“Uh, um.” She faltered.
“Do you not recognize me? C’mon, I’m in the boys’ tennis club.”
“I—I know! You’re Yama- shita!”
“So you do know who I am. You go to school this way, too?”
“Y-yes. Oh, good morning!” Misato quickly bobbed her head in greeting.
“Yeah, morning. Right, how about we walk together, since we’re both already headed in that direction?”
“What?”
“You don’t want to?”
“N-no, I do. I’d like that!”
Misato felt out of sorts from how suddenly everything was happening, but at the same time, a smile formed on her face before she even realized it.
The spell worked…
Once Misato realized the kamisama e-mail actually worked, she quickly ran over to Yamashita.
From that day on, she began talking with Yamashita and got to know him.
When they had had joint practices together, Yamashita had noticed Misato talking with Nanami about anime, and he’d become interested in talking to her. Apparently, he liked anime, too, but he didn’t have friends who were into it and hadn’t had anyone else to chat with until then.
“The Princess of Tennis is really good.”
“Uh-huh, all the characters are super cute. I’ve been watching it since the first season!”
Misato and Yamashita shared their thoughts about anime every day on their way to school.
“I’m glad we’re friends, Taniguchi,” Yamashita said.
“Do you mean it? I am, too. I’m happy that we started talking!”
Misato didn’t care about the anime they talked about. She only cared that they were getting to know each other.
That was what really made her happy.
But after a month had gone by, she started to feel unsatisfied with their relationship.
She had a conversation with Yamashita every morning, but they never went beyond that.
But the only point of talking was so we could go on a date…
It was almost as though Yamashita didn’t see Misato in that way at all. To him, she was just an underclassman who was a fellow anime fan.
This isn’t enough!
Misato really wanted their relationship to move forward.
“So there’s something I wanted to ask you,” she said to Nanami after they’d finished with tennis club.
“What is it?”
“It’s about the kamisama e-mail thing. Is it okay to send a second one about the same person?”
Misato was thinking of sending a new e-mail to wish for a date with Yamashita. She didn’t know the rules, so she’d decided to run it by Nanami first.
“What? Did you send an e-mail, too?”
“Um, no, I just wanted to double-check.”
Misato hadn’t told Nanami about Yamashita yet. She’d only talked to Yamashita about anime so far, and she thought Nanami would laugh at her if she found out.
“What do you think? Is it okay to send a second one?” Misato asked, but Nanami just shook her head.
“Sorry, but apparently it’s only one wish per person. One of my classmates tried to send a second one…”
“Okay, and what happened?”
“Then the first wish stopped working, too, and the boy she’d gotten to know hated her guts after that.”
“What…?”
If I can’t make a second wish, then I’ll only be conversation buddies with Yamashita forever…
Misato had no idea what to do.
After she and Nanami parted ways on the walk home, she wallowed all alone.
I want a date with Yamashita… But I couldn’t ever ask him out myself.
Now she regretted not having the courage to write “I want to go on a date” from the start.
Eventually, she reached a street near her home. There, she noticed a boy and girl in high school uniforms standing a short distance away.
The girl was Kayo Hashimoto, who lived in the neighborhood. Misato, who was an only child, had looked up to Kayo as if she were an older sister since she was little.
I wonder what Kayo is doing.
The boy next to Kayo was tall, and they were chatting together.
After a while, they went separate ways, and Kayo smiled and struck up a conversation with Misato.
“Misato, are you on your way home?”
“Yeah, but who was that just now, Kayo?”
“Oh, he’s my boyfriend. I was always the only one with feelings, but we’ve been dating since last month.”
“Wow, really?!” Misato said in surprise.
Kayo was about as shy as Misato and rarely talked to boys. Misato had never heard of Kayo having a boyfriend before.
“I’m so happy for you!” Misato said, and Kayo smiled and said, “Thank you.”
“I think it’s because of that love spell message,” Kayo said.
“A love spell?”
“There’s this 5151 love spell thing. I tried it out, and then we started dating.”
This was her first time hearing about a love spell other than the kamisama e-mail.
“It’s really popular at my school right now. I know—I can show you how to do it.”
“Huh?”
Misato thought for just a moment but then answered, “Yeah, show me!”
The 5151 spell was a lot like the kamisama e-mail.
The only differences were that you would send the message to yourself and write the name of the person you liked in the subject, then 5151 in the message itself. After you sent the message, you would delete the bounce-back and save the initial message you sent.
Once Misato got all the instructions, she headed home and pulled her phone from her bag.
If she sent two e-mails using the kamisama e-mail method, she’d end up with neither wish and her crush would start hating her, but if she used another love spell, maybe her wish wouldn’t be revoked.
Now I’ll be able to get a date with Yamashita!
She couldn’t write her own custom wish using the 5151 spell, but she thought she would definitely get closer to Yamashita this way.
She tried it immediately.
The next day.
Misato was at the glasses sign.
She normally met Yamashita there and they’d begin their anime catch-up. While she was looking around for him, she glanced over at the lights.
“Morning,” she heard someone say from behind her.
It was Yamashita.
“Good morning!” Misato greeted him back and headed over to his side.
I wonder if he’ll ask me out…
Misato’s heart pounded in her chest as she waited for Yamashita to say something.
“Say, Taniguchi,” he said.
“Yes?!”
“Did you watch Princess of Tennis yesterday?”
“Huh?”
“You haven’t, then?”
“N-no, I did…”
“That match was amazing, wasn’t it? I had no idea that was how it’d turn out!” Yamashita said, and he continued talking about anime just like usual.