“You got it, Sousuke? We need 2,000 sheets of A4 paper.”
Chidori Kaname stood before the door to the teachers’ office. Against the casual clamor of a high school after class, her tone was sharp and serious. She had black hair that went all the way down her back, accented by a red ribbon, and there was a glint of determination in her eyes.
She wagged her finger at the student before her. “The paper comes in packs of 500, so we need to sneak out four in total. Got it?”
“Understood,” the boy in the high-collared uniform—Sagara Sousuke—responded concisely. His own expression was blank and slightly stiff; his mouth a tight, disagreeable frown. His eyes, sharp and penetrating, were focused on the door to the teachers’ office.
One last time, Kaname and Sousuke reviewed their operation.
“You know where the paper is stored, right?” she asked him.
“Yes,” he replied shortly. “Next to the copier in the back of the room.”
“And what was the plan we agreed on?”
“You’ll start up a conversation with the teacher closest to the copier, Mr. Sayama. While he’s distracted, I’ll steal the paper. Then we withdraw with due haste.”
Kaname folded her arms and nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, excellent. Remember, if the teachers had gotten us the right info in the first place, we wouldn’t have ended up with 2,000 misprinted pamphlets. The student council have a right to recoup our losses. Justice is on our side.”
Rather than argue with her tortured logic, Sousuke turned the conversation elsewhere. “What if you fail to monopolize Mr. Sayama’s attention, and he sees me?”
She groaned. “Do something so he doesn’t see you, then!”
“Do something? All right. I’ll do something.”
“Perfect. Okay, Sousuke! Let’s go!”
Kaname stepped into the teachers’ office with Sousuke behind her. Shooting friendly hellos to the teachers she recognized, she made her way to the beat-up black-and-white copier at the back of the room. Next to it sat her social studies teacher, a man in his early 40s.
“Hey there, Mr. Sayama!” she chirped.
“Well hello, Chidori. What can I do for you, eh?” Mr. Sayama’s chair squeaked as he turned.
Kaname positioned herself between him and the copier corner, presumably blocking Sousuke from sight. “I just have a little question about yesterday’s class.”
“Oh? That was on ancient India, I think...” Mr. Sayama trailed off. “What is it, eh?”
“Okay, so I was wondering...” Kaname began, “why did Chandragupta II have such a weird name?”
Her teacher laughed. “What a silly question. Well now, you see, it refers to the Gupta Empire, which—” he went to explain. But before he could get any further, there was a pop like a firecracker. Thick white smoke began to billow from behind where Kaname was standing.
“Huh?!” She tried to turn around and look, but the smoke was everywhere, cutting visibility to zero.
“What’s going on, eh? Hey... someone!” Mr. Sayama shouted through coughing from somewhere nearby. The smoke had quickly filled the room, and all the teachers were now in hysterics.
“What’s going on?!” Kaname lurched to a nearby filing cabinet for support, also coughing and struggling to breathe. Just then, someone grabbed her arm. “S-Sousuke?!”
“We’ve done what we came for,” he told her seriously. “It’s time to pull out.”
“Hey!” she protested.
Sousuke had emerged from the smoke, holding the packs of paper under one arm. He grabbed Kaname’s hand with his free one, and sprinted with her toward the office door. It was just then that the sprinklers activated, catching the room in a downpour.
“H-Help!”
“Fire! Earthquake! Flood!”
“My... My word processor!”
Cutting past the screams of panicked teachers all around them, Sousuke and Kaname flew out the door. They made it as far as the skyway to the northern building before they stopped.
“We should be safe now,” Sousuke panted.
Both of them were drenched from the sprinklers. Kaname wrung out the hem of her skirt, her eyes hollow and exhausted. “Wh-What in the world did you...”
“I used a smoke bomb,” he said evenly.
“You did what?”
“You told me to do something. Eliminating visibility allowed us to retrieve the paper without being seen. It was much more effective than your crude diversion tactic,” Sousuke explained. “Now, we just need to fake a call claiming responsibility from a terrorist organization like the IRA or the Japanese Red Army, and we’ll be able to completely divert suspicion—”
Slam! A right hook from Kaname sent Sousuke spinning to the floor. For about three seconds, he lay there motionless. Then, suddenly, he sat up again. “That hurt.”
“You shut the hell up!” Kaname yelled. “You... You war-obsessed pathological downer! Do you not realize that you ruined the paper? You know, the whole reason we did this?!” She rubbed one of the now limp, dripping packs in his face.
“It should be usable after it dries,” he protested.
“Don’t you dare try to excuse this!” she fumed. “I can’t believe your stupidity! I don’t care what kind of awesome mercenary AS pilot you are, you won’t get anywhere without basic common sense!”
“Hmm...” Sousuke fell silent, his expression intense, greasy sweat forming on his brow.
Through the fog of her rage, Kaname managed to see that his feelings were hurt. He had probably meant well, she realized, in his own ridiculous way... But that innocence just made the situation even more frustrating.
Oh, for the love of... Kaname clutched her head in her hands.
Sagara Sousuke had spent his childhood in war-torn regions overseas; he had no concept of how to act here, in a peaceful country like Japan. His inability to behave according to others’ expectations—and vice-versa—made him a constant source of trouble for everyone around him.
He’s stupid—incredibly stupid! was the schoolwide consensus about Sousuke.
Ugh... Why must I have this worthless freak in my life? Tell me, God, she lamented. But naturally, no answer came.
Well... the truth was, she already knew why. There was a reason she hadn’t written off his pain-in-the-ass self a long time ago. She had a responsibility to look after him, to explain things to him, to smooth over any chaos he caused. And she had a very good reason not to hate him.
Sousuke had entered her life through a set of very complicated circumstances.
Yeah. That’s right... It all came rushing back to her.
Sagara Sousuke wasn’t war-obsessed or worthless. Take him out of this peaceful setting, and he’d snap into a first-rate soldier. He was part of a real organization; he had comrades-in-arms. Kaname knew about all of it, thanks to one particular incident—the one that had brought them together.
The terrible danger she found herself in, the undeniable feelings that had blossomed between them, and the sprawling mystery whose scope remained beyond her comprehension... Everything that had come from that incident now formed the reality of the daily life they shared.
That’s right, Kaname remembered. It all started about a month ago...