The Unfinished Scene (Short Story)

📌 Estimated reading time: about 15-20 minutes (approx. 13,000 characters)

Synopsis
Four portraits left behind by a painter—they hid a certain 'secret'.
A story of three first-year middle school students who challenge a beautiful mystery at the end of summer to create the school's Seven Wonders.

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"Hey, hey, why don't we create the first-ever 'Seven Wonders of the School' for our generation!?"
In the after-school Information Club room. Madoka Hayase, a member of the Information Culture Club, jumped up from her chair, leaned over the desk, and her eyes sparkled. It had been a few months since she entered middle school. Her overflowing curiosity, still wearing a uniform that was a bit too big for her, was about to explode in her school life after the summer.

"You're saying weird things again... Madoka, the Seven Wonders are things that naturally form in schools with a long history, right? If we make them up ourselves, that's just a lie."
Shiori Kishimoto, the first-year leader of the Information Culture Club, said in an exasperated voice while adjusting her glasses. But contrary to her tone, she had already started searching for "school ghost stories" on the tablet in her hand.

"But, Shiori. Even back in our elementary school, there were only about four wonders, like the statue that moves at night, right? This middle school is old, but it doesn't even have one wonder yet? That's lonely! We're going to set up the memorable first one!"

"We don't... need something like that..." Sota Nakano, the vice-leader, who was sitting in the corner of the club room hugging his favorite large backpack, muttered in a fading voice. Sota, who was naturally more timid than others, was terrible at occult stories. "I couldn't even get close to 'Hanako-san of the Toilet' in elementary school, so I don't need any new ghost stories..."

"It'll be fine, Sota! Because we're the ones making it. ...Oh, but speaking of which, haven't you heard the upperclassmen whispering that 'those paintings are dangerous'?"
At Madoka's words, Shiori looked up from the screen.

"Ah, I might have heard that too. You mean the four portraits in the hall above the student entrance, right? We're still in the classrooms in that wing, so I haven't really seen them properly..."
"Yes, that's it! Something about them being 'cursed' or 'the eyes moving,' they seem to be really scary paintings. But why are such paintings displayed there?" Madoka crossed her arms and groaned.
"Alright, before we investigate ourselves, let's charge at the adult source of information first!"
Pulled by the arm by Madoka, Sota, who was half-crying, and Shiori, who held a notebook, were dragged to the staff room.

◇

—The grade head teacher, who was drinking tea at his desk in the staff room, widened his eyes when he saw the trio of first-years who had charged in.
"What, you want to know about those paintings? You first-year kids who just enrolled are interested in quite a niche topic."
The teacher told them while looking nostalgic.
"The one who painted those four portraits was Sakutaro Sakakibara, a graduate of this school from decades ago. He became a famous painter after he grew up, but he was a 'weirdo' who had been famous in the local area for a long time. In his later years, he suddenly donated those four paintings to the school."
"Wow! A painter teacher!" When Madoka leaned forward, the teacher raised his index finger with a wry smile.
"However, the conditions for the donation were very strange. 'The location where the paintings are displayed and the angle at which they are hung must be exactly as I instruct, without a single hair's breadth of error.' That's why those paintings, if you look closely, are fixed at a strange angle, tilted against the wall, right? It seems the teachers at the time were also at a loss, saying, 'I don't understand the obsession of an eccentric artist.' That eerie obsession probably gathered scary rumors over time, like 'the model was murdered' or 'a corpse is buried,' among you kids."
Hearing the teacher's story, Sota gasped "Hii!" and hid behind Shiori. "S-see! It's suspicious after all! It's the painter's curse ritual!"

◇

Madoka, who thanked the teacher and left the staff room, was stuck on a "certain part" of the teacher's words.
"…The angle of display?"
"Yes. Isn't it strange for just an obsession to specify not only the position but also the angle in such detail?" Madoka looked at Shiori's face and grinned fearlessly.
"Decided! The star of our Seven Wonders will be that 'Cursed Painting by the Eccentric Painter Sakutaro Sakakibara'! Shiori, first, let's use our Information Club privileges to see if there are any records from that time left by Mr. Sakakibara!"

This was the beginning of a beautiful yet strange mystery-solving experience for the three first-year middle school students.

◇

The three who returned to the club room from the staff room were immediately surrounding Shiori's tablet.
"…Hmm, as expected, the official school records only say 'Received a donation of four paintings from Mr. Sakutaro Sakakibara.' Besides that, there are only short instructions attached regarding the installation location and the orientation and angle."
As Shiori said while scrolling through the screen, Madoka immediately reached for the club room door, saying, "Then we have no choice but to go see the real thing!"

The three decided to go around the school building to check the four scattered paintings. At the end of the first-floor corridor, the hall above the second-floor entrance, the third-floor connecting corridor, and the landing of the stairs in the special classroom building—the four portraits were hung alone here and there in the new, clean school building.
"Hii...! S-see, I knew it, these paintings are strange!"
Looking up at the first painting displayed in the corridor, Sota Nakano hugged his shoulders and began to tremble. "Why are they displayed in such a dim corridor? And they aren't straight against the wall, they're fixed at a subtle angle! It's as if they're angled to ambush us as we pass by and stare at us!"

Because of the "instructions for orientation and angle" in the official records, all the paintings were installed at strange angles, as if floating slightly from the wall. That was fueling Sota's fear to the fullest.
"Is that so? I still don't really get it even if people say they're scary..." "Yeah, now that you mention it, I just think, 'That's a slightly unusual way to display them.'"
Madoka and Shiori seemed to find them more mysterious than eerie. Even so, Madoka took photos of the four paintings one after another with the smartphone she brought, saying, "This might be a hint for something!"

When they returned to the club room, the three projected the captured images onto the large computer screen and began to observe them carefully.
"Alright, first, let's organize what these four paintings are like!" Madoka held a marker to the whiteboard. The works of Sakutaro Sakakibara projected on the screen all exuded a unique atmosphere.
[Painting 1]: A portrait of a quiet woman standing by a window. A distant cityscape is vaguely depicted in the background, and an open old book is placed in her hands.
[Painting 2]: A portrait of a kind-looking old gentleman standing somewhere outdoors. A landscape like a gently flowing river spreads out in the background, and the man has a gentle expression as if he is feeling nostalgic.
[Painting 3]: A portrait of a sturdy man wearing clothes like workwear. The ridge line of a mountain is faintly visible in the background, and the man's tightened expression gives a powerful impression.
[Painting 4]: A portrait of a small child wearing a straw hat. Large clouds spread across the sky in the background, and the child is staring at "somewhere" other than straight ahead, as if interested in something.

"Hmm, looking at them like this, it's not like there's a monster in them or anything. If anything, they're beautiful paintings..." Madoka crossed her arms and tilted her head.
"But the age and gender of the people depicted are all over the place, and the locations in the background are also all over the place. I can't find any common points at all." Shiori also narrowed her eyes behind her glasses and stared at the screen.
"There is a common point!" Sota pointed to the edge of the screen with teary eyes. "Everyone's face is facing a different direction, but only their eyes are staring at 'somewhere'! This must be that they all found something terrifying in the darkness beyond our knowledge and are afraid...!"
At Sota's words, Shiori's hand stopped completely. "…Their gaze. Everyone is looking at 'somewhere'...?"


Sota became even more afraid of his own words and took a step back from the large portrait on the screen.
"Y-yeah! This must be the last direction they were looking when they were killed by the painter! They look like beautiful paintings at first glance, but they actually contain a very scary curse, and they are all glaring resentfully at the culprit, Sakutaro Sakakibara...!"
"…Sota, you're scaring yourself, aren't you being an idiot?" Shiori sighed with a deadpan look.
"Sakutaro Sakakibara passed away after spending his later years after donating the paintings. There's no way he would specify a way to display them so that he would be glared at, right?"
"That's right, Sota, that's quite a leap!" Madoka also chimed in while laughing. However, she immediately stared at the four paintings on the screen again.
"But, it is certainly mysterious. The models for these paintings aren't posing like 'I'm an art model.' It's like, it captured a slice of daily life. Could it be that he used old photos or something as a reference to make the paintings?"

"A slice of daily life, huh..." Shiori crossed her arms and ruminated on Madoka's words.
"Indeed, it might make sense if you say the lack of unity in their poses is because they were painted based on photos. That might be why their faces are facing different directions."
"Right? Hmm, I'm curious, but... well, let's leave it at this for today and go home! It's almost the complete dismissal time, after all." Madoka stretched and put her bag on her shoulder, and the three left the club room for the day.

◇

The next day after school. While Shiori and Sota were looking at the tablet in the club room, the door opened with a bang.
"Everyone, good work! I've brought a powerful helper!"
Madoka proudly puffed out her chest and pulled a male classmate into the club room. There were upperclassmen in the Information Culture Club room, but it was basically free.
"Uh, this is Kanda-kun from our class. You know, the one who's good at math!"
Kanda-kun, who was suddenly brought in, scratched his head looking a bit uncomfortable and raised his hand slightly, saying, "Oh, hi..."
"Wait, Madoka, what's with the suddenness?" Shiori widened her eyes.
"Hehe, actually, I was thinking about it all night in bed yesterday." Madoka stood in front of the whiteboard and clenched her fists. "Sota said yesterday that 'everyone is looking somewhere,' right? If that's true, I realized that there might be something at the end of their gaze! But I can't calculate where the gazes of the paintings scattered all over the school intersect, right? So, I begged Kanda-kun, the smartest person in the class who seems good at calculating distances and angles, to come!"
"Eh!? Calculation, you're going that far!?" Sota widened his eyes.
Kanda-kun looked at the four paintings projected on the computer screen and the data of the official school records that Shiori had prepared, and his eyes behind his glasses sparkled a little. "…I see. If I have the school's floor plan and these numbers for the 'installation angle from the wall,' it's not that difficult to figure out where the gaze of each painting extends and find the intersection point. Can I try it?"

When Kanda-kun said that, he took the tablet from Shiori and started calculating with quick movements. On the screen, the gazes of the four paintings each drew a straight line, pierced through the school building wall, crossed the playground—.
"Yeah, as I thought. It goes beyond the range of the school's floor plan, but the four lines aren't scattered; they point perfectly in the 'same constant direction.' I can't track what's beyond this with the school's floor plan, though."
"I knew it! My intuition was right!" Madoka, as if she had gotten her way, ran to the shelf in the club room and dragged out an old file.
"Hehe, just in case, I brought this detailed map of the area from the supplementary reader we used in social studies class!"
"You're too well-prepared, Madoka-chan..." While Sota was dumbfounded, Kanda-kun compared the map Madoka spread out with the data on the screen and narrowed down the direction even more finely.
"Let's see, if I extend the straight line at this angle... oh, here it is. The mountainside behind the school. All the gazes intersect perfectly here."
Looking at the destination on the map that Kanda-kun pointed to, everyone exclaimed "Eh!?" in unison.
It was the moment when Madoka's outlandish prediction was brilliantly proven by mathematical data.
"No way... that it actually intersects on the mountainside. Madoka, your intuition is spot on. It's a great discovery." Shiori opened her eyes in surprise.
"H-hiii! It's a mountain after all!" Sota crouched down holding his head.
"The corpses of the models must be buried there! The place itself is cursed, and the models of the paintings were all issuing a terrifying warning, 'Don't go to that place!'"
"Haha, I don't think there are any corpses, though." Kanda-kun pushed up his glasses, looking a bit amused.
"But it's interesting, like a bit of a trick art mystery that a painter from decades ago set up using the whole school. I'm glad my calculations were useful. Well, I have cram school, so I'll go now. If there's another interesting mystery to solve, call me anytime."
Kanda-kun said that and left the club room looking satisfied.

The three were left behind in the club room again. There were several other upperclassmen remaining in the after-school Information Club room working, and they must have heard the exchange with Kanda-kun just now. The three naturally gathered their heads around the desk and began to talk in whispers.
"Hey, did you hear? The mountainside. This is... we have to go, right!" Madoka looked at the two with an expression that couldn't hide her excitement, even while lowering her voice.
"…Yeah. Even though nothing is written in the official records, such a trick was actually hidden. I've started to become very curious about what Sakutaro Sakakibara really did that for." Shiori also had her eyes sparkle a little, stimulated by her inherent inquisitive mind.
"No way, no way, no way! I'm absolutely, definitely not going!" Sota squeezed out a voice like a mosquito with teary eyes.

Shiori muttered, "Wait," while staring at the painting data displayed on the screen.
"This... it might not just be the gaze." Shiori's eyes were starting to sparkle more seriously than usual. It was proof that she was completely captivated by the charm of solving the mystery and was getting into it.
"Kanda-kun narrowed down the direction earlier, but I feel like more concrete hints are left in these paintings... Sakutaro Sakakibara, who thinks about things like this, wouldn't just end it with coordinates."
"What!? Ah, I want to look at it more carefully, but..." Madoka looked up at the clock on the wall. The chime for the complete dismissal time was already ringing throughout the school. The upperclassmen in the club room were also starting to clean up. "Darn, time's up? Alright, let's retreat for today! Everyone, observe it carefully at home!"

◇

That night. Madoka, whose excitement hadn't cooled down, called Shiori on her smartphone from her room as soon as she got out of the bath. On the other side of the screen, which connected on the first ring, Shiori also already had her tablet open on her desk.
"Hello, Shiori!? I'm so curious I can't sleep at all!" "Me too. I got into bed, but I'm wide awake... This is a really amazing discovery, isn't it? That person named Sakutaro Sakakibara left a real mystery using the school from before we were born?"
The two looked back on the great discovery of the day and were completely excited while lowering their voices. Their hearts wouldn't stop racing at the "real mystery" they had encountered for the first time since becoming middle school students.
"Hey, Madoka. I've been zooming in on the first and second paintings for a while now... the sunset depicted in the background, I feel like the position is slightly different."
"Oh, really!? I'm looking at the third painting of the man, and I feel like the wristwatch he's wearing is drawn in detail. But it's a bit blurry on the smartphone screen, so I can't see it well."

"I'm curious... Alright, let's zoom in as much as possible on our smartphones and tablets, and if we find anything, let's report it to each other in the club room tomorrow. Oh, that's right."

Shiori spun her pen as if she had remembered something. "Give Sota homework to thoroughly observe one of them, too. If we leave him like that, we'll really leave him behind." "Got it! I'll send him a message saying 'You'll be cursed if you slack off!'"
◇
The next day after school. The three who gathered in the club room were surrounding the desk with a heat clearly different from yesterday. Sota, who was forced to do his homework by Madoka, was also sticking close behind Shiori with sleep-deprived eyes.
"Alright, let's report the results from last night!" Madoka held up her smartphone.
"First from me! I zoomed in on the third painting of the powerful man I was curious about yesterday to the limit on my tablet. Then, as expected, the hands of this person's wristwatch were pointing to a time! '16:45'. This must definitely be the time for something!"

"16:45... That's just before dismissal time, the time when evening really begins." Shiori nodded deeply and showed everyone her tablet.
"I focused on the position of the sunset in the background. I casually asked the science teacher during lunch break today, 'When is the time of year when the position of the sunset changes like this?' Then..."
Shiori drew a short straight line on the whiteboard. "The sun's trajectory matches the position in this painting perfectly only twice a year. The vernal equinox and the autumnal equinox. In other words, '16:45 in the evening on the vernal or autumnal equinox.' This is the time limit specified by Sakutaro Sakakibara."
"Wow...! To specify even the season and time, what a stylish trick!" Madoka's voice was excited.
Then, Sota, who was listening from behind, timidly raised his hand. "Um... I was told to do my homework, so I kept looking at the fourth painting of the child..."
"Oh, Sota! Did you find something?" "Y-yeah... The straw hat the child is wearing and the clouds floating in the sky look like 'summer' no matter how you look at it. But the background of the woman reading a book in the first painting feels a bit lonely... isn't that autumn or winter? The vernal and autumnal equinoxes are just the changing of the seasons, right? So maybe the four paintings express each season, and they're telling us the day in the middle..."
At Sota's unexpected sharpness, Madoka and Shiori looked at each other.
"Sota, you're a genius!" "Even though you were scared saying it yourself, you're observing very calmly, aren't you?"

"Hiee, don't praise me! I just wondered when that 'Autumnal Equinox Day' was and looked at the calendar..." Sota pointed to the smartphone screen while trembling. "It's next week, September 23rd, and school is closed for the Autumnal Equinox Day...!"
"Amazing, isn't that perfect timing!" Madoka smiled brightly and clenched her fists. "Next week's Autumnal Equinox Day, 16:45. The location is the mountainside. All the conditions are met!"


Then, Kanda-kun, who came to help yesterday, popped his head in from the entrance of the club room, saying, "Hey, you guys seem excited." "I looked it up on the internet based on what Madoka-san told me, and it seems Sakutaro Sakakibara often went to that mountain. It looks like something old is installed there?"
With Kanda-kun's additional information, the tension and excitement of the three were about to reach their peak.
"Alright, decided! Next week, September 23rd, at 16:45 on the Autumnal Equinox Day, we'll charge at the mountainside!" Madoka declared, hitting the whiteboard.
"But, even if Kanda-kun narrowed down the location, it's dangerous for middle school students to enter the mountain in the evening, right? Besides, our school prohibits mountain climbing by students alone..." When Shiori mentioned a realistic problem, Madoka grinned fearlessly and put her hand on Shiori's shoulder.

"That's where Shiori's turn comes in! Can you ask your Uncle Naoki to come with us? I think he'd definitely be excited to take on something interesting like this!"

"Eh... my dad? Well, he certainly loves mysteries and stories about the old school... Alright, I'll try begging him tonight."
◇
That night, in the Kishimoto family living room. When Shiori timidly showed her father, Naoki, the tablet screen (the data of the four paintings and Kanda-kun's calculation map) and explained the situation, Naoki put the mug he was holding down on the desk with a thud.
"Such a secret in the paintings of that eccentric painter, Sakutaro Sakakibara...!? Isn't that interesting!"

As expected, Naoki leaned forward with his eyes sparkling even more than expected. "That man was an eccentric painter who was famous in the local area when I was a child, but I never thought he would have set up such a grand prank using the whole school. Alright, I'll accompany you as a guardian and mountain climbing leader. I'll drive the car too!"

Having received Naoki's enthusiastic consent, Shiori immediately sent a message to Madoka and Sota, "Permission granted!"
◇
The next day after school, the three gathered in the club room and began to discuss a detailed plan as middle school students.
"The sunset on the Autumnal Equinox Day is around 17:30, so we have to be at the site by 16:45, right? Working backward, I want to arrive at the foot of the mountain just after 16:00. According to Kanda-kun's calculations, it takes about 20 minutes for an adult to walk from the foot to the mountainside, so let's count on 30 minutes for our pace!" Madoka wrote the time schedule in her notebook with all her might.
"Hey..." Sota timidly took a notebook out of his backpack. "It's going to be a bit of a mountain climb, right? Is it okay to bring snacks and juice? Mountain climbing consumes energy, and if we encounter a ghost and get chased, I think we'll get thirsty. Pocari Sweat and Calorie Mate are essential, right?"

"Sota, there are no ghosts, and this isn't a field trip," Shiori said with a wry smile, but she added "Snacks/Drinks" to her notebook, saying, "But hydration is important."

Since it was a day off from school, the three were starting to feel a sense of excitement like a "little road trip." However, at the same time, a pleasant tension filled their chests at the fact that they were about to approach the core of a real mystery.
◇

And the day arrived, September 23rd, the Autumnal Equinox Day. The weather was clear. In the best autumn weather, the car driven by Naoki started smoothly and arrived at the foot of the target mountain.
"Alright, from here on, it's on foot. Everyone, watch your step." Led by Captain Naoki, Madoka, Shiori, and Sota, who was carrying a large backpack, followed. The slightly chilly mountain air stung their skin, and the sunlight filtering through the trees began to change little by little to an orange color, taking on the signs of evening.
"Haa, haa... it's pretty tough..." Madoka wiped the sweat from her forehead and stared at the map Kanda-kun had written for her. "In terms of angle and distance, it should be around here by now..."
When they pushed through the grass and came out onto a slightly open slope, Sota shouted, "Oh, that...!"
Deep in the overgrown grass, there was an old wooden structure standing quietly.
"…A Stevenson screen? No, it's different. A foldable, observatory-like box...?"

It was just an old wooden box that no one would normally pay attention to. However, it certainly existed at the very place where the gazes of the four paintings intersected.
"Is this it...? What do you think!?" Madoka swallowed hard and looked at Shiori and Sota. The clock's hands were about to point to 16:45.
"Hey, hey, be careful. It's wooden from decades ago, if you put too much force into it, it'll break."
Naoki said that while carefully reaching out. He traced the surface of the wooden box, which had turned completely gray from being exposed to rain and wind, with his fingertips, and removed the rusted metal latch that was fixed.
"H-hiii... what's going to come out? Is it a cursed object or something like that...?" Sota's heart was pounding with fear and tension, and he kept watching the hands of the person as if praying, while still gripping the hem of Madoka's clothes.
Naoki slowly pulled the wooden parts upward and slid them to the side. Click, click, the pleasant sound of wood rubbing echoed in the quiet mountain. It was as if a large, elaborately made puzzle was being solved.
"Alright, how's this...?"
When Naoki finished assembling it, a strange structure was completed. Two pillars extended from a base firmly fixed to the ground. Attached to the end was a wooden "frame" that had rotted away from years of rain and wind. It was like taking the seat out of an old chair in the school art room, standing only the frame of the backrest vertically, and fixing it toward the town at the foot of the mountain—that was its strange and clumsy appearance. There was nothing inside the frame, it was just empty.
"…Eh? Is this it?"
Madoka let out a voice as if she were let down. She had expected a golden treasure chest or a painter's will to come out.
"Hmm, it's just an old wooden frame. I wonder if there's any other hidden drawer..." Shiori also had a suspicious expression and began to crouch down to check if any letters were carved into the surrounding ground or the back of the wooden box.
Naoki was also crossing his arms and tilting his head, saying, "What was Sakutaro Sakakibara thinking..."
In the midst of this, Madoka suddenly stopped her exploration and took a few steps back. Casually, she stood alone so that the tattered frame was exactly in front of her field of vision.
The clock's hands ticked and pointed to 16:45.
At that moment, the wind blowing through the mountain stopped completely. "…Ah."
Madoka lost her words. Even if she tried to make a sound, the back of her throat trembled and nothing came out. She just opened her large eyes even wider and was glued to the scene.
"Madoka? What's wrong, did you drop something?" When Shiori, who was suspicious, looked up, Madoka pointed forward with a trembling fingertip and said in a voice squeezed out.
"S-Shiori... come here. Come here, stand behind me..."
At that unusual appearance, Shiori walked quickly to Madoka's side. And with the same gaze as Madoka, she captured the frame in front.
"--!?" Shiori's breath stopped. The pupils behind her glasses were moistening with surprise and emotion. "No way... amazing... beautiful..."
"W-what!? What came out this time!?" Sota, who had broken in behind the two half-crying, and Naoki, too, were speechless and stood still the moment they stood in the same place.
The frame that looked like just the backrest of a tattered chair. What was cut out inside that "frame" was the scenery of the town at dusk, contained in a composition that was breathtakingly perfect.

16:45. The light of the burning sunset sinking just overlapped with the ridge line of the mountain, illuminating the surface of the river flowing at the foot like a single dazzling golden band. At the end of that straight line of light, the roof of the school building of the middle school they attended, visible in the distance, was perfectly contained like the star of a painting. Furthermore, here and there in the town where the darkness of evening was approaching, orange streetlights began to light up one by one--.
The reflection of the river, the lines of the school building, the twinkling of the streetlights, the ridge line of the mountain, and the sunset. The reality of the scenery, which should have been scattered, was completed as the most beautiful "single living painting" in the world only the moment they looked through the frame from that time and that angle.
"…I see."
Shiori muttered while being illuminated by the madder-red light. "Sakutaro Sakakibara kept this a secret all along... He knew alone that the most beautiful town scenery in the world would be completed only on this day, in this place, at this time."
"…This is a painting, isn't it?" Tears spilled from the eyes of Sota, who had been so afraid. The fear had blown away somewhere.
"No, it's better than a painting... The real scenery is trapped inside the frame of the painting..." Naoki also took off his hat and let out a deep sigh of admiration. The expression illuminated by the sunset was oozing with deep respect as an adult and as a junior who grew up in the same local area.
"Perhaps, Sakutaro Sakakibara... the scenery from here was so great that he couldn't paint it with his own brush and paints, could he?" Naoki's gentle voice melted into the mountain at dusk. "No matter how much of a weirdo or genius he was called, he couldn't paint the beauty of this light that changed from moment to moment. So, instead of making it a painting, he left this 'device.' He must have secretly visited here from time to time and looked at this scenery... Look, you can see our school over there, right? He wanted to look at the town where he grew up in the best form. Maybe he did such an elaborate way because he had such a clumsy mischievous heart."
"The unfinished masterpiece left by the painter..."
Madoka was immersed in the emotion of her heart while looking at the town shining beyond the frame. The gazes of the models of the four portraits that were said to be eerie were not a curse. They were just all lovingly watching over the figure of the future town that emitted this supreme brilliance.
Eventually, 16:45 passed, and when the sun hid behind the mountain, the scenery returned to the normal darkness of evening as if the magic had been broken.
"This is truly the best of the Seven Wonders," Madoka laughed, and Shiori replied, "No, it's not a scary story, it's a very good story. So, let's make it the 'first of the Seven Wonders' of the school."
"It's not a wonder anymore because it's been solved," Madoka replied with a smile.
Sota also wiped his tears happily, saying, "If so, I want to brag about it to everyone too."

By Naoki's hand, the frame was quietly folded back into the original wooden box and returned to being a part of the original quiet mountain. "Alright, let's go down the mountain before it gets dark. On the way back, let's all eat something delicious."

The three middle school students holding snacks and plastic bottles of juice, and the shadow of their reliable father, began to walk slowly down the road back, which had been completely dyed orange, while talking lively about their respective emotions.
◇
After school when the autumn break was over. In the usual Information Club room, there were the figures of the three who had become a little more reliable than before, along with the setting sun.
The map and photos of the mountainside remained on the whiteboard as they were.
"Hey, this... I wonder if it would become an amazing tourist spot if we told the 'town revitalization' people about it?" Madoka muttered as if she had suddenly thought of it while tracing the map on the whiteboard with her fingertip.
"Hmm... I wonder," Shiori looked up from her tablet and looked quietly at the mountain outside the window.
"You have to do a bit of mountain climbing to go there, and above all, it's a scene you can only see for a few minutes from 16:45 on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, right? If a lot of people push in, the quiet and perfect frame world that Sakutaro Sakakibara made might be broken."
"That's true..." Sota nodded in a surprisingly clear voice while hugging his favorite backpack.
"Let's keep that place a secret just for us. The only people in the whole school who know that those four eerie paintings actually hid such a wonderful present are the three of us and Shiori-chan's father... That feels more romantic, doesn't it?"
"Sota, you've started to say things!" Madoka happily slapped Sota on the back. Sota shrank as usual, saying "That hurts," but his expression was very proud.
"Decided. Let's lock this mystery as a 'best memory' only in our hearts. ...But, we have to properly put the plan you first mentioned into action, Madoka."
Shiori grinned and opened the notebook in the club room. There, the title "Our Middle School's First Seven Wonders" was written.

"Of course! The title is 'The Cursed Painting at the Entrance.' But, it's not really a curse, it's connected to the most beautiful scenery in the world... that's our own 'first of the Seven Wonders.'"

Madoka smiled mischievously while looking at the mountainside where the frame slept outside the window.In the school corridor, the four portraits were still quietly hung on the wall today. The students passing by were whispering, "That's a creepy painting," but the eyes of those models were continuing to gently watch over the future of the three and the figure of this beautiful town forever.End

Afterword

At first, I wanted to make it a scary mystery, but as the characters and worldview of the three continued, it became this ending. Thank you for reading until the end.
If you liked it, I would be greatly encouraged to write the next story if you could give me a "Like," follow, or comment with your impressions!