Baka-Tsuki - User contributions [en]

Golden Time:Volume8 Chapter6

2014-03-28T01:56:24Z

Perfect Chaos: One more typo.

<noinclude>
{{Incomplete|percentage=15}}
==Golden Time 8: Chapter 6==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 6===
'''NOTE:''' From end of page 376 to the end of the chapter.

<center>* * *</center>

That New Year's Eve, I was with Kouko in her living room.

Together with her family, Kouko was stuffed under the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu kotatsu], passing mandarin oranges on from her mother, one after another. Her father was pretending to sit casually next to Kouko the whole time, something I found really annoying. But, I endured it. Strangely, Matsuko also pretended to happen to be at Kouko's side.

According to what Kouko was saying, the guilty party in sending the e-mail that brought them back together was Two Dimensions.

Two Dimensions, it seems, had flipped out at me. Very much so. Looking back on it, I could hardly have helped but get him mad at me.

I had somehow managed to explain, directly, to Yana-ssan and to Oka-chan my condition of having awoken in this body. But in the end, still unable to speak properly to Two Dimensions, I had left school and gone back home.

After I had left Tokyo, I had not been able to explain my situation again at all to Linda nor Kouko, Yana-ssan nor Oka-chan, nor Two Dimensions either, but,

"I was the only one Banri ignored!"

Two Dimensions said, saying he was deeply hurt.

And that I had broken the agreement that bound the three of us, myself, Two Dimensions and Kouko together.

A long time before, at a drinking party for first-years organized by Oka-chan, the three of us had taken a vow that whenever any of us held a drinking party, then we all absolutely had to be there. Two Dimensions swore by the stories he had written, Kouko by her favorite brand, and I had sworn by my password.

As for me, I had completely forgotten about it, and didn't go to a drinking party Two Dimensions was trying to organize. To put it simply, I had broken the oath, with the result being that the password, my collateral, had become forfeit.

Two Dimensions hatched a plan to somehow try and call me back to Tokyo. To that end, of course, it seems he thought that Kouko's presence would help.

If you want to shoot the leader, first aim for his horse. If an e-mail were to arrive, seeming to be from me, sounding sorrowful, Kouko would think about coming back to me. If she saw me acting like that, running by my instincts at earthquakes, even my slow brain being encouraged, she would wonder if his lost memories had been awoken as a result.

And so Two Dimensions, using my password, of his own accord sent a flurry of messages to Kouko, pestering her to get back together with me.

But of course, it wasn't like Kouko was deceived by it. Suspicious, she used my password and logged into my account too, every day, keeping an eye on the mysterious mail being sent to her.

And then, at long last realizing my circumstances, she sent Two Dimensions an e-mail. From that exchange, and from the clearing of the account the next day, Kouko understood quite clearly, and was convinced that the culprit was Two Dimensions. He was the only other person beyond Kouko and I who knew the password.

Kouko, accused Two Dimensions "Why are you doing that kind of thing!?" and you could say they had a real fight. The night of Christmas Eve, in the street in front of the university. While Yana-ssan and Oka-chan desperately tried to stop them, it was a shouting match, coming even to blows--- it sure must have been a terrible sight to see.

As for Two Dimensions, blaming Kouko for having tried to do nothing about my returning home, blaming to the point of tears, seems to have shouted "No matter what, I cannot give up on Banri!"

"One time, I abandoned Banri! I've always regretted that, and felt ashamed of it! I will not give up on him this time! I will do anything!"

He said.

When he said he had abandoned me, he was talking about the time at the spring training camp.

Caught up by that suspicious cult, myself, Kouko and Two Dimensions were constrained to stay in their building. I stayed behind in order to recover the roster and dispose of it, and so everyone else could go home. To accomplish that, I put on an act. However, so that I wouldn't be the only one staying behind, Kouko had returned to the training camp. It seemed that being unable to return at that time, Two Dimensions had regretted it every since.

Hearing Two Dimensions' outburst, the part of Kouko that continued to regret being separated from me that way, if she were to borrow the words for it, would probably have said "I woke up." I can't give up either, it would have said. Still not seeming to change her mind, it told her 'Remember the anniversary of our escape!'

And with that, Kouko did a restart.

For Kouko's sake, Oka-chan exercised her rights. I had promised Oka-chan when she made that video that she really could do whatever she wanted to with it. It didn't matter what: watch it, pass it around, or even erase it. She burnt it to DVD so she could give him a copy, but Oka-chan freely decided her own plan.

"You will be the messenger to deliver this, Kaga-san!"

Kouko, charged with this mission, said she would be able to meet up with me on her own. However, seeing me after a long time, it made no difference if Kouko or Oka-chan came. The mirror that had been loaded with memories and hidden away had been gently returned. She got out from the taxi, and while looking down over the flood-plain, Kouko seemed to be hitting herself over the head. Saying to herself "What am I doing? What else have I not said? There's no meaning in me coming like this..." but then she came running down the bridge to me, laughing like crazy.

As for me, I wonder if I would have laughed like that.

Set into the notebook PC on the kotatsu, the DVD played back. Her parents talked about something while watching the New Year's Eve shows on TV. Earphones plugged into the jack, he divided his attention, listening to Kouko and their voices with one ear.

Incidentally, about her father just now, coming here in the car... that was something I would just as soon forget.

He left the house without saying anything to Kouko; she didn't hear him say he was picking me up. If he had asked her "You've talked about it, don't you want to see him now?" she would have said "It's not like that!" and been embarrassed. He was an incomprehensible middle-aged man, but of course I may grow to be fond of him. It's possible I will always be at the mercy of these genes.

Playing back the video, I was sitting next to Kouko, buried deeply beneath the kotatsu, watching my own face talking. The voice and way of speaking awkwardly stiff, it was strangely embarrassing.

'...Well, what you are seeing is Tada Banri.'

While talking foolishly with an idiotic expression, the me in the screen gave me a speech.

'I suppose right now you're buried underneath a kotatsu...? And you've probably got Matsuko in your arms.'

He seemed to be positively clairvoyant. Matsuko was stretched like a bridge over my stomach and Kouko's, looking spoiled and licking her front paws.

'I suppose Kouko is right next to you. ...Saying that, though, is my wishful thinking. If it turns out that way, good. If that's how it is, then it's already the best it can be.'

With a feeling of 'You see! You see!' I looked over next to me.

I thought, "Eh?"

Unnoticed, Kouko had fallen asleep.

Even though my parents weren't here, so to speak, I managed to relax... traveling alone by bullet train, the world of tea plantations reproaching me, I wondered if weeping and howling, today's fatigue had left me. Her back supported perfectly by her [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaisu zaisu], Kouko had dozed off, her mouth half open. Even though we had been chatting normally until just a little bit ago.

'...Well, though there are many things like this I would ask of all of you, and certainly you, you're okay! This I guarantee! And then, Kouko, I really... ah, err, excuse me, I'm not there, of course. If I could speak directly, that would be best. Yes. You go say it, from your own mouth.'

Stopping the playback, I tapped softly on Kouko's shoulder next to me.

"Kouko. Kouko."

"Uh... yes!? Hey, I wasn't sleeping!?"

While rubbing the sleep from her face as hard as she could, Kouko suddenly straightened up and smiled. Startled by the sudden movement, Matsuko fled.

"You know..."

"What!? Though I wasn't sleeping, what!?"

"For staying here for me, thank you."

"...Oh"

Well, as if just that much were enough. It would be simple, if only he could put it all into words.

And yet, being able to say it directly, here and now, made me happy beyond compare.

<center>* * *</center>

Once more April had come, and a new person had come to this world.

It was Dai and Meiko's firstborn child, a little girl. When Linda and I went to see her, she was crying energetically, her face all red. There was no excuse for how Linda, carelessly, somehow like me, cradled the little, tiny baby in her arms. But Meiko placed her up against my chest, guiding my hands while making me gently carry that new life. Meiko's mother was there with her, standing guard on me with a fierce expression, and my hands trembled from the surplus of pressure.

The new life surrendered to me for a while by Meiko, gingerly held in my arms, driving my mother and friends mad, was a little bread roll. Her warmth soaked into me little by little, to the very bottom of my heart.

In this way, her warmth passed to each in turn, was exchanged with everybody, and life went on. I too had been born into this circle of life, and while I was confused, I still made the journey.

We leave the past, we have the present, and then the future comes to us. If we leave time for the night, the morning comes. However many times the seasons go around, it returns us back to a different spring and once more new days start.

Returning to Tokyo, I also returned to the university. Every bit as much as I expected, not everything started off well right away. Going through by trial and error, I make mistakes and recover from them. As usual, the same old grind.

Doing like this, I once more live in a new present. I still have that note from that time, not having tossed it out. By the way, when I wrote that note with my friends names on it, I had added in "Return favor to Soga Umako-senpai." My memories have not returned completely. "Who!? Honestly, who!? You don't even know to ask Linda!?" said the harassed-to-death person still living next door.

Today I went running too.

Because I had slept in, I was late for meeting up with everybody. My stomach churning (this is bad!), I weaved my way amongst the strangers in the street, crossing others paths, passing them from behind.

At that moment, I realized somebody had called my name.

I turned around.

Just as if I were looking into a mirror, there was a face looking towards me. Saying "What's this?" I peered back, got closer, and then without thinking reached out my hand.

::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;"
|-
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 8: Winter Journey|Main Page]]
|-
|}

Golden Time:Volume8 Chapter6

2014-03-28T01:36:13Z

Perfect Chaos: Another typo.

<noinclude>
{{Incomplete|percentage=15}}
==Golden Time 8: Chapter 6==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 6===
'''NOTE:''' From end of page 376 to the end of the chapter.

<center>* * *</center>

That New Year's Eve, I was with Kouko in her living room.

Together with her family, Kouko was stuffed under the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu kotatsu], passing mandarin oranges on from her mother, one after another. Her father was pretending to sit casually next to Kouko the whole time, something I found really annoying. But, I endured it. Strangely, Matsuko also pretended to happen to be at Kouko's side.

According to what Kouko was saying, the guilty party in sending the e-mail that brought them back together was Two Dimensions.

Two Dimensions, it seems, had flipped out at me. Very much so. Looking back on it, I could hardly have helped but get him mad at me.

I had somehow managed to explain, directly, to Yana-ssan and to Oka-chan my condition of having awoken in this body. But in the end, still unable to speak properly to Two Dimensions, I had left school and gone back home.

After I had left Tokyo, I had not been able to explain my situation again at all to Linda nor Kouko, Yana-ssan nor Oka-chan, nor Two Dimensions either, but,

"I was the only one Banri ignored!"

Two Dimensions said, saying he was deeply hurt.

And that I had broken the agreement that bound the three of us, myself, Two Dimensions and Kouko together.

A long time before, at a drinking party for first-years organized by Oka-chan, the three of us had taken a vow that whenever any of us held a drinking party, then we all absolutely had to be there. Two Dimensions swore by the stories he had written, Kouko by her favorite brand, and I had sworn by my password.

As for me, I had completely forgotten about it, and didn't go to a drinking party Two Dimensions was trying to organize. To put it simply, I had broken the oath, with the result being that the password, my collateral, had become forfeit.

Two Dimensions hatched a plan to somehow try and call me back to Tokyo. To that end, of course, it seems he thought that Kouko's presence would help.

If you want to shoot the leader, first aim for his horse. If an e-mail were to arrive, seeming to be from me, sounding sorrowful, Kouko would think about coming back to me. If she saw me acting like that, running by my instincts at earthquakes, even my slow brain being encouraged, she would wonder if his lost memories had been awoken as a result.

And so Two Dimensions, using my password, of his own accord sent a flurry of messages to Kouko, pestering her to get back together with me.

But of course, it wasn't like Kouko was deceived by it. Suspicious, she used my password and logged into my account too, every day, keeping an eye on the mysterious mail being sent to her.

And then, at long last realizing my circumstances, she sent Two Dimensions an e-mail. From that exchange, and from the clearing of the account the next day, Kouko understood quite clearly, and was convinced that the culprit was Two Dimensions. He was the only other person beyond Kouko and I who knew the password.

Kouko, accused Two Dimensions "Why are you doing that kind of thing!?" and you could say they had a real fight. The night of Christmas Eve, in the street in front of the university. While Yana-ssan and Oka-chan desperately tried to stop them, it was a shouting match, coming even to blows--- it sure must have been a terrible sight to see.

As for Two Dimensions, blaming Kouko for having tried to do nothing about my returning home, blaming to the point of tears, seems to have shouted "No matter what, I cannot give up on Banri!"

"One time, I abandoned Banri! I've always regretted that, and felt ashamed of it! I will not give up on him this time! I will do anything!"

He said.

When he said he had abandoned me, he was talking about the time at the spring training camp.

Caught up by that suspicious cult, myself, Kouko and Two Dimensions were constrained to stay in their building. I stayed behind in order to recover the roster and dispose of it, and so everyone else could go home. To accomplish that, I put on an act. However, so that I wouldn't be the only one staying behind, Kouko had returned to the training camp. It seemed that being unable to return at that time, Two Dimensions had regretted it every since.

Hearing Two Dimensions' outburst, the part of Kouko that continued to regret being separated from me that way, if she were to borrow the words for it, would probably have said "I woke up." I can't give up either, it would have said. Still not seeming to change her mind, it told her 'Remember the anniversary of our escape!'

And with that, Kouko did a restart.

For Kouko's sake, Oka-chan exercised her rights. I had promised Oka-chan when she made that video that she really could do whatever she wanted to with it. It didn't matter what: watch it, pass it around, or even erase it. She burnt it to DVD so she could give him a copy, but Oka-chan freely decided her own plan.

"You will be the messenger to deliver this, Kaga-san!"

Kouko, charged with this mission, said she would be able to meet up with me on her own. However, seeing me after a long time, it made no difference if Kouko or Oka-chan came. The mirror that had been loaded with memories and hidden away had been gently returned. She got out from the taxi, and while looking down over the flood-plain, Kouko seemed to be hitting herself over the head. Saying to herself "What am I doing? What else have I not said? There's no meaning in me coming like this..." but then she came running down the bridge to me, laughing like crazy.

As for me, I wonder if I would have laughed like that.

Set into the notebook PC on the kotatsu, the DVD played back. Her parents talked about something while watching the New Year's Eve shows on TV. Earphones plugged into the jack, he divided his attention, listening to Kouko and their voices with one ear.

Incidentally, about her father just now, coming here in the car... that was something I would just as soon forget.

He left the house without saying anything to Kouko; she didn't hear him say he was picking me up. If he had asked her "You've talked about it, don't you want to see him now?" she would have said "It's not like that!" and been embarrassed. He was an incomprehensible middle-aged man, but of course I may grow to be fond of him. It's possible I will always be at the mercy of these genes.

Playing back the video, I was sitting next to Kouko, buried deeply beneath the kotatsu, watching my own face talking. The voice and way of speaking awkwardly stiff, it was strangely embarrassing.

'...Well, what you are seeing is Tada Banri.'

While talking foolishly with an idiotic expression, the me in the screen gave me a speech.

'I suppose right now you're buried underneath a kotatsu...? And you've probably got Matsuko in your arms.'

He seemed to be positively clairvoyant. Matsuko was stretched like a bridge over my stomach and Kouko's, looking spoiled and licking her front paws.

'I suppose Kouko is right next to you. ...Saying that, though, is my wishful thinking. If it turns out that way, good. If that's how it is, then it's already the best it can be.'

With a feeling of 'You see! You see!' I looked over next to me.

I thought, "Eh?"

Unnoticed, Kouko had fallen asleep.

Even though my parents weren't here, so to speak, I managed to relax... traveling alone by bullet train, the world of tea plantations reproaching me, I wondered if weeping and howling, today's fatigue had left me. Her back supported perfectly by her [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaisu zaisu], Kouko had dozed off, her mouth half open. Even though we had been chatting normally until just a little bit ago.

'...Well, though there are many things like this I would ask of all of you, and certainly you, you're okay! This I guarantee! And then, Kouko, I really... ah, err, excuse me, I'm not there, of course. If I could speak directly, that would be best. Yes. You go say it, from your own mouth.'

Stopping the playback, I tapped softly on Kouko's shoulder next to me.

"Kouko. Kouko."

"Uh... yes!? Hey, I wasn't sleeping!?"

While rubbing the sleep from her face as hard as she could, Kouko suddenly straightened up and smiled. Startled by the sudden movement, Matsuko fled.

"You know..."

"What!? Though I wasn't sleeping, what!?"

"For staying here for me, thank you."

"...Oh"

Well, as if just that much were enough. It would be simple, if only he could put it all into words.

And yet, being able to say it directly, here and now, made me happy beyond compare.

<center>* * *</center>

Once more April had come, and a new person had come to this world.

It was Dai and Meiko's firstborn child, a little girl. When Linda and I went to see her, she was crying energetically, her face all red. There was no excuse for how Linda, carelessly, somehow like me, cradled the little, tiny baby in her arms. But Meiko placed her up against my chest, guiding my hands while making me gently carry that new life. Meiko's mother was there with her, standing guard on me with a fierce expression, and my hands trembled from the surplus of pressure.

The new life surrendered to me for a while by Meiko, gingerly held in my arms, driving my mother and friends mad, was little a little bread roll. Her warmth soaked into me little by little, to the very bottom of my heart.

In this way, her warmth passed to each in turn, was exchanged with everybody, and life went on. I too had been born into this circle of life, and while I was confused, I still made the journey.

We leave the past, we have the present, and then the future comes to us. If we leave time for the night, the morning comes. However many times the seasons go around, it returns us back to a different spring and once more new days start.

Returning to Tokyo, I also returned to the university. Every bit as much as I expected, not everything started off well right away. Going through by trial and error, I make mistakes and recover from them. As usual, the same old grind.

Doing like this, I once more live in a new present. I still have that note from that time, not having tossed it out. By the way, when I wrote that note with my friends names on it, I had added in "Return favor to Soga Umako-senpai." My memories have not returned completely. "Who!? Honestly, who!? You don't even know to ask Linda!?" said the harassed-to-death person still living next door.

Today I went running too.

Because I had slept in, I was late for meeting up with everybody. My stomach churning (this is bad!), I weaved my way amongst the strangers in the street, crossing others paths, passing them from behind.

At that moment, I realized somebody had called my name.

I turned around.

Just as if I were looking into a mirror, there was a face looking towards me. Saying "What's this?" I peered back, got closer, and then without thinking reached out my hand.

::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;"
|-
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 8: Winter Journey|Main Page]]
|-
|}

Golden Time:Volume8 Chapter6

2014-03-28T01:28:50Z

Perfect Chaos: Fixed small typo.

<noinclude>
{{Incomplete|percentage=15}}
==Golden Time 8: Chapter 6==
</noinclude>
===Chapter 6===
'''NOTE:''' From end of page 376 to the end of the chapter.

<center>* * *</center>

That New Year's Eve, I was with Kouko in her living room.

Together with her family, Kouko was stuffed under the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu kotatsu], passing mandarin oranges on from her mother, one after another. Her father was pretending to sit casually next to Kouko the whole time, something I found really annoying. But, I endured it. Strangely, Matsuko also pretended to happen to be at Kouko's side.

According to what Kouko was saying, the guilty party in sending the e-mail that brought them back together was Two Dimensions.

Two Dimensions, it seems, had flipped out at me. Very much so. Looking back on it, I could hardly have helped but get him mad at me.

I had somehow managed to explain, directly, to Yana-ssan and to Oka-chan my condition of having awoken in this body. But in the end, still unable to speak properly to Two Dimensions, I had left school and gone back home.

After I had left Tokyo, I had not been able to explain my situation again at all to Linda nor Kouko, Yana-ssan nor Oka-chan, nor Two Dimensions either, but,

"I was the only one Banri ignored!"

Two Dimensions said, saying he was deeply hurt.

And that I had broken the agreement that bound the three of us, myself, Two Dimensions and Kouko together.

A long time before, at a drinking party for first-years organized by Oka-chan, the three of us had taken a vow that whenever any of us held a drinking party, then we all absolutely had to be there. Two Dimensions swore by the stories he had written, Kouko by her favorite brand, and I had sworn by my password.

As for me, I had completely forgotten about it, and didn't go to a drinking party Two Dimensions was trying to organize. To put it simply, I had broken the oath, with the result being that the password, my collateral, had become forfeit.

Two Dimensions hatched a plan to somehow try and call me back to Tokyo. To that end, of course, it seems he thought that Kouko's presence would help.

If you want to shoot the leader, first aim for his horse. If an e-mail were to arrive, seeming to be from me, sounding sorrowful, Kouko would think about coming back to me. If she saw me acting like that, running by my instincts at earthquakes, even my slow brain being encouraged, she would wonder if his lost memories had been awoken as a result.

And so Two Dimensions, using my password, of his own accord sent a flurry of messages to Kouko, pestering her to get back together with me.

But of course, it wasn't like Kouko was deceived by it. Suspicious, she used my password and logged into my account too, every day, keeping an eye on the mysterious mail being sent to her.

And then, at long last realizing my circumstances, she sent Two Dimensions an e-mail. From that exchange, and from the clearing of the account the next day, Kouko understood quite clearly, and was convinced that the culprit was Two Dimensions. He was the only other person beyond Kouko and I who knew the password.

Kouko, accused Two Dimensions "Why are you doing that kind of thing!?" and you could say they had a real fight. The night of Christmas Eve, in the street in front of the university. While Yana-ssan and Oka-chan desperately tried to stop them, it was a shouting match, coming even to blows--- it sure must have been a terrible sight to see.

As for Two Dimensions, blaming Kouko for having tried to do nothing about my returning home, blaming to the point of tears, seems to have shouted "No matter what, I cannot give up on Banri!"

"One time, I abandoned Banri! I've always regretted that, and felt ashamed of it! I will not give up on him this time! I will do anything!"

He said.

When he said he had abandoned me, he was talking about the time at the spring training camp.

Caught up by that suspicious cult, myself, Kouko and Two Dimensions were constrained to stay in their building. I stayed behind in order to recover the roster and dispose of it, and so everyone else could go home. To accomplish that, I put on an act. However, so that I wouldn't be the only one staying behind, Kouko had returned to the training camp. It seemed that being unable to return at that time, Two Dimensions had regretted it every since.

Hearing Two Dimensions' outburst, the part of Kouko that continued to regret being separated from me that way, if she were to borrow the words for it, would probably have said "I woke up." I can't give up either, it would have said. Still not seeming to change her mind, it told her 'Remember the anniversary of our escape!'

And with that, Kouko did a restart.

For Kouko's sake, Oka-chan exercised her rights. I had promised Oka-chan when she made that video that she really could do whatever she wanted to with it. It didn't matter what: watch it, pass it around, or even erase it. She burnt it to DVD so she could give him a copy, but Oka-chan freely decided her own plan.

"You will be the messenger to deliver this, Kaga-san!"

Kouko, charged with this mission, said she would be to meet up with me on her own. However, seeing me after a long time, it made no difference if Kouko or Oka-chan came. The mirror that had been loaded with memories and hidden away had been gently returned. She got out from the taxi, and while looking down over the flood-plain, Kouko seemed to be hitting herself over the head. Saying to herself "What am I doing? What else have I not said? There's no meaning in me coming like this..." but then she came running down the bridge to me, laughing like crazy.

As for me, I wonder if I would have laughed like that.

Set into the notebook PC on the kotatsu, the DVD played back. Her parents talked about something while watching the New Year's Eve shows on TV. Earphones plugged into the jack, he divided his attention, listening to Kouko and their voices with one ear.

Incidentally, about her father just now, coming here in the car... that was something I would just as soon forget.

He left the house without saying anything to Kouko; she didn't hear him say he was picking me up. If he had asked her "You've talked about it, don't you want to see him now?" she would have said "It's not like that!" and been embarrassed. He was an incomprehensible middle-aged man, but of course I may grow to be fond of him. It's possible I will always be at the mercy of these genes.

Playing back the video, I was sitting next to Kouko, buried deeply beneath the kotatsu, watching my own face talking. The voice and way of speaking awkwardly stiff, it was strangely embarrassing.

'...Well, what you are seeing is Tada Banri.'

While talking foolishly with an idiotic expression, the me in the screen gave me a speech.

'I suppose right now you're buried underneath a kotatsu...? And you've probably got Matsuko in your arms.'

He seemed to be positively clairvoyant. Matsuko was stretched like a bridge over my stomach and Kouko's, looking spoiled and licking her front paws.

'I suppose Kouko is right next to you. ...Saying that, though, is my wishful thinking. If it turns out that way, good. If that's how it is, then it's already the best it can be.'

With a feeling of 'You see! You see!' I looked over next to me.

I thought, "Eh?"

Unnoticed, Kouko had fallen asleep.

Even though my parents weren't here, so to speak, I managed to relax... traveling alone by bullet train, the world of tea plantations reproaching me, I wondered if weeping and howling, today's fatigue had left me. Her back supported perfectly by her [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaisu zaisu], Kouko had dozed off, her mouth half open. Even though we had been chatting normally until just a little bit ago.

'...Well, though there are many things like this I would ask of all of you, and certainly you, you're okay! This I guarantee! And then, Kouko, I really... ah, err, excuse me, I'm not there, of course. If I could speak directly, that would be best. Yes. You go say it, from your own mouth.'

Stopping the playback, I tapped softly on Kouko's shoulder next to me.

"Kouko. Kouko."

"Uh... yes!? Hey, I wasn't sleeping!?"

While rubbing the sleep from her face as hard as she could, Kouko suddenly straightened up and smiled. Startled by the sudden movement, Matsuko fled.

"You know..."

"What!? Though I wasn't sleeping, what!?"

"For staying here for me, thank you."

"...Oh"

Well, as if just that much were enough. It would be simple, if only he could put it all into words.

And yet, being able to say it directly, here and now, made me happy beyond compare.

<center>* * *</center>

Once more April had come, and a new person had come to this world.

It was Dai and Meiko's firstborn child, a little girl. When Linda and I went to see her, she was crying energetically, her face all red. There was no excuse for how Linda, carelessly, somehow like me, cradled the little, tiny baby in her arms. But Meiko placed her up against my chest, guiding my hands while making me gently carry that new life. Meiko's mother was there with her, standing guard on me with a fierce expression, and my hands trembled from the surplus of pressure.

The new life surrendered to me for a while by Meiko, gingerly held in my arms, driving my mother and friends mad, was little a little bread roll. Her warmth soaked into me little by little, to the very bottom of my heart.

In this way, her warmth passed to each in turn, was exchanged with everybody, and life went on. I too had been born into this circle of life, and while I was confused, I still made the journey.

We leave the past, we have the present, and then the future comes to us. If we leave time for the night, the morning comes. However many times the seasons go around, it returns us back to a different spring and once more new days start.

Returning to Tokyo, I also returned to the university. Every bit as much as I expected, not everything started off well right away. Going through by trial and error, I make mistakes and recover from them. As usual, the same old grind.

Doing like this, I once more live in a new present. I still have that note from that time, not having tossed it out. By the way, when I wrote that note with my friends names on it, I had added in "Return favor to Soga Umako-senpai." My memories have not returned completely. "Who!? Honestly, who!? You don't even know to ask Linda!?" said the harassed-to-death person still living next door.

Today I went running too.

Because I had slept in, I was late for meeting up with everybody. My stomach churning (this is bad!), I weaved my way amongst the strangers in the street, crossing others paths, passing them from behind.

At that moment, I realized somebody had called my name.

I turned around.

Just as if I were looking into a mirror, there was a face looking towards me. Saying "What's this?" I peered back, got closer, and then without thinking reached out my hand.

::The End

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Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1

2013-11-16T09:44:31Z

Perfect Chaos:

<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 Barneys 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 out 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, you got the break wrong~! It's not 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, whenever it is? 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/>

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
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Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1

2013-11-16T07:25:24Z

Perfect Chaos:

<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 Barneys 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 out 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/>

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
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Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1

2013-11-14T09:57:39Z

Perfect Chaos:

<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 Barneys 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/>

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
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Golden Time:Volume2 Prologue

2013-11-14T08:38:24Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 2: Prologue==
</noinclude>
===Prologue===

The color of their class T-shirts was yellow.

On the front side, in large characters fading from deep green to orange was their graduation year, "3-4", drawn with a font to make them appear as if they were flying out towards you. On the back side in light blue was their home-room teacher's name, and then all forty of the class member's names were written in small letters, made to look like an English-language newspaper.

Though it looked rather crude, the design wasn't bad. If you were to look at it finished, you might very well call it something a high-schooler had made as a memento of graduation.

But to get to this point was a battle.

It was good to see the enthusiasm, "Let's make matching goods for the whole class!", but first they argued about whether to make T-shirts, ecobags or straps, and when they settled on making T-shirts, they then argued about the color, the design, the font... anyhow, they argued about everything the whole time. Did they argue so much on purpose?

Nevertheless, there was nobody speaking out, saying "enough, stop it". Everybody was aware of how much time remained before they graduated. Their state: the home room shut down and everybody arguing at once, would not happen a second time in their lives. Perhaps it was because they knew they wouldn't have another chance.

From gathering everybody's opinions, to placing an order with a contractor, had taken two whole months.

From that point they waited another month, and forty special order T-shirts arrived at the end of February.

In class, since springtime, half of them had decided their lines of study.

Of the remainder, some still had to take their entrance exams, some were still awaiting the results of their exams, some had decided to try again next year, some were working various part time jobs, and some were hoping to take over their family businesses.

Whether bright or gloomy, anyhow everybody had their own outlook. Even though their various circumstances varied, on that day everybody’s face was present in the classroom.

They lovingly passed around the plastic bags from the cardboard box, each with T-shirts packed inside. Waiting until everybody got theirs, they opened their bags simultaneously with a tearing sound.

All at once, shouts of joy erupted.

They went through the invoice, figured out who's was who's, and got them all passed out. It was nice to see such reasonableness from high school students. Things got more lively right away. One after another people put them on over their uniform shirts, pointed at each other while telling each other "It looks good on you!", gave each other high-fives, mugged to have their pictures taken with cell-phones, and even, overcome with emotion, put their arms weirdly over the shoulders of their fellow classmates.

In the middle of such uproar, nevertheless alone, seated in a chair, frozen in place as if he were dead, there was one more fellow.

"My name..."

He was Tada Banri.

"My name... is the only one missing..."

Banri was running his finger back and forth over the back side of the T-shirt spread out on his desk, verifying the lined up names over and over again. Slowly, carefully, so as not to mistake any letters for something else.

Yet he couldn't find his own name. However many times he counted them, from the very start he came up with thirty-nine names of students.

His own name only, nowhere.

However many times he checked, it did not change. Eventually, his field of vision began to tremble.

Without warning, he had been erased. It had been decided that he did not exist. Even though he'd always been there. Even though he'd been together here with them.

Or, was it that he only thought he was together with everybody?

He tried to mutter to himself, "Let's turn it all into a joke," but at that very moment, like they'd become a stupid faucet, tears overflowed from Banri's eyes.

This plan, how dare they? They dared remove Tada? How could only he, amongst the forty people in this private liberal arts course of study, with no shuffling since the second year, not notice that he was disliked and being shunned?

Saying "I must be gray!" aloud, he blushed suddenly in embarrassment at his memories. Though he was fully flushed now, strangely, his tension had risen, and Banri stubbornly continued in his assertion. Still alone in the middle of a class roughly half blue and half yellow, he concluded with an odd heat that he was gray. Of course I'm feeling awfully gray! I must be a mix of black and white! Gray must be my only choice! ---I must have been rejected. Come to think of it, he was even turning yellow. In truth, nobody noticed Banri, and their cold expressions said "You're nothing anyway..."

How could they be this way? How low could they go? They'd broken his heart. If he was going to be publicly humiliated like this, treated like a convicted criminal, he wanted rather to be smashed to little bits and disappear from this place at once.

"Eh!? Banri!? What's with you; what's the matter!?"

The one who noticed Banri secretly choked by tears and gasping, whose body was bent over him and whose face was looking him, was Linda. "What what what, what's happening? What's wrong?", she pulled on his sleeve to shake him.

"M, mai! Mai, dame...!"

---My name isn't there!

Somehow saying only that, Banri turned away Linda's hand and fell flat on his desk.

Wouldn't Linda have known too? Just before preparing for the last scene of their high school life, this excessively cruel play at erasing him.

"Wow, Tada's crying something awful!", some girl commented from behind, and all the happy chattering in the classroom suddenly stopped, and it went completely quiet. Banri thought. Will the public execution start at this point? Hey, you've noticed? It was intentional. We girls, and then the guys, in truth have always thought you were annoying. You have no presence at all. That was just what his friends and others over there had to be thinking... what kind of expression would he need to guard against the cutting edge of such words?

"It's true, what the heck! Teacher! Banri's name isn't here!"

He lifted his tear-stained face.

The truth rang out in Linda's strong voice, her warm hand rested on the back of Banri's blazer as if to cheer him up.

The home-room teacher in front twisted his glasses and said "Are you kidding?", and started verifying the names in the list. Before long, from here and there he could hear "Ah, it's true", "Horrible", "This, of course for Tada we will have to get them to do it over, right?", and so on, and those that had put them on already took them off, and every began to return the T-shirts to their plastic bags.

Finally Banri, from this seeing that he wasn't being shunned, understood that it was merely a mistake of the manufacturer.

And as he understood, suddenly ashamed of having shed a flood of tears, having overreacted to a little mistake,

"...I, I'd thought it was on purpose... in a hurry... I'd thought I'd been left out to die...!"

Trying to somehow restore his sticky face to normal, he hurriedly rubbed around his eyes with both hands. Third-year high school student, male. Even though he might look like one.

"No no no, how could such a thing be? Aah, sheesh, what a dunce you are, Banri. Don't cry over such a thing, now come over here."

While talking as if she were exasperated with him, Linda was rubbing Banri's head with her hands, stirring up his hair as if he were a house dog. "Wow, Tada's really smiling", some girl could again be heard muttering, and Banri in an instant realized that he was grinning.

Linda didn't care, and she looked Banri straight in the eyes,

"Once we're apart... I, for one, will be worried about you. Really and truly. Will you be OK once I'm not here?"

She spoke in a low voice. His grinning face stiffening, at that moment Banri too understood. He could not give an answer, his still-stiffened mouth twitching awkwardly. Once spring arrived, Linda will have left for Tokyo. Himself, here, from Shizuoka, after a year not studying hard enough, could not leave. Because, blast it all, he'd entirely failed to enter the school he'd chosen. The time of their separation, even now, even this very instant, was without a doubt drawing closer.

And then, several weeks to exchange everybody's goods.

By the time the revised class T-shirts, with Tada Banri's name entered correctly, arrived from the vendor, it was the night before the graduation ceremony.

And then today, everybody wearing them, they had a wholesome class party under the supervision of their homeroom teacher, gathered together in a private karaoke room. Tears, tears from a graduation safely achieved, this evening.

It was completely over with by nine o'clock at night.

Banri was walking aimlessly, Linda a little behind him--- he was pretending a certain degree of composure, but in truth, in his heart he was barely there as they walked.

A mild breeze, a little strong, was disturbing what remained of the day's clear skies and warm weather.

This area was not like that near Banri's home, rather than tea plantations there were normal farms, and then rather than farms there were many houses. There were convenience stores with spacious parking lots, and there were little co-op housing units with gaudy towel-blankets with character designs, indecently hung out to dry. There were local bookstores, a takoyaki place with an octopus on its sign, and a candy-store, and if they were to look a bit to the other side, a huge and brilliantly illuminated billboard for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uny APiTA] washing out the night sky. Three two-seated bicycles passed them by, even in the darkness they could tell it was a Brazilian family.

Though they were graduated from high school, until three days ago they had still been high-schoolers.

While the two of them were walking in such a vague, ambiguous night, Banri finally spoke the words he had been preparing forever.

"...Yes, or no?"

Upon leaving the intersection, Linda slowly turned towards him. There wasn't anybody else crossing. Right now there weren't cars either.

Beneath the streetlight in the quiet of the night, he couldn't see the expression on her face very well for the shadows. In Linda's hand was a paper bag. She had put a long-haired brown wig in there. Banri was holding a blonde wig openly in his right hand. Banri as Lady Gaga, Linda as Beyonce. They'd done a duet in full character, showing off in front of the whole class.

"I would like a clear answer. This is the end of the beginning. For that reason, I would like a one word answer."

The duet came off pretty good. Banri and Linda really were a good combination. While their classmates were half in shock, they laughed and said they were the same as ever.

"I don't want to be separated from you. If we are separated, it will never be OK. ...Because I love you. I want to be with you every day. I want to be with you forever. I don't want to go out with any other girl, nor do I want you to date some other guy. To be best friends, or like brother and sister, perhaps, is no longer what I need. If you were to have the same feelings... to love me, to come to love each other, if you thought so towards me... I, want to go to Tokyo with you. My parents even told me it was OK to go to a public preparatory school in Tokyo to get ready. But then, afterwards... afterwards I would be alone. I would just like Linda's answer."

Yes?

No?

Catching the wig from the inside with his finger and swinging it around, Banri watched it motionlessly. The tangled bunch of hair shone with a smooth tint that looked fake. He’d bought it off the net. For 2900 yen. In the same way pretending to not be concerned, however, but, in reality--- kind of like the wig. Not even wanting to look. Looking not even being necessary. But not knowing if it was OK to look anywhere. As it was, if he were to stand up the shivering of his miserable form would expose him.

Turning towards Banri, Linda held up one finger.

As if he were a cat, Banri’s eyes were captured by that fingertip.

"Could you wait a bit for me? ...Let me sleep on it. Is that OK?"

He nodded.

He picked up his wig from where it had fallen to the ground. Lightly wiping off the tangled artificial wig, thinking a bit about what was best to do,

"Understood. See you tomorrow then. I’ll be waiting for your answer."

For the time being, he put it on his head.

"Since I’ll be waiting..."

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume2 Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
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Golden Time:Volume1 Postscript

2013-11-13T11:21:51Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>==Golden Time 1: Postscript==</noinclude>
==Postscript==

This is Tokyo. Right now, it’s the end of August. This is a coffee shop. It’s just past ten in the morning. Outside it is already a world of intense heat.

Leaving the house triply armored against ultraviolet rays with a hat, a parasol and sun block, I was walking down the street, passing in front of an elementary school, when the kids, on summer break, shouting "Pyaaa!", "Kyoo!" and such, went running past me one by one, leaving slow me behind in their dust.

"Is there a pool near here? Are they that wound up already?", I thought, in aunt mode watching attentively before me, the kids running while tearing off their clothing. Wellll, for a moment I began to get impatient.

Of course, they were wearing swimsuits underneath, and they had taken off their shoes too, everyone in the stampede around the school gate was barefoot. In the schoolyard a bunch of adults looking like teachers were lying in wait for the kids, hoses in their hands. They aimed the hoses upwards, opened them fully, and started spraying the kids. Tossing nearby the clothes they’d taken off, the kids were already screaming in excitement. All of them, acting like little wild beasts. With the sheet of spray they’d made a rainbow. Stopping automatically, I gazed on the sight.

Because already... come now.

The smell of chlorine was rising, the humidity too, the cheers also, and the scorching sun...!

From the bottom of my heart, really, it was all mixed together...!

This slow person shamefully wanted to throw off her UV-armor and join the uproar, being splashed in fresh water wearing only one set of underwear! I mean, maybe even my panties have gone transparent! Bravely throwing off my clothes, with my body still fresh as a newborn, a frolicking sopping wet 32-year old Yuyuko! Such a super crazy spectacle it would have been, but with heart! The heart of a child! So it's OK then! Okaaay then!

...But isn't that wrong!?

Wouldn't I be arrested!?

Isn't it so...!?

Well then, as it happens, I cannot really get away with such matters of undressing, having a body way too overripe, and once more, to all of you I would like to express my humblest thanks.

I have given into your hands 'Golden Time'.

You have stayed with me all the way to the postscript.

I truly thank you, very much! With this new work, I've been looking forward to your reactions very much, even with awful, awful fear. A little, but wasn't it a fun time we've passed through?

As we moved ahead with the story, we said that our protagonists left Shizuoka to live in Tokyo. Those are only place names... "Shizuoka", "Tokyo" and the rest, officially, they are fictional towns. The real places are a little different, so please accept the mixture in the world of the written text. The erotic-sounding bell actually sounds normal, and to cross the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Drai_Bridge bridge] you pay a small toll. Even with regards to the college, there is no particular concrete model for it.

And now the next volume. We are preparing to deliver it to you around next spring. ...Now, don't give me those dirty looks, but, that's about as fast as I can do! I'm full of energy! I plan to keep working hard on my writing! At the very least, the spirit is willing! I will continue somehow; there is no better happiness for me than your interest. Please treat us well.

...Well then, right now it's really bright outside, and 104 degrees.

These few days, the sun has been blazing like this all the time. It's really hot, to the point of heat exhaustion. Yesterday was hot too, without thinking from 11:30 on I had a yakiniku lunch, but (My hat is anti-heat-fatigue. Just meat with a lot of rice is my normal serving. My appetite isn't there.) (And then, I got here a bit early, since it gets crowded by noontime. Making the most of my status as "self employed professional", and my sly knack for time management--- The Lunchbreak Shift (a.k.a. Escape from Employment)), for some reason my chopsticks are shaking, wobbling from side to side in my field of vision.

Look, and you would see an older woman you don't know, her mouth stuffed full of meat. ...Ah but you'd be wrong, it'd be me... the reflection of my figure dominates the mirror, doesn't it? The reflection is my profile. In which, what you see wobbling in that mirror are my jaws, you see, hardly chubby at all, alluringly shiny, furthermore, there's even more reflected in the mirror: the scenery behind me.

You know what I mean...?

To put it simply, my face has been disguised by optical camouflage equipment.

"...That so?~", I only nodded. While I'm eating meat, "That so? That so?~" "That one over there~, the girl past thirty being disguised by optical camouflage~" "All of you~, can you see~?" "Over here!~" "She's ... right ... here!" ...My life is a mess. Already, it really is a mess. Any time now I will be a complete wreck...

Nonetheless, one way or another I live, disappearing from this world through optical camouflage. The next volume of the story is taking shape, for certain. We want to deliver it to your waiting hands as soon as possible! That's our plan.

Having said all that, you have stuck with me to the end. Once more, thank you very much. Please be kind to the second volume when it comes out! What would make me happier than anything else, if it's something you feel like doing, then by all means, please let me know what you think about it. Even if it's something brief, even if only one word! Of course, even if it's only a quick drawing!

And now to my illustrator, Komatsu Eeji, and my editor, I ask their patience as I continue working towards the next volume. Like a bunch of kids I don't know, suffering from the heat, let's run as fast as we can!

:竹宮ゆゆこ
:Takemiya Yuyuko

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Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5

2013-11-12T10:45:23Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 5==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 5==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 198.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri has spotted me.

Being made fun of in a strangely confused moment in time while that long-missed seductive bell was ringing, while gasping in pain, Banri certainly saw me that day. And I saw him too.

The present and the past connecting in the middle of that bridge, Banri and I, our eyes met for only a moment. Mine, or possibly Banri's, maybe both side's mistake in vision, a bad guess, an accidental misunderstanding, a mysterious illusion, a common daydream, what he thought didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Anyway, the memory of that moment in my past certainly exists. This phenomenon, whatever you might call it, as far as I'm concerned, is real.

<center>* * *</center>

Serenely, Kouko said she was trying to collect the objective facts.

"To summarize them, Mitsuo and I are bound by fate. That is to say, it's been proven over and over again."

With a thump, she put a big paper bag from a department store, packed full of stuff, on the table in front of Banri. The table shaking and creaking from the weight, an older gentleman next to them, an espresso in one hand, briefly looked towards them. "Excuse me...", Banri bowing his head in a working class sort of way.

A little before three in the afternoon, walking from campus a short distance to the café--- which had now become outrageously memorable, the shop where they served café-au-lait in bowls. Thinking that perhaps they shouldn't go there a second time, they peeked into other cafes but found them completely full, and they finally settled down here, where they thought they might be able to have a quiet conversation.

"If I can pile up enough objective truth before his eyes, I think even Mitsuo would not be able to avoid his responsibility. ...And you could say, being a little law-school-ish would be good right now, eh?"

Holding her bowl in both hands, sipping café-au-lait as if it were soup, Kouko could be seen smiling.

Taking his bowl in both hands like she was, Banri stared at her.

"...I couldn't get out even though I'd had enough of the lecture."

As if asking "What was that?", Kouko raised one of her beautifully cared-for eyebrows and looked back at Banri's eyes.

Between deep red lips, a line of pure white teeth. Smooth cheeks. The skin about her eyes was stretched smoothly. From her slim fingers, neatly manicured, to the line from her hips to her crossed legs, she was perfect in every way. Calmly returning her café-au-lait bowl to its saucer, she looked out the window, elegantly composed.

Since that "worst day", when they'd escaped their awful situation, four days had passed. Having taken a break, it seemed that Kouko had gotten back on her feet. However.

"Well then, Kaga-san, are you really feeling better now? With how you were feeling Wednesday and all, not attending and looking like you were going to fail the class! All the first years but you have been getting perfect attendance."

"I just had to have a little time. Alone, by myself, thinking. And I arrived at a conclusion that of course I did the right thing. It wasn't a mistake. It was just right. ...As long as I keep to my plans, things will have to work out!"

Finally up to the task, even if only in front of Banri, as if acting the part of "the Perfect Kaga Kouko", she slowly raised her chin and smiled with her whole face. He could not discover even one flaw, not one spot on her creamy white throat.

With Kouko at long last back to school, just like that, Banri was even more high spirited than he had been worried before.

Wounded by Yanagisawa's cold attitude, confused by Chinami's entry into the fray, and along the way, embarrassed by Omaken, he had felt that she must certainly have been feeling down. Those four days, Banri had been really worried about Kouko. The day before, he had even called out to Linda when he spotted her in the lobby, and while leaving out the details, consulted with her about what to do about Kouko.

Banri said that she seems to be lost, because she's so clumsy at it she's ashamed to join Omaken, and Linda replied, "Pressuring her won't do any good. But, it would be boring without a partner," with a nod. "If Kouko was so inclined, of course they would be happy, she would always be welcome, and it's OK if she's a bit confused up until when she agrees to join." Simply calling Kouko his partner, just that much was making Banri feel strangely embarrassed.

"What were you thinking about? There's no mistaking Mitsuo and I are bound together, just not completely yet. There's proof, such that nobody can evade, perfect proof."

Kouko was stubborn to the end.

Her straight-blown hair spilled right down her back, held by a hairband wrapped in a deep gray and purple satin design. In her dark brown hair, it really looked pretty. Then,

"Justice will be mine!"

She nodded vigorously, showing her enthusiasm. She was wearing a snow white blouse. Emphasizing the courtroom style, she had on a slender, mannish vest. And a black tie. And a black miniskirt, black tights and black high heels. She had the evidence stuffed in a paper bag, and carried a high-class brand of briefcase. Together with how she threw her head back, today's Kouko really, how can you say it? ... She seemed to be doing an impression of a sexy lawyer.

Banri even now didn't understand where Kouko got her certainty. The proof, the proof, she was saying, but in reality up to this point, seeing the so-called 'satisfactory relationship' that Yanagisawa and Kouko had, he didn't think there was such a thing in this world as pulling out "objective facts".

Rather, he didn't think a man's heart could be moved to one's own convenience.

Though thinking about it, he didn't want to say anything negative to this Kouko, just barely returned, finally, from getting back on her feet.

"Wellll...", carefully saying little, resting his chin on his hand, Banri's cellphone buzzed.

It was a text from Yanagisawa.

"''Yana''-ssan said the lecture is over. He's coming this way now."

"Did he happen to ask you if I was here too?"

"Yes, yes, he did", said Banri, nodding. Though it seemed she was coming to school, after the lecture they hadn't spoken but a bit. "What're we doing?", was all Kouko had said along the way.

Once he came alongside Banri, Yanagisawa answered frankly, "I wanted to talk with Kouko too, amongst other things." While he was speaking that way, he gave a brief glance full of meaning that even Banri wasn't fool enough to not notice. He couldn't recall even one time that Yanagisawa had actually wanted to talk with Kouko.

As if she were satisfied, Kouko's back became even straighter.

"Look at this, will you? Perfect. Of course, you've been worrying about me, for a long time. You've repented of how coldly you were treating me. And then, little by little, unknown to yourself, I have filled up your heart. That is quite according to our perfect scenario."

Then as she were just remembering it, she took out a hand mirror from her pouch, looked into it, double-checking her beautiful perfection. Eyes upturned, blinking repeatedly, trying to make a smile from ear to ear, then nodding as if in approval, she put away the mirror.

This latest development startled Banri.

"Ka, Kaga-san, well... of course you aren't going back again!? And then, there's that, look here, rather than waiting in vain for Yana-ssan, once in a blue moon..."

"What are you saying? At long last, after waiting for him, I can present my evidence to him."

With a smile quickly put back in place, saying "That's true, isn't it?", he had no choice but to shut his mouth once more.

Really, calling Yanagisawa here like this was bad. He had yielded to Kouko's excessive self-confidence, though she couldn't deal with being rejected over and over again.

Hoping for something like progress with Kouko, perhaps... no, never, won't happen.

Yanagisawa was planning to turn her down once and for all, here.

Besides, it seemed to Banri that during the time she was away from school, Yanagisawa and Chinami’s relationship had been making progress, little by little. Even at the club drinking parties, it seemed, the two of them had had plenty of time to themselves. Since Yanagisawa knew all too well that Banri was supporting Kouko, he felt no need to mention it. In fact, he would not have been surprised if they were actually starting to go out together.

"...Anyways... shouldn’t you not be getting your hopes up?"

Timidly, that was all he tried to say.

If he were untactful, Yanagisawa might have planned to come here together with Chinami. And then in front of Banri and Kouko, they would slap her with the announcement that they were a couple. If such a thing were to happen, what would Kouko wind up doing? Becoming perfect, and then, ...what would she become, really? For certain sorry, standing petrified, in a strange cold sweat.

As for Banri, since such a Kouko's near future worried him, he couldn't just decide things were getting uncomfortable around here and take his leave, claiming "This has nothing to do with me."

"Why? He didn't just come here this way perfectly. There's plenty of evidence."

Looking strangely hesitant, Kouko looked back at Banri's face, handling her paper bag as if it were something valuable.

"But it's 'proof'... otherwise why would I have brought it with me?"

And saying, "He's come!", she sat facing the doorway, her eyes shining.

"Mitsuo! Over here!"

When she stood up with a flourish, like an actress, the old man next to them, apparently unable to deal with the noise, finally got up and moved over to the counter. "Sorry, really...", muttered Banri in a small voice that could hardly be heard.

Yanagisawa, his hair hanging down partway down the sides of his face, was standing in the entrance to the café. Raising his voice when he saw Kouko's face,

"Been a while, hasn't it?"

It seemed as if he were shrugging his shoulders while saying it. Chinami wasn't there, so Banri was able to relax for the time being. As he walked over to them, he jammed a knit cap he'd taken off into a pocket of his faded jeans. The heels of his well worn Red Wing boots made the floorboard creak.

Throwing her shoulders back, Kouko took a step towards Yanagisawa, keeping her perfect smile directed at him.

"Won't you sit down? What would you like to order? Mr. Defendant."

"Oh be quiet. Excuse me, could I have some coffee? Be normal."

"Hmph, you only just got here."

"I won't try to escape nor hide. You have nothing to be afraid of."

"Hey, what're you trying to say? Did I even set you free, or discover you hiding?"

"...Should I...really be here...?"

"It's OK! Stay here!", the two of them said at the same time, smiling, making Banri settle down and stop squirming.

In this meeting between the guy who was loved, and the girl whose love was unrequited, why was he here in the first place?

"Well then, prepare yourself. I will be understood completely. My perfection..."

"Something you want to say arbitrarily, as it were? Since it doesn't matter, I'll stay and listen."

"Anyways, sit down. Or have your feet cramped? Isn't it still early to be getting cold feet?"

"Huh? What have you been saying? Just why can't I have second thoughts?"

...Was this feeling like a duel?

Kouko's face smiling. Yanagisawa's face a mask. Giving each other exactly the same cool looks, they sat down, even their timing matching precisely, like mirror images. While between the two of them the tension crackled as if there were unseen sparks flying, Banri, who had been watching from the start had been yawning repeatedly, exhausted from the stress. Oxygen simply wasn't getting to his brain.

Or rather, the scene these people were making, as if they were on good terms with each other, Banri didn't see it that way, not even for a moment.

Facing each other again, they always disagreed, would get to fighting and disputing. Somehow the two of them argued just like they were brother and sister.

"Well, let's start with me, OK? Let's start by stating the end goal. Mitsuo, who is recognized in truth as my lover, should be quickly and formally engaged."

Kouko preempted him with her perfect smile. Was she bewildered? Was she bashful? Were her delicate emotions wavering? Trampled by those high heels and flushed down the toilet! To all appearances, she was as self-assured as a fortress.

"These are the proofs. Look through it in order. Starting with where we were born."

Kouko pulled a file out of her paper bag, and Yanagisawa and Banri leaned over a map of a city center so they could see it.

"Here is the Kaga home. Here is the Yanagisawa home. In a straight line it's about eight hundred meters. Close from the start. The schools were together too. The probability of our getting to know each other in public elementary school was very high. In summary, our meeting was inevitable. It was determined from the time we were born that we would meet, somewhere. And it was fated that we would get together. We were classmates from elementary school onwards."

She turned a page in the file with her beautifully painted fingernail. There was a picture, glued onto some cardboard, a caption hastily written all around it.

"This was from the entrance ceremony. We're in the same picture, both of us. We were only eight years old. We still hadn't even spoken with each other at that time. At seven years old, a picture of an outing. A patron visit... Mitsuo's parents and my parents were together. After that, an athletic meet. Eight years old, nine years old, ...always together in pictures. Look at this, summer camp in our fifth year. Mitsuo, what's with such long hair? Then, this,"

"...Just what do you want to say?"

"Listen, just look. It's the graduation from elementary school! They took a picture of the two of us. We asked somebody to take it."

"You're sure drowning in memories looking at your album and remembering again. Just what's your point with all this?"

"Because of that, it's proof!"

"Of what?"

"Mitsuo and I are bound by this legitimate proof of fate."

Even when the file was closed with a bang by Yanagisawa, Kouko didn't turn off her smile.

"What I think about Mitsuo, in truth, has not changed. I've been that way since I was little, I was always together with Mitsuo. Remember when you confessed your love in first grade? Mitsuo said it, too. I love Kooko-chan, I'll be together with Kooko-chan from now on, you said, you'll become my bride, right, you said. You really did say it. Don't you remember? It was when we gave out presents at the Christmas party in first grade. You said it on the stage, my father and mother heard it too, even grandma heard it."

"...That, in the Christmas party, wasn't that a play!? That was a well-staged dramatization, so that your parents could hear."

"Ever since then, I've always been committed to getting married to Mitsuo."

"Look, Kouko. Between us, the dating thing won't work."

"But that was something between childhood friends. Again, I don't think I especially need to explain our relationship. That is something that goes without saying. Right?"

"Perhaps when we were children, we said things like that innocently. But, that was because we really were kids. Things like that could be said. But we're no longer little kids. Being a kid, wearing a uniform, going to and from school and studying; that's different from now."

"That's right. I understand that. We've grown up. Therefore, even in our relationship, we want to bring it up to an appropriately adult level."

"...'Bringing it up' or whatever, is something else though. "Loving" as a kid, versus "loving" now. I love Mr. Giraffe, I love Mr. Elephant, I love Kooko-chan... that happy time is already over. That's something normal; understand that. I mean, you can pretend to understand, or not."

"That's not it. Our relationship, ever since we were born, by destiny, for eternity, has been absolutely perfect."

"I don't understand where you get that from. I am fed up already, really, with your presumption. Because of it, how long have I been handicapped? First year middle school. Third year middle school. Second year high school. When there was a girl I liked, you'd interfere one way or another, quarrel with her, harass her, until you'd gotten her fed up with me. You even affected my friends, making them keep their distance. Thanks to you, all the way through graduation, not one girl would associate with me. I was truly left alone. As far as everybody was concerned, Yanagisawa Mitsuo had no choice in the end but to be Kaga Kouko's."

"Fooling around is not permitted. After all,"

"So! Already, it looks like you're telling me you're fed up with it!"

Kouko having once more opened the file, Yanagisawa roughly pushed it aside. Falling from the table, photos and memo-like things were scattered by Banri's feet.

"But, ...I haven't blamed you for what's happened until now. It's the past in any case. With childhood things in general, lacking judgement I made childish mistakes, drifting along, I think. I am thinking that now you should be taking responsibility for having come to my university, and certainly for your own life. Anyway, I am just telling you clearly in advance. I have the person that I like now."

"...It's me, of course?"

"Take it however you like. It's Chinami. It seems to me that a few times now you've tried to smear her name. If you so much as trouble her, put her on the spot, hurt her feelings or pester her--- if you try to separate her from me, I will not be happy with you. I will hate you, I will hate Kouko, eternally, absolutely and perfectly to the point where it will follow you even if you transfer to a different university."

Deliberately slowly so as to be heard, Yanagisawa with his finger as if setting a rhythm, stabbed out the words.

"I'm leaving you behind."

With a sharp sound, Kouko stood up.

She looked down at Yanagisawa.

"...Why?"

Her now visibly false smile vanished once, but then returned, stiffening.

"Why? What the, why such... what's with this? I don't get you."

Yanagisawa silently looked up at the scene. Kouko was breathing in gasps, trying to maintain her expression but her lips trembling more and more as she spoke.

"But, ...but, I don't understand. Am I not special to you? Do you remember that time you had such a big backpack on? Do you remember when you'd lost out because of your handwriting? Who comforted you then? When you were chosen to be a member of the relay team for the sports day, who baked the party cake? You dropped the relay baton, didn't you? Who of all the others knew that? That time the girls came in first, and our class came in first overall. Who was the anchor of the girl's relay team? Between "Mitsuo can see me" and all the cheering, I was always such a dunce. Who ran faster than anybody else?"

"I remember."

"You do!?"

"But, it's impossible."

"Well then! ...Then, when I was born and started writing love letters, who were they to...? To whom... do you know?"

Noticing that Kouko's fingers were trembling delicately where they touched the table, Banri involuntarily glanced up at her face. Looking, he saw how pale she had become. Her voice was shaking too. Even the café-au-lait bowl was rattling.

He didn't need to see this. Or rather, why was he being shown this? Banri hid his face, covering his eyes with one hand. He could only hear the trembling voice of Kouko.

"...You know this boy I've come to love since I was born, don't you? On the occasion of my ninth birthday party, the boy who took me home? When I was feeling down because I wasn't chosen to accompany on piano, the boy who for my sake brought from home an origami set? That boy... do you know him?"

"...But, it'll never happen."

"Wouldn't you know!? You were that person! The reason I was able to run so fast, the reason I want to be pretty, the one I wanted to love was you! You've always been special! To be bound to you is right! Otherwise, if it weren't so... it wouldn't be perfect! Unless I was perfect, then I would not be able to get you to love me! Then what was I to do!? So, so always, I, I've tried, perfectly... hey! Why am I not special to you!?"

Quietly raising his eyes a fraction, Yanagisawa gave Kouko a penetrating look. Banri wished he could leave. If Kouko had noticed how badly she was shaking, she probably would have gotten up and left long ago.

"Answer me! Haven't I loved you since I was little!? Wasn't I raised with you and for you!? And yet, why am I not special to you!? Why am I not even important to you!?"

"So please answer me!", she repeated over and over again, whining like a little kid, unable to listen and beginning to tremble pitifully.

Ah, no way, such a---

"...You, are you an idiot...?"

Of sympathy there was not a trace. His expression was one of anger. Yanagisawa was angry.

"I don't think you ever understood me. It was always just about you. For that reason, you don't understand!"

Standing up, pointing at her with his finger, to his tearful female childhood friend Yanagisawa spoke.

"This was a careful decision. Really and truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am doing this for you. ...I did it for you! Why don't you understand that!? Do you want to get hurt because you fail to understand something I'm telling you? You're not an irresponsible kid, so understand! In particular, don't be getting the wrong ideas just because I happen to care! I'm not going to talk about lovers, destiny or any such thing! Because in reality, it wasn't like that! We didn't even fool around, not once! That was because I cared for you! If I had not cared, then with the right atmosphere, and the right feelings, what might we have done, we could have wound up having some fun! But that I could not do! I don't think one can become happy just by doing that! Because of that, it was something I absolutely could not do! I don't want to do such a thing!"

"...Well, weelll,"

Banri couldn't look at Kouko's face.

"If I'm important... if I'm special, that... love, is something different...? Is it not permitted to include 'love'? Coming to love me, falling in love, loving one another, getting married, for eternity, speaking that way... why, can't it be? Is it not possible?"

Yanagisawa's reply was a shake of the head. Yanagisawa was crudely telling her that it would not work, the two of them together. Banri was thinking that Yanagisawa would understand just how much he was supporting Kouko. He wasn't blaming him, asking him to be flexible and not say such hard things. Because he was that sort of guy, maybe that's why he wanted to be friends.

"...Not possible...?"

A drop fell to the table.

"...This way, in spite of remembering our childhood...? Even though I'm special? In spite of that, there's no way? Then, then in short... it was my fault?"

That was how Kouko was defeated.

If she simply cried herself out, not her objectives, not her evidence, nothing would come to be more than a pile of papers.

"Because I was merely something to be despised? Then, to whatever extent you have memories, however long a time you give me in reality, there is simply no way? Could you not fall in love with me? If, if that's the case,"

In a small voice, he tried to call her. He was thinking it was time to give up. Kouko not knowing how to pull back, again sinking into depression before him, Banri wanted to hold her back. That is the reason I stayed here, he thought.

But that voice didn't seem to reach Kouko.

"If so, then I am already not needed! Always unneeded, always forgotten, done without! Made as if I never existed! If just one more thing happens to me that cannot be undone, I will be entirely gone!"

Hearing what seemed to be a scream in that voice, Yanagisawa said nothing more, rising from his seat.

Pulling his knit cap on his head nearly to his eyes, he swung open the door and went outside.

The inside of the shop suddenly went terribly quiet. He realized that the other customers all had their ears directed towards them, curious. Banri moved slightly, highly uncomfortable, when at that moment there arose the sound of Kouko gulping for air.

''Bang'', Kouko's hand struck her saucer, shaking it.

"...Just what have I done?"

Kouko watched Banri, covering her mouth. Opening her eyes, tears ran down her cheeks again, flowing down. Sorry, Tada-kun. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, so very sorry. Sitting down as if she were falling, she turned her crumpled face towards Banri, from the corners of her tightly closed eyelashes once more tears.

He was being apologized to, he understood at last. Banri searched within himself. The Banri who lived here as if nothing mattered at all, blowing up before that Banri's eyes was indiscreet, perhaps, but he wasn't hurt by Kouko's words.

"It's all right, Kaga-san."

"...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...!"

"Really, since it's OK. ...In such a time as that, you needn't worry about me."

"...Sorry, Tada-kun..."

Just now was nothing. You'll forget. You'll make it as if it hadn't happened. ---But it wasn't so easy to say that, the future being awfully difficult to manage.

<center>* * *</center>

Kouko stayed sitting there in the seat by the window.

Not knowing what else to do, Banri continued watching the tableau. The tears on her cheeks already dried, Kouko remained silent, her head hanging in shame, completely shut off from everything. Four o'clock passed, five o'clock neared, slowly outside the window it was starting to get dark,

"Good sirs, there are customers waiting for the non-smoking section..."

The café employee said to them apologetically. At last the time had come,

"It's about time we left, Kaga-san."

Banri prompted her,

"..."

Still silent, Kouko, instead of asking if they should get up and leave, went through the glass door that separated the smoking section. Bowing his head to the bewildered employee, the confused Banri followed her at once. For sure it was less crowded over here, with fewer customers and poorer ventilation, and an awful cloud of tobacco smoke and smell swirling about in the air.

"Hey, Kaga-san..."

Sliding into vacant seats,

"I thought smoking might kill you."

Distracted by Kouko's muttered words, uncomfortable smokers were looking their way.

"Err... noo, what did I say...? I didn't think such stuff was deadly, did I...?"

Having entered the smoking section with Kouko once again hanging their heads in shame, trading glances with the employees, Banri was embarrassed. If he were to order something more, would they let them stay here still? More importantly, was it all right if he stayed here still? Obviously dispirited, Kouko wouldn't want to go off by herself alone, but wasn't Banri's very presence a bother, as far as she was concerned? Perhaps what she needed was time alone to lick her wounds. If so, he wanted to disappear quickly.

Naturally, he wasn't thinking about "being needed". That she didn't require any human being apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo even Banri understood. Worrying about Kouko, and wanting to keep an eye on her, was Banri's condition. He wanted to pay more attention to her condition than to his own.

Of course, it might be that he shouldn't be here--- a feeling that sitting too long a time, an ache arising from his rear just then,

"Want a smoke? Here you go, one shot!"

A girl they didn't know sat down next to them and extended her cigarette case towards Kouko.

"You wanna die? Use this stuff and you will. At the cellular level for sure."

"This person's not twenty years old yet..."

Confused for some reason, Banri blocked it. Kouko raised her head a bit, looking curiously at the cigarette case offered to her by that mysterious person. It didn't appear to be any major brand, like Mild Seven, or Marlboro.

"Boyfriend?"

Confused, Banri shook his head rapidly back and forth. The girl, with a cynical smile twisting her lips, spoke.

"Hey. You can call me NANA."

Thinking a bit, Banri,

''Cough!''

Expelling his breath as if punched.

He remembered while he was hospitalized, forever reading the latest issues of shoujo manga. Probably overdone, a short one-length bob hair style with longer bangs, dyed jet black and a leopard print camisole. Aggressively strong makeup. Heavy leather riding jacket. Neck to fingertips jingling with excessive silver accessories. She even carried around a guitar case. Her appearance, such as it was, was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Osaki that] character.

Such cosplay... but why here and now? Chosen over other things. Such a person. Was this café some sort of power spot to draw in such strange people? The more he looked at her, the more he had to restrain himself from laughing out loud.

"You could say you, well... for me, it was something for me to see. By chance right next to me... so to speak."

He looked towards her black fingernails. In the setting of her silver ring was a skull.

"...I'm not Linda's junior. You were with Linda in high school! I'm a third year. Or rather,"

Twisting her lips so as to direct the fumes upwards as she smoked, NANA... sempai explained her surprising name.

"Linda's first given name is pronounced NANA too."

"...That, are you kidding..."

Banri was becoming overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all,

At long last, a snort came from Kouko's nose. And then from Kaga Kouko he got the same strange vibes.

"Omaken, eh? I'm fed up to here with that. The Yosakoi and such were such a pain, didn't they make me feel like I wanted to die?"

"...What about this year's Awa Odori...?", replied Banri, to which she laughed scornfully.

"Even more so time to stop. For sure. If I'm gonna die, let it be by music."

And then, thrust before them, a cheap-looking black and white flyer.

"Today at nine o'clock. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakano,_Tokyo Nakano City]. Though it's nothing more than an amateur student band, Awa Odori can die a thousand times in comparison."

"Ah, thanks... this is what they call a 'live show'... is it? But I've never been to such a thing... are you going too, NANA-senpai? Well, of course... does it seem like a typical cover band?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'cover band'. They aren't like a cover band. Cause I'm a poet. Poetry reading."

"Po, poe...? Huh...?"

"If you have this leaflet, you get two drinks. If you mention my name, you can get more. Come and die."

With a broad grin, she gave them the finger. NANA-senpai wore her character to the last, and leaving things as they were, left the shop. With only the leaflet left behind in Banri's hand, "What shall we do?", he said towards Kouko,

"Let's go and die."

Kouko plucked it from him. Her tear-reddened eyes, upset wherever they sat, desperate from having been put upon, understood.

"...If it isn't perfect, then I ought to remain broken to the end. Unlike how I've been up to now, I want to do absolutely nothing. No half measures. If I'm going to be smashed to pieces anyway, then I want to become nothing at all. I want to die!"

And then standing up, spreading their arms wide and taking deep breaths--- the people in the smoking section of course really looked like they hated them, Kouko making as if she didn't see.

"What will you do, Tada-kun? I'm going even if I have to go alone."

"...It's a date! Of course!"

Leaving Kouko like that alone was worrisome, besides, that's the way it was. If she wasn't perfect, instead falling to pieces, she would do nothing as if dying, but then she would want to be brought back to life. Banri, at least, always thought so.

<center>* * *</center>

Unable to say anything about honorable defeat while killing time nor over dinner, they went drinking at a cheap tavern afterwards.

"...W, what? Even in my thoughts it was never such a dodgy looking place..."

A little past nine o'clock, Banri and Kouko were standing before the live concert place. Trying to look inside through the entrance, Banri winced. The steps going down were dark.

Looking very much out of place, looking around nervously, she pushed on his back with both hands,

"It's OK, you'll be fine, no problems..."

Kouko made ready to go down the steps.

"Hold on, just hold on a bit more,", Banri said, planting his feet firmly in resistance. Even more than in his imagination, the real thing was considerably more hard core.

"Between dying and killing, were the fans of that student band on the same planet?", Banri was thinking. "The tension here, for the first time in my life 'live', so to speak, will eventually be over, right?" If they were to spend some time going crazy, then perhaps Kouko would unwind a little. That was the feeling he had.

However, there were no students to be seen amongst the other customers gathering around the entrance. For some reason, most were well built, like foreigners, with body piercings and tattoos seeming natural for them. They wore grim-looking riveted jackets and leather pants, had impressive figures with biceps like logs. Above their bald heads, a vapor arose from their sweat. Ordinary people appeared as fasting monks beside them, all skin and bones. Their mouths open as they stood around, they watched the petrified Banri with suspicious eyes, like buffalo-men with their huge shoulders, both tattoed with "guts" (why?) --- anyhow, everybody living in the ordinary world would never be able to meet such a variety of people as were here.

"We, we're really going...?"

He reflexively looked over towards Kouko, inquiring,

"Let's go, it's ok! It's O-K, let's go! It's all right if we goooo."

Kouko stood before him firmly, looked at him with clear eyes, and nodded like crazy.

Perhaps due to three whole hours of drinking continuously, her breath reeked of liquor. Her voice was a little slow, but for the time being she seemed the same old Kaga Kouko. Her makeup was a little smeared from crying, but otherwise to every last aspect she was perfect. "Fuu... haaa...", she sighed, though she wasn't collapsing yet, in spite of having recklessly drank virtually everything on the menu, from fruit sours to cocktails. Banri, feeling dizzy on the way, had switched to an oolong tea, but Kouko kept drinking alcohol until she was finally full. Could she hold her liquor that well?

"Hey let's gooo! Let's goo! Tada-kuun, hey, it's OK, it's O-K, it's oookaaayyy."

Almost as if she were throwing a fit, Kouko started impatiently stamping her feet. He sensed several gazes turning towards them. Not wanting to be something oddly conspicuous,

"...OK, OK, let's go for it!"

For the time being, going through the entrance looked almost like running away.

Going down the steps leading to a basement, putting his weight against the heavy door and opening it,

"Wow! So loud!"

He couldn't even hear himself shout. For the first time in his life, the live music detonating around him, it truly was an eye-opener. Shaken by the violent oscillations from his spine to his skull bones, his feet froze with instinctive fear. Kouko's eyes opened wide, she covered both her ears with her hands, and shouted things like "Kyaa!" and "Hyaa!". Even grabbing each other by the arm and getting closer, they really couldn't hear their voices.

The crowd of sweaty, hot and smelly people pushed them aside as they were leaving, but with that energy they entered all the quicker. Tossed about by the subterranean rumbling, they felt like their bodies were floating. And yet here they were, still only at the reception desk. Inside the exploding storm, a pair of middle-aged people of unknown nationality were standing, as if confused, watching money being passed across the counter. So then, it's not free?

The confused Banri pulled out his wallet, and showed them the leaflet he'd received from NANA-senpai. Rather than taking his money, they gave him two drink tickets. And then, ''bam'', with some sort of stamp-like thing, they were branded on the backs of their left hands. But, anyhow, to conceal themselves somewhat, they lowered their heads a little and the two of them went further inside. If they were to stand still, they had a feeling they would wind up angry.

And then, they were overwhelmed by the most terrible noise. Finally they covered their ears, realizing it was as if their brain tissue on both sides were being pounded upon. Had the other customer's ears been destroyed already? They seemed entirely unconcerned. Only Kouko and himself seemed to be nervous country bumpkins. It was scary, really. In any case, everything was scary.

"Though Kaga-san might be okay, I'm not okay!", he said, thinking he should stick really close to his one and only companion, but Kouko was looking around restlessly, and indifferent to Banri, she tossed her bag neatly into a locker. Crouching down by the lowest step, she stuffed her bag of evidence in and then kicked the door roughly to close it. To judge by the noise, her ladyship might even have broken it. And it looked like she'd forgotten to pull out the key.

Banri hurriedly stuffed his bag in with hers, pulled the key from the locker and put it away firmly in his pocket. For some reason, Kouko was moving restlessly, twisting around. There was nothing out of place with her ladyship, but she was straining to tear her black tights in several places, making holes in them.

As Banri looked on in mute amazement, she undid her necktie and opened her blouse widely, exposing much of her chest. Removing her hairband, her hair unfurled like a lion's mane. Roughly combing her hair with her hands, the combed back hair standing up and swelling, she suddenly got a wild look in her eyes. And then she rubbed roughly around her eyes, the long-ago messed up eye shadow, mascara and such smearing to where her eyebrows disappeared.

In some ways proud of herself, she showed off her look to Banri. The normally perfect Kouko vanished, suddenly a dangerous punk rocker girl. Passing on inside, going past a row of five women with lip piercings, the atmosphere hardly changed. Arriving back at the center of the chaotic noise, nobody batted an eyelash.

"...Well then, me too..."

Kouko didn't really want to disguise him, but for the time being she just messed up his hair with her fingers too. But since his hair was as limp as cat fur, nothing came of it.

Glancing at each other's faces and nodding, they once more proceeded inside. Over towards the stage, all you could see were the backs of the spectator's heads, like waves on the surface of the ocean. Because of all the noise, not even by shouting could one be heard. Approaching the bar counter, passing their drink tickets to the bartender, they were mutely shown a plastic menu. Pointing at beer, he showed it to Kouko too. Kouko chose a Moscow Mule. They were each handed a fresh cup.

"Kaga-saan! Cheeers!"

At any rate, even if they couldn't hear, he raised his voice, Kouko shouted something too, and the two of them raised their cups to their lips.

Just then a group of people surged towards the bar, hitting Kouko firmly against the back of her head. Kouko spouted her cocktail all over Banri's face. While shouting something, she took her tie and wiped Banri's face briskly. They went back over to the bar. It was entirely drowned in the noise, Banri's ears had gone deaf, he couldn't hear anything anymore.

Leaning against the counter, Kouko got close to the bartender's ear and said something as loud as she could. Her torn tights peeking from beneath her miniskirt, she raised her heel and shook her high-heels. Disheveled, half of her beauty was hidden by her wild hair. While feasting his eyes on her, he noticed a big guy with tattoos all over his upper body approaching Kouko. Banri, though a powerless knight (his finishing move was to lie down and play dead), looked ready to rush over in heroic resignation when,

"Tsuzaaeeeenja, neeeeeeooo! Uruuuaaaaaaaaaaa!"

---Between the songs, several seconds of silence, just like an air pocket. Wrung out from Kouko's throat came a howl, as if from the earthbound ghost of a female cat which had died in a particularly cruel manner.

That voice. No, that face. Her disheveled hair starting to flap against her cheeks, her large eyes bordered in pitch black glaring and glittering wet. Is this how a wounded beast feels? Really, you look like you fit in this place, Kaga-san... Banri reflexively gasped.

Rebuffing the tattooed man, she took four cups in her two hands and suddenly struck a pose while turning back towards him. Twisting her narrow waist left and right, she said "Aha☆", her whole face a smile. Giving an obvious wink, she returned to Banri's side. Her white chest swelled outwards, restrained by her tight vest. The shadow was terribly bewitching.

Really drunk she is, this person.

For a good while now, deeply drunk, even more than he thought. Even deeper than she seems to be, looking at her.

"Ka, Kaga-san, wait a sec, though it's late, is this really OK!? Aren't you drinking an awful lot!? I mean... wow, that's loud!"

With what seemed like an explosion of sorts, they started singing loudly once more, and while he started to crumble from the knees up again, Banri shakily extended his cup towards Kouko. Kouko was shouting out, "NANA-senpai", or something. And with a smile, she drank up the contents of one cup. "Oh...", unintentionally having watched over Banri, she fluttered her hand as if to say "Drink drink!"

Banri too, if that's how it was going to be, bringing it to his lips,

"...Buhaa!"

This time, Kouko's face got sprayed. "Gyahaa!", Kouko's face dripping while she clapped her hands and bent over double, laughing uproariously. But that wasn't all. His throat burned, his nose was sore. He was dizzy. His ears hadn't been able to hear anything for a long time. It was as if his five senses were entirely paralyzed. "What's going on!?", Banri staggering as he tried frantically to support his body with his own two feet. Up to this point he'd drunk such things as beer, sour, highballs, and so on, but definitely not sake. And strong sake this was, like fire.

Kouko's face seemed unconcerned, gulping down the same stuff. "But, drink up, I suddenly feel as tired as a stone!", sitting down.

"Whoa Kaga-san! Be careful, very careful! I mean, what, what was that!?"

Confused, while taking her hands and trying to help her stand up, he looked back towards the bartender. While the bartender lady was using the same kind of cup to give something to drink to a customer, she stuck out her tongue at Banri and Kouko. Doing two things at once, the odd glittering must have been from her piercings.

Banri finally arrived at the conclusion that perhaps it might be better if they just left. With everything to this point, she might have unwound enough, and already it seemed about the right time for her highness.

"Kaga-san, let's go already! Eh!? Kaga-san!? Kaga Koukoo!? You're not here!"

When he turned around, Kouko wasn't there, and he looked around in confusion. Cup in one hand, he staggered around, looking through the gaps between the other spectator's backs for long hair.

"Just a second, just a second! Hold on, wait!"

On the stage three guys were waving chainsaws around. The tiresome fellow playing the drums was sneaking out, looking down his nose at it all. As if spurred on by that atrocious noise, the spectators on the completely-filled floor raised their fingers high, jumping up and down, in spite of the disdainful look, raging for unknown reasons. Kouko was rapidly heading into the middle of all that.

"Ka, Kaga-saan! Wait! Hold on!"

Banri shouted, his voice quickly swallowed up. On the stage the maniacs were jumping up and down to make things even crazier, then jumping down hard on the heads of the spectators below. Or rather, falling down. Between the hands of the crazy ones, their unforgiving faces and slamming into their heads, Banri was making no progress at all.

"Miiiitsuuuuoooo is a fooooolllll<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"Scram", shouted Kouko in a slurred voice, trying to climb up on to the stage over the skinheads in the front row. Her shoes were long gone. And then,

"I'mmmm going to diieeee<nowiki>~~~~~~</nowiki>! Ugyaaaaaaa<nowiki>~~~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"You've got to be kidding, this is the end.", said Banri, beginning to give up.

Welcomed by the chain saw squad as if she were their queen, Kouko dumped the contents of her cup over her own head. She threw away the cup, stuck out her tongue, and gave the finger with both hands. She threw her head back as she were stabbing with all her might at the heavens. The cheers shook the ground. The focus of the drummer's eyes, Kouko's miniskirt, was dangerously near her butt, and in a moment, all at once the problems increased. Her bra was black. Just a fleeting glimpse of her chest was seen. And then, both hands lifting up even higher, her neck and her chattering knees, that... that, was C-3PO's pose!

Banri climbed up, as if he were jumping on people's backs with his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Purcell Jack Purcells]. He went towards the stage. Not quickly enough to stop Kouko, that just wasn't possible.

Sopping wet, bathed in sake from the head down, Kouko inspired the band to dance like robots. For just such a moment, even their rhythm was chopped up. The chainsaws growled more and more violently. Any time now, it seemed he would be able to jump to midstage with a running start. Banri barely managed to reach the stage. Stretching out his hand to jump,

"Kaga-san, don't, don't!"

He grabbed Kouko's wrist.

He put his weight into it, all at once, taking her by one hand. His body was drawn close.

He had a feeling such a thing had happened before. Even before, even that before...? The crowd was just like--- around dawn, at the river water's surface.

If he were to fall, he would die. Die completely.

"I'm scared------------------!"

Crying like a child, shamefully, who was it? Me? Kaga-san?

---Banri!

"..."

Kouko's eyes were looking at Banri.

Standing his ground, Banri also looked at Kouko.

Had somebody been calling him like this? With all the alcohol, it felt like flames dancing around, spinning inside his head. Sparks whirled about, everything he felt, everything he saw, anything and everything, just like that caught fire. What was it? How many things, in a hurry, without time, are burned, vanish and are lost? No way! Already he was truly lost, not understanding. Since he did not understand, he didn't want to hear anything more. From the beginning, it would have been good for him to not have existed.

Ah, so it was.

Always, nothing but loss---.

"Tada, kun...?"

Kouko was murmuring in a small voice. ...Murmured, sort of, her mouth could be seen moving. Their hands were still joined, the moment seeming to stand still, but,

"If you're going to die, then die quickly, you idiots. This stage is mine."

Jabbed forcefully in the lower back, Banri was pushed off the stage. And of course, Kouko together with him.

As they quickly fell down, with the guitar used to poke Banri in one hand, NANA-senpai could be seen with the mike in hand, grinning like a demon.

At the front entrance, Banri collapsed.

Stepping over the collapsed Banri, creeping down the unlit corridor, groping for the bathroom, Kouko could be heard entering.

"Are you okay...?"

"..."

Instead of a reply, one more time. Bravely.

Kicking off his shoes to get them off, still unable to stand, he somehow managed to enter the room, following the wall. His hands had gone completely numb. Supporting Kouko, he had walked here all the way from the place of the concert.

Falling to the floor with a thud, he rolled over on to the rug. The sound of the water pouring, the sound of the toilet flushing. And still he groaned, painfully.

Feeling a random pain where he sat, it felt like something was there. Sticking his hand in his pocket, out came the key to the locker.

"...Ah... we did it... the stuff in the locker, we left it, didn't we... hey, Kaga-san, again, we forgot something..."

There was no reply.

To block his feelings he covered his ears, drawing himself inside, and unnoticed, Banri's eyes seem to have closed.

<center>* * *</center>

When he woke up, he felt vague.

Still lying on the rug, he felt so heavy he only lifted his eyelids. The world was still in middle night, and in the room light did not penetrate; it was dark.

Kouko was in a corner of the dark room.

Leaning her back against Banri's bed, sitting on the floor, she looked outside through the door-wall. She was crying.

Elbow propped on a partially raised knee, chin in one hand, the other hand combing her bangs, the light from outside the window illuminated her cheek, tears running down it. Her throat sounding hoarse, her nose running, the fingers of the hand supporting her chin twisting her lips, Kouko kept on sobbing.

Even though Banri was waking up, she probably didn't notice. Just one person, huddled in the deeps of solitude, not caring what others see, that figure still crying defenselessly, marvelously, looked rather like a young boy.

In other words, just like me, Banri thought.

Though nobody should be crying aloud like that in this room, it felt as if here were split entirely in two, and he were watching himself cry.

Long ago, perhaps he had cried like this, what he was seeing on the other side of the room. This he knew: this had happened. Such feelings had come over him.

Like a pale, thin film covering the corner of his vision, just then,

"'Re'...?"

A faint glimmer, a mysterious single syllable came to mind.

When he raised his shoulder, a towel-blanket fell down. Kouko must have draped it there. Kouko, at Banri's voice, raised her tearful face as if taken aback.

"...Just now, what did you say...?"

By what was certainly the voice of a little girl, Banri's strange dream was quickly destroyed.

"...Said..."

"...You said 're'."

"...Your hand. Look..."

Banri pointed at the back of Kouko's hand. Bending her wrist and looking at the back of her hand, "This?", she said hoarsely. There was a faintly glimmering fluorescent yellow 're' symbol there.

"Ah. You too..."

At Kouko's word, he tried looking at the back of his own hand. For sure, the same 're' glimmered faintly. Was that so? Was it the stamp from the reception desk at the concert place? To make it easier to recognize in the darkness at reentry time, it was of fluorescent paint. "Now I see", Banri started to nod his head.

"I mean... why 're' of all things..."

"Who knows..."

Without a single sound in the room, the two of them stared at their respective 're's for a little while.

Were they able to think quietly this way because it was the dead of night? Was it because they were barely breathing? Or, was it because their ears had been beaten down by that awful noise? ...That, probably.

"..."

Staring at the back of her hand, it seemed she would start sobbing again. Was the syllable [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#'Re'|'re']] a switch that had enabled all of her grief? Re... Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to 're'staurants? Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to pick 'le'mons? Would they watch a 're'ntal DVD, would they ecstatically dance the [http://okami.neoseeker.com/wiki/Renjishi 'Re'njishi], or zap eggs on the 'ra'nge---

"Kaga-san... are you okay?"

"...Sorry. I was thinking about Mr. Two Dimensions just now."

"W, what? That's surprising... I mean, that doesn't have anything to do with 're', right?"

"No. There's no connection. Something Mr. Two Dimensions said, I suddenly remembered it... then, I started crying again."

Turning a sort-of smiling but tear-stained face towards Banri, Kouko straightened her legs and sat down neatly.

Leaning her back against the bed, she slowly tilted her head back, as if it were quite heavy.

"Mr. Two Dimensions will not become Mr. One Dimension. He seems he said that to get things right, to his own satisfaction, that he would have to create his own dream girl. As for me, while hearing that as half joking, I thought we were somewhat kindred spirits. 'I want to be bound to a perfect companion with a perfect scenario'... saying that he and I are going for the same thing, I thought. But Mr. Two Dimensions, since he's what they call an 'otaku' boy, he works in the world of literary creation. Since I'm not an otaku-ish girl, I work in reality. That's different from a simple preference in hobbies, I thought. Enjoying himself in creating fiction, Mr. Two Dimensions is still rather childish, even, it seems. But, ...its not like that, is it?"

Combing her disheveled hair as if it were a nuisance, while looking up at the ceiling, in a low voice she continued talking.

"He was always more mature than I, an adult. That was how I understood him to be. Apart from me, nobody can imagine stuffing the perfection I dream of into their bodies. In the real world, it cannot be done. The world, in it's own selfish way, cannot do it. What would human relationships become if they were forced to be so? ...For Mr. Two Dimensions, or rather, a person barely come of age, assuming he has that sort of understanding, would be able to enjoy talking about it. In spite of my being of the same year, because I'm an idiot, there is sooo much that I don't understand. I don't understand why Mitsuo doesn't like me as I am. From the very start, I haven't understood how one can say, "I have not been able to make my dreams come true."

That hurt a lot.

All of it.

Still looking up at the ceiling, still crying, Kouko's voice could be heard awfully, painfully blocked.

"Mitsuo, did he not say that I matter to him? 'Because I cannot have happiness, I cannot love either.' Didn't he say something like that?"

"Yeah... he did, didn't he? I think so."

"After hearing that, I got to thinking. I had never thought whether or not Mitsuo would be happy. I had simply been chasing Mitsuo around saying I loved him. But, could you say that I was really thinking about Mitsuo's well being? I had never respected Yanagisawa Mitsuo as a human being, as an existence in reality. My goals were all that mattered. ...Perhaps I failed to understand that he had a life, an existence. It might be that I was treating him as no more than one of the characters in my own world."

As if she were grasping at nothing, Kouko reached out her left hand in the darkness. The 're' waved in the air.

"Crying like this, getting hurt like this--- my obsession is to blame. This... ugly... obsession. ...The Mitsuo whom I love must love me. I would not accept that the one I love does not love me back. I would not accept that I am worthless. I would never recognize, never accept my being so. "Tell me... Tell me it isn't so... Tell me that I'm not worthless!" Saying such, I was only pushing the responsibility on to Mitsuo. Nonetheless, it was actually me who could neither accept nor forgive myself. I was arbitrarily judging my worth by whether Mitsuo loved me or not. Unfortunately, I had set things up that way. ...What I did to Mitsuo for a very long time was wrong."

Panting, Kouko continued, "but it took me a long time to realize that." Whether she was crying or smiling, Banri could no longer tell the difference. Still, her breathing was making a lot of noise in the darkness.

"...Well, is that not so? Everybody, to some extent, has such feelings, don't you think?"

While looking at his own 're', Banri was trying carefully to speak gently, to seem as optimistic as possible. Whether he managed to console her or not he did not know, but that was the idea that came to him right then.

"...As I am now, I agree, but then again, for whom would it not be very difficult normally? I think it's hard! Being imperfect myself, if I were not to face it myself, I would cease to be, so to speak. Wouldn't nearly anybody want to look away? ...At least, I am like that."

I am like that.

Having put it into words, looking away from reality and being surprised, his own form all at once came sharply into focus. That person, 120 pounds of meat, was stretched out on the rug.

His breath was catching, but if he went silent here,

"I have a really hard time noticing it when I am rejected."

Now, making a speech to Kaga Kouko, he found that he had averted his eyes from his own form.

As if staring off into the darkness, Kouko was looking at Banri's face.

"'Rejected'... by whom? A person like Tada-kun, was rejected by somebody?"

"...Those the old Tada Banri knew. The old Tada Banri was thought well of by many people. His family and so on. I think it can't be helped, though, but... of course it hurts, and so, I cannot return home. They don't even understand. My parents, are even now waiting for the 'real Banri' to return and say, 'I'm home!' Because my current self, however I am introduced, I get this feeling of 'that isn't him.' That at any moment, the real son, Tada Banri himself, just like that, will return to them---"

Bringing up her knees, it was almost the old Kouko sitting there, resting her elbow on her knee. She propped her chin with her hand. Every time she talked, her head rocked back and forth.

"---It seems to me as if they were wishing for my current self to disappear, as if he had died."

With what he was putting into words, in the bottom of his heart, deeply submerged and unseen, his grief was coming into view, very quickly and clearly taking shape.

He didn't want to say he was afraid, he didn't want to see even one such word leak out of him.

"In truth all along, I haven't been able to avoid being scared, really scared! My personality, so easily vanished, at any time could easily return to me, right? After all, if I were cured, wouldn't my current self just die? Myself, dying... wouldn't everybody else be happy? What with myself, staying myself, wouldn't everybody feel forever dejected? Myself, myself in such a world, what's the word, pr, ...predicament, nowhere else, nothing, you could say,"

"Being dejected like that, stop it!"

...That was dangerous. Really.

If Kouko had not spoken up so strongly, who knows what may have happened to the rage that had been welling up inside him, which now turned to tears, overflowing from his eyes.

"I’m stopping! I stopped. Absolutely."

Wiping roughly at the back of his hand, he noticed Kouko sitting up straight in the darkness.

"Well, if Tada-kun were to disappear entirely, ...this evening was a disgrace, for me, for us. I want to keep a night like that a secret. Wouldn't it be better not to tell anybody? Nobody else! Not in this life, nor anywhere, nobody but Tada-kun! Nobody at all."

"..."

"Shall we? So we shall. Really!"

"Ah,"

---Thank you. Kaga-san.

Rescued, Banri rubbed his eyes with his fingers as if he were still lost.

"So, don't disappear. Don't die either. Don't be afraid of such things. They aren't going to happen! Because I, absolutely, will not forget Tada-kun. And then for me, for myself, who was a fool, who was ashamed, for me who could not help myself this evening, for me who only once this spring---"

With a single sob, Kouko took a deep breath, for reasons he did not understand.

"Whatever happens, don't forget me...!"

Still not understanding, this moment was ending.

"...I won't forget! I simply cannot forget. How could I forget? As for myself, well,"

As the words came out, Banri was thinking of something else.

"Kaga-san, I love you!"

Even if it were remembered, even if it were forgotten entirely. The results were always the same.

Having moved too quickly, he could not go back. Today, in this moment already, never again.

At the very same instant, he was being born and he was dying. No matter how important it was, no matter how he wanted to stop ahead of time, it all was lost equally. In fact, nobody could change things.

But, for that very reason,

"...I love you! Kaga Kouko. Really."

She was dear to him.

Kouko opened her eyes wide, the 're' on her hand covering her mouth. It sure was, though Banri also. It was a big surprise. Absolutely safe, they said, and suddenly it was a thing neatly and completely cut as if by a razor.

But, he loved Kouko.

However it happened, Banri loved Kouko. In his head and in his heart, if he were to notice, he was full, full of Kouko. He was full to bursting. Nothing but an awkward, klutzy, beautiful woman, every day he was thinking of her. Without realizing it, he had become like this.

And then, if he could, he wanted Kouko to become so too. He wanted her to think only of him. It didn't have to be today. Someday would be fine.

"...Saying such things. To confess on a night like this, that wasn't very honest of me. Sorry."

Dragging along his towel-blanket, Banri placed himself as far away from Kouko as he could. Making it to the wall, he sat down with his knees up once more.

Dumped, then on the same day getting drunk and going to a guy's place, then that guy saying he loved you. So cliché. Such a dangerous situation. He figured Kouko must be scared.

He threw his feet and hands out feebly, since he had not the spirit to take advantage of this night, and it was his intention to make an easy to understand appeal.

"Though I'm not speaking of forgetting, nor any such thing. Nor was it my intention to pretend nothing had happened. ...About what just happened, I don't think you are suddenly going to forget about Yana-ssan. I mean, it's all right if you turn me down for now. Ah, though that wouldn't be pleasant. ...Anyhow, there's tomorrow."

"T, tomorrow...!? Tomorrow!? What!?"

"Don't we have to pick up our stuff? It's probably in the locker where we left it. Don't you remember?"

"B, bags...!? Eh!? We did!?"

"Yes, we did. I mean, didn't we leave the stuff behind when we escaped the whole mess? How about that for fate?"

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Kouko,

"...If you call it that... yeah, something, over again. About the same thing. But still rather nice, ...should be fun for me."

Little by little, she began to laugh into the darkness with a softly shaking voice.

"Whatever we left, it looks like it'll be okay in the end. It seems we're unexpectedly sturdy. I mean, we only lost our shoes. Again, in fact!"

Her voice had gone rough from crying, but nonetheless Kouko kept on laughing. She got Banri laughing too. Wanting to cry, wanting to laugh, his chest hurting, he was scratching his head in confusion. Touching the tip of his nose, his bangs were too long.

Perhaps they were waving for Kouko.

But, as for himself, loving her was not something he could stop.

But even if they could not be lovers, being friends would be good, to pass time together.

And so--- after this again, how many things had they left behind? He wondered how many things they had left behind, how many times had the two of them fallen down? It didn't matter. He wanted to be with Kouko even so. That being so, he loved Kouko. Thinking on that, Banri smiled once more.

How many moments he could spend with her he did not know, though all of them were surely going to shine brilliantly.

So they could shine, she had been born. If he were to blurt out something like that, as if joking, now it might honestly be believed.

"...It's about that time, isn't it? The first train will be leaving shortly, Kaga-san, so you can get back. I could walk you to your place! Won't the others there be worrying about you? Have you called?"

"It's okay. I'll take a taxi back."

"Do you want to take a shower? I swear on my life I won't peek through the keyhole!"

"I said it's okay. Though we were a disaster, I won't contaminate the taxi seat. Really, thank you. Excuse me."

"For what?"

"For a lot of things, for everything. ...Really, it's okay, down this street, then I'll be able to catch a taxi. I'll be fine by myself, for sure."

Before Banri could begin to get up, Kouko looked all around her, mumbling about her bag. And then, brushing her long hair from her face in annoyance,

"That so? It got left behind."

"Tomorrow evening, let's go pick it up together! I mean, together we can go down there."

"It's okay, it's okay! I can go by myself!"

"Why? I'm not going to do anything. I was only going with you to the taxi stop! While we're at it, I want to go by convenience store. Ah, I feel like getting some ice cream."

"Go to the convenience store tomorrow! ...With how we look after today's disaster, I absolutely don't want to be seen in the light!"

"Since I've already seen enough unpleasant stuff, I'm fine. Besides, it's a bit late for that, what with that C-3PO act on the stage."

"Ewww! No way!"

For Kouko it was indeed a bit late, covering both ears and keening. Just like that, she trotted across the room, heading for the entrance. Chasing after her in confusion,

"Hold up, hold up, hold up! Put these on!"

In a corner by the entrance some convenience store sandals were lying, jumbled together. He tried to turn on the lights, but Kouko cried, "No no no!", and in order to escape she flew out the entrance door and was gone.

"See you tomorrow! I'll absolutely see you here!"

Called like that even, it didn't look too bad. Reluctantly, he intently watched Kouko get on the elevator from his door, and once it started down he went over to the veranda.

Kouko came out the entrance, dragging the sandals as she turned towards the sidewalk. On the roadway, redly lit by the free taxi sign, just one taxi waited. She got on that one.

Banri, pulling in his head with a feeling of relief, he nonetheless noticed that Kouko could be seen looking up from the taxi window. Of course she looked, or something like that he understood, but Banri calmly waved to her. He wondered if she saw it. He decided she hadn't.

<center>* * *</center>

The topic of the day--- you cannot deny the signs, he thought.

As he walked, gazing out at the scenery, a tea plantation spread out before him, fluffy green domed stripes continuing into the distance, Banri was thinking. It smelled strongly of manure. "Hmm, what I see, what's that?", the tall electric fans for protection against frost looked down upon him, noticing and investigating him.

And then, afterwards, unable to stand it any longer, escaping--- because they were there.

He took Hikari from Tokyo station to Shizuoka, arriving in under an hour. After taking a breather at the Starbucks by the transfer gate, he took JR who knows more stations. His home station's monument: a tea bush disguised as an onion top. Apart from that, everything around the place seemed to say "tea".

To get home took not quite two hours. Some people do a lot of commuting, to school or to work, in their worlds, perhaps. A season ticket for the bullet train cost money, and Banri was on an allowance. In truth, he didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, he wanted out of the house, and that was the reason he gave Kouko.

"THE Shizuoka", so called, felt like walking through a tea plantation, some building's eaves extending out, trying to be seen as a town.

He entered a lane deeply shadowed by fruit trees, through an open gate and went to open the door. It was unlocked.

"...I'm hooome..."

Speaking of remembering, he was already remembering.

"This is home!", he'd been told, and since for one year he lived there, the memories of that time had already given him the feeling it was "home".

He was taking off his shoes so he could surprise his mother when she came out,

"...What are you doing!?"

"I had some free time, and for some reason I came back here."

"Eh!?"

She stared in wonder at the son who had suddenly come back from Tokyo for no particular reason.

He only had enough for one way of the round trip... that was Banri's real reason for coming, but mother didn't care in the least.

By the morning after his confession to Kouko, he was feeling acutely embarrassed, remembering it. They'd arranged to meet up that evening, but he had no idea what they could have talked about if they did. In the how many hours until the evening, he didn't even know what to do to make it a lively occasion.

If that's the way it is, then let's go home, he thought. Going home for a bit, until the evening time would certainly cease to flow, the wait filled with conversation. Frankly, they talked too much. Though he didn't feel the need to run away from the memories of last night, at least for the moment he was able to escape from living alone.

And besides, afterwards, there was one more thing.

"I haven't eaten aaanything since morning. I wanna eat something."

"Why so sudden? If you're coming back, then call and tell me you're coming back! I'm going over to Grandma's place to work in her garden this afternoon! Since you're back, you want to come too? The season has just arrived, and it's a real mess over there."

"It's okay, I'll pass. Today's just a visit. I've got things to do this evening."

"Eh? What's that? Is that so?"

Having asked for food, and having said a few things to butter up his mom, he went up to his second-floor room.

There was something he thought he ought to look at.

Throwing his small solitary bag on the bedspread, he had no choice but to open the room's closet, filled with one year's worth of memories. Having taken to his new home only plain clothing, his high school uniform was hanging there, placed neatly in order. His mother had done that, of course.

He then pulled out a cardboard box. Pulling it out on the floor, he ripped off the tape and opened it. A broken cell phone and a high-school graduation album, stored away as remembrances, perfectly preserved.

How many hours before?

In the quiet of his home, he'd received a text from Kouko. The message, perhaps because of the tension of the morning, maybe due to the hangover, was awfully long. In that place, such a sentence it was.

'Thinking about things like being rejected, refusing Tada-kun would be pretty much the same thing.'

Reading it, he did not understand it right away.

He considered it for a while, thinking. Almost certainly he had to another person--- the Banri from before knew many people, perhaps that Banri had rejected someone, so to speak.

That he had lost all his memory of the time when he was living in this room was a pain he could not avoid. He even worried that people might try to come over. But, being unable to remember hurt, and Banri completely refused to tell his mother. He didn't want them to come and meet him. He didn't want to make contact with them. He didn't even consider getting his cell phone repaired, so he would be found by those from before. And then he left home, as if he were escaping.

I've died, he thought, and wanted to forget.

Being lost, for the second time and knowing there was something big he could not get back, was scary.

Setting the self he had never known aside, he picked up an album from where it was stashed in the cardboard box.

He wasn't perfect--- something large had been broken in him. That sort of thing was hard to accept. For the moment perhaps, he couldn't do anything.

But, he wanted to change.

Being rejected hurts. Not being accepted hurts. Looking at pain directly hurts. By the recognition of that pain, first of all, accept the way you are now, he thought.

Even though he'd not been required to in the time he'd lost, if anything was accomplished by the birth of this self, he wanted to make that time important. That is to say, you cannot help but do it. So he thought.

From now on, if he met somebody, even somebody he'd met in the past, even himself, whomever it might be, he did not want to reject them.

For that reason, he opened the album. He needed just a little bit of courage. When first he opened the album cover, a strange, light sound came out.

"...Whaa..."

When he immediately saw his own face in it's proper place in the picture, a smiling class portrait, he gasped a little. Third year, class 4, Tada Banri. Tenth in the line.

He traced his fingertip slowly over his unknown self, and his unknown classmates' faces. He still had a feeling of dread towards what he had felt, but could no longer recall. He suppressed those feelings; he wanted to know who they were. He wanted to become able to.

But, his heart was beating fast.

To the front and down the line from the unknown Tada Banri, the person photographed giving a peace sign. The fifteenth person in the line.

Hayashida Nana.

"...Eh?"

From inside the album, a bunch of Polaroid photos had slipped out. Picking them up, he examined them. Quite a few of them were scribbled on, in bold letters. On one, in a different handwriting, "Banri's an idiot, nearly", was written. The two in the picture were messing around, looking at each other cross-eyed. "You've forgotten even your graduation!!!", was scribbled around the picture's edge.

"Linda passed on to college, Banri got held back.", was all else that was written.

There were pictures of just the two of them. In the classroom, in the gymnasium, on the grounds, in clubrooms, in uniform, in jerseys, smiling widely, even the fillings in their teeth showing, and a long wooden bridge.

Smiling, cheek to cheek.

"...Wh, what...? What the heck...? ...Linda-senpai...?"

Remember, don't forget!

Did Linda say something like that?

He stood up.

His socks slipping on the flooring as he took off running from his room,

"Banri!? Isn't your ramen boiling!? Where're you going!?"

"Hold on! Hold on, lemme see..."

As he pulled on his shoes, what he understood,

"To the bridge!"

The bridge wasn't very far from the house. Not entirely understanding yet, he searched for something as he ran. Just what he was looking for still didn't yet know. "Still, if I don't go...", he thought. He ran and he looked. If there was something he had to do there, something he had to get, whatever it was he wanted it. It struck him that he wanted nothing but to do that.

There was a paved path from amongst the mountains, so you could ride down. At such times he thought, "I've gotta get a scooter license, I really do." As he was passing by, he saw to the side a red banner on which was written, "The Entrance for the Seven Gods of Good Luck."

Before long, the long, long bridge came into view before him.

"...What, how ridiculous...!?"

It hurt to breathe. Gasping, he started to cross the bridge. This was the bridge from which Banri fell. What on earth happened at that time, nobody knows. Since the Banri in question had forgotten, and not even the police really knew.

"...Linda-senpai... How could it be...!?"

Show me, please, he muttered. Why, were you next to me? You, who are you? To me, what, what are you? Why don't you talk with me any more?

Passing the midpoint of the bridge, suddenly his feet stopped. Exhausted, he began to collapse.

"...What is this weird sound...!?"

Oddly cloying, the suggestive feeling brought by the ringing of the bell echoed unexpectedly amongst the mountains. Iya<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, boka<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>n, ufu<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, with such a mood. The ringing of the bell--- who did it?

Dizziness took him to his knees. He clung to the guardrail. So as not to look down, he closed his eyes. It might have been a hangover. Unable to stand up, Banri covered his face with his hand. Dizzily, his feet shook. No, was it the bridge that was shaking?

It was at that moment.

While the idiotic bell was sounding, on this bridge, he realized he was hearing the sound of many feet running towards him.

Reflexively he looked up, and then, he saw a bunch of people passing by. He saw the form of the lead runner. The guy saw him too. He was looking fixedly at Banri's face, his jaw slack, looking like a fool.

That guy---

"Banri!"

Is that me?

Calling his name, grabbing him by the elbow, was that Linda?

What, what's this? What the heck is going on? To resist the dizziness, as if his brain were being spun around, he bit his lip. Mumbling, he felt thick-headed and slow, as if he were anemic.

Opening his eyes once more, it was just the bridge still, continuing on. There was nobody else. He couldn't hear the bell anymore. ...Was it a dream, maybe? Was it an aftereffect of his accident? Was his head somehow going funny? Or was it simply from his hangover? Or, was he just misinterpreting something he had seen?

Coming back to his senses, in his back pocket his cell phone was vibrating.

'Banri?'

"''Yana''-ssan..."

'What's with you, where are you? Out? Something I, today in some free time... I mean, I'd like to talk a bit. About yesterday, various things... could we do that?'

"...I'm... not here..."

"Huh? What? I can't hear you very well."

A dying cherry tree by a dry river bed, a big sky. The voices of friends. A long bridge. A strong breeze. Other than Banri, there was no one else on the bridge.

Only Banri stood there now, alone, standing still amongst the scenery. In the middle of reality, existing. The ramen was boiling, his mother was getting frustrated, in such a moment he existed.

If he were able to recognize it as it was, he could perhaps forever be at peace.

<center>* * *</center>

Tada Banri was looking at Linda.

The sports science lecture suddenly getting cancelled, amongst the students hurriedly breaking up, he spotted Linda's form. Linda noticed Banri's gaze too, and waved, "See you, Tada Banri." While Banri gazed at that face, he could not move. There was so much he wanted to ask her. But he could not. Not knowing her reason for keeping the secret, he didn't know what he did and didn't know. Wanting to ask her, "What? Do you have something?", Banri kept on looking at Linda's face still.

A beautiful girl, her long beautiful hair carefully done, was looking at the back of Banri's head. Her name is Kaga Kouko.

At Kouko's profile, with a complicated look, but hiding so as not to be discovered, a slightly sunburnt guy was watching. His name is Yanagisawa Mitsuo.

Behind Mitsuo, having noticed earlier where he was looking, a girl was thinking about whether or not to call out to him. Her name is Oka Chinami.

Though the familiar faces were present, though he had not taken sports science, another guy had come into the classroom. His name was Satou Takaya.

Passing through the background, like a dark shadow there was a woman. Her name, of course, is NANA.

My name is Tada Banri.

I've died, an eighteen year old boy.

Unnoticed by anyone, without anybody knowing, I've always watched after Tada Banri's affairs. I see everybody's affairs.

I'm sitting in the first seat behind, taking it easy, legs stretched out. Today the sunlight is really strong, and the classroom is warm, making everybody sleepy. While staring at the boring back of Banri's head, I find my eyes are closing by themselves. I'm getting awfully sleepy.

For now --- black-out.

:The End

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Postscript|Postscript]]
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</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5

2013-11-12T10:34:44Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 5==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 5==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 198.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri has spotted me.

Being made fun of in a strangely confused moment in time while that long-missed seductive bell was ringing, while gasping in pain, Banri certainly saw me that day. And I saw him too.

The present and the past connecting in the middle of that bridge, Banri and I, our eyes met for only a moment. Mine, or possibly Banri's, maybe both side's mistake in vision, a bad guess, an accidental misunderstanding, a mysterious illusion, a common daydream, what he thought didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Anyway, the memory of that moment in my past certainly exists. This phenomenon, whatever you might call it, as far as I'm concerned, is real.

<center>* * *</center>

Serenely, Kouko said she was trying to collect the objective facts.

"To summarize them, Mitsuo and I are bound by fate. That is to say, it's been proven over and over again."

With a thump, she put a big paper bag from a department store, packed full of stuff, on the table in front of Banri. The table shaking and creaking from the weight, an older gentleman next to them, an espresso in one hand, briefly looked towards them. "Excuse me...", Banri bowing his head in a working class sort of way.

A little before three in the afternoon, walking from campus a short distance to the café--- which had now become outrageously memorable, the shop where they served café-au-lait in bowls. Thinking that perhaps they shouldn't go there a second time, they peeked into other cafes but found them completely full, and they finally settled down here, where they thought they might be able to have a quiet conversation.

"If I can pile up enough objective truth before his eyes, I think even Mitsuo would not be able to avoid his responsibility. ...And you could say, being a little law-school-ish would be good right now, eh?"

Holding her bowl in both hands, sipping café-au-lait as if it were soup, Kouko could be seen smiling.

Taking his bowl in both hands like she was, Banri stared at her.

"...I couldn't get out even though I'd had enough of the lecture."

As if asking "What was that?", Kouko raised one of her beautifully cared-for eyebrows and looked back at Banri's eyes.

Between deep red lips, a line of pure white teeth. Smooth cheeks. The skin about her eyes was stretched smoothly. From her slim fingers, neatly manicured, to the line from her hips to her crossed legs, she was perfect in every way. Calmly returning her café-au-lait bowl to its saucer, she looked out the window, elegantly composed.

Since that "worst day", when they'd escaped their awful situation, four days had passed. Having taken a break, it seemed that Kouko had gotten back on her feet. However.

"Well then, Kaga-san, are you really feeling better now? With how you were feeling Wednesday and all, not attending and looking like you were going to fail the class! All the first years but you have been getting perfect attendance."

"I just had to have a little time. Alone, by myself, thinking. And I arrived at a conclusion that of course I did the right thing. It wasn't a mistake. It was just right. ...As long as I keep to my plans, things will have to work out!"

Finally up to the task, even if only in front of Banri, as if acting the part of "the Perfect Kaga Kouko", she slowly raised her chin and smiled with her whole face. He could not discover even one flaw, not one spot on her creamy white throat.

With Kouko at long last back to school, just like that, Banri was even more high spirited than he had been worried before.

Wounded by Yanagisawa's cold attitude, confused by Chinami's entry into the fray, and along the way, embarrassed by Omaken, he had felt that she must certainly have been feeling down. Those four days, Banri had been really worried about Kouko. The day before, he had even called out to Linda when he spotted her in the lobby, and while leaving out the details, consulted with her about what to do about Kouko.

Banri said that she seems to be lost, because she's so clumsy at it she's ashamed to join Omaken, and Linda replied, "Pressuring her won't do any good. But, it would be boring without a partner," with a nod. "If Kouko was so inclined, of course they would be happy, she would always be welcome, and it's OK if she's a bit confused up until when she agrees to join." Simply calling Kouko his partner, just that much was making Banri feel strangely embarrassed.

"What were you thinking about? There's no mistaking Mitsuo and I are bound together, just not completely yet. There's proof, such that nobody can evade, perfect proof."

Kouko was stubborn to the end.

Her straight-blown hair spilled right down her back, held by a hairband wrapped in a deep gray and purple satin design. In her dark brown hair, it really looked pretty. Then,

"Justice will be mine!"

She nodded vigorously, showing her enthusiasm. She was wearing a snow white blouse. Emphasizing the courtroom style, she had on a slender, mannish vest. And a black tie. And a black miniskirt, black tights and black high heels. She had the evidence stuffed in a paper bag, and carried a high-class brand of briefcase. Together with how she threw her head back, today's Kouko really, how can you say it? ... She seemed to be doing an impression of a sexy lawyer.

Banri even now didn't understand where Kouko got her certainty. The proof, the proof, she was saying, but in reality up to this point, seeing the so-called 'satisfactory relationship' that Yanagisawa and Kouko had, he didn't think there was such a thing in this world as pulling out "objective facts".

Rather, he didn't think a man's heart could be moved to one's own convenience.

Though thinking about it, he didn't want to say anything negative to this Kouko, just barely returned, finally, from getting back on her feet.

"Wellll...", carefully saying little, resting his chin on his hand, Banri's cellphone buzzed.

It was a text from Yanagisawa.

"''Yana''-ssan said the lecture is over. He's coming this way now."

"Did he happen to ask you if I was here too?"

"Yes, yes, he did", said Banri, nodding. Though it seemed she was coming to school, after the lecture they hadn't spoken but a bit. "What're we doing?", was all Kouko had said along the way.

Once he came alongside Banri, Yanagisawa answered frankly, "I wanted to talk with Kouko too, amongst other things." While he was speaking that way, he gave a brief glance full of meaning that even Banri wasn't fool enough to not notice. He couldn't recall even one time that Yanagisawa had actually wanted to talk with Kouko.

As if she were satisfied, Kouko's back became even straighter.

"Look at this, will you? Perfect. Of course, you've been worrying about me, for a long time. You've repented of how coldly you were treating me. And then, little by little, unknown to yourself, I have filled up your heart. That is quite according to our perfect scenario."

Then as she were just remembering it, she took out a hand mirror from her pouch, looked into it, double-checking her beautiful perfection. Eyes upturned, blinking repeatedly, trying to make a smile from ear to ear, then nodding as if in approval, she put away the mirror.

This latest development startled Banri.

"Ka, Kaga-san, well... of course you aren't going back again!? And then, there's that, look here, rather than waiting in vain for Yana-ssan, once in a blue moon..."

"What are you saying? At long last, after waiting for him, I can present my evidence to him."

With a smile quickly put back in place, saying "That's true, isn't it?", he had no choice but to shut his mouth once more.

Really, calling Yanagisawa here like this was bad. He had yielded to Kouko's excessive self-confidence, though she couldn't deal with being rejected over and over again.

Hoping for something like progress with Kouko, perhaps... no, never, won't happen.

Yanagisawa was planning to turn her down once and for all, here.

Besides, it seemed to Banri that during the time she was away from school, Yanagisawa and Chinami’s relationship had been making progress, little by little. Even at the club drinking parties, it seemed, the two of them had had plenty of time to themselves. Since Yanagisawa knew all too well that Banri was supporting Kouko, he felt no need to mention it. In fact, he would not have been surprised if they were actually starting to go out together.

"...Anyways... shouldn’t you not be getting your hopes up?"

Timidly, that was all he tried to say.

If he were untactful, Yanagisawa might have planned to come here together with Chinami. And then in front of Banri and Kouko, they would slap her with the announcement that they were a couple. If such a thing were to happen, what would Kouko wind up doing? Becoming perfect, and then, ...what would she become, really? For certain sorry, standing petrified, in a strange cold sweat.

As for Banri, since such a Kouko's near future worried him, he couldn't just decide things were getting uncomfortable around here and take his leave, claiming "This has nothing to do with me."

"Why? He didn't just come here this way perfectly. There's plenty of evidence."

Looking strangely hesitant, Kouko looked back at Banri's face, handling her paper bag as if it were something valuable.

"But it's 'proof'... otherwise why would I have brought it with me?"

And saying, "He's come!", she sat facing the doorway, her eyes shining.

"Mitsuo! Over here!"

When she stood up with a flourish, like an actress, the old man next to them, apparently unable to deal with the noise, finally got up and moved over to the counter. "Sorry, really...", muttered Banri in a small voice that could hardly be heard.

Yanagisawa, his hair hanging down partway down the sides of his face, was standing in the entrance to the café. Raising his voice when he saw Kouko's face,

"Been a while, hasn't it?"

It seemed as if he were shrugging his shoulders while saying it. Chinami wasn't there, so Banri was able to relax for the time being. As he walked over to them, he jammed a knit cap he'd taken off into a pocket of his faded jeans. The heels of his well worn Red Wing boots made the floorboard creak.

Throwing her shoulders back, Kouko took a step towards Yanagisawa, keeping her perfect smile directed at him.

"Won't you sit down? What would you like to order? Mr. Defendant."

"Oh be quiet. Excuse me, could I have some coffee? Be normal."

"Hmph, you only just got here."

"I won't try to escape nor hide. You have nothing to be afraid of."

"Hey, what're you trying to say? Did I even set you free, or discover you hiding?"

"...Should I...really be here...?"

"It's OK! Stay here!", the two of them said at the same time, smiling, making Banri settle down and stop squirming.

In this meeting between the guy who was loved, and the girl whose love was unrequited, why was he here in the first place?

"Well then, prepare yourself. I will be understood completely. My perfection..."

"Something you want to say arbitrarily, as it were? Since it doesn't matter, I'll stay and listen."

"Anyways, sit down. Or have your feet cramped? Isn't it still early to be getting cold feet?"

"Huh? What have you been saying? Just why can't I have second thoughts?"

...Was this feeling like a duel?

Kouko's face smiling. Yanagisawa's face a mask. Giving each other exactly the same cool looks, they sat down, even their timing matching precisely, like mirror images. While between the two of them the tension crackled as if there were unseen sparks flying, Banri, who had been watching from the start had been yawning repeatedly, exhausted from the stress. Oxygen simply wasn't getting to his brain.

Or rather, the scene these people were making, as if they were on good terms with each other, Banri didn't see it that way, not even for a moment.

Facing each other again, they always disagreed, would get to fighting and disputing. Somehow the two of them argued just like they were brother and sister.

"Well, let's start with me, OK? Let's start by stating the end goal. Mitsuo, who is recognized in truth as my lover, should be quickly and formally engaged."

Kouko preempted him with her perfect smile. Was she bewildered? Was she bashful? Were her delicate emotions wavering? Trampled by those high heels and flushed down the toilet! To all appearances, she was as self-assured as a fortress.

"These are the proofs. Look through it in order. Starting with where we were born."

Kouko pulled a file out of her paper bag, and Yanagisawa and Banri leaned over a map of a city center so they could see it.

"Here is the Kaga home. Here is the Yanagisawa home. In a straight line it's about eight hundred meters. Close from the start. The schools were together too. The probability of our getting to know each other in public elementary school was very high. In summary, our meeting was inevitable. It was determined from the time we were born that we would meet, somewhere. And it was fated that we would get together. We were classmates from elementary school onwards."

She turned a page in the file with her beautifully painted fingernail. There was a picture, glued onto some cardboard, a caption hastily written all around it.

"This was from the entrance ceremony. We're in the same picture, both of us. We were only eight years old. We still hadn't even spoken with each other at that time. At seven years old, a picture of an outing. A patron visit... Mitsuo's parents and my parents were together. After that, an athletic meet. Eight years old, nine years old, ...always together in pictures. Look at this, summer camp in our fifth year. Mitsuo, what's with such long hair? Then, this,"

"...Just what do you want to say?"

"Listen, just look. It's the graduation from elementary school! They took a picture of the two of us. We asked somebody to take it."

"You're sure drowning in memories looking at your album and remembering again. Just what's your point with all this?"

"Because of that, it's proof!"

"Of what?"

"Mitsuo and I are bound by this legitimate proof of fate."

Even when the file was closed with a bang by Yanagisawa, Kouko didn't turn off her smile.

"What I think about Mitsuo, in truth, has not changed. I've been that way since I was little, I was always together with Mitsuo. Remember when you confessed your love in first grade? Mitsuo said it, too. I love Kooko-chan, I'll be together with Kooko-chan from now on, you said, you'll become my bride, right, you said. You really did say it. Don't you remember? It was when we gave out presents at the Christmas party in first grade. You said it on the stage, my father and mother heard it too, even grandma heard it."

"...That, in the Christmas party, wasn't that a play!? That was a well-staged dramatization, so that your parents could hear."

"Ever since then, I've always been committed to getting married to Mitsuo."

"Look, Kouko. Between us, the dating thing won't work."

"But that was something between childhood friends. Again, I don't think I especially need to explain our relationship. That is something that goes without saying. Right?"

"Perhaps when we were children, we said things like that innocently. But, that was because we really were kids. Things like that could be said. But we're no longer little kids. Being a kid, wearing a uniform, going to and from school and studying; that's different from now."

"That's right. I understand that. We've grown up. Therefore, even in our relationship, we want to bring it up to an appropriately adult level."

"...'Bringing it up' or whatever, is something else though. "Loving" as a kid, versus "loving" now. I love Mr. Giraffe, I love Mr. Elephant, I love Kooko-chan... that happy time is already over. That's something normal; understand that. I mean, you can pretend to understand, or not."

"That's not it. Our relationship, ever since we were born, by destiny, for eternity, has been absolutely perfect."

"I don't understand where you get that from. I am fed up already, really, with your presumption. Because of it, how long have I been handicapped? First year middle school. Third year middle school. Second year high school. When there was a girl I liked, you'd interfere one way or another, quarrel with her, harass her, until you'd gotten her fed up with me. You even affected my friends, making them keep their distance. Thanks to you, all the way through graduation, not one girl would associate with me. I was truly left alone. As far as everybody was concerned, Yanagisawa Mitsuo had no choice in the end but to be Kaga Kouko's."

"Fooling around is not permitted. After all,"

"So! Already, it looks like you're telling me you're fed up with it!"

Kouko having once more opened the file, Yanagisawa roughly pushed it aside. Falling from the table, photos and memo-like things were scattered by Banri's feet.

"But, ...I haven't blamed you for what's happened until now. It's the past in any case. With childhood things in general, lacking judgement I made childish mistakes, drifting along, I think. I am thinking that now you should be taking responsibility for having come to my university, and certainly for your own life. Anyway, I am just telling you clearly in advance. I have the person that I like now."

"...It's me, of course?"

"Take it however you like. It's Chinami. It seems to me that a few times now you've tried to smear her name. If you so much as trouble her, put her on the spot, hurt her feelings or pester her--- if you try to separate her from me, I will not be happy with you. I will hate you, I will hate Kouko, eternally, absolutely and perfectly to the point where it will follow you even if you transfer to a different university."

Deliberately slowly so as to be heard, Yanagisawa with his finger as if setting a rhythm, stabbed out the words.

"I'm leaving you behind."

With a sharp sound, Kouko stood up.

She looked down at Yanagisawa.

"...Why?"

Her now visibly false smile vanished once, but then returned, stiffening.

"Why? What the, why such... what's with this? I don't get you."

Yanagisawa silently looked up at the scene. Kouko was breathing in gasps, trying to maintain her expression but her lips trembling more and more as she spoke.

"But, ...but, I don't understand. Am I not special to you? Do you remember that time you had such a big backpack on? Do you remember when you'd lost out because of your handwriting? Who comforted you then? When you were chosen to be a member of the relay team for the sports day, who baked the party cake? You dropped the relay baton, didn't you? Who of all the others knew that? That time the girls came in first, and our class came in first overall. Who was the anchor of the girl's relay team? Between "Mitsuo can see me" and all the cheering, I was always such a dunce. Who ran faster than anybody else?"

"I remember."

"You do!?"

"But, it's impossible."

"Well then! ...Then, when I was born and started writing love letters, who were they to...? To whom... do you know?"

Noticing that Kouko's fingers were trembling delicately where they touched the table, Banri involuntarily glanced up at her face. Looking, he saw how pale she had become. Her voice was shaking too. Even the café-au-lait bowl was rattling.

He didn't need to see this. Or rather, why was he being shown this? Banri hid his face, covering his eyes with one hand. He could only hear the trembling voice of Kouko.

"...You know this boy I've come to love since I was born, don't you? On the occasion of my ninth birthday party, the boy who took me home? When I was feeling down because I wasn't chosen to accompany on piano, the boy who for my sake brought from home an origami set? That boy... do you know him?"

"...But, it'll never happen."

"Wouldn't you know!? You were that person! The reason I was able to run so fast, the reason I want to be pretty, the one I wanted to love was you! You've always been special! To be bound to you is right! Otherwise, if it weren't so... it wouldn't be perfect! Unless I was perfect, then I would not be able to get you to love me! Then what was I to do!? So, so always, I, I've tried, perfectly... hey! Why am I not special to you!?"

Quietly raising his eyes a fraction, Yanagisawa gave Kouko a penetrating look. Banri wished he could leave. If Kouko had noticed how badly she was shaking, she probably would have gotten up and left long ago.

"Answer me! Haven't I loved you since I was little!? Wasn't I raised with you and for you!? And yet, why am I not special to you!? Why am I not even important to you!?"

"So please answer me!", she repeated over and over again, whining like a little kid, unable to listen and beginning to tremble pitifully.

Ah, no way, such a---

"...You, are you an idiot...?"

Of sympathy there was not a trace. His expression was one of anger. Yanagisawa was angry.

"I don't think you ever understood me. It was always just about you. For that reason, you don't understand!"

Standing up, pointing at her with his finger, to his tearful female childhood friend Yanagisawa spoke.

"This was a careful decision. Really and truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am doing this for you. ...I did it for you! Why don't you understand that!? Do you want to get hurt because you fail to understand something I'm telling you? You're not an irresponsible kid, so understand! In particular, don't be getting the wrong ideas just because I happen to care! I'm not going to talk about lovers, destiny or any such thing! Because in reality, it wasn't like that! We didn't even fool around, not once! That was because I cared for you! If I had not cared, then with the right atmosphere, and the right feelings, what might we have done, we could have wound up having some fun! But that I could not do! I don't think one can become happy just by doing that! Because of that, it was something I absolutely could not do! I don't want to do such a thing!"

"...Well, weelll,"

Banri couldn't look at Kouko's face.

"If I'm important... if I'm special, that... love, is something different...? Is it not permitted to include 'love'? Coming to love me, falling in love, loving one another, getting married, for eternity, speaking that way... why, can't it be? Is it not possible?"

Yanagisawa's reply was a shake of the head. Yanagisawa was crudely telling her that it would not work, the two of them together. Banri was thinking that Yanagisawa would understand just how much he was supporting Kouko. He wasn't blaming him, asking him to be flexible and not say such hard things. Because he was that sort of guy, maybe that's why he wanted to be friends.

"...Not possible...?"

A drop fell to the table.

"...This way, in spite of remembering our childhood...? Even though I'm special? In spite of that, there's no way? Then, then in short... it was my fault?"

That was how Kouko was defeated.

If she simply cried herself out, not her objectives, not her evidence, nothing would come to be more than a pile of papers.

"Because I was merely something to be despised? Then, to whatever extent you have memories, however long a time you give me in reality, there is simply no way? Could you not fall in love with me? If, if that's the case,"

In a small voice, he tried to call her. He was thinking it was time to give up. Kouko not knowing how to pull back, again sinking into depression before him, Banri wanted to hold her back. That is the reason I stayed here, he thought.

But that voice didn't seem to reach Kouko.

"If so, then I am already not needed! Always unneeded, always forgotten, done without! Made as if I never existed! If just one more thing happens to me that cannot be undone, I will be entirely gone!"

Hearing what seemed to be a scream in that voice, Yanagisawa said nothing more, rising from his seat.

Pulling his knit cap on his head nearly to his eyes, he swung open the door and went outside.

The inside of the shop suddenly went terribly quiet. He realized that the other customers all had their ears directed towards them, curious. Banri moved slightly, highly uncomfortable, when at that moment there arose the sound of Kouko gulping for air.

''Bang'', Kouko's hand struck her saucer, shaking it.

"...Just what have I done?"

Kouko watched Banri, covering her mouth. Opening her eyes, tears ran down her cheeks again, flowing down. Sorry, Tada-kun. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, so very sorry. Sitting down as if she were falling, she turned her crumpled face towards Banri, from the corners of her tightly closed eyelashes once more tears.

He was being apologized to, he understood at last. Banri searched within himself. The Banri who lived here as if nothing mattered at all, blowing up before that Banri's eyes was indiscreet, perhaps, but he wasn't hurt by Kouko's words.

"It's all right, Kaga-san."

"...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...!"

"Really, since it's OK. ...In such a time as that, you needn't worry about me."

"...Sorry, Tada-kun..."

Just now was nothing. You'll forget. You'll make it as if it hadn't happened. ---But it wasn't so easy to say that, the future being awfully difficult to manage.

<center>* * *</center>

Kouko stayed sitting there in the seat by the window.

Not knowing what else to do, Banri continued watching the tableau. The tears on her cheeks already dried, Kouko remained silent, her head hanging in shame, completely shut off from everything. Four o'clock passed, five o'clock neared, slowly outside the window it was starting to get dark,

"Good sirs, there are customers waiting for the non-smoking section..."

The café employee said to them apologetically. At last the time had come,

"It's about time we left, Kaga-san."

Banri prompted her,

"..."

Still silent, Kouko, instead of asking if they should get up and leave, went through the glass door that separated the smoking section. Bowing his head to the bewildered employee, the confused Banri followed her at once. For sure it was less crowded over here, with fewer customers and poorer ventilation, and an awful cloud of tobacco smoke and smell swirling about in the air.

"Hey, Kaga-san..."

Sliding into vacant seats,

"I thought smoking might kill you."

Distracted by Kouko's muttered words, uncomfortable smokers were looking their way.

"Err... noo, what did I say...? I didn't think such stuff was deadly, did I...?"

Having entered the smoking section with Kouko once again hanging their heads in shame, trading glances with the employees, Banri was embarrassed. If he were to order something more, would they let them stay here still? More importantly, was it all right if he stayed here still? Obviously dispirited, Kouko wouldn't want to go off by herself alone, but wasn't Banri's very presence a bother, as far as she was concerned? Perhaps what she needed was time alone to lick her wounds. If so, he wanted to disappear quickly.

Naturally, he wasn't thinking about "being needed". That she didn't require any human being apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo even Banri understood. Worrying about Kouko, and wanting to keep an eye on her, was Banri's condition. He wanted to pay more attention to her condition than to his own.

Of course, it might be that he shouldn't be here--- a feeling that sitting too long a time, an ache arising from his rear just then,

"Want a smoke? Here you go, one shot!"

A girl they didn't know sat down next to them and extended her cigarette case towards Kouko.

"You wanna die? Use this stuff and you will. At the cellular level for sure."

"This person's not twenty years old yet..."

Confused for some reason, Banri blocked it. Kouko raised her head a bit, looking curiously at the cigarette case offered to her by that mysterious person. It didn't appear to be any major brand, like Mild Seven, or Marlboro.

"Boyfriend?"

Confused, Banri shook his head rapidly back and forth. The girl, with a cynical smile twisting her lips, spoke.

"Hey. You can call me NANA."

Thinking a bit, Banri,

''Cough!''

Expelling his breath as if punched.

He remembered while he was hospitalized, forever reading the latest issues of shoujo manga. Probably overdone, a short one-length bob hair style with longer bangs, dyed jet black and a leopard print camisole. Aggressively strong makeup. Heavy leather riding jacket. Neck to fingertips jingling with excessive silver accessories. She even carried around a guitar case. Her appearance, such as it was, was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Osaki that] character.

Such cosplay... but why here and now? Chosen over other things. Such a person. Was this café some sort of power spot to draw in such strange people? The more he looked at her, the more he had to restrain himself from laughing out loud.

"You could say you, well... for me, it was something for me to see. By chance right next to me... so to speak."

He looked towards her black fingernails. In the setting of her silver ring was a skull.

"...I'm not Linda's junior. You were with Linda in high school! I'm a third year. Or rather,"

Twisting her lips so as to direct the fumes upwards as she smoked, NANA... sempai explained her surprising name.

"Linda's first given name is pronounced NANA too."

"...That, are you kidding..."

Banri was becoming overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all,

At long last, a snort came from Kouko's nose. And then from Kaga Kouko he got the same strange vibes.

"Omaken, eh? I'm fed up to here with that. The Yosakoi and such were such a pain, didn't they make me feel like I wanted to die?"

"...What about this year's Awa Odori...?", replied Banri, to which she laughed scornfully.

"Even more so time to stop. For sure. If I'm gonna die, let it be by music."

And then, thrust before them, a cheap-looking black and white flyer.

"Today at nine o'clock. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakano,_Tokyo Nakano City]. Though it's nothing more than an amateur student band, Awa Odori can die a thousand times in comparison."

"Ah, thanks... this is what they call a 'live show'... is it? But I've never been to such a thing... are you going too, NANA-senpai? Well, of course... does it seem like a typical cover band?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'cover band'. They aren't like a cover band. Cause I'm a poet. Poetry reading."

"Po, poe...? Huh...?"

"If you have this leaflet, you get two drinks. If you mention my name, you can get more. Come and die."

With a broad grin, she gave them the finger. NANA-senpai wore her character to the last, and leaving things as they were, left the shop. With only the leaflet left behind in Banri's hand, "What shall we do?", he said towards Kouko,

"Let's go and die."

Kouko plucked it from him. Her tear-reddened eyes, upset wherever they sat, desperate from having been put upon, understood.

"...If it isn't perfect, then I ought to remain broken to the end. Unlike how I've been up to now, I want to do absolutely nothing. No half measures. If I'm going to be smashed to pieces anyway, then I want to become nothing at all. I want to die!"

And then standing up, spreading their arms wide and taking deep breaths--- the people in the smoking section of course really looked like they hated them, Kouko making as if she didn't see.

"What will you do, Tada-kun? I'm going even if I have to go alone."

"...It's a date! Of course!"

Leaving Kouko like that alone was worrisome, besides, that's the way it was. If she wasn't perfect, instead falling to pieces, she would do nothing as if dying, but then she would want to be brought back to life. Banri, at least, always thought so.

<center>* * *</center>

Unable to say anything about honorable defeat while killing time nor over dinner, they went drinking at a cheap tavern afterwards.

"...W, what? Even in my thoughts it was never such a dodgy looking place..."

A little past nine o'clock, Banri and Kouko were standing before the live concert place. Trying to look inside through the entrance, Banri winced. The steps going down were dark.

Looking very much out of place, looking around nervously, she pushed on his back with both hands,

"It's OK, you'll be fine, no problems..."

Kouko made ready to go down the steps.

"Hold on, just hold on a bit more,", Banri said, planting his feet firmly in resistance. Even more than in his imagination, the real thing was considerably more hard core.

"Between dying and killing, were the fans of that student band on the same planet?", Banri was thinking. "The tension here, for the first time in my life 'live', so to speak, will eventually be over, right?" If they were to spend some time going crazy, then perhaps Kouko would unwind a little. That was the feeling he had.

However, there were no students to be seen amongst the other customers gathering around the entrance. For some reason, most were well built, like foreigners, with body piercings and tattoos seeming natural for them. They wore grim-looking riveted jackets and leather pants, had impressive figures with biceps like logs. Above their bald heads, a vapor arose from their sweat. Ordinary people appeared as fasting monks beside them, all skin and bones. Their mouths open as they stood around, they watched the petrified Banri with suspicious eyes, like buffalo-men with their huge shoulders, both tattoed with "guts" (why?) --- anyhow, everybody living in the ordinary world would never be able to meet such a variety of people as were here.

"We, we're really going...?"

He reflexively looked over towards Kouko, inquiring,

"Let's go, it's ok! It's O-K, let's go! It's all right if we goooo."

Kouko stood before him firmly, looked at him with clear eyes, and nodded like crazy.

Perhaps due to three whole hours of drinking continuously, her breath reeked of liquor. Her voice was a little slow, but for the time being she seemed the same old Kaga Kouko. Her makeup was a little smeared from crying, but otherwise to every last aspect she was perfect. "Fuu... haaa...", she sighed, though she wasn't collapsing yet, in spite of having recklessly drank virtually everything on the menu, from fruit sours to cocktails. Banri, feeling dizzy on the way, had switched to an oolong tea, but Kouko kept drinking alcohol until she was finally full. Could she hold her liquor that well?

"Hey let's gooo! Let's goo! Tada-kuun, hey, it's OK, it's O-K, it's oookaaayyy."

Almost as if she were throwing a fit, Kouko started impatiently stamping her feet. He sensed several gazes turning towards them. Not wanting to be something oddly conspicuous,

"...OK, OK, let's go for it!"

For the time being, going through the entrance looked almost like running away.

Going down the steps leading to a basement, putting his weight against the heavy door and opening it,

"Wow! So loud!"

He couldn't even hear himself shout. For the first time in his life, the live music detonating around him, it truly was an eye-opener. Shaken by the violent oscillations from his spine to his skull bones, his feet froze with instinctive fear. Kouko's eyes opened wide, she covered both her ears with her hands, and shouted things like "Kyaa!" and "Hyaa!". Even grabbing each other by the arm and getting closer, they really couldn't hear their voices.

The crowd of sweaty, hot and smelly people pushed them aside as they were leaving, but with that energy they entered all the quicker. Tossed about by the subterranean rumbling, they felt like their bodies were floating. And yet here they were, still only at the reception desk. Inside the exploding storm, a pair of middle-aged people of unknown nationality were standing, as if confused, watching money being passed across the counter. So then, it's not free?

The confused Banri pulled out his wallet, and showed them the leaflet he'd received from NANA-senpai. Rather than taking his money, they gave him two drink tickets. And then, ''bam'', with some sort of stamp-like thing, they were branded on the backs of their left hands. But, anyhow, to conceal themselves somewhat, they lowered their heads a little and the two of them went further inside. If they were to stand still, they had a feeling they would wind up angry.

And then, they were overwhelmed by the most terrible noise. Finally they covered their ears, realizing it was as if their brain tissue on both sides were being pounded upon. Had the other customer's ears been destroyed already? They seemed entirely unconcerned. Only Kouko and himself seemed to be nervous country bumpkins. It was scary, really. In any case, everything was scary.

"Though Kaga-san might be okay, I'm not okay!", he said, thinking he should stick really close to his one and only companion, but Kouko was looking around restlessly, and indifferent to Banri, she tossed her bag neatly into a locker. Crouching down by the lowest step, she stuffed her bag of evidence in and then kicked the door roughly to close it. To judge by the noise, her ladyship might even have broken it. And it looked like she'd forgotten to pull out the key.

Banri hurriedly stuffed his bag in with hers, pulled the key from the locker and put it away firmly in his pocket. For some reason, Kouko was moving restlessly, twisting around. There was nothing out of place with her ladyship, but she was straining to tear her black tights in several places, making holes in them.

As Banri looked on in mute amazement, she undid her necktie and opened her blouse widely, exposing much of her chest. Removing her hairband, her hair unfurled like a lion's mane. Roughly combing her hair with her hands, the combed back hair standing up and swelling, she suddenly got a wild look in her eyes. And then she rubbed roughly around her eyes, the long-ago messed up eye shadow, mascara and such smearing to where her eyebrows disappeared.

In some ways proud of herself, she showed off her look to Banri. The normally perfect Kouko vanished, suddenly a dangerous punk rocker girl. Passing on inside, going past a row of five women with lip piercings, the atmosphere hardly changed. Arriving back at the center of the chaotic noise, nobody batted an eyelash.

"...Well then, me too..."

Kouko didn't really want to disguise him, but for the time being she just messed up his hair with her fingers too. But since his hair was as limp as cat fur, nothing came of it.

Glancing at each other's faces and nodding, they once more proceeded inside. Over towards the stage, all you could see were the backs of the spectator's heads, like waves on the surface of the ocean. Because of all the noise, not even by shouting could one be heard. Approaching the bar counter, passing their drink tickets to the bartender, they were mutely shown a plastic menu. Pointing at beer, he showed it to Kouko too. Kouko chose a Moscow Mule. They were each handed a fresh cup.

"Kaga-saan! Cheeers!"

At any rate, even if they couldn't hear, he raised his voice, Kouko shouted something too, and the two of them raised their cups to their lips.

Just then a group of people surged towards the bar, hitting Kouko firmly against the back of her head. Kouko spouted her cocktail all over Banri's face. While shouting something, she took her tie and wiped Banri's face briskly. They went back over to the bar. It was entirely drowned in the noise, Banri's ears had gone deaf, he couldn't hear anything anymore.

Leaning against the counter, Kouko got close to the bartender's ear and said something as loud as she could. Her torn tights peeking from beneath her miniskirt, she raised her heel and shook her high-heels. Disheveled, half of her beauty was hidden by her wild hair. While feasting his eyes on her, he noticed a big guy with tattoos all over his upper body approaching Kouko. Banri, though a powerless knight (his finishing move was to lie down and play dead), looked ready to rush over in heroic resignation when,

"Tsuzaaeeeenja, neeeeeeooo! Uruuuaaaaaaaaaaa!"

---Between the songs, several seconds of silence, just like an air pocket. Wrung out from Kouko's throat came a howl, as if from the earthbound ghost of a female cat which had died in a particularly cruel manner.

That voice. No, that face. Her disheveled hair starting to flap against her cheeks, her large eyes bordered in pitch black glaring and glittering wet. Is this how a wounded beast feels? Really, you look like you fit in this place, Kaga-san... Banri reflexively gasped.

Rebuffing the tattooed man, she took four cups in her two hands and suddenly struck a pose while turning back towards him. Twisting her narrow waist left and right, she said "Aha☆", her whole face a smile. Giving an obvious wink, she returned to Banri's side. Her white chest swelled outwards, restrained by her tight vest. The shadow was terribly bewitching.

Really drunk she is, this person.

For a good while now, deeply drunk, even more than he thought. Even deeper than she seems to be, looking at her.

"Ka, Kaga-san, wait a sec, though it's late, is this really OK!? Aren't you drinking an awful lot!? I mean... wow, that's loud!"

With what seemed like an explosion of source, they started singing loudly once more, and while he started to crumble from the knees up again, Banri shakily extended his cup towards Kouko. Kouko was shouting out, "NANA-senpai", or something. And with a smile, she drank up the contents of one cup. "Oh...", unintentionally having watched over Banri, she fluttered her hand as if to say "Drink drink!"

Banri too, if that's how it was going to be, bringing it to his lips,

"...Buhaa!"

This time, Kouko's face got sprayed. "Gyahaa!", Kouko's face dripping while she clapped her hands and bent over double, laughing uproariously. But that wasn't all. His throat burned, his nose was sore. He was dizzy. His ears hadn't been able to hear anything for a long time. It was as if his five senses were entirely paralyzed. "What's going on!?", Banri staggering as he tried frantically to support his body with his own two feet. Up to this point he'd drunk such things as beer, sour, highballs, and so on, but definitely not sake. And strong sake this was, like fire.

Kouko's face seemed unconcerned, gulping down the same stuff. "But, drink up, I suddenly feel as tired as a stone!", sitting down.

"Whoa Kaga-san! Be careful, very careful! I mean, what, what was that!?"

Confused, while taking her hands and trying to help her stand up, he looked back towards the bartender. While the bartender lady was using the same kind of cup to give something to drink to a customer, she stuck out her tongue at Banri and Kouko. Doing two things at once, the odd glittering must have been from her piercings.

Banri finally arrived at the conclusion that perhaps it might be better if they just left. With everything to this point, she might have unwound enough, and already it seemed about the right time for her highness.

"Kaga-san, let's go already! Eh!? Kaga-san!? Kaga Koukoo!? You're not here!"

When he turned around, Kouko wasn't there, and he looked around in confusion. Cup in one hand, he staggered around, looking through the gaps between the other spectator's backs for long hair.

"Just a second, just a second! Hold on, wait!"

On the stage three guys were waving chainsaws around. The tiresome fellow playing the drums was sneaking out, looking down his nose at it all. As if spurred on by that atrocious noise, the spectators on the completely-filled floor raised their fingers high, jumping up and down, in spite of the disdainful look, raging for unknown reasons. Kouko was rapidly heading into the middle of all that.

"Ka, Kaga-saan! Wait! Hold on!"

Banri shouted, his voice quickly swallowed up. On the stage the maniacs were jumping up and down to make things even crazier, then jumping down hard on the heads of the spectators below. Or rather, falling down. Between the hands of the crazy ones, their unforgiving faces and slamming into their heads, Banri was making no progress at all.

"Miiiitsuuuuoooo is a fooooolllll<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"Scram", shouted Kouko in a slurred voice, trying to climb up on to the stage over the skinheads in the front row. Her shoes were long gone. And then,

"I'mmmm going to diieeee<nowiki>~~~~~~</nowiki>! Ugyaaaaaaa<nowiki>~~~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"You've got to be kidding, this is the end.", said Banri, beginning to give up.

Welcomed by the chain saw squad as if she were their queen, Kouko dumped the contents of her cup over her own head. She threw away the cup, stuck out her tongue, and gave the finger with both hands. She threw her head back as she were stabbing with all her might at the heavens. The cheers shook the ground. The focus of the drummer's eyes, Kouko's miniskirt, was dangerously near her butt, and in a moment, all at once the problems increased. Her bra was black. Just a fleeting glimpse of her chest was seen. And then, both hands lifting up even higher, her neck and her chattering knees, that... that, was C-3PO's pose!

Banri climbed up, as if he were jumping on people's backs with his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Purcell Jack Purcells]. He went towards the stage. Not quickly enough to stop Kouko, that just wasn't possible.

Sopping wet, bathed in sake from the head down, Kouko inspired the band to dance like robots. For just such a moment, even their rhythm was chopped up. The chainsaws growled more and more violently. Any time now, it seemed he would be able to jump to midstage with a running start. Banri barely managed to reach the stage. Stretching out his hand to jump,

"Kaga-san, don't, don't!"

He grabbed Kouko's wrist.

He put his weight into it, all at once, taking her by one hand. His body was drawn close.

He had a feeling such a thing had happened before. Even before, even that before...? The crowd was just like--- around dawn, at the river water's surface.

If he were to fall, he would die. Die completely.

"I'm scared------------------!"

Crying like a child, shamefully, who was it? Me? Kaga-san?

---Banri!

"..."

Kouko's eyes were looking at Banri.

Standing his ground, Banri also looked at Kouko.

Had somebody been calling him like this? With all the alcohol, it felt like flames dancing around, spinning inside his head. Sparks whirled about, everything he felt, everything he saw, anything and everything, just like that caught fire. What was it? How many things, in a hurry, without time, are burned, vanish and are lost? No way! Already he was truly lost, not understanding. Since he did not understand, he didn't want to hear anything more. From the beginning, it would have been good for him to not have existed.

Ah, so it was.

Always, nothing but loss---.

"Tada, kun...?"

Kouko was murmuring in a small voice. ...Murmured, sort of, her mouth could be seen moving. Their hands were still joined, the moment seeming to stand still, but,

"If you're going to die, then die quickly, you idiots. This stage is mine."

Jabbed forcefully in the lower back, Banri was pushed off the stage. And of course, Kouko together with him.

As they quickly fell down, with the guitar used to poke Banri in one hand, NANA-senpai could be seen with the mike in hand, grinning like a demon.

At the front entrance, Banri collapsed.

Stepping over the collapsed Banri, creeping down the unlit corridor, groping for the bathroom, Kouko could be heard entering.

"Are you okay...?"

"..."

Instead of a reply, one more time. Bravely.

Kicking off his shoes to get them off, still unable to stand, he somehow managed to enter the room, following the wall. His hands had gone completely numb. Supporting Kouko, he had walked here all the way from the place of the concert.

Falling to the floor with a thud, he rolled over on to the rug. The sound of the water pouring, the sound of the toilet flushing. And still he groaned, painfully.

Feeling a random pain where he sat, it felt like something was there. Sticking his hand in his pocket, out came the key to the locker.

"...Ah... we did it... the stuff in the locker, we left it, didn't we... hey, Kaga-san, again, we forgot something..."

There was no reply.

To block his feelings he covered his ears, drawing himself inside, and unnoticed, Banri's eyes seem to have closed.

<center>* * *</center>

When he woke up, he felt vague.

Still lying on the rug, he felt so heavy he only lifted his eyelids. The world was still in middle night, and in the room light did not penetrate; it was dark.

Kouko was in a corner of the dark room.

Leaning her back against Banri's bed, sitting on the floor, she looked outside through the door-wall. She was crying.

Elbow propped on a partially raised knee, chin in one hand, the other hand combing her bangs, the light from outside the window illuminated her cheek, tears running down it. Her throat sounding hoarse, her nose running, the fingers of the hand supporting her chin twisting her lips, Kouko kept on sobbing.

Even though Banri was waking up, she probably didn't notice. Just one person, huddled in the deeps of solitude, not caring what others see, that figure still crying defenselessly, marvelously, looked rather like a young boy.

In other words, just like me, Banri thought.

Though nobody should be crying aloud like that in this room, it felt as if here were split entirely in two, and he were watching himself cry.

Long ago, perhaps he had cried like this, what he was seeing on the other side of the room. This he knew: this had happened. Such feelings had come over him.

Like a pale, thin film covering the corner of his vision, just then,

"'Re'...?"

A faint glimmer, a mysterious single syllable came to mind.

When he raised his shoulder, a towel-blanket fell down. Kouko must have draped it there. Kouko, at Banri's voice, raised her tearful face as if taken aback.

"...Just now, what did you say...?"

By what was certainly the voice of a little girl, Banri's strange dream was quickly destroyed.

"...Said..."

"...You said 're'."

"...Your hand. Look..."

Banri pointed at the back of Kouko's hand. Bending her wrist and looking at the back of her hand, "This?", she said hoarsely. There was a faintly glimmering fluorescent yellow 're' symbol there.

"Ah. You too..."

At Kouko's word, he tried looking at the back of his own hand. For sure, the same 're' glimmered faintly. Was that so? Was it the stamp from the reception desk at the concert place? To make it easier to recognize in the darkness at reentry time, it was of fluorescent paint. "Now I see", Banri started to nod his head.

"I mean... why 're' of all things..."

"Who knows..."

Without a single sound in the room, the two of them stared at their respective 're's for a little while.

Were they able to think quietly this way because it was the dead of night? Was it because they were barely breathing? Or, was it because their ears had been beaten down by that awful noise? ...That, probably.

"..."

Staring at the back of her hand, it seemed she would start sobbing again. Was the syllable [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#'Re'|'re']] a switch that had enabled all of her grief? Re... Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to 're'staurants? Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to pick 'le'mons? Would they watch a 're'ntal DVD, would they ecstatically dance the [http://okami.neoseeker.com/wiki/Renjishi 'Re'njishi], or zap eggs on the 'ra'nge---

"Kaga-san... are you okay?"

"...Sorry. I was thinking about Mr. Two Dimensions just now."

"W, what? That's surprising... I mean, that doesn't have anything to do with 're', right?"

"No. There's no connection. Something Mr. Two Dimensions said, I suddenly remembered it... then, I started crying again."

Turning a sort-of smiling but tear-stained face towards Banri, Kouko straightened her legs and sat down neatly.

Leaning her back against the bed, she slowly tilted her head back, as if it were quite heavy.

"Mr. Two Dimensions will not become Mr. One Dimension. He seems he said that to get things right, to his own satisfaction, that he would have to create his own dream girl. As for me, while hearing that as half joking, I thought we were somewhat kindred spirits. 'I want to be bound to a perfect companion with a perfect scenario'... saying that he and I are going for the same thing, I thought. But Mr. Two Dimensions, since he's what they call an 'otaku' boy, he works in the world of literary creation. Since I'm not an otaku-ish girl, I work in reality. That's different from a simple preference in hobbies, I thought. Enjoying himself in creating fiction, Mr. Two Dimensions is still rather childish, even, it seems. But, ...its not like that, is it?"

Combing her disheveled hair as if it were a nuisance, while looking up at the ceiling, in a low voice she continued talking.

"He was always more mature than I, an adult. That was how I understood him to be. Apart from me, nobody can imagine stuffing the perfection I dream of into their bodies. In the real world, it cannot be done. The world, in it's own selfish way, cannot do it. What would human relationships become if they were forced to be so? ...For Mr. Two Dimensions, or rather, a person barely come of age, assuming he has that sort of understanding, would be able to enjoy talking about it. In spite of my being of the same year, because I'm an idiot, there is sooo much that I don't understand. I don't understand why Mitsuo doesn't like me as I am. From the very start, I haven't understood how one can say, "I have not been able to make my dreams come true."

That hurt a lot.

All of it.

Still looking up at the ceiling, still crying, Kouko's voice could be heard awfully, painfully blocked.

"Mitsuo, did he not say that I matter to him? 'Because I cannot have happiness, I cannot love either.' Didn't he say something like that?"

"Yeah... he did, didn't he? I think so."

"After hearing that, I got to thinking. I had never thought whether or not Mitsuo would be happy. I had simply been chasing Mitsuo around saying I loved him. But, could you say that I was really thinking about Mitsuo's well being? I had never respected Yanagisawa Mitsuo as a human being, as an existence in reality. My goals were all that mattered. ...Perhaps I failed to understand that he had a life, an existence. It might be that I was treating him as no more than one of the characters in my own world."

As if she were grasping at nothing, Kouko reached out her left hand in the darkness. The 're' waved in the air.

"Crying like this, getting hurt like this--- my obsession is to blame. This... ugly... obsession. ...The Mitsuo whom I love must love me. I would not accept that the one I love does not love me back. I would not accept that I am worthless. I would never recognize, never accept my being so. "Tell me... Tell me it isn't so... Tell me that I'm not worthless!" Saying such, I was only pushing the responsibility on to Mitsuo. Nonetheless, it was actually me who could neither accept nor forgive myself. I was arbitrarily judging my worth by whether Mitsuo loved me or not. Unfortunately, I had set things up that way. ...What I did to Mitsuo for a very long time was wrong."

Panting, Kouko continued, "but it took me a long time to realize that." Whether she was crying or smiling, Banri could no longer tell the difference. Still, her breathing was making a lot of noise in the darkness.

"...Well, is that not so? Everybody, to some extent, has such feelings, don't you think?"

While looking at his own 're', Banri was trying carefully to speak gently, to seem as optimistic as possible. Whether he managed to console her or not he did not know, but that was the idea that came to him right then.

"...As I am now, I agree, but then again, for whom would it not be very difficult normally? I think it's hard! Being imperfect myself, if I were not to face it myself, I would cease to be, so to speak. Wouldn't nearly anybody want to look away? ...At least, I am like that."

I am like that.

Having put it into words, looking away from reality and being surprised, his own form all at once came sharply into focus. That person, 120 pounds of meat, was stretched out on the rug.

His breath was catching, but if he went silent here,

"I have a really hard time noticing it when I am rejected."

Now, making a speech to Kaga Kouko, he found that he had averted his eyes from his own form.

As if staring off into the darkness, Kouko was looking at Banri's face.

"'Rejected'... by whom? A person like Tada-kun, was rejected by somebody?"

"...Those the old Tada Banri knew. The old Tada Banri was thought well of by many people. His family and so on. I think it can't be helped, though, but... of course it hurts, and so, I cannot return home. They don't even understand. My parents, are even now waiting for the 'real Banri' to return and say, 'I'm home!' Because my current self, however I am introduced, I get this feeling of 'that isn't him.' That at any moment, the real son, Tada Banri himself, just like that, will return to them---"

Bringing up her knees, it was almost the old Kouko sitting there, resting her elbow on her knee. She propped her chin with her hand. Every time she talked, her head rocked back and forth.

"---It seems to me as if they were wishing for my current self to disappear, as if he had died."

With what he was putting into words, in the bottom of his heart, deeply submerged and unseen, his grief was coming into view, very quickly and clearly taking shape.

He didn't want to say he was afraid, he didn't want to see even one such word leak out of him.

"In truth all along, I haven't been able to avoid being scared, really scared! My personality, so easily vanished, at any time could easily return to me, right? After all, if I were cured, wouldn't my current self just die? Myself, dying... wouldn't everybody else be happy? What with myself, staying myself, wouldn't everybody feel forever dejected? Myself, myself in such a world, what's the word, pr, ...predicament, nowhere else, nothing, you could say,"

"Being dejected like that, stop it!"

...That was dangerous. Really.

If Kouko had not spoken up so strongly, who knows what may have happened to the rage that had been welling up inside him, which now turned to tears, overflowing from his eyes.

"I’m stopping! I stopped. Absolutely."

Wiping roughly at the back of his hand, he noticed Kouko sitting up straight in the darkness.

"Well, if Tada-kun were to disappear entirely, ...this evening was a disgrace, for me, for us. I want to keep a night like that a secret. Wouldn't it be better not to tell anybody? Nobody else! Not in this life, nor anywhere, nobody but Tada-kun! Nobody at all."

"..."

"Shall we? So we shall. Really!"

"Ah,"

---Thank you. Kaga-san.

Rescued, Banri rubbed his eyes with his fingers as if he were still lost.

"So, don't disappear. Don't die either. Don't be afraid of such things. They aren't going to happen! Because I, absolutely, will not forget Tada-kun. And then for me, for myself, who was a fool, who was ashamed, for me who could not help myself this evening, for me who only once this spring---"

With a single sob, Kouko took a deep breath, for reasons he did not understand.

"Whatever happens, don't forget me...!"

Still not understanding, this moment was ending.

"...I won't forget! I simply cannot forget. How could I forget? As for myself, well,"

As the words came out, Banri was thinking of something else.

"Kaga-san, I love you!"

Even if it were remembered, even if it were forgotten entirely. The results were always the same.

Having moved too quickly, he could not go back. Today, in this moment already, never again.

At the very same instant, he was being born and he was dying. No matter how important it was, no matter how he wanted to stop ahead of time, it all was lost equally. In fact, nobody could change things.

But, for that very reason,

"...I love you! Kaga Kouko. Really."

She was dear to him.

Kouko opened her eyes wide, the 're' on her hand covering her mouth. It sure was, though Banri also. It was a big surprise. Absolutely safe, they said, and suddenly it was a thing neatly and completely cut as if by a razor.

But, he loved Kouko.

However it happened, Banri loved Kouko. In his head and in his heart, if he were to notice, he was full, full of Kouko. He was full to bursting. Nothing but an awkward, klutzy, beautiful woman, every day he was thinking of her. Without realizing it, he had become like this.

And then, if he could, he wanted Kouko to become so too. He wanted her to think only of him. It didn't have to be today. Someday would be fine.

"...Saying such things. To confess on a night like this, that wasn't very honest of me. Sorry."

Dragging along his towel-blanket, Banri placed himself as far away from Kouko as he could. Making it to the wall, he sat down with his knees up once more.

Dumped, then on the same day getting drunk and going to a guy's place, then that guy saying he loved you. So cliché. Such a dangerous situation. He figured Kouko must be scared.

He threw his feet and hands out feebly, since he had not the spirit to take advantage of this night, and it was his intention to make an easy to understand appeal.

"Though I'm not speaking of forgetting, nor any such thing. Nor was it my intention to pretend nothing had happened. ...About what just happened, I don't think you are suddenly going to forget about Yana-ssan. I mean, it's all right if you turn me down for now. Ah, though that wouldn't be pleasant. ...Anyhow, there's tomorrow."

"T, tomorrow...!? Tomorrow!? What!?"

"Don't we have to pick up our stuff? It's probably in the locker where we left it. Don't you remember?"

"B, bags...!? Eh!? We did!?"

"Yes, we did. I mean, didn't we leave the stuff behind when we escaped the whole mess? How about that for fate?"

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Kouko,

"...If you call it that... yeah, something, over again. About the same thing. But still rather nice, ...should be fun for me."

Little by little, she began to laugh into the darkness with a softly shaking voice.

"Whatever we left, it looks like it'll be okay in the end. It seems we're unexpectedly sturdy. I mean, we only lost our shoes. Again, in fact!"

Her voice had gone rough from crying, but nonetheless Kouko kept on laughing. She got Banri laughing too. Wanting to cry, wanting to laugh, his chest hurting, he was scratching his head in confusion. Touching the tip of his nose, his bangs were too long.

Perhaps they were waving for Kouko.

But, as for himself, loving her was not something he could stop.

But even if they could not be lovers, being friends would be good, to pass time together.

And so--- after this again, how many things had they left behind? He wondered how many things they had left behind, how many times had the two of them fallen down? It didn't matter. He wanted to be with Kouko even so. That being so, he loved Kouko. Thinking on that, Banri smiled once more.

How many moments he could spend with her he did not know, though all of them were surely going to shine brilliantly.

So they could shine, she had been born. If he were to blurt out something like that, as if joking, now it might honestly be believed.

"...It's about that time, isn't it? The first train will be leaving shortly, Kaga-san, so you can get back. I could walk you to your place! Won't the others there be worrying about you? Have you called?"

"It's okay. I'll take a taxi back."

"Do you want to take a shower? I swear on my life I won't peek through the keyhole!"

"I said it's okay. Though we were a disaster, I won't contaminate the taxi seat. Really, thank you. Excuse me."

"For what?"

"For a lot of things, for everything. ...Really, it's okay, down this street, then I'll be able to catch a taxi. I'll be fine by myself, for sure."

Before Banri could begin to get up, Kouko looked all around her, mumbling about her bag. And then, brushing her long hair from her face in annoyance,

"That so? It got left behind."

"Tomorrow evening, let's go pick it up together! I mean, together we can go down there."

"It's okay, it's okay! I can go by myself!"

"Why? I'm not going to do anything. I was only going with you to the taxi stop! While we're at it, I want to go by convenience store. Ah, I feel like getting some ice cream."

"Go to the convenience store tomorrow! ...With how we look after today's disaster, I absolutely don't want to be seen in the light!"

"Since I've already seen enough unpleasant stuff, I'm fine. Besides, it's a bit late for that, what with that C-3PO act on the stage."

"Ewww! No way!"

For Kouko it was indeed a bit late, covering both ears and keening. Just like that, she trotted across the room, heading for the entrance. Chasing after her in confusion,

"Hold up, hold up, hold up! Put these on!"

In a corner by the entrance some convenience store sandals were lying, jumbled together. He tried to turn on the lights, but Kouko cried, "No no no!", and in order to escape she flew out the entrance door and was gone.

"See you tomorrow! I'll absolutely see you here!"

Called like that even, it didn't look too bad. Reluctantly, he intently watched Kouko get on the elevator from his door, and once it started down he went over to the veranda.

Kouko came out the entrance, dragging the sandals as she turned towards the sidewalk. On the roadway, redly lit by the free taxi sign, just one taxi waited. She got on that one.

Banri, pulling in his head with a feeling of relief, he nonetheless noticed that Kouko could be seen looking up from the taxi window. Of course she looked, or something like that he understood, but Banri calmly waved to her. He wondered if she saw it. He decided she hadn't.

<center>* * *</center>

The topic of the day--- you cannot deny the signs, he thought.

As he walked, gazing out at the scenery, a tea plantation spread out before him, fluffy green domed stripes continuing into the distance, Banri was thinking. It smelled strongly of manure. "Hmm, what I see, what's that?", the tall electric fans for protection against frost looked down upon him, noticing and investigating him.

And then, afterwards, unable to stand it any longer, escaping--- because they were there.

He took Hikari from Tokyo station to Shizuoka, arriving in under an hour. After taking a breather at the Starbucks by the transfer gate, he took JR who knows more stations. His home station's monument: a tea bush disguised as an onion top. Apart from that, everything around the place seemed to say "tea".

To get home took not quite two hours. Some people do a lot of commuting, to school or to work, in their worlds, perhaps. A season ticket for the bullet train cost money, and Banri was on an allowance. In truth, he didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, he wanted out of the house, and that was the reason he gave Kouko.

"THE Shizuoka", so called, felt like walking through a tea plantation, some building's eaves extending out, trying to be seen as a town.

He entered a lane deeply shadowed by fruit trees, through an open gate and went to open the door. It was unlocked.

"...I'm hooome..."

Speaking of remembering, he was already remembering.

"This is home!", he'd been told, and since for one year he lived there, the memories of that time had already given him the feeling it was "home".

He was taking off his shoes so he could surprise his mother when she came out,

"...What are you doing!?"

"I had some free time, and for some reason I came back here."

"Eh!?"

She stared in wonder at the son who had suddenly come back from Tokyo for no particular reason.

He only had enough for one way of the round trip... that was Banri's real reason for coming, but mother didn't care in the least.

By the morning after his confession to Kouko, he was feeling acutely embarrassed, remembering it. They'd arranged to meet up that evening, but he had no idea what they could have talked about if they did. In the how many hours until the evening, he didn't even know what to do to make it a lively occasion.

If that's the way it is, then let's go home, he thought. Going home for a bit, until the evening time would certainly cease to flow, the wait filled with conversation. Frankly, they talked too much. Though he didn't feel the need to run away from the memories of last night, at least for the moment he was able to escape from living alone.

And besides, afterwards, there was one more thing.

"I haven't eaten aaanything since morning. I wanna eat something."

"Why so sudden? If you're coming back, then call and tell me you're coming back! I'm going over to Grandma's place to work in her garden this afternoon! Since you're back, you want to come too? The season has just arrived, and it's a real mess over there."

"It's okay, I'll pass. Today's just a visit. I've got things to do this evening."

"Eh? What's that? Is that so?"

Having asked for food, and having said a few things to butter up his mom, he went up to his second-floor room.

There was something he thought he ought to look at.

Throwing his small solitary bag on the bedspread, he had no choice but to open the room's closet, filled with one year's worth of memories. Having taken to his new home only plain clothing, his high school uniform was hanging there, placed neatly in order. His mother had done that, of course.

He then pulled out a cardboard box. Pulling it out on the floor, he ripped off the tape and opened it. A broken cell phone and a high-school graduation album, stored away as remembrances, perfectly preserved.

How many hours before?

In the quiet of his home, he'd received a text from Kouko. The message, perhaps because of the tension of the morning, maybe due to the hangover, was awfully long. In that place, such a sentence it was.

'Thinking about things like being rejected, refusing Tada-kun would be pretty much the same thing.'

Reading it, he did not understand it right away.

He considered it for a while, thinking. Almost certainly he had to another person--- the Banri from before knew many people, perhaps that Banri had rejected someone, so to speak.

That he had lost all his memory of the time when he was living in this room was a pain he could not avoid. He even worried that people might try to come over. But, being unable to remember hurt, and Banri completely refused to tell his mother. He didn't want them to come and meet him. He didn't want to make contact with them. He didn't even consider getting his cell phone repaired, so he would be found by those from before. And then he left home, as if he were escaping.

I've died, he thought, and wanted to forget.

Being lost, for the second time and knowing there was something big he could not get back, was scary.

Setting the self he had never known aside, he picked up an album from where it was stashed in the cardboard box.

He wasn't perfect--- something large had been broken in him. That sort of thing was hard to accept. For the moment perhaps, he couldn't do anything.

But, he wanted to change.

Being rejected hurts. Not being accepted hurts. Looking at pain directly hurts. By the recognition of that pain, first of all, accept the way you are now, he thought.

Even though he'd not been required to in the time he'd lost, if anything was accomplished by the birth of this self, he wanted to make that time important. That is to say, you cannot help but do it. So he thought.

From now on, if he met somebody, even somebody he'd met in the past, even himself, whomever it might be, he did not want to reject them.

For that reason, he opened the album. He needed just a little bit of courage. When first he opened the album cover, a strange, light sound came out.

"...Whaa..."

When he immediately saw his own face in it's proper place in the picture, a smiling class portrait, he gasped a little. Third year, class 4, Tada Banri. Tenth in the line.

He traced his fingertip slowly over his unknown self, and his unknown classmates' faces. He still had a feeling of dread towards what he had felt, but could no longer recall. He suppressed those feelings; he wanted to know who they were. He wanted to become able to.

But, his heart was beating fast.

To the front and down the line from the unknown Tada Banri, the person photographed giving a peace sign. The fifteenth person in the line.

Hayashida Nana.

"...Eh?"

From inside the album, a bunch of Polaroid photos had slipped out. Picking them up, he examined them. Quite a few of them were scribbled on, in bold letters. On one, in a different handwriting, "Banri's an idiot, nearly", was written. The two in the picture were messing around, looking at each other cross-eyed. "You've forgotten even your graduation!!!", was scribbled around the picture's edge.

"Linda passed on to college, Banri got held back.", was all else that was written.

There were pictures of just the two of them. In the classroom, in the gymnasium, on the grounds, in clubrooms, in uniform, in jerseys, smiling widely, even the fillings in their teeth showing, and a long wooden bridge.

Smiling, cheek to cheek.

"...Wh, what...? What the heck...? ...Linda-senpai...?"

Remember, don't forget!

Did Linda say something like that?

He stood up.

His socks slipping on the flooring as he took off running from his room,

"Banri!? Isn't your ramen boiling!? Where're you going!?"

"Hold on! Hold on, lemme see..."

As he pulled on his shoes, what he understood,

"To the bridge!"

The bridge wasn't very far from the house. Not entirely understanding yet, he searched for something as he ran. Just what he was looking for still didn't yet know. "Still, if I don't go...", he thought. He ran and he looked. If there was something he had to do there, something he had to get, whatever it was he wanted it. It struck him that he wanted nothing but to do that.

There was a paved path from amongst the mountains, so you could ride down. At such times he thought, "I've gotta get a scooter license, I really do." As he was passing by, he saw to the side a red banner on which was written, "The Entrance for the Seven Gods of Good Luck."

Before long, the long, long bridge came into view before him.

"...What, how ridiculous...!?"

It hurt to breathe. Gasping, he started to cross the bridge. This was the bridge from which Banri fell. What on earth happened at that time, nobody knows. Since the Banri in question had forgotten, and not even the police really knew.

"...Linda-senpai... How could it be...!?"

Show me, please, he muttered. Why, were you next to me? You, who are you? To me, what, what are you? Why don't you talk with me any more?

Passing the midpoint of the bridge, suddenly his feet stopped. Exhausted, he began to collapse.

"...What is this weird sound...!?"

Oddly cloying, the suggestive feeling brought by the ringing of the bell echoed unexpectedly amongst the mountains. Iya<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, boka<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>n, ufu<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, with such a mood. The ringing of the bell--- who did it?

Dizziness took him to his knees. He clung to the guardrail. So as not to look down, he closed his eyes. It might have been a hangover. Unable to stand up, Banri covered his face with his hand. Dizzily, his feet shook. No, was it the bridge that was shaking?

It was at that moment.

While the idiotic bell was sounding, on this bridge, he realized he was hearing the sound of many feet running towards him.

Reflexively he looked up, and then, he saw a bunch of people passing by. He saw the form of the lead runner. The guy saw him too. He was looking fixedly at Banri's face, his jaw slack, looking like a fool.

That guy---

"Banri!"

Is that me?

Calling his name, grabbing him by the elbow, was that Linda?

What, what's this? What the heck is going on? To resist the dizziness, as if his brain were being spun around, he bit his lip. Mumbling, he felt thick-headed and slow, as if he were anemic.

Opening his eyes once more, it was just the bridge still, continuing on. There was nobody else. He couldn't hear the bell anymore. ...Was it a dream, maybe? Was it an aftereffect of his accident? Was his head somehow going funny? Or was it simply from his hangover? Or, was he just misinterpreting something he had seen?

Coming back to his senses, in his back pocket his cell phone was vibrating.

'Banri?'

"''Yana''-ssan..."

'What's with you, where are you? Out? Something I, today in some free time... I mean, I'd like to talk a bit. About yesterday, various things... could we do that?'

"...I'm... not here..."

"Huh? What? I can't hear you very well."

A dying cherry tree by a dry river bed, a big sky. The voices of friends. A long bridge. A strong breeze. Other than Banri, there was no one else on the bridge.

Only Banri stood there now, alone, standing still amongst the scenery. In the middle of reality, existing. The ramen was boiling, his mother was getting frustrated, in such a moment he existed.

If he were able to recognize it as it was, he could perhaps forever be at peace.

<center>* * *</center>

Tada Banri was looking at Linda.

The sports science lecture suddenly getting cancelled, amongst the students hurriedly breaking up, he spotted Linda's form. Linda noticed Banri's gaze too, and waved, "See you, Tada Banri." While Banri gazed at that face, he could not move. There was so much he wanted to ask her. But he could not. Not knowing her reason for keeping the secret, he didn't know what he did and didn't know. Wanting to ask her, "What? Do you have something?", Banri kept on looking at Linda's face still.

A beautiful girl, her long beautiful hair carefully done, was looking at the back of Banri's head. Her name is Kaga Kouko.

At Kouko's profile, with a complicated look, but hiding so as not to be discovered, a slightly sunburnt guy was watching. His name is Yanagisawa Mitsuo.

Behind Mitsuo, having noticed earlier where he was looking, a girl was thinking about whether or not to call out to him. Her name is Oka Chinami.

Though the familiar faces were present, though he had not taken sports science, another guy had come into the classroom. His name was Satou Takaya.

Passing through the background, like a dark shadow there was a woman. Her name, of course, is NANA.

My name is Tada Banri.

I've died, an eighteen year old boy.

Unnoticed by anyone, without anybody knowing, I've always watched after Tada Banri's affairs. I see everybody's affairs.

I'm sitting in the first seat behind, taking it easy, legs stretched out. Today the sunlight is really strong, and the classroom is warm, making everybody sleepy. While staring at the boring back of Banri's head, I find my eyes are closing by themselves. I'm getting awfully sleepy.

For now --- black-out.

:The End

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Postscript|Postscript]]
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Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5

2013-11-12T09:50:56Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 5==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 5==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 198.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri has spotted me.

Being made fun of in a strangely confused moment in time while that long-missed seductive bell was ringing, while gasping in pain, Banri certainly saw me that day. And I saw him too.

The present and the past connecting in the middle of that bridge, Banri and I, our eyes met for only a moment. Mine, or possibly Banri's, maybe both side's mistake in vision, a bad guess, an accidental misunderstanding, a mysterious illusion, a common daydream, what he thought didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Anyway, the memory of that moment in my past certainly exists. This phenomenon, whatever you might call it, as far as I'm concerned, is real.

<center>* * *</center>

Serenely, Kouko said she was trying to collect the objective facts.

"To summarize them, Mitsuo and I are bound by fate. That is to say, it's been proven over and over again."

With a thump, she put a big paper bag from a department store, packed full of stuff, on the table in front of Banri. The table shaking and creaking from the weight, an older gentleman next to them, an espresso in one hand, briefly looked towards them. "Excuse me...", Banri bowing his head in a working class sort of way.

A little before three in the afternoon, walking from campus a short distance to the café--- which had now become outrageously memorable, the shop where they served café-au-lait in bowls. Thinking that perhaps they shouldn't go there a second time, they peeked into other cafes but found them completely full, and they finally settled down here, where they thought they might be able to have a quiet conversation.

"If I can pile up enough objective truth before his eyes, I think even Mitsuo would not be able to avoid his responsibility. ...And you could say, being a little law-school-ish would be good right now, eh?"

Holding her bowl in both hands, sipping café-au-lait as if it were soup, Kouko could be seen smiling.

Taking his bowl in both hands like she was, Banri stared at her.

"...I couldn't get out even though I'd had enough of the lecture."

As if asking "What was that?", Kouko raised one of her beautifully cared-for eyebrows and looked back at Banri's eyes.

Between deep red lips, a line of pure white teeth. Smooth cheeks. The skin about her eyes was stretched smoothly. From her slim fingers, neatly manicured, to the line from her hips to her crossed legs, she was perfect in every way. Calmly returning her café-au-lait bowl to its saucer, she looked out the window, elegantly composed.

Since that "worst day", when they'd escaped their awful situation, four days had passed. Having taken a break, it seemed that Kouko had gotten back on her feet. However.

"Well then, Kaga-san, are you really feeling better now? With how you were feeling Wednesday and all, not attending and looking like you were going to fail the class! All the first years but you have been getting perfect attendance."

"I just had to have a little time. Alone, by myself, thinking. And I arrived at a conclusion that of course I did the right thing. It wasn't a mistake. It was just right. ...As long as I keep to my plans, things will have to work out!"

Finally up to the task, even if only in front of Banri, as if acting the part of "the Perfect Kaga Kouko", she slowly raised her chin and smiled with her whole face. He could not discover even one flaw, not one spot on her creamy white throat.

With Kouko at long last back to school, just like that, Banri was even more high spirited than he had been worried before.

Wounded by Yanagisawa's cold attitude, confused by Chinami's entry into the fray, and along the way, embarrassed by Omaken, he had felt that she must certainly have been feeling down. Those four days, Banri had been really worried about Kouko. The day before, he had even called out to Linda when he spotted her in the lobby, and while leaving out the details, consulted with her about what to do about Kouko.

Banri said that she seems to be lost, because she's so clumsy at it she's ashamed to join Omaken, and Linda replied, "Pressuring her won't do any good. But, it would be boring without a partner," with a nod. "If Kouko was so inclined, of course they would be happy, she would always be welcome, and it's OK if she's a bit confused up until when she agrees to join." Simply calling Kouko his partner, just that much was making Banri feel strangely embarrassed.

"What were you thinking about? There's no mistaking Mitsuo and I are bound together, just not completely yet. There's proof, such that nobody can evade, perfect proof."

Kouko was stubborn to the end.

Her straight-blown hair spilled right down her back, held by a hairband wrapped in a deep gray and purple satin design. In her dark brown hair, it really looked pretty. Then,

"Justice will be mine!"

She nodded vigorously, showing her enthusiasm. She was wearing a snow white blouse. Emphasizing the courtroom style, she had on a slender, mannish vest. And a black tie. And a black miniskirt, black tights and black high heels. She had the evidence stuffed in a paper bag, and carried a high-class brand of briefcase. Together with how she threw her head back, today's Kouko really, how can you say it? ... She seemed to be doing an impression of a sexy lawyer.

Banri even now didn't understand where Kouko got her certainty. The proof, the proof, she was saying, but in reality up to this point, seeing the so-called 'satisfactory relationship' that Yanagisawa and Kouko had, he didn't think there was such a thing in this world as pulling out "objective facts".

Rather, he didn't think a man's heart could be moved to one's own convenience.

Though thinking about it, he didn't want to say anything negative to this Kouko, just barely returned, finally, from getting back on her feet.

"Wellll...", carefully saying little, resting his chin on his hand, Banri's cellphone buzzed.

It was a text from Yanagisawa.

"''Yana''-ssan said the lecture is over. He's coming this way now."

"Did he happen to ask you if I was here too?"

"Yes, yes, he did", said Banri, nodding. Though it seemed she was coming to school, after the lecture they hadn't spoken but a bit. "What're we doing?", was all Kouko had said along the way.

Once he came alongside Banri, Yanagisawa answered frankly, "I wanted to talk with Kouko too, amongst other things." While he was speaking that way, he gave a brief glance full of meaning that even Banri wasn't fool enough to not notice. He couldn't recall even one time that Yanagisawa had actually wanted to talk with Kouko.

As if she were satisfied, Kouko's back became even straighter.

"Look at this, will you? Perfect. Of course, you've been worrying about me, for a long time. You've repented of how coldly you were treating me. And then, little by little, unknown to yourself, I have filled up your heart. That is quite according to our perfect scenario."

Then as she were just remembering it, she took out a hand mirror from her pouch, looked into it, double-checking her beautiful perfection. Eyes upturned, blinking repeatedly, trying to make a smile from ear to ear, then nodding as if in approval, she put away the mirror.

This latest development startled Banri.

"Ka, Kaga-san, well... of course you aren't going back again!? And then, there's that, look here, rather than waiting in vain for Yana-ssan, once in a blue moon..."

"What are you saying? At long last, after waiting for him, I can present my evidence to him."

With a smile quickly put back in place, saying "That's true, isn't it?", he had no choice but to shut his mouth once more.

Really, calling Yanagisawa here like this was bad. He had yielded to Kouko's excessive self-confidence, though she couldn't deal with being rejected over and over again.

Hoping for something like progress with Kouko, perhaps... no, never, won't happen.

Yanagisawa was planning to turn her down once and for all, here.

Besides, it seemed to Banri that during the time she was away from school, Yanagisawa and Chinami’s relationship had been making progress, little by little. Even at the club drinking parties, it seemed, the two of them had had plenty of time to themselves. Since Yanagisawa knew all too well that Banri was supporting Kouko, he felt no need to mention it. In fact, he would not have been surprised if they were actually starting to go out together.

"...Anyways... shouldn’t you not be getting your hopes up?"

Timidly, that was all he tried to say.

If he were untactful, Yanagisawa might have planned to come here together with Chinami. And then in front of Banri and Kouko, they would slap her with the announcement that they were a couple. If such a thing were to happen, what would Kouko wind up doing? Becoming perfect, and then, ...what would she become, really? For certain sorry, standing petrified, in a strange cold sweat.

As for Banri, since such a Kouko's near future worried him, he couldn't just decide things were getting uncomfortable around here and take his leave, claiming "This has nothing to do with me."

"Why? He didn't just come here this way perfectly. There's plenty of evidence."

Looking strangely hesitant, Kouko looked back at Banri's face, handling her paper bag as if it were something valuable.

"But it's 'proof'... otherwise why would I have brought it with me?"

And saying, "He's come!", she sat facing the doorway, her eyes shining.

"Mitsuo! Over here!"

When she stood up with a flourish, like an actress, the old man next to them, apparently unable to deal with the noise, finally got up and moved over to the counter. "Sorry, really...", muttered Banri in a small voice that could hardly be heard.

Yanagisawa, his hair hanging down partway down the sides of his face, was standing in the entrance to the café. Raising his voice when he saw Kouko's face,

"Been a while, hasn't it?"

It seemed as if he were shrugging his shoulders while saying it. Chinami wasn't there, so Banri was able to relax for the time being. As he walked over to them, he jammed a knit cap he'd taken off into a pocket of his faded jeans. The heels of his well worn Red Wing boots made the floorboard creak.

Throwing her shoulders back, Kouko took a step towards Yanagisawa, keeping her perfect smile directed at him.

"Won't you sit down? What would you like to order? Mr. Defendant."

"Oh be quiet. Excuse me, could I have some coffee? Be normal."

"Hmph, you only just got here."

"I won't try to escape nor hide. You have nothing to be afraid of."

"Hey, what're you trying to say? Did I even set you free, or discover you hiding?"

"...Should I...really be here...?"

"It's OK! Stay here!", the two of them said at the same time, smiling, making Banri settle down and stop squirming.

In this meeting between the guy who was loved, and the girl whose love was unrequited, why was he here in the first place?

"Well then, prepare yourself. I will be understood completely. My perfection..."

"Something you want to say arbitrarily, as it were? Since it doesn't matter, I'll stay and listen."

"Anyways, sit down. Or have your feet cramped? Isn't it still early to be getting cold feet?"

"Huh? What have you been saying? Just why can't I have second thoughts?"

...Was this feeling like a duel?

Kouko's face smiling. Yanagisawa's face a mask. Giving each other exactly the same cool looks, they sat down, even their timing matching precisely, like mirror images. While between the two of them the tension crackled as if there were unseen sparks flying, Banri, who had been watching from the start had been yawning repeatedly, exhausted from the stress. Oxygen simply wasn't getting to his brain.

Or rather, the scene these people were making, as if they were on good terms with each other, Banri didn't see it that way, not even for a moment.

Facing each other again, they always disagreed, would get to fighting and disputing. Somehow the two of them argued just like they were brother and sister.

"Well, let's start with me, OK? Let's start by stating the end goal. Mitsuo, who is recognized in truth as my lover, should be quickly and formally engaged."

Kouko preempted him with her perfect smile. Was she bewildered? Was she bashful? Were her delicate emotions wavering? Trampled by those high heels and flushed down the toilet! To all appearances, she was as self-assured as a fortress.

"These are the proofs. Look through it in order. Starting with where we were born."

Kouko pulled a file out of her paper bag, and Yanagisawa and Banri leaned over a map of a city center so they could see it.

"Here is the Kaga home. Here is the Yanagisawa home. In a straight line it's about eight hundred meters. Close from the start. The schools were together too. The probability of our getting to know each other in public elementary school was very high. In summary, our meeting was inevitable. It was determined from the time we were born that we would meet, somewhere. And it was fated that we would get together. We were classmates from elementary school onwards."

She turned a page in the file with her beautifully painted fingernail. There was a picture, glued onto some cardboard, a caption hastily written all around it.

"This was from the entrance ceremony. We're in the same picture, both of us. We were only eight years old. We still hadn't even spoken with each other at that time. At seven years old, a picture of an outing. A patron visit... Mitsuo's parents and my parents were together. After that, an athletic meet. Eight years old, nine years old, ...always together in pictures. Look at this, summer camp in our fifth year. Mitsuo, what's with such long hair? Then, this,"

"...Just what do you want to say?"

"Listen, just look. It's the graduation from elementary school! They took a picture of the two of us. We asked somebody to take it."

"You're sure drowning in memories looking at your album and remembering again. Just what's your point with all this?"

"Because of that, it's proof!"

"Of what?"

"Mitsuo and I are bound by this legitimate proof of fate."

Even when the file was closed with a bang by Yanagisawa, Kouko didn't turn off her smile.

"What I think about Mitsuo, in truth, has not changed. I've been that way since I was little, I was always together with Mitsuo. Remember when you confessed your love in first grade? Mitsuo said it, too. I love Kooko-chan, I'll be together with Kooko-chan from now on, you said, you'll become my bride, right, you said. You really did say it. Don't you remember? It was when we gave out presents at the Christmas party in first grade. You said it on the stage, my father and mother heard it too, even grandma heard it."

"...That, in the Christmas party, wasn't that a play!? That was a well-staged dramatization, so that your parents could hear."

"Ever since then, I've always been committed to getting married to Mitsuo."

"Look, Kouko. Between us, the dating thing won't work."

"But that was something between childhood friends. Again, I don't think I especially need to explain our relationship. That is something that goes without saying. Right?"

"Perhaps when we were children, we said things like that innocently. But, that was because we really were kids. Things like that could be said. But we're no longer little kids. Being a kid, wearing a uniform, going to and from school and studying; that's different from now."

"That's right. I understand that. We've grown up. Therefore, even in our relationship, we want to bring it up to an appropriately adult level."

"...'Bringing it up' or whatever, is something else though. "Loving" as a kid, versus "loving" now. I love Mr. Giraffe, I love Mr. Elephant, I love Kooko-chan... that happy time is already over. That's something normal; understand that. I mean, you can pretend to understand, or not."

"That's not it. Our relationship, ever since we were born, by destiny, for eternity, has been absolutely perfect."

"I don't understand where you get that from. I am fed up already, really, with your presumption. Because of it, how long have I been handicapped? First year middle school. Third year middle school. Second year high school. When there was a girl I liked, you'd interfere one way or another, quarrel with her, harass her, until you'd gotten her fed up with me. You even affected my friends, making them keep their distance. Thanks to you, all the way through graduation, not one girl would associate with me. I was truly left alone. As far as everybody was concerned, Yanagisawa Mitsuo had no choice in the end but to be Kaga Kouko's."

"Fooling around is not permitted. After all,"

"So! Already, it looks like you're telling me you're fed up with it!"

Kouko having once more opened the file, Yanagisawa roughly pushed it aside. Falling from the table, photos and memo-like things were scattered by Banri's feet.

"But, ...I haven't blamed you for what's happened until now. It's the past in any case. With childhood things in general, lacking judgement I made childish mistakes, drifting along, I think. I am thinking that now you should be taking responsibility for having come to my university, and certainly for your own life. Anyway, I am just telling you clearly in advance. I have the person that I like now."

"...It's me, of course?"

"Take it however you like. It's Chinami. It seems to me that a few times now you've tried to smear her name. If you so much as trouble her, put her on the spot, hurt her feelings or pester her--- if you try to separate her from me, I will not be happy with you. I will hate you, I will hate Kouko, eternally, absolutely and perfectly to the point where it will follow you even if you transfer to a different university."

Deliberately slowly so as to be heard, Yanagisawa with his finger as if setting a rhythm, stabbed out the words.

"I'm leaving you behind."

With a sharp sound, Kouko stood up.

She looked down at Yanagisawa.

"...Why?"

Her now visibly false smile vanished once, but then returned, stiffening.

"Why? What the, why such... what's with this? I don't get you."

Yanagisawa silently looked up at the scene. Kouko was breathing in gasps, trying to maintain her expression but her lips trembling more and more as she spoke.

"But, ...but, I don't understand. Am I not special to you? Do you remember that time you had such a big backpack on? Do you remember when you'd lost out because of your handwriting? Who comforted you then? When you were chosen to be a member of the relay team for the sports day, who baked the party cake? You dropped the relay baton, didn't you? Who of all the others knew that? That time the girls came in first, and our class came in first overall. Who was the anchor of the girl's relay team? Between "Mitsuo can see me" and all the cheering, I was always such a dunce. Who ran faster than anybody else?"

"I remember."

"You do!?"

"But, it's impossible."

"Well then! ...Then, when I was born and started writing love letters, who were they to...? To whom... do you know?"

Noticing that Kouko's fingers were trembling delicately where they touched the table, Banri involuntarily glanced up at her face. Looking, he saw how pale she had become. Her voice was shaking too. Even the café-au-lait bowl was rattling.

He didn't need to see this. Or rather, why was he being shown this? Banri hid his face, covering his eyes with one hand. He could only hear the trembling voice of Kouko.

"...You know this boy I've come to love since I was born, don't you? On the occasion of my ninth birthday party, the boy who took me home? When I was feeling down because I wasn't chosen to accompany on piano, the boy who for my sake brought from home an origami set? That boy... do you know him?"

"...But, it'll never happen."

"Wouldn't you know!? You were that person! The reason I was able to run so fast, the reason I want to be pretty, the one I wanted to love was you! You've always been special! To be bound to you is right! Otherwise, if it weren't so... it wouldn't be perfect! Unless I was perfect, then I would not be able to get you to love me! Then what was I to do!? So, so always, I, I've tried, perfectly... hey! Why am I not special to you!?"

Quietly raising his eyes a fraction, Yanagisawa gave Kouko a penetrating look. Banri wished he could leave. If Kouko had noticed how badly she was shaking, she probably would have gotten up and left long ago.

"Answer me! Haven't I loved you since I was little!? Wasn't I raised with you and for you!? And yet, why am I not special to you!? Why am I not even important to you!?"

"So please answer me!", she repeated over and over again, whining like a little kid, unable to listen and beginning to tremble pitifully.

Ah, no way, such a---

"...You, are you an idiot...?"

Of sympathy there was not a trace. His expression was one of anger. Yanagisawa was angry.

"I don't think you ever understood me. It was always just about you. For that reason, you don't understand!"

Standing up, pointing at her with his finger, to his tearful female childhood friend Yanagisawa spoke.

"This was a careful decision. Really and truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am doing this for you. ...I did it for you! Why don't you understand that!? Do you want to get hurt because you fail to understand something I'm telling you? You're not an irresponsible kid, so understand! In particular, don't be getting the wrong ideas just because I happen to care! I'm not going to talk about lovers, destiny or any such thing! Because in reality, it wasn't like that! We didn't even fool around, not once! That was because I cared for you! If I had not cared, then with the right atmosphere, and the right feelings, what might we have done, we could have wound up having some fun! But that I could not do! I don't think one can become happy just by doing that! Because of that, it was something I absolutely could not do! I don't want to do such a thing!"

"...Well, weelll,"

Banri couldn't look at Kouko's face.

"If I'm important... if I'm special, that... love, is something different...? Is it not permitted to include 'love'? Coming to love me, falling in love, loving one another, getting married, for eternity, speaking that way... why, can't it be? Is it not possible?"

Yanagisawa's reply was a shake of the head. Yanagisawa was crudely telling her that it would not work, the two of them together. Banri was thinking that Yanagisawa would understand just how much he was supporting Kouko. He wasn't blaming him, asking him to be flexible and not say such hard things. Because he was that sort of guy, maybe that's why he wanted to be friends.

"...Not possible...?"

A drop fell to the table.

"...This way, in spite of remembering our childhood...? Even though I'm special? In spite of that, there's no way? Then, then in short... it was my fault?"

That was how Kouko was defeated.

If she simply cried herself out, not her objectives, not her evidence, nothing would come to be more than a pile of papers.

"Because I was merely something to be despised? Then, to whatever extent you have memories, however long a time you give me in reality, there is simply no way? Could you not fall in love with me? If, if that's the case,"

In a small voice, he tried to call her. He was thinking it was time to give up. Kouko not knowing how to pull back, again sinking into depression before him, Banri wanted to hold her back. That is the reason I stayed here, he thought.

But that voice didn't seem to reach Kouko.

"If so, then I am already not needed! Always unneeded, always forgotten, done without! Made as if I never existed! If just one more thing happens to me that cannot be undone, I will be entirely gone!"

Hearing what seemed to be a scream in that voice, Yanagisawa said nothing more, rising from his seat.

Pulling his knit cap on his head nearly to his eyes, he swung open the door and went outside.

The inside of the shop suddenly went terribly quiet. He realized that the other customers all had their ears directed towards them, curious. Banri moved slightly, highly uncomfortable, when at that moment there arose the sound of Kouko gulping for air.

''Bang'', Kouko's hand struck her saucer, shaking it.

"...Just what have I done?"

Kouko watched Banri, covering her mouth. Opening her eyes, tears ran down her cheeks again, flowing down. Sorry, Tada-kun. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, so very sorry. Sitting down as if she were falling, she turned her crumpled face towards Banri, from the corners of her tightly closed eyelashes once more tears.

He was being apologized to, he understood at last. Banri searched within himself. The Banri who lived here as if nothing mattered at all, blowing up before that Banri's eyes was indiscreet, perhaps, but he wasn't hurt by Kouko's words.

"It's all right, Kaga-san."

"...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...!"

"Really, since it's OK. ...In such a time as that, you needn't worry about me."

"...Sorry, Tada-kun..."

Just now was nothing. You'll forget. You'll make it as if it hadn't happened. ---But it wasn't so easy to say that, the future being awfully difficult to manage.

<center>* * *</center>

Kouko stayed sitting there in the seat by the window.

Not knowing what else to do, Banri continued watching the tableau. The tears on her cheeks already dried, Kouko remained silent, her head hanging in shame, completely shut off from everything. Four o'clock passed, five o'clock neared, slowly outside the window it was starting to get dark,

"Good sirs, there are customers waiting for the non-smoking section..."

The café employee said to them apologetically. At last the time had come,

"It's about time we left, Kaga-san."

Banri prompted her,

"..."

Still silent, Kouko, instead of asking if they should get up and leave, went through the glass door that separated the smoking section. Bowing his head to the bewildered employee, the confused Banri followed her at once. For sure it was less crowded over here, with fewer customers and poorer ventilation, and an awful cloud of tobacco smoke and smell swirling about in the air.

"Hey, Kaga-san..."

Sliding into vacant seats,

"I thought smoking might kill you."

Distracted by Kouko's muttered words, uncomfortable smokers were looking their way.

"Err... noo, what did I say...? I didn't think such stuff was deadly, did I...?"

Having entered the smoking section with Kouko once again hanging their heads in shame, trading glances with the employees, Banri was embarrassed. If he were to order something more, would they let them stay here still? More importantly, was it all right if he stayed here still? Obviously dispirited, Kouko wouldn't want to go off by herself alone, but wasn't Banri's very presence a bother, as far as she was concerned? Perhaps what she needed was time alone to lick her wounds. If so, he wanted to disappear quickly.

Naturally, he wasn't thinking about "being needed". That she didn't require any human being apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo even Banri understood. Worrying about Kouko, and wanting to keep an eye on her, was Banri's condition. He wanted to pay more attention to her condition than to his own.

Of course, it might be that he shouldn't be here--- a feeling that sitting too long a time, an ache arising from his rear just then,

"Want a smoke? Here you go, one shot!"

A girl they didn't know sat down next to them and extended her cigarette case towards Kouko.

"You wanna die? Use this stuff and you will. At the cellular level for sure."

"This person's not twenty years old yet..."

Confused for some reason, Banri blocked it. Kouko raised her head a bit, looking curiously at the cigarette case offered to her by that mysterious person. It didn't appear to be any major brand, like Mild Seven, or Marlboro.

"Boyfriend?"

Confused, Banri shook his head rapidly back and forth. The girl, with a cynical smile twisting her lips, spoke.

"Hey. You can call me NANA."

Thinking a bit, Banri,

''Cough!''

Expelling his breath as if punched.

He remembered while he was hospitalized, forever reading the latest issues of shoujo manga. Probably overdone, a short one-length bob hair style with longer bangs, dyed jet black and a leopard print camisole. Aggressively strong makeup. Heavy leather riding jacket. Neck to fingertips jingling with excessive silver accessories. She even carried around a guitar case. Her appearance, such as it was, was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Osaki that] character.

Such cosplay... but why here and now? Chosen over other things. Such a person. Was this café some sort of power spot to draw in such strange people? The more he looked at her, the more he had to restrain himself from laughing out loud.

"You could say you, well... for me, it was something for me to see. By chance right next to me... so to speak."

He looked towards her black fingernails. In the setting of her silver ring was a skull.

"...I'm not Linda's junior. You were with Linda in high school! I'm a third year. Or rather,"

Twisting her lips so as to direct the fumes upwards as she smoked, NANA... sempai explained her surprising name.

"Linda's first given name is pronounced NANA too."

"...That, are you kidding..."

Banri was becoming overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all,

At long last, a snort came from Kouko's nose. And then from Kaga Kouko he got the same strange vibes.

"Omaken, eh? I'm fed up to here with that. The Yosakoi and such were such a pain, didn't they make me feel like I wanted to die?"

"...What about this year's Awa Odori...?", replied Banri, to which she laughed scornfully.

"Even more so time to stop. For sure. If I'm gonna die, let it be by music."

And then, thrust before them, a cheap-looking black and white flyer.

"Today at nine o'clock. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakano,_Tokyo Nakano City]. Though it's nothing more than an amateur student band, Awa Odori can die a thousand times in comparison."

"Ah, thanks... this is what they call a 'live show'... is it? But I've never been to such a thing... are you going too, NANA-senpai? Well, of course... does it seem like a typical cover band?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'cover band'. They aren't like a cover band. Cause I'm a poet. Poetry reading."

"Po, poe...? Huh...?"

"If you have this leaflet, you get two drinks. If you mention my name, you can get more. Come and die."

With a broad grin, she gave them the finger. NANA-senpai wore her character to the last, and leaving things as they were, left the shop. With only the leaflet left behind in Banri's hand, "What shall we do?", he said towards Kouko,

"Let's go and die."

Kouko plucked it from him. Her tear-reddened eyes, upset wherever they sat, desperate from having been put upon, understood.

"...If it isn't perfect, then I ought to remain broken to the end. Unlike how I've been up to now, I want to do absolutely nothing. No half measures. If I'm going to be smashed to pieces anyway, then I want to become nothing at all. I want to die!"

And then standing up, spreading their arms wide and taking deep breaths--- the people in the smoking section of course really looked like they hated them, Kouko making as if she didn't see.

"What will you do, Tada-kun? I'm going even if I have to go alone."

"...It's a date! Of course!"

Leaving Kouko like that alone was worrisome, besides, that's the way it was. If she wasn't perfect, instead falling to pieces, she would do nothing as if dying, but then she would want to be brought back to life. Banri, at least, always thought so.

<center>* * *</center>

Unable to say anything about honorable defeat while killing time nor over dinner, they went drinking at a cheap tavern afterwards.

"...W, what? Even in my thoughts it was never such a dodgy looking place..."

A little past nine o'clock, Banri and Kouko were standing before the live concert place. Trying to look inside through the entrance, Banri winced. The steps going down were dark.

Looking very much out of place, looking around nervously, she pushed on his back with both hands,

"It's OK, you'll be fine, no problems..."

Kouko made ready to go down the steps.

"Hold on, just hold on a bit more,", Banri said, planting his feet firmly in resistance. Even more than in his imagination, the real thing was considerably more hard core.

"Between dying and killing, were the fans of that student band on the same planet?", Banri was thinking. "The tension here, for the first time in my life 'live', so to speak, will eventually be over, right?" If they were to spend some time going crazy, then perhaps Kouko would unwind a little. That was the feeling he had.

However, there were no students to be seen amongst the other customers gathering around the entrance. For some reason, most were well built, like foreigners, with body piercings and tattoos seeming natural for them. They wore grim-looking riveted jackets and leather pants, had impressive figures with biceps like logs. Above their bald heads, a vapor arose from their sweat. Ordinary people appeared as fasting monks beside them, all skin and bones. Their mouths open as they stood around, they watched the petrified Banri with suspicious eyes, like buffalo-men with their huge shoulders, both tattoed with "guts" (why?) --- anyhow, everybody living in the ordinary world would never be able to meet such a variety of people as were here.

"We, we're really going...?"

He reflexively looked over towards Kouko, inquiring,

"Let's go, it's ok! It's O-K, let's go! It's all right if we goooo."

Kouko stood before him firmly, looked at him with clear eyes, and nodded like crazy.

Perhaps due to three whole hours of drinking continuously, her breath reeked of liquor. Her voice was a little slow, but for the time being she seemed the same old Kaga Kouko. Her makeup was a little smeared from crying, but otherwise to every last aspect she was perfect. "Fuu... haaa...", she sighed, though she wasn't collapsing yet, in spite of having recklessly drank virtually everything on the menu, from fruit sours to cocktails. Banri, feeling dizzy on the way, had switched to an oolong tea, but Kouko kept drinking alcohol until she was finally full. Could she hold her liquor that well?

"Hey let's gooo! Let's goo! Tada-kuun, hey, it's OK, it's O-K, it's oookaaayyy."

Almost as if she were throwing a fit, Kouko started impatiently stamping her feet. He sensed several gazes turning towards them. Not wanting to be something oddly conspicuous,

"...OK, OK, let's go for it!"

For the time being, going through the entrance looked almost like running away.

Going down the steps leading to a basement, putting his weight against the heavy door and opening it,

"Wow! So loud!"

He couldn't even hear himself shout. For the first time in his life, the live music detonating around him, it truly was an eye-opener. Shaken by the violent oscillations from his spine to his skull bones, his feet froze with instinctive fear. Kouko's eyes opened wide, she covered both her ears with her hands, and shouted things like "Kyaa!" and "Hyaa!". Even grabbing each other by the arm and getting closer, they really couldn't hear their voices.

The crowd of sweaty, hot and smelly people pushed them aside as they were leaving, but with that energy they entered all the quicker. Tossed about by the subterranean rumbling, they felt their bodies were floating. And yet here they were, still only at the reception desk. Inside the exploding storm, a pair of middle-aged people of unknown nationality were standing, as if confused, watching money being passed across the counter. So then, it's not free?

The confused Banri pulled out his wallet, and showed them the leaflet he'd received from NANA-senpai. Rather than taking his money, they gave him two drink tickets. And then, ''bam'', with some sort of stamp-like thing, they were branded on the backs of their left hands. But, anyhow, to conceal themselves somewhat, they lowered their heads a little and the two of them went further inside. If they were to stand still, they had a feeling they would wind up angry.

And then, they were overwhelmed by the most terrible noise. Finally they covered their ears, realizing it was as if their brain tissue on both sides were being pounded upon. Had the other customer's ears been destroyed already? They seemed entirely unconcerned. Only Kouko and himself seemed to be nervous country bumpkins. It was scary, really. In any case, everything was scary.

"Though Kaga-san might be okay, I'm not okay!", he said, thinking he should stick really close to his one and only companion, but Kouko was looking around restlessly, and indifferent to Banri, she tossed her bag neatly into a locker. Crouching down by the lowest step, she stuffed her bag of evidence in and then kicked the door roughly to close it. To judge by the noise, her ladyship might even have broken it. And it looked like she'd forgotten to pull out the key.

Banri hurriedly stuffed his bag in with hers, pulled the key from the locker and put it away firmly in his pocket. For some reason, Kouko was moving restlessly, twisting around. There was nothing out of place with her ladyship, but she was straining to tear her black tights in several places, making holes in them.

As Banri looked on in mute amazement, she undid her necktie and opened her blouse widely, exposing much of her chest. Removing her hairband, her hair unfurled like a lion's mane. Roughly combing her hair with her hands, the combed back hair standing up and swelling, she suddenly got a wild look in her eyes. And then she rubbed roughly around her eyes, the long-ago messed up eye shadow, mascara and such smearing to where her eyebrows disappeared.

In some ways proud of herself, she showed off her look to Banri. The normally perfect Kouko vanished, suddenly a dangerous punk rocker girl. Passing on inside, going past a row of five women with lip piercings, the atmosphere hardly changed. Arriving back at the center of the chaotic noise, nobody batted an eyelash.

"...Well then, me too..."

Kouko didn't really want to disguise him, but for the time being she just messed up his hair with her fingers too. But since his hair was as limp as cat fur, nothing came of it.

Glancing at each other's faces and nodding, they once more proceeded inside. Over towards the stage, all you could see were the backs of the spectator's heads, like waves on the surface of the ocean. Because of all the noise, not even by shouting could one be heard. Approaching the bar counter, passing their drink tickets to the bartender, they were mutely shown a plastic menu. Pointing at beer, he showed it to Kouko too. Kouko chose a Moscow Mule. They were each handed a fresh cup.

"Kaga-saan! Cheeers!"

At any rate, even if they couldn't hear, he raised his voice, Kouko shouted something too, and the two of them raised their cups to their lips.

Just then a group of people surged towards the bar, hitting Kouko firmly against the back of her head. Kouko spouted her cocktail all over Banri's face. While shouting something, she took her tie and wiped Banri's face briskly. They went back over to the bar. It was entirely drowned in the noise, Banri's ears had gone deaf, he couldn't hear anything anymore.

Leaning against the counter, Kouko got close to the bartender's ear and said something as loud as she could. Her torn tights peeking from beneath her miniskirt, she raised her heel and shook her high-heels. Disheveled, half of her beauty was hidden by her wild hair. While feasting his eyes on her, he noticed a big guy with tattoos all over his upper body approaching Kouko. Banri, though a powerless knight (his finishing move was to lie down and play dead), looked ready to rush over in heroic resignation when,

"Tsuzaaeeeenja, neeeeeeooo! Uruuuaaaaaaaaaaa!"

---Between the songs, several seconds of silence, just like an air pocket. Wrung out from Kouko's throat came a howl, as if from the earthbound ghost of a female cat which had died in a particularly cruel manner.

That voice. No, that face. Her disheveled hair starting to flap against her cheeks, her large eyes bordered in pitch black glaring and glittering wet. Is this how a wounded beast feels? Really, you look like you fit in this place, Kaga-san... Banri reflexively gasped.

Rebuffing the tattooed man, she took four cups in her two hands and suddenly struck a pose while turning back towards him. Twisting her narrow waist left and right, she said "Aha☆", her whole face a smile. Giving an obvious wink, she returned to Banri's side. Her white chest swelled outwards, restrained by her tight vest. The shadow was terribly bewitching.

Really drunk she is, this person.

For a good while now, deeply drunk, even more than he thought. Even deeper than she seems to be, looking at her.

"Ka, Kaga-san, wait a sec, though it's late, is this really OK!? Aren't you drinking an awful lot!? I mean... wow, that's loud!"

With what seemed like an explosion of source, they started singing loudly once more, and while he started to crumble from the knees up again, Banri shakily extended his cup towards Kouko. Kouko was shouting out, "NANA-senpai", or something. And with a smile, she drank up the contents of one cup. "Oh...", unintentionally having watched over Banri, she fluttered her hand as if to say "Drink drink!"

Banri too, if that's how it was going to be, bringing it to his lips,

"...Buhaa!"

This time, Kouko's face got sprayed. "Gyahaa!", Kouko's face dripping while she clapped her hands and bent over double, laughing uproariously. But that wasn't all. His throat burned, his nose was sore. He was dizzy. His ears hadn't been able to hear anything for a long time. It was as if his five senses were entirely paralyzed. "What's going on!?", Banri staggering as he tried frantically to support his body with his own two feet. Up to this point he'd drunk such things as beer, sour, highballs, and so on, but definitely not sake. And strong sake this was, like fire.

Kouko's face seemed unconcerned, gulping down the same stuff. "But, drink up, I suddenly feel as tired as a stone!", sitting down.

"Whoa Kaga-san! Be careful, very careful! I mean, what, what was that!?"

Confused, while taking her hands and trying to help her stand up, he looked back towards the bartender. While the bartender lady was using the same kind of cup to give something to drink to a customer, she stuck out her tongue at Banri and Kouko. Doing two things at once, the odd glittering must have been from her piercings.

Banri finally arrived at the conclusion that perhaps it might be better if they just left. With everything to this point, she might have unwound enough, and already it seemed about the right time for her highness.

"Kaga-san, let's go already! Eh!? Kaga-san!? Kaga Koukoo!? You're not here!"

When he turned around, Kouko wasn't there, and he looked around in confusion. Cup in one hand, he staggered around, looking through the gaps between the other spectator's backs for long hair.

"Just a second, just a second! Hold on, wait!"

On the stage three guys were waving chainsaws around. The tiresome fellow playing the drums was sneaking out, looking down his nose at it all. As if spurred on by that atrocious noise, the spectators on the completely-filled floor raised their fingers high, jumping up and down, in spite of the disdainful look, raging for unknown reasons. Kouko was rapidly heading into the middle of all that.

"Ka, Kaga-saan! Wait! Hold on!"

Banri shouted, his voice quickly swallowed up. On the stage the maniacs were jumping up and down to make things even crazier, then jumping down hard on the heads of the spectators below. Or rather, falling down. Between the hands of the crazy ones, their unforgiving faces and slamming into their heads, Banri was making no progress at all.

"Miiiitsuuuuoooo is a fooooolllll<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"Scram", shouted Kouko in a slurred voice, trying to climb up on to the stage over the skinheads in the front row. Her shoes were long gone. And then,

"I'mmmm going to diieeee<nowiki>~~~~~~</nowiki>! Ugyaaaaaaa<nowiki>~~~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"You've got to be kidding, this is the end.", said Banri, beginning to give up.

Welcomed by the chain saw squad as if she were their queen, Kouko dumped the contents of her cup over her own head. She threw away the cup, stuck out her tongue, and gave the finger with both hands. She threw her head back as she were stabbing with all her might at the heavens. The cheers shook the ground. The focus of the drummer's eyes, Kouko's miniskirt, was dangerously near her butt, and in a moment, all at once the problems increased. Her bra was black. Just a fleeting glimpse of her chest was seen. And then, both hands lifting up even higher, her neck and her chattering knees, that... that, was C-3PO's pose!

Banri climbed up, as if he were jumping on people's backs with his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Purcell Jack Purcells]. He went towards the stage. Not quickly enough to stop Kouko, that just wasn't possible.

Sopping wet, bathed in sake from the head down, Kouko inspired the band to dance like robots. For just such a moment, even their rhythm was chopped up. The chainsaws growled more and more violently. Any time now, it seemed he would be able to jump to midstage with a running start. Banri barely managed to reach the stage. Stretching out his hand to jump,

"Kaga-san, don't, don't!"

He grabbed Kouko's wrist.

He put his weight into it, all at once, taking her by one hand. His body was drawn close.

He had a feeling such a thing had happened before. Even before, even that before...? The crowd was just like--- around dawn, at the river water's surface.

If he were to fall, he would die. Die completely.

"I'm scared------------------!"

Crying like a child, shamefully, who was it? Me? Kaga-san?

---Banri!

"..."

Kouko's eyes were looking at Banri.

Standing his ground, Banri also looked at Kouko.

Had somebody been calling him like this? With all the alcohol, it felt like flames dancing around, spinning inside his head. Sparks whirled about, everything he felt, everything he saw, anything and everything, just like that caught fire. What was it? How many things, in a hurry, without time, are burned, vanish and are lost? No way! Already he was truly lost, not understanding. Since he did not understand, he didn't want to hear anything more. From the beginning, it would have been good for him to not have existed.

Ah, so it was.

Always, nothing but loss---.

"Tada, kun...?"

Kouko was murmuring in a small voice. ...Murmured, sort of, her mouth could be seen moving. Their hands were still joined, the moment seeming to stand still, but,

"If you're going to die, then die quickly, you idiots. This stage is mine."

Jabbed forcefully in the lower back, Banri was pushed off the stage. And of course, Kouko together with him.

As they quickly fell down, with the guitar used to poke Banri in one hand, NANA-senpai could be seen with the mike in hand, grinning like a demon.

At the front entrance, Banri collapsed.

Stepping over the collapsed Banri, creeping down the unlit corridor, groping for the bathroom, Kouko could be heard entering.

"Are you okay...?"

"..."

Instead of a reply, one more time. Bravely.

Kicking off his shoes to get them off, still unable to stand, he somehow managed to enter the room, following the wall. His hands had gone completely numb. Supporting Kouko, he had walked here all the way from the place of the concert.

Falling to the floor with a thud, he rolled over on to the rug. The sound of the water pouring, the sound of the toilet flushing. And still he groaned, painfully.

Feeling a random pain where he sat, it felt like something was there. Sticking his hand in his pocket, out came the key to the locker.

"...Ah... we did it... the stuff in the locker, we left it, didn't we... hey, Kaga-san, again, we forgot something..."

There was no reply.

To block his feelings he covered his ears, drawing himself inside, and unnoticed, Banri's eyes seem to have closed.

<center>* * *</center>

When he woke up, he felt vague.

Still lying on the rug, he felt so heavy he only lifted his eyelids. The world was still in middle night, and in the room light did not penetrate; it was dark.

Kouko was in a corner of the dark room.

Leaning her back against Banri's bed, sitting on the floor, she looked outside through the door-wall. She was crying.

Elbow propped on a partially raised knee, chin in one hand, the other hand combing her bangs, the light from outside the window illuminated her cheek, tears running down it. Her throat sounding hoarse, her nose running, the fingers of the hand supporting her chin twisting her lips, Kouko kept on sobbing.

Even though Banri was waking up, she probably didn't notice. Just one person, huddled in the deeps of solitude, not caring what others see, that figure still crying defenselessly, marvelously, looked rather like a young boy.

In other words, just like me, Banri thought.

Though nobody should be crying aloud like that in this room, it felt as if here were split entirely in two, and he were watching himself cry.

Long ago, perhaps he had cried like this, what he was seeing on the other side of the room. This he knew: this had happened. Such feelings had come over him.

Like a pale, thin film covering the corner of his vision, just then,

"'Re'...?"

A faint glimmer, a mysterious single syllable came to mind.

When he raised his shoulder, a towel-blanket fell down. Kouko must have draped it there. Kouko, at Banri's voice, raised her tearful face as if taken aback.

"...Just now, what did you say...?"

By what was certainly the voice of a little girl, Banri's strange dream was quickly destroyed.

"...Said..."

"...You said 're'."

"...Your hand. Look..."

Banri pointed at the back of Kouko's hand. Bending her wrist and looking at the back of her hand, "This?", she said hoarsely. There was a faintly glimmering fluorescent yellow 're' symbol there.

"Ah. You too..."

At Kouko's word, he tried looking at the back of his own hand. For sure, the same 're' glimmered faintly. Was that so? Was it the stamp from the reception desk at the concert place? To make it easier to recognize in the darkness at reentry time, it was of fluorescent paint. "Now I see", Banri started to nod his head.

"I mean... why 're' of all things..."

"Who knows..."

Without a single sound in the room, the two of them stared at their respective 're's for a little while.

Were they able to think quietly this way because it was the dead of night? Was it because they were barely breathing? Or, was it because their ears had been beaten down by that awful noise? ...That, probably.

"..."

Staring at the back of her hand, it seemed she would start sobbing again. Was the syllable [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#'Re'|'re']] a switch that had enabled all of her grief? Re... Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to 're'staurants? Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to pick 'le'mons? Would they watch a 're'ntal DVD, would they ecstatically dance the [http://okami.neoseeker.com/wiki/Renjishi 'Re'njishi], or zap eggs on the 'ra'nge---

"Kaga-san... are you okay?"

"...Sorry. I was thinking about Mr. Two Dimensions just now."

"W, what? That's surprising... I mean, that doesn't have anything to do with 're', right?"

"No. There's no connection. Something Mr. Two Dimensions said, I suddenly remembered it... then, I started crying again."

Turning a sort-of smiling but tear-stained face towards Banri, Kouko straightened her legs and sat down neatly.

Leaning her back against the bed, she slowly tilted her head back, as if it were quite heavy.

"Mr. Two Dimensions will not become Mr. One Dimension. He seems he said that to get things right, to his own satisfaction, that he would have to create his own dream girl. As for me, while hearing that as half joking, I thought we were somewhat kindred spirits. 'I want to be bound to a perfect companion with a perfect scenario'... saying that he and I are going for the same thing, I thought. But Mr. Two Dimensions, since he's what they call an 'otaku' boy, he works in the world of literary creation. Since I'm not an otaku-ish girl, I work in reality. That's different from a simple preference in hobbies, I thought. Enjoying himself in creating fiction, Mr. Two Dimensions is still rather childish, even, it seems. But, ...its not like that, is it?"

Combing her disheveled hair as if it were a nuisance, while looking up at the ceiling, in a low voice she continued talking.

"He was always more mature than I, an adult. That was how I understood him to be. Apart from me, nobody can imagine stuffing the perfection I dream of into their bodies. In the real world, it cannot be done. The world, in it's own selfish way, cannot do it. What would human relationships become if they were forced to be so? ...For Mr. Two Dimensions, or rather, a person barely come of age, assuming he has that sort of understanding, would be able to enjoy talking about it. In spite of my being of the same year, because I'm an idiot, there is sooo much that I don't understand. I don't understand why Mitsuo doesn't like me as I am. From the very start, I haven't understood how one can say, "I have not been able to make my dreams come true."

That hurt a lot.

All of it.

Still looking up at the ceiling, still crying, Kouko's voice could be heard awfully, painfully blocked.

"Mitsuo, did he not say that I matter to him? 'Because I cannot have happiness, I cannot love either.' Didn't he say something like that?"

"Yeah... he did, didn't he? I think so."

"After hearing that, I got to thinking. I had never thought whether or not Mitsuo would be happy. I had simply been chasing Mitsuo around saying I loved him. But, could you say that I was really thinking about Mitsuo's well being? I had never respected Yanagisawa Mitsuo as a human being, as an existence in reality. My goals were all that mattered. ...Perhaps I failed to understand that he had a life, an existence. It might be that I was treating him as no more than one of the characters in my own world."

As if she were grasping at nothing, Kouko reached out her left hand in the darkness. The 're' waved in the air.

"Crying like this, getting hurt like this--- my obsession is to blame. This... ugly... obsession. ...The Mitsuo whom I love must love me. I would not accept that the one I love does not love me back. I would not accept that I am worthless. I would never recognize, never accept my being so. "Tell me... Tell me it isn't so... Tell me that I'm not worthless!" Saying such, I was only pushing the responsibility on to Mitsuo. Nonetheless, it was actually me who could neither accept nor forgive myself. I was arbitrarily judging my worth by whether Mitsuo loved me or not. Unfortunately, I had set things up that way. ...What I did to Mitsuo for a very long time was wrong."

Panting, Kouko continued, "but it took me a long time to realize that." Whether she was crying or smiling, Banri could no longer tell the difference. Still, her breathing was making a lot of noise in the darkness.

"...Well, is that not so? Everybody, to some extent, has such feelings, don't you think?"

While looking at his own 're', Banri was trying carefully to speak gently, to seem as optimistic as possible. Whether he managed to console her or not he did not know, but that was the idea that came to him right then.

"...As I am now, I agree, but then again, for whom would it not be very difficult normally? I think it's hard! Being imperfect myself, if I were not to face it myself, I would cease to be, so to speak. Wouldn't nearly anybody want to look away? ...At least, I am like that."

I am like that.

Having put it into words, looking away from reality and being surprised, his own form all at once came sharply into focus. That person, 120 pounds of meat, was stretched out on the rug.

His breath was catching, but if he went silent here,

"I have a really hard time noticing it when I am rejected."

Now, making a speech to Kaga Kouko, he found that he had averted his eyes from his own form.

As if staring off into the darkness, Kouko was looking at Banri's face.

"'Rejected'... by whom? A person like Tada-kun, was rejected by somebody?"

"...Those the old Tada Banri knew. The old Tada Banri was thought well of by many people. His family and so on. I think it can't be helped, though, but... of course it hurts, and so, I cannot return home. They don't even understand. My parents, are even now waiting for the 'real Banri' to return and say, 'I'm home!' Because my current self, however I am introduced, I get this feeling of 'that isn't him.' That at any moment, the real son, Tada Banri himself, just like that, will return to them---"

Bringing up her knees, it was almost the old Kouko sitting there, resting her elbow on her knee. She propped her chin with her hand. Every time she talked, her head rocked back and forth.

"---It seems to me as if they were wishing for my current self to disappear, as if he had died."

With what he was putting into words, in the bottom of his heart, deeply submerged and unseen, his grief was coming into view, very quickly and clearly taking shape.

He didn't want to say he was afraid, he didn't want to see even one such word leak out of him.

"In truth all along, I haven't been able to avoid being scared, really scared! My personality, so easily vanished, at any time could easily return to me, right? After all, if I were cured, wouldn't my current self just die? Myself, dying... wouldn't everybody else be happy? What with myself, staying myself, wouldn't everybody feel forever dejected? Myself, myself in such a world, what's the word, pr, ...predicament, nowhere else, nothing, you could say,"

"Being dejected like that, stop it!"

...That was dangerous. Really.

If Kouko had not spoken up so strongly, who knows what may have happened to the rage that had been welling up inside him, which now turned to tears, overflowing from his eyes.

"I’m stopping! I stopped. Absolutely."

Wiping roughly at the back of his hand, he noticed Kouko sitting up straight in the darkness.

"Well, if Tada-kun were to disappear entirely, ...this evening was a disgrace, for me, for us. I want to keep a night like that a secret. Wouldn't it be better not to tell anybody? Nobody else! Not in this life, nor anywhere, nobody but Tada-kun! Nobody at all."

"..."

"Shall we? So we shall. Really!"

"Ah,"

---Thank you. Kaga-san.

Rescued, Banri rubbed his eyes with his fingers as if he were still lost.

"So, don't disappear. Don't die either. Don't be afraid of such things. They aren't going to happen! Because I, absolutely, will not forget Tada-kun. And then for me, for myself, who was a fool, who was ashamed, for me who could not help myself this evening, for me who only once this spring---"

With a single sob, Kouko took a deep breath, for reasons he did not understand.

"Whatever happens, don't forget me...!"

Still not understanding, this moment was ending.

"...I won't forget! I simply cannot forget. How could I forget? As for myself, well,"

As the words came out, Banri was thinking of something else.

"Kaga-san, I love you!"

Even if it were remembered, even if it were forgotten entirely. The results were always the same.

Having moved too quickly, he could not go back. Today, in this moment already, never again.

At the very same instant, he was being born and he was dying. No matter how important it was, no matter how he wanted to stop ahead of time, it all was lost equally. In fact, nobody could change things.

But, for that very reason,

"...I love you! Kaga Kouko. Really."

She was dear to him.

Kouko opened her eyes wide, the 're' on her hand covering her mouth. It sure was, though Banri also. It was a big surprise. Absolutely safe, they said, and suddenly it was a thing neatly and completely cut as if by a razor.

But, he loved Kouko.

However it happened, Banri loved Kouko. In his head and in his heart, if he were to notice, he was full, full of Kouko. He was full to bursting. Nothing but an awkward, klutzy, beautiful woman, every day he was thinking of her. Without realizing it, he had become like this.

And then, if he could, he wanted Kouko to become so too. He wanted her to think only of him. It didn't have to be today. Someday would be fine.

"...Saying such things. To confess on a night like this, that wasn't very honest of me. Sorry."

Dragging along his towel-blanket, Banri placed himself as far away from Kouko as he could. Making it to the wall, he sat down with his knees up once more.

Dumped, then on the same day getting drunk and going to a guy's place, then that guy saying he loved you. So cliché. Such a dangerous situation. He figured Kouko must be scared.

He threw his feet and hands out feebly, since he had not the spirit to take advantage of this night, and it was his intention to make an easy to understand appeal.

"Though I'm not speaking of forgetting, nor any such thing. Nor was it my intention to pretend nothing had happened. ...About what just happened, I don't think you are suddenly going to forget about Yana-ssan. I mean, it's all right if you turn me down for now. Ah, though that wouldn't be pleasant. ...Anyhow, there's tomorrow."

"T, tomorrow...!? Tomorrow!? What!?"

"Don't we have to pick up our stuff? It's probably in the locker where we left it. Don't you remember?"

"B, bags...!? Eh!? We did!?"

"Yes, we did. I mean, didn't we leave the stuff behind when we escaped the whole mess? How about that for fate?"

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Kouko,

"...If you call it that... yeah, something, over again. About the same thing. But still rather nice, ...should be fun for me."

Little by little, she began to laugh into the darkness with a softly shaking voice.

"Whatever we left, it looks like it'll be okay in the end. It seems we're unexpectedly sturdy. I mean, we only lost our shoes. Again, in fact!"

Her voice had gone rough from crying, but nonetheless Kouko kept on laughing. She got Banri laughing too. Wanting to cry, wanting to laugh, his chest hurting, he was scratching his head in confusion. Touching the tip of his nose, his bangs were too long.

Perhaps they were waving for Kouko.

But, as for himself, loving her was not something he could stop.

But even if they could not be lovers, being friends would be good, to pass time together.

And so--- after this again, how many things had they left behind? He wondered how many things they had left behind, how many times had the two of them fallen down? It didn't matter. He wanted to be with Kouko even so. That being so, he loved Kouko. Thinking on that, Banri smiled once more.

How many moments he could spend with her he did not know, though all of them were surely going to shine brilliantly.

So they could shine, she had been born. If he were to blurt out something like that, as if joking, now it might honestly be believed.

"...It's about that time, isn't it? The first train will be leaving shortly, Kaga-san, so you can get back. I could walk you to your place! Won't the others there be worrying about you? Have you called?"

"It's okay. I'll take a taxi back."

"Do you want to take a shower? I swear on my life I won't peek through the keyhole!"

"I said it's okay. Though we were a disaster, I won't contaminate the taxi seat. Really, thank you. Excuse me."

"For what?"

"For a lot of things, for everything. ...Really, it's okay, down this street, then I'll be able to catch a taxi. I'll be fine by myself, for sure."

Before Banri could begin to get up, Kouko looked all around her, mumbling about her bag. And then, brushing her long hair from her face in annoyance,

"That so? It got left behind."

"Tomorrow evening, let's go pick it up together! I mean, together we can go down there."

"It's okay, it's okay! I can go by myself!"

"Why? I'm not going to do anything. I was only going with you to the taxi stop! While we're at it, I want to go by convenience store. Ah, I feel like getting some ice cream."

"Go to the convenience store tomorrow! ...With how we look after today's disaster, I absolutely don't want to be seen in the light!"

"Since I've already seen enough unpleasant stuff, I'm fine. Besides, it's a bit late for that, what with that C-3PO act on the stage."

"Ewww! No way!"

For Kouko it was indeed a bit late, covering both ears and keening. Just like that, she trotted across the room, heading for the entrance. Chasing after her in confusion,

"Hold up, hold up, hold up! Put these on!"

In a corner by the entrance some convenience store sandals were lying, jumbled together. He tried to turn on the lights, but Kouko cried, "No no no!", and in order to escape she flew out the entrance door and was gone.

"See you tomorrow! I'll absolutely see you here!"

Called like that even, it didn't look too bad. Reluctantly, he intently watched Kouko get on the elevator from his door, and once it started down he went over to the veranda.

Kouko came out the entrance, dragging the sandals as she turned towards the sidewalk. On the roadway, redly lit by the free taxi sign, just one taxi waited. She got on that one.

Banri, pulling in his head with a feeling of relief, he nonetheless noticed that Kouko could be seen looking up from the taxi window. Of course she looked, or something like that he understood, but Banri calmly waved to her. He wondered if she saw it. He decided she hadn't.

<center>* * *</center>

The topic of the day--- you cannot deny the signs, he thought.

As he walked, gazing out at the scenery, a tea plantation spread out before him, fluffy green domed stripes continuing into the distance, Banri was thinking. It smelled strongly of manure. "Hmm, what I see, what's that?", the tall electric fans for protection against frost looked down upon him, noticing and investigating him.

And then, afterwards, unable to stand it any longer, escaping--- because they were there.

He took Hikari from Tokyo station to Shizuoka, arriving in under an hour. After taking a breather at the Starbucks by the transfer gate, he took JR who knows more stations. His home station's monument: a tea bush disguised as an onion top. Apart from that, everything around the place seemed to say "tea".

To get home took not quite two hours. Some people do a lot of commuting, to school or to work, in their worlds, perhaps. A season ticket for the bullet train cost money, and Banri was on an allowance. In truth, he didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, he wanted out of the house, and that was the reason he gave Kouko.

"THE Shizuoka", so called, felt like walking through a tea plantation, some building's eaves extending out, trying to be seen as a town.

He entered a lane deeply shadowed by fruit trees, through an open gate and went to open the door. It was unlocked.

"...I'm hooome..."

Speaking of remembering, he was already remembering.

"This is home!", he'd been told, and since for one year he lived there, the memories of that time had already given him the feeling it was "home".

He was taking off his shoes so he could surprise his mother when she came out,

"...What are you doing!?"

"I had some free time, and for some reason I came back here."

"Eh!?"

She stared in wonder at the son who had suddenly come back from Tokyo for no particular reason.

He only had enough for one way of the round trip... that was Banri's real reason for coming, but mother didn't care in the least.

By the morning after his confession to Kouko, he was feeling acutely embarrassed, remembering it. They'd arranged to meet up that evening, but he had no idea what they could have talked about if they did. In the how many hours until the evening, he didn't even know what to do to make it a lively occasion.

If that's the way it is, then let's go home, he thought. Going home for a bit, until the evening time would certainly cease to flow, the wait filled with conversation. Frankly, they talked too much. Though he didn't feel the need to run away from the memories of last night, at least for the moment he was able to escape from living alone.

And besides, afterwards, there was one more thing.

"I haven't eaten aaanything since morning. I wanna eat something."

"Why so sudden? If you're coming back, then call and tell me you're coming back! I'm going over to Grandma's place to work in her garden this afternoon! Since you're back, you want to come too? The season has just arrived, and it's a real mess over there."

"It's okay, I'll pass. Today's just a visit. I've got things to do this evening."

"Eh? What's that? Is that so?"

Having asked for food, and having said a few things to butter up his mom, he went up to his second-floor room.

There was something he thought he ought to look at.

Throwing his small solitary bag on the bedspread, he had no choice but to open the room's closet, filled with one year's worth of memories. Having taken to his new home only plain clothing, his high school uniform was hanging there, placed neatly in order. His mother had done that, of course.

He then pulled out a cardboard box. Pulling it out on the floor, he ripped off the tape and opened it. A broken cell phone and a high-school graduation album, stored away as remembrances, perfectly preserved.

How many hours before?

In the quiet of his home, he'd received a text from Kouko. The message, perhaps because of the tension of the morning, maybe due to the hangover, was awfully long. In that place, such a sentence it was.

'Thinking about things like being rejected, refusing Tada-kun would be pretty much the same thing.'

Reading it, he did not understand it right away.

He considered it for a while, thinking. Almost certainly he had to another person--- the Banri from before knew many people, perhaps that Banri had rejected someone, so to speak.

That he had lost all his memory of the time when he was living in this room was a pain he could not avoid. He even worried that people might try to come over. But, being unable to remember hurt, and Banri completely refused to tell his mother. He didn't want them to come and meet him. He didn't want to make contact with them. He didn't even consider getting his cell phone repaired, so he would be found by those from before. And then he left home, as if he were escaping.

I've died, he thought, and wanted to forget.

Being lost, for the second time and knowing there was something big he could not get back, was scary.

Setting the self he had never known aside, he picked up an album from where it was stashed in the cardboard box.

He wasn't perfect--- something large had been broken in him. That sort of thing was hard to accept. For the moment perhaps, he couldn't do anything.

But, he wanted to change.

Being rejected hurts. Not being accepted hurts. Looking at pain directly hurts. By the recognition of that pain, first of all, accept the way you are now, he thought.

Even though he'd not been required to in the time he'd lost, if anything was accomplished by the birth of this self, he wanted to make that time important. That is to say, you cannot help but do it. So he thought.

From now on, if he met somebody, even somebody he'd met in the past, even himself, whomever it might be, he did not want to reject them.

For that reason, he opened the album. He needed just a little bit of courage. When first he opened the album cover, a strange, light sound came out.

"...Whaa..."

When he immediately saw his own face in it's proper place in the picture, a smiling class portrait, he gasped a little. Third year, class 4, Tada Banri. Tenth in the line.

He traced his fingertip slowly over his unknown self, and his unknown classmates' faces. He still had a feeling of dread towards what he had felt, but could no longer recall. He suppressed those feelings; he wanted to know who they were. He wanted to become able to.

But, his heart was beating fast.

To the front and down the line from the unknown Tada Banri, the person photographed giving a peace sign. The fifteenth person in the line.

Hayashida Nana.

"...Eh?"

From inside the album, a bunch of Polaroid photos had slipped out. Picking them up, he examined them. Quite a few of them were scribbled on, in bold letters. On one, in a different handwriting, "Banri's an idiot, nearly", was written. The two in the picture were messing around, looking at each other cross-eyed. "You've forgotten even your graduation!!!", was scribbled around the picture's edge.

"Linda passed on to college, Banri got held back.", was all else that was written.

There were pictures of just the two of them. In the classroom, in the gymnasium, on the grounds, in clubrooms, in uniform, in jerseys, smiling widely, even the fillings in their teeth showing, and a long wooden bridge.

Smiling, cheek to cheek.

"...Wh, what...? What the heck...? ...Linda-senpai...?"

Remember, don't forget!

Did Linda say something like that?

He stood up.

His socks slipping on the flooring as he took off running from his room,

"Banri!? Isn't your ramen boiling!? Where're you going!?"

"Hold on! Hold on, lemme see..."

As he pulled on his shoes, what he understood,

"To the bridge!"

The bridge wasn't very far from the house. Not entirely understanding yet, he searched for something as he ran. Just what he was looking for still didn't yet know. "Still, if I don't go...", he thought. He ran and he looked. If there was something he had to do there, something he had to get, whatever it was he wanted it. It struck him that he wanted nothing but to do that.

There was a paved path from amongst the mountains, so you could ride down. At such times he thought, "I've gotta get a scooter license, I really do." As he was passing by, he saw to the side a red banner on which was written, "The Entrance for the Seven Gods of Good Luck."

Before long, the long, long bridge came into view before him.

"...What, how ridiculous...!?"

It hurt to breathe. Gasping, he started to cross the bridge. This was the bridge from which Banri fell. What on earth happened at that time, nobody knows. Since the Banri in question had forgotten, and not even the police really knew.

"...Linda-senpai... How could it be...!?"

Show me, please, he muttered. Why, were you next to me? You, who are you? To me, what, what are you? Why don't you talk with me any more?

Passing the midpoint of the bridge, suddenly his feet stopped. Exhausted, he began to collapse.

"...What is this weird sound...!?"

Oddly cloying, the suggestive feeling brought by the ringing of the bell echoed unexpectedly amongst the mountains. Iya<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, boka<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>n, ufu<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, with such a mood. The ringing of the bell--- who did it?

Dizziness took him to his knees. He clung to the guardrail. So as not to look down, he closed his eyes. It might have been a hangover. Unable to stand up, Banri covered his face with his hand. Dizzily, his feet shook. No, was it the bridge that was shaking?

It was at that moment.

While the idiotic bell was sounding, on this bridge, he realized he was hearing the sound of many feet running towards him.

Reflexively he looked up, and then, he saw a bunch of people passing by. He saw the form of the lead runner. The guy saw him too. He was looking fixedly at Banri's face, his jaw slack, looking like a fool.

That guy---

"Banri!"

Is that me?

Calling his name, grabbing him by the elbow, was that Linda?

What, what's this? What the heck is going on? To resist the dizziness, as if his brain were being spun around, he bit his lip. Mumbling, he felt thick-headed and slow, as if he were anemic.

Opening his eyes once more, it was just the bridge still, continuing on. There was nobody else. He couldn't hear the bell anymore. ...Was it a dream, maybe? Was it an aftereffect of his accident? Was his head somehow going funny? Or was it simply from his hangover? Or, was he just misinterpreting something he had seen?

Coming back to his senses, in his back pocket his cell phone was vibrating.

'Banri?'

"''Yana''-ssan..."

'What's with you, where are you? Out? Something I, today in some free time... I mean, I'd like to talk a bit. About yesterday, various things... could we do that?'

"...I'm... not here..."

"Huh? What? I can't hear you very well."

A dying cherry tree by a dry river bed, a big sky. The voices of friends. A long bridge. A strong breeze. Other than Banri, there was no one else on the bridge.

Only Banri stood there now, alone, standing still amongst the scenery. In the middle of reality, existing. The ramen was boiling, his mother was getting frustrated, in such a moment he existed.

If he were able to recognize it as it was, he could perhaps forever be at peace.

<center>* * *</center>

Tada Banri was looking at Linda.

The sports science lecture suddenly getting cancelled, amongst the students hurriedly breaking up, he spotted Linda's form. Linda noticed Banri's gaze too, and waved, "See you, Tada Banri." While Banri gazed at that face, he could not move. There was so much he wanted to ask her. But he could not. Not knowing her reason for keeping the secret, he didn't know what he did and didn't know. Wanting to ask her, "What? Do you have something?", Banri kept on looking at Linda's face still.

A beautiful girl, her long beautiful hair carefully done, was looking at the back of Banri's head. Her name is Kaga Kouko.

At Kouko's profile, with a complicated look, but hiding so as not to be discovered, a slightly sunburnt guy was watching. His name is Yanagisawa Mitsuo.

Behind Mitsuo, having noticed earlier where he was looking, a girl was thinking about whether or not to call out to him. Her name is Oka Chinami.

Though the familiar faces were present, though he had not taken sports science, another guy had come into the classroom. His name was Satou Takaya.

Passing through the background, like a dark shadow there was a woman. Her name, of course, is NANA.

My name is Tada Banri.

I've died, an eighteen year old boy.

Unnoticed by anyone, without anybody knowing, I've always watched after Tada Banri's affairs. I see everybody's affairs.

I'm sitting in the first seat behind, taking it easy, legs stretched out. Today the sunlight is really strong, and the classroom is warm, making everybody sleepy. While staring at the boring back of Banri's head, I find my eyes are closing by themselves. I'm getting awfully sleepy.

For now --- black-out.

:The End

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Postscript|Postscript]]
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</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5

2013-11-12T08:54:50Z

Perfect Chaos: In this paragraph, Linda was the one that said the line about "pressuring her" and about a "partner", which is why Banri felt embarrassed.

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 5==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 5==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 198.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri has spotted me.

Being made fun of in a strangely confused moment in time while that long-missed seductive bell was ringing, while gasping in pain, Banri certainly saw me that day. And I saw him too.

The present and the past connecting in the middle of that bridge, Banri and I, our eyes met for only a moment. Mine, or possibly Banri's, maybe both side's mistake in vision, a bad guess, an accidental misunderstanding, a mysterious illusion, a common daydream, what he thought didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Anyway, the memory of that moment in my past certainly exists. This phenomenon, whatever you might call it, as far as I'm concerned, is real.

<center>* * *</center>

Serenely, Kouko said she was trying to collect the objective facts.

"To summarize them, Mitsuo and I are bound by fate. That is to say, it's been proven over and over again."

With a thump, she put a big paper bag from a department store, packed full of stuff, on the table in front of Banri. The table shaking and creaking from the weight, an older gentleman next to them, an espresso in one hand, briefly looked towards them. "Excuse me...", Banri bowing his head in a working class sort of way.

A little before three in the afternoon, walking from campus a short distance to the café--- which had now become outrageously memorable, the shop where they served café-au-lait in bowls. Thinking that perhaps they shouldn't go there a second time, they peeked into other cafes but found them completely full, and they finally settled down here, where they thought they might be able to have a quiet conversation.

"If I can pile up enough objective truth before his eyes, I think even Mitsuo would not be able to avoid his responsibility. ...And you could say, being a little law-school-ish would be good right now, eh?"

Holding her bowl in both hands, sipping café-au-lait as if it were soup, Kouko could be seen smiling.

Taking his bowl in both hands like she was, Banri stared at her.

"...I couldn't get out even though I'd had enough of the lecture."

As if asking "What was that?", Kouko raised one of her beautifully cared-for eyebrows and looked back at Banri's eyes.

Between deep red lips, a line of pure white teeth. Smooth cheeks. The skin about her eyes was stretched smoothly. From her slim fingers, neatly manicured, to the line from her hips to her crossed legs, she was perfect in every way. Calmly returning her café-au-lait bowl to its saucer, she looked out the window, elegantly composed.

Since that "worst day", when they'd escaped their awful situation, four days had passed. Having taken a break, it seemed that Kouko had gotten back on her feet. However.

"Well then, Kaga-san, are you really feeling better now? With how you were feeling Wednesday and all, not attending and looking like you were going to fail the class! All the first years but you have been getting perfect attendance."

"I just had to have a little time. Alone, by myself, thinking. And I arrived at a conclusion that of course I did the right thing. It wasn't a mistake. It was just right. ...As long as I keep to my plans, things will have to work out!"

Finally up to the task, even if only in front of Banri, as if acting the part of "the Perfect Kaga Kouko", she slowly raised her chin and smiled with her whole face. He could not discover even one flaw, not one spot on her creamy white throat.

With Kouko at long last back to school, just like that, Banri was even more high spirited than he had been worried before.

Wounded by Yanagisawa's cold attitude, confused by Chinami's entry into the fray, and along the way, embarrassed by Omaken, he had felt that she must certainly have been feeling down. Those four days, Banri had been really worried about Kouko. The day before, he had even called out to Linda when he spotted her in the lobby, and while leaving out the details, consulted with her about what to do about Kouko.

Banri said that she seems to be lost, because she's so clumsy at it she's ashamed to join Omaken, and Linda replied, "Pressuring her won't do any good. But, it would be boring without a partner," with a nod. "If Kouko was so inclined, of course they would be happy, she would always be welcome, and it's OK if she's a bit confused up until when she agrees to join." Simply calling Kouko his partner, just that much was making Banri feel strangely embarrassed.

"What were you thinking about? There's no mistaking Mitsuo and I are bound together, just not completely yet. There's proof, such that nobody can evade, perfect proof."

Kouko was stubborn to the end.

Her straight-blown hair spilled right down her back, held by a hairband wrapped in a deep gray and purple satin design. In her dark brown hair, it really looked pretty. Then,

"Justice will be mine!"

She nodded vigorously, showing her enthusiasm. She was wearing a snow white blouse. Emphasizing the courtroom style, she had on a slender, mannish vest. And a black tie. And a black miniskirt, black tights and black high heels. She had the evidence stuffed in a paper bag, and carried a high-class brand of briefcase. Together with how she threw her head back, today's Kouko really, how can you say it? ... She seemed to be doing an impression of a sexy lawyer.

Banri even now didn't understand where Kouko got her certainty. The proof, the proof, she was saying, but in reality up to this point, seeing the so-called 'satisfactory relationship' that Yanagisawa and Kouko had, he didn't think there was such a thing in this world as pulling out "objective facts".

Rather, he didn't think a man's heart could be moved to one's own convenience.

Though thinking about it, he didn't want to say anything negative to this Kouko, just barely returned, finally, from getting back on her feet.

"Wellll...", carefully saying little, resting his chin on his hand, Banri's cellphone buzzed.

It was a text from Yanagisawa.

"''Yana''-ssan said the lecture is over. He's coming this way now."

"Did he happen to ask you if I was here too?"

"Yes, yes, he did", said Banri, nodding. Though it seemed she was coming to school, after the lecture they hadn't spoken but a bit. "What're we doing?", was all Kouko had said along the way.

Once he came alongside Banri, Yanagisawa answered frankly, "I wanted to talk with Kouko too, amongst other things." While he was speaking that way, he gave a brief glance full of meaning that even Banri wasn't fool enough to not notice. He couldn't recall even one time that Yanagisawa had actually wanted to talk with Kouko.

As if she were satisfied, Kouko's back became even straighter.

"Look at this, will you? Perfect. Of course, you've been worrying about me, for a long time. You've repented of how coldly you were treating me. And then, little by little, unknown to yourself, I have filled up your heart. That is quite according to our perfect scenario."

Then as she were just remembering it, she took out a hand mirror from her pouch, looked into it, double-checking her beautiful perfection. Eyes upturned, blinking repeatedly, trying to make a smile from ear to ear, then nodding as if in approval, she put away the mirror.

This latest development startled Banri.

"Ka, Kaga-san, well... of course you aren't going back again!? And then, there's that, look here, rather than waiting in vain for Yana-ssan, once in a blue moon..."

"What are you saying? At long last, after waiting for him, I can present my evidence to him."

With a smile quickly put back in place, saying "That's true, isn't it?", he had no choice but to shut his mouth once more.

Really, calling Yanagisawa here like this was bad. He had yielded to Kouko's excessive self-confidence, though she couldn't deal with being rejected over and over again.

Hoping for something like progress with Kouko, perhaps... no, never, won't happen.

Yanagisawa was planning to turn her down once and for all, here.

Besides, it seemed to Banri that during the time she was away from school, Yanagisawa and Chinami’s relationship had been making progress, little by little. Even at the club drinking parties, it seemed, the two of them had had plenty of time to themselves. Since Yanagisawa knew all too well that Banri was supporting Kouko, he felt no need to mention it. In fact, he would not have been surprised if they were actually starting to go out together.

"...Anyways... shouldn’t you not be getting your hopes up?"

Timidly, that was all he tried to say.

If he were untactful, Yanagisawa might have planned to come here together with Chinami. And then in front of Banri and Kouko, they would slap her with the announcement that they were a couple. If such a thing were to happen, what would Kouko wind up doing? Becoming perfect, and then, ...what would she become, really? For certain sorry, standing petrified, in a strange cold sweat.

As for Banri, since such a Kouko's near future worried him, he couldn't just decide things were getting uncomfortable around here and take his leave, claiming "This has nothing to do with me."

"Why? He didn't just come here this way perfectly. There's plenty of evidence."

Looking strangely hesitant, Kouko looked back at Banri's face, handling her paper bag as if it were something valuable.

"But it's 'proof'... otherwise why would I have brought it with me?"

And saying, "He's come!", she sat facing the doorway, her eyes shining.

"Mitsuo! Over here!"

When she stood up with a flourish, like an actress, the old man next to them, apparently unable to deal with the noise, finally got up and moved over to the counter. "Sorry, really...", muttered Banri in a small voice that could hardly be heard.

Yanagisawa, his hair hanging down partway down the sides of his face, was standing in the entrance to the café. Raising his voice when he saw Kouko's face,

"Been a while, hasn't it?"

It seemed as if he were shrugging his shoulders while saying it. Chinami wasn't there, so Banri was able to relax for the time being. As he walked over to them, he jammed a knit cap he'd taken off into a pocket of his faded jeans. The heels of his well worn Red Wing boots made the floorboard creak.

Throwing her shoulders back, Kouko took a step towards Yanagisawa, keeping her perfect smile directed at him.

"Won't you sit down? What would you like to order? Mr. Defendant."

"Oh be quiet. Excuse me, could I have some coffee? Be normal."

"Hmph, you only just got here."

"I won't try to escape nor hide. You have nothing to be afraid of."

"Hey, what're you trying to say? Did I even set you free, or discover you hiding?"

"...Should I...really be here...?"

"It's OK! Stay here!", the two of them said at the same time, smiling, making Banri settle down and stop squirming.

In this meeting between the guy who was loved, and the girl whose love was unrequited, why was he here in the first place?

"Well then, prepare yourself. I will be understood completely. My perfection..."

"Something you want to say arbitrarily, as it were? Since it doesn't matter, I'll stay and listen."

"Anyways, sit down. Or have your feet cramped? Isn't it still early to be getting cold feet?"

"Huh? What have you been saying? Just why can't I have second thoughts?"

...Was this feeling like a duel?

Kouko's face smiling. Yanagisawa's face a mask. Giving each other exactly the same cool looks, they sat down, even their timing matching precisely, like mirror images. While between the two of them the tension crackled as if there were unseen sparks flying, Banri, who had been watching from the start had been yawning repeatedly, exhausted from the stress. Oxygen simply wasn't getting to his brain.

Or rather, the scene these people were making, as if they were on good terms with each other, Banri didn't see it that way, not even for a moment.

Facing each other again, they always disagreed, would get to fighting and disputing. Somehow the two of them argued just like they were brother and sister.

"Well, let's start with me, OK? Let's start by stating the end goal. Mitsuo, who is recognized in truth as my lover, should be quickly and formally engaged."

Kouko preempted him with her perfect smile. Was she bewildered? Was she bashful? Were her delicate emotions wavering? Trampled by those high heels and flushed down the toilet! To all appearances, she was as self-assured as a fortress.

"These are the proofs. Look through it in order. Starting with where we were born."

Kouko pulled a file out of her paper bag, and Yanagisawa and Banri leaned over a map of a city center so they could see it.

"Here is the Kaga home. Here is the Yanagisawa home. In a straight line it's about eight hundred meters. Close from the start. The schools were together too. The probability of our getting to know each other in public elementary school was very high. In summary, our meeting was inevitable. It was determined from the time we were born that we would meet, somewhere. And it was fated that we would get together. We were classmates from elementary school onwards."

She turned a page in the file with her beautifully painted fingernail. There was a picture, glued onto some cardboard, a caption hastily written all around it.

"This was from the entrance ceremony. We're in the same picture, both of us. We were only eight years old. We still hadn't even spoken with each other at that time. At seven years old, a picture of an outing. A patron visit... Mitsuo's parents and my parents were together. After that, an athletic meet. Eight years old, nine years old, ...always together in pictures. Look at this, summer camp in our fifth year. Mitsuo, what's with such long hair? Then, this,"

"...Just what do you want to say?"

"Listen, just look. It's the graduation from elementary school! They took a picture of the two of us. We asked somebody to take it."

"You're sure drowning in memories looking at your album and remembering again. Just what's your point with all this?"

"Because of that, it's proof!"

"Of what?"

"Mitsuo and I are bound by this legitimate proof of fate."

Even when the file was closed with a bang by Yanagisawa, Kouko didn't turn off her smile.

"What I think about Mitsuo, in truth, has not changed. I've been that way since I was little, I was always together with Mitsuo. Remember when you confessed your love in first grade? Mitsuo said it, too. I love Kooko-chan, I'll be together with Kooko-chan from now on, you said, you'll become my bride, right, you said. You really did say it. Don't you remember? It was when we gave out presents at the Christmas party in first grade. You said it on the stage, my father and mother heard it too, even grandma heard it."

"...That, in the Christmas party, wasn't that a play!? That was a well-staged dramatization, so that your parents could hear."

"Ever since then, I've always been committed to getting married to Mitsuo."

"Look, Kouko. Between us, the dating thing won't work."

"But that was something between childhood friends. Again, I don't think I especially need to explain our relationship. That is something that goes without saying. Right?"

"Perhaps when we were children, we said things like that innocently. But, that was because we really were kids. Things like that could be said. But we're no longer little kids. Being a kid, wearing a uniform, going to and from school and studying; that's different from now."

"That's right. I understand that. We've grown up. Therefore, even in our relationship, we want to bring it up to an appropriately adult level."

"...'Bringing it up' or whatever, is something else though. "Loving" as a kid, versus "loving" now. I love Mr. Giraffe, I love Mr. Elephant, I love Kooko-chan... that happy time is already over. That's something normal; understand that. I mean, you can pretend to understand, or not."

"That's not it. Our relationship, ever since we were born, by destiny, for eternity, has been absolutely perfect."

"I don't understand where you get that from. I am fed up already, really, with your presumption. Because of it, how long have I been handicapped? First year middle school. Third year middle school. Second year high school. When there was a girl I liked, you'd interfere one way or another, quarrel with her, harass her, until you'd gotten her fed up with me. You even affected my friends, making them keep their distance. Thanks to you, all the way through graduation, not one girl would associate with me. I was truly left alone. As far as everybody was concerned, Yanagisawa Mitsuo had no choice in the end but to be Kaga Kouko's."

"Fooling around is not permitted. After all,"

"So! Already, it looks like you're telling me you're fed up with it!"

Kouko having once more opened the file, Yanagisawa roughly pushed it aside. Falling from the table, photos and memo-like things were scattered by Banri's feet.

"But, ...I haven't blamed you for what's happened until now. It's the past in any case. With childhood things in general, lacking judgement I made childish mistakes, drifting along, I think. I am thinking that now you should be taking responsibility for having come to my university, and certainly for your own life. Anyway, I am just telling you clearly in advance. I have the person that I like now."

"...It's me, of course?"

"Take it however you like. It's Chinami. It seems to me that a few times now you've tried to smear her name. If you so much as trouble her, put her on the spot, hurt her feelings or pester her--- if you try to separate her from me, I will not be happy with you. I will hate you, I will hate Kouko, eternally, absolutely and perfectly to the point where it will follow you even if you transfer to a different university."

Deliberately slowly so as to be heard, Yanagisawa with his finger as if setting a rhythm, stabbed out the words.

"I'm leaving you behind."

With a sharp sound, Kouko stood up.

She looked down at Yanagisawa.

"...Why?"

Her now visibly false smile vanished once, but then returned, stiffening.

"Why? What the, why such... what's with this? I don't get you."

Yanagisawa silently looked up at the scene. Kouko was breathing in gasps, trying to maintain her expression but her lips trembling more and more as she spoke.

"But, ...but, I don't understand. Am I not special to you? Do you remember that time you had such a big backpack on? Do you remember when you'd lost out because of your handwriting? Who comforted you then? When you were chosen to be a member of the relay team for the sports day, who baked the party cake? You dropped the relay baton, didn't you? Who of all the others knew that? That time the girls came in first, and our class came in first overall. Who was the anchor of the girl's relay team? Between "Mitsuo can see me" and all the cheering, I was always such a dunce. Who ran faster than anybody else?"

"I remember."

"You do!?"

"But, it's impossible."

"Well then! ...Then, when I was born and started writing love letters, who were they to...? To who... do you know?"

Noticing that Kouko's fingers were trembling delicately where they touched the table, Banri involuntarily glanced up at her face. Looking, he saw how pale she had become. Her voice was shaking too. Even the café-au-lait bowl was rattling.

He didn't need to see this. Or rather, why was he being shown this? Banri hid his face, covering his eyes with one hand. He could only hear the trembling voice of Kouko.

"...You know this boy I've come to love since I was born, don't you? On the occasion of my ninth birthday party, the boy who took me home? When I was feeling down because I wasn't chosen to accompany on piano, the boy who for my sake brought from home an origami set? That boy... do you know him?"

"...But, it'll never happen."

"Wouldn't you know!? You were that person! The reason I was able to run so fast, the reason I want to be pretty, the one I wanted to love was you! You've always been special! To be bound to you is right! Otherwise, if it weren't so... it wouldn't be perfect! Unless I was perfect, then I would not be able to get you to love me! Then what was I to do!? So, so always, I, I've tried, perfectly... hey! Why am I not special to you!?"

Quietly raising his eyes a fraction, Yanagisawa gave Kouko a penetrating look. Banri wished he could leave. If Kouko had noticed how badly she was shaking, she probably would have gotten up and left long ago.

"Answer me! Haven't I loved you since I was little!? Wasn't I raised with you and for you!? And yet, why am I not special to you!? Why am I not even important to you!?"

"So please answer me!", she repeated over and over again, whining like a little kid, unable to listen and beginning to tremble pitifully.

Ah, no way, such a---

"...You, are you an idiot...?"

Of sympathy there was not a trace. His expression was one of anger. Yanagisawa was angry.

"I don't think you ever understood me. It was always just about you. For that reason, you don't understand!"

Standing up, pointing at her with his finger, to his tearful female childhood friend Yanagisawa spoke.

"This was a careful decision. Really and truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am doing this for you. ...I did it for you! Why don't you understand that!? Do you want to get hurt because you fail to understand something I'm telling you? You're not an irresponsible kid, so understand! In particular, don't be getting the wrong ideas just because I happen to care! I'm not going to talk about lovers, destiny or any such thing! Because in reality, it wasn't like that! We didn't even fool around, not once! That was because I cared for you! If I had not cared, then with the right atmosphere, and the right feelings, what might we have done, we could have wound up having some fun! But that I could not do! I don't think one can become happy just by doing that! Because of that, it was something I absolutely could not do! I don't want to do such a thing!"

"...Well, weelll,"

Banri couldn't look at Kouko's face.

"If I'm important... if I'm special, that... love, is something different...? Is it not permitted to include 'love'? Coming to love me, falling in love, loving one another, getting married, for eternity, speaking that way... why, can't it be? Is it not possible?"

Yanagisawa's reply was a shake of the head. Yanagisawa was crudely telling her that it would not work, the two of them together. Banri was thinking that Yanagisawa would understand just how much he was supporting Kouko. He wasn't blaming him, asking him to be flexible and not say such hard things. Because he was that sort of guy, maybe that's why he wanted to be friends.

"...Not possible...?"

A drop fell to the table.

"...This way, in spite of remembering our childhood...? Even though I'm special? In spite of that, there's no way? Then, then in short... it was my fault?"

That was how Kouko was defeated.

If she simply cried herself out, not her objectives, not her evidence, nothing would come to be more than a pile of papers.

"Because I was merely something to be despised? Then, to whatever extent you have memories, however long a time you give me in reality, there is simply no way? Could you not fall in love with me? If, if that's the case,"

In a small voice, he tried to call her. He was thinking it was time to give up. Kouko not knowing how to pull back, again sinking into depression before him, Banri wanted to hold her back. That is the reason I stayed here, he thought.

But that voice didn't seem to reach Kouko.

"If so, then I am already not needed! Always unneeded, always forgotten, done without! Made as if I never existed! If just one more thing happens to me that cannot be undone, I will be entirely gone!"

Hearing what seemed to be a scream in that voice, Yanagisawa said nothing more, rising from his seat.

Pulling his knit cap on his head nearly to his eyes, he swung open the door and went outside.

The inside of the shop suddenly went terribly quiet. He realized that the other customers all had their ears directed towards them, curious. Banri moved slightly, highly uncomfortable, when at that moment there arose the sound of Kouko gulping for air.

''Bang'', Kouko's hand struck her saucer, shaking it.

"...Just what have I done?"

Kouko watched Banri, covering her mouth. Opening her eyes, tears ran down her cheeks again, flowing down. Sorry, Tada-kun. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, so very sorry. Sitting down as if she were falling, she turned her crumpled face towards Banri, from the corners of her tightly closed eyelashes once more tears.

He was being apologized to, he understood at last. Banri searched within himself. The Banri who lived here as if nothing mattered at all, blowing up before that Banri's eyes was indiscreet, perhaps, but he wasn't hurt by Kouko's words.

"It's all right, Kaga-san."

"...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...!"

"Really, since it's OK. ...In such a time as that, you needn't worry about me."

"...Sorry, Tada-kun..."

Just now was nothing. You'll forget. You'll make it as if it hadn't happened. ---But it wasn't so easy to say that, the future being awfully difficult to manage.

<center>* * *</center>

Kouko stayed sitting there in the seat by the window.

Not knowing what else to do, Banri continued watching the tableau. The tears on her cheeks already dried, Kouko remained silent, her head hanging in shame, completely shut off from everything. Four o'clock passed, five o'clock neared, slowly outside the window it was starting to get dark,

"Good sirs, there are customers waiting for the non-smoking section..."

The café employee said to them apologetically. At last the time had come,

"It's about time we left, Kaga-san."

Banri prompted her,

"..."

Still silent, Kouko, instead of asking if they should get up and leave, went through the glass door that separated the smoking section. Bowing his head to the bewildered employee, the confused Banri followed her at once. For sure it was less crowded over here, with fewer customers and poorer ventilation, and an awful cloud of tobacco smoke and smell swirling about in the air.

"Hey, Kaga-san..."

Sliding into vacant seats,

"I thought smoking might kill you."

Distracted by Kouko's muttered words, uncomfortable smokers were looking their way.

"Err... noo, what did I say...? I didn't think such stuff was deadly, did I...?"

Having entered the smoking section with Kouko once again hanging their heads in shame, trading glances with the employees, Banri was embarrassed. If he were to order something more, would they let them stay here still? More importantly, was it all right if he stayed here still? Obviously dispirited, Kouko wouldn't want to go off by herself alone, but wasn't Banri's very presence a bother, as far as she was concerned? Perhaps what she needed was time alone to lick her wounds. If so, he wanted to disappear quickly.

Naturally, he wasn't thinking about "being needed". That she didn't require any human being apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo even Banri understood. Worrying about Kouko, and wanting to keep an eye on her, was Banri's condition. He wanted to pay more attention to her condition than to his own.

Of course, it might be that he shouldn't be here--- a feeling that sitting too long a time, an ache arising from his rear just then,

"Want a smoke? Here you go, one shot!"

A girl they didn't know sat down next to them and extended her cigarette case towards Kouko.

"You wanna die? Use this stuff and you will. At the cellular level for sure."

"This person's not twenty years old yet..."

Confused for some reason, Banri blocked it. Kouko raised her head a bit, looking curiously at the cigarette case offered to her by that mysterious person. It didn't appear to be any major brand, like Mild Seven, or Marlboro.

"Boyfriend?"

Confused, Banri shook his head rapidly back and forth. The girl, with a cynical smile twisting her lips, spoke.

"Hey. You can call me NANA."

Thinking a bit, Banri,

''Cough!''

Expelling his breath as if punched.

He remembered while he was hospitalized, forever reading the latest issues of shoujo manga. Probably overdone, a short one-length bob hair style with longer bangs, dyed jet black and a leopard print camisole. Aggressively strong makeup. Heavy leather riding jacket. Neck to fingertips jingling with excessive silver accessories. She even carried around a guitar case. Her appearance, such as it was, was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Osaki that] character.

Such cosplay... but why here and now? Chosen over other things. Such a person. Was this café some sort of power spot to draw in such strange people? The more he looked at her, the more he had to restrain himself from laughing out loud.

"You could say you, well... for me, it was something for me to see. By chance right next to me... so to speak."

He looked towards her black fingernails. In the setting of her silver ring was a skull.

"...I'm not Linda's junior. You were with Linda in high school! I'm a third year. Or rather,"

Twisting her lips so as to direct the fumes upwards as she smoked, NANA... sempai explained her surprising name.

"Linda's first given name is pronounced NANA too."

"...That, are you kidding..."

Banri was becoming overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all,

At long last, a snort came from Kouko's nose. And then from Kaga Kouko he got the same strange vibes.

"Omaken, eh? I'm fed up to here with that. The Yosakoi and such were such a pain, didn't they make me feel like I wanted to die?"

"...What about this year's Awa Odori...?", replied Banri, to which she laughed scornfully.

"Even more so time to stop. For sure. If I'm gonna die, let it be by music."

And then, thrust before them, a cheap-looking black and white flyer.

"Today at nine o'clock. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakano,_Tokyo Nakano City]. Though it's nothing more than an amateur student band, Awa Odori can die a thousand times in comparison."

"Ah, thanks... this is what they call a 'live show'... is it? But I've never been to such a thing... are you going too, NANA-senpai? Well, of course... does it seem like a typical cover band?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'cover band'. They aren't like a cover band. Cause I'm a poet. Poetry reading."

"Po, poe...? Huh...?"

"If you have this leaflet, you get two drinks. If you mention my name, you can get more. Come and die."

With a broad grin, she gave them the finger. NANA-senpai wore her character to the last, and leaving things as they were, left the shop. With only the leaflet left behind in Banri's hand, "What shall we do?", he said towards Kouko,

"Let's go and die."

Kouko plucked it from him. Her tear-reddened eyes, upset wherever they sat, desperate from having been put upon, understood.

"...If it isn't perfect, then I ought to remain broken to the end. Unlike how I've been up to now, I want to do absolutely nothing. No half measures. If I'm going to be smashed to pieces anyway, then I want to become nothing at all. I want to die!"

And then standing up, spreading their arms wide and taking deep breaths--- the people in the smoking section of course really looked like they hated them, Kouko making as if she didn't see.

"What will you do, Tada-kun? I'm going even if I have to go alone."

"...It's a date! Of course!"

Leaving Kouko like that alone was worrisome, besides, that's the way it was. If she wasn't perfect, instead falling to pieces, she would do nothing as if dying, but then she would want to be brought back to life. Banri, at least, always thought so.

<center>* * *</center>

Unable to say anything about honorable defeat while killing time nor over dinner, they went drinking at a cheap tavern afterwards.

"...W, what? Even in my thoughts it was never such a dodgy looking place..."

A little past nine o'clock, Banri and Kouko were standing before the live concert place. Trying to look inside through the entrance, Banri winced. The steps going down were dark.

Looking very much out of place, looking around nervously, she pushed on his back with both hands,

"It's OK, you'll be fine, no problems..."

Kouko made ready to go down the steps.

"Hold on, just hold on a bit more,", Banri said, planting his feet firmly in resistance. Even more than in his imagination, the real thing was considerably more hard core.

"Between dying and killing, were the fans of that student band on the same planet?", Banri was thinking. "The tension here, for the first time in my life 'live', so to speak, will eventually be over, right?" If they were to spend some time going crazy, then perhaps Kouko would unwind a little. That was the feeling he had.

However, there were no students to be seen amongst the other customers gathering around the entrance. For some reason, most were well built, like foreigners, with body piercings and tattoos seeming natural for them. They wore grim-looking riveted jackets and leather pants, had impressive figures with biceps like logs. Above their bald heads, a vapor arose from their sweat. Ordinary people appeared as fasting monks beside them, all skin and bones. Their mouths open as they stood around, they watched the petrified Banri with suspicious eyes, like buffalo-men with their huge shoulders, both tattoed with "guts" (why?) --- anyhow, everybody living in the ordinary world would never be able to meet such a variety of people as were here.

"We, we're really going...?"

He reflexively looked over towards Kouko, inquiring,

"Let's go, it's ok! It's O-K, let's go! It's all right if we goooo."

Kouko stood before him firmly, looked at him with clear eyes, and nodded like crazy.

Perhaps due to three whole hours of drinking continuously, her breath reeked of liquor. Her voice was a little slow, but for the time being she seemed the same old Kaga Kouko. Her makeup was a little smeared from crying, but otherwise to every last aspect she was perfect. "Fuu... haaa...", she sighed, though she wasn't collapsing yet, in spite of having recklessly drank virtually everything on the menu, from fruit sours to cocktails. Banri, feeling dizzy on the way, had switched to an oolong tea, but Kouko kept drinking alcohol until she was finally full. Could she hold her liquor that well?

"Hey let's gooo! Let's goo! Tada-kuun, hey, it's OK, it's O-K, it's oookaaayyy."

Almost as if she were throwing a fit, Kouko started impatiently stamping her feet. He sensed several gazes turning towards them. Not wanting to be something oddly conspicuous,

"...OK, OK, let's go for it!"

For the time being, going through the entrance looked almost like running away.

Going down the steps leading to a basement, putting his weight against the heavy door and opening it,

"Wow! So loud!"

He couldn't even hear himself shout. For the first time in his life, the live music detonating around him, it truly was an eye-opener. Shaken by the violent oscillations from his spine to his skull bones, his feet froze with instinctive fear. Kouko's eyes opened wide, she covered both her ears with her hands, and shouted things like "Kyaa!" and "Hyaa!". Even grabbing each other by the arm and getting closer, they really couldn't hear their voices.

The crowd of sweaty, hot and smelly people pushed them aside as they were leaving, but with that energy they entered all the quicker. Tossed about by the subterranean rumbling, they felt their bodies were floating. And yet here they were, still only at the reception desk. Inside the exploding storm, a pair of middle-aged people of unknown nationality were standing, as if confused, watching money being passed across the counter. So then, it's not free?

The confused Banri pulled out his wallet, and showed them the leaflet he'd received from NANA-senpai. Rather than taking his money, they gave him two drink tickets. And then, ''bam'', with some sort of stamp-like thing, they were branded on the backs of their left hands. But, anyhow, to conceal themselves somewhat, they lowered their heads a little and the two of them went further inside. If they were to stand still, they had a feeling they would wind up angry.

And then, they were overwhelmed by the most terrible noise. Finally they covered their ears, realizing it was as if their brain tissue on both sides were being pounded upon. Had the other customer's ears been destroyed already? They seemed entirely unconcerned. Only Kouko and himself seemed to be nervous country bumpkins. It was scary, really. In any case, everything was scary.

"Though Kaga-san might be okay, I'm not okay!", he said, thinking he should stick really close to his one and only companion, but Kouko was looking around restlessly, and indifferent to Banri, she tossed her bag neatly into a locker. Crouching down by the lowest step, she stuffed her bag of evidence in and then kicked the door roughly to close it. To judge by the noise, her ladyship might even have broken it. And it looked like she'd forgotten to pull out the key.

Banri hurriedly stuffed his bag in with hers, pulled the key from the locker and put it away firmly in his pocket. For some reason, Kouko was moving restlessly, twisting around. There was nothing out of place with her ladyship, but she was straining to tear her black tights in several places, making holes in them.

As Banri looked on in mute amazement, she undid her necktie and opened her blouse widely, exposing much of her chest. Removing her hairband, her hair unfurled like a lion's mane. Roughly combing her hair with her hands, the combed back hair standing up and swelling, she suddenly got a wild look in her eyes. And then she rubbed roughly around her eyes, the long-ago messed up eye shadow, mascara and such smearing to where her eyebrows disappeared.

In some ways proud of herself, she showed off her look to Banri. The normally perfect Kouko vanished, suddenly a dangerous punk rocker girl. Passing on inside, going past a row of five women with lip piercings, the atmosphere hardly changed. Arriving back at the center of the chaotic noise, nobody batted an eyelash.

"...Well then, me too..."

Kouko didn't really want to disguise him, but for the time being she just messed up his hair with her fingers too. But since his hair was as limp as cat fur, nothing came of it.

Glancing at each other's faces and nodding, they once more proceeded inside. Over towards the stage, all you could see were the backs of the spectator's heads, like waves on the surface of the ocean. Because of all the noise, not even by shouting could one be heard. Approaching the bar counter, passing their drink tickets to the bartender, they were mutely shown a plastic menu. Pointing at beer, he showed it to Kouko too. Kouko chose a Moscow Mule. They were each handed a fresh cup.

"Kaga-saan! Cheeers!"

At any rate, even if they couldn't hear, he raised his voice, Kouko shouted something too, and the two of them raised their cups to their lips.

Just then a group of people surged towards the bar, hitting Kouko firmly against the back of her head. Kouko spouted her cocktail all over Banri's face. While shouting something, she took her tie and wiped Banri's face briskly. They went back over to the bar. It was entirely drowned in the noise, Banri's ears had gone deaf, he couldn't hear anything anymore.

Leaning against the counter, Kouko got close to the bartender's ear and said something as loud as she could. Her torn tights peeking from beneath her miniskirt, she raised her heel and shook her high-heels. Disheveled, half of her beauty was hidden by her wild hair. While feasting his eyes on her, he noticed a big guy with tattoos all over his upper body approaching Kouko. Banri, though a powerless knight (his finishing move was to lie down and play dead), looked ready to rush over in heroic resignation when,

"Tsuzaaeeeenja, neeeeeeooo! Uruuuaaaaaaaaaaa!"

---Between the songs, several seconds of silence, just like an air pocket. Wrung out from Kouko's throat came a howl, as if from the earthbound ghost of a female cat which had died in a particularly cruel manner.

That voice. No, that face. Her disheveled hair starting to flap against her cheeks, her large eyes bordered in pitch black glaring and glittering wet. Is this how a wounded beast feels? Really, you look like you fit in this place, Kaga-san... Banri reflexively gasped.

Rebuffing the tattooed man, she took four cups in her two hands and suddenly struck a pose while turning back towards him. Twisting her narrow waist left and right, she said "Aha☆", her whole face a smile. Giving an obvious wink, she returned to Banri's side. Her white chest swelled outwards, restrained by her tight vest. The shadow was terribly bewitching.

Really drunk she is, this person.

For a good while now, deeply drunk, even more than he thought. Even deeper than she seems to be, looking at her.

"Ka, Kaga-san, wait a sec, though it's late, is this really OK!? Aren't you drinking an awful lot!? I mean... wow, that's loud!"

With what seemed like an explosion of source, they started singing loudly once more, and while he started to crumble from the knees up again, Banri shakily extended his cup towards Kouko. Kouko was shouting out, "NANA-senpai", or something. And with a smile, she drank up the contents of one cup. "Oh...", unintentionally having watched over Banri, she fluttered her hand as if to say "Drink drink!"

Banri too, if that's how it was going to be, bringing it to his lips,

"...Buhaa!"

This time, Kouko's face got sprayed. "Gyahaa!", Kouko's face dripping while she clapped her hands and bent over double, laughing uproariously. But that wasn't all. His throat burned, his nose was sore. He was dizzy. His ears hadn't been able to hear anything for a long time. It was as if his five senses were entirely paralyzed. "What's going on!?", Banri staggering as he tried frantically to support his body with his own two feet. Up to this point he'd drunk such things as beer, sour, highballs, and so on, but definitely not sake. And strong sake this was, like fire.

Kouko's face seemed unconcerned, gulping down the same stuff. "But, drink up, I suddenly feel as tired as a stone!", sitting down.

"Whoa Kaga-san! Be careful, very careful! I mean, what, what was that!?"

Confused, while taking her hands and trying to help her stand up, he looked back towards the bartender. While the bartender lady was using the same kind of cup to give something to drink to a customer, she stuck out her tongue at Banri and Kouko. Doing two things at once, the odd glittering must have been from her piercings.

Banri finally arrived at the conclusion that perhaps it might be better if they just left. With everything to this point, she might have unwound enough, and already it seemed about the right time for her highness.

"Kaga-san, let's go already! Eh!? Kaga-san!? Kaga Koukoo!? You're not here!"

When he turned around, Kouko wasn't there, and he looked around in confusion. Cup in one hand, he staggered around, looking through the gaps between the other spectator's backs for long hair.

"Just a second, just a second! Hold on, wait!"

On the stage three guys were waving chainsaws around. The tiresome fellow playing the drums was sneaking out, looking down his nose at it all. As if spurred on by that atrocious noise, the spectators on the completely-filled floor raised their fingers high, jumping up and down, in spite of the disdainful look, raging for unknown reasons. Kouko was rapidly heading into the middle of all that.

"Ka, Kaga-saan! Wait! Hold on!"

Banri shouted, his voice quickly swallowed up. On the stage the maniacs were jumping up and down to make things even crazier, then jumping down hard on the heads of the spectators below. Or rather, falling down. Between the hands of the crazy ones, their unforgiving faces and slamming into their heads, Banri was making no progress at all.

"Miiiitsuuuuoooo is a fooooolllll<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"Scram", shouted Kouko in a slurred voice, trying to climb up on to the stage over the skinheads in the front row. Her shoes were long gone. And then,

"I'mmmm going to diieeee<nowiki>~~~~~~</nowiki>! Ugyaaaaaaa<nowiki>~~~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"You've got to be kidding, this is the end.", said Banri, beginning to give up.

Welcomed by the chain saw squad as if she were their queen, Kouko dumped the contents of her cup over her own head. She threw away the cup, stuck out her tongue, and gave the finger with both hands. She threw her head back as she were stabbing with all her might at the heavens. The cheers shook the ground. The focus of the drummer's eyes, Kouko's miniskirt, was dangerously near her butt, and in a moment, all at once the problems increased. Her bra was black. Just a fleeting glimpse of her chest was seen. And then, both hands lifting up even higher, her neck and her chattering knees, that... that, was C-3PO's pose!

Banri climbed up, as if he were jumping on people's backs with his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Purcell Jack Purcells]. He went towards the stage. Not quickly enough to stop Kouko, that just wasn't possible.

Sopping wet, bathed in sake from the head down, Kouko inspired the band to dance like robots. For just such a moment, even their rhythm was chopped up. The chainsaws growled more and more violently. Any time now, it seemed he would be able to jump to midstage with a running start. Banri barely managed to reach the stage. Stretching out his hand to jump,

"Kaga-san, don't, don't!"

He grabbed Kouko's wrist.

He put his weight into it, all at once, taking her by one hand. His body was drawn close.

He had a feeling such a thing had happened before. Even before, even that before...? The crowd was just like--- around dawn, at the river water's surface.

If he were to fall, he would die. Die completely.

"I'm scared------------------!"

Crying like a child, shamefully, who was it? Me? Kaga-san?

---Banri!

"..."

Kouko's eyes were looking at Banri.

Standing his ground, Banri also looked at Kouko.

Had somebody been calling him like this? With all the alcohol, it felt like flames dancing around, spinning inside his head. Sparks whirled about, everything he felt, everything he saw, anything and everything, just like that caught fire. What was it? How many things, in a hurry, without time, are burned, vanish and are lost? No way! Already he was truly lost, not understanding. Since he did not understand, he didn't want to hear anything more. From the beginning, it would have been good for him to not have existed.

Ah, so it was.

Always, nothing but loss---.

"Tada, kun...?"

Kouko was murmuring in a small voice. ...Murmured, sort of, her mouth could be seen moving. Their hands were still joined, the moment seeming to stand still, but,

"If you're going to die, then die quickly, you idiots. This stage is mine."

Jabbed forcefully in the lower back, Banri was pushed off the stage. And of course, Kouko together with him.

As they quickly fell down, with the guitar used to poke Banri in one hand, NANA-senpai could be seen with the mike in hand, grinning like a demon.

At the front entrance, Banri collapsed.

Stepping over the collapsed Banri, creeping down the unlit corridor, groping for the bathroom, Kouko could be heard entering.

"Are you okay...?"

"..."

Instead of a reply, one more time. Bravely.

Kicking off his shoes to get them off, still unable to stand, he somehow managed to enter the room, following the wall. His hands had gone completely numb. Supporting Kouko, he had walked here all the way from the place of the concert.

Falling to the floor with a thud, he rolled over on to the rug. The sound of the water pouring, the sound of the toilet flushing. And still he groaned, painfully.

Feeling a random pain where he sat, it felt like something was there. Sticking his hand in his pocket, out came the key to the locker.

"...Ah... we did it... the stuff in the locker, we left it, didn't we... hey, Kaga-san, again, we forgot something..."

There was no reply.

To block his feelings he covered his ears, drawing himself inside, and unnoticed, Banri's eyes seem to have closed.

<center>* * *</center>

When he woke up, he felt vague.

Still lying on the rug, he felt so heavy he only lifted his eyelids. The world was still in middle night, and in the room light did not penetrate; it was dark.

Kouko was in a corner of the dark room.

Leaning her back against Banri's bed, sitting on the floor, she looked outside through the door-wall. She was crying.

Elbow propped on a partially raised knee, chin in one hand, the other hand combing her bangs, the light from outside the window illuminated her cheek, tears running down it. Her throat sounding hoarse, her nose running, the fingers of the hand supporting her chin twisting her lips, Kouko kept on sobbing.

Even though Banri was waking up, she probably didn't notice. Just one person, huddled in the deeps of solitude, not caring what others see, that figure still crying defenselessly, marvelously, looked rather like a young boy.

In other words, just like me, Banri thought.

Though nobody should be crying aloud like that in this room, it felt as if here were split entirely in two, and he were watching himself cry.

Long ago, perhaps he had cried like this, what he was seeing on the other side of the room. This he knew: this had happened. Such feelings had come over him.

Like a pale, thin film covering the corner of his vision, just then,

"'Re'...?"

A faint glimmer, a mysterious single syllable came to mind.

When he raised his shoulder, a towel-blanket fell down. Kouko must have draped it there. Kouko, at Banri's voice, raised her tearful face as if taken aback.

"...Just now, what did you say...?"

By what was certainly the voice of a little girl, Banri's strange dream was quickly destroyed.

"...Said..."

"...You said 're'."

"...Your hand. Look..."

Banri pointed at the back of Kouko's hand. Bending her wrist and looking at the back of her hand, "This?", she said hoarsely. There was a faintly glimmering fluorescent yellow 're' symbol there.

"Ah. You too..."

At Kouko's word, he tried looking at the back of his own hand. For sure, the same 're' glimmered faintly. Was that so? Was it the stamp from the reception desk at the concert place? To make it easier to recognize in the darkness at reentry time, it was of fluorescent paint. "Now I see", Banri started to nod his head.

"I mean... why 're' of all things..."

"Who knows..."

Without a single sound in the room, the two of them stared at their respective 're's for a little while.

Were they able to think quietly this way because it was the dead of night? Was it because they were barely breathing? Or, was it because their ears had been beaten down by that awful noise? ...That, probably.

"..."

Staring at the back of her hand, it seemed she would start sobbing again. Was the syllable [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#'Re'|'re']] a switch that had enabled all of her grief? Re... Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to 're'staurants? Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to pick 'le'mons? Would they watch a 're'ntal DVD, would they ecstatically dance the [http://okami.neoseeker.com/wiki/Renjishi 'Re'njishi], or zap eggs on the 'ra'nge---

"Kaga-san... are you okay?"

"...Sorry. I was thinking about Mr. Two Dimensions just now."

"W, what? That's surprising... I mean, that doesn't have anything to do with 're', right?"

"No. There's no connection. Something Mr. Two Dimensions said, I suddenly remembered it... then, I started crying again."

Turning a sort-of smiling but tear-stained face towards Banri, Kouko straightened her legs and sat down neatly.

Leaning her back against the bed, she slowly tilted her head back, as if it were quite heavy.

"Mr. Two Dimensions will not become Mr. One Dimension. He seems he said that to get things right, to his own satisfaction, that he would have to create his own dream girl. As for me, while hearing that as half joking, I thought we were somewhat kindred spirits. 'I want to be bound to a perfect companion with a perfect scenario'... saying that he and I are going for the same thing, I thought. But Mr. Two Dimensions, since he's what they call an 'otaku' boy, he works in the world of literary creation. Since I'm not an otaku-ish girl, I work in reality. That's different from a simple preference in hobbies, I thought. Enjoying himself in creating fiction, Mr. Two Dimensions is still rather childish, even, it seems. But, ...its not like that, is it?"

Combing her disheveled hair as if it were a nuisance, while looking up at the ceiling, in a low voice she continued talking.

"He was always more mature than I, an adult. That was how I understood him to be. Apart from me, nobody can imagine stuffing the perfection I dream of into their bodies. In the real world, it cannot be done. The world, in it's own selfish way, cannot do it. What would human relationships become if they were forced to be so? ...For Mr. Two Dimensions, or rather, a person barely come of age, assuming he has that sort of understanding, would be able to enjoy talking about it. In spite of my being of the same year, because I'm an idiot, there is sooo much that I don't understand. I don't understand why Mitsuo doesn't like me as I am. From the very start, I haven't understood how one can say, "I have not been able to make my dreams come true."

That hurt a lot.

All of it.

Still looking up at the ceiling, still crying, Kouko's voice could be heard awfully, painfully blocked.

"Mitsuo, did he not say that I matter to him? 'Because I cannot have happiness, I cannot love either.' Didn't he say something like that?"

"Yeah... he did, didn't he? I think so."

"After hearing that, I got to thinking. I had never thought whether or not Mitsuo would be happy. I had simply been chasing Mitsuo around saying I loved him. But, could you say that I was really thinking about Mitsuo's well being? I had never respected Yanagisawa Mitsuo as a human being, as an existence in reality. My goals were all that mattered. ...Perhaps I failed to understand that he had a life, an existence. It might be that I was treating him as no more than one of the characters in my own world."

As if she were grasping at nothing, Kouko reached out her left hand in the darkness. The 're' waved in the air.

"Crying like this, getting hurt like this--- my obsession is to blame. This... ugly... obsession. ...The Mitsuo whom I love must love me. I would not accept that the one I love does not love me back. I would not accept that I am worthless. I would never recognize, never accept my being so. "Tell me... Tell me it isn't so... Tell me that I'm not worthless!" Saying such, I was only pushing the responsibility on to Mitsuo. Nonetheless, it was actually me who could neither accept nor forgive myself. I was arbitrarily judging my worth by whether Mitsuo loved me or not. Unfortunately, I had set things up that way. ...What I did to Mitsuo for a very long time was wrong."

Panting, Kouko continued, "but it took me a long time to realize that." Whether she was crying or smiling, Banri could no longer tell the difference. Still, her breathing was making a lot of noise in the darkness.

"...Well, is that not so? Everybody, to some extent, has such feelings, don't you think?"

While looking at his own 're', Banri was trying carefully to speak gently, to seem as optimistic as possible. Whether he managed to console her or not he did not know, but that was the idea that came to him right then.

"...As I am now, I agree, but then again, for whom would it not be very difficult normally? I think it's hard! Being imperfect myself, if I were not to face it myself, I would cease to be, so to speak. Wouldn't nearly anybody want to look away? ...At least, I am like that."

I am like that.

Having put it into words, looking away from reality and being surprised, his own form all at once came sharply into focus. That person, 120 pounds of meat, was stretched out on the rug.

His breath was catching, but if he went silent here,

"I have a really hard time noticing it when I am rejected."

Now, making a speech to Kaga Kouko, he found that he had averted his eyes from his own form.

As if staring off into the darkness, Kouko was looking at Banri's face.

"'Rejected'... by whom? A person like Tada-kun, was rejected by somebody?"

"...Those the old Tada Banri knew. The old Tada Banri was thought well of by many people. His family and so on. I think it can't be helped, though, but... of course it hurts, and so, I cannot return home. They don't even understand. My parents, are even now waiting for the 'real Banri' to return and say, 'I'm home!' Because my current self, however I am introduced, I get this feeling of 'that isn't him.' That at any moment, the real son, Tada Banri himself, just like that, will return to them---"

Bringing up her knees, it was almost the old Kouko sitting there, resting her elbow on her knee. She propped her chin with her hand. Every time she talked, her head rocked back and forth.

"---It seems to me as if they were wishing for my current self to disappear, as if he had died."

With what he was putting into words, in the bottom of his heart, deeply submerged and unseen, his grief was coming into view, very quickly and clearly taking shape.

He didn't want to say he was afraid, he didn't want to see even one such word leak out of him.

"In truth all along, I haven't been able to avoid being scared, really scared! My personality, so easily vanished, at any time could easily return to me, right? After all, if I were cured, wouldn't my current self just die? Myself, dying... wouldn't everybody else be happy? What with myself, staying myself, wouldn't everybody feel forever dejected? Myself, myself in such a world, what's the word, pr, ...predicament, nowhere else, nothing, you could say,"

"Being dejected like that, stop it!"

...That was dangerous. Really.

If Kouko had not spoken up so strongly, who knows what may have happened to the rage that had been welling up inside him, which now turned to tears, overflowing from his eyes.

"I’m stopping! I stopped. Absolutely."

Wiping roughly at the back of his hand, he noticed Kouko sitting up straight in the darkness.

"Well, if Tada-kun were to disappear entirely, ...this evening was a disgrace, for me, for us. I want to keep a night like that a secret. Wouldn't it be better not to tell anybody? Nobody else! Not in this life, nor anywhere, nobody but Tada-kun! Nobody at all."

"..."

"Shall we? So we shall. Really!"

"Ah,"

---Thank you. Kaga-san.

Rescued, Banri rubbed his eyes with his fingers as if he were still lost.

"So, don't disappear. Don't die either. Don't be afraid of such things. They aren't going to happen! Because I, absolutely, will not forget Tada-kun. And then for me, for myself, who was a fool, who was ashamed, for me who could not help myself this evening, for me who only once this spring---"

With a single sob, Kouko took a deep breath, for reasons he did not understand.

"Whatever happens, don't forget me...!"

Still not understanding, this moment was ending.

"...I won't forget! I simply cannot forget. How could I forget? As for myself, well,"

As the words came out, Banri was thinking of something else.

"Kaga-san, I love you!"

Even if it were remembered, even if it were forgotten entirely. The results were always the same.

Having moved too quickly, he could not go back. Today, in this moment already, never again.

At the very same instant, he was being born and he was dying. No matter how important it was, no matter how he wanted to stop ahead of time, it all was lost equally. In fact, nobody could change things.

But, for that very reason,

"...I love you! Kaga Kouko. Really."

She was dear to him.

Kouko opened her eyes wide, the 're' on her hand covering her mouth. It sure was, though Banri also. It was a big surprise. Absolutely safe, they said, and suddenly it was a thing neatly and completely cut as if by a razor.

But, he loved Kouko.

However it happened, Banri loved Kouko. In his head and in his heart, if he were to notice, he was full, full of Kouko. He was full to bursting. Nothing but an awkward, klutzy, beautiful woman, every day he was thinking of her. Without realizing it, he had become like this.

And then, if he could, he wanted Kouko to become so too. He wanted her to think only of him. It didn't have to be today. Someday would be fine.

"...Saying such things. To confess on a night like this, that wasn't very honest of me. Sorry."

Dragging along his towel-blanket, Banri placed himself as far away from Kouko as he could. Making it to the wall, he sat down with his knees up once more.

Dumped, then on the same day getting drunk and going to a guy's place, then that guy saying he loved you. So cliché. Such a dangerous situation. He figured Kouko must be scared.

He threw his feet and hands out feebly, since he had not the spirit to take advantage of this night, and it was his intention to make an easy to understand appeal.

"Though I'm not speaking of forgetting, nor any such thing. Nor was it my intention to pretend nothing had happened. ...About what just happened, I don't think you are suddenly going to forget about Yana-ssan. I mean, it's all right if you turn me down for now. Ah, though that wouldn't be pleasant. ...Anyhow, there's tomorrow."

"T, tomorrow...!? Tomorrow!? What!?"

"Don't we have to pick up our stuff? It's probably in the locker where we left it. Don't you remember?"

"B, bags...!? Eh!? We did!?"

"Yes, we did. I mean, didn't we leave the stuff behind when we escaped the whole mess? How about that for fate?"

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Kouko,

"...If you call it that... yeah, something, over again. About the same thing. But still rather nice, ...should be fun for me."

Little by little, she began to laugh into the darkness with a softly shaking voice.

"Whatever we left, it looks like it'll be okay in the end. It seems we're unexpectedly sturdy. I mean, we only lost our shoes. Again, in fact!"

Her voice had gone rough from crying, but nonetheless Kouko kept on laughing. She got Banri laughing too. Wanting to cry, wanting to laugh, his chest hurting, he was scratching his head in confusion. Touching the tip of his nose, his bangs were too long.

Perhaps they were waving for Kouko.

But, as for himself, loving her was not something he could stop.

But even if they could not be lovers, being friends would be good, to pass time together.

And so--- after this again, how many things had they left behind? He wondered how many things they had left behind, how many times had the two of them fallen down? It didn't matter. He wanted to be with Kouko even so. That being so, he loved Kouko. Thinking on that, Banri smiled once more.

How many moments he could spend with her he did not know, though all of them were surely going to shine brilliantly.

So they could shine, she had been born. If he were to blurt out something like that, as if joking, now it might honestly be believed.

"...It's about that time, isn't it? The first train will be leaving shortly, Kaga-san, so you can get back. I could walk you to your place! Won't the others there be worrying about you? Have you called?"

"It's okay. I'll take a taxi back."

"Do you want to take a shower? I swear on my life I won't peek through the keyhole!"

"I said it's okay. Though we were a disaster, I won't contaminate the taxi seat. Really, thank you. Excuse me."

"For what?"

"For a lot of things, for everything. ...Really, it's okay, down this street, then I'll be able to catch a taxi. I'll be fine by myself, for sure."

Before Banri could begin to get up, Kouko looked all around her, mumbling about her bag. And then, brushing her long hair from her face in annoyance,

"That so? It got left behind."

"Tomorrow evening, let's go pick it up together! I mean, together we can go down there."

"It's okay, it's okay! I can go by myself!"

"Why? I'm not going to do anything. I was only going with you to the taxi stop! While we're at it, I want to go by convenience store. Ah, I feel like getting some ice cream."

"Go to the convenience store tomorrow! ...With how we look after today's disaster, I absolutely don't want to be seen in the light!"

"Since I've already seen enough unpleasant stuff, I'm fine. Besides, it's a bit late for that, what with that C-3PO act on the stage."

"Ewww! No way!"

For Kouko it was indeed a bit late, covering both ears and keening. Just like that, she trotted across the room, heading for the entrance. Chasing after her in confusion,

"Hold up, hold up, hold up! Put these on!"

In a corner by the entrance some convenience store sandals were lying, jumbled together. He tried to turn on the lights, but Kouko cried, "No no no!", and in order to escape she flew out the entrance door and was gone.

"See you tomorrow! I'll absolutely see you here!"

Called like that even, it didn't look too bad. Reluctantly, he intently watched Kouko get on the elevator from his door, and once it started down he went over to the veranda.

Kouko came out the entrance, dragging the sandals as she turned towards the sidewalk. On the roadway, redly lit by the free taxi sign, just one taxi waited. She got on that one.

Banri, pulling in his head with a feeling of relief, he nonetheless noticed that Kouko could be seen looking up from the taxi window. Of course she looked, or something like that he understood, but Banri calmly waved to her. He wondered if she saw it. He decided she hadn't.

<center>* * *</center>

The topic of the day--- you cannot deny the signs, he thought.

As he walked, gazing out at the scenery, a tea plantation spread out before him, fluffy green domed stripes continuing into the distance, Banri was thinking. It smelled strongly of manure. "Hmm, what I see, what's that?", the tall electric fans for protection against frost looked down upon him, noticing and investigating him.

And then, afterwards, unable to stand it any longer, escaping--- because they were there.

He took Hikari from Tokyo station to Shizuoka, arriving in under an hour. After taking a breather at the Starbucks by the transfer gate, he took JR who knows more stations. His home station's monument: a tea bush disguised as an onion top. Apart from that, everything around the place seemed to say "tea".

To get home took not quite two hours. Some people do a lot of commuting, to school or to work, in their worlds, perhaps. A season ticket for the bullet train cost money, and Banri was on an allowance. In truth, he didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, he wanted out of the house, and that was the reason he gave Kouko.

"THE Shizuoka", so called, felt like walking through a tea plantation, some building's eaves extending out, trying to be seen as a town.

He entered a lane deeply shadowed by fruit trees, through an open gate and went to open the door. It was unlocked.

"...I'm hooome..."

Speaking of remembering, he was already remembering.

"This is home!", he'd been told, and since for one year he lived there, the memories of that time had already given him the feeling it was "home".

He was taking off his shoes so he could surprise his mother when she came out,

"...What are you doing!?"

"I had some free time, and for some reason I came back here."

"Eh!?"

She stared in wonder at the son who had suddenly come back from Tokyo for no particular reason.

He only had enough for one way of the round trip... that was Banri's real reason for coming, but mother didn't care in the least.

By the morning after his confession to Kouko, he was feeling acutely embarrassed, remembering it. They'd arranged to meet up that evening, but he had no idea what they could have talked about if they did. In the how many hours until the evening, he didn't even know what to do to make it a lively occasion.

If that's the way it is, then let's go home, he thought. Going home for a bit, until the evening time would certainly cease to flow, the wait filled with conversation. Frankly, they talked too much. Though he didn't feel the need to run away from the memories of last night, at least for the moment he was able to escape from living alone.

And besides, afterwards, there was one more thing.

"I haven't eaten aaanything since morning. I wanna eat something."

"Why so sudden? If you're coming back, then call and tell me you're coming back! I'm going over to Grandma's place to work in her garden this afternoon! Since you're back, you want to come too? The season has just arrived, and it's a real mess over there."

"It's okay, I'll pass. Today's just a visit. I've got things to do this evening."

"Eh? What's that? Is that so?"

Having asked for food, and having said a few things to butter up his mom, he went up to his second-floor room.

There was something he thought he ought to look at.

Throwing his small solitary bag on the bedspread, he had no choice but to open the room's closet, filled with one year's worth of memories. Having taken to his new home only plain clothing, his high school uniform was hanging there, placed neatly in order. His mother had done that, of course.

He then pulled out a cardboard box. Pulling it out on the floor, he ripped off the tape and opened it. A broken cell phone and a high-school graduation album, stored away as remembrances, perfectly preserved.

How many hours before?

In the quiet of his home, he'd received a text from Kouko. The message, perhaps because of the tension of the morning, maybe due to the hangover, was awfully long. In that place, such a sentence it was.

'Thinking about things like being rejected, refusing Tada-kun would be pretty much the same thing.'

Reading it, he did not understand it right away.

He considered it for a while, thinking. Almost certainly he had to another person--- the Banri from before knew many people, perhaps that Banri had rejected someone, so to speak.

That he had lost all his memory of the time when he was living in this room was a pain he could not avoid. He even worried that people might try to come over. But, being unable to remember hurt, and Banri completely refused to tell his mother. He didn't want them to come and meet him. He didn't want to make contact with them. He didn't even consider getting his cell phone repaired, so he would be found by those from before. And then he left home, as if he were escaping.

I've died, he thought, and wanted to forget.

Being lost, for the second time and knowing there was something big he could not get back, was scary.

Setting the self he had never known aside, he picked up an album from where it was stashed in the cardboard box.

He wasn't perfect--- something large had been broken in him. That sort of thing was hard to accept. For the moment perhaps, he couldn't do anything.

But, he wanted to change.

Being rejected hurts. Not being accepted hurts. Looking at pain directly hurts. By the recognition of that pain, first of all, accept the way you are now, he thought.

Even though he'd not been required to in the time he'd lost, if anything was accomplished by the birth of this self, he wanted to make that time important. That is to say, you cannot help but do it. So he thought.

From now on, if he met somebody, even somebody he'd met in the past, even himself, whomever it might be, he did not want to reject them.

For that reason, he opened the album. He needed just a little bit of courage. When first he opened the album cover, a strange, light sound came out.

"...Whaa..."

When he immediately saw his own face in it's proper place in the picture, a smiling class portrait, he gasped a little. Third year, class 4, Tada Banri. Tenth in the line.

He traced his fingertip slowly over his unknown self, and his unknown classmates' faces. He still had a feeling of dread towards what he had felt, but could no longer recall. He suppressed those feelings; he wanted to know who they were. He wanted to become able to.

But, his heart was beating fast.

To the front and down the line from the unknown Tada Banri, the person photographed giving a peace sign. The fifteenth person in the line.

Hayashida Nana.

"...Eh?"

From inside the album, a bunch of Polaroid photos had slipped out. Picking them up, he examined them. Quite a few of them were scribbled on, in bold letters. On one, in a different handwriting, "Banri's an idiot, nearly", was written. The two in the picture were messing around, looking at each other cross-eyed. "You've forgotten even your graduation!!!", was scribbled around the picture's edge.

"Linda passed on to college, Banri got held back.", was all else that was written.

There were pictures of just the two of them. In the classroom, in the gymnasium, on the grounds, in clubrooms, in uniform, in jerseys, smiling widely, even the fillings in their teeth showing, and a long wooden bridge.

Smiling, cheek to cheek.

"...Wh, what...? What the heck...? ...Linda-senpai...?"

Remember, don't forget!

Did Linda say something like that?

He stood up.

His socks slipping on the flooring as he took off running from his room,

"Banri!? Isn't your ramen boiling!? Where're you going!?"

"Hold on! Hold on, lemme see..."

As he pulled on his shoes, what he understood,

"To the bridge!"

The bridge wasn't very far from the house. Not entirely understanding yet, he searched for something as he ran. Just what he was looking for still didn't yet know. "Still, if I don't go...", he thought. He ran and he looked. If there was something he had to do there, something he had to get, whatever it was he wanted it. It struck him that he wanted nothing but to do that.

There was a paved path from amongst the mountains, so you could ride down. At such times he thought, "I've gotta get a scooter license, I really do." As he was passing by, he saw to the side a red banner on which was written, "The Entrance for the Seven Gods of Good Luck."

Before long, the long, long bridge came into view before him.

"...What, how ridiculous...!?"

It hurt to breathe. Gasping, he started to cross the bridge. This was the bridge from which Banri fell. What on earth happened at that time, nobody knows. Since the Banri in question had forgotten, and not even the police really knew.

"...Linda-senpai... How could it be...!?"

Show me, please, he muttered. Why, were you next to me? You, who are you? To me, what, what are you? Why don't you talk with me any more?

Passing the midpoint of the bridge, suddenly his feet stopped. Exhausted, he began to collapse.

"...What is this weird sound...!?"

Oddly cloying, the suggestive feeling brought by the ringing of the bell echoed unexpectedly amongst the mountains. Iya<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, boka<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>n, ufu<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, with such a mood. The ringing of the bell--- who did it?

Dizziness took him to his knees. He clung to the guardrail. So as not to look down, he closed his eyes. It might have been a hangover. Unable to stand up, Banri covered his face with his hand. Dizzily, his feet shook. No, was it the bridge that was shaking?

It was at that moment.

While the idiotic bell was sounding, on this bridge, he realized he was hearing the sound of many feet running towards him.

Reflexively he looked up, and then, he saw a bunch of people passing by. He saw the form of the lead runner. The guy saw him too. He was looking fixedly at Banri's face, his jaw slack, looking like a fool.

That guy---

"Banri!"

Is that me?

Calling his name, grabbing him by the elbow, was that Linda?

What, what's this? What the heck is going on? To resist the dizziness, as if his brain were being spun around, he bit his lip. Mumbling, he felt thick-headed and slow, as if he were anemic.

Opening his eyes once more, it was just the bridge still, continuing on. There was nobody else. He couldn't hear the bell anymore. ...Was it a dream, maybe? Was it an aftereffect of his accident? Was his head somehow going funny? Or was it simply from his hangover? Or, was he just misinterpreting something he had seen?

Coming back to his senses, in his back pocket his cell phone was vibrating.

'Banri?'

"''Yana''-ssan..."

'What's with you, where are you? Out? Something I, today in some free time... I mean, I'd like to talk a bit. About yesterday, various things... could we do that?'

"...I'm... not here..."

"Huh? What? I can't hear you very well."

A dying cherry tree by a dry river bed, a big sky. The voices of friends. A long bridge. A strong breeze. Other than Banri, there was no one else on the bridge.

Only Banri stood there now, alone, standing still amongst the scenery. In the middle of reality, existing. The ramen was boiling, his mother was getting frustrated, in such a moment he existed.

If he were able to recognize it as it was, he could perhaps forever be at peace.

<center>* * *</center>

Tada Banri was looking at Linda.

The sports science lecture suddenly getting cancelled, amongst the students hurriedly breaking up, he spotted Linda's form. Linda noticed Banri's gaze too, and waved, "See you, Tada Banri." While Banri gazed at that face, he could not move. There was so much he wanted to ask her. But he could not. Not knowing her reason for keeping the secret, he didn't know what he did and didn't know. Wanting to ask her, "What? Do you have something?", Banri kept on looking at Linda's face still.

A beautiful girl, her long beautiful hair carefully done, was looking at the back of Banri's head. Her name is Kaga Kouko.

At Kouko's profile, with a complicated look, but hiding so as not to be discovered, a slightly sunburnt guy was watching. His name is Yanagisawa Mitsuo.

Behind Mitsuo, having noticed earlier where he was looking, a girl was thinking about whether or not to call out to him. Her name is Oka Chinami.

Though the familiar faces were present, though he had not taken sports science, another guy had come into the classroom. His name was Satou Takaya.

Passing through the background, like a dark shadow there was a woman. Her name, of course, is NANA.

My name is Tada Banri.

I've died, an eighteen year old boy.

Unnoticed by anyone, without anybody knowing, I've always watched after Tada Banri's affairs. I see everybody's affairs.

I'm sitting in the first seat behind, taking it easy, legs stretched out. Today the sunlight is really strong, and the classroom is warm, making everybody sleepy. While staring at the boring back of Banri's head, I find my eyes are closing by themselves. I'm getting awfully sleepy.

For now --- black-out.

:The End

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| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Postscript|Postscript]]
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Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5

2013-11-12T08:33:11Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 5==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 5==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 198.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri has spotted me.

Being made fun of in a strangely confused moment in time while that long-missed seductive bell was ringing, while gasping in pain, Banri certainly saw me that day. And I saw him too.

The present and the past connecting in the middle of that bridge, Banri and I, our eyes met for only a moment. Mine, or possibly Banri's, maybe both side's mistake in vision, a bad guess, an accidental misunderstanding, a mysterious illusion, a common daydream, what he thought didn't matter. Nothing mattered.

Anyway, the memory of that moment in my past certainly exists. This phenomenon, whatever you might call it, as far as I'm concerned, is real.

<center>* * *</center>

Serenely, Kouko said she was trying to collect the objective facts.

"To summarize them, Mitsuo and I are bound by fate. That is to say, it's been proven over and over again."

With a thump, she put a big paper bag from a department store, packed full of stuff, on the table in front of Banri. The table shaking and creaking from the weight, an older gentleman next to them, an espresso in one hand, briefly looked towards them. "Excuse me...", Banri bowing his head in a working class sort of way.

A little before three in the afternoon, walking from campus a short distance to the café--- which had now become outrageously memorable, the shop where they served café-au-lait in bowls. Thinking that perhaps they shouldn't go there a second time, they peeked into other cafes but found them completely full, and they finally settled down here, where they thought they might be able to have a quiet conversation.

"If I can pile up enough objective truth before his eyes, I think even Mitsuo would not be able to avoid his responsibility. ...And you could say, being a little law-school-ish would be good right now, eh?"

Holding her bowl in both hands, sipping café-au-lait as if it were soup, Kouko could be seen smiling.

Taking his bowl in both hands like she was, Banri stared at her.

"...I couldn't get out even though I'd had enough of the lecture."

As if asking "What was that?", Kouko raised one of her beautifully cared-for eyebrows and looked back at Banri's eyes.

Between deep red lips, a line of pure white teeth. Smooth cheeks. The skin about her eyes was stretched smoothly. From her slim fingers, neatly manicured, to the line from her hips to her crossed legs, she was perfect in every way. Calmly returning her café-au-lait bowl to its saucer, she looked out the window, elegantly composed.

Since that "worst day", when they'd escaped their awful situation, four days had passed. Having taken a break, it seemed that Kouko had gotten back on her feet. However.

"Well then, Kaga-san, are you really feeling better now? With how you were feeling Wednesday and all, not attending and looking like you were going to fail the class! All the first years but you have been getting perfect attendance."

"I just had to have a little time. Alone, by myself, thinking. And I arrived at a conclusion that of course I did the right thing. It wasn't a mistake. It was just right. ...As long as I keep to my plans, things will have to work out!"

Finally up to the task, even if only in front of Banri, as if acting the part of "the Perfect Kaga Kouko", she slowly raised her chin and smiled with her whole face. He could not discover even one flaw, not one spot on her creamy white throat.

With Kouko at long last back to school, just like that, Banri was even more high spirited than he had been worried before.

Wounded by Yanagisawa's cold attitude, confused by Chinami's entry into the fray, and along the way, embarrassed by Omaken, he had felt that she must certainly have been feeling down. Those four days, Banri had been really worried about Kouko. The day before, he had even called out to Linda when he spotted her in the lobby, and while leaving out the details, consulted with her about what to do about Kouko.

Banri said to Linda, "She seems to be lost, because she's so clumsy at it she's ashamed to join Omaken. Pressuring her won't do any good. But, it would be boring without a partner.", nodding to her. She replied, "If Kouko was so inclined, of course they would be happy, she would always be welcome, and it's OK if she's a bit confused up until when she agrees to join." Simply calling Kouko his partner, just that much was making Banri feel strangely embarrassed.

"What were you thinking about? There's no mistaking Mitsuo and I are bound together, just not completely yet. There's proof, such that nobody can evade, perfect proof."

Kouko was stubborn to the end.

Her straight-blown hair spilled right down her back, held by a hairband wrapped in a deep gray and purple satin design. In her dark brown hair, it really looked pretty. Then,

"Justice will be mine!"

She nodded vigorously, showing her enthusiasm. She was wearing a snow white blouse. Emphasizing the courtroom style, she had on a slender, mannish vest. And a black tie. And a black miniskirt, black tights and black high heels. She had the evidence stuffed in a paper bag, and carried a high-class brand of briefcase. Together with how she threw her head back, today's Kouko really, how can you say it? ... She seemed to be doing an impression of a sexy lawyer.

Banri even now didn't understand where Kouko got her certainty. The proof, the proof, she was saying, but in reality up to this point, seeing the so-called 'satisfactory relationship' that Yanagisawa and Kouko had, he didn't think there was such a thing in this world as pulling out "objective facts".

Rather, he didn't think a man's heart could be moved to one's own convenience.

Though thinking about it, he didn't want to say anything negative to this Kouko, just barely returned, finally, from getting back on her feet.

"Wellll...", carefully saying little, resting his chin on his hand, Banri's cellphone buzzed.

It was a text from Yanagisawa.

"''Yana''-ssan said the lecture is over. He's coming this way now."

"Did he happen to ask you if I was here too?"

"Yes, yes, he did", said Banri, nodding. Though it seemed she was coming to school, after the lecture they hadn't spoken but a bit. "What're we doing?", was all Kouko had said along the way.

Once he came alongside Banri, Yanagisawa answered frankly, "I wanted to talk with Kouko too, amongst other things." While he was speaking that way, he gave a brief glance full of meaning that even Banri wasn't fool enough to not notice. He couldn't recall even one time that Yanagisawa had actually wanted to talk with Kouko.

As if she were satisfied, Kouko's back became even straighter.

"Look at this, will you? Perfect. Of course, you've been worrying about me, for a long time. You've repented of how coldly you were treating me. And then, little by little, unknown to yourself, I have filled up your heart. That is quite according to our perfect scenario."

Then as she were just remembering it, she took out a hand mirror from her pouch, looked into it, double-checking her beautiful perfection. Eyes upturned, blinking repeatedly, trying to make a smile from ear to ear, then nodding as if in approval, she put away the mirror.

This latest development startled Banri.

"Ka, Kaga-san, well... of course you aren't going back again!? And then, there's that, look here, rather than waiting in vain for Yana-ssan, once in a blue moon..."

"What are you saying? At long last, after waiting for him, I can present my evidence to him."

With a smile quickly put back in place, saying "That's true, isn't it?", he had no choice but to shut his mouth once more.

Really, calling Yanagisawa here like this was bad. He had yielded to Kouko's excessive self-confidence, though she couldn't deal with being rejected over and over again.

Hoping for something like progress with Kouko, perhaps... no, never, won't happen.

Yanagisawa was planning to turn her down once and for all, here.

Besides, it seemed to Banri that during the time she was away from school, Yanagisawa and Chinami’s relationship had been making progress, little by little. Even at the club drinking parties, it seemed, the two of them had had plenty of time to themselves. Since Yanagisawa knew all too well that Banri was supporting Kouko, he felt no need to mention it. In fact, he would not have been surprised if they were actually starting to go out together.

"...Anyways... shouldn’t you not be getting your hopes up?"

Timidly, that was all he tried to say.

If he were untactful, Yanagisawa might have planned to come here together with Chinami. And then in front of Banri and Kouko, they would slap her with the announcement that they were a couple. If such a thing were to happen, what would Kouko wind up doing? Becoming perfect, and then, ...what would she become, really? For certain sorry, standing petrified, in a strange cold sweat.

As for Banri, since such a Kouko's near future worried him, he couldn't just decide things were getting uncomfortable around here and take his leave, claiming "This has nothing to do with me."

"Why? He didn't just come here this way perfectly. There's plenty of evidence."

Looking strangely hesitant, Kouko looked back at Banri's face, handling her paper bag as if it were something valuable.

"But it's 'proof'... otherwise why would I have brought it with me?"

And saying, "He's come!", she sat facing the doorway, her eyes shining.

"Mitsuo! Over here!"

When she stood up with a flourish, like an actress, the old man next to them, apparently unable to deal with the noise, finally got up and moved over to the counter. "Sorry, really...", muttered Banri in a small voice that could hardly be heard.

Yanagisawa, his hair hanging down partway down the sides of his face, was standing in the entrance to the café. Raising his voice when he saw Kouko's face,

"Been a while, hasn't it?"

It seemed as if he were shrugging his shoulders while saying it. Chinami wasn't there, so Banri was able to relax for the time being. As he walked over to them, he jammed a knit cap he'd taken off into a pocket of his faded jeans. The heels of his well worn Red Wing boots made the floorboard creak.

Throwing her shoulders back, Kouko took a step towards Yanagisawa, keeping her perfect smile directed at him.

"Won't you sit down? What would you like to order? Mr. Defendant."

"Oh be quiet. Excuse me, could I have some coffee? Be normal."

"Hmph, you only just got here."

"I won't try to escape nor hide. You have nothing to be afraid of."

"Hey, what're you trying to say? Did I even set you free, or discover you hiding?"

"...Should I...really be here...?"

"It's OK! Stay here!", the two of them said at the same time, smiling, making Banri settle down and stop squirming.

In this meeting between the guy who was loved, and the girl whose love was unrequited, why was he here in the first place?

"Well then, prepare yourself. I will be understood completely. My perfection..."

"Something you want to say arbitrarily, as it were? Since it doesn't matter, I'll stay and listen."

"Anyways, sit down. Or have your feet cramped? Isn't it still early to be getting cold feet?"

"Huh? What have you been saying? Just why can't I have second thoughts?"

...Was this feeling like a duel?

Kouko's face smiling. Yanagisawa's face a mask. Giving each other exactly the same cool looks, they sat down, even their timing matching precisely, like mirror images. While between the two of them the tension crackled as if there were unseen sparks flying, Banri, who had been watching from the start had been yawning repeatedly, exhausted from the stress. Oxygen simply wasn't getting to his brain.

Or rather, the scene these people were making, as if they were on good terms with each other, Banri didn't see it that way, not even for a moment.

Facing each other again, they always disagreed, would get to fighting and disputing. Somehow the two of them argued just like they were brother and sister.

"Well, let's start with me, OK? Let's start by stating the end goal. Mitsuo, who is recognized in truth as my lover, should be quickly and formally engaged."

Kouko preempted him with her perfect smile. Was she bewildered? Was she bashful? Were her delicate emotions wavering? Trampled by those high heels and flushed down the toilet! To all appearances, she was as self-assured as a fortress.

"These are the proofs. Look through it in order. Starting with where we were born."

Kouko pulled a file out of her paper bag, and Yanagisawa and Banri leaned over a map of a city center so they could see it.

"Here is the Kaga home. Here is the Yanagisawa home. In a straight line it's about eight hundred meters. Close from the start. The schools were together too. The probability of our getting to know each other in public elementary school was very high. In summary, our meeting was inevitable. It was determined from the time we were born that we would meet, somewhere. And it was fated that we would get together. We were classmates from elementary school onwards."

She turned a page in the file with her beautifully painted fingernail. There was a picture, glued onto some cardboard, a caption hastily written all around it.

"This was from the entrance ceremony. We're in the same picture, both of us. We were only eight years old. We still hadn't even spoken with each other at that time. At seven years old, a picture of an outing. A patron visit... Mitsuo's parents and my parents were together. After that, an athletic meet. Eight years old, nine years old, ...always together in pictures. Look at this, summer camp in our fifth year. Mitsuo, what's with such long hair? Then, this,"

"...Just what do you want to say?"

"Listen, just look. It's the graduation from elementary school! They took a picture of the two of us. We asked somebody to take it."

"You're sure drowning in memories looking at your album and remembering again. Just what's your point with all this?"

"Because of that, it's proof!"

"Of what?"

"Mitsuo and I are bound by this legitimate proof of fate."

Even when the file was closed with a bang by Yanagisawa, Kouko didn't turn off her smile.

"What I think about Mitsuo, in truth, has not changed. I've been that way since I was little, I was always together with Mitsuo. Remember when you confessed your love in first grade? Mitsuo said it, too. I love Kooko-chan, I'll be together with Kooko-chan from now on, you said, you'll become my bride, right, you said. You really did say it. Don't you remember? It was when we gave out presents at the Christmas party in first grade. You said it on the stage, my father and mother heard it too, even grandma heard it."

"...That, in the Christmas party, wasn't that a play!? That was a well-staged dramatization, so that your parents could hear."

"Ever since then, I've always been committed to getting married to Mitsuo."

"Look, Kouko. Between us, the dating thing won't work."

"But that was something between childhood friends. Again, I don't think I especially need to explain our relationship. That is something that goes without saying. Right?"

"Perhaps when we were children, we said things like that innocently. But, that was because we really were kids. Things like that could be said. But we're no longer little kids. Being a kid, wearing a uniform, going to and from school and studying; that's different from now."

"That's right. I understand that. We've grown up. Therefore, even in our relationship, we want to bring it up to an appropriately adult level."

"...'Bringing it up' or whatever, is something else though. "Loving" as a kid, versus "loving" now. I love Mr. Giraffe, I love Mr. Elephant, I love Kooko-chan... that happy time is already over. That's something normal; understand that. I mean, you can pretend to understand, or not."

"That's not it. Our relationship, ever since we were born, by destiny, for eternity, has been absolutely perfect."

"I don't understand where you get that from. I am fed up already, really, with your presumption. Because of it, how long have I been handicapped? First year middle school. Third year middle school. Second year high school. When there was a girl I liked, you'd interfere one way or another, quarrel with her, harass her, until you'd gotten her fed up with me. You even affected my friends, making them keep their distance. Thanks to you, all the way through graduation, not one girl would associate with me. I was truly left alone. As far as everybody was concerned, Yanagisawa Mitsuo had no choice in the end but to be Kaga Kouko's."

"Fooling around is not permitted. After all,"

"So! Already, it looks like you're telling me you're fed up with it!"

Kouko having once more opened the file, Yanagisawa roughly pushed it aside. Falling from the table, photos and memo-like things were scattered by Banri's feet.

"But, ...I haven't blamed you for what's happened until now. It's the past in any case. With childhood things in general, lacking judgement I made childish mistakes, drifting along, I think. I am thinking that now you should be taking responsibility for having come to my university, and certainly for your own life. Anyway, I am just telling you clearly in advance. I have the person that I like now."

"...It's me, of course?"

"Take it however you like. It's Chinami. It seems to me that a few times now you've tried to smear her name. If you so much as trouble her, put her on the spot, hurt her feelings or pester her--- if you try to separate her from me, I will not be happy with you. I will hate you, I will hate Kouko, eternally, absolutely and perfectly to the point where it will follow you even if you transfer to a different university."

Deliberately slowly so as to be heard, Yanagisawa with his finger as if setting a rhythm, stabbed out the words.

"I'm leaving you behind."

With a sharp sound, Kouko stood up.

She looked down at Yanagisawa.

"...Why?"

Her now visibly false smile vanished once, but then returned, stiffening.

"Why? What the, why such... what's with this? I don't get you."

Yanagisawa silently looked up at the scene. Kouko was breathing in gasps, trying to maintain her expression but her lips trembling more and more as she spoke.

"But, ...but, I don't understand. Am I not special to you? Do you remember that time you had such a big backpack on? Do you remember when you'd lost out because of your handwriting? Who comforted you then? When you were chosen to be a member of the relay team for the sports day, who baked the party cake? You dropped the relay baton, didn't you? Who of all the others knew that? That time the girls came in first, and our class came in first overall. Who was the anchor of the girl's relay team? Between "Mitsuo can see me" and all the cheering, I was always such a dunce. Who ran faster than anybody else?"

"I remember."

"You do!?"

"But, it's impossible."

"Well then! ...Then, when I was born and started writing love letters, who were they to...? To who... do you know?"

Noticing that Kouko's fingers were trembling delicately where they touched the table, Banri involuntarily glanced up at her face. Looking, he saw how pale she had become. Her voice was shaking too. Even the café-au-lait bowl was rattling.

He didn't need to see this. Or rather, why was he being shown this? Banri hid his face, covering his eyes with one hand. He could only hear the trembling voice of Kouko.

"...You know this boy I've come to love since I was born, don't you? On the occasion of my ninth birthday party, the boy who took me home? When I was feeling down because I wasn't chosen to accompany on piano, the boy who for my sake brought from home an origami set? That boy... do you know him?"

"...But, it'll never happen."

"Wouldn't you know!? You were that person! The reason I was able to run so fast, the reason I want to be pretty, the one I wanted to love was you! You've always been special! To be bound to you is right! Otherwise, if it weren't so... it wouldn't be perfect! Unless I was perfect, then I would not be able to get you to love me! Then what was I to do!? So, so always, I, I've tried, perfectly... hey! Why am I not special to you!?"

Quietly raising his eyes a fraction, Yanagisawa gave Kouko a penetrating look. Banri wished he could leave. If Kouko had noticed how badly she was shaking, she probably would have gotten up and left long ago.

"Answer me! Haven't I loved you since I was little!? Wasn't I raised with you and for you!? And yet, why am I not special to you!? Why am I not even important to you!?"

"So please answer me!", she repeated over and over again, whining like a little kid, unable to listen and beginning to tremble pitifully.

Ah, no way, such a---

"...You, are you an idiot...?"

Of sympathy there was not a trace. His expression was one of anger. Yanagisawa was angry.

"I don't think you ever understood me. It was always just about you. For that reason, you don't understand!"

Standing up, pointing at her with his finger, to his tearful female childhood friend Yanagisawa spoke.

"This was a careful decision. Really and truly, from the bottom of my heart, I am doing this for you. ...I did it for you! Why don't you understand that!? Do you want to get hurt because you fail to understand something I'm telling you? You're not an irresponsible kid, so understand! In particular, don't be getting the wrong ideas just because I happen to care! I'm not going to talk about lovers, destiny or any such thing! Because in reality, it wasn't like that! We didn't even fool around, not once! That was because I cared for you! If I had not cared, then with the right atmosphere, and the right feelings, what might we have done, we could have wound up having some fun! But that I could not do! I don't think one can become happy just by doing that! Because of that, it was something I absolutely could not do! I don't want to do such a thing!"

"...Well, weelll,"

Banri couldn't look at Kouko's face.

"If I'm important... if I'm special, that... love, is something different...? Is it not permitted to include 'love'? Coming to love me, falling in love, loving one another, getting married, for eternity, speaking that way... why, can't it be? Is it not possible?"

Yanagisawa's reply was a shake of the head. Yanagisawa was crudely telling her that it would not work, the two of them together. Banri was thinking that Yanagisawa would understand just how much he was supporting Kouko. He wasn't blaming him, asking him to be flexible and not say such hard things. Because he was that sort of guy, maybe that's why he wanted to be friends.

"...Not possible...?"

A drop fell to the table.

"...This way, in spite of remembering our childhood...? Even though I'm special? In spite of that, there's no way? Then, then in short... it was my fault?"

That was how Kouko was defeated.

If she simply cried herself out, not her objectives, not her evidence, nothing would come to be more than a pile of papers.

"Because I was merely something to be despised? Then, to whatever extent you have memories, however long a time you give me in reality, there is simply no way? Could you not fall in love with me? If, if that's the case,"

In a small voice, he tried to call her. He was thinking it was time to give up. Kouko not knowing how to pull back, again sinking into depression before him, Banri wanted to hold her back. That is the reason I stayed here, he thought.

But that voice didn't seem to reach Kouko.

"If so, then I am already not needed! Always unneeded, always forgotten, done without! Made as if I never existed! If just one more thing happens to me that cannot be undone, I will be entirely gone!"

Hearing what seemed to be a scream in that voice, Yanagisawa said nothing more, rising from his seat.

Pulling his knit cap on his head nearly to his eyes, he swung open the door and went outside.

The inside of the shop suddenly went terribly quiet. He realized that the other customers all had their ears directed towards them, curious. Banri moved slightly, highly uncomfortable, when at that moment there arose the sound of Kouko gulping for air.

''Bang'', Kouko's hand struck her saucer, shaking it.

"...Just what have I done?"

Kouko watched Banri, covering her mouth. Opening her eyes, tears ran down her cheeks again, flowing down. Sorry, Tada-kun. Sorry. Sorry, sorry, so very sorry. Sitting down as if she were falling, she turned her crumpled face towards Banri, from the corners of her tightly closed eyelashes once more tears.

He was being apologized to, he understood at last. Banri searched within himself. The Banri who lived here as if nothing mattered at all, blowing up before that Banri's eyes was indiscreet, perhaps, but he wasn't hurt by Kouko's words.

"It's all right, Kaga-san."

"...I'm sorry...I'm sorry...!"

"Really, since it's OK. ...In such a time as that, you needn't worry about me."

"...Sorry, Tada-kun..."

Just now was nothing. You'll forget. You'll make it as if it hadn't happened. ---But it wasn't so easy to say that, the future being awfully difficult to manage.

<center>* * *</center>

Kouko stayed sitting there in the seat by the window.

Not knowing what else to do, Banri continued watching the tableau. The tears on her cheeks already dried, Kouko remained silent, her head hanging in shame, completely shut off from everything. Four o'clock passed, five o'clock neared, slowly outside the window it was starting to get dark,

"Good sirs, there are customers waiting for the non-smoking section..."

The café employee said to them apologetically. At last the time had come,

"It's about time we left, Kaga-san."

Banri prompted her,

"..."

Still silent, Kouko, instead of asking if they should get up and leave, went through the glass door that separated the smoking section. Bowing his head to the bewildered employee, the confused Banri followed her at once. For sure it was less crowded over here, with fewer customers and poorer ventilation, and an awful cloud of tobacco smoke and smell swirling about in the air.

"Hey, Kaga-san..."

Sliding into vacant seats,

"I thought smoking might kill you."

Distracted by Kouko's muttered words, uncomfortable smokers were looking their way.

"Err... noo, what did I say...? I didn't think such stuff was deadly, did I...?"

Having entered the smoking section with Kouko once again hanging their heads in shame, trading glances with the employees, Banri was embarrassed. If he were to order something more, would they let them stay here still? More importantly, was it all right if he stayed here still? Obviously dispirited, Kouko wouldn't want to go off by herself alone, but wasn't Banri's very presence a bother, as far as she was concerned? Perhaps what she needed was time alone to lick her wounds. If so, he wanted to disappear quickly.

Naturally, he wasn't thinking about "being needed". That she didn't require any human being apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo even Banri understood. Worrying about Kouko, and wanting to keep an eye on her, was Banri's condition. He wanted to pay more attention to her condition than to his own.

Of course, it might be that he shouldn't be here--- a feeling that sitting too long a time, an ache arising from his rear just then,

"Want a smoke? Here you go, one shot!"

A girl they didn't know sat down next to them and extended her cigarette case towards Kouko.

"You wanna die? Use this stuff and you will. At the cellular level for sure."

"This person's not twenty years old yet..."

Confused for some reason, Banri blocked it. Kouko raised her head a bit, looking curiously at the cigarette case offered to her by that mysterious person. It didn't appear to be any major brand, like Mild Seven, or Marlboro.

"Boyfriend?"

Confused, Banri shook his head rapidly back and forth. The girl, with a cynical smile twisting her lips, spoke.

"Hey. You can call me NANA."

Thinking a bit, Banri,

''Cough!''

Expelling his breath as if punched.

He remembered while he was hospitalized, forever reading the latest issues of shoujo manga. Probably overdone, a short one-length bob hair style with longer bangs, dyed jet black and a leopard print camisole. Aggressively strong makeup. Heavy leather riding jacket. Neck to fingertips jingling with excessive silver accessories. She even carried around a guitar case. Her appearance, such as it was, was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nana_Osaki that] character.

Such cosplay... but why here and now? Chosen over other things. Such a person. Was this café some sort of power spot to draw in such strange people? The more he looked at her, the more he had to restrain himself from laughing out loud.

"You could say you, well... for me, it was something for me to see. By chance right next to me... so to speak."

He looked towards her black fingernails. In the setting of her silver ring was a skull.

"...I'm not Linda's junior. You were with Linda in high school! I'm a third year. Or rather,"

Twisting her lips so as to direct the fumes upwards as she smoked, NANA... sempai explained her surprising name.

"Linda's first given name is pronounced NANA too."

"...That, are you kidding..."

Banri was becoming overwhelmed by the strangeness of it all,

At long last, a snort came from Kouko's nose. And then from Kaga Kouko he got the same strange vibes.

"Omaken, eh? I'm fed up to here with that. The Yosakoi and such were such a pain, didn't they make me feel like I wanted to die?"

"...What about this year's Awa Odori...?", replied Banri, to which she laughed scornfully.

"Even more so time to stop. For sure. If I'm gonna die, let it be by music."

And then, thrust before them, a cheap-looking black and white flyer.

"Today at nine o'clock. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakano,_Tokyo Nakano City]. Though it's nothing more than an amateur student band, Awa Odori can die a thousand times in comparison."

"Ah, thanks... this is what they call a 'live show'... is it? But I've never been to such a thing... are you going too, NANA-senpai? Well, of course... does it seem like a typical cover band?"

"Whaddaya mean, 'cover band'. They aren't like a cover band. Cause I'm a poet. Poetry reading."

"Po, poe...? Huh...?"

"If you have this leaflet, you get two drinks. If you mention my name, you can get more. Come and die."

With a broad grin, she gave them the finger. NANA-senpai wore her character to the last, and leaving things as they were, left the shop. With only the leaflet left behind in Banri's hand, "What shall we do?", he said towards Kouko,

"Let's go and die."

Kouko plucked it from him. Her tear-reddened eyes, upset wherever they sat, desperate from having been put upon, understood.

"...If it isn't perfect, then I ought to remain broken to the end. Unlike how I've been up to now, I want to do absolutely nothing. No half measures. If I'm going to be smashed to pieces anyway, then I want to become nothing at all. I want to die!"

And then standing up, spreading their arms wide and taking deep breaths--- the people in the smoking section of course really looked like they hated them, Kouko making as if she didn't see.

"What will you do, Tada-kun? I'm going even if I have to go alone."

"...It's a date! Of course!"

Leaving Kouko like that alone was worrisome, besides, that's the way it was. If she wasn't perfect, instead falling to pieces, she would do nothing as if dying, but then she would want to be brought back to life. Banri, at least, always thought so.

<center>* * *</center>

Unable to say anything about honorable defeat while killing time nor over dinner, they went drinking at a cheap tavern afterwards.

"...W, what? Even in my thoughts it was never such a dodgy looking place..."

A little past nine o'clock, Banri and Kouko were standing before the live concert place. Trying to look inside through the entrance, Banri winced. The steps going down were dark.

Looking very much out of place, looking around nervously, she pushed on his back with both hands,

"It's OK, you'll be fine, no problems..."

Kouko made ready to go down the steps.

"Hold on, just hold on a bit more,", Banri said, planting his feet firmly in resistance. Even more than in his imagination, the real thing was considerably more hard core.

"Between dying and killing, were the fans of that student band on the same planet?", Banri was thinking. "The tension here, for the first time in my life 'live', so to speak, will eventually be over, right?" If they were to spend some time going crazy, then perhaps Kouko would unwind a little. That was the feeling he had.

However, there were no students to be seen amongst the other customers gathering around the entrance. For some reason, most were well built, like foreigners, with body piercings and tattoos seeming natural for them. They wore grim-looking riveted jackets and leather pants, had impressive figures with biceps like logs. Above their bald heads, a vapor arose from their sweat. Ordinary people appeared as fasting monks beside them, all skin and bones. Their mouths open as they stood around, they watched the petrified Banri with suspicious eyes, like buffalo-men with their huge shoulders, both tattoed with "guts" (why?) --- anyhow, everybody living in the ordinary world would never be able to meet such a variety of people as were here.

"We, we're really going...?"

He reflexively looked over towards Kouko, inquiring,

"Let's go, it's ok! It's O-K, let's go! It's all right if we goooo."

Kouko stood before him firmly, looked at him with clear eyes, and nodded like crazy.

Perhaps due to three whole hours of drinking continuously, her breath reeked of liquor. Her voice was a little slow, but for the time being she seemed the same old Kaga Kouko. Her makeup was a little smeared from crying, but otherwise to every last aspect she was perfect. "Fuu... haaa...", she sighed, though she wasn't collapsing yet, in spite of having recklessly drank virtually everything on the menu, from fruit sours to cocktails. Banri, feeling dizzy on the way, had switched to an oolong tea, but Kouko kept drinking alcohol until she was finally full. Could she hold her liquor that well?

"Hey let's gooo! Let's goo! Tada-kuun, hey, it's OK, it's O-K, it's oookaaayyy."

Almost as if she were throwing a fit, Kouko started impatiently stamping her feet. He sensed several gazes turning towards them. Not wanting to be something oddly conspicuous,

"...OK, OK, let's go for it!"

For the time being, going through the entrance looked almost like running away.

Going down the steps leading to a basement, putting his weight against the heavy door and opening it,

"Wow! So loud!"

He couldn't even hear himself shout. For the first time in his life, the live music detonating around him, it truly was an eye-opener. Shaken by the violent oscillations from his spine to his skull bones, his feet froze with instinctive fear. Kouko's eyes opened wide, she covered both her ears with her hands, and shouted things like "Kyaa!" and "Hyaa!". Even grabbing each other by the arm and getting closer, they really couldn't hear their voices.

The crowd of sweaty, hot and smelly people pushed them aside as they were leaving, but with that energy they entered all the quicker. Tossed about by the subterranean rumbling, they felt their bodies were floating. And yet here they were, still only at the reception desk. Inside the exploding storm, a pair of middle-aged people of unknown nationality were standing, as if confused, watching money being passed across the counter. So then, it's not free?

The confused Banri pulled out his wallet, and showed them the leaflet he'd received from NANA-senpai. Rather than taking his money, they gave him two drink tickets. And then, ''bam'', with some sort of stamp-like thing, they were branded on the backs of their left hands. But, anyhow, to conceal themselves somewhat, they lowered their heads a little and the two of them went further inside. If they were to stand still, they had a feeling they would wind up angry.

And then, they were overwhelmed by the most terrible noise. Finally they covered their ears, realizing it was as if their brain tissue on both sides were being pounded upon. Had the other customer's ears been destroyed already? They seemed entirely unconcerned. Only Kouko and himself seemed to be nervous country bumpkins. It was scary, really. In any case, everything was scary.

"Though Kaga-san might be okay, I'm not okay!", he said, thinking he should stick really close to his one and only companion, but Kouko was looking around restlessly, and indifferent to Banri, she tossed her bag neatly into a locker. Crouching down by the lowest step, she stuffed her bag of evidence in and then kicked the door roughly to close it. To judge by the noise, her ladyship might even have broken it. And it looked like she'd forgotten to pull out the key.

Banri hurriedly stuffed his bag in with hers, pulled the key from the locker and put it away firmly in his pocket. For some reason, Kouko was moving restlessly, twisting around. There was nothing out of place with her ladyship, but she was straining to tear her black tights in several places, making holes in them.

As Banri looked on in mute amazement, she undid her necktie and opened her blouse widely, exposing much of her chest. Removing her hairband, her hair unfurled like a lion's mane. Roughly combing her hair with her hands, the combed back hair standing up and swelling, she suddenly got a wild look in her eyes. And then she rubbed roughly around her eyes, the long-ago messed up eye shadow, mascara and such smearing to where her eyebrows disappeared.

In some ways proud of herself, she showed off her look to Banri. The normally perfect Kouko vanished, suddenly a dangerous punk rocker girl. Passing on inside, going past a row of five women with lip piercings, the atmosphere hardly changed. Arriving back at the center of the chaotic noise, nobody batted an eyelash.

"...Well then, me too..."

Kouko didn't really want to disguise him, but for the time being she just messed up his hair with her fingers too. But since his hair was as limp as cat fur, nothing came of it.

Glancing at each other's faces and nodding, they once more proceeded inside. Over towards the stage, all you could see were the backs of the spectator's heads, like waves on the surface of the ocean. Because of all the noise, not even by shouting could one be heard. Approaching the bar counter, passing their drink tickets to the bartender, they were mutely shown a plastic menu. Pointing at beer, he showed it to Kouko too. Kouko chose a Moscow Mule. They were each handed a fresh cup.

"Kaga-saan! Cheeers!"

At any rate, even if they couldn't hear, he raised his voice, Kouko shouted something too, and the two of them raised their cups to their lips.

Just then a group of people surged towards the bar, hitting Kouko firmly against the back of her head. Kouko spouted her cocktail all over Banri's face. While shouting something, she took her tie and wiped Banri's face briskly. They went back over to the bar. It was entirely drowned in the noise, Banri's ears had gone deaf, he couldn't hear anything anymore.

Leaning against the counter, Kouko got close to the bartender's ear and said something as loud as she could. Her torn tights peeking from beneath her miniskirt, she raised her heel and shook her high-heels. Disheveled, half of her beauty was hidden by her wild hair. While feasting his eyes on her, he noticed a big guy with tattoos all over his upper body approaching Kouko. Banri, though a powerless knight (his finishing move was to lie down and play dead), looked ready to rush over in heroic resignation when,

"Tsuzaaeeeenja, neeeeeeooo! Uruuuaaaaaaaaaaa!"

---Between the songs, several seconds of silence, just like an air pocket. Wrung out from Kouko's throat came a howl, as if from the earthbound ghost of a female cat which had died in a particularly cruel manner.

That voice. No, that face. Her disheveled hair starting to flap against her cheeks, her large eyes bordered in pitch black glaring and glittering wet. Is this how a wounded beast feels? Really, you look like you fit in this place, Kaga-san... Banri reflexively gasped.

Rebuffing the tattooed man, she took four cups in her two hands and suddenly struck a pose while turning back towards him. Twisting her narrow waist left and right, she said "Aha☆", her whole face a smile. Giving an obvious wink, she returned to Banri's side. Her white chest swelled outwards, restrained by her tight vest. The shadow was terribly bewitching.

Really drunk she is, this person.

For a good while now, deeply drunk, even more than he thought. Even deeper than she seems to be, looking at her.

"Ka, Kaga-san, wait a sec, though it's late, is this really OK!? Aren't you drinking an awful lot!? I mean... wow, that's loud!"

With what seemed like an explosion of source, they started singing loudly once more, and while he started to crumble from the knees up again, Banri shakily extended his cup towards Kouko. Kouko was shouting out, "NANA-senpai", or something. And with a smile, she drank up the contents of one cup. "Oh...", unintentionally having watched over Banri, she fluttered her hand as if to say "Drink drink!"

Banri too, if that's how it was going to be, bringing it to his lips,

"...Buhaa!"

This time, Kouko's face got sprayed. "Gyahaa!", Kouko's face dripping while she clapped her hands and bent over double, laughing uproariously. But that wasn't all. His throat burned, his nose was sore. He was dizzy. His ears hadn't been able to hear anything for a long time. It was as if his five senses were entirely paralyzed. "What's going on!?", Banri staggering as he tried frantically to support his body with his own two feet. Up to this point he'd drunk such things as beer, sour, highballs, and so on, but definitely not sake. And strong sake this was, like fire.

Kouko's face seemed unconcerned, gulping down the same stuff. "But, drink up, I suddenly feel as tired as a stone!", sitting down.

"Whoa Kaga-san! Be careful, very careful! I mean, what, what was that!?"

Confused, while taking her hands and trying to help her stand up, he looked back towards the bartender. While the bartender lady was using the same kind of cup to give something to drink to a customer, she stuck out her tongue at Banri and Kouko. Doing two things at once, the odd glittering must have been from her piercings.

Banri finally arrived at the conclusion that perhaps it might be better if they just left. With everything to this point, she might have unwound enough, and already it seemed about the right time for her highness.

"Kaga-san, let's go already! Eh!? Kaga-san!? Kaga Koukoo!? You're not here!"

When he turned around, Kouko wasn't there, and he looked around in confusion. Cup in one hand, he staggered around, looking through the gaps between the other spectator's backs for long hair.

"Just a second, just a second! Hold on, wait!"

On the stage three guys were waving chainsaws around. The tiresome fellow playing the drums was sneaking out, looking down his nose at it all. As if spurred on by that atrocious noise, the spectators on the completely-filled floor raised their fingers high, jumping up and down, in spite of the disdainful look, raging for unknown reasons. Kouko was rapidly heading into the middle of all that.

"Ka, Kaga-saan! Wait! Hold on!"

Banri shouted, his voice quickly swallowed up. On the stage the maniacs were jumping up and down to make things even crazier, then jumping down hard on the heads of the spectators below. Or rather, falling down. Between the hands of the crazy ones, their unforgiving faces and slamming into their heads, Banri was making no progress at all.

"Miiiitsuuuuoooo is a fooooolllll<nowiki>~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"Scram", shouted Kouko in a slurred voice, trying to climb up on to the stage over the skinheads in the front row. Her shoes were long gone. And then,

"I'mmmm going to diieeee<nowiki>~~~~~~</nowiki>! Ugyaaaaaaa<nowiki>~~~~~~~</nowiki>!"

"You've got to be kidding, this is the end.", said Banri, beginning to give up.

Welcomed by the chain saw squad as if she were their queen, Kouko dumped the contents of her cup over her own head. She threw away the cup, stuck out her tongue, and gave the finger with both hands. She threw her head back as she were stabbing with all her might at the heavens. The cheers shook the ground. The focus of the drummer's eyes, Kouko's miniskirt, was dangerously near her butt, and in a moment, all at once the problems increased. Her bra was black. Just a fleeting glimpse of her chest was seen. And then, both hands lifting up even higher, her neck and her chattering knees, that... that, was C-3PO's pose!

Banri climbed up, as if he were jumping on people's backs with his [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Purcell Jack Purcells]. He went towards the stage. Not quickly enough to stop Kouko, that just wasn't possible.

Sopping wet, bathed in sake from the head down, Kouko inspired the band to dance like robots. For just such a moment, even their rhythm was chopped up. The chainsaws growled more and more violently. Any time now, it seemed he would be able to jump to midstage with a running start. Banri barely managed to reach the stage. Stretching out his hand to jump,

"Kaga-san, don't, don't!"

He grabbed Kouko's wrist.

He put his weight into it, all at once, taking her by one hand. His body was drawn close.

He had a feeling such a thing had happened before. Even before, even that before...? The crowd was just like--- around dawn, at the river water's surface.

If he were to fall, he would die. Die completely.

"I'm scared------------------!"

Crying like a child, shamefully, who was it? Me? Kaga-san?

---Banri!

"..."

Kouko's eyes were looking at Banri.

Standing his ground, Banri also looked at Kouko.

Had somebody been calling him like this? With all the alcohol, it felt like flames dancing around, spinning inside his head. Sparks whirled about, everything he felt, everything he saw, anything and everything, just like that caught fire. What was it? How many things, in a hurry, without time, are burned, vanish and are lost? No way! Already he was truly lost, not understanding. Since he did not understand, he didn't want to hear anything more. From the beginning, it would have been good for him to not have existed.

Ah, so it was.

Always, nothing but loss---.

"Tada, kun...?"

Kouko was murmuring in a small voice. ...Murmured, sort of, her mouth could be seen moving. Their hands were still joined, the moment seeming to stand still, but,

"If you're going to die, then die quickly, you idiots. This stage is mine."

Jabbed forcefully in the lower back, Banri was pushed off the stage. And of course, Kouko together with him.

As they quickly fell down, with the guitar used to poke Banri in one hand, NANA-senpai could be seen with the mike in hand, grinning like a demon.

At the front entrance, Banri collapsed.

Stepping over the collapsed Banri, creeping down the unlit corridor, groping for the bathroom, Kouko could be heard entering.

"Are you okay...?"

"..."

Instead of a reply, one more time. Bravely.

Kicking off his shoes to get them off, still unable to stand, he somehow managed to enter the room, following the wall. His hands had gone completely numb. Supporting Kouko, he had walked here all the way from the place of the concert.

Falling to the floor with a thud, he rolled over on to the rug. The sound of the water pouring, the sound of the toilet flushing. And still he groaned, painfully.

Feeling a random pain where he sat, it felt like something was there. Sticking his hand in his pocket, out came the key to the locker.

"...Ah... we did it... the stuff in the locker, we left it, didn't we... hey, Kaga-san, again, we forgot something..."

There was no reply.

To block his feelings he covered his ears, drawing himself inside, and unnoticed, Banri's eyes seem to have closed.

<center>* * *</center>

When he woke up, he felt vague.

Still lying on the rug, he felt so heavy he only lifted his eyelids. The world was still in middle night, and in the room light did not penetrate; it was dark.

Kouko was in a corner of the dark room.

Leaning her back against Banri's bed, sitting on the floor, she looked outside through the door-wall. She was crying.

Elbow propped on a partially raised knee, chin in one hand, the other hand combing her bangs, the light from outside the window illuminated her cheek, tears running down it. Her throat sounding hoarse, her nose running, the fingers of the hand supporting her chin twisting her lips, Kouko kept on sobbing.

Even though Banri was waking up, she probably didn't notice. Just one person, huddled in the deeps of solitude, not caring what others see, that figure still crying defenselessly, marvelously, looked rather like a young boy.

In other words, just like me, Banri thought.

Though nobody should be crying aloud like that in this room, it felt as if here were split entirely in two, and he were watching himself cry.

Long ago, perhaps he had cried like this, what he was seeing on the other side of the room. This he knew: this had happened. Such feelings had come over him.

Like a pale, thin film covering the corner of his vision, just then,

"'Re'...?"

A faint glimmer, a mysterious single syllable came to mind.

When he raised his shoulder, a towel-blanket fell down. Kouko must have draped it there. Kouko, at Banri's voice, raised her tearful face as if taken aback.

"...Just now, what did you say...?"

By what was certainly the voice of a little girl, Banri's strange dream was quickly destroyed.

"...Said..."

"...You said 're'."

"...Your hand. Look..."

Banri pointed at the back of Kouko's hand. Bending her wrist and looking at the back of her hand, "This?", she said hoarsely. There was a faintly glimmering fluorescent yellow 're' symbol there.

"Ah. You too..."

At Kouko's word, he tried looking at the back of his own hand. For sure, the same 're' glimmered faintly. Was that so? Was it the stamp from the reception desk at the concert place? To make it easier to recognize in the darkness at reentry time, it was of fluorescent paint. "Now I see", Banri started to nod his head.

"I mean... why 're' of all things..."

"Who knows..."

Without a single sound in the room, the two of them stared at their respective 're's for a little while.

Were they able to think quietly this way because it was the dead of night? Was it because they were barely breathing? Or, was it because their ears had been beaten down by that awful noise? ...That, probably.

"..."

Staring at the back of her hand, it seemed she would start sobbing again. Was the syllable [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#'Re'|'re']] a switch that had enabled all of her grief? Re... Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to 're'staurants? Being on good terms with Mitsuo would they go to pick 'le'mons? Would they watch a 're'ntal DVD, would they ecstatically dance the [http://okami.neoseeker.com/wiki/Renjishi 'Re'njishi], or zap eggs on the 'ra'nge---

"Kaga-san... are you okay?"

"...Sorry. I was thinking about Mr. Two Dimensions just now."

"W, what? That's surprising... I mean, that doesn't have anything to do with 're', right?"

"No. There's no connection. Something Mr. Two Dimensions said, I suddenly remembered it... then, I started crying again."

Turning a sort-of smiling but tear-stained face towards Banri, Kouko straightened her legs and sat down neatly.

Leaning her back against the bed, she slowly tilted her head back, as if it were quite heavy.

"Mr. Two Dimensions will not become Mr. One Dimension. He seems he said that to get things right, to his own satisfaction, that he would have to create his own dream girl. As for me, while hearing that as half joking, I thought we were somewhat kindred spirits. 'I want to be bound to a perfect companion with a perfect scenario'... saying that he and I are going for the same thing, I thought. But Mr. Two Dimensions, since he's what they call an 'otaku' boy, he works in the world of literary creation. Since I'm not an otaku-ish girl, I work in reality. That's different from a simple preference in hobbies, I thought. Enjoying himself in creating fiction, Mr. Two Dimensions is still rather childish, even, it seems. But, ...its not like that, is it?"

Combing her disheveled hair as if it were a nuisance, while looking up at the ceiling, in a low voice she continued talking.

"He was always more mature than I, an adult. That was how I understood him to be. Apart from me, nobody can imagine stuffing the perfection I dream of into their bodies. In the real world, it cannot be done. The world, in it's own selfish way, cannot do it. What would human relationships become if they were forced to be so? ...For Mr. Two Dimensions, or rather, a person barely come of age, assuming he has that sort of understanding, would be able to enjoy talking about it. In spite of my being of the same year, because I'm an idiot, there is sooo much that I don't understand. I don't understand why Mitsuo doesn't like me as I am. From the very start, I haven't understood how one can say, "I have not been able to make my dreams come true."

That hurt a lot.

All of it.

Still looking up at the ceiling, still crying, Kouko's voice could be heard awfully, painfully blocked.

"Mitsuo, did he not say that I matter to him? 'Because I cannot have happiness, I cannot love either.' Didn't he say something like that?"

"Yeah... he did, didn't he? I think so."

"After hearing that, I got to thinking. I had never thought whether or not Mitsuo would be happy. I had simply been chasing Mitsuo around saying I loved him. But, could you say that I was really thinking about Mitsuo's well being? I had never respected Yanagisawa Mitsuo as a human being, as an existence in reality. My goals were all that mattered. ...Perhaps I failed to understand that he had a life, an existence. It might be that I was treating him as no more than one of the characters in my own world."

As if she were grasping at nothing, Kouko reached out her left hand in the darkness. The 're' waved in the air.

"Crying like this, getting hurt like this--- my obsession is to blame. This... ugly... obsession. ...The Mitsuo whom I love must love me. I would not accept that the one I love does not love me back. I would not accept that I am worthless. I would never recognize, never accept my being so. "Tell me... Tell me it isn't so... Tell me that I'm not worthless!" Saying such, I was only pushing the responsibility on to Mitsuo. Nonetheless, it was actually me who could neither accept nor forgive myself. I was arbitrarily judging my worth by whether Mitsuo loved me or not. Unfortunately, I had set things up that way. ...What I did to Mitsuo for a very long time was wrong."

Panting, Kouko continued, "but it took me a long time to realize that." Whether she was crying or smiling, Banri could no longer tell the difference. Still, her breathing was making a lot of noise in the darkness.

"...Well, is that not so? Everybody, to some extent, has such feelings, don't you think?"

While looking at his own 're', Banri was trying carefully to speak gently, to seem as optimistic as possible. Whether he managed to console her or not he did not know, but that was the idea that came to him right then.

"...As I am now, I agree, but then again, for whom would it not be very difficult normally? I think it's hard! Being imperfect myself, if I were not to face it myself, I would cease to be, so to speak. Wouldn't nearly anybody want to look away? ...At least, I am like that."

I am like that.

Having put it into words, looking away from reality and being surprised, his own form all at once came sharply into focus. That person, 120 pounds of meat, was stretched out on the rug.

His breath was catching, but if he went silent here,

"I have a really hard time noticing it when I am rejected."

Now, making a speech to Kaga Kouko, he found that he had averted his eyes from his own form.

As if staring off into the darkness, Kouko was looking at Banri's face.

"'Rejected'... by whom? A person like Tada-kun, was rejected by somebody?"

"...Those the old Tada Banri knew. The old Tada Banri was thought well of by many people. His family and so on. I think it can't be helped, though, but... of course it hurts, and so, I cannot return home. They don't even understand. My parents, are even now waiting for the 'real Banri' to return and say, 'I'm home!' Because my current self, however I am introduced, I get this feeling of 'that isn't him.' That at any moment, the real son, Tada Banri himself, just like that, will return to them---"

Bringing up her knees, it was almost the old Kouko sitting there, resting her elbow on her knee. She propped her chin with her hand. Every time she talked, her head rocked back and forth.

"---It seems to me as if they were wishing for my current self to disappear, as if he had died."

With what he was putting into words, in the bottom of his heart, deeply submerged and unseen, his grief was coming into view, very quickly and clearly taking shape.

He didn't want to say he was afraid, he didn't want to see even one such word leak out of him.

"In truth all along, I haven't been able to avoid being scared, really scared! My personality, so easily vanished, at any time could easily return to me, right? After all, if I were cured, wouldn't my current self just die? Myself, dying... wouldn't everybody else be happy? What with myself, staying myself, wouldn't everybody feel forever dejected? Myself, myself in such a world, what's the word, pr, ...predicament, nowhere else, nothing, you could say,"

"Being dejected like that, stop it!"

...That was dangerous. Really.

If Kouko had not spoken up so strongly, who knows what may have happened to the rage that had been welling up inside him, which now turned to tears, overflowing from his eyes.

"I’m stopping! I stopped. Absolutely."

Wiping roughly at the back of his hand, he noticed Kouko sitting up straight in the darkness.

"Well, if Tada-kun were to disappear entirely, ...this evening was a disgrace, for me, for us. I want to keep a night like that a secret. Wouldn't it be better not to tell anybody? Nobody else! Not in this life, nor anywhere, nobody but Tada-kun! Nobody at all."

"..."

"Shall we? So we shall. Really!"

"Ah,"

---Thank you. Kaga-san.

Rescued, Banri rubbed his eyes with his fingers as if he were still lost.

"So, don't disappear. Don't die either. Don't be afraid of such things. They aren't going to happen! Because I, absolutely, will not forget Tada-kun. And then for me, for myself, who was a fool, who was ashamed, for me who could not help myself this evening, for me who only once this spring---"

With a single sob, Kouko took a deep breath, for reasons he did not understand.

"Whatever happens, don't forget me...!"

Still not understanding, this moment was ending.

"...I won't forget! I simply cannot forget. How could I forget? As for myself, well,"

As the words came out, Banri was thinking of something else.

"Kaga-san, I love you!"

Even if it were remembered, even if it were forgotten entirely. The results were always the same.

Having moved too quickly, he could not go back. Today, in this moment already, never again.

At the very same instant, he was being born and he was dying. No matter how important it was, no matter how he wanted to stop ahead of time, it all was lost equally. In fact, nobody could change things.

But, for that very reason,

"...I love you! Kaga Kouko. Really."

She was dear to him.

Kouko opened her eyes wide, the 're' on her hand covering her mouth. It sure was, though Banri also. It was a big surprise. Absolutely safe, they said, and suddenly it was a thing neatly and completely cut as if by a razor.

But, he loved Kouko.

However it happened, Banri loved Kouko. In his head and in his heart, if he were to notice, he was full, full of Kouko. He was full to bursting. Nothing but an awkward, klutzy, beautiful woman, every day he was thinking of her. Without realizing it, he had become like this.

And then, if he could, he wanted Kouko to become so too. He wanted her to think only of him. It didn't have to be today. Someday would be fine.

"...Saying such things. To confess on a night like this, that wasn't very honest of me. Sorry."

Dragging along his towel-blanket, Banri placed himself as far away from Kouko as he could. Making it to the wall, he sat down with his knees up once more.

Dumped, then on the same day getting drunk and going to a guy's place, then that guy saying he loved you. So cliché. Such a dangerous situation. He figured Kouko must be scared.

He threw his feet and hands out feebly, since he had not the spirit to take advantage of this night, and it was his intention to make an easy to understand appeal.

"Though I'm not speaking of forgetting, nor any such thing. Nor was it my intention to pretend nothing had happened. ...About what just happened, I don't think you are suddenly going to forget about Yana-ssan. I mean, it's all right if you turn me down for now. Ah, though that wouldn't be pleasant. ...Anyhow, there's tomorrow."

"T, tomorrow...!? Tomorrow!? What!?"

"Don't we have to pick up our stuff? It's probably in the locker where we left it. Don't you remember?"

"B, bags...!? Eh!? We did!?"

"Yes, we did. I mean, didn't we leave the stuff behind when we escaped the whole mess? How about that for fate?"

Tilting her head in puzzlement, Kouko,

"...If you call it that... yeah, something, over again. About the same thing. But still rather nice, ...should be fun for me."

Little by little, she began to laugh into the darkness with a softly shaking voice.

"Whatever we left, it looks like it'll be okay in the end. It seems we're unexpectedly sturdy. I mean, we only lost our shoes. Again, in fact!"

Her voice had gone rough from crying, but nonetheless Kouko kept on laughing. She got Banri laughing too. Wanting to cry, wanting to laugh, his chest hurting, he was scratching his head in confusion. Touching the tip of his nose, his bangs were too long.

Perhaps they were waving for Kouko.

But, as for himself, loving her was not something he could stop.

But even if they could not be lovers, being friends would be good, to pass time together.

And so--- after this again, how many things had they left behind? He wondered how many things they had left behind, how many times had the two of them fallen down? It didn't matter. He wanted to be with Kouko even so. That being so, he loved Kouko. Thinking on that, Banri smiled once more.

How many moments he could spend with her he did not know, though all of them were surely going to shine brilliantly.

So they could shine, she had been born. If he were to blurt out something like that, as if joking, now it might honestly be believed.

"...It's about that time, isn't it? The first train will be leaving shortly, Kaga-san, so you can get back. I could walk you to your place! Won't the others there be worrying about you? Have you called?"

"It's okay. I'll take a taxi back."

"Do you want to take a shower? I swear on my life I won't peek through the keyhole!"

"I said it's okay. Though we were a disaster, I won't contaminate the taxi seat. Really, thank you. Excuse me."

"For what?"

"For a lot of things, for everything. ...Really, it's okay, down this street, then I'll be able to catch a taxi. I'll be fine by myself, for sure."

Before Banri could begin to get up, Kouko looked all around her, mumbling about her bag. And then, brushing her long hair from her face in annoyance,

"That so? It got left behind."

"Tomorrow evening, let's go pick it up together! I mean, together we can go down there."

"It's okay, it's okay! I can go by myself!"

"Why? I'm not going to do anything. I was only going with you to the taxi stop! While we're at it, I want to go by convenience store. Ah, I feel like getting some ice cream."

"Go to the convenience store tomorrow! ...With how we look after today's disaster, I absolutely don't want to be seen in the light!"

"Since I've already seen enough unpleasant stuff, I'm fine. Besides, it's a bit late for that, what with that C-3PO act on the stage."

"Ewww! No way!"

For Kouko it was indeed a bit late, covering both ears and keening. Just like that, she trotted across the room, heading for the entrance. Chasing after her in confusion,

"Hold up, hold up, hold up! Put these on!"

In a corner by the entrance some convenience store sandals were lying, jumbled together. He tried to turn on the lights, but Kouko cried, "No no no!", and in order to escape she flew out the entrance door and was gone.

"See you tomorrow! I'll absolutely see you here!"

Called like that even, it didn't look too bad. Reluctantly, he intently watched Kouko get on the elevator from his door, and once it started down he went over to the veranda.

Kouko came out the entrance, dragging the sandals as she turned towards the sidewalk. On the roadway, redly lit by the free taxi sign, just one taxi waited. She got on that one.

Banri, pulling in his head with a feeling of relief, he nonetheless noticed that Kouko could be seen looking up from the taxi window. Of course she looked, or something like that he understood, but Banri calmly waved to her. He wondered if she saw it. He decided she hadn't.

<center>* * *</center>

The topic of the day--- you cannot deny the signs, he thought.

As he walked, gazing out at the scenery, a tea plantation spread out before him, fluffy green domed stripes continuing into the distance, Banri was thinking. It smelled strongly of manure. "Hmm, what I see, what's that?", the tall electric fans for protection against frost looked down upon him, noticing and investigating him.

And then, afterwards, unable to stand it any longer, escaping--- because they were there.

He took Hikari from Tokyo station to Shizuoka, arriving in under an hour. After taking a breather at the Starbucks by the transfer gate, he took JR who knows more stations. His home station's monument: a tea bush disguised as an onion top. Apart from that, everything around the place seemed to say "tea".

To get home took not quite two hours. Some people do a lot of commuting, to school or to work, in their worlds, perhaps. A season ticket for the bullet train cost money, and Banri was on an allowance. In truth, he didn't have much choice. Nevertheless, he wanted out of the house, and that was the reason he gave Kouko.

"THE Shizuoka", so called, felt like walking through a tea plantation, some building's eaves extending out, trying to be seen as a town.

He entered a lane deeply shadowed by fruit trees, through an open gate and went to open the door. It was unlocked.

"...I'm hooome..."

Speaking of remembering, he was already remembering.

"This is home!", he'd been told, and since for one year he lived there, the memories of that time had already given him the feeling it was "home".

He was taking off his shoes so he could surprise his mother when she came out,

"...What are you doing!?"

"I had some free time, and for some reason I came back here."

"Eh!?"

She stared in wonder at the son who had suddenly come back from Tokyo for no particular reason.

He only had enough for one way of the round trip... that was Banri's real reason for coming, but mother didn't care in the least.

By the morning after his confession to Kouko, he was feeling acutely embarrassed, remembering it. They'd arranged to meet up that evening, but he had no idea what they could have talked about if they did. In the how many hours until the evening, he didn't even know what to do to make it a lively occasion.

If that's the way it is, then let's go home, he thought. Going home for a bit, until the evening time would certainly cease to flow, the wait filled with conversation. Frankly, they talked too much. Though he didn't feel the need to run away from the memories of last night, at least for the moment he was able to escape from living alone.

And besides, afterwards, there was one more thing.

"I haven't eaten aaanything since morning. I wanna eat something."

"Why so sudden? If you're coming back, then call and tell me you're coming back! I'm going over to Grandma's place to work in her garden this afternoon! Since you're back, you want to come too? The season has just arrived, and it's a real mess over there."

"It's okay, I'll pass. Today's just a visit. I've got things to do this evening."

"Eh? What's that? Is that so?"

Having asked for food, and having said a few things to butter up his mom, he went up to his second-floor room.

There was something he thought he ought to look at.

Throwing his small solitary bag on the bedspread, he had no choice but to open the room's closet, filled with one year's worth of memories. Having taken to his new home only plain clothing, his high school uniform was hanging there, placed neatly in order. His mother had done that, of course.

He then pulled out a cardboard box. Pulling it out on the floor, he ripped off the tape and opened it. A broken cell phone and a high-school graduation album, stored away as remembrances, perfectly preserved.

How many hours before?

In the quiet of his home, he'd received a text from Kouko. The message, perhaps because of the tension of the morning, maybe due to the hangover, was awfully long. In that place, such a sentence it was.

'Thinking about things like being rejected, refusing Tada-kun would be pretty much the same thing.'

Reading it, he did not understand it right away.

He considered it for a while, thinking. Almost certainly he had to another person--- the Banri from before knew many people, perhaps that Banri had rejected someone, so to speak.

That he had lost all his memory of the time when he was living in this room was a pain he could not avoid. He even worried that people might try to come over. But, being unable to remember hurt, and Banri completely refused to tell his mother. He didn't want them to come and meet him. He didn't want to make contact with them. He didn't even consider getting his cell phone repaired, so he would be found by those from before. And then he left home, as if he were escaping.

I've died, he thought, and wanted to forget.

Being lost, for the second time and knowing there was something big he could not get back, was scary.

Setting the self he had never known aside, he picked up an album from where it was stashed in the cardboard box.

He wasn't perfect--- something large had been broken in him. That sort of thing was hard to accept. For the moment perhaps, he couldn't do anything.

But, he wanted to change.

Being rejected hurts. Not being accepted hurts. Looking at pain directly hurts. By the recognition of that pain, first of all, accept the way you are now, he thought.

Even though he'd not been required to in the time he'd lost, if anything was accomplished by the birth of this self, he wanted to make that time important. That is to say, you cannot help but do it. So he thought.

From now on, if he met somebody, even somebody he'd met in the past, even himself, whomever it might be, he did not want to reject them.

For that reason, he opened the album. He needed just a little bit of courage. When first he opened the album cover, a strange, light sound came out.

"...Whaa..."

When he immediately saw his own face in it's proper place in the picture, a smiling class portrait, he gasped a little. Third year, class 4, Tada Banri. Tenth in the line.

He traced his fingertip slowly over his unknown self, and his unknown classmates' faces. He still had a feeling of dread towards what he had felt, but could no longer recall. He suppressed those feelings; he wanted to know who they were. He wanted to become able to.

But, his heart was beating fast.

To the front and down the line from the unknown Tada Banri, the person photographed giving a peace sign. The fifteenth person in the line.

Hayashida Nana.

"...Eh?"

From inside the album, a bunch of Polaroid photos had slipped out. Picking them up, he examined them. Quite a few of them were scribbled on, in bold letters. On one, in a different handwriting, "Banri's an idiot, nearly", was written. The two in the picture were messing around, looking at each other cross-eyed. "You've forgotten even your graduation!!!", was scribbled around the picture's edge.

"Linda passed on to college, Banri got held back.", was all else that was written.

There were pictures of just the two of them. In the classroom, in the gymnasium, on the grounds, in clubrooms, in uniform, in jerseys, smiling widely, even the fillings in their teeth showing, and a long wooden bridge.

Smiling, cheek to cheek.

"...Wh, what...? What the heck...? ...Linda-senpai...?"

Remember, don't forget!

Did Linda say something like that?

He stood up.

His socks slipping on the flooring as he took off running from his room,

"Banri!? Isn't your ramen boiling!? Where're you going!?"

"Hold on! Hold on, lemme see..."

As he pulled on his shoes, what he understood,

"To the bridge!"

The bridge wasn't very far from the house. Not entirely understanding yet, he searched for something as he ran. Just what he was looking for still didn't yet know. "Still, if I don't go...", he thought. He ran and he looked. If there was something he had to do there, something he had to get, whatever it was he wanted it. It struck him that he wanted nothing but to do that.

There was a paved path from amongst the mountains, so you could ride down. At such times he thought, "I've gotta get a scooter license, I really do." As he was passing by, he saw to the side a red banner on which was written, "The Entrance for the Seven Gods of Good Luck."

Before long, the long, long bridge came into view before him.

"...What, how ridiculous...!?"

It hurt to breathe. Gasping, he started to cross the bridge. This was the bridge from which Banri fell. What on earth happened at that time, nobody knows. Since the Banri in question had forgotten, and not even the police really knew.

"...Linda-senpai... How could it be...!?"

Show me, please, he muttered. Why, were you next to me? You, who are you? To me, what, what are you? Why don't you talk with me any more?

Passing the midpoint of the bridge, suddenly his feet stopped. Exhausted, he began to collapse.

"...What is this weird sound...!?"

Oddly cloying, the suggestive feeling brought by the ringing of the bell echoed unexpectedly amongst the mountains. Iya<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, boka<nowiki>~~~</nowiki>n, ufu<nowiki>~~~~</nowiki>n, with such a mood. The ringing of the bell--- who did it?

Dizziness took him to his knees. He clung to the guardrail. So as not to look down, he closed his eyes. It might have been a hangover. Unable to stand up, Banri covered his face with his hand. Dizzily, his feet shook. No, was it the bridge that was shaking?

It was at that moment.

While the idiotic bell was sounding, on this bridge, he realized he was hearing the sound of many feet running towards him.

Reflexively he looked up, and then, he saw a bunch of people passing by. He saw the form of the lead runner. The guy saw him too. He was looking fixedly at Banri's face, his jaw slack, looking like a fool.

That guy---

"Banri!"

Is that me?

Calling his name, grabbing him by the elbow, was that Linda?

What, what's this? What the heck is going on? To resist the dizziness, as if his brain were being spun around, he bit his lip. Mumbling, he felt thick-headed and slow, as if he were anemic.

Opening his eyes once more, it was just the bridge still, continuing on. There was nobody else. He couldn't hear the bell anymore. ...Was it a dream, maybe? Was it an aftereffect of his accident? Was his head somehow going funny? Or was it simply from his hangover? Or, was he just misinterpreting something he had seen?

Coming back to his senses, in his back pocket his cell phone was vibrating.

'Banri?'

"''Yana''-ssan..."

'What's with you, where are you? Out? Something I, today in some free time... I mean, I'd like to talk a bit. About yesterday, various things... could we do that?'

"...I'm... not here..."

"Huh? What? I can't hear you very well."

A dying cherry tree by a dry river bed, a big sky. The voices of friends. A long bridge. A strong breeze. Other than Banri, there was no one else on the bridge.

Only Banri stood there now, alone, standing still amongst the scenery. In the middle of reality, existing. The ramen was boiling, his mother was getting frustrated, in such a moment he existed.

If he were able to recognize it as it was, he could perhaps forever be at peace.

<center>* * *</center>

Tada Banri was looking at Linda.

The sports science lecture suddenly getting cancelled, amongst the students hurriedly breaking up, he spotted Linda's form. Linda noticed Banri's gaze too, and waved, "See you, Tada Banri." While Banri gazed at that face, he could not move. There was so much he wanted to ask her. But he could not. Not knowing her reason for keeping the secret, he didn't know what he did and didn't know. Wanting to ask her, "What? Do you have something?", Banri kept on looking at Linda's face still.

A beautiful girl, her long beautiful hair carefully done, was looking at the back of Banri's head. Her name is Kaga Kouko.

At Kouko's profile, with a complicated look, but hiding so as not to be discovered, a slightly sunburnt guy was watching. His name is Yanagisawa Mitsuo.

Behind Mitsuo, having noticed earlier where he was looking, a girl was thinking about whether or not to call out to him. Her name is Oka Chinami.

Though the familiar faces were present, though he had not taken sports science, another guy had come into the classroom. His name was Satou Takaya.

Passing through the background, like a dark shadow there was a woman. Her name, of course, is NANA.

My name is Tada Banri.

I've died, an eighteen year old boy.

Unnoticed by anyone, without anybody knowing, I've always watched after Tada Banri's affairs. I see everybody's affairs.

I'm sitting in the first seat behind, taking it easy, legs stretched out. Today the sunlight is really strong, and the classroom is warm, making everybody sleepy. While staring at the boring back of Banri's head, I find my eyes are closing by themselves. I'm getting awfully sleepy.

For now --- black-out.

:The End

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| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Postscript|Postscript]]
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</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4

2013-11-12T07:51:30Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 4==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 4==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 150.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri is turning into a tuna-fish.

In spite of being awake, he can't seem to get up, his body stretched out on the bed and his eyes open in slits, just like a cat's. He is just like a tuna-fish hauled up to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaizu,_Shizuoka Yaisu]... for a half-hour already Banri has been like a tuna-fish.

In the entrance-way, corridor and the kitchen, despite it being early in the morning, the veil of darkness has been torn, as if forgetting the night. In the shadowy corner, sitting on a second-hand stool, I've been watching Banri, the tuna-fish.

Facing the two open windows to the northwest, today's weather looks good again, the morning sunlight shining in gently through the cotton curtains he had purchased at a home-center. But as bright as it is around the window, the light doesn't reach to the middle of the room.

By the time they were deciding on this room, they had stopped hesitating over other possibilities. If the place had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washitsu Japanese-style room] facing south, then by this hour even the room's nooks and corners would be brightly lit by the morning sunlight, and it would certainly feel nice. Of course that property was good, I am thinking even now. But the wardrobe was big. That room's closet is too small, and already clothes, pajamas, bags and such are already starting to be scattered here and there.

Wrapped up in an eggshell colored sheet, his face still a little puffy and disheveled, Banri as usual was only just opening his eyes. Banri's body wasn't moving, and the still unhealed scratches and sores over all his body were not to blame. Neither were the new complications with people, nor the hectic life of a student, nor the feelings of getting used to living alone.

Every now and then, Banri searches for me.

It's getting to feel as if by holding on to his dreams he was getting clues, as if he thinks that by not moving, he might catch his quarry unprepared, so with his eyes alone he is searching for me. He is understanding that it is futile, and he is planning to stop, but he searches anyway.

"How does he hope to find me?", as if he could hear me if he tried. But even if he could hear, "What in the world? Why are you searching?", he wouldn't understand. Finding and catching me, would that return me to inside of him? Or perhaps, would he erase me entirely? Even so, that guy would not even understand my so-called existence. Such a thing he just cannot do.

So then, Banri, realizing the impossibility of what he was doing, as usual became dejected. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes once more, as if he were awfully tired, bothered by nothing working, and before long crawled under the sheets once more. However many times he did it, even leaving his parents' home and living alone, Banri still didn't change. Still, here he was.

I knew what Banri was going to do next. After all, haven't I seen this show so many times before? Hiding under the sheets, Banri has after a while fallen asleep again. In the time I've existed, after all, how many times has he fallen into this trap? It's called falling back to sleep. This sleep is strangely powerful, heavy and deep, hitting Banri all at once. Even having set his cell-phone alarm to wake him up, with a required exposition on criminal law that he hadn't even started on, Banri doesn't even twitch.

Getting down from the strangely comfortable stool, I approached the bed. Buried near the pillow was the cell-phone, once more making noise. This time it wasn't the alarm that went off. It was from Linda. Wake up, Banri.

If he were to out and say, "Hello, who is it?", Linda would sure be surprised. ...But no, she wouldn't be particularly surprised, would she? There wasn't anything mysterious about calling Tada Banri, or going out with Banri either, in a normal world was there?

Anyway Banri, wake up quickly. ...In other words, really get up. The noise from the alarm or from the cell-phone is making the lady next door mad, and she's hitting the wall. There it is again, the strangely hard sound is frightening.

Doesn't that hurt her fist?

<center>* * *</center>

"Mr. Two Dimensions! Hey thanks! Heeyy Thaaankkss!"

"Noo proobleeem! Catch yooouuu laaateeer!"

"Toomoorrooww! Aarrouunndd luunnchhtiimmee!"

"Soouunnddss fuun!"

"Oookaaay theenn!"

"Toomoorrooww theenn!"

Giving a big wave, as if somebody were leaving the dock on a ferry, Banri saw off Mr. Two Dimensions, who went ahead at a brisk pace. He could see his back as he was swallowed up in a group of students, like a young girl holding both hands before his chest,

"Mr. Two Dimensions, Satou Takaya-kun... good luck with your job at the tempura shop! No matter what, don’t get yourself burnt...!"

He earnestly wished still more. As it happened, Mr. Two Dimensions' high-school nickname was "Satou Taka". Anyway, according to the guy himself, rather than be called by that name, he preferred Mr. Two Dimensions "forevermore."

Yanagisawa, staring at Banri with an amazed look in his eyes,

"Causing problems even for Mr. Two Dimensions, really, what were you doing?"

He drank down the cloudy green tea he had put into a bottle of black oolong tea. "In other words," his voice continued awfully scratchy, now in scolding mode.

"When I first saw your text message, I thought that was absolutely the strangest thing ever. Really, were you truly in mortal danger? How could you not notice? To begin with, taking along new students who weren't even proper members of the club to a training camp in April, wasn't that a bit strange? And you followed along blindly even so?"

Not even talking back, Banri's shoulders slumped. His honor as the elder, completely fallen. In the past such a problem didn't exist, even in theory.

That nightmare of a Saturday, driving back to Tokyo with the freshmen, Mr. Two Dimensions was unable to contact Banri and Kouko, no matter how much time went by, and wondered if he ought to report it to the police. He finally was able to get connection to Banri's cell-phone, and when he'd managed to explain the situation, "Are you all right!? We're fine~, Kaga-san had left too, we were really scared~!", Mr. Two Dimensions was crying into the phone. "Sorry for leaving you behind", he said again.

Remembering it now, he was truly sorry. Having caused somebody to worry about him, having been apologized to, all of it was inexcusable.

"Enough, really... even I don't understand my foolishness... a feeling like 'help me'. Save me from myself!, so to speak."

"But though there's Banri, there's also Kouko. She is such an airhead!"

While Yanagisawa leisurely went descending the stairs, he gazed longingly at the bit of tea powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle and let out a sigh.

"Did she even understand what kind of dangerous situation she was going through? ...Anyway if she was safe, then I suppose it was OK."

Banri pushed the arch of his foot against a corner of the stairs in order to shamble after Yanagisawa. The hard corner stimulated his still-sluggish feet. Having done so felt good, somehow.

They were engulfed in the hustle and bustle of school building at lunchtime, with people heading to the cafeteria and others heading to meeting places, some coming, some returning, some meeting, some separating. The people coming and going to their destinations made a lot of noise. Owing to the classrooms being on an upper floor, Banri and Yanagisawa, like Mr. Two Dimensions, watched the people coming up from the lobby one floor below.

At a landing of the stairwell, while gleefully swinging around a corner by catching the handrail, Yanagisawa looked down at Banri's face.

"In spite of having sent a text-message, 'Don't go, it looks suspicious', there wasn't even a reply. What about that?"

"Omaken"

"So, if you hadn't accidentally run into those Omaken people, wouldn't you have been in real trouble?"

Nodding while saying "Yes, you're right", he slipped at the corner trying to do the same thing Yanagisawa had done. Yelping idiotically while dropping his briefcase, he banged his shin against the steps, a direct hit. He saw stars. A group of girls passing close by laughed a little.

"...Hey, what's he doing? Banri's really dumb, isn't he?"

Unable to even answer from the pain, Banri then and there crouched down on the stairs. It's not as if he'd been endowed with the physique, power and will-power of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkei Musashibou Benkei]. Even if Banri were your average person, or perhaps some low-life rascal, keeling over and dying from the impact would not have been funny.

"O...www...!"

"That must've hurt. That made quite a bang. Right on the shin, too. Aah, just because I couldn't get ahold of you, was I going to just casually text Kouko!?"

"...To Kaga-san? ...That... well certainly... 'Fuaaaaaa!'...?"

While rubbing his shin to dull the pain, Banri looked up at Yanagisawa as he gathered up Banri's stuff. Yanagisawa shook his good-looking face from side to side.

"No, the surprising thing is that there was no answer. Ever since Saturday I've been completely ignored, in the usual way. Apart from that night, she's not paid any attention to me at all. ...Did she get back safely?"

"For sure, brought back together in the car of an Omaken senpai, an older girl."

"You went together to her house? Her parents' home?"

"Well, maybe, what of it? She called, ‘It's over there, this is good enough, thanks for the help!' and got out at the intersection, though."

"Which intersection?"

"Which, I cannot say... or even if it's all right to say."

For now, he bent over and tried to see how things were going with his still hurting shin. When he rolled up the cuff of his bluejeans, his limited vision shook.

Behind Yanagisawa. Stunningly bright, rose-pink with a bold, dark red flower pattern. Silk fluttering lightly, one-piece dress wonderfully frilly. At this point, he had no idea how a person could be so skilled at dressing up stylishly in such gaudy clothing.

He made a small ‘x' sign with his finger to be quiet, warning him "It's Kaga-san, over there!" He sent Mitsuo a private signal, as he was half hidden from Kouko by a fire door.

Emphasizing more than usual her luxuriant hair, a snow white hair-band. Sandals and bag also snow white. Even at a distance clearly beautiful, lips painted deep red, today's Kouko again was perfectly lovely.

Yanagisawa turned his back, not noticing. Kouko, in effusively good humor and spirits, showed her sparkling smile and spun herself around so as to show the hem of her skirt especially for Banri. She looked for all the world like a matador. The other students passing behind her looked with skepticism, even hostile glares at the strangely behaving, gorgeous, perfect Kouko. Banri, however, understood the meaning of Kouko's mysterious behavior. The girl hadn't even replied to the text messages from her beloved Yanagisawa.

Shortly Kouko frowned, troubled by the situation with Yanagisawa, but trying to move on. That scenario would eventually have to result in "Kuoukuoo!" In short, moving on to the stage of "Look here, take me!" Yanagisawa was the bull. The matador, Kouko.

That Yanagisawa's gaze was suddenly directed intensely beyond Banri.

"Chinami!"

Reflexively, Banri also turned around and,

"Ah, it's ''Yana''. What'cha doin'?"

A short girl, like a middle-schooler, was approaching them with a smile.

It was the first time he'd seen her.

Or rather, that voice. It was so cute, Banri found himself smiling automatically. Not in the sense of acting like a fool, of course.

"We had classes down below, and now that it's over we were coming back up. What's Chinami up to, by herself?"

"Yep. Being a good kid, this afternoon I've got nothing going on. I'll be alone at lunch too."

Completely the voice actor, doing roles like young girls chattering, she was what you could call an anime voice person.

She didn't seem to be assembled quite right: looking too young to be a student, with a voice too sweet. It hardly suited her small form. In other words--- her voice wasn't the only cute thing.

For a first meeting with the girl, she was somehow excessively cute. The more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. While Banri without thinking focused on what he was seeing, yet he wanted Mr. Two Dimensions to see, as he thought these dimensions took cuteness to a new level.

Her visibly long, soft hair was only loosely gathered, and in spite of not wearing makeup her skin seemed to glow. Her looks and small build made her seem like a child from some foreign country. Showing a boyish silhouette in worn demins, but matched with a handmade lace-collared blouse, she had some sort of rustic outfitter's day-pack on her back, the which made her delicate form stand out in the crowd.

Whether that was stylish or not as girls go, for the time being, if you looked at it through Banri's eyes as a boy, it was a bit clumsy, or rather, to put it bluntly, primitive, he was thinking, but strangely, it was good. Setting aside whether it suited his taste or not, if there were a hundred guys, ninety-five of them would be trying to get her attention, trying to touch or poke, trying to get a reaction. Wouldn't he be thinking of such things? Of course Banri was amongst the ninety-five.

"Come to think of it, you two haven't ever talked before, right? Banri, this is Chinami. Chinami, this guy is Banri."

"Don't call me that!", unexpectedly speaking in unison, Banri and that kid, exchanging glances with Chinami. With a soft voice Chinami laughed. She smiled with her eyes too, and they turned into lines. She seemed to be smiling innocently, with nothing hidden on the other side of it.

Not saying even a single word, Banri looked back at her smiling face earnestly. And then Yanagisawa was looking at Chinami too. Intent on not missing even an instant, his eyes were chasing after her, not even blinking, watching Chinami's smiling face, like a fairy spontaneously coming out of the deep, thick forest. Even Banri could see what was going on.

This feeling. This ''Yana'' fellow. It seemed like---

"No way! We said it in harmony, didn’t we? Pleased to meet you. I'm Oka Chinami. ''Yana'' and I met at a film research club recruiting party."

---She was just right for him.

"Err, nice to meet you. I'm Tada Banri. ''Yana''-ssan almost certainly has some connection with my previous life. Or rather, Oka,"

"Call me Chinami. Being called 'Oka' makes me sound like I'm an old maid."

"Ah. Then hey Chinami, China... excuse me, but this is a little awkward. I'll call you Chinami then. Chinami, ...excuse me, even this is hard to stop. Eh, Oka..."

Chinami looked at Banri's face, apparently with great curiosity as he spoke stupidly. Her dark eyes were a little bleary from being a natural airhead. It gave the impression of little letters spinning around in the middle of the pupils in her eyes. Inside such as little Chinami, around five hundred little heart marks wanted to call out. No no no, come back to earth.

"With Oka, that makes the third person with a two-syllable last name. There's Tada, Oka, and one more person, ...Kaga..."

With that tricky way of mentioning Kouko's name, Banri was casually trying to get a reaction from Yanagisawa. But the expression on his face didn't change. Didn't change, or perhaps because he was too enchanted, staring fixedly at the adorable Chinami, that other things, for example Banri's uninteresting and plain face, weren't even noticed. It appeared that he didn't even hear the name of his inconvenient childhood friend.

Chinami's eyes twinkled from Banri's dumb joke while she nodded at him.

"Wow, is that so? There's Hara, the girl in Film Research too! Counting Mita, the guy from phys-ed, just how many two-syllables are there here? This time, why don't we gather together a few two-syllable people and have a small drinking party? With this unexpected connection, we might have gotten something fun! Then I'll call for ''Yana'' too. Hey look, Ya-na, you're two syllables!"

She bumped Yanagisawa's elbow with her own, messing around.

Yanagisawa, looking even happier from that,

"Huh? But I'm five syllables, my real name has five syllables! We're in different classes!"

He bumped her back, his elbow to hers. His knock was stronger.

"Eh, finally, in spite of your saying you would call me, ihyahya! Hold on, hyaa!"

Chinami's last "Hyahahahaha!" went flying away as high pitched laughter. To blame was Yanagisawa, who was attacking her, tickling her sides. While she was laughing loudly "I'm ticklish! Stop it!" and trying to escape him, Yanagisawa was going after Chinami even harder, torturing her.

Kouko didn't even understand what she was seeing.

Or rather, she did. ...She was there, close by.

Remembering the situation, Banri's breathing caught. With what kind of face Kouko was looking at Mitsuo in his shamelessness, he was afraid to check. Was she about to blow up, or was she in shock?

Unthinkingly failing to read the mood in their behavior, she went to separate the happy couple against their will. Forcing her arm between the two with all her strength, she separated them. Quite angry that he was being touched by Miss Chinami, she grabbed Yanagisawa roughly by the side.

"Ya, na, s, sa, n, it's true that your real name has five syllables! Chinami-chan, let's call him that! In a party for two-syllables he's the wrong kind of guy! He's quite the sexual harasser! Please be careful with the brute! Hey!"

"Haha, that's true! ''Yana''-ssan is five syllables! Hey, stop that!"

"That's not my real name! Or rather, hey, ow, hold on, ouch, really, Banri, what are you doing!?"

"Is this what it feels like to have your chest ripped off!?", with the seriously unpleasant feeling of having his body torn apart at the shoulder, right then,

"...U!?"

Banri saw beige-pink claws, gripping like eagle's talons. There was no sound of crunching from Yanagisawa's bones, but there should have been from the force by which he was turned around.

"Mitsuo, what are you doing?"

Smiling sweetly--- a beauty, no longer a deadly weapon.

Standing firm in her loveliness, Kouko was smiling like a demon.

Her long eyelashes swayed as she slowly winked. Peeking through her deep red lips could be seen pure white teeth, tinged with blue. Striking a balance as if calculated, her dark brown, shining hair fell over her right shoulder.

"...Have I any relation to you? What are you doing?"

Yanagisawa coldly brushed away Kouko's hand, which was grabbing his shoulder.

Banri was strangely nervous, having watched over the situation of Kouko and Yanagisawa for a while now. Standing so close their feet overlapped, Kouko looked up at Yanagisawa, still smiling elegantly. Yanagisawa's good humor took a nose-dive at once, as he looked down at Kouko scowling.

Perhaps, Kouko should not have made her appearance. It would been better if she had simply played at, "Look what I caught!" So Banri thought. Nonetheless,

"Is there something going on here? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She really ought not to speak that way, like warning a child, as if looking down upon him, her nose in the air. She shouldn't be showing that perfect smile, as if she were enjoying herself, tormenting him. Stop it, Kaga-san... though he was thinking so, the message wasn't getting through to Kouko.

Kouko, still showing a shocked expression, gave one small shake of her head, causing the hair prettily wound about her slender neck to come undone and fall downwards. Folding her arms elegantly, she slowly raised her chin higher. She posed in a way that shifted her weight to one leg. Her frilly skirt fully fluffed out, emphasizing her slender waist, her silhouette was completely that of a queen bee.

"I don't want other women chatting with my lover."

"I am not your lover!"

"'Just chatting, but cheating', how many times have I said that?"

"'I am not your lover!', how many times have I said that?"

"I would like you to stop doing things I hate."

"How you fail to understand what I'm saying."

"Mitsuo says things like that because he doesn't listen. 'I would like you to stop doing things I hate,' I said. It'd be good if he'd obey, too. Because with only that much, everything can be made perfect."

Chinami was still stiff, as if surprised, just watching the strained argument between Kouko and Yanagisawa. Then she quietly turned one eye towards Banri. She whispered to Banri, "What's happening?", but her voice was noticed,

"What in the world?"

The haughty eyes of the queen bee looked impatiently at Chinami.

"What was that?"

"...Eh? That...m, me...?"

"Where did that voice come from?"

"Fr, from my mouth..."

"Mouth! From your mouth! That voice! What in the world!", Kouko as if amazed opened her eyes wide, looking up once to the heavens. And then turning about with her perfect smile,

"Though it doesn’t matter that this mystery person showed up, to take a pass at Mitsuo for the moment. I am not begging, but commanding. Mitsuo isn’t just a lover. We’ll be planning our marriage soon. Understand? Marriage it is, marriage. Ma-rra-i-ge. It is destined. From the start you and I have been set apart from the world. Understood? Do you not understand? Understand! Now! At once! Right here!"

Pointing her finger at her, she approached Chinami.

"Eeh...?", Chinami, truly bewildered, blinked, unable to say anything.

Face to face, the difference in their heights was less than four inches. Richly colored brand-name clothing and sparkling jewelry on her, Kouko with one hand on her hip, her chin raised. And then looking down on the petite Chinami,

"---Hmph. Oka Chinami, eh?"

She looked at her with both eyes, as if examining something smelly a cat left at the side of the road. Unexpectedly, her high-heeled sandals were stepping on the toes of Chinami's boots. Banri too reflexively gulped, seeing she was willing to fight dirty. Certainly the type to put a thumbtack into a rival's toe-shoes. The type to have a pin on their fingertip when giving a handshake.

"I remember that name, for sure. Though I don't know what I've Chinami'd, well, do you like to Chinami? You live on your own? By all means, do as you please."

"...Huh...? Rather, you see, unfortunately my feet..."

"However, somewhere else in world from where we're at. Don't come near us. Don't bother us. Don't come near Mitsuo. Mitsuo is mine. Is that warning enough? Understand that there will be no warning next time."

"Kouko, stop it."

His handsome face freezing like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#Masks Noh mask], Yanagisawa stood in front of Kouko, giving Chinami his back as if to shield her.

Kouko, unconcerned, simply brushed Yanagisawa aside, putting herself even closer to Chinami. Bending over Chinami's forehead, her lips so close she could have kissed her, Kouko's fingertip pointed up at Chinami's chin like a gun.

"It's because you attacked. People like you are eliminated in a moment. Because that's the world. ...I will do anything. If you don't like that, then go to the ladies room and shiver, but why don't you leave? Why don't you just go hibernate for fifty years, or better yet a hundred twenty years."

A sweet voice coming from an elegant smile, she was a complete villian.

"Hey, didn't you realize? Isn't it really bad manners to reach out and touch other people?"

"Kouko, shut up."

"Hey, aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up! Behave yourself!"

Grabbing the chain of Kouko's purse, Yanagisawa pulled on it. Losing her balance on her high-heels, Kouko took a quick step, staggering. Looking up at Yanagisawa's expressionless face, it seemed like for the first time she realized. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but immediately tried to regain her queen-bee expression,

"Go somewhere else."

"...So it is, Mitsuo. Send me a text-message, thanks. What we talked about, OK?"

"That's enough, I'm leaving. Chinami, let's go eat lunch. Banri!"

Called out to, Banri gulped, strangely awkward.

"Well, that, err, I... we have an appointment with that Omaken senpai. ...Kaga-san and I together."

Yanagisawa never even looked towards Kouko. Still as expressionless as ever, he looked at Banri's face for three seconds.

"OK. Then I'll text you when we get back."

He turned his back to them.

"Ah, ''Yana''-ssan!"

Still uncomfortably holding his tongue, he left, walking beside Chinami. He called after that back.

"You have to put water in before you can drink it! And then the tea powder!"

"Calm down!", he thought, "Calm things down a bit!" It had no effect at all. Yanagisawa raised one hand as if tired, turning back to only Banri, answering "later". Parting the stream of students, their backs shortly disappeared.

Banri let out a long breath. While combing up his bangs, he returned to Kouko's side,

"Kaga-san, hold on, say what you like..."

He paused to catch his breath again.

"...However you want to say it, what was all that...!?"

The detested side of Kaga Kouko, the villian, was standing behind him.

She was so scared that sweat was running on her forehead, on her neck, in fact, from all over her body. I could tell since, right now, wham! I was able to see that she was proudly folding her arms, perhaps by chance that pose,

"...By chance are you hiding the sweat of your armpits...?"

Kouko didn't answer. As if she hadn't heard anything, she was looking away, her face beautifully composed.

Nonetheless, her whole body strangely bathed in sweat, she stayed put, both hands holding her armpits. Even her face was settling down to a blank expression, deathly pale. Normally she would be brighter, her expression clearing.

"For once, are you feeling guilty...?"

Still unable to open her mouth, she suddenly nodded at Banri's word.

"I mean really, something's already dripping... it looks pretty bad... are you OK?"

Once more, a nod. And then a few words, "Since there is no bread, I want to eat cake," though with a note of sarcasm,

"Perhaps I should go dry myself in the bathroom."

Simply that.

Sure, why not..., Banri nodded. While seeing off Kouko to the girl's bathroom, her arms still folded in a strangely stiff pose, he checked the time on his cell-phone.

"Well..., if you could hurry up... it will shortly be time for our meeting with Linda after all."

Shaking her head quickly as if she were a broken puppet, Kouko disappeared beyond the bathroom door.

That was the last he saw of her figure.

---But that was not at all what he meant. Kouko appeared again after several minutes. She had at last put on the cardigan, and her hair and makeup was perfect. "Sorry I took so long, Tada-kun", even showing a smile, it seemed she had managed to restore her normal, entirely perfect outward appearance. But,

"...Are,"

"Don't go asking 'Are you OK?', because I'm fine."

"...Bu,"

"Don't go saying 'But you see,' because I'm fine."

"...Ka,"

"Don't go saying 'Kaga-san, what are you doing?' Don't go telling me 'Are you an idiot?' Because I understand. I know. I'm foolish. Yes, a big disaster. Yes, yes, yes, I'm guilty. I was hated for that again today. On the way to the disaster I already knew it, but I could not stop, I could not admit defeat, knowing how many years I've been doing the same thing over and over again, something I cannot give up! So it is, because I'm a fool! But having been convicted, there's nothing I can do about it! And I can't turn back the hands of time! ...But sorry about that, let's hurry up. Let's not keep the Omaken senpai waiting."

Not letting Banri get a word in edgewise, with a toss of her hair Kouko walked out.

Since were it possible to say anything like "You're looking good now", then she would probably have to reply "Do you really mean it?"

The sound of her high-heels echoing wasn't as confident as usual. Neither her energy, nor her spirit, not her vitality, nor hardly anything else was sufficient.

<center>* * *</center>

Regarding the rescue of Banri and Kouko after they got into their mess in the mountains, the start of term training camp for the "Japanese Festival Cultural Research Society" was going on in the seminar house. ...Their nickname, Omaken. The nickname came from '[[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Omaken|Festival Research Society]]'. She said, "There was talk going around the student affairs office right away, you see. 'A strange bogus club was trying to infiltrate the school, scattering pamphlets around, inviting people to join.' "

She was Hayashida-senpai.

Hayashida Nana, her nickname Linda. A natural born Japanese. This was the person that first noticed Banri when he called for help.

"You did such a thing for our sakes?"

While walking close behind, in spite of Kouko speaking, Linda was looking over her shoulder, and could be seen smiling and shaking her head. Seeing her that way, Banri was once again surprised at how unexpectedly normal a person she seemed to be. ...Wasn't saying such things rude? But, this Linda before him chatting and the Linda which on the day of the entrance ceremony materialized before him from the Edo era and threw him a kiss, he had a feeling they were the same person.

Just a little shorter than Kouko, with a softer voice, walking briskly with both hands stuffed into her pockets, her attitude was recklessly peaceful, filled with quiet force.

"It wasn't just for you two! It's self-defense, sort of."

There was that face. That of a saint.

Because of with her gentle, beatific face, even her long stride, even her casual way of talking, she didn't seem boyish in any way.

"'Omaken', to put it simply, do research into the old and admirable Japanese custom of the Cultural Festival, taking part in those times, leaving a legacy for future generations... though we're doing the typical activities, though you could say our presence is not required."

With every word she said, Linda's colorless lips seemed to wrinkle, pursing tightly.

"Of course, isn't it a little suspicious? I cannot say for sure that festivals and religious beliefs are not completely unrelated. Not that long ago, there was a big religious sort of event around here, and I've heard that for a long time afterwards they kept our club under a close eye, suspicious of us. Given that background, we've tried to present ourselves as a perfectly normal, respectable club whenever we have the chance. We tell everybody, 'We aren't strange, really, and being lumped together with such strangeness is troublesome for us. We would like to cooperate with you fully to expel these suspicious elements.'"

"I see..."

Nodding while walking alongside Kouko, Banri casually gave the elbow of her cardigan a tug. The two of them stepped quietly over some Monday Special, thrown out earlier in front of a tavern, not looking down at it.

In this part of town, a lot of old office buildings one after another, more than students one could see the forms of salarymen out for lunch. Their company IDs hung from their necks but stuck in their shirt pockets, the white-shirted forms moved along in groups, all the tired faced adults, impossible to tell apart one from another, materialized from here and there. Linda, like a worldly cat, easily weaved her way through the gaps in the men. They stuck with her after that, but Banri and Kouko were still a little slow.

"Catching up with you two, well, was really dangerous. Even the Student Affairs Office was saying they understood. It was just now becoming a problem at other colleges. That 'religion', so to speak, might even have been a pyramid scheme, from the awful amount of accessories, amulets and such that were being purchased. It was really good you could escape, oh, you can buy lunch here."

Clad in pretty fluorescent colored Nikes, her feet stopped. It seemed from a glance as if Linda had flinched a little, passing beneath an old sign, carefully lettered. "Auntie!", she called, and a woman wearing an apron appeared from the back at once.

"Good to see you again. We're sold out of today's special, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaage Karaage], croquettes, hamburger and even seaweed bentou. Would you like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu Tonkatsu] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menchi_katsu Menchi]?"

"Today's special's out!? Karaage and hamburgers too!? What's this place coming to...!"

"If only you’d come 15 minutes earlier..."

"Eh, then we'll settle for menchi."

"It's not polite to call it menchi."

"I'll take menchi gladly! What would you two like?"

Same for me, answered Banri's voice, and Kouko too nodded her agreement. "Three menchi, if you will", said Linda, giving the order. "Three menchi, as you wish", said the lady, immediately taking the order into the back. From somewhere back inside the tavern, a voice sang back "As you wish!" "Oh, possibly...", said Banri slowly bending way back, looking up at the letters on the sign. But, his back was struck by something,

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter since it's a chain shop. It was just for the atmosphere."

He was convinced that Linda, with her face of a saint, could see through anything and everything. Hmph, a small laugh in a strange voice could be heard from Kouko. Somehow or other, from the state she was in, sweating all over and ashen faced, she seemed to have recovered.

His mind relieved, Banri with undisguised curiosity,

"By the way, have you ever had menchi, Kaga-san?"

He asked Kouko and watched.

"Have I? Why?"

"Balls of ground meat, dipped in batter and deep-fried in oil. Casual food for the masses, eh?"

"Yeah, I already knew that! There're things to eat, you know."

"There are. ...Is that so?"

Looking at Kouko's face blandly answering, without thinking Banri smiled. Menchi for Kaga Kouko. Such things didn't seem to go in combination. Kouko went with wine, foie gras and caviar. In his mind's eye, she polished an expensive diamond on her finger while drinking expensive imported wine and holding a Persian cat. Wearing some kind of gorgeous gown, naturally, the term "rocking chair" came to mind at once.

Listening to their picking and choosing, Linda too looked back, bouncing her wallet in her hand while watching Kouko and grinning.

"Terrible. It doesn't suit you at all."

Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines as Banri. He said "of course it does", miming holding a brandy glass and rocking his body back forth. When the proper term came to mind, he said "A rocking chair."

"Is that so? But I like menchi. My favorite food is salted fish and smoked radish pickles... With regards to [http://www.donbei.jp/ Donbee], I'm in the deep blue [http://japanesefood.about.com/od/udon/r/kitsuneudon.htm Kitsune Udon] club... Err, don't worry, I'm paying."

"That's fine, it's my treat. Though just for today, OK? With how you guys have been looking worn out lately, I'm not worried about collecting $2.50 in lunch money from you."

"Cheap!", Banri exclaimed in surprise. It really looked like there was deflation all around. From now on they needed to check this store, and there was no way he was going to reveal it, even for a certain temporarily down-on-his-luck princeling.

"That, really, must be too miserable. As for me, in dreams I've seen it all. In the dead of night, wearing only house slippers. Four syllables passing through my mind like an escaped prisoner."

"It's not four syllables!"

Like the upperclassman she was, Linda quietly ignored the retort. She got some small change from her wallet and without a word pushed it roughly into Kouko's hand, accepting the three boxed lunches stuffed in a single bag.

"You're welcome! Come again!"

Receiving $10 in change from the lady, she walked ahead of Banri and Kouko once more. Almost an attack, Banri's hand was reaching out, taking the unexpectedly heavy bag.

That night, when Banri and Kouko lost their way, it seems that they had been walking towards the real college seminar house without knowing it. Their shouts in the woods were heard by Linda, and they were rescued by everybody in her training camp. They explained their situation and the next morning, they were sent back home by car.

They owed her a debt of gratitude that could not be forgotten.

Consequently, both Banri and Kouko were already able to commit themselves to her permanently.

They didn't know for sure just what they were doing for Omaken, but whatever they were going to be doing, the feeling didn't change. In this way the decision was made.

Apparently the older Omaken had struggled with a shortage of help in the past. Overjoyed, they had invited the two of them over. So today, as it turned out, just like that, that they were going to show up for the noon meeting.

In the whole little campus town, there really wasn't anything really cool for a clubroom, so under normal circumstances, they gathered around the lecture building first floor lobby table, or got together at a local coffee shop, and then once in a while, like today, they might rent the district meeting hall.

There were so many things they might do: dress up in kimonos and rescue people from samba dancers, opening a rally, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onbashira sliding down a mountain path riding atop a log], aim at targets while mounted on horses, wolfing down rice cakes, [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Naki Sumo|letting babies cry in a sumo arena]], stuffing themselves with mountains of food--- Japanese festivals were really so many things--- And Banri was planning to do them. Kouko must have been thinking the same thing too.

"Take a look, that yellow building over there. We've been using it for generations. We practice over there, in our first floor club-room."

Linda looked back over her shoulder, she pointed at a rather old three story building. Then,

"Remember it well. Don't forget, first-years."

She smiled at Banri and Kouko's faces.

The line of her jaw was divided into many pieces by her swaying hair, the light of the sun showing through brightly. As it was, as if about to go running she wore a nylon hoodie with a logo on it. Pants reaching only just past the knees. Calves. Slim ankles. Brightly colored, not quite new NIKEs. Her face looked out over the slightly bossy upperclassmen.

She tried to hold herself aloof from the world, light and breezy, but not too invisible. The neighborhood with Linda's form in it grew strangely comfortable for Banri. How in the world did he wind up spending the rest of the day with her? He had a hunch it was going to be fun. Banri's spirits rose at once, but,

"...?"

Suddenly he felt he was suffocating. His feet stopped.

To untangle his memory. "Don't forget!"

"Don't forget, Banri---" It seemed as if Linda's voice were catching in her throat. Making noises in the hot lining of her throat, as if she wanted to cry for him.

...Wanted to, but no, why would she call out to Banri?

"Aren't you coming, Tada Banri! What're you doing?"

Called out to by his exact full name, Banri, confused, shook his head. He didn't understand at all. He didn't have time to stand there and brood. Chasing after Linda and Kouko, he went into the refreshingly cool entrance. Advancing down the dim corridor, they opened a door.

Before his nose, the smells of tatami mats and bentou lunches combined. Like something they'd come to dearly miss, they were everyday smells.

"In here we take off our shoes, OK? You brought first-years!"

Their voices in chorus, "Whoa!", a bunch of people sitting around on the floor looked back over their shoulders. There might have been all of ten people, some of whom they recognized from their disaster. "We're terribly grateful for your help at that time…", they said, once more bowing their heads deeply as they said "It's a newcomer!", "The first newbies of the year!", "She's a pretty one!" and so on, brandishing their chopsticks at them and all of them applauding together in greeting. The atmosphere overpowering him, "Thank you…", said Banri feeling small and taking off his shoes.

Of course, slippers weren't really needed in this room, with its tatami floor. From wearing sandals that screamed "It's springtime!", Kouko was strangely uneasy going barefoot, suddenly becoming shorter, even more than Banri getting smaller and smaller, as she came inside.

Linda waved Banri and Kouko towards the middle of the room,

"That side's the third years, OK? Hi!"

The people in the area she pointed to gathered their voices.

"Hi!"

This time she pointed to an area a little apart,

"And on that side, the second years. Howdy!"

"Howdy!"

Seated in a circle, the people brandished their chopsticks.

"The fourth-years couldn't show, and you first-years are our first newcomers. Thanks!"

Involuntarily echoing, "Thanks!", raising one hand in the same pose Banri was giving them, Kouko simply blinked over and over again. It didn't quite fit her image as a lady.

"Well, first of all why don't we have lunch? Sit over there, here's a cushion."

In an impolite manner, but skillfully, Linda slid the cushions over the tatami, from their line against the wall over to Banri and Kouko with her feet. For her own part lowering herself to sit Indian style, she handed them their bentou lunches.

With Linda sitting on her cushion as if to separate Banri and Kouko, they accepted their lunches. Kouko knelt in a very lady-like manner, spread a large handkerchief over her lap and set her bentou neatly upon it. Banri too, unaccustomed to kneeling, opened up his bentou. Reflexively, a quiet "Whoa..." escaped him. He didn't think it was from deflated prices, but there was a large portion of rice and plenty of side dishes. This, simply put, was happiness.

"This lunch really perks me up... it's good! Will you be able to eat all of yours, Kaga-san?"

"Yes, probably. Linda, thank you for the food."

"You bet. Eat, eat. Since it's OK while we're eating, look over there, won't you? Since you're going to be involved with that group this year."

Linda pointed with her chopsticks at a laptop computer that had been left open on a table set near the window. The wide screen was filled by a video being played back,

"...Ah!?"

Without thinking, Banri slapped his legs. Of course, his chopsticks got stuck in his jeans.

"That outfit, wasn't it an Edo Period cosplay!?"

"Eh...", some of the upperclassmen turned their heads sadly at Banri's voice.

"Very much so! I can't invite anybody into the club without doing something cosplay!"

"I mean, isn't that so? Haven't I ever explained it?", Linda set down her chopsticks for a moment. Raising her face once more, she turned around to face Banri and Kouko.

"Well, you can't really call it cosplay, though. That time I had barely started practicing, really, since at that point I was only dressed the part. We Omaken do something different every year. In fact, last year we were in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi Yosakoi Soran]. We were thrown in as a backup group for a team from an alliance of colleges, though. And now this year we are that!"

On the notebook monitor, the characteristic light step, the waving of hands. Lines of women together wearing bamboo hats and formations of men with twisted hand-towels wrapping their heads. Light out, well into the evening. Crowds along the way, dripping sweat. Japanese summer. Summer festivals.

"Since the Omaken was organized, well, for the second time in four years! What was it now? Yeah, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa_Dance_Festival Awa Odori]! That's it!"

Excitedly shouting "No way!", they applauded.

"That's just it--- we will be in the Dance of Fools. You will become fools and dance like crazy, newcomers."

From the beginning Banri had been a fool anyhow, but would Kouko be all right with that?

<center>* * *</center>

Staggering, her feet tangled up,

"I, can't... no, self-confidence..."

Kouko muttered in a low, low voice.

While they were walking together, side by side, Banri couldn't find the words to comfort her.

The Omaken senpai were still in the rehearsal room, practicing. Entering the third-floor lecture hall and giving their excuses, Banri and Kouko in spite of being underlings had managed to escape.

"Is there anything to drink? Even water to buy?"

While nodding, Kouko caught a curl that had somehow escaped and went to put it back with her fingertip. It slipped from her fingers and fell back down, all the way to the tip of her nose.

The upperclassmen from other universities that were at the training camp that rescued Banri and Kouko a few days before--- every year, they recruited teams from all over the region to participate in Awa Odori, and gave them personal coaching. And now, Linda was taking the two newcomers who hadn't been to the training camp under her wing, this year's Awa Odori practice having already started,

"My inadequacy... what should I do about it? My sense of rhythm? My reflexes? Or is it more in my head?"

"Sort of. We're still just starting, I've not done it before either."

"I got the feeling you can do it. At least, you have the makings more than I."

"My 'makings' are greatly exaggerated. From the very beginning I haven't had such."

"...But if you don't have it, then where am I...?"

Banri handed over a bottled water he had bought from a vending machine to Kouko, who stood there sighing miserably. Saying "Thanks...", she opened the top to take a drink,

And started coughing.

Had something gone down her windpipe? Kouko was choking and coughing violently. Dropping by the wayside, the lid went rolling towards a storm drain. Kouko followed it with her eyes, moaning "Aaa..." in an extremely miserable voice. "That" Kaga Kouko, up til then had been getting weaker and weaker. If Oka-chan had been there right then, she might have been able to get back at the bully queen--- but unable to say anything because of the mood, Banri quietly watched Kouko as she was.

Not that it was all that hard a thing to do.

In any case, it was only the first practice session. No, calling it a rehearsal was perhaps a bit much. It was just an introduction, no more.

Without even music, their feet still barefoot, just beating time "1, 2, 1, 2". With no distinction between the men’s dance and the women's yet, they just tried beating time on their knees. Unable to speak with Linda, that was all they did.

On the tatami mats, all the Omaken stood evenly spaced, facing a mirror that had been installed on one wall. Then, with their feet spread to about shoulder width, both their hands open and lifted overhead, standing lightly on tiptoes. Calling out, "Here we go!", very casually, bent at the knees, simply rising and falling to the rhythm. "Loosening up, floating, it's the secret to dance", Linda said over and over again.

To this point Banri was having no problem. Some of the upperclassmen could already step out with alternate feet, fluttering their hands about, already doing it in that unique Awa Odori style.

Though what they would do had been decided, his mind spun around, "Awa Odori… is that so? Awa Odori, eh?" He felt awkward, but as he watched the older students lined up, in their T-shirted forms, with their light-footed changing steps, it dawned on him that they seemed a bit cool. Wearing twisted towels for sweatbands, showing stylishly, their heels visible sticking out of rolled down socks, wearing them as if only their toes were stuck in there... even all that was cool. Immediately imitating them, Banri checked that his socks were rolled down too.

However, there was Kouko.

Together 1, 2, 1, 2, for the time being they moved their necks back and forth. Over and over again.

But, they were slipping. Falling into the same rhythm as in the mirror, his head moving with the others lined up reflecting back. By itself, Kouko's head, unsteadily, wobbly, wasn't moving along with the rest.

Did she realize she was the only one out of synch? She was frantically trying to keep up with the rest, yet seemed not the least bit discouraged. From the very start her feet spread, twisting around, pigeon-toed as if she were feeling shy, her shyness held in check desperately, as if clinging to a boulder, her arms gradually descending weakly, towards the front as she had been learning to do. Her face was becoming steadily more rigid from the strain; she was becoming like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariti Kishibojin], about to die.

"Kou-ko, Kou-ko, Kaga Kou-ko! Relax a bit! Take it easy! Laugh! Smile!", Linda over and over again called out to her. Each time, she tried to laugh a little, but Kouko's overly serious dance had no trace of flexibility at all. You got the feeling she was to crack at any moment. Her ever-perfect smile was a hundred million light-years away.

He understood, though he had forgotten the faces, as it was walking forwards and saying to Linda, "...C-3PO?" ---A strange thing, that he could remember something like that perfectly. Without even thinking he had put it into words. Some of the upperclassmen snorted when they heard it.

Kouko stopped practicing at once, her face going red.

"...Omaken, I'm beat, could we stop...?"

Banri was partially to blame in this, too.

Still holding the seemingly useless water bottle with the missing cap, Kouko slumped her shoulders and weakly muttered.

"I mean... sorry, Tada-kun, I, I forgot to give you money for the water..."

"It's OK, it's OK, as far as I'm concerned, it's no big deal. We've only just started. Besides, don't we owe Omaken? Have you forgotten already?"

"I haven't forgotten our debt, of course not. But... I've been thinking that perhaps we're going about paying them back the wrong way. Somebody like me, I'm just a burden. Maybe there's a better way than by joining a club. ...For example, a contribution. ...Or something like that."

"Aren't there other ways of paying them back that are better than money? Besides, if you were to quit, wouldn't that leave me by myself? Let's try to work together a bit more!"

"...Any more, embarrassing, carrying on..."

Looking a bit resentful, Kouko stared at Banri's face.

"That bit about C-3PO was bad of me! Sorry, really. I didn't intend to embarrass you, nor did I plan to tease you, it just came out..."

"...That's OK. Besides, you've not been trying to do such things to me, from the very start."

They started walking once more. Kouko let out a big sigh and spoke to herself.

"So it is... the very idea of coming here to college was a mistake. I've been messing up from the very start. Though I'm late, after all this time... what am I going to do..."

"You've got to where you're saying such things. Didn't you want to come to college with ''Yana''-ssan? For now, that being the case, isn't it all right to say you accomplished that?"

"...But he's been avoiding me like the plague..."

"So lately it's been getting to be a game of playing hard to catch. That being the case, why not just let him be and let's go do Awa Odori, you and I together!"

"...But..."

"And then, on with the plan! We'll kick back and laugh for all to see! In black leather, having whips and whatnot for S&M bondage. Because that becomes Kaga-san."

"...I don't have such things..."

"Then buy them! It absolutely suits you!"

Chatting while they returned to the university building, Banri muttered "over there...", and stopped in his tracks. It was too late to change direction. Kouko saw the same thing Banri did.

At a table in the corner of the lobby, deep in conversation about something fun were the forms of Yanagisawa and Chinami. Since summer vacation they'd always seemed to be together, sitting facing each other, looking into each other's eyes, laughing like idiots, about ready to tip over the bench. It looked like the two of them didn't even realize Banri and Kouko were there.

Feeling as if he were breaking out in a cold sweat, Banri tried to quietly sneak a glance in Kouko's direction. He was afraid that she would charge at them again, just like before, with them as sitting ducks. But, this time, like you might expect,

"...It seems I cannot try today either. It'd be better if I just go home."

"Kaga-san"

"Today's been the worst."

Turning back at once, Kouko, her pretty skirt waving turned and went back down the street they'd just come down. Banri reflexively tried to follow after her,

"Kaga-san..."

"I'm OK!"

As if getting the better of herself, Kouko's voice hardened.

"...Since I'll be returning by taxi, here's fine. See you later, Tada-kun. Thanks for the water. ...Try to think about doing Awa Odori by yourself."

She trotted off, as if escaping from the lobby she left. Left behind alone, Banri must have lost his bearings for a moment.

In the end he returned to the lobby, to the table where Yanagisawa and Chinami were deep in conversation, then attempted to interrupt them by getting up on the table.

"Oh, Banri. What's with that entrance? I'd just now finished a text, I mean, what are you doing?"

"Interrupting your conversation."

Even though Yanagisawa seemed to be laughing merrily, he told him to shut up, and Chinami, looking as cute as ever, quickly rescued a water bottle so the bothersome Banri wouldn't knock it over.

"Hey, Chinami and I, we've officially joined Film Research. Won't you come in too? So let's make a movie, a movie! We might even be able to steal the competition from the upperclassmen."

"But I've gotten involved in doing Awa Odori."

"Ah, Awa Odori? Did you say ‘Awa Odori'?"

"That's what I said."

"...Why?"

"Because of Omaken. Together with Kaga-san."

"Kouko?"

Yanagisawa's eyebrows could be seen rising automatically. Surely thinking about how disagreeable things had been recently. Chinami seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and staring at him.

"Eh, Awa Odori? You're kidding, that's good, where might that have come from? They're doing wonderful things in many places, aren't they! Amazing, amazing!"

Turning a smiling face to Banri, her eyes innocently brightening, she started playfully moving her hands. It wasn't Awa Odori, ''funny uncle, funny uncle, funny uncle you funny uncle, I couldn't even see you''. But.

"...Oka-chan, you're cute, aren't you..."

"Eh!?"

"...And besides, you're a good kid, right..."

"W, what!? What's going on!?"

"...But in truth, are you not awfully black-hearted? Aren't you hiding under that tattered clothing a lush body that wickedly leads boys around by the nose? Is there not blooming, deep in the Oka-chan jungle, its sinful nectar dripping down thickly, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia Rafflesia] flower?"

"Ehhh...!?"

"...Will it not bloom, the Oka-fflesia..."

"Y...yes!?"

"Hmph, is that so? You've really become Yana-ssan's favorite.", Banri saw Chinami's face go red in apparent confusion. She seemed to be feeling really awkward about part of the nonsensical compliments Banri had been spouting just now. Blinking her eyes, like a lost squirrel just come out of the woods tilting her head, she had both of her hands to her flushed cheeks. So was really cute doing that. Both in appearance and voice she's pretty, honest, innocent and true, and above all there's a very nice feeling about her. Warm, kind, and stable. Very much so. If they were already getting along, then they were the strongest players in the game.

Suddenly, he turned to face Yanagisawa.

"Yana-ssan. I somewhat understand your feelings..."

"So really, what are you..."

"...You'll understand..."

While he gazed down at Yanagisawa's stunned expression, Banri closed his eyes, exhausted. C-3PO, though, was unchanging inside, like Chinami, but its specifications had to have been built in. At least Banri thought so, though unfortunately, it's shiny golden body was a bit too much.

Rather, show off those wires! ...If he had anything to do with it, nobody else would be troubled.

<center>* * *</center>

Tuesday's second period, a lecture on law.

Afterwards, it being time to go and eat lunch together, Banri inserted himself between Mr. Two Dimensions and Yanagisawa, sitting shoulder to shoulder on a bench.

After skipping the period in spite of Law being a required subject, he had the devil's own choice of fourth or fifth period on Saturday, which was almost entirely freshmen (and, a few upperclassmen who'd failed before). Or so he supposed.

He stealthily opened the door in the back of the spacious classroom, so as to not make any sound to alert the professor. Looking over his shoulder, Banri noticed something was wrong. Kouko wasn't there. Crouching down because she was late, a girl he didn't know crept in.

Kouko had not yet materialized. Perhaps she'd taken the day off. Towards the middle of the lecture, in spite of a ban against it, he opened up his cellphone and below his desk started putting together a text message. "Aren't you coming to Law?", was all, without even any funny symbols.

Mr. Two Dimensions lightly poked him in the elbow. Then, with a mechanical pencil on a scrap of Banri's looseleaf paper, "Watcha wanna eat?" "Cafeteria food?" "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Burger Mos]?" "I want rice." "A Rice Burger?" "Something else.", they wrote to each other in turns. Yanagisawa tapped the two of them lightly with his fingertip, getting their attention, he pointed over to the side with the tip of his pen. Chinami was right over there.

She kept a straight face, her pocket copy of "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Codes The Six Codes]" standing on her desk so as to hide what she was doing with her fingertips. Whether stylish for the girls or not, she wore eyeglasses with thick black rims, the lenses jutting out from her face, and it seemed as if she were seriously hiding something she was doing, like sewing or knitting. Carefully moving her fingers in a practiced way, the girls seated to each side were looking on, seeming quite interested. "You're not really serious", she exaggeratedly lip-synched over to Yanagisawa. Mr. Two Dimensions watched Chinami for a little while too, then on the notepad wrote, "Yana's girlfriend? The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arale_Norimaki Arale-chan] glasses are a little odd, though in three dimensions they're cute."

If it weren't for the awkwardness, Yanagisawa would have said "Yeah, really." Lip-synching "You - are - wrong" with his hands to both sides of his face, he twisted his muscular body. It looked like he had already forgotten completely the embarrassing events of the day of the opening ceremony. And then, suddenly snatching away Banri's mechanical pencil, he scribbled.

"She's not my girlfriend yet!"

The emphasis made Banri secretly nervous. Yet, it was only part of it. There was also the matter of his mechanical pencil being used. The lead was spent. About 0.001mm had definitely been used up. Yanagisawa didn't notice the nervous aura about Banri, and was writing down even more nonsense.

"Though it'd be nice if there were any hope...if you know what I mean."

He laughed softly, grinning wide enough to split his face.

What was with that face?

Even saying "though", what are you up to? "If you know what I mean" shouldn't be allowed either. Writing it the way he did in particular should not be allowed. He had the urge to kill someone. Just as he was self-consciously composing his irritated face, the cellphone on his lap buzzed softly. It was an answer from Kouko.

"I'm not feeling too good today (sweat drop), so I'm taking a break (sweat drop)."

Reading that through reminded him of the state Kouko was in yesterday.

Getting to where she could hardly keep her feelings of jealousy under control, unfairly condemning both Yanagisawa and Chinami, and then, in that way, towards herself more than anybody or anything else, she looked like she was hating, feeling ashamed of, shunning and condemning herself. Her appearance shouted, "What's the use? What's done is done."

When in situations where others could see her, not a single drop of sweat would fall from her. Not for one moment would her smile fall. Reigning like a queen, she could not be ignored. Hiding herself alone, her whole body in a cold sweat from embarrassment and regret, unable to get up and come here this morning, there wasn't a single person in this world able to understand the clumsiness of such a girl --- but no, was there? To other girls, to this world, she was only one more.

Banri closed his cellphone and held it tightly. A person who had been able to glimpse all the abundant opportunities for this untrained girl.

Was there one around here?

"Chinami isn't just cute, she's interesting, she's got a good personality and a really good head. Seriously, she's just right for me!!!!!!"

---And here he was, scrubbing roughly with his erased the exclamation marks Yanagisawa had written so emphatically they'd extended out over part of the notes he'd taken from the blackboard, as if he'd gotten angry. "Ah, what!?", he muttered at Yanagisawa as he quickly erased it. Erasing while thinking.

Getting bothered by such a thing as this.

He was feeling irritated, even mad.

What is this state of so-called 'perfection'?

Having neatly erased back to the conversation with Mr. Two Dimensions, Banri turned a sullen face towards Yanagisawa. "What was that for!?", Yanagisawa cast a bewildered eye back at Banri. He had no idea just what he should be doing. He didn't know what he wanted to become. But no, he didn't want to get angry at friends, nor at Yana-ssan. But he wasn't able to control himself.

But if he were to write "But of course, he loves Kouko most of all. He will date Kouko and marry her.", would Yanagisawa be happy about it? Would it make this irritation go away? But simply thinking and theorizing about it wasn't going to make it happen.

It wasn't funny.

Not understanding at all what Kaga Kouko was to Yanagisawa, that wasn't funny.

But in the meantime--- he only barely understood women, immersed as he was in simple illusions about them. He was already drunk with an unbased sense of superiority, seeing that even though Yana-ssan could not understand the foibles of his childhood friend, he himself, having hardly met her, was understanding her. Though there was really no way she would want to come and check him out, he wanted to think there was.

He shoved his cellphone firmly into his back pocket.

Is there really such a thing as giving sympathy?

To become convinced that somebody else is quite like oneself, adding on their cares as if they were your own, getting close to that person, and feeling their pain as if it were your own. Is that what is called giving sympathy? If that is so, then sympathy seems to be quite selfish, and borderline hysterical.

Besides, one wouldn't have any control at all.

"If there's hope for Oka-chan, what about for Kaga-san?"

Taking back his mechanical pencil from Yanagisawa's hand, Banri scribbled in rough strokes. "Eh!", Mr. Two Dimensions looked towards Yanagisawa's face in surprise.

"Is there some connection between Kaga-san and ''Yana''?"

"Kaga-san has wanted to marry Yana-ssan since they were kids."

"Wha!? What's that!? Are you kidding!?"

"Kaga-san is in LOVE with Yana-ssan"

"!?!?!?!?"

Yanagisawa wrote all over Banri's writing with his pen, erasing it. And then, frowning at Banri as if they weren't friends, he wrote boldly.

"I've told Kouko clearly whenever I've had the opportunity. Though I've always said it clearly, this time for sure, I made it clear. I made it understood. Because Chinami and I are thinking we really want to go out."

"Opportunity, when!?", Banri thought, unable to say anything from emotion, looking down at what Yanagisawa had written.

Kouko was nowhere to be seen around school Tuesday, nor Wednesday.

Perhaps it was just a little time to recover and come back, and the mail that Banri received was about Thursday night.

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Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4

2013-11-12T07:12:02Z

Perfect Chaos: The word "for" here makes it seem like certain sides of the room are for exclusive use of the 3rd years or something.

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 4==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 4==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 150.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri is turning into a tuna-fish.

In spite of being awake, he can't seem to get up, his body stretched out on the bed and his eyes open in slits, just like a cat's. He is just like a tuna-fish hauled up to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaizu,_Shizuoka Yaisu]... for a half-hour already Banri has been like a tuna-fish.

In the entrance-way, corridor and the kitchen, despite it being early in the morning, the veil of darkness has been torn, as if forgetting the night. In the shadowy corner, sitting on a second-hand stool, I've been watching Banri, the tuna-fish.

Facing the two open windows to the northwest, today's weather looks good again, the morning sunlight shining in gently through the cotton curtains he had purchased at a home-center. But as bright as it is around the window, the light doesn't reach to the middle of the room.

By the time they were deciding on this room, they had stopped hesitating over other possibilities. If the place had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washitsu Japanese-style room] facing south, then by this hour even the room's nooks and corners would be brightly lit by the morning sunlight, and it would certainly feel nice. Of course that property was good, I am thinking even now. But the wardrobe was big. That room's closet is too small, and already clothes, pajamas, bags and such are already starting to be scattered here and there.

Wrapped up in an eggshell colored sheet, his face still a little puffy and disheveled, Banri as usual was only just opening his eyes. Banri's body wasn't moving, and the still unhealed scratches and sores over all his body were not to blame. Neither were the new complications with people, nor the hectic life of a student, nor the feelings of getting used to living alone.

Every now and then, Banri searches for me.

It's getting to feel as if by holding on to his dreams he was getting clues, as if he thinks that by not moving, he might catch his quarry unprepared, so with his eyes alone he is searching for me. He is understanding that it is futile, and he is planning to stop, but he searches anyway.

"How does he hope to find me?", as if he could hear me if he tried. But even if he could hear, "What in the world? Why are you searching?", he wouldn't understand. Finding and catching me, would that return me to inside of him? Or perhaps, would he erase me entirely? Even so, that guy would not even understand my so-called existence. Such a thing he just cannot do.

So then, Banri, realizing the impossibility of what he was doing, as usual became dejected. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes once more, as if he were awfully tired, bothered by nothing working, and before long crawled under the sheets once more. However many times he did it, even leaving his parents' home and living alone, Banri still didn't change. Still, here he was.

I knew what Banri was going to do next. After all, haven't I seen this show so many times before? Hiding under the sheets, Banri has after a while fallen asleep again. In the time I've existed, after all, how many times has he fallen into this trap? It's called falling back to sleep. This sleep is strangely powerful, heavy and deep, hitting Banri all at once. Even having set his cell-phone alarm to wake him up, with a required exposition on criminal law that he hadn't even started on, Banri doesn't even twitch.

Getting down from the strangely comfortable stool, I approached the bed. Buried near the pillow was the cell-phone, once more making noise. This time it wasn't the alarm that went off. It was from Linda. Wake up, Banri.

If he were to out and say, "Hello, who is it?", Linda would sure be surprised. ...But no, she wouldn't be particularly surprised, would she? There wasn't anything mysterious about calling Tada Banri, or going out with Banri either, in a normal world was there?

Anyway Banri, wake up quickly. ...In other words, really get up. The noise from the alarm or from the cell-phone is making the lady next door mad, and she's hitting the wall. There it is again, the strangely hard sound is frightening.

Doesn't that hurt her fist?

<center>* * *</center>

"Mr. Two Dimensions! Hey thanks! Heeyy Thaaankkss!"

"Noo proobleeem! Catch yooouuu laaateeer!"

"Toomoorrooww! Aarrouunndd luunnchhtiimmee!"

"Soouunnddss fuun!"

"Oookaaay theenn!"

"Toomoorrooww theenn!"

Giving a big wave, as if somebody were leaving the dock on a ferry, Banri saw off Mr. Two Dimensions, who went ahead at a brisk pace. He could see his back as he was swallowed up in a group of students, like a young girl holding both hands before his chest,

"Mr. Two Dimensions, Satou Takaya-kun... good luck with your job at the tempura shop! No matter what, don’t get yourself burnt...!"

He earnestly wished still more. As it happened, Mr. Two Dimensions' high-school nickname was "Satou Taka". Anyway, according to the guy himself, rather than be called by that name, he preferred Mr. Two Dimensions "forevermore."

Yanagisawa, staring at Banri with an amazed look in his eyes,

"Causing problems even for Mr. Two Dimensions, really, what were you doing?"

He drank down the cloudy green tea he had put into a bottle of black oolong tea. "In other words," his voice continued awfully scratchy, now in scolding mode.

"When I first saw your text message, I thought that was absolutely the strangest thing ever. Really, were you truly in mortal danger? How could you not notice? To begin with, taking along new students who weren't even proper members of the club to a training camp in April, wasn't that a bit strange? And you followed along blindly even so?"

Not even talking back, Banri's shoulders slumped. His honor as the elder, completely fallen. In the past such a problem didn't exist, even in theory.

That nightmare of a Saturday, driving back to Tokyo with the freshmen, Mr. Two Dimensions was unable to contact Banri and Kouko, no matter how much time went by, and wondered if he ought to report it to the police. He finally was able to get connection to Banri's cell-phone, and when he'd managed to explain the situation, "Are you all right!? We're fine~, Kaga-san had left too, we were really scared~!", Mr. Two Dimensions was crying into the phone. "Sorry for leaving you behind", he said again.

Remembering it now, he was truly sorry. Having caused somebody to worry about him, having been apologized to, all of it was inexcusable.

"Enough, really... even I don't understand my foolishness... a feeling like 'help me'. Save me from myself!, so to speak."

"But though there's Banri, there's also Kouko. She is such an airhead!"

While Yanagisawa leisurely went descending the stairs, he gazed longingly at the bit of tea powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle and let out a sigh.

"Did she even understand what kind of dangerous situation she was going through? ...Anyway if she was safe, then I suppose it was OK."

Banri pushed the arch of his foot against a corner of the stairs in order to shamble after Yanagisawa. The hard corner stimulated his still-sluggish feet. Having done so felt good, somehow.

They were engulfed in the hustle and bustle of school building at lunchtime, with people heading to the cafeteria and others heading to meeting places, some coming, some returning, some meeting, some separating. The people coming and going to their destinations made a lot of noise. Owing to the classrooms being on an upper floor, Banri and Yanagisawa, like Mr. Two Dimensions, watched the people coming up from the lobby one floor below.

At a landing of the stairwell, while gleefully swinging around a corner by catching the handrail, Yanagisawa looked down at Banri's face.

"In spite of having sent a text-message, 'Don't go, it looks suspicious', there wasn't even a reply. What about that?"

"Omaken"

"So, if you hadn't accidentally run into those Omaken people, wouldn't you have been in real trouble?"

Nodding while saying "Yes, you're right", he slipped at the corner trying to do the same thing Yanagisawa had done. Yelping idiotically while dropping his briefcase, he banged his shin against the steps, a direct hit. He saw stars. A group of girls passing close by laughed a little.

"...Hey, what's he doing? Banri's really dumb, isn't he?"

Unable to even answer from the pain, Banri then and there crouched down on the stairs. It's not as if he'd been endowed with the physique, power and will-power of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkei Musashibou Benkei]. Even if Banri were your average person, or perhaps some low-life rascal, keeling over and dying from the impact would not have been funny.

"O...www...!"

"That must've hurt. That made quite a bang. Right on the shin, too. Aah, just because I couldn't get ahold of you, was I going to just casually text Kouko!?"

"...To Kaga-san? ...That... well certainly... 'Fuaaaaaa!'...?"

While rubbing his shin to dull the pain, Banri looked up at Yanagisawa as he gathered up Banri's stuff. Yanagisawa shook his good-looking face from side to side.

"No, the surprising thing is that there was no answer. Ever since Saturday I've been completely ignored, in the usual way. Apart from that night, she's not paid any attention to me at all. ...Did she get back safely?"

"For sure, brought back together in the car of an Omaken senpai, an older girl."

"You went together to her house? Her parents' home?"

"Well, maybe, what of it? She called, ‘It's over there, this is good enough, thanks for the help!' and got out at the intersection, though."

"Which intersection?"

"Which, I cannot say... or even if it's all right to say."

For now, he bent over and tried to see how things were going with his still hurting shin. When he rolled up the cuff of his bluejeans, his limited vision shook.

Behind Yanagisawa. Stunningly bright, rose-pink with a bold, dark red flower pattern. Silk fluttering lightly, one-piece dress wonderfully frilly. At this point, he had no idea how a person could be so skilled at dressing up stylishly in such gaudy clothing.

He made a small ‘x' sign with his finger to be quiet, warning him "It's Kaga-san, over there!" He sent Mitsuo a private signal, as he was half hidden from Kouko by a fire door.

Emphasizing more than usual her luxuriant hair, a snow white hair-band. Sandals and bag also snow white. Even at a distance clearly beautiful, lips painted deep red, today's Kouko again was perfectly lovely.

Yanagisawa turned his back, not noticing. Kouko, in effusively good humor and spirits, showed her sparkling smile and spun herself around so as to show the hem of her skirt especially for Banri. She looked for all the world like a matador. The other students passing behind her looked with skepticism, even hostile glares at the strangely behaving, gorgeous, perfect Kouko. Banri, however, understood the meaning of Kouko's mysterious behavior. The girl hadn't even replied to the text messages from her beloved Yanagisawa.

Shortly Kouko frowned, troubled by the situation with Yanagisawa, but trying to move on. That scenario would eventually have to result in "Kuoukuoo!" In short, moving on to the stage of "Look here, take me!" Yanagisawa was the bull. The matador, Kouko.

That Yanagisawa's gaze was suddenly directed intensely beyond Banri.

"Chinami!"

Reflexively, Banri also turned around and,

"Ah, it's ''Yana''. What'cha doin'?"

A short girl, like a middle-schooler, was approaching them with a smile.

It was the first time he'd seen her.

Or rather, that voice. It was so cute, Banri found himself smiling automatically. Not in the sense of acting like a fool, of course.

"We had classes down below, and now that it's over we were coming back up. What's Chinami up to, by herself?"

"Yep. Being a good kid, this afternoon I've got nothing going on. I'll be alone at lunch too."

Completely the voice actor, doing roles like young girls chattering, she was what you could call an anime voice person.

She didn't seem to be assembled quite right: looking too young to be a student, with a voice too sweet. It hardly suited her small form. In other words--- her voice wasn't the only cute thing.

For a first meeting with the girl, she was somehow excessively cute. The more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. While Banri without thinking focused on what he was seeing, yet he wanted Mr. Two Dimensions to see, as he thought these dimensions took cuteness to a new level.

Her visibly long, soft hair was only loosely gathered, and in spite of not wearing makeup her skin seemed to glow. Her looks and small build made her seem like a child from some foreign country. Showing a boyish silhouette in worn demins, but matched with a handmade lace-collared blouse, she had some sort of rustic outfitter's day-pack on her back, the which made her delicate form stand out in the crowd.

Whether that was stylish or not as girls go, for the time being, if you looked at it through Banri's eyes as a boy, it was a bit clumsy, or rather, to put it bluntly, primitive, he was thinking, but strangely, it was good. Setting aside whether it suited his taste or not, if there were a hundred guys, ninety-five of them would be trying to get her attention, trying to touch or poke, trying to get a reaction. Wouldn't he be thinking of such things? Of course Banri was amongst the ninety-five.

"Come to think of it, you two haven't ever talked before, right? Banri, this is Chinami. Chinami, this guy is Banri."

"Don't call me that!", unexpectedly speaking in unison, Banri and that kid, exchanging glances with Chinami. With a soft voice Chinami laughed. She smiled with her eyes too, and they turned into lines. She seemed to be smiling innocently, with nothing hidden on the other side of it.

Not saying even a single word, Banri looked back at her smiling face earnestly. And then Yanagisawa was looking at Chinami too. Intent on not missing even an instant, his eyes were chasing after her, not even blinking, watching Chinami's smiling face, like a fairy spontaneously coming out of the deep, thick forest. Even Banri could see what was going on.

This feeling. This ''Yana'' fellow. It seemed like---

"No way! We said it in harmony, didn’t we? Pleased to meet you. I'm Oka Chinami. ''Yana'' and I met at a film research club recruiting party."

---She was just right for him.

"Err, nice to meet you. I'm Tada Banri. ''Yana''-ssan almost certainly has some connection with my previous life. Or rather, Oka,"

"Call me Chinami. Being called 'Oka' makes me sound like I'm an old maid."

"Ah. Then hey Chinami, China... excuse me, but this is a little awkward. I'll call you Chinami then. Chinami, ...excuse me, even this is hard to stop. Eh, Oka..."

Chinami looked at Banri's face, apparently with great curiosity as he spoke stupidly. Her dark eyes were a little bleary from being a natural airhead. It gave the impression of little letters spinning around in the middle of the pupils in her eyes. Inside such as little Chinami, around five hundred little heart marks wanted to call out. No no no, come back to earth.

"With Oka, that makes the third person with a two-syllable last name. There's Tada, Oka, and one more person, ...Kaga..."

With that tricky way of mentioning Kouko's name, Banri was casually trying to get a reaction from Yanagisawa. But the expression on his face didn't change. Didn't change, or perhaps because he was too enchanted, staring fixedly at the adorable Chinami, that other things, for example Banri's uninteresting and plain face, weren't even noticed. It appeared that he didn't even hear the name of his inconvenient childhood friend.

Chinami's eyes twinkled from Banri's dumb joke while she nodded at him.

"Wow, is that so? There's Hara, the girl in Film Research too! Counting Mita, the guy from phys-ed, just how many two-syllables are there here? This time, why don't we gather together a few two-syllable people and have a small drinking party? With this unexpected connection, we might have gotten something fun! Then I'll call for ''Yana'' too. Hey look, Ya-na, you're two syllables!"

She bumped Yanagisawa's elbow with her own, messing around.

Yanagisawa, looking even happier from that,

"Huh? But I'm five syllables, my real name has five syllables! We're in different classes!"

He bumped her back, his elbow to hers. His knock was stronger.

"Eh, finally, in spite of your saying you would call me, ihyahya! Hold on, hyaa!"

Chinami's last "Hyahahahaha!" went flying away as high pitched laughter. To blame was Yanagisawa, who was attacking her, tickling her sides. While she was laughing loudly "I'm ticklish! Stop it!" and trying to escape him, Yanagisawa was going after Chinami even harder, torturing her.

Kouko didn't even understand what she was seeing.

Or rather, she did. ...She was there, close by.

Remembering the situation, Banri's breathing caught. With what kind of face Kouko was looking at Mitsuo in his shamelessness, he was afraid to check. Was she about to blow up, or was she in shock?

Unthinkingly failing to read the mood in their behavior, she went to separate the happy couple against their will. Forcing her arm between the two with all her strength, she separated them. Quite angry that he was being touched by Miss Chinami, she grabbed Yanagisawa roughly by the side.

"Ya, na, s, sa, n, it's true that your real name has five syllables! Chinami-chan, let's call him that! In a party for two-syllables he's the wrong kind of guy! He's quite the sexual harasser! Please be careful with the brute! Hey!"

"Haha, that's true! ''Yana''-ssan is five syllables! Hey, stop that!"

"That's not my real name! Or rather, hey, ow, hold on, ouch, really, Banri, what are you doing!?"

"Is this what it feels like to have your chest ripped off!?", with the seriously unpleasant feeling of having his body torn apart at the shoulder, right then,

"...U!?"

Banri saw beige-pink claws, gripping like eagle's talons. There was no sound of crunching from Yanagisawa's bones, but there should have been from the force by which he was turned around.

"Mitsuo, what are you doing?"

Smiling sweetly--- a beauty, no longer a deadly weapon.

Standing firm in her loveliness, Kouko was smiling like a demon.

Her long eyelashes swayed as she slowly winked. Peeking through her deep red lips could be seen pure white teeth, tinged with blue. Striking a balance as if calculated, her dark brown, shining hair fell over her right shoulder.

"...Have I any relation to you? What are you doing?"

Yanagisawa coldly brushed away Kouko's hand, which was grabbing his shoulder.

Banri was strangely nervous, having watched over the situation of Kouko and Yanagisawa for a while now. Standing so close their feet overlapped, Kouko looked up at Yanagisawa, still smiling elegantly. Yanagisawa's good humor took a nose-dive at once, as he looked down at Kouko scowling.

Perhaps, Kouko should not have made her appearance. It would been better if she had simply played at, "Look what I caught!" So Banri thought. Nonetheless,

"Is there something going on here? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She really ought not to speak that way, like warning a child, as if looking down upon him, her nose in the air. She shouldn't be showing that perfect smile, as if she were enjoying herself, tormenting him. Stop it, Kaga-san... though he was thinking so, the message wasn't getting through to Kouko.

Kouko, still showing a shocked expression, gave one small shake of her head, causing the hair prettily wound about her slender neck to come undone and fall downwards. Folding her arms elegantly, she slowly raised her chin higher. She posed in a way that shifted her weight to one leg. Her frilly skirt fully fluffed out, emphasizing her slender waist, her silhouette was completely that of a queen bee.

"I don't want other women chatting with my lover."

"I am not your lover!"

"'Just chatting, but cheating', how many times have I said that?"

"'I am not your lover!', how many times have I said that?"

"I would like you to stop doing things I hate."

"How you fail to understand what I'm saying."

"Mitsuo says things like that because he doesn't listen. 'I would like you to stop doing things I hate,' I said. It'd be good if he'd obey, too. Because with only that much, everything can be made perfect."

Chinami was still stiff, as if surprised, just watching the strained argument between Kouko and Yanagisawa. Then she quietly turned one eye towards Banri. She whispered to Banri, "What's happening?", but her voice was noticed,

"What in the world?"

The haughty eyes of the queen bee looked impatiently at Chinami.

"What was that?"

"...Eh? That...m, me...?"

"Where did that voice come from?"

"Fr, from my mouth..."

"Mouth! From your mouth! That voice! What in the world!", Kouko as if amazed opened her eyes wide, looking up once to the heavens. And then turning about with her perfect smile,

"Though it doesn’t matter that this mystery person showed up, to take a pass at Mitsuo for the moment. I am not begging, but commanding. Mitsuo isn’t just a lover. We’ll be planning our marriage soon. Understand? Marriage it is, marriage. Ma-rra-i-ge. It is destined. From the start you and I have been set apart from the world. Understood? Do you not understand? Understand! Now! At once! Right here!"

Pointing her finger at her, she approached Chinami.

"Eeh...?", Chinami, truly bewildered, blinked, unable to say anything.

Face to face, the difference in their heights was less than four inches. Richly colored brand-name clothing and sparkling jewelry on her, Kouko with one hand on her hip, her chin raised. And then looking down on the petite Chinami,

"---Hmph. Oka Chinami, eh?"

She looked at her with both eyes, as if examining something smelly a cat left at the side of the road. Unexpectedly, her high-heeled sandals were stepping on the toes of Chinami's boots. Banri too reflexively gulped, seeing she was willing to fight dirty. Certainly the type to put a thumbtack into a rival's toe-shoes. The type to have a pin on their fingertip when giving a handshake.

"I remember that name, for sure. Though I don't know what I've Chinami'd, well, do you like to Chinami? You live on your own? By all means, do as you please."

"...Huh...? Rather, you see, unfortunately my feet..."

"However, somewhere else in world from where we're at. Don't come near us. Don't bother us. Don't come near Mitsuo. Mitsuo is mine. Is that warning enough? Understand that there will be no warning next time."

"Kouko, stop it."

His handsome face freezing like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#Masks Noh mask], Yanagisawa stood in front of Kouko, giving Chinami his back as if to shield her.

Kouko, unconcerned, simply brushed Yanagisawa aside, putting herself even closer to Chinami. Bending over Chinami's forehead, her lips so close she could have kissed her, Kouko's fingertip pointed up at Chinami's chin like a gun.

"It's because you attacked. People like you are eliminated in a moment. Because that's the world. ...I will do anything. If you don't like that, then go to the ladies room and shiver, but why don't you leave? Why don't you just go hibernate for fifty years, or better yet a hundred twenty years."

A sweet voice coming from an elegant smile, she was a complete villian.

"Hey, didn't you realize? Isn't it really bad manners to reach out and touch other people?"

"Kouko, shut up."

"Hey, aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up! Behave yourself!"

Grabbing the chain of Kouko's purse, Yanagisawa pulled on it. Losing her balance on her high-heels, Kouko took a quick step, staggering. Looking up at Yanagisawa's expressionless face, it seemed like for the first time she realized. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but immediately tried to regain her queen-bee expression,

"Go somewhere else."

"...So it is, Mitsuo. Send me a text-message, thanks. What we talked about, OK?"

"That's enough, I'm leaving. Chinami, let's go eat lunch. Banri!"

Called out to, Banri gulped, strangely awkward.

"Well, that, err, I... we have an appointment with that Omaken senpai. ...Kaga-san and I together."

Yanagisawa never even looked towards Kouko. Still as expressionless as ever, he looked at Banri's face for three seconds.

"OK. Then I'll text you when we get back."

He turned his back to them.

"Ah, ''Yana''-ssan!"

Still uncomfortably holding his tongue, he left, walking beside Chinami. He called after that back.

"You have to put water in before you can drink it! And then the tea powder!"

"Calm down!", he thought, "Calm things down a bit!" It had no effect at all. Yanagisawa raised one hand as if tired, turning back to only Banri, answering "later". Parting the stream of students, their backs shortly disappeared.

Banri let out a long breath. While combing up his bangs, he returned to Kouko's side,

"Kaga-san, hold on, say what you like..."

He paused to catch his breath again.

"...However you want to say it, what was all that...!?"

The detested side of Kaga Kouko, the villian, was standing behind him.

She was so scared that sweat was running on her forehead, on her neck, in fact, from all over her body. I could tell since, right now, wham! I was able to see that she was proudly folding her arms, perhaps by chance that pose,

"...By chance are you hiding the sweat of your armpits...?"

Kouko didn't answer. As if she hadn't heard anything, she was looking away, her face beautifully composed.

Nonetheless, her whole body strangely bathed in sweat, she stayed put, both hands holding her armpits. Even her face was settling down to a blank expression, deathly pale. Normally she would be brighter, her expression clearing.

"For once, are you feeling guilty...?"

Still unable to open her mouth, she suddenly nodded at Banri's word.

"I mean really, something's already dripping... it looks pretty bad... are you OK?"

Once more, a nod. And then a few words, "Since there is no bread, I want to eat cake," though with a note of sarcasm,

"Perhaps I should go dry myself in the bathroom."

Simply that.

Sure, why not..., Banri nodded. While seeing off Kouko to the girl's bathroom, her arms still folded in a strangely stiff pose, he checked the time on his cell-phone.

"Well..., if you could hurry up... it will shortly be time for our meeting with Linda after all."

Shaking her head quickly as if she were a broken puppet, Kouko disappeared beyond the bathroom door.

That was the last he saw of her figure.

---But that was not at all what he meant. Kouko appeared again after several minutes. She had at last put on the cardigan, and her hair and makeup was perfect. "Sorry I took so long, Tada-kun", even showing a smile, it seemed she had managed to restore her normal, entirely perfect outward appearance. But,

"...Are,"

"Don't go asking 'Are you OK?', because I'm fine."

"...Bu,"

"Don't go saying 'But you see,' because I'm fine."

"...Ka,"

"Don't go saying 'Kaga-san, what are you doing?' Don't go telling me 'Are you an idiot?' Because I understand. I know. I'm foolish. Yes, a big disaster. Yes, yes, yes, I'm guilty. I was hated for that again today. On the way to the disaster I already knew it, but I could not stop, I could not admit defeat, knowing how many years I've been doing the same thing over and over again, something I cannot give up! So it is, because I'm a fool! But having been convicted, there's nothing I can do about it! And I can't turn back the hands of time! ...But sorry about that, let's hurry up. Let's not keep the Omaken senpai waiting."

Not letting Banri get a word in edgewise, with a toss of her hair Kouko walked out.

Since were it possible to say anything like "You're looking good now", then she would probably have to reply "Do you really mean it?"

The sound of her high-heels echoing wasn't as confident as usual. Neither her energy, nor her spirit, not her vitality, nor hardly anything else was sufficient.

<center>* * *</center>

Regarding the rescue of Banri and Kouko after they got into their mess in the mountains, the start of term training camp for the "Japanese Festival Cultural Research Society" was going on in the seminar house. ...Their nickname, Omaken. The nickname came from '[[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Omaken|Festival Research Society]]'. She said, "There was talk going around the student affairs office right away, you see. 'A strange bogus club was trying to infiltrate the school, scattering pamphlets around, inviting people to join.' "

She was Hayashida-senpai.

Hayashida Nana, her nickname Linda. A natural born Japanese. This was the person that first noticed Banri when he called for help.

"You did such a thing for our sakes?"

While walking close behind, in spite of Kouko speaking, Linda was looking over her shoulder, and could be seen smiling and shaking her head. Seeing her that way, Banri was once again surprised at how unexpectedly normal a person she seemed to be. ...Wasn't saying such things rude? But, this Linda before him chatting and the Linda which on the day of the entrance ceremony materialized before him from the Edo era and threw him a kiss, he had a feeling they were the same person.

Just a little shorter than Kouko, with a softer voice, walking briskly with both hands stuffed into her pockets, her attitude was recklessly peaceful, filled with quiet force.

"It wasn't just for you two! It's self-defense, sort of."

There was that face. That of a saint.

Because of with her gentle, beatific face, even her long stride, even her casual way of talking, she didn't seem boyish in any way.

"'Omaken', to put it simply, do research into the old and admirable Japanese custom of the Cultural Festival, taking part in those times, leaving a legacy for future generations... though we're doing the typical activities, though you could say our presence is not required."

With every word she said, Linda's colorless lips seemed to wrinkle, pursing tightly.

"Of course, isn't it a little suspicious? I cannot say for sure that festivals and religious beliefs are not completely unrelated. Not that long ago, there was a big religious sort of event around here, and I've heard that for a long time afterwards they kept our club under a close eye, suspicious of us. Given that background, we've tried to present ourselves as a perfectly normal, respectable club whenever we have the chance. We tell everybody, 'We aren't strange, really, and being lumped together with such strangeness is troublesome for us. We would like to cooperate with you fully to expel these suspicious elements.'"

"I see..."

Nodding while walking alongside Kouko, Banri casually gave the elbow of her cardigan a tug. The two of them stepped quietly over some Monday Special, thrown out earlier in front of a tavern, not looking down at it.

In this part of town, a lot of old office buildings one after another, more than students one could see the forms of salarymen out for lunch. Their company IDs hung from their necks but stuck in their shirt pockets, the white-shirted forms moved along in groups, all the tired faced adults, impossible to tell apart one from another, materialized from here and there. Linda, like a worldly cat, easily weaved her way through the gaps in the men. They stuck with her after that, but Banri and Kouko were still a little slow.

"Catching up with you two, well, was really dangerous. Even the Student Affairs Office was saying they understood. It was just now becoming a problem at other colleges. That 'religion', so to speak, might even have been a pyramid scheme, from the awful amount of accessories, amulets and such that were being purchased. It was really good you could escape, oh, you can buy lunch here."

Clad in pretty fluorescent colored Nikes, her feet stopped. It seemed from a glance as if Linda had flinched a little, passing beneath an old sign, carefully lettered. "Auntie!", she called, and a woman wearing an apron appeared from the back at once.

"Good to see you again. We're sold out of today's special, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaage Karaage], croquettes, hamburger and even seaweed bentou. Would you like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu Tonkatsu] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menchi_katsu Menchi]?"

"Today's special's out!? Karaage and hamburgers too!? What's this place coming to...!"

"If only you’d come 15 minutes earlier..."

"Eh, then we'll settle for menchi."

"It's not polite to call it menchi."

"I'll take menchi gladly! What would you two like?"

Same for me, answered Banri's voice, and Kouko too nodded her agreement. "Three menchi, if you will", said Linda, giving the order. "Three menchi, as you wish", said the lady, immediately taking the order into the back. From somewhere back inside the tavern, a voice sang back "As you wish!" "Oh, possibly...", said Banri slowly bending way back, looking up at the letters on the sign. But, his back was struck by something,

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter since it's a chain shop. It was just for the atmosphere."

He was convinced that Linda, with her face of a saint, could see through anything and everything. Hmph, a small laugh in a strange voice could be heard from Kouko. Somehow or other, from the state she was in, sweating all over and ashen faced, she seemed to have recovered.

His mind relieved, Banri with undisguised curiosity,

"By the way, have you ever had menchi, Kaga-san?"

He asked Kouko and watched.

"Have I? Why?"

"Balls of ground meat, dipped in batter and deep-fried in oil. Casual food for the masses, eh?"

"Yeah, I already knew that! There're things to eat, you know."

"There are. ...Is that so?"

Looking at Kouko's face blandly answering, without thinking Banri smiled. Menchi for Kaga Kouko. Such things didn't seem to go in combination. Kouko went with wine, foie gras and caviar. In his mind's eye, she polished an expensive diamond on her finger while drinking expensive imported wine and holding a Persian cat. Wearing some kind of gorgeous gown, naturally, the term "rocking chair" came to mind at once.

Listening to their picking and choosing, Linda too looked back, bouncing her wallet in her hand while watching Kouko and grinning.

"Terrible. It doesn't suit you at all."

Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines as Banri. He said "of course it does", miming holding a brandy glass and rocking his body back forth. When the proper term came to mind, he said "A rocking chair."

"Is that so? But I like menchi. My favorite food is salted fish and smoked radish pickles... With regards to [http://www.donbei.jp/ Donbee], I'm in the deep blue [http://japanesefood.about.com/od/udon/r/kitsuneudon.htm Kitsune Udon] club... Err, don't worry, I'm paying."

"That's fine, it's my treat. Though just for today, OK? With how you guys have been looking worn out lately, I'm not worried about collecting $2.50 in lunch money from you."

"Cheap!", Banri exclaimed in surprise. It really looked like there was deflation all around. From now on they needed to check this store, and there was no way he was going to reveal it, even for a certain temporarily down-on-his-luck princeling.

"That, really, must be too miserable. As for me, in dreams I've seen it all. In the dead of night, wearing only house slippers. Four syllables passing through my mind like an escaped prisoner."

"It's not four syllables!"

Like the upperclassman she was, Linda quietly ignored the retort. She got some small change from her wallet and without a word pushed it roughly into Kouko's hand, accepting the three boxed lunches stuffed in a single bag.

"You're welcome! Come again!"

Receiving $10 in change from the lady, she walked ahead of Banri and Kouko once more. Almost an attack, Banri's hand was reaching out, taking the unexpectedly heavy bag.

That night, when Banri and Kouko lost their way, it seems that they had been walking towards the real college seminar house without knowing it. Their shouts in the woods were heard by Linda, and they were rescued by everybody in her training camp. They explained their situation and the next morning, they were sent back home by car.

They owed her a debt of gratitude that could not be forgotten.

Consequently, both Banri and Kouko were already able to commit themselves to her permanently.

They didn't know for sure just what they were doing for Omaken, but whatever they were going to be doing, the feeling didn't change. In this way the decision was made.

Apparently the older Omaken had struggled with a shortage of help in the past. Overjoyed, they had invited the two of them over. So today, as it turned out, just like that, that they were going to show up for the noon meeting.

In the whole little campus town, there really wasn't anything really cool for a clubroom, so under normal circumstances, they gathered around the lecture building first floor lobby table, or got together at a local coffee shop, and then once in a while, like today, they might rent the district meeting hall.

There were so many things they might do: dress up in kimonos and rescue people from samba dancers, opening a rally, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onbashira sliding down a mountain path riding atop a log], aim at targets while mounted on horses, wolfing down rice cakes, [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Naki Sumo|letting babies cry in a sumo arena]], stuffing themselves with mountains of food--- Japanese festivals were really so many things--- And Banri was planning to do them. Kouko must have been thinking the same thing too.

"Take a look, that yellow building over there. We've been using it for generations. We practice over there, in our first floor club-room."

Linda looked back over her shoulder, she pointed at a rather old three story building. Then,

"Remember it well. Don't forget, first-years."

She smiled at Banri and Kouko's faces.

The line of her jaw was divided into many pieces by her swaying hair, the light of the sun showing through brightly. As it was, as if about to go running she wore a nylon hoodie with a logo on it. Pants reaching only just past the knees. Calves. Slim ankles. Brightly colored, not quite new NIKEs. Her face looked out over the slightly bossy upperclassmen.

She tried to hold herself aloof from the world, light and breezy, but not too invisible. The neighborhood with Linda's form in it grew strangely comfortable for Banri. How in the world did he wind up spending the rest of the day with her? He had a hunch it was going to be fun. Banri's spirits rose at once, but,

"...?"

Suddenly he felt he was suffocating. His feet stopped.

To untangle his memory. "Don't forget!"

"Don't forget, Banri---" It seemed as if Linda's voice were catching in her throat. Making noises in the hot lining of her throat, as if she wanted to cry for him.

...Wanted to, but no, why would she call out to Banri?

"Aren't you coming, Tada Banri! What're you doing?"

Called out to by his exact full name, Banri, confused, shook his head. He didn't understand at all. He didn't have time to stand there and brood. Chasing after Linda and Kouko, he went into the refreshingly cool entrance. Advancing down the dim corridor, they opened a door.

Before his nose, the smells of tatami mats and bentou lunches combined. Like something they'd come to dearly miss, they were everyday smells.

"In here we take off our shoes, OK? You brought first-years!"

Their voices in chorus, "Whoa!", a bunch of people sitting around on the floor looked back over their shoulders. There might have been all of ten people, some of whom they recognized from their disaster. "We're terribly grateful for your help at that time…", they said, once more bowing their heads deeply as they said "It's a newcomer!", "The first newbies of the year!", "She's a pretty one!" and so on, brandishing their chopsticks at them and all of them applauding together in greeting. The atmosphere overpowering him, "Thank you…", said Banri feeling small and taking off his shoes.

Of course, slippers weren't really needed in this room, with its tatami floor. From wearing sandals that screamed "It's springtime!", Kouko was strangely uneasy going barefoot, suddenly becoming shorter, even more than Banri getting smaller and smaller, as she came inside.

Linda waved Banri and Kouko towards the middle of the room,

"That side's the third years, OK? Hi!"

The people in the area she pointed to gathered their voices.

"Hi!"

This time she pointed to an area a little apart,

"And on that side, the second years. Howdy!"

"Howdy!"

Seated in a circle, the people brandished their chopsticks.

"The fourth-years couldn't show, and you first-years are our first newcomers. Thanks!"

Involuntarily echoing, "Thanks!", raising one hand in the same pose Banri was giving them, Kouko simply blinked over and over again. It didn't quite fit her image as a lady.

"Well, first of all why don't we have lunch? Sit over there, here's a cushion."

In an impolite manner, but skillfully, Linda slid the cushions over the tatami, from their line against the wall over to Banri and Kouko with her feet. For her own part lowering herself to sit Indian style, she handed them their bentou lunches.

With Linda sitting on her cushion as if to separate Banri and Kouko, they accepted their lunches. Kouko knelt in a very lady-like manner, spread a large handkerchief over her lap and set her bentou neatly upon it. Banri too, unaccustomed to kneeling, opened up his bentou. Reflexively, a quiet "Whoa..." escaped him. He didn't think it was from deflated prices, but there was a large portion of rice and plenty of side dishes. This, simply put, was happiness.

"This lunch really perks me up... it's good! Will you be able to eat all of yours, Kaga-san?"

"Yes, probably. Linda, thank you for the food."

"You bet. Eat, eat. Since it's OK while we're eating, look over there, won't you? Since you're going to be involved with that group this year."

Linda pointed with her chopsticks at a laptop computer that had been left open on a table set near the window. The wide screen was filled by a video being played back,

"...Ah!?"

Without thinking, Banri slapped his legs. Of course, his chopsticks got stuck in his jeans.

"That outfit, wasn't it an Edo Period cosplay!?"

"Eh...", some of the upperclassmen turned their heads sadly at Banri's voice.

"Very much so! I can't invite anybody into the club without doing something cosplay!"

"I mean, isn't that so? Haven't I ever explained it?", Linda set down her chopsticks for a moment. Raising her face once more, she turned around to face Banri and Kouko.

"Well, you can't really call it cosplay, though. That time I had barely started practicing, really, since at that point I was only dressed the part. We Omaken do something different every year. In fact, last year we were in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi Yosakoi Soran]. We were thrown in as a backup group for a team from an alliance of colleges, though. And now this year we are that!"

On the notebook monitor, the characteristic light step, the waving of hands. Lines of women together wearing bamboo hats and formations of men with twisted hand-towels wrapping their heads. Light out, well into the evening. Crowds along the way, dripping sweat. Japanese summer. Summer festivals.

"Since the Omaken was organized, well, for the second time in four years! What was it now? Yeah, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa_Dance_Festival Awa Odori]! That's it!"

Excitedly shouting "No way!", they applauded.

"That's just it--- we will be in the Dance of Fools. You will become fools and dance like crazy, newcomers."

From the beginning Banri had been a fool anyhow, but would Kouko be all right with that?

<center>* * *</center>

Staggering, her feet tangled up,

"I, can't... no, self-confidence..."

Kouko muttered in a low, low voice.

While they were walking together, side by side, Banri couldn't find the words to comfort her.

The Omaken senpai were still in the rehearsal room, practicing. Entering the third-floor lecture hall and giving their excuses, Banri and Kouko in spite of being underlings had managed to escape.

"Is there anything to drink? Even water to buy?"

While nodding, Kouko caught a curl that had somehow escaped and went to put it back with her fingertip. It slipped from her fingers and fell back down, all the way to the tip of her nose.

The upperclassmen from other universities that were at the training camp that rescued Banri and Kouko a few days before--- every year, they recruited teams from all over the region to participate in Awa Odori, and gave them personal coaching. And now, Linda was taking the two newcomers who hadn't been to the training camp under her wing, this year's Awa Odori practice having already started,

"My inadequacy... what should I do about it? My sense of rhythm? My reflexes? Or is it more in my head?"

"Sort of. We're still just starting, I've not done it before either."

"I got the feeling you can do it. At least, you have the makings more than I."

"My 'makings' are greatly exaggerated. From the very beginning I haven't had such."

"...But if you don't have it, then where am I...?"

Banri handed over a bottled water he had bought from a vending machine to Kouko, who stood there sighing miserably. Saying "Thanks...", she opened the top to take a drink,

And started coughing.

Had something gone down her windpipe? Kouko was choking and coughing violently. Dropping by the wayside, the lid went rolling towards a storm drain. Kouko followed it with her eyes, moaning "Aaa..." in an extremely miserable voice. "That" Kaga Kouko, up til then had been getting weaker and weaker. If Oka-chan had been there right then, she might have been able to get back at the bully queen--- but unable to say anything because of the mood, Banri quietly watched Kouko as she was.

Not that it was all that hard a thing to do.

In any case, it was only the first practice session. No, calling it a rehearsal was perhaps a bit much. It was just an introduction, no more.

Without even music, their feet still barefoot, just beating time "1, 2, 1, 2". With no distinction between the men’s dance and the women's yet, they just tried beating time on their knees. Unable to speak with Linda, that was all they did.

On the tatami mats, all the Omaken stood evenly spaced, facing a mirror that had been installed on one wall. Then, with their feet spread to about shoulder width, both their hands open and lifted overhead, standing lightly on tiptoes. Calling out, "Here we go!", very casually, bent at the knees, simply rising and falling to the rhythm. "Loosening up, floating, it's the secret to dance", Linda said over and over again.

To this point Banri was having no problem. Some of the upperclassmen could already step out with alternate feet, fluttering their hands about, already doing it in that unique Awa Odori style.

Though what they would do had been decided, his mind spun around, "Awa Odori… is that so? Awa Odori, eh?" He felt awkward, but as he watched the older students lined up, in their T-shirted forms, with their light-footed changing steps, it dawned on him that they seemed a bit cool. Wearing twisted towels for sweatbands, showing stylishly, their heels visible sticking out of rolled down socks, wearing them as if only their toes were stuck in there... even all that was cool. Immediately imitating them, Banri checked that his socks were rolled down too.

However, there was Kouko.

Together 1, 2, 1, 2, for the time being they moved their necks back and forth. Over and over again.

But, they were slipping. Falling into the same rhythm as in the mirror, his head moving with the others lined up reflecting back. By itself, Kouko's head, unsteadily, wobbly, wasn't moving along with the rest.

Did she realize she was the only one out of synch? She was frantically trying to keep up with the rest, yet seemed not the least bit discouraged. From the very start her feet spread, twisting around, pigeon-toed as if she were feeling shy, her shyness held in check desperately, as if clinging to a boulder, her arms gradually descending weakly, towards the front as she had been learning to do. Her face was becoming steadily more rigid from the strain; she was becoming like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariti Kishibojin], about to die.

"Kou-ko, Kou-ko, Kaga Kou-ko! Relax a bit! Take it easy! Laugh! Smile!", Linda over and over again called out to her. Each time, she tried to laugh a little, but Kouko's overly serious dance had no trace of flexibility at all. You got the feeling she was to crack at any moment. Her ever-perfect smile was a hundred million light-years away.

He understood, though he had forgotten the faces, as it was walking forwards and saying to Linda, "...C-3PO?" ---A strange thing, that he could remember something like that perfectly. Without even thinking he had put it into words. Some of the upperclassmen snorted when they heard it.

Kouko stopped practicing at once, her face going red.

"...Omaken, I'm beat, could we stop...?"

Banri was partially to blame in this, too.

Still holding the seemingly useless water bottle with the missing cap, Kouko slumped her shoulders and weakly muttered.

"I mean... sorry, Tada-kun, I, I forgot to give you money for the water..."

"It's OK, it's OK, as far as I'm concerned, it's no big deal. We've only just started. Besides, don't we owe Omaken? Have you forgotten already?"

"I haven't forgotten our debt, of course not. But... I've been thinking that perhaps we're going about paying them back the wrong way. Somebody like me, I'm just a burden. Maybe there's a better way than by joining a club. ...For example, a contribution. ...Or something like that."

"Aren't there other ways of paying them back that are better than money? Besides, if you were to quit, wouldn't that leave me by myself? Let's try to work together a bit more!"

"...Any more, embarrassing, carrying on..."

Looking a bit resentful, Kouko stared at Banri's face.

"That bit about C-3PO was bad of me! Sorry, really. I didn't intend to embarrass you, nor did I plan to tease you, it just came out..."

"...That's OK. Besides, you've not been trying to do such things to me, from the very start."

They started walking once more. Kouko let out a big sigh and spoke to herself.

"So it is... the very idea of coming here to college was a mistake. I've been messing up from the very start. Though I'm late, after all this time... what am I going to do..."

"You've got to where you're saying such things. Didn't you want to come to college with ''Yana''-ssan? For now, that being the case, isn't it all right to say you accomplished that?"

"...But he's been avoiding me like the plague..."

"So lately it's been getting to be a game of playing hard to catch. That being the case, why not just let him be and let's go do Awa Odori, you and I together!"

"...But..."

"And then, on with the plan! We'll kick back and laugh for all to see! In black leather, having whips and whatnot for S&M bondage. Because that becomes Kaga-san."

"...I don't have such things..."

"Then buy them! It absolutely suits you!"

Chatting while they returned to the university building, Banri muttered "over there...", and stopped in his tracks. It was too late to change direction. Kouko saw the same thing Banri did.

At a table in the corner of the lobby, deep in conversation about something fun were the forms of Yanagisawa and Chinami. Since summer vacation they'd always seemed to be together, sitting facing each other, looking into each other's eyes, laughing like idiots, about ready to tip over the bench. It looked like the two of them didn't even realize Banri and Kouko were there.

Feeling as if he were breaking out in a cold sweat, Banri tried to quietly sneak a glance in Kouko's direction. He was afraid that she would charge at them again, just like before, with them as sitting ducks. But, this time, like you might expect,

"...It seems I cannot try today either. It'd be better if I just go home."

"Kaga-san"

"Today's been the worst."

Turning back at once, Kouko, her pretty skirt waving turned and went back down the street they'd just come down. Banri reflexively tried to follow after her,

"Kaga-san..."

"I'm OK!"

As if getting the better of herself, Kouko's voice hardened.

"...Since I'll be returning by taxi, here's fine. See you later, Tada-kun. Thanks for the water. ...Try to think about doing Awa Odori by yourself."

She trotted off, as if escaping from the lobby she left. Left behind alone, Banri must have lost his bearings for a moment.

In the end he returned to the lobby, to the table where Yanagisawa and Chinami were deep in conversation, then attempted to interrupt them by getting up on the table.

"Oh, Banri. What's with that entrance? I'd just now finished a text, I mean, what are you doing?"

"Interrupting your conversation."

Even though Yanagisawa seemed to be laughing merrily, he told him to shut up, and Chinami, looking as cute as ever, quickly rescued a water bottle so the bothersome Banri wouldn't knock it over.

"Hey, Chinami and I, we've officially joined Film Research. Won't you come in too? So let's make a movie, a movie! We might even be able to steal the competition from the upperclassmen."

"But I've gotten involved in doing Awa Odori."

"Ah, Awa Odori? Did you say ‘Awa Odori'?"

"That's what I said."

"...Why?"

"Because of Omaken. Together with Kaga-san."

"Kouko?"

Yanagisawa's eyebrows could be seen rising automatically. Surely thinking about how disagreeable things had been recently. Chinami seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and staring at him.

"Eh, Awa Odori? You're kidding, that's good, where might that have come from? They're doing wonderful things in many places, aren't they! Amazing, amazing!"

Turning a smiling face to Banri, her eyes innocently brightening, she started playfully moving her hands. It wasn't Awa Odori, ''funny uncle, funny uncle, funny uncle you funny uncle, I couldn't even see you''. But.

"...Oka-chan, you're cute, aren't you..."

"Eh!?"

"...And besides, you're a good kid, right..."

"W, what!? What's going on!?"

"...But in truth, are you not awfully black-hearted? Aren't you hiding under that tattered clothing a lush body that wickedly leads boys around by the nose? Is there not blooming, deep in the Oka-chan jungle, its sinful nectar dripping down thickly, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia Rafflesia] flower?"

"Ehhh...!?"

"...Will it not bloom, the Oka-fflesia..."

"Y...yes!?"

"Hmph, is that so? You've really become Yana-ssan's favorite.", Banri saw Chinami's face go red in apparent confusion. She seemed to be feeling really awkward about part of the nonsensical compliments Banri had been spouting just now. Blinking her eyes, like a lost squirrel just come out of the woods tilting her head, she had both of her hands to her flushed cheeks. So was really cute doing that. Both in appearance and voice she's pretty, honest, innocent and true, and above all there's a very nice feeling about her. Warm, kind, and stable. Very much so. If they were already getting along, then they were the strongest players in the game.

Suddenly, he turned to face Yanagisawa.

"Yana-ssan. I somewhat understand your feelings..."

"So really, what are you..."

"...You'll understand..."

While he gazed down at Yanagisawa's stunned expression, Banri closed his eyes, exhausted. C-3PO, though, was unchanging inside, like Chinami, but it's specifications had to have been built in. At least Banri thought so, though unfortunately, it's shiny golden body was a bit too much.

Rather, show off those wires! ...If he had anything to do with it, nobody else would be troubled.

<center>* * *</center>

Tuesday's second period, a lecture on law.

Afterwards, it being time to go and eat lunch together, Banri inserted himself between Mr. Two Dimensions and Yanagisawa, sitting shoulder to shoulder on a bench.

After skipping the period in spite of Law being a required subject, he had the devil's own choice of fourth or fifth period on Saturday, which was almost entirely freshmen (and, a few upperclassmen who'd failed before). Or so he supposed.

He stealthily opened the door in the back of the spacious classroom, so as to not make any sound to alert the professor. Looking over his shoulder, Banri noticed something was wrong. Kouko wasn't there. Crouching down because she was late, a girl he didn't know crept in.

Kouko had not yet materialized. Perhaps she'd taken the day off. Towards the middle of the lecture, in spite of a ban against it, he opened up his cellphone and below his desk started putting together a text message. "Aren't you coming to Law?", was all, without even any funny symbols.

Mr. Two Dimensions lightly poked him in the elbow. Then, with a mechanical pencil on a scrap of Banri's looseleaf paper, "Watcha wanna eat?" "Cafeteria food?" "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Burger Mos]?" "I want rice." "A Rice Burger?" "Something else.", they wrote to each other in turns. Yanagisawa tapped the two of them lightly with his fingertip, getting their attention, he pointed over to the side with the tip of his pen. Chinami was right over there.

She kept a straight face, her pocket copy of "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Codes The Six Codes]" standing on her desk so as to hide what she was doing with her fingertips. Whether stylish for the girls or not, she wore eyeglasses with thick black rims, the lenses jutting out from her face, and it seemed as if she were seriously hiding something she was doing, like sewing or knitting. Carefully moving her fingers in a practiced way, the girls seated to each side were looking on, seeming quite interested. "You're not really serious", she exaggeratedly lip-synched over to Yanagisawa. Mr. Two Dimensions watched Chinami for a little while too, then on the notepad wrote, "Yana's girlfriend? The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arale_Norimaki Arale-chan] glasses are a little odd, though in three dimensions they're cute."

If it weren't for the awkwardness, Yanagisawa would have said "Yeah, really." Lip-synching "You - are - wrong" with his hands to both sides of his face, he twisted his muscular body. It looked like he had already forgotten completely the embarrassing events of the day of the opening ceremony. And then, suddenly snatching away Banri's mechanical pencil, he scribbled.

"She's not my girlfriend yet!"

The emphasis made Banri secretly nervous. Yet, it was only part of it. There was also the matter of his mechanical pencil being used. The lead was spent. About 0.001mm had definitely been used up. Yanagisawa didn't notice the nervous aura about Banri, and was writing down even more nonsense.

"Though it'd be nice if there were any hope...if you know what I mean."

He laughed softly, grinning wide enough to split his face.

What was with that face?

Even saying "though", what are you up to? "If you know what I mean" shouldn't be allowed either. Writing it the way he did in particular should not be allowed. He had the urge to kill someone. Just as he was self-consciously composing his irritated face, the cellphone on his lap buzzed softly. It was an answer from Kouko.

"I'm not feeling too good today (sweat drop), so I'm taking a break (sweat drop)."

Reading that through reminded him of the state Kouko was in yesterday.

Getting to where she could hardly keep her feelings of jealousy under control, unfairly condemning both Yanagisawa and Chinami, and then, in that way, towards herself more than anybody or anything else, she looked like she was hating, feeling ashamed of, shunning and condemning herself. Her appearance shouted, "What's the use? What's done is done."

When in situations where others could see her, not a single drop of sweat would fall from her. Not for one moment would her smile fall. Reigning like a queen, she could not be ignored. Hiding herself alone, her whole body in a cold sweat from embarrassment and regret, unable to get up and come here this morning, there wasn't a single person in this world able to understand the clumsiness of such a girl --- but no, was there? To other girls, to this world, she was only one more.

Banri closed his cellphone and held it tightly. A person who had been able to glimpse all the abundant opportunities for this untrained girl.

Was there one around here?

"Chinami isn't just cute, she's interesting, she's got a good personality and a really good head. Seriously, she's just right for me!!!!!!"

---And here he was, scrubbing roughly with his erased the exclamation marks Yanagisawa had written so emphatically they'd extended out over part of the notes he'd taken from the blackboard, as if he'd gotten angry. "Ah, what!?", he muttered at Yanagisawa as he quickly erased it. Erasing while thinking.

Getting bothered by such a thing as this.

He was feeling irritated, even mad.

What is this state of so-called 'perfection'?

Having neatly erased back to the conversation with Mr. Two Dimensions, Banri turned a sullen face towards Yanagisawa. "What was that for!?", Yanagisawa cast a bewildered eye back at Banri. He had no idea just what he should be doing. He didn't know what he wanted to become. But no, he didn't want to get angry at friends, nor at Yana-ssan. But he wasn't able to control himself.

But if he were to write "But of course, he loves Kouko most of all. He will date Kouko and marry her.", would Yanagisawa be happy about it? Would it make this irritation go away? But simply thinking and theorizing about it wasn't going to make it happen.

It wasn't funny.

Not understanding at all what Kaga Kouko was to Yanagisawa, that wasn't funny.

But in the meantime--- he only barely understood women, immersed as he was in simple illusions about them. He was already drunk with an unbased sense of superiority, seeing that even though Yana-ssan could not understand the foibles of his childhood friend, he himself, having hardly met her, was understanding her. Though there was really no way she would want to come and check him out, he wanted to think there was.

He shoved his cellphone firmly into his back pocket.

Is there really such a thing as giving sympathy?

To become convinced that somebody else is quite like oneself, adding on their cares as if they were your own, getting close to that person, and feeling their pain as if it were your own. Is that what is called giving sympathy? If that is so, then sympathy seems to be quite selfish, and borderline hysterical.

Besides, one wouldn't have any control at all.

"If there's hope for Oka-chan, what about for Kaga-san?"

Taking back his mechanical pencil from Yanagisawa's hand, Banri scribbled in rough strokes. "Eh!", Mr. Two Dimensions looked towards Yanagisawa's face in surprise.

"Is there some connection between Kaga-san and ''Yana''?"

"Kaga-san has wanted to marry Yana-ssan since they were kids."

"Wha!? What's that!? Are you kidding!?"

"Kaga-san is in LOVE with Yana-ssan"

"!?!?!?!?"

Yanagisawa wrote all over Banri's writing with his pen, erasing it. And then, frowning at Banri as if they weren't friends, he wrote boldly.

"I've told Kouko clearly whenever I've had the opportunity. Though I've always said it clearly, this time for sure, I made it clear. I made it understood. Because Chinami and I are thinking we really want to go out."

"Opportunity, when!?", Banri thought, unable to say anything from emotion, looking down at what Yanagisawa had written.

Kouko was nowhere to be seen around school Tuesday, nor Wednesday.

Perhaps it was just a little time to recover and come back, and the mail that Banri received was about Thursday night.

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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
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</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4

2013-11-12T07:07:50Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 4==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 4==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 150.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri is turning into a tuna-fish.

In spite of being awake, he can't seem to get up, his body stretched out on the bed and his eyes open in slits, just like a cat's. He is just like a tuna-fish hauled up to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaizu,_Shizuoka Yaisu]... for a half-hour already Banri has been like a tuna-fish.

In the entrance-way, corridor and the kitchen, despite it being early in the morning, the veil of darkness has been torn, as if forgetting the night. In the shadowy corner, sitting on a second-hand stool, I've been watching Banri, the tuna-fish.

Facing the two open windows to the northwest, today's weather looks good again, the morning sunlight shining in gently through the cotton curtains he had purchased at a home-center. But as bright as it is around the window, the light doesn't reach to the middle of the room.

By the time they were deciding on this room, they had stopped hesitating over other possibilities. If the place had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washitsu Japanese-style room] facing south, then by this hour even the room's nooks and corners would be brightly lit by the morning sunlight, and it would certainly feel nice. Of course that property was good, I am thinking even now. But the wardrobe was big. That room's closet is too small, and already clothes, pajamas, bags and such are already starting to be scattered here and there.

Wrapped up in an eggshell colored sheet, his face still a little puffy and disheveled, Banri as usual was only just opening his eyes. Banri's body wasn't moving, and the still unhealed scratches and sores over all his body were not to blame. Neither were the new complications with people, nor the hectic life of a student, nor the feelings of getting used to living alone.

Every now and then, Banri searches for me.

It's getting to feel as if by holding on to his dreams he was getting clues, as if he thinks that by not moving, he might catch his quarry unprepared, so with his eyes alone he is searching for me. He is understanding that it is futile, and he is planning to stop, but he searches anyway.

"How does he hope to find me?", as if he could hear me if he tried. But even if he could hear, "What in the world? Why are you searching?", he wouldn't understand. Finding and catching me, would that return me to inside of him? Or perhaps, would he erase me entirely? Even so, that guy would not even understand my so-called existence. Such a thing he just cannot do.

So then, Banri, realizing the impossibility of what he was doing, as usual became dejected. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes once more, as if he were awfully tired, bothered by nothing working, and before long crawled under the sheets once more. However many times he did it, even leaving his parents' home and living alone, Banri still didn't change. Still, here he was.

I knew what Banri was going to do next. After all, haven't I seen this show so many times before? Hiding under the sheets, Banri has after a while fallen asleep again. In the time I've existed, after all, how many times has he fallen into this trap? It's called falling back to sleep. This sleep is strangely powerful, heavy and deep, hitting Banri all at once. Even having set his cell-phone alarm to wake him up, with a required exposition on criminal law that he hadn't even started on, Banri doesn't even twitch.

Getting down from the strangely comfortable stool, I approached the bed. Buried near the pillow was the cell-phone, once more making noise. This time it wasn't the alarm that went off. It was from Linda. Wake up, Banri.

If he were to out and say, "Hello, who is it?", Linda would sure be surprised. ...But no, she wouldn't be particularly surprised, would she? There wasn't anything mysterious about calling Tada Banri, or going out with Banri either, in a normal world was there?

Anyway Banri, wake up quickly. ...In other words, really get up. The noise from the alarm or from the cell-phone is making the lady next door mad, and she's hitting the wall. There it is again, the strangely hard sound is frightening.

Doesn't that hurt her fist?

<center>* * *</center>

"Mr. Two Dimensions! Hey thanks! Heeyy Thaaankkss!"

"Noo proobleeem! Catch yooouuu laaateeer!"

"Toomoorrooww! Aarrouunndd luunnchhtiimmee!"

"Soouunnddss fuun!"

"Oookaaay theenn!"

"Toomoorrooww theenn!"

Giving a big wave, as if somebody were leaving the dock on a ferry, Banri saw off Mr. Two Dimensions, who went ahead at a brisk pace. He could see his back as he was swallowed up in a group of students, like a young girl holding both hands before his chest,

"Mr. Two Dimensions, Satou Takaya-kun... good luck with your job at the tempura shop! No matter what, don’t get yourself burnt...!"

He earnestly wished still more. As it happened, Mr. Two Dimensions' high-school nickname was "Satou Taka". Anyway, according to the guy himself, rather than be called by that name, he preferred Mr. Two Dimensions "forevermore."

Yanagisawa, staring at Banri with an amazed look in his eyes,

"Causing problems even for Mr. Two Dimensions, really, what were you doing?"

He drank down the cloudy green tea he had put into a bottle of black oolong tea. "In other words," his voice continued awfully scratchy, now in scolding mode.

"When I first saw your text message, I thought that was absolutely the strangest thing ever. Really, were you truly in mortal danger? How could you not notice? To begin with, taking along new students who weren't even proper members of the club to a training camp in April, wasn't that a bit strange? And you followed along blindly even so?"

Not even talking back, Banri's shoulders slumped. His honor as the elder, completely fallen. In the past such a problem didn't exist, even in theory.

That nightmare of a Saturday, driving back to Tokyo with the freshmen, Mr. Two Dimensions was unable to contact Banri and Kouko, no matter how much time went by, and wondered if he ought to report it to the police. He finally was able to get connection to Banri's cell-phone, and when he'd managed to explain the situation, "Are you all right!? We're fine~, Kaga-san had left too, we were really scared~!", Mr. Two Dimensions was crying into the phone. "Sorry for leaving you behind", he said again.

Remembering it now, he was truly sorry. Having caused somebody to worry about him, having been apologized to, all of it was inexcusable.

"Enough, really... even I don't understand my foolishness... a feeling like 'help me'. Save me from myself!, so to speak."

"But though there's Banri, there's also Kouko. She is such an airhead!"

While Yanagisawa leisurely went descending the stairs, he gazed longingly at the bit of tea powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle and let out a sigh.

"Did she even understand what kind of dangerous situation she was going through? ...Anyway if she was safe, then I suppose it was OK."

Banri pushed the arch of his foot against a corner of the stairs in order to shamble after Yanagisawa. The hard corner stimulated his still-sluggish feet. Having done so felt good, somehow.

They were engulfed in the hustle and bustle of school building at lunchtime, with people heading to the cafeteria and others heading to meeting places, some coming, some returning, some meeting, some separating. The people coming and going to their destinations made a lot of noise. Owing to the classrooms being on an upper floor, Banri and Yanagisawa, like Mr. Two Dimensions, watched the people coming up from the lobby one floor below.

At a landing of the stairwell, while gleefully swinging around a corner by catching the handrail, Yanagisawa looked down at Banri's face.

"In spite of having sent a text-message, 'Don't go, it looks suspicious', there wasn't even a reply. What about that?"

"Omaken"

"So, if you hadn't accidentally run into those Omaken people, wouldn't you have been in real trouble?"

Nodding while saying "Yes, you're right", he slipped at the corner trying to do the same thing Yanagisawa had done. Yelping idiotically while dropping his briefcase, he banged his shin against the steps, a direct hit. He saw stars. A group of girls passing close by laughed a little.

"...Hey, what's he doing? Banri's really dumb, isn't he?"

Unable to even answer from the pain, Banri then and there crouched down on the stairs. It's not as if he'd been endowed with the physique, power and will-power of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkei Musashibou Benkei]. Even if Banri were your average person, or perhaps some low-life rascal, keeling over and dying from the impact would not have been funny.

"O...www...!"

"That must've hurt. That made quite a bang. Right on the shin, too. Aah, just because I couldn't get ahold of you, was I going to just casually text Kouko!?"

"...To Kaga-san? ...That... well certainly... 'Fuaaaaaa!'...?"

While rubbing his shin to dull the pain, Banri looked up at Yanagisawa as he gathered up Banri's stuff. Yanagisawa shook his good-looking face from side to side.

"No, the surprising thing is that there was no answer. Ever since Saturday I've been completely ignored, in the usual way. Apart from that night, she's not paid any attention to me at all. ...Did she get back safely?"

"For sure, brought back together in the car of an Omaken senpai, an older girl."

"You went together to her house? Her parents' home?"

"Well, maybe, what of it? She called, ‘It's over there, this is good enough, thanks for the help!' and got out at the intersection, though."

"Which intersection?"

"Which, I cannot say... or even if it's all right to say."

For now, he bent over and tried to see how things were going with his still hurting shin. When he rolled up the cuff of his bluejeans, his limited vision shook.

Behind Yanagisawa. Stunningly bright, rose-pink with a bold, dark red flower pattern. Silk fluttering lightly, one-piece dress wonderfully frilly. At this point, he had no idea how a person could be so skilled at dressing up stylishly in such gaudy clothing.

He made a small ‘x' sign with his finger to be quiet, warning him "It's Kaga-san, over there!" He sent Mitsuo a private signal, as he was half hidden from Kouko by a fire door.

Emphasizing more than usual her luxuriant hair, a snow white hair-band. Sandals and bag also snow white. Even at a distance clearly beautiful, lips painted deep red, today's Kouko again was perfectly lovely.

Yanagisawa turned his back, not noticing. Kouko, in effusively good humor and spirits, showed her sparkling smile and spun herself around so as to show the hem of her skirt especially for Banri. She looked for all the world like a matador. The other students passing behind her looked with skepticism, even hostile glares at the strangely behaving, gorgeous, perfect Kouko. Banri, however, understood the meaning of Kouko's mysterious behavior. The girl hadn't even replied to the text messages from her beloved Yanagisawa.

Shortly Kouko frowned, troubled by the situation with Yanagisawa, but trying to move on. That scenario would eventually have to result in "Kuoukuoo!" In short, moving on to the stage of "Look here, take me!" Yanagisawa was the bull. The matador, Kouko.

That Yanagisawa's gaze was suddenly directed intensely beyond Banri.

"Chinami!"

Reflexively, Banri also turned around and,

"Ah, it's ''Yana''. What'cha doin'?"

A short girl, like a middle-schooler, was approaching them with a smile.

It was the first time he'd seen her.

Or rather, that voice. It was so cute, Banri found himself smiling automatically. Not in the sense of acting like a fool, of course.

"We had classes down below, and now that it's over we were coming back up. What's Chinami up to, by herself?"

"Yep. Being a good kid, this afternoon I've got nothing going on. I'll be alone at lunch too."

Completely the voice actor, doing roles like young girls chattering, she was what you could call an anime voice person.

She didn't seem to be assembled quite right: looking too young to be a student, with a voice too sweet. It hardly suited her small form. In other words--- her voice wasn't the only cute thing.

For a first meeting with the girl, she was somehow excessively cute. The more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. While Banri without thinking focused on what he was seeing, yet he wanted Mr. Two Dimensions to see, as he thought these dimensions took cuteness to a new level.

Her visibly long, soft hair was only loosely gathered, and in spite of not wearing makeup her skin seemed to glow. Her looks and small build made her seem like a child from some foreign country. Showing a boyish silhouette in worn demins, but matched with a handmade lace-collared blouse, she had some sort of rustic outfitter's day-pack on her back, the which made her delicate form stand out in the crowd.

Whether that was stylish or not as girls go, for the time being, if you looked at it through Banri's eyes as a boy, it was a bit clumsy, or rather, to put it bluntly, primitive, he was thinking, but strangely, it was good. Setting aside whether it suited his taste or not, if there were a hundred guys, ninety-five of them would be trying to get her attention, trying to touch or poke, trying to get a reaction. Wouldn't he be thinking of such things? Of course Banri was amongst the ninety-five.

"Come to think of it, you two haven't ever talked before, right? Banri, this is Chinami. Chinami, this guy is Banri."

"Don't call me that!", unexpectedly speaking in unison, Banri and that kid, exchanging glances with Chinami. With a soft voice Chinami laughed. She smiled with her eyes too, and they turned into lines. She seemed to be smiling innocently, with nothing hidden on the other side of it.

Not saying even a single word, Banri looked back at her smiling face earnestly. And then Yanagisawa was looking at Chinami too. Intent on not missing even an instant, his eyes were chasing after her, not even blinking, watching Chinami's smiling face, like a fairy spontaneously coming out of the deep, thick forest. Even Banri could see what was going on.

This feeling. This ''Yana'' fellow. It seemed like---

"No way! We said it in harmony, didn’t we? Pleased to meet you. I'm Oka Chinami. ''Yana'' and I met at a film research club recruiting party."

---She was just right for him.

"Err, nice to meet you. I'm Tada Banri. ''Yana''-ssan almost certainly has some connection with my previous life. Or rather, Oka,"

"Call me Chinami. Being called 'Oka' makes me sound like I'm an old maid."

"Ah. Then hey Chinami, China... excuse me, but this is a little awkward. I'll call you Chinami then. Chinami, ...excuse me, even this is hard to stop. Eh, Oka..."

Chinami looked at Banri's face, apparently with great curiosity as he spoke stupidly. Her dark eyes were a little bleary from being a natural airhead. It gave the impression of little letters spinning around in the middle of the pupils in her eyes. Inside such as little Chinami, around five hundred little heart marks wanted to call out. No no no, come back to earth.

"With Oka, that makes the third person with a two-syllable last name. There's Tada, Oka, and one more person, ...Kaga..."

With that tricky way of mentioning Kouko's name, Banri was casually trying to get a reaction from Yanagisawa. But the expression on his face didn't change. Didn't change, or perhaps because he was too enchanted, staring fixedly at the adorable Chinami, that other things, for example Banri's uninteresting and plain face, weren't even noticed. It appeared that he didn't even hear the name of his inconvenient childhood friend.

Chinami's eyes twinkled from Banri's dumb joke while she nodded at him.

"Wow, is that so? There's Hara, the girl in Film Research too! Counting Mita, the guy from phys-ed, just how many two-syllables are there here? This time, why don't we gather together a few two-syllable people and have a small drinking party? With this unexpected connection, we might have gotten something fun! Then I'll call for ''Yana'' too. Hey look, Ya-na, you're two syllables!"

She bumped Yanagisawa's elbow with her own, messing around.

Yanagisawa, looking even happier from that,

"Huh? But I'm five syllables, my real name has five syllables! We're in different classes!"

He bumped her back, his elbow to hers. His knock was stronger.

"Eh, finally, in spite of your saying you would call me, ihyahya! Hold on, hyaa!"

Chinami's last "Hyahahahaha!" went flying away as high pitched laughter. To blame was Yanagisawa, who was attacking her, tickling her sides. While she was laughing loudly "I'm ticklish! Stop it!" and trying to escape him, Yanagisawa was going after Chinami even harder, torturing her.

Kouko didn't even understand what she was seeing.

Or rather, she did. ...She was there, close by.

Remembering the situation, Banri's breathing caught. With what kind of face Kouko was looking at Mitsuo in his shamelessness, he was afraid to check. Was she about to blow up, or was she in shock?

Unthinkingly failing to read the mood in their behavior, she went to separate the happy couple against their will. Forcing her arm between the two with all her strength, she separated them. Quite angry that he was being touched by Miss Chinami, she grabbed Yanagisawa roughly by the side.

"Ya, na, s, sa, n, it's true that your real name has five syllables! Chinami-chan, let's call him that! In a party for two-syllables he's the wrong kind of guy! He's quite the sexual harasser! Please be careful with the brute! Hey!"

"Haha, that's true! ''Yana''-ssan is five syllables! Hey, stop that!"

"That's not my real name! Or rather, hey, ow, hold on, ouch, really, Banri, what are you doing!?"

"Is this what it feels like to have your chest ripped off!?", with the seriously unpleasant feeling of having his body torn apart at the shoulder, right then,

"...U!?"

Banri saw beige-pink claws, gripping like eagle's talons. There was no sound of crunching from Yanagisawa's bones, but there should have been from the force by which he was turned around.

"Mitsuo, what are you doing?"

Smiling sweetly--- a beauty, no longer a deadly weapon.

Standing firm in her loveliness, Kouko was smiling like a demon.

Her long eyelashes swayed as she slowly winked. Peeking through her deep red lips could be seen pure white teeth, tinged with blue. Striking a balance as if calculated, her dark brown, shining hair fell over her right shoulder.

"...Have I any relation to you? What are you doing?"

Yanagisawa coldly brushed away Kouko's hand, which was grabbing his shoulder.

Banri was strangely nervous, having watched over the situation of Kouko and Yanagisawa for a while now. Standing so close their feet overlapped, Kouko looked up at Yanagisawa, still smiling elegantly. Yanagisawa's good humor took a nose-dive at once, as he looked down at Kouko scowling.

Perhaps, Kouko should not have made her appearance. It would been better if she had simply played at, "Look what I caught!" So Banri thought. Nonetheless,

"Is there something going on here? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She really ought not to speak that way, like warning a child, as if looking down upon him, her nose in the air. She shouldn't be showing that perfect smile, as if she were enjoying herself, tormenting him. Stop it, Kaga-san... though he was thinking so, the message wasn't getting through to Kouko.

Kouko, still showing a shocked expression, gave one small shake of her head, causing the hair prettily wound about her slender neck to come undone and fall downwards. Folding her arms elegantly, she slowly raised her chin higher. She posed in a way that shifted her weight to one leg. Her frilly skirt fully fluffed out, emphasizing her slender waist, her silhouette was completely that of a queen bee.

"I don't want other women chatting with my lover."

"I am not your lover!"

"'Just chatting, but cheating', how many times have I said that?"

"'I am not your lover!', how many times have I said that?"

"I would like you to stop doing things I hate."

"How you fail to understand what I'm saying."

"Mitsuo says things like that because he doesn't listen. 'I would like you to stop doing things I hate,' I said. It'd be good if he'd obey, too. Because with only that much, everything can be made perfect."

Chinami was still stiff, as if surprised, just watching the strained argument between Kouko and Yanagisawa. Then she quietly turned one eye towards Banri. She whispered to Banri, "What's happening?", but her voice was noticed,

"What in the world?"

The haughty eyes of the queen bee looked impatiently at Chinami.

"What was that?"

"...Eh? That...m, me...?"

"Where did that voice come from?"

"Fr, from my mouth..."

"Mouth! From your mouth! That voice! What in the world!", Kouko as if amazed opened her eyes wide, looking up once to the heavens. And then turning about with her perfect smile,

"Though it doesn’t matter that this mystery person showed up, to take a pass at Mitsuo for the moment. I am not begging, but commanding. Mitsuo isn’t just a lover. We’ll be planning our marriage soon. Understand? Marriage it is, marriage. Ma-rra-i-ge. It is destined. From the start you and I have been set apart from the world. Understood? Do you not understand? Understand! Now! At once! Right here!"

Pointing her finger at her, she approached Chinami.

"Eeh...?", Chinami, truly bewildered, blinked, unable to say anything.

Face to face, the difference in their heights was less than four inches. Richly colored brand-name clothing and sparkling jewelry on her, Kouko with one hand on her hip, her chin raised. And then looking down on the petite Chinami,

"---Hmph. Oka Chinami, eh?"

She looked at her with both eyes, as if examining something smelly a cat left at the side of the road. Unexpectedly, her high-heeled sandals were stepping on the toes of Chinami's boots. Banri too reflexively gulped, seeing she was willing to fight dirty. Certainly the type to put a thumbtack into a rival's toe-shoes. The type to have a pin on their fingertip when giving a handshake.

"I remember that name, for sure. Though I don't know what I've Chinami'd, well, do you like to Chinami? You live on your own? By all means, do as you please."

"...Huh...? Rather, you see, unfortunately my feet..."

"However, somewhere else in world from where we're at. Don't come near us. Don't bother us. Don't come near Mitsuo. Mitsuo is mine. Is that warning enough? Understand that there will be no warning next time."

"Kouko, stop it."

His handsome face freezing like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#Masks Noh mask], Yanagisawa stood in front of Kouko, giving Chinami his back as if to shield her.

Kouko, unconcerned, simply brushed Yanagisawa aside, putting herself even closer to Chinami. Bending over Chinami's forehead, her lips so close she could have kissed her, Kouko's fingertip pointed up at Chinami's chin like a gun.

"It's because you attacked. People like you are eliminated in a moment. Because that's the world. ...I will do anything. If you don't like that, then go to the ladies room and shiver, but why don't you leave? Why don't you just go hibernate for fifty years, or better yet a hundred twenty years."

A sweet voice coming from an elegant smile, she was a complete villian.

"Hey, didn't you realize? Isn't it really bad manners to reach out and touch other people?"

"Kouko, shut up."

"Hey, aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up! Behave yourself!"

Grabbing the chain of Kouko's purse, Yanagisawa pulled on it. Losing her balance on her high-heels, Kouko took a quick step, staggering. Looking up at Yanagisawa's expressionless face, it seemed like for the first time she realized. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but immediately tried to regain her queen-bee expression,

"Go somewhere else."

"...So it is, Mitsuo. Send me a text-message, thanks. What we talked about, OK?"

"That's enough, I'm leaving. Chinami, let's go eat lunch. Banri!"

Called out to, Banri gulped, strangely awkward.

"Well, that, err, I... we have an appointment with that Omaken senpai. ...Kaga-san and I together."

Yanagisawa never even looked towards Kouko. Still as expressionless as ever, he looked at Banri's face for three seconds.

"OK. Then I'll text you when we get back."

He turned his back to them.

"Ah, ''Yana''-ssan!"

Still uncomfortably holding his tongue, he left, walking beside Chinami. He called after that back.

"You have to put water in before you can drink it! And then the tea powder!"

"Calm down!", he thought, "Calm things down a bit!" It had no effect at all. Yanagisawa raised one hand as if tired, turning back to only Banri, answering "later". Parting the stream of students, their backs shortly disappeared.

Banri let out a long breath. While combing up his bangs, he returned to Kouko's side,

"Kaga-san, hold on, say what you like..."

He paused to catch his breath again.

"...However you want to say it, what was all that...!?"

The detested side of Kaga Kouko, the villian, was standing behind him.

She was so scared that sweat was running on her forehead, on her neck, in fact, from all over her body. I could tell since, right now, wham! I was able to see that she was proudly folding her arms, perhaps by chance that pose,

"...By chance are you hiding the sweat of your armpits...?"

Kouko didn't answer. As if she hadn't heard anything, she was looking away, her face beautifully composed.

Nonetheless, her whole body strangely bathed in sweat, she stayed put, both hands holding her armpits. Even her face was settling down to a blank expression, deathly pale. Normally she would be brighter, her expression clearing.

"For once, are you feeling guilty...?"

Still unable to open her mouth, she suddenly nodded at Banri's word.

"I mean really, something's already dripping... it looks pretty bad... are you OK?"

Once more, a nod. And then a few words, "Since there is no bread, I want to eat cake," though with a note of sarcasm,

"Perhaps I should go dry myself in the bathroom."

Simply that.

Sure, why not..., Banri nodded. While seeing off Kouko to the girl's bathroom, her arms still folded in a strangely stiff pose, he checked the time on his cell-phone.

"Well..., if you could hurry up... it will shortly be time for our meeting with Linda after all."

Shaking her head quickly as if she were a broken puppet, Kouko disappeared beyond the bathroom door.

That was the last he saw of her figure.

---But that was not at all what he meant. Kouko appeared again after several minutes. She had at last put on the cardigan, and her hair and makeup was perfect. "Sorry I took so long, Tada-kun", even showing a smile, it seemed she had managed to restore her normal, entirely perfect outward appearance. But,

"...Are,"

"Don't go asking 'Are you OK?', because I'm fine."

"...Bu,"

"Don't go saying 'But you see,' because I'm fine."

"...Ka,"

"Don't go saying 'Kaga-san, what are you doing?' Don't go telling me 'Are you an idiot?' Because I understand. I know. I'm foolish. Yes, a big disaster. Yes, yes, yes, I'm guilty. I was hated for that again today. On the way to the disaster I already knew it, but I could not stop, I could not admit defeat, knowing how many years I've been doing the same thing over and over again, something I cannot give up! So it is, because I'm a fool! But having been convicted, there's nothing I can do about it! And I can't turn back the hands of time! ...But sorry about that, let's hurry up. Let's not keep the Omaken senpai waiting."

Not letting Banri get a word in edgewise, with a toss of her hair Kouko walked out.

Since were it possible to say anything like "You're looking good now", then she would probably have to reply "Do you really mean it?"

The sound of her high-heels echoing wasn't as confident as usual. Neither her energy, nor her spirit, not her vitality, nor hardly anything else was sufficient.

<center>* * *</center>

Regarding the rescue of Banri and Kouko after they got into their mess in the mountains, the start of term training camp for the "Japanese Festival Cultural Research Society" was going on in the seminar house. ...Their nickname, Omaken. The nickname came from '[[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Omaken|Festival Research Society]]'. She said, "There was talk going around the student affairs office right away, you see. 'A strange bogus club was trying to infiltrate the school, scattering pamphlets around, inviting people to join.' "

She was Hayashida-senpai.

Hayashida Nana, her nickname Linda. A natural born Japanese. This was the person that first noticed Banri when he called for help.

"You did such a thing for our sakes?"

While walking close behind, in spite of Kouko speaking, Linda was looking over her shoulder, and could be seen smiling and shaking her head. Seeing her that way, Banri was once again surprised at how unexpectedly normal a person she seemed to be. ...Wasn't saying such things rude? But, this Linda before him chatting and the Linda which on the day of the entrance ceremony materialized before him from the Edo era and threw him a kiss, he had a feeling they were the same person.

Just a little shorter than Kouko, with a softer voice, walking briskly with both hands stuffed into her pockets, her attitude was recklessly peaceful, filled with quiet force.

"It wasn't just for you two! It's self-defense, sort of."

There was that face. That of a saint.

Because of with her gentle, beatific face, even her long stride, even her casual way of talking, she didn't seem boyish in any way.

"'Omaken', to put it simply, do research into the old and admirable Japanese custom of the Cultural Festival, taking part in those times, leaving a legacy for future generations... though we're doing the typical activities, though you could say our presence is not required."

With every word she said, Linda's colorless lips seemed to wrinkle, pursing tightly.

"Of course, isn't it a little suspicious? I cannot say for sure that festivals and religious beliefs are not completely unrelated. Not that long ago, there was a big religious sort of event around here, and I've heard that for a long time afterwards they kept our club under a close eye, suspicious of us. Given that background, we've tried to present ourselves as a perfectly normal, respectable club whenever we have the chance. We tell everybody, 'We aren't strange, really, and being lumped together with such strangeness is troublesome for us. We would like to cooperate with you fully to expel these suspicious elements.'"

"I see..."

Nodding while walking alongside Kouko, Banri casually gave the elbow of her cardigan a tug. The two of them stepped quietly over some Monday Special, thrown out earlier in front of a tavern, not looking down at it.

In this part of town, a lot of old office buildings one after another, more than students one could see the forms of salarymen out for lunch. Their company IDs hung from their necks but stuck in their shirt pockets, the white-shirted forms moved along in groups, all the tired faced adults, impossible to tell apart one from another, materialized from here and there. Linda, like a worldly cat, easily weaved her way through the gaps in the men. They stuck with her after that, but Banri and Kouko were still a little slow.

"Catching up with you two, well, was really dangerous. Even the Student Affairs Office was saying they understood. It was just now becoming a problem at other colleges. That 'religion', so to speak, might even have been a pyramid scheme, from the awful amount of accessories, amulets and such that were being purchased. It was really good you could escape, oh, you can buy lunch here."

Clad in pretty fluorescent colored Nikes, her feet stopped. It seemed from a glance as if Linda had flinched a little, passing beneath an old sign, carefully lettered. "Auntie!", she called, and a woman wearing an apron appeared from the back at once.

"Good to see you again. We're sold out of today's special, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaage Karaage], croquettes, hamburger and even seaweed bentou. Would you like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu Tonkatsu] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menchi_katsu Menchi]?"

"Today's special's out!? Karaage and hamburgers too!? What's this place coming to...!"

"If only you’d come 15 minutes earlier..."

"Eh, then we'll settle for menchi."

"It's not polite to call it menchi."

"I'll take menchi gladly! What would you two like?"

Same for me, answered Banri's voice, and Kouko too nodded her agreement. "Three menchi, if you will", said Linda, giving the order. "Three menchi, as you wish", said the lady, immediately taking the order into the back. From somewhere back inside the tavern, a voice sang back "As you wish!" "Oh, possibly...", said Banri slowly bending way back, looking up at the letters on the sign. But, his back was struck by something,

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter since it's a chain shop. It was just for the atmosphere."

He was convinced that Linda, with her face of a saint, could see through anything and everything. Hmph, a small laugh in a strange voice could be heard from Kouko. Somehow or other, from the state she was in, sweating all over and ashen faced, she seemed to have recovered.

His mind relieved, Banri with undisguised curiosity,

"By the way, have you ever had menchi, Kaga-san?"

He asked Kouko and watched.

"Have I? Why?"

"Balls of ground meat, dipped in batter and deep-fried in oil. Casual food for the masses, eh?"

"Yeah, I already knew that! There're things to eat, you know."

"There are. ...Is that so?"

Looking at Kouko's face blandly answering, without thinking Banri smiled. Menchi for Kaga Kouko. Such things didn't seem to go in combination. Kouko went with wine, foie gras and caviar. In his mind's eye, she polished an expensive diamond on her finger while drinking expensive imported wine and holding a Persian cat. Wearing some kind of gorgeous gown, naturally, the term "rocking chair" came to mind at once.

Listening to their picking and choosing, Linda too looked back, bouncing her wallet in her hand while watching Kouko and grinning.

"Terrible. It doesn't suit you at all."

Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines as Banri. He said "of course it does", miming holding a brandy glass and rocking his body back forth. When the proper term came to mind, he said "A rocking chair."

"Is that so? But I like menchi. My favorite food is salted fish and smoked radish pickles... With regards to [http://www.donbei.jp/ Donbee], I'm in the deep blue [http://japanesefood.about.com/od/udon/r/kitsuneudon.htm Kitsune Udon] club... Err, don't worry, I'm paying."

"That's fine, it's my treat. Though just for today, OK? With how you guys have been looking worn out lately, I'm not worried about collecting $2.50 in lunch money from you."

"Cheap!", Banri exclaimed in surprise. It really looked like there was deflation all around. From now on they needed to check this store, and there was no way he was going to reveal it, even for a certain temporarily down-on-his-luck princeling.

"That, really, must be too miserable. As for me, in dreams I've seen it all. In the dead of night, wearing only house slippers. Four syllables passing through my mind like an escaped prisoner."

"It's not four syllables!"

Like the upperclassman she was, Linda quietly ignored the retort. She got some small change from her wallet and without a word pushed it roughly into Kouko's hand, accepting the three boxed lunches stuffed in a single bag.

"You're welcome! Come again!"

Receiving $10 in change from the lady, she walked ahead of Banri and Kouko once more. Almost an attack, Banri's hand was reaching out, taking the unexpectedly heavy bag.

That night, when Banri and Kouko lost their way, it seems that they had been walking towards the real college seminar house without knowing it. Their shouts in the woods were heard by Linda, and they were rescued by everybody in her training camp. They explained their situation and the next morning, they were sent back home by car.

They owed her a debt of gratitude that could not be forgotten.

Consequently, both Banri and Kouko were already able to commit themselves to her permanently.

They didn't know for sure just what they were doing for Omaken, but whatever they were going to be doing, the feeling didn't change. In this way the decision was made.

Apparently the older Omaken had struggled with a shortage of help in the past. Overjoyed, they had invited the two of them over. So today, as it turned out, just like that, that they were going to show up for the noon meeting.

In the whole little campus town, there really wasn't anything really cool for a clubroom, so under normal circumstances, they gathered around the lecture building first floor lobby table, or got together at a local coffee shop, and then once in a while, like today, they might rent the district meeting hall.

There were so many things they might do: dress up in kimonos and rescue people from samba dancers, opening a rally, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onbashira sliding down a mountain path riding atop a log], aim at targets while mounted on horses, wolfing down rice cakes, [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Naki Sumo|letting babies cry in a sumo arena]], stuffing themselves with mountains of food--- Japanese festivals were really so many things--- And Banri was planning to do them. Kouko must have been thinking the same thing too.

"Take a look, that yellow building over there. We've been using it for generations. We practice over there, in our first floor club-room."

Linda looked back over her shoulder, she pointed at a rather old three story building. Then,

"Remember it well. Don't forget, first-years."

She smiled at Banri and Kouko's faces.

The line of her jaw was divided into many pieces by her swaying hair, the light of the sun showing through brightly. As it was, as if about to go running she wore a nylon hoodie with a logo on it. Pants reaching only just past the knees. Calves. Slim ankles. Brightly colored, not quite new NIKEs. Her face looked out over the slightly bossy upperclassmen.

She tried to hold herself aloof from the world, light and breezy, but not too invisible. The neighborhood with Linda's form in it grew strangely comfortable for Banri. How in the world did he wind up spending the rest of the day with her? He had a hunch it was going to be fun. Banri's spirits rose at once, but,

"...?"

Suddenly he felt he was suffocating. His feet stopped.

To untangle his memory. "Don't forget!"

"Don't forget, Banri---" It seemed as if Linda's voice were catching in her throat. Making noises in the hot lining of her throat, as if she wanted to cry for him.

...Wanted to, but no, why would she call out to Banri?

"Aren't you coming, Tada Banri! What're you doing?"

Called out to by his exact full name, Banri, confused, shook his head. He didn't understand at all. He didn't have time to stand there and brood. Chasing after Linda and Kouko, he went into the refreshingly cool entrance. Advancing down the dim corridor, they opened a door.

Before his nose, the smells of tatami mats and bentou lunches combined. Like something they'd come to dearly miss, they were everyday smells.

"In here we take off our shoes, OK? You brought first-years!"

Their voices in chorus, "Whoa!", a bunch of people sitting around on the floor looked back over their shoulders. There might have been all of ten people, some of whom they recognized from their disaster. "We're terribly grateful for your help at that time…", they said, once more bowing their heads deeply as they said "It's a newcomer!", "The first newbies of the year!", "She's a pretty one!" and so on, brandishing their chopsticks at them and all of them applauding together in greeting. The atmosphere overpowering him, "Thank you…", said Banri feeling small and taking off his shoes.

Of course, slippers weren't really needed in this room, with its tatami floor. From wearing sandals that screamed "It's springtime!", Kouko was strangely uneasy going barefoot, suddenly becoming shorter, even more than Banri getting smaller and smaller, as she came inside.

Linda waved Banri and Kouko towards the middle of the room,

"That side's for the third years, OK? Hi!"

The people in the area she pointed to gathered their voices.

"Hi!"

This time she pointed to an area a little apart,

"And on that side, the second years. Howdy!"

"Howdy!"

Seated in a circle, the people brandished their chopsticks.

"The fourth-years couldn't show, and you first-years are our first newcomers. Thanks!"

Involuntarily echoing, "Thanks!", raising one hand in the same pose Banri was giving them, Kouko simply blinked over and over again. It didn't quite fit her image as a lady.

"Well, first of all why don't we have lunch? Sit over there, here's a cushion."

In an impolite manner, but skillfully, Linda slid the cushions over the tatami, from their line against the wall over to Banri and Kouko with her feet. For her own part lowering herself to sit Indian style, she handed them their bentou lunches.

With Linda sitting on her cushion as if to separate Banri and Kouko, they accepted their lunches. Kouko knelt in a very lady-like manner, spread a large handkerchief over her lap and set her bentou neatly upon it. Banri too, unaccustomed to kneeling, opened up his bentou. Reflexively, a quiet "Whoa..." escaped him. He didn't think it was from deflated prices, but there was a large portion of rice and plenty of side dishes. This, simply put, was happiness.

"This lunch really perks me up... it's good! Will you be able to eat all of yours, Kaga-san?"

"Yes, probably. Linda, thank you for the food."

"You bet. Eat, eat. Since it's OK while we're eating, look over there, won't you? Since you're going to be involved with that group this year."

Linda pointed with her chopsticks at a laptop computer that had been left open on a table set near the window. The wide screen was filled by a video being played back,

"...Ah!?"

Without thinking, Banri slapped his legs. Of course, his chopsticks got stuck in his jeans.

"That outfit, wasn't it an Edo Period cosplay!?"

"Eh...", some of the upperclassmen turned their heads sadly at Banri's voice.

"Very much so! I can't invite anybody into the club without doing something cosplay!"

"I mean, isn't that so? Haven't I ever explained it?", Linda set down her chopsticks for a moment. Raising her face once more, she turned around to face Banri and Kouko.

"Well, you can't really call it cosplay, though. That time I had barely started practicing, really, since at that point I was only dressed the part. We Omaken do something different every year. In fact, last year we were in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi Yosakoi Soran]. We were thrown in as a backup group for a team from an alliance of colleges, though. And now this year we are that!"

On the notebook monitor, the characteristic light step, the waving of hands. Lines of women together wearing bamboo hats and formations of men with twisted hand-towels wrapping their heads. Light out, well into the evening. Crowds along the way, dripping sweat. Japanese summer. Summer festivals.

"Since the Omaken was organized, well, for the second time in four years! What was it now? Yeah, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa_Dance_Festival Awa Odori]! That's it!"

Excitedly shouting "No way!", they applauded.

"That's just it--- we will be in the Dance of Fools. You will become fools and dance like crazy, newcomers."

From the beginning Banri had been a fool anyhow, but would Kouko be all right with that?

<center>* * *</center>

Staggering, her feet tangled up,

"I, can't... no, self-confidence..."

Kouko muttered in a low, low voice.

While they were walking together, side by side, Banri couldn't find the words to comfort her.

The Omaken senpai were still in the rehearsal room, practicing. Entering the third-floor lecture hall and giving their excuses, Banri and Kouko in spite of being underlings had managed to escape.

"Is there anything to drink? Even water to buy?"

While nodding, Kouko caught a curl that had somehow escaped and went to put it back with her fingertip. It slipped from her fingers and fell back down, all the way to the tip of her nose.

The upperclassmen from other universities that were at the training camp that rescued Banri and Kouko a few days before--- every year, they recruited teams from all over the region to participate in Awa Odori, and gave them personal coaching. And now, Linda was taking the two newcomers who hadn't been to the training camp under her wing, this year's Awa Odori practice having already started,

"My inadequacy... what should I do about it? My sense of rhythm? My reflexes? Or is it more in my head?"

"Sort of. We're still just starting, I've not done it before either."

"I got the feeling you can do it. At least, you have the makings more than I."

"My 'makings' are greatly exaggerated. From the very beginning I haven't had such."

"...But if you don't have it, then where am I...?"

Banri handed over a bottled water he had bought from a vending machine to Kouko, who stood there sighing miserably. Saying "Thanks...", she opened the top to take a drink,

And started coughing.

Had something gone down her windpipe? Kouko was choking and coughing violently. Dropping by the wayside, the lid went rolling towards a storm drain. Kouko followed it with her eyes, moaning "Aaa..." in an extremely miserable voice. "That" Kaga Kouko, up til then had been getting weaker and weaker. If Oka-chan had been there right then, she might have been able to get back at the bully queen--- but unable to say anything because of the mood, Banri quietly watched Kouko as she was.

Not that it was all that hard a thing to do.

In any case, it was only the first practice session. No, calling it a rehearsal was perhaps a bit much. It was just an introduction, no more.

Without even music, their feet still barefoot, just beating time "1, 2, 1, 2". With no distinction between the men’s dance and the women's yet, they just tried beating time on their knees. Unable to speak with Linda, that was all they did.

On the tatami mats, all the Omaken stood evenly spaced, facing a mirror that had been installed on one wall. Then, with their feet spread to about shoulder width, both their hands open and lifted overhead, standing lightly on tiptoes. Calling out, "Here we go!", very casually, bent at the knees, simply rising and falling to the rhythm. "Loosening up, floating, it's the secret to dance", Linda said over and over again.

To this point Banri was having no problem. Some of the upperclassmen could already step out with alternate feet, fluttering their hands about, already doing it in that unique Awa Odori style.

Though what they would do had been decided, his mind spun around, "Awa Odori… is that so? Awa Odori, eh?" He felt awkward, but as he watched the older students lined up, in their T-shirted forms, with their light-footed changing steps, it dawned on him that they seemed a bit cool. Wearing twisted towels for sweatbands, showing stylishly, their heels visible sticking out of rolled down socks, wearing them as if only their toes were stuck in there... even all that was cool. Immediately imitating them, Banri checked that his socks were rolled down too.

However, there was Kouko.

Together 1, 2, 1, 2, for the time being they moved their necks back and forth. Over and over again.

But, they were slipping. Falling into the same rhythm as in the mirror, his head moving with the others lined up reflecting back. By itself, Kouko's head, unsteadily, wobbly, wasn't moving along with the rest.

Did she realize she was the only one out of synch? She was frantically trying to keep up with the rest, yet seemed not the least bit discouraged. From the very start her feet spread, twisting around, pigeon-toed as if she were feeling shy, her shyness held in check desperately, as if clinging to a boulder, her arms gradually descending weakly, towards the front as she had been learning to do. Her face was becoming steadily more rigid from the strain; she was becoming like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariti Kishibojin], about to die.

"Kou-ko, Kou-ko, Kaga Kou-ko! Relax a bit! Take it easy! Laugh! Smile!", Linda over and over again called out to her. Each time, she tried to laugh a little, but Kouko's overly serious dance had no trace of flexibility at all. You got the feeling she was to crack at any moment. Her ever-perfect smile was a hundred million light-years away.

He understood, though he had forgotten the faces, as it was walking forwards and saying to Linda, "...C-3PO?" ---A strange thing, that he could remember something like that perfectly. Without even thinking he had put it into words. Some of the upperclassmen snorted when they heard it.

Kouko stopped practicing at once, her face going red.

"...Omaken, I'm beat, could we stop...?"

Banri was partially to blame in this, too.

Still holding the seemingly useless water bottle with the missing cap, Kouko slumped her shoulders and weakly muttered.

"I mean... sorry, Tada-kun, I, I forgot to give you money for the water..."

"It's OK, it's OK, as far as I'm concerned, it's no big deal. We've only just started. Besides, don't we owe Omaken? Have you forgotten already?"

"I haven't forgotten our debt, of course not. But... I've been thinking that perhaps we're going about paying them back the wrong way. Somebody like me, I'm just a burden. Maybe there's a better way than by joining a club. ...For example, a contribution. ...Or something like that."

"Aren't there other ways of paying them back that are better than money? Besides, if you were to quit, wouldn't that leave me by myself? Let's try to work together a bit more!"

"...Any more, embarrassing, carrying on..."

Looking a bit resentful, Kouko stared at Banri's face.

"That bit about C-3PO was bad of me! Sorry, really. I didn't intend to embarrass you, nor did I plan to tease you, it just came out..."

"...That's OK. Besides, you've not been trying to do such things to me, from the very start."

They started walking once more. Kouko let out a big sigh and spoke to herself.

"So it is... the very idea of coming here to college was a mistake. I've been messing up from the very start. Though I'm late, after all this time... what am I going to do..."

"You've got to where you're saying such things. Didn't you want to come to college with ''Yana''-ssan? For now, that being the case, isn't it all right to say you accomplished that?"

"...But he's been avoiding me like the plague..."

"So lately it's been getting to be a game of playing hard to catch. That being the case, why not just let him be and let's go do Awa Odori, you and I together!"

"...But..."

"And then, on with the plan! We'll kick back and laugh for all to see! In black leather, having whips and whatnot for S&M bondage. Because that becomes Kaga-san."

"...I don't have such things..."

"Then buy them! It absolutely suits you!"

Chatting while they returned to the university building, Banri muttered "over there...", and stopped in his tracks. It was too late to change direction. Kouko saw the same thing Banri did.

At a table in the corner of the lobby, deep in conversation about something fun were the forms of Yanagisawa and Chinami. Since summer vacation they'd always seemed to be together, sitting facing each other, looking into each other's eyes, laughing like idiots, about ready to tip over the bench. It looked like the two of them didn't even realize Banri and Kouko were there.

Feeling as if he were breaking out in a cold sweat, Banri tried to quietly sneak a glance in Kouko's direction. He was afraid that she would charge at them again, just like before, with them as sitting ducks. But, this time, like you might expect,

"...It seems I cannot try today either. It'd be better if I just go home."

"Kaga-san"

"Today's been the worst."

Turning back at once, Kouko, her pretty skirt waving turned and went back down the street they'd just come down. Banri reflexively tried to follow after her,

"Kaga-san..."

"I'm OK!"

As if getting the better of herself, Kouko's voice hardened.

"...Since I'll be returning by taxi, here's fine. See you later, Tada-kun. Thanks for the water. ...Try to think about doing Awa Odori by yourself."

She trotted off, as if escaping from the lobby she left. Left behind alone, Banri must have lost his bearings for a moment.

In the end he returned to the lobby, to the table where Yanagisawa and Chinami were deep in conversation, then attempted to interrupt them by getting up on the table.

"Oh, Banri. What's with that entrance? I'd just now finished a text, I mean, what are you doing?"

"Interrupting your conversation."

Even though Yanagisawa seemed to be laughing merrily, he told him to shut up, and Chinami, looking as cute as ever, quickly rescued a water bottle so the bothersome Banri wouldn't knock it over.

"Hey, Chinami and I, we've officially joined Film Research. Won't you come in too? So let's make a movie, a movie! We might even be able to steal the competition from the upperclassmen."

"But I've gotten involved in doing Awa Odori."

"Ah, Awa Odori? Did you say ‘Awa Odori'?"

"That's what I said."

"...Why?"

"Because of Omaken. Together with Kaga-san."

"Kouko?"

Yanagisawa's eyebrows could be seen rising automatically. Surely thinking about how disagreeable things had been recently. Chinami seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and staring at him.

"Eh, Awa Odori? You're kidding, that's good, where might that have come from? They're doing wonderful things in many places, aren't they! Amazing, amazing!"

Turning a smiling face to Banri, her eyes innocently brightening, she started playfully moving her hands. It wasn't Awa Odori, ''funny uncle, funny uncle, funny uncle you funny uncle, I couldn't even see you''. But.

"...Oka-chan, you're cute, aren't you..."

"Eh!?"

"...And besides, you're a good kid, right..."

"W, what!? What's going on!?"

"...But in truth, are you not awfully black-hearted? Aren't you hiding under that tattered clothing a lush body that wickedly leads boys around by the nose? Is there not blooming, deep in the Oka-chan jungle, its sinful nectar dripping down thickly, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia Rafflesia] flower?"

"Ehhh...!?"

"...Will it not bloom, the Oka-fflesia..."

"Y...yes!?"

"Hmph, is that so? You've really become Yana-ssan's favorite.", Banri saw Chinami's face go red in apparent confusion. She seemed to be feeling really awkward about part of the nonsensical compliments Banri had been spouting just now. Blinking her eyes, like a lost squirrel just come out of the woods tilting her head, she had both of her hands to her flushed cheeks. So was really cute doing that. Both in appearance and voice she's pretty, honest, innocent and true, and above all there's a very nice feeling about her. Warm, kind, and stable. Very much so. If they were already getting along, then they were the strongest players in the game.

Suddenly, he turned to face Yanagisawa.

"Yana-ssan. I somewhat understand your feelings..."

"So really, what are you..."

"...You'll understand..."

While he gazed down at Yanagisawa's stunned expression, Banri closed his eyes, exhausted. C-3PO, though, was unchanging inside, like Chinami, but it's specifications had to have been built in. At least Banri thought so, though unfortunately, it's shiny golden body was a bit too much.

Rather, show off those wires! ...If he had anything to do with it, nobody else would be troubled.

<center>* * *</center>

Tuesday's second period, a lecture on law.

Afterwards, it being time to go and eat lunch together, Banri inserted himself between Mr. Two Dimensions and Yanagisawa, sitting shoulder to shoulder on a bench.

After skipping the period in spite of Law being a required subject, he had the devil's own choice of fourth or fifth period on Saturday, which was almost entirely freshmen (and, a few upperclassmen who'd failed before). Or so he supposed.

He stealthily opened the door in the back of the spacious classroom, so as to not make any sound to alert the professor. Looking over his shoulder, Banri noticed something was wrong. Kouko wasn't there. Crouching down because she was late, a girl he didn't know crept in.

Kouko had not yet materialized. Perhaps she'd taken the day off. Towards the middle of the lecture, in spite of a ban against it, he opened up his cellphone and below his desk started putting together a text message. "Aren't you coming to Law?", was all, without even any funny symbols.

Mr. Two Dimensions lightly poked him in the elbow. Then, with a mechanical pencil on a scrap of Banri's looseleaf paper, "Watcha wanna eat?" "Cafeteria food?" "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Burger Mos]?" "I want rice." "A Rice Burger?" "Something else.", they wrote to each other in turns. Yanagisawa tapped the two of them lightly with his fingertip, getting their attention, he pointed over to the side with the tip of his pen. Chinami was right over there.

She kept a straight face, her pocket copy of "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Codes The Six Codes]" standing on her desk so as to hide what she was doing with her fingertips. Whether stylish for the girls or not, she wore eyeglasses with thick black rims, the lenses jutting out from her face, and it seemed as if she were seriously hiding something she was doing, like sewing or knitting. Carefully moving her fingers in a practiced way, the girls seated to each side were looking on, seeming quite interested. "You're not really serious", she exaggeratedly lip-synched over to Yanagisawa. Mr. Two Dimensions watched Chinami for a little while too, then on the notepad wrote, "Yana's girlfriend? The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arale_Norimaki Arale-chan] glasses are a little odd, though in three dimensions they're cute."

If it weren't for the awkwardness, Yanagisawa would have said "Yeah, really." Lip-synching "You - are - wrong" with his hands to both sides of his face, he twisted his muscular body. It looked like he had already forgotten completely the embarrassing events of the day of the opening ceremony. And then, suddenly snatching away Banri's mechanical pencil, he scribbled.

"She's not my girlfriend yet!"

The emphasis made Banri secretly nervous. Yet, it was only part of it. There was also the matter of his mechanical pencil being used. The lead was spent. About 0.001mm had definitely been used up. Yanagisawa didn't notice the nervous aura about Banri, and was writing down even more nonsense.

"Though it'd be nice if there were any hope...if you know what I mean."

He laughed softly, grinning wide enough to split his face.

What was with that face?

Even saying "though", what are you up to? "If you know what I mean" shouldn't be allowed either. Writing it the way he did in particular should not be allowed. He had the urge to kill someone. Just as he was self-consciously composing his irritated face, the cellphone on his lap buzzed softly. It was an answer from Kouko.

"I'm not feeling too good today (sweat drop), so I'm taking a break (sweat drop)."

Reading that through reminded him of the state Kouko was in yesterday.

Getting to where she could hardly keep her feelings of jealousy under control, unfairly condemning both Yanagisawa and Chinami, and then, in that way, towards herself more than anybody or anything else, she looked like she was hating, feeling ashamed of, shunning and condemning herself. Her appearance shouted, "What's the use? What's done is done."

When in situations where others could see her, not a single drop of sweat would fall from her. Not for one moment would her smile fall. Reigning like a queen, she could not be ignored. Hiding herself alone, her whole body in a cold sweat from embarrassment and regret, unable to get up and come here this morning, there wasn't a single person in this world able to understand the clumsiness of such a girl --- but no, was there? To other girls, to this world, she was only one more.

Banri closed his cellphone and held it tightly. A person who had been able to glimpse all the abundant opportunities for this untrained girl.

Was there one around here?

"Chinami isn't just cute, she's interesting, she's got a good personality and a really good head. Seriously, she's just right for me!!!!!!"

---And here he was, scrubbing roughly with his erased the exclamation marks Yanagisawa had written so emphatically they'd extended out over part of the notes he'd taken from the blackboard, as if he'd gotten angry. "Ah, what!?", he muttered at Yanagisawa as he quickly erased it. Erasing while thinking.

Getting bothered by such a thing as this.

He was feeling irritated, even mad.

What is this state of so-called 'perfection'?

Having neatly erased back to the conversation with Mr. Two Dimensions, Banri turned a sullen face towards Yanagisawa. "What was that for!?", Yanagisawa cast a bewildered eye back at Banri. He had no idea just what he should be doing. He didn't know what he wanted to become. But no, he didn't want to get angry at friends, nor at Yana-ssan. But he wasn't able to control himself.

But if he were to write "But of course, he loves Kouko most of all. He will date Kouko and marry her.", would Yanagisawa be happy about it? Would it make this irritation go away? But simply thinking and theorizing about it wasn't going to make it happen.

It wasn't funny.

Not understanding at all what Kaga Kouko was to Yanagisawa, that wasn't funny.

But in the meantime--- he only barely understood women, immersed as he was in simple illusions about them. He was already drunk with an unbased sense of superiority, seeing that even though Yana-ssan could not understand the foibles of his childhood friend, he himself, having hardly met her, was understanding her. Though there was really no way she would want to come and check him out, he wanted to think there was.

He shoved his cellphone firmly into his back pocket.

Is there really such a thing as giving sympathy?

To become convinced that somebody else is quite like oneself, adding on their cares as if they were your own, getting close to that person, and feeling their pain as if it were your own. Is that what is called giving sympathy? If that is so, then sympathy seems to be quite selfish, and borderline hysterical.

Besides, one wouldn't have any control at all.

"If there's hope for Oka-chan, what about for Kaga-san?"

Taking back his mechanical pencil from Yanagisawa's hand, Banri scribbled in rough strokes. "Eh!", Mr. Two Dimensions looked towards Yanagisawa's face in surprise.

"Is there some connection between Kaga-san and ''Yana''?"

"Kaga-san has wanted to marry Yana-ssan since they were kids."

"Wha!? What's that!? Are you kidding!?"

"Kaga-san is in LOVE with Yana-ssan"

"!?!?!?!?"

Yanagisawa wrote all over Banri's writing with his pen, erasing it. And then, frowning at Banri as if they weren't friends, he wrote boldly.

"I've told Kouko clearly whenever I've had the opportunity. Though I've always said it clearly, this time for sure, I made it clear. I made it understood. Because Chinami and I are thinking we really want to go out."

"Opportunity, when!?", Banri thought, unable to say anything from emotion, looking down at what Yanagisawa had written.

Kouko was nowhere to be seen around school Tuesday, nor Wednesday.

Perhaps it was just a little time to recover and come back, and the mail that Banri received was about Thursday night.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4

2013-11-12T03:10:13Z

Perfect Chaos: It's Kouko that's sweating here, not Banri. Also, the part after that was a bit awkward, so I tried to fix it a bit.

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 4==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 4==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 150.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri is turning into a tuna-fish.

In spite of being awake, he can't seem to get up, his body stretched out on the bed and his eyes open in slits, just like a cat's. He is just like a tuna-fish hauled up to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaizu,_Shizuoka Yaisu]... for a half-hour already Banri has been like a tuna-fish.

In the entrance-way, corridor and the kitchen, despite it being early in the morning, the veil of darkness has been torn, as if forgetting the night. In the shadowy corner, sitting on a second-hand stool, I've been watching Banri, the tuna-fish.

Facing the two open windows to the northwest, today's weather looks good again, the morning sunlight shining in gently through the cotton curtains he had purchased at a home-center. But as bright as it is around the window, the light doesn't reach to the middle of the room.

By the time they were deciding on this room, they had stopped hesitating over other possibilities. If the place had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washitsu Japanese-style room] facing south, then by this hour even the room's nooks and corners would be brightly lit by the morning sunlight, and it would certainly feel nice. Of course that property was good, I am thinking even now. But the wardrobe was big. That room's closet is too small, and already clothes, pajamas, bags and such are already starting to be scattered here and there.

Wrapped up in an eggshell colored sheet, his face still a little puffy and disheveled, Banri as usual was only just opening his eyes. Banri's body wasn't moving, and the still unhealed scratches and sores over all his body were not to blame. Neither were the new complications with people, nor the hectic life of a student, nor the feelings of getting used to living alone.

Every now and then, Banri searches for me.

It's getting to feel as if by holding on to his dreams he was getting clues, as if he thinks that by not moving, he might catch his quarry unprepared, so with his eyes alone he is searching for me. He is understanding that it is futile, and he is planning to stop, but he searches anyway.

"How does he hope to find me?", as if he could hear me if he tried. But even if he could hear, "What in the world? Why are you searching?", he wouldn't understand. Finding and catching me, would that return me to inside of him? Or perhaps, would he erase me entirely? Even so, that guy would not even understand my so-called existence. Such a thing he just cannot do.

So then, Banri, realizing the impossibility of what he was doing, as usual became dejected. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes once more, as if he were awfully tired, bothered by nothing working, and before long crawled under the sheets once more. However many times he did it, even leaving his parents' home and living alone, Banri still didn't change. Still, here he was.

I knew what Banri was going to do next. After all, haven't I seen this show so many times before? Hiding under the sheets, Banri has after a while fallen asleep again. In the time I've existed, after all, how many times has he fallen into this trap? It's called falling back to sleep. This sleep is strangely powerful, heavy and deep, hitting Banri all at once. Even having set his cell-phone alarm to wake him up, with a required exposition on criminal law that he hadn't even started on, Banri doesn't even twitch.

Getting down from the strangely comfortable stool, I approached the bed. Buried near the pillow was the cell-phone, once more making noise. This time it wasn't the alarm that went off. It was from Linda. Wake up, Banri.

If he were to out and say, "Hello, who is it?", Linda would sure be surprised. ...But no, she wouldn't be particularly surprised, would she? There wasn't anything mysterious about calling Tada Banri, or going out with Banri either, in a normal world was there?

Anyway Banri, wake up quickly. ...In other words, really get up. The noise from the alarm or from the cell-phone is making the lady next door mad, and she's hitting the wall. There it is again, the strangely hard sound is frightening.

Doesn't that hurt her fist?

<center>* * *</center>

"Mr. Two Dimensions! Hey thanks! Heeyy Thaaankkss!"

"Noo proobleeem! Catch yooouuu laaateeer!"

"Toomoorrooww! Aarrouunndd luunnchhtiimmee!"

"Soouunnddss fuun!"

"Oookaaay theenn!"

"Toomoorrooww theenn!"

Giving a big wave, as if somebody were leaving the dock on a ferry, Banri saw off Mr. Two Dimensions, who went ahead at a brisk pace. He could see his back as he was swallowed up in a group of students, like a young girl holding both hands before his chest,

"Mr. Two Dimensions, Satou Takaya-kun... good luck with your job at the tempura shop! No matter what, don’t get yourself burnt...!"

He earnestly wished still more. As it happened, Mr. Two Dimensions' high-school nickname was "Satou Taka". Anyway, according to the guy himself, rather than be called by that name, he preferred Mr. Two Dimensions "forevermore."

Yanagisawa, staring at Banri with an amazed look in his eyes,

"Causing problems even for Mr. Two Dimensions, really, what were you doing?"

He drank down the cloudy green tea he had put into a bottle of black oolong tea. "In other words," his voice continued awfully scratchy, now in scolding mode.

"When I first saw your text message, I thought that was absolutely the strangest thing ever. Really, were you truly in mortal danger? How could you not notice? To begin with, taking along new students who weren't even proper members of the club to a training camp in April, wasn't that a bit strange? And you followed along blindly even so?"

Not even talking back, Banri's shoulders slumped. His honor as the elder, completely fallen. In the past such a problem didn't exist, even in theory.

That nightmare of a Saturday, driving back to Tokyo with the freshmen, Mr. Two Dimensions was unable to contact Banri and Kouko, no matter how much time went by, and wondered if he ought to report it to the police. He finally was able to get connection to Banri's cell-phone, and when he'd managed to explain the situation, "Are you all right!? We're fine~, Kaga-san had left too, we were really scared~!", Mr. Two Dimensions was crying into the phone. "Sorry for leaving you behind", he said again.

Remembering it now, he was truly sorry. Having caused somebody to worry about him, having been apologized to, all of it was inexcusable.

"Enough, really... even I don't understand my foolishness... a feeling like 'help me'. Save me from myself!, so to speak."

"But though there's Banri, there's also Kouko. She is such an airhead!"

While Yanagisawa leisurely went descending the stairs, he gazed longingly at the bit of tea powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle and let out a sigh.

"Did she even understand what kind of dangerous situation she was going through? ...Anyway if she was safe, then I suppose it was OK."

Banri pushed the arch of his foot against a corner of the stairs in order to shamble after Yanagisawa. The hard corner stimulated his still-sluggish feet. Having done so felt good, somehow.

They were engulfed in the hustle and bustle of school building at lunchtime, with people heading to the cafeteria and others heading to meeting places, some coming, some returning, some meeting, some separating. The people coming and going to their destinations made a lot of noise. Owing to the classrooms being on an upper floor, Banri and Yanagisawa, like Mr. Two Dimensions, watched the people coming up from the lobby one floor below.

At a landing of the stairwell, while gleefully swinging around a corner by catching the handrail, Yanagisawa looked down at Banri's face.

"In spite of having sent a text-message, 'Don't go, it looks suspicious', there wasn't even a reply. What about that?"

"Omaken"

"So, if you hadn't accidentally run into those Omaken people, wouldn't you have been in real trouble?"

Nodding while saying "Yes, you're right", he slipped at the corner trying to do the same thing Yanagisawa had done. Yelping idiotically while dropping his briefcase, he banged his shin against the steps, a direct hit. He saw stars. A group of girls passing close by laughed a little.

"...Hey, what's he doing? Banri's really dumb, isn't he?"

Unable to even answer from the pain, Banri then and there crouched down on the stairs. It's not as if he'd been endowed with the physique, power and will-power of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkei Musashibou Benkei]. Even if Banri were your average person, or perhaps some low-life rascal, keeling over and dying from the impact would not have been funny.

"O...www...!"

"That must've hurt. That made quite a bang. Right on the shin, too. Aah, just because I couldn't get ahold of you, was I going to just casually text Kouko!?"

"...To Kaga-san? ...That... well certainly... 'Fuaaaaaa!'...?"

While rubbing his shin to dull the pain, Banri looked up at Yanagisawa as he gathered up Banri's stuff. Yanagisawa shook his good-looking face from side to side.

"No, the surprising thing is that there was no answer. Ever since Saturday I've been completely ignored, in the usual way. Apart from that night, she's not paid any attention to me at all. ...Did she get back safely?"

"For sure, brought back together in the car of an Omaken senpai, an older girl."

"You went together to her house? Her parents' home?"

"Well, maybe, what of it? She called, ‘It's over there, this is good enough, thanks for the help!' and got out at the intersection, though."

"Which intersection?"

"Which, I cannot say... or even if it's all right to say."

For now, he bent over and tried to see how things were going with his still hurting shin. When he rolled up the cuff of his bluejeans, his limited vision shook.

Behind Yanagisawa. Stunningly bright, rose-pink with a bold, dark red flower pattern. Silk fluttering lightly, one-piece dress wonderfully frilly. At this point, he had no idea how a person could be so skilled at dressing up stylishly in such gaudy clothing.

He made a small ‘x' sign with his finger to be quiet, warning him "It's Kaga-san, over there!" He sent Mitsuo a private signal, as he was half hidden from Kouko by a fire door.

Emphasizing more than usual her luxuriant hair, a snow white hair-band. Sandals and bag also snow white. Even at a distance clearly beautiful, lips painted deep red, today's Kouko again was perfectly lovely.

Yanagisawa turned his back, not noticing. Kouko, in effusively good humor and spirits, showed her sparkling smile and spun herself around so as to show the hem of her skirt especially for Banri. She looked for all the world like a matador. The other students passing behind her looked with skepticism, even hostile glares at the strangely behaving, gorgeous, perfect Kouko. Banri, however, understood the meaning of Kouko's mysterious behavior. The girl hadn't even replied to the text messages from her beloved Yanagisawa.

Shortly Kouko frowned, troubled by the situation with Yanagisawa, but trying to move on. That scenario would eventually have to result in "Kuoukuoo!" In short, moving on to the stage of "Look here, take me!" Yanagisawa was the bull. The matador, Kouko.

That Yanagisawa's gaze was suddenly directed intensely beyond Banri.

"Chinami!"

Reflexively, Banri also turned around and,

"Ah, it's ''Yana''. What'cha doin'?"

A short girl, like a middle-schooler, was approaching them with a smile.

It was the first time he'd seen her.

Or rather, that voice. It was so cute, Banri found himself smiling automatically. Not in the sense of acting like a fool, of course.

"We had classes down below, and now that it's over we were coming back up. What's Chinami up to, by herself?"

"Yep. Being a good kid, this afternoon I've got nothing going on. I'll be alone at lunch too."

Completely the voice actor, doing roles like young girls chattering, she was what you could call an anime voice person.

She didn't seem to be assembled quite right: looking too young to be a student, with a voice too sweet. It hardly suited her small form. In other words--- her voice wasn't the only cute thing.

For a first meeting with the girl, she was somehow excessively cute. The more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. While Banri without thinking focused on what he was seeing, yet he wanted Mr. Two Dimensions to see, as he thought these dimensions took cuteness to a new level.

Her visibly long, soft hair was only loosely gathered, and in spite of not wearing makeup her skin seemed to glow. Her looks and small build made her seem like a child from some foreign country. Showing a boyish silhouette in worn demins, but matched with a handmade lace-collared blouse, she had some sort of rustic outfitter's day-pack on her back, the which made her delicate form stand out in the crowd.

Whether that was stylish or not as girls go, for the time being, if you looked at it through Banri's eyes as a boy, it was a bit clumsy, or rather, to put it bluntly, primitive, he was thinking, but strangely, it was good. Setting aside whether it suited his taste or not, if there were a hundred guys, ninety-five of them would be trying to get her attention, trying to touch or poke, trying to get a reaction. Wouldn't he be thinking of such things? Of course Banri was amongst the ninety-five.

"Come to think of it, you two haven't ever talked before, right? Banri, this is Chinami. Chinami, this guy is Banri."

"Don't call me that!", unexpectedly speaking in unison, Banri and that kid, exchanging glances with Chinami. With a soft voice Chinami laughed. She smiled with her eyes too, and they turned into lines. She seemed to be smiling innocently, with nothing hidden on the other side of it.

Not saying even a single word, Banri looked back at her smiling face earnestly. And then Yanagisawa was looking at Chinami too. Intent on not missing even an instant, his eyes were chasing after her, not even blinking, watching Chinami's smiling face, like a fairy spontaneously coming out of the deep, thick forest. Even Banri could see what was going on.

This feeling. This ''Yana'' fellow. It seemed like---

"No way! We said it in harmony, didn’t we? Pleased to meet you. I'm Oka Chinami. ''Yana'' and I met at a film research club recruiting party."

---She was just right for him.

"Err, nice to meet you. I'm Tada Banri. ''Yana''-ssan almost certainly has some connection with my previous life. Or rather, Oka,"

"Call me Chinami. Being called 'Oka' makes me sound like I'm an old maid."

"Ah. Then hey Chinami, China... excuse me, but this is a little awkward. I'll call you Chinami then. Chinami, ...excuse me, even this is hard to stop. Eh, Oka..."

Chinami looked at Banri's face, apparently with great curiosity as he spoke stupidly. Her dark eyes were a little bleary from being a natural airhead. It gave the impression of little letters spinning around in the middle of the pupils in her eyes. Inside such as little Chinami, around five hundred little heart marks wanted to call out. No no no, come back to earth.

"With Oka, that makes the third person with a two-syllable last name. There's Tada, Oka, and one more person, ...Kaga..."

With that tricky way of mentioning Kouko's name, Banri was casually trying to get a reaction from Yanagisawa. But the expression on his face didn't change. Didn't change, or perhaps because he was too enchanted, staring fixedly at the adorable Chinami, that other things, for example Banri's uninteresting and plain face, weren't even noticed. It appeared that he didn't even hear the name of his inconvenient childhood friend.

Chinami's eyes twinkled from Banri's dumb joke while she nodded at him.

"Wow, is that so? There's Hara, the girl in Film Research too! Counting Mita, the guy from phys-ed, just how many two-syllables are there here? This time, why don't we gather together a few two-syllable people and have a small drinking party? With this unexpected connection, we might have gotten something fun! Then I'll call for ''Yana'' too. Hey look, Ya-na, you're two syllables!"

She bumped Yanagisawa's elbow with her own, messing around.

Yanagisawa, looking even happier from that,

"Huh? But I'm five syllables, my real name has five syllables! We're in different classes!"

He bumped her back, his elbow to hers. His knock was stronger.

"Eh, finally, in spite of your saying you would call me, ihyahya! Hold on, hyaa!"

Chinami's last "Hyahahahaha!" went flying away as high pitched laughter. To blame was Yanagisawa, who was attacking her, tickling her sides. While she was laughing loudly "I'm ticklish! Stop it!" and trying to escape him, Yanagisawa was going after Chinami even harder, torturing her.

Kouko didn't even understand what she was seeing.

Or rather, she did. ...She was there, close by.

Remembering the situation, Banri's breathing caught. With what kind of face Kouko was looking at Mitsuo in his shamelessness, he was afraid to check. Was she about to blow up, or was she in shock?

Unthinkingly failing to read the mood in their behavior, she went to separate the happy couple against their will. Forcing her arm between the two with all her strength, she separated them. Quite angry that he was being touched by Miss Chinami, she grabbed Yanagisawa roughly by the side.

"Ya, na, s, sa, n, it's true that your real name has five syllables! Chinami-chan, let's call him that! In a party for two-syllables he's the wrong kind of guy! He's quite the sexual harasser! Please be careful with the brute! Hey!"

"Haha, that's true! ''Yana''-ssan is five syllables! Hey, stop that!"

"That's not my real name! Or rather, hey, ow, hold on, ouch, really, Banri, what are you doing!?"

"Is this what it feels like to have your chest ripped off!?", with the seriously unpleasant feeling of having his body torn apart at the shoulder, right then,

"...U!?"

Banri saw beige-pink claws, gripping like eagle's talons. There was no sound of crunching from Yanagisawa's bones, but there should have been from the force by which he was turned around.

"Mitsuo, what are you doing?"

Smiling sweetly--- a beauty, no longer a deadly weapon.

Standing firm in her loveliness, Kouko was smiling like a demon.

Her long eyelashes swayed as she slowly winked. Peeking through her deep red lips could be seen pure white teeth, tinged with blue. Striking a balance as if calculated, her dark brown, shining hair fell over her right shoulder.

"...Have I any relation to you? What are you doing?"

Yanagisawa coldly brushed away Kouko's hand, which was grabbing his shoulder.

Banri was strangely nervous, having watched over the situation of Kouko and Yanagisawa for a while now. Standing so close their feet overlapped, Kouko looked up at Yanagisawa, still smiling elegantly. Yanagisawa's good humor took a nose-dive at once, as he looked down at Kouko scowling.

Perhaps, Kouko should not have made her appearance. It would been better if she had simply played at, "Look what I caught!" So Banri thought. Nonetheless,

"Is there something going on here? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She really ought not to speak that way, like warning a child, as if looking down upon him, her nose in the air. She shouldn't be showing that perfect smile, as if she were enjoying herself, tormenting him. Stop it, Kaga-san... though he was thinking so, the message wasn't getting through to Kouko.

Kouko, still showing a shocked expression, gave one small shake of her head, causing the hair prettily wound about her slender neck to come undone and fall downwards. Folding her arms elegantly, she slowly raised her chin higher. She posed in a way that shifted her weight to one leg. Her frilly skirt fully fluffed out, emphasizing her slender waist, her silhouette was completely that of a queen bee.

"I don't want other women chatting with my lover."

"I am not your lover!"

"'Just chatting, but cheating', how many times have I said that?"

"'I am not your lover!', how many times have I said that?"

"I would like you to stop doing things I hate."

"How you fail to understand what I'm saying."

"Mitsuo says things like that because he doesn't listen. 'I would like you to stop doing things I hate,' I said. It'd be good if he'd obey, too. Because with only that much, everything can be made perfect."

Chinami was still stiff, as if surprised, just watching the strained argument between Kouko and Yanagisawa. Then she quietly turned one eye towards Banri. She whispered to Banri, "What's happening?", but her voice was noticed,

"What in the world?"

The haughty eyes of the queen bee looked impatiently at Chinami.

"What was that?"

"...Eh? That...m, me...?"

"Where did that voice come from?"

"Fr, from my mouth..."

"Mouth! From your mouth! That voice! What in the world!", Kouko as if amazed opened her eyes wide, looking up once to the heavens. And then turning about with her perfect smile,

"Though it doesn’t matter that this mystery person showed up, to take a pass at Mitsuo for the moment. I am not begging, but commanding. Mitsuo isn’t just a lover. We’ll be planning our marriage soon. Understand? Marriage it is, marriage. Ma-rra-i-ge. It is destined. From the start you and I have been set apart from the world. Understood? Do you not understand? Understand! Now! At once! Right here!"

Pointing her finger at her, she approached Chinami.

"Eeh...?", Chinami, truly bewildered, blinked, unable to say anything.

Face to face, the difference in their heights was less than four inches. Richly colored brand-name clothing and sparkling jewelry on her, Kouko with one hand on her hip, her chin raised. And then looking down on the petite Chinami,

"---Hmph. Oka Chinami, eh?"

She looked at her with both eyes, as if examining something smelly a cat left at the side of the road. Unexpectedly, her high-heeled sandals were stepping on the toes of Chinami's boots. Banri too reflexively gulped, seeing she was willing to fight dirty. Certainly the type to put a thumbtack into a rival's toe-shoes. The type to have a pin on their fingertip when giving a handshake.

"I remember that name, for sure. Though I don't know what I've Chinami'd, well, do you like to Chinami? You live on your own? By all means, do as you please."

"...Huh...? Rather, you see, unfortunately my feet..."

"However, somewhere else in world from where we're at. Don't come near us. Don't bother us. Don't come near Mitsuo. Mitsuo is mine. Is that warning enough? Understand that there will be no warning next time."

"Kouko, stop it."

His handsome face freezing like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#Masks Noh mask], Yanagisawa stood in front of Kouko, giving Chinami his back as if to shield her.

Kouko, unconcerned, simply brushed Yanagisawa aside, putting herself even closer to Chinami. Bending over Chinami's forehead, her lips so close she could have kissed her, Kouko's fingertip pointed up at Chinami's chin like a gun.

"It's because you attacked. People like you are eliminated in a moment. Because that's the world. ...I will do anything. If you don't like that, then go to the ladies room and shiver, but why don't you leave? Why don't you just go hibernate for fifty years, or better yet a hundred twenty years."

A sweet voice coming from an elegant smile, she was a complete villian.

"Hey, didn't you realize? Isn't it really bad manners to reach out and touch other people?"

"Kouko, shut up."

"Hey, aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up! Behave yourself!"

Grabbing the chain of Kouko's purse, Yanagisawa pulled on it. Losing her balance on her high-heels, Kouko took a quick step, staggering. Looking up at Yanagisawa's expressionless face, it seemed like for the first time she realized. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but immediately tried to regain her queen-bee expression,

"Go somewhere else."

"...So it is, Mitsuo. Send me a text-message, thanks. What we talked about, OK?"

"That's enough, I'm leaving. Chinami, let's go eat lunch. Banri!"

Called out to, Banri gulped, strangely awkward.

"Well, that, err, I... we have an appointment with that Omaken senpai. ...Kaga-san and I together."

Yanagisawa never even looked towards Kouko. Still as expressionless as ever, he looked at Banri's face for three seconds.

"OK. Then I'll text you when we get back."

He turned his back to them.

"Ah, ''Yana''-ssan!"

Still uncomfortably holding his tongue, he left, walking beside Chinami. He called after that back.

"You have to put water in before you can drink it! And then the tea powder!"

"Calm down!", he thought, "Calm things down a bit!" It had no effect at all. Yanagisawa raised one hand as if tired, turning back to only Banri, answering "later". Parting the stream of students, their backs shortly disappeared.

Banri let out a long breath. While combing up his bangs, he returned to Kouko's side,

"Kaga-san, hold on, say what you like..."

He paused to catch his breath again.

"...However you want to say it, what was all that...!?"

The detested side of Kaga Kouko, the villian, was standing behind him.

She was so scared that sweat was running on her forehead, on her neck, in fact, from all over her body. I could tell since, right now, wham! I was able to see that she was proudly folding her arms, perhaps by chance that pose,

"...By chance are you hiding the sweat of your armpits...?"

Kouko didn't answer. As if she hadn't heard anything, she was looking away, her face beautifully composed.

Nonetheless, her whole body strangely bathed in sweat, she stayed put, both hands holding her armpits. Even her face was settling down to a blank expression, deathly pale. Normally she would be brighter, her expression clearing.

"For once, are you feeling guilty...?"

Still unable to open her mouth, she suddenly nodded at Banri's word.

"I mean really, something's already dripping... it looks pretty bad... are you OK?"

Once more, a nod. And then a few words, "Since there is no bread, I want to eat cake," though with a note of sarcasm,

"Perhaps I should go dry myself in the bathroom."

Simply that.

Sure, why not..., Banri nodded. While seeing off Kouko to the girl's bathroom, her arms still folded in a strangely stiff pose, he checked the time on his cell-phone.

"Well..., if you could hurry up... it will shortly be time for our meeting with Linda after all."

Shaking her head quickly as if she were a broken puppet, Kouko disappeared beyond the bathroom door.

That was the last he saw of her figure.

---But that was not at all what he meant. Kouko appeared again after several minutes. She had at last put on the cardigan, and her hair and makeup was perfect. "Sorry I took so long, Tada-kun", even showing a smile, it seemed she had managed to restore her normal, entirely perfect outward appearance. But,

"...Are,"

"Don't go asking 'Are you OK?', because I'm fine."

"...Bu,"

"Don't go saying 'But you see,' because I'm fine."

"...Ka,"

"Don't go saying 'Kaga-san, what are you doing?' Don't go telling me 'Are you an idiot?' Because I understand. I know. I'm foolish. Yes, a big disaster. Yes, yes, yes, I'm guilty. I was hated for that again today. On the way to the disaster I already knew it, but I could not stop, I could not admit defeat, knowing how many years I've been doing the same thing over and over again, something I cannot give up! So it is, because I'm a fool! But having been convicted, there's nothing I can do about it! And I can't turn back the hands of time! ...But sorry about that, let's hurry up. Let's not keep the Omaken senpai waiting."

Not letting Banri get a word in edgewise, with a toss of her hair Kouko walked out.

Since were it possible to say anything like "You're looking good now", then she would probably have to reply "Do you really mean it?"

The sound of her high-heels echoing wasn't as confident as usual. Neither her energy, nor her spirit, not her vitality, nor hardly anything else was sufficient.

<center>* * *</center>

Regarding the rescue of Banri and Kouko after they got into their mess in the mountains, the start of term training camp for the "Japanese Festival Cultural Research Society" was going on in the seminar house. ...Their nickname, Omaken. The nickname came from '[[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Omaken|Festival Research Society]]'. She said, "There was talk going around the student affairs office right away, you see. 'A strange bogus club was trying to infiltrate the school, scattering pamphlets around, inviting people to join.' "

She was Hayashida-senpai.

Hayashida Nana, her nickname Linda. A natural born Japanese. This was the person that first noticed Banri when he called for help.

"You did such a thing for our sakes?"

While walking close behind, in spite of Kouko speaking, Linda was looking over her shoulder, and could be seen smiling and shaking her head. Seeing her that way, Banri was once again surprised at how unexpectedly normal a person she seemed to be. ...Wasn't saying such things rude? But, this Linda before him chatting and the Linda which on the day of the entrance ceremony materialized before him from the Edo era and threw him a kiss, he had a feeling they were the same person.

Just a little shorter than Kouko, with a softer voice, walking briskly with both hands stuffed into her pockets, her attitude was recklessly peaceful, filled with quiet force.

"It wasn't just for you two! It's self-defense, sort of."

There was that face. That of a saint.

Because of with her gentle, beatific face, even her long stride, even her casual way of talking, she didn't seem boyish in any way.

"'Omaken', to put it simply, do research into the old and admirable Japanese custom of the Cultural Festival, taking part in those times, leaving a legacy for future generations... though we're doing the typical activities, though you could say our presence is not required."

With every word she said, Linda's colorless lips seemed to wrinkle, pursing tightly.

"Of course, isn't it a little suspicious? I cannot say for sure that festivals and religious beliefs are not completely unrelated. Not that long ago, there was a big religious sort of event around here, and I've heard that for a long time afterwards they kept our club under a close eye, suspicious of us. Given that background, we've tried to present ourselves as a perfectly normal, respectable club whenever we have the chance. We tell everybody, 'We aren't strange, really, and being lumped together with such strangeness is troublesome for us. We would like to cooperate with you fully to expel these suspicious elements.'"

"I see..."

Nodding while walking alongside Kouko, Banri casually gave the elbow of her cardigan a tug. The two of them stepped quietly over some Monday Special, thrown out earlier in front of a tavern, not looking down at it.

In this part of town, a lot of old office buildings one after another, more than students one could see the forms of salarymen out for lunch. Their company IDs hung from their necks but stuck in their shirt pockets, the white-shirted forms moved along in groups, all the tired faced adults, impossible to tell apart one from another, materialized from here and there. Linda, like a worldly cat, easily weaved her way through the gaps in the men. They stuck with her after that, but Banri and Kouko were still a little slow.

"Catching up with you two, well, was really dangerous. Even the Student Affairs Office was saying they understood. It was just now becoming a problem at other colleges. That 'religion', so to speak, might even have been a pyramid scheme, from the awful amount of accessories, amulets and such that were being purchased. It was really good you could escape, oh, you can buy lunch here."

Clad in pretty fluorescent colored Nikes, her feet stopped. It seemed from a glance as if Linda had flinched a little, passing beneath an old sign, carefully lettered. "Auntie!", she called, and a woman wearing an apron appeared from the back at once.

"Good to see you again. We're sold out of today's special, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaage Karaage], croquettes, hamburger and even seaweed bentou. Would you like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu Tonkatsu] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menchi_katsu Menchi]?"

"Today's special's out!? Karaage and hamburgers too!? What's this place coming to...!"

"If only you’d come 15 minutes earlier..."

"Eh, then we'll settle for menchi."

"It's not polite to call it menchi."

"I'll take menchi gladly! What would you two like?"

Same for me, answered Banri's voice, and Kouko too nodded her agreement. "Three menchi, if you will", said Linda, giving the order. "Three menchi, as you wish", said the lady, immediately taking the order into the back. From somewhere back inside the tavern, a voice sang back "As you wish!" "Oh, possibly...", said Banri slowly bending way back, looking up at the letters on the sign. But, his back was struck by something,

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter since it's a chain shop. It was just for the atmosphere."

He was convinced that Linda, with her face of a saint, could see through anything and everything. Hmph, a small laugh in a strange voice could be heard from Kouko. Somehow or other, from the state she was in, sweating all over and ashen faced, she seemed to have recovered.

His mind relieved, Banri with undisguised curiosity,

"By the way, have you ever had menchi, Kaga-san?"

He asked Kouko and watched.

"Have I? Why?"

"Balls of ground meat, dipped in batter and deep-fried in oil. Casual food for the masses, eh?"

"Yeah, I already knew that! There're things to eat, you know."

"There are. ...Is that so?"

Looking at Kouko's face blandly answering, without thinking Banri smiled. Menchi for Kaga Kouko. Such things didn't seem to go in combination. Kouko went with wine, foie gras and caviar. In his mind's eye, she polished an expensive diamond on her finger while drinking expensive imported wine and holding a Persian cat. Wearing some kind of gorgeous gown, naturally, the term "rocking chair" came to mind at once.

Listening to their picking and choosing, Linda too looked back, bouncing her wallet in her hand while watching Kouko and grinning.

"Terrible. It doesn't suit you at all."

Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines as Banri. He said "of course it does", miming holding a brandy glass and rocking his body back forth. When the proper term came to mind, he said "A rocking chair."

"Is that so? But I like menchi. My favorite food is salted fish and smoked radish pickles... With regards to [http://www.donbei.jp/ Donbee], I'm in the deep blue [http://japanesefood.about.com/od/udon/r/kitsuneudon.htm Kitsune Udon] club... Err, don't worry, I'm paying."

"That's fine, it's my treat. Though just for today, OK? With how you guys have been looking worn out lately, I'm not worried about collecting $2.50 in lunch money from you."

"Cheap!", Banri exclaimed in surprise. It really looked like there was deflation all around. From now on they needed to check this store, and there was no way he was going to reveal it, even for a certain temporarily down-on-his-luck princeling.

"That, really, must be too miserable. As for me, in dreams I've seen it all. In the dead of night, wearing only house slippers. Four syllables passing through my mind like an escaped prisoner."

"It's not four syllables!"

Like the upperclassman she was, Linda quietly ignored the retort. She got some small change from her wallet and without a word pushed it roughly into Kouko's hand, accepting the three boxed lunches stuffed in a single bag.

"You're welcome! Come again!"

Receiving $10 in change from the lady, she walked ahead of Banri and Kouko once more. Almost an attack, Banri's hand was reaching out, taking the unexpectedly heavy bag.

That night, when Banri and Kouko lost their way, it seems that they had been walking towards the real college seminar house without knowing it. Their shouts in the woods were heard by Linda, and they were rescued by everybody in her training camp. They explained their situation and the next morning, they were sent back home by car.

They owed her a debt of gratitude that could not be forgotten.

Consequently, both Banri and Kouko were already able to commit themselves to her permanently.

They didn't know for sure just what they were doing for Omaken, but whatever they were going to be doing, the feeling didn't change. In this way the decision was made.

Apparently the older Omaken had struggled with a shortage of help in the past. Overjoyed, they had invited the two of them over. So today, as it turned out, just like that, that they were going to show up for the noon meeting.

In the whole little campus town, there really wasn't anything really cool for a clubroom, so under normal circumstances, they gathered around the lecture building first floor lobby table, or got together at a local coffee shop, and then once in a while, like today, they might rent the district meeting hall.

There were so many things they might do: dress up in kimonos and rescue people from samba dancers, opening a rally, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onbashira sliding down a mountain path riding atop a log], aim at targets while mounted on horses, wolfing down rice cakes, [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Naki Sumo|letting babies cry in a sumo arena]], stuffing themselves with mountains of food--- Japanese festivals were really so many things--- And Banri was planning to do them. Kouko must have been thinking the same thing too.

"Take a look, that yellow building over there. We've been using it for generations. We practice over there, in our first floor club-room."

Linda looked back over her shoulder, she pointed at a rather old three story building. Then,

"Remember it well. Don't forget, first-years."

She smiled at Banri and Kouko's faces.

The line of her jaw was divided into many pieces by her swaying hair, the light of the sun showing through brightly. As it was, as if about to go running she wore a nylon hoodie with a logo on it. Pants reaching only just past the knees. Calves. Slim ankles. Brightly colored, not quite new NIKEs. Her face looked out over the slightly bossy upperclassmen.

She tried to hold herself aloof from the world, light and breezy, but not too invisible. The neighborhood with Linda's form in it grew strangely comfortable for Banri. How in the world did he wind up spending the rest of the day with her? He had a hunch it was going to be fun. Banri's spirits rose at once, but,

"...?"

Suddenly he felt he was suffocating. His feet stopped.

To untangle his memory. "Don't forget!"

"Don't forget, Banri---" It seemed as if Linda's voice were catching in her throat. Making noises in the hot lining of her throat, as if she wanted to cry for him.

...Wanted to, but no, why would she call out to Banri?

"Aren't you coming, Tada Banri! What're you doing?"

Called out to by his exact full name, Banri, confused, shook his head. He didn't understand at all. He didn't have time to stand there and brood. Chasing after Linda and Kouko, he went into the refreshingly cool entrance. Advancing down the dim corridor, they opened a door.

Before his nose, the smells of tatami mats and bentou lunches combined. Like something they'd come to dearly miss, they were everyday smells.

"In here we take off our shoes, OK? You brought first-years!"

Their voices in chorus, "Whoa!", a bunch of people sitting around on the floor looked back over their shoulders. There might have been all of ten people, some of whom they recognized from their disaster. "We're terribly grateful for your help at that time…", they said, once more bowing their heads deeply as they said "It's a newcomer!", "The first newbies of the year!", "She's a pretty one!" and so on, brandishing their chopsticks at them and all of them applauding together in greeting. The atmosphere overpowering him, "Thank you…", said Banri feeling small and taking off his shoes.

Of course, slippers weren't really needed in this room, with it's tatami floor. From wearing sandals that screamed "It's springtime!", Kouko was strangely uneasy going barefoot, suddenly becoming shorter, even more than Banri getting smaller and smaller as she came inside.

Linda waved Banri and Kouko towards the middle of the room,

"That side's for the third years, OK? Hi!"

The people in the area she pointed to gathered their voices.

"Hi!"

This time she pointed to an area a little apart,

"And on that side, the second years. Howdy!"

"Howdy!"

Seated in a circle, the people brandished their chopsticks.

"The fourth-years couldn't show, and you first-years are our first newcomers. Thanks!"

Involuntarily echoing, "Thanks!", raising one hand in the same pose Banri was giving them, Kouko simply blinked over and over again. It didn't quite fit her image as a lady.

"Well, first of all why don't we have lunch? Sit over there, here's a cushion."

In an impolite manner, but skillfully, Linda slid the cushions over the tatami, from their line against the wall over to Banri and Kouko with her feet. For her own part lowering herself to sit Indian style, she handed them their bentou lunches.

With Linda sitting on her cushion as if to separate Banri and Kouko, they accepted their lunches. Kouko knelt in a very lady-like manner, spread a large handkerchief over her lap and set her bentou neatly upon it. Banri too, unaccustomed to kneeling, opened up his bentou. Reflexively, a quiet "Whoa..." escaped him. He didn't think it was from deflated prices, but there was a large portion of rice and plenty of side dishes. This, simply put, was happiness.

"This lunch really perks me up... it's good! Will you be able to eat all of yours, Kaga-san?"

"Yes, probably. Linda, thank you for the food."

"You bet. Eat, eat. Since it's OK while we're eating, look over there, won't you? Since you're going to be involved with that group this year."

Linda pointed with her chopsticks at a laptop computer that had been left open on a table set near the window. The wide screen was filled by a video being played back,

"...Ah!?"

Without thinking, Banri slapped his legs. Of course, his chopsticks got stuck in his jeans.

"That outfit, wasn't it an Edo Period cosplay!?"

"Eh...", some of the upperclassmen turned their heads sadly at Banri's voice.

"Very much so! I can't invite anybody into the club without doing something cosplay!"

"I mean, isn't that so? Haven't I ever explained it?", Linda set down her chopsticks for a moment. Raising her face once more, she turned around to face Banri and Kouko.

"Well, you can't really call it cosplay, though. That time I had barely started practicing, really, since at that point I was only dressed the part. We Omaken do something different every year. In fact, last year we were in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi Yosakoi Soran]. We were thrown in as a backup group for a team from an alliance of colleges, though. And now this year we are that!"

On the notebook monitor, the characteristic light step, the waving of hands. Lines of women together wearing bamboo hats and formations of men with twisted hand-towels wrapping their heads. Light out, well into the evening. Crowds along the way, dripping sweat. Japanese summer. Summer festivals.

"Since the Omaken was organized, well, for the second time in four years! What was it now? Yeah, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa_Dance_Festival Awa Odori]! That's it!"

Excitedly shouting "No way!", they applauded.

"That's just it--- we will be in the Dance of Fools. You will become fools and dance like crazy, newcomers."

From the beginning Banri had been a fool anyhow, but would Kouko be all right with that?

<center>* * *</center>

Staggering, her feet tangled up,

"I, can't... no, self-confidence..."

Kouko muttered in a low, low voice.

While they were walking together, side by side, Banri couldn't find the words to comfort her.

The Omaken senpai were still in the rehearsal room, practicing. Entering the third-floor lecture hall and giving their excuses, Banri and Kouko in spite of being underlings had managed to escape.

"Is there anything to drink? Even water to buy?"

While nodding, Kouko caught a curl that had somehow escaped and went to put it back with her fingertip. It slipped from her fingers and fell back down, all the way to the tip of her nose.

The upperclassmen from other universities that were at the training camp that rescued Banri and Kouko a few days before--- every year, they recruited teams from all over the region to participate in Awa Odori, and gave them personal coaching. And now, Linda was taking the two newcomers who hadn't been to the training camp under her wing, this year's Awa Odori practice having already started,

"My inadequacy... what should I do about it? My sense of rhythm? My reflexes? Or is it more in my head?"

"Sort of. We're still just starting, I've not done it before either."

"I got the feeling you can do it. At least, you have the makings more than I."

"My 'makings' are greatly exaggerated. From the very beginning I haven't had such."

"...But if you don't have it, then where am I...?"

Banri handed over a bottled water he had bought from a vending machine to Kouko, who stood there sighing miserably. Saying "Thanks...", she opened the top to take a drink,

And started coughing.

Had something gone down her windpipe? Kouko was choking and coughing violently. Dropping by the wayside, the lid went rolling towards a storm drain. Kouko followed it with her eyes, moaning "Aaa..." in an extremely miserable voice. "That" Kaga Kouko, up til then had been getting weaker and weaker. If Oka-chan had been there right then, she might have been able to get back at the bully queen--- but unable to say anything because of the mood, Banri quietly watched Kouko as she was.

Not that it was all that hard a thing to do.

In any case, it was only the first practice session. No, calling it a rehearsal was perhaps a bit much. It was just an introduction, no more.

Without even music, their feet still barefoot, just beating time "1, 2, 1, 2". With no distinction between the men’s dance and the women's yet, they just tried beating time on their knees. Unable to speak with Linda, that was all they did.

On the tatami mats, all the Omaken stood evenly spaced, facing a mirror that had been installed on one wall. Then, with their feet spread to about shoulder width, both their hands open and lifted overhead, standing lightly on tiptoes. Calling out, "Here we go!", very casually, bent at the knees, simply rising and falling to the rhythm. "Loosening up, floating, it's the secret to dance", Linda said over and over again.

To this point Banri was having no problem. Some of the upperclassmen could already step out with alternate feet, fluttering their hands about, already doing it in that unique Awa Odori style.

Though what they would do had been decided, his mind spun around, "Awa Odori… is that so? Awa Odori, eh?" He felt awkward, but as he watched the older students lined up, in their T-shirted forms, with their light-footed changing steps, it dawned on him that they seemed a bit cool. Wearing twisted towels for sweatbands, showing stylishly, their heels visible sticking out of rolled down socks, wearing them as if only their toes were stuck in there... even all that was cool. Immediately imitating them, Banri checked that his socks were rolled down too.

However, there was Kouko.

Together 1, 2, 1, 2, for the time being they moved their necks back and forth. Over and over again.

But, they were slipping. Falling into the same rhythm as in the mirror, his head moving with the others lined up reflecting back. By itself, Kouko's head, unsteadily, wobbly, wasn't moving along with the rest.

Did she realize she was the only one out of synch? She was frantically trying to keep up with the rest, yet seemed not the least bit discouraged. From the very start her feet spread, twisting around, pigeon-toed as if she were feeling shy, her shyness held in check desperately, as if clinging to a boulder, her arms gradually descending weakly, towards the front as she had been learning to do. Her face was becoming steadily more rigid from the strain; she was becoming like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariti Kishibojin], about to die.

"Kou-ko, Kou-ko, Kaga Kou-ko! Relax a bit! Take it easy! Laugh! Smile!", Linda over and over again called out to her. Each time, she tried to laugh a little, but Kouko's overly serious dance had no trace of flexibility at all. You got the feeling she was to crack at any moment. Her ever-perfect smile was a hundred million light-years away.

He understood, though he had forgotten the faces, as it was walking forwards and saying to Linda, "...C-3PO?" ---A strange thing, that he could remember something like that perfectly. Without even thinking he had put it into words. Some of the upperclassmen snorted when they heard it.

Kouko stopped practicing at once, her face going red.

"...Omaken, I'm beat, could we stop...?"

Banri was partially to blame in this, too.

Still holding the seemingly useless water bottle with the missing cap, Kouko slumped her shoulders and weakly muttered.

"I mean... sorry, Tada-kun, I, I forgot to give you money for the water..."

"It's OK, it's OK, as far as I'm concerned, it's no big deal. We've only just started. Besides, don't we owe Omaken? Have you forgotten already?"

"I haven't forgotten our debt, of course not. But... I've been thinking that perhaps we're going about paying them back the wrong way. Somebody like me, I'm just a burden. Maybe there's a better way than by joining a club. ...For example, a contribution. ...Or something like that."

"Aren't there other ways of paying them back that are better than money? Besides, if you were to quit, wouldn't that leave me by myself? Let's try to work together a bit more!"

"...Any more, embarrassing, carrying on..."

Looking a bit resentful, Kouko stared at Banri's face.

"That bit about C-3PO was bad of me! Sorry, really. I didn't intend to embarrass you, nor did I plan to tease you, it just came out..."

"...That's OK. Besides, you've not been trying to do such things to me, from the very start."

They started walking once more. Kouko let out a big sigh and spoke to herself.

"So it is... the very idea of coming here to college was a mistake. I've been messing up from the very start. Though I'm late, after all this time... what am I going to do..."

"You've got to where you're saying such things. Didn't you want to come to college with ''Yana''-ssan? For now, that being the case, isn't it all right to say you accomplished that?"

"...But he's been avoiding me like the plague..."

"So lately it's been getting to be a game of playing hard to catch. That being the case, why not just let him be and let's go do Awa Odori, you and I together!"

"...But..."

"And then, on with the plan! We'll kick back and laugh for all to see! In black leather, having whips and whatnot for S&M bondage. Because that becomes Kaga-san."

"...I don't have such things..."

"Then buy them! It absolutely suits you!"

Chatting while they returned to the university building, Banri muttered "over there...", and stopped in his tracks. It was too late to change direction. Kouko saw the same thing Banri did.

At a table in the corner of the lobby, deep in conversation about something fun were the forms of Yanagisawa and Chinami. Since summer vacation they'd always seemed to be together, sitting facing each other, looking into each other's eyes, laughing like idiots, about ready to tip over the bench. It looked like the two of them didn't even realize Banri and Kouko were there.

Feeling as if he were breaking out in a cold sweat, Banri tried to quietly sneak a glance in Kouko's direction. He was afraid that she would charge at them again, just like before, with them as sitting ducks. But, this time, like you might expect,

"...It seems I cannot try today either. It'd be better if I just go home."

"Kaga-san"

"Today's been the worst."

Turning back at once, Kouko, her pretty skirt waving turned and went back down the street they'd just come down. Banri reflexively tried to follow after her,

"Kaga-san..."

"I'm OK!"

As if getting the better of herself, Kouko's voice hardened.

"...Since I'll be returning by taxi, here's fine. See you later, Tada-kun. Thanks for the water. ...Try to think about doing Awa Odori by yourself."

She trotted off, as if escaping from the lobby she left. Left behind alone, Banri must have lost his bearings for a moment.

In the end he returned to the lobby, to the table where Yanagisawa and Chinami were deep in conversation, then attempted to interrupt them by getting up on the table.

"Oh, Banri. What's with that entrance? I'd just now finished a text, I mean, what are you doing?"

"Interrupting your conversation."

Even though Yanagisawa seemed to be laughing merrily, he told him to shut up, and Chinami, looking as cute as ever, quickly rescued a water bottle so the bothersome Banri wouldn't knock it over.

"Hey, Chinami and I, we've officially joined Film Research. Won't you come in too? So let's make a movie, a movie! We might even be able to steal the competition from the upperclassmen."

"But I've gotten involved in doing Awa Odori."

"Ah, Awa Odori? Did you say ‘Awa Odori'?"

"That's what I said."

"...Why?"

"Because of Omaken. Together with Kaga-san."

"Kouko?"

Yanagisawa's eyebrows could be seen rising automatically. Surely thinking about how disagreeable things had been recently. Chinami seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and staring at him.

"Eh, Awa Odori? You're kidding, that's good, where might that have come from? They're doing wonderful things in many places, aren't they! Amazing, amazing!"

Turning a smiling face to Banri, her eyes innocently brightening, she started playfully moving her hands. It wasn't Awa Odori, ''funny uncle, funny uncle, funny uncle you funny uncle, I couldn't even see you''. But.

"...Oka-chan, you're cute, aren't you..."

"Eh!?"

"...And besides, you're a good kid, right..."

"W, what!? What's going on!?"

"...But in truth, are you not awfully black-hearted? Aren't you hiding under that tattered clothing a lush body that wickedly leads boys around by the nose? Is there not blooming, deep in the Oka-chan jungle, its sinful nectar dripping down thickly, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia Rafflesia] flower?"

"Ehhh...!?"

"...Will it not bloom, the Oka-fflesia..."

"Y...yes!?"

"Hmph, is that so? You've really become Yana-ssan's favorite.", Banri saw Chinami's face go red in apparent confusion. She seemed to be feeling really awkward about part of the nonsensical compliments Banri had been spouting just now. Blinking her eyes, like a lost squirrel just come out of the woods tilting her head, she had both of her hands to her flushed cheeks. So was really cute doing that. Both in appearance and voice she's pretty, honest, innocent and true, and above all there's a very nice feeling about her. Warm, kind, and stable. Very much so. If they were already getting along, then they were the strongest players in the game.

Suddenly, he turned to face Yanagisawa.

"Yana-ssan. I somewhat understand your feelings..."

"So really, what are you..."

"...You'll understand..."

While he gazed down at Yanagisawa's stunned expression, Banri closed his eyes, exhausted. C-3PO, though, was unchanging inside, like Chinami, but it's specifications had to have been built in. At least Banri thought so, though unfortunately, it's shiny golden body was a bit too much.

Rather, show off those wires! ...If he had anything to do with it, nobody else would be troubled.

<center>* * *</center>

Tuesday's second period, a lecture on law.

Afterwards, it being time to go and eat lunch together, Banri inserted himself between Mr. Two Dimensions and Yanagisawa, sitting shoulder to shoulder on a bench.

After skipping the period in spite of Law being a required subject, he had the devil's own choice of fourth or fifth period on Saturday, which was almost entirely freshmen (and, a few upperclassmen who'd failed before). Or so he supposed.

He stealthily opened the door in the back of the spacious classroom, so as to not make any sound to alert the professor. Looking over his shoulder, Banri noticed something was wrong. Kouko wasn't there. Crouching down because she was late, a girl he didn't know crept in.

Kouko had not yet materialized. Perhaps she'd taken the day off. Towards the middle of the lecture, in spite of a ban against it, he opened up his cellphone and below his desk started putting together a text message. "Aren't you coming to Law?", was all, without even any funny symbols.

Mr. Two Dimensions lightly poked him in the elbow. Then, with a mechanical pencil on a scrap of Banri's looseleaf paper, "Watcha wanna eat?" "Cafeteria food?" "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Burger Mos]?" "I want rice." "A Rice Burger?" "Something else.", they wrote to each other in turns. Yanagisawa tapped the two of them lightly with his fingertip, getting their attention, he pointed over to the side with the tip of his pen. Chinami was right over there.

She kept a straight face, her pocket copy of "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Codes The Six Codes]" standing on her desk so as to hide what she was doing with her fingertips. Whether stylish for the girls or not, she wore eyeglasses with thick black rims, the lenses jutting out from her face, and it seemed as if she were seriously hiding something she was doing, like sewing or knitting. Carefully moving her fingers in a practiced way, the girls seated to each side were looking on, seeming quite interested. "You're not really serious", she exaggeratedly lip-synched over to Yanagisawa. Mr. Two Dimensions watched Chinami for a little while too, then on the notepad wrote, "Yana's girlfriend? The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arale_Norimaki Arale-chan] glasses are a little odd, though in three dimensions they're cute."

If it weren't for the awkwardness, Yanagisawa would have said "Yeah, really." Lip-synching "You - are - wrong" with his hands to both sides of his face, he twisted his muscular body. It looked like he had already forgotten completely the embarrassing events of the day of the opening ceremony. And then, suddenly snatching away Banri's mechanical pencil, he scribbled.

"She's not my girlfriend yet!"

The emphasis made Banri secretly nervous. Yet, it was only part of it. There was also the matter of his mechanical pencil being used. The lead was spent. About 0.001mm had definitely been used up. Yanagisawa didn't notice the nervous aura about Banri, and was writing down even more nonsense.

"Though it'd be nice if there were any hope...if you know what I mean."

He laughed softly, grinning wide enough to split his face.

What was with that face?

Even saying "though", what are you up to? "If you know what I mean" shouldn't be allowed either. Writing it the way he did in particular should not be allowed. He had the urge to kill someone. Just as he was self-consciously composing his irritated face, the cellphone on his lap buzzed softly. It was an answer from Kouko.

"I'm not feeling too good today (sweat drop), so I'm taking a break (sweat drop)."

Reading that through reminded him of the state Kouko was in yesterday.

Getting to where she could hardly keep her feelings of jealousy under control, unfairly condemning both Yanagisawa and Chinami, and then, in that way, towards herself more than anybody or anything else, she looked like she was hating, feeling ashamed of, shunning and condemning herself. Her appearance shouted, "What's the use? What's done is done."

When in situations where others could see her, not a single drop of sweat would fall from her. Not for one moment would her smile fall. Reigning like a queen, she could not be ignored. Hiding herself alone, her whole body in a cold sweat from embarrassment and regret, unable to get up and come here this morning, there wasn't a single person in this world able to understand the clumsiness of such a girl --- but no, was there? To other girls, to this world, she was only one more.

Banri closed his cellphone and held it tightly. A person who had been able to glimpse all the abundant opportunities for this untrained girl.

Was there one around here?

"Chinami isn't just cute, she's interesting, she's got a good personality and a really good head. Seriously, she's just right for me!!!!!!"

---And here he was, scrubbing roughly with his erased the exclamation marks Yanagisawa had written so emphatically they'd extended out over part of the notes he'd taken from the blackboard, as if he'd gotten angry. "Ah, what!?", he muttered at Yanagisawa as he quickly erased it. Erasing while thinking.

Getting bothered by such a thing as this.

He was feeling irritated, even mad.

What is this state of so-called 'perfection'?

Having neatly erased back to the conversation with Mr. Two Dimensions, Banri turned a sullen face towards Yanagisawa. "What was that for!?", Yanagisawa cast a bewildered eye back at Banri. He had no idea just what he should be doing. He didn't know what he wanted to become. But no, he didn't want to get angry at friends, nor at Yana-ssan. But he wasn't able to control himself.

But if he were to write "But of course, he loves Kouko most of all. He will date Kouko and marry her.", would Yanagisawa be happy about it? Would it make this irritation go away? But simply thinking and theorizing about it wasn't going to make it happen.

It wasn't funny.

Not understanding at all what Kaga Kouko was to Yanagisawa, that wasn't funny.

But in the meantime--- he only barely understood women, immersed as he was in simple illusions about them. He was already drunk with an unbased sense of superiority, seeing that even though Yana-ssan could not understand the foibles of his childhood friend, he himself, having hardly met her, was understanding her. Though there was really no way she would want to come and check him out, he wanted to think there was.

He shoved his cellphone firmly into his back pocket.

Is there really such a thing as giving sympathy?

To become convinced that somebody else is quite like oneself, adding on their cares as if they were your own, getting close to that person, and feeling their pain as if it were your own. Is that what is called giving sympathy? If that is so, then sympathy seems to be quite selfish, and borderline hysterical.

Besides, one wouldn't have any control at all.

"If there's hope for Oka-chan, what about for Kaga-san?"

Taking back his mechanical pencil from Yanagisawa's hand, Banri scribbled in rough strokes. "Eh!", Mr. Two Dimensions looked towards Yanagisawa's face in surprise.

"Is there some connection between Kaga-san and ''Yana''?"

"Kaga-san has wanted to marry Yana-ssan since they were kids."

"Wha!? What's that!? Are you kidding!?"

"Kaga-san is in LOVE with Yana-ssan"

"!?!?!?!?"

Yanagisawa wrote all over Banri's writing with his pen, erasing it. And then, frowning at Banri as if they weren't friends, he wrote boldly.

"I've told Kouko clearly whenever I've had the opportunity. Though I've always said it clearly, this time for sure, I made it clear. I made it understood. Because Chinami and I are thinking we really want to go out."

"Opportunity, when!?", Banri thought, unable to say anything from emotion, looking down at what Yanagisawa had written.

Kouko was nowhere to be seen around school Tuesday, nor Wednesday.

Perhaps it was just a little time to recover and come back, and the mail that Banri received was about Thursday night.

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4

2013-11-08T22:41:11Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 4==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 4==

[[Image:Golden Time vol01 150.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri is turning into a tuna-fish.

In spite of being awake, he can't seem to get up, his body stretched out on the bed and his eyes open in slits, just like a cat's. He is just like a tuna-fish hauled up to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yaizu,_Shizuoka Yaisu]... for a half-hour already Banri has been like a tuna-fish.

In the entrance-way, corridor and the kitchen, despite it being early in the morning, the veil of darkness has been torn, as if forgetting the night. In the shadowy corner, sitting on a second-hand stool, I've been watching Banri, the tuna-fish.

Facing the two open windows to the northwest, today's weather looks good again, the morning sunlight shining in gently through the cotton curtains he had purchased at a home-center. But as bright as it is around the window, the light doesn't reach to the middle of the room.

By the time they were deciding on this room, they had stopped hesitating over other possibilities. If the place had been a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washitsu Japanese-style room] facing south, then by this hour even the room's nooks and corners would be brightly lit by the morning sunlight, and it would certainly feel nice. Of course that property was good, I am thinking even now. But the wardrobe was big. That room's closet is too small, and already clothes, pajamas, bags and such are already starting to be scattered here and there.

Wrapped up in an eggshell colored sheet, his face still a little puffy and disheveled, Banri as usual was only just opening his eyes. Banri's body wasn't moving, and the still unhealed scratches and sores over all his body were not to blame. Neither were the new complications with people, nor the hectic life of a student, nor the feelings of getting used to living alone.

Every now and then, Banri searches for me.

It's getting to feel as if by holding on to his dreams he was getting clues, as if he thinks that by not moving, he might catch his quarry unprepared, so with his eyes alone he is searching for me. He is understanding that it is futile, and he is planning to stop, but he searches anyway.

"How does he hope to find me?", as if he could hear me if he tried. But even if he could hear, "What in the world? Why are you searching?", he wouldn't understand. Finding and catching me, would that return me to inside of him? Or perhaps, would he erase me entirely? Even so, that guy would not even understand my so-called existence. Such a thing he just cannot do.

So then, Banri, realizing the impossibility of what he was doing, as usual became dejected. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes once more, as if he were awfully tired, bothered by nothing working, and before long crawled under the sheets once more. However many times he did it, even leaving his parents' home and living alone, Banri still didn't change. Still, here he was.

I knew what Banri was going to do next. After all, haven't I seen this show so many times before? Hiding under the sheets, Banri has after a while fallen asleep again. In the time I've existed, after all, how many times has he fallen into this trap? It's called falling back to sleep. This sleep is strangely powerful, heavy and deep, hitting Banri all at once. Even having set his cell-phone alarm to wake him up, with a required exposition on criminal law that he hadn't even started on, Banri doesn't even twitch.

Getting down from the strangely comfortable stool, I approached the bed. Buried near the pillow was the cell-phone, once more making noise. This time it wasn't the alarm that went off. It was from Linda. Wake up, Banri.

If he were to out and say, "Hello, who is it?", Linda would sure be surprised. ...But no, she wouldn't be particularly surprised, would she? There wasn't anything mysterious about calling Tada Banri, or going out with Banri either, in a normal world was there?

Anyway Banri, wake up quickly. ...In other words, really get up. The noise from the alarm or from the cell-phone is making the lady next door mad, and she's hitting the wall. There it is again, the strangely hard sound is frightening.

Doesn't that hurt her fist?

<center>* * *</center>

"Mr. Two Dimensions! Hey thanks! Heeyy Thaaankkss!"

"Noo proobleeem! Catch yooouuu laaateeer!"

"Toomoorrooww! Aarrouunndd luunnchhtiimmee!"

"Soouunnddss fuun!"

"Oookaaay theenn!"

"Toomoorrooww theenn!"

Giving a big wave, as if somebody were leaving the dock on a ferry, Banri saw off Mr. Two Dimensions, who went ahead at a brisk pace. He could see his back as he was swallowed up in a group of students, like a young girl holding both hands before his chest,

"Mr. Two Dimensions, Satou Takaya-kun... good luck with your job at the tempura shop! No matter what, don’t get yourself burnt...!"

He earnestly wished still more. As it happened, Mr. Two Dimensions' high-school nickname was "Satou Taka". Anyway, according to the guy himself, rather than be called by that name, he preferred Mr. Two Dimensions "forevermore."

Yanagisawa, staring at Banri with an amazed look in his eyes,

"Causing problems even for Mr. Two Dimensions, really, what were you doing?"

He drank down the cloudy green tea he had put into a bottle of black oolong tea. "In other words," his voice continued awfully scratchy, now in scolding mode.

"When I first saw your text message, I thought that was absolutely the strangest thing ever. Really, were you truly in mortal danger? How could you not notice? To begin with, taking along new students who weren't even proper members of the club to a training camp in April, wasn't that a bit strange? And you followed along blindly even so?"

Not even talking back, Banri's shoulders slumped. His honor as the elder, completely fallen. In the past such a problem didn't exist, even in theory.

That nightmare of a Saturday, driving back to Tokyo with the freshmen, Mr. Two Dimensions was unable to contact Banri and Kouko, no matter how much time went by, and wondered if he ought to report it to the police. He finally was able to get connection to Banri's cell-phone, and when he'd managed to explain the situation, "Are you all right!? We're fine~, Kaga-san had left too, we were really scared~!", Mr. Two Dimensions was crying into the phone. "Sorry for leaving you behind", he said again.

Remembering it now, he was truly sorry. Having caused somebody to worry about him, having been apologized to, all of it was inexcusable.

"Enough, really... even I don't understand my foolishness... a feeling like 'help me'. Save me from myself!, so to speak."

"But though there's Banri, there's also Kouko. She is such an airhead!"

While Yanagisawa leisurely went descending the stairs, he gazed longingly at the bit of tea powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle and let out a sigh.

"Did she even understand what kind of dangerous situation she was going through? ...Anyway if she was safe, then I suppose it was OK."

Banri pushed the arch of his foot against a corner of the stairs in order to shamble after Yanagisawa. The hard corner stimulated his still-sluggish feet. Having done so felt good, somehow.

They were engulfed in the hustle and bustle of school building at lunchtime, with people heading to the cafeteria and others heading to meeting places, some coming, some returning, some meeting, some separating. The people coming and going to their destinations made a lot of noise. Owing to the classrooms being on an upper floor, Banri and Yanagisawa, like Mr. Two Dimensions, watched the people coming up from the lobby one floor below.

At a landing of the stairwell, while gleefully swinging around a corner by catching the handrail, Yanagisawa looked down at Banri's face.

"In spite of having sent a text-message, 'Don't go, it looks suspicious', there wasn't even a reply. What about that?"

"Omaken"

"So, if you hadn't accidentally run into those Omaken people, wouldn't you have been in real trouble?"

Nodding while saying "Yes, you're right", he slipped at the corner trying to do the same thing Yanagisawa had done. Yelping idiotically while dropping his briefcase, he banged his shin against the steps, a direct hit. He saw stars. A group of girls passing close by laughed a little.

"...Hey, what's he doing? Banri's really dumb, isn't he?"

Unable to even answer from the pain, Banri then and there crouched down on the stairs. It's not as if he'd been endowed with the physique, power and will-power of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benkei Musashibou Benkei]. Even if Banri were your average person, or perhaps some low-life rascal, keeling over and dying from the impact would not have been funny.

"O...www...!"

"That must've hurt. That made quite a bang. Right on the shin, too. Aah, just because I couldn't get ahold of you, was I going to just casually text Kouko!?"

"...To Kaga-san? ...That... well certainly... 'Fuaaaaaa!'...?"

While rubbing his shin to dull the pain, Banri looked up at Yanagisawa as he gathered up Banri's stuff. Yanagisawa shook his good-looking face from side to side.

"No, the surprising thing is that there was no answer. Ever since Saturday I've been completely ignored, in the usual way. Apart from that night, she's not paid any attention to me at all. ...Did she get back safely?"

"For sure, brought back together in the car of an Omaken senpai, an older girl."

"You went together to her house? Her parents' home?"

"Well, maybe, what of it? She called, ‘It's over there, this is good enough, thanks for the help!' and got out at the intersection, though."

"Which intersection?"

"Which, I cannot say... or even if it's all right to say."

For now, he bent over and tried to see how things were going with his still hurting shin. When he rolled up the cuff of his bluejeans, his limited vision shook.

Behind Yanagisawa. Stunningly bright, rose-pink with a bold, dark red flower pattern. Silk fluttering lightly, one-piece dress wonderfully frilly. At this point, he had no idea how a person could be so skilled at dressing up stylishly in such gaudy clothing.

He made a small ‘x' sign with his finger to be quiet, warning him "It's Kaga-san, over there!" He sent Mitsuo a private signal, as he was half hidden from Kouko by a fire door.

Emphasizing more than usual her luxuriant hair, a snow white hair-band. Sandals and bag also snow white. Even at a distance clearly beautiful, lips painted deep red, today's Kouko again was perfectly lovely.

Yanagisawa turned his back, not noticing. Kouko, in effusively good humor and spirits, showed her sparkling smile and spun herself around so as to show the hem of her skirt especially for Banri. She looked for all the world like a matador. The other students passing behind her looked with skepticism, even hostile glares at the strangely behaving, gorgeous, perfect Kouko. Banri, however, understood the meaning of Kouko's mysterious behavior. The girl hadn't even replied to the text messages from her beloved Yanagisawa.

Shortly Kouko frowned, troubled by the situation with Yanagisawa, but trying to move on. That scenario would eventually have to result in "Kuoukuoo!" In short, moving on to the stage of "Look here, take me!" Yanagisawa was the bull. The matador, Kouko.

That Yanagisawa's gaze was suddenly directed intensely beyond Banri.

"Chinami!"

Reflexively, Banri also turned around and,

"Ah, it's ''Yana''. What'cha doin'?"

A short girl, like a middle-schooler, was approaching them with a smile.

It was the first time he'd seen her.

Or rather, that voice. It was so cute, Banri found himself smiling automatically. Not in the sense of acting like a fool, of course.

"We had classes down below, and now that it's over we were coming back up. What's Chinami up to, by herself?"

"Yep. Being a good kid, this afternoon I've got nothing going on. I'll be alone at lunch too."

Completely the voice actor, doing roles like young girls chattering, she was what you could call an anime voice person.

She didn't seem to be assembled quite right: looking too young to be a student, with a voice too sweet. It hardly suited her small form. In other words--- her voice wasn't the only cute thing.

For a first meeting with the girl, she was somehow excessively cute. The more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. While Banri without thinking focused on what he was seeing, yet he wanted Mr. Two Dimensions to see, as he thought these dimensions took cuteness to a new level.

Her visibly long, soft hair was only loosely gathered, and in spite of not wearing makeup her skin seemed to glow. Her looks and small build made her seem like a child from some foreign country. Showing a boyish silhouette in worn demins, but matched with a handmade lace-collared blouse, she had some sort of rustic outfitter's day-pack on her back, the which made her delicate form stand out in the crowd.

Whether that was stylish or not as girls go, for the time being, if you looked at it through Banri's eyes as a boy, it was a bit clumsy, or rather, to put it bluntly, primitive, he was thinking, but strangely, it was good. Setting aside whether it suited his taste or not, if there were a hundred guys, ninety-five of them would be trying to get her attention, trying to touch or poke, trying to get a reaction. Wouldn't he be thinking of such things? Of course Banri was amongst the ninety-five.

"Come to think of it, you two haven't ever talked before, right? Banri, this is Chinami. Chinami, this guy is Banri."

"Don't call me that!", unexpectedly speaking in unison, Banri and that kid, exchanging glances with Chinami. With a soft voice Chinami laughed. She smiled with her eyes too, and they turned into lines. She seemed to be smiling innocently, with nothing hidden on the other side of it.

Not saying even a single word, Banri looked back at her smiling face earnestly. And then Yanagisawa was looking at Chinami too. Intent on not missing even an instant, his eyes were chasing after her, not even blinking, watching Chinami's smiling face, like a fairy spontaneously coming out of the deep, thick forest. Even Banri could see what was going on.

This feeling. This ''Yana'' fellow. It seemed like---

"No way! We said it in harmony, didn’t we? Pleased to meet you. I'm Oka Chinami. ''Yana'' and I met at a film research club recruiting party."

---She was just right for him.

"Err, nice to meet you. I'm Tada Banri. ''Yana''-ssan almost certainly has some connection with my previous life. Or rather, Oka,"

"Call me Chinami. Being called 'Oka' makes me sound like I'm an old maid."

"Ah. Then hey Chinami, China... excuse me, but this is a little awkward. I'll call you Chinami then. Chinami, ...excuse me, even this is hard to stop. Eh, Oka..."

Chinami looked at Banri's face, apparently with great curiosity as he spoke stupidly. Her dark eyes were a little bleary from being a natural airhead. It gave the impression of little letters spinning around in the middle of the pupils in her eyes. Inside such as little Chinami, around five hundred little heart marks wanted to call out. No no no, come back to earth.

"With Oka, that makes the third person with a two-syllable last name. There's Tada, Oka, and one more person, ...Kaga..."

With that tricky way of mentioning Kouko's name, Banri was casually trying to get a reaction from Yanagisawa. But the expression on his face didn't change. Didn't change, or perhaps because he was too enchanted, staring fixedly at the adorable Chinami, that other things, for example Banri's uninteresting and plain face, weren't even noticed. It appeared that he didn't even hear the name of his inconvenient childhood friend.

Chinami's eyes twinkled from Banri's dumb joke while she nodded at him.

"Wow, is that so? There's Hara, the girl in Film Research too! Counting Mita, the guy from phys-ed, just how many two-syllables are there here? This time, why don't we gather together a few two-syllable people and have a small drinking party? With this unexpected connection, we might have gotten something fun! Then I'll call for ''Yana'' too. Hey look, Ya-na, you're two syllables!"

She bumped Yanagisawa's elbow with her own, messing around.

Yanagisawa, looking even happier from that,

"Huh? But I'm five syllables, my real name has five syllables! We're in different classes!"

He bumped her back, his elbow to hers. His knock was stronger.

"Eh, finally, in spite of your saying you would call me, ihyahya! Hold on, hyaa!"

Chinami's last "Hyahahahaha!" went flying away as high pitched laughter. To blame was Yanagisawa, who was attacking her, tickling her sides. While she was laughing loudly "I'm ticklish! Stop it!" and trying to escape him, Yanagisawa was going after Chinami even harder, torturing her.

Kouko didn't even understand what she was seeing.

Or rather, she did. ...She was there, close by.

Remembering the situation, Banri's breathing caught. With what kind of face Kouko was looking at Mitsuo in his shamelessness, he was afraid to check. Was she about to blow up, or was she in shock?

Unthinkingly failing to read the mood in their behavior, she went to separate the happy couple against their will. Forcing her arm between the two with all her strength, she separated them. Quite angry that he was being touched by Miss Chinami, she grabbed Yanagisawa roughly by the side.

"Ya, na, s, sa, n, it's true that your real name has five syllables! Chinami-chan, let's call him that! In a party for two-syllables he's the wrong kind of guy! He's quite the sexual harasser! Please be careful with the brute! Hey!"

"Haha, that's true! ''Yana''-ssan is five syllables! Hey, stop that!"

"That's not my real name! Or rather, hey, ow, hold on, ouch, really, Banri, what are you doing!?"

"Is this what it feels like to have your chest ripped off!?", with the seriously unpleasant feeling of having his body torn apart at the shoulder, right then,

"...U!?"

Banri saw beige-pink claws, gripping like eagle's talons. There was no sound of crunching from Yanagisawa's bones, but there should have been from the force by which he was turned around.

"Mitsuo, what you doing?"

Smiling sweetly--- a beauty, no longer a deadly weapon.

Standing firm in her loveliness, Kouko was smiling like a demon.

Her long eyelashes swayed as she slowly winked. Peeking through her deep red lips could be seen pure white teeth, tinged with blue. Striking a balance as if calculated, her dark brown, shining hair fell over her right shoulder.

"...Have I any relation to you? What are you doing?"

Yanagisawa coldly brushed away Kouko's hand, which was grabbing his shoulder.

Banri was strangely nervous, having watched over the situation of Kouko and Yanagisawa for a while now. Standing so close their feet overlapped, Kouko looked up at Yanagisawa, still smiling elegantly. Yanagisawa's good humor took a nose-dive at once, as he looked down at Kouko scowling.

Perhaps, Kouko should not have made her appearance. It would been better if she had simply played at, "Look what I caught!" So Banri thought. Nonetheless,

"Is there something going on here? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She really ought not to speak that way, like warning a child, as if looking down upon him, her nose in the air. She shouldn't be showing that perfect smile, as if she were enjoying herself, tormenting him. Stop it, Kaga-san... though he was thinking so, the message wasn't getting through to Kouko.

Kouko, still showing a shocked expression, gave one small shake of her head, causing the hair prettily wound about her slender neck to come undone and fall downwards. Folding her arms elegantly, she slowly raised her chin higher. She posed in a way that shifted her weight to one leg. Her frilly skirt fully fluffed out, emphasizing her slender waist, her silhouette was completely that of a queen bee.

"I don't want other women chatting with my lover."

"I am not your lover!"

"'Just chatting, but cheating', how many times have I said that?"

"'I am not your lover!', how many times have I said that?"

"I would like you to stop doing things I hate."

"How you fail to understand what I'm saying."

"Mitsuo says things like that because he doesn't listen. 'I would like you to stop doing things I hate,' I said. It'd be good if he'd obey, too. Because with only that much, everything can be made perfect."

Chinami was still stiff, as if surprised, just watching the strained argument between Kouko and Yanagisawa. Then she quietly turned one eye towards Banri. She whispered to Banri, "What's happening?", but her voice was noticed,

"What in the world?"

The haughty eyes of the queen bee looked impatiently at Chinami.

"What was that?"

"...Eh? That...m, me...?"

"Where did that voice come from?"

"Fr, from my mouth..."

"Mouth! From your mouth! That voice! What in the world!", Kouko as if amazed opened her eyes wide, looking up once to the heavens. And then turning about with her perfect smile,

"Though it doesn’t matter that this mystery person showed up, to take a pass at Mitsuo for the moment. I am not begging, but commanding. Mitsuo isn’t just a lover. We’ll be planning our marriage soon. Understand? Marriage it is, marriage. Ma-rra-i-ge. It is destined. From the start you and I have been set apart from the world. Understood? Do you not understand? Understand! Now! At once! Right here!"

Pointing her finger at her, she approached Chinami.

"Eeh...?", Chinami, truly bewildered, blinked, unable to say anything.

Face to face, the difference in their heights was less than four inches. Richly colored brand-name clothing and sparkling jewelry on her, Kouko with one hand on her hip, her chin raised. And then looking down on the petite Chinami,

"---Hmph. Oka Chinami, eh?"

She looked at her with both eyes, as if examining something smelly a cat left at the side of the road. Unexpectedly, her high-heeled sandals were stepping on the toes of Chinami's boots. Banri too reflexively gulped, seeing she was willing to fight dirty. Certainly the type to put a thumbtack into a rival's toe-shoes. The type to have a pin on their fingertip when giving a handshake.

"I remember that name, for sure. Though I don't know what I've Chinami'd, well, do you like to Chinami? You live on your own? By all means, do as you please."

"...Huh...? Rather, you see, unfortunately my feet..."

"However, somewhere else in world from where we're at. Don't come near us. Don't bother us. Don't come near Mitsuo. Mitsuo is mine. Is that warning enough? Understand that there will be no warning next time."

"Kouko, stop it."

His handsome face freezing like a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noh#Masks Noh mask], Yanagisawa stood in front of Kouko, giving Chinami his back as if to shield her.

Kouko, unconcerned, simply brushed Yanagisawa aside, putting herself even closer to Chinami. Bending over Chinami's forehead, her lips so close she could have kissed her, Kouko's fingertip pointed up at Chinami's chin like a gun.

"It's because you attacked. People like you are eliminated in a moment. Because that's the world. ...I will do anything. If you don't like that, then go to the ladies room and shiver, but why don't you leave? Why don't you just go hibernate for fifty years, or better yet a hundred twenty years."

A sweet voice coming from an elegant smile, she was a complete villian.

"Hey, didn't you realize? Isn't it really bad manners to reach out and touch other people?"

"Kouko, shut up."

"Hey, aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up! Behave yourself!"

Grabbing the chain of Kouko's purse, Yanagisawa pulled on it. Losing her balance on her high-heels, Kouko took a quick step, staggering. Looking up at Yanagisawa's expressionless face, it seemed like for the first time she realized. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but immediately tried to regain her queen-bee expression,

"Go somewhere else."

"...So it is, Mitsuo. Send me a text-message, thanks. What we talked about, OK?"

"That's enough, I'm leaving. Chinami, let's go eat lunch. Banri!"

Called out to, Banri gulped, strangely awkward.

"Well, that, err, I... we have an appointment with that Omaken senpai. ...Kaga-san and I together."

Yanagisawa never even looked towards Kouko. Still as expressionless as ever, he looked at Banri's face for three seconds.

"OK. Then I'll text you when we get back."

He turned his back to them.

"Ah, ''Yana''-ssan!"

Still uncomfortably holding his tongue, he left, walking beside Chinami. He called after that back.

"You have to put water in before you can drink it! And then the tea powder!"

"Calm down!", he thought, "Calm things down a bit!" It had no effect at all. Yanagisawa raised one hand as if tired, turning back to only Banri, answering "later". Parting the stream of students, their backs shortly disappeared.

Banri let out a long breath. While combing up his bangs, he returned to Kouko's side,

"Kaga-san, hold on, say what you like..."

He paused to catch his breath again.

"...However you want to say it, what was all that...!?"

The detested side of Kaga Kouko, the villian, was standing behind him.

He was so scared that sweat was running on his forehead, on his neck, in fact, from all over his body. Trying to understand it all, and now, wham! Looking self-important, her arms folded, perhaps by chance that pose,

"...By chance are you hiding the sweat of your armpits...?"

Kouko didn't answer. As if she hadn't heard anything, she was looking away, her face beautifully composed.

Nonetheless, her whole body strangely bathed in sweat, she stayed put, both hands holding her armpits. Even her face was settling down to a blank expression, deathly pale. Normally she would be brighter, her expression clearing.

"For once, are you feeling guilty...?"

Still unable to open her mouth, she suddenly nodded at Banri's word.

"I mean really, something's already dripping... it looks pretty bad... are you OK?"

Once more, a nod. And then a few words, "Since there is no bread, I want to eat cake," though with a note of sarcasm,

"Perhaps I should go dry myself in the bathroom."

Simply that.

Sure, why not..., Banri nodded. While seeing off Kouko to the girl's bathroom, her arms still folded in a strangely stiff pose, he checked the time on his cell-phone.

"Well..., if you could hurry up... it will shortly be time for our meeting with Linda after all."

Shaking her head quickly as if she were a broken puppet, Kouko disappeared beyond the bathroom door.

That was the last he saw of her figure.

---But that was not at all what he meant. Kouko appeared again after several minutes. She had at last put on the cardigan, and her hair and makeup was perfect. "Sorry I took so long, Tada-kun", even showing a smile, it seemed she had managed to restore her normal, entirely perfect outward appearance. But,

"...Are,"

"Don't go asking 'Are you OK?', because I'm fine."

"...Bu,"

"Don't go saying 'But you see,' because I'm fine."

"...Ka,"

"Don't go saying 'Kaga-san, what are you doing?' Don't go telling me 'Are you an idiot?' Because I understand. I know. I'm foolish. Yes, a big disaster. Yes, yes, yes, I'm guilty. I was hated for that again today. On the way to the disaster I already knew it, but I could not stop, I could not admit defeat, knowing how many years I've been doing the same thing over and over again, something I cannot give up! So it is, because I'm a fool! But having been convicted, there's nothing I can do about it! And I can't turn back the hands of time! ...But sorry about that, let's hurry up. Let's not keep the Omaken senpai waiting."

Not letting Banri get a word in edgewise, with a toss of her hair Kouko walked out.

Since were it possible to say anything like "You're looking good now", then she would probably have to reply "Do you really mean it?"

The sound of her high-heels echoing wasn't as confident as usual. Neither her energy, nor her spirit, not her vitality, nor hardly anything else was sufficient.

<center>* * *</center>

Regarding the rescue of Banri and Kouko after they got into their mess in the mountains, the start of term training camp for the "Japanese Festival Cultural Research Society" was going on in the seminar house. ...Their nickname, Omaken. The nickname came from '[[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Omaken|Festival Research Society]]'. She said, "There was talk going around the student affairs office right away, you see. 'A strange bogus club was trying to infiltrate the school, scattering pamphlets around, inviting people to join.' "

She was Hayashida-senpai.

Hayashida Nana, her nickname Linda. A natural born Japanese. This was the person that first noticed Banri when he called for help.

"You did such a thing for our sakes?"

While walking close behind, in spite of Kouko speaking, Linda was looking over her shoulder, and could be seen smiling and shaking her head. Seeing her that way, Banri was once again surprised at how unexpectedly normal a person she seemed to be. ...Wasn't saying such things rude? But, this Linda before him chatting and the Linda which on the day of the entrance ceremony materialized before him from the Edo era and threw him a kiss, he had a feeling they were the same person.

Just a little shorter than Kouko, with a softer voice, walking briskly with both hands stuffed into her pockets, her attitude was recklessly peaceful, filled with quiet force.

"It wasn't just for you two! It's self-defense, sort of."

There was that face. That of a saint.

Because of with her gentle, beatific face, even her long stride, even her casual way of talking, she didn't seem boyish in any way.

"'Omaken', to put it simply, do research into the old and admirable Japanese custom of the Cultural Festival, taking part in those times, leaving a legacy for future generations... though we're doing the typical activities, though you could say our presence is not required."

With every word she said, Linda's colorless lips seemed to wrinkle, pursing tightly.

"Of course, isn't it a little suspicious? I cannot say for sure that festivals and religious beliefs are not completely unrelated. Not that long ago, there was a big religious sort of event around here, and I've heard that for a long time afterwards they kept our club under a close eye, suspicious of us. Given that background, we've tried to present ourselves as a perfectly normal, respectable club whenever we have the chance. We tell everybody, 'We aren't strange, really, and being lumped together with such strangeness is troublesome for us. We would like to cooperate with you fully to expel these suspicious elements.'"

"I see..."

Nodding while walking alongside Kouko, Banri casually gave the elbow of her cardigan a tug. The two of them stepped quietly over some Monday Special, thrown out earlier in front of a tavern, not looking down at it.

In this part of town, a lot of old office buildings one after another, more than students one could see the forms of salarymen out for lunch. Their company IDs hung from their necks but stuck in their shirt pockets, the white-shirted forms moved along in groups, all the tired faced adults, impossible to tell apart one from another, materialized from here and there. Linda, like a worldly cat, easily weaved her way through the gaps in the men. They stuck with her after that, but Banri and Kouko were still a little slow.

"Catching up with you two, well, was really dangerous. Even the Student Affairs Office was saying they understood. It was just now becoming a problem at other colleges. That 'religion', so to speak, might even have been a pyramid scheme, from the awful amount of accessories, amulets and such that were being purchased. It was really good you could escape, oh, you can buy lunch here."

Clad in pretty fluorescent colored Nikes, her feet stopped. It seemed from a glance as if Linda had flinched a little, passing beneath an old sign, carefully lettered. "Auntie!", she called, and a woman wearing an apron appeared from the back at once.

"Good to see you again. We're sold out of today's special, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karaage Karaage], croquettes, hamburger and even seaweed bentou. Would you like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonkatsu Tonkatsu] or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menchi_katsu Menchi]?"

"Today's special's out!? Karaage and hamburgers too!? What's this place coming to...!"

"If only you’d come 15 minutes earlier..."

"Eh, then we'll settle for menchi."

"It's not polite to call it menchi."

"I'll take menchi gladly! What would you two like?"

Same for me, answered Banri's voice, and Kouko too nodded her agreement. "Three menchi, if you will", said Linda, giving the order. "Three menchi, as you wish", said the lady, immediately taking the order into the back. From somewhere back inside the tavern, a voice sang back "As you wish!" "Oh, possibly...", said Banri slowly bending way back, looking up at the letters on the sign. But, his back was struck by something,

"Don't worry about it, it doesn't matter since it's a chain shop. It was just for the atmosphere."

He was convinced that Linda, with her face of a saint, could see through anything and everything. Hmph, a small laugh in a strange voice could be heard from Kouko. Somehow or other, from the state she was in, sweating all over and ashen faced, she seemed to have recovered.

His mind relieved, Banri with undisguised curiosity,

"By the way, have you ever had menchi, Kaga-san?"

He asked Kouko and watched.

"Have I? Why?"

"Balls of ground meat, dipped in batter and deep-fried in oil. Casual food for the masses, eh?"

"Yeah, I already knew that! There're things to eat, you know."

"There are. ...Is that so?"

Looking at Kouko's face blandly answering, without thinking Banri smiled. Menchi for Kaga Kouko. Such things didn't seem to go in combination. Kouko went with wine, foie gras and caviar. In his mind's eye, she polished an expensive diamond on her finger while drinking expensive imported wine and holding a Persian cat. Wearing some kind of gorgeous gown, naturally, the term "rocking chair" came to mind at once.

Listening to their picking and choosing, Linda too looked back, bouncing her wallet in her hand while watching Kouko and grinning.

"Terrible. It doesn't suit you at all."

Perhaps she was thinking along the same lines as Banri. He said "of course it does", miming holding a brandy glass and rocking his body back forth. When the proper term came to mind, he said "A rocking chair."

"Is that so? But I like menchi. My favorite food is salted fish and smoked radish pickles... With regards to [http://www.donbei.jp/ Donbee], I'm in the deep blue [http://japanesefood.about.com/od/udon/r/kitsuneudon.htm Kitsune Udon] club... Err, don't worry, I'm paying."

"That's fine, it's my treat. Though just for today, OK? With how you guys have been looking worn out lately, I'm not worried about collecting $2.50 in lunch money from you."

"Cheap!", Banri exclaimed in surprise. It really looked like there was deflation all around. From now on they needed to check this store, and there was no way he was going to reveal it, even for a certain temporarily down-on-his-luck princeling.

"That, really, must be too miserable. As for me, in dreams I've seen it all. In the dead of night, wearing only house slippers. Four syllables passing through my mind like an escaped prisoner."

"It's not four syllables!"

Like the upperclassman she was, Linda quietly ignored the retort. She got some small change from her wallet and without a word pushed it roughly into Kouko's hand, accepting the three boxed lunches stuffed in a single bag.

"You're welcome! Come again!"

Receiving $10 in change from the lady, she walked ahead of Banri and Kouko once more. Almost an attack, Banri's hand was reaching out, taking the unexpectedly heavy bag.

That night, when Banri and Kouko lost their way, it seems that they had been walking towards the real college seminar house without knowing it. Their shouts in the woods were heard by Linda, and they were rescued by everybody in her training camp. They explained their situation and the next morning, they were sent back home by car.

They owed her a debt of gratitude that could not be forgotten.

Consequently, both Banri and Kouko were already able to commit themselves to her permanently.

They didn't know for sure just what they were doing for Omaken, but whatever they were going to be doing, the feeling didn't change. In this way the decision was made.

Apparently the older Omaken had struggled with a shortage of help in the past. Overjoyed, they had invited the two of them over. So today, as it turned out, just like that, that they were going to show up for the noon meeting.

In the whole little campus town, there really wasn't anything really cool for a clubroom, so under normal circumstances, they gathered around the lecture building first floor lobby table, or got together at a local coffee shop, and then once in a while, like today, they might rent the district meeting hall.

There were so many things they might do: dress up in kimonos and rescue people from samba dancers, opening a rally, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onbashira sliding down a mountain path riding atop a log], aim at targets while mounted on horses, wolfing down rice cakes, [[Golden Time:Volume1_Translator%27s_Notes#Naki Sumo|letting babies cry in a sumo arena]], stuffing themselves with mountains of food--- Japanese festivals were really so many things--- And Banri was planning to do them. Kouko must have been thinking the same thing too.

"Take a look, that yellow building over there. We've been using it for generations. We practice over there, in our first floor club-room."

Linda looked back over her shoulder, she pointed at a rather old three story building. Then,

"Remember it well. Don't forget, first-years."

She smiled at Banri and Kouko's faces.

The line of her jaw was divided into many pieces by her swaying hair, the light of the sun showing through brightly. As it was, as if about to go running she wore a nylon hoodie with a logo on it. Pants reaching only just past the knees. Calves. Slim ankles. Brightly colored, not quite new NIKEs. Her face looked out over the slightly bossy upperclassmen.

She tried to hold herself aloof from the world, light and breezy, but not too invisible. The neighborhood with Linda's form in it grew strangely comfortable for Banri. How in the world did he wind up spending the rest of the day with her? He had a hunch it was going to be fun. Banri's spirits rose at once, but,

"...?"

Suddenly he felt he was suffocating. His feet stopped.

To untangle his memory. "Don't forget!"

"Don't forget, Banri---" It seemed as if Linda's voice were catching in her throat. Making noises in the hot lining of her throat, as if she wanted to cry for him.

...Wanted to, but no, why would she call out to Banri?

"Aren't you coming, Tada Banri! What're you doing?"

Called out to by his exact full name, Banri, confused, shook his head. He didn't understand at all. He didn't have time to stand there and brood. Chasing after Linda and Kouko, he went into the refreshingly cool entrance. Advancing down the dim corridor, they opened a door.

Before his nose, the smells of tatami mats and bentou lunches combined. Like something they'd come to dearly miss, they were everyday smells.

"In here we take off our shoes, OK? You brought first-years!"

Their voices in chorus, "Whoa!", a bunch of people sitting around on the floor looked back over their shoulders. There might have been all of ten people, some of whom they recognized from their disaster. "We're terribly grateful for your help at that time…", they said, once more bowing their heads deeply as they said "It's a newcomer!", "The first newbies of the year!", "She's a pretty one!" and so on, brandishing their chopsticks at them and all of them applauding together in greeting. The atmosphere overpowering him, "Thank you…", said Banri feeling small and taking off his shoes.

Of course, slippers weren't really needed in this room, with it's tatami floor. From wearing sandals that screamed "It's springtime!", Kouko was strangely uneasy going barefoot, suddenly becoming shorter, even more than Banri getting smaller and smaller as she came inside.

Linda waved Banri and Kouko towards the middle of the room,

"That side's for the third years, OK? Hi!"

The people in the area she pointed to gathered their voices.

"Hi!"

This time she pointed to an area a little apart,

"And on that side, the second years. Howdy!"

"Howdy!"

Seated in a circle, the people brandished their chopsticks.

"The fourth-years couldn't show, and you first-years are our first newcomers. Thanks!"

Involuntarily echoing, "Thanks!", raising one hand in the same pose Banri was giving them, Kouko simply blinked over and over again. It didn't quite fit her image as a lady.

"Well, first of all why don't we have lunch? Sit over there, here's a cushion."

In an impolite manner, but skillfully, Linda slid the cushions over the tatami, from their line against the wall over to Banri and Kouko with her feet. For her own part lowering herself to sit Indian style, she handed them their bentou lunches.

With Linda sitting on her cushion as if to separate Banri and Kouko, they accepted their lunches. Kouko knelt in a very lady-like manner, spread a large handkerchief over her lap and set her bentou neatly upon it. Banri too, unaccustomed to kneeling, opened up his bentou. Reflexively, a quiet "Whoa..." escaped him. He didn't think it was from deflated prices, but there was a large portion of rice and plenty of side dishes. This, simply put, was happiness.

"This lunch really perks me up... it's good! Will you be able to eat all of yours, Kaga-san?"

"Yes, probably. Linda, thank you for the food."

"You bet. Eat, eat. Since it's OK while we're eating, look over there, won't you? Since you're going to be involved with that group this year."

Linda pointed with her chopsticks at a laptop computer that had been left open on a table set near the window. The wide screen was filled by a video being played back,

"...Ah!?"

Without thinking, Banri slapped his legs. Of course, his chopsticks got stuck in his jeans.

"That outfit, wasn't it an Edo Period cosplay!?"

"Eh...", some of the upperclassmen turned their heads sadly at Banri's voice.

"Very much so! I can't invite anybody into the club without doing something cosplay!"

"I mean, isn't that so? Haven't I ever explained it?", Linda set down her chopsticks for a moment. Raising her face once more, she turned around to face Banri and Kouko.

"Well, you can't really call it cosplay, though. That time I had barely started practicing, really, since at that point I was only dressed the part. We Omaken do something different every year. In fact, last year we were in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yosakoi Yosakoi Soran]. We were thrown in as a backup group for a team from an alliance of colleges, though. And now this year we are that!"

On the notebook monitor, the characteristic light step, the waving of hands. Lines of women together wearing bamboo hats and formations of men with twisted hand-towels wrapping their heads. Light out, well into the evening. Crowds along the way, dripping sweat. Japanese summer. Summer festivals.

"Since the Omaken was organized, well, for the second time in four years! What was it now? Yeah, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awa_Dance_Festival Awa Odori]! That's it!"

Excitedly shouting "No way!", they applauded.

"That's just it--- we will be in the Dance of Fools. You will become fools and dance like crazy, newcomers."

From the beginning Banri had been a fool anyhow, but would Kouko be all right with that?

<center>* * *</center>

Staggering, her feet tangled up,

"I, can't... no, self-confidence..."

Kouko muttered in a low, low voice.

While they were walking together, side by side, Banri couldn't find the words to comfort her.

The Omaken senpai were still in the rehearsal room, practicing. Entering the third-floor lecture hall and giving their excuses, Banri and Kouko in spite of being underlings had managed to escape.

"Is there anything to drink? Even water to buy?"

While nodding, Kouko caught a curl that had somehow escaped and went to put it back with her fingertip. It slipped from her fingers and fell back down, all the way to the tip of her nose.

The upperclassmen from other universities that were at the training camp that rescued Banri and Kouko a few days before--- every year, they recruited teams from all over the region to participate in Awa Odori, and gave them personal coaching. And now, Linda was taking the two newcomers who hadn't been to the training camp under her wing, this year's Awa Odori practice having already started,

"My inadequacy... what should I do about it? My sense of rhythm? My reflexes? Or is it more in my head?"

"Sort of. We're still just starting, I've not done it before either."

"I got the feeling you can do it. At least, you have the makings more than I."

"My 'makings' are greatly exaggerated. From the very beginning I haven't had such."

"...But if you don't have it, then where am I...?"

Banri handed over a bottled water he had bought from a vending machine to Kouko, who stood there sighing miserably. Saying "Thanks...", she opened the top to take a drink,

And started coughing.

Had something gone down her windpipe? Kouko was choking and coughing violently. Dropping by the wayside, the lid went rolling towards a storm drain. Kouko followed it with her eyes, moaning "Aaa..." in an extremely miserable voice. "That" Kaga Kouko, up til then had been getting weaker and weaker. If Oka-chan had been there right then, she might have been able to get back at the bully queen--- but unable to say anything because of the mood, Banri quietly watched Kouko as she was.

Not that it was all that hard a thing to do.

In any case, it was only the first practice session. No, calling it a rehearsal was perhaps a bit much. It was just an introduction, no more.

Without even music, their feet still barefoot, just beating time "1, 2, 1, 2". With no distinction between the men’s dance and the women's yet, they just tried beating time on their knees. Unable to speak with Linda, that was all they did.

On the tatami mats, all the Omaken stood evenly spaced, facing a mirror that had been installed on one wall. Then, with their feet spread to about shoulder width, both their hands open and lifted overhead, standing lightly on tiptoes. Calling out, "Here we go!", very casually, bent at the knees, simply rising and falling to the rhythm. "Loosening up, floating, it's the secret to dance", Linda said over and over again.

To this point Banri was having no problem. Some of the upperclassmen could already step out with alternate feet, fluttering their hands about, already doing it in that unique Awa Odori style.

Though what they would do had been decided, his mind spun around, "Awa Odori… is that so? Awa Odori, eh?" He felt awkward, but as he watched the older students lined up, in their T-shirted forms, with their light-footed changing steps, it dawned on him that they seemed a bit cool. Wearing twisted towels for sweatbands, showing stylishly, their heels visible sticking out of rolled down socks, wearing them as if only their toes were stuck in there... even all that was cool. Immediately imitating them, Banri checked that his socks were rolled down too.

However, there was Kouko.

Together 1, 2, 1, 2, for the time being they moved their necks back and forth. Over and over again.

But, they were slipping. Falling into the same rhythm as in the mirror, his head moving with the others lined up reflecting back. By itself, Kouko's head, unsteadily, wobbly, wasn't moving along with the rest.

Did she realize she was the only one out of synch? She was frantically trying to keep up with the rest, yet seemed not the least bit discouraged. From the very start her feet spread, twisting around, pigeon-toed as if she were feeling shy, her shyness held in check desperately, as if clinging to a boulder, her arms gradually descending weakly, towards the front as she had been learning to do. Her face was becoming steadily more rigid from the strain; she was becoming like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hariti Kishibojin], about to die.

"Kou-ko, Kou-ko, Kaga Kou-ko! Relax a bit! Take it easy! Laugh! Smile!", Linda over and over again called out to her. Each time, she tried to laugh a little, but Kouko's overly serious dance had no trace of flexibility at all. You got the feeling she was to crack at any moment. Her ever-perfect smile was a hundred million light-years away.

He understood, though he had forgotten the faces, as it was walking forwards and saying to Linda, "...C-3PO?" ---A strange thing, that he could remember something like that perfectly. Without even thinking he had put it into words. Some of the upperclassmen snorted when they heard it.

Kouko stopped practicing at once, her face going red.

"...Omaken, I'm beat, could we stop...?"

Banri was partially to blame in this, too.

Still holding the seemingly useless water bottle with the missing cap, Kouko slumped her shoulders and weakly muttered.

"I mean... sorry, Tada-kun, I, I forgot to give you money for the water..."

"It's OK, it's OK, as far as I'm concerned, it's no big deal. We've only just started. Besides, don't we owe Omaken? Have you forgotten already?"

"I haven't forgotten our debt, of course not. But... I've been thinking that perhaps we're going about paying them back the wrong way. Somebody like me, I'm just a burden. Maybe there's a better way than by joining a club. ...For example, a contribution. ...Or something like that."

"Aren't there other ways of paying them back that are better than money? Besides, if you were to quit, wouldn't that leave me by myself? Let's try to work together a bit more!"

"...Any more, embarrassing, carrying on..."

Looking a bit resentful, Kouko stared at Banri's face.

"That bit about C-3PO was bad of me! Sorry, really. I didn't intend to embarrass you, nor did I plan to tease you, it just came out..."

"...That's OK. Besides, you've not been trying to do such things to me, from the very start."

They started walking once more. Kouko let out a big sigh and spoke to herself.

"So it is... the very idea of coming here to college was a mistake. I've been messing up from the very start. Though I'm late, after all this time... what am I going to do..."

"You've got to where you're saying such things. Didn't you want to come to college with ''Yana''-ssan? For now, that being the case, isn't it all right to say you accomplished that?"

"...But he's been avoiding me like the plague..."

"So lately it's been getting to be a game of playing hard to catch. That being the case, why not just let him be and let's go do Awa Odori, you and I together!"

"...But..."

"And then, on with the plan! We'll kick back and laugh for all to see! In black leather, having whips and whatnot for S&M bondage. Because that becomes Kaga-san."

"...I don't have such things..."

"Then buy them! It absolutely suits you!"

Chatting while they returned to the university building, Banri muttered "over there...", and stopped in his tracks. It was too late to change direction. Kouko saw the same thing Banri did.

At a table in the corner of the lobby, deep in conversation about something fun were the forms of Yanagisawa and Chinami. Since summer vacation they'd always seemed to be together, sitting facing each other, looking into each other's eyes, laughing like idiots, about ready to tip over the bench. It looked like the two of them didn't even realize Banri and Kouko were there.

Feeling as if he were breaking out in a cold sweat, Banri tried to quietly sneak a glance in Kouko's direction. He was afraid that she would charge at them again, just like before, with them as sitting ducks. But, this time, like you might expect,

"...It seems I cannot try today either. It'd be better if I just go home."

"Kaga-san"

"Today's been the worst."

Turning back at once, Kouko, her pretty skirt waving turned and went back down the street they'd just come down. Banri reflexively tried to follow after her,

"Kaga-san..."

"I'm OK!"

As if getting the better of herself, Kouko's voice hardened.

"...Since I'll be returning by taxi, here's fine. See you later, Tada-kun. Thanks for the water. ...Try to think about doing Awa Odori by yourself."

She trotted off, as if escaping from the lobby she left. Left behind alone, Banri must have lost his bearings for a moment.

In the end he returned to the lobby, to the table where Yanagisawa and Chinami were deep in conversation, then attempted to interrupt them by getting up on the table.

"Oh, Banri. What's with that entrance? I'd just now finished a text, I mean, what are you doing?"

"Interrupting your conversation."

Even though Yanagisawa seemed to be laughing merrily, he told him to shut up, and Chinami, looking as cute as ever, quickly rescued a water bottle so the bothersome Banri wouldn't knock it over.

"Hey, Chinami and I, we've officially joined Film Research. Won't you come in too? So let's make a movie, a movie! We might even be able to steal the competition from the upperclassmen."

"But I've gotten involved in doing Awa Odori."

"Ah, Awa Odori? Did you say ‘Awa Odori'?"

"That's what I said."

"...Why?"

"Because of Omaken. Together with Kaga-san."

"Kouko?"

Yanagisawa's eyebrows could be seen rising automatically. Surely thinking about how disagreeable things had been recently. Chinami seemed to be thinking along the same lines, and staring at him.

"Eh, Awa Odori? You're kidding, that's good, where might that have come from? They're doing wonderful things in many places, aren't they! Amazing, amazing!"

Turning a smiling face to Banri, her eyes innocently brightening, she started playfully moving her hands. It wasn't Awa Odori, ''funny uncle, funny uncle, funny uncle you funny uncle, I couldn't even see you''. But.

"...Oka-chan, you're cute, aren't you..."

"Eh!?"

"...And besides, you're a good kid, right..."

"W, what!? What's going on!?"

"...But in truth, are you not awfully black-hearted? Aren't you hiding under that tattered clothing a lush body that wickedly leads boys around by the nose? Is there not blooming, deep in the Oka-chan jungle, its sinful nectar dripping down thickly, a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafflesia Rafflesia] flower?"

"Ehhh...!?"

"...Will it not bloom, the Oka-fflesia..."

"Y...yes!?"

"Hmph, is that so? You've really become Yana-ssan's favorite.", Banri saw Chinami's face go red in apparent confusion. She seemed to be feeling really awkward about part of the nonsensical compliments Banri had been spouting just now. Blinking her eyes, like a lost squirrel just come out of the woods tilting her head, she had both of her hands to her flushed cheeks. So was really cute doing that. Both in appearance and voice she's pretty, honest, innocent and true, and above all there's a very nice feeling about her. Warm, kind, and stable. Very much so. If they were already getting along, then they were the strongest players in the game.

Suddenly, he turned to face Yanagisawa.

"Yana-ssan. I somewhat understand your feelings..."

"So really, what are you..."

"...You'll understand..."

While he gazed down at Yanagisawa's stunned expression, Banri closed his eyes, exhausted. C-3PO, though, was unchanging inside, like Chinami, but it's specifications had to have been built in. At least Banri thought so, though unfortunately, it's shiny golden body was a bit too much.

Rather, show off those wires! ...If he had anything to do with it, nobody else would be troubled.

<center>* * *</center>

Tuesday's second period, a lecture on law.

Afterwards, it being time to go and eat lunch together, Banri inserted himself between Mr. Two Dimensions and Yanagisawa, sitting shoulder to shoulder on a bench.

After skipping the period in spite of Law being a required subject, he had the devil's own choice of fourth or fifth period on Saturday, which was almost entirely freshmen (and, a few upperclassmen who'd failed before). Or so he supposed.

He stealthily opened the door in the back of the spacious classroom, so as to not make any sound to alert the professor. Looking over his shoulder, Banri noticed something was wrong. Kouko wasn't there. Crouching down because she was late, a girl he didn't know crept in.

Kouko had not yet materialized. Perhaps she'd taken the day off. Towards the middle of the lecture, in spite of a ban against it, he opened up his cellphone and below his desk started putting together a text message. "Aren't you coming to Law?", was all, without even any funny symbols.

Mr. Two Dimensions lightly poked him in the elbow. Then, with a mechanical pencil on a scrap of Banri's looseleaf paper, "Watcha wanna eat?" "Cafeteria food?" "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Burger Mos]?" "I want rice." "A Rice Burger?" "Something else.", they wrote to each other in turns. Yanagisawa tapped the two of them lightly with his fingertip, getting their attention, he pointed over to the side with the tip of his pen. Chinami was right over there.

She kept a straight face, her pocket copy of "[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Codes The Six Codes]" standing on her desk so as to hide what she was doing with her fingertips. Whether stylish for the girls or not, she wore eyeglasses with thick black rims, the lenses jutting out from her face, and it seemed as if she were seriously hiding something she was doing, like sewing or knitting. Carefully moving her fingers in a practiced way, the girls seated to each side were looking on, seeming quite interested. "You're not really serious", she exaggeratedly lip-synched over to Yanagisawa. Mr. Two Dimensions watched Chinami for a little while too, then on the notepad wrote, "Yana's girlfriend? The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arale_Norimaki Arale-chan] glasses are a little odd, though in three dimensions they're cute."

If it weren't for the awkwardness, Yanagisawa would have said "Yeah, really." Lip-synching "You - are - wrong" with his hands to both sides of his face, he twisted his muscular body. It looked like he had already forgotten completely the embarrassing events of the day of the opening ceremony. And then, suddenly snatching away Banri's mechanical pencil, he scribbled.

"She's not my girlfriend yet!"

The emphasis made Banri secretly nervous. Yet, it was only part of it. There was also the matter of his mechanical pencil being used. The lead was spent. About 0.001mm had definitely been used up. Yanagisawa didn't notice the nervous aura about Banri, and was writing down even more nonsense.

"Though it'd be nice if there were any hope...if you know what I mean."

He laughed softly, grinning wide enough to split his face.

What was with that face?

Even saying "though", what are you up to? "If you know what I mean" shouldn't be allowed either. Writing it the way he did in particular should not be allowed. He had the urge to kill someone. Just as he was self-consciously composing his irritated face, the cellphone on his lap buzzed softly. It was an answer from Kouko.

"I'm not feeling too good today (sweat drop), so I'm taking a break (sweat drop)."

Reading that through reminded him of the state Kouko was in yesterday.

Getting to where she could hardly keep her feelings of jealousy under control, unfairly condemning both Yanagisawa and Chinami, and then, in that way, towards herself more than anybody or anything else, she looked like she was hating, feeling ashamed of, shunning and condemning herself. Her appearance shouted, "What's the use? What's done is done."

When in situations where others could see her, not a single drop of sweat would fall from her. Not for one moment would her smile fall. Reigning like a queen, she could not be ignored. Hiding herself alone, her whole body in a cold sweat from embarrassment and regret, unable to get up and come here this morning, there wasn't a single person in this world able to understand the clumsiness of such a girl --- but no, was there? To other girls, to this world, she was only one more.

Banri closed his cellphone and held it tightly. A person who had been able to glimpse all the abundant opportunities for this untrained girl.

Was there one around here?

"Chinami isn't just cute, she's interesting, she's got a good personality and a really good head. Seriously, she's just right for me!!!!!!"

---And here he was, scrubbing roughly with his erased the exclamation marks Yanagisawa had written so emphatically they'd extended out over part of the notes he'd taken from the blackboard, as if he'd gotten angry. "Ah, what!?", he muttered at Yanagisawa as he quickly erased it. Erasing while thinking.

Getting bothered by such a thing as this.

He was feeling irritated, even mad.

What is this state of so-called 'perfection'?

Having neatly erased back to the conversation with Mr. Two Dimensions, Banri turned a sullen face towards Yanagisawa. "What was that for!?", Yanagisawa cast a bewildered eye back at Banri. He had no idea just what he should be doing. He didn't know what he wanted to become. But no, he didn't want to get angry at friends, nor at Yana-ssan. But he wasn't able to control himself.

But if he were to write "But of course, he loves Kouko most of all. He will date Kouko and marry her.", would Yanagisawa be happy about it? Would it make this irritation go away? But simply thinking and theorizing about it wasn't going to make it happen.

It wasn't funny.

Not understanding at all what Kaga Kouko was to Yanagisawa, that wasn't funny.

But in the meantime--- he only barely understood women, immersed as he was in simple illusions about them. He was already drunk with an unbased sense of superiority, seeing that even though Yana-ssan could not understand the foibles of his childhood friend, he himself, having hardly met her, was understanding her. Though there was really no way she would want to come and check him out, he wanted to think there was.

He shoved his cellphone firmly into his back pocket.

Is there really such a thing as giving sympathy?

To become convinced that somebody else is quite like oneself, adding on their cares as if they were your own, getting close to that person, and feeling their pain as if it were your own. Is that what is called giving sympathy? If that is so, then sympathy seems to be quite selfish, and borderline hysterical.

Besides, one wouldn't have any control at all.

"If there's hope for Oka-chan, what about for Kaga-san?"

Taking back his mechanical pencil from Yanagisawa's hand, Banri scribbled in rough strokes. "Eh!", Mr. Two Dimensions looked towards Yanagisawa's face in surprise.

"Is there some connection between Kaga-san and ''Yana''?"

"Kaga-san has wanted to marry Yana-ssan since they were kids."

"Wha!? What's that!? Are you kidding!?"

"Kaga-san is in LOVE with Yana-ssan"

"!?!?!?!?"

Yanagisawa wrote all over Banri's writing with his pen, erasing it. And then, frowning at Banri as if they weren't friends, he wrote boldly.

"I've told Kouko clearly whenever I've had the opportunity. Though I've always said it clearly, this time for sure, I made it clear. I made it understood. Because Chinami and I are thinking we really want to go out."

"Opportunity, when!?", Banri thought, unable to say anything from emotion, looking down at what Yanagisawa had written.

Kouko was nowhere to be seen around school Tuesday, nor Wednesday.

Perhaps it was just a little time to recover and come back, and the mail that Banri received was about Thursday night.

<noinclude>
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|-
| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter5|Chapter 5]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3

2013-11-02T08:49:38Z

Perfect Chaos: This line is more like she's correcting him for making a silly mistake, and not just her starting who she is as if he doesn't know. Can't think of a better way to explain that at the moment.

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 3==
[[Image:Golden Time vol01 091.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.

It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri's side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cellphone, by the transmit light.

He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can't hear you well, hello hello, it's me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that's fine. I'll be staying one day at the club training camp. That's all."

In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.

"OK then, until next time I call!"

"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn't understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.

Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?

Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, ''Banri's cool!'', he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What's up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.

In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn't sit down. He wasn't about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.

Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cellphone. The train still hadn't arrived, and he hadn't received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.

My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.

''Wham'', at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri's face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.

Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-saan"

It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.

When she noticed Banri's hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren't any lectures on Saturday, and there weren't any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.

"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"

"Did the older girl show up?"

"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."

Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.

An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.

A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.

Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko's face.

Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl's College during yesterday's encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the 'All-Around Intercollegiate Club' to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.

From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.

Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly a crowded little place, but a good find, and then they'd been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought 'This is a café-au-lait bowl?', but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the
conversation.

Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Like getting all the language credits within the first year, you really ought to get a part time job, those that can get a girlfriend or boyfriend should be able to by the first year summer break, it's been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.

Regardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.

Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we'll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at twelve-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to ''do'' something.

So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn't he see that? A training facility in prefecture K. Weren't there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn't too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you're a freshman, of course there are no fees. It's OK, it's OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don't ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it's already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It's all right, by participating, that's how we'll do it. Deciding would be good, don't you think? Right?

It must have been the mood of the conversation.

He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other's expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally nodded as one.

That'd be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I'm tired... I want to go home... if we say we'll participate we'll be able to leave... Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn't say anything, but wasn't going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.

Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.

Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, 'let's go!' They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.

Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night's worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn't going on this outing.

"Hey, Tada-kun."

He didn't know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.

"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"

With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.

"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying 'Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member's training camp.'"

"...And Mitsuo?"

Pulling out his cellphone, it didn't seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You're kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.

Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri's face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.

"Don't worry about it. It's my problem."

"Yes, so it is."

Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko's eyes.

"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it's a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."

"Won't catch either, of course."

Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,

"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."

Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn't fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.

"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn't it, rather this is. When it comes to men, whenever they are being chased, they want to escape. And when they escape it makes everybody want to chase them again, it seems like... doesn't it? Won't the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? 'Wives and tatami mats and... tuna fish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?' ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn't understand..."

"That's OK. It's enough explanation for now."

"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"

Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.

"Mitsuoo! ...It's not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"

She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.

"And so, just look, you've got me instead! ...And it seems to me that ''Yana''-ssan wouldn't mind."

Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.

"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It's quite an accomplishment, seeing as Mitsuo does care where I'm going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."

"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I'd be going to the drinking party alone."

"I don't think you'd have been alone. ...Those guys, aren't they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman training camp with them."

Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,

"Ah! Isn't that Mr. Two Dimensions?"

"Eh? You're kidding. Tada Banri?"

His acquaintance didn't fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.

"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman training camp too?"

"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is ''Yana''-ssan a member too?"

"''Yana''-ssan isn't coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."

Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, Civil Law, I saw you, you were, are, Monday it was, second hour," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user's manual of a bootleg copy of ''Pachimon'', he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.

Kouko in her way,

"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"

She wasn't speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can't understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.

"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"

Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri's explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he'd shouted, "And that's why three-dimensions is bad! You're all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon spitting lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.

As she watched Mr. Two Dimension's face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.

But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.

It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ij%C5%ABin Ijuuin]-kun, or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lupin_III_characters#Daisuke_Jigen Jigen Daisuke]-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn't here."

Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn't anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to answer.

That, despite the fact that she didn't have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!

"But, from here on out, you won't be able to get away with that!", Banri declared in his mind to Kouko's smiling face. Neither Banri nor Mr. Two Dimensions were simply creatures that weren't Mitsuo, and over the next two days and one night together with Kouko, participating in the training camp, they should be able to become "friends" instead.

"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world's not all that bad a place."

Banri playfully tugged at the shirt sleeve of Mr. Two Dimensions, who was still mumbling, unable to look at Kouko's face.

"What's with you? Haven't you come back to three dimensions, it's a little late already, a little late."

"You're mistaken! Even in two dimensions, I've been wondering recently, it's something I've been thinking about! Even in two dimensions, I had thought I wanted to look for the ideal depiction, but of course, what I mean is, it was hard! But in the end, other people's creations were not 100% satisfactory, seems like! Why not just stop?"

"It's OK, it's OK, keep going."

"That so? Well then, especially of late, I've found myself getting deeply involved with a female character of my own creation. Creating the setting, drawing the pictures, coloring them, deciding the words she uses and how she says them, what her favorite food is, from the way we would date, becoming more and more intimate from one episode to another, becoming my ''perfect'' dream, ...hey, was it really OK to say this? Should I not have stopped?"

Kouko, who had been mumbling approving noises and nodding her head while ignoring what was being said, slowly stopped shaking her head. After a little while, it seemed the correct answer occurred to her, and with a 60W grin,

"A little more of that, and you'll be Mr. One Dimension!"

"What in the world are you saying, Kaga Kouko...", thought Banri.

A surprised snort escaped from one girl of a group of three standing not far from Banri's group. Little sports bags stuffed with rough-looking attire, denim and sneakers, they probably were going to the same freshman training camp as friends,

"Soorryy, this person, even if she looks like she does, can be really dumb at times."

Banri tried to point at Kouko as their smiling faces turned towards him. They seemed to be group of friends, all three of them smiling as one while nervously stepping up. Kouko herself said, "Eh, dumb? Who?", looking back at Banri's face, wondering.

"Hello, I'm Tada Banri, and with me Kaga-san and Mr. Two Dimensions. Are all of you going to the freshman training camp from here?"

At the sound of Banri's voice, they saw for the first time the faces of two more guys, who joined them with slightly nervous expressions. At Kouko's 'Mr. One Dimension' exclamation, the girls looked around at everybody smiling, and started their introductions at once.

A car-horn sounded, three modest beeps. Everybody turned towards the street.

"Yes yes yesss! Sorry for being late, the cars are here so all aboard!"

The upperclassman came out to them from the first car parked by the side of the road.

Which reminded Banri that he had in fact failed to get her name--- which thing, of course, it was a little late to talk about now.

The club upperclassmen, together with some other freshman students, got into several rented station wagons.

An upperclassman handed a blank form to Banri, who was confused over which car to get into.

"Could all of you write their name, address and telephone number here? And if they are living away from home, then their parents' addresses too. This will be part of our insurance documents. It's because of our liability if anything happens at the training camp. Do it neatly, leaving out nothing. Everybody else is done writing their information. Yes, because you're Tada-kun, OK? This column, OK? I mean, even though this parking lot is rather noisy, and it's bad to be in such a hurry? Sorry about that, yes, hurry up, but read it carefully, it's just in case anything happens, OK?"

Insurance. Parking lot. Not fully understanding but unwilling to go against the social pressure, Banri the fool wrote down their personal information in a rush, but honestly. Passing the pen and the register to Kouko, she gracefully wrote down her name and address too, and passed it on to Mr. Two Dimensions.

And then, all the freshmen having signed the list, the upperclassman took her own bag and,

"Yes, thanks! You and you to the first car, OK? You over there. You that way. You and you get on that car at the end of the line. And now, you and you,"

Banri nudged Kouko's elbow and grinned.

"You're with me in that car, let's hurry up and get in!"

He opened the station wagon's door and they were greeted at once by a clear voice, saying "Hi there!". While Banri and Kouko returned the greeting, they sat down side by side in the middle.

"Okay, all the freshmen will be by the windows!"

The upperclassmen were rearranged, and everybody was able to be seated. An upperclassman got into the car right next to Banri.

"Today's weather turned out good, eh?"

With a smile, she sat down as if the spot belonged to her by right. In the front seat, the cool-looking guy next to Kouko said, "Nice to meet you, I'm a third-year from **** college."

All the freshmen that had been gathered from all the colleges were sitting separately by the windows. All of them, with nervous faces not speaking out. Banri and Kouko were in the same boat. For some reason the other seats were occupied by clear-voiced, smiling, laughing upperclassmen. It was somehow strangely uncomfortable, uncomfortable for sure, but they couldn't argue about it. The seating was arranged.

"Drinks and such are prepared if you'd like!"

"Ah, yes..."

Hanging from the neck of the smiling upperclassman to his side, a necklace with a snowflake design glittered. If he remembered correctly, she was wearing it yesterday too. It was probably her favorite. Casually looking over at the other upperclassman, just above his shirtcollar, Banri noticed he was wearing the same necklace. He wondered if they were really close, or if it was a uniform.

"Is everybody's seat belt on? Nobody needs the bathroom? Cause once we get on the freeway we have no plans to stop!"

The upperclassman in the driver's seat looked back. At his neck too, the same necklace. This guy having one on, even if it was so many close friends matching up, of course it seemed quite strange. Well of course! Does everybody in this club have to wear one? Banri discretely looked towards the necks of the other upperclassman in the vehicle.

"Why are you looking around like that?"

Suddenly asking the upperclassman with a straight face, "Isn't it strange that everybody's wearing matching necklaces? Just curious...", didn't get him an answer. She said, "It's nothing", giving Banri a vague deceptive smile, the station wagons lining up to leave. From where Banri sat, all he could see of Kouko was the billowing hair on the top of her head.

Inside the vehicle pop music was playing continuously and loudly, the upperclassmen singing in a sort of high-tension karaoke--- the first-years silent, strangely nervous still--- with things staying like that throughout the drive, which took about two hours.

Banri, once more attacked by uneasiness, was wondering if they shouldn't ought be getting off the freeway already when the time arrived.

The line of rental cars was passing in front of the university's seminar house. Following a road through the forest, a sign with the name of the college that Banri was attending was standing there, but they ignored it. What's more, the line of station wagons continued onwards into the mountains. Were they taking the wrong road, or perhaps, did the seminar house the upperclassman was talking about belong to another college?

That's what it looked like. None of the other freshmen at the windows, not even Kouko, noticed. Nobody said anything. While watching the sign get further away the other side of the window, should I keep quiet? Perhaps we're really going the wrong way, and if so what should we do? He couldn't decide whether they should turn around at that moment.

He noticed that the upperclassman gave him a sharp glance when he looked at the sign through the window. With the loud music flowing through the inside of the car, they had stared at each other for all of three seconds. As it was, realizing that the strange silence was dragging on, he boldly decided to ask her.

"Welll... didn't we just pass the seminar house?"

"Eh? What?"

Putting her hand to her ear, she indicated that she hadn't heard him.

"Just now, the seminar house, didn't we pass it!?"

He spoke louder and clearer this time, moving his mouth closer to her ear to overcome the music. The smell of her hair went up his nose, strangely unnatural and strong.

"What, what!? Eh, I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! I mean, stop it already, this is embarrassing! Cut it out!"

While smiling, she firmly pushed Banri back, putting her weight into it. And then suddenly, she said, "What's with me? Am I getting a little sleepy already?", and put her head on Banri's shoulder. Her upturned eyes at point blank range, lips coming together in a slight pout.

When he couldn't react, she casually placed her hand on his knee. The palm of her hand, slowly but steadily warming up, inched around as if to fondle him. While drawing circles, it came creeping towards his thigh. While so doing, she gazed moistly at Banri's eyes. She said, "Are you happy? Did I make your heart race? Did I make you hope?", while she gave him a look full of self-confidence.

But, distinctly scary. Her soft chest pushing against his elbow, Banri pulled away from her as softly as he could. A boy with a girl close by, whatever the situation might be, would be happy. That she even thought that way was scary, but more importantly, what if what she was doing up to this point wasn't a trick? That by itself was frightening.

But those innermost thoughts of Banri's became irrelevant as the line of cars slowed down, left the trees and turned from the beautifully paved private road and then entered what was apparently a driveway. To the left and right, high concrete walls were built, forming a C-curve in front, attached to the roof all the way down to the driveway.

Where they had arrived wasn't particularly big, but judging by the brickwork, it was evidently a pretty nice facility, two buildings set side by side.

Urged by the upperclassmen, they got down out of the cars. The older girl tried to join hands with Banri, reaching out for him, but Banri pretended not to notice, calling out "Kaga-saan!" and trotting, chasing after Kouko, who had walked ahead, in order to escape from the her. As soon as Kouko saw Banri's face, she stopped walking and they stood side by side, and in a whisper,

"Ah, I was able to talk to somebody I barely knew. The upperclassman next to me, he just kept talking to me the whole time... It wasn't boring, but I became somewhat worn out... How was it for you?"

"As for me..."

He'd touched somebody that way in public. No, rather, he had been touched that way in public. But he couldn't talk about that, not with Kouko.

"...Same here. I'm a bit tired too."

Banri also answered quietly. Before he realized it, a crowd of freshmen had formed. The upperclassmen surrounded them, pushing the freshmen towards an opening, keeping up with them as they walked into the facility. They had no choice but to walk together in a line.

Marble used all over the place, even the entrance polished to a wonderful sheen, here and there decorated with big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaenopsis moth orchids], it really seemed more like a hotel, or an art museum. Pulling her carryall while going inside, to Kouko it seemed strange to have so much room.

"By the way, are we sure this place is really the college's seminar house? Would they have something as nice as this while their school buildings are falling apart?"

"...I don't think so..."

"Eh?"

Once all the freshmen had entered, a strange high sound arose and the entrance door closed. Shortly, in that darkened lobby, the lights were turned on.

In the center there glittered a huge piece of artwork, shaped like a snowflake.

On the pedestal a gold plate was affixed, inscribed with 'The Shape of God in our Times'. That god would be incarnated a million years from now! ---In other words, for the next five hours until they locked their rooms, Banri knew they would be subjected to a lecture.

<center>* * *</center>

Of course, he wanted to flee.

In short, they had been placed under house arrest by a new religion disguised as a club. But he couldn't talk with his fellow freshmen, as they were under a constant guard. They struck anybody who even looked like he was talking! It was such a low class thing to do, and some freshmen opened their mouths in protest, but the older students separated anybody who did so. For the moment the uneasy freshmen trying to gather together were kept apart, gently perhaps, but physically separated. Talk amongst the freshmen was not permitted; that was the message clearly being sent.

Before the lecture, everybody's bags were collected, tossed into a single room and locked up. At that point, strangely enough, they were permitted to get out their cellphones, but, whether it was from being in the middle of the mountains, or it was on purpose, Banri's cellphone wasn't the only one with no signal. There was not a phone in sight, so getting in contact with the outside was going to be difficult.

Dinnertime was completely silent, a sort of prayer ritual. Even a funeral would have been more exciting.

On little tables arranged in a semicircle there were placed glasses of cold beer and various kinds of soft drinks. As far as that went, this was an ordinary club training camp, quite so, no, perhaps of a rather extravagant type, but the freshmen were scattered about, kept apart, and everyone who understood the situation was keeping ominously quiet about it.

Banri was seated at the end of the semicircle. Next to him was the older girl. Kouko, from one of the center seats, looked vaguely down at the tables, her white face still blank. Occasionally, she would glance quickly at Banri, each of them seeing in this situation "Danger...!", both of them recognizing it, but neither of them able to do anything about it. Mr. Two Dimensions, too, on the other side could be seen with his head bowed.

Really and truly, it had become something dangerous.

"Now then everyone, let's get moving! Everybody, take your glasses!"

The hot upperclassman seated next to Kouko stood up and raised his voice for no apparent reason. Even some of the other upperclassmen whistled and booed at the sudden, unnaturally forced enthusiasm.

"Well then! Congratulations for the newly created children, tonight's excellent full moon, and another gathering recorded for the next 10,000 years! Ready, cheers! Hello new children!"

"Hello!", the upperclassmen said, raising their glasses.

Banri and the other freshmen, all of them, were looking down at their knees, petrified. The tops of their heads could be seen lined up around the semicircle.

Almost as if he were praying silently, "What should I do?", an over-familiar touch at his shoulder,

"What's wrong, new children! Loook, at long last the day of your awakening is here! Let's have a little more enthusiasm!"

With a smile as wide as her face, she raised her glass. Banri's head going numb to the core, he was unable to answer anything more, and he stared at the golden liquid which filled the glass. He remembered something strange. The day of the entrance ceremony, at the convenience store, when he met Yanagisawa at the mirror, they'd toasted with ice-bars. At that time, they were completely mismatched though somehow it was really fun. In the few days since then, they'd come surprisingly far. He could hardly wait for those peaceful times to return.

As it was, Banri was already thinking about how they couldn't keep them there too many days. Come Monday there would be school, a few freshmen vanishing would become a big deal, maybe even a matter for the police.

So anyway for this one night and two days, perhaps he could have the patience to let it pass by. Quickly getting drunk, quickly getting smashed, just sleeping through it all, morning would come soon enough.

"..."

As if.

Anyway, if he quietly kept his patience until tomorrow in this weird place--- glass full of beer in her hand, she looked at Banri,

"Yes, yes! It was really fun winning! Yes, one round, cheeeers!"

"Ch, cheers..."

Giving another glad smile, she gulped down the delicious looking beer.

Kouko was looking his way with a startled look on her face. She was putting the chilled glass to her mouth, since she couldn't avoid doing so, but she looked back at Banri, her feelings exposed.

But--- was that so?

If he were to think about it, he was responsible for the fact that she had been brought here.

He'd answered the upperclassman, saying, "Let's go together!", he told himself. Nonetheless, Kouko was confused.

Besides, it would have been better to have chatted some more back at the coffee shop. Caught as they were, if he thought about it now, it was suspicious. Wasn't it written in plain sight? This time for sure, he had to be on guard about the strange upperclassman who stuck too close for comfort. Even so, his nervousness at finding himself together with Kouko, his hopes of being able to be friends with her, everything combined to blind his radar.

Since they'd decided to come and participate in the training camp, he'd been dumb. Exhausted, unable to think and with his judgement lost, if he so much as nodded it would be over, and... swept away, to such a state he'd been brought. And now, he was regretting it to death.

Banri considered not swallowing the beer touching his mouth.

Of course, he couldn't.

Already, he wouldn't do things like that.

If he had been patient enough while they'd been speaking of such things, maybe they wouldn't have gone so far. From the beginning, the purpose of isolating the training camp, wearing out its participants, making them give up, stopping their thought processes, appeared to be a trap.

And then... no, no way, they can't just brainwash me when I don't understand what they're teaching, he thought. Still, Banri looked sidelong at the upperclassman next to him. He started drinking the delicious beer, eating their cooking and talking with the other upperclassmen.

Actually, surrounded by unusually good looking and healthy seeming guys and gals, the danger hadn't really sunk in.

If he didn't want to become like them, if he even wanted to live in ordinary reality, he needed to escape from here. Absolutely. Banri spit out the beer he held in his mouth into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshibori damp towel] provided on his table.

But, he was worried about that roster he'd signed, where they'd hurried him to write down his personal information. Kouko, himself and all the rest too, they had been perhaps too foolishly honest when they'd written down their addresses and contact information. Wasn't that what all the persistent nagging was all about?

He absolutely, absolutely couldn't give Mom and Dad back home anything more to worry about.

That roster had been placed in the upperclassman's own duffle. And then together with the freshmen's luggage, now, it was locked up in a room.

What should I do?

"...This is no fun! We can't do anything like this!"

Suddenly, crash! At the sudden, high, echoing sound, Banri lifted his face. Mr. Two Dimensions had thrown his glass to the floor.

"What's this about 10,000 years in the future! Giving thanks to a crystal master! How messed up can you be, believing in a three-dimensional thing like that!? You've been tricking us from the start, calling this an 'all around club'! I mean, isn't this imprisonment!? Isn't that a crime!? Do you even think anybody could keep quiet about people doing such things!?"

Decisively stated by Mr. Two Dimensions, the other freshmen stood up too.

"Let's go out to the cars now! I don't want to stay in this place any longer!"

"I'm going to sue them!"

Not knowing yet what he should do, Banri stood anyway. At that moment, in the fragments of glass scattered about broken on the floor, for just an instant, just how many broken reflections of himself were there to be seen?

Aspects of himself could be seen in all of them.

A worn out face. A scared face. An angry face. A face trying hard. A face ready to cry. So many variations of his face. And then suddenly a look that seemed to ask, "What are you going to do, Tada Banri?" At such a time as this, Tada Banri, what should a guy be doing?

Tada Banri ---

"Everybody, such an outburst wasn't called for. Just calm down for now."

--- realized he ought to do something.

The upperclassmen, seated in a row, showed no surprise. They were all watching Mr. Two Dimensions' composed smile, Banri's raised voice and the state of the other freshmen. It had all been arranged for, even this situation. This 'facility in the mountains' was their place of power, and what with the talk of their planning to make an offering, Banri was rather scared. But he couldn't do more than that, since nothing had been decided. He had no other choice for now.

Himself, he would do something unexpected.

"Anybody who wants to go home, that's fine if they do."

While he was talking, his body was trembling. Hiding it, he continued, "But I don't want to go back."

"What are you saying, Tada Banri!?"

Mr. Two Dimensions looked at Banri's face as if in shock. Kouko did too. Eyes opened wide, standing up. At the same time the table shook, tipping the glasses over. Shaking off their glances, Banri suddenly raised his voice.

"I mean, frankly, that where until things were so tense, now you're talking about it being boring! Just what is it you can't spit out? You speak of crime, but, even though recently you were still underage, you were drinking! Drinking underage at the Tea Ceremony is a crime, but you didn't speak of that! Seems the same to me. If you could let things like that slide, then maybe you can have fun here! It's convenient to ignore it, say it's not a crime, but isn't that really selfish? Such a bothersome guy you are, even entering here you are such an annoyance!"

Mr. Two Dimensions tried to interrupt, but he was prevented by a loud voice.

"Anyhow I want to have some fun here! Speaking of such boring things is tiresome, it's annoying! Sirs, these guys are clearly a bother! Since they want to go home, can't they just leave? Kick out these bothersome ones, and then let's get to the drinking party! I came here to have some real fun!"

He took revenge for her public assault on him.

Grabbing the older girl's hand, he shook back and forth like a little kid. But, his opponent being a master of the same techniques, she looked back at Banri, her eyes wary.

"...Do you really want to stay here? Even if everybody else returned? That so, eh? But, why would you?"

"I was quite impressed by the lecture I heard."

The last words shook, but that probably made it seem more truthful.

"In perfect seriousness, I would like to hear what the other upperclassmen here have to say. What I mean, really,"

He ordered his knees to stop shaking.

"Actually, I was seriously injured in high school, and all my memories were blown away. I've suffered amnesia, so to speak. I have suffered much from that. When I woke up, I suddenly knew nobody else in all the world. Not parents, nor friends, nor acquaintances nor anybody else. It was really lonely. But now... with the lecture about this new world to come, at last it looked like I may be saved. Though it sounds like it may be a lie, this, isn't something you made up. If here and now, there were a police investigation, or a hospitalization, I wouldn't receive an explanation nor would there be a meeting. In truth why"

Through his hair, the older girl could see the ugly scar still present on his scalp. The marks from surgery spread down to the neck of his T-shirt, running down even to his shoulders. He wondered if he ought to pull down his blue-jeans to show them the long stitch-scars running down his thighs to the knees.

"...That's enough. Forgive us for being suspicious, new children. ...That hurt, didn't it...!"

This is powerfully persuasive. What's going on here?

Looking at the point of tears, the older girl was looking at Banri sympathetically. She believed what he was saying just now.

"But you're all right now! You've cheered up, haven't you? Since you've cheered up, the time of your salvation has come, now! Right, everybody! From this it's been made clear, don't you think! The new children should be awakened, and the Crystal Lord will grant them their test, to see if they cannot be awakened! Going so far beyond, isn't it a beautiful thing? This time around, those who are only half-hearted kids will be able to go home. Only the real Children ought to have time close to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

They exchanged glances, those upperclassmen--- or you might say, the believers, that seemed to be the right word.

They spoke quickly, now it had been decided. The luggage that had been stored was taken out at once, and all the freshmen and some of the believers left the dining room. Banri saw that the keys to the luggage room were in the hands of a one guy.

Opened with the key, the freshmen went inside to pick up their luggage. A guy stuck to Banri's side, mouth shut, trying to look thoroughly scary, keeping an eye on him sidelong.

But Mr. Two Dimensions was different.

"Let's just go back! Tada Banri! Go back with the rest of us! A place like this is always trouble! You can take your time listening to their talk later, but for now let's go back!"

Thanking him in his mind, Banri outwardly ignored him. He called out to the guy with the key.

"Ma'am, isn't drunken driving dangerous? If there were an accident it'd be a problem, for sure. It seems to me that it'd be better if the guy who's going to drive didn't drink."

"That too is true. Is there anybody that has a driver's license?"

At the sound of the guy's voice some of the freshmen raised their hands. Mr. Two Dimensions was one of them. Casually, Banri called out to the guy's back, "Ah, I'll go get the key", intending to grab the key to the room. But,

"We've only just called you, but after you've been verified it'll be OK. You there, you've not had even one drop to drink?"

The key was quite firmly in the guy's grip. He let out an involuntary click of the tongue.

The guy locked up the luggage room and swung around. He thought better of calling after the guy with the keys to come back at that point. It couldn't be helped. There would be other opportunities to do something.

It looked like they'd decided that Mr. Two Dimensions and another freshman would be driving. Mr. Two Dimensions looked back towards Banri over and over again while going towards the entrance. It's OK, leave me behind, you're as confused as anybody else. Banri gave him a slight shake of the head.

Like that, all the freshmen left the facility. Amongst them of course, there went Kouko pulling her carry-all. Soon, the sound of the wheels rolling faded away, leaving Banri behind by himself.

Everybody had left. Amongst believers in a strange god, he was completely alone.

He was feeling scared to death. But, that was fine, he thought. At the least, he was able to get Kouko, whom he had brought here, back out to the ordinary peaceful world. Later, he would decide just what to do.

But, at that moment came to his ears a sound he could hardly believe. Banri reflexively cleared his ears. He had thought he might be hearing things, but apparently it was real.

The rolling sound that should have been gone, and had indeed left, was once more coming towards him.

Then, the entrance door opened.

Suddenly coming into view,

"Of course, I stayed behind too. The last lecture left me with a strong impression."

"...Kaga, san...!?"

"Hello, new children!"

With a self-satisfied expression on her face, Kaga Kouko.

Whether I like it or not, you, what are you saying--- really, what are you doing!? What the heck are you saying!? Precisely what are you doing!? Why have you returned!? What's with this person!? Can she really be an idiot!? Banri would have shouted, but he had no voice.

Banri was completely dumbfounded, looking at Kouko's form in amazement, his mouth hanging open. Kouko was standing next to Banri, meeting all the believers halfway, her face composed, both her long hands precisely positioned before her slim body, her head tilted a little to the side. And then,

"In spite of being beautiful, I am not popular. Because of that, I have already abandoned this century. I am longing for the new century!"

Strangely persuasive, she smiled with perfect grace.

The freshmen gone and Banri and Kouko left behind, the strange party atmosphere returned to the dining hall. Nearly an hour had passed.

All the believers themselves good and drunk, the opportunity to talk with Kouko had finally arrived.

He pointed over at Kouko's carry-all, still set in the corner of the dining hall. Since it needed to be put in the luggage room, it should be easy to get the guy to hand him the key.

"Kaga-san, let's go put away your luggage."

Grabbing the handle of the carry-all, winking back when he called her, Kouko stood up at once. Banri had a hunch that if the older girl had been looking towards them at all, it would have been very conspicuous. Unnoticed, he left the dining hall with Kouko.

While walking quickly down the corridor, Kouko started to call out to him, but Banri held a finger up before his mouth in a sign for her to be quiet. Still quiet, he took Kouko by the arm, looked all around to make sure nobody was nearby, and brought her over by the men's bathroom. Kouko was now at the mercy of his intentions, whatever they were. They quietly stuffed themselves into a stall and locked it. Up to this point, he'd been acting rather like a confirmed molester, but,

"...Aaa...!"

The first thing that escaped was a groan neither breathing nor sigh. In the narrow space, Banri's body was twisted like a music conductor, his right hand raised overhead and scratching his forehead roughly. "What are you doing, what are you doing, why, why, why, what's with youuu...!?", he shouted in a whisper while stamping the ground in frustration.

"Kaga-san, what were you doing!? Why didn't you go back with everybody else!?"

Really, come to your senses! He wanted to slap her on the cheek, grab her by the neck of her pretty one-piece dress and shake her back and forth. Failing that, he could punch the wall, or maybe hit himself on the forehead. Since he couldn't do either, the upper half of Banri's body was twisted up like a grilled squid.

"Do you really want to join up with those guys!?"

He pointed his finger at Kouko's pretty face.

"That, was my line."

A gentle whack, and that fingertip was shot down.

Carefully lifting the hem of her skirt so it wouldn't touch the edge of the toilet, so close together in the narrow stall their knees overlapped, Kouko looked intensely back at Banri. The black pupils of her eyes were turned up like crescent moons.

"Tada-kun, all that stuff you said about rescue and such, was that true?"

"I...have...no...i...de...a...!"

He didn't say any more, at his wit's end, writing in agony while she smiled at him. In spite of his success in getting everybody sent back, how, why, and more importantly for what reason, had she come back?

"Oh... whatever, that's good... Tada-kun, I was wondering if you would really become a believer."

"But I was thinking it was time for you to go back!"

"But, it sounded sincere."

"It was for your sake... something, very real feeling... I mean, Kaga-san, why did you really come back? All that effort was so everybody could go home!"

"Because, I couldn't just leave you behind. Thinking of how you had followed them into thinking you were seriously planning on staying here, what would I do? I would feel responsible if you'd done such a thing, and would never be able to leave it behind!, so to speak. By all means, Tada-kun ought to be able to go back too, was my thought. Why was Tada-kun going to be left by himself, behind?"

"I didn't think they would let people go back just because they said they wanted to return! I pretended to believe, thinking that if everybody else made enough noise begging to return, they would let them go! Besides, there was all sorts of stuff written in that roster... addresses, contact information and so on. I thought that perhaps being left behind, I might somehow or other clean up things. I can't imagine how much trouble we'd have if that information got out."

Looking up at Banri's face, somewhat taken aback, Kouko in that moment placed her fingertip under her pretty rose-colored lips.

"...For sure. I had written down my parents' address in full."

"I saw the upperclassman girl stick it in her bag. There hasn't been time to make copies, now if we could get it out of there... that could be difficult."

With a jingle, the key to the luggage room could be seen in Kouko's hand.

"Thanks to Kaga-san having returned so miraculously, we go to Plan B. Seems like we may be able to set it in motion."

Kouko's eyes glittered like stars. In reality, it was just the reflected light from the restroom.

"Tada-kun..., ...good job."

Her eyes shining, Kouko applauded Banri with just her fingertips.

"Shall we do this together?"

"Of course."

"Let's both return absolutely quietly."

"Naturally!"

Nodding to each other, they took her carry-all and left the restroom.

They went down the corridor and opened the door to the luggage room with the key. They both went inside. Turning on the light, they searched through the upperclassmen bags, which had been lined up along the wall. Was it beige, ...no, was it brown? And so, he looked for anything like a girl's overnight bag in the hill in front of them, when suddenly at the confused Banri's side,

"Her bag was Coach. The Signature, last year's model, the keyholder had a marguerite..."

Kouko, her fingertip like a gun barrel, zeroed in right away on a single bag.

"It's that one."

What a capable helper! It seemed they would be able to easily clear this mission. Banri and Kouko jumped to pull out the upperclassman's bag, and fish through the contents.

They soon found the roster stuck in a file. Two sheets of A5 paper. Taking it quickly to tear it up, Banri was lost for a moment as to what to do with it. Could he hide it in his pants and take it back with him? Should he shred it up fine and flush it down the toilet?

From the arrangement of the things in the luggage room, it was probably a smoking lounge. On a low table somebody's lighter, and in an ashtray some cigarette buts had been left behind. He was casually looking over those things when suddenly,

"You there, what the heck--- huh!?"

The door opened, the forgotten key still in the lock. Glimpsing the white face of the upperclassmen girl, Banri and Kouko both jumped about an inch of the floor. Their bodies reacted even quicker than their thoughts.

"What's going on!? What about the roster... wa, wait!"

Banri fairly flew at the door, attacking it, forcing the door shut against the rest of the upperclassmen and locking it. The others banged on the door with terrific force. "What do you call this!?" "Open up!" "This traitor!" "Wait, somebody's coming!" The upperclassmen's loud voices echoed. The hand holding the door was shaking, and he realized that sweat was pouring from every pore of his body,

"Waah, wh wh wh, what am I going to do...!? This is bad bad bad...!"

Banri's face was now completely white. Should he kneel before them? Offer them money? Persuade them with tears? Such things, up to surrender, were starting to pass through his head, while on the other hand Kouko,

"Tada-kun, the roster."

With a strangely serious face, she held out her hand towards him without hesitation. He threw the tightly folded roster towards that hand. ''Smack'', she caught it magnificently,

"Hold the door steady!"

Even in that moment, she was seating herself regally on a cushion. Then, without hesitation, she tore the roster up in pieces, put the pieces in an ashtray and quickly set it on fire with the lighter. Just like that, a little flame arose, and in a couple of seconds their worries about the roster turned to ashes. Finally, pouring some water that had been left behind in a cup over the embers put it out completely. Banri was amazed at how neatly it was done, at least on this occasion. How should he say it? To her enemies, she wasn't the type you'd want to turn your back on.

Kouko immediately opened up her carry-all, pulled out her wallet, cell phone and key-case, and stuffed it all in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Tada-kun, any valuables?"

"Ne, never carry any!"

The pounding on the door continued. An ominous creaking sound was coming from around the door knob. They could hear the sound of a large number of people running up the corridor. Banri's valuables were his cell phone, wallet and the key to his place. Those he put in his jean's pocket, tied up in a leather strap that ''Yana''-ssan had chosen for him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Kouenji].

"Can we leave the rest of the baggage?"

"Yes!"

They nodded to each other. From the other side of the door a key--- the master key, probably, the sound of it being inserted could be heard at the same time. The door opened. Angry voices echoed.

He feverishly grabbed Kouko's hand and rushed towards the window. This room was on the first floor, but,

"..."

He quickly ran to the window to look through it, it wasn't all that high, but still every cell in his body trembled in fear. His body didn't remember the terror it once had tasted. But if they remained here, things were going to get scarier still. Not just for himself, but for Kouko too. Suppressing their fears with reason, closing their eyes they abandoned themselves to the pull of gravity. Still holding Kouko's hand, they clumsily fell down together. Once they got back on their feet, they realized just how bad the slippers they had put on were, but they couldn't do anything about it.

While hearing loud cries of "They're escaping through the window!" from the mob behind them, Banri and Kouko ran out into the deep dark of the forest night.

<center>* * *</center>

Perhaps they had been a bit too reckless in the moment of their escape.

"Why... can't I get a signal...?"

"I can't get one either..."

After all of two hours had passed, both Banri and Kouko were becoming aware that they had new problems.

Their reward for escaping from the suspicious new religion, quite simply said, was to be stranded--- the path they were walking down right now, it might really be a road, or maybe just a game trail, even that much they did not know. Without map, flashlight nor even shoes, having only determination, they depended on what little light came through between the trees to continue on.

Naturally, it was dark, at night with all kinds of trees growing thickly over the mountain trail, and underfoot it was awfully wet. Sliding in the slippery mud, many times the protruding rocks kept them from their way. Fearing pursuit, they stayed away from the brighter lit roads, Banri choosing to follow the trackless paths of the forest.

Beyond the trees shone a line of lights, they had to be street lights. Those lights were a simple guide to get down the slope, but right now he wasn't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do. Since they led upwards into the mountains, he thought it would be better to go down, and did so. The line of streetlights seemed far away, and a difficult climb... he had a hunch about it.

Before long, they came to a sudden slope they couldn't cross in their awful slipper-shoes, so for the time being they started walking along the flat winding edge of a cliff, but in the end, they reached the end of their endurance.

Sitting down wherever they could on some fallen tree,

"I thought we'd come a good ways down..."

"For sure. Why haven't we reached the bottom..."

Phew..., hah..., together they let out a long sigh.

Seeing that as usual the screen showed no signs of a signal, Banri put his cellphone in his pocket.

It was already past 10 o'clock at night. It was late for local hunters to be passing by, and it was too early for the morning to break.

He thought about what he would do if only the cellphone were usable. He was thinking that if he could get in contact with Mr. Two Dimensions, or his home, or perhaps the police, he could tell them what was going on. And yet how, they were out of range. 'Build a bigger antenna!', but in such a place as this he couldn't do anything but curse the telephone company.

All their strength gone, it was as quiet as if they were falling to the ground. Falling and tumbling next, our anxieties, fears, despair... no, we can't. Banri lifted his face.

Still, it was 10 o'clock. It was too early to give up and fall into depression. Showing an unreasonably cheerful face, he took off his open-necked UNIQLO shirt and put it on Kouko's shoulders, which had only a cardigan over a thin dress. Though it was already covered with mud,

"Put these on?"

He tried to take off his socks and hand them over. It would have been good if he'd noticed a little sooner. Her feet were definitely bare. However, without putting them on, nor returning them, she gazed at him, in the same pose as when she received them.

Her messed up hair clinging to her cheeks, she wasn't bothering now to cover things up with a smile,

"Tada-kun"

Somewhat in a daze, Kouko turned an empty face towards Banri.

"What what what, it's OK! We'll manage somehow soon. A little rest and then we try some more!"

"I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'..."

He had been apologized to.

And what timing, Kouko's bangs, which were up, suddenly with a thud fell down, covering half her face.

"...Teacher of moonlight..."

Her laughter had returned.

Kouko was quiet for a bit, jerkily combing up her drooping bangs. Accustomed to doing it by hand without a mirror, from her mussy hair she quickly pulled out a pin and stuck it in her mouth, then using both hands as combs she skillfully fixed up her hair, and finished it off with the pin she'd taken out earlier. The messed up hair was fixed for the time being, and she'd returned to being like Kaga Kouko again, a bit. Then,

"It's my fault that things turned out this way."

Looking away from herself again, she looked straight at Banri once more. Being prettily put back in order, indeed with a serious frown, "I'm sorry," she repeated once again. Even in this moment, her large eyes were flashing darkly.

"...That's not right. 'It wasn't Kaga-san's fault', saying such things."

Without caring about how Banri was squirming,

"It was my fault! In the first place, I had the leaflets from that strange club, and they called me too. You thought that I was such a poor thing, going alone, so it was just to keep me company."

"...But I wasn't thinking it was your fault."

"That's wrong!"

"I thought it would be good if Kaga-san could make some friends in that club. Therefore, in spite of the strange feeling they gave me, I stopped worrying about it, and I instigated Kaga-san with, 'it's OK', 'let's go'. Therefore, it's my responsibility, of course."

"That's not right, that's wrong. ...You're just wrong!"

Shaking her head, frantically looking anywhere else, Kouko held on tightly to Banri's socks, with their unknown state of cleanliness.

"Really, it isn't your fault. ...I approached you and got close to you, thinking to trick you into giving me information about Mitsuo. From the start, which club didn't matter. Saying 'I haven't been invited to anything' was true. All the college students were already ignoring me, really. I was even aware of the gossip. But I didn't pay any attention. Yesterday, saying 'nobody calls out for me', forcing myself to look dejected, saying so, ...that was all just to draw out your sympathy."

"That so? Of course, it was all about ''Yana''-ssan."

"Yes, about Yanao.... all mixed up. Mitsuo's"

Breathing out a bit, Kouko cast her eyes down uncomfortably and looked down at her own feet. Mud was all over her bare feet and slippers.

"It was all for the sake of Mitsuo."

The voice that followed was like a monologue, echoing in the silence,

"...Well, ninety percent."

Kouko raised her face once more.

She looked into Banri's eyes. Still holding the dirty socks tightly, speaking as somebody who made a mistake, her lips twisted in irony.

"The remaining ten percent... even I don't understand."

Tired of talking after that, her next breath was a like a gasp. Her gaze trembled.

"...Understanding, since the coming of this spring until yesterday, that there was only one person who bothered to speak with me. Only Tada-kun. Tada-kun called out to me, though it was news about how Mitsuo being excessively defiant... but, even though I found it hard to understand... you talked to me, ...and I was happy for that. That too is true."

"If so, then of course trying to call out to you was good."

Kouko held her tongue, looking at Banri's eyes while shaking her head softly. Not understanding that gesture very well,

"The result has been problems, though."

She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't. Kouko smiled a little, but the conversation did not continue.

The two stayed silent for a little while, gazing at each other's feet. Today having been spring, the temperate had been good and warm. Though it was chilly now, there was no worry about freezing to death.

"...I wonder what Mitsuo's doing about now? Is he worried at all about me?"

She tried to make it sound like a joke, but a little awkwardly, let it fall into the night darkness. Banri scooped it up, returning her words as lightly as possible.

"He might be. 'Where's the training camp?', I was asked later, but I didn't answer."

"Was that so?"

"Well, I could have texted from the car, but I didn't feel like it. And what's more, since afterwards we were always out of range, wouldn't he be rather worried? So it is, there it is, and before long, that anxious feeling unexpectedly becomes a hot possessiveness, a heaviness sitting on ''Yana''-ssan's heart..."

Hearing Banri's little joke, a smile clearly broke across the well ordered features of Kouko's face.

"Enough. That's not right. You're making things up."

Indeed, just like her, even in smiling she seemed to be plotting something too perfect. He realized that it had been a long time since he'd seen that face. Cheered, Banri too smiled broadly.

"''Yana''-ssan noticed, you know. From what I see, that childhood friendship must have been important."

"Yes, yes yes! What about it?"

"There were already gloomy thoughts... even doubts like, 'Am I a stalker?'...! It was, but wait! As far as I'm concerned, of course it's my fate to be married to this girl! 'Kuoukuoooo---------!'"

"Kyaa! Muitsuuo---------!"

The two were messing around, laughing their heads off in the sultry dark, reaching their hands out towards each other. Banri his right hand, Kouko her left. Building into a sudden and strange excitement, they made a lot of noise, their extended hands unable to reach each other, no matter what...! That was how they were playing together.

"You're messing up my entrance! Ugyaa! Kaagaasaan! Yaanaasaan!"

"Ahahaha! Taadaa-kuuuun!"

The fingertip of his left hand trembling fearfully, it neared Kouko's extended fingertip, approaching through the dark night air. But of course, since it was all a joke,

"Such an act, Baan!"

Taking the charade to its end, with Banri as "Mitsuo", Kouko clapped her hands and let them fall. Kyaaa, Kouko's hands sketched a big arc as they came down. Flutter flutter flutter, plop, with a sad sound the rotten tree to her side fell. Kouko laughed for a little bit, then,

"...Eh, wasn't that awful just now?"

All of a sudden she looked at Banri seriously. It wasn't that bad, since it was all a joke, she shook her side from side to side.

"I was referring to the socks. You ought to put them on."

He prompted her with a jerk of his chin.

It looked like Kouko finally remembered about Banri's socks, which were still sitting in her lap. Bending over, she put them on. They could serve to protect her slipper-clad bare feet from getting dirty, at least. Seeing that, Banri nodded in approval.

Though outwardly Kouko seemed lonely, it was after all ninety-percent a pretense to "Get Yana!" Even hearing this from her, he wasn't upset. Was this because he expected such from her? Was it because "it doesn't matter", and he was suddenly rebellious? Was it because, following the "there's no sick child" formula, his "good man" circuit got switched on? Was it simply because with things being the way they were at the moment, his emotions were simply paralyzed? Or perhaps this was just another proof of Yanagisawa's theory that "For beautiful people, life is fun" --- was he being led around by the nose by the beautiful Kouko, and his heart was under her control?

Trying to think, Banri concluded a short while later that he simply didn't know.

Kouko had come back for him.

Despite it seeming unlikely that she was going to love anybody but Yanagisawa Mitsuo anytime soon, and Banri being only barely somebody that "could not be left behind", she had come back to get him.

Watching the miserable-seeming Banri while they were leaving, the other freshmen had no intention of criticizing him (since he had persuaded them to leave him there by himself), but finally she had raised her voice. She didn't doubt Mr. Two Dimension's friendship, but after all, as the driver he probably would not be able to return.

But, indeed Kouko, even if only as a friend Kaga Kouko, even if she couldn't remember his name, returned for the sake of Banri "He isn't Mitsuo", something he didn't even think she would do. He didn't think there were such people.

Since Kouko behaved that way, and with the "ten percent" just mentioned, it seemed that perhaps there just might be something inside her.

That something existed inside her he knew at least, just what use it would be, well it's all your fault, whatever, to Banri it didn't seem likely.

"...I wonder if ''Yana''-ssan knows Kaga-san's in that kind of state."

"What kind of state?"

"No, something like... It's because it seemed you're a little different when ''Yana''-ssan is around, versus when he is not."

A little to his dismay, he saw Kouko's eyes open wide. Or so he thought.

For Banri, the time Yanagisawa was with Kouko was when she gave him a surprise attack with a huge bouquet of roses. Beating the daylights out of Yanagisawa with roses in front of all the new students, throwing them at the guy and leaving. As if patting a pet, looking down from above, disregarding whatever complaint Yanagisawa might have had. Pursuing the escaped Yanagisawa, reproaching him for having escaped. If she somehow caught him, she would use up to live ammunition (it's a matter of money).

Saying "Whatever, it doesn't matter", while Banri seemed to be the only person waiting in Kouko's "ten percent." Saying, "I can't leave him behind in such a place", and returning, seemingly just for Banri. Even awkwardly trying to apologize, then even trying to horse around and laugh like an ordinary girl, maybe, just for Banri. ...Maybe.

Banri, because he saw that, today's Kouko, yesterday's Kouko--- the Kouko around Yanagisawa was a different person, he thought.

But Yanagisawa, if he had seen the same thing, he probably would have thought the "Now-Kouko" differently.

"If so, I think he'd be wrong."

She went quiet for a moment, as if thinking, then,

"In the time I was with Mitsuo, I was complete. You just might have that right."

Laughing a little, she looked at Banri, then averted her eyes. Raising her slim leg straight up, she looked at Banri's socks covering her toes. Seeing that sidelong look made her seem to him a girl he didn't know.

"Without Mitsuo, I am incomplete. Whether getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, eating my meals or going to school, dressing up nice, crying or laughing, it is all for Mitsuo. He is the whole purpose behind everything I do. If it weren't so, I wouldn't even try. Without him, life has no meaning. It was always that way for me. If he's not following behind me, there is nothing I can do. If Mitsuo's not there, I don't know what I should do. Even now, I want to get back safely, because Mitsuo is there. Am I thinking like a fool? It's OK, because I really am a fool."

But such love she had for herself, that continuing, Kouko looked up once more to Banri's eyes, straightened her back, and showed her perfect, beautiful smile. This once again, was the face of a girl he didn't know.

To such a person as this, well, whatever he said she wouldn't want to listen anyhow, so, covering up his feelings, Banri gave her a frank reply,

"...If that were the case, it would all be fine in spite of your having gotten ''Yana''-ssan mad. But there what with the roses, as far as his life is concerned, the completed person is very messed up. Far from being nice to him, wasn't it an attack? Why did you willingly do something to get yourself disliked?"

He said that for now. As for her internal ten percent --- his purpose was for her to know that he existed.

It seemed she heard him perfectly, judging by the stiffly displeased look on her lips in the dark.

"He... that wasn't good for Mitsuo."

"How so? It seems to me the perfect Kaga-san isn't so good, normally."

"But! But, you're wrong! I have my reasons! I exploded after four months of frustration! It's not like I planned for such a thing to happen! It was my intention to ride up in the taxi with the roses, congratulate him with a smile and hand over the roses! Just leaving behind the smell of roses... surprising Mitsuo... and then around campus, we'd say 'those roses mark the spot we got together...', that was an even more perfect scenario!"

"Was that what you thought meeting up with him would be like?"

"He would have said, 'That was a knockout blow: You had the courage to have pursued me to the same university!' "

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously! Really, that's was how it was supposed to be! But... well, the result was this. ...Mitsuo, was always telling me about 'doing the escalator'. I found out that was all a lie around the end of the year. Since then I always pretended to be deceived, so that it looked to him that I was doing the escalator too, faking it to the point of taking the same entrance exams."

"A disguise..."

"Wig and glasses. Suspecting a second entrance exam, I called up the examiner. So it was that day after day he kept on lying, and I could see it the whole time. Perhaps today he would tell me the truth. Perhaps tomorrow. 'Surely the day after tomorrow...', I persisted, but all the way to the end, graduation already done, Mitsuo wouldn't tell me the truth. I overlooked the lies. Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, idiotically walking with Tada-kun, looking as if he were having fun... 'What the heck!?' I couldn't stand it anymore."

How many seconds of silence passed? And then,

"Now, I am regretting it."

Kouko looked up into the night sky.

Starlight shining through a break in the trees fell on Kouko from above. She gave a deep sigh, together with a thin voiced "ah". Head hanging down, her hair again hung straight down.

"...Seems like it... From where I sit, it seems you are being disliked, right? Even at the entrance ceremony, it would have been better if you'd simply hugged him and given him a kiss. What you accomplished was different. ...Even so, to be ignored so completely and perfectly... was certainly not."

That's the way it was, really--- Banri looked back at the sad face whitely illuminated, quietly thinking.

Really, I think that's the way it is, Kaga-san. Better than hurting him like that with roses, nearly to the point of drawing blood, just showing that face--- that Kaga Kouko, even once, would be far better, he thought.

A million times, or ten million times, or even a trillion times better, he thought.

Banri had not known until now how somebody could be impatient with human clumsiness, even like this. Because of how the day was turning out, he knew the feeling for the first time.

"The only one who's supposed to do dumb things like that, in this world, ever, is me."

Perhaps too tired still to walk again, Kouko stiffly moved her legs while just barely cracking a smile.

"I don't think you're like that, though. You're just not the type of person to be able to do that right."

"Yep, it's absolutely just me. ...I am the most to blame in this, I did something dumb. What about you, Tada-kun? What about you? Is there somebody you like? Do you have a girlfriend?"

She was planting landmines under the night sky.

It was a rest-break with no more meaning than that, so more easily than ever Banri was able to open his mouth and chat with her.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don’t know for myself. Just that 'My memories were all blown away,' since that's speaking the truth."

Like a surprise attack, Kouko winked back at him.

"...What kind of speaking?"

"Speaking about loss of memory."

Banri pointed at his head with his finger. "Well...", while he began hesitantly to talk, that finger turning in circles.

"It was shortly after my high school graduation ceremony. Early in the morning, I was alone and it seems I fell from the bridge. Since then my memory has left me. Though I may feel like saying it, I can't just say '...So what?' It doesn't work to say that every time I talk. For the time being, could you simply understand? I can't be always saying things like 'I can't remember anything from childhood through high school', of course."

As he looked at Kouko, who had fallen completely silent, looking troubled, Banri thought "Well, she ought to be!" If somebody were to suddenly talk about losing their memory, you'd probably be confused too.

But normally, I would hope you would just be seeing the face of an ordinary nineteen year old boy.

"A marvelous thing, the word "remembering"--- an ordinary, normal thing in the Japanese language. Whatever year A.D. it be, whatever you call it, whatever you study, whatever you watch on television, whatever calendar a person or actor uses, it is understood. Even the teacher of moonlight, right? Even Ruu Ooshiba, right? I don't understand the problem with me. My particular memories don't exist. People I knew or were related to, who I liked, ...in short the things that gave me 'individuality'. It is certainly a strange tale. My family, my friends, and my self all stored in my memories, even after a year of rehabilitation, even after all I did, completely gone. What's more,"

Seeming unable to remember 'that' feeling, the self-conscious Banri picked his words carefully.

"Very slowly, my emotions returned. They seemed like something I missed... but if I chased after them, they fled away. For example, imagine a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Trying to read it, you would look at it, and automatically from your gaze a beam would burn up the sentence. It felt rather like that. The traces of memory were like a ghostly tail I could barely touch, and it seemed to be rapidly fading away. That was a rather scary feeling..."

After the accident always, if I didn't remember, if I didn't remember quickly, then it just faded away. Time passed, and I rapidly lost track of things. More than simply pointing out "You have certainly lost something", the feeling of losing something was always, always fresh.

"But as time passed, even those feelings disappeared, and I became resigned to it, saying 'What's the use?' But, it mattered nothing since I was unable to sense them anymore. Losing it was scary, though I couldn't really feel it since it was already 'gone'. Because of that, things got easier."

What was left to Banri now was just a memory of the fear of that time when everything was rapidly leaving him.

"Because of that, I had to study over again for the entrance exams, as if I'd had to start life over again."

"...Err..."

"Sorry, I was speaking nonsense."

"...Yes. No problem... It's just that,"

Kouko brought her hands to her chest. As she took a number of deep breaths, he saw that her hands moved together with her chest.

"...How you can say that's OK, I have no idea."

"But it is. Excuse me, really, but I'm not worried about it. Really now, since you're in good health. What's your blood type? What's your sign? You like soy sauce or paste? Memory loss? Mem riloss? That's about what I heard. If you have any questions, please let me know."

From Kouko's mumbling, it seemed she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, and didn't know what to say.

"...Err, well... weren't you just saying you wanted to get back...?"

"Yes, I must have been."

Since it was his long awaited chance to talk with her, he had wanted to be able to answer truthfully and honestly, Banri thought.

"Nonexistent things don't make sense to me. I'll say that first of all. As for myself, I have no choice but to speak from my own feelings. But, as for other people, I could understand them saying that they might want the original Tada Banri to return. In fact, it's about time he tried to return, I think. But in that regard, it gives me the feeling that adding memories to my current self is OK, even though it is replacing parts of my personality, so to speak, allowing the disappearance of my former self to be forgiven. From the start it looked impossible, and I've even been saying all along that there was nothing I could do, or even wanted to do."

"...Is that so?"

Her face serious as she listened to Banri's tale, Kouko lowered her eyes a little as if in thought.

"...That was a really strange story, wasn't it? What kind of guy was he, the vanished side of Tada Banri-kun? Perhaps he's watching over the current Tada-kun wherever he is... Kind of like a ghost in the background."

And, Kouko, seeming to notice something, suddenly turned around.

"What? What's going on? Is there a ghost behind Kaga-san?"

"...Something, just now, I saw a small flash of light... ah, ah, look!"

Kouko was pointing towards a thick grove of trees. She stared as the little light, certainly not a street light, swayed back and forth.

"You're right! Somebody's there! Let's go, let's call for help! Can you stand!?"

"Yep!"

Banri took Kouko by the hand, the two of them staggering while they frantically walked out on the muddy path. "Excuuse mee! Could you help uusss! We've had an accideennnt!", they raised their frantic voices.

On the other side of the trees, the shadowy figure held a nearly dead flashlight. Their voices still not noticed, anyway in a daze they continued advancing, having no choice. Sliding while supporting Kouko's hand, pushing through grass, clearing away branches, hurrying but not falling down.

A line of people, ...everyone with their bodies bent over a little, moving their hands and feet uncertainly. All of them. In the middle of the night on a mountain trail, while they shone the light on each other. What a strange atmosphere, he thought. It was about time.

"Ju, jujuju, just a second. Tada-kun, those are really strange people."

Kouko stopped walking. She looked at Banri.

"What I mean... aren't they those believers from earlier...!?"

If that were the case, then jumping would be a big mistake. A huge, fatal blunder. Trying to retreat, confused, they broke a branch, making a sound. Whereupon, no matter how much they kept from raising their voices,

"Is somebody there?"

A long straight beam of light turned towards them. With a surprised-sounding voice,

"...Banri!?"

They heard somebody's surprised shout. The light gave a big shake at the voice.

Exhausted, Kouko's strength gave out. Supporting her, pulling her along so they could escape, Banri eventually crumbled to his knees too. Standing up and running to escape hurriedly on foot, they vainly rejected the slimy damp earth. They were already at the limit of their strength. Even if everybody was a believer, there was nothing more they could do. However,

"It's me! Don't you understand!? Hey, it's me! Remember!"

Shouting while the person pointed the light at him, he suddenly raised both hands high, encompassing the whole place, shouting "Hey!" and striking a pose. That pose reminded him of something---

"...Eh!? Maybe, maybe, you..."

Even the disaster of the school entrance ceremony had laid land-mines for him!

"Barbara!?"

"It's Linda!"

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3

2013-11-02T08:40:24Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 3==
[[Image:Golden Time vol01 091.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.

It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri's side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cellphone, by the transmit light.

He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can't hear you well, hello hello, it's me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that's fine. I'll be staying one day at the club training camp. That's all."

In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.

"OK then, until next time I call!"

"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn't understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.

Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?

Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, ''Banri's cool!'', he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What's up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.

In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn't sit down. He wasn't about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.

Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cellphone. The train still hadn't arrived, and he hadn't received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.

My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.

''Wham'', at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri's face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.

Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-saan"

It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.

When she noticed Banri's hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren't any lectures on Saturday, and there weren't any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.

"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"

"Did the older girl show up?"

"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."

Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.

An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.

A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.

Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko's face.

Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl's College during yesterday's encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the 'All-Around Intercollegiate Club' to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.

From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.

Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly a crowded little place, but a good find, and then they'd been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought 'This is a café-au-lait bowl?', but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the
conversation.

Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Like getting all the language credits within the first year, you really ought to get a part time job, those that can get a girlfriend or boyfriend should be able to by the first year summer break, it's been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.

Regardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.

Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we'll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at twelve-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to ''do'' something.

So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn't he see that? A training facility in prefecture K. Weren't there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn't too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you're a freshman, of course there are no fees. It's OK, it's OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don't ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it's already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It's all right, by participating, that's how we'll do it. Deciding would be good, don't you think? Right?

It must have been the mood of the conversation.

He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other's expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally nodded as one.

That'd be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I'm tired... I want to go home... if we say we'll participate we'll be able to leave... Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn't say anything, but wasn't going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.

Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.

Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, 'let's go!' They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.

Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night's worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn't going on this outing.

"Hey, Tada-kun."

He didn't know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.

"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"

With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.

"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying 'Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member's training camp.'"

"...And Mitsuo?"

Pulling out his cellphone, it didn't seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You're kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.

Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri's face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.

"Don't worry about it. It's my problem."

"Yes, so it is."

Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko's eyes.

"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it's a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."

"Won't catch either, of course."

Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,

"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."

Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn't fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.

"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn't it, rather this is. When it comes to men, whenever they are being chased, they want to escape. And when they escape it makes everybody want to chase them again, it seems like... doesn't it? Won't the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? 'Wives and tatami mats and... tuna fish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?' ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn't understand..."

"That's OK. It's enough explanation for now."

"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"

Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.

"Mitsuoo! ...It's not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"

She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.

"And so, just look, you've got me instead! ...And it seems to me that ''Yana''-ssan wouldn't mind."

Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.

"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It's quite an accomplishment, seeing as Mitsuo does care where I'm going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."

"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I'd be going to the drinking party alone."

"I don't think you'd have been alone. ...Those guys, aren't they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman training camp with them."

Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,

"Ah! Isn't that Mr. Two Dimensions?"

"Eh? You're kidding. Tada Banri?"

His acquaintance didn't fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.

"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman training camp too?"

"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is ''Yana''-ssan a member too?"

"''Yana''-ssan isn't coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."

Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, Civil Law, I saw you, you were, are, Monday it was, second hour," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user's manual of a bootleg copy of ''Pachimon'', he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.

Kouko in her way,

"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"

She wasn't speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can't understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.

"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"

Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri's explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he'd shouted, "And that's why three-dimensions is bad! You're all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon spitting lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.

As she watched Mr. Two Dimension's face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.

But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.

It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ij%C5%ABin Ijuuin]-kun, or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lupin_III_characters#Daisuke_Jigen Jigen Daisuke]-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn't here."

Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn't anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to answer.

That, despite the fact that she didn't have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!

"But, from here on out, you won't be able to get away with that!", Banri declared in his mind to Kouko's smiling face. Neither Banri nor Mr. Two Dimensions were simply creatures that weren't Mitsuo, and over the next two days and one night together with Kouko, participating in the training camp, they should be able to become "friends" instead.

"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world's not all that bad a place."

Banri playfully tugged at the shirt sleeve of Mr. Two Dimensions, who was still mumbling, unable to look at Kouko's face.

"What's with you? Haven't you come back to three dimensions, it's a little late already, a little late."

"You're mistaken! Even in two dimensions, I've been wondering recently, it's something I've been thinking about! Even in two dimensions, I had thought I wanted to look for the ideal depiction, but of course, what I mean is, it was hard! But in the end, other people's creations were not 100% satisfactory, seems like! Why not just stop?"

"It's OK, it's OK, keep going."

"That so? Well then, especially of late, I've found myself getting deeply involved with a female character of my own creation. Creating the setting, drawing the pictures, coloring them, deciding the words she uses and how she says them, what her favorite food is, from the way we would date, becoming more and more intimate from one episode to another, becoming my ''perfect'' dream, ...hey, was it really OK to say this? Should I not have stopped?"

Kouko, who had been mumbling approving noises and nodding her head while ignoring what was being said, slowly stopped shaking her head. After a little while, it seemed the correct answer occurred to her, and with a 60W grin,

"A little more of that, and you'll be Mr. One Dimension!"

"What in the world are you saying, Kaga Kouko...", thought Banri.

A surprised snort escaped from one girl of a group of three standing not far from Banri's group. Little sports bags stuffed with rough-looking attire, denim and sneakers, they probably were going to the same freshman training camp as friends,

"Soorryy, this person, even if she looks like she does, can be really dumb at times."

Banri tried to point at Kouko as their smiling faces turned towards him. They seemed to be group of friends, all three of them smiling as one while nervously stepping up. Kouko herself said, "Eh, dumb? Who?", looking back at Banri's face, wondering.

"Hello, I'm Tada Banri, and with me Kaga-san and Mr. Two Dimensions. Are all of you going to the freshman training camp from here?"

At the sound of Banri's voice, they saw for the first time the faces of two more guys, who joined them with slightly nervous expressions. At Kouko's 'Mr. One Dimension' exclamation, the girls looked around at everybody smiling, and started their introductions at once.

A car-horn sounded, three modest beeps. Everybody turned towards the street.

"Yes yes yesss! Sorry for being late, the cars are here so all aboard!"

The upperclassman came out to them from the first car parked by the side of the road.

Which reminded Banri that he had in fact failed to get her name--- which thing, of course, it was a little late to talk about now.

The club upperclassmen, together with some other freshman students, got into several rented station wagons.

An upperclassman handed a blank form to Banri, who was confused over which car to get into.

"Could all of you write their name, address and telephone number here? And if they are living away from home, then their parents' addresses too. This will be part of our insurance documents. It's because of our liability if anything happens at the training camp. Do it neatly, leaving out nothing. Everybody else is done writing their information. Yes, because you're Tada-kun, OK? This column, OK? I mean, even though this parking lot is rather noisy, and it's bad to be in such a hurry? Sorry about that, yes, hurry up, but read it carefully, it's just in case anything happens, OK?"

Insurance. Parking lot. Not fully understanding but unwilling to go against the social pressure, Banri the fool wrote down their personal information in a rush, but honestly. Passing the pen and the register to Kouko, she gracefully wrote down her name and address too, and passed it on to Mr. Two Dimensions.

And then, all the freshmen having signed the list, the upperclassman took her own bag and,

"Yes, thanks! You and you to the first car, OK? You over there. You that way. You and you get on that car at the end of the line. And now, you and you,"

Banri nudged Kouko's elbow and grinned.

"You're with me in that car, let's hurry up and get in!"

He opened the station wagon's door and they were greeted at once by a clear voice, saying "Hi there!". While Banri and Kouko returned the greeting, they sat down side by side in the middle.

"Okay, all the freshmen will be by the windows!"

The upperclassmen were rearranged, and everybody was able to be seated. An upperclassman got into the car right next to Banri.

"Today's weather turned out good, eh?"

With a smile, she sat down as if the spot belonged to her by right. In the front seat, the cool-looking guy next to Kouko said, "Nice to meet you, I'm a third-year from **** college."

All the freshmen that had been gathered from all the colleges were sitting separately by the windows. All of them, with nervous faces not speaking out. Banri and Kouko were in the same boat. For some reason the other seats were occupied by clear-voiced, smiling, laughing upperclassmen. It was somehow strangely uncomfortable, uncomfortable for sure, but they couldn't argue about it. The seating was arranged.

"Drinks and such are prepared if you'd like!"

"Ah, yes..."

Hanging from the neck of the smiling upperclassman to his side, a necklace with a snowflake design glittered. If he remembered correctly, she was wearing it yesterday too. It was probably her favorite. Casually looking over at the other upperclassman, just above his shirtcollar, Banri noticed he was wearing the same necklace. He wondered if they were really close, or if it was a uniform.

"Is everybody's seat belt on? Nobody needs the bathroom? Cause once we get on the freeway we have no plans to stop!"

The upperclassman in the driver's seat looked back. At his neck too, the same necklace. This guy having one on, even if it was so many close friends matching up, of course it seemed quite strange. Well of course! Does everybody in this club have to wear one? Banri discretely looked towards the necks of the other upperclassman in the vehicle.

"Why are you looking around like that?"

Suddenly asking the upperclassman with a straight face, "Isn't it strange that everybody's wearing matching necklaces? Just curious...", didn't get him an answer. She said, "It's nothing", giving Banri a vague deceptive smile, the station wagons lining up to leave. From where Banri sat, all he could see of Kouko was the billowing hair on the top of her head.

Inside the vehicle pop music was playing continuously and loudly, the upperclassmen singing in a sort of high-tension karaoke--- the first-years silent, strangely nervous still--- with things staying like that throughout the drive, which took about two hours.

Banri, once more attacked by uneasiness, was wondering if they shouldn't ought be getting off the freeway already when the time arrived.

The line of rental cars was passing in front of the university's seminar house. Following a road through the forest, a sign with the name of the college that Banri was attending was standing there, but they ignored it. What's more, the line of station wagons continued onwards into the mountains. Were they taking the wrong road, or perhaps, did the seminar house the upperclassman was talking about belong to another college?

That's what it looked like. None of the other freshmen at the windows, not even Kouko, noticed. Nobody said anything. While watching the sign get further away the other side of the window, should I keep quiet? Perhaps we're really going the wrong way, and if so what should we do? He couldn't decide whether they should turn around at that moment.

He noticed that the upperclassman gave him a sharp glance when he looked at the sign through the window. With the loud music flowing through the inside of the car, they had stared at each other for all of three seconds. As it was, realizing that the strange silence was dragging on, he boldly decided to ask her.

"Welll... didn't we just pass the seminar house?"

"Eh? What?"

Putting her hand to her ear, she indicated that she hadn't heard him.

"Just now, the seminar house, didn't we pass it!?"

He spoke louder and clearer this time, moving his mouth closer to her ear to overcome the music. The smell of her hair went up his nose, strangely unnatural and strong.

"What, what!? Eh, I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! I mean, stop it already, this is embarrassing! Cut it out!"

While smiling, she firmly pushed Banri back, putting her weight into it. And then suddenly, she said, "What's with me? Am I getting a little sleepy already?", and put her head on Banri's shoulder. Her upturned eyes at point blank range, lips coming together in a slight pout.

When he couldn't react, she casually placed her hand on his knee. The palm of her hand, slowly but steadily warming up, inched around as if to fondle him. While drawing circles, it came creeping towards his thigh. While so doing, she gazed moistly at Banri's eyes. She said, "Are you happy? Did I make your heart race? Did I make you hope?", while she gave him a look full of self-confidence.

But, distinctly scary. Her soft chest pushing against his elbow, Banri pulled away from her as softly as he could. A boy with a girl close by, whatever the situation might be, would be happy. That she even thought that way was scary, but more importantly, what if what she was doing up to this point wasn't a trick? That by itself was frightening.

But those innermost thoughts of Banri's became irrelevant as the line of cars slowed down, left the trees and turned from the beautifully paved private road and then entered what was apparently a driveway. To the left and right, high concrete walls were built, forming a C-curve in front, attached to the roof all the way down to the driveway.

Where they had arrived wasn't particularly big, but judging by the brickwork, it was evidently a pretty nice facility, two buildings set side by side.

Urged by the upperclassmen, they got down out of the cars. The older girl tried to join hands with Banri, reaching out for him, but Banri pretended not to notice, calling out "Kaga-saan!" and trotting, chasing after Kouko, who had walked ahead, in order to escape from the her. As soon as Kouko saw Banri's face, she stopped walking and they stood side by side, and in a whisper,

"Ah, I was able to talk to somebody I barely knew. The upperclassman next to me, he just kept talking to me the whole time... It wasn't boring, but I became somewhat worn out... How was it for you?"

"As for me..."

He'd touched somebody that way in public. No, rather, he had been touched that way in public. But he couldn't talk about that, not with Kouko.

"...Same here. I'm a bit tired too."

Banri also answered quietly. Before he realized it, a crowd of freshmen had formed. The upperclassmen surrounded them, pushing the freshmen towards an opening, keeping up with them as they walked into the facility. They had no choice but to walk together in a line.

Marble used all over the place, even the entrance polished to a wonderful sheen, here and there decorated with big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaenopsis moth orchids], it really seemed more like a hotel, or an art museum. Pulling her carryall while going inside, to Kouko it seemed strange to have so much room.

"By the way, are we sure this place is really the college's seminar house? Would they have something as nice as this while their school buildings are falling apart?"

"...I don't think so..."

"Eh?"

Once all the freshmen had entered, a strange high sound arose and the entrance door closed. Shortly, in that darkened lobby, the lights were turned on.

In the center there glittered a huge piece of artwork, shaped like a snowflake.

On the pedestal a gold plate was affixed, inscribed with 'The Shape of God in our Times'. That god would be incarnated a million years from now! ---In other words, for the next five hours until they locked their rooms, Banri knew they would be subjected to a lecture.

<center>* * *</center>

Of course, he wanted to flee.

In short, they had been placed under house arrest by a new religion disguised as a club. But he couldn't talk with his fellow freshmen, as they were under a constant guard. They struck anybody who even looked like he was talking! It was such a low class thing to do, and some freshmen opened their mouths in protest, but the older students separated anybody who did so. For the moment the uneasy freshmen trying to gather together were kept apart, gently perhaps, but physically separated. Talk amongst the freshmen was not permitted; that was the message clearly being sent.

Before the lecture, everybody's bags were collected, tossed into a single room and locked up. At that point, strangely enough, they were permitted to get out their cellphones, but, whether it was from being in the middle of the mountains, or it was on purpose, Banri's cellphone wasn't the only one with no signal. There was not a phone in sight, so getting in contact with the outside was going to be difficult.

Dinnertime was completely silent, a sort of prayer ritual. Even a funeral would have been more exciting.

On little tables arranged in a semicircle there were placed glasses of cold beer and various kinds of soft drinks. As far as that went, this was an ordinary club training camp, quite so, no, perhaps of a rather extravagant type, but the freshmen were scattered about, kept apart, and everyone who understood the situation was keeping ominously quiet about it.

Banri was seated at the end of the semicircle. Next to him was the older girl. Kouko, from one of the center seats, looked vaguely down at the tables, her white face still blank. Occasionally, she would glance quickly at Banri, each of them seeing in this situation "Danger...!", both of them recognizing it, but neither of them able to do anything about it. Mr. Two Dimensions, too, on the other side could be seen with his head bowed.

Really and truly, it had become something dangerous.

"Now then everyone, let's get moving! Everybody, take your glasses!"

The hot upperclassman seated next to Kouko stood up and raised his voice for no apparent reason. Even some of the other upperclassmen whistled and booed at the sudden, unnaturally forced enthusiasm.

"Well then! Congratulations for the newly created children, tonight's excellent full moon, and another gathering recorded for the next 10,000 years! Ready, cheers! Hello new children!"

"Hello!", the upperclassmen said, raising their glasses.

Banri and the other freshmen, all of them, were looking down at their knees, petrified. The tops of their heads could be seen lined up around the semicircle.

Almost as if he were praying silently, "What should I do?", an over-familiar touch at his shoulder,

"What's wrong, new children! Loook, at long last the day of your awakening is here! Let's have a little more enthusiasm!"

With a smile as wide as her face, she raised her glass. Banri's head going numb to the core, he was unable to answer anything more, and he stared at the golden liquid which filled the glass. He remembered something strange. The day of the entrance ceremony, at the convenience store, when he met Yanagisawa at the mirror, they'd toasted with ice-bars. At that time, they were completely mismatched though somehow it was really fun. In the few days since then, they'd come surprisingly far. He could hardly wait for those peaceful times to return.

As it was, Banri was already thinking about how they couldn't keep them there too many days. Come Monday there would be school, a few freshmen vanishing would become a big deal, maybe even a matter for the police.

So anyway for this one night and two days, perhaps he could have the patience to let it pass by. Quickly getting drunk, quickly getting smashed, just sleeping through it all, morning would come soon enough.

"..."

As if.

Anyway, if he quietly kept his patience until tomorrow in this weird place--- glass full of beer in her hand, she looked at Banri,

"Yes, yes! It was really fun winning! Yes, one round, cheeeers!"

"Ch, cheers..."

Giving another glad smile, she gulped down the delicious looking beer.

Kouko was looking his way with a startled look on her face. She was putting the chilled glass to her mouth, since she couldn't avoid doing so, but she looked back at Banri, her feelings exposed.

But--- was that so?

If he were to think about it, he was responsible for the fact that she had been brought here.

He'd answered the upperclassman, saying, "Let's go together!", he told himself. Nonetheless, Kouko was confused.

Besides, it would have been better to have chatted some more back at the coffee shop. Caught as they were, if he thought about it now, it was suspicious. Wasn't it written in plain sight? This time for sure, he had to be on guard about the strange upperclassman who stuck too close for comfort. Even so, his nervousness at finding himself together with Kouko, his hopes of being able to be friends with her, everything combined to blind his radar.

Since they'd decided to come and participate in the training camp, he'd been dumb. Exhausted, unable to think and with his judgement lost, if he so much as nodded it would be over, and... swept away, to such a state he'd been brought. And now, he was regretting it to death.

Banri considered not swallowing the beer touching his mouth.

Of course, he couldn't.

Already, he wouldn't do things like that.

If he had been patient enough while they'd been speaking of such things, maybe they wouldn't have gone so far. From the beginning, the purpose of isolating the training camp, wearing out its participants, making them give up, stopping their thought processes, appeared to be a trap.

And then... no, no way, they can't just brainwash me when I don't understand what they're teaching, he thought. Still, Banri looked sidelong at the upperclassman next to him. He started drinking the delicious beer, eating their cooking and talking with the other upperclassmen.

Actually, surrounded by unusually good looking and healthy seeming guys and gals, the danger hadn't really sunk in.

If he didn't want to become like them, if he even wanted to live in ordinary reality, he needed to escape from here. Absolutely. Banri spit out the beer he held in his mouth into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshibori damp towel] provided on his table.

But, he was worried about that roster he'd signed, where they'd hurried him to write down his personal information. Kouko, himself and all the rest too, they had been perhaps too foolishly honest when they'd written down their addresses and contact information. Wasn't that what all the persistent nagging was all about?

He absolutely, absolutely couldn't give Mom and Dad back home anything more to worry about.

That roster had been placed in the upperclassman's own duffle. And then together with the freshmen's luggage, now, it was locked up in a room.

What should I do?

"...This is no fun! We can't do anything like this!"

Suddenly, crash! At the sudden, high, echoing sound, Banri lifted his face. Mr. Two Dimensions had thrown his glass to the floor.

"What's this about 10,000 years in the future! Giving thanks to a crystal master! How messed up can you be, believing in a three-dimensional thing like that!? You've been tricking us from the start, calling this an 'all around club'! I mean, isn't this imprisonment!? Isn't that a crime!? Do you even think anybody could keep quiet about people doing such things!?"

Decisively stated by Mr. Two Dimensions, the other freshmen stood up too.

"Let's go out to the cars now! I don't want to stay in this place any longer!"

"I'm going to sue them!"

Not knowing yet what he should do, Banri stood anyway. At that moment, in the fragments of glass scattered about broken on the floor, for just an instant, just how many broken reflections of himself were there to be seen?

Aspects of himself could be seen in all of them.

A worn out face. A scared face. An angry face. A face trying hard. A face ready to cry. So many variations of his face. And then suddenly a look that seemed to ask, "What are you going to do, Tada Banri?" At such a time as this, Tada Banri, what should a guy be doing?

Tada Banri ---

"Everybody, such an outburst wasn't called for. Just calm down for now."

--- realized he ought to do something.

The upperclassmen, seated in a row, showed no surprise. They were all watching Mr. Two Dimensions' composed smile, Banri's raised voice and the state of the other freshmen. It had all been arranged for, even this situation. This 'facility in the mountains' was their place of power, and what with the talk of their planning to make an offering, Banri was rather scared. But he couldn't do more than that, since nothing had been decided. He had no other choice for now.

Himself, he would do something unexpected.

"Anybody who wants to go home, that's fine if they do."

While he was talking, his body was trembling. Hiding it, he continued, "But I don't want to go back."

"What are you saying, Tada Banri!?"

Mr. Two Dimensions looked at Banri's face as if in shock. Kouko did too. Eyes opened wide, standing up. At the same time the table shook, tipping the glasses over. Shaking off their glances, Banri suddenly raised his voice.

"I mean, frankly, that where until things were so tense, now you're talking about it being boring! Just what is it you can't spit out? You speak of crime, but, even though recently you were still underage, you were drinking! Drinking underage at the Tea Ceremony is a crime, but you didn't speak of that! Seems the same to me. If you could let things like that slide, then maybe you can have fun here! It's convenient to ignore it, say it's not a crime, but isn't that really selfish? Such a bothersome guy you are, even entering here you are such an annoyance!"

Mr. Two Dimensions tried to interrupt, but he was prevented by a loud voice.

"Anyhow I want to have some fun here! Speaking of such boring things is tiresome, it's annoying! Sirs, these guys are clearly a bother! Since they want to go home, can't they just leave? Kick out these bothersome ones, and then let's get to the drinking party! I came here to have some real fun!"

He took revenge for her public assault on him.

Grabbing the older girl's hand, he shook back and forth like a little kid. But, his opponent being a master of the same techniques, she looked back at Banri, her eyes wary.

"...Do you really want to stay here? Even if everybody else returned? That so, eh? But, why would you?"

"I was quite impressed by the lecture I heard."

The last words shook, but that probably made it seem more truthful.

"In perfect seriousness, I would like to hear what the other upperclassmen here have to say. What I mean, really,"

He ordered his knees to stop shaking.

"Actually, I was seriously injured in high school, and all my memories were blown away. I've suffered amnesia, so to speak. I have suffered much from that. When I woke up, I suddenly knew nobody else in all the world. Not parents, nor friends, nor acquaintances nor anybody else. It was really lonely. But now... with the lecture about this new world to come, at last it looked like I may be saved. Though it sounds like it may be a lie, this, isn't something you made up. If here and now, there were a police investigation, or a hospitalization, I wouldn't receive an explanation nor would there be a meeting. In truth why"

Through his hair, the older girl could see the ugly scar still present on his scalp. The marks from surgery spread down to the neck of his T-shirt, running down even to his shoulders. He wondered if he ought to pull down his blue-jeans to show them the long stitch-scars running down his thighs to the knees.

"...That's enough. Forgive us for being suspicious, new children. ...That hurt, didn't it...!"

This is powerfully persuasive. What's going on here?

Looking at the point of tears, the older girl was looking at Banri sympathetically. She believed what he was saying just now.

"But you're all right now! You've cheered up, haven't you? Since you've cheered up, the time of your salvation has come, now! Right, everybody! From this it's been made clear, don't you think! The new children should be awakened, and the Crystal Lord will grant them their test, to see if they cannot be awakened! Going so far beyond, isn't it a beautiful thing? This time around, those who are only half-hearted kids will be able to go home. Only the real Children ought to have time close to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

They exchanged glances, those upperclassmen--- or you might say, the believers, that seemed to be the right word.

They spoke quickly, now it had been decided. The luggage that had been stored was taken out at once, and all the freshmen and some of the believers left the dining room. Banri saw that the keys to the luggage room were in the hands of a one guy.

Opened with the key, the freshmen went inside to pick up their luggage. A guy stuck to Banri's side, mouth shut, trying to look thoroughly scary, keeping an eye on him sidelong.

But Mr. Two Dimensions was different.

"Let's just go back! Tada Banri! Go back with the rest of us! A place like this is always trouble! You can take your time listening to their talk later, but for now let's go back!"

Thanking him in his mind, Banri outwardly ignored him. He called out to the guy with the key.

"Ma'am, isn't drunken driving dangerous? If there were an accident it'd be a problem, for sure. It seems to me that it'd be better if the guy who's going to drive didn't drink."

"That too is true. Is there anybody that has a driver's license?"

At the sound of the guy's voice some of the freshmen raised their hands. Mr. Two Dimensions was one of them. Casually, Banri called out to the guy's back, "Ah, I'll go get the key", intending to grab the key to the room. But,

"We've only just called you, but after you've been verified it'll be OK. You there, you've not had even one drop to drink?"

The key was quite firmly in the guy's grip. He let out an involuntary click of the tongue.

The guy locked up the luggage room and swung around. He thought better of calling after the guy with the keys to come back at that point. It couldn't be helped. There would be other opportunities to do something.

It looked like they'd decided that Mr. Two Dimensions and another freshman would be driving. Mr. Two Dimensions looked back towards Banri over and over again while going towards the entrance. It's OK, leave me behind, you're as confused as anybody else. Banri gave him a slight shake of the head.

Like that, all the freshmen left the facility. Amongst them of course, there went Kouko pulling her carry-all. Soon, the sound of the wheels rolling faded away, leaving Banri behind by himself.

Everybody had left. Amongst believers in a strange god, he was completely alone.

He was feeling scared to death. But, that was fine, he thought. At the least, he was able to get Kouko, whom he had brought here, back out to the ordinary peaceful world. Later, he would decide just what to do.

But, at that moment came to his ears a sound he could hardly believe. Banri reflexively cleared his ears. He had thought he might be hearing things, but apparently it was real.

The rolling sound that should have been gone, and had indeed left, was once more coming towards him.

Then, the entrance door opened.

Suddenly coming into view,

"Of course, I stayed behind too. The last lecture left me with a strong impression."

"...Kaga, san...!?"

"Hello, new children!"

With a self-satisfied expression on her face, Kaga Kouko.

Whether I like it or not, you, what are you saying--- really, what are you doing!? What the heck are you saying!? Precisely what are you doing!? Why have you returned!? What's with this person!? Can she really be an idiot!? Banri would have shouted, but he had no voice.

Banri was completely dumbfounded, looking at Kouko's form in amazement, his mouth hanging open. Kouko was standing next to Banri, meeting all the believers halfway, her face composed, both her long hands precisely positioned before her slim body, her head tilted a little to the side. And then,

"In spite of being beautiful, I am not popular. Because of that, I have already abandoned this century. I am longing for the new century!"

Strangely persuasive, she smiled with perfect grace.

The freshmen gone and Banri and Kouko left behind, the strange party atmosphere returned to the dining hall. Nearly an hour had passed.

All the believers themselves good and drunk, the opportunity to talk with Kouko had finally arrived.

He pointed over at Kouko's carry-all, still set in the corner of the dining hall. Since it needed to be put in the luggage room, it should be easy to get the guy to hand him the key.

"Kaga-san, let's go put away your luggage."

Grabbing the handle of the carry-all, winking back when he called her, Kouko stood up at once. Banri had a hunch that if the older girl had been looking towards them at all, it would have been very conspicuous. Unnoticed, he left the dining hall with Kouko.

While walking quickly down the corridor, Kouko started to call out to him, but Banri held a finger up before his mouth in a sign for her to be quiet. Still quiet, he took Kouko by the arm, looked all around to make sure nobody was nearby, and brought her over by the men's bathroom. Kouko was now at the mercy of his intentions, whatever they were. They quietly stuffed themselves into a stall and locked it. Up to this point, he'd been acting rather like a confirmed molester, but,

"...Aaa...!"

The first thing that escaped was a groan neither breathing nor sigh. In the narrow space, Banri's body was twisted like a music conductor, his right hand raised overhead and scratching his forehead roughly. "What are you doing, what are you doing, why, why, why, what's with youuu...!?", he shouted in a whisper while stamping the ground in frustration.

"Kaga-san, what were you doing!? Why didn't you go back with everybody else!?"

Really, come to your senses! He wanted to slap her on the cheek, grab her by the neck of her pretty one-piece dress and shake her back and forth. Failing that, he could punch the wall, or maybe hit himself on the forehead. Since he couldn't do either, the upper half of Banri's body was twisted up like a grilled squid.

"Do you really want to join up with those guys!?"

He pointed his finger at Kouko's pretty face.

"That, was my line."

A gentle whack, and that fingertip was shot down.

Carefully lifting the hem of her skirt so it wouldn't touch the edge of the toilet, so close together in the narrow stall their knees overlapped, Kouko looked intensely back at Banri. The black pupils of her eyes were turned up like crescent moons.

"Tada-kun, all that stuff you said about rescue and such, was that true?"

"I...have...no...i...de...a...!"

He didn't say any more, at his wit's end, writing in agony while she smiled at him. In spite of his success in getting everybody sent back, how, why, and more importantly for what reason, had she come back?

"Oh... whatever, that's good... Tada-kun, I was wondering if you would really become a believer."

"But I was thinking it was time for you to go back!"

"But, it sounded sincere."

"It was for your sake... something, very real feeling... I mean, Kaga-san, why did you really come back? All that effort was so everybody could go home!"

"Because, I couldn't just leave you behind. Thinking of how you had followed them into thinking you were seriously planning on staying here, what would I do? I would feel responsible if you'd done such a thing, and would never be able to leave it behind!, so to speak. By all means, Tada-kun ought to be able to go back too, was my thought. Why was Tada-kun going to be left by himself, behind?"

"I didn't think they would let people go back just because they said they wanted to return! I pretended to believe, thinking that if everybody else made enough noise begging to return, they would let them go! Besides, there was all sorts of stuff written in that roster... addresses, contact information and so on. I thought that perhaps being left behind, I might somehow or other clean up things. I can't imagine how much trouble we'd have if that information got out."

Looking up at Banri's face, somewhat taken aback, Kouko in that moment placed her fingertip under her pretty rose-colored lips.

"...For sure. I had written down my parents' address in full."

"I saw the upperclassman girl stick it in her bag. There hasn't been time to make copies, now if we could get it out of there... that could be difficult."

With a jingle, the key to the luggage room could be seen in Kouko's hand.

"Thanks to Kaga-san having returned so miraculously, we go to Plan B. Seems like we may be able to set it in motion."

Kouko's eyes glittered like stars. In reality, it was just the reflected light from the restroom.

"Tada-kun..., ...good job."

Her eyes shining, Kouko applauded Banri with just her fingertips.

"Shall we do this together?"

"Of course."

"Let's both return absolutely quietly."

"Naturally!"

Nodding to each other, they took her carry-all and left the restroom.

They went down the corridor and opened the door to the luggage room with the key. They both went inside. Turning on the light, they searched through the upperclassmen bags, which had been lined up along the wall. Was it beige, ...no, was it brown? And so, he looked for anything like a girl's overnight bag in the hill in front of them, when suddenly at the confused Banri's side,

"Her bag was Coach. The Signature, last year's model, the keyholder had a marguerite..."

Kouko, her fingertip like a gun barrel, zeroed in right away on a single bag.

"It's that one."

What a capable helper! It seemed they would be able to easily clear this mission. Banri and Kouko jumped to pull out the upperclassman's bag, and fish through the contents.

They soon found the roster stuck in a file. Two sheets of A5 paper. Taking it quickly to tear it up, Banri was lost for a moment as to what to do with it. Could he hide it in his pants and take it back with him? Should he shred it up fine and flush it down the toilet?

From the arrangement of the things in the luggage room, it was probably a smoking lounge. On a low table somebody's lighter, and in an ashtray some cigarette buts had been left behind. He was casually looking over those things when suddenly,

"You there, what the heck--- huh!?"

The door opened, the forgotten key still in the lock. Glimpsing the white face of the upperclassmen girl, Banri and Kouko both jumped about an inch of the floor. Their bodies reacted even quicker than their thoughts.

"What's going on!? What about the roster... wa, wait!"

Banri fairly flew at the door, attacking it, forcing the door shut against the rest of the upperclassmen and locking it. The others banged on the door with terrific force. "What do you call this!?" "Open up!" "This traitor!" "Wait, somebody's coming!" The upperclassmen's loud voices echoed. The hand holding the door was shaking, and he realized that sweat was pouring from every pore of his body,

"Waah, wh wh wh, what am I going to do...!? This is bad bad bad...!"

Banri's face was now completely white. Should he kneel before them? Offer them money? Persuade them with tears? Such things, up to surrender, were starting to pass through his head, while on the other hand Kouko,

"Tada-kun, the roster."

With a strangely serious face, she held out her hand towards him without hesitation. He threw the tightly folded roster towards that hand. ''Smack'', she caught it magnificently,

"Hold the door steady!"

Even in that moment, she was seating herself regally on a cushion. Then, without hesitation, she tore the roster up in pieces, put the pieces in an ashtray and quickly set it on fire with the lighter. Just like that, a little flame arose, and in a couple of seconds their worries about the roster turned to ashes. Finally, pouring some water that had been left behind in a cup over the embers put it out completely. Banri was amazed at how neatly it was done, at least on this occasion. How should he say it? To her enemies, she wasn't the type you'd want to turn your back on.

Kouko immediately opened up her carry-all, pulled out her wallet, cell phone and key-case, and stuffed it all in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Tada-kun, any valuables?"

"Ne, never carry any!"

The pounding on the door continued. An ominous creaking sound was coming from around the door knob. They could hear the sound of a large number of people running up the corridor. Banri's valuables were his cell phone, wallet and the key to his place. Those he put in his jean's pocket, tied up in a leather strap that ''Yana''-ssan had chosen for him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Kouenji].

"Can we leave the rest of the baggage?"

"Yes!"

They nodded to each other. From the other side of the door a key--- the master key, probably, the sound of it being inserted could be heard at the same time. The door opened. Angry voices echoed.

He feverishly grabbed Kouko's hand and rushed towards the window. This room was on the first floor, but,

"..."

He quickly ran to the window to look through it, it wasn't all that high, but still every cell in his body trembled in fear. His body didn't remember the terror it once had tasted. But if they remained here, things were going to get scarier still. Not just for himself, but for Kouko too. Suppressing their fears with reason, closing their eyes they abandoned themselves to the pull of gravity. Still holding Kouko's hand, they clumsily fell down together. Once they got back on their feet, they realized just how bad the slippers they had put on were, but they couldn't do anything about it.

While hearing loud cries of "They're escaping through the window!" from the mob behind them, Banri and Kouko ran out into the deep dark of the forest night.

<center>* * *</center>

Perhaps they had been a bit too reckless in the moment of their escape.

"Why... can't I get a signal...?"

"I can't get one either..."

After all of two hours had passed, both Banri and Kouko were becoming aware that they had new problems.

Their reward for escaping from the suspicious new religion, quite simply said, was to be stranded--- the path they were walking down right now, it might really be a road, or maybe just a game trail, even that much they did not know. Without map, flashlight nor even shoes, having only determination, they depended on what little light came through between the trees to continue on.

Naturally, it was dark, at night with all kinds of trees growing thickly over the mountain trail, and underfoot it was awfully wet. Sliding in the slippery mud, many times the protruding rocks kept them from their way. Fearing pursuit, they stayed away from the brighter lit roads, Banri choosing to follow the trackless paths of the forest.

Beyond the trees shone a line of lights, they had to be street lights. Those lights were a simple guide to get down the slope, but right now he wasn't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do. Since they led upwards into the mountains, he thought it would be better to go down, and did so. The line of streetlights seemed far away, and a difficult climb... he had a hunch about it.

Before long, they came to a sudden slope they couldn't cross in their awful slipper-shoes, so for the time being they started walking along the flat winding edge of a cliff, but in the end, they reached the end of their endurance.

Sitting down wherever they could on some fallen tree,

"I thought we'd come a good ways down..."

"For sure. Why haven't we reached the bottom..."

Phew..., hah..., together they let out a long sigh.

Seeing that as usual the screen showed no signs of a signal, Banri put his cellphone in his pocket.

It was already past 10 o'clock at night. It was late for local hunters to be passing by, and it was too early for the morning to break.

He thought about what he would do if only the cellphone were usable. He was thinking that if he could get in contact with Mr. Two Dimensions, or his home, or perhaps the police, he could tell them what was going on. And yet how, they were out of range. 'Build a bigger antenna!', but in such a place as this he couldn't do anything but curse the telephone company.

All their strength gone, it was as quiet as if they were falling to the ground. Falling and tumbling next, our anxieties, fears, despair... no, we can't. Banri lifted his face.

Still, it was 10 o'clock. It was too early to give up and fall into depression. Showing an unreasonably cheerful face, he took off his open-necked UNIQLO shirt and put it on Kouko's shoulders, which had only a cardigan over a thin dress. Though it was already covered with mud,

"Put these on?"

He tried to take off his socks and hand them over. It would have been good if he'd noticed a little sooner. Her feet were definitely bare. However, without putting them on, nor returning them, she gazed at him, in the same pose as when she received them.

Her messed up hair clinging to her cheeks, she wasn't bothering now to cover things up with a smile,

"Tada-kun"

Somewhat in a daze, Kouko turned an empty face towards Banri.

"What what what, it's OK! We'll manage somehow soon. A little rest and then we try some more!"

"I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'..."

He had been apologized to.

And what timing, Kouko's bangs, which were up, suddenly with a thud fell down, covering half her face.

"...Teacher of moonlight..."

Her laughter had returned.

Kouko was quiet for a bit, jerkily combing up her drooping bangs. Accustomed to doing it by hand without a mirror, from her mussy hair she quickly pulled out a pin and stuck it in her mouth, then using both hands as combs she skillfully fixed up her hair, and finished it off with the pin she'd taken out earlier. The messed up hair was fixed for the time being, and she'd returned to being like Kaga Kouko again, a bit. Then,

"It's my fault that things turned out this way."

Looking away from herself again, she looked straight at Banri once more. Being prettily put back in order, indeed with a serious frown, "I'm sorry," she repeated once again. Even in this moment, her large eyes were flashing darkly.

"...That's not right. 'It wasn't Kaga-san's fault', saying such things."

Without caring about how Banri was squirming,

"It was my fault! In the first place, I had the leaflets from that strange club, and they called me too. You thought that I was such a poor thing, going alone, so it was just to keep me company."

"...But I wasn't thinking it was your fault."

"That's wrong!"

"I thought it would be good if Kaga-san could make some friends in that club. Therefore, in spite of the strange feeling they gave me, I stopped worrying about it, and I instigated Kaga-san with, 'it's OK', 'let's go'. Therefore, it's my responsibility, of course."

"That's not right, that's wrong. ...You're just wrong!"

Shaking her head, frantically looking anywhere else, Kouko held on tightly to Banri's socks, with their unknown state of cleanliness.

"Really, it isn't your fault. ...I approached you and got close to you, thinking to trick you into giving me information about Mitsuo. From the start, which club didn't matter. Saying 'I haven't been invited to anything' was true. All the college students were already ignoring me, really. I was even aware of the gossip. But I didn't pay any attention. Yesterday, saying 'nobody calls out for me', forcing myself to look dejected, saying so, ...that was all just to draw out your sympathy."

"That so? Of course, it was all about ''Yana''-ssan."

"Yes, about Yanao.... all mixed up. Mitsuo's"

Breathing out a bit, Kouko cast her eyes down uncomfortably and looked down at her own feet. Mud was all over her bare feet and slippers.

"It was all for the sake of Mitsuo."

The voice that followed was like a monologue, echoing in the silence,

"...Well, ninety percent."

Kouko raised her face once more.

She looked into Banri's eyes. Still holding the dirty socks tightly, speaking as somebody who made a mistake, her lips twisted in irony.

"The remaining ten percent... even I don't understand."

Tired of talking after that, her next breath was a like a gasp. Her gaze trembled.

"...Understanding, since the coming of this spring until yesterday, that there was only one person who bothered to speak with me. Only Tada-kun. Tada-kun called out to me, though it was news about how Mitsuo being excessively defiant... but, even though I found it hard to understand... you talked to me, ...and I was happy for that. That too is true."

"If so, then of course trying to call out to you was good."

Kouko held her tongue, looking at Banri's eyes while shaking her head softly. Not understanding that gesture very well,

"The result has been problems, though."

She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't. Kouko smiled a little, but the conversation did not continue.

The two stayed silent for a little while, gazing at each other's feet. Today having been spring, the temperate had been good and warm. Though it was chilly now, there was no worry about freezing to death.

"...I wonder what Mitsuo's doing about now? Is he worried at all about me?"

She tried to make it sound like a joke, but a little awkwardly, let it fall into the night darkness. Banri scooped it up, returning her words as lightly as possible.

"He might be. 'Where's the training camp?', I was asked later, but I didn't answer."

"Was that so?"

"Well, I could have texted from the car, but I didn't feel like it. And what's more, since afterwards we were always out of range, wouldn't he be rather worried? So it is, there it is, and before long, that anxious feeling unexpectedly becomes a hot possessiveness, a heaviness sitting on ''Yana''-ssan's heart..."

Hearing Banri's little joke, a smile clearly broke across the well ordered features of Kouko's face.

"Enough. That's not right. You're making things up."

Indeed, just like her, even in smiling she seemed to be plotting something too perfect. He realized that it had been a long time since he'd seen that face. Cheered, Banri too smiled broadly.

"''Yana''-ssan noticed, you know. From what I see, that childhood friendship must have been important."

"Yes, yes yes! What about it?"

"There were already gloomy thoughts... even doubts like, 'Am I a stalker?'...! It was, but wait! As far as I'm concerned, of course it's my fate to be married to this girl! 'Kuoukuoooo---------!'"

"Kyaa! Muitsuuo---------!"

The two were messing around, laughing their heads off in the sultry dark, reaching their hands out towards each other. Banri his right hand, Kouko her left. Building into a sudden and strange excitement, they made a lot of noise, their extended hands unable to reach each other, no matter what...! That was how they were playing together.

"You're messing up my entrance! Ugyaa! Kaagaasaan! Yaanaasaan!"

"Ahahaha! Taadaa-kuuuun!"

The fingertip of his left hand trembling fearfully, it neared Kouko's extended fingertip, approaching through the dark night air. But of course, since it was all a joke,

"Such an act, Baan!"

Taking the charade to its end, with Banri as "Mitsuo", Kouko clapped her hands and let them fall. Kyaaa, Kouko's hands sketched a big arc as they came down. Flutter flutter flutter, plop, with a sad sound the rotten tree to her side fell. Kouko laughed for a little bit, then,

"...Eh, wasn't that awful just now?"

All of a sudden she looked at Banri seriously. It wasn't that bad, since it was all a joke, she shook her side from side to side.

"I was referring to the socks. You ought to put them on."

He prompted her with a jerk of his chin.

It looked like Kouko finally remembered about Banri's socks, which were still sitting in her lap. Bending over, she put them on. They could serve to protect her slipper-clad bare feet from getting dirty, at least. Seeing that, Banri nodded in approval.

Though outwardly Kouko seemed lonely, it was after all ninety-percent a pretense to "Get Yana!" Even hearing this from her, he wasn't upset. Was this because he expected such from her? Was it because "it doesn't matter", and he was suddenly rebellious? Was it because, following the "there's no sick child" formula, his "good man" circuit got switched on? Was it simply because with things being the way they were at the moment, his emotions were simply paralyzed? Or perhaps this was just another proof of Yanagisawa's theory that "For beautiful people, life is fun" --- was he being led around by the nose by the beautiful Kouko, and his heart was under her control?

Trying to think, Banri concluded a short while later that he simply didn't know.

Kouko had come back for him.

Despite it seeming unlikely that she was going to love anybody but Yanagisawa Mitsuo anytime soon, and Banri being only barely somebody that "could not be left behind", she had come back to get him.

Watching the miserable-seeming Banri while they were leaving, the other freshmen had no intention of criticizing him (since he had persuaded them to leave him there by himself), but finally she had raised her voice. She didn't doubt Mr. Two Dimension's friendship, but after all, as the driver he probably would not be able to return.

But, indeed Kouko, even if only as a friend Kaga Kouko, even if she couldn't remember his name, returned for the sake of Banri "He isn't Mitsuo", something he didn't even think she would do. He didn't think there were such people.

Since Kouko behaved that way, and with the "ten percent" just mentioned, it seemed that perhaps there just might be something inside her.

That something existed inside her he knew at least, just what use it would be, well it's all your fault, whatever, to Banri it didn't seem likely.

"...I wonder if ''Yana''-ssan knows Kaga-san's in that kind of state."

"What kind of state?"

"No, something like... It's because it seemed you're a little different when ''Yana''-ssan is around, versus when he is not."

A little to his dismay, he saw Kouko's eyes open wide. Or so he thought.

For Banri, the time Yanagisawa was with Kouko was when she gave him a surprise attack with a huge bouquet of roses. Beating the daylights out of Yanagisawa with roses in front of all the new students, throwing them at the guy and leaving. As if patting a pet, looking down from above, disregarding whatever complaint Yanagisawa might have had. Pursuing the escaped Yanagisawa, reproaching him for having escaped. If she somehow caught him, she would use up to live ammunition (it's a matter of money).

Saying "Whatever, it doesn't matter", while Banri seemed to be the only person waiting in Kouko's "ten percent." Saying, "I can't leave him behind in such a place", and returning, seemingly just for Banri. Even awkwardly trying to apologize, then even trying to horse around and laugh like an ordinary girl, maybe, just for Banri. ...Maybe.

Banri, because he saw that, today's Kouko, yesterday's Kouko--- the Kouko around Yanagisawa was a different person, he thought.

But Yanagisawa, if he had seen the same thing, he probably would have thought the "Now-Kouko" differently.

"If so, I think he'd be wrong."

She went quiet for a moment, as if thinking, then,

"In the time I was with Mitsuo, I was complete. You just might have that right."

Laughing a little, she looked at Banri, then averted her eyes. Raising her slim leg straight up, she looked at Banri's socks covering her toes. Seeing that sidelong look made her seem to him a girl he didn't know.

"Without Mitsuo, I am incomplete. Whether getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, eating my meals or going to school, dressing up nice, crying or laughing, it is all for Mitsuo. He is the whole purpose behind everything I do. If it weren't so, I wouldn't even try. Without him, life has no meaning. It was always that way for me. If he's not following behind me, there is nothing I can do. If Mitsuo's not there, I don't know what I should do. Even now, I want to get back safely, because Mitsuo is there. Am I thinking like a fool? It's OK, because I really am a fool."

But such love she had for herself, that continuing, Kouko looked up once more to Banri's eyes, straightened her back, and showed her perfect, beautiful smile. This once again, was the face of a girl he didn't know.

To such a person as this, well, whatever he said she wouldn't want to listen anyhow, so, covering up his feelings, Banri gave her a frank reply,

"...If that were the case, it would all be fine in spite of your having gotten ''Yana''-ssan mad. But there what with the roses, as far as his life is concerned, the completed person is very messed up. Far from being nice to him, wasn't it an attack? Why did you willingly do something to get yourself disliked?"

He said that for now. As for her internal ten percent --- his purpose was for her to know that he existed.

It seemed she heard him perfectly, judging by the stiffly displeased look on her lips in the dark.

"He... that wasn't good for Mitsuo."

"How so? It seems to me the perfect Kaga-san isn't so good, normally."

"But! But, you're wrong! I have my reasons! I exploded after four months of frustration! It's not like I planned for such a thing to happen! It was my intention to ride up in the taxi with the roses, congratulate him with a smile and hand over the roses! Just leaving behind the smell of roses... surprising Mitsuo... and then around campus, we'd say 'those roses mark the spot we got together...', that was an even more perfect scenario!"

"Was that what you thought meeting up with him would be like?"

"He would have said, 'That was a knockout blow: You had the courage to have pursued me to the same university!' "

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously! Really, that's was how it was supposed to be! But... well, the result was this. ...Mitsuo, was always telling me about 'doing the escalator'. I found out that was all a lie around the end of the year. Since then I always pretended to be deceived, so that it looked to him that I was doing the escalator too, faking it to the point of taking the same entrance exams."

"A disguise..."

"Wig and glasses. Suspecting a second entrance exam, I called up the examiner. So it was that day after day he kept on lying, and I could see it the whole time. Perhaps today he would tell me the truth. Perhaps tomorrow. 'Surely the day after tomorrow...', I persisted, but all the way to the end, graduation already done, Mitsuo wouldn't tell me the truth. I overlooked the lies. Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, idiotically walking with Tada-kun, looking as if he were having fun... 'What the heck!?' I couldn't stand it anymore."

How many seconds of silence passed? And then,

"Now, I am regretting it."

Kouko looked up into the night sky.

Starlight shining through a break in the trees fell on Kouko from above. She gave a deep sigh, together with a thin voiced "ah". Head hanging down, her hair again hung straight down.

"...Seems like it... From where I sit, it seems you are being disliked, right? Even at the entrance ceremony, it would have been better if you'd simply hugged him and given him a kiss. What you accomplished was different. ...Even so, to be ignored so completely and perfectly... was certainly not."

That's the way it was, really--- Banri looked back at the sad face whitely illuminated, quietly thinking.

Really, I think that's the way it is, Kaga-san. Better than hurting him like that with roses, nearly to the point of drawing blood, just showing that face--- that Kaga Kouko, even once, would be far better, he thought.

A million times, or ten million times, or even a trillion times better, he thought.

Banri had not known until now how somebody could be impatient with human clumsiness, even like this. Because of how the day was turning out, he knew the feeling for the first time.

"The only one who's supposed to do dumb things like that, in this world, ever, is me."

Perhaps too tired still to walk again, Kouko stiffly moved her legs while just barely cracking a smile.

"I don't think you're like that, though. You're just not the type of person to be able to do that right."

"Yep, it's absolutely just me. ...I am the most to blame in this, I did something dumb. What about you, Tada-kun? What about you? Is there somebody you like? Do you have a girlfriend?"

She was planting landmines under the night sky.

It was a rest-break with no more meaning than that, so more easily than ever Banri was able to open his mouth and chat with her.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don’t know for myself. Just that 'My memories were all blown away,' since that's speaking the truth."

Like a surprise attack, Kouko winked back at him.

"...What kind of speaking?"

"Speaking about loss of memory."

Banri pointed at his head with his finger. "Well...", while he began hesitantly to talk, that finger turning in circles.

"It was shortly after my high school graduation ceremony. Early in the morning, I was alone and it seems I fell from the bridge. Since then my memory has left me. Though I may feel like saying it, I can't just say '...So what?' It doesn't work to say that every time I talk. For the time being, could you simply understand? I can't be always saying things like 'I can't remember anything from childhood through high school', of course."

As he looked at Kouko, who had fallen completely silent, looking troubled, Banri thought "Well, she ought to be!" If somebody were to suddenly talk about losing their memory, you'd probably be confused too.

But normally, I would hope you would just be seeing the face of an ordinary nineteen year old boy.

"A marvelous thing, the word "remembering"--- an ordinary, normal thing in the Japanese language. Whatever year A.D. it be, whatever you call it, whatever you study, whatever you watch on television, whatever calendar a person or actor uses, it is understood. Even the teacher of moonlight, right? Even Ruu Ooshiba, right? I don't understand the problem with me. My particular memories don't exist. People I knew or were related to, who I liked, ...in short the things that gave me 'individuality'. It is certainly a strange tale. My family, my friends, and my self all stored in my memories, even after a year of rehabilitation, even after all I did, completely gone. What's more,"

Seeming unable to remember 'that' feeling, the self-conscious Banri picked his words carefully.

"Very slowly, my emotions returned. They seemed like something I missed... but if I chased after them, they fled away. For example, imagine a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Trying to read it, you would look at it, and automatically from your gaze a beam would burn up the sentence. It felt rather like that. The traces of memory were like a ghostly tail I could barely touch, and it seemed to be rapidly fading away. That was a rather scary feeling..."

After the accident always, if I didn't remember, if I didn't remember quickly, then it just faded away. Time passed, and I rapidly lost track of things. More than simply pointing out "You have certainly lost something", the feeling of losing something was always, always fresh.

"But as time passed, even those feelings disappeared, and I became resigned to it, saying 'What's the use?' But, it mattered nothing since I was unable to sense them anymore. Losing it was scary, though I couldn't really feel it since it was already 'gone'. Because of that, things got easier."

What was left to Banri now was just a memory of the fear of that time when everything was rapidly leaving him.

"Because of that, I had to study over again for the entrance exams, as if I'd had to start life over again."

"...Err..."

"Sorry, I was speaking nonsense."

"...Yes. No problem... It's just that,"

Kouko brought her hands to her chest. As she took a number of deep breaths, he saw that her hands moved together with her chest.

"...How you can say that's OK, I have no idea."

"But it is. Excuse me, really, but I'm not worried about it. Really now, since you're in good health. What's your blood type? What's your sign? You like soy sauce or paste? Memory loss? Mem riloss? That's about what I heard. If you have any questions, please let me know."

From Kouko's mumbling, it seemed she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, and didn't know what to say.

"...Err, well... weren't you just saying you wanted to get back...?"

"Yes, I must have been."

Since it was his long awaited chance to talk with her, he had wanted to be able to answer truthfully and honestly, Banri thought.

"Nonexistent things don't make sense to me. I'll say that first of all. As for myself, I have no choice but to speak from my own feelings. But, as for other people, I could understand them saying that they might want the original Tada Banri to return. In fact, it's about time he tried to return, I think. But in that regard, it gives me the feeling that adding memories to my current self is OK, even though it is replacing parts of my personality, so to speak, allowing the disappearance of my former self to be forgiven. From the start it looked impossible, and I've even been saying all along that there was nothing I could do, or even wanted to do."

"...Is that so?"

Her face serious as she listened to Banri's tale, Kouko lowered her eyes a little as if in thought.

"...That was a really strange story, wasn't it? What kind of guy was he, the vanished side of Tada Banri-kun? Perhaps he's watching over the current Tada-kun wherever he is... Kind of like a ghost in the background."

And, Kouko, seeming to notice something, suddenly turned around.

"What? What's going on? Is there a ghost behind Kaga-san?"

"...Something, just now, I saw a small flash of light... ah, ah, look!"

Kouko was pointing towards a thick grove of trees. She stared as the little light, certainly not a street light, swayed back and forth.

"You're right! Somebody's there! Let's go, let's call for help! Can you stand!?"

"Yep!"

Banri took Kouko by the hand, the two of them staggering while they frantically walked out on the muddy path. "Excuuse mee! Could you help uusss! We've had an accideennnt!", they raised their frantic voices.

On the other side of the trees, the shadowy figure held a nearly dead flashlight. Their voices still not noticed, anyway in a daze they continued advancing, having no choice. Sliding while supporting Kouko's hand, pushing through grass, clearing away branches, hurrying but not falling down.

A line of people, ...everyone with their bodies bent over a little, moving their hands and feet uncertainly. All of them. In the middle of the night on a mountain trail, while they shone the light on each other. What a strange atmosphere, he thought. It was about time.

"Ju, jujuju, just a second. Tada-kun, those are really strange people."

Kouko stopped walking. She looked at Banri.

"What I mean... aren't they those believers from earlier...!?"

If that were the case, then jumping would be a big mistake. A huge, fatal blunder. Trying to retreat, confused, they broke a branch, making a sound. Whereupon, no matter how much they kept from raising their voices,

"Is somebody there?"

A long straight beam of light turned towards them. With a surprised-sounding voice,

"...Banri!?"

They heard somebody's surprised shout. The light gave a big shake at the voice.

Exhausted, Kouko's strength gave out. Supporting her, pulling her along so they could escape, Banri eventually crumbled to his knees too. Standing up and running to escape hurriedly on foot, they vainly rejected the slimy damp earth. They were already at the limit of their strength. Even if everybody was a believer, there was nothing more they could do. However,

"It's me! Don't you understand!? Hey, it's me! Remember!"

Shouting while the person pointed the light at him, he suddenly raised both hands high, encompassing the whole place, shouting "Hey!" and striking a pose. That pose reminded him of something---

"...Eh!? Maybe, maybe, you..."

Even the disaster of the school entrance ceremony had laid land-mines for him!

"Barbara!?"

"It's me, Linda!"

<noinclude>
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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3

2013-11-02T06:19:10Z

Perfect Chaos:

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 3==
[[Image:Golden Time vol01 091.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.

It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri's side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cellphone, by the transmit light.

He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can't hear you well, hello hello, it's me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that's fine. I'll be staying one day at the club training camp. That's all."

In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.

"OK then, until next time I call!"

"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn't understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.

Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?

Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, ''Banri's cool!'', he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What's up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.

In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn't sit down. He wasn't about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.

Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cellphone. The train still hadn't arrived, and he hadn't received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.

My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.

''Wham'', at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri's face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.

Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-saan"

It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.

When she noticed Banri's hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren't any lectures on Saturday, and there weren't any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.

"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"

"Did the older girl show up?"

"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."

Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.

An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.

A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.

Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko's face.

Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl's College during yesterday's encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the 'All-Around Intercollegiate Club' to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.

From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.

Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly a crowded little place, but a good find, and then they'd been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought 'This is a café-au-lait bowl?', but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the
conversation.

Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Like getting all the language credits within the first year, you really ought to get a part time job, those that can get a girlfriend or boyfriend should be able to by the first year summer break, it's been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.

Regardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.

Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we'll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at twelve-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to ''do'' something.

So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn't he see that? A training facility in prefecture K. Weren't there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn't too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you're a freshman, of course there are no fees. It's OK, it's OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don't ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it's already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It's all right, by participating, that's how we'll do it. Deciding would be good, don't you think? Right?

It must have been the mood of the conversation.

He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other's expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally nodded as one.

That'd be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I'm tired... I want to go home... if we say we'll participate we'll be able to leave... Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn't say anything, but wasn't going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.

Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.

Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, 'let's go!' They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.

Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night's worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn't going on this outing.

"Hey, Tada-kun."

He didn't know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.

"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"

With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.

"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying 'Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member's training camp.'"

"...And Mitsuo?"

Pulling out his cellphone, it didn't seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You're kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.

Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri's face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.

"Don't worry about it. It's my problem."

"Yes, so it is."

Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko's eyes.

"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it's a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."

"Won't catch either, of course."

Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,

"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."

Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn't fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.

"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn't it, rather this is. When it comes to men, whenever they are being chased, they want to escape. And when they escape it makes everybody want to chase them again, it seems like... doesn't it? Won't the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? 'Wives and tatami mats and... tuna fish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?' ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn't understand..."

"That's OK. It's enough explanation for now."

"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"

Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.

"Mitsuoo! ...It's not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"

She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.

"And so, just look, you've got me instead! ...And it seems to me that ''Yana''-ssan wouldn't mind."

Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.

"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It's quite an accomplishment, seeing as Mitsuo does care where I'm going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."

"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I'd be going to the drinking party alone."

"I don't think you'd have been alone. ...Those guys, aren't they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman training camp with them."

Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,

"Ah! Isn't that Mr. Two Dimensions?"

"Eh? You're kidding. Tada Banri?"

His acquaintance didn't fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.

"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman training camp too?"

"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is ''Yana''-ssan a member too?"

"''Yana''-ssan isn't coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."

Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, Civil Law, I saw you, you were, are, Monday it was, second hour," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user's manual of a bootleg copy of ''Pachimon'', he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.

Kouko in her way,

"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"

She wasn't speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can't understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.

"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"

Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri's explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he'd shouted, "And that's why three-dimensions is bad! You're all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon spitting lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.

As she watched Mr. Two Dimension's face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.

But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.

It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ij%C5%ABin Ijuuin]-kun, or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lupin_III_characters#Daisuke_Jigen Jigen Daisuke]-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn't here."

Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn't anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to answer.

That, despite the fact that she didn't have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!

"But, from here on out, you won't be able to get away with that!", Banri declared in his mind to Kouko's smiling face. Neither Banri nor Mr. Two Dimensions were simply creatures that weren't Mitsuo, and over the next two days and one night together with Kouko, participating in the training camp, they should be able to become "friends" instead.

"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world's not all that bad a place."

Banri playfully tugged at the shirt sleeve of Mr. Two Dimensions, who was still mumbling, unable to look at Kouko's face.

"What's with you? Haven't you come back to three dimensions, it's a little late already, a little late."

"You're mistaken! Even in two dimensions, I've been wondering recently, it's something I've been thinking about! Even in two dimensions, I had thought I wanted to look for the ideal depiction, but of course, what I mean is, it was hard! But in the end, other people's creations were not 100% satisfactory, seems like! Why not just stop?"

"It's OK, it's OK, keep going."

"That so? Well then, especially of late, I've found myself getting deeply involved with a female character of my own creation. Creating the setting, drawing the pictures, coloring them, deciding the words she uses and how she says them, what her favorite food is, from the way we would date, becoming more and more intimate from one episode to another, becoming my ''perfect'' dream, ...hey, was it really OK to say this? Should I not have stopped?"

Kouko, who had been mumbling approving noises and nodding her head while ignoring what was being said, slowly stopped shaking her head. After a little while, it seemed the correct answer occurred to her, and with a 60W grin,

"A little more of that, and you'll be Mr. One Dimension!"

"What in the world are you saying, Kaga Kouko...", thought Banri.

A surprised snort escaped from one girl of a group of three standing not far from Banri's group. Little sports bags stuffed with rough-looking attire, denim and sneakers, they probably were going to the same freshman training camp as friends,

"Soorryy, this person, even if she looks like she does, can be really dumb at times."

Banri tried to point at Kouko as their smiling faces turned towards him. They seemed to be group of friends, all three of them smiling as one while nervously stepping up. Kouko herself said, "Eh, dumb? Who?", looking back at Banri's face, wondering.

"Hello, I'm Tada Banri, and with me Kaga-san and Mr. Two Dimensions. Are all of you going to the freshman training camp from here?"

At the sound of Banri's voice, they saw for the first time the faces of two more guys, who joined them with slightly nervous expressions. At Kouko's 'Mr. One Dimension' exclamation, the girls looked around at everybody smiling, and started their introductions at once.

A car-horn sounded, three modest beeps. Everybody turned towards the street.

"Yes yes yesss! Sorry for being late, the cars are here so all aboard!"

The upperclassman came out to them from the first car parked by the side of the road.

Which reminded Banri that he had in fact failed to get her name--- which thing, of course, it was a little late to talk about now.

The club upperclassmen, together with some other freshman students, got into several rented station wagons.

An upperclassman handed a blank form to Banri, who was confused over which car to get into.

"Could all of you write their name, address and telephone number here? And if they are living away from home, then their parents' addresses too. This will be part of our insurance documents. It's because of our liability if anything happens at the training camp. Do it neatly, leaving out nothing. Everybody else is done writing their information. Yes, because you're Tada-kun, OK? This column, OK? I mean, even though this parking lot is rather noisy, and it's bad to be in such a hurry? Sorry about that, yes, hurry up, but read it carefully, it's just in case anything happens, OK?"

Insurance. Parking lot. Not fully understanding but unwilling to go against the social pressure, Banri the fool wrote down their personal information in a rush, but honestly. Passing the pen and the register to Kouko, she gracefully wrote down her name and address too, and passed it on to Mr. Two Dimensions.

And then, all the freshmen having signed the list, the upperclassman took her own bag and,

"Yes, thanks! You and you to the first car, OK? You over there. You that way. You and you get on that car at the end of the line. And now, you and you,"

Banri nudged Kouko's elbow and grinned.

"You're with me in that car, let's hurry up and get in!"

He opened the station wagon's door and they were greeted at once by a clear voice, saying "Hi there!". While Banri and Kouko returned the greeting, they sat down side by side in the middle.

"Okay, all the freshmen will be by the windows!"

The upperclassmen were rearranged, and everybody was able to be seated. An upperclassman got into the car right next to Banri.

"Today's weather turned out good, eh?"

With a smile, she sat down as if the spot belonged to her by right. In the front seat, the cool-looking guy next to Kouko said, "Nice to meet you, I'm a third-year from **** college."

All the freshmen that had been gathered from all the colleges were sitting separately by the windows. All of them, with nervous faces not speaking out. Banri and Kouko were in the same boat. For some reason the other seats were occupied by clear-voiced, smiling, laughing upperclassmen. It was somehow strangely uncomfortable, uncomfortable for sure, but they couldn't argue about it. The seating was arranged.

"Drinks and such are prepared if you'd like!"

"Ah, yes..."

Hanging from the neck of the smiling upperclassman to his side, a necklace with a snowflake design glittered. If he remembered correctly, she was wearing it yesterday too. It was probably her favorite. Casually looking over at the other upperclassman, just above his shirtcollar, Banri noticed he was wearing the same necklace. He wondered if they were really close, or if it was a uniform.

"Is everybody's seat belt on? Nobody needs the bathroom? Cause once we get on the freeway we have no plans to stop!"

The upperclassman in the driver's seat looked back. At his neck too, the same necklace. This guy having one on, even if it was so many close friends matching up, of course it seemed quite strange. Well of course! Does everybody in this club have to wear one? Banri discretely looked towards the necks of the other upperclassman in the vehicle.

"Why are you looking around like that?"

Suddenly asking the upperclassman with a straight face, "Isn't it strange that everybody's wearing matching necklaces? Just curious...", didn't get him an answer. She said, "It's nothing", giving Banri a vague deceptive smile, the station wagons lining up to leave. From where Banri sat, all he could see of Kouko was the billowing hair on the top of her head.

Inside the vehicle pop music was playing continuously and loudly, the upperclassmen singing in a sort of high-tension karaoke--- the first-years silent, strangely nervous still--- with things staying like that throughout the drive, which took about two hours.

Banri, once more attacked by uneasiness, was wondering if they shouldn't ought be getting off the freeway already when the time arrived.

The line of rental cars was passing in front of the university's seminar house. Following a road through the forest, a sign with the name of the college that Banri was attending was standing there, but they ignored it. What's more, the line of station wagons continued onwards into the mountains. Were they taking the wrong road, or perhaps, did the seminar house the upperclassman was talking about belong to another college?

That's what it looked like. None of the other freshmen at the windows, not even Kouko, noticed. Nobody said anything. While watching the sign get further away the other side of the window, should I keep quiet? Perhaps we're really going the wrong way, and if so what should we do? He couldn't decide whether they should turn around at that moment.

He noticed that the upperclassman gave him a sharp glance when he looked at the sign through the window. With the loud music flowing through the inside of the car, they had stared at each other for all of three seconds. As it was, realizing that the strange silence was dragging on, he boldly decided to ask her.

"Welll... didn't we just pass the seminar house?"

"Eh? What?"

Putting her hand to her ear, she indicated that she hadn't heard him.

"Just now, the seminar house, didn't we pass it!?"

He spoke louder and clearer this time, moving his mouth closer to her ear to overcome the music. The smell of her hair went up his nose, strangely unnatural and strong.

"What, what!? Eh, I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! I mean, stop it already, this is embarrassing! Cut it out!"

While smiling, she firmly pushed Banri back, putting her weight into it. And then suddenly, she said, "What's with me? Am I getting a little sleepy already?", and put her head on Banri's shoulder. Her upturned eyes at point blank range, lips coming together in a slight pout.

When he couldn't react, she casually placed her hand on his knee. The palm of her hand, slowly but steadily warming up, inched around as if to fondle him. While drawing circles, it came creeping towards his thigh. While so doing, she gazed moistly at Banri's eyes. She said, "Are you happy? Did I make your heart race? Did I make you hope?", while she gave him a look full of self-confidence.

But, distinctly scary. Her soft chest pushing against his elbow, Banri pulled away from her as softly as he could. A boy with a girl close by, whatever the situation might be, would be happy. That she even thought that way was scary, but more importantly, what if what she was doing up to this point wasn't a trick? That by itself was frightening.

But those innermost thoughts of Banri's became irrelevant as the line of cars slowed down, left the trees and turned from the beautifully paved private road and then entered what was apparently a driveway. To the left and right, high concrete walls were built, forming a C-curve in front, attached to the roof all the way down to the driveway.

Where they had arrived wasn't particularly big, but judging by the brickwork, it was evidently a pretty nice facility, two buildings set side by side.

Urged by the upperclassmen, they got down out of the cars. The older girl tried to join hands with Banri, reaching out for him, but Banri pretended not to notice, calling out "Kaga-saan!" and trotting, chasing after Kouko, who had walked ahead, in order to escape from the her. As soon as Kouko saw Banri's face, she stopped walking and they stood side by side, and in a whisper,

"Ah, I was able to talk to somebody I barely knew. The upperclassman next to me, he just kept talking to me the whole time... It wasn't boring, but I became somewhat worn out... How was it for you?"

"As for me..."

He'd touched somebody that way in public. No, rather, he had been touched that way in public. But he couldn't talk about that, not with Kouko.

"...Same here. I'm a bit tired too."

Banri also answered quietly. Before he realized it, a crowd of freshmen had formed. The upperclassmen surrounded them, pushing the freshmen towards an opening, keeping up with them as they walked into the facility. They had no choice but to walk together in a line.

Marble used all over the place, even the entrance polished to a wonderful sheen, here and there decorated with big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaenopsis moth orchids], it really seemed more like a hotel, or an art museum. Pulling her carryall while going inside, to Kouko it seemed strange to have so much room.

"By the way, are we sure this place is really the college's seminar house? Would they have something as nice as this while their school buildings are falling apart?"

"...I don't think so..."

"Eh?"

Once all the freshmen had entered, a strange high sound arose and the entrance door closed. Shortly, in that darkened lobby, the lights were turned on.

In the center there glittered a huge piece of artwork, shaped like a snowflake.

On the pedestal a gold plate was affixed, inscribed with 'The Shape of God in our Times'. That god would be incarnated a million years from now! ---In other words, for the next five hours until they locked their rooms, Banri knew they would be subjected to a lecture.

<center>* * *</center>

Of course, he wanted to flee.

In short, they had been placed under house arrest by a new religion disguised as a club. But he couldn't talk with his fellow freshmen, as they were under a constant guard. They struck anybody who even looked like he was talking! It was such a low class thing to do, and some freshmen opened their mouths in protest, but the older students separated anybody who did so. For the moment the uneasy freshmen trying to gather together were kept apart, gently perhaps, but physically separated. Talk amongst the freshmen was not permitted; that was the message clearly being sent.

Before the lecture, everybody's bags were collected, tossed into a single room and locked up. At that point, strangely enough, they were permitted to get out their cellphones, but, whether it was from being in the middle of the mountains, or it was on purpose, Banri's cellphone wasn't the only one with no signal. There was not a phone in sight, so getting in contact with the outside was going to be difficult.

Dinnertime was completely silent, a sort of prayer ritual. Even a funeral would have been more exciting.

On little tables arranged in a semicircle there were placed glasses of cold beer and various kinds of soft drinks. As far as that went, this was an ordinary club training camp, quite so, no, perhaps of a rather extravagant type, but the freshmen were scattered about, kept apart, and everyone who understood the situation was keeping ominously quiet about it.

Banri was seated at the end of the semicircle. Next to him was the older girl. Kouko, from one of the center seats, looked vaguely down at the tables, her white face still blank. Occasionally, she would glance quickly at Banri, each of them seeing in this situation "Danger...!", both of them recognizing it, but neither of them able to do anything about it. Mr. Two Dimensions, too, on the other side could be seen with his head bowed.

Really and truly, it had become something dangerous.

"Now then everyone, let's get moving! Everybody, take your glasses!"

The hot upperclassman seated next to Kouko stood up and raised his voice for no apparent reason. Even some of the other upperclassmen whistled and booed at the sudden, unnaturally forced enthusiasm.

"Well then! Congratulations for the newly created children, tonight's excellent full moon, and another gathering recorded for the next 10,000 years! Ready, cheers! Hello new children!"

"Hello!", the upperclassmen said, raising their glasses.

Banri and the other freshmen, all of them, were looking down at their knees, petrified. The tops of their heads could be seen lined up around the semicircle.

Almost as if he were praying silently, "What should I do?", an over-familiar touch at his shoulder,

"What's wrong, new children! Loook, at long last the day of your awakening is here! Let's have a little more enthusiasm!"

With a smile as wide as her face, she raised her glass. Banri's head going numb to the core, he was unable to answer anything more, and he stared at the golden liquid which filled the glass. He remembered something strange. The day of the entrance ceremony, at the convenience store, when he met Yanagisawa at the mirror, they'd toasted with ice-bars. At that time, they were completely mismatched though somehow it was really fun. In the few days since then, they'd come surprisingly far. He could hardly wait for those peaceful times to return.

As it was, Banri was already thinking about how they couldn't keep them there too many days. Come Monday there would be school, a few freshmen vanishing would become a big deal, maybe even a matter for the police.

So anyway for this one night and two days, perhaps he could have the patience to let it pass by. Quickly getting drunk, quickly getting smashed, just sleeping through it all, morning would come soon enough.

"..."

As if.

Anyway, if he quietly kept his patience until tomorrow in this weird place--- glass full of beer in her hand, she looked at Banri,

"Yes, yes! It was really fun winning! Yes, one round, cheeeers!"

"Ch, cheers..."

Giving another glad smile, she gulped down the delicious looking beer.

Kouko was looking his way with a startled look on her face. She was putting the chilled glass to her mouth, since she couldn't avoid doing so, but she looked back at Banri, her feelings exposed.

But--- was that so?

If he were to think about it, he was responsible for the fact that she had been brought here.

He'd answered the upperclassman, saying, "Let's go together!", he told himself. Nonetheless, Kouko was confused.

Besides, it would have been better to have chatted some more back at the coffee shop. Caught as they were, if he thought about it now, it was suspicious. Wasn't it written in plain sight? This time for sure, he had to be on guard about the strange upperclassman who stuck too close for comfort. Even so, his nervousness at finding himself together with Kouko, his hopes of being able to be friends with her, everything combined to blind his radar.

Since they'd decided to come and participate in the training camp, he'd been dumb. Exhausted, unable to think and with his judgement lost, if he so much as nodded it would be over, and... swept away, to such a state he'd been brought. And now, he was regretting it to death.

Banri considered not swallowing the beer touching his mouth.

Of course, he couldn't.

Already, he wouldn't do things like that.

If he had been patient enough while they'd been speaking of such things, maybe they wouldn't have gone so far. From the beginning, the purpose of isolating the training camp, wearing out its participants, making them give up, stopping their thought processes, appeared to be a trap.

And then... no, no way, they can't just brainwash me when I don't understand what they're teaching, he thought. Still, Banri looked sidelong at the upperclassman next to him. He started drinking the delicious beer, eating their cooking and talking with the other upperclassmen.

Actually, surrounded by unusually good looking and healthy seeming guys and gals, the danger hadn't really sunk in.

If he didn't want to become like them, if he even wanted to live in ordinary reality, he needed to escape from here. Absolutely. Banri spit out the beer he held in his mouth into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshibori damp towel] provided on his table.

But, he was worried about that roster he'd signed, where they'd hurried him to write down his personal information. Kouko, himself and all the rest too, they had been perhaps too foolishly honest when they'd written down their addresses and contact information. Wasn't that what all the persistent nagging was all about?

He absolutely, absolutely couldn't give Mom and Dad back home anything more to worry about.

That roster had been placed in the upperclassman's own duffle. And then together with the freshmen's luggage, now, it was locked up in a room.

What should I do?

"...This is no fun! We can't do anything like this!"

Suddenly, crash! At the sudden, high, echoing sound, Banri lifted his face. Mr. Two Dimensions had thrown his glass to the floor.

"What's this about 10,000 years in the future! Giving thanks to a crystal master! How messed up can you be, believing in a three-dimensional thing like that!? You've been tricking us from the start, calling this an 'all around club'! I mean, isn't this imprisonment!? Isn't that a crime!? Do you even think anybody could keep quiet about people doing such things!?"

Decisively stated by Mr. Two Dimensions, the other freshmen stood up too.

"Let's go out to the cars now! I don't want to stay in this place any longer!"

"I'm going to sue them!"

Not knowing yet what he should do, Banri stood anyway. At that moment, in the fragments of glass scattered about broken on the floor, for just an instant, just how many broken reflections of himself were there to be seen?

Aspects of himself could be seen in all of them.

A worn out face. A scared face. An angry face. A face trying hard. A face ready to cry. So many variations of his face. And then suddenly a look that seemed to ask, "What are you going to do, Tada Banri?" At such a time as this, Tada Banri, what should a guy be doing?

Tada Banri ---

"Everybody, such an outburst wasn't called for. Just calm down for now."

--- realized he ought to do something.

The upperclassmen, seated in a row, showed no surprise. They were all watching Mr. Two Dimensions' composed smile, Banri's raised voice and the state of the other freshmen. It had all been arranged for, even this situation. This 'facility in the mountains' was their place of power, and what with the talk of their planning to make an offering, Banri was rather scared. But he couldn't do more than that, since nothing had been decided. He had no other choice for now.

Himself, he would do something unexpected.

"Anybody who wants to go home, that's fine if they do."

While he was talking, his body was trembling. Hiding it, he continued, "But I don't want to go back."

"What are you saying, Tada Banri!?"

Mr. Two Dimensions looked at Banri's face as if in shock. Kouko did too. Eyes opened wide, standing up. At the same time the table shook, tipping the glasses over. Shaking off their glances, Banri suddenly raised his voice.

"I mean, frankly, that where until things were so tense, now you're talking about it being boring! Just what is it you can't spit out? You speak of crime, but, even though recently you were still underage, you were drinking! Drinking underage at the Tea Ceremony is a crime, but you didn't speak of that! Seems the same to me. If you could let things like that slide, then maybe you can have fun here! It's convenient to ignore it, say it's not a crime, but isn't that really selfish? Such a bothersome guy you are, even entering here you are such an annoyance!"

Mr. Two Dimensions tried to interrupt, but he was prevented by a loud voice.

"Anyhow I want to have some fun here! Speaking of such boring things is tiresome, it's annoying! Sirs, these guys are clearly a bother! Since they want to go home, can't they just leave? Kick out these bothersome ones, and then let's get to the drinking party! I came here to have some real fun!"

He took revenge for her public assault on him.

Grabbing the older girl's hand, he shook back and forth like a little kid. But, his opponent being a master of the same techniques, she looked back at Banri, her eyes wary.

"...Do you really want to stay here? Even if everybody else returned? That so, eh? But, why would you?"

"I was quite impressed by the lecture I heard."

The last words shook, but that probably made it seem more truthful.

"In perfect seriousness, I would like to hear what the other upperclassmen here have to say. What I mean, really,"

He ordered his knees to stop shaking.

"Actually, I was seriously injured in high school, and all my memories were blown away. I've suffered amnesia, so to speak. I have suffered much from that. When I woke up, I suddenly knew nobody else in all the world. Not parents, nor friends, nor acquaintances nor anybody else. It was really lonely. But now... with the lecture about this new world to come, at last it looked like I may be saved. Though it sounds like it may be a lie, this, isn't something you made up. If here and now, there were a police investigation, or a hospitalization, I wouldn't receive an explanation nor would there be a meeting. In truth why"

Through his hair, the older girl could see the ugly scar still present on his scalp. The marks from surgery spread down to the neck of his T-shirt, running down even to his shoulders. He wondered if he ought to pull down his blue-jeans to show them the long stitch-scars running down his thighs to the knees.

"...That's enough. Forgive us for being suspicious, new children. ...That hurt, didn't it...!"

This is powerfully persuasive. What's going on here?

Looking at the point of tears, the older girl was looking at Banri sympathetically. She believed what he was saying just now.

"But you're all right now! You've cheered up, haven't you? Since you've cheered up, the time of your salvation has come, now! Right, everybody! From this it's been made clear, don't you think! The new children should be awakened, and the Crystal Lord will grant them their test, to see if they cannot be awakened! Going so far beyond, isn't it a beautiful thing? This time around, those who are only half-hearted kids will be able to go home. Only the real Children ought to have time close to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

They exchanged glances, those upperclassmen--- or you might say, the believers, that seemed to be the right word.

They spoke quickly, now it had been decided. The luggage that had been stored was taken out at once, and all the freshmen and some of the believers left the dining room. Banri saw that the keys to the luggage room were in the hands of a one guy.

Opened with the key, the freshmen went inside to pick up their luggage. A guy stuck to Banri's side, mouth shut, trying to look thoroughly scary, keeping an eye on him sidelong.

But Mr. Two Dimensions was different.

"Let's just go back! Tada Banri! Go back with the rest of us! A place like this is always trouble! You can take your time listening to their talk later, but for now let's go back!"

Thanking him in his mind, Banri outwardly ignored him. He called out to the guy with the key.

"Ma'am, isn't drunken driving dangerous? If there were an accident it'd be a problem, for sure. It seems to me that it'd be better if the guy who's going to drive didn't drink."

"That too is true. Is there anybody that has a driver's license?"

At the sound of the guy's voice some of the freshmen raised their hands. Mr. Two Dimensions was one of them. Casually, Banri called out to the guy's back, "Ah, I'll go get the key", intending to grab the key to the room. But,

"We've only just called you, but after you've been verified it'll be OK. You there, you've not had even one drop to drink?"

The key was quite firmly in the guy's grip. He let out an involuntary click of the tongue.

The guy locked up the luggage room and swung around. He thought better of calling after the guy with the keys to come back at that point. It couldn't be helped. There would be other opportunities to do something.

It looked like they'd decided that Mr. Two Dimensions and another freshman would be driving. Mr. Two Dimensions looked back towards Banri over and over again while going towards the entrance. It's OK, leave me behind, you're as confused as anybody else. Banri gave him a slight shake of the head.

Like that, all the freshmen left the facility. Amongst them of course, there went Kouko pulling her carry-all. Soon, the sound of the wheels rolling faded away, leaving Banri behind by himself.

Everybody had left. Amongst believers in a strange god, he was completely alone.

He was feeling scared to death. But, that was fine, he thought. At the least, he was able to get Kouko, whom he had brought here, back out to the ordinary peaceful world. Later, he would decide just what to do.

But, at that moment came to his ears a sound he could hardly believe. Banri reflexively cleared his ears. He had thought he might be hearing things, but apparently it was real.

The rolling sound that should have been gone, and had indeed left, was once more coming towards him.

Then, the entrance door opened.

Suddenly coming into view,

"Of course, I stayed behind too. The last lecture left me with a strong impression."

"...Kaga, san...!?"

"Hello, new children!"

With a self-satisfied expression on her face, Kaga Kouko.

Whether I like it or not, you, what are you saying--- really, what are you doing!? What the heck are you saying!? Precisely what are you doing!? Why have you returned!? What's with this person!? Can she really be an idiot!? Banri would have shouted, but he had no voice.

Banri was completely dumbfounded, looking at Kouko's form in amazement, his mouth hanging open. Kouko was standing next to Banri, meeting all the believers halfway, her face composed, both her long hands precisely positioned before her slim body, her head tilted a little to the side. And then,

"In spite of being beautiful, I am not popular. Because of that, I have already abandoned this century. I am longing for the new century!"

Strangely persuasive, she smiled with perfect grace.

The freshmen gone and Banri and Kouko left behind, the strange party atmosphere returned to the dining hall. Nearly an hour had passed.

All the believers themselves good and drunk, the opportunity to talk with Kouko had finally arrived.

He pointed over at Kouko's carry-all, still set in the corner of the dining hall. Since it needed to be put in the luggage room, it should be easy to get the guy to hand him the key.

"Kaga-san, let's go put away your luggage."

Grabbing the handle of the carry-all, winking back when he called her, Kouko stood up at once. Banri had a hunch that if the older girl had been looking towards them at all, it would have been very conspicuous. Unnoticed, he left the dining hall with Kouko.

While walking quickly down the corridor, Kouko started to call out to him, but Banri held a finger up before his mouth in a sign for her to be quiet. Still quiet, he took Kouko by the arm, looked all around to make sure nobody was nearby, and brought her over by the men's bathroom. Kouko was now at the mercy of his intentions, whatever they were. They quietly stuffed themselves into a stall and locked it. Up to this point, he'd been acting rather like a confirmed molester, but,

"...Aaa...!"

The first thing that escaped was a groan neither breathing nor sigh. In the narrow space, Banri's body was twisted like a music conductor, his right hand raised overhead and scratching his forehead roughly. "What are you doing, what are you doing, why, why, why, what's with youuu...!?", he shouted in a whisper while stamping the ground in frustration.

"Kaga-san, what were you doing!? Why didn't you go back with everybody else!?"

Really, come to your senses! He wanted to slap her on the cheek, grab her by the neck of her pretty one-piece dress and shake her back and forth. Failing that, he could punch the wall, or maybe hit himself on the forehead. Since he couldn't do either, the upper half of Banri's body was twisted up like a grilled squid.

"Do you really want to join up with those guys!?"

He pointed his finger at Kouko's pretty face.

"That, was my line."

A gentle whack, and that fingertip was shot down.

Carefully lifting the hem of her skirt so it wouldn't touch the edge of the toilet, so close together in the narrow stall their knees overlapped, Kouko looked intensely back at Banri. The black pupils of her eyes were turned up like crescent moons.

"Tada-kun, all that stuff you said about rescue and such, was that true?"

"I...have...no...i...de...a...!"

He didn't say any more, at his wit's end, writing in agony while she smiled at him. In spite of his success in getting everybody sent back, how, why, and more importantly for what reason, had she come back?

"Oh... whatever, that's good... Tada-kun, I was wondering if you would really become a believer."

"But I was thinking it was time for you to go back!"

"But, it sounded sincere."

"It was for your sake... something, very real feeling... I mean, Kaga-san, why did you really come back? All that effort was so everybody could go home!"

"Because, I couldn't just leave you behind. Thinking of how you had followed them into thinking you were seriously planning on staying here, what would I do? I would feel responsible if you'd done such a thing, and would never be able to leave it behind!, so to speak. By all means, Tada-kun ought to be able to go back too, was my thought. Why was Tada-kun going to be left by himself, behind?"

"I didn't think they would let people go back just because they said they wanted to return! I pretended to believe, thinking that if everybody else made enough noise begging to return, they would let them go! Besides, there was all sorts of stuff written in that roster... addresses, contact information and so on. I thought that perhaps being left behind, I might somehow or other clean up things. I can't imagine how much trouble we'd have if that information got out."

Looking up at Banri's face, somewhat taken aback, Kouko in that moment placed her fingertip under her pretty rose-colored lips.

"...For sure. I had written down my parents' address in full."

"I saw the upperclassman girl stick it in her bag. There hasn't been time to make copies, now if we could get it out of there... that could be difficult."

With a jingle, the key to the luggage room could be seen in Kouko's hand.

"Thanks to Kaga-san having returned so miraculously, we go to Plan B. Seems like we may be able to set it in motion."

Kouko's eyes glittered like stars. In reality, it was just the reflected light from the restroom.

"Tada-kun..., ...good job."

Her eyes shining, Kouko applauded Banri with just her fingertips.

"Shall we do this together?"

"Of course."

"Let's both return absolutely quietly."

"Naturally!"

Nodding to each other, they took her carry-all and left the restroom.

They went down the corridor and opened the door to the luggage room with the key. They both went inside. Turning on the light, they searched through the upperclassmen bags, which had been lined up along the wall. Was it beige, ...no, was it brown? And so, he looked for anything like a girl's overnight bag in the hill in front of them, when suddenly at the confused Banri's side,

"Her bag was Coach. The Signature, last year's model, the keyholder had a marguerite..."

Kouko, her fingertip like a gun barrel, zeroed in right away on a single bag.

"It's that one."

What a capable helper! It seemed they would be able to easily clear this mission. Banri and Kouko jumped to pull out the upperclassman's bag, and fish through the contents.

They soon found the roster stuck in a file. Two sheets of A5 paper. Taking it quickly to tear it up, Banri was lost for a moment as to what to do with it. Could he hide it in his pants and take it back with him? Should he shred it up fine and flush it down the toilet?

From the arrangement of the things in the luggage room, it was probably a smoking lounge. On a low table somebody's lighter, and in an ashtray some cigarette buts had been left behind. He was casually looking over those things when suddenly,

"You there, what the heck--- huh!?"

The door opened, the forgotten key still in the lock. Glimpsing the white face of the upperclassmen girl, Banri and Kouko both jumped about an inch of the floor. Their bodies reacted even quicker than their thoughts.

"What's going on!? What about the roster... wa, wait!"

Banri fairly flew at the door, attacking it, forcing the door shut against the rest of the upperclassmen and locking it. The others banged on the door with terrific force. "What do you call this!?" "Open up!" "This traitor!" "Wait, somebody's coming!" The upperclassmen's loud voices echoed. The hand holding the door was shaking, and he realized that sweat was pouring from every pore of his body,

"Waah, wh wh wh, what am I going to do...!? This is bad bad bad...!"

Banri's face was now completely white. Should he kneel before them? Offer them money? Persuade them with tears? Such things, up to surrender, were starting to pass through his head, while on the other hand Kouko,

"Tada-kun, the roster."

With a strangely serious face, she held out her hand towards him without hesitation. He threw the tightly folded roster towards that hand. ''Smack'', she caught it magnificently,

"Hold the door steady!"

Even in that moment, she was seating herself regally on a cushion. Then, without hesitation, she tore the roster up in pieces, put the pieces in an ashtray and quickly set it on fire with the lighter. Just like that, a little flame arose, and in a couple of seconds their worries about the roster turned to ashes. Finally, pouring some water that had been left behind in a cup over the embers put it out completely. Banri was amazed at how neatly it was done, at least on this occasion. How should he say it? To her enemies, she wasn't the type you'd want to turn your back on.

Kouko immediately opened up her carry-all, pulled out her wallet, cell phone and key-case, and stuffed it all in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Tada-kun, any valuables?"

"Ne, never carry any!"

The pounding on the door continued. An ominous creaking sound was coming from around the door knob. They could hear the sound of a large number of people running up the corridor. Banri's valuables were his cell phone, wallet and the key to his place. Those he put in his jean's pocket, tied up in a leather strap that ''Yana''-ssan had chosen for him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Kouenji].

"Can we leave the rest of the baggage?"

"Yes!"

They nodded to each other. From the other side of the door a key--- the master key, probably, the sound of it being inserted could be heard at the same time. The door opened. Angry voices echoed.

He feverishly grabbed Kouko's hand and rushed towards the window. This room was on the first floor, but,

"..."

He quickly ran to the window to look through it, it wasn't all that high, but still every cell in his body trembled in fear. His body didn't remember the terror it once had tasted. But if they remained here, things were going to get scarier still. Not just for himself, but for Kouko too. Suppressing their fears with reason, closing their eyes they abandoned themselves to the pull of gravity. Still holding Kouko's hand, they clumsily fell down together. Once they got back on their feet, they realized just how bad the slippers they had put on were, but they couldn't do anything about it.

While hearing loud cries of "They're escaping through the window!" from the mob behind them, Banri and Kouko ran out into the deep dark of the forest night.

<center>* * *</center>

Perhaps they had been a bit too reckless in the moment of their escape.

"Why... can't I get a signal...?"

"I can't get one either..."

After all of two hours had passed, both Banri and Kouko were becoming aware that they had new problems.

Their reward for escaping from the suspicious new religion, quite simply said, was to be stranded--- the path they were walking down right now, it might really be a road, or maybe just a game trail, even that much they did not know. Without map, flashlight nor even shoes, having only determination, they depended on what little light came through between the trees to continue on.

Naturally, it was dark, at night with all kinds of trees growing thickly over the mountain trail, and underfoot it was awfully wet. Sliding in the slippery mud, many times the protruding rocks kept them from their way. Fearing pursuit, they stayed away from the brighter lit roads, Banri choosing to follow the trackless paths of the forest.

Beyond the trees shone a line of lights, they had to be street lights. Those lights were a simple guide to get down the slope, but right now he wasn't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do. Since they led upwards into the mountains, he thought it would be better to go down, and did so. The line of streetlights seemed far away, and a difficult climb... he had a hunch about it.

Before long, they came to a sudden slope they couldn't cross in their awful slipper-shoes, so for the time being they started walking along the flat winding edge of a cliff, but in the end, they reached the end of their endurance.

Sitting down wherever they could on some fallen tree,

"I thought we'd come a good ways down..."

"For sure. Why haven't we reached the bottom..."

Phew..., hah..., together they let out a long sigh.

Seeing that as usual the screen showed no signs of a signal, Banri put his cellphone in his pocket.

It was already past 10 o'clock at night. It was late for local hunters to be passing by, and it was too early for the morning to break.

He thought about what he would do if only the cellphone were usable. He was thinking that if he could get in contact with Mr. Two Dimensions, or his home, or perhaps the police, he could tell them what was going on. And yet how, they were out of range. 'Build a bigger antenna!', but in such a place as this he couldn't do anything but curse the telephone company.

All their strength gone, it was as quiet as if they were falling to the ground. Falling and tumbling next, our anxieties, fears, despair... no, we can't. Banri lifted his face.

Still, it was 10 o'clock. It was too early to give up and fall into depression. Showing an unreasonably cheerful face, he took off his open-necked UNIQLO shirt and put it on Kouko's shoulders, which had only a cardigan over a thin dress. Though it was already covered with mud,

"Put these on?"

He tried to take off his socks and hand them over. It would have been good if he'd noticed a little sooner. Her feet were definitely bare. However, but she didn't put them on, nor return them, she gazed at him, in the same pose as when she received them.

Her messed up hair clinging to her cheeks, she wasn't bothering now to cover things up with a smile,

"Tada-kun"

Somewhat in a daze, Kouko turned an empty face towards Banri.

"What what what, it's OK! We'll manage somehow soon. A little rest and then we try some more!"

"I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'..."

He had been apologized to.

And what timing, Kouko's bangs, which were up, suddenly with a thud fell down, covering half her face.

"...Teacher of moonlight..."

Her laughter had returned.

Kouko was quiet for a bit, jerkily combing up her drooping bangs. Accustomed to doing it by hand without a mirror, from her mussy hair she quickly pulled out a pin and stuck it in her mouth, then using both hands as combs she skillfully fixed up her hair, and finished it off with the pin she'd taken out earlier. The messed up hair was fixed for the time being, and she'd returned to being like Kaga Kouko again, a bit. Then,

"It's my fault that things turned out this way."

Looking away from herself again, she looked straight at Banri once more. Being prettily put back in order, indeed with a serious frown, "I'm sorry", she repeated once again. Even in this moment, her large eyes were flashing darkly.

"...That's not right. 'It wasn't Kaga-san's fault', saying such things."

Without caring about how Banri was squirming,

"It was my fault! In the first place, I had the leaflets from that strange club, and they called me too. You thought that I was such a poor thing, going alone, so it was just to keep me company."

"...But I wasn't thinking it was your fault."

"That's wrong!"

"I thought it would be good if Kaga-san could make some friends in that club. Therefore, in spite of the strange feeling they gave me, I stopped worrying about it, it's OK, let's go, you're bothering Kaga-san. Therefore, it's my responsibility, of course."

"That's not right, that's wrong. ...You're just wrong!"

Shaking her head, frantically looking anywhere else, Kouko held on tightly to Banri's socks, with their unknown state of cleanliness.

"Really, it isn't your fault. ...I approached you and got close to you, thinking to trick you into giving me information about Mitsuo. From the start, which club didn't matter. Saying 'I haven't been invited to anything' was true. All the college students were already ignoring me, really. I was even aware of the gossip. But I didn't pay any attention. Yesterday, saying 'nobody calls out for me', forcing myself to look dejected, saying so, ...that was all just to draw out your sympathy."

"That so? Of course, it was all about ''Yana''-ssan."

"Yes, about Yanao.... all mixed up. Mitsuo's"

Breathing out a bit, Kouko cast her eyes down uncomfortably and looked down at her own feet. Mud was all over her bare feet and slippers.

"It was all for the sake of Mitsuo."

The voice that followed was like a monologue, echoing in the silence,

"...Well, ninety percent."

Kouko raised her face once more.

She looked into Banri's eyes. Still holding the dirty socks tightly, speaking as somebody who made a mistake, her lips twisted in irony.

"The remaining ten percent... even I don't understand."

Tired of talking after that, her next breath was a like a gasp. Her gaze trembled.

"...Understanding, from this spring arrived until yesterday, that there was only one person who bothered to speak with me. Only Tada-kun. Tada-kun called out to me, though it was news about how Mitsuo being excessively defiant... but, even though I found it hard to understand... you talked to me, ...and I was happy for that. That too is true."

"If so, then of course trying to call out to you was good."

Kouko held her tongue, looking at Banri's eyes while shaking her head softly. Not understanding that gesture very well,

"The result has been problems, though."

She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't. Kouko smiled a little, but the conversation did not continue.

The two stayed silent for a little while, gazing at each other's feet. Today having been spring, the temperate had been good and warm. Though it was chilly now, there was no worry about freezing to death.

"...I wonder what Mitsuo's doing about now? Is he worried at all about me?"

She tried to make it sound like a joke, but a little awkwardly, let it fall into the night darkness. Banri scooped it up, returning her words as lightly as possible.

"He might be. 'Where's the training camp?', I was asked later, but I didn't answer."

"Was that so?"

"Well, I could have texted from the car, but I didn't feel like it. And what's more, since afterwards we were always out of range, wouldn't he be rather worried? So it is, there it is, and before long, that anxious feeling unexpectedly becomes a hot possessiveness, a heaviness sitting on ''Yana''-ssan's heart..."

Hearing Banri's little joke, a smile clearly broke across the well ordered features of Kouko's face.

"Enough. That's not right. You're making things up."

Indeed, just like her, even in smiling she seemed to be plotting something too perfect. He realized that it had been a long time since he'd seen that face. Cheered, Banri too smiled broadly.

"''Yana''-ssan noticed, you know. From what I see, that childhood friendship must have been important."

"Yes, yes yes! What about it?"

"There were already gloomy thoughts... even doubts like, 'Am I a stalker?'...! It was, but wait! As far as I'm concerned, of course it's my fate to be married to this girl! 'Kuoukuoooo---------!'"

"Kyaa! Muitsuuo---------!"

The two were messing around, laughing their heads off in the sultry dark, reaching their hands out towards each other. Banri his right hand, Kouko her left. Building into a sudden and strange excitement, they made a lot of noise, their extended hands unable to reach each other, no matter what...! That was how they were playing together.

"You're messing up my entrance! Ugyaa! Kaagaasaan! Yaanaasaan!"

"Ahahaha! Taadaa-kuuuun!"

The fingertip of his left hand trembling fearfully, it neared Kouko's extended fingertip, approaching through the dark night air. But of course, since it was all a joke,

"Such an act, Baan!"

Taking the charade to its end, with Banri as "Mitsuo", Kouko clapped her hands and let them fall. Kyaaa, Kouko's hands sketched a big arc as they came down. Flutter flutter flutter, plop, with a sad sound the rotten tree to her side fell. Kouko laughed for a little bit, then,

"...Eh, wasn't that awful just now?"

All of a sudden she looked at Banri seriously. It wasn't that bad, since it was all a joke, she shook her side from side to side.

"I was referring to the socks. You ought to put them on."

He prompted her with a jerk of his chin.

It looked like Kouko finally remembered about Banri's socks, which were still sitting in her lap. Bending over, she put them on. They could serve to protect her slipper-clad bare feet from getting dirty, at least. Seeing that, Banri nodded in approval.

Though outwardly Kouko seemed lonely, it was after all ninety-percent a pretense to "Get Yana!" Even hearing this from her, he wasn't upset. Was this because he expected such from her? Was it because "it doesn't matter", and he was suddenly rebellious? Was it because, following the "there's no sick child" formula, his "good man" circuit got switched on? Was it simply because with things being the way they were at the moment, his emotions were simply paralyzed? Or perhaps this was just another proof of Yanagisawa's theory that "For beautiful people, life is fun" --- was he being led around by the nose by the beautiful Kouko, and his heart was under her control?

Trying to think, Banri concluded a short while later that he simply didn't know.

Kouko had come back for him.

Despite it seeming unlikely that she was going to love anybody but Yanagisawa Mitsuo anytime soon, and Banri being only barely somebody that "could not be left behind", she had come back to get him.

Watching the miserable-seeming Banri while they were leaving, the other freshmen had no intention of criticizing him (since he had persuaded them to leave him there by himself), but finally she had raised her voice. She didn't doubt Mr. Two Dimension's friendship, but after all, as the driver he probably would not be able to return.

But, indeed Kouko, even if only as a friend Kaga Kouko, even if she couldn't remember his name, returned for the sake of Banri "He isn't Mitsuo", something he didn't even think she would do. He didn't think there were such people.

Since Kouko behaved that way, and with the "ten percent" just mentioned, it seemed that perhaps there just might be something inside her.

That something existed inside her he knew at least, just what use it would be, well it's all your fault, whatever, to Banri it didn't seem likely.

"...I wonder if ''Yana''-ssan knows Kaga-san's in that kind of state."

"What kind of state?"

"No, something like... It's because it seemed you're a little different when ''Yana''-ssan is around, versus when he is not."

A little to his dismay, he saw Kouko's eyes open wide. Or so he thought.

For Banri, the time Yanagisawa was with Kouko was when she gave him a surprise attack with a huge bouquet of roses. Beating the daylights out of Yanagisawa with roses in front of all the new students, throwing them at the guy and leaving. As if patting a pet, looking down from above, disregarding whatever complaint Yanagisawa might have had. Pursuing the escaped Yanagisawa, reproaching him for having escaped. If she somehow caught him, she would use up to live ammunition (it's a matter of money).

Saying "Whatever, it doesn't matter", while Banri seemed to be the only person waiting in Kouko's "ten percent." Saying, "I can't leave him behind in such a place", and returning, seemingly just for Banri. Even awkwardly trying to apologize, then even trying to horse around and laugh like an ordinary girl, maybe, just for Banri. ...Maybe.

Banri, because he saw that, today's Kouko, yesterday's Kouko--- the Kouko around Yanagisawa was a different person, he thought.

But Yanagisawa, if he had seen the same thing, he probably would have thought the "Now-Kouko" different.

"If so, I think he'd be wrong."

She went quiet for a moment, as if thinking, then,

"In the time I was with Mitsuo, I was complete. You just might have that right."

Laughing a little, she looked at Banri, then averted her eyes. Raising her slim leg straight up, she looked at Banri's socks covering her toes. Seeing that sidelong look made her seem to him a girl he didn't know.

"Without Mitsuo, I am incomplete. Whether getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, eating my meals or going to school, dressing up nice, crying or laughing, it is all for Mitsuo. He is the whole purpose behind everything I do. If it weren't so, I wouldn't even try. Without him, life has no meaning. It was always that way for me. If he's not following behind me, there is nothing I can do. If Mitsuo's not there, I don't know what I should do. Even now, I want to get back safely, because Mitsuo is there. Am I thinking like a fool? It's OK, because I really am a fool."

But such love she had for herself, that continuing, Kouko looked up once more to Banri's eyes, straightened her back, and showed her perfect, beautiful smile. This once again, was the face of a girl he didn't know.

To such a person as this, well, whatever he said she wouldn't want to listen anyhow, so, covering up his feelings, Banri gave her a frank reply,

"...If that were the case, it would all be fine in spite of your having gotten ''Yana''-ssan mad. But there what with the roses, as far as his life is concerned, the completed person is very messed up. Far from being nice to him, wasn't it an attack? Why did you willingly do something to get yourself disliked?"

He said that for now. As for her internal ten percent --- his purpose was for her to know that he existed.

It seemed she heard him perfectly, judging by the stiffly displeased look on her lips in the dark.

"He... that wasn't good for Mitsuo."

"How so? It seems to me the perfect Kaga-san isn't so good, normally."

"But! But, you're wrong! I have my reasons! I exploded after four months of frustration! It's not like I planned for such a thing to happen! It was my intention to ride up in the taxi with the roses, congratulate him with a smile and hand over the roses! Just leaving behind the smell of roses... surprising Mitsuo... and then around campus, we'd say 'those roses mark the spot we got together...', that was an even more perfect scenario!"

"Was that what you thought meeting up with him would be like?"

"He would have said, 'That was a knockout blow: You had the courage to have pursued me to the same university!' "

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously! Really, that's was how it was supposed to be! But... well, the result was this. ...Mitsuo, was always telling me about 'doing the escalator'. I found out that was all a lie around the end of the year. Since then I always pretended to be deceived, so that it looked to him that I was doing the escalator too, faking it to the point of taking the same entrance exams."

"A disguise..."

"Wig and glasses. Suspecting a second entrance exam, I called up the examiner. So it was that day after day he kept on lying, and I could see it the whole time. Perhaps today he would tell me the truth. Perhaps tomorrow. 'Surely the day after tomorrow...', I persisted, but all the way to the end, graduation already done, Mitsuo wouldn't tell me the truth. I overlooked the lies. Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, idiotically walking with Tada-kun, looking as if he were having fun... 'What the heck!?' I couldn't stand it anymore."

How many seconds of silence passed? And then,

"Now, I am regretting it."

Kouko looked up into the night sky.

Starlight shining through a break in the trees fell on Kouko from above. She gave a deep sigh, together with a thin voiced "ah". Head hanging down, her hair again hung straight down.

"...Seems like it... From where I sit, it seems you are being disliked, right? Even at the entrance ceremony, it would have been better if you'd simply hugged him and given him a kiss. What you accomplished was different. ...Even so, to be ignored so completely and perfectly... was certainly not."

That's the way it was, really--- Banri looked back at the sad face whitely illuminated, quietly thinking.

Really, I think that's the way it is, Kaga-san. Better than hurting him like that with roses, nearly to the point of drawing blood, just showing that face--- that Kaga Kouko, even once, would be far better, he thought.

A million times, or ten million times, or even a trillion times better, he thought.

Banri had not known until now how somebody could be impatient with human clumsiness, even like this. Because of how the day was turning out, he knew the feeling for the first time.

"The only one who's supposed to do dumb things like that, in this world, ever, is me."

Perhaps too tired still to walk again, Kouko stiffly moved her legs while just barely cracking a smile.

"I don't think you're like that, though. You're just not the type of person to be able to do that right."

"Yep, it's absolutely just me. ...I am the most to blame in this, I did something dumb. What about you, Tada-kun? What about you? Is there somebody you like? Do you have a girlfriend?"

She was planting landmines under the night sky.

It was a rest-break with no more meaning than that, so more easily than ever Banri was able to open his mouth and chat with her.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don’t know for myself. Just that 'My memories were all blown away,' since that's speaking the truth."

Like a surprise attack, Kouko winked back at him.

"...What kind of speaking?"

"Speaking about loss of memory."

Banri pointed at his head with his finger. "Well...", while he began hesitantly to talk, that finger turning in circles.

"It was shortly after my high school graduation ceremony. Early in the morning, I was alone and it seems I fell from the bridge. Since then my memory has left me. Though I may feel like saying it, I can't just say '...So what?' It doesn't work to say that every time I talk. For the time being, could you simply understand? I can't be always saying things like 'I can't remember anything from childhood through high school', of course."

As he looked at Kouko, who had fallen completely silent, looking troubled, Banri thought "Well, she ought to be!" If somebody were to suddenly talk about losing their memory, you'd probably be confused too.

But normally, I would hope you would just be seeing the face of an ordinary nineteen year old boy.

"A marvelous thing, the word "remembering"--- an ordinary, normal thing in the Japanese language. Whatever year A.D. it be, whatever you call it, whatever you study, whatever you watch on television, whatever calendar a person or actor uses, it is understood. Even the teacher of moonlight, right? Even Ruu Ooshiba, right? I don't understand the problem with me. My particular memories don't exist. People I knew or were related to, who I liked, ...in short the things that gave me 'individuality'. It is certainly a strange tale. My family, my friends, and my self all stored in my memories, even after a year of rehabilitation, even after all I did, completely gone. What's more,"

Seeming unable to remember 'that' feeling, the self-conscious Banri picked his words carefully.

"Very slowly, my emotions returned. They seemed like something I missed... but if I chased after them, they fled away. For example, imagine a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Trying to read it, you would look at it, and automatically from your gaze a beam would burn up the sentence. It felt rather like that. The traces of memory were like a ghostly tail I could barely touch, and it seemed to be rapidly fading away. That was a rather scary feeling..."

After the accident always, if I didn't remember, if I didn't remember quickly, then it just faded away. Time passed, and I rapidly lost track of things. More than simply pointing out "You have certainly lost something", the feeling of losing something was always, always fresh.

"But as time passed, even those feelings disappeared, and I became resigned to it, saying 'What's the use?' But, it mattered nothing since I was unable to sense them anymore. Losing it was scary, though I couldn't really feel it since it was already 'gone'. Because of that, things got easier."

What was left to Banri now was just a memory of the fear of that time when everything was rapidly leaving him.

"Because of that, I had to study over again for the entrance exams, as if I'd had to start life over again."

"...Err..."

"Sorry, I was speaking nonsense."

"...Yes. No problem... It's just that,"

Kouko brought her hands to her chest. As she took a number of deep breaths, he saw that her hands moved together with her chest.

"...How you can say that's OK, I have no idea."

"But it is. Excuse me, really, but I'm not worried about it. Really now, since you're in good health. What's your blood type? What's your sign? You like soy sauce or paste? Memory loss? Mem riloss? That's about what I heard. If you have any questions, please let me know."

From Kouko's mumbling, it seemed she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, and didn't know what to say.

"...Err, well... weren't you just saying you wanted to get back...?"

"Yes, I must have been."

Since it was his long awaited chance to talk with her, he had wanted to be able to answer truthfully and honestly, Banri thought.

"Nonexistent things don't make sense to me. I'll say that first of all. As for myself, I have no choice but to speak from my own feelings. But, as for other people, I could understand them saying that they might want the original Tada Banri to return. In fact, it's about time he tried to return, I think. But in that regard, it gives me the feeling that adding memories to my current self is OK, even though it is replacing parts of my personality, so to speak, allowing the disappearance of my former self to be forgiven. From the start it looked impossible, and I've even been saying all along that there was nothing I could do, or even wanted to do."

"...Is that so?"

Her face serious as she listened to Banri's tale, Kouko lowered her eyes a little as if in thought.

"...That was a really strange story, wasn't it? What kind of guy was he, the vanished side of Tada Banri-kun? Perhaps he's watching over the current Tada-kun wherever he is... Kind of like a ghost in the background."

And, Kouko, seeming to notice something, suddenly turned around.

"What? What's going on? Is there a ghost behind Kaga-san?"

"...Something, just now, I saw a small flash of light... ah, ah, look!"

Kouko was pointing towards a thick grove of trees. She stared as the little light, certainly not a street light, swayed back and forth.

"You're right! Somebody's there! Let's go, let's call for help! Can you stand!?"

"Yep!"

Banri took Kouko by the hand, the two of them staggering while they frantically walked out on the muddy path. "Excuuse mee! Could you help uusss! We've had an accideennnt!", they raised their frantic voices.

On the other side of the trees, the shadowy figure held a nearly dead flashlight. Their voices still not noticed, anyway in a daze they continued advancing, having no choice. Sliding while supporting Kouko's hand, pushing through grass, clearing away branches, hurrying but not falling down.

A line of people, ...everyone with their bodies bent over a little, moving their hands and feet uncertainly. All of them. In the middle of the night on a mountain trail, while they shone the light on each other. What a strange atmosphere, he thought. It was about time.

"Ju, jujuju, just a second. Tada-kun, those are really strange people."

Kouko stopped walking. She looked at Banri.

"What I mean... aren't they those believers from earlier...!?"

If that were the case, then jumping would be a big mistake. A huge, fatal blunder. Trying to retreat, confused, they broke a branch, making a sound. Whereupon, no matter how much they kept from raising their voices,

"Is somebody there?"

A long straight beam of light turned towards them. With a surprised-sounding voice,

"...Banri!?"

They heard somebody's surprised shout. The light gave a big shake at the voice.

Exhausted, Kouko's strength gave out. Supporting her, pulling her along so they could escape, Banri eventually crumbled to his knees too. Standing up and running to escape hurriedly on foot, they vainly rejected the slimy damp earth. They were already at the limit of their strength. Even if everybody was a believer, there was nothing more they could do. However,

"It's me! Don't you understand!? Hey, it's me! Remember!"

Shouting while the person pointed the light at him, he suddenly raised both hands high, encompassing the whole place, shouting "Hey!" and striking a pose. That pose reminded him of something---

"...Eh!? Maybe, maybe, you..."

Even the disaster of the school entrance ceremony had laid land-mines for him!

"Barbara!?"

"It's me, Linda!"

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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
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</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3

2013-11-02T06:10:25Z

Perfect Chaos: This line sounded so awkward (and somewhat incorrect here and there) that I had to fix it up a bit.

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 3==
[[Image:Golden Time vol01 091.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.

It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri's side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cellphone, by the transmit light.

He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can't hear you well, hello hello, it's me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that's fine. I'll be staying one day at the club training camp. That's all."

In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.

"OK then, until next time I call!"

"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn't understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.

Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?

Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, ''Banri's cool!'', he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What's up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.

In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn't sit down. He wasn't about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.

Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cellphone. The train still hadn't arrived, and he hadn't received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.

My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.

''Wham'', at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri's face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.

Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-saan"

It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.

When she noticed Banri's hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren't any lectures on Saturday, and there weren't any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.

"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"

"Did the older girl show up?"

"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."

Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.

An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.

A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.

Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko's face.

Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl's College during yesterday's encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the 'All-Around Intercollegiate Club' to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.

From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.

Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly a crowded little place, but a good find, and then they'd been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought 'This is a café-au-lait bowl?', but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the
conversation.

Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Like getting all the language credits within the first year, you really ought to get a part time job, those that can get a girlfriend or boyfriend should be able to by the first year summer break, it's been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.

Regardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.

Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we'll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at twelve-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to ''do'' something.

So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn't he see that? A training facility in prefecture K. Weren't there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn't too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you're a freshman, of course there are no fees. It's OK, it's OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don't ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it's already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It's all right, by participating, that's how we'll do it. Deciding would be good, don't you think? Right?

It must have been the mood of the conversation.

He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other's expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally nodded as one.

That'd be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I'm tired... I want to go home... if we say we'll participate we'll be able to leave... Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn't say anything, but wasn't going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.

Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.

Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, 'let's go!' They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.

Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night's worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn't going on this outing.

"Hey, Tada-kun."

He didn't know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.

"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"

With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.

"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying 'Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member's training camp.'"

"...And Mitsuo?"

Pulling out his cellphone, it didn't seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You're kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.

Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri's face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.

"Don't worry about it. It's my problem."

"Yes, so it is."

Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko's eyes.

"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it's a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."

"Won't catch either, of course."

Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,

"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."

Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn't fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.

"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn't it, rather this is. When it comes to men, whenever they are being chased, they want to escape. And when they escape it makes everybody want to chase them again, it seems like... doesn't it? Won't the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? 'Wives and tatami mats and... tuna fish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?' ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn't understand..."

"That's OK. It's enough explanation for now."

"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"

Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.

"Mitsuoo! ...It's not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"

She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.

"And so, just look, you've got me instead! ...And it seems to me that ''Yana''-ssan wouldn't mind."

Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.

"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It's quite an accomplishment, seeing as Mitsuo does care where I'm going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."

"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I'd be going to the drinking party alone."

"I don't think you'd have been alone. ...Those guys, aren't they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman training camp with them."

Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,

"Ah! Isn't that Mr. Two Dimensions?"

"Eh? You're kidding. Tada Banri?"

His acquaintance didn't fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.

"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman training camp too?"

"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is ''Yana''-ssan a member too?"

"''Yana''-ssan isn't coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."

Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, Civil Law, I saw you, you were, are, Monday it was, second hour," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user's manual of a bootleg copy of ''Pachimon'', he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.

Kouko in her way,

"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"

She wasn't speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can't understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.

"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"

Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri's explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he'd shouted, "And that's why three-dimensions is bad! You're all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon spitting lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.

As she watched Mr. Two Dimension's face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.

But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.

It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ij%C5%ABin Ijuuin]-kun, or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lupin_III_characters#Daisuke_Jigen Jigen Daisuke]-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn't here."

Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn't anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to answer.

That, despite the fact that she didn't have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!

"But, from here on out, you won't be able to get away with that!", Banri declared in his mind to Kouko's smiling face. Neither Banri nor Mr. Two Dimensions were simply creatures that weren't Mitsuo, and over the next two days and one night together with Kouko, participating in the training camp, they should be able to become "friends" instead.

"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world's not all that bad a place."

Banri playfully tugged at the shirt sleeve of Mr. Two Dimensions, who was still mumbling, unable to look at Kouko's face.

"What's with you? Haven't you come back to three dimensions, it's a little late already, a little late."

"You're mistaken! Even in two dimensions, I've been wondering recently, it's something I've been thinking about! Even in two dimensions, I had thought I wanted to look for the ideal depiction, but of course, what I mean is, it was hard! But in the end, other people's creations were not 100% satisfactory, seems like! Why not just stop?"

"It's OK, it's OK, keep going."

"That so? Well then, especially of late, I've found myself getting deeply involved with a female character of my own creation. Creating the setting, drawing the pictures, coloring them, deciding the words she uses and how she says them, what her favorite food is, from the way we would date, becoming more and more intimate from one episode to another, becoming my ''perfect'' dream, ...hey, was it really OK to say this? Should I not have stopped?"

Kouko, who had been mumbling approving noises and nodding her head while ignoring what was being said, slowly stopped shaking her head. After a little while, it seemed the correct answer occurred to her, and with a 60W grin,

"A little more of that, and you'll be Mr. One Dimension!"

"What in the world are you saying, Kaga Kouko...", thought Banri.

A surprised snort escaped from one girl of a group of three standing not far from Banri's group. Little sports bags stuffed with rough-looking attire, denim and sneakers, they probably were going to the same freshman training camp as friends,

"Soorryy, this person, even if she looks like she does, can be really dumb at times."

Banri tried to point at Kouko as their smiling faces turned towards him. They seemed to be group of friends, all three of them smiling as one while nervously stepping up. Kouko herself said, "Eh, dumb? Who?", looking back at Banri's face, wondering.

"Hello, I'm Tada Banri, and with me Kaga-san and Mr. Two Dimensions. Are all of you going to the freshman training camp from here?"

At the sound of Banri's voice, they saw for the first time the faces of two more guys, who joined them with slightly nervous expressions. At Kouko's 'Mr. One Dimension' exclamation, the girls looked around at everybody smiling, and started their introductions at once.

A car-horn sounded, three modest beeps. Everybody turned towards the street.

"Yes yes yesss! Sorry for being late, the cars are here so all aboard!"

The upperclassman came out to them from the first car parked by the side of the road.

Which reminded Banri that he had in fact failed to get her name--- which thing, of course, it was a little late to talk about now.

The club upperclassmen, together with some other freshman students, got into several rented station wagons.

An upperclassman handed a blank form to Banri, who was confused over which car to get into.

"Could all of you write their name, address and telephone number here? And if they are living away from home, then their parents' addresses too. This will be part of our insurance documents. It's because of our liability if anything happens at the training camp. Do it neatly, leaving out nothing. Everybody else is done writing their information. Yes, because you're Tada-kun, OK? This column, OK? I mean, even though this parking lot is rather noisy, and it's bad to be in such a hurry? Sorry about that, yes, hurry up, but read it carefully, it's just in case anything happens, OK?"

Insurance. Parking lot. Not fully understanding but unwilling to go against the social pressure, Banri the fool wrote down their personal information in a rush, but honestly. Passing the pen and the register to Kouko, she gracefully wrote down her name and address too, and passed it on to Mr. Two Dimensions.

And then, all the freshmen having signed the list, the upperclassman took her own bag and,

"Yes, thanks! You and you to the first car, OK? You over there. You that way. You and you get on that car at the end of the line. And now, you and you,"

Banri nudged Kouko's elbow and grinned.

"You're with me in that car, let's hurry up and get in!"

He opened the station wagon's door and they were greeted at once by a clear voice, saying "Hi there!". While Banri and Kouko returned the greeting, they sat down side by side in the middle.

"Okay, all the freshmen will be by the windows!"

The upperclassmen were rearranged, and everybody was able to be seated. An upperclassman got into the car right next to Banri.

"Today's weather turned out good, eh?"

With a smile, she sat down as if the spot belonged to her by right. In the front seat, the cool-looking guy next to Kouko said, "Nice to meet you, I'm a third-year from **** college."

All the freshmen that had been gathered from all the colleges were sitting separately by the windows. All of them, with nervous faces not speaking out. Banri and Kouko were in the same boat. For some reason the other seats were occupied by clear-voiced, smiling, laughing upperclassmen. It was somehow strangely uncomfortable, uncomfortable for sure, but they couldn't argue about it. The seating was arranged.

"Drinks and such are prepared if you'd like!"

"Ah, yes..."

Hanging from the neck of the smiling upperclassman to his side, a necklace with a snowflake design glittered. If he remembered correctly, she was wearing it yesterday too. It was probably her favorite. Casually looking over at the other upperclassman, just above his shirtcollar, Banri noticed he was wearing the same necklace. He wondered if they were really close, or if it was a uniform.

"Is everybody's seat belt on? Nobody needs the bathroom? Cause once we get on the freeway we have no plans to stop!"

The upperclassman in the driver's seat looked back. At his neck too, the same necklace. This guy having one on, even if it was so many close friends matching up, of course it seemed quite strange. Well of course! Does everybody in this club have to wear one? Banri discretely looked towards the necks of the other upperclassman in the vehicle.

"Why are you looking around like that?"

Suddenly asking the upperclassman with a straight face, "Isn't it strange that everybody's wearing matching necklaces? Just curious...", didn't get him an answer. She said, "It's nothing", giving Banri a vague deceptive smile, the station wagons lining up to leave. From where Banri sat, all he could see of Kouko was the billowing hair on the top of her head.

Inside the vehicle pop music was playing continuously and loudly, the upperclassmen singing in a sort of high-tension karaoke--- the first-years silent, strangely nervous still--- with things staying like that throughout the drive, which took about two hours.

Banri, once more attacked by uneasiness, was wondering if they shouldn't ought be getting off the freeway already when the time arrived.

The line of rental cars was passing in front of the university's seminar house. Following a road through the forest, a sign with the name of the college that Banri was attending was standing there, but they ignored it. What's more, the line of station wagons continued onwards into the mountains. Were they taking the wrong road, or perhaps, did the seminar house the upperclassman was talking about belong to another college?

That's what it looked like. None of the other freshmen at the windows, not even Kouko, noticed. Nobody said anything. While watching the sign get further away the other side of the window, should I keep quiet? Perhaps we're really going the wrong way, and if so what should we do? He couldn't decide whether they should turn around at that moment.

He noticed that the upperclassman gave him a sharp glance when he looked at the sign through the window. With the loud music flowing through the inside of the car, they had stared at each other for all of three seconds. As it was, realizing that the strange silence was dragging on, he boldly decided to ask her.

"Welll... didn't we just pass the seminar house?"

"Eh? What?"

Putting her hand to her ear, she indicated that she hadn't heard him.

"Just now, the seminar house, didn't we pass it!?"

He spoke louder and clearer this time, moving his mouth closer to her ear to overcome the music. The smell of her hair went up his nose, strangely unnatural and strong.

"What, what!? Eh, I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! I mean, stop it already, this is embarrassing! Cut it out!"

While smiling, she firmly pushed Banri back, putting her weight into it. And then suddenly, she said, "What's with me? Am I getting a little sleepy already?", and put her head on Banri's shoulder. Her upturned eyes at point blank range, lips coming together in a slight pout.

When he couldn't react, she casually placed her hand on his knee. The palm of her hand, slowly but steadily warming up, inched around as if to fondle him. While drawing circles, it came creeping towards his thigh. While so doing, she gazed moistly at Banri's eyes. She said, "Are you happy? Did I make your heart race? Did I make you hope?", while she gave him a look full of self-confidence.

But, distinctly scary. Her soft chest pushing against his elbow, Banri pulled away from her as softly as he could. A boy with a girl close by, whatever the situation might be, would be happy. That she even thought that way was scary, but more importantly, what if what she was doing up to this point wasn't a trick? That by itself was frightening.

But those innermost thoughts of Banri's became irrelevant as the line of cars slowed down, left the trees and turned from the beautifully paved private road and then entered what was apparently a driveway. To the left and right, high concrete walls were built, forming a C-curve in front, attached to the roof all the way down to the driveway.

Where they had arrived wasn't particularly big, but judging by the brickwork, it was evidently a pretty nice facility, two buildings set side by side.

Urged by the upperclassmen, they got down out of the cars. The older girl tried to join hands with Banri, reaching out for him, but Banri pretended not to notice, calling out "Kaga-saan!" and trotting, chasing after Kouko, who had walked ahead, in order to escape from the her. As soon as Kouko saw Banri's face, she stopped walking and they stood side by side, and in a whisper,

"Ah, I was able to talk to somebody I barely knew. The upperclassman next to me, he just kept talking to me the whole time... It wasn't boring, but I became somewhat worn out... How was it for you?"

"As for me..."

He'd touched somebody that way in public. No, rather, he had been touched that way in public. But he couldn't talk about that, not with Kouko.

"...Same here. I'm a bit tired too."

Banri also answered quietly. Before he realized it, a crowd of freshmen had formed. The upperclassmen surrounded them, pushing the freshmen towards an opening, keeping up with them as they walked into the facility. They had no choice but to walk together in a line.

Marble used all over the place, even the entrance polished to a wonderful sheen, here and there decorated with big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaenopsis moth orchids], it really seemed more like a hotel, or an art museum. Pulling her carryall while going inside, to Kouko it seemed strange to have so much room.

"By the way, are we sure this place is really the college's seminar house? Would they have something as nice as this while their school buildings are falling apart?"

"...I don't think so..."

"Eh?"

Once all the freshmen had entered, a strange high sound arose and the entrance door closed. Shortly, in that darkened lobby, the lights were turned on.

In the center there glittered a huge piece of artwork, shaped like a snowflake.

On the pedestal a gold plate was affixed, inscribed with 'The Shape of God in our Times'. That god would be incarnated a million years from now! ---In other words, for the next five hours until they locked their rooms, Banri knew they would be subjected to a lecture.

<center>* * *</center>

Of course, he wanted to flee.

In short, they had been placed under house arrest by a new religion disguised as a club. But he couldn't talk with his fellow freshmen, as they were under a constant guard. They struck anybody who even looked like he was talking! It was such a low class thing to do, and some freshmen opened their mouths in protest, but the older students separated anybody who did so. For the moment the uneasy freshmen trying to gather together were kept apart, gently perhaps, but physically separated. Talk amongst the freshmen was not permitted; that was the message clearly being sent.

Before the lecture, everybody's bags were collected, tossed into a single room and locked up. At that point, strangely enough, they were permitted to get out their cellphones, but, whether it was from being in the middle of the mountains, or it was on purpose, Banri's cellphone wasn't the only one with no signal. There was not a phone in sight, so getting in contact with the outside was going to be difficult.

Dinnertime was completely silent, a sort of prayer ritual. Even a funeral would have been more exciting.

On little tables arranged in a semicircle there were placed glasses of cold beer and various kinds of soft drinks. As far as that went, this was an ordinary club training camp, quite so, no, perhaps of a rather extravagant type, but the freshmen were scattered about, kept apart, and everyone who understood the situation was keeping ominously quiet about it.

Banri was seated at the end of the semicircle. Next to him was the older girl. Kouko, from one of the center seats, looked vaguely down at the tables, her white face still blank. Occasionally, she would glance quickly at Banri, each of them seeing in this situation "Danger...!", both of them recognizing it, but neither of them able to do anything about it. Mr. Two Dimensions, too, on the other side could be seen with his head bowed.

Really and truly, it had become something dangerous.

"Now then everyone, let's get moving! Everybody, take your glasses!"

The hot upperclassman seated next to Kouko stood up and raised his voice for no apparent reason. Even some of the other upperclassmen whistled and booed at the sudden, unnaturally forced enthusiasm.

"Well then! Congratulations for the newly created children, tonight's excellent full moon, and another gathering recorded for the next 10,000 years! Ready, cheers! Hello new children!"

"Hello!", the upperclassmen said, raising their glasses.

Banri and the other freshmen, all of them, were looking down at their knees, petrified. The tops of their heads could be seen lined up around the semicircle.

Almost as if he were praying silently, "What should I do?", an over-familiar touch at his shoulder,

"What's wrong, new children! Loook, at long last the day of your awakening is here! Let's have a little more enthusiasm!"

With a smile as wide as her face, she raised her glass. Banri's head going numb to the core, he was unable to answer anything more, and he stared at the golden liquid which filled the glass. He remembered something strange. The day of the entrance ceremony, at the convenience store, when he met Yanagisawa at the mirror, they'd toasted with ice-bars. At that time, they were completely mismatched though somehow it was really fun. In the few days since then, they'd come surprisingly far. He could hardly wait for those peaceful times to return.

As it was, Banri was already thinking about how they couldn't keep them there too many days. Come Monday there would be school, a few freshmen vanishing would become a big deal, maybe even a matter for the police.

So anyway for this one night and two days, perhaps he could have the patience to let it pass by. Quickly getting drunk, quickly getting smashed, just sleeping through it all, morning would come soon enough.

"..."

As if.

Anyway, if he quietly kept his patience until tomorrow in this weird place--- glass full of beer in her hand, she looked at Banri,

"Yes, yes! It was really fun winning! Yes, one round, cheeeers!"

"Ch, cheers..."

Giving another glad smile, she gulped down the delicious looking beer.

Kouko was looking his way with a startled look on her face. She was putting the chilled glass to her mouth, since she couldn't avoid doing so, but she looked back at Banri, her feelings exposed.

But--- was that so?

If he were to think about it, he was responsible for the fact that she had been brought here.

He'd answered the upperclassman, saying, "Let's go together!", he told himself. Nonetheless, Kouko was confused.

Besides, it would have been a better to have chatted some more back at the coffee shop. Caught as they were, if he thought about it now, it was suspicious. Wasn't it written in plain sight? This time for sure, he had to be on guard about the strange upperclassman who stuck too close for comfort. Even so, his nervousness at finding himself together with Kouko, his hopes of being able to be friends with her, everything combined to blind his radar.

Since they'd decided to come and participate in the training camp, he'd been dumb. Exhausted, unable to think and with his judgement lost, if he so much as nodded it would be over, and... swept away, to such a state he'd been brought. And now, he was regretting it to death.
Banri considered not swallowing the beer touching his mouth.

Of course, he couldn't.

Already, he wouldn't do things like that.

If he had been patient enough while they'd been speaking of such things, maybe they wouldn't have gone so far. From the beginning, the purpose of isolating the training camp, wearing out its participants, making them give up, stopping their thought processes, appeared to be a trap.

And then... no, no way, they can't just brainwash me when I don't understand what they're teaching, he thought. Still, Banri looked sidelong at the upperclassman next to him. He started drinking the delicious beer, eating their cooking and talking with the other upperclassmen.

Actually, surrounded by unusually good looking and healthy seeming guys and gals, the danger hadn't really sunk in.

If he didn't want to become like them, if he even wanted to live in ordinary reality, he needed to escape from here. Absolutely. Banri spit out the beer he held in his mouth into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshibori damp towel] provided on his table.

But, he was worried about that roster he'd signed, where they'd hurried him to write down his personal information. Kouko, himself and all the rest too, they had been perhaps too foolishly honest when they'd written down their addresses and contact information. Wasn't that what all the persistent nagging was all about?

He absolutely, absolutely couldn't give Mom and Dad back home anything more to worry about.

That roster had been placed in the upperclassman's own duffle. And then together with the freshmen's luggage, now, it was locked up in a room.

What should I do?

"...This is no fun! We can't do anything like this!"

Suddenly, crash! At the sudden, high, echoing sound, Banri lifted his face. Mr. Two Dimensions had thrown his glass to the floor.

"What's this about 10,000 years in the future! Giving thanks to a crystal master! How messed up can you be, believing in a three-dimensional thing like that!? You've been tricking us from the start, calling this an 'all around club'! I mean, isn't this imprisonment!? Isn't that a crime!? Do you even think anybody could keep quiet about people doing such things!?"

Decisively stated by Mr. Two Dimensions, the other freshmen stood up too.

"Let's go out to the cars now! I don't want to stay in this place any longer!"

"I'm going to sue them!"

Not knowing yet what he should do, Banri stood anyway. At that moment, in the fragments of glass scattered about broken on the floor, for just an instant, just how many broken reflections of himself were there to be seen?

Aspects of himself could be seen in all of them.

A worn out face. A scared face. An angry face. A face trying hard. A face ready to cry. So many variations of his face. And then suddenly a look that seemed to ask, "What are you going to do, Tada Banri?" At such a time as this, Tada Banri, what should a guy be doing?

Tada Banri ---

"Everybody, such an outburst wasn't called for. Just calm down for now."

--- realized he ought to do something.

The upperclassmen, seated in a row, showed no surprise. They were all watching Mr. Two Dimensions' composed smile, Banri's raised voice and the state of the other freshmen. It had all been arranged for, even this situation. This 'facility in the mountains' was their place of power, and what with the talk of their planning to make an offering, Banri was rather scared. But he couldn't do more than that, since nothing had been decided. He had no other choice for now.

Himself, he would do something unexpected.

"Anybody who wants to go home, that's fine if they do."

While he was talking, his body was trembling. Hiding it, he continued, "But I don't want to go back."

"What are you saying, Tada Banri!?"

Mr. Two Dimensions looked at Banri's face as if in shock. Kouko did too. Eyes opened wide, standing up. At the same time the table shook, tipping the glasses over. Shaking off their glances, Banri suddenly raised his voice.

"I mean, frankly, that where until things were so tense, now you're talking about it being boring! Just what is it you can't spit out? You speak of crime, but, even though recently you were still underage, you were drinking! Drinking underage at the Tea Ceremony is a crime, but you didn't speak of that! Seems the same to me. If you could let things like that slide, then maybe you can have fun here! It's convenient to ignore it, say it's not a crime, but isn't that really selfish? Such a bothersome guy you are, even entering here you are such an annoyance!"

Mr. Two Dimensions tried to interrupt, but he was prevented by a loud voice.

"Anyhow I want to have some fun here! Speaking of such boring things is tiresome, it's annoying! Sirs, these guys are clearly a bother! Since they want to go home, can't they just leave? Kick out these bothersome ones, and then let's get to the drinking party! I came here to have some real fun!"

He took revenge for her public assault on him.

Grabbing the older girl's hand, he shook back and forth like a little kid. But, his opponent being a master of the same techniques, she looked back at Banri, her eyes wary.

"...Do you really want to stay here? Even if everybody else returned? That so, eh? But, why would you?"

"I was quite impressed by the lecture I heard."

The last words shook, but that probably made it seem more truthful.

"In perfect seriousness, I would like to hear what the other upperclassmen here have to say. What I mean, really,"

He ordered his knees to stop shaking.

"Actually, I was seriously injured in high school, and all my memories were blown away. I've suffered amnesia, so to speak. I have suffered much from that. When I woke up, I suddenly knew nobody else in all the world. Not parents, nor friends, nor acquaintances nor anybody else. It was really lonely. But now... with the lecture about this new world to come, at last it looked like I may be saved. Though it sounds like it may be a lie, this, isn't something you made up. If here and now, there were a police investigation, or a hospitalization, I wouldn't receive an explanation nor would there be a meeting. In truth why"

Through his hair, the older girl could see the ugly scar still present on his scalp. The marks from surgery spread down to the neck of his T-shirt, running down even to his shoulders. He wondered if he ought to pull down his blue-jeans to show them the long stitch-scars running down his thighs to the knees.

"...That's enough. Forgive us for being suspicious, new children. ...That hurt, didn't it...!"

This is powerfully persuasive. What's going on here?

Looking at the point of tears, the older girl was looking at Banri sympathetically. She believed what he was saying just now.

"But you're all right now! You've cheered up, haven't you? Since you've cheered up, the time of your salvation has come, now! Right, everybody! From this it's been made clear, don't you think! The new children should be awakened, and the Crystal Lord will grant them their test, to see if they cannot be awakened! Going so far beyond, isn't it a beautiful thing? This time around, those who are only half-hearted kids will be able to go home. Only the real Children ought to have time close to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

They exchanged glances, those upperclassmen--- or you might say, the believers, that seemed to be the right word.

They spoke quickly, now it had been decided. The luggage that had been stored was taken out at once, and all the freshmen and some of the believers left the dining room. Banri saw that the keys to the luggage room were in the hands of a one guy.

Opened with the key, the freshmen went inside to pick up their luggage. A guy stuck to Banri's side, mouth shut, trying to look thoroughly scary, keeping an eye on him sidelong.

But Mr. Two Dimensions was different.

"Let's just go back! Tada Banri! Go back with the rest of us! A place like this is always trouble! You can take your time listening to their talk later, but for now let's go back!"

Thanking him in his mind, Banri outwardly ignored him. He called out to the guy with the key.

"Ma'am, isn't drunken driving dangerous? If there were an accident it'd be a problem, for sure. It seems to me that it'd be better if the guy who's going to drive didn't drink."

"That too is true. Is there anybody that has a driver's license?"

At the sound of the guy's voice some of the freshmen raised their hands. Mr. Two Dimensions was one of them. Casually, Banri called out to the guy's back, "Ah, I'll go get the key", intending to grab the key to the room. But,

"We've only just called you, but after you've been verified it'll be OK. You there, you've not had even one drop to drink?"

The key was quite firmly in the guy's grip. He let out an involuntary click of the tongue.

The guy locked up the luggage room and swung around. He thought better of calling after the guy with the keys to come back at that point. It couldn't be helped. There would be other opportunities to do something.

It looked like they'd decided that Mr. Two Dimensions and another freshman would be driving. Mr. Two Dimensions looked back towards Banri over and over again while going towards the entrance. It's OK, leave me behind, you're as confused as anybody else. Banri gave him a slight shake of the head.

Like that, all the freshmen left the facility. Amongst them of course, there went Kouko pulling her carry-all. Soon, the sound of the wheels rolling faded away, leaving Banri behind by himself.

Everybody had left. Amongst believers in a strange god, he was completely alone.

He was feeling scared to death. But, that was fine, he thought. At the least, he was able to get Kouko, whom he had brought here, back out to the ordinary peaceful world. Later, he would decide just what to do.

But, at that moment came to his ears a sound he could hardly believe. Banri reflexively cleared his ears. He had thought he might be hearing things, but apparently it was real.

The rolling sound that should have been gone, and had indeed left, was once more coming towards him.

Then, the entrance door opened.

Suddenly coming into view,

"Of course, I stayed behind too. The last lecture left me with a strong impression."

"...Kaga, san...!?"

"Hello, new children!"

With a self-satisfied expression on her face, Kaga Kouko.

Whether I like it or not, you, what are you saying--- really, what are you doing!? What the heck are you saying!? Precisely what are you doing!? Why have you returned!? What's with this person!? Can she really be an idiot!? Banri would have shouted, but he had no voice.

Banri was completely dumbfounded, looking at Kouko's form in amazement, his mouth hanging open. Kouko was standing next to Banri, meeting all the believers halfway, her face composed, both her long hands precisely positioned before her slim body, her head tilted a little to the side. And then,

"In spite of being beautiful, I am not popular. Because of that, I have already abandoned this century. I am longing for the new century!"

Strangely persuasive, she smiled with perfect grace.

The freshmen gone and Banri and Kouko left behind, the strange party atmosphere returned to the dining hall. Nearly an hour had passed.

All the believers themselves good and drunk, the opportunity to talk with Kouko had finally arrived.

He pointed over at Kouko's carry-all, still set in the corner of the dining hall. Since it needed to be put in the luggage room, it should be easy to get the guy to hand him the key.

"Kaga-san, let's go put away your luggage."

Grabbing the handle of the carry-all, winking back when he called her, Kouko stood up at once. Banri had a hunch that if the older girl had been looking towards them at all, it would have been very conspicuous. Unnoticed, he left the dining hall with Kouko.

While walking quickly down the corridor, Kouko started to call out to him, but Banri held a finger up before his mouth in a sign for her to be quiet. Still quiet, he took Kouko by the arm, looked all around to make sure nobody was nearby, and brought her over by the men's bathroom. Kouko was now at the mercy of his intentions, whatever they were. They quietly stuffed themselves into a stall and locked it. Up to this point, he'd been acting rather like a confirmed molester, but,

"...Aaa...!"

The first thing that escaped was a groan neither breathing nor sigh. In the narrow space, Banri's body was twisted like a music conductor, his right hand raised overhead and scratching his forehead roughly. "What are you doing, what are you doing, why, why, why, what's with youuu...!?", he shouted in a whisper while stamping the ground in frustration.

"Kaga-san, what were you doing!? Why didn't you go back with everybody else!?"

Really, come to your senses! He wanted to slap her on the cheek, grab her by the neck of her pretty one-piece dress and shake her back and forth. Failing that, he could punch the wall, or maybe hit himself on the forehead. Since he couldn't do either, the upper half of Banri's body was twisted up like a grilled squid.

"Do you really want to join up with those guys!?"

He pointed his finger at Kouko's pretty face.

"That, was my line."

A gentle whack, and that fingertip was shot down.

Carefully lifting the hem of her skirt so it wouldn't touch the edge of the toilet, so close together in the narrow stall their knees overlapped, Kouko looked intensely back at Banri. The black pupils of her eyes were turned up like crescent moons.

"Tada-kun, all that stuff you said about rescue and such, was that true?"

"I...have...no...i...de...a...!"

He didn't say any more, at his wit's end, writing in agony while she smiled at him. In spite of his success in getting everybody sent back, how, why, and more importantly for what reason, had she come back?

"Oh... whatever, that's good... Tada-kun, I was wondering if you would really become a believer."

"But I was thinking it was time for you to go back!"

"But, it sounded sincere."

"It was for your sake... something, very real feeling... I mean, Kaga-san, why did you really come back? All that effort was so everybody could go home!"

"Because, I couldn't just leave you behind. Thinking of how you had followed them into thinking you were seriously planning on staying here, what would I do? I would feel responsible if you'd done such a thing, and would never be able to leave it behind!, so to speak. By all means, Tada-kun ought to be able to go back too, was my thought. Why was Tada-kun going to be left by himself, behind?"

"I didn't think they would let people go back just because they said they wanted to return! I pretended to believe, thinking that if everybody else made enough noise begging to return, they would let them go! Besides, there was all sorts of stuff written in that roster... addresses, contact information and so on. I thought that perhaps being left behind, I might somehow or other clean up things. I can't imagine how much trouble we'd have if that information got out."

Looking up at Banri's face, somewhat taken aback, Kouko in that moment placed her fingertip under her pretty rose-colored lips.

"...For sure. I had written down my parents' address in full."

"I saw the upperclassman girl stick it in her bag. There hasn't been time to make copies, now if we could get it out of there... that could be difficult."

With a jingle, the key to the luggage room could be seen in Kouko's hand.

"Thanks to Kaga-san having returned so miraculously, we go to Plan B. Seems like we may be able to set it in motion."

Kouko's eyes glittered like stars. In reality, it was just the reflected light from the restroom.

"Tada-kun..., ...good job."

Her eyes shining, Kouko applauded Banri with just her fingertips.

"Shall we do this together?"

"Of course."

"Let's both return absolutely quietly."

"Naturally!"

Nodding to each other, they took her carry-all and left the restroom.

They went down the corridor and opened the door to the luggage room with the key. They both went inside. Turning on the light, they searched through the upperclassmen bags, which had been lined up along the wall. Was it beige, ...no, was it brown? And so, he looked for anything like a girl's overnight bag in the hill in front of them, when suddenly at the confused Banri's side,

"Her bag was Coach. The Signature, last year's model, the keyholder had a marguerite..."

Kouko, her fingertip like a gun barrel, zeroed in right away on a single bag.

"It's that one."

What a capable helper! It seemed they would be able to easily clear this mission. Banri and Kouko jumped to pull out the upperclassman's bag, and fish through the contents.

They soon found the roster stuck in a file. Two sheets of A5 paper. Taking it quickly to tear it up, Banri was lost for a moment as to what to do with it. Could he hide it in his pants and take it back with him? Should he shred it up fine and flush it down the toilet?

From the arrangement of the things in the luggage room, it was probably a smoking lounge. On a low table somebody's lighter, and in an ashtray some cigarette buts had been left behind. He was casually looking over those things when suddenly,

"You there, what the heck--- huh!?"

The door opened, the forgotten key still in the lock. Glimpsing the white face of the upperclassmen girl, Banri and Kouko both jumped about an inch of the floor. Their bodies reacted even quicker than their thoughts.

"What's going on!? What about the roster... wa, wait!"

Banri fairly flew at the door, attacking it, forcing the door shut against the rest of the upperclassmen and locking it. The others banged on the door with terrific force. "What do you call this!?" "Open up!" "This traitor!" "Wait, somebody's coming!" The upperclassmen's loud voices echoed. The hand holding the door was shaking, and he realized that sweat was pouring from every pore of his body,

"Waah, wh wh wh, what am I going to do...!? This is bad bad bad...!"

Banri's face was now completely white. Should he kneel before them? Offer them money? Persuade them with tears? Such things, up to surrender, were starting to pass through his head, while on the other hand Kouko,

"Tada-kun, the roster."

With a strangely serious face, she held out her hand towards him without hesitation. He threw the tightly folded roster towards that hand. ''Smack'', she caught it magnificently,

"Hold the door steady!"

Even in that moment, she was seating herself regally on a cushion. Then, without hesitation, she tore the roster up in pieces, put the pieces in an ashtray and quickly set it on fire with the lighter. Just like that, a little flame arose, and in a couple of seconds their worries about the roster turned to ashes. Finally, pouring some water that had been left behind in a cup over the embers put it out completely. Banri was amazed at how neatly it was done, at least on this occasion. How should he say it? To her enemies, she wasn't the type you'd want to turn your back on.

Kouko immediately opened up her carry-all, pulled out her wallet, cell phone and key-case, and stuffed it all in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Tada-kun, any valuables?"

"Ne, never carry any!"

The pounding on the door continued. An ominous creaking sound was coming from around the door knob. They could hear the sound of a large number of people running up the corridor. Banri's valuables were his cell phone, wallet and the key to his place. Those he put in his jean's pocket, tied up in a leather strap that ''Yana''-ssan had chosen for him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Kouenji].

"Can we leave the rest of the baggage?"

"Yes!"

They nodded to each other. From the other side of the door a key--- the master key, probably, the sound of it being inserted could be heard at the same time. The door opened. Angry voices echoed.

He feverishly grabbed Kouko's hand and rushed towards the window. This room was on the first floor, but,

"..."

He quickly ran to the window to look through it, it wasn't all that high, but still every cell in his body trembled in fear. His body didn't remember the terror it once had tasted. But if they remained here, things were going to get scarier still. Not just for himself, but for Kouko too. Suppressing their fears with reason, closing their eyes they abandoned themselves to the pull of gravity. Still holding Kouko's hand, they clumsily fell down together. Once they got back on their feet, they realized just how bad the slippers they had put on were, but they couldn't do anything about it.

While hearing loud cries of "They're escaping through the window!" from the mob behind them, Banri and Kouko ran out into the deep dark of the forest night.

<center>* * *</center>

Perhaps they had been a bit too reckless in the moment of their escape.

"Why... can't I get a signal...?"

"I can't get one either..."

After all of two hours had passed, both Banri and Kouko were becoming aware that they had new problems.

Their reward for escaping from the suspicious new religion, quite simply said, was to be stranded--- the path they were walking down right now, it might really be a road, or maybe just a game trail, even that much they did not know. Without map, flashlight nor even shoes, having only determination, they depended on what little light came through between the trees to continue on.

Naturally, it was dark, at night with all kinds of trees growing thickly over the mountain trail, and underfoot it was awfully wet. Sliding in the slippery mud, many times the protruding rocks kept them from their way. Fearing pursuit, they stayed away from the brighter lit roads, Banri choosing to follow the trackless paths of the forest.

Beyond the trees shone a line of lights, they had to be street lights. Those lights were a simple guide to get down the slope, but right now he wasn't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do. Since they led upwards into the mountains, he thought it would be better to go down, and did so. The line of streetlights seemed far away, and a difficult climb... he had a hunch about it.

Before long, they came to a sudden slope they couldn't cross in their awful slipper-shoes, so for the time being they started walking along the flat winding edge of a cliff, but in the end, they reached the end of their endurance.

Sitting down wherever they could on some fallen tree,

"I thought we'd come a good ways down..."

"For sure. Why haven't we reached the bottom..."

Phew..., hah..., together they let out a long sigh.

Seeing that as usual the screen showed no signs of a signal, Banri put his cellphone in his pocket.

It was already past 10 o'clock at night. It was late for local hunters to be passing by, and it was too early for the morning to break.

He thought about what he would do if only the cellphone were usable. He was thinking that if he could get in contact with Mr. Two Dimensions, or his home, or perhaps the police, he could tell them what was going on. And yet how, they were out of range. 'Build a bigger antenna!', but in such a place as this he couldn't do anything but curse the telephone company.

All their strength gone, it was as quiet as if they were falling to the ground. Falling and tumbling next, our anxieties, fears, despair... no, we can't. Banri lifted his face.

Still, it was 10 o'clock. It was too early to give up and fall into depression. Showing an unreasonably cheerful face, he took off his open-necked UNIQLO shirt and put it on Kouko's shoulders, which had only a cardigan over a thin dress. Though it was already covered with mud,

"Put these on?"

He tried to take off his socks and hand them over. It would have been good if he'd noticed a little sooner. Her feet were definitely bare. However, but she didn't put them on, nor return them, she gazed at him, in the same pose as when she received them.

Her messed up hair clinging to her cheeks, she wasn't bothering now to cover things up with a smile,

"Tada-kun"

Somewhat in a daze, Kouko turned an empty face towards Banri.

"What what what, it's OK! We'll manage somehow soon. A little rest and then we try some more!"

"I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'..."

He had been apologized to.

And what timing, Kouko's bangs, which were up, suddenly with a thud fell down, covering half her face.

"...Teacher of moonlight..."

Her laughter had returned.

Kouko was quiet for a bit, jerkily combing up her drooping bangs. Accustomed to doing it by hand without a mirror, from her mussy hair she quickly pulled out a pin and stuck it in her mouth, then using both hands as combs she skillfully fixed up her hair, and finished it off with the pin she'd taken out earlier. The messed up hair was fixed for the time being, and she'd returned to being like Kaga Kouko again, a bit. Then,

"It's my fault that things turned out this way."

Looking away from herself again, she looked straight at Banri once more. Being prettily put back in order, indeed with a serious frown, "I'm sorry", she repeated once again. Even in this moment, her large eyes were flashing darkly.

"...That's not right. 'It wasn't Kaga-san's fault', saying such things."

Without caring about how Banri was squirming,

"It was my fault! In the first place, I had the leaflets from that strange club, and they called me too. You thought that I was such a poor thing, going alone, so it was just to keep me company."

"...But I wasn't thinking it was your fault."

"That's wrong!"

"I thought it would be good if Kaga-san could make some friends in that club. Therefore, in spite of the strange feeling they gave me, I stopped worrying about it, it's OK, let's go, you're bothering Kaga-san. Therefore, it's my responsibility, of course."

"That's not right, that's wrong. ...You're just wrong!"

Shaking her head, frantically looking anywhere else, Kouko held on tightly to Banri's socks, with their unknown state of cleanliness.

"Really, it isn't your fault. ...I approached you and got close to you, thinking to trick you into giving me information about Mitsuo. From the start, which club didn't matter. Saying 'I haven't been invited to anything' was true. All the college students were already ignoring me, really. I was even aware of the gossip. But I didn't pay any attention. Yesterday, saying 'nobody calls out for me', forcing myself to look dejected, saying so, ...that was all just to draw out your sympathy."

"That so? Of course, it was all about ''Yana''-ssan."

"Yes, about Yanao.... all mixed up. Mitsuo's"

Breathing out a bit, Kouko cast her eyes down uncomfortably and looked down at her own feet. Mud was all over her bare feet and slippers.

"It was all for the sake of Mitsuo."

The voice that followed was like a monologue, echoing in the silence,

"...Well, ninety percent."

Kouko raised her face once more.

She looked into Banri's eyes. Still holding the dirty socks tightly, speaking as somebody who made a mistake, her lips twisted in irony.

"The remaining ten percent... even I don't understand."

Tired of talking after that, her next breath was a like a gasp. Her gaze trembled.

"...Understanding, from this spring arrived until yesterday, that there was only one person who bothered to speak with me. Only Tada-kun. Tada-kun called out to me, though it was news about how Mitsuo being excessively defiant... but, even though I found it hard to understand... you talked to me, ...and I was happy for that. That too is true."

"If so, then of course trying to call out to you was good."

Kouko held her tongue, looking at Banri's eyes while shaking her head softly. Not understanding that gesture very well,

"The result has been problems, though."

She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't. Kouko smiled a little, but the conversation did not continue.

The two stayed silent for a little while, gazing at each other's feet. Today having been spring, the temperate had been good and warm. Though it was chilly now, there was no worry about freezing to death.

"...I wonder what Mitsuo's doing about now? Is he worried at all about me?"

She tried to make it sound like a joke, but a little awkwardly, let it fall into the night darkness. Banri scooped it up, returning her words as lightly as possible.

"He might be. 'Where's the training camp?', I was asked later, but I didn't answer."

"Was that so?"

"Well, I could have texted from the car, but I didn't feel like it. And what's more, since afterwards we were always out of range, wouldn't he be rather worried? So it is, there it is, and before long, that anxious feeling unexpectedly becomes a hot possessiveness, a heaviness sitting on ''Yana''-ssan's heart..."

Hearing Banri's little joke, a smile clearly broke across the well ordered features of Kouko's face.

"Enough. That's not right. You're making things up."

Indeed, just like her, even in smiling she seemed to be plotting something too perfect. He realized that it had been a long time since he'd seen that face. Cheered, Banri too smiled broadly.

"''Yana''-ssan noticed, you know. From what I see, that childhood friendship must have been important."

"Yes, yes yes! What about it?"

"There were already gloomy thoughts... even doubts like, 'Am I a stalker?'...! It was, but wait! As far as I'm concerned, of course it's my fate to be married to this girl! 'Kuoukuoooo---------!'"

"Kyaa! Muitsuuo---------!"

The two were messing around, laughing their heads off in the sultry dark, reaching their hands out towards each other. Banri his right hand, Kouko her left. Building into a sudden and strange excitement, they made a lot of noise, their extended hands unable to reach each other, no matter what...! That was how they were playing together.

"You're messing up my entrance! Ugyaa! Kaagaasaan! Yaanaasaan!"

"Ahahaha! Taadaa-kuuuun!"

The fingertip of his left hand trembling fearfully, it neared Kouko's extended fingertip, approaching through the dark night air. But of course, since it was all a joke,

"Such an act, Baan!"

Taking the charade to its end, with Banri as "Mitsuo", Kouko clapped her hands and let them fall. Kyaaa, Kouko's hands sketched a big arc as they came down. Flutter flutter flutter, plop, with a sad sound the rotten tree to her side fell. Kouko laughed for a little bit, then,

"...Eh, wasn't that awful just now?"

All of a sudden she looked at Banri seriously. It wasn't that bad, since it was all a joke, she shook her side from side to side.

"I was referring to the socks. You ought to put them on."

He prompted her with a jerk of his chin.

It looked like Kouko finally remembered about Banri's socks, which were still sitting in her lap. Bending over, she put them on. They could serve to protect her slipper-clad bare feet from getting dirty, at least. Seeing that, Banri nodded in approval.

Though outwardly Kouko seemed lonely, it was after all ninety-percent a pretense to "Get Yana!" Even hearing this from her, he wasn't upset. Was this because he expected such from her? Was it because "it doesn't matter", and he was suddenly rebellious? Was it because, following the "there's no sick child" formula, his "good man" circuit got switched on? Was it simply because with things being the way they were at the moment, his emotions were simply paralyzed? Or perhaps this was just another proof of Yanagisawa's theory that "For beautiful people, life is fun" --- was he being led around by the nose by the beautiful Kouko, and his heart was under her control?

Trying to think, Banri concluded a short while later that he simply didn't know.

Kouko had come back for him.

Despite it seeming unlikely that she was going to love anybody but Yanagisawa Mitsuo anytime soon, and Banri being only barely somebody that "could not be left behind", she had come back to get him.

Watching the miserable-seeming Banri while they were leaving, the other freshmen had no intention of criticizing him (since he had persuaded them to leave him there by himself), but finally she had raised her voice. She didn't doubt Mr. Two Dimension's friendship, but after all, as the driver he probably would not be able to return.

But, indeed Kouko, even if only as a friend Kaga Kouko, even if she couldn't remember his name, returned for the sake of Banri "He isn't Mitsuo", something he didn't even think she would do. He didn't think there were such people.

Since Kouko behaved that way, and with the "ten percent" just mentioned, it seemed that perhaps there just might be something inside her.

That something existed inside her he knew at least, just what use it would be, well it's all your fault, whatever, to Banri it didn't seem likely.

"...I wonder if ''Yana''-ssan knows Kaga-san's in that kind of state."

"What kind of state?"

"No, something like... It's because it seemed you're a little different when ''Yana''-ssan is around, versus when he is not."

A little to his dismay, he saw Kouko's eyes open wide. Or so he thought.

For Banri, the time Yanagisawa was with Kouko was when she gave him a surprise attack with a huge bouquet of roses. Beating the daylights out of Yanagisawa with roses in front of all the new students, throwing them at the guy and leaving. As if patting a pet, looking down from above, disregarding whatever complaint Yanagisawa might have had. Pursuing the escaped Yanagisawa, reproaching him for having escaped. If she somehow caught him, she would use up to live ammunition (it's a matter of money).

Saying "Whatever, it doesn't matter", while Banri seemed to be the only person waiting in Kouko's "ten percent." Saying, "I can't leave him behind in such a place", and returning, seemingly just for Banri. Even awkwardly trying to apologize, then even trying to horse around and laugh like an ordinary girl, maybe, just for Banri. ...Maybe.

Banri, because he saw that, today's Kouko, yesterday's Kouko--- the Kouko around Yanagisawa was a different person, he thought.

But Yanagisawa, if he had seen the same thing, he probably would have thought the "Now-Kouko" different.

"If so, I think he'd be wrong."

She went quiet for a moment, as if thinking, then,

"In the time I was with Mitsuo, I was complete. You just might have that right."

Laughing a little, she looked at Banri, then averted her eyes. Raising her slim leg straight up, she looked at Banri's socks covering her toes. Seeing that sidelong look made her seem to him a girl he didn't know.

"Without Mitsuo, I am incomplete. Whether getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, eating my meals or going to school, dressing up nice, crying or laughing, it is all for Mitsuo. He is the whole purpose behind everything I do. If it weren't so, I wouldn't even try. Without him, life has no meaning. It was always that way for me. If he's not following behind me, there is nothing I can do. If Mitsuo's not there, I don't know what I should do. Even now, I want to get back safely, because Mitsuo is there. Am I thinking like a fool? It's OK, because I really am a fool."

But such love she had for herself, that continuing, Kouko looked up once more to Banri's eyes, straightened her back, and showed her perfect, beautiful smile. This once again, was the face of a girl he didn't know.

To such a person as this, well, whatever he said she wouldn't want to listen anyhow, so, covering up his feelings, Banri gave her a frank reply,

"...If that were the case, it would all be fine in spite of your having gotten ''Yana''-ssan mad. But there what with the roses, as far as his life is concerned, the completed person is very messed up. Far from being nice to him, wasn't it an attack? Why did you willingly do something to get yourself disliked?"

He said that for now. As for her internal ten percent --- his purpose was for her to know that he existed.

It seemed she heard him perfectly, judging by the stiffly displeased look on her lips in the dark.

"He... that wasn't good for Mitsuo."

"How so? It seems to me the perfect Kaga-san isn't so good, normally."

"But! But, you're wrong! I have my reasons! I exploded after four months of frustration! It's not like I planned for such a thing to happen! It was my intention to ride up in the taxi with the roses, congratulate him with a smile and hand over the roses! Just leaving behind the smell of roses... surprising Mitsuo... and then around campus, we'd say 'those roses mark the spot we got together...', that was an even more perfect scenario!"

"Was that what you thought meeting up with him would be like?"

"He would have said, 'That was a knockout blow: You had the courage to have pursued me to the same university!' "

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously! Really, that's was how it was supposed to be! But... well, the result was this. ...Mitsuo, was always telling me about 'doing the escalator'. I found out that was all a lie around the end of the year. Since then I always pretended to be deceived, so that it looked to him that I was doing the escalator too, faking it to the point of taking the same entrance exams."

"A disguise..."

"Wig and glasses. Suspecting a second entrance exam, I called up the examiner. So it was that day after day he kept on lying, and I could see it the whole time. Perhaps today he would tell me the truth. Perhaps tomorrow. 'Surely the day after tomorrow...', I persisted, but all the way to the end, graduation already done, Mitsuo wouldn't tell me the truth. I overlooked the lies. Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, idiotically walking with Tada-kun, looking as if he were having fun... 'What the heck!?' I couldn't stand it anymore."

How many seconds of silence passed? And then,

"Now, I am regretting it."

Kouko looked up into the night sky.

Starlight shining through a break in the trees fell on Kouko from above. She gave a deep sigh, together with a thin voiced "ah". Head hanging down, her hair again hung straight down.

"...Seems like it... From where I sit, it seems you are being disliked, right? Even at the entrance ceremony, it would have been better if you'd simply hugged him and given him a kiss. What you accomplished was different. ...Even so, to be ignored so completely and perfectly... was certainly not."

That's the way it was, really--- Banri looked back at the sad face whitely illuminated, quietly thinking.

Really, I think that's the way it is, Kaga-san. Better than hurting him like that with roses, nearly to the point of drawing blood, just showing that face--- that Kaga Kouko, even once, would be far better, he thought.

A million times, or ten million times, or even a trillion times better, he thought.

Banri had not known until now how somebody could be impatient with human clumsiness, even like this. Because of how the day was turning out, he knew the feeling for the first time.

"The only one who's supposed to do dumb things like that, in this world, ever, is me."

Perhaps too tired still to walk again, Kouko stiffly moved her legs while just barely cracking a smile.

"I don't think you're like that, though. You're just not the type of person to be able to do that right."

"Yep, it's absolutely just me. ...I am the most to blame in this, I did something dumb. What about you, Tada-kun? What about you? Is there somebody you like? Do you have a girlfriend?"

She was planting landmines under the night sky.

It was a rest-break with no more meaning than that, so more easily than ever Banri was able to open his mouth and chat with her.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don’t know for myself. Just that 'My memories were all blown away,' since that's speaking the truth."

Like a surprise attack, Kouko winked back at him.

"...What kind of speaking?"

"Speaking about loss of memory."

Banri pointed at his head with his finger. "Well...", while he began hesitantly to talk, that finger turning in circles.

"It was shortly after my high school graduation ceremony. Early in the morning, I was alone and it seems I fell from the bridge. Since then my memory has left me. Though I may feel like saying it, I can't just say '...So what?' It doesn't work to say that every time I talk. For the time being, could you simply understand? I can't be always saying things like 'I can't remember anything from childhood through high school', of course."

As he looked at Kouko, who had fallen completely silent, looking troubled, Banri thought "Well, she ought to be!" If somebody were to suddenly talk about losing their memory, you'd probably be confused too.

But normally, I would hope you would just be seeing the face of an ordinary nineteen year old boy.

"A marvelous thing, the word "remembering"--- an ordinary, normal thing in the Japanese language. Whatever year A.D. it be, whatever you call it, whatever you study, whatever you watch on television, whatever calendar a person or actor uses, it is understood. Even the teacher of moonlight, right? Even Ruu Ooshiba, right? I don't understand the problem with me. My particular memories don't exist. People I knew or were related to, who I liked, ...in short the things that gave me 'individuality'. It is certainly a strange tale. My family, my friends, and my self all stored in my memories, even after a year of rehabilitation, even after all I did, completely gone. What's more,"

Seeming unable to remember 'that' feeling, the self-conscious Banri picked his words carefully.

"Very slowly, my emotions returned. They seemed like something I missed... but if I chased after them, they fled away. For example, imagine a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Trying to read it, you would look at it, and automatically from your gaze a beam would burn up the sentence. It felt rather like that. The traces of memory were like a ghostly tail I could barely touch, and it seemed to be rapidly fading away. That was a rather scary feeling..."

After the accident always, if I didn't remember, if I didn't remember quickly, then it just faded away. Time passed, and I rapidly lost track of things. More than simply pointing out "You have certainly lost something", the feeling of losing something was always, always fresh.

"But as time passed, even those feelings disappeared, and I became resigned to it, saying 'What's the use?' But, it mattered nothing since I was unable to sense them anymore. Losing it was scary, though I couldn't really feel it since it was already 'gone'. Because of that, things got easier."

What was left to Banri now was just a memory of the fear of that time when everything was rapidly leaving him.

"Because of that, I had to study over again for the entrance exams, as if I'd had to start life over again."

"...Err..."

"Sorry, I was speaking nonsense."

"...Yes. No problem... It's just that,"

Kouko brought her hands to her chest. As she took a number of deep breaths, he saw that her hands moved together with her chest.

"...How you can say that's OK, I have no idea."

"But it is. Excuse me, really, but I'm not worried about it. Really now, since you're in good health. What's your blood type? What's your sign? You like soy sauce or paste? Memory loss? Mem riloss? That's about what I heard. If you have any questions, please let me know."

From Kouko's mumbling, it seemed she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, and didn't know what to say.

"...Err, well... weren't you just saying you wanted to get back...?"

"Yes, I must have been."

Since it was his long awaited chance to talk with her, he had wanted to be able to answer truthfully and honestly, Banri thought.

"Nonexistent things don't make sense to me. I'll say that first of all. As for myself, I have no choice but to speak from my own feelings. But, as for other people, I could understand them saying that they might want the original Tada Banri to return. In fact, it's about time he tried to return, I think. But in that regard, it gives me the feeling that adding memories to my current self is OK, even though it is replacing parts of my personality, so to speak, allowing the disappearance of my former self to be forgiven. From the start it looked impossible, and I've even been saying all along that there was nothing I could do, or even wanted to do."

"...Is that so?"

Her face serious as she listened to Banri's tale, Kouko lowered her eyes a little as if in thought.

"...That was a really strange story, wasn't it? What kind of guy was he, the vanished side of Tada Banri-kun? Perhaps he's watching over the current Tada-kun wherever he is... Kind of like a ghost in the background."

And, Kouko, seeming to notice something, suddenly turned around.

"What? What's going on? Is there a ghost behind Kaga-san?"

"...Something, just now, I saw a small flash of light... ah, ah, look!"

Kouko was pointing towards a thick grove of trees. She stared as the little light, certainly not a street light, swayed back and forth.

"You're right! Somebody's there! Let's go, let's call for help! Can you stand!?"

"Yep!"

Banri took Kouko by the hand, the two of them staggering while they frantically walked out on the muddy path. "Excuuse mee! Could you help uusss! We've had an accideennnt!", they raised their frantic voices.

On the other side of the trees, the shadowy figure held a nearly dead flashlight. Their voices still not noticed, anyway in a daze they continued advancing, having no choice. Sliding while supporting Kouko's hand, pushing through grass, clearing away branches, hurrying but not falling down.

A line of people, ...everyone with their bodies bent over a little, moving their hands and feet uncertainly. All of them. In the middle of the night on a mountain trail, while they shone the light on each other. What a strange atmosphere, he thought. It was about time.

"Ju, jujuju, just a second. Tada-kun, those are really strange people."

Kouko stopped walking. She looked at Banri.

"What I mean... aren't they those believers from earlier...!?"

If that were the case, then jumping would be a big mistake. A huge, fatal blunder. Trying to retreat, confused, they broke a branch, making a sound. Whereupon, no matter how much they kept from raising their voices,

"Is somebody there?"

A long straight beam of light turned towards them. With a surprised-sounding voice,

"...Banri!?"

They heard somebody's surprised shout. The light gave a big shake at the voice.

Exhausted, Kouko's strength gave out. Supporting her, pulling her along so they could escape, Banri eventually crumbled to his knees too. Standing up and running to escape hurriedly on foot, they vainly rejected the slimy damp earth. They were already at the limit of their strength. Even if everybody was a believer, there was nothing more they could do. However,

"It's me! Don't you understand!? Hey, it's me! Remember!"

Shouting while the person pointed the light at him, he suddenly raised both hands high, encompassing the whole place, shouting "Hey!" and striking a pose. That pose reminded him of something---

"...Eh!? Maybe, maybe, you..."

Even the disaster of the school entrance ceremony had laid land-mines for him!

"Barbara!?"

"It's me, Linda!"

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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3

2013-11-02T05:45:20Z

Perfect Chaos: Minor typo

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 3==
[[Image:Golden Time vol01 091.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.

It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri's side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cellphone, by the transmit light.

He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can't hear you well, hello hello, it's me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that's fine. I'll be staying one day at the club training camp. That's all."

In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.

"OK then, until next time I call!"

"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn't understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.

Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?

Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, ''Banri's cool!'', he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What's up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.

In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn't sit down. He wasn't about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.

Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cellphone. The train still hadn't arrived, and he hadn't received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.

My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.

''Wham'', at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri's face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.

Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-saan"

It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.

When she noticed Banri's hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren't any lectures on Saturday, and there weren't any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.

"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"

"Did the older girl show up?"

"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."

Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.

An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.

A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.

Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko's face.

Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl's College during yesterday's encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the 'All-Around Intercollegiate Club' to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.

From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.

Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly a crowded little place, but a good find, and then they'd been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought 'This is a café-au-lait bowl?', but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the
conversation.

Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Like getting all the language credits within the first year, you really ought to get a part time job, those that can get a girlfriend or boyfriend should be able to by the first year summer break, it's been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.

Regardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.

Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we'll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at twelve-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to ''do'' something.

So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn't he see that? A training facility in prefecture K. Weren't there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn't too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you're a freshman, of course there are no fees. It's OK, it's OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don't ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it's already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It's all right, by participating, that's how we'll do it. Deciding would be good, don't you think? Right?

It must have been the mood of the conversation.

He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other's expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally nodded as one.

That'd be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I'm tired... I want to go home... if we say we'll participate we'll be able to leave... Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn't say anything, but wasn't going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.

Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.

Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, 'let's go!' They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.

Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night's worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn't going on this outing.

"Hey, Tada-kun."

He didn't know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.

"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"

With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.

"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying 'Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member's training camp.'"

"...And Mitsuo?"

Pulling out his cellphone, it didn't seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You're kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.

Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri's face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.

"Don't worry about it. It's my problem."

"Yes, so it is."

Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko's eyes.

"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it's a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."

"Won't catch either, of course."

Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,

"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."

Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn't fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.

"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn't it, rather this is. When it comes to men, whenever they are being chased, they want to escape. And when they escape it makes everybody want to chase them again, it seems like... doesn't it? Won't the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? 'Wives and tatami mats and... tuna fish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?' ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn't understand..."

"That's OK. It's enough explanation for now."

"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"

Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.

"Mitsuoo! ...It's not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"

She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.

"And so, just look, you've got me instead! ...And it seems to me that ''Yana''-ssan wouldn't mind."

Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.

"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It's quite an accomplishment, seeing as Mitsuo does care where I'm going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."

"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I'd be going to the drinking party alone."

"I don't think you'd have been alone. ...Those guys, aren't they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman training camp with them."

Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,

"Ah! Isn't that Mr. Two Dimensions?"

"Eh? You're kidding. Tada Banri?"

His acquaintance didn't fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.

"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman training camp too?"

"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is ''Yana''-ssan a member too?"

"''Yana''-ssan isn't coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."

Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, Civil Law, I saw you, you were, are, Monday it was, second hour," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user's manual of a bootleg copy of ''Pachimon'', he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.

Kouko in her way,

"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"

She wasn't speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can't understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.

"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"

Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri's explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he'd shouted, "And that's why three-dimensions is bad! You're all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon spitting lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.

As she watched Mr. Two Dimension's face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.

But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.

It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ij%C5%ABin Ijuuin]-kun, or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lupin_III_characters#Daisuke_Jigen Jigen Daisuke]-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn't here."

Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn't anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to answer.

That, despite the fact that she didn't have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!

"But, from here on out, you won't be able to get away with that!", Banri declared in his mind to Kouko's smiling face. Neither Banri nor Mr. Two Dimensions were simply creatures that weren't Mitsuo, and over the next two days and one night together with Kouko, participating in the training camp, they should be able to become "friends" instead.

"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world's not all that bad a place."

Banri playfully tugged at the shirt sleeve of Mr. Two Dimensions, who was still mumbling, unable to look at Kouko's face.

"What's with you? Haven't you come back to three dimensions, it's a little late already, a little late."

"You're mistaken! Even in two dimensions, I've been wondering recently, it's something I've been thinking about! Even in two dimensions, I had thought I wanted to look for the ideal depiction, but of course, what I mean is, it was hard! But in the end, other people's creations were not 100% satisfactory, seems like! Why not just stop?"

"It's OK, it's OK, keep going."

"That so? Well then, especially of late, I've found myself getting deeply involved with a female character of my own creation. Creating the setting, drawing the pictures, coloring them, deciding the words she uses and how she says them, what her favorite food is, from the way we would date, becoming more and more intimate from one episode to another, becoming my ''perfect'' dream, ...hey, was it really OK to say this? Should I not have stopped?"

Kouko, who had been mumbling approving noises and nodding her head while ignoring what was being said, slowly stopped shaking her head. After a little while, it seemed the correct answer occurred to her, and with a 60W grin,

"A little more of that, and you'll be Mr. One Dimension!"

"What in the world are you saying, Kaga Kouko...", thought Banri.

A surprised snort escaped from one girl of a group of three standing not far from Banri's group. Little sports bags stuffed with rough-looking attire, denim and sneakers, they probably were going to the same freshman training camp as friends,

"Soorryy, this person, even if she looks like she does, can be really dumb at times."

Banri tried to point at Kouko as their smiling faces turned towards him. They seemed to be group of friends, all three of them smiling as one while nervously stepping up. Kouko herself said, "Eh, dumb? Who?", looking back at Banri's face, wondering.

"Hello, I'm Tada Banri, and with me Kaga-san and Mr. Two Dimensions. Are all of you going to the freshman training camp from here?"

At the sound of Banri's voice, they saw for the first time the faces of two more guys, who joined them with slightly nervous expressions. At Kouko's 'Mr. One Dimension' exclamation, the girls looked around at everybody smiling, and started their introductions at once.

A car-horn sounded, three modest beeps. Everybody turned towards the street.

"Yes yes yesss! Sorry for being late, the cars are here so all aboard!"

The upperclassman came out to them from the first car parked by the side of the road.

Which reminded Banri that he had in fact failed to get her name--- which thing, of course, it was a little late to talk about now.

The club upperclassmen, together with some other freshman students, got into several rented station wagons.

An upperclassman handed a blank form to Banri, who was confused over which car to get into.

"Could all of you write their name, address and telephone number here? And if they are living away from home, then their parents' addresses too. This will be part of our insurance documents. It's because of our liability if anything happens at the training camp. Do it neatly, leaving out nothing. Everybody else is done writing their information. Yes, because you're Tada-kun, OK? This column, OK? I mean, even though this parking lot is rather noisy, and it's bad to be in such a hurry? Sorry about that, yes, hurry up, but read it carefully, it's just in case anything happens, OK?"

Insurance. Parking lot. Not fully understanding but unwilling to go against the social pressure, Banri the fool wrote down their personal information in a rush, but honestly. Passing the pen and the register to Kouko, she gracefully wrote down her name and address too, and passed it on to Mr. Two Dimensions.

And then, all the freshmen having signed the list, the upperclassman took her own bag and,

"Yes, thanks! You and you to the first car, OK? You over there. You that way. You and you get on that car at the end of the line. And now, you and you,"

Banri nudged Kouko's elbow and grinned.

"You're with me in that car, let's hurry up and get in!"

He opened the station wagon's door and they were greeted at once by a clear voice, saying "Hi there!". While Banri and Kouko returned the greeting, they sat down side by side in the middle.

"Okay, all the freshmen will be by the windows!"

The upperclassmen were rearranged, and everybody was able to be seated. An upperclassman got into the car right next to Banri.

"Today's weather turned out good, eh?"

With a smile, she sat down as if the spot belonged to her by right. In the front seat, the cool-looking guy next to Kouko said, "Nice to meet you, I'm a third-year from **** college."

All the freshmen that had been gathered from all the colleges were sitting separately by the windows. All of them, with nervous faces not speaking out. Banri and Kouko were in the same boat. For some reason the other seats were occupied by clear-voiced, smiling, laughing upperclassmen. It was somehow strangely uncomfortable, uncomfortable for sure, but they couldn't argue about it. The seating was arranged.

"Drinks and such are prepared if you'd like!"

"Ah, yes..."

Hanging from the neck of the smiling upperclassman to his side, a necklace with a snowflake design glittered. If he remembered correctly, she was wearing it yesterday too. It was probably her favorite. Casually looking over at the other upperclassman, just above his shirtcollar, Banri noticed he was wearing the same necklace. He wondered if they were really close, or if it was a uniform.

"Is everybody's seat belt on? Nobody needs the bathroom? Cause once we get on the freeway we have no plans to stop!"

The upperclassman in the driver's seat looked back. At his neck too, the same necklace. This guy having one on, even if it was so many close friends matching up, of course it seemed quite strange. Well of course! Does everybody in this club have to wear one? Banri discretely looked towards the necks of the other upperclassman in the vehicle.

"Why are you looking around like that?"

Suddenly asking the upperclassman with a straight face, "Isn't it strange that everybody's wearing matching necklaces? Just curious...", didn't get him an answer. She said, "It's nothing", giving Banri a vague deceptive smile, the station wagons lining up to leave. From where Banri sat, all he could see of Kouko was the billowing hair on the top of her head.

Inside the vehicle pop music was playing continuously and loudly, the upperclassmen singing in a sort of high-tension karaoke--- the first-years silent, strangely nervous still--- with things staying like that throughout the drive, which took about two hours.

Banri, once more attacked by uneasiness, was wondering if they shouldn't ought be getting off the freeway already when the time arrived.

The line of rental cars was passing in front of the university's seminar house. Following a road through the forest, a sign with the name of the college that Banri was attending was standing there, but they ignored it. What's more, the line of station wagons continued onwards into the mountains. Were they taking the wrong road, or perhaps, did the seminar house the upperclassman was talking about belong to another college?

That's what it looked like. None of the other freshmen at the windows, not even Kouko, noticed. Nobody said anything. While watching the sign get further away the other side of the window, should I keep quiet? Perhaps we're really going the wrong way, and if so what should we do? He couldn't decide whether they should turn around at that moment.

He noticed that the upperclassman gave him a sharp glance when he looked at the sign through the window. With the loud music flowing through the inside of the car, they had stared at each other for all of three seconds. As it was, realizing that the strange silence was dragging on, he boldly decided to ask her.

"Welll... didn't we just pass the seminar house?"

"Eh? What?"

Putting her hand to her ear, she indicated that she hadn't heard him.

"Just now, the seminar house, didn't we pass it!?"

He spoke louder and clearer this time, moving his mouth closer to her ear to overcome the music. The smell of her hair went up his nose, strangely unnatural and strong.

"What, what!? Eh, I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! I mean, stop it already, this is embarrassing! Cut it out!"

While smiling, she firmly pushed Banri back, putting her weight into it. And then suddenly, she said, "What's with me? Am I getting a little sleepy already?", and put her head on Banri's shoulder. Her upturned eyes at point blank range, lips coming together in a slight pout.

When he couldn't react, she casually placed her hand on his knee. The palm of her hand, slowly but steadily warming up, inched around as if to fondle him. While drawing circles, it came creeping towards his thigh. While so doing, she gazed moistly at Banri's eyes. She said, "Are you happy? Did I make your heart race? Did I make you hope?", while she gave him a look full of self-confidence.

But, distinctly scary. Her soft chest pushing against his elbow, Banri pulled away from her as softly as he could. A boy with a girl close by, whatever the situation might be, would be happy. That she even thought that way was scary, but more importantly, what if what she was doing up to this point wasn't a trick? That by itself was frightening.

But those innermost thoughts of Banri's became irrelevant as the line of cars slowed down, left the trees and turned from the beautifully paved private road and then entered what was apparently a driveway. To the left and right, high concrete walls were built, forming a C-curve in front, attached to the roof all the way down to the driveway.

Where they had arrived wasn't particularly big, but judging by the brickwork, it was evidently a pretty nice facility, two buildings set side by side.

Urged by the upperclassmen, they got down out of the cars. The older girl tried to join hands with Banri, reaching out for him, but Banri pretended not to notice, calling out "Kaga-saan!" and trotting, chasing after Kouko, who had walked ahead, in order to escape from the her. As soon as Kouko saw Banri's face, she stopped walking and they stood side by side, and in a whisper,

"Ah, I finally was able to talk to somebody who knew. The upperclassman next to me, he just kept talking to me the whole time... but it wasn't boring, I had been somewhat tired... How was it for you?"

"As for me..."

He'd touched somebody that way in public. No, rather, he had been touched that way in public. But he couldn't talk about that, not with Kouko.

"...Same here. I'm a bit tired too."

Banri also answered quietly. Before he realized it, a crowd of freshmen had formed. The upperclassmen surrounded them, pushing the freshmen towards an opening, keeping up with them as they walked into the facility. They had no choice but to walk together in a line.

Marble used all over the place, even the entrance polished to a wonderful sheen, here and there decorated with big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaenopsis moth orchids], it really seemed more like a hotel, or an art museum. Pulling her carryall while going inside, to Kouko it seemed strange to have so much room.

"By the way, are we sure this place is really the college's seminar house? Would they have something as nice as this while their school buildings are falling apart?"

"...I don't think so..."

"Eh?"

Once all the freshmen had entered, a strange high sound arose and the entrance door closed. Shortly, in that darkened lobby, the lights were turned on.

In the center there glittered a huge piece of artwork, shaped like a snowflake.

On the pedestal a gold plate was affixed, inscribed with 'The Shape of God in our Times'. That god would be incarnated a million years from now! ---In other words, for the next five hours until they locked their rooms, Banri knew they would be subjected to a lecture.

<center>* * *</center>

Of course, he wanted to flee.

In short, they had been placed under house arrest by a new religion disguised as a club. But he couldn't talk with his fellow freshmen, as they were under a constant guard. They struck anybody who even looked like he was talking! It was such a low class thing to do, and some freshmen opened their mouths in protest, but the older students separated anybody who did so. For the moment the uneasy freshmen trying to gather together were kept apart, gently perhaps, but physically separated. Talk amongst the freshmen was not permitted; that was the message clearly being sent.

Before the lecture, everybody's bags were collected, tossed into a single room and locked up. At that point, strangely enough, they were permitted to get out their cellphones, but, whether it was from being in the middle of the mountains, or it was on purpose, Banri's cellphone wasn't the only one with no signal. There was not a phone in sight, so getting in contact with the outside was going to be difficult.

Dinnertime was completely silent, a sort of prayer ritual. Even a funeral would have been more exciting.

On little tables arranged in a semicircle there were placed glasses of cold beer and various kinds of soft drinks. As far as that went, this was an ordinary club training camp, quite so, no, perhaps of a rather extravagant type, but the freshmen were scattered about, kept apart, and everyone who understood the situation was keeping ominously quiet about it.

Banri was seated at the end of the semicircle. Next to him was the older girl. Kouko, from one of the center seats, looked vaguely down at the tables, her white face still blank. Occasionally, she would glance quickly at Banri, each of them seeing in this situation "Danger...!", both of them recognizing it, but neither of them able to do anything about it. Mr. Two Dimensions, too, on the other side could be seen with his head bowed.

Really and truly, it had become something dangerous.

"Now then everyone, let's get moving! Everybody, take your glasses!"

The hot upperclassman seated next to Kouko stood up and raised his voice for no apparent reason. Even some of the other upperclassmen whistled and booed at the sudden, unnaturally forced enthusiasm.

"Well then! Congratulations for the newly created children, tonight's excellent full moon, and another gathering recorded for the next 10,000 years! Ready, cheers! Hello new children!"

"Hello!", the upperclassmen said, raising their glasses.

Banri and the other freshmen, all of them, were looking down at their knees, petrified. The tops of their heads could be seen lined up around the semicircle.

Almost as if he were praying silently, "What should I do?", an over-familiar touch at his shoulder,

"What's wrong, new children! Loook, at long last the day of your awakening is here! Let's have a little more enthusiasm!"

With a smile as wide as her face, she raised her glass. Banri's head going numb to the core, he was unable to answer anything more, and he stared at the golden liquid which filled the glass. He remembered something strange. The day of the entrance ceremony, at the convenience store, when he met Yanagisawa at the mirror, they'd toasted with ice-bars. At that time, they were completely mismatched though somehow it was really fun. In the few days since then, they'd come surprisingly far. He could hardly wait for those peaceful times to return.

As it was, Banri was already thinking about how they couldn't keep them there too many days. Come Monday there would be school, a few freshmen vanishing would become a big deal, maybe even a matter for the police.

So anyway for this one night and two days, perhaps he could have the patience to let it pass by. Quickly getting drunk, quickly getting smashed, just sleeping through it all, morning would come soon enough.

"..."

As if.

Anyway, if he quietly kept his patience until tomorrow in this weird place--- glass full of beer in her hand, she looked at Banri,

"Yes, yes! It was really fun winning! Yes, one round, cheeeers!"

"Ch, cheers..."

Giving another glad smile, she gulped down the delicious looking beer.

Kouko was looking his way with a startled look on her face. She was putting the chilled glass to her mouth, since she couldn't avoid doing so, but she looked back at Banri, her feelings exposed.

But--- was that so?

If he were to think about it, he was responsible for the fact that she had been brought here.

He'd answered the upperclassman, saying, "Let's go together!", he told himself. Nonetheless, Kouko was confused.

Besides, it would have been a better to have chatted some more back at the coffee shop. Caught as they were, if he thought about it now, it was suspicious. Wasn't it written in plain sight? This time for sure, he had to be on guard about the strange upperclassman who stuck too close for comfort. Even so, his nervousness at finding himself together with Kouko, his hopes of being able to be friends with her, everything combined to blind his radar.

Since they'd decided to come and participate in the training camp, he'd been dumb. Exhausted, unable to think and with his judgement lost, if he so much as nodded it would be over, and... swept away, to such a state he'd been brought. And now, he was regretting it to death.
Banri considered not swallowing the beer touching his mouth.

Of course, he couldn't.

Already, he wouldn't do things like that.

If he had been patient enough while they'd been speaking of such things, maybe they wouldn't have gone so far. From the beginning, the purpose of isolating the training camp, wearing out its participants, making them give up, stopping their thought processes, appeared to be a trap.

And then... no, no way, they can't just brainwash me when I don't understand what they're teaching, he thought. Still, Banri looked sidelong at the upperclassman next to him. He started drinking the delicious beer, eating their cooking and talking with the other upperclassmen.

Actually, surrounded by unusually good looking and healthy seeming guys and gals, the danger hadn't really sunk in.

If he didn't want to become like them, if he even wanted to live in ordinary reality, he needed to escape from here. Absolutely. Banri spit out the beer he held in his mouth into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshibori damp towel] provided on his table.

But, he was worried about that roster he'd signed, where they'd hurried him to write down his personal information. Kouko, himself and all the rest too, they had been perhaps too foolishly honest when they'd written down their addresses and contact information. Wasn't that what all the persistent nagging was all about?

He absolutely, absolutely couldn't give Mom and Dad back home anything more to worry about.

That roster had been placed in the upperclassman's own duffle. And then together with the freshmen's luggage, now, it was locked up in a room.

What should I do?

"...This is no fun! We can't do anything like this!"

Suddenly, crash! At the sudden, high, echoing sound, Banri lifted his face. Mr. Two Dimensions had thrown his glass to the floor.

"What's this about 10,000 years in the future! Giving thanks to a crystal master! How messed up can you be, believing in a three-dimensional thing like that!? You've been tricking us from the start, calling this an 'all around club'! I mean, isn't this imprisonment!? Isn't that a crime!? Do you even think anybody could keep quiet about people doing such things!?"

Decisively stated by Mr. Two Dimensions, the other freshmen stood up too.

"Let's go out to the cars now! I don't want to stay in this place any longer!"

"I'm going to sue them!"

Not knowing yet what he should do, Banri stood anyway. At that moment, in the fragments of glass scattered about broken on the floor, for just an instant, just how many broken reflections of himself were there to be seen?

Aspects of himself could be seen in all of them.

A worn out face. A scared face. An angry face. A face trying hard. A face ready to cry. So many variations of his face. And then suddenly a look that seemed to ask, "What are you going to do, Tada Banri?" At such a time as this, Tada Banri, what should a guy be doing?

Tada Banri ---

"Everybody, such an outburst wasn't called for. Just calm down for now."

--- realized he ought to do something.

The upperclassmen, seated in a row, showed no surprise. They were all watching Mr. Two Dimensions' composed smile, Banri's raised voice and the state of the other freshmen. It had all been arranged for, even this situation. This 'facility in the mountains' was their place of power, and what with the talk of their planning to make an offering, Banri was rather scared. But he couldn't do more than that, since nothing had been decided. He had no other choice for now.

Himself, he would do something unexpected.

"Anybody who wants to go home, that's fine if they do."

While he was talking, his body was trembling. Hiding it, he continued, "But I don't want to go back."

"What are you saying, Tada Banri!?"

Mr. Two Dimensions looked at Banri's face as if in shock. Kouko did too. Eyes opened wide, standing up. At the same time the table shook, tipping the glasses over. Shaking off their glances, Banri suddenly raised his voice.

"I mean, frankly, that where until things were so tense, now you're talking about it being boring! Just what is it you can't spit out? You speak of crime, but, even though recently you were still underage, you were drinking! Drinking underage at the Tea Ceremony is a crime, but you didn't speak of that! Seems the same to me. If you could let things like that slide, then maybe you can have fun here! It's convenient to ignore it, say it's not a crime, but isn't that really selfish? Such a bothersome guy you are, even entering here you are such an annoyance!"

Mr. Two Dimensions tried to interrupt, but he was prevented by a loud voice.

"Anyhow I want to have some fun here! Speaking of such boring things is tiresome, it's annoying! Sirs, these guys are clearly a bother! Since they want to go home, can't they just leave? Kick out these bothersome ones, and then let's get to the drinking party! I came here to have some real fun!"

He took revenge for her public assault on him.

Grabbing the older girl's hand, he shook back and forth like a little kid. But, his opponent being a master of the same techniques, she looked back at Banri, her eyes wary.

"...Do you really want to stay here? Even if everybody else returned? That so, eh? But, why would you?"

"I was quite impressed by the lecture I heard."

The last words shook, but that probably made it seem more truthful.

"In perfect seriousness, I would like to hear what the other upperclassmen here have to say. What I mean, really,"

He ordered his knees to stop shaking.

"Actually, I was seriously injured in high school, and all my memories were blown away. I've suffered amnesia, so to speak. I have suffered much from that. When I woke up, I suddenly knew nobody else in all the world. Not parents, nor friends, nor acquaintances nor anybody else. It was really lonely. But now... with the lecture about this new world to come, at last it looked like I may be saved. Though it sounds like it may be a lie, this, isn't something you made up. If here and now, there were a police investigation, or a hospitalization, I wouldn't receive an explanation nor would there be a meeting. In truth why"

Through his hair, the older girl could see the ugly scar still present on his scalp. The marks from surgery spread down to the neck of his T-shirt, running down even to his shoulders. He wondered if he ought to pull down his blue-jeans to show them the long stitch-scars running down his thighs to the knees.

"...That's enough. Forgive us for being suspicious, new children. ...That hurt, didn't it...!"

This is powerfully persuasive. What's going on here?

Looking at the point of tears, the older girl was looking at Banri sympathetically. She believed what he was saying just now.

"But you're all right now! You've cheered up, haven't you? Since you've cheered up, the time of your salvation has come, now! Right, everybody! From this it's been made clear, don't you think! The new children should be awakened, and the Crystal Lord will grant them their test, to see if they cannot be awakened! Going so far beyond, isn't it a beautiful thing? This time around, those who are only half-hearted kids will be able to go home. Only the real Children ought to have time close to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

They exchanged glances, those upperclassmen--- or you might say, the believers, that seemed to be the right word.

They spoke quickly, now it had been decided. The luggage that had been stored was taken out at once, and all the freshmen and some of the believers left the dining room. Banri saw that the keys to the luggage room were in the hands of a one guy.

Opened with the key, the freshmen went inside to pick up their luggage. A guy stuck to Banri's side, mouth shut, trying to look thoroughly scary, keeping an eye on him sidelong.

But Mr. Two Dimensions was different.

"Let's just go back! Tada Banri! Go back with the rest of us! A place like this is always trouble! You can take your time listening to their talk later, but for now let's go back!"

Thanking him in his mind, Banri outwardly ignored him. He called out to the guy with the key.

"Ma'am, isn't drunken driving dangerous? If there were an accident it'd be a problem, for sure. It seems to me that it'd be better if the guy who's going to drive didn't drink."

"That too is true. Is there anybody that has a driver's license?"

At the sound of the guy's voice some of the freshmen raised their hands. Mr. Two Dimensions was one of them. Casually, Banri called out to the guy's back, "Ah, I'll go get the key", intending to grab the key to the room. But,

"We've only just called you, but after you've been verified it'll be OK. You there, you've not had even one drop to drink?"

The key was quite firmly in the guy's grip. He let out an involuntary click of the tongue.

The guy locked up the luggage room and swung around. He thought better of calling after the guy with the keys to come back at that point. It couldn't be helped. There would be other opportunities to do something.

It looked like they'd decided that Mr. Two Dimensions and another freshman would be driving. Mr. Two Dimensions looked back towards Banri over and over again while going towards the entrance. It's OK, leave me behind, you're as confused as anybody else. Banri gave him a slight shake of the head.

Like that, all the freshmen left the facility. Amongst them of course, there went Kouko pulling her carry-all. Soon, the sound of the wheels rolling faded away, leaving Banri behind by himself.

Everybody had left. Amongst believers in a strange god, he was completely alone.

He was feeling scared to death. But, that was fine, he thought. At the least, he was able to get Kouko, whom he had brought here, back out to the ordinary peaceful world. Later, he would decide just what to do.

But, at that moment came to his ears a sound he could hardly believe. Banri reflexively cleared his ears. He had thought he might be hearing things, but apparently it was real.

The rolling sound that should have been gone, and had indeed left, was once more coming towards him.

Then, the entrance door opened.

Suddenly coming into view,

"Of course, I stayed behind too. The last lecture left me with a strong impression."

"...Kaga, san...!?"

"Hello, new children!"

With a self-satisfied expression on her face, Kaga Kouko.

Whether I like it or not, you, what are you saying--- really, what are you doing!? What the heck are you saying!? Precisely what are you doing!? Why have you returned!? What's with this person!? Can she really be an idiot!? Banri would have shouted, but he had no voice.

Banri was completely dumbfounded, looking at Kouko's form in amazement, his mouth hanging open. Kouko was standing next to Banri, meeting all the believers halfway, her face composed, both her long hands precisely positioned before her slim body, her head tilted a little to the side. And then,

"In spite of being beautiful, I am not popular. Because of that, I have already abandoned this century. I am longing for the new century!"

Strangely persuasive, she smiled with perfect grace.

The freshmen gone and Banri and Kouko left behind, the strange party atmosphere returned to the dining hall. Nearly an hour had passed.

All the believers themselves good and drunk, the opportunity to talk with Kouko had finally arrived.

He pointed over at Kouko's carry-all, still set in the corner of the dining hall. Since it needed to be put in the luggage room, it should be easy to get the guy to hand him the key.

"Kaga-san, let's go put away your luggage."

Grabbing the handle of the carry-all, winking back when he called her, Kouko stood up at once. Banri had a hunch that if the older girl had been looking towards them at all, it would have been very conspicuous. Unnoticed, he left the dining hall with Kouko.

While walking quickly down the corridor, Kouko started to call out to him, but Banri held a finger up before his mouth in a sign for her to be quiet. Still quiet, he took Kouko by the arm, looked all around to make sure nobody was nearby, and brought her over by the men's bathroom. Kouko was now at the mercy of his intentions, whatever they were. They quietly stuffed themselves into a stall and locked it. Up to this point, he'd been acting rather like a confirmed molester, but,

"...Aaa...!"

The first thing that escaped was a groan neither breathing nor sigh. In the narrow space, Banri's body was twisted like a music conductor, his right hand raised overhead and scratching his forehead roughly. "What are you doing, what are you doing, why, why, why, what's with youuu...!?", he shouted in a whisper while stamping the ground in frustration.

"Kaga-san, what were you doing!? Why didn't you go back with everybody else!?"

Really, come to your senses! He wanted to slap her on the cheek, grab her by the neck of her pretty one-piece dress and shake her back and forth. Failing that, he could punch the wall, or maybe hit himself on the forehead. Since he couldn't do either, the upper half of Banri's body was twisted up like a grilled squid.

"Do you really want to join up with those guys!?"

He pointed his finger at Kouko's pretty face.

"That, was my line."

A gentle whack, and that fingertip was shot down.

Carefully lifting the hem of her skirt so it wouldn't touch the edge of the toilet, so close together in the narrow stall their knees overlapped, Kouko looked intensely back at Banri. The black pupils of her eyes were turned up like crescent moons.

"Tada-kun, all that stuff you said about rescue and such, was that true?"

"I...have...no...i...de...a...!"

He didn't say any more, at his wit's end, writing in agony while she smiled at him. In spite of his success in getting everybody sent back, how, why, and more importantly for what reason, had she come back?

"Oh... whatever, that's good... Tada-kun, I was wondering if you would really become a believer."

"But I was thinking it was time for you to go back!"

"But, it sounded sincere."

"It was for your sake... something, very real feeling... I mean, Kaga-san, why did you really come back? All that effort was so everybody could go home!"

"Because, I couldn't just leave you behind. Thinking of how you had followed them into thinking you were seriously planning on staying here, what would I do? I would feel responsible if you'd done such a thing, and would never be able to leave it behind!, so to speak. By all means, Tada-kun ought to be able to go back too, was my thought. Why was Tada-kun going to be left by himself, behind?"

"I didn't think they would let people go back just because they said they wanted to return! I pretended to believe, thinking that if everybody else made enough noise begging to return, they would let them go! Besides, there was all sorts of stuff written in that roster... addresses, contact information and so on. I thought that perhaps being left behind, I might somehow or other clean up things. I can't imagine how much trouble we'd have if that information got out."

Looking up at Banri's face, somewhat taken aback, Kouko in that moment placed her fingertip under her pretty rose-colored lips.

"...For sure. I had written down my parents' address in full."

"I saw the upperclassman girl stick it in her bag. There hasn't been time to make copies, now if we could get it out of there... that could be difficult."

With a jingle, the key to the luggage room could be seen in Kouko's hand.

"Thanks to Kaga-san having returned so miraculously, we go to Plan B. Seems like we may be able to set it in motion."

Kouko's eyes glittered like stars. In reality, it was just the reflected light from the restroom.

"Tada-kun..., ...good job."

Her eyes shining, Kouko applauded Banri with just her fingertips.

"Shall we do this together?"

"Of course."

"Let's both return absolutely quietly."

"Naturally!"

Nodding to each other, they took her carry-all and left the restroom.

They went down the corridor and opened the door to the luggage room with the key. They both went inside. Turning on the light, they searched through the upperclassmen bags, which had been lined up along the wall. Was it beige, ...no, was it brown? And so, he looked for anything like a girl's overnight bag in the hill in front of them, when suddenly at the confused Banri's side,

"Her bag was Coach. The Signature, last year's model, the keyholder had a marguerite..."

Kouko, her fingertip like a gun barrel, zeroed in right away on a single bag.

"It's that one."

What a capable helper! It seemed they would be able to easily clear this mission. Banri and Kouko jumped to pull out the upperclassman's bag, and fish through the contents.

They soon found the roster stuck in a file. Two sheets of A5 paper. Taking it quickly to tear it up, Banri was lost for a moment as to what to do with it. Could he hide it in his pants and take it back with him? Should he shred it up fine and flush it down the toilet?

From the arrangement of the things in the luggage room, it was probably a smoking lounge. On a low table somebody's lighter, and in an ashtray some cigarette buts had been left behind. He was casually looking over those things when suddenly,

"You there, what the heck--- huh!?"

The door opened, the forgotten key still in the lock. Glimpsing the white face of the upperclassmen girl, Banri and Kouko both jumped about an inch of the floor. Their bodies reacted even quicker than their thoughts.

"What's going on!? What about the roster... wa, wait!"

Banri fairly flew at the door, attacking it, forcing the door shut against the rest of the upperclassmen and locking it. The others banged on the door with terrific force. "What do you call this!?" "Open up!" "This traitor!" "Wait, somebody's coming!" The upperclassmen's loud voices echoed. The hand holding the door was shaking, and he realized that sweat was pouring from every pore of his body,

"Waah, wh wh wh, what am I going to do...!? This is bad bad bad...!"

Banri's face was now completely white. Should he kneel before them? Offer them money? Persuade them with tears? Such things, up to surrender, were starting to pass through his head, while on the other hand Kouko,

"Tada-kun, the roster."

With a strangely serious face, she held out her hand towards him without hesitation. He threw the tightly folded roster towards that hand. ''Smack'', she caught it magnificently,

"Hold the door steady!"

Even in that moment, she was seating herself regally on a cushion. Then, without hesitation, she tore the roster up in pieces, put the pieces in an ashtray and quickly set it on fire with the lighter. Just like that, a little flame arose, and in a couple of seconds their worries about the roster turned to ashes. Finally, pouring some water that had been left behind in a cup over the embers put it out completely. Banri was amazed at how neatly it was done, at least on this occasion. How should he say it? To her enemies, she wasn't the type you'd want to turn your back on.

Kouko immediately opened up her carry-all, pulled out her wallet, cell phone and key-case, and stuffed it all in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Tada-kun, any valuables?"

"Ne, never carry any!"

The pounding on the door continued. An ominous creaking sound was coming from around the door knob. They could hear the sound of a large number of people running up the corridor. Banri's valuables were his cell phone, wallet and the key to his place. Those he put in his jean's pocket, tied up in a leather strap that ''Yana''-ssan had chosen for him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Kouenji].

"Can we leave the rest of the baggage?"

"Yes!"

They nodded to each other. From the other side of the door a key--- the master key, probably, the sound of it being inserted could be heard at the same time. The door opened. Angry voices echoed.

He feverishly grabbed Kouko's hand and rushed towards the window. This room was on the first floor, but,

"..."

He quickly ran to the window to look through it, it wasn't all that high, but still every cell in his body trembled in fear. His body didn't remember the terror it once had tasted. But if they remained here, things were going to get scarier still. Not just for himself, but for Kouko too. Suppressing their fears with reason, closing their eyes they abandoned themselves to the pull of gravity. Still holding Kouko's hand, they clumsily fell down together. Once they got back on their feet, they realized just how bad the slippers they had put on were, but they couldn't do anything about it.

While hearing loud cries of "They're escaping through the window!" from the mob behind them, Banri and Kouko ran out into the deep dark of the forest night.

<center>* * *</center>

Perhaps they had been a bit too reckless in the moment of their escape.

"Why... can't I get a signal...?"

"I can't get one either..."

After all of two hours had passed, both Banri and Kouko were becoming aware that they had new problems.

Their reward for escaping from the suspicious new religion, quite simply said, was to be stranded--- the path they were walking down right now, it might really be a road, or maybe just a game trail, even that much they did not know. Without map, flashlight nor even shoes, having only determination, they depended on what little light came through between the trees to continue on.

Naturally, it was dark, at night with all kinds of trees growing thickly over the mountain trail, and underfoot it was awfully wet. Sliding in the slippery mud, many times the protruding rocks kept them from their way. Fearing pursuit, they stayed away from the brighter lit roads, Banri choosing to follow the trackless paths of the forest.

Beyond the trees shone a line of lights, they had to be street lights. Those lights were a simple guide to get down the slope, but right now he wasn't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do. Since they led upwards into the mountains, he thought it would be better to go down, and did so. The line of streetlights seemed far away, and a difficult climb... he had a hunch about it.

Before long, they came to a sudden slope they couldn't cross in their awful slipper-shoes, so for the time being they started walking along the flat winding edge of a cliff, but in the end, they reached the end of their endurance.

Sitting down wherever they could on some fallen tree,

"I thought we'd come a good ways down..."

"For sure. Why haven't we reached the bottom..."

Phew..., hah..., together they let out a long sigh.

Seeing that as usual the screen showed no signs of a signal, Banri put his cellphone in his pocket.

It was already past 10 o'clock at night. It was late for local hunters to be passing by, and it was too early for the morning to break.

He thought about what he would do if only the cellphone were usable. He was thinking that if he could get in contact with Mr. Two Dimensions, or his home, or perhaps the police, he could tell them what was going on. And yet how, they were out of range. 'Build a bigger antenna!', but in such a place as this he couldn't do anything but curse the telephone company.

All their strength gone, it was as quiet as if they were falling to the ground. Falling and tumbling next, our anxieties, fears, despair... no, we can't. Banri lifted his face.

Still, it was 10 o'clock. It was too early to give up and fall into depression. Showing an unreasonably cheerful face, he took off his open-necked UNIQLO shirt and put it on Kouko's shoulders, which had only a cardigan over a thin dress. Though it was already covered with mud,

"Put these on?"

He tried to take off his socks and hand them over. It would have been good if he'd noticed a little sooner. Her feet were definitely bare. However, but she didn't put them on, nor return them, she gazed at him, in the same pose as when she received them.

Her messed up hair clinging to her cheeks, she wasn't bothering now to cover things up with a smile,

"Tada-kun"

Somewhat in a daze, Kouko turned an empty face towards Banri.

"What what what, it's OK! We'll manage somehow soon. A little rest and then we try some more!"

"I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'..."

He had been apologized to.

And what timing, Kouko's bangs, which were up, suddenly with a thud fell down, covering half her face.

"...Teacher of moonlight..."

Her laughter had returned.

Kouko was quiet for a bit, jerkily combing up her drooping bangs. Accustomed to doing it by hand without a mirror, from her mussy hair she quickly pulled out a pin and stuck it in her mouth, then using both hands as combs she skillfully fixed up her hair, and finished it off with the pin she'd taken out earlier. The messed up hair was fixed for the time being, and she'd returned to being like Kaga Kouko again, a bit. Then,

"It's my fault that things turned out this way."

Looking away from herself again, she looked straight at Banri once more. Being prettily put back in order, indeed with a serious frown, "I'm sorry", she repeated once again. Even in this moment, her large eyes were flashing darkly.

"...That's not right. 'It wasn't Kaga-san's fault', saying such things."

Without caring about how Banri was squirming,

"It was my fault! In the first place, I had the leaflets from that strange club, and they called me too. You thought that I was such a poor thing, going alone, so it was just to keep me company."

"...But I wasn't thinking it was your fault."

"That's wrong!"

"I thought it would be good if Kaga-san could make some friends in that club. Therefore, in spite of the strange feeling they gave me, I stopped worrying about it, it's OK, let's go, you're bothering Kaga-san. Therefore, it's my responsibility, of course."

"That's not right, that's wrong. ...You're just wrong!"

Shaking her head, frantically looking anywhere else, Kouko held on tightly to Banri's socks, with their unknown state of cleanliness.

"Really, it isn't your fault. ...I approached you and got close to you, thinking to trick you into giving me information about Mitsuo. From the start, which club didn't matter. Saying 'I haven't been invited to anything' was true. All the college students were already ignoring me, really. I was even aware of the gossip. But I didn't pay any attention. Yesterday, saying 'nobody calls out for me', forcing myself to look dejected, saying so, ...that was all just to draw out your sympathy."

"That so? Of course, it was all about ''Yana''-ssan."

"Yes, about Yanao.... all mixed up. Mitsuo's"

Breathing out a bit, Kouko cast her eyes down uncomfortably and looked down at her own feet. Mud was all over her bare feet and slippers.

"It was all for the sake of Mitsuo."

The voice that followed was like a monologue, echoing in the silence,

"...Well, ninety percent."

Kouko raised her face once more.

She looked into Banri's eyes. Still holding the dirty socks tightly, speaking as somebody who made a mistake, her lips twisted in irony.

"The remaining ten percent... even I don't understand."

Tired of talking after that, her next breath was a like a gasp. Her gaze trembled.

"...Understanding, from this spring arrived until yesterday, that there was only one person who bothered to speak with me. Only Tada-kun. Tada-kun called out to me, though it was news about how Mitsuo being excessively defiant... but, even though I found it hard to understand... you talked to me, ...and I was happy for that. That too is true."

"If so, then of course trying to call out to you was good."

Kouko held her tongue, looking at Banri's eyes while shaking her head softly. Not understanding that gesture very well,

"The result has been problems, though."

She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't. Kouko smiled a little, but the conversation did not continue.

The two stayed silent for a little while, gazing at each other's feet. Today having been spring, the temperate had been good and warm. Though it was chilly now, there was no worry about freezing to death.

"...I wonder what Mitsuo's doing about now? Is he worried at all about me?"

She tried to make it sound like a joke, but a little awkwardly, let it fall into the night darkness. Banri scooped it up, returning her words as lightly as possible.

"He might be. 'Where's the training camp?', I was asked later, but I didn't answer."

"Was that so?"

"Well, I could have texted from the car, but I didn't feel like it. And what's more, since afterwards we were always out of range, wouldn't he be rather worried? So it is, there it is, and before long, that anxious feeling unexpectedly becomes a hot possessiveness, a heaviness sitting on ''Yana''-ssan's heart..."

Hearing Banri's little joke, a smile clearly broke across the well ordered features of Kouko's face.

"Enough. That's not right. You're making things up."

Indeed, just like her, even in smiling she seemed to be plotting something too perfect. He realized that it had been a long time since he'd seen that face. Cheered, Banri too smiled broadly.

"''Yana''-ssan noticed, you know. From what I see, that childhood friendship must have been important."

"Yes, yes yes! What about it?"

"There were already gloomy thoughts... even doubts like, 'Am I a stalker?'...! It was, but wait! As far as I'm concerned, of course it's my fate to be married to this girl! 'Kuoukuoooo---------!'"

"Kyaa! Muitsuuo---------!"

The two were messing around, laughing their heads off in the sultry dark, reaching their hands out towards each other. Banri his right hand, Kouko her left. Building into a sudden and strange excitement, they made a lot of noise, their extended hands unable to reach each other, no matter what...! That was how they were playing together.

"You're messing up my entrance! Ugyaa! Kaagaasaan! Yaanaasaan!"

"Ahahaha! Taadaa-kuuuun!"

The fingertip of his left hand trembling fearfully, it neared Kouko's extended fingertip, approaching through the dark night air. But of course, since it was all a joke,

"Such an act, Baan!"

Taking the charade to its end, with Banri as "Mitsuo", Kouko clapped her hands and let them fall. Kyaaa, Kouko's hands sketched a big arc as they came down. Flutter flutter flutter, plop, with a sad sound the rotten tree to her side fell. Kouko laughed for a little bit, then,

"...Eh, wasn't that awful just now?"

All of a sudden she looked at Banri seriously. It wasn't that bad, since it was all a joke, she shook her side from side to side.

"I was referring to the socks. You ought to put them on."

He prompted her with a jerk of his chin.

It looked like Kouko finally remembered about Banri's socks, which were still sitting in her lap. Bending over, she put them on. They could serve to protect her slipper-clad bare feet from getting dirty, at least. Seeing that, Banri nodded in approval.

Though outwardly Kouko seemed lonely, it was after all ninety-percent a pretense to "Get Yana!" Even hearing this from her, he wasn't upset. Was this because he expected such from her? Was it because "it doesn't matter", and he was suddenly rebellious? Was it because, following the "there's no sick child" formula, his "good man" circuit got switched on? Was it simply because with things being the way they were at the moment, his emotions were simply paralyzed? Or perhaps this was just another proof of Yanagisawa's theory that "For beautiful people, life is fun" --- was he being led around by the nose by the beautiful Kouko, and his heart was under her control?

Trying to think, Banri concluded a short while later that he simply didn't know.

Kouko had come back for him.

Despite it seeming unlikely that she was going to love anybody but Yanagisawa Mitsuo anytime soon, and Banri being only barely somebody that "could not be left behind", she had come back to get him.

Watching the miserable-seeming Banri while they were leaving, the other freshmen had no intention of criticizing him (since he had persuaded them to leave him there by himself), but finally she had raised her voice. She didn't doubt Mr. Two Dimension's friendship, but after all, as the driver he probably would not be able to return.

But, indeed Kouko, even if only as a friend Kaga Kouko, even if she couldn't remember his name, returned for the sake of Banri "He isn't Mitsuo", something he didn't even think she would do. He didn't think there were such people.

Since Kouko behaved that way, and with the "ten percent" just mentioned, it seemed that perhaps there just might be something inside her.

That something existed inside her he knew at least, just what use it would be, well it's all your fault, whatever, to Banri it didn't seem likely.

"...I wonder if ''Yana''-ssan knows Kaga-san's in that kind of state."

"What kind of state?"

"No, something like... It's because it seemed you're a little different when ''Yana''-ssan is around, versus when he is not."

A little to his dismay, he saw Kouko's eyes open wide. Or so he thought.

For Banri, the time Yanagisawa was with Kouko was when she gave him a surprise attack with a huge bouquet of roses. Beating the daylights out of Yanagisawa with roses in front of all the new students, throwing them at the guy and leaving. As if patting a pet, looking down from above, disregarding whatever complaint Yanagisawa might have had. Pursuing the escaped Yanagisawa, reproaching him for having escaped. If she somehow caught him, she would use up to live ammunition (it's a matter of money).

Saying "Whatever, it doesn't matter", while Banri seemed to be the only person waiting in Kouko's "ten percent." Saying, "I can't leave him behind in such a place", and returning, seemingly just for Banri. Even awkwardly trying to apologize, then even trying to horse around and laugh like an ordinary girl, maybe, just for Banri. ...Maybe.

Banri, because he saw that, today's Kouko, yesterday's Kouko--- the Kouko around Yanagisawa was a different person, he thought.

But Yanagisawa, if he had seen the same thing, he probably would have thought the "Now-Kouko" different.

"If so, I think he'd be wrong."

She went quiet for a moment, as if thinking, then,

"In the time I was with Mitsuo, I was complete. You just might have that right."

Laughing a little, she looked at Banri, then averted her eyes. Raising her slim leg straight up, she looked at Banri's socks covering her toes. Seeing that sidelong look made her seem to him a girl he didn't know.

"Without Mitsuo, I am incomplete. Whether getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, eating my meals or going to school, dressing up nice, crying or laughing, it is all for Mitsuo. He is the whole purpose behind everything I do. If it weren't so, I wouldn't even try. Without him, life has no meaning. It was always that way for me. If he's not following behind me, there is nothing I can do. If Mitsuo's not there, I don't know what I should do. Even now, I want to get back safely, because Mitsuo is there. Am I thinking like a fool? It's OK, because I really am a fool."

But such love she had for herself, that continuing, Kouko looked up once more to Banri's eyes, straightened her back, and showed her perfect, beautiful smile. This once again, was the face of a girl he didn't know.

To such a person as this, well, whatever he said she wouldn't want to listen anyhow, so, covering up his feelings, Banri gave her a frank reply,

"...If that were the case, it would all be fine in spite of your having gotten ''Yana''-ssan mad. But there what with the roses, as far as his life is concerned, the completed person is very messed up. Far from being nice to him, wasn't it an attack? Why did you willingly do something to get yourself disliked?"

He said that for now. As for her internal ten percent --- his purpose was for her to know that he existed.

It seemed she heard him perfectly, judging by the stiffly displeased look on her lips in the dark.

"He... that wasn't good for Mitsuo."

"How so? It seems to me the perfect Kaga-san isn't so good, normally."

"But! But, you're wrong! I have my reasons! I exploded after four months of frustration! It's not like I planned for such a thing to happen! It was my intention to ride up in the taxi with the roses, congratulate him with a smile and hand over the roses! Just leaving behind the smell of roses... surprising Mitsuo... and then around campus, we'd say 'those roses mark the spot we got together...', that was an even more perfect scenario!"

"Was that what you thought meeting up with him would be like?"

"He would have said, 'That was a knockout blow: You had the courage to have pursued me to the same university!' "

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously! Really, that's was how it was supposed to be! But... well, the result was this. ...Mitsuo, was always telling me about 'doing the escalator'. I found out that was all a lie around the end of the year. Since then I always pretended to be deceived, so that it looked to him that I was doing the escalator too, faking it to the point of taking the same entrance exams."

"A disguise..."

"Wig and glasses. Suspecting a second entrance exam, I called up the examiner. So it was that day after day he kept on lying, and I could see it the whole time. Perhaps today he would tell me the truth. Perhaps tomorrow. 'Surely the day after tomorrow...', I persisted, but all the way to the end, graduation already done, Mitsuo wouldn't tell me the truth. I overlooked the lies. Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, idiotically walking with Tada-kun, looking as if he were having fun... 'What the heck!?' I couldn't stand it anymore."

How many seconds of silence passed? And then,

"Now, I am regretting it."

Kouko looked up into the night sky.

Starlight shining through a break in the trees fell on Kouko from above. She gave a deep sigh, together with a thin voiced "ah". Head hanging down, her hair again hung straight down.

"...Seems like it... From where I sit, it seems you are being disliked, right? Even at the entrance ceremony, it would have been better if you'd simply hugged him and given him a kiss. What you accomplished was different. ...Even so, to be ignored so completely and perfectly... was certainly not."

That's the way it was, really--- Banri looked back at the sad face whitely illuminated, quietly thinking.

Really, I think that's the way it is, Kaga-san. Better than hurting him like that with roses, nearly to the point of drawing blood, just showing that face--- that Kaga Kouko, even once, would be far better, he thought.

A million times, or ten million times, or even a trillion times better, he thought.

Banri had not known until now how somebody could be impatient with human clumsiness, even like this. Because of how the day was turning out, he knew the feeling for the first time.

"The only one who's supposed to do dumb things like that, in this world, ever, is me."

Perhaps too tired still to walk again, Kouko stiffly moved her legs while just barely cracking a smile.

"I don't think you're like that, though. You're just not the type of person to be able to do that right."

"Yep, it's absolutely just me. ...I am the most to blame in this, I did something dumb. What about you, Tada-kun? What about you? Is there somebody you like? Do you have a girlfriend?"

She was planting landmines under the night sky.

It was a rest-break with no more meaning than that, so more easily than ever Banri was able to open his mouth and chat with her.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don’t know for myself. Just that 'My memories were all blown away,' since that's speaking the truth."

Like a surprise attack, Kouko winked back at him.

"...What kind of speaking?"

"Speaking about loss of memory."

Banri pointed at his head with his finger. "Well...", while he began hesitantly to talk, that finger turning in circles.

"It was shortly after my high school graduation ceremony. Early in the morning, I was alone and it seems I fell from the bridge. Since then my memory has left me. Though I may feel like saying it, I can't just say '...So what?' It doesn't work to say that every time I talk. For the time being, could you simply understand? I can't be always saying things like 'I can't remember anything from childhood through high school', of course."

As he looked at Kouko, who had fallen completely silent, looking troubled, Banri thought "Well, she ought to be!" If somebody were to suddenly talk about losing their memory, you'd probably be confused too.

But normally, I would hope you would just be seeing the face of an ordinary nineteen year old boy.

"A marvelous thing, the word "remembering"--- an ordinary, normal thing in the Japanese language. Whatever year A.D. it be, whatever you call it, whatever you study, whatever you watch on television, whatever calendar a person or actor uses, it is understood. Even the teacher of moonlight, right? Even Ruu Ooshiba, right? I don't understand the problem with me. My particular memories don't exist. People I knew or were related to, who I liked, ...in short the things that gave me 'individuality'. It is certainly a strange tale. My family, my friends, and my self all stored in my memories, even after a year of rehabilitation, even after all I did, completely gone. What's more,"

Seeming unable to remember 'that' feeling, the self-conscious Banri picked his words carefully.

"Very slowly, my emotions returned. They seemed like something I missed... but if I chased after them, they fled away. For example, imagine a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Trying to read it, you would look at it, and automatically from your gaze a beam would burn up the sentence. It felt rather like that. The traces of memory were like a ghostly tail I could barely touch, and it seemed to be rapidly fading away. That was a rather scary feeling..."

After the accident always, if I didn't remember, if I didn't remember quickly, then it just faded away. Time passed, and I rapidly lost track of things. More than simply pointing out "You have certainly lost something", the feeling of losing something was always, always fresh.

"But as time passed, even those feelings disappeared, and I became resigned to it, saying 'What's the use?' But, it mattered nothing since I was unable to sense them anymore. Losing it was scary, though I couldn't really feel it since it was already 'gone'. Because of that, things got easier."

What was left to Banri now was just a memory of the fear of that time when everything was rapidly leaving him.

"Because of that, I had to study over again for the entrance exams, as if I'd had to start life over again."

"...Err..."

"Sorry, I was speaking nonsense."

"...Yes. No problem... It's just that,"

Kouko brought her hands to her chest. As she took a number of deep breaths, he saw that her hands moved together with her chest.

"...How you can say that's OK, I have no idea."

"But it is. Excuse me, really, but I'm not worried about it. Really now, since you're in good health. What's your blood type? What's your sign? You like soy sauce or paste? Memory loss? Mem riloss? That's about what I heard. If you have any questions, please let me know."

From Kouko's mumbling, it seemed she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, and didn't know what to say.

"...Err, well... weren't you just saying you wanted to get back...?"

"Yes, I must have been."

Since it was his long awaited chance to talk with her, he had wanted to be able to answer truthfully and honestly, Banri thought.

"Nonexistent things don't make sense to me. I'll say that first of all. As for myself, I have no choice but to speak from my own feelings. But, as for other people, I could understand them saying that they might want the original Tada Banri to return. In fact, it's about time he tried to return, I think. But in that regard, it gives me the feeling that adding memories to my current self is OK, even though it is replacing parts of my personality, so to speak, allowing the disappearance of my former self to be forgiven. From the start it looked impossible, and I've even been saying all along that there was nothing I could do, or even wanted to do."

"...Is that so?"

Her face serious as she listened to Banri's tale, Kouko lowered her eyes a little as if in thought.

"...That was a really strange story, wasn't it? What kind of guy was he, the vanished side of Tada Banri-kun? Perhaps he's watching over the current Tada-kun wherever he is... Kind of like a ghost in the background."

And, Kouko, seeming to notice something, suddenly turned around.

"What? What's going on? Is there a ghost behind Kaga-san?"

"...Something, just now, I saw a small flash of light... ah, ah, look!"

Kouko was pointing towards a thick grove of trees. She stared as the little light, certainly not a street light, swayed back and forth.

"You're right! Somebody's there! Let's go, let's call for help! Can you stand!?"

"Yep!"

Banri took Kouko by the hand, the two of them staggering while they frantically walked out on the muddy path. "Excuuse mee! Could you help uusss! We've had an accideennnt!", they raised their frantic voices.

On the other side of the trees, the shadowy figure held a nearly dead flashlight. Their voices still not noticed, anyway in a daze they continued advancing, having no choice. Sliding while supporting Kouko's hand, pushing through grass, clearing away branches, hurrying but not falling down.

A line of people, ...everyone with their bodies bent over a little, moving their hands and feet uncertainly. All of them. In the middle of the night on a mountain trail, while they shone the light on each other. What a strange atmosphere, he thought. It was about time.

"Ju, jujuju, just a second. Tada-kun, those are really strange people."

Kouko stopped walking. She looked at Banri.

"What I mean... aren't they those believers from earlier...!?"

If that were the case, then jumping would be a big mistake. A huge, fatal blunder. Trying to retreat, confused, they broke a branch, making a sound. Whereupon, no matter how much they kept from raising their voices,

"Is somebody there?"

A long straight beam of light turned towards them. With a surprised-sounding voice,

"...Banri!?"

They heard somebody's surprised shout. The light gave a big shake at the voice.

Exhausted, Kouko's strength gave out. Supporting her, pulling her along so they could escape, Banri eventually crumbled to his knees too. Standing up and running to escape hurriedly on foot, they vainly rejected the slimy damp earth. They were already at the limit of their strength. Even if everybody was a believer, there was nothing more they could do. However,

"It's me! Don't you understand!? Hey, it's me! Remember!"

Shouting while the person pointed the light at him, he suddenly raised both hands high, encompassing the whole place, shouting "Hey!" and striking a pose. That pose reminded him of something---

"...Eh!? Maybe, maybe, you..."

Even the disaster of the school entrance ceremony had laid land-mines for him!

"Barbara!?"

"It's me, Linda!"

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| Back to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|}
</noinclude>

Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter3

2013-11-02T05:20:32Z

Perfect Chaos: There were two instances of this that was romanized instead of translated like all other instances so I changed it to be completely consistent.

<noinclude>
==Golden Time 1: Chapter 3==
</noinclude>
==Chapter 3==
[[Image:Golden Time vol01 091.jpg|thumb]]

Tada Banri was talking on the telephone.

It was Saturday morning. The overly sunny station platform had few people on it, and nobody but Banri was sitting on the four-seat bench. Squinting like a dirty-looking old man in the bright sunshine, he went all the way to the very last seat to sit down. He set his small nylon sack down by his knees. I was standing by Banri's side, trying to stick my ear to the other side of his cellphone, by the transmit light.

He speed-dialed his mother, but in the middle of the first ring what came out of the telephone speaker was his dad. When Banri heard that voice, he flinched slightly. A little brusquely, he said, "I can't hear you well, hello hello, it's me, Banri." "Ah, oh", he could hear his dad answering in roughly the same brusque voice. "Mother?", Banri asked, and his father replied, "In the kitchen. Wait while I go get her." Speaking quickly to his father, Banri said, "No, that's fine. I'll be staying one day at the club training camp. That's all."

In front of the bench where Banri was sitting, in spite of it being Saturday, the suited forms of three salarymen were approaching. Banri panicked and lifted up the bag that was illegally occupying one of the seats, putting it on his lap.

"OK then, until next time I call!"

"Oh", answered his father, and quickly hung up, as if in a race to hang up the phone. From such a short conversation, Banri was suddenly exhausted. It was only his father, but even so it had been tense. He didn't understand why he should feel that way. Still, Banri wondered what his father must be thinking about after a call like that.

Or would his feelings be hurt, despite the distance?

Nonchalantly acting like he was combing his bangs, ''Banri's cool!'', he snuck a look at the armpit of his T-shirt. Finding nothing changed, he smiled. Safe. He let out a sigh. The other night, suddenly his father was asking him over the phone, "What's up? What are you doing? Has nothing changed?", asking him all sorts of things. The next three minutes were worrisome. Awkwardly hanging up the phone afterwards, sweat had been running down his arm all the way to his elbow. The mysteries of the human body... while muttering such things to himself, kneeling on the floor, he was sticking layers of facial tissue in his cold wet armpits, three at a time. That was one miserable scene.

In the end, none of the three companions sat down at the bench, but rather amused themselves standing around and talking not far from Banri. Banri decided to put the bag he was holding back on the next seat. But one of the salarymen jerked... seemed to squirm, or maybe jumped when he picked up the bag again. But he didn't sit down. He wasn't about to sit, but rather it seemed he was only switching his briefcase from his right hand to his left.

Banri eventually put the bag back up on his lap, and once more opened up his cellphone. The train still hadn't arrived, and he hadn't received any texts from anybody. I took the seat next to Banri, and together with Banri looked over at the small screen on the phone. Fiddling with the buttons little by little, he wrote a note.

My form is not seen, not by Banri, not by anybody. Not father, nobody here knows what I am doing.

''Wham'', at that moment, the bench suddenly shook hard. Banri's face snapped up. It had occurred to the three guys to all sit down at once.

Nobody in this world even noticed my existence.

<center>* * *</center>

"Kaga-saan"

It had just turned noon when they arrived at the main gate of the campus.

When she noticed Banri's hand waving, her beautiful face lit up, pale white like the moon in broad daylight. There weren't any lectures on Saturday, and there weren't any students in sight, so it was much quieter around than it was on weekdays.

"Good afternoon, Tada-kun"

"Did the older girl show up?"

"Not yet, it seems. Though the expected time is coming soon."

Kouko gracefully raised her slender wrist and looked at her delicate watch. Eyelids hidden by her long eyelashes, flickering transparently with a pearl-like sheen, Banri was completely captivated inside of ten seconds. Absolutely dumbstruck. Again today, Kouko was flawlessly beautiful.

An orange-colored one-piece silk dress wrapped in a large cardigan. High-heeled sandals with plenty of beads. Pretty toenails lined up and carefully painted beige. A small carry-case. In her pierced ears were brightly glittering diamond drop earrings. Banri had no idea what to make of her hair-style. Her hair was braided and wrapped loosely around her head, raising her bangs like a headband. One loose lock of hair softly escaped, curving down her neck, and even that looked like a carefully prepared accessory.

A perfect beauty, Kaga Kouko. And Banri liked beautiful people. He could declare that with pride.

Of course it was the right thing to come. While shyly smiling, he averted his eyes about five million light years from Kouko's face.

Having been invited by the upperclassman from **** Girl's College during yesterday's encounter, Banri and Kouko were going to participate in the 'All-Around Intercollegiate Club' to participate in a freshmen welcome outing.

From one day to the next, it was really sudden. You could probably say, in fact, that to Banri it was a puzzling development.

Yesterday the upperclassman had taken them to a café, certainly a crowded little place, but a good find, and then they'd been served café-au-lait in bowls. Drinking, he thought 'This is a café-au-lait bowl?', but it sure was cool! Agreeing on that point, even Banri kept up with the
conversation.

Certainly after that, what started was a perfectly normal conversation about life as college students. Like getting all the language credits within the first year, you really ought to get a part time job, those that can get a girlfriend or boyfriend should be able to by the first year summer break, it's been difficult for any student to find a job this year, and so on.

Regardless of whether they were interested in the subject matter, her talk was inconsiderately long. Eventually having gotten tired, Banri was politely nodding yes to everything. Kouko looked like she had gotten tired too. Before Banri knew it, along with the already silenced Kouko, they got to where they just answered on demand, "Yessir", "Yes", "Is that so?" or laughed.

Before they noticed, three hours had passed. Completely surprised that outside the window it had gotten completely dark, "Then we'll meet tomorrow at the main gate, at twelve-fifteen, OK!", indicated for the first time that they were actually committing to ''do'' something.

So, if he remembered correctly--- every year the group held their new member meeting at a seminar house. Was that true? It was mentioned in the student pamphlet, why didn't he see that? A training facility in prefecture K. Weren't there some you could get to by two hours in car? If there wasn't too much traffic, that is. Leaving in the afternoon, arriving in the evening, with a big banquet for dinner. With a big bathtub afterwards, that would feel soo good. And so be ready for the next day. An active guy could play tennis through the morning, and then come back after noon. And because you're a freshman, of course there are no fees. It's OK, it's OK, take it easy, all of you guys are no problem. It was fun going out with me, don't ya think? Right? Will you decide to join? Aah, it's already so late, here and now, will you decide soon? It's all right, by participating, that's how we'll do it. Deciding would be good, don't you think? Right?

It must have been the mood of the conversation.

He peeked over at Kouko, and Kouko also looked over at Banri. This looks real, right? Reading each other's expressions and coming to an agreement, they finally nodded as one.

That'd be fun, we really should try it out, but really, I'm tired... I want to go home... if we say we'll participate we'll be able to leave... Banri was thinking such things. The senior didn't say anything, but wasn't going to let them refuse after three hours of meeting with them! Her attitude spoke it clearly.

Besides which, of course, there was Kouko.

Since this is the long awaited opportunity, they both thought, 'let's go!' They returned home tired so as to get time to rest. The idea of going with Kouko to take part in the training camp party was actually quite exciting.

Even knowing that Kouko was chasing after Yanagisawa, Tada Banri was a sensitive 19-year old young man. In such situations, his heart couldn't help but beat faster. A ton of difficulties overcome, one night's worth of things packed into the bag in his hand, there was no way he wasn't going on this outing.

"Hey, Tada-kun."

He didn't know why she lowered her voice, looking around and seeing fewer signs of life in the midst of the weekend, while Kouko whispered to him.

"About today, did you say anything to Mitsuo?"

With dark brown mascara applied liberally to her long eyelashes, her large eyes cast in shadow were beautiful.

"I told him! Told him, I mean, on the way here I sent him a text saying 'Kaga-san and I are leaving now, going together to a new member's training camp.'"

"...And Mitsuo?"

Pulling out his cellphone, it didn't seem a problem to show Kouko the contents of the text message. "You're kidding!? Where to!?", was the entire reply.

Kouko looked at it, then slowly looked up at Banri's face. Looking at him as if they conspiring together, she smiled happily, her lips beautifully painted rose-colored lines.

"Don't worry about it. It's my problem."

"Yes, so it is."

Rather than wanting to give advice, but rather simply wanting there to be more communication, Banri looked back at Kouko's eyes.

"Me, looking at this a proverb comes to mind. Listen up, it's a famous one. He who chases two rabbits..."

"Won't catch either, of course."

Now, what was that mood? With a sparkle in her serious, questioning gaze,

"...Sorry, I was making a mistake."

Confused, silently blinking over and over again, his brain wasn't fast enough to catch what was spinning around it.

"I was forgetting about today. Umm, that isn't it, rather this is. When it comes to men, whenever they are being chased, they want to escape. And when they escape it makes everybody want to chase them again, it seems like... doesn't it? Won't the rabbit... trip over a tree-stump? 'Wives and tatami mats and... tuna fish and... fresh leaves...? Put in the bowl...? Well blend...ed?' ...of course is nothing but a joke though... I mean, excuse me, I really wanted to say something that I didn't understand..."

"That's OK. It's enough explanation for now."

"You understood? Great! Well, that sort of thing. As for the rest, here,"

Banri, making hand signs by the side of his face about locomotives, looked cross-eyed.

"Mitsuoo! ...It's not that I thought it was getting better. Instead, quite the reverse,"

She was fluttering about, talking with her mouth while waving both hands and contorting her body in a way that called attention to herself.

"And so, just look, you've got me instead! ...And it seems to me that ''Yana''-ssan wouldn't mind."

Banri was quite, or rather seemed to be a complete fool, or rather was an idiot indeed, but Kouko surprisingly seemed to agree, nodding her head strongly in the affirmative.

"It may even be as Tada-kun says. It's quite an accomplishment, seeing as Mitsuo does care where I'm going! ...Frankly, today, though for some reason I was reluctant to do this, now I am glad I came."

"Eh, hold on just a bit! If you suddenly changed your plans, that would have hurt. I'd be going to the drinking party alone."

"I don't think you'd have been alone. ...Those guys, aren't they freshmen? We may be going to the freshman training camp with them."

Her soft gaze looking past him, Banri subsided. Turning around, he noticed for the first time some other students standing around. Three guys, and three girls too. Or perhaps,

"Ah! Isn't that Mr. Two Dimensions?"

"Eh? You're kidding. Tada Banri?"

His acquaintance didn't fit in. Mr. Two Dimensions...? Despite his puzzlement with Kouko, Banri and the one guy gave each other a light punch. Met at a Tea Ceremony Club drinking party, so he was: Mr. Two Dimensions.

"Perhaps Mr. Two Dimensions is going to the freshman training camp too?"

"For sure! Though I'm surprised to see Tada Banri coming too. Is ''Yana''-ssan a member too?"

"''Yana''-ssan isn't coming. Today rather I have with me Kaga Kouko-san. Kaga-san, this is Mr. Two Dimensions."

Kouko was being introduced to him, eh!? Ah! Mr. Two Dimensions, obviously shaken, suddenly took a big step back. "Well, me, you, Civil Law, I saw you, you were, are, Monday it was, second hour," he mumbled in a strange tone of voice, as if he were suspiciously reading the user's manual of a bootleg copy of ''Pachimon'', he moved the upper part of his body around unsteadily.

Kouko in her way,

"Mr. Two Dimensions... your family name...?"

She wasn't speaking clearly. Banri said, "He can't understand you!" while grinning, and tapped Kouko lightly between the shoulder-blades.

"Mr. Two Dimensions is his nickname, in the Tea Ceremony Club party he despaired of three-dimensions, declaring from that time forth he would live for two dimensions! Right?"

Mr. Two Dimensions smiled and nodded through Banri's explanation. He averted his eyes from the three-dimensional Kouko, his shy face blushing. In front of Sao-chan and Shii-chan he'd shouted, "And that's why three-dimensions is bad! You're all strange! Idiots!", like a particle cannon spitting lemon sour, laughing uproariously, hardly seeming the same person.

As she watched Mr. Two Dimension's face, mumbling "I see, I see", Kouko could be seen with her mouth strangely pursed, and her head nodding slightly. Mr. Two Dimensions said, "Ah, you understood me?", feeling even more shy, fidgeting before the rather stylish tall figure, something Banri somehow understood.

But for Kouko nothing mattered, it seemed.

It could be Mr. Two Dimensions, Mr. Different Dimensions, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikaru_Ij%C5%ABin Ijuuin]-kun, or even [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Lupin_III_characters#Daisuke_Jigen Jigen Daisuke]-kun. Or Tada-kun, Takata-kun or even Kaga-kun, it was all the same to her. As far as Kouko was concerned, only one thing mattered: "Mitsuo isn't here."

Setting aside her motives, whatever they might have been, and her laments of yesterday ("Why doesn't anybody call out to me?"), for the moment she was clearly able to answer.

That, despite the fact that she didn't have interest in anybody apart from Yanagisawa Mitsuo!

"But, from here on out, you won't be able to get away with that!", Banri declared in his mind to Kouko's smiling face. Neither Banri nor Mr. Two Dimensions were simply creatures that weren't Mitsuo, and over the next two days and one night together with Kouko, participating in the training camp, they should be able to become "friends" instead.

"Er, well, whatever, we can talk with Mr. Two Dimensions too, right? The world's not all that bad a place."

Banri playfully tugged at the shirt sleeve of Mr. Two Dimensions, who was still mumbling, unable to look at Kouko's face.

"What's with you? Haven't you come back to three dimensions, it's a little late already, a little late."

"You're mistaken! Even in two dimensions, I've been wondering recently, it's something I've been thinking about! Even in two dimensions, I had thought I wanted to look for the ideal depiction, but of course, what I mean is, it was hard! But in the end, other people's creations were not 100% satisfactory, seems like! Why not just stop?"

"It's OK, it's OK, keep going."

"That so? Well then, especially of late, I've found myself getting deeply involved with a female character of my own creation. Creating the setting, drawing the pictures, coloring them, deciding the words she uses and how she says them, what her favorite food is, from the way we would date, becoming more and more intimate from one episode to another, becoming my ''perfect'' dream, ...hey, was it really OK to say this? Should I not have stopped?"

Kouko, who had been mumbling approving noises and nodding her head while ignoring what was being said, slowly stopped shaking her head. After a little while, it seemed the correct answer occurred to her, and with a 60W grin,

"A little more of that, and you'll be Mr. One Dimension!"

"What in the world are you saying, Kaga Kouko...", thought Banri.

A surprised snort escaped from one girl of a group of three standing not far from Banri's group. Little sports bags stuffed with rough-looking attire, denim and sneakers, they probably were going to the same freshman training camp as friends,

"Soorryy, this person, even if she looks like she does, can be really dumb at times."

Banri tried to point at Kouko as their smiling faces turned towards him. They seemed to be group of friends, all three of them smiling as one while nervously stepping up. Kouko herself said, "Eh, dumb? Who?", looking back at Banri's face, wondering.

"Hello, I'm Tada Banri, and with me Kaga-san and Mr. Two Dimensions. Are all of you going to the freshman training camp from here?"

At the sound of Banri's voice, they saw for the first time the faces of two more guys, who joined them with slightly nervous expressions. At Kouko's 'Mr. One Dimension' exclamation, the girls looked around at everybody smiling, and started their introductions at once.

A car-horn sounded, three modest beeps. Everybody turned towards the street.

"Yes yes yesss! Sorry for being late, the cars are here so all aboard!"

The upperclassman came out to them from the first car parked by the side of the road.

Which reminded Banri that he had in fact failed to get her name--- which thing, of course, it was a little late to talk about now.

The club upperclassmen, together with some other freshman students, got into several rented station wagons.

An upperclassman handed a blank form to Banri, who was confused over which car to get into.

"Could all of you write their name, address and telephone number here? And if they are living away from home, then their parents' addresses too. This will be part of our insurance documents. It's because of our liability if anything happens at the training camp. Do it neatly, leaving out nothing. Everybody else is done writing their information. Yes, because you're Tada-kun, OK? This column, OK? I mean, even though this parking lot is rather noisy, and it's bad to be in such a hurry? Sorry about that, yes, hurry up, but read it carefully, it's just in case anything happens, OK?"

Insurance. Parking lot. Not fully understanding but unwilling to go against the social pressure, Banri the fool wrote down their personal information in a rush, but honestly. Passing the pen and the register to Kouko, she gracefully wrote down her name and address too, and passed it on to Mr. Two Dimensions.

And then, all the freshmen having signed the list, the upperclassman took her own bag and,

"Yes, thanks! You and you to the first car, OK? You over there. You that way. You and you get on that car at the end of the line. And now, you and you,"

Banri nudged Kouko's elbow and grinned.

"You're with me in that car, let's hurry up and get in!"

He opened the station wagon's door and they were greeted at once by a clear voice, saying "Hi there!". While Banri and Kouko returned the greeting, they sat down side by side in the middle.

"Okay, all the freshmen will be by the windows!"

The upperclassmen were rearranged, and everybody was able to be seated. An upperclassman got into the car right next to Banri.

"Today's weather turned out good, eh?"

With a smile, she sat down as if the spot belonged to her by right. In the front seat, the cool-looking guy next to Kouko said, "Nice to meet you, I'm a third-year from **** college."

All the freshmen that had been gathered from all the colleges were sitting separately by the windows. All of them, with nervous faces not speaking out. Banri and Kouko were in the same boat. For some reason the other seats were occupied by clear-voiced, smiling, laughing upperclassmen. It was somehow strangely uncomfortable, uncomfortable for sure, but they couldn't argue about it. The seating was arranged.

"Drinks and such are prepared if you'd like!"

"Ah, yes..."

Hanging from the neck of the smiling upperclassman to his side, a necklace with a snowflake design glittered. If he remembered correctly, she was wearing it yesterday too. It was probably her favorite. Casually looking over at the other upperclassman, just above his shirtcollar, Banri noticed he was wearing the same necklace. He wondered if they were really close, or if it was a uniform.

"Is everybody's seat belt on? Nobody needs the bathroom? Cause once we get on the freeway we have no plans to stop!"

The upperclassman in the driver's seat looked back. At his neck too, the same necklace. This guy having one on, even if it was so many close friends matching up, of course it seemed quite strange. Well of course! Does everybody in this club have to wear one? Banri discretely looked towards the necks of the other upperclassman in the vehicle.

"Why are you looking around like that?"

Suddenly asking the upperclassman with a straight face, "Isn't it strange that everybody's wearing matching necklaces? Just curious...", didn't get him an answer. She said, "It's nothing", giving Banri a vague deceptive smile, the station wagons lining up to leave. From where Banri sat, all he could see of Kouko was the billowing hair on the top of her head.

Inside the vehicle pop music was playing continuously and loudly, the upperclassmen singing in a sort of high-tension karaoke--- the first-years silent, strangely nervous still--- with things staying like that throughout the drive, which took about two hours.

Banri, once more attacked by uneasiness, was wondering if they shouldn't ought be getting off the freeway already when the time arrived.

The line of rental cars was passing in front of the university's seminar house. Following a road through the forest, a sign with the name of the college that Banri was attending was standing there, but they ignored it. What's more, the line of station wagons continued onwards into the mountains. Were they taking the wrong road, or perhaps, did the seminar house the upperclassman was talking about belong to another college?

That's what it looked like. None of the other freshmen at the windows, not even Kouko, noticed. Nobody said anything. While watching the sign get further away the other side of the window, should I keep quiet? Perhaps we're really going the wrong way, and if so what should we do? He couldn't decide whether they should turn around at that moment.

He noticed that the upperclassman gave him a sharp glance when he looked at the sign through the window. With the loud music flowing through the inside of the car, they had stared at each other for all of three seconds. As it was, realizing that the strange silence was dragging on, he boldly decided to ask her.

"Welll... didn't we just pass the seminar house?"

"Eh? What?"

Putting her hand to her ear, she indicated that she hadn't heard him.

"Just now, the seminar house, didn't we pass it!?"

He spoke louder and clearer this time, moving his mouth closer to her ear to overcome the music. The smell of her hair went up his nose, strangely unnatural and strong.

"What, what!? Eh, I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! I mean, stop it already, this is embarrassing! Cut it out!"

While smiling, she firmly pushed Banri back, putting her weight into it. And then suddenly, she said, "What's with me? Am I getting a little sleepy already?", and put her head on Banri's shoulder. Her upturned eyes at point blank range, lips coming together in a slight pout.

When he couldn't react, she casually placed her hand on his knee. The palm of her hand, slowly but steadily warming up, inched around as if to fondle him. While drawing circles, it came creeping towards his thigh. While so doing, she gazed moistly at Banri's eyes. She said, "Are you happy? Did I make your heart race? Did I make you hope?", while she gave him a look full of self-confidence.

But, distinctly scary. Her soft chest pushing against his elbow, Banri pulled away from her as softly as he could. A boy with a girl close by, whatever the situation might be, would be happy. That she even thought that way was scary, but more importantly, what if what she was doing up to this point wasn't a trick? That by itself was frightening.

But those innermost thoughts of Banri's became irrelevant as the line of cars slowed down, left the trees and turned from the beautifully paved private road and then entered what was apparently a driveway. To the left and right, high concrete walls were built, forming a C-curve in front, attached to the roof all the way down to the driveway.

Where they had arrived wasn't particularly big, but judging by the brickwork, it was evidently a pretty nice facility, two buildings set side by side.

Urged by the upperclassmen, they got down out of the cars. The older girl tried to join hands with Banri, reaching out for him, but Banri pretended not notice, calling out "Kaga-saan!" and trotting, chasing after Kouko, who had walked ahead, in order to escape from the her. As soon as Kouko saw Banri's face, she stopped walking and they stood side by side, and in a whisper,

"Ah, I finally was able to talk to somebody who knew. The upperclassman next to me, he just kept talking to me the whole time... but it wasn't boring, I had been somewhat tired... How was it for you?"

"As for me..."

He'd touched somebody that way in public. No, rather, he had been touched that way in public. But he couldn't talk about that, not with Kouko.

"...Same here. I'm a bit tired too."

Banri also answered quietly. Before he realized it, a crowd of freshmen had formed. The upperclassmen surrounded them, pushing the freshmen towards an opening, keeping up with them as they walked into the facility. They had no choice but to walk together in a line.

Marble used all over the place, even the entrance polished to a wonderful sheen, here and there decorated with big [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalaenopsis moth orchids], it really seemed more like a hotel, or an art museum. Pulling her carryall while going inside, to Kouko it seemed strange to have so much room.

"By the way, are we sure this place is really the college's seminar house? Would they have something as nice as this while their school buildings are falling apart?"

"...I don't think so..."

"Eh?"

Once all the freshmen had entered, a strange high sound arose and the entrance door closed. Shortly, in that darkened lobby, the lights were turned on.

In the center there glittered a huge piece of artwork, shaped like a snowflake.

On the pedestal a gold plate was affixed, inscribed with 'The Shape of God in our Times'. That god would be incarnated a million years from now! ---In other words, for the next five hours until they locked their rooms, Banri knew they would be subjected to a lecture.

<center>* * *</center>

Of course, he wanted to flee.

In short, they had been placed under house arrest by a new religion disguised as a club. But he couldn't talk with his fellow freshmen, as they were under a constant guard. They struck anybody who even looked like he was talking! It was such a low class thing to do, and some freshmen opened their mouths in protest, but the older students separated anybody who did so. For the moment the uneasy freshmen trying to gather together were kept apart, gently perhaps, but physically separated. Talk amongst the freshmen was not permitted; that was the message clearly being sent.

Before the lecture, everybody's bags were collected, tossed into a single room and locked up. At that point, strangely enough, they were permitted to get out their cellphones, but, whether it was from being in the middle of the mountains, or it was on purpose, Banri's cellphone wasn't the only one with no signal. There was not a phone in sight, so getting in contact with the outside was going to be difficult.

Dinnertime was completely silent, a sort of prayer ritual. Even a funeral would have been more exciting.

On little tables arranged in a semicircle there were placed glasses of cold beer and various kinds of soft drinks. As far as that went, this was an ordinary club training camp, quite so, no, perhaps of a rather extravagant type, but the freshmen were scattered about, kept apart, and everyone who understood the situation was keeping ominously quiet about it.

Banri was seated at the end of the semicircle. Next to him was the older girl. Kouko, from one of the center seats, looked vaguely down at the tables, her white face still blank. Occasionally, she would glance quickly at Banri, each of them seeing in this situation "Danger...!", both of them recognizing it, but neither of them able to do anything about it. Mr. Two Dimensions, too, on the other side could be seen with his head bowed.

Really and truly, it had become something dangerous.

"Now then everyone, let's get moving! Everybody, take your glasses!"

The hot upperclassman seated next to Kouko stood up and raised his voice for no apparent reason. Even some of the other upperclassmen whistled and booed at the sudden, unnaturally forced enthusiasm.

"Well then! Congratulations for the newly created children, tonight's excellent full moon, and another gathering recorded for the next 10,000 years! Ready, cheers! Hello new children!"

"Hello!", the upperclassmen said, raising their glasses.

Banri and the other freshmen, all of them, were looking down at their knees, petrified. The tops of their heads could be seen lined up around the semicircle.

Almost as if he were praying silently, "What should I do?", an over-familiar touch at his shoulder,

"What's wrong, new children! Loook, at long last the day of your awakening is here! Let's have a little more enthusiasm!"

With a smile as wide as her face, she raised her glass. Banri's head going numb to the core, he was unable to answer anything more, and he stared at the golden liquid which filled the glass. He remembered something strange. The day of the entrance ceremony, at the convenience store, when he met Yanagisawa at the mirror, they'd toasted with ice-bars. At that time, they were completely mismatched though somehow it was really fun. In the few days since then, they'd come surprisingly far. He could hardly wait for those peaceful times to return.

As it was, Banri was already thinking about how they couldn't keep them there too many days. Come Monday there would be school, a few freshmen vanishing would become a big deal, maybe even a matter for the police.

So anyway for this one night and two days, perhaps he could have the patience to let it pass by. Quickly getting drunk, quickly getting smashed, just sleeping through it all, morning would come soon enough.

"..."

As if.

Anyway, if he quietly kept his patience until tomorrow in this weird place--- glass full of beer in her hand, she looked at Banri,

"Yes, yes! It was really fun winning! Yes, one round, cheeeers!"

"Ch, cheers..."

Giving another glad smile, she gulped down the delicious looking beer.

Kouko was looking his way with a startled look on her face. She was putting the chilled glass to her mouth, since she couldn't avoid doing so, but she looked back at Banri, her feelings exposed.

But--- was that so?

If he were to think about it, he was responsible for the fact that she had been brought here.

He'd answered the upperclassman, saying, "Let's go together!", he told himself. Nonetheless, Kouko was confused.

Besides, it would have been a better to have chatted some more back at the coffee shop. Caught as they were, if he thought about it now, it was suspicious. Wasn't it written in plain sight? This time for sure, he had to be on guard about the strange upperclassman who stuck too close for comfort. Even so, his nervousness at finding himself together with Kouko, his hopes of being able to be friends with her, everything combined to blind his radar.

Since they'd decided to come and participate in the training camp, he'd been dumb. Exhausted, unable to think and with his judgement lost, if he so much as nodded it would be over, and... swept away, to such a state he'd been brought. And now, he was regretting it to death.
Banri considered not swallowing the beer touching his mouth.

Of course, he couldn't.

Already, he wouldn't do things like that.

If he had been patient enough while they'd been speaking of such things, maybe they wouldn't have gone so far. From the beginning, the purpose of isolating the training camp, wearing out its participants, making them give up, stopping their thought processes, appeared to be a trap.

And then... no, no way, they can't just brainwash me when I don't understand what they're teaching, he thought. Still, Banri looked sidelong at the upperclassman next to him. He started drinking the delicious beer, eating their cooking and talking with the other upperclassmen.

Actually, surrounded by unusually good looking and healthy seeming guys and gals, the danger hadn't really sunk in.

If he didn't want to become like them, if he even wanted to live in ordinary reality, he needed to escape from here. Absolutely. Banri spit out the beer he held in his mouth into the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oshibori damp towel] provided on his table.

But, he was worried about that roster he'd signed, where they'd hurried him to write down his personal information. Kouko, himself and all the rest too, they had been perhaps too foolishly honest when they'd written down their addresses and contact information. Wasn't that what all the persistent nagging was all about?

He absolutely, absolutely couldn't give Mom and Dad back home anything more to worry about.

That roster had been placed in the upperclassman's own duffle. And then together with the freshmen's luggage, now, it was locked up in a room.

What should I do?

"...This is no fun! We can't do anything like this!"

Suddenly, crash! At the sudden, high, echoing sound, Banri lifted his face. Mr. Two Dimensions had thrown his glass to the floor.

"What's this about 10,000 years in the future! Giving thanks to a crystal master! How messed up can you be, believing in a three-dimensional thing like that!? You've been tricking us from the start, calling this an 'all around club'! I mean, isn't this imprisonment!? Isn't that a crime!? Do you even think anybody could keep quiet about people doing such things!?"

Decisively stated by Mr. Two Dimensions, the other freshmen stood up too.

"Let's go out to the cars now! I don't want to stay in this place any longer!"

"I'm going to sue them!"

Not knowing yet what he should do, Banri stood anyway. At that moment, in the fragments of glass scattered about broken on the floor, for just an instant, just how many broken reflections of himself were there to be seen?

Aspects of himself could be seen in all of them.

A worn out face. A scared face. An angry face. A face trying hard. A face ready to cry. So many variations of his face. And then suddenly a look that seemed to ask, "What are you going to do, Tada Banri?" At such a time as this, Tada Banri, what should a guy be doing?

Tada Banri ---

"Everybody, such an outburst wasn't called for. Just calm down for now."

--- realized he ought to do something.

The upperclassmen, seated in a row, showed no surprise. They were all watching Mr. Two Dimensions' composed smile, Banri's raised voice and the state of the other freshmen. It had all been arranged for, even this situation. This 'facility in the mountains' was their place of power, and what with the talk of their planning to make an offering, Banri was rather scared. But he couldn't do more than that, since nothing had been decided. He had no other choice for now.

Himself, he would do something unexpected.

"Anybody who wants to go home, that's fine if they do."

While he was talking, his body was trembling. Hiding it, he continued, "But I don't want to go back."

"What are you saying, Tada Banri!?"

Mr. Two Dimensions looked at Banri's face as if in shock. Kouko did too. Eyes opened wide, standing up. At the same time the table shook, tipping the glasses over. Shaking off their glances, Banri suddenly raised his voice.

"I mean, frankly, that where until things were so tense, now you're talking about it being boring! Just what is it you can't spit out? You speak of crime, but, even though recently you were still underage, you were drinking! Drinking underage at the Tea Ceremony is a crime, but you didn't speak of that! Seems the same to me. If you could let things like that slide, then maybe you can have fun here! It's convenient to ignore it, say it's not a crime, but isn't that really selfish? Such a bothersome guy you are, even entering here you are such an annoyance!"

Mr. Two Dimensions tried to interrupt, but he was prevented by a loud voice.

"Anyhow I want to have some fun here! Speaking of such boring things is tiresome, it's annoying! Sirs, these guys are clearly a bother! Since they want to go home, can't they just leave? Kick out these bothersome ones, and then let's get to the drinking party! I came here to have some real fun!"

He took revenge for her public assault on him.

Grabbing the older girl's hand, he shook back and forth like a little kid. But, his opponent being a master of the same techniques, she looked back at Banri, her eyes wary.

"...Do you really want to stay here? Even if everybody else returned? That so, eh? But, why would you?"

"I was quite impressed by the lecture I heard."

The last words shook, but that probably made it seem more truthful.

"In perfect seriousness, I would like to hear what the other upperclassmen here have to say. What I mean, really,"

He ordered his knees to stop shaking.

"Actually, I was seriously injured in high school, and all my memories were blown away. I've suffered amnesia, so to speak. I have suffered much from that. When I woke up, I suddenly knew nobody else in all the world. Not parents, nor friends, nor acquaintances nor anybody else. It was really lonely. But now... with the lecture about this new world to come, at last it looked like I may be saved. Though it sounds like it may be a lie, this, isn't something you made up. If here and now, there were a police investigation, or a hospitalization, I wouldn't receive an explanation nor would there be a meeting. In truth why"

Through his hair, the older girl could see the ugly scar still present on his scalp. The marks from surgery spread down to the neck of his T-shirt, running down even to his shoulders. He wondered if he ought to pull down his blue-jeans to show them the long stitch-scars running down his thighs to the knees.

"...That's enough. Forgive us for being suspicious, new children. ...That hurt, didn't it...!"

This is powerfully persuasive. What's going on here?

Looking at the point of tears, the older girl was looking at Banri sympathetically. She believed what he was saying just now.

"But you're all right now! You've cheered up, haven't you? Since you've cheered up, the time of your salvation has come, now! Right, everybody! From this it's been made clear, don't you think! The new children should be awakened, and the Crystal Lord will grant them their test, to see if they cannot be awakened! Going so far beyond, isn't it a beautiful thing? This time around, those who are only half-hearted kids will be able to go home. Only the real Children ought to have time close to me, as far as I'm concerned!"

They exchanged glances, those upperclassmen--- or you might say, the believers, that seemed to be the right word.

They spoke quickly, now it had been decided. The luggage that had been stored was taken out at once, and all the freshmen and some of the believers left the dining room. Banri saw that the keys to the luggage room were in the hands of a one guy.

Opened with the key, the freshmen went inside to pick up their luggage. A guy stuck to Banri's side, mouth shut, trying to look thoroughly scary, keeping an eye on him sidelong.

But Mr. Two Dimensions was different.

"Let's just go back! Tada Banri! Go back with the rest of us! A place like this is always trouble! You can take your time listening to their talk later, but for now let's go back!"

Thanking him in his mind, Banri outwardly ignored him. He called out to the guy with the key.

"Ma'am, isn't drunken driving dangerous? If there were an accident it'd be a problem, for sure. It seems to me that it'd be better if the guy who's going to drive didn't drink."

"That too is true. Is there anybody that has a driver's license?"

At the sound of the guy's voice some of the freshmen raised their hands. Mr. Two Dimensions was one of them. Casually, Banri called out to the guy's back, "Ah, I'll go get the key", intending to grab the key to the room. But,

"We've only just called you, but after you've been verified it'll be OK. You there, you've not had even one drop to drink?"

The key was quite firmly in the guy's grip. He let out an involuntary click of the tongue.

The guy locked up the luggage room and swung around. He thought better of calling after the guy with the keys to come back at that point. It couldn't be helped. There would be other opportunities to do something.

It looked like they'd decided that Mr. Two Dimensions and another freshman would be driving. Mr. Two Dimensions looked back towards Banri over and over again while going towards the entrance. It's OK, leave me behind, you're as confused as anybody else. Banri gave him a slight shake of the head.

Like that, all the freshmen left the facility. Amongst them of course, there went Kouko pulling her carry-all. Soon, the sound of the wheels rolling faded away, leaving Banri behind by himself.

Everybody had left. Amongst believers in a strange god, he was completely alone.

He was feeling scared to death. But, that was fine, he thought. At the least, he was able to get Kouko, whom he had brought here, back out to the ordinary peaceful world. Later, he would decide just what to do.

But, at that moment came to his ears a sound he could hardly believe. Banri reflexively cleared his ears. He had thought he might be hearing things, but apparently it was real.

The rolling sound that should have been gone, and had indeed left, was once more coming towards him.

Then, the entrance door opened.

Suddenly coming into view,

"Of course, I stayed behind too. The last lecture left me with a strong impression."

"...Kaga, san...!?"

"Hello, new children!"

With a self-satisfied expression on her face, Kaga Kouko.

Whether I like it or not, you, what are you saying--- really, what are you doing!? What the heck are you saying!? Precisely what are you doing!? Why have you returned!? What's with this person!? Can she really be an idiot!? Banri would have shouted, but he had no voice.

Banri was completely dumbfounded, looking at Kouko's form in amazement, his mouth hanging open. Kouko was standing next to Banri, meeting all the believers halfway, her face composed, both her long hands precisely positioned before her slim body, her head tilted a little to the side. And then,

"In spite of being beautiful, I am not popular. Because of that, I have already abandoned this century. I am longing for the new century!"

Strangely persuasive, she smiled with perfect grace.

The freshmen gone and Banri and Kouko left behind, the strange party atmosphere returned to the dining hall. Nearly an hour had passed.

All the believers themselves good and drunk, the opportunity to talk with Kouko had finally arrived.

He pointed over at Kouko's carry-all, still set in the corner of the dining hall. Since it needed to be put in the luggage room, it should be easy to get the guy to hand him the key.

"Kaga-san, let's go put away your luggage."

Grabbing the handle of the carry-all, winking back when he called her, Kouko stood up at once. Banri had a hunch that if the older girl had been looking towards them at all, it would have been very conspicuous. Unnoticed, he left the dining hall with Kouko.

While walking quickly down the corridor, Kouko started to call out to him, but Banri held a finger up before his mouth in a sign for her to be quiet. Still quiet, he took Kouko by the arm, looked all around to make sure nobody was nearby, and brought her over by the men's bathroom. Kouko was now at the mercy of his intentions, whatever they were. They quietly stuffed themselves into a stall and locked it. Up to this point, he'd been acting rather like a confirmed molester, but,

"...Aaa...!"

The first thing that escaped was a groan neither breathing nor sigh. In the narrow space, Banri's body was twisted like a music conductor, his right hand raised overhead and scratching his forehead roughly. "What are you doing, what are you doing, why, why, why, what's with youuu...!?", he shouted in a whisper while stamping the ground in frustration.

"Kaga-san, what were you doing!? Why didn't you go back with everybody else!?"

Really, come to your senses! He wanted to slap her on the cheek, grab her by the neck of her pretty one-piece dress and shake her back and forth. Failing that, he could punch the wall, or maybe hit himself on the forehead. Since he couldn't do either, the upper half of Banri's body was twisted up like a grilled squid.

"Do you really want to join up with those guys!?"

He pointed his finger at Kouko's pretty face.

"That, was my line."

A gentle whack, and that fingertip was shot down.

Carefully lifting the hem of her skirt so it wouldn't touch the edge of the toilet, so close together in the narrow stall their knees overlapped, Kouko looked intensely back at Banri. The black pupils of her eyes were turned up like crescent moons.

"Tada-kun, all that stuff you said about rescue and such, was that true?"

"I...have...no...i...de...a...!"

He didn't say any more, at his wit's end, writing in agony while she smiled at him. In spite of his success in getting everybody sent back, how, why, and more importantly for what reason, had she come back?

"Oh... whatever, that's good... Tada-kun, I was wondering if you would really become a believer."

"But I was thinking it was time for you to go back!"

"But, it sounded sincere."

"It was for your sake... something, very real feeling... I mean, Kaga-san, why did you really come back? All that effort was so everybody could go home!"

"Because, I couldn't just leave you behind. Thinking of how you had followed them into thinking you were seriously planning on staying here, what would I do? I would feel responsible if you'd done such a thing, and would never be able to leave it behind!, so to speak. By all means, Tada-kun ought to be able to go back too, was my thought. Why was Tada-kun going to be left by himself, behind?"

"I didn't think they would let people go back just because they said they wanted to return! I pretended to believe, thinking that if everybody else made enough noise begging to return, they would let them go! Besides, there was all sorts of stuff written in that roster... addresses, contact information and so on. I thought that perhaps being left behind, I might somehow or other clean up things. I can't imagine how much trouble we'd have if that information got out."

Looking up at Banri's face, somewhat taken aback, Kouko in that moment placed her fingertip under her pretty rose-colored lips.

"...For sure. I had written down my parents' address in full."

"I saw the upperclassman girl stick it in her bag. There hasn't been time to make copies, now if we could get it out of there... that could be difficult."

With a jingle, the key to the luggage room could be seen in Kouko's hand.

"Thanks to Kaga-san having returned so miraculously, we go to Plan B. Seems like we may be able to set it in motion."

Kouko's eyes glittered like stars. In reality, it was just the reflected light from the restroom.

"Tada-kun..., ...good job."

Her eyes shining, Kouko applauded Banri with just her fingertips.

"Shall we do this together?"

"Of course."

"Let's both return absolutely quietly."

"Naturally!"

Nodding to each other, they took her carry-all and left the restroom.

They went down the corridor and opened the door to the luggage room with the key. They both went inside. Turning on the light, they searched through the upperclassmen bags, which had been lined up along the wall. Was it beige, ...no, was it brown? And so, he looked for anything like a girl's overnight bag in the hill in front of them, when suddenly at the confused Banri's side,

"Her bag was Coach. The Signature, last year's model, the keyholder had a marguerite..."

Kouko, her fingertip like a gun barrel, zeroed in right away on a single bag.

"It's that one."

What a capable helper! It seemed they would be able to easily clear this mission. Banri and Kouko jumped to pull out the upperclassman's bag, and fish through the contents.

They soon found the roster stuck in a file. Two sheets of A5 paper. Taking it quickly to tear it up, Banri was lost for a moment as to what to do with it. Could he hide it in his pants and take it back with him? Should he shred it up fine and flush it down the toilet?

From the arrangement of the things in the luggage room, it was probably a smoking lounge. On a low table somebody's lighter, and in an ashtray some cigarette buts had been left behind. He was casually looking over those things when suddenly,

"You there, what the heck--- huh!?"

The door opened, the forgotten key still in the lock. Glimpsing the white face of the upperclassmen girl, Banri and Kouko both jumped about an inch of the floor. Their bodies reacted even quicker than their thoughts.

"What's going on!? What about the roster... wa, wait!"

Banri fairly flew at the door, attacking it, forcing the door shut against the rest of the upperclassmen and locking it. The others banged on the door with terrific force. "What do you call this!?" "Open up!" "This traitor!" "Wait, somebody's coming!" The upperclassmen's loud voices echoed. The hand holding the door was shaking, and he realized that sweat was pouring from every pore of his body,

"Waah, wh wh wh, what am I going to do...!? This is bad bad bad...!"

Banri's face was now completely white. Should he kneel before them? Offer them money? Persuade them with tears? Such things, up to surrender, were starting to pass through his head, while on the other hand Kouko,

"Tada-kun, the roster."

With a strangely serious face, she held out her hand towards him without hesitation. He threw the tightly folded roster towards that hand. ''Smack'', she caught it magnificently,

"Hold the door steady!"

Even in that moment, she was seating herself regally on a cushion. Then, without hesitation, she tore the roster up in pieces, put the pieces in an ashtray and quickly set it on fire with the lighter. Just like that, a little flame arose, and in a couple of seconds their worries about the roster turned to ashes. Finally, pouring some water that had been left behind in a cup over the embers put it out completely. Banri was amazed at how neatly it was done, at least on this occasion. How should he say it? To her enemies, she wasn't the type you'd want to turn your back on.

Kouko immediately opened up her carry-all, pulled out her wallet, cell phone and key-case, and stuffed it all in the pocket of her cardigan.

"Tada-kun, any valuables?"

"Ne, never carry any!"

The pounding on the door continued. An ominous creaking sound was coming from around the door knob. They could hear the sound of a large number of people running up the corridor. Banri's valuables were his cell phone, wallet and the key to his place. Those he put in his jean's pocket, tied up in a leather strap that ''Yana''-ssan had chosen for him in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%8Denji Kouenji].

"Can we leave the rest of the baggage?"

"Yes!"

They nodded to each other. From the other side of the door a key--- the master key, probably, the sound of it being inserted could be heard at the same time. The door opened. Angry voices echoed.

He feverishly grabbed Kouko's hand and rushed towards the window. This room was on the first floor, but,

"..."

He quickly ran to the window to look through it, it wasn't all that high, but still every cell in his body trembled in fear. His body didn't remember the terror it once had tasted. But if they remained here, things were going to get scarier still. Not just for himself, but for Kouko too. Suppressing their fears with reason, closing their eyes they abandoned themselves to the pull of gravity. Still holding Kouko's hand, they clumsily fell down together. Once they got back on their feet, they realized just how bad the slippers they had put on were, but they couldn't do anything about it.

While hearing loud cries of "They're escaping through the window!" from the mob behind them, Banri and Kouko ran out into the deep dark of the forest night.

<center>* * *</center>

Perhaps they had been a bit too reckless in the moment of their escape.

"Why... can't I get a signal...?"

"I can't get one either..."

After all of two hours had passed, both Banri and Kouko were becoming aware that they had new problems.

Their reward for escaping from the suspicious new religion, quite simply said, was to be stranded--- the path they were walking down right now, it might really be a road, or maybe just a game trail, even that much they did not know. Without map, flashlight nor even shoes, having only determination, they depended on what little light came through between the trees to continue on.

Naturally, it was dark, at night with all kinds of trees growing thickly over the mountain trail, and underfoot it was awfully wet. Sliding in the slippery mud, many times the protruding rocks kept them from their way. Fearing pursuit, they stayed away from the brighter lit roads, Banri choosing to follow the trackless paths of the forest.

Beyond the trees shone a line of lights, they had to be street lights. Those lights were a simple guide to get down the slope, but right now he wasn't sure whether or not it was the right thing to do. Since they led upwards into the mountains, he thought it would be better to go down, and did so. The line of streetlights seemed far away, and a difficult climb... he had a hunch about it.

Before long, they came to a sudden slope they couldn't cross in their awful slipper-shoes, so for the time being they started walking along the flat winding edge of a cliff, but in the end, they reached the end of their endurance.

Sitting down wherever they could on some fallen tree,

"I thought we'd come a good ways down..."

"For sure. Why haven't we reached the bottom..."

Phew..., hah..., together they let out a long sigh.

Seeing that as usual the screen showed no signs of a signal, Banri put his cellphone in his pocket.

It was already past 10 o'clock at night. It was late for local hunters to be passing by, and it was too early for the morning to break.

He thought about what he would do if only the cellphone were usable. He was thinking that if he could get in contact with Mr. Two Dimensions, or his home, or perhaps the police, he could tell them what was going on. And yet how, they were out of range. 'Build a bigger antenna!', but in such a place as this he couldn't do anything but curse the telephone company.

All their strength gone, it was as quiet as if they were falling to the ground. Falling and tumbling next, our anxieties, fears, despair... no, we can't. Banri lifted his face.

Still, it was 10 o'clock. It was too early to give up and fall into depression. Showing an unreasonably cheerful face, he took off his open-necked UNIQLO shirt and put it on Kouko's shoulders, which had only a cardigan over a thin dress. Though it was already covered with mud,

"Put these on?"

He tried to take off his socks and hand them over. It would have been good if he'd noticed a little sooner. Her feet were definitely bare. However, but she didn't put them on, nor return them, she gazed at him, in the same pose as when she received them.

Her messed up hair clinging to her cheeks, she wasn't bothering now to cover things up with a smile,

"Tada-kun"

Somewhat in a daze, Kouko turned an empty face towards Banri.

"What what what, it's OK! We'll manage somehow soon. A little rest and then we try some more!"

"I'm sorry."

"'I'm sorry'..."

He had been apologized to.

And what timing, Kouko's bangs, which were up, suddenly with a thud fell down, covering half her face.

"...Teacher of moonlight..."

Her laughter had returned.

Kouko was quiet for a bit, jerkily combing up her drooping bangs. Accustomed to doing it by hand without a mirror, from her mussy hair she quickly pulled out a pin and stuck it in her mouth, then using both hands as combs she skillfully fixed up her hair, and finished it off with the pin she'd taken out earlier. The messed up hair was fixed for the time being, and she'd returned to being like Kaga Kouko again, a bit. Then,

"It's my fault that things turned out this way."

Looking away from herself again, she looked straight at Banri once more. Being prettily put back in order, indeed with a serious frown, "I'm sorry", she repeated once again. Even in this moment, her large eyes were flashing darkly.

"...That's not right. 'It wasn't Kaga-san's fault', saying such things."

Without caring about how Banri was squirming,

"It was my fault! In the first place, I had the leaflets from that strange club, and they called me too. You thought that I was such a poor thing, going alone, so it was just to keep me company."

"...But I wasn't thinking it was your fault."

"That's wrong!"

"I thought it would be good if Kaga-san could make some friends in that club. Therefore, in spite of the strange feeling they gave me, I stopped worrying about it, it's OK, let's go, you're bothering Kaga-san. Therefore, it's my responsibility, of course."

"That's not right, that's wrong. ...You're just wrong!"

Shaking her head, frantically looking anywhere else, Kouko held on tightly to Banri's socks, with their unknown state of cleanliness.

"Really, it isn't your fault. ...I approached you and got close to you, thinking to trick you into giving me information about Mitsuo. From the start, which club didn't matter. Saying 'I haven't been invited to anything' was true. All the college students were already ignoring me, really. I was even aware of the gossip. But I didn't pay any attention. Yesterday, saying 'nobody calls out for me', forcing myself to look dejected, saying so, ...that was all just to draw out your sympathy."

"That so? Of course, it was all about ''Yana''-ssan."

"Yes, about Yanao.... all mixed up. Mitsuo's"

Breathing out a bit, Kouko cast her eyes down uncomfortably and looked down at her own feet. Mud was all over her bare feet and slippers.

"It was all for the sake of Mitsuo."

The voice that followed was like a monologue, echoing in the silence,

"...Well, ninety percent."

Kouko raised her face once more.

She looked into Banri's eyes. Still holding the dirty socks tightly, speaking as somebody who made a mistake, her lips twisted in irony.

"The remaining ten percent... even I don't understand."

Tired of talking after that, her next breath was a like a gasp. Her gaze trembled.

"...Understanding, from this spring arrived until yesterday, that there was only one person who bothered to speak with me. Only Tada-kun. Tada-kun called out to me, though it was news about how Mitsuo being excessively defiant... but, even though I found it hard to understand... you talked to me, ...and I was happy for that. That too is true."

"If so, then of course trying to call out to you was good."

Kouko held her tongue, looking at Banri's eyes while shaking her head softly. Not understanding that gesture very well,

"The result has been problems, though."

She tried to laugh it off, but couldn't. Kouko smiled a little, but the conversation did not continue.

The two stayed silent for a little while, gazing at each other's feet. Today having been spring, the temperate had been good and warm. Though it was chilly now, there was no worry about freezing to death.

"...I wonder what Mitsuo's doing about now? Is he worried at all about me?"

She tried to make it sound like a joke, but a little awkwardly, let it fall into the night darkness. Banri scooped it up, returning her words as lightly as possible.

"He might be. 'Where's the training camp?', I was asked later, but I didn't answer."

"Was that so?"

"Well, I could have texted from the car, but I didn't feel like it. And what's more, since afterwards we were always out of range, wouldn't he be rather worried? So it is, there it is, and before long, that anxious feeling unexpectedly becomes a hot possessiveness, a heaviness sitting on ''Yana''-ssan's heart..."

Hearing Banri's little joke, a smile clearly broke across the well ordered features of Kouko's face.

"Enough. That's not right. You're making things up."

Indeed, just like her, even in smiling she seemed to be plotting something too perfect. He realized that it had been a long time since he'd seen that face. Cheered, Banri too smiled broadly.

"''Yana''-ssan noticed, you know. From what I see, that childhood friendship must have been important."

"Yes, yes yes! What about it?"

"There were already gloomy thoughts... even doubts like, 'Am I a stalker?'...! It was, but wait! As far as I'm concerned, of course it's my fate to be married to this girl! 'Kuoukuoooo---------!'"

"Kyaa! Muitsuuo---------!"

The two were messing around, laughing their heads off in the sultry dark, reaching their hands out towards each other. Banri his right hand, Kouko her left. Building into a sudden and strange excitement, they made a lot of noise, their extended hands unable to reach each other, no matter what...! That was how they were playing together.

"You're messing up my entrance! Ugyaa! Kaagaasaan! Yaanaasaan!"

"Ahahaha! Taadaa-kuuuun!"

The fingertip of his left hand trembling fearfully, it neared Kouko's extended fingertip, approaching through the dark night air. But of course, since it was all a joke,

"Such an act, Baan!"

Taking the charade to its end, with Banri as "Mitsuo", Kouko clapped her hands and let them fall. Kyaaa, Kouko's hands sketched a big arc as they came down. Flutter flutter flutter, plop, with a sad sound the rotten tree to her side fell. Kouko laughed for a little bit, then,

"...Eh, wasn't that awful just now?"

All of a sudden she looked at Banri seriously. It wasn't that bad, since it was all a joke, she shook her side from side to side.

"I was referring to the socks. You ought to put them on."

He prompted her with a jerk of his chin.

It looked like Kouko finally remembered about Banri's socks, which were still sitting in her lap. Bending over, she put them on. They could serve to protect her slipper-clad bare feet from getting dirty, at least. Seeing that, Banri nodded in approval.

Though outwardly Kouko seemed lonely, it was after all ninety-percent a pretense to "Get Yana!" Even hearing this from her, he wasn't upset. Was this because he expected such from her? Was it because "it doesn't matter", and he was suddenly rebellious? Was it because, following the "there's no sick child" formula, his "good man" circuit got switched on? Was it simply because with things being the way they were at the moment, his emotions were simply paralyzed? Or perhaps this was just another proof of Yanagisawa's theory that "For beautiful people, life is fun" --- was he being led around by the nose by the beautiful Kouko, and his heart was under her control?

Trying to think, Banri concluded a short while later that he simply didn't know.

Kouko had come back for him.

Despite it seeming unlikely that she was going to love anybody but Yanagisawa Mitsuo anytime soon, and Banri being only barely somebody that "could not be left behind", she had come back to get him.

Watching the miserable-seeming Banri while they were leaving, the other freshmen had no intention of criticizing him (since he had persuaded them to leave him there by himself), but finally she had raised her voice. She didn't doubt Mr. Two Dimension's friendship, but after all, as the driver he probably would not be able to return.

But, indeed Kouko, even if only as a friend Kaga Kouko, even if she couldn't remember his name, returned for the sake of Banri "He isn't Mitsuo", something he didn't even think she would do. He didn't think there were such people.

Since Kouko behaved that way, and with the "ten percent" just mentioned, it seemed that perhaps there just might be something inside her.

That something existed inside her he knew at least, just what use it would be, well it's all your fault, whatever, to Banri it didn't seem likely.

"...I wonder if ''Yana''-ssan knows Kaga-san's in that kind of state."

"What kind of state?"

"No, something like... It's because it seemed you're a little different when ''Yana''-ssan is around, versus when he is not."

A little to his dismay, he saw Kouko's eyes open wide. Or so he thought.

For Banri, the time Yanagisawa was with Kouko was when she gave him a surprise attack with a huge bouquet of roses. Beating the daylights out of Yanagisawa with roses in front of all the new students, throwing them at the guy and leaving. As if patting a pet, looking down from above, disregarding whatever complaint Yanagisawa might have had. Pursuing the escaped Yanagisawa, reproaching him for having escaped. If she somehow caught him, she would use up to live ammunition (it's a matter of money).

Saying "Whatever, it doesn't matter", while Banri seemed to be the only person waiting in Kouko's "ten percent." Saying, "I can't leave him behind in such a place", and returning, seemingly just for Banri. Even awkwardly trying to apologize, then even trying to horse around and laugh like an ordinary girl, maybe, just for Banri. ...Maybe.

Banri, because he saw that, today's Kouko, yesterday's Kouko--- the Kouko around Yanagisawa was a different person, he thought.

But Yanagisawa, if he had seen the same thing, he probably would have thought the "Now-Kouko" different.

"If so, I think he'd be wrong."

She went quiet for a moment, as if thinking, then,

"In the time I was with Mitsuo, I was complete. You just might have that right."

Laughing a little, she looked at Banri, then averted her eyes. Raising her slim leg straight up, she looked at Banri's socks covering her toes. Seeing that sidelong look made her seem to him a girl he didn't know.

"Without Mitsuo, I am incomplete. Whether getting up in the morning, going to bed at night, eating my meals or going to school, dressing up nice, crying or laughing, it is all for Mitsuo. He is the whole purpose behind everything I do. If it weren't so, I wouldn't even try. Without him, life has no meaning. It was always that way for me. If he's not following behind me, there is nothing I can do. If Mitsuo's not there, I don't know what I should do. Even now, I want to get back safely, because Mitsuo is there. Am I thinking like a fool? It's OK, because I really am a fool."

But such love she had for herself, that continuing, Kouko looked up once more to Banri's eyes, straightened her back, and showed her perfect, beautiful smile. This once again, was the face of a girl he didn't know.

To such a person as this, well, whatever he said she wouldn't want to listen anyhow, so, covering up his feelings, Banri gave her a frank reply,

"...If that were the case, it would all be fine in spite of your having gotten ''Yana''-ssan mad. But there what with the roses, as far as his life is concerned, the completed person is very messed up. Far from being nice to him, wasn't it an attack? Why did you willingly do something to get yourself disliked?"

He said that for now. As for her internal ten percent --- his purpose was for her to know that he existed.

It seemed she heard him perfectly, judging by the stiffly displeased look on her lips in the dark.

"He... that wasn't good for Mitsuo."

"How so? It seems to me the perfect Kaga-san isn't so good, normally."

"But! But, you're wrong! I have my reasons! I exploded after four months of frustration! It's not like I planned for such a thing to happen! It was my intention to ride up in the taxi with the roses, congratulate him with a smile and hand over the roses! Just leaving behind the smell of roses... surprising Mitsuo... and then around campus, we'd say 'those roses mark the spot we got together...', that was an even more perfect scenario!"

"Was that what you thought meeting up with him would be like?"

"He would have said, 'That was a knockout blow: You had the courage to have pursued me to the same university!' "

"...Seriously?"

"Seriously! Really, that's was how it was supposed to be! But... well, the result was this. ...Mitsuo, was always telling me about 'doing the escalator'. I found out that was all a lie around the end of the year. Since then I always pretended to be deceived, so that it looked to him that I was doing the escalator too, faking it to the point of taking the same entrance exams."

"A disguise..."

"Wig and glasses. Suspecting a second entrance exam, I called up the examiner. So it was that day after day he kept on lying, and I could see it the whole time. Perhaps today he would tell me the truth. Perhaps tomorrow. 'Surely the day after tomorrow...', I persisted, but all the way to the end, graduation already done, Mitsuo wouldn't tell me the truth. I overlooked the lies. Then, on the day of the entrance ceremony, idiotically walking with Tada-kun, looking as if he were having fun... 'What the heck!?' I couldn't stand it anymore."

How many seconds of silence passed? And then,

"Now, I am regretting it."

Kouko looked up into the night sky.

Starlight shining through a break in the trees fell on Kouko from above. She gave a deep sigh, together with a thin voiced "ah". Head hanging down, her hair again hung straight down.

"...Seems like it... From where I sit, it seems you are being disliked, right? Even at the entrance ceremony, it would have been better if you'd simply hugged him and given him a kiss. What you accomplished was different. ...Even so, to be ignored so completely and perfectly... was certainly not."

That's the way it was, really--- Banri looked back at the sad face whitely illuminated, quietly thinking.

Really, I think that's the way it is, Kaga-san. Better than hurting him like that with roses, nearly to the point of drawing blood, just showing that face--- that Kaga Kouko, even once, would be far better, he thought.

A million times, or ten million times, or even a trillion times better, he thought.

Banri had not known until now how somebody could be impatient with human clumsiness, even like this. Because of how the day was turning out, he knew the feeling for the first time.

"The only one who's supposed to do dumb things like that, in this world, ever, is me."

Perhaps too tired still to walk again, Kouko stiffly moved her legs while just barely cracking a smile.

"I don't think you're like that, though. You're just not the type of person to be able to do that right."

"Yep, it's absolutely just me. ...I am the most to blame in this, I did something dumb. What about you, Tada-kun? What about you? Is there somebody you like? Do you have a girlfriend?"

She was planting landmines under the night sky.

It was a rest-break with no more meaning than that, so more easily than ever Banri was able to open his mouth and chat with her.

"Maybe, and maybe not. I don’t know for myself. Just that 'My memories were all blown away,' since that's speaking the truth."

Like a surprise attack, Kouko winked back at him.

"...What kind of speaking?"

"Speaking about loss of memory."

Banri pointed at his head with his finger. "Well...", while he began hesitantly to talk, that finger turning in circles.

"It was shortly after my high school graduation ceremony. Early in the morning, I was alone and it seems I fell from the bridge. Since then my memory has left me. Though I may feel like saying it, I can't just say '...So what?' It doesn't work to say that every time I talk. For the time being, could you simply understand? I can't be always saying things like 'I can't remember anything from childhood through high school', of course."

As he looked at Kouko, who had fallen completely silent, looking troubled, Banri thought "Well, she ought to be!" If somebody were to suddenly talk about losing their memory, you'd probably be confused too.

But normally, I would hope you would just be seeing the face of an ordinary nineteen year old boy.

"A marvelous thing, the word "remembering"--- an ordinary, normal thing in the Japanese language. Whatever year A.D. it be, whatever you call it, whatever you study, whatever you watch on television, whatever calendar a person or actor uses, it is understood. Even the teacher of moonlight, right? Even Ruu Ooshiba, right? I don't understand the problem with me. My particular memories don't exist. People I knew or were related to, who I liked, ...in short the things that gave me 'individuality'. It is certainly a strange tale. My family, my friends, and my self all stored in my memories, even after a year of rehabilitation, even after all I did, completely gone. What's more,"

Seeming unable to remember 'that' feeling, the self-conscious Banri picked his words carefully.

"Very slowly, my emotions returned. They seemed like something I missed... but if I chased after them, they fled away. For example, imagine a piece of paper with a letter written on it. Trying to read it, you would look at it, and automatically from your gaze a beam would burn up the sentence. It felt rather like that. The traces of memory were like a ghostly tail I could barely touch, and it seemed to be rapidly fading away. That was a rather scary feeling..."

After the accident always, if I didn't remember, if I didn't remember quickly, then it just faded away. Time passed, and I rapidly lost track of things. More than simply pointing out "You have certainly lost something", the feeling of losing something was always, always fresh.

"But as time passed, even those feelings disappeared, and I became resigned to it, saying 'What's the use?' But, it mattered nothing since I was unable to sense them anymore. Losing it was scary, though I couldn't really feel it since it was already 'gone'. Because of that, things got easier."

What was left to Banri now was just a memory of the fear of that time when everything was rapidly leaving him.

"Because of that, I had to study over again for the entrance exams, as if I'd had to start life over again."

"...Err..."

"Sorry, I was speaking nonsense."

"...Yes. No problem... It's just that,"

Kouko brought her hands to her chest. As she took a number of deep breaths, he saw that her hands moved together with her chest.

"...How you can say that's OK, I have no idea."

"But it is. Excuse me, really, but I'm not worried about it. Really now, since you're in good health. What's your blood type? What's your sign? You like soy sauce or paste? Memory loss? Mem riloss? That's about what I heard. If you have any questions, please let me know."

From Kouko's mumbling, it seemed she hadn't heard a thing he'd said, and didn't know what to say.

"...Err, well... weren't you just saying you wanted to get back...?"

"Yes, I must have been."

Since it was his long awaited chance to talk with her, he had wanted to be able to answer truthfully and honestly, Banri thought.

"Nonexistent things don't make sense to me. I'll say that first of all. As for myself, I have no choice but to speak from my own feelings. But, as for other people, I could understand them saying that they might want the original Tada Banri to return. In fact, it's about time he tried to return, I think. But in that regard, it gives me the feeling that adding memories to my current self is OK, even though it is replacing parts of my personality, so to speak, allowing the disappearance of my former self to be forgiven. From the start it looked impossible, and I've even been saying all along that there was nothing I could do, or even wanted to do."

"...Is that so?"

Her face serious as she listened to Banri's tale, Kouko lowered her eyes a little as if in thought.

"...That was a really strange story, wasn't it? What kind of guy was he, the vanished side of Tada Banri-kun? Perhaps he's watching over the current Tada-kun wherever he is... Kind of like a ghost in the background."

And, Kouko, seeming to notice something, suddenly turned around.

"What? What's going on? Is there a ghost behind Kaga-san?"

"...Something, just now, I saw a small flash of light... ah, ah, look!"

Kouko was pointing towards a thick grove of trees. She stared as the little light, certainly not a street light, swayed back and forth.

"You're right! Somebody's there! Let's go, let's call for help! Can you stand!?"

"Yep!"

Banri took Kouko by the hand, the two of them staggering while they frantically walked out on the muddy path. "Excuuse mee! Could you help uusss! We've had an accideennnt!", they raised their frantic voices.

On the other side of the trees, the shadowy figure held a nearly dead flashlight. Their voices still not noticed, anyway in a daze they continued advancing, having no choice. Sliding while supporting Kouko's hand, pushing through grass, clearing away branches, hurrying but not falling down.

A line of people, ...everyone with their bodies bent over a little, moving their hands and feet uncertainly. All of them. In the middle of the night on a mountain trail, while they shone the light on each other. What a strange atmosphere, he thought. It was about time.

"Ju, jujuju, just a second. Tada-kun, those are really strange people."

Kouko stopped walking. She looked at Banri.

"What I mean... aren't they those believers from earlier...!?"

If that were the case, then jumping would be a big mistake. A huge, fatal blunder. Trying to retreat, confused, they broke a branch, making a sound. Whereupon, no matter how much they kept from raising their voices,

"Is somebody there?"

A long straight beam of light turned towards them. With a surprised-sounding voice,

"...Banri!?"

They heard somebody's surprised shout. The light gave a big shake at the voice.

Exhausted, Kouko's strength gave out. Supporting her, pulling her along so they could escape, Banri eventually crumbled to his knees too. Standing up and running to escape hurriedly on foot, they vainly rejected the slimy damp earth. They were already at the limit of their strength. Even if everybody was a believer, there was nothing more they could do. However,

"It's me! Don't you understand!? Hey, it's me! Remember!"

Shouting while the person pointed the light at him, he suddenly raised both hands high, encompassing the whole place, shouting "Hey!" and striking a pose. That pose reminded him of something---

"...Eh!? Maybe, maybe, you..."

Even the disaster of the school entrance ceremony had laid land-mines for him!

"Barbara!?"

"It's me, Linda!"

<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 Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Golden Time#Volume 1: A Blackout in Spring|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|}
</noinclude>

User talk:Tap

2013-01-21T03:47:22Z

Perfect Chaos: /* , too */

====Editors====

Hey, if you go to http://forums.mangafox.com/threads/238831-Light-Novel-Discussion a group of us are doing it, just post a request there, I know I'll help--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 02:46, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

Is anyone already translating it there? I really can't be bothered to go over 500 pages of random chat... I'm fine with anyone decent to help out with it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 03:13, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

No one is translating it, but if you post there that you are, there are three or four people who will help with the editing. If you PM me there I'll help.--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 03:41, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

In addition to official editors, there are a lot of lurking editors. The translation is the critical task. If you get that done, there are hordes of people willing to edit as they read. --[[User:Novium|Novium]] 09:25, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

I'll just go with direct wiki edits, every now and then. I believe you've subscribed to the chapter page? For now, I just re-translated everything up to the point that was previously done. I'm personally not that confident in my grammar and tenses, so if you have some time, please, do go through it. The first part was done months ago (posted on the talk page back then), so you might have to check that part for readability as well. Feel free to ask any questions here or on the discussion page. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 18:48, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

It looked good, much better then what I did (not really too surprising), there were only a couple things that I saw that needed to be changed. Overall it looked very good.--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 19:15, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

Dude you're amazing, everything seems pretty good to me. I'll continue to edit any grammar mistakes I see when reading your translations. I'm one of those editors Novium was talking about. Your going at a decent speed! --[[User:lp113|lp113]] 9000:01, 15 April 2011 (EDT)

Yeah MAN! Overwrite that shit! I just got too antsy and had to see what happened next and did a little. Thought i might as well share it. your good to go. And i have no clue how to add the user date stamp... so this is Lp ahaha

If you didn't check the forum...:

by Sharramon » Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:28 am
I've actually got about 7 pages of chap 2 of morning dew girl done. Do you want it?

So BCOTFM has this unedited if you want to cross check or use: SS Ch.4 part 2 / SS Ch.2 part 4 Don't know if they are going anywhere, they havent been edited in a month [[User:Lp113|Lp113]] 06:22, 12 July 2011 (UCT)

== Tenses ==

The thing is that whenever a Character is narrating and it isn't a flashback then it must be in present tense because those are his thoughts then and there so they must be preserved in present tense. On the other hand flashbacks where the Character narrates would be in past tense. Also Non-character (ie: author) narration is supposed to be in past tense, but depending on the circumstances it could be different. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

As for the two examples you gave me, in-short: the first one should remain '''do have''' but it can also be '''did have'''. The second could use '''didn't''' because he is talking about what he did in ''his'' past (when he refused to wait there for Cline and his friends). [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

The intuition of tenses is something that develops after '''years of practice''', my advice to you is that you should stick to translating as you did normally. If there is a difference in how the tenses should be, we editors will correct it automatically. After all this is a team effort where each part of the team works together to cover our partners' shortcomings. I reverted your tense edits because they were mostly incompatible with how it should be. Be assured that I went through all of your edits and chose which ones were acceptable and edited them into the chapter after the rollback. I'm here so you shouldn't worry so much and just translate. We need those chapters pronto! (Good Natured Smile) Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

PS: You don't have to feel too down. I'm used to making the edits. In one of the projects where I edited I had to edit the chapters into past tense wherever author narration would occur and make sure that character naration was present tense. So I am quite experienced. You don't need to worry you're in good hands. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:08, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

:On your first sentence, I simply changed it so that the tense was the same as the later tense, as highlighted below.

:"I '''do have''' a considerable liking for death game themes in fiction, and '''had''' gone through many novels, comics, movies and such from all over."

:I do try to change narration to past tense, but it is not always so simple, an example would be papakiki. The narration keeps switching between the past and the present and I can't easily tell which is which, which is my edits for those are so slow... --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] 21:21, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

Yes, like I said before, tense intuition is something cultivated after years of practice. But basically author narration is majorly past tense while character narration is majorly present tense. There are exceptions though. For example when the character narrates a flashback or past event. Etc. So care must be taken. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 13:52, 14 March 2012 (CDT)

BTW we're waiting for the rest of the chapter... [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:51, 16 March 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Vol 8 ch 3 ==

Can I replace β with beta because that's how it's been written in the other volumes plus that's how it's commonly written on the net. Also those who don't have English as a first language can make mistakes by reading it as B. So please... [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 12:11, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

How about italics on it, along with a reference explaining what it is on the first occurrence? The main reason for me opposing the change to "beta" is because I want to keep it the same way the author presented it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 15:42, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

That's a thought... but... then you'd have to go through all the chapters and everything and so it's more feasible to change one chapter. Plus, I really haven't seen beta testers being written with a β anywhere else on the net until now. Dakara... ''ne?'' [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:46, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

Also, Japanese is a compact language where they're willing to do a lot to make the sentences shorter, whether while speaking or writing. So that's probably the reason for the β Tester. Writing it as Beta Tester fits English more which is a language that covers much more ''area'' (for lack of a better word). [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:51, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

I've seen the raw of both First Day & Aria SS which had many references to the word 'Beta Tester', in vol.1 and Aria SS, author used the word beta test normally, but in the First Day, it's the only SS (as far as I know anyway) that he used 'β'. While I don't know his intention for choosing to use it in that specific SS, I'd prefer it to be kept as the original to preserve his intention. -- [[User:BeginnerXP|BeginnerXP]] 18:49, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

Understood. Thanks. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 02:15, 20 April 2012 (CDT)

Wow, that's a lot of edits for Aria 16-20, hope Pryun is ok with them, haha. I wanted to make some changes too, but would have been annoying to put them all on the talk page, glad you got to it. Oh, for those whole page name changes, you should try moving pages next time. Cursor to the down arrow to the right of View History for the page and select Move. [[User:Xplorer30|Xplorer30]] - [[User_talk:Xplorer30|Talk]] 20:40, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

Yea, that's what I thought too, I would had gone "the heck?" if someone did that to something I was handling too. >_< Seemed kindda rude to do all that out of the blue, but I hate mistranslations, so...
And there was a simple button for that task? Damnit. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 20:44, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

I'm always OK with edits so long as the translation gets its meaning across. I must say, you sure have a better way of putting sentences together than I do... BTW, you using the published version?(as opposed to the web version I'm using)Since I think that one is more accurate. And has pictures, which I hope someone can insert inside *hint, hint*. --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] - [[User_talk:Pryun|Talk]] 22:41, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

Ahh man! I wish I could read Japanese. Then I could help you guys with the translation too. I'll have to read through the whole thing again. I'm looking forward to it though. ''(Tsundere mode activated)'' Don't misunderstand! I-It's not like I love the work you guys are doing, okay? I just like reading. That's all there is to it. BTW, what about SAO Vol8 Ch1? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 00:32, 28 April 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Ceramic Heart ==

Why was it removed? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:06, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Eh? What was? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 07:11, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

SAO ME3 Ceramic Heart. Duh. The link to the page was removed and replaced with a link to a mediafire file page. It would have been better with both the page and a link to mediafire rather than just one. After all mediafire files get deleted often. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:45, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Well, there wasn't a page for it in the first place, so I just replaced he link to a non-existent page to that... Does BT allow uploading of zip files? Or would a gallery, like the novel illustration ones, be better? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 07:52, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

I think it's possible to make a page displaying only images (like for ME2: Early Characters, but without the text part).--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:24, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Thanks a lot for ME3. But I was wondering... Is there no page 38?--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:11, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Yea, I want that page too. No one seems to have a raw copy of it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 08:13, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

I see. That's too bad. Thanks for answering.--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:21, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Since it was on Batoto I linked ME3 to it. Of course I kept the download link as well. You can choose to keep it like that or put a gallery in another page With next and pervious links in each Image page. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 11:13, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

A download link for ME03 will only be allowed if the translation is available using a wiki format. [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 12:59, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

The raw translated text or the edited images? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 18:34, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

The raw translated text. [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 23:51, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Huh? What's the point of that? I've seen the whole thing. Without images it's like seeing a movie while being blind. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:47, 23 May 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Edits ==
Could you please stop changing all the "punctuation" (“”, ’ and …) when you're editing? [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 05:14, 27 June 2012 (CDT)

It improves access rate at the cost of close to nothing visually, unless you expand text size by 4 or 5 times. Is there an actually logical reason for not doing so? Well, I've read through that conversation between the two of you now, anyway. If you want to change it back, go ahead. Honestly, you two have too much spare time, arguing over something like that... --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 05:47, 27 June 2012 (CDT)

== , too ==
Reply: When "too" is used as a conjunctive adverb meaning "as well"/"also", it should be separated by a comma from the rest of the sentence in the same way that conjunctive adverbs such as "however" and "therefore" are, regardless if it is at the end of the sentence or embedded in the middle of the sentence. In spoken English, a sentence with "too" is often spoken without any pauses before and/or after, unless the speaker wants to emphasize the "too", but in formal written English, it should be separated by a comma. --[[User:Perfect Chaos|Perfect Chaos]] ([[User talk:Perfect Chaos|talk]]) 18:37, 20 January 2013 (CST)

:I would avoid characterizing such a usage as a hard and fast rule, which it is not. Consider the following recommendation from the editors of the Chicago Manual of Style:
:"Use commas with too only when you want to emphasize an abrupt change of thought:

:''He didn’t know at first what hit him, but then, too, he hadn’t ever walked in a field strewn with garden rakes.''

:In most other cases, commas with this short adverb are unnecessary (an exception being sentences that begin with too—in the sense of also—a construction some writers would avoid as being too awkward)." --[[User:Hiyono|Hiyono]] ([[User talk:Hiyono|talk]]) 19:57, 20 January 2013 (CST)

::I did some research beforehand, and I came across various places that all quoted that exact line (including the original place, itself). What bothers me is that it doesn't really give a reason as to why the rule is like that, so it kind of makes me second-guess it. Something like this (http://preciseedit.wordpress.com/2011/06/14/comma-with-too/), which clearly states logical reasoning that one can associate with, as well as counter reasons to things that contradicts it, just seems much more ideal to me. But I guess grammar is sometimes a very vague and disputable subject, especially regarding why certain things are the way they are and whatnot, so I'll just go with what the majority here believes and just leave the "too"s the way the translator wrote it, unless it's absolutely needed (such as with the contrast in thought, I guess). --[[User:Perfect Chaos|Perfect Chaos]] ([[User talk:Perfect Chaos|talk]]) 21:47, 20 January 2013 (CST)

User talk:Tap

2013-01-21T00:37:38Z

Perfect Chaos: /* , too */

====Editors====

Hey, if you go to http://forums.mangafox.com/threads/238831-Light-Novel-Discussion a group of us are doing it, just post a request there, I know I'll help--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 02:46, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

Is anyone already translating it there? I really can't be bothered to go over 500 pages of random chat... I'm fine with anyone decent to help out with it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 03:13, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

No one is translating it, but if you post there that you are, there are three or four people who will help with the editing. If you PM me there I'll help.--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 03:41, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

In addition to official editors, there are a lot of lurking editors. The translation is the critical task. If you get that done, there are hordes of people willing to edit as they read. --[[User:Novium|Novium]] 09:25, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

I'll just go with direct wiki edits, every now and then. I believe you've subscribed to the chapter page? For now, I just re-translated everything up to the point that was previously done. I'm personally not that confident in my grammar and tenses, so if you have some time, please, do go through it. The first part was done months ago (posted on the talk page back then), so you might have to check that part for readability as well. Feel free to ask any questions here or on the discussion page. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 18:48, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

It looked good, much better then what I did (not really too surprising), there were only a couple things that I saw that needed to be changed. Overall it looked very good.--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 19:15, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

Dude you're amazing, everything seems pretty good to me. I'll continue to edit any grammar mistakes I see when reading your translations. I'm one of those editors Novium was talking about. Your going at a decent speed! --[[User:lp113|lp113]] 9000:01, 15 April 2011 (EDT)

Yeah MAN! Overwrite that shit! I just got too antsy and had to see what happened next and did a little. Thought i might as well share it. your good to go. And i have no clue how to add the user date stamp... so this is Lp ahaha

If you didn't check the forum...:

by Sharramon » Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:28 am
I've actually got about 7 pages of chap 2 of morning dew girl done. Do you want it?

So BCOTFM has this unedited if you want to cross check or use: SS Ch.4 part 2 / SS Ch.2 part 4 Don't know if they are going anywhere, they havent been edited in a month [[User:Lp113|Lp113]] 06:22, 12 July 2011 (UCT)

== Tenses ==

The thing is that whenever a Character is narrating and it isn't a flashback then it must be in present tense because those are his thoughts then and there so they must be preserved in present tense. On the other hand flashbacks where the Character narrates would be in past tense. Also Non-character (ie: author) narration is supposed to be in past tense, but depending on the circumstances it could be different. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

As for the two examples you gave me, in-short: the first one should remain '''do have''' but it can also be '''did have'''. The second could use '''didn't''' because he is talking about what he did in ''his'' past (when he refused to wait there for Cline and his friends). [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

The intuition of tenses is something that develops after '''years of practice''', my advice to you is that you should stick to translating as you did normally. If there is a difference in how the tenses should be, we editors will correct it automatically. After all this is a team effort where each part of the team works together to cover our partners' shortcomings. I reverted your tense edits because they were mostly incompatible with how it should be. Be assured that I went through all of your edits and chose which ones were acceptable and edited them into the chapter after the rollback. I'm here so you shouldn't worry so much and just translate. We need those chapters pronto! (Good Natured Smile) Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

PS: You don't have to feel too down. I'm used to making the edits. In one of the projects where I edited I had to edit the chapters into past tense wherever author narration would occur and make sure that character naration was present tense. So I am quite experienced. You don't need to worry you're in good hands. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:08, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

:On your first sentence, I simply changed it so that the tense was the same as the later tense, as highlighted below.

:"I '''do have''' a considerable liking for death game themes in fiction, and '''had''' gone through many novels, comics, movies and such from all over."

:I do try to change narration to past tense, but it is not always so simple, an example would be papakiki. The narration keeps switching between the past and the present and I can't easily tell which is which, which is my edits for those are so slow... --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] 21:21, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

Yes, like I said before, tense intuition is something cultivated after years of practice. But basically author narration is majorly past tense while character narration is majorly present tense. There are exceptions though. For example when the character narrates a flashback or past event. Etc. So care must be taken. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 13:52, 14 March 2012 (CDT)

BTW we're waiting for the rest of the chapter... [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:51, 16 March 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Vol 8 ch 3 ==

Can I replace β with beta because that's how it's been written in the other volumes plus that's how it's commonly written on the net. Also those who don't have English as a first language can make mistakes by reading it as B. So please... [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 12:11, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

How about italics on it, along with a reference explaining what it is on the first occurrence? The main reason for me opposing the change to "beta" is because I want to keep it the same way the author presented it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 15:42, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

That's a thought... but... then you'd have to go through all the chapters and everything and so it's more feasible to change one chapter. Plus, I really haven't seen beta testers being written with a β anywhere else on the net until now. Dakara... ''ne?'' [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:46, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

Also, Japanese is a compact language where they're willing to do a lot to make the sentences shorter, whether while speaking or writing. So that's probably the reason for the β Tester. Writing it as Beta Tester fits English more which is a language that covers much more ''area'' (for lack of a better word). [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:51, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

I've seen the raw of both First Day & Aria SS which had many references to the word 'Beta Tester', in vol.1 and Aria SS, author used the word beta test normally, but in the First Day, it's the only SS (as far as I know anyway) that he used 'β'. While I don't know his intention for choosing to use it in that specific SS, I'd prefer it to be kept as the original to preserve his intention. -- [[User:BeginnerXP|BeginnerXP]] 18:49, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

Understood. Thanks. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 02:15, 20 April 2012 (CDT)

Wow, that's a lot of edits for Aria 16-20, hope Pryun is ok with them, haha. I wanted to make some changes too, but would have been annoying to put them all on the talk page, glad you got to it. Oh, for those whole page name changes, you should try moving pages next time. Cursor to the down arrow to the right of View History for the page and select Move. [[User:Xplorer30|Xplorer30]] - [[User_talk:Xplorer30|Talk]] 20:40, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

Yea, that's what I thought too, I would had gone "the heck?" if someone did that to something I was handling too. >_< Seemed kindda rude to do all that out of the blue, but I hate mistranslations, so...
And there was a simple button for that task? Damnit. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 20:44, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

I'm always OK with edits so long as the translation gets its meaning across. I must say, you sure have a better way of putting sentences together than I do... BTW, you using the published version?(as opposed to the web version I'm using)Since I think that one is more accurate. And has pictures, which I hope someone can insert inside *hint, hint*. --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] - [[User_talk:Pryun|Talk]] 22:41, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

Ahh man! I wish I could read Japanese. Then I could help you guys with the translation too. I'll have to read through the whole thing again. I'm looking forward to it though. ''(Tsundere mode activated)'' Don't misunderstand! I-It's not like I love the work you guys are doing, okay? I just like reading. That's all there is to it. BTW, what about SAO Vol8 Ch1? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 00:32, 28 April 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Ceramic Heart ==

Why was it removed? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:06, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Eh? What was? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 07:11, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

SAO ME3 Ceramic Heart. Duh. The link to the page was removed and replaced with a link to a mediafire file page. It would have been better with both the page and a link to mediafire rather than just one. After all mediafire files get deleted often. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:45, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Well, there wasn't a page for it in the first place, so I just replaced he link to a non-existent page to that... Does BT allow uploading of zip files? Or would a gallery, like the novel illustration ones, be better? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 07:52, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

I think it's possible to make a page displaying only images (like for ME2: Early Characters, but without the text part).--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:24, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Thanks a lot for ME3. But I was wondering... Is there no page 38?--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:11, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Yea, I want that page too. No one seems to have a raw copy of it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 08:13, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

I see. That's too bad. Thanks for answering.--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:21, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Since it was on Batoto I linked ME3 to it. Of course I kept the download link as well. You can choose to keep it like that or put a gallery in another page With next and pervious links in each Image page. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 11:13, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

A download link for ME03 will only be allowed if the translation is available using a wiki format. [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 12:59, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

The raw translated text or the edited images? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 18:34, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

The raw translated text. [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 23:51, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Huh? What's the point of that? I've seen the whole thing. Without images it's like seeing a movie while being blind. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:47, 23 May 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Edits ==
Could you please stop changing all the "punctuation" (“”, ’ and …) when you're editing? [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 05:14, 27 June 2012 (CDT)

It improves access rate at the cost of close to nothing visually, unless you expand text size by 4 or 5 times. Is there an actually logical reason for not doing so? Well, I've read through that conversation between the two of you now, anyway. If you want to change it back, go ahead. Honestly, you two have too much spare time, arguing over something like that... --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 05:47, 27 June 2012 (CDT)

== , too ==
Reply: When "too" is used as a conjunctive adverb meaning "as well"/"also", it should be separated by a comma from the rest of the sentence in the same way that conjunctive adverbs such as "however" and "therefore" are, regardless if it is at the end of the sentence or embedded in the middle of the sentence. In spoken English, a sentence with "too" is often spoken without any pauses before and/or after, unless the speaker wants to emphasize the "too", but in formal written English, it should be separated a comma. --[[User:Perfect Chaos|Perfect Chaos]] ([[User talk:Perfect Chaos|talk]]) 18:37, 20 January 2013 (CST)

User talk:Tap

2013-01-21T00:37:20Z

Perfect Chaos: /* , too */

====Editors====

Hey, if you go to http://forums.mangafox.com/threads/238831-Light-Novel-Discussion a group of us are doing it, just post a request there, I know I'll help--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 02:46, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

Is anyone already translating it there? I really can't be bothered to go over 500 pages of random chat... I'm fine with anyone decent to help out with it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 03:13, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

No one is translating it, but if you post there that you are, there are three or four people who will help with the editing. If you PM me there I'll help.--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 03:41, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

In addition to official editors, there are a lot of lurking editors. The translation is the critical task. If you get that done, there are hordes of people willing to edit as they read. --[[User:Novium|Novium]] 09:25, 5 April 2011 (EDT)

I'll just go with direct wiki edits, every now and then. I believe you've subscribed to the chapter page? For now, I just re-translated everything up to the point that was previously done. I'm personally not that confident in my grammar and tenses, so if you have some time, please, do go through it. The first part was done months ago (posted on the talk page back then), so you might have to check that part for readability as well. Feel free to ask any questions here or on the discussion page. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 18:48, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

It looked good, much better then what I did (not really too surprising), there were only a couple things that I saw that needed to be changed. Overall it looked very good.--[[User:Darn2k|Darn2k]] 19:15, 6 April 2011 (EDT)

Dude you're amazing, everything seems pretty good to me. I'll continue to edit any grammar mistakes I see when reading your translations. I'm one of those editors Novium was talking about. Your going at a decent speed! --[[User:lp113|lp113]] 9000:01, 15 April 2011 (EDT)

Yeah MAN! Overwrite that shit! I just got too antsy and had to see what happened next and did a little. Thought i might as well share it. your good to go. And i have no clue how to add the user date stamp... so this is Lp ahaha

If you didn't check the forum...:

by Sharramon » Wed Apr 20, 2011 4:28 am
I've actually got about 7 pages of chap 2 of morning dew girl done. Do you want it?

So BCOTFM has this unedited if you want to cross check or use: SS Ch.4 part 2 / SS Ch.2 part 4 Don't know if they are going anywhere, they havent been edited in a month [[User:Lp113|Lp113]] 06:22, 12 July 2011 (UCT)

== Tenses ==

The thing is that whenever a Character is narrating and it isn't a flashback then it must be in present tense because those are his thoughts then and there so they must be preserved in present tense. On the other hand flashbacks where the Character narrates would be in past tense. Also Non-character (ie: author) narration is supposed to be in past tense, but depending on the circumstances it could be different. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

As for the two examples you gave me, in-short: the first one should remain '''do have''' but it can also be '''did have'''. The second could use '''didn't''' because he is talking about what he did in ''his'' past (when he refused to wait there for Cline and his friends). [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

The intuition of tenses is something that develops after '''years of practice''', my advice to you is that you should stick to translating as you did normally. If there is a difference in how the tenses should be, we editors will correct it automatically. After all this is a team effort where each part of the team works together to cover our partners' shortcomings. I reverted your tense edits because they were mostly incompatible with how it should be. Be assured that I went through all of your edits and chose which ones were acceptable and edited them into the chapter after the rollback. I'm here so you shouldn't worry so much and just translate. We need those chapters pronto! (Good Natured Smile) Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:05, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

PS: You don't have to feel too down. I'm used to making the edits. In one of the projects where I edited I had to edit the chapters into past tense wherever author narration would occur and make sure that character naration was present tense. So I am quite experienced. You don't need to worry you're in good hands. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 14:08, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

:On your first sentence, I simply changed it so that the tense was the same as the later tense, as highlighted below.

:"I '''do have''' a considerable liking for death game themes in fiction, and '''had''' gone through many novels, comics, movies and such from all over."

:I do try to change narration to past tense, but it is not always so simple, an example would be papakiki. The narration keeps switching between the past and the present and I can't easily tell which is which, which is my edits for those are so slow... --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] 21:21, 13 March 2012 (CDT)

Yes, like I said before, tense intuition is something cultivated after years of practice. But basically author narration is majorly past tense while character narration is majorly present tense. There are exceptions though. For example when the character narrates a flashback or past event. Etc. So care must be taken. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 13:52, 14 March 2012 (CDT)

BTW we're waiting for the rest of the chapter... [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:51, 16 March 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Vol 8 ch 3 ==

Can I replace β with beta because that's how it's been written in the other volumes plus that's how it's commonly written on the net. Also those who don't have English as a first language can make mistakes by reading it as B. So please... [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 12:11, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

How about italics on it, along with a reference explaining what it is on the first occurrence? The main reason for me opposing the change to "beta" is because I want to keep it the same way the author presented it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 15:42, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

That's a thought... but... then you'd have to go through all the chapters and everything and so it's more feasible to change one chapter. Plus, I really haven't seen beta testers being written with a β anywhere else on the net until now. Dakara... ''ne?'' [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:46, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

Also, Japanese is a compact language where they're willing to do a lot to make the sentences shorter, whether while speaking or writing. So that's probably the reason for the β Tester. Writing it as Beta Tester fits English more which is a language that covers much more ''area'' (for lack of a better word). [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 17:51, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

I've seen the raw of both First Day & Aria SS which had many references to the word 'Beta Tester', in vol.1 and Aria SS, author used the word beta test normally, but in the First Day, it's the only SS (as far as I know anyway) that he used 'β'. While I don't know his intention for choosing to use it in that specific SS, I'd prefer it to be kept as the original to preserve his intention. -- [[User:BeginnerXP|BeginnerXP]] 18:49, 19 April 2012 (CDT)

Understood. Thanks. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 02:15, 20 April 2012 (CDT)

Wow, that's a lot of edits for Aria 16-20, hope Pryun is ok with them, haha. I wanted to make some changes too, but would have been annoying to put them all on the talk page, glad you got to it. Oh, for those whole page name changes, you should try moving pages next time. Cursor to the down arrow to the right of View History for the page and select Move. [[User:Xplorer30|Xplorer30]] - [[User_talk:Xplorer30|Talk]] 20:40, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

Yea, that's what I thought too, I would had gone "the heck?" if someone did that to something I was handling too. >_< Seemed kindda rude to do all that out of the blue, but I hate mistranslations, so...
And there was a simple button for that task? Damnit. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 20:44, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

I'm always OK with edits so long as the translation gets its meaning across. I must say, you sure have a better way of putting sentences together than I do... BTW, you using the published version?(as opposed to the web version I'm using)Since I think that one is more accurate. And has pictures, which I hope someone can insert inside *hint, hint*. --[[User:Pryun|Pryun]] - [[User_talk:Pryun|Talk]] 22:41, 27 April 2012 (CDT)

Ahh man! I wish I could read Japanese. Then I could help you guys with the translation too. I'll have to read through the whole thing again. I'm looking forward to it though. ''(Tsundere mode activated)'' Don't misunderstand! I-It's not like I love the work you guys are doing, okay? I just like reading. That's all there is to it. BTW, what about SAO Vol8 Ch1? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 00:32, 28 April 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Ceramic Heart ==

Why was it removed? [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:06, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Eh? What was? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 07:11, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

SAO ME3 Ceramic Heart. Duh. The link to the page was removed and replaced with a link to a mediafire file page. It would have been better with both the page and a link to mediafire rather than just one. After all mediafire files get deleted often. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:45, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Well, there wasn't a page for it in the first place, so I just replaced he link to a non-existent page to that... Does BT allow uploading of zip files? Or would a gallery, like the novel illustration ones, be better? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 07:52, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

I think it's possible to make a page displaying only images (like for ME2: Early Characters, but without the text part).--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:24, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Thanks a lot for ME3. But I was wondering... Is there no page 38?--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:11, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Yea, I want that page too. No one seems to have a raw copy of it. --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 08:13, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

I see. That's too bad. Thanks for answering.--[[User:MaerisCrisis|MaerisCrisis]] 08:21, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Since it was on Batoto I linked ME3 to it. Of course I kept the download link as well. You can choose to keep it like that or put a gallery in another page With next and pervious links in each Image page. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 11:13, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

A download link for ME03 will only be allowed if the translation is available using a wiki format. [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 12:59, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

The raw translated text or the edited images? --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 18:34, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

The raw translated text. [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 23:51, 22 May 2012 (CDT)

Huh? What's the point of that? I've seen the whole thing. Without images it's like seeing a movie while being blind. [[User:Zero2001|Zero2001]] - [[User_talk:Zero2001|Talk]] - 07:47, 23 May 2012 (CDT)

== SAO Edits ==
Could you please stop changing all the "punctuation" (“”, ’ and …) when you're editing? [[User:Vaelis|Vaelis]] 05:14, 27 June 2012 (CDT)

It improves access rate at the cost of close to nothing visually, unless you expand text size by 4 or 5 times. Is there an actually logical reason for not doing so? Well, I've read through that conversation between the two of you now, anyway. If you want to change it back, go ahead. Honestly, you two have too much spare time, arguing over something like that... --[[User:Tap|Tap]] 05:47, 27 June 2012 (CDT)

== , too ==
Reply: When "too" is used as a conjunctive adverb meaning "as well"/"also", it should be separated by a comma from the rest of the sentence in the same way that conjunctive adverbs such as "however" and "therefore" are, regardless if it is at the end of the sentence or embedded in the middle of the sentence. In spoken English, a sentence with "too" is often spoken without any pauses before and/or after, unless the speaker wants to emphasize the "too", but in formal written English, it should be separated a comma. [[User:Perfect Chaos|Perfect Chaos]] ([[User talk:Perfect Chaos|talk]]) 18:37, 20 January 2013 (CST)

User talk:Tap

2013-01-21T00:36:27Z

Perfect Chaos: Reply to the " , too" inquiry.

Sword Art Online:A Spot of Sunshine in the Winter

2013-01-19T07:18:26Z

Perfect Chaos:

==A Spot of Sunshine in the Winter==
'''''New Aincrad 22nd Floor'''''
[[Image: SAO_Silica_Edition.jpg|thumb]]
'''''December 31st, 2025'''''

When fulldiving while wearing an AmuSphere, it seems that people feel either a falling or a floating sensation.

Keiko belonged to the latter group. Lying down on her bed in comfortable attire, she would call out the «Link Start» voice command and her consciousness, now separated from her body, would be immersed in a sensation as though she was floating straight upwards. An image of infinitely rising through a pure, white expanse, with eternal prisms of rainbow light cascading downwards.

Previously, when she considered a credible view she found on the net, that "the type of people who experience floating sensations feel that reality is harsh and wish to escape into the virtual world", she had ended up brooding over it, despite getting indignant over how baseless it was. She didn't feel that reality was bleak in the slightest—or so she had thought. After all, she had been imprisoned in a virtual world for a period of two years when she was twelve years of age, before finally being released slightly less than a year ago.

In comparison to that heartless, severe place, where her remaining hit points had been connected with her real life, reality was such a tranquil place. From April, she had even started attending the school set up for SAO survivors who were still minors in terms of age and had made many friends there. It does get a little awkward back home, but she's welcomed by her reserved father, her mother who's skilled at cooking and loves to sing, and her Munchkin breed cat, Pina, that she keeps. Here, she could read the continuation of the manga she likes (not to mention the two years worth of back issues!) and even get to eat actual cheesecakes. Hence, she had no reason to feel that reality was harsh whatsoever.

She shouldn't... but still.

While entrusting her body to the transient floating sensation, Keiko recalled the argument she had with her parents tens of minutes ago. To be specific, this was the first quarrel she had, since returning from SAO.

It was the thirty-first of December, 2025. New Year's Eve. The three members of the Ayano family, Keiko, along with her father and mother, had arranged to visit the home belonging to her father's parents in the Yamanashi prefecture, with the cat joining them as well. It was something that had been decided a month ago and at the time Keiko had obediently nodded as well when she first heard about it.

However right before departing, in the garage at home, she had ended up saying it. That she didn't want to go no matter what.

Her parents tried gently persuading her by saying how her grandfather, grandmother and her male cousins were all looking forward to meeting her, but as Keiko stuck to her obstinate behavior for tens of minutes, their words gradually grew harsher, resulting in her father uttering "Then just do as you like" before leaving in the car. Left alone at home, Keiko locked up the entranceway, returned to her room on the second floor and put on the AmuSphere after slumping onto her bed.

That's why this one and only particular dive might be a form of escape. Even so, that didn't matter. At the very least, crying in the virtual world rather than the real world would end without the need to worry about swollen eyes later on.

After turning into her Cait Sith character Silica, the place Keiko emerged was on a porch leading to a log house built on the shore of a large lake, on the twenty-second floor of the new Aincrad which orbited through the skies of Alfheim. It appears to be early in the afternoon in the abode of the fairies, with plentiful warm sunlight beaming down upon the garden's lawn.

This wasn't a player home that belonged to her, but since she was able to get herself registered on the sub-owner list, she could freely log in and out anywhere within the premises of the homestead. That said, she takes the original two owners into consideration, making sure not to start off indoors, just in case.

Shortly after Silica's dive, a light blue glimmer appeared in the space right beside her which coalesced, before changing into the shape of a small dragon.

Though defined as small, that's only when compared to the larger versions of the dragon race mobs, with its wingspan stretching close to over a meter. However, with its entire body covered in downy fur in a shade of light blue that matched its two round, ruby eyes, there was no sign of ferocity in its outward appearance.

"Here, Pina."

The moment Silica reached out with her two hands, the small dragon, which had the same name as her pet cat, dove into her arms after letting out a single coo, "kururu!". She tightly hugged its fluffy body and it started licking her right cheek with its tiny tongue. Pina, with an AI at the level of familiars, or in other words, «tamed monsters», was not terribly smart, but at times, it reacted as though it could read Silica's mind. This was one such time, and while it licked Silica's face, it continuously let out a "kuru... ruru..." from its throat, as if it was showing its concern.

"...Thank you, I'm alright now. I'm fine now, after meeting you, Pina."

While whispering that, she placed Pina who was unexpectedly light for its size onto her head. Its feathery wings tickled those cat ears unique to the race of Cait Sith and its long tail wrapped around her neck, much like a muffler.

Enveloped in a warmth that seemed impossible for a moving object in a virtual world, Silica felt herself slowly perking up from the chagrin of the dispute she had with her parents, as she strode to the door of the log house.

Upon touching the doorknob, a crisp click rang out, representing the door unlocking. Gently pulling it open, she headed in and called out, "Good afternoon". As expected, there was no reply. She could open up the Friend List from her Main Menu to check on their login status, but she could believe that there wouldn't be anyone here without needing to resort to that. After all, it was New Year's Eve...

However, just in case, Silica minded her manners and said her greetings for intruding before she entered. Closing the door, she headed for the main room on the left side of the hallway.

The moment she stepped into the living room, with a breadth impossible for a detached house in reality, or at least, for an average one in Tokyo's special wards, Pina slowly flew off from her head. The reasons for a familiar to leave its master without orders should be either due to detecting monsters closing in, or having its intimacy value drop from not being fed enough and changing to a defiant status; that said, there was a possible third reason when considering this room in this house.

Conscious of her virtual heart now beating harder, Silica chased Pina as it flew, flapping its wings. She went around a huge log that was used as a pillar and cast her eyes towards the south facing window.

Placed in a spot with lemon-yellow sunshine falling onto it, was a solitary rocking chair. Atop that chair which was moving constantly and rather gently without making any noise lay a Spriggan with black hair, clothed in black, with his eyes closed. His sleeping expression was far from the one that he shows in battle, here showing signs of boyish innocence.

Pina, who had flown off Silica's head, circled once above the Spriggan before it landed near his stomach. Folding its wings, it coiled up its head and tail before finally falling asleep. No, it's a familiar, so that ought to be merely «looking as though it's asleep», but the "kyururu, kyururu" sounds of it breathing in its sleep was no illusion.

"...Geez, Pina."

After muttering that under her breath, Silica continued to stand as she gazed at the sleeping poses of that person and that animal. Her beating heart gently slowed down from the somewhat quick rate it had been and a calm tranquility soon spread within Silica as well. For a short while, the spice of grief sprinkled onto her while she took shelter in the warmth. 

This went on for close to thirty seconds before she regained her wits and looked around her. If he, the owner of this house, was logged in, it was likely that either the other owner, an Undine healer, or his real life little sister, a Sylphid magic swordswoman, was around as well, but she could find no traces of other players. Cait Sith were the race bestowed with the highest level of perception ability among the nine races, so she should know if there was anyone else in the house. Of course, it's different if hiding spells or skills were used, but there should be no reason to hide inside the house in that manner.

—Having decided that, Silica was still at a loss for several seconds before carrying a single chair from the dining table to the side of the rocking chair. She softly sat down after aligning them.

She sprawled her body towards the left and stared hard at the profile of the sleeping Spriggan's face right in front of her.

In mere seconds, Silica could feel her eyelids weighing down as well. Having that boy sound asleep in this room releases a sort of magical power that causes sleepiness in the surrounding players—or at least, that was the accepted conclusion among her friends. However, she must not allow herself to succumb to this magic. Silica had the «Automatically Disconnect When Asleep Function» set to fifteen minutes, so if she fell asleep she would soon be logged out. Going through the connection sequence once again was certainly a bother, but her main reason was to not waste this precious time available. The chance she could be alone with that sleeping boy—generally were no longer possible, not since the night of the day that they met in a certain different floating castle.

Come to think of it, that had happened nearly two years ago.

She had lost her familiar, Pina, and even her own life had been like a candle flickering in the wind when Silica was saved by the black-clothed swordsman, Kirito.

He didn't just protect Silica, but was even willing to help revive the once-killed Pina. She still remembers that single day of adventure, when they went to retrieve the item that could resurrect a familiar, down to its very last detail. The gigantic flower monsters with tentacles sprouting out from them and the orange players that assaulted them on the way back were extremely scary, but those memories were all important to her.

—No, it wasn't just that day.

With her hands raised to her chest while tightly grasping each other, Silica began to ponder while sitting on the chair.

All the days they had adventured and played together since she first met Pina gave off a special sparkle within her memories. That radiance was so vivid that it could cause the entire time she spent in the real world to pale in comparison. Of course, she could meet up with Pina whenever she wanted if she dived into ALO, and she was conscious of the fact of that already being a blessing by itself—after all, Pina really should have disappeared when SAO was cleared—but at times, she wondered about something.

About how it would be nice if this side was the true reality instead.

A thought that couldn't be told to anyone, one that definitely couldn't be released from her lips. A thought that would betray her parents who were worried to death over her for those two years when she was trapped in that death game and enthusiastically celebrated her return. But. But still—

The teardrops that gathered in her lower eyelashes without her noticing faintly pattered onto the chair's armrest.

Perhaps due to that noise which could barely be called one, the black-haired Spriggan—Kirito languidly opened his eyes. Silica frantically turned back to face forward before blinking countless times to dissipate the remaining tears effect. She stayed frozen in that position for several seconds before she heard his voice.

"...Huh, Silica? When did you get here?"

She timidly turned to the left and was met with the sleepy-looking face of Kirito's right before her own.

"Go-Good afternoon, Kirito-san. Erm, fift... five minutes earlier or so, I think."

"Woah, you should have just woke me up."

Getting up with a flustered expression, Kirito seemed to have finally noticed Pina on top of him. With a gentle smile, he lightly caressed the area near the base of its neck with his fingertips. The small dragon rolled over while still asleep, showing its belly that was of a shade slightly more pale than its back and shook its tail to plead for more rubbing.

Silica exchanged another look with Kirito before they both broke into soft laughter.

Upon settling down, words flowed from between her lips, almost as though it was only natural.

"...Earlier, I had a fight with my parents."

Kirito raised his eyebrows slightly before calmly asking.

"Despite it being New Year's Eve? Or maybe because it's New Year's Eve?"

"Because it's New Year's Eve... I believe. Actually, I was supposed to go over to my grandfather's place in Yamanashi today, but just when we were leaving, I went ahead and said that I didn't want to go... ah, i-it's not like I thought that the popular hunting areas in ALO might be empty on New Year's Eve, I didn't do it for anything like that."

"Haha, you would be let down if that ''was'' your true reason. It seems that there were loads of players with the same thought, so it's practically no more empty than usual."

"...So you've checked it out already, huh. Or rather, Kirito-san, that was what you were here for...?"

Silica looked up at him for a brief moment and the Spriggan shook his head with a ruffled expression.

"Th-That's totally not it. I could have been wanting to test out the sharpness of «Excaliber» that I got the other day, or maybe showing it off to Eugene, so that's definitely not-"

"I didn't ask about all that, geez."

"I-I see. Wait, that's not it, we were talking about your home visit, Silica."

Kirito casually cleared his throat, returned to a serious expression and stared straight at Silica.

His avatar was the only one among her friends from the past SAO period with a different face and figure. However, those jet black eyes deep enough to suck you in remained the same. She could not tear her eyes away and they continued looking at each other, before Kirito finally spoke in a whisper.

"...You don't want to... meet with someone?"

"That's right."

She nodded at her innermost thoughts, hidden from even her parents, being seen through without any sign of surprise.

"It's not just one person though, but multiple. I don't want to meet my male cousins. ...I went back for the Bon Festival the other time, that was when I met them for the first time in three years, but... that night, when all of us children were left alone, everyone wanted to hear about it..."

"About what happened in SAO, huh..."

"Yes. ...I understand they didn't have any bad intentions. If our positions were reversed, I might have asked about this and that as well. But... I didn't want to. I really didn't want to talk about that world."

"That's because... those memories were awful? Or maybe..."

He cut his words off then, and Silica looked back at his face, this time with a trifling amount of surprise.

"Kirito-san, there are times when you're extremely dense, and times when you're extremely sharp, huh."

"R-Really?"

"Really. ...As you guessed, the reason why I didn't want to talk about it is because those memories are really important to me. But I didn't want my parents to know that was how I thought... so I told my cousins about how scary that world was and how glad I was when I escaped from it; those were all I talked about. But as I continued speaking, it was like I was sullying something precious to me... So, at that time, I decided that I wouldn't talk about SAO again. But if I go to my grandfather's place, I would definitely meet them again, so... I..."

When Silica spoke no further, her lips trembling, Kirito took the action of extending his right hand in exchange for words. Poof, he placed his palm onto Silica's head, gently stroking the base of her cat ears akin to how he did earlier to Pina.

The triangular ears and long tail unique to the Cait Sith race were able to feel through some sort of mechanism. Especially the tail which produces a jolting stimulus flowing down the spine alongside the utmost «sense of oddity» when strongly gripped; but on the other hand, caressing the ears definitely did not bring about an unpleasant feeling.

It seems that her tension eased off little by little as she immersed herself in the strange sense of pleasure not found in reality. Faced with Silica who was loosening the stiffness in her shoulders with her eyes half-closed, Kirito asked about an unexpected matter.

"Silica, you were twelve back when SAO started, weren't you?"

"...Yes, that's right. I was in the second term of my sixth year in primary school."

"I see. Did the Nerve Gear belong to you? Or perhaps, your father...?"

"It was mine. That said, it's not like I bought it myself or got my parents to buy it for me; I got it as a prize from a magazine. Along with the software for SAO. It was the first and last time I won something that expensive."

"Oh! Those must have been amazing odds... perhaps even more lucky than me when I was chosen for the beta test. Ah, no, I'm not sure if you could call that lucky, though..."

Silica unintentionally giggled at those faltering words that he had added on.

"If that was supposed to be unlucky, it would be the punishment for lying about my age when I applied. ...At least, that was what I often thought right after I got trapped in SAO. That it would be nice if I hadn't won the Nerve Gear; that it would be nice if it was some other software; things like that..."

"I see... —But if that was the case, you sure were amazing, being able to leave the Beginning City. And almost all of the kids around your age lived together without leaving the city too."

"No, that actually might... be the reason why I left the city. After all, while I was cursing my fate at an inn there, in the Beginning City, winning the Nerve Gear could become the worst misfortune I have had in my life... so I made the decision to definitely find something that would make me glad to have come to this world, and that's why I left the city. It was considerably much later than Kirito-san and Asuna-san though."

Upon hearing that, Kirito returned his glance back to himself while rubbing Silica's cat ears. On top of his black shirt, the small, light blue dragon was sound asleep with its face up as always.

"...I'm glad you found it."

He murmured, and Silica nodded with a smile on her face.

"Yes. Meeting Pina was... and that's not all. Meeting Kirito-san, Asuna-san, Liz-san and the rest, and becoming friends with all of you too. That's why, to me... those memories from that world are simply irreplaceable."

The topic made a full circle back to the start, but she remained calm. Soaking in the sensation of those virtual appendages being stroked, Silica slowly contemplated the problem she faced and opened her mouth.

"That said, it's not like I didn't want to return back to reality. It's all thanks to Kirito-san and everyone else trying their best to clear SAO that I am able to live in peace like this now, and I'm really glad about that. But... somehow... I feel like something is different. Something in this real world... feels just a little... different. My cousins who wanted to hear about SAO too... Papa and Mama who always look at me with worrying eyes... even my cat, Pina, is somehow different... from the past..."

After expressing all of that, Silica became aware of what caused the biggest sense of discomfort for the first time. And that was herself. The one who had already turned fifteen this year, Ayano Keiko of the real world. Compared to the avatar that was taken verbatim from the SAO era, her real body had grown quite a bit and her figure had changed.

I see, she thought. It's only natural to feel that something is different. After all, I must be afraid of these various changes deep down in my heart. Afraid of the time in reality constantly flowing past at such a forceful speed. Afraid of what is yet to come.

"...I'm... scared. Of things changing, things disappearing... that someday, a time might come when I can't meet Kirito-san, everyone else, or Pina in this world anymore... If that's the case, I would rather just, once again......"

Be trapped here. Forever. And for time to stop.

But that wish was not one that could exit her mouth. The black-haired swordsman reflected in her eyes cleared SAO with his life on the line and freed over six thousand players, inclusive of Silica. There was no way she could say that she would like to be taken prisoner again by the virtual world in front of him.

Silica cast her eyes downwards and bit her lips hard.

The fingers rubbing her ears came to a sudden stop. His hand did not leave but rather, snugly enveloped her right ear with his palm. The core of her mind felt as if it went numb and the moment Silica loosened the tension in her entire body once more in response to that, she heard his voice.

"...I'm happy that I was able to meet you here and now today, Silica. The next time, too, and the time after that, too; that's definitely what I'll believe. That's why... thank you, Silica. For staying alive until that time we met in the «Forest of Wandering», two years ago."

"Eh......"

As she glanced upwards at those unanticipated words, Kirito's smiling face was right before hers.

The meaning behind that gratitude belatedly sank in.

Though she hasn't even actually tried to think about it, Kirito should also be suffering from difficulties and hardships of his own in these days. Perhaps he might have recalled that memory during his bleak moments as well. Of that girl, who he met and saved the life of, deep in the forest consumed by night. That the girl was alive, living on peacefully in the real world.

That time was still flowing for her, second after second—

Silica raised both of her hands up, took Kirito's right hand which was covering her triangular ear and brought it before her face.

The dark tone of his skin, characteristic to Spriggans, was different from that of the Kirito from the SAO era. However, the warmth remained exactly the same. The hand that covered Silica's shoulders as she cried at the end of the adventures on that day was exactly the same.

In actual fact, many things will change, even in the virtual world. Thinking about it, it was because she left the Beginning City, demanding change, that Silica was able to meet Pina, and thus, Kirito. However, there certainly are things that don't change there. Important things will definitely not leave her behind.

That probably applies to the real world as well. The way her male cousins and parents treated Silica was different from before. However, their feelings were... their feelings for Silica remain unchanged within all of them. And thus, an unchanging self inside of Ayano Keiko definitely exists, with time flowing through her one day at a time.

With Kirito's right hand wrapped within her two palms, Silica took a long, deep breath. She brought them up to her sight and then asked of the slightly embarrassed-looking Spriggan.

"Kirito-san, are you free today?"

"Mo-More or less... I'm free enough to take a nap in a place like this, after all. Dad's coming back from America late at night, but I should be free until then..."

"Then please have a New Year's Eve date with me."

It was a line she would normally never manage to say, even if she were to try with all her might, but perhaps backed by the thought of "I'm not a kid anymore", it came out without any difficulty. Upon hearing that, Kirito let his sight wander for a moment, but soon nodded with a smile.

"Sure, if someone like me will do. Well, shall we go to the main city of the twenty-fifth floor, then? Or the lower world? It should be right around the Undine territory at the moment..."

"No, let's have it at Ikebukuro, one hour from now!"

"Alright, then Ikebuku... eh, eeh!? In the real world!?"

"I won't allow you to take those words back now."

Silica tightly gripped Kirito's hand before letting it go and spoke while grinning.

"I'll go to Yamanashi by train after that. Papa and the rest must be worried, after all."

Against that, Kirito blinked countless times before he nodded with a smile as well.

"I see. Then I'll send you off until the Shinjuku station."

"Ah, you didn't actually think that would be enough, did you! That's only four stops on the Yamanote Line, isn't it!"

"It's only one if you go by the Saikyou Line."

"You're horrible! You can't call that a date!"

Perhaps due to the intensifying commotion from the exchange, Pina awoke on top of Kirito and let out a big yawn. An iridescent bubble shot out from its mouth and flitted through the southern window, flying far, far away into the skies as it brilliantly shimmered in the sunlight.

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Sword Art Online:Caliber SS

2013-01-19T07:16:57Z

Perfect Chaos: Among various grammar fixes, I also changed "One" to "A", since "one" gives the impression that only one group is doing such an action, while "a" simply states that among everyone, Kirito noticed a particular group doing it.

== Translator's Note: ==
The Caliber SS is an alternate end to the Caliber story found in Volume 8. It takes part after Part 3 and follows a "What if Klein didn't save Freyja" scenario. In order to fully enjoy the chapter, it is recommended that one finish reading the normal end first (the entire Caliber story line).

The first half of this chapter is almost entirely the same as the first half of Part 4 (with minor changes such as removing all references to Freyja) and was translated by [[User:BeginnerXP|BeginnerXP]]. The story diverges about halfway through, in the middle of the battle with Þrym. To make it easier to navigate, I broke the chapter into sections, the third section being where the story path diverges.

'''Note:''' Here SS means 少し失敗 (sukoshi shippai) which translates to Slight Failure. However since there are no synonyms for failure starting with the letter S, therefore the title has been left the same as it was in the original.

== Caliber SS ==
=== Part 1 ===

The katana user finished off the black Minotaur evil-god by stabbing it with his special skill, as if releasing the grudges he had kept up to this moment. Not paying any attention to the drop items on the spot the enemy avatar had burst apart, he turned around and yelled,

"Oi Kiritard! What did ya do just now!?"

That question obviously referred to my usage of one-handed sword skills while equipped with two swords, and explaining in detail would be very troublesome, so I obeyed my inner thoughts and said while giving my most troubled face,

"......Do I have to say it?"

"'Course! After seeing something like that!"

It seemed I had pressed Klein's curiosity button, and since it was unavoidable, I answered briefly,

"It was a skill outside the system, «Skill Connect»."

Oo―, was the sound which flowed out of Liz, Silica, and Sinon mouth; suddenly Asuna pressed her fingertips to her right temple and growled,

"Um......somehow, I got a strong feeling of Déjà vu......"


"It's just your imagination."

I shrugged my shoulders and clapped my hand on our healer-sama's back, whom despite her support duty in the back row, had sneaked in during the battle with the gold Minotaur to deliver the killing blow.

"This is not the time for relaxed talk. Lyfa, how much time do we have left?"

"Ah, right."

After sheathing her long sword in its scabbard behind her waist, Lyfa held up the medallion hanging from her neck. From a few steps away, I could see that the light within the jewel was almost completely lost.

"......At the current pace, we still have an hour or two."

"I see. ――Yui, this dungeon structure has four floors right?"

I continued asking, so the little fairy sitting on my head the whole time responded clearly,

"Yes, the third floor is around seventy percent of the second floor size, the forth floor should be mostly the boss room."

"Thank you."

Stretching my right hand, my fingertips stroked my hair while I quickly considered the situation.

At this moment, in the Jötunheimr field far below us, the players accepting the «Frost Giant Tribe» side's quest and the hunting of the beast type evil-gods had gained momentum. The number of quest participants would only increase and not decrease. The remaining time was estimated to be around an hour. The battle with the last boss ―― probably «King Þrym» himself ―― should take about thirty minutes, we wouldn't be able to move to the third and forth floor within thirty minutes.


If there were a little more time, we could explain the situation to the players on the field, asking for their assistance in revoking the ongoing quest, but at this moment we didn't have enough time to go back to the ground. The other alternative was to message the fairy lord requesting reinforcements, but organizing a force in the capital city beyond the mountain range, moving it to the Aarun plateau, and reaching Jötunheimr from the dungeon stairs, by the time they did them the sun would have set.

In other words, with just seven people, we were in a hopeless situation. ―― Or rather, factoring in the failure of «Queen Urðr»'side quest from the Cardinal's automatic quest generator function, Þrymheimr castle would surface on Alfheim, and trigger the start of a large-scale campaign quest «Ragnarök». The fault was obviously the character who inherited its function from its creator.

Anyway――

"......In that case, I don't care if it's the king of the evil-gods or not, we will just «Smash» him for good!"

Lisbeth said that with a slap on my back, the rest of them altogether went "Oo!" in agreement. Where did they get that recklessness from? While thinking that, I strongly nodded.

"――Alright, everyone's HP and MP have fully recovered right? Then let's clean up the third floor quickly!"

The combined voice echoed once more, seven people then kicked the floor, and started running, aiming for the boss' room on the lowest floor, which was visible through the ice.



Just as Yui said, the third floor was clearly narrower than the second floor. It was natural for the lower parts of an upside down pyramid, but this place was quite a narrow and also had a complicated passage. For a normal clearing, we would be confused by the gimmick of the paths, but we had, enshrined on my head, the Navigation Pixie-sama which could give the latest model of an intelligent car navigation system a run for its money.

Our trump card accessed the map data, and with her instructions, we could run through the winding passage at full speed. Even the gimmick puzzles using levers, gears, or stepping switches were cleared without any time used to solve them. If this affair were to be observed from the outside, there would be no mistake for them to think that we were doing a time attack for the fastest clearing.

We ran into the sub-boss twice, but we still reached the boss room of the third floor in only eighteen minutes. What awaited us there had twice the size of the Cyclops and Minotaur from the previous floors, both sides of its long lower body had ten pairs of centipede-like feet, it was clearly the creepy evil giant, but it didn't have much physical resistance. Of course its attack power was through the roof, so the HP gauge belonging to Klein and me were in the red so many times after being targeted by it. This battle, which made my stomach sore later, when I thought that either of us dying would lead to a wipe, went on for nine minutes.


During that time; Liz, Silica, Sinon, and Pina tried their best to cut down the giant's feet one by one, I then finished it off with the «Skill Connect» which included multiple sword skills once it was unable to move. With our high spirits, we rushed into the fourth floor to beat King Þrym and his Niflheimr. Once we stepped into the passage leading to the boss room, we stopped, as in front of our eyes ―― a scene came into view.

It was a cage made of elongated icicles on the wall's edge.

Behind the fence caused by the stalactite growing sharply from both the ground and the ceiling, was a single figure. It was not of a giant's size. As it had collapsed on the ground, its accurate size was difficult to tell, but its body should be about the same height as the Undine Asuna's.

The skin was as white as the powdery snow lying thick around. The long flowing hair was a deep brown gold. The volume of the chest covered by the clothing that could be seen from her sorry state, it would be best not to say this out loud, as it could easily overwhelm all of our girl members. Both her hands and feet were shackled in the rugged ice.

The unexpected scene caused us to halt and feel worried, then the captive girl's shoulders made a sudden but subtle shake, as she lifted her face, with the blue chains ringing.

Her pupils were also of the same tea gold, like her hair. Her face, if it was a player avatar, would surely be because of overwhelming luck when it was created, or the account was bought with the large sum of money. However, her face was sublimed with the western European beauty, which was quite rare in this game.


Blinking once, her long eyelashes moved down then up, the girl said in a fine voice,

"Please...... Help me......out of here......"

The katana user was sucked aimlessly toward the ice cage, I grabbed and pulled the bandana tail which dangled from behind his head.

"It's a trap."

"Trap."

"That's a trap."

The last two were Sinon's and Liz's words.

Klein straightened his back and turned around, as he made a subtle expression while scratching his head.

"O-Oh......It's a trap. ......A trap, right?"

For the katana user on his death bed's sake, I asked in a small voice, "Yui?". The pixie on my head promptly replied,

"It's an NPC. Just like Urðr-san, there is connection to the language engine module. ――But, there is one difference. This person has the HP gauge enabled."

Normally, the HP gauge of the quest giving NPCs would be disabled to prevent them from taking damage. The exceptions were, when the NPC was the escort quest's objective, or the NPC was actually――


"A trap."

"It's a trap."

"I think it's a trap."

Asuna, Silica, and Lyfa said at the same time.

His eyebrows made a 八 shape, his eyes widened, and his mouth was pursed; I patted Klein's shoulder who was stiff in those complex expressions and quickly said,

"Of course it could be possible that it isn't a trap, but now we don't have time for trial and error. We need to reach Þrym's place as early as possible, even if it is a second sooner."

"O......Oo, hmm, well, that's right, yeah."

Klein nodded slightly and moved his glance from the ice cage.

When we ran until just a few steps before reaching the stairs, the voice came again from behind,

"......Please...... anybody............"

――To be honest, I also had the urge to help her, as I didn't think that NPCs were merely the system's automatically generated moving objects, but dwellers living in this world. If this was in a normal quest progression, helping that girl, accompanying her, and as the story progressed until the end, hearing her laugh from behind, "Uhahahaha, you fool―", would still be amusing. However, we were not in the situation to take that unnecessary risk now.

=== Part 2 ===

The width of the descending stairs increased as we went down, and the decorative objects on the surrounding pillars and statues became more gorgeous at the same time. The «approaching boss room and resulting map data would be larger» tradition from Aincrad was also present here.

Standing at the end of the path were two wolves carved into the massive ice gate. So this was the throne room of King Þrym. About 10 meters away from the gate, I cautioned everyone to slow down, as I turned to gaze at the medallion Lyfa was wearing. The delicate light orbs which once adorned the medallion were now 90% tainted black. We probably only had around 30 minutes left.

I took a deep breath, and said:

“Based on the dungeon design, the BOSS should be behind those doors. This BOSS will be harder than the previous ones, we'll need to do everything we can to defeat him. Before engaging, we'll first identify his attack pattern and focus on defense. I'll give the signal to counterattack. When the BOSS's HP bar drops to yellow or red, his attack patterns will likely change again, so please be careful everyone.

I nodded and looked at the face of my companions, before adding:

“— This is the last battle, let's give it all we have!!”

“Yeah!”

This was the third cheer we had given since the start of this quest. Even Yui who was sitting on my head and Pina who was perched on Silica's shoulders cheered.

The gate began opening to both sides automatically once we were about five meters away. The cold air, along with a difficult to explain pressure, came from within. Asuna began re-applying supporting magics, and after confirming the numbers of buff icons below our HP/MP gauges, everyone made eye contact. We all nodded and rushed in at once.

The interior was an extraordinarily huge space in both horizontal and vertical directions. The wall and floor were blue ice, like the rest of the dungeon. The purple fire swayed eerily on the ice candles. High up on the ceiling were chandeliers of the same color, lined up. But what grabbed our attention was the dazzling reflection from the left and right wall lined along the interior.

Gold. Gold coins and ornaments, swords, armors, shields, sculptures and furniture, all kinds of golden objects were piled up to a scale where it was impossible to count. As the insides of the room sank into darkness, the full extent of the treasure was entirely unfathomable.

"............How much Yurudo are all these worth......?"

Inside the room; Lisbeth, the only person who managed a player shop here murmured in a trance. “I should have emptied my inventory!” I thought, but I never mentioned this to anyone.

On the right side of the party, Klein slowly made his way towards the treasure mountain, as if motivated by his bushidō way of life. However, as he approached the treasure――

"...... A bug flew in."

The low frequency mutter could be heard from the dark open space deep within the room, causing the floor to tremble.

"I hear an annoying buzz. Where is it? I'll crush the bad bug."

Boom, the floor trembled. Boom, boom, the trembles approached, it sounded as if it were so heavy that it might break the ice floor.

Once it reached the lighting range, a human shape appeared.

Giant ―― wouldn't be a suitable word. The humanoid evil-god was huge even compared to the bosses we fought in this castle so far. Its height must be at least fifteen meters. Even if I jumped with full force, I wouldn't be able to reach the knee of those giant tree trunk sized legs.

Its skin color was dull blue, like lead. Dark brown fur coiled around its arms and legs, and I wondered what kind of large animal the fur came from. A single part of the plate armor on its waist had the size of a small boat. While the upper part of the body was bare, the prosperous muscle looked as if it was able to repel any weapons directed at it.

Its muscular chest had its blue beard hung over it. Its head above it sank into a silhouette and we could only see its outline. However, the gold crown on its forehead and the blue and bleak blinking eyes below shone brightly in the dark.

In the old Aincrad, the system limit of the floor height was a hundred meters, the boss room inside the labyrinth zone was also under the same rule, it was unavoidable for all boss monsters to have vertical size in moderation. So up until now, I had no experience in fighting with an enemy which I had to look up to. As I couldn't fly, how could I fight like this? The best I could do was cutting no higher than its shins.

While I was thinking about various things, the gigantic giant ―― the double expressions are necessary to describe its size ―― took another step closer, and laughed like a gong being hit,

"Hu, hu...... the Alfheim bugs? Creeping into this place under Urðr's seduction? How about this, you small fry. Just tell me where that woman is hiding, and you can take the gold in this room with you, hmm?"

With the enormous body and the crown on its forehead, along with the speech just now, this guy was the «Frost Giant King Þrym», no doubt about it.

It was Klein who faced and replied to the great giant, who was an AI like Urðr.

"......Heh, a warrior just needs to eat, sleep, and laugh! Don't bother trying to tame us with a cheap invitation like that!"

While we made subtle expressions of relief from behind, as in front of us, Klein pulled his beloved katana from its scabbard.

With that signal, the rest of us took out our weapons as well.

They might not be legendary class equipment, but all of them either carried the name of ancient class weapons, or were carved to a satisfactory level by the master smith Lisbeth. However, the daring smile under the long moustache of the Giant King Þrym didn't fade due to the light from our weapons. Maybe it was natural, as our weapons to him were just slightly longer than toothpicks to him anyway.

The shining phosphorescence from the dark eye sockets glared at us from a very high place, the glance stopped at the eight person who stood there unarmed.

"......Ho, ho. I hear the buzzing of wings again. Very well then, I shall crush you beneath my feet, treat it as my gift, being turned into part of Jötunheimr!”

Thump, the giant king suddenly stepped forward, its large HP gauge appeared on the upper right of my field of vision. Moreover, it was stacked three layers. Cutting that off would be very troublesome.

As the HP gauge of those evil floor bosses in the new Aincrad were invisible in order to frustrate the player's mind, compared to those bosses, this battle's pace would be much easier to grasp.

"――Here it comes! Listen to Yui's instructions and focus on avoiding at the start!"

Immediately after my shout, Þrym raised his huge rock-like right fist high up near the ceiling ―― a blue frost storm wrapped its fist, then furiously swung down.

The last battle in Þrymheimr castle ―― but probably ―― was as expected, a large and fierce battle I had never experienced.

The King Þrym's early attack patterns were punches from both fists, three continuous stomping using the right foot, an ice breath in a straight line, and summoning twelve ice Dwarf minions from the ground.

The creation of the Dwarves was the most troublesome, but they were swiftly taken care of from the back of the party by Sinon's bow, cleaning them up in the blink of an eye by piercing their weak points with marvelous accuracy. The rest of the attacks were avoidable after observing its timing once, the counts from Yui also helped the three front row attackers in avoiding direct hits.

Once the defense was in place, it was finally the time to attack, however, this was certainly the hardest part. As I had feared, our swords could only reach Þrym's shins, and the thick fur protecting that area had high physical resistance, like the gold Minotaur. I took a small chance to attack it with a three hit sword skill, risking my HP to do so, but a low delay skill also had low attribute damage. The result was an unpleasant response, like hitting an indestructible object.

We fought hard in the battle for ten minutes before the first HP gauge finally depleted, causing the giant king to make an overpowered roar.

"Pattern changed! Be careful!"

As I shouted, Lyfa who was next to me said in a nervous voice,

"This is bad, Onii-chan. Only two lights remain in the medallion. We only have about ten minutes left." 

"............"

Þrym had three HP gauges. However, we took more than ten minutes to deplete one gauge. It could be said that cutting the remaining two gauges within ten minutes would be very difficult.

But, for this opponent, the «Skill Connect» wouldn't work like it did when we were fighting the gold Minotaur. During monster delay ―― or to say the delay occurring after its attack, «striking the weak point to create heavy concentrated damage» was needed. However, Þrym was weak to neither sword nor magic, so even if the sword skill connected four times, it wouldn't be able to make much change to that amount of HP.

As if seeing the moment of my impatience――

Þrym suddenly inhaled a large amount of the air, inflating his chest like a bellows.

An overpowering wind occurred, sucking in the five people in the front and mid rows. It's bad, this is surely the harbinger of a full force wide area of effect attack. For evading, first of all, the sucking power of the wind magic must be neutralized. While I was thinking this, to my left, Lyfa started reciting a spell.

But, there was probably not enough time once I noticed the enemy motion.

"Lyfa, everyone, take defense!"

At my call, Lyfa suspended the spell, crossed her arms in front and bent her body. All members took the same posture, in that moment,

From Þrym's mouth, which had sent out a breath in a straight line many times up until this point, released a wide conal diamond dust.

The shining pale wind wrapped around us. The cold which penetrated Asuna's buff made it feel like our skin was being torn off. Gin, gin, with a sharp sound, the avatars of five people froze at once. I tried to escape, but the thick shell of the ice completely locked my movements. Lyfa, Klein, Liz, Silica with Pina being hugged tightly to her chest, and I turned into blue ice sculptures.

At the moment, our HP gauge still haven't decreased. But we couldn't feel at ease. As this kind of special skill would increase the damage taken in direct proportion to the time being suspended.

Þrym approached, then lifted up his massive right leg. Bad, pinch, danger. ―― as I screamed in my mind, at almost the same time,

"Nuuu―!"

With a thick roar, Þrym stomped furiously on the floor. The violent shock wave from it swallowed us while we were still frozen――

Gaching! the frightening sound of breaking echoed throughout the hall, those of us covered in ice shattered. My eyes went dark due to shock. My body slammed hard on the floor while the damage effect light continued on.

At the edge of my vision, the top five of seven HP gauges suddenly turned to a deep red.

While the five vanguards got caught in Þrym's large-scaled ranged attack, of course the two people in the back row weren't just watching.

Our HP gauges were taken by nearly eighty percent when suddenly, a soft blue light rained down on us, healing our wounds. It was Asuna's high ranked full recovery spell. The timing was perfect, which would be impossible to achieve without anticipating the occurrence of the damage and pre-casting the spell in advance.

However, in this game's large-scaled recovery magics, most of them were of the «Heal over Time» type, which didn't recovery all the lost HP instantly. So it'd be fatal if we were attacked again while our HP was still recovering.

Þrym stepped forward in order to deliver the final blow to us who finally stood up. The long beard that hung over its throat ―― was suddenly pierced by a rapid succession of fire arrows blazing bright red, causing a big explosion. It was Sinon's two-handed long bow sword skill «Explode Arrow». With ten percent physical, and ninety percent flame damage property striking the frost giant tribe's weak point, his HP gauge clearly decreased.

"Munuuuun!"

Þrym raised an angry voice and changed his direction to target Sinon. Flashy attacks on the enemy's weak point from the back row's damage dealers caused a massive amount of hate, taking over the hate of the vanguards, resulting in the enemy switching targets. It was a mistake beginners always did, but of course, this wasn't the case this time. Sinon acted as a decoy, knowing it would likely lead to her death, to buy us time for recovery.

"Sinon, give me thirty seconds!"

While shouting, I gulped down a recovery potion from my pouch. Next to me, the others also poured similar red liquids down their mouths. Pina, Silica's partner, seemed to have narrowly survived because of its master's guard skill. In this world, unlike Aincrad, there was a pet resurrection spell, but taking time to do so during a battle would be very difficult.

My vision switched between the irritatingly slowly increasing HP gauge, and the blue Cait Sith's continuing to avoid Þrym's fierce attacks. Even though Sinon had come to ALO not long ago, her body control was spectacular. In GGO, as a sniper who forfeited all defensive skills, running away was the only way if an attacker type approached, that experience was probably still with her now.

"......Prepare the attack."

Removing my eyes off the HP gauge, which had finally came back up to eighty percent, I called my companions. Re-gripping both of my swords, I began to start counting, in that instant――

=== Part 3 ===

“Onii-chan!”

Lyfa's trembling voice vibrated from my side.

“It's too late... The lights in the medallion, are gone...”

“What...?”

I held my breath and turned towards the large jewel on her chest. The jewel that seemed to be made of intricate carvings was almost completely black, save a small shred of light that remained near the bottom. Even as I spoke, it was gradually turning black.

That was to say, beneath the Ice Castle Þrymheimr, on the frozen fields of Jötunheimr, the beast-type evil gods, Tonkii and Urðr's brethren, were close to being completely slaughtered. In other words, we who had accepted the quest "Urðr's request" had failed, and the hundreds of players who took Þrym's quest had succeeded—

Even though my brain registered this fact, I couldn't accept it no matter what, as I stood there with my mouth wide open. From the looks on their faces, everyone felt the same too. Even so, I managed to pull myself together, and prepared to yell at Sinon, who was dodging Þrym's fierce attacks alone far away from the party, to retreat. However——

<nowiki>*</nowiki>DUUUN!* A huge shockwave shook the earth, and the wide floorboards started to vibrate.

I lost my balance and fell to the floor. Far away, Sinon slipped too, and Þrym raised his ice-covered right fist to smite her delicate body.

However, Þrym's movements seemed to have slowed down. Then, two things happened at once. First, Þrym's HP bar which had more than 60% HP remaining disappeared. Next, a string of red text messages flashed across my sight: “QUEST FAILED”.

“Uwa... Uwahahaha...”

Slowly lowering his fists, the king of Giants laughed out loud.

“Uwahahahaha...... I can feel it... I can feel it! The one who has constantly been opposing me and my brethren, that hateful woman's aura is finally gone! Wahahaha......”

Once again, the frozen ground—— No, the entire castle started to vibrate. The blue flames on the wall suddenly flared up, as if coming to life. The gleam in Þrym's eyes seemed to be magnified tenfold.

The five vanguards finally found the energy to stand and reunite with Asuna and Sinon. However, their faces no longer held that determined look they usually had. Ignoring the pitiful ones on the ground who had to spread their legs to even stand straight, Þrym let out a loud roar:

“Now! Now is the time my long-awaited wish will finally be fulfilled! Come forth... My brethren!”

His brethren? Who?

Just as I was lost in thought, huge crashes echoed throughout the throne room.

<nowiki>*</nowiki>CRASH!*

The mountain of treasure that was previously stacked high suddenly expanded, before crashing down towards the floor. And emerging from within were ——even though they weren't as tall as Þrym—— giants, with sick blue skin and sporting matching blue beards. These were undoubtedly Þrym's minions... The frost giants.

There were more than 30 of them. Creating miniature earthquakes as they walked, the lined up in a row at the center of the room, and placed one of their arms on their chests. They looked like statues from afar.

Seeing this scene full of muscle-bound males, most of us forgot about our failed quest and just stood there in shock. Even Yui, who was sitting on my head, didn't respond.

Again ignoring the fairies on the ground, Þrym lifted his head sternly, planted his left hand on his waist, and lifted his right fist high. Everyone else looked at the direction he pointed - the huge crystal chandelier.

No, that wasn't it. He was pointing to something beyond the chandelier, after penetrating the castle and the crust, the place he pointed to was——

Our kingdom, The Fairy Kingdom Alfheim.

My suspicions were affirmed as that large bearded mouth started moving.

"Let us go! With our breaths let us bury that kingdom blessed by Yggdrasil in a sheet of ice!!"

"ROAR!!!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>DUM*, *DUM DUM*. The thirty giants and Þrym marched, the vibrations throwing us off our feet.

"Þrymheimr —— ATTACK!!"

<nowiki>*</nowiki>GOWAAAAAAAN!!* A huge shockwave vibrated throughout the castle. I tried to stabilize myself before realizing I had been put into some sort of Gravity Bind - a huge force was being applied to me from above. No, that wasn't it — I was being suppressed by the force of the floor — the castle moving upwards.

A huge crashed emanated from the castle's four walls, the loudest sound I had heard so far in ALO. This was undoubtedly the sound of the castle breaking through the boundary between Jötunheimr and Alfheim. Þrym's plan which Urðr spoke of, "To forever encase Alfheim in snow and make his way up Yggdrasil" had apparently been put into motion.

"...... What's going to happen... next......"

Hugging her war hammer near her chest, Lisbeth asked. Of course, no one had an answer. The only one who knew who probably be the "Cardinal System" who created this quest. No, maybe it could be said that this world had been devoured by darkness to the point that not even gods could tell what would happen next.

The castle had been rising for about three minutes now. In the meantime, Þrym stood with his fist pointed towards the distance, like some warped representation of a legendary hero. The rest of the giants were going "OOR, OOAR!!" non-stop, while stamping their feet in unison.

Soon, there came the final, loudest crash yet, and the castle, as well as the giants, went silent.

I noticed that the throne, which had been dark until now, suddenly lit up. I watched as light trickled in from the north wall, like rays of gold. It was Sunlight, something the underground world of Jötunheimr shouldn't posses — the radiance of the sun.

Þrym slowly retraced his right fist, coming into contact with sunlight briefly. His face contorted in displeasure, as he tightened his fists. A low sounds escaped his throat, unlike anything an NPC usually produced. It seemed as if he was speaking to himself.

"... Look out, Æsir... I will reach the top of the world tree and overthrow Midgard, before taking over Asgard which all of you are cowardly hiding, and crush everything under my feet..."

Lifting his right leg, he stomped his feet, as if trampling someone who wasn't there. Then, as if suddenly remembering our existence, the king of giants turned his blueish white eyes towards us and said, with a smile.

"......Shouldn't you thank me, insects? Hurr~?"

"W-Why should we thank you, you bastard?"

Klein shouted, his red hair shot upright. Þrym looked at him in amusement and said while smiling:

"Uwahaha, because I saved you the time to travel back here from Jötunheimr! Look around you and behold my castle's true form."

The king of giants, snapped his fingers *SNAP!*, and—

Suddenly, the floor we had been standing on slid open, revealing a huge gaping hole.

"Waah!?"

I shouted in surprise, and the wings on my back started flapping instinctively. However, even though the castle was no longer in Jötunheimr, I still couldn't fly. Just like that, the seven fairies plus one more (Yui) plus a dragon (Pina) fell into the newly formed hole. To be exact, only Silica's pet dragon was capable of flight, but because her owner was gripping her so tightly in front of her chest, she wasn't able to do anything.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!"

The loudest scream was made by Asuna, who had a fear of falling from great heights. Lisbetg and Silica also made similar screams, while the cold Sinon actually shrugged and shook her head in midair. Even the speed freak Lyfa didn't scream "YAHOO" and instead clutched my left shoulder tightly.

"I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS YOU OLD GEEZER AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!"

Klein's curse trailed into a long scream, as the seven of us fell right down the hole.

Thinking back about it, Þrym has no reason to spare our lives back there, instead of dealing the finishing blow. Though one could probably argue that falling from such heights would lead to our deaths anyway. Just as I was thinking to use magic like 'Feather Fall', the darkness in front of me began to curve, before finally becoming an icy slope. With our behinds planted on the icy surface, we had no choice but to slide down the frozen ramp. Before long, a white light appeared in front of us, and quickly began expanding. At the same time, there was a change in the air——

"...... We're gonna fly! Get your wings ready!"

I shouted out, just before the entire party plunged into the void.

I spread my shoulders and commanded my wings to fly. This time, a very reliable flapping could be heard, and a propelling force wrapped around my body. Gently picking up Yui who was perched on my head with my right hand, I placed her in my front shirt pocket, and began flying upwards. I looked to my left and right, and soon everyone noticed me.

The scenery before me that was tinted with white slowly regained its original palette. Right in front of me was a blue sky above green field, and numerous white mountains. This was, without a doubt, The Valey of Aarun, located in central Alfheim.

From the looks of the earth, it seemed as if the castle was heading south of the valley. That is to say, the great World Tree should be behind me, along with the town of Aarun which rested near one of its roots.

However, I hesitated to look back. What had happened to the beautiful scenery of Aarun, this was something I was afraid to find out. That said, I couldn't continue flying straight either, or I would end up in Salamander territory. I decelerated and gradually came to a halt, hovering in midair.

Taking a deep breath, I turned around.

"...Oh... Ohhh......"

The stiffled cry came from Lyfa, who was to my right. It was followed by the surprised cries of the other six people.

The Central City Aarun, the capital of Alfheim which was bustling with life throughout the year —— no longer existed.

The world tree, even though it looked as grand as always, had something lodged near its roots. Numerous roots had been upturned, and just a few hours ago, a lively stonework city was supposed to be there. The stones that Aarun were built on were now scattered all over, like a mountain of rubble.

Taking its place was a huge, eight-sided crystalline object that reflected off all the sun's rays.

This was without a doubt the castle Þrymheimr. However, when observed from Jötunheimr, it was the shape of an inverted triangle. That was to say, what we had previously seen was only the bottom half of the castle. Perched on top of the inverted pyramid was another similar pyramid, and it was its sharp tip that had pierced through the earth's crust.

The queen of the lake Urðr had used her powers to keep Þrymheimr sealed, but as her kind perished, so did her power. The castle had then broke free of its chains and revealed its true form. It was about 300 meters wide, and the height from the tip to the base was approximately 300 times √2, around 424 meters. Only about one tenth had pierced through the rubble, the tip pushing upwards lunging greedily for the world tree's core. The world tree still held strong with its remaining 10 or so roots, but even then it seemed it would eventually fall.

I exhaled and glanced away from Þrymheimr, surveying my surroundings.

The original inhabitants of Aarun were scattered around the valleys. Looking like ruin excavators, countless players stood there transfixed, their gaze upon the ice castle which had caused the city's ruin. If a player was running a shop in Aarun or simply taking a rest in their own house, the sudden emergence of a huge block of ice that laid waste to the entire city would certainly be quite a surprise. Because the city was a designated safe zone, none of the players had their HP reduced, though after going through such a shock it wouldn't be a surprise if their lives were shortened in the real world.

A group of players were pointing at the ice castle, their mouths moving nonstop. Because fairies had enhanced hearing, I could faintly pick up what they were saying.

"...This kinda event is too much no? Even my house is gone..."

"That's right, and not even a word of warning! It's still quite some time away to the annual end of year event too..."

"The appearance of Aincrad wasn't announced either, but this is beyond what you'd call a surprise event I think..."

Even though they hadn't fully recovered from shock, but their emotions should be turning to rage soon enough. Just like the conversation I had heard early, the entire streets of Aarun——

"...Players who had houses in Aarun or item storages, what's going to happen to them?"

Lisbeth, who was to my left, said, taking the words out of my mouth. Klein answered, seemingly robbed of spirit.

"Of course... Everything's gone, no matter how you look at it."

"No, it seems that property has been converted to Yurudo while items have been converted into scrolls and stored in the players' inventories."

This explanation came from Yui, who stuck her head out from my shirt pocket. Normally immovable objects could be converted into scrolls through the banker NPC. It seemed that even the Cardinal System wasn't cruel enough to remove players' items in an instant. It felt oddly heartwarming.

"......Is that true? At least some things can still be salvaged then..."

Just as Lisbeth was speaking.

A huge shrill scream from behind us interrupted her.

"Hey hey hey, is that true?! The scroll conversion I mean? Please please please tell me it's true!!!"

I turned around in surprise. About two meters away, a small girl wearing a round hat was standing, no, levitating in the air. A cloak was draped around her, and her right arm clutched a staff almost as tall as herself. From the rims of her hat, a large amount of golden curls fell forward, covering her eyes. Her skin was milky white, and her wings were pale yellow.

''...Who's that? No, before that, what race is she?'' Someone short enough for me to look downwards, she was either Cait Sith or a Leprechaun, but she didn't have the symbolic cat ears on her head of gold hair. Upon further pondering, I came to the conclusion that she was an NPC. If that was the case, her color cursor should be the same as Þrym.

To affirm my point, I looked straight at her and locked my cursor upon her veiled face.

However, a rectangular frame appeared at the top right corner of my vision, accompanied with a soft sound effect. This frame displayed the cursor information, and meant that the target was either a player or a monster. I nervously scanned her name. "Marinca", spelled entirely using alphabets. Wait, the ALO system shouldn't display names of unaccustomed players. No matter how much I racked my brains, I couldn't recall where had I met her before. If so, how was I able to see her name...?

"Ahh..."

Silica, who was hugging Pina tightly against her chest, let out a soft gasp from behind me. A moment later, I finally understood.

There was a string of shining letters hovering above the mysterious girl — Marinca's cursor.

"GAME MASTER"

"W-Woah, aren't you a GM?! Wow, it's the first time I've seen one in ALO!"

Klein muttered in amazement. I was similarly shocked. A Game Master was, as the name implied, the ones who managed to world of Alfheim Online. They were positioned higher than the Cardinal System, in other words they were employees of the company running ALO.

As to how much influence a GM had in game, this differed among games. There were MMOs where GMs specially dived in to interact with players and announce of upcoming events, but I never heard of such things happening in ALO. To me, this was the first time I had seen a GM's Avatar in Alfheim.

"E-Erm, I'm sorry, I haven't told you my name... You can call me Marinca from Ymir..."

[[Image:Sword Art Online Caliber SS.jpeg|thumb]]

Ymir, this was the name of the company running ALO. After RECTO's dissolution, ALO was supposed to be shut down too. Ymir though decided to purchase the servers despite declining player population, just like gods descending to save a doomed planet. However this wasn't revealed to the players. Even I didn't know much about the company, save that one of the employers was an old friend of Agil's.

Despite that, this GM, a supposed God in this world, gave me a feeling that she was unreliable. I shook my head, thinking of the current situation, and asked.

"...Erm, Marinca, you previously asked if the scroll conversion was true... Does that mean even Ymir doesn't know what's going on in Alfheim right now...?"

"Err——Erm... To be precise..."

Marinca lifted her staff into the air, twirled it for a moment, before saying:

"To be honest, this situation in Alfheim was just discovered not long ago."

"......W-What...?"

This low sound came from Asuna, who was standing on my right. Recognizing this voice full of agitation as the voice of "the sub-leader of the Knights of Blood" before going berserk, I hastily tried to stop her — but I was one step too late.

"What irresponsible words!! How long do you think this quest has been going on? Haven't you had ample opportunities to stop the script using administrator privileges?! To think none of you noticed this before Aarun crumbled, what are the game managers doing?"

"I'm s-s-sorry!!!"

As Asuna berated Marinca, Klein and I both tucked our heads away in fear, a habit inherited from attending her strategy meetings in the past. It was fortunate that Asuna didn't notice our gestures, as she moved a step forward —her shoes made a sound as they scrapped against the ground, this might just be me imagining things— and yelled in an enraged voice:

"Let's ignore the matter of how this happened in the first place — in a situation like this, wouldn't a simple Rollback be sufficient? How many hours can we rollback to?"

A rollback was the final measure in an MMO. Because the server was reverted back to a state in the past, it would reset all progress players' made in this time frame, including Yurudo and Experience. Of course, these were extremely important.

Even though we had took up "Urðr's request" to avoid complete destruction, we failed at the last moment. It should be dawning on the players who had taken "Þrym's quest" now, that they had indirectly caused Aarun's destruction, and the holy sword promised as a reward was nothing but the "Fake Sword Caliburn". Since things had progressed to such a level, a rollback was inevitable, and most players should be able to understand. Now to hope that the time lost was as minimal as possible. That was what I thought as I awaited Marinca's reply.

How would she reply? This GM who didn't look at a GM at all would probably stutter and smile clumsily at us.

"Well, about that... I checked the logs and it appears that the completion of the quest, in other words the beginning of this script, triggered a server backup..."

"W-What????"

This loud sound came from the seven of us. The GM's small stature quivered, as she continued nonchalantly.

"But it's such a relief that all the items were converted into scrolls! This is like casting an anchor windward... No, a blessing in disguise... That's not right either..."

"By the skin of your teeth"

In a low voice, Sinon who was situated behind me replied. "True, True", the rest of us agreed. Taking out a strand of spear mint from her pocket and placing it in her mouth, the sniper coolly asked:

"GM-kun, how did the situation get like this? Did the Cardinal System's 'automatic quest generation' feature malfunction?"

Upon hearing this, Marinca pouted "Uuuu" and said.

"Y-You sure know a lot! I've been working at Ymir for two weeks, and only known of Cardi-chan yesterday! No, I'm not joking!"

In these three sentences, there was at least one I was tempted to take a jab at, to the point my mouth was twitching on its own. Marinca waved her arms and said in an innocent tone:

"Wow, Cardi-chan sure is amazing! Not only can it identify bugs in quests, it can also fix dungeons with exploitable EXP mobs and even trace players with abnormal Yurudo and EXP stats!"

I suppose by Cardi-chan she was referring to the Cardinal System. This was one of its main advantages, of which we were all familiar of by now. In the old SAO, the Cardinal System often found our 'EXP farming spots' and quickly patched them. My lively daughter Yui was also part of the Cardinal System's low level processes; I shudder to imagine how powerful the computing levels of the Cardinal System are.

Marinca, who probably had no idea that the majority of us were SAO survivors, clasped her hands together.

"I also wish to one day reach Cardi-chan's level of administration! During yesterday's maintenance, even though it wasn't required, I still dived in from a specialized VR Console to monitor the situation up close. I even discovered many unused functions and models in the Quest interfaces. I thought that since the server was shut down, messing around a little wouldn't do any harm..."

"...Just like one of those movies, where the single press of a button would cause an explosion..."

Lyfa mumbled. I felt the same way too, but Marinca seemed to have missed that and continued her astonishing story as a GM.

"...But then, even when I turned the settings ON, nothing happened. So I continued watching the maintenance, and finally when it was time to reboot the server, I totally..."

"Forgot to turn the settings OFF, right?"

Asuna took another menacing step forward. Marinca immediately stopped talking and let out her third whimper.

"I-I'm the kind of person who is great at turning things like television, lights and air conditioners on, but I'm really bad when it comes to turning them off. I've been telling myself that in order to not cause trouble for others, I need to erm, mind my own business... Ahh, that's not it..."

This time Sinon didn't correct her. She continued staring straight ahead, with the spear mint still in her mouth. Maybe something about the Cath Sith's gaze caused Marinca to straighten up and finish her story.

"So um... After confirming the maintenance was complete, I slept for a while in the office. In the afternoon I was awoken by the shouts of other employees... It seemed that something huge had happened in-game. Looking at the situation, I had no idea if Cardi-chan was going on a rampage or kicking up a fuss... Actually, I was the one who had activated the 'Speed up mission' option! Ahh, this is the dream of every MMO operator — even though it's freeware, it's still capable of such intricate and powerful operations, Cardi-chan sure is awesome!! O-Oh yeah, where was I? Ahh yes, after I woke up, I was ordered to assess the situation in Aarun. Hearing that the players' items have been converted into scrolls is such a relief, like a blessing in disguise... No I mean... Ahh how should I put it!"

Taking our gazes off the GM who was frantically hugging her hat, we exchanged gazes.

"...Anyway, at least we now know the reason why the Cardinal System's quest suddenly accelerated."

Yui, who was resting in my front pocket, nodded after hearing my word.

"This fits the saying 'You can't hate a crying GM'<ref>Originally 'You can't hate a crying kid'</ref> pretty well"

"Yeah... Even the Cardinal System wouldn't be able to sit idly in dummy mode forever.<ref>Referring to the current situation of perfect autonomous server management, without the need for GMs</ref> Putting it in another perspective, it seems that the Cardinal System's finally shown its true potential..."

"It must be a desire that's been accumulating for months, finally exploding all at once."

We all agreed to Silica's words. If we treated the Cardinal system as a living being instead of a regulating program, it wouldn't be too hard for us to understand its feelings. The question was, just how much power did the Cardinal System have? Even though the world was supposedly based on the Norse Mythology of Ragnarök and the «Twilight of the Gods» seemed to be a fitting final battle, but...

I looked at Lyfa, who was gazing up at the blue, frozen castle basked under the sun.

"From Þrym's speech it seems that the Frost Giants aim to reach the top of the World Tree. If we just ignore this, not only Aarun, even the entire Yggdrasil City could be decimated..."

"E-Ehh?!"

This came from Lisbeth, who owned a smithing shop in the city of Yggdrasil. Even though the Yurudo used for purchasing the shop and the items within were safe, it was hard to accept a giant flattening her shop which she had painstakingly spent months to acquire and decorate.

Asuna and I had previously rented a small house near Liz's shop in Yggdrasil City. After we moved to the 22nd floor of the floating castle Aincrad, I no longer had any reason to defend Yggdrasil City. However, there was one thing which made me uneasy.

"Say, Lyfa."

I said to the Slyph swordswoman, who turned towards me with her golden ponytail swishing in the wind. Searching my memory of the past ten or so minutes, I asked:

"Before we were ejected from the castle, that old geezer Þrym said something about what he would do after climbing the World Tree... Something about overthrowing Midgard. What exactly is Midgard?"

"Mmm, even though I've never heard about it in ALO, but according to Norse Mythology it's supposedly one of the nine realms. Just like how Jötunheimr is the world of Frost Giants, Alfheim is the world of elves and Asgard is the world of gods... Midgard is the world of humans. But there is no human race available for ALO players."

Staring at my sister who was rapidly feeding us information, I muttered the only conclusion I came to.

"Then Midgard... Should probably refer to Aincrad..."

"W-WHAT??"

This time it was Klein, who up until now had knitted his brows and crossed his arms, that screamed.

"Overthrow from the sky... The entire Aincrad? If that's the case, shouldn't the final act be starting..."

"Final act?"

"Of course... The 'Legendary Samurai Klein' Act"

Not even bothering to come up with a reply, I dragged the swordsman by his patterned bandana aside and looked at Asuna, asking her 'What do you think?' with my eyes.

Upon hearing that Aincrad, or more specifically 'The house in the forest on the 22nd floor' was in jeopardy, she should be in a state of panic. However, the expression on Asuna's face was unbelievably calm, and after a quick moment of thinking, she nodded her head.

"Yeah... I think that's possible. In the old SAO, all of the players were human. After being incorporated into ALO, it's possible that NPCs would designate that castle as the 'Human World Midgard'."

"H-How can that..."

With an expression that looked like she was about to cry, with her ears drooped down to the lowest, Silica said in a pained voice. In perfect contradiction, the other Cait Sith who was waving her tail around like a Metronome, concluded the situation in an icy voice even colder than Asuna's.

"This means that if we don't stop the Frost Giants' imminent attack on Yggdrasil City and prevent them from obtaining the 'Golden Apple' on the tip of the World Tree, it might not only be Aarun and Yggdrasil City which lie in ruin, even Aincrad would be at danger of being destroyed. Let's stop thinking about what they plan to do next. What we need to do now is to stop them at all costs... But what can we do to prevent that..."

Everyone nodded solemnly after listening to Sinon's report. True enough, we had failed the quest "Urðr's request", but the quest window didn't point us to a follow up quest. There was bound to be another opportunity to attack Þrymheimr castle in the future, but before that battle, King Þrym's HP bar was nonexistent. In this state he was no different from an unengageable NPC. This was what I was worried about the most, as even if we made preparations and stormed the throne room again, if we were unable to fight him it would be meaningless in the end.

However, the one who gave us our next clue was unexpectedly the clumsy GM Marinca.

"No worries, there's a way!"

"......"

All of us looked at the administrator who didn't look like one at all. Her gaze unshifting, Marincase puffed out her chest and said:

"I just checked Cardi-chan's quest generation status, it seems that an event will happen later at 3 in the afternoon! If you join that event, I'm sure you'll receive a follow up quest!"

"......Erm, I think Ymir should be capable to doing something from the outside, is that not?"

I asked casually. For the fourth time a whimper escaped Marinca. We could only hope that it was the last.

"Ah, I just received a message from my superiors, it seems there are only two options — 'Rollback to two weeks ago' or 'Complete the Cardinal System's Quest!' Oh there's a postscript, 'Since you've been involved until now, take responsibility and join an in-game party in clearing the quest'! Ohh, this is like being paralyzed while you're poisoned!<ref>A pun on a proverb which roughly translates to 'adding snow to frost'. An English equivalent would be adding insult to injury.</ref>"

"That's why, please accept me into your party! Ahh the numbers don't matter, as a GM I can join as a special 8th member!"

Stunning silence.

Being able to hear such words, I don't think such opportunities will ever present themselves again.

I removed the AmuSphere from my head and continued lying down on my bed, stretching my rigid hands and feet.

A minimal amount of Winter Sunlight poured through the window into the room, landing on the surface of my alarm clock next to my bed before warmly reflecting off. The time was one thirty. The second chapter in our quest would continue only at three, hence it was vital that we ate and did any other things in the meantime. Due to this, we checked in an inn situated in the Aarun valley and logged out.

With all my might, I let out a deep sigh and said to myself.

"...Things sure have gotten bad huh..."

Cardin-chan — That is to say, the Cardinal System, even though it was a self sustaining, high level VRMMO management system, all this mess happened because it threw a ruckus. No, maybe the Cardinal System didn't think there was a problem. Instead of saying it 'managed' the world, a more appropriate term would be 'supported' it — that would be the reason for and proof of her (because of Marinca calling her affectionately, I couldn't help but visualize her as a female now) existence...

As I was lost in thought, there was a light knock on my door. Even though there wasn't a voice, I could guess who it was. Because aside from me, there was only someone else in this house.

"Please come in."

I sat up as the door opened with a *Ka-chak*. I was confused for a moment — if it was the person I expected, the door should have opened with a *Ka-chak-Pong* sound.

Slowly opening the door and peeking her head in, it was my sister Suguha after all. She wore the same green shirt as she did this morning, however her expression was different.

"Onii-chan... Before we have lunch, can we talk for a moment?"

Suguha looked very nervous, as if she was seeking assurance. I nodded and replied unsurely "Ahh... Okay, yeah". She quickly closed the door and hopped lightly across the floorboards, sitting on the other side of the bed.

Her fringe was trimmed just before her eyebrows. Lowering her head, she said softly.

"......Will it be alright?"

At first I thought she meant Alfheim, but I quickly changed my mind. If she was worried about the Elven Kingdom, Suguha would definitely shout energetically "We'll try harder this time!" or something to that effect. She was worried not about the current situation, but about her precious comrade.

I moved next to my sister and patted her back, saying:

"Of course he'll be alright. Right now he's not a monster but an NPC, even if someone else attacks him, he'll have no HP Bar. The next time we want to descend into Jötunheimr, he'll definitely come flying over when he hears our call."

Of course, the comrade in question was the Evil god-type monster Tonkii, which we had rode on plenty of times. Right now, in the underground world Jötunheimr, hundreds of players had accomplished "Þrym's quest", which meant all beast-type evil gods had been slain. Suguha was worried about whether or not Tonkii had been slain too.

"...And that guy, he's always flying up high above ground. It's impossible for players to fly in Jötunheimr, so swords and magic definitely can't reach him."

I added enthusiastically. Suguha finally looked up at me and smiled, saying:

"Yeah... That's right. Thank you Onii-chan, now I can finally be at ease."

Suguha tilted her body and rested her head on my right shoulder. My posture was already odd to begin with, with the added weight of Suguha's body, I lost my balance and fell onto the bed.

Suguha came tumbling down moments later, her head landing on my chest.

"Uwaa..."

Upon hearing her, I immediately tried to move my body, but it was once again squashed by something warm, as I sank further into the bed.

"Oi oi, Suguha..."

As I frantically moved my body, my brain searched for words to be used in this situation. My mind however failed me and I was unable to come up with anything to say. Suguha whispered into my ear:

"...The next quest starts at 3, there's still some time left. So for a while... Just let me..."

I had no idea what to do or what was going on. At the very least, I should stop moving. A nostalgic yet slightly different smell wafted through my nostrils, and from my chest I felt my heartbeat accelerate.

"...Unbelievable."

Suguha, who was lying on my right shoulder, squinted and looked at me straight in the eye.

"After something so monumental happened over there in 'that world', it feels unbelievable to be back here again. It's just like, that's reality, and this is the illusionary world..."

"Yeah... To an extent, I understand."

I continued speaking, momentarily forgetting my nervousness.

"It's surreal... Just like a dream. I've felt that before. It's like a dream I experience once I fall asleep in the inn over there..."

"...Yeah, just like that. A dream... That could be the case maybe."

"Heh heh." That familiar, innocent yet somehow appealing face let out a laugh, causing me to hold my breath.

I closed my eyes, not due to tiredness but because I felt a wave of drowsiness wash over me in this situation. Suguha's voice was like the trickling of a stream, comforting my senses.

"If this is a dream..."

—If this is a dream?

"...Then let's redo the failed mission."

—So that's it.

With my eyes closed, I let out a bitter laugh. Maybe because my concentration was waning due to being on the verge of sleep, but my gamer's instinct told me this.

We failed the quest "Urðr's request"... Even though it was due to us being short-handed, I had this feeling that if we hadn't made a mistake or missed something somewhere, we might have been able to complete the quest.

The only point where a choice was offered in the game— that would be......

It was here that I stopped thinking further and fell asleep. It might be a short nap till our next adventure in a matter of minutes... Or an infinite sleep where I would never wake up.

(End?)

<noinclude>

==References and Translation Notes==

<references />


</noinclude>

Sword Art Online:The Day Before

2013-01-10T07:20:19Z

Perfect Chaos:

==The Day Before==
[[Image:Sword Art Online The Day Before - 000.jpg|300px|center]]
===Part 1===

Aincrad Standard Time, Year 2024, 23rd October, 9 PM.

I, the level 96 swordsman, Kirito, have proposed to the level 94 fencer, Asuna, and she has accepted.

Of course, this happened in a VRMMO known as Sword Art Online—a scene within a RPG. In the real world, Asuna and I have not even seen each other's faces, and in the first place, I'm not even at an age that can legally marry. —Asuna might be just about there in terms of that, though.

I do not know what was the game that first adopted the «Marriage System», but marriage between fellow characters has always been popular in the world of MMOs, even back since twenty years ago. Some sort of advantage is provided to «spouses» characters in most series, so there are many cases where marriage was done for that purpose alone, and of course, with there being players who marry as a part of their earnest roleplaying, it seems there were also some among those where the in-game marriage ended up being an impetus for marriage in the real world. This is merely my own assumption, but I believe that even if all of the MMO players in the entire world were to be asked the question «Do you have any experience of marrying in a game?», it's possible that more than half of them would give an affirmative reply.

However, even if it's regrettable (though I'm not quite if I should describe it as so), I have never ever married anyone, within all of the MMORPGs I have played thus far.

The reason is—well, it's probably due to my weak interpersonal communication skills, but alongside that, I had absolutely no idea on what to make of the concept of an «in-game marriage». If the male character, Kirito, controlled by me, Kirigaya Kazuto, were to marry a female character, Somegirl<ref>Originally "Dareko", or when transliterated, "who-girl".</ref> (fictional), controlled by a female, or perhaps a male (this is easily possible as well) who exists somewhere in this world, is it okay for me to simply interpret it as a permanently fixed party with this Somegirl-san? Or would I have to go to the extent of roleplaying my love for that Somegirl-san? Or perhaps—I would even have to be wary of that certain living being behind Somegirl-san...?

To be honest, it's not like I had no experience of receiving the offer, "Wanna get married （〃＾▽＾〃）", from female characters who were registered as friends or guild members in the games I played before SAO. However, in every single one of those cases, I would freeze in front of the monitor while breaking out in cold sweat and end up giving a reply like "（´ノω；｀）".

I was too cautious, too analytical, too nervous; even I think so myself.

However, to begin with, the reason why I indulged in MMO games was because they were temporary worlds. Behind each and every character, there exist unfamiliar players with unrevealed genders and ages. As a result, it can't be helped but to wonder "Who exactly is this person?". Everyone isn't quite themselves, myself included.

Despite that, to me, the system, «Marriage», is to collide head-on into that recognition. Even if the marriage was within a game, one can't help but to be self-conscious when linked to a certain someone through a special relationship. Of that «certain person» moving the mouse and typing on the keyboard in the real world.

As such, I shirked away from becoming permanent partners with people in net games and of course, that shouldn't have changed even in this unnatural death game, Sword Art Online. No, with their avatars and actual appearances being the same, it might provide all the more reason to keep a distance from others.

However, the one who slowly dispersed, shrunk and finally erased my discomfort—or perhaps anxiety, was certainly Asuna.

In the slightly less than two years since the start of the death game, though the situation differed at times, that girl did not ever disappear from my sight. She was first a casual party member of mine, and shortly after that, a comrade within the clearing group even after she joined the guild, Knights of the Blood. There was that time we investigated the strange murder case in the area together and that other time I got her to cook an S-grade food item for me. Through those exchanges with Asuna, I realized it.

That in this world—and definitely in the real world as well, and just maybe in the non-fulldive MMO games I played before SAO as well, what determined whether the people before my eyes really are themselves, was my own self. If I were to leave those doubts and distance aside, they would become lies. If I were to put my trust into them and compromise, they would become real.

Now, right before my eyes, there is a swordswoman named Asuna.

I enjoy the time I spend with her. Asuna fighting, Asuna laughing, even Asuna getting angry, watching each and every one of those moments brings forth strong emotions in my heart. She was always within reach and it seems clear that she was interested, too. When I look at Asuna now, I don't ponder upon what exactly her true self is like anymore, not even in the slightest.

Hence, I proposed to Asuna.

Honestly speaking, it's not that my various doubts are gone. I still do not have the conviction to claim that this emotion of mine that seeks for Asuna to be that so-called «love». I've always kept a distance from my family in the real world and ever since I've come to this world, I've relentlessly persisted on in my solo playing, making me wonder if I really did have the heart to love someone else.

However, I figured I might be able to find the answer to that final doubt if I'm together with Asuna.

—And, all of that was the «comprehension of marriage in SAO» I had arrived at thus far.

On another topic, as it really is marriage, even if it happened in the world of a game, there are still the customary material aspects to it. To be specific, what to do about getting a new home, so to speak.

We will naturally live together after marriage, but in that case, before even considering my refuge in the back alleys of the main city of Algade on the fiftieth floor, Asuna's mansionette in Salemburg, on the sixty-first floor was already slightly too cramped. Not to mention, putting the issue about the physical area aside, there are circumstances that forces us to be unable to live where we've resided in until now.

The sub-leader of the guild, «Knights of the Blood», Asuna the «Flash», could be said to be the player most highly idolized in Aincrad at present.

She was almost always first in the player popularity polls in the newspapers published by the information brokers, even having several fan clubs, with a major general store chain offering not a CD debut, but a RC (recording crystal) debut, though it seems that she drove them off with thrusts from her rapier.

It feels like ages since her «Little Red Riding Hood» phase at the start of the death game when she kept her hooded cape on the entire time, but anyway, if the public were to know of the marriage of an idol like that, there's no doubt it would get picked up by each and every one of the newspapers, all at once.

Her many fans will lament and moan, and energy might just be formed by that, eventually converting into a curse property attack, causing her partner in marriage, me, to suffer a drop in my real luck—even if you were to leave that aside, being interrogated and the like is no way to spend a newlywed life, so I would like to keep as much of the truth behind the marriage under wraps as I could.

Of course, we did send messages to that girl's many friends, and my few ones, so we didn't expect it to stay a secret for long, but nevertheless, we weren't in any position to stay immersed in our honeymoon mood for too long. It has only been four days since the floor boss of the seventy-fourth floor, «The Gleameyes», has been defeated and it should take some time before the boss room on the seventy-fifth floor, the current front lines, is found, but both Asuna and I have no choice but to participate in that boss battle, even if we can desert the labyrinth tower's mapping.

As such, if we could have ten days... no, two weeks... until that happens, we would have to search for a home where we could pass our time slightly more peacefully.

If we list the items we have accumulated through our gameplay on the newspapers' classified section, converting most of those we have no pressing need for into col, we might just be able to afford a detached house in the area... or in other words, one within the city walls. However, if we were to set up a new home in a place like that, it would end up being found out by the information brokers on that very day. One that's on a cleared floor unfrequented by players, not to mention built on its edge and having a reasonable amount of space while not being eye-catching—such a house would be ideal.

Those were rather harsh conditions, but in actual fact, I have already had an inkling of a fitting unit before I proposed.

It has already been more than a year and a half since the front lines was stationed at the twenty-second floor of Aincrad. It was a low floor while being spacious, but nearly all of it was covered in deep forests, grass plains and lakes, possessing a beautiful, yet smooth topography, and furthermore, neither important quests, nor field bosses exist there. The players of the clearing group took a straight route to the labyrinth from the main town, Coral Village, scrambled up the tower with its mild degree of difficulty, defeating its boss in a number of days quite below the average back then. At the present moment, the only players who visit the twenty-second floor would probably be fishermen heading to the assorted sized lakes and woodcrafters gathering wood materials in the forests.

Hence, it would be a place I haven't visited for over a year either, but for some reason, a certain spectacular view it had was fixed in my memory.

It was on the day the twenty-second floor's boss was crushed, when I ran about alone, trying to clear as much of the quests I've left undone ever since I accepted them.

I found a narrow, small path on the bank of the clear, blue lake, one that wouldn't be noticed unless close by. It seemed unrelated to the quests, but when I tried following the path and climbed the hill, I found a deserted detached log house erected there at the end, surrounded by a thick forest of coniferous trees.

Its log walls were covered in moss here and there, while two or three saplings poked out from the roof, but it didn't give off the sense of rotting away at all. Rather, it blended in with the nature surrounding it, giving off a sense of beauty, as if it was a home owned by one of the Elven race.

I quietly opened the wooden gate (as that was possible, it couldn't have belonged to another player), checked the interior with my Search skill (as it was empty, it wasn't a NPC's home either), and after I approached the terrace at its front, I finally found it. A «FOR SALE» wooden tag that hung from the door knob.

Not having made it to even level 40, I could only point at the price listed on the wooden tag while I counted the number of digits, let out a sigh, and left the place behind while stubbornly glancing back over and over again. Whilst holding on the dream that someday, I will get my item storage bursting with enough col to buy this house.

In actual fact, when my level was in its seventies while the fiftieth floor was conquered, there was nothing I couldn't afford if I really wanted it. But as one of the clearing group, I couldn't have a place that requires a twenty minute trip to get to the nearest teleport gate as my base of operation. In the end, I set up a refuge in the main city of the fiftieth floor, Algade, and ended up spending my sleeping time there up till several days ago.

It has actually been a year and a half since I found that house in the forest on the twenty-second floor—

I decided to propose to Asuna and when I thought about what to do about a new home, what immediately came to mind was that log house. I believed there was no better choice.

As my proposal speech, I first revealed information on the aforementioned log house, suggested to move there and finally, I said, "Let's get married".

I do believe that at least a tiny part of the reason behind why Asuna replied "Yes" without even a trace of hesitation was thanks to the divine protection of that house.

===Part 2===

And, so.

It's been a night since the proposal, it's the twenty-fourth of October, sometime after 2 PM. Asuna and I visited the twenty-second floor together.

We called upon the Knights of the Blood headquarters in Grandum, on the fifty-fifth floor yesterday and have already settled the request for both of us to temporarily withdraw. Even if it's temporary, we properly left the guild system-wise, with the guild emblem, the red cross, not existing on our color cursors any longer.

We exited the teleport gate at the main town, Coral Village, and as we walked towards the large lake to the southwest, I casually asked Asuna at my side.

"Hey, how long has it been since you joined the KoB, Asuna?"

"Let's see..."

Shaking her chestnut-colored hair, the fencer lightly tilted her head.

"I think the leader invited me in February last year, so... it would be close to a year and a half, I guess. It was right after the boss battle on the twenty-fifth floor ended, so..."

"I see... The KoB was made right after half of the «Force» got annihilated, wasn't it..."

I glanced up at the underside of the floor above.

Three floors above this peaceful one was the twenty-fifth floor of Aincrad that ended up being the next true trial for the players of the clearing group, ever since the first floor.

Abnormally strong mobs, compared to those on the twenty-fourth floor, obstructed our progress immediately after we left the main city and the field's topography was as complex as a maze; its difficulty created multiple casualties even while we were en route towards the next town. There were barely any NPCs we could obtain information from, while on the other hand, there were plenty of pitfall terrain traps which led to poisonous swamps and by the time we somehow managed to reach the labyrinth tower on foot, the clearing group players were at the end of their rope.

We roused ourselves with all the spirit we could muster, and the one who motivated everyone was the player who led the guild, «Aincrad Liberation Corps»—that's right, it wasn't a «Liberation Force» yet, back then—who was named Kibaou. His wanton cursing of everyone in that Kansai dialect got them into the mood through those "You bastard!" lines, empowering them to get back onto their feet.

However. That was how Kibaou, who was unmistakably regarded as the leader of the entire clearing group back then, got hooked onto false information spread by someone with the twenty-fifth floor's boss battle right before him. With only forty or so guild members that couldn't even make up an entire raid group, they rushed into the boss room first. As a result, over half of the Liberation Corps died... and the main force of the clearing group, inclusive of Asuna and me, finally caught up to them at that point, and although we didn't escape without quite a number of casualties as well, we managed to take the monstrous boss down somehow.

But the joy from crossing Aincrad's quarter point was lacking in everyone. The boss room was permeated in the cries of resentment from Kibaou, echoing throughout the place.

That was where he parted from the clearing group, bringing along the comrades who were still alive, he left for the first floor on the distant bottom. And thus, they merged with the mutual aid organization, «MMO Today», active in the Starting City—it was from that huge congregation, that the «Force» was eventually formed.

"...The entire clearing group certainly was in a state of despair at that point... The ones fighting on the front lines were suddenly reduced to two-thirds of what they were and no one even found out who was to blame for setting up that trap, so I guess that was only to be expected. ...Everyone had sullen expressions even on the first field boss strategy meeting on the twenty-sixth floor... but, that was when the newly-formed guild, KoB, proudly marched in. All of the members were fortified in customized white and red equipment; that really had an impact, huh..."

As we walked on the lake's bank, I recollected what had happened back then and spoke about them in halting sentences. However, the one at my side kept awfully quiet, so I turned to take a glance and strangely enough, Asuna was growing red at her cheeks and subtly looking elsewhere. I snickered in my mind and continued on, pretending not to notice.

"...Especially that sub-leader who stood at the head of the group; all of us... putting Klein and I aside, even Agil was mesmerized, you know. An outfit that was the exact opposite of all of those plain ones till then, that pure white sleeveless bodice with that deep red miniskirt and those white knee highs to top things off... in that single moment, how should I say this, the hearts of those clearing group that were becoming divided all came together and..."

Smack! And a blunt-type attack came flying at my left shoulder, stopping just short of causing damage and interrupted my words. When I took a look, that particular sub-leader had her face in a shade of deep red and her right hand clenched into a fist.

"Geez! Honestly, that time was incredibly embarrassing, you know! I thought that the leader would naturally be at the front, but then with his usual composure, he went, 'I believe we could achieve a much greater effect if Asuna-kun were to stand at the front', having that serious look on, so I went out there in despair!"

"Ha-Hah... —That reminds me, that equipment really was custom-tailored, right? Who came up with the design?"

"......All of the other guild members held meetings for the design countless times while keeping it a secret from me. When they first showed it to me, I rejected it with a 'I can't wear something like this!' and was told, 'The cost of even a single set of this was colossal!' by Daizen-san with tears in his eyes, so I had no choice but to..."

"...I-I see."

It seems that even the guild, Knights of the Blood, said to be truly the strongest with their ironclad rules, were up to pretty humorous antics at the start. That said, there was no mistaking how the debut of the KoB increased the morale of the entire clearing group at that time and have always stood at the front lines of this death game ever since then. —Even at this very moment, parties with figures clad in red and white must be carrying out fierce battles on the seventy-fifth floor, opened not so long ago...

I glanced up at the underside of the upper floor once more. It seems Asuna had read my inner thoughts from merely that. While gently holding onto my left hand with her now unclenched right hand, she spoke.

"You defeated the seventy-fourth floor's boss mostly by yourself, Kirito-kun. You barely had even two or three pixels left in your HP bar. Even if you get away from the clearing for a little while, no one would complain."

"...If the reason for my break were to be exposed, I'll probably get complaints from everyone around, though."

I gave that retort sprinkled with laughter and returned Asuna's gesture. The sub-leader showed an expression unsure of whether to get angry or embarrassed and I gave a short chuckle.

After going about halfway round a large lake, with a diameter of likely one kilometer, noticeably imposing Japanese cedar—or at least, coniferous trees that looked like them, were sprouting up high. When stared at closely from somewhere near those grand roots, the wide path of the lake shore could be seen splitting into a thin, narrow path heading southwest.

"...You found this path? You sure are just as observant of these sorts of hidden routes as always."

I took those thoughts as a compliment and puffed out my chest.

"Back then, I didn't even have «Detection» Mob from the Searching skill, so I found it with only my eyes and instincts. You can see the house right after climbing that hill."

With that, Asuna's face beamed with joy in an instant as well, this time.

"I wonder what the house is like, I'm really looking forward to it! Let's hurry!"

"......Hey, Asuna-san, it's really a log house with nothing unusual, so even if you anticipate it that much, nothing will..."

"Well, it has always been my dream to live in a log house ever since I was small. I would be totally, completely and absolutely satisfied if it just has a Russian stove<ref>A unique type of oven/furnace used for both cooking and heating. Originally "pechika".</ref> and a rocking chair!"

Asuna quickly climbed the hill as she spoke, making me chase after her in a hurry. A rocking chair can just be bought from a furniture store, but really now, I can't possibly be expected to recall if there was a Russian stove. No, it's not definite that there wasn't one. The reason why I found the log house just ahead a year and a half before was for the sake of this very day. If this is the guidance of fate, there must be a Russian stove there as well.

While praying for the existence of a chimney atop the log house's roof, I ascended the hill several seconds after Asuna. I moved beside Asuna, who was standing still in silence and searched for a chimney with my eyes opened wide.

——However.

It wasn't there.

Not the chimney.

What spanned out before our eyes was a round space covered in verdant undergrowth, without even a single man-made object of any sort... in other words, the house itself did not exist.

===Part 3===

This is the wrong place.

That was the most reasonable explanation, so I apologized to Asuna and descended the hill, searching the fields nearby for two hours.

However, not only was there no log house, I wasn't even able to find any other forks leading to a new small path. Climbing up the first hill another time in melancholy, I gazed through the surrounding landscape yet again.

"......It was here, definitely..."

My voice unthinkingly escaped from my mouth.

A broad, lawny garden (merely empty land without a house though), within which a dense forest of coniferous trees stretches out; the towering pillars that support the outer circumference of Aincrad were visible beyond the grove of trees and at the very end was the infinite sky extending forever. This view remained fresh in my memory despite the gap of one and a half year.

But that particular crucial log house did not exist. I doubt it would have any effect, but even after I tried stepping into that blank space and walking to its absolute middle, the house showed no sign of spawning.

As I stood there frozen in a daze, the crunching sound of someone stepping over the undergrowth closed in, stopping right behind me.

I couldn't bear to turn around. Let's move to a log house on the twenty-second floor, just the two of us; those were the words of my proposal. If that house did not exist, wouldn't the marriage proposal itself seem like a sham?

"Asuna... —It's true. That house really was here."

It happened when I feebly spoke that line out, with my eyes lowered.

Cutting in right before me, Asuna slapped down onto my shoulders before she held my face within her palms, raising it up. Those hazel eyes were no different from usual, shimmering with a gentle light.

"I do believe you, isn't that obvious?"

She gave that simple declaration, released her hands, took a few steps back and continued.

"It must have been demolished due to some sort of circumstances with the system. It's a pity, but still, it's a very lovely place even without the house, so I'm glad that I got you to bring me here, really."

She spun around atop the emerald grass, her skirt fluttering. The scene of the afternoon rays of sunlight shining upon her long hair and silver bosom, reflecting off what hung at her waist, the glittering sheath of the rapier, «Lambent Light», was practically beautiful enough to be used for a promotional video for the game without requiring any editing.

—And I doubt she read that thought of mine, but after Asuna stopped to face me, she knocked on the belt pouch at the right side of her waist and spoke.

"Hey, we came all this way, so let's take some photos to commemorate it. I brought a photo crystal along."

"Ah, aah... That's right..."

I responded with a smile, but perhaps sensing something from my voice and expression, there appears to be traces of concern on Asuna's face.

"Was it that much of a shock? That the house disappeared..."

"Eh, no, not really, it wasn't really..."

I kept my face and hands as composed as still water, but the anxiety did not leave Asuna's expression. If this is how things are, it wouldn't be possible to simply smooth over my inner thoughts anymore, so I gave up and nodded.

"Well... I thought of various things for today in my own way. But it wouldn't work out without the house here, so..."

"Oh? Like what?"

It was difficult explaining with those large eyes staring at me so intently, but there was no use in getting embarrassed now after I've even proposed to her. After lightly clearing my throat, I tried to first enter the explanation system-wise.

"Let's see. «Marriage» in SAO is rather simple if you just consider the method. Switching to the Communication tab from the Main Menu, pressing the Marriage button at the bottom of the various invitation options and then target the other party... with that, it's finished if the other party presses the OK button. There's no need to even send any documents to the government office..."

"You wouldn't even have to give your greetings at my home, going, 'Please let me have your daughter!', huh."

As Asuna abruptly interjected with those words, I inadvertently imagined that forced event (not to mention the one who played the father role was somehow the leader of KoB, Heathcliff), making jolts run down my spine, causing me to shiver. Seeing that, the daughter... no, Asuna giggled, so after audibly clearing my throat, I returned to the main topic.

"An-Anyway! It's because the process of marrying takes only around five seconds that, well, how should I say this, I want to make it so that it'll remain in Asuna's memories forever; that's what I was thinking of. But unfortunately, we are unable to hold a grand marriage ceremony, so at the very least, I hoped to properly buy a new home and figured that it would be best getting married in front of that house, so..."

The latter half more or less ended up as murmurs while I looked downwards, but I somehow managed to finish speaking and exhaled a breath of air.

Immediately following that, I received a high-speed tackle which made me unsteady on my feet. The unexpected impact sent me falling onto my back, onto the grass, but it seemed like Asuna wasn't planning on delivering knuckle attacks after getting in a mounted position on me; she laid on my chest and gave a succinct whisper.

"......I'm happy."

"Eh, no, well, that's just what I was thinking of."

"Like I said, I'm happy. After all, Kirito-kun thought that far and tried so very hard to search for that house for me."

When I took a proper look, misty tears were running down Asuna's eyes as she grinned right before me. In response to this, I pressed my chest against her as well, wrapping her slender frame within my two arms.

We stayed that way, embracing each other for over two minutes on the grassy plains as a gentle breeze blew through, before Asuna's soft voice reverberated next to my ear.

"This is enough."

"Eh...?"

"I already feel like I'm blessed right now. So, shall we have the marriage here and head back for today? We can look for a house another time."

It's true that the afternoon rays bathing the upper floor's underside have been gaining quite the yellow tint to it. Nightfall will likely approach in another hour or two.

"I guess... you're right."

I rose gently while still hugging onto Asuna and inspected the verdant garden that grew out, as if to encircle the coniferous forest.

If we persist, we would definitely be able to find another player home that fulfils the condition of being «a detached house without monster spawns despite being outside the area, in a place with barely any visitors». It wasn't like we couldn't put a request to Argo the information broker either. Even if she's the «Rat», she wouldn't sell the coordinates to our new dwelling, probably.

Hence, like what Asuna mentioned, there was no need to get all hung up on that phantasmal log house. This lawny garden was memorable enough by itself; even if SAO were to be cleared, it should remain in Asuna's—and thus, my memory for a long time to come.

......However.

That is that, and this is this. Something remained stirring in a corner of my mind, completely unrelated to the marriage. If I have to describe it, I would say it was similar to an uncleared quest, with its solution unfound despite effort put in, festering under the log window.

"......Kirito-kun?"

My gaze recoiled with a start when my name was called out all of a sudden. Before I knew it, the thought, «I can tell exactly what you're thinking», showed itself on Asuna's expression right before my sight and my body stiffened up once again.

"Y-Yes?"

"...You were probably thinking, that is that and this is this, or something like that, weren't you."

Gulp.

A face that suited that particular emotion seemed likely to form, hence I seized the initiative of making a poker face.

"Eh, ju-just what would you be talking about?"

"I understand, you know. About your desire to find out the reason behind the disappearance of the house that was supposed to be here, at least."

—And so, it appears that I possessed no talent for poker. Denying it any further in this situation would simply deepen the humiliation as I have already learnt, so I acknowledged it with a nod as well.

"Well, that is to say, yes... Y-You see, it's way too strange, having a player home vanish by itself and all. You said that it was due to circumstances in the system earlier, but there aren't any GMs in SAO, so it's impossible for it to have been demolished through the management's instructions. Even if it's said to be the result of a program performing a cleanup, it's not like a house with unlimited durability could rot and neither earthquakes nor volcanoes occur in Aincrad... also, as for any of the other possible causes... let's~see..."

I was about to enter my usual conjecture mode as I spoke, but Asuna's index finger shot forward onto my mouth.

"Alright, pause! ...Well, we've been together for a long time. I understand that you aren't one to leave something like that alone, at least..."

Before she could finish her light sigh, I cancelled our poses.

"Th-Then, I know this is our precious break time, but could I... have just a little time to investigate?

Asuna softly went on about how she knew it would turn out like this and how it would just change the whole point of us coming, before taking in a deep breath of air and announcing thus.

"You'll only get until the end of tonight to investigate!"

===Part 4===

Among the countless terrain objects distributed over each floor of Aincrad, over ninety-nine percent of them possess the «immortal» attribute. It's applied over those from nature, such as rocks and trees, as well as those man-made, like houses and castle walls, shielding them from purposeful destruction by players.

Depending on the dungeon's design, there could be «destructible walls» inside them every now and then, while «smashable rocks» and «fellable trees» could be found in the field, even if they're rare, but I have never even heard of stories involving «breakable houses». In the first place, on the very day a person were to buy a house that could be broken, a huge hole would be suddenly created while that person sleeps, with those from orange guilds flocking in through there... even such a scenario could occur. It's not like we're in the "Three Little Pigs" here.

And thus, I could hardly imagine that the disappearance of that personal home, that log house I have once found and dreamt of, was due to destruction caused by players.

"...Well, that's what I believe, too."

Upon hearing what I had conjectured so far, Asuna nodded once and continued.

"Unless someone discovered an extra skill like «Land Speculation», that is."

"Th-There's no point in doing any of that in a place like this, is there? The lake shore at Salemburg is another story, though."

"Aah, it's true that the lakeside's expensive there. It's going for three times the cost of my room. ...But that's right, if we can't find the house here, having a detached house there as our new home might be nice."

"Th-That's kind of... that might be tough with my income..."

It's a joke, a joke, Asuna told me as she laughed at me, who had turned pale, for a short while before her expression tensed up. Half of it switched over to the clearing group's commander mode as she stared at the empty land fixedly.

"In that case, let's eliminate the possibility that someone demolished it. ...Just to confirm, but the exterior and roof of player homes are outside of the range of customization, right?"

"Eh... what do you mean?"

"Look, when you buy a house, you gain control over the Customize Menu exclusive to its owner, don't you? You can install and remove furniture from there, can't you?"

Finally understanding what Asuna was getting at, I nodded.

"I see... the possibility that some other player might have bought the house, then removed the walls, roof and flooring through Customize to make it into an empty lot, huh. Hmm... I haven't lived in anything except those similar to apartments, so I haven't really seen the Customize Menu for a detached house..."

"Actually, I'm the same. ...That's right, I'll try asking Liz."

Asuna opened her Main Menu straight away and skillfully typed out a message to her bosom friend, the blacksmith, Lisbeth.

Liz was my friend, as well as the benefactor who crafted me my beloved sword, Dark Repulser, so she's in the list of those who'll be informed about the marriage between Asuna and I, one among those few players. We planned to send messages to ten or so people, including Liz, right after we're done with buying a house here and the marriage procedures—but to think it would become a discussion over residential issues instead.

It appears that she received a reply immediately and after Asuna's eyes raced through the words on the window only she could see, she gave a curt nod.

"It looks like that the exterior and roof can't be removed or moved. Changing the colors or adding objects like bay windows or flower beds seems possible if you fork out a large sum of money, though..."

"...I guess even if you can change its colors, it's not like you can make the entire house transparent."

Both Asuna and I have walked all over this empty land since earlier, so it's confirmed that there weren't even any sort of traces. If there was a transparent house built here, we should have already knocked our noses into it.

"So... what about the options? Like... some device to hide it underground?"

As Asuna mentioned something like that and poked the ground with the grass at her feet with the tips of her boots, I unintentionally broke into a wry smile.

"Haha, it's not like it's the secret base of some evil organization. In the first place, if you were to dig out a hole large enough to bury a house, you'll fall right into the floor below."

"Eeh, doesn't it sound lovely. Like a home belonging to the Hobbits."

"I do recall that being digging tunnels through hills... Won't the underground be dwarfs instead? See, there was that humongous underground Dwarven castle stretching tens of storeys, wasn't there."

"I hate that place. It's damp in there and there were so many bug-type monsters appearing... in the first place, wasn't that really just the insides of a mountain in the field?"

"That's the problem with Aincrad's structure, there's a limit to the thickness of the ground, so a true to form, gigantic, RPG underground labyrinth can't be made."

"It's fine not having something like that! ...Rather, are you fine with this? Chatting and all. I'm enjoying myself, so I don't mind, though."

Having it pointed out by Asuna, I turned to look towards the outer circumference with a start. Scattered, wispy clouds gently flowed through a sky of deepening orange. It'll probably get dark if you give it another two hours.

"Th-That's right, let me see, if it's not transparent or some secret base, next would be... a mobile base? Nah, if there was an object like that, it would be a piece of cake to reach the labyrinth from the main town... so I guess an aerial fortress's out, too, huh..."

At my words that drifted from guesses to delusions, Asuna looked up at the skies with a stumped look. On the other hand, I gazed downwards profoundly and continued earnestly pondering over the matter with my arms crossed.

"It doesn't look like it vanished through the Customize function. To begin with, that would mean that some other player had already bought it... So I guess it's really a phenomenon unrelated to players..."

"......Hey."

"That means... a field boss capable of breaking apart terrain objects...? Nah, even the fifty-sixth floor's «GeoCrawler» couldn't break through the village's gates. If such a ridiculous boss appears on the twenty-second floor, there would have been a rapid call to arms for a subjugation raid..."

"Hey, c'mon, Kirito-kun."

With Asuna tugging away at my cloak's sleeve, I broke off my conjectures and looked at her.

"...What is it?"

"......That."

Asuna had her right hand, fitted in a long, white glove, raised up, so I trailed the direction her index finger pointed towards with my sight.

It was there, in the space right above a conspicuously large Japanese cedar tree, north of the empty area.

Hovering unsteadily at a height almost touching the underside of the next floor, there was a single detached house— Although nearly nothing but its underside could be seen from the ground due to the angle, there was no mistake that it was the log house I was seeking, judging by its structure that was formed by a number of splendid logs.

Despite the joy in finding the house without much difficulty, the surprise from it floating ninety meters above my head overshadowed that, leaving me muttering in bewilderment.

"......Wh-Why is... the house flying......"

"......Like what you said earlier, Kirito-kun, an option for an aerial fortress... guess that's not it, huh..."

Following what Asuna mentioned, I concentrated on looking through each section of the house, appearing as small as specks from here, but there doesn't seem to be any wings, balloons or propellers attached to it.

On the other hand, I noticed two other new things with my sight enhanced through a skill.

Firstly, there was a shimmering swirl of air much like heat haze underneath the house. That log house was likely airborne by being on something similar to a «tornado fixed in position».

And the other issue.

A face timidly poking out from one of the house's windows facing south and a hand frantically waving at us, who were far away on the distant bottom; there was someone there.

"Th-There's a person there."

After I pointed it out, Asuna went "Eh" before she leaned her body forward.

"Y-You're right. ...We really can't tell whether it's a NPC or a player from this distance..."

The only definite difference between a player and a NPC in terms of outward appearance was limited to the color of the «Color Cursor». However, with this much distance in between, the color cursor wouldn't even show up.

I still had no idea whatsoever as to why the house was flying, but if that figure was not a NPC, but a player, there was no way we could leave that alone. After all, even if it's a one in a million chance, anyone's HP would definitely turn to zero if they were to fall from that height.

"Wh-Which is it..."

It happened as Asuna and I held our breaths while gazing upwards—

Suddenly, the hand that the figure was waving about withdrew, before thrusting out once more. The hand released something it held, gleaming as it reflected the rays of the yellow sunlight. It drew a slow arc in the air as it fell towards the empty land we stood on.

"Wo.... wo-woah..."

After I got to its endpoint with four strides to the right and three quick steps forward, I caught the small object with my hands. As Asuna immediately rushed after me, both of us examined it in closer detail.

"A bottle of recovery potion... that has already been used...?"

I nodded at Asuna's remark before turning up to look at the log house floating in the sky once more, and shouted.

"—It's a player!"

An empty potion bottle drained dry of its content will break apart in ten seconds if left alone and vanish. To prevent that and store it as an «Empty Bottle» item, it has to be put away into any sort of bag, or perhaps the item storage at least once. That's not an action taken by NPCs, so the possession of an empty bottle would mean that the one trapped in that flying house is a player.

"W-We have to help..."

I spoke with the small bottle held in my right hand and Asuna instantly pointed out.

"H-How do we!?"

"........."

That was a truly natural question. In Aincrad, no, in SAO, the means for players to take flight generally do not exist. If there were such a thing, one could ignore the labyrinth tower and head for the next floor... no, they could reach the final goal, the hundredth floor, in just a single flight, after all.

Several months ago, I did go through the experience of grabbing onto a white dragon's tail and flying alongside Lisbeth, the smith that Asuna sent a message to earlier, but we couldn't choose where to go, there aren't any dragons on this floor, and above all, I have no desire to go through that a second time.

"......F-For now, let's try going directly below the house."

Asuna flashed a doubtful look at my thoughtless suggestion, but soon nodded.

As we stepped into the forest from the empty space, the forever overlapping branches above blocked the flying house from our view, but I walked straight ahead with a skill not part of the system, «Intuitively Walking Straight». In the forest with no landmarks for my eyes to latch onto, it was unexpectedly difficult. The trick to it is to move your legs as though they're executing an autorun... which was how I explained to Asuna the other time, although she just gave a look wondering what the heck was I going on about.

Our aim was true and after merely two or three minutes since we started moving, a remarkably gigantic Japanese cedar tree came into our sight. This was unmistakably that tree growing directly under the house. Scanning upwards as I approached, I looked through the many overlapping branches, allowing me to confirm the silhouette of a lazily hovering speck.

"...So, what can we do? Even if we climb this cedar, it doesn't look like we can reach the house at all, you know?"

A question from Asuna while she walked with her view in the skies and a reply from me in the same posture.

"I thought a shout might reach if we were to get right below it, but... that doesn't seem possible either..."

"I see, if we could talk, we could receive an explanation for what happened, huh. Maybe we should really climb the tree? Shouting from the treetop might provide enough range."

"But you see, it's tough climbing coniferous trees like this... Without the «Acrobatics» skill, it might be pretty precarious..."

It happened then, when we got within five meters or so from the huge cedar with our faces pointed upwards.

A mob's howl roared out at point-blank range, catching us unaware and we sprang up.

"Woof, woof woof woof!!"

I instinctively held on to the grip of my beloved sword, Elucidator, hanging on my back, but ceased that motion there. The reason for that was because the originator of that howl was a quadrupedal beast, with a length of approximately forty centimeters... or to be specific, a «dog».

Its relatively long coat was of a pale tawny color, its eyes big and round, with a blue ribbon on its fluffy tail to boot. The color cursor showed yellow—a color for NPCs, the pets of beast tamers, or perhaps a non-active monster that hasn't been aggro-ed.

"Wah, how cute!"

As Asuna showed a reaction befitting a girl of her age, she squatted and tried to reach out with her hand, causing me to restrain her in a panic.

"Ho-Hold on, hold on!"

"Why should I, it's so cute."

"I-It might be some sort of trap, you know! In the first place, it's strange having a dog in the field. What will you do if it morphs into a Dire Wolf or something the moment you touch it."

"Geez, it's fine, look, even its tail is wagging so much."

—And during our exchange, the small dog continued its din, insisting "Hug me, hug me!" as it bounced about and barked in front of Asuna. While I grabbed and held onto Asuna's sword belt when she was about to squat down again, I checked the whelp's cursor once more. The name displayed was «Toto».

"...Toto? That shouldn't be a species name... is it a name unique to this dog...?"

"Wah, the name's cute, too! C'mon, come here, Toto!"

"Like I said, you shouldn't..."

While I frantically tried to bring back Asuna, who was at a level of tension as if she was already afflicted with a Charmed negative status, I attempted to see through the whelp's, no, Toto's full, round eyes, searching for any fiendish schemes it might be concealing.

Then, I noticed that, though belated. Floating around two centimeters atop the dog's round head, a small «?» mark.

"Hey... a quest mark!? But why is it in progress...?"

It seems that Asuna noticed the mark, too, after my shout, and the vigor she showed earlier dwindled.

"You're right, there's a question mark on it, huh..."

The number of quests given out in each of Aincrad's floors was practically endless. They can generally be received from NPCs with «!» marks floating above them, while NPCs related to a quest in progress have that mark changed to a «?».

In other words, that would mean that this pup was a key person, or rather, a key animal for a quest in progress. But the problem is... I have absolutely no recollection of receiving a quest related to dogs and it's likely the same for Asuna, so...

"Th-That's it!"

I ended up releasing Asuna's belt due to her sudden cry. The rapier-user spun around and continued with an intense gaze on me.

"We always end up having to deal with the clearing of the labyrinth and floor bosses normally, so we don't take up many sub-quests, right? That's why it ended up as a blind spot in our thoughts. If some sort of unexplainable, strange phenomenon happens, the cause is usually a quest. Like... a house flying in the sky, for example!"

"......I see."

I nodded as it was a plausible deduction and Asuna twirled about once again, facing the tyke that was still making a din.

"That is to say, if we want to find out what's behind the flying house... we would definitely have no other path than to go into contact with Toto-chan here! I know you'll understand, Kirito-kun!"

And, with that speech that wasn't exactly completely devoid of adventurous spirit and willingness for self-sacrifice depending on how it's interpreted, Asuna squatted down without giving me a chance to seize her and reached her two hands out to the runt.

"Woof woof woof!"

The small, tawny dog leapt into Asuna's chest with a delighted yap, licking her face while it rapidly wagged its tail.

"Ahaha, that tickles! Haah, it's so cute! I've always dreamed of keeping a puppy like this!"

—Fortunately, it doesn't seem that Toto will be transforming into a huge, man-eating wolf all of a sudden.

However, the phenomenon that occurred several seconds later was beyond my expectations by approximately three light years.

Without any warning, a gale blew at our feet as it spiraled around us into a swirl. The tremendous speed the wind travelled at left no opportunity for us to right our stances. Staggering, our feet left the ground—and frighteningly enough, could not reach the ground regardless of how hard we tried.

"Ki-Kirito-kun!"

I instinctively caught onto Asuna's extended left hand while she was holding onto Toto with her right. And that was how we, two persons and one animal, were whisked away in a constrained tornado. The surrounding scenery swung by us in dizzying circles while my coat's hem fluttered about prominently along with Asuna's miniskirt (a phenomenon that would never happen with the usual amount of wind in the fields), but the situation certainly didn't allow me the composure to focus on that.

"Wa-Waa-Waaah~", I screamed;

"Kyaaaa—", Asuna shrieked;

"Woof woof woof!!", the whelp happily barked, and that was when it happened.

We soared upwards, making a beeline for the log house that was suspended up in the air far above.

===Part 5===

"...I-It's completely pointless if you come here, toO!<ref>Argo has an odd speech quirk where she accents the last syllable in her sentences or sentence fragments. It is reflected in the translation by capitalizing the last letter at those positions.</ref>"

And that was the first line from the player who asked for help in the log house.

Approximately ninety seconds ago—

Asuna, the dog and me were swallowed into the small tornado and flew above the roof of the flying log house, then sucked into an open chimney at its corner, one after another. Beyond the dark, narrow tunnel was a spacious living room with a plain wood finishing and an astounded female player stood alone before us, who landed on our bums.

To re-activate her head that was frozen by the stunning turn of events, I stared intently at the prior visitor while sitting on the floor. Surprisingly, her face was one I was extremely acquainted with, but as I didn't have the energy to express my shock yet again, I tried saying some greetings.

"Good day. Long time no see."

And that was how the exclamation from earlier came about.

One way or another, we should first exchange our information.

And that female player agreed and loosened the tension in her shoulders at my suggestion, pointing at the round table set up on the living room's floor with her right hand. After Asuna, still clutching onto the dog, and I sat down side-by-side, the girl took a seat as well, a large distance away, on the opposite side.

It seems Asuna had finally returned to her usual mode by this time and greeted the female player who was a mutual acquaintance of ours.

"It's been a while, Argo-san."

"...Hello, Aa-chan. And you, too, Ki-bou."

Patterns of three whiskers were distinctly painted onto each of the cheeks of this female player who waved her hand nimbly with a delicate expression on. The name of this girl who stuck to this face paint for roughly the two years since the start of the death game, no, adding one month on when including the beta period, was «Argo the Rat». Aincrad's most resourceful information broker.

She was an associate of Asuna and I since the starting of the game, selling and buying information from us countless times. Aside from that, we have saved and gotten saved by each other on several occasions, but there were clearly no feelings of antagonism between us. Hence, it doesn't make sense for Argo to display caution towards us like what she was doing now of all times, but let's just put that aside and get to the main topic.

"——So. Argo, what exactly happened?"

This was a question asked as I waved my right hand around, indicating the entire log house which was radically flying, even now, and the information broker's two eyes blinked incessantly deep within her golden auburn curly hair.

"What you ask, Ki-bou, if you've gotten in 't this far, you should've gotten 't, too, righT? It's a quesT, a quesT!"

"Ah, aah... well..."

When I glanced at the tyke dozing off while held at Asuna's chest, the ? mark above its head was lit up. In other words, it meant that some sort of quest was in progress, but—

"But rather than receiving a quest, it clearly feels like we've been dragged into one, you know..."

I said that and Asuna gave a curt nod as well.

"That's right. We got blown here merely by me picking up this kid, after all. How should I say this... it's like I picked up a quest that someone left behind halfway, that's what it feels... like..."

Her mouth suddenly shut close after saying that and she met my glance. I instantly realized what the girl had figured out.

If «a quest that someone left behind halfway» was what brought around this situation, the one responsible could be no one other than this Argo the Rat right before our eyes.

Argo lowered her head as though she understood what was up when Asuna's and my sight flicked towards her simultaneously, and spoke.

"......I'll start from the beginninG."

—Recently, I got the information that several strange new quests have been occurring on the lower floors of AincraD. Like a masked ogre that revives over and over again even when defeated, or a jump spinning, fire-breathing tortoise, or a white-clothed female undead creeping out from a cursed message windoW.

—'Twouldn't be possible to publish the «Complete Quest Walkthrough Guide Book» if I didn't get information on the new quests immediately. That's why, the day before yesterday, I came to investigate this southwestern area of the twenty-second floor, where there were rumors of a new quest and 'twas fine until I succeeded in finding the quest's starting point, but there was a slight complication with the quest's descriptioN. When I leapt into this house without bringing along the key character required to proceed with the story, the house was suddenly engulfed in a tornado, totally surprising mE!

And that's why for the two days after that, I was stuck inside this flying house, waiting for someone to reset this quesT.

When her explanation reached that point, Argo spread her arms out in exasperation.

«Resetting a quest» was the action of returning a partially-finished quest that has been left alone for a long time to its initial state, through a menu operation. There were quests that couldn't be taken up by other players at the same time in SAO, though few, so such a mechanism was prepared. Of course, you would have to first get close to the NPC who was the starting point, though.

In other words, if we opened the Quest tab in the Main Menu when we noticed that ? mark above the head of that pup, «Toto», below that cedar tree, the reset button—might have been there. However, now that we got on the quest, neither Asuna nor I would be able to reset.

"...Well, I more or less understand the situation now, but... there are still parts I don't get. Argo, what did you mean by the 'complication with the quest's description' earlier?"

When I voiced out the doubt that naturally came to me, the information broker made the aforementioned delicate expression and sneaked glances at Asuna... or to be specific, the small, moving object sleeping in Asuna's arms.

"W-Well, that'S... even I have things I'm good at and those that I'm not reallY..."

"Aah, so that's it. Argo-san, so you're bad with dogs!"

And in that moment, Asuna completely saw through her with a smile on which caused the three whiskers on the information broker's cheeks to narrow.

"I-I can't help 'T, that's just how my base stats werE! And Aa-chan, I heard the news that you're bad with Astral-type mobs, toO!"

"Th-That's because those are ghosts! It's only natural to be scared of ghosts. But puppies are cute, you know? Here, how about you try hugging it?"

"St-Stop 't! Just let 't continue sleeping therE!"

—And leaving aside Argo and Asuna, who were showing their intimacy through their actions, I took some time to ponder.

If Argo (despite being a «Rat») was bad with dogs, the fact that the quest in progress mark atop the dog's head was lit up means...

"Hahah, I get it. Argo, you managed to start the quest, but with the key character being a dog, you dashed away with all your AGI and after you jumped into this house, the quest continued making you fly up, but got stuck because the dog couldn't enter the house, getting you trapped here in the sky for two whole days... that's it, huh. Hahaha, looks like you've been through a pretty fun experience, huh. If you put stories of your experiences in a book like, "Argo's Great Adventures", in the future, it'll sell."

Upon hearing my talk while laughing, the Rat momentarily made a face that said, "Will it really selL?" before she shouted.

"'Tis no laughing matter, Ki-bou! With things this way, both Aa-chan and you are stuck now, too, you know!"

"Don't make such a fuss about it, at the most, we'll just have to use a teleport crystal to travel to some other city, right?"

It happened just as I was about to start laughing again after replying so—an odd expression appeared on Argo's and Asuna's faces at the same time. They exchanged a quick glance and Asuna took the initiative to open her mouth.

"...Hey, Kirito-kun. I don't think there's any chance that Argo-san hasn't tried that out yet."

"Heh?"

"It depends on the quest, but during these compulsory events, most of them prevent teleporting, don't they? Right, Argo-san?

"Of course 't does!"

"......Seriously?"

Seeing me finally breaking out in a cold sweat, Argo replied with a nod and an expression that seemed to show her disappointment.

"Well, as a last resort, there's always still jumping out from the window and teleporting immediately before crashing into the grounD... I don't quite want to try that, reallY."

"I-I don't want to do it either, reallY..."

I took a peek out at the sky extending out beyond the window and realized something after all that side-tracking.

In the first place, what exactly happened on this quest. If one were to receive the quest from the dog in the forest and enter the house together, the house will take flight through the tornado? The links between each part of the story make too little sense at this point. The ones in charge of the SAO game servers' administration should have already been separated from Argus, the developers, so it's not like the quest's scenario could have been written by staff from Argus. In that case, exactly who was one who thought up these illogical developments? And at the present moment when the GM Call does not function, how can we escape from this stuck status...?

".....Wait, hold on, now that I think about it."

Asuna, who was stroking Toto's head, and Argo, who was looking in that direction with a wary glance, turned in unison at my words.

"If the reason why this quest got stuck was because the dog... Toto was left behind on the ground, that should have been dealt with already... —So, doesn't that mean that the quest should have been back in motion...?"

"Ah...!"

Argo snapped her fingers and dashed right beside the window in a breakneck motion. She looked down towards the ground and instantly shouted.

"W-We're movinG! Or rather, it looks we're nearly going to lanD!"

"R-Really!? Thank goodness, looks like we'll be able to go back before it gets dark."

Asuna spoke, relieved while looking towards the windows as well, but I couldn't be as optimistic. You could call it a hunch.

Having an introduction of making an entire house take flight was rather major as a quest. A story that starts this flashy was unlikely to end so easily. In all likelihood, it would make us go this way to search for something, go that way to help someone out... I believe such a development would definitely happen. First of all, even if we work hard at clearing the quest, there was no guarantee that this log house will return to its previous status of being on sale. In that case, would Asuna and I really be able to marry...

"Ugh."

I gave a weak moan and took a look at Argo's meager frame from behind as she kept a subtle distance away from (the dog within the arms of) Asuna.

She was an old friend of mine, but there was no way I could let her find out about my marriage with Asuna before it happened. If the cat gets out of the bag, an article will end up on the newspaper, «Weekly Argo», with a flourish and I will be cursed to death by everyone in Asuna's fan clubs.

Hence, it's risky to have her stick around for too long to complete the quest. There's no choice, but to clear it in haste and say "Good work!" before the «Rat's» nose senses something.

At roughly the same time as I got up while making up my mind, a dull sound rang out from the log house, announcing its arrival at a location unknown to us.

===Part 6===

"...Now that I think about it, what was the name of this quest?

Argo opened a window at my question and answered.

"«Witch of the West and the Three Treasures», 't sayS."

"...How common. And the build-up was so surreal, too..."

It was the first time stepping onto the ground firmly for Argo in two days, whereas fifteen minutes for Asuna and me, and what stood before the three of us was the next key character shaking about as its body wobbled.

However, once again, it wasn't a human. Its torso joined into a cross by wooden poles, it was a doll with a round, stuffed head of hemp fiber—namely, a scarecrow. Despite its humorous appearance, it was a splendid monster. These were often placed in horror-type floors, a mob of the «Scarecrow» type.

What came to meet us wasn't merely the scarecrow. On the left was a hollow set of plate armor, a monster of the «Living Armor» type. And on the right was a lion head atop a human body, a monster of the «Werelion» type. None of the three showed any will to attack. The color cursor also remained as the non-active yellow status.

Just as I wondered what would happen now, the scarecrow suddenly spoke.

"Oh, we've certainly been awaiting you!"

Those words prompted the «!» mark floating above the scarecrow's head to change into a «?», denoting a quest in progress. At the same time, the mark vanished from the pup's head.

"Awaiting... you say?"

I gave an appropriate reply in the meantime and the scarecrow launched into a tirade, accompanied by violent swaying of its head. To sum it up, the contents are as follows.

—We, «Scarecrow», «Tin» and «Lion», were out on a journey to become humans, but on our way, a female girl who was our companion got kidnapped by the «Witch of the West». We want to help her out, but the witch stole away what was in Scarecrow's head, the gem that was a substitute for Tin's heart and the golden mane that fuelled Lion's courage, so we are unable to battle. Thus, to enlist a swordsman able to fight the witch with us, we cast a tornado spell onto the dog the girl kept, «Toto», and sent it beyond the wall.

"Ha, hahah... I get it..."

Nodding, I took a glance behind.

According to the map, we were currently still on the twenty-second floor, in the northwest. An area sealed off by a steep cliff, unreachable by foot. The «wall» that Scarecrow referred to was likely that cliff.

I somehow understood the setup of the quest, but that did not change my assessment of the entire story as being weird. In SAO, where magic did not exist, wouldn't the problem be whether a «witch» or a «tornado spell» was even possible in the first place? And besides, putting Scarecrow and Lion aside, why exactly would the Living Armor's name be «Tin»?

—And just as I racked my brains over these, as most would agree, pointless doubts, Asuna murmured all of a sudden.

"...I get it. What this quest is supposed to be."

Continuing on, Argo nodded as well.

"I get 't, too. No wonder the house went flyinG."

"Heh? What do you mean?"

I asked as I looked right and left, and Asuna grinned as she voiced out something I didn't expect at all.

"I think you should have read it when you were a child, too, Kirito-kun. Bits and pieces are different if you look at it in detail, but this quest... originated from «The Wizard of Oz»!"

"...Ah, aah, I see, so that's it!"

And, that was what I shouted out, but to be honest, I couldn't recall a single thing about that tale. A girl and her pet dog were blown away by a tornado with their house and when they landed, they found themselves in a parallel world, went on adventures here and there alongside a scarecrow, a tin figure and a lion before finally returning to the real world—that was how the story went, probably.

It was now clear why the Living Armor became «Tin», but I still felt anxious about what has yet to come.

"...If that is the case, this quest is going to be horribly long, huh..."

Asuna made a questioning, "Why?", expression when she heard me voice that out with a sigh, so I shrugged my shoulders and continued.

"Well, you see, if you take a look at how it goes, we'll have to get Scarecrow's brain, Tin's heart and Lion's mane one after another, right? How long will even one of them take..."

Asuna and Argo exchanged looks at my grumbling and for some reason, smiled complacently.

"Ki-bou, you don't quite remember how the story went, do you?"

"Ugh... no, well, that's exactly it though..."

"Fufu, I doubt there's any need to collect the key items. Let's skip that and march right into the witch's castle straight away!"

"E-Eeeh!?"

I must have imagined those three faces that showed the same "Eeeh" emotion on Scarecrow, Tin and Lion, accompanying my yell.

I checked the map once again and saw that golden «!» marks (the next objective) were displayed on three parts of the elliptical quest area, with a single grey «!» mark (the final objective, but with its flag yet to be triggered) aside from those. Thinking about it normally, it would be useless even if you go to the final destination before completing the golden marks at those three places, but there was no sign of hesitation in the steps Asuna and Argo took.

The three monsters who wanted to become human and I chased, with uncertain strides, after those two who briskly proceeded through the road paved with yellow bricks. The tyke held in Asuna's arms was likely the the reason why Argo stayed a slight distance behind.

Argo and I had suggested for Toto to be left behind in the log house since it had ceased its role as a key character when the quest mark atop its head vanished. However, Asuna kept hugging onto the dog firmly while uttering a "Uu~" with her eyes upturned, so I couldn't persist with much more than that. Personally, I don't care either way, but it seemed a little like a test of emotional strength for Argo who was apparently a dog-hating character.

If she's keeping to it that thoroughly, it must be as the person herself mentioned earlier, not simply a roleplay limited to this world alone. The Argo of the real world was definitely bad with dogs as well. However, if I was in her shoes, I wonder if I could so frankly show off my inner self—my true self. Wouldn't I forcibly keep my feelings in check, putting on a composed appearance in order to retain the image that I had built up and assumed time after time in this world?

Could those feelings for Asuna from a person like that really be called love......?

"......What do you think?"

I asked of one of the quest NPCs who walked at my side, the lion male who had his «courage» stolen from him, in an extremely soft voice.

Most NPCs among the countless number set in Aincrad possess an algorithm that did no more than to cycle through pre-set patterns of replies, making it impossible for them to properly hold a conversation with a player. So I wasn't exactly hoping for an answer, but,

"...Was something taken from you as well?"

And the lion male gave a subdued response, so I was slightly... no, rather surprised.

"Hmm... well, that might be the case, huh. After all, I don't remember ever loving anyone for real until I came here."

When I got carried away and answered that way, the Werelion male, who looked significantly more dispirited in comparison to those it was based on, the Werelion race that appeared near the fortieth floor, nodded with a distinctively sorrowful expression.

"I see. Honestly, I don't have confidence either. In whether I really had «courage» before the witch stole my mane from me."

The lion male lowered his head with a sigh, exposing the sorry state that a portion of the mane behind his head was in, with much of it gone now as though someone went through it with a pair of clippers.

When approaching it from that angle, there were stitches at the back of Scarecrow's head, as if there was once a tear in the crudely patched up cloth, while he bounced step after step at the lion male's side and a large hole closed up by an adhesive bandage could be seen on Tin's breastplate, too, as he walked ahead. Each of those was probably a relic from the time that «Witch of the West» person stole the items important to the three of them.

Of course, I have no recollection of my «heart to love others» being stolen by the witch. If I had lost that somewhere, it would be my own fault, keeping a distance away from those around me from young... even from my own family.

In that case, I wonder where I would have to search to retrieve that heart. Would I find it if I marry Asuna and live together with her? But as the lion male had said, what if it was something I didn't have from the start as a human...?

And, at that moment, as if she sensed my unease, Asuna turned back to face me from several meters in front. She tilted her head slightly to the side before showing me a smile, one no different from the usual ones she gave me. She pointed her raised right hand forward and shouted out cheerfully.

"Look, Kirito-kun, you can see it now!"

Argo clapped together the metal claws equipped on her hands without a moment's delay.

"If I didn't know about this quest, 't has to be an unexplored dungeoN! There's going to be plenty of untouched treasure chestS!"

"...Hey now, even if you say that, this is the twenty-second floor, so it's obvious there won't be anything amazing."

Cutting off the observation that was unlike me, I sped up to chase after those two while gazing up at the castle that appeared beyond a grove of trees. It had an excessive number of long, narrow towers reaching up, with its walls in a shade of grey close to black. Its towering visage with the skies blotched in a deepening red as a backdrop gave off an atmosphere fit for a «witch's castle».

This quest should be cleared if the witch who resides deep inside there was defeated, but we can't even get in the castle right now, can we? Ordinarily, if the sub-quests at each location weren't finished and Scarecrow, Tin and Lion have not gotten their mind, heart and spirit back yet, the door to the final dungeon wouldn't open or the boss wouldn't spawn. No, rather than all that, wouldn't it be a little pitiful to just ignore what those three are searching for...

Even as I pondered that issue, Asuna and Argo continued walking rapidly with that delicate distance from each other maintained, and the eerie castle gate just minutes away on our route. The black cast iron gates reaching five meters high were cleanly closed, with no sign of opening as expected—

Crack, crack, clank.

And following that distinct unlocking sound, the gates automatically opened to the sides, causing my mouth to open as well. The tyke held by Asuna was woofing away, but I doubt that was the cause of it opening.

The two female players nodded to each other as if they predicted it, but I personally didn't get it at all. Exchanging looks with Scarecrow and company, who got their brain, heart or mane stolen, I shrugged my shoulders and stepped through the gateway.

At that moment, a ferocious howl rang out and four monsters spawned within the front yard of the castle. A black panther head atop a bulky torso, they were from the Werepanther race. Witches make use of black cats, so there was no need to say that it was an appropriate choice for guards... perhaps.

"Gyaoooo!"

The panthers roared once again and the moment they unsheathed their scimitars with jagged edges, Scarecrow and the other two screamed out a shameful "Eek" and cowered down. It wasn't certain whether they were afflicted with the «Fear» negative status, or simply truly scared; I didn't expect much battle potential out of them, but if they're going to be like this from the start, I worry for them when we get to the boss battle.

I lightly shook my head and drew my beloved sword, Elucidator, from my back and concurrently targeted the two Werepanthers rushing in from my right. I activated the offensive single-hit, area of effect sword skill, «Serration Wave», of which not many exist for one-handed swords.

The sword that was brought down onto the ground vibrated at a high frequency and a light effect similar to a saw blade spread out in a radial pattern. Two of the panther males were swallowed by that and stumbled forward. It was a technique meant to impede movement to begin with, dealing barely any damage, but they were monsters appearing in a quest on the twenty-second floor, after all. Before they could right their postures, their HP got shaved away and the panthers split apart before dissipating away in succession.

The remaining two were killed by Asuna with her left hand still holding onto the tyke, and Argo who was actually pretty strong in an one-on-one situation, ending the battle in an instant. One of the panther males dropped a key with a quest item mark on it, so we used that to open a small door at the corner of the castle.

I peered at the sky another time before passing through the door; violet had started to mingle into the scarlet. It was around an hour before nightfall, huh. The castle was of quite a formidable size, so it seemed like it would be hard to clear it before sunset.

—As though reading my mind once again, Asuna pat my back and spoke.

"Don't worry, I've brought plenty of food."

No, I wasn't exactly worrying about dinner, but whether I would be able to marry you within today, Asuna.

I couldn't answer with that, so I simply nodded in an odd angle and Argo flippantly spoke out.

"I'm looking forward to thaT! I've totally caught those rumors that say Aa-chan succeeded in producing soy saucE!"

It has been merely ten minutes since we've infiltrated the castle belonging to the «Witch of the West».

Asuna, Argo, Scarecrow, Tin, Lion, that dog and me; our party of six people + one animal have reached a large door that presumably leads to the boss room in no time at all.

It's due to our battle ability level being far higher than the one suitable for the quest, but what could be considered even more unreasonable was Argo's mobility. She jumped onto balconies that really should require a detour as it was too high, or onto footholds narrow enough for even me to hesitate, with ease, taking short-cuts throughout the route. Thanks to that, there were still tinges of red in the sky from what I could see through a small window.

"...Shall we have the food after the boss battle?"

Asuna asked, seemingly rather amazed, and Argo calmly nodded with a "Guess sO". The monster trio had the usual is-this-really-alright faces on, but their representative, Scarecrow, bounced forward and the single stitch on its cloth head that served as its mouth moved.

"...The «Witch of the West» uses various terrifying spells. If only my head wasn't quite so empty, I could remember how those spells went..."

...As I thought, we really should have dealt with it in sequence through each sub-quest. That was what I thought, but Asuna pat Scarecrow's shoulder (or at least, the pole that served as it), showing no sign of worry.

"It's alright, if the three of you put your strength together, we'll definitely be able to save Do... that girl who's your friend. Now, let's go."

Finishing her speech, she turned a gallant arc towards the front and steadfastly pushed the large door open.

Inside was a rectangular, spacious area that truly gave off the feel of a boss room. The moment we stepped in, creepy green candles on the chandelier attached to the high ceiling lit up. Our viewpoints gradually grew brighter, allowing us to spot a big cage placed near the wall on the other side.

The captured young girl collapsed in the cage—beside her, a black-clothed hag stirred away at an enormous, simmering pot with a long ladle.

"Ooh... that's a witchy witch..."

My thoughts unintentionally escaped. Offensive magic generally do not exist in SAO, thus there was the belief that magicians do not exist as well, so that would make a monster with a design like that remarkably rare.

Now then, what kind of attack would that granny use? Just as I was in the midst of wondering that—Scarecrow gave a sudden shout.

"Oh, Dorothy-san! Dorothy-san will turn into soup at this rate!"

Continuing on was the noise from each parts of Tin's clattery armor.

"Dorothy, danger, let's help, hurry!"

Finally, Lion tried his best to bristle a part of his closely-cropped mane.

"Hold on, Dorothy! We'll immediately... we'll...."

But at that point, Lion's mane shriveled, Tin's armor muted, and Scarecrow's shaft bent.

Replacing the trio who sunk into silence, Asuna, Argo and I stepped forward. Looking at the witch who continued stirring the big pot from her side, we approached with caution.

The black-robed witch raised her face and looked this way. Her eyes thinning into a complacent expression as they shone yellow, she muttered in a high-pitched voice.

"Wouldn't the lot of you like to drink the soup this kid makess? One mouth will return your youth, two will endow you with power; it's such a delicious, delicious soup, you know? Yii-hi-hi-hi."

If we were to carelessly answer "Yes" here, we might just proceed straight to a forced event where the girl who seems to be called Dorothy ends up simmering in the pot, so I yelled a reply back.

"No! We're here to help that child!"

"I seee, I seee, what a pityy. In that case..."

That was when the witch scooped out some of what was in the pot with the ladle before vigorously exhaling.

"...I'll make the whole lot of you soup, too! Yiii~hi-hi~~~!"

Along with that shriek, she splattered the contents of the pot towards us. That converted into a mist dyed a venomous-looking purple, enveloping all of us.

At the moment, a green-framed debuff icon lit up below my HP bar at the top-left of my sight. Paralysis.

"Geh..."

Without even the time to moan, Asuna, Argo, Scarecrow and the rest collapsed onto the ground with me. For all three high levels to be unable to resist, this must be a forced paralysis event, but that doesn't change the peril of this situation. I rushed to retrieve a cure potion from my pouch, but somehow, even my right hand, which should normally be able to move when paralyzed, was numb.

"Hi-hi-hi... no~ow then, who shall be the first one to be boiledd..."

While waving around the ladle that served as a replacement for a magic wand, the witch approached in a dance-like motion. This might actually be pretty bad, I thought, desperately trying to stand, but my body was utterly incapable of movement.

"Yihihi, it's no use, it's no use. Nothing can break this spell aside from a lion's roar."

—Oh, I see.

I shifted my vision at that terribly obvious hint, somehow managing to take a look behind. Scarecrow and Tin certainly were paralyzed like us, but Lion alone did not have a debuff icon. If he were to go "gao" and roar just once, the paralysis for all of us should be cured.

It should, but.

Great. Lion was cowering down and trembling with his arms hugging his head, his mane laid completely flat. Hey hey, I retorted in my mind before finally realizing.

This was inevitable. His «courage» was still with the witch. This wouldn't have been acceptable if we've finished that sub-quest, reclaiming the golden mane that was the source of his courage, but there was no way he could rise up in the current circumstances. It was a predictable outcome, so why exactly did both Asuna and Argo think that there was no need to go about doing the three sub-quests—

"Woof, woof woof woof!"

And, the energetic tyke's barks rang out, interrupting my thoughts.

That wasn't all that stopped. Lion's shivering made a sudden stop as well, and its mane that would lose to no other at shriveling up was gradually swelling up, wasn't it. Why. His courage should have been lost.

Lying on the ground, I opened my eyes and watched as Lion picked himself up slowly. He had his usual droopy face, but a light definitely shone within those two eyes of his.

"I... I am here to help Dorothy!"

He strongly shouted that out and sucked in the air, inhaling his chest to a large extent—Lion went "garooo!", letting out a rousing roar. As though it was blown away by that lion's roar, my paralysis icon vanished.

The witch tried her paralyzing attack for the second time, but Tin went next after Lion and even Scarecrow stood up after that, dispelling her charms. Perhaps having exhausted her supply of spells, the witch swung her ladle about as she ferociously charged towards us.

The black-robed witch with a pointy hat on didn't look capable of weapon skills no matter how you looked at her, but the long ladle she brandished above her glowed red, slightly surprising me. As expected of a resident of this world, it seems she could command sword skills of the Poleax type.

"Kukeeeee——!"

She swung down the ladle with that shriek, but I easily took it on with my «Vertical Arc». I countered, driving her attack back, and Asuna turned towards the knocked back witch before switching in with a leap.

I do wonder if she really had to continue holding onto that tyke with her left arm even in this situation, but still, as expected of her, she succeeded in invoking a sword skill. Receiving five merciless stabs, one after another, the witch got blasted away even further. It was now Argo's turn, charging in without even giving her the time to land. With a dash that would exceed even Asuna's, she went under the witch and burst straight in with skills of the Wild Dance type, using the metal claws on her two hands.

As expected of a quest boss, the witch survived with barely any of her HP bar left over after suffering a skill combo from three high levels. She fell onto the floor with a thump, but stood straight up without getting stunned and ran back to the big pot deep within the hall. We were about to chase after her the moment our skill delay ended, in anticipation of her casting another spell with that mysterious soup—but it happened before we even could.

The tyke, no, Toto suddenly jumped out of Asuna's arms and shot after the witch with the intensity of a bullet, biting onto her black high heels. Her leg snagged, the witch pitched forward and tumbled over with great force, plunging head first into the big, boiling pot with a splash.

Seconds later, a grand monster death effect sprouted up from the inside of that soup.

Having let out from the cage, the girl, Dorothy, expressed her gratitude to us repeatedly while embracing her pet dog, Toto. It seems that the girl will be continuing her travels with Scarecrow and the rest to search for «Emerald City» somewhere in this world.

After seeing off Dorothy and her party at that log house from earlier, I clapped the backs of a reluctant Asuna (probably due to parting with the dog) and a relieved Argo (this was due to the dog, too) at the same time. The final «!» mark of the quest was floating within the log house. We should definitely be able to return to our original position if we enter the house and close the door.

"Now then, let's get back."

I watched the sky to the west while saying that line; the setting sun was just about to sink below the sea of clouds.

===Part 7===

The scarecrow, tin figure and lion sought for a brain, a heart and courage, respectively, even in the original "The Wizard of Oz"—that was what Asuna taught me on the way back through the skies.

However, they did not get them in the end. The Wizard of Oz said this at the end of the tale. That in saving Dorothy, who was kidnapped by the witch, Scarecrow used his wisdom, Tin expressed emotions, and Lion exhibited courage. Hence, all of you already have what you've wanted—

"...So that's it, huh. That's why both Argo and you knew that Lion and the rest would stand up even without clearing the sub-quests?"

I spoke with a bitter smile and just as the female team were about to nod in pride, the house landed with a scraping sound.

Upon exiting, I confirmed that this was the empty land in the forest where I found the log house long ago. Without waiting for Asuna and me as we stood still, Argo briskly cut through the lawn and spoke with a satisfied smile on.

"Thanks for todaY, both of yoU. In return, I'll keep that bit of information a secret and not sell 'T."

"Hah? That bit of information... what are you referring to?"

"You know, don't yoU!"

She gave me a quick wink—

"I wish both of you the best, Ki-bou, Aa-chan!"

Leaving us both frozen in shock, Argo disappeared from our sight with the stealth of a ninja.

Seconds later, Asuna started giggling, prompting me to follow along and loosen the tension in my face. As we laughed together, I felt that final thorn, that was embedded deep within my chest, vanish, leaving not a single trace behind.

—What I wished for, was already within my grasp the moment I stepped forth, wanting it.

[[Image:Sword Art Online The Day Before - 070.jpg|thumb]]
I asked for Asuna to always be together with me and proposed. Hence, I have already found what I had lost then. The emotion of loving another.

"......Asuna."

Upon calling her name, Asuna stared at me with a smile still on her face.

I looked straight into those hazel eyes, glistening beautifully in the afterglow visible beyond the roof of the log house, and opened the Main Menu. Moving through two tabs, I softly pressed my finger against the button I was looking for.

I pressed down on the word, «Marriage», and touched the name, «Asuna», next.

Asuna's eyes shifted, noticing the small window appearing before her. Raising her right hand, her slender finger gently caressed the window—

"......Kirito-kun."

Asuna whispered that single word with her eyes unwaveringly on mine and pressed down on the «YES» button.

We found out the name of the autonomous control system that regulated this world, «Cardinal» a mere few days later.

As for the extraordinary «Automatic Quest Generation Function» that Cardinal was installed with, we were informed about that much, much later in the future.

<div align=right>(End)</div>

==Notes==
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