Her long, fluffy hair spilled down her back, and she wore a dress covered in layers of lace and other fluffy materials. Considering her tiny body, styles that added volume to her frame really suited her…
“H-hand over the wooden sword.” Ryuuji found himself deeply regretting that he hadn’t managed to steal away Aisaka Taiga’s weapon.
Since he’d turned on the light and given her the tissues, nothing about the perilous situation had been settled at all. Both Aisaka’s eyes glinted with light. She circled the small room’s edge, just like a tiger cornering its prey in a cage. Naturally, Ryuuji kept his distance. Still in his underwear, he too ran in circles around the room, trying to keep away from her.
But no matter how long they kept doing that, they wouldn’t get anywhere. That thought in mind, he said, “Hey, Aisaka… I know what you want. You want me to give back that lo—that letter, right? The one you accidentally put in my bag.”
“…Tsk.”
He’d summoned the courage to speak. But at that very moment, Aisaka swallowed her breath and went still. From his perspective, her whole body seemed to grow. She was a bomb about to go off. Her fuse had been lit.
“I-I’ll give it back! So calm down! I didn’t look inside!”
“…It’s not enough to just give it back,” she answered, voice so low that it seemed to creep along the ground. “That’s nowhere near good enough… You shouldn’t even know that the letter exists.” She whisked the gigantic wooden sword up, so that it danced elegantly above her head.
“DIE!”
“GAH!”
She aimed straight for the top of Ryuuji’s head and brought the sword down.
Just how fast is this girl?!
Aisaka leaped at Ryuuji’s chest, crossing several meters in an instant. If her sword hadn’t hit the wall (the security deposit!), he really would have been done for.
“Tsk!”
“You idiot!” On the verge of tears, he leaped back and let loose a heartfelt shout. “Are you out of your mind?! What kind of nutcase would try to kill her own classmate? You’re messed up!”
“Shut up! Now that you know about the letter, I can’t bear to live with the shame! The only thing left for me to do—is die!” The sword’s point lunged for his Adam’s apple.
“Yikes! Y-you say you’ll die, so why are you trying to kill me?!”
Ryuuji avoided it with downright miraculous reflexes, but Aisaka’s power was immense. She used that power to cut straight into the sliding door (the repair bill!), then followed through with another lunge. In those wide-open eyes, there was no hesitation, just desperation and resolve.
“I’d rather kill you than kill myself! Sorry, but please die! And if you can’t manage that—erase all your memories!”
“How the heck am I supposed to do that?!”
“Trust me, it’s not impossible! If I…” She glanced at the wooden sword she brandished. “If I knock you over the head with this, even if you survive, it should at least give you amnesia.”
“No knocking, thanks!”
Just how stubborn was she?! If only he could get her to realize she was talking nonsense. But words wouldn’t get through to her. Common sense, common courtesy, morality—stuff like that didn’t matter to Aisaka.
Ugh, that’s why I didn’t want to get involved with her in the first place!
Contrary to Ryuuji’s thoughts, which were turning grim, Aisaka’s destructive conduct was going splendidly. If Ryuuji kept on running, she’d just corner him. She knocked the boxes off the top of the wardrobe, ripped a hole in the sliding door, and kicked over a small table. While it fell, she exclaimed: “Forget about the love letter!”
The Palmtop Tiger was self-destructing. He could have said he didn’t know it was a love letter (that had been an option), but now she’d confirmed it herself, making things a real mess. No, that wasn’t right—things had been a mess since the very first moment he got involved with Aisaka. And on top of that…
“You looked at it, right?!” she said. “You read it, didn’t you?! And then you thought I was an idiot, an id… an id… Uhh, uguh, uwuhhh…!”
“Ah?! Wait—a-are you crying?”
“No way!”
Between those horrible, groaning noises, she released a half-suppressed sigh. She aimed her wide eyes at Ryuuji, their whites turned faintly red. Tears welled up at their corners. Even though it was only a tiny bit, Aisaka really was crying. He was the person that ought to cry! If he thought he could afford to collapse right then and there, he would have, but at that moment, it would mean his life.
Ugh, what a weird turn of events. He was the one being attacked, so why did he feel like he was the one who had done something wrong?
Then, out of complete desperation, he feinted a run to the side and made a risky grab for Aisaka’s wrist. She was shocked for one brief moment. He felt a little scared that her delicate wrist might break in his grasp.
“Let go!”
Whatever she said, he needed to play his trump card now. He inhaled, preparing to shout with all his might. Sorry, neighbors. Landlady, please forgive me.
“No way am I letting go!” he barked. “Now listen here! Aisaka, you made a terrible mistake! That envelope was—”
“Let! Go! Of! Me!”
Aisaka’s struggling wrist slipped from Ryuuji’s hand. She tried aiming at him from close range. Her bloodthirsty eyes glistened.
“It was empty!”
Ryuuji got his words out just in time. The wooden sword’s swing stopped at the very last moment, directly above his head, lightly brushing several strands of his hair.
Several all-too-unpleasant seconds of silence went by. Finally, she squeezed out a word. “Emp…ty…?” she said in that immature voice of hers. He nodded his head fervently up and down.
“Th-that’s right. It was empty. So, I haven’t seen whatever was meant to be inside and also, that’s right—that’s right! You were lucky you didn’t give that to Kitamura! You avoided making a fool out of yourself in front of everybody.”
Bleary eyes still wide open, Aisaka froze in place. Ryuuji took the opportunity to crawl away. He grabbed his bag and rummaged through it with shaking hands. In a mad rush, he pulled out the envelope.
“See! See, see!”
He pushed the envelope into her small hands as her eyes became bloodshot. The wooden sword dropped to the floor with a thud, Aisaka’s body trembling violently. But she stood firm, righted herself, and raised the newly returned envelope up to the light.
“…Oh…”
Her mouth puckered, half-open.
“O-oh…ooh…ohhh! Whaa!”
Messing up her tangled hair, Aisaka cut open the envelope’s seal. As if going mad, she shook it upside down to confirm it was empty, then looked back at Ryuuji in blank amazement.
“…You klutz.”
At his leaden proclamation, she sat down unsteadily right where she was standing. Her eyes opened so wide they seemed like they might tear at the corners. Before long, they developed a faint film. Her thin, open lips quivered and shook, and she seemed to be trying to say something, but she could only bob her chin.
“A-Aisaka?”
Her brain had crashed.
Before Ryuuji’s eyes, her face suddenly turned pale white. Then, right there in the living room of his shabby two-bedroom apartment, her petite frame, padded by the oversized dress, toppled over.
“Hey! Aisaka! Are you okay?!”
At that surprising turn of events, Ryuuji rushed over and held her unconscious, doll-like body—and that was when it happened.
GRRRROOOOOOOWWWWWWWWLLLL.
“…I-Is that your stomach…?”