Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Golden Time:Volume3 Chapter1

2013-10-11T07:56:53Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 3: Chapter 1==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 1===

[[Image:Golden Time vol03 028.jpg|thumb]]
Tada Banri looked up at the Kagas.

And then I... backed off to get a wider view.

This me is a ghost, having died, but ordinary living humans would have been forced to back off from this point too. This woman, Kaga Kouko. She must be a rather important person.

At any rate, this evening's arrest was a sight to see--- Sticking my ghostly face into it so, I was enjoying myself to the max in other people's problems. What had happened in these past few hours was relevant even to me.

It was about two hours ago.

With such awful offenses: drinking while underage, even stealing a bicycle, she was interrogated in a room at the police station. Banri was with her too. And then, inevitably, as Banri's guardian spirit this me was with them too.

Separated from Kaga Kouko by the several policewomen guiding her, he proceeded uncomfortably under the cold flourescent lamps and was led into a room with some small sofas squeezed in.

The room didn't look like it was "for criminals," even the door was ajar. Even though it was the middle of the night, there were people hurrying in and out, and noisy offices nearby. It seemed to be a space for having meetings.

He was made to wait there for a little while. No, quite a while.

Up to that point the very picture of hesitation, looking around nervously, Banri had become the incarnation of nervousness, jumping even when he was given some tea. Before long, one after another, a bunch of rough-looking middle-aged guys in windbreakers, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_perm punch-perms] and radios firmed fixed to their hips appeared, saying "Well, well." They passed them papers and told them, "Write clearly, OK?" Made to write his name and address, in the space of one breath his good fortune fading, his nervousness returned and he began to tremble.

So that's how it was. Even he was nervous. Scared, even. Would these signed documents remain his whole life? Would these not haunt him when he went to find a job? He was caught like that when suddenly and ominously, the ring of an incoming phone call echoed through the floor.

'Errr,' Banri's mouth opened and a feeble voice came out. His face fell into a servile smile.

"Is she being arrested...? I, I, I mean, well, though I am to blame... per, perhaps..."

With nobody sitting in the sofa facing him, the old guys--- the police officers in the prime of their lives, were bending over to stare Banri straight in the face. Banri, in desperation, spoke as honestly as he could.

With his fellow classmates from college, though they were underage, had against better judgement gone out drinking. In retrospect, it was a disaster. There were problems related to his memory loss, and to the stress of the preceding days. Perhaps persuaded by his drinking, he had dashed outside to the dangerous streets. Kaga Kouko, before causing her own accident, desperately chased after him to ensure his safety. However, unable to keep up on foot, requisitioned the bicycle temporarily, or rather, borrowed it. The result turned out like this.

They had caused a lot of trouble, both for the owner of the bicycle, and for the public in general.

"...Really... I am very sorry...!"

While sunken in the sofa, leaning forwards, Banri suddenly bowed his head. It might turn out pretty bad if he told them exactly where they had been drinking... Of course, nobody noticed me, anxiously by Banri's side. With regards to the responsibility for the underage drinking, even the club might be implicated.

'Hmph,' they could not see his emotions, but his voice carried strangely well, and one of the police officers nodded.

Made to write the address and phone number of his home in Shizuoka, his parent's cell-phone numbers and the name of his hospital on a fresh sheet of paper, Banri's hand holding the ballpoint pen trembled shamefully. He calmed down, but the hand holding the paper was trembling, and getting as cold as mine. If this body had substance, my hands would be sweating like crazy for sure. Forms in hand, the police officers left the room.

And then, when a little more time had passed, he noticed two shadowy human forms hurrying towards the still open door. At the sound of footsteps, Banri's face and mine both rose, but by that time already nothing could be seen. He realized they were speaking of Kouko, something and 'idiot'. He wondered if they were Kouko's parents.

Just then a policeman stuck his head in, "Tada Mari, no... Banri. Your parents are already headed here.” --- 'Really!?' I shouted. As for the fleshly Banri, he looked up at the ceiling in silence and covered his face in his hands. He slid from the sofa, falling to the carpet as if he were kneeling.

Even his parents had been called...

By car? By bullet train? No, it didn't matter which, or how they did it... aaahhh. Aaaahhh. It's come to that, he thought.

Their son: causing such trouble, nearly dying (almost like me), worrying them sick, yet trusted and sent to Tokyo, was currently under arrest.

How badly must you disappoint your parents, Tada Banri? Or rather, me.

However, only a few minutes from that information, the same police officer (it seemed) reappeared,

"Your parents, they've turned back.”

"...Yes!?”

This time, Banri slipped down from the couch.

With the sudden appearance of her parents, you could say that Kaga Kouko's release from custody was settled. And so, with no blame attached to him, returning home quickly, he wouldn't drink anymore until he was an adult.

If he could have heard, the high-schooler victim in presenting his case for reimbursement had demanded "the most generous of settlements", so to speak. And what's more, that her friend's, that is to say Banri's, guarantee of special consideration for his so-called memory loss be dismissed. What's more, it seemed to have been made a big consideration. Kaga Kouko, also, was reflecting deeply on her actions.

And then even more, her parents were very respected doctors in the area, and as leading members of the Men's Club had contributed to society for many years. They said they would strictly supervise their daughter's behavior from now on.

Under such circumstances, it would be a miracle if she were to get off with only a light reprimand, and so on.

The Kaga household followed right behind the policemen, and upon leaving the lobby they finished up. Banri stopped without thinking, and I collided with his back. That hurt, I tried to tell the back of his head, but of course there was no reply.

Saying "We are very sorry. Our daughter has caused you so much trouble," their bodies bent nearly double, repeatedly bowing their heads, her parents seemed to be much older than his own, but their clothing showed incredibly good taste. Ordinary middle-aged men and women around here--- say, for instance, Tada Katsuhiro or Mieko-chan--- were quite clearly of a different class. That much was obvious to anybody's eyes, and to a spirit's eyes.

And then, behind the two of them, there was Kaga Kouko.

Her head hanging dejectedly, the torn knee of her tights had been repaired with a bandaid. Her flower-patterned chiffon mini-dress was stained darkly, and bandages could be seen on her white elbows and on her cheek, visible through a gap in her long falling hair. Her high-heels were hanging from her hand by their straps, and on her feet were slippers. Without heels, she was shorter, and looked completely dispirited.

"Kaga-san! Are you OK!?"

Banri spoke up without thinking.

It was at that moment.

''Pfft.'' Making an impolite noise, the lobby's automatic door opened and the night breeze blew inside strongly. The turned-around Kouko's long hair was blown high upwards with a whoosh, like something out of a girly promotional video. From there, everything else was in slow motion.

She located Banri, and twice, three times, shook her disheveled hair wildly, and struck a pose--- squinting as if looking into the distance and opening her lips partway, she held her disordered hair back from her nose lightly with one hand while softly biting the tip of her little finger. With the suppleness of a she-panther she twisted her waist, put her other hand to her hip, and then,

"[[Golden Time:Volume3_Translator%27s_Notes#French?|Mon bien-aimé.]]"

She was whispering. Quickly. Ecstatically.

''Buhaa!'' Banri suddenly exploded magnificently, splashing and spraying all over. Drained of strength, I crumbled to my knees. Kouko's mother pulled her hard by the belt attached to her dress, as if it were a leash.

Kouko grunted once when she was yanked back trying to get closer to Banri, but she wasn't perturbed.

Once again a pose... at a 45-degree angle. Fixing up her hair while flashing a smile. Leaning her twisted body, she spoke, her moist eyes glittering. Her chest, pushed by her arm, rose suddenly as if pushed out.

"Doesn't it feel rather like we're already having the meeting with the family?"

That the police didn't stop him was perhaps due to the speed of his fist, or a reluctance to judge. Kouko's father's right fist knocked an awful dent in the back of his boy-crazy daughter's head. ''Crack!'' At the sound echoing from her skull, Banri automatically drew back, and I disappeared behind Banri. As for Kaga Kouko, did she say "The cops... don't they stop so much as a mosquito?" or no, was it "Come to think of it, why are we still here?" She suddenly turned lightly back towards her parents and,

"Hey papa, mama, this is my boyfriend, Tada Banri-kun. Isn't he a cool guy?"

Looking quite happy, she pointed towards Banri.

Up to that moment, Kouko's parents had not yet spoken of being tired. Transported as she was, to an extreme those who dwell in my world would not find funny, her parents looked wordlessly at their broken-down daughter, their shoulders drooping.

And then Banri,

"..."

He could see that her parents were at their limit, exhausted, their heads hanging silently.

It was too many things at once, emotional and physical tatters strewn about. They couldn't even open their mouths any more.

And then I pulled back to take in the big picture.

He hadn't decided to start going out with that awful woman, had he?

Before, in this me's life, Tada Banri's, there was this girl. She was my beloved. Just now, in tears, their emotions overflowing, promising each other, these had vowed together to become an official couple.

Anyway, unable, of course, to ask such a presumptuous favor as "Could you drive me to my apartment?" Banri headed for the station by himself, as if he were fleeing, hunched over like a shrimp.

It was nearly the last train, horribly crowded inside. Jostled by drunks, Banri planted his feet firmly, closed his eyes intently, and endured the confusion and jolting.

Indeed, for things to turn out like this--- I don't know how many thousands, how many tens of thousands of times over again, I was pushed into Banri's back the very same way.

Of course, the biggest "indeed" to this point has been my death.

Having an accident, falling from a bridge shortly after graduation from high school, I, or rather my substance, was expelled from my body by the shock. That which had existed for the eighteen years up to that point as Tada Banri could no longer return, the empty body was diagnosed with "memory loss", and a new life emerged. And then I... became a casualty. As a drifting soul, no longer visible, existing like that, always at Banri's side.

As it was, he wasn't going to entertain any notions as to just how bad a relationship the living Banri was headed for.

His cell-phone buzzed, a text-message having arrived. Though he didn't want to move his arm, he opened his phone anyhow to check it. It was from his mother. With continuing details from home, it said, "We turned back before the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshida,_Shizuoka Yoshida] interchange, and we're already home." Not hitting 'reply', Banri stuffed his phone back into his pocket.

"Excuse me for worrying," his mother said over the phone while he was waiting for the train, her voice sounding very tired. "Though I intend to worry about you your whole life long," he had been told.

Not replying to the text, there were still two more. The sender for both of them: Hayashida Nana.

Linda.

---Linda.

Banri looked at the window he was facing. In the gaps between people's heads, the dark Tokyo night could be seen. Tada Banri's face, reflected in the glass, was alone, naturally.

A young, tired male face. A bad son. Tada Banri, restored to life. Taking a hard look at himself, Banri's eyes relented just a little. Looking embarassed, he gave a thin smile, but then right away a thoughtful shadow crossed his face. Little by little, the smile faded away. His gaze sadly downcast, his face reflected in the glass shook back and forth as if he were watching other people.

Thinking about his new lover, and then about his future, he's probably getting lost in confusion and fatigue.

Banri thinks of me as some kind of evil spirit, something scary--- something that despises his very existence, and is trying to drag him off into the world of the dead.

While watching my own face reflected back at me by the dark glass, I spoke softly to Banri's ear.

I've never thought of you reproachfully.

I've already resigned myself to how things have turned out. I have never thought of wanting you to die. I've not been trying to pursue you, to run you down.

Of course, there is no doubt that I am "The Ghost of the Past."

But I don't even have a reason for staying here. Thinking that I am chasing you down, about the stress of the situation, I say to myself, "There's no way I can have a healthy life from now on." It's a negative pressure, so to speak. Showing weariness of the soul (surely an illusion without substance), kind of. It's a bad dream.

Still, I simply cannot help but be here. Because I cannot disappear, I cannot help but be. That's all there is to it, really.

<center>* * *</center>

"Lord Ro~me~o~"

Something pure white reached towards him from the corner of his eye,

"It's time for Juliet to come on stage."

"...You..."

Suddenly Banri's left arm was entwined. Sticking to him tightly like that,

"...surprised me...! I thought somebody was sticking a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mochi ''mochi''] to me as a prank!"

"I am not a rice-cake."

It's me, ''c'est moi'',

"I'm Kouko, your woman, your Juliet!"

A broad smile and upturned eyes.

Kouko, the white hand that had been mistaken for a ''mochi'' clinging tightly to Banri's arm still, made her eyes sparkle.

"Good morning, Tada-kun."

"Goo..."

His tongue tied, embarrassed, this time it was Banri who turned into a ''mochi''. Smiling slackly with his whole face, his expression began to slowly melt and fall, and as ever Kouko smiled too. The two of them gazed at each other, ''mochi'' to ''mochi''.

"...Good morning, Kaga-san."

Kouko said "good morning" once more. Banri echoed it back again. They laughed together.

Like that.

That one night unlocked the present. The two of them had started their official relationship, becoming boyfriend and girlfriend. In the school of life, being called "a couple" should earn you a credit.

Holding each other's hands, they felt like spinning round and round at this place. Though they didn't, already all the world was turning into a stage for the two of them.

This traffic jam as an orchestra, that fluorescent lamp a spot-light. This crowd as a parade of blessing, the beep of the ticket gate an angel checking out a trumpet. Looking into each other's eyes, holding hands, shrouding each other in warmth, a moment in eternity... in his nose the rich fragrance of rose eau-de-toilette sweetly overflowing, Banri would go weak in the knees. First thing in the morning, right away.

In love as he was and continued to be, it'd be fine if he fell down in front of Her Majesty's beautiful face, if she wanted him to. But this morning, just before 8:30 in the morning, the ticket gate of the nearest station to the university was the stage for the new couple's debut, at the precise time the school commute was at it's worst.

For the people going to and fro, crowded together horribly in this narrow place, stopped in a passageway, two mochi staring at each other were an infinite nuisance. If it was an older's person's throat, then the sound of the angel's trumpet was not a message of love, but just an unexpected cry of welcome. Suddenly blocking the flow of people,

"Ah, excuse us! Oh no! Sorry!"

For the most part, the bags and elbows of the angry people pummeled Banri on his back and rump. They took the opportunity to run over his feet with their carry-ons, not even excusing themselves, even making disapproving noises. Banri turned around to face them as fast as he could, apologizing while he hurriedly bent backwards, standing tiptoed, bending his body in a vain attempt to stop obstructing the flow of people.

Off to one side, Kouko maintained her pose.

"You know I waited here thirty minutes in order to say 'Good Morning?'"

She grabbed hold of the arm of Banri's shirt with both hands, tilting her head to one side, like a child pestering somebody for a toy, her adorable, large eyes sparkling.

"Thirty minutes? You waited in a place like this? You could've sent me a text..."

"I wanted to show my love. Look, err... it's like that... fuzzy thing..."

"Fuzzy?"

"It died waiting for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachi:_A_Dog's_Tale Richard Gere]..."

Showing him, Kouko brought both her softly clasped hands before her face, stuck out her tongue, said "he he he he" and looked up at Banri.

"E, e, e? D, dog?"

"Yes, a dog! Isn't it in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shibuya,_Tokyo Shibuya]? Look, that dog..."

"Eh...? Are you by chance talking about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hachik%C5%8D Hachiko]?"

"That's it, fantastic, Tada-kun! We understand each other, of course!"

Kyaa! He stared at Kouko as the lonely faithful dog, but a huge question mark was dancing around inside Banri's head. Why'd she come out with Hachiko, no, a dog, he couldn't figure out. No, no. Wait, wait, before that,

"Waited for Richard Gere... what was that about? That was maybe the first time I'd heard of it."

"Hahaa"

Kouko poked Banri's chest lightly with her index finger. "I knew it," she said, chuckling.

"You're imagining right now, inside your head, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saig%C5%8D_Takamori Saigou-san]'s dog!"

Not even being given the time to deny it,

"That one, in U-e-no. But in that case, nobody died waiting. Probably. So, let's go sometime! Take a look at Saigou-san, stroll around [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ueno_Park Ueno Park] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinobazu_Pond Shinobazu Pond], walk around the art museums, and take the time we have left to see the zoo. We can skip the panda. But what a fun date it would be! Hmm, in that area, what people are out in the open air are a few and far between, though wouldn't you say they're also 'part of the scenery'?"

"In other words Ueno, I... ah, whoa...!"

Struck on the shoulder from behind by a blood-thirsty salaryman, Banri stumbled forward.

The next train leaving the platform, an ever more numerous crowd of people descended on them en masse from the ticket gate. With Banri and Kouko just standing there, facing the transfer gate, right in the middle of passage Y, just standing and talking without a care in the world, they seemed to be preventing them from getting through.

"For now, let's walk! Let's move along! We're being a nuisance... waa, sorry, I stepped on your foot!"

While taking the lead and heading out, he tried to take Kouko's hand in a manly way. However, the narrow passageway being crowded, and soon the flow of people had separated him from Kouko.

Moving helplessly forward, he was about to escape to the side of the station to wait for her a bit. Kouko, falling out of the crowd a moment later,

"Phew... Wasn't today's rush hour a bit worse than usual?"

She straightened up her slightly mussed up hair.

"It looks like the subway was running a little late, maybe that's why."

Banri tried to casually take Kouko's hand, but,

"Oh, that reminds me."

Unnoticed, Kouko had her hand deep into her bag, rummaging around for something. It looked as if she were making sure her wallet was OK, that it hadn't been lifted. And then, noticing that Banri had his hand held out,

"Eh?"

With an innocent face, she tilted her head to one side in curiosity.

"...Hmm?"

What? Though it doesn't matter? My hand was just about to scratch my head--- Strangely embarrassed that it wasn't moving, Banri pretended to scratch his head.

It was a mystery to him how he could have taken her hand so naturally just a bit ago, but now he couldn't, once more the awkward kid. The jostling and confusion must have acted to create a good mood. If that's so, and he could take her hand properly during the next rush-hour, then he had better not let go for a lifetime.

For the time being giving up on holding hands at school, Banri and Kouko stopped shoulder to shoulder in front of a pedestrian crossing. Closing her sparkling eyes a bit, Kouko said "I'm going to need a parasol soon" and held a white hand over her face. The beautiful gemstones of her rings sparkled on her slim fingers.

Today's weather being thin white clouds, Banri laughed "You're exaggerating," and stared at her. "Yes it burns, it really burns, or rather I'm being roasted," said Kouko, her hand still lifted up, stubbornly shaking her head side to side.

According to the television weather forecast, the Okinawa region was already entering into their rainy season, but in the heart of Tokyo there wasn't so much as a wind blowing, and today was strangely warm. The temperature would likely rise from now on, and what's more, he noticed the humidity was going up. Under a long-sleeve shirt, Banri's skin was wet already.

Crossing elegantly at the green light in her high-heels, Kouko peeked at Banri's face a little mischievously.

"Tomorrow I'm going to ambush you in front of your apartment. With a parasol and ThreePlus SPF 50 UV sunblock."

"By all means, by all means. Or rather, I could do without the ambush part though. If we go to school together, then we can try to calm ourselves down in a quiet place half-way there. ...Ah, just kidding. A noisy place is fine, of course. Squeezed to death by the crowds, in a busy spot."

"Because, I love..."

Going behind the narrow street's guard-rail, they walked one behind the other.

Casually checking his appearance reflected in the glass fronts of the aptitude test prep schools, Banri looked back at Kouko's white face, following close behind him. He indeed looked like a stalker. She must really love whatever she's searching for with that hand, like a private eye busy at his craft, but coming to a realization,

"...Tada-kun."

At the unexpectedly sweet words, his feet stopped automatically. I love you. Tada-kun.

"For that reason, appointments are forbidden. I don't want to waste so much as one second, one meter. I want to be together with Tada-kun from the first step of the beginning of every day, from the first second."

Kouko passed by the halted Banri, stepping out in front in her high-heels. Looking back, tilting her head in query, she asked "What's wrong? Shouldn't we hurry?"

This is only the beginning... there's a long way to go yet... and he would try to be equal to the task, and yet he found his face heating. Unable to keep a straight face, Banri laughed. A huge grin on his face, head over heels in love, turning into a mochi, at such a level he'd never seen before,

"Wahahahahahahaha!"

A laugh from deep in his belly, he laughed as hard as he could. He laughed loudly. He shook all the way to his clasped hands. Even standing lightly on his tip-toes.

The busy people going to and fro in the narrow way early in the morning did their best to ignore them, walking around at a good distance from the loudly laughing students, with their bizarre expressions, daunting stance and deep breathing.

While he was laughing, Banri was thinking.

He wondered when, normally, one would get used to it? Loving somebody, being loved by somebody, to that reality. His current self, at least, was not at all used to it. He could hardly believe that he and Kouko were going out together. Too happy, having too much fun, he couldn't help but laugh like an idiot.

Kouko laughed too, smiling, and waited for Banri, who continued laughing loudly, to return to sanity. Not Banri, nor in fact any other person passing by, seemed to be able to ignore the dazzling woman. Once more he thought, marveling: how could such a person as this love me?

Kaga Kouko was perfect. The gods selected her spirit, deliberately and carefully, giving her literally perfect form.

Look at her. Those finely shaped features, her beautiful looks.

Her womanly curves arched like a standing bow, in beautiful style. Graceful legs and feet. A delicate frame. Muscles softly outlined in shadow.

Polished milk-colored skin, a gaze that seemed to burn everything it saw and a shiny, deep red rose-colored lip gloss. The contrast between them dramatically and definitively highlighted the beauty of her face.

Next, she was wearing a long silk and linen cardigan. Slender pants which emphasized her figure and high-heeled sandals that seemed works of art. Her bag was slung from her shoulder, black calfskin leather rather squashed, perhaps due to a pocket copy of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Codes Six Codes].

Today she had done her dark brown hair in wavy curls, with a bright emerald green silk scarf substituting for a headband hanging partway down her back in "Kaga Kouko Indeed" style. Recently, the college girls were all wearing hair-bands and scarves, something Banri thought was due to Kouko's influence. It may have been popular only around here, but at least amongst Banri's group of students, the style was introduced first by Kouko, and spread from her.

So. The woman is all-around perfect. Everybody is aware of her. Everyone looks at her.

Blessed with exceptionally good looks by nature, having good taste, unsparing of time, money or trouble, Kouko was desparately polishing herself by degrees, attaining to a state of perfect beauty. Making the effort, spending the money, taking the time, having done all those things in preparation, Kouko was now in a specially blessed place. No, if you speak of blessed, there was one more thing--- to the extent that the upper class barrier protects a person from bad things, she has not been hurt even once.

On the other hand, with regards to Banri...

Without realizing it, his laughter stopped. He looked down upon the fool he was becoming. Without even checking again in the glass wall, his was just another unrefined form.

Apart from his second-hand denims, his whole body was armored in UNIQLO, his bag hung at a slant, his Jack Purcells worn. Spiced by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Koenji], brought to life at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimokitazawa Shimokitazawa], defeated in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harajuku Harajuku], he was getting blasé about branding... a typical, ordinary person's outlook carried to an extreme, he felt. Looking stylish in mass produced goods, a vague fellow that could be found anywhere. A boy punched out by a stamping press in God's subcontractor's subcontractor's subcontractor's subcontractor's factory by an old guy naked from the waist, looking the other way, a cigarette stuck into the gap where one of his front teeth had been knocked out. That was Tada Banri.

He wasn't even thinking about whether such a self would really be good for a girl's boyfriend. Which wasn't to say that he wasn't thinking. To get along together well, you need to match! He hadn't had such thoughts at first.

Hadn't, and yet,

"...As for me, getting to date Kaga-san makes me happy..."

That was the reality.

He really was dating Kouko. Without thinking about it, he murmured earnestly, as if he were chewing on his joy.

"Come now, Tada-kun..."

Kouko, moving her hand to her chest, looked back at Banri and suddenly looked sad, as if she were about to cry. Banri reached out nervously, trying to touch her shoulder softly. Even from so little as that, Kouko's eyes sparkled even more brightly, like wet gemstones.

"...I could go to meet you at your house every day, for sure. I wasn't the one who said, 'I wouldn't want to waste one second.' So as to not wander about too much, just where was the nearest station? If I can be with you, be it to ambush you or to stalk you, whatever you like."

However,

"Ah, err..."

Suddenly, sticking out her lower lip as much as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seich%C5%8D_Matsumoto Matsumoto Seichou], a strange look on her face, Kouko separated herself from him. Spinning on her heel, she started walking towards campus.

"What was that all of a sudden?"

"It's rather hard to say..."

Looking back a little awkwardly,

"Coming over to our place, not good..."

That's right. Sigh...

He forced a haphazard smile. Chasing after her, Banri called "Hold on!"

"Eh, not good!? What's this: planning to stalk me is OK, but for me to do it back is not allowed!? How selfish!"

"You misunderstand! It's not what you think. It's just, my parents don't want to see us hanging around together, it looks like..."

"Don't want to see, us!?"

While chasing quickly after Kouko, who didn't seem to want to talk straight, it suddenly dawned on Banri. His heart beating hard, he covered his mouth.

We're from different classes, they have their so-called way. 'Our Kouko and this idiot are out of control already! Isn't what's happening typical? You can't be friends with such an unknown boy, who made you steal a bicycle. Besides, he lost his memory.'

"Wow... are you serious!? They're against us going out!? No way! I'm perfectly harmless! Please smooth things over with your parents! No way, parents against our dating, there's absolutely no way, no way no way no way!"

For the happiness so hard to find, that he had at long last caught hold of, to be cut lose this way---!? Such a determined resistance was going to turn the somewhat annoying Banri into a real problem. No way no way no way no way! The way things were, their upper bodies swingly wildly forward, he and Kouko were coming together quickly and simultaneously. While casually placing her hand as a guard, Kouko uncomfortably pointed at herself.

"Whoa there, Tada-kun. Calm down. People are watching. Besides, there's the other side of it. It's a problem for me."

The other side...? Giving a big nod towards the confused Banri,

"So it is. They told me not to get close to you. They said that if I stuck with you, my life was going to go amiss. They told me to pick a new target!"

"The old target... Yana-ssan?"

Turning suddenly, he wondered if the way her big eyes could be seen spinning was an affirmation.

"Speaking out of turn, I even made problems for you this time. Or rather, after yesterday, enough already! How! Awful! You were scolded... your nose seems nearly bloodied... well, it isn't showing though."

'Oh,' holding her tongue in front of Banri, Kouko let out a sigh once more. Her shoulders sagged, downhearted.

"Between Father and Mother, in the end, they were talking about locking me up in a cell."

"Huh? You have a lockup? Isn't it enough that you have poisonous snakes? Wow, incredible, Tokyo's Mystery Zone..."

"We don't, of course. And that's probably why I'm a free woman. But, when for a moment my mother happened to look towards where she stores things under the floor, I was a bit, nervous."

After politely making a pose like a runner, Kouko took the lead and went up the stairs to the law building lobby. Pushing open the glass door, the two of them walked happily side by side into the confined atmosphere there.

Sleepy-looking students were leaving from there in twos and threes, apparently from first-period, carrying heavy-looking bags.

If he thought back to the confusion of when he'd just entered college, it seemed to him as if there were fewer people this morning. It might even be a more appropriate number of people, given the original smallness of the central city campus.

Kouko looked at her wristwatch, and once more let out a sigh.

"So, we truly have some difficulties in store. Romi-Juli it is. We cannot even be dating in open opposition to our parents, like poor Romeo and Juliet. ...Eventually even we, might even take poison together."

Banri was about to reply, 'But those two people poisoned themselves separately...' when she looked up at him,

"That reminds me, what about your parents? Did they talk to you from there yesterday? Weren't you able to say anything about us going out together?"

"No, nothing about you."

Kouko noted, "That so?"

It was last night that he'd talked with his parents. Once from the train station platform. And then he called one more time when he got to his room.

It wasn't all that much, but saying things like "There's a girl I've started going out with, and she was accused of stealing a kid's bicycle!" ...wouldn't give the right impression. How it happened they were detained by the police was not something to be explained easily, but he'd decided to say that the actors in the drama were himself and a "friend from school."

Of course, he hadn't said, "Linda was at the drinking party at the same time, the very Linda I'd been close friends with before losing my memory! I said 'Why were you pretending not to know me?' and we fought just as in the beginning."

Maybe, if he'd said such a thing, then either way they'd get to worrying too much about him being in Tokyo, he thought.

In fact, it seemed that Banri himself had gotten that way, one way or the other, and for that very reason, that mess... the bicycle theft, were to get out, he might have been told to return home already to Shizuoka, he thought.

In fact, Banri was afraid of that.

Already, he wanted to give Tokyo a good try. Things here and there were beginning to turn out difficult, and there were days where everything went every which way, and yet, somehow, he wanted to settle down here. He wanted to plant himself here and not give up.

That reason, of course,

"Well, that may have helped us, just a bit. If both sets of parents were against us, there wouldn't be much we could do."

Walking beside him was a woman. Beautiful hair lightly brushed up, Kaga Kouko smiled at Banri. This gorgeous lover was from Tokyo.

But, with a pile of problems,

"But hey, though I wasn't stuffed into a cell, they did take my credit card."

He couldn't explain everything to Kouko. He had no choice but to manage it himself. Thinking like that, and at the same time of some other matters, a certain personage of shadow floated across his brain and suddenly his heart was full to overflowing. But he kept his face still, and his voice as it had been until now.

"Oops. Is that so?"

Tada Banri's carefree face, caught up in the moment.

That so? Shugging her shoulders, Kouko pursed her lips adorably.

"For the time being, though I've got my [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suica pass card], we can't use it for a taxi. I can't go shopping either. Nor can I go to a restaurant or a beauty salon. It's not too different from being in jail, this is."

"Ah, then perhaps Ueno Park? Coming from you, I had thought that an inexpensive suggestion."

"For now, the train fare and tea money is all I have to play with... but the weather's good. How about it?"

"As for me, I've not been to Ueno. I want to see the park, at least. Afterwards, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ameya-Yokoch%C5%8D Ameyoko]? That kinda thing."

"Really? Then it's decided! Next Saturday, it's a date to Ueno!"

"Then it's settled. If the weather's good, we're set. I mean, if I could say 'I'll take care of it!' at a time like this, it'd be really great. But I'm a wretch who's almost always broke..."

"It's OK, it's OK, not a problem." Kouko waved it off. "We'll go Dutch."

Kouko didn't even need to be told that basically, with the reality of their financial condition, if they didn't split the cost, they wouldn't be able to do anything, but,

"I suppose I ought to look seriously for a part time job, I should."

He remembered that in local convenience stores and taverns, there were help-wanted posters. Even some used book stores had them, if he remembered correctly.

Because it could not be said that he had a perfectly healthy body, his parents told him to devote himself entirely to his studies. They did, but if he asked for enough allowance so he could entirely devote himself as he had been told, the answer was also no.

"A job? Then we'd have less time together."

Opening her big eyes wide, Kouko stood tiptoed as if she were jumping. She brought her face close to Banri, pouting a little.

"Well, whatever, it was something that occurred to me. Everything's undecided. Speaking of which, what's the time?"

Kouko turned her wrist towards Banri, here, showing him her silver watch's tiny dial, but

"So small! It's hard to see!"

"It isn't hard to see! Look, isn't it clearly showing 8:45?"

In the little speck of a watch-face, he could only just make out the little hands. Taking hold of Kouko's wrist, he brought it close to his face, peering closely to check the time somehow,

"46 after, sure is. Wouldn't it be easier for a person to see clearly if it were a little bigger? Wouldn't it be better if the hands were like somebody jumping, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Case_Closed Conan-kun]? It would fit, absolutely. Somebody doesn't like you, you zap them."

"Eh!? No such thing, or rather, no way! This is good! Isn't it cute!? Isn't it a Cartier Mini Panthere!? It's already been discontinued, so it wasn't easy to get! It's valuable!"

"Mini panties."

"Kyaa!"

Kouko shouted, playfully laughing, and then she clapped Banri's shoulder.

"Speaking of such things, you really like that!?"

With about the same force, he clapped her shoulder back while he laughed too.

"But that Conan-kun guy is really [[Golden Time:Volume3_Translator%27s_Notes#Conan Pun|hard to find]]. Anyway, what shall we do? Head for lecture already? First period, I've got English, but Kaga-san, what'd you have?"

"French"

"Since we've got about ten minutes, shouldn't we kill the last of them in the cafeteria?"

Just saying dumb things somehow strangely fun, Banri found it hard to let go of Kouko. Kouko seemed to be thinking about the same way, so at Banri's invitation, she nodded with a happy smile.

Banri's first period was English. He was taking it together with Yana-ssan and Two Dimensions. It came to mind that there was a chance running into one or the other in the cafeteria, but saying 'It should be OK,' Banri continued walking. He had no particular intention of hiding that he and Kouko were starting to date like this. There wasn't any necessity of doing so, right?

...There wasn't, was there?

When he started thinking, he unintentionally tilted his head to one side, as if puzzled.

When she was recklessly confessed to at the drinking party, Oka Chinami cruelly rejected Yanagisawa Mitsuo. Banri felt that the wound to Mitsuo's heart had some ways to go before it healed, of course.

He wondered if wouldn't be awfully insensitive of him, to the point of disqualifying him as a friend, to wear a face like "We've just started going out, and are at the peak of happiness!" in front of him.

But, quietly lying for Mitsuo's sake, hiding the fact that they were dating as if it were an act of friendship... he had a feeling it was still somehow wrong.

He had a hunch that having a discussion like "Hey, hey Kaga-san, what shall we dooo~? Wouldn't it be pitiful, talking to Yana-ssan about how lovey-dovey we are~? Shall we hide it~?" would be a big mistake. Even without talking so affectedly, somehow, flirting openly wasn't going to help Mitsuo's bad mood.

To make matters yet more difficult, there was the reason for Mitsuo confessing when he did. To anybody else's point of view, it was just too unreasonable. Banri, for one, didn't think it was something provoked by Kouko.

Not even saying such things as 'What's a state Kouko and I are in now~, We're so happy~'... if he was trying to do some good for Mitsuo, then he was in for some discomfort.

Well then, if he were asked 'Are you hiding something?', then he felt there wasn't anything being hidden.

Getting to where he didn't know what to do, Banri, practically in reflex, was about to change their course towards the cafeteria. It was just then, while they were still in the lobby, as he tried to change Kouko's heading.

He saw it there, in the back of the lobby.

The area in front of the student affairs office bulletin board. At the table that had become the gathering place of the Omaken were several figures. Kouko must've noticed it too,

"Oh yeah, we didn't apologize to the senpais about yesterday, did we? Though I've sent a text to Linda-senpai for the time being, shouldn't we give her a better explanation?"

"N, no no, no..."

Banri desperately shook his head from side to side, hiding his trembling and forcing himself to laugh. Turning around once more, he turned towards the staircase, heading towards the cafeteria as he had previously intended. Just who was at that table, he didn't know. He hadn't been able to see clearly that far. But, his heart was suddenly beating hard enough to break. It was still impossible. His heart was not ready yet.

He couldn't yet look into that person's face.

"...Let's, let's do it later. Later, later. Another time."

Not knowing what he should do, to the nth degree, he turned towards the cafeteria, feeling that as things were he'd much rather run into Mitsuo.

<center>* * *</center>

When they opened the lid, or rather, when they opened the cafeteria door and looked inside, there was Two Dimensions, at a table in the corner, alone, looking down at his preparations for English class.

He was tidy, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, chino pants and his usual glasses. His face looked tired still, a little bit puffy. Feeling a little bit relieved, "Hey", Banri called out to him,

"Hey Banri"

Raising his head from the texts and turning his pen to Banri's face,

"...and, Kaga-san... is it...?"

The pen-tip slid over to the side, right beside Banri.

"Morning, Two Dimensions."

Two Dimensions looked back and forth many times between the perfectly smiling Kouko and Banri, who had a slightly vacuous smile, comparing the two of them, and then,

"...What's going on...? For some reason... it feels like... you're a couple?"

Pulling off his glasses, he folded his arms.

"Yana-ssan not here yet?"

Without even answering Banri, he uttered a sharp "Tsk!", then getting the better of himself, he leisurely pulled out the chair next to him,

"...For the moment, here you go Kaga-san, set it there. Man, your bag looks heavy."

"Thank you."

Kouko was seated there. As if she were royalty indeed, Kouko sat down gracefully in the chair next to Two Dimensions. 'Err, me, me, my chair,' Banri looked around restlessly,

"Banri, hold on. Are you humbling yourself even to the floor over there?"

...What? It was like he was being given the time for a verbal comeback.

"Well then, Kaga-san, would that be OK if I asked you a little question?"

[[Image:Golden_Time vol03 003-005.jpg|thumb|x240px]]
Two Dimensions, behaving quite as if he were a doctor, or a counselor, turned his chair around so as to face directly towards Kouko. Kouko, with a graceful gesture, turned a bit towards the still standing Banri, and sent him a meaningful wink,

"All right? Whatever you want?"

Fully composed, she looked back to Two Dimensions eyes.

Putting on a show of blinking, fluttering her eyelashes, you could see her deep eye shadow. It was a deep, dramatic brown, as if in one look the world were to end.

However, today Two Dimensions wasn't defeated by Kouko's gaze. He took off his glasses and confronted her.

"Is it so?"

"That you just happened to be at the station, and all that?"

"No? Was I there to ambush Tada-kun?"

"Did you want to return some money you'd borrowed, or some such special circumstance?"

"Is something wrong? That I ambushed him because I wanted to ambush him?"

"Would you please stop replying in questions to my questions?"

"Though it's OK?"

Saying that, Kouko knew quite well what she was doing.

'Fufun,' smiling happily, she looked at Two Dimensions while twirling the ends of the hair that spilled down to her chest around her finger. Settling her weight to the back of the chair, she stared at Two Dimensions in some respects defiantly while she slowly crossed her legs--- her smile was ice, if she wasn't wearing panties certainly. In all the world, how many tens of thousands, indeed, how many hundreds of millions of times had scenes just like this been played over and over again?

'If there's something you want to say, go ahead' was written on Kouko's beautiful face. I have no plans of hiding anything, it said. But since it will be known sooner or later, there's nothing can be done, right? Right? That's the way it is, right? It certainly is! So said the eyes looking at Banri. Along with what she didn't say all said the same, self-assertively, like a woman.

Even Two Dimensions looked fleetingly over at the still-silent Banri. Banri shrugged his shoulders lightly, answering "it is as you see."

"...Eh, really? Truly? Is it so?"

Two Dimensions said it quickly, as if muttering, and once more looked at Kouko's face.

Banri was thinking, "Speak a little more clearly."

So, they couldn't just hide it behind a blush. If it's going to be known anyway, then shout it out. There wasn't a reason for hesitating about whether to hide things or not from Two Dimensions--- and they were hiding it from Mitsuo, but not from Two Dimensions, which he had simply not been thinking of doing... Having come to this point, he wondered if he could no longer turn back.

We! Are! So! Dating!

In the Kaga Kouko arrangement of the score, that word was raised dramatically, to the highest level. Be the heroine to your heart's content. Whatever role you want to play was fine, be it a poisoned Juliet or a pantiless murderer.

However, contrary to what Banri was thinking, Kouko was silent. Still not saying anything, she took plenty of time, teasingly teasing them to the max, and then,

"..."

Fwip.

She opened the front of her long cardigan. Seen from the side it was, to perfection, like a flasher encountered along the road--- it had the right speed, the right abruptness, that kind of feel... but,

"Ooh..."

When it was shown to Two Dimensions, he shuddered. The heroine, as if content with the result, closed her eyes and smiled.

[[Image:Golden Time vol03 063.jpg|thumb]]
Inside the cardigan Kouko was holding open, a huge heart-mark had been painted. On a white T-shirt that fit her body tightly, showing the outline of her soft, full bust, right in the middle, with bright red beads crowded together tightly and glittering, a big heart-mark had been sewn.

It was a very lovey-dovey T-shirt that hardly any normal person would wear.

But Kouko, who wore it well, while turning towards Banri,

"''Je, t'ai''..."

Chewing on her full lower lip, she slowly traced the heart with the fingertips of both hands from the bottom up. Drawing Banri's gaze, they followed the two rounded paths without hurrying. Kouko's fingers met at the top of the heart, then suddenly turned inside out and pierced the heart,

"...''me''."

Her passionate look was directed straight at Banri. Her lips puckered to the shape of a kiss. And then,

"I love Tada-kun. Tada-kun loves me too. Therefore, we have started dating."

With both hands together in the form of a pistol cocked to fire, still in the pose of shooting at Banri dead-center, smiling magnificently, Kouko spoke to Two Dimensions. The defeated Banri covered his heart, and made a show of doubling over. Yes, yes, I've died, I've died again, I've been murdered by Kouko's love. I want to die, any number of times. He truly felt so, with all his heart.

As for Two Dimensions,

"..."

He suddenly grabbed his own bag, shouldered it as if it were a bazooka, and sighted Kouko through a hanging loop,

"I'm going to blow away dat pretty face!"

Not satisfied with only shouting something so ambiguous-seeming,

"Ah, I mean...! You filthy bum! You could do it!? Whatta guy! You beast<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>! Excellent<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>! Hey you, isn't school fun!?"

For some reason, he grinned broadly. Standing, he put Banri in a headlock,

"Thah... hursh...!"

It was starting to tighten up really bad. Two Dimensions was a stereotypical herbivorous fashion geek, raised in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamanote_and_Shitamachi Shitamachi]. He was also an unexpectedly rough guy. While the groaning Banri swayed more and more,

"Eh? Could you fill me in, the short version? Did you spend the night together? And then this morning as a couple still? That the way it was? Hmm? Was it like that? Better if you answer now..."

Stuttering, "Y, y, y, you're wrong..." while answering quicker than his dying breath,

"Last night we were arrested by the police."

The gracious smile that Kouko showed smashed Two Dimension's vulgar suspicions. That must've entered into Two Dimensions' head, because he released his arm from around the gasping Banri's neck, and he burst into laughter at once.

"A, arrested...! Caught! What were you even saying, Kaga-san!? You making a serious face was interesting, really!"

"Interesting? Me? How so?"

"It's plain as day, isn't it...?"

Muttering "Isn't it?" to Banri, who was holding his neck, Kouko nodded.

While Two Dimensions was still bent over double, continuing to laugh like an idiot, sat back down as if he were throwing himself into the chair,

"Now what're we going to do with these people, really! Hey Yana-ssan, did you hear that now!? They're dating! Banri and Kaga-san! Can you help but laugh!?"

"Eehh!?"

With a shout, Banri looked over his shoulder. He had no time to worry, nor to think. Two Dimensions waved beyond him and called, "Yo!" Yanagisawa Mitsuo, aka Yana-ssan, was standing there.

[[Image:Golden Time vol03 067.jpg|thumb]]
Standing there,

"Huh?"

Eyes wide, he was looking at them. That hair,

"Whaa!? Yana-ssan, you look great!"

Banri called back, that he looked even more handsome. Two Dimensions raised his voice again, "Yana-ssan is super cool!" Kouko was shouting too.

"...Eh? Like, like that?"

He seemed embarrassed at the unexpectedly high praise of his new hairstyle he'd gotten, a foreign-looking, at a glance unruly-seeming, casual, airy perm. With his handsome features, coupled with a moderately muscled, tall figure, he really seemed to be of mixed-race, or something. He was wearing only jeans and a T-shirt, but he wouldn't have looked out of place in a magazine. Whether it was on purpose, or coincidence, the cuff area of his blue-jeans were wrinkled in a particular way. He was so much not imitating anybody, it was cool.

The person in question, as a young man himself, unaccustomed to such things, was rubbing his cheeks as if he were embarrassed, and frowning as if in explanation.

"Well, in fact yesterday I thought, "Enough with this head of mine. I'll just get it shaved." But when I went to the barbershop, they told me "If you're getting it cut anyway, why don't you let my new apprentice cut it for you?" and this sort of perm... I said "well done!" out of delight, since he cut it so fast I'd wondered if it wasn't a bad job... no, or rather, eh? What? Banri and Kouko...? What's up with them?"

"They're dating! Isn't it an incredible surprise? It shook me up a bit."

Without hesitation, Two Dimensions explained for them. Banri mumbled a little, and glanced quietly over in Kouko's direction. Wh, what shall we do? Do you think we ought to give some sort of explanation to Yana-ssan about us? Such was the meaning of the look he gave, but to Banri's glance Kouko nodded "yes yes yes yes!" repeatedly,

"We really agree! That hair suits you!"

Somehow she kept her voice down. Arching her beautifully drawn eyebrows, she flicked her eyes up and down Mitsuo quickly, then gave him a great big thumbs up. Banri felt exhausted, thinking "That isn't it...," however,

"...No. For a moment, I thought 'Eh!', but I wasn't particularly surprised. To say that I knew isn't an exaggeration."

For Mitsuo to say such a thing lightly was an anti-climax.

"Or rather, I somewhat suspected that sooner or later you would get like that."

Setting his bag on the table with a thud, he put his hand to his hair, apparently unaccustomed yet to its fluffiness, and flashed Banri a grin.

"So don't make a face like that, Banri. Some might think it unpleasant, like you're about to blow up."

That graceful, spendidly handsome, beautiful face. Without thinking about it, Banri raised one finger and started scratching the cheek of his almost adult face.

"...You 'knew'... since when?"

"Yep, it was pretty certain, after you declared so furiously, 'I talked with Kaga-san, and we decided to be friends! She's a beautiful person!' I thought of that just now, though to be fair, that's after the fact."

"Some, something like that happened?"

"Banri's forgetful!", Two Dimensions laughed. Then Kouko came and glued herself tight to Banri's arm,

"Beautiful person?"

Raising her face, a spoiled expression there, she pointed at herself.

"Me, a beautiful person?"

While pointing with both her left hand and her right, she declared "Beautiful Person! Super Beautiful Person!", and Kouko, seeming even happier than before, glued herself to him.

And then, cuddling close to Banri still, she huffed. Her sweet smile disappeared as she looked over in Mitsuo's direction,

"I mean... what's with you, Mitsuo, are you feeling good? Though you always made a bad face when you were about to go out with me..."

She had one eyebrow raised, her smile icy. Resting her chin on her uplifted shoulder, Kouko's face became nasty in her private battle with her childhood friend. Though frankly, Banri didn't dislike that face either.

"Besides, your assumptions are wrong. If you say that Tada-kun and I are going out, then you were absolutely thinking the opposite of us. For the same reason my parents... even though it was like they were aiming at me, they said that Tada-kun's life was all messed up. So, has it even occurred to you to think about why you were told about it? Do you want to hear about it?"

Speaking to Mitsuo, who sat across from her, her whole face a grin, like a demon.

"No! I don't want to hear about it!"

He shook his head from side to side violently, as if he were tearing it off.

"Won't you listen for now? Well, I was destined to be with Tada-kun, from the start."

"No! I don't want to hear about it! Or rather, I'm not worried about Banri. Banri, as far as I can see, has an extraordinary capacity for waiting, and should be able to associate with you."

"Ah, that was a compliment, for now," he turned and said to the flustered looking Banri.

"And besides, as far as I'm concerned, it's a relief. Up until now, she's been a maturing evil spirit, clinging to and harassing me! It felt like that."

A person's woman was being called an evil spirit. But the Kouko in question simply snorted, and didn't seem to take any offense.

"Surprising, isn't it? If that's all you can say, it seems like you really aren't down? Mitsuo seems to be tougher than I ever thought. Though I might seem so too, am I a little worried? Saying, "Mitsuo, is he really OK?" But that day! What ''Mitsuo'' here, did with regards to that miserable, pretentious, Ultrasonic! That, I cannot forget, you see,

O! M! G! Looking up to the heavens and closing her eyes, Kouko threw her hands in the air. Banri, of course, tugged a little nervously on one of her elbows,

"Ka, Kaga-san, that's a bit much..."

"It's o-kay. Mitsuo's a strong kid. Hey, setting that aside... isn't there always something more important? Don't we each have a different second period? What are we planning to do for lunch?"

"Lu, lunch... well..."

"Our first lunch since we started dating."

If you put it like that, today was perhaps a bit special. But Kouko gave Two Dimensions the thumbs up. In that way, she promised that at lunchtime, together with Two Dimensions and Yana-ssan, they would go buy deflated lunches and eat them on a park bench. She promised that Banri would show them where "there's cheap, delicious lunches." Banri realized that Kouko had just risen in his esteem, seeing as she didn't want to even seem like someone who makes light of the friendship of somebody she'd just gotten over.

"Today I'm eating with the boy's team... sorry."

"Would you like to be tied up? Or not? I'm only asking you this once, so answer me honestly."

"Nooo... not very much..."

"Well then, I'll forgive you. Until which period is it today?"

"Third period..."

"We'll wait in the lobby after third period."

With a sweet smile, her plans made, Kouko stood up lightly with her bag in hand. "See you later!" she said, moving her hands like Her Majesty the Queen, her high heels ringing and her curls bouncing, the well-poised person he so admired left, quickly walking ahead.

He realized it was already past the first period's starting time.

"Ah, we're running late! Let's go! What's that?"

Yana-ssan and Two Dimensions started to look back, but they noticed something unusual.

"Wait for me, Banri! And drag along Yana-ssan!"

Bowled over by those last minute words from Kouko, Mitsuo fell to one knee. It was a tremendous body blow; in the moment he realized it, the pain was curling through his whole body. What's more, in resisting it all Mitsuo was not such a 'strong kid'.

"Sh...", he groaned, unable to stand up. Quickly, Banri and Two Dimensions propped him up from both shoulders, but,

"Oh...ooh, an, smi... what in the world...!?"

To the question in the deathlike voice, the other two had no answer. First of all Banri, his head tilted in puzzlement,

"...Was that 'I' ... 'cannot stand it' ... 'anymore'?"

Continuing, Two Dimensions,

" 'Chat' ... 'manga' ... 'government' ?"

'Ha ha ha ha,' 'stupid,' 'not funny,' all three of them were for now trying to laugh,

"...Haa. Or rather, really, I hurt too much that moment..."

They turned towards their classroom and, as they walked as fast as they could, Mitsuo gave a depressed sounding sigh.

At that moment, of course, it was about the first-years drinking party of the other day. Through the end of the drunken fight with Kouko, sniping at each other as hard as they could, then confessing stupidly to Chinami. Her response, "Eh? Are you an idiot?" surprising even Kouko with its sharpness, defeating him with a single stroke, settling the matter that very night.

Banri and Two Dimensions exchanged a brief glance over Mitsuo's head. That one surely, really, was watching the whole painful scene from the very start. Banri thought. Really, that "O, M, G"... if it were me, I wouldn't be able to go on.

"This is certainly going to be a bit awkward from here on out. I wonder if Yana-ssan's talked with Oka-chan since then? Or even texted?"

Though Two Dimensions was talking, he shook his head,

"Never. Nothing at all. ...I mean, there hasn't been anything from over there. But, over here, though not the way Kouko means it, really becoming 'Mitsuo the strong kid', cool, I mean, I was thinking that normally he would have no choice... But we, we even go to club meetings together. We have a lot of the same classes too. From now on, there won't be anything we don't go to together..."

''That's for sure.'' Banri had to turn his head to avoid a pinch from his friend.

"When next I run into her, if I can try and greet her smoothly? I'll wear a face like 'the other day I was only drunk.' I'll say I was causing trouble, that's all."

"...That's right. You'd best go with that approach. ...It's even smart; making a joke of it might just work."

It had gotten a bit late, perhaps, but the door was still open. They could see students entering, and then coming right back out to the hallway.

Wondering, Banri entered halfway too and saw on the chalkboard, in big letters, "Lecture Cancelled!"

"What the!? Why!?"

Underneath, in small letters, it said the lecturer had taken ill suddenly. Two Dimensions and Mitsuo looked at it too,

"Whoa, that's something! When I finally hurried with my translations!"

"Wow. What a waste getting up... I could've slept in."

All the students, as one, did an about face then and there. It was not at all unpleasant to have first period suddenly cancelled. They could have slept in if they'd known ahead of time, but having come to school, it now occurred to them that they suddenly had time to visit.

"Shall we go back to the cafeteria? I want to ask some questions regarding Banri and Kaga-san."

"There are things that must still be discussed about your future too."

"But we just went over that, and the situation hasn't changed..."

Their faces matching, like comrade bums, they had no choice but to chat tiredly. And about love, of all things.

Some guy he recognized from the same class said, "Got time? How about it?" He was waving a tile around to tempt them, but, not knowing mahjongg, this threesome also took a pass. Walking off down the corridor, Banri for some reason turned to face the guy they'd just passed,

"I mean, shouldn't we ought to learn mahjongg? Though one of the older guys in the Omaken, from staying so long in the mahjongg parlor, didn't even come to lecture. Is it true that if you don't play, you'll get snubbed?"

"Eeh?" Mitsuo frowned as he spoke.

"Isn't 'that' no more than a money exchange? Is it all that difficult to have 'money friends'?"

"Is that so? Actually, I don't know, or rather, I can't hear clearly around those places."

"They're absolutely bad places. Ain't I right, 2D?"

Catching the sudden change in moniker, Banri burst into soft laughter. While even Two Dimensions laughed,

"Well, wouldn't there be the case where it isn't? But that wouldn't be interesting. I mean, the Mitsuo Mangrove, its..."

''How ridiculous!'' Banri was suddenly rolling on the floor with laughter. He laughed uproariously, like a monkey's brother, while he tried to say something sensible of his own.

"...Oh..."

He stopped moving. ''Uh oh,'' he gulped. No, Banri had no need to gulp, and yet,

"...Oka-chan, she's here..."

Though she was looking this way, it was clear they had seen her petite shadow down the corridor first. Casually turning around towards Mitsuo behind him, Banri intended to point her out to him. He'd said earlier that his heart was prepared for his normal greetings to be ignored.

However,

"---There's no way, of course!"

He spoke quickly, at mach speed.

All that lacked was a sonic boom as with everything he had, Mitsuo escaped from that place. Eh? Neither Banri nor Two Dimensions could follow in running away as obviously as that, rather with the same energy that they'd been escaped from, they turned around to face before them,

"...Good morning."

Oka Chinami, standing stock still by herself, was waving at them.

A cute, childlike figure, a sugary-sweet anime voice.

"And I was just about to say, 'Class got cancelled, eh? I was taking the same one, and wound up with spare time.' Yeah."

''Grin.'' She seemed lonely, in a way he'd never seen since he'd known her, but Banri could see a vague smile on her lips.

<center>* * *</center>

All of a sudden, there had been a change of tour members.

With Yanagisawa Mitsuo OUT, and Oka Chinami IN, there formed a curious trio. Returning to the cafeteria, they sat around a table to kill time. Pouring free all-you-can-drink tea for each of themselves,

"I'm beaten, I'm beaten... I might be beaten."

Chinami sighed, resting her chin in her hands. With both her hands pressing against her white cheeks, her mouth was sharpened to a beak. In the depths of her anxious eyes, a universe of thousands of twinkling stars sparkled. Her puckered lips were the prettiest.

Gazing at Chinami like that, side by side on the other side of the table, spellbound... Banri and Two Dimensions were on the verge of breaking into grins, watching as if enchanted, they sighed with a meaning entirely different from hers.

If Banri were seen by Kouko showing such a face in front of Chinami, I fear it would probably be the end of the road for him. Romeo, death by poison. In any case, Kouko, even at the best of times, loathed Chinami as much as snakes, and in a way, would hate Banri admiring Chinami from the very bottom of her heart. To say she hated her very existence would not be an exaggeration.

He understood that, and yet,

"Am I defeated~?"

Showing a sickly smile, Banri snorted. Two Dimensions, in almost the same state,

"Yes yes, defeated~... I understand that~"

Nod, nod, they bowed their heads, showing their agreement.

"It's not a laughing matter!"

Chinami sent her pout once more in the direction of the pair of jokers.

Settled into her chair at the cafetería table, Chinami had a compact sort of cuteness. Purity to the point of being slightly scary. For them, it wasn't.

Slender feet and hands on a petite body. Slim shoulders, a slender neck, a straight back. On her pure white skin, surprisingly long, fan-shaped shadows fell from her long eyelashes. Showing through her light complexion, pure lips. The bridge of her nose was narrow and her eye sockets deep.

Looking small and quiet there, in a state that defied description even just sitting down, Chinami plainly had a mysterious appeal. The cafeteria was the deep forest. They were seated on tree stumps. With the flourescent lamps the sunlight filtering down between the huge trees, Banri and Two Dimensions were the animals fawning over her. They had surely been thinking, instinctively, that they wanted to present her with walnuts they'd peeled with their front teeth, or mushrooms they'd made to ripen amongst the litter of dead leaves. And then, they wanted to see her happy face. They might even cast their bodies into the flames, if only they could snuggle close to her stomach.

Nonetheless, as least as far as Banri was concerned, such feelings were on an altogether different dimension from "love" or "caring", but Kouko would probably find them hard to understand.

Cute Chinami cast down her cute eyes,

"That Yana. Getting a perm like that..."

Murmured cutely with a cute voice. Though it would have suited her to add a chirp.

Today as ever, her full black hair spilled down long, her bangs gathered to the sides over her ears, her round forehead fully exposed.

Looking not unlike [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sathya_Sai_Baba Saibaba] in a loose cotton blouse and too-high-waisted [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Baba Ali Baba] style pants, sandals from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birkenstock Birkenstock] and her usual rustic black day-pack, that is to say her by now familiar ambiguous fashion, all unnecessarily emphasizing the fragility of her slender wrists and ankles, Chinami was unusually feminine. Even combing her long hair down and gathering it over one shoulder with her fingers, it seemed like they would break the moment she applied any force.

"...He didn't have to run away like that. Don't you think so? Neither Banri, nor Two Dimensions left."

Looking up at the faces of the pair of two male friends, Chinami tilted her head to the side. She seemed cute to the point of truly overwhelming them.

From Banri's point of view, he wanted to take Mitsuo's side here. It seemed likely that Two Dimensions, with the same feelings, was a bit troubled watching Banri.

But Mitsuo, he was one cute living being. Awkward, pure, with fine, soft hair. The damage to his scalp from the perm was a little worrisome, but he was a pet, five foot eleven in height.

Hesitating, picking his words, Banri spoke.

"Hey, Oka-chan. You, well, are just a fluttery dagger in black..."

Two Dimensions spouted tea from his nose. Chinami's bangs, ''swish,'' fell in front of her nose.

"On the one hand Yana-ssan, seen like that, is just an innocent young man who doesn't even know where the mushrooms sprout... though on his upper body he has fuzz sprouting here and there..."

"Wh, what are you saying...? What do you mean...?"

"Of course you know the meaning of the flower below?"

Chinami sprang up. Bending over the table, she slapped Banri's hand.

"S, so! Though I told you before! I don't have any such flower blooming below! It's the truth! You'll believe me any time now!"

"It's a joke, it's a joke, in fact, the meaning is figurative. Seriously. Really. ...Yana-ssan doesn't care much, he's in such a pitiful state. Drunken, having made such a forceful confession, well, having done that sort of thing. Of course, don't we guys understand that there's nothing bad in you? But, would it have been possible, in that case, to have let him off a little easier? I mean, to make things like it never happened, to be close to him just as before."

"...I mean, hey..."

Returning to sit in her chair, Chinami turned her petite body over to the custody of her chair's back.

"To do something like that was my intention, of course. But if he's going to run away like that, I guess ignoring him (or not) isn't possible."

Passing a tissue to Two Dimensions, who was still coughing and unable to say anything, Chinami's dark, clear eyes looked at Banri.

Oh. In an instant he forgot his words, the color of those eyes was so marvelously deep. Bottomless, and surprisingly cool.

"Besides, as for me, that didn't count as 'being confessed to'. Something done while drunken is usually forgotten. And yet, running away like that, when you're no longer 'under the influence', isn't inexcusable. As far as I'm concerned, it's nothing to do with the here and now. Normally, you get hurt."

"...Oh well. So it is. Running away like that, was perhaps a little..."

With that fluffy hair style... though at the time he showed up he looked cool. Despite how cool he was, accepting the matter of himself and Kouko at once. In spite of how cool he was, enduring Kouko's attack right afterwards. Banri remembered having sympathy for him as he dashed away behind his friends' backs.

He understood the guy's feelings.

It was too much to endure, a bitter state to be in, he thought. But if he'd tried a little harder to stick around this place, and if he'd been able to keep looking cool, if he'd done so, chatting with Chinami like before, like this, they could have put things back to normal.

"...Mitsuo wasn't such a strong kid... so much."

Wiping his mouth, finally returning to the conversation, Two Dimensions followed up.

"But, beyond that, Yana-ssan has his good points. Don't you think so? Even though he's such a handsome guy, inside he's just a smelly human being, normally feeling nervous. After all, what we do, he and I, is about the same. We can't help but be ordinary people, it seems like. As it is, his looks are practically there already. But even if he were a completely and perfectly finished guy, I still think he would be rather disagreeable, myself. He's too different from the world, I mean."

That speech having a rather nice feel to it, Chinami agreed a bit, nodding towards Two Dimensions. With Banri's agreeing as well,

"Certainly. That's the way it is. Besides, with respect to Yana-ssan,"

Settling back into his chair, he related it all with a ever more knowing face,

"...!"

He saw... that person.

So surprised he suddenly lost his balance, tipping over into the chair behind him. Bang and clanging, the sound echoed. All at once, the scattered people looked towards him.

"Banri!" There were three people's voices calling his name.

Standing with Two Dimensions and Chinami, there was one more: Linda.

Linda's figure, it was there. She was standing in the entrance to the cafeteria. Her hair, though not very long, was forced into a single knot. She had a day-pack hung from one shoulder. She was wearing a navy blue jersey and a light blue cardigan, tight jeans and her usual Nikes. Her eyes opened wide. Her red... lips...

Banri got up without saying anything, tossed his bag into their scattered baggage and took off running as he was. Leaving Two Dimensions, Chinami, Linda and just about everybody else behind there, without even looking back, he ran out.

Running running, running, eyes forward he jumped into the elevator that had just arrived. He pushed '9' for the top floor to go up for now, and the door closed. Going steadily up in the elevator car, he stood frozen like a pole.

Waah... he closed his eyes. He covered his eyelids with his hot hands. It was like that. Perhaps because he'd seen Mitsuo's mach-speed escape, he'd just done the same thing. ...No, he wouldn't deceive himself with such words. He couldn't even blame his friend.

He'd fled. That was entirely due to his own weakness. Seeing that me, that person--- Linda, what must she have thought? Did she get mad? Was she hurt? Was she despising me? Saying "As I thought, that guy is useless, he's changed," will she turn her back on Tada Banri?

He had even ignored all her texts.

Are you okay? Please contact me. I'm worried! How are you doing? I'm sorry for it all. She sent him words like that, but no matter what, he couldn't answer her.

The ninth floor was professor's and graduate student's offices all lined up. He could see by the light through each office's windows, but there was nobody around. Into the deathly quiet space, Banri stepped forward unsteadily.

But what should he say back to her? What kind of expression should he make, what should he say? How should he face her, what should he say to her, to the now entirely forgotten Linda?

What was Linda thinking of him?

It was scary.

Having known his former self, what Linda thought of his current self before her, in her heart, really and truly, he did not know. ...And though he did not know, from what he could imagine, he was scared.

They hadn't simply run into each other innocently, as in "I'm happy to see you again!" That much even Banri understood. If that were the case, from the beginning, Linda would probably have spoken with him from the start.

That night, Linda had called him "Banri."

"Forgive me, I was scared!" So she had cried out.

He could not forget that voice. He could no longer think of the "gentle, reliable Linda-senpai."

At that moment, Linda was calling the old Tada Banri. It wasn't this self existing now. Calling that guy, and then begging for something. It wasn't himself. Wasn't Linda wishing for that guy to wake up and answer her, for him to return to her and stand before her eyes, that in particular?

---Scared that it seemed entirely so, Banri had fled from that place at once. It isn't you. Go away. Disappear. Being rejected like that was scarier than anything else.

And now, recognizing himself fearing such a thing was scary too. Pretending to be having fun, like everything had been forgotten, promising to date Kouko, who said she loved him, getting together to laugh and mess around with friends; he couldn't live any other way.

Really, he wasn't going to just forget that terror.

However, he was only pretending not to notice. Not looking directly at her, but rather at something else over that way, he simply continued deceiving her. Where acting like that would lead him to in the end, he didn't know. Neither did he know when it would be over. Only that he continued acting incomplete.

So, when suddenly the source of his great fear appeared before him, he didn't know another way to get away than this.

''Waah.'' Head in his hands, he crouched down in that place. As it was, he didn't want to meet her again, even though there was just no way he could do that. To truly leave her behind, and then make things as if they never were, there was just no way. The story might be different if he were to fall down once more from a tall bridge, but he didn't believe in miracles enough to risk himself to that extent, and more than anything else, he didn't think Kouko would permit it. He wondered how far and how many times she would have chased after him on the bicycle, trying to carry him over the bridge on the handlebars. She wouldn't allow such a thing. She would hug him tightly and pull him back.

In the corner of a landing, setting his back to the wall, Banri crumbled weakly. He buried his face in the knees of his bluejeans. He wanted to see Kouko. He wanted to see her so badly, he couldn't stand it.

"...Kaga-san..."

I want to see you right away.

I want you pull me back from this scary world.

I want you to help me.

I want you to tell me in that gentle voice, "You can stay here." I want to hear your voice saying "I love you."

I want to see her.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume3 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 3: Masquerade|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume3 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}

Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter4

2013-10-11T05:58:11Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Chapter 4==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 4===
[[Image:Golden Time vol02 221.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri looked out the window.

It was eight in the morning.

Stopping his cell-phone alarm, which had just started sounding, he slowly raised his body from bed.

One futon was laid out on the floor, with Mitsuo and Two Dimensions peacefully situated there, their heads in opposite directions. Despite their smelling each other's feet and occasionally moaning as if suffocating in a nightmare, the two of them were still sleeping.

Banri stretched out his hand from his bed and poked Mitsuo on the shoulder. "Yana-ssan, shouldn't you be heading home before long?", he said, his voice extremely hoarse, sounding bone dry.

Mitsuo blinked, opened his watery eyes, and confirmed the time against his own cell-phone. And then he flipped it shut. He turned his face away from Two Dimension's feet, and as if he'd managed to escape once more, he buried himself deeply in his towel-blanket. Was it worth it? Probably not. It doesn't matter. Take your time.

To the north side of the room there was a veranda, to the west side a waist-high window had been set. The sunlight shining from the other side of the curtains is weak even when the weather was good, and doesn't reach to my feet as I am seated on the stool, no matter what.

From within the cool dark shadows again this morning, I watched the only person with his eyes open, Banri, giving up on waking Mitsuo.

Banri hadn't slept at all, just about. Even after his exhausted friends stayed over and fell asleep, he'd stayed awake, alone, thinking over the matter of Kaga Kouko, his eyes open.

I am not waiting for anyone, anymore. Facing her, Banri had said so.

This, to me, is somewhat of a marvel. Might some of the remnants of my memories be clinging inside of this Banri's body? Once upon a time, I had decided to not wait for anyone, anymore, I had. At the time I made that decision, it was something characteristic of me.

So it was. I--- Tada Banri, for a second time had decided to not wait for anybody.

That was decided, that day. I existed then, that other day. The Banri existing now shouldn't know about that morning.

Alighting from the stool, I stepped softly over Mitsuo and Two Dimension's bodies and sat down on the corner of the risen Banri's bed. What was originally me leaned in close to Banri's body, and in the warmth the dead me started helplessly reviewing the memories.

He was waiting, but because he felt like running away, he had the volume raised. Any song, any singer would do.

From that bridge he was looking down, vaguely, upon the vast riverbank scenery he was familiar with since childhood.

Looking towards the opposite shore reached by the bridge, he was frightened. He was scared.

He waited and waited, but nobody came. Not coming, and so he decided to not wait any longer.

And then, turning my back on the riverbank, I set out walking over the long bridge and towards the mountains where my own house was... set out walking, and it all ended, going out to meet an instant of whiteness.

---Not having slept, Banri's eyes were red and dry.

Slowly, he laid his body down on the sheets again. So doing, the pale morning sun tinting everything yellow, he quietly looked up at the ceiling.

The room smelled of sake.

On the table, there were plastic drink bottles on top of plastic drink bottles. A tower of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C5%ABhai Chuuhai] cans, piled up for fun. A plastic bag from the convenience store, stuffed full of garbage. Balled-up tissues. A cell-phone charger. Fallen to the floor, the television remote. The remnants of a bag full of candy. PET-bottle caps. An extra strap. Mitsuo's socks. Torn double-leafed pages. Two Dimensions' glasses. A cloth for cleaning glasses. A glasses case.

Nobody spoke.

On such a morning, Banri merely existed.

<center>* * *</center>

After fourth period, Banri was a complete zombie.

He was in an awful, intolerable mood.

With the least movement his head rang like a bell, his head, stomach, throat, back and hips hurt. Everything was sluggish, his feet were heavy. Far from concentrating on the lectures, he couldn't keep from dozing off.

The lecture over, delayed quite a bit by the other students streaming out into the noisy hallway, he finally stood up, dragging his bag along with him. Feeling terribly heavy, pushing open the door with both hands, he dragged himself out into the dark corridor, with its students coming and going. A unpleasant burp escaped him, and he held back a hot sensation from the area of his stomach.

By any chance, was this the state the world called 'being hung over'?

In this condition since the morning, for now he wondered if it would help if he ate something, though he suspected that wolfing down lunch wouldn't be a good idea. But even more than usual, the school cafeteria daily special was a mixture of fried stuff, and eating lunch without anybody to talk to, he cleaned his plate entirely, as fast as he could.

Yesterday, he'd noticed some friends heading towards an afterparty. From what he saw and heard, they seemed to be excited about a dirt-cheap karaoke place. In the end, five places... until seven in the morning, they said they drank. "What do you expect, though we left the fifth party", they'd laughed, their faces ghastly pale.

In second period, he found an unexpectedly energetic-looking Chinami, but then she said, with her cute anime voice, but dry and hoarse, "Talked too much, sang too much." Mitsuo said, "See me in the afternoon after I've gone home and got a shower", cutting him off and getting on a train going in the opposite direction, and Two Dimensions had declared, "I'm skipping today", and making good on his word, didn't show up.

Banri, rubbing around his chin, which was tingling strangely, yawned a bit, went out into the hall and headed for the stairs. Today, as things were, even if he had shopping to do or anywhere else to go, he was heading straight back. Once home he was going to cook himself [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee#Japan okayu] or something. He was lost in thought, when from behind him,

"Ta-da, Ba-n-ri"

She was calling his name in musical notes, as if singing, though for a woman her voice was a bit low and cool.

He knew at once who's voice it was, without even turning his head.

"What's with the face?"

"Morning... well... it's a hangover."

Hands still deep in the pockets of her hoodie, she walked around to the front of him. Peeking at Banri's face, it was as he thought: Linda. Her shiny, black, evenly cut hair swaying about her chin, she frowned as if she were concerned. Khaki cargo pants, with flourescent yellow Nikes. White, slender ankles. A friendly look on her face. Apparently worried, her pale lips were pursed.

For some reason, Banri was slowly pulling back.

"What, are you feeling bad? Shall I go to the infirmary? I could bring you something for your stomach."

Shaking his head from side to side, he tried to avoid Linda.

"...No, that's fine. I'm OK, it's no big deal. I was already thinking of going home."

In other words, he was trying to avoid looking at Linda. He was tired. Even talking was painful.

"I see. If so, then since you're leaving would you mind coming with me for a bit? There's something I need to post in the lobby. Since it looks like we've set next month's practice schedule, I wanted to post it."

"Ah... err..."

The energy required to turn her down having deserted him already, Banri looked downward ambiguously, not knowing what else to do. Linda acted as if he'd decided "yes".

"Then let's go. Come on."

As if to urge him along, she walked on ahead of him. There being no alternative, Banri followed at once, dragging his heavy feet.

Lightly turning about, Linda pointed a slender finger at Banri's feet.

"That reminds me: you're wearing the shoes I gave you. How are they?"

Yesterday, he had washed his customary Jack Purcells (well seasoned by his own vomit) in the bathroom and set them to dry in the middle of the veranda. Today was the first day he had worn the New Balance shoes that Linda had given him.

"They're great!", Banri replied, somehow smiling like an underclassman.

Their small college department, located right in the middle of a city center office block, had guaranteed ease of access from entry to graduation, but in exchange for this, they didn't build things like cool club buildings. They didn't waste money on club rooms.

Because of that, such people from campus as wanted to get together and chat, had no choice but to line up by the tables in the lobby, in the corners of the cafeteria, or to take up positions in the various gathering places or smoking sections.

In the Omaken's case, it was the edge of the lobby. With a bulletin board for posting news about lecture cancellations and for posting personal notes, and with constant foot traffic going by, you couldn't call it a bad spot. Not for a small, obscure club it wasn't.

As it happened, the most comfortable place was in the back of the cafeteria, hidden from sight by the largest pillar. The people who used that spot the most were from the Law School Tennis Club. Leaving huge bags there, opening meetings and doing whatever they felt like doing, they created an atmosphere such that Banri's group (or other students) couldn't even step foot there.

Banri followed behind Linda, until they got to the table in front of the bulletin board.

A bunch of uper classmen, all sitting back relaxed on a bench, waved him over.

"Aren't you Tada Banri? You sit over there!"

"Morning, pardon me... I heard there was something on the schedule..."

On the closest bench, Kouko was sitting, shrunken.

She must've noticed Banri's voice, as her white face turned this way.

Their eyes met.

Wearing a chiffon top with little flowers on it, a black miniskirt over black tights. Some things he'd seen before, like the black booties. She wasn't wearing a hairband either, her long, uncurled hair spilling down her back for now. She seemed to hardly have any makeup on, and where normally she took great pains to put herself in order, she was now looking pretty awful. Her swollen eyes were more awful than a bear's. She had drank no less than Banri last night. It appeared she was suffering from a hangover worse than his own.

Not even knowing what kind of expression he showed, their eyes still in contact, Banri had stopped moving, like a broken robot.

Kouko, like that, gave Banri a small, weak smile with parched lips, and raised one hand only so high as her chest.

For now, he acknowledged that with an ambiguous nod, but, beyond that, of course, he couldn't do anything more.

Only able to quietly avert his gaze from Kouko, he sat down at the other end of the bench, with the table between them.

What he should do, he did not know. Banri hung his head and lowered his gaze.

With what kind of face was he to look at her, if there was no love, nor friendship, and he personally wanted the relationship to go away?

He wondered if he ought to behave as if he'd forgotten everything, and show a face of "I don't know you at all." It was as if everything up to now were made null, so, for example,

"Hey, hey, where'd they put the schedule? Somebody took it?"

---He wondered if Linda was manipulating him.

To be precise, as she might have done in the past. Always with 'nothing'. Hello, how are you? Who are you? Like that.

Linda: next to Banri, quietly looking sidelong at how he was doing. Kneeling crudely on top of the bench, tossing snack candies somebody had scattered on the table into her mouth with one hand.

Once again, he thought Linda assertive, ridiculously so. That wouldn't work on him, of course. For the same reason, it wouldn't work on her either. Such were his thoughts.

As for himself, he didn't understand at all how it would be good to continue seeing Kouko. Still confused, his body stiffened. No matter what, for the two of them to arrive at the same time couldn't be 'nothing'. Therefore, the two of them must've arranged a mess like this. And it was a bloody mess: their heads cast down, their eyes averted, seated awkwardly apart, and on top of that, with their unsightly, dreadful, fresh wounds showing. Banri could not be anything but that.

But Linda was wrong about Banri. Pretending not to know him, making it quite clear where she'd heard his name. Inviting him into a club. Treating him as a juniorclassman, not revealing your true colors. The Linda-senpai beside him, eating snacks, laughing lightly.

Fine. I can do such things.

A bit surprised, Banri looked at Linda once more.

Just because he had lost his memories, it doesn't mean he didn't know anything about anyone or from where they came. His identity was always established by his loss of memory, nothing more. If, for example, he found himself in a conversation like "Where was your high school?", it would come up as often as not. That they were classmates was obvious, but to stay like this forever, never revealing the full truth, would be impossible. So long as she didn't lie or misrepresent herself, Linda's act was doomed to fail before too long. In spite of that, she was doing it. Now, even. This instant, even. Calm and composed, she kept on doing it.

If he had done to Kouko the same thing Linda was doing to him--- "How do you do, who are you? What's your name?" if Kouko had heard him, if it would start a relationship from the first, brand new meeting. Would he be able to be clever, like Linda?

Trying to think, Banri thought at once: There was no way he could. The time, so short yet so strangely full, that he'd spent with Kouko, the past he'd had with her, all that they had built up, he could not deny quite so easily. He could not make it as if hadn't happened.

Or rather: he didn't want to.

Because he was that way, was he not too pitiful?

Kouko's past, his own past, was a fact. In which case, it was all the more a pity.

Though that time had certainly happened, though it had being, to erase it entirely for the convenience of the current Banri was something he absolutely did not want to do. The joy in the moment of understanding, the shock of recognizing love, the unforgiveable impatience, the ulterior motives, the misery, the grief, the smiles, the tears, the foolishness too, the hurt feelings as well--- all of those were, clearly, irreplaceable moments. Be they good or bad, as far as he was concerned, they were all important. They were worth caring for. Banri felt that he must not lose them. He could not part with such things.

And yet, how, this person...

"Want some?"

Suddenly grabbing a snack with her fingertips, Linda waved it in front of Banri's nose. Banri shook his head side to side. A throbbing pain shot through his head.

"...I'm not feeling well."

"Oh, forgot that."

Sorry sorry, tossing it into her own mouth, and wiping her finger with a tissue, Linda pulled out three schedule sheets from a clear vinyl folder. Keeping one page for herself, she passed one to Banri and another to Kouko.

"Kouko-chan, perhaps, has a hangover too? Though both of you smell a bit of sake."

"Eh, really? ...We shouldn't, not any longer."

Kouko, frowning slightly, covered her own mouth with a handkerchief. Like that, she mumbled in a weak voice. Perhaps the same as Banri, she must be getting a headache from just speaking.

"Yesterday was the freshmen drinking party. Together with Tada-kun, I drank a bit too much..."

"Eh what what!? What happened!? Now they tempted you into a drinking party!?

At the clear voice suddenly reverberating over her head, Kouko groaned, her face in a grimace. Banri put his hands to his temples too.

The former president who the other day had come in a suit, showed up today dressed in an normal polo-shirt and cotton pants style. With a friendly grin, in excessively good humor, with what everybody automatically thought of as a cheerful face,

"Did you, perhaps, get a job offer!?"

But,

"Eh, how? Nothing's come up yet, nothing at all, or rather, not one guy's shown up in my wanderings!"

Al---ways, such as want to be fools have bottomless cheer. Moreover,

"For today, I've only got English. Haha, my third time repeating it!"

...Though he'd now reached his fourth year, it appeared he hadn't gotten his language credit yet.

"Because the road ahead is dark still, I cheer myself up! Is that a problem!? Rather, did somebody say when the next drinking party is? What, what, I wanna go, I wanna drink, sake! Let's do a drinking party! Today, let's everybody go from here! Hey hey, sake sake sake! It'll be fun~!"

Linda, the palms of her hands lifted towards him, lept up to explain to the excited ex-president in simple terms.

"Hosshii-senpai. Calm down, it's not what you think."

Hosshii... that's it: somebody, Hoshino-senpai... was it something like that?

Banri tried to organize in his head the as yet incompletely memorized names and faces of the various upperclassmen. The ex-president Hoshino-senpai... Hosshii. Slightly monkey-like, sinewy body, the first guy to have a good chat with Banri, the nice guy Yoshino-senpai... Yosshii. Other than that, the present president of the third years, who played music, Kago-senpai... another guy called Kosshii... It was making Banri's headache even worse. Memorizing was such a pain. How was he going to be an Omaken!?

"Tada Banri and Kouko-chan have hangovers. That okay with you? We were only talking about that kind of stuff. So, as for specially scheduling a party now,"

<nowiki>"A hangover!? If that's all, don't you just have to drink some more!? Freshmen, you know what? The cure for a hangover is a drink in the morning! That's all! To get to where you can forget how bad you're feeling, drink, drink until you've gotten drunk, then right away have another together! Right!? So let's go drinking, okay!? I want to, I, I want to go drinking, to have fun drinking with all the underclassmen, but I want to escape from reality for a bit, even talking with my fellow job hunters, the sake is awful. I'm still off on my own, but it looks like I'm going home and won't be able to come back, so, how about it!? So please let's go drinking!? Shall we!? That OK!? Is it no good!? Is it bad!? Can't an unqualified human like me go drinking without conditions? As president of the club I tried hard to manage the club, but since it was such a small sales point, wasn't it simply better to say nothing? Hey, wasn't it!? But then, what was I to do!? What will I do if I cannot find a job? If it's real estate agent, I'll take it. If it's notary public, I'll take that too. I'll take the English and Law tests, because I must! I mean, even my senpai's job hunt isn't concluded yet! What are you doing senpai!? What am I doing!? Even with that, before long they're coming, they've come, the third-years have come to the seminar! No way, don't come! I mean, from now on what must I do to exist, I want to live normally, that's all, but in luxury!? Is this living in luxury!? Ah~~~~ but I want to live~~~~~ sorr~~~~~y! Apart from that, I don't wish for anything more, gods help me, I'm scare~~~~~d! I'm afraid I'll be broken by this record-breaking ice age! Aahhh~~~~ let's go have a fes-ti-vallllll~~~~!!"</nowiki>

Everybody in the place exchanged silent glances. Banri too. Kouko too.

...Unable to help him find employment, or even a festival, for the time being, taking that pitiful fourth-year to go drinking was all they could do.

The two freshmen offered up their livers as sacrifice.

<center>* * *</center>

As if they were fully rewinding time, Banri went to the same place as yesterday.

The same tavern, the same all-you-can-drink, even the same room as yesterday, sitting with his back to the partition, even the same spot. Kouko next to him--- it had turned out that way naturally--- all the same.

As he heard the talking of groups of other members and fourth-year students gathering together, he realized that the Omaken had become a rather large family. The drinking party started.

At the sound of "Cheers" from the president, beer mugs came near to mouths,

"...Ugh..."

Banri groaned.

It was only the smell, but from now on it will seem like vomit. But though he hesitated, and he felt awful, he muttered to himself "Whatever...", and tasted it. Feeling about ready to throw up, he thought he should gulp it down all at once.

Gulping it down, the feel of the cold beer passing down his throat was nevertheless pleasant for now, he drank it all down in one gulp, even the foam head. He peeked quietly, sidelong, at Kouko, who for a while had hardly touched her uulong tea, now, as if resolved to do it, seized her beer mug. She tasted it, tossed her head back, and emptied her mug with gusto no less than Banri's.

"Is she okay!? 'Cause I don't see any problems at all so far..", Banri muttered to himself, but,

"Oh! There's a freshman girl whose drinking style ain't bad! She looks more promising than we've seen in a long time~ Come on over here so we can talk a bit!"

A mixed group of upperclassmen was beckoning to Kouko. "Com-ing! ...urp...", she covered her mouth with a handkerchief even as she obediently got up and walked over to them.

And then onto the open cushion,

"Hold on. You don't need to overdo it with the sake, you know? That pitcher of oolong, it's for you two to keep. If the seniors say anything, you ought to say it's an oolong highball. Those guys are going to be drunk before you know it. Then you can leave quietly without being noticed."

Linda had come over, her expression a little concerned. Speaking with her voice lowered, she sat down on the cushion.

She peered at Banri's face, checking to see if his cheeks were flushed red. When Banri didn't say anything more,

"Oh well. That's how it is."

Her style a little strange, she continued talking. Moistening her lips from the mug of beer, she laughed in profile.

"Look, new member. You haven't done anything, right? What with one thing after another having happened so quickly, for now, perhaps it was good you had an opportunity like this. Though for you guys it was inconvenient, I think that for the seniors, even getting together will become more difficult from now on."

"...Haa..."

"What do you mean by 'Haa'... what's wrong? Have you reached your limits? Do you need to lie down?"

Linda quietly gave him space, giving Banri room so he might be able to sleep, but Banri, still seated, didn't move at all.

Even with regards to Linda, he had no idea at all.

Right now, she seemed a really wholesome, even caring woman; a gentle senpai who truly took care of people.

But in reality, this face he didn't know was incredibly clever, cruel to an extent he could hardly believe.

Not noticing that such were Banri's thoughts, Linda tilted her head a little and touched her chin, as if she were busy thinking. Swinging her hair and raising her eyebrows, she brought her face near to Banri's eyes, as if to look into them. Then,

"And on top of that, that raw tension, was that only a hangover? Whew... I mean, what I just saw, why all the gloom... hmm hmm hmm...?"

She pointed towards Kouko with both her fingertips and with her gaze.

Kouko was seated like a doll on her cushion, surrounded by older students. Though she was a little pale (perhaps due to the beer), she blushed a little, for the time being with a smile on her face.

"...I seem to be correct. You've had a fight with her, right?"

The way Linda said "her" wasn't the simple third-person feminine way of speaking, but was rather the "my girl" way of speaking.

Banri didn't say anything more, so Linda, her lips in a playful pout, said to his ear "Whatever you say, you can count on senpai", lowering her voice to a whispering sigh. Entirely as if she wanted to talk about their shared secret.

Banri, setting his beer mug on the table, acting as much as possible as if he were hearing a joke,

"...Linda-senpai, did you think Kaga-san and I were going out?"

He tried to say it. He intended to.

Setting this and that aside, for the time being, he didn't want to deal with the big misunderstanding looming before him right now. That's how he felt.

"Was I thinking that!? Eh, wasn't it so? But didn't you guys have a really good relationship? Though I thought, since from the beginning you came as a couple to the club?"

He forced a smile. Shaking his head firmly from side to side,

"You were wrong."

He said it clearly. So as to not be misunderstood, simply, distinctly. "Are you kidding!?", Linda said, her eyes growing wide. She looked at Kouko from a little apart, and once more returned her gaze to Banri.

"Is that how it is!? Eh, then... what's that? To put it simply, you were 'more than friends, less than lovers'? Huh. Now I see... well, is that so? That's how it is. Still getting to know each other, month by month. ...Ah ah ah, from now on, after this... ou ou ou, that's how it is. Sorry, I've gotten ahead of myself."

And then, both hands covering her mouth, her shoulders shaking, she was laughing merrily from the bottom of her heart.

"What's with you already?", he said, "'It's good, it's good from now on!?' What's that about? You really seem to be having a fun time here, aren't you?"

Realizing that he could not simply look calmly upon that merry face, and wondering why, Banri knocked down all the beer that remained in his mug. Lined up with him, shoulder to shoulder, Linda threw back her head too, lifting the mug that was in her hand. Like old men, they let out huge sighs. And then,

"This is really hot! Well then, as your senpai, I'll be quietly watching over your promising future! Well, love stories are fu-n. Tell me, tell me more!"

"Tell you... what do you mean?"

"Lo-ve st-o-ri-es! All girls are crazy about love stories, and I, for one, am a girl! Lo-ok look look, Tada Banri, will you tell me e-verything, first thing?"

Look! Look! No! No! While listening to that merry voice with one ear, Banri poured sake with ice from the pitcher into his mug. It didn't matter whether it was sour or soda, either was fine. At any rate, he wanted to shove anything into his body but Linda's voice. And cram it into his brain too. Almost against his will, he forced it down his throat.

"...Especially for senpai, please let me know. How's that sound to you?

Because he thought that Linda would probably be silent, trying to bring up a subject like that. But Linda, making as if to punch Banri softly on the shoulder,

"Whatever, it doesn't matter! I was just thinking it was quite something these days!"

Her expression was still playful around the edges.

"You don't have a boyfriend?"

"No..., I wish..."

"That reminds me: earlier, Kaga-san said it looked like there was something between Linda-senpai and Hosshii-senpai."

"Whoa! ...I mean, wow, she said something like that... no, in reality that can be forgiven... no no, impossible."

"I mean, you've really got it, she said."

"Huh!? Me!? Got it!? She said that!? ...Seriously, I'm gonna give that girl an allowance later. And a big kiss too."

Linda laughed, or in other words, he had succeeded. Drinking some sake, she looked at Banri. Her curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to hear what they'd said.

Rather than answering back "Aren't you awfully curious?", Banri said:

"Didn't you have a boyfriend back in high school?"

Not having an answer, he emptied his next mug in one gulp. While he refilled it from the pitcher,

"---Even hearing that, after all you did answer 'there wasn't'? There was nobody, right? Yes yes, I understand, senpai. There was nobody. Sure. Nobody, nobody. Nobody at all. It was something that never happened. It's like that. He never existed."

He didn't look at Linda's face as he argued. There was no answer.

At that moment, his field of vision shook strongly, what was close at hand becoming dangerous. Sake overflowing hugely from the top of his mug, he returned some to the pitcher and laughed. I'm useless. Completely drunk. Laughing, he drank some more.

"...Hey, hold on. You're too quick with the pitcher, stop that."

Linda had grabbed and stopped his hand.

Banri's face went white.

Just where he found the strength to shake her off, even he didn't know. From then on, whether he tried to say anything to Linda or not, he didn't know. Really, he didn't know.

"Hey, can't you stop already?"

Dazzled, he couldn't see anything at all.

"Hey, how? How can you do such a thing?"

He couldn't even see Linda's face.

"Isn't such a thing... horrible? Didn't you think of me--- of 'the Tada Banri of that time' as pathetic? Didn't you think it mattered?"

Next to him, the sound of her catching her breath was all that could be heard.

All that came to his mind was his own face. The Tada Banri captured in the picture, with it's thoughtless smile.

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 243.jpg|thumb]]
That happy-looking guy cheek to cheek with Linda didn't know what the future had in store for him. If he stayed with Linda, it would all be fun. He had laughed making faces like that.

Though he would have told him if he could. From his heart he felt so. He didn't trust that person next to him. He'd had an accident, and was gravely injured, and once he woke up that person gave him this face like 'I never knew you!' Apart from that, saying 'Tell me love stories about you and other girls!' and such, that's the kind of person she was. He wanted to tell her that.

But, what he noticed at the same time, what he was doing to Linda was exactly that, in a manner of speaking.

"...Ah..."

It was only the difference between accident and intention. The end result was the same.

He had just told Linda that he didn't know anything about her.

And not just to Linda. He'd been doing it to everyone he had met up to that time, to his parents, to everybody. Giving this face of 'I don't now anything about you!' He was doing it even now.

"...Aah..."

His face felt cold.

He was bathed in an awful sweat. Down his wet back, his sweat walked unpleasantly. His breathing was painful. He felt dizzy.

"...We may be the same in that way..."

Groaning, he laid his head on the table.

It's hard. It hurts. I cannot breathe. It was difficult and painful, and he couldn't do anything about it.

Forgive me for saying things selfishly.

I am the lowest of the low.

Linda.

Everybody.

Forgive me for having become like this.

I am truly sorry...

"Ba,"

Echoing in his ears, as if it were a scream, that little syllable was like a shriek.

"...Banri...!"

Slowly, gradually, Banri lifted his face; lifted it up like a puppet. Unnoticed by those around, Banri and Linda's exchange heard by nobody, everybody continued talking merrily as they had been not long ago. Face flushed, he laughed like an idiot.

Linda was looking at Banri.

Flushed red all the way to the temples, as if she were angry, as if she were shocked, as if she were crying, as if she were glaring at him, as if relying on him, she stared straight at Banri with an incredible expression.

Her face was swaying, her beautiful silhouette shaking.

But not as much as you might expect. He had been destroyed. He had been broken with a single blow. Practically out of spite, he had casually destroyed the whole fragile world that Linda, for some reason, had been trying to make.

Apart from this, he wondered if there was meaning here. Nothing, he realized. He wanted to go somewhere. Somewhere else. But, that place, where would it be?

Suddenly Banri stood up and stepped over the cushions. "Where're you going? Will you be okay by yourself; you're wobbling", some senpai's voice asked him. He answered automatically that he was going to the bathroom, not feeling well.

Fitting words to action, he strode from the wood-floored room and headed towards the men's bathroom. Sitting on the toilet seat, he locked the door.

His face, covered by both hands, was much much colder than before.

Entirely as if he had died.

He couldn't think about living. Feeling clammy and uncomfortable from a smear of sweat, he had become like a melting ice sculpture.

The bathroom's tiled floor was doing the giant slalom. The designs on the partition walls were spinning. Brushing up his sticky hair, Banri simply opened his eyes wide.

He wondered what would become of him now. He wondered what he should do. He wondered what he wanted to do. Still not understanding anything, as it was, he felt he was quite a mess.

Bam! That moment, from the other side of the door a loud noise rang, making him flinch. Somebody was banging on the door. With all his might, he clasped his hands together.

He heard a voice on the verge of crying asking his forgiveness.

"...Who is it...?"

I was scared! Shouting like that, her voice broke, pausing.

"...I don't understand... Who is it...?"

You were like a bomb, completely. If I were to touch you the wrong way, then I would maybe lose you again. And perhaps you would disappear again. Thinking like that, I didn't know what I should do. I still don't know. I'm still scared, scared, I cannot help but be scared. It may have been my fault, and if it were my fault what should I do, if again... thinking like that, I was afraid, and helpless.

"...I, forgot... altogether..."

That day, I ''did'' go to give you an answer.

"...Everything became nothing..."

Though I was delayed, I wanted to answer you. I wanted you to hear my answer. Banri. But I didn't get there in time.

Hey, was I to blame?

Was it my fault?

Because I didn't get there on time, then, what of it? Was I like that... to you? Show me Banri, answer me. Was it my fault?

But you didn't tell me that if I showed up late, I would lose you and you would disappear completely!

"If it ended there, like that, wasn't it nothing!?"

<center>* * *</center>

The wind blowing through him, Banri was at a loss.

He had promised to be waiting right at the middle of the long, long wooden bridge. But, so early in the morning, any other place would have been better. Though it was a bit late to be thinking about that now.

Both his hands stuffed into his pockets, at first he watched steadily off in the direction from which Linda ought to be coming. But though he waited and waited, her form not appearing, the emptiness in his chest becoming gradually worse, Banri turned his gaze towards the surface of the water.

Though he gazed all the way down to the other end of the bridge, it was a truly empty time, waiting for her to show up.

It was long past the promised time.

He wondered if her not coming was her answer.

Hearing music he pulled his cell-phone from his pocket and checked it once more to see if there weren't any texts or other confirmations. Anyway, since nobody else was around, he realized that sound leaking from his headphones didn't matter. Raising the volume, he looked out over the familiar scenery.

The majestic, even wild Mt. Fuji.

In the distance, snow remained yet on the many, hazy mountain peaks. After that, city. Hazy with profusely blooming cherry trees, a wide flood plain. Thread after thread flowing in parallel, the river below his eyes a little cloudy, blue tinged with gray. Sturdy old concrete bridges. Paper mills. Thick smoke-stacks. More and more like that on the other side, the river's current continued flowing.

He was chilled to the soles of his feet, but for quite a while he couldn't bring himself to leave.

As it was, wasn't it going to get awkward, waiting here for an eternity? Vainly waiting for the figure of the person who wasn't coming, stood up like a fool, who in spite of having obtained the position of cheerful rounin student without even having studied. He wondered if he was going to suddenly turn into an idiot.

"...Waiting like this, I can't say it's good..."

"Jeez, you idiot", he muttered to himself.

His wish might come true, eventually, if he kept on waiting, but for his heart to have granted such an extension would be a mistake. 'No' in this way was clearly a slap-down, it would have been better to have a clean break. At the very least, he wouldn't have to keep on standing right in the middle of the bridge, by himself, alone.

As it was, he had become like the bronze statue on the headlands overlooking the tea plantations covering the slopes. It was there. A splendid bronze statue of one of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_Ieyasu_Tokugawa_in_Hamamatsu_Castle.jpg great local men]. Looking down upon the river from a cheerful spot, nice people looking at him kindly, silently standing there still. Quite like my present self.

Casting his eyes downward, he took a breath, and started walking.

It was in that moment.

"...?"

It was perhaps from the earphones blocking his hearing, but that was one strange echo he heard.

The cord pulled back, his eyes to the bridge, it came flying at him: a white light...

<center>* * *</center>

The voice had stopped.

Still barricaded in the bathroom stall, Banri raised his head.

The person outside the door was no longer there. Impatient with the Banri who just would not get up, she had left.

Banri took the hard handle and opened the door. There was no longer anybody there in the narrow space he saw. It was too late. The person trying to open her heart to him wasn't there.

Stepping carefully on wobbly feet, he walked out. As if he were holding onto the pillar, he peeked into the party room. The scene there was unchanged from before, nothing different.

Drunken students, second-hand jokes of uncertain meaning, laughter loud enough to leave you deaf. Somebody was clapping, the sound echoing loudly.

And then, Linda was there amongst the people. Looking a little tired, she leaned against the screen, mug in one hand, joining in the conversation. Laughing, she brushed up her hair, sitting at ease.

That she wasn't going to return to him at all, she knew from the start. Now he knew. Entirely, now.

Banri staggered over to the shoe racks. A voice called out, "Tada-kun?", but he pretended not to hear as he pulled out his shoes. The grey New Balance shoes. Sticking them on his feet, he left the place as if nothing could prevent him.

He was bitter, in pain, unable to breathe, and on top of all that his head and stomach hurt. He might even throw up shortly.

Still, as he walked, the cool night breeze on his face felt good. He didn't want to think about hard things, and proceeded straight down the main street. Like a machine, his feet continued to move, dispassionately.

He was unbearably sad.

If he were to be asked why, specifically, his current self would not be able to answer entirely.

His living self was sad because he had been cut off from his past.

He'd tried carefully not to look so far, but being made to confront "what was missing" as if he hadn't noticed was sad.

Banri's past must have been pitiful.

Suddenly he lost his life, his family, his friends, the girl he liked, everything; his very existence was erased. His current self was rewriting the life that had existed under the name of Tada Banri, making it as if it had never been.

Forgive me! Forgive me! Tada Banri. He had a feeling it wouldn't matter how many times he repeated it. Forgive me! What's more, the new world that was prepared, that Linda was trying to maintain somehow, keeping up appearances, hiding her tears and protecting it for him, I, with this hand, have already shattered it. I am truly sorry.

Sorry.

Already, there may be nothing he could do.

There was no technique for living without sadness. It would last forever. As long as he lived.

"..."

Suddenly he was wiping away tears with the back of his hand, dripping shamefully from his nose.

This sadness was always here. He had known it. Yet, he did not want to look straight at it, only avoid it. Simply to live and pretend to have forgotten.

Even in the past, it had been right there following him. And then "what was missing" --- that guy, always with precise timing, would tap him on the shoulder from behind. ''Tap tap.'' Hey, Tada Banri.

'Did you forget I wasn’t there?'

So he would say.

Turning around, Banri would look.

At the nobody there.

At the nothing there.

At only "what was missing".

That guy has no body. In truth, he doesn't have words either. Still, he's there, a menace to his current self's existence. He wondered what would satisfy him, when he was pushed to the edge of a cliff. He wondered if he would forgive him for not falling head over heels.

Clinging behind him any way it could, not leaving him, that guy's other name could be said to be 'his past'. With all due respect.

Right, left, right, left. Anyway, Banri kept moving his feet, not resting. Looking back at the emptiness behind him terrifying, he could not stop.

Please, leave me alone just this once. Banri pleaded as he walked. I know you're right behind me. I haven't forgotten. But, for just now, he wanted to keep walking. If he could, he wanted to set aside his sadness.

Since I really do understand, why don't you leave me alone--=

"...Whoa!?"

''Poof!''

In reality grabbed by the shoulder from behind, Banri's whole body shook as if he'd leapt into the air. He was scared. He'd been shocked. Really, really,

"So, sorry! You surprised me, and I didn't think..."

He really was surprised. He thought he'd died.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Standing behind Banri was Kouko, out of breath.

Her hair was mussed up, as if she were having a hard time, and in her hand were her own and Banri's bags. As she passed Banri's over to him she spoke.

"All of a sudden, your bag, you'd gone and left it... I was surprised, 'eh, eh'... anyway I've got it, I brought it for you... haa, enough already... oh that hurts!"

Combing her bangs across her face as if they bothered her, Kouko continued. Taking another breath, her eyes sparkled, probably from the headlights of some car going down the main street.

"Hey, really... what the heck, what've you done? Did something happen between you and Linda-senpai?"

He seized his strangely leaping heart tightly from over his clothing.

"That answer..."

Suddenly, he breathed in, filling his body.

From his left heel, to his right toe, the oxygen was being squeezed out by the pressure in his stomach.

"...The answer was yeeeeeeeeeeesss!"

All at once he exploded. Shouting, he dashed off with all his might.

"Eh!? Eh, eh eh!? Tada-kun!?"

The answer 'yes'. It was from his past with Linda.

"What!? Your bag!? Hold on!"

"Noooooooooooooooooo!"

The answer ‘no'. I will not wait. I want to get out of here. I was to go somewhere else. And now, I want to shake off that guy clinging behind me, I want to leave him behind and I want to leave anybody else following behind, escaping by sheer speed.

Swinging both arms at the shoulders, both feet recklessly refusing the ground.

Taking a strong grip on the asphalt, each of his feet in turn sent the weight of his body flying vigorously forward.

He felt that the speed he gained from the next kick was like an explosion.

"Tada-kun! Wait!"

They were light. His feet--- no, his shoes were light.

Was this speed given him by Linda?

Could this body move like this? It was the first time he'd been this fast. In the shoulders, arms, back, chest, hips, thighs, knees, ankles and toes. Where had such flexibility, such power been hidden? Banri ran through the night streets like a wild animal. Wanting to leave everything behind, he ran, his whole body desperate.

From behind, this instant's frame, one frame, all of the current Banri is stretching out. He wanted to tear apart all the competition. With all his speed, he wanted to win the race by a wide margin.

"Why are you running away!? Is it something I did!? Am I that awful!?"

Awfully fast, from behind, Kouko voice like a shout reached him.

"Noooooooooooooooooo!"

"Please! Wait!"

It's no, no no! The answer is 'no', these feet didn't want to stop. They didn't want to stop until he had gotten away. Banri wanted to leave this instant, this very 'now', behind. For that reason, he was running through this night.

At the fork in the road, choosing on a hunch, he went left. Another fork. This time, to the right. At the next, right again. Next, at a three-way junction, he headed down a familiar route. He had no idea where this street he had just chosen went on to, and it seemed he already didn't know which streets he'd chosen to get to this point.

It was as if since he'd plainly been granted a life up to now, his days would continue coming.

On the whole, 'yes' and 'no' were successive decisions. As if 'yes' and 'no' were the mesh of an infinite net he was entering, he did not know the correct path. He did not know the paths he had taken in his past. But if he could come to know them, then if he could come to undo all of his mistakes up to now...

Thinking on it, he surprised himself.

'Maybe I can return', he thought.

If he could return once more down the same street, if the right way home, the one and only route could be found, then for sure, ...Linda would be there. Linda was always there, waiting for Banri's return.

"...But! Noo! What the...!"

He could not. Because Banri's memories were lost. Already, he could not follow the way back. He did not know the right way home. No matter how many times he looked back, he could not find there the figure of his own past.

Therefore, all he could do was move forward. It was a much better choice than to stand there, frozen in place, stuck in sadness over what he was missing, still not knowing the way back and crying about it.

Run away, escape, run like crazy.

Shaking lose, he ran so fast nobody could catch him. Banri, now, chose his way and flew down it. And then again, he made his next choice. Living, to the very end, is a sequence of choices.

Yes? No?

The street before his eyes continued on to an overpass. Under the crossing, there was a huge flow of vehicles. The swarm of headlights shone like madness. Running as he was, his sadness, even his speed was great enough to turn it all to nothing. No, never--- he tried to laugh by himself at his own thoughts, but his feet kept moving.

It would be easy. For sure.

Must he take another painful, agonizing breath? Must he say sorry over and over again? Is there any other way than to be sorrowful? If he wanted that to stop, he needed only to keep running, as he was. Throw himself into it completely. Headlong.

Look, right there, in front of you.

The pure white, intense light is a mouth gaping wide to receive you at any time in the future.

Choose.

By yourself.

"...The"

Yes? No?

"...The answer..."

In that moment, he stumbled. His head was jerked back when it didn't keep up with the rest of his body.

Something slammed into him from behind with great force, knocking him off to the front and side. Banri shouted as he tumbled hugely, doing a somersault.

Running his back into the overpass barrier after one turn around, he groaned and started to pass out. A white hand extended, limply, to grasp his ankle. It was already a horror, completely so.

"I, caught, you...!"

A shriek came from his throat. Shoved from behind--- in short, hit, probably by that fallen bicycle. And then, the one who rode it,

"I mean... I haven't knocked you over...!"

Kaga Kouko.

It could only be her. Only she could be doing such absurd things in this world.

Charging Banri from behind with the bicycle, she must've crashed altogether. Her whole body was in an awful state. Her proud hair shoved all over her face, she was even bleeding from her cheeks. Holding on to Banri's ankle hard, there was even blood beneath her fingernails.

"Wh, why...!?"

He must've shouted that. Anybody would ask, if they’d had such a thing done to them.

"Why!? Why were you chasing me so stubbornly!?"

"Because you were running away!"

Speaking sharply, as if stabbing him, Kouko, already grabbing Banri's ankle with one hand, now grabbing his knee as if clawing her way up, then grabbing onto his thighs, and then, oof, she was clinging to the still fallen Banri's body.

"What the heck... what are you trying to do!?"

Then, Banri fallen to the ground, Kouko on top of him, she cried.

Her shoulders shaking, with awful strength she wrapped both her arms around Banri's body.

"Where did you try to go!? Don't do that ever again, don't go anywhere, don't go running away! Don't go somewhere my hand, my voice cannot reach! Don't go anywhere, stay where I am all the time! I mean, prepare yourself, because I'm not letting go!"

Her mouth still pushed up against his chest, she spoke in a distinctly teary voice, as if she had shouted herself hoarse. That warm breath burnt Banri's heart to ashes.

"...That... what? What do you mean...?"

"Weren't you chasing after me!? Well, this time it was me chasing you! ...I mean, look! I'm doing the catching! Tada-kun is already caught! From now on I am not letting you go!"

"But... you don't love me..."

Turning serious, Kouko lifted her face and looked into Banri's eyes.

In those damp eyes, everything was reflected, glittering brightly. They twinkled and shook so strongly he thought, "Is there anything in the world not reflected there?" Banri's eyes were that dazzled looking back.

Quietly, Kouko breathed in. Her lips trembling, he realized she was searching for words.

"Speaking like that, I cannot just say 'yes'. Really, ...I wanted to answer. But in that moment... no, a little before then. Hey, please, listen. I wanted to talk with Tada-kun. That Mitsuo confessing to Supersonic didn't hurt me. What hurt me, was me."

Tears were still falling from her two eyes.

"Everything came easily to Supersonic's hand. That's what it looked like to me. A fun life, new friends, and then Mitsuo too came easily to her hand, ...even you, you saw Supersonic. Even you, perhaps, would have come easily to her hand. I thought, I, I... what was the difference between me and that girl? How different am I from her, who was discarding the gift that would not come to my hand, but came easily to hers? How much more worthy am I? ...If I was thinking like that, hurting, I couldn't be but miserable."

"'I saw'... Oka-chan? 'Came to her hand?' Me to Oka-chan's? Eh, but,"

"If you saw! I didn't see! ...Being seen! ...You saw her, she was seen by me too. ...It was awful. Incredibly. It was incredibly awful. It was scary. ...But me thinking such things... was the worst."

She wiped once around her eyes with the back of her hand, her lips quivered a few times and then,

"Admitting to myself that I was being attracted more and more by you, was for me very hard."

Kouko spoke as if she were in pain.

"I don't like a woman who can be completely OK with smashing many years of unrequited love and staying with that particular person. I don't think it's right. It is not something I can trust. Is that really love? It isn't just choosing somebody nice because I've been hurt? Am I not just wishing for a scapegoat, one taking away the feelings I could not communicate? Told, '...You're wrong, absolutely wrong, I've said it many times,' I am at a disadvantage. Saying, 'Really?' I've come to distrust myself, even."

Constantly wiping off on to Banri's shirt, Kouko's tears were darkening it.

"In my vision of the future, you see, saying 'no' was the right thing to do. You told me you liked me. My answer, no. 'We cannot go out together.' And then, you gave me a second chance. Even so, no. 'We cannot go out together.' That way, becoming perfectly alone, being forced to grow up, becoming trustworthy, no longer needing to doubt myself, everything from that point... that would be right. If I could do it according to my 'scenario'."

Somehow putting some strength into her trembling lips, Kouko smiled.

Another tear fell when she smiled, but those eyes didn’t lose their sparkle.

Despite clinging to somebody like Banri, falling to the dirty ground and crying, Kouko seemed to be happy.

"...For that reason, I wanted to wait. My heart always wanted to shout 'yes'. I thought that if I shouted, the world would change. To the point of forgiving myself my own behavior, even as I came to like you I drifted along, thinking it 'bad' or 'incorrect', living unworthily but not thinking about it. Until the time came, I wanted to keep waiting. But... I could not follow my 'scenario'. You said, 'I will not wait.' You said, 'I'm not chasing you anymore.' In that moment I thought, 'Well, as things are now, we are separated.' To which I said, '...Forget the 'scenario'!' Whether it was bad, or whatever, even being wrong is fine! Not being correct is fine! For me, there is something I cannot lose! My heart shouted that. Therefore, as for me, towards you,"

Even more, both of Kouko's arms tightened.

"...As for me, I like Tada-kun."

What would happen tomorrow he did not know. There was no point in dwelling on yesterday. There was only now. It wouldn't do to be cautious now, absolutely not. Kouko said it like that, as if she were telling all, in one long, long breath.

"...Really... Kaga-san..."

Ah, surrender--- lifting both hands high in relief, Banri too, then and there, put his arms around Kouko.

After something like that, what in the world could he say?

Able to do so, they simply embraced, gave to each other their body warmth, and simply confirmed their feelings were the same, the one to the other.

"...Would it be OK if you didn't dump me? It would be a favor!"

Saying something like that in a nasal voice, he pushed his nose firmly against Kouko's disheveled face. His lips too. Kouko was crying again after all. He bent down to her forehead, and then,

"...What...?"

"...Eh...?"

Suddenly, Kouko's arms let go.

Surprisingly quickly, faster than he could have said, "Don't let go!" Kouko separated herself from Banri.

"Oh, oh, oh," Kouko herself looked back strangely, behind her the shadow of a person. Beyond that, several more. He gasped, startled. Before his eyes, the still sniffling Kouko was drawn back and made to stand,

"This person stole my bicycle!"

She was forced to sit before the boy who was pointing at her.

Before she knew it, in the area of the overpass patrol cars had stopped, their red lights illuminating the scene of the crime. Made to stand, uniformed police surrounded her like a wall.

"Ho, hold on! What are you saying! Didn't I say I was bo, borrowing it... I was just about to bring it back..."

With strict faces, they communicated something back their fellow officers via their radio. The boy, once more pointing at Kouko with both hands,

"Absolutely, it's no mistake! Right after I got off my bike in front of the convenience store, it was stolen by this person!"

Finally grasping the situation, Banri stood up too, "No, no no no!" He tried to apologize for the confused situation and to get closer to Kouko's side, but the solid backs of all the uniformed men stopped him completely. He could only hear Kouko's desperate voice.

"Wrong, he's wrong! No matter what, there was an emergency... wait a minute! Just wait! Please let me explain! If I explain, you'll surely understand, there was a perfectly good reason, ah, hold on, kyaa!"

Before Banri's eyes, Kouko spun around and thump, she was shut up in the patrol car. Wow... witnessing an arrest at first hand... what's more, of his freshly minted girlfriend... though he didn't say things like that,

"Ka, Kaga-saan! Seriously, please wait, please listen to the story! Kaga-saan!"

"Tada-kun! Call me at home! Call our house phone!"

"But you haven't told me your home number! Excuse me, really, please wait a bit!"

While waving her finger from left to right, one lone police-woman stood in front of Banri, blocking his way. And then one simple phrase:

"[[Golden Time:Volume2_Translator%27s_Notes#Matanai|You will not wait]]!"

:The End

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 2: The Answer is YES|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Postscript|Postscript]]
|-
|}

Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter3

2013-10-11T05:27:46Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 3===
[[Image:Golden Time vol02 158.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was trying on blue-jeans.

And now, this old second-hand shop's cramped changing room had an overpowering smell.

There was the characteristic, detergent-like fabric-softener-like artificial floral scent. But on top of that, the fully half-tatami-sized carpeted floor reeked of the soles of unwashed male feet. As if in answer to that problem, set in the corner of the changing room was a car deodorant strong enough to kill a person, smelling of Hawaiian coconuts.

Coming from the other side of the ventilation fan there was a smell as of lunch and tobacco mixed together, and beneath it a rather unusual presence was drawing near, making itself known. Was it water in the basement? Or was it sewage? A bathroom-like smell was hidden there.

Forming a perfect blend in the confined airspace, the stagnated smells violently invaded Banri's nerves and mine by way of the mucous membranes of our noses. Feeling like the time we had that awful car sickness, our heads hurting and getting dizzy, our stomachs squeezed out from top to bottom like cleaning rags. We could've thrown up, really.

Though it was bad for a customer staying only a short time, didn't the employees think about it at all? Were their noses broken and numbed already? No, they must've thought it stank, else why the Hawaiian coconuts? But this thing's sickly-sweet, strong smell was on the edge of being dangerous, and in fact was the worst offender.

Enduring all this in bad humor, anyhow I quietly stood in the corner of the changing room, watching Banri changing, not all that impressed.

Staying like this, motionless, in the upper corner by the ceiling, I felt as if I were being sucked, as if hypnotized, into that notably gloomy, dark-looking shadow. And then clinging to it, as if I'd become stuck there.

To say that I think of myself as a ghost, in short this place, is haunted...

"...Zzu! ...Uoe...!"

Pulling on the cheap, 1600 yen blue-jeans, Banri looked down for a moment at the troublesome front buttons. He started to get nauseous from the overwhelming smell, which turned into a fit of coughing, and swallowing back something acid. It seemed somehow too much.

From the other side of the closed curtains, "How do they feel?", the store clerk was asking pointedly. In a panic, Banri fastened all the buttons, opened the curtain, and slipped on the shoes he'd left outside the changing room. He still wasn't wearing the New Balance shoes that Linda had given him. Today it was the same old Jack Purcells again.

Banri and I turned and left the narrow space together, taking the deepest breaths they could. I could not, since I am a spirit that people cannot see, but the store clerk was able to tend to the material Banri. Trying to be as quiet as possible, he was breathing desperately through his mouth.

The store clerk fawned over him, making little flattering noises as she squatted and fiddled around with the pant's cuffs appreciatively. Looking at Banri in a flattering way, her hostess-like done-up hair swaying, saying things like "Heeyy? Isn't that just right!? Look, the style looks good on you!", using no more volume than necessary for her compliments to be heard.

And yet, if I say so myself, the image of Banri in the mirror was certainly more than ever recklessly stylish. Even his legs looked longer and slimmer.

"Hey, you're right!" said Banri, slightly blue in the face, laughing foolishly as he turned around, confirming that his rear end was settling in nicely. It looked better than any other blue-jeans he had right now, so he muttered, "Why not go for this one?"

Banri, for the sake of the first-year's drinking party hosted by Oka Chinami tomorrow night, was out picking up some new duds.

Embarrassed to the breaking point, he didn't notice that the changing room mirror was one of those trick ones, reflecting only a narrow image.

The store clerk, making sure to not stand in front of the mirror (because the difference from reality would be revealed to the customer), immediately began trying to adjust the height of the bottom hem, rolling it up and down. When she told him that there was no need to bring up the hem, Banri said, "Well then, I'll go with this. I'll go take them off.", and once more closed the changing room curtain.

It seemed that he was completely decided to buy it. Well, the reflection in the mirror was good, and they were simple straight pants. Besides, what surprises would there be for 1600 yen? There wasn't too much funny stitching or extra stuff.

But that was often the case. He had spotted some blue-jeans that felt right in one of the used clothing shop's carts, but when he took them out and spread them, the upper legs had cheesy chinese-style tiger striped embroidery. The side seams were completely covered, from top to bottom, with some strange Tyrolean tape.

It was only through the magic mirror that he looked so stylish, but everything considered, you could call this a success. It's OK, Banri, go ahead and buy it. Through the mirror, I flashed Banri an OK sign.

Banri, looking pleased with himself, unfastened the buttons and was about to take off the pants, but suddenly he stopped moving. His underwear showing in the half-dressed style--- if somebody were to see him they wouldn't be pleased: the frozen figure of a young man bent over. It seemed he was looking at a seam between the legs, inside the taken-off blue-jeans.

Peeking from behind, wondering what he was worried about, at that moment, a shiver ran up my spine. This, for sure...

Right there, in the middle, around the stitching. Right between the legs, in the butt-crack, right in that area. Strangely the whole area, black perhaps, or maybe brown, a stain of a questionable color had not been fully removed.

At that spot only, for some reason or other... I don't want to say, for some reason... That, of course, to put it simply, what would you call it?

"What's this here?", he asked the store clerk from earlier. I myself thought, "He ought to point out how bad the damage is." If he could talk them into keeping it at the store and, without fail, removing the stain for him, that would be lucky for him. If that didn't work, then of course he could just stop, but that's OK, I think. It didn't need to be hemmed, and the style looked good even if it was a trick mirror.

However Banri was still looking motionlessly at the seam, thinking about something in a half-dressed style, in lack of movement thinking it through. "What's wrong? If you're worried speak up, otherwise stop it!", I nagged him from behind like that, but Banri didn't notice. He didn't move. He must've been confused as to whether to buy it as it was, or what. "If you're confused, stop it! Get it over with!", I kept beating him over the back.

Of course, Banri didn't notice it at all. Hmm... he frowned, his head tilted as he thought it through. He was completely silenced by the trap of the changing room mirror. "Stop it already!" It was at that moment that he was pushed rather hard on the back.

"Ah, ah, ah...!"

...By reflex, even if I was only a ghost behind him, I covered my eyes against the disaster.

It was a coincidence. Absolutely. I wasn't responsible for the push. Really.

Banri, unsteady on his feet, his balance destroyed, hopping on one foot, his rear exposed, jumped out from the changing room curtain into the bright store--- and said it. Said it completely. Whoa. Wh, ooaaaa...

...But, he was saved by there not being any other customers around. Still on one foot, he ran rather forcefully into the store clerk from before, standing nearby. As it was, supported by her as if in her embrace, at least he didn't fall down.

Excuse me... sorry... moaning feverishly, Banri, his rear exposed, ashamed, ran in his socks back into the changing room.

As a human being, so far, getting embarrassed, blushing and so forth, were things he seemed to encounter every step of the way. Banri, his face strangely darkened, took off the jeans in the blink of an eye. He took them off as fast as if they were on fire. Too quick to see, he gathered his stuff and went to the register. And then,

"This please! Do, ...does it show...!?"

With a terrible expression, he timidly asked the store clerk. He could see several security cameras watching over the store, protecting it from shoplifters. The clerk accepted his money as if nothing had happened, and gave him a receipt. While she folded the jeans with practiced hands, with a very small voice she said, "Eh? Black." Looking at him kindly, she smiled a bit and said, "I didn't see anything. Here you go." He had thought her a flattering salesperson, but then not understanding well what she said, his heart now thought of her as an angel. I'm sorry, store. Please excuse me, seriously. But the smell and everything else spoke thoroughly bad of you.

Taking the bag Banri bowed, and ran at full speed up the stairs to the store's open door. Going out to the street like that, he dashed even harder. He was fleeing. I saw that the strange things that had just happened had already disappeared from his brain.

At that moment his cell-phone rang, and he flipped it open as he ran.

"Hello, hellooo?", a woman's voice, sounding slightly nasal due to the telephone.

'You already done with your errands? As for me, right now I'm almost done at the hairdresser!'

From a different place in the same neighborhood, it was Kaga Kouko talking to him. After the third period lecture, Banri and Kouko met up at the same entrance as always, took the train and came here together. In order to tend to their various errands, they waved and separated at the crosswalk, the two of them to meet up again afterwards. Kouko to her favorite beauty parlor, Banri to the area around the second-hand shop that Mitsuo had shown him earlier.

"I'm done too! ...Some, some things happened... but anyway I'm done! You mean, you got your hair trimmed, perhaps?"

'No, just a treatment. Did you buy anything?'

"I bought some jeans! Well, I'm at the next intersection! See you shortly!"

Gasping as he said it, Banri stood waiting at the red light of a pedestrian crossing. Combing up his bangs, which had fallen to his eyes, he took a deep breath. Understood, I'll be right there too, she'd answered, breaking the connection.

Banri's cheeks were flushed red as if overflowing with blood, his temples, sweating lightly. In that corner of the twilit town, it looked like he was glittering.

With a little cough, Banri stuck his cell-phone in his back pocket, and put the bag from the second-hand shop back under his arm.

All he knew was that his heart was beating hard, to the point where you could see it through his shirt. It must've been the memory of his super huge embarrassment, plus a bit of running, and then the promise to go have tea with Kaga Kouko. And whatever else, without a doubt they'd head off to her beloved Starbucks again.

Within this past week, how many times with the same companion to the same Starbucks, had he drunk the same latte shot (sometimes fresh ground real drip coffee)? Talking about lectures during club time, talking about things to eat, talking about jokes they'd seen online, talking about magazines piled up in stores... It was like they'd been going around for weeks all over the place, in a repeating loop, having fun, like those girls that gather together to feel more secure. But at long last, the time to go out had come, and wasn't it about time to do something else? Hadn't it been a while since they last went to Veloce? Were things like that nothing?

Well, wherever they drank tea, whatever they talked about, such things, as far as Banri was concerned they didn't really matter. Meeting up as students, going to lecture together, drinking tea, gossiping, texting, walking side by side, going out for a while--- in such a loop, more and more, Banri was finding meaning. Repeating so many times it built up, the very thing itself was becoming important. That was how I saw it.

In his daydreams, from the very bottom of his heart, Banri innocently believed that someday, this 'loop of everyday bonding between friends' would eventually become something else. Without a doubt, genuinely.

For that reason, he innocently continued going around. Repeating it to that extent, Banri believed it reinforced the connection, and that his hope was taking shape and drawing nearer to him. He was convinced, with a child-like fastidiousness, that if he forced the emotions, it would all come to nothing.

As for me, I directed my attention to the cars passing to and fro.

Even Tokyo’s spring was already ending.

The air was warmly humid.

As if spreading over the city night, the store windows twinkled like stars. Even the cell-phones of the people passing by, the candles decorating the cafe entrances, the LEDs decorating the shrubbery, and even headlights stretched out like rivers. All the lights were too bright, dizzying to the eyes.

He couldn’t see the intersection where they were to meet from here. Of course, he couldn’t see Kaga Kouko nor anything like her either. Though they may be in the same town, to me it seems the two of them are very far apart. Would they really be able to meet up ‘shortly’?

Besides, Banri still hasn’t started moving forward.

The red light is shining.

We’re standing side by side, still impatiently shuffling our feet.

<center>* * *</center>

They said the reservation was from 5pm.

Banri thought they were starting rather early, but Oka-chan had insisted in her anime voice, "But we have all we can drink for three hours, five to eight, for only 1000 yen!" But the round of food added another 1000 yen. Since it was a chain tavern with a huge billboard hung near the college, and it was right along the main street, everybody should have known how to get there.

As four-thirty came and went, Banri watched the noisy students going back and forth expectantly. His hands stuffed into the back pockets of his new blue-jeans, the time slowly coming, looking around restlessly,

"Look here, Tada Banri!"

Slapped on the shoulder firmly from behind, he turned around.

"Oh!", he laughed, grabbing each other's elbows playfully. It was Mr. Two Dimensions. They were meeting up here after the end of classes. Banri and Mitsuo had invited him too, having arranged to go together from here to the drinking party.

Like Banri, Mr. Two Dimensions had not been to any drinking parties apart from those for club recruiting when they'd first started, and was going to enjoy himself today. If he were, even a little, one of those guys who believed the currently popular saying that goes like 'guys who can skillfully build multifaceted relationships in their lives gain the victory', then he could not let an opportunity like this slip away.

Immediately after Banri had reported breathlessly "I bought jeans specially for the drinking party!", he too sallied forth to the fashionable streets of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shimokitazawa Shimokitazawa]~ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daikanyamach%C5%8D,_Shibuya Daikanyama] area. Now dressed like a preppy, he wore a slim collared shirt, the spoils of his battle.

"Hey Mr. Two Dimensions, that's a nice shirt you're wearing!"

"Heh heh heh! And your jeans, they're what you bought. They look good."

"Though they looked better when I looked at them in the changing room. I mean, does it look in good shape? Tonight the drinks're gonna be dirt cheap; it might even be methyl alcohol. Will it give us hangovers?"

"I have everything perfectly arranged, of course, though it'd be good to use the hand sanitizer now. You can even use formalin. Ah, for the time being, shouldn't we stop by a convenience store before we get there? You might want to have a energy drink."

"It's OK, I'm coating my stomach lining with milk. I mean... eh? Though I only just noticed, is there something about you today that's cooler than usual?

"Oh, this? You've noticed?"

Mr. Two Dimensions, recently graduated from two to three dimensions, but still validating this three-dimensional world, stood out rather conspicuously, combing his silky hair with his fingers as if he were showing it off.

"Actually, it's been dyed a bit. Was it ash pink beige? Or was it golden brown? Or was it some sort of mixture? Anyway it was applied to me. For a three dimensional effect? So I was told, somehow or other."

"Really!? Eh, for today's drinking party!? You went that far!? Whoa, what? Are you really trying to make it in three dimensions!?"

"You got it wrong! This was by chance! Are you trying to mess with my head!? What do you mean by 'making it in three dimensions'!?"

"Eh, ah, sorry..."

"If you understand, then watch your mouth! In words, Lady Word-Power (Spirit Clan, Servant Class, Long Black Hair, Blue Eyes, Little Girl, Genius, Shelters from the rain under [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddoe Eddoe] leaves, Quiet except when Exercised – Super Bookworm) is a living being! Besides, I've received my bride from the best of the two dimensional world! It's a matter of believing!"

"Really, I'm sorry..."

"OK then! Don't worry about it, things like that really do happen. I, my sister had, an acquaintence now working as a hairdresser. I was told she would 'be practicing hair-coloring'. ...Honestly, how is it? Though it seemed she hardly knew what she was doing."

"Don't worry about it. I understand, I understand, coloring it like that looks cool. Hey, how about this coloring..."

"Have you ever done it?"

"No, no. I don't think so. We didn't do things like that in Shizuoka."

"You liar! You've even got [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gundam_statue Gundam] deployed down there. It has military strength comparable to what they have at [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Big_Sight Tokyo Big Sight] (in case of emergency, it transforms into a robot!)"

"Hmm, I heard the gundam was out there, but the big white fellow doesn't help out with the tea leaves."

"They used the general appearance from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_A_Gundam Turn A]. So I heard. Myself."

Mr. Two Dimensions, laughing in amusement, pulled out an iPhone from a stylish, diagonally hanging leather bag. His touch on it was quite practiced. The cover, though made to resemble [http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rei_Ayanami Ayanami's] plug suit, if one were to close their eyes, in it's long and slender style it became [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girls_Bravo#Miharu_Sena_Kanaka Kanaka-sama].

He called himself Mr. Two Dimensions, and boasted of having no interest in three dimensional things, but even he brought more or less good sense with him. His real name, Satou Takaya. Tall and slim, always wearing glasses, apart from the pink and purple, his clothing was stylish; even his hair was neatly combed back. Easy to get along with, he really was a good fellow.

"It's a message from Yana-ssan. He got summoned by the student affairs office and says to go on ahead. Let's do like he said. Move it!"

"Ah, wait a bit more. Actually, there's another person I'm waiting for here. Kaga-san's coming."

"Eh!? Kaga-san!? ...That one!?"

While fluttering both hands in the air, miming the volume of her hair, "Oof!", he smiled, his eyes open like saucers. Well, he understood what he meant to say.

"Yes. That Kaga-san."

"...But, here!? I mean... that, that 'lady', coming out to a common drinking party!?"

"She's coming, she's coming. It looks like she likes to drink sake. Didn't she drink with you and me that time, up in the mountains... when we all went out, to that seminar of the Crystal God."

"But we didn't drink even a drop that time! I mean, eh, aren't you getting along rather nice!? Thinking about it, didn't you tell me you'd gone together to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sendagaya Sendagaya] for dinner just like that!? What's more, you even joined a club together! Hey, what gives!? What's going on!? What is it!? Are you trying to explode!?"

"But we're still friends. As for our relationship, Kaga-san and I, it's like 'Sex'!"

And the city!

Catching the thought, Banri flashed a smile from ear to ear, put his hand on his hip in a girlish pose and called out. Mr. Two Dimensions gave him a rough [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine tsukkomi chop] to the side, telling him to cut it out.

"I mean, no way... but Kaga-san... look here. Before, all that about Yana-ssan, didn't we talk about it? How'd that turn out? Wasn't there something even Banri said before, that Kaga-san wanted to get married, kinda sneaking off, but Yana-ssan clearly rejected her, and dumped her, there was this and that gossip about it..."

"What kinds of gossip?"

From behind them, there arose the light, sweet smell of roses.

"Waah!", Mr. Two Dimensions jumped back, and Banri turned around awkwardly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Tada-kun. Long time, no see, Mr. Two Dimensions."

---Well then. The fact that Banri had been talking with Mr. Two Dimensions about Kouko and Mitsuo had been easily discovered.

He didn't know what Kouko was thinking inside, but for now with her ever-perfect smile,

"I don't care if it was about Mitsuo and I. We were simply childhood friends. And now not even outsiders; we don't know each other. That's all there is to it."

Still, such things were being said.

And then, smiling, she became the magnificent queen of roses.

In the overwhelming glare of Kouko's entrance, whether Mr. Two Dimensions was listening to what she said or not, he seemed to be at a loss for words, standing at attention, watching her in fascination. He wasn't the only one: the other students gathered there in the hall had suddenly fallen silent too, turning towards them in ones and twos, their gazes riveted, as it were, on the glittering Kouko.

Fuller than ever, her extravagantly curled, dark brown, long hair shone beautifully, the result of the treatment the other day. Her smooth satin Katyusha was a noble jet black.

Her pearly white skin perfectly made up, she wore a crimson lipstick, deeper even than blood.

By her sparkling eyes, light grey eye shadow gleamed, tinged with sorrow. In the shadow of her delicate collarbones, there was a tight diamond necklace in the form of a key, swaying and throwing flashes of light all over.

While casually covering for Mr. Two Dimensions, nervous from how gorgeous she was, Banri also,

"...Wh, why did you dress up so incredibly stylish today, Kaga-san?"

Aren't you so incredibly, awfully pretty! ---So much so, it took him straight to sighing. She wasn't a foreigner, though that was not something he could come out and say.

"Eh? It's just ordinary stuff, the usual."

Kouko said that, but she was wearing earrings, and a ring on her middle finger too, with large diamonds sparkling in the shape of a flower. Her black high-heels were plainly works of art. The backs of her calves drawing elegant curves, distinctly beautiful all the way to the line of her ankles. Her heels were close to four inches high. Unfortunately, she wasn't bare-legged. She was wearing the black tights again today. He wondered if the snake-bite wasn't fully healed.

Her ahead-of-the-season short-sleeve mini-dress had the chest open deeply, and a bold white to gray gradation. With a layered feminine design of shiny crumpled silk, it had a high waist, just under her chest, looking as if she were being squeezed by a large ribbon. The sudden contrast from chest to waist gave emphasis at just the right point.

Kouko was so perfect, it took his breath away.

It didn't fit for such as her to be hanging around in a college student hall like this. It was a waste. It would have suited her better to be in the gorgeous lounge of a high class hotel, with a cocktail. Without question.

"So it is with you, too: you didn't wear your new blue-jeans. And the shoes from Linda-senpai? I was wondering if you'd worn them yet."

"I thought about wearing them, but then considered the risk and changed my mind. That even though the blue-jeans were used, and their being dirty would be OK. Rather, Kaga-san, are you okay with drinking sake today?"

"What are you saying, isn't it a drinking party? Haven't we decided to go drinking!?"

"No, look, your legs. Since you're still wearing tights, it might be a good idea if you restrained yourself. Hey, Mr. Two Dimensions, this person was bitten by a snake in her own garden! Isn't that awful?"

"Come back to reality!", Banri elbowed Mr. Two Dimensions, his eyes were half closed in abstraction. "Huh?", Mr. Two Dimensions eyes opened,

"Eh...? Sn, snake? Really? Kaga-san, where do you live?"

"In Tokyo. Resident of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minato,_Tokyo Minato Ward]."

"A snake in Minato!? Wow! Come now, in the city center, apart from a lot of green, so to speak... was it a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Rat_Snake Green General]? Or perhaps a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhabdophis_tigrinus Tiger Keelback]? Thought it might be a recently escaped former pet, like something they import from foreign countries now and then."

Kouko, her eyes full of sadness, shook her head 'no' at Mr. Two Dimensions.

"That I don't know. Long, dark, rather macho... because it attacked our cat, anyway, in a haze, I already separated them. I've gotten used to the feeling of the leg injury now."

With the superior air of a magician, she opened her bag and pulled out a handkerchief. Spreading it wide, she showed the pattern on one side to the two guys.

On that blue and yellow curved surface there was depicted a bold, vivid design, certainly what he had seen the other day on Kouko's calf, and which perhaps represented the current condition of it. ...Which Banri understood, but Mr. Two Dimensions probably had no clue as to what it was. "Huh?", he said, looking at the handkerchief while tilting his head to one side in confusion.

"Tada-kun, this is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Pucci Emilio Pucci]. It looks rather like pretty bad internal bleeding. But it looks like it isn't festering, and if properly disinfected it will clear up soon enough."

"Really? If so that's good, but did you go to the hospital after all?"

"At home, since our house functions as a clinic. Even my mother, as a doctor, took a look at it for me."

"Hey, so that's how it is. I see, a hospital. Some sort of arrangement, as you would expect: rather like a princess. Your mother, for sure, wasn't she worried?"

"It was like, 'Soo lame, you're an idiot, aren't youu?'"

At that crude way of speaking, Mr. Two Dimensions and Banri both broke out laughing. Kouko, however, looking around restlessly,

"By the way, hey, umm, ...what about Mitsuo? Didn't he say he was coming?"

"Ah, he may be a little delayed. And so, I want to stop by a convenience store beforehand."

Hearing Banri's reply, her lightly sparkling eyelids lowered a bit.

"That so", she nodded, that voice. So light he couldn't hear her, Banri put his ear near to Kouko's mouth. That way what he heard was,

"...But afterwards he's coming straight over."

The way she said it confirmed it for him.

Suddenly Banri was at a loss for words. Looking down at Kouko's white face, time stopped.

Or something like that.

He had stopped thinking. He felt as if cold water had suddenly been poured down his neck.

He thought she was participating because she had been invited by him. Did that mean... that perhaps, it wasn't so? Because Yanagisawa Mitsuo was coming, she thought to come too...? Was it something like that?

A cloud of suspicion descended suddenly over his heart. Caught up in the moment, understanding things to his own convenience, in reality, was there even one thing he should have expected...? Looking forward to enjoying himself to the point where he had gotten himself new jeans, was he, perhaps, a clown?

No, no no no. Forget it. Banri, confused, shook his head. He cleared from his mind the awful thoughts that were strangely, distinctly coming to the fore. Because from this point, the long awaited, fun drinking party was starting. He wasn't supposed to darken it by dragging in his own imaginary problems.

Besides, such things didn't matter, did they? Yana-ssan was coming too, that was what he'd said for sure. He even hoped that Kouko and Mitsuo might be able to make up. In general, unless there weren't enough showing up, people normally wouldn't even worry.

Above all, that was so. He had no room for 'normally'. For now, Kouko was certainly fixed on the idea that she would have a relaxed chat with Mitsuo, the first in a long time. Now that he thought about it, it was only natural, and she was probably preparing her heart for it. If he saw himself as her friend, then understanding such things he had to help her.

In his mind, Banri was able to understand it all perfectly.

But in heart, it didn't work too well. His voice too was stopped, and suddenly instead of speaking for him, Mr. Two Dimensions spoke to Kouko.

"If Yana-ssan knows where the place is, won't he come right away? It's OK! He'll be out soon, amongst other things, he went to get something from the convenience store for while we're drinking sake. It'll be something I want to drink, for sure. Banri's going to coat his stomach with milk. How about you, Kaga-san?"

Kouko looked up at the amiable Mr. Two Dimensions, cutely touching her finger to her chin and tilting her head to the side. "Well then, I suppose I might have some milk too."

Saying that beside Banri, she smiled wonderfully, like a rose blossom.

<center>* * *</center>

"Wow! Is this what your drinking parties always look like!?"

Putting his shoes into the rack and coming up to the tatami floor, Mr. Two Dimensions raised his voice. Following right after him, Banri was equally surprised.

The room was rather large and formal, partitioned off by a sliding screen, and was being occupied by so many noisy first-year students he imagined he was going to go deaf.

"Whoa... so many people came! Man, more than I ever thought would come..."

"Eh, what's going on?"

Suddenly from behind Banri, Kouko appeared, and at the same time a great burst of laughter arose from the group. At the noise, the three of them together covered their ears.

"By chance, the whole department wouldn't have shown up...?"

It was still a bit earlier than when the gathering should have been. But already, it looked like there were easily forty or fifty people gathered already. "And there will probably be more guys coming", muttered Kouko in what was probably not quite a joke.

Chinami, if he remembered correctly, had said 'I'm going to try and call and invite a few girls I know.' 'So if there's anybody else you want to invite, call them!' 'Everybody, If you want to make friends, it'll be fun!', and so on.

What Banri had imagined from the way she talked: ten people at most, perhaps a few more, a friendly get-together of acquaintances only.

"A... anyways, let's reserve our spot! Mr. Two Dimensions, the place over in the corner by the door is still open! We should take it! Look! Let's go, Kaga-san too!"

As soon as she saw the room crowded with people, Kouko seemed to get nervous, but pushing on her back steadily, the three of them in a line somehow slipped in, their backs to the sliding door, to a spot with four cushions placed near the end of the table. At that moment, from a bunch of guys seated nearby, "It, it's that beautiful girl...!" "What do I say if she comes here!?" "Talk to her, talk to her!" "No way no way no way no way no way!" ---He heard them say, talking amongst themselves while glancing towards Kouko. Kouko uncomfortably pretended not to hear, and kept herself close to Banri, trying to shrink into his shadow.

Banri would try to say something to Kouko, but at such times the guys close by would break out laughing loudly, and Banri's voice like dust was drowned out entirely. And then, from here and there a voice calling somebody, or already rising voices in conversation, again loud laughter, a voice flying high, speaking at full volume into a cell-phone, "Eh!? I can't hear well!", overwhelmed by the sheer noise, his mouth would not even open.

Somehow or other, it appeared they were already late getting started. The three of them still silent, looking at each other without thinking,

"Ah, Banri came! Even though it's sudden, excuse me, but why don't you come over to this table!?"

Particularly piercing, a high voice like something coming from a young girl in an anime reached his ears.

The tiny Oka Chinami carried some huge pitchers of beer she'd gotten from one of the employees, coming towards them, dangerously unsteady on her feet.

"Ooooka-chan! Watch out, watch out! You're overdoing it, just one at a time!"

In a hurry, Banri reached out, putting the pitchers on the table for a moment. Turning to Mr. Two Dimensions, he had him pass some to the guys at the next table. Chinami, waving both her small hands in the air,

"Wow they were heavy! And super cold! I mean, this time while I was talking they even gave me a uulong! Could you line them up in the same place!? Yes, yes, like that, thank you!"

Once more, she took a big breath.

She was dressed in the style of a busy organizer, in slender blue-jeans and a simple T-shirt, with a small nylon bag hung at a slant, somewhat randomly. Chinami, facing Banri on the edge of her cushion, gathered herself quietly and sat. Like that, her eyes sparkled as if they were stars singing. When she roughly removed the rubber-band that tied her hair up closely, her black hair fell softly to well beneath her delicate shoulders. With great care combing that lovely hair to fall over one shoulder,

"I give up already! Look at this, all these people! I talked to a few friends, then more people showed up than I thought. In the end, we turned out to be such a big family!"

"I'm in a panic", she said, laughing like a little kid.

Banri was practically in shock, seeing how cute she was even in all the disorder of this evening.

"Three cheers for the organizer! Was it hard by yourself?"

"With help here and there from everybody, we got to this point. I'm doing fine! But I might need a hand again, even from Banri."

"Whatever you say! Coming here just now, we were just surprised that more came than we thought. Mr. Two Dimensions came here today with me. Mr. Two Dimensions, this is Oka-chan. She and Yana-ssan do film studies together."

He introduced Mr. Two Dimensions, next to him, to Chinami. Chinami yelped "Yay!", raising one hand high.

"G-day, Mr. Two Dimensions! Let's drink too much today! Here, gimme five, gimme five!"

"A, gu, g-day...! Ca, call me if you need any help from me! He he, gimme five!"

Mr. Two Dimensions started talking, and gave her a high five. He did it with such feeling it made a good sound. With her masterful friendliness, Chinami giving back even one touch was 'wonderful'.

Right away, Mr. Two Dimensions, gazing happily at the hand touched by Chinami, broke into a foolish grin, going into meltdown mode, as if before him stretched the tracks of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Galaxy_Railways Galaxy Railway], rising up through the dimensions. Hey, Mr. Two Dimensions! This is three dimensions! Steady yourself! 'He's died!', Banri poking him still with his elbow.

Chinami, once more favoring even Kouko with a smile,

"Kaga-san, thanks for coming out! I'm really happy you did! Let's enjoy drinking!"

Her bravery was All-American in its passion. She lifted her hand the same way she'd saluted Mr. Two Dimensions with a high five, but,

"..."

Of course, Kaga Kouko was as motionless as a mountain. Her expression turning towards annoyance, she pointed her chin the other way. This time poking Kouko's elbow, Banri,

"...Weren't you going to have fun in a new world, moving forward, everything a-gogo? What would you do if you were Linda-senpai?"

The smell of roses sickly-sweet, he tried to whisper it softly close to her ear. Saying "if you were Linda-senpai" had recently become the #1 most effective hot button for her.

Kouko, seething, tightened her lips into a straight line, but still, something,

"...mpf!"

She decided to strike--- no, to give her a high-five. Crack! The sound of the harsh impact echoed. Chinami, still kneeling formally, closed her eyes. The impact reached all the way from the palm of her hand to her shoulder.

Now now now, Banri inserted himself between them, following after Kouko in giving Chinami's small hand a high-five. A relatively nice sound came forth.

"I mean, Oka-chan, you going to put your stuff down? Over on that seat?"

"N no no... I'm on the floor because I can't reserve a spot. Because until the drinking starts, it's not appropriate for me to sit down. Besides, because this bag is super important I cannot let it out of my hands."

"A treasure? A cell-phone or something?"

Chinami grinned impishly, showing her little front teeth. Just then from a little ways away, somebody called out, "Chinamii! Your cell-phone is ringing!", and they understood from that that her cell-phone wasn't in the bag.

"Afterwards I plan on seeing even you. Have fun! See ya!"

Just like that, she got up lightly and flew off towards where the call came from. Thereupon all at once here and there hands waved, names were called, telling her somebody had arrived or somebody was arriving, and Chinami never did quite reach her cell-phone. With her tiny form moving around, chatting with everyone, laughing at everything, she really did look busy.

While for some reason watching the situation, Mr. Two Dimensions muttered.

"...I mean, Oka Chinami-chan's face is awfully cute... or not. Her face, isn't it wide? Might she be from the north?"

According to Mitsuo's sources, she was certainly from one of the metropolitan high schools. Mr. Two Dimensions, when told so by Banri, gave a strange sigh.

"Then of course she's incredible. Just by her communications skills. Me, I'm just a stupid guy who doesn't talk. Are these friends of yours, Banri?"

Banri looked around the area for a bit too,

"I don't really know them either. A few I know... ah, those girls might have said something about tennis club while they were drinking... or something like that. You guys have nearly always 'hung around' with Yana-ssan from the start. Kaga-san, how about you?"

Though maybe he shouldn't have asked.

Not answering Banri's question, Kouko sat formally in that too-noisy place, looking uncomfortable.

"...What's this 'Welcome to my drinking party! Come join my group!' feeling?"

With great difficulty, her beautifully made up face was being forced into a sullen pout. Mr. Two Dimensions, briefly seeing Kouko that way, didn't scold her,

"So it would seem, more and more."

Without hesitating, he elaborated.

"In short, Oka Chinami-chan is the connection between everybody. If I were suddenly told I would be managing a party, I absolutely would never be able to gather people like that. Our current 'situation', is that we've been 'granted' the chance to be part of a huge group, with Oka Chinami-chan at the center, it seems."

What Mr. Two Dimensions said certainly seemed likely, and Banri had no choice but to nod deeply also.

"Sure seems like it. I mean, I simply don't have the self-confidence to go around asking people, 'Let's have a party!' Looking lonely, seeming alone, sitting by myself, saying 'Ah, somebody else is coming now!' and so forth to the waiters in apology while talking like crazy on the cell-phone, but not finding anybody else... it seems. ...I wonder how it is that Oka-chan made so many acquaintances in only one month?"

"...Though we're all human beings of the same year, going through the same clubs with the same students, what the heck is the difference...?"

Kouko's muttering trailing off into silence, though not in the mood, the three of them nonetheless surveyed the wide room.

Though there had been no toasts yet, the noisy merry-making students' faces, faces and more faces.

Every one of them, complete strangers, even their names unknown. Something that in one breath could easily be spread around, even if they never met again.

Nothing but such people, this world...

"Shall we not bind ourselves in an alliance?"

The one who had opened his mouth just now was Mr. Two Dimensions. Looking at Banri's and Kouko's faces while lowering his voice as if to escape from the tumult,

"If by any chance it happens that one of us has to organize a party or something like that, always, no matter what, we all need to attend. That way, there will absolutely be at least three people able to get together. The organizer will never get lonely. ...How about it? I will swear. The day before yesterday I completed writing, from first to last, an original near-future novel about beautiful female armored cavalry, 'Blood and Iron Girls! ~We are the ones~'. By those 347 kilobytes I swear."

He reached his hand out under the table.

Immediately Banri put his own hand over that hand.

"I'm on board. Then as for me, 'BBQ_LOVE'... by this password that I have used for nearly all situations I swear. E-mail, internet, browsing sites, and all such things, from the time of eight-letter names always that. If I betray you, then do likewise to me."

Kouko, also, put her white hand on top of the others,

"As for me, well, because I just swore by Starbucks, this time I will swear by Tiffany's. My life up til now, my life from now on, everything related to me should be glittering in the sunshine, but alone in the world I am blue."

While she swore, she touched the key-shaped diamond necklace with one hand.

"Well then, all together!", together on Mr. Two Dimensions word, their combined hands bounced up once and then separated vigorously.

And then, the three of them laughed secretly.

It somehow felt like a secret society, a bit fun, very much like being henchmen. Nonetheless, as far as Banri was concerned, he wanted Mitsuo to be a part of the company. If it were only Mr. Two Dimensions, then clearly they would approve of it, but he wondered, how would Kouko be with it?

He was about ready to propose it when at that moment,

"Banri! Mr. Two Dimensions! My bad, I'm late!"

At the entrance to the room a tall figure appeared. Mitsuo was tearing off his knit cap while waving towards them.

He saw Banri waving back at him, but suddenly Mitsuo's hand stopped moving. He wondered if he had noticed Kouko sitting next to him. That Kouko was supposed to be coming to the party also, in truth he hadn't yet told Mitsuo.

When everybody was making arrangements back in the student hall, at that time, "Today they'll surely be on good terms", was the extent of his plans. He thought so even before Chinami or anybody could put anything in his ears. But it seemed that was not to be. ...By e-mail or any other way, it would have been better to say something, of course. Advising him beforehand, even telling him strangely, "Well, I can't say!", he thought. Just then.

Kouko too looked over towards Mitsuo, but presently, for some reason, she looked over towards Banri. Being looked at too was embarrassing. Mitsuo, continuing further in, said "since I've come this far, I'm coming in" to those around, and advanced into the room. Saying "Sorry, coming through", as he passed behind some people, he came closer.

"Yana-ssan, well, eh, why don't you sit down there for now."

Banri quietly indicated a cushion he'd reserved for Mitsuo. He was wondering about what he'd do if he said something childish like "If she's here, I'm going back!"

"...Oh"

Surprisingly obediently, Mitsuo came and sat next to Mr. Two Dimensions. Mr. Two Dimensions and Mitsuo exchanged tentative "Hey dude!" and so on, smiling, trying to hide the strange mood. Before long, the slightly uncomfortable Mr. Two Dimensions looked down, hiding what was left of his smile.

Kouko also looked tense, her body gone stiff, still silent and pretending not to notice.

"...You invited her?"

With a voice as if giving a small sigh, Mitsuo asked him. Only barely able to act as if it were nothing, Banri answered brightly.

"No, Oka-chan got her first. Then, well, I asked her if she'd come with me."

"...That so? For sure you guys were friends from a previous existence."

Saying, "Well, it seems like that. Hey, today's fun!" and nodding, while in fact Banri couldn't look over towards Kouko. What sort of face is Kouko making right now, he wondered. What could he do about this awkwardness? The way things were arranged was too bad. That the atmosphere had become like this was perhaps his own fault.

For the time being, he felt it better that the sake came quickly. Even if they only had a toast, then afterwards by it's influence, things would work out. Maybe.

"Ah, Yana! Already, you finally came! You said you'd help me prepare, but you're late!"

Chinami grinned at Mitsuo over the people heads as she worked restlessly. Mitsuo's eyes suddenly lit up and he stood halfway, putting both his hands to his face in a cute way not at all like him. He never showed a face like that for me... thought Banri, unconsciously looking up to that face smiling so brightly.

"Chinami! Sorry, forgive me!"

"Really now, I've been waiting for the toasts! Well before long, because time is passing, the toasts... or rather aren't there enough mugs of beer to go around!? Hey already, pass them around! Whether you pour your own drink or whatever, for now move it move it move iiittt!"

Chinami, like a little mouse, was all in a panic setting order to everybody's confusion. From trays lined up under the tables, mugs of beer were being passed around from hand to hand, from guys near at the hand to the pitchers of beer and oolong tea, things were moving along at a proper speed.

Reaching out his hand, Banri accepted mugs of beer, one after another, from the stranger next to him and passed them on. Put in place, for the time being within reach of Kouko, Mr. Two Dimensions, Mitsuo and himself, and yet one more, passed along "Last!"

"Ah, that's too many! We've all got ours here!"

"Eh? I thought there was one more. I must've miscalculated."

Towards some voices calling from afar, "It hasn't gotten here", yet more mugs were passed down.

In that way, everybody was quickly handed things to drink, with "For me an uulong would be fine", "Please pass that beer back here!" and so forth as the final adjustments were made.

"Everything handed out!? Everybody's here, right!? Everything's ready, organizer! Oka Chinami! Let the party begin!"

Even standing Chinami wasn't that tall, and her beer mug was bigger than her face. Saying "Way to go, Chinami!", "Not bad, Organizer!", "Super-chibi!", "I can't see you!", and so forth from here and there with supportive voices, people laughed and applauded. Mr. Two Dimensions and Mitsuo were also taking part, whistling heartily through their fingers, Banri raising his voice as well, saying "Way to go, Oka-chaan!", slapping the table with the hand that didn't have a mug in it. Only Kouko, of course, looked uncomfortable, cradling her mug in both hands, though she looked over towards Chinami one time.

"I'm really glad to see all of you came here today, let's have a really good party! In firm solidarity with our fellow new students of the current year, we have an eye towards enriching our campus life! Needing to commemorate our association as classmates, let's celebrate our first meeting! Ah, one word of warning: no forcing anybody to drink! ...Good!? Isn't that right!? Well then, all together now!"

Everybody lifting their mugs together,

<nowiki>"Ch~~~~~~eer~~~~~~~~~s!"</nowiki>

Going along with Chinami's voice, every seat in the house burst with energy. A terrific shout was raised.

"Noo! Cheers, cheers, Hey Yana-ssan! Mr. Two Dimensions too, Kaga-san too! Cheeerrss!"

Banri, reaching out without concern for spilling the contents, knocked his mug against those of his friend and gulped his beer down with gusto too. The beer, already warming a bit, gurgled in his throat as he drank it down. And then, halfway through wiping his mouth, visibly excited, he looked towards the organizer. Emptying what remained in her mug at once, she shouted "Whee!" with all the composure of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Longhorn_(cattle) Texas Long Horn]. Receiving such a loud ovation from everybody surprised Chinami. Even Mr. Two Dimensions shouted "Terrific!", his eyes going big and round.

If he looked towards Kouko, her handkerchief draped neatly over her lap, she was holding the mug in both hands, trying to taste it, but over by her Mitsuo was reaching out his arm with all his might. She tapped her mug to his, "klink". Banri was watching. Or rather, he saw because it was happening right in front of him.

"Just now, I believe we were the only ones who didn't tap our mugs together. Things like that bother me. Cheers."

"...Cheers."

Their eyes meeting for a moment, the two childhood friends spoke quietly together.

Since all you could drink didn't cost much, the orders were always by the pitcher-full, even the ice pails came heaping full, so everybody simply used the pour-it-yourself drinking method.

In the beginning, on each table there had been placed two pitchers of beer, all of them filled, nonetheless in a little while they started hearing things like, "Over there, since XX-kun is requesting a currant soda, so the table in front of you.", "This, since XX-chan is asking for a green-apple sour, to this table.", "What shall we ask for next?" and so forth. But for the time being, the system was holding up.

But as time rolled on, the alcohol started affecting the young people's heads. Nobody quite knew what they were ordering, even the waiters, if they thought they hadn't brought anything would suddenly bring five or six full multicolored pitchers in replenishment, in turn some sort of sour, or some kind of highball. Even tasting the drinks, they didn't know very well what they were. Lined up sloppily on the tables it might have been only "alcohol-flavored" soda water.

Here and there drunken gibberish,

"Whaddya think dis is? Grapefruit sour? Moscow? Whaddisit?"

"Somethin's makin' it cloudy... [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calpis Calpis], mebbe~...?"

"Whaddever 'twas, I drunk it~!"

"Shudd've mixed it first~! Idjit~!"

"Myahahahahahaha~!"

Like that, they laughed. Clapping and leaning against each other, they roared with laughter.

There were guys drinking directly from the pitchers, guys trying the cocktails as they pleased, guys going around the tables greedily eating the food, guys continuing to be disliked for offering indecent proposals to the girls, guys with red faces lying down on the floor, guys with vegetables stuck on their eyebrows, and besides that, many other things happening, from the toast to about one o'clock, when the group's excitement reached it's climax.

And then at that time, speaking of Mr. Two Dimensions,

"Yech! How many times this... who put this stuff in here! Disgusting! It makes no sense!"

Picking parsley out of his beer mug, he grimaced as if it were first time.

Somebody, drunk, had tried to toss food into the pitcher that shouldn't have been. Banri, reflexively, peeked into his own mug too. For once, there was no evidence of foreign substances mixed in. But it bothered him to see an iridescently spreading oil film on the surface.

"Mine's fairly decent, drink from mine."

His elbows on the table, Banri was on his fourth uulong tea highball...? He'd downed something like that to the last drop. When the mug turned upside down, ice fell on his face. Pushing aside the pitcher the parsley had fallen into, Mr. Two Dimensions said "Don't wannit!", looking for the next mug of uulong tea highball...? He reached out for a similar pitcher.

The feeling that they had gotten off to a late start, which somehow lingered even after the party started, left Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions feeling a little bit out of it.

The other people in the room had already changed into a completely drunken mass; even the seats were wearily involved. There was a group making noise in hoarse voices, both guys and girls stretched out on the cushions. With the girls still seriously asking things like, "XX-chan, are you OK~?", the guys were left alone entirely, rolling around here and there in a sight too painful to watch.

The difference between "Light" and "Dark" was quite clear.

Those silent, muddled, foundering guys were "Dark". Sitting idly separate, they were in a "why'd I come" state, playing with their cell-phones and games. In the "Light", stupid noisemakers formed into mixed groups, one guy, one girl, in pairs closely cuddling, exchanging contact information. They too were "Light".

Of course, Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions in their little corner were, clearly, dark. In their quiet area, like a lonely island left behind by the commotion,

"...Somehow all the three-dimensioners are really excited... looks fun..."

While holding the uulong tea highball (?) in his mouth, Mr. Two Dimensions murmured with a voice unable to cut through the tumult.

Banri looked around the area a bit with slightly blurry eyes too,

"Though I was once a three-dimensional person... hey... did you try and talk to somebody? To get casually closer to that fun looking group over there and try to mix in? At the least, there was somebody over there chatting a bit about Chinese."

He tried to point at the guys and girls mixing and chatting, looking like they were having fun, but,

"...Noo... nothing like that. Nothing else either. Rather, this way, those kinds of people have seemed like a wall for me... whatever, enough of that. Today has tired me out. No no, you and I are in a deliberate drinking mode."

In the end, Mr. Two Dimensions gave up the battle.

Stretching out their bodies lazily, piling up two half-broken cushions to support their backs, they laughed like crazy about how they looked like old men moving carefully. Enough of that for me too, said Banri, turning defiant also. Throwing himself down on the floor-mats, his elbow on the cushions,

"Anyway, aren't we a pair of guys talking carefully over our drinks? For the moment, I've never heard about this ‘Blood and Iron Girls!'...?"

The mug he'd been about to grab suddenly wasn't there, and he missed. Pulling Banri's mug out from under his arm and gulping it down all at once,

"...Hmph! Come on now, look around you! I'm the pitiful one here, without a single friend!"

Bam! The one who struck the table with such force was Kouko. Without anything to drink, Banri looked over at Mr. Two Dimensions, looking sad. "What the?" said Mr. Two Dimensions.

Facing Kouko was Mitsuo, seated Indian style,

"This ain't fun! Why, if I cannot look around, then I can't do anything!"

He was like a large dog, barking like crazy from the excitement. Gulping down his mysterious, ashen cocktail of too many things mixed together, he said "...You first!", and once more glared at Kouko.

---You guys too are "Light", aren't you? This didn't make sense. To Banri's eye, this appeared to be so. They lived in the delight-looking world of the two of them, man and woman.

Those guys, doing like this, will continue forever with their useless yapping and fighting. Mr. Two Dimensions, long ago already tired of intervening, was amazed.

It had to do with their earlier "agreement" that Banri had told Mitsuo about. That is, that Kouko from the very start wasn't the one who organized the party, nor, it seemed, did she even ask to come. It appeared that Mitsuo started spouting foolishness, which would have been OK if he could have passed it off as a joke, but he simply couldn't do anything so clever for Kouko, and with a "What the!?", she struck back at him, and it turned into a fight. "If Mitsuo in particular has never had the chance to party in all his life, then this agreement has no meaning, does it? As for me, because we do have a pact, then three people can always get together, though for Mitsuo even that is nothing, isn't it? Even being able to do so, it's a matter of 'I have no friends.', right? Such a pitiful looking thing, left entirely alone, I might have pitied him, but by our agreement, because we cannot take you in even if you are at death's door, don't go waiting miserably in line! If that be the case---", and from there one and one, for at least an hour. As for Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions, they disagreed constantly as to which of them they were on better terms with, and as to which was really their friend.

Can we even be friends, with things like this?

Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions, agreeing with only a glance, turned their backs and separated a little, but still their voices came to their ears.

"The main point, though, is that if Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions weren't my friends, then you would not have spoken of them as your friends!"

"Huh!? Might the Great Lord of Misfortune, 'Have-Nothing-Mitsuo', be coming to the conclusion that I am fated to have some friends!? By that in particular, and since you've been removed from the agreement now, why don't you realize that little by little you're becoming one lonely cur!?"

"I-diot i-diot! Banri and Two-Dimensions are friends without there being any agreement! Besides, I've got friends in the film-studies club! Aren't there any other first-years in the Omaken!?"

"Hah! Fi-lm Stu-dies! Don't make me laugh even more! Since when have you ever had any interest in film-making? Are you switching to studying such characters? If you would, please explain to me this sudden mania, as a new student, for movie characters, those flimsy things, exposing their winding tails shamelessly in front of you while getting ready to run away from you!?"

"Wh, why does this suddenly have anything to do with you!?"

"Oh my, it looks like I've just hurt you! Have I hurt you!? But you haven't seen anything yet, you're really going to hurt!"

"Blast you! I have to deal with my future! In that respect, you being something entirely unrelated to me, I hope we never cross paths in my bright future! As for me, I will try hard in the Film Studies Club at making movies, studying a ton of movies with Chinami,"

"Oka Chinami!? That Ultrasonic!? Are you going to make me laugh again!? Look at reality! You've never been without friends! Just what are you dreaming!?"

"I have not!"

"You don't have!"

"I do have! And it's a good relationship, you just haven't seen it with your own eyes!"

"Well then, try and show me, that, the rumored 'about to be made friends of'! Where has Ultrasonic been from the start? She hasn't been here! She hasn't come near you at all! In short, it's a matter of 'not saying anything to Mitsuo'! Wouldn't it be better if you understood that!? Or are you planning on being the Ultrasonic's stalker!?"

"Huuhh!? What are you saying!? Talking like that!?"

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 003-005.jpg|thumb|400px]]
...Looking at the frowning Banri, fed up with their voices, Mr. Two Dimensions had an "ignore them" coolness to him as well.

And then pouring Banri sake from the pitcher again, giving a toast once more, just the two guys. Mr. Two Dimensions was trying to lean his back against the cushion, stuck against the sliding door,

"Uwa!?"

He jumped up suddenly, as if surprised.

"What, something happen?"

"So, something hit me pretty hard from the other side of the door..."

Automatically, Banri listened attentively, and there it was: a definite banging sound, continuing strangely. The wall separating the rooms would certainly fall down soon.

"It's true... is there a party next door? What might they be having, a party for sumo wrestlers? And then drinking practice? Something like that?"

At any rate, they probably didn't have [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chankonabe chanko] on the menu... Banri tried to open the partition carefully, Mr. Two Dimensions sticking with him too, the two of them peeking. And then, from an opening a few centimeters wide,

"Eh!? Aren't you Tada Banri and Two Dimensions!?"

"No way~ how unexpected~, good evening~"

---They had a glimpse of Hell.

Yikes! Banri was taken aback, Mr. Two Dimensions shuddered.

"It's the Tea Ceremony Club...!"

Crying 'It's a dragon's nest...!' with the same intonation, he closed the partition at once. 'Hey~that hu-rt~' and the sign of something caught, the tip of a tentacle probably. Not looking out of fear, for the moment Banri was pushing something away with the palms of his hands,

"...Aren't they Sao-chan and Shii-chan!?"

"Wasn't their territory just Amataro...!?"

This time, by main force, they closed the partition tightly. Wasn't there an amulet? Wasn't there any holy water? If they only had packing tape, or nails, though dynamite would be better.

When they'd turned and looked through the crevice, they'd seen two all too well remembered faces. They only saw a bit, but what they saw was enough. Over there, for sure, it was Sao-chan and Shii-chan. ...If we assume from that last shock, with "Nee-saan! You smell nice!", that it was the regular Tea Ceremony Club Bowling, with the Tea Club girls as sumo wrestlers or something...

"...Banri. We, didn't see anything at all."

"Ah. We didn't see anything. ...Ch, cheers!"

With Mr. Two Dimensions, even stronger than before, in complete desperation, they chugged down the contents of their beer mugs. They borrowed strength from the sake, but what they wanted was to completely forget the spectacle they had witnessed.

As you might expect, their heads were spinning by the time they lowered their mugs, Banri propping up his exhausted face with his elbow on the table.

"Ah... it's already, it doesn’t make sense..."

Two Dimensions looked he felt the same, in the same pose, eyes half shut. In Banri's ears, he could still hear the voices of Mitsuo and Kouko arguing.

"Have you, perhaps, been only pretending from the start, trying to make me believe that Ultrasonic liked you?"

"Don’t even think that!"

"It is absolutely the case! When you did so, you were only thinking about how much I'd be hurt. Those are not realistic thoughts! It's just not getting through to you!"

"You have nothing to do with me! Or rather, just how presumptuous can you be!?"

"Well then, I will make a prediction: Mitsuo will absolutely not be able to confess his feelings (or anything like it) to Supersonic! Because he's not prepared to do such things! If I were to fall to pieces, Mitsuo would be as pleased as can be, it would be the one thing of most delight in his life, he's such a little man! So, he will absolutely not confess to her! He doesn't have the wherewithal for reality!"

"Huh!? Aren't you being one-sided!? In general, in general you, ...aah! Enough! Just you wait and see...!"

Gulping down sake from a handy mug close by, Mitsuo's eyes held completely steady. Drinking roughly the same way, Kouko though seated still, was swaying as if in circles.

Thinking, "Are these two all right!?", but not feeling like butting in, Banri was simply watching how things unfolded. Mitsuo, lifting from his seat a little, called Chinami.

"Hey Yanaa, Kaga-saan, how's it going! You drinking!?"

Chinami, her face a little reddened, a mug in one hand, half full of something transparent, came over obediently. Plopping down on the cushion next to Mitsuo, perhaps due to being drunk having it more than ever, her prettily blurred eyes shone.

Sidling up to Chinami, Mitsuo crawled over on his elbows, and suddenly,

"Thanks for the gum the other day! Your feelings and mine will become the same, I'm pretty sure!"

Kouko looked back, said twice, "Got some gum, I got some gum the other day", and once more turning to face Chinami,

"Chinami! I love you! I want to go out with you!"

Kouko spit out the sake that was in her mouth. Banri sprang up. So did Mr. Two Dimensions. Staring in amazement, they looked at Mitsuo. Banri and Mr. Two Dimensions exchanged glances, having a conversation with only their eyes.

...This guy... He... he's gone and done it...

But Chinami's answer,

"Eh? Are you an idiot?"

Smiling, she was.

She continued, "Just how drunk are you?", the smile in her eyes cool.

Focusing directly on Mitsuo's eyes, Chinami's cute-looking face didn't waver at all.

"...O, o, o...!"

Covering his face, Mitsuo fell backwards then and there. Rolling, he ran into the pillar in the corner of the room. "Ooh...!", he groaned, voice low like a departed soul, his body twisting, one of his socks coming off, his draped-on sweater half off, somehow the zipper of his jeans coming half down too, his honor as a cool guy no longer preserved. "Good Heavens...!", playing dead, praying one-handedly, Mr. Two Dimensions watched the situation.

On the one hand, Kouko,

"Uwa... awawa... hawawawawawa..."

She'd become like a villager who'd seen a monster.

With her back bent, she trembled while looking over her shoulder and grabbing Banri's arm, "Auwawawa, hawawawa", pointing alternately at Chinami and Mitsuo, as yet still a chaotic scene. What's more, she was suddenly crying. Her eyes full, she was shedding tears.

"Hold on... th, there there... Kaga-san, calm down..."

"Pyaaaaa... haauwawawawawa... awawawawa..."

Wanting to say things like "who are you...", her personality indeed falling apart, Kouko, still grabbing Banri's arm, remaining still firmly seated, she crumbled over the table, laying her face down. Kouko died.

"...Hey Kaga-san..."

Kouko's nails were biting into Banri.

---In some calm place, Banri thought that already things didn't seem right.

Owing to the sake, his vision was spinning. He couldn't stop thinking. His chilled brain rested in just one place: it was already impossible. It returned to only that. It's already impossible. Seriously. Hey stop. Impossible.

But you, are you still at the same place? It looks like it.

It asked, "In the end, isn't it like that?"

It asked, "How many hours has it been til now?"

What am "I"? He was even getting to where he wanted to ask such. As far as you're concerned, what is "Tada Banri"? Is this being friends?

What are ‘friends', in Kaga Kouko's world, but a convenient dumping ground for feelings when the destination has been lost?

Is she treating me that way?

...He was already dumbfounded. He'd even run out of rationalizations. I am already impossible. This is far enough. So Banri thought.

With the Kouko who was still watching the Mitsuo who had gotten to this point, had gotten to such a place as this, who had confessed to Chinami, dating was no longer possible.

Going out with her was truly no longer possible.

Banri's clothing was being bitten into by her slender fingers, one finger at a time, one pinch after another. A little apart from them, Two Dimensions was struggling to tackle Mitsuo by the hips. Out of my sight, you two. Banri made eye-contact with Two Dimensions.

"Mr. Two Dimensions... ready?"

"Ho hoo... you're a demon, Banri."

Even Two Dimensions caught the meaning, dragging Mitsuo along by his hips. With grim determination, he opened the partition a few tens of centimeters. And then,

"Oh Great Sisters~! We wish to offer up these two in tribute to you~!"

No sooner did he cry that, then Mitsuo was thrown out, over the partition line.

"Whee~! It's a handsome one~!"

"Or rather, this girl has come as a new member~!"

"Thanks for the meal!" He was suddenly drawn inside and his shape vanished. The highlight, Kouko was next. "Here's another~", trying to push her through, "Mmm~, a girl!", "Doesn't she have such smooth, pretty skin~!", "She's going to get teased, poor thing~", "De, li, ci, ous~" ...dragged by her feet, formerly the figure of Banri's dreams, as it was, she was slowly swallowed up by the Tea Ceremony Club. Her tear-stained face looking back up at Banri, she cried "Why~, How~", but,

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 207.jpg|thumb]]

"..."

To the very end, scratching the mats with her hands, they pushed her away, resolutely, and closed the partition.

They heaved a sigh.

"That was exhausting. Really and truly."

They turned towards Chinami and tried to smile. Chinami kept herself apart from them for just a moment, and returned their smiles. Her flushed cheeks shone roundly. And then, pointing to herself,

"Demon?"

Was all she said. Banri slowly shook his head back and forth. Two Dimensions did likewise. Or rather, even as a demon she was OK. He thought that was just fine. It wasn't any mistake of hers. Even though they were drunk, it was nothing. Even Mitsuo couldn't lawyer his way out of it. ...It wasn't a lie! At most, he could talk about it, that's all.

Chinami suddenly lowered her little face, and seemed strangely lonely. Banri was caught by surprise, but,

"...Nooo. Oka Chinami is [[Golden Time:Volume2_Translator%27s_Notes#O-Camera|a camera]]. The left-out outsider."

Chinami shortly raised her head. From the little bag that was so important to her earlier, she pulled out the very latest Handycam and showed it to them.

"I wanted to show you this! Earlier, I took shots of everybody's faces with this."

"Whaa! That was your super precious treasure?"

"Yep. I've always wanted this camera, now that I've finally bought it, I'm happy! This way, various people's faces--- this time, the faces of kids I've met in college, I was receiving them in commemoration. Would you mind?"

Banri and Two Dimensions nodded, and seeming truly delighted, Chinami turned the lens towards them.

"Though it's rather like a practice run still, anyway I'm making a sort of collage this way, trying to constrain it to a single theme, you see. As if it were a single movie. Though such things are rather common, perhaps, but in our lives, we'll only be freshman college students now, right? I think it's precious, I do. A private thing; as far as I'm concerned a precious work it will become, won't it~ So, um, let's get on with it. Today Mr. Two Dimensions has become a friend, ah, let's hear a word or two from him!"

"U, um, err!? Um, no! I'm drinking! I'm near-sighted!"

Two Dimensions suddenly pulled off his glasses. Surprisingly, his face didn't look different without them. Continuing, the lens turned towards Banri.

"Over here is Tada Banri. Say something too, Banri, give us something really funny!"

"Hmm!? Ah, ...I, I'm Tada Banri! I, err... well,"

His mind went entirely blank. Nothing super interesting coming suddenly to mind, he muttered "Why such a high hurdle for me?" while shuddering,

"...Ah, no way! Nothing's coming to me at all! For now... I exist! Somehow I manage to keep my spirits up! ...And more! Forgive me, but nothing more! Excuse me already, Oka-chan, but I'm not all that interesting!"

He waved his hand towards the camera to hide from it. Chinami laughed and turned off the camera.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-san! Wait, wait, wait, be careful!"

<nowiki>"Kyaaa~ hahahahahaaaaaaa~~~~!"</nowiki>

"Where are you going!? Hold on!"

In the end, it was like this.

Kouko's bag hanging from his shoulder, Banri chased frantically after Kouko. Kouko, laughing loudly, somewhat funnily, or perhaps crazily, was running down the street at night, her skirt flying.

She was very drunk, of course, running swiftly while staggering here, staggering there, recklessly causing trouble for a while now for all the somber-faced office workers, their suited forms heading for the train stations.

<nowiki>"Ahaha, ahaha, kya~ ahahahahaha! Chase me, plea~~~se!"</nowiki>

She cut straight through a crowd of people behaving like office ladies, "Hey!" "What's this!?", running into them recklessly and breaking them up. Banri, saying "Excuse us! Sorry about that! Please forgive us!", apologizing like crazy, on the verge of tears, chased after Kouko.

It was horrible. Truly.

"You're really being irresponsible!"

<nowiki>"I don't care~~! It has nothing to do with mee~~~! This is fun~~~! ...Urp"</nowiki>

While spinning on tiptoes like a ballerina, Kouko was rushing towards some bushes. And just like that, she plunged clumsily, bottom-first into a thicket of azaleas. No sooner was she planted in the shrubbery, a car went past on the road. Banri, in a panic, about to lift her up,

"...Whoa...!"

Truly, it was the worst. Being forced to sprint as hard as he could right after drinking an uulong highball, there was no way he wasn't going to get dizzy, was there? Feeling faint, he'd given into Kouko's weight and had fallen entirely into the azalea bushes.

As he frantically tried to support the weight of the two of them and stay balanced too, Kouko's breath, smelling of sake, came quietly and warmly to his ears. And then she murmured something.

"...Tha, thad feld bad... again, someding, I feld... urp..."

"Please stop..."

Still stuck deep in the shrubbery, moving his back up and down with Kouko, as yet unable to get themselves up, Banri was pierced by the chilly gazes of the people passing by. "Are they students?" "I think they're a menace to society." ...Being clucked at, having scorn blatantly heaped upon him, Banri, tired of apologizing, snapped.

"Enough already! If you've got to throw up, do you have to do it here!?"

Opening fully her indeed expensive looking brand-name purse, Kouko held it reverently beneath her face. Swinging her mussed-up hair frantically from side to side, Kouko hid her mouth with her hand and with a suspicious-looking movement gulped something down, and then from inside the bag she quickly pulled something out. She thrust it in front of Banri's face.

NO!

---Using the yes/no fan from Omaken.

"Why do you have such a thing right now... hey, wait!"

Kouko, kicking her feet like she was impatient, escaped from the hedge before Banri, and holding only the fan in one hand took off once more with incredible energy. "Tha tha that... golden piece of junk!" He pulled at his hair in frustration, but still, Banri had no choice but to chase her. You know already? He was to where he wanted to drop her bag and her too, and be left behind himself. But he knew that if he abandoned her, rushing down the road the way she was, she was quite capable of being turned into a miserable heap of scrap.

For now, he felt responsible for her.

He (and 2-D) had thrown Kouko (and Mitsuo) into a hell on earth.

And it really was hell... it had to be.

At first they stayed strictly in the first party, while practically everybody, including Chinami, was flowing out to the afterparty, Banri and Two Dimensions remained together in the tavern. Then, in order to collect the bones of the two made into sacrifices, they peeked fearfully into the next room.

When Banri said, "All of you monster girls", Two Dimensions said, 'Eh? Those guys are ''seafood''!?' ...it seems he heard it as '[[Golden Time:Volume2_Translator%27s_Notes#Jokai|fish and shellfish]]'--- but they'd already struck camp; Sao-chan & Shii-chan were no longer there, and the room where the Tea Ceremony Club had been was as still as death.

For some reason, the tables were all moved a little bit closer together. Left behind were as many as three times the empty pitchers as the freshman students had drunk, and the cushions had been strewn all over the tatami mats. And then, in the middle of that empty space. Mitsuo and Kouko had been left behind there, in an exceedingly cruel way. It was too much. Two Dimensions screamed, covering his eyes with his hands. Banri recoiled. Straight before them were the forms of a handsome man and a beautiful girl who could not endure.

Cripes, that such a horrible thing could happen in this world...

Though it was on top of their clothing, they had towels tied about them as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawashi mawashi]. They, mostly probably, had been forced. ...To a bout!

They helped the two of them up, made to drink, they were so drunken they couldn't untie their mawashis by themselves. Two Dimensions took charge of Mitsuo, and then Banri of Kouko. Kouko drank some water, and for quite a while secluded herself in the bathroom, throwing up over and over. Her spirits restored a bit, she stood up, wobbly. Eventually they walked outside, and then her mind suddenly went wild,

<nowiki>"Kya~~~~! Ahahahahaha! Ahaha, ahaha, a~hahahahahaha!"</nowiki>

It had come to this.

Running around in the night streets, flying along with the fan fluttering.

Kouko kept running stubbornly away, her high-heels ringing.

For his part, already running after her, Banri was quite groggy. Feeling lousy, his eyes spinning, if he were to throw up now, he was pretty sure he'd've throw up many times more.

Nowadays in the heart of metropolitan Tokyo, everywhere you go there are nothing but no-smoking areas, and this area wasn't an exception. Sometimes in the alleys between the office buildings, in lonely parks too (I cannot say), nearly every space hidden from sight by gloomy, shabby bushes, has, in general, become a place to hide and smoke. He didn't know who managed to do it, but a pile of big, fat cigarette butts had been stuffed into the bushes, and from where Kouko had gone flying out just now, they'd built up even into a bench.

He sighed. "...Al, already I've... had enough!"

Kouko was standing on a bench she'd jumped onto, like a leading lady upon a stage. Banri was finally exhausted. He fell to the ground as if he were kneeling, not even his pride there anymore. Like the islanders who worshipped [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothra Mothra], both his hands were raised in simple supplication.

"Shall we go home already!? Hmm!? Please, Kaga-san! I ask of you! Ride with me! In a taxi!"

But Kouko's answer,

"No!"

Snap! Putting forward the NO side of the fan, she basked in the light and struck a pose. She barely stood on her unsteady feet, but she was imposing, planted on top of the bench.

"How can that be!? What do you mean by doing such things!? Am I that awful!? If Yana-ssan were to say 'come back', would you prefer that!?"

"No!"

Drunken eyes, smiling mouth.

This was no laughing matter. If Kouko didn't return home, he wouldn't either, it would be dangerous if he lost sight of her, and he wouldn't be able to call for help in his cell-phone. If they got into trouble like this, they wouldn't be able to get out of it. They'd be a problem for all the other freshmen they'd gone drinking with, and even for the persistent Chinami.

"Well then... enough! Just what am I to do!? What should I do!? Can this be something more for me? What about me!? Me, this... this, doing like this, being embarassed, is it 'being friends'!? Did you want this!?"

Wobbling, Kouko suddenly flipped her fan around. The answer: Yes.

---Why, he wondered if it was now.

It was entirely as if he'd been pierced by an arrow. The arrow fired by Kouko that Saturday drew a wide arc in the sky and was slowly turning towards the fan. And now, it descended on Banri. Now it came to stab his body, over and over again. I do not love you. Banri was assailed by such a arrowhead. Blood spurting out, Banri was wounded.

To the degree his pain wasn't given substance, he wondered how, at such a time, his body could be tormented. Not wanting to cry, Banri was at a loss. Unable to stop himself, he sank down to the ground, his hands shaking clumsily.

What are such women!?

To myself, to Tada Banri, you are doing such a horrible thing, Kaga Kouko.

Even though I love you, you don't love me. Though it was not love, the relationship felt good, you said. So I want to be friends, you said. I've been chasing after the you that's been crying over the other guy. You've been running away from me. And yet, I've been unable to not want to chase you. Even understanding that I could never catch you, I still could not stop chasing you. And because of that, even if I could save you, it would not be enough for me.

Because she's my friend.

And that was fine, he'd once thought. For her sake, he had wished from the bottom of his heart to support her. Those feelings were the real thing.

But,

"...Would it be all right if we stopped already?"

There are limits.

The kind, true feelings, the ulterior motives he had wanted to hide, the regrets, whatever other thoughts as well, these had already come to an end. Exhausted, there was already nothing more to come out of Banri.

If there's no love, then so be it. There was no use complaining about it. He had just enough wisdom to think so. But, still, still and yet, and yet--- he didn't want to make use of it.

He could not stand being treated this way, being tossed into a convenient garbage can labeled 'friends'. He would not allow himself the fate of being treated all the time like that.

"I want to stop. Being friends. OK?"

Still sitting on the ground, Banri looked up at Kouko's face. Kouko, her eyes looking off somewhere vacantly, was standing on top of the bench, doing nothing. While her body swung from side to side, she looked down upon Banri.

Banri pulled the hand-mirror out of his back pocket. It sparkled dazzlingly under the light, a flare of light in his vision as he extended it out to her.

Examining the pretty thing a little bit,

"Answer 'yes'! I don't want to be friends with Kaga-san anymore. After all, you said this and that, but always about Yana-ssan. Only about Yana-ssan. Yana-ssan said he loved Oka-chan, and you cried and made a fuss about it... Did you happen to consider my feelings, as I was made to watch that happen next to me? You didn't, right? If we were friends, just what did you think I was supposed to do? Those who don't care for me, I cannot care for either. It's about time we split, seriously. Like that. Now, shouldn't we?"

Extending his arm, he presented it to Kouko.

Kouko, a strange expression still on her face, looked at the friendship mirror Banri extended to her.

The fan didn't move. Neither did Kouko. Banri, impatient, "Enough already", dropped the hand-mirror into Kouko's bag.

"So, 'yes' was your answer. With that, from this moment, I am no longer Kaga-san's friend. OK?"

Finally, as if taking a breath Kouko's mouth opened a little. Her soft lips, the long eyelashes that even from here could be seen to be trembling slightly, as if scared. Awkwardly, the fan was turned towards Banri.

No.

She doesn't understand. She's like that.

"...You don't want to stop being my friend?"

No.

"Because being with me feels good? Because I seem to understand the clumsy Kaga-san well? Loving you even when you're useless? And therefore you're able to be your true, honest self? Breaking down my stubbornness, being able to spoil me?"

Yes.

Moving the fan many more times, Kouko insisted over and over again: Yes, Tada-kun!

"Give up. I won't be spoiled! When you dumped me, you lost even the right to wish for what you had been saying from the start. I saw the extension as convenient for me. I've now realized that I was making a mistake. I thought that I wanted to understand you, because I loved you. I tried to be boyfriend and girlfriend, because I wanted to go out with you. That feeling was by no means, 'After being dumped, this time I will try to support Kaga-san, helping her with her love'. That wasn't happening. It absolutely will not happen. Eternally never. I can't do that kind of thing. ...But for me, at last I understood. If you were to become close with any other guy, I would get uncomfortable. Therefore, from now on I cannot be concerned with you. Though I'm saying it rather bluntly, I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore."

No! No! No! As if slapping something, Kouko was waving her fan. Her voice wasn't coming out. Simply opening her eyes wide, staring directly at Banri's face, she was bracing her legs so as to not fall down. Her white chin was quaking, as if she were struggling to breathe.

"...If you hate me like that, well, well then,"

She seemed to be entirely done with laughing.

She almost made him laugh. He was about ready to burst. His own foolishness, playing the clown after a long time. Oka-chan, you can take a shot of me! Because my present self, perhaps, has reached an all-time record for funny. Because you should have quite a laugh.

"Of course, you want to go out with me!? It's OK! Now, if possible! Now is not too late! ...How's about it!? If now, then because Yana-ssan was no good, then let's campaign for Tada Banri! If now, then I'm allowed! How about it!? Be courageous, for now it looks like we're doing that!?"

---Kouko, she didn't laugh at me.

"Wa,"

Her high-heeled feet making her wobbly,

"...Wait...!"

She spoke as if out of breath.

"No way. I'm not waiting. As for me, I don't wait for anybody anymore."

The fan wasn't moving. If the answer is not 'yes', then the campaign is over.

Banri stood up despite how light-headed he had gotten and extended her bag to Kouko. With an uncertain gait, she finally descended from the bench for him. As if clinging to the hand which held the bag, Banri jerked his chin 'Let's go'.

"Even if you don't come, I'm not waiting. Wherever you escape to, I won't be chasing after you anymore."

"...Tada-kun...! I, I..."

Turning down the street, he walked off. The sound of her footsteps was slow, but she followed just behind him.

"Hey, please... hey... listen to me... please... you're wrong, it's wrong, I, I..."

"No!"

Stopping alongside a taxi with it's 'available' sign lit up, Banri turned around. To the taxi-driver by the open door, he pointed at the petrified Kouko, saying "This person needs a ride." After that, only two words.

As cleanly as possible, with no loose ends left behind. He wished for her to forget everything. You don't love me.

If this is good-bye--- then farewell it is.

"Good bye."

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 2: The Answer is YES|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|-
|}

Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2

2013-10-11T00:26:06Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Chapter 2==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 2===

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 098.jpg|thumb]]
Tada Banri was making dinner.

Right after you come through the door, on the left side. A corridor all of one tatami wide, the little kitchen was part of a multipurpose space.

By the sink and his poor excuse for a stove, a single burner portable unit, Banri stood there, by himself, hunched over, double-checking the flame with a serious look in his eyes.

Since he moved here, or rather as far as this Banri's concerned, since he was born, this was the first time he'd done any real cooking.

He'd never before played with anything more than eggs. Worse, nothing more than boiled. Once, saying to himself, "Shall I make something myself today?", he'd bought a side dish to warm up, boiling some pasta and putting on a ready-made sauce, but normally he just made boiled eggs.

I mean, this guy really likes boiled eggs. In the morning, he got out boiled eggs. At noon, the school cafeteria or boiled eggs. In the night, whether eating while mixed up in a drinking party somewhere, with something from the supermarket, something canned or with pasta, boiled eggs. Boiled eggs are all right with me too, but I never ate them to the extent this guy does.

You'd think that omelets or fried eggs might cross his mind as alternatives, but Banri hardly made such things. Right after moving to the capital, while his mother was still there, he tried once to make ham and eggs, but it didn't turn out well. He burned the whites in his brand new frying pan, and he couldn't stomach it.

In any case, this room's stove was bad.

Even though it was new, of recent design, an electric (not induction heated) single burner stove. If you didn't have anything else, you could install an ordinary gas-burning stove yourself. Though you wait and wait, this stove's heating power is such that the frying pan doesn't heat up enough, and the egg dropped inside simply sits there.

As for me, while curiously watching Banri cooking something other than boiled eggs, I was forced to move from the kitchen to the entranceway, seated on the familiar second-hand stool. It was one of the favorite things Banri had bought from a thift store shortly after moving here.

The arches of his lowered feet reached exactly to the footrest, at just the right height to feel stable. Kicking back, sticking the backs of his shoes into the stool, propping himself up with his elbows, his body fit it really and pleasantly snug. ...I'm doing this, though of course I don't have a body anymore, waiting and watching the shape of Banri, standing there, grabbing and poking at things with his chopsticks.

As a matter of fact, as for me, I still don't really like this room. There was a room we'd already inspected that I thought was good. At the time, I was frantically trying to whisper in his ear, "This is good! Take this place!", but of course he couldn't hear me. Well, I don't think he would be setting stock in commentaries heard from a ghost. But even if he were spooked by a poltergeist, would that change his mind from now on? If I felt like it, I might be able to make the furniture rattle... to do such a thing, of course, would only be a prank. Only one month after moving here, I'd move again, but the deposit and key fees are outrageous.

So--- one month. Since Banri became a student and started living alone in that room, little by little, one month, so to speak, the days have passed.

As far as an outsider could tell, the days were good.

Making friends, registering for classes, even joining clubs. Getting kidnapped by strange cults, getting stranded, even getting dumped by a girl, Banri was somehow peaceful. Living like this, he was doing well.

And now today, this evening. Banri ought to be celebrating (though quietly), welcoming this evening as "the first time cooking decently for himself".

The registration season passed by and the new students became simply first-years, the storm of new student welcoming parties ended and the chances to go out drinking got fewer, and soon he was even going to be tired of eating boiled eggs, so Banri was resolved to do this.

"Let's do some good cooking!", he said.

And then, "Let's send an e-mail to Kaga-san!", ... he said.

I think he's pathetic. But, he's cute. At least I think so. What Kaga Kouko thinks so far, that's not my problem.

Banri, finishing sending her an e-mail to the net, had decided to appeal to her heart through conversation.

"Where'd you go today?", "Sorry about today", "I went home too", "Let's go together to tomorrow's rehearsal!", and so on, the e-mails he'd continued sending since being left behind on the way to the student affairs office had so far all been ignored.

Continuing to send her e-mails one-sidedly, "Hey? How are you? You there? No?" and so on, even though there were no answers coming, was feeling awkward. Before long there wouldn't be more things to tell her about, nothing else came to mind, when it occurred to him: the results of his cooking. He would e-mail her a picture of his cooking. It was a technique common even on TalentBlog, so maybe it wouldn't look like he was a stalker.

Using pork he'd bought from the supermarket and bok choy sent to him from home, Banri was trying to make a simple [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shabu-shabu shabu-shabu]. The recipe had been given to him by telephone from his personal Mieko... his mother.

Slowly, taking his time, he added the bok choy and pre-sliced pork with absurd care. One month's time was transformed, gently filling the pot with both hands, carefully measuring the ingredients with a spoon while putting them in. Banri did according to what his mother told him, completely.

The kitchen timer sounded, and ready for the moment, he lifted the lid off the pot with both hands, steam lifting up the sweet smell of the bok choy. Saying, "...Horray! I did it!", Banri struck a gutsy pose, showing off for no-one but himself.

It looked like it turned out pretty good. This time, the timer on his rice cooker had gone off perfectly. Using a rice scoop just the way his mother taught him, he stirred the freshly cooked meal, happily filling his nice round rice bowl. Carrying the pot as it was to the little table, he put it down, a copy of TVBros doing duty as a pot stand.

He arranged the chopsticks, the ladle and the plate, set [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ponzu ponzu] sauce at the ready, not forgetting the finishing garnish: a green onion. This was already the perfectly done "cooking".

Hey, I was a little surprised. Well done. No, really. Wasn't that rather well done? Without realizing it, I applauded Banri. I didn't expect to be heard, though I wanted to make it so. Getting down from the stool, I sat down also, opposite him at the table.

Banri tried to stick his chopsticks into the pot at once, but suddenly stopped. Still seated, he stretched out his arm, pulled his cell phone from its charger and slowly took a picture of the dining table. Yes, mustn't forget your purpose. But try to eat before it cools off.

Looking across the table at that cell-phone, I started to hide myself. Will the first person it's sent to be Tada Mieko? He had been able to prepare it with just the flavor of the Tada house. Though perhaps he was taking that into consideration. And then, with regards to Yanagisawa Mitsuo, to Yana-ssan he just said "No". Then Satou Takaya also, "No", ...wait!? What'd they call that guy? What kind of name for a guy was that? Continuing with Oka Chinami too, "No", with a barrage of little bird track symbols following after. Actually, what I saw there was a barrage of the heart marks that go with her.

And now, down to business. The most important e-mail he sent to it's destination: to Kaga Kouko.

'Dinner just now (three food marks). For today, the bok choy and pork hot pot challenge (flexing biceps mark). I tried to make our home's original recipe (sparkling star marks), a taste of home (smiley face!)'

He saw what he wrote, rewrote it, changing it again, changed his mind and rewrote it and changed that, but in the end returned to what he had written in the first place. Yeah, that was a good idea. And then he sent it.

Putting his cell-phone back, at last, Banri started eating from the pot. He said, "Thanks for the food", which though heard austerely only by myself and the television, the flavor was quite good, it seemed. Eating a mouthful, he grunted, greedily (and apparently happily) scooping up the cooked white rice. He found himself chasing his food, so to speak. In the time of boiled eggs, he’d never seen such energy.

"Ah... soo goood. ...Is that what it was? It tasted like our own home cooking..."

While Banri put his big mouth to work, he was muttering to himself a little sadly. Watching the warm steam rising from the pot, his chopsticks stopped moving for a bit.

Come to think of it, the whole year Banri was at home, the pot didn’t appear on the table, did it?

"...If it's true, then it seems I must've missed it. ...Maybe that's it..."

Was this guy getting used to living alone, or was he speaking to himself more lately? Or rather, ...no, Banri.

In fact, it was something a little difficult to say--- and, an e-mail was coming back from somebody on the cell-phone. His right hand still holding the chopsticks, with bad manners, Banri opened the cell-phone again. It was from mother,

'It's a recipe from CookPad! (♥) I haven't used them even once (sweat drop)'

Banri hung his head.

...What was with that? It wasn't any particular flavor of the Tada household? He felt sorry for all the effort he had just put into it.

<center>* * *</center>

"Wow, as usual, cheap!"

Buying the daily special at the lunch shop Linda showed them before, Banri was feeling true respect. According to the shop-keeper lady, today's main special was sukiyaki. A mouthful of hamburger cooked together with salad greens and miso, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinpira kinpira], even macaroni salad to the side, three dollars of desperate deflation. Where is the Japanese economy headed?

"Or rather, cheaper than that."

Pointing at the cup of Starbucks she had in her hand,

"A tall latte, five dollars. But isn't this nearly 400 calories?"

"Very nutritious", said Kouko, posing as if doing a toast, a self-satisfied look on her face, batting her long eyelashes. Already, she had the same silvery plastic bag of the daily lunch special in one hand.

Meeting up at the student hall entrance after second period, Banri together with Kouko headed for the local hall Omaken used for rehearsal. While passing people on the narrow sidewalk without a guardrail, they walked fearfully, one in front of the other.

Their way to and from the law school campus passed through this area: aging office buildings and exam cram schools, eateries crowded close together in rows, and at lunchtime, the narrow sidewalk overflowed with office workers and students all at once. The two lane road had fairly heavy traffic, what with people using it as a bypass for the main street, trucks and taxis flying through, and lots of on-street parking, it had been badly planned.

"It looks surprisingly fattening, milady."

Banri, turning to look at Kouko behind him, tried to strike up a friend-like banter. The spotless Kouko was not speaking as she cautiously rounded at a distance the garbage collected in front of a bar, and jumping over a puddle of stuff that looked like it had flowed out of a ramen shop, saying "Eww" as she followed closely behind Banri.

Yesterday, having been separated from Kouko the way he was after the awkwardness with Chinami, there was not even an e-mail in reply. Banri was very anxious about what might happen, but as it turned out, he had worried needlessly.

He didn't know if there were going to be any lingering problems.

As for Banri, he intended to revive himself, a little while after he e-mailed out the picture of the dinner he had cooked for himself. An e-mail arrived from Kouko, 'Sorry! I only just realized my cell-phone had been buried in my bag til now!' After that it was one message after another, "So it was", "Yep, it was", messaging back and forth as usual, who knows how many times? Things had stayed good today too. Banri and Kouko together as good friends, heading for the club meeting. The two of them went on with their relationship as friends as if nothing had happened.

Kouko pouted cutely at Banri looking back at her.

"From here on I'm going to dance like crazy, no problem! Or rather, me without latte, I could not live one day."

And so on she talked. Banri, "You've got to be kidding!", his finger pointing, kidding her back.

"Look at you now, exaggerating like that!"

"But it's the truth! It's an addiction. Since third year middle school, it's been something I drink every day. Rain, wind or sun, Tokyo, Hawaii or New York. Though I could always have healthy soy-latte or no-fat latte, today I'm lifting my normal ban. I've got to save up for Awa Odori, right? Wouldn't it look bad for me to be wobbling on the way? I'm storing away the calories firmly inside."

Smiling perfectly, Kaga Kouko would not look out of place doing the latest commercial for Starbucks.

And now, somehow, Kouko was really looking forward to taking on the Omaken meeting.

Her willingness showed even in today's outfit. She was wearing her deep brown hair up, her slim neck without a necklace. With only small diamond studs in her ears, and wearing old knee-length pants under her skirt, she was dressed simply, in jersey cloth that would be OK if she were to sweat. Though Kouko looked rather sporty, nevertheless she didn't look like she was planning to dance. Peeking out from her shoulder bag was a binder as if for a lecture, and she carried another paper bag. A folded T-shirt and something jersey-like could be seen there. Though the way she dressed only 'felt' sporty, it was enough for Banri.

"Is that so? You think you're going to lose weight dancing..."

C-3PO, frozen up with salt from sweat... if he said such things he would offend for sure, so of course, he didn't say it, but well, she was surely thinking about such things.

But, as if she had heard it perfectly clearly,

"Tada-kun, just now, you were thinking 'in spite of her hardly being able to dance', weren't you?"

Kouko looked at Banri's face sidelong while she walked quickly, passing him from behind. Her light-colored lip gloss glittered more beautifully than ever in the sunlight, and her impish smile shot Banri in the eyes.

"I, I wasn't thinking that! Really, I wasn't thinking that at all!"

"It's not a big deal, but just you watch. Because today I will redeem myself. Nobody's going to be calling me C-3PO anymore!"

Brimming with self-confidence, now Kouko turned towards Banri's face and spoke.

"You really could say that last time I could not dance well, that I was doing my own thing. And then I understood the reason."

"Ah, you didn't have a sense of the rhythm, did you? I wondered if I didn't have it either. And afterwards, my body was all stiff. That was awful, Kaga-san still young, yet so pitiful..."

"That's not right! It's because I had closed the doors to my heart that I had gotten into such a mess. Definitely... the 'me' of that day was, as it were, squashed flat in every way, scared by everything and shrinking back miserably from it all..."

Taking a gulp of her latte,

"...But, the 'me' of today is different from the 'me' of that day. I have been born anew. I will not go back to such a miserable state for a second time. The new Kaga Kouko, wide open to her feelings, moving forward towards a new challenge. Open to the music! Open to the rhythm too! Open even to be seen! In a word, I thought, in 'dance' that sort of awareness is important. The body doesn't matter; it should be the spirit of the dancer, her very soul. Don't you agree? The audience will remember being moved. Hey, isn't that so? You think so too, don't you? It is absolutely the truth!"

She watched Banri's face as she walked backwards. Proudly hugging the cup of latte to her chest, suddenly batting her long eyelashes, her wide eyes brightened so much as to swallow him up,

"And so, by that theory, I can surely dance already!"

Standing there, right in the middle of the way, she was an impressive nuisance. She really stood out. An office worker coming their way frowned, bothered by having to avoid Kouko, who was blocking the way.

"Have you got a problem...?"

Banri mumbled back, his head tilted to the side, but,

"It absolutely is! Well, still... there could be a problem, just one."

Kouko slowly twisted and bent, her leggings riding up so that Banri could see her calf.

"...Aaaa..."

Banri covered his mouth. It was his turn to shriek. It was a shocking sight. For a moment, he was going to faint, the plastic bag with lunch at risk of falling to the ground.

"What do you think of this? It hardly looks like it's healing from that day."

Whatever he thought,

"Tha, that wasn't a poisonous snake!?"

"Yep."

Yep, my foot. What's with that self-satisfied look on your face?

On Kouko's white calf, the aforementioned snake bite mark remained. Surprisingly, the distinct shapes of the teeth were still there. The wound was swollen and red, seemingly feverish, looking bad to the glance, and around it internal bleeding had afterwards painted ominous speckles of purple and yellow here and there. It was in a rather bad state. Hmm, Kouko looked down at her calf for herself, checking it out with a doubtful expression.

"...This looks rather like something drawn by Pucci... Do you know about him? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilio_Pucci Emilio Pucci]?"

"No, I didn't know! I mean, isn't your leg going bad!? You really didn't go to the hospital!?"

"Oh yeah, but by the way! Yesterday's hot pot! That was reallly terrific! Tada-kun, an expert cook, I had no idea you had such a special skill! Sooo cool, I think!"

"Do such things as my hot pot matter!? Could you be more 'open' to heading for the hospital!? Because it's awful! That thing! Most of the time!"

"...In ~order to protect our love... heheehee~heheehee~..."

"Get a grip!"

Kouko quickly restored her leggings and hummed while they walked briskly. Walking despite her injury didn't seem to be a problem, but was this person really OK? Banri chased after her, confused.

Making Kouko promise that if it didn't subside she would go to the hospital the next day, they separated in front of the building's restrooms so they could change clothes.

For changing into, Banri had brought a pair of half-pants he normally used for sleeping, and his practically unused yellow T-shirt, which had been brought from home stuffed in a cardboard box.

Whether it was cheaply done, or it had been washed off by mistake, the design had flaked off entirely, and the present Banri had no idea what it might have said originally. Moreover, when he tried wearing it, the tag scratched the back of his neck, moving around just a little bit, but rubbing his skin painfully.

Because of that not thinking at all of whether he could dance, reluctantly, perhaps even embarrassed, he'd put it on inside out. In any case, the design having been worn off, if law students asked, then he'd say it was for emergency evacuation drills.

With a towel to dry his sweat hanging from his neck and his bag collected, he entered the rehearsal room and,

"Oh, a first year, just now arrived."

"Or rather, aren't you wearing your T-shirt inside out?"

"What? Just come out of the bath?"

With neither Kouko nor any other women yet visible, there were a number of older guys done changing, gathered and seated in front of mirrors affixed to the wall. Though Banri had only just entered, they noticed him and called out to him.

Banri quickly took off his shoes and came up into the old-fashioned room.

"Excuuuse me! My T-shirt's IS inside out! What's that about 'just come out of the bath'?"

He politely approached the circle of senior club members, careful with how he behaved. He still wasn't matching the names and faces at all, and in truth he was secretly nervous.

"Look here, that towel. Officially, hanging it from your neck like that is crude."

Putting his hand to his neck while giving Banri a friendly smile, the super-short-haired senpai reminded him in some respects of a monkey. Certainly so-and-so-sempai... these members of the Omaken somehow, nobody could call them zeroes, and these kind people seem to have carried their own share of the burdens. Their burly shoulders peeked randomly through absorbent T-shirts, and as Banri was answering with lines like "Is that so?", without thinking about it, he tried to conceal his pitiful shoulders with both hands.

"The towel goes here, like this. This is the Omaken 'style'.

So-and-so-senpai stood up and suddenly turned his back towards Banri. Folding up the towel so it was long and narrow, he stuffed it in his back pocket, making sure that fully half of it was dangling out.

If you tell him something is really cool, Banri will do it at once. He went all around the room, looking at what the senpai were doing, asking "How do I do that!?" The kind-hearted senpais nodded encouragingly at him, saying things like "There, there! That's good! You're looking good! That's the rhythm!" It was only their way of giving a lot of attention to this year's only freshman male, but though he hardly knew them he accepted it dutifully as their underclassman.

While Banri played the foolish junior-classman, he noticed what was on their feet.

"Are those sneakers? What kind are they?"

A pair of sneakers, looking like new, their laces still untied, were spread out on top of some paper.

"Yes, good thing you showed up. Do you wear these too?"

"There was a guy who wanted to buy these, and all of us were trying them out. But they're oddly small and narrow, and they don't fit anybody. If they fit you, he said you can have them for 5000 yen."

Banri looked over the sneakers once more, this time carefully, as something to be bought. Might the soles have been made thick enough to stand up to abuse?

"Sixty-five is it...? That's rather steep, I haven't got a part-time job yet... ah, but, these sure are cool."

"Aren't they? They're cool! They haven't been worn but once since they were bought, but even were they used, they might as well have been new. Besides, this is a popular model, shown in magazines. Wouldn't they usually be 20000 yen or more?"

Normally over 20000 yen... Banri took one of the sneakers in each hand, looking them over hard.

So light they felt as if they were floating in his hands, they were [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Balance NewBalance] running shoes.

With regards to footwear at the present time he had: the leather shoes he'd worn for the entrance ceremony, his favorite Jack Purcells he wore nearly every day, some sandals from a convenience store, and then of course his least favorite, some cheap, out of style, no-brand sneakers he wore on rainy days. Just those. As a male college freshman, he was about ready to have another pair of shoes. Besides, if he bought new shoes, what kind would he get for 2000 to 3000 yen? These might be good at 5000 yen.

"OK then. Well, give it a try!"

"I'm getting there."

Thinking "Something like Cinderella...", while the evil stepsisters, or rather, the nice upperclassmen watched attentively, Banri gingerly tried to insert one foot.

"How is it?"

"A little tight?"

He realized that from the tips of his toes to the heel, it fit good and snug.

"No... it looks like its OK for me. Will it be better on both feet?"

With one foot already set, he stepped lightly around the room. Though the laces weren't tied, nothing else seemed out of place, and it didn't seem like size was a problem. Crowding around Banri, uh... their eyes wide, there was quite a commotion amongst the guys. Was this kid somehow Cinderella...? Glass NBs fitting him perfectly, what is this kid...? This skinny, slump-shouldered, unpopular seeming youngster, with the apparently disposition to blemishes...? This kid's amazing...!

"Look, it fits perfectly! I'm Cinderella Boy! Wow, my foot is light!"

Putting on both shoes upon the paper, Banri could be seen jumping lightly around the place.

His feet accustomed to the heavy Jack Purcells, these modern, stylishly and lovingly crafted running shoes, they seemed as if he were wearing wings. Perhaps because he was on tatami mats, the firm souls felt comfortable under his feet. This is good. Absolutely good.

"I've decided! I'll buy them! I want 'em! At 5000 yen, I'll go for it! But who should I be paying?"

Just as Banri carefully stepped back to the spread-out paper, he saw the entrance door opening. Linda entered first, then some older girls, and then, done changing, Kouko came inside the room.

"Oh, you're just in time. Look here! This freshman's buying the shoes!"

"Oh? Really?"

Lifting her voice and turning towards them, it was Linda. Banri was a little bewildered. Since the shoes were for guys, he'd naturally thought the seller was a guy.

"These are Linda-senpai's shoes?"

"Yep, they are."

Wearing her usual long sleeve T-shirt under another T-shirt, plus knee-length nylon running pants, and for some reason barefoot, Linda, as always aloof from the world, came towards them in her easy way,

"Does it fit? It isn't too small?"

Like a shoe-store clerk she leaned over Banri's feet, as if she were double-checking his toes, pushing down on the shoes from above with her thumbs.

Swaying just below his eyes was Linda's straight, shiny hair. It smelled fresh. It was parted straight. The nape of her neck was slim. ...It was perhaps a little dangerous, seeing her like this from close by.

Moreover, something you don't see everyday: the tops of Linda's feet were unusually white, all the veins showing through light blue. Completely different from his own feet, they were incredibly beautiful. Obviously, if they were held gently, tenderly in one's mouth, sweet seeming, "...Ah, Linda-senpai's 'feet' were like candies, as they are, I want to eat them---", but putting things like that into words was a way to go straight to the inferno of the perverts.

"They, they're sorta OK..."

While answering without hesitation, Banri hurriedly averted his gaze.

What was he thinking all of a sudden? Idiot idiot idiot, you stupid idiot. Linda's feet are too beautiful, but that's no good. They really are pretty. Her fingers are long, her nails specially done, looking like [http://www.photolibrary.jp/mhd7/img15/450-200606011331141305.jpg pink tellin shells], even her smooth looking skin, if he were to touch it surely... ah enough already, really! You stinking fool! Since he'd put on that jersey, a strange and fatal transformation had befallen him!

He turned his head with all his might. And there was Kouko's face, suddenly, perfectly, completely before his eyes. Not knowing what he should do, his first impulse was to put on a joking face. Tilting her head to the side as if mystified, Kouko, dressed in a shocking pink jersey, was looking back at Banri's face. That perfectly prepared, white and beautiful face.

Ah, she's beautiful too... sorry. Maybe I really have some strange foot fetish...

Linda didn't even notice the perverted oinks sounding nearby and squatted down, grabbing hold of those distracting feet of hers,

"Hey, are they really OK? Up to a minute ago, just what size were they?"

She twisted his foot around and checked the size under the soles of the shoes.

A little rough with her hands, having bent his ankle like that, but she really was a gentle and good senpai. Banri finally having regained possession of himself, he automatically, in his heart, silently hung his head. For a junior to be thinking such things of this good person, about licking her feet and such, he ought to be excusing himself to the max. At the least. He ought to be doing some serious reflection. Really.

And, at that moment, on Linda's neck, below his eyes, he noticed something. It was a clothing tag. The long-sleeved T-shirt she wore inside had turned out little outwards, and from the neckline a tag could be seen.

So cute... even having thought that way, shouldn't he apologize?

While grinning like a scatterbrain who just got surprised, Banri tried to speak softly so that only Linda would hear.

"Linda-sempai. We match."

"Oh? How so?"

"Look here", Banri pointed at the tag sticking out from the neck of his own T-shirt's back side.

At that moment, it seemed, was when Linda first looked at what Banri was wearing. And then, her eyes widened.

As if beaten, her shoulders went stiff, and clearly her breathing had paused.

I wonder if she's realized her mistake, Banri thought. That sort of thing could really surprise you.

"Ah, I put mine on inside out on purpose though. For some reason, the tag scratches me something fierce."

Linda didn't say anything else.

"I'm kidding!", "Seriously!?", he said, confused and putting his hand to the back of his neck, his face going a little red perhaps--- she was not expecting a Banri like that at all. Linda, her eyes still wide, stood up without saying anything else. Like a person seen in a dream, or a hallucination, in some respects his behavior seemed bizarre.

And then, the height of her gaze hardly changed, she stared fixedly at Banri's face. Linda's face was frozen in place, her eyes still open wide.

'What kind of look is that?', Banri thought. Peeling the skin of his face to the flesh, through his eyes to his brain, seemingly so as to see through to his very thoughts. That look was like being examined under a powerful X-ray.

"...Eh? Uh, err, ...what're you doing?"

Bewildered, for an instant, Banri flinched.

What? What? What's going on...? Becoming agitated, he rubbed his forehead with the back of his hand.

Was Linda perhaps trying to see the real Banri she had known in this Banri she didn't know? If, if that was the case, ...his forehead suddenly broke out in a strange sweat.

But, why now all of a sudden? For what reason? Was there something I did? What the heck should I do? What should I do to fit into this place? My wish is for things to stay as they are. Banri the underclassman and Linda the upperclassman, because they said some nice things to each other, he wanted things to stay like that.

Linda kept on staring straight at Banri, who was keeping his mouth shut. She continued like that for several breaths.

And then, finally.

Finally, smiling as always, showing her teeth,

"Me too, on purpose."

Up to this point silent, gazing, now she laughed with a smile, as if it were all a joke.

Simply embarrassing a mere lowerclassman by giving him the evil eye. And she really had him going there. She'd deftly changed the atmosphere into such a joke. Involuntarily, Banri let out a sigh. He hadn't even noticed that he'd been holding his breath.

Ah, things are back to normal. Good---.

"It does scratch a bit, doesn't it? Mine does too. Since I wear something over it, I didn't think there'd be a problem with wearing it inside out. But for a guy to see it, I mean, having it pointed out can be embarrassing. Of course, I wonder if I ought to go change."

"No no! It's not embarrassing at all! You did it on purpose!"

Banri pointed challengingly to the inside-out, worn yellow T-shirt, hanging down in the space between the two of them, and his voice changed completely. Messing around, pretending to be a comedian, he held his index finger up while he puffed out his chest absurdly.

"Such a design this is! Linda-senpai's too, such a design! They match! A daringly stylish match! We're two of a kind!"

"What the!?", Linda blurted out, laughing softly.

Then seeming to have a hard time breathing she twisted, lowered her face, and looked away from Banri's eyes. Three seconds later she got up, swept her hair out of the way,

"Cool! I get it! Well then, it was by fate that we matched, and if those shoes are for Tada Banri, then I'll give them to him for free! In any case, it's only Banri, right? Sort of."

As usual, he was so relieved he was spouting foolishness. But suddenly there was gratitude as well, Banri lifting his voice in surprise.

"What was that we heard!?" "For free!?" "Isn't that favoritism!?" There was an uproar amongst the upperclassmen. "If it's free I want it.", "No, I want it for me.", "Auction it.", "I wouldn't make my little brother wear worn shoes." --- talking altogether like the French palace guards in '[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rose_of_Versailles Rose of Versailles]' upon finding something had been completely sold out.

"No way, no, no, way. If you guys buy it, you'll pay me 5000 yen! Are you underclassmen? Cute, precious, one of only two first-years? This isn't about money. Right?"

With a smile, Linda tried to pique Banri's interest.

"Eh, eh, but, but, is it really OK!? Eh, really!? ...Is it really OK!?"

Taking the shoes off and hugging them to his chest, Banri was virtually jumping in delight, hardly able to restrain himself. Of course, it wouldn't do to be too presumptious, would it?

"It's OK, really. I caught a glimpse of them in the store, and they told me they were the very last pair. Even though they didn't have my size, I bought it in a hurry, on impulse. Then, as you might expect, it turned out to be too big for me. Even with the laces tied, my heels rattled around, and they didn't look good. I don't know anything about an auction and any such thing. Still, we're only spiffing up the little guy because he's always unfortunate, you see, but he wears them well. I'm telling you guys, this guy was born for these shoes!"

"Ah, then, I'll pay just half price! Please let me pay 25, even that would still be an incredible bargain!"

While Banri started looking through his stuff for his wallet, Linda took the shoes from Banri's hands.

"So, don't worry about it. Here, I said, let's give a really good present to the cute underclassman. And then he will worship these up-and-coming upperclassmen!"

The second part a joke, Linda laughed. Not looking like she intended to let Banri pay, she quickly gathered the wrappings from upon the tatami mat and repacked the shoes in their box. And then having deftly dropped it into a paper bag,

"Here. They're a present, Tada Banri. That they are good, they fit perfectly, they're good shoes and that you are happy to have good senpais, when you wear these again, remember!"

"Aha, but..."

We, we really are classmates, aren't we?

Or rather, we, ...such things... no, let's stop.

Let's stop this.

I'd chosen to forget. I'd hoped things would stay 'as they are'. Had you not wished that not so long ago? With everything he had, Banri returned an underclassman-like smile.

"...Yes! Thank you very much! I'm happy! I will absolutely take care of them!"

As if he couldn't quite get some words out, he hung his head. And then playing the fool, he suddenly turned on one foot.

With a happy-looking face holding the paper bag up as if it were something sacred, wearing the grin of a fool and walking like one,

"Wow! I've been given shoes! Yay!"

Pointing at the paper bag for Kouko while showing it to her proudly.

"They're NewBalance, gray and super cool guy! I'm incredibly happy! I'm happy!"

Making as if he were hugging them and twisting his body, to the point of shaking his hips, Banri had every intention of showing his delight 1000 percent, over and over again.

However,

"...Tada-kun"

Kouko wasn't laughing, nor anything else.

Her white, perfectly made up face was stiff. At once, Banri thought, "Eh, is there something awfully dirty stuck to my teeth?" Or, is my zipper open, a jungle snake aiming at Kaga-san? No, isn't that impossible with running pants?

What on earth? Gazing fixedly into Banri's eyes as if puzzled, Kouko brought her face close to him. Then, she lowered her voice to a whisper so the others wouldn't be able to hear.

"Was that mere chance...?"

"Wh, what!?"

Gazing steadily back at the foolishly behaving Banri without averting her eyes, Kouko quietly closed her mouth for a little bit. As if she were about to nod off, her long eyelashes cast shadows, making highlights deeper than black mascara. And then, like that, a smile came to her face and once more, with a little more volume, she asked him a short question.

"...Did something happen between you and Linda-senpai...?"

"So, what!?"

His voice was intended to be boundlessly cheerful, but unexpectedly, a bit of irritation got mixed in. As if he'd been plainly attacked, he was not entirely in control of himself.

What on earth was Kouko worried about? When she doesn't even know anything about the situation. When she doesn't know anything about Linda nor Banri. And where in this self, where in the world, is the part she wants to worry about, so to speak? Or is there? When I haven't even told close friends nor anybody, you want me to explain it all to you, is that what you want me to tell you?

Almost, almost you--- taking a breath, ready to open his mouth and tell Kouko something he didn't know for himself,

"Well then! Let's eat lunch, and then start the rehearsal!"

One of the senpais clapped his hands together loudly, raising his voice. "Yes!", "Hey!", from here and there voices returned in answer.

Banri came back to himself.

Before his eyes was Kouko.

The girl to whom he had even confessed his love. Even now, he thought regretfully, his companion. Prettier than anyone else, awkward, but truly a gentle woman.

In complete desperation, he too yelled back "Yo!" with the breath he had been holding. So that nothing else could happen, he pulled himself together, got himself moving, and distributed the sitting cushions like a good underclassman.

Kouko was still looking at Banri like she wanted to say something, but at that moment,

"Yo! Shall we do Awa Odori!?"

Several men and women in suits that he'd not seen before pushed open the door without warning and came inside. It appeared that fourth-year senpais were popping in after a long absence, with everybody but Banri and Kouko raising delighted-sounding voices, running over to welcome them.

"Hurray, senpaai! Very long time no see!”

"How goes the job hunt!? Have you already decided on anything!?"

"You fools, the real thing is yet to come! Of course nobody's got a tentative offer yet! It's tough, being prepared and all, and you guys will be out there before long too!"

Gasp! Their shrieks echoed in the small rehearsal hall. But at once even that turned to laughter, the clamor of conversation swallowing it up.

"Oh yeah, oh yeah, senpai, we've finally had some first-years join! Yo, Tada, Kaga-chan, get over here!"

Being called over to the one senpai like a pet dog, Banri and Kouko were roughly pushed in the back, not waiting for them to answer. They were brought before the fourth-years.

Linda pointed at the two of them with her thumb,

"Look here, these are the kids that got into trouble. The kids we found while at training camp. We told you about them, the ones entangled in that strange church..."

"Ahhh! Those kids!", the suited senpais nodded, seeming interested. For some reason extremely self-conscious, Banri and Kouko managed weak smiles and said, "Ahaha...haa...that's so...", while hardly able to exchange a small glance amongst themselves. It was as if the conspicuous fools they had been yesterday were brought vividly back to life. One of the senpais elbowed another, and while they looked at Kouko they chatted, "Really pretty really pretty really pretty", "A first for Omaken" and so on, whispering intensely. But it was all quite audible.

Linda brought her mouth close to them,

"Tada Banri and Kouko-chan, these guys are the fourth-year senpais, and this is the former president, Hosshii-san."

...There it was, that 'so-and-so-sshii' pattern. Was Kouko thinking the same thing? Even Banri could see her eyebrows raised slightly.

"And behind him are just regular senpais. They are currently scratching around, trying to find their jobs."

They cried back, "What's with 'regular senpais'!?", "That's awful!" Linda simply smiled sidelong.

"I mean, really, work hard, make yourselves a company and then hire all the Omaken juniors automatically, please. Or rather, I mean, did you bring us souvenirs? Treats?"

"Treats, yummies, mamaa, papaa", everybody teased the fourth-years.

Banri got into it too, and took part, and tried to draw nearer to one of the unknown guys in suits. Kouko too caught the spirit, and reached out tentatively, taking part for the moment.

"Noisy buggers, keep your hands off! As for treats, they're over here!"

The former president, the tall so-and-so-sshii that had been introduced, set a cardboard box he'd brought under his arm on top of the tatami mat with a thud. With a 'whoa!', the active Omaken members leaped at the box like a bunch of starving hyenas. With the mess they were making, was it snack food, or what?

Energetically tearing off the paper packing tape, somebody opened up the cardboard box. And then, everybody able to see inside at the same time, the clamor transformed into vague confusion. All at once the voltage dropped. One self-satisfied face,

"It had to be, absolutely. Even on time for rehearsal. It's for Awa Odori."

The former president. The other fourth-years looked around, holding in their laughter.

Each of them looked at what they had in their hands,

"...Though we really need them..."

Having gotten their hopes up that maybe everybody would get donuts from Mr. Donut or Krispy Kreme, or chicken from MOS Burger or Family-mart, or maybe manju buns with meat filling, or ice cream, or even something to drink, their hopes were dashed.

"...Fans..."

They weren't.

Banri too felt defeated, gazing at them solemnly, reflecting on his disappointment along with the senpais. There had been stuffed into that cardboard box fans for everybody in the group. For whatever on earth sense it made, on the one side was "YES", on the other was "NO"--- They were Yes/No fans, so to speak.

"Hey, show a little more gratitude, the fourth years all made these specially for you. Aren't they the real thing? They're my own design! Anyway, use them when you practice for the performance. Nah, look, look, smile! Shout! Shouldn't you be glad!?"

Everybody showed the "NO" side towards the former president. They were convenient, for sure.

"Wh, what the... such awful-looking lower-classmen you are! Man... even if I don't go nor cannot go to the employment agency again, my feelings have been hurt! Am I without a job offer, unpopular, without friends? Are you suggesting that I am becoming an insignificant bum without job nor prospects!? Waahhh!"

Watching the former president grieving amongst them, for various reasons, the NO sides facing him making him so pitiful, Banri lowered his fan. It looked like everybody else felt the same way.

...Well, as you might expect, there wasn't any more criticism... they had been about to weaken, as if they were exposed to a bitter headwind... or rather, they saw the shape of their own future... that sort of atmosphere was hanging over the rehearsal hall.

One of the senpais, leaning importantly against the wall, lifted up a cloth sack.

Removing the bag, a beautifully polished little musical instrument, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kane_(instrument) kane bell], was revealed to view. Of elegant silver, attached to a long handle, it was shaped like a little frying pan .

The senpai, holding it, with one hand serving as drumstick, 'Ko Ko Kon!', rapped on it as if to test it. There was a sharp, piercing sound. Surprised, everybody looked over that way.

And then, they took a breath.

The rhythm started slowly, the rhythm of Awa Odori.

Well, it was a festival.

"Whoa... something good, the feeling from that!"

"Ah! The dance, it makes me long for summer!"

Even the suited senpais, suddenly looked over towards the instruments, their eyes gleaming. It seemed that the festival-going blood in them, fostered by the Omaken activities, had been roused.

While ringing the bell, the guy doing the ringing made eye contact with Linda. Excitedly, he also spoke quickly. Linda smiled and nodded quickly, pulling from her pocket a white object. Then it dawned on Banri why she had been barefoot. Crouching down, she quickly put on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabi tabi socks], and standing with her heels still exposed,

"We still haven't started the practice, though today we will just be stretching still, for the moment with this feeling. We'll be borrowing a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiko taiko drum] starting with the next practice... one, two,"

With her fingertips, she took hold of the fan by its bamboo roots.

Whoosh, with her heart in it, the tips of their toes pushed into the tatami floor.

Her knees lightly lifting up, she danced flutteringly, like a butterfly.

Banri was captivated by that surpassingly brilliant dance. Though she was wearing a short T-shirt and track pants, dancing, she became a dazzling flower. From the sudden turns, her arms stretching out, and her feet springing up, the tatami mat rang.

"How's this?", tilting her chin upwards slightly, as if trying a pose, her gaze glamourous. "Yo!", the fourth-years cheered her on, their sharp whistles slicing the air.

Linda was not the least bit shy. Neither was she embarrassed. Still, she was the only one dancing and having fun, and even on this side I'm beginning to get upset from only watching. Even Banri was slowly getting impatient. I wanna go, me too, he was thinking. Before long, even the other members ran out of patience, and taking their fan's handles pressed them to the side of their jerseys, near the back, and then while lifting them one-handedly like Linda, they slowly began to take on the Awa Odori style.

Banri stepped out on the tatami mat too, on his toes. At first a bit carefully, gingerly alternating his gait, he dropped his hips into the men's dance. With the knees flexed. All the time, as if he was floating. Isn't it strange? Isn't it funny? Doesn't it get to be embarrassing? Briefly looking at the mirror, he discovered that he had slipped into the group, dancing like the others. Moving a little humorously, but truth be told, making rather good use of his entire body, the dance was quick and dynamic, more so than the popular image of it. He fit into the swaying group too, blushing red as a beet. If the Banri inside the mirror were to notice, he would laugh out of control. Himself, and everybody else, was smiling, breathing to the rhythm, quite pleasantly, as they were beginning to entrust the speed of their bodies to the musical instruments.

The rhythm light, but quick, Banri too moved both hands naturally back and forth. He danced it easily. Freely through the air, jumping to the splinters of sound, his fingertips moved flutteringly as if they were swimming. Strangely having fun, his head was going blank, aah, but, his footsteps were always too restricted. His hip joints were stiff. Looking in the mirror, his own image was not 'floating' that much. He was stomping too much... a little softer... more dynamic... besides, if everybody were to move together... piling on the practice, would they not be able to get a better feel for it?

Even the senpais in suits, lined up and standing around the door, were nodding to the beat and setting the heavy-looking bag on the floor by their feet. While watching the moving forms of the underclassmen, they started to clap their hands.

And then, finally, Kouko started moving.

Gasping in surprise, Banri looked over towards Kouko without thinking. Kouko, for quite a while in the corner, beating time, seeming to be having fun, now at last, holding a fan in her white hand, she was beginning to tilt her head back and forth. Somehow or other, it felt like she was coming alive. Finally, with an open feeling, was the soul of the dancer coming out? The other members, apart from Banri, seemed to notice Kouko, their glances starting to turn her way.

Kouko, her eyes half closed, her hips lowered, soon lifted both hands high.

''Crack! Flash!'' A flash of gold shone from her.

<center>* * *</center>

"Tada-kun, you're awful...!"

"...That wasn't really my intention..."

"Tada-kun laughed and left me to take the blame...!"

"...Not so. But, really, I'm sorry..."

Fully two hours of practice over with, on the way out to the street.

Done changing, the upperclassmen having returned the key to the counter, there was the sound of many footsteps and all of them saying things like "See ya!", "Are you guys going to play mahjongg again?", "I'm beat!", "Are you going to the Criminal Procedure Code lecture?" and so on while they split up, heading off to the station, the campus and other places. Linda was making as if to go with other upperclassmen to the station also, but while still standing in the middle of the road she spotted the pair of freshmen and walked back towards them. Deliberately.

"Well then, Tada Banri and Kouko-chan, until the next practice, OK?"

With an wonderfully kind, benevolent smile,

"I mean, well, after all, since somebody's always hanging around the lobby, if you two show up there now and then, try and double-check the schedule! For the time being, the table in front of the bulletin board and to the side is where the Omaken tend to gather. That is, well, you see..., er, um, that... I really am tired. But that's entirely OK!"

She clapped Kouko on the shoulder. Wordlessly, Kouko looked at the shoulder that was struck.

The other upperclassmen saw what was happening too, and of course as one the group, with kindly-to-the-max smiles, said "Really, really.", "Always, always.", "It's OK, it's OK.", as if they were chanting, while they waved for them to come over.

"That, leg, well, there's nothing that can be done about it. Yes, oh yeah! The snake, it was bad!"

With an expression rather like a combat cameraman, Linda gently encouraged Kouko, in the end grabbing the shoulder she had clapped before once more, firmly, patting her twice on the back softly as if to finish cheering her up, and then went on towards the station, heading out into the chaotic street.

Banri,

"We... well then..."

He muttered, completely in a daze. Kouko looked over at his face.

A curl of her bangs flipped over to the tip of her nose, and her lip gloss had melted off, her dried lips part-way open. From mascara melting, the area around her eyes was dyed black, and in those eyes were the words, "What Was That?"

That sorrowful face was well below the standards of Kaga Kouko, the perfect Queen of Roses.

Gasping involuntarily, Banri spoke.

"Look, about the snake... I didn't say anything to Linda-senpai, nor to the other senpais..."

With a dry, crackling sound... the skin of Kouko's face was losing color even faster.

Saying that mind over matter is not enough, one who cannot dance, cannot dance, the facts were finally hitting home, and the flame of Kouko's life was guttering out.

---At first, she was giving off a rather subdued aura.

Invited by Linda into the maelstrom of dancing, Kouko came right in naturally, Banri thought. "Isn't this life?", she'd asked. Saying this and that, "Aren't I a woman of my word?", she'd said. "I am looking ahead! I am open! I can dance!" ...Since she'd gone so far as to declare magnificently, "I can dance!", then perhaps Kouko really would become able to dance. So he thought. To the extent that her sorry, untrained state had been exposed for all to see last time, the only problem (as she said) was in her head. She said that the new Kaga Kouko had overcome all of that, and had become a person able to dance.

But, unfortunately, that he'd thought so was really only the beginning.

Had Kouko done well for only about two seconds or so?

Taking the position, her long slim arm outstretched, she was certainly doing well until she held out her fan. She did extremely well in stepping out, on tiptoes, with one foot onto the tatami mat. Lightly turning her slender body, supple like a willow reed, with downcast eyes pretty like flowers, everyone gasped together, Banri too. It was like that for two seconds.

It was after that.

Falling into the beat of the instruments, raising both her arms, standing on tiptoe, swinging her partway bent-over body, changing her gait, Kouko all of a sudden had become rather 'interesting'.

The underside of her arms still raised, her chest went rigid. Her shoulders stiffened and stopped moving. Her elbows were still held out at right angles. Her spine was as if plaster had been stuffed into it. The upper half of her body swayed back and forth in a courageous effort, but the other half was resisting, continuing to shake like a roughly grade three earthquake. Her hips, joints and knees were entirely inflexible, everything setting into hard angles. It was awful.

Even before she noticed the gazes around her, it looked like even she was thinking, "Huh?" Huh? For some reason her own appearance...? Opening her eyes round and wide, Kouko was trying to look at herself, her face tilted downward. Still, it was that expression. Those angles.

There she was, 'that' again.

Snorting, Banri was forced to lower his face and hide his expression. He could not laugh--- And not just Banri, all the rest of the Omaken must have been thinking the same. If he burst into laughter here, he'd hurt Kouko after all the effort she made to come back. So, he'd pretend not to know for now, ah but... no, he couldn't. ...But... they were just too much alike...

Before long, there was a disturbance, the fourth-year senpais talking in low voices. They were saying things like "What does that remind me of...", "What was it, it's right on the tip of my tongue..." and "I know that...!" They could be each seen tilting their heads, holding their foreheads, and looking over at the twitchily moving Kouko, and then saying more: "Ah, that fellow, he's here, isn't he..." and "...Who was it...?"

Even Kouko was starting to notice it. Seeing her own ridiculous body in the mirror, fluttering uneasily, and seeing the suited senpais with their heads tilted to the side, her brows furrowed, apparently in distress. As if searching for help, she looked towards her best friend Banri.

Just what the heck was the right thing to do in that place, just what Kouko wanted him to do, Banri as yet had no idea.

But, already, he could not undo what had been done.

What do I do? His mind going blank in desperation, Banri rushed over to Kouko's side. And then, making a circle from his thumb and his other fingers, he mimed making his torso turn around. Needless to say, he was her buddy, R2-D2. Quite unintentionally, he had given the fourth-years a hint.

As a result, the fourth-years clapped their hands happily and said, "Ah! From Star Wars...!" The rest of the senpais, unable to take it anymore, stopped dancing and, here and there started breaking into laughter. But Banri somehow kept his cool. Or rather, pierced by Kouko's gaze towards him, he couldn't possibly laugh.

The fourth-years, not knowing the details of what was going on to this point, with a burst of laughter took off their suit-coats, surrounded Kouko and started to coach her, saying things like, "Ahhahha! This kid is useless!", "Look here, what's this!", "Don't you have any sense of rhythm!?", "Straighten up your back some more!", "It should be like this.", "Like this, don't you think?" and so on. Though they had definitely never done Awa Odori before, the fact was that they, who had only watched for a few minutes, looked overwhelmingly better than Kouko.

Before long Kouko stopped dancing, and suddenly holding her stomach, she groaned and sat down on the tatami floor. The other club members gathering around and asking what was happening, what was going on, she looked up sharply, with teary eyes, and said just one thing:

'I can't dance anymore, my legs are hurting already!'

Amongst the silent accusations of "It can't be your stomach!" flying about, she raised the cuff of her running pants, suddenly showing to all around the speckled pattern of her bruises. Linda screamed especially loudly, covering her mouth, taken aback. Banri reflexively took over, backing up Kouko. That's what it was! Her not being able to dance was because of her snake-bite! Look, that wound must be awful!

---And so, Kouko was able to introduce herself to all the members of the Omaken, and at the same time tell the tale of the battle against the snake.

"This is no good! No good at all! Not only am I completely embarrassed, but Tada-kun has betrayed me!"

"For that reason, I say sorry sorry, sorry... but what was I supposed to do to back you up?"

"At least, if we're friends then don't make me the punch-line! What, what's with this...!"

Kouko showed how R2-D2 moved about (that by itself was rather cute),

"Don't give me 'Wiii wiii'! Haven't we gotten to be friends!?"

Glaring at Banri, slowly but surely tears began to well up in the corners of her eyes. Her soft lips trembling, Banri panicked,

"We're friends! Really good friends! Look, look, Sex and the City!"

Taking Kouko firmly by the shoulder, he tried to walk daintily on his toes, with deep strides. He acted it out as much as he could, flapping his other arm around,

"Naaaa!"

At Kouko's angry shout, the other students-like guys could be heard arguing amongst themselves, "Is it a fight?", "Something incredible's going on." and so on.

Gulping once, Kouko waited until they went away.

"...Enough, stop it...!"

She glared at Banri even more strongly. Her eyes were already bright red.

"But, ...you only wanted to try harder in going forward...!"

Before his eyes, groaning as if wrung out, her temples, head, throat . . . all the way to her chest, she flushed bright red all at once. And then,

"But I thought I was 'able to change'...! I should have been able to get good at it... and yet why, why did this happen again...!"

From beneath her tightly closed eyelashes, at last large teardrops started rolling out. At three in the afternoon, with all the proper office workers and people from the surrounding areas coming downtown, there weren't many people they might know from their same school walking around the place. All the same, even Banri was losing his composure, desperately peeking towards Kouko's face.

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 141.jpg|thumb]]

"That kind of thing, hold on... it's nothing to cry about, is it...?"

"...Buuttt...!"

While crying aloud like a child, Kouko,

"...Tada-kun, sowwy!"

Her feelings had changed suddenly from rage to "sowwy". Catching hold of Banri's outstretched arm, she leaned against him. Her hands were warm and damp, like a baby's. Hiding her reddened, tear-stained face, she argued insistently in a whining voice.

"Sowwy, even though I unnerstan', and a guy's aroun'..."

"Ooo..."

Unable to hug her or do anything like that, of course, keeping his arm extended stiffly as support, Banri held Kouko up. While casually doing so, he guided her to a place amongst the bushes by the sidewalk. Like a drowning person desperately grabbing a piece of wood, Kouko stood with Banri's arm for support.

“We’ve beeng going aroud as fwends, I dow, I dow... you’re making fwends with a widdle kid...”

We go together to the school club, we eat lunch together, we dance together, you even listen to my problems. You send me e-mails. You worry about many things for me. Tada-kun has been a friend for me. I know that. But I’m acting like a spoiled brat, being a bother. Even Tada-kun must have been shocked--- Kouko said these things in a quavering voice while rubbing her face with the back of her hand like a child.

Yes.

Indeed.

Because they were friends, he ought to be putting his arm around the slender shoulders of the trembling woman, and brushing away the hair clinging to her wet cheeks with his finger, but he did not. He could not. In an unnatural stance, his arms stiffly raised, Banri patiently waited for Kouko to raise her face.

“...There there there, look, for now, cheer up! It isn’t something to cry over. It’s something to laugh about. I mean, it was only because I did those strange things that the mood turned out the way it did. And you’ll be fine if you try hard at the next practice. Right?”

Still behaving like a spoiled little girl, Kouko was hanging her head. As it was, her face was lowered so much, it was as if she’d gone all the way to Brazil.

"Oh, oh yeah, why don't we go to Starbucks!? Don't you like Starbucks!? Let's go! If we're friends, then going to Starbucks afterwards ought to be natural!"

"...I already had some earlier..."

Some seconds passed, and she muttered softly, but Kouko finally, slowly, raised her head. Rubbing her reddened nose,

"...But, if Tada-kun wants to drink Starbucks, I'll go with him anytime! We're friends, after all."

She chuckled.

Her dry lips lighting up with the three syllables, "Fi-nal-ly!", and gaving an embarrassed smile, Kouko rubbed her sticky face with her fingertips. Laughing at the state she was in, and looking like she was trying to clean herself up, she shrugged her shoulders.

To put it mildly, she was a mess.

Her hair as messy as could be, her makeup running, and her nose was all red. If her customary good looks were 100, then earlier she was at 61, and now she had fallen to about 46.

However, more than any moment up to now, more than any time he'd seen any face of Kaga Kouko, his chest tightened. Not pretending at all, he smiled back at her with all he had.

If they were truly friends, then the pain didn't matter.

Banri insisted on treating Kouko, Kouko insisted on treating Banri, and in the end Kouko bought Banri's share, and Banri bought Kouko's share, meaning it didn't make much sense when eventually they paid.

For the time being, could he do something for Kouko's sake?

"Aren't you incredible!?"

"A latte, with a shot of espresso, vanilla syrup, whipped cream, caramel sauce and chocolate sauce. In a Grande. And you, Tada-kun?"

"For me, a normal Starbucks latte."

Each of them holding their trays carefully in both hands, they sat down, lined up at the counter seats facing outwards, looking out on the street.

While gazing at the people going to and fro, the two of them sighed reflexively. Both of them hearing this, with the same timing, mirror images of each other, they exchanged glances.

"...I'm really sorry for what happened earlier. Crying like that, I was ridiculous, wasn't I?"

It was the smiling Kouko from before.

The area around her eyes was still puffy and red. Her mascara had run, casting a shadow on her cheeks from her white eyelids and long, delicate eyelashes. And then, casting her profile suddenly downwards,

"I was a bit... over the top. Perhaps."

Kouko said that under her breath, embarrassed.

"Yeah, it rather felt like that."

Carefully sipping his hot coffee latte, Banri continued waiting on Kouko's words.

And, he realized. Seated next to her like this, he might perhaps be able to start talking with her in a normal way, easily.

Playing with her earrings with the tips of her beige fingernails, Kouko scooped only the tip of the whipped cream with her spoon, sticking her tongue out like a cat to taste it. Mixing the chocolate and caramel sauce a little to a marbled state, she took a slightly larger mouthful.

And then,

"...I was awfully, impatient."

She licked her lips and turned towards Banri. Once more, he was surprised by how big her eyes seemed from close by. Through the transparent surface of her eyes, they were brown. Now trembling and forlorn, they shone with a gentle light.

"Even I understand I am making a mess of things. Nowadays I, somehow, really, cannot help it. I think it's dangerous. ...I mean, from the beginning, I've been aware of how easy it was for me to make a mess of things. In a word, I,"

It's hard to to rescue somebody from their foolishness... from their impatience... He nodded to the words that followed, whether they were good or not.

"I wanted to settle many matters once and for all. Stubbornly, I wouldn't let go of my failures in the past. I thought to make it all new, starting right away."

"By those, 'failures in the past', you're referring, of course, to Yana-ssan?"

Kouko looked away.

"Yes. ...That's it. That, is the big one! The biggest. Of course it is! ...However I might excuse myself, I won't do that in front of you. That's right! I wanted to put my feelings about Mitsuo perfectly in order. It's not like I have any regrets."

Urk. He knew that at moments like this, his heart could come to sound like that.

"I simply have no hopes as to what might happen now. That is the truth. Still... I still don't know for sure. In some ways, it's as if I were paralyzed: Though I have clearly been rejected, somehow... it all feels like a living dream."

Speaking of somebody somewhere else, and things like that, Kouko held her huge cup in her delicate hands, quietly tasting it. However, plenty of cream had stuck to her nose and to her upper lip, and when he saw it, without thinking, Banri burst out laughing. No matter how seriously she spoke, this person was rather undecided. That was a good place to be.

"...Oh, no... Something's wrong."

Kouko, pulling her mirror out of a pouch of her bag, opened it and peered at her face.

In the silvery surface, a Swarovski rose had been drawn on the faba-bean shaped mirror. In Kouko's white hand, it looked really pretty, and suited her.

When Banri pulled out the matching mirror from his back pocket and showed her, Kouko, whipped cream still stuck to the tip of her nose, laughed sneezingly like a child.

"Tada-kun, are you using it for my sake?"

"Of course. Aren't the mirrors a friendship pair?"

"I'm glad. Very much so."

That Sunday at Veloce, Kouko said so. She'd said, 'These belong to the survivors.'

The time Banri and Kouko were rescued from the training camp of that new religion, Kouko had packed virtually all of her cosmetics into her luggage. However, this one mirror escaped in her pocket, she said. And then as far as Kouko was concerned, she felt it was a symbol of her bond with Banri.

Therefore Kouko, to become better friends with Banri, made him a present: the same, matching mirror. Hearing that and understanding that he was to receive it, Banri borrowed a magic marker from a store clerk, and Kouko wrote on it. 'Remember the anniversary of our escape', it said. It wasn't any kind of consolation prize, in remembrance of unrequited love. So it was clearly stated.

While wondering again at this mirror, Banri handled it carefully, even if it wasn't appropriate for him.

Wiping her nose and mouth with pale brown paper, Kouko conquered some of the fresh whipped cream with her spoon.

"So, I said this and that thing, but in reality, it wasn't 'this'. So anyway... mm! This chocolate is just about the best... anyway, as for me, in this life, I was just able to pretend I had adjusted to it. Or rather, I had convinced myself that I was able to. Relieved, refreshed, starting to move forward in a new life, I was such a woman. I even thought so. ...So I told myself I'd become. I believed that I could do it. But from believing it too much, I eventually understood that I could not do it quite so easily. I was still not all that successful in changing myself, finding in me the remnants of that disgraceful C-3PO, somehow awful... you could say it was a shock. It was disappointing..."

"Sure seems like it", said Banri, his hand supporting his cheek, blending his sigh with Kouko's, who was also in the same attitude, cheek in hand. His left hand supported the left side of his chin, and his legs were crossed, left foot on top.

"Because after all, idealism by itself will not suddenly make you a dancer. In the worst case, even if you are truly a woman refreshed and relieved, moving forwards in life, even so you might have nothing to do with Awa Odori."

"I was given proof of that today."

Kouko suddenly stood up, her high-heels clicking. She went and came back with a plastic spoon. She handed it over to Banri, saying "Here."

"This whipped cream is about the best in the world. Let's both have it."

"Th, thanks."

Let us lick up this sweet whipped cream together.

For some reason, he hesitated. But answering with unusual restraint, realizing the humor, taking her at her word, Banri scooped up a mouthful of Kouko's whipped cream. He held it in his mouth, sweetly thick, melting.

"How about it? Isn't it the best!?"

"Yes, really... super sweet. Melts in your mouth."

"Even melting it's good! Doesn't it feel like 'I live for this'!?"

"Haven't you already bought stock in Starbucks?"

"Aah! I'd even buy it all! The wonder is I haven't done it already!"

She meant, "Sharing like this is the most fun!" If you looked into Kouko's face, you realized what she was thinking at once. She continued to stare intensely, even whimsically, from beginning to end as Banri reached the spoon out to his own cup and tasted the whipped cream. She seemed completely happy, her beautiful eyes sparkling.

Then,

"...You understand just how entirely useless I am. Even that uselessness you forgive me. Thank you. Besides behaving like a brat, just now I cried. Once again, excuse me. It seems every day I am an emotional disaster by your side..."

"A 'disaster'?"

Seeming suddenly surprised by that word, Banri looked back at Kouko. Kouko blinked as if in surprise from his expression,

"Eh? But... it's a mess, isn't it? But look, those... your memories... they aren't..."

Mumbling, he avoided the issue. He tried to lower his head as if it hurt. Geh, Banri frowned.

"No, or rather, no way. There is really no way!"

It was no joke. Just being pitied like this was meaningless. Lowering his spoon into his latte, he spoke distinctly. Although he didn't want to speak, he had to speak this once so she would know.

"Because it's not a big deal. Because I live like anyone else. Though I cannot say that there isn't anything that worries me, but normally I am not even aware of the memory loss, and it's not really a problem for me, and more than anything else, I want to be so. So, could you stop acting like you're nursing somebody pitiful and sick...!"

"But I didn't mean anything like that...! But, OK. Sure. I understand. If you say so, I won't say anything more. ...I swear by Starbucks."

As if taking an oath, Kouko placed her right hand on her cup, and lifted her left hand. OK then, watching that, Banri took a manly gulp of his slightly cooled latte. That he'd managed to not poke his face with the handle of his spoon, he didn't even realize. But,

"That reminds me, was there something between you and Linda-senpai?"

A snort escaped his nose.

"During practice, the two of you were acting a bit strange."

Stuck in such a critical place, the incredible Kaga Kouko--- the muscles of her neck beautifully stretched, waiting for his reply. He thought himself good enough a fast-talker, with a good enough poker face, to be able to steer away from this awkward topic.

But some things he simply could not say.

That it was possible that he'd gone out with Linda, his old classmate, for instance.

Though he had believed it entirely at their first meeting, in fact it wasn't so. Despite everything, she said nothing at all to him, but rather regarded him with doubt. Even if he believed that she had no reason for choosing to do things like that, he was reluctant to press her on the issue. He thought that if he wanted to preserve their current relationship as it was, he had better not allude to things like that. Far from it.

...No, wait. Nothing at all can be said, ...isn't there anything?

Looking a little towards Kouko, Banri gasped softly at his own thoughts. He wondered if it wouldn't be good idea to share this secret with Kouko.

It wasn't good to carry a mysterious secret, by himself, not sharing it. Would she not be able to understand these complicated feelings of his? Likewise the club, too. Even if something were to happen from now on, they may be able to get over it with an understanding person nearby. They'd seen each other at the point of utter desperation... in any case, he'd gone so far as to confess to her. And then he'd been rejected. At this point, what was there to hide? So now, seeing as they were friends like this, messing around side by side, licking whipped cream...

"I, I want to become like Linda-senpai. I admire her."

He was about to open his mouth, but closed it uncertainly.

OK, he let the matter drop, of course--- in only a moment, the mood had changed.

Even with their conversation lightening, their situation wasn't resolved. He wasn't going to burden her with his complicated situation; she had plenty of problems of her own.

Kouko didn't seem to be overly suspicious towards Linda. And if she held such aspirations, so much the better. Even if there was something there in his history with Linda, involving Kouko in it wasn't going to throw cold water on the relationship between the two of them.

"But look, Linda-senpai, doesn't she make you feel 'relaxed, refreshed, and having fun moving forward in life'? Don't you think so too?"

"Well... she's a good senpai. ...'Refreshing', like that, I think so too..."

"Seriously", she added.

Truly refreshing, giving the feeling that there hadn't been something in the past, 'looking forward', Banri was thinking too. Since the other day.

"She's awfully good at dancing too, she does everything really cool, and she's pretty. Wherever she is, you get the feeling she's at the center of it. I mean, look, that former president senpai, don't you think he absolutely adored Linda-senpai?"

"...Eh? Wh, what? Why? How did the conversation jump to that...?"

"It was the mood, the mood! But I get the feeling she isn't seeing anybody. ...From the very start, has she had a boyfriend around? Is that OK? Mature as she is, you would think she'd have a ton of guys after her."

Leaving the strangely silent Banri behind, "Haah", Kouko gasped, strangely sexily. While warming both her hands with her cup, she twisted on her stool.

"What if, I were to become like Linda-senpai? Her hairstyle? Her clothing, rather unisex-style? No, that's not quite what I mean. I want to have that sort of feeling in living. Not like my current, hesistant self, but truly positive, relaxed, without criticizing, seeing what the world has to offer. I want to become like that."

Thinking vaguely, "Isn't this all about image?", but for the time being staying quiet, he listened to Kouko speaking in awe of Linda-senpai.

"If I am to be like Linda-senpai, then... I will do Awa Odori perfectly. And then I will have lots of friends at school. I will rebuild the relaxed, good relationship I had long ago with Mitsuo, without dragging along any boring parts. Jumping into a new world, meeting all sorts of people, going out anew, having fun to the fullest in a new college life with new friends. For example, being invited to a drinking party just like that. Me too, carefree, going off to have fun..."

And at about the same time it dawned on him.

"Oh, that reminds me. We've been invited. By Oka-chan. So it is, to a drinking party of course..."

''Geh''. Rather unlike a princess, Kouko frowned. She seemed aware that something awkward had been said, but hadn't caught more than that.

Though Banri had started to forget, he remembered once more that he ought to invite Kouko. It was the perfect opportunity. Wasn't it a chance to "rebuild a relaxed relationship with Mitsuo"? And as far as Mitsuo was concerned for the time being, it might be a good idea for there to be somewhere he could see her face.

The two childhood friends had messed up in various ways, but as far as building a normal quiet relationship, they had at one time done just fine.

"Let's do that, for sure! I'll go too, let's go together. Yana-ssan will come too!"

"Eh, eh, ...ho, hold on. As for me, though, ...as you might expect, that, not much... I've got the feeling Mitsuo doesn't want me around yet..."

"Look at that hesitation coming out. That's not allowed. Don't you want to be a woman refreshed and relaxed, like Linda-senpai? If that's the case, don't fuss about the past, unable to jump quickly into a new world."

"But! ...That ultrasonic, detestable thing!"

"I know. Nobody said anything about becoming friends with Oka-chan. Why don't we just show up, normally, and mingle with our fellow first-years? Besides, what would you do if you were Linda-senpai? Invited like that by Oka-chan, it's a once in a lifetime chance to restart your relationship. If you're a person thinking you want to move forward in life, what do you think you ought to do, Kaga-san?"

"...But..."

Her brows furrowed, Kouko looked over at Banri as if she were worried. Acting like that, requesting help from Banri with a cute face, not meeting his eyes properly, was that something she'd only recently learned?

"No 'buts'! Since neither reliance on the spirit nor anything else is working out, of course you aren't going to make a huge change in your behavior here. Don't you want to move ahead? Don't you want to become a relaxed, refreshed woman? If so, make it reality! You're going to the gathering. Because there's nothing to complain about! There's no reason not to go out! In any case, we've got nothing going on! There's no reason why we can't spend some time having fun with our fellow freshmen! With a 'Hmph!' kinda of feeling."

"...Tada-kun, do you think I have the free time...really?"

"Eh? Is there something on your schedule? Wasn't it clear?"

...Even though it was clear. In chagrin, Kouko held the whipped cream in her mouth. Grabbing her spoon with one hand and stirring her cup as if in desperation, she let out a "phew!". And then,

"...All right. As far as you've...said, shall...we...try?"

When she glanced at him sidelong in defeat, Banri nodded vigorously. Doubting it as much as he had, it seemed to him a sudden, happy development.

Already, Yana-ssan, Oka-chan, they truly had nothing to do with matters. As it was, he himself was happy. He was truly looking forward to being able to go to the party with Kouko.

To where even though she had been invited to the get-together by the hated Oka Chinami, she would come. Such a thing--- excellent, maybe there was still hope. His thoughts had gone as far as that.

They were together in the club, together dancing, lunching together; they would even be showing up to the drinking party as a pair. Even with how stubbornly she had avoided trying or doing anything, she was coming because he had asked her. She was going out, with him only. It would become common knowledge. That felt good already, absolutely so. Even more than anything up to this point, it made him feel that things were going well.

So it is. From friendship comes affection. Isn't that the way it always is in this world? If they could be 'good friends', if he carefully built up their friendship like that, if he continued being Kouko's hoped-for perfect friend, then it would eventually work out . . . perhaps.

Even with this seemingly regretful love, he would perhaps see the day it worked out.

"What're you saying? You were only just dumped on Saturday---!" It was as if there were somebody behind him, whispering in shock; a thin, cool presence. Disregarding it as his imagination, Banri also drank from his latte. Unable to do anything else, he laughed. Things were looking up. He pulled a deep breath into his beating chest, the smell of roses next to Kouko covering his mouth.

The afternoon sunlight shining through the glass rather brightly hurt his eyes.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 2: The Answer is YES|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
|-
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1

2013-10-10T17:36:26Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Chapter 1==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 1===

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 020.jpg|thumb]]
Tada Banri was being dumped by a girl.

Because of the overly annoying noise coming from several guys at five in the afternoon at a Caffe Veloce, Banri was still off guard,

"But we only just started going out,"

"Yes, though being with Tada-kun is so much fun..."

"Therefore, from here on out would it be OK if we were just friends?"

Stating his request with a three lined conversation like that, he went quiet, hanging his head.

For no particular reason, he still had the wrapper from a straw in his right hand.

The wrapper swayed limply in the breeze from the air conditioner. His back bent, Banri inhaled the heavy smell of tobacco smoke into his lungs.

The non-smoking section existing in name only (can you call decorative plants a separation from the smoking section?); seated across the table from Banri was Kaga Kouko.

Earrings glittering on both her ears, her glamorous coral pink lips quietly closed, taking a sip of ice tea through her straw. She was opening her big eyes as if trying to peek at Banri's now fallen expression. Perhaps waiting for Banri to say something, her back straight, she put the glass in her hand down on a small tray.

Tada Banri, however, remained silent.

Getting uncomfortable after a bit, Kaga Kouko also dropped her gaze.

Several minutes passed by, idly. The two of them continued looking down at each other's hands.

I am the Banri from before, and I want to break into this awkward silence, saying "This is awful, hold on, do something please!", but there is nothing I can do.

And now, even such a prepared request, because this guy cannot deal with it emotionally! When little situations arise, his mind goes to pieces, because he can never see the world before his eyes! Or rather, he returned from Shizuoka a little bit ago, having seen what was back home, and from that, ---what a mess. I would shout, but nobody would hear me.

Because I know that, I am sitting quietly on a seat behind and to the side of Banri.

As it is, nobody hears my voice any more. Nobody sees my body. Nobody knows of my existence. Because I, am dead.

To put it simply, I've become a ghost.

Wandering about without a body as a ghost, I drift about like this, always near Banri's side.

...That shouldn't be all that difficult for a living human being to believe. But as for me, while I was living, I hadn't believed in the existence of ghosts. From my own experience, I've gained an alternate view of the world. Even now I know nothing about the existence of UFOs. Neither do I know anything about the continent of Mu<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(lost_continent)</ref>. Nor do I know anything about sea serpents nor the Loch Ness Monster. Nor about ESP. But one thing I do know about: the existence of ghosts.

While I was alive, my name was Tada Banri. I was Tada Banri. From the time I was born for eighteen years, I existed as Tada Banri.

In the spring of my eighteenth year, I fell from a bridge into a river. At that moment, I fell out of my body, so to speak, and I, the Tada Banri that was, was left behind as a soul without a body.

On the one hand, the Banri who'd lost his soul lived for a time as "The Memory Loss Boy", easily became a college student, and was now even being dumped by a girl. Such were the circumstances in which we found ourselves.

Now, the living Tada Banri, his denimed rear situated on a narrow seat, bent over and vaguely pouting, eyes glazed over, breathing the smoky air, wordlessly sipped slowly on his iced café latte.

Surely, inside, he was a wreck---.

Reaching from behind and to the side, I move my hand towards Banri's shoulder. I pat his shoulder, telling him to calm down. To my hand, it definitely feels like a living body. But Banri doesn't feel my touch. Not even noticing my existence, not even a blink of uncertainty. He might not have even noticed, but he was grinding his teeth so hard they were creaking. Doing that, sooner or later the lower left wisdom tooth would get to bleeding and hurting.

A forgotten storm blowing through Banri's heart, I suddenly understood the reason why. I even think, if there were anything I could do, I would cheer him up. I know what Banri wants to do, I want to answer him. But, whatever words I use, this voice never reaches Banri's ears. There is nothing more I can do.

The culprit in putting Banri into his state of confusion: Linda--- no, am I wrong? There isn't anybody else. It is this me.

Something Banri had seen a few hours before, on a short trip home he'd made to Shizuoka... which, since he'd woken from his accident, had become sealed away in his high school graduation album. Stuck inside, how many pictures?

Records of when I was alive, in other words a record of Banri's unknown Banri, were stirring up Banri's heart.

And now, in front of Banri's eyes, the girl to whom he had just confessed yesterday was sitting. Several minutes ago she had shaken Banri cautiously,

"...Tada-kun?"

She said, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. "Well, what I had to say... did you hear?"

Abruptly, Banri lifted his face,

"Eh!? Y, yes!? I heard, but!?"

At that moment, with all his heart, he nodded ambiguously,

"Uwaa!"

He knocked his half-emptied glass of iced latte over, really hard. The glass fell to the floor and broke to bits, the loud noise echoing to the back of the shop. The other noisy customers suddenly all went quiet, looking over here. Without thinking, I covered my eyes too. Aah, he felt guilty... if a ghost in a ghostly way, could have caught the glass in mid-air... oh well.

Banri stood up in a hurry,

"Wow, wow, sorry sorry sorry! Excuse meee! I've spilled it! Excuse me, is everything OK!? I'm very sorry!"

While calling for the staff, turning in every direction and bowing his head, he lifted Kaga Kouko's bag from the floor where it had been to a chair, grabbed a bunch of napkins, and tried to contain the flow of latte that was turning into a small sea on the table. In spite of this, drops were staining Banri's bluejeans. Kaga Kouko put pocket tissues from her bag into the embankment too, but the seat and floor were getting to be sopping wet.

An employee with a mop and dustpan came quickly, gathered up the pieces of glass, restraining Banri by telling him "it's dangerous". Dropping his feeble butt into a seat, "Ahh, no more, no more...", Banri, rather upset, let his shoulders slump and sighed.

"What a careless person I am... already, sloppy, too crude, too indecisive... I mean, I'm really sorry Kaga-san, are you OK? Your clothing and such, it didn't get dirty?"

"I'm fine, nothing came this way."

"Your evidence bag? It didn't get wet?"

"Really, I'm fine, nothing, no-thing..."

So as to not interfere with the cleaning, the two of them half raised their feet, held for a brief moment in this pose by their abdominal muscles.

The unshaven mugs of his Jack Purcells, and the toes of her beautiful high heeled sandals, were lined up, nearly touching. The mop came up to my feet too, and I automatically raised my feet to the same pose. As if I could interfere with the cleanup not having a body, as if somehow these feet could get in the way of the employee in his careful mopping.

Banri, and the Kaga Kouko who dumped Banri, faced each other that way for a little while with their feet raised, their feet not touching, keeping their distance perfectly, the two of them alike, their eyes downcast and not saying anything.

The two of them blinked many times, as if they were in a competition against each other. They didn't look all that much like "good friends". Somehow even I felt uncomfortable, and we all looked downwards.

<center>* * *</center>

The first-period Chinese I lecture finished, their busy old Chinese lecturer left the small classroom and then the students followed, one by one, out into the dark corridor. Up to thirty people were allowed to enroll for the language lecture, and it just so happened that all of them were freshmen.

"Tada Banri, well done."

"You really stood out today. You did it."

Suddenly he had quite a few friends. People smiled when they passed by, lightly slapping Banri's shoulder.

Answering as needed with an "Oh", or an "Ah", he heard "Tada-kun well done!", "Super well done!", "Really, really good" ...this time, they were girls. The threesome was dressed almost, but not quite, alike in their showy hairstyle and clothing, and one by one they each waved at him, smiling. It seemed that suddenly his time had arrived! Guys and girls alike were entranced by Banri! So quickly he'd become the most popular in the Chinese class! But it wasn't that way at all. Even Banri understood that they were simply teasing him.

Half desperately, he was about to smile and say, "Especially well done!", and wave back to the girls,

"Banri, hey, don't bother."

Yanagisawa Mitsuo (whom he tended to call Yana-ssan rather than Yana), with whom he'd become close friends since they started college, was calling him.

"Ah, Yana-ssan... it looks like I'm already a mess."

Too exhausted even to smile in courtesy, Banri finally, slowly shoved his texts into his bag. Today's lecture was truly awful.

In the middle of the lecture, he was taken to task by the speaker for absentmindedly staring off into space. "Tada-kun, come to attention!" Trapped, he recited, "Maa, maa, maaa, maa!" ---He was forced to repeat the four basic tones of Mandarin Chinese to the point of going mad. And after that, as the rest of the students read their texts he got suspicious again, and "Tada-kun, Come to attention!" "Now!" "Be an example for everybody! Now!" "Maa, maa, maaaa, maa!" That was it.

Yanagisawa sat on the edge of his desk, waiting for Banri to get ready while,

"You are quite a mess. Ah, here's some chewing gum!"

He gladly collected the gum from where it had fallen, to one side of the desk.

"Such torture! I mean, already, from the very first period, I'm lost. Horribly defeated. Why do such things happen to me in particular? And the girls were giggling a lot..."

"Well, during that time of the 'Maa!'s, you made the most incredibly good face."

"A good face? You're kidding, what kind of face was I making?"

"This kind. 'Maa!'"

He made an imitation of Banri's face, suddenly opening his eyes wide while lowering his left shoulder quite a bit, and sucking his cheeks in furiously. Of course, in keeping with that awful mug,

"R, really? I made that kind of face? So I've become this department's number one funny face?"

Disconcerted, Banri pulled a mirror out of his pocket, and opening it looked at his own face while trying to say "Maa!" again. Not to where Mitsuo would see him doing it, but certainly modeling in three dimensions what he had a hard time imagining, he found himself more and more gloomy, wondering 'How many times have I shown this face to everybody else...?'

"Huh, what's that? That's sparkling something awful!"

While Mitsuo laughed, he wasn't pointing at his face, but rather at the incredibly flashy mirror in Banri's hand. For something a college male might have, it was too much, overly luxurious like something from Swarovski<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarovski</ref>.

"...Ah, you noticed, of course? Do you think it strange that I have it?"

"Do I think it strange? Well, I don't think it suits you. How'd you wind up with it?"

"It was given to me."

With a snap, he closed it and handed it over to Mitsuo. Turning it over to look at it, his simple good looks stiffened.

"...'Remember the anniversary of our escape! Your good friend, Kaga Kouko'...?"

Reading the message written on the back of the mirror with a permanent marker, Mitsuo looked at Banri's face. Once more he looked at the message, and then again at Banri's face.

"What's with this? This is awful."

"Ya... awful, or should I say... I'm not sure as to what she means."

Looking back and forth from the mirror to Banri's face repeatedly, Mitsuo hesitated to speak, looking doubtful. Well, it might even have been an act. As for Banri himself, he thought it quite strange to have something of his called "such a mirror".

"It's not like that, Yana-ssan. It's evidence of our friendship, Kaga-san and I, they're matching mirrors. In that way, of the time when Kaga-san and I became friends. ---That kind of thing."

"'That kind of thing'...?"

"It's merely a statement."

Taking back the hand mirror from Mitsuo, he held it gently in the palm of his hand, sparkling coolly. It was a declaration done as it should be. Kouko had pursued Mitsuo some ten odd years so far, and for now, Banri thought he ought to let others know about their entering into this new relationship as friends. He was thinking about what others must be saying, and thought it a good time to set things straight.

Mitsuo, his face was still pinched like a fox, was muttering things like "Declaration...?"

The mirror weighed heavily in his hand.

Chunky and rounded like a faba bean<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicia_faba</ref>, on the silver back in white Swarovski crystal an extravagant rose was depicted. Obviously expensive, completely feminine, it didn't suit Banri in the least.

The more he looked at it, the more truly difficult, incredibly complex and extremely hard to describe the feeling became. But Banri carried it around, stuffed in his pocket. He polished it every time fingerprints got on it, and he was careful how he used it.

Because Kouko had told him to do so.

"...Well, in short, it's because Kouko gave you that flashy mirror? To Banri? ...Because you'd become friends?"

"Yes"

"...When? How?"

"On Saturday"

His prominent brow frowning a bit, Mitsuo, still not fully satisfied, was asking with his expression for a continuation of Banri's answer. Banri searched a bit for the words, averting his gaze and looking out into space.

So--- that, what happened on Saturday.

Returning from Shizouka, Banri went by foot to meet up with Kouko. They went to the live house locker to get the stuff they'd forgotten, then to Caffe Veloce to drink tea, then she'd dumped him, they'd became friends, and then she'd given him this mirror.

If he were to tell it all, that was all there was to say.

But he didn't want to tell it straight to Mitsuo like that.

Because he wanted to hide the part about "being dumped" if he could. Mitsuo had dumped Kouko, who in truth had loved him, and in the evening of the same day (even more shamefully), Banri had confessed to her at once. But, she dumped him quickly, the very next day. It was too embarrassing to talk about, even if it was true.

And so,

"Kaga-san, like this you see, 'Well, Tada-kun, you've got some snot stuck on you', tossing her hair~, 'Try looking with this mirror', fluttering her eyelashes~, 'I'd like to give you that mirror, so you'll be able to take care of yourself the next time you get snot on your face.' We'll match, as proof of our friendship!', flashing her eyes...'. She gave it to me like that."

With a stupid joke, he lied.

He couldn't look over at Mitsuo. He had no idea what kind of face he was showing.

In reality, about this thing, she had said, 'In thanks for your having gone out with me to have fun, and in apology for having gotten drunk and caused you trouble. And, as proof of our friendship from now on', as if it were a blessing over the present. Apparently.

Written on the black paper bag in white letters was "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneys_New_York Barney's New York]".

From the neat and tidy appearance of the paper bag, it looked like it might be something high class, so Banri immediately raised both his hands in front of him. He made that gesture of refusal, and also said with his expression, "You needn't bother with getting such a present."

But, in what was practically a show of strength, Kouko had restrained him deftly. In front of him, her eyes glistening, she had said, 'I wanted to buy it for you, no matter what! Please! Accept it!'. Being asked so very beautifully, there was no way he could not receive it.

And then, encouraged to go ahead and remove the wrapping still on it, this beautiful hand-mirror with a rose design was revealed.

However you looked at it, it was a girlish thing, and very expensive. This time, for sure, Banri was seriously bewildered. It was a shock. How was such a slight, careless, round-faced, hunched over bumpkin to receive this sparking, shiny, gorgeous rose mirror, fit for a queen?

Besides, looking at it from his own point of view, even calling it proof of their friendship from now on was rather strange. In other words, this was a memento of his being dumped... he thought, was it a sort of consolation prize?

But, according to Kouko, 'It may not be Banri-like, but, no matter what I want you to make use of it! Because in this mirror there is meaning, an awful lot of meaning!' --- and so on.

Thinking back upon yesterday's give and take with Kouko was a bit late, and to no purpose, when right before him Mitsuo snorted, as if a little disgusted.

Banri somehow, timidly raised his face. At least, nothing worse was happening.

"...Where, when, was the snot?"

While comparing Banri and the mirror sidelong, Mitsuo's inquiring voice seemed really doubtful. Well then, first of all, shall we get on with this worthless piece of fiction? It feels like we're making a mountain out of a molehill.

He couldn't help but ask himself; after all, it was something only Banri, by himself, of his own accord, felt. Just a little. What of it?

Besides, he couldn't tell the whole truth, he was not under such an obligation. But, he thought, shouldn't he keep his relationship with Kouko entirely to himself? Perhaps? He might have been forgetting about how he was managing his relationship with Kouko.

In that case, remember you idiot! Surrendering himself to the growing opportunity,

"So, that wasn't what we said on Saturday! Take a look back at Friday. You gave Kaga-san quite the manly whack, didn't you? Hey, remember? In one fell swoop you chopped her down, didn't you? You said the two of you were no longer related to each other...!"

He even included a gesture as of swinging a sword downward from above.

Rather quiet and averting his eyes, Mitsuo responded with only a groan. He had thought that what he had just done was simply from ill temper, but,

"After that, Kaga-san and I went out to relax and to drink. From which, we went to the live house, and we forgot some stuff there---"

Abbreviate the middle part. ...Besides, he didn't think he was under any obligation to tell it fully.

"---Because of that, on Saturday, we went together to get it back. The stuff we forgot, that is. Then, when we were having tea, suddenly inside my nose there was Pettonton, the semi-transparent self-absorbed alien."

He stole a sidelong fleeting glance at Mitsuo's face.

Mitsuo gave a small nod, as if to say "that so?", but seeming to have realized that he had neither a reason nor the right to interrupt, his mouth was closed tightly and his eyes were still cast downwards.

Such was the state of the friend in front of him, Banri's chest finally ached a little bit for him. Compared with him, he didn't have any responsibilities. Didn't have any, but... his so-called conscience, was calling him scum. The stone somewhere in his chest didn't fall, in fact he could feel it dimly, caught somewhere.

What do I do? Though he was his very closest friend, speaking of events that had happened to you, but that he could not speak of frankly, wasn't an enjoyable situation. But, he didn't want to speak about what he didn't want to speak about.

"...To the live house. That Kouko, honestly. ...Something doesn't fit."

Mitsuo's voice was quiet, as if speaking to himself. Banri leaned his jaw a little off to the side, and stretched to enter his field of vision, combing up his bangs.

So it was. To the live house. We went. ...It's not a lie. Just a little short on the details.

Mitsuo, his lips crooked, appeared to be brooding, his right thumb rubbing his jaw, but his gaze was still fallen to his feet. What could he be thinking? Was he feeling the strain in the story due to the various omissions strangely made to it? Was he keeping silent because it wasn't his right to interfere with their business anymore?

A strange feeling lodged in his chest, there was one more thing he understood.

Banri's making omissions in his story to Mitsuo, that was not the matter for today.

That was nothing other than the matter of his loss of memory.

He didn't think the conversation was particularly necessary. As far as the nineteen year old human being called "Tada Banri" was concerned, who had lost all of his memories through his eighteenth year, and even he understood it to be a big event, insofar as his personality was concerned. He just wanted his friends to understand him. So, always, from the time they met, he sought the opportunity to talk about it. But that opportunity didn't quite arrive. Misunderstanding how he spoke, they always rejected him as a pitiful, if not sick person.

If the opportunity were to arise, he wondered what kind of thing he could honestly say. With regards to memory loss, with regards to Kouko even. About everything that happened on Saturday. If he wanted to talk to friends, everything.

But that was not now.

Understanding within himself that it was only an excuse, feeling suddenly the urge to do something so he wouldn't seem to have suddenly fallen silent, Banri opened the mirror again and carefully looked at the reflection of his nostrils. His nose was clean.

"Kaga-san really busted out something awful! Though about five times there she threw up."

To only use a cheerful voice, to talk like that was his plan. But, the pale thin face of a nineteen-year-old male reflected in the mirror, looked back at him faintly, more miserable than ever, less confident than ever.

"With Kouko as Banri's friend, at a live house, with boogers, with aliens, vomiting, eh...?"

Mitsuo stood up before Banri and walked away, as if he were confirming the words he'd said, opening the classroom door wearily.

"What a mess... I mean, of course you don't understand. ...Well, it has nothing to do with you anyway."

Suddenly changing course, Mitsuo turned around as he'd realized something. Standing in the dark windowless corridor, he looked straight back at Banri's face. Once more, seeing him like this from straight in front, Banri noted how really handsome Yana-ssan was, but,

"What do you mean, Banri? On Saturday, if you had only called, we could have talked about what you didn't understand. But there was neither voice mail nor text message all day. You ignored me, and went out to have fun with Kouko?"

"Eh... Though you're telling me so, well... that's the way it turned out."

"..."

With a sound awfully like a growl, Mitsuo's face finally darkened.

But Banri said, "Eh, kid? Wow, you're really bothered!", the moment Mitsuo's face became threatening, and he blinked as if coming to his senses, shook his head from side to side twice, and slapped his own cheek quite hard. The impact even made him stumble. The whole thing took only five seconds,

"Yana-ssan's fallen apart...!"

"I have not."

With a thud combing up his hair, Mitsuo looked back at Banri once more. And then,

"Nothing's broken. ...To put it simply, I am realizing that finally I am becoming just a bit human, clumsy and dim-witted."

Taking a small breath, he stopped talking.

The meaning of it was not well understood by Banri, but after a little bit, his voice replaced by something weak, not very masculine,

"...There are many things to think about. ...If you want to talk about such things a bit, like that stuff on Saturday, you can call me! But... oh well. Enough already. It's OK. It doesn't matter."

Having said something like that, as you might have expected this time, for sure, definite feelings of guilt crowded around Banri's chest.

In reality, many things had happened on Saturday, and if Mitsuo had called he'd entirely forgotten about til now. He may have ruined their friendship.

His hands full of his own problems, if there were any phone calls, or even any text messages, he ignored them. He didn't recall any texts on Sunday either. But of course, Banri was only thinking of his own problems, the whole time wrapped up in a blanket on his futon like a tuna-fish; he didn't remember about Mitsuo at all. He was only thinking of his own problems.

Unable to justify his own insensitivity,

"No, I'm sorry!"

He slapped his forehead trying to behave modestly.

"I even returned home for a bit, flailed about, and completely forgot to call you up! If it's all right with you, I can listen to your story now. Shall we go to the cafeteria or somewhere? I can skip second period easily enough."

And then, having been invited in all sincerity, in friendship to go and play truant, Mitsuo frowned and sadly shook his head from side to side.

"I can hardly be the one absent person, and... what about you, don't you have Civil Law I? Don't you have to be there?"

"I don't have to. Rather, what are you taking, Yana-ssan?"

"Logic"

"That's not a required course, why did you take it!? Is the lecture interesting or something?"

"Completely."

"Well then cut it out, Monday's second period let's go together to Civil Law! Maybe it'd be better to change to that way from now on. Registration still hasn't closed, has it? Which Civil Law class were you in at first?"

"Wednesday fifth period, somebody called Professor Tsukamoto."

"Fifth period! Tsuka who?! Why take such a little thing as civil law, nobody else took such a thing!"

"No, though the guys in the second period were decent... rather, I had already bought the textbook for Logic... 4500 yen... they change only the color of the binding from year to year, and I heard if you didn't show the professor your brand new textbook, he wouldn't accept you for the class..."

"So expensive! Garbage!"

"...But I wanted to take this period's Civil Law class, though. There was even going to be a famous speaker from television. But, look, I spotted Kouko in the first lecture. Because of that, I stopped and thought..."

Sighing once more, even more deeply, Mitsuo frowned. He muttered that up til now he had not needed to run this way and that to escape Kouko, and as he muttered, his backpack, which had been hoisted to one shoulder, slipped sneakily down to his elbow. As if he were overbalanced by a heavy bag, he wobbled on his feet. Banri, seeing that,

"Err, Yana-ssan, are you, like, feeling OK? ...You aren't a bit shook up?"

He looked again at his friend's face, carefully.

Perhaps it was due to his standing under the old fluorescent lights, but now that he thought about it, his color didn't look too good. On top of that, over just this weekend, had he somehow lost weight? Just a little.

It was spring. May. High season, so to speak, for student apathy. Entered in the university, starting to live alone, the change in lifestyle was big, cut off all at once from his childhood friends, and on top of that, he had said he'd had a fight with his parents. Living through this life, his spirits had fallen a bit, even if there was a bit of bad timing. He had the feeling Yanagisawa Mitsuo was depressed.

And then, just like a trigger,

"...Perhaps, if you wouldn't mind much? The matter of having dumped Kaga-san."

His head still hanging, Mitsuo answered him nothing.

If he was guessing correctly, taking the opportunity to remind of what had happened before, in attitude or speech, was hardly the right thing to do right now. Mitsuo’s dark face looking up at him made Banri practically jump, and finally, in a panic, he followed along inside.

"Bu, but I thought the Yana-ssan of the time was very 'manly'! Besides, Kaga-san would be OK! Understanding your feelings, she can get back on her own two feet! She’s a wonderfully strong person!"

But,

"...That may be. Very much so. Right away, she went to a fun live house. Very much so..."

As soon as he raised his face, Mitsuo glared sharply in reproach, growling at him. But if he didn't follow him, it might make the situation worse. Banri hurried, but Mitsuo however suddenly went quiet, in the end slapping himself on the face twice. Oh! If Banri didn't go inside, then without a doubt he was going to do it again. And so, lowering his face, he bowed down, as if chanting a prayer to a some sinister pagan god.

"I thought that if I could separate myself from Kouko, everything would get better... Despite that, Kouko came to the same university as me... I thought that after all, nothing had changed... Because of Kouko, it was coming to nothing... I thought that if I rejected her clearly, all would be well... That's why it happened... It was bad that I believed it was all Kouko's fault... But from the moment I dumped Kouko as if by sorcery the 'start of my shining life' suddenly ceased to exist, all it accomplished was to make Kouko cry, and moreover now, I'm coming to hear that Kouko's spirits are reviving. Strangely, I was even offending you. ...Ah, sorry... sorry sorry! To put it simply, I, I, I, I well, I was a jerk..."

"Ya, Yana-ssan, hold on..."

Brushing away Banri's unintentionally outstretched hand, Mitsuo looked towards the ceiling, his eyes vacantly staring off into space. And then groaning,

"...I've been incredibly insensitive... ...How should I put it? I've been a churl, or more bluntly, how to put it... a piece of crap...?"

Banri could no longer do anything more about the situation than watch over it.

"...Well then... the piece of crap is going to logic class... bye."

Mitsuo, still looking up at the ceiling, left alone, waving his hand toward Banri. With a strangely vacant gaze and voice. There was no way such a condition could be normal.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on!"

Banri unintentionally became like [[Golden Time:Volume2_Translator%27s_Notes#The Touch|a certain comedy duo]] as he settled down and chased after that departing back.

"Yana-ssan, seriously, wait up! Err, well, let's walk to the classroom together!"

"...Huh? Why? It's right over there."

"No, but something... or rather, you're really going to not skip class!? Let's do it! Let's head for the cafeteria!"

"...My stomach isn't empty yet. I haven't missed attending yet."

"It's OK, logic class is no big deal! Or rather, if you flunk it, we can take it together next year! What's more, look, I... In truth I've got a bit of something I want to talk about. Recently a few things have happened, and I'm not sure I can resolve the situation on my own. I haven't explained things well recently, but really, I'm sorry for having ignored you on Saturday! So from now on it's time for some male bonding! Let's talk together, as thick as thieves!"

Suddenly, Mitsuo's feet stopped. Turning towards Banri, strangely quiet, he looked him in the eye.

"Various things happened? Like for example?"

"That, for example, well..."

Repeating once more, 'For example', Banri stopped moving entirely.

I did not explain things well, I left various things out of what I said, for example.

That he had noticed that Mitsuo had come to be the love of Kaga-san's life, for instance.

But she was rejected just like that, among other things.

Rather, what are such things as memory loss?

It looked like he dated Linda in the past he could not remember, for another. When he returned home, he had seen a photo of that, but the 'Linda' of now, revealing nothing, as his club senior doing well for him, yet another. What the heck all that meant, he did not know, and it was making an awful mess of him.

And so on.

"..."

---In the end, he couldn't say anything more.

Banri's mouth still half open, he cast his eyes down and went silent.

Not saying anything more, in front of his friend, he was quiet, unable to move.

Even though he was given the chance to talk, nothing was coming out, because he didn't know what would be OK to talk about. Or perhaps, as far as he was concerned, what the heck was going on, what was he thinking about it, what was he feeling about it? Inside himself, he came to realize that the very idea of talking with friends did not exist.

In short, like anybody else--- he thought of his own affairs as if they were events from a world far away.

These situations, happening all at once, were almost too chaotic; even one at a time he would have a hard time dealing with them.

One example, the matter of being dumped by Kouko, as a matter of fact, he couldn't speak of how much of a shock that was. Whether in pain and crying, or in misery and agony, he was unable to deal with such feelings, not individually. Though of course it was rather complicated for him, in reality, it didn't hurt that much. From now on, as a good friend... even saying such a thing, he didn't think that was a good idea.

With regards to Linda, even more so. To say nothing of what he was feeling, as it was he honestly did not know. What happened in the past he could not remember, beyond that, he could not understand what Linda was thinking. As for the fact that they used to go out together, why did she need to continue pretending not to know about it?

Still, "What might it be?" "What shall I do?" "I don't know." "Why might it be?" ...it was that, over and over again. No matter how many times he asked, there was simply nobody answering. Talking with himself was entirely useless.

"---I don't understand anything. I don't know. For me, really, I don't understand anything. I simply don't remember."

In some ways as if he were paralyzed; inside his head he was in a daze. Messing up his hair rather than scratching out his brain, trying to somehow wake himself up, this time his hand was stopped by Mitsuo.

"...It's OK, I understand. For the time being, both my heart and yours need some rest, it seems certain. Alright, let's go be overcharged fair and square."

<center>* * *</center>

Supporting each other's troubled hearts, binding as friends, they wobbled down the stairs, barely managing to arrive at the first floor student cafeteria.

Because until noon there was still space, there were a lot of seats. Here and there were people chattering yet, and students seeming to be taking a late breakfast seated here and there, beyond whom,

"...Whoa..."

Seeing it suddenly in his field of view, unconsciously Banri reared back. "What?", Mitsuo looked over towards where Banri was looking, noticed and groaned similarly. He stopped walking.

The school cafeteria was fading into a heavy yellowish shade, but that one person's appearance was shining too brightly, sparkling as if it's natural energy were radiating outwards.

As far as Banri was concerned, right now he still didn't know with what kind of face to greet this unknown person. For Mitsuo also, perhaps it was about the same as with Banri... or perhaps now it was difficult to face that person.

Shining glossy and bright, her long, deep brown hair was curled beautifully.

She had a deep, deep blue hairband with shining rhinestones affixed to it.

Her hair flowed straight down her slender back.

They understood even from behind that this was quite the beautiful woman, that hair, that style, the things she had, from her whole body shone forth an aura that said she wasn't an ordinary person.

Feeling their gaze perhaps, or maybe she heard the groans of the two guys,

"Ah..."

Turning back towards them, there was no mistaking her beautiful face.

On her carefully prepared, showy features, bright rose pink lips. They both gasped, so splendid was that beauty.

Dressed perfectly, with impeccable fashion and brand, Kaga Kouko was seated at a somewhat shabby table.

Banri and Mitsuo, and then Kouko's gaze, exchanged looks wordlessly. Each of them according to their circumstances, they were severally at loss for words. How many seconds did the awkward silence continue?

"W, well", Banri awkwardly tried to start the conversation. Morning, Kaga-san, how're you feeling? But look, Yana-ssan didn't make a greeting, neither did Kaga-san--- he set out to take the first step with the seeming tension, but,

"...Maa!"

As if struck by an arrow, Kouko stood up yet quicker.

From between her alluringly rose colored lips, her teeth flashed, pure white with a tinge of blue visible. Graceful like a dancing butterfly she spun around once, swinging her skirt.

"Maa! Maa! Maa!"

Both her hands were squeezed together tightly before her chest, in what was nearly a caricature of a surprised look.

Then, opening her hands suddenly, she slowly tilted her head to one side sharply, and before long from her surprised expression transformed into a wide open, extremely happy smile.

Her hips dropping into a straight, long stride, without batting an eyelash she stepped briskly up before Banri's eyes,

"You're Tada-kun, aren't you!"

He was very much Tada-kun, but--- that moment he was being hugged energetically. His protests ignored, she made as if to kiss him on both cheeks, not quite touching him.

Sh, she was a foreigner...

When Kouko let go of the still astonished Banri, he looked back at her happily laughing face. On top of that, this person was not normally a foreigner. When she was excited, she became one.

''Geh, take a look everybody! I got to meet my favorite grandfather after five thousand years buried in the rock on the other side of the world! And on top of that, Grandfather, you brought me as a present a diamond the size of a melon (you were planning two!?)! Sheer happiness!''

...Sort of, a warm welcoming excitement.

Despite having just been dumped the day before yesterday at Veloce, there was nothing in her gaze but Tada Banri.

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 049.jpg|thumb]]
Kouko stopped before Banri's nose, her smile brightened by happiness. Almost too close to him, Banri's field of vision was almost entirely blocked by Kouko's perfect smile. And then she clasped her hands before her chest. Arranging her feet modestly, she bent back a bit and turned her sparkling eyes upwards. Gazing worshipfully at Banri in a posture rather like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier Xavier],

"My good friend, Tada-kun...! Good morning!"

She was even misty-eyed.

"Because we met this way by chance in the morning, this will be a really good day! Hey, it was absolutely fated long ago that we would be the best of friends!"

She batted her long dark eyelashes adorably while she said that.

Still looking straight at Banri like that, she slowly shook her head from side to side with that smile on her face. She gave the appearance of "This warm feeling, welling up! Ah, I can't stand it anymore!"

"Oh..."

Somehow, his mouth opened.

Go for it! Do your best, Tada Banri!

"...Morning. ...Kaga-san"

As if in ecstasy from listening to Banri's greeting, Kouko moaned and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"That voice is Tada-kun's. That way of speaking. Incredible..."

Blood rushing to her head flushed her cheeks rosy and warm while, making a face as if she were getting to eat the chocolate of the century, soft and warm, her eyelids rising. You're amazing... but he couldn't say that, not at all.

"It reminds me of something I've missed... hey, our previous existence, have you thought about it? I have. I was the youngest novice sister in a monastery, and Tada-kun lived in the deep forest as a shepherd... that's what I believe. Every morning Tada-kun had to deliver cheese to us. Hey, isn't that incredibly romantic? Thank you, all my life I thank you, I'm thankful for this fate, that we've met this way twice now!"

"...Oo..."

Banri was filled with overflowing with a groan.

For some reason, somehow or other, this was way too much.

What about that excitement? This feeling of drama. Behaving like a foreigner. Let's be friends, she said, and in two days Kaga Kouko had gotten to this point.

And now Kouko was waiting for Banri's reaction. Eyes wide open, brilliantly sparkling, she silently gazed at her close friend Tada Banri.

What do I do, really—no, in truth. Not knowing what he should do, Banri for the moment, tried to put his hands to chest. Not Kouko's; to his own chest. And then, as if to be able to open his eyes the same way, he smiled with all his might, while gazing back at Kouko's sparkling eyes, trying to rock his head back and forth in the same way.

Apparently quite satisfied with how Banri was doing, Kouko, once more looking pleased, returned to swaying before him. Still without words, it was a little show of reflecting Xaviers, presented in male and female, so to speak.

Mitsuo exclaimed, "Scary...!", as if he could hardly stand it any longer, and covered his mouth with his hand. Banri only partially saw that he had jumped well back.

"Well, Mitsuo---"

Her swaying ceased, still standing before Banri's eyes, Kouko looked over towards Mitsuo.

As far as she was concerned, she loved Mitsuo. He was her formerly destined lover. From her point of view, though, he had separated himself from her destined scenario.

Banri unconsciously gasped.

What would come of Kouko's strange excitement in front of Mitsuo he could not tell. Facing him was her 'foreigner flavored suddenly fated friends mode', but... what should he do if she made a scene before Mitsuo? Carefully, he looked her over once more. For the time being, she didn't seem to be carrying any hidden weapons (not even a bouquet of roses).

She was wearing a white frilly blouse over a high-waisted, houndstooth checked one piece dress, black tights and black high-heeled, low rise boots. Because of the arrangement, changing immediately below the swell of her chest, it made her appear even more delicate and feminine. It was awfully nice to see.

Kouko turned about to face Mitsuo, the beautifully painted nails of the fingers of her left hand gently arranged, restraining the soft and full swelling out of the region of her heart.

"Mitsuo, you are just like a lonely hunter going out into the wilderness... your face seems like that..."

Eyes closed dreamily, she murmured softly and earnestly.

And then, her right hand extended elegantly, like a loving mother about to touch Mitsuo's cheek. Mitsuo pulled back at once. Kouko quickly drew closer, touching his face against his will. Because of the power in those fingers, trying to hold down that body twisting in revulsion, from an outsider's point of view, it was becoming like an iron claw hold, but,

"To be sent to a monastery to quietly pray my days away, perhaps should have been my destiny from the start..."

"Hugugu..."

That was enough for Kouko, apparently.

Looking down upon the captured face of Mitsuo, her eyelids, light pearl cross-hatched by eye-shadow, glittered as she wore a dramatically tragic look.

From an onlooker's point of view, looking at how the two of them appeared, Banri instinctively gasped. Well, for sure... I'm glad it didn't come down to bloodshed.

All of which meaning, with the end of this performance of the Kaga Kouko Theater, would things be OK for the time being?

Though you dumped me, Mitsuo, and hurt me too, I am being healed by the presence of my wonderful friend! While recovering, I'm tough and beautiful! Thank you, everybody, for the help you've given me! I'm feeling fine! --- Such was the essence of Kouko's theater, and it was, well, amusing. But what exactly were her real motives, what did she see in Yana-ssan's face; he didn't feel like asking such unromantic questions right here, right now.

Matching up with the demise of Mitsuo and Kouko's one act, he realized that somebody was giving direction, "Music, start". Surely that was a voice from heaven, as if the stage director for this world were speaking, and,

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_o_Torimodose!! You are such a shock!]"

Banri shouted with all his might.

Standing and facing Kouko and Mitsuo while walking slowly in a circle around them, assuming a pose, pointing his finger at them with a somehow evil face, as it were an emissary of the devil to liven up this ending. Nyahahahaha, nyahahahaahaa!

"You are such a shock!"

...In reality, he didn't know the lyrics very well. Derereredere, derereredereeredee, dereree... still, he used to know them! With the high-pitched voice he had held back, he would make their hair stand on end! Ready, set,

"In order to protect our love! You are taking off!"

"What!?"

The singing wasn't from Banri.

Surprised, he looked back. The stolen song's singing, five times higher than his limit, as high pitched as if he'd been impaled up his rear. He looked at the owner of that voice.

---He went as still as a stone.

"Soo, briiinngg back your looooveee<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

What he had thought to be a voice from heaven, ...was very much so. But it wasn't. He had not heard a voice from heaven, nor a stage director's voice.

It was Linda.

Course registration forms rolled up to look like a microphone at her mouth, in a pose of leaning against the seat at the corner of the table, she sang hotly at the top of her voice, echoing still, her fist shoved in the air,

"...Haven't you taste in songs, Tada Banri?"

Those hands were saying "Hi!" to Banri.

"Linda---"

His voice shook, and though it could be heard, it sounded as if it were from somewhere far away, like the underworld.

Hurriedly, he added the honorific "senpai".

Yes, this is the person, he thought in his heart.

This was absolutely the person in that picture he found at home, clinging to him, carrying on with him. It was this face. This was Hayashida Nana. Her white skin, her eyes. Moreover, her age. Above all, her name. There was no mistaking it. There was a one in ten thousand chance, not quite an impossibility, but it wasn't very likely.

"Err... good morning. Something... if you look at the condition of the guy with you, Kaga-san, the image of 'Champion of the last Century' simply doesn't come to mind..."

Kouko tilted her head to one side, as if to say 'What are you doing?'

Banri nodded in greeting to Linda once more, in a underclassman-like way, while absolutely convinced that this person was the one in the picture.

Linda knew his past. They were connected. And yet, she was hiding the past. She was acting as if Banri's past did not exist.

What the heck, why?

Continuing her assault on him despite Banri's embarrassment, the back of the chair supporting her stiffly, Linda gave a big stretch. Her face was smooth, without makeup, probably not even eyebrow pencil. Getting up, a long-sleeved layered T-shirt covering half-way down her fingers, she crossed her blue-jeaned legs.

"Nooww, stop teasing your friends and come back here, Kouko-chan. If we hurry up, we'll get done before we run out of time. As for me, I plan on skipping second period anyway."

She turned to face Kouko, making the course registration forms flutter. Seeing that, Kouko hurriedly turned aside, returning to the sit at the table across from Linda.

"Sorry for making you wait, I'm working, I'm working, let's get down to writing!"

On top of the table, other than some cups of stuff to drink, there was a huge schedule table, the size of a tatami mat, and syllabus booklets that were distributed when they entered the school. Various kinds of writing implements were scattered upon it. Banri and Mitsuo noticed it, wondering what it was.

"We're discussing Kouko-chan's schedule right now."

Smiling slightly, Linda explained for them.

"This girl had no idea what were the required classes. Her schedule was ridiculous. She's taken no language class, and she hasn't bought her book. Now there's hardly any class with room to get in... yes, and yet this year she’s only taking about 24 credits. Not enough."

Kouko, her lips a little tighter, let out a sweet and innocently apologetic laugh and shrugged her shoulders.

"But, but if I did well, then I could take just language mid-year, and then I'd have all my required credits, right?"

"You should. Maybe."

"Then it's perfect!"

"Not quite perfect. ...About halfway there?"

"Halfway there! Hooray!"

What senpai suggested was good, of course, and Kouko looked over the "halfway done" schedule form and gave a sigh. Finally, she scribbled something down on the registration forms with a silver ballpoint pen, and looked up with a sweet smile. Linda looked at it with a suddenly serious eye,

"What I mean is that lately, 'taking only 24 credits', isn't that rather dangerous? Getting thirty credits done wouldn’t be awfully unusual! Aah, one more thing for later: you're going to want to get into some four credit course... Tada Banri, are you set? You’ve registered for your classes?"

Unexpectedly, she was trying to get Banri involved.

"Uh", mumbled Banri, momentarily at a loss for words,

"Well, for the time being, though my registration is already done, ...ah, but this guy keeps getting me into trouble during some wonderful lectures."

Casually, Kouko tried to close the distance, raising her hand to Mitsuo's elbow, bringing them closer to looking like a couple.

"I call this guy Yana-ssan. Yana-ssan, this is Linda-senpai of Omaken. We are greatly indebted to her, as she saved our lives, Kaga-san's and mine. I mentioned her before."

"Ah, yes, that time these guys were in trouble," Mitsuo said, giving a small nod to Linda while she glanced at him, Banri quietly keeping his mouth shut. Restlessly, he scratched near his nose.

This was not what he really wanted to talk about.

Mitsuo's classes didn't matter at all... no, nothing mattered. What he wanted to talk to Linda about was something else.

But frankly, how to do it?

'Why are you pretending not to know me? Linda-senpai, you really do know me, don't you? I saw you in the yearbook! In photos too. We were really close, weren't we? You know I'd lost my memories? Though I don't remember anything of those times, why is it you haven't said a thing? You and I, until I lost my memories, we had a special relationship, didn't we? I would like at least one thing from your mouth, a clear answer: yes or no. As it is, continuing to pretend not to know me, how am I going to settle my mind?'

---Trying to think, he looked about ready to break out laughing.

But he just couldn't say it.

Even if the two of them were alone in this place, he wondered if he could speak of this at all.

Even the matter of the yearbook and the photos, let alone asking about their shared past, where they were specially close, he thought. There was nothing to deny. The answer was 'yes'. There was no other possibility.

And yet, Linda had to have some unknown reason for pretending to know nothing like this. Saying nothing to Banri, she was hiding something.

Banri was not so dimwitted as to repeat to himself over and over, "Hiding everything like that, why, why!? What should I do? Think, think!?", or maybe he was simpleminded. At least for now.

"Glad to meet you", good humouredly waving her hand, leaning against the back of her seat, Linda grinned at Mitsuo. "I'm Linda, Hayashida Linda", introducing herself with an air of long practice.

Looking at her, Banri thought once more, "She's a good senpai." Friendly enough to even put off going to her own lecture to counsel a younger student, even somebody she didn't know. Kind, and a person you really could rely on. Being together with her was fun, and he was thrilled just to be near her. ...So it was, until only a few days ago. Even if he didn't study it out, he thought that even now it should honestly be so.

At the present time, for sure, Linda didn't want to be known to my current self. Therefore, knowing the former Banri was not something that could be spoken of. Just that.

If he wanted to know more, perhaps, it wouldn't be bad to establish a good working relationship with the current Linda.

With respect to Banri, that--- yes. There was no hope. Having met Linda by chance as a club senior, he would make a good impression as junior. There was no way he would expose what she was hiding.

Above all, she seemed to be worried too. Perhaps, because of those worries, she chose to behave as if she didn't know the former Banri at all. He didn't feel like interrupting her with that conclusion, though. If he were told that what was there before him at that moment was important, he would also agree, he thought.

He really thought this to be so.

That was a confirmation of his identity, Banri decided.

Stop thinking about this already! Why should I, it's already over.

Forget about it. ---Yes, I've forgotten.

With a chuckle, Banri lifted his face, deliberately like a junior, like an idiot.

"I mean, Linda-senpai, this guy Yana-ssan, he's taking Wednesday 5th period Civil Law class~, could you please tell him something about it~?"

He was trying to speak to Linda sweetly.

"Huh!? Seriously!? Tsukamoto's Civil Law class!? Why something so crazy!?"

Linda frowned, and covered her mouth with her hand as if in shock. Are you trying to torture yourself, my dear? This, too, seeming but a momentary play, she said to Banri, "I'm not making fun of you!", and like a female soldier, she quickly put on a straight face.

"Eh... What's the terrible thing I'm doing?"

"No no no, it's horrible! It's always bad, you, err, Yana-ssan? Because that is truly awful. "Wednesday's fifth period 'Civil Law 1' every year has a seriously difficult test, with past year's notes and references not allowed, less than seventy percent on the test and less than seventy percent attendance (no use in arguing) is failure, and because there aren't many people, answering the roll call for somebody else is impossible... for Civil Law most wait, and furthermore, if you don't study seriously... no, they say that even working diligently, it's quite hard."

"Are you serious?"

"That's why everybody takes Monday's second period Civil Law!"

"...Is, that so..., ah... seems I messed up... What to do, this is really awful... Am I already repeating something next year...?"

"Though it's OK to repeat it. Monday second period's easy Civil Law class is most people's preference, though how many people waited, and then fell in the trap of taking the demon of Wednesday 5th period again, who knows..."

From what Linda had to say, Mitsuo was getting quite worried. Watching this from the side, Kouko casually cleaned off her pen nibs.

"Aah ah ah, Mitsuo, what kind of mess is this? Ah good, I have the perfect schedule set up for me. I've even taken Civil Law perfectly."

Even at other people’s problems, her face smiled beautifully. While her pretty nails glittered, she went cleaning up her writing implements.

Openly hostile, Mitsuo glared at Kouko. Kouko was completely unperturbed. On the contrary, smiling, she looked straight back at Mitsuo's face, cheerfully adding on "sorry to hear that", and whether on purpose or not, humming in good humor.

While Mitsuo was practically trembling all over, he slowly looked over at Banri's face,

"...Banri, come with me a bit!"

"W, where to!? And mess up Kaga-san's studies!? Hey, be careful! Mother Bear has cubs in the spring, and could get rather irritated!"

"You got it wrong! What I'm doing now is going to second period Civil Law! Anyway, I'm going to catch the professor when he leaves the lecture, and ask him if I can take it from now on, though I haven't attended even once yet! I'm throwing away 4500 yen!"

"Ah, ahh, that's good, that's good! Good luck, Yana-ssan! Hurry up!"

"Oh!"

He took off running, but Mitsuo, looking like he'd forgotten something, suddenly stumbled a step or two and came back to them,

"Idiot! You'll lose the credit entirely! You'll have to do it over! And then you'll cry!"

With an awfully sudden jerk of his chin, both his arms flapping like gull's wings, he let out a stream of abuse directed at Kouko. And then he took off running again. This time, he flew directly out of the cafeteria, and could be seen using his long legs freely to run up the staircase.

While she watched, Kouko laughed rather scornfully and coldly.

"What was that? Did you see? Mitsuo's a child. He cannot have friends, so he goes it alone."

"...Ka, Kaga-san"

"Whaat? Tada-kun."

As far as Banri was concerned, she appeared a friend to the last. Smiling at him, she tilted her head to the side quizzically.

"Welll, aren't you being a little too rough on Yana-ssan...?"

"Rough? Me? No such thing; we're normally like that."

"No, what if the nun treated the woodland hunter like that..."

"But he's not just an acquaintance."

"Eh! ...W, what're you saying...? Weren't you childhood friends! That's scary!"

"No. I didn't know him in a previous life."

"We're talking about this life! I mean, just a minute, seriously, with what kind of history can you be like this? Not long ago you were glued to Yana-ssan's face, dreamily muttering 'Mitsuo...'!"

"That was the last act of our play, Mitsuo and I. To the music of Tada-kun and Linda-senpai's wild orchestra, the curtain descended. With that, our relationship is already over. Therefore, he is somebody that I do not know."

Kouko declared this very coldly and without hesitation, her beautiful lips formed into a prickly pout, her slender chin upraised. Without so much as a twitch of her eyebrows, that kind of coldness. "Eh", his speech cut off, Banri too fell into silence.

Well, Banri had been thinking for a while now, "these guys' relationship isn't very good..." Mitsuo avoided hating Kouko, though while Kouko chased after him in love, he wasn't nice to her at all, if they met up they only fought, to all appearances they were abusive to each other. It looked like there wasn't even a memory of the two of them having been friends.

And yet, because he knew of Kouko's awkwardness, Banri saw the two of them as something different. Because Kouko truly loved Mitsuo, he had grown used to it. Put simply, it was excessively ‘tsun' in the ‘tsundere' aspect of their relationship. Precisely because he understood that, it didn't set his teeth on edge thinking about it. Though he liked Kouko, Banri also softheartedly worried about her.

In the end, after ten years (more or less) that Kaga Kouko and Yanagisawa Mitsuo had been childhood friends, she had been dumped once and for all. Was all they had left simply the sheer seriousness of it all?

What an empty relationship they had. In any case, though confirmed as friends with each of them separately, it was little comfort to Banri. But thinking on what was before him now, he let out an unconscious sigh.

Linda stretched as she stood up.

"Well then, I have to go to a lecture too. Are you two all right now? Is there anything else you want to ask me?"

Kouko stood respectfully for Linda, also acting the part of junior,

"We're good, thank you very much. Thank you for having helped us. Next time for sure, allow us to do something for you."

With the slow pace of a true princess, she bowed her head. Linda waved her hand and smiled as if she were embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. It wouldn't bother me if you came out to the club, and if you were to practice hard, I'd be really happy. That said, it's tomorrow mid-day, OK? We'll meet at eleven, have lunch while we meet, and practice starts at one o'clock. So don't be late."

Pointing at Banri with a slender finger,

"You too, Tada Banri! Practice. Awa Odori. The same place as before. You haven't forgotten?"

"Ah, of course not! Yes sir!"

"Yes, good answer. Tomorrow then. Don't miss it, because it looks like some of the fourth year senpais are going to be there."

Linda hung her bag from her shoulder, stepping away from the table easily. As she walked away, not a sound arose from her vividly fluorescent Nikes.

That reminds me, seeing Linda off with a smile, he looked at Kouko's face.

"Were you bothered about staying with Omaken?"

Certainly coming back from the previous practice session, Kouko seemed to have lost a lot of her enthusiasm. It seemed to him that she'd said things about how embarrassed she was by her awkward dancing, and that there was no way, she could not stay in the club.

"That's right. I did."

Nodding her head deeply, Kouko looked back at Banri intensely.

"Lately, I've had various things too... didn't you? I've overcome them, and now I, I'm really looking forward to things."

Her smile sparkled brightly. Her pure white teeth showed through. She carried herself like royalty. Banri even reflexively wanted to applaud.

"That so? Good."

"...You really think it's good?"

"Yes, I do! I would be happy to be able to dance the Awa Odori with Kaga-san, nothing would be better! To me, running into difficulties is part of growing up."

Her body twisting, Kouko slowly closed her eyes, as if she were drunk.

"Thank you for the support. As for me, anyway, I'm thinking of taking on a new challenge. Even Awa Odori is one! Hesitating like this is wrong. Thinking about this and that, being scared is wrong. I believe living that way is a waste. Every day, we must progress... right?"

Her eyes flicking open, she looked at Banri. Banri nodded to her,

"Right!"

Her large eyes sparkled to the point of being dangerous.

And then coming several steps closer, suddenly a few inches from Banri's nose Kouko became serious. Banri gulped reflexively; Kouko could not be stopped.

"Advancing day by day! And then earnestly forward! Forward! Forward! One way or the other, forward, progressing! That will be my life! To go forward living like that, that is what I have decided! It will be a super proactive life, on the GO! I will see it accomplished perfectly! Advancing, continuing forward until I die! I will do it, absolutely! Becoming perfect, going through life, looking forward positively, even unto death!"

She caught Banri by the shoulder. ''Comrade!'' With that kind of energy.

Having gotten to this point, Banri averted his eyes at once.

He laughed uneasily.

Saying only that much, he retreated backwards. Her hand leaving his shoulder, "What?", Kouko's lips looked displeased, but no. The feeling was distinctly that of fear. Why does this person run to such extremes?

Though she'd dumped him, she was looking towards the future. That so? She'll even go to the club! Wow, that's good! ...To the extent she settles down to normality, it'll be easier to get to know her. And it somehow seemed that in her previous existence she didn't even know Mitsuo, her good friend up til now. Why would one have to suddenly jump so far, to the point this person in particular has gone?

He said to himself, "Oh well, she cannot moderate herself precisely because she is Kaga Kouko", though he also cared for her.

One cheek puffed out extremely cutely, Kouko spoke to the drawn-back Banri.

"Tada-kun, since we've come to be true friends, if we have anything we want to talk about, could we just talk? Let's not keep secrets!"

"Well, though you say it... what's that tension, that fear as if of that group of the 'Crystal God'... really Kaga-san, wasn't it you who said carelessly, in shock from a broken heart, 'Hello Neo-Children?'"

Kouko, who had just promised that he could say whatever he wanted to, suddenly, as if she were saying "hold it!", her eyebrows rose into beautiful arcs. Yes, she's angryyy. One serving of anger. Anger, coming right uuup.

"What are you saying! That cannot be! This a universal question of living as a human being. I don't want to be trivialized like that!"

As you might expect, seeing that beautiful, magnificently ordered, showy face with an expression brightly flushed in anger, was rather terrifying.

"Ah, whoa...!"

Banri, falling down before her as if she were a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period Heian-era] princess,

"No 'Whoa's!"

With a snap, a finger thrust out towards his nose, and once more he threw his head back sharply. It had nearly gone up his nose to the second joint.

"In other words, Tada-kun should move forward too! No, not doing so is wrong! Do it! Now! Right away! As best friends, it wouldn't be right if we didn't move forward in about the same way! Because if I couldn't do so, I couldn't be a perfect friend!"

"Eh... no way..."

"Look here, again a voice like that! What a weak looking mess! 'Whoa~' 'No way~' Talking like that isn't allowed! Making such a dumb face isn't either! Yes, even though I was,"

'Even though I dumped you', hesitating like that is no good!

---Whether in fact, or in saying so, he thought.

Now even Banri, suddenly realizing the gap in space and time between the two of them, looked back at Kouko as if through distorted memories. Noticing that look,

"..."

Even the energetically yapping Kouko's vocal cords suddenly fell silent, as if broken.

Staying this way, both of them silent, "..." (Do you usually speak like this!?) "..." (I didn't say anything, nothing at all!) "..." (But how about trying to talk!?) "..." (I'm not doing anything, really I'm not.) "..." (If that's the case, then put that awkward pantomime of yours in order!) "..." (I understand, that's the funny part.) "..." (We've done something right!) ---up to this point communicating well by gaze and by gesture,

"...A, anyhow! It's because it's like that! ...It's like that! In short, let's give it our best with Omaken, Tada-kun and I! ...That... was what I had to say."

Kouko put her smile in place. Well then, Banri relaxed too. For now, whatever he'd forgotten didn't matter.

"Well, look, we're not just first years, are we? Fo, forward! Powerfully! Full throttle! Bet your life! With all one's might! Let's try hard! Life is not to be wasted! Right, that's the way it is!"

Searching for approval, his fist clenched, Banri answered only with a sigh, but in her own way Kouko took the meaning to be 'yes'.

"Right!"

Taking a breath as if a bit relieved, she suddenly turned and easily grabbed her brand-name bag from the seat where she had left it.

Hanging it from her shoulder by its strap she turned around, her glossy hair in thick curls brushed over her left shoulder. Smiling still, revealing her sparkling white teeth, she showed only the right side of her neck to Banri.

That standing figure, a gorgeous beauty. A woman just like from the movies, or a tele-drama, having lept from the world of fiction, she was like everybody's dreams, brought to life.

Kouko was perfect, of course. Once more easily captivated, Banri thought. ---At least, with regards to outward appearances, nothing but 'perfect' came to mind.

If she were to open her mouth, somehow subtly defenseless, but she only seemed to require a bit of touch-up here and there, her appearance truly beautiful, and blessed to sparkle all the time. Because they were friends, he could not talk about things like 'appearances only'.

And then, bringing together the heels of her booties, with a smile she flickered her long eyelashes.

"Hey, Tada-kun, are you free now? Won't you go with me to the student affairs office? Since schedules are coming out, I'd like somebody with me."

Kouko spoke as if she had rehearsed it. Even as a friend, was it natural to invite somebody in such a way? And she added a wink from her big eyes.

Mitsuo was running late to Civil Law while he was skipping, Banri thought, but,

"Then, afterwards let's go to Civil Law. That OK with you?"

Having been told like that, how dared he refuse? What to do? My friend, fated from a previous existence to go out with me, has invited me. What's more, my friend is a beauty to die for.

Hmph, though I was dumped the day before yesterday.

<center>* * *</center>

Side by side, Banri and Kouko left the cafeteria, walking towards the student affairs office, which was on another floor.

Looking out the windows from the dark, old school building, it was dazzlingly bright.

Perhaps because the weather was nice today, there already being signs of summer, there were mingled here and there amongst the students going back and forth a few wearing short-sleeve shirts.

Banri, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and a hoodie with "The Clumsy Student" across the back, was getting a little warm, and removed the hoodie as he walked. Rolling up the slightly sweaty, ratty feeling thing, he tried to force it into the bag. However, he was unable to stuff it in very well because of what was already there, and continuing up the stairs to the landing, he slowly came to halt in the narrow corridor.

"Are you OK? Could I carry something?"

Realizing that Kouko was reaching out to him,

"No, no, I wouldn’t make you carry my stuff..."

Trying to refuse, he had realized that his shoelaces had come untied. Oh well, but there was nothing that could be done about it: he was a sloppy kid.

"Well, sorry to have to ask, but could you hold this for a moment?"

Having Kouko hold the hoodie he'd taken off for a moment (and praying to God it didn't smell of sweat), and crouching down by the wall, he first retied his shoes. So as not to block traffic, Kouko also moved to the side of the corridor, at Banri's side.

Seen close up, Kouko, who was waiting, holding Banri's hoodie reverently, as if it were something important, had really slim legs, of course. The line of her calves elegantly refined, was like a work of art. Such ankles: if you were to use any force, they'd snap. Above the knees too she was shapely, no extra flesh sagging... No, he wasn't planning to look, but there she was, right next to his face. If you're trying to cross the street, you look to see if there are cars coming, anybody would look over there. It was that kind of thing.

He glanced sideways, wearing a serious glare as he sighed, thinking, "Wearing heavy black tights in the mid-winter is fine, but isn't that too hot in this climate? Does hot or cold even matter to this person, if it's stylish?"

Then, Kouko was moving those slim legs uncomfortably.

"...Ta, Tada-kun, by any chance, are you looking at my legs?"

"I'm not looking, I'm not looking."

While Banri answered back clearly,

"Though I'm not looking, Kaga-san, aren't those black things hot? Doesn't it seem like 'coordinating the coordinates'?"

He tried to ask here plainly. Was it common for a guy to recognize the subtleties of girl's fashion? Uh oh, he could not say no. That much, Banri already knew from the internet.

"My, my tights?"

Kouko looked back at the Banri's upturned face for just an instant, her expression complex.

"This... though it's a bit hot, in truth there are reasons I don't take them off."

She answered like that. Banri got back up,

"Of course, girls have their reasons..."

In one motion, he stuck his hand deep into his bag. For now, in order to stuff his hoodie in there, he wanted to turn all his fallen textbooks sideways.

"We sure do! We have many concerns. Actually, it was swallowed by a snake."

"Ehh, that's awful!"

Thinking he wanted to make Kouko laugh again by saying some ridiculous joke, or lightening things with a smile, Banri went to take back his possibly sweaty hoodie, looking over towards Kouko.

However,

"It was yesterday, in our garden. It was the worst of luck. I'm wearing tights to cover up the damage. As a girl, of course, I don't want to show such things."

Kouko was saying it with a straight face.

No way... this wasn't a joke, was it?

"...Wh, what? Swallowed by a snake...? Kaga-san...?"

"Yes. And what a shock it was!"

No surprise, that.

Banri, forgetting about rearranging his bag, looked back at Kouko's beautiful white face, picturing it in his mind. While she screamed, Kaga Kouko was slowly being swallowed by a big snake, feet first. In the garden. The snake's stomach gradually swelling, her shape could not be seen, losing form as it was digested... Yet the next day, Kaga Kouko came to college, saying "Forward! Awa Odori!" and such.

Wasn't that enough "problems"?

Getting dizzy, Banri shook his head, and took a deep breath. Getting plenty of oxygen to his brain, he miraculously got things in order.

"Err... just in case though, how far were you swallowed...?"

"'Up to where', eh?"

Kouko blinked from Banri's question, and then,

"Enough, you're joking...! Wow you're funny! Tada-kun, you dummy, aha! It was nothing but a joke! Ahahahaha!"

She suddenly broke out in happy sounding laughter. Surely thinking something like "Eh, what a crazy kid..." about Banri, she covered her mouth with her hand, but she seemed unable to contain her laughter, her cheeks gradually going deep red, laughing still as her body doubled over as if in pain, hugging the hoodie she held in her hands tightly.

"'Sw, swallowed', but not vertically! Stop it already, Tada-kun, you're too funny! Like this, this! Swallowed sideways! 'Up to where'!? Did you think I'd been slowly swallowed from my feet to my head!? There aren't such snakes! In Tokyo!? In my back yard!? Probably not even in the jungle, where in the world did you get that idea!? Really, you are really too funny, I've decided that! Sideways it was, sideways sideways, sideways swallowed!"

With his left wrist representing her foot, and his right hand the snake's head, he mimed how it might bite from the side.

"No no no", Banri replied calmly back to the princess lost in laughter.

"...Then, you weren't 'swallowed', but rather 'bitten'...? What, you thought 'let's be funny', and made a mystery to solve? Were you inventing something like that?"

"No, you're wrong! Swallowed is the right word! Because while it was trying to bite, it was trying to suck the flesh of my calf into it's throat! It was sucking really hard! Like this!? Such a snake in my back yard!"

Suddenly Kouko, moving her hands as if she were a udon noodle maker, tossed Banri's hoodie into the air, stretching it our long and thin. "M, my hoodie", Banri moaned,

"Give it to me! Because,"

She grabbed the hood part and spun it around. Then, winding it around his neck,

"'Kyaa! It hu-hu-hu-hurts!', she said!"

"But I wasn't kidding!"

"Then how are you alive and kicking so energetically!?"

"It wasn't at my neck! It was Bibinba's neck!"

"Bibinbaa!? ...You mean... that star in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnikuman Kinnikuman]!?"

"What're you talking about! Here on Earth! I mean a cat! Shizuka's cat!"

"Oh, I see... no, but aren't you changing the tone of the story!? Where the name comes from, or is it from the Kamei family... is it that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shizuka_Kamei Shizuka]!? Why didn't you tell me clearly from the start!?"

"Neither! My lit-tle bro-ther! My little brother Kaga Shizukaa! He's a chubby little thing! ...Or rather, OK, I can't be talking that way. So you understand this better, listen, he's my little brother. Are you good to this point? He's called Shizuka. That good too? Good, right? He keeps cats. Bibinba's one of them. He's a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_(cat)) Himalayan]. Yesterday, he was attacked by a snake in the garden, and he was strangled. It had already gotten to be twice around, no, about three times around. It was completely there, all set to enjoy it's meal! So I was already in a panic, anyway I jumped at it, like this,"

Kouko grabbed the hoodie wound around his neck with both hands, pulling him towards her.

"'Ughh! Let go of Bibinba! Urgghhh...!' ...Uh, that must hurt..."

"Ooou... ouou... or rather do you need it so tight..."

"But, if it was like that... and it was! It was like that!"

Grabbing one sleeve of the hoodie and slowly unwinding it from his neck, she started to swing it around, much like a cowboy. The other students passing by avoided it, treating it as an annoyance.

"I used centrifugal force! And then, I did like this!"

Her hair flying, Kouko swung it widely, and the hoodie struck the wall. Though for sure it was once Banri's, the dead hoodie, it’s power lost, slithered to the floor.

"Thinking, 'Phew... I did it...!', I turned my back on it to go in the house and get a garbage bag. If I had done that...!"

Kouko crouched down for some reason, grabbed the sleeve of the hoodie, and reached down to touch behind the calf of her leg,

"I screamed 'Kyaa!' It was like this, like this! Shouting 'It bit me!', and 'Kyaa!', even kicking my feet it didn't let go, swallowing me little by little, it was already a disaster! I was getting more and more in a panic!"

"...Aw, awfully so...! So just what did you do, in the end?"

" 'Get it over with!' "

Cutting off any more useless questions, in a very unladylike fashion, she hit near the hoodie's sleeve cuff, as if she were giving the snake's head a karate chop. Like a head stuck in a guillotine, it looked dead. If it had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Rat_Snake Green General], it's goose would have been cooked.

"Oh..."

Somehow feeling for the snake, Banri held his own neck. In the 'Naked Terminator Pose', Kouko briefly basked in the afterglow of victory.

"...You know, that looks pretty bad. Tada-kun's hoodie has gotten all beaten up...!"

Realizing it, she picked up the hoodie's corpse.

"No way, I'm sorry! Silly me, I'd gotten lost in the conversation!"

"Don't worry about it, it was already that way to begin with."

"There's no reason! Enough already, what am I going to do? I'm going to get it cleaned!"

"That's OK, really, I do my laundry. I mean, it's only old UNIQLO stuff anyhow. It was sacrificed, but it was a really good story, worth listening to, I think."

Taking the hoodie back from the apologetic, blushing Kouko, and having said nothing about reimbursement, or any such thing, he stuffed it quickly into the bag in front of him.

"No, it was worth listening to, really... Kaga-san does it all the time, getting rid of snakes."

"No way! That was the first time in my life I've touched a snake!"

"Was Bibinba OK after all that?"

"He almost jumped into the washing machine from the mental shock, even this morning he nearly didn't leave it."

"Drum type?"

"Yes, the normal vertical type. ...Ah, enough already of me, now, I was gibbering from the tension..."

No, your tension from the start was incredible. The which, well, he didn't say.

Kouko, blushed as if she were finally embarrassed, covering her face with both hands like a little girl, looking around nervously. "Eighteen year old snake killer Kaga Kouko-chan..." muttered Banri, and Kouko raised her fist like a little kid, as if to hit Banri.

"Enough already! Forget about it!"

"In spite of it all, you've been chatting with me in high spirits."

"Be, because! Am I right? Isn't this topic something else? Didn't a snake came out, attack our cat, and my life was put at risk, ambushed from behind? In the back yard? Isn't this kind of thing rare? ...Over there, it doesn't happen, does it? In Shizuoka?"

"No way. Shizuoka is a big city."

He'd seen snakes run over by machines in the tea fields, but how could he say it? His grandfather on his father's side collected [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloydius_blomhoffi mamushi] around there to pickle them in sake (the trauma: saying things like "if you drink it, your memories'll come back~" to get him to drink it), but those were only minor details.

"For sure. And so I already, since yesterday, was talking to anybody, talking and not stopping, thinking, 'I can talk!' I had already taken it to the limit."

"But you know, it would have been good of you to send me an e-mail about it."

That, it was only for a moment.

Even this didn't matter, being the continuation of a joking conversation.

It wouldn't have been all that strange if he had missed in the dimness, for only just a moment, Kouko's eyes trembling forlornly.

Banri had spotted it.

To a person just dumped, sending an e-mail about such things wasn't enough. ---To Banri, it seemed as if Kouko's very heart were speaking these things.

You don't have to speak of fated friends, forward looking lives and such in a state of high drama. Anybody can do so. Anybody doing so is not making unpleasant decisions. Therefore, doing so, she wasn't forced to get on with her abandoned scenario. Though she knew it was strange for her, it wasn't like there was no other way.

Because, it isn't so, and I don't have to...

That was what Banri heard.

"...So this morning, I thought, 'Let's go talk to Linda-senpai!' "

Suddenly, Kouko broke out with a smile like a flower blooming.

"But, senpai, when she got to looking at my schedule, she let out a big sigh and set to thinking. This is awful, she said. Already, I couldn't just say something like 'Yesterday a mouthful of my backside was being swallowed by a snake, you see' "

Laugh, Tada-kun.

So it seemed Kouko was asking him.

"No way, I wouldn't say anything either! Not at all!"

Banri laughed too.

He didn't see anything else. Pretending not to notice, he laughed merrily while he thought some more. It seemed that Kouko didn't have any friends to casually talk about everyday things with.

As far as she was concerned, now, she had lost her whole world: Mitsuo. Already, in Kouko's world, even the ordinary things people could do to casually keep in touch had become unsatisfactory.

"But, that's fine. I was able to speak with you. ...And it seems you understood me?"

Gently softening her smile and dropping her gaze a little, Kouko murmured in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

It seemed the demon of her nerves had fallen at last. From the chuckle that issued from her lips, to her swelled chest, even Banri saw and understood it all, breathed in deeply, and let it out. She seemed to recover, little by little, her mental stability, and apparently self-conscious about how difficult she had been to handle, going to extremes as she had,

"...I'm such a mess..."

Shrugging her shoulders, she gave a wry smile. I'm, such a mess. Aren't I? And so on.

Kouko had had enough of it too.

She understood, and her chest rose.

Very much so. To be able to regain her footing in only two days was nothing to sneeze at. She wasn't that clever a person.

Hardly two days had passed today, and Kouko, as she was, just herself, wasn't good at facing Mitsuo who had dumped her, and Banri whom she had dumped. For that reason, she couldn't be jumping here and there absurdly in her normal fashion. In order to not show a downcast or hurt face, she had to play her part. Unable to speak as a clever person would, it probably wasn't easy.

There was nothing that could be done. He felt as if his heart were being squeezed.

The more he thought about Kouko's feelings, the more painful they were. In general, Banri's convenient imagination was convinced perhaps, but, he thought that in Kouko's heart, standing next to him, was an unstoppable force of will.

After all, of course, he loved Kouko. The more he thought of it, the more he wished to get closer to her heart. Stubbornly, in spite of having been dumped, he wanted to be her helper, at least.

For the first time, Banri thought it would be good to become a part of Kouko's scenario. No, he wanted to be, even.

Now appearing on stage, Tada Banri. As Mitsuo's friend, Kouko's friend. Various things have happened, but he was now the understanding and fated friend of Kouko. Am I allowed to take on such a role? ...It's all right if I'm not your boyfriend. In Kouko's lonely world, if such as I is acceptable, I'd like to be on stage. If there is room on this stage, I would like to stay a long time.

And then I pray, that eventually many players on her stage may appear, brightly colored, sparkling for moment spinning.

He believed this from the bottom of his heart. It was the first time he had harbored such tender feelings for another person. At least, as far as Banri himself could remember.

Prompting each other, "Shall we go?", their exchanged glances were pure friendship.

It seemed they had truly established a relationship as close friends, Banri staying beside Kouko, Kouko also, seemingly relieved, smiling quietly. And then, at that moment, as they both slowly opened their mouths, about to start talking about something,

"Morn-ning Banri!"

Thump, he was struck lightly in the middle of his back.

He looked back.

There was nobody there.

"Wait, wait, where are you looking?"

No, now he understood--- there was no way he could fail to.

That voice. There was just no mistaking it. Her voice was over the top, excessively girly, saccharine sweet, like from an anime show. On top of that, for some reason she was addressing him without honorifics.

From about than a foot lower than his, her little face was laughing.

Incredibly, she was eighteen years old. A micro-sized pet fairy. Even Mr. Two Dimensions approved of her as a multi-dimensional life-form. Such...

"O, Oka-chan..."

...a thing, Oka Chinami was.

<center>* * *</center>

Thinking, "What should I do?", he suddenly felt an alarming aura prickling over the right side of his body, coming from around Kouko.

As far as Kouko was concerned, Chinami, clearly, was the enemy. Undoubtedly, she was thinking something like "The thieving cat who stole my beloved Mitsuo!",

"Mornin' to you too, Kaga-san! Wow, your clothes are really pretty again today. I knew it, from a distance, I said to myself, 'That's Kaga-san!' "

Though Chinami was innocently jumping around, Banri, remembered the danger she was in and gasped. Why Oka-chan, why are you acting like that, off guard in front of Kouko? Shouldn't you be careful of those fingernails? The person before you is the snake killer Kaga Kouko!

"...Okachi, nami..."

Kouko slowly turned around, looking down at Chinami, muttering with an expression like Cleopatra's, tasting poison.

"Ahaha, I got the break wrong~! It wasn't Okachi, but rather Oka, Chinami!"

Then why so off guard! Banri casually put his foot out to the side, try to insert himself halfway into the space between Kouko and Chinami.

Chinami was innocent to the point of being dangerous to herself, and again, as always, she was cute enough to die for. Her long eyelashes and round, cute eyes prominent, her features were pure, like a foreigner-child. Tied into a large knot, her hair was full and dark. Her slender body covered by a deep blue dress worn over blue denims, her slim ankles peeked out. On solid, light brown leather sandals, already wearing her trademark rugged day-pack, while to Banri who, as usual (as a male), did not understand attire all that well, Chinami truly exuded the presence of a fairy princess coming to them from the forest.

Banri could not stand it any longer.

"...Oka-chan...!"

"Whaat?"

"Uaa<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>!"

His body was swaying, wobbling. Don't breathe such air! It's contaminated here! Return to your forest! He couldn't help but want to cry out. But her cuteness filled the limits of the universe. The cell phone in her hand had a really flashy strap, including even an Indian feather decoration, delicately cute, and already, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded. Even her hairpin was somehow cute! It's not possible to be so cute.

"What was that about already? Banri, what've you done?"

"It doesn't matter one way or the other!"

"What the heck?"

You're the one I should be saying that to, what's with that, that "Nyaha!", way of laughing!

No, but---

"..."

Kouko was watching.

With a hard yet beautiful face, like that of a statue of a goddess, unsmiling, chin pulled back, she was slowly and quietly looking over Banri's agony, and then the transcendentally cute Oka Chinami.

As if he'd remembered, "So it is, your place is by my side, minion...", Banri dejectedly and quietly returned to Kouko's side. If Kouko was the evil queen, then Banri was her attending servant. Her [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatterman#Characters Boyacky], so to speak.

Not even glancing back at the servant that had returned to her, Kouko, her expression unchanged, continued to look down upon Chinami. Between the high-heeled Kouko and the flat-sandaled Chinami, there was all of six inches of difference in height.

And so, after a little while,

"...Why?"

Her rose colored lips in a haughty queen-like smile, Kouko opened her mouth.

"Hm? You asked, 'Why?' "

Eyes round in puzzlement, Chinami asked back, "Eh?" Much like a squirrel, asking "Who's eaten the walnut I hid beneath the dead leaves?" ...that kind of feeling.

Irritated, Kouko's aura flickered. Her attending servant Banri understood.

"Though I don't expect to hear anything, I'm listening. I have an ooo-pen mind. I do! My humanity is noble, so while you admire my perfection, answer me quickly. Answer in two seconds. Twoo, oonnee,"

"Eh? Two seconds? Hm? 'Humanity'?"

"You're disqualified, dullard! Begone!"

Gruffly and jealously waving her hand, Kouko averted her face in irritation.

"Well then! We've got things to do!"

Chinami wasn't at all defeated. Slapping her stomach like a sea otter hitting a shellfish,

"You see, I wanted to hear about your schedules, Banri and Kaga-san."

On her smooth cheeks, dimples stood out clearly. Chinami smiled happily while Banri and Kouko looked at each other. Sparkling to the point you could almost hear it, those cheerful eyes frankly shone. For some reason or other, Banri and Kouko wordlessly exchanged glances. When their gazes met, he felt he heard a nod... he wanted to think it was his imagination.

"All I wanted to ask was, wouldn't you like to do a drinking party? I was thinking, let's invite you! Hey, look, didn't we talk about it before? We talked about having a party of people with two-syllable last names. Well, it would be called a gathering of people with two-syllable surnames for the time being. I was thinking I wanted to have a drinking party for just the first-years. I was the first to say something, so I'm the organizer. This week or next, wherever, I've planned for a budget of about 3000 yen. If there's any day that doesn't work because of part time jobs or whatever, we can adjust a bit too. What would be good for you two?"

"A drinking party!?"

Having heard such cheery talk, Banri of course,

"I'll go! Of course I'll go, when we going? Thanks for the invitation!"

In good spirits, he couldn't help but raise his hand. What's more, with that hand,

"Isn't that great, Kaga-san!"

Much too familiarly, he clapped his hand on the evil queen's shoulder. Kouko's temples twitched.

"...For now I hear you. ...What's with this?"

"Eh, saying 'what's with this' like that? Weren't you invited too! Speaking of which, isn't this the first time you've truly been invited to anything apart from a religion? Of course we're going to take part, you're moving forward positively in life! Oka-chan, Kaga-san has nothing on her schedule, she's basically free, so it's OK! Ah, and I've got spare time too! Cool!"

"Waah! That's great!", Chinami gave a little jump, taking Banri's hand in high spirits, "It's going to be fun~!"

"I, am, not, going."

At Kouko's eerily low utterance, the two of them stopped jumping around.

"I wouldn't go to such a thing. Frankly, I don't feel like getting mixed up with Oka Chinami, not even one micron. If I wanted to waste time like that, it'd be better for me to go dig a hole in the garden! And then, you know what I would do with that hole? I'd fill it up! As if it'd never been dug! I'd be busy! Digging up, filling in, digging up, filling in, digging up, digging up, filling in! Oh what a mess, really busy! Busy running around! That's about what my schedule looks like!"

She directed those last stinging words, somehow, at Banri too.

"Besides, that's right, I've got to go to the Student Affairs Office. By myself."

And then Kouko, giving a smile without heart, turned her back on Banri and Chinami and walked away, by herself.

"Ah, hold on, wait! You said we were going together!"

Banri, the sorrowful minion, ran after her back, confused.

But Kouko didn't wait for Banri. Her heels clacking unexpectedly loudly and quickly, in the crowd of students Banri lost sight of her back.

"...Huh?"

Looking around the area for a bit, Banri scratched his head. Was she angered by something insensitive he'd said? Did she hate him? He tried to run further after her, but by force of will he stopped himself.

Perhaps he had been too caught up in the moment, thinking they were somehow understanding each other. With the situation as it was, it looked like even running up to the Student Affairs, catching up with Kouko in her current state, probably wouldn't turn out well. Above all, for the time being certainly, his stubbornly running after her would be annoying.

Chinami followed along behind Banri too, looking around for Kouko the same way as they talked.

"Did Kouko-san get mad? Would it do any good to send her a text?"

"Yeah..."

She opened up her cell phone right then and there, but, changed her mind and stopped. She didn't want to annoy her in her impatience. As yet, it seemed to him that Kouko herself, the stubborn girl, did want to understand her feelings. For now, if they sent texts or called, they'd just be "dropped".

For now, he took a deep breath. He told himself, have patience, have patience. If she was a friend, then left alone for a bit, then once she'd calmed down she'd get back in touch. She should.

Without having called, Chinami faced Banri, took a little breath and spoke disappointedly.

"As for me, though I wanted even Kaga-san to come to the drinking party... It was no good, I guess."

"...Err, Oka-chan"

"Hmm?", her eyes blinking innocently, Chinami looked up at Banri. This was his chance, for sure. There were some things he wanted to ask her.

"Kaga-san has a bad attitude towards you. Well, though she's not a bad person, and for the time being I will stand up for her, could you not get angry or annoyed at that? Though I would think that if she talked like that all the time, she would lose out on invitations to parties."

"Does it seem like it?"

"No, but... hey, by chance, are you really so black-hearted after all? Do you have some sort of terrible plot under all this, trying to lure the girl you cannot stand? Into the deeps of the Oka-chan jungle to be entombed there, to be slurped up and swallowed by the dark Oka-ffleshia, chewing up and spitting out nothing but bones? Were you thinking something like that? Are you getting ready, opening up your petals as if licking your chops?"

Even though he could understand, Banri was stringing together rude words out of frustration, but,

"Wha, what the... what kind of creature am I?"

Making eyes truly innocent looking, but seeming a little worried, she bent her head to one side, looking doubtful. If she'd had big rabbit ears, standing up, their tips, perhaps, would be trembling.

"I am inviting her simply because I want to invite her!"

"Wait a sec~, already you've said, 'Eh? The flower below me? Am I a perverted carnivorous flower!? Hmph!', like that."

"I, I didn't say anything about any flower below... Really, I want to invite Kaga-san too. I find myself rather strongly captivated by her, you see. Whatever she says, whatever she does, I feel I want to watch. She has caught my interest. This, though it seems there are so many people out there. Besides, she's super~ Miss Beautiful."

"...Well, certainly. Super~, Miss Beautiful she is."

"Around our university, Kaga-san is the most beautiful person I've seen. My senpai in film studies, though she said she was last year's 'Miss Campus', ah, from now on she's nothing; Kaga-san is always prettier than her. She may have done well against the other universities' quasi-Misses, or in talent shows, or even working, but if you were to compare her to Kaga-san, though they'd spoken badly of her, she'd come off like some 'Jane Doe' with split ends and no fashion sense. It feels as she had spun a tall tale, as if she had gone off hunting for bear, dressed in a fur vest and carrying a hunting gun. Yes, she had to have made it up."

A 'Jane Doe' with split ends and no fashion sense... at those harsh words, Banri's breath burst out. Oka Chinami, saying such hard things, yet adorable, making a face as if she were appealing to him. Whether she was cunning, or interesting--- perhaps a girl with spunk suited Mitsuo, because he might have found such. As far as he was concerned, Chinami's latest remarks had lifted his opinion of her.

"The thing is, I like beautiful people. I mean, everybody likes those who are conspicuous. They positively cling to those who stand out, wanting to see what's the big deal. So when I happened to notice Kaga-san I unconsciously called out to her~ even though I understand why she could dislike me. I mean really, I suddenly wanted to hug her from behind, forcibly! Her surprised face would be so cute~, embarrassed like that, making her cry... and then, then... she would turn towards me! She would look up! Click! Just like that!? Would that be a crime!? But, hihi! She's cute~ for sure!"

"O, Oka-chan, Oka-chan...!"

"Hmm? Whaat?"

"They're opening up, those thick wet flower petals!"

In the end, the two of them wound up heading for Civil Law. Kouko didn't show up, she'd probably just gone home.

"Isn't it rather crowded? Aren't there any seats? Banri, can you see?"

"Yeah, it looks pretty bad."

Chinami wasn't tall enough to look through the glass window fit into the door. Banri looked inside, checking to see if there was space for so much as a grain of rice to fit into a seat.

He spotted Mitsuo, seated all the way in the middle.

"Oh, there's Yana-ssan."

"What's that? Was 'Yana' taking this class? How's he doing, is he paying attention?"

"Err, well..."

Mitsuo was carelessly resting his chin on his hand, his eyes half closed in boredom. His hair fell smoothly to his cheek, favoring the clean line of his jaw, even yawning the guy was handsome. While the girls seated nearby looked towards Mitsuo, they argued about something in whispers, squealing, secretly excited about something. They were probably saying things like 'That guy's no good', 'He's not good looking', and so on.

Doing it so as not to be noticed, Mitsuo pulled something slowly from his pocket. Pleased with himself, secretly smiling, he peeled off the paper and plopped in his mouth. That was---

"Oh...! He's chewing the gum he found earlier...!"

"Eeee..."

Notes:

<references/>

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 2: The Answer is YES|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2

2013-10-08T19:02:50Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>==Golden Time 1: Chapter 2==</noinclude>
==Chapter 2==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 057.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was eating a boiled egg.

Thursday, first period. If one attended for a given number of times, an "excellent" mark was easy to attain, so sports science was popular. It was five minutes before the lecture started.

Rather than miss breakfast because he slept in late, he had brought along the two remaining eggs he’d boiled last night in a plastic bag, and in the fifth row from the back he was quietly munching on them.

I was sitting on a seat diagonally behind him, watching this scene, but it was really dull. Banri brought a whole blue-capped bottle of Ajishio with himself, which was at his right hand. In his left hand, an egg. Writing with his right hand, he ate with his left. Write. Chomp. Write. Chomp. ...Really, truly, it was a dull scene. Speaking of highlights, he remembered his regret from last night, when he’d hurt himself while trying to crack the eggs with his own forehead, and the only result was pain. Changing his mind, he knocked the egg on the corner of his desk. Whack. the guy sitting near, an empty seat between them, gave out a startled sound.

Did you bring boiled eggs? Yep. Did you bring salt too? Yep. And so on. A conversation nearly blossomed, but shortly the guy’s buddy showed up, so Banri turned back quietly to his boiled eggs.

The girls right behind Banri, so he couldn’t hear them, were typing notes to each other on their cellphone displays. That guy in front of us petrified his eggs, didn’t he? They’re overcooked. The yolks have turned black. He’s drinking so much oolong tea. You can see his lips wrinkling. It looks like he brought salt in a bottle. LOL. And so on.

Banri didn’t notice he was being talked about.

Nor me without a body, viewing him all the time.

In the week and some days that had passed since the entrance ceremony, it had been registration time, and the campus overflowed with students. From the confused freshmen like Banri, who received information on lectures from their seniors at the club recruiting event, to the seniors in their suits. Holding huge schedules about the size of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami tatami mats], that were on the verge of tearing at the folds from opening and closing them while strolling about the corridors, going to and from classrooms, occupying benches, sending messages by cellphone.

But the only time so many students come to college must be in the spring, I think. Once the long summer vacation is over, half the campus population will naturally disappear. One or two of them, perhaps a few more, might even lose their bodies like me. Which means that they died. I’m not waiting for it eagerly though, really, but that kind of thing can’t be avoided.

Banri had better pay attention too. Unaccustomed to drinking, unaccustomed to staying out late at night, living alone out from under his parents eyes, fresh driving license, new friends, with an excess of energy, lots of free time to waste --- the world of young men is full of danger.

Sports Science was the most popular easy-credit course, and all the students were filing into the classroom. The seats were filling steadily from the back. In any case nobody can see me, and since in my state I cannot affect anybody, it really didn't matter where I was, but for some reason, I got the feeling that I should give up my seat. The clicking of highheels rang out, and from down the aisle a girl came and sat in that very seat.

Banri’s mouth still bulging full of boiled egg, he turned at the presence of the girl.

The lecture about to start, another one came running into the classroom. Her Nikes made hardly a sound. It was Linda.

Linda still standing in the aisle, unseated, noticed Banri and looked at his profile. Banri didn’t notice this. He didn’t notice my existence either, of course.

<center>* * *</center>

"Today, Kaga-san talked to me."

"Really? What did she say?"

"She said 'Takada-kuuun'."

"There's an extra syllable", Yanagisawa laughed uproariously, while he slid a cutter along the cover of a cardboard box. Turning his T-shirt's back to Banri, he sat as if over an old japanese style toilet, in an orderly fashion cutting the packing tape from all four sides of the box.

This place is Banri’s castle. Its name is Neo-Phoenix. This apartment, even if burnt down any number of times, would reborn from the flames... it felt like. Room number 204.

A small twenty square meter [http://www.jafnet.co.jp/manual/e_chintai/migigawa/eapart.htm 1K], but with a wooden floor. Not new construction, but relatively new. No need to change lines commuting to school, direct connection. Facing to the northeast, but at least a corner room. The room his mother liked was a much larger 1DK, same rent, but Japanese style, with bright southern exposure, but built twenty-four years ago. Its big closet seemed convenient and the room wasn’t all that run down, but he’d been a little nervous that it was older than himself, so he’d decided on this room instead. There wasn’t much furniture and other stuff yet, and maybe because of this, it was comfortable for now.

Unconsciously searching for bald spots on the top of Yanagisawa's head, Banri was sitting on a tall stool set in the combined kitchen and entryhall, his feet swinging idly. In spite of it being from a second hand shop, and costing only four hundred yen, it was stable and pleasant to sit on. There were some strange stains scattered about on the top, they bothered him, but he didn’t care.

Yanagisawa grabbed the cutter again from where he had set it on the floor, cutting clean through the rest of the packing tape. Banri’s mother, worried about her helpless son, had sent him a care package from Shizuoka, almost at once.

"So, when I told her that I wasn’t Takada, she said 'Oh, pardon me, ta, Tanaka-kun'."

"She only got the 'ta' right. You see, that’s the kind of person Kouko is. She doesn’t pay much attention to others, and doesn’t remember their names. She’s always full of things related to herself. Let's see, it's open now. Just what kind of treasure has your mother sent?"

"I said my name is not Tanaka either, but I'll give her a hint, it's two-letters, she gave me 'Two letters...? Kaga-kun...?' That’s your last name, right? I said. "

"Didn't you just make that up now? ...Oh! Look, Banri!"

Turning to face him with a delighted expression, Yanagisawa lifted the open box with some difficulty, and tilted it towards Banri to see.

"Incredible, Tada Mieko-chan, you really know how to choose! Wonderful choice!"

"What's that? And anyway, how did you know Mieko is her name?"

"Because I looked at the return address, of course! I love Mieko! Look at these ramen! Yakisoba cups! It’s enough to make a guy cry... ah! Pasta! There’s pasta sauce too! [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CalorieMate Calorie Mate] pastries, canned tuna, canned mackerel, sweets, and also... what’s this? A film case? And there’s three more."

Getting up from the stool, Banri peeked into Yanagisawa's hands.

"Ah, those. There's tea powder in them. We grind it at home, so the containers are just something random. You put about a half teaspoon into the cup with hot water and drink it as is, you don’t need a teapot nor a strainer. You want one? It’s super easy, and you can drink the tea leaves entirely, which is said to be good for your body too."

"Gimme gimme gimme! I’d love to do my body some good! Oh, there’s a letter stuck in here."

The white envelope surrendered to him, Banri sat down again on the stool. On the front, only "From Mother" was written. Letters like rain-wetted willow leaves could be seen.

Lectures long over, it was nine in the evening.

Yanagisawa’s condo was about three train stations away from here, and when he heard that a care package from home had arrived for Banri, the guy had said "see you in five minutes", and flew over, at night, by bicycle. Aiming to get something for nothing, the mooching rascal. That he really showed up in five minutes was scary... just kidding of course.

Yanagisawa seemed to have been raised in affluent surroundings; he certainly lived with a certain refinement, Banri reflected. But according to him, it seemed things had gone somewhat sour in his parent’s house after he faced them down over taking the outside examinations. In any case with no hope of getting a school expense allowance, despite a long time interviewing like crazy for part time jobs, looking for a job anywhere, he still hadn’t gotten one, and it was still unclear how he will pay his tuition. (he himself thought it was 'My parents or Kouko’s fault!', but the real reason wasn’t known). For now, as he had no other choice but to endure at a temporary job, he got a painful lesson about his future.

"What’s the letter about? They are telling you to share everything among your friends, aren't they?"

The letter mentioned no such thing, though Banri of course intended to share what he got.

"Take care of yourself. Don’t skip classes. Don’t spend too much time on the internet. Get enough exercise. Keep in mind that there are responsibilities that go with being an adult. ...Like that."

He even showed Yanagisawa the five lines of text written on the paper, put the paper back in the envelope and stuck it in a kitchen drawer. While he wasn’t looking, Yanagisawa grabbed a few packs of microwave ready meals out of the box.

"Ah! Just a second ''Yana''-ssan, would you mind not putting your hands on ''him''?"

He planned to share everything he got, but that was a different matter.

"As far as I’m concerned, [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Satou-san|Satou-san]] is something special. I couldn’t share that even with you, ''Yana''-ssan."

Yanagisawa obediently said "I see...", and nodded, quietly returning the ready meals back to the box.

"Well then, what about ramen? Could I have some ramen? How many would be OK? There are four bags with five packs in them each. A total of twenty."

Up to five, he thought, but instead

"You can have half of what I’ve got..."

Out of kindness. At a glance, he could see three or four mosquito bites where his pal's arm extended out from his T-shirt.

"Also, if you like sweet stuff, you can have all of the cookies too..."

"Really? You’re giving them to me! Why!?"

"Because you looked so pitiful, putting up with the mosquitos having a bite of you... and yet, it’s only April..."

"Yeah, it got soo itchy not long ago."

"Besides, when I moved in I've brought a lot with me. There's a factory in my neighborhood that makes them, and a relative of mine works there, making so-called second class goods. I can get a ton of the stuff from them. So at my parent’s house this is the only thing we can eat without limits. I don’t think we’ve had to buy this stuff at list price in all my life."

"Really!? That ‘second-class stuff’ is just as good as the real thing! It’s been that way since you were a kid? If I were little, I’d be dancing around for this stuff!"

"Childhood, ...well... what was that like?"

"Come on now, you had your own."

"So I did, but... So I did, but yeah, I guess I did."

Yanagisawa’s laughter washed away Banri’s vague response. He spread out a yellow plastic bag from [http://www.japan-hopper.com/2009/05/21_142676.php Matsukiyo], that was wrapped into a pentagon in an old-fashioned way, and immediately, chuckling to himself, started stuffing cookies into it.

While Banri was watching sidelong, his mouth opened a little. He took a breath, like a child watching a jump rope, trying to figure out when to jump into it, his head bobbing slightly. "By the way...", he tried to start. But. Hesitating just a little, becoming strangely reticent, Banri’s gaze darkened. ---Impossible. Stop. Let's put it off for today after all. Not more just a bit grave timing is... not yet.

His chest filled with air, he had to let it out little by little so it wouldn’t be noticed. He couldn’t say it today either, but that was OK. Next time, next time.

In a high pitched voice, he playfully called "''Yana''-ssan!" "Gross!" his new friend answered in the same falsetto, without turning his head.

"Anyway, can we go back to the previous conversation? What I said about Kaga-san. I met her in the first period today."

"Ah, sports studies? I was perplexed about it but I'm glad I haven't attended."

"Kaga-san asked me to tell her everything about your schedule."

Yanagisawa had been grabbing various flavors of ramen noodles, one by one, glaring at them like licking them with his hungry eyes, as he decided which he would take back with him, but then he suddenly stopped moving. Soon, still crouched down, he turned slowly to look up at Banri, who was seated on his stool swinging his feet. Mitsuo's face became serious. After his somewhat refined features, this sudden lack of expression was rather scary.

"...Perhaps, you..."

"No no no! I wouldn't tell her, as I know you’ve been trying to avoid her."

Saying something like "Good", Yanagisawa nodded his still-serious face. Because of how he was sitting after turning back, one knee on the ground, he wound up looking like a dog trainer.

And then, as if to say "Come on!", he pointed a finger at Banri bending it a few times, gesturing "OK, keep on talking."

"...But, even Kaga-san herself seems to have realized that you are avoiding her. She was sighing, 'Whenever he sees me, he runs away, he even avoids having the same lectures with me. Coming to this college just to be together with Mitsuo is meaningless this way...'"

"It's not like her so stop it. But well, it really is that way. Even she understands, sort of."

"'So, as kidnapping is a no-no, could you please give information once ''Yana''-ssan's registered his classes?' she asked. She postpones her registration until you do, as it seems she wants to match yours."

Yanagisawa gave quite a frown.

"Which I refused to do of course, from the start. And then she said something like 'I wouldn't want it for free.'"

"...She’s that kind of girl, so she..."

Tsk, Yanagisawa clicked his tongue, his mouth twisted with a fed-up look, and he rotated his head. There was a loud crackling sound, echoing as if from the depths of the underworld. Might that be a threat? But to whom?

"When I heard that, as you would expect, I put on a face like 'What is that supposed to mean?' Then even Kaga-san seemed to realize my refusal, and stopped nagging me. Though she was seated behind me and to the side, she must have felt uncomfortable, "See you", she said and moved up to the first row of seats. With nobody else in the front row she was alone, sitting there, and it seemed that she had nobody else to talk to..."

"Well, not that I had anyone to talk to either, since ''Yana''-ssan wasn’t coming", Banri went on, and this morning’s scene entered his mind.

Amongst the other students, dressed in their colorless jeans and hoodies, Kouko, wearing what must have been brand-name, an order or two of magnitude more expensive than the others, a bright pink, one piece silk dress, she really stood out from the crowd.

Dark brown hair spilling over her shoulders, in her ears were diamonds set in flower-shaped earrings. Her arms so white, her wrists so delicate, her neck so smooth it was scary, she could hardly be more different from the rest of the class.

Besides, seen from the side, she appeared to be bored, listening to the lecture. Her profile was pretty without doubt. Even Banri as a guy understood, that she was spending her time carefully doing her makeup. It was not only Banri watching her profile fixedly for an hour and a half for sure. But everybody in the classroom --- both boys and girls, even the professor, was looking at the rose-scented Kouko, he thought.

There was not a single person, Banri included, to call out to her.

"As I saw Kaga-san like that, somehow I..."

When the lecture ended, Kouko, in order to shake free from the many eyes that had glued themselves to her, quickly left the classroom. Colliding with another student at the door, she halted, flashed her perfect princess-like smile, and signed with her hand for him to go ahead. Seeing that, some students near Banri commented, "So forced.", "She's always wearing nothing but brand-name stuff.", "'Cause her parents've got money, of course!", "That, or she's turning tricks?", "Some guy bought it for her, for sure.", and so on, tossing biting words back and forth.

Society is always harsh towards anything that's different.

"Well, she seemed quite... pitiable, to me."

At Banri’s words, Yanagisawa’s eyes opened wide and his face twisted. "Huh?", he made an exaggerated gesture, and with an expression that could have been taken as a confused smile, he asked,

"What? Do you perhaps sympathize with Kouko?"

"A little, yes. Really, just a little. You too, if you’d seen it you would..."

"Not."

To the words that were returned in an instant, "But, look..." he tried to retort.

"But reaaalllyyy! Life is so easy for beautiful girls!"

Overcome by the sudden force of that line, even Banri fell silent.

"She can do whatever she wants, and fix it by making such a face that makes others think ‘poor thing’, ‘poor thing’! You are the same, you were there with me when she attacked us with roses, and yet because she was pretty you didn’t get angry, right? Instead you say things like ‘poor thing’, right? She didn’t injure me, though it did hurt, but most of all she humiliated me! What would it be like if an ugly girl did the same thing? What if a really ugly one blasted you with a bunch of roses? You would have been like ‘scram, get out of here’, am I right? Even if some diarrhea faced girl were to turn and chase after me, could you say the same thing? Could you speak of how pitiful and lonely she is? You couldn't, right? Anyhow..."

He declared, pointing at Banri’s nose with his finger, but even with that, Yanagisawa still couldn't vent his frustration. Wrinkles gathered about his nose as he repeatedly tried to move his bangs away from his face.

"...All and every one of them say the same thing, after all it’s somebody else’s problem. ‘She's beautiful so don't mind it’, ‘I envy you’, ‘I want to be in your place’, ‘What is your problem?’ ‘Don't be selfish’... If you’re beautiful, are you automatically loved? No way. Seriously, put yourself in my shoes. Everybody’s been too easily fooled."

He roughly opened another Matsukiyo bag turning his back, but Banri had something to say too.

"What’s with you? Not that I've ever said anything like those! I refused to tell her your schedule even after she asked, didn't I?"

He didn’t deserve to get a sermon. For that matter, be it all or every one of whoever, there was no reason to include him in the same lot.

"It may be true that I sympathize with her because she’s beautiful, but that’s within my rights. But I don’t think that you must go and talk with Kaga-san! If you want to ignore somebody, that’s your right. But you don’t have the right to make somebody else do so. As for me, when I saw Kaga-san alone I felt sympathy for her. Because of that, I’m thinking that the next time I see her I will call out to her."

"...Is that so?"

He was serious, he nodded.

Today’s encounter with Kouko was cut off with him giving her a sharp look in refusal. That ambiguous conclusion made him feel awfully bad. It left a bad aftertaste.

He had no intention to give Yanagisawa’s course information to Kouko like she wished, but it was because he wanted to give priority to ''Yana''-ssan's wishes. On the other hand, Banri himself wasn’t holding anything against Kouko, and he wanted to make sure she knew of this somehow. Even though he was brought into the conflict, even though his friend loathed her, even though his name wasn't remembered, even though he was never even noticed to begin with, Banri didn't hate her for such reasons. He could not reject her.

Like Yanagisawa said, it may be simply because Kouko is beautiful. It could be that he only felt sympathy for her because she’s beautiful. But, let's suppose--- If Kouko’s appearance wasn't that pretty, say, she looked like some rascal instead, even if she did the same things, Banri didn’t think he could come to hate her. Or you might say, he didn’t want to be like that.

Yanagisawa stopped talking back. He was sullenly silent, frowning, looking down at the bag stuffed with candy and ramen. Saying "I don’t need these", he would leave, ending the friendship they had only just built. If that happened, what should he do? Should he apologize? But what about? Banri awkwardly stared at his own tiptoes. Really, he had no idea what he should do. He didn’t have the experience for this situation. However,

"Well, ...you have a point. Just because I'm avoiding Kouko, that doesn’t mean I have the right to make you do so too."

His irritation and hunger were pulling him in different directions, but it appeared that hunger was getting the upper hand.

Or that perhaps he really wanted to keep his friendship with Banri.

Yanagisawa shrugged his shoulders and said, “Let’s stop this. Kouko is not something we should argue about.” Was it the free stuff, or rather their friendship? Whatever he really felt about this matter, there was no reason for them to argue, Banri agreed. “Yeah”, he said, and got down from his stool.

"This is what being friends is about."

He put a pack of microwave ready meal into the vinyl bag. What is more, two of them.

<center>* * *</center>

Banri caught sight of Kaga Kouko in front of a club recruiting booth in the first floor lobby.

It was after the fourth period, moreover on Friday, and many large groups of people were streaming to club welcome parties for new members. All the booths that were nothing more but long tables lined up, were getting a lot of traffic. It was already almost impossible to see where one club started and another ended. The lobby was jammed with students from all college years mixed together in great turmoil. As they were distractedly walking and chattering, some guys stepped on Banri's feet, hard. He shouted automatically. When he looked back, they weren’t there. It was so deafeningly noisy in that confusion, that Banri’s voice was swallowed without a trace.

In the middle of all those students, Kouko was by herself today too.

An air pocket, about one meter around, isolated her from the Friday crowd, leaving her alone. Her head bowed, the white nape of her neck exposed, she was reading some pamphlets in her hands. To Banri, she looked like a flower in bloom.

Nobody was approaching her.

Beneath the old fluorescent lights, as if wearing muddy shadows, everybody were sunken under a shade, but somehow the silhouette of Kouko seemed to be shedding a faint, gentle white light. Yet that same appearance created an atmosphere that made it difficult to call out to her. Even the gangs of fanatical club recruiters seemed to be keeping their distance from her. There were guys peeking at her, passing through the three-meter wide area around the air pocket, hardly noticeably pointing fingers at her and whispering. Whether it was restraint, or paralysis, to Banri it seemed that everybody was avoiding "to be the first guy to talk with her".

Perhaps she was simply too overwhelming.

Anyhow, they all had to be thinking that she wouldn’t talk with them, or that she must be different from them, or that talking with her would be pointless. That they wouldn't understand each other. To tell the truth, even Banri was thinking a bit like that.

Today too, Kouko’s outward appearance was just right. Her gently curled hair was bound by a black satin hairband, such as a rich lady might wear. Light yellow fluffy blouse with a matching gray flared skirt, strapped high-heeled sandals. Her soft leather purse was black, although it had no brand marks. Beautiful face. Beautiful figure.

In comparison with the pink mini one piece dress of the day before, it looked like she intended to tone it down a bit. But, as usual when compared to the other co-eds, she could hardly be more different. Thinking that this difference is so unfortunate, craning his neck from the shadow of a pillar, Banri gazed at Kouko’s slender, well proportioned waist. Though it couldn't be said, that with the other people passing behind her, she would have looked like a crane in the garbage dump--- about as different as a pearl from [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#crabs|crabs]]. About as different as the '[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus_(Botticelli) Birth of Venus]' receiving the blessing of angels and shining among waves is from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caulerpa_lentillifera sea grapes] arranged in an oyster shell, and served wearing [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geta_(footwear) geta]. Yes, around that much.

By the way, it wasn’t that Banri was hiding in order to stare at Kouko as much as he wanted, but rather because of the older girls of the Tea Ceremony Club right next to her.

This week he and Yanagisawa had made the rounds of all the clubs that were trying to recruit new members, getting all sorts of free food and drink. They visited the tennis club, the gourmet club and the advertising club; out of curiosity they even peeked at the large scale party of another college's event club... and then went to the Tea Ceremony Club too.

The drinking party of the Tea Ceremony Club was fun as such. But, the mood with only women was formidable (Crying out "My dear elder sister, that smells delicious!", girls bowing so deep down in the tatami room, that they almost push their faces into their senior’s groins isn’t something you see often...), and seeing the few male members used as slaves was terrifying as well. 'You there! Bring the pitcher!' 'You! Pour!' 'Hey you! Decide where we’re going next!' 'You fish! Distribute this to everyone!' 'Hey hey! Do you think the Tea Ceremony Club is for bowling?!' 'Gulp.. Elder sister, it's delicious!' It went like this. ''Male help is warmly welcomed! Come join the club! Let's work together!'' Such invitation e-mails full of sparkling swarms of emoticons, mostly sent out by the older guys, were even more frightening.

So, not wanting to be seen by the girls if at all possible, Banri was hiding behind the cover of a large standing sign, that was carried by a group that luckily happened to pass by. Bent over, he moved behind the thin plywood, getting closer to Kouko with small steps. For some reason there were big and small holes, just in the right places in the sign.

"Kaga-san, what you doing?"

"...This is, unexpected..."

Hiding his nervousness, he popped his face out of one hole, just right for a face. He stuck his right hand out of another hole, just right for a right hand. The front of the sign, bearing a full length portrait of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakamoto_Ry%C5%8Dma Sakamoto Ryoma], had had the hand and face removed so that people could pose and have their pictures taken there. It was a little surreal that Ryouma, carried at an angle surprisingly called out to Kouko, moreover,

"Aah! Ouch!"

As it was, with the sign being carried sideways, Banri’s head was about to be torn off. He was scolded by the guys realizing this. Probably, they all were from the history club.

Pulling his head and hand out, Banri appeared from behind the sign. For only a moment, Kouko stared at him, bewildered.

"...Um,"

But right away, her perfect lady-like smile could be seen again. The short conversation that ended unpleasantly yesterday, her loneliness just now, as if declaring "I'm pretending like those have never happened!" she smiled sweetly.

"Takada-kun. It's OK if I call you that, right? Good day!"

Still getting it wrong.

"Tada, Tada Banri. Since I saw you were alone, I was wondering what you are doing here."

"Yes, yes, Tada-kun. Good day!"

While she smiled beautifully with her deep red lips, Kouko wasn’t looking at Banri’s face at all. She seemed to be looking all around him, searching for somebody else. Banri figured she was probably looking for Yanagisawa. That guy told him that today he was going to the welcoming party of the Video Research Club. Banri was invited too, but all those real movie otaku like older students left him feeling overwhelmed and he'd decided to do something else instead.

"If you’re looking for ''Yana''-ssan, he’s got a meeting today."

Kouko blinked and only moving her pupils, she finally looked at Banri’s face.

"Where at? ...Even if I asked, you wouldn’t tell me, right? Tada-kun?"

While slipping a finger through her glossy hair, she raised her chin a little bit. White teeth glistening through her fixed smile, she slowly eyed Banri up, from the top of his head to the tip of his shoes and back. Folding her arms, giving an unusual impression, she slightly tilted her head to the side,

"Or perhaps you’ve changed your mind?"

Deliberately taking plenty of time, she blinked once more.

She gazed at Banri with a perfect smile, her eyes fixed on him, not moving.

But not so much as to make him feel any hostility, though.

"No, ...that hasn’t changed."

"Of course."

Out of habit, perhaps, she ran her fingers through her hair again.

From those gestures alone, thoughts like "she may be pretty scary..." had come to mind. That might be because her expression, with the prettily upturned corners of her mouth, didn't convey any temperature at all. It wasn’t too warm nor too cold, too dry nor too wet. There wasn't even the doubt of anything artificial in it. Simply with overwhelming sense of indifference, that smile shone beautifully in front of Banri.

Under the strength of those flashing black eyes, Banri suddenly couldn't understand why he felt pity for her yesterday. As she was standing there, her figure supplely twisting at the waist, with good looks, a smile and fashionable to boot, was she not perfect? He couldn’t see any weaknesses nor faults. He had a feeling nobody in this world could outshine Kaga Kouko.

Already forgetting just why he wanted to talk to her, saying "Well then, please pardon me...", with that like a clumsy crayfish, he tried to get away with the flow sideways, but

"Ah, Tada Banri!"

He’d been caught off guard.

"What is this, which new club are you going to now!? Are you maybe cheating on us!?"

"We're drinking again today aren’t we? You’re coming, of course?"

Somebody had caught both his shoulders firmly and was shaking them. He’d been discovered. This was the dreadful duo of second-years of the Tea Ceremony Club Girls. Their names: Sao-chan and Shii-chan. Sao-chan was fierce, and Shii-chan relatively absentminded by comparison. These older girls stuck like glue to the babyfaced Banri, who was easygoing and outwardly lacked many of the less redeeming qualities of guys. Well, it wasn’t all that bad, but as you might expect, it wasn’t all that good either.

"Ah... uwaa... ladies... Greetings..."

"Don't give us 'Greetings'! You’re a spoiled brat!"

At any rate, it was quite frightening. While being poked in the ribs by Sao-chan,

"Come on, why don't you make up your mind already and sign up quickly for our club? For that matter, wouldn't you answer to our boys’ e-mails? They were crying because they got no answer! Hmm?"

"Wha'!"

Shii-chan sluggishly inserted the end of a pen into the opening of his ear. Banri’s back was about ready to break, aah, please, no more... he was on the verge of joining the Tea Ceremony Club, when,

"Ah, sorry. You've got company."

It seemed as if Sao-chan and Shii-chan had only just then noticed Kouko’s existence, who'd been looking at them with slightly tilted head.

Letting go of Banri, looking at each others faces for an instant, they looked at Kouko again. Her smile perfect as always, Kouko waited for introductions, keeping her mouth shut like a well trained house dog. The two older girls once again looked at each others faces and said, "Well, then, send an e-mail if you feel like it", "Catch you later, Tada Banrii", sluggish wave, and they left.

Banri, who had no plans to join the Tea Ceremony Club, was saved by Kouko.

"...What was this about, I wonder?"

Her tone of muttering didn't sound like a monologue.

Kouko placed her slender finger by the side of her chin, as if wondering, and lightly turned towards Banri.

"Hey Tada-kun, what do you think? About this."

"Eh? This was..."

Right in front of him. Kouko was looking at him from point blank range, and once more he gulped, thinking ‘She sure has a nice face!’ Sadly, it seemed like her gaze itself was no different than before.

"T, they were two girls from the Tea Ceremony Club, I think."

"I wasn’t talking about that."

"They are called Sao-chan and Shii-chan."

"I don’t want to know their stage-names either."

Kouko slowly shook her head, coming even closer to him. Then, for some reason lowering her voice,

"...Could you answer me honestly? Setting Mitsuo aside for the moment, I really want to know this."

Eh? Eh? Once more Banri’s nose twitched, tickled by a thick sweet aroma.

"Tada-kun, from the entrance ceremony to now, how many clubs have you been invited to join?"

She was wearing rose scent again today--- recovering his reason, he returned from that dangerous place where his brain was about to melt. Kouko was waiting for an answer.

"Please, answer. How many?"

"'How many', so to speak… err, well... I’ve visited around five or six recruitment meetings... including those times when I turned back at once, and when I sneaked into the afterparties, umm umm, but"

Banri, trying to cover up, that even though he wasn't a kid anymore, he got so nervous in a situation like this, desperately searched his memory, but,

"The number of invitations itself, precisely, well... there is no way I could remember them all, and what counts as an invitation is vague too, and there were countless times they just called out to me."

Ever since the entrance ceremony, the chaotic recruiting meetings hadn’t stopped. As soon as freshmen passed in front of the club booths, the older students of every club swarmed out like hyenas. Both Banri and Yanagisawa, they were caught so many times, leaflets stuck in their pockets, and invited to welcoming parties. They had to at least make a visit at the places they fancied. Clubs coming from affiliated schools, with already established connections were probably engaged in smarter and more promising activities though.

"...Countless..."

Skillfully keeping her smile, Kouko went on,

"That’s... very ''many, many many manyyy'', right...?"

"Kaga-san... are you [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Ruu%20Ooshiba|Ruu Ooshiba]]...?"

"I’m..."

Quickly looking both ways, checking the coast was clear, she rolled up leaflets of some places she had in her hand, and put them to Banri’s right ear. And then in an unexpectedly low voice, as if she were confessing something shameful,

"Not one."

Her breath seemed to burn his right ear.

Not seeming to be bothered by Banri’s surprised expression, Kouko backed off, one hand on her hip. Through the prettily upturned corners of her mouth, her white teeth shone. Even though her pose, her smile was decidedly like that of an actress,

"...I wonder why? Why, why would nobody even raise their voice to call me?"

Oh boy, he thought.

She couldn't hide the slight shaking of her tone of voice, coming from her tilted head, revealing her inability to endure the isolation. That’s how it sounded to Banri, at least.

Kouko’s form radiated loneliness, and the reality was brought home to him once more. "Life is so easy for beautiful girls!", he remembered even Yanagisawa’s voice shouting. Everybody’s been too easily fooled!--- Really?

Am I fooled here for certain?

But, for now, that the woman was in front of him in the flesh, Banri’s heart hurt. That thing is for sure.

"Not that I would be interested in clubs! I don't want to be invited. I don't even think about such things as joining any, if I can't be with Mitsuo. But, somehow, I'm so much... I don’t know how should I put this... Since coming here, at any rate, I've completely..."

So lonely, so pathetic. So,

"...turned invisible, I feel. Like I’m being ignored, that’s what I feel like. And not just by Mitsuo. ...By everybody around me."

Message received, loud and clear! Leave it to me! ''Yana''-ssan’s classes, his club plans, I'll tell you everything, so go ahead and intrude on him! I’m supporting you!--- Is it like that?

In sympathizing with the person before his eyes, was he simply being deceived and taken in by a pretty face? Basically, was he being used as a means to get to ''Yana''-ssan?

Or is it that Kaga Kouko was really beaten down by the lonely days?

But even in being deceived and used, was there any harm in that? Was there? At the least if his sympathy towards her would make him reveal information about Yanagisawa, that would cause the guy a lot of harm. ...I see, so is that why he is so alert when Kouko arouses sympathy? As for himself, ...what should he do?

As for himself, what does he want to do?

Is showing sympathy wrong? Do I not want to be deceived? And why? For Yanagisawa’s sake?

Not understanding anything, he was lost in how to express his feelings. Banri gazed up into space, his mind a blank. Divine revelation, the promptings of a guardian angel, no matter where it came from, a message showing him what to do would be welcome, he even had such foolish thoughts. But of course, such things cannot happen. He had to think with his own head and heart.

Kouko said,

"Am I so strange, I wonder."

As if striking her round forehead with the pamphlets in her hand, she hid her face with a thud. Only the shape of her mouth could be seen, that she forced into a smile.

"I wonder if that is why not even Mitsuo will accompany me."

"...Kaga-san, is that..."

Was this an act to extract ''Yana''-ssan’s information from him?

Or, for real,

"...breaking your heart?"

"No."

Smiling broadly in the shape her lips were fixed, she had spoken that one word without hesitation. Her raising intonation showing unconcern had resounded quite firmly.

He had been staring at her mouth without thinking, when,

"Ah, you are interested in our club? Sorry, sorry, the booth was left unattended for a bit!"

Somebody raised the pamphlets Kouko used as a cover for her face, and there was a woman grinning on them.

Kouko looked at her with surprise in her wide open eyes. Just what was her face like behind those pamphlets, nobody will ever know.

"You two, you’re freshmen, aren’t you? Thank you for your interest. We are an ''all-around'', well, simply put, 'cherry blossom viewing drinking party in the spring, seaside barbecue drinking party in the summer, autumn-leaf hunting drinking party in the autumn, snowboarding drinking party in the winter' club, with a carefree attitude. We have students from many colleges, you will make lots of new friends. I’m not really a student here; I’m a third year from **** girl’s college."

Materializing unexpectedly, the person was taller than either Kouko or Banri. She wore slim denims with a matching V-neck knit top, and swinging from her neck was a silver necklace shaped like a snowflake. Hair cut in a bob, covering her ears, cheerful, pure looking and refreshing, somehow seeming like a television announcer.

"You look a little down in the mouth, though. What’s up? Are you OK? Ah, perhaps something happened during the solicitations?"

She anxiously looked into Kouko’s face. In an instant, Kouko had her usual smile restored,

"Far from it. I’m doing fine. Thank you very much."

With a princess-like attitude, she calmly bowed her head. Reflexively, Banri bowed his head too, in unison with her.

"That so? In that case good. In case anyone is too insistent, or causing you any trouble, then by all means tell me, OK? There seem to be some pushy fellows, the tennis club has such a bad reputation. I heard that they’re super insistent in doing their invitations. By the way, you two, what are your names?"

"Ah, er, I’m Tada. Tada Banri."

"My name is Kaga."

"I see, I see. Tada-kun and Kaga-san, right? Have you been to any club welcoming parties?"

"Eh? Well, um, yes", seeing Banri nod,

"Ah, I see! Where, where? Where were you at?"

The upperclassman girl from the 'all-around club' peppered him with questions. Banri wanted to give an honest answer, listing all of them, but,

"Ah, I've got an idea!"

With a cheerful smile, she clapped her hands and spoke, interrupting him.

"If it’s all right with you, could you tell me about it, perhaps over tea? I mean, it's only that I got so thirsty, look, from spending all day long in this booth asking, 'Are you a freshman?', I’m exhausted! Will I be scolded even if I'm skipping, if I hang out with underclassmen? Right? Haha, places at the station like the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doutor_Coffee Doutor] are always so terribly crowded, but did you know, that there is actually a nice and little-known coffee shop? You didn't, right? And that their [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caf%C3%A9_au_lait café au lait] is a decent ''café au lait bowl''? By the way, Tada-kun, do you know about it? What the ''café au lait bowl'' is."

"...Eh? Well, no... I don’t know."

"Really-- boys don’t know that feeling, but as for me, I love coffee, and-- well, most girls are the same I think."

The upperclassman gave Banri a light poke in the shoulder. And then she gleefully turned her smile towards Kouko,

"Girls understand, right?"

"Eh?"

"Café au lait bowl! You know what I mean, right Kaga-san?"

"E...eh, yes..."

"All right then, it’s decided! Let’s go!"

As if they were old friends, suddenly she took Kouko’s hand intimately. Visibly a bit surprised, Kouko looked down at her hand that was taken, but before she could open her well-formed lips to say something,

"Tiffany!?"

The upperclassman yelped. The sudden volume of her voice might have been overpowering: Kouko’s long eyelashes fluttered, her chin pulled back a bit.

"No way, no way, ehhh, that’s a super pretty ring! That’s a diamond, right!? Is it Tiffany!?"

"...Er, well, but... Somehow, I thought was a bit flashy for wearing to school, but, er, my hand..."

"Eh, why do you say!? It’s completely OK, it’s not overboard! It’s OK OK OK! I mean, it suits you incredibly well, and when I saw it not long ago I wanted one too! I mean, if I got one, I would absolutely wear it to school, and to work after school, you know? What’s the point of having it, if you don’t wear it! It's OK, let me see it closer, ah, it’s as pretty as I expected!"

Almost by brute force, in the position they were, she pulled Kouko after herself and off they went. "Maybe the upperclassman wants to grab my hand with the same force...", but Banri’s such worries were groundless. She simply called out to Banri, "Go out through the entrance over there!"

"Oh, don’t worry, it’s my treat! It's only natural since I'm the one wanting you to come with me! By the way, I can tell you anything I know about the lectures!"

...Could details about our lectures be going around even amongst other college’s students?

Banri was dumbfounded, but regrettably, if you were a lively new freshmen, as such, you had to accept such things.

"I can recall, when we were freshmen, the upperclassmen taught us this way too. Ah, I’ve somehow missed the bustling atmosphere of spring! The mood of the season, there’s something special in the air! Isn't it trembling with excitement?"

Yes, the air is trembling with excitement, you had to smile and nod back in that mood--- that's how it felt, so he did.

While the older girl pulled her by the hand, as if she were a little child, Kouko looked back towards Banri, who followed behind. With only that glance, even Banri understood that Kouko was confused. Banri was confused too. He was plenty confused. This upperclassman after her sudden appearance, gave him a strangely uncomfortable feeling. She was refreshingly cheerful, chatting away about this and that, but after all he couldn't really understand what was it that she wanted to say. He had no idea about where and for what reason was she dragging them along, to begin with.

"Well--- whatever. Let’s go see", Banri mouthed in response to Kouko’s look back at him, nodding a bit too.

Together with Kaga Kouko in a coffee shop, listening to what their upperclassman says. He had the feeling that he won't face such a curious situation ever again. Rare it was, rare. He would never have been able to casually invite her to tea by himself. Also this mysterious-like upperclassman was rather pretty.

Beside, and more importantly, this was Kouko’s first invitation to a club. This was the long awaited opportunity, so you might as well be open for it, thought Banri.

Of course, Banri didn’t know Kouko's real thoughts.

She was probably lonesome for real, this current situation where nobody called out to her was probably painful for her.

But that might be a lie, and she wasn’t really lonely, she was only wearing that face, using that voice, all as part of a strategy to draw out Yanagisawa’s schedule from Banri. If Yanagisawa wasn’t in a club, being invited by them or not probably didn't matter. Being ignored by anybody but Yanagisawa probably didn't really matter for her.

But, if indeed he was being deceived, then so be it, Banri thought. Disliked and avoided by Yanagisawa, and with everybody else keeping their distance from her, the lonely Kouko with her downcast eyes was a pitiful sight. Whether it was a lie or the truth, as long as he saw Kouko like that, Banri’s chest hurt.

He could live with being deceived. Banri wanted to do something about Kouko’s loneliness, somehow. But, giving out Yanagisawa’s personal information wasn’t going to be part of it.

If that was the case, then he’d go along for this strange ride. Looking back occasionally to check whether Banri was coming along, as the upperclassman was pulling Kouko by the hand, they left the school building.

Thus by being invited to a club, by listening to the upperclassman, or even by visiting the club's invitation party, they could make new friends, setting aside whether they wanted to officially join the club or not. Peeking into another world, there might be something even for Kouko to gain.

You could call it selfish meddling, and it certainly is.

But, even if all this, as far as Kouko is concerned, is nothing more but unwanted selfish meddling, it’s Kouko’s own fault that she drew out the sympathy of a simple fool like me.

Anyway, for now, with everything he had, Banri set himself to rescue Kouko from her solitude.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter1

2013-10-08T17:53:36Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>==Golden Time 1: Chapter 1==</noinclude>
==Chapter 1==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 015.jpg|thumb]]
Tada Banri ran half crying.

The Tokyo streets at one o'clock in the morning, despite being "the Tokyo", were pitch dark with no signs of life, not even a lit light by a window. During the day today (or rather, yesterday already), in spite of it only being April, it had been so warm he had been wearing only a T-shirt and drinking iced coffee, muttering to himself "It must be global warming." He was now shivering from the cold and anxiety. The sleeves of his flannel hoodie pulled down to his fingertips, his too-unsteady footsteps making a flapping sound from the sandals on his bare feet, anyhow, if he could just get to the main street everything might be all right... Should be all right. He wanted it to happen. With all his heart he ran.

"A young man turning nineteen this year shouldn't be running through the streets at night teary eyed...", I thought, but I understood Banri's feelings.

If I were in the same situation, I might cry too.

He had come to the capital together with his mother who, for the sake of her son who was starting a life alone, had arranged for furniture, appliances, gas, water, electricity and so on. She'd gotten through various minor formalities here and there, and then this afternoon (already, so fast!) she'd returned home in a Hikari<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikari_(train) Hikari]</ref> bullet train.

And then, finally, he had truly started the first night of his life alone. Only, this night kept him from tomorrow morning's college entrance ceremony. Late at night, as the new day was just starting, unable to sleep with his worries, he did as he supposed any resident of Tokyo would do in order to distract himself: he went from one convenience store to another... but he lost his way in the streets. Worse, it appeared that somewhere, somehow, he had lost the key to his new home. In any case, it wasn't there in his pocket anymore.

Banri's feet suddenly stopped and walked all of three steps back the way he'd come. He saw a map of the residential area standing by the edge of the sidewalk. "Saved", he said to himself as he approached and searched for the apartment building where he now lived, "Motomachi", tracing a route with his finger from "You are here". Anyway, once he had returned to the front of the apartment building, he intended to walk all the way back to the convenience store, searching for his keys.

But... ahh, enough.

If this voice could reach Banri, I would tell him, "Look more carefully at the map. That 'Motomachi' is the 'Motomachi' in the next district!'" No, rather I would say, "You left them in the apartment in the first place, forgetting to lock up! They're in the room!" Unfortunately, I cannot do that.

For the time being, all I can do is pray for him so that if Banri could just get back to the apartment somehow and get to sleep quickly, then perhaps he would survive tomorrow's entrance ceremony without problems. Just how important can one day in your life be, this new college student entrance ceremony? Even I--- though having become a wandering soul, can understand.

I couldn't believe the possibility that the spirits of men, even when they have left their bodies, remain and stay in this world to watch over someone. This side of the world was hidden, so I had only recently found out.

I am, so to speak, a ghost.

My name was once Tada Banri.

Nobody hears this voice anymore, nobody notices my existence.

I just keep watching this new Tada Banri who continues to live, even though I, his spirit, have fallen out of him.

"Young man, at this hour what---, what happened---"

All of a sudden, the living Tada Banri turned his face forward and a light shone straight in his eyes, freezing him like a deer in a car's headlights.

"Ah, wha... I, I got lost..."

"Do you have a license, a passport, anything with you that can prove who you are?"

"Eh, ah, huh..."

He was being subjected to the first police interrogation of his life. This was going to be a long night. Was this situation a crisis? Was it a gift from god? You can never tell where Banri is concerned.

<center>* * *</center>

Anything and everything thrown together, his current state of affairs was one of "Great Trepidations", thought Banri as he looked around.

The weather, however, was truly excellent.

A snowstorm of cherry blossom petals from the clear blue sky danced around frantically, as they wanted to spend their lives as spectacularly as possible. The auditorium, located amongst a number of old gray office buildings, seemed to welcome the moment of drama.

The scene looked like something from a painting. Cherry blossoms against an April sky. Young people gathering for opening ceremonies. Men and women alike wearing brand new suits and leather shoes, bright smiles breaking out all over the place, anticipating college life. Banri felt like trying to cut off the dark, inconspicuous corner of that painting, where he stood.

A constant stream of friendly conversations passed before his eyes. The auditorium entrance was beneath the eaves of the building. For the moment, Banri and everybody else had the same brand new suits and the same brand new leather shoes, in their hands they had envelopes with the names of their colleges. With dark circles beneath his eyes from lack of sleep, he didn't look the typical freshman. His right sideburn curled out at a strange angle and some of the hairs near his ear stuck inside, rustling around, bothering him.

He couldn't get to sleep until three in the morning. He'd been a wreck since last night.

He got the idea, in the dead of the night, to go out and buy something, got lost in the streets of an unfamiliar neighborhood (a rather dumb thing to do), took time away from a policeman's duties, explained his situation and was escorted back to his apartment, with great difficulty he got to sleep, but due to his nerves, he woke up at six in the morning. But it was better than sleeping in late, he thought, as he slowly laid out his clothes while he thawed some rice his mother had put in the freezer, then ate breakfast. After that he took a shower, and dried off his hair while sitting on the bed. He shouldn't have done that. His body heated up by the shower, the still brand-new sheets comfortably cool, he had lain down without intending to. He didn't remember closing his eyes. "Eh... What'd I do now... What the heck...", he said when he realized it was already past nine o'clock. The opening ceremony was to start at ten in the morning.

Jerked awake like a puppet, he fell into a state of panic as he looked in the mirror, his newly washed hair now a mess from having slept on it, but he didn't have enough time to wash it again. He cheated with the dryer as much as he could, threw on a suit and flew out of the apartment. In that moment, he was even more on the verge of crying. He got on two trains later than he should have by the schedule, the right shoes on, but the wrong socks. Without even realizing it, he had put on his customary ankle-baring sneaker socks. Indeed, with his stiff new shoes, when he sat, he felt a weird chill around his ankles. He felt helpless.

He dashed from the station, somehow or another arriving at the college entrance ceremony on time. Taking his seat, he composed himself like a perfect freshman while the visitors were welcomed, though he found himself disassociated from the grand occasion. That wasn't from lack of sleep, nor from bedhead.

It was because, he realized, he was the only one entirely alone.

He wasn't even trying to be observant: the place was noisy the whole time from people talking. It was because everybody else had somebody to talk to. If they'd come up from an affiliated high school, they'd already formed groups of friends, guys and girls together, and if not, they were usually seated with their parents. Usually.

"Parents these days don't go to college entrance ceremonies!" "That may be so at Toudai<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tokyo Toudai]</ref>, but at this place that's overdoing it. Everybody's going to think I'm some sort of mama's boy!" "Absolutely ridiculous!" "Parents don't normally come to college entrance ceremonies!" After Banri's complaints, his mother had returned home the day before. "Well, I've brought this just in case...", she said, then put a companion ticket for the admission ceremony back into her wallet, like it was something precious. He hadn't been all that seriously wishing for her not to come. But then he whined absurdly like a little kid, "I don't want you to come", in what he thought was a normal parent-child relationship.

And now, having gotten here, already discouraged, but above all, feeling guilty of being disloyal to his parents. '''(!)''' It weighed heavily on him. He hadn't even waved. His mother's back had gone through the Yaesu<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaesu Yaesu]</ref> north entrance ticket gate, disappearing as he saw her off.

Without realizing it, he sighed pathetically as he stood still in the entrance, seeing the hair of people descending the steps, laughing together.

From where he stood, he could not see anybody else who was alone. He rubbed his eyes with his middle fingers. Maybe it was pollen, or perhaps lack of sleep, but his eyes were itching strangely. A guy who forgot his handkerchief certainly wouldn't have brought eyedrops with him either.

Things aren't looking good--- yeah, even as early as today, it looked like things are going to keep on going badly.

"You gonna ride the train? Or walk?"

"Why bother going up to the station? It just makes me tired. I prefer to walk."

In front of the paralyzed Banri's eyes, two guys walked by in suits, loosening their neckties.

From the auditorium, he had to make it over to the freshman orientation by himself, one hour later over on his department's part of campus. Having said that, according to the guide map that had been passed out to them, it was only one station away by subway. Even though he had just arrived in the capitol, that didn't mean he'd just crept in from the wilderness, nor that he was all that nervous about what he had to do. What was confusing from Banri's point of view was that the crowd leaving the auditorium, for some reason, was dividing in two.

Perhaps, the people turning north were going to the station. Those going south were walking. With the weather so nice, he wanted to walk, but the walking route wasn't noted on the map. The memory of last night's disaster still fresh in his mind, he didn't want to get lost by himself again in the streets. "But from now on, I will have to find the way everywhere by myself..." "But still..." Banri stood there murmuring, still hesitating for a while, then he finally made up his mind and went down the steps to the street.

He decided to stick close to the pair, who preferred to walk. "From this point on we're a trio!", he whispered to the backs of the two in front of him. The two of them were dressed in slim dark grey suits, just like Banri.

Still lacking the courage to make conversation, Banri followed after them, matching their pace. Though things were a bit uncomfortable right now, eventually their classes and studies would draw them together as friends. He'd say things like "Honestly, at the opening ceremony I was hopelessly following you two", and then they would be able to laugh about it all. Banri's pursuit still unnoticed, the two walked on steadily. At length the entire crowd of freshmen had flowed out of the auditorium, into the streets, where, like a river coming together, they mixed into the crowds of the weekday town passing by. If you didn't look too close, you could wind up confusing the freshmen and the businessmen. When,

"Ah, it's rather hot today, isn't it? Let's go get some ice cream."

"Really?"

The right-hand guy spoke on a whim. Staring at the back of the guy's head, Banri's eyebrows rose without thinking.

"Really. Why don't we stop by the next convenience store? I'll eat ice cream."

Do you really want to eat some ice cream right now? The opening ceremony has just ended, and you want ice cream from a convenience store in the middle of the way to the orientation, when the time is limited? He gazed the back of the left guy's head. "Forget it." You on the left, say it! Just what he was going to do while those guys ate ice cream, he had no idea.

"In that case I'll have some too. There ought to be a 7-11 around here somewhere."

"Yeah, there was a 7-11. But where was it, I wonder?"

They didn't hear Banri's silent message. Leaving the slow stream of passersby, the two turned down a narrow side street. This was the time when he should have bidden farewell to them, sticking to the other freshmen. Banri should have done that, but he suffered a lapse in judgment. Going along straight ahead, it wasn't easy to distinguish freshmen from businessmen right away, so without thinking he had gone along with the two down the side street. "Ah ah ah." Ignoring Banri, whose conscience tried quietly to hurry him, those two were saying things like, "Hmm, 7-11, 7-11. Over there? Over here?" Those two stayed cool and collected as they went along unfamiliar streets. Perhaps they wanted to get rid of him... among such doubts, he turned left and right, straying from the right way,

"Ah, it wasn't a 7-11 after all."

They were in front of a Family Mart<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilyMart Family Mart]</ref>.

The two of them entered the store without hesitation, not noticing Banri's presence yet, who stood there blinking his eyes rapidly from anxiety. Not knowing what else to do, he followed suit, leaving a little distance between them. He turned his back to them, pretending to stare at the magazines, while the two were fishing in the ice-cream case. After some ten seconds, he made up his mind, "I'll have to eat too." In order to look normal, he figured he ought to just do the same things those guys were doing. After looking sidelong to make sure the two guys had gone to the cash register ice-cream in their hands, putting on his most innocent expression, he peered into the ice-cream case too. Not to waste any time in choosing, he grabbed the first one at hand, "Ah... I'd like some ice cream after all..." making such a face while the two paid their bill, he queued behind them at the register. However,

"But of course, from here we've got orientation, and ice cream could be a real mess. We don't really have much time left, maybe we should change our mind."

"Well, that may be so. Shall we just go? Excuse me sir, the register is yours, we're leaving."

"Ehh!?"

The two very politely gave their turn in line to Banri and went to put the ice-creams back in their case. The part-time store-clerk wasn't even bothered. "Next please", he said, waving Banri forward. Not having any idea what else to do, he reluctantly handed over the ice-cream, got out his wallet, and lacking small change, finally got out a 10,000 yen bill. "First the larger change", five-thousand, six-thousand, seven-thousand. "Then the small", jingle jingle jingle. Getting back his change took long, and during that time, the two left the store.

---What the heck? What am I supposed to do?

Shocked stiff, saying "no thanks" for a bag, he took the ice-cream as it was, and while putting away his wallet, Banri left the store in a daze. "Which way did those two turn?", he couldn't spot the forms of the two guys. "Calm down for now, I'm not lost yet", he kept reminding himself. "We came from this way, and then perhaps, along that way. I know that much, no problem."

When he looked at it, he realized what he bought was a Gari-Gari-Kun"<ref>[http://chibadailyphoto.blogspot.com/2008/07/garigari-kun.html Gari-Gari-Kun]</ref>". Whatever, let's eat. I should only worry after that. Banri shook his head to clear his panicky mind, then unwrapped his ice-cream. The soda-colored bar was tough from being too frozen, so after biting into it, "I have to put off eating this", he realized.

He took a looong breath.

"...What's this? ...What am I doing..."

What an idiot.

By the time he had realized it, the likely-to-be-important orientation was within thirty minutes or so. With no idea where he was, he was eating his ice-cream alone in front of the convenience store. The form of an idiot, who fell into this too unreasonable situation was reflected in the mirror mounted on the ID-picture machine across the street from the store.

He wore a dark grey suit, with a large light-green envelope. He held a light blue popsicle in hand. The hair drooping over his ruddy cheeks, was lighter than expected. Nonetheless, biting into the ice-cream, the features themselves looked much more composed than how he had previously perceived them. Even at a time like this, "Wow. If I look at myself objectively, I'm quite..." Banri thought, putting his hand on his chin, but

"...Whaa?"

He noticed that the image in the mirror wasn't moving together with him. Like a fool exposed, he turned around.

What was reflected in the photo-ID machine's mirror wasn't himself.

Dressed in a similarly colored suit, holding the same envelope at his side and eating the same ice cream was another person. Their eyes met, then looked away momentarily. Even so, Banri raised his eyes again and looked at the guy doing exactly the same as himself. There was no other possibility, the guy was a freshman at the same college. Ignoring him would be unnatural. Ehh, aren't we doing the same thing? Ah, what, maybe we are from the same university? By saying this, he wanted to keep things lighthearted,

"...Huh? Ah? Oo're ya?"

His mouth wasn't working too well, chilled by the ice-cream, and only an ambiguous moan was getting out.

Nonetheless, with body language, pointing at himself and then the other guy, he managed to get the point across,

"Ho...gu..."

The guy, too, while desperately trying to swallow a big mouthful of ice-cream, was looking back at Banri's face. Holding his fingertip to his mouth and chewing,

"...Well..., actually, I... the way to the college, I don't know it very well..."

His voice was lower than expected from his looks.

Without thinking, Banri gave a good long look at the other's face. Though it was just a for moment, mistaking the guy for himself was completely inexcusable, as the guy had much more composed features. He was also a bit taller than Banri, his hair better kept, his suit fit his strong shoulders well.

"I figured I would follow after somebody, so that's why I wound up walking right behind you. ...And when you went in there, I thought, 'What am I going to do now? ...Well, why not?... Why not just stick together?'"

"And from there..." the guy waved his ice-cream bar, showing it off.

Without thinking, Banri laughed. "What!?", he said, his voice now coming out naturally and brightly.

"Then really, we were doing exactly the same thing, both of us. I don't know the way either, and I followed after other guys from the auditorium `til I got here! But having been left behind, 'What am I going to do?', I was thinking."

"...Huh? Really?"

"Really. I don't know the way at all."

Still holding their ice-cream, not knowing what to do with it, they looked at each other for several seconds. In the end, they wound up laughing once more. Weren't they just the pair of oddballs? They felt like a heavy lid that was stuffed into their stomach, was swept away by laughing.

"Somehow, an unexpected meeting of similar people. I'm Tada Banri. 'Tada' means 'many fields', and though my name is made up from 'Man' and 'ri', it isn't 'Manri', but rather 'Banri'. I'm studying law. You can call me Banri."

"Oh good, I'll be studying law too. I'm [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Yanagisawa Mitsuo|Yanagisawa Mitsuo]]. It means that 'the willows are thick by the side of the swamp', and 'light in the center'. You don't have to be formal with me, 'Yana' will do. Did you come here straight from high school?"

"I'm one year late in starting. How about you, ''Yana''-ssan?"

"''Yana''-ssan? Wait- a year older!? ...Really? You don't look like it--- Well, it's fine. I'm straight from high school... but, though, ah, is it OK if I speak casually like this?"

"Of course. I mean, you don't even have to ask."

"I'm from Shizuoka<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shizuoka_Prefecture Shizuoka]</ref>. Since last night I live by myself. Where ya from?"

"I live close to here, but alone too."

"Yeah, freedom! We're alike! Let's be friends!"

As if raising a toast, Banri raised his half-eaten Gari-Gari-Kun to the level of his eyes. Yanagisawa raised his too the same way, and then they both finished off their treats in one breath. Throwing away the sticks, off they went, and finally before long they were able to return to the main street.

By themselves, after all, it had seemed an arduous journey, but together they weren't all that concerned. Compared to the streets of the residential area with no living soul around late at night, this time they could just ask somebody. When he was by himself, he couldn't even imagine doing that.

Chuckling to himself, he gave a sidelong glance at the already overly familiar Yanagisawa.

"Because unfortunately there wasn't anybody to talk with until now, I'd really been rather worried. I saw that other people were already among friends, and my loneliness was just getting worse."

"Ah, I was thinking that too. Especially for me, feelings of being cast out are something I didn't have for a long time now: since elementary school I've being going to an affiliated school."

"You've been going to an affiliated school since elementary?"

Nodding, Yanagisawa rapidly muttered the name of his place. Even though Banri was not from Tokyo, he still recognized the name of the prestigious private school. Over the next four years, the two of them would be attending this private university, but that other school was higher in rank in every possible way.

"Wha? Really? How come you didn't just advance to the university!? If you just stay on the escalator<ref>refers to the "escalator"/"elevator" system, in which graduates from a high school attached to a university can enter it without admission exam</ref> it always works out... What am I saying? Did I just..."

Banri reflexively shut up, stopping himself from running off at the mouth. This is wrong. What a fool he was. He was being insensitive. Maybe it wasn't he ''didn't'', but that ''couldn't'' advance. Suddenly being raised from the depths of solitude, his excitement was slipping out of his control.

"Ex, excuse me...! What I said was wrong... I'm really sorry, we had such a great start on this day... Ah, the mood is becoming awfully strange..."

All these apologies were depressing. Looking at Banri's face, who held his mouth shut this time, his eyes wandering aimlessly,

"By no means, I don't mind at all. Well, if I tell it, it's going to be a long story."

Yanagisawa waved one of his hands in front of his fine shaped chin. His gesture of "Let's talk this over slowly some other time", reached Banri as well. "Slowly, some other time." I'll tell you when we have more time. By all means, come over for a visit, OK? You can even have Bubuzuke<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chazuke Bubuzuke]</ref>. ---Ah!

Slooowly he took one step away from Yanagisawa. "Eh, what?", Yanagisawa looked at Banri's strangely fixed smile, who looked like a fool.

Banri was thinking he'd gone and done it. Last night, before getting lost in the neighborhood, he'd been looking on the net. Amongst tips for college students posted on a site, there was a human-relations item: 'Pay special attention to avoid overly familiarity on first meeting! There are possible landmines!' ...What should he do in a situation where he was the one requiring special attention? Unable to help himself, he slapped himself once on the head like a comic story teller.

"I'm such an idiot, an idiot landmine... to have caused ''Yana''-ssan such unpleasant feelings, after he's taken so much trouble to become my friend..."

"Huh? What's up? Are you perhaps troubled about what just happened? It's not that big a deal. It's not a long dragged out story, ...well, it seems you are worried for some unknown reason, so I will explain it in short. I had caused some problems concerning the opposite sex at the affiliated school. I was fed up, and needed my space. I wanted a new life as a college student, so I took the outside exam on my own will."

"It's not such a big deal, really", expressed Yanagisawa as he scratched his prominent eyebrows. Upon considering it,

"...Hyuuu...!"

Banri couldn't whistle, so he said this instead.

Carefully coming halfway back to where he was before, folding his arms across his chest, waving his finger while his shoulders shook, he intended to express "You're great!" the best way he could, within the limits of what was acceptable.

"Huh... The opposite sex?"

...If he kept his excitement at this level, then there shouldn't be any problems. But, in truth Banri wanted to be even more fired up. ''The opposite sex!? How cool! Arguing with the girls is super cool! A love triangle!? An affair!? Forbidden love!? Let me hear about it! I mean, share your luck! Make some girl trouble! [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Don Doko Don|Get that power-up! Super jump!]]'' ...Around his heart a tension was mounting,

"Sooo, if someone's as cool as ''Yana''-ssan, such things happen to them!? So did you have an argument with your girlfriend? Eh, eh, am I getting annoying!?"

He stopped right there.

"...No, you're not."

"Don't go making up stuff!"

With a fast half-step, he had drawn right next to Yanagisawa.

"...No, but, its no case talking about it. And by the way... she's not my girlfriend."

"Not your.. girlfriend!? What did you just say!?"

Isn't? And, while allowing Banri to get closer, the strangely serious Yanagisawa nodded. Then,

"It was not a good thing, absolutely not. It was... right. So to speak,"

Stopped by a red light at a crosswalk, he looked a little into the distance and then turned back to Banri.

"...a disaster..., it seemed like."

"Even so what does that," he tried to find out more, and as luck would have it, at that moment the light changed to green.

On this side of the crosswalk, a taxi was parked. Banri, with Yanagisawa alongside, had just started crossing in front of it at the light. ''Wham!'' The taxi's door flew open. To the asphalt descended the spike of a high-heel shoe, the hard sound echoing like a hammer.

They looked over there by reflex.

Banri gasped. In an instant, all his thoughts were swept away.

The storm of cherry blossoms had been something to see, but this, this was overwhelming.

Almost like rushing forth, out of the taxi came a huge bouquet of scarlet roses. Shining in violent contrast to the deep blue sky, deep deep deep red.

Banri's gaze was torn towards it, as it was raised overhead diagonally by that person.

"...Whop!?"

With all her strength, she struck the side of his face. "It hurts!", he shouted out, "No! It's cold!", he shouted out again, but in the end he hadn't any voice.

A cold spray of water droplets splashed over everything nearby. Completely astonished, Banri fell to the ground. The rear of his brand new suit-pants hit the ground, and he watched as more glittering drops of sprayed water came flying. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was Yanagisawa, who was being attacked. Yanagisawa got slapped across the face from above and the sides, three times, four times, by a bouquet of fresh, deep red roses. Each time, a few of the lively flower petals fluttered away, falling like drops of blood.

And then, the finishing blow! From directly overhead the bouquet came down, thrown down on the collapsed Yanagisawa's chest.

Banri was speechless.

Yanagisawa was too.

The rose petals fluttered about vividly, overloading their senses with the intensely sweet smell of nectar. In the middle of this deep red air raid,

"...I've removed the thorns."

Showing a wide, "perfect" smile, even the breathing was calm of that woman.

Who she was, what she was, such questions were fading away like the fog in the morning. There she was, a luminous snow white form, sparkling as if gently sprinkled with drops of water --- the deep red flower petals as it were an aura about her, the queen of roses completely.

"Congratulations on your admission! That's all I wanted to say."

"This can't be", Yanagisawa groaned in a low voice, holding the roses in his arms. Like he didn't want to accept reality, he was shaking his head left and right. Banri, still the dumbfounded outsider, simply lifted his eyes to her smile.

Her skin was perfect, shining like the finest silk. Her hair was perfect, deep brown, curled without a strand out of place. Her figure was perfect, her head slightly tilted to the side. Wearing a snow-white one-piece lace dress, her neck and ears highlighted by pearls, with fine high-heeled shoes and a deep purple handbag at her wrist, in every way the woman was perfect. That such a person could even live and breathe was a complete mystery, she was so unrealistically perfect. Even her voice was as clear as tinkling bells.

"So silly of you, Mitsuo."

Suddenly intense, she looked down fixedly at Yanagisawa from under her long, thick eyelashes. Her lips shining the same deep and glossy red as the roses, just like flower petals, she continued smiling perfectly.

"Did you think you could fool me completely, sneaking off to college? Did you seriously think you could escape? There's just no way. You can't fool me with tricks like that. For Mitsuo to run away from my perfect, our perfect future, such a thing cannot be."

Mitsuo - - - She is calling my ''Yana''-ssan, no, not that he is mine in any way, Yanagisawa by his name.

Still dumbfounded and planted on the ground, their earlier conversation came to Banri's mind. This could be the trouble-making girl who is not his girlfriend, perhaps, after all.

"Mitsuo has been mine for-eeever."

"Wr...wroooongg!"

"You're mine. Don't put up useless resistance ever again. So, see you later!"

She half ran back over to the taxi, which was still parked there. Just before getting in, she noticed a flower petal stuck to her hair. She picked it gently with her fingertip and put it in the palm of her hand, then blew it this way --- I mean towards Yanagisawa, like a kiss. The petal fluttered through the air, clinging once to the tip of Banri's nose, but soon the wind carried it away.

Leaving the two of them and the roses behind on the road, the taxi took off.

"Wha,"

He looked over at Yanagisawa.

"Whaaaaaaa!"

Still holding the bouquet of roses, hair disheveled, Yanagisawa let out a long shout. Banri managed to stand up first, and extended his hand towards him,

"''Yana''-ssan, get ahold of yourself! Who was that!? I mean, what just happened!?"

Many people were looking towards them, Banri realized. For the most part, everybody was looking at Yanagisawa. He was still sitting on the ground, holding an enormous bouquet of roses, looking a bit out of place in the ordinary streetscape for sure. He was just like a time traveler out of some trendy soap opera from the bubble era<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_asset_price_bubble bubble era]</ref>. Passing along the street, groups of seemingly new students and businessmen were looking this way. Stares expressing surprise mixed with faint smiles. Some of them were pointing fingers, laughing.

Hey, look. Wow, incredible. What's up with that rose man? With that envelope and all, he's one of the freshmen from our school for sure. So mysterious! What is he doing? Isn't that rather awkward? There was muttering and whispering all around.

A bit disoriented, Yanagisawa stood up. Right then, as if in one last attack, the piled up flower petals came fluttering down from his head. Seeing them fall at his feet, looking at the bouquet of roses held to his chest,

"O..over... my student life... in one day, it's over...! Hahaha... ahahaha!"

Yanagisawa gave a distracted look and thrust one hand into his pocket. And then 'Whee!', pulling out a handful of petals that stuck there, he tossed them overhead. 'This can't go on', thought Banri, his shoulders twitching. As far as problems with the head were concerned, he had quite enough of his own.

"Hold on, ''Yana''-ssan, you've really got to get ahold of yourself! Moreover, look... we have to reach the orientation in time!"

"Am I going to carry these gorgeous roses with me to the orientation!? I'd just be embarrassed, standing out like a sore thumb, and then, for four years of student life, what'll I do!? What do they mean by 'Rose Man' anyway! Like some kind of '[[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Ham Man|Ham Man]]'...!"

"Well well, ah, please take this: Congratulations on your admission to the college."

Some freshman girls were staring at them as they passed by, and their eyes met. On the spur of the moment, Banri pulled a few roses out of the bouquet and extended them out to the girls. Whereupon, while saying things like "Eh, is that for me?", they quite happily reached out their hands for them. Seeing this some other girls said, "Those guys are giving away roses?" "You're kidding! I want one!" And they came on over.

This might actually work, he thought.

"That's right! I'm giving out roses! Congratulations on your admission to the college! I'm the Rose Man, please have a rose!"

"...What are you doing Banri?"

"''Yana''-ssan, you should give some away too. Ah, here you go."

Pulling them out one by one, they handed out more and more roses to people.

"If all other freshmen go to the orientation, holding roses, the only memory that will be left won't be 'On the day of the entrance ceremony, there was this strange guy holding roses', but rather it will have become 'On the day of the entrance ceremony, the freshmen received roses', am I wrong? For that reason, ''Yana''-ssan too, come on, we're giving out a million roses to you and you and you and you! Yes yes, here you go, there's still more! Congratulations on your admission!"

Even the [[Toradora%21:Spin-Off_2_Translator%27s_Notes#Aunt Squad|Aunt Squad]], who were not looking like freshmen, cried "They're so pretty!", and "They're free!", and rushed over excitedly. "Could we please!?", their smiles directed at them.

"...Here you go!"

Even Yanagisawa smiled desperately, showing his teeth in a big grin while giving out roses to hand after hand.

"You are right! If I had stumbled right out of the gate, that Kouko would have had her way for sure. Even if she found out, we will be apart. We'll live in our own worlds. To that end, I went back and forth to cram school so I could get accepted here. In such a place, I wouldn't stumble! I won't become what Kouko wants me to be! My life as a student isn't over yet! Have a rose!"

They had about fifteen minutes left before the orientation start time.

<center>* * *</center>

Kaga Kouko.

That was her name it seems.

She had met Yanagisawa Mitsuo during her first year of elementary school. In those days, Kouko was a delicate, bullied little girl, whom he had protected. Because of this, she had latched onto him with all her might, saying that Yanagisawa was the 'prince of her dreams'.

"From that moment onwards, Kouko's dream has always been just one thing. 'Get married to Mitsuo!' ...scary, really."

"Scary? Why? Isn't that awfully romantic talk? A childhood promise… bound by fate to your childhood friend... sort of. That's good, totally. I mean, she is a really pretty girl, overflowing with charm, like an actress."

"You don't understand. You really don't know what it's like!"

His voice had risen only a little, but the girl seated in front of them looked back at Yanagisawa briefly. Lowering their voices, the two murmured "Sorry", and bowed their heads a little. They had been whispering too loudly.

The new law student orientation was taking place in a rather college-like way, in a wide classroom with seats arranged in tiers like a stairs. On the platform, a member of the Student Affairs department read into a microphone, "You have a duty to comport..." "Every effort to prevent accidents..." and so on, as he read out a number of important points regarding smoking, drinking and such.

A sweet smell floated across the wide space, coming from the deep red roses in the hands of a certain percentage of the students.

"...Didn't you get it from that moment earlier? Just because I don't move on to the same college as her, she ambushes me at the opening ceremony, beats me in the face with a monstrous bouquet of roses, and after she's done harassing me, she gives me a big bright smile and leaves, ''that'' kind of woman."

"She's a mess, she really is," he repeated in a soft voice like a groan.

"As far as Kouko is concerned, she has her life scenario fitting her so called 'perfect self'. She only sticks to me as part of that scenario of her perfect life. Whenever I tried to do something,"

Yanagisawa turned his face towards Banri. He separated his forelocks to the sides, disagreeably narrowed his eyes, almost cross-eyed, pushed out his chin, and with a strange tone of voice,

" 'Mitsuo! That's not right!' 'Mitsuo! That wasn't what I'd planned!' 'Mitsuo! Do what you're told!' 'Mitsuo! ''Faufaufaufa!'' ' 'Mitsuo! ''Fafafafafaa!'' ' ...That's what it was like. Not a way to live."

It was funny, but not at all like her.

"Her face wasn't like that. Rather something like this,"

Banri drew his chin back, batted his eyelashes up and down while looking upward, working his shoulder slowly back and forth, and combed up his bangs... gently,

" 'I've... removed the thorns... n...' wiggle~... wasn't it like this?"

Yanagisawa gave him a cold look and shook his head.

"What was that? No, she isn't like that at all. Of course, what can you know from just one meeting? She is like, ' ''Fuaaa!'' Mitsuoo! ''Nfuaaa!'' ' 'It's ''Fuafua''! Do ''Fuafua''! Don't ''Fafa''! ''Faa!'' Mitsuooo! ''Faaaa!'' '"

"Eh, isn't that just some lunatic? What I saw was 'Oh how silly... Mitsuo... h'."

"No no, she isn't like that at all! She is more like this! ' ''Faffaa! Faaaaan!'' Mitsuoo! ''Faan!'' ', but also,"

Yanagisawa probably wanted to demonstrate his expressiveness even more, the veins on his forehead showing, he lifted himself a little in his seat, twisting himself around, when finally,

"You there! Stop all that whispering!"

"..."

From the speaking platform a finger was pointing at him in warning. Yanagisawa flinched, awkwardly stiffened, and quietly sat back down on the more than uncomfortable, wooden bench-like seat. His cheeks flushed, he bowed his head while mouthing "Excuse me..." and like that he huddled himself up. Even Banri hurt from the piercing looks coming from around the classroom. This situation seemed even more embarrassing than the attack with the roses.

He snuck a sidelong glance at Yanagisawa's blushing face, who also looked back at Banri, "Don't say a thing", Yanagisawa expressed by simply holding his finger up before his mouth. And then rather than to cause trouble with more whispering, he scribbled something in pencil in the margin of one of their handouts.

'Anyhow, I'll be away from Kouko four years for sure!'

'I won't give up just because of that much humiliation! I'll enjoy my life as a student!'

'Hurray for a new life!!!'

'Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedom!!!'

And from the side you could see him grinning. His straight white teeth formed a perfect arc. ''Yana''-ssan must come from a good family and place, Banri thought. Then, taking his pencil, rather than writing an answer, with a big grin, he drew a cat that was shouting "YES!!!".

Moving on to an explanation of the required classes and lectures for graduation, the special courses needed by those who wanted to move on to law school, the special courses needed for the civil service examinations, all of the different kinds of special qualification tests and so forth, they heard all sorts of important explanations, and the day's orientation ended at about noon. When he heard "The ban on recruiting for clubs will be lifted starting this afternoon," Banri looked over at Yanagisawa and their eyes met.

To really enjoy student life, you've got to have clubs. At least, Banri thought so. Selecting a club is, absolutely, the most important requirement, he thought. It happened when accompanied by Yanagisawa, he was just about to get up from his seat.

"Mitsuo! ''Faafafafa! Faufaufaa!''"

"...Eh!?"

Suddenly a voice came from behind them. Banri and Yanagisawa looked back in unison. Banri saw white fingers placed firmly to Yanagisawa's forehead. ...Creak..., only Yanagisawa's head was made to turn around, like it was about to be twisted off from his body.

"''Faufaufaufaufaaaaaa!'' ...am I like this I wonder?"

Yanagisawa's face went white, as if the blood were draining from his head. Reaching over the desk from the seat right behind and a bit above them, both hands holding his head, there floated the perfect smile of Kaga Kouko. Alone amongst the sober shades of blue and grey, shining white in a lace two-piece dress, there she was.

The whole time - - - she had been just behind them. Probably.

"W-W-W-W..." Yanagisawa's lips trembled.

"Why... why are you... what are you doing here!?"

"For the orientation, of course. It's only natural to be here."

Watching as Yanagisawa's face, trembling all the way to his nose, went pale directly in front of her, Kouko smiled, her rosy lips parting slowly. Of course, beautiful white teeth shone between those lips.

"I told you before, didn't I? I said, 'See you later'. Didn't you hear me? Or perhaps... ''Fafafafafaa!''"

With a gesture like a caress, Kouko's beautiful finger slowly brushed Yanagisawa's hair.

"...was what you heard...?"

Her hands were fiercely swept away, and maybe out of frustration,

"What was that for?"

Kouko, still smiling but with a cold voice as sharp as a knife, folded her arms. Striking a pose with her chin lifted a bit, she looked down at Yanagisawa. Her large eyes shone like black jewels, mirroring the shadow of her long eyelashes. In all this, she seemed not to have noticed Banri at all.

"Don't you ask that! What in the world are you doing!? Why are you here at this orientation!?"

"I yielded to your desire and matched mine to it! I enrolled here too."

"''Fa''..."

"Now that's a happy face. For another four years, we'll be able to study together."

Yanagisawa held his breath, ran his hand through his hair three times, and because his hair was now all messed up, when he looked up at Kouko he looked like the angry ghost of a defeated soldier.

"...Y, your plans, what about them...!? In your plans for the future, didn't you want to move ahead in studying French Literature, spending three years studying abroad in France!? Hadn't you decided to build yourself a career in the fashion business!?"

Letting out a small sigh, Kouko slid her fingers down her glossy hair which reached below to where her chest swelled out.

"A small change was definitely required, but it wasn't difficult. Student life without you by my side would be meaningless. I had been thinking that you and I would go to college together, taking classes in business so we could take over my father's business. But I don't mind. It's the same for me whether my husband owns his own business or works as a corporate lawyer. Mitsuo, you betrayed me, planning to secretly take an outside examination. When I found out I was surprised, of course... but, rather than making a fuss to forcefully stop you, I thought it better to follow you. So I took almost all the entrance exams you took as well."

"...How, could the school of my choice, have gotten out... I asked my homeroom teacher to keep it secret, and yet... I didn't tell my friends, not anybody that I was taking the test..."

"This year they finished the medical faculty building. Did you know? It's called the Kaga Memorial Building."

"It was no problem hearing as much as the school you had chosen." said Kouko, once more showing a calm expression, lips relaxing to a broad smile. Horizontally across her bangs, a blue silk hairband with red-orange patterns framed her round white forehead. From her silhouette, following along to her small chin, and continuing past to the line of her long slender neck, she could hardly be more different from the other co-eds passing behind her. She was too sophisticated.

She had distinct features, that couldn't be described in any other way but being beautifully shaped.

"Aren't you happy too, Mitsuo? That I give you all my heart."

--- More than anything else, her expression of beaming self-confidence made her prettier than any other girl, Banri realized. Yet, she hadn't even noticed Banri's existence.

Yanagisawa, making a face like he'd eaten something bitter, stared back at Kouko, dumbfounded.

"Right? You're happy, right? Answer me, Mitsuo."

"...''Un''happy..."

"Really happy, right?"

"...Forever ''un''happy..."

"The truth. You're happy, right?"

"Unhappy, I said! You're a nuisance! Despite my taking the outside exam so I could get away from you, you've gone and messed it all up! That's not something to be happy about!"

Suddenly, Kouko seemed to notice Banri's presence. She suddenly smiled pleasantly at Banri, who had been standing still next to Yanagisawa.

"Don't mind him. He's feeling out of sorts. Mitsuo is, so to speak, famous for being ''that''."

Tsu, n, de, re.

Heh.

She tapped softly near her mouth with a beige-painted fingernail, and gave a small shrug of her shoulders. Like an actress on stage, she gave an exaggerated wink. Banri had no idea how he was supposed to react,

"Well, hmm, ...My name is Tada. What to say... well, nice to meet you... heh!"

Bending loosely, he pitched forward. Pushing Banri aside, Yanagisawa chose the primitive means of escape, by attempting to run off. "Oh! Mitsuo got away!", with that Kouko ran after him, highheels ringing boldly, running up the stairs. Kouko's beautiful form stood out, capturing the eyes of many freshmen, who then turned to each other to say something. There were quite a few of those, who knew that the gorgeous roses in their hands were originally her gift. Er, there must be guys around who saw the attack at the crosswalk.

"...I mean..."

Then he realized, after all, that he was alone again.

Left behind in the lecture hall, Banri looked around. Yanagisawa and Kouko's argument had drawn looks, and some glances were still turned towards Banri too. Ill at easy, he hurriedly threw the writing instruments left scattered on the chairs, into their envelopes.

"''Yana''-ssan has left everything behind..."

Gathering under his arm printed handouts of important stuff, syllabi, and various things belonging to Yanagisawa who had forgotten about them, Banri left the lecture hall in long strides up the stairs. They had exchanged their cell-phone numbers and e-mail addresses anyway, so returning them tomorrow won't be a problem.

Leaving through one of the many doors out to the corridor, he joined the swarm of the other freshmen. Plans for going out, first time introductions, the voices and laughter here and there echoed like a small explosion. The school building was old. The light coming from the flourescent fixtures was going yellow, there were braces here and there to stiffen the walls against earthquakes, and for some reason the windows had iron grillwork fitted to them. It was said that at one time this college had been the site of a violent student demonstration, and those things must have been the remains of that time.

Carrying at his side two people's worth of envelopes, Banri slowly descended the steps. In the designated smoking corner of the lobby, some freshmen (it was doubtful whether they had turned twenty or not), suits still on, were already hanging out. Glancing sideways, viewing the destination of the smoke they blew, following the guy in front of him, Banri also left the building.

That very moment.

"Freshman, congratulaaaatioooooons!"

"...Wha...!?"

With a great commotion, before his eyes fluttered a storm of confetti. There was a big crowd of students, many more than just the freshmen.

What started to surround Banri and the other freshmen blinking from this unexpected twist, were all the huge members of the American football club, yelling, and standing in the first row of students. Their big bodies crammed into their uniforms, chanting their team's name in a peculiar way, they grabbed the guys that caught their eye and easily lifted them over their heads.

"You there, freshman, con-grat-u-lations! Up you go!"

"Not me, not me, no way! Excuse meee!"

His eyes having met one of the guys with a helmet, Banri bowed his head to the summons and ran down the entrance steps in a hurry. In front of his eyes, above his head,

"Are you not interested in comic storytelling? We are holding live events for students!"

"Waa, waa, waa ♪ Come and do Glee Club ♪"

"You there, you look like someone who would love camping! The camping research club is over here!"

"The Freshman Comedy Club welcome reception will start at two o'clock! It's free of course, and there'll be drinks!"

Between leaflets being shoved at him, hands inviting him over, and then tons of bursting smiles, Banri's path was blocked over and over again. On the verge of being crushed in the crowded mayhem, all of the freshmen, swinging their idiotic faces like the heads of pigeons feeding, were being coaxed to line up before the desks of the club booths. You couldn't say that the midtown campus was very wide, but every club appearing there now had started their club recruiting meeting, with costumes, music and everything imaginable.

There was a group in varsity jackets with the college name on them, who for some reason were wearing swimsuits and shouldering oxygen tanks. There were masked pro wrestlers in tights building a small temporary ring, miniskirted lacrosse girls with polo shirts, each of them so pretty like a model, and some otherwise unidentifiable guys, who were selling cold drinks from an enormous cooler for 50 yen apiece. "Information on leisurely taking lectures! Everything is printed here!", yelled a gang of reporter-like guys, waving something resembling newspapers, with Mass Communications Research Society written on their sashes.

Even the other uniformed bodies gathered around, tennis, and then judo, which together with the American Football club were suddenly livened up by cheerleaders. Swordfighting and archery were there too. The people in tuxedos and dresses must have been the ballroom dancing club. A cheering party dressed in black school uniforms, they were difficult to approach.

There slightly hunched and short built, somewhat baby-faced, without any aspiration stood an idle Banri. For this, only the clubs with cultural aspects called out to him. "The trains will always be on time!" ...Railroad Research Club? "Why not go to the beach twice a year?!" ...Manga Culture Research Club? "Sunday morning is chaos!" ...Anime Research Club. And stranger, "Detective Novel Mystery Only Research Club", and "Maze Research Club", and even, this one catching his imagination a little, "Gigantic Structure Exploration Club". What could "On Mount Takao<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Takao Mount Takao]</ref>, even you can shake the mountain priest's hand" be?

He came back to himself to find that a mountain of leaflets had been pushed into his hands. Washed away by the raging wave of students from all grades jumbled together, Banri couldn't just stand still, and ended up at the center of the square. He intended to select which club they'd belong to with Yanagisawa, but in this madness, this uproar, he had no idea whether he could manage a clean escape.

"Aren't you a freshman!? We're the tea ceremony club, but young men are super-welcome too!"

"Ah, thanks..."

"Then for now, drink drink! Drink drink driiink! Drink driink! Drink drink driiink! Drink drink-ink-ink drink drink-ink-ink-ink drink drink driiink!"

"...Y, yes ma'am!"

Offered, rather insistently, a bowl of green tea, he tasted it while trying not to let the crowd rock his elbow. ''Gah'', he drank the bitter stuff and returned the bowl. ''The way to drink! Yes, good guy!'' Clapping, the tea club moved on to their next target, ''drink driink!'' To the attack.

The back of his hand might have turned green as he wiped his mouth. At that moment - - - A loud whistle burst his ears. He looked up in surprise. From the other side of the campus, a group, playing Latin music of intense, danceable rhythm, was separating the herd of people, cutting through the crowd. The samba whistle<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistle#Music samba whistle]</ref> was maddening. They had messed up hair, their own or wigs, gaudy beads woven into cornrows and really long dreadlocks, men and women alike dressed in bright green tight fitting leotards. They all had musical instruments in their hands. Singing in loud voices, they were a parade.

Incredible--- his mouth was hanging open already.

His ears breaking and his body shaking from the sound of the whistle, Banri's eyes were wide open. College is really cool. He hadn't thought it was cool like this. From this point on, for sure, life was going to get really cool.

This fast, arousing rhythm toyed with his body and made him feel like loosing to his instincts. He was convinced. At this place, for sure, he could become a new person. The days he had vainly spent pursuing the vision of his lost self were completely over.

The confetti dancing. The countless leaflets fluttering in the wind. The row of drums. The men's throaty shouts. The women's voices with their high-pitched laughter. Glorious, dazzling, madness of spring. The parade's rhythm shook him furiously, throbbing violently. He closed his eyes, blackout, can't see anything anymore.

Tada Banri.

If you were to open your eyes, you might be able to see your own self reborn. The self waking up in a new room, meeting new friends, and falling asleep in that new room.

Before opening his eyes again, he tried to envisage something like making a wish. He would certainly see a wonderful new world with his new eyes. Fun, cheerful and satisfying, even if he had mistaken those for loneliness or solitude --- the whole of it glittering gold, like being dazzled all the time.

Let's go live like that every day. So many people to meet, so many people to love, so many people to live together with in this world. Banri celebrated the sprout of a new life, and wished this from the season called spring.

If he could live like that, then surely before long he would fall in love.

He wanted to love.

A single person, he wanted to admire someone so much, that nothing else could enter his heart. It may have been a worldly desire indeed, perhaps, but as Banri was an ordinary person, it couldn't be helped. He wanted to meet a single girl. He wanted to bet it all on love. He wouldn't mind if she wasn't such an exceptional partner in every way like ''Yana''-ssan's.

He wanted to throw himself into the currents of fate. Diving into the rushing stream of this new world, the person you should meet, the one you should discover, grab hold of it with your own hands, Tada Banri!

With his eyes still closed he let out a big strong sigh,

"3, 2, 1... Ready..."

''Go for it!,'' he thought, and opened his eyes.

Come on, the encounter of destiny!

Drumbeats all over the place.

"...Eh!? Whoa!?"

Shining before his eyes --- there was a crowd of dancers clad in brilliant emerald green. All the dancers were assembled in ranks surrounding Banri, and were stepping in place wonderfully. He had his eyes closed, ecstatically, lost in a daydream, and by the time he had noticed, the second half of the parade group, the dazzling samba squad had surrounded him. Or instead, because Banri was just standing there he got in the way of the all the dancers, and the parade couldn't flow past him.

"Excuse me, excuse me", apologizing while trying to get through them, the hands and feet moving to the rhythm blocked his escape. Bending back and forth desperately so as not to disturb their choreography, the dancer's steps stabbing between his feet, in order to avoid hitting anybody he had no choice but to match their steps. Bit by bit, kicking his feet, swinging his hips, then in desperation,

"Heeeeeeeeeeeeyyy!"

Stretching out both hands, index fingers pointing to the sky, he gave a mighty pose, shouting with all his heart.

At almost the same time, somebody spin behind him, his headdress scoring a direct hit on the back of Banri's head. Crack! An easy knockout, he was about to fall clumsily flat on his face --- or so he thought for a moment.

His arm was grabbed hard, he was pulled up.

As if dragged out together with his twisted legs, Banri was yanked out of the line of dancers.

Stumbling a few steps he fell over to the feet of other students,

"No 'Hey!' from you, amateur. What were you doing?"

"...Ah..."

He saw that person.

"Freshman?"

He nodded.

The spectacle was outright surreal.

The person who helped Banri --- was wearing a kimono<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimono kimono]</ref>, white with flower patterns. A bright scarlet obi belt<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obi_(sash) obi belt]</ref>. And a hat shaped like a crescent moon<ref>[http://bartman905.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/amigasa hat shaped like a crescent moon]</ref>. With the hat was secured under her chin with a red cord, her face was almost half hidden. What he could see his eyes were drawn to: full lips, tinged a vivid deep red. Like a scene from a period drama, in the stance of a traveler collapsed and nearly dead on the street, Banri had been caught by a rescuing goddess looking as if she were from the Edo period<ref>[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo_period Edo period]</ref>.

"Which department are you from?"

"L... law department. I'm Tada Banri."

"I'm Linda."

Linda.

His reality was shifting yet again. He'd thought he'd been rescued from samba by a person from the Edo Period, and that person turned out to be a foreigner---

"My name's Hayashida, that's why [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Hayashida|Linda]]. I'm a sophomore. See ya later."

---Ah, Japanese.

"Errr...!"

Once he was standing, he involuntarily called after Linda. When she turned, beneath her hat a white face could be seen for a fleeting moment. Contrary to his expectations after her blunt words, she seemed to be a nice person.

"...Um, your lipstick... It is incredibly pretty..."

He had said it before he realized. What an abnormal thing he had blurted out. He had said it unintentionally. It was what came to his mind, at the spur of the moment.

"Disgusting!", she will leave him with those words, but Linda gave him a brilliant smile from beneath her hat. And then, swinging her supple, slim waist to the intense rhythm, she left Banri and turned towards the richly colored ranks of the parade.

As her form was on the verge of disappearing into the crowd, she turned around at the last moment. He could see her kimono sleeve swing as she threw him a kiss.

It knocked Banri for a loop, and he involuntarily slapped one hand over his stricken heart.

Twice in one day already, he'd received a kiss from the opposite sex... One of them wasn't intended for him. But,

"...Wow...!"

Having forgotten his lonely future for the moment, the spring just starting looked to be exciting.

 

Notes:

<references />

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter4

2013-09-17T15:37:12Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 4 - Date With Dragon==
===Part 1===

Dawn. In a plain away from the castle the representatives were lodging at---

A black-haired girl with her hand raised towards the darkness was there.

"Crush the universal light, O spirit of the evil black dragon---"

The radiance of divine power that shot into the surroundings indicated the magnitude of the spirit being summoned.

"Thou shalt abide my command and eliminate my enemies!"

The moment the icy cry echoed into the the dark's stillness.

Oooooooon!

Tearing through the night, a pitch black dragon manifested from thin air.

Dragon spirit «Nidhogg» --- the celebrated highest-class dragon spirit of Dracunia.

The atmosphere shook from the enormous dragon spirit's roar and---

A red blast of light was fired.

Gouged out from the ground with a deafening sound, earth and sand became lava which danced in the air.

After the flash cleared---

The field ahead had been incinerated away in a straight line.

Comparable to even a tactical-class military spirit, it was a frighteningly destructive power.

However, the girl's gaze that looked upon the destruction's vestiges remained stern.


......Somehow, she didn't seem satisfied.

"As I thought, I can't concentrate......"

The girl --- captain of the Dragon Knights, Leonora Lancaster, sighed heavily.

......She couldn't return to normal.

She had been in a slump the entire time during the «Blade Dance».

Being able to advance to the finals was thanks to the cooperation of her teammates and the height of her true strength, but as expected, winning would be difficult if she were to remain like this. This «Blade Dance» wasn't so low-grade that she could achieve victory without being in her best condition.

It wasn't that her skill had degraded. The flow of divine power surrounding her was also regular.

But ever since that day, something had been off.

Yes, that male spirit contractor --- since the day she had crossed blades with Kazehaya Kamito.

"......!"

The instant his face surfaced in her mind, her face grew hot.

It became hard to breathe and her heart was pounding fiercely.

It resembled the stimulation when the «Dragon Blood» rampaged but was slightly different.

(Just what exactly is this, I wonder......)

This bad condition that had carried on for several days was without a doubt related to that man.

In that case---

"---I knew it; there's no other way but to confirm it."


......What she thought of was a method befitting a girl from the country of dragons, a direct resolution.

===Part 2===

After having eaten breakfast in Rinslet's room, Kamito lay atop the bed in his own room.

......It was the greatest happiness for a person. Sleeping for the second time, that is.

"......Now then, how shall I pass the evening."

He looked at the clock and saw it was still morning.

If he were to get into bed just like this, there would even be a third time but---

"......But that would really be a waste."

And he corrected his thinking.

At any rate, every country in the continent had set up many extravagant entertainment facilities for the «Blade Dance». He fully intended to enjoy them.

"I should also invite Claire and the others---"

Thinking that, he stood from the bed and,

"......Hm?"

There was something squirming in the bed.

Could this be---


"Est!?"

He pulled the sheets aside and,

"......"

As he had predicted, the one concealed there was a sword spirit with silvery white hair.

"Kamito, good morning."

Est gazed expressionlessly at Kamito with her mysterious violet eyes.

"Est, don't just enter my bed whenever --- hey, what's with that get-up!?"

In the middle of his words, Kamito widened his eyes.

......Est was not in her usual naked knee socks attire.

It was an extremely rare occurrence for this sword spirit to cover her body with clothes.

A foreign design that had a red line against a white background. Her collarbone peeked out and her skin that could be seen from the slit was strangely captivating.

......No matter where he looked, it resembled the clothes that Ren Ashbell had worn during the «Blade Dance» three years ago.

"Yes, Kamito. This is the maiden costume from tofu's country."

Est answered as she pulled her fingers out from the outfit's oversized sleeves.

......That action was somehow lovely.

"......Could you mean the place where I was born when you say tofu's country?"

That meant the far eastern island country that Kamito had been before being taken to the «Instructional School».


Kamito had no memories of that time for the most part but---

"Yes. Do you like the maiden costumes from your home?"

Est tilted her head and let the sleeves fall onto the bed.

At that moment, the shoulder portion loosened and revealed the underlying collarbone.

Kamito's face reddened and he hurriedly averted his eyes.

"......Kamito?"

"Y, yeah, it's really cute......"

Gulping, he finally managed to voice that.

"Fua, Kamito......"

The ever-expressionless Est looked a little happy.

Truthfully, he should be scolding her for entering his bed as she pleased, but she had taken the trouble to wear his birthplace's clothes.

......Thinking of that, he couldn't get angry.

"Kamito, I really like you......kiss ♪ "

"......!?"

Est, whose maiden costume had gently fallen off, kissed Kamito's cheek.

Snow-like white skin. Her modest chest intermittently entered his vision.

"E, Est, don't remove your clothes!"

"......Why?"


The sword spirit tilted her head in wonder.

"Th, that is......"

Just as Kamito was troubled.

Craaaaaack!

All of a sudden, the room's window was shattered.

"......Wh, what!?"

The surprised Kamito turned around.

And.

"......Uwah!"

......A large dragon was outside the window.

A red dragon flapping its enormous wings.

"Th, thth, this pervert, just what are you making an innocent spirit girl do!"

The girl riding on its back glared sharply at Kamito.

It was a girl he knew.

(If I remember, she's the vice-captain of the «Knights of the Dragon Emperor», Yuri El Cid!?)

"Phew......"

The dragon knight girl --- Yuri snorted as though displeased and jumped into the room.

"Wh, what is it, you, what do you want!?"

Kamito yelled as he shielded Est behind him.


(......Don't tell me, it's an attack?)

But he didn't think those famous «Knights of the Dragon Emperor» would use such means.

"Kuu, why is Leonora-sama, with this kind of pervert......"

Yuri muttered as she flailed her hair around.

"What about Leonora?"

Kamito asked with suspicion but,

"Hmph, I only came to deliver this to you. Confirm the rest yourself."

Saying that, Yuri took out a sheet of paper from a pocket of her military uniform and threw it onto the table.

It wasn't just a sheet of paper. The abstract image of a dragon --- it was sealed with Dracunia's crest which was essential for foreign diplomatic documents.

"H, hey, what does this mean?"

"I have properly delivered it, brutish Ordesian pervert of a demon king!"

There was completely no chance to stop her.

The dragon knight spun on her heel and jumped back onto the red dragon flying outside the window.

"......Just what was that?"

Kamito muttered, dumbfounded, as he watched the dragon flying away in the distance.

Opening the paper atop the table, he found methodically written letters.

"Wait at «Saint Areishia Plaza» at two in the evening --- huh."

Kamito pondered it for a little while and,


"......Don't tell me, a challenge for a duel?"

His previous blade dance with Leonora had ended in an inconclusive draw. And that was done under the special circumstances of Kamito having lost Est while Leonora ran wild from her «Dragon Blood».

He could understand her desire for a proper rematch.

But if her motive was a battle, it was strange that she would suggest such a crowded place for the meeting point.

(......Anyway, aren't we going to fight in tomorrow's finals already?)

He just couldn't read Leonora's thoughts.

Considering her personality, it wasn't a trap.

Kamito looked at the clock mounted on the wall.

There was still around an hour before the appointed time.

"Well, I'll understand if I go......"

He put the letter in his pocket and turned towards Est.

"Est, I'll be going out for a bit."

"Kamito, you won't play with me?"

"Sorry. I'll be back before dusk."

"......Understood. Kamito."

He put his hands together and apologized and Est nodded.

"Now then, it'd be nice if we're just meeting to talk but......"


===Part 3===

"......Hm, was that Kamito?"

In front of the gate to the castle that «Team Scarlet» was staying at.

Ellis, who had returned from reporting to the Fahrengart house, had discovered Kamito leaving.

She did not see Claire or Est nearby. It seemed he was alone.

(......Th, this is a chance!)

With her heart thumping, she took a breath to call out but,

(......No, wait.)

She closed her mouth as she changed her mind.

......He seemed a bit different than usual.

If he were going to the city to have fun, he would have undoubtedly invited Claire and the others. She didn't think he had business that required him to go out alone.

(Suspicious......)

Her intuition from normally working as a public morals officer was informing her.

Perhaps he was going to the city to partake in indecent entertainment?

(......I don't think that would happen, but there is a need to confirm it.)


Ellis erased the sound of her footsteps with wind spirit magic and stealthily began shadowing Kamito.

===Part 4===

And with that---

A little before the appointed time, Kamito arrived at «Saint Areishia Plaza».

He searched for Leonora in front of the statue of the Holy Maiden Areishia at the center, but couldn't find her.

As he stood there reluctantly, he could hear various rumors being whispered around him.

"Look, it's the Lewd King. I wonder what he's doing here?" "He's definitely looking for girls to make into his slaves." "How repulsive......" "Don't make eye contact with him. He'll impregnate you." "It would be great if he were punished by Ren Ashbell-sama."

The cold glares of the girls passing through the plaza pierced him.

(......I somehow feel like dying now.)

Kamito stood there with the incessant desire to escape and the small hand of the clock tower struck two.

And exactly at that moment---

"---I've kept you waiting. Kazehaya Kamito."

A dignified and serene voice reached him.

"......Leonora!?"


Kamito gulped without thinking when he looked at the appearance of the girl that had appeared behind him.

She was not donning the military uniform of the Knights of the Dragon Emperor.

A white dress with a small purse slung over her shoulder.

Her trademark beret had also changed into a style hat. The dragon embroidery was quite lovely.

(Um, battle gear......there's no way it is.)

Kamito looked on in fascination and,

"......Kazehaya Kamito."

Leonora opened her mouth.

"D, don't you have anything to say?"

"Y, yeah......"

Kamito returned to reality and nodded hurriedly.

"Umm, it's not your usual military uniform."

"Yes."

"......"

"Anything else?"

"......Well, it suits you really well. More like, it's way too cute."

"......!?"

Leonora's face turned beet red in an instant.


"Wh, whwh, what you saying, you pervert!"

"What!"

Even though he'd finally complimented her, she was unexpectedly calling him a pervert.

"......A, as I thought, the cause of my heart's turmoil is without a doubt you!"

With a red face, she glared bitterly at Kamito.

......He didn't understand what was going on.

At any rate---

"Why did you call me out?"

Kamito asked straight out.

"That's......"

Doing so, Leonora had a perplexed face for a moment, then,

"T, to have you take responsibility!"

She turned to Kamito and thrust her finger at him.

"......Hah?"

Kamito tilted his head.

"......What do you mean responsibility?"

"I, it's your fault I can't draw out my true power."

Leonora leered at Kamito reproachfully.

"......My fault?"


Kamito was becoming increasingly puzzled.

No, truly---

Kamito had shattered her Elemental Waffe, the «Dragon Slayer».

Though she, being a noble knight, didn't seem the type to resent him unjustly.

As though understanding Kamito's inner thoughts, Leonora shook her head.

"No. My «Dragon Slayer» has sufficiently recovered. It's just---"

She pressed her lips tightly together and,

"I, I don't know why, but whenever I think of you, my heart beats madly. Even at the height of battle, when your face crosses my mind, my skills dull."

[[File:STnBD V08 151.png|thumbnail|right]]


Leonora's voice was slightly shaky.

(I see......)

Kamito somehow understood.

......Losing to Kamito must have been greatly frustrating.

She had probably lost her composure as a result of losing to Kamito and thus her skills had dulled --- is what Kamito surmised.

(......And so as I thought, we're going to fight again?)

If she won against Kamito fair-and-square right now, she would regain her confidence --- he wondered if that was it.

However---

"Th, that's why!"

As Leonora's face reddened again, she thrust her finger out at Kamito and---

"I'll have you accompany me for the entire day!"

"......Hah?"

Those completely unexpected words were voiced.

===Part 5===

"Wh, whwh, wha......!"



Ellis, who was watching over Kamito from the shadows, was gaping.

"Why is Leonora-dono......!"

Kamito and Leonora seemed to be having fun talking at the center of the plaza.

Moreover, Leonora wasn't wearing her usual military uniform, instead donning adorable clothes that charmed even Ellis despite them being both girls.

......Looking at the situation, it was unquestionably a date.

No, Ellis had no idea what a real date was like, but a long time ago, she had read one of the books that had been confiscated from Claire under the knights' authority.

"C, curses, Kamito, you've even laid your hands on the enemy leader......!"

She bit her lips together as her shoulders rose.

She had acknowledged that Kamito was an airhead demon lord that couldn't be helped, but she didn't think his integrity was this low.

"I, it can't be forgiven......!"

Having made up her mind, Ellis burst out of the shadows.

However---

"......Hm, wh, where did they go?"

At some point in time, their figures had melded into the crowd.


===Part 6===

---Meanwhile. Another person happened to be present.

"......Haa, how tiring."

Gorgeous black hair that fell to her hips. Pale dark eyes.

The second princess of the empire, Fianna Ray Ordesia.

Last night, she had stayed at the hotel of the highest class, «Royal Palace», and informed the emperor of their advancement into the finals.

......She normally kept a calm and composed attitude before her teammates, but right now, she was in an extremely bad mood. Terribly unpleasant memories came to mind when she delivered her report.

Ordesia's emperor, as well as the high-ranking nobles, had welcomed her with superficial courtesy. However, that was only because the empire was reaping huge benefits from their representatives' victory in the «Blade Dance».

Four years ago, when Fianna became the «Lost Queen», they had taken such a cold stance with her who was still so young---

That harsh treatment back then had left scars that remained to this day.

They continued to look down on Fianna who had been expelled from the «Divine Ritual Institute».

(Well, I don't really care about that......)

The reason she had such a grim expression wasn't that.

She had checked out early this morning and visited the «Biblion» to search for books connected to a certain issue.


The words that Sjora Kahn had revealed when she held Fianna captive.

---Information pertaining to the «Darkness Spirit King».

The Darkness Spirit King --- Ren Ashdoll.

According to the books she had investigated, a portion of the Alphas Theocracy believed that to be the name of the sixth «Spirit King».

(Sjora said that Kamito was the «Darkness Spirit King»'s reincarnation.)

If that was true, then she wondered just what the «Darkness Queen» was.

Moreover---

(The other Ren Ashbell --- Rubia-sama also seemed fixated on Kamito-kun.)

......She really wondered just what was happening around Kamito.

At any rate, there was no doubt that something was squirming behind this «Blade Dance».

(Kamito-kun......)

Her worries were endless. She had considered discussing this with her teammates, but then she would need to tell Claire about Rubia.

If she knew the truth, she might not be able to handle it.

(I can't speak about this yet......)

And.

When she sighed heavily.


"......Kamito-kun?"

She discovered Kamito amidst the crowd.

(......What is he doing here, I wonder?)

Kamito seemed to be waiting for somebody in front of the statue of the Holy Maiden Areishia.

(......But just who is it?)

If it was someone from their team, there was no need to wait here.

With doubts filling her mind, while she was taking a step and about to call out to him,

"......!?"

Fianna's motions came to a halt.

An adorably dressed girl had appeared in front of Kamito.

(......Leonora Lancaster from the «Knights of the Dragon Emperor»!?)

Fianna tilted her head.

(......Why would Kamito-kun be meeting with the enemy team's ace?)

The question swirled around in her head.

While that was happening---

The two exchanged some words and disappeared towards the main road.

"......"

Fianna was glued to that spot for a few seconds.

......In order to comprehend what she had just seen.


And then---

"Fu, fufu, fu......is that how it is."

Her expression slightly stiffened.

"Even though I'm here worrying about Kamito-kun, as usual, he's off being the Demon King of the Noon."

Her pale dark eyes became devoid of emotion and a black aura enveloped her body.

That appearance was just like the «Darkness Queen».

And then.

"Y, Your Highness?"

That came from behind her.

"......Ellis?"

Turning around, the knight captain stood there.

"Your Highness, what are you doing at this kind of place?"

"You as well; why are you here?"

"Mm, th, that's......"

Fianna returned the question and Ellis' face turned red as she attempted to mislead her.

It was rare for her who was ever-composed.

(......I get it.)

The wise Fianna immediately understood the reason for her conduct.


She had probably also discovered Kamito in the crowd. And then she had no doubt followed them.

(......What to do.)

To Fianna, Ellis was also a strong rival in love.

Actually, in a certain sense, she may be the strongest contender of the group.

(......But right now, we have to unite.)

After troubling over it, Fianna came to that conclusion.

At any rate, the threat that Leonora posed in that respect was unknown.

"Say, that was Kamito just now, wasn't it?"

"......Y, yeah, it seems that way."

Maybe because she was uncomfortable about having followed him, Ellis seemed to be trying even harder to fool her.

"You were following Kamito-kun, right? I'll also come with you."

"......Your Highness?"

"Come on, come on, it's too late once Kamito-kun becomes the Demon King of the Noon."

"Mm, th, that's true. I'm worried about Leonora-dono's safety."

Ellis cleared her throat and nodded.

The two who had come to a mutual understanding ran in search of the two who had disappeared into the crowd.


===Part 7===

"......"

The people they passed turned suspicious glances upon them.

It was completely natural. He was with the ace of a team that would also be attending the finals, after all.

(This has somehow become quite odd......)

Walking alongside Leonora, Kamito scratched his head.

(......I don't really get how I'm the cause of her slump either.)

In the first place, a spirit contractor's ability was greatly affected by irregularities in their mind and body.

A slightly wounded heart could prevent one from summoning their spirit, and conversely, if one's mind were strengthened, his or her power could rise explosively. Therefore, the attitude Leonora was taking towards Kamito, who she thought was the cause, was a little inexplicable.

At any rate, he felt that he should be thankful she had not called him out for a duel.

(......This is a date, isn't it.)

Furthermore, his partner was an extraordinarily cute, beautiful girl.

Realizing that, Kamito cleared his throat.

"So, doing things together is fine, but do you have any ideas on where to go?"

"Ideas?"

Leonora put a hand to her chin and pondered.


"I didn't think about that. I don't mind where we go if I'm with you."

"Th, that way of talking will invite misunderstandings."

The blushing Kamito took out a sheet of paper from his uniform's pocket.

It was a pamphlet with the business district's shop locations, details and other information.

"They've taken the effort to have these entertainment centers, so would you like to go to one?"

"Hrm, it was a good idea to leave it to you."

Leonora nodded and moved to peek at the pamphlet.

"......!"

Kamito's heartbeat quickened at the fragrance of shampoo that tickled his nose.

Her slender fingertips traced the map and stopped at a certain point.

"I would like to try going here."

"The «Blade Dance» Memorial Hall?"

It was a pavilion financed by the «Divine Ritual Institute». Historical documents related to the «Blade Dance» were supposed to be on display there.

"It's a fairly safe choice for a date."

Kamito suddenly revealed those thoughts and,

"......Da, dada, date!?"

"Ah, no---"

"Wh, what are you misunderstanding, you perverted brute of a demon king!"


Leonora was angry with a bright red face.

......Her intensity was such that it felt like she would draw her «Dragon Slayer» at any time.

"S, sorry, it's not a date, yeah!"

"Hmph, of course, I wouldn't engage in that kind of slovenly act!"

She averted her eyes from Kamito and scurried away.

......Kamito shrugged helplessly.

===Part 8===

The «Blade Dance» Memorial Hall was at a quiet place far from the center of the business district.

The building's exterior resembled a shrine.

Perhaps because the pavilion lacked entertainment, there were few tourists.

Suspicious stares turned upon them as soon as they entered the building but, as expected, nobody called out to them. Carelessly calling out to the «Blade Dance» representatives would be a violation of manners amongst the nobles.

They walked along the indicated path and viewed the display items. On the corridor's wall was a commentary for formerly used tactics and portraits of the successive generations of winners.

"As expected, there are pretty much no documents from long ago."

"Yes, especially those from before the Ranbal War. The «Divine Ritual Institute»'s library was also burned down in that war."


Leonora who was walking beside him pushed her glasses up as she nodded.

"......Huh? When did you put those on?"

"I, is it that strange that I'm wearing glasses?"

Leonora glared at Kamito with a sullen look.

Come to think of it, she had also been wearing glasses when they met at the «Biblion».

If he remembered correctly, she only wore them when reading thin letters.

"Ah, no, glasses also suit you really well."

Kamito voiced his honest thoughts. The regular Leonora was also beautiful, but she had an adult-like charm when wearing glasses that made his heart race.

He did that and---

"......Wh, what are you saying, you pervert with a glasses fetish!"

Leonora quickly walked away with a beet-red face.

"Why......"

Kamito sighed.

---And he turned his gaze to a certain name engraved in the wall.

The winner of the «Blade Dance» twenty four years ago.

The «Dusk Witch» --- Greyworth Ciel Mais.

"......"


Kamito stood still and stared at the portrait displayed there.

When she was young --- though she was still young --- anyway, it was a portrait of her when she was fifteen.

She still had her characteristic ash blonde hair, but she was drawn quite innocent and lovely.

Kamito had seen her when she reverted to her young state, but it had only lasted momentarily, so the memories hadn't really stuck with him at all.

(......So that witch was also young before.)

Kamito did not know the «Dusk Witch»'s strength in her prime.

It felt somehow strange.

"Kamito, what are you doing?"

Being called by Leonora, Kamito hurried after her.

Further along the path they were walking on, a large room was shrouded behind a curtain.

"......Special Display Room?"

Kamito took a step in,

"Guah......"

A groan surfaced from deep within him.

(I, I was careless......!)

The first thing that leaped into his vision was---


A tapestry with the previous Blade Dance's winner's figure sewn onto it.

Glossy black hair that fell to her waist. Foreign white clothing.

And that pitch black sword in her hand was surely --- the darkness elemental waffe, «Vorpal Sword».

There wasn't just a tapestry. There was a portrait covering an entire wall, and to add to that, a life-sized bronze statue was stationed in the center of the room.

"Wh, what is this room!?"

Kamito's face stiffened and,

"Having a special display room constructed is a matter of course. Even amongst the past champions, she is overwhelmingly famous."

Leonora's eyes were lit up as she was captivated by the wall portrait.

"Her blade dance is my distant goal. ---Stronger than anything, and noble as well."

......There was no way she could even dream that the person in question was standing right beside her.

"......"

Kamito also returned to staring at the tapestry depicting his past appearance.

(My strength still hasn't recovered to what I had back then......)

He was certainly in the process of recovering his strength from his prime.

He had also become able to use Greyworth's absolute blade arts, despite the burden they placed on his body.

But he still couldn't reach her. There was an absolute wall between him and her.

"Kamito?"


"......Mm, yeah, sorry."

Kamito returned to reality after Leonora called out to him.

"We'd also like to perform a blade dance that will make history in the finals."

"Yeah, that's right."

Kamito nodded firmly in response to the smiling Leonora who had removed her glasses.

---After that, just when they were exiting the memorial hall, Leonora pointed ahead.

"Kamito, they're selling bread there."

"Yeah?"

He looked to where she was pointing and, sure enough, there was a bread stall there.

The fresh bread lined up in a glass case was giving off a delicious scent.

"Ohh, those look good. Maybe I'll buy one......wha!?"

Having neared the glass case, Kamito was rendered speechless.

What was lined up there was---

For some reason, a large amount of «Ren Ashbell» bread.

Upon the fluffy baked bread was a design done with chocolate that looked exactly like his «Spirit Seal».

"Wh, what is this; I never approved this!"

"......Approved?"

"Ah, no......"


Kamito hurriedly fooled her.

"This is good. Let's buy some as a souvenir for Yuri and the others."

"So you're buying it......"

Kamito sighed in blank amazement.

===Part 9===

"......Nom. This tastes pretty good."

"Yeah, the taste is decent."

Kamito and Leonora ate the bread they had just bought as they walked down the business district beside each other.

The bread had chocolate on it, but this chocolate was designed to look like the «Darkness Demonic Sword» and was unexpectedly detailed.

"......I don't think Restia expected to become a decoration for bread either."

"Kamito, did you say something?"

"No, nothing......hm."

Kamito shifted his eyes to Leonora's mouth.

"You have chocolate stuck to your face."

"Eh?"

With a wry smile, Kamito wiped off the chocolate with his finger and,


"Fuaa......wh, whwh, what are you doing, you pervert!"

Leonora cried out with a bright red face......just like Claire's reaction yesterday.

"Dracunia's strongest knight also has her cute points."

"......~!"

With Kamito's teasing, her face grew increasingly red and,

"A, as I thought, you're the reason my heart is in turmoil!"

And she turned her face away.

"Sorry, my bad. So where should we go next?"

"......That's right. I heard a weapons museum and spirits museum were on the outskirts of town."

"Such refined tastes as always."

Kamito voiced that kind of thought and,

"......Sorry. I was raised in a strict knight household, so I don't know where best to go in these situations."

"......I see."

Well, that was similar to Kamito. He didn't know a tactful place to have fun or things of that sort.

"Then let's just wander around and explore the business district."

"Yes."

At that time, a wind spirit like a small bird flew away above them.

A sudden strong gust of wind blew through the path and Leonora's one-piece was turned up before Kamito's eyes.


"Kyaa!"

"......!?"

Kamito reflexively averted his eyes but---

(......Hm?)

He had a slightly bad feeling about the image that was burned into his eyes for but a moment.

He had not seen a single stitch of the panties that logically should have been there.

What he saw in its place was a soft-looking butt---

(......N, no way!?)

Come to think of it --- Kamito recalled.

About what happened at the library before the battle portion. When Leonora who was being controlled by her «Dragon Blood» tempted Kamito, he was sure that she---

"......Umm, could I ask one crude question?"

"What is it?"

"Are you not......wearing u, underwear?"

"......?"

Leonora tilted her head, puzzled for a moment, then---

"Yes. Princess maidens that serve a dragon may not wear underwear."

She said it like it was extremely obvious with a nod.


"......Are you a naked knee socks sword spirit."

Kamito made a small sigh and,

"Let's go buy underwear first. We'll continue after that."

===Part 10===

On the other hand---

"......Kuu, curses, Kamito, where did you go?"

Ellis and Fianna ran around the business district as they used wind spirits to gather information.

As expected, searching for two people in this kind of crowd was difficult.

"Perhaps they have entered a building?"

Fianna said while short of breath.

"Really though, we can't just use spirits to infiltrate shops."

---And then. A spirit like a small bird alighted on Ellis' shoulder.

"......What? You saw the two?"

"Where did they go?"

The wind spirit whispered something into Ellis' ear.

"Ka, Kamito peeked under Leonora-dono's skirt in public!?"

Twitch.


In an instant, Fianna's expression had frozen over.

"Fu, fufufu...... I wonder what Kamito-kun could possibly thinking, fufufu......"

"......Y, Your Highness, you're leaking some kind of black aura."

Ellis gulped.

"Let's go, Ellis. They might still be nearby!"

"Yeah, we can't permit any more shameless acts!"

The two exchanged nods and ran off.

===Part 11===

"......D, do I really have to go too?"

In front of an underwear store that catered to the nobility's daughters, Kamito awkwardly scratched his head.

If he was seen entering this kind of store, another disgraceful rumor would start.

......Rather, he was already suffering cold looks from the girls in the store.

"I have not worn underwear before. Thus, I do not know which underwear is best."

"I don't know that kind of thing either."

"Then it doesn't matter if I continue not wearing any underwear?"

"......Kuu, what kind of threat is this."


Kamito groaned deeply.

That's right, she wasn't wearing anything under that one-piece.

If the wind blew again and her skirt flew up---

Kamito bringing around a girl without underwear was quite capable of starting the worst rumor yet.

(......I absolutely must avoid that.)

Kamito finally gave in and step foot into the underwear store.

---Several minutes later. Kamito stood in the shop for the sake of picking out underwear for Leonora.

"......As I thought, it's unsettling. Underwear, that is."

Leonora groaned with a troubled face.

She had bought a high-quality silk set to try out, but it seemed to feel awkward so the Dragon Princess Maiden wasn't pleased.

"Won't you get used to it? Anyway, please wear it, at least when walking in town."

"......It's somehow very tight."

Leonora complained with dissatisfaction on her face.

"At the very least, couldn't I wear this?"

And she spread out laced black underwear with both hands.

"D, don't spread out that kind of thing......"

Kamito reddened as he averted his eyes,

"Rather, isn't something different between that and the one you're wearing?"


"Yes. It seems this is the type with a hole here."

"......!?"

Looking closely, there was a neat cut at a vital location.

"Wh, why was that kind of thing being sold!"

"Is it not okay?"

"It's not. In a certain sense, it's worse than not wearing any."

Kamito decisively shook his head.

......Rather, he wondered why he was choosing underwear for the enemy team's ace.

"Then how about this?"

"That's practically a string! ......Why are you deliberately choosing ones with high exposure!"

"I can't calm down with lots of cloth."

"Normally people can't calm down without wearing underwear."

Kamito groaned while pressing down on his forehead.

"......Th, then, how about this?"

Leonora was holding a tropical-style set with southern sea flowers drawn on it.

"......It's the type that doubles as a swimsuit. Isn't that pretty good?"

"Yes. It suits my tastes because the material is slippery and feels familiar to my skin."

"......I see, so it was just because you don't like the feeling of silk."

Amongst the underwear of the princess maidens that needed to frequently purify themselves, swimsuits and other multipurpose ones were numerous. It seemed that the smooth material of the swimsuit had also appealed to her.


"Well then, let's take this one---"

And Leonora took it in her hands---

"......"

And something turned towards Kamito like a flash.

"What's wrong?"

"No, s, since you've finally bought a swimsuit---"

With a slight tinge of red on his cheeks and upturned eyes, he opened his mouth.

---Why don't we go to the pool, he said.

===Part 12===

And like that. The two left the central part of town and arrived at a pool in the forest.

Even if it was called a pool, it wasn't something made by human hands. It was something that utilized the already present large lake, so the impression was close to that of a beach along the sea.

Kamito who had changed into a tanktop swimsuit just before sat at the edge of the lake waiting for Leonora.

Many girls in swimsuits were frolicking along the lake shore, crying out in sweet voices.

But the instant they noticed Kamito,


"Kyaa, the Lewd King, the Lewd King is here!" "He's looking here, how scary......" "What an unpleasant gaze." "Don't come near my Lady!"

They successively jumped into the lake and swam off to the far edge.

"......Am I a shark or something?"

The wounded Kamito hung his head on the empty lake edge.

And at that time.

"I, I've kept you waiting, Kamito."

"......!?"

Turning towards the voice that came from behind, he saw Leonora standing there with her hands on her hips.

Her youthful skin was tinged slightly red. Her chest seemed to burst out.

Her adorable butt wrapped in the flower-patterned swimsuit.

Her slender, beautiful legs were dazzling.

Kamito gulped at her outstanding proportions.

"U, umm, is it strange?"

Leonora rubbed her thighs together bashfully.

Kamito finally returned to his senses and,

"N, no, rather, well......you're beautiful."

"......Wha, th, this pervert! Pervert!"

Leonora's admonishing voice instantly assaulted him.


"What the heck! I just said my honest thoughts."

"Sh, shut up! Don't stare so much at a princess maiden's skin!"

Leonora quickly covered her chest and,

"I, I'll go swim a bit!"

In order to cool her body that was burning up from shyness, she jumped into the lake with vigor.

"......Oh boy."

Kamito sighed as he stared absentmindedly at Leonora who had left to swim.

Her swimming figure was also beautiful. It was almost like a dragon relaxedly flying about in the sky.

......At any rate, would doing this really clear up what the cause of her slump was?

(Though looking from an outsider's point of view, she doesn't appear to be in a slump......)

Honestly, if he were just considering victory, having her remain in a slump would be undoubtedly more advantageous.

But in that case, Kamito also couldn't be understood.

The promise he had made that one time.

---That he would fight with her when she was not being controlled by her «Dragon Blood».

"......"

He stood at the lake edge charmed by Leonora's swimming figure for a while and---

"Hmm---.....onii-sama, you perv."

"Wha!?"


Kamito hurriedly turned around upon hearing the familiar voice.

"......Mi, Mireille!?"

The one glaring at Kamito was Rinslet's lovely little sister.

Her platinum blonde hair clung to her wet skin.

She was clad in a white swimsuit and had a large swim tube around her waist.

"Wh, why are you here?"

"Since my morning lessons are over, I came to play."

"Did you come alone?"

"No, Milla came as well."

Mireille replied coldly.

And.

"Kamito, have you laid your hands on that Leonora Lancaster as well?"

Milla Bassett glared at Kamito with fruit juice in her hand.

She was wearing a swimsuit that had frills like a maid costume.

Her slightly wavy hair was tied on both ends of her head.

"Wa, wait a second, you're misunderstanding this! There's a reason for this......"

"What reason?"

"No matter how you look, it's a date. Even though onii-sama already has onee-sama."

"---I, it's nothing like a date!"


And Leonora, who had been swimming, hurriedly came to the shore.

"Mu.....They're big."

Her large, wet chest covered with her tropical swimsuit.

The nine year old and thirteen year old combination gasped at the proportions which were the opposite of theirs.

"Kamito is assisting me in restoring my original condition. That's why it's definitely nothing like a date or some indecent activity!"

"Mu---..."

Mireille glared at Leonora with an expression like she couldn't agree.

......Well, it was obvious since she was the enemy her esteemed older sister would be facing in the finals.

Kamito shrugged and turned towards Leonora.

"Well, did you figure it out? The cause of your slump."

"......No. But I feel like I will with a little more."

"I see. Well, take your time to think about it."

"......You can't say that. The finals begin tomorrow."

She shook her head and looked Kamito straight in the eye.

"As a knight and as an Elementalist --- I would like to blade dance with you in my best condition."

"......"

[[File:STnBD V08 178.png|thumbnail|right]]


Kamito was silenced by her seriousness.

At that time, a large commotion rose on the shore.

"......What's that?"

"The «Water Spirit Festival» dedicated to this lake's spirits has begun."

Mireille explained to Kamito who tilted his head.

"Water Spirit Festival?"

"---A «Blade Dance» that imitates ancient water combat."

And this time, Milla explained.

The «Water Spirit Festival» seemed to be a type of ritualistic dance performance that imitated combat where two princess maidens formed a team. It wasn't flashy like a «Blade Dance», but a crowd of princess maidens wildly dancing was beautiful and it seemed to be quite popular as a spectator's sport.

"There's a prize prepared for the winning team, onii-sama."

A small shrine stood where Mireille was pointing with various goods like jewelry and magical tools lined up.

"It seems interesting. Maybe we should watch."

Kamito lowered himself onto the shore and,

Tug, tug.

"Hm?"

Leonora was tugging his arm.


"What is it?"

"No, well......"

Leonora seemed embarrassed as her cheeks flushed red and,

"Ka, Kamito, would you like to participate in that ritual?"

"Eh?"

Suddenly said that.

Her eyes were glued to the prizes lined up on the shrine.

"Could it be that you want something from those?"

"......Yes."

Leonora nodded.

"That is a product of the legendary doll craftsman, Lord Švankmajer. I didn't think I would see it at this kind of place."

Somehow, it seemed like she wanted that large dragon plushie.

"The second place prize......all right!"

Kamito nodded and grabbed onto Leonora's arm.

"Wh, what are you doing!?"

"You want that plushie, right? Then let's go get it."

"I, is that okay!?"

"Yeah. If you and I pair up, nobody can compare."


"O, of course!"

Kamito gave her a thumbs up and Leonora nodded happily.

---At that time. In the forest nearby the lake, Ellis and Fianna who were out of breath were there.

"Kamito, w, we've finally caught up to you......!"

"Fu, fufu......coming to the pool with a girl, you can't make any excuses now."

The out of breath Ellis who was breathing hard and Fianna whose entire body was wrapped in a black aura.

"Mu, it seems like he's going to enter the lake with Leonora-dono."

"Do they intend to participate in the «Water Spirit Festival»? But why---"

And the line of prizes on the shrine entered the vision of Fianna who was tilting her head.

"That is......!"

[[File:STnBD V08 182.png|thumbnail|right]]


Her pale dark eyes widened.

The top-class prize adorning the top of the shrine. That was---

"Pair tickets for the «Royal Palace»?"

Even catering to those of the Ordesia royal family, it was the highest-class hotel on «Ragna Ys».

"Is Kamito aiming for that?"

"Yes, there's no doubt. To say nothing of a regular blade dance, if it's that ace combination of «Blade Dance» representatives, they're more than enough to aim for victory."

"But tomorrow are the finals. They don't have time for something like using a hotel voucher---"

"If it's used this evening, there's no problem. If so......"

Fianna took a breath.

"Since it's Kamito-kun, he might do the blade dance of the night with her."

"Wh, what did you say!"

......Imagining God knows what, Ellis' face turned bright red.

"Th, that's not allowed! We absolutely must prevent it!"

"Yes, that's right!"

The two exchanged a firm handshake.



===Part 13===

"......To put it shortly, it's like an underwater cavalry battle."

Kamito, who had Leonora piggybacking him, once again mentally went over the rules of the «Water Spirit Festival» that Milla Bassett had taught him.

First, the team of two spirit princesses consisted of a «Horse» and a «Knight». The princess maiden that became the «Horse» was responsible for movement and the knight riding them would carry a special gem at their chest --- it was a scramble for «Magic Stones». The team that gathered a large number of «Magic Stones» would be the winner.

It was obvious but wounding a princess maiden or defiling the lake were strictly forbidden.

On a side note, the princess maidens that served as the «Horse» were emitting divine power from their entire body to float. If it was a princess maiden with a certain amount of training, it was not a difficult technique at all.

So the ritual itself wasn't very dangerous but---

(It's dangerous in a different kind of way for me......)

Squish.

The feeling of soft thighs upon his neck.

......For an adolescent boy, having his heart rush was uncontrollable.

"Ka, Kamito, please don't move around so much......ahnn!"

"S, sorry......!"

Kamito's face turned red at the seductive voice that Leonora let out above him.


Soon, the other princess maiden knight-horse pairs entered the lake one after the other.

It seemed a lot of unexpected people were participating. They were undoubtedly aiming for the first-class prize of pair tickets to the «Royal Palace».

......Rather, other than Kamito's team, there were probably no other teams aiming for the second-place dragon plushie.

"Leonora, can you do it?"

"Yes. I will definitely obtain that dragon!"

Leonora nodded with a voice full of conviction.

Participants of the «Blade Dance» taking part in a regular ritual like this felt a little immature, but well, they were aiming for second place, so it shouldn't draw any malice.

"I won't let you do that, onii-sama!"

"......Eh?"

The one who came before them was Mireille who was piggybacking Milla Bassett.

As if being pressed by her swimsuit, a «Magic Stone» was forced between her small chest.

"Don't tell me, you two are also participating?"

"That's right. For the sake of my passive onee-sama, I'll get those hotel tickets!"

Puffing her minute chest, Mireille made a declaration.

In response---

"---Sorry, but those tickets are ours."


A soft-spoken yet icy voice resounded across the lake.

"......!?"

Kamito's expression froze.

It was an extremely familiar voice. But this was her voice when she was angry.

"......Ellis!?"

He turned around and there was---

A ponytailed, beautiful girl wearing a bold swimsuit and,

"......Hmm, Kamito-kun's also good at taming dragons."

Her Highness glared at Kamito coldly while making bubbles on the water surface.

"Y, you two, why are you here?"

"Hmph, you should try thinking about that yourself, you insolent person!"

Ellis' reddish brown eyes were teary.

"W, we won't let Kamito-kun dance that blade dance of the night!"

"Wh, what the heck, a blade dance of the night......!"

......Being pushed by the ojou-samas that were angry for some reason, Kamito was being overwhelmed.

This time, Ellis focused her gaze on Leonora who was atop his shoulders.

"Leonora-dono, I respect you as a fellow knight. However, this Ellis Fahrengart will not allow such an insolent deed!"

"Wh, what kind of insolent deed are you talking about! I was just, with Kamito---"


"Talking is useless; if you're a knight, settle this with your blade!"

"Kamito-kun, prepare yourself."

"Wait a second, what do you mean!?"

The two left while ignoring the perplexed Kamito.

"They'll be strong enemies, those two."

"Y, yeah......"

And so, a whistle signaled the start of the «Water Spirit Festival».

===Part 14===

"Let's go, Leonora!"

"Yes, the dragon god's blessings upon this battle!"

Leonora gave a gallant shout above him.

The ten-odd princess maiden horse and rider groups were clamoring.

Participating in this kind of rough ritual meant that these were undoubtedly trained princess maidens. From within them, he could even see those that had been eliminated in the real battle portion of the «Blade Dance» here and there.

(So Ellis and Fianna aren't going to challenge us yet......)

Gathering a large amount of «Magic Stones» from those that looked easy to defeat in the first part and leaving the confrontation with Kamito and Leonora to the end was mostly likely their plan.


If those two were aiming for the «Royal Palace» hotel tickets, then there was no reason to battle with them, but those two seemed to have a different reason for their anger.

(......There's no other way, huh.)

Kamito shrugged.

He had promised to accompany Leonora for the entire day.

Even if they were his precious comrades, he wouldn't go easy on them.

"Kamito, incoming!"

Immediately following the start, the swimsuit-clad princess maidens simultaneously faced them. In order to instantly crush Kamito and Leonora who held the largest battle strength, they had all temporarily allied.

That was what Kamito thought but---

"Everyone, kill the Lewd King!" "If you drown here, we can treat it as an accident!" "We won't leave any evidence behind." "A swift death to the enemy of women!"

......He could hear various frightening lines.

"Kuu......"

"Kamito, what are you doing; we're being surrounded!"

The downhearted Kamito was rebuked by Leonora.

The sensation of thighs wrapped around his neck brought Kamito back to his senses.

"......Like I'll let you kill me before the finals!"

The advancing girls' enclosure.


In order to weave through that net, Kamito moved freely through the water.

Putting into practice the meta-3D movement that he had learned at «Instructional School» --- rather than the super high-speed «Shadow Weaving», this was the underwater movement technique called «Water Lily». It wasn't fast enough to make the opponent lose track of him, but those movements were like a water lily floating on the water's surface and provided no opportunity to capture him.

Just after Kamito easily escaped the net---

"Faa!?" "Hyann!" "Kyaaaaaa!"

The girls' shrill cries echoed across the water.

In the moment they had passed by them, Leonora had stolen the «Magic Stones» at their bosom.

"As expected of you, Leonora."

"You as well; it almost feels like I'm riding a high-class dragon."

Leonora smiled while chuckling.

Her thighs pressed down on him and his heart rushed.

"Le, Leonora, please open your legs a bit more!"

"......Eh? Wh, what do you mean, you pervert!"

Hit, hit, hit, hit.

The red-faced, agitated Leonora began to hit Kamito's head.

"Wai, hold......waa---"

When Kamito's balance fell apart uncontrollably---

"Their movements have stopped! If we're going to execute him, now's the time!"


The group of girls once again closed in.

"Leonora, calm down or things will get bad!"

"......!"

Leonora, who had finally snapped back to herself, smacked the girls nearing them from behind into the water and turned around to defend her chest from the countless outstretched hands.

"Are you okay!?"

"N, no problem, I'll show you the dance of a princess maiden in service of dragons!"

Leonora exhaled and silently readied both her hands.

Then---

She reached out with movements akin to a dance performance and stole the «Magic Stones» of the girls approaching them one-by-one.

"......Amazing."

It was just like a raging dragon.

"A single knight defeating scores of enemies is the specialty of Dracunia's knights. If I compare it with the the training I received as a young girl where I was thrown into a pack of fierce beasts, this is nothing."

Instantly beating down the surrounding riders, she obtained seven «Magic Stones».

Truly an ace out of the «Blade Dance» representatives. It was overwhelming strength that allowed none to approach.

"Now then, come, all who would like to challenge me!"

Leonora's dignified voice rang out.


And at that time.

"......!?"

A crackling noise accompanied the instant freezing of the water surrounding Kamito.

"Ice spirit magic!?"

In the moment Kamito's movements stopped, the figure of a rider approached.

"I've got you, onii-sama!"

It was the Milla Bassett and Mireille team.

"To think a nine year old can use this kind of spirit magic! As expected of Rinslet's little sister."

Kamito gave his honest admiration in light of that talent.

But the young Mireille could not snatch the «Magic Stone» from Leonora.

Just when he was thinking that---

"Kyaunn!"

A sweet cry was raised above Kamito's head.

"......!?"

"......Afuu......ahnn......!"

Leonora's thighs closed on Kamito with a squish.

"I, it hurts......Leonora, wh, what are you doing!?"

"Fuaa......th, this was an oversight; I can't move like this!"

"......Eh?"


Kamito somehow managed to twist his head and look up and,

(......Damn it!)

---He finally realized their fatal mistake.

Leonora's chest had expanded!

That's right, since it was a battle done in swimsuits, there was no other place to store the «Magic Stones» stolen from the enemy other than at one's bosom. Consequently, if one gathered a certain amount of «Magic Stones», the rider would become unable to move.

If she did any intense movements right now, there was no doubt her swimsuit would break.

(......They were waiting for us to gather «Magic Stones», huh.)

Kamito was astonished. The one who thought of this plan was probably the one giving Mireille a piggyback, Milla. She was truly the «Rupture Division»'s captain.

"Fufuu, your chest seems to be giving you trouble, dragon onee-sama!"

Mireille's fingers brushed against Leonora's chest which shook, spilling «Magic Stones».

"Fa......nn, the «Magic Stones» are, from my breasts......"

Leonora's face was bright red as she shielded her chest with all her might.

The surrounding girls also thought of this as a chance and drew in.

"......Like I'll let you!"

Kamito cracked the ice covering the water with his fist and used all his power to escape. Several «Magic Stones» fell from Leonora's chest from the recoil, but they were unneeded in this situation.


"Haa, haa, nn......"

He could hear Leonora's troubled breathing above him.

"Are you okay?"

"Y, yes, somehow......ahnn ♪"

As her chest rose and fell, the tips of the «Magic Stones» stimulated her sensitive breasts. She somehow suppressed her voice and endured it.

That lovable action made Kamito's heart race.

---At some point in time, the net with Mireille at the center had been completed.

"......So this is the end, huh."

Kamito groaned.

This was not the «Blade Dance». It was just some entertainment. Even if they were to lose, they wouldn't suffer a loss of honor, not that Kamito cared much for honor.

However---

(......I've made a promise.)

That he would obtain that dragon plushie for Leonora.

Wanting to see the smile of a girl was the nature of a boy.

"Leonora---"

And Kamito spoke quietly.


"Hold on to me tightly and hold your breath."

"Wh, what do you intend to do?"

"It's okay. Believe in me."

"......!"

Leonora gasped overhead when Kamito ended the conversation decisively.

Then---

"---Y, yes!"

She made a large nod.

Leonora's two supple arms wrapped around Kamito's neck.

In an instant, Kamito sunk into the water completely.

He relaxed his entire body and closed his eyes. A variation of the «Water Lily» movement --- «Aqua Elusion». Syncing his mind and body with the flow of the water, he could completely conceal his presence.

"---Milla, don't think badly of this."

"......!?"

Appearing suddenly from behind Milla, he tickled her under the arms without mercy.

"......Ah, kya, nn!"

The usually cool Milla let out a lovely voice and twisted her body.

"Now!"


"Yes!"

"Faaa, Mi, Milla!?"

In the instant Milla's rider, Mireille, lost her balance---

Leonora quickly reached out and snatched her «Magic Stone».

Splaaaaash!

A flashy wall of water rose when Mireille fell down.

"H, how terrible!" "Even to a child that young!" "That brutish......!"

Harsh criticisms of Kamito came from the surrounding girls and mixed together but---

"Leonora, can you still do it?"

"Yes, m, my breasts hurt but I'll somehow endure it!"

"Alright, that's the spirit---"

As Kamito nodded, he heard the thunderous roar of winds.

"C, curse you, Kamito, you insolent person!"

From afar, Ellis and Fianna were closing in at an alarming rate.

(Fast......!)


Fianna's reflexes were average for a spirit contractor, but her divine power control was exceptional. Her movements underwater were comparable to or surpassed Kamito's.

Moreover, they were wrapped in a barrier of wind and accelerating.

(......This is quite a handicap.)

To begin with, Kamito wasn't proficient in spirit magic and Leonora's dragon attribute spirit magic specialized in destruction and physical strengthening. They had pretty much no basic spells and nothing for general-use like wind spirit magic. No, what was worse than that---

"E, Ellis, haven't you shoved too much into it!?"

Stuffed with a large amount of «Magic Stones» that she had snatched, Ellis' swimsuit looked like it was about to fall apart at any moment.

His gaze had been unwittingly drawn to her bosom swaying in the wind.

"Kamito, where are you looking!"

"I, I couldn't help it!"

Having realized where he was looking, Ellis hurriedly covered her breasts with both her hands.

"Jeez, Kamito-kun, look at me as well!"

Fianna puffed her cheeks and let her breasts float on the water out of rivalry.

"A, a princess shouldn't do those kinds of embarrassing things!"

"......I, it's not embarrassing if Kamito-kun wants to see."

The princess blushed as she blew bubbles on the water's surface.

(......Aren't you plenty embarrassed.)


"Kamito, just where are you looking?"

"Guoo......"

A displeased voice. Leonora's thighs strangled him.

"I, I get it, so don't strangle me!"

Using that opening, Ellis and Fianna lunged at them by riding the wind.

"Leonora-dono, we can't allow you to perform a blade dance of the night!"

"I won't perform such a thing!"

Ellis and Leonora were grappling overhead.

"Kamito-kun, no matter how much of a demon king of the night you are, even I won't stay quiet if your lovers increase any further than this!"

"I'm telling you, it's not like that!"

On the other hand, Fianna was pressing her breasts up against Kamito.

With the soft sensation traveling past her skimpy swimsuit, as expected, even Kamito couldn't hide his excitement.

"---O wind!"

Sharp winds flew from Ellis' finger and greatly shook Leonora's breasts.

"......I won't lose---!"

Leonora retaliated with her hand as she shielded her chest.

"Since Kamito is fighting for my sake!"

Squish.


"......Ahh, nn......!"

Ellis let out a captivating voice. Her long ponytail shuddered.

"......Ah, ya, hau......!"

"......Mm, kyann, ahnnn!"

"H, hey......!"

Kamito's focus was broken by the erotic cries coming from above and---

Click.

He suddenly heard that sound.

"......Eh?"

Kamito looked up without thinking.

What first entered his sight was---

A large number of «Magic Stones» leaking from both of their breasts.

Fluttering, scant cloth.

And Kamito saw them.

......Ended up seeing them.

Hanging down, the breasts of the two beautiful girls.

""Ky---""

An instant.

""Kyaaaaaaaaaaa!""


Both of them spontaneously discharged their divine power and a giant water pillar rose from the lake.

===Part 15===

"......nora. Leonora!"

"U, mm......cough, cough......"

With a hazy consciousness, Leonora opened her eyes.

Before her was Kamito who had a serious expression.

"......Kami......to......?"

She muttered while getting up and---

"......Leonora, I'm glad."

Kamito sighed in relief.

"......How did the «Water Spirit Festival» go?"

"Ahh, everyone was blown away and it was cancelled."

Kamito gave a small shrug.

"Ah, but look, I got him."

"......?"

To the puzzled Leonora---


Kamito showed her a large dragon plushie.

"---This is!?"

"Everyone at the lake was blown away and the «Magic Stones» were also scattered but just one......I found one that was stuck."

Kamito muttered as he blushed.

So they had won a prize because everybody else competing had been obliterated.

"Well, if that's true, then everyone was disqualified but --- it seems the lake spirits were satisfied with the ritual. Nobody was injured and there's also nobody blaming us."

"Is that so......"

Leonora nodded and---

Something caught her attention.

"......Umm, Kamito."

"Yes?"

"Was stuck?"

"......!"

Kamito averted his gaze and didn't answer.

"......Kamito?"

She asked again with a little bit of force.

"No, that's......"


Kamito shook his head as if resigned.

"I, in your cleavage......"

"......Y, you touched my breasts!?"

"No, well, sorry. Something was shining on your chest, so I just---"

Kamito confessed honestly. In an instant, Leonora's face grew hot.

"......Th, this pervert"

Hit, hit, hit.

Leonora pounded on Kamito's chest while continuing to blush. But in truth, when she had been hugging Kamito, she had not felt angry or shy.

She continued to hit Kamito while bewildered by this self-realization.

(......Wh, what does it mean?)

She didn't know that feeling. She just had knowledge of it.

(Could it be, this feeling is......no, there's no way, that kind of......)

But if she thought about it --- it explained everything.

How her sword skills had dulled ever since she had fought Kamito. And then how while she had been with Kamito, her emotions were in disorder and her heart beat furiously.

......She may have already realized deep within her heart.

She just didn't want to admit it.

That's right, since the day she had crossed blades with him---


(I, for Kazehaya Kamito---)

Once she realized that, she wouldn't be able to look at him directly anymore.

Leonora lowered her fist and turned her face to the side while still blushing.

"......Leonora?"

Kamito tilted his head, puzzled.

"I, it would be best to admit this honestly, right."

"Yes?"

Leonora seemed to have decided something as she nodded to herself.

She thought that the disorder in her feelings would become a disorder in her sword.

But now that she had realized the cause, that had become an uplifting feeling instead.

Even more so than with the «Dragon Blood», it was uncontrollable and unstable.

---That was definitely something that was meant to become a power stronger than anything.

"Kamito!" "Kamito-kun!"

The voices of his teammates came from afar.

It seemed that they were running over to them.

"---Kamito, it's fine now. Thank you for today."

And Leonora stood up, then gazed directly at Kamito.

---She wouldn't avert her eyes this time.

"Umm, saying it's fine means---"


"I can blade dance at my best, is what it means."

"......!"

Kamito was confused for a little, but---

"......I see. I don't really get it, but that's great."

He shrugged as if relieved.

"Then I can battle you at full power as well."

The two exchanged nods and each stretched out a hand.

"The next time we exchange words will be when we blade dance."

"Yeah."

They shared a firm handshake and spun on their heels and---

Both of them walked away just like that without turning back.

<noinclude>{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Chapter3|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume8 Interlude2}}</noinclude>

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5

2013-09-10T17:55:15Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 5: The One Who Will Succeed the Demon King==

===Part 1===

"What on earth is this—"

Clad in the devastating winds of the demon wind spirit, Ellis, who appeared gallantly, was speechless.

There was an unbelievable scene spread out before her eyes.

The knights of the Sylphid Knights, which maintained the public order of the academy, were collapsed on the ground in heaps.

Only academy students with excellent results could enroll into the Sylphid Knights. That was—

(Don't tell me, they were defeated by just one intruder!?)

In the middle of the darkness, where there was a drizzle.

A small figure, who put on an overcoat with a hood, was standing in the middle of the collapsed girls.

"Was it you, bastard? The one that did this!"

Ellis asked a direct question. Her hand was already armed with the elemental waffe —«Ray Hawk».

It was just about 30 minutes ago that she heard the report that an intruder had appeared in the academy and plundered the classified materials of the seal specification from the library. Ellis immediately put out a pursuit order to a platoon of the Knights, and while she used her wind spirit to give instructions to every platoon, she was pursuing the intruder by herself.

And then, upon travelling at high speed to the place where she lost contact with them, they were in that state.

The elementalist before her eyes kept quiet. Just a scorning presence was transmitted.


"—I see, in that case, I'll make you talk whether you like it or not."

The «Ray Hawk», which Ellis took a stance with, filled with wind thunderously.

Just by looking, the figure of a contracted spirit could not be found in that person's surroundings. It seemed like that person wasn't holding an elemental waffe either.

However, the elementalist, before her eyes, had already defeated 5 girls from the Knights.

(Is she using a type of spirit that possesses the flesh?)

The opponent's identity was completely unknown. Or, far from not finding the figure of a contracted spirit, was the opponent not an elementalist?—No, that can't be it. For example, even if one launched a surprise attack, something like a person, who wasn't even an elementalist, to defeat five Knights members alone was impossible.

(In that case, I'll have to ascertain it with these eyes of mine—!)

Ellis took a stance with Ray Hawk and attacked like a gale.

The opponent finally reacted. A muffled voice was heard from under the hood—

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Fanged Wolf Spirit|Wolf Fang|margin=13}}."

At that moment, a pattern of lines appeared on the ground, and a spirit with the appearance of the ferocious wolf was summoned.

"That's your spirit, huh? However, it isn't a match for my demon wind spirit!"

As she ran, Ellis wielded her lance perfectly horizontal.

The lump of violent winds she released mowed down the roadside trees while rushing toward Wolf Fang.

Ellis accelerated like she was being sucked in by her self-made wind vortex, ignoring the stranded Wolf Fang, and aimed directly for the elementalist.


Tan!—She kicked the ground. Her academy skirt waved about and Ellis had jumped.

She was about to do her specialty, a nose-dive attack from the sky. It was a technique that had defeated all the upperclassmen during the practice matches.

With the contracted spirit stranded, the elementalist, who became defenseless, looked up.

And then, '''the person faced Ellis and turned her palm towards her'''.

"What!?"

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Ripping Thunder Spirit|Blast Gear|margin=13}}!"

At that moment, a bluish-white lightning, released from his palm, was fired at Ellis.

Ellis, who had not been expecting anything like an attack coming towards her, received a direct attack and was blown away without even being able to dodge in mid-air.

Without delay, Wolf Fang rushed in and attacked. It pushed down on Ellis, who was thrown onto the ground, and tried to bite down on her windpipe. On the verge of that—

Hyuu! She thought she heard a sound that ripped apart the air, then, Wolf Fang's body was severed into four parts in an instant, burning up into ashes.

"...!?"

Eliis raised her face and traced the crimson remains that ripped apart the night sky with her eyes—

"You owe me one, Ellis Fahrengart."

Raven Class's Claire Rouge descended with her Flame tongue in her hand.

And then—


"Ellis, are you alright?!"

Armed with a silver sword, Kazehaya Kamito came running.

===Part 2===

Kamito rushed over to Ellis's side, who had already fallen.

Armed with the elemental waffe—Terminus Est, he stood with his arms apart as if protecting her.

Claire was a short distance away and Fianna also came running later, out of breath.

"Ellis, are you alright?"

"...I-It isn't a big deal."

Kamito lifted Ellis up by her shoulder and she turned red and shifted her face away.

"What on earth happened? Who is that person?"

"It is nothing concerning you guys. This has been entrusted to the Knights, so step back."

"That won't do. We are elementalists. And even if there weren't the Knights, we have the obligation to fight to protect the academy."

"It's like that. Besides—"

Staring directly at Ellis's face, Kamito said.

"Our precious comrade was hurt; do you think we could stay silent?"


"Kamito..."

Ellis's face turned bright red and she tightly pressed down on her chest.

—At that moment.

"Hey, I can't believe you came. Kazehaya Kamito."

The elementalist before his eyes raised his  voice. For some reason, it was an irritating voice.

"...Who are you? Why do you know my name?"

"Your name is famous, you know. '''You're the same as me, a male elementalist'''."

"What!?"

The elementalist before his eyes slowly took off his overcoat with a hood.

At that moment, all of them at that place gulped.

Coming to sight from under the overcoat was—

His dark brown skin, which had tattoos applied all over his body; with glaring and shining red eyes, it was – a boy.

"Such a thing... don't tell me, there are male elementalists other than Kamito!?"

Claire raised a surprised voice.

It wasn't— a girl disguised as a boy. 

Not just his voice and face, no matter how one looked at that physique, it was that of a male.

(This guy, who on earth... No, leaving that aside now –)

Before Kamito's eyes, the injured Knight girls had collapsed.


"—Was this done by you?"

"Yeah. However, I didn't kill them. That lot was raised in a lenient miniature garden and isn't worth killing."

"What did you say!?"

"Calm down, Ellis, it's just a cheap provocation."

Ellis grinded her teeth and whispered near Kamito's ear.

"Be careful, Kazehaya Kamito. He has a double contract with spirits."

"A double contract?"

A double contract was, in other words, contracts with two spirits at the same time.

By using several spirits, one could compensate for the weakness of his battle style.

However, exchanging contracts with several spirits would only have demerits in most cases.

The fellow contracted spirits caused interference, thus it became impossible to manifest their original powers.

Kamito was certainly in that situation right now. As the contract with the darkness spirit was not broken, it ended up shutting out Est's power, who was originally an even more powerful spirit.

"...A male spirit contracter. In addition, a double contractor?"

"Yeah, the spirits he's using are close-combat type Wolf Fang and far-range attack Blast Gear."

Ellis nodded.

"Hey, could you overlook this for today? I don't have the mood to fight you now."

"What was that?"


Kamito frowned at the boy, who waved his hand flutteringly like he was making fun of him.

"As long as I obtain this, that's fine."

The boy took out a small black lithograph from his chest pocket to show them.

"What is that?"

"The classified materials of the seal specification that I stole from the academy library. By using a special spirit device, it is filled with high density information that can be deciphered."

While arming herself with her demon lance of wind, Ellis muttered.

"The classified materials of the seal specification? Why did you steal such –"

At that moment, a leather whip flew aimed at the boy's hand.

It was Claire's surprise attack. Had it been foreseen? The boy easily dodged the whip—

"—Kamito, Ellis!"

"Ahh!"

Before Claire shouted, the both of them were moving.

"Tch, every one of them are one stupid lot—"

"You bastard—"

Feeling that her comrades of the Knights were insulted, Ellis was enraged.

She swung her Ray Hawk perfectly horizontally – the wind blades, dancing boisterously, severed the roadside trees.

"Huh, another charge? You have no ingenuity!"


As he dodged the raging wind blades, the boy jumped.

He had a superhuman jumping power. In a manner of passing each other with movements like those of a shadow, he drove a counter punch into Ellis's stomach, who came charging.

"Guu—"

"Ellis!"

Kamito shouted.

(With just one strike to that Ellis...)

The boy, who made Ellis faint, had already jumped into the darkness.

"Don't escape!"

Claire immediately let loose her Flame Tongue. Beautifully drawing an arc, the red hot killing brandish stood out vividly in the black night.

A sculpture, modeled after the appearance of the spirit lord, was severed in an instant and was blasted with a flashy sound.

Kamito took a stance with Terminus Est and jumped into the rising cloud of dust.

The attack just now shouldn't have made a direct hit. He searched for the enemy's figure by his presence—

At that moment, bloodlust was felt from behind.

Kamito immediately jumped sideways. The killing flash of a dagger mowed down at the place where his head was a moment ago.

The boy stepped in without a sound. He didn't give him a chance to get some distance between them.

There were no wasted movements— It was like those movements from Silent Killing.

(This guy – he's a professional assassin!?)


Kamito barely stopped the blow of the drawn sword, flashing in the darkness, with his sword.

At that moment, there was a strong impact to his stomach. A strong punch was thrown and Kamito's stance crumbled. An assassin's dagger swooped over – but Kamito knocked off the dagger with the bottom of his fist and rolled on the ground with the force, getting some distance.

"Hey, aren't you pretty good, as expected of the strongest blade dancer."

"What!?"

Kamito's eyes widened in surprise.

(This guy, does he know my true identity!?)

In that moment's opening, when his consciousness went astray, the boy smiled and came jumping once again.

There were no weapons in his hands. Kamito was armed with Terminus Est—

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Sword Spirit|Falchion|margin=13}}!"

"Wha!?"

A violent firework exploded. Terminus Est, which was horizontally mowed down on, was repelled.

What the boy was holding in his hand was a large blue shining sword.

It wasn't an ordinary sword— It was an elemental waffe of a sword spirit.

"His third contracted spirit!?"

He had crossed swords several times with elementalists that used two spirits at the same time.

However, he had not heard of anything like an elementalist using a third or more spirits.


"This isn't something to be that surprised about. The Demon King Solomon was said to have used seventy-two spirits, you know."

"Don't mess around... that's just a legend—"

"What if the existence of that legend was now right before your eyes?"

The boy warped his lips into a smile.

"I am Jio Inzagi – '''The one who will succeed the Demon King'''."

"Kamito, get away!"

At that moment, countless fireballs were released from behind. It was Claire's spirit magic.

Kamito immediately reacted and jumped.

It was a downpour of fireballs. However, the boy –Jio Inzagi held out his hand with a calm composure.

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Wind Spirit|Aerial|margin=13}}!"

A lump of compressed wind was released radically.

The violent whirling wind erased the fireballs and blew away the surrounding rubble together with Kamito.

(Aerial...His fourth spirit!?)

Jio's shadow appeared right above Kamito, who looked surprised.

At the same time as releasing Aerial, he had used that force and jumped.

The edge of the sword spirit in his hand shone silver.

"Die—{{Furigana|Strongest Blade Dancer|Ren Ashbell|margin=13}}."

"...!?"



Towards Kamito's heart, the tip of a shining sword approached—

At that moment, a pebble came flying from the side.

"Tch—"

Jio repelled that off reflexively, and at that moment—

A flash like broad daylight filled his field of vision.

Jio, whose eyes were disoriented, lost his sword and it pierced the ground.

Kamito quickly regained his stance—

Katsun! –There was a dry sound. A smashed transparent stone fell at Kamito's feet.

(...This is a spirit crystal?)

Kamito was taken aback and turned around.

Over there—

"Hey, I wonder, could you please not forget about me?"

Fianna was standing with her hands at her waist.

===Part 3===

He might have noticed that her voice was trembling.

And yet, Fianna stoutheartedly glared at the enemy before her – Jio Inzagi.


There were 3 spirit crystals held in her hand. Every piece had a flash spirit sealed in it.

The appearance definitely looked flashy, but its attack power was almost nonexistent; it was only usable as a distraction at best.

It was possible to take him by surprise just now, but he was probably not an opponent who would fall for such a childish trick again.

Jio Inzagi slowly turned towards Fianna.

Being watched by his glaring and shining red eyes, Fianna's shoulders trembled.

"Hey, were you the one who hindered me?"

"He is mine. Get your hands off him."

"I see—"

Jio faced her directly and held out his hand.

"—Manifest, {{Furigana|Demon Light Spirit|Shining Ray|margin=13}}"

A spear of ominous light was born from that hand – he had decided to aim at Fianna's heart.

"Ah—"

Fianna – couldn't even move.

Like a prey glared at by a predator.

The spirit crystals held in her palms fell out. Her fingertips were trembling due to the fear.

"No, it's the same as that day—"

She had a flashback.

Four years ago, when she stood before '''her''', that day.


That day when she tasted the fear of hopelessness, when Fianna's heart had broken.

She had planned on firmly opposing him and drawing out her courage, but her body's trembling wouldn't stop.

"Then, die—"

Jio threw the light spear.

"Fianna!"

Claire launched her Flame Tongue, but it wouldn't make it in time with that distance.

Fianna closed her eyes. A moment later, she resigned herself to her coming death.

However—

"...Eh?"

The pain of her heart being pierced that should have been there wasn't there.

When she opened her eyes—

"Kamito-kun?"

Kamito was before her eyes with his arms opened, and he had stopped the light spear with his left hand.

Red blood trickled down from his pierced palm.

"Whoa, I've misjudged you. You covered for such a useless person."

"Shut up... Fianna is our comrade."

Kamito groaned in order to suppress the pain, and genuflected on that spot.


"That's fine, if you want to die so much, then I'll immediately kill—"

"I won't let you, that guy is my slave!"

At that moment, the Flame Tongue released by Claire attacked Jio.

The crimson flames licked the ground. Jio clicked his tongue and jumped.

—At that moment, the sound of clattering armors and helmets was heard in the distance.

It seemed that having heard the sound of a battle, a reinforcement of a large group of Knights had come.

"Tch, in this situation, I'll pardon you. I've already obtained the target materials."

"You won't escape!"

"Claire, don't chase him too far!"

Kamito stopped Claire, who was about to pursue him.

"...Kamito, is your injury alright?"

"Ahh, it isn't a big ... Ouch!"

"Id-Idiot, don't overdo it!"

Claire supported Kamito, who was struggling with the pain, by his back.

"A male elementalist the same as you... that guy, who on earth is he?"

"Yeah...Fianna?"

Kamito noticed something and turned around.

The backlash of the tension being resolved had caused Fianna to collapse at that spot suddenly like a thread snapping.

<noinclude>{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter6}}</noinclude>

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4

2013-09-10T17:46:58Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 4: Cat Fight==

===Part 1===

"Neeveeer, I won't accept this!"

It was evening. Claire's angry voice reverberated throughout the Raven Class dormitory.

"I've already had to concede to her joining the team temporarily due to the guarding quest, but—"

She brushed her red twin-tail hair in irritation.

"Why is this girl in the same room with us?!"

She faced Fianna, who was drinking her cup of black tea in elegant small sips, and thrust her finger toward her.
[[Image:STnBD V02 099.jpg|thumb]]

Turning away standoffishly, Fianna sighed and muttered.

"What a small room, I wouldn't have thought that this is a place where a noble would live in."

"Sh...Shut up! If you have complaints, why don't you take it up to the academy director?"

"What I am talking about is how messy the room is. Can't you catch the sarcasm of the remark?"

"Grh... I...It's usually properly tidied up!"

Kamito sighed as he was at his wits' end. These two have already been like this for some time now.

"Hey, Kamito-kun, don't you think so too?"

"Err, well..."

Casting a glance at Claire who was on the verge of tears, Kamito answered vaguely.


"That reminds me, Ren Ashbell's true identity—"

"Ahh, it's certainly messy. Claire should at least clean it up."

Claire bit her lips with teary eyes.

(...Sorry, Claire. I'm unable to defy this princess.)

Somehow, the girl knew Kamito's true identity.

Kamito's intent was to quickly press the question, but, in this situation, Claire would also learn about it.

This princess seemed to have no intention of telling the secret to Claire, but she had been threatening him by leaking that name since a while ago.

Feeling like a cat on hot bricks, Kamito tediously sighed.

While the invisible fireworks scattered, Est was playing with Scarlet with a green foxtail.

It seemed that Claire realized that she was no match for Fianna in the battle of words and diverted the flow of the argument to Kamito.

"Besides, why should it be my room?!"

"Well, because you're the only person in the dormitory who occupies the room just by herself."

"It's not only me, even not just two of us. Including Est, it's three people."

"Aren't you treating me as your slave spirit? By the dormitory rules, spirits are not counted as roommates."

"Uh, that's so, but..."



"Well, with all of us, I guess the room will be cramped, as expected. I'll leave."

In the first place, Kamito should have been living in a hut outside.

Moreover, it would be no good if rumors about a guy sleeping in a girl's room were to spread.

"Hey, what are you going to do when you leave? Do you plan on going as far as sleeping outdoors?"

"For the time being, a tent would be sufficient. I'll manage one way or another."

Claire grabbed the back of Kamito's neck as he tried to leave the room.

"What?"

"No."

"Huh?"

"That's no good. After all, if you're gone..."

Claire looked downwards and tightly bit her lips.

"Who will do the cooking and the laundry?!"

"...Err, you do it."

"No way. After all, the meals you make are delicious..."

It seemed that Claire, who used to live on canned food, had her stomach held captive by Kamito's home cooking.

"Besides, if you were to leave, wouldn't that mean you and Est are left all alone together. That's no good. Rinslet and, like just now, Ellis may come meddling. No, it's not just Ellis and the others. After all, there are many girls targeting you out of curiosity."


"If I'm being targeted...Est and I can fend off most of them."

"T...That's not what I meant... Stupid."

Claire released her hold on the back of his neck.

"Y...You are mine after all. I'll not give you to anyone."

"...Even if you say that..."

Kamito softly sighed—

"Hey, what do you mean by yours?"

Fianna muttered in soft tone.

"Claire Rouge, what kind of relationship do you have with Kamito-kun?"

"Wh...What kind of relationship...? That's..."

Claire bashfully blushed,

"A...A sl...slave and a master relationship!"

"Wh...What did you say...!?"

Fianna looked at Kamito with an astonished look.

"D...Don't tell me, you have such an insane relationship..."

"Wait, don't utter something that'll cause misunderstandings!"

"Hm...hmm, besides, what kind of relationship do you have with Kamito? Despite being a freshly admitted student, aren't you being very intimate?"


In reverse, Claire was the one asking back this time.

When she did, Fianna coughed—

"Me? I'm... his little sister, Kamito's."

"Eh!"

"...? A sister, I..."

"Hey, listen, the truth is that Ren Ashbell's true identity—"

"Ye...Yes, she is my little sister, my little sister!"

Fianna murmured the magic words and Kamito nodded right away.

"Li...Little sister... I see, so you had a little sister."

Claire stroked her chest for some reason.

"However, I'm his stepsister."

"Stepsister!?"

"That's right, furthermore, a naughty stepsister."

"A nau...naughty stepsister!?"

Claire's face turned bright red in a split second.

(...What on earth was she imagining?)

"Here's a hint, a stepsister can be married to her brother, right, onii-sama ♪"

Suddenly, Fianna tightly pressed her large breasts unto him.


Kamito was spontaneously startled by that duly soft sensation—

"Wh...Wh...Wh...? Id...Idiot, you brute pervert!"

"Ouch, wait, it's a misunderstanding, stop—"

For some reason, tears welled up in Claire's eyes as she hit Kamito with her whip. Pishi! Pishi!

"Hey, what are you doing to Kamito-kun!"

Phishi!—Fianna grabbed Claire's arm that swung up.

"Uh, wh...what!"

"Kamito-kun isn't your slave."

"Yeah, that's right."

Kamito nodded.

"He is mine."

"No, I'm not yours either, you know?"

Kamito retorted with half-opened eyes.

(...Good grief, I wonder why such people are all around me.)

"Too bad. Kamito is my slave spirit, after all...??"

"After all?"

As Fianna asked back, Claire's cheeks slight blushed,

"After all, err... I even...did the spirit contract ritual with Kamito."


"..."

Fianna opened her mouth.

She faced Kamito, whose head was made to squeak.

"Hey, is that true? Kamito-kun."

She had a devilish smile.

"No, that's..."

Honestly, he was getting embarrassed just by recalling that time.

He turned bright red and cast down his eyes, which was roughly the same reaction Claire's shown.

(If it was that embarrassing, then don't mention it)— was what he thought, but...

After witnessing such a reaction from both of them, Fianna calmly muttered.

"I see... You kissed."

Her tone was certainly calm, but it was the tone that concealed something dreadful.

...She was angry. She was certainly angry.

(No, why is Fianna angry in the first place?)

As Kamito showed a doubtful expression, Fianna quickly stood up—

Faced Claire, who was bashfully turning red and sharply thrust her index finger at her.

"Let's have a match, Claire Rouge!"

"A match?"


"Yes, a match, where the winner is the one who can love Kamito-kun."

"No...No way, not such a thing! To begin with, Kamito is originally mine!"

"I've been saying that's not it..."

Kamito tried to cut into their conversation, but the two of them didn't seem to hear him.

"If you win, I'll leave this room. Then, you can do all the perverted things you'd like with Kamito-kun, just the two of you."

"I...I...I won't do such things!"

"Ahh, then, is doing it by yourself more to your liking?"

"Wh...Wh...Wh...What are...?"

Claire turned bright red and the steam vented from her head.

(...She was thoroughly toyed with.)

Claire was extremely weak toward the reprehension in such an area, she was a super innocent ojou-sama.

"Or perhaps, you have no confidence? You just don't want me to take away Kamito-kun?"

Fianna further provoked Claire, who had finally snapped.

"Guu... A...As you wish! Come forth, scorching hot hellcat!"

She summoned Scarlet and held in her hand an elemental waffe— Flame Tongue.

"Hey, do you plan on destroying the dormitory?! The people from the Sylphid Knights will dash here!"

"It's alright, because I'll settle it before they come."


"That's completely not alright!"

Claire-san, her eyes were serious. ...She was determined.

"Don't be in such a hurry, Claire Rouge."

However, Fianna waved her hand with a composed expression.

"What, now that it has come to this, are you pleading for your life?"

"I didn't say anything about having a match in blade dance. I wonder if trying to settle everything with violence is something proper nobles do. Did all the nutrition that's supposed to go to your head go to your breasts—"

Fianna looked at Claire's breasts and smiled.

"—I guess that's not the case."

"Burn all to nothing, red hot inferno ball!"

"Wait, Claire! Stop the spirit magic!"

Kamito flustered and held her hands to her back as Claire tried to recite fireball.

At their best, they were hovering near the bottom of the inter-school ranking. If they caused any more problems, «Team Scarlet»'s score would drop to the lowest rank.

"Guu...then, what kind of match are we having?!"

"Yeah—"

Placing her index finger at her chin, Fianna slowly looked around the room.

—Then, her gaze stopped on a mountain of canned food, piled up in the kitchen.


Kamito overlooked that her eyes were sparkling.

"Then, the first one who satisfies Kamito's body, wins— How's that?"

"Sa...Satisfies his body...!?"

Claire's face turned bright red.

"No...no way, not such a thing! After all, I don't know any skillful methods... that's not it, su...such a thing is definitely not allowed!"

"I don't know what kind of misunderstanding you're having, but what I'm talking about is a culinary showdown?"

"Culinary!?"

Claire's face froze.

It was natural. The first time he met her, she was only eating canned food.

She couldn't possibly cook something decent.

"No way, I can't accept such a duel!"

"Ah, offering a meal for a spirit to enjoy itself is the same type of «Kagura» as a blade dance, a skill of a splendid elementalist. Isn't it also among the academy's core subjects?"

"Th...That's..."

"Or, are you lacking confidence? ...Like that chest of yours."

She snapped. At that moment, the sound of something snapping was heard.

"I...I get it..."


"Uh?"

"I...I accept it, this culinary match!"

Claire faced Fianna and sharply thrust her finger at her as she accepted the match.

At that moment, the princess expressed an impish smile.

(By the way, Claire, she has seen through the fact that you're weak in cooking!)

===Part 2===

Just like that, the culinary showdown between the two of them somehow began, but—

The two beautiful girls, who put on aprons, were standing at opposite sides of the kitchen.

It was the common kitchen at the first floor of the Raven Class dormitory. It seemed that as long as one was a boarding student, it was alright to freely use the ingredients available there.

Est the judge sat well behaved at the table and was tightly grasping a spoon.

While being nervous about the other meaning of having Scarlet take care of the leftovers, Kamito paced around the back of the kitchen.

(...Frankly, Claire has no chance of winning.)

He certainly had never eaten Claire's home cooking, but, in any case, she was the ojou-sama who got through with mostly canned food in her meals since she came to the academy.


"Ehh, canned tuna, mackerel tuna... and I splurge a little and also open the canned crab."

While humming, Claire arranged the canned food ingredients. Kamito had doubts about approving her combination of canned food, but, for now, it looked edible, so Kamito took a breath of relief.

"Fruits are easy to eat after being cut."

Upon seeing Claire slowly taking out the kitchen knife, Kamito interrupted her.

"Are you alright with that? Don't cut your finger."

"I'm alright, after all, I was always watching you prepare food."

"I see... Hn, you were always watching?"

"Idi... Th...That's not it, I do not mean something like that!"

"Waah, it's dangerous, don't swing the kitchen knife!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bun!* Kamito splendidly dodged the kitchen knife, which grazed his nose tip.

"Hmm, be...because you said something stupid!"

Claire's face, up till her ears, was bright red and she quickly turned away.

"Putting that aside, what on earth are you making?"

"Seafood curry, the one that you often make. Because I like that."

"Eh, you don't normally use canned tuna and canned mackerel for seafood curry, you know?"

It seemed that she tossed the ingredients into the sauce from what she learned by watching him.


"Sh...shut up... It's not like there's a reason to the fishes' name one by one. It's the same as not remembering the face of the partner whom you danced with at the ball."

"...That's terrible. Do remember that."

Besides Claire's character, just her appearance was that of a transcendent beautiful girl. He was without doubt that there would be as many young nobles as the number of stars, who would be hard-pressed by her lovely looks and ask her for a dance.

"...At any rate, Claire, you're in a dress?"

"What, I was once too the daughter of a Duke family before my lands were seized, so I do at least wear dresses... Or perhaps, is it that I look strange wearing a dress?"

"No, I just thought that you looked good wearing it."

"...Wh...Wh...What are you saying, idiot."

Kamito spoke his honest thoughts and Claire turned red increasingly and looked downwards.

She slightly raised her head and looked at Kamito with an upward glance—

"Hey, do you re...really... think I look good?"

"Yea, I think that your red hair looks pretty with that pure white dress.... I don't want to admit it, but honestly just your looks are prettier than any princesses."

"...!"

"Well, while wearing a dress, your breasts volume is overwhelming lacking though. Using paddings there to make do with it is the only—"


Then, Kamito suddenly shut his mouth.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Gogogogogogogo*... The kitchenware were clattering.

...It seemed that he stepped on another unnecessary landmine again.

"Ah...no... I'm sorry."

"...Th...Th...That's right. Unless I use paddings, I can't even wear a dress, right?"

"Hey, Claire, why are you holding such a thing? That's a handy tool you use to peel vegetables, it's not something you use on people... owaa, wai—"

===Part 3===

"Kuu, I can't believe that there's such a way to use a vegetable peeler..."

As Kamito cursed, he turned up at Fianna's corner this time.

There were numerous scars like cat-scratches on his cheeks.

"Despite being poor at using the cookware, she completely mastered using it as a weapon."

At this rate, the day that Claire's elemental waffe became a peeler from a whip might also be close.

(Turn into bonito flakes...? What a terribly unpleasant future.)

While pressing down on his cheeks, which were suffering a prickling pain, he was thinking about such a thing,

"—Hmm, you two are on pretty good terms."


Raising her face from the chopping board, Fianna said with half-opened eyes.

Somehow, she seemed a little displeased.

"Is that how it looks like? Princess, your eyes are also surprisingly bad."

"Not everything you see is the truth— That was a saying from a certain senior of mine."

"That indeed seems like words that a princess maiden of the «Divine Ritual Institute» would say."

Kamito shrugged his shoulders and stood beside Fianna.

She was slicing a carrot with a nice tapping rhythm.

Because she was a «Kagura» expert, who pleased spirits, as expected her skill was good.

"You seem full of confidence."

"Of course. During the time at the «Divine Ritual Institute», although there was a ritual to offer cooked meals to high ranking spirits only once a month, all of them were satisfied with my offered meals and returned to Astral Zero."

"Really? That's amazing."

Kamito was honestly in admiration. That seemed to be a great expectation. Naturally, because appearance was more important than taste for the meals offered to spirits, he wondered if it would differ from the cooking humans eat.

"By the way, what was that one bottle you poured into the pot just now?"

"Capsicum. I'm using it as a subtle seasoning."

"I see, a subtle seasoning."

A subtle seasoning. The soup in the pot certainly became red and was making the ingredients subtle to see.


However, did subtle seasoning generally have such a meaning?

"...Is that okay?"

"Yea, it has such a vibrant and pretty color, doesn't it?"

...That somehow invited anxiety, but he gave up on investigating it.

Fianna nodded, seemingly satisfied, and casted her sights onto the chopping board again.

While listening to the rhythmic tapping sound, Kamito gazed at Fianna's face profile.

She had black pupils of long slits and virgin-snow-like white skin.

Her black hair, which reached down to her waist, was currently tied up to not let it fall.

Her white nape was mysteriously erotic.

Without thinking, Kamito was charmed by that somewhat mature face profile.

(With just tying her hair up, her impression has greatly changed...?)

Her tied up hair. There was something stuck in Kamito's mind.

(...This girl, as I thought, have I met her somewhere?)

Despite that it should be the first time they met, the girl somehow knew Kamito's true identity.

(However, I don't have any princess acquaintances...)

It was irritating that he seemed to recall something, but yet he couldn't recall anything.

He was staring at Fianna's face profile in that manner—

"Hey, Kamito-kun? Why have you been visually raping me since just now?"


Fianna turned towards him with a slightly troubled look.

"Ah, no... visually raping!?"

"There are certainly things like turning this fallen princess senseless, or training her like a slave. Kamito-kun, it's your free-will to make these various perverted delusions, but... well, honestly, it doesn't really feel good to be used as an adolescent boy's delusions."

"What kind of person do you think I am?"

"Ah, I would like for you to not take a princess maiden, who serves the spirit lords of the «Divine Ritual Institute», lightly. I can read your mind like picking something up."

After saying that, Fianna drew her face close and gently placed her hand onto Kamito's forehead.

He was reflexively startled by the sensation of her cool soft skin.

"...Eh? No way, a nude maid, that's shameful..."
[[Image:STnBD V02 115.jpg|thumb]]

"What's shameful is your mind!"

Kamito spontaneously shouted.

Besides, what was a nude maid? Was it a variant of the naked apron? He was a little curious.

At that moment—

"Kamito, it's about the meat's grilling adjustment though, is medium good? Or, well-done?"

"Ahh, I prefer medium... Owa!"

Upon turning around, before he knew it, Claire was standing there with a smile and a fireball floating.



"Yo...Yo...You are the wo...wo...worst, something like nude maid, you're the worst!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Gogogogogogogo......!*

"Wait, it's a false accusation— Fianna!?"

He requested for help, but Fianna had already left the scene with an impish smile.

"Tu...turn into cinders together with your insolent delusions, you pervert!"

The fireball Claire released blew Kamito away together with the kitchen.

===Part 4===

Just like that, 30 minutes passed.

At the table where the judges were sitting, the food cooked by the two of them was lined up.

Est, Scarlet and Kamito, who was worn out, were sitting side by side in a line.

As the result of drawing lots, they would start eating Claire's cooking first, but—

"...Ah, I have to at least ask, what is this?"

A black lump of something was laid down on the plate before him.

Wasn't that probably the cinders thing Claire was always saying?

"If I remember, it was seafood curry... right? That was what you were making."

"...I...It looks a little overcooked."


The thing before him was completely carbonized... It was no longer about the taste.

"Ehh, is it bad if I don't eat this?

"I...It's not about appearances, what's important is the taste, right?!"

"It's awfully bitter."

Est, who sampled a mouthful, muttered that expressionlessly.

"...Est, you betrayed me."

"Isn't that obvious? Est, you've done well."

"Wh...What, Scarlet is deliciously eating it."

"That's because it's a fire spirit. It probably doesn't have something like the sense of taste."

That burnt-black lump was completely eaten by Scarlet, but he had the feeling that rather than eating something, it was incinerating waste. After it finished eating, it puffed out a small fireball.

"...Isn't Est also a spirit?! I don't think she understands the taste of a delicate cuisine."

"Use of abusive language towards a judge. Claire gets a point deduction."

Expressionlessly, Est raised up a point-deduction card.

"Guu..."

"With just a black thing, there's no need to eat it. It's my victory."

Fianna placed her hand near her mouth and a wide smile appeared on her face.

Well, there seemed to already be a winner decided, but they had to also at least eat and compare her cooking.

...*Gutsu*, *gutsu*, *gutsu*, *gutsu*, *gutsu*.<ref>simmering sfx.</ref>

They saw the cooking that was carried over—

"Th..That's..!"

Kamito was at a lost for words. Est widened her eyes unusually, Scarlet purred.

It seemed to be a boiling...stew.

It was red. It was more red compared to the time Kamito saw it a while ago. It was a stew whose ingredients could not be seen.

"Ehh, what is... this?"

"This is the Ordesia royal family's speciality, the white stew."

"How is it white!?"

At least on the surface, all he could see was one color, red. And then, there was a dreadful smell that even thrust up into his nose.

It was because of the subtle seasoning she used just now, he was certain of that.

"Wh...What is this?! There's no way anyone could eat such a thing!"

Claire pushed aside her own matters and complained. ...Well, she understood that feeling.

"Ahh, the daughter of the Elstein family is complaining without even trying it."

Fianna brushed her glossy black hair and looked down at Claire.

"This isn't fair. I doubt that's something nobles, who are exemplars to the masses, do."

"Uggg....!"


Unfairness aside, Fianna also did not eat Claire's burnt-black thing, but Claire, who blew her top, seemed to not have noticed such a thing.

Or perhaps he should put it that she was basically weak to provocation to things about noble ojou-samas. She was even weaker especially when it involved her family name and her pride as a noble.

"I...I get it, it's alright if I eat a mouthful of that, right? I'm good with spicy things, after all."

The moment Claire nodded, Fianna expressed a wicked smile.

"Hey, Claire, that's seriously dangerous—"

Without time for Kamito to stop Claire, she put the spoon into her mouth.

And then, at the next moment.

"Hyguu—!?"

......*Patan*.

Suddenly, she collapsed onto the table.

"Cl...Claire, are you alright?!"

Kamito helped her up in a fluster, but Claire's eyes were spinning.

"...Sh...She's completely knocked out."

"It's my victory."

Fianna placed her hand at her waist and smiled.

"Err, it was that kind of match?"


"Is that not it?"

Fianna looked surprised.

Well, he felt that it was certain that they did not decide on the precise conditions to win.

"You certainly did say that you made the spirits satisfied with a ritual of the «Divine Ritual Institute», right?"

"Yeah, just by eating a mouthful, they returned to Astral Zero seemingly satisfied."

"Uh, I think that they probably did not return satisfied."

"A cooking that even destroys a spirit's sense of taste..."

Unable to prohibit the trembling.

Est leaked out such a mutter.

===Part 5===

(Good grief... today was a troublesome day.)

Since then, one hour had passed, Kamito was using the shower installed in the bathroom.

Because Fianna said she would shower later, Kamito ended up entering the bathroom first without any reservation.

By the way, Claire was being nursed by Scarlet in the room. She should probably be groaning on the bed currently. Kamito thought she was pitiful, but he could not even do anything.

It was already time for Est to sleep. She could not return to Astral Zero, so she needed to get a lot of sleep and she would usually sleep for about half a day.


"At any rate" —Kamito muttered while having his shower.

(Fianna Ray Ordesia... huh?)

She was a girl who was the second princess of the Ordesia Empire and the second Queen candidate next to that Calamity Queen— Rubia Elstein. Why did she know Kamito's true identity? He did not clearly understand what her aim was for approaching him.

(It also doesn't seem like she's going to expose my true identity.)

Rather than seriously threatening him, Kamito thought that it was more like she was having fun with his reactions.

(...What on earth is going on?)

At the moment Kamito tried to stop the spirit device shower.

"Hey, Kamito-kun, I'm coming in."

Such a voice came from the direction of the dressing room.

"Hn, Ah—"

He replied.

"Wh...What!?"

Kamito turned around in a fluster.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Gararaa*— The door opened.

Over there was—

"...What's the matter? You look so surprised."


A princess with a bath towel wrapped around her body.

"Wh...Wh...Wh...?"

Kamito fell into a panic state for a moment.

"Fi...Fianna, what are you doing?!"

"Uh?"

The princess slightly tilted her head and made a lovely smile.

She had a slender white nape. She had an elegant narrow waist. And then, there were her large swelling breasts. He thought that her bare white legs, seen from the slit of the bath towel, were bewitching unlike those of a 16 year old girl.

Kamito was dumbfounded—

"What, even for me, doing this thing is... embarrassing, you know?"

Her knees touched each other and she bashfully muttered.

Slowly, Fianna gently dropped her towel.

"...!?"

Kamito instantly covered his eyes with both hands—but,

"A sw...swimsuit...?"

Fianna was wearing a separate black swimsuit beneath the bath towel.

It was a water festival swimsuit, where thin veils were attached at the chest area and a pareo was wrapped around her waist.

She had both nicely tightened legs and a narrow waist that depicted her elegant curves.


Her slightly flushed body was beautiful like a descending goddess.

Kamito was charmed instantly—

"Eh, what's ... the matter?"

"Wh...What?"

"Sh...Showing my bare skin to a boy... Kamito-kun, you are the first one, you know."

Fianna's voice slightly trembled as she embarrassedly muttered.

"Wh...Why...?"

Kamito gulped.

...He did not understand the point. Why was she doing such a thing?

As if his doubt was pointed out—

"Hey, sit."

Fianna gently touched his shoulders with her hands and made Kamito sit facing the reverse direction.

It was the sensation of a girl's cool soft hands. His heartbeat accelerated right away.

"Fianna, what are you trying to—"

Fuyon.

"...!"

Suddenly, a soft sense of elasticity was pushed onto his back.

Kamito's back jumped in a startle.


Fianna coughed—

"A...a princess like me is giving your back a wash. Consider this an honor."

She began washing Kamito's back with a bubble-foaming body towel.

"Er, wait a while, why are you—"

Kamito couldn't comprehend it and was completely bewildered.

However, if he turned around, he would end up looking directly at Fianna's bewitching swimsuit appearance, so he didn't move.

"Be...Behave yourself, do you plan on making me embarrassed?"

She said that in a sulky tone and strongly scrubbed his back.

"Ho...How is it? Does it feel good?"

"Well, even if you ask something like that..."

Honestly, it felt good.

Or, with a cute girl so close like this, there's no way that it doesn't feel good.

However, he felt like he'll lose something important as a person if he said his honest thoughts.

"Yo..You're surprisingly stubborn... Hurry up and get ensnared by me!"

"Ensnared!?"

Funyu. Funyun.

He felt like he heard some sort of dangerous word just now, but his senses were taken away by the sensation of her breasts pressing on him and his mind immediately became hazy.


(This is... bad...!)

Kamito, who was brought up as an assassin since he was young at the «Instructional School», did not even do training against this kind of allurement. As, he was at the age where he did not yet require a counter-measure for such a thing, and his contracted spirit was keeping all approaching females completely away from him.

However, Kamito was now of the marriageable age of a youth.

He was already on the verge of losing his reason to the sensation of her breasts, pressing through her thin swimsuit.

"H..Hey... where are you touching!?"

"Be...Behave yourself! I'll tell your true identity to that girl."

"Th...That's right! Why do you know about Ren Ashbell—"

Kamito was about to turn around and ask her— at that moment.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Bam!*— Suddenly, the bathroom door opened.

"...!?"

Over there was—

"C...Claire...?"

Claire Rouge, who was looking downwards and whose shoulder was trembling.

"Kuu, I can't believe you've already recovered..."

Fianna tightly bit her lips.

"Yo...Yo...You guys, wh...wh...wh..what are you doing?"


"You...you're mistaken, this is, err—"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Gogogogogogogogo...!*

Claire's red hair bristled like flames flaring up.

Kamito resigned to being turned to cinders like usual.

"..."

Claire's movement, after raising her whip up, suddenly stopped.

In her ruby pupils, flames were burning up, as she was sternly glaring at Fianna.

Fianna expressed a composed expression. Pitoo— she stuck her breasts onto Kamito's back.

"Fianna!? Wh...why are you doing something like adding fuel to—"

Kamito tried to separate his body in a fluster, but his arms were tightly held.

"I'm now washing Kamito-kun's back. Could you please not bother us?"

"Kuu, yo...you guys..."

(Ah... I'm so dead.)

Kamito strangely closed his eyes with a calm mood.

However, the move Claire took next was completely unexpected.

It wasn't the usual where she blew Kamito away with her Flame Tongue—

"I...I'll... also wash your back."

"Eh?" "Huh?"


She sternly glared at the two of them who were dumbfounded— and informed them.

"I mean I'm also entering the bath!"

===Part 6===

[[Image:STnBD V02 004-005.jpg|thumb]]
"Ho...How is it, Kamito? Does it feel good?"

"Ah, I'm the one who's making you feel good, right?"

(Wa...Wait, what... kind of situation is this!?)

Three minutes later, Kamito's head was completely in a panic.

...He wondered if he was having a nasty nightmare. However, this sensation he felt on his back was real.

In a bathroom for 1 person to use, he ended up being covered in bubble-foam with two beautiful girls for some reason.

Furthermore, Claire wasn't even wearing a swimsuit. Her naked body was just wreathed around by a bath towel.

Her vivid crimson red hair looked pretty on her fine milky-white skin.

She had a petite build and slender proportions.

That lovely fairy-like body of hers was more than charming enough, even if she was lacking breasts.

There were red belt marks on her thigh seen through the slit of her towel. Claire had her animal-training leather whip wreathed around her thigh. Those marks were strangely captivating.

Kamito eagerly tried to not look at the two of them, but because the room was small after all, he would end up closely stuck to their skin with just a slight movement. That sensation ended up further boosting his imagination.

"Kyaa...hey, what are you touching, idiot!"

"Ah, if you move like that, you'll rub my front...Hyauu."

It was that situation just by twisting his body a little due to the ticklishness.

(Give me a break...)

If boys of about the same age heard this, they might think that it's the Shangri-La of dreams, but, as for Kamito, he felt like it was as if he was sitting on a bed of nails.

...Why was this happening, he did not understand the point.

It was probably because Claire had an opposing heart towards Fianna that she ended up blurting out such a thing, and it became that she couldn't back out, but— as for Kamito, who was dragged into this, this was intolerable.

He should be getting out from here as quickly as possible, but if he moved even a little, he would end up directly coming in contact with their skin, so even if he planned to get out, he couldn't get out.

"Hey, I'm the one who's making you feel good, right? Say that it feels good!"

"Ouchhh, you're peeling off the skin on my back."

"Eh, it hurts so much? ... Wow, your back is full of injuries."

"Ah, that's because I've always been hurt by a certain somebody."

"I...I'm sorry..."

Kamito groaned with a deadpan look and Claire awkwardly apologized.


"—No, I'm joking. Those are old wounds from the past."

The injuries on his back were gotten from the time when he called himself {{Furigana|Strongest Blade Dancer|Ren Ashbell|margin=13}} before.

"...Hn? Fianna, what are you looking at?"

—Claire frowned and looked at Fianna.

"I...it's nothing."

"What's the matter with my spirit seal?"

Fianna had been intermittently gazing at Claire's spirit seal on her right hand since a while ago.

"Di...didn't I say that it's nothing!"

Fianna let out a flustered voice unlike her usual self and quickly averted her eyes.

Claire stared at her in such a state, seemingly puzzled—

"...Your spirit seal is at such a place. How unusual."

She had gotten a quick look at a part of her spirit seal at Fianna's cleavage, who was wearing a swimsuit.

"If I recall, you're a holy spirit user?"

"Yea... that's right."

Fianna, who answered her, had a slightly stiff expression.

"What kind of spirit is yours, summon it and show it to us."

Kamito also had an interest in that. As teammates participating in the same quest, they should at least have a grasp of the type of spirits being used. That was also, without fail, the duty of being in the team.


However, Fianna turned away with a seemingly displeased look for some reason.

"I'll show it to you when necessary. An elementalist doesn't thoughtlessly summon her contracted spirit."

Certainly, there were also elementalists with that kind of thinking among the academy students.

As there was the possibility that their spirits would be seen through by rivals from their appearances to their attributes, weaknesses and so on.

On the other hand—

"If you don't make communications with your contracted spirit daily, mutual trust can't be created."

There were also people who thought like Claire and they were the majority in the academy.

As either opinions also have a reason, either side couldn't be unconditionally said to be correct, but—

For some reason, those words of Claire seemed to have gotten on Fianna's nerves.

"...You won't understand. Claire Rouge."

"...? Hey, what do you mean by that—"

"I'm getting out already."

Fianna muttered with an ice-like voice and quickly stood up.

—At that moment.

He heard the faint sound of weapons from afar.

It was something normal humans would fail to hear, the sound of metal clashing.

However, Kamito, who once received training at the «Instructional School», certainly heard it.


"Kamito, what's the matter?"

"There's a battle occurring within the academy—"

It might be a fellow academy student's duel. No, if that was the case, the Sylphid Knights should have immediately stopped it.

"I have a bad premonition."

That was a pure uneasiness— to be honest. His intuition as an elementalist, which was honed as he went through countless battles— that was the only one he wanted to believe that did not dull as he expected.

(There's no doubt, there's a terrible fellow—)

He dashed out of the bathroom, nimbly put on his uniform, and then Est turned up, rubbing her eyelids and looking sleepy, in her pajamas. It seemed that this sword spirit felt an unusual phenomenon.

"Kamito, there's something not good outside."

"Ahh, sorry for waking you up, Est."

"No, Kamito. I'm your sword."

Kamito grasped Est's small hand and the girl's body turned into particles of light in a moment.

At the next moment, Kamito's hand was gripping the elemental waffe— Terminus Est.

He felt that her sword body was smaller and her radiance was also duller compared to usual, but because she had just woken up, it couldn't be helped.

Kamito jumped out from the room's window.

"Wa...Wait up... ahh, come on! Come, Scarlet!"

Claire called Scarlet and jumped out chasing Kamito.

<noinclude>

==Translation Notes and References==
<references/>

{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter5}}</noinclude>

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3

2013-09-10T17:08:45Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 3: The Lost Queen==

===Part 1===

After that, Kamito, who parted from Claire and the others, headed towards the academy director's office immediately.

He knocked and opened the door—

"You're late, for how many seconds do you plan to make this lady wait?"

That was the first thing Greyworth, who was sitting at the office desk, coldly said.

The Dusk Witch — Greyworth Ciel Mais.

Her figure was certainly that of a bewitchingly beautiful woman, but she was originally a spirit knight with a long military service, who had her name entered first on the list of {{Furigana|the twelve knight commanders|Numbers}}.

She had wavy ash-blonde hair. Her gray pupils were shining behind her small pair of glasses.

"Sorry, I heard that you have business with me and no matter what my walking became heavy."

"Hmm, so now you're able to run your rather cheeky mouth, are you? Where did the obedient pure boy from those days go? Really, this thing called the flow of time is cruel."

"You're the only one who doesn't change, Greyworth. Your outward looks as well as your tricky character."

Kamito loathsomely said in disdain.

Greyworth is one of the few people who knew him three years ago.

And she was the perpetrator who called Kamito, who threw away the name {{Furigana|Strongest Blade Dancer|Ren Ashbell|margin=13}}, to the academy and attempted to make him participate in the Blade Dance two months from now.


She did not tell him the reason for that.

Although, it was often the case that the Dusk Witch worked Kamito hard without telling him anything.

"That's right, you have certainly changed. Compared to three years ago, you've become especially weak. In the practice match a while ago, what was that sorry performance when faced with an opponent of that level? If it was the you from the past, you would have overwhelmingly defeated that one person in under three minutes."

"You were watching? ...As usual your hobbies are bad."

"In such a sorry state, your participation qualifications for the Blade Dance are also doubtful. Or, was it a fluke that you defeated that militarized spirit?"

"That time was—"

Kamito slightly mumbled.

It was not that he defeated it with just his own strength.

Kamito, who had a chance meeting with his changed former contracted spirit and was struck with despair, was given the strength to stand once again by that red haired hellcat girl.

(...!)

Suddenly, the sensation of her soft lips was resurrected in his mind.

To shake it off and cleanse the evil thoughts, Kamito shook his head in a fluster.

"I also think that I'm miserable. I can't even fully use my contracted spirit's power yet."

Kamito dropped his eyes onto his right hand, which was engraved with a spirit seal.


"Is it that you still can't forget your previous woman? How stubborn."

"Don't mess around! For me, Restia isn't like that!"

"On the contrary, getting hotheaded makes it increasingly suspicious. If you like, how about getting a lover or something in this academy? It might even divert a little of the loneliness."

"Lov—"

"Or, are the girls in the academy too childlike? If that's the case... I'm also good."

Greyworth smiled bewitchingly and slightly pushed open her breast area with her fingertips.

He accidentally saw an adult-like, black lacy lingerie in her cleavage.

"D...don't mess around!"

"It's a joke. Hmm, with that tone, it seems that you have not yet reached that level. I've heard rumors that you made a tiny breasted beautiful girl and a naked knee-socks spirit wait upon you and are indulging in an improper harem cohabitation life."

"Guu..."

Trying to refute, Kamito was at a loss for words.

...Looking at it objectively, that was the truth and so it was painful to be unable to deny it.

"Greyworth, did you call me just to tell some worthless jokes?"

"That's right— but, of course, that's not the only thing."

Greyworth creaked her chair and faced the visitor room at the inner side of the room.

"I have a girl I want to introduce to you— okay, come in"


"Okay."

From the inner room, came what sounded like a bell being turned over.

The one who opened the door and appeared was—

A girl who wore a black dresslike uniform, different from the academy's uniform.

It was a beautiful girl, whose beautiful long black hair was impressive, to the extent that he was taken aback.

She had clear black pupils. Without thinking, Kamito was charmed by her neat and clean appearance.

"...Eh?"

The moment his eyes met with hers, she made a puzzled face for some reason.

"Errm, you're ... Kazehaya Kamito-kun?"

While blinking her eyes incessantly, the girl asked.

"Ahh, that's right, however—"

"But my impression is very..."

...It was somewhat strange, but it seemed the girl received a shock.

(Wh...what's with this?)

"But, that's right... he's a boy after all and it's already been three years."

The girl was muttering to herself in a voice that Kamito could not hear.

After that, she looked at Kamito's face again.

"Yes, there's certainly a resemblance, yeah. Besides, this is fine—"


"What's up, Fianna?"

Greyworth called out, seemingly puzzled.

"Ah, s...sorry! Err, this is the first time I've seen a male elementalist!"

The girl called Fianna shook her head in a fluster.

"Erm... who is this girl?"

Kamito faced Greyworth and asked.

Then, the girl, for some reason, made a sullen expression and pouted her lips.

"I knew it, you didn't remember... well, that's fine though."

"She is the recently admitted student who will be entering the same Raven Class as you."

"Admitted student?"

Ah! Kamito nodded. They were talking about it at the café just a while ago.

(This girl is the one...)

Carol was saying that she was a daughter of noble social status, but, in any case, in this academy the ladies of noble social status were all around him, so he did not feel anything special.

(After that, she said that... her breasts were big.)

Without thinking, he glanced towards the dress-like uniform's chest area—

(...Indeed, certainly.)

Kamito consented strangely.


"She is the Ordesia Empire's second princess, her Highness Fianna Ray Ordesia."

"...Ordesia?"

Kamito frowned for a moment—

"No way...!"

His eyes widened in surprise.

In Areishia Spirit Academy, which was an elementalist training organization, many genuine daughters of nobles were enrolled. This was the result of the empire's royalty and nobles continuing the bloodline of elementalists through marriage of convenience that even spanned over several generations.

Naturally, there were also exceptions, but, speaking of elementalists, it was normal for them to be daughters of nobles.

Fahrengart, the head of the military family, and Laurenfrost, with a family history.

Its lands were currently seized, but Claire's Elstein family was also of a noble pedigree.

However, this girl before him was— the second princess of the Ordesia Empire.

She was not even the nobility.

She was what one would call— the real princess.

(Why would the empire's princess be in the academy?)

Daughters born into the Ordesia imperial family should be scheduled to stack up training as Queen candidates, serving the Five Great Elemental Lords, at the Queen training organization, the «Divine Ritual Institute».

In any case, Kamito kept that question in his chest for now and knelt down on the ground on one knee.


"Please pardon my rudeness, your Highness."

It was not that he specifically pledged allegiance to the Ordesia Empire, but the bearing to take before the royalty was harshly driven into him by his former contracted spirit.

However, Fianna quietly shook her head.

"That's alright, we are students of the same academy here. Besides, although I'm called the second princess, I'm the Lost Queen, my social status is already gone."

"The Lost Queen?"

Kamito asked back— then he recalled.

(I see, the empire's second princess!)

He heard about it from rumors.

(If I remember it, the girl was the Queen candidate to serve the Fire Elemental Lord.)

Four years ago, the Fire Queen— Rubia Elstein's absconding happened.

The empire fell into chaos for a moment by the wrath of the Fire Elemental Lord, who learned of her treachery.

For the sake of appeasing the Fire Elemental Lord's anger, the «Divine Ritual Institute» tried to support a second Queen but—

At that time, the empire's second princess should have been supported as the successor to Rubia.

However, she never became Queen. At that time, she declared that she stepped down from the Queen candidacy for some reason and her existence was erased from the imperial family.

The reason that she had rejected to become Queen was not officially announced so far.


Henceforth, the second princess completely disappeared from the center stage.

That Lost Queen meant this girl in front of him?

"It's just as she says. As long as you pass through this academy's gates, no matter what social status the princess maidens have, there is no special treatment. Even a princess, a male elementalist, or the Calamity Queen's sister."

"There you have it, I'm the former princess, but nice to meet you, Kazehaya Kamito-kun."

Fianna smiled and picked up the sides of her skirt with her fingertips, then bowed elegantly.

"A...Ah, nice to meet you—"

Kamito stood up and his expression froze.

"What's the matter?"

"No, err..."

While scratching his face, Kamito looked away.

"?"

Fianna tilted her head to the side.

"Kyaa!"

It seemed she realized that what she was holding up was not a ball dress, but a short length uniform skirt.

Her mature black underwear, weaved with laces, was firmly etched into Kamito's retina.


"Ka...Kamito-kun... pervert."

The former princess' face turned red as she embarrassedly muttered.

"I...I'm sorry..."

"You two, don't flirt and act lovey-dovey in front of my eyes. It's irritating."

Greyworth glared at Kamito, with her eyes filled with bloodlust.

"...I'm sorry. And why did you call for me?"

About this witch. It was probably not just to introduce the admitted student.

(To introduce the empire's princess to me, what is she scheming?)

As if she read Kamito's emotions, the witch pushed up her glasses, seemingly sullen.

"It's regrettable, despite purposely preparing a special quest for your sake."

"A special quest?"

"That's right. It was just nice that I had a quest I wanted to entrust her with, so I wanted your team to accompany her as her guards."

===Part 2===

—A quest.

Together with official matches with fellow academy students, it was the system that supported the academy ranking system.


A given quest could set various objectives, from Kagura by a blade dance, the suppression of a rampaging spirit, the excavation and investigation of the sealed spirit, to the subjugation of elementalists gone astray.

By completing the quests that were divided into ranks depending on the danger level, the academy students could raise their team rankings just as they do by winning official matches.

"By the way, this quest's difficulty level is S rank."

"S rank?"

Without thinking, Kamito inquired back.

An S rank quest was the highest difficulty level quest in the academy's ranking.

The amount of ranking points it could net was extraordinary, but it was a dangerous quest that could even result in death, depending on the situation. It should not even be possible to sign up for it with Kamito's current ranking.

"Did you prepare things behind the scenes?"

"Your hearing is bad. I said that I don't practice special treatment. It just means that the ones suitable for this quest are Fianna and you. If you disagree, then I'll spread the word around to other teams."

"..."

It was not a bad deal. On the contrary, looking at Kamito's current team, it was a godsend.

Till the opening of the Blade Dance, there already were only two months left. No, the final examination to decide the top three participating teams would take place even earlier.

With their current pace, they could not possibly make it by the means of regular official matches and quests.


Greyworth was somehow bent on making Kamito participate in the Blade Dance.

Although, forcing in a representative of the empire through the power of the academy director was not possible, as expected.

Therefore, she has got the S rank quest, whose danger level was high, and the completion bonus, which was also extremely high.

(If we could complete the quest, that would be it— Huh?)

He was not pleased to move in accordance to Greyworth's expectation, but??

If it was a quest to guard an important person, he had the experience of doing such things several times in the past.

Certainly, it was far better than raising the inter-school ranking steadily through the official matches.

"—I understand. Explain the details of the quest."

"That's the spirit."

Kamito prompted and Greyworth smiled.

"Do you know Mine Town Gado?"

"Gado? Well, I roughly know its name. It is a town with the mine that was abandoned a few decades ago."

Mine Town Gado. It was formerly a town with large spirit crystal mining grounds, but, during the second Ranbal war, spirit crystal deposits were exhausted, and it became a town with a completely abandoned mine.

It should certainly be a ghost town full of ruins nowadays.

"There have been frequent occurrences of strange earthquakes at that mine recently. I want you to go there and investigate that."

"Investigate the earthquakes?"

For the academy to bring in an investigation request meant that it was probably not an ordinary earthquake.


It was often the case that the earth attribute spirits that rule over the land caused the earthquakes.

If that was because a spirit was angry or was in a frenzy, it could be appeased by a ritual of a blade dance. Depending on the situation, there were also cases where a subjugation unit of spirit knights was formed.

As a quest it was relatively typical, but—

"Stop joking. Why is an ordinary earthquake investigation an S rank quest?"

He did not think that such level of danger would be involved if it was just an ordinary earth spirit investigation.

Compared to the quest's risk, the assigned rank seemed too high.

"You're being distrustful as usual, can't you trust my good will?"

"Can I trust it? You never lie. However, you also never speak the truth."

"Hmm...well, it is indeed like that."

Greyworth smiled and shrugged her shoulders in resignation.

"At that mine, it seems a strategic-class militarized spirit, who was sealed by the old Ordesia Knights, is sleeping there."

"A strategic-class militarized spirit...!?"

Kamito spontaneously groaned. Fianna beside him also gasped in surprise.

A strategic-class militarized spirit— it could not be compared to the giant spirit that went into frenzy at the Academy Town the other day.

Because of its tremendous strength, it was impossible for an individual to control it. In the end, it could only be controlled by ritual Kagura performed by several hundred elementalists— it was surely a weapon of mass destruction.

At the end of the second Ranbal war, the continental nations signed a treaty, and all the seven bodies should have sealed and disposed of such spirits, but—

"Don't tell me, the one causing the earthquake is that strategic-class militarized spirit?"

"At the very worst; it's only a possibility. I want to entrust you guys with this investigation. If your investigation confirms that the seal has come undone—"

"I'll perform the ritual of resealing by the «Ritual Kagura»."

Fianna calmly opened her mouth to speak.

"That's right. For you, who are the former Queen candidate, this quest suits you perfectly."

"...I see, that's the reason you called for this princess."

The Queens, who served the Five Great Elemental Lords, were the experts in the «Ritual Kagura» that appeased spirits.

They did not receive any special martial arts training, and as the result they were not suited for battle, but all forms of ritual have been driven into their bodies since they were children.

In the entire academy, there was only one former Queen academy student— a rare special skill user; the quest could only be accomplish with her, and considering that it had to do with a strategic-class militarized spirit, it might also be appropriate to set it as an S rank quest.

"..."

The terms were not bad. However, there was one more thing that he had to ask.

"...But is Fianna alright with this? With the guard being me."

If it was just about guarding her, there should have been even more competent elementalists.


For example, Ellis Fahrengart. If it was her, whose sense of responsibility was strong and who also had the ability, there would be no shortcomings to her being a guard.

There were no merits for the princess to have Kamito, who was a boy, as her guard. If Greyworth grouped them together as she pleased, ignoring Fianna's will— he planned to reject this deal.

However, Fianna—

"Of course, I'll be relying on you, Kamito-kun."

"Did Greyworth threaten you to group with me?"

"No, after all, I was the one who nominated you."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. To travel with the world's only male elementalist, isn't it great?"

Fianna entwined her fingers with Kamito's hand and gazed with upturned eyes.

Peering into her clear black pupils, Kamito spontaneously felt shock.

"Hmm, aren't you popular?"

Greyworth said, seemingly displeased, and handed over a document with the quest's key points written on it.

"If you intend to take up this quest, then sign here. This should not be a bad deal for you."

It was not bad, far from that, it was an extraordinary deal for Kamito in the current circumstances.

However—

"I can't decide this by myself. I have to at least ask Claire too."


"Hmm, well, that's alright. But hurry, I'll have you leave tomorrow."

"Claire?"

The one who raised her voice was Fianna.

"Ah, my team member, but—"

"Could she happen to be Claire Elstein?"

"...You know her?"

Kamito awkwardly scratched his head.

(That's right, this girl is... the Queen candidate to the Fire Elemental Lord.)

She was the princess maiden who was training at the same «Divine Ritual Institute» as the Calamity Queen— Rubia Elstein.

If that was the case, it would not be strange for her to know even Claire, that girl's sister.

"That person's sister..."

Fianna's lips slightly trembled.

She might be having regrets after hearing that the Calamity Queen's sister was one of the teammates.

"I'm sorry, but Claire is my teammate. I'll accomplish the quest together with her."

Kamito informed her—

"Yes, that's what I wish for as well."

As Fianna nodded, she muttered in a soft voice.

"'''I don't plan on losing to even the sister'''."



===Part 3===

As the two of them left the office, Greyworth smiled.

"However, that princess did something bold as well."

"—you knew, academy director?"

From inside of the Greyworth's shadow, a lady quickly appeared.

Shadow elementalist— Teacher Freya Grandol.

"Is it about her using spirit crystals during the entrance examination? Of course, I noticed it. She did something impious. Doesn't that stone cost twenty million rood apiece?"

"Then, I presume you are overlooking this unfair entry, right?"

"Princess Fianna was ranked next to that Rubia Elstein as the second Queen candidate at the age of thirteen. If she wakes up as an elementalist again, isn't it the best bargain?"

"However, if she tries to lead her academy life using that thing, wouldn't she be instantly exposed?"

"I think that's something she also understands. She understands it and yet she became the academy's student. If she does not awaken, that would be the end to it, but if she awakens, it would be a fortune. Therefore, I grouped her with that boy."

"Academy director, what on earth are you—"

Freya frowned and at that moment a winged eyeball flew in from the office window.


It was a probe-use spirit, used by Greyworth.

"Hmm, it seems that an uninvited guest has infiltrated the Academy Town."

"Is it the darkness spirit from the other day?"

"Well, I wonder? I do not know what they are aiming for, but... Freya Grandol, go prepare the order for the Sylphid Knights to strengthen the security."

===Part 4===

Kamito, who left the office, took Fianna on a tour around the academy building.

She had an elegant light manner of walking. It seemed that a real princess' way of walking was also polished.

"Fianna, are you wearing the «Divine Ritual Institute»'s uniform?"

"Yes, as opposed to the Areishia Spirit Academy, it seems to be a recent design. During the time I was active, it used to be an even more bombastic ritual costume. That was cute in a way, but all the girls were definitely yearning for skirts."

"...Hmm, is that so? It suits you."

"Ah, even if it's just flattery, I am happy."

As they were talking while walking, Kamito's tone had relaxed tremendously.

Since she was the Ordesia Empire princess and a princess maiden from the «Divine Ritual Institute»— he was thinking that there would be an even-harder-to-approach atmosphere, but she was a surprisingly easy girl to talk to.

The two of them, who had such conversation while walking along the corridor, were already basked in the attention of other academy students.

"Hey, take a look. Kazehaya Kamito, again, is going to rape the admitted student!" "The licentious beast's special demonstration." "But I might be a little envious." "Wh...what are you saying!" "B...but if I was to be gazed at by those sharp eyes...I...I might be unable to defy." "It's just for a mere little while only, a little while only, I want to try being played with... don't you think so?" "Th...that's true, I...if he were to approach with force... my heart would surely be pounding." " No way, after all, he's the Demon King, the Demon King that devours any girl he can lay his hands on." "The Demon King..." "The Demon King of the night..."

A soft commotion like that could have been heard from the whole corridor.

(...What! The Demon King of the night!)

He wanted to retort numerous remarks, but it seemed like it would become really troublesome, so he did not.

He had already gotten used to the girls' frightened gazes.

However, it was strange, but there also were numerous girls sending him passionate gazes for some reason.

And then, for some reason, there seemed to be ribbon-tied letters and homemade sweets placed in his locker.

...Well, it might be just a prank.

"Hmm, Kamito-kun, you're quite popular."

"They're just teasing me, after all, I'm the only male in this academy."

"I wonder?"


Mugyu!

"...!?"

Suddenly, he felt a soft sensation at his upper arm.

Fianna pressed her breasts onto Kamito's arm.

"H...hey, Fianna!?"

"Hn, what's the matter?"

The princess expressed an impish smile with an upward glance.

The throbbing of his heart would not stop with that proper softness pressed onto his arm.

"No, princess... err, your breasts are hitting..."

"I do not mind. Or—"

Fianna gave a short teasing smile.

"Do you dislike an immodest princess?"

"..."

From the breast area of the dress-like uniform, her black lingerie was slightly in sight.

...He was troubled, earth-shatteringly troubled.

He felt like the sharpness of the gazes of the girls passing by along the corridor was gradually increasing.

Fianna was enjoyably gazing at Kamito, who has tensed up.

"Fufu, it seems like everyone is jealous."


"That's definitely not it..."

Kamito sighed deeply,

"By the way, why did princess enroll into this academy?"

Suddenly, he tried to ask something that was on his mind since a while ago.

He did not care for the circumstances that made her throw away her position as a Queen candidate. He was just curious as to why she became a student of the academy now, after having once disappeared from the center stage.

"That's—"

Fianna's legs suddenly stopped. Kamito also stopped at the same time.

"Uh?"

"If I said— I came to meet Kamito-kun, would you believe me?"

"...?"

As Kamito was a little puzzled,

"No, it can't be that you came to meet me, haven't we just met, Fianna?"

"..."

Fianna pouted her lips as if she was a little sullen hearing such a reply from Kamito.

"...Idiot."

Fianna muttered and pushed her index finger softly onto Kamito's lips.

And then, she drew her face closer till her lips barely touched him.


"—Ren Ashbell."

At that moment, Kamito's expression froze.

With the unexpected name coming from her mouth— he was at a loss for words.

"...!? H...ow..."

Standing still and dumbfounded, Kamito leaked out a dry voice.

The only people who knew Kamito's true identity as Ren Ashbell are the contracted spirit Restia and the witch Greyworth— those two people only.

How did this girl...?

"...I knew it, you don't remember."

Fianna pouted her lips, seemingly displeased.

Making such a face at this distance made it look as if she were a lover pestering for a kiss.

"It's alright. I'll keep it a secret from everyone, I did promise after all."

"Promised?"

Kamito seemed to have recalled something, at that moment.

"Kamito!"

Claire came running from the other side of the corridor. It seemed that she was searching for Kamito.

"Come on, what in the world were—"

At that point, Claire suddenly stopped.


In the middle of the corridor, she saw the two's posture, which was almost like a couple kissing—

"Y...yo...yo...yo..."

Gogogo... her shoulders began to tremble bit by bit.

Her red hair bristled up like a crimson flame and blazed up tremblingly.

"Yo...yo...you slave... yo...you truly have no discretion..."

Pishii!—The moment her whip made a sound, the hell cat, cladded in red hot flames, appeared from an empty space.

The hell cat transformed into the Flame Tongue form in an instant and settled into Claire's right hand.

"Th...that's alright, I'll thoroughly train you today..."

"Wa...wait, don't misunderstand, Claire, this girl is—"

"—Claire?"

Fianna reacted to the name Kamito said.

She gently parted her arms from Kamito and glared at Claire with a sharp look.

"I see, you are Claire Rouge."

"That's right. So what?"

"You are that person's sister..."

He felt like invisible fireworks scattered in Fianna's eyes glaring at Claire.

<noinclude>{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter2|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter4}}</noinclude>

Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter2

2013-09-10T16:30:32Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 2: The Young Ladies' Afternoon==

===Part 1===

"Mugugug..."

[[Image:STnBD V02 049.jpg|thumb]]
Claire Rouge was stuffing a cream bun down her throat.

It was a sight unusual for her, who took it as a creed— that nobles are always elegant.

"Don't binge, you'll get fat you know."

Kamito glared with his eyes half-opened and Claire struck the table in frustration.

"But, but, urggggh!"

"Claire. That's my jam bun."

Est protested calmly.

They were at a salon café inside the academy.

From the opened terrace, soft daylight was shining in.

The three of them were sitting at a round table near a window and having a slightly late lunch.

Inside the bamboo basket, placed right in the middle of that table, was a pile of jam, melon, sausage and many other different kinds of buns.

Any student could use the café and on top of that the freshly baked buns were gratis. Coffee and black tea also had free refills.

There was also an eatery in the academy, but because it charged a fee equal to a high-class restaurant in the imperial capital, neither Kamito, who was not even a noble, nor Claire, who had her fortune and territory confiscated, could afford it.

"Our team ranking dropped again."

Claire laid, prostrated, on the table and groaned.

"It can't be helped. We were matched up with a superior team. "

"That may be true... but strength-wise, we are definitively better than them."

Claire gnawed her lip. Although they were at a disadvantage in numbers, she seemed to be unable to come to terms with losing to lower rank opponents.

It was certain that as elementalists they were superior.

The reason they lost was their inability to execute proper coordination with each other. Claire overestimated her strength and chased her enemies too far in, and Kamito too could not rely on her in a dire situation.

It was not possible to win with just the queen piece— in other words, their situation was something like that.

"Despite that it's not the time to be stumbling about now..."

There was a reason Claire was impatient to the point like she was binge eating the buns.

The regulations of the Blade Dance held in two months were different from the individual battles three years ago, if they didn’t put together a five-member team, they wouldn’t be able to take part in it. In addition, only the top three teams decided by the inter-school competition could participate from Areishia Spirit Academy.



Kamito, who started attending the school just a while ago, had no achievements that could raise his ranking.

To raise it, one had to win a formal practice match like the one from this morning or complete a task assigned by the academy; however, he had done neither.

Defeating the giant spirit the other day, dueling with Sylphid Knights captain Ellis Fahrengart or even battling the frenzied demon spirit, those were all informal battles and did not reflect on the rankings.

On the other hand, Claire, who should have towered above the rest and been superior as an elementalist—

Had shockingly the lowest results in the class.

There could be only one reason for that. ''It was because she was doing every mission alone''.

She failed when she attempted the missions that should be originally completed by a team and she was defeated when she challenged upper classmen alone in a championship match. As long as she did such a thing, no matter how strong she was, there was no way her ranking could raise.

There was a reason Claire was isolated from the rest of the academy.

Rubia Elstein.

Four years ago, while she had the position of Queen serving the fire Elemental Lord, she betrayed him, disappeared, and brought about an unprecedented great disaster to the empire. Because of that others started calling her The Calamity Queen.

As her younger sister, Claire was looked at with contempt and fear by the majority of the academy students.

Claire's reason for participating in the Blade Dance was to restore the Elstein family name and —above all else— to find out the truth regarding her elder sister Rubia Elstein.


—It's not the time to be stumbling about now.

Blood-oozing emotions filled Claire's rough words.

"For now, we should also find comrades quickly. I understood it during this morning's match. If we stay as we are now, we not only won't be able to win the Blade Dance, but wouldn't even get into the top three ranks, which is required for the participation."

The boy, called the strongest blade dancer three years ago, accepted his greatest weakness honestly.

At first, he just came to the academy due to Greyworth's request, but now he clearly had a reason to regain his strength from three years ago.

Darkness Spirit Restia—his former contracted spirit.

That reason was to take her back with his own hands.

The girl who, for the first time, brought light to Kamito's life, which was shrouded in darkness before.

And also the girl who gave a heartbroken Claire the frenzy spirit and tried to drive the giant spirit mad in the middle of the town.

He met her again, but she was vastly different from the one Kamito once knew.

—What on earth happened to her?

So, for the sake of knowing that, he absolutely had to meet the participation requirements for the Blade Dance.

"Kamito, what's wrong? You're making such a serious face."

"Did you forget to put sugar into your coffee?"

Claire and Est peered at his face with a worried look.


"No, sorry, it's just..."

"By any chance, is it about your former contracted spirit?"

She was surprisingly sharp at times like this.

Kamito quickly averted his eyes from the ruby pupils that peered in his own.

"...Well… Fine. But tell me everything when you feel like it."

Claire did not try to pry deeper. Despite her arrogance, there were, occasionally, times when she showed consideration.

"...Ah, I understand."

Kamito nodded when-.

"Ah, everyone, having lunch?"

A cool but elegant voice was heard.

The boy turned around. And there—

A magnificent, platinum-blonde haired and beautiful girl was standing.

Her very appearance was of a noble ojou-sama.

Her milky white skin was smooth like silk and her emerald eyes locked a faint glow in them.

The way she brushed her hair aside with one hand at her side looked strangely good.

Rinslet Laurenfrost.

She attended the Raven Class, just as Kamito and was Claire's self-proclaimed rival.


Due to her rivalry with Claire, she was trying to make Kamito her manservant. She was a troubling ojou-sama.

Right beside her was—

"Fufu, what a delicious smell."

A girl dressed in a maid uniform. She had a gentle smile on her lips as she stood there.

She was wearing a long skirt with a lot of neat frills attached. Her hair was cut into short bobs and she had a lovely white brim on her head.

She was Rinslet's personal maid, Carol.

Kamito didn’t know why there was a maid in the academy, but she was the only one he saw here. So, it would certainly have been an exception made for the Laurenfrost family.

"...Why did you come here, Rinslet?"

Claire swallowed her bun and sternly glared at the blond.

"I just happened to pass by. What a very simple lunch you have, just buns."

Rinslet swiped her hair over her shoulder and looked down on the three of them calmly.

"Milady is saying that she wants to eat together with everyone."

"Wh... Carol, what are you talking about!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>Poka!* *Poka!* Rinslet's face turned bright red as she started hitting Carol's shoulders.

As expected of her exclusive maid, it was a magnificent interpretation.

"Sit down both of you. You came all the way here after all, so let's eat together."


Kamito suggested only to have Claire step on his foot hard.

"Ouch, what are you doing?!"

"Nothing? I just thought you lack loyalty...Idiot."

"I...it's n...not like I particularly want to eat together with you all!"

"Milady is saying it'll be nice to sit next to Kamito."

"Carol!"

Carol soothed the embarrassed girl and got her to settle down.

Rinslet, sat next to Kamito and averted her eyes as she asked.

"...H...How are your injuries?"

"Ah, they’ve mostly healed. All thanks to the healing spirit."

It was about the injury he got from the time he fought the giant spirit. Probably because he overdid it, it'll take a little longer to heal then he thought, but as expected, the academy spirit's medical care was excellent.

"Fufu, Milady has been constantly worrying about Kamito-sama."

"Carol, d...don't say anything unnecessary!"

Rinslet snapped with a grinding noise.

"However, it is also natural that Milady would be worried. After all, Kamito-sama is under one roof with Milady Claire, so it wouldn't be odd if something were to happen.

"Wha...What are you saying, you stupid maid! There's no way such things would happen."


This time it was Claire who snapped.

"...What kind of worry is that?"

Est was munching on a melon bun and beside her Kamito just sighed wearily at their antics.

This was how Rinslet and Carol ended up having lunch together.

Even Claire, who appeared upset at the beginning, eventually started talking about this morning's match. Then about which stores cake was more delicious, how boring the introduction lection about the foundation of spirit learning was, and just like that, normal girl-like conversations were beginning to bloom.

Somehow these two were on pretty good terms. It was especially surprising for Claire, who was isolated from the rest of her peers at the academy. It could be said that Rinslet was her only friend.

"That reminds me; it seems that a newly admitted student is joining the Raven Class."

"Our class? Despite the fact that Kamito just came in recently?"

"Yeah, I hear it's a daughter of noble of high social standing."

"Hmm, but even if we're talking about social status in this academy, there's the Fahrengart family and the Laurenfrost family... Isn't it like a bargain sale of nobles?"

"Hey! Would you please not lump the militaristic Fahrengart family with the true pedigree Laurenfrost family?"

"I don't care about such things... What's wrong, Kamito?"


At any rate, Raven Class was famous for gathering the '''most troublesome students'''.

He just thought that if people like Claire and Rinlset were to increase in numbers, it would be... worrisome.

"In the practical skill entrance examination that took place in the morning, she seemed to be using a holy spirit."

The maid, Carol, pulled out a memo from her cleavage.

Carol's maid memo pad— aka «Carol's Notes», was stuffed with data on the academy students and teachers... Kamito did not understand clearly what on earth she used it for.

"Hmm, a holy spirit user?..."

The holy spirit was one of the five grand element spirits, but there were not that many elementalists who used it.

It was extremely prideful and chose its own user.

Among princess maidens, it was said that it only opens its heart to especially pure noble girls.

(Even in the competition three years ago, a holy spirit user gave me a tough fight...)

After all, a holy spirit had an extremely bad compatibility with the darkness spirit Kamito was contracted with.

But then again, at that time, Kamito's strength completely surpassed the opponent elementalist's, that was why he did not lose.

"Ah, by the way, it seems like it's a very lovely big-breasted girl."

"Carol, from where on earth did you procure such information?"

"Ah, Kamito-san, are you interested?"

Carol placed her hand near her mouth and smiled.


"Hmm, you are very concerned about the information of a big-breasted admitted student, huh?"

"Eh?"

Gogogogogogogo......!

Kamito turned around and Claire raised her eyebrows glaring at him.

"Really, men are just idiots!"

"Kamito, do you have no distinction? Are you just a beast without reason?"

Somehow, even Rinslet and Est were glaring—

Gyuuuuuuuuu!

Kamito's cheeks were pinched by the three of them.

(This is unreasonable...)

===Part 2===

After various things happened, the lunch of buns ended and it was time to rest.

"Ahh, that reminds me—"

Ahem! Rinslet cleared her throat and said,

"Have you gathered members for your team for the Blade Dance ?"

"...N...not yet."


Claire shook her head in shame.

Rinslet smiled, it seemed she already knew that answer.

"Ah, you still have not? It seems I’ve touched a sore spot."

Fufun! She held up her tea cup in an elegant maner.

Claire sullenly responded.

"It's just that there isn't a person who matches up to our desired skill level. What about you? Have you decided on your members?"

"Tha...that's ... I just have not found a person who matches with my skill level!"

"Eh? Rinslet, you couldn't gather anyone either?"

Kamito tilted his head to the side.

As one who used the demon ice spirit «Fenrir», Rinslet was about on par with Claire, ability-wise.

He thought that if it was her, she would be highly sought after but...

"Fo...for now, there isn't, for now!"

Rinslet's face reddened and she quickly turned away.

"Kamito-san, Milady—"

"Uh huh?"

Carol tugged Kamito's sleeves as she came to his side, telling him the reasons in his ear.

"The truth is... *mumbling*..."

"Hmm..."


According to Carol's words—

It seemed that although she had tried gathering a team several times, so far, the ideals she demanded from her members were too high and her excessively big pride didn't help things go smoothly either. The teams she gathered repeatedly broke up and so, there were no students left to invite.

...How should he say it, it was indeed a Rinslet-like reason.

"Hmm, her pride is certainly high but... she is a good girl, regardless."

"That's right..."

Carol earnestly nodded.

"Carol, what are you talking about with Kamito-san!?"

"It was about the order in which Milady washes her body in the bath."

"Carol!"

Glancing at the playful ojou-sama and her maid, Claire sighed deeply.

"Haa... I wonder if there's really no one... An excellent elementalist who will enter our team."

"...We...well, you seem to be in a dire situation."

Ahem.

Rinslet coughed and looked at Claire with one eye.

"That's right. I better try approaching the newly admitted student you just mentioned. Perhaps I’ll get lucky."


"That is right. However, there might be an even better member for the team and she might be unexpectedly close."

Ahem. Ahem.

...Kamito finally realized.

(Ahh, I see. So that's the reason she brought up the subject of the team.)

"Hey, Claire, give me just a minute—"

"What? Faa, do..don't suddenly breathe into my ear."

"What are you turning red for? Lend me your ear for a while and listen."

Kamito whispered into Claire's ear in a quiet voice.

"For some reason, this ojou-sama obviously wants to join us as a comrade but are you against it?"

"Absolutely against it."

Claire immediately replied.

"Why? Rinslet's is more than adequate with her battle strength."

"That's... even I recognize her strength. However, no. We suffered in the duel with Ellis a while ago, didn't we? Because she didn’t even think the slightest about teamwork."

"Well, wh..."

It was certain that in the duel with Ellis' group the other day, despite being a sniper, she was standing in the most conspicuous place for some reason and was knocked down in the very beginning.

"Be...besides, Rinslet ... about you ..."


"Hn? Did you say something?"

"I..it's nothing, at any rate, it's a no! No Rinslet!"

"Err, this goes without saying, but isn't she somewhat pitiful?"

"Wh...what are you two sneakily talking about?!"

While twirling the front of her platinum blonde hair with her index finger, Rinslet was staring at them with a fidgety, nervous expression.

"Wh...?"

"......"

Claire groaned seemingly unhappy.

"...I got it. I'll try asking for the time being."

She sighed deeply and nodded. There were two months remaining till the opening of the Blade Dance. She might have reconsidered and accepted that it wasn't the time to be making a fuss about her desires anymore.

"Hey, Rinslet."

"Wh...what is it, Claire Rouge?"

Rinslet tensed and her voice sounded slightly excited.

"You wouldn't, by any chance, want to enter my team?"

"Id...idiot, you're asking too bluntly!"

Kamito shouted in a soft voice.


Asking Rinslet, who was a highly prideful girl, in such a way—

Rinslet's finger, which was twirling a lock of her hair stopped.

"Hm, if you think about what you suddenly said—"

She placed her hand at her waist and pointed at Claire in a thrust.

"Aren't you the ones who want to join my team?"

"Huh?"

Claire's eyebrows sternly lifted up.

"What are you saying? Are you an idiot? You'll join my team!"

"Rejected, rejected, rejected. You two will join my team!"

The two ojou-sama started quarreling about something trivial.

...They completely wouldn't see eye to eye.

"Either way is the same, right..."

Kamito retorted,

"It's completely different!" "It is completely different!"

They shouted together. Only at a time like this were their breaths in sync.

"...Uhm, these two are hopeless, it would be absolutely impossible for them to be a team."

"Really, can't you guys keep quiet? This is a public place!"


A cold voice resounded in the salon café.

Everybody turned around—

At the entrance, a ponytailed beautiful girl, wearing light armor, was standing.

"Ellis!"

Claire sullenly groaned. ...Another hindrance came. She had an expression saying that.

Ellis Fahrengart.

The captain of the Sylphid Knights, who observed the academy's public morals.

She was charming in appearance which was completely opposite to her strict personality. Her relationship with Claire's group, which normally caused problems, seemed to be mutually bad.

Although, it did not mean that she was such a hard-to-deal-with person to Kamito.

At first, when he entered into the academy, just because he was a male elementalist, she was prejudiced against him, but she had already remorsefully apologized to him regarding that matter.

Even if there were times she was a little too serious she was a straightforward person, who held a strong belief for their own case. He could respect that part of her that held the pride of a knight.

Ellis walked, briskly, towards their table.

"Captain-sama, what business do you have with us?"

"If it's about the duel, I'll accept a rematch anytime."

Rinslet and Claire, both gained a dangerous glint in their eyes.


On that subject, the duel the other day remained unsettled because of the demon spirit's sudden intrusion.

He wondered if they were going to try to conclude that match again.

(......Spare me. A duel again, no thanks.)

Coming closer, Ellis looked down at Claire with sharp eyes.

"Hmm, I have no problem settling it here and now, Claire Rouge."

"Just what I want."

Ellis drew out her sword and Claire also pulled out her leather whip from under her skirt.

In the tense atmosphere, the girls, who occupied the surrounding tables, stood up rattling.

"Hey, Claire..."

Kamito attempted to stop it—

"Ca-Captain, calm down!"

"Y...you can't draw out a sword here!"

From the café's entrance, two girls run in with flustered looks.

They were wearing the same Knights armor as Ellis.

One was a short haired and boyish and the other a somehow serious looking girl with braided hair.

Kamito immediately recognized them both. They were the Knights he fought in the duel the other day.

If he remembered right, their names were— Rakka, for the one with the short hair, and Reishia, for the one with the braids.

Stopped by her comrades, Ellis sheathed her sword embarrassed.


"...S...Sorry, my Knights followers."

Feeling ashamed, she cleared her throat and apologized to the two girls—

Then she turned towards Kamito.

"Kazehaya Kamito."

"Me?"

Kamito tilted his head to the side, seemingly puzzled. Claire aside, he certainly did not recall doing anything to be kept an eye on by the Knights.

"It seems you lost completely to the Wolverine Class in this morning's match."

"What?! As I thought, you're trying to pick a fight."

Claire stood up with a clank sound.

"That's not it. Th...the truth is Kazehaya Kamito, you—"

Ellis shook her head, and rapidly blushed and bashfully looked down.

"Hn, what's the matter?"

"So, err..."

"Come on, Captain, it is embarrassing so you better say it quickly."

"You're always so resolute but at times like this you are too slow."

Reishia and Rakka were whispering behind Ellis.

"However, such a timid captain is also cute."


"Ahh, it's like that, it's almost like a girl who has fallen in love—"

"D...don't make fun of me! I...I am really not thinking about such an insolent person!"

Ellis shouted with her face turned bright red.

After that she coughed to cover their whispers up.

"It is certain that I've gotten a better opinion of you because of that day's case, but ... that's all. The one I admire is a pure strong female like the {{Furigana|Strongest Blade Dancer|Ren Ashbell|margin=13}}. It's most certainly not a boy!"

"..."

With half-opened eyes, Kamito gazed at Ellis, who informed him about that in a cold voice.

(...I'm sorry, your admired female is an illusion.)

"Unh, wh..what's with that look!"

Ellis thrust her sword at the back of Kamito's neck.

"Is it that strange for me to be admiring Ren Ashbell?"

"...N...no, that's not it!"

Kamito panicked and shook his head.

At the event three years ago— the dance of the participant, left a strong impression on the girls of the same generation. Henceforth, many princess maidens, who aimed to become elementalists aspired to be like her.

It seemed that Ellis was not an exception either.

"That's enough, quickly state your business."


"Shut up, I know that!"

After turning and retorting to Claire, Ellis stared at Kamito again.

"Kazehaya Kamito—"

"Wh...what..."

"Err, what I'm saying is, ..."

Ellis seemed nervous as her hand was lightly trembling.
[[Image:STnBD V02 069.jpg|thumb]]

By the way, she didn’t move the sword from his neck, so he couldn’t help but feel his life in danger.

"What I'm saying is... I...I want you!"

"..."

—Silence fell upon the cafe.

Claire and the others, even Rakka and Reshia, were dumbfounded.

For a while, time froze.

"Wh...wh...wh..wh..."

Claire was the first one who opened her mouth.

Her face was bright red and her mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

"...!?"

Ellis widened her eyes, seemingly taken aback and shook her head.

"Th...that's not it… my words… just now… I didn’t mean it!"


"Wh-wh-what other possible meaning could those words have!?"

"I wanted to say, th...that—"

After Ellis took a deep breath,

"Kazehaya Kamito, would you join my team?"

"Eh?"

Kamito did not believe his ears when those unexpected words came out.

(...Ellis and me, a team?)

"What did you say?"

Claire and Rinslet were also staring in wonder.

Rakka and Reshia saw Ellis turn bright red, and were grinning.

"...Wait! Wh-what do you mean?"

"I...I meant just that. Kazehaya Kamito, I welcome you to my team. Because you defeated that militarized spirit, there's nothing to object about with regards to your ability."

Ellis replied fast and quickly averted her eyes, trying not to look at him.

It seemed her true intention was to scout Kamito.

But with a sword held at the back of his neck, rather than being scouted, it looked like he was being threatened.

Ellis' results were straight at the top of class. If Kamito joined this team, in all likelihood his chances to obtain the entry qualifications for the Blade Dance would greatly increase.



However—

"Ellis, I—"

"No way, this is my contracted spirit after all!"

The one who interrupted Kamito's reply with a shout was Claire.

She stood up from the chair and tightly grabbed the sleeves of Kamito's uniform.

"Claire, you..."

Kamito turned around and looked down only for his eyes to met her clear ruby pupils.

Claire's had an anxious look in her eyes.

It was likely that she was not aware of it, but she was staring at him pleadingly.

(I see, she's...)

It seemed that being betrayed by her sister, Rubia, caused a deep wound to her heart.

After being abandoned by someone, it could not be helped that things like that frightened her.

That was why she kept to hersself. She could not depend on anyone.

Because she was afraid of being betrayed again—

"..."

Kamito took a sharp breath and scratched his head.

(...Being shown such a face...)


With a wry smile, he gently placed his hand on top of Claire's head.

His reply was obvious from the beginning. She did not have to be worried.

"Ellis, sorry, but I am her contracted spirit. I don't intend to change teams."

"...Kamito!?"

Claire, taken aback, raised her face and widened her eyes.

"...I see."

Ellis tightly bit her lips.

However, the next moment, she had already returned to her cold expression.

"...I understand. I'm sorry for asking something unreasonable so suddenly."

"No, me too ... thank you for inviting me."

Kamito apologized and Ellis was a little bashful.

"I...it's alright. It's solely because you're that sort of person, I—"

"Uh?"

Ellis seemed to have said something, but her voice was so soft he didn't catch it.

"Ahh, you've been rejected."

"It's alright, the captain has us."

"Y...you guys... I...it's not like that!"

Ellis turned bright red and shouted at her two comrades, who were grinning teasingly her.


"H...hey, Kamito..."

"Hn?"

While still holding Kamito's uniform sleeve, she tried to shyly say something else.

"What's the matter?"

"...Th...thank...you."

"...? What?"

She told him something, but her voice was too soft, so he could not hear her well.

It was unusual for Claire to be so hesitant.

"S...so... erm..."

And at that moment. Bam! The door opened—

"Is the licentious… no— Kazehaya Kamito here?!"

An academy student came running into the salon café.

She seemed to have come here in a great hurry so she was out of breath.

(Wait, it seems like she was about to say licentious beast just now...)

"I'm here."

Kamito raised his hand and the girl stroked her chest in relief.

"The academy director is calling for you. So, go over there immediately."

"Greyworth?"



===Part 3===

At a corner of the Academy Town that was part of Areishia Spirit Academy…

At a table of a coffee lounge, which greatly stuck out on the outside, a strange set of customers was sitting.

One of them was a black haired girl dressed in a jet-black dress.

Darkness spirit Restia. The perpetrator who caused the militarized spirit from the imperial capital to go mad and brought great damage to Academy Town a week ago.

And the other one was a thin boy with darkish skin and steel-like hard black hair.

He had good looks, but there was something strange about him. It was the pair of red eyes glowing slightly.

The two of them should have drawn a lot of attention, but not only did no one around them pay them any note, it seemed that nobody could even perceive their presence.

"—So, I just have to steal that specific sealed material from the academy's library?"

"Yeah, because of the incident the other day, I am unable to get close to the academy."

"Tch, how troublesome, what do we need such a thing for again?"

The boy spat onto the ground. However, no one found fault in that.


"That thing sleeping in Mine Town is a fairly hard problem. The seal of the highest level Ordesia army spans several layers. With only the releasing ritual, how many months would it take to wake it up—"

"Hmm, the disposed militarized spirit— how are you going to collect that thing?"

"You do not have the qualifications to know her prediction, Jio."

The girl in black clothing gently shook her head. The boy clicked his tongue.

"Because you toyed with the militarized spirit of the imperial capital as you pleased, it became more difficult. Is it an order to steal it?"

"Isn't it fine, I could observe his current strength."

"I guess. Honestly though, I am disappointed. Is that all he can do? I expected more from Ren Ashbell, the strongest blade dancer."

"He has not yet woken up."

"I hope so. Even if I beat that now-cowardly guy, there would be no point in that."

"Ah, you have the confidence you can defeat him?"

"I'll beat him. And then I'll prove it. That this Jio Inzagi is the true successor of the Demon King."

The boy's red lips curved into a smirk. On his whole body, countless numbers of spirit seals started shining.

Just like the demon king Solomon he had— '''the seals that carried seventy-two spirits'''.

<noinclude>{{SeireiDance Nav|prev=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter1|next=Seirei Tsukai no Blade Dance:Volume2 Chapter3}}</noinclude>

Gekkou:Volume 1 Moonlight

2013-07-14T20:51:27Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Moonlight]==

It was night. I called her.

— I want to speak to you.

I made an appointment to meet her alone.

Since it was going to take some time, the meeting was set to Saturday after work. She suggested we meet at her home, but I rejected. I had no good memories there.

Hence, she suggested a park on a hill. It was the park where her mother had fallen. I responded right away.

— Got it.

Of course I was wary because she chose that park of all places, but my interest in the view from there won.

Come to think of it, she was not in the least surprised by my sudden request. She even accepted it readily.

I guess she had expected that day to come.

No, that wasn't quite right.

She had been waiting for it with anticipation.

That's what her cheerful voice sounded like—as if talking about a date.

It was a moonlit night.

A golden moon hung in the sky, reigning over the stars like their king, and lit the earth with light so strong one almost forgot what time it was.

The park was situated a few minutes' walk past Tsukimori's home.

By the time the viridian green fence of the park came into view, my breath was so wild and faint that I expected to really faint any moment.

I checked the time on my watch. It was just past eleven, which was reasonable because I had returned home once, taken a shower and put on a change of clothes.

Well, I had wanted to go to the park right after finishing work, but Tsukimori had stopped me.

She insisted on a neat appearance for our first date.

Leaving aside the essential fact that this wasn't a date, I had accepted her suggestion. And it had been the right thing to do.

I had needed some time to draw a line between me and my everyday life.

I reached the entrance of the park. It was nothing special; just a small space with some trees and playground equipment sparsely scattered about. The only object that stood out was a white wooden clock tower near the cliff.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Fresh air filled my lungs. I slowly exhaled, checked my left breast pocket for the last time, and entered the park.

"—I was about to get tired of waiting."

I squinted my eyes in the direction of the voice.

"But I ought to be thankful that you came properly, right?"

When I grasped her figure with my eyes, I couldn't help but hold my breath. A snow white Tsukimori was sitting on the top of the red jungle-gym.

"Wearing all black truly suits you, Nonomiya-kun."

Except for the white shirt I wore under my jacket, I was indeed clad all in black.

Tsukimori giggled, "But that is exactly what I expected, so I matched my clothes to yours and dressed myself all in white."

She wore a white dress and white pumps. She had also draped a semi-transparent white shawl around her shoulders and adorned her hair with a white ornament.

From my perspective, snow white Tsukimori was holding the moon on her shoulders.

"Shall we start our date, then?"

Youko Tsukimori crossed her legs and leaned on her elbow, her head slightly tilted. A lock of her beautiful black hair curled down to her mouth.

It was a dreamlike scene. I quickly shook my head to rid it of the impression.

"...the day after you asked me to go out with you, you said that it was necessary for both of us to deepen our mutual understanding, right?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"You also said that it was fine for me to make a decision after we had come to know each other better, right?"

"Yes," she squinted an eye.

"Unfortunately, I still don't understand you very well. We're still quite far from a date."

"What exactly do you want to know from me then?"

—"Everything," I almost answered. But judging by her confident smile, there was only one thing to say.

"You killed her, didn't you?"

The next moment, she leaped from the top of the jungle-gym into the dark blue sky.

Her shawl spread out to both her sides like the wings of a swan, then she landed softly like a feather that had fallen from those wings.

"What am I going to hear from you now?"

"Well, you could call it," I pretended to ponder and continued with my usual poker face, "the solution of the riddle called Youko Tsukimori."

Unperturbed, Tsukimori kept smiling like always.

"I see, that seems much more interesting than a date."

But that's how I wanted her to be; my worthy adversary.

At one time I had come to the conclusion that Tsukimori had not killed anyone because I was sure that she wouldn't do something that foolish.

However, the situation had made a sudden turn with the appearance of a man of outstanding perspicacity. It didn't take long until my theory was negated due to several doubtful aspects and contradictions brought to light by Konan one after another.

In a sense, it had been inevitable for my doubts to be revived, considering how well I knew her and that the murder recipe was in my hands.

One might ask why I had concluded that she was absolutely innocent in the first place.

It is true that I had had several clues that suggested that her mother was guilty, like the fact that the murder recipe had been written by her. However, at the same time I had also been aware that those clues did not necessarily prove Tsukimori's innocence.

I myself had been the decisive factor in my belief of her innocence.

Only now I realized that I had probably strongly wished that she wasn't a murderer back then. One could say that my imagination was steered that way because I didn't want to lose the person I was so interested in.

In other words, what made her innocent had been my own desire.

I sat down on a railing, while she got on a blue swing.

I started explaining to her one reason after another why I doubted her.

The suspiciously well-timed call from the cooking school, the fact that her mobile phone had been set to silent mode, her unnatural behavior when getting me a towel instead of starting the search for her mother, and the fact that the suicide note was written not by hand but on the computer. Furthermore, I told her about my hypothesis that she had wanted to make me the finder of that suicide note.

Tsukimori quietly listened to my explanation and nodded once in a while without denying or acknowledging anything.

When at last she had heard me out, she let her gaze wander in the night sky, seeming deep in thought, before she asked with certainty, "Did you borrow those theories from Konan-san?"

I nodded. As she had guessed, most of my arguments had appeared in the conversations with Konan.

"But I agree with them, so you can think of them as my own opinion."

Tsukimori put on a surprised expression.

"That's the sort of thing you spoke about in my absence?" she scowled at me and pursed her lips slightly. "How mean! Do both of you doubt me?"

"No," I shook my head. "Konan-san has nothing to do with it anymore. I'm the only one doubting you."

She gasped in admiration, "It is really surprising that Konan-san stopped doubting me despite seeming so tenacious. What magic did you use, Nonomiya-kun?"

"It's all thanks to the hint you gave me," I beat around the bush and saved myself from mentioning the "Love Recipe".

'If you want to know what he thinks, just think about what you would do in his case!'

As a matter of fact, if not for those words, I probably would have still been at a loss for what to do about Konan.

"Oh, did I happen to be a help?" smiled Tsukimori. Her soft glance resembled a gentle sister's who rejoiced over one of her little brother's accomplishments.

Which caused me to let out a deep, heavy sigh.

"...I see... so she ''did'' give me a hint," I thought to myself.

Considering how she had immediately realized that I was borrowing Konan's words, she had probably been perfectly aware of Konan and me doubting her all along.

With that in mind, she seemed like a truly cunning actress, reconsidering the evening when we were thrown out by Mirai-san; her blatantly offensive attitude towards me hadn't been normal at all, and the way she had brought up Konan had been rather unnatural as well.

I stopped counting, but as it seemed, she had been playing with me again. I had to admit it: she was a much better actor than I.

Because I was keeping quiet, she tilted her head slightly, "Mh?"

There had been no creaks in her smile from beginning to end. Despite me having labeled her a "murderer".

Her smile was something like a trademark. In the mind of everyone else, Youko Tsukimori was probably depicted as an ever-smiling holy woman.

That was, however, not the Youko Tsukimori I wanted to see. Right now I was brooding over how I might freeze that smile of hers.

My fingers automatically groped for my left breast pocket.

"...right, there's something I want to give you."

There was no way around using 'it' after all. I slid my hand into my jacket.

What I produced was a four times folded scrap of paper. "What's this?" Tsukimori asked while snatching it away from me.

I watched Tsukimori look down at the unfolded sheet.

With her gaze still cast down, she whispered, "...I am happy about anything you give me, but this is not exactly a thoughtful present."

"I can't help it: it's not a present, after all. I'm merely returning something to its owner," I didn't avert my gaze from her, "It's yours, isn't it?"

I stared her in the eyes, not daring to breath or even blink. It's fair to say that I had protected ''this'' solely for this very moment. By no means I wanted to miss her reaction to it.

She raised her head with a smile shaped like a crescent moon.

"Yes, it is!" she admitted surprisingly readily.

"Then let's now talk about this—'murder recipe'."

This was the trump card I had successfully protected from Konan.

She laughed dryly, "So there is no way around it after all, is there? Well, of course you would never miss out on such an 'intriguing subject', right?"

At first glance, Tsukimori was the same as always.

"Truth to be told, I would rather not, but I might be able to answer your expectations if that is your wish. But in return, promise me—"

But I asked myself: did she realize the slight change that had come over her?

"—that you won't hate me. Okay?"

She was smiling as usual, but her eyes were serious.

I was observing a side of Youko Tsukimori that nobody knew. It felt as though I had come a step closer to her. Of course, though, I was not at all satisfied with just that.

I wanted to see more of her unknown side.

But no need to rush things; there was more than enough time until sunrise.

"...You knew it all along, right?"

"What?"

"That the murder recipe had come into my hands."

I had always had a hunch. After all, she had suddenly asked me to go out with her even though we had not spoken to each other much, save for greetings. She had approached me shortly after I had obtained the murder recipe.

But it was only now that I was convinced. Her poor reaction proved that she was not surprised at all.

Tsukimori raised and lowered her brow multiple times in hesitation.

"I had noticed, yes," she nodded calmly at last. "Do you remember what happened in the classroom the morning after I lost the recipe?"

I recalled the morning in question to mind as she told me.

"That morning you addressed me, Nonomiya-kun. Much to my surprise. Therefore, I thought about the reason for that. It didn't take long until I found the answer."

"...So I dug my own grave, huh," I facepalmed automatically.

What a fool I had been for revealing myself! I had been unable to suppress my curiosity and addressed her that morning, but indeed, it was not normal for me to do so with our relationship at the time.

I shook my head fiercely to get rid of stray thoughts, took a deep breath and continued as composedly as I could manage.

"...When I first obtained the murder recipe," I proceeded with the subject as if to bury the mistake I had committed, "I thought that you had written it. I didn't even doubt that the owner was equivalent to the author. The word 'recipe', however, has been bothering me since then. Wouldn't it normally be a 'murder plan'?"

Only my voice resounded throughout the moonlit park.

"But when I learned that your mother was a teacher at a cooking school, I realized that the word 'recipe' was probably very common to her—and sure enough, your mother has written it. A handwritten note of hers, which I presumed to borrow from your home, matched the handwriting of the recipe."

"You never fail to live up to my expectations, Nonomiya-kun," she interjected and closed her mouth again.

A meaningful statement, to be sure, but no denial of what I had said.

"Anyway, for that matter I want to ask why your mother's recipe was in your possession?"

I leaned a little forward to sneak a peek at her expression.

"It was shortly after I started high school when I found her recipe purely by chance—"

It was calm and musing.

"—I realized right away who my mother meant to kill."

"Your father."

"Yes. By the way, this is not the only murder recipe; there are more of them. Perhaps, there are even some I haven't found yet."

"...I didn't expect that."

I was intrigued to read those as well.

"I think my mother didn't realize that I knew about those recipes until the very end. I kept it a secret from her."

"What were your thoughts about it? What did you intend to do after you had obtained the recipes?"

"Well..."

While gazing vacantly in the air, she brushed away her hair beside the ear with her finger. Probably, she was searching for the right words.

"...when I first read the recipe, I was surprised that she also had such an 'ugly' face."

I found myself staring at her.

"I knew her as a typical housewife. A woman who would always pay attention to her appearance and her behavior."

"...that's quite hard to imagine from the impression I got from her during the funeral ceremony."

The howling image of her broken mother soothed by a black-dressed Tsukimori flashed up in my mind. I was disturbed by how my fragile image of her crumbled to dust.

"I do not know what you imagined her to have been like, but you should not forget whose mother she was," Tsukimori put on a smile appropriate to adorn the cover of a fashion magazine, "She was ''my'' mother."

Like daughter, like mother? No, the proper order would be "Like mother, like daughter"? Either way, the moment I thought about it in that way, it was surprisingly easy to have a new image of her. By analogy, the same must have applied to her father as well.

"My mother worked as a teacher in a cooking school, the largest one in the area. She held classes for countless students everyday. Apparently, she even made appearances on a cooking show on local television from time to time, and she had published a few cookbooks. I heard she was quite famous in the cooking scene, as 'the beautiful culinary scientist'."

My image of her mother was being remodeled.

"Now imagine such a woman writing such a cheap thing. I was completely stunned," she shrugged slightly, expressing her amazement.

"''Cheap'', huh?" I repeated a certain meaningful word she had uttered.

"But you thought the same, didn't you? After reading it, I seriously wondered if she really intended to kill someone with it. It's not even close to a plan. Now, I think that she might have chosen the word 'recipe' because she was aware that it was too crude to be called a plan."

"Aah, I see."

I was entirely of the same mind.

"Indeed, for a murder plan, it's extremely unpolished and seems incomplete. You could consider yourself lucky if it succeeded once in a hundred times."

"Mm," she agreed at first, but my continuation made her raise her brow.

"But I think that this lack of polish is exactly what makes the recipe useful."

"What do you mean?"

I was seeing the amateurish content in a different light than Tsukimori. I had thought about it like that since the very beginning.

"Who would imagine such a luck-based murder plan could exist?"

Tsukimori was at a loss for words. Of course she was. A few moments before, she had stated that she could have never imagined her mother writing something like that.

"If hypothetically that plan worked out favorably, wouldn't it indeed look like a 'mishap'?"

"That is an amusing alternative way of thinking about it," she nodded in a impressed tone.

I continued, "I know of one incident that virtually proves my hypothesis—"

"—the accident of my father, right?" she answered before I could finish.

"...you admit it?"

I was a little startled at her unexpected reaction.

"What is there to deny? It is only natural that one would harbor doubts about that accident even having read the recipe only once."

She shook the sheet beside her head, holding it with her fingertips.

I finally noticed what it was that might have been bothering me about her.

"Until I found the recipes, I had no idea that my mother had a such an impetuous side. I suppose that her motive was jealousy — even though my parents didn't care about each other — because my father apparently had a mistress. Maybe she just couldn't accept it that he had a woman other than her. In that sense, women might generally be more jealous than men. You should be careful too, Nonomiya-kun."

Even though it was about her mother, about her family, I sensed a kind of distance in her indifferent tone. As if she wasn't concerned. As if she was talking about some rumors from the neighborhood.

My conviction deepened.

"I can't help but see you as the murderer of your parents," I said frankly, whereupon Tsukimori sneered at me.

"Even though I have no reason?"

She cocked her head while maintaining her smile.

"It's not like I'm paying no heed to your motive. I'm very interested actually. But if I look at it from a perspective that solely deals with whether it's possible or not — I have long since come to the conclusion that you ''could'' do it."

Tsukimori narrowed her eyes to a crescent moon-like form for a second.

"You have already admitted that what's written in the murder recipe rather closely resembles the traffic accident of your father. Now, if it was not an unlucky accident but a willfully committed incident, it couldn't possibly be carried out by someone who hadn't read the recipe, right?"

Tsukimori put her chin on her hand and probed me with her gaze.

"Or, put the other way round, it could only be carried out by someone who ''has'' read the recipe, right?"

I closed my eyes and took a breath.

"I know of exactly three persons who read the recipe before the accident of your father occurred. Firstly, the author of the recipe, your mother. Secondly, I, of course, because I obtained it by chance, and finally—"

I pointed at the report sheet she held in her hand.

"—the person who lost the recipe—Youko Tsukimori. You."

Tsukimori remained wordless.

"I am convinced that you, Youko Tsukimori, could have carried out such a plan, no matter how cheap and unrefined it was."

She broke her silence and motionlessness with a whisper.

"...do you know how I am feeling?"

"If I were able to understand your feelings so easily, I wouldn't be dancing to your tune all the time."

"I am really moved right now. I feel so much love from you because you understand me so much, though you are probably going to say I am wrong, with your usual cold tone."

"You're wrong."

I fulfilled her request with an extra large topping of coldness.

She really made no sense to me. Even though I had accused her of murder, she smiled without change, neither provoked nor alarmed. Her unaffected behavior almost made me think that she might not be hiding anything after all.

Was it absolute self-confidence that loomed behind that composure of hers? Was she confident to ward off any accusations I could throw at her?

''This isn't enough. Unless I delve deeper and break her shell from the inside, I will never see what I seek.''

"...something has been bothering me almost from the beginning," I began, "Aren't you entirely too objective toward your own parents? You're as calm as if you were talking about complete strangers."

Tsukimori put on a slightly doubtful expression.

"Do you think so? I'm seventeen and not of the age to be dependent on my parents anymore, am I not? Isn't the distance between parents and teenager quite similar in other households?"

I immediately objected strongly, "No, it isn't."

Tsukimori sealed her mouth and scowled at me.

"Oh come on, there's clearly something strange. I mean, your mother was drawing up a plan to kill your father! If you're a family, you'd normally try to stop her, wouldn't you?"

Tsukimori widened her eyes for an instant.

"Do you know why my first question was about your actions after finding the recipes? It's because I hoped you would say that you wanted to discourage her. But you only voiced your thoughts on the contents of the recipes—"

She opened her mouth slightly, wanting to say something.

"—did you even once think about stopping her?"

The helpless expression Tsukimori showed that moment was a clearer answer than any words could have been.

She huddled up, embracing her slender legs.

"While you had a rather blank relationship with your parents without doubt, strangely enough there are no indications that you were on bad terms with them either."

Reconsidering the many reactions I had gotten from Tsukimori in the past, I found that she was ''not'' unconcerned about the loss of her "community", known as family. After losing her parents, she had seemed very fragile from time to time. I was convinced that she had by no means wished to lose her family.

"You found them uninteresting, didn't you?"

That's what I thus concluded.

If ''I'' was forced to talk about something that didn't interest me, I assume that I would speak with a certain distance as well.

"...rather than saying that I had no interest, it would be appropriate to say that there was no need for us to be interested in each other," she muttered. "I didn't hate my parents, you know? Honestly. It is just that the Tsukimori family was built around the idea of individualism. It was an unwritten rule that we stayed out of each others' business. In fact, it was only because of that rule that we were able to remain a harmonious family."

As if reminiscing, Tsukimori narrowed her eyes slightly.

"I was already able to do anything on my own when I was still young. My mother, too, would have had no problems living without my father. As for him, he merely sustained the budget to fulfill his role as the man of the house, but he didn't interfere in the household itself. Whether you believe it or not, when I was young I thought of him only as a kindhearted uncle who gave us money."

Her smile bent in self-deprecation.

"Just as you noted, I did not think about stopping my mother."

With a powerless smile, she cast her eyes down.

"I was able to accept the murder recipe without problems because I assumed that my mother had her own thoughts and her own life. But I suppose that I should have stopped her, just like you said."

She clenched her fist, her white fingers digging into her palm.

"If I had been raised in a different kind of family, I might have acted differently."

Tsukimori raised her face.

"But you know," she said with a vacant voice, "That's the way I have been brought up since the moment I was born."

Her eyes were breathtakingly clear. There was not a particle of regret in her honest and majestic appearance. In my opinion, Youko Tsukimori was strong.

But at the same time she was just as lonely.

During that moment of sublimity, she was beautiful and ephemeral like a mirage, setting butterflies in my stomach aflutter.

"Weren't you lonely?"

She promptly answered my question with a shake of her head. "Not at all," she smiled.

Relying on no one seemed like a lonely life to me. She herself, however, claimed she had not been.

"Even now?" I posed my denied question once more. "Are you still not lonely even now that your parents have passed away?"

I found that to be an awfully desolate way of life. Maybe I was just seeing things, but Tsukimori seemed lonely to me as she sat there wordlessly.

The next moment she put on a slightly awkward smile and looked up at the night sky. The moon reflected in her eyes gave them a golden shine.

When she returned her gaze to me, she declared, "I am not lonely—"

The teasing attitude she usually had toward me was absent.

"—because you are here for me now, Nonomiya-kun."

I saw that neither in her eyes nor on her lips was a smile. She was entirely serious.

This was the memorable moment in which I finally succeeded in freezing her smile.

The clock tower was about to strike twelve.

She had no strong motive to kill her parents. At least, I could find none.

Furthermore, my view that Youko Tsukimori was not a girl that would do something as foolish as murder had already become an unshakable fact for me.

And yet her parents were no more.

I whispered, "...I don't know how to describe this feeling."

Which words would be appropriate?

I stood up from the railing because I couldn't sit still anymore and strolled into the park on my own, leaving her behind.

While ordering my thoughts, I walked slowly and deliberately felt the earth under my feet with each step. My legs led me unconsciously towards the cliff with a good view over the town.

At last I reached the boundary between park and cliff.

The boundary was marked by a rusty, viridian green fence a little higher than my waist. I bent over it and looked down. I figured that it wouldn't take much to fall over it and down the steep slope.

I rested my crossed arms and my chin on the fence, which caused the entire fence bordering the park to bend towards one side a little. I looked down at the town.

The town filled my field of vision with all its shining lights. It was far from the stunning skyline of a metropolis at night, but I was still deeply moved when considering my hometown.

Despite its small size, there was always something going on. That night, too, there must have been a red sports-car driven by that man somewhere down there. Was the chocolate-addict still up? That little girl who resembled a pygmy marmoset was definitely already a resident of dreamland.

The faces of various people I knew crossed my mind like a slideshow.

"Isn't it captivating? This is what I meant to show you, Nonomiya-kun."

The person who flashed up last and by far most vividly was in sync with the person who was beholding the town right by my side.

A chilly gust ruffled her hair. She hugged herself because of the coldness.

That scene reminded me of that rainy day when she had been in her cold, wet uniform.

There was no way I could forget how in that night I had asked her why people killed others. Of course, I hadn't forgotten her answer, either.

The instant I recalled that answer, my body spontaneously started to tremble, followed by a chuckle of mine.

"...I found the answer at last. I finally realized what made you kill your parents!" I whispered.

She only commented calmly, "I see."

She was at the edge of my vision, and I was at the corner of hers, as I noticed then.

"Because you felt like it."

As I laughingly said it, she answered with the smile of a girl that had just received some candy, "You're great."

As she had told me that night, 'feeling like it' was the only way to explain an action devoid of reason.

I had laughed because it was such a silly answer. Who would believe such a thing?

The only ones able to comprehend it were me and — Youko Tsukimori.

Suddenly, she drew closer.

"...if all you say is true, then I am a horrible woman," she whispered softly into my ear, "Killed my parents, deceived everyone, tricked you and still living on without any worries."

Then—the semi-transparent shawl she had worn floated to the ground.

"But it cannot be denied: there are some rare cases of people that are not bound to the rules. People who are not restricted by anything, who are ridiculously free—"

I was taken aback. She had hopped on the fence without a moment's hesitation-causing it to slowly bend towards the abyss along with her.

"—Nonomiya-kun. You decide! If you don't punish me, the horrible woman Youko Tsukimori will remain at large."

Sitting on the fence, she did the unbelievable: she leaned backwards over the abyss. Her hair reached out toward the bottomless darkness. Only her white slender arms were sustaining her equally slender body now. The smooth curve of her snow white neck was exposed right in front of my eyes.

"Should you judge that I am not worthy to live... you understand, right?"

A slight push against her chest would be enough to send her down the cliff.

"...Are you out of your mind? Do you understand what you are saying?"

I doubted her sanity.

"Who knows? I consider myself to be in my right mind. Well, it is true though that I might be a little off in the head for liking an oddball like you."

As if enjoying the bath in the moonlight, she shut her eyes with a tranquil expression.

"I decided long ago to devote my all to my 'destined one'. You can believe me on that."

It appeared that "everything" included her life as well.

"...I absolutely fail to understand your current state of mind. What on earth is a destined person to you?"

Her reply was short and clear.

"My prince."

Her words were accompanied by a transcendentally blissful smile. Considering the utter absence of fear in her face, she was serious.

Suddenly, the final appearance of her mother, which Konan had described to me, flashed through my mind. A shiver ran down my spine. I had accidentally imagined a very special scene.

The stunningly beautiful scene of Youko Tsukimori's dead body surrounded by countless purple blooming azaleas — had been painted by my imagination.

I gulped. I flushed from the core. Before I knew it, my fingers had reached out to her chest.

My fingertips touched the bulge of her breasts. A short sigh escaped her and she stretched the toes of her white pumps.

My blood began to boil from the excitement that gripped me. Oh, what a sweet temptation it was! One mere finger of mine had the right to pass sentence on ''Youko Tsukimori's'' life.

Her neat snow-white dress looked like a burial shroud in my eyes at that moment.

She had no doubt made all necessary preparations. I suspected her intended scenario was along the lines of "heartbroken girl follows her parents into death".

In other words, nobody would punish me if I pushed her down.

She had called me her prince. If I really was a prince, my designated role would probably be freeing the princess who was being held captive in the castle.

''...Tsukimori. I am sorry for belying your expectations, but I'm afraid I'm not a prince. I am and will only ever be Villager A. That's the role that suits me best.''

My heart pounded against my chest. My wild breath urged me to run free. After taking a deep breath and firmly clenching my teeth, I slowly reached out for the girl in burial cloth — slid my arm around her delicate back and pulled her towards me with all my might.

The excessive momentum caused me to fall backward with her in my arms. While I was still struggling with the pain in my back, she sat up astride me.

"...please don't forget," she began as she laid one hand on her chest, "that this is the life you have saved."

You have picked up that puppy, so bear responsibility and look after it yourself—remembering words my mother had said ages ago, my spirits hit rock bottom. Since when had I become such a nice guy?

"...did you test me?"

"Don't worry, I am confident in myself. You will definitely not regret that you have saved me."

She optimistically clenched her fist in front of her. That almost provokingly lovely smile she showed me gave me the conviction that she had foreseen this turn of events from the very beginning.

I sneered.

"I've long regretted —"

—that I met you.

"Sorry, but could you get off me?"

She was boldly sitting on my pelvis For now, I just wanted to do something about her lack of manners.

Unfortunately though, she apparently didn't intend to get off. She went on her knees, bent over me while putting her hands left and right of my head and started talking from right above me, with her eyes staring into mine. "What are you going to do? What do you want to do? Do you want to tell the police about the recipe and the things I have told you just now?"

As her charming lips formed words, my hair was softly stroked by her ticklish breath.

"I won't stop you if that is what you want to do!"

Apparently, she was not specifically provoking me; while her expression ''was'' mild as always, her voice had taken on an earnest tone.

"You're quite daring, aren't you?"

I scowled at her from below.

"Is it because you are confident that you can trick the police? Or is it because you are belittling me?"

"Wrong on both counts!" she shook her hair smoothly. "I just know more than anyone else that I am innocent."

She was composed.

"Let us do a little test... if there was an incident that most clearly implied murder and I told you it was just an accident that happened because of a chain of unfortunate coincidences, would you believe me?"

The hair that fell down from right above swayed in a nightly breeze and tickled the tip of my nose.

"...of course not!"

Because Tsukimori maintained perfect composure, I hesitated for a moment.

"Right? You don't believe me anyway, so I just let you do whatever you want."

The next moment, she formed a soft smile, accompanied by dancing feathers in my imagination.

"But please remember that there is only one truth for me."

Can someone who laughs so purely be a liar?

I honestly did not know.

"Besides, you are the one I chose. So there should be nothing strange about respecting your decision, even if it differs from the answer I would wish for."

"Chose?" I repeated suspiciously.

The sound was different from the "destined one" sort of "chose" that she had used before. I estimated the nuance to be something along the lines of "entrusted".

"There is one thing you have gotten wrong, Nonomiya-kun."

"What do you mean?"

"It is not at all a coincidence that you have the murder recipe."

".........eh?"

I raised a voice of surprise.

"Please recall the day when you found the murder recipe."

It was still vividly in my mind. It had happened after school. I had found the murder recipe in her notebook, which she had dropped on the ground.

She suddenly giggled.

"I am a very capable person, if I say so myself, am I not? Do you think that someone like me—"

The face she showed me then was going to remain clear in my memory for a long time. Her face looked staggeringly cruel and yet so beautiful.

"—would lose something as important as the murder recipe?"

No way. Such a mistake was unthinkable if it was for her, for she was the only absolutely perfect human in the world I knew of.

On that day back then I had participated in a meeting — the regular meeting of the class officers. The male class officer of our class was me. So, who was the female one?

It was the person before my very eyes.

''Now that I think about it, she hurried back to the classroom right after the meeting had finished. I figure that she did that in order to buy time, so she could make sure the murder recipe would fall into my hands "by chance".''

How could I overlook such a basic thing? That she had been searching for the recipe the following morning was most likely just an act to make me believe she had lost it "by chance", too.

It looked like I had been dancing to her tune since the very beginning. That humiliating fact numbed my limbs and even brought terror upon me. Not a groan could be heard from me in this shocked state.

Tsukimori got off me while giggling.

"There is not one thing that didn't work out the way I wanted. There is not one thing that I couldn't have obtained if I wanted. My wishes define how matters settle."

Normally, those statements would have been extremely haughty, but they sounded like logical facts when it was Youko Tsukimori speaking.

"But don't you think that such a life is incredibly boring and listless? Is there a point in leading such a life?"

She walked towards her shawl on the ground.

"You cannot be excited about a present when you already know what is inside," she slouched her shoulders slightly. "Nevertheless, I did not decide against being the Youko Tsukimori everyone desired, because it is simple to play the model student and it did not feel bad to live up to their expectations."

After picking it up, she draped the shawl around her shoulders again, skipped towards me with light steps reminiscent of a ballerina and landed right beside my head. Then a thick shadow covered my field of vision entirely, so that I was almost left with the belief that the moon had been covered by dark clouds. In fact, she had bent right over me with her hands at her hips.

"Do you want to know why I entrusted you with the recipe, Nonomiya-kun?"

It was already an almost annoyingly definite fact to me that when she put on such a scheming expression, the answer could not be any good.

"It is because you looked more bored with your life than anyone else I have ever met!" she said as if she had found something dear.

I averted my gaze.

Bullseye.

As she had guessed, I had always lamented over how boring the world seemed to me. My imagination used to be my haven to heal me from the boredom of my daily life.

I picked up the murder recipe and stood up.

"You exceeded all my expectations. Talking with you turned out to be exciting, Nonomiya-kun. Every day became thrilling as soon as you entered my life. My heart throbbed more than in anyone else's company. I realized right away that you were my 'destined one'. Thus, it was easy to become crazy about you."

Then everything had gone according to her plan and I, as foolish as I had been, readily took the compelling bait, the murder recipe.

With heavy steps I walked back to the fence as if drawn to it. By the sound of her steps I noticed that she hurried after me.

"...Ah!"

The fence creaked. She had strongly gripped it and was looking down the black clear space right at my side, leaning over. She quickly realized that there was nothing she could do about it anymore, straightened up again and turned to me.

"...won't you regret that?"

My right arm was fully stretched out over the fence.

A white paper plane was drawing circles in the air as it slowly descended into the bottomless darkness. The plane was probably going to get caught somewhere on the cliff, be exposed to weather for months and finally return to dust.

"It's okay. There's no need for it anymore."

I was the same. I, too, hadn't searched for the truth behind the murder recipe because of a sense of justice.

"Ah, will you at last believe me that I am innocent?"

I turned towards her smiling face and declared coldly, "Do you have sawdust between your ears? Of course I'm still doubting you!"

She narrowed her eyes in doubt.

"You don't make sense. Why did you throw away the murder recipe then?"

"Who would buy such an absurd story? I mean, how should I answer the police if they asked me for the reason why you killed your parents? Do you think I would get through with 'Oh, it looks like she felt like it'?"

Without knowing her well, understanding her motive would be very difficult. Having seen Youko Tsukimori's true face, I was the only who could ever nod, facing such a claim.

"But do you have another choice? It is the answer you have worked out after all. Leaving aside whether they believe you or not," she said in a playful tone.

"That's stupid. I would only embarrass myself," answered as I shook my head.

The magic had been lost since the second I had thrust the murder recipe, my trump card, before her and revealed its contents.

I had realized that, in the end, the murder recipe was nothing more than "just a scrap of paper".

She had taught me that it was not the recipe itself that was of value, though I had cherished it like life itself, but the fact that it was "Youko Tsukimori's" murder recipe.

At that moment, after recovering from the shock of having been led by the nose by her all the time, a different emotion overcame me.

As much as it didn't match my character, that emotion could be described as the protective instinct.

By her own admission, she had entrusted the recipe to me because I had looked more bored with my life than anyone else. Because she had concluded that I would no doubt show interest in the thrill the murder recipe offered.

Definitely unintended, but I had undeniably provided considerable entertainment.

In short, she had been seeking for some kind of thrill for her boring daily life as well. In this sense, our interests had complemented each other without my knowledge.

However, the thing is that I unfortunately came up with another interpretation.

—It happened to me that she may have been overwhelmed by the murder recipe.

She was shaken. The discovery of the murder recipe, and a completely unexpected side of her mother along with it, disturbed her more than she could have imagined. Subconsciously she kept looking for a way to do something about that state of things and in the end entrusted me, whom she had found after long searching, with the murder recipe.

That signal was not strong enough to be called an SOS. Probably, she merely wanted to share the information. Maybe she just wanted someone to know.

The burden was indeed a bit too heavy to carry alone.

Maybe I was simply reading too much into it, but I couldn't do anything about it, since that was the impression I got. My vexation was cleared away in a split second.

The thought that ''Youko Tsukimori'', the only person that could pride herself on being perfect, was shaken like a helpless girl and relied on me caused my heart to beat faster than ever.

''Now aren't we lovely'', it throbbed.

My gaze fell on the number that was indicated on the clock tower behind her.

"Already past midnight?"

When I whispered so, she turned around with vim and vigor, spinning the skirt-part of her dress like a parasol. The clock hand had long since passed midnight.

"I'm shocked. How could I have mistimed such an important event?"

Something rare happened: she was discouraged.

"Actually, today is my birthday! Oh what happened to my plan of pleading for all kinds of things as soon as the hour would strike twelve..."

"Congratulations," I wished her before she could blurt out any bothersome things.

After she had polished her look, arranging her hair and adjusting her dress, she turned around to me with a smile all over her face. "Nonomiya-kun, you know, the date has changed, so it's my birthday..."

"I just offered you my congratulations. Didn't you listen?"

"I did listen, so I'll give you some belated thanks. But you see, personally I would prefer it if it was not just words, but—"

"No."

"I'm not done yet, Nonomiya-kun. You should hear out what others have to say."

"Remember one thing, Tsukimori. I'm not as good-natured as to hear out something that I know won't be any good."

"Don't worry! I am not going to plead for an expensive present. Well, it is a present, but it's more like a memory or a memento," she said and while doing so, she took out a mobile phone from her dress and thrust it before my nose. "I want a photograph of us."

"...you ask for that while knowing that I don't like photos?"

"You don't?"

She heedlessly feigned ignorance. In the café Usami had once asked for a photograph of me. There was no way Tsukimori didn't know that.

"Please. I won't ask for anything else if you grant me just that one wish. This day is only once in a year, so please!"

In contrast to the begging tone in her voice, she constrained me by grabbing my wrist with both her hands. She was going to have it her way.

"...Okay! But only one, hear me?"

I gave in quickly because I had already learned that the labor required to break through her obstinacy wasn't worth it.

"Thank you so much!" she rejoiced while clapping her hands. "Let's take it in front of the clock tower!" she said and walked off right away, pulling my arm along.

Said tower was three times our size and thickly coated in white paint.

"Mh, which place works best...?" she couldn't decide where she should take the photograph. When I said that it didn't matter, she rebuked me, saying she had only one chance.

As she then asked whether I would let her take several photographs in that case, I had to seal my mouth, leaned against the wall and had no choice but to wait until she decided on a spot.

I had not the slightest idea how that place was different from any other, but she claimed contentedly, "Yes, here it is. It looks like this is the best place for it after all."

"Come here," she waved me over. I positioned myself next to her.

Then she drew close to me like never before. Along with the material of her thin dress, I also felt other, different things that had nothing to do with her clothes.

"If I don't do this, we won't fit in the frame," she claimed with the arm in which she held her mobile phone fully stretched out, before I could object. Thinking that I was supposed to take the photograph because my arm was longer than hers, I snatched her phone. When I confirmed which button I had to press, she told me to wait for a second and took her shawl from her shoulders.

I gazed at her with my arm stretched out, asking myself what she was doing, while she was pulling it over her head and pinning it with a white flower that she had been using as a hair ornament.

"Alright," she said and, probably because I was looking suspiciously at her, added, "Isn't it cute and kind of princess-like?"

Indeed, it suited her so well I forgot to deny it.

I pushed the button on her signal, whereupon a mechanical shutter sound resounded from the phone. Unable to wait, she snatched the mobile phone away from me to take a look at the photo.

While viewing the picture with a satisfied expression, she nodded slightly, "Yes, exactly as I have pictured it."

From time to time she even giggled out. Good for her that the present was to her liking.

"Thank you for letting me take this photograph. I'll treasure it."

"Yeah, treasure it so much that nobody will ever see it and I'll keep my peace of mind."

I didn't even want to imagine what would happen on the day the guys at school found out about this photograph, and I was really fed up with the fact that Kamogawa's visage was the first thing that came to mind.

"What a pity. I already planned on using this valuable picture of you to brag in front of Mirai-san and Chizuru..."

Thank god I forbade her to do so.

"...oh well, I'll enjoy it all alone then. Viewing it as the wallpaper of my mobile phone during classes with a broad smile on my face. Giving it a good-night kiss before going to sleep."

"Should I delete that picture right now?"

"I'm joking, really," she laughed mischievously.

That's how it feels when someone has the better of you.

"Do you want to take a look, too?"

"With pleasure."

As it was the photo of me she was going to hold on to from now on, I felt obliged to check how I looked on it.

I approached my face to the screen of her phone, which she held before her chest, while bending my knees a little. Her next words reached me just when my ear was somewhere near her lips.

[[Image:Gekkou-319.jpg|thumb]]

After waiting that I had seen the picture, she whispered,

"Did you see? We look like bride and bridegroom at a private wedding à deux in front of a church, don't we?"

I stared at the screen. Depicted was a black-dressed man and a white-dressed woman who happily clung to each other.

With only a little imagination, the shawl on the head of the woman looked like a bride's wedding veil. And mysteriously, as soon as I viewed the woman like that, the man, too, looked as though he wore a dress suit.

Imprinting is a really dreadful phenomenon: I noticed that the clock tower looked like part of a church. If the bride had held a bouquet, it would have been a wedding ceremony no matter the way you looked at it.

I reflexively reached out to steal it out of her hands, but she evaded me, turning around like a dancing petal.

"Give me that phone."

"No! I am sure you would delete the picture if I gave it to you."

"Of course I would!"

I reached out to her again. However, she sped away like a tiny, winged fairy dancing with her toes over a water surface, so that the distance between us grew and grew. She then climbed on a slide.

"Nonomiya-kun, I am here!" she waved innocently from above, almost like a child.

Youko Tsukimori was wild and free when she revealed her true colors. Way too much to handle for a spiritless person like me.

"I'm leaving."

This night had tired me.

"Wait!" she shouted from above when I went past the slide to leave the park. I only turned my head and looked up at her.

"Why did you come alone tonight?"

Lit by the moonlight and shrouded in a veil, snow-white Tsukimori looked majestic as Jeanne D'Arc must have been.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about the murder recipe? There were more than enough opportunities, right? Just take Konan for an example... don't you think he would have been able to make people lend an ear even to your absurd story?" she asked in a slightly gloomy voice.

The only thing that was in her eyes as she looked down at me in the pointed silence without moving a muscle was I.

I accidentally bent over laughing.

Why? Because I immediately realized how easily I could answer her question. To think that I hadn't even known myself properly until recently despite being so cautious about anyone else, I really was a fool.

Now my answer was clear.

Whether she had killed her parents or someone else, whether she was guilty or innocent, even if there was to be an incident that most clearly implied murder in spite of being just an accident that happened because of a chain of unfortunate coincidences—those questions didn't matter.

She raised her brow at the edge of my field of vision.

"That's a simple question—" I spoke towards the night sky.

"—I am the only one in the world who has the right to doubt you."

We didn't need any others. It was more than enough if only I knew the real Youko Tsukimori.

At last, the cold night wind carried a heated whisper to me.

"...Mm, I'm not lonely after all."

My eyes must have been wide open when I turned them to the slide that was lit by the silver spotlight.

She was smiling with tears in her eyes, almost weeping with joy.

As I didn't know what I should reply, I closed my mouth and burned the appearance of an unknown Youko Tsukimori into my memory.

Suddenly, she cowered down. Then she slid down without even caring about her clothes or exposition of her skirt, started to run and jumped straight onto my back, upon which she wrapped her arms tightly around me.

While burying her face in my back, she said with a somewhat muffled voice,

"—You are the only one in the world to whom I grant the right to doubt me."

She sounded joyous.

I am not so tolerant as to let someone cling to me without permission, but her arms were so tight around me that I couldn't shake her off. She was like a shackle chaining me, which represented our current relationship ridiculously well.

I gave up resisting and looked up at the night sky along with a sigh.

The fine silver light from the moon shone down on the earth like silk threads, which were absorbed by the earth. Without a break, as if the moon was trying to dye all the creatures on earth in its white light.

Compared to the moonlight, any other type of light seemed ever so weak. No matter how bright the stars twinkled, no matter how much light the streets of the town emitted, nothing could match the all-enveloping moonlight.

Without noticing, I reached out for the moon—while knowing that I would definitely not reach it.

The decision I made that night might have been wrong. Perhaps I was going to regret it for a long time.

No, perhaps I would not even have the opportunity to regret.

Because I had come to know Youko Tsukimori.

I closed my eyes without moving my head away.

The moon that night was very soft and warm.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Bye-Bye|Bye-Bye]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Afterword|Afterword]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Rain:Volume 1 Chapter 4

2013-05-30T02:47:17Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 4 : Reunion==
Sunlight shone over Leni's head, but as it was closing in upon the winter season the air was hardly warm.

To the contrary, it was quite chilly.

Leni was being relentlessly assailed by the cold wind as he sat on a bench in the castle courtyard. From the branches of the trees planted within the castle walls, red-tinted leaves fluttered down.

It's really cold. But, like what happened a few days ago, Yuri might come by.

Wavering between seeking shelter in the castle or continuing to wait outside, Leni had no idea when she might come. No matter what, he had no intention of giving up the possibility of having lunch together with Yuri.

She had finally started to show some interest in him and his swordsmanship, so the real battle would be from here on out. Just a little longer, a little longer!

......Leni hadn't even paused to consider the possibility that, when Yuri had come to watch practice a few days ago, it may have only been a coincidence.

As though making fun of his tragic condition, a gust of icy wind slammed into him. His fingers gripping the sandwich were nearly frozen stiff, but as a man he continued to bear it.

"Well, it really is rather peaceful."

Leni said, letting out a slow sigh.

Currently, under Rain's orders they were preparing their marching formations, but there weren't any detailed instructions as of yet. Unlike the knights or trainees of lower status, captains like Leni really weren't that busy. It wasn't like they had nothing to do, but a break was a necessity.

In other words, nothing differed from the usual. Even if the leader of the country had died, and a vast majority of their allies had fallen. Well, Xenoa was making enough of a scene for all of them though.

At any rate...just how is the general's head put together, I wonder...?

Four days earlier in the evening, the two aides Leni and Xenoa had been called to Rain's room. His face always seemed to be younger than theirs. With a wide smile, Rain had given them some information.

"Today, I've received a report through Magic Vision about the current situation with Zarmine's expedition."

He really was beaming. All around, he seemed to be in a great mood. The color of his face was healthy and looked well. Then again, it always did...

What, have you finished defying the majority that say this war is decided with your 'Surprising-Turn-Around-Victory' strategy!? Have you already defeated Zarmine!?

Believing Rain would saying something along those lines, Leni broke into a ridiculous smile. Naturally, anyone that saw the general's expression at such a time would think so. It's not like he had thought of something anyone else wouldn't have...

By the way――the truth was far from what he had imagined.

The opposing expedition had nearly decimated every unit save Ralphus's. Due to the betrayal of Ganoa and Gilles, King Douglas had died in battle...

Leni felt his legs turn to rubber. He was stunned that Rain could laugh so in the midst of such a situation. Even before Rain had become a Knight five years previously, Leni had fought under him when they had been mercenaries. This was one aspect of Rain he never had been able to fathom.

Just remembering his own pale and shaking expression, and Xenoa waving her sword around in one of those violent outbursts of hers, caused his head to ache.

"Well, what's done is done."

Dropping his gaze to his lunchbox which was by now half empty, he put the lid back on with lingering affection before reaching his hands up and stretching his muscles.

In the end, he had never met the King before, and the always gentle Ralphus had been saved, so it wasn't really all that bad, he thought.

The one I serve has always been the general after all.

Yes...While Douglas had been the King of the country, he was not Leni's lord. The only one he would follow was Rain.

And the fact that he hadn't left Ralphus for dead, made Leni really glad.

"Ah, commanding officer~!"

A voice that sounded relieved caused Leni to pause as he was getting ready to leave.

When he looked back, a man who appeared to still be in his teens came jogging up towards him from the direction of the castle's gate. If he remembered correctly, the youth was a Knight trainee in his unit. Leni couldn't remember his name, but there was no mistaking him.

"Has something happened?"

"Ah, yes. Actually, I'm not sure what I should do."

"What about?"

"I'm on duty for guarding the gate today, but just a moment ago, someone who looks like a noble I've never seen before came asking to meet with Rain. I was trying to figure out what to do......they're not even giving me their name."

As expected of a gate guard, he saluted in form and hand while wearing his armor.

Nodding as he listened intently he wondered to himself why, whenever something happens, everybody came to him.

Xenoa's somewhere nearby, so why me? I wanted to get some rest too.

"It goes without saying but, we can't let them in."

Without letting out his previous thoughts, Leni responded crisply which was rare for him.

"We're in a time of war after all. Even if the appearance is that of a noble, we have no way of telling what kind of person they are. I'm always saying it, aren't I? No suspicious people are to be let in."

"Yes......of course."

For some reason this youth seemed to be rather disappointed.

He glanced once more at Leni as though hoping for some compromise, before reluctantly doing an about-face.

Leni hardened his heart, keeping himself from calling out to stop him.

After all, they were in the middle of a war.

There was simply no way they could let anyone into the castle who wouldn't even give their name.

Even when things were slow, decisions had to upheld.

Sighing, the youth let out a stream of words as he walked away.

"And she was such a beauty, too. It's too bad."

"Wait a minute, you!"

Loudly calling out for him to stop, Leni sprinted to catch up with the youth who was walking away.

It was a response with no delay.

"My intuition tells me that I should at least meet with this person. Yep, I'll head over there right away."

With that, Leni left the guard behind. The lunchbox was also left on the bench.

He heard the guard stutter, but ignored it and hurried on.

"N, no fair! Getting ahead like that, Captain Leni!"

Hearing the voice call out to him from behind, Leni quickened his pace even more.

Right before the castle gate, an angel stood waiting.

It was a ridiculous expression to use, but that was how Leni felt. That was how beautiful this girl was.

She looked to be around fourteen to sixteen.

Long, straight and shining gold tresses fell to about her waist. Her sparkling eyes were a light blue that grew deeper in gradation closer to the center of the eye. No matter how you looked at her, she was undoubtedly a noble of Sunkwoll.

Gentle features――with an amazingly stunning face turned up upon Leni's approaching footsteps, before showing a look of complete disappointment and once again dropping to the ground.

Unusual for the nobility, she had a rather reserved personality.

"All of you, you're scaring the lady! Don't stare so much!"

For now, Leni gave the order to the youth who had called him a moment before, and to the other slightly older guard who had remained at his post. After all, they had been staring at her with mouths agape.

The two guards reluctantly moved their gazes away from the girl.

As a man he knew how much they wanted to look. Even so, he wouldn't change his orders.

Yet Leni himself continued to stare at the angelic girl, as though he were boring a hole right through her.

"Well now, miss. If you have any business here, let me hear you out."

"......Uhm. I, I am......"

The angel lifter her face ever so slightly, and when she met the burning gaze Leni was pouring towards her, she again looked down.

"What is it? You don't have to hold back, just come out and say whatever it is. I am General Rain's aide, Leni――ah, hey!"

It was sudden and unexpected.

The beautiful girl who had been so timid a moment ago, strode quickly up to Leni.

She came so close to bumping into him, that his nostrils were filled with the sweet scent of perfume.

"Rain's aide! In that case, please let me meet with him!"

Her perfectly clear blue eyes shone brightly as she looked up at Leni.

It seemed she wasn't just a quiet girl after all.

"W, whaaaaa?"

She nodded vigorously several times. He was taken aback, and felt completely at her command.

At that moment he noticed the glare of the two gate guards.

Leni quickly returned to himself.

That's right. Just a while ago he had been stressing 'You can't let anyone into the castle!' It was dangerous to change the rules because of the sweetness of some girl. Beyond dangerous. It would lead to problems in authority and structure with his men.

"Ahh...Ahem."

Feeling the eyes of his men on him, Leni purposefully took a few steps back. After he had regained his composure from the attack of this girl who was now all smiles, he spoke.

"Well, according to the circumstance it's not like I can't bring you to the General, but at the very least I'd like to know your name and business."

At that, her face shadowed over. It seemed there was some kind of complicated circumstance which existed beneath that countenance.

Even so, it was something he had to ask, so he waited silently for an answer. Time crept by until, at long last, with a troubled expression the girl opened her pale-pink lips.

"......My name is Shelfa."

"Shelfa? Hmmm, I feel like I've heard that name somewhere before."

Leni's memory snagged on something. It was definitely a name he had heard before. As though struggling with the same thoughts, the two guards tilted their heads.

Different from Leni, she was a noble of pure blood, and her eyes were entirely blue. There was no white part. By some chance, perhaps she was a famous person?

"You are unmistakably a noble......furthermore from a prestigious house, right? What's your full name?"

The silence that followed this inquiry was much longer than the last.

The three cast nervous glances between them as they waited, until at last she slowly started to give her name.

"My full name is――"

"Yeah, your full name is?"

"......Shelfa Iras Sunkwoll."

"Shelfa Iras Sunkwoll......Sunkwoll......So....EEHHH!?"

Repeating it faithfully, Leni broke out in a loud voice, shocked.

After all, there were only a few people whose name included that of the Kingdom.

At long last realizing who this mysterious beauty was, the three literally jumped at this revelation.

What a predicament! Leni felt sweat on his brow. What a beauty! Wait...that's not it! I've got to tell the General right away!

"General! GE~NER~AL!"

Without any warning the door to Rain's chambers opened, and Leni appeared, his eyes round as saucers.

Rain lifted his gaze from the drawn map atop the table, letting out a heavy sigh.

"...It seems everyone wants to barge in here today. I'm finally in the mood to come up with a plan, so don't bother me. Besides, this isn't some cheap inn. This room is the most important personal quarters of the entire castle, so at least knock, would you?"

"Let's leave that for later! Something big has happened! Something so big everything else pales in comparison!"

"You don't need to keep repeating yourself. Just spit it out already."

"Alright. I'll tell you, so I hope you're ready."

Taking a deep breath, Leni spoke in a dramatic tone.

"She's here at the castle! The Princess! I was so surprised!"

"Your voice is too loud, this isn't a rally, you know!"

Rain cried out in a loud voice, standing up in his aggravation.

Well, so she came on her own.

"...You don't seem all that surprised?"

Leni asked him dutifully.

"Well that's obvious, isn't it. I received a letter from Ralphus 'kindly requesting' that I take care of the Princess, so wouldn't it make sense that he gave her some sort of instructions? For example, if anything happens she should come to my place. Well, now that she's here, I guess it can't be helped."

"S, so quickly...She is quite the beauty, the Princess. A little more like..."

"You liar."

Rain cut him off, laughing.

"You really think a beauty could be born from that sweaty old geezer?"

"Hah! You jest! W, well it's okay. Only, what I said is true. Like you, General, I was skeptical at first, but when I came to see her..."

"Alright, I get it, I get it. In that case, you can take care of her. That should satisfy you, right?"

"Eh!? Can I really? Ya -hoo! Ah! Wait a moment. Even if I wanted to, she's quite adamant about meeting with you in person though."

"With me? Why?"

"I've not the faintest! She acted as though she already knew you though."

Leni's envious gaze bored intently into Rain.

He was easy to read. Even though Yuri seemed to have caught his eye, he was still going to chase after this Princess.

"How would I know her, a Princess. There has to be some misunderstanding somewhere."

"It didn't seem that way. It really felt that she has some pressing reason for seeing you."

"Even if you say so, there's nothing I can do if I haven't a clue. Anyway, it's not as though I could turn down the request of the Princess if she wants to meet me so."

In a bad mood, Rain proceeded to leave his quarters.

Well, for the sake of argument there was nothing wrong with going to meet her.

As though Rain's attitude made him angry, Leni put a lot of force into his next words.

"When you meet her you'll be just as surprised by her beauty."

"You really think so~? Want to make a bet of it?"

"That sounds great! If you meet the Princess and can say she isn't incredibly pretty, then I'll run naked around the castle grounds one-hundred times, backwards!"

Rain couldn't help but be taken aback at this.

For Leni who was weak-willed and lacked confidence, yet boasted no arch-enemies to date...

It might be best if he did meet with her.

Firming up his resolve Rain increased his pace and walked out into the hallway.

If I meet with her and she looks like King Douglas, I'll have you do exactly as you promised!

As he continued in the direction of the guest chamber on the first floor, a blonde haired beauty came walking towards him. She was wearing a violet tunic that fell to her waist, and a matching pair of trousers.

Unfortunately, it was Xenoa. He could feel a scolding coming on.

"General!"

Upon seeing him, she came running up to him.

All of a sudden her face grew angry, and her prettiness was ruined......It was always the same.

"I met you at just the right time. There's something important I have to tell you."

"Starting with that right off the bat, are you......Sorry but I don't have time just now. Some troublesome person's requested my presence."

Rain responded with a serious expression and tone. It goes without saying he didn't stop moving either.

But Xenoa wasn't one to give up at just that, as she fell in step with him.

"Who is this person?"

"Apparently it's the Princess. Amazing, isn't it?"

Leni responded in Rain's stead, happily.

......It isn't that important, but this isn't some kid's boasting contest!

"Wha!? T, the Princess!?"

Seeming to grow a little pale, Xenoa put a hand on the wall to steady herself. She placed a hand on her forehead, and with a stunned expression lifted her gaze to the ceiling. It was such an overly dramatic reaction, it would cause one to think she were doing it on purpose.

"W, when did she arrive..."

"Well, just a moment ago, really..."

As Leni was explaining the events to Xenoa, Rain left them behind and continued on.

If he continued to hang around Xenoa, her nagging would become incessant, and he couldn't handle it. But as he anticipated, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps as Xenoa again lined up beside him. Followed by...nagging.

"Why didn't you talk to me about such an important thing?"

"My word! I've only just heard of it myself! If you're going to complain, tell it to Leni!"

"General! What a thing to say!"

Leni's voice was raised almost to a shout.

"Anyway. I'll accompany you."

Glaring at Leni, Xenoa said heatedly.

Fed up, Rain stopped walking.

"Do as you like. We've arrived after all."

Just when he lifted his arm to knock on the solid iron reinforced door....he felt a cold shiver.

Pressure.

Rain's sixth sense, forged from countless battles, was warning him of something dangerous.

The one in this room was dangerous.

A tingling feeling in his neck told him that it was someone, perhaps an enemy, that he had met before.

What is this? The one inside should be the Princess. Then why, this force......it feels as though whoever is in there could be equal to myself...No, perhaps even beyond that.

That wasn't all.

This isn't the first time I've had this feeling. I've met someone somewhere before who gave off this same type of pressure. I'd forgotten, but I believe it was......

"General, what's the matter? You've frozen solid."

Leni's peaceful voice drew him from his contemplations.

Rain slowly lowered his raised hand.

"Hey, Leni......Xenoa, you too. I'd like to ask just in case but, do you know if the Princess is skilled in swordsmanship or physical combat? Or perhaps magic or something else?"

"Hah?"

Leni tilted his head to the side, and Xenoa's face showed she didn't understand the question.

Tired of waiting, Rain interjected.

"In other words, is she strong is what I'm trying to figure out."

The two aides traded glances that showed they were on the same page.

After a small pause, Xenoa spoke.

"The Princess has always been kept within the Palace grounds. I've heard she is learned and has studied manners, but I don't believe she ever learned swordsmanship or magic."

"Hmm..."

But still, there was no mistaking this feeling.

He was still feeling the pressure. Rain never doubted his sixth sense. It was because of it that he had been able to live through till today, after all.

"Well, whatever."

He would know upon entering.

There is nothing that I fear, no matter the opponent. So let's just have a look, shall we.

Rain put strength into his hand, lifting it to knock against the door.

As he entered the room, he eyes rested on a young girl with long golden hair who turned around quickly.

The girl who had been staring at the scenery outside the window looked directly at Rain, and only Rain, with her large blue eyes.

Woah now...Rain couldn't say a word. He was stunned by how beautiful the girl looked in the frilled, pure white clothing she was wearing.

Just a moment. How in the world could that ugly old geezer whose feet stank to high heaven, have a girl this beautiful? Not one part of her looks like him?

Furthermore...

He knit his brow.

He definitely felt like he had seen this girl before.

The pressure lifting, Rain looked intently at every corner of the girl's face.

"......Rain."

All of a sudden, tears began welling up from the depths of her eyes.

Stretching out her shaking hands, she walked towards him with both tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

"Eh? Ahhh~! Are you the Princess?"

Rain's question full of uncertainty on how to react, didn't even enter the girl's ears.

"I've wanted to see you......Always, always I have been waiting for you. Rain......I'm so happy....so happy. Finally...finally we can meet."

One step at a time the girl approached him, at last running and throwing herself into him. Her warm body pressed against him.

Now it was Leni and Xenoa's turn to freeze in place.

Especially Leni, his hands were outstretched ready to hug something, while his face showed the expression of a kid who had just had his favorite candy stolen away.

"----Rain!"

It was the Princess who had called his name.

"W, wait a second! Princess, you seem to have the wrong person..."

Saying such, he firmly wound his arm around her waist. He felt rather good at the moment.

"Rain, do you not remember? It's me. You played with me three years ago......"

The girl finally broke into a great smile, and gazed up at him.

Three years ago......As he heard it, his memories at last came to the front. The girl he had met in the garden where trespassers weren't allowed. Her beautiful yet lonely face, and the promise they had made...

The image of the girl from his memories overlapped the figure of the girl before him.

"Aah~! You're that kid from that time!"

Without thinking Rain spoke in a loud voice.

"Yes! Oh, you remember me then!"

"Of course! But for me to completely mistake you. In only three years, you have really bloomed into a wonderful woman. I couldn't figure it out right away."

With the intention of welcoming her warmly, Rain hugged her tightly to his chest. In return, she squeezed her arms, wound around his back, tightly.

Oh! Her flat chest also seems to have expanded quite well-----

"...General."

The soft voice interjected his moment of bliss. With a fixed gaze Xenoa glared at Rain. Her hand rested on the sword at her waist.

Why she was wearing a sword in the castle was a mystery to him.

"May I ask about the circumstances?"

"You know, I'm sensing a really unpleasant aura from you."

"The circumstances!"

Her hand gripping the handle shook.

She was someone who snapped easily.

A bit regretfully, Rain removed his arm from around Michelle.

"Calm down and I'll tell you. This child is an acquaintance of mine, and her name is Michelle."

"E, eh? She's not the Princess?"

Leni said, finally breaking free from his petrification.

"Ah, no no. Well, I can understand the reason. Michelle tried to meet with me, but since she wasn't let into the castle, she had no choice but to use the Princess's name."

"Uhm, well..."

Michelle timidly tried to interject with upturned eyes.

Rain waved his hand in the air, signaling her not to worry.

"It's nothing to worry about, Michelle. If one of those men over there tried it I'd blast them away, but you're special. You've no reason to feel upset."

"N, no, it's just..."

"I said it's no big deal. A sinless prank now and then, its nothing. When I was young, I was called the Emperor of Pranks."

"That's not it!"

Michelle raised her voice suddenly.

She realigned her expression, looking very serious indeed.

"I have lied to you, Rain."

"......Eh?"

"Please let me give you my real name. I am Shelfa Iras Sunkwoll......the daughter of King Douglas...I'm terribly sorry, Rain. I have been lying to you since the beginning."

Rain's mind went completely blank.

After a short while of staring at her in a daze,

"...What'd you say?"

The mood in the room grew ever heavier.

☆――☆――☆

He was dreaming.

It was a dream where he crossed swords with a man who's silver hair was long enough to cover one eye.He was closing in on Rain who had never been defeated since leaving his hometown, and trying to bring their battle to a conclusion.

Impossible!

He thought within his dream.

Is such a thing even possible? For me to be cornered so--

I must become the best. I can't allow defeat, no matter the opponent! Never again will I---

Ignoring Rain's edginess, the man with the silver hair swung his gleaming magical sword, closing down on Rain. The scarlet aura of the blade filled Rain's field of vision, before he was cut to pieces.

"—Ahk!"

Rain awoke in a pool of sweat.

He was atop his bed in the same room as always, with the morning sun streaming in through the window.

After recalling the nightmare he'd just had, Rain slowly shook his head before getting out of his bed. --A dream is a dream. There is no way I could lose.

Nodding decisively, he headed to his wardrobe. He changed into his usual black shirt and black pants, yawning lightly. He had finally regained his composure.

...Tomorrow we are moving out after all. Maybe today I'll just take it easy. I did just have a strange dream after all. Perhaps I was getting tired without realizing it.

This was actually the day the lord of a castle was busiest, but Rain, who disliked troublesome tasks, decided to hurry up and head out before he was discovered by Xenoa.

He was already feeding misleading information to Zarmine through Günter. Due to differing instructions coming in from their home country, they should be immobile at the moment. If things went well, they would meet them at the border.

Thinking about the plan and battle to come, Rain finished changing and put on his magical sword that was leaning against the wall.

"Alright, I don't think anyone is watching."

After checking once again, Rain leaped out from his window.

Twirling several times in the air, Rain landed catlike upon the ground from a height of six floors which would have killed any ordinary man.

"Now, how about an easy long-distance ride...ah!"

At the end of Rain's gaze, stood a young boy with his eyes wide open.

Rain didn't know it, but he was the same guard that had met Shelfa at the gate the previous day.

"I've got a bad habit of automatically barring men from my field of vision...Hey you, come here a moment."

The gate guard, his eyes still wide open, shuffled his way over.

"What's your name and rank?"

"Y, yes sir! My name is Milan. I'm a knight-in-training, General."

"I see, Milan. Did you see that just now?"

"Yeah, well....."

Smiling broadly Rain clasped Milan on the shoulder.

"Hey, Milan. Let me tell you a scary story. It's one of the scariest I've ever heard."

"N, no thanks, I don't really care for..."

"Just listen."

Rain silenced the taut-faced Milan with the glint in his eye before continuing.

"It's a story I know of a knight-in-training, let's call him M...One day, M came to witness, coincidentally, a secret of the lord he serves. He was, you know, quite talkative, and happily told that secret to someone else."

Even though Milan's face was icy cold, sweat was pouring down.

"W, what happened to M?"

He asked, his face pale. His lips had turned violet.

Rain shook his head in an exaggerated motion, before speaking in a tragic tone.

"It was such a tragedy, so frightening. As punishment, every day he had to clean the lavatory, his duties as gate guard were extended five years, his wages were halved and what's more, he never had another chance to go out into the rest of the world. Quite a frightening story, wouldn't you agree?"

"It's frightening! Terribly frightening!"

Milan nodded, his teeth clattering.

His face went from pale to ghostly white. Rain continued to gaze intently into his eyes.

He then said in a low voice,

"So, I'll return to my first question. Did you just now, witness anything out of the ordinary?"

"I only saw the General leave properly through the front entrance!"

Milan responded, his voice starting to develop a sobbing quality.

"Well, it seems we have an understanding. The future captain of a thousand, that will be you, M!"

Clapping him firmly on the shoulder, Rain left the stupefied Milan behind, walking off in a good mood.

......I might be serving someone totally amazing...

Milan, standing straight as a pole, thought as he watched the back of the castle lord heading off.

As though nothing had happened, Rain hummed happily as he continued towards the courtyard.

Cortecreas Castle had an elite plumbing system installed, but there was also a standard water well.

Rain went around the back of the castle, bent on washing his face before he left. It was at the well that he met his new guest.

The young girl was wiping her long damp hair dry with a towel...Her hair glittered golden in the light of the sun which had just begun its ascent.

The pure white dress she wore suited her very well. It was one of many outfits Rain had ordered be prepared for her. Reflecting Rain's interests, the hem of the skirt was quite short.

"Yo, little one!"

Rain greeted Shelfa in a manner most unbefitting for a Princess.

"Rain!"

A smile spread across the face of the girl.

Her joy overflowed from her entire body, and throwing the towel aside Shelfa rushed up to him.

"Good morning! I'm so glad I could meet you so early in the morning."

"Y, yeah."

Her words caused even Rain to be at a loss for a moment. Her perfectly clear azure eyes sparkled brightly as she stretched out a hand to firmly hold his.

--Did I do something to cause me to be so well liked?

"You know, you're actually above me in rank, but the fact we can spend time together like in the past is nice."

"There's no reason you need say such a thing, even if that is the case..."

Her smile faded somewhat.

"Perhaps, you are still mad at me?"

"Not a chance. If it's about that, then I've already heard your situation, and I don't mind. It was only for confirmation."

"I'm so relieved..."

"Only, in front of every one else we should speak as Princess and vassal. Luckily, I can sense people's presence, so there shouldn't be a problem right now."

"I..."

Shelfa furrowed her brow.

"I want to be able to speak plainly with you all the time. Also, about me taking the place of my father..."

"We talked about that yesterday, didn't we? The next in line who has the claim to the throne is you. The former king never had a son after all. Thinking of the morale of the troops, we need someone we can look to as a leader. At the very least I need you to hold out until after this battle is finished."

Rain lectured, pulling up the bucket with a rattling sound and washing his face.

Beside Rain, Shelfa spoke.

"If you will help me, I will bear the throne...But for you to change your speech due to our positions..."

"You don't like it?"

Shelfa nodded. Her beautiful eyes gazed up at him.

Even so, this was the only way. At the very least Rain's position was below hers.

"Hmm, I'm at a bit of a loss then. Oh, I'll be borrowing the towel for a moment."

"U, uhm...I just used it..."

"Well that's alright then. Don't mind it."

Rain calmly dried his face with the towel. There was the faint scent of flowers.

"Let's leave the discussion about the throne and my polite speech for after we've taken care of this. There are a great many aiming for the throne that will come out of the woodwork later. If it comes down to it, you can always just push it off on one of them."

Hanging the towel over the edge of the well, Rain looked carefully at Shelfa. She didn't seem to be too accepting of this proposal.

"...Well, geez. Don't think so hard on it. I know, how about we go for a bit of a ride together, to change the mood?"

"Eh?"

Shelfa lifted her face, surprised.

"Is it alright for me to go outside?"

"What's that about? Are you not feeling well or something? Now that I think about it, you do seem a little thin. Does it hurt anywhere in particular?"

"Ah, that's not it. I've never been allowed to go outside before, so I was only a little surprised."

"--I see."

Rain nodded heavily, gently touching the side of Shelfa's face, causing her snow-white cheeks to redden.

"Forget everything up until now, alright? The you right now is the leader of this country. Nobody can tell you what to do. If you want to do something, then go ahead and do it."

"Then, I have a request!"

Shelfa's eyes sparkled.

"From now on, is it alright for me to remain by your side? To always be by your side, and never leave...!"

--Why did it turn out like this?

Rain was slightly taken aback by the force of her wish, but at the moment he couldn't refuse her.

There was no helping it.

"...If that is what you want."

He said it.

"I'm so glad...I'm really, really happy!"

Shelfa said, as she nestled her head into Rain's chest. Her voice overflowed with delight.

At that moment Rain though he may have given his permission a little too soon.

"Woah, hold on a moment. Don't get so happy over such a small thing. For now, let's just head out on that ride, okay?"

"Yes, of course. If I can be together with you."

"Alright. Guess I'd best call Chris."

Putting two fingers to his mouth, Rain let out a loud and robust whistle.

They only waited for a moment.

His partner, Chris, came trotting over.

"Amazing! She comes when you call!"

"Well, yeah. She is my partner after all."

"Her coat is more beautiful than any I've seen before. It's so white."

Lovingly petting Chris, Shelfa enjoyed herself thoroughly. It seemed Chris too had taken a liking to her, as she wasn't her usual agitated self.

Watching her from behind was quite pleasant...

But, just how can I explain this feeling of pressure?

Rain thought to himself, watching Shelfa who was engrossed with Chris.

He could clearly remember the feeling. It was the same as when he had first met Shelfa that time in the garden, he had felt the same intense force.

When he had lowered his humming and closed in on the source to identify who it was, he had lost his strength upon seeing it was only a young, beauty of a girl.

He hadn't paid it much heed at the time, but it really was strange. For someone who had never learned swordsmanship (as she had mentioned the previous day), he simply couldn't identify the reason for the pressure he felt from this novice girl.

It's not possible she was hiding her strength--was it?

If so, then she didn't let out even the faintest hint of it.....

Maybe I'll give it a test.

Rain put his hand over the scabbard which housed his magical blade, calling Shelfa in a calm manner.

"Hey, little one."

"Yes?"

Ceasing her petting of the horse, Shelfa turned around.

It was at that instant.

He purposefully let out a killing intent as, at a speed which made the movement seem hazy, he swung his Demonic Blade towards her. If the opponent wasn't a seasoned veteran, they wouldn't be able to dodge it.

The blue light flashed like lightning.

“Woah!"

Rain said, but there was almost no response.

He somehow managed to stop the blade a fraction of an inch from the neck of a mildly startled Shelfa.

T, that was really close. That almost ended up a beheading.

He broke into a cold sweat.

"My, this is a magical sword, isn't it? You're letting me see it?"

Not even in her wildest dreams would she have thought she was about to be killed. That was her state as she stretched out a white hand in deep curiosity.

"Woah! You can't touch the blade like that, you'll get injured."

"Ah...you're right. I've never even held a sword before, so I just..."

Shelfa said, looking apologetic.

It didn't seem like she would be saying "Actually, I'm quite strong," at any time soon.

It seemed this puzzle would continue for a while longer.

Castle Cortecreas was surrounded by woods and meadows, with cultivated land spattered across the countryside. It definitely did not appear to be the center of the Astel region.

This was because while any normal town was usually situated at the foot of a castle, his was located at a place a small distance away. He had purposefully done this when constructing the castle to keep them separate should the flames of war come calling.

Old ladies were stooped over picking at the vegetation in the cultivated areas, and it seemed the threat of Zarmine was all but forgotten here.

"It's so peaceful."

Shelfa said into Rain's arm.

They were both riding atop Chris, so that was how things turned out.

Sitting astride the saddle together, they were stacked like two spoons on one another.

Rain had suggested preparing another mount for her, but she had wished for them to ride together.

I really must be quite well liked. All I did was hang out with her for a little while, though.

Rain thought to himself.

If he brought this girl back to his home in the sticks, just what would his parents say...

"My goodness. This is the first time your mother has seen an honest-to-God princess. Let's me make up a batch of cookies now.".....surely his mother would say something like that.

"You took down a princess, did you now!" Rain's delinquent of a father would say, laughing heartily.

......Thinking about it now, my parents might be a little strange...

"Rain, uhm..."

"Hmm? What's up?"

Rain was brought back to reality by Shelfa, who seemed to have something important on her mind.

It appeared she had come to an important decision--and spoke the certain resolution she had come to in a soft voice.

"I said I wanted us to be together forever a moment ago...but from now on if you feel you are in any kind of danger, please leave me and get to safety. Rain, you staying safe is the most important thing to me."

Her tone of voice was very calm, but Rain couldn't agree with it.

"You're such a..."

Rain said into the golden hair below his eyes.

"...Ah."

"There's no 'ah' about it. That's quite conceited, you know."

Rain said, scolding Shelfa who had looked up at him with a shocked expression.

"You're the one who asked if you could stay by my side, so it's alright if you understand this. You've got a genius like me on your side, so you should rely on me a little more."

"But if Rain is--"

"There's no buts about it. If you don't like me then say it clearly. That's why, until I deny a request, you can rely on me as much as you'd like. --After all, you're different from King Douglas."

With the hands holding onto the reigns, Rain hugged her to him.

"I'm sorry I wasn't able to do anything for your father. I'll only apologize to you. I would have thought about it a little harder if I'd known he was your father."

"Don't let it trouble you."

With an expression which showed her complete trust in him, she sank her delicate form deeper into his arms.

"My father's death was his own fault, and his alone. More than anything, I am happy that you've said I could rely on you..."

There wasn't a hint of uncertainty in those words.

Unable to voice a response, Rain could only put more strength in his arms which held Shelfa.

Having talked for so long, they had come quite a ways.

They had gone through one forest, and another spread out before them. It was at that moment that he noticed a cloud of dust rising, and he could make out a group of men astride horses in it.

Rain's vision was excellent, and he could even make out their bodies covered in leather armor, and the long swords which hung at their waists. All of this led him to the conclusion that they were fighters.

When they spotted Rain and Shelfa, they brought their whips down on the horses, increasing their speed. Rain could feel the desire to kill emanating from tightly-drawn faces.

"Let's see that's one, two...about twenty I'd say. Wonder what their aim is... Then again, maybe they want the both of us dead."

Rain said, calmly.

"Rain?"

"Shelfa, it would seem we've got company."

"Wha...?"

After hearing Rain's statement, it seems she finally noticed the approaching group.

"They are...?"

"Assassins."

"...No!"

Shelfa stiffened atop the saddle. It was an obvious reaction given the circumstances. There weren't many people that could remain calm when their lives were in danger.

"You aren't running?"

"Well, I could do that, but within my boundaries I can't have such a group as them running free now, can I?"

"But...I just couldn't bear to see you get hurt."

"Please. There's no chance I'd be killed by such a large group as that."

"Are you...certain?"

Shelfa turned her body around, looking up at Rain. It was an unnecessary worry for Rain. Even so, he responded energetically.

"Of course! If I was in the mood for it, I could take on a thousand without any trouble!"

"Oh my..."

Shelfa's already large eyes opened even wider. Her face was filled with surprise and respect.

Looking at that expression, Rain nearly fell off Chris.

You didn't believe that just now, did you?

I'm going to have to think twice before I randomly say something to her...Well, I guess it's alright for now. It's not like I told her some scary horror story.

I guess I'd better warn her for now.

"Hey, little one."

"Yes?"

"You see, you can't go around believing everything someone tells you. --Of course, I'm an exception."

"Then there is no need to worry. By nature I'm very prone to doubting, after all."

Shelfa laughed innocently.

"There is only one person I trust from the bottom of my heart, and that is you, Rain."

"I s, see..."

"Okay."

Still leaning comfortably against Rain, Shelfa nodded firmly.

There were other problems inherent in not believing anyone else, but upon remembering how she had lived until only recently, he could see why she might feel that way. After all, King Douglas had been quite coldhearted in dealing with his daughter.

"Okay."

While they had been talking, the approaching assassins had nearly closed in.

Rain pulled back on the reigns, bringing Chris to a halt, before dropping elegantly to the ground.

"Well then, I'll be right back. Stay here and watch together with Chris."

"Okay."

No longer objecting, she nodded obediently.

However, she took Rain's hand in her own slender one, speaking to him in a natural and matter-of-fact tone.

"I pray for your fortune in battle. --If by any chance something were to happen to you, I am prepared for what will happen then."

It was at that moment Rain came to realize something.

That something was just how deep and pure her feelings towards him were.

Geez. Little one, you're really overestimating me...

Watching Rain approach, the men dismounted.

Swords were not yet drawn, but their desire to do so was clearly evident within the glint of their eyes.

At the very least, it was plain they weren't here to make friends.

Putting on a rather refreshing smile, he drew closer without acting hostile.

When he had grown close enough for all of them to see each others' faces clearly, he stopped, raising his hand in a light-hearted manner.

"Hallo! Great weather today, ain't it?"

Silence.

The men were all staring at Rain as an alley cat might upon the passing of a human.

Some even seemed to be saying 'Is this guy for real?' One of the men stepped forward.

"There no mistakin' him?"

"Yeah. This is the same bold smiling face we were shown through Magic Vision."

An important looking youth in the very back responded. He had a round face that seemed as though it hadn't been washed in a quite a while.

"It's just, he really seems quite young...Is he really twenty-five?"

Ignoring the one who had raised the question, Rain spoke.

"You know, I've got something I'd like to discuss with you. Could you listen and not get all hot-blooded?"

They all looked at Rain as though they thought he were the cheekiest brat they'd ever met. Still smiling, Rain continued.

"That rumor about me being the strongest in the world is true, but it's not like I enjoy killing people. Even if I killed all of you I wouldn't get a single copper coin. Well, I suppose it would do the rest of the world a favor, I suppose."

Rain's voice was nonchalant as he gave a once-over of the men. His expression seemed to hide a poisonous side. He nodded to himself before continuing on.

"Only, I do feel it'd be best if we could clean this up without spilling any blood. I've no idea who hired you, but it's hopeless. That's why I'll give you one option. I'll pretend I never saw you, if you clear out of my land right away...I told you not to get angry, didn't I!?"

The expressions of all the assassins changed entirely.

The killing intent radiating from them had grown even thicker.

The man at the front spat on the ground.

"Messin' around...It'd be best if a guy like you weren' around no more."

Rain withdrew his smile, letting out a soft sigh.

"Actually, I feel the same way."

In the next moment,

Rain shifted abruptly, seeming to blur with the speed of the motion.

He vanished from their field of vision in an instant, and at an incredible speed he closed the distance between them, appearing directly in front of the group.

By the time the men finished processing the action, he was right before their eyes.

First was the man who had stood at the front. Rain's magical sword sliced diagonally down from the shoulder. The blade became a diagonal flash of blue, as it easily severed through bone.

The leather armor was no more use than a sheet of paper. Fresh blood sprayed from the cut. Before the blood could even spill onto the ground, the sword went left and right, cutting flesh and opening a fountain of blood.

Each time, the gleaming aura of magic sliced through the sky, leaving a pale blue impression.

It was almost laughable how the assassins fell one after another. Rain's speed was too quick, leaving them no time to use the advantage of numbers they had.

Darting around like the wind, no one was able to catch him. They were dropped one after another as though they were immobile dolls.

The afterglow of the blue sword was so phantasmal, the image was burned into the eyes of the assassins.

Those left standing gulped, their faces turned gaunt.

"...A Demon Blade! S, spread out! He's more than we expected!"

"You're too late, half-wit."

Before the eyes of the man who had yelled, an afterimage solidified.

Without saying, it was Rain.

"—Gahh!"

By the time the man, sword in hand, who had warned the others realized it, Rain had cut into his heart with the stroke of a sword before he could do anything in retaliation, ending his life.

With a speed that made him appear blurred, Rain withdrew his sword from the man, sinking his next assailant into a sea of blood.

About this time the enemy finally started to move.

Burning with anger, two men came at him from his left and right. There were most likely mercenaries whose arms were good. Well trained, they aimed for Rain's vitals at a very skilled speed.

But what they cut was only a shadow -- nothing more than Rain's afterimage.

He analyzed the movement of their blades in a matter of milliseconds, dodging the deadly attack.

As though victory had rejected them, their swords only drew an arc through empty space.

Rain avoided the two swinging longswords with only minimal movement, while at the same time twirling his Demon Blade in his right hand.

The neck of one, and the chest of the other were cut open, and they dropped to the ground.

Continuing where they left off, another assassin jumped in.

"Uwaa! --Uoah!"

Rain dodged the attack, and a flash of blue dove into the assailant's neck. Fresh blood spouted out.

Without waiting to see the result of his attack, Rain attacked another behind him with a backswing.

"--Gah!"

The man managed to bring his sword just in time to block the fatal blow. Yet fiery sparks flew as the sword, unable to stand up to the force of the Demon Blade, was cut through.

Without a decrease in speed the Demon Blade continued into his chest.

With a fountain of blood spewing from him, the man fell backwards. As though following its master, his sword dropped to the earth beside him.

Without turning around Rain swung to his rear.

He caught one who had tried to circle around him accurately, cutting into his neck. With a gurgling sound the man flew backwards to land by the side of the path.

But by that time Rain had already moved on to his next prey.

Rain seemed to dance through the twenty assassins. Every time his Demon Blade swung through the air, another scream followed as someone dropped to the ground bleeding.

They had no chance. Unable to keep pace with Rain's movements, they were unable to make use of their numbers.

The path was wide enough for them to take a surrounding technique, but they just couldn't keep up with the speed.

Rain beat them in speed, sword drawing, physical strength and even in courage. At this rate, it couldn't even be considered a fair fight.

No feeling of tension showed on his face.

Whether they wanted to admit it or not, the men came to realize that Rain was still taking it easy.

About ten seconds after engagement had begun, they had already dropped to half their original numbers.

"Shit. We'd finally gotten such a large group together because of the commission.....This guy's a monster!"

A tall man with a tight face in the back of the group said with in a dismayed tone.

The leader's fear and weakness was open for the rest to see, and the rest of the assassins who had determinedly continued the fruitless assault now backed up. They traded pale glances among themselves.

"Hey, what's wrong? Where'd all that spirit you had a moment ago disappear to?"

Rain ceased his offense, swinging the Demon Blade over his shoulder and even giving a light yawn.

He wasn't even breathing heavily as they witnessed his unbelievably inexhaustible stamina.

"I'm still willing to overlook this little matter. I'll give you one more chance, so run!"

"W, what'd you say!? Don't get all high and mighty just 'cause you've got yerself a Demon Blade! Men, hurry up and attack!"

Only the leader spoke out so firmly; the rest seemed to be of a differing opinion. They slowly began backing away from Rain.

"Ah, so that's how it's gonna be, huh. Well if you want to die so badly I won't stop you."

With that last word he made his move, and at that moment with a frightening speed the men leapt for their horses.

"Hey! What's the meaning of this!? Hey! Get back here!"

Not one responded to the leader's commands. They all jumped on their horses and, without looking back, galloped off. With a great tumult the horses of the dead men chased after them as though in a fright.

The only one who lost his chance to flee was the thick-faced man who had just lost all of his men.

"Waaaaaaaah!!!"

The man's stressed cry continued for a while.

"Well now, what should I do with you."

Rain pointed a devilish look at the thick-faced man.

He grew deathly pale. It was almost comical the way sweat started to pour down his face. He turned his eyes away.

In a high-pitched yet small voice, he spoke.

"D, don't get upset......we didn't mean you any harm."

"Didn't mean me any harm? Are you spacing out or something? You must really have a death wish, right?"

Rain lifted the Demon Blade above his head.

"Woah! Wait! Don't be so hasty. You'll understand if you let me speak! I did nothing wrong. T, the prime minister g, gave me an order. That's why....Ah."

All of a sudden the sweaty, thick-faced man started cut himself off. His small eyes widened as his gaze turned to something behind Rain.

"Rain! Are you hurt anywhere?"

Deeply concerned Rain turned around to see Shelfa trailing Chris, as she walked towards him while purposefully avoiding looking at the corpses around her.

"Now just a moment. I told you not to move."

"I'm so sorry. But, Chris started to walk so......But Rain, you're ever so strong."

Shelfa looked up at him with respect in her eyes.

It would seem her admiration had won over her fear for the moment.

"Well, you know. I'm a genius after all."

Letting out a quick chuckle, Rain brushed his hair aside.

"...Who's the girl?"

The thick-faced man asked feverishly, dousing Rain in verbal water.

"It's got nothing to do with you! Her destiny has kept her from you until now, and from here on she will continue to have no fate that includes you. Don't look so casually, you'll dirty her with your ogling!"

"Y, you don't have to go that far!"

"Yes I do! Besides, do you really think you're in a position to be asking me questions?"

With Rain bringing his blade up to make contact with the man's throat, he started to shake, trying to raise his hands. But remembering he was still holding his sword, he hurriedly tossed it aside.

His hands shot up.

"I get it! Please, forgive me! I was only doing as I was told. It was the prime minister, he gave the request to the assassins guild, he's the one you should be upset with!"

"...Try being a little more specific, would you."

"I only accepted the request the other day. The assassination order was handed down directly from King Leygur, according to what he said. So, the one at the head of that order is King Leygur himself!"

"Hmph. A woman is one thing, but for a man to aim at me with such vengeance... It's a century too early, if I don't say so myself."

Rain scrunched up his face.

"King Leygur plans to...assassinate Rain..."

With a level of worry far beyond shock, Shelfa clung to Rain's arm. Conveying to her it was nothing she need be concerned over, Rain smiled gently at her. After all, it wasn't the first time he had been the target of hostile intent.

"So, are we square? You'll let me go, right?"

"You're quite a stuffy fellow, you know. What with your men all scattered....Ah."

Rain caught himself in mid-sentence, looking towards the forest before him and furrowing his brow.

There was another cloud of dust. Another group of roughly ten men were coming this way at a full gallop.

"Haah! Hahaha!"

The moment he saw that, the thick-faced man seemed to have been revitalized.

As though his menial demeanor had been wiped clean, he now wore an expression that showed how full of himself he was.

"Take a look at that! They're on my side! Thinking something like this might happen, I increased the number of men much more than that requested by the prime minister. How about them apples, eh?"

"Are you really that stupid?"

Rain responded acutely.

"If twenty people couldn't stand up to me before, what makes you think ten will do you any good now?"

At that, the thick-faced man's haughtiness disappeared. It seemed he had just realized he'd overlooked that detail...

"...Geez. On such a fine morning as this, a bunch of men keep streaming in. I can't take it any more. Maybe I'll just use that technique..."

Letting out his grievances in an upset tone, he removed himself from Shelfa's hold, lifting his Demon Blade far above his head.

Paying no heed to the discomfort shown in both the man and the girl, Rain forcefully dropped his sword.

The blade which was giving off a bluish-white aura left a path as it cut through the air.

For an instant it seemed the space itself had been ruptured--and far off where the advancing group was approaching, the men seemed to lean backwards.

It was as though they had actually received a powerful blow head on.

From within the group of assassins, several of them dropped from their mounts, spewing blood.

In a flurry of uncertainty the other men stopped their horses. They were looking around at their surroundings.

"That was me, dolts. Hurry up and realize it. ...Guess I'm gonna have to do it again...One, two three!"

Dropping his blade the same as before in a tone that made him seem as though he were playing around, one man fell from his horse. It seemed they finally understood the one doing this was Rain.

After pointing in Rain's direction and exchanging hurried words, they turned their mounts around and ran off.

"It would have been best if you'd all done that from the beginning, you know."

Rain said, tiredly. Completely opposite to the composed Rain, the thick-faced man had lost all color in his face. They had come to understand what it meant to face a Demon Blade from that last attack.

"Eh, a long-distance attack...I never would have thought that sword....c, cou, cou...c"

"What are you, a rooster? You want to say this is the 'Siren's Blade,' don't you?"

"H, how can you say that with such composure!?"

The thick-faced man's bearded face was alight with fear.

He thrust out a shaking finger in Rain's direction.

"Do you have any friggin' idea how dangerous a blade that is!? Where in the world did you come across it!?"

"Don't get your fur in a bunch. It's not like I'm telling you to use it or anything." Rain said firmly, closing the topic.

--There were no inscriptions on the blade.

Neither was there any record of who had imbued the blade with its magical properties.

The only record of the blade still around, goes back to a distant time, more than a thousand years previous.

Around that time, a small country known as Celestia flourished in the desert at the center of the continent.

It was a small country of five-thousand, where the nation was more like a town in size. Yet, because its center was an oasis, the country was quite prosperous.

That is, until one blistering summer day.

On that day, a lone stranger set foot in the peaceful country of Celestia.

Even to this day no one knew what business had drawn him to that place.

All that was known, was that this man who's eyes gleamed like a demon's had without warning, begun to slaughter the townspeople.

He had done it with a Demon Blade held in one hand, which gave off a blue, magical aura.

Any one that was in his field of vision, no matter the distance, could be attacked. That was the blade he wielded, and the power it possessed. One by one the men who tried to stop him fell to the blade until at last, at the gates of the palace the soldiers came out to face him.

By the time they finally succeeded in killing the murderous demon of a man, according to the legend, over one-thousand people, including the townsfolk, had been massacred.

Of course, there is the possibility the numbers were exaggerated. However, what is undeniable is that the Demon Blade stole a countless number of lives.

What was most saddening, was that among the victims was the Kingdom's crown prince, who had been leading the soldiers.

After losing his only son, the King who had been full of wisdom fell into grief and finally died in madness.

The King's bloodline ended, yet the story of despair continued. An internal revolution took place and brother spilt the blood of brother. Finally, the Kingdom of Celestia was raided by savages and ceased to exist.

The beautiful town was razed to the ground, and had never been rebuilt since.

...After that, people began to fear the existence of the Demon Blade which had brought about the destruction of the country, and soon everyone began calling it the 'Siren's Blade.'

This evilly-named demonic blade which had been lost from the pages of history centuries previous, had been found by Rain some years ago, deep underground in long-forgotten ruins.

"Y, you're quite a guy...! If I had only known someone like you would be my target, no matter how much I'd been offered or how many people accompanied me, I'd never have gotten involved with you!"

The thick-faced man cried out. His expression was a mixture of fear and regret.

"That doesn't concern me, fool."

Rain cut in, interrupting the man's rant.

"Putting that aside for the moment, you aren't thinking you'll be able to get out of this now, are you? My Demon Blade here craves blood, you see."

The blueish-white blade gave off the faint sound of buzzing insects, as he brought it around to the neck of the thick-faced man. The overwhelming effectiveness of that action caused the man to start to sweat heavily.

"P, please help me! I've no idea about anything other than what I've already told you! There's eight, fifteen kids waiting for me to come home! Please, forgive me, I'm begging you!"

"T, this guy. You can lie pretty easily, you know."

Agitated, Rain swung his sword back.

"Besides, your math doesn't add up! So just die already!"

"Uwaa! Y, you've got it wrong! There's one group of triplets, and several twins---!"

"Geez, that's so troublesome! Just go to the realm of the dead like a man!"

"Ah, help meeee!"

Hopping up, the thick-faced man turned his back on Rain and took off like the wind.

He may have some skill, but it seemed he was simply too pleasant a guy.

After he had shrunk into the distance, the thick faced man started to run in a zig-zag pattern. Most likely he was trying to avoid the long-distance attack. Even if he did that, it wouldn't make much difference to the 'invisible slash' of the Siren's Blade.

The only way to avoid it was to dodge it with luck the moment before the strike would connect.

"He's really a guy that makes people laugh."

Without the slightest intention of sending an attack after him, Rain slid his sword back into his scabbard, turning to look at Shelfa.

Melancholic eyes stared back at him.

Her brows which made a beautiful arc, were currently furrowed with worry.

"What's wrong, little one?"

"It is alright, isn't it? Oh, please say that it is."

"Huh?"

At Rain's response, Shelfa stretched out her hand to Rain before speaking.

"Even being attacked by the King of another country, even having the Siren's Blade with you...Rain, you will be okay, won't you? You haven't been injured, right? ...You won't ever leave me all alone, right?"

"...A fool of a girl you are for thinking that. Of course I won't. There's no way I'd lose to the likes of them. Rest assured, even this sword depends on who's wielding it. There's no sin in the blade itself."

".........I believe it, those words."

It took some time before Shelfa lifted her face, showing him a smile.

"Rain, will you teach me swordsmanship sometime?"

"Eh...? What for?"

"I don't want to be a stumbling block to you. More than just staying by your side, I want to become a girl worthy of you, even if only by a little bit."

Shelfa said, with a voice like two glasses clinking together.

He was really at a loss.

Wrapping his arm around Shelfa's thin waist, he was at an uncommon loss for words.

......Am I really someone who can receive such words from such a girl? Even though all I am is just someone who's spent their entire life with strength as their objective...

"Rain?"

"Oh, yeah. I'll teach you. But in return, you need to learn how to cook. A girl who can't would be quite a problem after all."

"Yes, most definitely! I'll work so hard I won't lose, Rain."

"...Now just a moment, you think someone like me would work hard?"

Rain pulled back, shocked.

Shelfa simply looked at him with her kind gaze.

"I never once doubted in your genius ability. But I'm sure you also went through some very difficult training."

Just then, as Rain was about to open his mouth in protest, Shelfa grabbed his hands.

"The first time we met, when you held my hand, I wondered to myself why your hands could be so hard. ...I realized it while thinking about it a little later. That it was the result of many blisters and sores. Because you are always holding your sword... That's why your palms are this hard.

--Am I wrong?"

Rain came to realize what it meant to be at a loss for words that day. That was exactly how it was, and there was no room to downplay it.

Pulling himself back together, Rain matched his response to her statement of working hard.

"Fool, you shouldn't harden such soft hands. It'll just depress me when I hold them..."

That retort was all he could muster.

Geez, it wasn't just her outward appearance, but what was on the inside as well. She might really have what it takes to be royalty.

"You're really impressive, little one."

"Eh?"

Shelfa tilted her head cutely to the side.

"No, nevermind. Shall we head back soon? Xenoa is probably running around crazy about now."

"Okay."

Nodding with a smile on her face, she pitter-pattered over to Chris. Looking at her from behind, Rain spoke silently.

If the true identity of that pressure you give off is due to your latent abilities...

Then Shelfa, you're the real genius.

--Not a sham, like I am...

<noinclude>
{| id="nav" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Rain:Volume_1_Chapter_3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Rain|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Rain:Volume_1_Chapter_5|Chapter 5]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Rain:Volume 1 Chapter 2

2013-05-28T02:27:35Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 2: Ralphus’s Battle==
The drizzle that had been falling since midnight finally lifted around noon. It was a great relief. After all, with winter around the corner, you didn't want the water freezing over.

Ralphus looked back at his men, shaking his head softly.

Since they were marching it wasn't too strange, but it seemed nobody was talking. Even so, it just felt too quiet.

It was almost as though his men riding along the road were being pressed in by uncertainty for what lay ahead.

It wasn't strange...after all, the country they were going to face was Zarmine after all. Not many people would be excited about going off to a battle where the chances of winning were slim to none. No matter how seasoned a fighter, everybody wished to return alive from the battlefield. Nobody in their right mind would wish for anything else.

Ralphus felt the weight of responsibility in caring for the lives of his men weigh down on his chest.

The land they were passing through now was once Lunan, wiped out half a year previously by Zarmine. They were passing through a scarcely traveled forest, along a narrow road.

Ralphus had already passed the border several days earlier on the King's order, but currently he was moving towards the battlefield with only his unit.

The reason was simple. He had been left behind by the King.

This morning, he had awoken to find, to his great displeasure, that King Douglas and the other Generals had long since proceeded on.

It seemed that the King harbored a dislike for him after all. Most likely it was due to him covering for Rain before.

He had thought it was strange to have been sent in such a round about direction, but he never would have guessed that once in the enemies' land they would have been left behind.

Ralphus still did not regret his earlier actions, but the King's absence of generosity went beyond hopeless to verge on despair.

It was the nerve of the thing that got him upset the most. After all, it would only serve to harm their chances if a battle were to break out suddenly.

''...I've got to stop worrying about it. It's not something dwelling on it is going to change. It'll be alright if I can just give it my best.''

Telling himself so, Ralphus raised his voice to address his men.

They needed to catch up with the King as quickly as possible, but taking a break was also a necessity.

"Attention! All units, we will take a short rest before moving out! You have permission to eat!" As though a bit of life had been restored to his men, a moderately energetic response met his ears. The men dismounted from their horses, relieved for the moment.

Ralphus looked out over his men, observing, when he heard a shout from behind.

"Lord General! What are you doing!? When it's time to rest, don't be so stiff!" A man large both in stature and size rode up beside him.

He had a thick beard, and a face weathered with his experience in the mountains. His voice was rough, and his thick black hair was shaggy and unkempt.

His name was Gwen, and he had been Ralphus's aide since the first time he had gone to the battlefield when he was fifteen. He was halfway through his twenties.

"It's alright, I have to..."

"Come on, let's rest over there. I'll go with you!"

"--Alright, Gwen."

Giving a strained smile, Ralphus dismounted.

Gwen had a nice demeanor, but when he wanted to do something, it was hard for him to back down. Going along with him was for the best.

Also, for some reason Gwen still referred to Ralphus as Lord General, and had called him such for over ten years now. To be precise, there are times when he uses 'General,' but then he'll fall back into his habit of saying 'Lord General.' Ralphus had long since stopped caring, and so didn't mind being called 'Lord General' as much anymore.

After all, Gwen wasn't doing so in a disrespectful manner.

They walked away from the rest of the men, and sat down with their backs to a tree.

"Geez. The ground is damp. My butt's gonna get wet."

Gwen scrunched up his face.

"If you can feel it, then it's proof you're alive."

Ralphus let slip his current thoughts. Thinking he had said something foreboding, Gwen responded.

"Lord General, you think this time is that dangerous? I guess it can't be helped considering the enemy is Zarmine after all..."

"No no no."

Ralphus tried to downplay it, but he paused, mulling it over. There was no reason to hide it from Gwen.

"I'm afraid so. I can't deny that Zarmine is impossibly strong."

"I gotta agree with ya there. I've heard we've got about fifteen-thousand strong, but they've got forty to fifty-thousand just in their expedition force, right?"

"Yeah, according to the official reports that's how things stand. The commander...I believe his name was General Garblake."

The aide was something like Luminas.

Ralphus calmly recalled the two names. Garblake was a General who had honed his battle skills through countless battles, while Luminas relied more on strategy and brains to win his battles. Is what the rumors stated. After all, this would be the first time Zarmine and Sunkwoll would be facing off against each other, so not much information was available.

Even so, the absolute might of Zarmine was known. At the very least, they were two that should not be underestimated.

"Well, if there is such a difference in skill then there's no helpin' it. Besides that, there was something else I'm wonderin' about."

Gwen gazed fixedly at Ralphus. For some reason he frowned deeply.

"It's not like you, taking such a round about way to say something. What's upsetting you?" Ralphus asked gently. Gwen blurted out,

"Obvious! It's about Lord General Rain!"

"About Rain?"

"Yeah! Isn't he a close friend of yours, Lord General? If so, then I can't accept him just runnin' away like he is this time. When things are this bad, he's only thinkin' of himself... Don't it seem like he just went an' abandoned you Lord General!?"

"Rain, huh... Wonder what he's up to right about now."

Ralphus smiled, remembering the face of his close friend back in Sunkwoll. He must have already reached his castle over ten days ago, so probably he was being pestered by that golden haired beauty Xenoia right about now.

He had already sent off the letter Princess Shelfa had requested of him, and that had probably arrived as well by now.

"What are you laughin' about!? I'm really upset here!"

"Getting angry at me won't solve anything."

"That's true but...ahh! Lord General you're too nice fer your own good! I just don' get you!

As though he'd grown more aggravated from talking, Gwen’s veins were pulsing in his face, and it a swift movement he drew close to Ralphus.

Gwen’s face looked like that of a child crying at night, Ralphus thought apologetically. From the start, his face was one to show a lot of expressions though.

Not understanding Ralphus's feelings, Gwen sat back in discontent.

"Ya know, no matter what I say, I do admit that guys strong, at least a little. He has helped you out, Lord General, after all. It's just this time, even if he didn't care about anyone else, I thought he'd come an' at least help you, Lord General. Geez, what a mes'!"

"Even if you say that... I don't feel as though I've been betrayed by Rain."

"What else could there be....if this isn't betrayal, then what other explanation could 'der be?" Ralphus squared his shoulders, but could offer no response.

He knew himself that Rain wasn't that kind of person. It's just, it was hard to explain it to someone else. Something he believed in the depths of his heart, just wasn't something he could express in words.

Even Gwen had been helped out by Rain a time or two before, so at the very least he should have a little more faith in him.

Well, this time Rain had acted a little different from usual..
Wait a moment...

Thinking that far, Ralphus got caught on one thought.

Why would, after risking a lot of danger in opposing the war, he have been satisfied to just quietly accept being placed under house arrest... If he was serious about running away, there were countless other ways to do it. Then isn't there some other motive behind his actions? Another motive I haven't considered yet...

Contemplating to this extent, he thought of something as though just received some kind of divine revelation.

"I see! That guy...!"

Gwen’s eyes opened wide at Ralphus's exclamation, and he began to explain.

"I've got it. I know now why Rain wanted to be put under house arrest."

"...What are you gettin' at?"

"In other words, it's like this. How would things be now, if Rain had marched out with us?"

"That's easy. He'd be out here fighting with us right about now."

"No no no, that's not the point." Ralphus shook his head.

"If we go out to battle the way things are now, he'd just die with us. In that case, he wouldn't be able to fulfill his objective."

"Just a minute, Lord General...this ain't the place for thos' words."

It seemed even Gwen cared about his surroundings. Then again, Ralphus had just said something that anybody listening could mistake for a declaration of hopelessness.

"It's not like Lord General So, what is this objective?"

"That's obvious, isn't it. To save us."

Ralphus said with full certainty.

"Had he followed orders and marched out to war with us, no matter how strong he may be, he wouldn't be able to move as he wants. Under the orders of His Majesty, in the end only death would be waiting. That's why he got himself put under house arrest on purpose. If he did that, then he could move freely, and find a way to save all of us. That's the real truth here."

Ralphus nodded, as though confirming his own words.

Only, out of those he would save, most likely His Majesty wasn't included.

Gwen could only stare dumbstruck at Ralphus after listening to his response. It was the face a greedy moneylender would make upon spotting a poor customer.

"......Well, if that's the way thin's are, then I really wan' him to work hard. After all he's always goin' on about how much of a genius he is."

Gwen said sarcastically, turning his gaze to his companions. He didn't seem to believe even an inch of that explanation.

"But he most definitely has something up his sleeve. But you really seem to be doubting him, Gwen. Just as he says, that guy really is a genius. For some reason, Rain doesn't seem to believe his own words though..."

"D, don't joke about something like that!"

Gwen’s eyes widened in shock.

"He's someone who calls himself a genius every every ten steps you know?"

"Gwen, you're exaggerating. Well, not that far off the mark, and the gist of what you're saying isn't wrong. It's just, what he says and how he feels is a little different, is all I think."

"He hasn't told you anythin' specific, has he?"

To Gwen who asked curiously, Ralphus could return give a slightly lonely smile.

"Of course not. He's not someone who let's out what he's feeling that easily. This is just how I see it."

He was unable to explain any further to Gwen who was looking at him with an unsatisfied expression. Noticing another of his aides approaching, Ralphus stood to meet him.

"What's happened, Nigel?"

Nigel was an aide with a lot of experience on the battlefield, but just from looking at him you wouldn't get the impression of a warrior.

His lustrous black hair which must have been washed only this morning shimmered in the sunlight, as he looked at Ralphus with his large girlish eyes.

His face which resembled a beautiful young girl was the very picture of calm and composed.

There was almost no chance he had come just for idle chatter, so something must have happened that he had come to report about. Ralphus had an odd premonition.

"Reporting, General."

Nigel saluted magnificently, stating his business in a manner that suggested he was talking about the weather.

"The scouts have yet to return, though it is past the scheduled time."

Ralphus met Gwen’s gaze.

When proceeding in unknown territory, he always sent out many scouts. The fact that none of them had returned, was very forbidding indeed.

"Oi! You can't mean not a single one has returned!?"

Nigel nodded silently.

Nigel kept his unconcerned composure, but this was definitely not something that could be dismissed. Under most circumstances if a scout doesn't return, it can be assumed they were killed by the enemy.

Obviously in this case the enemy was none other than Zarmine.

It would seem as though their enemy had finally caught on to their movements.

It was the only explanation, Ralphus thought, biting his lower lip. Occupying enemy territory for this many days, it wasn't strange that their presence had been made known by now. There was no point saying it now, but from the start this strategy had been a bust.

"......Lord General, we're in a heap of trouble, ain't we..."

"Yeah. We've been planning a surprise attack, but in the end it is us who are on the receiving end... I'm worried about His Majesty. We're going after His Majesty!"

While he was still shouting--

From far off the faint sounds of a multitude of people bellowing could be heard.

Accompanying the shouts was the distinct sound of metal on metal.

"Che! It seems we're already too late!"

Ralphus shouted, clanking in his armor as he started to run. Shortly behind, the two aides followed.

The three of them, knowing what the source of the sound was, moved quickly through the soldiers to their mounts. In a loud voice, Ralphus addressed his men.

"Listen up! Bad news, but it seems the enemy is at hand! Most likely this sound comes from the start of a battle between our King and the enemy force. We must join the fight swiftly!"

As though their previous conversations had been stopped in their throats, the men all listened intently to Ralphus. All eyes and ears were on him.

After ensuring that his words were heard by all, especially the unit leaders, in a loud voice he gave the order.

"Alright! All units in formation, and move quickly into battle formation! When we reach the battlefield, line up and wait for my command. Everyone, quickly!"

Following Ralphus's command, the soldiers who had just been perfectly still, all moved out with a single objective. Movement was calm and without faltering.

Even with all the hard expressions on their faces, Ralphus, impressed, spoke to Gwen

"Even though war is just around the corner, they're all so calm. As expected of a soldier."

"No, that ain't it. It's because the one givin' the orders is you, Lord General."

"--? I don't understand."

Gwen shrugged, shaking his head at Ralphus, before pointing directly ahead.

"It's fine if you don' get it. Let's get goin'! If would be crazy for the Lord General to arrive later than the rest."

"Y, yeah. You're right!"

Light spurring his horse forward, he moved into a gallop. He prayed that they wouldn't arrive too late.

He and his men moved at this pace for a while. The extent of the bellowing and screams they could hear intensified as they drew nearer.

As Ralphus was hurrying down the road, he spotted a group of soldiers in armor running his way.

One of them was a centurion he recognized, so these weren't enemies. All of them had lost their mounts, and so were running on foot. From he fact that he could see several injured mixed in, he concluded they were in retreat.

Ralphus halted his horse, and raised his voice.

"Stop there! What are you doing? What has happened on the front?"

"......Aahh!"

The men's faces seemed to gain strength, and they looked relieved upon seeing him. Gwen made a 'hmph' through his nose before speaking.

"Whoa whoa, you're already deserting? Seriously!?"

"W, we're...!"

The centurion opened his mouth in opposition, but lost his nerve after looking into Ralphus's eyes.

"Th, there was no helping it! W, we were betrayed by one of our own!"

"Betrayed?"

Ralphus faced showed his anger at this news. The centurion swallowed hard.

"Th, that's right. As soon as we thought we had come into sight of the enemy, General Ganoa's and General Gilles's units turned on His Majesty's unit...H, His Majesty had his head..."

Seeing the color drain from Ralphus's face, the man started shaking and couldn't continue.

Ralphus forcibly ground his teeth, before asking quietly.

"In other words...His Majesty has died."

"Y, yes!"

The mens' eyes met Ralphus's, and as though guilty of some great crime, they shook in fear.

"......Ganoa or Gilles. Which one killed His Majesty."

"I, I don't know. The two of them, it was as though they were competing over it."

Ralphus grasped the situation.

In other words, when it had happened he didn't know, but they had accepted an offer from Zarmine. And so, knowing the plan of attack, they had made their final decision.

As soon as the Zarmine soldiers had appeared, they had attacked and killed King Douglas. After all, there was no better present when trying to buy your safety than the head of a King.

"AAHHHHHH! DIRTY SHITS!"

Gwen who had been silent until that moment, suddenly let out a tremendous howl. Nigel sat silently upon his horse, his arms crossed, seemingly lost in thought.

"......Have to hurry."

Paying no more heed to the men, Ralphus urged his horse forward. What filled his heart now, was the weight of regret.

''If I had only been more aware, I could have done something more to save His Majesty...Or else have I just always been making the wrong choices to end up here?''

Perhaps it was no use talking about it now, but even so he felt responsible.

"That's the end of the forest!"

Gwen said in a rather wary tone. Ralphus spurred his horse on faster, breaking out into the bright sunlight.

As his field of vision widened, he could see a dark multitude across the field.

The standard armor of Zarmine was jet black, and really stood out. It was as though the ground itself was a giant mass of pitch black movement.

But at the moment only a fraction of the mass was still continuing to fight, and it wouldn't be far off to declare the remaining Sunkwoll army done for. The difference in numbers was just too great, and the fatalities were rapidly increasing, or else they were deserting.

Seemingly sucked into the nearly forty-thousand strong enemies, it was clear that Sunkwoll's defeat was imminent.

The herd of silver armor was being pushed back, its numbers continuously dwindling.

From what Ralphus could see, it also seemed that the five-thousand that had made up the King's regiment was already completely eliminated, and the one's fighting now were the remaining Generals and some men that had rallied around them. Even so, the remaining were no more than several thousand strong.

As the rest of his unit arrived behind him, his men gazed out at the scene before them.

"Lord General...this is already..."

Gwen said, softly.

Ralphus slowly shifted his gaze across the battlefield. He understood what Gwen was trying to say. There was no point in joining the fight now. The King they were to protect had already fallen, and the remaining men were already starting to retreat.

Only, there was no way Zarmine would just let them retreat at this point. If they had wanted to, it would already have come to pass.

"I know, Gwen."

Calm enough to surprise himself, Ralphus turned to his men and spoke.

"Regrettably, this battle is already decided. I see no reason for us to join the fight at this stage.

Silently, the men took in what Ralphus was saying.

"As fast as your mounts will carry you, run back to your homes in Sunkwoll! There is no longer any reason for you to heed my commands. Everyone, return to your country!"

Ralphus raised his hand in salute.

Nobody saluted in return. The men who would always move immediately upon receiving a command...not one of them moved.

Ralphus, agitated, was about to repeat his order when Nigel silently moved forward.

"General, what will you do?"

He asked, his voice full of meaning. "Me? I will--"

After only a moment, Ralphus gave up on trying to make an excuse. They aren't people he could easily deceive anyway.

"I have decided this will be the place where I die. You need not worry about me, so the rest of you should hurry and return home."

Nigel said nothing, and only continued to stare at Ralphus. "What is it, Nigel?"

"I can't say. After all you will just tell me to stop. Besides, I understand how you feel."

"That response, it's obvious what your planning! Just be quiet and follow my order!"

Ralphus blurted out, forgetting himself for a moment.

Just then, a beat-red faced Gwen slapped Nigel on his back.

In a good mood, moved by Nigel's words, Gwen continued to pound vigorously on Nigel's back, causing him to go into a coughing fit.

"So moving! That's what a real man is! I thought you were always so gloomy, but that you were such a man, I never knew!"

"Geez. But the part about you having no charm, that's the same as always."

Gwen laughed deeply, in a manner that caused his throat to vibrate wildly.

"Now just hold on one second. This isn't a time to be laughing, Gwen. Same goes for you, Nigel. I'm begging you, please go back to our homeland. If you leave now, there should still be time."

"Can't we just drop it already, General. The guys that don't want to die are already running away, and the ones following the same fate as the Lord General, won't listen no matter what you say."

Gwen said cheerfully, showing off the great battleaxe strapped to his back.

''You're just talking about yourself... ''Ralphus let out a sigh. Only, it wasn't just Gwen

Starting with Nigel, not one man moved from his place.

"Everyone...forgive me...."

"What are you goin' on about. Let's get down to business already. Where should we start? It's an all-you-can-have buffet of enemies to choose from."

"Let's see."

Ralphus recovered his composure, and pointed to the depths of the great army to where their previous allies stood.

"If we're going to die anyway, we might as well have some revenge on the betrayers." 

Gilles, who had sold out Sunkwoll, was uncharacteristically standing at the front lines, even though the battle was still in progress.

Of course there was a reason.

Because the head of King Douglas had already been taken by Ganoa, he need to prove his loyalty to Zarmine by taking as many heads as he could.

His change of sides still only just a faint promise, things had gone full circle for him.

Then again, he may be at the front lines, but everyone who had once counted him an ally, were in the process of fleeing.

At he very least, that is what Giles was thinking.

That idiot Ganoa. Just because he had taken the King's head, he had already long since fled to the back lines. Even though it was a chance for him to gain even greater achievement.

His large body swaying with the movement of his horse, Giles was at that moment contemplating his next action.

According to his agreement with Zarmine, he had been promised territory that was several times the size of the land he had now. With that much land, he could even build a new castle.

He had always been thinking his castle was too small.

He would need a lot more side rooms too. Then he'd order his men to find him some beautiful girls.

Giles had the image of the beautiful Princess Shelfa float into his mind. Might he make that virgin girl his... Well, it wasn't impossible. She was no longer that flower so far out of his reach.

Grinning broadly while imagining having his way with the willowy princess, one of his aides approached him on horseback. His face was pale.

"General! T, trouble! E, enemies are attacking!"

"Enemies? What are you daydreaming. They've all been almost completely wiped out already!"

"It's not them, the enemy is different!"

His aide's face was filled with fear as he stood before Giles.

"It's G, general Ralphus's unit, sir....that unit is charging straight for us! They'll be here any moment!"

"WHAT!?"

Giles wildly looked towards the front.

There was something like a cloud of dust rising, and the bellowing of a small group charging this way. That standard was unmistakeably Ralphus's.

"N, no way..."

Gilles's large body shook violently, as he let out a whimper.

It's not that he had failed to see Ralphus arrive. It's just, he never thought Ralphus would join in the skirmish.

When the battle was determined, and all that remained was to eliminate the remaining Sunkwoll forces, be it Ralphus or anyone else, there was no way they would charge into the fight. Even if it was to show their allegiance to Sunkwoll, this was the time to retreat and rethink a new strategy.

――It was a huge miscalculation for Giles, who had lived his life from the viewpoint of a mercenary.

Ralphus's standards were something he couldn't begin to comprehend.

"What's your order, General!?"

The aide had asked, but it was Giles who really wanted to know the answer.

"F, for now let's set up a defense! The Zarmine army should come to help shortly!" Just as he barked the order, the first wave hit.

Just like a sharp blade, the enemy force sliced into Gilles's ranks. Gilles's men were not prepared for such a frontal assault.

Apart from knowing they had betrayed their allies, there was an unshakeable fear of Ralphus himself. After all, Ralphus's bravery and feats on the battlefield were highly renowned throughout Sunkwoll.

Giles was no exception. He was a man with a high level of self-confidence, but even so he had never once thought he could defeat Ralphus.

In the next moment, the unit which Ralphus was heading crashed into the front lines of Gilles's men. Giles swallowed hard.

What forcefulness.....there's no way we can win this one. Zarmine! Why haven't you come to help yet!

About ready to cry, Giles looked back to see the Zarmine forces withdrawing, even though their distance wasn't all that far apart. They didn't move one foot from their location. They looked on with a cold gaze that would cause anyone to become enraged.

"Damn it! What's going on!?"

Looking around for his aide, Giles realized that he had disappeared without him realizing.

''Abandoned!'' It wasn't just him. Giles watched his other commanding officers turn their horses back and flee.

From the start his men weren't ones to follow out of respect, and when the situation turned grim, they all fled, leaving him behind.

"A, ah......"

Falling deeper into fear, Giles pulled back on the rains hard.

His mount, not used to such treatment, bucked, tossing its rider off. "Ahhh!"

Giles landed hard on the ground, shouting in pain at the sudden impact to his hip.

Unfortunately all the others around him had already disappeared, and Ralphus saw it all.

Their eyes met, as though a line had been drawn between them.

"Giles! Don't move!"

Usually very subdued in speech, Ralphus let out a shout like lightning. "Hiyaaa!"

Letting out a scream that would cause anyone's soul to jump out of one's body, Giles squirmed along the ground in an attempt to move away, but his horse had long since disappeared.

"I, is there nobody!?"

There was no response, and by the time he regained his feet, Ralphus was standing silently before him.

Behind him stood two aides, and they watched him just as fiercely.

"A, ah......"

Giles swallowed what he was about to say.

Without breaking their gaze, Ralphus asked quietly.

"The one who raised his hand against His Majesty, was it you, Giles."

"I, it wasn't. Head, His Head was taken by Ganoa! I, it wasn't me!"

"......I see. In that case, he will be sent to the underworld after you......Prepare yourself, Giles." Ralphus's sword sung as it was removed from its scabbard.

With eyes narrowed sharply, and taking a stance that left no openings――Ralphus was overwhelming.

Giles had always considered Ralphus a quiet individual who liked and was liked by everybody. But now, as his body shook from the fear he felt, he realized.

All he had known up until this time was merely a fraction of the person standing in front of him now.

''Don't mess with me! There's no way I can take this guy! If anybody would be a match for him, it could only be that monster, Rain.''

"W, wait a moment. There's no need to be so hasty. Right? Sunkwoll is going to be destroyed, there is no mistaking that. Even us mercenaries have to think about which side to choose, wouldn't you agree?"

Straightening himself in a way that would cause no alarm, Giles laughed brokenly.

Ralphus only lowered his eyebrows in response.

With the sound of metal scrapping metal, Ralphus swung his sword up to stop just before Gilles's nose.

"Giles! At his last moment, let's see the mercenary hold his sword up like a knight." Looking into Ralphus's eyes, Giles only shuddered.

''He's serious! He's really going to――''

"M, my reward! What I was going to receive, I'll give you everything! S, so at least let me live!"

"That's pathetic, Giles!"

Ralphus swung his sword.

Raising his voice to a feverish shout, Giles turned around and tried to run.

"You Fool!" was all he heard before a burning sensation on his back caused him to loose consciousness for eternity.

"If I could, I would have avoided attacking when your back was turned." Ralphus shook his head, looking down at the sprawled corpse of Giles.

Swinging his sword in a half-arc to let the blood fly off, Ralphus returned it to its scabbard.

"Nothin' we can do 'bout it. He tried to run in the most dishonorable way. He chose his own path." Gwen stated, spitting at the ground.

It seemed he was in no mood to show sympathy to Giles.

Most likely Nigel, looking coldly down at Giles, felt the same way.

"Besides that, Lord General. It seems the guys from Zarmine weren't planning on helping him from the start. Makes you wonder, don' it?"

Ralphus responded in a low tone.

"It is not all that strange. To them, it's just a way to have any obstacles finish themselves off. It's great to not have to lift a finger to get something done."

"――I see. In other words, they had been planning on killing Giles from the start. Just use and throw away......vile."

Gwen spat again.

Judging from his face, he was really upset.

It wasn't as if Ralphus was in a good mood either, but it was different.

He turned his gaze to the multitude of Zarmine soldiers, searching for Ganoa.

Perhaps because he had already slipped behind their back lines, Ralphus couldn't see him anywhere.

Even so he continued to search without giving up. While he was still looking, the high pitch of a whistle being blown entered his ears.

There was no reason to worry about the meaning of the signal. The black formation covering the entire land began moving, causing the land to reverberate in response. Their objective was most likely the annihilation of Ralphus and his unit.

All the other units had either been wiped out, or managed to flee.

"Seems like we'll have to put Ganoa aside for now."

"――Yeah..."

Gwen nodded in agreement.

Without showing any signs of nervousness, Nigel continued to calmly watch the army moving their way.

......At least these two he wanted to see live through this.

"Gwen, Nigel..you should――"

"Don' go there, Lord General."

"Our minds are made up."

The moment Ralphus had opened his mouth to speak, they had cut in.

"......Alright."

Ralphus couldn't say more than that.

These two seemed ready no matter what to take on the same fate. At this point even if he gave an order, it would be pointless.

Looking at his two faithful aides before turning his gaze to the rest of his men, Ralphus mounted his beloved steed, taking the rains in his hands.

"In that case! There are no longer any words I can give! Let us show our enemies our spirit to the end!"

"ALRIGHT!"

The roar from the men at his back, Ralphus shot out on his horse like an arrow released from a bow.

Aiming for the center of the enemy multitude, they charged straight ahead.

The enemy forces steadily grew closer. Before coming into direct contact, Ralphus stopped his horse just once, bellowing his name.

"My name is Ralphus Juliard Sunkwoll! Any who wish to fight me, come to the front!" Zarmine's soldiers balked for a moment, and in the next began to swarm wildly to his position.

"This is surprising. It seems a man by the name of Ralphus has come charging at us." Luminas, one of the main commanders of the Zarmine forces, said.

A pointed chin and pale complexion were the markings of the thirty-something military man. The black armor wrapping his body really didn't suit him. Those eyes which showed no underestimating, were directed intently at the enemy before him.

Ralphus was at the head of a small group that was coming intently towards his location. In reality he didn't want to deal with it, but at the same time he was impressed.

"Hmph. Now that is what I would call a true soldier. Compared to Ganoa or Giles who switched so easily to our side, it is like the difference between the clouds and the mud. Even more, wouldn't he be royalty? He most definitely said the name Sunkwoll."

A higher-up riddled with muscles all over his body said to Luminus, stroking his long beard. He had golden locks, and his face looked as though it were chiseled from stone. He was much older than Luminas.

He was the commander of this expeditionary force, Garblake.

"Actually, due to his exploits throughout the years, Ralphus has been granted use of the name Sunkwoll......if we were ever to have an ally, he would have been the most desirable." Luminas said, in a tone showing both how much he wished for it, and how much he knew it would never happen.

Even before looking into him, it was obvious he was a man who highly valued faithfulness. If he had been someone who could have been swayed by land or money, they already would have made a move.

Most people moved in the direction of the money. Even so, there were some who had no inkling towards fortune.

"If we won't be able to have him join us now......then what should be done?"

Garblake asked regretfully.

Luminas' reply was exactly according to his prediction.

The enemy had just arrived before them. This fight would most likely not be a very long one.

"Of course we will kill him. If we can't make him an ally, then he is only another enemy."

"No helping it, huh."

"Yes."

Luminas responded shortly.

No matter how skilled the soldiers were, on the empty plain with no strategy, just the sheer difference in numbers would decide the outcome of the battle.

After all, the most decisive factor in determining the outcome of any confrontation, was military might.

If a multitude collides with a small group repeatedly, the multitude will always win. That is an ultimate truth on the battlefield.

Only......it's not as if there was nothing nagging at the back of his mind. It was none other than Rain.

Actually the Sunkwoll General Luminas had always been warned about, was the 'Unknown Genius,' which was Rain.

From multiple reports, it was confirmed that Rain was currently under house arrest. The reason seems to have been his opposition to the strategy at the war council.

It was reasonable to see it as him trying to avoid going into a losing fight, but even so was he the kind of man who would abandon his friends?

From what reports told him, he and Ralphus were quite close friends......
That was the part where Luminas came up blank. To put it simply, he thought there might be a trap somewhere.

But, if that were the case and there really was a strategy, what about Ralphus' reckless actions?

――In other words, it could be assumed Rain hadn't let Ralphus in on his plan. ''Am I thinking too much...''

Garblake interrupted Luminas' musings. "Is there anything bothering you?"

"Well...... Nothing much, just that companion of Ralphus, Rain has me a little worried."

Luminas explained his concerns.

"――In other words, it's possible that guy might try something."

"Yes. Now that I think about it, His Majesty gave a warning about Rain. But he should be in his castle at the moment. Even if there is a mistake in the information, a few or a lot of soldiers would still be no match for the multitude we have."

"......That man is dangerous. I don't want to be brush him off here."

Luminas said carefully, coming dangerously close to going against his superiors with that statement.

He had plenty of reasons for being careful of Rain. But he thought it wouldn't be appropriate to mention them to Garblake under the current circumstances.

Besides, Garblake was showing little interest in Luminas' ramblings.

He snorted out his nose, looking at Luminas as though he were being foolish.

And then, a complaint.

"I don't give a damn about Rain. That aside, what's wrong, Luminas. They are breaking through. Hurry up and give an order. We have plenty of reserves to call on."

Luminas started at Galbreak's words, and looked around at the battle.

Ralphus' unit had split into two, an advanced and rear guard, which came slicing into their formation. It was commendable for such a small unit. But it still didn't even come close to turning the tide of the battle.

Vehemently charging into their ranks with such a small group really couldn't do much to the foreseeable outcome.

"There is no helping it. He is a commendable man, but we should hurry up and finish this soon."

Luminas orders five-thousand of his men to split into two groups, and flank Ralphus' unit on both sides. It was the end.

The units began moving after receiving his order. Luminas and Garblake followed the movement with their eyes.

――Only...

"Huh?"

For some reason a mist had entered his field of vision.

Thinking it had only appeared faintly, it began to grow thicker and whiter. "Ah..."

It seemed Garblake had noticed it as well.

The far off forest, and the unit――they were both dissolving into the mist. Even more, it began getting thicker and thicker.

"What's that, mist?"

"No, it's...Shit! It's magic!"

The mist had grown so white it looked like milk, and had encompassed both friend and foe alike. Luminas hurriedly retracted his previous order.

At this rate there was the possibility of attacking their own men. "What's the meaning of this, Luminas!?"

"It has to be the enemies magic. Most likely several magic users are forming the mist with their spells."

"What!?"

You've one upped us, Rain.

Luminas exhaled slowly. There was no one besides Rain he could think of that would intervene at this point. It seemed he couldn't leave Ralphus to die after all.

His lookouts were using Magic Vision, and so he knew Rain hadn't moved from his castle. In that case it must be some of his subordinates.

He had just been out-maneuvered, but for some reason he didn't feel that upset.

"Luminas, we can't make a move at this rate......"

"Yeah. We can't afford to have our men striking one another down. Send out some scouts to the surrounding areas, and see if we can't find the ones casting the magic."

Luminas gave his opinion, while at the same time knowing it would be nearly impossible to find such a small number of people under these conditions.

It would seem they could only wait for the mist to clear.

''――You've gotten in a blow. But Rain, you can't run if all you do is run. In the end, we will still be the victors.''

Atop his horse Luminas folded his arms across his chest, waiting for the mist to lift.

Ralphus was engrossed in the battle, not noticing the mist until it had covered him so completely that he had to stop his horse.

The Zarmine soldiers were retreating because of the same fear of striking an ally.

"......It seems we've been spared, Lord General."

Gwen exhaled slowly, drawing his horse close.

As though trying to tell the tale of his fighting, his armor was cracked and scratched all over. It was the same for Nigel.

"Gwen, you're in a bad way!"

There were punctures here and there in his armor, and from the holes blood could be seen dripping steady down. Ralphus dismounted his horse hurriedly.

Gwen held out his hand to stop him.

"It's nothing to get all worked up over, Lord General. Nothing has hit the bone yet. But yourself, Lord General, it seems you've been bearing some stomach pains?"

"......It's only a scratch to me."

Ralphus said firmly, brushing it aside. It was definitely more than a scratch, but not something life threatening.

"Really this mist couldn't have had better timing. It's a miracle, Lord General."

"Gwen, miracles don't happen so easily. This is Rain's handiwork. Either that, or one of his men."

"N, no way. You're reading too much into it."

"......Someone is coming."

Nigel said softly, interrupting their conversation.

Now that it was mentioned, the sound of footsteps could be heard. Someone was approaching casually.

"An enemy!?"

Gwen said, bringing his large ax to bear. Nigel gripped his spear.

But Ralphus, having an inkling on who it could be, didn't move.

"The two of you, lower your weapons. This is, most likely, alright."

Before he finished, a man riding a black stallion came into sight through the thick mist.

"Is this Sir Ralphus before me?"

The man halted his horse, looking intently at Ralphus.

His body was thin, so much so that he could easily be mistaken for a woman. He wore no armor, having only a heavy cloak on top of his shirt.

He had the black hair and green eyes were the tell-tale signs on a Sunkwoll commoner, but his eyes were uncannily sharp. His expression made him seem to be looking at something undesirable. Or else it might just be his natural expression.

"Yes, I am Ralphus. And who might you be?"

Upon hearing his response, the man nodded his head stiffly from atop his horse.

"I apologize for the tardiness. I am called Gunther Valoa. Under orders from my master, Rain, I have come to get Sir Ralphus."

Gunther introduced himself rather unpleasantly.

"I thought so."

Ralphus sighed, looking at Gwen from the corner of his eye.

"Is he here as well, then?"

"No. Rain wanted to, but I kept him from coming. The enemy will more likely be off-guard if my Lord remains in Cortecreas Castle."

"......I see. But that he would send you... I thought I was fairly familiar with Rain's acquaintances, but this is the first time we have met."

"Rain has kept me back for just such a time and place as this. I am the leader of the intelligence and tools division. That aside, we must hurry up and pull back. My subordinates are working at keeping the mist thick, but magic is a limited resource."

Gunther said to Ralphus is a slightly irritated tone of voice. Most likely there wasn't much time left.

Ralphus looked silently into the depths of the mist. Gwen, Nigel and the rest of his men looked at their Leader without speaking.

Finally, Ralphus spoke in a distressed tone.

"I was hoping to be dead before Rain stuck his hand in to help. I have no intention of escaping punishment for the sin of letting His Majesty die. My feelings still haven't changed."

"You mean you are talking about dying in this place?" Gunther confirmed, the color of his face never changing.

"That's right. There is something I want you to tell Rain when you return. I want him to live and watch over the Princess. Zarmine would never just be content to leave her be.. And if possible, I'd like you to take my men with you."

"NO!"

Silent until this last line, Gwen burst in.

"That's already closed. We've all decided to follow you wherever you go."

"But......"

"Anyway, that isn't something I can relay to Rain." Gunther broke in to the arguing.

"What's that supposed to mean!?"

"To me, Rain's orders are absolute. I have no intention of returning without you. It's not what I wished for, but I will just have to die with you."

His expression never changing, Gunther said so matter of factly. "WHAT!?"

Ralphus looked intently at his face, wondering if he was serious.

A steady gaze stared back at him. Not even his pupils wavered.

Just what kind of man was he... He didn't appear to be a noble, but still he had a last name.

"You are choosing death, then? In that case I must entrust what happens next to my subordinates. Then...!"

"W, wait!"

Ralphus moved to block the way of Gunther who was just heading off. "Is there something else?"

Gunther said, as though there was no greater disturbance that this.

It was rare to find someone who cared so little about living or dying. Saying he would stay with Ralphus and die along side him, it's not like he had any attachment to him.

For the first time, Ralphus's heart wavered.

If he did nothing, this man would die. Looking at his eyes, he knew it wasn't a bluff.

In other words, because of him, one of Rain's trusted men would die.

No, the problem wasn't just Gunther. Out of all Ralphus's men, not one tried to leave.

Even though Ralphus didn't want anyone to go down the same path.

''What should I do... What should I do!''

"Lord General......"

"General......"

Gwen and Nigel looked at Ralphus with concern.

Gunther looked at their display without any change, and seeming to remember something all of a sudden,

"That's right, there was a message I forgot to relay."

"......What is it?"

Ralphus's expression showed his confusion. Gunther said in a calm voice,

"Rain has asked me to give this message. The problem in a brawl isn't the method. It's who is standing at the end."

"That's all?"
Ralphus broke out into a bitter smile, but Gunther remained the same as always as he continued.

"Not that I think about it, he mentioned this as well. 'Don't push all the responsibility on me, you fool!'"

"That sounds just like him."

Even at a time like this, Ralphus couldn't help but chuckle.

He didn't mean for it to happen, but his shoulders started to shake, and he let out a huge laugh. He didn't even care about the looks from his men.

"So, what will you do? Are there no changes in your decision? I am in a hurry."

Gunther said, his expression one of impatience. His eyebrows were pulled together, almost making one single brow. ''That face is a shame to his features.''

Ralphus finally stopped laughing, and responded strongly.

"I've changed my mind. It seems Rain has a plan for victory yet. I'll be betting on that."

"......A more bothersome decision. If that was the case, then you should have said so sooner." Gunther responded in an irritated manner.

<noinclude>
{| id="nav" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Rain:Volume_1_Chapter_1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[Rain|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Rain:Volume_1_Chapter_3|Chapter 3]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Rain:Volume 1 Chapter 1

2013-05-28T00:59:47Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==Chapter 1 : Rain, Under House Arrest==
''The main fortress of Sunkwoll, Galfort Castle.''

A great number of retainers were gathered in the scarlet carpeted hall.

Today, a meeting of the generals was being held.

King Douglas sat in his throne, elevated above the civil servants and military officers spread out before him to the left and the right according to their respective wards.

A majority of them had blond hair and blue eyes…in other words they were the nobility.

Only Rain, kneeling before the king had a different appearance with his black hair and eyes.

As always his eyes seemed to glint mischievously.

No matter the circumstance, he was the kind of man to have the expression of someone who would get into trouble, and it was no different now.

At the very least, that was how Ralphus saw him.

Ralphus was a man who had a stern countenance, and a petite figure. There were no similarities with Rain.

Under ordinary circumstances he had a face which would make the temperature of all the ladies in the room rise, though now it was his face that was flushed with color.

Rain, won’t you stop it already—Unfortunately his prayer never reached his friend.

“As I have explained to you before, walking right into what Zarmine has planned for us is not a proper military strategy. It’s careless to send our soldiers out in this circumstance. Clashing would be the same as jumping head first into a well laid out trap.”

Rain’s raised voice was laced with sarcasm.

King Douglas’s eyes burned fiercely as he glared at this arrogance.

“Rain! Just what purpose do you have with those words! You are not just disagreeing with my plan of battle, you are taking it lightly!”

King Douglas, his cheek scarred from an old wound, shook violently in his anger.

The officials around him shivered but Rain, who was the actual object of this anger, showed no response. Yet, as though he were enjoying himself, the corners of his mouth were upturned in a faint smile.

It wasn’t just his courage…though that itself could be said to be very great.

Ralphus tried making eye contact, but his friend was already turned, facing the front.

And yet again he made an admonition…or perhaps you could call it a complaint.

“Battle strategy? Your Majesty, I don’t believe you could call a plan where ten-thousand of our troops go head to head with forty-thousand enemies, a battle strategy. However, if it was suicide you were after, then it seems a rather certain way to go about it.”

“What!?”

King Douglas ground his teeth ferociously. It seemed his tolerance was wearing thin.

Ralphus had no idea what Rain was trying to accomplish. Of all people Rain should know just how short the King’s fuse was. At this rate it was nothing to joke about. Rain was going to end up beheaded.

Is that how dissatisfied you are with this decision, Rain?

———

The strong kingdom Zarmine to the north of the continent had devastated Lunan only half a year earlier.

It was a country bordering Sunkwoll to the north, and for a long time had been at odds with them. But before Zarmine, there hadn’t been a chance.

Even though the number of their enemies had lessened, there was no time for celebrating.

However you looked at it, the next target Zarmine would aim for, would most certainly be the small country in the south west corner of the continent, in other words it was none other than this country, Sunkwoll.

As soon as Lunan had fallen, they had immediately started to strengthen their defenses, in hopes of preventing spies from entering. Currently the generals were preparing for war and gathering mercenaries under the command of the King.

At the end of last month, just as it had been assumed, King Leygur finally began mobilizing his impossibly large army for their next expedition.

Under orders of Leygur’s officers, they had begun moving to the south. Even a child could tell you their objective was Sunkwoll.

King Douglas, having decided to use a surprise attack to defeat the impending army in one stroke, had ordered for the seven generals to prepare for war.

Besides Ralphus, the other generals had begun preparing mercenaries and bringing them into Galfort Castle.

―—Rain was the only one ignoring that order, and making a scene by himself. This alone was enough to get him a severe punishment.

Beyond that, his wording bordered on rebellion…it was no shock that Ralphus would be agitated.

———

“Rain! I have bestowed upon you the title of a general even though you come from common blood! I even gave to you land of the highest qual…!”

In his anger the King chocked on his words. Alternately Rain’s response was light.

“Yeah. I’m pretty thankful for that.”

No matter how you heard hit, he didn’t sound appreciative in the least. Alternately it seemed as though he were making fun of the King.

“Why you! Such impudence! Then why! Why won’t you follow orders!”

There was the sound of a heavy sigh.

Of course it was Rain.

“It’s as I have already said. I am opposed to charging at the enemy with inferior military might and no plan. I wouldn’t be able to have you understand?”

He shook his head as if to emphasize the futility of the request.

“Taking a small regiment to collide with a large enemy force and fall gloriously――To someone like myself who worked their way up from a hired mercenary, I have no interest in dying honorably for such a war strategy.”

“What do you mean ‘I’ve no interest’ you fool! Your view is of no importance!”

Voices backing the king could be heard scattered throughout the hall.

It was five voices of all the generals, excluding Ralphus. Rain’s reputation among his peers was quite bad. But the man himself paid no attention.

“The land which once was Lunan is already under Zarmine control, making it enemy land. I can’t call us coolly marching through to perform a surprise attack sanity.”

“How dare you! Is that how you talk to your Ruler!”

''Shing!''

King Douglas removed his sword from its sheath.

He rose from his throne, taking large steps to close the distance between him and Rain. A voice resounded in the room, followed by a ringing as though the anticipation of what would happen next was palpable.

There was no way this could be left unchecked!

Ralphus moved quickly from his position to act as a shield in front of Rain, kneeling to the King.

“Please wait, your Majesty!”

“Out of the way, Ralphus! Today of all days there will be no pardon!”

“Even so cutting him here…it’s going too far, is it not!”

“Be silent, Ralphus!”

“No, I cannot remain silent!”

With the full force of his will behind his voice, silence filled the hall. Perhaps surprised by this action even the King lowered his blade.

Ralphus was always a calm man, but occasionally he was known to act altogether differently, as though he were a different person. Right now was one of those times.

Ralphus composed himself and without missing a beat continued.

“Very soon we will be entering into battle, and let’s say you cut down one of your allies. Please think for a moment.”

Replacing the King who had fallen silent in contemplation, the counter came from another.

His cheeks drawn in, one of the generals, Ganoa, had spoken.

“Lord Ralphus, even if you are trying to protect your friend, is not your action too much in the way of refuting His Majesty?”

――In other words, Shut-it and watch! is what he wanted to say.

Lord Gilles beside him nodded in agreement. Differing from the slim yet sturdy countenance of Ganoa, Gilles was as round as a barrel. Both of them had strong ties to nobility and its traditions, and were on the worst of terms with Rain.

There was no doubt they were heatedly hoping that Rain would be cut down and die. Ralphus was also from a long line of nobility dating back to the start of the Kingdom, and had always disliked these two.

“Fools!”

He cut in.

“If Rain were to die here, the only ones rejoicing would be our enemies! Don’t you see this!?”

Ganoa made as though he were about to say something in retort, but closed his open mouth after seeing the expression in Ralphus’s eyes. It was the same for Gilles.

With a pained expression King Douglas returned his sword to its scabbard. He probably felt as though that last statement had been directed at himself. He returned to his throne with large strides, staring irritatedly at Ralphus and Rain as he sat.

“It’s over. What would be gained from his execution.”

“Right, that’s it.”

Rain said lightly, as though he were speaking about someone else.

Deep wrinkles etched themselves between the King’s eyebrows.

Ralphus held up a hand, as though telling Rain to be quiet.

He knelt beside his friend.

“Your Majesty, I thank you deeply for you understanding…However, though he leads soldiers, he came here with none.”

“Ignoring an order is still ignoring an order. It might happen again.”

There is no way his crime can be completely overlooked.”

“That’s true but…”

Ralphus, struggling with the situation threw a glance at Rain, but all he received in return was a look that seemed to say ‘It doesn’t concern me.’

Even though it concerned him, he just couldn’t take it seriously.

Ralphus continued exasperatedly.

“Your Majesty, how do you find ordering Rain to be put under house arrest, instead?”

“Hrmm. House arrest…”

“Yes. For this fight there is no way to know when events will unfold, so I believe this to be the best solution.”

“I see…..”

King Douglas stroked his beard, his expression contemplating.

He didn’t like it, but because of Ralphus’s standing as a high ranking noble with great authority, he couldn’t refuse the suggestion out of hand.

Even though he was King, he had an inferiority in ancestry when compared with Ralphus’s noble bloodline.

“Yet I find it lacking in terms of punishment.”

The King’s reply was thick in his throat.

“That is not so.”

Ralphus lost no time in pushing something he himself did not believe.

“If Your Majesty leads us into complete victory against Zarmine, then even Rain cannot continue to refute the fact that there are things even he doesn’t know. He will also lose face against us as well.

There is no harsher punishment for a warrior who has made a name for himself than this.”

Rain seemed about to snort through his nose at the comment about a warrior’s honor, but even so that was how Ralphus worded it.

“Hrmm….Well, that is…”

“So let us proceed as such. Your Majesty, your decision please.”

Urged such, the King gave his order as though he had just chewed on sand.

“Well then, so be it. Rain, you are to be kept under house arrest in your fortress. You should be grateful that your punishment is no more severe than this!”

“Haha! I am truly thankful and joyous!!”

With a magnificently boisterous voice, Rain lowered his head in a gesture that was merely physical.

He glanced to the side at Ralphus, also with his head lowered, and winked, smiling brightly.

No way, he hadn’t planned on things turning out this way, had he… It that was the case there was no helping him.

Ralphus could only give a pained smile.

But, well…for a close friend to be safe, there really was nothing better. Because no matter how one looked at it, there really was no hope of winning.

At that moment both Ganoa and Gilles looked at him with cold eyes. Whether it was good fortune or bad, Ralphus never noticed.

<nowiki>***</nowiki>

Without any more opinions being offered, the meeting came to a close soon after. Ralphus invited Rain to a private room within the castle.

If war was next, then this could be their last parting.

“Would you care for a drink?”

“Ah, now that sounds like a plan.”

Rain laughed refreshingly.

Entering the room, Rain sat down heavily upon the sofa. He crossed his legs high in the air, kicking off his shoes.

Ralphus took a bottle of alcohol and two glasses from a cabinet atop the bookcase, filling them to the brim.

After pouring, he took a seat across from Rain.

Finishing it in one go, Rain poured himself another round. It was the way he always drank.

Ralphus tilted the glass to his lips, drinking slowly as he contemplated his friends face. He had a young countenance, unchanged from the first time they had met.

At the very least, though he was twenty-five, the same age as Ralphus, he didn’t look it.

He looked to be about eighteen or twenty.

There was a rumor that Ralphus, in whose veins flowed the blood of the founding nobles, was descended from elves. The lifespan of which is longer than man, and their aging also is slower. But as to why his friend should appear so young, Ralphus could only guess.

As he thought about it, he realized just how much he didn’t know about Rain.

Just then Rain spoke.

“By the way, sorry about earlier.”

“What are you talking about? You aren’t talking about the house arrest are you? I see, you were counting on my intervention weren’t you?”

“Yeah, I’d planned for it.”

“In that case you should have told me beforehand. What would you have done had I not jumped in to stop His Majesty?”

“I trusted you would definitely stop him for me. Besides, how could I confide in someone who is a terrible actor?”

“Hmph. That is true though.”

Ralphus understood completely.

Most certainly if he had heard ahead of time, it would have showed up on his face.

“Still I couldn’t believe you would be so opposed to this war. Do you really think there’s no way to win the upcoming expedition?”

“At this rate there isn’t even the tip of a pinky finger in plans that would help.”

Rain’s response was direct and guaranteed.

“This is completely and totally Zarmine’s trap. The speed of mobilizing our army being so slow also seems a determining factor. After walking right into the bosom of the enemy, the idea is to rip them apart from the inside?”

“……Seems that way. It’s just, if that’s the plan then what do you think we should do? Even if we left them alone, one day they will come to invade.”

“In that case we would defend ourselves in our land, Sunkwoll. Only if things came to that, either you or I would have to come up with the military strategy. On top of that, we would be responsible for mobilizing and directing troops…”

“That’s….but….”

Ralphus frowned.

King Douglas intensely disliked anyone giving him advice on military strategy.

Unless it dealt with something other than battle, the King wouldn’t even try to ask for Ralphus’s opinion.

“You know that’s impossible. Then there’s nothing to be done. It’s over. Basically because this is a world-wide conflict, it’s the numbers that give the commands.”

“—-Yeah.”

His last response was rather weak, but he understood what Rain was saying.

The analysis was cold but accurate.

Putting aside King Douglas’s personal skills, his ability to look at the entire situation and develop an appropriate strategy was lacking.

No matter how you looked at it, the end was predictable.

“Putting all that aside for the moment. I am not the type to throw away my life mindlessly following His Majesty. Especially for something like a special attack when there is no chance of victory.”

Ralphus tilted his glass in silence.

At least what he was saying was not wrong, even if the way he said it put others on edge.

The King’s harsh orders had often driven Rain into difficult situations, and it would be strange to see him sacrifice himself for the King, given all that.

First off, there is no basis for any kind of faithfulness towards the kingdom for someone who had once been a mercenary.

Depending on the situation, there might not be any at all.

But all people were different.

If there were fools who would plant their feet in the ground and remain to fight, then that was alright….

Rain stared intently at Ralphus.

“……With an expression like that, advising you to remain away from the expedition would be pointless, huh.”

“Yeah. I’m glad that you’re worried about me though.”

“—-not really. Only, not having someone around to banter with is disappointing, that’s all.”

“I see.”

Ralphus laughed quietly.

Draining the last of his glass, Rain stood up abruptly.

“Well then. It’s about time I head out. After all, I am under house arrest.”

“Yeah. Be sure to take good care of yourself, would you. It might be wasted words on you though.”

“Nah, you’re the one who has to take better care of themselves.”

For just a moment Ralphus thought he caught a glimpse of Rain’s apprehension, but in the next moment it was gone.

Without showing a hint of his dampened emotions, he left the room as though leaving an important meeting that was still in progress.

Ralphus followed him into the hall to see him off.

“That’s right.”

Stopping in his tracks, Rain turned around, remembering something.

“I wanted to ask you before but, do you know a girl named Michelle? She’d be about sixteen, and is of noble blood.”

“Michelle? Can’t say….Is there some special trait besides a name you can give me?”

“Let me see… She has straight blond hair that goes down to her waist, and a face so pretty it’s hard to believe…her voice is pretty too.”

“With a description like that it’s a little hard to place. There are a large number of nobles, after all.”

Ralphus said, sounding not a little irritated.

“But no matter how I look at it there is just too much of a gap between your ages. Certainly I may not know a lot about relationships between a man and a woman, but…”

“NO! Don’t misunderstand me! It’s not like that. I’m not interested in that. It’s just, there’s a promise I’ve made.”

“A promise?”

“Nothing. If you don’t know it doesn’t matter. Also I kinda know a place we might be able to meet.”

Waving his hand to dismiss the matter, Rain turned and continue walking away as though it were nothing.

He never once looked back.

Returning to the private quarters, Ralphus drank away the thoughts of his departed friend.

His thoughts turned to the unfavorable battle before him, and without a great movement in his destiny, he would probably never see that carefree man again…

Thud Thud

Deeply submerged in his thoughts, Ralphus heard timid knocking at the door.

With this level of timidity, it was hard to think it could be the aide, Gwen.

“Come in. …The――Princess!”

Opening the door easily, and standing on the other side was Princess Shelfa.

Blond hair reached down to her waist, and her skin was so pale it was almost transparent.

Her eyes which were one size larger than any one else's, were so cute they made one feel like a lowly subordinate, entranced by their lucidity.

Today her expression was excited, different from her usual, lonely expression.

To Ralphus who had reflexively gone down on one knee, she extended a small hand.

“You needn’t pay heed, Sir Ralphus. Uhm…Do you have a moment?”

“Of course. Please, go ahead.”

Lost in his confusion, Ralphus beckoned the Princess to enter.

He had heard that she had quite a dislike for people, so what she wanted with him….

The princess had turned 16 this year, though Ralphus had never really become acquainted. At most, when they had crossed paths in the palace he had bowed to her.

It wasn’t that Ralphus had been purposely avoiding her, it’s simply that the Princess was always in the inner rooms of the palace.

Though it seemed it wasn’t her decision, but that of her father, King Douglas. Still, this meeting was unexpected.

Sitting on the sofa, the Princess looked around the room as if she were looking for something.

“So, what brings the Princess here?”

“Well…Is it true that you, Ralphus, are a friend of Rain? At least that’s what I’ve heard from the female attendants.”

“….Yes, it’s true that he is a friend of mine.”

To call Rain by his name? It seems overly familiar… Ralphus grew further confused about the situation.

“Then, you wouldn’t happen to know where he is, would you? He should have come to the palace, but no matter where I search, I can’t find him.”

Ralphus must have had an expression that said “uncommon things happen,” on his face. In a small voice Shelfa added,

“It’s a secret from Father. I snuck out of my chambers after all. I just really wanted to meet Rain.”

“――I see. To meet Rain.”

That is all he could muster in response.

The beautiful face of the Princess who was speaking openly with him, flushed red. Whoever looked at her, it wasn’t hard to see how important Rain was to her. That guy, when did he become acquainted with her?

It was one of those mysteries.

In the first place, Rain hardly ever came to Galfort Castle.

“He was just here until a moment ago…but as he’s been placed under house arrest, I’m afraid he has returned to his castle.”

Ralphus worried that this young girl might burst out into tears from this news.

“It can’t be helped. Perhaps it is best for him that things turned out this way.”

Sympathizing with her, Ralphus told her in detail about the events of the meeting and how Rain had been placed under house arrest, warning her not to tell anyone.

He told her everything, including Rain’s aim in doing so.

“I…see. If Rain is taking that course of action, then there must be no hope left for this country.”

In her words, a sense of absolute trust in Rain was conveyed.

“Though it is something one doesn’t want to admit.”

“Very true.”

Giving a deep sigh, the Princess for some reason pulled out a pendant from within the bosom of her white robes, looking intently at it.

Attached to a silver chain was an old coin with a hole to attach it.

Realizing Ralphus’s stare, she held out the coin in a white hand for him to see.

“I will show it to you special, because you are a friend of Rain’s.”

This coin I received from Rain, is my treasure.”

“It is an honor. It seems to be a very old item, yes? It doesn’t seem to be something of much value though.”

It would have been more appropriate to call it worn out rather than old.

It looked like an average silver coin, but on the dingy surface were words carved in a language Rain probably knew.

“This is a magic coin.”

“Magic, you say?”

“Mhmm. Because of a promise he couldn’t tell me what sort of effect the coin has, but whenever I am upset and look at it, I become energetic again. It’s just he told me the magic would only work once.”

A magic item was so scarce in this day and age, that the value would be tremendous.

The main reason was that the Rune Masters, people who could imbue items with magical abilities, were almost non-existent anymore.

But something didn’t sit well with him….Ralphus felt a shiver run down his spine.

Actually Ralphus himself had received a magical item before.

It was a time when they were still at war with Lunan.

After having received an order from the King to march out to the battlefield, Ralphus had spent the night before he was to leave drinking with Rain, and it was then that Rain told him he would give him something nice.

“Something nice?”

“Yep. It’s something I found by chance while exploring some ruins in the Northern Lands….well, just take a look.”

What he held out was, no matter how you looked at it, a piece of a rock.

Yet there was a tinge of green.

“Hmm? I see nothing but an ordinary stone though.”

“Ah, that’s why amateurs are such…This is something you can only use once, but when the bearer is in mortal danger, it will bear that danger instead. It’s true, I’m not lying.”

“Well well!”

Ralphus let out an impressed laugh.

“I’ll give it to you as a precaution. Take it with you when you go to fight. Don’t sweat it, don’t sweat it. You don’t have to be so reserved. In return for it, tonight’s drinks are on you.”

One last time Rain told him he wasn’t lying.

Ralphus was very grateful, and brought the stone with him to the battlefield.

He even thought the stone had helped him.

In the midst of a terrible battle, an enemy arrow had pierced his neck.

But, just by applying a small bandage to his neck, he had escaped a dangerous situation.

Afterward, he couldn’t find the stone and so had completely thought it was thanks to it.

It was just that upon returning, Ralphus invited Rain out to drink with him to convey his gratitude, when Rain responded, saying

“Oh. That was just a stone. It was something I picked up off the roadside.”

“….What was that?!”

“Geez, no need to get upset. After all, it gave you courage didn’t it. Battles are, whats the expression, fought from the strength of the heart, or something. But wow, isn’t that great! It’s a happy ending!”

Giving him a thunderous pat on the back, Ralphus spewed his drink all over….

Reflecting back on that time, Ralphus cleared his throat.

Fearfully he asked the Princess, who was beaming with joy.

“By the way Princess, Rain didn’t happen to mention anything about that silver coin, did he?”

The Princess blinked several times before responding,

“Let’s see…Rain seems to have seen the other side of the world, and in regards to this item, said that he found it quite by accident while exploring some ruins in the Northern Lands.”

“I, I see!”

That dirty little!

Ralphus broke out into a cold sweat.

Not recognizing Ralphus’s internal struggle, the Princess continued happily.

“Rain is really strange you know. It’s not like I ever doubted him or anything, but he just kept insisting he wasn’t lying.”

“Ha, hah…..that really is strange….haha, hahaha.”

She brought her hand daintily to her lips, still laughing gently, but Ralphus wasn’t the least bit taken in.

All the alcohol he had imbibed earlier turned into sweat.

At the very least, he decided to change the topic.

If he ever had a chance to meet with Rain again, that was something he would most definitely ask.

“Well, if it’s ability can only be used once, I think it would be wise to keep it safe and save it, don’t you?”

“Yes, I feel the same way.”

“I am relieved to hear that.”

“Why?”

“Ah, it’s n, nothing. That’s right. Princess, would you happen to know someone by the name of Michelle?”

It was a name he gave without much thought in order to change the topic, but the Princess jumped in astonishment.

“Why do you know that name? Rain!? You heard it from Rain, didn’t you.”

All he could do was nod feebly in the face of such force.

If the Princess had romantic feelings for Rain, then he never should have brought up another woman’s name.

But contrary to his expectations, the Princess smiled in much the same manner as a flower opening it’s petals.

She gently folded her hands, and spoke as though seeing a dream.

“Rain has been thinking of Michelle, hasn’t he, Sir Ralphus.”

“Well….I s, suppose. I was only asked if I knew her. Only that…”

It seemed the Princess wasn’t listening anymore.

Her cheeks colored as she said things like ‘I see,’ and ‘Rain did…’

She had completely turned into a day-dreaming maiden. Most likely she wasn’t conscious of Ralphus anymore.

I just can’t understand women after all. Ralphus thought to himself.

A faint whistling could be heard, riding on the wind.

Yet again Yuri thought about skipping a stone across the lakes surface from atop her horse, but for the sake of her mission, held herself back.

She was a girl of sixteen or seventeen, wearing a light blue blouse with a white skirt.

Black hair smooth enough to easily run her fingers though fell gracefully to her shoulders. Her eyes, which had the look of a squirrel searching for something, were glowing in victory. The person she was watching had a face many would regard as cute, but due to her current disgust with him, his ranking was quite low in her book.

''…My word, how long does he intend to keep on singing so badly! On top of that, he’s only wearing a shirt and pants even though it’s so cold out. Lovers take heed, lovers!''

''There’s no way someone can be this tone deaf! ''He was singing a song that would make anyone’s ears sore. Apparently the lyrics told of the love between a man and a woman, but it only sounded like noise to her.

The more she listened, the more she felt as though her lifespan were shortening.

''I can’t believe it’s this bad.''

Holding back the urge to cover her ears, she maintained a constant distance and continued to follow the singer.

The man, Rain, one of the leading Generals of this country, was called the “unknown genius” in Zarmine.

Currently however, he was famous enough that only a few still called him such. At the very least, there was no mistake that he was highly regarded in other countries. His military exploits were sometimes called the greatest under heaven.

In fact, Yuri had been extremely nervous up until she had actually laid eyes on him. Now, there was no longer a fraction of awe left in her.

''I want to just forget about this and go home''—was what she was thinking, but since it was an order from the top, she couldn’t just do as she pleased.

Yuri sighed deeply. In the end no matter how much she disliked it, she had to follow this man wherever he went.

Oblivious to Yuri’s contemplations, Rain continued singing his song in a broken bell sort of voice, while riding atop his finely groomed white stallion.

He seemed to pay no heed to the fact that he was amidst shops in the very center of the merchants district of the capital city. He was completely ignoring the laughter, directed at him, of the people walking along the main road. He might even be famous in a different meaning of the word.

Nevertheless, Yuri had no intention of getting involved with him, even for a fraction of a second.

Even now she was trying to put as much distance as possible between them so she wouldn’t be mistaken as an acquaintance of his by those around. After all, someone like him was just a stranger to her.

Suddenly, Rain stopped his murderous singing, muttering something. Yuri bent her hears, listening intently.

“How about it Chris, you hungry?”

It was strange, but it was what she had heard.

She looked at the sky in exasperation.

Yet she kept hearing the same thing repeated again and again, so she couldn’t just dismiss it by saying “Who’s Chris? There isn’t anybody else around, geez!”

Finally it dawned on her that Chris was the name of the horse he was riding. In other words, the genius swordsman, Rain, had a hobby of talking with healthy young horses.

He was a hard puzzle to figure out.

Why do I have to tail this guy that has useless rumors about him floating around?

Even though it was pointless no matter how much he talked, Rain kept speaking to his horse. It must have been a coincidence, but the horse shook it’s head lightly.

Right after, Rain spoke, seemingly satisfied.

“Gotcha, gotcha. Food can wait til after, huh Chris.”

Then, as though nothing had interrupted him, he began singing that murderous tune again.

Without thinking, Yuri uttered a curse under her breath. This was the first time she had ever thought a mission could be so totally pointless.

It wasn’t just the song.

Besides, Rain was supposed to be one of the leading Generals, so why was he looking into each of the peasant’s shops as he passed? The answer seemed to be that if the shop keeper was female, Rain’s interest increased with the beauty of the woman.

He wouldn’t move on until he had spoken one or two words with them.

''This guy’s a loser who’s got a weak spot for a pretty face.''

Rain’s rating in Yuri’s book continued to worsen, deepening to a point where recovery seemed all but impossible.

As she was thinking this, Rain rode past a tavern, turning suddenly down a side street.

''Yet again you're planning on something like that…!''

Closing the distance, Yuri hurriedly turned the corner after him.

“—-! Aaah!”

She almost ran headlong into Rain.

He should have proceeded ahead, but instead he had dismounted and was leaning against the taverns wall. Looking at Yuri, he raised his hand and gave her a light greeting.

“Hey! Could we talk for a bit?”

''Crap! He couldn’t know I was tailing…….no, wait…I can still fix this! He’s an idiot after all.''

Her face having finished cycling through a whirlwind of color, she adjusted her expression and took on the role of an innocent young girl. Opening her eyes as wide as they would go, she spoke.

“Wha?! You must have mistaken me for someone else, good Sir Knight.”

“Mistaken…hmmm.”

Rain gave Yuri a searching look, then shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, it isn’t much of a problem even if I’m mistaken. Could you dismount your horse for a moment? There’s something I’d like to talk about.”

She was only lost for a moment. There was no way she could be under suspicion at this point. In the end, she dismounted reluctantly.

“So, what is it?”

“Nothing really. Just, I’d like to hear the reason you’ve been ‘coincidentally’ following me ever since I left the castle.”

Rain stressed the word ''coincidentally''.

Yuri stiffened. He had been a laughing stock in her mind, but it seemed he had known ever since leaving Galfort Castle that she had been tailing him. Of course it would be impossible to clean this up as a ‘simple coincidence.’

''T, this could be bad……''Breaking out in sweat, Yuri began planning her next move.

“U, ummm……I’ll tell you because it’s come to this, you see I, well I, had my heart stolen by you Sir Knight the moment I first saw you, and followed you because I wanted to be close to you.”

Fighting the urge to grind her teeth, Yuri gathered herself together.

“Hoh, you fell for me at first sight, huh…” said Rain, laughing. Following his lead, Yuri let out a “tehehe,” in response.

After laughing hard, Rain stopped abruptly, defying her statement.

“You little liar.”

“Ehhh!? It’s truuue! That handsome all black look.”

“You can go on, can’t you. Listen, it’s true that I’m handsome.”

''What a self-conscious idiot'', was added to Yuri’s internal ranking of him.

“Even so, I just can’t accept such a lame excuse.”

“Ehh~, but I’m telling the truth, gee! I have completely, about you……”

Rain swiftly lifted one hand, and Yuri’s mouth closed. After sighing resignedly, Rain went straight to the heart of the matter.

“Look, if you’re going to feign ignorance, then I’ll spell it out for you. You’re really a spy for Zarmine, right? Be truthful about it.”

''I’ve been found out!''

The moment she felt her cover had been blown, she reached behind her skirt to where a dagger was hidden, preparing to leap back. She had confidence in her ability to run away, and even if it turned into a fight, she was prepared to fight much more vehemently than that swordsman. She hadn’t been trained in Zarmine for nothing.

Anyway, that was how Yuri felt at the moment.

――But, there was no time for her to retreat.

Together with a faintly piercing wind, she glimpsed the afterimage of a moving black shadow.

A collection of points of light drew a half-circle through the air, and a blueish, gleaming light entered Yuri’s range of vision.

Before she realized it, she had become unable to move.

It seemed before he had even decided to reach towards his waist, in a feat of speed no eye could match, he was already holding his sword at her.

It was no ordinary longsword at that. It was giving off an aura of magical light….a magic sword.

From the blade itself a wavering blue-white light arose, and one could hear a humming sound as though of many insects flying around.

It looked incredibly sharp. At the very least it wasn’t something she had any desire to have tested on her.

Yuri swallowed the lump in her throat.

“I, impossible… such speed…”

“Of course, after all I am a genius.”

Rain said, pushing back his bangs with one hand. He really got on her nerves, but now was not the time for retorts.

On top of that the silent horse, Chris, looked at her as though she were an idiot, causing Yuri’s stomach to churn.

''Well, that’s just coincidence.''

“H, how….?”

“How did I know? Well you know, I’m just sorta sensitive to people’s presence, so something like tailing could never work, and besides, your movement is nothing like an ordinary girl's.”

“Uuuu…”

“Hmph! It just means you’re twenty years too young to try and deceive these eyes.”

There was no limit to how much he wanted to brag. Yuri wanted more than anything to just punch him right there, but besides now not being the time for it, she was about to lose her life.

A spy was hated no matter what country one was in. If one were caught, it was execution. Though more often a spy was cut down the moment they were discovered. In other words, this was an impossibly bad situation.

''I’m in serious trouble! If I die here, then who’s going to take care of my little sister! I’ve got to turn this around somehow, anyhow!''

''If I ask for help……Ahhh! But what if, what if in return he wants me to do ‘this’ or ‘that!’ After all, this guy’s got a weak head and seems like the lecherous type.''

As Yuri was envisioning this, Rain questioned her lazily.

“So. What’s your name?”

“……It’s Yuri.”

“Yuri huh. I guess it’s okay. It kind of dampens the mood though.”

''Mind your own business! ''She wanted to say, but Rain continued, asking her for her age.

It wouldn’t mean anything even if she were to hide it now, so she responded with a “sixteen” while taking care to never move her gaze from the magic sword.

Rubbing his chin, Rain seemed oblivious to the fact that she was in a defenseless position.

''You don’t have to worry about me, I’m just as upset with how things turned out.''

“Well, next time if you would just wear a shorter skirt. One that just nearly covers, you know.”

Rain returned the magic sword back to it’s sheath.

In a daze, Yuri watched as Rain began walking back towards his horse, humming.

“Chris, in just a bit we’ll have some food, okay.”

“…..wait a second…”

“I know, we should go to one of the inns outside town, huh Chris.”

“……Excuse me.”

“Right! You're in agreement then. Alright, then you’re treating till I drop!”

Yuri took in as much air as she could before she yelled with all her might,

“LISTEN UP YOOOU!! LISTEN TO WHAT I HAVE TO SAY, NOT THE HORSE!!!”

“Ohh!”

As though surprised, Rain turned around.

His black eyes were opened wide.

“You know, you shouldn’t just suddenly yell like that. After all, I like pretty voices.”

“What are you talking about, pretty voice! Y, you know, when someone is shaking, scared to death of being sliced to pieces, don’t be talking to your horse like nothing is wrong!!”

“When were you shaking? When? You were always just looking for a chance to run away. It’s fifty years too early for you to try and outrun me.”

Rain responded pridefully.

''Ignoring the rest of your comment, you just increased the amount by thirty years from last time.''

“Besides, you’ve seen my face up close so your business should be over, so why don’t you just hurry up and scat. Shoo, shoo.”

He waved his hand, as though chasing out a fly.

''What, so you stopped just so I could see your face up close? ''Yuri brought her hands to her mouth to stifle another yell.

“Eh….it couldn’t be, you’re letting me go?”

“What would it matter if I’d killed you. All that would happen is another guy would come right? If so, then just cutting one down won’t change anything.”

“T, that’s true I guess…so you’re really letting me go.”

This guy, he’s a little better than I gave him credit for.

Yuri looked at Rain in a new light. Under any other circumstance she would be dead by now, and if not she would be taken as a slave, and in the end, killed anyway.

Up until then she hadn’t looked at his face once, but now, she saw beneath his jagged black bangs, a face with determination engraved on it. His black eyes especially left a lasting impression. They were sharp enough to belong to the wolves in the forests.

''Yeah, he might just be handsome――it’s not the time for this!''

Remembering something important, Yuri again grew dark.

It was great that her life was spared, but the mission she had been given to follow Rain was in shambles. ''This alone is really bad.'' Returning to Zarmine after failing her mission, she would definitely be punished. It was also possible her neck was on the line.

“What’s wrong? You’re making such a gloomy face again.”

Rain asked, sitting atop his horse.

Instead of telling him to shove off, Yuri began telling him everything. After all she was indebted to him for sparing her life, and besides, she couldn’t refrain herself from talking.

After listening to her story, Rain spoke.

“Then it’s best for you to come with me, isn’t it.”

Surprised, Yuri lifted her gaze to meet his.

“You’ve got a mission after all, right? So there shouldn’t be any problem then if you come with me.”

“Eh?! Eh?! But my mission is information gathering. If we go together, then won’t you be in trouble?”

Yuri asked, her eyes opened wide. Rain only laughed in response.

“I’m not going to be in trouble just by having you tag along. After all, I’m on my way back to my castle because I’ve just been put under house arrest.”

“……Hah?”

“Like I said, house arrest. You know, the kind where I can’t leave my castle. So I guess it’s castle arrest, haha.”

Rain told her, as though enjoying himself.

“Without preparing my soldiers I went by myself to the council and told everyone, “Hey, if we can’t win even if we fight, why not just quit?” and the result of that is as I have just told you. So I’m on my way back to my castle, where I plan on taking a nice, long nap.”

Watching Rain laugh himself hoarse, Yuri looked at him in disbelief. It wasn’t a line any self-respecting honor-bound knight would ever be caught saying.

“D, departing and returning alone, I thought there was something up, but…”

Her head started to ache.

He was just an idiot after all.

“So, Yuri. What’ll you do? You gonna come with me?”

She heard his voice from afar.

It was hard for her to keep from telling him 'go on alone!' and in the end Yuri didn’t have the right to choose anyway.

“Uuuu! I’m going with you…”

Yuri responded, halfway to tears.

It must have been a coincidence, but Chris neighed, as though laughing at her.

Gradually, the scent of trees began mixing in with the chilling air.

From the metropolis to Astel, Rain’s province, it took three days by horse.

In other words, it was deep in the countryside. Or, as it was commonly referred to, the sticks.

Even so, out of all the province-holding generals, Rain was the only one who had no nobility in his lineage, and had risen from the level of an ordinary commoner. After all, King Douglas took the social hierarchy very seriously.

The long branches of southern cedars were all around, turning the area into a small forest. The region of Astel was either made up of either open plains, or forests like this.

Scattered throughout such terrain, were small towns and villages. It was countryside all around, and nothing more.

“We’ll be arriving at my castle soon, but do you got it? You’re a knight in training, so you can’t talk casually in front of me. Don’t even say a word.”

“That’s obvio…okay.”

Anybody watching would have seen Yuri struggling to voice her agreement.

Rain and Yuri agreed to say that their fathers knew each other. Which meant the setting was that Yuri was under Rain’s tutelage to become a knight.

Though the number of female knights were few, it wasn’t unheard of so the story itself wasn’t too strange. Actually, it was a fact that of Rain’s two Commanding Officers, one was female.

“What’s with that face? I’m saying this for your sake you know. And it’s okay to talk casually when no one else is around, so I’d rather you were thankful about it.”

“Well I am thankful……It’s just I’m not good with all the formal talk.”

“It can’t be helped though, can it? I haven’t heard you say you want to be separated from me after all.”

“Ugh. Don’t put it that way!”

“But it’s true, right?”

Rain said, coolly.

Rain smiled complacently at Yuri as she fell into silence, a wrinkle creasing her brow. Then suddenly, his expression turned sullen.

“What happened?”

“Nothing, just remembered something unpleasant.”

“So, why don’t you just tell me already?”

“Xenoa, one of my Commanding Officers. When she finds out I’m under house arrest, I’m never gonna hear the end of it.”

“Xenoa… …Isn’t she the daughter of really powerful nobles, and one of the corners of the Five Houses?”

Yuri tilted her head to the side slightly. Rain was impressed that she was so well-versed, even if it was a strange thing to be knowledgeable about.

“Well, that is my job after all. Anyway, is she going to be that outspoken? The officer that is.”

“Absolutely. Unbearably so as a matter of fact. She’s a real beauty and has an excellent sense of style, but her rattling on really takes a toll on her charming points. I thought I’d really found something though when she first came to me about half a year back.”

“You know, your way of wording things is, really odd……”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? More than that, we’re about to come into view of the castle. Just after we get out of this part…look!”

In that moment they passed out of the forest, they were greeted by a spacious and grand scene. Yuri strained her eyes, following the direction Rain was pointing.

……But that extended finger froze suddenly.

Yuri’s jaw dropped.

“What’s all this about!”

“What’s going on!”

Their two voices blended beautifully.

――☆――☆――☆――

Cortecreas Castle was Rain’s castle and while it was small, a moat surrounded the high walls with defenses that would surely guarantee excellent protection.

Many spires jutted into the sky, the peaks of whitely painted towers.

A drawbridge led to the gate of the castle, and currently that bridge was down.

That was alright.

The problem was the plaza before the castle gate.

In that space there were two-thousand combined knights and foot soldiers, a mighty regiment.

Come war, and the troops would organize into ranks, marching out of this area.

The soldiers were packed into the open areas. From foot soldier to knight, it seemed the entire military strength of the castle was gathered here.

All of them were heavily clad in armor, and armed with spears and swords. It looked as though they were ready to march out for battle at any moment.

What’s more, as though this amount were still insufficient, carts filled with weapons and provisions came one after another out from the castle.

The strange thing was, everyone was continuing their work in silence, seemingly exhausted in some way.

“You’ve been lying to me!”

Out of nowhere Yuri screamed in a shrill voice.

Rain turned his head around jerkily, as though his neck were a badly rusted metal joint.

“Just what’s that!? They’re preparing to sortie! All you’ve said about being under house arrest has been a lie! Saying whatever you wanted at the start, you were planning on locking me away somewhere and then doing whatever you wanted!”

“Cripes you’re noisy! Don’t go making up your own erotic fantasies!”

Before she could finish, Rain interrupted.

“Who would do something that bothersome just to push you down!? Cool your head, idiot!! I’ve got no idea what’s going on same as you! I’m in the middle of figuring it out myself! Got it!?”

Yuri responded by raising her voice and shouting all the louder. It would seem she hadn’t understood.

Unable to take it anymore, Rain covered his ears with both hands, and used his feet to get Chris to move forward.

Right now he needed to find out what the reason for all this was.

Proceeding quickly into the plaza, a man clanking in his armor, most likely recognizing Rain came towards him from the middle of the group.

Shortly trimmed blond hair and blue eyes……But those eyes were different from a nobles in that the white part of the eye was in fact, white. His face was well groomed, but a youthfulness emanated from his expression, giving off an aura of unreliability.

He was one of Rain’s officers, Leni. His real name was actually Lelbyni, but it was too troublesome for Rain to say, so he had shortened it to Leni. Each of his two officers were captains of a thousand.

This Leni, even though the cold season was about to start, wiped sweat from his brow as he ran towards Rain. His eyes darting around everywhere was especially suspicious.

“Hey, Leni! What’s going on? It’s not Zarmine is it? They haven’t come this far already, have they? Hey!”

Rain asked hurriedly, but Leni avoided meeting Rain’s gaze, and at length began making excuses.

“I told her, I did. To stop. And that this was moving too fast…”

“……Hah? What are you saying, Leni?”

“N, no. What I mean is, I really tried to stop her. Something like this shouldn’t be started until after the General gets back, I said.”

Rain was lost.

Frustrated, he dismounted from Chris and grabbed Leni by both his shoulders, shaking him violently.

“Listen! Tell me in a way I can understand!”

“No! What I mean is, if you could just know that I’m not the one at fault……Ah!”

He was stumbling over his words when he noticed Yuri riding up, and his attention flew out to her.

“General! Who is that very pretty girl with you?”

“Listen, won’t you! My question comes first.”

“Oh my. Pretty? I’m really not so……”

Yuri put her hands to her cheeks, intentionally acting cute and ignoring Rain. It seemed the misunderstanding had been cleared and her bad mood was taken care of.

“Well, I am here to train under Rain by my father’s introduction. My name is Yuri. Nice to meet you~.”

In his youthful way, Rain interrupted Yuri, who had been speaking in an enchanting tone, lavished with charm.

“Hey, hey! Don’t wave your hand around, your hand! I mean, Leni! Don’t you be drawn in either! Hurry up and explain the situation to me, now!”

But Leni didn’t live up to Rain’s expectations. Fawning over the smiling Yuri, he was completely distracted. Deciding to look for someone else, Rain turned his gaze to the open courtyard just in time to see a group of soldiers split in two, and something unsteady on its feet come staggering towards him.

To describe it simply, it was a heap of armor.

It was a silver-white glinting heavy equipment armor, and completely covered from head to feet. But perhaps because whoever wore it had little physical strength, or because they weren’t used to using heavy armor, their feet were quite unstable. If one ever went to battle in that state, it would only serve as ample target practice for the enemy.

He wanted to know who the idiot was, but unfortunately the face was covered by the helmet’s face guard.

The riddle of a knight staggered its way over, constantly fixing its bearing, slowly approaching Rain. It was quite ghastly to watch.

“Leni, who is that idiot?”

“Eh? Well, that is…uhm.”

“Never mind. Just wait a moment. I don’t think I want to know. I don’t want to hear who it is wearing that armor!”

As though by divine inspiration, Rain who had suddenly realized who it was under the armor, shook his head in negation. Even though he knew shaking his head wouldn’t make any difference.

As expected, Leni’s next words were spoken in pity.

“If that is your request, then I shall not push the information on you. But no matter, as you’re about to know soon enough.”

“Uuhh. I know…”

Letting out a heavy sigh, the one staggering as though drunk approached Rain and the others, finally coming to stand before him with heaving shoulders.

Like a late autumn bug, the voice that spoke next had a very fine tone.

“Haah Haah…General…Welcome, back…I have, been…eagerly, awaiting…your return.”

“It must be hard to breath, take your helmet off, your helmet! So irritating.”

Interrupting the long speech, the person before him let out a gasp as they, clanking, took off their helmet.

Blond hair that was in waves, and blue eyes which were the marks of nobility appeared out from within the helmet.

She was an exceptional beauty that could widen anyone’s eyes.

“Haa Haa… …For now, congratulations on your return, General.”

“Yeah. You haven’t changed, Xenoa.”

Rain looked down the other of his adjutants, clearly upset.

“So, has your breathing gone back to normal?”

“Yes, sir. Something of this caliber is nothing I can’t handle.”

“Ah, I see…well that’s good then.”

“There is no use for your concern. By the way, General.”

Xenoa looked stiffly at Yuri, standing behind Rain.

“And who would this be?”

“Eh, Ahh….Her name’s Yuri. I was asked by her father to put her in my care, so from today she’s going to be learning what it takes to be a knight.”

After lightly making the introductions, he added that their fathers both knew each other.

Only Leni happily nodded his head, while Xenoa maintained her stiff expression.

“Is that how it is……If your name is Yuri, then mine is Xenoa Amelia Easterheart. My middle name, Amelia, is not my mother’s, it’s my childhood name. When you address me, ‘Commanding Officer’ will do.”

Xenoa who’s name was as long as you’d expect from any noble, was even in Rain’s eyes, speaking in a disdainful tone.

Yuri felt the same way, so she responded with ‘pleased to meet you’ in a very unfriendly manner. It seemed almost as though small fireworks were exploding between the two girls’ eyes.

“Hey now, don’t start off with so much tension. But that aside, Xenoa could you tell me what’s going on here?”

“Hm? Explain…you say?”

“You’re really looking at me as though you don’t understand…I’m talking about this state where it looks like we’re ready to head off to battle at any moment, explain that!”

Upset, Rain waved his arm to indicate the field packed with soldiers.

Tilting her head to one side, Xenoa let out a faint ‘oh, that’s what you meant,’ followed up with her puffing out her chest in pride.

“Naturally, since we would be moving out the moment the General returned, I had us all get prepared to move out.”

Rain looked silently at the beautiful face of Xenoa, feeling ever so pleased with herself.

And then just one sentence.

“Are you really that idiotic.”

“—–Wh, what!?”

“Don’t ‘wh, what!’ me. Who said you could go ahead and do as you like! It’s fine not doing anything you don’t need to!”

Rain continued his lecture to the taken aback Xenoa.

“Besides, what are you going to do after you’ve gathered all the castle’s military power into one place. You at least need a regiment to keep watch over the castle don’t you? Do you not understand at least that!?”

“B, but…”

“Don’t ‘b, but’ me! Send the groups back into the castle this instant!”

“Well, just a moment, General.”

Leni held up his two hands as though to keep Rain from advancing on Xenoa. That’s when Rain turned to him.

“……Leni. I’ll be docking half your pay next month for negligence of supervision.”

“Wha! That’s too cruel! I honestly tried to stop her!”

Leni raised his voice almost to tears.

As though done with the matter, Rain proceed to walk towards the castle.

“Well, I suppose I’ll let it go then. In return, get me in contact with Günter as quickly as you can. I have something I need to talk to him about.”

“I, I will contact him at once.”

Leni removed his hand from over his heart.

Yuri followed after Chris and Rain, while Leni turned around and headed off in a different direction.

For a moment it seemed the matter was at a rest.

But for some reason things just didn’t work out that easily.

“Please wait a moment!”

Xenoa said in a raised voice.

“What is it? I want to hurry up and sleep in my room already.”

“I will admit I went overboard.”

Rain turned to face her, yet without paying attention to his comment, Xenoa continued.

“We will be moving out against Zarmine anyway are we not? In that case it would be ridiculous to release the soldiers right now.”

Ugh, it’s here.

Rain shook his head.

He couldn’t keep quiet about the fact of his house arrest, especially as Xenoa was one of his adjutants. Besides, even if he didn’t say anything it would be found out soon enough.

It couldn’t be helped, so Rain explained it as light heartedly as he could. He had known Leni for a long time so there wasn’t much concern there, the problem was with Xenoa.

“……Ah~, well you see. It sorta seems like after I voiced my disagreement with the war, His Majesty got pretty upset. And, well…I’m under house arrest, haha. Oh well…Haha!”

Explaining the situation the easiest way he could, Rain scratched the back of his head with a fake smile on his face.

Xenoa glared back at Rain with an expression that made it seem as though she were wearing a death-mask.

“….What did you say?”

The tone of her voice was eerily low.

“I’ve already said it. House Arrest. House, Arrest. Like where I stay in my castle and reflect on what I did. Well, that’s how it is so I’ll be going to my room now.”

Sensing he was in dangerous territory from Xenoa’s expression, Rain turned himself around. He was running away when, not haven gone but a few steps, when suddenly a blood chilling cry erupted from behind him.

There was no need to think about who it could be. It was Xenoa.

Again turning on the spot, Xenoa had both her hands clasped about her head, and was screaming, her body shaking uncontrollably. It was a voice that would make one think she had gone mad.

“Higyaaaaaaaaaaaa――!”

The sound filled the surroundings.

“J, just a minute there…”

Even Rain didn’t escape shock. It was a really ghastly scene.

Yuri and Leni, who had still been close by, came up next to each other.

“General, don’t you think that’s more forceful that usual?”

“Eh, does she always shout like that, Commander Leni?”

“Well sort of. But normally it’s a little more bearable.”

“How should I put it…she’s quite the individual.”

‘You said it,’ Leni seemed to say, watching Rain.

“W, what! I did nothing wrong!”

The moment Rain made his pathetic excuse, the screaming stopped.

Everyone gulped down their saliva, watching Xenoa attentively.

Xenoa sat down on the ground peacefully.

Not long after a ghastly laugh began seeping out her mouth. Continuing to laugh, she for some unknown reason began taking armor off of her body piece by piece. In other words, she was removing her armor.

“Th, this seems pretty dangerous, General…! Wouldn’t it be best if you just apologized already…?”

Leni gulped.

Yuri was instead observing Xenoa in amusement.

“Oh boy. This time is really bad. Hey, Leni why don’t you go and apologize for me.”

“You jest! I don’t have courage enough for that.”

“Yeah…then Yuri, you go.”

“Stup…! I don’t wanna either…! I mean, I don’t want to! After all, in my dead grandmother’s will it says for me not to stick my head into any dangerous situations!”

“Why you! What’s with that ‘my grandmother’s will’ garbage! You should think a little more before you speak!”

As Leni gazed intermittently at Xenoa,

“General, you yourself are always telling me there is nothing you’re scared of. If that is so, then this is your time to shine, sir.”

“Even if I’m not afraid of anything, that doesn’t mean I’m good at handling certain things. For one, a nagging woman. For another a woman who can’t do housework. Finally, a woman who laughs while taking off her armor all of a sudden!”

“……I guess it doesn’t matter, but those all involve women, General.”

“That’s why you should just go already!”

As Rain and Leni fought over who would be the one to approach her, Xenoa continued to remove her armor piece after piece. At long last every piece had been removed, and she suddenly stopped laughing.

Taking a sword, she slowly stood up.

Pulling on the handle, she pulled from its sheath, a longsword. There was a stirring among the subordinates watching attentively, and an audible gulping sound.

“Oohh! The Commanding Officer has snapped!”

“W, whoa!!”

Leni stiffened his body.

“General, this is really bad!!”

Backing away, Leni’s voice shook as he continued his retreat.

“I, I’ve got nothing to do with this, isn’t that right, Xenoa?”

“Leni, why you……”

What a cold hearted subordinate. ‘Don’t you think so too?’ Rain was about to say as he looked to his side, only to find Yuri had already made her dash for safety some distance away. From a place a good distance away, she watched with excitement in her eyes.

“All I have around me is people like this, huh……”

As he sighed, Xenoa approached, sword in hand. The look in her eyes was deadly.

“General……”

“W, what?”

“I am completely disgusted with you. As a Leading General, for you to have not only been put under house arrest, but for it to have come because you voiced disagreement with the war!”

“No, it’s just I have my own plan is all.”

“Only, the embarrassment of the General is also the embarrassment of the Commanding Officer.”

She wasn’t listening at all.

“Let us bravely take responsibility together.”

No matter how you looked at it she was dead serious.

''Well I guess it is my fault……man what a bind. Even so though, I can’t afford to die.''

Rain finally came to his decision after watching the approaching Xenoa, sword drawn. He really just wanted to run away, but his pride wouldn’t allow it.

For now, he decided to try and sooth her with a friendly attitude.

“Well let’s just calm down for a moment, Xenoa. I’ll just go ahead and say it, but the real fight with Zarmine will start soon. In preparation for that new battle, you must quiet your fiery fighting spirit and…..you aren’t listening to a thing I’m saying!”

“Your readiness!”

With a shriek, Xenoa swung her blade down with all the strength she could gather, very nearly grazing Rain’s body.

With a clang the tip of her sword was plunged into earth.

“Th, that was dangerous, seriously! What would you have done had that hit! This isn’t a joke!”

“General……”

With eyes wide, Xenoa once again raised her sword above her head.

“Along the road to Hades, I apologize for the impoliteness today. Bravely with me, come!”

“Uugh! You’re not listening. And it’s not ‘come’ anything!”

Xenoa was completely engrossed in her own world. It was even dubious as to whether or not she was actually listening.

There was no helping it.

Rain, as though his hand had been forced, reached his hand to the hilt of his sword.

“This time, your readiness!”

“Aahh, geez! Guess I can’t avoid this!”

Xenoa swung down for a second time.

At that moment–

The magic sword drew a circle of blue light through the air at the speed of lightning, easily deflecting Xenoa’s attack.

Silver sparks emanating from her blade which was now spinning away, it drove itself deep into the earth upon landing impossibly far away.

“Ah!”

Xenoa watched as it happened.

“Hmph.”

Meaninglessly tossing his hair, Rain re-sheathed his sword.

“Yesterday, today, there’s no way an amateur who just started could ever cut a genius such as myself!……Hey, what’s wrong? You’re not feigning ignorance now are you?”

Her mouth half open and looking as though ready to burst into tears at any moment, Xenoa stood up. It looked like her spirit had left her.

“Hello? Anybody there? You’re sane, right?”

“….ity, please.”

“Wha? You’ll have to speak up.”

Unable to understand what she had said, Rain moved in closer, giving her his ear when Xenoa suddenly grabbed Rain by his shirt.

“Take responsibility, please.”

“Wah! Hey! Let go, calm down!”

“This was supposed to be my first time on a campaign, and even so, you had to go and get put under house arrest!!!”

Xenoa raised her voice, practically screaming into his ear.

Even as Xenoa shook him by the shoulders, Rain could swear he heard Yuri laughing heavily somewhere far away.

<noinclude>
{| id="nav" border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Rain:Volume_1_Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Rain|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Rain:Volume_1_Chapter_2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Hyouka:Volume 3 Chapter 3-2

2013-04-21T07:05:03Z

BladeUnderHeart:

== 3-2 Wild Fire ==

029 - ♥07

As my long hair was in the way, I had it tied at the back of my head.

I had always wondered why The Cooking Club has a "The" as a part of its name.

That question was instantly answered by its president.

"Something unfortunate happened with the old Cooking Club, leading to its disbandment. So we re-registered under this new name instead."

They seem like they've been through a lot.

Having been invited by Fukube-san, I was now participating in The Cooking Club's tournament "Wild Fire." While it has a strange name for a tournament, upon participating, one would quickly understand why such a name was used. The Wild Fire tournament does not take place in the Home Economics Room, but outside on the track field.

The tables forming the makeshift kitchen counters were quite narrow, and use of water was to be limited. Cooking fire was provided by two-legged stoves on each counter... It is certainly strange in appearance, but on the other hand, it also meant any observer would instantly know what it was.

Besides, as this tournament involves teams of three people...

"Mayaka-san sure is late."

The deadline for accepting entries has finished, and there's only three minutes till 11:30, when the tournament would officially commence. Yet Fukube-san was surprisingly calm.

"Each team member has twenty minutes, so we'll just put Mayaka last. If she still doesn't come in 40 minutes, then guess that's too bad. We're only here to promote ourselves anyway, so it doesn't matter whether we win or not."

While he's quite right, I still continued to glance towards the field entrance.

A male student's voice spoke from behind us.

"Doesn't matter whether you win or not? That's hardly fun at all, Fukube!"

Could he be a friend of Fukube-san? I've not seen him before.

Though Fukube-san was usually energetic, perhaps even he was getting exhausted from being so active during the tournament, because he sounded quite indifferent when replying to his friend.

"Nah, we'll be giving our all."

Though his friend did not seem to mind a bit and smiled.

"At any rate, this rule of having three people on a team is great! Even if my cooking isn't up to snuff, I'll still be well covered by the other two teammates. Still, no one person can win it alone, so you gotta plan ahead accordingly."

"Isn't that the same for all team tournaments?"

"Anyway, have you found yourself some good teammates? Just so you know, Team B has got Suhara, who's the son of the chef of Miraku on Main Street."

"Ah, so I've heard."

"And I'm on that team."

Fukube-san gave an ambiguous smile.

"Wow, that's great. May the best team win then."

Just as I thought, something does feel strange. The Fukube-san that I know would have been more sociable. Still, his friend remained in good spirits and returned to his team. I gently called out to Fukube-san.

"Fukube-san... are you feeling all right?"

The person who turned around was the usual Fukube-san,

"How am I feeling? I'm feeling superb! I feel like making some of Fukube's Seafood Fried Rice today!"

Looks like I've been thinking too much into this. I smiled.

"I'll be looking forward to it... I don't know if I'm getting this wrong, but we're only allowed to cook rice from scratch. If you're going to make fried rice, wouldn't you have to cook last in order to properly prepare?"

Fukube-san doesn't look too lively. As expected, perhaps his exhaustion is beginning to show on his face.

An impressive crowd was gathered, about a hundred to two hundred, perhaps even more. To think we're going to cook dishes in front of this many people... This feels a bit embarrassing.

"Um... if Mayaka-san is to cook last, who will cook first then?"

"Hmm? Chitanda-san, I did say we're gonna make rice, so maybe you should cook first."

"But it'll take more than an hour to prepare the rice, that would be too..."

I wasn't able to explain myself properly, but perhaps Fukube-san realized it from my gaze.

He replied, "Fine, I'll cook first. Guess that's it for Fukube's Seafood Fried Rice. I can make that anytime!"

Oh no, you don't really have to say it so clearly.

Beside the makeshift kitchen counters was a podium, where The Cooking Club's president walked on and began to explain the rules. With a loud voice, he began to introduce the participating teams.

"We have a total of five teams who've entered the tournament, but as we only have four counters, only the first four teams to apply get to compete for the Wild Fire Cup.

"And now, the teams themselves. Entry No. 1: Team Ajiyoshi!"

It was a team with three third year male students. I took a glance at them and noticed two of them had quite long fingernails. Could it be that they rarely cook?

"Entry No. 2: Team Fata Morgana!"

It was the team Fukube-san's friend was in. One of them looked quite calm and reserved. Perhaps he's the chef's son from Miraku.

"Entry No. 3: Team Astronomy Club!"

Huh? It seems there's another club who thinks just like Fukube-san did and participated. One of their members waved both her arms to greet the audience... We've met her before—it was Sawakiguchi-san, who was dressed in her usual chignon hairstyle. Oh, she even threw a kiss to the audience. She seems like a tough opponent.

"Entry No. 4: Team Classics Club!"

Fukube-san pumped his right fist into the air. I was at a loss for what to do, but still, I decided to bow respectfully to the audience around us.

"The rules have been well explained in advance. Each team is to make three dishes. Ingredients are available in the basket in the centre of the field on a first-come-first-serve basis. We often get cases of participants only getting rice, so please plan what you need beforehand. If the ingredient basket has run out, you are allowed to procure ingredients within the confines of Kami High. We have the Gardening Club cooking sweet potatoes today, you know?"

Oh, I see. As the ingredients are first-come-first-serve, it would be better for the first contestant to prepare the ingredients for his teammates as well. I'm glad that Fukube-san is cooking first, as I would easily get overwhelmed by too many choices.

"And now, first participants, on your positions..."

"Well, I'll be going."

Fukube-san waved his arm and headed towards the tables making up the makeshift counter. The four counters were set up in such a way that they surrounded the ingredients in the centre.

The Cooking Club president raised his voice from the podium.

"Wild Fire: START!"

The ingredients Fukube-san procured were three cups of rice, one bag of dried sardines, a bit of frying oil, a bottle of sweet vinegar ginger, four blocks of tofu, half a radish, three spring onions, six potatoes, a bit of black sesame seeds, 200g of sliced pork, one pack of sweet prawns, and a packet of potato starch. As for seasonings and spices like miso, soy sauce, wasabi, chili pepper, it seems like there is no limit on how much we can use them.

Fukube-san thought deeply for a bit before proceeding to boil a pot of water. Using the time the water takes to boil, he began to cut up the spring onions. Taking one of the three spring onions he'd procured, he began to chop them up into many tiny bits, though not as fast as professionals would chop them. It hardly looked hazardous. He next took out the dried sardines. Ah, so he's preparing miso soup.

Observing from the podium, The Cooking Club president began commentating on behalf of the audience.

"Oh, looks like Team Classics Club sure are thorough! They're slowly taking out the intestines of the sardines one by one! This is a very important step!"

After taking out the sardines' intestines, he began cutting up the radish into smaller pieces.

Wait, Fu-Fukube-san! There's no problem with how you cut up the radish, but you've forgotten to peel its skin! But team members are not allowed to speak while their teammates are cooking. The radish! The radish! I tried to motion my body in order to let him know... The radish!

After cutting up all the pieces, he finally seems to have noticed and took out a peeler. Oh dear! He's peeling the skin off the small pieces he just cut one by one! But if you do that, they'll become too dry by the time you put them into the hot water!

After peeling off the radish skin, he placed the dried sardines aside... Though as he'd taken care of its innards, it shouldn't smell anymore. Fukube-san next turned his attention to the sliced pork. He walked to the centre to obtain some miso paste. Of the three types of miso: red, white and koji, he had chosen white. By now, even I knew what he was planning to make, and it was not plain miso soup. He now held a miso soup spoon in his left hand and a regular spoon in his right.

Twenty minutes passed and on the stove of our kitchen counter was a pot of pork miso soup.

"Twenty minutes is up! Please swap places now."

Fukube-san ran back towards where we sat, and the first thing he said was, "Didn't go as well as I thought!"

"The peeling of the skin?"

Fukube-san shook his head.

"Yeah that as well, but if I'm to make pork miso soup, I shouldn't have spent so much time taking care of the sardine innards! That took up a lot of time..."

He was right, we cannot afford to waste that much time.

"I-I'm counting on you, Chitanda-san."

I nodded.

Please leave it to me.

030 - ♣10

And just when I was wondering how Chitanda-san's cooking would fare...

She's fast! Not just in her movement, but in how she manages to get the knack of things as well. Despite the narrow space around her, she moves as though she has many limbs. Even the commentator is astounded.

"What on earth is going on with Team Astronomy Club's second member Sawakiguchi? Just what is she making? ...Whoa! Look at the superb way Team Classics Club's Chitanda is slicing the radish skin!"

Before time, the radish skin has been peeled into what seems like a long thin sheet of paper. She next placed the spring onion on the chopping board while preparing the sweet vinegar ginger. How does Chitanda-san manage to move so swiftly when she's usually quite meek, I mean, gentle?

Using the thin radish pieces, she wrapped them around the spring onions and ginger before placing them on the dish. That's one dish complete. Damn, and it's only been two minutes since she started.

It was then that Chitanda-san suddenly stopped moving, for about ten seconds. Just when I realized what was going on, she began moving frantically again. "Ah yes, the rice." Phew, that's the Chitanda-san I know.

Though she had only started to wash the rice, the way she washed it was incredibly thorough.

"Team Classics Club sure are taking their time to polish their rice... They're generously using up every ounce of the six litres of water allocated to them! In order to bring out the best taste in their rice, the Classics Club are cutting no corners with their resources! Look properly, that's the way you wash your rice, by slowly draining the water with your hands!"

She was gentle, yet fast. Upon deciding on the amount of water to be used, she brought it to boil and then turned her attention elsewhere.

"...Team Ajiyoshi has finished their second dish of miso soup. Are they planning on making a variety of miso soup? Meanwhile, it seems Team Fata Morgana's teriyaki is going smoothly!"

Chitanda-san's movement became more and more intense. She wrapped the tofu with a cloth and placed it in a bowl, then sprinkled salt and sugar on it while warming up the frying pan. No, she wasn't simply warming up the pan, she was frying the black sesame seeds with oil. She then placed and spread the tofu evenly across the pan. The commentary went ballistic.

"Oh my, Team Classics Club is making giseyaki! I am so moved to tears by Team Classics Club's Chitanda!"

Sounds like a dish I've never heard of before...

Chitanda-san next began to peel the potato skin while occasionally turning to tend to the frying pan. After peeling the potato skin, she took the tofu out of the pan. It now had an impressive colour as she placed it on the chopping board. Cutting up the tofu, she placed it on another dish. That's the second dish completed.

I could already smell the sweet aroma coming from the roasted sugar as well as the fried sesame. I was lost for words, indeed, I felt like eating that myself!

"...A sweet scent is coming from the dish of Team Classics Club! How formidable, for them to impress just by scent alone!"

Meanwhile, a sweet smell of roasted soy sauce came from Tani-kun's team.

"Team Fata Morgana has also finished their teriyaki. The colour looks superb. One cannot think of these people as mere students. Just who are they?!"

You're dealing with Lady Chitanda Eru, daughter of the Chitanda farming clan! Remember her name!

There was no time to wash the frying pan. As soon as she filled the pot with water and brought it to boil, without waiting she went straight for the sweet prawns, speedily removing their shells. She then turned the fire down when the rice began to boil. And when the pot of hot water started boiling, she threw in the sweet potatoes. Taking some radish, she began making wasabi sauce. Yup, guess that's the way to prepare sweet prawns.

Meanwhile, she briefly cleaned the bowl that held the tofu a while ago and placed the starch in it. I wonder what she's up to now. Feeling curious, I decided to look on.

Though the potatoes were now boiled, she didn't discard the soup right away. Using a pair of chopsticks and the miso spoon, she skillfully scooped the contents out. After draining them of moisture, she placed them into the bowl holding the starch and began grinding them with a mortar. Was she good at making food that involves grinding stuff? Starch and boiled potatoes, just what was she making? Cooking sure is complicated. People who possess the most surprises are the most interesting after all. I'm very looking forward to this. Taking the white stuff that emerged from the bowl, she wrapped them with a cloth and began squeezing them into lumps. She then dumped the lumps back into the soup.

"It seems Team Astronomy Club is continuing with their Avant-Garde cooking, I pray for the health of our judges... Whoa, Team Classics Club has just made imo-mochi! This Chitanda is extremely skillful! But, are they going to be okay?"

Imo-mochi, huh? I like that a lot. By the way, how much time do we have left? Looking at my watch, we still have two minutes. But wouldn't the commentator say something about the time if we're short on it?

Looking at the kitchen counter, I see a row of dishes being lined up, as well as a row of utensils, and the dishes now being prepared, and then the ingredients...

"AHH-~!"

I yelled. And instantly,

"Whoa there, Team Classics Club! No talking is allowed."

Damn, this is bad.

That's it, there's still time to let her know! This is really bad. Chitanda-san has made a grave error. But can it be resolved? I crossed my arms over my head to indicate to her that she's making a mistake.

Chitanda-san seems to have noticed my gesture, has she realized?

She gave a gentle smile and crossed her arms as well.

"..."

Looks like we're unable to communicate at all.

It's useless. Even if she were to realize, nothing could be done about it.

The imo-mochi began to boil inside the pot. Placing them on a small plate, she applied some soy-sauce over them.

And right on cue, "Forty minutes is up! Please change with your final member now," said the announcement.

"How do you think I did?"

Despite moving so swiftly, Chitanda-san showed no signs of fatigue and smiled. As for me, I smiled back, knowing I could never do what she had accomplished.

"You were amazing, Chitanda-san. I never knew you could cook that well."

Chitanda-san said shyly, "Is that so? I really like cooking."

"Yeah, I can see that. But..."

"But?"

Her expression became clouded.

"...Did something go wrong?"

The Cooking Club president commentated,

"Team Classics Club's final member has yet to appear! And to think they performed so superbly until now..."

"Chitanda-san, this is a three-person team."

"Of course. I'm worried for Mayaka-san."

"No, even if she had come..."

I pointed towards the makeshift kitchen counter that Chitanda-san had just worked vigorously on.

On there was a pot of cooking rice, radish rolls filled with ginger and spring onions, giseyaki, imo-mochi, sweet prawn sashimi and pork miso soup.

Chitanda-san looked lively, as we were looking at her masterpieces. Yet... she first looked right, and then looked left again. Then she covered her mouth.

"...OH!"

Even if it were a joke, it was hardly funny. The only ingredients remaining were a radish with its skin peeled, and a little bit of spring onion left behind. It was as good as trash.

Hahaha, sorry about that, Mayaka.

031 - ♦06

If I had had more time, I would have drawn it better, but even if this was speed drawing I would still prefer to get it perfect, and so I ended up re-doing the fine details that I wasn't too happy with over and over again. I realized it was past the time I promised to meet up with Fuku-chan, but if I don't fix the shape of this eye over here, it'll look way too unbalanced.

That said, it wasn't easy just deciding where to redo. With all my resolve, I worked on those parts with my pen and eraser, and time flew by before I even realized.

"I'm done!"

Kouchi-sempai raised her eyebrows and looked at the drawing of a smiling girl.

"It doesn't look completely alike, but it's good enough," she muttered.

During these two and a half hours, we've drawn five standing portraits and eight facial portraits. While its not a number to brag about considering our speed, it's still quite a lot. Though I was mainly in charge of erasing any defects I see as well as completing the unfinished parts of the drawing, I really must go now. I was told I could still make it if I arrive at 12 noon, but it's now been over ten minutes since then.

Rolling up the posters, President Yuasa said, "Thank you Ibara. I'm really sorry to take up your time, even though you had an appointment."

As president, she didn't need to do any drawing, and was mainly involved in handing the completed drawings over to the sales booth to display. I gave the president my respects and duly bolted out of Preparation Room No. 1.

Instantly, I was engulfed by the atmosphere of the Cultural Festival. The whole corridor was covered with advertisements and decorations, as well as students walking about in a relaxed manner. I sped through the gaps that they created, it was in these moments that my small figure came in handy.

While I could not pay attention to the time as I was so busy drawing the posters, like the Quiz Club's tournament yesterday, I could hear what was going on at the track field from the speakers.

"...Team Ajiyoshi has now begun preparing dessert by peeling the apple skins. But is this how you peel apple skins? They're making an interesting shape out of it! Team Classics Club's final member has yet to appear..."

I slid across the corridor to make a turn around the corner, leaping through flights of stairs that were pasted with posters. Having to change into my outdoor shoes by the shoe lockers was bothersome, and I took off at once upon putting on my shoes. At the end of a line of white posters was the dazzling light of the sun. There was a crowd gathered on the grounds, and I caught of glimpse of Chi-chan, who was pointing towards me. This was the first time I've seen her tie her hair behind her head.

Just as I was thinking that, the crowd suddenly turned their gaze in unison towards me as the speaker shouted, "Oh! Could that girl in casual clothing be the final Team Classics Club member? Will she make it?"

For some reason, the crowd began to applaud. It was at this moment that I realized what I was wearing. That's right, I was still in my cosplay attire...

I felt my body heating up. I really wanted to grumble. I don't want to do this dressed up like this! That does it, if it has to be like this, then it can't be helped.

I rushed towards the tournament venue to where Chi-chan was. Fuku-chan raised his arm and motioned towards a guy on the podium with a mic.

"Judge! As our member is late, we request permission to explain the situation to her!"

The guy looked a bit troubled, but then spoke through his mic.

"Keep it short," he said.

Fuku-chan probably had thought of keeping it organized beforehand as he began to speak quickly.

"There's rice being cooked in the pot on the right, it should be just about ready. There's pork miso soup in the pot on the left, all you need to do is heat it up. As for the ingredients..."

Chi-chan looked as though she was about to cry... Has Fuku-chan been bullying her?

"I'm so sorry, Mayaka-san!"

"....Besides the stuff left in the kitchen, you're only allowed to procure items within the school grounds. I'm really sorry you're always given the short end of the stick, but you'll have to figure out how to make something out of those. We're counting on you."

He gently pushed me from behind towards the makeshift kitchen.

I first took care of the rice. The fire was set on low, and the pot made a hissing sound due to the lid blocking the steam from getting out. I noticed a cloth nearby, so I stopped the fire, took out the lid and covered the pot with the cloth. This should take care of it for now. Now, what should I make?

"...Eh?"

Ummm.

How should I say this? There's nothing except what you'd call trash. All I had was a radish and small pieces of chopped green onions. Onions and radish... What can I cook with that? Or fry it with?

Surrounded by the four makeshift kitchens was a basket in the centre of the ground. I could see a tube of wasabi in it. I though maybe there was something useful in it, so I dashed towards it to have a look.

...The only ingredient I could find was a shoddy-looking onion small enough to fit into the palm of my hand. Besides that was just a few blocks of ice... No matter how you look at it, there wasn't much.

On the other hand, I looked at the dishes we had made, and saw we had made quite a lot of amazing dishes. There's no way Fuku-chan could have made that, so it must have been Chi-chan. Wow. There's no way I could beat her. But the problem now is what dish I should make alongside all these impressive dishes. If I make something strange, Chi-chan's efforts would have gone to waste.

A sliced radish, chopped pieces of green onion, and a shoddy-looking onion... What is this? Some sort of riddle? I remained motionless while staring at the chopping board. I now knew what Fuku-chan meant by me drawing the short-end of the stick. The commentary from the guy in the podium was getting quite irritating.

"Team Classics Club looks like they've come out of the frying pan and into the fire! They've run out of ingredients. If their last member is unable to submit anything, their entire score will be zero. Is this the end for Team Classics Club?"

What should I do?

...Just what can I make?

032 - ♠09

"Team Classics Club looks like they've come out of the frying pan and into the fire! They've run out of ingredients. If their last member is unable to submit anything, their entire score will be zero. Is this the end for Team Classics Club?"

Just what on earth are they doing anyway...

From the Geology Room on the fourth floor of the Special Block, I could see what was going on on the ground. Or rather, I could hear what was going on in the Wild Fire tournament. While I have no idea how a three-person team could manage to use up all their ingredients after the second member's turn, I did know that Team Classic Club's second member was a certain Chitanda Eru, so I was hardly surprised.

I muttered softly, "What're you gonna do?"

Saying that, I did not mean "What is Ibara going to do." Rather, it was whether I was going to swallow my pride and help Ibara out of her predicament, cover for Chitanda's error, and help out on Satoshi's promotion.

The answer was clear from the beginning.

''No.''

...Anyway, this is them fooling around. Moving from the window, I returned to my seat and began fiddling with the paperback that was so boring I stopped reading halfway.

'''[150 COPIES REMAINING]'''

033 - ♣11

Chitanda-san had undone her hair knot and reverted to her usual long flowing hairdo, and was now constantly whispering while looking at Mayaka.

"What is Mayaka-san going to do with these few ingredients? ...I'm ''really'' curious about it."

And just whose fault was it anyway?

But as this is Chitanda-san, I was unable to give her a proper retort.

Mayaka remained frozen on the spot. If it were me, I would have just taken the spring onion, radish and onion and fried them all together without giving it a second thought, but Mayaka would probably have none of that. She'd probably be thinking such a strange dish would merely be an eyesore in contrast to Chitanda-san's dishes.

While I wasn't particularly concerned with how the other teams were doing, I did take a glance at Team Fata Morgana, considering how Tani-kun seems to want to treat the Classics Club as his opponents. Taking the baton from the chef's son, it was now Tani-kun's turn to cook... Omelette rice? That's a pretty hard dish you've chosen, good luck there.

Mayaka simply stood before the makeshift kitchen with her arms crossed. If it were me I would have just raised my hand and surrendered, but Mayaka wasn't the sort to give up. And she's probably exhausted from the work with the Manga Club as well. The commentary boomed.

"It looks like Team Classics Club is out of their (''...TOSHI!'') wits. Only ten minutes now remain, is counting down the time all they can do now?"

Hmm? I thought I heard something from within the commentary. Was it calling for me?

Just when I thought I was imagining things, Chitanda-san, whose hearing was far superior to mine, began looking around her.

"I think I heard someone call out your name, Fukube-san."

"Huh? You think so too?"

"Team Astronomy Club's dish can no longer be called a dish from this world! As befitting of their name, even their dish seems to come from outer space! By cooking banana within a stew, an indescribable scent is emanating from their pot!"

Banana stew, sounds interesting, but.

"Excuse me, could you be quiet for a moment?"

The Cooking Club president frowned for a bit, but put down his mic and asked what the problem was. It was at this moment I could hear clearly.

"SATOSHI!"

It was Houtarou's voice, and it came from afar. But where?

"There! The club room!"

I turned my head around.

Following the direction Chitanda-san pointed, I saw the Geology Room on the fourth floor of the Special Block. And unbelievably, there was Houtarou waving his arms!

For Houtarou to actually bother to shout from out of the window to support us, that's unthinkable, as he would be the last person to do such a thing. Besides, Houtarou wasn't one to slowly attract the attention of more and more people.

"...What the...?"

"...Who's that?"

The crowd began to mutter.

"He seems to be beckoning you to come over, Fukube-san," Chitanda-san whispered.

Really? Hmm, from the look of it, it does seem like Houtarou is beckoning for me to come over rather than waving at me. He continued to shout.

"Satoshi! Come here! Right below!"

What would prompt the energy-saving Houtarou to go through so much trouble to do this?

Mayaka stared at the fourth floor with her mouth wide-open. For that Houtarou to call out to me, it must be something urgent.

It's a rare sight, but something must be up, so I said to Chitanda-san, "Well, since he called me over, guess I'll go have a look."

A hundred metres separate the makeshift kitchens at the grounds and the Special Block. Dashing towards there, I looked up and cupped my hands over my mouth.

"What's up?"

"Here, catch!"

Houtarou seemed to have something in his hand. Catch? Catch what? Without even time to think, Houtarou tossed something out of the window. Whoa! At least let me prepare...

I managed to catch a glimpse of something falling.

That said, it was difficult to judge the distance of something falling from right above you. As it fell from the fourth floor, it fell right into my arms at quite a considerable speed.

It was pretty heavy, but it was a nice catch, if I do say so myself. But what's this?

"...T-this is!"

Within my arms was something unbelievable. How on earth did Houtarou get his hands on this?

034 - ♦07

Fuku-chan came running back with a yellowish bag in his arms. And without saying anything, he tossed the bag over, which I instinctively caught. Is this what Oreki threw at him?

Where did Oreki get this? On the bag was written "weak flour."

Looking flustered after running all the way back, Fuku-chan gave me a thumbs-up gesture. The guy commentating on the podium shouted.

"An incredible development has occurred with Team Classics Club! It's true that you're allowed to procure ingredients within the school grounds, but for them to acquire wheat flour!"

The worrying can come later. Wheat flour, with spring onions, radish and onion, and then...

A completed picture flashed within my head, as well as the steps to get there.

Let's do this.

035 - ♣12

Mayaka began to move.

Pouring the flour into a bowl, she then filled it with water. She took some ice cubes from the basket in the centre and placed them into the bowl as well. She next began heating up the frying pan and poured oil into it. She cut the chopped spring onions into even lengths, as well as chopping up the round onion and shredding the radish with a shredder. She then began to fry something.

"Team Classics Club is now gathering the prawn heads that Chitanda took off a while ago. What is she planning to do with them?"

Sweet prawn heads... while they aren't exactly inedible, what's that got to do with the flour?

As I tilted my head in puzzlement, Chitanda-san quietly whispered, "...Kakiage."

That's it! Looking at the makeshift kitchen, Mayaka was indeed making kakiage.

Using these seemingly trash-like ingredients, Mayaka was able to make them shine. She had just breathed new life into this "trash" and given it a new name: "kakiage." Mayaka had basically just lectured us on how to never give up! This is not trash! Anyone is capable of shining! Long live Mayaka! In fact, we're all amazing! I felt as giddy as a grade school student.

Dipping the vegetables and prawn heads into the dissolved flour, she heated up the oil. However...

"You have five minutes remaining!"

Can she make it in time?

Mayaka seemed to be searching for something. What is it? She should be pouring oil over the kakiage by now.

After looking around the utensils tray, she glared at the president on the podium and shouted, "Hey, Cooking Club! At least prepare a ladle!"

Oh yeah, there didn't seem to be a ladle. It was really bothersome when I was making the pork miso soup, I had to make do with a spoon. The president frantically instructed one of his female members to go find one at once. The girl began looking around for a ladle. Hurry up! Any ladle would do, there's no time! In the end, she managed to borrow a ladle from another team that wasn't using it and handed it to Mayaka. Dammit, that's a minute gone!

Mayaka snatched the ladle from the girl and began pouring oil over the kakiage with it. A sizzling sound began to form as she did so. She next moved very swiftly, shredding the radish, heating up the pork soup and mixing the soy sauce with sweet wine before putting them into a bowl of rice... Rice?

"Team Classics Club is catching up really fast! Can they make it? One minute remaining!"

Perhaps feeling anxious because of the commentary, Mayaka kept looking at the pan of oil. The next few seconds were excruciatingly long and silent. And suddenly, the autumn sun was blocked by a pair of chopsticks, as she placed the kakiage on top of the bowl of rice and sprinkled the shredded radish on it.

"Come on!"

"Time's almost up!"

"You can do it!"

The audience cheered her on. Even they were fired up by Mayaka's persistence.

"Mayaka-san..."

Even Chitanda-san sounded tearful.

As expected of Mayaka. I'm so proud of you.

"Time's--up!"

Placing a final piece of topping, Mayaka had completed her kakiage bowl rice, and right on cue, the Wild Fire tournament came to an end.

I have no regrets. No matter what the result is, I have no regrets.

(Team Classics Club's dishes are as follows. 
1st member - Fukube Satoshi: Pork miso soup. 
2nd member - Chitanda Eru: Vinegar ginger radish roll, giseyaki, sweet prawn sashimi, imo-mochi. 
3rd member - Ibara Mayaka: Kakiage bowl rice. )

036 - ♥08

Mayaka-san's skills brought us back from the jaws of defeat. Not only was she adept in the use of the knives, but to think of making kakiage at such a desperate situation was simply amazing. I then looked towards the fourth floor at the window of the Geology Room. I don't know how Oreki-san got his hands on the bag of flour, but he is a very perceptive person. Perhaps he is able to foresee events before they even happen. While I could not see him at the window, I still bowed towards his direction in gratitude.

Within the thunderous applause, Mayaka-san returned to her seat. The cute-looking beret hat on her head and the heart shaped brooch on her chest attracted a lot of attention. Yet despite her adorable appearance, Mayaka-san didn't seem too pleased.

Reminded of my own mistake, I felt like I should at least apologize to her, yet the first thing that came out of her mouth was, "It wasn't fried enough!"

"Well, it's not like we had the time to. It was still great, though."

Fukube-san tried to console her, but she did not seem satisfied

"There was no ladle! They've got shredders and peelers, so I thought they would also have a ladle. That's a minute wasted. If it wasn't for that, I could have fried it better. I'm such an idiot, I should have thought of using something else in place of a ladle during all that time!"

"I must sincerely apologize for that."

A person said while emerging from the side. It was The Cooking Club's president, who was commentating on the podium a while ago. While he maintained a comical personality on the podium, right now he was sincere as he apologized to Mayaka-san for the oversight.

"We did check to make sure we had all the utensils needed... We even doubled-check just before the tournament."

Fukube-san stood between them and mediated.

"Well, I did find it odd when I was making the pork miso soup. I should have raised this question when it was my turn, as I had more time then."

"...I guess so."

By saying that, it seems Mayaka-san has accepted the president's apology.

"But it's amazing for you to manage to fry something even under such conditions..." As the president continued the conversation, I decided to have a look at the makeshift kitchen, as I was feeling curious about why a utensil would be missing from the tournament itself.

The judges had begun sampling the dishes, and everyone's attention was on them now. After ingesting the Astronomy Club's greenish brown dish (or perhaps bamboo-coloured), one of the judges closed his eyes and leaned skyward. I don't think I would be curious about what that tasted like. While I do not quite agree with the quote "ignorance is bliss," I decided to be flexible for today at least.

The utensils were placed inside a cloth-covered tray. Inside were utensils which none of us had used neatly lined up next to one another, like bamboo skewers, lemon squeezers and barbecue spatulas. Yet a ladle ought to be one of the most basic kitchen utensils; was it be just a mere error?

It's not like I was expecting something, neither was I looking for any irregularities. I was simply lifting up the tray to have a look when,

"Oh!"

A greeting card. And under it was an opened copy of the pamphlet "Kanya Festival Guide." Where have I seen this before?

Could it be? Could it be?! I quickly turned around.

"Fukube-san! Mayaka-san!"

And shouted towards them both. By this time, the president had returned to the podium to continue with his duties.

"Hey, Chitanda-san, seems like that president really admires you."

Admire me? No way, but I hardly even know him. This would be troubling. No, more importantly,

"Take a look at this, under the tray."

"What's this?"

Mayaka-san casually picked up the card, yet upon taking a glance, her expression stiffened. Written on it were a series of words which I had expected to see:

{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #fefefe; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
|The Cooking Club has lost its ladle.

Juumoji
|}

"This is..."

Fukube-san's eyes began to sparkle. I instinctively spoke upon seeing the card.

"The same as the Fortune Telling Association!" 

"The same as the Go Club!"

Eh?

My eyes met with Fukube-san's, which had widened. I probably looked just as startled as well.

Only Mayaka-san remained calm. The page which the opened copy of "Kanya Festival Guide" was showing was the page featuring the list of participating clubs, just like the one Kaho-san had shown me. The page which had the following "The Cooking Club - Cooking battle 'Wild Fire' on the School Grounds on Day 2 at 11am! Seeking participants."

Mayaka-san first looked at Fukube-san and then towards me and slowly said, "So, what's this all about?"

She asked what this was all about.

...So what was this all about?

I once again exchanged glances with Fukube-san.

==Translator's notes and references==

<references />

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Hyouka:Volume 3 Chapter 3-1|3-1 - The Morning Landscape]]
| Return to [[Hyouka|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Hyouka:Volume 3 Chapter 3-3|3-3 - The "Juumoji" Incident]]
|}
</noinclude>

Gekkou:Volume 1 Moonlight

2013-04-15T21:39:45Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Moonlight]==

It was night. I called her.

— I want to speak to you.

I made an appointment to meet her alone.

Since it was going to take some time, the meeting was set to Saturday after work. She suggested we meet at her home, but I rejected. I had no good memories there.

Hence, she suggested a park on a hill. It was the park where her mother had fallen. I responded right away.

— Got it.

Of course I was wary because she chose that park of all places, but my interest in the view from there won.

Come to think of it, she was not in the least surprised by my sudden request. She even accepted it readily.

I guess she had expected that day to come.

No, that wasn't quite right.

She had been waiting for it with anticipation.

That's what her cheerful voice sounded like—as if talking about a date.

It was a moonlit night.

A golden moon hung in the sky, reigning over the stars like their king, and lit the earth with light so strong one almost forgot what time it was.

The park was situated a few minutes' walk past Tsukimori's home.

By the time the viridian green fence of the park came into view, my breath was so wild and faint that I expected to really faint any moment.

I checked the time on my watch. It was just past eleven, which was reasonable because I had returned home once, taken a shower and put on a change of clothes.

Well, I had wanted to go to the park right after finishing work, but Tsukimori had stopped me.

She insisted on a neat appearance for our first date.

Leaving aside the essential fact that this wasn't a date, I had accepted her suggestion. And it had been the right thing to do.

I had needed some time to draw a line between me and my everyday life.

I reached the entrance of the park. It was nothing special; just a small space with some trees and playground equipment sparsely scattered about. The only object that stood out was a white wooden clock tower near the cliff.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Fresh air filled my lungs. I slowly exhaled, checked my left breast pocket for the last time, and entered the park.

"—I was about to get tired of waiting."

I squinted my eyes in the direction of the voice.

"But I ought to be thankful that you came properly, right?"

When I grasped her figure with my eyes, I couldn't help but hold my breath. A snow white Tsukimori was sitting on the top of the red jungle-gym.

"Wearing all black truly suits you, Nonomiya-kun."

Except for the white shirt I wore under my jacket, I was indeed clad all in black.

Tsukimori giggled, "But that is exactly what I expected, so I matched my clothes to yours and dressed myself all in white."

She wore a white dress and white pumps. She had also draped a semi-transparent white shawl around her shoulders and adorned her hair with a white ornament.

From my perspective, snow white Tsukimori was holding the moon on her shoulders.

"Shall we start our date, then?"

Youko Tsukimori crossed her legs and leaned on her elbow, her head slightly tilted. A lock of her beautiful black hair curled down to her mouth.

It was a dreamlike scene. I quickly shook my head to rid it of the impression.

"...the day after you asked me to go out with you, you said that it was necessary for both of us to deepen our mutual understanding, right?"

"Yes," she nodded.

"You also said that it was fine for me to make a decision after we had come to know each other better, right?"

"Yes," she squinted an eye.

"Unfortunately, I still don't understand you very well. We're still quite far from a date."

"What exactly do you want to know from me then?"

—"Everything," I almost answered. But judging by her confident smile, there was only one thing to say.

"You killed her, didn't you?"

The next moment, she leaped from the top of the jungle-gym into the dark blue sky.

Her shawl spread out to both her sides like the wings of a swan, then she landed softly like a feather that had fallen from those wings.

"What am I going to hear from you now?"

"Well, you could call it," I pretended to ponder and continued with my usual poker face, "the solution of the riddle called Youko Tsukimori."

Unperturbed, Tsukimori kept smiling like always.

"I see, that seems much more interesting than a date."

But that's how I wanted her to be; my worthy adversary.

At one time I had come to the conclusion that Tsukimori had not killed anyone because I was sure that she wouldn't do something that foolish.

However, the situation had made a sudden turn with the appearance of a man of outstanding perspicacity. It didn't take long until my theory was negated due to several doubtful aspects and contradictions brought to light by Konan one after another.

In a sense, it had been inevitable for my doubts to be revived, considering how well I knew her and that the murder recipe was in my hands.

One might ask why I had concluded that she was absolutely innocent in the first place.

It is true that I had had several clues that suggested that her mother was guilty, like the fact that the murder recipe had been written by her. However, at the same time I had also been aware that those clues did not necessarily prove Tsukimori's innocence.

I myself had been the decisive factor in my belief of her innocence.

Only now I realized that I had probably strongly wished that she wasn't a murderer back then. One could say that my imagination was steered that way because I didn't want to lose the person I was so interested in.

In other words, what made her innocent had been my own desire.

I sat down on a railing, while she got on a blue swing.

I started explaining to her one reason after another why I doubted her.

The suspiciously well-timed call from the cooking school, the fact that her mobile phone had been set to silent mode, her unnatural behavior when getting me a towel instead of starting the search for her mother, and the fact that the suicide note was written not by hand but on the computer. Furthermore, I told her about my hypothesis that she had wanted to make me the finder of that suicide note.

Tsukimori quietly listened to my explanation and nodded once in a while without denying or acknowledging anything.

When at last she had heard me out, she let her gaze wander in the night sky, seeming deep in thought, before she asked with certainty, "Did you borrow those theories from Konan-san?"

I nodded. As she had guessed, most of my arguments had appeared in the conversations with Konan.

"But I agree with them, so you can think of them as my own opinion."

Tsukimori put on a surprised expression.

"That's the sort of thing you spoke about in my absence?" she scowled at me and pursed her lips slightly. "How mean! Do both of you doubt me?"

"No," I shook my head. "Konan-san has nothing to do with it anymore. I'm the only one doubting you."

She gasped in admiration, "It is really surprising that Konan-san stopped doubting me despite seeming so tenacious. What magic did you use, Nonomiya-kun?"

"It's all thanks to the hint you gave me," I beat around the bush and saved myself from mentioning the "Love Recipe".

'If you want to know what he thinks, just think about what you would do in his case!'

As a matter of fact, if not for those words, I probably would have still been at a loss for what to do about Konan.

"Oh, did I happen to be a help?" smiled Tsukimori. Her soft glance resembled a gentle sister's who rejoiced over one of her little brother's accomplishments.

Which caused me to let out a deep, heavy sigh.

"...I see... so she ''did'' give me a hint," I thought to myself.

Considering how she had immediately realized that I was borrowing Konan's words, she had probably been perfectly aware of Konan and me doubting her all along.

With that in mind, she seemed like a truly cunning actress, reconsidering the evening when we were thrown out by Mirai-san; her blatantly offensive attitude towards me hadn't been normal at all, and the way she had brought up Konan had been rather unnatural as well.

I stopped counting, but as it seemed, she had been playing with me again. I had to admit it: she was a much better actor than I.

Because I was keeping quiet, she tilted her head slightly, "Mh?"

There had been no creaks in her smile from beginning to end. Despite me having labeled her a "murderer".

Her smile was something like a trademark. In the mind of everyone else, Youko Tsukimori was probably depicted as an ever-smiling holy woman.

That was, however, not the Youko Tsukimori I wanted to see. Right now I was brooding over how I might freeze that smile of hers.

My fingers automatically groped for my left breast pocket.

"...right, there's something I want to give you."

There was no way around using 'it' after all. I slid my hand into my jacket.

What I produced was a four times folded scrap of paper. "What's this?" Tsukimori asked while snatching it away from me.

I watched Tsukimori look down at the unfolded sheet.

With her gaze still cast down, she whispered, "...I am happy about anything you give me, but this is not exactly a thoughtful present."

"I can't help it: it's not a present, after all. I'm merely returning something to its owner," I didn't avert my gaze from her, "It's yours, isn't it?"

I stared her in the eyes, not daring to breath or even blink. It's fair to say that I had protected ''this'' solely for this very moment. By no means I wanted to miss her reaction to it.

She raised her head with a smile shaped like a crescent moon.

"Yes, it is!" she admitted surprisingly readily.

"Then let's now talk about this—'murder recipe'."

This was the trump card I had successfully protected from Konan.

She laughed dryly, "So there is no way around it after all, is there? Well, of course you would never miss out on such an 'intriguing subject', right?"

At first glance, Tsukimori was the same as always.

"Truth to be told, I would rather not, but I might be able to answer your expectations if that is your wish. But in return, promise me—"

But I asked myself: did she realize the slight change that had come over her?

"—that you won't hate me. Okay?"

She was smiling as usual, but her eyes were serious.

I was observing a side of Youko Tsukimori that nobody knew. It felt as though I had come a step closer to her. Of course, though, I was not at all satisfied with just that.

I wanted to see more of her unknown side.

But no need to rush things; there was more than enough time until sunrise.

"...You knew it all along, right?"

"What?"

"That the murder recipe had come into my hands."

I had always had a hunch. After all, she had suddenly asked me to go out with her even though we had not spoken to each other much, save for greetings. She had approached me shortly after I had obtained the murder recipe.

But it was only now that I was convinced. Her poor reaction proved that she was not surprised at all.

Tsukimori raised and lowered her brow multiple times in hesitation.

"I had noticed, yes," she nodded calmly at last. "Do you remember what happened in the classroom the morning after I lost the recipe?"

I recalled the morning in question to mind as she told me.

"That morning you addressed me, Nonomiya-kun. Much to my surprise. Therefore, I thought about the reason for that. It didn't take long until I found the answer."

"...So I dug my own grave, huh," I facepalmed automatically.

What a fool I had been for revealing myself! I had been unable to suppress my curiosity and addressed her that morning, but indeed, it was not normal for me to do so with our relationship at the time.

I shook my head fiercely to get rid of stray thoughts, took a deep breath and continued as composedly as I could manage.

"...When I first obtained the murder recipe," I proceeded with the subject as if to bury the mistake I had committed, "I thought that you had written it. I didn't even doubt that the owner was equivalent to the author. The word 'recipe', however, has been bothering me since then. Wouldn't it normally be a 'murder plan'?"

Only my voice resounded throughout the moonlit park.

"But when I learned that your mother was a teacher at a cooking school, I realized that the word 'recipe' was probably very common to her—and sure enough, your mother has written it. A handwritten note of hers, which I presumed to borrow from your home, matched the handwriting of the recipe."

"You never fail to live up to my expectations, Nonomiya-kun," she interjected and closed her mouth again.

A meaningful statement, to be sure, but no denial of what I had said.

"Anyway, for that matter I want to ask why your mother's recipe was in your possession?"

I leaned a little forward to sneak a peek at her expression.

"It was shortly after I started high school when I found her recipe purely by chance—"

It was calm and musing.

"—I realized right away who my mother meant to kill."

"Your father."

"Yes. By the way, this is not the only murder recipe; there are more of them. Perhaps, there are even some I haven't found yet."

"...I didn't expect that."

I was intrigued to read those as well.

"I think my mother didn't realize that I knew about those recipes until the very end. I kept it a secret from her."

"What were your thoughts about it? What did you intend to do after you had obtained the recipes?"

"Well..."

While gazing vacantly in the air, she brushed away her hair beside the ear with her finger. Probably, she was searching for the right words.

"...when I first read the recipe, I was surprised that she also had such an 'ugly' face."

I found myself staring at her.

"I knew her as a typical housewife. A woman who would always pay attention to her appearance and her behavior."

"...that's quite hard to imagine from the impression I got from her during the funeral ceremony."

The howling image of her broken mother soothed by a black-dressed Tsukimori flashed up in my mind. I was disturbed by how my fragile image of her crumbled to dust.

"I do not know what you imagined her to have been like, but you should not forget whose mother she was," Tsukimori put on a smile appropriate to adorn the cover of a fashion magazine, "She was ''my'' mother."

Like daughter, like mother? No, the proper order would be "Like mother, like daughter"? Either way, the moment I thought about it in that way, it was surprisingly easy to have a new image of her. By analogy, the same must have applied to her father as well.

"My mother worked as a teacher in a cooking school, the largest one in the area. She held classes for countless students everyday. Apparently, she even made appearances on a cooking show on local television from time to time, and she had published a few cookbooks. I heard she was quite famous in the cooking scene, as 'the beautiful culinary scientist'."

My image of her mother was being remodeled.

"Now imagine such a woman writing such a cheap thing. I was completely stunned," she shrugged slightly, expressing her amazement.

"''Cheap'', huh?" I repeated a certain meaningful word she had uttered.

"But you thought the same, didn't you? After reading it, I seriously wondered if she really intended to kill someone with it. It's not even close to a plan. Now, I think that she might have chosen the word 'recipe' because she was aware that it was too crude to be called a plan."

"Aah, I see."

I was entirely of the same mind.

"Indeed, for a murder plan, it's extremely unpolished and seems incomplete. You could consider yourself lucky if it succeeded once in a hundred times."

"Mm," she agreed at first, but my continuation made her raise her brow.

"But I think that this lack of polish is exactly what makes the recipe useful."

"What do you mean?"

I was seeing the amateurish content in a different light than Tsukimori. I had thought about it like that since the very beginning.

"Who would imagine such a luck-based murder plan could exist?"

Tsukimori was at a loss for words. Of course she was. A few moments before, she had stated that she could have never imagined her mother writing something like that.

"If hypothetically that plan worked out favorably, wouldn't it indeed look like a 'mishap'?"

"That is an amusing alternative way of thinking about it," she nodded in a impressed tone.

I continued, "I know of one incident that virtually proves my hypothesis—"

"—the accident of my father, right?" she answered before I could finish.

"...you admit it?"

I was a little startled at her unexpected reaction.

"What is there to deny? It is only natural that one would harbor doubts about that accident even having read the recipe only once."

She shook the sheet beside her head, holding it with her fingertips.

I finally noticed what it was that might have been bothering me about her.

"Until I found the recipes, I had no idea that my mother had a such an impetuous side. I suppose that her motive was jealousy — even though my parents didn't care about each other — because my father apparently had a mistress. Maybe she just couldn't accept it that he had a woman other than her. In that sense, women might generally be more jealous than men. You should be careful too, Nonomiya-kun."

Even though it was about her mother, about her family, I sensed a kind of distance in her indifferent tone. As if she wasn't concerned. As if she was talking about some rumors from the neighborhood.

My conviction deepened.

"I can't help but see you as the murderer of your parents," I said frankly, whereupon Tsukimori sneered at me.

"Even though I have no reason?"

She cocked her head while maintaining her smile.

"It's not like I'm paying no heed to your motive. I'm very interested actually. But if I look at it from a perspective that solely deals with whether it's possible or not — I have long since come to the conclusion that you ''could'' do it."

Tsukimori narrowed her eyes to a crescent moon-like form for a second.

"You have already admitted that what's written in the murder recipe rather closely resembles the traffic accident of your father. Now, if it was not an unlucky accident but a willfully committed incident, it couldn't possibly be carried out by someone who hadn't read the recipe, right?"

Tsukimori put her chin on her hand and probed me with her gaze.

"Or, put the other way round, it could only be carried out by someone who ''has'' read the recipe, right?"

I closed my eyes and took a breath.

"I know of exactly three persons who read the recipe before the accident of your father occurred. Firstly, the author of the recipe, your mother. Secondly, I, of course, because I obtained it by chance, and finally—"

I pointed at the report sheet she held in her hand.

"—the person who lost the recipe—Youko Tsukimori. You."

Tsukimori remained wordless.

"I am convinced that you, Youko Tsukimori, could have carried out such a plan, no matter how cheap and unrefined it was."

She broke her silence and motionlessness with a whisper.

"...do you know how I am feeling?"

"If I were able to understand your feelings so easily, I wouldn't be dancing to your tune all the time."

"I am really moved right now. I feel so much love from you because you understand me so much, though you are probably going to say I am wrong, with your usual cold tone."

"You're wrong."

I fulfilled her request with an extra large topping of coldness.

She really made no sense to me. Even though I had accused her of murder, she smiled without change, neither provoked nor alarmed. Her unaffected behavior almost made me think that she might not be hiding anything after all.

Was it absolute self-confidence that loomed behind that composure of hers? Was she confident to ward off any accusations I could throw at her?

''This isn't enough. Unless I delve deeper and break her shell from the inside, I will never see what I seek.''

"...something has been bothering me almost from the beginning," I began, "Aren't you entirely too objective toward your own parents? You're as calm as if you were talking about complete strangers."

Tsukimori put on a slightly doubtful expression.

"Do you think so? I'm seventeen and not of the age to be dependent on my parents anymore, am I not? Isn't the distance between parents and teenager quite similar in other households?"

I immediately objected strongly, "No, it isn't."

Tsukimori sealed her mouth and scowled at me.

"Oh come on, there's clearly something strange. I mean, your mother was drawing up a plan to kill your father! If you're a family, you'd normally try to stop her, wouldn't you?"

Tsukimori widened her eyes for an instant.

"Do you know why my first question was about your actions after finding the recipes? It's because I hoped you would say that you wanted to discourage her. But you only voiced your thoughts on the contents of the recipes—"

She opened her mouth slightly, wanting to say something.

"—did you even once think about stopping her?"

The helpless expression Tsukimori showed that moment was a clearer answer than any words could have been.

She huddled up, embracing her slender legs.

"While you had a rather blank relationship with your parents without doubt, strangely enough there are no indications that you were on bad terms with them either."

Reconsidering the many reactions I had gotten from Tsukimori in the past, I found that she was ''not'' unconcerned about the loss of her "community", known as family. After losing her parents, she had seemed very fragile from time to time. I was convinced that she had by no means wished to lose her family.

"You found them uninteresting, didn't you?"

That's what I thus concluded.

If ''I'' was forced to talk about something that didn't interest me, I assume that I would speak with a certain distance as well.

"...rather than saying that I had no interest, it would be appropriate to say that there was no need for us to be interested in each other," she muttered. "I didn't hate my parents, you know? Honestly. It is just that the Tsukimori family was built around the idea of individualism. It was an unwritten rule that we stayed out of each others' business. In fact, it was only because of that rule that we were able to remain a harmonious family."

As if reminiscing, Tsukimori narrowed her eyes slightly.

"I was already able to do anything on my own when I was still young. My mother, too, would have had no problems living without my father. As for him, he merely sustained the budget to fulfill his role as the man of the house, but he didn't interfere in the household itself. Whether you believe it or not, when I was young I thought of him only as a kindhearted uncle who gave us money."

Her smile bent in self-deprecation.

"Just as you noted, I did not think about stopping my mother."

With a powerless smile, she cast her eyes down.

"I was able to accept the murder recipe without problems because I assumed that my mother had her own thoughts and her own life. But I suppose that I should have stopped her, just like you said."

She clenched her fist, her white fingers digging into her palm.

"If I had been raised in a different kind of family, I might have acted differently."

Tsukimori raised her face.

"But you know," she said with a vacant voice, "That's the way I have been brought up since the moment I was born."

Her eyes were breathtakingly clear. There was not a particle of regret in her honest and majestic appearance. In my opinion, Youko Tsukimori was strong.

But at the same time she was just as lonely.

During that moment of sublimity, she was beautiful and ephemeral like a mirage, setting butterflies in my stomach aflutter.

"Weren't you lonely?"

She promptly answered my question with a shake of her head. "Not at all," she smiled.

Relying on no one seemed like a lonely life to me. She herself, however, claimed she had not been.

"Even now?" I posed my denied question once more. "Are you still not lonely even now that your parents have passed away?"

I found that to be an awfully desolate way of life. Maybe I was just seeing things, but Tsukimori seemed lonely to me as she sat there wordlessly.

The next moment she put on a slightly awkward smile and looked up at the night sky. The moon reflected in her eyes gave them a golden shine.

When she returned her gaze to me, she declared, "I am not lonely—"

The teasing attitude she usually had toward me was absent.

"—because you are here for me now, Nonomiya-kun."

I saw that neither in her eyes nor on her lips was a smile. She was entirely serious.

This was the memorable moment in which I finally succeeded in freezing her smile.

The clock tower was about to strike twelve.

She had no strong motive to kill her parents. At least, I could find none.

Furthermore, my view that Youko Tsukimori was not a girl that would do something as foolish as murder had already become an unshakable fact for me.

And yet her parents were no more.

I whispered, "...I don't know how to describe this feeling."

Which words would be appropriate?

I stood up from the railing because I couldn't sit still anymore and strolled into the park on my own, leaving her behind.

While ordering my thoughts, I walked slowly and deliberately felt the earth under my feet with each step. My legs led me unconsciously towards the cliff with a good view over the town.

At last I reached the boundary between park and cliff.

The boundary was marked by a rusty, viridian green fence a little higher than my waist. I bent over it and looked down. I figured that it wouldn't take much to fall over it and down the steep slope.

I rested my crossed arms and my chin on the fence, which caused the entire fence bordering the park to bend towards one side a little. I looked down at the town.

The town filled my field of vision with all its shining lights. It was far from the stunning skyline of a metropolis at night, but I was still deeply moved when considering my hometown.

Despite its small size, there was always something going on. That night, too, there must have been a red sports-car driven by that man somewhere down there. Was the chocolate-addict still up? That little girl who resembled a pygmy marmoset was definitely already a resident of dreamland.

The faces of various people I knew crossed my mind like a slideshow.

"Isn't it captivating? This is what I meant to show you, Nonomiya-kun."

The person who flashed up last and by far most vividly was in sync with the person who was beholding the town right by my side.

A chilly gust ruffled her hair. She hugged herself because of the coldness.

That scene reminded me of that rainy day when she had been in her cold, wet uniform.

There was no way I could forget how in that night I had asked her why people killed others. Of course, I hadn't forgotten her answer, either.

The instant I recalled that answer, my body spontaneously started to tremble, followed by a chuckle of mine.

"...I found the answer at last. I finally realized what made you kill your parents!" I whispered.

She only commented calmly, "I see."

She was at the edge of my vision, and I was at the corner of hers, as I noticed then.

"Because you felt like it."

As I laughingly said it, she answered with the smile of a girl that had just received some candy, "You're great."

As she had told me that night, 'feeling like it' was the only way to explain an action devoid of reason.

I had laughed because it was such a silly answer. Who would believe such a thing?

The only ones able to comprehend it were me and — Youko Tsukimori.

Suddenly, she drew closer.

"...if all you say is true, then I am a horrible woman," she whispered softly into my ear, "Killed my parents, deceived everyone, tricked you and still living on without any worries."

Then—the semi-transparent shawl she had worn floated to the ground.

"But it cannot be denied: there are some rare cases of people that are not bound to the rules. People who are not restricted by anything, who are ridiculously free—"

I was taken aback. She had hopped on the fence without a moment's hesitation-causing it to slowly bend towards the abyss along with her.

"—Nonomiya-kun. You decide! If you don't punish me, the horrible woman Youko Tsukimori will remain at large."

Sitting on the fence, she did the unbelievable: she leaned backwards over the abyss. Her hair reached out toward the bottomless darkness. Only her white slender arms were sustaining her equally slender body now. The smooth curve of her snow white neck was exposed right in front of my eyes.

"Should you judge that I am not worthy to live... you understand, right?"

A slight push against her chest would be enough to send her down the cliff.

"...Are you out of your mind? Do you understand what you are saying?"

I doubted her sanity.

"Who knows? I consider myself to be in my right mind. Well, it is true though that I might be a little off in the head for liking an oddball like you."

As if enjoying the bath in the moonlight, she shut her eyes with a tranquil expression.

"I decided long ago to devote my all to my 'destined one'. You can believe me on that."

It appeared that "everything" included her life as well.

"...I absolutely fail to understand your current state of mind. What on earth is a destined person to you?"

Her reply was short and clear.

"My prince."

Her words were accompanied by a transcendentally blissful smile. Considering the utter absence of fear in her face, she was serious.

Suddenly, the final appearance of her mother, which Konan had described to me, flashed through my mind. A shiver ran down my spine. I had accidentally imagined a very special scene.

The stunningly beautiful scene of Youko Tsukimori's dead body surrounded by countless purple blooming azaleas — had been painted by my imagination.

I gulped. I flushed from the core. Before I knew it, my fingers had reached out to her chest.

My fingertips touched the bulge of her breasts. A short sigh escaped her and she stretched the toes of her white pumps.

My blood began to boil from the excitement that gripped me. Oh, what a sweet temptation it was! One mere finger of mine had the right to pass sentence on ''Youko Tsukimori's'' life.

Her neat snow-white dress looked like a burial shroud in my eyes at that moment.

She had no doubt made all necessary preparations. I suspected her intended scenario was along the lines of "heartbroken girl follows her parents into death".

In other words, nobody would punish me if I pushed her down.

She had called me her prince. If I really was a prince, my designated role would probably be freeing the princess who was being held captive in the castle.

''...Tsukimori. I am sorry for belying your expectations, but I'm afraid I'm not a prince. I am and will only ever be Villager A. That's the role that suits me best.''

My heart pounded against my chest. My wild breath urged me to run free. After taking a deep breath and firmly clenching my teeth, I slowly reached out for the girl in burial cloth — slid my arm around her delicate back and pulled her towards me with all my might.

The excessive momentum caused me to fall backward with her in my arms. While I was still struggling with the pain in my back, she sat up astride me.

"...please don't forget," she began as she laid one hand on her chest, "that this is the life you have saved."

You have picked up that puppy, so bear responsibility and look after it yourself—remembering words my mother had said ages ago, my spirits hit rock bottom. Since when had I become such a nice guy?

"...did you test me?"

"Don't worry, I am confident in myself. You will definitely not regret that you have saved me."

She optimistically clenched her fist in front of her. That almost provokingly lovely smile she showed me gave me the conviction that she had foreseen this turn of events from the very beginning.

I sneered.

"I've long regretted —"

—that I met you.

"Sorry, but could you get off me?"

She was boldly sitting on my pelvis For now, I just wanted to do something about her lack of manners.

Unfortunately though, she apparently didn't intend to get off. She went on her knees, bent over me while putting her hands left and right of my head and started talking from right above me, with her eyes staring into mine. "What are you going to do? What do you want to do? Do you want to tell the police about the recipe and the things I have told you just now?"

As her charming lips formed words, my hair was softly stroked by her ticklish breath.

"I won't stop you if that is what you want to do!"

Apparently, she was not specifically provoking me; while her expression ''was'' mild as always, her voice had taken on an earnest tone.

"You're quite daring, aren't you?"

I scowled at her from below.

"Is it because you are confident that you can trick the police? Or is it because you are belittling me?"

"Wrong on both counts!" she shook her hair smoothly. "I just know more than anyone else that I am innocent."

She was composed.

"Let us do a little test... if there was an incident that most clearly implied murder and I told you it was just an accident that happened because of a chain of unfortunate coincidences, would you believe me?"

The hair that fell down from right above swayed in a nightly breeze and tickled the tip of my nose.

"...of course not!"

Because Tsukimori maintained perfect composure, I hesitated for a moment.

"Right? You don't believe me anyway, so I just let you do whatever you want."

The next moment, she formed a soft smile, accompanied by dancing feathers in my imagination.

"But please remember that there is only one truth for me."

Can someone who laughs so purely be a liar?

I honestly did not know.

"Besides, you are the one I chose. So there should be nothing strange about respecting your decision, even if it differs from the answer I would wish for."

"Chose?" I repeated suspiciously.

The sound was different from the "destined one" sort of "chose" that she had used before. I estimated the nuance to be something along the lines of "entrusted".

"There is one thing you have gotten wrong, Nonomiya-kun."

"What do you mean?"

"It is not at all a coincidence that you have the murder recipe."

".........eh?"

I raised a voice of surprise.

"Please recall the day when you found the murder recipe."

It was still vividly in my mind. It had happened after school. I had found the murder recipe in her notebook, which she had dropped on the ground.

She suddenly giggled.

"I am a very capable person, if I say so myself, am I not? Do you think that someone like me—"

The face she showed me then was going to remain clear in my memory for a long time. Her face looked staggeringly cruel and yet so beautiful.

"—would lose something as important as the murder recipe?"

No way. Such a mistake was unthinkable if it was for her, for she was the only absolutely perfect human in the world I knew of.

On that day back then I had participated in a meeting — the regular meeting of the class officers. The male class officer of our class was me. So, who was the female one?

It was the person before my very eyes.

''Now that I think about it, she hurried back to the classroom right after the meeting had finished. I figure that she did that in order to buy time, so she could make sure the murder recipe would fall into my hands "by chance".''

How could I overlook such a basic thing? That she had been searching for the recipe the following morning was most likely just an act to make me believe she had lost it "by chance", too.

It looked like I had been dancing to her tune since the very beginning. That humiliating fact numbed my limbs and even brought terror upon me. Not a groan could be heard from me in this shocked state.

Tsukimori got off me while giggling.

"There is not one thing that didn't work out the way I wanted. There is not one thing that I couldn't have obtained if I wanted. My wishes define how matters settle."

Normally, those statements would have been extremely haughty, but they sounded like logical facts when it was Youko Tsukimori speaking.

"But don't you think that such a life is incredibly boring and listless? Is there a point in leading such a life?"

She walked towards her shawl on the ground.

"You cannot be excited about a present when you already know what is inside," she slouched her shoulders slightly. "Nevertheless, I did not decide against being the Youko Tsukimori everyone desired, because it is simple to play the model student and it did not feel bad to live up to their expectations."

After picking it up, she draped the shawl around her shoulders again, skipped towards me with light steps reminiscent of a ballerina and landed right beside my head. Then a thick shadow covered my field of vision entirely, so that I was almost left with the belief that the moon had been covered by dark clouds. In fact, she had bent right over me with her hands at her hips.

"Do you want to know why I entrusted you with the recipe, Nonomiya-kun?"

It was already an almost annoyingly definite fact to me that when she put on such a scheming expression, the answer could not be any good.

"It is because you looked more bored with your life than anyone else I have ever met!" she said as if she had found something dear.

I averted my gaze.

Bullseye.

As she had guessed, I had always lamented over how boring the world seemed to me. My imagination used to be my haven to heal me from the boredom of my daily life.

I picked up the murder recipe and stood up.

"You exceeded all my expectations. Talking with you turned out to be exciting, Nonomiya-kun. Every day became thrilling as soon as you entered my life. My heart throbbed more than in anyone else's company. I realized right away that you were my 'destined one'. Thus, it was easy to become crazy about you."

Then everything had gone according to her plan and I, as foolish as I had been, readily took the compelling bait, the murder recipe.

With heavy steps I walked back to the fence as if drawn to it. By the sound of her steps I noticed that she hurried after me.

"...Ah!"

The fence creaked. She had strongly gripped it and was looking down the black clear space right at my side, leaning over. She quickly realized that there was nothing she could do about it anymore, straightened up again and turned to me.

"...won't you regret that?"

My right arm was fully stretched out over the fence.

A white paper plane was drawing circles in the air as it slowly descended into the bottomless darkness. The plane was probably going to get caught somewhere on the cliff, be exposed to weather for months and finally return to dust.

"It's okay. There's no need for it anymore."

I was the same. I, too, hadn't searched for the truth behind the murder recipe because of a sense of justice.

"Ah, will you at last believe me that I am innocent?"

I turned towards her smiling face and declared coldly, "Do you have sawdust between your ears? Of course I'm still doubting you!"

She narrowed her eyes in doubt.

"You don't make sense. Why did you throw away the murder recipe then?"

"Who would buy such an absurd story? I mean, how should I answer the police if they asked me for the reason why you killed your parents? Do you think I would get through with 'Oh, it looks like she felt like it'?"

Without knowing her well, understanding her motive would be very difficult. Having seen Youko Tsukimori's true face, I was the only who could ever nod, facing such a claim.

"But do you have another choice? It is the answer you have worked out after all. Leaving aside whether they believe you or not," she said in a playful tone.

"That's stupid. I would only embarrass myself," answered as I shook my head.

The magic had been lost since the second I had thrust the murder recipe, my trump card, before her and revealed its contents.

I had realized that, in the end, the murder recipe was nothing more than "just a scrap of paper".

She had taught me that it was not the recipe itself that was of value, though I had cherished it like life itself, but the fact that it was "Youko Tsukimori's" murder recipe.

At that moment, after recovering from the shock of having been led by the nose by her all the time, a different emotion overcame me.

As much as it didn't match my character, that emotion could be described as the protective instinct.

By her own admission, she had entrusted the recipe to me because I had looked more bored with my life than anyone else. Because she had concluded that I would no doubt show interest in the thrill the murder recipe offered.

Definitely unintended, but I had undeniably provided considerable entertainment.

In short, she had been seeking for some kind of thrill for her boring daily life as well. In this sense, our interests had complemented each other without my knowledge.

However, the thing is that I unfortunately came up with another interpretation.

—It happened to me that she may have been overwhelmed by the murder recipe.

She was shaken. The discovery of the murder recipe, and a completely unexpected side of her mother along with it, disturbed her more than she could have imagined. Subconsciously she kept looking for a way to do something about that state of things and in the end entrusted me, whom she had found after long searching, with the murder recipe.

That signal was not strong enough to be called an SOS. Probably, she merely wanted to share the information. Maybe she just wanted someone to know.

The burden was indeed a bit too heavy to carry alone.

Maybe I was simply reading too much into it, but I couldn't do anything about it, since that was the impression I got. My vexation was cleared away in a split second.

The thought that ''Youko Tsukimori'', the only person that could pride herself on being perfect, was shaken like a helpless girl and relied on me caused my heart to beat faster than ever.

''Now aren't we lovely'', it throbbed.

My gaze fell on the number that was indicated on the clock tower behind her.

"Already past midnight?"

When I whispered so, she turned around with vim and vigor, spinning the skirt-part of her dress like a parasol. The clock hand had long since passed midnight.

"I'm shocked. How could I have miss-timed such an important event?" 

Something rare happened: she was discouraged.

"Actually, today is my birthday! Oh what happened to my plan of pleading for all kinds of things as soon as the hour would strike twelve..."

"Congratulations," I wished her before she could blurt out any bothersome things.

After she had polished her look, arranging her hair and adjusting her dress, she turned around to me with a smile all over her face. "Nonomiya-kun, you know, the date has changed, so it's my birthday..."

"I just offered you my congratulations. Didn't you listen?"

"I did listen, so I'll give you some belated thanks. But you see, personally I would prefer it if it was not just words, but—"

"No."

"I'm not done yet, Nonomiya-kun. You should hear out what others have to say."

"Remember one thing, Tsukimori. I'm not as good-natured as to hear out something that I know won't be any good."

"Don't worry! I am not going to plead for an expensive present. Well, it is a present, but it's more like a memory or a memento," she said and while doing so, she took out a mobile phone from her dress and thrust it before my nose. "I want a photograph of us."

"...you ask for that while knowing that I don't like photos?"

"You don't?"

She heedlessly feigned ignorance. In the café Usami had once asked for a photograph of me. There was no way Tsukimori didn't know that.

"Please. I won't ask for anything else if you grant me just that one wish. This day is only once in a year, so please!"

In contrast to the begging tone in her voice, she constrained me by grabbing my wrist with both her hands. She was going to have it her way.

"...Okay! But only one, hear me?"

I gave in quickly because I had already learned that the labor required to break through her obstinacy wasn't worth it.

"Thank you so much!" she rejoiced while clapping her hands. "Let's take it in front of the clock tower!" she said and walked off right away, pulling my arm along.

Said tower was three times our size and thickly coated in white paint.

"Mh, which place works best...?" she couldn't decide where she should take the photograph. When I said that it didn't matter, she rebuked me, saying she had only one chance.

As she then asked whether I would let her take several photographs in that case, I had to seal my mouth, leaned against the wall and had no choice but to wait until she decided on a spot.

I had not the slightest idea how that place was different from any other, but she claimed contentedly, "Yes, here it is. It looks like this is the best place for it after all."

"Come here," she waved me over. I positioned myself next to her.

Then she drew close to me like never before. Along with the material of her thin dress, I also felt other, different things that had nothing to do with her clothes.

"If I don't do this, we won't fit in the frame," she claimed with the arm in which she held her mobile phone fully stretched out, before I could object. Thinking that I was supposed to take the photograph because my arm was longer than hers, I snatched her phone. When I confirmed which button I had to press, she told me to wait for a second and took her shawl from her shoulders.

I gazed at her with my arm stretched out, asking myself what she was doing, while she was pulling it over her head and pinning it with a white flower that she had been using as a hair ornament.

"Alright," she said and, probably because I was looking suspiciously at her, added, "Isn't it cute and kind of princess-like?"

Indeed, it suited her so well I forgot to deny it.

I pushed the button on her signal, whereupon a mechanical shutter sound resounded from the phone. Unable to wait, she snatched the mobile phone away from me to take a look at the photo.

While viewing the picture with a satisfied expression, she nodded slightly, "Yes, exactly as I have pictured it."

From time to time she even giggled out. Good for her that the present was to her liking.

"Thank you for letting me take this photograph. I'll treasure it."

"Yeah, treasure it so much that nobody will ever see it and I'll keep my peace of mind."

I didn't even want to imagine what would happen on the day the guys at school found out about this photograph, and I was really fed up with the fact that Kamogawa's visage was the first thing that came to mind.

"What a pity. I already planned on using this valuable picture of you to brag in front of Mirai-san and Chizuru..."

Thank god I forbade her to do so.

"...oh well, I'll enjoy it all alone then. Viewing it as the wallpaper of my mobile phone during classes with a broad smile on my face. Giving it a good-night kiss before going to sleep."

"Should I delete that picture right now?"

"I'm joking, really," she laughed mischievously.

That's how it feels when someone has the better of you.

"Do you want to take a look, too?"

"With pleasure."

As it was the photo of me she was going to hold on to from now on, I felt obliged to check how I looked on it.

I approached my face to the screen of her phone, which she held before her chest, while bending my knees a little. Her next words reached me just when my ear was somewhere near her lips.

[[Image:Gekkou-319.jpg|thumb]]

After waiting that I had seen the picture, she whispered,

"Did you see? We look like bride and bridegroom at a private wedding à deux in front of a church, don't we?"

I stared at the screen. Depicted was a black-dressed man and a white-dressed woman who happily clung to each other.

With only a little imagination, the shawl on the head of the woman looked like a bride's wedding veil. And mysteriously, as soon as I viewed the woman like that, the man, too, looked as though he wore a dress suit.

Imprinting is a really dreadful phenomenon: I noticed that the clock tower looked like part of a church. If the bride had held a bouquet, it would have been a wedding ceremony no matter the way you looked at it.

I reflexively reached out to steal it out of her hands, but she evaded me, turning around like a dancing petal.

"Give me that phone."

"No! I am sure you would delete the picture if I gave it to you."

"Of course I would!"

I reached out to her again. However, she sped away like a tiny, winged fairy dancing with her toes over a water surface, so that the distance between us grew and grew. She then climbed on a slide.

"Nonomiya-kun, I am here!" she waved innocently from above, almost like a child.

Youko Tsukimori was wild and free when she revealed her true colors. Way too much to handle for a spiritless person like me.

"I'm leaving."

This night had tired me.

"Wait!" she shouted from above when I went past the slide to leave the park. I only turned my head and looked up at her.

"Why did you come alone tonight?"

Lit by the moonlight and shrouded in a veil, snow-white Tsukimori looked majestic as Jeanne D'Arc must have been.

"Why didn't you tell anyone about the murder recipe? There were more than enough opportunities, right? Just take Konan for an example... don't you think he would have been able to make people lend an ear even to your absurd story?" she asked in a slightly gloomy voice.

The only thing that was in her eyes as she looked down at me in the pointed silence without moving a muscle was I.

I accidentally bent over laughing.

Why? Because I immediately realized how easily I could answer her question. To think that I hadn't even known myself properly until recently despite being so cautious about anyone else, I really was a fool.

Now my answer was clear.

Whether she had killed her parents or someone else, whether she was guilty or innocent, even if there was to be an incident that most clearly implied murder in spite of being just an accident that happened because of a chain of unfortunate coincidences—those questions didn't matter.

She raised her brow at the edge of my field of vision.

"That's a simple question—" I spoke towards the night sky.

"—I am the only one in the world who has the right to doubt you."

We didn't need any others. It was more than enough if only I knew the real Youko Tsukimori.

At last, the cold night wind carried a heated whisper to me.

"...Mm, I'm not lonely after all."

My eyes must have been wide open when I turned them to the slide that was lit by the silver spotlight.

She was smiling with tears in her eyes, almost weeping with joy.

As I didn't know what I should reply, I closed my mouth and burned the appearance of an unknown Youko Tsukimori into my memory.

Suddenly, she cowered down. Then she slid down without even caring about her clothes or exposition of her skirt, started to run and jumped straight onto my back, upon which she wrapped her arms tightly around me.

While burying her face in my back, she said with a somewhat muffled voice,

"—You are the only one in the world to whom I grant the right to doubt me."

She sounded joyous.

I am not so tolerant as to let someone cling to me without permission, but her arms were so tight around me that I couldn't shake her off. She was like a shackle chaining me, which represented our current relationship ridiculously well.

I gave up resisting and looked up at the night sky along with a sigh.

The fine silver light from the moon shone down on the earth like silk threads, which were absorbed by the earth. Without a break, as if the moon was trying to dye all the creatures on earth in its white light.

Compared to the moonlight, any other type of light seemed ever so weak. No matter how bright the stars twinkled, no matter how much light the streets of the town emitted, nothing could match the all-enveloping moonlight.

Without noticing, I reached out for the moon—while knowing that I would definitely not reach it.

The decision I made that night might have been wrong. Perhaps I was going to regret it for a long time.

No, perhaps I would not even have the opportunity to regret.

Because I had come to know Youko Tsukimori.

I closed my eyes without moving my head away.

The moon that night was very soft and warm.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Bye-Bye|Bye-Bye]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Afterword|Afterword]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Bye-Bye

2013-04-15T07:53:02Z

BladeUnderHeart: Tense, word choice, word order changes for more natural english

==[Bye-Bye]==

Every now and then a train crossed the railway bridge. Each time that happened, the white railing I was sitting on started vibrating and an ear-shattering noise filled the tunnel.

I was under a railway overpass at the edge of a residential area close to my school, which I had chosen because there would be no passers-by even during the day, and was waiting for the time.

I didn't want to be interrupted by anyone.

Under the railway, where no sun reached, even the concrete's gray looked darker and more inorganic than usual. I shuddered even though it was still afternoon.

Probably due to the sound insulation of the concrete, the sounds of the vicinity seemed extremely far. When I silently held my breath, I was under the impression that I was in an isolated institution far away in no-man's-land.

That might be the reason why I didn't notice him until he was nearby.

On the boundary separating light and darkness, a tall man with the appearance of a gigolo grinned daringly, a cigarette dangling from his mouth.

"Ya! Quite unexpected to have you call me out. What happened?"

His voice resounded from the concrete all around us.

"Oh, have you by any chance ''recalled'' some good piece of information concerning Youko-chan?"

He flicked the cigarette away, which then traversed a parabola before hitting the asphalt.

"But whew," he began while cracking his neck, "you sure have chosen quite a desolate place. Are you out for a duel with me today or what?" He crushed the cigarette with his caramel-brown shoes.

"Weak as I am, I would never feel inclined to a duel," I shook my head, "But I ''do'' want to settle things with you."

I restfully stood up and fixedly stared at the man a few meters from me.

"Let's put an end to it," I smiled.

"That's my line!" He closed one eye and grinned broadly, "Since you are the host, I'll let you have your say first."

Konan leaned on the wall and crossed his arms.

"I would like to start not with a statement but with a question."

"Oh, sure, sure. As many as you want, no need to be shy with me," he nodded easygoingly.

"Why did you become a detective?"

The next moment, he narrowed his eyes full of interest while stroking his chin.

"I don't want to be rude, but you aren't the type that acts out of a sense of justice."

"That sure ''is'' rude, whoa. Actually, I've taken to answering such questions with 'It's to save the day!' while flashing a cool smile."

Upon seeing my dumbfounded face, he laughed dryly.

"Being a detective is what I live for!" he suddenly made a serious face, "I chose a job where it's work and work throughout the year, all day long, and where I may lose my life due to a slight mistake. Because I'm still a civil servant, people insult me, calling me a tax parasite despite my poor salary. So why did I sign up for such a thankless job? You know, it's to see all kinds of people and their relationships in all kinds of situations, whether they're joyous or grieving!"

Konan stared into the air with an odd light in his eyes, originating from ecstasy.

"It's such a tremulous excitement when their masks crumble! It feels as if I were able to sneak a peek at the true nature of us humans. Bare emotions tell the truth much more eloquently than any justification."

When he finished, I couldn't suppress a sneer anymore.

"Oh that's cruel, Nonomiya-kun. Now that I've answered seriously for once because you looked so stern! I bet you're thinking of me as some psycho now, aren't you?"

I immediately answered his scowl by shaking my head.

"By no means. Rather I was relieved to hear so much nonsense. It suits you, you know?"

"Oho, now that's an unconventional evaluation."

"I guess. After all, I am, too, a good-for-nothing like you."

"I know," this time he sneered, "Since the moment I've first seen you."

The second I saw his grin, I was convinced: as Tsukimori had assessed, we really were similar.

"So, anything else you want to tell me?" he crossed his arms.

"There's nothing I would need to tell you!"

"Oh? You acknowledge it just like that? What I've said until now about Youko-chan, I mean?"

Konan doubtfully raised an eyebrow.

"You're getting me wrong. I'm saying that my opinion hasn't changed in the first place."

"Despite all I told you?"

"Yes, despite all that."

"Oh you're a trip! You're joking, right? Didn't you agree quite a lot to my doubts?"

"Indeed, I did agree. Insofar that the case could also be viewed in such an interesting light. Thanks to you I could catch a glimpse of how professional detectives deduce things by drawing one logical conclusion upon another. But that's all. My confidence in Tsukimori won`t be swayed just by your assumptions."

When I smiled, he glared at me for just a split-second.

"Those are all just your assumptions. Frankly speaking, they're just baseless products of your over-creative fantasy."

Konan stared at me expressionlessly.

"Didn't you say yourself that the rest of the police are treating this case as an accident? In other words, you are suspecting her on a personal basis, right? I don't know how excellent a detective you are or how high-ranked you are within the police, but that's what we call a 'grandstand play', you know?"

Since he did not react, I proceeded even further.

"As you have told me earlier, too, even in a small town like ours there are incidents every day, so is it not rather suboptimal for an 'official' to bother with Tsukimori and me? If you still insist on associating with us, you'll deserve the labeling as a tax parasite."

Of course I had a reason for getting that offensive.

"It's not in the interest of either of us to waste any more time on this. If you recalled what your original job is, I could carefreely return to my peaceful student life as well."

I was confident that he had no irrefutable proof. In other words, he had still not arrived at the "murder recipe". And without it, it was not possible to reasonably entertain suspicions concerning Tsukimori.

"You've done your best. But there are other things you ought to do. So, let's put an end to this already."

There was one more thing that backed me up.

No one would blame him for backing out of this case. The police were considering it an accident; nothing hindered Konan from letting go. Konan had been free to proceed or withdraw from the very beginning. That's what I figured out.

"...you've got me there. You're completely right. Can't counter that," he pulled a new cigarette from the pocket of his jacket while smiling lopsidedly and put it into his mouth, "To tell the truth, the department chief and the station chief, well, let's just say the bigwigs, are bugging me all the time because they want me to do my work properly. My colleagues have already given up though, since it's nothing new for them, heh!"

A small light flared up in the darkness. Konan had lit the cigarette with a lighter advertising some sleazy product.

"...Can you figure out why they still let me grandstand?"

He blew out a puff of smoke.

"It's because I'm capable!" he claimed confidently, "And do you know what makes me capable?"

He tapped on his forehead.

"My sharp intuition."

The next moment, his loud voice resounded through the entire tunnel.

"To get to the point! This ''excellent'' and sharp master detective ''Konan'' says this is fishy! You have to realize that a high school brat like you has no say in that whatsoever!"

His voice was reflected by the walls, by the ceiling, and rained down heavily on me. I felt as if I had been thrown into a bustling crowd.

"The point is! No matter what everyone else says, no matter if she herself denies it, ''I'' say she committed murder! So, Youko Tsukimori ''has'' killed her mother!" he finished, sucked in some smoke and blew it out contentedly.

"That's so unreasonable..." I managed to say, overwhelmed by his attitude.

"Unreasonable, indeed. But tell me, does the world work a different way? It doesn't matter what's right and what's not; the stronger one gets his way, right?" A puff of smoke was blown out of his bent mouth. "''Because'' I believed in myself and my intuition, and ''because'' I stayed true to myself, I was able to get remarkable results, you know. And ''because'' of those results, nobody can object to what I'm doing."

He showed a "grin".

"So, I'm sorry Nonomiya-kun, but I'm gonna do it the way I want—"

But it was his peculiar kind of grin that looked dead serious.

"—Because that's how I've chosen to live my life."

When I took another glance at his "grin", I came to think that that way of smiling must be the embodiment of his nature.

Put crudely, Konan was a lunatic in a clown's disguise.

It's not easy to get by with an uncommon sense put to show. Therefore, he probably adapted to our society by acting frivolous most of the time.

That "grin" must have been a remnant of that madness which he could not conceal.

"Okay, it's my turn now," Konan crushed his cigarette with his heel.

He thrust his hands into the pockets of his tight slacks.

"Why are you so eager to defend Youko-chan?"

With a slow and firm pace, he drew closer on his long legs. Step by step, his leather shoes produced a reverberating creak that filled the passage.

"Don't you agree that it must be quite hard to believe so firmly in her without ''a lot'' of personal sympathy?"

I felt my stomach knot tighter and tighter at the sound of his steadily approaching footsteps. 

"I'm not deliberately defending her, really! But it's simply absurd to expect me to believe that a classmate of mine is a killer. Isn't it normal that I can't, and don't want to, believe your doubts?"

"Yeah, completely normal," he admitted casually. That was, however, only a preface to what was to come. "But come on, in spite of everything I'm still a detective, if I may say so myself. It's not absurd in any way if you were a little more doubtful of her, right? I mean, hey, ''the police'' are suspecting her, so there might be something to it! I think it wouldn't do you any harm if you agreed a little more with me, you know, admitting that I have some points that make her suspicious. There's no need be so dismissive about it, is there? Well, that's the opinion of an experienced detective who has witnessed all kinds of incidents, anyway. Now, what do you say?" said the experienced speaker Konan in a torrent of words with a peculiar intonation, giving the atmosphere around us his own touch.

"...I'm a cross-grained person, you know. I'm also a little contrary on top of that. Therefore, I don't want to simply nod to something that doesn't make perfect sense to me!"

As a natural consequence, my hands became sweaty and my voice became tense.

"I guess so. It's already an established fact within me that you're that type of person."

I registered that his smile seemed very content.

"But while you sure are a cross-grained lad, Nonomiya-kun, you are ''not'' an idiot, and you don't lack common sense either. So I can't understand why you are so understanding to her. With that personality of yours, shouldn't you rather search for Youko-chan's flaws the more perfect she is? At least the Nonomiya I know is someone who doesn't believe anything he hasn't seen with his own eyes."

It's agreeable if you are understood because the other party shows interest in yourself by doing so. If it's interest from a capable person like Konan on top of that, it can't be a bad feeling.

However, I couldn't help feeling uncomfortable, for his assessment was just too spot-on. That nasty feeling of having my whole body closely scrutinized, from tip to toe, gave me a chill.

Before I knew it, Konan was standing right before me.

"In short, you know, I've already concluded that your unconditional support of Youko-chan is due to special feelings towards her. And well, because you love her so much that whether she's guilty or not, you just don't care. You're like, 'I shall believe in her even when the rest of the world turns against us!', you see. Oh how great is the power of love. Whoa there, don't look at me like that! I'm not messing with you here. Actually, I quite like that way of thinking. No, make that 'I love it'!"

What a talkative man. It's not like I was dumbfounded; I was taking my hat off to him. I wondered if there was even a single person who didn't talk after being targeted by Konan.

"You are gifted with a superb imagination indeed."

"Well, it's a job that requires a good imagination."

A smile was on his mouth, a truly amused one.

"But there's one more. One more possibility why you could be protecting Youko-chan," his smile disappeared. "Namely, if you have certain proof that Youko Tsukimori has not killed anyone."

My consciousness was immediately drawn to the murder recipe.

"So... do you?"

"By no means."

"Too bad," he replied not regretfully in the least.

While my whole body was becoming stiff, he continued. In a most casual tone.

"By the way, I've been wondering—what's in that left breast pocket?"

My right hand reflexively grabbed at my left breast pocket.

Konan reacted on the spot.

He quickly pulled his hands out of his pockets as if drawing a sword and grabbed my chest the very next moment. After he had taken a large step towards me, my field of vision made a sudden turn.

I felt a blow on my back the next instant which then turned into pain that flashed through my entire body. The fierce pain caused me to heave one deep groan. My head started spinning and I became unable to move. However, despite the dull pain, I could hardly breath and couldn't even groan anymore.

It all happened so fast I had no clue what had just occurred to me.

By now I assume that he had thrown me down on the hard asphalt by using some technique similar to Haraigoshi, as it's called in Judo.

"I'm quite the feminist, you know, I don't want to be rough to the ladies. But on the other hand, I'm pretty much merciless towards guys!" he said casually as he sat astride me.

"...Ugh...you will get into trouble for this," I managed to squeeze out and scowled at Konan.

"No worries, no worries! As long as no one gets wind of it I'm safe!"

He didn't care in the least.

"Well, shall we take a look at what you're hiding there in that inside pocket?"

I firmly grabbed my jacket with both my hands.

"Oh? From your stubborn resistance I gather that there's really something in there that is related to Youko-chan?"

I shouldn't have averted my eyes when he came peeking deep into them.

"Ha! Bull's eye? My intuition sure is something! It's getting fun!" he laughed with an odd light in his eyes.

Konan tried to break my grip, which I, still stuck below him, frantically warded off with all my might.

"Whoa, whoa. You don't know when to give up!"

Konan scratched his head in a baffled way.

"Hah, there's no way around this," he then muttered. "Believe it or not, but I was in high school once, too. Back then I was actually quite the naughty boy, you know?"

He suddenly started talking of his past for some reason.

"And well, the place naughty boys like us used to select for deepening our friendship with our fists was, oh surprise, desolate passages below railways like this one! Maybe you get now why I asked you right in the beginning if you wanted to have a duel with me."

I failed to see what he was getting at, which was exactly what unsettled me.

"Can you guess why we usually selected somewhere under a railway?"

That moment, the ground started shaking slightly. I felt with my back that apparently a train was coming our way.

"The reason is—screams get drowned out in the noise of passing trains."

As he revealed that fact, a thunderous sound burst through the air, killing all other sounds.

"...you're joking... right?"

My words of shock were naturally drowned out as well.

The rattling of the train passing by above us shook my body. No, perhaps I was just trembling myself.

I felt the cold sensation of metal on my forehead.

Still utterly confused, I looked at what was in front of my eyes with a fixed gaze.

In his stretched out arm Konan was holding a black object. The cylindrical tip of that hard, black object was put on my forehead.

As soon as the thundering noise receded, giving way to the normal sounds, the man expressionlessly said, "If timed properly, that noise can even drown out a gunshot."

I gulped down without knowing.

[[Image:Gekkou-261.jpg|thumb]]

''...no way. He may have a tendency to lunacy, but he wouldn't possibly pull that trigger. This is bound to be a foolish performance to threaten me.''

That's what my mind told me anyway.

My hair, however, stuck to my forehead. My heart was pounding and my breath was running wild. In contrast to my logical thinking, my body was so tense that I couldn't even blink.

"Now let go."

I put all the power I still had into my fingers.

"That's the spirit. Good boy."

My arms, however, were shaken off easily. Unfortunately, there had not been enough power left in me to resist him.

Konan skillfully undid the first two buttons with one hand and slid that hand into my inside pocket.

When he pulled it out again, he was holding a small folded scrap of paper between his fingers.

"...a scrap of paper, huh. What will I find on here, I wonder?"

He concluded that I had entirely lost the will to resist and removed the handgun from my forehead, and unfolded the sheet with both his hands.

Konan skimmed through it with a serious mien.

As he was still sitting on me, I couldn't move while he was reading the letter, thus I was forced to keep on looking at the concrete ceiling, which was not exactly interesting.

"Oh time! Go by!" I wished silently.

"Let me confirm one thing... who has written this 'recipe'?"

He thrust out the sheet before my eyes.

"I don't know," I hissed and looked away.

"...So my hunch didn't fail me," he said with a convinced tone. "Judging by your reaction, '''you''' have written this, huh."

I kept silent.

"At the very first glance I thought that the letters looked very, you know, 'boyish', so I did consider the possibility! But I mean, what's written there just doesn't match the image I have of you, you know? ''You'' and this, huh... What did your face look like when you wrote it? Oh, please don't tell me you wrote it with that poker face of yours!"

It was probably the poker face I had maintained that caused him to suddenly embrace his stomach and start trembling with tears in his eyes. He chuckled as the intensity of his tremble increased like the speed of plane that was rolling on a runway. And then,

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

He burst into a grand laughter. The plane had just soared into the sky.

His guffawing resounded through the tunnel. Laughter rained down on me from all sides with no mercy. I experienced the humiliation of being made a fool by a great mass.

"...aah, stop it, aah, I'm dying! I'm dying laughing! Aah, I haven't laughed like this in ages... I think for a while I'm gonna break out into a laughter just by recalling this," he said while still laughing with groans mixed in. "Aaa... I have to admit that that contrast got even me by surprise. Now that was something new. Never thought that you, our grouchy Nonomiya-kun, would write such an oh-so-sweet letter that would startle even the purest girl in love..."

Again, he was unable to suppress it and laughed out loud.

The title on the sheet he had thrust in front of me was—

—"Love Recipe"

The "Love Recipe" contained all kinds of flirt phrases and methods to win over a girl's heart. Words so sickeningly sweet that they didn't even lose to the taste of pancakes accidentally covered with a bottle of maple syrup, filled the whole page without leaving any gaps.

It was a sinister item indeed, of which a single bite would certainly cause nausea to any man like me without physical defense against sweet words.

If you write such a dangerous thing with your very own hands, with all your wit can offer, during an entire long night, then your life cannot be assured anymore. Even if you survived it, you would be scarred for life with a horrendous trauma.

An actual survivor states that living became hard just a few minutes after starting to write.

At last, satisfied with laughing, Konan asked me with a meek expression, "So? Do you want me to retire from the case now because of this?"

"It would be very much appreciated."

He grabbed my head with his hands and leaned over me. My dark field of vision became even darker.

"There's no way I could retire at such a half-baked state!" he declared from straight above with forceful eyes.

"But that's," I began and put on a confident smile. "That's only your view as a detective, right?"

"...What do you mean?"

A question mark appeared above him. Therefore, I grinned while answering his question.

"Right now you look extremely fulfilled!"

He could say what he wanted, but his eyes were sparkling like the eyes of a kid that had just arrived at an amusement park. To me Konan looked as though he was bursting with amusement.

"Haven't you had enough fun by now?"

Konan pondered over my words while stroking his chin.

He hadn't denied it when I said that it was not a sense of justice that made him choose the job as a detective.

What he had asserted, however, was that he wanted to enjoy humans and their relationships.

In short, Konan himself didn't care much if Tsukimori had killed her mother or not. Though finding out the truth was surely part of that hobby of his, it was by no means his personal goal.

So I thought about what his goal ''really'' was. The conclusion I came to was this:

From the moment I had realized that we resembled each other, I had felt that such an end was inevitable.

"...oh well, you got me!"

Konan spun his gun around his finger and stowed it away in the holster that was hidden under his jacket.

"My loss was decided the instant I laughed. After laughing badly like that I can't claim that I wasn't amused anymore."

When he stood up, he reached out his hand to me. I took it.

"Okay! I'll drop the case."

He then pulled me up onto my feet.

"...Thank you."

Words of appreciation automatically slipped out of my mouth. Apparently, I happened to be relieved.

Considering that we were similar, it wasn't hard to comprehend the principle of his actions, but I had no prospects of victory in terms of persuading him, an experienced speaker, into dropping the case. As a matter of fact, my first attempt had been beaten down by his overwhelming pressure.

Since the odds had been against me, I had prepared the "Love Recipe" as a trump card.

The main reason I had written it was to create unforeseeability. To surprise Konan with something that he would definitely not expect me to ever write. And finally, to take the wind out of his sails with that unforeseeability.

My vigorous resistance had not been played at all; I had wanted to keep my trump card for last, yes, I had even wanted to take it to the grave.

What I can say now is that I probably would have failed if I hadn't taken the bullet.

"Oh well, it was about time anyway, " Konan said while wiping off the dust on his suit with one hand. "Keep in mind that to the bigwigs this case is only a trifling incident that wouldn't even get into the news. Organizations, not only the police, have a tendency to avoid using time, money and workforce for trivial things, you know. After all, they wouldn't gain much for solving an incident no one cares about."

"Quite business-like, isn't it?" I followed his example and dusted off my uniform with both my hands.

"Indeed. If you think of it like that, maybe I'm actually something like an office worker," he nodded full of agreement. "Well, the point is that even I can't always keep running after every small incident, no matter how much everyone accepts it implicitly! I mean, come on, I'm capable, right? They want me on the big cases!"

He then folded the recipe and unaffectedly put it into the pocket of his suit.

"Hey, don't just stow that away in your pocket!" I hurriedly stopped him.

"Mh? What do you mean? That's ''mine'', isn't it?"

"No, it's ''mine''. Please return it to me."

"No chance."

"But there's no point if you have it, is there?"

"It's the treasure I dug up this time. It's an irreplaceable memento of you. I'm going to reread this recipe from time to time and remember you and the happy days we spent together."

"That's a lie. You're definitely going to make a fool of me!"

"Oh? I'm busted."

I could not help sighing, seeing he was as undaunted as always.

"Come on, isn't that quite a good deal? For just a mere scrap of paper I'll withdraw from this case! Now if that's not some outstanding treatment!"

"It's not a physical problem, but a very psychological one."

"Well, you should be able to take some scars as a boy."

Konan put on a wry smile as he lit on a cigarette.

"...even I think once in a while, you know, that I've got a bothersome personality. But we can't just change our hobbies or our values, right?"

I found myself agreeing with the musing Konan before me.

"They say it's possible to select one's way of life, but I think that's just a flowery lie. At least I could ''not'' choose another one. Choosing another way of life means throwing away all you've done so far and becoming a new self, don't you agree? I like myself the way I am now. So I have no choice but to stick to my current principles!"

Then he showed the grin that truly suited him.

"An acquaintance of mine said something similar. Something along the lines of the world's very setup being 'shit', so one should live by one's own rules."

"Oho. We would surely get on well."

"Yes, indeed. I don't know about her, but you would surely like her."

"So it's a woman?"

"Yes."

"Woho, definitely introduce me to her one of these days."

"If I find some time."

"By the way..."

"Yes?"

"—What was it really? What have you been hiding?"

I was unable to answer him right away.

Konan had assured me he`d drop this case. And he was surely not someone who broke promises.

But still I just couldn't bring myself to let anyone else know about the murder recipe.

However, Konan suddenly tousled my hair with his sinewy hand.

"Sorry. Forget that. That question was 'thoughtless' as you would call it, right?"

He blew some smoke toward the asphalt.

The railway started to creak, causing the entire tunnel to vibrate, and erased all other sounds around us.

During the time that allowed no other sounds, Konan made himself at home and enjoyed his cigarette, whereas I had my gaze fixed on the far away blue sky as if enjoying a nightly read.

At last, the train passed by and took its thunderous sound with it.

"Good luck, Nonomiya-kun. It was a short time with you, but I really enjoyed it!"

That was the first thing I heard again.

"I too... relatively enjoyed those days."

"Relatively?! Oh boy...," he said and leisurely walked towards the exit, his shoes squeaking. I silently gazed at his back as he waved his hand extravagantly.

"...Ah, let me correct one thing at the end." The footsteps stopped near the entrance of the passage. "Satisfied, my ass! Just so you know! I am not at all satisfied! I wanted to play much more with you and Youko-chan!"

He resembled a brat that didn't want his summer holidays to end so much that I had to laugh, "Oh boy...!"

"Goodbye."

"Yes!"

It was not farewell forever, but we weren't going to see each other for quite a while. We may live in the same town, but there wouldn't be many occasions to meet each other. Our separate ways had merely happened to cross by chance this time. That was the relationship between us, between Konan and me, two persons of different ages and positions.

"Right! I almost forgot—"

He quickly turned around and skillfully squinted one eye.

"Actually, I fancy women and men all the same!"

"......eh?"

He gave me a wave with his flat hand, "''Byeee!''" and disappeared into the light, leaving me behind dumbfounded.

"...'Bi'? Don't mess with me!"

I was sure it had to be another special bad joke of his and that he was having his fun with me.

"How stupid," I shook my head.

I frantically tried to make myself believe that it ''was'' a joke, but I just couldn't do anything about the goosebumps I had gotten all over.

Geez, Konan remained a good-for-nothing to the bitter end. I had never met such a good-for-nothing in my entire life. There can't be many absurd people like him in the world. I figured that I may not meet someone like him again.

Therefore, it was a relatively regrettable farewell for me.

After raising my hand once, I turned around and walked towards the exit on the opposite side.

By the time I left the tunnel, my mind was occupied with only her and no one else.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Hesitation|Hesitation]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Moonlight|Moonlight]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Hesitation

2013-04-15T03:54:35Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Hesitation]==

To my blank amazement, it was not pity that lay in the gazes of most students, but jealousy of their peers.

As soon as Youko Tsukimori appeared at school after her long absence, everyone strove to be around her. In no time at all, a wall akin to a fortress loomed before her.

"Are you okay, Youko-san? Aren't you tired? Don't hesitate to tell me if there's anything I can help you with, okay?"

"Thank you, Chizuru. I feel much better now that I have seen your lovely face. I really should have brought myself to come to school sooner," she put on a brilliant smile and stroked Usami's cheek softly, while Usami was worriedly looking up at her. Tsukimori then took a look at the surrounding people. "My sincere thanks to everyone else as well. I can't express how happy I am... that so many of you have worried about me. I am really lucky to have classmates like you!"

She closed her eyes softly without breaking her smile as she put her hands on her well-rounded bosom.

Tempted by the deep emotion she was showing, they all put on meek expressions and nodded all together.

I almost had to snort upon seeing that Kamogawa and his guys were among them, too, with earnest faces that couldn't have suited them less.

Originally my classmates probably wanted to be the ones that comforted a disheartened Tsukimori, but in fact it turned out the opposite. If someone had taken a photograph of that scene and told me it was Tsukimori comforting her disheartened classmates, I would have believed it.

In other words, Youko Tsukimori could do perfectly without our worthless pity.

Only when she was among masses of people like now, her true value surfaced.

Though everyone wore the same uniform and was the same age, only she was special and stood out from the others, shining almost like the moon in the darkest night: magnificently and full of elegance.

As there was no way to get through the impregnable fortress that was protecting her, I was degraded to a mere "Villager A" who beheld the captivating princess from afar.

From time to time, however, our eyes met.

I can't deny that I found myself not incapable of interpreting her demanding gaze as an appeal to rescue her. But for one thing I would have looked stupid if I was wrong, and for another thing it was unreasonable to voluntarily take such a calorie-consuming action for someone like me who does not care two figs about knightliness. Thus, I slipped out of the uncomfortable classroom and brilliantly fulfilled my role as Villager A by silently watching the clouds through the corridor window until homeroom began.

Even during breaks the situation didn't change.

It didn't take me long to realize that I wouldn't be able to properly talk to her at school for a while, thus I chose to spend my breaks in the quiet corridor, away from the noise.

As a reaction to my quick resignation, clever Tsukimori started to write messages on a quartered report sheet and passed them to me during the breaks because she couldn't talk to me directly.

To prevent the others from noticing, she gave them to me while passing me by without looking at me. She either handed the letters to me or just put them into my pocket.

By the time school was over, five of them had come into my possession.

I laid them out in the order I had received them, starting with the one I had gotten in the first break.

«Why didn't you help me?»

«You know my feelings, don't you?»

«It's been so long since we could talk.»

«I think I will be in the library during lunch break.»

«I forgot how cold-hearted you are.»

She had surely realized that mailing me would have done the job. I sensed a kind of unyielding spirit and pride from the fact that she still chose to stick to those messages.

By the way, I had indulged myself in a midday nap during that lunch break. Because I would have to deal with her at work after school anyway.

Besides, there was still one scrap she had not given me yet, judging from the pattern she used. The "after-school"-message. I had in mind to react after reading that one.

As expected, she let a scrap of paper fall on my desk as she passed me by while cheerfully saying goodbye to her classmates.

A smile escaped my mouth when I read the hastily written message. It was at last a request I couldn't reject, so I quickly packed my bag and left the classroom.

«This day tired me. I don't want to walk. I'll have you take me to the café on your bicycle. In return I'll forgive your behavior today.»

As it seemed, it's not always easy to be in the spotlight. Just watching had annoyed me, so I figured her exhaustion had to be huge.

Since I was satisfied by having gotten her to show a sign of weakness, though only in letters, I was willing to answer the princess' wishes for once and give her a ride.

When I left the school building with such thoughts, my eyes found a tall man near the front gate.

He spotted me immediately and signaled me to come by waving me to him, while "hiding" in the shadow of the gate.

I would have preferred to just feign ignorance, but he wasn't someone that would allow me to ignore him. He would simply pursue me until he had me.

I took out my mobile phone, quickly typed in a message and sent it. I informed Tsukimori that I could not accompany her to the café.

I didn't want to involve her in "that matter". Not out of some sparkling heroism to protect her, but because I considered it a private affair.

A reply returned a few seconds later.

«I don't care about you anymore!»

What speed, considering the number of letters! I could well imagine her pressing the buttons of her phone with a furious wrath at an imperceptible speed.

Even though I felt a little upset as I looked up at the clear blue sky, I had to acknowledge it was my own fault and gave up. After all, it was ''I'' who had evaded her that entire day.

It's not like there was a special reason.

I simply hadn't wanted to become one among many.

"Ya! Let's get into my car instead of standing here."

Konan was in a good humor as always.

"What do you want from me this time?"

Therefore I responded purposefully in ill-humor.

"Do I have to tell you?"

"Yes. I have to go to work afterward, so I find myself constrained to refuse if it's useless talk."

"Mh... well, I can surely tell you right now, but it's some ''really'' nasty stuff that shouldn't be said at the gate of a school. Still wanna know?" he stressed with a heavily wrinkled brow, giving me the pleasure of bathing in the shocked glances of the surrounding students.

"...Let's just go. Come on."

"Thank you for your ready approval! It's a pleasure to work with you, Nonomiya-kun!"

I saw that staying here would only give birth to bad rumors, so I reluctantly followed him out of the gate.

Konan's car, parked near the school in a side alley, was a bright red sports car that quite suited his style.

"Nice car, huh? Doesn't it have a nice ring to it that I ''deliberately'' chose an Audi instead of a Porsche, a Ferrari or an Alfa Romeo? Feel free to think to yourself that an Audi was the limit of my salary as a civil servant, but you mustn't say it."

"Is it okay for a police detective to park on the street?"

I didn't recognize the make of his car, but I very easily recognized the no parking sign right next to the sports car.

"It's okay ''because'' I am a police detective. If I hypothetically get a fine for illegal parking, I can just make good use of my position and cover up the misdemeanor."

"What a corrupt world."

"I wonder who made it like this?"

"Deep inside you should know."

"Oh, how philosophic. Too deep for me, so hop in already."

The unaffected expression he showed as he played dumb suited him perfectly. Since I had to admit that, I had no choice but to give in and take a seat.

"—A couple of days ago you explained to me what happened on the day when Youko-chan's mother went missing, remember? At that restaurant."

"Yes."

The second I sat down on the passenger seat, Konan began talking in an earnest voice.

The authority he emitted made it seem as though the air of the car had been compressed in a split second, sending the previously peaceful mood away far away.

"Actually, I've hashed and rehashed it in my mind, but there are some points that just won't make sense to me."

Konan brought down the window and lighted a cigarette from his breast pocket.

"Take the phone call from her mother's workplace. If you ask me, that timing was ''too'' good. Don't you think Youko-chan actually made sure that she would get that call when she was together with you?" he blew a stream of smoke out of the window, "Don't you think it's strange that the phone rang precisely the moment she clung to you?"

The scene of that rainy night's crossroads—of the colorful umbrellas—rose into my mind.

"How would she make them call her at a good timing?"

It goes without saying that the timing had caught my attention. However, I did not know how to get someone to make such a convenient call.

"She could have left behind her number in their call history right before hugging you, for an example."

It was an emergency case.

"Considering how pressing the thing was, they may have called her several times already while you were working?"

For the cooking school, one of their teachers was missing without notice and was completely unavailable at that. It's perfectly thinkable that they would have promptly called back any number in their unaccepted call history, even if it was an unknown one.

"However, nobody knew whether she had gotten a call or not. You couldn't find out just by being at the same place," Konan's mouth broke into a grin, "Unless you got in close contact by, say, hugging each other."

I recalled what I had felt that night; the vibration reaching me via her breasts that had been pressed against my chest.

"...indeed, her mobile phone was set to... silent mode."

"That's exactly what I mean. Well, you also mustn't forget that we're dealing with Youko-chan. It's also possible that there was no call in the first place. In other words, she pretended. She acted."

"Acted?"

"Have you ever heard of the alarm function?"

"Of course! Do you think I'm a—" I began, but couldn't continue because I realized at once what he was getting at.

Konan went on, "Phones don't only vibrate for incoming calls. The alarm functions lately have become really handy; they keep on vibrating until you execute the predefined operation."

"Would she really do that?" I asked myself silently with several question marks popping up over my head. However, taking only the point of whether it's possible or not into consideration, the answer was clear.

"You can't be sure if it's her, can you?"

I couldn't deny it. I was positive that she could have done it.

"Well, we don't know if she acted or if there really was a call. It's just that your explanation leaves those possibilities open. But either way, it's not relevant. Feel free to forget about it. Her real intention lies somewhere else, after all."

"Her real intention...?"

Konan kept silent, waiting for my next words; probably because he had noticed that I was pondering.

Her primary objective that night, which she was even willing to feign a call for, was—

"—to lure me to her home?"

He snapped his fingers, "Bingo! It makes sense if her goal was to get you to her home. No one would leave someone whose mother has just gone missing. Even someone as dry as you wouldn't. Well, and you ''did'' go to her home in the end."

I reconsidered that night with the events Konan pointed out in mind.

—It was as though a crumbled block was reconstructed at a terrific speed. And the newly built block had a completely different shape.

While crushing his cigarette in the ashtray, he continued, "I think you got it. She assigned the task of discovering the suicide note to you."

A cold shiver ran down my back.

If he was right about that, everything that had happened that night had been based on a scenario written by Youko Tsukimori.

"There's another doubtful aspect apart from that. Recall what happened right when you arrived at her home. If I'm not mistaken the first thing she did was getting you a towel to wipe your wet body," he raised his head and looked at me with a razor-sharp gaze, "That's not normal, is it? The first action one would normally take isn't 'getting a towel' but 'finding that mother'!"

Having come to the conclusion that Youko Tsukimori had not killed anyone, I was supposed to deny his opinion, regardless of what it consisted of.

"Indeed, you do have a point. It also stands true, however, that I could clearly sense that nobody was in the house the moment I stepped into the building. I'd say that Tsukimori must have been able to perceive the situation much more clearly than I, the outsider, who'd only come for the second time."

Nevertheless, I was impressed by everything he pointed out.

"You mean that Youko-chan was able to conclude that her mother wasn't there even without searching the house?"

"Yes," I nodded.

"I don't think so," Konan flashed a masterful grin, "But I'm an adult, experienced in the ways of the world and all, you know, so I just can't think as straightly as you do."

Seeing how he was able to conclude so much just with the little information he had, he deserved his title as a detective. He really ''was'' an extremely capable person. He made me understand that once more.

I even found myself impatient for more—

"The thing may be that her mother was already dead when you went there, and she knew it. Thus, she wasn't eager to search for her. It's possible to interpret her unnatural behavior in such a way, don't you agree?"

"...So?"

My forced voice was a little hoarse.

"What are you getting at?"

Because I knew exactly what Konan was going to answer.

The instant I averted my eyes from him—his long arm whooshed past my head and his hand landed hard on the the passenger side window.

"Was it over your head? Then I'll be frank with you..."

His sharp features were directly before me as he leaned forward. The stench of smoke assaulted my nose.

"...that girl, Youko Tsukimori, has killed her mother!"

After declaring that, his gaze was drawn towards the front window.

Following him, I also directed my eyes there. Ahead of the straight side alley was the main street, bathed in madder red. One could see students on their way home passing by like fishes swimming.

There was one person that had gotten separated from the bulk, standing still at the opening of the alley.

The silhouette was slender and was long-haired. Due to the backlight the sunset produced, I couldn't make out her face. What I clearly did recognize, however, was that the high school girl over there was gazing at us.

She wasn't approaching us, nor was she walking away; just staring in our direction. That shadow had a terrifically strong presence to it despite just standing there without even interacting with us.

I delved deep into the seat and quickly urged, "...please get us out of here right now."

"Are you sure?" Konan asked with his gaze still on the front window.

"Yes," I answered, whereupon he replied with a stressed "Hmmm?"

The next moment, he switched once to neutral before quickly shifting gears and backing out of the narrow side alley at a breakneck speed. In no time we arrived at the street opposite the female student.

During that I could do nothing but tightly clench my fist.

At first Konan said nothing, but when we came upon a red traffic light, he returned to the topic as if he had been waiting for it.

"I'm sure I don't have to explain to you that she fulfills all necessary prerequisites to fake her mother's suicide note, right?"

I nodded. That was my limit. I didn't know what would come out if I opened my mouth.

"She's a bright girl. She knew that authenticity would rise dramatically if the note was discovered by a third party rather than herself. And she chose you for that part. Well, her plan worked out splendidly since you did find it for her."

I ground my teeth.

"I also think that as a family member she should have had no trouble killing her mother. I mean, let's not even start listing the ways she could have used to take her out! What remained was to go to that forlorn park on the high ground and push her down the cliff."

I was clenching my fist so hard it hurt.

"Child's play for her, right?"

Don't talk big like that! You don't know her as well as I do!—I found myself fighting with the urge to shout out all this.

What compelled me that moment was not impatience anymore but raw anger. Hearing someone else talk about her like that irritated me as if having my garden trampled down by strangers.

Konan pulled the car onto the sidewalk and smiled, "We're here."

I peeked out and found that he had parked along the main street, near the café.

I gave him a nod, "Thank you."

The next moment he put on his usual frivolous smile and shrugged like an American.

"Sorry for startling you. But once in a while I have to show you that I'm still a policeman, a detective, you know," he grinned, but his eyes weren't at all smiling, "And I don't want to cause the misunderstanding that you can hide things from me forever." He pulled me closer by my shoulder, "...I would be very thankful if you could soon recall some interesting info, since that would save me some messy work..."

His emphatic whisper sent a cold shiver down my spine. I guessed that being threatened with a knife pressed against one's neck had to be a similar experience.

I averted my gaze without replying and discovered the reflection of a person in the window.

There was a grim high school boy who didn't move a muscle with the exception of the blinking of his eyes. I noticed that the hand of that student was holding onto his left breast.

I felt a familiar touch with my fingers.

—The murder recipe.

I had strained my hand without noticing it.

It was the one thing I had to protect no matter what.

Because the murder recipe embodied the only point where I had the upper hand over Konan and was my last trump card against Youko Tsukimori.

Mopping the dim café after closing time. Suddenly, a shadow obstructed the course of my mop. I looked up and found the owner of the shadow standing with legs spread and arms crossed.

"Did you have an argument or something?" asked Mirai-san, looking down at me with a deeply wrinkled brow.

"Argument? Who? With whom?"

I wasn't playing dumb. I honestly didn't know.

"Are you dumb? You and Youko of course, who else?"

"I really don't think I'm dumb... but anyway, what gives you that idea?"

"It's pretty damn obvious if anyone looked at you two! You haven't talked at all lately, have you?"

While leaning onto the mop, I thought about it.

"...we haven't?"

I remembered next to nothing of today's work.

"Doesn't surprise me. It was obvious that you were miles away."

Now that she mentioned it, I had to admit that in my thoughts I had been "miles away" with Konan indeed. I had been pondering over a way to surpass that man non-stop during work.

The more I thought about it, the more I came to think that I had no chance of beating him.

"Anyway, leaving that aside since it's nothing new in your case—"

"Objection!"

"Overruled!"

She had no sympathy.

"Let me carry on; this time Youko's acting strange as well. It looks like she's actively avoiding you to me," she thrust out her chin and drew herself up, "So, what have you done to her? Come on, try to explain yourself. At least I'll hear you out."

As usual, she was so stubborn with her opinion that it was refreshing.

"Are you unable to think that I might be the victim?"

"Yeah. I'm on Youko's side whatever happens."

"What an unreasonable world!"

"Ohh, you only noticed just now?" she answered my lamenting words haughtily, "The world's unreasonable and unjust wherever you go; otherwise social stratification would not exist in the first place. So why should I bother playing a saint if the world's very setup is already shit? I live by my own rules."

If you ever tried giving the word "self-centered" a form, you would definitely get this woman in front of you.

"My way of life is simple, isn't it?"

Well, it ''was'' simple indeed.

Her rule was just one: getting her will whatever others say. Nothing more.

But I couldn't imagine just how hard it had to be to pull that "nothing more" through. It's not something anyone can do. Not everyone is as strong as she is.

But she carried on playing her guitar without letting the noise of the world interrupt her concert.

There are bound to be some that brand people like her as trouble-makers, as egoists, or even hate them. I agreed insofar that it was a highly justified view.

"...indeed. So simple I'm almost jealous."

To my chagrin, however, I found myself understanding her very well.

I couldn't help but be amused by such a reckless woman who would hold a mike with one hand and show the masses the middle finger with the other. As one of her fans I thought, "One or two like her wouldn't do any harm to the world."

"Okay, you oughta apologize now."

"To you?" I played dumb. Mirai-san smiled, amazed.

"Idiot. No use apologizing to me, is there. You should apologize to the chit-sorting 'princess' who's sneaking peeks at us from over there!" said the "queen" in a loud voice.

I turned around and discovered Tsukimori standing at the register where no one had been at the start of our conversation. Our eyes met.

"It hath come to my ear that Your Highness wisheth for an apology. Is it true?" I asked in a quite sardonic tone, upon which Tsukimori dropped her gaze immediately to her hands.

[[Image:Gekkou-234.jpg|thumb]]

"Why should I need an apology? We have ''not at all'' had an argument with each other, have we?" she answered while sorting one chit after the other.

"Her Highness begs to differ, I fear?"

"Just look, does that look to you like she's not angry at you? She couldn't make it more obvious! Now, come on, I'm bothering to act as a go-between for you, so take action and say you're sorry already."

"Don't worry, Mirai-san. I am not angry ''in the least''. But even ''if'' we were in the middle of a quarrel and ''if'' I wished for an apology from Nonomiya-kun, there would be no point if he does not feel any guilt. I would still prefer no apology at all over getting an idle one that is not meant by heart," said Tsukimori in one breath.

"'Don't worry'? 'Not angry in the least'?" I was irritated by Tsukimori's indirect and ironic allusions, "If she wants to say something, she should make herself clear, don't you agree, Mirai-san?"

"Now, look at that, Mirai-san. You can't call it a quarrel if Nonomiya-kun is not even aware of what he has done."

"I won't apologize, Mirai-san! She's just getting worked up all on her own."

"Mirai-san, let's not bother with that blockhead anymore."

Suddenly, Mirai-san tousled her fair hair with both hands and...

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

...shouted from the top of her lungs.

"Hell! Just shut up! You're getting on my nerves!"

The manager and Saruwatari-san cautiously peeked out of the staffroom to check what was going on.

"This! Really! Is! A pain!"

Mirai-san wound her arm around my head and took me into a neck-hold. The soft feeling against my cheek made me realize that there was something womanly about her after all.

She ignored my complaints and proceeded rapidly towards the register while yelling, "Come here!"

Upon arriving there, she stretched out her free arm, as could be expected, and took Tsukimori by the neck in the same manner.

We two, constrained at Mirai-san's side, were forced to face each other from close up whether we wanted or not.

I did not want to see Tsukimori's face in the least, but unfortunately Mirai-san's modest breasts were quite the opposite of her personality and thus obviously insufficient for blocking the view for me.

I may add that she will never hear that from my mouth. Ever.

"You know, I'm really not that patient! I can't stand such a pain anymore! Forget about the remaining work and just ''get out''!"

She yelled down at us, saying things about her temper everybody already knew.

"Nonomiya! You apologize to Youko! And Youko, you forgive him when he does!" she said while scowling at us in turn, "I don't care about the reason behind this quarrel, but make sure you make up with each other on the way to the station! Then you come to work tomorrow as usual! Got it? That's an order!"

Before I knew it, Tsukimori and I were exchanging glances, and a moment later sighing as if on cue.

"Hey, what about your reply!?"

Faced with the overwhelming commands that rained down on us, we exchanged glances once more and had no choice but to nod reluctantly, "...understood."

Solely lit by white street lights, we walked along a narrow alley towards the station. We were silent.

Upon entering the way along the main street , our field of vision was filled with gorgeous neon light. The number of people increased in proportion to the illumination, and so did the noise. The headlights of the cars passing us by made us flare up in yellow. Far away a siren was resounding, whereas in the proximity a dog was raising a forceful bark to fight it back. And we were silent.

Tsukimori was the first to give in to the oppressive air.

She stopped abruptly.

"You have been a little strange lately," she whispered, getting straight to the point, "Is there something bothering you?"

"Do I look that way?" I asked back.

She tilted her neat chin a bit and asked further, "Perhaps it is related to Konan-san?"

I did not remember having spoken about Konan in her presence—

"I have heard he visited the café when I was absent."

—but I figured that there were some things she already knew.

"According to Mirai-san, you two get on well together, just like a couple."

What on earth had Mirai-san told her about us? Not that I wanted to know.

"That's none of your business," I spat out bluntly and averted my gaze from her.

I didn't want to talk about Konan with her.

"But it is!"

I insisted on settling the matter with Konan without her interference.

"I say it's not."

Of course I was aware that she had no way of knowing that I didn't want to drag her in.

"I can't just ignore it!" her eyes suddenly turned serious, "There is nothing about you that's not important to me."

In Tsukimori's wide opened and clear eyes I was reflected with an awfully disinterested face.

''Stop it! Don't look at me with such eyes!''

While I was not at all in the position to complain to her for insistently probing into a subject I shunned—I was the one of us who wanted to hide his feelings, after all—I gave in to my displeasure and raised my pace.

"I hate insistent women!"

It might have still been forgivable if I had been just acting, but unfortunately I had been simply unable to hide my irritation.

As a matter of fact, I had been quite taxed recently. I was frustrated because I wasn't making progress with Konan. I was pressured because I was unable to find a way to break that deadlock. I was in constant unrest that he might find out about the murder recipe.

And most of all, I felt inferior to her.

Suddenly, Tsukimori pulled my arm from behind, "Come here." She drew me to an old bench near a bus stop and made me sit down. Then she trotted off towards a vending machine a couple of meters away and quickly came back with two cans in her hands.

She put on a smile, "You like 'this', don't you?"

She thrust a cold and wet orange can out to me. I was so taken aback that I completely forgot about my irritation.

...Youko Tsukimori really was not to be underestimated. Apparently she had been all ears to our talk in the classroom.

"If we get into a quarrel here again even though Mirai-san told us to make up, I won't be able to face her tomorrow."

I snatched the juice away from her, opened the lid and took a long gulp of the cool orange-colored liquid.

"We can consider ourselves lucky to have someone that worries so much about us. Don't you agree?"

The sour but refreshing taste of the orange juice soothed my boisterous feelings effectively.

"...It's as you say. I'm sorry."

Tsukimori sat down next to me. "No, please forgive ''me''." Her hair-ends swayed. "I tried being sulky for once," she giggled with her gaze still dropped, "Because you have been giving me the cold shoulder lately."

She brought her face to mine with reproachful eyes.

"Please come to my place again sometime. I promise I won't do anything you don't like anymore, okay?" she said jokingly and laughed, but I couldn't help finding a trace of loneliness in her face. I recalled that she was all alone now.

Tsukimori's house was large; and had to feel even larger without any cohabitants. Various worries crossed my mind.

"...but you've been quite occupied yourself, too, recently."

As a matter of fact, I had gotten my plate much too full with Konan alone to care about Tsukimori, but I felt a little guilty upon seeing her lonely like that.

"Oh yes, because a certain someone did not only refrain from helping me but also ignored me completely, I had no time for recreation at school."

"Well, you have my sympathies."

"I'm sure you aren't joking but really mean it like that..." Tsukimori shrugged her shoulders exaggeratedly along with a small sigh.

Sure enough, I had decided to give priority to the affair with Konan rather than Tsukimori's situation.

"At any rate, I'll try to act normal at the café, so please tell Mirai-san something positive, too," I ended our conversation and stood up.

"—Konan-san and you are like brothers with an age gap," Tsukimori murmured, "Perhaps it was that, supported by the fact that you're two men, that made me feel unhappy and left out."

I sat down again on the bench and peeked at her seemingly brooding face from the side.

"...Konan-san and I are like brothers, you say? Haven't you also compared Mirai-san and me in a similar way?"

"Yes, I have. Now that you say it, all three of you resemble each other. Of course I don't mean your looks by that, you understand?"

"Care to elaborate?"

I was very interested in how I looked in her eyes.

"Let me think... I don't know if it's the right expression to use, but you three somehow resemble each other in your 'way of life'."

"...our way of life, huh."

"I'm sorry that I can't put it clearly."

"No, I think I get what you mean."

'Way of life' was a rather wide term, but if interpreted as something like 'our values', then I had to admit that theirs and mine weren't so different. I was sympathizing with them in many regards.

Tsukimori's opinion was most interesting, which is why I felt inclined to ask more. Especially about Konan.

"Tell me, what do you think about Konan? He's quite a strange guy, don't you agree?"

Tsukimori rested her chin on her hand and meaningfully sighed, "He sure is!"

"You don't look pleased," I stated.

"I don't really like him. I don't feel comfortable when he's around me because I have to be cautious of his attempts to read my character all the time. So it's really tiring to be together with him for too long. I wonder if all detectives are like him?"

She pulled her slender shoulders in as if she were attacked by a cold shiver.

I haven't seen her like this very often. If it's Konan, however, anyone would show a similar reaction. That man was not normal.

"In comparison I would want to be by your side for hours and hours. I wonder why that is?"

She cocked her head and peeked into my face like a little devil.

"Don't ask me," I averted my eyes after deigning her a look, "I don't know about other detectives, but I'm pretty sure he belongs to a very peculiar category. He constantly leads me by the nose. I'm no match for him."

Right. I was at my wit's end. Maybe he had been too strong an opponent for me from the beginning.

"But as a man who resembles him, you should understand Konan-san much better than I do," she said, "Right?" Tsukimori formed her mouth into a crescent moon smile.

My heart skipped a beat.

"Don't you think that he cares more than necessary about you and not me because he likes you? It's normal to feel special about people that seem to understand you," she added.

My heart reacted fiercely to each of her words.

"That's a lie. I have no idea what he thinks."

"Indeed. From time to time I have no idea what you think, either, Nonomiya-kun," she giggled, shaking her hair.

My mind was blurry—the trail felt so near and still I couldn't see it.

"What are you getting at? I fail to comprehend what you want to tell me."

But I was confident that the trail was somewhere ahead.

"Mhh, as I said, you two resemble each other!"

Tsukimori put on a mischievous smile and purred pretentiously.

"No, I've heard that already."

When I gave her an urging look, she shrugged lightly in an uncomfortable manner and finally opened her mouth.

My mind cleared up the very moment her words reached my ears.

"If you want to know what he thinks, just think about what you would do in his place!"

Because we resembled each other. Our trains of thought should resemble as well — She added with a smile.

Without waiting for her to finish speaking, I started thinking.

I matched Konan's actions so far with my own thoughts. What would I do? What would I want to do? Ideas started flooding into my head without end.

"...sorry. There's something I have to do," I told her quickly, pressed 120 Yen into her hand and ran off home. I rushed through the night town without caring about her yell that caught up with me.

I just wanted to be alone. I wanted to be alone and collect my overflowing thoughts.

I hadn't found a clear answer to how I could settle that affair with Konan — I was going to think about that now — but I was on the right trail.

This matter doesn't necessarily have to end with a clear result. And it's not important what the truth behind the incident is. Those were the two things I was sure of.

Why? — Because I thought so.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Cigarette Tiger|Cigarette Tiger]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Bye-Bye|Bye-Bye]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Cigarette Tiger

2013-04-14T21:49:03Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Cigarette Tiger]==

When I went to school that morning, fighting with my drowsiness, Tsukimori was nowhere to be seen in the classroom.

Of course there was nobody in the class who hadn't noticed her absence.

Usami had been peeking at me since I walked in, probably eager to question me about Tsukimori.

It wasn't like her to be so hesitant. Perhaps she was still mindful of the fact that she had confessed to me the other day.

I could only picture too well how Usami may have writhed and rolled on her bed in heavy regret over her careless confession.

Suddenly, our eyes met. She immediately dropped her gaze, while the exposed part of her ears and her neck turned bright red.

Apparently, I was spot on in my prediction.

I couldn't help smiling while watching the cute behavior she was showing.

"What's wrong, Usami?"

"...Eh! W-What? What? What should be wrong?" she stammered with such vigor that she started up to her feet.

"Isn't there something you want to ask me?"

"N-No! I don't want to ask! Not yet! I need a little more time to prepare myself! I don't want to hear it yet!"

Ah, so that was it.

While sighing in my mind, I helped her calm down by asking warmly, "Don't you want to ask me about Tsukimori?"

"...Aah, that's what you're talking about...," sighed Usami in blatant relief. "Yeah, right, why is she absent today?"

Usami, sitting at her desk right next to mine, cocked her head to and fro like a pygmy marmoset.

"Beats me. But maybe she caught a cold in the rain yesterday?" I replied ambiguously.

Neither Tsukimori nor the police had forbidden me to talk about the disappearance of her mother, but I didn't intend to tell my classmates anything in relation to that matter. I was being considerate of Tsukimori.

I was perfectly aware that it didn't suit my character to sympathize with her, but I couldn't help it because I had seen her in a horribly disheartened state, much worse than I could have ever imagined of her.

Besides, if I told anyone about her mother, I was bound to be grilled by the others about how I knew. Just by picturing what would head my way if my classmates, especially Kamogawa and Usami, got wind of my visit to her home, I felt signs of a headache. This kind of self-protection was also included in the rather ambiguous answer I gave her.

I was tired from the all-nighter I had pulled and from overusing my brains; the least I wanted was any more trouble.

"Maybe I should visit Youko-san...?"

No, as I said, enough of the trouble.

I sighed and asked with a reproving look, "...what about your club?"

"Um..."

Usami looked up at me like a puppy assessing its master's mood.

"Don't even think about skipping," I warned her.

"...Right, I knew you'd say that..."

Usami collapsed on her desk.

"If so, then don't take it into your head in the first place!"

"But I'm worried!"

Usami purged her lips, still lying prostrate on her desk.

"I merely said it ''might'' be a cold. We don't know for sure. You can give her a short call if she doesn't come tomorrow either."

As bothersome as it was, it seemed that I had no choice but to contact Tsukimori and inform her of the cold she had caught. Jeez, it's not easy to tell lies.

But my exhaustion was relieved a little by the heartwarming sight of Usami docilely nodding with her soft cheek placed on her desk.

"Mm, okay."

The time at school went by more peacefully than usual.

Tsukimori's absence from the classroom was the cause, which also explained why Kamogawa and his colleagues were quieter than usual.

It had been quite a while since I last had my peace.

Youko Tsukimori had taken a special position in my life since the day I had picked up that sheet. Of course, I am talking of a different kind of "special" than the others.

I, only I, knew about her secret—the murder recipe.

I had been watching her with caution and with the recipe at the back of my mind. I had socialized with her with the utmost care because I suspected she had killed her father.

As a consequence, I had never had much peace with her around me. However, those days were drawing to a close, it seemed.

I touched my left breast pocket.

"...I guess soon it's goodbye to you as well."

I was surprised by the gloomy mutter that escaped my mouth so naturally.

Apparently, the days that revolved around nothing but Tsukimori and the murder recipe had been dearer to me than I had thought.

That was probably the reason for the slight loneliness I was feeling at returning to my previous, peaceful everyday life.

In regards to the various happenings concerning the murder recipe, I had come to a conclusion.

''Youko Tsukimori has not killed anyone.''

I knew of no one as intelligent and stubborn as her, though measuring someone of such singularity with normal common sense might be starting from a false premise.

However, in my eyes she had been just a normal girl when she behaved like a caring sister at the her father's funeral, and when she stood stone-still before the screen showing her mother's last words, or what I supposed them to be anyway.

Hadn't she said herself that murder was a "foolish and careless method"? As clever as she was — cleverer than anyone else I knew in fact — she would have never — under no circumstances — relied on murder. At least I couldn't explain to myself why she would have done it.

In the end, I could not view her as someone who would kill.

On went the days without Youko Tsukimori.

The first day remained peaceful. On the second day, however, there was already a commotion in the class; everyone feared for Tsukimori's safety.

As expected, their attention was immediately directed at me because I worked at the same café. As planned, I played dumb.

And then what happened? Assumptions brought forth assumptions, which eventually turned into rumors. Thus, Youko Tsukimori's name was omnipresent at school on the third day.

She is in hospital because her cold worsened. She has been kidnapped and is kept confinement. She is in the middle of filming a movie at Hollywood. A prince fell in love with her at first sight and took her to his country to marry her. Such absurd rumors were all over the place. I could only laugh dryly.

Whether she was here or not, she was always in the center of attention. Once more I was shown just how much the girl stood out.

On the fourth day, however, some rumors came in circulation that weren't funny at all.

Tsukimori is helping the police with their search by contacting friends and acquaintances of her mother and by heading to places where she expects her mother to go. Exerting herself to the utmost, even limiting her sleep as much as possible.

The origin of that rumor turned out to be a student who had someone in the police department in his family.

The message spread epidemically. Underpinned by further sources that confirmed her mother's disappearance, the rumor had become fact on the next Monday.

Then, after one week had passed. The long-lasting rain stopped, giving way to a cloudless blue sky.

In the early morning of that day, her mother was found at last.

But as a decedent.

She was found on the slope of a hill that was a stone's throw from the high-class residential area.

On its top, there was a little park which had a view of the entire town. The park was surrounded by a cliff and therefore bounded by a fence, which was, however, old and low enough that an adult could easily climb over it.

Where she had been found implied that she had fallen from that park.

The reasons given for her late discovery were that she hadn't reached the foot of the slope and that she had been concealed by the wildly blooming azaleas  that covered the entire side of the hill.

According to the officer who went to confirm the find, he had never seen such a beautiful corpse. The appearance of her mother, decorated by purple flowers, compared to a framed western painting, he stated. He had found himself forgetting that it was a corpse for several moments, probably bemused by the smell of the blooming azaleas.

Imagining that scene made me shiver. I would have loved to witness that moment.

The news of her mother's death spread out at school as a wave of surprise and settled down as great pity for the poor girl Youko Tsukimori who had lost yet another close relative.

I had a normal amount of pity for Tsukimori. She also had my condolences about what happened to her mother.

However, unlike everyone else I wasn't surprised. I had expected the casualty.

Why? Because I had come to the conclusion that ''her mother'' had used the murder recipe to kill her father.

There were two reasons.

Firstly, her family environment.

At the funeral I heard that father, mother and daughter had all been amiable and kept on good terms with their neighbors. Moreover, the misery her mother was going through came across extremely well when she was crying before his photograph.

I had imagined the Tsukimoris as a harmonious family with a harmonious relationship between husband and wife.

When I saw her mother's bedroom, however, I couldn't help but entertain doubts.

The fact that Tsukimori wasn't concerned about her parents sleeping separately implied that they weren't quite the harmonious family. But in the first place, it was generally doubtful whether a married couple could be called harmonious while having separate bedrooms.

Grounded on that fact, I framed the hypothesis that their relationship was exactly the opposite of what was generally understood and actually bad. The fact that her father was nowhere to be seen in any photograph in her mother's room was yet another clue that strengthened my hypothesis.

Secondly, and decisively, the author of the murder recipe.

I had been wondering since the very beginning: Why name it "recipe"? Isn't it a "plan"? In terms of content "murder plan" would have been appropriate.

But while I didn't use the word "recipe" very frequently, I figured that a teacher at a cooking school would make quite regular use of it.

When I went to Tsukimori's home because her mother had gone missing, I secretly snarfed a bit of evidence.

Namely a handwritten memo that contained additional explanations to some recipe in a cookbook.

The content was irrelevant. What was important was that it had been handwritten by her mother.

I compared the murder recipe with the memo and they looked exactly the same. The handwriting made it evident that they had been written by the same person.

In other words, the secret behind the incidents around the murder recipe was most likely something along the lines of:

The mother, who was on bad terms with the father, wrote and executed the murder recipe, making her husband the victim of an accident, but was unable to bear the sin and thus ended her own life.

In that case, there was no need to pity her mother. She got what she deserved, coldly speaking. There was no particular emotion in my heart with the exception of a slight cling to the cat-and-mouse game that had ended now.

The murder recipe lost its lustre. My delusions around it had come to a close with the death of her mother.

I supposed that it would end up as a memento deep in one of my drawers and never see the light of day again.

Of course, these were all just assumptions of mine.

I didn't deny that there were several missing pieces which were merely complemented by my own imagination. But I thought that a normal high school student couldn't come any closer to the truth. Above all, I was satisfied with the solution I had worked out.

Therefore, I didn't intend to get Youko Tsukimori's confirmation.

One day I might ask her about this incident, but not now.

I wanted to use this moment to revel in relief.

In relief that she hadn't killed anyone.

Luckily or not, these tranquil days didn't last long.

What brought the change were the words of a police detective whom I had come to know at a recent event.

My first encounter with him goes back to the night when Tsukimori's mother went missing—

—Immediately after I had discovered the message on the screen, I called the police and informed them for Tsukimori, who was standing still in shock.

After thirty minutes during which there was a silence except for the ticking of the clock and the rain, a police car arrived. A uniformed man and a tall, suited man alighted.

"Ah, yes, yes. I see, I see. Yeah, 'could be a suicide note!" uttered the tall cop casually. He had introduced himself as Konan.

I had once experienced the questioning of the police in the past. It was a shoplifting incident in the neighborhood that had happened a few years ago.

That time, two police detectives had payed us a visit. Rather than posing questions, they had chiefly just warned us of the shoplifter who was still on the run.

Those detectives had both been quite nonchalant and had worn trench coats and plain, unremarkable suits, which made them look like office workers. Their atmosphere, however, was clearly different from ordinary citizens. The sharp glances they had flashed from time to time were quite intimidating.

I had understood very well that this was the "authority" of a policeman who was always exposed to utmost danger.

Incidentally, I learned in the news afterward that the shoplifter had been arrested in the midst of questioning.

Forward in time, the man named Konan didn't match my idea of a detective.

His looks suggested that he was in his late twenties. Well, judging by the power relationship between him and the young police officer, he might have been a little older.

Wearing a slender dark blue suit with white stripes, Konan seemed much more like a gaudy gigolo than a detective.

As his frivolous look implied, he chattered constantly, and thus was classified as the kind of human I "disliked" most.

[[Image:Gekkou-190.jpg|thumb]]

"Oh, now you're a cute one. Are you in the show biz? No? You should enter! You'd beat them all in cuteness! No, no, I mean it! By the way, how old are you, Youko-chan? Seventeen? U-huh... How many sisters do you have? Older ones, mind you. Oh, you don't have any? Not a single one? Really? So you're an only child. What a pity. It's truly a pity. Ah, but right! I bet your mom's hot as well, and still young, right? I see! As I thought! Hey, heard her? We've gotta find that lady!"

Konan kept talking, paying no attention to the police officer on the other sofa who was visibly bashful. I hadn't liked Konan from the word go, but after just a few minutes I "hated" him.

His lack of consideration towards Tsukimori was not even the main problem. I mean, didn't he belong to the police? Was ''that'' the appropriate attitude towards a downhearted girl whose mother had just gone missing?

Konan was an incomprehensible and downright disagreeable man.

The young police officer asked us two, three questions about the incident in place of his superior, such as "Did your mother seem bothered by something?" and "Do you know where she might have gone?"

Tsukimori cast down her long eyelashes with a sigh and shook her black hair left and right, "I have no idea."

In a thoughtfully calm voice, the young officer told her, "I'm afraid to say that it is possible that your mother has gone missing due to suicide. We will do everything in our power to find her, but please be prepared for the worst case."

Instead of a reply Tsukimori only nodded weakly.

Her sparse movements and taciturnity gave her a cold yet beautiful touch, almost like a well-crafted doll.

As endlessly tactless as it was, I daydreamed of toying freely with her dollish, fragile, slender nape and her crimson lips that contrasted so beautifully with her white skin. I had already noticed at the funeral of her father that Tsukimori would give off a special tranquil mood akin to the moon at midnight when sorrowful, the look of which could never grow stale for me.

Unable to answer any of the questions and forced to listen to the lengthy speeches of that frivolous man, I was bored and pained, but thanks to a cup of coffee in one hand and the opportunity to fully enjoy the "moon", I managed to have a somewhat worthwhile time.

After a while had passed like that, Konan suddenly asked me, "By the way, you are...?"

I told him my name, concealing my wariness.

"Okay, Nonomiya-kun, we'll give you a ride home. It's already past one in the morning; there's no line you could take anymore, right?" offered Konan.

Tsukimori, right next to me, gave me an emphatic and requesting glance. I wavered at first, but then I came to a decision and bowed before Konan, "Please."

When I left, she whispered reproachfully into my ear, "I didn't want to be alone tonight," and grabbed my uniform weakly.

I feigned ignorance and carefully shook off her fingers.

Of course I didn't feel comfortable leaving her all alone. Of course, my presence wouldn't have changed anything about the situation, but at least I would have been able to be by her side as someone to talk to. It would have definitely been worth it if that had let her forget her grief a little, even if it was just some cheap pity from me.

However, I couldn't bring myself to fire the curiosity of Konan, who was grinning at Tsukimori and me.

To my surprise, Konan followed suit when I sat down on one of the backseats.

Noticing my astonished look, he laughed, "Ah, 'just wanted to have a quick chat with you."

Somehow, I sensed the authority of a detective in his laugh.

During the ride from Tsukimori's home to mine, Konan and I kept on talking. Eighty percent was his words, though.

"You're Youko-chan's boyfriend, aren't you? Eh? You're not? But didn't you go visit her? Listen up, a guy doesn't normally enter the house of a girl at such a late hour unless she's not his girlfriend. Aah, workmates, huh. And classmates too. Uh-huh, uh-huh, so there's nothing going on between you. Well, you must understand that your nice friend and helper was about to get jealous of you and your hot girl! Right? Don't you agree? Hey, look ahead while you're driving! Well, it was me that addressed you, though! Heh!" joked Konan while involving the young police officer who was at the wheel. "Anyway, this is my phone number, my new buddy. Don't hesitate to call; ''it's my business phone''. What I mean by that? Oh, I just wanted to make clear that I'm 'straight'. I may not look like it, but I can't get enough ladies! Mh? I ''do'' look like it? People say that to me all the time for some reason. Huh? That's not what you wanted to know? Aah, don't hold back because talking helps the investigation. When we're looking for someone we're grateful for any information we can get. You never know what could be the decisive clue; even if it seems like nothing to you. You might deny that you're dating Youko-chan, but from what I've seen and heard from her, I'm pretty sure you're quite close. So should you remember or find out something concerning Youko-chan or her mother, give me a call."

Afterward, Konan called me on a regular basis.

It might go without saying, but each and every one of those calls was quite long.

Of course, I was extremely annoyed by his long chats and I still disliked him. What made me play his dialog partner, however, was the idea that I might just as well take advantage of him since he tried to do so with me.

In return for telling him all I knew, I wormed the current state of the investigation out of him. That exchange was pretty unbalanced to the disadvantage of Konan, though, because the information I gave him was obvious and widely-known without exception. The question arises, whether he babbled the current state because of his inborn chatter nature or because he considered it minor enough to leak.

At any rate, I always had interest in his calls, whatever the subject.

In spite of my personal opinion of Konan, I was intrigued with the peculiar job of a detective, and his stories suited my hobby of imagining stuff rather well.

At last the matter settled down and Youko Tsukimori was about to return to school and to work.

On the day before, however, a certain male customer appeared at Victoria right before closing time.

"Ah, now I see why you haven't shown interest in girls, Nonomiya," said Mirai-san with her fingers on her chin, staring at a slender, suited man who had taken a seat at a table.

Completing the image, that gigolo-like man was cheerfully waving towards the kitchen — to me.

"I'll deliberately refrain from asking what exactly you were imagining, but allow me to assure you that you are wrong."

"What is he then? A friend? That would be quite the old friend for you."

"No, he is a detective."

"''That'' guy? No matter how you look at it, that's a gigolo if you ask me," she said and became even more doubtful. "So, what misdeed have you committed? Sure, I've always thought you'd wander from the path some day, but—"

"Mirai-san."

"What is it, criminal?"

"I think I need to have a good talk with you one of these days."

"Am I wrong?"

"You are. I had dealings with him, he's called Konan by the way, during the investigation of Tsukimori's mother."

"I see...," she said while furrowing her brow and put a piece of almond chocolate into her mouth.

Probably she was sympathizing with Tsukimori. Now that I think about it, she had been rather quiet during the time Tsukimori wasn't there. Well, the same applies to the manager and Saruwatari-san.

Apparently, Youko Tsukimori had become an indispensable part of the Victoria staff by now.

"So? Why would that detective Konan come to meet you?"

"I have no idea! I want to know that myself."

Then, suddenly, Mirai-san rounded her eyes.

"Uwa! Hey! Nonomiya! That cop just winked at me!"

"He's a player, just as he looks."

"Aah, I wanna pound his face in so badly..."

"Please don't. He's a policeman all the same."

"You should seriously give some more thought to who you hang out with."

"Indeed..."

I definitely didn't want to get a sermon from her, but to my chagrin she was absolutely right.

When I brought the ordered coffee to Konan, who naturally had no clue of my uneasiness, a torrent of words sprang up.

"Now that's what I call a sharp glance. I felt like some alien bug in her eyes. Gives me a thrill! You may not believe it, but I'm not averse to M and that stuff. I'm a sucker for those, um, dominant women, you know. What's her name? How old is she? Is she already taken? Please, Nonomiya-kun, introduce me to her!" he jabbered while staring at Mirai-san in the kitchen as if he didn't know the word "reserve".

"Have you nothing better to do than lurk here?"

"As if! I don't even get round to going on dates! Ah, but I won't tell you whether there is a girl I can date, youngster."

"I couldn't care less."

"You never change, huh," he sneered and took a sip of his coffee. "Wow!" he smiled happily to himself. "I wish there ''was'' a peaceful day once in a while. But even in a small town like this there's always something happening. Thanks to that, business is unfortunately thriving. 24/7."

Konan pulled a funny face and held both his hands before him.

"Then shouldn't you stop loafing around here all the more?" I asked, upon which he put on a bitter mien.

"Do you even have a heart? We policemen are human too, you know? Don't be so rough with us!" he darted me a reproachful look, "One or two cups shouldn't be too much to ask for," he led his cup of coffee to his mouth.

My question was not meant sarcastically. I had asked because I really wondered.

Now that the case of Tsukimori's mother was solved, he should have no reason to see me. As a matter of fact, we hadn't spoken since her mother had been found.

I ''had'' told him that Victoria's coffee was delicious, but it was more than unlikely that he came here today of all days just for the coffee.

Then, as if directly answering my doubts, Konan added, "You're free in a few moments, right? Do you have some time for me afterwards? Wanna go to a restaurant at the station for a chat? I'll even treat you to something! But let me warn you: it's not a date. Don't get that wrong!"

Now I understood. It was no coincidence that he came shortly before closing time; he wanted something from me.

I nodded, "Sure."

I had not the slightest idea what he wanted from me, but as I didn't loath the conversations with this unconventional detective, I had no reason to refuse either.

After work I went to the specified restaurant at the station, where Konan promptly discovered me and waved at me.

Since it was a weekend, the shop was crowded with all sorts of people, young and old.

The moment I sat down opposite him, Konan held out the menu card to me.

"Choose whatever you like."

"Okay, what's the most expensive item?"

Pleased with my answer, he laughed heartedly, "I like that heedless side of yours."

"By the way, so what do you want from me?" I asked while flipping through the menu with my finger tips.

"I was wondering if you could answer me some questions about Youko-chan."

Before I knew it, I found myself staring at him.

"Don't scowl at me like that! It's not like I want to steal her from you."

"It's a riddle to me what you mean by that."

"I'll have a smoke," he said while putting a cigarette into his mouth. He adeptly lighted it with a lighter that had the name of some bar printed on it.

"...Why?"

Doubts towards him started to arise in me.

"Mmm... do you mind it if I can't give you any detailed reasons?"

"If it's a personal request, I might bring myself to answer you..."

Was there anyone in this restaurant that recognized that he was a police detective?

"Well, Youko-chan's pretty, so I can't say that no personal interest is included, but basically it's work-related."

"Duty of confidentiality?"

"Pretty much, yeah. You know, I have to be careful in my position. So don't be offended if I'm a little unclear."

Konan grinned at me.

When he smiled like that, his eyes always got even sharper than they usually were. That probably happened without his awareness, though.

He exuded a kind of authority, whose contrast with his smiling mouth gave me the shivers. That might have been the sovereignty of someone who was always exposed to utmost danger.

No matter what he looked like, Konan was no doubt a policeman.

"...are you doubting Tsukimori?"

The instant I asked, he wrinkled his brow strongly and took a deep drag.

"...you ask me that straight-out? Being sharp is one thing, but it's a hell of a combination if you've also got some guts. Nonomiya-kun, interested in joining the police some day? You would make a good detective."

"I'm horrible at sports, so I'll decline with thanks."

"Uh-huh. Well, at least don't become a criminal then! If a guy like you sides with them, we policemen are going to have a hard time," he joked and stopped a waitress by raising his hand. "Have something," he urged, so I ordered the most expensive-looking item on the menu: a Chaliapin steak

After confirming the order, the waitress disappeared into the kitchen.

"To get right to the point, I think that in this incident—there is a possibility of murder," stated Konan without any concern.

"...wasn't that supposed to be secret?"

"For appearance's sake, you know. I did fulfill my duty as a policeman, but now it's at my own discretion," he pressed the cigarette against the ashtray, "I never planned on being quiet about it. I haven't known you very long, but I know that you're a clever boy. You would have found out anyway."

"You have a fairly high opinion of me, don't you?"

Konan, grinning slightly, seemed pleased with my suspicious look.

"But it's not idle talk; I'm honest about it. Of course it's also true that I do have an ulterior motive of sorts, specifically that I would like to have you on my side."

On hearing the word "ulterior motive", I immediately recalled our first encounter several days ago. "Ah, 'just wanted to have a quick chat," he had said at the time.

"During the search, you know, I've been nosing around here and there and I arrived at the conclusion that no one is closer to Youko-chan than you at the moment. So I thought you'd be my man if I wanted to know something about her."

It had been a riddle to me: why had Konan sought a conversation with me? Why had he given me detailed information about the progress of the search?

Now that I thought about it, Konan had never been interested in Tsukimori's mother only. From day one he also wanted information about Tsukimori herself from me.

If my guess was right, then from the beginning, Konan had...

"—you've been suspecting that Tsukimori might have killed her mother all along, haven't you?" I asked calmly.

Instead of answering, Konan took a gulp of water from his glass.

The waitress then brought my steak menu. I accepted it, whereas Konan ordered another cup of coffee.

There were many customers in the wide restaurant, but ours was the most outrageous topic for sure. I found myself enjoying that odd situation a little.

After confirming with a sidelong glance that the waitress had gone, Konan finally spoke again, "In the police you have to take ''any'' possibility into consideration in any case. So yeah, ''strictly speaking'' that potentiality had to be considered since the start."

It was an affirmation, but an unusually passive one—probably because of the sensitivity of the matter.

But it wasn't a denial, either.

Just then, the slumbering murder recipe awoke in my mind.

Did the police perhaps know about it and therefore doubt Tsukimori?

I noticed I had a dry mouth. I seemed to be tense.

"It's not fair to compare them, but the coffee at your place was on a completely different level," said Konan with a sour expression after taking a sip of his coffee.

The window at the corner of my vision showed a bored high school student. Fortunately, I was good at making a poker face.

"...What would be her motive?"

Her motive was the most unclear point if one was to doubt Youko Tsukimori.

She'd had no reason to kill her mother. At least, I couldn't think of one. This was another crucial reason why I concluded that she was innocent.

My question was based on curiosity about what the police had in their hands, but Konan only said bluntly, "No clue. It's quite a mystery, isn't it? I mean, she wasn't on bad terms with her parents or something... it's the reason why I asked for your help, so yeah, pretty much beats me."

From the looks of it, he really had no idea.

What made him doubt Tsukimori, then?

Did that mean that they ''did'' know about the recipe, after all? Or had they obtained some kind of proof I didn't know of?

Konan smiled broadly at me when I suddenly kept silent, "Now, don't brood too much about it! It's really just a possibility. Dotting the i's and crossing the t's is my job, you know. So, no offense!"

"None taken," I pulled myself together with a smile, "...I was just wondering why you doubt Tsukimori even though she has no motive."

Maintaining a smile, I moistened my throat with some water.

The question was how well Konan knew Tsukimori.

Konan maintained his smile, too, and said in a confident voice, "It's not normal to lose two family members in such a short time, now is it?"

I couldn't keep myself from agreeing "I see."

"I clearly smell a rat there. Therefore, I have no choice but to take some sort of action, because I'm a member of the police, you know. If it turns out to be just an unhappy coincidence, our work ends right there. So, to sum up, I'm confirming that at the moment!"

I nodded once again, "I see."

I was surprised. No, "bewildered" would be more accurate.

My doubts about Youko Tsukimori were supposed to be cleared. However, Konan's argument made perfect sense to me.

"...have you confronted Tsukimori with that matter?"

"Of course," replied Konan like a shot, "But ''that'' seriously falls under the duty of confidentiality, so I can't give you any details. You can easily find out by asking Youko-chan directly, though. At any rate, it's really no big deal. After all, there's nothing to doubt her for, apart from it being unusual to lose both parents in such a short time."

I wasn't taking him at his word, but I was quite sure that the police appeared to have no definite evidence.

"I'm baffled. I hear our police are respected worldwide, but was that a misperception on my part? Neither the eyes of the public nor the mass media will forgive treating an innocent high school girl as a suspect, no matter how humbly you apologize."

It made sense to me now, sure, but I was far from reversing my own conclusion. The reason given was much too weak to treat Tsukimori as a criminal.

"Now, don't pick on me like that! It's true that the police are civil servants, so the pressure on us has been really harsh recently, as you say. We can't make a big deal out of it without irrefutable proof."

He raised his shoulders in an exaggerated shrug, like an American.

"Now, why don't you tell me what you ''really'' want from me?"

"Oh? Have you noticed? Not bad, Nonomiya-kun!"

He whistled skillfully without using his fingers.

I, too, hadn't known him very long, but I was well aware of his slyness. I was convinced that he hadn't told me everything yet.

Suddenly, Konan leaned forward, "That's where you come into play! I want you to cooperate with me."

I sneered daringly.

By thinking over our conversation in my head, I finally started to grasp his intention.

"...if someone unrelated to the police observed Tsukimori, it would cause no trouble. Plus, the more intimate that observer is with her, the better. That's why you chose me, right?"

"Seems we speak the same language," said Konan contentedly and tilted his coffee cup. "Besides, you like this kind of work, don't you?"

"I want to be spared from trouble," I said and added, "And please don't arbitrarily decide what I like!" But, truth be told, I actually was interested.

"No use shamming," he laughed confidently.

He had quickly recognized what kind of person I was. Because I had shown interest in the situation of the investigation? Because I had shown interest in him as a detective? Either way, while I hadn't hidden it deliberately, I still had to respect his perspicacity.

"That's pretty much the reason why I singled ''you'' out."

"What, specifically, would you have me do?"

I maintained a passive stance. I wanted to wait and see what move he would make next.

"No need to be so wary, really! Basically, I just want you to answer my questions about Youko-chan. I won't exploit you by sending you around or by making you do demanding stuff. Ah, please eat before the steak gets cold. Feel free to order a dessert afterwards."

Konan grinned. He clearly intended to exploit me.

Naturally I had no appetite, but I still put my knife into the steak, which was bound to be cold by now.

"—To tell the truth, it's not by the consensus of the police that I'm here. You could even call it a personal request from me. To be frank, I'm the only one at the station who bears Youko-chan in mind," he suddenly started talking after watching me eat for a while, "Well, it's not surprising, because that suicide kind of lacks peculiarity. If you just assume her motive was grief over losing her husband, it makes sense. We even have several statements that confirm that she was depressed since his death," Konan put on a self-ironic smile. "But what has to be noted is that her suicide note was written on the computer and not by hand. So it's physically possible that it was typed in by someone else who wanted to make the incident out to be suicide. But that's not enough to dig out the case. Keep in mind that many suicide victims don't leave behind a note at all. For another thing, the only fact that makes Youko-chan doubtable is that she's her daughter. It's not like her behavior raised any doubts."

I stopped my fork and knife and looked Konan straight into the eye, "Then I fail to understand why you doubt Tsukimori all the more. I don't want to help you as long as you can't give me a plausible explanation,."

Since learning about the murder recipe I had been observing Tsukimori day in, day out. So what should he, who had only just met Tsukimori, know that I didn't know? What trait of Tsukimori's should he know, which I, the holder of the murder recipe, didn't know?

Of course, if he really knew a side of hers I didn't know, my stance would change as well.

—Because that would be something I definitely needed to know.

With a neutral expression, Konan replied, "Call it a detective's intuition."

"Hah?"

I didn't believe my ears. Noticing my bafflement, he hurriedly added, "Ah, was I too blunt? No, but you see, it's not easy to explain it with words! Perhaps you could say, something feels 'wrong' to me?"

"A gut feeling, huh...," I murmured, unconvinced, but his following words caught me entirely by surprise.

"I mean, Youko-chan's ''perfect'', isn't she?"

My heart beat accelerated rapidly.

He had the same impression as I had had many times before.

"I've experienced this sort of incident quite a few times so far, due to my job and all, and let me tell you: to the people concerned it's a real shock to lose their parents if they're about your age. It's a sudden change of their life! Seriously, that's just... cruel. Be it an accident or an incident, I still haven't found out how I should deal with those kids. How hard must it be if they lose both their parents at the same time?" he suddenly put on a severe expression, "Now, how about her? To me, Youko-chan doesn't look at all like a desolate seventeen-year-old who has suffered such a loss. In our conversations she comes across just too faultless! Her perfectness isn't something that can be explained just by saying she had a good grip on herself or that she was behaving mature. Don't you agree?"

—She's so perfect being around her would be suffocating.

Come to think of it, that was my initial impression of her.

"I even happened to think that she would be fine without her parents. That we had nothing to worry about."

Thirsty from talking long in one go, Konan did not take his cup of coffee but the glass of water right next to it and emptied it.

"Sorry for giving you such a baseless reason. But I'm actually quite serious. In our field, it's not at all rare that a slight gut feeling can lead to the truth of an incident."

Looking at Konan, who was keeping up an expression full of confidence—

"Complicated thoughts about these things are no good. Believe it or not, it's simple more often than not. Essentially, unusual things happen around someone who is unusual. Isn't it easy?"

—I thought that the expression "a detective's intuition" might have been quite appropriate.

Apparently, my silence made Konan think I was ill-tempered.

"Did I offend you? Well, naturally I did. After all, I'm asking you to help me confirm my doubts even though you are very intimate with Youko-chan. Now that I think of it, isn't this quite a nasty request?" he said and laughed, "Don't become like me!"

It's not like I was offended. I was merely deep in thought. I was overwhelmed by a great number of thoughts that came up in my head.

—Most likely, he doesn't know about the murder recipe.

That was the only thing I was sure of at the moment. At the same time it was also the most important one.

When I collected myself, I found Konan looking seriously at me.

"Why don't you think of it the other way round? Just think you're helping me to prove that she's innocent. You don't want me to doubt Youko-chan, right?"

It slipped out of my mouth:

"I sure don't want that."

Those words came from the bottom of my heart. It had been ''me'' who had doubted Youko Tsukimori up to now. The fact that some cop suddenly appeared and doubted her was repulsive; as if someone was nitpicking about how I played my game.

Apparently, Konan took my answer as affirmation. "Right!" he nodded happily, "Waitress! I'll have another cup of coffee! And add a glass of water to that!"

He drunk up the rest of his nearly empty coffee.

Then I talked to Konan for a whole hour, telling him details about Tsukimori.

I taught him everything I knew, that time also including things like her popularity and competence at work and school. Well, I ''did'' keep quiet about things like the confession at the library, but otherwise, for example why she started to work at Victoria or what happened on that night when her mother went missing, I told him everything as detailed as possible.

I had arrived at the conclusion that I couldn't hide anything from that man. Hence, I considered it more fruitful to earn his trust by not holding back any information.

At the end, Konan asked me to contact him if I found out anything and told me that he would also contact me if he wanted me to help him with something, then we parted ways.

Of course I kept quiet about the murder recipe, although it's not like I hadn't considered telling him.

I was convinced enough of his capability as a detective that I didn't allow myself to be deceived by his gigolo-like appearance and behavior. If I gave him that vital spark, the murder recipe, he would no doubt be able to reach a "deep layer" of this incident which I could never reach on my own.

In all objectivity, there would have been no more effective way to fulfill my desire of learning "everything about Youko Tsukimori" than to tell Konan about the murder recipe. However, I couldn't bring myself to do that.

Because the murder recipe was mine.

There was one certain thing I noticed. It was the only and, at the same time, a most important discovery.

Indeed — the murder recipe had not at all lost its lustre after all.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Orange & Wine|Orange & Wine]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Hesitation|Hesitation]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Orange & Wine

2013-04-14T09:16:54Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Orange & Wine]==

Our classroom at the beginning of the week. Tsukimori greeted me with a warm smile upon seeing me, "Good morning."

After wavering for a few seconds, I quickly replied, "Good morning," and hurried to my desk.

I didn't want to look like a coward, but neither did I feel like arguing with her early on a Monday morning. If possible I wanted to put some distance between us and not see her face for a while. Because looking at her face would remind me of that Friday night that had become a dark memory I wanted to bury as fast as possible.

However, Tsukimori is a girl who is unaware of your feelings at such times.

"Nonomiya-kun, your collar is awry," she pointed out cheerfully and stood naturally before me as if this had been her place for a hundred years. Then she fixed my collar with her white slender fingers.

Below my eyes was her white neck. I closed them firmly for a moment as if to shake off my stray thoughts.

My collar wasn't awry at all.

"When are you visiting me next?" whispered Tsukimori, moving her lustrous lips.

She just wanted to bring Saturday's business up again. 

"As bright as you are you should be able to tell if anyone would ever come to your place again after experiencing such a night."

While I was helpless,

"I am free next week on Saturday evening. My mother should be late on that day, too, because of a meeting of the association,"

She couldn't have been more nonchalant.

"Do you even think I'd say 'Yes'?"

"Do you even think I'd want to hear 'No'?"

"It looks like I have to be clear to you since you seem to become dull when things don't go the way you want."

I approached until we were nose to nose, and declared point-blank:

"''You won't see me there a second time!''"

To top off my remark, I flashed a Tsukimori-like smile.

"You needn't be embarrassed."

However, the originator's smile was uninterrupted.

"From time to time you really behave idiotically, you know?"

"Whereas you are always mealy-mouthed, right?" 

Others looking on must have seen best friends, smiling at each other from that close distance.

"Aren't Youko-san and Nonomiya kinda like... newly-weds...?"

And so some voiced unhappy, ill-informed comments with discontented expressions. Chizuru Usami had made the newly-wed remark.

I didn't know what a baby blow fish looked like, but I figured it must be somewhat like Usami just then, scowling at me with her chin on her desk and blowing up her cheeks like a balloon.

Usami really was a peculiar girl. I reckoned there weren't many people that were that adorable when in an ill temper.

While I was happily observing Usami with a sidelong glance, Tsukimori said embarrassedly, "Did you hear that? Like newly-weds!"

"A bad joke indeed."

If by any chance Tsukimori had blushed with at least one cheek, so to speak, I ''might'' have reconsidered and I ''might'' have admitted her cute sides. Unfortunately though, Youko Tsukimori couldn't be understood that easily. 

[[Image:Gekkou-139.jpg|thumb]]

The next moment, her eyes changed to moon crescents. The devil hath ascended to earth. In my eyes I could see a black pointed tail growing from her.

"Welcome home, darling. Would you like to take a bath? Or would you rather like... me?"

Then she giggled amusedly.

To the others that didn't know her real nature, she must have looked like the purest girl who had successfully played a little prank.

"...a bad joke ''indeed''."

But to me it was a nightmare in many senses. One of them being that there was that one guy that couldn't keep quiet when the topic revolved around Youko Tsukimori.

"Hey! Nonomiya!"

There he stood, Kamogawa, with a grimace resembling the doorkeeper of hell.

"Of course it's the bath, right? You naturally go for the bath, right?"

Much to my chagrin, he was followed by a regiment of guys who were eager to support him, "Say it!"

"If you do not choose the bath... you know what happens then, right?"

The group exchanged glances and then simultaneously cracked a friendly smile. They were disgusting.

"Well, as a man it's clear what I take—"

It was up to me to choose, so what? Kamogawa and the others had no say about it.

"—as a man one must take the meal, right?" 

But I didn't like trouble.

"A wise choice, Nonomiya-kun!"

"I'm so happy you understand what I mean, Kamogawa-kun."

"Then let's go over there and hear what you have to tell us, shall we?"

"...There are no words to express my current feelings appropriately."

This marked the start of a lot of wasted time, during which I was going to be questioned whether I dated Tsukimori and during which I would have to assure them over and over that that was not the case.

Good grief, they hadn't a clue. They could only act that frivolously because they didn't know about the murder recipe.

And without an inkling of my troubles, Tsukimori waved her hand cheerfully.

"Goodbye, darling!"

Therefore I gave her an appropriate answer.

"I'll be late tonight, honey."

Annoyance drove me to it.

I am sure that a blanket of grief must have enveloped me as I was led away like a low-grade employee who must obey his boss.

—At the time, I had already noticed that an usually noisy classmate of mine, Usami, had been silent the whole time.

But I had no time to worry about her because I had my hands full dealing with Youko Tsukimori, Kamogawa and the rest.

Well, it's hard to say if dealing with her then would have changed what happened after school.

Classes had ended and I was getting ready to leave when I was suddenly stopped by a timid Usami, "...Nonomiya?"

"What's the matter?"

"Err, I noticed that... you and Youko-san have been getting on quite well lately..."

"Not more than what's normal."

Annoyed at hearing that question again, a firm tone entered into my voice.

Usami registered that my mood wasn't favorable and thus got even more faint-hearted.

"...but you're always together."

As I was fed up of talking about Tsukimori, I quickly declared, "We simply see each other often at work and as class officers. That's all." Then I fetched my bag and hurried out of the classroom.

But in the next moment Usami had gone around me and was blocking my way.

"Stooopp!" 

"Come on, what is it?"

"Err, say, do you have a few minutes?"

"No."

"I-It's really just a few moments, honestly!"

My stare seemed to be intimidating; she averted her eyes and looked about in the room like a frightened pygmy marmoset.

I took a deep breath—inconspicuously enough to remain unnoticed.

"Depends on what you want."

When I contemplated that I had acted a little too immature and implied that I was willing to compromise, she was visibly relieved.

Usami wasn't at fault. I had just gotten tired of Tsukimori leading me around by the nose and of being picked at by Kamogawa and his followers. In short, I had taken it out on her though she wasn't to blame.

After peeking around at our surroundings, Usami whispered to me, "I'm uncomfortable here... can we go someplace else?"

As I was ready to accompany her for whatever she wanted from me — not least because I wanted to make amends — I nodded wordlessly.

"Shall we go then...?"

Her tense face and awkward gait had me a little worried about what was to come. Still I relaxed because it was only Usami, after all.

I was led to the back of the gym, which was unusually quiet that day.

"Club activities have been suspended starting today, because of the upcoming midterm exams."

"I see." Two questions of mine, namely why the gym was so silent and why Usami wasn't busy with her club, were answered at the same time. "So? What do you want from me?"

I sat down on the concrete edge of the gym, perking up my ears.

The standard line when calling someone out to such a place would surely be "You piss me off!", followed by a quarrel, and I would have found it amusing if that actually was her issue, but as I was likely to lose to her in a serious fight, with her being very athletic, I prayed that it was something else. Something peaceful.

"...It's just a continuation of our earlier talk," said Usami while peeking at me from time to time, "Say, Nonomiya, are you, and Youko-san, um... you know, a couple?"

I wasn't startled. Kamogawa and the others had asked me the same a few moments before. Though ''they'' had added "If you are, consider yourself as dead as a doornail" with rather serious bloodshot eyes.

"Don't be silly. Of course not!" I laughed, but Usami was still in earnest.

"B-But! You're the only boy she gets on with especially well!" 

"As I mentioned earlier, that's merely because we often have to work together."

"But still! Lately, Youko-san has been mentioning you all the time when we talk!"

"Same as above."

"But then! But then, why does Youko-san gaze at you from time to time during classes?"

"...You're barking up the wrong tree. Go ask her!"

That was new to me.

"Say what you want, but I think you two are suspicious! I know it!"

"So?"

"...eh? So what?"

Usami looked dumbfounded.

"What do you want to hear from me?"

Seeing the question marks above her head, I pressed for her answer.

"Will it make you happy if I say that we're dating?"

"No! You mustn't!" she shouted, just to make an 'Oh what have I said!'-like expression the following moment. "...Ah, n-naturally this is not something I have a say in, it's a problem between you and her after all, but, umm, I mean, isn't Youko-san, like, everyone's idol and all? So, you see,..."

Her choppy justification seemed to have no end if nobody interrupted her.

"Usami."

I tapped on the concrete next to me and signaled for her to take a seat. She obediently sat down while embarrassedly toying with her hair.

"Honestly, there is nothing between Tsukimori and me," I assured her firmly, looking into her eyes.

"I see... so there's nothing, huh."

Usami's face began to shine like a child who has been given candy. She was so easy to understand.

That was probably also the reason why I had easily noticed that she was attracted to me, even without Mirai-san's superior intuition.

"Very well then, it seems that I have gained your understanding."

When I was about to stand up, thinking that this was all, she seized my belt.

"Can I ask just one other thing?"

Originally, I planned on just ignoring her grip and standing up, after which I would take a look at her reaction, but since my hips didn't move a bit, I gave up and sat down again.

"...Please go ahead."

"Yeah, um, Nonomiya... you aren't going out with anyone at the moment, right?"

"Right."

Usami cast her eyes down.

"Then—i-is there someone you like?" she asked towards the ground. Her face was tense and her lips pursed like a duck's bill.

Her question wasn't a remarkably rare one. At least to me it wasn't something to get that flustered about anyway. Usually.

However, because of a name that flashed through my mind for a split second, I forgot to answer her.

"...W-Why aren't you saying anything?"

Her anxiety helped me find my tongue.

"...that's already the third question!"

"Uwa! You distracted me! That means there is one! There is someone you like!"

Usami widened her round eyes and leaned backward, completely shocked. I was tempted to give her a push.

"Eh? Who? Who?! Ah! It's Youko-san, isn't it? It's Youko-san!"

"Now we're back where we started. What were those minutes just now? Give me back my time and labor!" 

"But who else should it be!"

"Can you tell me what exactly makes you so sure, then?"

"My womanly intuition!"

Her prompt reply made me wonder what nonsense the pygmy marmoset was babbling, but since she really was a woman, I was powerless in front of the weapon called "womanly intuition", which remains a mystery to men.

On top of that, the name that had come to mind actually ''was'' Youko Tsukimori, so I couldn't bring myself to deny it.

"I think Youko-san sees you in a different light. I know she does, because we've known each other for a long time." The nervousness from before was disappearing. "Even if ''you'' deny it, I think she is different toward you."

Usami spoke staring straight at me with a resolute gaze.

"...and I understand you just as well, Nonomiya... You're always in my eyes, after all."

It was the gaze of someone who had made up her mind.

"I think you just aren't aware of it, but you consider her special too... I can't put it into words well, but I think you are kind of special to each other. Like, actually it would have been mutual for a while, you just haven't noticed, so what's needed is just a little push... and you know, I was like 'I have to hurry up now!', but then I thought that it would be sort of selfish of me. But then, instead of playing a good girl and having regrets, I thought that it suited me more to be a bad girl for once...go my own way and be straightforward, you know... so, umm..."

Usami hurriedly added, "J-Just a moment," took a few deep breaths and jumped to her feet.

"I, Chizuru Usami, love... you."

The way she confessed couldn't have suited Usami better.

I suppose there aren't any humans on this planet who would not like to receive such a confession from her. I became even fonder of her than before.

"Thank you," I said more or less automatically.

"Eh? Um, you're welcome...?" replied Usami, visibly confused.

I was genuinely happy about her confession since I liked her—a girl that couldn't be more different from me.

[[Image:Gekkou-149.jpg|thumb]]

A soft breeze blew gently past us as though the school building had smoothed down its edges upon passing by. The back of the gym was so calm that the usual noise felt like a mere illusion.

Suddenly, Usami stretched herself hugely like a cat and—

"NYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

—released a yell towards the blue sky that sounded like a cat's death cry.

"Aah! I feel SO liberated now! So glad I told you!"

Her face was literally shining.

"...Sorry for disturbing you while you're savoring your attainment, but what should I do now?"

"Mh?"

"I haven't given you a reply yet, have I?"

I thought that I was supposed to return her straightforward ball, in whatever form—even if the ball went in a direction she didn't wish for.

The next moment Usami let out laughter like a baby frog.

I actually meant to be as considerate as my limits allowed, but it seems doing something you aren't used to always yields bad results.

"...No need to strain yourself. I'm not expecting a reply anyway. I mean, we're talking about you, Nonomiya?"

She was whispering. Since she was looking at the ground, I couldn't recognize her expression.

"I don't know what's that supposed to mean, but for now I'll just be shocked."

"...you've caught my eye ever since we entered this school, and I've long known that you're not that simple. I'm not expecting a favorable answer!"

My pride didn't let me admit that she was spot on.

"I have mixed feelings about being viewed as such a guy."

I automatically shrugged. So that's what they call a loss of face.

"But you know...," started Usami timidly while swinging her legs, "I still fell in love with you, so I had no other choice but to give it my best shot!"

Her earlobes were almost as red as a ripe tomato at that moment.

"You have rather peculiar tastes, don't you?"

"W-Whose fault is that!" objected the bright red Usami.

Even her sentimental and simplistic side, which would normally be viewed as a weak point, added only to her loveliness in conjunction with her straightforward and diligent nature.

She reminded me of a certain remark.

«Someone once said that girls in love are invincible.»

Usami pointed her finger straight at me before my nose.

"But one day I will hear you say that you love me! ''Definitely''!"

Her timidness went somewhere far away, replaced by her usual vigor.

However, I noticed that her little finger was trembling slightly.

That pet-like girl named Usami struggles doing so many things I can do easily, but at times she accomplishes feats which I can only dream of.

As was true of her confession as well.

It might be a little exaggerated, but I admired Usami. Most likely, because she had traits I could not even wish for. 

And so she looked most impressive to me at this very moment, making me want to just take her in my arms.

However, I deliberately went another way.

"Interesting. Please give your best!" I said, making an unimpressed face on purpose. "But let me warn you: don't think I'd fall that easily for a girl like you!"

"What did you just say?! Keep those words in mind!"

"Yeah yeah."

"Dammit! I'll show you what a good woman is!"

I couldn't help it. After all I am a "not so simple" weirdo who thinks an angry Usami is the cutest of all of them.

And once again I arrived at the same conclusion: I would have been so delighted if she were the one I loved the most.

It was also that moment when I became fully aware that there was one person on my mind whom I could not ignore.

The next day. It had been raining continuously since morning.

My feelings towards her were swaying in an unsure state. Too impure to be called love, yet too strong to be called interest.

It was the first time in my life that I was overcome by emotions. But if this was the price I had to pay for my autonomous mode of life, I was ready to accept and deal with that discomfort.

Of course, it was no doubt the murder recipe that put a brake on my feelings.

I am most definitely not averse to mysterious girls, but even I feel a tiny bit uneasy when it comes to endorsing a secret that exceeds the bounds of good sense.

Murder being one example thereof.

It is not easy to accept a person who may have killed someone. Not only because of ethical reasons, but also because one rebels instinctually, fearing that one might become the next target.

In any event, in fact there was a break-out solution.

It was simple actually: I just had to go ask her directly whether or not she had killed anyone.

If she answered "No", I could dismiss my exaggerated ideas with a sneer, send the crumpled murder recipe flying to the burnable trash and obtain an everyday life that was just a bit better than the status quo: a thrilling one including Youko Tsukimori.

Wasn't that sufficient to justify the venture? Asking for more would be greedy. There's always a straw that breaks the camel's back.

However, what if the answer were "Yes, I have killed someone"?

I gave thought to the fact that the content of the murder recipe was in line with the cause of her father's death. Anyone, even without a tendency to fantasize like me, should, provided these two facts, come to the conclusion that the murder recipe was written with the objective of killing her father.

Moreover, it is completely natural to consider the author of the recipe as the murderer as a consequence.

I dropped my gaze to my shoulder. Before my eyes and nose, there was a lock of black hair painting an elegant curve.

As if riding a roller coaster, a water drop slid along that smooth hair just to eventually arrive at its end and jump into the dark gray air.

I lost a little heart when I associated my own fate with the last moments of that water drop.

Probably noticing my gaze, "Mh?" she inclined her head slightly while wearing that caring sister-like smile of hers.

"I'm drawing a little nearer. Otherwise I'll get wet."

She happily snuggled up to me as though we were a couple. As a natural consequence, her handful-sized breasts were gently nudging the region around my elbow.

Devil that she was, she must have been enjoying seducing me.

But there was nothing I could do about it. It was raining and mine was the only umbrella, narrowing my options to one. Thus the distance between us was shorter than usual.

I suspected, however, that she was hiding a collapsible one in her bag. I couldn't believe that a forward thinker like her would forget her umbrella.

Of course there was but one girl in my circle of acquaintances that conformed to the above description.

Youko Tsukimori.

We had ended that day's work and were walking toward the nearby station. Seeing her to the station after work had been a regular task of mine since the day she told us of her potential stalker.

After that night, Tsukimori had told me, "I felt really safe when I was seen home by you. If it's not a bother, would you mind accompanying me all the time?".

Naturally, I had immediately refused, "No, because it is," but sadly we had been in the staffroom just then, which had instead gained me the bother of turning the whole staff, led by Mirai-san, against me: "Come on, do it!" 

I had not escaped without begging off with, "Please, let's compromise with seeing her to the station!" It was truly incomprehensible.

However, life sometimes takes an unexpected turn. To my great joy, the way to the station was ideal for talking privately with her.

I waited for the moment the traffic light turned red. "When I watched the news yesterday, I started wondering—," I began, "—why do people kill?"

Actually, I hadn't watched the news the day before. But well, there was bound to have been at least one murder, considering the current state of society.

"Oh, you're quite the philosopher today, aren't you? I like your contemplative face!" she said in a voice that was strangely wet, as if not only her hair but also her voice had been hit by the rain. "Is it because of the rain? One always gets into a somewhat sentimental mood when it is raining, don't you agree? It gets you in the mood to read books you usually wouldn't."

"Indeed, if I am acting unusual today, then it might really be because of the rain."

Her words gave me the hunch that I hadn't chosen the day by chance, but because of the bad weather.

"Anyway, would you mind sharing your thoughts?"

Our background music was composed of the rain drops lapping against my umbrella, the watery sound of tires on the asphalt and the blood circulating through my veins.

"Well—"

Tsukimori brushed away the black hair that had stuck to her cheek, releasing a scent of roses.

"—Because they feel like it, perhaps."

Her voice was indifferent.

"...Because they feel like it? That's all? Do you claim that that's reason enough to kill someone?"

I was offended by her obviously negligent answer.

"That's not it."

"What do you mean? Unless you elaborate some, a mere mortal like me can't comprehend your genius, I'm afraid."

"Oh don't be angry. I'm not joking, really. I ''do'' think so!"

She shrugged her shoulders slightly upon noticing my sidelong glare at her.

"You see, I think that in most cases the problem could actually be solved without resorting to murder, for example if it's a grudge or a fatal tangle of jealousy. Of course there are exceptions like life insurance murder."

The traffic light changed to green. A swarm of umbrellas was set in motion, leaving behind only the red umbrella under which we stood.

"Don't you think that there are numerous ways of taking revenge or venting a grudge which are more effective than killing?"

I had trouble thinking of one, but I had ''no'' trouble assuming that Tsukimori knew of some.

"Every murderer has to atone appropriately for his misdeeds, be it through the law or social sanctions. There is the saying 'Live by the sword, die by the sword'. I think that applies to murder as well. Thus it is a foolish and careless method and nothing more in my opinion. There are probably many ways to call it, 'fury' or 'impulse' for instance, but it sums up to a matter of mood—a matter of 'feeling like it'—for me," she said, then added, "I consider all irrational actions as a matter of mood."

"As you say, murder might indeed be a nonsensical conduct."

I concurred with her opinion. I was even moved. But that was probably also the reason that queerly comfortable moment seemed a bit off-kilter to me.

At first glance, her well-reasoned speech made her seem like an upright model student. However, upon further thought, she was only really talking ''about the means of reaching a goal''.

Put in a nutshell, she had only argued about the effectiveness of murder as a method.

Didn't that mean that she was not absolutely disapproving of murder?

"But as you admitted yourself, there are exceptions, right?"

From my diagonal angle, I could not see all of her face. Only her mouth was barely in view.

"...For example?"

And that mouth of hers was smiling.

There we stood together under a round, small umbrella, surrounded by a massive wall of rain and night.

Even though the town was filled with all kinds of sounds, painted in various colors and packed with people, I felt somewhat separated from everything, as if we were alone in an elevator at midnight.

"For example, if you were able to kill completely unnoticed."

The cause of that phenomenon was simply me: ''I'' had locked out the world.

At that moment, Youko Tsukimori was the totality of my world.

"Could you be a little more specific? Your twisted thoughts are too complicated for an honest person like me to understand, I'm afraid."

She affected a shrug, teasing me.

"I am talking of the perfect crime, as a third party in the know would call it if a premeditated murder was deemed an accident by all the world, rather than the crime it is."

When I was done with my explanation, Tsukimori answered, giving her full concentration.

"—Indeed, we need to draw a line between unplanned murder and a perfect crime, which you can certainly not commit just by feeling like it. You have to keep a cool head and be rational if you aim for perfection."

The focus of our discussion was fully and solely on utility and efficiency—ethics and morals were not under discussion.

"But our country's police are respected worldwide, aren't they? I hear scientific crime detection is making rapid progress, too, compared to the past. Isn't the perfect crime impossible in fact?"

She smiled as if to imply that it was all just a pipe dream.

It was then that I finally found a possible reason for the awkward feeling I had sensed earlier:

Our conversation was clearly too unromantic for two teenagers clinging together in the midst of the street under one umbrella. And yet there I was, absorbed in it, which was most likely because that's the kind of person I am.

The death or life of someone unrelated is of no concern to me. At most I would be curious about the death of such a person. No, my only response would be curiosity.

I was very well aware of my slightly unconventional sense.

But what about her?

Would the renowned, upright Youko Tsukimori really allow such an immoral conversation? For someone as tolerant and ever-smiling as her, talking about it with me without showing the faintest displeasure should have been no problem, even if she had to hide her disfavor.

However, it didn't look like that to me.

How so? Well, because I felt that, just like me, she—enjoyed immoral topics to the fullest.

"Okay, but then as a purely hypothetical question—"

I carefully touched the left pocket of my uniform from above. Inside it was a four-times folded scrap of paper.

"—what would you do if there was a plan that made the perfect crime possible?"

I always carried the murder recipe around with me.

The next moment, she gave a smile that reminded me of the sound of a bell.

"A good question. Indeed, I might consider murder as a means of achieving an objective if I were able to commit the perfect crime. But in my case," she said with a mischievous, crescent moon smile very much to my liking, "I would never base such a conduct on a written plan that ''might'' remain as proof later on. It would be ridiculous if a plan that makes the perfect crime possible caused it to fail. I think a plan should only and entirely be in one's head."

She pondered for a few moments, humming, and then added, "...if you ask me and think simply about it, it doesn't matter whether it is planned or just a product of coincidences. After all, it's a perfect crime if no one notices your willful action, right?"

Something unfolded before my eyes that exceeded my expectations. It almost went so far that I suspected I was dreaming while awake.

"It is entirely the result that determines whether a crime is perfect or not. However perfect a plan is, it's over as soon as someone else takes note. Put the other way, however 'flimsy' a plan is, it is a perfect crime as long as ''no one'' takes note."

Suddenly, I noticed that I was shivering.

"But don't you agree that mistakes are inherent if a human takes part? Humans ''are'' imperfect, after all. It's the imperfect human that makes the mistake in the very end. So, eventually I think it is the executor who holds the final key."

Not because I was cold. Not because the weather was getting dreadful. Not because she scared me.

"To sum up my thoughts, the most important condition for a perfect crime is neither a perfect plan nor a perfect execution, but a perfect human—"

I was probably trembling with excitement. Because I seemed to be extremely agitated.

She giggled.

"Laughable, isn't it? That's just another impracticable theory on paper; perfect humans do not exist after all. Well, of course the ones who are to investigate the crime are human, too, so there are mistakes on that side as well. But still I think that a perfect crime is infeasible unless you come upon a remarkable succession of coincidences."

SoICantHaveKilledMyFatherRightNonomiyaKun?

Perhaps my warped personality was just playing with me, but I couldn't help thinking that that was what she proclaimed.

I shook my head strongly.

"Highly doubtful."

I turned towards her and looked into her big almond eyes. "Why?" she asked, giving a moon-like smile again, while reflecting me on her retina.

"You lied. You claimed there were no perfect humans in the world—but I know of at least one in my vicinity."

She didn't ask "Who?" but only nodded briefly, "I see."

...She got me there. That way it was only funnier!

It was all Youko Tsukimori's fault that I was more talkative than usual and felt my heart throb with excitement.

Why were the thrilling conversations with her so amusing?

Perhaps I was simply drawing pleasure from talking about immoral topics—but what if the other party hadn't been her? Would it have been just as enjoyable?

On the one hand, I tended to be annoyed by her behavior, but on the other hand, there seemed to be some anticipation of associating with her deep within my heart.

So did it even matter what we would talk about? By associating with her, wasn't I just seeking a thrill that hadn't existed in my previous everyday life because of the murder recipe? Wasn't ''that'' the reason why I—unconsciously—kept on walking a tightrope without getting to the point?

Wasn't I afraid of awaking and being drawn back to the boring reality if I confronted her with the murder recipe?

There was no sense of justice in my actions. There was only interest, curiosity and the desire to learn more about her.

So all I wanted might have been a link to the fascinating person named Youko Tsukimori.

However, at the same time I also wanted to make sure whether she really had used the murder recipe to kill her father. I contradicted myself.

—Yes. I was about to make the next step towards her.

I was craving knowledge of a face of hers that no one knew.

The green light of the traffic light started to blink again. The nth red light awaited us.

The rain still showed no sign of weakening and hit the asphalt in a steady rhythm. The crush of people heading towards the station, however, had become sparse as the temperature dropped in town.

I recovered my breath silently so that she wouldn't notice my growing excitement. Then I slowly led my fingers through between my buttons, reaching into my inside pocket.

—I had made up my mind. I intended to ask her directly about the murder recipe.

But then, all of a sudden, Tsukimori embraced me from the front. I was caught with my fingers still in my pocket, unable to take them out.

"...I'm cold," murmured Tsukimori along with a white sigh before I could raise my voice in surprise.

Her upward-glance was watery, her black hair soaked, the way she leaned against me with all her weight sexy, and her beautiful lips at my chin's height seemed to beg for a kiss.

The soft touch I could feel beyond her uniform was still the same, but she had grown cold indeed.

It ''was'' my mistake to have her talk that long in a wet state, but neither was I crazy nor so experienced in love matters as to hug a girl with all the eyes of the town upon us just because of that.

I put my hands on her shoulders, wanting to release myself from her embrace, but she immediately shook her head, stubbornly saying, "No!" and hugged me even stronger. Contrary to her childish attitude, her body was more than mature enough to give rise to some complicated feelings on my part.

It was then that I felt a vibration at Tsukimori's breasts, which were pressed against me.

"...what a shame for the good mood."

While making a regretful face, she took her mobile phone out of her chest pocket. It was quite ticklish when she operated it at zero distance.

I slid my hand out of my jacket and tucked it into a pocket of my trousers. My excitement was entirely spoiled by that intrusive phone call.

"...Yes, Youko speaking."

Her expression became earnest promptly after she had begun the conversation.

"...my mother? No, I haven't heard of anything. She was at home when I left for school this morning."

As they exchanged words, her expression got darker and darker. I couldn't perceive what the caller was saying, but it was obviously not good news.

"...Yes. I understand. I'll return. Yes. If I find out something I will immediately give you a call."

She cut the connection and let out a tired sigh.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

She gazed at me with watery eyes for a few seconds, hesitating.

"...my mother was absent without notice from the cooking school she works at," she replied at last, "She would never do that. Thus, someone of the staff was worrying about her and gave me a call." 

"Maybe she's sick?"

I voiced a cheap word of consolation.

"I wonder... he told me that he has tried calling our home number several times. Of course, he tried her mobile as well. But it didn't connect, so he called me, her daughter, since I might know something..."

She cut off her sentence and started to ponder, furling her long eyebrows.

I let out a sigh. Somehow I sensed that nothing but trouble was waiting for me.

"Let's hurry home."

I grabbed her cold hand firmly and walked towards the station, pulling her behind me.

"...eh?"

I heard her confused voice from diagonally behind.

"Seems like you're in for some trouble, so I won't stop you any longer and go home," I said quickly. "—Saying that would have suited me better, I guess... But seeing you make such a face, how should I leave you to your own devices? Besides, I don't even want to think about Mirai-san's reaction if I left you at this point."

To my plain remark, she replied: "This warped side of your personality is so lovely."

I heard her pleased voice from diagonally behind.

Thinking that she was teasing me, I promptly searched for a nice objection. However, when she whispered, "...Thanks," at my ear and I felt her freezing fingers that held firmly to me, I became unable to complain.

Not a soul was to be seen in the dark and cold residential area. The unceasing rain falling upon us conjured up a sense of isolation in me, notwithstanding that Tsukimori was by my side.

We hurried up the long, steep stairs, at which end ''that'' house awaited us—with its very unique geometrical design that made it stand out from the rest of the rich neighborhood.

Tsukimori had tried countless times calling her home phone and her mother's mobile phone on the way, but the only voice she got to hear was the response of the answering machine. Because of pressing restlessness, I suspect, I heard none of her easygoing remarks anymore by the time we reached our destination.

Pathetic though it was, I found myself unable to find the right words to console her.

I followed Tsukimori through the entrance. There was an absolute silence inside.

The end of the long corridor blended with the darkness. The dire situation made it seem to me as if we had lost our way into an eerie haunt of devils.

When I took off my loafers at the entrance, she said, "...you'll catch cold. Wait a moment, I'll get you a towel."

While swiftly proceeding through the dark corridor, Tsukimori confidently flipped several switches on the wall, filling the house gradually with light.

I slowly walked through the lit corridor to the living room, where I started to wait for her.

I gazed at the arrangement which had remained unchanged from last time, and as it had then, the tranquility made my ears sensitive. Thinking back, we were alone that night.

So this time we were probably alone, too.

No one else was here. That's what my intuition told me the moment I had made my first step into the building.

Well, of course it was possible that her mother had collapsed somewhere in the house, but judging from what Tsukimori said when she returned, "When I went to fetch the towel, I also peeked into several rooms, but I didn't find her. She might not be here...," her mother ''was'' absent.

"I just hope she hasn't been involved in some accident..."

I smiled at the pondering Tsukimori.

"But maybe it's not such a big deal and she just didn't feel like going to work because of all the rain today, you know."

"You mean she simply ditched work?"

"Well, I, for one, often seriously consider escaping from school or work and going out somewhere when I ride my bike on nice days."

I found my own remark laughable.

"I hope so."

But thanks to her laughing faintly, I was spared from self-loathing.

"Perhaps there's a message for you somewhere? A note or something that says where she is and what she's doing?"

"You're right. I'll take a look."

Tsukimori nodded cheerfully at my suggestion. Apparently, she had regained her usual composure.

I unobtrusively followed Tsukimori into the kitchen.

As much as I felt bad about taking advantage of her worries about her mother's safety, I certainly did not intend to miss out on a chance to openly search her home.

An elegant system kitchen with a yellow theme filled my view.

"As expected from a teacher at a cooking school," I commented on the large fridge, the unfamiliar cookware and the various ingredients.

"Made in Italy if I remember correctly."

While Tsukimori was inspecting the kitchen, I looked around without anything better to do and took one of her mother's cookbooks to flick through it.

I didn't actually hope to find a message. Would be nice if there was one. Personally, I hoped much more to find something related to the murder recipe.

For example—a bit of new information about the recipe.

I was aware that I was being indiscreet. However, in all honesty I was fond of that kind of mood. I was enjoying a thrill comparable to detective work or exploring a cave for a treasure.

"It looks like there is nothing here. Maybe in her room...?" said Tsukimori gloomily and left the kitchen, wordlessly followed by me.

She opened one of the doors alongside the corridor. The instant the door went open, I could smell the overly sweet scent of perfume.

The walls were covered with white wallpaper, a curtain decorated with lace, a dressing table against the wall and a dresser that was laden with countless makeup goods. It was obviously the room of her mother.

"You get on well with your mother, don't you?"

"Yes, certainly not badly."

On the nightstand by the bed, which had a flower pattern, there were several picture frames, each of which depicted Tsukimori and her mother.

"Did your parents sleep separately?"

There was only one bed in the room - a bed for one person only.

"I have always thought this way was natural, but is it more common that spouses sleep in one room, after all? Well, it probably is. Perhaps they did so because both of them had to work, and I guess it was more convenient this way due to those circumstances."

"At my place, both the parents sleep together, whether peacefully or not I couldn't say, in a king-size bed. But judging from the 'I woke up in the middle of the night because you kept stealing my blanket', which I often hear my mother shout in the early morning, I guess they get on well."

She flashed a warm smile while listening to me.

"You have fantastic parents."

Therefore, I just answered expressionlessly, "They're normal."

"I don't want to stay too long in a lady's room," I said and left the room quickly to wait in the corridor. I was merely annoyed by the overly-sweet perfume.

I asked Tsukimori, who was searching the area around the dressing table in the meanwhile: "Where is your father's room?"

I can't say I had no ulterior motive.

"You can find it just on the opposite side."

Neither can I deny that this was a pretext to explore her house on my own.

"We should probably search separately. I'll look through the room of your father."

But it's also true that I wanted to do a good deed, much as it didn't suit me, and help her out at least a little after seeing her behaving with such maturity.

"That would be a great help. But his room might be a little dusty. It has been left untouched since his passing...," said Tsukimori apologetically.

"I don't mind," I replied and headed towards the door opposite.

My first impression was that it looked like a library.

All of the books that covered one wall of the room dealt with construction, which I noticed when I fixed my eyes on their spines. On the shiny silver desk was a large pile of books and a desktop PC. Both sides of the desk were equipped with a cordless telephone each. I figured that this room served as both his library and working area.

As Tsukimori had warned me, my steps left behind footprints outlined in dust on the floor. There was also a lot of dust on the window frames.

I stopped. I had registered a sound.

According to Tsukimori, that room was supposed to be untouched. But still a subtle sound resembling the buzz of a mosquito reached my ears.

It was the sound of a small fan.

I stood before the silver desk. The PC seemed to be turned on, though in sleep mode. I pressed a random key.

"—Tsukimori."

The instant I saw the display, I called her name.

She then came from the neighboring room and, squinting one eye, asked, "Mm?".

"This," I said, pointing at the screen.

Indeed, her mother had left a note with a message.

"That's...," she muttered, surprised, and kept silent, staring at the screen, as though time had frozen. The only sounds in the room was the rain hitting the window and the regular buzzing of the computer fan.

At the time, I could do nothing but watch her beautiful yet so sorrowful face from the side.

Her mother's name was typed in the "notepad" on the screen, along with the following short comment.

«I'm sorry»

On that day, I didn't get home until past three at night in a police car.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Sweet Nightmare|Sweet Nightmare]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Cigarette Tiger|Cigarette Tiger]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Sweet Nightmare

2013-04-14T06:00:24Z

BladeUnderHeart: some word choice and word order for better "flow", some tense correction

==[Sweet Nightmare]==

At the staff room after closing time.

"I would like you to see me home," requested Tsukimori after changing into her school uniform.

"See you home...?" I repeated warily like a parrot.

"You see, I always feel someone's gaze on me on the way from the café to the train station..."

She gave a shiver.

"Aren't you just being paranoid?" I wanted to say at first, but I reconsidered because it was quite possible in her case. After all, she was no doubt eye-catching. Instead, I suggested, "Then you should consult the police rather than me."

"Weak, Nonomiya! That's weak! Come on, be a man and protect her!"

Mirai-san, who had apparently followed our exchange, thumped a table close to her. The staff nearby turned around, surprised, to see what was going on.

"I don't mean to brag, but I don't have confidence in my strength. Even if she gets attacked by a stalker, the best I can do is get beaten up myself."

"You aren't bragging at all! And if you're a man, you ought to bravely fight all the same, even if you have to put your neck on the line!"

"I'm under the impression that you would make a better bodyguard than me, Mirai-san."

"Moron! I'm a delicate young lady, you know? I also need to be protected."

I shrugged exaggeratedly and took a look at the faces of the rest of the staff. They could only answer my gaze with lopsided smiles because they feared her, but their real thoughts were bound to be the same as mine.

"Very funny, indeed."

"Heh, does your face look like you wanna complain? Nonomiya?"

Mirai-san drew closer with glaring eyes.

"Mirai-san, let it be. If Nonomiya-kun refuses so adamantly, there is nothing that can be done about it. I will try my best to get home alone...," Tsukimori sighed and plodded towards the entrance.

The very moment before she closed the door—

"..................haah..."

—She let out a deep sigh that resounded through the whole staffroom.

All gazes focused on me at once, each of which was reproachful. A close friend can become a close enemy, indeed.

"See her off, Nonomiya-kun," said the manager at last, siding with Tsukimori like the others.

Powered by this, the whole staff started criticizing me. I was attacked from all sides. Outnumbered. I was completely made out to be the bad guy.

"Fine, fine, I've got it already! I'll go see her home, okay?" I groaned and jumped out of the uncomfortable staffroom to run after Tsukimori.

To my surprise, I caught up with her immediately after leaving the café.

Tsukimori was leaning against a telephone pole in front of the shop, waiting below a street light like the queen of the night.

"I knew you would come."

She spotted me and smiled like a blooming flower—revealing to me that my action wasn't unexpected at all.

I looked up at the night sky in order to suppress my boiling emotions. A crescent moon grinned at me tonight.

"You're not fair."

"What do you mean?"

"What are you scheming?"

"That's not nice, you know? As a girl I am very frightened to walk alone at night, you know?"

"Then why didn't you have your mother pick you up, or ask someone else among the staff see you off, or contact the police?"

"As always, you seem to have no idea of how a girl's heart works. I wanted ''you'' to see me home."

She laughed as though she was humming and linked her arm in mine. ''"Shampoo?"'' I wondered silently as I could perceive a sweet fragrance of flowers from her.

"Let's go."

From my experiences so far I had learned that one couldn't get free so easily once Tsukimori had taken the lead, but it was also fact that I, only ''unwillingly'' accepting her lead, certainly had no submissive nature.

Therefore, the few meters during which my arm was pressed against her full bosom were the purest humiliation to me.

I was beyond hope, though, because for just a second I had thought that, while Youko Tsukimori herself may have been the most ill-natured woman on earth, her soft bosom was blameless.

"I won't run away, so please stop this," I begged her with a sigh mixed in, and finally shook her off.

"Too bad. And we had finally created such a nice mood."

Tsukimori was sullen, but her steps remained light.

While watching her black hair dance behind her, I let out a loud sigh.

It may go without saying, but ''my'' steps were heavy.

We got on a train heading out of the city and passed through four stations while getting a good shake. When we alighted at our destination, we were in a residential zone in the outskirts.

"I live over there. A few minutes' walk from here."

Tsukimori pointed at a hill. I saw immediately that we would have a hard time climbing, looking at all the slopes and stairs that could be seen there. The sight alone had me dispirited.

"Don't frown like that. Going out with me means coming up this way all the time, you know?"

"My sympathies to your boyfriend."

"Don't worry. You'll get used to it in no time."

Tsukimori walked off without caring about my sagging spirits. "Look, the stars are beautiful tonight," she said, sounding easy-going.

Since I didn't want to turn around after coming so far, I followed her reluctantly.

It was a tranquil residential area and rather "classy".

The streets were lit with comparatively short gaps, but it was still eerily dark around us. I had to admit that the shivering she had shown earlier might have been more than mere acting.

As expected, I was completely drained by the time we came to a stop. Tsukimori, accustomed as she was, showed no indication of strain, making her appear more irritating than ever to me.

"Here we are," proclaimed Tsukimori and stood before the entrance.

It was a large white building. The term "mansion" might be appropriate.

Since her father had been the head of a construction design company, it was a rather fancy design, constructed with tetrahedrons systematically put together, giving it an overall geometric feel. I would have nodded in comprehension if someone had told me it was the house of a physicist.

There was no light inside, so her mother was apparently absent.

While I was curiously looking up at the house, Tsukimori tugged at my sleeve.

"Now that you're here, why don't you come in?"

Her proposal was most suspicious and virtually crying out to be doubted.

I knew it would be a pain if anyone got wind of this visit. If, on top of that, the guys at school learned that no one else had been in the house at the time, the rumors that might emerge from it exceeded my imagination. Especially in Kamogawa's case... I didn't even want to think about it.

By now I was sure everything had been an act of hers to make me enter her house. It would certainly rub me the wrong way if her plan succeeded.

"Good idea. I'm pretty thirsty; can I come in for a drink?"

Nonetheless, I accepted her offer because it was a very rare opportunity.

Though I had, as a matter of fact, ''suspended'' doubting her due to a lack of progress, I had by no means ''stopped''. The suspicion due to the murder recipe was still smoldering in my mind.

Originally I had expected that new progress would come from associating with her and learning more about her, but all my attempts had remained fruitless. The more I was in touch with her, the less I understood her true nature. I had no clue how to distinguish between her jokes and her serious statements. In other words, she was as slippery as an eel.

Hence, I had come to the conclusion that it might be better to approach her mother. From what I had seen of her at the funeral, she was not as complicated a person as Tsukimori. It shouldn't be necessary to probe Tsukimori herself to find out about her relationship with her father.

I followed Tsukimori into the house. Not a sound was to be heard inside.

While taking off my shoes at the entrance, I asked: "What time is your mother coming back?"

"Do you have a soft spot for older women?" teased Tsukimori with a laugh.

"At least more than for you," I answered—with an earnest face as a test.

"Now that's a shock, even if it is meant as a joke."

Tsukimori shook her head while taking out some slippers for us.

It seemed that I had taken the lead.

"My mother has gone out and will be back late. Today is your chance!"

"...just what sort of chance would that be, I wonder?"

I pushed her head away, since she had come closer to peek at my face.

And the lead went back to Tsukimori.

"I only wanted to introduce myself to her since I'm here."

"Oh, that pleases me to hear. Did you finally warm up to me?"

"I don't know how you took my words, but let me assure you that you're wrong."

I followed her into the living room.

"I'll bring something to drink. Make yourself comfortable on the sofa."

Tsukimori disappeared into the neighboring room, turning on the light there. Half of a well-equipped system kitchen entered my view.

I let my gaze sweep through the living room.

Like the outside, the residence of the Tsukimoris looked quite respectable from the inside: there was a leather sofa with an amber luster and a queerly shaped glass table which even an amateur could identify as a designer table. Furthermore, I found a terrifyingly large LCD TV and luxurious hi-fi equipment. The rumors were true: they were quite a wealthy family.

To my disappointment however, there was nothing special apart from that, like an object that would have served me as a clue for Tsukimori's relationship with her father.

Well, it was only natural that nothing too peculiar was placed in the living room where a lot of people went in and out. Unfortunately, though, I didn't have any pretext that would have allowed me to look through the other rooms, either. I couldn't help feeling that I had forfeited the rare chance of getting into her house.

I was still reeling in disappointment when Tsukimori came back with a tray of drinks.

"I hope you are fine with black tea?"

"Perfectly."

I intended to leave after emptying my cup. There was no use in staying for too long. However, Tsukimori had apparently read my intentions: "Make yourself at home! It's only Saturday tomorrow, so there's no need to hurry, right?"

"Are you out of your mind? I'm a man, you know?"

As if to make her the outlet of my letdown, my wording became a little harsh. I realized that I was acting pretty selfishly, since she wasn't to blame that I had set my own expectations too high.

"That only supports my argument! A boy should never leave an anxious girl behind alone."

"But this is your own home."

"Do you believe stalkers care about such obstacles?"

"How should I know how a stalker thinks? In the first place, that story sounds quite fishy to me anyway."

"Too bad," Tsukimori sighed slightly. "You sure don't let me have my way, Nonomiya-kun."

"That's my line. You lead me by the nose all the time!" I objected promptly. I was naturally unable to just accept it that my opponent forestalled me in saying what had constantly been on my mind.

A moment later, she whispered in a voice that was too loud to be a monologue: "...I wonder if I should consult Mirai-san about Nonomiya-kun..."

I almost spit out my black tea.

"...is that a threat?"

I stared with hostile eyes at Tsukimori.

"It's unavoidable. I simply wish to receive a piece of good advice from an older woman like Mirai-san. There's nothing strange about it, is there?"

Tsukimori covered half of her face under a cushion as if to block my gaze.

"Consulting Mirai-san about love problems is like asking the devil the way to heaven."

"That was a good one."

Tsukimori buried her nose in the cushion and giggled.

"It's no laughing matter. It's a most serious matter of life and death!"

I almost got a headache just by imagining a merry Mirai-san teasing me. I would surely have to say farewell to my busy yet peaceful work life, because she would be asking me about Tsukimori non-stop.

"I would not mind our colleagues at the café knowing about us. I don't like having secrets."

"''You'' don't mind."

Tsukimori may have been used to being the center of attention, but I was not. Just the thought of capturing everyone's attention gave me the shivers.

A comfortable role as a spectator suited me best. Everyone has their own qualities.

"To be frank, I would love to openly attempt winning you over."

"After all, you seem to be good at getting all the others on your side, right?" I said with a full load of sarcasm.

"An inborn virtue of mine?" countered Tsukimori without trouble.

"You don't say. You are a schemer, an actor and, if we get to the heart of it, just plain wicked. It's just that everyone is being deceived by your beautiful looks and don't notice your deadly thorns."

"You think I am beautiful? I am on cloud nine!"

"Where have the 'deadly thorns' gone?"

"Paying regard to things that aren't true goes against my principles."

Judging from her serious mien, she did not in the least mean to be joking. Most likely she was even scandalized, in fact.

But strangely enough, I also realized that a girl as "eye-catching" as her might actually need such nerves of steel.

"Would you like another cup?" smiled Tsukimori, ladylike and slightly inclining her head, with a porcelain tea pot in her hand.

"Please."

I held out my tea cup to her, waving the white flag in my mind.

I had chosen to watch her devilish scheme for a little longer.

Thirty minutes later.

"Your mother is pretty late," I addressed Tsukimori, who was sitting opposite me.

"Yes, she said she would be."

"When is she going to be back then?"

"Hm... sometime around ten, I suppose?"

"That makes thirty minutes from now, huh."

I was starting to feel uncomfortable sharing the same time and room, just the two of us, but I was willing to bear with another half an hour and lay back in the sofa.

Tsukimori murmured, "Well, twenty-four hours from now, to be exact."

I bolted upright on the sofa and stared at her. She was leisurely browsing through a fashion magazine.

"What does that mean?"

"She has gone on a company outing and will be back tomorrow."

"—You deceived me?"

I was surprised myself by how deep my tone was.

"I honestly told you she would be late."

"How's that honest!? I'm leaving," I declared , standing up and heading towards the entrance. Most of the irritation was at myself for readily taking her bait.

Suddenly, something soft enveloped my arm. Tsukimori had clasped it.

"...please, don't leave me alone. I'm frightened!"

Her begging attitude and the soft touch against my arm made me falter.

The unusual fragility she was showing me was more than enough to activate my protective instincts—even if it was a deliberate action of hers to seduce me.

But my rationality cooled down the overwhelming reality and kept me from making the wrong decision.

"Your charm doesn't work on me! Besides, that's not fair. I have not accepted going out with you."

Two teenagers alone under one roof — an alluring setting. Being a boy in his teens, I was naturally interested in what would happen in such a situation, all the more if the girl in question was Youko Tsukimori.

"I don't mind if it's you."

As expected, she tried to capture me with inviting eyes and sweet words.

Had I met Youko Tsukimori under any other circumstances, I would have stood no chance against her seduction.

"I feel honored, but I have no such intentions!"

However, unlike the Nonomiya in that hypothetical world, the real one bore up against her. Because, much more than I was hoping for an alluring development, I was scared.

It was wariness that sustained my rationality.

What was Youko Tsukimori scheming?

It was then that I felt that I had caught a glimpse of the true intention behind her request to date her.

Perhaps, Tsukimori didn't have in mind to get rid of me, but to get me under her control?

She was well aware of her own attractiveness and knew how to use it effectively. I had been able to observe that fact more than enough lately. So, perhaps she was trying to make me her faithful puppet of sorts? She could be sure that I would not leak her secret in that case, couldn't she?

Of course, provided that she really had noticed that I knew of and had the murder recipe.

Either way, I had to get out of there as fast as possible. Even if my assumptions were true and confirmed by Tsukimori at that, it was only a matter of time until I would give in to her.

Because her words may have been lies, ''but her attractiveness was a fact''.

As things stood, I was going to fall victim to her venom. I knew for sure that as soon as that happened, the poison would spread slowly but surely and paralyze my will to resist.

I shook her off and hurried towards the entrance, but Tsukimori rushed after me in the same breath. This time she clung to me from behind, restraining me.

Her warmth, her softness, her entrancing fragrance blended into a charm deluding the senses and attacking me from behind.

"...It does not matter what you feel for me..."

Her soft breath touched the nape of my neck. I knew that I had to escape, but I couldn't move a muscle.

"...touch me... do whatever you want with me..."

Her delightful words entered my head through my eardrums and turned into paralyzing electrical signals flashing through my entire body. My poisoned legs had already lost the strength to resist a single high school girl.

[[Image:Gekkou-122.jpg|thumb]]

She gently pushed me into the sofa, leaning against me. The lamp behind Tsukimori created a mystic contrast on her face. She placed her head on my shoulder and put her hands lightly on my chest—as if to feel my heartbeat. Her white, slender neck was exposed to me right by my chin.

While I was still bereft of speech, she whispered into my ear, "Please. I want you to."

It sounded to me like a saint's enigmatic absolution.

A moment later, she nibbled the defenseless nape of my neck.

The soft sensation of her tender red lips caused my shoulders to jump. I had never experienced such an impulse before, it was similar to tickling but still different.

My body was about to run out of control. In an attempt to push her away, I slid my hands between us and thrust towards the ceiling. Unwilling to be separated, she resisted and twisted her body. My resisting hands merely brushed against her soft breasts, stroked her smooth sides and lost themselves in blank space.

At that moment, Tsukimori uttered a suppressed moan and writhed, still straddling me.

It was smashing. My rationality was entirely blown away by her unexpectedly sensitive reaction.

Letting my instincts take over, I swapped places and sat astride her. I laid one hand on the white nape of her neck and traced her lush red lips with my fingers. I inhaled her intensive flowery scent, kissed her collarbone and put my knee between her thighs.

She reacted exquisitely to each of my actions. I was aware that the blood circulating in my veins was enraptured by pleasure.

Right now———Youko Tsukimori was under my control.

That feeling of elation was far beyond normal. Even I, the cool thinker by principle, would have loved screaming as my feelings told me.

While frantically suppressing the urge to rush, I kept on caressing Tsukimori. I wanted the pleasure to hold on for as long as possible.

However, I was suddenly stricken by a shock that made my heart skip a beat. I had noticed her unusual reaction.

"—You're trembling."

Tsukimori blinked a few times with her eyes that in passion had lost focus.

"...I am?" she asked with gentle lip-movements, her voice full of heat.

She was unaware of it herself, but she was trembling all over.

Feelings of guilt that I had pushed aside as my rationality had gone out of the window suddenly sprung up in me like water.

"...we really shouldn't be doing this. Let's stop," I stated while raising my body.

Tsukimori's "tremor" appeared to me like "rejection".

I certainly didn't stop because I was a good person but, on the other hand, neither did I enjoy subjugating girls against their will for my own satisfaction.

I was frightened, plain and simple. Frightened of shouldering a sin against ''her'' that could not be amended.

She was still lying on the sofa, looking up at me with wondering eyes. Behind her rumpled uniform, I could see her bulging snow-white skin. I averted my gaze automatically.

"Why? Didn't I say it's fine?"

"But you are trembling."

"That's because of excitement!"

"I don't think so."

"It is!"

The next moment, Tsukimori said something I couldn't believe.

"It's my first time after all!"

"So I can't help it," she added.

No words.

I cast her off and stood up as if to retreat.

"Why?!" I shouted, channeling all my bewilderment into one word. That was the only thing I could do.

"Everyone has a first time," replied Tsukimori with girlishly pure eyes.

"But that's not how you go about it!"

"That's different for everyone."

"...do as you please as long as it's your own problem. But this time it's me that would have been your partner, you get that?"

"Yes, you are right, I don't know if I will be able to satisfy you because it's my first time...," she worried.

She had to be joking.

"Ah, but I'm positive that I will develop excellent skills the more we do it. You know that I'm a fast learner, right? Be it at school or at work."

However, Tsukimori looked dead serious.

"That's not the problem!!"

When was the last time I had become this agitated? I couldn't remember. Thank you very much for this valuable experience, Tsukimori.

"Why are you always so... so reckless!"

"I am surprised myself."

"Don't act so unconcerned!"

"Someone once said that girls in love are invincible; there might be more truth to it than I thought. After all I do feel capable of anything right now," she nodded approvingly.

"Please, don't only think about yourself..." I let out a grand sigh. "In the first place, what happened to the rumors about you? Haven't you gone out with numerous boys so far?"

It's not like I believed her offhandedly.

A girl like Tsukimori should have had countless opportunities to lose "it" in her life. Wasn't she just playing with me?

"...I don't want to tell you," she averted her gaze to the side.

"You can't say that after dragging me in like that, can you? I have the right to know."

"I don't care."

"Don't be such a child."

"I bet you see me as some kind of slut!"

Tsukimori pursed her lips.

She was now sounding queerly like a precocious little girl. Where did the bewitching girl that seduced me go?

"Fine! I won't ask anymore if you don't want to tell me."

I thought there was no use questioning her in that thickheaded state.

"...Do you really want me to tell you?"

"...Which is it now!"

Good heavens. As always she was hard to read.

Tsukimori took a deep breath and made up her mind.

"I'll be honest. I have gone out with several boys before."

"As I thought."

"Hey, that's not nice, you know. Let me assure you: I may have gone out with various boys, but not once have I given myself to anyone. I didn't even let them touch me like you have. Honestly."

"You want me to buy that?"

"They were all good and kind people and really loved me."

"...Good for you..."

"But every time something felt off. In some way I knew that none of them were my destined partner," she told me with slightly downcast eyes, wallowing in reminiscences.

"Then why me?"

"Because you seemed different from the others! In the beginning it was just a baseless intuition, of course. At first I wanted to go out with you without thinking too deeply, as I used to do with the other boys. Because getting someone to date me is simple."

"That sure doesn't sound like something someone my age would say. Come on, how old are you really?"

Tsukimori found my apathetic attitude funny, it seemed. She giggled with great amusement.

"But I had not dreamed that you would reject me."

"So sorry for not living up to your expectations."

"No, by no means! Thanks to that, I gained a sudden burst of enthusiasm. So the result is absolutely fine!"

"...That's how life goes, I guess. Never the way you want it to."

Tsukimori's triumphant joy had the opposite effect on my mood. She made me remember that whatever I did to her always ended up backfiring on me.

"Indeed... I wonder why things never work out the way you want them in life."

This time it was me who couldn't help laughing, seeing her say that with a solemn mien.

"If ''you'' of all people don't get your way, us commoners are stumped."

The worries of someone who had everything seemed incredibly ridiculous to me.

"You are all just overestimating me, really."

"But you deserve to be overestimated, from a neutral point of view."

"Why is it that I cannot make you mine, then?"

She squinted at my eyes as if to peek into my heart.

"...Who knows? It's a riddle even to me," I answered vaguely, looking away. For obvious reasons I could have never told her that it's because the murder recipe was on my mind.

"Meany."

"Call me whatever you like."

"But I like you anyway, Nonomiya-kun, even if you are cruel and mean to me," laughed Tsukimori while brushing her hair. It was a gorgeous demeanor. "How can I explain it...? It is just so enjoyable to talk with you."

She carefully chose her words, which made me realize that she was trying her utmost to convey her feelings precisely.

"You could say that we are... trying to outdo each other? Our conversations feel so exciting and enjoyable to me because they're unpredictable. I just can't talk enough with you."

Her words silenced me, and caused me to stare at her. I was struck by surprise that she was of the same mind as me.

Strong sympathy can change ridiculously easily into a sense of closeness.

Indeed, at that very instant, Youko Tsukimori became a special girl to me.

"When I imagined how stimulating every day would become if I went out with you, I realized that you had to be my destined partner. So I did not really need to hesitate. You are the one I deemed destined for me; I wanted you to have my first time."

To make matters worse, she looked even more attractive now that I had become conscious of her. I've heard subjectivity incorporates a function that applies a filter to the brain that makes you interpret things in your favor.

"I didn't know I was so bold."

"And I wish I didn't know that you were so sharp tongued."

I shrugged extensively for show. Of course, I was not at all composed. It was quite the contrary: I was disturbed. You could say that I had a hard time dealing with the radical change in my feelings.

I had previously regarded any situation objectively with the utmost effort in order to bear up against Tsukimori and her staggering presence. Otherwise I would have fallen victim to her charm like everyone else.

However, now that subjectivity had mixed into my view, I couldn't remain calm anymore. My awakened instincts told me to savor the defenseless fruit before my eyes.

"I'm leaving."

This time I seriously had to leave or I would end up loathing myself.

"Don't you want to check?"

I heard Tsukimori's voice behind me when I was walking towards the living room door.

"Check what?"

"—Whether it really would have been my first time or not."

I felt the urge to turn around, but I chose to remain on course.

She would have surely shown me a devilish smile that very much met my preference and ruined my newly gained determination.

"Please forget what happened today. I wasn't myself."

"I don't want to," she declared.

"It's in both our interests."

"It's a valuable memory of the 'destined partner' I finally found."

"I'm stunned that you can use that phrase so carelessly. Say that again in ten years."

"I am not using the word carelessly. Didn't you know that every girl is searching for her 'destined partner' from the moment she is born?"

"Well, my sympathies for all the trouble."

With that parting shot I opened the door. In that instant, I heard footsteps rushing towards me resounding on the flooring.

"Are you really leaving me?"

...No use using such lonely words.

"Of course."

"Even though I want you to stay so much?"

...No use using such pleading words.

"Well, ''I'' want to go home as fast as possible."

"You really are hard to deal with, Nonomiya-kun," she said, sighing.

I spontaneously turned around and glared at her. "You're the last person I want to hear that from!"

Tsukimori laughed heartily at seeing my unwilling attitude.

...Please, let me go already.

"Goodbye."

"Be seeing you."

Even though I intentionally stomped on the floor to express my bad temper, I happened to see her sad and weak wave goodbye. It would be a lie to say that I didn't feel anything while closing the front door.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Bitter Chocolate|Bitter Chocolate]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Orange & Wine|Orange & Wine]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Bitter Chocolate

2013-04-14T04:26:24Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Bitter Chocolate]==

I had to admit it: Youko Tsukimori was indeed a perfect girl.

It was naturally me who was assigned to mentor her, being in the same class and all. At first I was rather sour about that cumbersome task, but I soon learned that it's quite enjoyable to teach someone who's good at remembering things.

Only two weeks had passed since Tsukimori had started working at Victoria, but she was already able to do any work related to waiting the tables on her own, such as attending to the customers, taking their orders and operating the register.

In terms of handling the customers, she might have even surpassed anyone else in this café. Furthermore, thanks to the customers who would visit only to enjoy her in a waitress uniform, sales were on the rise, too.

The manager and the other employees were quite impressed with her abilities, while it was no surprise to me since I knew her from school.

What was a surprise, however, was that Tsukimori and Mirai-san were on very good terms. I would have been able to understand it if they had been like cat and dog, but in truth you could even say that they turned out to be a good match.

"I was convinced you wouldn't like her type of person," I addressed Mirai-san.

"It's the opposite. Women like Youko can't stand me."

Mirai-san flashed the kind of smile you would expect of the leader of some wicked organization that schemes to conquer the world.

"Why is that?"

"Conjurers don't like audience that sees through their tricks. And you see, the tricks of those women don't work on me." Indeed, Mirai-san's intuition was queerly sharp. "There's this gal in university who's quite popular with the guys because of such tricks. Well, once I was kinda pissed off by her attitude—okay, my mood had hit the rocks during that period in general—but anyway, I cut her down to size in front of all the others. And when I was finished with her, she wept and wept... such a pain."

"My condolences."

"Right? She always runs away right when she spots me ever since. As if ''I'' was the bad one!"

Mirai-san seemed pleased about having my assent, but my condolences naturally belonged to the poor young woman who had made Mirai-san her enemy.

"But Youko's nothing like that. She seems to be unfeigned, without any tricks or pretenses."

Mirai-san turned her gaze towards the tables where Tsukimori was serving the customers.

"I was keen to blow her cover, but no matter how fiercely I observe her, she shows no openings. Heh, at first I was excited about the arrival of a powerful opponent and was like, 'Don't think you can deceive me forever!', but—"

Mirai-san made a short pause to sneer.

"—Lately, I've come to think that this is how Youko really is."

I followed her gaze to Tsukimori.

Indeed, she was always dignified, so I couldn't even imagine her whining. Even with this cross-grained personality of mine, I considered that gleam of hers pure and not some trick.

She had even managed to tame the "beast". No wonder that the "humans" around her would be captivated by her.

"What I like most about her is definitely that she isn't scared of me," said Mirai-san, who then turned around to the kitchen and suddenly shouted: "SARUWATARI!"

"Y-Yes, ma'am!"

"Do your work properly!"

"I...I will! I will do it so properly!" cried Saruwatari-san, and moved even faster than before.

"See? Any other guy's like that, right?" 

"Are you a devil?"

"You moron! It may not look like it, but Saruwari actually has a crush on me, you know?" Mirai-san tapped my forehead with her index finger. "Though I just don't have a thing for such timid guys."

"You ''are'' a devil."

I was speechless, only rubbing my forehead.

"Anyway, the point is I like her. Even if it's just some faked mask. It's my loss!"

"Is it as simple as that?"

"It is. However vicious Youko may turn out to be, I won't be able to dislike her so easily anymore. It's the same as my fondness of chocolate, which I can't stop though everyone babbles that eating too much isn't good for my health."

The self-proclaimed chocolate addict Mirai-san sat down on an edge of the counter, took a block chocolate out of her pocket and threw it in the air just to catch it with her healthily red tongue.

"My, that is bad manners Mirai-san! Don't always try to snack on chocolate when the shop manager is not watching. He told me that certain story about you, you know? Once, you collapsed because you wouldn't eat anything but chocolate," scolded Tsukimori, who had come over to forward an order, with the attitude of a class officer towards a delinquent.

"Speak of the devil!" countered Mirai-san in a daunting tone that sounded like nothing but a perfect example of delinquency.

"You were talking about me? Not badly I hope, ''right''?"

"Why, of course not. We were praising you, Youko."

"Very well, I will take your word for it this time."

In contrast to what they said, they both seemed to enjoy talking to each other.

"You like me, don't you?" asked Mirai-san out of the blue.

"Yes, I do," replied Tsukimori in a split second with a giggle. "You also like me, right?"

"Without saying." Another immediate reply. They looked almost like old friends. "See? That's what I was getting at."

"I see."

There were still some points that didn't make much sense to me, but I understood roughly what she wanted to say.

"—You really resemble each other in a way, huh," murmured Tsukimori suddenly.

Mirai-san and I looked at each other.

"Such an uncharming guy and I?"

"I'm not ''that'' frank, you know?"

Our denials were in sync.

"You don't flatter anyone, you don't go with the flow. 'You have your way', so to speak. I am actually quite jealous of that character trait of yours."

I paused for a moment before answering her, "Mirai-san is holier-than-thou to the core, while I simply take to going at my own pace. Unlike her, I am able to adapt and gladly follow superiors if necessary."

"I am always honest and not scheming like you," objected Mirai-san sharply.

"You ought to realize that sometimes the truth can hurt others more than a lie."

"You really are a cheeky fellow without any charm, Nonomiya."

"I don't need that from an indelicate bully like you!"

I sneered, whereupon Mirai-san stood up with glaring eyes.

"All right, Nonomiya!! You just overstepped your bounds! Let's take this outside! I'll bend that warped nature of yours into shape with my fists!"

Tsukimori, who had been watching us, suddenly started to giggle.

"You are like siblings."

"—Nonomiya, my brother?"

She let go of my collar and evaluated me from tip to toe with her gaze.

"Sis," I tried teasing her. To me it sounded like nothing but a Yakuza's way of addressing his female superior.

".........what a nightmare."

Whether it was because Tsukimori had spoiled her appetite for argument or because she was disgusted with the way I had called her, Mirai-san disappeared into the kitchen, holding her head.

"She may not look like it, but Mirai-san likes you, Nonomiya-kun," whispered Tsukimori. "I think she was actually fairly pleased that you called her 'sister'. I am sure she only escaped because she was embarrassed."

I gazed at her.

"What's the matter? Why that wondering face?"

"Even though you have spent much less time with Mirai-san than me, you seem to understand her pretty well."

"I have an eye for people. I knew we would get along well at first glance," Tsukimori told me, seeming very pleased with the compliment I had given her.

"But your eye for men needs some serious polishing."

Apparently, her mood ''was'' good; all I got in return for my cynical remark was a sugar-sweet smile.

"I really don't think so? You will surely become my dear life partner."

She skillfully put a cup of coffee onto the tray and headed with light steps towards a table.

I didn't intend to go along with her plans, so it was safe to assume that she had no foundation; but upon seeing her self-confident smile, I couldn't help but think that her words would come true.

Still, I had no plans of trusting her off-handedly like Mirai-san.

She wouldn't have stopped doubting Tsukimori so easily either, if she were in my position.

Because I knew about the murder recipe.

After Tsukimori started working at Victoria, Usami also became a frequent sight at the shop.

With her being very communicative, it didn't take long until she was well-liked by both the staff and the manager, and by now she was a proper regular. Thanks to that I was permanently on tenterhooks, afraid that Mister Kujirai might offer her a position.

"Hey, Nonomiya, Nonomiya, listen!"

Since she usually came after her club activities, she mostly arrived just before evening when the number of customers started to drop. She would then happily tell us about "that day's events".

"I was selected as a regular player for the next match!"

"Congratulations. Let me treat you to a drink to mark the occasion."

"Yay!" she shouted out so vigorously she almost jumped to her feet. "Um, in that case... can I ask for one more thing?"

She suddenly got flustered and peeked up at me with embarrassment. Her big, round eyes reminded me of a pygmy marmoset.

"If it's within my power."

"Can I take a photo of you?"

"Why? We see each other almost everyday. There's no point in specially taking a photo, is there?"

"Yes, there is! I want you in your garçon outfit!"

"I see." I pretended to ponder about it. "No."

"Why not! There should be no prob with it! It won't hurt!"

It was so amusing when she became angry and acted like a willful child.

"I'm not very fond of photographs and the like."

That was no lie. I meant it.

"But your garçon look has rarity value; it would be a shame, I tell you! Come on, just one!" she passionately tried to persuade me.

"Well, since you've finally become a regular player and want it so much—"

"Eh? You'll let me?"

Usami's eyes sparkled with expectations.

"—I'll refuse."

Which I gladly belied.

"EEH?! Why?!"

"Because I don't want to have my soul sucked out."

"That's a silly superstition!"

Teasing Usami was a life task of sorts for me. Because watching her reactions was like getting the crisp and shrill sound of a bell, I couldn't stop being mean to her.

"Geez! You miser!"

"Say what you want but my answer remains 'no'."

"I'll just take one secretly then..."

"As you just told the person in question, it's not going to be secretly at all."

"Take that!"

Usami adopted drastic measures: she pointed her mobile phone at me and tried to shoot. I instantaneously turned from her.

"Aaah! W-Why did you turn around?!"

"Taking photographs is prohibited in this establishment. If you do not abide by this rule, I will have to request that you leave," I explained in an official-sounding tone, whereupon Usami puffed up her cheeks and stowed her phone away into her bag, but not without hissing: "Miser!"

A laugh accidentally escaped my lips.

"Cheer up, Usami. I can't consent to the photograph, but I'll treat you to dessert instead."

Her sour look moved me and made me want to spoil her. That's another form of carrot and stick, I guess.

"...an ice chocolate and a mango tart."

"Certainly," I answered her with the best smile I could produce and headed towards the kitchen to forward the order.

I couldn't keep my expression from loosening, which was only reasonable. Usami's straightforward reactions had a sort of stress-alleviating effect on me—probably because I had to deal with peculiar, to say the least, persons during my usual day.

"You're like a child that's playing with its favorite toy." With her chin propped up on her hand, Mirai-san grinned lopsidedly.

"Why, I would never think of her as a toy!" I answered while arranging the bills after I had communicated the order to Saruwatari-san.

Naturally, Mirai-san with her sharp wits had already noticed that I was fond of Usami. I didn't mean to hide it anyway.

"But I would love to have a pet like her at home."

In my mind I pictured a pygmy marmoset trying its best to munch on a mango that was as large as itself.

"No big difference."

"At any rate, it's true that I'm quite fond of her."

"How rare for you to admit something that easily." Mirai-san stared at me, surprised.

"It all depends on who it is about! Her straightforwardness causes me to be honest as well."

"Heh, great! Make her your girlfriend and have her fix that twisted personality of yours!"

Mirai-san laughed out loud, bending forward.

"That twisted personality you mention all the time would surely be twisted even more if ''you'' were my girlfriend," I thought without actually saying it.

"—That sounds quite realistic to me." Before I knew it, Tsukimori was standing next to me. "As far as I see, Chizuru is interested in you, too, Nonomiya-kun," said Tsukimori with that mature smile she was so good at.

"Oh? So she's not averse, either? I didn't know Nonomiya was such a lady-killer."

Mirai-san gazed curiously at Tsukimori. In my gaze, however, was nothing but suspicion.

What was she scheming?

Unlike Mirai-san, who didn't know that Tsukimori had asked me to go out with her, I completely failed to understand why she would encourage a relationship with Usami.

"Why don't you just go for her?" Mirai-san didn't miss out on that delicious chance.

"It's not my place to decide on that. Or am I just ignorant and love involves only one person?"

"Hey, didn't Youko just say that your chances are good?"

My snappish words made Mirai-san frown.

"You're no better, either, Tsukimori. I don't appreciate that you're trying to spur us on without reason. Careless remarks like these are rude towards both Usami and me."

I realized that I was irritated. Not angered, but irritated. Not like fire, but like "smoldering embers".

"You are right, Nonomiya-kun. I wasn't supposed to say that. I am sorry."

Tsukimori readily admitted her mistake and bowed in apology.

"Er, yeah, sorry. I didn't expect you to be that serious about it," Mirai-san awkwardly scratched her head, following Tsukimori's example.

"...no, it's up to me to apologize. It's just that I'm not used to such talk."

I showed them some kind of self-deprecation, which was the best I could do to varnish over my irritation.

Unable to keep the conversation going, we shared a few seconds of silence.

Then Mirai-san lost interest and disappeared into the kitchen, seeking an outlet for her vexation: "Saruwatarii!!"

Tsukimori, however, had turned away from me and was standing still—an indecisive attitude that didn't match the image I had of her.

On my part, I was still uncomfortable, sensing a bitter aftertaste on my tongue even now that the conversation was over.

It wasn't irritation that originated from the earnestness towards Usami that Mirai-san had mentioned.

Sure enough, a part of me disliked it when people rashly meddled in others' love affairs. However, such situations were common and nowhere near rare, and I would have been able to dodge or adapt respectively, hiding my feelings as I used to do so unhesitatingly until now.

Just now, however, I had disgraced myself by exposing my feelings, which was not like me at all. It was probably the first time I had ever had such an experience.

Why was I so irritated? It was a nasty feeling; while I knew that it was there, I didn't know what the cause was.

At that moment, I heard a murmur.

"...I am sorry," whispered Tsukimori with a tiny, sore voice that was easily drowned out by the ado in the shop. I could not see her face as her back was still facing me, but I somehow sensed that her words weren't an "apology" but rather "remorse".

I never would have thought that Tsukimori regretted her words that much. Concurrently to surprise, I also experienced a strong feeling of pacification.

I had found the cause for my irritation. I still did not clearly know why, but it seemed like the cause was Tsukimori.

Why was I irritated by her?

Another question arose.

I chose to do a reset of my feelings and bring Usami her order because I thought I would only waste time if I got lost in a labyrinth of thoughts.

However, there was one discovery I had made: a new kind of emotion towards Tsukimori was about to be born.

I didn't know the name of that emotion yet, though.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 In The Café|In The Café]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Sweet Nightmare|Sweet Nightmare]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 In The Café

2013-04-14T03:31:21Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[In The Café]==

All of a sudden Tsukimori came to my desk and said, with a smile as warm as sunbeams shining through the leaves of a tree and a voice as soft as a gentle summer breeze:

"Shall we go then, Nonomiya-kun?"

Time stopped in the noisy classroom. At least, my train of thought did.

Everyone suspended what he or she was doing and looked over to us. Usami was the first to regain time.

"...eh? Youko-san? Are you tagging along with Nonomiya? Why? Eeh?"

Her bewilderment made her look like one of those automatons that jump out of striking clocks every hour.

"I wanted to pay the café Nonomiya-kun works at a visit since I heard it's very comfortable there. And as you know, I have been quite busy lately, so I was a little tired and thought about relaxing there while enjoying a cup of tea. Well, that's why ''I asked'' Nonomiya-kun!"

Tsukimori was obviously taking into consideration that we were being watched by our classmates.

"Is that true, Nonomiya?"

I had already expected that I would be the next target to be questioned.

"It is."

Thus, I somehow managed not to reveal my discontent.

"Maybe I should join you..."

I almost blacked out upon hearing her murmur. Tsukimori alone was already enough trouble—I couldn't manage both of them at the same time.

"Aren't your club activities waiting for you?"

Usami was in the volleyball club. She was gifted with strength in her arms that didn't suit her small body: her spikes made the guys look old. I remembered all too well how relieved I was to be on the same team after witnessing her spike during PE.

"I-I'll skip!"

"Don't. Didn't you say only recently that you were on the brink of becoming a regular player? It would be foolish to skip your club activities during such an important period."

Usami pressed her lips into a line and grumbled with a frown.

"Let's go together some other time, Chizuru. I will memorize where the café is for you, today. Okay?"

Tsukimori admonished her gently like a caring sister, whereupon Usami obediently nodded, "Okay."

One problem solved. I then went on getting rid of the remaining issues.

"It's really just you who's coming, right? If the whole bunch were to come along, I'd have to refuse because that would only cause the café trouble."

That was a prompt. I indicated to Tsukimori that I would only give my consent if she cleared that condition.

"Don't worry, our classmates are so kind, they would never cause anyone trouble," she ensured with a ladylike smile, "See you tomorrow, everyone."

She elegantly waved her hand at her classmates.

They would have jumped at that chance for sure. The guys, among them Kamogawa, and the girls who admired Tsukimori put their disappointment clearly on display. But not one of them would even think of betraying angelic Youko Tsukimori's trust.

But equally, I was not capable enough to do something against the situation she had induced. I had no choice but to unwillingly go along with her.

Tsukimori walked with light steps towards the front gate.

"What are you up to?" I asked her delicate back, without hiding my bad mood.

Tsukimori turned around, making her long hair flutter in the wind.

"I am so curious about the café you work at," she said, without hiding her good mood.

"Answer me! You should know that I don't like standing out."

"Which is why I tried to prevent a commotion, didn't I?"

"That doesn't change the fact that we attracted attention."

"Well, tough luck."

"And whose fault is that...?" I was irritated by her out-and-out undaunted behavior. "Who told you that I work at a café anyway?"

"I heard it from rumors!"

"Don't lie."

It was well-known that I work part-time somewhere, but I hadn't told anyone at school that I was working at a café.

"What are you after?"

"What do you think I am, Nonomiya-kun? It is not strange at all to desire to learn more about the person in my heart, is it? This is what you call a pure girl's heart."

"You claim to be a pure girl? Laughable. Let me assert this for you: you are nowhere near as harmless as that."

I sneered.

"You know, looking so mature can be a real bother at such times. I am still just a seventeen-year-old girl. Besides, I have only recently lost my father, so I think you ought to be gentler to me, Nonomiya-kun," pouted Tsukimori. I was surprised that she could make such childish expressions, too.

But that was as far as it went. Of course I felt sorry for her, but in the end it was still none of my business.

"See you tomorrow."

I accelerated my pace and put some distance between me and Tsukimori.

"Where are you going? There's the back gate."

"Unlike you, I commute by bicycle and not by train. If you can keep up with my speed, I shall take the special trouble and guide you to the café?" I was deliberately cold. I couldn't be bothered to adjust to others. And I cared even less to have someone enter my territory without authorization. 

"Yes, let's go with that. I just hope my back will not hurt from it, but well, I have always wanted do that once."

However, Tsukimori was even less harmless than I had expected. Before I knew it, she was walking next to me.

"...what are you thinking?"

"I have always wanted to do that at least once! Riding a bicycle à deux."

"When did I say I'd let you?"

"Don't worry. I should not be too heavy."

"That wasn't the question."

I was annoyed. As she showed no restraint I decided on saying my piece without restraint as well.

"I admit that I may be supposed to be gentler to you as you've just lost your father. However, I don't feel like dancing to your tune like the others, not in the least. Not everyone is considerate towards you, keep that in mind. At least now that I know your true nature, I might still feel sympathy but I am certainly not favorable towards you," I rebuked her.

"Mmm! That's how my Nonomiya-kun has to be," Tsukimori nodded strongly, making a somewhat contented face. "I love this unashamed attitude."

My words had achieved the exact opposite effect. Wanting to put her off, I accidentally attracted her all the more.

Seeing my loss for words, she showed me her occasional big-sister-like smile.

"Won't you give me a chance? I have realized by now that my confession yesterday was overhasty! Just like you don't know how I really am, I don't know you well yet, either. I think it is necessary for both of us to deepen our mutual understanding. It's not too late to make a decision after coming to know each other better, right?"

Her opinion was fair enough.

But when I looked back at what had happened so far, I didn't feel like believing her words blindly.

I peeked into Tsukimori's eyes.

What was she thinking?

She did not avoid my glance in the slightest. In her big, almond-shaped eyes I could clearly see my own reflection.

It was I who gave in at last. I released her from my gaze and mounted my bicycle.

"—Get on."

"Thank you!"

I heard her cheerful voice.

After she had gotten on the carrier, I took off. She was light, just as she had said herself.

"Promise me that you won't do anything that would bring me into focus anymore like today."

"I'll do my best."

"No, not just your best, promise it."

"Nonomiya-kun, the wind feels so pleasant. Riding a bicycle together is even better than I thought."

I spotted our reflection in a street mirror. Tsukimori was holding her skirt down with her right hand, wrapping her left arm around me, and smiling dazzlingly while watching the town's scenery passing us by.

Completely unable to complain any more to a girl who entrusted her body to me, I just answered: "...Lucky you."

I kept on riding the bike while channeling all my unvoiced discontent and displeasure into pushing the pedals.

Be it because of envy or jealousy, I sensed some intensive gazes from other students on their way home. It was clear whose fault it was since I had never experienced anything of this kind when cycling alone.

I was riding a bicycle with ''Youko Tsukimori'' on the back.

This was one of those sweet moments that are worthy of being called a memory of adolescence. I, in the midst of this period of life, was probably supposed to pride myself on such an event that anyone would envy me for.

To tell the truth, I was proud enough to have a certain sense of superiority, believing that there was no one else who had something as noble as her on his carrier.

Well, this only lasted for the short while during which I forgot about her troublesome personality and the murder recipe.

During the following hours I would definitely turn into her toy, so I needed to be emotionally prepared.

I had accepted Tsukimori's request. The reason was simple: I was interested in her.

Apart from that, call it a property　of mine or just a preference: I enjoyed these thrilling conversations with her.

I changed into my waiter uniform in the staff room; I put on narrow black slacks, did up the buttons of my white shirt and the black vest above, slipped into a pair of wing tip leather shoes and lastly I wound a rather long apron around my hips. After checking my appearance in front of the mirror, just to be sure, I headed to the kitchen.

The instant I entered the kitchen, my nose was tickled by the aromatic fragrance of coffee beans—a smell I was fond of.

The reason why I had chosen to work in this British-style café "Victoria" was, as a matter of fact, because the best coffee in the vicinity was served here.

Upon spotting me, my colleagues greeted me.

"Mister Kujirai?" I addressed the broad back of a man who was grinding coffee with a hand mill. The sturdy bespectacled addressee turned around with a warm smile. I continued, "I would be in charge of waiting the tables today, but may I change to the kitchen staff?"

"What's the matter?"

"It's a personal one, I'm afraid, but to tell the truth, a classmate of mine has come today."

"Eh? Why would you want to change your post then?"

"Well, I wouldn't be able to keep my classmate company. And besides, isn't it quite embarrassing to be watched while working?"

As if I would let her watch! I knew that my resistance was childish, but this was my last stand after having failed miserably at turning her down.

There was someone apart from the shop manager who reacted sharply to my words.

"Hey, Nonomiya! Is it a guy or a gal?" asked a woman who was clothed like a pastry cook and was putting some fruit on a parfait right beside me. "If it's a guy I'll switch with you. As long as he's my type, of course!"

The whole staff grimaced as if they had taken bitter medicine when they realized that Mirai-san's ''bad habit'' had appeared again.

Her full name was Mirai Samejima. Mirai-san was the oldest face among the people at Victoria, and even the manager took his hat off to her.

According to her, she was still in university, but looking at how she behaved more important than the manager on some days—no, make that "everyday"—she gave me the impression of being older than that.

[[Image:Gekkou-075.jpg|thumb]]

"Sorry to let you down, Mirai-san: it's a girl!"

"Hmph. Well, the fact that you brought a gal along gets me interested just as much."

With skillful movements Mirai-san quickly finished the parfait and, after throwing a piece of block chocolate into her mouth, tripped to the counter from where she had an overview of all the tables.

"Who is it? Come on, spill it."

She scowled over the counter into the shop while rolling the piece of chocolate in her mouth. The other staff members, too, didn't miss the chance and scanned the café from behind her.

I was hoping someone would remonstrate with them about their snoopy behavior, but even the one who was in the position to do so—the shop manager—was peeking with a face gleaming with curiosity.

Giving up, I admitted: "It's her," and pointed at Tsukimori who had taken a seat at the window and was sitting there like an unworldly, well-educated lady.

A cheer arose among the staff; the positive reaction of the guys was so blatant that I would have felt like an idiot if I had claimed that I had expected it.

"Damn! What a beauty! Way too good for you, Nonomiya, that's for sure!"

Mirai-san was apparently irritated with something and ran her iron fist into the pit of my stomach.

"...does anybody know why I deserve to be punched?"

My trembling question was only met with pitiful glances.

"You always act as if you didn't care two figs about love, but you do your thing in the background, huh, you sneaking lech!"

Apparently, Mirai-san mistook Tsukimori and me for lovers.

"...Mirai-chan and her new boyfriend haven't been getting along lately, you know," the manager whispered into my ear.

"So it's only a matter of time until they split up, I suppose?"

"...Probably," he nodded after backing off again.

Mirai-san could be categorized as pretty if she kept quiet. As a matter of fact, she was often approached by the other sex. However unfortunate, her looks were spoiled by her unyielding personality, which was also the reason why her relationships never lasted long. I knew of none, at least.

"Mhh!? Saruwatari!? Gotten all lovestruck or what?!"

"I-I haven't! I'm not lovestruck or anything!"

"Then you better stay that way!"

Today's sacrifice was Saruwatari-san. Mirai-san's sharp kick landed straight in his buttocks.

At times when she didn't get along with her boyfriend or when she broke up with one, her mood would take a free fall.

And we at Victoria just called that ill-humored Mirai-san "the beast". Unfortunately though, there was no hero in disguise at our café. As soon as the beast went berserk, there was no solution but to weather the storm.

"Mister Kujirai, I'm off waiting the tables."

"O-Okay, good luck."

Discretion is the better part of valor after all.

The kitchen resounded with the cries of the poor man who had become the prey of the beast.

Our café was not too big: there were eight tables and six counter seats. The staff consisted of a total of 5 people, two of which attended the customers while the others worked in the kitchen. But I very much liked that relaxed and comfortable atmosphere.

The mood of this British-style café was supported by appropriate antique tables and chairs. The various well-chosen decorations were apparently selected by the manager's British wife. Apropos, the name of the café was taken from his wife's first name.

With Victoria being located on the first floor of a multi-tenant building near the station and having an interior that should please the fairer sex, there were comparatively many young women like office ladies or college students.

When I came to take her order, Tsukimori scrutinized me from head to toe.

"Your garçon outfit looks handsome."

"Waiter" would have been the proper way to address the staff here, considering that it was designed in a British style, but "garçon" is apparently more common here in Japan.

Since I judged it to be too much a trifle to correct, I only thanked her casually with a smile, "Thanks," and added, "and a café goes well with you."

Tsukimori smiled back at me and replied "Thank you."

I was quite honest. A beautiful girl in a café always makes for a good picture.

"The staff are quite lively, aren't they?"

She moved her gaze towards the kitchen.

"You could hear the commotion from here? That sure is a problem for a shop in the service industry."

I placed a glass of water and a wet towel on the table.

"But it looks fun."

"I wonder about that; some even start crying once in a while. At any rate, I have confidence in our coffee. And none of our dishes are half bad."

"I see. I would like a cup of that good coffee then. And please add your recommended confectionery to the order."

"Then how about our recommended blend plus the owner's hand-made apple pie?"

Since Tsukimori nodded, I bowed respectfully and said "Certainly."

I forwarded the order to the kitchen staff.

"You sure are an unfriendly guy."

Mirai-san was there making a frown instead of food.

"You think so? Actually I am trying to be more amiable when I attend guests, though."

"When does that happen? To me, there's no difference. Seriously, what does she like about a guy like you?"

Her eyebrow raised, she sceptically mustered Tsukimori.

"I forgot to mention, but she is not my girlfriend."

"She isn't?"

"No. Just a classmate."

"Then tell me what a beauty and mere classmate wants from you."

"It's not me, it's the café. Apparently she is a fan of cafés."

Since there was no merit at all in telling her the truth, I just made something up.

"That's all? Boring."

"As always, you are so self-centered it's almost refreshing. I'm dead sure you would have been irritated even if she was my lover."

"It's refreshing because I'm honest! To begin with, I think there must be something wrong with those that are delighted about other people's happiness. Every one of them is either a hypocrite or just scheming something."

"A lovely opinion loaded with prejudice, I have to say."

I wasn't as dismissive as I may have appeared, though. In fact, in my mind I even had to agree with her–is it because of that warped personality of mine?

I felt inclined to ask her, who was "honest" by her own judgment and "erratic" by everyone else's, for her opinion regarding a certain question.

"Mirai-san, may I ask you something?"

"Mh? What is it?"

"What do you think about someone who doesn't grieve over their misfortune?"

"Sounds fishy to me," she answered quick as a shot. "Misfortunes are called that because you they make you sad, right? If you don't get sad, then you can't call it a misfortune."

"I see," this time I actually put my agreement into words.

I darted a sidelong glance at Tsukimori.

Tired of waiting or just interested in the café's decoration, she was looking around the shop. Apparently, the white ceramic cat and black glass cat set was to her liking; she stood up and examined it up close.

Who in this café would have guessed that she was in fact a hapless girl who had lost her father only recently?

I reckoned nobody.

One could never observe a stirring of extreme emotions in her. She would always appear calm and mature.

I didn't know whether she purposely controlled her feelings or just simply wasn't the type of person to show them, but she didn't look sad ''at all'' to me.

Of course, it wasn't unthinkable that she just didn't want to unsettle the people around her and was thus desperately hiding her sadness. Or that might actually be the normal reaction of a girl after such a mishap. After all, the deceased wouldn't return, and mourning forever can't be called very healthy either.

But those are just pieces of theory. Is it really possible to deal with one's feelings in such a short time? Especially if it's sadness?

I recalled Mirai-san's words.

Indeed. It seemed fishy.

The dessert was able to satisfy Tsukimori's tastes.

"It's delicious," she praised while happily finishing up her coffee and apple pie without leaving anything over.

I headed to her table to clear up.

"Has everything been to your liking?" I asked, whereupon Tsukimori darted a discontented glance at me.

"Are you telling me to leave?"

"I see you are quick on the uptake."

"I really like this café."

She flashed a smile as if she would start to hum any moment.

"Aha. Pleased to hear that. But don't forget that there are lots of different cafés in the world. You ought to try them out as well."

"I really like this café," repeated Tsukimori with exactly the same smile and exactly the same words.

"I see sometimes you aren't quick on the uptake," I mostly repeated myself as well.

Suddenly Tsukimori stood up and walked further into the shop, apparently towards the kitchen. When I followed in wonder, she was giving the staff a natural greeting and smiling like a blooming flower.

"Pleased to meet you."

It was obvious at a glance that her rosy greeting got the staff flustered. Apparently all of them were quite excited about her. Well, except for Mirai-san who remained unimpressed.

"I am Youko Tsukimori, a classmate of Nonomiya-kun's," she introduced herself with polite manners.

"Ah, yes, Nonomiya-kun told us," answered the manager respectfully despite being way older than her.

"I have to say this is such an adorable little café."

"Thank you very much!"

The manager blushed slightly, moved by her radiant smile.

"I am so jealous of everyone—"

The staff looked at her in surprise. A girl, who seemed to have anything one could be jealous of, was jealous of them.

"—Because you have the privilege to work at such a wonderful café."

Youko Tsukimori looked plainly stunning, set aflame in the twilight.  Although that was probably due to the backlight from the sunset. In that very moment, everyone was fascinated by her exceptional aura.

"I can't even imagine what bliss it would be to work at such a wonderful place."

Being the person in this room that had the most resistance against her, I smiled wryly at her star-like attitude. I also found that she had gone over the top with that exorbitant exaggeration.

However, the manager's next words erased the smile on my lips.

"...um, Tsukimori-san, you said?"

"Yes."

"Would you like to work here?"

"Mister Kujirai—"

I couldn't keep silent. I wanted to keep him from committing a grave mistake. Faust, you are bargaining with Mephistopheles!

However, someone seized my shoulder and held me back. The smell of chocolate was in the air.

"Just watch," Mirai-san said with a mischievous smile. Here we had another devil.

"Err, actually, there is a vacant post at the moment. And since you are Nonomiya-kun's classmate, we don't have to worry about your background. So, if you'd like, we would gladly welcome you, Tsukimori-san."

The other staff members nodded their heads in agreement, too.

It was just like group hypnosis. They must have been mesmerized by the devil and lost their minds.

"I am really happy about your offer, but... can you really make do with me? To tell you the truth, I have never worked anywhere before," answered Tsukimori hesitatingly after wavering for a short while.

"No no, don't worry! Everyone has to begin somewhere. Besides, I'm positive that you, as someone with outstanding manners, are suited for this kind of business!"

Sure, her acceptance among the customers would be outstanding! They can only see her superficial side after all.

"I'll gladly accept your offer then if you have so much confidence in me," replied Tsukimori with a bright smile.

Everyone welcomed her warmly with a smile as well. I was the only one who made a sour face, while feeling awfully removed from that ring of blessings.

Because I knew better.

I knew that a bold and determined character lurked beneath her surface, which showed only a beautiful girl of excellent character who was thus loved by everyone.

To make things worse, bright Tsukimori was well aware of her own attractiveness. And just now I had learned that she also knew how to use it correctly.

"Why are men just so weak against pretty girls?" whispered Mirai-san into my ear after she had pulled me by the shoulder, the counter between us.

"A good question. After all, the guys in this café are all 'weak' against you as well," I answered casually.

"It feels just wrong when you're giving compliments. But it's no bad feeling. Let me pet your head as a reward."

Mirai-san's palm approached my head, but I refused gloomily. "I'm not in the mood. Please don't confuse me any further."

"No need to be reserved! If you want, I may even give you one piece of my chocolate?"

"Are you okay with it? Aren't you against the employment of Tsukimori?"

"You want me to object, don't you?"

"Well, only your objection would be able to put an end to this welcoming mood."

"Can't be bothered. There's no reason to object."

"Why?"

I was surprised that Mirai-san would allow such a farce.

"Because it's damn funny to see you protest so blatantly when you usually act so cold!!"

Mirai-san cackled.

"...you do realize how awful your personality is?"

"You're worse off than I am, right? If my intuition doesn't fail me, Tsukimori isn't the type of woman a helpless guy like you could handle."

"Doesn't bother me. I don't plan on making a move on her."

"''You'' may think so, but what about her?"

Mirai-san narrowed her eyes and peeked searchingly into my face from close up.

"No use punching me, for your information."

"Yeah yeah. Looking forward to the next few days."

Without caring about my strong rebuff, Mirai-san waved her hand and toddled back into the kitchen.

It felt like it was just a matter of time until she would get wind of our odd relationship—a woman's intuition?

I told myself that I had to make sure Tsukimori wouldn't say any unnecessary things to Mirai-san.

"I work here now."

The girl in question, Tsukimori, approached me merrily in spite of all the headaches she was causing me.

"It's still not too late. Won't you think it over again?"

My reply was cold, but my heart was colder.

"Thank you for worrying about me. But since the manager was so kind to offer me this position, I will try my best!"

She cutely clenched her fist, full of confidence.

"I'm not worrying. I am bothered."

"I am looking forward to working with you, colleague."

Tsukimori's smile hadn't cracked even once.

Mirai-san had mentioned that I was not someone who could handle her.

I found myself right in the course of experiencing just how spot-on she was.

The next morning in the classroom.

All of a sudden, Tsukimori came to my desk and said with a smile as warm as sunbeams shining through the leaves of a tree and a voice as soft as a gentle summer breeze to Usami:

"I have been employed at the café Nonomiya-kun works at."

Time stopped in the noisy classroom. At least, Usami did—like a clock whose battery had run dry.

"...eh? Youko-san? You work together with Nonomiya? Why? Eeh?"

Her bewilderment made her look like one of those automatons that jump out of striking clocks every hour.

It was like a déja-vu of yesterday.

"The shop manager asked me to help them out because there was a shortage of staff. I am a little anxious because, well, I have never worked anywhere before. But the manager assured me that I will be fine," explained Tsukimori unaffectedly.

"You should talk! ...You're the one who made him say that."

It was me, naturally, who spit out those words in a volume no one could perceive.

"Maybe I should join you..."

"Don't skip your club. You have to do your best and become a regular player." I was able to predict the direction this conversation would take, so I put a stop to it in advance.

"Why don't you stop by this weekend, Chizuru? I may not be able to keep you company since there's still a lot I have to learn, but there's still Nonomiya-kun. Right, Nonomiya-kun?"

I glared at her smiling face for the brink of a second. She tilted her head slightly, asking "Hm?" and retaining her unbreakable smile.

"Yeah, you're always welcome in our café, Usami."

I swore to myself to complain to Tsukimori afterward.

"Okay! I'll drop by! I'll definitely drop by!"

Usami rejoiced grandly, her eyes sparkling. Her straightforward reaction made a good deal of my gloomy mood just flow away.

But there was a serious problem. Judging from the looks of my classmates, it was obvious that they would raid the café this weekend. And this time it seemed quite difficult to stop them.

"Listen up, everyone! Nonomiya is giving us some explanations!!"

Kamogawa came clapping me on the shoulder with a disgustingly gentle smile. Behind him stood a group of guys with the same disgusting smile on their faces. It was the guys-alliance, and they demanded justice from the one who had stolen the march from them. 

It was sickening.

"I am so going to protest to Tsukimori," I swore determinedly.

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Confession|Confession]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Bitter Chocolate|Bitter Chocolate]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Gekkou:Volume 1 Murder Recipe

2013-04-11T18:01:35Z

BladeUnderHeart:

==[Murder Recipe]==

There was no day I’d miss hearing that name.

“Tsukimori is so lovely…,” muttered my classmate Kamogawa, sighing, upon which the other male students around him nodded deeply.

“Listen guys: don’t let that slender body deceive you! Got me? She’s also got…boobs!”

Their insolent gazes were focused on the girl in debate, Tsukimori, who was surrounded by a group of chattering girls. If I were to describe Youko Tsukimori in one word: she was eye-catching.

“Don’t you agree Nonomiya?”

“If you say so.”

“Wow, now that’s a cold reply! Are you really a man? If there’s a mountain, climb it! If there’s a beautiful chick, fall for her! Isn’t that what it means to be a man?”

The guys, led by Kamogawa, began to show over-exaggerated reactions to my indifferent answer.

“Well, I just thought she’s perfect.”

She had a beautiful face, supplemented by a nice figure and outstanding grades. Her pleasing personality made her rather popular. Apparently, she was also good in sports. Youko Tsukimori seemed to be a perfect girl without anything to complain about.

“How’s that bad?”

“I never said it’s bad. It’s just that I can’t relax around her.”

“Aah, that’s true. Tsukimori is a girl beyond our reach after all…”

Fortunately, Kamogawa interpreted my statement to his convenience.

My honest impression was that she was so perfect it was boring and being around her would be suffocating. Maybe it’s just that my personality is a little warped, but I’ve secretly been keeping a distance from Tsukimori because I couldn’t discover a common ground between us.

However, the guys seemed to be highly interested in the famous girl and started discussing rumors about Tsukimori as if they were gossiping about some star.

“But I heard she has a boyfriend in college?”

“Student ‘K’, was it? That guy who’s three years older than her?”

“Eh? I heard she was the lover of a company president…”

“Aah, so that’s why she gets ¥200,000 in allowance every month?”

“No kidding! But I heard someone spotted her together with math teacher Kumada when they came out of a love hotel!”

There was no need for a metaphor anymore—she really was a star. I once more realized how special she was.

But then again, she might not have been happy about that special status. At least I wouldn’t be able to stand it.

“It’s all just rumors without any credibility whatsoever.”

A short laugh escaped my mouth because they were discussing this stuff all too seriously and energetically.

“Why don’t you just ask her directly?” Therefore, I confronted them with that question. Just for fun. And as expected, my idea was rejected with vigor close to booing.

“As if we could ask her something like that!!”

Because I was so amused by their reaction, I spurred them on a little more. “If you want, I can go ask as the representative of the class?”

“Wait wait wait!! Nonomiya! Don’t rush things! What are we gonna do if the rumors turned out to be true?” Kamogawa rebuked me in a hurry.

“Maybe they really are just rumors?”

“But maybe it’s all true!”

The other guys nodded in agreement to Kamogawa, “Possible. If it’s Tsukimori, very possible!”

Sure enough Youko Tsukimori stood out in this class. You could even say she was of a different nature. No wonder everyone was under the impression that she had already experienced a world unbeknownst to high school students; considering that she acted so maturely it was hard to believe that she was our age.

“The truth is hidden in the dark, huh?” Whatever that truth might have been, I could take it easy since I wouldn’t be hurt by it like Kamogawa and the others.

“The truth isn’t always what’s best, is it?” But it looked like they couldn’t take it as easily since the truth would bother them much more.

“Don’t you find this unproductive? If you keep your eyes averted from the truth, you won’t ever be able to obtain what you seek!”

“We don’t care! A couple of days ago, some idiot confessed to her and got harshly rejected. If you carelessly try to reach out for something on a different level, you’re only going to fall down and hurt yourself. I prefer the ideal over the truth! You could even say we want Tsukimori to remain the source of our fantasies for all eternity.”

I was so amazed at this bunch that I could only laugh. “Adolescence is wonderful, isn’t it?”

“Hey, we’re seventeen! Leave us our dreams!”

Apparently I wasn’t supposed to laugh.

“I shall not bother you anymore if you all insist.”

“We do, we do! Don’t crush the dreams of us delicate boys.”

“You mean ‘impure high school boys’.”

“Who is our dear Nonomiya fond of then? No celebrities allowed, by the way.”

Kamogawa launched an unexpected counterattack. The other guys, too, jumped at the chance and closed ranks by leaning forward and urging, “Tell us! Tell us!”

“Well, let’s see—”

To tell the truth, there was no girl who I could have mentioned specifically, but looking at the situation I didn’t believe those impure high school boys would content themselves with that.

“—I think Usami’s cute.”

I merely spoke out the first name that came to mind right then, but they all seemed rather disappointed and made awkward faces.

“How unthrilling. It couldn’t get any more ordinary, could it? You’re so boring,” complained Kamogawa.

“So you claim that it’s ''not'' ordinary to feel attracted to Tsukimori?”

“I admit she’s also an ordinary target, but her quality, so to speak, is on a whole different level from Usami’s! If Usami was orange juice, Tsukimori would be wine.”

“Then don’t you agree that orange juice suits us minors?”

“No, you idiot, you don’t get it. I’m talking about the, um, well, that certain appeal of alcohol because you actually shouldn’t drink it, you know? Like, you’re curious about the forbidden world that opens there and…are you following me?”

“I certainly know what you mean. But ''I'' still like orange juice. Don’t you?”

“Um, well, sure, I like orange juice too, but…”

Kamogawa’s guys-alliance grumbled and contorted their faces. 

While Tsukimori was an exceptional girl indeed, Usami was very charming, too — for an ordinary girl. Their reaction originated from not wanting to admit that I was right while being unable to deny it.

Feeling like the winner, I said, “Let’s toast with some orange juice and wine, then.”

You could say I tasted the “splendid wine of victory.”

“You’re a pretty damn devious guy, you know that?”

“Thank you.”

“I ain’t praising you.”

Kamogawa was still a little sour, but I had succeeded in getting the air out of him.

“—Hey, boys! Get back to your seats! Afternoon classes are starting!”

Driven by this sudden voice, the guys turned their eyes towards the clock at once. They reacted that sensitively because the warning came from the girl they were just talking about.

“She’s right. Let's follow the advice of Orange Juice and wait at our seats,” said Kamogawa, whereupon everyone returned to their respective desks.

“Orange Juice…?” wondered Orange Juice a.k.a. Chizuru Usami and tilted her round head. “…I bet you’ve been talking bad about me or something, haven’t you?”

Usami, sitting beside me, pursed her lips.

“We were merely talking about beverages.”

“That’s a lie. If a couple of boys gather, they talk about either perverted or idiotic stuff,” she claimed.

That was a fairly unfair preconception, I had to say. Unfortunately though, I couldn’t deny it.

“…what kind of tragic life have you gone through, Usami? I’ve just become quite worried about you.”

[[Image:Gekkou-017.jpg|thumb]]

“Don’t pity me, Nonomiya! Idiot. I’m normal! Your average high school girl!”

Usami always got all worked up in no time whenever I teased her. And once she was worked up, she was like a little animal — pretty amusing to watch, really.

“Listen, you should visit a hospital before it’s too late. If it’s too embarrassing to go alone, I can also accompany you there, but—”

“—I won’t! Stop looking at me with those commiserating eyes!”

She pushed my peeking head away with her palm: “Go away!”

“Rejoice, Usami. It seems Nonomiya is fond of orange juice!”

Kamogawa, who had been watching us, laughed with a face that made him seem like he’d only talk about perverted or idiotic stuff.

“Tell me already, what’s the thing with that orange jui—”

Usami swallowed her words mid-sentence. Our math teacher, Kumada, had entered the classroom.

The only sounds in the classroom were Kumada’s weak voice and the chalk hitting the blackboard.

Apparently our conversation was still bothering Usami; she kept stealing glances at me.

After some minutes had passed, she finally lost patience. She leaned her upper body a little towards me and whispered, “What was that about?”

“I’m trying to concentrate on the lesson, Usami-san,” I answered without removing my eyes from the blackboard.

“…don’t be mean~”

Because I kept silent, she started poking my side with her mechanical pencil. The tip pierced through the fabric of my uniform and stuck into my skin.

“Hey, that hurts.”

“Then don’t ignore me,” sulked Usami. “During lunch break, you boys were talking about Youko-san, weren’t you?”

“Oh, were we?”

“…you always try to slip off like this, Nonomiya. Actually, I know that you were gossiping about her!”

“You eavesdropped on us? I'm shocked.”

“That’s not it! I only heard Youko-san’s name by chance! Because you boys were talking so loudly!”

“Usami,” I called for her attention because Kumada had turned towards the class. She sat up in a hurry and pretended to be copying what was written on the blackboard.

After some moments of silence: “…Say, Nonomiya. You prefer girls like Youko-san too, don’t you?” muttered Usami while looking down at her notes.

I glanced towards the front right. Youko Tsukimori—the girl in question—stared charismatically at the blackboard. From the side her face looked intelligent, giving her a little of the feel of the anchorwoman from the news.

Sitting in the very middle of the room, her outstanding aura made it feel as though she were the heart of the classroom.

Indeed, she was someone special. Although I personally avoided excessive contact with her, I could very well comprehend why everyone seemed to adore her.

“—No, not particularly.”

I don’t like trouble, but I became interested in how Usami would react.

“Is that so?”

She made a smile, seeming somehow relieved.

“We discussed this allegory: if she were a beverage, Tsukimori would be wine.”

—What kind of reaction is she going to show me, I wonder?

“And, by the way, you’d be orange juice.”

Beside me I heard the sound of a pencil lead breaking.

“Ah yeah?”

Usami played with the pencil between her fingers, feigning indifference. However, I didn’t overlook that moment when her cheeks blushed.

After that Usami’s questioning stopped.

Her honest reaction had something that calmed my mind. I had only given her name back then to put them off, but perhaps I had actually revealed my true thoughts which I had been unaware of myself.

At least at that very moment I felt that I liked Usami.

“…by the way.”

I considered our conversation finished, but she still wanted to say something it seemed.

Usami whispered with a serious expression on her face, “I-I’m normal, you know? A normal girl! Not some strange girl like you assumed earlier! I don’t want to be misunderstood, okay?”

I accidentally smiled because of Usami's lovely words.

Her honesty was very comfortable to me—almost like tasting a glass of delicious orange juice.

I wished I could fall in love with her.

After the monthly class officers’ regular meeting I watched the female officer of my class leave in a hurry and strolled back to our classroom.

Having reached the empty room, I prepared myself to leave as well. As I was in no club, I had nothing to do at school anymore. What was left was going home and preparing for my part-time job.

When I stood up from my seat, I noticed a university notebook on the floor. I immediately noticed whom it belonged to. Its front page read “Youko Tsukimori”.

I looked around the room, but she wasn’t there. I decided to put it on her desk before leaving.

But just when I was about to do so, I registered a scrap of paper that peeked out from the notebook. I grasped the scrap, thinking nothing of it, and pulled it out.

“…now that’s unexpected,” I unintentionally let out.

It turned out to be a folded A4 report sheet. The caption written on it matched neither the Tsukimori everyone talked of nor my personal image of her.

After making sure nobody was watching, I stowed it away in my bag. I did so because I presumed it would take quite some time to read all of the tightly-written text.

You could say I succumbed to temptation.

No, at that very moment I felt not even a speck of guilt whatsoever. It was but pure curiosity.

I didn’t have anything against wine. To begin with, I couldn’t possibly judge without ever having taken a sip. It’s just that my attachment to the familiar drink won over my wariness of the unfamiliar one.

In short, I was interested in the wine everyone praised so highly.

“Alright, what kind of secret of our idol is going to come to light…?”

I left the classroom as I always did.

It was past 10 p.m. when I returned home after finishing my work at the café.

When I arrived there I had completely forgotten about the sheet. I had been looking forward to reading its contents, but the various stimuli at the café drove its existence into a corner of my memory.

I like to observe people. You might even call it my hobby.

Part of the reason why I chose to work at a café was surely that I simply like coffee, but more than that I found the different types of people you meet there interesting.

A young woman who always takes the same seat and just keeps gazing outside. A man in the prime of his life who changes the girl at his side each visit. The cooled-down relationship of a couple that had been deeply in love just half a year ago. And many more.

It was something that excited my imagination—a favorite pastime of mine.

In reality though, I was no different from Kamogawa and the others. I, too, was just an ordinary 17-year-old teenager. I did not want to know the truth. I simply wanted to enjoy wallowing in my fantasies.

I was in the middle of relaxing, taking a warm bath, when I remembered the sheet I had picked up after school.

With my body still warm I dove onto my bed and unfolded the paper. While holding myself back from hurrying things, I slowly glanced over the title.

“The Murder Recipe”

I felt like I was reading the mystery novel of some popular author. Maybe this was due to the title actually sounding like a novel’s.

A scrap of paper that appeared from the notebook of the person who was on everyone’s lips—Youko Tsukimori.

There seemed to be no end to the rumors dealing with her vivid love life, but her image still remained mostly irreproachable. She was by no means a girl the word “murder” would have suited.

Perhaps it was this fact that piqued my curiosity. Contrasts like this have a sort of magic to them that sucks you in—be it for the good or the bad.

My gaze skimmed over the text, completely absorbed by it. Faithful to its title “The Murder Recipe”, it introduced different ways of killing someone.

I noticed that parts of the text had been erased and corrected, indicating that the recipe had been revised several times. I could virtually sense the breath of the person who wrote down these rather messy characters. It had something vivid to it, so to speak.

While reading on, I discovered something that all of the approaches had in common.

The most important objective appeared to be eliminating the target without getting one’s own hands dirty. It was not a text written by a human who is fond of killing—who sets the act of killing as his highest objective.

“…is she really aiming to become a mystery author?”

These seemed exactly like tricks made for a mystery story. However, they were written rather clumsily and were far from perfect.

To present an example: there was one way of killing titled “The Feigned Traffic Accident Murder Recipe”. The content was most simple.

* On a road over a steep mountain pass.

* Disturb the driver somehow.

* Make him lose control of the steering wheel.

It was written in bullet points like this. Additional remarks like “Phone the driver in order to make him lose concentration?” or “Put some hindrance on the road?” were very sparsely added.

As can be seen, the grade of completion was very low. Maybe she was still in the stage of collecting together various ideas, trying to perfect it?

The risk was reduced to a minimum, but I didn’t think the plan was likely to succeed either. I could see she tried, but this was one weak plan if she was to really kill someone.

I dropped the murder recipe onto my desk.

Having had high expectations, the letdown was great. The all too childish contents of the recipe had killed my interest.

“This just spoiled my after-bath-bliss.”

After complaining aloud, I reached out for my bookshelf to remove the bad taste by reading a real mystery novel.

“…no, hold on a sec.”

However, I stopped my hand and started thinking. A new thought lifted my spirits to new heights again.

Who was the owner of this “Murder Recipe”?

It was Youko Tsukimori!

What if, purely hypothetically, she had written this because she seriously wanted to kill someone…? That thought made the clumsy text feel rather realistic at once.

Leaving aside the reason for now, there was a person whom Tsukimori wanted to die and she had desperately written a murder plan to make it happen.

''Tsukimori'' had! That perfect, stylish, beautiful, intelligent “Tsukimori” who was adored by everyone!

And she had edited such an immature murder plan over and over.

“…now, aren’t we cute?”

If this guess turned out to be true, I’d almost become a big fan of hers.

My imagination was put in motion. I started puzzling over all kinds of questions, like the person she wanted to kill, her potential motive and her hidden personality. I kept playing this game until the sky started to dawn in the east.

The next morning I went to school later than I usually did.

By the time I entered the classroom, most of my classmates were already present. Of course, Tsukimori was among them as well.

While walking to my seat, I secretly glanced at her. She was putting the things in her desk in order. At least to others it looked like such a perfectly normal action.

Not to me.

“Good morning, Tsukimori.” I greeted her as always.

She stopped peeking into her desk, tilted her head and looked at me while using her little finger to brush her elegant, long hair out of her face. “Good morning, Nonomiya-kun.”

She showed me her mature smile as always.

Usually, our conversation would have ended right there. We knew each other only well enough to exchange greetings.

“Are you looking for something?”

However, that morning I didn’t want to let it end there. My curiosity was vexing me, for I suspected that she might be searching for the “Murder Recipe”.

I intensively stared at her, not wanting to miss the slightest stir.

“No, I am just sorting my desk.”

Sadly, her smile was left unchanged.

I told her, “I see,” and headed to my own seat, while thinking to myself that reality was so boring compared to imagination.

“But…,” she suddenly called me from behind, “why did you think I was searching for something?”

I was desperate not to break into a broad smile.

It was a feeling as though prey had hopped readily into my trap. Whatever her sentiments were, I started getting in high spirits just from the expectation of some amusing developments.

“No, I’m afraid there’s no particular reason,” I turned around towards her, playing dumb. “But let me return that question: why do you ask?”

I decided to probe lightly.

“I had no particular reason, either.”

“I see.”

Before me was only her unchanged mature smile. I felt the desire to make that smile freeze, but I didn’t intend to get to the core just yet. I thought it was best to keep my trump card for the very end.

“But if…,” I began, “if you are troubled, feel free to ask me for help.”

“What’s the matter, Nonomiya-kun? I don’t remember you being this gentle?”

“I’m gentler than you believe, that’s for sure.”

“I beg your pardon. I’ll be sure to remember that then.”

“Of course the primary motivation would be getting a girl of outstanding popularity like you indebted to me, though.”

Tsukimori giggled.

“Thank you. I will directly consult you then, Nonomiya-kun, should I ever be troubled.”

Tsukimori smiled with her almond eyes half closed.

It didn’t look like she ''wasn’t'' scheming something. I won’t deny the influence of my wishful thinking on this assessment, though.

Our conversation ended because our class teacher, Ukai, had appeared in the classroom.

My mood was quite good that day. Kamogawa and his comrades were annoying when they came to question me about my conversation with Tsukimori in the following break, but I considered it a good harvest because I had discovered how thrilling and amusing it was to talk to her.

Well, it was just me savoring the thrill produced by my own fantasies, though.

Still, it was much better than a boring reality.

Without any progress or new information, my peaceful daily routine went on and, before I knew it, two weeks had passed since finding the murder recipe.

As there wasn’t anything to stir up my imagination, my excitement subsided and I was about to forget the very existence of the recipe.

Because I had kept holding back my trump card, the game had stopped slowly and quietly. It was a truly pathetic situation.

However, a change occurred all of a sudden.

Perhaps…the game had not even started yet.

I went to school as always, and the classroom was ever noisy. But Tsukimori was nowhere in sight. Her seat was empty.

I was puzzled, but the answer wasn’t long in coming.

“Hey, Nonomiya! Have you heard?”

It was Kamogawa.

“Can’t say I have.”

Of course I had no idea what he was talking about because his sentence lacked the object.

“Someone from Tsukimori’s family is dead.”

I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

“Who?” I asked while suppressing the arising excitement.

“Her dad, it seems. It was a traffic accident. Youko-san has my fullest sympathies…,” answered Usami with a sad face.

“Really, I feel sorry for her. To lose one’s father at this age, that’s…”

Unlike his usual behavior, even Kamogawa showed a mournful mien. That must be the normal reaction.

“…Indeed. Let’s all support her.”

However, I harbored different emotions from the others. Youko Tsukimori, traffic accident, death—these keywords led me straight to the murder recipe.

I desperately suppressed the grin that was about to flash over my face.

''It’s getting interesting.''

<noinclude>
{{GekkouNavbar
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Illustrations|Illustrations]]
| [[Gekkou:Volume 1 Live|Live]]
}}
</noinclude>

[[Category:Gekkou]]

Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1

2012-10-29T22:51:44Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Chapter 1==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 1===

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 020.jpg|thumb]]
Tada Banri was being dumped by a girl.

Because of the overly annoying noise coming from several guys at five in the afternoon at a Caffe Veloce, Banri was still off guard,

"But we only just started going out,"

"Yes, though being with Tada-kun is so much fun..."

"Therefore, from here on out would it be OK if we were just friends?"

Stating his request with a three lined conversation like that, he went quiet, hanging his head.

For no particular reason, he still had the wrapper from a straw in his right hand.

The wrapper swayed limply in the breeze from the air conditioner. His back bent, Banri inhaled the heavy smell of tobacco smoke into his lungs.

The non-smoking section existing in name only (can you call decorative plants a separation from the smoking section?); seated across the table from Banri was Kaga Kouko.

Earrings glittering on both her ears, her glamorous coral pink lips quietly closed, taking a sip of ice tea through her straw. She was opening her big eyes as if trying to peek at Banri's now fallen expression. Perhaps waiting for Banri to say something, her back straight, she put the glass in her hand down on a small tray.

Tada Banri, however, remained silent.

Getting uncomfortable after a bit, Kaga Kouko also dropped her gaze.

Several minutes passed by, idly. The two of them continued looking down at each other's hands.

I am the Banri from before, and I want to break into this awkward silence, saying "This is awful, hold on, do something please!", but there is nothing I can do.

And now, even such a prepared request, because this guy cannot deal with it emotionally! When little situations arise, his mind goes to pieces, because he can never see the world before his eyes! Or rather, he returned from Shizuoka a little bit ago, having seen what was back home, and from that, ---what a mess. I would shout, but nobody would hear me.

Because I know that, I am sitting quietly on a seat behind and to the side of Banri.

As it is, nobody hears my voice any more. Nobody sees my body. Nobody knows of my existence. Because I, am dead.

To put it simply, I've become a ghost.

Wandering about without a body as a ghost, I drift about like this, always near Banri's side.

...That shouldn't be all that difficult for a living human being to believe. But as for me, while I was living, I hadn't believed in the existence of ghosts. From my own experience, I've gained an alternate view of the world. Even now I know nothing about the existence of UFOs. Neither do I know anything about the continent of Mu<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(lost_continent)</ref>. Nor do I know anything about sea serpents nor the Loch Ness Monster. Nor about ESP. But one thing I do know about: the existence of ghosts.

While I was alive, my name was Tada Banri. I was Tada Banri. From the time I was born for eighteen years, I existed as Tada Banri.

In the spring of my eighteenth year, I fell from a bridge into a river. At that moment, I fell out of my body, so to speak, and I, the Tada Banri that was, was left behind as a soul without a body.

On the one hand, the Banri who'd lost his soul lived for a time as "The Memory Loss Boy", easily became a college student, and was now even being dumped by a girl. Such were the circumstances in which we found ourselves.

Now, the living Tada Banri, his denimed rear situated on a narrow seat, bent over and vaguely pouting, eyes glazed over, breathing the smoky air, wordlessly sipped slowly on his iced café latte.

Surely, inside, he was a wreck---.

Reaching from behind and to the side, I move my hand towards Banri's shoulder. I pat his shoulder, telling him to calm down. To my hand, it definitely feels like a living body. But Banri doesn't feel my touch. Not even noticing my existence, not even a blink of uncertainty. He might not have even noticed, but he was grinding his teeth so hard they were creaking. Doing that, sooner or later the lower left wisdom tooth would get to bleeding and hurting.

A forgotten storm blowing through Banri's heart, I suddenly understood the reason why. I even think, if there were anything I could do, I would cheer him up. I know what Banri wants to do, I want to answer him. But, whatever words I use, this voice never reaches Banri's ears. There is nothing more I can do.

The culprit in putting Banri into his state of confusion: Linda--- no, am I wrong? There isn't anybody else. It is this me.

Something Banri had seen a few hours before, on a short trip home he'd made to Shizuoka... which, since he'd woken from his accident, had become sealed away in his high school graduation album. Stuck inside, how many pictures?

Records of when I was alive, in other words a record of Banri's unknown Banri, were stirring up Banri's heart.

And now, in front of Banri's eyes, the girl to whom he had just confessed yesterday was sitting. Several minutes ago she had shaken Banri cautiously,

"...Tada-kun?"

She said, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. "Well, what I had to say... did you hear?"

Abruptly, Banri lifted his face,

"Eh!? Y, yes!? I heard, but!?"

At that moment, with all his heart, he nodded ambiguously,

"Uwaa!"

He knocked his half-emptied glass of iced latte over, really hard. The glass fell to the floor and broke to bits, the loud noise echoing to the back of the shop. The other noisy customers suddenly all went quiet, looking over here. Without thinking, I covered my eyes too. Aah, he felt guilty... if a ghost in a ghostly way, could have caught the glass in mid-air... oh well.

Banri stood up in a hurry,

"Wow, wow, sorry sorry sorry! Excuse meee! I've spilled it! Excuse me, is everything OK!? I'm very sorry!"

While calling for the staff, turning in every direction and bowing his head, he lifted Kaga Kouko's bag from the floor where it had been to a chair, grabbed a bunch of napkins, and tried to contain the flow of latte that was turning into a small sea on the table. In spite of this, drops were staining Banri's bluejeans. Kaga Kouko put pocket tissues from her bag into the embankment too, but the seat and floor were getting to be sopping wet.

An employee with a mop and dustpan came quickly, gathered up the pieces of glass, restraining Banri by telling him "it's dangerous". Dropping his feeble butt into a seat, "Ahh, no more, no more...", Banri, rather upset, let his shoulders slump and sighed.

"What a careless person I am... already, sloppy, too crude, too indecisive... I mean, I'm really sorry Kaga-san, are you OK? Your clothing and such, it didn't get dirty?"

"I'm fine, nothing came this way."

"Your evidence bag? It didn't get wet?"

"Really, I'm fine, nothing, no-thing..."

So as to not interfere with the cleaning, the two of them half raised their feet, held for a brief moment in this pose by their abdominal muscles.

The unshaven mugs of his Jack Purcells, and the toes of her beautiful high heeled sandals, were lined up, nearly touching. The mop came up to my feet too, and I automatically raised my feet to the same pose. As if I could interfere with the cleanup not having a body, as if somehow these feet could get in the way of the employee in his careful mopping.

Banri, and the Kaga Kouko who dumped Banri, faced each other that way for a little while with their feet raised, their feet not touching, keeping their distance perfectly, the two of them alike, their eyes downcast and not saying anything.

The two of them blinked many times, as if they were in a competition against each other. They didn't look all that much like "good friends". Somehow even I felt uncomfortable, and we all looked downwards.

<center>* * *</center>

The first-period Chinese I lecture finished, their busy old Chinese lecturer left the small classroom and then the students followed, one by one, out into the dark corridor. Up to thirty people were allowed to enroll for the language lecture, and it just so happened that all of them were freshmen.

"Tada Banri, well done."

"You really stood out today. You did it."

Suddenly he had quite a few friends. People smiled when they passed by, lightly slapping Banri's shoulder.

Answering as needed with an "Oh", or an "Ah", he heard "Tada-kun well done!", "Super well done!", "Really, really good" ...this time, they were girls. The threesome was dressed almost, but not quite, alike in their showy hairstyle and clothing, and one by one they each waved at him, smiling. It seemed that suddenly his time had arrived! Guys and girls alike were entranced by Banri! So quickly he'd become the most popular in the Chinese class! But it wasn't that way at all. Even Banri understood that they were simply teasing him.

Half desperately, he was about to smile and say, "Especially well done!", and wave back to the girls,

"Banri, hey, don't bother."

Yanagisawa Mitsuo (whom he tended to call Yana-ssan rather than Yana), with whom he'd become close friends since they started college, was calling him.

"Ah, Yana-ssan... it looks like I'm already a mess."

Too exhausted even to smile in courtesy, Banri finally, slowly shoved his texts into his bag. Today's lecture was truly awful.

In the middle of the lecture, he was taken to task by the speaker for absentmindedly staring off into space. "Tada-kun, come to attention!" Trapped, he recited, "Maa, maa, maaa, maa!" ---He was forced to repeat the four basic tones of Mandarin Chinese to the point of going mad. And after that, as the rest of the students read their texts he got suspicious again, and "Tada-kun, Come to attention!" "Now!" "Be an example for everybody! Now!" "Maa, maa, maaaa, maa!" That was it.

Yanagisawa sat on the edge of his desk, waiting for Banri to get ready while,

"You are quite a mess. Ah, here's some chewing gum!"

He gladly collected the gum from where it had fallen, to one side of the desk.

"Such torture! I mean, already, from the very first period, I'm lost. Horribly defeated. Why do such things happen to me in particular? And the girls were giggling a lot..."

"Well, during that time of the 'Maa!'s, you made the most incredibly good face."

"A good face? You're kidding, what kind of face was I making?"

"This kind. 'Maa!'"

He made an imitation of Banri's face, suddenly opening his eyes wide while lowering his left shoulder quite a bit, and sucking his cheeks in furiously. Of course, in keeping with that awful mug,

"R, really? I made that kind of face? So I've become this department's number one funny face?"

Disconcerted, Banri pulled a mirror out of his pocket, and opening it looked at his own face while trying to say "Maa!" again. Not to where Mitsuo would see him doing it, but certainly modeling in three dimensions what he had a hard time imagining, he found himself more and more gloomy, wondering 'How many times have I shown this face to everybody else...?'

"Huh, what's that? That's sparkling something awful!"

While Mitsuo laughed, he wasn't pointing at his face, but rather at the incredibly flashy mirror in Banri's hand. For something a college male might have, it was too much, overly luxurious like something from Swarovski<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarovski</ref>.

"...Ah, you noticed, of course? Do you think it strange that I have it?"

"Do I think it strange? Well, I don't think it suits you. How'd you wind up with it?"

"It was given to me."

With a snap, he closed it and handed it over to Mitsuo. Turning it over to look at it, his simple good looks stiffened.

"...'Remember the anniversary of our escape! Your good friend, Kaga Kouko'...?"

Reading the message written on the back of the mirror with a permanent marker, Mitsuo looked at Banri's face. Once more he looked at the message, and then again at Banri's face.

"What's with this? This is awful."

"Ya... awful, or should I say... I'm not sure as to what she means."

Looking back and forth from the mirror to Banri's face repeatedly, Mitsuo hesitated to speak, looking doubtful. Well, it might even have been an act. As for Banri himself, he thought it quite strange to have something of his called "such a mirror".

"It's not like that, Yana-ssan. It's evidence of our friendship, Kaga-san and I, they're matching mirrors. In that way, of the time when Kaga-san and I became friends. ---That kind of thing."

"'That kind of thing'...?"

"It's merely a statement."

Taking back the hand mirror from Mitsuo, he held it gently in the palm of his hand, sparkling coolly. It was a declaration done as it should be. Kouko had pursued Mitsuo some ten odd years so far, and for now, Banri thought he ought to let others know about their entering into this new relationship as friends. He was thinking about what others must be saying, and thought it a good time to set things straight.

Mitsuo, his face was still pinched like a fox, was muttering things like "Declaration...?"

The mirror weighed heavily in his hand.

Chunky and rounded like a faba bean<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicia_faba</ref>, on the silver back in white Swarovski crystal an extravagant rose was depicted. Obviously expensive, completely feminine, it didn't suit Banri in the least.

The more he looked at it, the more truly difficult, incredibly complex and extremely hard to describe the feeling became. But Banri carried it around, stuffed in his pocket. He polished it every time fingerprints got on it, and he was careful how he used it.

Because Kouko had told him to do so.

"...Well, in short, it's because Kouko gave you that flashy mirror? To Banri? ...Because you'd become friends?"

"Yes"

"...When? How?"

"On Saturday"

His prominent brow frowning a bit, Mitsuo, still not fully satisfied, was asking with his expression for a continuation of Banri's answer. Banri searched a bit for the words, averting his gaze and looking out into space.

So--- that, what happened on Saturday.

Returning from Shizouka, Banri went by foot to meet up with Kouko. They went to the live house locker to get the stuff they'd forgotten, then to Caffe Veloce to drink tea, then she'd dumped him, they'd became friends, and then she'd given him this mirror.

If he were to tell it all, that was all there was to say.

But he didn't want to tell it straight to Mitsuo like that.

Because he wanted to hide the part about "being dumped" if he could. Mitsuo had dumped Kouko, who in truth had loved him, and in the evening of the same day (even more shamefully), Banri had confessed to her at once. But, she dumped him quickly, the very next day. It was too embarrassing to talk about, even if it was true.

And so,

"Kaga-san, like this you see, 'Well, Tada-kun, you've got some snot stuck on you', tossing her hair~, 'Try looking with this mirror', fluttering her eyelashes~, 'I'd like to give you that mirror, so you'll be able to take care of yourself the next time you get snot on your face.' We'll match, as proof of our friendship!', flashing her eyes...'. She gave it to me like that."

With a stupid joke, he lied.

He couldn't look over at Mitsuo. He had no idea what kind of face he was showing.

In reality, about this thing, she had said, 'In thanks for your having gone out with me to have fun, and in apology for having gotten drunk and caused you trouble. And, as proof of our friendship from now on', as if it were a blessing over the present. Apparently.

Written on the black paper bag in white letters was "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneys_New_York Barney's New York]".

From the neat and tidy appearance of the paper bag, it looked like it might be something high class, so Banri immediately raised both his hands in front of him. He made that gesture of refusal, and also said with his expression, "You needn't bother with getting such a present."

But, in what was practically a show of strength, Kouko had restrained him deftly. In front of him, her eyes glistening, she had said, 'I wanted to buy it for you, no matter what! Please! Accept it!'. Being asked so very beautifully, there was no way he could not receive it.

And then, encouraged to go ahead and remove the wrapping still on it, this beautiful hand-mirror with a rose design was revealed.

However you looked at it, it was a girlish thing, and very expensive. This time, for sure, Banri was seriously bewildered. It was a shock. How was such a slight, careless, round-faced, hunched over bumpkin to receive this sparking, shiny, gorgeous rose mirror, fit for a queen?

Besides, looking at it from his own point of view, even calling it proof of their friendship from now on was rather strange. In other words, this was a memento of his being dumped... he thought, was it a sort of consolation prize?

But, according to Kouko, 'It may not be Banri-like, but, no matter what I want you to make use of it! Because in this mirror there is meaning, an awful lot of meaning!' --- and so on.

Thinking back upon yesterday's give and take with Kouko was a bit late, and to no purpose, when right before him Mitsuo snorted, as if a little disgusted.

Banri somehow, timidly raised his face. At least, nothing worse was happening.

"...Where, when, was the snot?"

While comparing Banri and the mirror sidelong, Mitsuo's inquiring voice seemed really doubtful. Well then, first of all, shall we get on with this worthless piece of fiction? It feels like we're making a mountain out of a molehill.

He couldn't help but ask himself; after all, it was something only Banri, by himself, of his own accord, felt. Just a little. What of it?

Besides, he couldn't tell the whole truth, he was not under such an obligation. But, he thought, shouldn't he keep his relationship with Kouko entirely to himself? Perhaps? He might have been forgetting about how he was managing his relationship with Kouko.

In that case, remember you idiot! Surrendering himself to the growing opportunity,

"So, that wasn't what we said on Saturday! Take a look back at Friday. You gave Kaga-san quite the manly whack, didn't you? Hey, remember? In one fell swoop you chopped her down, didn't you? You said the two of you were no longer related to each other...!"

He even included a gesture as of swinging a sword downward from above.

Rather quiet and averting his eyes, Mitsuo responded with only a groan. He had thought that what he had just done was simply from ill temper, but,

"After that, Kaga-san and I went out to relax and to drink. From which, we went to the live house, and we forgot some stuff there---"

Abbreviate the middle part. ...Besides, he didn't think he was under any obligation to tell it fully.

"---Because of that, on Saturday, we went together to get it back. The stuff we forgot, that is. Then, when we were having tea, suddenly inside my nose there was Pettonton, the semi-transparent self-absorbed alien."

He stole a sidelong fleeting glance at Mitsuo's face.

Mitsuo gave a small nod, as if to say "that so?", but seeming to have realized that he had neither a reason nor the right to interrupt, his mouth was closed tightly and his eyes were still cast downwards.

Such was the state of the friend in front of him, Banri's chest finally ached a little bit for him. Compared with him, he didn't have any responsibilities. Didn't have any, but... his so-called conscience, was calling him scum. The stone somewhere in his chest didn't fall, in fact he could feel it dimly, caught somewhere.

What do I do? Though he was his very closest friend, speaking of events that had happened to you, but that he could not speak of frankly, wasn't an enjoyable situation. But, he didn't want to speak about what he didn't want to speak about.

"...To the live house. That Kouko, honestly. ...Something doesn't fit."

Mitsuo's voice was quiet, as if speaking to himself. Banri leaned his jaw a little off to the side, and stretched to enter his field of vision, combing up his bangs.

So it was. To the live house. We went. ...It's not a lie. Just a little short on the details.

Mitsuo, his lips crooked, appeared to be brooding, his right thumb rubbing his jaw, but his gaze was still fallen to his feet. What could he be thinking? Was he feeling the strain in the story due to the various omissions strangely made to it? Was he keeping silent because it wasn't his right to interfere with their business anymore?

A strange feeling lodged in his chest, there was one more thing he understood.

Banri's making omissions in his story to Mitsuo, that was not the matter for today.

That was nothing other than the matter of his loss of memory.

He didn't think the conversation was particularly necessary. As far as the nineteen year old human being called "Tada Banri" was concerned, who had lost all of his memories through his eighteenth year, and even he understood it to be a big event, insofar as his personality was concerned. He just wanted his friends to understand him. So, always, from the time they met, he sought the opportunity to talk about it. But that opportunity didn't quite arrive. Misunderstanding how he spoke, they always rejected him as a pitiful, if not sick person.

If the opportunity were to arise, he wondered what kind of thing he could honestly say. With regards to memory loss, with regards to Kouko even. About everything that happened on Saturday. If he wanted to talk to friends, everything.

But that was not now.

Understanding within himself that it was only an excuse, feeling suddenly the urge to do something so he wouldn't seem to have suddenly fallen silent, Banri opened the mirror again and carefully looked at the reflection of his nostrils. His nose was clean.

"Kaga-san really busted out something awful! Though about five times there she threw up."

To only use a cheerful voice, to talk like that was his plan. But, the pale thin face of a nineteen-year-old male reflected in the mirror, looked back at him faintly, more miserable than ever, less confident than ever.

"With Kouko as Banri's friend, at a live house, with boogers, with aliens, vomiting, eh...?"

Mitsuo stood up before Banri and walked away, as if he were confirming the words he'd said, opening the classroom door wearily.

"What a mess... I mean, of course you don't understand. ...Well, it has nothing to do with you anyway."

Suddenly changing course, Mitsuo turned around as he'd realized something. Standing in the dark windowless corridor, he looked straight back at Banri's face. Once more, seeing him like this from straight in front, Banri noted how really handsome Yana-ssan was, but,

"What do you mean, Banri? On Saturday, if you had only called, we could have talked about what you didn't understand. But there was neither voice mail nor text message all day. You ignored me, and went out to have fun with Kouko?"

"Eh... Though you're telling me so, well... that's the way it turned out."

"..."

With a sound awfully like a growl, Mitsuo's face finally darkened.

But Banri said, "Eh, kid? Wow, you're really bothered!", the moment Mitsuo's face became threatening, and he blinked as if coming to his senses, shook his head from side to side twice, and slapped his own cheek quite hard. The impact even made him stumble. The whole thing took only five seconds,

"Yana-ssan's fallen apart...!"

"I have not."

With a thud combing up his hair, Mitsuo looked back at Banri once more. And then,

"Nothing's broken. ...To put it simply, I am realizing that finally I am becoming just a bit human, clumsy and dim-witted."

Taking a small breath, he stopped talking.

The meaning of it was not well understood by Banri, but after a little bit, his voice replaced by something weak, not very masculine,

"...There are many things to think about. ...If you want to talk about such things a bit, like that stuff on Saturday, you can call me! But... oh well. Enough already. It's OK. It doesn't matter."

Having said something like that, as you might have expected this time, for sure, definite feelings of guilt crowded around Banri's chest.

In reality, many things had happened on Saturday, and if Mitsuo had called he'd entirely forgotten about til now. He may have ruined their friendship.

His hands full of his own problems, if there were any phone calls, or even any text messages, he ignored them. He didn't recall any texts on Sunday either. But of course, Banri was only thinking of his own problems, the whole time wrapped up in a blanket on his futon like a tuna-fish; he didn't remember about Mitsuo at all. He was only thinking of his own problems.

Unable to justify his own insensitivity,

"No, I'm sorry!"

He slapped his forehead trying to behave modestly.

"I even returned home for a bit, flailed about, and completely forgot to call you up! If it's all right with you, I can listen to your story now. Shall we go to the cafeteria or somewhere? I can skip second period easily enough."

And then, having been invited in all sincerity, in friendship to go and play truant, Mitsuo frowned and sadly shook his head from side to side.

"I can hardly be the one absent person, and... what about you, don't you have Civil Law I? Don't you have to be there?"

"I don't have to. Rather, what are you taking, Yana-ssan?"

"Logic"

"That's not a required course, why did you take it!? Is the lecture interesting or something?"

"Completely."

"Well then cut it out, Monday's second period let's go together to Civil Law! Maybe it'd be better to change to that way from now on. Registration still hasn't closed, has it? Which Civil Law class were you in at first?"

"Wednesday fifth period, somebody called Professor Tsukamoto."

"Fifth period! Tsuka who?! Why take such a little thing as civil law, nobody else took such a thing!"

"No, though the guys in the second period were decent... rather, I had already bought the textbook for Logic... $50... they change only the color of the binding from year to year, and I heard if you didn't show the professor your brand new textbook, he wouldn't accept you for the class..."

"So expensive! Garbage!"

"...But I wanted to take this period's Civil Law class, though. There was even going to be a famous speaker from television. But, look, I spotted Kouko in the first lecture. Because of that, I stopped and thought..."

Sighing once more, even more deeply, Mitsuo frowned. He muttered that up til now he had not needed to run this way and that to escape Kouko, and as he muttered, his backpack, which had been hoisted to one shoulder, slipped sneakily down to his elbow. As if he were overbalanced by a heavy bag, he wobbled on his feet. Banri, seeing that,

"Err, Yana-ssan, are you, like, feeling OK? ...You aren't a bit shook up?"

He looked again at his friend's face, carefully.

Perhaps it was due to his standing under the old fluorescent lights, but now that he thought about it, his color didn't look too good. On top of that, over just this weekend, had he somehow lost weight? Just a little.

It was spring. May. High season, so to speak, for student apathy. Entered in the university, starting to live alone, the change in lifestyle was big, cut off all at once from his childhood friends, and on top of that, he had said he'd had a fight with his parents. Living through this life, his spirits had fallen a bit, even if there was a bit of bad timing. He had the feeling Yanagisawa Mitsuo was depressed.

And then, just like a trigger,

"...Perhaps, if you wouldn't mind much? The matter of having dumped Kaga-san."

His head still hanging, Mitsuo answered him nothing.

If he was guessing correctly, taking the opportunity to remind of what had happened before, in attitude or speech, was hardly the right thing to do right now. Mitsuo’s dark face looking up at him made Banri practically jump, and finally, in a panic, he followed along inside.

"Bu, but I thought the Yana-ssan of the time was very 'manly'! Besides, Kaga-san would be OK! Understanding your feelings, she can get back on her own two feet! She’s a wonderfully strong person!"

But,

"...That may be. Very much so. Right away, she went to a fun live house. Very much so..."

As soon as he raised his face, Mitsuo glared sharply in reproach, growling at him. But if he didn't follow him, it might make the situation worse. Banri hurried, but Mitsuo however suddenly went quiet, in the end slapping himself on the face twice. Oh! If Banri didn't go inside, then without a doubt he was going to do it again. And so, lowering his face, he bowed down, as if chanting a prayer to a some sinister pagan god.

"I thought that if I could separate myself from Kouko, everything would get better... Despite that, Kouko came to the same university as me... I thought that after all, nothing had changed... Because of Kouko, it was coming to nothing... I thought that if I rejected her clearly, all would be well... That's why it happened... It was bad that I believed it was all Kouko's fault... But from the moment I dumped Kouko as if by sorcery the 'start of my shining life' suddenly ceased to exist, all it accomplished was to make Kouko cry, and moreover now, I'm coming to hear that Kouko's spirits are reviving. Strangely, I was even offending you. ...Ah, sorry... sorry sorry! To put it simply, I, I, I, I well, I was a jerk..."

"Ya, Yana-ssan, hold on..."

Brushing away Banri's unintentionally outstretched hand, Mitsuo looked towards the ceiling, his eyes vacantly staring off into space. And then groaning,

"...I've been incredibly insensitive... ...How should I put it? I've been a churl, or more bluntly, how to put it... a piece of crap...?"

Banri could no longer do anything more about the situation than watch over it.

"...Well then... the piece of crap is going to logic class... bye."

Mitsuo, still looking up at the ceiling, left alone, waving his hand toward Banri. With a strangely vacant gaze and voice. There was no way such a condition could be normal.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on!"

Banri unintentionally became like [[Golden Time:Volume2_Translator%27s_Notes#The Touch|a certain comedy duo]] as he settled down and chased after that departing back.

"Yana-ssan, seriously, wait up! Err, well, let's walk to the classroom together!"

"...Huh? Why? It's right over there."

"No, but something... or rather, you're really going to not skip class!? Let's do it! Let's head for the cafeteria!"

"...My stomach isn't empty yet. I haven't missed attending yet."

"It's OK, logic class is no big deal! Or rather, if you flunk it, we can take it together next year! What's more, look, I... In truth I've got a bit of something I want to talk about. Recently a few things have happened, and I'm not sure I can resolve the situation on my own. I haven't explained things well recently, but really, I'm sorry for having ignored you on Saturday! So from now on it's time for some male bonding! Let's talk together, as thick as thieves!"

Suddenly, Mitsuo's feet stopped. Turning towards Banri, strangely quiet, he looked him in the eye.

"Various things happened? Like for example?"

"That, for example, well..."

Repeating once more, 'For example', Banri stopped moving entirely.

I did not explain things well, I left various things out of what I said, for example.

That he had noticed that Mitsuo had come to be the love of Kaga-san's life, for instance.

But she was rejected just like that, among other things.

Rather, what are such things as memory loss?

It looked like he dated Linda in the past he could not remember, for another. When he returned home, he had seen a photo of that, but the 'Linda' of now, revealing nothing, as his club senior doing well for him, yet another. What the heck all that meant, he did not know, and it was making an awful mess of him.

And so on.

"..."

---In the end, he couldn't say anything more.

Banri's mouth still half open, he cast his eyes down and went silent.

Not saying anything more, in front of his friend, he was quiet, unable to move.

Even though he was given the chance to talk, nothing was coming out, because he didn't know what would be OK to talk about. Or perhaps, as far as he was concerned, what the heck was going on, what was he thinking about it, what was he feeling about it? Inside himself, he came to realize that the very idea of talking with friends did not exist.

In short, like anybody else--- he thought of his own affairs as if they were events from a world far away.

These situations, happening all at once, were almost too chaotic; even one at a time he would have a hard time dealing with them.

One example, the matter of being dumped by Kouko, as a matter of fact, he couldn't speak of how much of a shock that was. Whether in pain and crying, or in misery and agony, he was unable to deal with such feelings, not individually. Though of course it was rather complicated for him, in reality, it didn't hurt that much. From now on, as a good friend... even saying such a thing, he didn't think that was a good idea.

With regards to Linda, even more so. To say nothing of what he was feeling, as it was he honestly did not know. What happened in the past he could not remember, beyond that, he could not understand what Linda was thinking. As for the fact that they used to go out together, why did she need to continue pretending not to know about it?

Still, "What might it be?" "What shall I do?" "I don't know." "Why might it be?" ...it was that, over and over again. No matter how many times he asked, there was simply nobody answering. Talking with himself was entirely useless.

"---I don't understand anything. I don't know. For me, really, I don't understand anything. I simply don't remember."

In some ways as if he were paralyzed; inside his head he was in a daze. Messing up his hair rather than scratching out his brain, trying to somehow wake himself up, this time his hand was stopped by Mitsuo.

"...It's OK, I understand. For the time being, both my heart and yours need some rest, it seems certain. Alright, let's go be overcharged fair and square."

<center>* * *</center>

Supporting each other's troubled hearts, binding as friends, they wobbled down the stairs, barely managing to arrive at the first floor student cafeteria.

Because until noon there was still space, there were a lot of seats. Here and there were people chattering yet, and students seeming to be taking a late breakfast seated here and there, beyond whom,

"...Whoa..."

Seeing it suddenly in his field of view, unconsciously Banri reared back. "What?", Mitsuo looked over towards where Banri was looking, noticed and groaned similarly. He stopped walking.

The school cafeteria was fading into a heavy yellowish shade, but that one person's appearance was shining too brightly, sparkling as if it's natural energy were radiating outwards.

As far as Banri was concerned, right now he still didn't know with what kind of face to greet this unknown person. For Mitsuo also, perhaps it was about the same as with Banri... or perhaps now it was difficult to face that person.

Shining glossy and bright, her long, deep brown hair was curled beautifully.

She had a deep, deep blue hairband with shining rhinestones affixed to it.

Her hair flowed straight down her slender back.

They understood even from behind that this was quite the beautiful woman, that hair, that style, the things she had, from her whole body shone forth an aura that said she wasn't an ordinary person.

Feeling their gaze perhaps, or maybe she heard the groans of the two guys,

"Ah..."

Turning back towards them, there was no mistaking her beautiful face.

On her carefully prepared, showy features, bright rose pink lips. They both gasped, so splendid was that beauty.

Dressed perfectly, with impeccable fashion and brand, Kaga Kouko was seated at a somewhat shabby table.

Banri and Mitsuo, and then Kouko's gaze, exchanged looks wordlessly. Each of them according to their circumstances, they were severally at loss for words. How many seconds did the awkward silence continue?

"W, well", Banri awkwardly tried to start the conversation. Morning, Kaga-san, how're you feeling? But look, Yana-ssan didn't make a greeting, neither did Kaga-san--- he set out to take the first step with the seeming tension, but,

"...Maa!"

As if struck by an arrow, Kouko stood up yet quicker.

From between her alluringly rose colored lips, her teeth flashed, pure white with a tinge of blue visible. Graceful like a dancing butterfly she spun around once, swinging her skirt.

"Maa! Maa! Maa!"

Both her hands were squeezed together tightly before her chest, in what was nearly a caricature of a surprised look.

Then, opening her hands suddenly, she slowly tilted her head to one side sharply, and before long from her surprised expression transformed into a wide open, extremely happy smile.

Her hips dropping into a straight, long stride, without batting an eyelash she stepped briskly up before Banri's eyes,

"You're Tada-kun, aren't you!"

He was very much Tada-kun, but--- that moment he was being hugged energetically. His protests ignored, she made as if to kiss him on both cheeks, not quite touching him.

Sh, she was a foreigner...

When Kouko let go of the still astonished Banri, he looked back at her happily laughing face. On top of that, this person was not normally a foreigner. When she was excited, she became one.

''Geh, take a look everybody! I got to meet my favorite grandfather after five thousand years buried in the rock on the other side of the world! And on top of that, Grandfather, you brought me as a present a diamond the size of a melon (you were planning two!?)! Sheer happiness!''

...Sort of, a warm welcoming excitement.

Despite having just been dumped the day before yesterday at Veloce, there was nothing in her gaze but Tada Banri.

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 049.jpg|thumb]]
Kouko stopped before Banri's nose, her smile brightened by happiness. Almost too close to him, Banri's field of vision was almost entirely blocked by Kouko's perfect smile. And then she clasped her hands before her chest. Arranging her feet modestly, she bent back a bit and turned her sparkling eyes upwards. Gazing worshipfully at Banri in a posture rather like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier Xavier],

"My good friend, Tada-kun...! Good morning!"

She was even misty-eyed.

"Because we met this way by chance in the morning, this will be a really good day! Hey, it was absolutely fated long ago that we would be the best of friends!"

She batted her long dark eyelashes adorably while she said that.

Still looking straight at Banri like that, she slowly shook her head from side to side with that smile on her face. She gave the appearance of "This warm feeling, welling up! Ah, I can't stand it anymore!"

"Oh..."

Somehow, his mouth opened.

Go for it! Do your best, Tada Banri!

"...Morning. ...Kaga-san"

As if in ecstasy from listening to Banri's greeting, Kouko moaned and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"That voice is Tada-kun's. That way of speaking. Incredible..."

Blood rushing to her head flushed her cheeks rosy and warm while, making a face as if she were getting to eat the chocolate of the century, soft and warm, her eyelids rising. You're amazing... but he couldn't say that, not at all.

"It reminds me of something I've missed... hey, our previous existence, have you thought about it? I have. I was the youngest novice sister in a monastery, and Tada-kun lived in the deep forest as a shepherd... that's what I believe. Every morning Tada-kun had to deliver cheese to us. Hey, isn't that incredibly romantic? Thank you, all my life I thank you, I'm thankful for this fate, that we've met this way twice now!"

"...Oo..."

Banri was filled with overflowing with a groan.

For some reason, somehow or other, this was way too much.

What about that excitement? This feeling of drama. Behaving like a foreigner. Let's be friends, she said, and in two days Kaga Kouko had gotten to this point.

And now Kouko was waiting for Banri's reaction. Eyes wide open, brilliantly sparkling, she silently gazed at her close friend Tada Banri.

What do I do, really—no, in truth. Not knowing what he should do, Banri for the moment, tried to put his hands to chest. Not Kouko's; to his own chest. And then, as if to be able to open his eyes the same way, he smiled with all his might, while gazing back at Kouko's sparkling eyes, trying to rock his head back and forth in the same way.

Apparently quite satisfied with how Banri was doing, Kouko, once more looking pleased, returned to swaying before him. Still without words, it was a little show of reflecting Xaviers, presented in male and female, so to speak.

Mitsuo exclaimed, "Scary...!", as if he could hardly stand it any longer, and covered his mouth with his hand. Banri only partially saw that he had jumped well back.

"Well, Mitsuo---"

Her swaying ceased, still standing before Banri's eyes, Kouko looked over towards Mitsuo.

As far as she was concerned, she loved Mitsuo. He was her formerly destined lover. From her point of view, though, he had separated himself from her destined scenario.

Banri unconsciously gasped.

What would come of Kouko's strange excitement in front of Mitsuo he could not tell. Facing him was her 'foreigner flavored suddenly fated friends mode', but... what should he do if she made a scene before Mitsuo? Carefully, he looked her over once more. For the time being, she didn't seem to be carrying any hidden weapons (not even a bouquet of roses).

She was wearing a white frilly blouse over a high-waisted, houndstooth checked one piece dress, black tights and black high-heeled, low rise boots. Because of the arrangement, changing immediately below the swell of her chest, it made her appear even more delicate and feminine. It was awfully nice to see.

Kouko turned about to face Mitsuo, the beautifully painted nails of the fingers of her left hand gently arranged, restraining the soft and full swelling out of the region of her heart.

"Mitsuo, you are just like a lonely hunter going out into the wilderness... your face seems like that..."

Eyes closed dreamily, she murmured softly and earnestly.

And then, her right hand extended elegantly, like a loving mother about to touch Mitsuo's cheek. Mitsuo pulled back at once. Kouko quickly drew closer, touching his face against his will. Because of the power in those fingers, trying to hold down that body twisting in revulsion, from an outsider's point of view, it was becoming like an iron claw hold, but,

"To be sent to a monastery to quietly pray my days away, perhaps should have been my destiny from the start..."

"Hugugu..."

That was enough for Kouko, apparently.

Looking down upon the captured face of Mitsuo, her eyelids, light pearl cross-hatched by eye-shadow, glittered as she wore a dramatically tragic look.

From an onlooker's point of view, looking at how the two of them appeared, Banri instinctively gasped. Well, for sure... I'm glad it didn't come down to bloodshed.

All of which meaning, with the end of this performance of the Kaga Kouko Theater, would things be OK for the time being?

Though you dumped me, Mitsuo, and hurt me too, I am being healed by the presence of my wonderful friend! While recovering, I'm tough and beautiful! Thank you, everybody, for the help you've given me! I'm feeling fine! --- Such was the essence of Kouko's theater, and it was, well, amusing. But what exactly were her real motives, what did she see in Yana-ssan's face; he didn't feel like asking such unromantic questions right here, right now.

Matching up with the demise of Mitsuo and Kouko's one act, he realized that somebody was giving direction, "Music, start". Surely that was a voice from heaven, as if the stage director for this world were speaking, and,

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_o_Torimodose!! You are such a shock!]"

Banri shouted with all his might.

Standing and facing Kouko and Mitsuo while walking slowly in a circle around them, assuming a pose, pointing his finger at them with a somehow evil face, as it were an emissary of the devil to liven up this ending. Nyahahahaha, nyahahahaahaa!

"You are such a shock!"

...In reality, he didn't know the lyrics very well. Derereredere, derereredereeredee, dereree... still, he used to know them! With the high-pitched voice he had held back, he would make their hair stand on end! Ready, set,

"In order to protect our love! You are taking off!"

"What!?"

The singing wasn't from Banri.

Surprised, he looked back. The stolen song's singing, five times higher than his limit, as high pitched as if he'd been impaled up his rear. He looked at the owner of that voice.

---He went as still as a stone.

"Soo, briiinngg back your looooveee<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

What he had thought to be a voice from heaven, ...was very much so. But it wasn't. He had not heard a voice from heaven, nor a stage director's voice.

It was Linda.

Course registration forms rolled up to look like a microphone at her mouth, in a pose of leaning against the seat at the corner of the table, she sang hotly at the top of her voice, echoing still, her fist shoved in the air,

"...Haven't you taste in songs, Tada Banri?"

Those hands were saying "Hi!" to Banri.

"Linda---"

His voice shook, and though it could be heard, it sounded as if it were from somewhere far away, like the underworld.

Hurriedly, he added the honorific "senpai".

Yes, this is the person, he thought in his heart.

This was absolutely the person in that picture he found at home, clinging to him, carrying on with him. It was this face. This was Hayashida Nana. Her white skin, her eyes. Moreover, her age. Above all, her name. There was no mistaking it. There was a one in ten thousand chance, not quite an impossibility, but it wasn't very likely.

"Err... good morning. Something... if you look at the condition of the guy with you, Kaga-san, the image of 'Champion of the last Century' simply doesn't come to mind..."

Kouko tilted her head to one side, as if to say 'What are you doing?'

Banri nodded in greeting to Linda once more, in a underclassman-like way, while absolutely convinced that this person was the one in the picture.

Linda knew his past. They were connected. And yet, she was hiding the past. She was acting as if Banri's past did not exist.

What the heck, why?

Continuing her assault on him despite Banri's embarrassment, the back of the chair supporting her stiffly, Linda gave a big stretch. Her face was smooth, without makeup, probably not even eyebrow pencil. Getting up, a long-sleeved layered T-shirt covering half-way down her fingers, she crossed her blue-jeaned legs.

"Nooww, stop teasing your friends and come back here, Kouko-chan. If we hurry up, we'll get done before we run out of time. As for me, I plan on skipping second period anyway."

She turned to face Kouko, making the course registration forms flutter. Seeing that, Kouko hurriedly turned aside, returning to the sit at the table across from Linda.

"Sorry for making you wait, I'm working, I'm working, let's get down to writing!"

On top of the table, other than some cups of stuff to drink, there was a huge schedule table, the size of a tatami mat, and syllabus booklets that were distributed when they entered the school. Various kinds of writing implements were scattered upon it. Banri and Mitsuo noticed it, wondering what it was.

"We're discussing Kouko-chan's schedule right now."

Smiling slightly, Linda explained for them.

"This girl had no idea what were the required classes. Her schedule was ridiculous. She's taken no language class, and she hasn't bought her book. Now there's hardly any class with room to get in... yes, and yet this year she’s only taking about 24 credits. Not enough."

Kouko, her lips a little tighter, let out a sweet and innocently apologetic laugh and shrugged her shoulders.

"But, but if I did well, then I could take just language mid-year, and then I'd have all my required credits, right?"

"You should. Maybe."

"Then it's perfect!"

"Not quite perfect. ...About halfway there?"

"Halfway there! Hooray!"

What senpai suggested was good, of course, and Kouko looked over the "halfway done" schedule form and gave a sigh. Finally, she scribbled something down on the registration forms with a silver ballpoint pen, and looked up with a sweet smile. Linda looked at it with a suddenly serious eye,

"What I mean is that lately, 'taking only 24 credits', isn't that rather dangerous? Getting thirty credits done wouldn’t be awfully unusual! Aah, one more thing for later: you're going to want to get into some four credit course... Tada Banri, are you set? You’ve registered for your classes?"

Unexpectedly, she was trying to get Banri involved.

"Uh", mumbled Banri, momentarily at a loss for words,

"Well, for the time being, though my registration is already done, ...ah, but this guy keeps getting me into trouble during some wonderful lectures."

Casually, Kouko tried to close the distance, raising her hand to Mitsuo's elbow, bringing them closer to looking like a couple.

"I call this guy Yana-ssan. Yana-ssan, this is Linda-senpai of Omaken. We are greatly indebted to her, as she saved our lives, Kaga-san's and mine. I mentioned her before."

"Ah, yes, that time these guys were in trouble," Mitsuo said, giving a small nod to Linda while she glanced at him, Banri quietly keeping his mouth shut. Restlessly, he scratched near his nose.

This was not what he really wanted to talk about.

Mitsuo's classes didn't matter at all... no, nothing mattered. What he wanted to talk to Linda about was something else.

But frankly, how to do it?

'Why are you pretending not to know me? Linda-senpai, you really do know me, don't you? I saw you in the yearbook! In photos too. We were really close, weren't we? You know I'd lost my memories? Though I don't remember anything of those times, why is it you haven't said a thing? You and I, until I lost my memories, we had a special relationship, didn't we? I would like at least one thing from your mouth, a clear answer: yes or no. As it is, continuing to pretend not to know me, how am I going to settle my mind?'

---Trying to think, he looked about ready to break out laughing.

But he just couldn't say it.

Even if the two of them were alone in this place, he wondered if he could speak of this at all.

Even the matter of the yearbook and the photos, let alone asking about their shared past, where they were specially close, he thought. There was nothing to deny. The answer was 'yes'. There was no other possibility.

And yet, Linda had to have some unknown reason for pretending to know nothing like this. Saying nothing to Banri, she was hiding something.

Banri was not so dimwitted as to repeat to himself over and over, "Hiding everything like that, why, why!? What should I do? Think, think!?", or maybe he was simpleminded. At least for now.

"Glad to meet you", good humouredly waving her hand, leaning against the back of her seat, Linda grinned at Mitsuo. "I'm Linda, Hayashida Linda", introducing herself with an air of long practice.

Looking at her, Banri thought once more, "She's a good senpai." Friendly enough to even put off going to her own lecture to counsel a younger student, even somebody she didn't know. Kind, and a person you really could rely on. Being together with her was fun, and he was thrilled just to be near her. ...So it was, until only a few days ago. Even if he didn't study it out, he thought that even now it should honestly be so.

At the present time, for sure, Linda didn't want to be known to my current self. Therefore, knowing the former Banri was not something that could be spoken of. Just that.

If he wanted to know more, perhaps, it wouldn't be bad to establish a good working relationship with the current Linda.

With respect to Banri, that--- yes. There was no hope. Having met Linda by chance as a club senior, he would make a good impression as junior. There was no way he would expose what she was hiding.

Above all, she seemed to be worried too. Perhaps, because of those worries, she chose to behave as if she didn't know the former Banri at all. He didn't feel like interrupting her with that conclusion, though. If he were told that what was there before him at that moment was important, he would also agree, he thought.

He really thought this to be so.

That was a confirmation of his identity, Banri decided.

Stop thinking about this already! Why should I, it's already over.

Forget about it. ---Yes, I've forgotten.

With a chuckle, Banri lifted his face, deliberately like a junior, like an idiot.

"I mean, Linda-senpai, this guy Yana-ssan, he's taking Wednesday 5th period Civil Law class~, could you please tell him something about it~?"

He was trying to speak to Linda sweetly.

"Huh!? Seriously!? Tsukamoto's Civil Law class!? Why something so crazy!?"

Linda frowned, and covered her mouth with her hand as if in shock. Are you trying to torture yourself, my dear? This, too, seeming but a momentary play, she said to Banri, "I'm not making fun of you!", and like a female soldier, she quickly put on a straight face.

"Eh... What's the terrible thing I'm doing?"

"No no no, it's horrible! It's always bad, you, err, Yana-ssan? Because that is truly awful. "Wednesday's fifth period 'Civil Law 1' every year has a seriously difficult test, with past year's notes and references not allowed, less than seventy percent on the test and less than seventy percent attendance (no use in arguing) is failure, and because there aren't many people, answering the roll call for somebody else is impossible... for Civil Law most wait, and furthermore, if you don't study seriously... no, they say that even working diligently, it's quite hard."

"Are you serious?"

"That's why everybody takes Monday's second period Civil Law!"

"...Is, that so..., ah... seems I messed up... What to do, this is really awful... Am I already repeating something next year...?"

"Though it's OK to repeat it. Monday second period's easy Civil Law class is most people's preference, though how many people waited, and then fell in the trap of taking the demon of Wednesday 5th period again, who knows..."

From what Linda had to say, Mitsuo was getting quite worried. Watching this from the side, Kouko casually cleaned off her pen nibs.

"Aah ah ah, Mitsuo, what kind of mess is this? Ah good, I have the perfect schedule set up for me. I've even taken Civil Law perfectly."

Even at other people’s problems, her face smiled beautifully. While her pretty nails glittered, she went cleaning up her writing implements.

Openly hostile, Mitsuo glared at Kouko. Kouko was completely unperturbed. On the contrary, smiling, she looked straight back at Mitsuo's face, cheerfully adding on "sorry to hear that", and whether on purpose or not, humming in good humor.

While Mitsuo was practically trembling all over, he slowly looked over at Banri's face,

"...Banri, come with me a bit!"

"W, where to!? And mess up Kaga-san's studies!? Hey, be careful! Mother Bear has cubs in the spring, and could get rather irritated!"

"You got it wrong! What I'm doing now is going to second period Civil Law! Anyway, I'm going to catch the professor when he leaves the lecture, and ask him if I can take it from now on, though I haven't attended even once yet! I'm throwing away 4500 yen!"

"Ah, ahh, that's good, that's good! Good luck, Yana-ssan! Hurry up!"

"Oh!"

He took off running, but Mitsuo, looking like he'd forgotten something, suddenly stumbled a step or two and came back to them,

"Idiot! You'll lose the credit entirely! You'll have to do it over! And then you'll cry!"

With an awfully sudden jerk of his chin, both his arms flapping like gull's wings, he let out a stream of abuse directed at Kouko. And then he took off running again. This time, he flew directly out of the cafeteria, and could be seen using his long legs freely to run up the staircase.

While she watched, Kouko laughed rather scornfully and coldly.

"What was that? Did you see? Mitsuo's a child. He cannot have friends, so he goes it alone."

"...Ka, Kaga-san"

"Whaat? Tada-kun."

As far as Banri was concerned, she appeared a friend to the last. Smiling at him, she tilted her head to the side quizzically.

"Welll, aren't you being a little too rough on Yana-ssan...?"

"Rough? Me? No such thing; we're normally like that."

"No, what if the nun treated the woodland hunter like that..."

"But he's not just an acquaintance."

"Eh! ...W, what're you saying...? Weren't you childhood friends! That's scary!"

"No. I didn't know him in a previous life."

"We're talking about this life! I mean, just a minute, seriously, with what kind of history can you be like this? Not long ago you were glued to Yana-ssan's face, dreamily muttering 'Mitsuo...'!"

"That was the last act of our play, Mitsuo and I. To the music of Tada-kun and Linda-senpai's wild orchestra, the curtain descended. With that, our relationship is already over. Therefore, he is somebody that I do not know."

Kouko declared this very coldly and without hesitation, her beautiful lips formed into a prickly pout, her slender chin upraised. Without so much as a twitch of her eyebrows, that kind of coldness. "Eh", his speech cut off, Banri too fell into silence.

Well, Banri had been thinking for a while now, "these guys' relationship isn't very good..." Mitsuo avoided hating Kouko, though while Kouko chased after him in love, he wasn't nice to her at all, if they met up they only fought, to all appearances they were abusive to each other. It looked like there wasn't even a memory of the two of them having been friends.

And yet, because he knew of Kouko's awkwardness, Banri saw the two of them as something different. Because Kouko truly loved Mitsuo, he had grown used to it. Put simply, it was excessively ‘tsun' in the ‘tsundere' aspect of their relationship. Precisely because he understood that, it didn't set his teeth on edge thinking about it. Though he liked Kouko, Banri also softheartedly worried about her.

In the end, after ten years (more or less) that Kaga Kouko and Yanagisawa Mitsuo had been childhood friends, she had been dumped once and for all. Was all they had left simply the sheer seriousness of it all?

What an empty relationship they had. In any case, though confirmed as friends with each of them separately, it was little comfort to Banri. But thinking on what was before him now, he let out an unconscious sigh.

Linda stretched as she stood up.

"Well then, I have to go to a lecture too. Are you two all right now? Is there anything else you want to ask me?"

Kouko stood respectfully for Linda, also acting the part of junior,

"We're good, thank you very much. Thank you for having helped us. Next time for sure, allow us to do something for you."

With the slow pace of a true princess, she bowed her head. Linda waved her hand and smiled as if she were embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. It wouldn't bother me if you came out to the club, and if you were to practice hard, I'd be really happy. That said, it's tomorrow mid-day, OK? We'll meet at eleven, have lunch while we meet, and practice starts at one o'clock. So don't be late."

Pointing at Banri with a slender finger,

"You too, Tada Banri! Practice. Awa Odori. The same place as before. You haven't forgotten?"

"Ah, of course not! Yes sir!"

"Yes, good answer. Tomorrow then. Don't miss it, because it looks like some of the fourth year senpais are going to be there."

Linda hung her bag from her shoulder, stepping away from the table easily. As she walked away, not a sound arose from her vividly fluorescent Nikes.

That reminds me, seeing Linda off with a smile, he looked at Kouko's face.

"Were you bothered about staying with Omaken?"

Certainly coming back from the previous practice session, Kouko seemed to have lost a lot of her enthusiasm. It seemed to him that she'd said things about how embarrassed she was by her awkward dancing, and that there was no way, she could not stay in the club.

"That's right. I did."

Nodding her head deeply, Kouko looked back at Banri intensely.

"Lately, I've had various things too... didn't you? I've overcome them, and now I, I'm really looking forward to things."

Her smile sparkled brightly. Her pure white teeth showed through. She carried herself like royalty. Banri even reflexively wanted to applaud.

"That so? Good."

"...You really think it's good?"

"Yes, I do! I would be happy to be able to dance the Awa Odori with Kaga-san, nothing would be better! To me, running into difficulties is part of growing up."

Her body twisting, Kouko slowly closed her eyes, as if she were drunk.

"Thank you for the support. As for me, anyway, I'm thinking of taking on a new challenge. Even Awa Odori is one! Hesitating like this is wrong. Thinking about this and that, being scared is wrong. I believe living that way is a waste. Every day, we must progress... right?"

Her eyes flicking open, she looked at Banri. Banri nodded to her,

"Right!"

Her large eyes sparkled to the point of being dangerous.

And then coming several steps closer, suddenly a few inches from Banri's nose Kouko became serious. Banri gulped reflexively; Kouko could not be stopped.

"Advancing day by day! And then earnestly forward! Forward! Forward! One way or the other, forward, progressing! That will be my life! To go forward living like that, that is what I have decided! It will be a super proactive life, on the GO! I will see it accomplished perfectly! Advancing, continuing forward until I die! I will do it, absolutely! Becoming perfect, going through life, looking forward positively, even unto death!"

She caught Banri by the shoulder. ''Comrade!'' With that kind of energy.

Having gotten to this point, Banri averted his eyes at once.

He laughed uneasily.

Saying only that much, he retreated backwards. Her hand leaving his shoulder, "What?", Kouko's lips looked displeased, but no. The feeling was distinctly that of fear. Why does this person run to such extremes?

Though she'd dumped him, she was looking towards the future. That so? She'll even go to the club! Wow, that's good! ...To the extent she settles down to normality, it'll be easier to get to know her. And it somehow seemed that in her previous existence she didn't even know Mitsuo, her good friend up til now. Why would one have to suddenly jump so far, to the point this person in particular has gone?

He said to himself, "Oh well, she cannot moderate herself precisely because she is Kaga Kouko", though he also cared for her.

One cheek puffed out extremely cutely, Kouko spoke to the drawn-back Banri.

"Tada-kun, since we've come to be true friends, if we have anything we want to talk about, could we just talk? Let's not keep secrets!"

"Well, though you say it... what's that tension, that fear as if of that group of the 'Crystal God'... really Kaga-san, wasn't it you who said carelessly, in shock from a broken heart, 'Hello Neo-Children?'"

Kouko, who had just promised that he could say whatever he wanted to, suddenly, as if she were saying "hold it!", her eyebrows rose into beautiful arcs. Yes, she's angryyy. One serving of anger. Anger, coming right uuup.

"What are you saying! That cannot be! This a universal question of living as a human being. I don't want to be trivialized like that!"

As you might expect, seeing that beautiful, magnificently ordered, showy face with an expression brightly flushed in anger, was rather terrifying.

"Ah, whoa...!"

Banri, falling down before her as if she were a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period Heian-era] princess,

"No 'Whoa's!"

With a snap, a finger thrust out towards his nose, and once more he threw his head back sharply. It had nearly gone up his nose to the second joint.

"In other words, Tada-kun should move forward too! No, not doing so is wrong! Do it! Now! Right away! As best friends, it wouldn't be right if we didn't move forward in about the same way! Because if I couldn't do so, I couldn't be a perfect friend!"

"Eh... no way..."

"Look here, again a voice like that! What a weak looking mess! 'Whoa~' 'No way~' Talking like that isn't allowed! Making such a dumb face isn't either! Yes, even though I was,"

'Even though I dumped you', hesitating like that is no good!

---Whether in fact, or in saying so, he thought.

Now even Banri, suddenly realizing the gap in space and time between the two of them, looked back at Kouko as if through distorted memories. Noticing that look,

"..."

Even the energetically yapping Kouko's vocal cords suddenly fell silent, as if broken.

Staying this way, both of them silent, "..." (Do you usually speak like this!?) "..." (I didn't say anything, nothing at all!) "..." (But how about trying to talk!?) "..." (I'm not doing anything, really I'm not.) "..." (If that's the case, then put that awkward pantomime of yours in order!) "..." (I understand, that's the funny part.) "..." (We've done something right!) ---up to this point communicating well by gaze and by gesture,

"...A, anyhow! It's because it's like that! ...It's like that! In short, let's give it our best with Omaken, Tada-kun and I! ...That... was what I had to say."

Kouko put her smile in place. Well then, Banri relaxed too. For now, whatever he'd forgotten didn't matter.

"Well, look, we're not just first years, are we? Fo, forward! Powerfully! Full throttle! Bet your life! With all one's might! Let's try hard! Life is not to be wasted! Right, that's the way it is!"

Searching for approval, his fist clenched, Banri answered only with a sigh, but in her own way Kouko took the meaning to be 'yes'.

"Right!"

Taking a breath as if a bit relieved, she suddenly turned and easily grabbed her brand-name bag from the seat where she had left it.

Hanging it from her shoulder by its strap she turned around, her glossy hair in thick curls brushed over her left shoulder. Smiling still, revealing her sparkling white teeth, she showed only the right side of her neck to Banri.

That standing figure, a gorgeous beauty. A woman just like from the movies, or a tele-drama, having lept from the world of fiction, she was like everybody's dreams, brought to life.

Kouko was perfect, of course. Once more easily captivated, Banri thought. ---At least, with regards to outward appearances, nothing but 'perfect' came to mind.

If she were to open her mouth, somehow subtly defenseless, but she only seemed to require a bit of touch-up here and there, her appearance truly beautiful, and blessed to sparkle all the time. Because they were friends, he could not talk about things like 'appearances only'.

And then, bringing together the heels of her booties, with a smile she flickered her long eyelashes.

"Hey, Tada-kun, are you free now? Won't you go with me to the student affairs office? Since schedules are coming out, I'd like somebody with me."

Kouko spoke as if she had rehearsed it. Even as a friend, was it natural to invite somebody in such a way? And she added a wink from her big eyes.

Mitsuo was running late to Civil Law while he was skipping, Banri thought, but,

"Then, afterwards let's go to Civil Law. That OK with you?"

Having been told like that, how dared he refuse? What to do? My friend, fated from a previous existence to go out with me, has invited me. What's more, my friend is a beauty to die for.

Hmph, though I was dumped the day before yesterday.

<center>* * *</center>

Side by side, Banri and Kouko left the cafeteria, walking towards the student affairs office, which was on another floor.

Looking out the windows from the dark, old school building, it was dazzlingly bright.

Perhaps because the weather was nice today, there already being signs of summer, there were mingled here and there amongst the students going back and forth a few wearing short-sleeve shirts.

Banri, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and a hoodie with "The Clumsy Student" across the back, was getting a little warm, and removed the hoodie as he walked. Rolling up the slightly sweaty, ratty feeling thing, he tried to force it into the bag. However, he was unable to stuff it in very well because of what was already there, and continuing up the stairs to the landing, he slowly came to halt in the narrow corridor.

"Are you OK? Could I carry something?"

Realizing that Kouko was reaching out to him,

"No, no, I wouldn’t make you carry my stuff..."

Trying to refuse, he had realized that his shoelaces had come untied. Oh well, but there was nothing that could be done about it: he was a sloppy kid.

"Well, sorry to have to ask, but could you hold this for a moment?"

Having Kouko hold the hoodie he'd taken off for a moment (and praying to God it didn't smell of sweat), and crouching down by the wall, he first retied his shoes. So as not to block traffic, Kouko also moved to the side of the corridor, at Banri's side.

Seen close up, Kouko, who was waiting, holding Banri's hoodie reverently, as if it were something important, had really slim legs, of course. The line of her calves elegantly refined, was like a work of art. Such ankles: if you were to use any force, they'd snap. Above the knees too she was shapely, no extra flesh sagging... No, he wasn't planning to look, but there she was, right next to his face. If you're trying to cross the street, you look to see if there are cars coming, anybody would look over there. It was that kind of thing.

He glanced sideways, wearing a serious glare as he sighed, thinking, "Wearing heavy black tights in the mid-winter is fine, but isn't that too hot in this climate? Does hot or cold even matter to this person, if it's stylish?"

Then, Kouko was moving those slim legs uncomfortably.

"...Ta, Tada-kun, by any chance, are you looking at my legs?"

"I'm not looking, I'm not looking."

While Banri answered back clearly,

"Though I'm not looking, Kaga-san, aren't those black things hot? Doesn't it seem like 'coordinating the coordinates'?"

He tried to ask here plainly. Was it common for a guy to recognize the subtleties of girl's fashion? Uh oh, he could not say no. That much, Banri already knew from the internet.

"My, my tights?"

Kouko looked back at the Banri's upturned face for just an instant, her expression complex.

"This... though it's a bit hot, in truth there are reasons I don't take them off."

She answered like that. Banri got back up,

"Of course, girls have their reasons..."

In one motion, he stuck his hand deep into his bag. For now, in order to stuff his hoodie in there, he wanted to turn all his fallen textbooks sideways.

"We sure do! We have many concerns. Actually, it was swallowed by a snake."

"Ehh, that's awful!"

Thinking he wanted to make Kouko laugh again by saying some ridiculous joke, or lightening things with a smile, Banri went to take back his possibly sweaty hoodie, looking over towards Kouko.

However,

"It was yesterday, in our garden. It was the worst of luck. I'm wearing tights to cover up the damage. As a girl, of course, I don't want to show such things."

Kouko was saying it with a straight face.

No way... this wasn't a joke, was it?

"...Wh, what? Swallowed by a snake...? Kaga-san...?"

"Yes. And what a shock it was!"

No surprise, that.

Banri, forgetting about rearranging his bag, looked back at Kouko's beautiful white face, picturing it in his mind. While she screamed, Kaga Kouko was slowly being swallowed by a big snake, feet first. In the garden. The snake's stomach gradually swelling, her shape could not be seen, losing form as it was digested... Yet the next day, Kaga Kouko came to college, saying "Forward! Awa Odori!" and such.

Wasn't that enough "problems"?

Getting dizzy, Banri shook his head, and took a deep breath. Getting plenty of oxygen to his brain, he miraculously got things in order.

"Err... just in case though, how far were you swallowed...?"

"'Up to where', eh?"

Kouko blinked from Banri's question, and then,

"Enough, you're joking...! Wow you're funny! Tada-kun, you dummy, aha! It was nothing but a joke! Ahahahaha!"

She suddenly broke out in happy sounding laughter. Surely thinking something like "Eh, what a crazy kid..." about Banri, she covered her mouth with her hand, but she seemed unable to contain her laughter, her cheeks gradually going deep red, laughing still as her body doubled over as if in pain, hugging the hoodie she held in her hands tightly.

"'Sw, swallowed', but not vertically! Stop it already, Tada-kun, you're too funny! Like this, this! Swallowed sideways! 'Up to where'!? Did you think I'd been slowly swallowed from my feet to my head!? There aren't such snakes! In Tokyo!? In my back yard!? Probably not even in the jungle, where in the world did you get that idea!? Really, you are really too funny, I've decided that! Sideways it was, sideways sideways, sideways swallowed!"

With his left wrist representing her foot, and his right hand the snake's head, he mimed how it might bite from the side.

"No no no", Banri replied calmly back to the princess lost in laughter.

"...Then, you weren't 'swallowed', but rather 'bitten'...? What, you thought 'let's be funny', and made a mystery to solve? Were you inventing something like that?"

"No, you're wrong! Swallowed is the right word! Because while it was trying to bite, it was trying to suck the flesh of my calf into it's throat! It was sucking really hard! Like this!? Such a snake in my back yard!"

Suddenly Kouko, moving her hands as if she were a udon noodle maker, tossed Banri's hoodie into the air, stretching it our long and thin. "M, my hoodie", Banri moaned,

"Give it to me! Because,"

She grabbed the hood part and spun it around. Then, winding it around his neck,

"'Kyaa! It hu-hu-hu-hurts!', she said!"

"But I wasn't kidding!"

"Then how are you alive and kicking so energetically!?"

"It wasn't at my neck! It was Bibinba's neck!"

"Bibinbaa!? ...You mean... that star in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnikuman Kinnikuman]!?"

"What're you talking about! Here on Earth! I mean a cat! Shizuka's cat!"

"Oh, I see... no, but aren't you changing the tone of the story!? Where the name comes from, or is it from the Kamei family... is it that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shizuka_Kamei Shizuka]!? Why didn't you tell me clearly from the start!?"

"Neither! My lit-tle bro-ther! My little brother Kaga Shizukaa! He's a chubby little thing! ...Or rather, OK, I can't be talking that way. So you understand this better, listen, he's my little brother. Are you good to this point? He's called Shizuka. That good too? Good, right? He keeps cats. Bibinba's one of them. He's a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_(cat)) Himalayan]. Yesterday, he was attacked by a snake in the garden, and he was strangled. It had already gotten to be twice around, no, about three times around. It was completely there, all set to enjoy it's meal! So I was already in a panic, anyway I jumped at it, like this,"

Kouko grabbed the hoodie wound around his neck with both hands, pulling him towards her.

"'Ughh! Let go of Bibinba! Urgghhh...!' ...Uh, that must hurt..."

"Ooou... ouou... or rather do you need it so tight..."

"But, if it was like that... and it was! It was like that!"

Grabbing one sleeve of the hoodie and slowly unwinding it from his neck, she started to swing it around, much like a cowboy. The other students passing by avoided it, treating it as an annoyance.

"I used centrifugal force! And then, I did like this!"

Her hair flying, Kouko swung it widely, and the hoodie struck the wall. Though for sure it was once Banri's, the dead hoodie, it’s power lost, slithered to the floor.

"Thinking, 'Phew... I did it...!', I turned my back on it to go in the house and get a garbage bag. If I had done that...!"

Kouko crouched down for some reason, grabbed the sleeve of the hoodie, and reached down to touch behind the calf of her leg,

"I screamed 'Kyaa!' It was like this, like this! Shouting 'It bit me!', and 'Kyaa!', even kicking my feet it didn't let go, swallowing me little by little, it was already a disaster! I was getting more and more in a panic!"

"...Aw, awfully so...! So just what did you do, in the end?"

" 'Get it over with!' "

Cutting off any more useless questions, in a very unladylike fashion, she hit near the hoodie's sleeve cuff, as if she were giving the snake's head a karate chop. Like a head stuck in a guillotine, it looked dead. If it had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Rat_Snake Green General], it's goose would have been cooked.

"Oh..."

Somehow feeling for the snake, Banri held his own neck. In the 'Naked Terminator Pose', Kouko briefly basked in the afterglow of victory.

"...You know, that looks pretty bad. Tada-kun's hoodie has gotten all beaten up...!"

Realizing it, she picked up the hoodie's corpse.

"No way, I'm sorry! Silly me, I'd gotten lost in the conversation!"

"Don't worry about it, it was already that way to begin with."

"There's no reason! Enough already, what am I going to do? I'm going to get it cleaned!"

"That's OK, really, I do my laundry. I mean, it's only old UNIQLO stuff anyhow. It was sacrificed, but it was a really good story, worth listening to, I think."

Taking the hoodie back from the apologetic, blushing Kouko, and having said nothing about reimbursement, or any such thing, he stuffed it quickly into the bag in front of him.

"No, it was worth listening to, really... Kaga-san does it all the time, getting rid of snakes."

"No way! That was the first time in my life I've touched a snake!"

"Was Bibinba OK after all that?"

"He almost jumped into the washing machine from the mental shock, even this morning he nearly didn't leave it."

"Drum type?"

"Yes, the normal vertical type. ...Ah, enough already of me, now, I was gibbering from the tension..."

No, your tension from the start was incredible. The which, well, he didn't say.

Kouko, blushed as if she were finally embarrassed, covering her face with both hands like a little girl, looking around nervously. "Eighteen year old snake killer Kaga Kouko-chan..." muttered Banri, and Kouko raised her fist like a little kid, as if to hit Banri.

"Enough already! Forget about it!"

"In spite of it all, you've been chatting with me in high spirits."

"Be, because! Am I right? Isn't this topic something else? Didn't a snake came out, attack our cat, and my life was put at risk, ambushed from behind? In the back yard? Isn't this kind of thing rare? ...Over there, it doesn't happen, does it? In Shizuoka?"

"No way. Shizuoka is a big city."

He'd seen snakes run over by machines in the tea fields, but how could he say it? His grandfather on his father's side collected [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloydius_blomhoffi mamushi] around there to pickle them in sake (the trauma: saying things like "if you drink it, your memories'll come back~" to get him to drink it), but those were only minor details.

"For sure. And so I already, since yesterday, was talking to anybody, talking and not stopping, thinking, 'I can talk!' I had already taken it to the limit."

"But you know, it would have been good of you to send me an e-mail about it."

That, it was only for a moment.

Even this didn't matter, being the continuation of a joking conversation.

It wouldn't have been all that strange if he had missed in the dimness, for only just a moment, Kouko's eyes trembling forlornly.

Banri had spotted it.

To a person just dumped, sending an e-mail about such things wasn't enough. ---To Banri, it seemed as if Kouko's very heart were speaking these things.

You don't have to speak of fated friends, forward looking lives and such in a state of high drama. Anybody can do so. Anybody doing so is not making unpleasant decisions. Therefore, doing so, she wasn't forced to get on with her abandoned scenario. Though she knew it was strange for her, it wasn't like there was no other way.

Because, it isn't so, and I don't have to...

That was what Banri heard.

"...So this morning, I thought, 'Let's go talk to Linda-senpai!' "

Suddenly, Kouko broke out with a smile like a flower blooming.

"But, senpai, when she got to looking at my schedule, she let out a big sigh and set to thinking. This is awful, she said. Already, I couldn't just say something like 'Yesterday a mouthful of my backside was being swallowed by a snake, you see' "

Laugh, Tada-kun.

So it seemed Kouko was asking him.

"No way, I wouldn't say anything either! Not at all!"

Banri laughed too.

He didn't see anything else. Pretending not to notice, he laughed merrily while he thought some more. It seemed that Kouko didn't have any friends to casually talk about everyday things with.

As far as she was concerned, now, she had lost her whole world: Mitsuo. Already, in Kouko's world, even the ordinary things people could do to casually keep in touch had become unsatisfactory.

"But, that's fine. I was able to speak with you. ...And it seems you understood me?"

Gently softening her smile and dropping her gaze a little, Kouko murmured in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

It seemed the demon of her nerves had fallen at last. From the chuckle that issued from her lips, to her swelled chest, even Banri saw and understood it all, breathed in deeply, and let it out. She seemed to recover, little by little, her mental stability, and apparently self-conscious about how difficult she had been to handle, going to extremes as she had,

"...I'm such a mess..."

Shrugging her shoulders, she gave a wry smile. I'm, such a mess. Aren't I? And so on.

Kouko had had enough of it too.

She understood, and her chest rose.

Very much so. To be able to regain her footing in only two days was nothing to sneeze at. She wasn't that clever a person.

Hardly two days had passed today, and Kouko, as she was, just herself, wasn't good at facing Mitsuo who had dumped her, and Banri whom she had dumped. For that reason, she couldn't be jumping here and there absurdly in her normal fashion. In order to not show a downcast or hurt face, she had to play her part. Unable to speak as a clever person would, it probably wasn't easy.

There was nothing that could be done. He felt as if his heart were being squeezed.

The more he thought about Kouko's feelings, the more painful they were. In general, Banri's convenient imagination was convinced perhaps, but, he thought that in Kouko's heart, standing next to him, was an unstoppable force of will.

After all, of course, he loved Kouko. The more he thought of it, the more he wished to get closer to her heart. Stubbornly, in spite of having been dumped, he wanted to be her helper, at least.

For the first time, Banri thought it would be good to become a part of Kouko's scenario. No, he wanted to be, even.

Now appearing on stage, Tada Banri. As Mitsuo's friend, Kouko's friend. Various things have happened, but he was now the understanding and fated friend of Kouko. Am I allowed to take on such a role? ...It's all right if I'm not your boyfriend. In Kouko's lonely world, if such as I is acceptable, I'd like to be on stage. If there is room on this stage, I would like to stay a long time.

And then I pray, that eventually many players on her stage may appear, brightly colored, sparkling for moment spinning.

He believed this from the bottom of his heart. It was the first time he had harbored such tender feelings for another person. At least, as far as Banri himself could remember.

Prompting each other, "Shall we go?", their exchanged glances were pure friendship.

It seemed they had truly established a relationship as close friends, Banri staying beside Kouko, Kouko also, seemingly relieved, smiling quietly. And then, at that moment, as they both slowly opened their mouths, about to start talking about something,

"Morn-ning Banri!"

Thump, he was struck lightly in the middle of his back.

He looked back.

There was nobody there.

"Wait, wait, where are you looking?"

No, now he understood--- there was no way he could fail to.

That voice. There was just no mistaking it. Her voice was over the top, excessively girly, saccharine sweet, like from an anime show. On top of that, for some reason she was addressing him without honorifics.

From about than a foot lower than his, her little face was laughing.

Incredibly, she was eighteen years old. A micro-sized pet fairy. Even Mr. Two Dimensions approved of her as a multi-dimensional life-form. Such...

"O, Oka-chan..."

...a thing, Oka Chinami was.

<center>* * *</center>

Thinking, "What should I do?", he suddenly felt an alarming aura prickling over the right side of his body, coming from around Kouko.

As far as Kouko was concerned, Chinami, clearly, was the enemy. Undoubtedly, she was thinking something like "The thieving cat who stole my beloved Mitsuo!",

"Mornin' to you too, Kaga-san! Wow, your clothes are really pretty again today. I knew it, from a distance, I said to myself, 'That's Kaga-san!' "

Though Chinami was innocently jumping around, Banri, remembered the danger she was in and gasped. Why Oka-chan, why are you doing like that, off guard in front of Kouko? Shouldn't you be careful of those fingernails? The person before you is the snake killer Kaga Kouko!

"...Okachi, nami..."

Kouko slowly turned around, looking down at Chinami, muttering with an expression like Cleopatra's, tasting poison.

"Ahaha, I got the break wrong~! It wasn't Okachi, but rather Oka, Chinami!"

Then why so off guard! Banri casually put his foot out to the side, try to insert himself halfway into the space between Kouko and Chinami.

Chinami was innocent to the point of being dangerous to herself, and again, as always, she was cute enough to die for. Her long eyelashes and round, cute eyes prominent, her features were pure, like a foreigner-child. Tied into a large knot, her hair was full and dark. Her slender body covered by a deep blue dress worn over blue denims, her slim ankles peeked out. On solid, light brown leather sandals, already wearing her trademark rugged day-pack, while to Banri who, as usual (as a male), did not understand attire all that well, Chinami truly exuded the presence of a fairy princess coming to them from the forest.

Banri could not stand it any longer.

"...Oka-chan...!"

"Whaat?"

"Uaa<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>!"

His body was swaying, wobbling. Don't breathe such air! It's contaminated here! Return to your forest! He couldn't help but want to cry out. But her cuteness filled the limits of the universe. The cell phone in her hand had a really flashy strap, including even an Indian feather decoration, delicately cute, and already, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded. Even her hairpin was somehow cute! It's not possible to be so cute.

"What was that about already? Banri, what've you done?"

"It doesn't matter one way or the other!"

"What the heck?"

You're the one I should be saying that to, what's with that, that "Nyaha!", way of laughing!

No, but---

"..."

Kouko was watching.

With a hard yet beautiful face, like that of a statue of a goddess, unsmiling, chin pulled back, she was slowly and quietly looking over Banri's agony, and then the transcendentally cute Oka Chinami.

As if he'd remembered, "So it is, your place is by my side, minion...", Banri dejectedly and quietly returned to Kouko's side. If Kouko was the evil queen, then Banri was her attending servant. Her [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatterman#Characters Boyacky], so to speak.

Not even glancing back at the servant that had returned to her, Kouko, her expression unchanged, continued to look down upon Chinami. Between the high-heeled Kouko and the flat-sandaled Chinami, there was all of six inches of difference in height.

And so, after a little while,

"...Why?"

Her rose colored lips in a haughty queen-like smile, Kouko opened her mouth.

"Hm? You asked, 'Why?' "

Eyes round in puzzlement, Chinami asked back, "Eh?" Much like a squirrel, asking "Who's eaten the walnut I hid beneath the dead leaves?" ...that kind of feeling.

Irritated, Kouko's aura flickered. Her attending servant Banri understood.

"Though I don't expect to hear anything, I'm listening. I have an ooo-pen mind. I do! My humanity is noble, so while you admire my perfection, answer me quickly. Answer in two seconds. Twoo, oonnee,"

"Eh? Two seconds? Hm? 'Humanity'?"

"You're disqualified, dullard! Begone!"

Gruffly and jealously waving her hand, Kouko averted her face in irritation.

"Well then! We've got things to do!"

Chinami wasn't at all defeated. Slapping her stomach like a sea otter hitting a shellfish,

"You see, I wanted to hear about your schedule, Banri and Kaga-san."

On her smooth cheeks, dimples stood out clearly. Chinami smiled happily while Banri and Kouko looked at each other. Sparkling to the point you could almost hear it, those cheerful eyes frankly shone. For some reason or other, Banri and Kouko wordlessly exchanged glances. When their gazes met, he felt he heard a nod... he wanted to think it was his imagination.

"All I wanted to ask was, wouldn't you like to do a drinking party? I was thinking, let's invite you! Hey, look, didn't we talk about it before? We talked about having a party of people with two-syllable last names. Well, it would be called a gathering of people with two-syllable surnames for the time being. I was thinking I wanted to have a drinking party for just the first-years. I was the first to say something, so I'm the organizer. This week or next, wherever, I've planned for a budget of about $35. If there's any day that doesn't work because of part time jobs or whatever, we can adjust a bit too. What would be good for you two?"

"A drinking party!?"

Having heard such cheery talk, Banri of course,

"I'll go! Of course I'll go, when we going? Thanks for the invitation!"

In good spirits, he couldn't help but raise his hand. What's more, with that hand,

"Isn't that great, Kaga-san!"

Much too familiarly, he clapped his hand on the evil queen's shoulder. Kouko's temples twitched.

"...For now I hear you. ...What's with this?"

"Eh, saying 'what's with this' like that? Weren't you invited too! Speaking of which, isn't this the first time you've truly been invited to anything apart from a religion? Of course we're going to take part, you're moving forward positively in life! Oka-chan, Kaga-san has nothing on her schedule, she's basically free, so it's OK! Ah, and I've got spare time too! Cool!"

"Waah! That's great!", Chinami gave a little jump, taking Banri's hand in high spirits, "It's going to be fun~!"

"I, am, not, going."

At Kouko's eerily low utterance, the two of them stopped jumping around.

"I wouldn't go to such a thing. Frankly, I don't feel like getting mixed up with Oka Chinami, not even one micron. If I wanted to waste time like that, it'd be better for me to go dig a hole in the garden! And then, you know what I would do with that hole? I'd fill it up! As if it'd never been dug! I'd be busy! Digging up, filling in, digging up, filling in, digging up, digging up, filling in! Oh what a mess, really busy! Busy running around! That's about what my schedule looks like!"

She directed those last stinging words, somehow, at Banri too.

"Besides, that's right, I've got to go to the Student Affairs Office. By myself."

And then Kouko, giving a smile without heart, turned her back on Banri and Chinami and walked away, by herself.

"Ah, hold on, wait! You said we were going together!"

Banri, the sorrowful minion, ran after her back, confused.

But Kouko didn't wait for Banri. Her heels clacking unexpectedly loudly and quickly, in the crowd of students Banri lost sight of her back.

"...Huh?"

Looking around the area for a bit, Banri scratched his head. Was she angered by something insensitive he'd said? Did she hate him? He tried to run further after her, but by force of will he stopped himself.

Perhaps he had been too caught up in the moment, thinking they were somehow understanding each other. With the situation as it was, it looked like even running up to the Student Affairs, catching up with Kouko in her current state, probably wouldn't turn out well. Above all, for the time being certainly, his stubbornly running after her would be annoying.

Chinami followed along behind Banri too, looking around for Kouko the same way as they talked.

"Did Kouko-san get mad? Would it do any good to send her a text?"

"Yeah..."

She opened up her cell phone right then and there, but, changed her mind and stopped. She didn't want to annoy her in her impatience. As yet, it seemed to him that Kouko herself, the stubborn girl, did want to understand her feelings. For now, if they sent texts or called, they'd just be "dropped".

For now, he took a deep breath. He told himself, have patience, have patience. If she was a friend, then left alone for a bit, then once she'd calmed down she'd get back in touch. She should.

Without having called, Chinami faced Banri, took a little breath and spoke disappointedly.

"As for me, though I wanted even Kaga-san to come to the drinking party... It was no good, I guess."

"...Err, Oka-chan"

"Hmm?", her eyes blinking innocently, Chinami looked up at Banri. This was his chance, for sure. There were some things he wanted to ask her.

"Kaga-san has a bad attitude towards you. Well, though she's not a bad person, and for the time being I will stand up for her, could you not get angry or annoyed at that? Though I would think that if she talked like that all the time, she would lose out on invitations to parties."

"Does it seem like it?"

"No, but... hey, by chance, are you really so black-hearted after all? Do you have some sort of terrible plot under all this, trying to lure the girl you cannot stand? Into the deeps of the Oka-chan jungle to be entombed there, to be slurped up and swallowed by the dark Oka-ffleshia, chewing up and spitting out nothing but bones? Were you thinking something like that? Are you getting ready, opening up your petals as if licking your chops?"

Even though he could understand, Banri was stringing together rude words out of frustration, but,

"Wha, what the... what kind of creature am I?"

Making eyes truly innocent looking, but seeming a little worried, she bent her head to one side, looking doubtful. If she'd had big rabbit ears, standing up, their tips, perhaps, would be trembling.

"I am inviting her simply because I want to invite her!"

"Wait a sec~, already you've said, 'Eh? The flower below me? Am I a perverted carnivorous flower!? Hmph!', like that."

"I, I didn't say anything about any flower below... Really, I want to invite Kaga-san too. I find myself rather strongly captivated by her, you see. Whatever she says, whatever she does, I feel I want to watch. She has caught my interest. This, though it seems there are so many people out there. Besides, she's super~ Miss Beautiful."

"...Well, certainly. Super~, Miss Beautiful she is."

"Around our university, Kaga-san is the most beautiful person I've seen. My senpai in film studies, though she said she was last year's 'Miss Campus', ah, from now on she's nothing; Kaga-san is always prettier than her. She may have done well against the other universities' quasi-Misses, or in talent shows, or even working, but if you were to compare her to Kaga-san, though they'd spoken badly of her, she'd come off like some 'Jane Doe' with split ends and no fashion sense. It feels as she had spun a tall tale, as if she had gone off hunting for bear, dressed in a fur vest and carrying a hunting gun. Yes, she had to have made it up."

A 'Jane Doe' with split ends and no fashion sense... at those harsh words, Banri's breath burst out. Oka Chinami, saying such hard things, yet adorable, making a face as if she were appealing to him. Whether she was cunning, or interesting--- perhaps a girl with spunk suited Mitsuo, because he might have found such. As far as he was concerned, Chinami's latest remarks had lifted his opinion of her.

"The thing is, I like beautiful people. I mean, everybody likes those who are conspicuous. They positively cling to those who stand out, wanting to see what's the big deal. So when I happened to notice Kaga-san I unconsciously called out to her~ even though I understand why she could dislike me. I mean really, I suddenly wanted to hug her from behind, forcibly! Her surprised face would be so cute~, embarrassed like that, making her cry... and then, then... she would turn towards me! She would look up! Click! Just like that!? Would that be a crime!? But, hihi! She's cute~ for sure!"

"O, Oka-chan, Oka-chan...!"

"Hmm? Whaat?"

"They're opening up, those thick wet flower petals!"

In the end, the two of them wound up heading for Civil Law. Kouko didn't show up, she'd probably just gone home.

"Isn't it rather crowded? Aren't there any seats? Banri, can you see?"

"Yeah, it looks pretty bad."

Chinami wasn't tall enough to look through the glass window fit into the door. Banri looked inside, checking to see if there was space for so much as a grain of rice to fit into a seat.

He spotted Mitsuo, seated all the way in the middle.

"Oh, there's Yana-ssan."

"What's that? Was 'Yana' taking this class? How's he doing, is he paying attention?"

"Err, well..."

Mitsuo was carelessly resting his chin on his hand, his eyes half closed in boredom. His hair fell smoothly to his cheek, favoring the clean line of his jaw, even yawning the guy was handsome. While the girls seated nearby looked towards Mitsuo, they argued about something in whispers, squealing, secretly excited about something. They were probably saying things like 'That guy's no good', 'He's not good looking', and so on.

Doing it so as not to be noticed, Mitsuo pulled something slowly from his pocket. Pleased with himself, secretly smiling, he peeled off the paper and plopped in his mouth. That was---

"Oh...! He's chewing the gum he found earlier...!"

"Eeee..."

Notes:

<references/>

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 2: The Answer is YES|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}

User:BladeUnderHeart

2012-10-15T08:54:26Z

BladeUnderHeart: Blanked the page

User talk:Rpapo

2012-09-12T03:05:28Z

BladeUnderHeart: /* Re: Golden Time */

==Pregunta==

Se me olvidaba, voy al 20% del capítulo 1, pero me he acordado de algo, habría algún problema con que la traducción se pusiera al lado de la versión en inglés? (como el prólogo).

Saludos. [[User:ClavelSangrante|ClavelSangrante]] 18:14, 21 January 2012 (CST)

:No hay ningún problema con eso por ahora, pero una vez que avanze bien, entonces podremos (de hecho, debemos) hacer una página principal para Golden Time en español, tal como se hizo para Toradora y varios otros series. De ese modo toda la presentación se podrá ver en español. Haré la página para capítulo uno de una vez . . . --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 18:24, 21 January 2012 (CST)

Muchas gracias. [[User:ClavelSangrante|ClavelSangrante]] 19:19, 29 January 2012 (CST)

Sorry for the delay I've been quite busy. [[User:ClavelSangrante|ClavelSangrante]]

:No estoy grandemente preocupado. --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 20:16, 23 June 2012 (CDT)

It's me *.*.124.10. I've mailed you some days ago. -- [[User:Guolker|Guolker]] 13:27, 12 July 2012

:Oh yeah. Gotta go over to the page and remove my note . . . --[[User:Rpapo|Rpapo]] 06:41, 12 July 2012 (CDT)

== Re: Golden Time ==

As you've mentioned, most of my changes were grammatical or stylistic, as I'm not actually a translator. I just tend to correct what minor mistakes I see as I leisurely read. If you have any problems with what I do, please don't hesitate to tell me. [[User:BladeUnderHeart|BladeUnderHeart]] ([[User talk:BladeUnderHeart|talk]])

User talk:Rpapo

2012-09-12T03:04:36Z

BladeUnderHeart: /* Re: Golden Time */ new section

Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1

2012-09-11T19:33:50Z

BladeUnderHeart:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Chapter 1==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 1===

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 020.jpg|thumb]]
Tada Banri was being dumped by a girl.

Because of the overly annoying noise coming from several guys at five in the afternoon at a Caffe Veloce, Banri was still off guard,

"But we only just started going out,"

"Yes, though being with Tada-kun is so much fun..."

"Therefore, from here on out would it be OK if we were just friends?"

Stating his request with a three lined conversation like that, he went quiet, hanging his head.

For no particular reason, he still had the wrapper from a straw in his right hand.

The wrapper swayed limply in the breeze from the air conditioner. His back bent, Banri inhaled the heavy smell of tobacco smoke into his lungs.

The non-smoking section existing in name only (can you call decorative plants a separation from the smoking section?); seated across the table from Banri was Kaga Kouko.

Earrings glittering on both her ears, her glamorous coral pink lips quietly closed, taking a sip of ice tea through her straw. She was opening her big eyes as if trying to peek at Banri's now fallen expression. Perhaps waiting for Banri to say something, her back straight, she put the glass in her hand down on a small tray.

Tada Banri, however, remained silent.

Getting uncomfortable after a bit, Kaga Kouko also dropped her gaze.

Several minutes passed by, idly. The two of them continued looking down at each other's hands.

I am the Banri from before, and I want to break into this awkward silence, saying "This is awful, hold on, do something please!", but there is nothing I can do.

And now, even such a prepared request, because this guy cannot deal with it emotionally! When little situations arise, his mind goes to pieces, because he can never see the world before his eyes! Or rather, he returned from Shizuoka a little bit ago, having seen what was back home, and from that, ---what a mess. I would shout, but nobody would hear me.

Because I know that, I am sitting quietly on a seat behind and to the side of Banri.

As it is, nobody hears my voice any more. Nobody sees my body. Nobody knows of my existence. Because I, am dead.

To put it simply, I've become a ghost.

Wandering about without a body as a ghost, I drift about like this, always near Banri's side.

...that shouldn't be all that difficult for a living human being to believe. But as for me, while I was living, I hadn't believed in the existence of ghosts. From my own experience, I've gained an alternate view of the world. Even now I know nothing about the existence of UFOs. Neither do I know anything about the continent of Mu<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mu_(lost_continent)</ref>. Nor do I know anything about sea serpents nor the Loch Ness Monster. Nor about ESP. But one thing I do know about: the existence of ghosts.

While I was alive, my name was Tada Banri. I was Tada Banri. From the time I was born for eighteen years, I existed as Tada Banri.

In the spring of my eighteenth year, I fell from a bridge into a river. At that moment, I fell out of my body, so to speak, and I, the Tada Banri that was, was left behind as a soul without a body.

On the one hand, the Banri who'd lost his soul lived for a time as "The Memory Loss Boy", easily became a college student, and was now even being dumped by a girl. Such were the circumstances in which we found ourselves.

Now, the living Tada Banri, his denimed rear situated on a narrow seat, bent over and vaguely pouting, eyes glazed over, breathing the smoky air, wordlessly sipped slowly on his iced café latte.

Surely, inside, he was a wreck---.

Reaching from behind and to the side, I move my hand towards Banri's shoulder. I pat his shoulder, telling him to calm down. To my hand, it definitely feels like a living body. But Banri doesn't feel my touch. Not even noticing my existence, not even a blink of uncertainty. He might not have even noticed, but he was grinding his teeth so hard they were creaking. Doing that, sooner or later the lower left wisdom tooth would get to bleeding and hurting.

A forgotten storm blowing through Banri's heart, I suddenly understood the reason why. I even think, if there were anything I could do, I would cheer him up. I know what Banri wants to do, I want to answer him. But, whatever words I use, this voice never reaches Banri's ears. There is nothing more I can do.

The culprit in putting Banri into his state of confusion: Linda--- no, am I wrong? There isn't anybody else. It is this me.

Something Banri had seen a few hours before, on a short trip home he'd made to Shizuoka... which, since he'd woken from his accident, had become sealed away in his high school graduation album. Stuck inside, how many pictures?

Records of when I was alive, in other words a record of Banri's unknown Banri, were stirring up Banri's heart.

And now, in front of Banri's eyes, the girl to whom he had just confessed yesterday was sitting. Several minutes ago she had shaken Banri cautiously,

"...Tada-kun?"

She said, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. "Well, what I had to say... did you hear?"

Abruptly, Banri lifted his face,

"Eh!? Y, yes!? I heard, but!?"

At that moment, with all his heart, he nodded ambiguously,

"Uwaa!"

He knocked his half-emptied glass of iced latte over, really hard. The glass fell to the floor and broke to bits, the loud noise echoing to the back of the shop. The other noisy customers suddenly all went quiet, looking over here. Without thinking, I covered my eyes too. Aah, he felt guilty... if a ghost in a ghostly way, could have caught the glass in mid-air... oh well.

Banri stood up in a hurry,

"Wow, wow, sorry sorry sorry! Excuse meee! I've spilled it! Excuse me, is everything OK!? I'm very sorry!"

While calling for the staff, turning in every direction and bowing his head, he lifted Kaga Kouko's bag from the floor where it had been to a chair, grabbed a bunch of napkins, and tried to contain the flow of latte that was turning into a small sea on the table. In spite of this, drops were staining Banri's bluejeans. Kaga Kouko put pocket tissues from her bag into the embankment too, but the seat and floor were getting to be sopping wet.

An employee with a mop and dustpan came quickly, gathered up the pieces of glass, restraining Banri by telling him "it's dangerous". Dropping his feeble butt into a seat, "Ahh, no more, no more...", Banri, rather upset, let his shoulders slump and sighed.

"What a careless person I am... already, sloppy, too crude, too indecisive... I mean, I'm really sorry Kaga-san, are you OK? Your clothing and such, it didn't get dirty?"

"I'm fine, nothing came this way."

"Your evidence bag? It didn't get wet?"

"Really, I'm fine, nothing, no-thing..."

So as to not interfere with the cleaning, the two of them half raised their feet, held for a brief moment in this pose by their abdominal muscles.

The unshaven mugs of his Jack Purcells, and the toes of her beautiful high heeled sandals, were lined up, nearly touching. The mop came up to my feet too, and I automatically raised my feet to the same pose. As if I could interfere with the cleanup not having a body, as if somehow these feet could get in the way of the employee in his careful mopping.

Banri, and the Kaga Kouko who dumped Banri, faced each other that way for a little while with their feet raised, their feet not touching, keeping their distance perfectly, the two of them alike, their eyes downcast and not saying anything.

The two of them blinked many times, as if they were in a competition against each other. They didn't look all that much like "good friends". Somehow even I felt uncomfortable, and we all looked downwards.

<center>* * *</center>

The first-period Chinese I lecture finished, their busy old Chinese lecturer left the small classroom and then the students followed, one by one, out into the dark corridor. Up to thirty people were allowed to enroll for the language lecture, and it happened that all of them were freshmen.

"Tada Banri, well done."

"You really stood out today. You did it."

Suddenly he had quite a few friends. People smiled when they passed by, lightly slapping Banri's shoulder.

Answering as needed with an "Oh", or an "Ah", he heard "Tada-kun well done!", "Super well done!", "Really, really good" ...this time, they were girls. The threesome was dressed almost, but not quite, alike in their showy hairstyle and clothing, and one by one they each waved at him, smiling. It seemed that suddenly his time had arrived! Guys and girls alike were entranced by Banri! So quickly he'd become the most popular in the Chinese class! But it wasn't that way at all. Even Banri understood that they were simply teasing him.

Half desperately, he was about to smile and say, "Especially well done!", and wave back to the girls,

"Banri, hey, don't bother."

Yanagisawa Mitsuo (whom he tended to call Yana-ssan rather than Yana), with whom he'd become close friends since they started college, was calling him.

"Ah, Yana-ssan... it looks like I'm already a mess."

Too exhausted even to smile in courtesy, Banri finally, slowly shoved his texts into his bag. Today's lecture was truly awful.

In the middle of the lecture, he was taken to task by the speaker for absentmindedly staring off into space. "Tada-kun, come to attention!" Trapped, he recited, "Maa, maa, maaa, maa!" ---He was forced to repeat the four basic tones of Mandarin Chinese to the point of going mad. And after that, as the rest of the students read their texts he got suspicious again, and "Tada-kun, Come to attention!" "Now!" "Be an example for everybody! Now!" "Maa, maa, maaaa, maa!" That was it.

Yanagisawa sat on the edge of his desk, waiting for Banri to get ready while,

"You are quite a mess. Ah, here's some chewing gum!"

He gladly collected the gum from where it had fallen, to one side of the desk.

"Such torture! I mean, already, from the very first period, I'm lost. Horribly defeated. Why do such things happen to me in particular? And the girls were giggling a lot..."

"Well, during that time of the 'Maa!'s, you made the most incredibly good face."

"A good face? You're kidding, what kind of face was I making?"

"This kind. 'Maa!'"

He made an imitation of Banri's face, suddenly opening his eyes wide while lowering his left shoulder quite a bit, and sucking his cheeks in furiously. Of course, in keeping with that awful mug,

"R, really? I made that kind of face? So I've become this department's number one funny face?"

Disconcerted, Banri pulled a mirror out of his pocket, and opening it looked at his own face while trying to say "Maa!" again. Not to where Mitsuo would see him doing it, but certainly modeling in three dimensions what he had a hard time imagining, he found himself more and more gloomy, wondering 'How many times have I shown this face to everybody else...?'

"Huh, what's that? That's sparkling something awful!"

While Mitsuo laughed, he wasn't pointing at his face, but rather at the incredibly flashy mirror in Banri's hand. For something a college male might have, it was too much, overly luxurious like something from Swarovski<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarovski</ref>.

"...Ah, you noticed, of course? Do you think it strange that I have it?"

"Do I think it strange? Well, I don't think it suits you. How'd you wind up with it?"

"It was given to me."

With a snap, he closed it and handed it over to Mitsuo. Turning it over to look at it, his simple good looks stiffened.

"...'Remember the anniversary of our escape! Your good friend, Kaga Kouko'...?"

Reading the message written on the back of the mirror with a permanent marker, Mitsuo looked at Banri's face. Once more he looked at the message, and then again at Banri's face.

"What's with this? This is awful."

"Ya... awful, or should I say... I'm not sure as to what she means."

Looking back and forth from the mirror to Banri's face repeatedly, Mitsuo hesitated to speak, looking doubtful. Well, it might even have been an act. As for Banri himself, he thought it quite strange to have something of his called "such a mirror".

"It's not like that, Yana-ssan. It's evidence of our friendship, Kaga-san and I, they're matching mirrors. In that way, of the time when Kaga-san and I became friends. ---That kind of thing."

"'That kind of thing'...?"

"It's merely a statement."

Taking back the hand mirror from Mitsuo, he held it gently in the palm of his hand, sparkling coolly. It was a declaration done as it should be. Kouko had pursued Mitsuo some ten odd years so far, and for now, Banri thought he ought to let others know about their entering into this new relationship as friends. He was thinking about what others must be saying, and thought it a good time to set things straight.

Mitsuo, his face was still pinched like a fox, was muttering things like "Declaration...?"

The mirror weighed heavily in his hand.

Chunky and rounded like a faba bean<ref>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vicia_faba</ref>, on the silver back in white Swarovski crystal an extravagant rose was depicted. Obviously expensive, completely feminine, it didn't suit Banri in the least.

The more he looked at it, the more truly difficult, incredibly complex and extremely hard to describe the feeling became. But Banri carried it around, stuffed in his pocket. He polished it every time fingerprints got on it, and he was careful how he used it.

Because Kouko had told him to do so.

"...Well, in short, it's because Kouko gave you that flashy mirror? To Banri? ...Because you'd become friends?"

"Yes"

"...When? How?"

"On Saturday"

His prominent brow frowning a bit, Mitsuo, still not fully satisfied, was asking with his expression for a continuation of Banri's answer. Banri searched a bit for the words, averting his gaze and looking out into space.

So--- that, what happened on Saturday.

Returning from Shizouka, Banri went by foot to meet up with Kouko. They went to the live house locker to get the stuff they'd forgotten, then to Caffe Veloce to drink tea, then she'd dumped him, they'd became friends, and then she'd given him this mirror.

If he were to tell it all, that was all there was to say.

But he didn't want to tell it straight to Mitsuo like that.

Because he wanted to hide the part about "being dumped" if he could. Mitsuo had dumped Kouko, who in truth had loved him, and in the evening of the same day (even more shamefully), Banri had confessed to her at once. But, she dumped him quickly, the very next day. It was too embarrassing to talk about, even if it was true.

And so,

"Kaga-san, like this you see, 'Well, Tada-kun, you've got some snot stuck on you', tossing her hair~, 'Try looking with this mirror', fluttering her eyelashes~, 'I'd like to give you that mirror, so you'll be able to take care of yourself the next time you get snot on your face.' We'll match, as proof of our friendship!', flashing her eyes...'. She gave it to me like that."

With a stupid joke, he lied.

He couldn't look over at Mitsuo. He had no idea what kind of face he was showing.

In reality, about this thing, she said, 'In thanks for your having gone out with me to have fun, and in apology for having gotten drunk and caused you trouble. And, as proof of our friendship from now on', as if it were a blessing over the present. Apparently.

Written on the black paper bag in white letters was "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barneys_New_York Barney's New York]".

From the neat and tidy appearance of the paper bag, it looked like it might be something high class, so Banri immediately raised both his hands in front of him. He made that gesture of refusal, and also said with his expression, "You needn't bother with getting such a present."

But, in what was practically a show of strength, Kouko had restrained him deftly. In front of him, her eyes glistening, she had said, 'I wanted to buy it for you, no matter what! Please! Accept it!'. Being asked so very beautifully, there was no way he could not receive it.

And then, encouraged to go ahead and remove the wrapping still on it, this beautiful hand-mirror with a rose design was revealed to view.

However you looked at it, it was girlish thing, and very expensive. This time, for sure, Banri was seriously bewildered. It was a shock. How was such a slight, careless, round-faced, hunched over bumpkin to receive this sparking, shiny, gorgeous rose mirror, fit for a queen?

Besides, looking at it from his own point of view, even calling it proof of their friendship from now on was rather strange. In other words, this was a memento of his being dumped... he thought, was it a sort of consolation prize?

But, according to Kouko, 'It may not be Banri-like, but, no matter what I want you to make use of it! Because in this mirror there is meaning, an awful lot of meaning!' --- and so on.

Thinking back upon yesterday's give and take with Kouko was a bit late, and to no purpose when right before him, Mitsuo snorted, as if a little disgusted.

Banri somehow, timidly raised his face. At least, nothing worse was happening.

"...Where, when, was the snot?"

While comparing Banri and the mirror sidelong, Mitsuo's inquiring voice seemed really doubtful. Well then, first of all, shall we get on with this worthless piece of fiction? It feels like we're making a mountain out of a molehill.

He couldn't help but ask himself, after all, it was something only Banri, by himself, of his own accord, felt. Just a little. What of it?

Besides, he couldn't tell the whole truth, he was not under such an obligation. But, he thought, shouldn't he keep his relationship with Kouko entirely to himself, right? Perhaps? He might have been forgetting how he was managing his relationship with Kouko.

In that case, remember you idiot! Surrendering himself to the growing opportunity,

"So, that wasn't what we said on Saturday! Take a look back at Friday. You gave Kaga-san quite the manly whack, didn't you? Hey, remember? In one fell swoop you chopped her down, didn't you? You said the two of you were no longer related to each other...!"

He even included a gesture as of swinging a sword downward from above.

Rather quiet and averting his eyes, Mitsuo responded with only a groan. He had thought that what he had just done was simply from ill temper, but,

"After that, Kaga-san and I went out to relax and to drink. From which, we went to the live house, and we forgot some stuff there---"

Abbreviate the middle part. ...Besides, he didn't think he was under any obligation to tell it fully.

"---Because of that, on Saturday, we went together to get it back. The stuff we forgot, that is. Then, when we were having tea, inside my nose suddenly there was Pettonton, the semi-transparent self-absorbed alien."

He stole a sidelong fleeting glance at Mitsuo's face.

Mitsuo gave a small nod, as if to say "that so?", but seeming to have realized that he had neither a reason nor the right to interrupt, his mouth was closed tightly and his eyes were still cast downwards.

Such was the state of the friend in front of him, Banri's chest finally ached a little bit for him. Compared with him, he didn't have any responsibilities. Didn't have any, but... his so-called conscience, was calling him scum. The stone somewhere in his chest didn't fall, in fact he could feel it dimly, caught somewhere.

What do I do? Though he was his very closest friend, speaking of events that had happened to you, but that he could not speak of frankly, wasn't an enjoyable situation. But, he didn't want to speak about what he didn't want to speak about.

"...To the live house. That Kouko, honestly. ...Something doesn't fit."

Mitsuo's voice was quiet, as if speaking to himself. Banri leaned his jaw a little off to the side, and stretched to enter his field of vision, combing up his bangs.

So it was. To the live house. We went. ...It's not a lie. Just a little short on the details.

Mitsuo, his lips crooked, appeared to be brooding, his right thumb rubbing his jaw, but his gaze was still fallen to his feet. What could he be thinking? Was he feeling the strain in the story due to the various omissions strangely made to it? Was he keeping silent because it wasn't his right to interfere with their business anymore?

A strange feeling lodged in his chest, there was one more thing he understood.

Banri's making omissions in his story to Mitsuo, that was not the matter for today.

That was nothing other than the matter of his loss of memory.

He didn't think the conversation was particularly necessary. As far as the nineteen year old human being called "Tada Banri" was concerned, who had lost all of his memories through his eighteenth year, and even he understood it to be a big event, insofar as his personality was concerned. He just wanted his friends to understand him. So, always, from the time they met, he sought the opportunity to talk about it. But that opportunity didn't quite arrive. Misunderstanding how he spoke, they always rejected him as a pitiful, if not sick person.

If the opportunity were to arise, he wondered what kind of thing he could honestly say. With regards to memory loss, with regards to Kouko even. About everything that happened on Saturday. If he wanted to talk to friends, everything.

But that was not now.

Understanding within himself that it was only an excuse, feeling suddenly the urge to do something so he wouldn't seem to have suddenly fallen silent, Banri opened the mirror again and carefully looked at the reflection of his nostrils. His nose was clean.

"Kaga-san really busted out something awful! Though about five times there she threw up."

To only use a cheerful voice, to talk like that was his plan. But, the pale thin face of a nineteen-year-old male reflected in the mirror, looked back at him faintly, more miserable than ever, less confident than ever.

"With Kouko as Banri's friend, at a live house, with boogers, with aliens, vomiting, eh...?"

Mitsuo stood up before Banri and walked away, as if he were confirming the words he'd said, opening the classroom door wearily.

"What a mess... I mean, of course you don't understand. ...Well, it has nothing to do with you anyway."

Suddenly changing course, Mitsuo turned around as he'd realized something. Standing in the dark windowless corridor, he looked straight back at Banri's face. Once more, seeing him like this from straight in front, Banri noted how really handsome Yana-ssan was, but,

"What do you mean, Banri? On Saturday, if you had only called, we could have talked about what you didn't understand. But there was neither voice mail nor text message all day. You ignored me, and went out to have fun with Kouko?"

"Eh... Though you're telling me so, well... that's the way it turned out."

"..."

With a sound awfully like a growl, Mitsuo's face finally darkened.

But Banri said, "Eh, kid? Wow, you're really bothered!", the moment Mitsuo's face became threatening, and he blinked as if coming to his senses, shook his head from side to side twice, and slapped his own cheek quite hard. The impact even made him stumble. The whole thing took only five seconds,

"Yana-ssan's fallen apart...!"

"I have not."

With a thud combing up his hair, Mitsuo looked back at Banri once more. And then,

"Nothing's broken. ...To put it simply, I am realizing that finally I am becoming just a bit human, clumsy and dim-witted."

Taking a small breath, he stopped talking.

The meaning of it was not well understood by Banri, but after a little bit, his voice replaced by something weak, not very masculine,

"...There are many things to think about. ...If you want to talk about such things a bit, like that stuff on Saturday, you can call me! But... oh well. Enough already. It's OK. It doesn't matter."

Having said something like that, as you might have expected this time, for sure, definite feelings of guilt crowded around Banri's chest.

In reality, many things had happened on Saturday, and if Mitsuo had called he'd entirely forgotten about til now. He may have ruined their friendship.

His hands full of his own problems, if there were any phone calls, or even any text messages, he ignored them. He didn't recall any texts on Sunday either. But of course, Banri was only thinking of his own problems, the whole time wrapped up in a blanket on his futon like a tuna-fish; he didn't remember about Mitsuo at all. He was only thinking of his own problems.

Unable to justify his own insensitivity,

"No, I'm sorry!"

He slapped his forehead trying to behave modestly.

"I even returned home for a bit, flailed about, and completely forgot to call you up! If it's all right with you, I can listen to your story now. Shall we go to the cafeteria or somewhere? I can skip second period easily enough."

And then, having been invited in all sincerity, in friendship to go and play truant, Mitsuo frowned and sadly shook his head from side to side.

"I can hardly be the one absent person, and... what about you, don't you have Civil Law I? Don't you have to be there?"

"I don't have to. Rather, what are you taking, Yana-ssan?"

"Logic"

"That's not a required course, why did you take it!? Is the lecture interesting or something?"

"Completely."

"Well then cut it out, Monday's second period let's go together to Civil Law! Maybe it'd be better to change to that way from now on. Registration still hasn't closed, has it? Which Civil Law class were you in at first?"

"Wednesday fifth period, somebody called Professor Tsukamoto."

"Fifth period! Tsuka who?! Why take such a little thing as civil law, nobody else took such a thing!"

"No, though the guys in the second period were decent... rather, I had already bought the textbook for Logic... $50... they change only the color of the binding from year to year, and I heard if you didn't show the professor your brand new textbook, he wouldn't accept you for the class..."

"So expensive! Garbage!"

"...But I wanted to take this period's Civil Law class, though. There was even going to be a famous speaker from television. But, look, I spotted Kouko in the first lecture. Because of that, I stopped and thought..."

Sighing once more, even more deeply, Mitsuo frowned. He muttered that up til now he had not needed to run this way and that to escape Kouko, and as he muttered, his backpack, which had been hoisted to one shoulder, slipped sneakily down to his elbow. As if he were overbalanced by a heavy bag, he wobbled on his feet. Banri, seeing that,

"Err, Yana-ssan, are you, like, feeling OK? ...You aren't a bit shook up?"

He looked again at his friend's face, carefully.

Perhaps it was due to his standing under the old fluorescent lights, but now that he thought about it, his color didn't look too good. On top of that, over just this weekend, had he somehow lost weight? Just a little.

It was spring. May. High season, so to speak, for student apathy. Entered in the university, starting to live alone, the change in lifestyle was big, cut off all at once from his childhood friends, and on top of that, he had said he'd had a fight with his parents. Living through this life, his spirits had fallen a bit, even if there was a bit of bad timing. He had the feeling Yanagisawa Mitsuo was depressed.

And then, just like a trigger,

"...Perhaps, if you wouldn't mind much? The matter of having dumped Kaga-san."

His head still hanging, Mitsuo answered him nothing.

If he was guessing correctly, taking the opportunity to remind of what had happened before, in attitude or speech, was hardly the right thing to do right now. Mitsuo’s dark face looking up at him made Banri practically jump, and finally, in a panic, he followed along inside.

"Bu, but I thought the Yana-ssan of the time was very 'manly'! Besides, Kaga-san would be OK! Understanding your feelings, she can get back on her own two feet! She’s a wonderfully strong person!"

But,

"...That may be. Very much so. Right away, she went to a fun live house. Very much so..."

As soon as he raised his face, Mitsuo glared sharply in reproach, growling at him. But if he didn't follow him, it might make the situation worse. Banri hurried, but Mitsuo however suddenly went quiet, in the end slapping himself on the face twice. Oh! If Banri didn't go inside, then without a doubt he was going to do it again. And so, lowering his face, he bowed down, as if chanting a prayer to a some sinister pagan god.

"I thought that if I could separate myself from Kouko, everything would get better... Despite that, Kouko came to the same university as me... I thought that after all, nothing had changed... Because of Kouko, it was coming to nothing... I thought that if I rejected her clearly, all would be well... That's why it happened... It was bad that I believed it was all Kouko's fault... But from the moment I dumped Kouko as if by sorcery the 'start of my shining life' suddenly ceased to exist, all it accomplished was to make Kouko cry, and moreover now, I'm coming to hear that Kouko's spirits are reviving. Strangely, I was even offending you. ...Ah, sorry... sorry sorry! To put it simply, I, I, I, I well, I was a jerk..."

"Ya, Yana-ssan, hold on..."

Brushing away Banri's unintentionally outstretched hand, Mitsuo looked towards the ceiling, his eyes vacantly staring off into space. And then groaning,

"...I've been incredibly insensitive... ...How should I put it? I've been a churl, or more bluntly, how to put it... a piece of crap...?"

Banri could no longer do anything more about the situation than watch over it.

"...Well then... the piece of crap is going to logic class... bye."

Mitsuo, still looking up at the ceiling, left alone, waving his hand toward Banri. With a strangely vacant gaze and voice. There was no way such a condition could be normal.

"Hold on, hold on, hold on!"

Banri unintentionally became like [[Golden Time:Volume2_Translator%27s_Notes#The Touch|a certain comedy duo]] as he settled down and chased after that departing back.

"Yana-ssan, seriously, wait up! Err, well, let's walk to the classroom together!"

"...Huh? Why? It's right over there."

"No, but something... or rather, you're really going to not skip class!? Let's do it! Let's head for the cafeteria!"

"...My stomach isn't empty yet. I haven't missed attending yet."

"It's OK, logic class is no big deal! Or rather, if you flunk it, we can take it together next year! What's more, look, I... In truth I've got a bit of something I want to talk about. Recently a few things have happened, and I'm not sure I can resolve the situation on my own. I haven't explained things well recently, but really, I'm sorry for having ignored you on Saturday! So from now on it's time for some male bonding! Let's talk together, as thick as thieves!"

Suddenly, Mitsuo's feet stopped. Turning towards Banri, strangely quiet, he looked him in the eye.

"Various things happened? Like for example?"

"That, for example, well..."

Repeating once more, 'For example', Banri stopped moving entirely.

I did not explain things well, I left various things out of what I said, for example.

That he had noticed that Mitsuo had come to be the love of Kaga-san's life, for instance.

But she was rejected just like that, among other things.

Rather, what are such things as memory loss?

It looked like he dated Linda in the past he could not remember, for another. When he returned home, he had seen a photo of that, but the 'Linda' of now, revealing nothing, as his club senior doing well for him, yet another. What the heck all that meant, he did not know, and it was making an awful mess of him.

And so on.

"..."

---In the end, he couldn't say anything more.

Banri's mouth still half open, he cast his eyes down and went silent.

Not saying anything more, in front of his friend, he was quiet, unable to move.

Even though he was given the chance to talk, nothing was coming out, because he didn't know what would be OK to talk about. Or perhaps, as far as he was concerned, what the heck was going on, what was he thinking about it, what was he feeling about it? Inside himself, he came to realize that the very idea of talking with friends did not exist.

In short, like anybody else--- he thought of his own affairs as if they were events from a world far away.

These situations, happening all at once, were almost too chaotic; even one at a time he would have a hard time dealing with them.

One example, the matter of being dumped by Kouko, as a matter of fact, he couldn't speak of how much of a shock that was. Whether in pain and crying, or in misery and agony, he was unable to deal with such feelings, not individually. Though of course it was rather complicated for him, in reality, it didn't hurt that much. From now on, as a good friend... even saying such a thing, he didn't think that was a good idea.

With regards to Linda, even more so. To say nothing of what he was feeling, as it was he honestly did not know. What happened in the past he could not remember, beyond that, he could not understand what Linda was thinking. As for the fact that they used to go out together, why did she need to continue pretending not to know about it?

Still, "What might it be?" "What shall I do?" "I don't know." "Why might it be?" ...it was that, over and over again. No matter how many times he asked, there was simply nobody answering. Talking with himself was entirely useless.

"---I don't understand anything. I don't know. For me, really, I don't understand anything. I simply don't remember."

In some ways as if he were paralyzed; inside his head he was in a daze. Messing up his hair rather than scratching out his brain, trying to somehow wake himself up, this time his hand was stopped by Mitsuo.

"...It's OK, I understand. For the time being, both my heart and yours need some rest, it seems certain. Alright, let's go be overcharged fair and square."

<center>* * *</center>

Supporting each other's troubled hearts, binding as friends, they wobbled down the stairs, barely managing to arrive at the first floor student cafeteria.

Because until noon there was still space, there were a lot of seats. Here and there were people chattering yet, and students seeming to be taking a late breakfast seated here and there, beyond whom,

"...Whoa..."

Seeing it suddenly in his field of view, unconsciously Banri reared back. "What?", Mitsuo looked over towards where Banri was looking, noticed and groaned similarly. He stopped walking.

The school cafeteria was fading into a heavy yellowish shade, but that one person's appearance was shining too brightly, sparkling as if it's natural energy were radiating outwards.

As far as Banri was concerned, right now he still didn't know with what kind of face to greet this unknown person. For Mitsuo also, perhaps it was about the same as with Banri... or perhaps now it was difficult to face that person.

Shining glossy and bright, her long, deep brown hair was curled beautifully.

She had a deep, deep blue hairband with shining rhinestones affixed to it.

Her hair flowed straight down her slender back.

They understood even from behind that this was quite the beautiful woman, that hair, that style, the things she had, from her whole body shone forth an aura that said she wasn't an ordinary person.

Feeling their gaze perhaps, or maybe she heard the groans of the two guys,

"Ah..."

Turning back towards them, there was no mistaking her beautiful face.

On her carefully prepared, showy features, bright rose pink lips. They both gasped, so splendid was that beauty.

Dressed perfectly, with impeccable fashion and brand, Kaga Kouko was seated at a somewhat shabby table.

Banri and Mitsuo, and then Kouko's gaze, exchanged looks wordlessly. Each of them according to their circumstances, they were severally at loss for words. How many seconds did the awkward silence continue?

"W, well", Banri awkwardly tried to start the conversation. Morning, Kaga-san, how're you feeling? But look, Yana-ssan didn't make a greeting, neither did Kaga-san--- he set out to take the first step with the seeming tension, but,

"...Maa!"

As if struck by an arrow, Kouko stood up yet quicker.

From between her alluringly rose colored lips, her teeth flashed, pure white with a tinge of blue visible. Graceful like a dancing butterfly she spun around once, swinging her skirt.

"Maa! Maa! Maa!"

Both her hands were squeezed together tightly before her chest, in what was nearly a caricature of a surprised look.

Then, opening her hands suddenly, she slowly tilted her head to one side sharply, and before long from her surprised expression transformed into a wide open, extremely happy smile.

Her hips dropping into a straight, long stride, without batting an eyelash she stepped briskly up before Banri's eyes,

"You're Tada-kun, aren't you!"

He was very much Tada-kun, but--- that moment he was being hugged energetically. His protests ignored, she made as if to kiss him on both cheeks, not quite touching him.

Sh, she was a foreigner...

When Kouko let go of the still astonished Banri, he looked back at her happily laughing face. On top of that, this person was not normally a foreigner. When she was excited, she became one.

''Geh, take a look everybody! I got to meet my favorite grandfather after five thousand years buried in the rock on the other side of the world! And on top of that, Grandfather, you brought me as a present a diamond the size of a melon (you were planning two!?)! Sheer happiness!''

...Sort of, a warm welcoming excitement.

Despite having just been dumped the day before yesterday at Veloce, there was nothing in her gaze but Tada Banri.

[[Image:Golden Time vol02 049.jpg|thumb]]
Kouko stopped before Banri's nose, her smile brightened by happiness. Almost too close to him, Banri's field of vision was almost entirely blocked by Kouko's perfect smile. And then she clasped her hands before her chest. Arranging her feet modestly, she bent back a bit and turned her sparkling eyes upwards. Gazing worshipfully at Banri in a posture rather like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Xavier Xavier],

"My good friend, Tada-kun...! Good morning!"

She was even misty-eyed.

"Because we met this way by chance in the morning, this will be a really good day! Hey, it was absolutely fated long ago that we would be the best of friends!"

She batted her long dark eyelashes adorably while she said that.

Still looking straight at Banri like that, she slowly shook her head from side to side with that smile on her face. She gave the appearance of "This warm feeling, welling up! Ah, I can't stand it anymore!"

"Oh..."

Somehow, his mouth opened.

Go for it! Do your best, Tada Banri!

"...Morning. ...Kaga-san"

As if in ecstasy from listening to Banri's greeting, Kouko moaned and closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"That voice is Tada-kun's. That way of speaking. Incredible..."

Blood rushing to her head flushed her cheeks rosy and warm while, making a face as if she were getting to eat the chocolate of the century, soft and warm, her eyelids rising. You're amazing... but he couldn't say that, not at all.

"It reminds me of something I've missed... hey, our previous existence, have you thought about it? I have. I was the youngest novice sister in a monastery, and Tada-kun lived in the deep forest as a shepherd... that's what I believe. Every morning Tada-kun had to deliver cheese to us. Hey, isn't that incredibly romantic? Thank you, all my life I thank you, I'm thankful for this fate, that we've met this way twice now!"

"...Oo..."

Banri was filled with overflowing with a groan.

For some reason, somehow or other, this was way too much.

What about that excitement? This feeling of drama. Behaving like a foreigner. Let's be friends, she said, and in two days Kaga Kouko had gotten to this point.

And now Kouko was waiting for Banri's reaction. Eyes wide open, brilliantly sparkling, she silently gazed at her close friend Tada Banri.

What do I do, really—no, in truth. Not knowing what he should do, Banri for the moment, tried to put his hands to chest. Not Kouko's; to his own chest. And then, as if to be able to open his eyes the same way, he smiled with all his might, while gazing back at Kouko's sparkling eyes, trying to rock his head back and forth in the same way.

Apparently quite satisfied with how Banri was doing, Kouko, once more looking pleased, returned to swaying before him. Still without words, it was a little show of reflecting Xaviers, presented in male and female, so to speak.

Mitsuo exclaimed, "Scary...!", as if he could hardly stand it any longer, and covered his mouth with his hand. Banri only partially saw that he had jumped well back.

"Well, Mitsuo---"

Her swaying ceased, still standing before Banri's eyes, Kouko looked over towards Mitsuo.

As far as she was concerned, she loved Mitsuo. He was her formerly destined lover. From her point of view, though, he had separated himself from her destined scenario.

Banri unconsciously gasped.

What would come of Kouko's strange excitement in front of Mitsuo he could not tell. Facing him was her 'foreigner flavored suddenly fated friends mode', but... what should he do if she made a scene before Mitsuo? Carefully, he looked her over once more. For the time being, she didn't seem to be carrying any hidden weapons (not even a bouquet of roses).

She was wearing a white frilly blouse over a high-waisted, houndstooth checked one piece dress, black tights and black high-heeled, low rise boots. Because of the arrangement, changing immediately below the swell of her chest, it made her appear even more delicate and feminine. It was awfully nice to see.

Kouko turned about to face Mitsuo, the beautifully painted nails of the fingers of her left hand gently arranged, restraining the soft and full swelling out of the region of her heart.

"Mitsuo, you are just like a lonely hunter going out into the wilderness... your face seems like that..."

Eyes closed dreamily, she murmured softly and earnestly.

And then, her right hand extended elegantly, like a loving mother about to touch Mitsuo's cheek. Mitsuo pulled back at once. Kouko quickly drew closer, touching his face against his will. Because of the power in those fingers, trying to hold down that body twisting in revulsion, from an outsider's point of view, it was becoming like an iron claw hold, but,

"To be sent to a monastery to quietly pray my days away, perhaps should have been my destiny from the start..."

"Hugugu..."

That was enough for Kouko, apparently.

Looking down upon the captured face of Mitsuo, her eyelids, light pearl cross-hatched by eye-shadow, glittered as she wore a dramatically tragic look.

From an onlooker's point of view, looking at how the two of them appeared, Banri instinctively gasped. Well, for sure... I'm glad it didn't come down to bloodshed.

All of which meaning, with the end of this performance of the Kaga Kouko Theater, would things be OK for the time being?

Though you dumped me, Mitsuo, and hurt me too, I am being healed by the presence of my wonderful friend! While recovering, I'm tough and beautiful! Thank you, everybody, for the help you've given me! I'm feeling fine! --- Such was the essence of Kouko's theater, and it was, well, amusing. But what exactly were her real motives, what did she see in Yana-ssan's face; he didn't feel like asking such unromantic questions right here, right now.

Matching up with the demise of Mitsuo and Kouko's one act, he realized that somebody was giving direction, "Music, start". Surely that was a voice from heaven, as if the stage director for this world were speaking, and,

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ai_o_Torimodose!! You are such a shock!]"

Banri shouted with all his might.

Standing and facing Kouko and Mitsuo while walking slowly in a circle around them, assuming a pose, pointing his finger at them with a somehow evil face, as it were an emissary of the devil to liven up this ending. Nyahahahaha, nyahahahaahaa!

"You are such a shock!"

...In reality, he didn't know the lyrics very well. Derereredere, derereredereeredee, dereree... still, he used to know them! With the high-pitched voice he had held back, he would make their hair stand on end! Ready, set,

"In order to protect our love! You are taking off!"

"What!?"

The singing wasn't from Banri.

Surprised, he looked back. The stolen song's singing, five times higher than his limit, as high pitched as if he'd been impaled up his rear. He looked at the owner of that voice.

---He went as still as a stone.

"Soo, briiinngg back your looooveee<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

What he had thought to be a voice from heaven, ...was very much so. But it wasn't. He had not heard a voice from heaven, nor a stage director's voice.

It was Linda.

Course registration forms rolled up to look like a microphone at her mouth, in a pose of leaning against the seat at the corner of the table, she sang hotly at the top of her voice, echoing still, her fist shoved in the air,

"...Haven't you taste in songs, Tada Banri?"

Those hands were saying "Hi!" to Banri.

"Linda---"

His voice shook, and though it could be heard, it sounded as if it were from somewhere far away, like the underworld.

Hurriedly, he added the honorific "senpai".

Yes, this is the person, he thought in his heart.

This was absolutely the person in that picture he found at home, clinging to him, carrying on with him. It was this face. This was Hayashida Nana. Her white skin, her eyes. Moreover, her age. Above all, her name. There was no mistaking it. There was a one in ten thousand chance, not quite an impossibility, but it wasn't very likely.

"Err... good morning. Something... if you look at the condition of the guy with you, Kaga-san, the image of 'Champion of the last Century' simply doesn't come to mind..."

Kouko tilted her head to one side, as if to say 'What are you doing?'

Banri nodded in greeting to Linda once more, in a underclassman-like way, while absolutely convinced that this person was the one in the picture.

Linda knew his past. They were connected. And yet, she was hiding the past. She was acting as if Banri's past did not exist.

What the heck, why?

Continuing her assault on him despite Banri's embarrassment, the back of the chair supporting her stiffly, Linda gave a big stretch. Her face was smooth, without makeup, probably not even eyebrow pencil. Getting up, a long-sleeved layered T-shirt covering half-way down her fingers, she crossed her blue-jeaned legs.

"Nooww, stop teasing your friends and come back here, Kouko-chan. If we hurry up, we'll get done before we run out of time. As for me, I plan on skipping second period anyway."

She turned to face Kouko, making the course registration forms flutter. Seeing that, Kouko hurriedly turned aside, returning to the sit at the table across from Linda.

"Sorry for making you wait, I'm working, I'm working, let's get down to writing!"

On top of the table, other than some cups of stuff to drink, there was a huge schedule table, the size of a tatami mat, and syllabus booklets that were distributed when they entered the school. Various kinds of writing implements were scattered upon it. Banri and Mitsuo noticed it, wondering what it was.

"We're discussing Kouko-chan's schedule right now."

Smiling slightly, Linda explained for them.

"This girl had no idea what were the required classes. Her schedule was ridiculous. She's taken no language class, and she hasn't bought her book. Now there's hardly any class with room to get in... yes, and yet this year she’s only taking about 24 credits. Not enough."

Kouko, her lips a little tighter, let out a sweet and innocently apologetic laugh and shrugged her shoulders.

"But, but if I did well, then I could take just language mid-year, and then I'd have all my required credits, right?"

"You should. Maybe."

"Then it's perfect!"

"Not quite perfect. ...About halfway there?"

"Halfway there! Hooray!"

What senpai suggested was good, of course, and Kouko looked over the "halfway done" schedule form and gave a sigh. Finally, she scribbled something down on the registration forms with a silver ballpoint pen, and looked up with a sweet smile. Linda looked at it with a suddenly serious eye,

"What I mean is that lately, 'taking only 24 credits', isn't that rather dangerous? Getting thirty credits done wouldn’t be awfully unusual! Aah, one more thing for later: you're going to want to get into some four credit course... Tada Banri, are you set? You’ve registered for your classes?"

Unexpectedly, she was trying to get Banri involved.

"Uh", mumbled Banri, momentarily at a loss for words,

"Well, for the time being, though my registration is already done, ...ah, but this guy keeps getting me into trouble during some wonderful lectures."

Casually, Kouko tried to close the distance, raising her hand to Mitsuo's elbow, bringing them closer to looking like a couple.

"I call this guy Yana-ssan. Yana-ssan, this is Linda-senpai of Omaken. We are greatly indebted to her, as she saved our lives, Kaga-san's and mine. I mentioned her before."

"Ah, yes, that time these guys were in trouble," Mitsuo said, giving a small nod to Linda while she glanced at him, Banri quietly keeping his mouth shut. Restlessly, he scratched near his nose.

This was not what he really wanted to talk about.

Mitsuo's classes didn't matter at all... no, nothing mattered. What he wanted to talk to Linda about was something else.

But frankly, how to do it?

'Why are you pretending not to know me? Linda-senpai, you really do know me, don't you? I saw you in the yearbook! In photos too. We were really close, weren't we? You know I'd lost my memories? Though I don't remember anything of those times, why is it you haven't said a thing? You and I, until I lost my memories, we had a special relationship, didn't we? I would like at least one thing from your mouth, a clear answer: yes or no. As it is, continuing to pretend not to know me, how am I going to settle my mind?'

---Trying to think, he looked about ready to break out laughing.

But he just couldn't say it.

Even if the two of them were alone in this place, he wondered if he could speak of this at all.

Even the matter of the yearbook and the photos, let alone asking about their shared past, where they were specially close, he thought. There was nothing to deny. The answer was 'yes'. There was no other possibility.

And yet, Linda had to have some unknown reason for pretending to know nothing like this. Saying nothing to Banri, she was hiding something.

Banri was not so dimwitted as to repeat to himself over and over, "Hiding everything like that, why, why!? What should I do? Think, think!?", or maybe he was simpleminded. At least for now.

"Glad to meet you", good humouredly waving her hand, leaning against the back of her seat, Linda grinned at Mitsuo. "I'm Linda, Hayashida Linda", introducing herself with an air of long practice.

Looking at her, Banri thought once more, "She's a good senpai." Friendly enough to even put off going to her own lecture to counsel a younger student, even somebody she didn't know. Kind, and a person you really could rely on. Being together with her was fun, and he was thrilled just to be near her. ...So it was, until only a few days ago. Even if he didn't study it out, he thought that even now it should honestly be so.

At the present time, for sure, Linda didn't want to be known to my current self. Therefore, knowing the former Banri was not something that could be spoken of. Just that.

If he wanted to know more, perhaps, it wouldn't be bad to establish a good working relationship with the current Linda.

With respect to Banri, that--- yes. There was no hope. Having met Linda by chance as a club senior, he would make a good impression as junior. There was no way he would expose what she was hiding.

Above all, she seemed to be worried too. Perhaps, because of those worries, she chose to behave as if she didn't know the former Banri at all. He didn't feel like interrupting her with that conclusion, though. If he were told that what was there before him at that moment was important, he would also agree, he thought.

He really thought this to be so.

That was a confirmation of his identity, Banri decided.

Stop thinking about this already! Why should I, it's already over.

Forget about it. ---Yes, I've forgotten.

With a chuckle, Banri lifted his face, deliberately like a junior, like an idiot.

"I mean, Linda-senpai, this guy Yana-ssan, he's taking Wednesday 5th period Civil Law class~, could you please tell him something about it~?"

He was trying to speak to Linda sweetly.

"Huh!? Seriously!? Tsukamoto's Civil Law class!? Why something so crazy!?"

Linda frowned, and covered her mouth with her hand as if in shock. Are you trying to torture yourself, my dear? This, too, seeming but a momentary play, she said to Banri, "I'm not making fun of you!", and like a female soldier, she quickly put on a straight face.

"Eh... What's the terrible thing I'm doing?"

"No no no, it's horrible! It's always bad, you, err, Yana-ssan? Because that is truly awful. "Wednesday's fifth period 'Civil Law 1' every year has a seriously difficult test, with past year's notes and references not allowed, less than seventy percent on the test and less than seventy percent attendance (no use in arguing) is failure, and because there aren't many people, answering the roll call for somebody else is impossible... for Civil Law most wait, and furthermore, if you don't study seriously... no, they say that even working diligently, it's quite hard."

"Are you serious?"

"That's why everybody takes Monday's second period Civil Law!"

"...Is, that so..., ah... seems I messed up... What to do, this is really awful... Am I already repeating something next year...?"

"Though it's OK to repeat it. Monday second period's easy Civil Law class is most people's preference, though how many people waited, and then fell in the trap of taking the demon of Wednesday 5th period again, who knows..."

From what Linda had to say, Mitsuo was getting quite worried. Watching this from the side, Kouko casually cleaned off her pen nibs.

"Aah ah ah, Mitsuo, what kind of mess is this? Ah good, I have the perfect schedule set up for me. I've even taken Civil Law perfectly."

Even at other people’s problems, her face smiled beautifully. While her pretty nails glittered, she went cleaning up her writing implements.

Openly hostile, Mitsuo glared at Kouko. Kouko was completely unperturbed. On the contrary, smiling, she looked straight back at Mitsuo's face, cheerfully adding on "sorry to hear that", and whether on purpose or not, humming in good humor.

While Mitsuo was practically trembling all over, he slowly looked over at Banri's face,

"...Banri, come with me a bit!"

"W, where to!? And mess up Kaga-san's studies!? Hey, be careful! Mother Bear has cubs in the spring, and could get rather irritated!"

"You got it wrong! What I'm doing now is going to second period Civil Law! Anyway, I'm going to catch the professor when he leaves the lecture, and ask him if I can take it from now on, though I haven't attended even once yet! I'm throwing away 4500 yen!"

"Ah, ahh, that's good, that's good! Good luck, Yana-ssan! Hurry up!"

"Oh!"

He took off running, but Mitsuo, looking like he'd forgotten something, suddenly stumbled a step or two and came back to them,

"Idiot! You'll lose the credit entirely! You'll have to do it over! And then you'll cry!"

With an awfully sudden jerk of his chin, both his arms flapping like gull's wings, he let out a stream of abuse directed at Kouko. And then he took off running again. This time, he flew directly out of the cafeteria, and could be seen using his long legs freely to run up the staircase.

While she watched, Kouko laughed rather scornfully and coldly.

"What was that? Did you see? Mitsuo's a child. He cannot have friends, so he goes it alone."

"...Ka, Kaga-san"

"Whaat? Tada-kun."

As far as Banri was concerned, she appeared a friend to the last. Smiling at him, she tilted her head to the side quizzically.

"Welll, aren't you being a little too rough on Yana-ssan...?"

"Rough? Me? No such thing; we're normally like that."

"No, what if the nun treated the woodland hunter like that..."

"But he's not just an acquaintance."

"Eh! ...W, what're you saying...? Weren't you childhood friends! That's scary!"

"No. I didn't know him in a previous life."

"We're talking about this life! I mean, just a minute, seriously, with what kind of history can you be like this? Not long ago you were glued to Yana-ssan's face, dreamily muttering 'Mitsuo...'!"

"That was the last act of our play, Mitsuo and I. To the music of Tada-kun and Linda-senpai's wild orchestra, the curtain descended. With that, our relationship is already over. Therefore, he is somebody that I do not know."

Kouko declared this very coldly and without hesitation, her beautiful lips formed into a prickly pout, her slender chin upraised. Without so much as a twitch of her eyebrows, that kind of coldness. "Eh", his speech cut off, Banri too fell into silence.

Well, Banri had been thinking for a while now, "these guys' relationship isn't very good..." Mitsuo avoided hating Kouko, though while Kouko chased after him in love, he wasn't nice to her at all, if they met up they only fought, to all appearances they were abusive to each other. It looked like there wasn't even a memory of the two of them having been friends.

And yet, because he knew of Kouko's awkwardness, Banri saw the two of them as something different. Because Kouko truly loved Mitsuo, he had grown used to it. Put simply, it was excessively ‘tsun' in the ‘tsundere' aspect of their relationship. Precisely because he understood that, it didn't set his teeth on edge thinking about it. Though he liked Kouko, Banri also softheartedly worried about her.

In the end, after ten years (more or less) that Kaga Kouko and Yanagisawa Mitsuo had been childhood friends, she had been dumped once and for all. Was all they had left simply the sheer seriousness of it all?

What an empty relationship they had. In any case, though confirmed as friends with each of them separately, it was little comfort to Banri. But thinking on what was before him now, he let out an unconscious sigh.

Linda stretched as she stood up.

"Well then, I have to go to a lecture too. Are you two all right now? Is there anything else you want to ask me?"

Kouko stood respectfully for Linda, also acting the part of junior,

"We're good, thank you very much. Thank you for having helped us. Next time for sure, allow us to do something for you."

With the slow pace of a true princess, she bowed her head. Linda waved her hand and smiled as if she were embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it. It wouldn't bother me if you came out to the club, and if you were to practice hard, I'd be really happy. That said, it's tomorrow mid-day, OK? We'll meet at eleven, have lunch while we meet, and practice starts at one o'clock. So don't be late."

Pointing at Banri with a slender finger,

"You too, Tada Banri! Practice. Awa Odori. The same place as before. You haven't forgotten?"

"Ah, of course not! Yes sir!"

"Yes, good answer. Tomorrow then. Don't miss it, because it looks like some of the fourth year senpais are going to be there."

Linda hung her bag from her shoulder, stepping away from the table easily. As she walked away, not a sound arose from her vividly fluorescent Nikes.

That reminds me, seeing Linda off with a smile, he looked at Kouko's face.

"Were you bothered about staying with Omaken?"

Certainly coming back from the previous practice session, Kouko seemed to have lost a lot of her enthusiasm. It seemed to him that she'd said things about how embarrassed she was by her awkward dancing, and that there was no way, she could not stay in the club.

"That's right. I did."

Nodding her head deeply, Kouko looked back at Banri intensely.

"Lately, I've had various things too... didn't you? I've overcome them, and now I, I'm really looking forward to things."

Her smile sparkled brightly. Her pure white teeth showed through. She carried herself like royalty. Banri even reflexively wanted to applaud.

"That so? Good."

"...You really think it's good?"

"Yes, I do! I would be happy to be able to dance the Awa Odori with Kaga-san, nothing would be better! To me, running into difficulties is part of growing up."

Her body twisting, Kouko slowly closed her eyes, as if she were drunk.

"Thank you for the support. As for me, anyway, I'm thinking of taking on a new challenge. Even Awa Odori is one! Hesitating like this is wrong. Thinking about this and that, being scared is wrong. I believe living that way is a waste. Every day, we must progress... right?"

Her eyes flicking open, she looked at Banri. Banri nodded to her,

"Right!"

Her large eyes sparkled to the point of being dangerous.

And then coming several steps closer, suddenly a few inches from Banri's nose Kouko became serious. Banri gulped reflexively; Kouko could not be stopped.

"Advancing day by day! And then earnestly forward! Forward! Forward! One way or the other, forward, progressing! That will be my life! To go forward living like that, that is what I have decided! It will be a super proactive life, on the GO! I will see it accomplished perfectly! Advancing, continuing forward until I die! I will do it, absolutely! Becoming perfect, going through life, looking forward positively, even unto death!"

She caught Banri by the shoulder. ''Comrade!'' With that kind of energy.

Having gotten to this point, Banri averted his eyes at once.

He laughed uneasily.

Saying only that much, he retreated backwards. Her hand leaving his shoulder, "What?", Kouko's lips looked displeased, but no. The feeling was distinctly that of fear. Why does this person run to such extremes?

Though she'd dumped him, she was looking towards the future. That so? She'll even go to the club! Wow, that's good! ...To the extent she settles down to normality, it'll be easier to get to know her. And it somehow seemed that in her previous existence she didn't even know Mitsuo, her good friend up til now. Why would one have to suddenly jump so far, to the point this person in particular has gone?

He said to himself, "Oh well, she cannot moderate herself precisely because she is Kaga Kouko", though he also cared for her.

One cheek puffed out extremely cutely, Kouko spoke to the drawn-back Banri.

"Tada-kun, since we've come to be true friends, if we have anything we want to talk about, could we just talk? Let's not keep secrets!"

"Well, though you say it... what's that tension, that fear as if of that group of the 'Crystal God'... really Kaga-san, wasn't it you who said carelessly, in shock from a broken heart, 'Hello Neo-Children?'"

Kouko, who had just promised that he could say whatever he wanted to, suddenly, as if she were saying "hold it!", her eyebrows rose into beautiful arcs. Yes, she's angryyy. One serving of anger. Anger, coming right uuup.

"What are you saying! That cannot be! This a universal question of living as a human being. I don't want to be trivialized like that!"

As you might expect, seeing that beautiful, magnificently ordered, showy face with an expression brightly flushed in anger, was rather terrifying.

"Ah, whoa...!"

Banri, falling down before her as if she were a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heian_period Heian-era] princess,

"No 'Whoa's!"

With a snap, a finger thrust out towards his nose, and once more he threw his head back sharply. It had nearly gone up his nose to the second joint.

"In other words, Tada-kun should move forward too! No, not doing so is wrong! Do it! Now! Right away! As best friends, it wouldn't be right if we didn't move forward in about the same way! Because if I couldn't do so, I couldn't be a perfect friend!"

"Eh... no way..."

"Look here, again a voice like that! What a weak looking mess! 'Whoa~' 'No way~' Talking like that isn't allowed! Making such a dumb face isn't either! Yes, even though I was,"

'Even though I dumped you', hesitating like that is no good!

---Whether in fact, or in saying so, he thought.

Now even Banri, suddenly realizing the gap in space and time between the two of them, looked back at Kouko as if through distorted memories. Noticing that look,

"..."

Even the energetically yapping Kouko's vocal cords suddenly fell silent, as if broken.

Staying this way, both of them silent, "..." (Do you usually speak like this!?) "..." (I didn't say anything, nothing at all!) "..." (But how about trying to talk!?) "..." (I'm not doing anything, really I'm not.) "..." (If that's the case, then put that awkward pantomime of yours in order!) "..." (I understand, that's the funny part.) "..." (We've done something right!) ---up to this point communicating well by gaze and by gesture,

"...A, anyhow! It's because it's like that! ...It's like that! In short, let's give it our best with Omaken, Tada-kun and I! ...That... was what I had to say."

Kouko put her smile in place. Well then, Banri relaxed too. For now, whatever he'd forgotten didn't matter.

"Well, look, we're not just first years, are we? Fo, forward! Powerfully! Full throttle! Bet your life! With all one's might! Let's try hard! Life is not to be wasted! Right, that's the way it is!"

Searching for approval, his fist clenched, Banri answered only with a sigh, but in her own way Kouko took the meaning to be 'yes'.

"Right!"

Taking a breath as if a bit relieved, she suddenly turned and easily grabbed her brand-name bag from the seat where she had left it.

Hanging it from her shoulder by its strap she turned around, her glossy hair in thick curls brushed over her left shoulder. Smiling still, revealing her sparkling white teeth, she showed only the right side of her neck to Banri.

That standing figure, a gorgeous beauty. A woman just like from the movies, or a tele-drama, having lept from the world of fiction, she was like everybody's dreams, brought to life.

Kouko was perfect, of course. Once more easily captivated, Banri thought. ---At least, with regards to outward appearances, nothing but 'perfect' came to mind.

If she were to open her mouth, somehow subtly defenseless, but she only seemed to require a bit of touch-up here and there, her appearance truly beautiful, and blessed to sparkle all the time. Because they were friends, he could not talk about things like 'appearances only'.

And then, bringing together the heels of her booties, with a smile she flickered her long eyelashes.

"Hey, Tada-kun, are you free now? Won't you go with me to the student affairs office? Since schedules are coming out, I'd like somebody with me."

Kouko spoke as if she had rehearsed it. Even as a friend, was it natural to invite somebody in such a way? And she added a wink from her big eyes.

Mitsuo was running late to Civil Law while he was skipping, Banri thought, but,

"Then, afterwards let's go to Civil Law. That OK with you?"

Having been told like that, how dared he refuse? What to do? My friend, fated from a previous existence to go out with me, has invited me. What's more, my friend is a beauty to die for.

Hmph, though I was dumped the day before yesterday.

<center>* * *</center>

Side by side, Banri and Kouko left the cafeteria, walking towards the student affairs office, which was on another floor.

Looking out the windows from the dark, old school building, it was dazzlingly bright.

Perhaps because the weather was nice today, there already being signs of summer, there were mingled here and there amongst the students going back and forth a few wearing short-sleeve shirts.

Banri, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and a hoodie with "The Clumsy Student" across the back, was getting a little warm, and removed the hoodie as he walked. Rolling up the slightly sweaty, ratty feeling thing, he tried to force it into the bag. However, he was unable to stuff it in very well because of what was already there, and continuing up the stairs to the landing, he slowly came to halt in the narrow corridor.

"Are you OK? Could I carry something?"

Realizing that Kouko was reaching out to him,

"No, no, I wouldn’t make you carry my stuff..."

Trying to refuse, he had realized that his shoelaces had come untied. Oh well, but there was nothing that could be done about it: he was a sloppy kid.

"Well, sorry to have to ask, but could you hold this for a moment?"

Having Kouko hold the hoodie he'd taken off for a moment (and praying to God it didn't smell of sweat), and crouching down by the wall, he first retied his shoes. So as not to block traffic, Kouko also moved to the side of the corridor, at Banri's side.

Seen close up, Kouko, who was waiting, holding Banri's hoodie reverently, as if it were something important, had really slim legs, of course. The line of her calves elegantly refined, was like a work of art. Such ankles: if you were to use any force, they'd snap. Above the knees too she was shapely, no extra flesh sagging... No, he wasn't planning to look, but there she was, right next to his face. If you're trying to cross the street, you look to see if there are cars coming, anybody would look over there. It was that kind of thing.

He glanced sideways, wearing a serious glare as he sighed, thinking, "Wearing heavy black tights in the mid-winter is fine, but isn't that too hot in this climate? Does hot or cold even matter to this person, if it's stylish?"

Then, Kouko was moving those slim legs uncomfortably.

"...Ta, Tada-kun, by any chance, are you looking at my legs?"

"I'm not looking, I'm not looking."

While Banri answered back clearly,

"Though I'm not looking, Kaga-san, aren't those black things hot? Doesn't it seem like 'coordinating the coordinates'?"

He tried to ask here plainly. Was it common for a guy to recognize the subtleties of girl's fashion? Uh oh, he could not say no. That much, Banri already knew from the internet.

"My, my tights?"

Kouko looked back at the Banri's upturned face for just an instant, her expression complex.

"This... though it's a bit hot, in truth there are reasons I don't take them off."

She answered like that. Banri got back up,

"Of course, girls have their reasons..."

In one motion, he stuck his hand deep into his bag. For now, in order to stuff his hoodie in there, he wanted to turn all his fallen textbooks sideways.

"We sure do! We have many concerns. Actually, it was swallowed by a snake."

"Ehh, that's awful!"

Thinking he wanted to make Kouko laugh again by saying some ridiculous joke, or lightening things with a smile, Banri went to take back his possibly sweaty hoodie, looking over towards Kouko.

However,

"It was yesterday, in our garden. It was the worst of luck. I'm wearing tights to cover up the damage. As a girl, of course, I don't want to show such things."

Kouko was saying it with a straight face.

No way... this wasn't a joke, was it?

"...Wh, what? Swallowed by a snake...? Kaga-san...?"

"Yes. And what a shock it was!"

No surprise, that.

Banri, forgetting about rearranging his bag, looked back at Kouko's beautiful white face, picturing it in his mind. While she screamed, Kaga Kouko was slowly being swallowed by a big snake, feet first. In the garden. The snake's stomach gradually swelling, her shape could not be seen, losing form as it was digested... Yet the next day, Kaga Kouko came to college, saying "Forward! Awa Odori!" and such.

Wasn't that enough "problems"?

Getting dizzy, Banri shook his head, and took a deep breath. Getting plenty of oxygen to his brain, he miraculously got things in order.

"Err... just in case though, how far were you swallowed...?"

"'Up to where', eh?"

Kouko blinked from Banri's question, and then,

"Enough, you're joking...! Wow you're funny! Tada-kun, you dummy, aha! It was nothing but a joke! Ahahahaha!"

She suddenly broke out in happy sounding laughter. Surely thinking something like "Eh, what a crazy kid..." about Banri, she covered her mouth with her hand, but she seemed unable to contain her laughter, her cheeks gradually going deep red, laughing still as her body doubled over as if in pain, hugging the hoodie she held in her hands tightly.

"'Sw, swallowed', but not vertically! Stop it already, Tada-kun, you're too funny! Like this, this! Swallowed sideways! 'Up to where'!? Did you think I'd been slowly swallowed from my feet to my head!? There aren't such snakes! In Tokyo!? In my back yard!? Probably not even in the jungle, where in the world did you get that idea!? Really, you are really too funny, I've decided that! Sideways it was, sideways sideways, sideways swallowed!"

With his left wrist representing her foot, and his right hand the snake's head, he mimed how it might bite from the side.

"No no no", Banri replied calmly back to the princess lost in laughter.

"...Then, you weren't 'swallowed', but rather 'bitten'...? What, you thought 'let's be funny', and made a mystery to solve? Were you inventing something like that?"

"No, you're wrong! Swallowed is the right word! Because while it was trying to bite, it was trying to suck the flesh of my calf into it's throat! It was sucking really hard! Like this!? Such a snake in my back yard!"

Suddenly Kouko, moving her hands as if she were a udon noodle maker, tossed Banri's hoodie into the air, stretching it our long and thin. "M, my hoodie", Banri moaned,

"Give it to me! Because,"

She grabbed the hood part and spun it around. Then, winding it around his neck,

"'Kyaa! It hu-hu-hu-hurts!', she said!"

"But I wasn't kidding!"

"Then how are you alive and kicking so energetically!?"

"It wasn't at my neck! It was Bibinba's neck!"

"Bibinbaa!? ...You mean... that star in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinnikuman Kinnikuman]!?"

"What're you talking about! Here on Earth! I mean a cat! Shizuka's cat!"

"Oh, I see... no, but aren't you changing the tone of the story!? Where the name comes from, or is it from the Kamei family... is it that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shizuka_Kamei Shizuka]!? Why didn't you tell me clearly from the start!?"

"Neither! My lit-tle bro-ther! My little brother Kaga Shizukaa! He's a chubby little thing! ...Or rather, OK, I can't be talking that way. So you understand this better, listen, he's my little brother. Are you good to this point? He's called Shizuka. That good too? Good, right? He keeps cats. Bibinba's one of them. He's a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Himalayan_(cat)) Himalayan]. Yesterday, he was attacked by a snake in the garden, and he was strangled. It had already gotten to be twice around, no, about three times around. It was completely there, all set to enjoy it's meal! So I was already in a panic, anyway I jumped at it, like this,"

Kouko grabbed the hoodie wound around his neck with both hands, pulling him towards her.

"'Ughh! Let go of Bibinba! Urgghhh...!' ...Uh, that must hurt..."

"Ooou... ouou... or rather do you need it so tight..."

"But, if it was like that... and it was! It was like that!"

Grabbing one sleeve of the hoodie and slowly unwinding it from his neck, she started to swing it around, much like a cowboy. The other students passing by avoided it, treating it as an annoyance.

"I used centrifugal force! And then, I did like this!"

Her hair flying, Kouko swung it widely, and the hoodie struck the wall. Though for sure it was once Banri's, the dead hoodie, it’s power lost, slithered to the floor.

"Thinking, 'Phew... I did it...!', I turned my back on it to go in the house and get a garbage bag. If I had done that...!"

Kouko crouched down for some reason, grabbed the sleeve of the hoodie, and reached down to touch behind the calf of her leg,

"I screamed 'Kyaa!' It was like this, like this! Shouting 'It bit me!', and 'Kyaa!', even kicking my feet it didn't let go, swallowing me little by little, it was already a disaster! I was getting more and more in a panic!"

"...Aw, awfully so...! So just what did you do, in the end?"

" 'Get it over with!' "

Cutting off any more useless questions, in a very unladylike fashion, she hit near the hoodie's sleeve cuff, as if she were giving the snake's head a karate chop. Like a head stuck in a guillotine, it looked dead. If it had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Rat_Snake Green General], it's goose would have been cooked.

"Oh..."

Somehow feeling for the snake, Banri held his own neck. In the 'Naked Terminator Pose', Kouko briefly basked in the afterglow of victory.

"...You know, that looks pretty bad. Tada-kun's hoodie has gotten all beaten up...!"

Realizing it, she picked up the hoodie's corpse.

"No way, I'm sorry! Silly me, I'd gotten lost in the conversation!"

"Don't worry about it, it was already that way to begin with."

"There's no reason! Enough already, what am I going to do? I'm going to get it cleaned!"

"That's OK, really, I do my laundry. I mean, it's only old UNIQLO stuff anyhow. It was sacrificed, but it was a really good story, worth listening to, I think."

Taking the hoodie back from the apologetic, blushing Kouko, and having said nothing about reimbursement, or any such thing, he stuffed it quickly into the bag in front of him.

"No, it was worth listening to, really... Kaga-san does it all the time, getting rid of snakes."

"No way! That was the first time in my life I've touched a snake!"

"Was Bibinba OK after all that?"

"He almost jumped into the washing machine from the mental shock, even this morning he nearly didn't leave it."

"Drum type?"

"Yes, the normal vertical type. ...Ah, enough already of me, now, I was gibbering from the tension..."

No, your tension from the start was incredible. The which, well, he didn't say.

Kouko, blushed as if she were finally embarrassed, covering her face with both hands like a little girl, looking around nervously. "Eighteen year old snake killer Kaga Kouko-chan..." muttered Banri, and Kouko raised her fist like a little kid, as if to hit Banri.

"Enough already! Forget about it!"

"In spite of it all, you've been chatting with me in high spirits."

"Be, because! Am I right? Isn't this topic something else? Didn't a snake came out, attack our cat, and my life was put at risk, ambushed from behind? In the back yard? Isn't this kind of thing rare? ...Over there, it doesn't happen, does it? In Shizuoka?"

"No way. Shizuoka is a big city."

He'd seen snakes run over by machines in the tea fields, but how could he say it? His grandfather on his father's side collected [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gloydius_blomhoffi mamushi] around there to pickle them in sake (the trauma: saying things like "if you drink it, your memories'll come back~" to get him to drink it), but those were only minor details.

"For sure. And so I already, since yesterday, was talking to anybody, talking and not stopping, thinking, 'I can talk!' I had already taken it to the limit."

"But you know, it would have been good of you to send me an e-mail about it."

That, it was only for a moment.

Even this didn't matter, being the continuation of a joking conversation.

It wouldn't have been all that strange if he had missed in the dimness, for only just a moment, Kouko's eyes trembling forlornly.

Banri had spotted it.

To a person just dumped, sending an e-mail about such things wasn't enough. ---To Banri, it seemed as if Kouko's very heart were speaking these things.

You don't have to speak of fated friends, forward looking lives and such in a state of high drama. Anybody can do so. Anybody doing so is not making unpleasant decisions. Therefore, doing so, she wasn't forced to get on with her abandoned scenario. Though she knew it was strange for her, it wasn't like there was no other way.

Because, it isn't so, and I don't have to...

That was what Banri heard.

"...So this morning, I thought, 'Let's go talk to Linda-senpai!' "

Suddenly, Kouko broke out with a smile like a flower blooming.

"But, senpai, when she got to looking at my schedule, she let out a big sigh and set to thinking. This is awful, she said. Already, I couldn't just say something like 'Yesterday a mouthful of my backside was being swallowed by a snake, you see' "

Laugh, Tada-kun.

So it seemed Kouko was asking him.

"No way, I wouldn't say anything either! Not at all!"

Banri laughed too.

He didn't see anything else. Pretending not to notice, he laughed merrily while he thought some more. It seemed that Kouko didn't have any friends to casually talk about everyday things with.

As far as she was concerned, now, she had lost her whole world: Mitsuo. Already, in Kouko's world, even the ordinary things people could do to casually keep in touch had become unsatisfactory.

"But, that's fine. I was able to speak with you. ...And it seems you understood me?"

Gently softening her smile and dropping her gaze a little, Kouko murmured in an uncharacteristically soft voice.

It seemed the demon of her nerves had fallen at last. From the chuckle that issued from her lips, to her swelled chest, even Banri saw and understood it all, breathed in deeply, and let it out. She seemed to recover, little by little, her mental stability, and apparently self-conscious about how difficult she had been to handle, going to extremes as she had,

"...I'm such a mess..."

Shrugging her shoulders, she gave a wry smile. I'm, such a mess. Aren't I? And so on.

Kouko had had enough of it too.

She understood, and her chest rose.

Very much so. To be able to regain her footing in only two days was nothing to sneeze at. She wasn't that clever a person.

Hardly two days had passed today, and Kouko, as she was, just herself, wasn't good at facing Mitsuo who had dumped her, and Banri whom she had dumped. For that reason, she couldn't be jumping here and there absurdly in her normal fashion. In order to not show a downcast or hurt face, she had to play her part. Unable to speak as a clever person would, it probably wasn't easy.

There was nothing that could be done. He felt as if his heart were being squeezed.

The more he thought about Kouko's feelings, the more painful they were. In general, Banri's convenient imagination was convinced perhaps, but, he thought that in Kouko's heart, standing next to him, was an unstoppable force of will.

After all, of course, he loved Kouko. The more he thought of it, the more he wished to get closer to her heart. Stubbornly, in spite of having been dumped, he wanted to be her helper, at least.

For the first time, Banri thought it would be good to become a part of Kouko's scenario. No, he wanted to be, even.

Now appearing on stage, Tada Banri. As Mitsuo's friend, Kouko's friend. Various things have happened, but he was now the understanding and fated friend of Kouko. Am I allowed to take on such a role? ...It's all right if I'm not your boyfriend. In Kouko's lonely world, if such as I is acceptable, I'd like to be on stage. If there is room on this stage, I would like to stay a long time.

And then I pray, that eventually many players on her stage may appear, brightly colored, sparkling for moment spinning.

He believed this from the bottom of his heart. It was the first time he had harbored such tender feelings for another person. At least, as far as Banri himself could remember.

Prompting each other, "Shall we go?", their exchanged glances were pure friendship.

It seemed they had truly established a relationship as close friends, Banri staying beside Kouko, Kouko also, seemingly relieved, smiling quietly. And then, at that moment, as they both slowly opened their mouths, about to start talking about something,

"Morn-ning Banri!"

Thump, he was struck lightly in the middle of his back.

He looked back.

There was nobody there.

"Wait, wait, where are you looking?"

No, now he understood--- there was no way he could fail to.

That voice. There was just no mistaking it. Her voice was over the top, excessively girly, saccharine sweet, like from an anime show. On top of that, for some reason she was addressing him without honorifics.

From about than a foot lower than his, her little face was laughing.

Incredibly, she was eighteen years old. A micro-sized pet fairy. Even Mr. Two Dimensions approved of her as a multi-dimensional life-form. Such...

"O, Oka-chan..."

...a thing, Oka Chinami was.

<center>* * *</center>

Thinking, "What should I do?", he suddenly felt an alarming aura prickling over the right side of his body, coming from around Kouko.

As far as Kouko was concerned, Chinami, clearly, was the enemy. Undoubtedly, she was thinking something like "The thieving cat who stole my beloved Mitsuo!",

"Mornin' to you too, Kaga-san! Wow, your clothes are really pretty again today. I knew it, from a distance, I said to myself, 'That's Kaga-san!' "

Though Chinami was innocently jumping around, Banri, remembered the danger she was in and gasped. Why Oka-chan, why are you doing like that, off guard in front of Kouko? Shouldn't you be careful of those fingernails? The person before you is the snake killer Kaga Kouko!

"...Okachi, nami..."

Kouko slowly turned around, looking down at Chinami, muttering with an expression like Cleopatra's, tasting poison.

"Ahaha, I got the break wrong~! It wasn't Okachi, but rather Oka, Chinami!"

Then why so off guard! Banri casually put his foot out to the side, try to insert himself halfway into the space between Kouko and Chinami.

Chinami was innocent to the point of being dangerous to herself, and again, as always, she was cute enough to die for. Her long eyelashes and round, cute eyes prominent, her features were pure, like a foreigner-child. Tied into a large knot, her hair was full and dark. Her slender body covered by a deep blue dress worn over blue denims, her slim ankles peeked out. On solid, light brown leather sandals, already wearing her trademark rugged day-pack, while to Banri who, as usual (as a male), did not understand attire all that well, Chinami truly exuded the presence of a fairy princess coming to them from the forest.

Banri could not stand it any longer.

"...Oka-chan...!"

"Whaat?"

"Uaa<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>!"

His body was swaying, wobbling. Don't breathe such air! It's contaminated here! Return to your forest! He couldn't help but want to cry out. But her cuteness filled the limits of the universe. The cell phone in her hand had a really flashy strap, including even an Indian feather decoration, delicately cute, and already, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded. Even her hairpin was somehow cute! It's not possible to be so cute.

"What was that about already? Banri, what've you done?"

"It doesn't matter one way or the other!"

"What the heck?"

You're the one I should be saying that to, what's with that, that "Nyaha!", way of laughing!

No, but---

"..."

Kouko was watching.

With a hard yet beautiful face, like that of a statue of a goddess, unsmiling, chin pulled back, she was slowly and quietly looking over Banri's agony, and then the transcendentally cute Oka Chinami.

As if he'd remembered, "So it is, your place is by my side, minion...", Banri dejectedly and quietly returned to Kouko's side. If Kouko was the evil queen, then Banri was her attending servant. Her [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yatterman#Characters Boyacky], so to speak.

Not even glancing back at the servant that had returned to her, Kouko, her expression unchanged, continued to look down upon Chinami. Between the high-heeled Kouko and the flat-sandaled Chinami, there was all of six inches of difference in height.

And so, after a little while,

"...Why?"

Her rose colored lips in a haughty queen-like smile, Kouko opened her mouth.

"Hm? You asked, 'Why?' "

Eyes round in puzzlement, Chinami asked back, "Eh?" Much like a squirrel, asking "Who's eaten the walnut I hid beneath the dead leaves?" ...that kind of feeling.

Irritated, Kouko's aura flickered. Her attending servant Banri understood.

"Though I don't expect to hear anything, I'm listening. I have an ooo-pen mind. I do! My humanity is noble, so while you admire my perfection, answer me quickly. Answer in two seconds. Twoo, oonnee,"

"Eh? Two seconds? Hm? 'Humanity'?"

"You're disqualified, dullard! Begone!"

Gruffly and jealously waving her hand, Kouko averted her face in irritation.

"Well then! We've got things to do!"

Chinami wasn't at all defeated. Slapping her stomach like a sea otter hitting a shellfish,

"You see, I wanted to hear about your schedule, Banri and Kaga-san."

On her smooth cheeks, dimples stood out clearly. Chinami smiled happily while Banri and Kouko looked at each other. Sparkling to the point you could almost hear it, those cheerful eyes frankly shone. For some reason or other, Banri and Kouko wordlessly exchanged glances. When their gazes met, he felt he heard a nod... he wanted to think it was his imagination.

"All I wanted to ask was, wouldn't you like to do a drinking party? I was thinking, let's invite you! Hey, look, didn't we talk about it before? We talked about having a party of people with two-syllable last names. Well, it would be called a gathering of people with two-syllable surnames for the time being. I was thinking I wanted to have a drinking party for just the first-years. I was the first to say something, so I'm the organizer. This week or next, wherever, I've planned for a budget of about $35. If there's any day that doesn't work because of part time jobs or whatever, we can adjust a bit too. What would be good for you two?"

"A drinking party!?"

Having heard such cheery talk, Banri of course,

"I'll go! Of course I'll go, when we going? Thanks for the invitation!"

In good spirits, he couldn't help but raise his hand. What's more, with that hand,

"Isn't that great, Kaga-san!"

Much too familiarly, he clapped his hand on the evil queen's shoulder. Kouko's temples twitched.

"...For now I hear you. ...What's with this?"

"Eh, saying 'what's with this' like that? Weren't you invited too! Speaking of which, isn't this the first time you've truly been invited to anything apart from a religion? Of course we're going to take part, you're moving forward positively in life! Oka-chan, Kaga-san has nothing on her schedule, she's basically free, so it's OK! Ah, and I've got spare time too! Cool!"

"Waah! That's great!", Chinami gave a little jump, taking Banri's hand in high spirits, "It's going to be fun~!"

"I, am, not, going."

At Kouko's eerily low utterance, the two of them stopped jumping around.

"I wouldn't go to such a thing. Frankly, I don't feel like getting mixed up with Oka Chinami, not even one micron. If I wanted to waste time like that, it'd be better for me to go dig a hole in the garden! And then, you know what I would do with that hole? I'd fill it up! As if it'd never been dug! I'd be busy! Digging up, filling in, digging up, filling in, digging up, digging up, filling in! Oh what a mess, really busy! Busy running around! That's about what my schedule looks like!"

She directed those last stinging words, somehow, at Banri too.

"Besides, that's right, I've got to go to the Student Affairs Office. By myself."

And then Kouko, giving a smile without heart, turned her back on Banri and Chinami and walked away, by herself.

"Ah, hold on, wait! You said we were going together!"

Banri, the sorrowful minion, ran after her back, confused.

But Kouko didn't wait for Banri. Her heels clacking unexpectedly loudly and quickly, in the crowd of students Banri lost sight of her back.

"...Huh?"

Looking around the area for a bit, Banri scratched his head. Was she angered by something insensitive he'd said? Did she hate him? He tried to run further after her, but by force of will he stopped himself.

Perhaps he had been too caught up in the moment, thinking they were somehow understanding each other. With the situation as it was, it looked like even running up to the Student Affairs, catching up with Kouko in her current state, probably wouldn't turn out well. Above all, for the time being certainly, his stubbornly running after her would be annoying.

Chinami followed along behind Banri too, looking around for Kouko the same way as they talked.

"Did Kouko-san get mad? Would it do any good to send her a text?"

"Yeah..."

She opened up her cell phone right then and there, but, changed her mind and stopped. She didn't want to annoy her in her impatience. As yet, it seemed to him that Kouko herself, the stubborn girl, did want to understand her feelings. For now, if they sent texts or called, they'd just be "dropped".

For now, he took a deep breath. He told himself, have patience, have patience. If she was a friend, then left alone for a bit, then once she'd calmed down she'd get back in touch. She should.

Without having called, Chinami faced Banri, took a little breath and spoke disappointedly.

"As for me, though I wanted even Kaga-san to come to the drinking party... It was no good, I guess."

"...Err, Oka-chan"

"Hmm?", her eyes blinking innocently, Chinami looked up at Banri. This was his chance, for sure. There were some things he wanted to ask her.

"Kaga-san has a bad attitude towards you. Well, though she's not a bad person, and for the time being I will stand up for her, could you not get angry or annoyed at that? Though I would think that if she talked like that all the time, she would lose out on invitations to parties."

"Does it seem like it?"

"No, but... hey, by chance, are you really so black-hearted after all? Do you have some sort of terrible plot under all this, trying to lure the girl you cannot stand? Into the deeps of the Oka-chan jungle to be entombed there, to be slurped up and swallowed by the dark Oka-ffleshia, chewing up and spitting out nothing but bones? Were you thinking something like that? Are you getting ready, opening up your petals as if licking your chops?"

Even though he could understand, Banri was stringing together rude words out of frustration, but,

"Wha, what the... what kind of creature am I?"

Making eyes truly innocent looking, but seeming a little worried, she bent her head to one side, looking doubtful. If she'd had big rabbit ears, standing up, their tips, perhaps, would be trembling.

"I am inviting her simply because I want to invite her!"

"Wait a sec~, already you've said, 'Eh? The flower below me? Am I a perverted carnivorous flower!? Hmph!', like that."

"I, I didn't say anything about any flower below... Really, I want to invite Kaga-san too. I find myself rather strongly captivated by her, you see. Whatever she says, whatever she does, I feel I want to watch. She has caught my interest. This, though it seems there are so many people out there. Besides, she's super~ Miss Beautiful."

"...Well, certainly. Super~, Miss Beautiful she is."

"Around our university, Kaga-san is the most beautiful person I've seen. My senpai in film studies, though she said she was last year's 'Miss Campus', ah, from now on she's nothing; Kaga-san is always prettier than her. She may have done well against the other universities' quasi-Misses, or in talent shows, or even working, but if you were to compare her to Kaga-san, though they'd spoken badly of her, she'd come off like some 'Jane Doe' with split ends and no fashion sense. It feels as she had spun a tall tale, as if she had gone off hunting for bear, dressed in a fur vest and carrying a hunting gun. Yes, she had to have made it up."

A 'Jane Doe' with split ends and no fashion sense... at those harsh words, Banri's breath burst out. Oka Chinami, saying such hard things, yet adorable, making a face as if she were appealing to him. Whether she was cunning, or interesting--- perhaps a girl with spunk suited Mitsuo, because he might have found such. As far as he was concerned, Chinami's latest remarks had lifted his opinion of her.

"The thing is, I like beautiful people. I mean, everybody likes those who are conspicuous. They positively cling to those who stand out, wanting to see what's the big deal. So when I happened to notice Kaga-san I unconsciously called out to her~ even though I understand why she could dislike me. I mean really, I suddenly wanted to hug her from behind, forcibly! Her surprised face would be so cute~, embarrassed like that, making her cry... and then, then... she would turn towards me! She would look up! Click! Just like that!? Would that be a crime!? But, hihi! She's cute~ for sure!"

"O, Oka-chan, Oka-chan...!"

"Hmm? Whaat?"

"They're opening up, those thick wet flower petals!"

In the end, the two of them wound up heading for Civil Law. Kouko didn't show up, she'd probably just gone home.

"Isn't it rather crowded? Aren't there any seats? Banri, can you see?"

"Yeah, it looks pretty bad."

Chinami wasn't tall enough to look through the glass window fit into the door. Banri looked inside, checking to see if there was space for so much as a grain of rice to fit into a seat.

He spotted Mitsuo, seated all the way in the middle.

"Oh, there's Yana-ssan."

"What's that? Was 'Yana' taking this class? How's he doing, is he paying attention?"

"Err, well..."

Mitsuo was carelessly resting his chin on his hand, his eyes half closed in boredom. His hair fell smoothly to his cheek, favoring the clean line of his jaw, even yawning the guy was handsome. While the girls seated nearby looked towards Mitsuo, they argued about something in whispers, squealing, secretly excited about something. They were probably saying things like 'That guy's no good', 'He's not good looking', and so on.

Doing it so as not to be noticed, Mitsuo pulled something slowly from his pocket. Pleased with himself, secretly smiling, he peeled off the paper and plopped in his mouth. That was---

"Oh...! He's chewing the gum he found earlier...!"

"Eeee..."

Notes:

<references/>

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Prologue|Prologue]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 2: The Answer is YES|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}

Kamisama no Memochou:Volume 1 Chapter 1

2012-08-15T22:59:22Z

BladeUnderHeart:

"It's a primitive response to gratitude. To give pleasure. You see, our normal hosts are quite mindless; they can be thanked only by physical sensation."

"Thank you for agreeing to transport me. Thank you very much."

* "The Only Neat Thing to Do" by James Tiptree, Jr.

¬
==Chapter 1==
During the winter when I was sixteen, I met many different types of people –a boxer, a soldier, a gigolo, a detective, and a yakuza member. They were all NEETs – just different kinds. The term ‘NEET’ occasionally finds itself on the news or in the newspapers, and I thought it merely referred to unmotivated and unemployed youths, but in reality there are actually many different sides to them. There is no all-encompassing reason as to why they remain jobless or fail to attend school.

“The term ‘NEET’ refers to neither ‘useless people’ nor ‘lazy people’.” That is what the detective said to me. “The only difference lies in the rules. While everybody else uses the board to play checkers, we play chess instead.”

“I don’t get it. Doesn’t that mean you’re just getting in the way?” I questioned naively. The detective thought for a moment, pursing her cherry-like lips which eventually gave way to a silent smile.

“I suppose that it would seem that way to those who just want to rush ahead. I understand that society wishes to just group us together and label us; flinging us out into a rubbish dump. I also understand that they wish to point and laugh at us mockingly. Let them laugh all they want. No matter how you argue it, the fact that we are a negative influence on society at large is undeniable."

The detective gazed at her opened hands before raising her head again. This time, her smile was not one of sarcasm and bitterness – but one that was comparable to the rays of sunlight on a freezing day of winter. “We will never laugh at ourselves. Just as earthworms do not fear darkness and penguins are not ashamed of their inability to fly. That is the meaning of living, is it not?”

I couldn’t give her an answer, because I had never thought so deeply about such matters before. Regardless, no matter how many metaphors you use, isn’t the fact that you are all useless people the main point?

However, it was also in that very same winter when I saw my first dead corpse, and when I first assaulted another person. It was the first time in my life that I contemplated about what it means to be alive. I suppose anybody who has witnessed another person forfeit his life and seek death will feel the same way as I have.

Yet, that is a story for much later. For now, I would like to talk about the winter when I first met all these people, and the story of a normal, non-NEET girl.

<center>*</center>

Near the end of November, I met Ayaka for the first time.

After school ended on Tuesday, I sat on the water tower on the roof of the southern campus, and stared blankly at tall buildings far away. Normally once school ends, I would go to the computer lab and focus on club activities that only need one person. But on afternoons with computer lessons, there are a lot of students remaining to play on the computers that they usually don’t have access to. I am unable to bring myself to walk in just like that, so I end up coming up to the roof to waste time every Tuesday and Thursday. Staring at the computer lab on the second story of the northern campus, I gave off a lot of "Get lost already!" waves, and sighed as I looked at the streets below.

The streets of the city I currently live in can be divided into two colors, while the long thin river that flows like the artery of a patient is the divider of the colors. The side closer to me has rusted roofs of factories, cheap apartments lying side by side, and then there is the high school. I am not sure why, but there are a lot of shrines and graves in this area; My house is also on this side. On the other side is a tall flyover bridge with a highway leading to the capital, a gigantic train station with countless railways, tall buildings packed along complicatedly interweaving roads on the slope, shopping malls and television stations. On sunny days, you can even see the shadow of the government building far away. Tokyo is an amazing place to let boring housings that can be found anywhere in Japan and tall modern buildings co-exist peacefully here.

Looking down from the roof, the train station is like a scene in an advertisement on TV, without realism. Perhaps it's because I don't want to get close to that area? As we can wear our school uniform and straightaway go out to play immediately after school, I heard that our school is rather popular in Tokyo; If the sailor costume has bright colors, it might even increases the attractiveness by around 40%.

That day was a cloudy day, just nice enough that you can closely examine the glass panels of the tall buildings that are normally unclear due to their piercing reflections. Speaking of which, they are just a bunch of glass windows that are cut using similar methods. I always filled those glass squares with colors in my mind, as though I was sketching pixel art.

I've gotten used to killing time like that. I think it's because I'm always transferring schools due to my dad's work. At the beginning of October, when I transferred into my current high school, I joined the Computer Club just because there was no one else active there, and went about my school life without getting noticed by anyone. I've often thought that there's no point in me going to high school, while I couldn't follow the lessons as well.

As I was gazing at the building, I suddenly heard a clattering sound below me, and thus I leaned my upper body outwards to have a look. The water supply tower was set on top of the stair room jutting out from the roof while the sound was that of someone who had climbed up the stairs and opened the door.

"Eh? He's not here?"

I heard a girl's voice. When I carefully leaned forward and peered directly below, she turned around, meeting my gaze.

She had short hair, and strong-spirited eyebrows, in contrast her eyes, which gave off a cute, friendly impression. I felt like I'd seen her before. As I moved to get up, she made an extremely surprised face, letting out a "Wah!", causing me to tumbled down from the water supply tower.

It was lucky that I fell from my feet, but as the backs of my hands scraped roughly against the concrete wall, the first thing she did when we met was to wash my wounds with water from the watering can she had.

"Why would you climb up a place like that, it's dangerous!"

She said while applying plasters on my wound. Being asked such a question, I couldn’t answer her.

“……idiots and something like high places, after all.”

“You have to play down the ‘idiots’ part when you say that!” <ref>Japanese idiom, idiots and smoke like high places. </ref>

She calmly replied. Although I wanted to escape, I couldn’t do so as my hand was held tightly.

“There, I’m done. Remember not to climb to high places again.” She lightly tapped my right hand that was full of plasters, just like a caretaker who was scolding small children. Then, she said while smiling, “Even though I said all that, I actually climbed it before myself. Seeing the ladder over there really gives you an urge to climb it, doesn't it?”

Anyway, who on earth is this girl? As I can’t recall neither faces nor names of anyone in school, I cannot think of any girl who would talk to me with such a friendly tone.

Suddenly, I saw the yellow badge on her left arm. Although it was quite old and was already somewhat faded, the words ‘Gardening Committee’ could still be seen on it. At that moment, I finally noticed the large number of flower pots arranged by the railings. Does our school even have a Gardening Committee?

“Ah, so you have to climb that high to see the computer lab! Are you that type of person, Fujishima-kun? Those who can’t concentrate when someone else is in the room? The type that people call the artistic type?

The girl held on to the railings, saying all that while looking at the school building opposite of us. I was taken aback.

“——How do you know about that?”

I let out a shout that startled even myself. She turned around to look at me with a look of shock on her face.

“Well, our class is on this side of the third floor, so that's why the computer lab can be seen from there. Besides, Fujishima-kun always sits beside the windows.”

I was found out. Color drained out of my face. How much does this girl know? She doesn’t know that I was drawing naughty pictures on the computer, does she? Wait, that’s not the main point…

“Why do you know my name?”

She raised her arms like a baseball pitcher who was getting ready to pitch the ball. It seemed my question surprised her..

“Don’t you remember me? We’re even in the same class!”

“Huh?”

I started to become anxious. From the time when I transferred to this school, I practically avoided all contact with other people, which is why I can’t remember the names of my classmates.

“It was I who told you where the canteen is and also collected information of World History for you. Even when you were changing clothes during P.E class, I have helped you out!”

“Wa- Wait a minute!”

“That last comment was just a joke~”

Ugh, this girl…

“Although I thought that you might have forgotten about me, I didn’t really believe that it would really be true…..”

Seeing the girl with tears glistening in her eyes, I can’t help but feel somewhat guilty.

“My name is Ayaka Shinozaki, and I sit just beside you in class. How can you forget about me even like this?”

“I’m sorry…”

“Fujishima-kun, you don’t think that you are a part of class 1-4, do you? You even skipped school during the school festival.

But the school festival was held just a week after I transferred, so I had no other choice but to skip it!

“And you aren’t even wearing the class badge. It's rare for public high schools to have class badges, so it would be a pity if you don’t wear it!”

I didn’t really think it’s a pity, so I lied to her: “ I lost it.”

“Then I’ll lend you mine then, I have some to spare at home.” Said Ayaka while she took off her class badge from her sailor uniform.

“Huh? No, there’s really no need to.”

“Seriously, don’t move.”

She caught me from the back when I was trying to escape. I couldn’t help but freeze and pause my breathing for a moment. She moved her hands to the front of my blazer and put on the class badge on the collar of my blazer. Looking at this from another angle, wouldn’t it seem like she was hugging me from behind? No, wait, I have to calm down.

After what seemed like a very long time, the warmth of her body finally faded from my back.

“Hmm, that’s better.”

She turned me around and nodded with a satisfied look on her face. With a complicated feeling, I lowered my gaze and gazed at the blue and green badge. It was as though an alien thing appeared on my neck. Why did she help me to this extent? I saw many other people who take very good care of transfer students, but it was the first time I saw someone who was ''that'' helpful.

“It is a requirement of the school rules that one must wear a class badge, so don’t you take it off.”

“Why do the schools in Tokyo have so many odd rules…..”

Actually, isn’t it my fault for feeling that Tokyo is a very free place in the first place? One of the many annoying rules is that students must join at least one club. It was all because of these rules that I got into these kinds of troubles.

“If it weren’t for the school rules, you probably would have been in the Going-Home-Club, wouldn't you?”

So? So what?

“But isn’t the Computer Club going to be abolished next year?”

“……Huh?”

“You see, the Third Years are going to graduate soon. I heard that they are going to abolish clubs that have less than two members when they decide the club budgets next April.”

It was the first time that I’ve heard of such an important matter. I thought of the pale, tomato-shaped face of the Computer Club advisor. That guy wants to let the Computer Club close down without saying a thing, huh? No wonder my club activities are so relaxing.

“As I was saying…”

Ayaka suddenly raised her voice, startling me into stepping back half a step.

“I have something to discuss with you. If you accept my conditions…..” Her expression was that of one who made a strong resolution. “I agree to join the Computer Club!”

“……Conditions?”

“Actually, I’m the only member left in the Gardening Club as well.”

Ayaka, who had a triumphant look on her face for some reason, placed the armband on her left arm on my palm. Gardening Club? Isn’t it the Gardening Committee?

“The committee was closed down ages ago. I found this lying around in a cupboard. Isn’t it cool?”

“Not at all.”

“Why do you always say things like that!”

Her whole face flushed red. Why do you have to be so agitated, I don't understand at all.

“Small clubs have to help each other out, isn’t that right?”

<center>*</center>

In the end, I succumbed to Ayaka’s threats and accepted her conditions. We went to the staff room to hand in our application forms, and things were supposed to end just like that. Realizing that I cannot stay at the rooftop alone anymore, I could only find another place to while away time after school. On the way home, I thought to myself: Is the library better or is the restroom exclusive for teachers better?

However, Ayaka walked by my table right after school.

“I’m going to borrow the keys to the rooftop, so you can get the gardening tools first! You know where they are , right? You can find them in the cupboard with “Gardening Committee” on it.”

My classmates’ gazes fluttered between Ayaka and I, who was busy putting away my books.

“Am I not just a ghost member?” I started to say.

“…..A ghost member?” With her face pale, Ayaka turned away and covered her mouth. “Th- That’s right, I’m so sorry. I- I was just too excited, and that confused me for a moment.”

It looked like tears could pour out of her eyes at any moment. My classmates’ gazes pierced through me, as though it was I who made Ayaka cry…… No, it ''was'' I who made her cry. Anyhow, this situation is just terrible.

“Erm, uh, wait a sec!”

“Fujishima-kun, you’re busy with your activities at the Computer Club, right? I’m really sorry for bothering you.”

“O- Of course not——”

“Aren’t you going to complete your drawing of the girl on the computer soon? You just haven’t added the dress yet, right?”

“UWAAAAAAHHHHH!”

I hastily covered Ayaka’s mouth.

“Alright, alright! I got it. I’ll help you then.”

“…… Really?” The tears vanished from her face in a flash. “Thank you so much!”

She stuck out her tongue, as though it was just a prank just now. Arrggh, this girl…

“Aya-chan, there's a new member in your club?”

A female classmate asked while giving me a suspicious look.

“Oh, yes. That’s why we have more horsepower now. You can ask him anything about plants!”

My classmates exchanged looks.

“Oh, yeah!” a male classmate raised his hand. “There’s a lot of mold on the washroom sink, please think of something to help.”

“Mold isn’t even a plant!” exclaimed Ayaka.

“No, it should count as a plant, shouldn’t it?” “Differentiating organisms by animals or plants is already outdated!” “Aren’t the ones in the washroom moss?” “Lichen are definitely not plants!” “The ones in the Biology Club, shut up.” “But it's growing really quickly.” “Looks like a person's face.” “Seriously?”

The guys started to discuss the topic with vigor. What is wrong with this class? After about twenty minutes of discussion, Ayaka ended up getting a mold spray to clear it away. I hastily stopped Ayaka, who was about to dash into the men’s washroom.

“……Allow me!”

My classmates probably feel sorry for me for having to clear away the mold that have spread on the whole wall. A few of them came in to give me a hand. The washroom soon stank of the pungent odor of chlorine.

“Fujishima, it was hard on you……”

They started to pity me.

“Of course, Shinozaki is not bad too.” “Not a bad person.” “Yeah.”

I nodded tiredly while scrubbing the wall vigorously with a sponge.

I suddenly noticed that it was the first time my classmates called me by my name. Even so, I just stammered, unable to even answer them properly.

<center>*</center>

“Let’s have a welcome party! My treat!”

She said that evening as we were carrying the orchid plants indoors.

“I work part time at a ramen store, so I can give you a discount.”

I thought to myself: How rare for high school girls to work part time.

“As I often went there, I became a part time worker in the end. There are many interesting customers as well. Do you want to go with me?”

“Why——”

Thinking that I would have to see Ayaka’s tearful face if I refuse her, I nodded reluctantly. After keeping the tools in the cupboard and returning the keys to the staff’s office, I walked out of the school entrance with her.

After learning that I haven’t even gone across the Shuto Expressway, she was astonished.

“But don’t you live just nearby?”

“Well, I’ve just moved here recently, and there’s a lot of people at the station, so I didn’t really feel like going. Besides, I don’t even have a reason to go there.”

“Don't you usually go to bookshops or record stores?”

I nodded. Usually, I would just buy books or records that I want online, as I might not find the things that I want even if the actual shops are big.

“Is that so? But the shop that I’ve just mentioned is very far from the station. The ramen isn’t really that good, but the ice-cream there is extremely delicious, so it’s still very famous.”

“Then just start an ice-cream shop instead…”

“Try not to say that to Min-san, or you’ll get ramen served with ice cream.”

Min-san would probably the owner of the ramen shop. Is he Chinese?

Ayaka walked a bit faster than me. Seeing her happily prancing around, I was extremely mystified. Where did it went wrong? How did it turn out like this? Why is she so nice to me?

When we were crossing the bridge, a large delivery truck passed by, spraying dust on us. After entering the streets, we walked passed the Shuto Expressway viaduct and towards the station. Then, we went along with the crowd and entered the south side of the underpass and exited it through the east side.

We walked back to the surface in the direction of the railways. After we passed by a tramp’s tent in a park, we found the ramen shop in a dark alley unreached by streetlights. On the first floor of the building that had both shops and lodgings, only the signboard that says ‘Hanamaru Ramen’ had any light on it. The customers gathered around the shop looked like bugs attracted to a bug zapper.

The interior of the ramen shop was very cramped. Most of the space in the shop was taken up by the kitchen, while only five tables were in the shop. The other customers could only dine outside on a steel chair. There were even some customers who were sitting on turned over beer crates, eating their ramen while holding the bowl.

“You can just sit wherever you like.”

After saying that, she entered the shop. Although she told me to sit wherever I like, the problem is the chairs and beer crates are already fully seated.

I saw a man sitting on the emergency staircase between a building and another one that Ayaka just went in, located by the entrance of the kitchen. Beneath the stairs, there were stacks of worn tires, small gas tanks and some cardboard boxes full of stains.

When he raised his head, I couldn’t help but take a step back. The man was about twenty and had darkish skin. It was already November, but he was just wearing a T-shirt, completely showing off his bulging biceps. On the moment that he stared at me, I even thought that I would get killed.

“Are you a student of M High School?”

“Nonono, I’m still in middle school. Do I look that much like a high schooler?” I lied for no reason at all. He put down his bowl and said:

“Really? There's a teacher teaching Maths, Fukumoto-sensei. Does he still have any hair left?”

“No, a lot of his hair has already dropped o……AHHH!”

He approached me and flicked my forehead. The pain made me feel as though it bore a hole on my forehead.

“…… Uuuuuu…… That’s too despicable of you. Since you’ve graduated from our school, why don’t you say so in the first place!” I, myself, don’t understand why I feel that he is despicable (It was obvious from my school uniform that I’m from M High School, its my problem for lying). I covered my aching forehead and crouched down while moaning. On that moment, a voice rang behind me:

“He didn’t graduate. This guy was kicked out of school: a drop out. Here, eat this.”

When I turned my head, I saw a young lady in a gray, sleeveless vest standing behind me. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and you could see a white sarashi<ref>A cloth used to bind one's chest</ref> around her chest. She looked just like a laborer. It was only because of the black apron with ‘Hanamaru’ printed on it in white that I realized that she was from the shop. Does that mean that she is Min-san? So she’s a woman!

The thing that Min-san just stuffed into my hands was a paper cup filled with ice cream.

“Master, I’ve told you many times already, I was not kicked out. I dropped out myself.”

“Say that after you’ve clear your tab, you bum.”

“Babies are jobless when they are born too! It’s just that they are tainted in the large bathtub called life after that!"

That would be colorless, not jobless. <ref>In Japanese, jobless and colorless have the same pronunciation (Mushoku)</ref> But Min-san doesn’t seem wanting to reply him, but instead turned around and went back into the kitchen that was filled with white smoke. I held the paper cup with the ice cream and just stood there in a daze for quite some time.

“Hey, you there!” the person who was kicked out of school called me. As soon as I turned around, I hastily covered my forehead.

“What are you so nervous for! So you’re in first year now, huh?” He said while looking at my class badge. “How many fails did you get in your test?”

“Huh?”

Why on earth are you asking me something like this?

“Fujishima-kun, don’t chat with Tetsu-senpai for too long, you’ll get the NEET virus!”

Ayaka, who wore her black apron over her school uniform, said while walking out of the kitchen with a tray full of bowls. The dark skinned guy —— Tetsu-senpai gnashed his teeth, but only pretended to flick Ayaka’s forehead. This is just plain preferential treatment! Ayaka stuck out her tongue, and started to serve the customers outside the shop.

“Oh, just answer me already! Your face is that of one who fails a lot since first year.”

Although I thought that he was a busybody, what he said was still the truth. I could only answer in a small voice: “ I need to retake my English and Japanese History.” Tetsu-senpai caught hold of my arms while beaming, forcefully dragged me to a gas tank and made me sit down.

“Actually, the seats here are specially for NEETs. You have the potential to be a NEET, so if you drop out, feel free to come here! We will always welcome you.”

“No, please don’t expect that of me.” We? Are there anyone else who’s with him?

“Why? I can start from teaching you how to choose pachinko machines! Also, I know some of the employees quite well, so I know which one has the highest frequency of hitting the jackpot!”

When I had a closer look, I saw some magazines about pachinko gambling stashed in Tetsu-senpai’s hind pocket. Whoa, so this guy is a professional pachinko player. What a useless person. I averted my gaze, and started to eat the ice-cream using a wooden spoon. Basking in the evening sun of this late autumn and savoring the delightful aroma of the ramen soup while eating ice cream is indeed exceptionally scrumptious.

The second person of the ‘we’ that Tetsu-senpai spoke of appeared when I was eating roast pork noodles. He suddenly pressed a hard object against the back of my head and said: “Don’t move. Throw away your weapon, raise your hands, declare your name and unit.” I almost spitted the roast pork out of my mouth.

“Erm…… Err…… But……” If I raised my hands, the roast pork will fall down!

“Major, you are so slow. Stop doing idiotic stuff and sit down.”

Tetsu-senpai said while stirring his vanilla flavored ice cream and caramel sauce.

“But he’s sitting on my seat! Who is this fellow?”

“Narumi. He’s in the same club as Ayaka.”

“Hiro-san said that he’s coming later too, there won’t be enough seats then.”

“Hiro can just sit on Narumi’s thigh.”

“Oh, I see.”

What do you mean you see?

The guy called Major then walked into my field of vision. He wore a dark green and coffee-coloured camouflaging sports attire, a sturdy looking helmet, and a pair of sunglasses shaped like goggles. He was somewhat thin and his skin was a beautiful shade of pink that belongs to primary school students. He actually looked about my age. While putting away the model gun (Well, I think it might be a model gun, but what if it’s a real gun?) into his khaki backpack, he looked at me and said:

“But isn’t this guy a high schooler? He doesn’t fit the description of a NEET.”

“Don’t worry, he’s my kouhai. He’ll become a great NEET after a year or two.”

“I definitely won’t become a NEET!” I protested hastily. Through his goggles, Major glared at me and sat on a cardboard box.

“In this era when there are about a billion NEETs in our country, NEET-in-waitings like you are necessary, are they not? The future of our country sure is dark.”

“……in waiting?”

In bewilderment, I asked him what did he mean by that. Major pointed at me and started to chatter enthusiastically:

“Speaking of which, do you know the how a NEET is defined? The term ‘NEET’ was originally used on people who are between the ages of 16 and 18 and are not in education or employment. When the word came to Japan from England, its meaning changed to include people from 15 to 34. As a lot of types appeared after that, they were even classified into an active type and a passive type, a sudden type, challenged type, caveman type and hesitating type. Besides that, there were also some attempts to classify them using three-dimensional coordination to divide them into eight quadrants, but they are actually just meaningless classifications to me.”

“Mukai-san, sorry for the wait.”

Ayaka served Major his salt-flavoured ramen. It looks like Mukai is Major’s real name.

“I’m so sorry, Fujishima-kun, there would be less customers after a while.”

I tried to give Ayaka a ‘justfindanexcuseformetoleavethisseat’ signal, but she didn’t get it. Major sipped some soup and continued:

“NEETs were originally just a cultural illness of reliance, and will only appear in a prosperous country like ours. We should be more proud of NEETs! Love the country that strives to produce NEETs, for world peace, we must stand up! We must find more non NEET-in-waiting elites, learn from each other , form a new Japanese Party, and bravely challenge the evil! Grow, NEETs! Grow like blazing fire! NEETs!”

“So noisy! Just shut up and eat your noodles!”

Min-san’s furious outburst echoed from the kitchen, and a small frying pan flew out of the kitchen soon after, landing on Major’s head.

“Huh? What’s with that guy?”

A male voice rang in the alley, and a tall silhouette appeared at the end of the alley.

A young man daringly wearing a brightly colored coat with khaki jeans was standing at the end of the alley. His occupation was a mystery, but he radiated the aura of a professional person. His aura was different from what Tetsu-senpai had, but they have the same imposing manner. That man approached, almost causing me to fall off the gas tank.

“He’s Ayaka’s friend. See, he’s from M High School.” Said Tetsu-senpai. “Oh? Oh——”That man patted my shoulders and said:

“There was a time when Tetsu was wearing this uniform too!”

He shot a look at the narrow kitchen back door and sat down beside Tetsu-senpai. I started to get confused. Aren’t the seats here just for NEETs?

“Hi, nice to meet you. Here’s my card.” He took a piece of card out of his pocket and handed it to me. He ''is'' a working person! While thinking so, I took the card, on the card it was printed:

‘NEET - Hiroaki Kuwabara’

…… Huh? I nearly fainted at that moment.

To reconfirm the world that I live in, I breathed in deeply and looked at my surroundings. Tetsu-senpai was eating ice cream, Major was eating salt-flavored ramen. Ayaka was busy washing bowls in the smoky kitchen, Min-san was having a battle royale with flames. Looking at the night skies in this autumn, the only person who found something wrong was me.

“Is…… Is your job a NEET?”

I asked cautiously. Hiro-san showed me a smile worthy of a toothpaste advertisement while saying:

“What are you talking about? A NEET isn't an occupation!”

Well, that’s true. As I was about to nod, Hiro-san’s next comment completely devastated me.

“Being a NEET is a lifestyle.”

He actually said that it was a lifestyle? I almost cried. Hiro-san, with his eyes narrowed while pushing back his hair, was meaninglessly handsome. What on earth is with these people?

“Did you make these cards before this, Hiro?”

“Well, its quite convenient while flirting. People always laugh when they see it.”

“Didn’t I tell you that you’ll make your girlfriend angry like this, and that you shouldn't flirt with other people so much?”

“Ah, I broke up with her already. I’m now living at the house of a lady working at a night club. Making it clear that I’m jobless from the start makes my life much easier!”

So Hiro-san is a gigolo! Well, he did say that it was a lifestyle.

I listened to their conversation at the sidelines while drinking the ramen soup, but I didn't really notice its taste. From their conversation, I gathered that they were about 18 to 19, and are supposed to be teenagers who have bright futures.

I vaguely thought to myself: would Tetsu-senpai’s words that I’ll turn out like them soon come true? I could only hope that this won’t be true.

After we finished eating the ramen, and were enjoying the ice creams (Tetsu-senpai was already eating a second), extremely noisy rock music suddenly blared in this narrow space. It was ‘Colorado Bulldog<ref>Song by the band Mr. Big</ref>. The three immediately sprang up, took out their cellphones that were almost simultaneously playing the same ringtone.

Tetsu-senpai picked up the call first, then Major and Hiro-san’s phone immediately stopped ringing. An expression that looked very much like regret appeared on their faces.

“Min-san, Alice has an order for you! Onion ramen, without ramen, roast pork and egg.”

Doesn’t that mean that there's only leeks left? I thought to myself. After three minutes, the bowl that Min-san took out did look like there was only leeks and soup.

“Tell this to her clearly, we sell ramen.” Min-san said with a sour expression on her face.

The leeks floating in the soup looked like islands in a sea of soup. Tetsu-senpai, Major and Hiro-san looked at each other.

“The problem is, who’s gonna take it to her?” said Tetsu-senpai.

“Does Alice seem like she’s in a bad mood?” asked Hiro-san.

“Definitely.”

“Are you guys taking it to her?” me asking this question was a sign of doom. Tetsu-senpai nodded, and then slapped his kneecap.

“Since there’s four people here, lets decide by a Yamanote Line game<ref>Originally, it’s a game where the each player tells the name of a station that the Yamanote Line can reach. Here, they will say things that are related to the topic given</ref>, the one who loses sends it.”

Four people?

“So what’s the topic?”

“Lets use “Brochures commonly found at employment agencies” then.”

“Okay, but there’s only one chance when you can’t answer.”

“Wa- Wait a minute, did you count me in?”

“Okay, lets start from me. ‘ Guide to a Laborer’s Insurance’.”

“ ‘Searching for your Dreams from Thirty-two’.”

“ ‘Discover your Talents in Two Minutes’.”

“Ah, uh, erm……”

“Narumi, that’s your first loss. ‘How to Resign Favorably’.”

“ ‘Starting Your Business From A Computer’!”

“ ‘Guide for Blending in your New Workplace’.”

“…… How on earth would I know any of those!”

“Ah, getting angry are you? Narumi, as long as you’re a NEET, you’ll have to know about these! Going to an employment agency but coming back without doing anything, this is a route that all of us must take.”

No, the problem is I’m not a NEET.

“If you lose you’ll have to admit it, loser.”

“Don’t mind it, Narumi, it isn’t embarrassing that you don’t know about these.”

“Well, of course! Don’t console me!”

“But you still have to send over the ramen!”

Unable to retort, that was how I fell into their trap.

The place that I was supposed to send the ramen was in the same building as the ramen shop, but on the third floor, room 308. As they said: “You’ll know when you go.” There was a large signboard on the door.

‘NEET Detective Agency’

The words were written with a somewhat cute handwriting, and there were a row of mystifying English words.

It’s the only NEET thing to do

My mind had already gone numb after the events that I’ve gone through today, so I won’t be surprised even if I see a NEET being a detective. I used the corner of the tray that held the ramen to press the electric bell, and the side camera modified into the electric bell flashed blue. According to Tetsu-senpai, that was the sign for ‘Come in’.

After opening the door, I saw that it was a long single room. As the air-conditioner was going strong, it was even colder than outside. Walking past the fridge, kitchen and washing machine in the corridor, a narrow room could be seen. As there were not any partitions in the room, a computer rack could be seen even from the entrance, while countless monitors filled the walls of the room.

“Your ramen is here……”

“Please enter.”

The voice of a young girl rang from inside of the room.

While holding the tray, I walked into the room. This room is really quite something. Three sides of the walls were covered with unknown machines, liquid plasma monitors and electric cables, while the small space left —— the floor in the middle of the room, was filled with a mattress. As though she was buried in dolls, the silhouette wearing pajamas turned around.

[[Image:Kamisama no memocho vol01 037.jpg|thumb|''She looked just like a doll.'']]

She looked just like a doll. She had a small face, a pair of large eyes that were in contrast with her face, unbelievably white skin, thin limbs, sleek hair flowing on the sheets, and was wearing pale blue pajamas with pictures of cartoon bears on it. I held the tray and stared at the girl.

The girl shifted the table that the keyboard was on aside, and pulled to her bed another long table that was just like those small tables that were used with the mattresses in a hospital.

“What are you standing there for? I ordered leek ramen. I don’t remember ordering a high school student-shaped ornament.”

“Ah, um…… Where should I put the ramen?”

“Since you're standing so far away, do you think that my arms seem like they’re long enough that I can take the bowls from your hands?”

I was scolded by her. But I do not even feel angry or surprised anymore. I placed the tray on the table in front of the girl. She took the disposable chopsticks, looked at it for awhile and breathed in deeply. Her small face was full of determination while the hands holding the tip of the chopsticks were applying force on it. But when the chopsticks were dragged into a ‘人’ shape, it just shook but did not separate. How little strength does this girl have?

“…… Would you like me to give you a hand?”

The cute girl wearing the pajamas was visibly glaring at me.

“It seems that you’re the type that sees a frail bird that couldn’t fly, tosses them upwards and sink in your own satisfaction after that, are you not? These type of people are the most useless of them all. When you walk away triumphantly, the bird would fall back down on the asphalt road and die, but you won’t even know that. Being dumb really should have a limit.”

It’s just a pair of disposable chopsticks, why am I scolded like this? But I did not retort her. Again, she breathed in deeply and applied force to separate the chopsticks.

Thwack.

The chopstick on the right has split into two. This is the most common result. She emotionlessly stared for awhile at the chopsticks with unequal length, and then started to cry. Hey, don’t cry!

She used the back of her hand to wipe away her tears, and started to eat the leek ramen(that pretty much has only leeks in it). As I was thinking of this, she started to glare at me again and said: “Your interests are really out of my comprehension. Does silently watching people eat make you happy?”

“Ah, so- sorry.”

When I was about to walk out of the room, this time she said: “Where do you think you're going? If you are gone, who will dispose of the bowls? You should really think about this.” I scratched my head, and having no other choice, I squatted down at the entrance with my back to the mattress.

While listening to the girl wearing pajamas eating the onions, I mulled over the things that happened today. I'm just here because I couldn’t refuse Ayaka’s request…… Then, I encountered a lot of stuff. I'm really tired. As I was about to drift into sleep, the girl’s voice rang out yet again.

“Narumi, I’m done. Get some beverages for me from the fridge.”

Startled, I turned back to face the girl.

“Eh, huh?”

“I said, get me something to drink from the fridge. Falling asleep even in someone else’s house, you really are shameless.”

Who are you to say that about me? But still, I followed her instructions as I did not have the energy to retort. After opening the fridge, I found that it was stuffed full of 350ml red cans, and nothing else. I thought that all of them were Coke, but they were actually all [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_Pepper Dr. Pepper]. I don’t even have the energy to say anything anymore. The girl drank all of the Dr. Pepper that I brought her in one breath, and happiness welled out from her face. Seeing that expression made me feel that I could forgive everything.

“When God was creating the world, it was because He drank Dr. Pepper that He took a rest on the seventh day. If Dr. Pepper does not exist, there would be twelve days in a week instead of seven.”

“Is that so?”

“Narumi, you should drink it too! I can’t give you the ones in my fridge, but I can tell you where you can get them.”

So you're not giving them to me?

“…… Wait!” That was when I realized: “Why do you know my name?”

Was it when she was talking to Tetsu-senpai on the phone? No, at that moment Alice was just ordering her leek ramen, and she hung up right after she ordered. There wasn’t any time for them to say my name.

“Fujishima Narumi, sixteen, male, 164cm tall, weighs 51kg, in class 1-4 of M high school……” She fluently spoke of all of my personal information —— address, phone number, educational background, and family background. I was speechless.

“Ayaka said that there was a new club member, so I just did a little investigation. There is so much information in your school, but so little protective measures, so it’s better if you be more careful.”

At a loss of words, I looked at the wall formed of computers.

“…… Are you a hacker?”

“I’m not a hacker.”

The girl smiled while shaking her head.

“I’m a NEET detective.”

The detective said, Alice was partly her real name, and partly an alias.

“Yuuko can also be read as Alice <ref>有子is read as Yuuko, but 有can be read as ari, 子 can be read as su</ref>. The name Alice was taken from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Tiptree,_Jr. James Tiptree's] real name.”

“Who is she?”

Alice sat on the mattress while hugging her knees, looking at me as though she was looking at an idiot.

“She’s a novelist! Didn’t you see the signboard at the door? Although I changed a letter, it was quite a famous quote! Haven’t you read of it before?”

I cocked my head, thinking of the English words on the signboard.

“The detectives that you speak of…… Don’t they just accept other people’s requests and investigate various cases?”

“I am not an ordinary detective, but a NEET detective. They are as different as Chofu and Den Enchofu, mind you. An ordinary detective asks around for information, monitors other people, all in all going here and there to search for information and find their target. NEET detectives, on the other hand……”

Alice puffed out her chest, turned around to the wall covered with machines and waved her hands.

“Do not need to leave their rooms even a step, but can search the whole world to find out the truth. You probably just think that I’m just a hikkikomori who’s overly reliant on the Internet, huh? You don’t need to lie.”

“Erm….. Yeah.”

“Hmph, that’s because the common man cannot understand the work of a detective. A detective is the messenger of the deceased, looking for the words lost from their graves, hurting the living for the sake of protecting the honor of the deceased, and condemning the dead for the sake of consoling the living. That is why this is such an unpopular and misunderstood occupation……
Is your expression questioning that why am I, as a hikkikomori, am saying all these?”

“No, my expression shouldn’t be that obvious.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“But you look like you have something to say. Don’t worry, just ask! Because of my occupation, I am already used to never ending questions. And I will let you fall into despair very quickly.”

…… Despair?

I don’t really have anything much to ask, just that I’m a bit shocked by the endless chatter of this strange girl, Alice. But in this situation, it seems that I need to ask a question. Looking around the room that looks like a control room, I asked the question that was the most confusing to me.

“You…… What do you usually eat? Do you always eat those stuff?”

Alice’s round eyes became even rounder.

“This trivial matter is the first thing that you thought of?’’

“…… I think that what we eat is very important.”

“Yes, you are correct. You are also an oddball, different from what Ayaka has said.”

Alice narrowed her eyes while looking at me, as though she was smiling.

“To obtain the nutrients essential for my body, drinking Dr. Pepper would suffice. But Min-san is very persistent, so sometimes I eat some vegetables as well.”

“So that’s why you don’t grow……”

“Where did your biased opinion that only tall people are good come from? I can list out fifty advantages for being a shorty and disadvantages of being tall, if you are willing to have a debate, I am always ready to accept the challenge.”

“No, sorry.”

I was just thinking about her height, which resulted in me mumbling to myself and getting heard.

“So do you depend on Min-san for your daily life?”

Alice raised her eyebrows.

“You’re really impolite, you know. I’ve already said that I’m a NEET detective, a NEET detective is an occupational detective! I have an actual income, and pay her for everything.”

“Eh, eh, but aren’t you a NEET?” aren’t all NEETs jobless?

“You misunderstood NEETs from a fundamental level. The second E in NEET is Employment, being employed by someone. My occupation is a personal enterprise, so I’m not employed. How other people view that depends.”

How other people would view.

“…… Lifestyle huh?”

“In Hiro’s life, that is so. Turgenev might say call it the ending of an illusion, Dostoyevsky might call it hell, William Somerset Maugham might call it reality, while Haruki Murakami might call it self. I use another name for it, but anyhow it’s unrelated to the matter of income.”

I have absolutely no idea what she is talking about, but the fact that the pajamas-clad girl earned money by being a detective is somewhat unbelievable. Which reminds me, she seems to be familiar with the usage of computers and the Internet.

“Your expression tells me that you don’t believe me. No matter, another man would come here in a moment to request for my investigation, you’ll probably believe it after you’ve heard it.”

“…… Huh?”

At that moment, the doorbell rang as she had predicted. I turned around and looked at the door.

“Open the door.”

“Me?”

“It would be nice if the agency adds some other way to welcome guests besides the blue lights.”

As I walked to the entrance to open the door, I froze as there were three men outside the door. The young man in the middle was wearing a leather coat and looked slightly older than me, but his expression was like that of a wild wolf. Among the other two who were flanking his sides, one was a man having muscles like a rocky mountain, the other was tall like an electric pole. Both of them were wearing the same gray hoodie.

“Who is this guy? Where’s Alice?”

The wolf said. It was as though I was pierced by his sharp gaze, my lips trembled and I was unable to speak. At this moment, Alice’s voice came from inside the room:

“Oh, Yondaime, please come in.”

The two people behind the man who was called Yondaime said: “We’ll wait here.” And then I was dragged into the room. After the door was closed, the two men disappeared from my field of vision. At the moment when I was closing the door, I felt as if I was glared at, and my hands holding the door handle trembled.

“Narumi, get another can of Dr. Pepper.”

Alice’s voice finally peeled my hands off the door handle.

“Hey, who is that guy? Aren’t we going to talk about the job?”

When I handed the Dr. Pepper to Alice, Yondaime who was sitting beside the mattress used his chin to point at me, and then turned around and said to me: “You, get out for a moment.”

“Eh?”

Telling me to go outside the room to become best friends with the two bear-like bodyguards, and wait for you to finish discussing? What are you talking about!

“Yondaime, just imagine that there’s a high school student-shaped ornament here, relax and start the discussion.”

“Hey, Alice, are you joking? You should know that this isn’t something that you can let outsiders know!”

“It doesn’t matter, Narumi is only my assistant for today, I can guarantee that he will not speak of this to anyone else.”

I don’t even know when I’ve become an assistant.

“That's not the point.”

“If you’re so insistent, why don’t you talk so that outsiders wouldn’t understand? Your job has a lot of jargon anyway. If you would not want then, you can just give the request to some other people.”

An awkward expression appeared on Yondaime’s face and he used his foot to kick the bedstead. Finally, he sighed and started to talk.

Indeed, I could not understand a thing, it was all a bunch of unknown nouns and verbs that you couldn’t understand. The ones that I could barely understand “deal with him when we catch him”, are the ones that I really don’t want to understand.

“Hmm.”

Alice finished listening to Yondaime’s explanation and finished drinking her second can of Dr. Pepper.

“I understand. Narumi, do you understand what he just said?”

I hastily shook my head.

“Is that so? Basically, someone is doing unknown drug dealing behind Yondaime’s back, so he requested me to help find out about the ways that they deal drugs.”

“What is the use of me talking like that when you explain it to him!” Yondaime flew into a rage. That was quite understandable. I felt somewhat happy and thought: Great, finally someone would teach her a lesson…… “What is with that happy look on your face!” Yondaime’s changed his target of anger to me. I could only retreat to the corridor and hid behind the fridge.

“Well, as I had a big headache this morning, I wanted to enrage the first person who came in to vent my annoyace, whoever it was. Although Narumi was the first person to come in, but for some reason he is quite tolerant of it, and didn’t get angry at all.”

So she did all that on purpose!

“Coincidentally, the next person was you, so I vented my annoyance on you, so don’t mind it. If I did anything wrong, you’ll always get angry, and that’s why I like you the most.”

Alice stretched her legs out of the blanket and smiled sweetly. At this moment, I was totally defeated (Yondaime probably was, too). Yondaime hammered the blanket for some time, tried to say something but then stopped, and then he stood up.

“So are you willing to accept the request?”

“I accept it, so just leave it all to me!”

“I will mail the details to you, goodbye.”

Yondaime walked to the corridor and dragged me out from the fridge. He caught hold of my left shoulder and applied force on it until his thumb almost sank into my body.

“Ah, ouch…….”

“I’ve remembered your face, and will find out your address immediately. Listen closely, you didn’t hear anything just now. Is that clear?”

The wolfish eyes came closer to my eyes, while I could only nod while trembling.

“Answer me!”

“I…… I didn’t hear anything.”

Yondaime tossed me to the ground and walked out of the room.

“Are you alright?”

Alice came over and asked as I was huddled up on the floor in exhaustion. So she can walk? I thought that she had an illness that causes her to die if she leaves her bed.

“I just feel very tired.”

The words popped out of my mouth. That would be my feelings about what occurred the whole day.

“If I didn’t do so, I’m afraid you’ll still think that I’m a hikkikomori who’s over-reliant on the Internet. Don’t mind it!”

“No, I already understand clearly.”

Because of Ayaka, I stepped into an unbelievable world. Drug dealing, detectives and hackers, I had always hoped that these only exist in worlds that I don’t know of.

“You just wanted me to understand your work, so you said nonsensically that I’m your assistant and that I’m tight-lipped……”

“That is not nonsense. You are indeed tight-lipped, I am sure of it.”

I raised my head to look at Alice and saw that she was smiling. Since this is the first time that we’ve met, why does she dare to say so?

“Hey, Narumi. The people who met me, each and every one of them would ask: ''‘Are you really a NEET? Why did you become a NEET?’'', and you are the first one who did not ask me this question.”

Adjusting to my eye level, Alice squatted down.

“Although it might be because you’re thoughtless or uncaring, but I -- we NEETs would be extremely happy. Instead of pitying us, ignoring us would have been better. 'Why did we become NEETs?', this question shouldn’t even be asked. Because there is only one reason – it is written on our page of God’s notebook: ‘We lose when we work.’ There is no other reason.”

“…… God’s notebook?”

“Isn’t this statement so irresponsible that it’s great?”

Placing her hands and chin on her knees, Alice said while smiling:

“What the word NEET really means, is actually not ‘Someone who doesn’t know how to do anything’, and not ‘Someone who doesn’t want to do anything’.”

<center>*</center>

Holding the empty bowl on the plate while walking out of the NEET Detective Agency, I saw that it was already completely dark outside. The starlight could not be seen as it was hidden by the piercing lights on the earth. The ramen shop below had become extremely crowded. Laughter and angry shouts coming from there could be heard even from here.

After I walked down the emergency backstairs, I found Yondaime sitting on the seat exclusively for NEETs that I was sitting on just now. Tetsu-senpai, Major, Hiro-san and Yondaime surrounded the wooden table, and looked like they were doing something together. The clear tinkle of a bell-like sound could be heard even from far away.

“Sou-san! Didn’t you say that you are only playing for five minutes!?”

The bodyguard, Rocky, who was standing behind Yondaime was shouting angrily by Yondaime’s ears.

“Shut up, how can I go back when I’m in a losing streak! Tetsu, hurry up and throw already!”

“Okay, four five and six.”

“Impossible!”

A large bundle of money was on the bowl. So they’re playing a game of dices. Do these four know each other?

“Fujishima-kun, Min-san made a flavored ice cream, do you want to try some?”

Ayaka ran out holding an ice cream cone. While licking the ice cream which was giving out a fragrant aroma, I listened to the dice tinkling along in the bowl. Yondaime was shouting with his whole face red, throwing his cash onto the bowl like a ninja throwing knives. Looking at this situation, I couldn’t help but feel – somewhat happy.

<center>*</center>

On the way home, the streetlights on the street was very dim. Walking in front of me, Ayaka turned around and said:

“I’m so sorry, I did say that I wanted to have a welcome party for you, but coincidentally the shop was busy……”

Speaking of which, I don’t think I’ve talked much with Ayaka today at the shop. There were so many customers that even I helped to deliver.

“Oh yeah, did you see Alice?”

“Yeah…… She’s an oddball.” I couldn’t say anything else about her.

“But it was really unbelievable today. There are indeed a lot of interesting people behind the ramen shop, but its rare that all of them were present like today! You’re so lucky, Fujishima-kun.”

“Does that count as lucky?”

Indeed, the people that I met and the faces that I’ve seen today has far exceeded my brain capacity, but I still remembered all of them. Tetsu-senpai, Min-san, Major, Hiro-san, Alice and Yondaime.

“It would be even better if Onii-chan could come.”

Onii-chan?

“After my brother left school, he became a NEET. He usually goes to the ramen shop to hang out with Tetsu-senpai and the others. But recently he didn’t even go home or to the shop. I couldn’t even reach his phone.”

“You can’t really say that all of those who hang out there don’t have a job……?”

A horrible illusion came upon me. Would I turn out like them when I　leave school someday?

Ayaka turned around and said: “Did you ever think of leaving school?”

“Every day.”

Under the streetlight, an inscrutable expression appeared on Ayaka’s face.

“…… Even now?”

I was momentarily speechless. Being unable to immediately answer this question is indeed strange.

Ayaka gazed sincerely at me.

I averted her gaze and lied: “Now…… I don’t want to……. Probably!”

“Is that so.” A gentle smile appeared on Ayaka’s face.

“But I think you have no need to lie right now.”

I stopped walking, speechless, and Ayaka stopped too. Coincidentally, we were standing in the middle of two streetlights, while our shadows interlaced on the asphalt road.

“…… Why?”

I could only say this one word. Why? How did she know that I was lying?

“Because…… That place originally belonged to me.” Ayaka said. “It was because there were no other members that I entered the Gardening Club. So in this case, I’m your senior for about half a year!”

I pondered the reason why Ayaka can smile while saying such a thing. Because she is different from me, and can chat with the other students in our class as if nothing had happened, it seemed as natural as breathing.

Hearing me speak of my true thoughts, she showed me a glass-like small that was even more transparent.

“It’s really simple, you can do it as well. Shout when you’re angry like the others, laugh when you’re happy like the others, and speak your mind when you want something.”

I lowered my head, and thought repeatedly about what Ayaka meant by her words. I still don’t get it. I just felt that her words was like that of a busybody, although its contents completely suits my current situation.

After we crossed the bridge, Ayaka and I said goodbye to each other.

Looking at the silhouette of Ayaka running towards the station, I thought of a scene when she was shouting or laughing like the others. Wasn't she just pushing herself? Does she mean that I should do that as well? Forcing myself to talk to the other students, forcing myself to smile.

I wish that she would not care about me anymore. I just couldn’t do what she said anyhow.

<references/>

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Kamisama no Memochou:Volume 1 Illustrations|Novel Illustrations]]
| Return to [[Kamisama no Memochou|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Kamisama no Memochou:Volume 1 Chapter 2|Chapter 2]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Tabi ni Deyou:Wings

2012-01-11T05:30:09Z

BladeUnderHeart:

The boy looked up at the heavy, dark clouds in the sky.

Only some moments ago, it had still been a clear blue sky, but then clouds slowly caught up from behind and the sky turned overcast. The speed with which this happened could be called lightning-fast and the blue color that was there before was beyond imagination now, so that one couldn't even tell where the sun was anymore.

Unaffected by this, the green surrounding them hadn't changed. From time to time they came by some farms that had been crushed by the snowfall last winter, but none of those could serve them as a rain shelter.

"...oh well. Looks like there's going to be a shower. I just hope we're out of here by then..."

"Don't worry! People always told me that I'm beloved by the sun."

"Too bad. ''I'' was always called the 'rain bringer'. Guess why."

"Uh-oh-"

The girl giggled while turning around. The clouds that had been gradually getting thicker as time went by looked as though they would start pouring their contents over them any moment.

What's so bad about getting a little wet, some may wonder. But that is a sentiment limited to those who have hot coffee and a dry towel waiting for them at home.

They required fuel to warm themselves up, they had to light their fires on their own and they had to dry their wet clothes immediately. They would be in big trouble should they catch a cold. Even if it didn't lead to the worst case scenario, the two run the risk of starving to death if they are forced to stay at one place for several days.

"If things don't change, we're both going to catch colds. Who would be the carer in that case?" 

"Usually I think it's those who don't have enough power left to care for someone else that are cared for."

"It's a duel over who'll recover first, then!"

"I wonder... according to my personal prediction, you'll win that duel, but I'll be the one who laughs last."

"...what do you mean by that?"

"Well, I can already see how you'll fall sick again after overhastily claiming the victory by reporting that you've 'recovered'. Without any foundation, of course."

"........."

He had hit the bull's eye. The girl used to be stubborn and overhasty from time to time. Indeed, the situation he described was definitely possible.

"And then I'll eat the melon all on my own! After all, it would hurt your stomach, wouldn't it?"

"You won't! We're eating that melon only after splitting it in a grand pinata contest! Got me?!"

The large melon they had received from the director was, just as he had estimated, almost ripe, giving off a nice sound when knocking on it. While the boy was simply waiting for the ideal time to eat it, the girl had apparently already decided ''how'' to eat the melon. The execution of a melon-splitting event had been scheduled - without taking his opinion into consideration.

"I admit your plan sounds great to me... but you do realize that we don't have a bat?"

"Uhm... then how about this?" said the girl, kicking Cubby's muffler briefly.

"Don't even think about it! It's going to break if you do that."

Well, actually, Cubby wouldn't break just from having its muffler removed, but he willfully kept silent about that. For one thing, he had not the least inclination to hit the road with the roaring sound of a biker gang, and for another thing, destroying his dear vehicle, the Super Cub, just for a melon after finally getting it repaired some days ago seemed way too cruel to him.

"Mh, can't be helped. In that case we'll just have to look out for a fitting bat somewhere on the ground."

"There's no need to insist on splitting it with a bat, though. I mean, it's not like we couldn't cut it somehow with a knife."

However, his idea had no chance of being adopted to begin with. The preparation of the melon had already been set to splitting it with a bat in her head. And he had no right to make any changes to this.

"Ah, a place where there is water would be great, too. I want to eat it cold."

The girl, who had (as expected) completely ignored his opinion, patted the melon on the backside rack.

The boy fully agreed with her that such a large melon would develop its true deliciousness only when solemnly split. It would be a waste to make it just a dessert. In regards to this, both of them were of the same mind.

It's just that the boy couldn't be as optimistic as the girl was.

Leaving aside the bat, it seemed improbable to him that they would find a place with cold water so easily. Of course, a streamlet would do the job, but one had to consider the current look of the sky. It was way too dangerous to be around a river.

He didn't tell her, though, as he didn't see the need to dampen her spirits.

Thereafter, the two travelers and their Super Cub just kept moving on for a while, driving past the occasionally appearing intersections at full speed without paying the least attention to the traffic lights.

The reason for this was the weather, of course. It kept getting worse, making the clouds even thicker than they had been before: even though it was just past noon, it was already as dark as in the evening, and once in a while they would even spot a thunderbolt flashing up from between the clouds, which looked like tightly compressed dust balls. From that they could easily judge that there wasn't much time left til the thunder-storm.

Then, when it became past four. Far ahead of the unchanging, dead-straight road, they discovered something.

"What's that? Doesn't that look like a warehouse or something?"

"No idea... I can't tell from this distance."

Somewhere ahead of their road, which cut through green scenery, there was an unpaved branch road that diverged at a right angle. And further ahead, he could see something like a warehouse made of galvanized sheet iron that was completely corroded by rust.

With his naked eye, naturally he could not see as much as the girl who had binoculars, but what they saw should have been about the same from such a distance.

Also, being able to see something with just his eyes meant that it would only take a few minutes to arrive there on Cubby's wheels. Since there weren't any other junctions until there anyway, they decided to approach the building for the time being.

A few minutes later.
[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0084.jpg|thumb|It was indeed consumed by rust, but there were no holes to be seen in the walls and roof.]]

Along with a protesting cry from Cubby's brakes, they came to a halt and had their heavy load make the front suspension sink in deeply. From the engine fumed a steam-like heat, which could probably be attributed to the boy stepping on the gas.

The warehouse in question was in much better shape than they had expected from a distance; it was indeed consumed by rust, but there were no holes to be seen in the walls and roof.

The girl got off the tandem and the boy parked the Super Cub under a roof that was situated at an unloading area.

It had yet to rain, so they had somehow managed not to look like drowned rats.

"Whew, thank God we made it in time," said the girl relievedly.

"Yeah. It's not raining yet, but I suppose we're going to be fine here."

He looked up at the warehouse behind him.

The sheet iron building, which stood solely and surrounded by endless green, wasn't actually that big. In terms of size and shape it was comparable with a small sports hall.

At the front was a metal sliding door through which quite large objects could be transported, but like the building itself it was corroded by rust. From the looks of it, this place hadn't been maintained very frequently. It would have been to be expected that there was at least a sign of the responsible company or something, but since there wasn't even something of that kind, it seemed like this storehouse was not in use at the moment.

After he had shut down the engine and taken off his helmet, a large truck beside the warehouse caught his eye.

In contrast to the from-top-to-bottom dilapidated storehouse that seemed about to crumble to iron-oxidic powder any second now, the truck was loaded with a shining silver container and parked alongside the building. It was clearly too new to suit this place and was hidden from the road under an overhanging roof.

"...There's a truck. Looks like we may be able to get hold of some fuel."

"Why don't you just take the whole truck? A journey with air-conditioning is waiting for us!"

"No way. Or do you think I own a truck license?" said the boy with a wry smile and putting down the kickstand after moving the motorcycle a little more towards the storehouse, so that it wouldn't get hit by the rain. Of course he didn't forget to carefully check the balance because of their delicate luggage.

"Who cares about a license? We haven't happened upon one uniformed officer, not even a police car, during our journey. Besides, neither of us has a motorcycle license and we're still riding a Super Cub."

"What I mean is that I have no clue how to drive it! That thing's not like a moped where you can help yourself by deriving from your experience with bicycles. How do you expect me to drive a 4-tonner truck when I haven't even sneaked a peek at the driver's seat of one in my life?"

"Then have somebody who knows teach you," said she a little dauntedly.

The boy shrugged, "Sure, when there is somebody like that."

"There is!" she declared, which got him eying her. A demand for foundation was writ large in his face.

"For one thing, footprints. Look," said the girl, pointing at the tracks at her feet. Dry footprints that looked different from their sneakers' were scattered all over the ground.

"Judging from the size, it's a man. He seems to be wearing sports shoes, so he may even be about our age. Taking the level of dryness into consideration, I would assume these footprints were made during the rain about two weeks ago."

"...In short, someone has been here recently and might still be?"

"Exactly! How's that? That's what I call 'reasoning'."

She gave herself airs, putting her hands on her hips, whereas the boy just breathed out a sigh.

"...If he were as old as us, he couldn't possibly know how to drive a truck, could he?"

"..."

The girl froze in the posture she had taken.

"Either way, if these footprints belong to a grown-up with that knowledge, do you think he would readily leave the truck to us?"

She was at a complete loss for words.

Even the girl was aware of how fatal it would be to lose one's vehicle in the middle of this savage --- no, I mean "vast" land.

Of course she was! There was no way of forgetting the trouble they'd had with Cubby's engine some days ago.

"Well, if we're lucky we can at least get some fuel from him. But I suppose trucks of this kind are diesel, so is there even gas?"

"......"

Her mouth was still closed. Apparently, she wasn't too happy about her conclusion being spoiled.

He turned away from his sullen partner and opened his mouth loudly.

"Hellooooo? Is there anyone there?"

There was no answer. Still, the walls were made of sheet metal, so his voice should have passed through them.

"Shall we just enter the warehouse for now, before it starts to rain? Besides, we may find a rod of some sort which we can use for splitting the melon."

A high creak resounded as the blockade of the metal door was broken.

They went for the large entrance that was designed to transport things through it. It was a pain to open the door with his bare hands, but the ordinary entrance on the side was sealed with wire wrapped around the knob and the rear entrance was locked. Consequently, this was the only way inside. Of course they could just have broken a window and entered from there, but they decided against it, since that was going too far.

They didn't know whether that sealed door was the deed of "the inhabitant", but judging from the red rust all over the wire, it hadn't been opened for months.

The same, however, applied to the sliding door. This became evident when rust started falling down from the top rail while it was being opened by the boy's frantic use of both his hands and feet.

Hence, it didn't seem to be used much either. The owner must have been using the rear entrance.

"Heere... we go...!"

Along with a noise, red rust rained down on his head.

He somehow succeeded in opening the door by squashing his shoulder and legs in between. It seems like using force can go well, too, once in a while.

"Well well... Hellooo? Is there anyone?"

The girl hopped into the warehouse without even trying to understand the hardships he had just gone through. Concerning him, he was stretching his legs on the ground and breathing exhaustedly. The icing on the cake was the rust that was all over him.

From what they could see, there were no leaks through which the rain could enter and it seemed stable enough to withstand the storm. The temperature was rather cool, too, making it "comfortable" overall - if you ignored the rest of it! However, due to the horrible moldy stench and the dark and gloomy air, they could not call it "comfortable" at all.

From outside, it had seemed like a simple barracks of sheeted metal, but this was not exactly the case. While the ground really was left bare, heat insulating material had been used for the ceiling and there were also fluorescent lamps, though turned off. There was even some weak air-conditioning for work purposes.

At any rate, it was a thousand times better than camping outside. Hence, they set this warehouse as the day's camping ground.

While dusting the rust stuck to his hands, the boy took a look around.

"This building isn't used as a warehouse, as it seems."

"What do you mean?"

While untying her hair - she used a hair tie because her hair would get in the way otherwise - she turned towards the boy.

"Can you see any commodities? Even just traces? All that's here is this..."

What he was talking of were the rather unfamiliar things that could be seen there. For one thing there were hand-made metal holding devices. On some desks, workbenches apparently, there were tools, much much better than the ones in his own possession, and various strangely-shaped utensils and measuring instruments.

As a whole, they looked as though they served one certain purpose.

Right, it was like...

"...A garage?"

"Yeah. I think those tools are for maintaining or assembling something."

All of the tools were directed towards the holding devices installed in the center and seemed to cohere. He didn't know what was supposed to be fixated on those stands, but he sensed that this place must have been for a lot of people to work on one thing.

"Who's there?"

The two were startled by a sudden voice and hurriedly turned their gazes towards the other end of the warehouse, just to have their hearts miss a beat yet again.

"Tz...! How dare you open the door and nestle in here, damn couple... What are you doing in my house?"

He was about mid-twenties. His clothing consisted of simple slacks and a T-shirt, and while his body couldn't quite be called an Adonis body, it was one of a sportsman.

Just.

Just, what shocked them more than anything was his face.

''Pure white it was''. The decolorization the director had suffered stood no comparison with it. What could be seen of his skin was completely white as if he was part of a black-and-white photograph.

No, since there was shadowing, pure white might not be fully correct. He lacked color so much that it seemed as if he had been cut out and replaced by monochrome film.

"What? Is a visage like mine that unusual?"

"...Quite so. It is the first time I've seen someone that has progressed this far..."

"I'm no attraction. Get lost if there's nothing you want from me."

"Oh, actually there is. It looks like it's going to rain and our motorcycle will not get us far. Please let us spend only a night here. Furthermore, may we borrow a rod or something that is suitable for splitting a melon?"

The man raised an eyebrow.

"......A rod?"

"Yes. We have received an extra-large melon from a kind person whom we met on our way, but we had trouble finding a tool to cut it with. So why not use the opportunity and have some fun splitting it, we thought. However, we lacked an appropriate rod in our luggage," told the girl fluently with a perfect ingratiating smile and for a few moments the man just kept suspiciously gazing at her.

"...Help yourself and use what you want. But hands off the stuff I'm using!" said he, when he had finally given up, and left them, going towards a cot that was installed at the back of the room. Apparently, he used a corner of the warehouse, which he had divided from the rest, as some sort of nap area.

The girl breathed out lightly and turned around.

"Heard him, boy? Let's accept his good will and go searching for a rod as part of a nice break."

"Y-Yeah..."

He joined the search with a light dread of her forcing smile that would not let him refuse.

After all, one ought not to defy her at the wrong time.

For starters, the two went to a line of racks, which were stocked with tools and stuff, and started looking for a tool that fit their needs.

"Boy? How about this?"

"You intend to split a melon with a spanner? ...well, leaving aside the idea, that length won't work. Too short."

"How's this then?"

"A hammer, huh... it'll turn into mush!"

"Mmmhh... then it must be this."

"What on earth do you plan on doing with that wire stripper?"

The boy was a little stunned at the girl who randomly showed him what was in reach.

But he noticed that the tools here, too, were a little strange.

There were all kinds and sorts of them, but they all were rather small. He thought he could find bolts and nuts in many different diameters, but even the largest sized were much smaller than the usual standard.

The man had sat down on a pipe chair and was watching them through his dull eyes as they bustled about searching.

"...hmph. A trip as a couple, not giving a shit about school? You kids must be full of yourselves, huh?" 

The girl did not overhear the mumbling voice behind her. 

Without stopping her fumbling hands, she ventured a counterattack with a small voice.

"Oh? I think that's still a good deal better than being a drunkard who's legless already in the daytime."

The air tensioned. He had heard her for certain.

"......as if a little brat like you could understand me..."

"Oh, but I believe I can understand part of a tiny little bit of you!"

She swiftly stood up and turned towards him - and threw something so fast it couldn't be followed by the naked eye.

The object that landed before his feet with its pages fluttering open was without a doubt her student notebook, which she always carried around with her.

"Take a good look at that student card."

"......what's the point..."

The man picked it up grudgingly but frowned when he saw the open page - as though he was looking at something that made no sense.

Her photograph that was attached to the student card had already faded so much that one could hardly tell whether there was anything at all.

Her name and student number had been lost entirely, which indicated that quite some time had passed since she started "vanishing".

The man widened his eyes slightly.

"My symptoms haven't progressed as much as yours, but before long they will! Well, it's just a matter of sooner or later if you ask me?" she boasted for some reason, which made him give her a slightly queer look, though he averted his eyes immediately afterwards.

"...hmph. It really is just a tiny bit..."

"Wha...!"

To stop her from countering, he tossed her the student card and turned from them.

"......You'd better eat that melon quickly and get out of here."

Leaving behind only these words, he stood up, pulled the shroud and disrupted their field of vision.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

Their search proved to be much harder than they had expected; the clock showed seven in the evening when they left the warehouse because they had given up searching inside.

It was still not raining, but since there was no sunlight, it was so dark outside that one couldn't do without a flashlight.

"Man!! What an insolent old drunkard!"

"Isn't calling him an 'old drunkard' a little cruel if you consider his age?"

"What? You're on the side of that old drunkard?"

The boy smiled wryly, watching her kick one of the H-shaped posts of the warehouse to vent her irritation.

"Say what you want, but... we're having him help us out by lending us a rod after all."

"And there's no sign of that rod! That's why I told you to pull that thing off and use that."

"But that 'thing' is the drainage pipe of the air conditioner. He's going to be troubled if we just pull that off!"

"Why should we care?"

"We should!" laughed the boy,taking two flashlights out of the bag attached to the Super Cub. One of them he handed over to her.

"How's our watermelon doing?" he muttered and tapped the watermelon with a finger, making a dull, well-sounding sound. It was just the right ripeness. It could be said without a doubt that today and tomorrow were the best days to eat it. Otherwise it would get overripe. If they didn't find anything by then, they would have to split it with their hands.

Suddenly the boy recalled the truck that was parked by the warehouse.

He paused to think for a moment and pulled up the zipper of the bag.

"So in the end, what should we do now?"

"Mh... how about taking a look in that truck?"

"Truck? Aah, that one outside?"

"Probably, it's still loaded with things," stated he - seeming quite sure, to the amazement of the girl who followed him while cocking her head.

After they had headed to the truck and had closed the rusted metal door, the partitioning of the nap corner moved slightly.

As it was clearly too dark, the boy turned on his flashlight.

Looked at from far away it had just given him the impression of a normal truck, but it was larger than expected when they got closer.

The shining silver container looked quite unnatural compared to the deterioration of the warehouse. Another sign that the truck hadn't been in actual use around here here was that its tires weren't very dirty.

"Looks like it's a rental truck. See the mark on the license plate?" the girl pointed out. (TN: most rental cars in Japan have a わ-car-number)

"Mh, did that man rent it? I wonder why."

"Well, for transporting something. Most likely. But the rental period has expired if you ask me. He's a criminal."

They examined it briefly, walking around the vehicle, and found out that at least the container was not locked.

While they didn't know what was inside, they could hazard a guess. After all, this was a loaded rental truck parked beside a warehouse designated to put something together.

"...So... in here is what belongs inside the warehouse?"

"I think so. If it's not in the warehouse, it must be in here," explained he and grabbed the door handle casually.

He jumped on the step and pulled the handle as hard as he could, whereupon the double doors opened along with a small creak.

The boy almost fell down because he had used too much power, but somehow he managed to keep his balance by grabbing the door bar.

"......huh? What is this?"

"...this must be..."

The boy was bereft of speech. Strictly speaking not because it ran afoul of his expectations, but rather because what he saw there exceeded them.

The two ascended the container as if they were allured in.

The cold light of his flashlight shone into the container and was reflected by translucent film on a long board. Although the volume of the frame, which was made of a snow white material, was extremely small, its length filled out the entire space of the container of a 4-tonner truck.

In the harmonic play of darkness and light, the very precisely-made yet simple film and those artistic curves looked graceful.

"......don't touch that."

They immediately turned around and spotted the man from earlier.

The girl was a little disappointed because she had been wary of another rant from him like when they first met. She hopped down off the load-carrying platform, but for some reason the boy remained there.

The man turned straight towards him and darted him a drunk and shady glance.

"...you know what that is?"

"Yes. It's a human-powered aircraft. One for long distances at that," he answered promptly, making the man shut his mouth.

Right. That board-like, extremely long object was the main wing of an HPA. The transparency was the result of a thin polymer film that was affixed to its framework in order to decrease the weight.

The frame was supposed to be black since FRP is employed, but this one was white.

"...right. It was supposed to challenge the figure-eight flight at the Straits of Dover."

"That's amazing!"

The boy turned again towards the interior.

An ordinary human-powered aircraft is said to have a total width of around 30 meters, but of these wings only one was already next to 20 meters. It was no doubt a large long-distance plane.

"...So the warehouse was used to put this together...," said the girl and breathed out, now that it had finally sunk in, before she walked away from the truck. Something, however, seemed to bother her, so she stopped. "...Uh? Why would you put it together at such a remote place? You can't be planning to fly all the way from Japan to England, right?"

"For a test flight. The Strait of Dover is situated between the frontiers of England and France, so it's a pain just to get a flight permission. I'm not so stupid as to go for the main event straight away," he answered while scratching his head listlessly.

"...Why on earth is it still in parts then?"

"...that's because all my colleagues vanished the very day we hauled it here," he whispered, leaving her speechless. "Halfway through the project, it broke out in all the members. Almost every one of us quit his job, since most had one, and continued to work on the project while living off retirement money. Well, but in the end we only barely managed to get the parts done...," he answered indifferently, whereas the girl had averted her eyes unconsciously. "I'm the last one who caught it and the final one left. And even I have gone this low... Hey, brat. Won't you get out of there now?"

The boy, however, showed no sign of alighting.

"...won't you fly it?"

Almost like looking down on him, he looked down at the man from the platform.

"It's not 'I won't', it's 'I can't'. There's no way I could put this together alone. To begin with, that's none of your business."

The boy let out a rather stressed sigh and,

"Alright, then let's take this apart and use it for our watermelon."

He proposed something outrageous.

"Hah?!"

The first one to doubt his sanity along with an outcry was the girl.

"Were you even listening to what he just said?! Boy! This is a valuable aircraft! Arisen from the collaborative work of that drunkard and his colleagues, you know?!"

"But isn't it mere trash if nobody's going to fly it?"

The girl could virtually feel the wrath burning in the man by her side. She gulped and took a step back.

"Brat... do you even know how many hardships we went through to construct this...!"

"I don't! But I can guess. Making something amazing like this without any sponsors must have been unbelievably difficult."

"Then don't..."

The boy cut him short: "But you're not going to fly it, are you? You told us yourself that we may take anything you don't use. And you don't use this, right?"

The man kept silent.

"Making junk out of it or leaving the parts there untouched is exactly the same in terms of your hardships being rendered futile! If you're going to let it rot here anyway, we'd rather make good use of it with our watermelon."

"......Don't talk nonsense!"

Surprised by his roar, the girl took another step backwards. Despite her motto being "Quarrel? Hell yeah! GOGOGO!", she was not good with provocations that were logical.

The boy might have been much better than her in getting the opponent where it hurts.

"Nonsense? Really? I think it's easily more nonsensical to let it ferment in the truck forever. We're not talking about wine, after all."

He flashed a fiendish smile whereas the man, in contrast, contorted his face.

"...then... what am I supposed to do?!"

"Well, let's see... wouldn't it be best to use it for what it was originally made for?"

"...what...?"

"Let's fly it!"

The man's jaw dropped---the girl besides him made a half-surprised, half-baffled face, too.

The provocative tone disappeared suddenly from the boy's voice and he continued smiling as if he were talking to a good friend: "You need help to put it together, right? You're not alone now! There are three in total."

The man relaxed his clenched fist and turned his gaze towards the aircraft in the container.

"......You're telling me to fly this all alone, though all my colleagues have vanished...?" he whispered.

The boy smiled wryly, "Well, of course. It's designed for only one pilot anyway. Aren't you forgetting that you yourself belong to those 'colleagues' as well?"

"......It's too late to go to Dover anymore. There's no point in flying it, you know...?"

"Mh, let's see... the speed at which the vanishment progresses varies from person to person... but you are clearly in its terminal stages. Added to that, it should be quite hard to make your way to Dover even with a good deal of luck considering the current state of things in the world."

"We have gone this far... because we wanted to break the world record of traversing Dover... flying here won't leave any record... even if it would, as soon as I vanished, the record would vanish along with me for certain..."

He seemed to be speaking to himself rather than to the boy.

"I guess so. But there's no need to abandon your plans for tomorrow just because you might die the day after tomorrow, is there? Let's do the test flight, just as planned!"

"Even though there's not going to be a main flight?"

"Yes. It's a thousand times better than to abandon it altogether."

The boy hopped down off the platform and stood beside the girl.

"...what profit do you take from it...?"

"Let's see... in return for our support, please share some of your fuel and food with us," answered the boy without thinking long - to the surprise of the man.

"...I see, you're not doing it for free."

Then, for the first time, he flashed a smile.

He merely moved his facial muscles slightly, so it was even unclear whether one could call it a smile, but it was the first one they saw of him since they had met.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"Looks like you just got us some hard work ''without my consent'', huh?"

"I'm so—... I'm sorry!"

He had prepared himself for some pokes in the side, but that turned out to be a complete underestimation. The girl slid her right arm under his and pressed　hard against his ribs.

"Now listen up. Unlike you, airplanes aren't a hobby of mine, hence I do not know how to put those things together. Understand?"

"W-Well, I don't know eithe... OUCHOUCHOUCHOUCH!!"

"I'm not saying that I'm not interested, you know?"

The boy was at once released from the infernal agonies. While he was falling into a fit of coughing, she whispered next to him with a smile, "Now that's something... an airplane..."

The two of them went to their bike and started to prepare the things they would need for cooking and sleeping. Since they had used up a lot of time searching for a rod, they were a little late.

Fortunately, the roaring thunderstorm had removed itself a bit and it wasn't raining just now. The noisy chorus of the insects that lurked in the meadows around the warehouse had apparently been called off tonight; they all held their breath.

"You had me quite surprised there, girl. So you are interested in airplanes?"

"Well, as much as others. I've only been on one once before, when I went on a trip."

"The school excursion?"

"Nah. A family trip. To a southern island."

"I see... how was it?"

It wasn't clear whether he asked for her impressions of the southern paradise or the flight, but the girl considered he meant the latter.

"Oh well... I couldn't even see the outside because I was seated right in the middle row! On top of that, there were passengers who were frightened of flying. You can imagine what a commotion it was."

"Aah... tough luck. Too bad for the opportunity."

"Yeah, exactly. I don't want to sound rude, but thanks to one passenger who wouldn't stop screaming, I was rather composed throughout the flight!" she said with a lopsided smile and pulled out a rolled-up blanket.

"Though I feel kind of sorry for that person for having to fly in spite of his fears."

"True."

A smile escaped her lips when she unintentionally recalled the now faint yet comical scene of that day.

''I wonder...''

''Are there still people on that island?''

''Are the cheerful people and the gorgeous casino girls still safe and sound?''

"Sorry for disturbing while you're rapt in thought, but you won't even get around to worrying about aviophobia when you board that plane."

They spun around upon hearing a voice behind them.

"After all, one produces the kinetic energy themselves. If you don't pedal for your life before shitting your pants, you'll really crash."

It took them a few seconds to realize that it was the man from earlier.

His wildly grown beard was cleanly shaven and the outworn T-shirt had been replaced by a new one. Even his haircut, which was short to begin with, looked neat now that he had apparently combed it.

To them he looked at least four or five years younger than before. Now he may actually be worthy of the title "Aniki".

"Oh, you're more handsome than I thought."

"...I'm not so bold as to get on our plane looking that shabby, you know."

"Handsome" was actually referring to his natural features, but the man had apparently taken it as a comment on his well-groomed appearance. Well, but nobody wants to say a compliment twice. All the more if one means it.

The girl deliberately didn't say anything, pulling out the boy's share of blankets and tucking all of them under her arm.

"So, what's the matter?" asked the boy. With a smile, of course, showing nothing of the biting attitude he had taken earlier.

The man, however, was rather flustered by that smile and averted his eyes while scratching his head. "...while the contract's only for a test flight, you have still become members of the team. It would be a bother if you caught a cold by sleeping on the bare ground. There are some cots inside, use those."

They grasped the meaning of his whisper as slowly as a fluorescent lamp would come on.

"Eh, for real?! But there's still one left for you, I hope, boss?!"

"Boss?" he wrinkled his brow a little upon seeing the bursting joy of the girl.

"You said we're a team, right? There's only one way to call the leader of a team!"

"No, I think that's just your prejudice..."

However, the boy's opinion was scrapped.

"'Boss' is fine. We have to decide on some name anyway."

"Then at least take something like 'chief' or 'leader'..."

"No. Sounds too intellectual."

She basically claimed that he did not look intelligent.

In the end, all other opinions were ignored and the man's nickname was more-or-less forcefully set to "boss". In this respect, she didn't have the right to criticize the boy for arbitrarily choosing their travel route. Which he did not say of course. The boy was smart.

"...Aah, and you can do some light cooking. There's a small kitchen in the annex."

"Alright, boy! Leave dinner to me!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Prepare our beds in the meantime!"

The strangely energetic girl chucked the blankets to him and sped to the back of the warehouse.

She was probably just delighted with the opportunity to sleep in a real bed again. And if he was honest, he shared her view.

"...Say..."

The boy turned around. Boss, still looking in the direction the girl disappeared, continued, "Since she suffers from «it», I guess you do, too?"

"Yes. Still in the initial stages, but my name has already been «lost». I guess my photograph is going to become unidentifiable, too, in the near future," he said unaffectedly.

It took a while until he got a reply.

"...What do you want? For what reason did you come here to the back of beyond?"

His question was drowned out by the sounds of the night making small ripples in the meadows around them, veiled in darkness.

"......I want to travel to the end of the world, together with her."

It sounded like a pipe dream indeed. However, what he said was by no means out of place and, above all, he was serious.

"...What are you going to do if you reach there?"

"I'll figure that out on the way! ...But well, perhaps I'll go on a round-the-world trip or so and demonstrate the excellency of Super Cubs to the world?"

"Sounds like fun."

A wry smile escaped his lips, which was not a sardonic one, but an honest one. The boy's confidence was clearly unfounded, but it brimmed with a strong will.

It did not matter whether it was feasible or not, for that was not the point of his dream to begin with. But the boss had the feeling that it would surely be a lot of fun, more than any game or work there was.

He had become unable to follow in suit.

However, he had his own objective.

He turned and headed again towards the warehouse.

"Okay, for today get something to eat and have some rest. We'll begin work tomorrow. We'll take half the day to put it together, so the flight will be the day after tomorrow."

"We're going to be busy, aren't we? ...Ah, right! Do you have some water here that I could use for keeping our melon cool?"

"There's a water tank that contains some purified water. Well, it isn't exactly icy water, but it'll do the job."

"That's great. ...Ah, but we didn't find a rod."

"Mh...... How about this?"

He pointed at the drainage pipe that was connected to the air conditioner at the ceiling—the pipe, which the girl had suggested to use earlier. However.

"Won't the cooling get broken if we take that off?"

"Hah? The only current we have comes from the dynamo! Only an idiot would turn on air conditioning. What a waste," he spilled, put one foot on the wall and tore out the pipe at once.

A few corroded screws flew off with a small creak, and the next moment a metal pipe was laid into the boy's hands. It was a bit longer than a meter, which was a truly ideal length.

"...somehow I have mixed feelings about this..."

His monologue remained unheard.

Surrounding the fire they had made from scrap wood in the center of the warehouse, the three opened a meeting while taking a meal. Unfortunately, their boss' provisions may have differed in quantity from their own, but certainly not in quality: today's menu was canned hardtacks.

"Tch. That's what you meant by 'provisions'? I was already expecting a delicious dinner..."

"It's not like this is all I have, but the other stuff is still packaged. 'Would take a while to dig all the stuff out."

"Where did you get these hardtacks from, then?"

The cans were imprinted with English text and the corresponding Japanese translation. Moreover, it was marked as UN supply.

"The towns in these quarters were already deserted before we came here. Well, while getting here, we paid them a short visit, if you know what I mean," he explained, making quotation marks with his fingers.

His personality just became a little more questionable.

"What's wrong?" boss asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, nothing, never mind."

They smiled wryly at him and continued their meal.

Shoplifting was a crime of course, but they didn't have the right to blame him for it. Breaking into forlorn shops to collect the abandoned goods had become an everyday occurrence, for one could not survive in this world otherwise.

"By the way, what work does putting the plane together incorporate, specifically?" asked the girl, upon which their boss set his can aside.

"...Let's see... First we have to assemble the main components. Then comes the bonding of the movable parts as well as their regulation. Finally, we'll do a test drive and naturally the test flight. We should be fine since we have the manual, but it will take the whole next day."

"Do we need any special skills?"

"Not for the assembling stage in general. But there are some things that require experience, so you'll mainly take care of the odd jobs."

"Can I get on it, too?"

"No. It's my plane," he refused her request almost like a child, which caused the girl to puff her cheeks.

"Miser. Then give us your truck!"

"Can't do that either."

"Why not?"

"There's no fuel because I wasn't able to refill the tank in the nearby village. Apart from that, I've used quite a lot of fuel for small things such as making fires, so you'd run out of gas before reaching the next town," he explained casually.

"Y-You idiot!" she roared, "What happened to our enjoyable trip—roof, sleeping place and air conditioning included?! We have even less reason to help you now!"

"I for one like our Super Cub..."

"Boy, SHUT UP!"

The boy, who had even lost his right to speak at last, was forced to focus on his meal—which, however, was easier said than done. Their boss and the girl were busy stealing the can from each other.

"I will keep my promise of giving you fuel! There's still plenty of gasoline from the dynamo. At the very least, you should reach the next town."

"What about provisions?"

"There are still quite a few cans left. You can appreciate preserved food more, right?"

"Hm... it's a fair trade then, then...?"

The boy suddenly stood up.

"Oh, where are you going?"

"I don't want to expose our luggage to the rain, so I'm bringing it inside. I'll also do a check, since we've been quite hard on Cubby today!"

"Mh, got it. Don't get caught by the chupacabras!"

"As if they exist!"

The boy left through the half-opened door and let out a small sigh. He was relieved that the hostile air between the girl and the boss had disappeared.

He did not assume that everyone in the world was kind-hearted, but as it was impossible to meet everyone, he wanted to at least make a favorable relationship to those he actually knew.

That he had provoked boss earlier was also part of that mindset. Well, he got them a slightly cumbersome task, but they weren't in a hurry, after all.

They were going to spend the following days together, so he wanted to get on as well as possible.

At least he thought so at this very moment. However, when he came back approximately 20 minutes later, after doing some light maintenance, he was a little cross with them.

"Oh come on! Just the two of you...?"

"Haah...? Now, now, why so tense booy?"

She suddenly wrapped her arm round his neck, which he hurriedly shook off. The girl tended to forget restraining herself when alcoholized.

"Where on earth did he shelve this...?"

"He said they bought a whooole lot for celebrating the success of the test! The stuff's already expired... but it's still good, you know~?"

"Listen, girl. We're still in high school, you know? Alcohol is..."

"There's no high schooler that gives a shit about such an ooold law nowadaays~" the girl laughed with her tanned skin flushed bright red.

The empty beer and shochu cans that were scattered around those two were proof that a grand feast had been had during the twenty minutes the boy was away maintaining their bike.

"But look, excessive alcohol consumption during the growth period has a negative influence on your growth..."

"I'm already sixteeen, you know? No way I'm still growing!"

The girl chuckled while clinging to his back.

She indeed had a point there, but judging by the feeling on his back, some parts of her body could still need some growth. The boy was smart, however, so by no means did he say it. He loved life too much.

As a footnote: the boy was a nondrinker to the core. So much so that his skin turned bright red in plaster shape when an alcohol-drenched patch was applied to him during a test in junior high.

As for boss, who was most definitely the patron of the alcohol, he was wordlessly drinking beer. Though his face looked serious as he stared into the air, it was obvious that he was drunk because he was red all over. He was probably the type of person that would get silent when drunk.

"It's been a while since we last had some alcohol... and we don't know when's the next opportunity~..."

The boy gave up persuading the giggling girl.

He judged that it would be better not to care about them any more. Since nobody has made him join in the drinking, yet, the damage was still low.

The boy decided to quickly evacuate to the nap area where he would write the diary and then go to sleep.

"Nap area" may sound nice, but in fact it was just a corner in the warehouse that was divided with a partition and consisted of five cots. But to the boy and girl, who had basically always slept on top of some blankets on the asphalt, it was a heavenly place to sleep.

He lay on the bed and covered himself with a blanket so as to not get a stomachache. He was soon attacked by sleepiness while writing the diary entry.

Before long, the only voice still speaking, the girl's, slowly faded out and the boy fell into a soft sleep.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

The day dawned.

A noise of immense volume caused both the boy and girl to jump awake at the same time.

"W-What the heck?!"

The boy, utterly startled, jumped out of the nap area, pushing the partition aside, and recognized the origin of the noise.

Boss was backing the truck into the warehouse through the front door and getting ready to unload the things inside.

Outside the building it was so silent that he could hear the twittering of birds far away. Apparently, it was fine weather.

"Hey, you two! Won't you get up already! We're starting!"

"Y-Yes!"

Where did the spirit from yesterday go? He hurriedly flung on a shirt and got into his trousers while jumping with the other.

The girl who had been sleeping in the bed next to him had degenerated to the embodiment of "inviting one's own misfortunes".

Leaving aside her richly stimulating clothing, which consisted of only her underwear and a blouse, her vacant eyes were the eyes of the dead. Her whole body was enveloped in the stench of alcohol and her hair was so disordered that she could have been mistaken for a Medusa.

She had apparently continued drinking for quite a while after the boy had gone to sleep and was now cursed with deep rings under her eyes that only added to her hypotension.

"Um... well, join us as soon as you're better!"

He took a packet of headache tablets out of their portable first-aid box and put it on the knees of the girl who had partially turned into a zombie.

According to what he knew from personal experience, she would take a few hours before becoming operative again. Most likely she hadn't even heard what he had just said to her.

With a deep buzz the engine stopped on the other side of the partition.

He put his messy clothes in order and returned the partition he had tossed away to its former place. He did so not because of consideration toward the lady, but because of the menacing death penalty that would come from the suspicion of having forgotten the consideration toward the lady.

"All right, boss. What are we doing first?"

"...Cleaning up."

"Cleaning up...?"

He was about to ask how they were going to clean up something when they hadn't even started, but he was immediately enlightened when he took a look at the hall.

There was the fire they had ignited yesterday in the center of the bare ground. Well, it was already dead, since they didn't use it for keeping them warm anyway, but the problem was what lay around it.

Countless empty cans and snack packaging were scattered about. And the most crucial problem was the vomit that was to be found at several spots.

"...You didn't have to drink until vomiting..."

"I have no excuse... Sorry, but I can't remember it at all..."

The boy joined the slouching of boss' shoulders with a sigh.

He seriously asked himself whether her brain was equipped with learning functionality upon considering the corn incident a few days ago and the current mishap.

"Oh well, leave it to me to throw away this... stuff. I've still got other preparations to do, so you clean up the interior for now."

"Got it..."

After letting out a slight breath, he headed towards the cleaning locker in a corner of the building.

"...By the way, what's with the little one over there?"

"She's idling because of a hangover and hypotension. She won't be moving for a while!"

"..."

The boss scooped up the pools with a mien brimming with mixed feelings and threw them into a bucket.

''"Just regret that you carelessly served alcohol!"'' the boy whispered in his mind while watching him go to empty the bucket while making a face as though he was carrying a load of highly radioactive waste matter.

Well then! It was about time to start the work assigned to him, but there was something to do prior to it.

The boy, in proud spirits, cowered before their luggage and took out a pig. Indeed, it was their ceramic anti-mosquito pig!

Be it inside or outside, one must not be careless. They did not pay much heed to it while riding the bike, but with the vicinity being full of meadows there were ''lots'' of insects. It's a must to take measures against them when staying at a place for a while for work.

Thus, he placed the spiral-loaded anti-mosquito pig at the center of the warehouse where the fire had been and began tidying the ground.

Contrary to the boy who had cheerfully started work, the awakening of the girl was accompanied by heavy discomfort.

Her head was throbbing painfully and her stomach was bewailing heartburn.

The reason was obvious. It was probably because she had poured way too much alcohol in the previous day—or rather, that was bound to be the reason.

Overjoyed with the alcohol she hadn't seen in a while, she had accidentally let loose too much. Or to be precise, she didn't even remember having let loose, so perhaps it was the most excessive drinking she had ever done?

She now agreed that alcohol should be taken in moderation—well, originally a girl like her wouldn't be allowed to drink in the first place, though.

"...Ueh... gh..."

She instinctively covered her mouth upon feeling vomit slowly wandering up, and managed to deflect the danger by turning on her valuable blanket while stroking her stomach.

"Looks like... I went overboard quite a bit..."

She had a funny taste in her mouth and her teeth felt strangely smooth, which led her to the assumption that she had thrown up a few times. Moreover, her stomach was empty even though she had eaten and drunk late into the night. On top of all that, her throat was rough and her voice in a sombre state.

However, the early bird gets the worm! Pulling aside the blanket, she slipped into the sneakers that were next to her cot.

That moment something landed on her foot with a weak thump.

While raising a brow, she sluggishly picked it up.

"...Headache tablets...?"

Apart from the opened, half-empty packet of headache tablets, there was a small note attached to it that said "Don't strain yourself and rest" with letters familiar to her. There was no name, but it was self-evident who the writer was.

Suddenly, she noticed a bottle of water on the small rack right beside her bed.

It was one of their two-liter bottles which they used to store drinking water. By it was an upside-down glass.

"...jeez... my fellow companion shows consideration at the strangest occasions...," she smiled crookedly and poured water into the glass.

She held the bottle against her side for a few moments to cool her body down and feel the refreshing water through the thin polymeric material.

Then, accepting the boy's favor, she took two tablets out of the packaging and threw them into her mouth. After she had gulped them down at once with some water, a cold sensation spread in her stomach.

With her sleeves she brushed away the water drops that slid down her neck and found another object on the rack in the process.

A wet towel.

"Does he want me to wipe myself? ...jeez... I know nobody that's better prepared than him...," she sighed with a combination of joy and amazement and accepted his favor once again.

Noon. The weather was clear and free of any clouds.

"Oh, you? Already recovered from your hangover?" greeted boss, who had just leaned a dustpan on a corner of the warehouse, while wiping his sweat with a towel that was draped over his shoulder.

"Yes. I can still feel it, but it's gotten a lot better."

She wasn't lying. Thanks to the mysterious effect of the headache tablets, the pain that had been tormenting her temple and forehead had almost entirely disappeared, and she was feeling quite refreshed after washing her body and putting on new underwear. While she wasn't fully functional yet, there were no worries about minor work.

"Anyway! Sorry for making you clean up the mess for me."

"No sweat, little one. There's no way to tell which of us did what anyway."

"True word."

She may have giggled, but truth to be told, she could vaguely remember that more than half of it was her fault.

"By the way, where's the boy?"

"I had him throw away the trash. He should be back any moment."

''Trash'' probably referred to the empty cans and packages from yesterday. It seemed that her dependence on his most appreciated nursing was put on show even here.

"So, do you have any work for me?" she asked and looked down at the floor—no, bare ground.

Most of the remains of the feast the previous day were tidied away. What was still there were the ashes and bits of charcoal in the center. It didn't look like she was going to join the cleanup.

"Let's see... wanna help me with some real work?" boss grinned.

She was a little hesitant, but still she followed him and got on the step of the container of the truck.

"Okay, let's carry the parts out of there."

"Y...Yeah..."

They entered the container. Somehow the disassembled human-powered aircraft seemed much more extensive to her than the day before. She knew that type of vehicle only by hearsay. She had not the slightest idea what function each part had.

"Don't be afraid. I'm not asking you to put it together on your own."

"But...?"

"Just place the parts I give you where it's written in the manual over there. We'll save the larger parts for when the boy's back, so only the little ones for now," he said as he went further into the container.

While the aircraft loaded on the four-tonner was quite spacious, its surface wasn't particularly big. There were lots of gaps, so they could easily move within the container. In terms of weight, the plane was lighter than the girl. This stuff went beyond her scope.

"Alright. This is the first one. Can you place it on the worktable?"

He held out a component to her with a hand. No matter how inexperienced she was in mechanics, she was familiar with that kind of part. It was an axis merged with two blades—known as a "propeller".

"Got it."

The moment she actually took it, she immediately understood why he had handled the part so carelessly.

It was truly light. She was surprised—not only by it being as thin as paper, but also by the fact that she could hold it with just two fingers, even though the two blades reached a length of almost 140cm.

"Unbelievable..."

"Right? You could almost say the propeller defines how hard you have to pedal, so we put quite some work into developing it."

There was a very special something in his eyes gazing at the propeller. The girl didn't know much about him and his colleagues, but she figured that all those parts, including the extremely light-weight board, were full of their dreams and strong will.

When thinking about it like that, the propeller in her hands suddenly felt heavier than a stone.

Until she had softly placed it on the worktable, she treated the part like a baby, with utmost care—not because she wanted to be considerate of the boss, but because it was her own will to do so.

"But say, does the funny shape of it have a reason, too?"

To the understanding of the girl, a propeller was normally equipped with two or three straight rotor blades. Or rather, that's the only way she could imagine them to look like.

The propeller before her eyes, however, was certainly two-bladed, but the shape was quite unconventional. The blades drew a smooth half-moon-shaped curve and hence looked more like the ventilation fan of a kitchen than a propeller. Furthermore, she was also wondering why it was painted yellow, while all the other parts were white.

"Ah, yeah, the shape's yet another little highlight. It's made to get the best out of low rotational speed."

"But why are there two of them?"

Right, that was what puzzled her the most: there were two of those two-bladed propellers.

"Heh... that's... a secret."

"Uwa, that's mean."

Boss broke into a grin while looking at the offended girl.

"Just a little patience. Look forward to when it's finished. Anyway, next is this. Place it on the holding device that's labeled as 'A'."

"Whoa whoa!"

A large crate-like frame was handed to her from within the container, which she, startled, tried to hold in her hands.

It was a streamlined object that looked a little like a parallelogram with rounded corners, and was composed of shiny white material and was just about boss' size.

However, it was as light as a feather, which again did not match its appearance at all. The girl could well-nigh hold it in one hand.

Holding it aloft, she brought it to said place with rather wobbly legs. The stand had apparently been specifically designed for it, so it was finely fixated by the metal fittings on there.

"But isn't this frame... plastic?"

The material the frame consisted of was completely white and its touch, as far as she knew, was definitely that of plastic.

"Yeah, you're right. It's not ordinary plastic, though, but FRP."

"FRP?"

"Fiber-reinforced plastic. It has a 'bone' made of carbon fibres woven into it, so to speak. It's damn hard, I tell you," he explained with a smirk. He stroked the white body with a smile that resembled the one of a little boy who had gotten a new toy. "...Heh... to think I'll be flying this baby... it's like I'm dreaming!"

"Should I pinch you? Maybe you'll wake up?" mumbled the girl.

Boss laughed only with his face while still working. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm flying this baby whether it's a dream or not."

She breathed up.

She sensed that this feather-light aircraft was the lifework, the very dream, of the man before her.

"Come on, here's the first wing. Take the other end."

"Uwa!"

She hurriedly grabbed the end of the wing that appeared from within the container.

The wing, which was basically just a skeleton, was covered by a material that looked like transparent vinyl. So much that she unconsciously whispered, "This looks like chopsticks with wrapping around them..."

"You're actually not so wrong, since it's just a special type of macromolecule film we wrapped around the FRP-based skeleton."

Compared to the frame she had transported beforehand, the wing was clearly more massive and had a certain weight. As the same applied to its length, boss and the girl had to move it with the greatest care.

"A-Aren't these too long? I mean, won't they break midair?"

"They're going to bend, but don't worry: we calculated them so they won't break. Besides, about this much length is necessary to fly! If you look at the aspect rate..."

"I'll pass on details. I've never been good at physics."

The girl promptly abandoned any attempt to grasp the principle behind it and carefully placed the end she was holding on the specialized holding device.

"But physics is fun, you know? And it's handy in your everyday life."

"I prefer gymnastics."

"Gh... I lose in practical use..."

While accepting her answer because of a questionable reason, he also let the wing down.

Now that they had actually placed some of the parts, it became apparent that the holding devices were positioned so that the aircraft would stand diagonally in the warehouse instead of facing the door.

Which was only too understandable, because that was the only way to fit the giant wings somehow into the warehouse.

"Okay, next is the left wing. Show me some of your strength, sports-addict."

"All right!"

The girl, by now accustomed to the work, hopped onto the container.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"Whew... this took longer than I thought."

The boy slumped on a tatami mat, with a side-glance at the brisk and sparking fire.

He was in a small prefabricated shed behind the warehouse. Apparently, it had originally served as the break room for the workers and was actually quite well-built. There was even a water conduit, though unusable.

Outside the window was a drum on a cement block, under which the fire was burning. It had quite some resemblance to the traditional drum-bath—with the exception that the water within was boiling, making it a deadly iron pot instead.

The drum was covered by a lid, which was connected by a pipe in its center to a second drum, positioned a little lower. Out of the side of this second one looked again a pipe, which this time was connected to the lid of a much smaller third drum.

Though a citizen of the civilized world would have no doubt wondered what kind of cultic ritual this was, in the current Japan it was by no means a rare sight. It was a water purifier.

The first two drums contained rain water. The water in the first drum was brought to the boil, producing steam that then went into the second barrel and cooled down there by the cool water surrounding the pipe. By the time it reached the third drum, it had become water again.

In short, by using steam that was once evaporated, they gained pure water without any pollution and bacteria.

There was a lot of water in Japan, but most of it was not pure enough to just scoop and drink it. Only a few water conduits remained intact in these times of ruin, so they had often spotted such purifiers on their journey—and had become used to using them.

En passant, the heat source of this purifier was trash. The reason was apparently to get rid of the trash and boil water at the same time. The boy was a little anxious about the dioxin emission, but he reassured himself by saying that it wasn't so much trash. It's not like he only used trash; he had also added quite some firewood.

The reason for his exhaustion was pouring the stored rain water into the drums. They weren't particularly big, but still they could store 44  gallons, which made about 200 liters. Considering the bucket he had used to scoop could take 5 liters, he'd poured water into the drum almost 40 times. While youth spared him from lower back pain, he was in for some muscle ache the following morning.

But individual work also had its bright sides: the boy made himself comfortable on the ground, fully stretching out his arms and legs.

The scent of the tatami mat under him and the soft breeze made him drowsy.

He was enveloped by a listless feeling and could have slept anytime. The only thing that kept his eyelids open, though just barely, was the crying of the cicadas far away.

Though the boy had long since given up wearing the blazer of his winter uniform, making do with only the white shirt and the necktie, the summery temperature had become hardly bearable.

Despite being at a region near the northern frontier of this country, summer was hot even here, which might have also been a benefit of a country with four seasons in a sense.

Suddenly, the boy noticed with big eyes a change to his necktie, which had a rather plain blue design and was part of the uniform specified by his school. The heat had loosened it so much that it had grown long and looked like the necktie of an office worker at a party.

The necktie was supposed to have the emblem of his high school sewn in.

However, not a single thread could be seen at the spot where the sewing had been, degrading the monotonous blue necktie to one that was really just blue.

"......Oh my. At last even the name of my old school has been «lost», huh..."

The phenomenon that was slowly corroding the world had no official name.

Neither the medical circles, which are always eager to assign long scientific names to each and every little thing, nor the scientific circles, which normally try to make complicated formulas, gave the phenomenon a name.

Even the mass media that loves so much to think up tasteless names failed at creating a grand name for this mysterious phenomenon.

At last, someone started using the generic word "the vanishing", which then spread and became common.

No one was able to explain what principle caused this disease.

Renowned scholars all over the world had since been researching its origin with all their might, but so far no one had come up with a logical explanation. It was not even known why the symptoms were different between humans and animals, respectively objects. 

The disease actually starts quite harmlessly.

First, your "name" is lost. No one is able to recall it anymore, including the diseased person himself. The name vanishes without a trace from all books, digital documents, and everything else.

Secondly, your "face" is lost, meaning that you vanish from every photograph you're in. It doesn't matter whether it's a digital one, a painting or even in the memories of others.

Thirdly, your "color" is lost. Your appearance turns monochrome like the actor of a black-and-white movie.

Fourthly, your "shadow" is lost and even light passes through you.

Lastly, your very "existence" is lost and you disappear into naught. Everything you bequeathed disappears, be it paintings, texts, printings or recordings.

The only thing that remains is the memory of the people that have known you, in form of a feeling that "there was someone like you". A ambiguous memory that includes neither your name or your face. It's the end if even those memories fade out completely.

Everything one has left in the world, and even oneself, disappears without a single trace.

The speed of progression varies vastly between victims. Some disappear on the day the disease breaks out, while for others the progress suddenly stops, allowing them to stay alive. But it can be said that in general, it progresses extremely slowly. Already four months had passed since the boy's name had been «lost».

There is no commonality between the people that contract it—the disease spreads truly randomly. While the government found themselves unable to make progress with their research—it was not even clear how many had fallen victim to the disease—the country slowly stopped functioning properly.

A little more than one year had passed since. The government was no more and all lifelines had become unstable.

The citizens that had remained here and there had started working well nigh voluntarily, struggling to maintain a lifezone to survive in.

But the atmosphere up here in the north turned out to be completely different from the slum-like conditions in the city zone the boy and girl had lived in.

There were no signs of devastation, which was probably due to the low population density, and only the odd fact that "there was nobody" remained clearly.

"HEY BOY!! Stop lazing around! Wake up!"

"Uah?!"

The angry yell that came through the open window made the boy jolt up like a mouse trap.

"You slacker... how dare you go about enjoying a comfortable nap while your companion is doing hard work?"

He was literally scared stiff of the girl's glowering scowl that was fixed on him through the screen door.

''I'll get beaten up. Danger.''

"I-I got it. I'm on my way!"

"Just start working already! Hurry up!"

Threatened by a pounding against the window frame from behind, he slipped into his sneakers and jumped out of the shed.

"Don't rush me so much... You slept until late today, too..."

"Because I had to stay up late yesterday."

"...voluntarily, that is."

The very next moment he was hit by a lightning-fast, unrestrained body-blow that pierced him with splendid precision where it hurt most and showed him a shower of sparks.

When they came back, boss gave them a doubtful look.

"Huh? Now it's you who's white as chalk?"

"...leave me alone!"

Boss cocked his head in response to the mosquito-pitched voice that answered him, but he quickly returned to his work.

"...So, how far did you get while I was away?"

"We've taken all the parts and tools out. It was an awful lot of work, I tell you," she told him proudly and pointed at the well-arranged parts.

The truck that had occupied a large part of the quite spacious warehouse had already been backed out. The weight of the things one could see did not at all look like it required a whole four-tonner.

However, each part on its own was rather big, which was probably the reason why that container and its capacity had been need.

"Can't human-powered aircraft normally be divided into more parts?"

"Mh? Ah, take a look at this."

The boss went to the workbench and brought something that looked like a blueprint. It wasn't too detailed, thus probably only used for putting the parts together.

"The more you break your components down, the more parts you need for linking. Weight-wise as well as stability-wise this causes problems. Especially because the material used is plastic—you can't just use bolts and nuts on it, as it might be damaged just by screwing on."

"So that giant wing is... one big part in itself?"

"Yeah! Using the fiber reinforced plastic mixing and injection molding for large objects method our entire team developed while pulling all-nighters."

"...using ''what''?" asked the girl quite half-heartedly, having trouble following him and not looking as though she was very interested.

The boss, however, beamed all the more. If he hadn't lost his color, his face would have been flushed with excitement for sure. No doubt about it.

"Alright, little one, perk up your ears: when forming the plastic, we basically put together two huge molds and injected the material, but we constructed them so that the movable parts were already completed at the time we removed the molds."

"Ah yeah? That's great, I guess?"

Her blank answer was as vague as it gets, somewhere between understanding him and not, but she probably just wanted him to stop. One could get as much by looking at her face.

"And that's a unique process made by your team?"

"Yeah. It's a compilation of existing technologies, but we're the only ones doing something of this size......," he answered the boy proudly... and slumped his shoulders for some reason, "...there's just one problem."

"O-One problem?"

The boy was startled by the boss's rapid loss of spirits even though he had praised him. Apparently, he had quite a lot of mood swings.

Boss returned the construction plan to the workbench and stroked the large body frame that was fixed on its holding devices.

"...the material can't be recycled."

"Recycled?"

"Yeah. Of course you know that it's difficult to recycle plastic, right? The best way would be melting it and giving it a new shape, but this baby has got carbon nanotubes inside. Because of too many foreign substances it can't be recycled. But because of the carbon, it's hard to break it into pieces and throw it into a landfill site, which is the common way to dispose of waste plastic."

"...in short, it's hard to throw it away?"

"Yeah. Moreover, while it's splendid in suppleness and elasticity, it's still plastic, hence it lacks hardness. So it's got the huge downside of being hard to dispose of in spite of being easy to break! These days you can't make any money with technologies that don't take the environment into consideration..." he said with a grand sigh and continued stroking over the frame.

Perhaps, that personality of his was the main problem that had made him vegetate in this warehouse.

"But enough of the old stories now, boss. Let's have a meal."

''Nice one, girl!'' Her usually worrisome gluttony proved to be of use for once. The boy gave her the thumbs up in his mind.

"Mh? It's already time?"

"It's already one o'clock! I haven't had breakfast, I'm starving."

She slumped down on a pipe chair, and rubbed her stomach.

The hangover she had from yesterday's hard drinking appeared to be past history to her. If one were to measure the strength of her stomach, the result would no doubt be a tremendous number. Even that so-and-so plastic that was troubling boss would probably have been digested by her stomach without a problem.

"Hm... I guess that's not a bad idea. Well, I've only got preserved stuff, so instant noodles is pretty much all I can offer you..."

"Ah! I'll have some! I wanna eat those!"

The girl started up, and even the boy's mouth was watering.

"W-What? Are instant noodles that special?"

"Yes! You know that we're traveling by bike, right? Because of that, we can't take so much water with us, so dishes that need a lot of water are impractical to make..."

As a footnote, the boy and girl both had their respective tasks. While the boy was the driver and responsible for maintenance, the girl was the cook and responsible for their provisions. The boy didn't have a say in the control of their foodstuffs and the menu. She was surprisingly strict in that respect. Honestly.

"Well, if you're so keen on it, let's go with that for lunch. I've eaten quite a lot of it, so there's not so much left, but we should be okay."

"Yay! Hey boy! Hot water, quick!"

"Yes, yes."

The boy rushed off, urged by a dancing girl.

"...It's really odd that we're short of water because it didn't rain in the end despite that furious thunderstorm."

He clicked the switch and a blue propane flame started licking the bottom of the kettle.

The boy and the other two were sitting in the six tatamis' size break room in the shed. Thanks to the comfortable natural ventilation, it was several times cooler than outside, although the room wasn't equipped with air conditioning. A lower humidity would have been the final touch, but that would be asking for too much.

"And in comparison, a week ago we could have drowned by looking up and opening your mouth due to the heavy rain... It's sickening that we have to be stingy with water whenever we use it!"

"But well, once in the beginning, I tried drinking rain water directly."

"...just out of curiosity, what happened?"

"I did filter it first, mind you. Nevertheless, I had the runs the next day and lost more water than I took in."

"Uwa...," frowned the girl in response to boss' accurate description.

He took out a large plastic bag and poured various types of instant noodles out of it. There were several packs of each type, which was probably because he had bought them all together.

"But I've gotten through somehow since I made that boiler. Fortunately, there were tons of those drums around here. And if you conquer your weaker self, you get by with dry grass for feeding the fire."

"Once more I've come to realize that it's hard to stay at a certain place..."

"So is a journey," added the boy. A pensive mood filled the air.

As if to blow away that uncomfortable mood, the kettle on the portable stove before their eyes started to boil with a shrill whistle.

As the saying goes, "Kettles don't boil if you watch them," they start boiling in no time if you talk about something unrelated.

The serious topic went somewhere far: the wild beasts rapidly tore the packages of their instant noodles, opened them and waited for the boy to pour them hot water. The girl managed to amaze the other two by demanding hot water for two cups at the same time.

Then, for a while there was no conversation between them.

Having their appetite doubled by the agreeable empty stomach after hard work, and of course having the rare opportunity to enjoy noodles, it was especially the chopsticks of the boy and girl that moved without stop.

"Burp... I've filled my gullet..."

"...couldn't you at least use 'stomach'? You forget that you're a girl at times, don't you, girl?"

"You don't have to care about such trifles."

However, the appearance of her, leaning back while fanning herself with two empty cups before her, resembled a messy middle-aged man like two peas in a pod, and would have surely turned off even the most devoted lover.

If the boy's magnanimity wasn't as great as the ocean, he would have turned her down even before considering a confession.

"But still, maybe it was a mistake to eat ramen, udon, and whatnot on such a hot humid day... I'm drenched."

"Just so you know, there is a bathtub," boss noted incidentally.

Her face got brighter at once.

"For real?"

"Yeah. I'll run you a bath once we're done with the work."

"Yahoo!"

She jumped to her feet, threw the fan away and grabbed the boy's arm.

"We mustn't be lazing around here! We've gotta finish our work and then it's bathing-time!"

"A-Are you looking forward to it that much?"

"What a silly question! The three pleasures of life are 'eating', 'bathing' and 'sleeping'!!"

"You'll make a horrible wife one day."

His snappy remark was silently ignored, and instead he was walked off towards the warehouse without even getting the time to put on his shoes properly.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

While they didn't get on completely without a problem, there weren't any remarkable setbacks.

According to boss, the person who wrote the construction manual was as precise as it gets and did not only calculate the position of the holding devices, but also took into account the position of the tools and the mental state of the workers. Even with amateur eyes the boy and girl could see with what passion for detail it was written—it was actually much harder to do something the wrong way.

While they weren't quite sure if they would have wanted such a person around them, the two HPA engineers with 5 hours' experience couldn't thank him enough.

They finished inspecting all the parts and could at last begin to actually connect them.

With much care, they attached the tail plane to the bottom end of the skeleton in the center, which incidentally would have been the spine for humans. When connecting the—surprisingly not V but Λ-shaped— tail plane to the frame, whose cross-section became thinner towards the bottom like a reverse triangle, it looked almost as though the plane was wrong side up.

"...Say... I surely don't know anything about planes, but... isn't the plane at the back normally pointed upwards?"

Her question, which omitted—as was characteristic for the girl—any technical terms, caused boss to snort.

"Well, the common ones that you know are like that. Usually you want the center of gravity in the center of the machine because it makes the plane more maneuverable. However, you hardly ever change the angle when you fly a HPA, thus you put the tail plane below the machine, so it gets more stable. That way it tries to fly horizontally on its own."

The Λ-type tail assemblies are, however, not often used in the field because of concerns regarding the takeoff and landing. It may have been a little ironical that the only major case of it being used was an unmanned reconnaissance plane from a certain big country.

"...in other words, the reason is the same as why paper planes don't have a vertical tail plane?"

"Hmmm, well, you can say that, though that's not all there is to it."

"?" the girl sent him a sceptical glance.

He took two thin wires from the base of the tail unit and pulled them softly.

With a nice click, a pair of wheels swung out from the downward-pointing tips.

"The undercarriage is contained within it. Much better than building a separate container for it, isn't it?"

"What? This plane can actually land?"

"What else did you expect?"

"I was sure you'd go for a free fall in Dover."

"...hey peewee, don't tell me you think of it as something like that show they're doing at Lake Biwa.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_Rally]"

"It's not?!"

"Well, the record we are challenging requires doing everything from takeoff to landing with one's own power. Unlike that competition, you need to be able to do these tasks, too."

While proceeding with his explanation, he called the boy over and had him help him with the fixation of the tail plane.

Apparently, the boy knew what was to be done; he opened the toolbox at the side and took out some tools such as a spanner and a screwdriver, and started assisting boss.

"...but isn't it quite impossible for this tail assembly to take on the role as the rudder?" asked the boy without suspending his work. Boss, too, answered him from somewhere else while screwing a bolt. Those two were quite adept.

"The wings are doing that job. The tail assembly really does only the balancing. In fact, we could have just gone for an entire flying wing, but those are damn hard to balance out."

"...which galaxy is the language you are speaking from, guys?"

The girl was gazing at them with an uneasy and somewhat lonely look because the discussion they led parallel to work was dripping with words unfamiliar to her.

As they made progress and the two boy and girl became used to the work, each of them started to have their specific tasks.

Boss did the work, whereas the boy was his support. The girl, however, was in charge of bringing them the small parts and tools. And when strength was required, they joined forces.

For an example, the connection of the giant wings, which occupied the whole diagonal of the warehouse, to the body with united forces was celebrated with a hurricane of applause and rejoicings. The main sound source was of course the girl.

However, as soon as they had attached the crate-like cockpit below the body, she didn't really have anything to do anymore; the somewhat complicated, fine work had increased.

"Does the seat look okay?" asked boss.

The boy then checked the stability of the bicycle saddle by trying to jolt it. It was much firmer fixed than one would expect from something that was only attached to a plastic frame.

"Looks fine. It's stable."

"Alright, then could you do the wiring of the main wing rudder from there? But please be careful with the wires; it's a real bother to exchange them once they're ripped. There's enough material in the truck to make another set, but we don't have time."

"...got it."

The boy, now quite tense, slowly approached the nylon wire that dangled above him to the joystick, by winding it around several pulleys that were positioned in the cockpit.

"You're enviable... I wanna try sitting there, too."

"We're not doing this for fun, you know?"

"But we are, it's a pastime however you look at it."

What she said was actually quite the truth. He wasn't doing this in order to earn something, so it ''was'' for fun. Boss tried to counter her somehow, but he was at a complete loss for words because she had hit the bull's eye.

"You ought to put up with her. If she goes berserk in here, it will turn into a heap of pieces before we can complete it," the boy instructed him, causing the girl to put on a scowl.

"What the heck do you think I am?"

"A beast."

The next moment a bang resounded and the girl's clenched fist hit the boy.

He was sent flying out of the cockpit, whose exterior wasn't affixed yet, and landed on the bare ground.

"...looks like he has just become unable to work. I'll continue in his place."

"...do as you will." Not approval of her will, but the plea that his beloved machine remained safe was written on boss' face, which was twisted as if watching the prey consumption of a carnivore. "These wires control the torsion of the wings, got me? Connect the one with the red tip from the front to the the joystick and the blue one from behind."

"Torsion?"

In spite of the great curiosity she showed, her movement were most careful. Even the girl knew very well how dear this aircraft was to him.

She had clearly made sure that her punch a few moments before wouldn't harm the plane.

"This baby does neither have a rudder nor an elevator unit, hence the main wings are doing that job by being twisted."

"Do they really bend with this mechanism? Won't the plane come down accidentally?"

"Don't worry. I'm only going to do an 8-fly, so I will hardly need to change the course! Well, the takeoff and landing are kind of problematic, but these are over in a second."

"What about a loop?"

"You're asking me to do stunts with a plane that can barely fly?"

He nudged her head, making her laugh.

The girl didn't stop her work—which she with surprising skill—while jesting, and she was done applying the wires for steering the wings in no time.

"Do we need to adjust them now?"

"We'll leave that for when we're done assembling the rest. Next we'll go about the engine... which is basically just some cogwheels joined together, though."

The girl marveled at the gear box he tossed her.

"Boss, is this also made of plastic?"

As far as she knew and could imagine, cogwheels were normally made of metal.

The gears in the box he had given her, however, were made of something akin to plastic, whereas the case itself was acrylic. Each of them was full of tiny holes and not as heavy as their looks suggested.

"It's polystyrene. The case is acrylic. You see, they won't need to rotate really fast, and this way we need almost no oil."

"...you're insistent on making it lighter whatever it takes, aren't ya..."

"We are! The lighter the better. Otherwise it won't fly by human power."

"Would it be possible to install Cubby's engine on it and fly abroad?"

"No."

She was profoundly convinced that it was a brilliant idea, but it was immediately rejected.

''Too bad. I was looking forward to a comfortable trip overseas.''

When they finished attaching the engine part, boss took over the lead as the connecting of the engine with the wings required a lot of sensitivity.

The bicycle-like belt of the engine part was connected to the main spindle right below the body and finally looked like "something that can fly".

"Odd. Aren't propellers usually at the front?" the girl said and stroked the snow-white body frame.

The fact that the main wings extended right besides the cockpit did make some sense to her. The propellers, however, were not at the very front, but apparently to be brought on a bare mechanical part that was located somewhere in the middle of the body frame.

"We could have just as well put them at the front. In fact, that would be simpler and more stable."

"Then why did you not do so?"

"It's got to do with effectiveness. If we put it at the front, the produced wind would partly hit the plane itself. Apart from that... due to personal preference?"

"...isn't your personal preference kind of indifferent when the focus is on effectiveness...?"

"What are you saying?!" the boy started up and shouted at the lopsidedly smiling girl.

After being swept away, he had had no other choice but to clear away the unused holding devices while the other two had been continuing his work, whereas now he clenched his fist and started a heated speech.

"Geez, girls just don't get it! You understand the beauty of mechanics not a bit! Propellers are the decoration of a human-powered aircraft, you know? You may not be able to change anything about those elegant long wings, but you are free to do whatever you want with the propeller!"

"...Aah... yeah. Got it, got it. I won't lose another word about it, so get us a tea or something."

"...Okay."

His passion was not understood. With the by now quite light kettle in one hand, he headed to the shed, where they had prepared some more barley tea.

"...Geez, it's hard to understand those strange passions men tend to have...," sighed the girl and felt as though something named motivation　or spirits left her in the same breath.

"Well, that can't be helped. Definitely a gender-based problem."

"It is? Don't you think that the environment where you grow up and such do also have an influence?"

"Might also matter a little. But don't you think that the reason why the boys throughout the country are attracted to special effects and mecha animes and whatnot lies in their nature?"

The girl groaned upon his words.

"Well, live with it. The love for machines and adventures is about as deeply rooted in our manly DNA as the love for females."

"How bothersome."

Her voice that could have been both a sigh or a weak laugh blended in the crying of the cicadas outside the sheet iron walls, and disappeared without reaching anyone.

They gradually progressed, and after sunset, when the temperature became a little more agreeable, they were 90% done.

During this time, they had proved excellent communication skills, far above what one would expect from people that had just get to know each other the other day. For instance, when it had come to the phase of inspecting the plane and such, the boy, who had lost his position to the girl, had been dragged back, and their first collective work had started with boss giving them instructions.

At the moment, the boy was in the cockpit.

He was confirming what boss told him to inspect while flipping through a thick form that contained items to inspect.

"Next on the list. Push the joystick to the right."

"Roger. To the right."

When he pushed the wooden joystick to the right, the connected nylon wires raised a creak as they were strained, and the wings on both sides were twisted into different directions.

"Checked."

"Successful," boss said and stuck a seal on the check sheet. "Now try moving it to the left."

"Roger. To the left."

Simple and precise, as well as monotonous—the girl had immediately raised the white flag, since it was clearly not work that suited her, and was now gazing at them, sitting on one of the cots that were there for taking a nap.

She was silently watching them proceeding slowly but surely, and with a rhythm, with the inspection, so as to not disturb them. Was the feeling that rose in her upon seeing that they were fine even without her alienation? Or was it jealousy? Still unable to make out her feelings, she let herself fall onto the cot. She grabbed the blanket clump that served as a pillow and put it under her head.

The boy and boss looked almost like siblings with an age gap when they worked together like now.

Without paying heed to the girl and as if obsessed by something, but on the other hand with the sparkling eyes of a child, they were putting their heart and soul into that aircraft.

Perhaps they were more like senior and junior at school. It had already been over three months since the boy and girl had attended school, but the image she had had not lost its color yet.

However, she had already forgotten the faces of half the class. She had no way of knowing whether this was due to "the vanishing" or the natural fading of her memory.

If asked whether she was worried about them, her answer would have been "yes". How were they doing? The hundreds of miles between them was equal to a world in these times of non-functional Internet and suspended telephone service.

It was probably a distance unbridgeable in their lifetime without the help of Cubby. There was even the chance that they might literally drop dead by the roadside.

The girl had no intentions of returning to their town.

She didn't know how the boy felt about it, but she wanted to continue their journey.

Their journey wasn't one with a specific target. Many asked them where their troublesome journey was headed, but they always answered like that:

«To the end of the world.»

She did not demand any meaning of their journey, nor did she care about what troubles awaited them. Not once had she thought about their destination.

The girl wasn't specially fond of reading, but there was one line, which the boy had taught her, that had stroke chord with her.

Those were the words of a certain queen in the land of mirrors.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass]

«''Here'', you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.»

The girl was keeping on traveling in order to stay with the boy.

She had left everything behind that would have hindered her. The only way to go was straight ahead.

If they were to return to their hometown, then it would be after they had tripped around the globe.

"Inspection compleeete!"

Boss flung the checklist and the form away, whereas the boy let out a big breath and sat down on a chair.

Compared to the assembling stage, physical labor had virtually been non-existent, but they had been made realize first hand that physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion aren't necessarily proportional.

They had been praying to the heavens while inspecting whether the machine they had built with their own hands worked properly, so it was no surprise that their necks had gotten stiff.

"Are we done for now?"

"Yeah. We checked the default settings of the GPS and the anemometer and everything else. The parts work perfectly, too. What remains is only the flight," with a broad smile he knocked lightly on the body frame of the aircraft.

The slim human-powered airplane with 38.2 meters width, 10.4 meters height and 30 kilograms weight, packed with the pride and passion and attachment of boss and his colleagues, was completed.

"Filled with deep emotion...?"

"No," boss denied, upon which the boy glanced at him.

Boss softly touched the wings and stroked them gently like his own child.

"It's all tomorrow, after the flight. I'll dance and rejoice only tomorrow after I've flown. This baby is a plane after all, not an ornament, right?" he turned around to the boy with a face that was, in contrast to his words, desperately hiding his excitement.

"...yes. It is a plane. We haven't put it together to make it rust away."

"Yeah. We mustn't jump like mad for joy just yet. Its true value lies in flying it."

These words weren't addressed to the boy, but himself. Therefore, the boy refrained from replying and wiped the sweat off his forehead, after which he breathed out.

"I hope it will be clear tomorrow."

"Are you joking? Of course it will be! If not, I'll go to court."

He almost had to laugh.

''Oh well, I'll better do what I can and make a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teru_teru_bozu teru teru bouzu] with some tissues. It's not good to use consumables without prospect of replenishment, but it should be fine once in a while.''

"Uphfa,"

The next thing that could be heard after this weird utterance was a dull sound, which originated from the girl falling off her cot. Apparently, she had accidentally fallen asleep while resting on the bed.

She idly sat up and had her gaze stagger somewhere between them and the plane.

"...Done?"

"Yeah. We're done."

"...Congrats," she sent her good wishes, still half-asleep, and walked toward the aircraft. "...What's its name?"

"Huh?"

"This plane's. Its name."

The boy and boss exchanged glances.

Her question had truly taken them by surprise.

"...Geez! Well, that figures... you guys just think about putting it together, but why don't you get that you're forgetting about the most important part!"

Normally it's the men who have an urge to give inanimate things a name, but common sense didn't apply to her.

"Didn't you and your comrades come up with some name for it...? Ah, I see. It vanished, huh."

Leaving alone the two silent men, she rummaged a toolbox that had been close to her.

"Come one, you decide, boss," with these words she pressed a completely normal, extra-thick oil-based black marker. Well, there wasn't anything else to write with, since they neither had an airbrush nor a spray can.

"Is it really okay to decide on that alone?"

"In return, the name would better satisfy us. If you give it a dull name, I'll give ''you'' a kick in the buttocks."

Boss shrugged his shoulders, walked up to the side of the cockpit, and gazed at the transparent polymer film.

After a moment wavering, he uncapped the marker and started to write. The final letters were...

"...'{{Template:Furigana|ジョナサン|Jonathan}}'...eh?" the boy said with round eyes, then boss turned around.

"Yeah. It's the name of the most famous seagull in the world."

Five katakana letters were written on the windshielding translucent film.

"...but your handwriting sure is scrawly... and worst of all, katakana! Why the heck didn't you use alphabetical letters? I mean, you wanted to fly this thing in Europe!"

"I don't care. I'll be flying it here. In the first place, ''you'' told me to write a name!"

"...somehow, that just ruined the image about as much as if we had wanted to give it a finishing touch by adding a pair of eyes, but accidentally drew nose hair instead."

"It's ''that'' bad?!"

"Oh whatever. Let's grab something to eat. I've gotten hungry because of my nap."

"...Women sure are fast in changing the topic."

"You don't mind it, do you? Anyhow, we're celebrating tonight! But if it's canned food again, I'll go on strike."

Boss let out a slight sigh and looked successively at the girl and the plane, wavering a little. Then he put his hands at his hips.

"Indeed... I declare tonight as the test flight eve because we have successfully completed all preparations. Well, there's not much food I have, so we'll have to put up with a curry party."

"Curry?! And you don't mean retort-packed curry?!"

"Yeah. We'll have to resort to canned carrots and meat, but the potatoes and rice are natural, and above all, the roux is a special spice blend."

Curry. The second this simple word reached their ears, their bodies started to emit a giant amount of saliva in their mouths. It had been months since they had last eaten real, non-ready, curry rice.

"A special spice blend..."

"The guy that wrote the manual made it. He liked to cook in his free time, you know. He would ''all the time'' come to me and tell me that he tried using 2% more turmeric or that he increased the size of his black pepper corns..."

"..."

The boy could somehow feel for him, as he was able to guess how much trouble an oddball as a friend could be.

They decided to do the cooking together. One reason for this was of course that they had to hurry up not to waste any current, now that the sun had set, but the pull of their empty stomaches was not to be underestimated, either. It also held true that they had nothing else to do anymore.

Rice was washed, potatoes were peeled, cans were opened for carrots and corned beef, and two fires were ignited, on which they then put a pot for the rice and one for the curry.

They started cooking without caring about who was doing what, and after an exceptionally short time, they had prepared their dinner.

While the number of ingredients used in the curry rice was very low, there was a whole lot of it. They virtually lunged at their dinner and ate, ready to empty both pots.

Since the boy wasn't wild about getting to see a sticky clot that pulled strings like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nattou Nattou]
the next morning—into which the curry rice would have turned due to the hotness and humidity of summer—it happened that even he, who would usually try to fill his stomach about 80%, ate for two.

As a footnote: they had somehow managed to find a cool place for the watermelon they had received from the director and his secretary, which resulted in excellent ripeness. The girl wanted to have the first try at splitting the melon and even blindfolded herself. By completely ignoring the confusing commands boss gave her and instead following the warm guidance of the boy, she grandly split the melon at one go.

It goes without saying that it tasted out of this world.

When the great rush had subsided and everyone had emptied their own plate, boss suddenly asked while grabbing himself another piece of melon, "Are you going to pay the nearby town a visit?"

"Mh, I guess we will. Or rather, we couldn't get by on this journey if we didn't travel from one town to the next one. We made quite a few stops on the way, but the next will be that village, yeah."

"I see."

"Why did you ask? Something wrong with it?" asked the girl while rubbing her bloated belly.

Boss, who was munching away on his melon piece, answered her, "Nope, go ahead and stop by there. It would be a mistake to go past it even though it's lively there."

"Lively?"

"Evacuated people assembled there and have created an autonomous organization. It's right by the seaside, and they were already sending out fishing boats when I was there a few months ago, so I guess their town has flourished even more by now."

"..."

The boy and girl exchanged glances.

Nowadays, a high population in itself was of great significance. It is hard for one to obtain enough food for oneself, but it's much easier for a hundred to obtain enough food for a hundred.

By joining forces one can reach new heights.

Where there are people, there is wealth. And the two travelers were going to benefit from that wealth as well.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

By the time the boy and girl were full and had successfully exterminated the curry, the rice as well as the watermelon, night had entirely fallen and the refreshing croaks of the frogs around the warehouse reached their ears.

Given that the moon and the stars in the broad cloudless sky were brightening the earth, they expected nice weather for the following day.

It was, however, still going to take some time until the humidity would start to drop. All three were sweating because their body-heat had increased thanks to the curry.

"Hey boss, mind telling me where the bath is?" asked the girl suddenly upon recalling what she had heard earlier.

Yes—this had completely slipped her memory because of the curry feast, but originally she had wanted to get done with work as fast as possible, wanting to take a bath.

"Sure, it's behind the shed. I filled it earlier and lit a fire, it should be about ready now."

Being one among them who appeared to have still some reserves in his stomach, boss stood up and beckoned them to follow him.

The boy had to admit it: he had eaten too much tonight. While holding his stomach, which was loudly complaining of excess load, he followed boss to the back of the shed, under a roof.

Right there they found the bath.

The expectations of the girl were belied, the prediction of the boy hit the bullseye.

"Seems like the warmth is just perfect. I'll let you go first."

What they discovered there was undeniably a drum bath.

It was a high-tech facility without peer, sparsely bordered by sheet metal and equipped with a naked bulb hanging from above. To crown it all, there was even shampoo and rinse ready to be used. The absence of a roof assured a stunning view of the starlit sky and the vicinity while wallowing in warm water.

"...Uuuh..."

Judging by the blatantly mixed feelings showing on her face, there seemed to be interest. However, even the boy had never taken such a wild bath. "''I should definitely ask if there are any manners that have to be followed''," the boy thought.

"Boss, how do we get into this?"

"Why, like you always do! There's a wooden chair inside to make sure it's not too hot, so all that has to be done is making a fire and entering. Also, don't complain that there's no shower."

Apparently having noticed by the tone in the boy's voice that they had no experience in bathing in a drum, he gently patted the girl on the back.

"O-Okay..."

"Aah, and by the way, the one that's not bathing has to put wood on the fire."

It took them a whole few seconds until realizing what he had just told them casually. As it had exceeded the bounds of their understanding, it was necessary for them to do a simulation within their heads.

"Wait... you're telling us to take the bath together?!"

"...Hah? How do you want to get two into that narrow tub? One of you just has to watch the fire while the other one is in there. Like a scullion."

"You must be joking! I'm a girl, you know?!"

"Well, I know that. But you don't mind if it's him, right? Being lovers and all."

"...Who said that?!"

Seized by the collar, boss was completely dumbfounded.

"Y-You're not? I was sure you were a couple because of your bike journey as a pair..."

With a growl she released him.

While the situation was indeed troubling, she did not really feel bad about being thought as a couple. However, it did trouble her right now. It was still too early.

"...Can't I put wood by myself?"

"No, look, drums are tall. You can't reach the ground, can you?"

Indeed. As he said, the rusted drum was tall taken by itself, but because it was also put on concrete blocks to make a fire below it, it was an impossible task to reach the ground from inside. Besides, it would have been far from her long-awaited paradise if she had to worry about the fire all the time.

"I can't do it, either... There's pretty much no way round having him do it."

"Ew..."

Well, such important decisions were always made without taking the boy's opinion into account. He was used to it.

For his part, the dread of "getting killed if he peeped" surpassed the desire of doing so by far.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"I'll kill you if you peep, okay?"

Getting the exactly same threat as he had been imagining, the boy nodded awkwardly.

His hands tied up behind his back and his eyes covered by a blindfold, he felt just like a hostage taken by a terrorist. Wondering if he was going to hear another unreasonable request along the lines of "Don't move! Hands up!" he sighed.

"Listen, I won't peep. If you leave me like this I can't even put wood on the fire. And you want to enjoy your bath to the fullest, don't you?"

"I'll untie your hands once I'm in the bathtub, so bear with it until then."

The girl, for one, thought that she had been rather cooperative.

For their relationship, which had not yet reached the couple stage, this situation was, well, err... too stimulative! This was something that should happen only after taking one step after the other with due care.

Anyhow, the girl started to undress herself somewhere the boy could not reach however hard he struggled. She found a brand new dry duck board on the bare ground and lined her shoes there.

As much as it was summer, they were at the northern island. The night was chilly and the wind blew against her naked skin.

By the way, she had also considered the possibility that boss might peep and thus commanded the boy to keep watch.

It was highly questionable how well he could keep watch without being able to see, but she was positive that he would at least notice his approaching.

When at last was naked as mother had bore her, she allied herself with a rather large towel and went on to challenge the unfamiliar bath.

She ascended the concrete block steps on tiptoes and carefully entered the bathtub with her feet.

"Oh, it's not as hot as I thought."

"Well, of course it's not! After all, I have been adjusting its warmth the whole time."

She couldn't help it, but the drum with its cylindrical shape put on a fire reminded her awfully of the boiling curry pot.

Happily enough, there was a duck board and a wooden chair in the water, so she could enter without having to strain herself.

She found it a pity that she couldn't stretch her legs, but neither did she want to be picky.

"Alright boy, show me your back and come nearer. I'll untie you."

Upon staggering towards her in a half-sitting posture, she untied the nylon rope around his wrists.

Having calmed down again, he groped for the pipe chair that was close to him and seated himself on it.

"Girl. How's the temperature?"

"Excellent, excellent. But it might be even better if it was a little warmer?"

"Roger. Your wish is my command!"

He took a piece of wood within his reach and threw it into the fire below the drum. The hand towel that was firmly wound around his head inhibited his vision, but he could still locate the fire by the heat and the dim light.

When he fanned it, it flared up golden and burned stronger.

"Hah..."

"Are you enjoying your first drum bath?" asked the boy with a lopsided smile after hearing the girl's blatantly relaxing voice.

"Oh... it's better than I expected... I've never been in such a deep bathtub before, though."

"No wonder."

"But I now think I know how the ingredients in an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden oden] must feel."

"Hahaha"

He could only hear her voice, but it was easy to imagine what her face must have looked like. Her face was bound to be completely slack. There was some sort of afflatus that told him so.

[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0169.jpg|thumb|He could only hear her voice, but it was easy to imagine what her face must have looked like. Her face was bound to be completely slack.]]

Since she had missed out on the bath at the director's home despite being as much a bath-lover as any other girl, he was sure that she was enjoying it more than usually.

"...Boy...? Do you think 'it' will really fly tomorrow?"

Some while after he had started watching the fire, the girl addressed him rather suddenly. He stopped fanning.

"...Why do you ask?"

"No big deal, really. It's just that... it feels so unreal."

With a splash, the boy's head got drenched in water.

He could judge from the light that had just been dimmed that she was looking at him.

"Well, I mean, aren't airplanes kinda out of reach for us usually? If we get in touch with them, it's never really direct, is it? For example when following a trail with our eyes, or when getting into one for a trip."

"Do you mean that you don't think such a thing could fly?"

"I think that doesn't quite capture it," she replied and continued with a dreamy, calm voice, "You know, at least for me, making a plane is something like magic. It's not like I can't imagine how the logic behind it works. But somehow, I can't seem to accept ''that'' it would work."

"...in other words, that plane is a 'witch's broom' for you."

"...Sort of. That's a nice way to put it — it seems just the same no matter if someone tells you it flew with the power of lift or with the power of magic. But seriously, will that thing really fly? Being just a big empty shell," asked the girl with a wry smile.

While putting on a smile, he answered, "It will! The dreams of boss' team as well as our own are in there."

"Our dreams may make it too heavy to fly."

"Maybe. But let's believe that boss will overcome that with his spirit."

Despite the blindfold, he could vividly picture the girl's smile as she giggled.

"...Aaah, jeez! I wish I could fly it, too!"

"So that's what you were really thinking?" the boy laughed and threw another piece of wood into the fire.

"Oh shut your mouth, I can have my dreams, too, can't I? You're already monopolizing Cubby, after all. I would love to take you to the end of the world with that plane."

"There's only space for one in there."

"No problem. I'll just tie you up somewhere on there."

"You're being reckless..."

"Not at all! ...Ah, that aside, can you help me wash my hair?"

"While wearing this blindfold?"

"Yup. Be gentle, okay? If any shampoo gets into my eye, I'll choke you. Hard."

"..."

Thanks to a never-ending succession of unreasonable requests from the girl, he was condemned to even harder work than during the day, and had no opportunity to get some butterflies in his stomach.

By the time the girl happily left the bath, he was completely exhausted. Of course because of the persistent tension that exceeded the load of watching the fire many times.

About one hour had passed until he was released from the girl's long bath and could heave a sigh of relief in the warehouse.

"...I'm dead beat."

"What? Now you're a sissy. Just because of that...?"

''She's outrageous. Truly outrageous. What on earth does she think got me so exhausted?''

When removing his blindfold after a whole hour, even the warehouse was dazzling, though using the minimum light.

Well, the girl who had just taken a bath and was thus wearing her blouse without stuffing it into her skirt was in a sense dazzling, too. 

"Jeez... Why do women always take so much time to bathe?"

All of a sudden, the girl's vision got obstructed. Her hair was being mopped crudely with a bath towel that had been dropped onto her head.

"B-Boss! Stop it... cut it out!" she complained about being treated like a child and escaped from his claws.

But his forceful drying attempt had gracefully succeeded; the moisture of her hair had been eliminated, leaving only a comfortable warmth there.

"Do you want to go in now, boss? I'm fine with being the last one."

"No, I'll have a snooze first. I'm sleepy as hell because I had to move the truck early in the morning... Ah, right, you guys, go to bed in good time today! The weather should be nice tomorrow, judging by how it is now, but the best wind blows in the early morning, you know. Ah, and by the way: I'm used to that bath, so I don't need any help."

"When should we get up?"

"At about four o'clock. Don't oversleep!"

The girl rounded her eyes when she heard him, "''That'' early?! No dice! I can't get up at such an ungodly hour!"

"Don't worry. There is an alarm clock."

"That's not the problem!" she objected, almost screaming in horror, and was patted on the back by the boy.

"...I'll wake you up, okay?"

The boy was perfectly aware that such a bothersome task would naturally be imposed on him.

"It's only been nine. If we make sure to sleep at about 10 o'clock, it should be possible to wake up, don't you think?"

"Uuh..."

The boy let out a weak sight, seeing her still unconvinced.

"Okay, while I'm sleeping change shifts and use the bath once more. ...Ah, and boy. I bet she sponged on you, didn't she? Now's your turn!" boss said and turned around to leave toward the nap corner.

The girl wanted to say something in reply, but the boy would of course never have missed out on such a chance. He quickly went around her and stole her vision with the towel in his hands.

"Whoa! Hey?!"

"'I'll kill you if you peep' — right? Let's make sure you can't see anything."

"N-No need to do that here already!"

"Oh, it's fine, it's fine. Let's go. Thanks to your bath I'm drenched!"

Getting to have the lead for once, too, his mouth was curved in an eerie shape. If they hadn't had a blindfold, the girl would have discovered the hidden dark side of the boy at that very moment.

Almost as if carrying off a hostage, he pulled the girl behind him.

"Wait! I'll stumble! Please, remove this just for now!"

"It's fine, it's fine."

The boy affected ignorance to the finish, pretending not to have noticed that there was not shadow at boss' feet when he stood in the light.

The loss of one's shadow—such was the last stage of "the vanishing".

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

All of a sudden, he woke up. He had no idea what had made him awake, so it was probably correct to phrase it like that.

It felt rather odd to him because he had only been waked by the girl's punches when she rolled in sleep or by some sort of sound lately. Without any visible reason, without being left drowsy, he had suddenly woken up.

He sat up heavily and pulled the blanket he was covered in away.

The luminously painted chronograph showed two o'clock, therefore it was no surprise that the sun had not risen yet.

As he couldn't seem to fall asleep again, he decided for now to stand up. There was no trace of exhaustion in his young body, which might have been thanks to the opulent dinner he had had or to the fact that he had slept early.

This did, however, not apply to the girl who was sleeping on the neighboring bed.

She was lying prone on the cot, still in the same posture as she had written the diary, which was put next to the pillow, and snoring loudly. Moreover, the jersey she was in the habit of using as a substitute for a pajama was round her knees, exposing her defenseless bottom, which was only covered by her white panties.

He smiled to himself, seeing her childish sleeping position, and covered her waist with a blanket so that she wouldn't get too cold. In passing, he also sneaked a peek at the diary, where he found a quite funny entry.

The content itself was nothing special, but the text got stranger and stranger towards the end: the same word appeared three times in one sentence, one sentence was suddenly aborted, and by the time the text finally turned incomprehensible, her letters were all over the page. There were even mysterious lines outside of the page. This was proof that she had gone down fighting against sleepiness.

After blurting out a giggle, he poured himself some water from a PET bottle and took a small gulp.

The sound beyond the wall of metal sheets disclosed to him how the weather was outdoors—he could hear wind blowing through the meadows. There appeared to be no rain.

Sure, they had been able to guess the weather beforehand, but upon seeing how that prediction had hit the mark, it felt sort of like their prayer had been heard. ''I really ought to thank the teru teru bouzu we hung up before sleeping''.

Then, driven by a sudden hunch, he slid his hand through the shroud that divided the nap corner from the rest of the warehouse and produced a gap.

There was a still standing white plane in the center, whose elegant wings were softly bent by gravity. Despite having assisted its assembling a few hours ago, it was a breath-taking view.

In front of the aircraft, however, he spotted boss sitting cross-legged, faced toward its nose.

He couldn't recognize his countenance because it was hidden by the shadow of the wings, but there was a beer can in boss' hand and about ten more on the ground, as if forming a circle with him.

Boss' moved no muscle, and his emotions were to remain a riddle to the boy. In the end, he did not gather the courage to intrude this scene.

A while later, the boy fell asleep again.

He did not remember having had a dream that night.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

The next morning, the three took the long-winged plane out of the warehouse and initiated a last check.

Even though the main entrance was more than five meters shorter than the plane's total width, by following the white lines on the ground as written in the manual, they somehow succeeded in getting it outside, kind of like solving a wire puzzle.

"...this is really incredible."

"Yeah, I seriously wonder what his brain looked like!" muttered boss while gazing at the plane on the straight road.

"Who's 'he'?"

"The guy who made the manual."

"..."

Did 'he', the writer of that perfect and precise manual, whose face and name nobody knew anymore, really think about its transport during the planning stage? She had no idea who he was, but she was not uninterested in meeting him. Well, that was not possible anymore, though.

For starters, they began removing the transport according to the manual.

The carts had been detached from the holding devices, and were now carefully removed with several special, prespecified tools so as to not damage the machine. Without remarkable effort, they managed to free all parts.

Without even needing a jack or something like that, the plane's elegant body stood on its own wheels, gazing at the horizon ahead of the long asphalt. It was truly magnificent.

"...What was this just now? Magic?"

"Who knows. Anyway, the preparations are completed."

Boss turned around and spotted the boy, who had been taking some additional data such as the wind speed and was just trotting back.

All preparations were set.

"Boss, are you ready? Especially mentally," the girl asked.

"No, my heart is jumping out of my ears any moment," boss laughed with only his face. His body was already in the cockpit. The last check in front of the plane was being conducted by the boy who held the manual in his hands. After all, boss was the motor of this machine—an important ''part''. No way to do an inspection without putting him in, too.

"Now that sounds acrobatic. Anyway, you're never mentally prepared, so get in already."

"True word."

Boss flashed a smile on hearing her unmindful encouragement and looked around in the cockpit.

There was a seat for him to seat in and a cage made of FRP surrounding it. The seat was snow-white, being made almost entirely of plastic and transparent film. The only black objects were the GPS, the altimeter, the anemometer and the transceiver for communication, which were all attached at the side of the joystick.

The thin polymer film shrouding the cage was lit by the dazzling morning light and gleamed brightly.

He had to narrow his eyes. A mysterious, awe-inspiring mood akin to beholding a stained glass window in a church filled the air of the narrow cockpit — but was completely destroyed when the boy suddenly poked his face in.

"I'm closing now, boss! You've got your handkerchief, right? What about your lunchbox?"

"I don't need one!"

"Okay, if you've still got that much energy, you'll be fine. Good luck," the boy laughed and carried a large windshield over to him.

Since all functions and equipment were kept at the minimum, there was naturally no openable door incorporated. It was necessary to screw the windshield on ''after'' boarding the plane.

He had to have them seal him away in this narrow space.

Despite feeling like a prisoner, strangely enough he felt no pressure. All there was was boundless rapturousness.

He felt as though he could pull off anything right now.

''"Windshield attached. Go ahead."''

He heard a voice from the transceiver by his ear.

"All set. I'm starting to pedal now, remove the bumper when I give you the signal," he said and put his feet on the pedals.

In order to not burden the comparatively sensitive motor unnecessarily, he started off slowly and gradually increased the rotation speed. In the small mirror that was attached to the inner side of the windshield, he could see the contra-rotating propellers he was so proud of move.

''Don't worry, it will definitely soar up!''

"Remove the bumper!"

''"Roger."''

It was but a short command.

The real fight was yet to come. His comrades had built the aircraft, the boy and girl had put it together, and he had to fly it.

This was his first and final task. The world that was going to unfold before him now was only his and no one else's.

"Hurry up, boy! Hurry up!" the girl rushed.

She had finished her work quickly and had gotten on the tandem of the super cub, which was stopped by the road. The luggage was almost entirely taken off so that they could drive along with the plane.

"I know. Don't worry, it won't fly away just like that!"

Well, he had tried to calm the excited girl, but apparently he was very excited himself: he had quite some trouble putting the key into the hole.

When he finally managed to turn the key and switched on the ignition, Cubby's heart started to roar loudly. He kicked up the stand more violently than he did usually, opened the throttle slightly and moved onto the road.

The plane, however, was still there, moving straight ahead at the speed of slowly pedaling a bicycle.

The yellow contra-rotating propellers were rotating properly, cutting the wind, but there was no sign of soaring up yet.

For the time being, he chose to follow the plane from diagonally behind at about the same speed, so as to not get in its way.

"Is everything alright? Will it fly?"

The boy answered the girl's anxious question with a laugh, "No worries. He's arriving at a declining slope any moment, and he even has some headwind. It's bound to fly!"

Just as the boy had announced, as soon as the plane arrived at a slightly declining slope, the previously very slow acceleration started to increase bit by bit.

It's not like the boy knew what was needed for the takeoff of a human-powered aircraft. But he gathered that an appropriately high speed was required.

Cubby's speedometer was almost at 20kmph. He supposed that it was about time that it hovered a little.

Boss, who could be seen past the transparent windshield, was not paying them any attention whatsoever. He was solely staring straight ahead, pedaling with all his might.

That moment, he saw boss pulling the joystick.

The nylon wires that were connected to it conveyed his movement to the wings and made them bend slightly.

The tiny lift that emerged at that moment caused the super-light machine to hover slightly over the ground.

"It's flying!"

"Not just yet!"

Suppressing the girl who was about to leap for joy, he opened some distance between him and the plane to be sure.

The plane, which was hovering close to the ground, pulled in its wheels under the tail assembly and the cockpit, and continued its shaky flight at an unsettling height.

At the moment it was merely hovering due to the ground effect that was formed by the wings and the ground. He had to elevate in order to make it a "flight".

Boss was pedaling like mad, but the height was only barely increasing.

"Is he really going to be okay?"

"Don't worry. He's almost there. He's almost at 25kmph!"

His voice came out louder than he had wanted, but he didn't care in the least.

''It's going to fly! It will '''not''' fall!''

As if to display his unshakable faith, the boy opened the throttle and sped up Cubby. While the girl was clinging to him in surprise, he moved the motorbike to the side of the wings.

If the plane fell, they were probably going to be dragged in.

But the word "if" was already out of question. Boss was going to pull it off somehow. He was sure of that.

Then at last, the lift produced by the long wings grew strong enough to sustain the weight of the plane thanks to the speed.

The shaky flight suddenly leveled off and the almost 40-meters giant wings jumped up as if pulled to the sky.

"He soared up!"

"He did it!"

They yelled almost synchronously, causing the accidently driverless Cubby to stagger.
[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0185.jpg|thumb|The plane elevated as if drawn up by the sky and gleamed in the morning sun.]]

The plane elevated as if drawn up by the sky and gleamed in the morning sun.

Its course was north and its altitude about 40 meters. The flight had entirely gotten stable.

"You did it, boss!"

''"Yeah, I sure did!"''

They could hear an enthralled voice from the transceiver. It was not hard at all to imagine his face from that excited voice.

''"It feels terrific...! Just as I felt at my first flight... no, it's even better!"''

"Please enjoy it to the fullest. We can't take part in it, after all."

The girl, too, was smiling at his rarely turbulent voice before she knew it.

''"I feel as if I could go anywhere right now... I can't thank you enough, guys..."''

"Thank us to your heart's content then. With gas."

Her capitalistic remark was, however, not countered with irony.

''"Sure! Take as much as you want! This feeling is all I need! ...I wanted to show this scenery to everyone else, too, but... even if they were here now, there's only space for one... so it would still have been only me in the end, huh..."''

The airplane in front of the super cub started to easefully shake left and right.

Boss was probably tilting the joystick because of his strong emotions. However, the plane was designed for 8-flights; while withstanding most movements, it was not able to do small ones.

But still, the giant white plane was inexpressibly beautiful as it drew a curve while inclining slightly.

"Umm, boss? Could you let me fly it as well?"

The boy answered the girl's mumble into the transceiver by poking her.

"Hey girl, that's boss' plane! It's not right for us to ask for something like that..."

"But we also helped him, didn't we? I want to get on it about once at least!"

"You don't know how to control, do you?"

"But there is someone who knows, isn't there? Boooss, pretty please?"

Shaking off his restrain, she addressed boss over the transceiver with a pleading voice.

Well, boss was not going to give in to such a voice, so the boy didn't mind.

''"Why, of course! I want to show this to you guys!"''

"Huh?!" the boy blurted out in a strange tone, his expectations completely belied.

Apparently, boss' good mood was vastly exceeding all his predictions.

The girl, on the other hand, seized the opportunity and spoke while leaning forward into the transceiver, "Umm... if I'll crash into something, forgive me please?"

''"I don't mind! One or two dents are no problem to fix! We even have a spare frame! We can fix it as many tim"''

His voice broke off.

"Boss...?" asked the girl while tilting her head.

No reaction.

"What's wrong?"

"Dunno. It suddenly turned silent."

The boy took the transceiver in his left hand and checked the LCD display. The battery wasn't empty. Neither was boss out of range for the signal yet. But it did not seem to be broken, either.

"...huh? Boy, what's that...?"

The girl pointed at the sky. Not the sky, to be precise, but the snow-white plane in it.

The contra-rotating propellers, which boss had proudly painted yellow to make them visible from afar, had almost stopped moving. It didn't look like they were rotating on their own, but because of the wind.

The beautiful white plane that had stopped moving started dropping step by step, tilting to one side.

It crashed into the softly swaying green ground.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"Boy!!"

"Yeah!"

The girl clung swiftly to his waist, whereas the boy opened the throttle of the super cub as if to answer her.

He turned the handle to the side and jumped out of the road into the definitely ''not'' low grass.

They rushed toward the crash site they could see between the grass while mowing down the grass in their way, which had grown about to their waist's height.

The sharp blades of the grass cut into their uncovered cheeks and arms, but they couldn't care less.

Cubby then suddenly arrived at a place where the grass turned low.

They unconsciously took a breath.

At this place, which was about a small square's size, was the snow-white plane.

Its nose had stuck in the earth, the fine plastic cockpit seat had been entirely crushed, the wing had been broken due to the blow against the ground, and the transparent film was fluttering in the wind.

The only parts that escaped the crash, the frame itself and the tail assembly, were stuck in the ground, poking out towards the sky, and seemed almost like a white, futuristic sculpture.

The two, who had completely frozen, suddenly came to and got off the super cub and ran—towards the "thing that had been an airplane", without caring about the falling over Cubby.

"Boy! Can we move this?!"

"Yeah! Take that side!"

The two grabbed the body that was stuck in the ground and pulled it out like operating a lever.

They could clearly hear the wings get twisted, but neither of them cared.

The tail assembly touched the ground whereas the crushed cockpit appeared.

"Boss!"

The girl forcefully took off the windshield and looked into it — to find nobody.

Not even his clothes were left there.

They hardly exchanged any words after that. That is because it didn't require any explanation.

Boss had vanished. Not only he, but also his clothes and shoes along with him had suddenly disappeared from the cockpit. The microphone of the transceiver which he had worn was not to be found anywhere, either.

The two knew more than enough what that meant.

Boss had ''vanished''.

In a few words they decided to carry the remains of the aircraft back to the warehouse. There was no special point in doing so, but they somehow did not wanted to leave it out in the open like that, therefore they started without dispute.

As the plane was disturbingly destroyed, the transport in itself was not hard.

They took apart what they could and cut apart with a hatchet for splitting wood what they could not, and carried the parts back.

They were finished so fast, it seemed unbelievable that it had taken so much effort to put it together.

The wide sky and the unreservedly shining sun were no different from an hour ago, but somehow they looked much duller.

They stood before the remnants of the aircraft in the warehouse.

"...I wonder where boss has gone," muttered the girl.

The boy shook his head, "I'm sorry. I don't know."

"...No one knows. Whoever you ask in the world, no one knows where they disappear to."

Neither of them suggested that he may have just vanished into nothingness, for that was what they and the rest of the world feared.

They didn't believe in heaven and hell, but neither did they want to believe that the ones who had disappeared had simply vanished as the word suggested.

"What are we going to do... with that?" asked the girl while squatting by the remains of the plane and gazed at its degenerated appearance.

The cockpit that had consisted of the absolute minimum of material had completely lost its former shape because of the direct crash with the ground.

The pedals and the motor were still somewhat intact, but the deformation and damage of those was heavy, making it very unlikely for them to soar up to the sky once again.

The wings had fallen apart entirely, and they found themselves unable to repair their twisted frame or the torn film. The body frame was still okay, but the connecting piece to the wings and the motor component, which had been connected to the cockpit, had gotten deformed, and the yellow propellers broke to pieces with two blades missing entirely. Thanks to the fact that the plane had crashed headfirst, the tail assembly was undamaged, but that didn't change anything.

The girl was not versed in mechanics, but she could easily imagine what fate was waiting for those remains.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do."

"...'suppose so."

"But as boss said, there were spare parts in the container," the boy muttered.

The girl raised her face. "Can we fix it then?"

"I don't know. He said that there were enough parts to make one more aircraft, but without checking we don't know how much there really is."

The glimmer that had come in sight was too faint to be called hope.

The two had merely followed boss' instructions. They did by no means know how the plane was to be put together or what they were supposed to pay attention to. Above all, there was no point in assembling another aircraft as boss was no more.

"Shall we go then?" suggested the girl as she stood up.

"Go?" asked the boy.

The girl responded him with a, slightly acted, smile, "On our journey. Boss' job here has ended, but our journey is still going to continue, isn't it?"

After adjusting her clothes, she walked toward the nap corner.

"...True. Yeah, we're still on the way," he said and shook his head to recollect himself.

Right. They were aiming for the end of the world, after all. They had no reason nor the time to be lost here in grief.

The girl took a small scrap of film out of her pocket.

It was an extremely tin piece of polymer film, which looked like some wrapping at first glance. On it, however, were the black letters "{{Template:Furigana|ジョナサン|Jonathan}}", written with a marker. In this crawly handwriting they could still clearly sense his aura.

She inserted the piece of film like a bookmark into the thick assembling manual and put it in front of the remnants of the white plane.

The two went to the nap corner to collect and pack their things.

Because these two busy days had left them with quite a mess, they needed some time to get ready, but since they were used to it nonetheless, they managed to load everything onto Cubby within twenty minutes.

Making good on boss' promise, they filled Cubby's tank with gas and also decided to take some foodstuff, such as cans that seemed to last a while and rice, with them.

After that, with a silent understanding between them, they started to lightly clean the warehouse and the shed.

By the time they had finished all preparations and met up before their super cub in a corner of the warehouse, the clock was showing 08:00am.

"What are we going to do with the truck?" asked the girl.

"Do we even need to do anything with it? We don't need it, after all."

"...Oh dear! The whacked out trip on Cubby is still going to continue, huh..."

"If you talk like that, Cubby will sulk and break down!"

"That would be bad," she smiled wryly and inspected their provisions.

"Do we have water?"

"Yeah, I filled our bottles."

The boy finished inspecting the super cub, too, and put on his helmet.

"Alright. Are we set?"

"Aah..."

The boy put a helmet on her head while she let out a strange voice.

"What? Are we missing something?"

"Umm... No, it's fine. Should be," she answered ambiguously.

The boy tilted his head and asked whether they should stay for a little longer, but this proposal was rejected.

"According to what boss told us, the neighboring town is quite far away, right? The sooner we leave the better."

"Well, you've got a point. So it's really fine?"

"Yeah. OK, OK!"

While being patted on the back, the boy sat down on Cubby.

He turned the key, upon which a light humming started to resound as always.

After making sure the girl was clinging to him, he opened the throttle and drove off, holding against the faint gravity that emerged.

Thinking back, they had only spent a mere two days here.

This was probably what it felt like to leave a place with painful reluctance. While knowing there was no point in staying in that warehouse, it felt as though they were leaving something—something dear—behind there. They couldn't do anything about that reluctance.

He felt the girl press her head against his back and squeezed the handle.

It took only a few minutes until the warehouse had disappeared behind the hills of the road from the back mirror.

===Interlude===

The boy did not stop even when the sun had finished its turn and had disappeared behind the horizon. It also held true that they were a little late due to accidentally taking a wrong road, but the main reason was of an emotional nature.

When he closed his eyes, all he could recall from boss' face had become awfully vague because of the vanishing. The same applied to his stature, his voice, and the way he had talked to them. Almost everything that had defined boss had lost its shape like ice in boiling water and melted, blending in the boy's miscellaneous memories.

Every time he tried to recall his appearance, which had suffered disintegration of its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology Gestalt], he only felt as if having a déja-vu. When he struggled anyway, his pathless thinking twisted and broke off, leaving only an uncomfortable nausea behind.

''"Shall we take a break here?"''

He couldn't bring himself to say this suggestion.

He frequently stroked the girl's arms which were put around his waist as he drove on. The loss of a near person had made him anxious about ''her'' existence, having shared almost every moment for three months with her. Just by thinking ''what if she vanished as well'', he was struck by a gut-wrenching insecurity and had to stroke her hand again.

With his head, he did understand that it was highly unlikely for her to suddenly disappear as she was still in the initial stage. But while riding the bike, he could just not see her face. He felt as though she could vanish any moment if he forgot about her and couldn't calm down.

Seemingly aware of his feelings, the girl tightly clung to him, pressing her body against his.

Wanting to talk to her, he opened his mouth, and searching for a topic, he closed and opened it only to eventually leave it shut. After he had repeated this meaningless cycle multiple times:

"...Boy?"

In surprise at her sudden voice, his frozen hands convulsed and gripped the brake.

She screamed out because of the sudden full braking and the Super Cub span out of control. This was apparently enough to wake up his dulled primary motor cortex—he hurriedly balanced the bike out and stopped it.

"...S-Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Hey... are you really all right?"

The boy was doubting his state of mind even without her question. What had happened to Boss did by no means justify such a behavior while driving.

He ground his teeth in vexation of his fragile mind, and looked up at the sky.

"...Um. Anyway, what did you want to say?"

"...Look, doesn't this vicinity look like a village or something?"

She stretched out her arms from behind and turned the handle.

The headlight of their super cub lit their surroundings and revealed a deserted building to them.

"You're right..."

They couldn't make out the details because the light created many shadows, but it was clearly someone's house. And there was not only one or two. Now that he thought about it, the on-going meadows scenery had suddenly broke off, and instead he had spotted many human-groomed things like copses and fields.

The girl took a map out of their luggage and took a look at it.

"Yeah. It's hard to tell because the names have gone, but this is probably a small village!"

The boy stopped the engine and took out two pocket lamps.

Lit by those two light sources, the appearance of the village became apparent.

He heard how the girl held her breath behind him.

Ruins. What they found were ruins.

Originally, this had probably been a village of decent size. There were large fields, many houses, and wide premises—as was usual for this island—with light trucks parked on.

However, there was not a soul. There was no single resident in this village.

Most of the buildings had collapsed due to snowfall of the past winters, looking as thought they had been trampled down, and those that were not had gaping holes in their roofs. The sheets that were still hanging from the clothesline had turned into old dustcloths.

Somewhere they spotted a light truck with an opened door. Somewhere else they discovered a satchel in the middle of the street. In the middle of a field there was a tractor that had gone stale there.

Even though there were traces of the habitants everywhere, there was not a soul. Only the crying of the insects and the blowing of the wind filled the air.

He felt his heartbeat grow heavy. He knew this feeling.

The capital, the nameless metropolis they had abandoned, the town that had lost more than 80% of its population and its entire functionality, was the same.

The convenience store on the way to school, the footbridge across the big intersection that had become empty of cars and whose traffic lights had stopped working, the lightless skyscraper he had gazed at from school at dusk.

His heart was spurred on by the distressing lack of people where there should have been.

"...Boy."

She plucked at the sleeve of his shirt.

He turned around and found the girl stuck to his back, trembling fiercely.

"Boy... I don't like this place," she mumbled with her gaze focused on one point.

The object that was horrifying her so much was a red satchel that lay on the street.

"Let's go. I don't want to be here. Not for one second."

"...Yeah..."

He nodded and quickly stuffed his lamp into his pocket.

He started the engine, put on his helmet, accelerated rather crudely and hit the nightly road again.

This village resembled their town too much.

Sealed memories were released again and caused cold shivers to run down their spines.

Silence enveloped the village once more.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Tabi_ni_Deyou:Dream|Dream]]
| Return to [[Tabi ni Deyou, Horobiyuku Sekai no Hate Made|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Tabi_ni_Deyou:Journey|Journey]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>

Tabi ni Deyou:Wings

2012-01-11T01:38:11Z

BladeUnderHeart:

The boy looked up at the heavy, dark clouds in the sky.

Only some moments ago, it had still been a clear blue sky, but then clouds slowly caught up from behind and the sky turned overcast. The speed with which this happened could be called lightning-fast and the blue color that was there before was beyond imagination now, so that one couldn't even tell where the sun was anymore.

Unaffected by this, the green surrounding them hadn't changed. From time to time they came by some farms that had been crushed by the snowfall last winter, but none of those could serve them as a rain shelter.

"...oh well. Looks like there's going to be a shower. I just hope we're out of here by then..."

"Don't worry! People always told me that I'm beloved by the sun."

"Too bad. ''I'' was always called the 'rain bringer'. Guess why."

"Uh-oh-"

The girl giggled while turning around. The clouds that had been gradually getting thicker as time went by looked as though they would start pouring their contents over them any moment.

What's so bad about getting a little wet, some may wonder. But that is a sentiment limited to those who have hot coffee and a dry towel waiting for them at home.

They required fuel to warm themselves up, they had to light their fires on their own and they had to dry their wet clothes immediately. They would be in big trouble should they catch a cold. Even if it didn't lead to the worst case scenario, the two run the risk of starving to death if they are forced to stay at one place for several days.

"If things don't change, we're both going to catch colds. Who would be the carer in that case?" 

"Usually I think it's those who don't have enough power left to care for someone else that are cared for."

"It's a duel over who'll recover first, then!"

"I wonder... according to my personal prediction, you'll win that duel, but I'll be the one who laughs last."

"...what do you mean by that?"

"Well, I can already see how you'll fall sick again after overhastily claiming the victory by reporting that you've 'recovered'. Without any foundation, of course."

"........."

He had hit the bull's eye. The girl used to be stubborn and overhasty from time to time. Indeed, the situation he described was definitely possible.

"And then I'll eat the melon all on my own! After all, it would hurt your stomach, wouldn't it?"

"You won't! We're eating that melon only after splitting it in a grand pinata contest! Got me?!"

The large melon they had received from the director was, just as he had estimated, almost ripe, giving off a nice sound when knocking on it. While the boy was simply waiting for the ideal time to eat it, the girl had apparently already decided ''how'' to eat the melon. The execution of a melon-splitting event had been scheduled - without taking his opinion into consideration.

"I admit your plan sounds great to me... but you do realize that we don't have a bat?"

"Uhm... then how about this?" said the girl, kicking Cubby's muffler briefly.

"Don't even think about it! It's going to break if you do that."

Well, actually, Cubby wouldn't break just from having its muffler removed, but he willfully kept silent about that. For one thing, he had not the least inclination to hit the road with the roaring sound of a biker gang, and for another thing, destroying his dear vehicle, the Super Cub, just for a melon after finally getting it repaired some days ago seemed way too cruel to him.

"Mh, can't be helped. In that case we'll just have to look out for a fitting bat somewhere on the ground."

"There's no need to insist on splitting it with a bat, though. I mean, it's not like we couldn't cut it somehow with a knife."

However, his idea had no chance of being adopted to begin with. The preparation of the melon had already been set to splitting it with a bat in her head. And he had no right to make any changes to this.

"Ah, a place where there is water would be great, too. I want to eat it cold."

The girl, who had (as expected) completely ignored his opinion, patted the melon on the backside rack.

The boy fully agreed with her that such a large melon would develop its true deliciousness only when solemnly split. It would be a waste to make it just a dessert. In regards to this, both of them were of the same mind.

It's just that the boy couldn't be as optimistic as the girl was.

Leaving aside the bat, it seemed improbable to him that they would find a place with cold water so easily. Of course, a streamlet would do the job, but one had to consider the current look of the sky. It was way too dangerous to be around a river.

He didn't tell her, though, as he didn't see the need to dampen her spirits.

Thereafter, the two travelers and their Super Cub just kept moving on for a while, driving past the occasionally appearing intersections at full speed without paying the least attention to the traffic lights.

The reason for this was the weather, of course. It kept getting worse, making the clouds even thicker than they had been before: even though it was just past noon, it was already as dark as in the evening, and once in a while they would even spot a thunderbolt flashing up from between the clouds, which looked like tightly compressed dust balls. From that they could easily judge that there wasn't much time left til the thunder-storm.

Then, when it became past four. Far ahead of the unchanging, dead-straight road, they discovered something.

"What's that? Doesn't that look like a warehouse or something?"

"No idea... I can't tell from this distance."

Somewhere ahead of their road, which cut through green scenery, there was an unpaved branch road that diverged at a right angle. And further ahead, he could see something like a warehouse made of galvanized sheet iron that was completely corroded by rust.

With his naked eye, naturally he could not see as much as the girl who had binoculars, but what they saw should have been about the same from such a distance.

Also, being able to see something with just his eyes meant that it would only take a few minutes to arrive there on Cubby's wheels. Since there weren't any other junctions until there anyway, they decided to approach the building for the time being.

A few minutes later.
[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0084.jpg|thumb|It was indeed consumed by rust, but there were no holes to be seen in the walls and roof.]]

Along with a protesting cry from Cubby's brakes, they came to a halt and had their heavy load make the front suspension sink in deeply. From the engine fumed a steam-like heat, which could probably be attributed to the boy stepping on the gas.

The warehouse in question was in much better shape than they had expected from a distance; it was indeed consumed by rust, but there were no holes to be seen in the walls and roof.

The girl got off the tandem and the boy parked the Super Cub under a roof that was situated at an unloading area.

It had yet to rain, so they had somehow managed not to look like drowned rats.

"Whew, thank God we made it in time," said the girl relievedly.

"Yeah. It's not raining yet, but I suppose we're going to be fine here."

He looked up at the warehouse behind him.

The sheet iron building, which stood solely and surrounded by endless green, wasn't actually that big. In terms of size and shape it was comparable with a small sports hall.

At the front was a metal sliding door through which quite large objects could be transported, but like the building itself it was corroded by rust. From the looks of it, this place hadn't been maintained very frequently. It would have been to be expected that there was at least a sign of the responsible company or something, but since there wasn't even something of that kind, it seemed like this storehouse was not in use at the moment.

After he had shut down the engine and taken off his helmet, a large truck beside the warehouse caught his eye.

In contrast to the from-top-to-bottom dilapidated storehouse that seemed about to crumble to iron-oxidic powder any second now, the truck was loaded with a shining silver container and parked alongside the building. It was clearly too new to suit this place and was hidden from the road under an overhanging roof.

"...There's a truck. Looks like we may be able to get hold of some fuel."

"Why don't you just take the whole truck? A journey with air-conditioning is waiting for us!"

"No way. Or do you think I own a truck license?" said the boy with a wry smile and putting down the kickstand after moving the motorcycle a little more towards the storehouse, so that it wouldn't get hit by the rain. Of course he didn't forget to carefully check the balance because of their delicate luggage.

"Who cares about a license? We haven't happened upon one uniformed officer, not even a police car, during our journey. Besides, neither of us has a motorcycle license and we're still riding a Super Cub."

"What I mean is that I have no clue how to drive it! That thing's not like a moped where you can help yourself by deriving from your experience with bicycles. How do you expect me to drive a 4-tonner truck when I haven't even sneaked a peek at the driver's seat of one in my life?"

"Then have somebody who knows teach you," said she a little dauntedly.

The boy shrugged, "Sure, when there is somebody like that."

"There is!" she declared, which got him eying her. A demand for foundation was writ large in his face.

"For one thing, footprints. Look," said the girl, pointing at the tracks at her feet. Dry footprints that looked different from their sneakers' were scattered all over the ground.

"Judging from the size, it's a man. He seems to be wearing sports shoes, so he may even be about our age. Taking the level of dryness into consideration, I would assume these footprints were made during the rain about two weeks ago."

"...In short, someone has been here recently and might still be?"

"Exactly! How's that? That's what I call 'reasoning'."

She gave herself airs, putting her hands on her hips, whereas the boy just breathed out a sigh.

"...If he were as old as us, he couldn't possibly know how to drive a truck, could he?"

"..."

The girl froze in the posture she had taken.

"Either way, if these footprints belong to a grown-up with that knowledge, do you think he would readily leave the truck to us?"

She was at a complete loss for words.

Even the girl was aware of how fatal it would be to lose one's vehicle in the middle of this savage --- no, I mean "vast" land.

Of course she was! There was no way of forgetting the trouble they'd had with Cubby's engine some days ago.

"Well, if we're lucky we can at least get some fuel from him. But I suppose trucks of this kind are diesel, so is there even gas?"

"......"

Her mouth was still closed. Apparently, she wasn't too happy about her conclusion being spoiled.

He turned away from his sullen partner and opened his mouth loudly.

"Hellooooo? Is there anyone there?"

There was no answer. Still, the walls were made of sheet metal, so his voice should have passed through them.

"Shall we just enter the warehouse for now, before it starts to rain? Besides, we may find a rod of some sort which we can use for splitting the melon."

A high creak resounded as the blockade of the metal door was broken.

They went for the large entrance that was designed to transport things through it. It was a pain to open the door with his bare hands, but the ordinary entrance on the side was sealed with wire wrapped around the knob and the rear entrance was locked. Consequently, this was the only way inside. Of course they could just have broken a window and entered from there, but they decided against it, since that was going too far.

They didn't know whether that sealed door was the deed of "the inhabitant", but judging from the red rust all over the wire, it hadn't been opened for months.

The same, however, applied to the sliding door. This became evident when rust started falling down from the top rail while it was being opened by the boy's frantic use of both his hands and feet.

Hence, it didn't seem to be used much either. The owner must have been using the rear entrance.

"Heere... we go...!"

Along with a noise, red rust rained down on his head.

He somehow succeeded in opening the door by squashing his shoulder and legs in between. It seems like using force can go well, too, once in a while.

"Well well... Hellooo? Is there anyone?"

The girl hopped into the warehouse without even trying to understand the hardships he had just gone through. Concerning him, he was stretching his legs on the ground and breathing exhaustedly. The icing on the cake was the rust that was all over him.

From what they could see, there were no leaks through which the rain could enter and it seemed stable enough to withstand the storm. The temperature was rather cool, too, making it "comfortable" overall - if you ignored the rest of it! However, due to the horrible moldy stench and the dark and gloomy air, they could not call it "comfortable" at all.

From outside, it had seemed like a simple barracks of sheeted metal, but this was not exactly the case. While the ground really was left bare, heat insulating material had been used for the ceiling and there were also fluorescent lamps, though turned off. There was even some weak air-conditioning for work purposes.

At any rate, it was a thousand times better than camping outside. Hence, they set this warehouse as the day's camping ground.

While dusting the rust stuck to his hands, the boy took a look around.

"This building isn't used as a warehouse, as it seems."

"What do you mean?"

While untying her hair - she used a hair tie because her hair would get in the way otherwise - she turned towards the boy.

"Can you see any commodities? Even just traces? All that's here is this..."

What he was talking of were the rather unfamiliar things that could be seen there. For one thing there were hand-made metal holding devices. On some desks, workbenches apparently, there were tools, much much better than the ones in his own possession, and various strangely-shaped utensils and measuring instruments.

As a whole, they looked as though they served one certain purpose.

Right, it was like...

"...A garage?"

"Yeah. I think those tools are for maintaining or assembling something."

All of the tools were directed towards the holding devices installed in the center and seemed to cohere. He didn't know what was supposed to be fixated on those stands, but he sensed that this place must have been for a lot of people to work on one thing.

"Who's there?"

The two were startled by a sudden voice and hurriedly turned their gazes towards the other end of the warehouse, just to have their hearts miss a beat yet again.

"Tz...! How dare you open the door and nestle in here, damn couple... What are you doing in my house?"

He was about mid-twenties. His clothing consisted of simple slacks and a T-shirt, and while his body couldn't quite be called an Adonis body, it was one of a sportsman.

Just.

Just, what shocked them more than anything was his face.

''Pure white it was''. The decolorization the director had suffered stood no comparison with it. What could be seen of his skin was completely white as if he was part of a black-and-white photograph.

No, since there was shadowing, pure white might not be fully correct. He lacked color so much that it seemed as if he had been cut out and replaced by monochrome film.

"What? Is a visage like mine that unusual?"

"...Quite so. It is the first time I've seen someone that has progressed this far..."

"I'm no attraction. Get lost if there's nothing you want from me."

"Oh, actually there is. It looks like it's going to rain and our motorcycle will not get us far. Please let us spend only a night here. Furthermore, may we borrow a rod or something that is suitable for splitting a melon?"

The man raised an eyebrow.

"......A rod?"

"Yes. We have received an extra-large melon from a kind person whom we met on our way, but we had trouble finding a tool to cut it with. So why not use the opportunity and have some fun splitting it, we thought. However, we lacked an appropriate rod in our luggage," told the girl fluently with a perfect ingratiating smile and for a few moments the man just kept suspiciously gazing at her.

"...Help yourself and use what you want. But hands off the stuff I'm using!" said he, when he had finally given up, and left them, going towards a cot that was installed at the back of the room. Apparently, he used a corner of the warehouse, which he had divided from the rest, as some sort of nap area.

The girl breathed out lightly and turned around.

"Heard him, boy? Let's accept his good will and go searching for a rod as part of a nice break."

"Y-Yeah..."

He joined the search with a light dread of her forcing smile that would not let him refuse.

After all, one ought not to defy her at the wrong time.

For starters, the two went to a line of racks, which were stocked with tools and stuff, and started looking for a tool that fit their needs.

"Boy? How about this?"

"You intend to split a melon with a spanner? ...well, leaving aside the idea, that length won't work. Too short."

"How's this then?"

"A hammer, huh... it'll turn into mush!"

"Mmmhh... then it must be this."

"What on earth do you plan on doing with that wire stripper?"

The boy was a little stunned at the girl who randomly showed him what was in reach.

But he noticed that the tools here, too, were a little strange.

There were all kinds and sorts of them, but they all were rather small. He thought he could find bolts and nuts in many different diameters, but even the largest sized were much smaller than the usual standard.

The man had sat down on a pipe chair and was watching them through his dull eyes as they bustled about searching.

"...hmph. A trip as a couple, not giving a shit about school? You kids must be full of yourselves, huh?" 

The girl did not overhear the mumbling voice behind her. 

Without stopping her fumbling hands, she ventured a counterattack with a small voice.

"Oh? I think that's still a good deal better than being a drunkard who's legless already in the daytime."

The air tensioned. He had heard her for certain.

"......as if a little brat like you could understand me..."

"Oh, but I believe I can understand part of a tiny little bit of you!"

She swiftly stood up and turned towards him - and threw something so fast it couldn't be followed by the naked eye.

The object that landed before his feet with its pages fluttering open was without a doubt her student notebook, which she always carried around with her.

"Take a good look at that student card."

"......what's the point..."

The man picked it up grudgingly but frowned when he saw the open page - as though he was looking at something that made no sense.

Her photograph that was attached to the student card had already faded so much that one could hardly tell whether there was anything at all.

Her name and student number had been lost entirely, which indicated that quite some time had passed since she started "vanishing".

The man widened his eyes slightly.

"My symptoms haven't progressed as much as yours, but before long they will! Well, it's just a matter of sooner or later if you ask me?" she boasted for some reason, which made him give her a slightly queer look, though he averted his eyes immediately afterwards.

"...hmph. It really is just a tiny bit..."

"Wha...!"

To stop her from countering, he tossed her the student card and turned from them.

"......You'd better eat that melon quickly and get out of here."

Leaving behind only these words, he stood up, pulled the shroud and disrupted their field of vision.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

Their search proved to be much harder than they had expected; the clock showed seven in the evening when they left the warehouse because they had given up searching inside.

It was still not raining, but since there was no sunlight, it was so dark outside that one couldn't do without a flashlight.

"Man!! What an insolent old drunkard!"

"Isn't calling him an 'old drunkard' a little cruel if you consider his age?"

"What? You're on the side of that old drunkard?"

The boy smiled wryly, watching her kick one of the H-shaped posts of the warehouse to vent her irritation.

"Say what you want, but... we're having him help us out by lending us a rod after all."

"And there's no sign of that rod! That's why I told you to pull that thing off and use that."

"But that 'thing' is the drainage pipe of the air conditioner. He's going to be troubled if we just pull that off!"

"Why should we care?"

"We should!" laughed the boy,taking two flashlights out of the bag attached to the Super Cub. One of them he handed over to her.

"How's our watermelon doing?" he muttered and tapped the watermelon with a finger, making a dull, well-sounding sound. It was just the right ripeness. It could be said without a doubt that today and tomorrow were the best days to eat it. Otherwise it would get overripe. If they didn't find anything by then, they would have to split it with their hands.

Suddenly the boy recalled the truck that was parked by the warehouse.

He paused to think for a moment and pulled up the zipper of the bag.

"So in the end, what should we do now?"

"Mh... how about taking a look in that truck?"

"Truck? Aah, that one outside?"

"Probably, it's still loaded with things," stated he - seeming quite sure, to the amazement of the girl who followed him while cocking her head.

After they had headed to the truck and had closed the rusted metal door, the partitioning of the nap corner moved slightly.

As it was clearly too dark, the boy turned on his flashlight.

Looked at from far away it had just given him the impression of a normal truck, but it was larger than expected when they got closer.

The shining silver container looked quite unnatural compared to the deterioration of the warehouse. Another sign that the truck hadn't been in actual use around here here was that its tires weren't very dirty.

"Looks like it's a rental truck. See the mark on the license plate?" the girl pointed out. (TN: most rental cars in Japan have a わ-car-number)

"Mh, did that man rent it? I wonder why."

"Well, for transporting something. Most likely. But the rental period has expired if you ask me. He's a criminal."

They examined it briefly, walking around the vehicle, and found out that at least the container was not locked.

While they didn't know what was inside, they could hazard a guess. After all, this was a loaded rental truck parked beside a warehouse designated to put something together.

"...So... in here is what belongs inside the warehouse?"

"I think so. If it's not in the warehouse, it must be in here," explained he and grabbed the door handle casually.

He jumped on the step and pulled the handle as hard as he could, whereupon the double doors opened along with a small creak.

The boy almost fell down because he had used too much power, but somehow he managed to keep his balance by grabbing the door bar.

"......huh? What is this?"

"...this must be..."

The boy was bereft of speech. Strictly speaking not because it ran afoul of his expectations, but rather because what he saw there exceeded them.

The two ascended the container as if they were allured in.

The cold light of his flashlight shone into the container and was reflected by translucent film on a long board. Although the volume of the frame, which was made of a snow white material, was extremely small, its length filled out the entire space of the container of a 4-tonner truck.

In the harmonic play of darkness and light, the very precisely-made yet simple film and those artistic curves looked graceful.

"......don't touch that."

They immediately turned around and spotted the man from earlier.

The girl was a little disappointed because she had been wary of another rant from him like when they first met. She hopped down off the load-carrying platform, but for some reason the boy remained there.

The man turned straight towards him and darted him a drunk and shady glance.

"...you know what that is?"

"Yes. It's a human-powered aircraft. One for long distances at that," he answered promptly, making the man shut his mouth.

Right. That board-like, extremely long object was the main wing of an HPA. The transparency was the result of a thin polymer film that was affixed to its framework in order to decrease the weight.

The frame was supposed to be black since FRP is employed, but this one was white.

"...right. It was supposed to challenge the figure-eight flight at the Straits of Dover."

"That's amazing!"

The boy turned again towards the interior.

An ordinary human-powered aircraft is said to have a total width of around 30 meters, but of these wings only one was already next to 20 meters. It was no doubt a large long-distance plane.

"...So the warehouse was used to put this together...," said the girl and breathed out, now that it had finally sunk in, before she walked away from the truck. Something, however, seemed to bother her, so she stopped. "...Uh? Why would you put it together at such a remote place? You can't be planning to fly all the way from Japan to England, right?"

"For a test flight. The Strait of Dover is situated between the frontiers of England and France, so it's a pain just to get a flight permission. I'm not so stupid as to go for the main event straight away," he answered while scratching his head listlessly.

"...Why on earth is it still in parts then?"

"...that's because all my colleagues vanished the very day we hauled it here," he whispered, leaving her speechless. "Halfway through the project, it broke out in all the members. Almost every one of us quit his job, since most had one, and continued to work on the project while living off retirement money. Well, but in the end we only barely managed to get the parts done...," he answered indifferently, whereas the girl had averted her eyes unconsciously. "I'm the last one who caught it and the final one left. And even I have gone this low... Hey, brat. Won't you get out of there now?"

The boy, however, showed no sign of alighting.

"...won't you fly it?"

Almost like looking down on him, he looked down at the man from the platform.

"It's not 'I won't', it's 'I can't'. There's no way I could put this together alone. To begin with, that's none of your business."

The boy let out a rather stressed sigh and,

"Alright, then let's take this apart and use it for our watermelon."

He proposed something outrageous.

"Hah?!"

The first one to doubt his sanity along with an outcry was the girl.

"Were you even listening to what he just said?! Boy! This is a valuable aircraft! Arisen from the collaborative work of that drunkard and his colleagues, you know?!"

"But isn't it mere trash if nobody's going to fly it?"

The girl could virtually feel the wrath burning in the man by her side. She gulped and took a step back.

"Brat... do you even know how many hardships we went through to construct this...!"

"I don't! But I can guess. Making something amazing like this without any sponsors must have been unbelievably difficult."

"Then don't..."

The boy cut him short: "But you're not going to fly it, are you? You told us yourself that we may take anything you don't use. And you don't use this, right?"

The man kept silent.

"Making junk out of it or leaving the parts there untouched is exactly the same in terms of your hardships being rendered futile! If you're going to let it rot here anyway, we'd rather make good use of it with our watermelon."

"......Don't talk nonsense!"

Surprised by his roar, the girl took another step backwards. Despite her motto being "Quarrel? Hell yeah! GOGOGO!", she was not good with provocations that were logical.

The boy might have been much better than her in getting the opponent where it hurts.

"Nonsense? Really? I think it's easily more nonsensical to let it ferment in the truck forever. We're not talking about wine, after all."

He flashed a fiendish smile whereas the man, in contrast, contorted his face.

"...then... what am I supposed to do?!"

"Well, let's see... wouldn't it be best to use it for what it was originally made for?"

"...what...?"

"Let's fly it!"

The man's jaw dropped---the girl besides him made a half-surprised, half-baffled face, too.

The provocative tone disappeared suddenly from the boy's voice and he continued smiling as if he were talking to a good friend: "You need help to put it together, right? You're not alone now! There are three in total."

The man relaxed his clenched fist and turned his gaze towards the aircraft in the container.

"......You're telling me to fly this all alone, though all my colleagues have vanished...?" he whispered.

The boy smiled wryly, "Well, of course. It's designed for only one pilot anyway. Aren't you forgetting that you yourself belong to those 'colleagues' as well?"

"......It's too late to go to Dover anymore. There's no point in flying it, you know...?"

"Mh, let's see... the speed at which the vanishment progresses varies from person to person... but you are clearly in its terminal stages. Added to that, it should be quite hard to make your way to Dover even with a good deal of luck considering the current state of things in the world."

"We have gone this far... because we wanted to break the world record of traversing Dover... flying here won't leave any record... even if it would, as soon as I vanished, the record would vanish along with me for certain..."

He seemed to be speaking to himself rather than to the boy.

"I guess so. But there's no need to abandon your plans for tomorrow just because you might die the day after tomorrow, is there? Let's do the test flight, just as planned!"

"Even though there's not going to be a main flight?"

"Yes. It's a thousand times better than to abandon it altogether."

The boy hopped down off the platform and stood beside the girl.

"...what profit do you take from it...?"

"Let's see... in return for our support, please share some of your fuel and food with us," answered the boy without thinking long - to the surprise of the man.

"...I see, you're not doing it for free."

Then, for the first time, he flashed a smile.

He merely moved his facial muscles slightly, so it was even unclear whether one could call it a smile, but it was the first one they saw of him since they had met.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"Looks like you just got us some hard work ''without my consent'', huh?"

"I'm so—... I'm sorry!"

He had prepared himself for some pokes in the side, but that turned out to be a complete underestimation. The girl slid her right arm under his and pressed　hard against his ribs.

"Now listen up. Unlike you, airplanes aren't a hobby of mine, hence I do not know how to put those things together. Understand?"

"W-Well, I don't know eithe... OUCHOUCHOUCHOUCH!!"

"I'm not saying that I'm not interested, you know?"

The boy was at once released from the infernal agonies. While he was falling into a fit of coughing, she whispered next to him with a smile, "Now that's something... an airplane..."

The two of them went to their bike and started to prepare the things they would need for cooking and sleeping. Since they had used up a lot of time searching for a rod, they were a little late.

Fortunately, the roaring thunderstorm had removed itself a bit and it wasn't raining just now. The noisy chorus of the insects that lurked in the meadows around the warehouse had apparently been called off tonight; they all held their breath.

"You had me quite surprised there, girl. So you are interested in airplanes?"

"Well, as much as others. I've only been on one once before, when I went on a trip."

"The school excursion?"

"Nah. A family trip. To a southern island."

"I see... how was it?"

It wasn't clear whether he asked for her impressions of the southern paradise or the flight, but the girl considered he meant the latter.

"Oh well... I couldn't even see the outside because I was seated right in the middle row! On top of that, there were passengers who were frightened of flying. You can imagine what a commotion it was."

"Aah... tough luck. Too bad for the opportunity."

"Yeah, exactly. I don't want to sound rude, but thanks to one passenger who wouldn't stop screaming, I was rather composed throughout the flight!" she said with a lopsided smile and pulled out a rolled-up blanket.

"Though I feel kind of sorry for that person for having to fly in spite of his fears."

"True."

A smile escaped her lips when she unintentionally recalled the now faint yet comical scene of that day.

''I wonder...''

''Are there still people on that island?''

''Are the cheerful people and the gorgeous casino girls still safe and sound?''

"Sorry for disturbing while you're rapt in thought, but you won't even get around to worrying about aviophobia when you board that plane."

They spun around upon hearing a voice behind them.

"After all, one produces the kinetic energy themselves. If you don't pedal for your life before shitting your pants, you'll really crash."

It took them a few seconds to realize that it was the man from earlier.

His wildly grown beard was cleanly shaven and the outworn T-shirt had been replaced by a new one. Even his haircut, which was short to begin with, looked neat now that he had apparently combed it.

To them he looked at least four or five years younger than before. Now he may actually be worthy of the title "Aniki".

"Oh, you're more handsome than I thought."

"...I'm not so bold as to get on our plane looking that shabby, you know."

"Handsome" was actually referring to his natural features, but the man had apparently taken it as a comment on his well-groomed appearance. Well, but nobody wants to say a compliment twice. All the more if one means it.

The girl deliberately didn't say anything, pulling out the boy's share of blankets and tucking all of them under her arm.

"So, what's the matter?" asked the boy. With a smile, of course, showing nothing of the biting attitude he had taken earlier.

The man, however, was rather flustered by that smile and averted his eyes while scratching his head. "...while the contract's only for a test flight, you have still become members of the team. It would be a bother if you caught a cold by sleeping on the bare ground. There are some cots inside, use those."

They grasped the meaning of his whisper as slowly as a fluorescent lamp would come on.

"Eh, for real?! But there's still one left for you, I hope, boss?!"

"Boss?" he wrinkled his brow a little upon seeing the bursting joy of the girl.

"You said we're a team, right? There's only one way to call the leader of a team!"

"No, I think that's just your prejudice..."

However, the boy's opinion was scrapped.

"'Boss' is fine. We have to decide on some name anyway."

"Then at least take something like 'chief' or 'leader'..."

"No. Sounds too intellectual."

She basically claimed that he did not look intelligent.

In the end, all other opinions were ignored and the man's nickname was more-or-less forcefully set to "boss". In this respect, she didn't have the right to criticize the boy for arbitrarily choosing their travel route. Which he did not say of course. The boy was smart.

"...Aah, and you can do some light cooking. There's a small kitchen in the annex."

"Alright, boy! Leave dinner to me!"

"Are you sure?"

"Yup. Prepare our beds in the meantime!"

The strangely energetic girl chucked the blankets to him and sped to the back of the warehouse.

She was probably just delighted with the opportunity to sleep in a real bed again. And if he was honest, he shared her view.

"...Say..."

The boy turned around. Boss, still looking in the direction the girl disappeared, continued, "Since she suffers from «it», I guess you do, too?"

"Yes. Still in the initial stages, but my name has already been «lost». I guess my photograph is going to become unidentifiable, too, in the near future," he said unaffectedly.

It took a while until he got a reply.

"...What do you want? For what reason did you come here to the back of beyond?"

His question was drowned out by the sounds of the night making small ripples in the meadows around them, veiled in darkness.

"......I want to travel to the end of the world, together with her."

It sounded like a pipe dream indeed. However, what he said was by no means out of place and, above all, he was serious.

"...What are you going to do if you reach there?"

"I'll figure that out on the way! ...But well, perhaps I'll go on a round-the-world trip or so and demonstrate the excellency of Super Cubs to the world?"

"Sounds like fun."

A wry smile escaped his lips, which was not a sardonic one, but an honest one. The boy's confidence was clearly unfounded, but it brimmed with a strong will.

It did not matter whether it was feasible or not, for that was not the point of his dream to begin with. But the boss had the feeling that it would surely be a lot of fun, more than any game or work there was.

He had become unable to follow in suit.

However, he had his own objective.

He turned and headed again towards the warehouse.

"Okay, for today get something to eat and have some rest. We'll begin work tomorrow. We'll take half the day to put it together, so the flight will be the day after tomorrow."

"We're going to be busy, aren't we? ...Ah, right! Do you have some water here that I could use for keeping our melon cool?"

"There's a water tank that contains some purified water. Well, it isn't exactly icy water, but it'll do the job."

"That's great. ...Ah, but we didn't find a rod."

"Mh...... How about this?"

He pointed at the drainage pipe that was connected to the air conditioner at the ceiling—the pipe, which the girl had suggested to use earlier. However.

"Won't the cooling get broken if we take that off?"

"Hah? The only current we have comes from the dynamo! Only an idiot would turn on air conditioning. What a waste," he spilled, put one foot on the wall and tore out the pipe at once.

A few corroded screws flew off with a small creak, and the next moment a metal pipe was laid into the boy's hands. It was a bit longer than a meter, which was a truly ideal length.

"...somehow I have mixed feelings about this..."

His monologue remained unheard.

Surrounding the fire they had made from scrap wood in the center of the warehouse, the three opened a meeting while taking a meal. Unfortunately, their boss' provisions may have differed in quantity from their own, but certainly not in quality: today's menu was canned hardtacks.

"Tch. That's what you meant by 'provisions'? I was already expecting a delicious dinner..."

"It's not like this is all I have, but the other stuff is still packaged. 'Would take a while to dig all the stuff out."

"Where did you get these hardtacks from, then?"

The cans were imprinted with English text and the corresponding Japanese translation. Moreover, it was marked as UN supply.

"The towns in these quarters were already deserted before we came here. Well, while getting here, we paid them a short visit, if you know what I mean," he explained, making quotation marks with his fingers.

His personality just became a little more questionable.

"What's wrong?" boss asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah, nothing, never mind."

They smiled wryly at him and continued their meal.

Shoplifting was a crime of course, but they didn't have the right to blame him for it. Breaking into forlorn shops to collect the abandoned goods had become an everyday occurrence, for one could not survive in this world otherwise.

"By the way, what work does putting the plane together incorporate, specifically?" asked the girl, upon which their boss set his can aside.

"...Let's see... First we have to assemble the main components. Then comes the bonding of the movable parts as well as their regulation. Finally, we'll do a test drive and naturally the test flight. We should be fine since we have the manual, but it will take the whole next day."

"Do we need any special skills?"

"Not for the assembling stage in general. But there are some things that require experience, so you'll mainly take care of the odd jobs."

"Can I get on it, too?"

"No. It's my plane," he refused her request almost like a child, which caused the girl to puff her cheeks.

"Miser. Then give us your truck!"

"Can't do that either."

"Why not?"

"There's no fuel because I wasn't able to refill the tank in the nearby village. Apart from that, I've used quite a lot of fuel for small things such as making fire, so you'd run out of gas before reaching the next town," he explained casually.

"Y-You idiot!" she roared, "What happened to our enjoyable trip—roof, sleeping place and air conditioning included?! We have even less reason now to help you!"

"I for one like our Super Cub..."

"Boy, SHUT UP!"

The boy, who had even lost his right to speak at last, was forced to focus on his meal—which, however, was easier said than done. Their boss and the girl were busy stealing the can from each other.

"I will keep my promise of giving you fuel! There's still plenty of gasoline from the dynamo. At the very least, you should reach the next town."

"What about provisions?"

"There are still quite a few cans left. You can appreciate preserved food more, right?"

"Hm... it's a fair trade then, then...?"

The boy suddenly stood up.

"Oh, where are you going?"

"I don't want to expose our luggage to the rain, so I'm bringing it inside. I'll also do a check, since we've been quite hard on Cubby today!"

"Mh, got it. Don't get caught by the chupacabras!"

"As if they'd exist!"

The boy left through the half-opened door and let out a small sigh. He was relieved that the hostile air between the girl and the boss had disappeared.

He did not assume that everyone in the world was kind-hearted, but as it was impossible to meet everyone, he wanted to at least make a favorable relationship to those he actually learned to know.

That he had provoked boss earlier was also part of that mindset. Well, he got them a slightly cumbersome task, but they weren't in a hurry, after all.

They were going to spend the following days together, so he wanted to get on as well as possible.

At least he thought so at this very moment. However, when he came back approximately 20 minutes later, after doing some light maintaining, he was a little cross with them.

"Oh come on! Just by the two of you...?"

"Haah...? Now, now, why so tense booy?"

She suddenly wrapped her arm round his neck, which he hurriedly shook off. The girl tended to forget restraining herself when alcoholized.

"Where on earth did he shelve this...?"

"He said they bought a whooole lot for celebrating the success of the test! The stuff's already expired... but it's still good, you know~?"

"Listen, girl. We're still in high school, you know? Alcohol is..."

"There's no high schooler that gives a shit about such an ooold law nowadaays~" the girl laughed with her tanned skin flushed bright red.

The empty beer and shochu cans that were scattered around those two were proof that a grand feast had been made during the twenty minutes the boy was away for maintaining their bike.

"But look, excessive alcohol consumption during the growth period has a negative influence on your growth..."

"I'm already sixteeen, you know? No way I'm still growing!"

The girl chuckled while clinging to his back.

She had a point there indeed, but judging by the feel on his back, some parts of her body could still need some growth. The boy was smart, however, so by no means did he say it. He loved life too much.

As a footnote: the boy was a nondrinker from the core. So much that his skin turned bright red in plaster shape when an alcohol-drenched patch was applied to him during a test in junior high.

As for boss, who was most definitely the patron of the alcohol, he was wordlessly drinking beer. Though his face looked serious as he stared into the air, it was obvious that he was drunk because he was red all over. Probably he was the type of person that would get silent when drunk.

"It's been a while since we last had some alcohol... and we don't know when's the next opportunity~..."

The boy gave up persuading the giggling girl.

He judged that it would be better not to care about them any more. Since nobody has made him join in the drinking, yet, the damage was still low.

The boy decided to quickly evacuate to the nap area where he would write the diary and then go to sleep.

"Nap area" may sound nice, but in fact it was just a corner in the warehouse that was divided with a partition and consisted of five cots. But to the boy and girl, who had basically always slept on top of some blankets on the asphalt, it was a heavenly place to sleep.

He lay on the bed and covered himself with a blanket so as to not get a stomachache. He was soon attacked by sleepiness while writing the diary entry.

Before long, the only voice still speaking, the girl's, slowly faded out and the boy fell into a soft sleep.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

The day dawned.

A noise of immense volume caused both the boy and girl to jump awake at the same time.

"W-What the heck?!"

The boy, utterly startled, jumped out the nap area, pushing the partition aside, and recognized the origin of the noise.

Boss was backing the truck into the warehouse through the front door and getting ready to unload the things inside.

Outside the building it was so silent that he could hear the twittering of birds far away. Apparently, it was fine weather.

"Hey, you two! Won't you get up already! We're starting!"

"Y-Yes!"

Where did the spirit from yesterday go? He hurriedly flung on a shirt and got into his trousers while jumping with the other.

The girl who had been sleeping in the bed next to him had degenerated to the embodiment of "inviting one's own misfortunes".

Leaving aside her richly stimulating clothing, which consisted of only her underwear and a blouse, her vacant eyes were the eyes of a dead. Her whole body was enveloped in the stench of alcohol and her hair was so disordered that she could have been mistaken for a Medusa.

She had apparently continued drinking for quite a while after the boy had gone to sleep and was now cursed with deep rings under her eyes that only added to her hypotension.

"Um... well, join us as soon as you're better!"

He took a packet of headache tablets out of their portable first-aid box and put it on the knees of the girl who had partly turned into a zombie.

According to what he knew from personal experience, she would take a few hours until becoming operative again. Most likely she hadn't even heard what he had just spoke to her.

With a deep buzz the engine stopped on the other side of the partition.

He put his messy clothes in order and returned the partition he had tossed away to its former place. He did so not because of consideration toward the lady, but because of the menacing death penalty that would come from the suspicion of having forgotten the consideration toward the lady.

"All right, boss. What are we doing first?"

"...Cleaning up."

"Cleaning up...?"

He was about to ask how they were going to clean up something when they hadn't even started, but he was immediately enlightened when he took a look at the hall.

There was the fire they had ignited the former day in the center of the bare ground. Well, it was already dead, since they didn't use it for keeping them warm anyway, but the problem was in what lay around it.

Countless empty cans and snack packaging were scattered about. And the most crucial problem was the vomit that was to be found at several spots.

"...You didn't have to drink until vomiting..."

"I have no excuse... Sorry, but I can't remember it at all..."

The boy joined the slouching of boss' shoulders with a sigh.

He seriously asked himself whether her brain was equipped with learning functionality upon considering the corn incident a few days ago and the current mishap.

"Oh well, leave it to me to throw away this... stuff. I've still got other preparations to do, so you clean up the interior for now."

"Got it..."

After letting out a slight breath, he headed towards the cleaning locker in a corner of the building.

"...By the way, what's with the little one over there?"

"She's idling because of a hangover and hypotension. She won't be moving for a while!"

"..."

The boss scooped up the pools with a mien brimming with mixed feelings and threw them into a bucket.

''"Just regret that you carelessly served alcohol!"'' the boy whispered in his mind while watching him go to empty the bucket while making a face as though he was carrying a load of highly radioactive waste matter.

Well then! It was about time to start the work assigned to him, but there was something to do prior to it.

The boy, in proud spirits, cowered before their luggage and took out a pig. Indeed, it was their ceramic anti-mosquito pig!

Be it inside or outside, one must not be careless. They did not pay much heed to it while riding the bike, but with the vicinity being full of meadows there were ''lots'' of insects. It's a must to take measures against them when staying at a place for a while for work.

Thus, he placed the spiral-loaded anti-mosquito pig at the center of the warehouse where the fire had been and began tidying the ground.

Contrary to the boy who had cheerfully started work, the awakening of the girl was accompanied by heavy discomfort.

Her head was throbbing painfully and her stomach was bewailing heartburn.

The reason was obvious. It was probably because she had poured way too much alcohol in the previous day—or rather, that was bound to be the reason.

Overjoyed with the alcohol she hadn't seen in a while, she had accidentally let loose too much. Or to be precise, she didn't even remember having let loose, so perhaps it was the most excessive drinking she had ever done?

She now agreed that alcohol should be taken in moderation—well, originally a girl like her wouldn't be allowed to drink in the first place, though.

"...Ueh... gh..."

She instinctively covered her mouth upon feeling vomit slowly wandering up, and managed to deflect the danger by turning on her valuable blanket while stroking her stomach.

"Looks like... I went overboard quite a bit..."

She had a funny taste in her mouth and her teeth felt strangely smooth, which led her to the assumption that she had thrown up a few times. Moreover, her stomach was empty even though she had eaten and drunk late into the night. On top of all that, her throat was rough and her voice in a sombre state.

However, the early bird gets the worm! Pulling aside the blanket, she slipped into the sneakers that were put next to her cot.

That moment something landed on her foot with a weak thump.

While raising a brow, she sluggishly picked it up.

"...Headache tablets...?"

Apart from the opened, half-empty packet of headache tablets, there was a small note attached to it that said "Don't strain yourself and take a rest" with letters familiar to her. There was no name, but it was self-evident who the writer was.

Suddenly, she noticed a bottle of water on the small rack right beside her bed.

It was one of their two-liter bottles which they used to store drinking water. By it was an upside-down glass.

"...jeez... my fellow companion shows consideration at the strangest occasions...," she smiled crookedly and poured water into the glass.

She held the bottle against her side for a few moments to cool her body down and feel the refreshing water through the thin polymeric material.

Then, accepting the boy's favor, she took two tablets out of the packaging and threw them into her mouth. After she had gulped them down at once with some water, a cold sensation spread in her stomach.

With her sleeves she brushed away the water drops that slid down her neck and found another object on the rack in the process.

A wet towel.

"Does he want me to wipe myself? ...jeez... I know nobody that's better prepared than him...," she sighed with a combination of joy and amazement and accepted his favor once again.

Noon. The weather was clear and free of any clouds.

"Oh, you? Already recovered from your hangover?" greeted boss, who had just leaned a dustpan on a corner of the warehouse, while wiping his sweat with a towel that was draped over his shoulder.

"Yes. I can still feel it, but it's gotten a lot better."

She wasn't lying. Thanks to the mysterious effect of the headache tablets, the pain that had been tormenting her temple and forehead had almost entirely disappeared, and she was feeling quite refreshed after washing her body and putting on new underwear. While she wasn't fully functional yet, there were no worries about minor work.

"Anyway! Sorry for making you clean up the mess for me."

"No sweat, little one. There's no way to tell who of us did what anyway."

"True word."

She may have giggled, but truth to be told, she could vaguely remember that more than half of it was her fault.

"By the way, where's the boy?"

"I had him throw away the trash. He should be back any moment."

''Trash'' probably referred to the empty cans and packages from yesterday. It seemed that her dependence on his most appreciated nursing was put on show even here.

"So, do you have any work for me?" she asked and looked down at the floor—no, bare ground.

Most of the remains of the feast the previous day were tidied away. What was still there were the ashes and bits of charcoal in the center. It didn't look like she was going to join the cleanup.

"Let's see... wanna help me with some real work?" boss grinned.

She was a little hesitant, but still she followed him and got on the step of the container of the truck.

"Okay, let's carry the parts out of there."

"Y...Yeah..."

They entered the container. Somehow the disassembled human-powered aircraft seemed much more extensive to her than the day before. She knew that type of vehicle only by hearsay. She had not the slightest idea what function each part had.

"Don't be afraid. I'm not asking you to put it together on your own."

"But...?"

"Just place the parts I give you where it's written in the manual over there. We'll save the larger parts for when the boy's back, so only the little ones for now," he said as he went farther into the container.

While the aircraft loaded on the four-tonner was quite spacious, its surface wasn't particularly big. There were lots of gaps, so they could easily move within the container. In terms of weight, the plane was lighter than the girl. This stuff went beyond her scope.

"Alright. This is the first one. Can you place it on the worktable?"

He one-handedly held out a component to her. No matter how unexperienced she was in mechanics, she was familiar with that kind of part. It was an axis merged with two blades—known as "propeller".

"Got it."

The moment she actually took it, she immediately understood why he had handled the part so carelessly.

It was truly light. She was surprised—not only by it being as thin as paper, but also by the fact that she could hold with just two fingers, even though the two blades reached almost a length of 140cm.

"Unbelievable..."

"Right? You could almost say the propeller defines how hard you have to pedal, so we put quite some work into developing it."

There was a very special something in his eyes gazing at the propeller. The girl didn't know much about him and his colleagues, but she figured that all those parts, including the extremely light-weight board, were full of their dreams and strong will.

When thinking about it like that, the propeller in her hands suddenly felt heavier than a stone.

Until she had softly placed it on the worktable, she treated the part like a baby with utmost care—not because she wanted to be considerate of the boss, but because it was her own will to do so.

"But say, does the funny shape of it have a reason, too?"

To the understanding of the girl, a propeller was normally equipped with two or three straight rotor blades. Or rather, that's the only way she could imagine them to look like.

The propeller before her eyes, however, was certainly two-bladed, but the shape was quite unconventional. The blades drew a smooth half-moon-shaped curve and hence looked more like the ventilation fan of a kitchen than a propeller. Furthermore, she was also wondering why it was painted in yellow, while all the other parts were white.

"Ah, yeah, the shape's yet another little highlight. It's made to get the best out of low rotational speed."

"But why are there two of them?"

Right, that was what puzzled her the most: there were two of those two-bladed propellers.

"Heh... that's... a secret."

"Uwa, that's mean."

Boss broke into a grin while looking at the offended girl.

"Just a little patience. Look forward to when it's finished. Anyway, next is this. Place it on the holding device that's labeled as 'A'."

"Whoa whoa!"

A large crate-like frame was handed to her from within the container, which she, startled, tried to hold in her hands.

It was a streamlined object that looked a little like a parallelogram with rounded corners, and was composed of shiny white material and just about boss' size.

However, it was as light as a feather, which again did not match its appearance at all. The girl could well-nigh hold it in one hand.

Holding it aloft, she brought it to told place with rather wobbly legs. The stand had apparently been specifically designed for it, so it was finely fixated by the metal fittings on there.

"But isn't this frame... plastic?"

The material the frame consisted of was completely white and its touch, as far as she knew, was definitely the one of plastic.

"Yeah, you're right. It's not ordinary plastic, though, but FRP."

"FRP?"

"Fiber-reinforced plastic. It has a 'bone' made of carbon fibres woven into it, so to speak. It's damn hard, I tell you," he explained with a smirk. He stroked the white body with a smile that resembled the one of a little boy who had gotten a new toy. "...Heh... to think I'll be flying this baby... it's like I'm dreaming!"

"Should I pinch you? Maybe you'll wake up?" mumbled the girl.

Boss laughed only with his face while keeping working. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I'm flying this baby whether it's a dream or not."

She breathed up.

She sensed that this feather-light aircraft was the lifework, the very dream, of the man before her.

"Come on, here's the first wing. Take the other end."

"Uwa!"

She hurriedly grabbed the end of the wing that appeared from within the container.

The wing, which was basically just a skeleton, was covered by a material that looked like transparent vinyl. So much that she unconsciously whispered, "This looks like chopsticks with wrapping around them..."

"You're actually not so wrong, since it's just a special type of macromolecule film we wrapped around the FRP-based skeleton."

Compared to the frame she had transported beforehand, the wing was clearly more massive and had a certain weight. As the same applied to its length, boss and the girl had to move it with the greatest care.

"A-Aren't these too long? I mean, won't they break midair?"

"They're going to bend, but don't worry: we calculated them so they won't break. Besides, about this much length is necessary to fly! If you look at the aspect rate..."

"I'll pass on details. I've never been good at physics."

The girl promptly abandoned any attempt to grasp the principle behind it and carefully placed the end she was holding on the specialized holding device.

"But physics is fun, you know? And it's handy in your everyday life."

"I prefer gymnastics."

"Gh... I lose in practical use..."

While accepting her answer because of a questionable reason, he also let the wing down.

Now that they had actually placed some of the parts, it became apparent that the holding devices were positioned so that the aircraft would stand diagonally in the warehouse instead of facing the door.

Which was only too understandable, because that was the only way to fit the giant wings somehow into the warehouse.

"Okay, next is the left wing. Show me some of your strength, sports-addict."

"All right!"

The girl, by now accustomed to the work, hopped onto the container.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"Whew... this took longer than I thought."

The boy slumped on a tatami mat, with a side-glance at the brisk and sparking fire.

He was in a small prefabricated shed behind the warehouse. Apparently, it had originally served as the break room for the workers and was actually quite well-built. There was even a water conduit, though unusable.

Outside the window was a drum on a cement block, under which the fire was burning. It had quite some resemblance with the traditional drum-bath—with the exception that water within was boiling, making it a deadly iron pot instead.

The drum was covered by a lid, which was connected by a pipe in its center to a second drum, positioned a little lower. Out of the side of this second one looked again a pipe, which this time was connected to the lid of a much smaller third drum.

Though a citizen of the civilized world would have no doubt wondered what kind of cultic ritual this was, in the current Japan it was by no means a rare sight. It was a water purifier.

The both first drums contained previously stored rain water. The water in the first drum was brought to the boil, producing steam that then went into the second barrel and cooled down there by the cool water surrounding the pipe. The time it reached the third drum, it had become water again.

In short, by using steam that was once evaporated, they gained pure water without any pollution and bacteria.

There was a lot of water in Japan, but most of it was not pure enough to just scoop and drink it. Only few water conduits remained intact in these times of ruin, so they had often spotted such purifiers on their journey—and had become used to using it.

En passant, the heat source of this purifier was trash. The reason was apparently to get rid of the trash and boil water at the same time. The boy was a little anxious about the dioxin emission, but he reassured himself by saying that it wasn't so much trash. It's not like he only used trash; he had also added quite some firewood.

The reason for his exhaustion was the pouring the stored rain water into the drums. They weren't particularly big, but still they could store 44  gallons, which made about 200 liter. Considering that the bucket he had used to scoop could take 5 liter, he'd poured water into the drum almost 40 times. While youth spared him from lower back pain, he was in for some muscle ache the following morning.

But individual work also had its bright sides: the boy made himself comfortable on the ground, fully stretching out his arms and legs.

The scent of the tatami mat under him and the soft breeze made him drowsy.

He was enveloped by a listless feeling and could have slept anytime. The only thing that barely kept his eyelids open was the crying of the cicadas far away.

Though the boy had long since given up wearing the blazer of his winter uniform, doing only with the white shirt and the necktie, the summery temperature had become hardly bearable.

Despite the region he was at being near the northern frontier of this country, summer was hot even there, which might have also been a benefit of a country with four seasons in a sense.

Suddenly, the boy noticed with big eyes a change to his necktie, which had a rather plain, blue design and was part of the uniform specified by his school. The heat had loosened it so much that it had grown long and looked like the necktie of an office worker at a party.

The necktie was supposed to have the emblem of his high school sewn in.

However, not a single thread was to be seen at the spot where the sewing had been, degrading the monotonous blue necktie to one that was really just blue.

"......Oh my. At last even the name of my old school has been «lost», huh..."

The phenomenon that was slowly corroding the world had no official name.

Neither the medical circles, which are always eager to assign long scientific names to each and everything, nor the scientific circles, which normally try to make complicated formulas, gave the phenomenon a name.

Even the mass communication that loves it so much to think up tasteless names failed at creating a grand name for this mysterious phenomenon.

At last, someone started using the generic word "the vanishing", which then spread and became common.

No one was able to explain what principle caused this disease.

Renowned scholars all over the world had since been researching the origin with all their might, but so far no one had come up with a logical explanation. It was not even known why the symptoms were different between humans and animals, respectively objects.

The disease starts actually quite harmlessly.

First, your "name" is lost. No one is able to recall it anymore, naturally including the diseased person himself, too. The name vanishes without a trace from all books, digital documents, and everything else.

Secondly, your "face" is lost, meaning that you vanish from every photograph you're on. It doesn't matter whether it's a digital one, a painting or even in the memories of others.

Thirdly, your "color" is lost. Your appearance turns monochrome like the actor of a black-and-white movie.

Fourthly, your "shadow" is lost and even light passes through you.

Lastly, your very "existence" is lost and you disappear into naught. Everything you bequeathed disappears, be it paintings, texts, printings or recordings.

The only thing that remains is the memory of the people that have known you, in form of a feeling that "there was someone like you". A ambiguous memory that does neither include your name nor your face. It's the end if even those memories fade out completely.

Everything one has left in the world, and even oneself, disappears without a single trace.

The speed of progression varies vastly between each one. Some disappear on the same day as the disease breaks out, while for others the progress suddenly stops, allowing them to stay alive. But it can be said that in general, it progresses extremely slowly. Already four months had passed since the boy's name had been «lost».

There is no common feature between the people that get it—the disease spreads truly randomly. While the government found themselves unable to make progress with their research—it was not even clear how many had fallen victim to the disease—the country slowly stopped functioning properly.

A little more than one year had passed since. The government was no more and all lifelines had become unstable.

The citizens that had remained here and there had started working wellnigh voluntarily, struggling to maintain a lifezone to survive in.

But the atmosphere up here in the north turned out to be completely different from the slum-like conditions in the city zone the boy and girl had lived in.

There were no signs of devastation, which was probably due to the low population density, and only the odd fact that "there was nobody" remained clearly.

"HEY BOY!! Stop lazing around! Wake up!"

"Uah?!"

The angry yell that came through the open window made the boy jolt up like a mouse trap.

"You slacker... how dare you be enjoying a comfortable nap while your companion is doing hard work?"

He was literally scared stiff of the girl's glowering scowl that was fixed on him through the screen door.

''I'll get beaten up. Danger.''

"I-I got it. I'm on my way!"

"Just start working already! Hurry up!"

Threatened by a pounding against the window frame from behind, he slipped into his sneakers and jumped out of the shed.

"Don't rush me so much... You slept until late today, too..."

"Because I had to stay up long yesterday."

"...voluntarily, that is."

The very next moment he was hit by a lightning-fast, unrestrained body-blow that pierced him with splendid precision where it hurt most and showed him a shower of sparks.

When they came back, boss gave them a doubtful look.

"Huh? Now it's you who's white as chalk?"

"...leave me alone!"

Boss cocked his head in response to the mosquito-pitched voice that answered him, but he quickly returned to his work.

"...So, how far did you get while I was away?"

"We've taken all the parts and tools out. It was an awful lot of work, I tell you," she told him proudly and pointed at the well-arranged parts.

The truck that had occupied a large part of the quite spacious warehouse had already been backed out. The weight of the things one could see did not at all look like it required a whole four-tonner.

However, each part on its own was rather big, which was probably the reason why that container and its capacity had been need.

"Can't human-powered aircrafts normally be divided into more parts?"

"Mh? Ah, take a look at this."

The boss went to the workbench and brought something that looked like a blueprint. It wasn't too detailed, thus probably only used for putting the parts together.

"The more you break your components down, the more parts you need for linking. Weight-wise as well as stability-wise this causes problems. Especially because the material used is plastic—you can't just use bolts and nuts on it, as it might be damaged just by screwing on."

"So that giant wing is... one big part in itself?"

"Yeah! Using the fiber reinforced plastic mixing and injection molding for large objects method our entire team developed while pulling all-nighters."

"...using ''what''?" asked the girl quite half-heartedly, having trouble following him and not looking as though she was very interested.

The boss, however, beamed all the more. If he hadn't lost his color, his face would have been flushed with excitement for sure. No doubt about it.

"Alright, little one, perk up your ears: when forming the plastic, we basically put together two huge molds and injected the material, but we constructed them so that the movable parts were already completed at the time we removed the molds."

"Ah yeah? That's great, I guess?"

Her blank answer was as vague as it gets, somewhere between understanding him and not, but she probably just wanted him to stop. One could get as much by looking at her face.

"And that's an unique process made by your team?"

"Yeah. It's a compilation of existing technologies, but we're the only ones doing something of that size......," he answered the boy proudly... and slumped his shoulders for some reason, "...there's just one problem."

"O-One problem?"

The boy was startled by the boss's rapid loss of spirits even though he had praised him. Apparently, he had quite a lot of mood swings.

Boss returned the construction plan to the workbench and stroked the large body frame that was fixed on its holding devices.

"...the material can't be recycled."

"Recycled?"

"Yeah. Of course you know that it's difficult to recycle plastic, right? The best way would be melting it and giving it a new shape, but this baby has got carbon nanotubes inside. Because of too much foreign substances it can't be recycled. But because of the carbon, it's hard to break it into pieces and throw it into a landfill site, which is the common way to dispose of waste plastic."

"...in short, it's hard to throw it away?"

"Yeah. Moreover, while it's splendid in suppleness and elasticity, it's still plastic, hence lacks hardness. So it's got the huge downside of being hard to dispose of in spite of being easy to get broken! These days you can't make any money with technologies that don't take the environment into consideration..." he said with a grand sight and continued stroking over the frame.

Perhaps, that personality of his was the main problem that had made him vegetate in this warehouse.

"But enough of the old stories now, boss. Let's have a meal."

''Nice one, girl!'' Her usually worrisome gluttony proved to be of use for once. The boy gave her the thumbs up in his mind.

"Mh? It's already time?"

"It's already one o'clock! I haven't had breakfast, I'm starving."

She slumped down on a pipe chair, and rubbed her stomach.

The hangover she had from yesterday's hard drinking appeared to be past history to her. If one were to measure the strength of her stomach, the result would be no doubt a tremendous number. Even that so-and-so plastic that was troubling boss would probably have been digested by her stomach without a problem.

"Hm... I guess that's not a bad idea. Well, I've only got preserved stuff, so instant noodles is pretty much all I can offer you..."

"Ah! I'll have some! I wanna eat those!"

The girl started up, and even the boy's mouth was watering.

"W-What? Are instant noodles that special?"

"Yes! You know that we're traveling by bike, right? Because of that, we can't take so much water with us, so dishes that need a lot of water are unpractical to make..."

As a footnote, the boy and girl had both their respective tasks. While the boy was the driver and responsible for maintenance, the girl was the cook and responsible for their provisions. The boy didn't have a say in the control of their foodstuffs and the menu. She was surprisingly strict in that respect. Honestly.

"Well, if you're so keen on it, let's go with that for lunch. I've eaten quite a lot of it, so there's not so much left, but we should be okay."

"Yay! Hey boy! Hot water, quick!"

"Yes, yes."

The boy rushed off, urged by a dancing girl.

"...It's really odd that we're short of water because it didn't rain in the end despite that furious thunderstorm."

He clicked the switch and a blue propane flame started licking the bottom of the kettle.

The boy and the other two were sitting in the six tatamis' size break room in the shed. Thanks to the comfortable natural ventilation, it was several times cooler than outside, although the room wasn't equipped with air conditioning. A lower humidity would have been the final touch, but that would be asking for too much.

"And in comparison, a week ago we almost risked drowning just by looking up and opening the mouth due to the heavy rain... It's sickening that we have to be stingy with water for whatever we use it!"

"But well, once in the beginning, I tried drinking rain water directly."

"...just out of curiosity, what happened?"

"I did filter it first, mind you. Nevertheless, I had the runs the next day and lost more water than I took in."

"Uwa...," frowned the girl in response to boss' accurate description.

He took out a large plastic bag and poured out various types of instant noodles out of it. There were several packs of each type, which was probably because he had bought them all together.

"But I've gotten through somehow since I have made that boiler. Fortunately, there were tons of those drums around here. And if you conquer your weaker self, you get by with dry grass for feeding the fire."

"Once more I've come to realize that it's hard to stay at a certain place..."

"So is a journey," added the boy. A pensive mood filled the air.

As if to blow away that uncomfortable mood, the kettle on the portable stove before their eyes started to boil with a shrill whistle.

As the saying goes, "Kettles don't boil if you watch them," they start boiling in no time if you talk about something unrelated.

The serious topic went somewhere far: the wild beasts rapidly tore the packages of their instant noodles, opened them and waited for the boy to pour them hot water. The girl managed to amaze the other two by demanding hot water for two cups at the same time.

Then, for a while there was no conversation between them.

Having their appetite doubled by the agreeable empty stomach after hard work, and of course having the rare opportunity to enjoy noodles, it was especially the chopsticks of the boy and girl that moved without stop.

"Burp... I've filled my gullet..."

"...couldn't you at least use 'stomach'? You forget that you're a girl at times, don't you, girl?"

"You don't have to care about such trifles."

However, the appearance of her, leaning back while fanning herself with two empty cups before her, resembled a messy middle-aged man like two peas in a pod, and would have surely turned off even the most devoted lover.

If the boy's magnanimity wasn't as great as the ocean, he would have turned her down even before considering a confession.

"But still, maybe it was a mistake to eat ramen, udon, and whatnot on such a hot humid day... I'm drenched."

"Just so you know, there is a bathtub," boss noted incidentally.

Her face got brighter at once.

"For real?"

"Yeah. I'll run you a bath once we're done with the work."

"Yahoo!"

She jumped to her feet, threw the fan away and grabbed the boy's arm.

"We mustn't be lazying around here! We've gotta finish our work and then it's bathing-time!"

"A-Are you looking forward to it that much?"

"What a silly question! The three pleasures of life are 'eating', 'bathing' and 'sleeping'!!"

"You'll make a horrible wife one day."

His snappy remark was silently ignored, and instead he was walked off towards the warehouse without even getting the time to wear his shoes properly.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

While they didn't get on completely without a problem, there weren't any remarkable setbacks.

According to boss, the person who wrote the construction manual was as precise as it gets and did not only calculate the position of the holding devices, but also took into account the position of the tools and the mental state of the workers. Even with amateur eyes the boy and girl could see with what passion for detail it was written—it was actually much harder to do something the wrong way.

While they weren't quite sure if they would have wanted such a person around them, the two HPA engineers with 5 hours' experience couldn't thank him enough.

They finished inspecting all the parts and could at last begin to actually connect them.

With much care, they attached the tail plane to the bottom end of the skeleton in the center, which incidentally would have been the spine for humans. When connecting the—surprisingly not V but Λ-shaped— tail plane to the frame, whose cross-section became thinner towards the bottom like a reverse triangle, it looked almost as though the plane was wrong side up.

"...Say... I surely don't know anything about planes, but... isn't the plane at the back normally pointed upwards?"

Her question, which omitted—as was characteristic for the girl—any technical terms, caused boss to snort.

"Well, the common ones that you know are like that. Usually you want the center of gravity in the center of the machine because it makes the plane more maneuverable. However, you hardly ever change the angle when you fly a HPA, thus you put the tail plane below the machine, so it gets more stable. That way it tries to fly horizontally on its own."

The Λ-type tail assemblies are, however, not often used in the field because of concerns regarding the takeoff and landing. It may have been a little ironical that the only major case of it being used was an unmanned reconnaissance plane from a certain big country.

"...in other words, the reason is the same as why paper planes don't have a vertical tail plane?"

"Hmmm, well, you can say that, though that's not all there is to it."

"?" the girl sent him a sceptical glance.

He took two thin wires from the base of the tail unit and pulled them softly.

With a nice click, a pair of wheels swung out from the downward-pointing tips.

"The undercarriage is contained within it. Much better than building a separate container for it, isn't it?"

"What? This plane can actually land?"

"What else did you expect?"

"I was sure you'd go for a free fall in Dover."

"...hey peewee, don't tell me you think of it as something like that show they're doing at Lake Biwa.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birdman_Rally]"

"It's not?!"

"Well, the record we are challenging requires doing everything from takeoff to landing with one's own power. Unlike that competition, you need to be able to do these tasks, too."

While proceeding with his explanation, he called the boy over and had him help him with the fixation of the tail plane.

Apparently, the boy knew what was to be done; he opened the toolbox at the side and took out some tools such as a spanner and a screwdriver, and started assisting boss.

"...but isn't it quite impossible for this tail assembly to take on the role as the rudder?" asked the boy without suspending his work. Boss, too, answered him from somewhere else while screwing a bolt. Those two were quite adept.

"The wings are doing that job. The tail assembly really does only the balancing. In fact, we could have just gone for an entire flying wing, but those are damn hard to balance out."

"...which galaxy is the language you are speaking from, guys?"

The girl was gazing at them with an uneasy and somewhat lonely look because the discussion they led parallel to work was dripping with words unfamiliar to her.

As they made progress and the two boy and girl became used to the work, each of them started to have their specific tasks.

Boss did the work, whereas the boy was his support. The girl, however, was in charge of bringing them the small parts and tools. And when strength was required, they joined forces.

For an example, the connection of the giant wings, which occupied the whole diagonal of the warehouse, to the body with united forces was celebrated with a hurricane of applause and rejoicings. The main sound source was of course the girl.

However, as soon as they had attached the crate-like cockpit below the body, she didn't really have anything to do anymore; the somewhat complicated, fine work had increased.

"Does the seat look okay?" asked boss.

The boy then checked the stability of the bicycle saddle by trying to jolt it. It was much firmer fixed than one would expect from something that was only attached to a plastic frame.

"Looks fine. It's stable."

"Alright, then could you do the wiring of the main wing rudder from there? But please be careful with the wires; it's a real bother to exchange them once they're ripped. There's enough material in the truck to make another set, but we don't have time."

"...got it."

The boy, now quite tense, slowly approached the nylon wire that dangled above him to the joystick, by winding it around several pulleys that were positioned in the cockpit.

"You're enviable... I wanna try sitting there, too."

"We're not doing this for fun, you know?"

"But we are, it's a pastime however you look at it."

What she said was actually quite the truth. He wasn't doing this in order to earn something, so it ''was'' for fun. Boss tried to counter her somehow, but he was at a complete loss for words because she had hit the bull's eye.

"You ought to put up with her. If she goes berserk in here, it will turn into a heap of pieces before we can complete it," the boy instructed him, causing the girl to put on a scowl.

"What the heck do you think I am?"

"A beast."

The next moment a bang resounded and the girl's clenched fist hit the boy.

He was sent flying out of the cockpit, whose exterior wasn't affixed yet, and landed on the bare ground.

"...looks like he has just become unable to work. I'll continue in his place."

"...do as you will." Not approval of her will, but the plea that his beloved machine remained safe was written on boss' face, which was twisted as if watching the prey consumption of a carnivore. "These wires control the torsion of the wings, got me? Connect the one with the red tip from the front to the the joystick and the blue one from behind."

"Torsion?"

In spite of the great curiosity she showed, her movement were most careful. Even the girl knew very well how dear this aircraft was to him.

She had clearly made sure that her punch a few moments before wouldn't harm the plane.

"This baby does neither have a rudder nor an elevator unit, hence the main wings are doing that job by being twisted."

"Do they really bend with this mechanism? Won't the plane come down accidentally?"

"Don't worry. I'm only going to do an 8-fly, so I will hardly need to change the course! Well, the takeoff and landing are kind of problematic, but these are over in a second."

"What about a loop?"

"You're asking me to do stunts with a plane that can barely fly?"

He nudged her head, making her laugh.

The girl didn't stop her work—which she with surprising skill—while jesting, and she was done applying the wires for steering the wings in no time.

"Do we need to adjust them now?"

"We'll leave that for when we're done assembling the rest. Next we'll go about the engine... which is basically just some cogwheels joined together, though."

The girl marveled at the gear box he tossed her.

"Boss, is this also made of plastic?"

As far as she knew and could imagine, cogwheels were normally made of metal.

The gears in the box he had given her, however, were made of something akin to plastic, whereas the case itself was acrylic. Each of them was full of tiny holes and not as heavy as their looks suggested.

"It's polystyrene. The case is acrylic. You see, they won't need to rotate really fast, and this way we need almost no oil."

"...you're insistent on making it lighter whatever it takes, aren't ya..."

"We are! The lighter the better. Otherwise it won't fly by human power."

"Would it be possible to install Cubby's engine on it and fly abroad?"

"No."

She was profoundly convinced that it was a brilliant idea, but it was immediately rejected.

''Too bad. I was looking forward to a comfortable trip overseas.''

When they finished attaching the engine part, boss took over the lead as the connecting of the engine with the wings required a lot of sensitivity.

The bicycle-like belt of the engine part was connected to the main spindle right below the body and finally looked like "something that can fly".

"Odd. Aren't propellers usually at the front?" the girl said and stroked the snow-white body frame.

The fact that the main wings extended right besides the cockpit did make some sense to her. The propellers, however, were not at the very front, but apparently to be brought on a bare mechanical part that was located somewhere in the middle of the body frame.

"We could have just as well put them at the front. In fact, that would be simpler and more stable."

"Then why did you not do so?"

"It's got to do with effectiveness. If we put it at the front, the produced wind would partly hit the plane itself. Apart from that... due to personal preference?"

"...isn't your personal preference kind of indifferent when the focus is on effectiveness...?"

"What are you saying?!" the boy started up and shouted at the lopsidedly smiling girl.

After being swept away, he had had no other choice but to clear away the unused holding devices while the other two had been continuing his work, whereas now he clenched his fist and started a heated speech.

"Geez, girls just don't get it! You understand the beauty of mechanics not a bit! Propellers are the decoration of a human-powered aircraft, you know? You may not be able to change anything about those elegant long wings, but you are free to do whatever you want with the propeller!"

"...Aah... yeah. Got it, got it. I won't lose another word about it, so get us a tea or something."

"...Okay."

His passion was not understood. With the by now quite light kettle in one hand, he headed to the shed, where they had prepared some more barley tea.

"...Geez, it's hard to understand those strange passions men tend to have...," sighed the girl and felt as though something named motivation　or spirits left her in the same breath.

"Well, that can't be helped. Definitely a gender-based problem."

"It is? Don't you think that the environment where you grow up and such do also have an influence?"

"Might also matter a little. But don't you think that the reason why the boys throughout the country are attracted to special effects and mecha animes and whatnot lies in their nature?"

The girl groaned upon his words.

"Well, live with it. The love for machines and adventures is about as deeply rooted in our manly DNA as the love for females."

"How bothersome."

Her voice that could have been both a sigh or a weak laugh blended in the crying of the cicadas outside the sheet iron walls, and disappeared without reaching anyone.

They gradually progressed, and after sunset, when the temperature became a little more agreeable, they were 90% done.

During this time, they had proved excellent communication skills, far above what one would expect from people that had just get to know each other the other day. For instance, when it had come to the phase of inspecting the plane and such, the boy, who had lost his position to the girl, had been dragged back, and their first collective work had started with boss giving them instructions.

At the moment, the boy was in the cockpit.

He was confirming what boss told him to inspect while flipping through a thick form that contained items to inspect.

"Next on the list. Push the joystick to the right."

"Roger. To the right."

When he pushed the wooden joystick to the right, the connected nylon wires raised a creak as they were strained, and the wings on both sides were twisted into different directions.

"Checked."

"Successful," boss said and stuck a seal on the check sheet. "Now try moving it to the left."

"Roger. To the left."

Simple and precise, as well as monotonous—the girl had immediately raised the white flag, since it was clearly not work that suited her, and was now gazing at them, sitting on one of the cots that were there for taking a nap.

She was silently watching them proceeding slowly but surely, and with a rhythm, with the inspection, so as to not disturb them. Was the feeling that rose in her upon seeing that they were fine even without her alienation? Or was it jealousy? Still unable to make out her feelings, she let herself fall onto the cot. She grabbed the blanket clump that served as a pillow and put it under her head.

The boy and boss looked almost like siblings with an age gap when they worked together like now.

Without paying heed to the girl and as if obsessed by something, but on the other hand with the sparkling eyes of a child, they were putting their heart and soul into that aircraft.

Perhaps they were more like senior and junior at school. It had already been over three months since the boy and girl had attended school, but the image she had had not lost its color yet.

However, she had already forgotten the faces of half the class. She had no way of knowing whether this was due to "the vanishing" or the natural fading of her memory.

If asked whether she was worried about them, her answer would have been "yes". How were they doing? The hundreds of miles between them was equal to a world in these times of non-functional Internet and suspended telephone service.

It was probably a distance unbridgeable in their lifetime without the help of Cubby. There was even the chance that they might literally drop dead by the roadside.

The girl had no intentions of returning to their town.

She didn't know how the boy felt about it, but she wanted to continue their journey.

Their journey wasn't one with a specific target. Many asked them where their troublesome journey was headed, but they always answered like that:

«To the end of the world.»

She did not demand any meaning of their journey, nor did she care about what troubles awaited them. Not once had she thought about their destination.

The girl wasn't specially fond of reading, but there was one line, which the boy had taught her, that had stroke chord with her.

Those were the words of a certain queen in the land of mirrors.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Through_the_Looking-Glass]

«''Here'', you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.»

The girl was keeping on traveling in order to stay with the boy.

She had left everything behind that would have hindered her. The only way to go was straight ahead.

If they were to return to their hometown, then it would be after they had tripped around the globe.

"Inspection compleeete!"

Boss flung the checklist and the form away, whereas the boy let out a big breath and sat down on a chair.

Compared to the assembling stage, physical labor had virtually been non-existent, but they had been made realize first hand that physical exhaustion and mental exhaustion aren't necessarily proportional.

They had been praying to the heavens while inspecting whether the machine they had built with their own hands worked properly, so it was no surprise that their necks had gotten stiff.

"Are we done for now?"

"Yeah. We checked the default settings of the GPS and the anemometer and everything else. The parts work perfectly, too. What remains is only the flight," with a broad smile he knocked lightly on the body frame of the aircraft.

The slim human-powered airplane with 38.2 meters width, 10.4 meters height and 30 kilograms weight, packed with the pride and passion and attachment of boss and his colleagues, was completed.

"Filled with deep emotion...?"

"No," boss denied, upon which the boy glanced at him.

Boss softly touched the wings and stroked them gently like his own child.

"It's all tomorrow, after the flight. I'll dance and rejoice only tomorrow after I've flown. This baby is a plane after all, not an ornament, right?" he turned around to the boy with a face that was, in contrast to his words, desperately hiding his excitement.

"...yes. It is a plane. We haven't put it together to make it rust away."

"Yeah. We mustn't jump like mad for joy just yet. Its true value lies in flying it."

These words weren't addressed to the boy, but himself. Therefore, the boy refrained from replying and wiped the sweat off his forehead, after which he breathed out.

"I hope it will be clear tomorrow."

"Are you joking? Of course it will be! If not, I'll go to court."

He almost had to laugh.

''Oh well, I'll better do what I can and make a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teru_teru_bozu teru teru bouzu] with some tissues. It's not good to use consumables without prospect of replenishment, but it should be fine once in a while.''

"Uphfa,"

The next thing that could be heard after this weird utterance was a dull sound, which originated from the girl falling off her cot. Apparently, she had accidentally fallen asleep while resting on the bed.

She idly sat up and had her gaze stagger somewhere between them and the plane.

"...Done?"

"Yeah. We're done."

"...Congrats," she sent her good wishes, still half-asleep, and walked toward the aircraft. "...What's its name?"

"Huh?"

"This plane's. Its name."

The boy and boss exchanged glances.

Her question had truly taken them by surprise.

"...Geez! Well, that figures... you guys just think about putting it together, but why don't you get that you're forgetting about the most important part!"

Normally it's the men who have an urge to give inanimate things a name, but common sense didn't apply to her.

"Didn't you and your comrades come up with some name for it...? Ah, I see. It vanished, huh."

Leaving alone the two silent men, she rummaged a toolbox that had been close to her.

"Come one, you decide, boss," with these words she pressed a completely normal, extra-thick oil-based black marker. Well, there wasn't anything else to write with, since they neither had an airbrush nor a spray can.

"Is it really okay to decide on that alone?"

"In return, the name would better satisfy us. If you give it a dull name, I'll give ''you'' a kick in the buttocks."

Boss shrugged his shoulders, walked up to the side of the cockpit, and gazed at the transparent polymer film.

After a moment wavering, he uncapped the marker and started to write. The final letters were...

"...'{{Template:Furigana|ジョナサン|Jonathan}}'...eh?" the boy said with round eyes, then boss turned around.

"Yeah. It's the name of the most famous seagull in the world."

Five katakana letters were written on the windshielding translucent film.

"...but your handwriting sure is scrawly... and worst of all, katakana! Why the heck didn't you use alphabetical letters? I mean, you wanted to fly this thing in Europe!"

"I don't care. I'll be flying it here. In the first place, ''you'' told me to write a name!"

"...somehow, that just ruined the image about as much as if we had wanted to give it a finishing touch by adding a pair of eyes, but accidentally drew nose hair instead."

"It's ''that'' bad?!"

"Oh whatever. Let's grab something to eat. I've gotten hungry because of my nap."

"...Women sure are fast in changing the topic."

"You don't mind it, do you? Anyhow, we're celebrating tonight! But if it's canned food again, I'll go on strike."

Boss let out a slight sigh and looked successively at the girl and the plane, wavering a little. Then he put his hands at his hips.

"Indeed... I declare tonight as the test flight eve because we have successfully completed all preparations. Well, there's not much food I have, so we'll have to put up with a curry party."

"Curry?! And you don't mean retort-packed curry?!"

"Yeah. We'll have to resort to canned carrots and meat, but the potatoes and rice are natural, and above all, the roux is a special spice blend."

Curry. The second this simple word reached their ears, their bodies started to emit a giant amount of saliva in their mouths. It had been months since they had last eaten real, non-ready, curry rice.

"A special spice blend..."

"The guy that wrote the manual made it. He liked to cook in his free time, you know. He would ''all the time'' come to me and tell me that he tried using 2% more turmeric or that he increased the size of his black pepper corns..."

"..."

The boy could somehow feel for him, as he was able to guess how much trouble an oddball as a friend could be.

They decided to do the cooking together. One reason for this was of course that they had to hurry up not to waste any current, now that the sun had set, but the pull of their empty stomaches was not to be underestimated, either. It also held true that they had nothing else to do anymore.

Rice was washed, potatoes were peeled, cans were opened for carrots and corned beef, and two fires were ignited, on which they then put a pot for the rice and one for the curry.

They started cooking without caring about who was doing what, and after an exceptionally short time, they had prepared their dinner.

While the number of ingredients used in the curry rice was very low, there was a whole lot of it. They virtually lunged at their dinner and ate, ready to empty both pots.

Since the boy wasn't wild about getting to see a sticky clot that pulled strings like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nattou Nattou]
the next morning—into which the curry rice would have turned due to the hotness and humidity of summer—it happened that even he, who would usually try to fill his stomach about 80%, ate for two.

As a footnote: they had somehow managed to find a cool place for the watermelon they had received from the director and his secretary, which resulted in excellent ripeness. The girl wanted to have the first try at splitting the melon and even blindfolded herself. By completely ignoring the confusing commands boss gave her and instead following the warm guidance of the boy, she grandly split the melon at one go.

It goes without saying that it tasted out of this world.

When the great rush had subsided and everyone had emptied their own plate, boss suddenly asked while grabbing himself another piece of melon, "Are you going to pay the nearby town a visit?"

"Mh, I guess we will. Or rather, we couldn't get by on this journey if we didn't travel from one town to the next one. We made quite a few stops on the way, but the next will be that village, yeah."

"I see."

"Why did you ask? Something wrong with it?" asked the girl while rubbing her bloated belly.

Boss, who was munching away on his melon piece, answered her, "Nope, go ahead and stop by there. It would be a mistake to go past it even though it's lively there."

"Lively?"

"Evacuated people assembled there and have created an autonomous organization. It's right by the seaside, and they were already sending out fishing boats when I was there a few months ago, so I guess their town has flourished even more by now."

"..."

The boy and girl exchanged glances.

Nowadays, a high population in itself was of great significance. It is hard for one to obtain enough food for oneself, but it's much easier for a hundred to obtain enough food for a hundred.

By joining forces one can reach new heights.

Where there are people, there is wealth. And the two travelers were going to benefit from that wealth as well.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

By the time the boy and girl were full and had successfully exterminated the curry, the rice as well as the watermelon, night had entirely fallen and the refreshing croaks of the frogs around the warehouse reached their ears.

Given that the moon and the stars in the broad cloudless sky were brightening the earth, they expected nice weather for the following day.

It was, however, still going to take some time until the humidity would start to drop. All three were sweating because their body-heat had increased thanks to the curry.

"Hey boss, mind telling me where the bath is?" asked the girl suddenly upon recalling what she had heard earlier.

Yes—this had completely slipped her memory because of the curry feast, but originally she had wanted to get done with work as fast as possible, wanting to take a bath.

"Sure, it's behind the shed. I filled it earlier and lit a fire, it should be about ready now."

Being one among them who appeared to have still some reserves in his stomach, boss stood up and beckoned them to follow him.

The boy had to admit it: he had eaten too much tonight. While holding his stomach, which was loudly complaining of excess load, he followed boss to the back of the shed, under a roof.

Right there they found the bath.

The expectations of the girl were belied, the prediction of the boy hit the bullseye.

"Seems like the warmth is just perfect. I'll let you go first."

What they discovered there was undeniably a drum bath.

It was a high-tech facility without peer, sparsely bordered by sheet metal and equipped with a naked bulb hanging from above. To crown it all, there was even shampoo and rinse ready to be used. The absence of a roof assured a stunning view of the starlit sky and the vicinity while wallowing in warm water.

"...Uuuh..."

Judging by the blatantly mixed feelings showing on her face, there seemed to be interest. However, even the boy had never taken such a wild bath. "''I should definitely ask if there are any manners that have to be followed''," the boy thought.

"Boss, how do we get into this?"

"Why, like you always do! There's a wooden chair inside to make sure it's not too hot, so all that has to be done is making a fire and entering. Also, don't complain that there's no shower."

Apparently having noticed by the tone in the boy's voice that they had no experience in bathing in a drum, he gently patted the girl on the back.

"O-Okay..."

"Aah, and by the way, the one that's not bathing has to put wood on the fire."

It took them a whole few seconds until realizing what he had just told them casually. As it had exceeded the bounds of their understanding, it was necessary for them to do a simulation within their heads.

"Wait... you're telling us to take the bath together?!"

"...Hah? How do you want to get two into that narrow tub? One of you just has to watch the fire while the other one is in there. Like a scullion."

"You must be joking! I'm a girl, you know?!"

"Well, I know that. But you don't mind if it's him, right? Being lovers and all."

"...Who said that?!"

Seized by the collar, boss was completely dumbfounded.

"Y-You're not? I was sure you were a couple because of your bike journey as a pair..."

With a growl she released him.

While the situation was indeed troubling, she did not really feel bad about being thought as a couple. However, it did trouble her right now. It was still too early.

"...Can't I put wood by myself?"

"No, look, drums are tall. You can't reach the ground, can you?"

Indeed. As he said, the rusted drum was tall taken by itself, but because it was also put on concrete blocks to make a fire below it, it was an impossible task to reach the ground from inside. Besides, it would have been far from her long-awaited paradise if she had to worry about the fire all the time.

"I can't do it, either... There's pretty much no way round having him do it."

"Ew..."

Well, such important decisions were always made without taking the boy's opinion into account. He was used to it.

For his part, the dread of "getting killed if he peeped" surpassed the desire of doing so by far.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"I'll kill you if you peep, okay?"

Getting the exactly same threat as he had been imagining, the boy nodded awkwardly.

His hands tied up behind his back and his eyes covered by a blindfold, he felt just like a hostage taken by a terrorist. Wondering if he was going to hear another unreasonable request along the lines of "Don't move! Hands up!" he sighed.

"Listen, I won't peep. If you leave me like this I can't even put wood on the fire. And you want to enjoy your bath to the fullest, don't you?"

"I'll untie your hands once I'm in the bathtub, so bear with it until then."

The girl, for one, thought that she had been rather cooperative.

For their relationship, which had not yet reached the couple stage, this situation was, well, err... too stimulative! This was something that should happen only after taking one step after the other with due care.

Anyhow, the girl started to undress herself somewhere the boy could not reach however hard he struggled. She found a brand new dry duck board on the bare ground and lined her shoes there.

As much as it was summer, they were at the northern island. The night was chilly and the wind blew against her naked skin.

By the way, she had also considered the possibility that boss might peep and thus commanded the boy to keep watch.

It was highly questionable how well he could keep watch without being able to see, but she was positive that he would at least notice his approaching.

When at last was naked as mother had bore her, she allied herself with a rather large towel and went on to challenge the unfamiliar bath.

She ascended the concrete block steps on tiptoes and carefully entered the bathtub with her feet.

"Oh, it's not as hot as I thought."

"Well, of course it's not! After all, I have been adjusting its warmth the whole time."

She couldn't help it, but the drum with its cylindrical shape put on a fire reminded her awfully of the boiling curry pot.

Happily enough, there was a duck board and a wooden chair in the water, so she could enter without having to strain herself.

She found it a pity that she couldn't stretch her legs, but neither did she want to be picky.

"Alright boy, show me your back and come nearer. I'll untie you."

Upon staggering towards her in a half-sitting posture, she untied the nylon rope around his wrists.

Having calmed down again, he groped for the pipe chair that was close to him and seated himself on it.

"Girl. How's the temperature?"

"Excellent, excellent. But it might be even better if it was a little warmer?"

"Roger. Your wish is my command!"

He took a piece of wood within his reach and threw it into the fire below the drum. The hand towel that was firmly wound around his head inhibited his vision, but he could still locate the fire by the heat and the dim light.

When he fanned it, it flared up golden and burned stronger.

"Hah..."

"Are you enjoying your first drum bath?" asked the boy with a lopsided smile after hearing the girl's blatantly relaxing voice.

"Oh... it's better than I expected... I've never been in such a deep bathtub before, though."

"No wonder."

"But I now think I know how the ingredients in an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oden oden] must feel."

"Hahaha"

He could only hear her voice, but it was easy to imagine what her face must have looked like. Her face was bound to be completely slack. There was some sort of afflatus that told him so.

[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0169.jpg|thumb|He could only hear her voice, but it was easy to imagine what her face must have looked like. Her face was bound to be completely slack.]]

Since she had missed out on the bath at the director's home despite being as much a bath-lover as any other girl, he was sure that she was enjoying it more than usually.

"...Boy...? Do you think 'it' will really fly tomorrow?"

Some while after he had started watching the fire, the girl addressed him rather suddenly. He stopped fanning.

"...Why do you ask?"

"No big deal, really. It's just that... it feels so unreal."

With a splash, the boy's head got drenched in water.

He could judge from the light that had just been dimmed that she was looking at him.

"Well, I mean, aren't airplanes kinda out of reach for us usually? If we get in touch with them, it's never really direct, is it? For example when following a trail with our eyes, or when getting into one for a trip."

"Do you mean that you don't think such a thing could fly?"

"I think that doesn't quite capture it," she replied and continued with a dreamy, calm voice, "You know, at least for me, making a plane is something like magic. It's not like I can't imagine how the logic behind it works. But somehow, I can't seem to accept ''that'' it would work."

"...in other words, that plane is a 'witch's broom' for you."

"...Sort of. That's a nice way to put it — it seems just the same no matter if someone tells you it flew with the power of lift or with the power of magic. But seriously, will that thing really fly? Being just a big empty shell," asked the girl with a wry smile.

While putting on a smile, he answered, "It will! The dreams of boss' team as well as our own are in there."

"Our dreams may make it too heavy to fly."

"Maybe. But let's believe that boss will overcome that with his spirit."

Despite the blindfold, he could vividly picture the girl's smile as she giggled.

"...Aaah, jeez! I wish I could fly it, too!"

"So that's what you were really thinking?" the boy laughed and threw another piece of wood into the fire.

"Oh shut your mouth, I can have my dreams, too, can't I? You're already monopolizing Cubby, after all. I would love to take you to the end of the world with that plane."

"There's only space for one in there."

"No problem. I'll just tie you up somewhere on there."

"You're being reckless..."

"Not at all! ...Ah, that aside, can you help me wash my hair?"

"While wearing this blindfold?"

"Yup. Be gentle, okay? If any shampoo gets into my eye, I'll choke you. Hard."

"..."

Thanks to a never-ending succession of unreasonable requests from the girl, he was condemned to even harder work than during the day, and had no opportunity to get some butterflies in his stomach.

By the time the girl happily left the bath, he was completely exhausted. Of course because of the persistent tension that exceeded the load of watching the fire many times.

About one hour had passed until he was released from the girl's long bath and could heave a sigh of relief in the warehouse.

"...I'm dead beat."

"What? Now you're a sissy. Just because of that...?"

''She's outrageous. Truly outrageous. What on earth does she think got me so exhausted?''

When removing his blindfold after a whole hour, even the warehouse was dazzling, though using the minimum light.

Well, the girl who had just taken a bath and was thus wearing her blouse without stuffing it into her skirt was in a sense dazzling, too. 

"Jeez... Why do women always take so much time to bathe?"

All of a sudden, the girl's vision got obstructed. Her hair was being mopped crudely with a bath towel that had been dropped onto her head.

"B-Boss! Stop it... cut it out!" she complained about being treated like a child and escaped from his claws.

But his forceful drying attempt had gracefully succeeded; the moisture of her hair had been eliminated, leaving only a comfortable warmth there.

"Do you want to go in now, boss? I'm fine with being the last one."

"No, I'll have a snooze first. I'm sleepy as hell because I had to move the truck early in the morning... Ah, right, you guys, go to bed in good time today! The weather should be nice tomorrow, judging by how it is now, but the best wind blows in the early morning, you know. Ah, and by the way: I'm used to that bath, so I don't need any help."

"When should we get up?"

"At about four o'clock. Don't oversleep!"

The girl rounded her eyes when she heard him, "''That'' early?! No dice! I can't get up at such an ungodly hour!"

"Don't worry. There is an alarm clock."

"That's not the problem!" she objected, almost screaming in horror, and was patted on the back by the boy.

"...I'll wake you up, okay?"

The boy was perfectly aware that such a bothersome task would naturally be imposed on him.

"It's only been nine. If we make sure to sleep at about 10 o'clock, it should be possible to wake up, don't you think?"

"Uuh..."

The boy let out a weak sight, seeing her still unconvinced.

"Okay, while I'm sleeping change shifts and use the bath once more. ...Ah, and boy. I bet she sponged on you, didn't she? Now's your turn!" boss said and turned around to leave toward the nap corner.

The girl wanted to say something in reply, but the boy would of course never have missed out on such a chance. He quickly went around her and stole her vision with the towel in his hands.

"Whoa! Hey?!"

"'I'll kill you if you peep' — right? Let's make sure you can't see anything."

"N-No need to do that here already!"

"Oh, it's fine, it's fine. Let's go. Thanks to your bath I'm drenched!"

Getting to have the lead for once, too, his mouth was curved in an eerie shape. If they hadn't had a blindfold, the girl would have discovered the hidden dark side of the boy at that very moment.

Almost as if carrying off a hostage, he pulled the girl behind him.

"Wait! I'll stumble! Please, remove this just for now!"

"It's fine, it's fine."

The boy affected ignorance to the finish, pretending not to have noticed that there was not shadow at boss' feet when he stood in the light.

The loss of one's shadow—such was the last stage of "the vanishing".

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

All of a sudden, he woke up. He had no idea what had made him awake, so it was probably correct to phrase it like that.

It felt rather odd to him because he had only been waked by the girl's punches when she rolled in sleep or by some sort of sound lately. Without any visible reason, without being left drowsy, he had suddenly woken up.

He sat up heavily and pulled the blanket he was covered in away.

The luminously painted chronograph showed two o'clock, therefore it was no surprise that the sun had not risen yet.

As he couldn't seem to fall asleep again, he decided for now to stand up. There was no trace of exhaustion in his young body, which might have been thanks to the opulent dinner he had had or to the fact that he had slept early.

This did, however, not apply to the girl who was sleeping on the neighboring bed.

She was lying prone on the cot, still in the same posture as she had written the diary, which was put next to the pillow, and snoring loudly. Moreover, the jersey she was in the habit of using as a substitute for a pajama was round her knees, exposing her defenseless bottom, which was only covered by her white panties.

He smiled to himself, seeing her childish sleeping position, and covered her waist with a blanket so that she wouldn't get too cold. In passing, he also sneaked a peek at the diary, where he found a quite funny entry.

The content itself was nothing special, but the text got stranger and stranger towards the end: the same word appeared three times in one sentence, one sentence was suddenly aborted, and by the time the text finally turned incomprehensible, her letters were all over the page. There were even mysterious lines outside of the page. This was proof that she had gone down fighting against sleepiness.

After blurting out a giggle, he poured himself some water from a PET bottle and took a small gulp.

The sound beyond the wall of metal sheets disclosed to him how the weather was outdoors—he could hear wind blowing through the meadows. There appeared to be no rain.

Sure, they had been able to guess the weather beforehand, but upon seeing how that prediction had hit the mark, it felt sort of like their prayer had been heard. ''I really ought to thank the teru teru bouzu we hung up before sleeping''.

Then, driven by a sudden hunch, he slid his hand through the shroud that divided the nap corner from the rest of the warehouse and produced a gap.

There was a still standing white plane in the center, whose elegant wings were softly bent by gravity. Despite having assisted its assembling a few hours ago, it was a breath-taking view.

In front of the aircraft, however, he spotted boss sitting cross-legged, faced toward its nose.

He couldn't recognize his countenance because it was hidden by the shadow of the wings, but there was a beer can in boss' hand and about ten more on the ground, as if forming a circle with him.

Boss' moved no muscle, and his emotions were to remain a riddle to the boy. In the end, he did not gather the courage to intrude this scene.

A while later, the boy fell asleep again.

He did not remember having had a dream that night.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

The next morning, the three took the long-winged plane out of the warehouse and initiated a last check.

Even though the main entrance was more than five meters shorter than the plane's total width, by following the white lines on the ground as written in the manual, they somehow succeeded in getting it outside, kind of like solving a wire puzzle.

"...this is really incredible."

"Yeah, I seriously wonder what his brain looked like!" muttered boss while gazing at the plane on the straight road.

"Who's 'he'?"

"The guy who made the manual."

"..."

Did 'he', the writer of that perfect and precise manual, whose face and name nobody knew anymore, really think about its transport during the planning stage? She had no idea who he was, but she was not uninterested in meeting him. Well, that was not possible anymore, though.

For starters, they began removing the transport according to the manual.

The carts had been detached from the holding devices, and were now carefully removed with several special, prespecified tools so as to not damage the machine. Without remarkable effort, they managed to free all parts.

Without even needing a jack or something like that, the plane's elegant body stood on its own wheels, gazing at the horizon ahead of the long asphalt. It was truly magnificent.

"...What was this just now? Magic?"

"Who knows. Anyway, the preparations are completed."

Boss turned around and spotted the boy, who had been taking some additional data such as the wind speed and was just trotting back.

All preparations were set.

"Boss, are you ready? Especially mentally," the girl asked.

"No, my heart is jumping out of my ears any moment," boss laughed with only his face. His body was already in the cockpit. The last check in front of the plane was being conducted by the boy who held the manual in his hands. After all, boss was the motor of this machine—an important ''part''. No way to do an inspection without putting him in, too.

"Now that sounds acrobatic. Anyway, you're never mentally prepared, so get in already."

"True word."

Boss flashed a smile on hearing her unmindful encouragement and looked around in the cockpit.

There was a seat for him to seat in and a cage made of FRP surrounding it. The seat was snow-white, being made almost entirely of plastic and transparent film. The only black objects were the GPS, the altimeter, the anemometer and the transceiver for communication, which were all attached at the side of the joystick.

The thin polymer film shrouding the cage was lit by the dazzling morning light and gleamed brightly.

He had to narrow his eyes. A mysterious, awe-inspiring mood akin to beholding a stained glass window in a church filled the air of the narrow cockpit — but was completely destroyed when the boy suddenly poked his face in.

"I'm closing now, boss! You've got your handkerchief, right? What about your lunchbox?"

"I don't need one!"

"Okay, if you've still got that much energy, you'll be fine. Good luck," the boy laughed and carried a large windshield over to him.

Since all functions and equipment were kept at the minimum, there was naturally no openable door incorporated. It was necessary to screw the windshield on ''after'' boarding the plane.

He had to have them seal him away in this narrow space.

Despite feeling like a prisoner, strangely enough he felt no pressure. All there was was boundless rapturousness.

He felt as though he could pull off anything right now.

''"Windshield attached. Go ahead."''

He heard a voice from the transceiver by his ear.

"All set. I'm starting to pedal now, remove the bumper when I give you the signal," he said and put his feet on the pedals.

In order to not burden the comparatively sensitive motor unnecessarily, he started off slowly and gradually increased the rotation speed. In the small mirror that was attached to the inner side of the windshield, he could see the contra-rotating propellers he was so proud of move.

''Don't worry, it will definitely soar up!''

"Remove the bumper!"

''"Roger."''

It was but a short command.

The real fight was yet to come. His comrades had built the aircraft, the boy and girl had put it together, and he had to fly it.

This was his first and final task. The world that was going to unfold before him now was only his and no one else's.

"Hurry up, boy! Hurry up!" the girl rushed.

She had finished her work quickly and had gotten on the tandem of the super cub, which was stopped by the road. The luggage was almost entirely taken off so that they could drive along with the plane.

"I know. Don't worry, it won't fly away just like that!"

Well, he had tried to calm the excited girl, but apparently he was very excited himself: he had quite some trouble putting the key into the hole.

When he finally managed to turn the key and switched on the ignition, Cubby's heart started to roar loudly. He kicked up the stand more violently than he did usually, opened the throttle slightly and moved onto the road.

The plane, however, was still there, moving straight ahead at the speed of slowly pedaling a bicycle.

The yellow contra-rotating propellers were rotating properly, cutting the wind, but there was no sign of soaring up yet.

For the time being, he chose to follow the plane from diagonally behind at about the same speed, so as to not get in its way.

"Is everything alright? Will it fly?"

The boy answered the girl's anxious question with a laugh, "No worries. He's arriving at a declining slope any moment, and he even has some headwind. It's bound to fly!"

Just as the boy had announced, as soon as the plane arrived at a slightly declining slope, the previously very slow acceleration started to increase bit by bit.

It's not like the boy knew what was needed for the takeoff of a human-powered aircraft. But he gathered that an appropriately high speed was required.

Cubby's speedometer was almost at 20kmph. He supposed that it was about time that it hovered a little.

Boss, who could be seen past the transparent windshield, was not paying them any attention whatsoever. He was solely staring straight ahead, pedaling with all his might.

That moment, he saw boss pulling the joystick.

The nylon wires that were connected to it conveyed his movement to the wings and made them bend slightly.

The tiny lift that emerged at that moment caused the super-light machine to hover slightly over the ground.

"It's flying!"

"Not just yet!"

Suppressing the girl who was about to leap for joy, he opened some distance between him and the plane to be sure.

The plane, which was hovering close to the ground, pulled in its wheels under the tail assembly and the cockpit, and continued its shaky flight at an unsettling height.

At the moment it was merely hovering due to the ground effect that was formed by the wings and the ground. He had to elevate in order to make it a "flight".

Boss was pedaling like mad, but the height was only barely increasing.

"Is he really going to be okay?"

"Don't worry. He's almost there. He's almost at 25kmph!"

His voice came out louder than he had wanted, but he didn't care in the least.

''It's going to fly! It will '''not''' fall!''

As if to display his unshakable faith, the boy opened the throttle and sped up Cubby. While the girl was clinging to him in surprise, he moved the motorbike to the side of the wings.

If the plane fell, they were probably going to be dragged in.

But the word "if" was already out of question. Boss was going to pull it off somehow. He was sure of that.

Then at last, the lift produced by the long wings grew strong enough to sustain the weight of the plane thanks to the speed.

The shaky flight suddenly leveled off and the almost 40-meters giant wings jumped up as if pulled to the sky.

"He soared up!"

"He did it!"

They yelled almost synchronously, causing the accidently driverless Cubby to stagger.
[[Image:Tabi_ni_Deyou_P0185.jpg|thumb|The plane elevated as if drawn up by the sky and gleamed in the morning sun.]]

The plane elevated as if drawn up by the sky and gleamed in the morning sun.

Its course was north and its altitude about 40 meters. The flight had entirely gotten stable.

"You did it, boss!"

''"Yeah, I sure did!"''

They could hear an enthralled voice from the transceiver. It was not hard at all to imagine his face from that excited voice.

''"It feels terrific...! Just as I felt at my first flight... no, it's even better!"''

"Please enjoy it to the fullest. We can't take part in it, after all."

The girl, too, was smiling at his rarely turbulent voice before she knew it.

''"I feel as if I could go anywhere right now... I can't thank you enough, guys..."''

"Thank us to your heart's content then. With gas."

Her capitalistic remark was, however, not countered with irony.

''"Sure! Take as much as you want! This feeling is all I need! ...I wanted to show this scenery to everyone else, too, but... even if they were here now, there's only space for one... so it would still have been only me in the end, huh..."''

The airplane in front of the super cub started to easefully shake left and right.

Boss was probably tilting the joystick because of his strong emotions. However, the plane was designed for 8-flights; while withstanding most movements, it was not able to do small ones.

But still, the giant white plane was inexpressibly beautiful as it drew a curve while inclining slightly.

"Umm, boss? Could you let me fly it as well?"

The boy answered the girl's mumble into the transceiver by poking her.

"Hey girl, that's boss' plane! It's not right for us to ask for something like that..."

"But we also helped him, didn't we? I want to get on it about once at least!"

"You don't know how to control, do you?"

"But there is someone who knows, isn't there? Boooss, pretty please?"

Shaking off his restrain, she addressed boss over the transceiver with a pleading voice.

Well, boss was not going to give in to such a voice, so the boy didn't mind.

''"Why, of course! I want to show this to you guys!"''

"Huh?!" the boy blurted out in a strange tone, his expectations completely belied.

Apparently, boss' good mood was vastly exceeding all his predictions.

The girl, on the other hand, seized the opportunity and spoke while leaning forward into the transceiver, "Umm... if I'll crash into something, forgive me please?"

''"I don't mind! One or two dents are no problem to fix! We even have a spare frame! We can fix it as many tim"''

His voice broke off.

"Boss...?" asked the girl while tilting her head.

No reaction.

"What's wrong?"

"Dunno. It suddenly turned silent."

The boy took the transceiver in his left hand and checked the LCD display. The battery wasn't empty. Neither was boss out of range for the signal yet. But it did not seem to be broken, either.

"...huh? Boy, what's that...?"

The girl pointed at the sky. Not the sky, to be precise, but the snow-white plane in it.

The contra-rotating propellers, which boss had proudly painted yellow to make them visible from afar, had almost stopped moving. It didn't look like they were rotating on their own, but because of the wind.

The beautiful white plane that had stopped moving started dropping step by step, tilting to one side.

It crashed into the softly swaying green ground.

<div style="text-align: center;">✱</div>

"Boy!!"

"Yeah!"

The girl clung swiftly to his waist, whereas the boy opened the throttle of the super cub as if to answer her.

He turned the handle to the side and jumped out of the road into the definitely ''not'' low grass.

They rushed toward the crash site they could see between the grass while mowing down the grass in their way, which had grown about to their waist's height.

The sharp blades of the grass cut into their uncovered cheeks and arms, but they couldn't care less.

Cubby then suddenly arrived at a place where the grass turned low.

They unconsciously took a breath.

At this place, which was about a small square's size, was the snow-white plane.

Its nose had stuck in the earth, the fine plastic cockpit seat had been entirely crushed, the wing had been broken due to the blow against the ground, and the transparent film was fluttering in the wind.

The only parts that escaped the crash, the frame itself and the tail assembly, were stuck in the ground, poking out towards the sky, and seemed almost like a white, futuristic sculpture.

The two, who had completely frozen, suddenly came to and got off the super cub and ran—towards the "thing that had been an airplane", without caring about the falling over Cubby.

"Boy! Can we move this?!"

"Yeah! Take that side!"

The two grabbed the body that was stuck in the ground and pulled it out like operating a lever.

They could clearly hear the wings get twisted, but neither of them cared.

The tail assembly touched the ground whereas the crushed cockpit appeared.

"Boss!"

The girl forcefully took off the windshield and looked into it — to find nobody.

Not even his clothes were left there.

They hardly exchanged any words after that. That is because it didn't require any explanation.

Boss had vanished. Not only he, but also his clothes and shoes along with him had suddenly disappeared from the cockpit. The microphone of the transceiver which he had worn was not to be found anywhere, either.

The two knew more than enough what that meant.

Boss had ''vanished''.

In a few words they decided to carry the remains of the aircraft back to the warehouse. There was no special point in doing so, but they somehow did not wanted to leave it out in the open like that, therefore they started without dispute.

As the plane was disturbingly destroyed, the transport in itself was not hard.

They took apart what they could and cut apart with a hatchet for splitting wood what they could not, and carried the parts back.

They were finished so fast, it seemed unbelievable that it had taken so much effort to put it together.

The wide sky and the unreservedly shining sun were no different from an hour ago, but somehow they looked much duller.

They stood before the remnants of the aircraft in the warehouse.

"...I wonder where boss has gone," muttered the girl.

The boy shook his head, "I'm sorry. I don't know."

"...No one knows. Whoever you ask in the world, no one knows where they disappear to."

Neither of them suggested that he may have just vanished into nothingness, for that was what they and the rest of the world feared.

They didn't believe in heaven and hell, but neither did they want to believe that the ones who had disappeared had simply vanished as the word suggested.

"What are we going to do... with that?" asked the girl while squatting by the remains of the plane and gazed at its degenerated appearance.

The cockpit that had consisted of the absolute minimum of material had completely lost its former shape because of the direct crash with the ground.

The pedals and the motor were still somewhat intact, but the deformation and damage of those was heavy, making it very unlikely for them to soar up to the sky once again.

The wings had fallen apart entirely, and they found themselves unable to repair their twisted frame or the torn film. The body frame was still okay, but the connecting piece to the wings and the motor component, which had been connected to the cockpit, had gotten deformed, and the yellow propellers broke to pieces with two blades missing entirely. Thanks to the fact that the plane had crashed headfirst, the tail assembly was undamaged, but that didn't change anything.

The girl was not versed in mechanics, but she could easily imagine what fate was waiting for those remains.

"I'm afraid there's nothing we can do."

"...'suppose so."

"But as boss said, there were spare parts in the container," the boy muttered.

The girl raised her face. "Can we fix it then?"

"I don't know. He said that there were enough parts to make one more aircraft, but without checking we don't know how much there really is."

The glimmer that had come in sight was too faint to be called hope.

The two had merely followed boss' instructions. They did by no means know how the plane was to be put together or what they were supposed to pay attention to. Above all, there was no point in assembling another aircraft as boss was no more.

"Shall we go then?" suggested the girl as she stood up.

"Go?" asked the boy.

The girl responded him with a, slightly acted, smile, "On our journey. Boss' job here has ended, but our journey is still going to continue, isn't it?"

After adjusting her clothes, she walked toward the nap corner.

"...True. Yeah, we're still on the way," he said and shook his head to recollect himself.

Right. They were aiming for the end of the world, after all. They had no reason nor the time to be lost here in grief.

The girl took a small scrap of film out of her pocket.

It was an extremely tin piece of polymer film, which looked like some wrapping at first glance. On it, however, were the black letters "{{Template:Furigana|ジョナサン|Jonathan}}", written with a marker. In this crawly handwriting they could still clearly sense his aura.

She inserted the piece of film like a bookmark into the thick assembling manual and put it in front of the remnants of the white plane.

The two went to the nap corner to collect and pack their things.

Because these two busy days had left them with quite a mess, they needed some time to get ready, but since they were used to it nonetheless, they managed to load everything onto Cubby within twenty minutes.

Making good on boss' promise, they filled Cubby's tank with gas and also decided to take some foodstuff, such as cans that seemed to last a while and rice, with them.

After that, with a silent understanding between them, they started to lightly clean the warehouse and the shed.

By the time they had finished all preparations and met up before their super cub in a corner of the warehouse, the clock was showing 08:00am.

"What are we going to do with the truck?" asked the girl.

"Do we even need to do anything with it? We don't need it, after all."

"...Oh dear! The whacked out trip on Cubby is still going to continue, huh..."

"If you talk like that, Cubby will sulk and break down!"

"That would be bad," she smiled wryly and inspected their provisions.

"Do we have water?"

"Yeah, I filled our bottles."

The boy finished inspecting the super cub, too, and put on his helmet.

"Alright. Are we set?"

"Aah..."

The boy put a helmet on her head while she let out a strange voice.

"What? Are we missing something?"

"Umm... No, it's fine. Should be," she answered ambiguously.

The boy tilted his head and asked whether they should stay for a little longer, but this proposal was rejected.

"According to what boss told us, the neighboring town is quite far away, right? The sooner we leave the better."

"Well, you've got a point. So it's really fine?"

"Yeah. OK, OK!"

While being patted on the back, the boy sat down on Cubby.

He turned the key, upon which a light humming started to resound as always.

After making sure the girl was clinging to him, he opened the throttle and drove off, holding against the faint gravity that emerged.

Thinking back, they had only spent a mere two days here.

This was probably what it felt like to leave a place with painful reluctance. While knowing there was no point in staying in that warehouse, it felt as though they were leaving something—something dear—behind there. They couldn't do anything about that reluctance.

He felt the girl press her head against his back and squeezed the handle.

It took only a few minutes until the warehouse had disappeared behind the hills of the road from the back mirror.

===Interlude===

The boy did not stop even when the sun had finished its turn and had disappeared behind the horizon. It also held true that they were a little late due to accidentally taking a wrong road, but the main reason was of an emotional nature.

When he closed his eyes, all he could recall from boss' face had become awfully vague because of the vanishing. The same applied to his stature, his voice, and the way he had talked to them. Almost everything that had defined boss had lost its shape like ice in boiling water and melted, blending in the boy's miscellaneous memories.

Every time he tried to recall his appearance, which had suffered disintegration of its [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gestalt_psychology Gestalt], he only felt as if having a déja-vu. When he struggled anyway, his pathless thinking twisted and broke off, leaving only an uncomfortable nausea behind.

''"Shall we take a break here?"''

He couldn't bring himself to say this suggestion.

He frequently stroked the girl's arms which were put around his waist as he drove on. The loss of a near person had made him anxious about ''her'' existence, having shared almost every moment for three months with her. Just by thinking ''what if she vanished as well'', he was struck by a gut-wrenching insecurity and had to stroke her hand again.

With his head, he did understand that it was highly unlikely for her to suddenly disappear as she was still in the initial stage. But while riding the bike, he could just not see her face. He felt as though she could vanish any moment if he forgot about her and couldn't calm down.

Seemingly aware of his feelings, the girl tightly clung to him, pressing her body against his.

Wanting to talk to her, he opened his mouth, and searching for a topic, he closed and opened it only to eventually leave it shut. After he had repeated this meaningless cycle multiple times:

"...Boy?"

In surprise at her sudden voice, his frozen hands convulsed and gripped the brake.

She screamed out because of the sudden full braking and the Super Cub span out of control. This was apparently enough to wake up his dulled primary motor cortex—he hurriedly balanced the bike out and stopped it.

"...S-Sorry. Are you okay?"

"Hey... are you really all right?"

The boy was doubting his state of mind even without her question. What had happened to Boss did by no means justify such a behavior while driving.

He ground his teeth in vexation of his fragile mind, and looked up at the sky.

"...Um. Anyway, what did you want to say?"

"...Look, doesn't this vicinity look like a village or something?"

She stretched out her arms from behind and turned the handle.

The headlight of their super cub lit their surroundings and revealed a deserted building to them.

"You're right..."

They couldn't make out the details because the light created many shadows, but it was clearly someone's house. And there was not only one or two. Now that he thought about it, the on-going meadows scenery had suddenly broke off, and instead he had spotted many human-groomed things like copses and fields.

The girl took a map out of their luggage and took a look at it.

"Yeah. It's hard to tell because the names have gone, but this is probably a small village!"

The boy stopped the engine and took out two pocket lamps.

Lit by those two light sources, the appearance of the village became apparent.

He heard how the girl held her breath behind him.

Ruins. What they found were ruins.

Originally, this had probably been a village of decent size. There were large fields, many houses, and wide premises—as was usual for this island—with light trucks parked on.

However, there was not a soul. There was no single resident in this village.

Most of the buildings had collapsed due to snowfall of the past winters, looking as thought they had been trampled down, and those that were not had gaping holes in their roofs. The sheets that were still hanging from the clothesline had turned into old dustcloths.

Somewhere they spotted a light truck with an opened door. Somewhere else they discovered a satchel in the middle of the street. In the middle of a field there was a tractor that had gone stale there.

Even though there were traces of the habitants everywhere, there was not a soul. Only the crying of the insects and the blowing of the wind filled the air.

He felt his heartbeat grow heavy. He knew this feeling.

The capital, the nameless metropolis they had abandoned, the town that had lost more than 80% of its population and its entire functionality, was the same.

The convenience store on the way to school, the footbridge across the big intersection that had become empty of cars and whose traffic lights had stopped working, the lightless skyscraper he had gazed at from school at dusk.

His heart was spurred on by the distressing lack of people where there should have been.

"...Boy."

She plucked at the sleeve of his shirt.

He turned around and found the girl stuck to his back, trembling fiercely.

"Boy... I don't like this place," she mumbled with her gaze focused on one point.

The object that was horrifying her so much was a red satchel that lay on the street.

"Let's go. I don't want to be here. Not for one second."

"...Yeah..."

He nodded and quickly stuffed his lamp into his pocket.

He started the engine, put on his helmet, accelerated rather crudely and hit the nightly road again.

This village resembled their town too much.

Sealed memories were released again and caused cold shivers to run down their spines.

Silence enveloped the village once more.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Tabi_ni_Deyou:Dream|Dream]]
| Return to [[Tabi ni Deyou, Horobiyuku Sekai no Hate Made|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Tabi_ni_Deyou:Journey|Journey]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>