Chapter 102

Plus, to get into our school, she would need a card. If she had managed to get one, then this would be pretty hardcore.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Misaki” was moving down the hill at a good clip. I managed to keep her in sight, but at this speed, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

✦ ✦ ✦

And I was wearing leather shoes, while she had on sneakers.

✦ ✦ ✦

I was obviously less natural than her.

✦ ✦ ✦

After a few minutes of this, Misaki turned off the road into a park. It was a collecting ground for water in the event of a flood, and there was nowhere to hide. It was right below the school, and in full view of the staff room, so students hardly ever went near the place.

✦ ✦ ✦

(Uh-oh.)

✦ ✦ ✦

There was nothing I could do but keep on walking.

✦ ✦ ✦

But a short distance away, I bent over, doing a bad impression of someone whose shoelaces have come undone.

✦ ✦ ✦

I glanced sideways into the park, and Misaki was talking on her cell phone.

✦ ✦ ✦

“...No, she’s not here. She’s been absent for the last few days...”

✦ ✦ ✦

A gust of wind carried her words to my ears, but quickly dissipated a moment later, leaving me unable to hear anything.

✦ ✦ ✦

(‘She’...?)

✦ ✦ ✦

She was looking for someone?

✦ ✦ ✦

A second later, Misaki ended the call.

✦ ✦ ✦

She headed towards me, so I hurriedly stood up, and began walking before she caught up with me.

✦ ✦ ✦

I gave up walking quickly. In a few minutes, Misaki had caught up with me, and passed me. Clearly, I couldn’t chase her any further than this. She’d seen me.

✦ ✦ ✦

I was sure she was headed for the cram school and Asukai J in.

✦ ✦ ✦

I just went back to school.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka was still standing there at the bus stop.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um?” I said, eyes widening. Yeah, the bus had already left, and Touka hadn’t gotten on.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Thought you’d be back, Suema,” she grinned.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Why?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“‘Cause you forgot your bag. You didn’t notice?” she said v in astonishment. I gaped. Now that she mentioned it, my hands were kind of empty.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Ah. . . !” How stupid of me. I was so preoccupied with chasing after Misaki that I didn’t even remember that my bag was lying on the ground.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Here you go,” Touka said, handing it over. My face was bright red.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Th-thanks. Sorry. So, uh, you waited for me?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Yep. I thought you’d be back,” Touka nodded.

✦ ✦ ✦

She was such a nice girl, I thought. So I said it aloud, “You’re really nice, you know that?”

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka snorted, “What?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“No, really.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Oh, please,” she said, playfully tackling me.. As her fist bounced off my head, I frowned.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka’s bag caught my eye.

✦ ✦ ✦

It wasn’t the school bag that she normally carried, but rather a huge Spalding sports bag.

✦ ✦ ✦

I wondered what was in it, but...

✦ ✦ ✦

“So, what now? Still skipping cram school?” she asked.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh? Uh. . .ahhhh. . .nah, let’s go.”

✦ ✦ ✦

To be honest, I wanted to see if Asukai Jin was there or not.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka and I lined up at the bus stop, which was empty, since a bus had only just been by.

✦ ✦ ✦

I changed my grip on the bag Touka had been holding for me.

✦ ✦ ✦

(But I don’t remember putting it down...) True, it wasn’t in my hands. When I started off after Misaki, Touka grabbed my sleeve, and I didn’t have it then...

✦ ✦ ✦

(Hunh.

✦ ✦ ✦

There was a hole in my memory. I felt like someone had picked my pocket.

✦ ✦ ✦

“So Why’d you run off like that? You looked pretty serious.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka asked.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh?” I pulled out of my thoughts and turned to look at her.

✦ ✦ ✦

She was grinning. It was one of those blameless sort of smiles.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um, I thought I saw someone I knew from Junior High. . .but I was wrong,” I lied.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Really?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Y-yes! Some boy I knew.”

✦ ✦ ✦

"Your first love...?"

✦ ✦ ✦

“Uh, maybe.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Oooh? I demand details,” she insisted, grinning.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Maybe sometime later. Not right now.”

✦ ✦ ✦

I couldn’t let Touka get mixed up with Asukai Jin and the unfathomable strangeness clustering around him. She was a good friend. I couldn’t put her in harm’s way.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Oh, all right,” Touka nodded, resigned.

✦ ✦ ✦

Then she gave me a hard-to-describe, asymmetrical expression.

✦ ✦ ✦

“If you’re up against something you can’t handle, you should consult your friends. That’s what they’re here for,” she said, as if performing a speech on stage.

✦ ✦ ✦

I felt like someone had wrapped their fist around my heart. It was like my nuclear core had been pierced.

✦ ✦ ✦

“I-it’s nothing like that!” I hastily protested.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Sure,” she said, shoulders slumping, and then her face went back to normal.

✦ ✦ ✦

"..............."

✦ ✦ ✦

I found it rather hard to calm down. For some reason, I thought Touka had wanted to warn me about something. I had no real reason to think that, but I just couldn’t shake that impression.

✦ ✦ ✦

We got on the bus, got off at the station, and just before we entered the school, I said, “Uh, there’s a study guide I need to get.

✦ ✦ ✦

I'll catch up with you, okay?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Want me to come?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Nah, you go on in.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“I’ll save a seat for you.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Thanks!”

✦ ✦ ✦

We split up. I Waited for about thirty seconds after Touka went inside, then I snuck into the building after her.

✦ ✦ ✦

I avoided the elevators, and went up the stairs instead.

✦ ✦ ✦

Asukai Jin was not in the guidance oflice.

✦ ✦ ✦

(His day off?)

✦ ✦ ✦

I tried to remember if Asukai Jin had been off this day last week, but I couldn’t be sure.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Hmmm. . .” I hesitated for a moment, but then I went back down the stairs and used the pay phone in the lobby to dial the phone number to Kinukawa Kotoe’s house.

✦ ✦ ✦

I didn’t really want to cause any more worry for a single-minded girl like Kotoe, but she lived next door to him, so she ought to know if Asukai J in was there or not.

✦ ✦ ✦

It rang several times, but at last someone answered. “Kinukawa residence.”

✦ ✦ ✦

Sounded like an older woman, probably her mom.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um, my name’s Suema...is Kotoe-san there?” I asked.

✦ ✦ ✦

Halfway through the sentence, I heard a gasp on the other end of the line.

✦ ✦ ✦

“She’s not here,” she snapped, her tone suddenly becoming very harsh.

✦ ✦ ✦

I was a little taken aback, but asked, “Do you know where she is?”

✦ ✦ ✦

"............." There was no answer.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Hello?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“What do you want with her?” she suddenly shrieked.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Uh...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“What were you going to do with her? Where are you now?”

✦ ✦ ✦

she screamed.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Whoa! H-hang on! What are you talking about?” I asked, flustered. She asked where I was again, so I said, “The cram school by the station.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“The cram school?” she asked, mystified.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Yes,” I said, nodding into the phone.

✦ ✦ ✦

“You are. . .Kotoe’s. . .what?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um, we both go to Shinyo Academy. Different classes, but. . .we’re friends. My name’s Suema Kazuko.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“You’re at the cram school?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Y-yes, I’m an exam student.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Kotoe hasn’t been to school. You didn’t know?” her mother said, surprising me.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh. . .?” I said, stunned. “R-really?!”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Her sensei called...she hasn’t been to school in three days!”

✦ ✦ ✦

“H-has she been home?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“We had a fight and she ran away,” her mother said, sounding like she was about to cry. “She’s always been such a good girl.

✦ ✦ ✦

She would never have stayed out all night, or taken money out of the bank without permission...”

✦ ✦ ✦

I was floored.

✦ ✦ ✦

That girl?

✦ ✦ ✦

The girl who’d cried and begged me to ‘save Jin-niisan?’

✦ ✦ ✦

“I-I don’t believe it...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Do you have any idea where Kotoe might be?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“H-how long has she been gone?

✦ ✦ ✦

“Four days...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“O-okay! I’ll go look for her!”

✦ ✦ ✦

I hung up, badly shaken.

✦ ✦ ✦

I forgot to take my telephone card out, and the warning buzzer echoed through the lobby for a few minutes. At last, I realized it was for me, and reclaimed it.

✦ ✦ ✦

(Wh-what’s going on...?)

✦ ✦ ✦

Had Asukai J in done something to her?

✦ ✦ ✦

(No. . .if he wanted to, he would have done something a long time ago. She’s been right next to him all this time.) Been thinking about him for so long...

✦ ✦ ✦

Staying out all night and withdrawing money?

✦ ✦ ✦

"............"

✦ ✦ ✦

Trying to calm my spinning head, I ground my teeth.

✦ ✦ ✦

(What now? Obviously, I’ve got to find Kotoe. If I don’t talk to her, I can’t begin to figure this out...) I picked up the receiver again, and called everyone I knew who might know Kotoe, anyone who was in her class this year.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh? Kinukawa? Dunno. . .she’s got a pretty bad rep lately, been throwing around how rich she is and all...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“That girl asked me if I wanted to go out partying with her.

✦ ✦ ✦

Who is she kidding? We have exams! Even said she’d pick up the tab, so I won’t say I wasn’t tempted! Ha ha ha!!!”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Sorry, Suema. Should never have introduced her to you. I was a little worried about it, so I asked how things were going, and she just looked at me blankly. Last time, she was almOst crying!

Plus, to get into our school, she would need a card. If she had managed to get one, then this would be pretty hardcore.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Misaki” was moving down the hill at a good clip. I managed to keep her in sight, but at this speed, I stuck out like a sore thumb.

✦ ✦ ✦

And I was wearing leather shoes, while she had on sneakers.

✦ ✦ ✦

I was obviously less natural than her.

✦ ✦ ✦

(Uh-oh.)

✦ ✦ ✦

There was nothing I could do but keep on walking.

✦ ✦ ✦

But a short distance away, I bent over, doing a bad impression of someone whose shoelaces have come undone.

✦ ✦ ✦

I glanced sideways into the park, and Misaki was talking on her cell phone.

✦ ✦ ✦

“...No, she’s not here. She’s been absent for the last few days...”

✦ ✦ ✦

A gust of wind carried her words to my ears, but quickly dissipated a moment later, leaving me unable to hear anything.

✦ ✦ ✦

(‘She’...?)

✦ ✦ ✦

She was looking for someone?

✦ ✦ ✦

A second later, Misaki ended the call.

✦ ✦ ✦

She headed towards me, so I hurriedly stood up, and began walking before she caught up with me.

✦ ✦ ✦

I gave up walking quickly. In a few minutes, Misaki had caught up with me, and passed me. Clearly, I couldn’t chase her any further than this. She’d seen me.

✦ ✦ ✦

I was sure she was headed for the cram school and Asukai J in.

✦ ✦ ✦

I just went back to school.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka was still standing there at the bus stop.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um?” I said, eyes widening. Yeah, the bus had already left, and Touka hadn’t gotten on.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Thought you’d be back, Suema,” she grinned.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Why?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“‘Cause you forgot your bag. You didn’t notice?” she said v in astonishment. I gaped. Now that she mentioned it, my hands were kind of empty.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Ah. . . !” How stupid of me. I was so preoccupied with chasing after Misaki that I didn’t even remember that my bag was lying on the ground.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Here you go,” Touka said, handing it over. My face was bright red.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Th-thanks. Sorry. So, uh, you waited for me?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Yep. I thought you’d be back,” Touka nodded.

✦ ✦ ✦

She was such a nice girl, I thought. So I said it aloud, “You’re really nice, you know that?”

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka snorted, “What?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“No, really.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Oh, please,” she said, playfully tackling me.. As her fist bounced off my head, I frowned.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka’s bag caught my eye.

✦ ✦ ✦

It wasn’t the school bag that she normally carried, but rather a huge Spalding sports bag.

✦ ✦ ✦

I wondered what was in it, but...

✦ ✦ ✦

“So, what now? Still skipping cram school?” she asked.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh? Uh. . .ahhhh. . .nah, let’s go.”

✦ ✦ ✦

To be honest, I wanted to see if Asukai Jin was there or not.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka and I lined up at the bus stop, which was empty, since a bus had only just been by.

✦ ✦ ✦

I changed my grip on the bag Touka had been holding for me.

✦ ✦ ✦

(But I don’t remember putting it down...) True, it wasn’t in my hands. When I started off after Misaki, Touka grabbed my sleeve, and I didn’t have it then...

✦ ✦ ✦

(Hunh.

✦ ✦ ✦

There was a hole in my memory. I felt like someone had picked my pocket.

✦ ✦ ✦

“So Why’d you run off like that? You looked pretty serious.

✦ ✦ ✦

Touka asked.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh?” I pulled out of my thoughts and turned to look at her.

✦ ✦ ✦

She was grinning. It was one of those blameless sort of smiles.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um, I thought I saw someone I knew from Junior High. . .but I was wrong,” I lied.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Really?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Y-yes! Some boy I knew.”

✦ ✦ ✦

"Your first love...?"

✦ ✦ ✦

“Uh, maybe.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Oooh? I demand details,” she insisted, grinning.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Maybe sometime later. Not right now.”

✦ ✦ ✦

I couldn’t let Touka get mixed up with Asukai Jin and the unfathomable strangeness clustering around him. She was a good friend. I couldn’t put her in harm’s way.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Oh, all right,” Touka nodded, resigned.

✦ ✦ ✦

Then she gave me a hard-to-describe, asymmetrical expression.

✦ ✦ ✦

“If you’re up against something you can’t handle, you should consult your friends. That’s what they’re here for,” she said, as if performing a speech on stage.

✦ ✦ ✦

I felt like someone had wrapped their fist around my heart. It was like my nuclear core had been pierced.

✦ ✦ ✦

“I-it’s nothing like that!” I hastily protested.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Sure,” she said, shoulders slumping, and then her face went back to normal.

✦ ✦ ✦

"..............."

✦ ✦ ✦

I found it rather hard to calm down. For some reason, I thought Touka had wanted to warn me about something. I had no real reason to think that, but I just couldn’t shake that impression.

✦ ✦ ✦

We got on the bus, got off at the station, and just before we entered the school, I said, “Uh, there’s a study guide I need to get.

✦ ✦ ✦

I'll catch up with you, okay?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Want me to come?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Nah, you go on in.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“I’ll save a seat for you.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Thanks!”

✦ ✦ ✦

We split up. I Waited for about thirty seconds after Touka went inside, then I snuck into the building after her.

✦ ✦ ✦

I avoided the elevators, and went up the stairs instead.

✦ ✦ ✦

Asukai Jin was not in the guidance oflice.

✦ ✦ ✦

(His day off?)

✦ ✦ ✦

I tried to remember if Asukai Jin had been off this day last week, but I couldn’t be sure.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Hmmm. . .” I hesitated for a moment, but then I went back down the stairs and used the pay phone in the lobby to dial the phone number to Kinukawa Kotoe’s house.

✦ ✦ ✦

I didn’t really want to cause any more worry for a single-minded girl like Kotoe, but she lived next door to him, so she ought to know if Asukai J in was there or not.

✦ ✦ ✦

It rang several times, but at last someone answered. “Kinukawa residence.”

✦ ✦ ✦

Sounded like an older woman, probably her mom.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um, my name’s Suema...is Kotoe-san there?” I asked.

✦ ✦ ✦

Halfway through the sentence, I heard a gasp on the other end of the line.

✦ ✦ ✦

“She’s not here,” she snapped, her tone suddenly becoming very harsh.

✦ ✦ ✦

I was a little taken aback, but asked, “Do you know where she is?”

✦ ✦ ✦

"............." There was no answer.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Hello?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“What do you want with her?” she suddenly shrieked.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Uh...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“What were you going to do with her? Where are you now?”

✦ ✦ ✦

she screamed.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Whoa! H-hang on! What are you talking about?” I asked, flustered. She asked where I was again, so I said, “The cram school by the station.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“The cram school?” she asked, mystified.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Yes,” I said, nodding into the phone.

✦ ✦ ✦

“You are. . .Kotoe’s. . .what?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Um, we both go to Shinyo Academy. Different classes, but. . .we’re friends. My name’s Suema Kazuko.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“You’re at the cram school?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Y-yes, I’m an exam student.”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Kotoe hasn’t been to school. You didn’t know?” her mother said, surprising me.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh. . .?” I said, stunned. “R-really?!”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Her sensei called...she hasn’t been to school in three days!”

✦ ✦ ✦

“H-has she been home?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“We had a fight and she ran away,” her mother said, sounding like she was about to cry. “She’s always been such a good girl.

✦ ✦ ✦

She would never have stayed out all night, or taken money out of the bank without permission...”

✦ ✦ ✦

I was floored.

✦ ✦ ✦

That girl?

✦ ✦ ✦

The girl who’d cried and begged me to ‘save Jin-niisan?’

✦ ✦ ✦

“I-I don’t believe it...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Do you have any idea where Kotoe might be?”

✦ ✦ ✦

“H-how long has she been gone?

✦ ✦ ✦

“Four days...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“O-okay! I’ll go look for her!”

✦ ✦ ✦

I hung up, badly shaken.

✦ ✦ ✦

I forgot to take my telephone card out, and the warning buzzer echoed through the lobby for a few minutes. At last, I realized it was for me, and reclaimed it.

✦ ✦ ✦

(Wh-what’s going on...?)

✦ ✦ ✦

Had Asukai J in done something to her?

✦ ✦ ✦

(No. . .if he wanted to, he would have done something a long time ago. She’s been right next to him all this time.) Been thinking about him for so long...

✦ ✦ ✦

Staying out all night and withdrawing money?

✦ ✦ ✦

"............"

✦ ✦ ✦

Trying to calm my spinning head, I ground my teeth.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Eh? Kinukawa? Dunno. . .she’s got a pretty bad rep lately, been throwing around how rich she is and all...”

✦ ✦ ✦

“That girl asked me if I wanted to go out partying with her.

✦ ✦ ✦

Who is she kidding? We have exams! Even said she’d pick up the tab, so I won’t say I wasn’t tempted! Ha ha ha!!!”

✦ ✦ ✦

“Sorry, Suema. Should never have introduced her to you. I was a little worried about it, so I asked how things were going, and she just looked at me blankly. Last time, she was almOst crying!

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Chapter 102

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