Ajisai-san pouted and slapped me on the shoulder. Uh, what was that for? Hello?!
During the rest of the trip, I did my darndest to find out what was bothering her, and I was exhausted by the time I got home. But I needed to pick myself back up and put my game face on. As impressive as Ajisai-san was, I couldn’t foist the entire sister-saving operation onto her. To make sure their talk went well, I needed to put in effort too. Hwah!
So I beelined to the door of my sister’s room, knocked, and opened it before she could answer. “I-I’m home,” I stuttered out.
“Welcome hom—hm?” She was in the middle of a game, but when she glanced over and saw the pretty girl standing next to me, her eyes widened in shock. “Ajisai-senpai?”
“Hi.” Ajisai-san bowed.
Faced with such impeccable manners from someone her senior, my sister threw down the controller and scrambled to make us welcome. But she was still in the middle of a match! I snatched up the controller. Whew, that was a close one. By the time I finished wrapping up the game for her, I found that my sister had cleaned up, made a place for Ajisai-san to sit, and put down a cushion for her. She was fast! Must have been all that badminton.
“Thanks,” said Ajisai-san.
“Not at all!”
Ajisai-san sat down. There was no place for me to sit, so I went to my room and brought back one of my own cushions before I joined Ajisai-san.
“So, what’s Ajisai-senpai doing here?” my sister asked me.
“She came over to see you,” I said.
“Me?” My sister was confused.
I signaled Ajisai-san with my eyes. Have at it, senpai. Help this poor girl remember the warmth of humanity and unfreeze her frigid heart.
“Well, you see,” Ajisai-san began, putting her hands together. She gave my sister a smile that would have put anyone at ease. Perfect! She was nailing this! “Haruna-chan, I hear you haven’t been to school lately.”
“Ohhh. Yeah, not really.” My sister made an “Ohhh. That old thing. Right,” face. “Sorry, Ajisai-senpai. Oneechan must have put you up to this, huh? You didn’t need to come all this way to see me.”
“No, no. You’re my kouhai, Haruna-chan. I just wanted to offer my help. Is there anything I can do?”
Oh my god, she was such an angel. With all the light shining off of Ajisai-san, I half expected hearts to appear in my sister’s eyes. Next thing you knew, she would cry, “I’m off to school at once!” and dash out of the room.
Except she didn’t. She said, “Uh, not really. Nothing’s going on.” Like it was self-explanatory. What the heck?
“But you’re not attending school at the moment, are you?” Ajisai-san said. It was a gentle question, probing but still concerned for Haruna’s feelings.
“Yeah. And no one can make me go.”
“Right. So, you must have a good reason for saying that.”
My sister put a hand to her chin in thought. “I dunno. If anything, why do I have to go to school in the first place?”
What the?
Ajisai-san was just as taken aback. “What do you mean, why?”
“Sure, the law says you need to graduate from junior high. But it’s up to the kids if they actually attend class, you know? It’s not like anyone’s going to drag me to my desk.”
“Uh…”
“And I really don’t want to go to school right now. Why does it matter? Is it that big of a deal?”
Ajisai-san was visibly baffled. “If you don’t want to go, I don’t think anyone can force you. But still…”
Ajisai-san couldn’t talk over her and yell “Because I said so!” Ajisai-san was the kind of person who’d listen and help you work out your problems. But how could she do that if my sister wouldn’t talk?
“If you at least tell me what’s going on, I might be able to help you,” Ajisai-san said.
Yeah, at least keep us in the loop, you know? But my sister shook her head in a way that brooked no argument.
“I just don’t feel like it. There’s nothing you can do.”
“A-are you sure?” Ajisai-san asked.
Hey, uh, guys? Things weren’t looking so hot here.
My sister nodded, her face serious. “I’m sorry, but it’s true. I hate to send you away after you were nice enough to come visit me, but there’s absolutely nothing you can do.”
“O-okay. If you say so.”
Ajisai-san was a pro at being considerate of people’s feelings. And she heard my sister loud and clear.
My sister switched topics. “How about we play a game, Ajisai-senpai? I’m getting pretty good!”
She sounded so animated it stumped Ajisai-san. Ajisai-san turned back over her shoulder and looked at me, but I didn’t know what to say either. I just nodded. What else was I going to do?
That’s how the two of them ended up in a match together, with Ajisai-san’s original goal left unachieved. Still, if my sister was willing to play with us, maybe that meant she was opening up to us a little bit. I had to believe that.
Man. Since when had my little sister been so stubborn?
Once I walked Ajisai-san to the train station and said goodbye to her, I heaved a sigh. To be real, I thought she would have cleared this whole mess up with a snap of her fingers. I must have been too optimistic.
Before she left, Ajisai-san gave me a worried smile. “She probably just needs a bit more time.”
This was one of those bosses you couldn’t one-shot, even using the cheat code known as Ajisai-san. My freaking little sister… She almost made it seem like I was just using and abusing Ajisai-san’s kindness. The Ajisai-san! Yes, that one!
Oh well. I figured I’d better go home instead of stewing about this here.
Just then, I thought Hm? Because I noticed the weirdest thing: right at the end of the train station stairs. Right there, smack dab on the asphalt. Was a girl hunched up in a ball on the ground.
I involuntarily squeaked in surprise. I mean, there was a girl crouching on the pavement! And not in the sense of, like, loitering in front of a convenience store or anything! Was she sick? Oh god, what was I supposed to do?
I ran over to her, panicking all the way. Oh god, oh no, oh god, oh no.
And then the girl looked up. Eep. Our eyes met.
Of all the odd things, she had silver hair. She clearly wasn’t Japanese, especially considering how pale she was. Normally, pretty girls didn’t faze me—pretty girls were a dime a dozen in the Quintet. But this girl was just objectively gorgeous. She also had this whole regal, dignified vibe to her…which was kinda mitigated by the way she was squatting on the ground. Still, when she looked up at me like this, I couldn’t possibly ignore her and go on my way. Not unless I wanted to regret it for the rest of my life.
I summoned all my courage and the will to speak. “Um. Uh.” Oh god, what did we say in English class again? “Mei ai herupu yuu?”
She stared at me blankly. Big time blankness up in here. Then, in a completely level-headed tone, she said in Japanese, “Hello. Nice to meet you.”
“Wait, what?! Uh, hi,” I said.
She sounded completely chill, like we were meeting for a hangout. And not, you know, sitting in the middle of a busy walkway. The girl continued to hug her knees and looked up at me with eyes like a doll’s. She asked me, “Are you a bad person?”
“God, I certainly don’t think so! But come to think of it, I’m not exactly a saint either.”
“Oh, good.” The girl stood up. Holy crap. I hadn’t been able to tell when she was sitting down ’cause her face was so small, but she was taller than me. She was maybe of similar height to Mai or Satsuki-san. And then in terms of her age…I mean, I couldn’t tell all that well since she wasn’t Japanese. But I gathered from her general attitude that she was probably a high schooler or thereabouts. She also gave off this totally otherworldly aura.