“What kind of a question is that? Aren’t you the one who said you needed to get to know me better? Why have you been avoiding me?” Yuri scowled unhappily.
She had asked him out once before and he had turned her down. At the time, he had told her that he wouldn’t go out with her because he didn’t know her well, so Yuri had declared she’d try again after he got to know her.
“Part of it is that it’s awkward, but I was also never very social to start with,” Yuichi said.
“I’m well aware of that. I can see that you rarely interact with anyone outside of a small group in class. So I’ve decided to take initiative in coming to you in this place at this time of day, specifically!”
The fact that Soul Reader let Yuichi see things he didn’t want to see had led to him studiously avoiding interaction with others. He had never exactly been a social butterfly, but ever since entering high school, he had probably started coming off like a total misanthrope.
“I don’t mind you coming to visit, but did you even consider my own situation?” he asked. “I’m in the middle of training right now... but okay, fine. I’ll hear you out, at least.”
“Yuichi Sakaki... will your insolence towards me never cease?”
He wanted to resume training, but it would be hard for him to hear her out if he was moving. Instead, he spread his legs to shoulder width, then dropped his hips, thrust his fists in front of him, and lowered his elbows.
“What is that ridiculous posture?” she demanded.
“I told you, it’s training. Chinese martial arts. It’s called zhan zhuang. You’re basically sitting in an invisible chair. It’s good for strengthening legs and glutes.” In truth, it was more complicated than that. But to someone who wasn’t interested in martial arts, that explanation was probably good enough.
“I cannot believe I’m wasting my time with someone like this...”
“Seriously?” Yuichi furrowed his brow. It was Yuri who had proposed spending time together.
“How do you expect to eat breakfast in that position?” she demanded. Yuri showed the basket in her hand to Yuichi. It apparently contained breakfast.
“What, you brought food? I was planning to eat after I got home, but...”
Despite his grumbling, Yuichi broke his stance and returned to normal standing posture. If she’d gone to the trouble to bring food, it would be rude to refuse.
As he looked around for a place to sit, Yuri pressed the basket into his hands. “There’s a plastic sheet inside. Why don’t you lay it out for us?”
“You want me to do it?” Yuichi thought she should really be the one to do it, but he did as he was told, spreading out the sheet.
Once they were both sitting, she produced drinks and sandwiches from the basket.
The sandwiches were varied, with a lot of different things inside them. He took a bite of one sandwich, impressed by the amount of time she must have put into them.
It was good.
This one was a katsu sandwich, and the crispiness of the fried pork was definitely professional level, suggesting an expert’s hand had gone into making it.
“They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, after all,” Yuri said loftily.
“I wouldn’t say you’ve grabbed my heart, but it really is good. Is cooking a specialty of yours, Konishi?”
“Why are you asking about my cooking skill?”
“Huh? Didn’t you make these?”
“Of course not. I had my chef make them, naturally!”
“Which means it’s your chef I should be appreciating...”
Yuri’s attempts at earning his affection certainly seemed half-baked. Even if it had turned out badly, she really should have done the cooking for herself, Yuichi thought.
“So, is breakfast the only item on the agenda?” he asked.
“That was merely the icebreaker, naturally. As I told you before, my real objective is to let you get to know me.”
“Okay. Regardless of who made it, you still brought me good food, so I’ll hear you out, at least.”
“Good. My name is Yuri Konishi.” Yuri straightened up, giving an unnecessary introduction.
“That’s where you’re starting?” Yuichi asked in disbelief. “I know your freaking name!”
“My first name aside, what do you think of my last name? It seems a rather mundane name for someone so wealthy, doesn’t it?”
“I’ve never really thought about it...” He wasn’t entirely sure what she was asking him. It certainly was a common enough surname, but he couldn’t imagine how that was supposed to tie in with a person’s income level.
“That’s all right,” she said. “I don’t particularly care for it myself. My surname comes from my adoptive family. My real parents have another last name.”
“Your adoptive family? Wait, you’re adopted? Are you sure you want to tell me something so personal?”
“Yes. My goal is to have you know me better, after all.”
This was all far from what he was expecting. She had been put up for adoption, or she had ended up adopted... Either way, it all sounded very complicated, and it left Yuichi at a loss for how to respond.
“My father’s surname is Sumeragi,” said Yuri. “The Sumeragi family ruled Japan in the past and in the present, and shall continue to do so in the future. The information about my mother is not public, but as you may surmise from my hair, she is most likely a foreigner.”
“Um... is this a behind-the-scenes thing?”
Yuri had said they’d controlled Japan, but Yuichi had never heard the name before. The name suggested a connection to the emperor, but it was hard to believe Yuri could be related to the royal family.
“You may think of it that way if you like, but ever since ancient times, Japan has been ruled by anthromorphs,” Yuri said grandly.
“This is a little hard to buy...”
“Anthromorphs have heightened combat abilities, so we used to lead commoners into battle. You can safely assume that all of the powerful clans throughout history, both noble and warrior, consisted mainly of anthromorphs. Even now, the leadership of the country’s largest corporations still do.”
It was at this point that Yuichi realized that she was really talking about the worldview to which she belonged. It was the story of a world he wasn’t a part of, which he would never have known about if not for Soul Reader.
“At the moment, I am a nobody — merely one candidate to inherit the Sumeragi name.”
Yuichi was getting a bad feeling about this. All this talk of heirs and candidates smelled like a sort of trouble that he wanted no part of.
“Have you never wondered why a person of my stature should be attending a school as ordinary as Seishin High?” Yuri asked archly.
“I figured it was like Noro’s situation; they wanted it to be a part of your education or something.”
“The answer is simple,” Yuri said. “It’s because my adoptive father is an ordinary office drone. He doesn’t have the money to send me to a private school.”
“Uh? But you said you were rich, didn’t you? Didn’t you spend the first day bragging about your family’s money?” Her story was completely opaque.
She had said it, and she had that air about her. She even had a chef. It was clear she had a lot of money, so he didn’t know how to react to being told that she didn’t.
“To be more precise, it’s my real family that’s rich,” explained Yuri. “As long as I’m a potential heir, my care will be paid for, and I’m given an individual allowance and servants. However, my adoptive mother and father are not particularly wealthy, and it’s the parents’ job to pay for their child’s school expenses. So no matter how much money I have, to pay for my own schooling would be overstepping my authority.”
“That doesn’t make a lot of sense to me...” Yuichi couldn’t see how it mattered who paid, as long as they had the money, but perhaps she felt differently about it.
“I am but one of my father’s one hundred children. Said children all come from different mothers, and have been adopted out to branch families.”
“Hold it!” Yuichi finally put a stop to Yuri’s lecture.
“What?”
“Look... I really don’t need to hear about all this.”
“Why not? You’re the one who refused to date me because you didn’t know me!”
“I meant more like... I don’t know a lot about your personality, your hobbies, your interests. I’m not interested in your whole family background...” As a matter of fact, hearing about it made him extremely uncomfortable.
“But part of the reason I tried to kill Noro was because of the Sumeragi family inheri—”
Just as Yuri seemed about to embark on another litany of things he didn’t want to hear, Yuichi heard someone scolding them from behind.
“You two! What are you doing here?”
He turned to see a girl with dark hair, dressed in a camel-colored duffel coat, looking at them angrily. “Monster Hunter” was the label above the girl’s head. He felt like he’d seen it somewhere before.
“Um... who are you?” Yuichi asked with trepidation.
“I’m the daughter of the owner of this shrine you’re trespassing on,” she announced.
“Ah...” Yuichi froze up beneath the girl’s glare. He’d never thought anyone would approach him about that, but now that she mentioned it, of course they would.
“What is all this? Didn’t you have permission to train here?” Yuri asked, looking at him in confusion.
“Well, it is a shrine, and there’s a fairly out-of-the-way forest behind it, so I thought anyone could enter without permission...” Yuichi averted his eyes awkwardly.
“It is true that we’re a shrine, and the gate is wide open! But that’s for pilgrims only! We can’t just have people coming here for reasons other than the shrine’s intended use!”
“It doesn’t exactly qualify as trespassing, but I certainly can’t approve of using the premises here without the owner’s permission,” Yuri agreed.
“Wait, are you criticizing me too, Konishi? I thought you were on my side!”
“Why should I defend a man I’m not even dating?” she demanded.
Yuri didn’t seem to understand the concept of scoring points with someone.
“Anyway! I’d like to go somewhere we can discuss this more easily,” the unfamiliar girl said.
It would have been possible for Yuichi to run away, but he knew he really was at fault, so he did as he was told and went along with her.