The Fourth Period Is Modern Chinese (Continued)

I looked once more at that back, which for some reason seemed especially small.

Then, a sorrowful whisper as faint as a mosquito's buzz drifted over amid the cicadas chirping in the distance.

"Ah... marriage. Marriage... ah..."

They said marriage was the graveyard of life.

This was the story of a woman bravely challenging that saying—Shizuka Hiratsuka (unmarried).

After a while, things took a turn.

"Hey, Hachiman, hypothetically speaking..."

After finishing some miscellaneous work in the faculty office, Hiratsuka-sensei said she had business at the Service Club, so we headed toward the clubroom together. On the way, she suddenly brought this up.

"This is merely a fictional scenario, with no relation whatsoever to any actual people or groups. Hypothetically speaking."

"What? Why are you trying so hard to stress that it's fictional...?"

The more she emphasized it, the more certain I became that it was one hundred percent real. What was this? Why had a documentary suddenly started playing?

"Suppose there's a woman in the prime of her life."

"Oh, a woman in the prime of her life."

"Yeah. She lives in Chiba and works as a high school teacher."

"Uh, the 'hypothetical' premise just flew into another dimension. A teacher in Chiba obviously means you..."

At that moment, a gust of wind blew by. Hiratsuka-sensei's iron fist sliced through the air mere centimeters from my cheek.

"...What did you say?"

"N-no, nothing..."

"Good. I wouldn't want to get blood on my fist. It would be troublesome if it caused a luminol reaction."

That thought process, which assumed a murder would occur, nearly scared the piss out of me. Also, she definitely learned the word "luminol reaction" from Detective Conan, didn't she? Adults who showed off little bits of knowledge they picked up from manga were kind of... you know.