Chapter 8

He looked a bit puzzled, but apparently decided against prying any further. “You know, maybe Kisaragi joining up won’t be such a bad thing for her, huh?” “Maybe. She seemed really excited about it.” “Huh? Excited? In…what way, exactly?” “Well, I mean, look. She’s gonna bring in two of her favorite teacups. She never lets us use those, so it’s gotta be for you, Kisaragi.” Looking over toward the kitchen, I spotted Marie busily clinking and clanking away as she made a batch of hot tea. There were four white cups lined up on a nearby tray. It was hard to tell if they were valuable at first sight, but two of them were plain, while the other two featured a fancy pattern of animal pictures. “Ah…” The sight honestly overjoyed me. Here was Marie, a girl who wasn’t exactly a social butterfly by any measure, bringing out her favorite cups purely for my sake. It was no doubt her way of welcoming me to the household. I could feel a pang of gratitude somewhere around my chest. Thinking about it, it seemed like ages since I had last spoken with a girl anywhere near my age. Thanks to my odd work hours and my body’s unique “traits,” I almost never found myself in a one-on-one conversation at school. “You know, I was kinda worried at first, but I think she’s really opening up to you. I just love seeing you girls interact with each other! It’s about time we got a little feminine glamour around this—” Kano looked over to Kido as he spoke, only to be greeted by her sullen, petulant expression. I immediately recognized the cause of it, just as Kano said “Oh…” to himself. “You think so, huh? Well, you got me, okay? Absolutely nothing ladylike about me, so…you want me to apologize, or what?” “Whoa! No, no, no! I know you change your hair conditioner sometimes, Kido, and you’ve got that really frilly skirt you pose in front of the mirror wearing—ow ow ow!!” Kano had to have seen that one coming. “By the way, Kisaragi, don’t you think you should contact the agency or your parents or something? We probably don’t want this blowing up too big.” “Oh! Right, right! I totally forgot!” “Ngh! Kido, get your hand off me first! I’m tapping out, I’m tapping out…!” Without a twitch in her facial expression, Kido had clamped her vise grip around Kano’s arm. I should start by calling my manager…Actually, forget that. Too scary. But maybe send a message, at least… Plucking my phone out of my pocket, I saw that the flood of calls, texts, and voice messages had ballooned to an apocalyptic torrent. My stomach churned in pain. How should I tell them about this? Thinking about it, this has been a pretty bizarre turn of events. I decided to just let the words flow as I composed my message. “I’m currently in the hideout of a group called the Mekakushi-dan. I think they can cure this condition I have. Please don’t worry about me. Tell my family not to worry, either. I’m really sorr—” —Getting this far into the message, I heaved the biggest sigh of the day so far. My recipients would probably think I ingested some weird mushrooms or something. Reading this out of context, this was plainly not a message a sane person would send. “How do you think I should put this? This…situation?” “Um…I don’t know. I’m sorry…” I turned toward Kido, hoping for some guidance, but all she did was sit there, looking distressed. Perhaps she felt indebted to me for accidentally taking me here. “Mmm…Well, this message isn’t gonna cut it. There has to be some better way of putting it…” “The tea’s all set to…Wa-a-a-ahhh!!” Just as my eyes turned back to the phone screen to take another stab at my farewell message, tea rained down from above on my right. A fairly sizable amount of liquid poured over my head and the phone. “Yaahhhhhhh!!” It was all so startling that, for the nth time today, I let out the loudest scream I could. Getting splashed with all that tea was one reason, yes. The other major culprit was the “Sending…” window on my screen. “Ahhh! Nooo! I, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!!” “I-it’s fine! Just get something to wipe this up!” In a panic, Kido pointed Marie, still sprawled on the floor, toward the kitchen. I furiously tapped my finger on my phone’s “Cancel” button. No response. Nothing could be done any longer. The phone completed the send, and then, as if wrapping up the final task of its cursed life, quietly breathed its last. What had this girl done to me…? “Okay, here’s a—a-a-a-ahhh!” This time, my head was draped with an unwringed, sopping-wet towel. The bitterly cold liquid ran down my hair, pooling around my seat. I looked around me, washcloth still atop my head. There was Marie, white as a sheet, ready to cry at any minute— and Kano, snickering, that smile still on his face— and Kido, scratching her hair through her jacket hood, looking embarrassed. —Man…What a pain. But, you know, it didn’t really matter. I was beginning to feel like all of this was just too much fun. I hadn’t felt this way in far too long. This may be a bit (okay, more than a bit) of a twisted way of thinking, but at that moment, I thought to myself: This must be what “youth” is like. Is this how it feels when you’re messing around with the guys in your school clubs? No doubt the sun’s blinding rays were still shining outside, the whining drone of the cicadas still as loud as always. On that summer’s day, I made up my mind. And to make my resolve clear, I said it out loud. “—I swear I’ll do my best for the Mekakushi-dan!”