Tutoring

On Saturday morning, Kiryu Yume arrived at the third floor of the library ten minutes early.

There were few people in the library on weekends. Only a bespectacled girl sat at the row of tables by the window, copying notes, while someone in the corner flipped through a newspaper, the rustle of paper faint.

He chose a four-person table against the wall and spread out his history textbook and notebook. The textbook's dark brown cover had a dull sheen beneath the fluorescent lights, and several photocopied pages of notes borrowed from Yamamura Miki were tucked inside.

At 8:58, the sound of a cane tapping the floor came from the stairwell.

Sakayanagi Arisu stepped onto the final stair of the third floor, her white cane tapping against the gray tiles. A section of her silver-white hair glimmered in the sunlight streaming through the windows. Today, she wore a light beige cardigan over a white blouse, paired with a dark blue pleated skirt that ended just above her knees. Beneath the hem, the white lace trim of her thigh-high stockings showed, a shade whiter than a cream puff. The lace pattern left faint impressions along the sides of her legs, like the final piping from a pastry bag on a cream cake. The thin straps extended upward from the stocking tops and disappeared beneath her skirt.

Kiryu Yume's gaze lingered on that ring of lace for half a second, a thought passing through his mind. He shifted his eyes back to the textbook.

Kamuro Masumi followed behind Sakayanagi, her long, straight black hair draped over her shoulders, her expression as indifferent as ever. She wore a gray knit cardigan with a dark short skirt and sheer black stockings. When the light fell across the front of her calves, a thin vertical gleam could be seen, like the fresh sheen of moisture on the surface of black chocolate mousse. She carried a cloth bag containing textbooks and a water bottle.

Kiryu Yume glanced at her again, wanting to bury his face between those calves wrapped in sheer black stockings. Just for a moment, then he could go back to memorizing dates. He spun his pen once and lowered his head to flip through his notebook.

Kamuro Masumi noticed the direction of his gaze. Her eyelid twitched, and when she pulled her chair out from under the table, she used more force than usual. The chair legs let out a squeak against the tiles.

Sakayanagi Arisu sat across from Kiryu Yume, resting her cane against the table's edge and placing a thin-looking history reference book on the tabletop. Kamuro Masumi sat beside her and pulled out her textbook from the cloth bag, face-up. Kiryu Yume finally saw her history grade: fifty-nine, circled in red ink.

"Let's start with the Edo Shogunate." Sakayanagi Arisu opened the reference book, her fingertip landing on the table of contents. "Kitten, do you know who came after Tokugawa Ieyasu?"

Kiryu Yume thought for a moment. "Hidetada."

"Correct. And the third?"

"...Forgot."

Sakayanagi Arisu's fingertip moved down the timeline. "Iemitsu. Remember the order: Ieyasu, then Hidetada, then Iemitsu. Recite the names of the first three generations together three times."

Kiryu Yume silently recited them three times. Beside him, Kamuro Masumi rolled her eyes. "He had to think about who came after the first one, and you're asking him about the third? He sounded pretty confident, too."

Sakayanagi Arisu glanced at her, the corner of her lips curving slightly. "Masumi, turn to the page with the era names. Your notes are more complete than his, so lend them to him for comparison."

Kamuro Masumi stiffened for half a second, then turned to the page with the era-name chart. Kiryu Yume saw a circle with three dots drawn in the corner, probably something she had doodled absentmindedly. She pushed the notebook toward him, and the tips of her ears reddened slightly.

The tutoring lasted nearly two hours. Sakayanagi Arisu explained everything at a steady pace, linking each event through the simplest chains of cause and effect. Once she finished, she had Kiryu Yume repeat it, then asked Kamuro Masumi to add details. When they reached the isolation policy, Kiryu Yume mixed up the Shimabara Rebellion and Kan'ei Tsūhō, saying, "Kan'ei Tsūhō was issued after the Shimabara Rebellion." Sakayanagi Arisu's fingertip paused on the table.

"Put the dates of those two events in order again."

Kiryu Yume flipped through his notes. "The Shimabara Rebellion was in 1637, and Kan'ei Tsūhō began being minted in 1636."

"Then why did you connect them just now?"

"Because I only remembered the Kan'ei era name. Whenever I saw Kan'ei, I linked it to Shimabara."

Sakayanagi Arisu tilted her head, and the curve of her lips faded a little. "You can't memorize history by slapping labels on things, Kitten. First, you need to understand the timeline, then fill the events into it. You don't just see an era name and attach it to the nearest upheaval."

Kiryu Yume redrew a horizontal axis in his notebook, marking Kan'ei Tsūhō at 1636 and the Shimabara Rebellion at 1637, with only a short space between them.

Kamuro Masumi's additions came and went. She was indeed a little better than him, but only a little. When they reached the final years of the shogunate, Sakayanagi asked her for the exact year of the Arrival of the Black Ships. She answered 1853. Sakayanagi then asked how many ships Matthew Perry had brought when he came a second time. Kamuro Masumi pressed her lips together, repeatedly rubbing the edge of her black stocking beneath the table with her fingers. After a long while, she finally said, "Four." Sakayanagi nodded, her violet eyes resting on Kamuro Masumi's face for a second. She said nothing, but Kamuro Masumi's ears reddened further.

When they reached the Meiji Restoration, Sakayanagi Arisu closed the reference book and had each of them organize a timeline. Kiryu Yume drew a horizontal axis in his notebook and marked several era names, putting every single one in the wrong order. Sakayanagi Arisu glanced at it, then lightly tapped a table leg with her cane.

"This timeline makes me want to give you a zero."

"Then I'll fix it."

Kamuro Masumi pushed her own notebook over for him to compare. Her timeline also had era names in the wrong order, but she had only gotten two wrong. As Kiryu Yume corrected his work, he saw a small box drawn in a blank space in her notebook. Inside, she had written "Tokugawa = Ieyasu," with an arrow pointing toward "Hidetada," probably something she had jotted down while Sakayanagi explained the first three generations.

Sakayanagi Arisu picked up her cup and took a sip of water. Her violet eyes watched him over its rim, and when she set it down, the bottom of the cup made a soft clink against the tabletop.

"Kitten, your and Masumi's history grades combined still aren't higher than Miki's alone." Her voice was gentle. "You two are better suited to sharing last place."

Kiryu Yume pushed back the corrected timeline. Under the table, his knee accidentally brushed Kamuro Masumi's calf. The fibers of her sheer black stockings felt slick even through his trousers. Kamuro Masumi pulled her foot back beneath the table, looked up, and glared at him, silently forming two words with her lips. Kiryu Yume moved his chair back half an inch.

At eleven thirty, Sakayanagi Arisu announced that the tutoring session was over. She closed the reference book, tapped her cane against the floor, and stood. As her skirt swayed, the lace trim of her white thigh-high stockings flashed beneath the table edge. Kamuro Masumi packed away her textbooks faster than usual, stuffing her notebook and water bottle into the cloth bag and pulling its drawstring tight enough to tie a dead knot.

As Kiryu Yume stood to pack his schoolbag, he took a step forward and brushed past Sakayanagi Arisu's side, lowering his head close to her ear.

"Mommy Sakayanagi."

He spoke very softly, just loud enough for her alone to hear.

Sakayanagi Arisu did not turn her head. Her silver-white hair covered half her face, and the color of her earlobe shifted from pale white to light pink. She gently tucked the hair beside her ear back with a finger, then turned to look at him. There was a glint in her violet eyes, and the curve of her lips lifted half a degree more than usual.

"If your memory for history is this good, pass your next exam."

Her tone was half a note softer than usual. She picked up her cane and headed for the stairs. The lace trim of her thigh-high stockings showed in a thin line as her skirt swayed, then was quickly covered again as the hem fell.

Kiryu Yume turned toward Kamuro Masumi on the other side. She had nearly reached the stairwell already, her gray cardigan outlined by a pale edge of sunlight from the window. He quickened his pace to catch up. At the stairwell, there were only the two of them.

"Mommy Kamuro."

Kamuro Masumi froze on the stairs. She did not turn around, but the roots of her ears visibly reddened from the side of her neck all the way to their tips. The cloth bag in her arms was clenched hard enough to dent inward.

"...What kind of crazy are you pulling in a library?" Her voice was low and gritted through her teeth.

"There's no one here."

She turned and glared at him, her lips pressed into a line. The flush on her cheeks had already spread to her earlobes, red enough to drip blood. She took a deep breath, turned away, and hurried downstairs. Her long black hair swayed behind her, and her footsteps were heavy.

Kiryu Yume returned to the table and packed up the last of his things. The notebook lying open on the table was still turned to the page on the Edo Shogunate. In a blank space, he drew a cat with pointed ears and a raised tail, then added two little circles beside it—one for Sakayanagi and one for Kamuro. He closed the notebook and placed it in his schoolbag. Outside, the sunlight had already crept to the center of the table, bright enough to make him squint.

There would be tutoring again next Saturday.