alpindale/light-novels · Datasets at Hugging Face

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“So, how did the culprit pull off this impossible task?”
“Let me think. A-ha, got it. That’s an easy one.” After she had finished laying out my meal, the nurse turned to face me. “The murderer dismembered the body inside the room, then took one of the hands and used it to lock the room from the outside. Dismembering the whole body was camouflage, because in fact the killer only needed to sever one hand. In other words, the ‘key to the room’ was just the palm, and directly after death the scanner would still respond to it like it would to a living thing. Teheh, talk about a helping hand.”
“…”
“You’d be all shaken up if there was a dismembered corpse right there in front of you, so you wouldn’t realize at first glance that one little piece was missing. Yeah. So the culprit must be one of the three who discovered the body. It’d have to be the last person who entered the room, right? He or she could take the severed hand out of whatever it was hidden in, a pouch or something, and put it in a corner of the room while the other two were still in shock at the sight of the body. Wow, that’s a mighty gaudy trick.”
“…”
As I listened to the nurse’s answer, my gaze remained fixed on the contents of the envelope. Bundles and bundles of money─and a single photo. It was the photo that Hime-chan must’ve recovered from my clothes at the same time she took the campus map.
The photo of Hime-chan smiling that honest, genuine smile.
“I’ll get you two together again soon─”
Now I see, Ms. Contractor.
Really got my fucking number─don’t you.
You knew exactly the right thing to do.
I don’t know what Hime-chan was feeling when she took it from me. I don’t know, but I have an inkling. You might call it a memento. A memory, of when Aikawa and Hime-chan first met. A memory called the past, so unlike the future─and which, unlike the future, will never be ambiguous.
“Hmm? Come on now, I answer your dumb little quiz for you, and you just sit there gazing at some photo like you want to eat it instead of this meal I brought you? Who’s it of, Ii-Ii? Your girlfriend?”
“Does this look like my girlfriend?” How the hell does this nurse see me? “It’s not. She’s…just a friend.”
“You were looking at it pretty affectionately for that. The way someone looks at a daughter, or some sort of disciple.”
“Yeah? Well, maybe so.”
Snatching this photo from me was the one pure trick Hime-chan played on me, unrelated to either crime or murder. An act devoid of malice. Hime-chan wanted it for herself, so she took it from me. In which case, she’d have to come to me to get it back again. I didn’t know where she was now or what she was doing─nor did I know what Aikawa planned to do with her… But with those odds, giving up and admitting I’d been fooled didn’t seem so bad.
Hime-chan could never take her place─but, well, there were a lot of things I wanted to teach her anyway.
Yeah, like how to use nonsense, for instance.
What Hime-chan needed was a negative example─like me.
“Hmm. Okay. Anyway, I don’t care about any of that. What about my answer to the quiz? I got it right, didn’t I? C’mon, Ii-Ii, tell me already.”
The nurse peered intently down at me. I callously waved her away before responding. Though you don’t need me to tell you whether or not she was correct, of course; it goes without saying. However wide the world may be─
There’s only one person in it so soft that she couldn’t solve such a simple quiz.
The world’s strongest softie.
“You’re totally wrong. What a horrible person, suspecting your friends like that.”
“And you’re totally full of shit.”
“Maybe.”

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
Chapter: 33

Suspension 1
Afterword─
Other people’s will can at times be incomprehensible, and sometimes intrusive or even quite patronizing, but is it just my imagination or does any conviction clear enough to merit the label “will” exert a clear pressure on people who come into contact with it? Well, most of the time it probably is just my imagination, but if we try replacing “will” with “pressure,” it works surprisingly well in a lot of instances. And, conversely, if you examine any of your own perfectly innocent actions, you’ll find that even those exert an unintentional influence on the people around you, which is honestly kind of shocking. Thinking of yourself as the center of the universe is the height of folly, but by the same token, doing whatever you please as though your actions have no effect whatsoever on the rest of the world might well be the depths of folly. If we accept that our world results from the collisions of various pressures with one another, then it must be said to exist in an extremely tenuous balance, like a balloon that’ll pop if you poke it with a needle─or maybe it’s like walking on spider webs─and for that very reason, a single individual’s will can bring that equilibrium crashing down. This is very much not a meaningless exaggeration, of course, but that being said, you only very rarely have an opportunity to observe the kind of larger-than-life person who remains unaffected by those pressures, so I ought to think twice about acting like I know what I’m talking about.
This volume is chapter three of the Zaregoto series. As you can see, it has neither theme nor thesis, nor is there anything resembling a will to be found within its pages. The charlatan who calls himself the Nonsense User simply tells it all according to what suits him, leaving a trail of contradictions and false logic in his wake. It’s a tale of non-action, so to speak, free from all worldly attachments. Affirmation becomes negation, escape becomes surrender, respect becomes contempt. A nonsense user could never teach anyone anything in the first place, so I was tempted to make the subtitle “The Nonsense User’s Dishtowel,” but I stopped myself at the last minute. This volume marks a turning point in the Zaregoto series─would tie things up nicely if it were true, but unfortunately it’s not. The words just keep on coming same as ever, marching straight down the road of silliness. So in that spirit, this has been SUSPENSION: Kubitsuri High School - The Nonsense User’s Disciple.
With this book, the NISIOISIN paperback library has finally reached three volumes, and I somehow feel like I’ve reached the end of stage one. In getting to this point I’ve received kind assistance from all quarters, not least of all from the illustrator, take, and the fine people at Kodansha’s paperback division, and these days I’m living only to repay those debts. And of course I’m also grateful for the opportunity to repay my readers by continuing to write these novels, so thank you all very much. Until next time.
NISIOISIN

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
Chapter: 34

Suspension 1

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
Chapter: 35



ol { list-style: none; padding-left: 1em; }
Suspension 1



Navigation
Cover
Contents
Act One………Play It As It Lies
Act Two………Shiogi’s Iron Cordon
Act Three………Hang ’Em High
Act Four………The Dark Knife Rises
Act Five………Backstab Rewind
Act Six………End of the Line
Act Seven………A Subjugation in Scarlet
After the Curtain………The Lily Outgrows the Valley
Guide
Contents

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
Chapter: 35



ol { list-style: none; padding-left: 1em; }
Suspension 1



Navigation
Cover
Contents
Act One………Play It As It Lies
Act Two………Shiogi’s Iron Cordon
Act Three………Hang ’Em High
Act Four………The Dark Knife Rises
Act Five………Backstab Rewind
Act Six………End of the Line
Act Seven………A Subjugation in Scarlet
After the Curtain………The Lily Outgrows the Valley
Guide
Contents

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0
(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0

“So, how did the culprit pull off this impossible task?”

“Let me think. A-ha, got it. That’s an easy one.” After she had finished laying out my meal, the nurse turned to face me. “The murderer dismembered the body inside the room, then took one of the hands and used it to lock the room from the outside. Dismembering the whole body was camouflage, because in fact the killer only needed to sever one hand. In other words, the ‘key to the room’ was just the palm, and directly after death the scanner would still respond to it like it would to a living thing. Teheh, talk about a helping hand.”

“…”

“You’d be all shaken up if there was a dismembered corpse right there in front of you, so you wouldn’t realize at first glance that one little piece was missing. Yeah. So the culprit must be one of the three who discovered the body. It’d have to be the last person who entered the room, right? He or she could take the severed hand out of whatever it was hidden in, a pouch or something, and put it in a corner of the room while the other two were still in shock at the sight of the body. Wow, that’s a mighty gaudy trick.”

“…”

As I listened to the nurse’s answer, my gaze remained fixed on the contents of the envelope. Bundles and bundles of money─and a single photo. It was the photo that Hime-chan must’ve recovered from my clothes at the same time she took the campus map.

The photo of Hime-chan smiling that honest, genuine smile.

“I’ll get you two together again soon─”

Now I see, Ms. Contractor.

Really got my fucking number─don’t you.

You knew exactly the right thing to do.

I don’t know what Hime-chan was feeling when she took it from me. I don’t know, but I have an inkling. You might call it a memento. A memory, of when Aikawa and Hime-chan first met. A memory called the past, so unlike the future─and which, unlike the future, will never be ambiguous.

“Hmm? Come on now, I answer your dumb little quiz for you, and you just sit there gazing at some photo like you want to eat it instead of this meal I brought you? Who’s it of, Ii-Ii? Your girlfriend?”

“Does this look like my girlfriend?” How the hell does this nurse see me? “It’s not. She’s…just a friend.”

“You were looking at it pretty affectionately for that. The way someone looks at a daughter, or some sort of disciple.”

“Yeah? Well, maybe so.”

Snatching this photo from me was the one pure trick Hime-chan played on me, unrelated to either crime or murder. An act devoid of malice. Hime-chan wanted it for herself, so she took it from me. In which case, she’d have to come to me to get it back again. I didn’t know where she was now or what she was doing─nor did I know what Aikawa planned to do with her… But with those odds, giving up and admitting I’d been fooled didn’t seem so bad.

Hime-chan could never take her place─but, well, there were a lot of things I wanted to teach her anyway.

Yeah, like how to use nonsense, for instance.

What Hime-chan needed was a negative example─like me.

“Hmm. Okay. Anyway, I don’t care about any of that. What about my answer to the quiz? I got it right, didn’t I? C’mon, Ii-Ii, tell me already.”

The nurse peered intently down at me. I callously waved her away before responding. Though you don’t need me to tell you whether or not she was correct, of course; it goes without saying. However wide the world may be─

There’s only one person in it so soft that she couldn’t solve such a simple quiz.

The world’s strongest softie.

“You’re totally wrong. What a horrible person, suspecting your friends like that.”

“And you’re totally full of shit.”

“Maybe.”

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0

Chapter: 33

Suspension 1

Afterword─

Other people’s will can at times be incomprehensible, and sometimes intrusive or even quite patronizing, but is it just my imagination or does any conviction clear enough to merit the label “will” exert a clear pressure on people who come into contact with it? Well, most of the time it probably is just my imagination, but if we try replacing “will” with “pressure,” it works surprisingly well in a lot of instances. And, conversely, if you examine any of your own perfectly innocent actions, you’ll find that even those exert an unintentional influence on the people around you, which is honestly kind of shocking. Thinking of yourself as the center of the universe is the height of folly, but by the same token, doing whatever you please as though your actions have no effect whatsoever on the rest of the world might well be the depths of folly. If we accept that our world results from the collisions of various pressures with one another, then it must be said to exist in an extremely tenuous balance, like a balloon that’ll pop if you poke it with a needle─or maybe it’s like walking on spider webs─and for that very reason, a single individual’s will can bring that equilibrium crashing down. This is very much not a meaningless exaggeration, of course, but that being said, you only very rarely have an opportunity to observe the kind of larger-than-life person who remains unaffected by those pressures, so I ought to think twice about acting like I know what I’m talking about.

This volume is chapter three of the Zaregoto series. As you can see, it has neither theme nor thesis, nor is there anything resembling a will to be found within its pages. The charlatan who calls himself the Nonsense User simply tells it all according to what suits him, leaving a trail of contradictions and false logic in his wake. It’s a tale of non-action, so to speak, free from all worldly attachments. Affirmation becomes negation, escape becomes surrender, respect becomes contempt. A nonsense user could never teach anyone anything in the first place, so I was tempted to make the subtitle “The Nonsense User’s Dishtowel,” but I stopped myself at the last minute. This volume marks a turning point in the Zaregoto series─would tie things up nicely if it were true, but unfortunately it’s not. The words just keep on coming same as ever, marching straight down the road of silliness. So in that spirit, this has been SUSPENSION: Kubitsuri High School - The Nonsense User’s Disciple.

With this book, the NISIOISIN paperback library has finally reached three volumes, and I somehow feel like I’ve reached the end of stage one. In getting to this point I’ve received kind assistance from all quarters, not least of all from the illustrator, take, and the fine people at Kodansha’s paperback division, and these days I’m living only to repay those debts. And of course I’m also grateful for the opportunity to repay my readers by continuing to write these novels, so thank you all very much. Until next time.

NISIOISIN

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0

Chapter: 34

Suspension 1

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0

Chapter: 35

ol { list-style: none; padding-left: 1em; }

Suspension 1

Navigation

Cover

Contents

Act One………Play It As It Lies

Act Two………Shiogi’s Iron Cordon

Act Three………Hang ’Em High

Act Four………The Dark Knife Rises

Act Five………Backstab Rewind

Act Six………End of the Line

Act Seven………A Subjugation in Scarlet

After the Curtain………The Lily Outgrows the Valley

Guide

Contents

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0

Chapter: 35

ol { list-style: none; padding-left: 1em; }

Suspension 1

Navigation

Cover

Contents

Act One………Play It As It Lies

Act Two………Shiogi’s Iron Cordon

Act Three………Hang ’Em High

Act Four………The Dark Knife Rises

Act Five………Backstab Rewind

Act Six………End of the Line

Act Seven………A Subjugation in Scarlet

After the Curtain………The Lily Outgrows the Valley

Guide

Contents

(2) chapter number given is likely out of range: 0