Editing Rapid Fire King:Volume1 Chapter 3 (section)

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Takamura checked his watch outside and saw it was nearly 7 PM. Once he got home, it would be time to prepare dinner.

He walked away from the ramen shop and walked north up the gentle slope in front of it.

In the morning, chatting students would climb that same slope to reach the middle school behind the city hall. ''I used to do the same,'' he recalled while reaching the midpoint of the slope. His house was to the right there.

It was a two-story house with a weather-beaten workshop bordering the road.

He realized the ramen shop smell had left him as he climbed the slope.

It bothered him that he had not learned why Iwata was not at the practice tournament, but…

…''Well, I’m sure she’ll tell me tomorrow or some other time.

That was one advantage of living nearby and attending the same school.

He started to push his bicycle through the gap to the side of the 10-meter-wide workshop.

The actual house was through that narrow gap. At nearly 200 square meters, the workshop was larger than the house.

He entered that dark gap to reach the house.

After taking a few steps, he heard a familiar sound from the slope road behind him.

A motorbike was driving down it.

…''That sound.

He recognized it, so he stopped pushing his bicycle and looked back.

He saw a motorbike descending southward along the slope road he could see through the gap between the workshop and the neighbor’s house.

He only glimpsed it for a second and the afterimage of the light and the roar of its engine lingered with him.

“Huh?”

He leaned his bicycle against the workshop wall and rushed to the road with movements even he could tell were frantic.

He left the workshop and arrived on the sidewalk.

He looked down the hill where the Super Cub had gone.

There it was.

He could see its tail lights, but the red light turned left toward the ramen shop’s parking area and vanished behind the building.

A streetlight briefly shined on the rider.

The delivery driver was not wearing a helmet.

That allowed him to see a ponytail blowing in the wind.

“Iwa?”

It had to be. She was the only ponytailed person who drove a Super Cub around here.

In that case…

…''Was she helping out at home after all?

He considered it, but something felt off.

Specifically, he had seen her ponytail blowing in the wind.

If she was using the Super Cub for a delivery, she would have had the wooden box for carrying the food. To see her ponytail behind her like that, the box could not have been strapped on behind her.

If she was helping out while the ramen shop was open, then the Super Cub was used for deliveries. She might use it do some shopping at night, but there were no supermarkets or convenience stores in the direction of the city hall.

In that case…

…''Was she out doing something other than helping out at home?

Since she was not at the practice games during the day, she must have been out since then.

Her father had said she would be back for a time.

That meant she had been out somewhere doing something.

“But…”

He did not understand something about this. All the facts pointed toward her having been out somewhere, but that made no sense to him.

The girl he knew spent her weekends helping out at home or doing her newspaper club work. He tried to think if she had ever done anything else, but…

…''She really hasn’t, has she?

This scene here was a first for him.

“What does it mean?”

He noticed an edge to his voice.

He tilted his head, realized he wouldn’t find any answers here, and sighed.

He recalled that it was Sunday.

…''It is true normal girls will head out to have some fun on Sunday.

Prying into her business would be a bad idea. After his visit to the arcade, he understood just how important personal problems could be to people.

That said, he still felt a little on edge.

…''Maybe I feel guilty.

He had hidden his trip to the arcade from her two days before. And he had used her honest misunderstanding to do so.

But he knew she was unlikely to understand his visit to the arcade.

Her family did not own any of the home video game consoles that were the pride of the nation. He recalled what she had said when he bought that black game console from a friend before:

“Stop wasting your money.”

So he had kept it a secret.

And today’s actions suggested that she had a secret of her own.

That meant they were even.

…''Is this why she was so angry the day before last?

''What if,'' he thought. ''What if she isn’t the person I think she is anymore?

Had she questioned him two days ago because she hoped that was not the case with him?

But he also felt like she would tell him what she had been doing if he asked. She had never been the lying type.

But…

…''I can’t tell her.

In that case…

“I’m still the bad one.”

He could not be mad with her now.

He scratched his head and turned his back on the road.

“…”

He recalled the ponytailed figure he had glimpsed.

Her shoulders had been so slender.

…''Yeah.

''She must have been cold,'' he thought.

“Is she really taller than me?”

''I don’t even know that anymore,'' he thought while heading home.