In this world there are only absolutes.
✦ ✦ ✦
…Wha.
Unpleasantly jostled awake by the sound of some kind of vibration, I found myself in a car. To be more precise, in the passenger seat of a bright red Cobra. Where I seemed to be sitting. In which case the vibration was the sound of the engine running, which meant that the car was currently moving, which meant that someone must be sitting in the driver’s seat. Finding this roundabout thought process too irritating, I glanced at the driver’s seat. Just as I thought, it was occupied by Aikawa, whistling away like she didn’t have a care in the world (disturbingly, the tune was the elegiac opening of the first book of The Tale of the Heike). She was holding the steering wheel in one hand and fiddling with her bangs with the other. The top was down, and she seemed concerned about what the rush of wind was doing to her hairdo.
“Hm? Ah, Iitan, you awake? ’Morning.”
“Oh…hey. Good morning,” I responded, shaking my head a little. “Um…where are we?”
I was watching the passing scenery out of the corner of my eye as I asked this, and as far as I could tell we seemed to be on a highway, though I couldn’t immediately determine our current location. At the very least, it wasn’t my apartment. Hm. No, the more pressing question was: why was I going for a drive with Aikawa? I didn’t have a clue.
“My…memory seems to be a little hazy.”
“I mean, that was some craaazy shit!” Aikawa suddenly raised her voice until she was basically shouting, and turned to face me. “Hm, I guess you must’ve forgotten, huh? No surprise there, after going through something. like. that. Must’ve been quite a shock. No one’s gonna blame you for losing your memory. Not after something. like. that.”
“S-Something like that, huh?”
It even came equipped with staccato as a standard feature.
What was the deal? I couldn’t remember anything, but apparently I had once again gotten myself caught up in some kind of incident alongside Aikawa. I see, in that case it made perfect sense that I’d be sitting in the passenger seat of her beloved car, nothing strange about that at all.
“Yup. A terrible tragedy, not the kind of thing you can sum up in a few words.” She looked at me with an incredibly serious expression on her face, then shook her head slightly. “Another moment, even one, and you might’ve died…”
“D-Died─now that you mention it, my abdomen really hurts for some reason…”
“Yeah, the after-effect of your enemy’s attack. No, not just an enemy. A ‘formidable foe’ with fearsome abilities…but have no fear. After I knocked…um, while you were knocked out, I took care of everything.”
Then Aikawa proceeded to give me a full and minutely detailed account of everything that had gone on over the last three days, filling me in on the incident, which shock had completely erased from my memory. Though it took place over only three days, it was a tale of battle and war, a tale of tragedy and curious comedy, a tale of blood and gore, and above all a tale of love and sorrow. I had apparently stood on the brink of death time and time again, and Aikawa had pulled me back each time. To have escaped such a harrowing predicament not only with my life but with all my limbs intact was nothing short of a miracle. I never would’ve believed such a preposterous tale if Aikawa hadn’t been the one telling it.
“That’s quite a story… Forgetting such a catastrophic tragedy is pretty nuts, even for me. Please allow me to express my gratitude once again.”
“Hey, cut the formalities. You’re embarrassing me.” Aikawa shrugged lightly. “At this point, you and I don’t have the kind of tedious relationship where we have to thank each other for every little thing, do we?”
Giving me a forceful thumbs-up, she treated me to a quick wink accompanied by a lovely smile. Goddamn is she cool. No, not just cool, she’s a great person. I’ve never known such a great person in all my life. Maybe I’d been wrong about her the whole time. I had thought she was sarcastic and conceited and only saw me as a plaything, but seemingly I needed to revise my opinion.
“I’m sorry, but you absolutely have to let me repay you for this. I’m one to three-fold repay you for all you’ve done, with more than just a high five. Protest all you want, but I’m going to pay you back whether you like it or not, and I won’t take no for an answer. If ever you’ve got a problem, please, I’m at your service.”
“I see. Well, if that’s how you feel… Refusing such a generous offer would only sully the purity of your sentiment, and we can’t have that, now, can we…” Aikawa wore an expression of inner turmoil. “That reminds me, as it happens, by complete coincidence I do have a piece of business that only you can help me with. Will you do it?”
“Of course I will. Please, leave it to me. This nonsense user is willing to die for you.”
Glad to hear it, smiled Aikawa.
There was something wicked about that smile.
“The fact is that we’re on our way there right this moment. Let’s see. Sumiyuri Academy. You know it?”
“Not much more than the name.”
“How much more?”
“Umm…”
Sumiyuri Academy. A super-and-three-more-supers-precariously-balancing-on-top-of-that prestigious girls’ preparatory school in the Kyoto suburbs, exclusively for the social elite─the princess type, in other words. Derided by some as a “vocational school for the privileged class,” it’s a peerless educational institution where exam percentile and pedigree are prized above all else, and which normal people the likes of me have no hope of getting anywhere near.
“Hmph. That all you got?”
“Yup. It’s not just Sumiyuri, most schools maintain a policy of secrecy and insularity, so it’s no easy thing for information to leak out. Even the stuff I just told you I only know because I happened to hear it from Kunagisa.”
“Hanh? Why the hell does Kunagisa know all that? She’s definitely a princess in her own way, but she’s a shut-in. What does she care about any school?”
“The part she’s interested in is the uniforms. She’s obsessed with sailor outfits and what not. She was lamenting to me, ‘Woowee, Sumiyuri’s is the only uniform I can’t get my hands on.’”
“No shit? I didn’t know there was anything she couldn’t get her hands on. That makes me feel better.”
“But, I mean, she said, I’ll never give up! I swear by the black of my eyes!”
“Aren’t her eyes blue?”
“Guess that’s why she gave up. Anyway, what’s going on with Sumiyuri Academy?”
“Oh, right. What I want you to do─is infiltrate the school looking like that, and get a certain student out of there.”
When she said looking like that, I noticed for the first time that what I had on was not my usual get-up. Or rather, I noticed that I was wearing something downright weird. The top was a short-sleeved number, blacker than night, with matching buttons lined up on the left and right sides of the chest and an oddly oversized collar with a single stripe along it, the kind they call a sailor collar, accessorized as you might expect with a colored scarf. The bottoms were the same color as the top, a classy─pleated skirt. This was, without question, without supposition, and without a doubt not men’s clothing.
“That’s the Sumiyuri Academy uniform. I wasn’t really worried since you’re so slender, Iitan, but man does that suit you. Your hair’s nice and long, and even the fall of your bangs is perfect. And your lack of individuality is actually a plus in this situation.”
“Why─” I began as I composed myself after my momentary consternation, “Why am I done up in this funky, fancy outfit?”