The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

This entire chapter was a wild ride…both in content and translating it. Anyways I hope this was entertaining.

Despite praising them verbally, Richard was angry. I was the same. Why would people give such a disgusting purpose to something they cherished for its beauty? Even Tanimoto-san would be angry. My blood was boiling as well. Beautiful gemstones were pitiful.

“…It all happened so fast at the end. You were a bit scary back then.”

“I was merely trying to unsettle him.”

Old Man Yoshida’s reward was deferred for later, but apparently, he was told that in the event that he didn’t return the necklace to Marienbad by the deadline, he would need to be prepared for a “suitable punishment.”  It seemed that he only thought of it as a blessing that the occult disturbance hastened the return of the jewelry, but that was why he was panicking when Director Kataura started saying that they wouldn’t return it. It seemed that he thought that he would be killed by the drug ring. Since he wasn’t dealing the actual drugs, it seemed difficult to punish him, but the situation changed when he exposed the entire plot in exchange for the police’s protection. He was currently in custody, but it was certain that he would receive some kind of prison sentence.

“You were the one who advised Director Kataura to put on a play like that, weren’t you. How much did you know?”

“I had a bad feeling when I ended up at the fictitious broker’s. I refused to accept that it was all only at the stage of suspicion and told her my speculations as they were. Kataura-sama told me that it could not be undone if something happened, and that we should try doing it. She would hate the ‘curse’ rumor more than anyone else, after all.”

“What a brave person… The thing you said to Old Man Yoshida…D-E-something? What’s that? Is that also a gemstone-related term?”

“DEA is the abbreviation for the United States’ Drug Enforcement Administration. Since it seemed like he knew that name, it appears that the threat had worked properly.”

Drug Enforcement Administration. Was this a foreign drama? No, but the other person was Richard. Even if he was bluffing, if a mysterious blond man of an unknown identity tapped your shoulder, you would be prepared to face your reckoning.

Even so.

“I highly doubt it, but you’re…not actually an undercover agent, are you?”

“Caramel.”

There’s no more , I said, showing him the empty box. Richard glanced at it over the front glass, looked at my face, and then shifted his gaze with a serious expression once again.

“I think such people would have less conspicuous appearances.”

His tone was slightly forlorn, but what he was saying was simply narcissistic. It was true that he possessed an extraordinary beauty and appraising eye, but I guess he really was just an ordinary jeweler after all. I thought it would have shed a little light on the reason why this guy had so many mysteries, though.

But, it might be a lot better than a development where he gets exposed in a way he didn’t want.

Within not even fifteen minutes of driving, the Jaguar arrived at the Ueno parking lot. The car was parked, and facing us was the concert hall near Ueno Park. It appeared that it was already open, and beautifully-dressed people were being sucked into the entrance one by one. Because she said she set aside the tickets for us, we should be able to get them at the counter.

“Check.”

“Huh?”

In front of the ticket counter in the hall, Richard prompted me and did a light spin.

“No matter what, this is a place with a dress code. Clothing, hair, rubbish, are there any issues?”

“None at all. As usual, the world’s most beautiful man is standing in front of me.”

The lady at the counter started choking with great force. Did she have a cold? If I still had caramels left, I would have shared some with her. Richard accepted the tickets in my name, took them, threw one to me over his back, and then walked into the hall at an extreme speed. Was he feeling excited being out in his best clothes, or was he nervous? He sure had an attitude despite being Tanimoto-san’s pinch hitter.*

(TN: A pinch hitter is a player who bats in place of their teammate.)

“Don’t leave me behind! I’m nervous too, you know. It’s the first time I’ve ever come to a place like this.”

“…..There are many things I would like to say to you, but I will leave it for later.”

“Yeah. It’s starting.”

The performance was Jewels. The emerald dancer was Shinkai Aki.

Today was a once-in-a-lifetime’s stage.

The police investigation was conducted unbelievably quickly. As a result, it was concluded that it was highly unlikely that there was any other person in the ballet company who took part in the case. The secretiveness of Old Man Yoshida, who didn’t even disclose the details of the dealing to his grandson, was hardcore. Also, one more thing. Since this case was an international issue, a real organization starting with the letter D intervened, maybe. I couldn’t say for sure because everything took place behind the scenes.

The opponent was a large-scale drug ring. They couldn’t let the dealers who were supposed to have received the emeralds from Old Man Yoshida get away. For that reason, it seemed that the people of the Kataura Ballet Company were told to refrain from suspicious movements. Those who weren’t in the hall at the time weren’t even told the whole story yet. Everyone was meant to act as they normally would so as to not make the other party suspicious. If they had to suspend the performance and refund tickets, then the company would probably go bankrupt, just as Director Kataura feared. It could be called a kind-hearted measure. Be that as it may, the way the people of the company worked over these past ten days was beyond description. On top of the busy period right before a performance, there was even an investigation conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Narcotics Control Department or something. I saw the willpower and pride of pros in the people who were struggling hard to put on the performance as planned.

I asked if there was anything I could help with, but Shinkai-san’s reply was a few words.

You absolutely must come and watch us.

Because there is no guarantee that the company will survive even after this performance.

When I asked her if that was because of Old Man Yoshida’s drug trafficking, she said it wasn’t. After starting off by saying that it was pretty much the same for groups anywhere, Shinkai-san told me that the financial situation of the company was not good. They were losing audience. The regulars who had been patronizing them for a long time were getting older and older, and there were no opportunities for young people to be exposed to ballet in the first place. There was no telling what the future holds. It wouldn’t be strange for any performance to be the last, she said. Those were painful words. However, there was no sorrow in her words. She, who was aiming to become a ballerina who could work hard tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, would always be running as hard as she could. There was no guarantee that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow would be there forever, so she would do her best every single day, on every single stage.

Shinkai-san reserved the seats in the center of the first floor of the five-story hall for us. It looked like we had a good view there. I haven’t seen a stage production since my high school classes, but apparently the performance was about two and a half hours long, so if I worked hard enough, I should be able to watch it all the way through without falling asleep no matter how difficult to understand it was.

“…That’s right, I forgot. The third attempted loss. That was also the grandson failing to take it out because of Old Man Yoshida’s interference, right? That was the only thing Shinkai-san didn’t tell me about at all.”

Richard, in the seat next to me, looked at me with slightly criticizing eyes. Was it a bad idea to talk about this even in a place where the people concerned were? When I pressed my hands together and said sorry, Richard said, “That is not what I mean,” and looked as though he was looking at something a little far away.

“I heard a curious story in the interrogation room some time ago. The grandson who was arrested as a substance abuser was saying something peculiar.”

Thinking that he had in the bag if he sold them off, Grandson Yoshida, a.k.a. Yoshida Shigeo, took advantage of Old Man Yoshida’s busy schedule and attempted to take out the accessories a third time. Of course, he would be too conspicuous if he took them out of the building just like that. He tried to slip out the staff back door, saying that he was going out to the neighborhood to buy insufficient equipment.

And then.

“It seemed that he was one step away from exiting the back door when someone stopped him.”

Someone called out to him from a distance, asking what he was doing there. It was a woman’s voice. When he turned around in a panic, he saw a figure in a green tutu watching him from about five meters away in the corridor that led to the fire escape. He exclaimed “Eek!”, did a right about-face and returned backstage.

Grandson Yoshida testified that the person he ran into at that time was Shinkai-san. He went to return the necklace because he thought she had noticed it was missing and came to search for it.

However.

“From the results of the investigation, we know that all the dancers in green were on stage at the time of the crime. The rehearsal was recorded, so there is no doubt. There should have been no one near the back entrance at that time.”

“What…? So who was it?”

No, wait a minute. In the first place, why did Grandson Yoshida assume that the ballerina was Shinkai-san just by the green costume?

When I asked that, Richard was silent for a moment and stared at the curtains that blocked us from the stage. The lights in the hall were gradually dimming. The curtains would probably open soon.

“The necklace.”

“By necklace, you mean the emerald one?”

“The malachite one. He said, ‘The ballerina I saw from far away was wearing a necklace with large green stones, so I thought it was Shinkai-san.’”

The malachite pendant. An amulet that became a memento. Shinkai-san had laughed about it. That when she wore it, she felt like Minako-san was protecting her.

“……So,”

No way.

“I was asked if I didn’t know about this, or if I had an outside collaborator behind the scenes.”

Richard shook his head.

To me, who didn’t say anything, Richard added a few more words like they were some sort of lingering thoughts.

“Emeralds were originally prized as stones that brought happiness since time immemorial. It is a gemstone for family peace, harmony with one’s lover, intimate friendships, spiritual cultivation, deepening bonds, and protecting and nurturing the things we love. It is called the ‘Queen of Gemstones’ because the thickness that is brought about by inclusions gives it a soft and feminine impression. It is like a guardian angel of happiness, or a goddess. In some respects, it is like what the living wishes the dead to be.”

Next to the stunned me, Richard added a final remark.

“This is also another connection, I suppose.”

The lights in the hall completely dimmed. It was time for the performance to start. The curtains rose.

Dressed in a green costume and wearing the practice-use jewelry that her senpai who passed away at a young age used, Shinkai-san stood in the center of the stage. Like a queen of gemstones.

When I heard the term “plotless ballet,” I thought that I would probably fall asleep. Because it seemed complicated. Even if it was said to be choreography that trusts the viewer, I didn’t know how to watch a dance that had no story. I had no confidence.

But those feelings were literally wiped clean beautifully by Shinkai-san and the others.*

(TN: This is a pun. Kirei means “pretty” as well as “clean”)

They, on the stage, did not seem human. They were like the incarnations of gemstones with magical bodies. There was no story. They were just dancing. But what was exhibited before me was a beautiful crystallization of the choreographer’s full brainstorming on how to make the human body look the most beautiful when it moved, and how to move it in order to make the dreamlike orchestral music sound more dreamlike.

Gemstones were beautiful.

Dancers were also beautiful.

I couldn’t describe the kind of beauty that only had to be there very well. What kind of words might I scoop up and convey it without leaving anything out? I could understand why the man who created this dance used the wordless dance as a bridge between the two.

Things that couldn’t be expressed in words should be expressed with something that weren’t words.

The emerald dance ended in the first ten or so minutes. It was followed by the fire-like ruby and the divine diamond that was like an audience ceremony for a snow queen. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of applauding.

It felt as though beautiful fairies led me by the hand for a little over two hours out to a trip to a magical world, something that was often in fantasy movies and stuff like that, and before I knew it, I was in the same chair I had been sitting in before I left.

“Incredible. That was incredible. Humans became gemstones.”

Outside the hall, I, who was still excited, repeated “Incredible” over and over, and Richard had a strained smile on his face. When an intensely beautiful man went to a ballet performance, he seemed to have been mistaken for a dancer this time and he was asked to sign pamphlets a few times, but Richard declined them with a smile.

“You talk as though you were seeing the exact same thing as I was.”

“Huh? Well, of course…?”

Wasn’t it amazing and incredible? I pressed, and Richard nodded.

“I am of the same opinion as you. It was a wonderful performance. I am pleased from the bottom of my heart that the performance ended without any problems. However, I dare say that the performance that moved you deeply is completely different from the performance I saw.”

“Bu-but we saw the same stage.”

“What do people feel when they see something beautiful without any plot? It is an interesting question. What people feel towards a single gemstone is also varied and wide-ranging. What you were peering into was not the world the choreographer wants, but the interior of your own heart.”

I had no idea what he wanted to say. What did that have to do with the dance back there? It was a dance where humans represented the beauty of gemstones—that was what I thought.

Did that mean it looked completely different to Richard?

“…Are you free after this? Do you have any arrangements?”

“Why do you ask?”

“How about grabbing a bite to eat somewhere not in Ginza once in a while? And I’d like to hear what you have to say.”

What was Richard seeing?

The jeweler, who was himself beautiful like a gemstone, looked at me blankly in the dim twilight, and then smiled, as though he realized something. I knitted my brows together. What’s with that weird face?

“I will advise you of this again and again, but do not make the mistake of showing consideration for the wrong person.”

“It’s fine if you’re busy.”

“You should be busier than I am, o champion of justice.”

Before I could tell him that I didn’t understand what he meant, Richard started walking towards a dim alley, in the opposite direction from the parking lot. Huh? Where was he going? What should I do?

As I was feeling confused, somebody came running from the parking lot behind me. At great speed. When I braced myself and turned around quickly, they came to a sudden stop right in front of me. Their shoulders were heaving as they gasped for breath, and their hands were on their knees.

“Seigi-kun, I found you!”

“…Tanimoto-san?”

“Thank goodness. Well, you see, I rushed over as soon as practicum was over. Aki told me that they’re going to have an after-show party? Fireworks?  Anyways, she said they were doing something like that and invited me. Are you coming too, Seigi-kun? Aki said she contacted you.”

I hurriedly took out my phone. I still had it turned off from during the performance. Seeing me panic, Tanimoto-san laughed.

“Seigi-kun, are you free after this? If it’s okay with you, let’s go together. You must have helped out in some way. Aki thanked you.”

Apparently it’s in Ameyoko*, Tanimoto-san said as she peered into her phone. I forced a smile and turned around. Did he think he was being considerate?

(TN: Ameyoko, short for Ameyo Yokocho, is an open air market in Tokyo)

“Hey, Richard, you come with us…”

There was no one there when I turned around.

Nothing but an empty darkness filled Ueno Park in the evening. I tried calling his name one more time, but there was no response. When I shakily took a few steps forward, my name was called.

“Seigi-kun, what’s wrong? It’s this way.”

“Oh…I’m coming.”

Urged by Tanimoto-san, I started walking to Ameyoko. There was still an investigation being conducted inside the ballet company, so flashy fireworks were probably unreasonable, but maybe a “good work” dinner party was okay. I had to thank Shinkai-san. I saw a world I had never seen before until now. What’s more, I was with Tanimoto-san. After finishing one big practicum, she was in high spirits.

But, what was this strange sensation?

Like a necklace where one stone has fallen out.

I knew it was nothing but a delusion, not a premonition or a conviction. But I didn’t know why, I had a feeling that Richard would disappear just like this suddenly and without any warning one day, just like when he and I first met.

What exactly did he see in the recesses of the beauty that could not be described by words?