Toradora!:Spin-Off 2 Lets Go To Gunma - Chapter 3

Once Spring arrives, let's go to Gunma!

Chapter 3

"...Wh, what now?"

"Shouldn’t you be elsewhere?"

"...I should, but, I, I don’t really feel like eating..."

"Why? It’d be better if you ate. Hey, teach, it looks like you ordered out for lunch. What’s that? Something delicious---"

"Umani soba. ...It’s really good."

"Me, I’ve got a yakisoba sandwich, a jelly donut and crusty bread. It’s expensive. It’s terrible."

While chewing on the dried out bread, Haruta Kouji watched as Koigakubo Yuri, single woman (age 30), split her wooden chopsticks apart. Taking the wrapper off the bowl, the single woman (age 30), weakly extended her chopsticks towards the umani soba---

"Yech. ...Yuri-chan, you’re the kind of person who starts eating with the quail?"

"...It's not that good, not particularly..."

To Haruta, that seemed really strange. Normally that would be last, wouldn’t it? What kind of homeroom teacher starts by suddenly attacking the quail eggs? It’s got to be because she’s single, and she’s thinking about something awful like a lover’s suicide. Last night, Sena having left him behind, he had trudged home under the weight of all his feelings. And after that, no received contact at all, leaving his young heart to run wild. His homeroom teacher sometimes wound up bearing the brunt of his adolescent frustration.

It was lunchtime in the teacher’s staff room. They were in a corner nook, surrounded by the second year homeroom teachers' desks. Haruta was seated close to the desk belonging to the single woman (age 30), looking at his homeroom teacher’s face, while she drank a gulp of Oolong tea. The single woman (age 30) looked uncomfortably back at Haruta’s face. Hesitantly, she asked him.

"...Ha, Haruta-kun..., not that it matters all that much, but why are you eating here?"

For some reason, I just didn’t want to stay in the classroom. ...I really didn’t feel like talking nor laughing, and my being quiet was upsetting everybody else, wanting to checking my temperature, wanting to carry me off to the infirmary like a dead thing, girls offering me tissues so I could wipe my nose, girls saying 'those gloomy eyes are ruining my cellphone reception', cursing me ...and because nobody would leave me alone."

"...Really? That really shows that people care, doesn’t it? It seems, with that around here... especially... that that..."

"Yep, it was just like that."

You see, Koigakubo-sensei was really popular, so easygoing she could actually eat lunch together with a student. And, at that moment, another young female Japanese teacher was calling for her. "Please, help me!" Looking rather desperate, with her chopsticks brandishing some pork from her umani-soba, the single woman (age 30) answered in an encouraging tone.

"...Well then, since we’re talking... Haruta-kun, the other day in English class, you did pretty bad on your test, so you will need to take a make-up exam, OK? Cause if you don’t, you might wind up being held back."

"But you know, Yuri-chan, it’s cause it’s a really strange language..."

"...Haven’t heard that one, never."

Hardly in the mood to eat, still holding his bread in one hand, Haruta gazed at the profile of his teacher. That face slurping umani soba was really different from Sena’s, he thought. Among other things, her features weren’t the same, even more than ten years difference in age could account for. Whatever you might call beautiful, it wasn’t that. Whatever it wasn’t, as a living being, she appeared to be of entirely different species.

In Haruta’s eyes, Sena was completely different from other human beings.

"Wouldn't it be incredible to be loved by a cat?"

"Yes yes. ...Ah! What shall we read? They didn’t put in any Jew’s Ears... how lucky."

"Despite having been cared for by all my family, if the window were opened just a bit, I would surely have escaped."

"Uh huh"

Slurp slurp---

"I’m talking seriously, and you’re just slurping noodles!? Aren’t you my homeroom teacher!?"

"Ah, excuse me. But I was just stretching..."

"Well then... I forgive you. There’s something I want to talk through, um... Yuri-chan… why do you think that cat ran away?"

"Eh? ...Are you talking about some sort of dream? Things of the deep psyche can be somewhat scary..."

"No, it doesn’t have to do with me. You could say it was a dream. What do you think? Since you’re already thirty years old and resigned to living a long life, you should understand many things of life, right?"

"Why would you say such a thing... ...well, but, whatever. You’d be surprised, even with thirty years, how little more we adults actually know. Even teachers don’t know things."

"Eh? You don’t know!? Even though you’re a teacher!?"

"I don’t know. I don’t know but... yes, a proper teacher-like example answer, ‘When dealing with rebellion, one must keep in mind that specific steps must be taken.’ --- As a young man, might you be trying to assert your independence out of adolescent anxiety? Is it something like that? Am I close to the mark? Ah, that was something, educational psychology, that was quite something else... Ah, I’ve forgotten so much, I must be getting old."

Slurp slurp---

"I must be getting old... or perhaps I should say that my answer was completely ridiculous..."

"Ah, please don't mind me, ok?"

Slurp slurp---

"Well then, one more question. ...A man being together with a women he doesn’t love, or a woman being together with a man she doesn’t love. Which is more pitiful?"

"That situation I understand! Obviously, the guy’s more pitiful! Women, even if they don’t love their companion, will stick with that companion, dealing with problems calmly. Men, they will limit themselves to clearly and distinctly denying that they ‘hate’ their women, though that is not all that awful… but still, it’s not all that nice either… That’s the way it is! It really is! Haruta-kun will become like that too! Aaah! No way no way, Men! No way! Slurp! Yuck!"

"Now now, let’s stay on subject. OK then, just why would women put up with such ugliness, just because they can? Why should they, if there’s no love there?"

"You’re right, it doesn’t matter. Because I’m not seeing any likeable men. ...What, Haruta-kun, are you possibly playing games with some strange girl? No way already... just a second... stop, aren’t I asking rather strange questions? Under normal circumstances in our class, if you do anything strange, you come under a lot of pressure from others."

It’s nothing strange, really.

---Hmph. He found himself getting angry, mixed with annoyance, at this carefree single woman. Isn’t this just pitiful, he also thought.

"...Let’s make a trade!"

"Ah! Aaaa! My umani soba~..."

Taking the opportunity to grab the bowl of ramen, he got work with the chopsticks used by the single woman (age 30), wolfing down the umani soba as fast as he could. It was unexpectedly delicious. It suddenly came to him that if he kept this up, he’d wind up stealing all her umani soba. Pushing aside his old half-eaten bread, he vacuumed up everything in a flash, the cabbage, the carrot, the pork and even the the Jew’s Ear hidden at the bottom.

Oh wow, we’re trading lunches. We’re on really good terms. I’m envious. Then, after the Japanese teacher who’d received her help earlier returned, having bought her something to drink, the single woman (age 30) said "I want something in return!" He replied by waving his crusty bread in the air.

It may have seemed an eternity, with everything going through his imagination, but after he was done gobbling his teacher’s umani soba, as he was returning to his classroom, a text message from Sena arrived.

* * *

Buzzzzzz!
Buzzzzzz!
# Ha. Ha. Haruta’s Great Escape~!
I couldn’t hear, my ears were closed~!
Something I’ve gotta talk about!
Working out the times tables is too much!
Just working out times tables, is, too, much – Buzzzzzz!
Buzzzzzz!
(# from network)

"...Did you hear me?"

"I didn’t hear you!"

He flipped her a peace sign, and then said clearly, "I did the times tables!" Sena said, "How?" Her ice-blue eyes turned towards him, as chilly as today’s wind.

"Wh, what~... why’re you talking so depressed like. I don’t wanna hear it, you’ll just make me gloomy too..."

"Haruta-kun shouldn’t be getting depressed. It’s my problems we’re talking about, after all."

It could even be said--- the subject of Sena’s gloomy words, a few difficult spots scattered through her times tables, had crept back into her head. Truth be told, Haruta Kouji had been depressed for a while. Then, a sigh escaped him too. More of them wanted to. ...It was not even something they could joke about, walking down the road side by side with the fallen leaves blowing around, hearing such talk was getting to be really depressing.

Sena had asked him to go with her to her college, about ten minutes by private railway from the dirty apartment’s neighborhood. He felt like he was trespassing on the college grounds, clad in a high-school uniform, looking like he might be there for an entrance examination, and checking out the students wandering about, but campus security didn’t try to kick him out, nor even bother him.

While he walked together down the sidewalk with Sena, past a big lawn, the grass turning yellow, he unconsciously hunched his shoulders against the cold wind blowing past them. What you might expect of a college, but still spacious. Far away in the corner of the grounds could be seen a snowbound bunch of trees. Over in that direction some sort of school building had been built. On the steps leading to the main door, on benches scattered here and there, and even on piles of building stone, the forms of students could be seen scattered all over the place. It was already turning towards evening.

"If you didn’t hear me right, then I’ll say it again. You know,"

"Heeey! It’s all right if you repeat yourself, but I’ve already got the idea!"

"...What? I heard you clearly."

"Listening with half an ear..."

---According to Sena.

Once upon a time, there was a certain high school, with a certain four people, young men and women when it all happened.

First, the two girls. The had come from similar backgrounds, and shortly after starting school they became fast friends. The two of them went to the College of Arts, lost themselves in art museums, joined clubs, and then met a pair of guys, close friends from another class. Adding them to their group, in the blink of an eye the four became friends. At the dorms, or exhibitions, or cultural festivals… The four of them attended every event, became best friends and began to call each other, and during the summer of that year, one of the girls and one of the boys fell in love, and officially became a couple.

Becoming second year students, the remaining girl and boy wound up in the same class. Thinking on that, the girl was secretly pleased. Since two of the four were now a couple, the remaining two would naturally be attracted to each other. With just the two meeting up in class, their attraction was steadily gaining strength. In the space of that year, the set of four became a pair of couples.

Then, they were third year students. The storm of cramming for the exams started. Commuting back and forth every day to cram school, preparing for the exams to move up to a specialty within the College of Arts, only once skipping class, returning to work on a plaster design. Winter came, spring came, the only desire of the late-starting couple being to attend the same art school. Of the first couple, the girl went by herself to the school of arts. In the end, the guy didn’t pass the entrance exams and ended up going to a private college of literature.

Nonetheless, the four of them spent every weekend and break together. Since they had become college students, they would stay in the taverns almost to the morning. Even when they threw up on themselves, sick because they were unable to get used to drinking sake, how many hours they passed away talking? They started out sharing the latest news about their various friends from high school days, then talked about their different schools, their new friends, they gossiped about the oddball professors, and the up and coming artists. What the art museums might be doing. Whatever they might have seen or experienced. Who at what age was doing what. What kinds of things they wanted to make. What kinds of urges they found inside themselves. How they were becoming artists. What they were eating. How life and work came together--- the Literature guy, who had already been quiet for a while, now became really quiet and depressed.

He still wanted to go to the College of Arts. He wanted to do as the others, holding to the same dream. But it had fallen through. He couldn’t go a year doing nothing, and it would have been a miracle if they had allowed him to retake the entrance exams. All four had been worried if they would meet the qualifications, but in the end those who judged, the experts of the Fine Arts program, had not chosen him. He hadn’t painted since the test. He wasn’t becoming an artist anymore. He had become a dropout, an outcast. He had withdrawn from the race. It was just him, alone.

They became second year college students, then third year, spring, summer and then fall. The guy bid the girl farewell. Having quit the race, deeply disappointed, at length he began to build a new life with new interests. The girl’s feelings were hurt, then---

"I was robbed. Whatever, there’s so much more out there, I think."

Sena’s hair, tucked into the muffler, fluttered in the cold wind. Haruta was by her side, both of his cold hands stuffed into the pockets of his uniform jacket. After all, he had no choice but to put up with her depressing talk.

"I can’t believe it... it’s only been two weeks since we split up. Ryousuke and I worried about that kid, not leaving him alone every day, going together to drink, though he cried every day when we went out. ...But then one day, Ryousuke, it seems that he took a girl back to his room. I had gone home with some sort of cold. ...On the railway platform, facing the opposite direction from another couple waiting for the train, I saw myself alone. The couple stood side by side, I could not near what they were saying... That moment was terrible, I had an awful feeling. There was no way, I thought... but I got burned.”

# Ha. Ha. Haruta’s...!

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