Editing Kami-sama no Inai Nichiyoubi:Volume5 Chapter3 (section)

===Part II===
&nbsp;

<em>Tatatata—</em>it was a relieving sunny afternoon, and Ai carried the basket as she ran off with light steps. The early summer sun burned the nape of her neck, and the biscuits in the basket emitted heat after being freshly.

She peeked into the house, and found both Julie and Scar around Celica. She took some warm biscuits to them. "They're good," Julie widened his eyes as he praised her, "not good enough"  while Scar gave such an expression. Celica, who had been beginning to abstain from milk, was asking for some too.

It was the first time Ai made sweets on her own.

Ai puffed out her cheeks and held the basket above her head, handing out cookies to everyone she could find on her way here, getting praises like ‘it’s great’, ‘it’s nice’. Menhim in particular tilted his head, saying "You’re giving food and not snatching them? The sky must be falling." So Ai kicked him.

The biscuits were quickly running low.

There were two biscuits left in the basket♪.

Ai sang and went out to the track field. He was not here, not in the classroom, and not in the news club room either. She went to the principal’s office, not hoping for anything, and naturally could not find him either. Thus, Ai guarded the few biscuits left as she went around looking for Alice..

She tried the basketball club room, but they had a game today and were out.

Perhaps Alice was not at school as he was attending the match.

Ai could not find her target, and carried the basket as she walked towards the school building with heavy footsteps. Even she did not expect to be so disappointed about being unable to hand over the freshly baked biscuits to Alice

"You see?"

A hallucination of Dee appeared as she said these words. Ai abandoned it and hurried off. She felt it was unlikely for him to be there, but she scurried off to the basketball court behind the school building.

Well, there he was.

Alice pulled some fancy dribble moves, feinted twice at his imaginary opponent, and shot a fadeaway.

The ball flew through the air with a slow spin, and passed through the net without touching it, bouncing at his feet a few times.

Alice was covered in sweat, as though he had just played a game, and he was panting hard. His face was not red, but rather, cyanotic.

Ai wanted to brag by showing her biscuits, but she was stunned by the sight of him, and hastily hid herself.

"M-Mr. Alice?"

Alice was exhausted, but still picking up the ball. He dribbled the ball through his legs, feinted with his eyes, and made a layup. It was again nothing but net.

Ai felt a little scared. The Alice before her was definitely Alice, but he appeared to be someone else.

Alice played so much that he was tired. His movements were poor, and his skills were amateurish, but the shooting remained absolutely precise. The ball never hit the rim, <i>swished, </i>and every shot landed onto the court perfectly.

Ai thought it was a beautiful sight.

But—

"Damn it!"

"Kya!"

Alice shouted, throwing a tantrum as he grabbed the ball with one hand and threw it into the sky. It was a high arching toss, a moonshot, and was dragged down by gravity.

<i>Swish,</i> the ball fell to the ground.

Nothing but net.

The ball bounced on the court without slowing down, and finally rolled towards Ai’s feet..

Seeing this, Alice finally stopped and looked at Ai, the look of sanity appearing in his eyes once again.

"Yo…"

"……."

Ai was silent.

"…You saw something uncool, didn’t you?"

"No."

Ai pretended not to notice.

"I baked some biscuits."

She held out the basket.

"Let's eat together."

&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;">+</p>
&nbsp;

It seemed Alice was more appreciative of the tea Ai brought than the biscuits, for he finished the entire bottle, "Man, this is great".

<i>Please eat this before you praise me!</i> Ai held out a biscuit, and Alice ate in one gulp and simply said, "It's good".

"…Do you really think so?"

"What do you think?"

Alice shoved one of the two biscuits into his mouth. It was still warm, crispy on the outside, and one could taste the sweetness of honey.

"…It’s great."

"Right?"

Alice finished a biscuit in an instance, licked his fingers, "thanks for the treat" and said so..

Ai ate slowly. It was the first time she ate anything aside from tasting anything.

Alice spun the ball around out of boredom, and from time to time, threw it at the wall of the school building, where there was graffiti of a pirate flag. Alice aimed precisely at the right eye of the skull.

Twice, four times, eight times, sixteen times—

Ai finished her biscuit, wiped her hand on a napkin, put aside her plate and the paper beneath, before saying,

"Did something…happen today?"

"…Sorta."

Alice replied tersely. The skull was hit for the forty-seventh time.

They did not say anything after that, and merely stayed together in the spring sunshine.

"I say it’s today…but it’s actually today, fourteen years ago…"

"……"

"I..."

In the sunshine, Alice eventually spoke up.

"I really liked this sport a lot. I've been playing since I was a kid, and my passion for basketball wouldn’t lose to anyone."

"……"

"But you know, liking it or not is completely different from being good at it. I could train my skills to a certain extent, but there’s a cap I could hit. I’m not tall, and I’m not exactly fast. Coach never played me in any official game, and Dee used to make fun of me and say, "Why are you still doing this?" To be honest, I don’t really know the answer, and I’m the one wondering why everyone isn’t playing basketball."

Ai was speechless. She did not make a sound.

"…Until today—today fourteen years ago—coach finally put me in a game for the first time."

<i>Bong bong, </i>the ball bounced a few times on the court..

"He put me in, but it was the second half. To be honest, part of the reason was because we were walloped. Coach put me in because he gave up. I didn’t give up though. My teammates didn’t give up. And that's when it started to get awesome!"

It would be a strange way to describe him—but Alice's face lit up like a boy's, waving his hands in the air and gesturing away.

"I thought, if I don't do it here, then when? So I did all the things I wanted to do in a game. I might be getting carried away, but till now, I felt that I dominated that game. Last ten minutes, coach got greedy and wanted to sub me out. Of course, it’s a normal thought, but I didn’t expect that bastard Ed to got all "I got a stomachache", and even Saffy and Carrick were complaining "My feet hurt" "I twisted my ankle". Like, I wanted to yell at those bastard "what the hell is wrong with you guys? I can’t last the second half, and you guys want me to keep running"…but I’m grateful to them."

Ai stared at Alice as the latter’s eyes glowed. She witnessed the boy who had abandoned all notion of the world or his mission.

"The game was a back and forth. We scored, and then they scored. They scored, and then we scored. There’s no way to get the lead at this rate though, and we had to figure out a breakthrough. It was the last minute, and it was bad. The ball got stolen by them, and they scored. It was a two score game. Thirty seconds left, we managed to score, but it’s their turn on offense. We didn’t care about defending, and just tried to steal the ball whenever we could. They expected our move though, so ten seconds left, they got someone to run to the frontcourt for a long pass, and throw the ball to him. Five seconds left, but I expected them to try that. Three seconds left, just kidding, I just stayed at my own basketball because I couldn’t move, but I intercepted the ball. One second left—I was twenty meters away from the hoop."

<i>I was in despair.</i> Alice suddenly calmed down, as if everything had gone cold.

"It was the first time I had ever felt such despair. I've always loved basketball and never wanted to quit no matter what happened or what people said, but that was the only time I really despaired. One second before the end of the game, down by one, last game of the season, and of all people, the game was going to be lost in my hands…I just felt like, dammit. I hated it, so I just threw the ball…praying that the ball had to go in no matter what."

Alice stood up, and from that spot, he threw the ball wildly at the opponent's hoop. The distance was twenty-five meters. There was no way that would normally go in. No matter how good a player was, a 10% chance of going in would be really amazing.

But...

<i> </i>

<i>"Swish."</i>

&nbsp;

Buzzer Beater.

"We won."

The ball took a really beautiful trajectory and flew into the soft net.

"And I stopped playing basketball."

Alice took his eyes away from the ball and came back and sat down next to Ai, as though disinterested.

"Well, it’s to be expected. How can anyone play a sport when every shot hits the target? Basketball is fun because you can aim and miss…it’s not to be played by someone abnormal like me."

Alice did not look particularly sad.

Ai hated it when he was like it.

"Sorry, no consolation or counselling for me. I’m in no mood to deal with these."

Ai was preemptively stopped by Alice, and the words she was about to say were stuck in her throat..

The ball rolled futilely.

"Actually, I don't think wishes are supposed to come true."

Alice suddenly said so.

"Isn't that…too extreme?"

"I think so too. It’s just my theory."

He kicked the ball away.

"It's a good thing that wishes don't come true…It's because they don't come true that we work hard, and can keep moving forward. But once we fulfill our wishes…won’t we stop moving forward…?"

"……"

"Wishes are beautiful because they don't come true. …"

Ai felt as if Alice was talking about her.

And at the same time, she felt that he was talking about himself too.

&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;">+</p>
&nbsp;

<i>Haha, </i>Alice let out a dry laugh, suddenly a little embarrassed.

"It’s kind of embarrassing to say this. Oi, how did we end up on this topic?"

"……"

"Oi, what's up…Ai?

"……"

Alice moved over to look at Ai with a shaken expression, while Ai evasively pressed her head even lower.

"…………...………...Are you crying?"

"I-I'm not crying. …"

She definitely was not crying, until that moment.

But the moment she was asked that question, her vision was already filled with tears.

"….Uu…"

She lowered her face, cupped her knees, and assumed a crying posture.

"Because Mr. Alice…you aren’t crying…"

"Why should I?"

"Because something sad … happened."

Tears rolled down Ai’s face as she looked at the crouching Alice..

"You didn't know? Hic…I cry when I’m sad…"

"…I know "

Alice's hand ruffled her head hard.

"You too, if you’re sad… cry at someone else's place instead of torturing yourself here …."

"…You’re, right."

Alice remained stoic faced.

"I see, so you're crying for my sake…."

"………"

"Haha, I see. Thanks…I feel like I’ve been owing you favors today. I ate your sweets, you heard my complaints…and you cried for me…"

Alice handed her a crumpled handkerchief, and Ai buried her face in it.

"You’re really weird…it’s my first time meeting someone like you……I usually wouldn’t talk about this. Even my birthday, I couldn’t argue against you. Dammit…I’m so weak…why am I like this whenever I meet you. I’m not being me…wait, this complaint too. Get a grip, me…ahh dammit…"

"Eh?"

Alice shook his head head in self-loathing.

He looked like he was trying to hide his embarrassment.

Ai retracted her tears, and her cheeks were red.

"J-just, please don’t say such words only for me to hear, alright? Even I’ll feel embarrassed by this. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about, you can just tell everyone, right?"

"…Well, I guess you're right, but..."

Alice slumped.

"But it’s really not easy to say these words."

[[Image:Kamisama v05 Illustration 08.jpg|thumb]]

"……"

"Really, thanks for today."

Alice stood up abruptly, picked up the ball and the bag, and turned away.

He was going to be alone again. He was afraid of hurting others, and wanted to be alone again.

Having said that, he was back at it again.

Ai let out a long, long sigh. <i>What do you mean, I guess you’re right? </i>Alice did not understand at all..

She was telling him not to be alone..

At that moment, Ai ran like a bullet. She crouched low and ran over, stealing the ball from behind Alice.

"Ah, oi—"

"Mr. Alice. "

"Nn? Yeah.

The ball was passed to him.

Alice spun the ball with a bewildered look.

"—What are you doing?"

"Let's play."

"Huh?"

"One on one, you and me."

"…Huh? What are you saying—"

<i>Now? </i>Before he finished saying so, Alice shot the ball. It was a breathtaking feint.

But Ai had anticipated this.

"Hoh!"

With a big jump that would have made any sensible person uncomfortable, Ai snatched the ball from the side just as it was about to hit the rim.

"Heh heh~ ."

"……"

"I guess I probably won't be able to play a game either."

Saying that, she threw the ball at the other hoop, jumped after it, and dunked it in an alley-oop.

"I get a point ahead."

"……"

"What do you think? I think we can have a good match, right?"

"……"

"Mr. Alice?"

Alice gave a deflated look as he sized up Ai, who was hanging from the rim, and said,

"…Goaltending."

"Huh?"

"You can't touch the ball after it's passed its apex."

"Eh? Eh? Eh?"

"And also, if it's one-on-one, it's half-court!"

Alice snatched the ball and dashed beyond the three-point line.

"Oh! P-please wait! You’re being sneaky!"

The brown ball was dancing in the June sky.

&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;">+</p>
&nbsp;

"Ahh goodness, that Ai! She ran off without cleaning up…"

As soon as the biscuits were done, Ai snatched them and ran out of the kitchen. It was the first time that she baked by herself, and it was no wonder then that she was so excited. Dee herself had such an experience before..

But still, Ai was late.

"I'll look for her then."

Dee said to the other members of the club and left the room. <i>Now then, where did she go? </i>For the time being, she went around asking passer-sby. Fortunately, many of her acquaintances were holding the biscuits Ai gave, so they remembered well. She went from the classroom to the staff room, then through the newspaper club to the court.

It all happened so fast that the eyewitness accounts stopped.

Dee wanted to ask Alice, and went to the basketball club room, but there was nobody around.

At that point, Dee remembered what day it was.

She rushed out. She had to stop Ai no matter what. This was the one day she could not allow Alice to meet Ai. Alice always lost his composure on this day every year. He would lose control.

It was the only day that Alice would give up on the ‘outside’ world.

That was today.

Surely Ai would encounter a huge setback. This was the one day which they could not meet, that she could not approach Alice. Both the person approaching Alice and Alice himself would end up being so unhappy.

Dee panted as she ran past the track, took a short cut by the water fountain, jumped over the gardening club's flower beds, and headed for the courts. Alice would visit this place every time this day occurred, shooting away while tormenting himself. The best case scenario for her was to arrive before Ai, but even if she was late, she should be fine if she could stop Ai in time. She could be hurt in Ai’s stead instead..

She turned around the corner of the school building.

There was Alice, holding the ball.

Dee stopped there, "Alice!" she was about to call out

Alice, as expected, was pushing himself to the limit and aiming at the basket.

But then, he was not alone.

"Hahaha! Take this! What’s wrong now? The gap’s widening!"

"Mm! It’s just two scores! I’ll catch up immediately!"

It was no longer basketball. The moment Alice got into a ‘shooting position’, he was able to score no matter the angle or position, while Ai would grab the ball form behind to cover the hoop. It was Ai’s turn on offense. She darted between his legs at a speed even he could not react, scurried from the court like a mouse, and jumped out of a cannon. She was just dunking every time, in a peculiar manner at that. She would dunk herself along with the ball through the hoop, not letting go.

"See! I caught up!"

"… No, actually, I want to say that you definitely fouled there…"

"Heh! If there’s such a foul! Then explain it to me! Come on! Come on!"

"Well, there's a rule about ‘not touching the rim or the net unnecessarily’…oh well..."

And so the two continued their contest. Sometimes Ai led, and sometimes Alice led. The scoring gap did not increase as they went on, and it was as though they were playing a game that would never end..

Dee gently leaned her body against the wall, for she would have collapsed on the stop if she did not have anything to lean on.

Her brain refused to comprehend what was going on.

"Mr, Alice, haaa?"

Ai asked, dribbling very low.

"Why do you want to go outside so badly?"

Dee gulped in the shadows.

"Ahh? Do I need to explain again? I don’t want to be trapped in this place. I won’t be able to grow up."

"Then, if, just if, what if you need to sacrifice something to get out? "

Alice's ragged breathing stopped for a moment, and he said with a calm voice,

"…Depends on what I have to sacrifice."

"So, for example..."

<i>Don't say it!</i>

Dee wanted to run out there right now and stop Ai from blabbering further, or to get away as far as possible, but her body just would not allow her to.

"What if that's the most important thing to you?"

Alice's breathing stopped.

"Ai… you…."

"Don't ask for details—please answer me."

Dee’s heart was split in two. One half was telling her to get out of here right now. The other half of her mind yearned for the answer.

Alice’s answer was,

&nbsp;

"I don't care."

&nbsp;

"I'll do anything to break free. I'll sacrifice anything."

Dee’s heart died.

"… Is that so?"

"Say, why are you asking that? Where did you hear that from? Did you find out something? Did Dee tell you something? Or—"

"…I  can't answer."

The conversation continued, but Dee was no longer interested in what came after.

She was disinterested in everything.

She just did not want to see the two of them together.

&nbsp;
<p style="text-align: center;">+</p>
&nbsp;

It happened before.

It was the day after Alice's birthday, before they arrived at the World Tower.

A small fly was buzzing in the car.

The fly flew over Ai's head, past Julie's humming, circled above Alice's head, and came to Dee's side.

Dee was drifting away, half-awake. Perhaps the celebration over yesterday’s birthday feast caused her to reminscene the past..

Right before her, the fly began to smash against the window pane.

"…stupid fly."

In her slumber, Dee muttered at the fly.

"There's glass blocking you…you can’t break it no matter how you try…"

But the fly paid no heed to her words and kept banging.

"But you won't give up, will you? You're not going to give up.…no matter the cost. …"

After an umpteenth number of attempts, the the fly rolled over and fell. The right eye was slightly dented and a lllte black, probably from the impact, or probably it was always the case. The wings were dented , and the left hind leg was broken at the joint.

Even in this state, the fly did not stop.

Dee whispered to the fly,

"I guess…you just ‘can’t bring yourself to stop’, huh?"

The fly did not answer, and continued to slam into the glass silently.

"Even if it is impossible, even if you’re only hurting yourself, you just can’t stop, right…"

Dee felt sorry for the injured fly.

"So, at least…"

She slowly raised her right hand and gathered her strength, drawing it like a bow and swinging it down like a whip.

<i>Pah. </i>This sound that did not exist echoed, and the fly was pressed between the palm and the glass.

But such an act was futile.

The fly permeated through the palm and nonchalantly flew away again.

"…But I can't finish you off properly."

Dee fluttered after the fly. The injured fly and the ghost's hands clashed several times, but not once did they touch as they danced away.

The dance did not last long.

The fly left her hand again, and flew towards the glass pane. Dee immediately put up a wall with her palm to keep the fly from going that way.

But the fly still managed to slip through the palm, and charged towards the window--

It did not hit the window.

At that moment, a gust blew and the fly was softly carried out of the car.

Dee looks at the window dumbfoundedly. The windows trapping the fly were opened, and the wilderness wind was ushered in.

"Hmm. glad to see it’s doing well."

Ai then closed the window tightly and returned to the passenger seat.

Dee stared at this scene for a long, long time.

Just blankly.

&nbsp;

She believed this was the story.

She knew it was a matter of time until this happened.

Dee Ensy could not understand Alice Color.

No matter how close they were, they would never be able to be together.

The only ones that could be together were—

Whatever. Nothing else mattered.

Time to end this.

&nbsp;

<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 [[Kami-sama_no_Inai_Nichiyoubi:Volume5_Chapter2|Chapter 2]]
| Return to [[Kami-sama_no_Inai_Nichiyoubi|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Kami-sama_no_Inai_Nichiyoubi:Volume5_Chapter4|Chapter 4]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>