly did not know where to look.
If her gaze avoided Satsuki, it would look like she did not dare to call on her.
If her gaze fell on Satsuki, it would look like she was forcing her to answer.
The classroom was quiet for a few seconds.
For Sawako, these few seconds felt as long as a semester.
She had already begun to calculate in her heart whether to just randomly call on a student with good grades to get past this question quickly.
For example, Asakura-san in the front row was very reliable; although she had already snuck glances at Satsuki three times today, at least her Japanese grades were good.
Hojo-san on the right was also an option; his family ran a publishing house, and he had some interest in literary works.
Just as she was about to speak, someone in the seat by the window raised their hand.
It was Satsuki.
In that instant, Sawako almost let out a sigh of relief.
Her raising her hand on her own meant she knew the answer.
Moreover, she had proactively given the teacher a very appropriate way out.
"Saionji-san." Sawako tried to make her voice sound steady. "Please, go ahead and answer."
Satsuki stood up.
She did not rush to speak, but instead gently closed her textbook, as if she were reorganizing the paragraph she had just read.
Everyone in the class had their eyes fixed on her almost simultaneously.
"I believe the servant's psychological change is not because he suddenly became cruel, but because the old woman gave him a reason he could use to convince himself."
Sawako's hand holding the chalk paused slightly.
This was a good opening.
Satsuki continued: "The first half of the text keeps writing about the servant's situation. He has lost his job, has nowhere to go in the rain, and has only hunger and death before him. But he still has no way to directly admit that he will do bad things, so he keeps stopping under Rashomon."
"Therefore, the 'stopping' here is not just a physical stop, but also a psychological one."
The classroom was very quiet.
Even the students who usually were most prone to daydreaming in class were listening very attentively.
"Later, when he saw the old woman pulling hair from the dead, his first reaction was anger."
"Because at that time, he was still standing in the position of a judge, feeling that he was at least cleaner than the old woman. But the old woman said that those who had died had also lived by using deceit during their lifetimes, so her pulling hair in order not to starve to death was not particularly shameful."
Satsuki paused here.
"This sentence changed the servant's position."
Sawako's eyes brightened slightly.
Satsuki was not looking at the blackboard, only in the direction of the textbook; her voice was not loud, but it was clear enough for the entire classroom to hear.
"Before that, he was someone who saw evil. But after listening to the old woman's words, he discovered that he could also use the same reasoning—since the old woman could strip the dead of their hair in order to survive, he could likewise strip the old woman of her clothes in order to survive."
"The old woman was originally defending herself, but her defense instead opened a door for the servant, allowing him to turn from hesitation into action."
She raised her eyes and looked at Sawako.
"So the change here is not simply from good to evil. What the author is writing about is how a person takes someone else's reason and turns it into their own."
"The old woman used that set of arguments to excuse herself, which also amounted to finding an excuse for the servant to take action. By the time the servant rushed toward her, he no longer needed to convince himself."
For a moment, no one in the classroom spoke.
Sawako even forgot to respond immediately.
Satsuki had answered very clearly and completely.
She had covered the character's situation, psychological turning point, and narrative structure, and what surprised Sawako the most was that when she said these things, it did not sound like she was reciting an answer, but rather that she truly understood this text.
A student who had only come for forty-two days in three years, after sitting back in the classroom for a week, could actually answer a classroom question to this degree.
Sawako suddenly felt that the few supplementary handouts she had prepared earlier were probably somewhat unnecessary.
However, unnecessary was fine too.
At least this meant she did not have to worry about Satsuki not being able to keep up with the curriculum, nor did she have to worry about putting this Eldest Miss in an awkward spot in class by asking a question.
She let out another sigh of relief.
"That was a very good answer." Sawako finally spoke, her voice a little lighter than before.
"Saionji-san grasped the most crucial point in the servant's psychological change. The old woman's defense did not stop the evil; instead, it became the reason for the servant's action."
"This is also the most interesting part of Rashomon; the character does not change suddenly, but rather finds an excuse to cross over in a certain sentence or a certain scene."
Satsuki bowed slightly and sat down.
Only then did it seem like the class began to breathe again.
Sawako turned around, wrote the two characters for "reason" on the blackboard, and drew an arrow between "hesitation" and "action."
When her back was to the students, the expression on her face softened slightly.
That moment just now had passed.
As she continued writing on the board, she could not help but wonder if Satsuki had seen through her internal struggle.
That hand had been raised so timely.
It had not been raised before she asked the question, nor had it waited until the classroom was awkwardly quiet.
It was exactly at the moment when it was hardest for her to decide that it had continued the entire class for her.
If it was a coincidence, that was certainly best.
If it was not...
When Sawako finished writing on the board and turned back around, she saw Satsuki already with her head down, writing in her notebook, her expression as quiet as if nothing had just happened.
Regardless of the facts, the result was ultimately good.
She suddenly felt that this month might not be as terrifying as she had imagined.
Satsuki had been back at school for a week, and there had not been any mishaps in any aspect.
She arrived at school on time every day, attended classes normally, submitted assignments more neatly than ordinary students, and even took the initiative to raise her hand to help out when the teacher was at her most awkward.
If things could continue like this in the future, she should be able to safely escort this Eldest Miss to the day of the graduation ceremony.
Thinking of this, the stone that had been weighing on Sugiura Sawako's heart for an entire week finally loosened just a little bit.
She picked up the textbook and continued with the lecture.
"Now, let us continue with the next paragraph. After the servant makes his choice, the author does not write about where he goes, only mentioning that he disappears into the night."
"Why this ending stops here, everyone can think about first."
The students in the classroom lowered their heads and turned their books.
The February sunlight from outside the window fell on the edges of the desks, warm and pleasant.
Sugiura Sawako glanced at the attendance register.
Year 3 Class A, perfect attendance today.