Something’s strange about her. You heard anything?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah, I saw her leave school with a bunch of lower classmen.
✦ ✦ ✦
No, all boys. Most of them scary looking, rough types. Why?
✦ ✦ ✦
Dunno, after her money, I guess...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Don’t even talk to me about her. She used to be okay, but now she’s just another rich bitch. Oh, get this: I asked her what she was doing for college, and she said, ‘Who gives a shit?’ Bet you anything she has some back road in.”
✦ ✦ ✦
I gave everyone non-committal replies, but inside I was just flabbergasted.
✦ ✦ ✦
The opinions varied, but the general consensus was the same.
✦ ✦ ✦
Kinukawa Kotoe had changed. . .and with unbelievable speed.
✦ ✦ ✦
Completely confused now, I flopped down on a leather bench in the lobby.
✦ ✦ ✦
What the hell had happened to her? What was going on?
✦ ✦ ✦
If what everyone said was true, then she had probably already forgotten that she ever asked me to help, forgotten she was worried about Asukai J in. She must have. Kyoko said she had, and Kyoko’s the one who sent her to me in the first place.
✦ ✦ ✦
Even speaking generously, I’m not that great of a person.
✦ ✦ ✦
Something I was passionate about one day, I’ll more than likely have grown tired of the next. I was always thirsty for something new.
✦ ✦ ✦
Maybe Kotoe had just fallen prey to what adults always describe as, “Kids these days.”
✦ ✦ ✦
But...
✦ ✦ ✦
“I knew I could count on you. You seem so with it.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The way her eyes sparkled when she said that. . .I couldn’t believe the girl who said that could be this shallow. This wasn’t anything to do with belief-it simply didn’t parse. I couldn’t even begin to figure it out.
✦ ✦ ✦
".............."
✦ ✦ ✦
I balled up both fists in front of my lips, stared at nothing, and thought as hard as I could.
✦ ✦ ✦
But my thoughts cut off suddenly.
✦ ✦ ✦
I had seen someone come in the automatic doors at the building’s entrance. Someone wearing white clothes.
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai Jin.
✦ ✦ ✦
“............!”
✦ ✦ ✦
Reflexively, I stood up.
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai Jin noticed that there was a high school girl, me, glaring at him.
✦ ✦ ✦
He smiled at me. “Hey. You a student here?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Something wrong? You look pale,” He said as he started walking towards me.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Asukai Jin?” I said, before I knew it.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I need to talk to you. Do you have time?” Like I was not myself. My voice was so quiet, so calm.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Oh, sure. Counseling...?"
✦ ✦ ✦
“No.”
✦ ✦ ✦
I took a step towards him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“As Kinukawa Kotoe’s friend.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai Jin was sitting alone in a cafe near his university, drinking coffee and flipping through the pages of a paperback.
✦ ✦ ✦
The place was pretty crowded. Most of the customers were groups of two or three, and the place rang with girls’ voices raised in laugher or exclamation. Asukai was the only person sitting in a booth alone.
✦ ✦ ✦
The cell phone in his breast pocket rang.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes?” he said, answering it at once.
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s Misaki,” a girl’s voice said.
✦ ✦ ✦
“How was it?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Just like you said, ‘she’ wasn’t here.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Really?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes. She hasn’t been to school for a few days.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Did she call in sick? Is she at the hospital?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I don’t know. Nobody seems to know what’s happened to her, including her teachers.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“And this is not because she’s a new student or hasn’t got to know anyone yet?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“No. Everyone knew her, but she didn’t talk about herself much. They described her as mysterious and more than a little remote.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"Hmm.."
✦ ✦ ✦
“It seems like she didn’t have any friends. I asked several people, but none of them could think of any.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Okay, thank you.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What should I do next?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Can you change on the way? Just throw that uniform away, and meet me at the cram school.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Okay.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai hung up.
✦ ✦ ✦
He looked up, and found the waitress had come to refill his cup.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Refill?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes, please.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The waitress bent over to fill his cup, and put her lips near his ear. “New orders came.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"......" Asukai Jin nodded faintly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“A girl will arrive soon in his ‘stead.’ I’m to do as she says.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“A girl?” Asukai bobbed his head, and took a sip of his coffee.
✦ ✦ ✦
He knew the waitress well. She’d been a student of his at the cram school the year before. Starting this spring, she’d become a college student, but she had been working at this cafe since she was a ronin.
✦ ✦ ✦
“There’s no medicine in this one, right?” Asukai whispered, smiling.
✦ ✦ ✦
The waitress grinned back. “You never know. There’s always a chance I might slip you something...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Scary,” he said, ducking slightly. She went away.
✦ ✦ ✦
He silently drank his coffee for a few minutes, then looked back at the book in his hands.
✦ ✦ ✦
The book’s title was The Victor's Principle: The Victims Future, by Kirima Seiichi. It was a thin book, only about 150
✦ ✦ ✦
pages.
✦ ✦ ✦
He flipped through the pages one way, then back the other.
✦ ✦ ✦
He read nothing, but kept opening it to one passage, then closing it again.
✦ ✦ ✦
It read:
✦ ✦ ✦
"...but all hopes, ultimately, are achieved in the future. Everyone dreams, desires the realization of those dreams, but it is not the dreamer that obtains that realization. It is the following generation. Furthermore, for those that receive the fruits of that success, it is no longer a dream, but established fact. All hopes must therefore become the sacrifice of the Victor, but this is how humanity has advanced. Our only road is ahead of us, for people cannot live in the past...”
✦ ✦ ✦
The grammar was so twisted, it was impossible to tell if the writer was resigned or optimistic.
✦ ✦ ✦
"..............."
✦ ✦ ✦
Without reading it, without even displaying interest in it, Asukai flipped back and forth, always returning to that passage.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Sacrifice, hunh?” he muttered at last, so quietly no one could hear him. “That may be the only way...”
✦ ✦ ✦
His phone rang again.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Asukai speaking,” he answered at once. Nodding to himself, he listened to the other speaker, but suddenly his eyes narrowed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?! Really?” His voice was tense. “And? You don’t know where ‘she’ is at all? -Okay. No, don’t worry about it. I’d get away from there if I were you. She probably won’t come back,”
✦ ✦ ✦
he said quietly, calmly. But the worry was clear on his face.
✦ ✦ ✦
At last, he hung up, and for a moment, did not move. The hand holding the book clenched, crushing it.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Jesus. . .so that’s the ‘girl.”’
✦ ✦ ✦
He stood up.
✦ ✦ ✦
The waitress from before was at the register, and took his check. Asukai whispered in her ear, “When the ‘girl’ comes in his stead, tell me at once. If you can, take her captive.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Okay. How?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Up to you. But try to do it so you don’t leave any evidence.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Got it.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Thank you. I’ll be at the cram school.”
✦ ✦ ✦
He left the cafe, and headed straight for work.
✦ ✦ ✦
(What now.
✦ ✦ ✦
As he walked, his expression was peaceful. But it was the kind of tense quiet that could snap at any second.
✦ ✦ ✦
(If I’m going to help her, I’ll have to hurry. . .but...) From time to time, his teeth ground together.
✦ ✦ ✦
He reached the school, and entered the building. A girl sitting in the lobby stood up, and glared at him.
✦ ✦ ✦
For some reason, Asukai was badly shaken.
✦ ✦ ✦
She was clearly an ordinary girl, but he felt like she had some unfathomable power.
✦ ✦ ✦
Like a warrior headed for the battle of her life, sword drawn.
✦ ✦ ✦
She stared right through Asukai.
✦ ✦ ✦
“...Kinukawa-san has not been herself recently. Have you heard anything?” she asked, the moment they entered the tiny counseling room.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes. . .I mean, I just found out a few minutes ago.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What do you think?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What. . .what do you mean?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Kinukawa-san is in love with you,” Suema announced.
✦ ✦ ✦
"............"
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yeah, I know. She’s the one who ought to tell you. But I figured you already knew. Right?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes, vaguely...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’ve no intention of asking you what you think of her. That’s none of my business. But do you think her transformation has anything to do with you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"...I don’t know."
✦ ✦ ✦
“Kinukawa-san thinks nothing of you, now?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“So it seems.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I think you know.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“The reason.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why do you think that?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“It’s written all over your face.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai froze. Was this girl like him? Could she see something in people's hearts?
✦ ✦ ✦
But after a moment, she sighed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“But seriously...it’s not that simple. I just got the feeling you did.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’d honestly like to know the reason. But...” This was true.
✦ ✦ ✦
Why did she have to be a target? He didn’t know. There should have been no chance for him to get near her.
✦ ✦ ✦
(If he was after money, there must have been better candidates.)
✦ ✦ ✦
“Kinukawa-san was worried about you,” Suema said.
✦ ✦ ✦
Asukai was slightly taken aback. “Worried? Why?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I can’t tell you. I promised her.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
“But now that I’ve actually met you, I think I understand how Kinukawa-san feels,” Suema said, staring at Asukai. “She has changed, but I suspect you have as well.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Possibly... I guess I’m not going to be able to return her feelings,” Asukai said, looking down.
✦ ✦ ✦
Suema shook her head. “Not that. I don’t think you would have been collected enough to be concerned about her. That’s part of the reason why she liked you. She wanted to help you.”