The Case Files of Jeweler Richard

Richard’s store was run in a laid-back and comfortable way, so it was rare for customers to come in succession like serial collisions, but it was common for a lone customer to stick around for hours. He might be aiming for a store where those who visit could enjoy themselves however they liked.

Today’s customer was Yonehara-san, a housewife, and this was her third visit to the store. She liked me a lot and often asked me my thoughts on gemstones. She seemed to have jewelry design as a hobby.

Today, she was after opals.

“What do you think, Nakata-kun? From the right, there’s black opals, white opals, and fire opals.”

“…There’s so many different kinds.”

The stones shining on the black cloth were, strangely enough, the kind that I was most interested in right now. It was the stone Hase-senpai came here to sell.

All of them were called “opals,” but black opals were greenish black stones, white opals were a gentle white like yogurt candy, and as for fire opals, they were a brilliant scarlet like a bonfire. They didn’t seem like the same gemstone. Their common features were their round cabochon cut and the strange tints in the middle of the stone. They had a band of crumpled light inside. Depending on the angle you look at it, you might see more red or more green. It was like there was a tiny rainbow in the stone.

“Um…What’s that sparkly thing in the stone?”

“Ufufu. Richard-san, teach him.”

“…Do you know what is the difference between crystals and amorphous solids, Seigi?”

“Please cut out the hard stuff!”

Yonehara-san laughed amusedly. She wasn’t an expert on stones like Richard and Tanimoto-san. She probably just liked to put on beautiful gemstones and play with them. The blue tourmaline brooch she was wearing on her lapel today was the one she bought at her last visit. She matched it with shoes and a shirt in the same color, giving her the air of a stylish upper-class madam. Richard lightly cleared his throat before beginning his lecture.

“There is no sparkling substance within the stone. That does not explain why the colors you see differ depending on the viewing angle. This is a matter of the nature of the stone itself. The opal is a very rare type of gemstone. The substance within the stone is not uniform like for crystalline stones such as diamonds and sapphires, but is simply a mixture of silicon and water that had solidified. That is called ‘amorphous.’ It has been pressed for roughly five million years, so it does not break apart easily, but the bonds between the grains are not very strong, so its hardness is as low as six.”

“What does that have to do with the sparkly light?”

“That phenomenon is called ‘play of color,’ which is ‘yuushoku’ in Japanese. The light hitting the particles inside is diffusely reflected and various colors can be seen. It reflects light in many different colors, but the colors that appear depend on how neatly the particles are arranged and how large they are. There are opals that only shine green, while others appear in a rare red fire.”

“Fire?”

That is what the “glitter” of opals is called, Richard supplemented. Yonehara-san was expecting a comment from me. Hmm, how should I answer?

“…At any rate, I know that there’s a bunch of chemistry stuff involved.”

Yonehara-san laughed happily again. She seemed to like watching me say absurd things to Richard. I looked at Richard with a grudge-filled gaze that said, I’m not saying weird stuff on purpose.

“Nakata-kun is a serious but funny young man. Say, Richard-san, you don’t find a lot of technical information like that in Japanese textbooks, do you? How did you study? You never lived in Japan when you were little, did you?”

“…My master in gemstones was proficient in Japanese. I had the language and information about stones drummed into my head at the same time, so the two of them are inseparable within me.”

That was something I was hearing for the first time. He had a master? I thought they were Japanese, but I couldn’t be too sure. They could be an Englishman, a Frenchman, or someone from another country who was fluent in Japanese. Is that so, Yonehara-san smiled and didn’t ask any further. She was very good at making these kinds of decisions about when to back off.

“Say, Nakata-kun, which stone would you choose? I want to make a pendant.”

“I think all of them look beautiful? You can decide by thinking about what kind of clothes to wear with it…”

“Isn’t it better to buy clothes that match the stone?”

This kind of customer wasn’t rare. A leisurely rich person who could do whatever they wanted, as much as they wanted. I liked the way they enjoyed life. But when I was always thinking about Hase-senpai somewhere in my head, it made me feel a bit complicated. Stop it. There’s no point thinking about it.

“What about the fire opal? It’s pretty, like green holograms are scattered through it.”

“That might be a good choice. Fire opals are not as valuable compared to black opals, but I’ve always liked them very much.”

Saying that, Yonehara-san put the red opal on top of her white finger and told me to look. When she moved her hand with the stone left to right, the foil of light shimmered. It was like a living thing.

“Isn’t it wonderful? It looks like the Milky Way when you look at it this way, but when you look from another angle, it looks like a fire burning. How magnificent.”

“Yonehara-san…you’re like a poet.”

“My, I’m flattered. It’s from one of my favorite authors.”

Fire opal. The stone Senpai had. I didn’t see what kind of stone it was. I wondered which was the better opal, this stone or his.

Richard only stayed silent, just watching the customer who was having fun playing with the stone.

After Yonehara-san specified several opals, she smiled at Richard and said, “Next time you come to my house, we’ll include my husband in the discussion about money.” Certainly, the jeweler bowed, and showed the good customer out.

After he closed the door, Richard sighed.

“Good work. Speaking of which, Seigi, your email.”

“Sorry, but I have to take a little break. I’m sorry.”

I was actually holding it in quite a lot. While hearing Richard’s shocked voice, I put the teacups Richard and Yonehara-san were drinking from into the kitchen sink and ran to the washroom. I hesitated to use the washroom when there was a customer here, but it would be dangerous if there were any more long stretches in the future. I’ll make a strategy where I could nonchalantly disappear and return again.

After doing my business, I gingerly poked my head out of the washroom door that was between the reception room and the short hallway that connected to the kitchen, and to my surprise, I sensed that there was another customer. That was fast. I wondered if there was enough time to put away the stones.

“So I’m asking you to take another look at it. I’m hoping you can come up with some kind of price.”

“I have told you about the approximate price. I am afraid it is difficult to get anything higher than that.”

“You were just driving a hard bargain, weren’t you? I thought you were just being nice.”

I knew who it was by that voice. It was Hase-senpai. But, his tone was completely different from when we were in the yakiniku restaurant.

What was with that snake-like voice, like he was looking up at you* and awaiting his chance to swallow you whole? Richard’s voice was also bewildered as well as wary.

(TN: Imagine someone looking up at you with their head lowered, you know that sneaky look. I guess it’s like that Debby Ryan meme?)

“I have also said this the last time, but this store does not purchase stones, it is fundamentally a place that introduces customers to gemstones. We will not be able to meet your request.”

“Is this a store for tourists? Are you looking down on me because I’m Japanese? That’s a pain, you know. I came here seriously.”

“I can assure you that I will never judge a customer based on their nationality.”

“…It’s a pretty quiet store. Are you the only one here?”

There was no time to hesitate over whether or not I’d regret this. I had to get out there. Right when I made up my mind, the store’s bell rang, and the wind was taken out of my sails again. This succession of visits was way too rare. Did Richard put out an ad for the store somewhere? But based on my experience until now, nothing good happened at such times.

As though to clear away the threatening atmosphere that had been in the air for an instant, Richard seemed to have opened the store’s door. A woman’s voice immediately burst in.

“Hello! My name is Hata Toshiko. Am I correct in saying that Hase Keigo-san is the one who is over there?”

I nervously poked my head out and saw the back of Hase-senpai’s head. Richard and Senpai were both taken aback at the woman who suddenly arrived. She looked about fifty. She had a plump and healthy-looking face that made me think of Momotaro* for some reason. Behind her stood a man wearing glasses who looked the same age as her, looking uncomfortable. They were both wearing suits.

(TN: Momotaro is a Japanese folk hero who’s a boy with a chubby face.)

“…That is so.”

Senpai didn’t notice me. Hata Toshiko widened her eyes, and then she went up to him and grabbed his hands. His burly hands that were holding a black jewelry box.

“Thief! I was right to chase after you, you thief!”

“Wait, who are you and what are you talking about? I am Hase, though.”

“My maiden name is Sugano. You understand what I mean when I say I’m Sugano Hisa’s niece, correct? Manager-san of the nursing home. The person behind me is my husband, but he works in the legal profession, so please talk to him with that in mind. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to bother the shop owner, but there was an incident. This person stole a gemstone from my aunt.”

“That’s not true!”

Hase-senpai twisted his body to try to shake off Hata-san’s hands and was about to leave the store when he met my eyes and froze.

“…Seigi? What are you doing?”

I work part-time here, I said hoarsely. I wondered if Senpai caught it.

Hase-senpai, whose hands were now being gently grabbed by the husband, helplessly sat down on a red sofa. Richard crossed his arms.

“You say your name is Hata-sama? This is my store, though.”

“This will be over soon. This person is your customer, correct?”

Richard sighed, as though he had given up, and prompted me for tea. Senpai already found out I was here. There was no need to torment myself over it in the kitchen. But right now, my mind was starting to go blank. I wanted to run away. From here, immediately. I couldn’t think straight, but when Richard urged me to make tea, my hands prepared royal milk tea for four people. Of course, no one drank it.

Hata-san vigorously thrust a red gemstone in front of Senpai.

“First, let me confirm this. This opal belongs to my aunt, Sugano Hisa, correct?”

“…I received it from Hisa-san.”

“Don’t make up such an obvious lie! Ah, pardon me. Let’s confirm this one by one. But this is a store. We’ll cause trouble if we don’t leave soon.”

Hata-san had documents in her bag about Hase-senpai, and she confirmed all the facts one by one in front of him. His place of employment was a day care facility in Tokyo. The other staff were part-timers, but only Senpai was temporarily transferred there by the parent company, so he was treated as a full-time employee. One person who went there was Sugano Hisa-san—My aunt, Hata-san said with a sniffle.

“I visited the facility, and I heard that you and my aunt were very close.”

“No…it’s a business rule that our staff becomes close with only certain clients.”

“How shameless. I know that you and my aunt were especially close. I heard there was a small fire at the dry cleaner’s behind the facility some time ago, you know? Apparently, when the people in the facility were evacuating, you carried my aunt, who couldn’t move her legs, on your back and moved here. It’s no wonder that my aunt, who doesn’t understand things well, would be convinced that you were her lifesaver when you did that.”

“…At that time, Hisa-san was really scared and kept flailing about, but she calmed down when I was by her side.”

“Enough with this repetitive talk. I have corroborated with several people that she was happy because you looked like her dead husband. Really, she used to be such a moody person that it was terrifying, but now that she’s like that, it’s completely hopeless.”

Hase-senpai, who was working as the deputy director of a day care facility for seniors, was very close to Sugano Hisa. Every time they talked about the facility, Senpai would look pained and tried to turn his head a bit away from me. Apparently, Hisa-san became wheelchair-bound due to a fall down the stairs. Since her aged husband, who had been taking care of her, passed away, she had been suffering from dementia, but now it was only mild, so they accepted her at the day care facility. If anything, she was a difficult-to-please person and had a fear of strangers, but for some reason she called Hase-senpai “Usagi-san” and doted on him.

“It truly makes me furious. I don’t believe you don’t understand what it means to be ‘given’ an expensive item from such a person. You don’t have any morals or ethics, even though you work in a nursing home.”

“It really was a gift. I refused her many times, but she always brought it to the facility, so it was dangerous and I decided to keep it for her.”

“If you decided to keep it for her, then why did you bring it to a Ginza jewelry store? Excuse me, you over there, you understand all the Japanese I’ve been saying up to now, don’t you? Why did this person come here? To talk about gemstones? Or does he have a personal friend here at the store and came to see them?”

Senpai glared at me for an instant. If I tried to help him out, I might be able to.

What flashed across my mind was Grandma’s words.

You must not do bad things. Because there will be punishment.

Which one? Which of them was in the wrong? I didn’t know. While I was lost in thought, Richard answered for me.

“This customer came to the store to discuss a trade-in.”

Hata-san glared at Senpai, as though to say, “See?” I was just standing by the wall.

“Thank you very much. I really didn’t need to check. You have been going around to other trade-in specialty stores in the city, haven’t you?  Last Saturday, my husband and I have been following you. If it was only one time, I might have thought it was just my imagination, but you did the same thing this week. I’m shocked.”

“…Are you really Hisa-san’s relative? She’s living on her pension…and by herself. Her hometown is in Iwate, and she told me that she felt really alone after her husband passed away…She said that she might not be able to afford the fees for the day care soon…if the gemstone could be converted into money, then it would help a little…”

“Do you think you’re in a position where you can suspect others? How condescending. My aunt has been living alone for a long time, and she refused when I asked her to move in with us. I believe you know that we cannot afford to live with her in our home right now. There are circumstances, you know. Did my aunt ask you to sell the stone? Do you have the documents that say she entrusted it to you, then?”

“No, it’s not like that…”

Then you’re no better than a thief, Hata-san spat out.

When I took a step closer to try to say something, but Richard glared at me so hard that I stopped. Was he telling me not to say anything? Why not? You don’t know anything about it, though. Ah, but.

Wasn’t it the same for me right now, in this spot?

I didn’t know anything. About his job. About Hisa-san. Senpai didn’t tell me anything. Why didn’t he talk to me about it? Did I look that unreliable?

“You sure were able to do something this awful to a ninety-year-old old lady who dotes on you. This will never end, so we’ll talk about the rest when we go to the police.”

Hata-san stood up. No, I couldn’t bear it any longer. I stepped in between the two of them.

“Please wait a minute. This is too one-sided. Please listen to what Senpai has to say as well.”

“Senpai? Is he your acquaintance? No, is this organized crime? Pretending to be a store?”

“He has nothing to do with this! It’s just a coincidence that I’m here. Seigi, be quiet.”

“I really wish you would stop that. Ganging up and taking advantage of the elderly.”

“You…!”

Senpai’s eyes were filled with the flames of rage. This was bad. If he hit her, it would all be over. I had to do something. But what?

When that one second felt like an eternity, a word shattered the tense air.

Kainohi.

“…What?”

“Hata-sama, do you know the word ‘Kainohi’?”

Richard was calmly looking at us while he sat on his red sofa. His eyes were calm and collected as always, as though to say that this mess had nothing to do with him.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know. If Japanese is too difficult, you can use English.”

“I thank you for your kind consideration, but I would like to speak in Japanese. Then, how about you, sir?”

Senpai shook his head in amazement. Richard put his hand on his chin with a “Well then.”

“How about ‘Kainoshi’?”

That word from my email?

Why now? I didn’t say anything about Senpai to him.

I know that, Senpai nodded.

“Hisa-san…said that when she gave me the gemstone. She said Kainoshi, this is a kainoshi. But I didn’t understand what she meant.”

“The pronunciations for the ha-column and sa-column* are very similar, so is it possible that you misheard her, or that her pronunciation was mixed up?”

(TN: Reference to Japanese syllabary. The ha-column contains ha, hi, fu, he, ho, and the sa-column contains sa, shi, su, se, so)

“What are you two talking about? Are you stalling for time?”

I looked at Hata-san as though praying, “Please just listen a little longer.” Something was being solved. What did Richard discover in this stone?

Hase-senpai groaned as he stared at Richard.

“…It’s possible. It might be possible…Hisa-san has gum disease and can’t fit her dentures, so sometimes she can’t speak well. That’s right, even for her own name she says ‘Shisa’ instead of Hisa.”

“That’s enough! That has nothing to do with this!”

“I see. Understood.”

Then I believe it is as I expected, Richard announced, ignoring Hata-san’s voice. The four of us were unable to take our eyes off the jeweler. He said he understood something.

“I have only heard bits and pieces, but I am certain that Hisa-sama is from Iwate Prefecture. Hata-sama, when Hisa-sama was young, did she like minerals or fairy tales?”

“Huh? Yes…she did, she loved fairy tales, didn’t she? When she was younger, my aunt used to work as an illustrator for children’s books. I don’t know about the stones, though.”

“What about Miyazawa Kenji? Does she have any special attachments to him?”

“Yes, yes she does. Hisa-san loves the picture books for Yamanashi and Night on the Galactic Railroad.”

“He didn’t ask you that question. Please be quiet. Can we make this brief?”

The blond-haired blue-eyed jeweler lightly bowed and gave a brief history of the children’s writer from Iwate Prefecture. I didn’t know about this, but apparently Miyazawa Kenji really loved stones. In his works, there were many real stones that mineral enthusiasts could recognize. Amethyst, azurite, and many others.

“Kai no Hi* was also the title of one of his works. The title is a phrase coined by Kenji that refers to the fire opal. He described the stone, with its smoky flame and rainbow-colored brilliance, as a fire in a shell. It is a story about animals, and the characters are birds and mammals that understand human speech.”

(TN: Kai no hi literally means “fire of the shell.”)

“Can you please tell me what that has to do with this situation?”

“Then, I’ll make this brief. In the work, a skylark that had its life saved by a rabbit gave it a stone as thanks. That stone is a ‘kai no hi.’”

All the swagger and bluster in Hase-senpai’s body disappeared.

My tightly clenched fists opened. Hata-san widened her eyes in shock.

“What…? It gave it to a rabbit…?”

Hisa-san doted on Senpai and called him “Usagi.” When I first heard about that in the yakiniku restaurant, I carefreely wondered what was so rabbit-like about such a stout man. But after hearing what I heard just now, I could see why.

It was a stone of gratitude for saving her.

I suddenly looked at Hata-san with a start. After a few moments, her brows knitted together tightly.

“…So, what? Do you mean to say that my aunt seriously gave this child the stone…?”

“I cannot tell you one way or the other. It was said that Hisa-sama had a mild form of dementia, but I believe it would be better to reconfirm how much she is aware of reality, so that we can make as few mistakes as possible.”

Richard bowed politely, and Hata-san said no more. Her husband, who had been silent all this time, awkwardly opened his mouth with a “Look.”

“Why don’t we get out of this store now? We’ve bothered these people for too long.”

Hata-san’s face turned red at her husband’s words. Senpai stood up, looking like he was about to cry, stood next to Hata-san, and bowed his head. It was a deep bow, like this was after a karate match.

“I never thought it would become like this. I am truly sorry.”

“…Stop it. It looks like I did something wrong. I’m the one who’s being manipulated.”

“If you now understand that I’m not a thief, then I will return the stone right away.”

“I’m talking to the company at any rate. Let’s go. Come on, get up.”

Nodding, Hase-senpai picked up the jewelry box on the table. There was a red stone on top of a white cushion. It was the first time I saw it. It was a size smaller than the stone Yonehara-san was looking at, and it didn’t habe much play of color. But it was probably treasured. The box looked very old.

It was now or never if I wanted to talk to him.

“Um, Senpai…”

“Were you in this store when I came here last time?”

Senpai turned around and looked down at me, as though looming over me. His voice was low.

I didn’t answer right away, but Hase-senpai seemed to have sensed the truth from my expression. A self-deprecating smile appeared on his ashen face.

“You’re awful.”

That was all he said before he left the store with Hata-san and her husband.