Shiogi looked at me doubtfully, before her eyes momentarily went wide with shock. She was looking over my head, her gaze seemingly directed at something behind me.
“Really going above and beyond, huh, Iitan.”
With this nonchalant greeting, almost like we’d happened to run into each other on the street and were exchanging pleasantries─the speaker clapped me on the shoulder. It was the dislocated one, so it hurt like hell.
“That you…Aikawa?”
“How many times do I have to tell you─call me by my first name. Mm-kay?”
She gripped my shoulder harder.
“Right, of course─Jun.”
Aikawa remained behind me for the duration of this exchange, during which I never took my eyes off Shiogi, who, for her part, couldn’t meet my gaze. Of course she couldn’t; as a tactician, she would never allow herself such a pointless distraction. How could she permit herself the folly of looking anywhere else when humanity’s strongest was standing there before her?
“Hahaha─turned out I was anxious about you coming in here by your lonesome, so I figured I’d help out with the rescue.”
“Gimme a break… In that case, why not do it yourself in the first place?”
“We’ll leave that enjoyable little chat for later. So, what’re you getting into? Let’s see now. You’re, Shiogi, right? You know who I am?”
“Yes, I do.” Shiogi glared at Aikawa with a look so piercing that the one she’d given me during our confrontation couldn’t even compare. Apparently…she’d been holding back when she faced me, if only because she had still retained her composure. “The first lesson we’re given after we ‘matriculate’ is about Overkill Red, the Subjugation in Scarlet.”
“What an honor,” Aikawa laughed mockingly. “And? What tactic will Shiogi the Tactician employ next?”
“I’m going to run away.”
With that brazen pronouncement, Shiogi leapt to her feet. There was not an ounce of fear or trepidation in either her attitude or her expression. In their place was indomitability─or rather insolence. It was the first time I’d ever seen an “enemy” take that attitude with Aikawa. And a child of tender years at that.
It was abnormal.
“You think you can get away?”
“I do─since Mr. Transvestite over there is injured,” sneered Shiogi. “And I’m well aware─that Overkill Red is soft on her friends.”
“…”
“And as for you,” Shiogi glared at me. “Please don’t ever forget─what you did to me.”
“Huh?”
Did I do something?
Aren’t I the one who had something done to him?
“Well then, it’s been a pleasure.”
And with that, Shiogi turned her back on us and dashed off, her skirt and long hair fluttering behind her. I was dead sure Aikawa would go after her─but she didn’t even move a muscle, she just stood there with her hand on my shoulder.
“Jun, are we just going to let her get─”
Flustered, I started to turn and face her, but─
“Maaasterrrr!”
I was prevented from doing so by Hime-chan, who appeared out of nowhere and flung herself bodily at me. However much of a lightweight she may’ve been, it was a total surprise attack, and she knocked me down onto the floor of the hallway.
What the hell is this little shit doing, trying to assassinate me? I thought, but…but there was no way I could say that to Hime-chan as she lay there atop me, massive tears streaming down her face.
“Waaaaa…aa.” In between fits of sobbing, she felt around my dislocated shoulder. “Your shoulder… I’m so sorry, it’s all Hime-chan’s fault─Hime-chan was, Hime-chan’s…”
“…”
You know, it hurts when you touch my dislocated shoulder like that─
Seriously, no seriously, is it really too much to ask, for you to pick up on that?
As she clung there, her arms wrapped around me, I noticed that the sleeve of her uniform was torn. Had it happened when those four tackled her? Naturally Aikawa had gone to rescue Hime-chan before she came to get me, so I assumed she’d driven off those four oddly named girls─nonetheless, it seemed Hime-chan hadn’t gotten off scot-free.
“…, oh, th-this is totally no big deal!”
Having finally regained her composure, she noticed what I was looking at and tried to hide her torn sleeve.
“It’s just an abrasion!”
“Sounds painful.”
Though it just means a scratch.
“…”
Right.
She may’ve been boundlessly cheerful, sunny, innocent.
Naïve, pure as the driven snow, but still.
That didn’t mean she was inconsiderate.
She was more worried about someone else than about herself. She felt another person’s pain as her own. Even though it was meaningless to do so. It wasn’t her fault I was injured, I’d done it to myself, but she wouldn’t accept that. Uncompromisingly affirming, unconcerned with the particulars, embracing me, wrapping me in her arms─
No, hang on.
That was somebody else.
Not Hime-chan.
She and Hime-chan weren’t the same person, and yet─
“W-Waaaa.”
Apparently once again overwhelmed with emotion, Hime-chan clung to my shoulder in an attempt to hide her tears.
“I keep telling you, that hurts.”
Not the same person, and yet.
Why this…
Tremulous, nonsensical joke of an emotion.
“Ichihime, get away from him. Are you trying to wreck Iitan’s shoulder?” Aikawa grabbed Hime-chan by her sailor collar and forcefully pulled her off me, then pulled me up with the same force. “Going above and beyond is great and all, but don’t overdo it, pal. Take it too far and it’ll become chronic, that kind of dislocation. Here, I’ll pop it back in for you, so hold still.”
“…”
Hold still, she says─I couldn’t have moved if I’d wanted to. To be precise, from the instant Aikawa had entered my field of vision, my body had become totally rigid, almost as if some psychic had cast a malevolent spell on me.
A spell.
Definitely.
Jun Aikawa in a sailor outfit would have that effect on anyone.