But what if Sousuke really is still alive out there, he wondered, still searching for Kaname? For one of them, days of adventure; for the other, days of sighing at report cards. When he thought about the vast gulf between Sousuke’s circumstances and his own, Shinji couldn’t help but laugh.
Just then, his friend Onodera Kotaro arrived back at the classroom and sat down in front of Shinji. “They were almost sold out,” said Kotaro—whom they called Ono-D—tearing open the bun he’d bought at the bakery kiosk and biting into it with relish.
“You should’ve snagged something at the convenience store this morning,” Shinji observed.
“I did,” Kotaro protested. “Rice balls with salmon and tuna; I ate ’em all after second period.”
“Oh, yeah?”
As they exchanged trivial conversation, Kotaro’s eyes found the report card on Shinji’s desk. “Oh. The mock exam?”
“Yeah.”
Before Shinji could stop him, Kotaro snapped it up. “Let’s have a look... Wow, tough break. All Ds?”
“It was the questions’ fault,” Shinji sulked. “I bet you got the same.”
“Eh, I’ll be fine. I’m just about to kick my studying into high gear.”
“The Center Test is next week, though...”
“Oh, shut up,” Kotaro mumbled.
“Tokiwa-san was worried that you weren’t studying,” Shinji told him.
“Hmm... Well, at least she’s got a school referral,” said Kotaro. “Even though she said she was gonna get a job at her toy company, anyway.”
“Well, she’s been really studying hard since she left the hospital,” Shinji replied.
Kotaro was the student who’d visited Tokiwa Kyoko in the hospital most often after she’d been injured in the incident. Shinji had gone along with him several times, but looking on as Kotaro tried to act cheerful had been too much for him to take.
After being discharged from the hospital, Kyoko had smoothly reintegrated with the rest of the third-year class. In Kaname’s absence, she’d spent more time with Kotaro. They’d gotten to be a lot closer than they had been before, although Kotaro had said they weren’t officially dating yet. They’d gone to the beach together during summer break but, in the end, he’d said nothing had happened.
Shinji didn’t know how true that was, of course. But instead of speculating further on their relationship status, he changed the subject to ask, “Is Tokiwa-san coming to school today?”
“Dunno,” said Kotaro. “She emailed me earlier to say she’d finished her check-ups.”
Kyoko had taken off morning classes to get tests done at the city hospital. There were almost no lingering effects from her injuries, but she sometimes had spasms in the fingers of her left hand, which might have been a psychological aftereffect rather than a physical one.
“It must be hard, huh?” Shinji commented sympathetically.
“What?”
“For Tokiwa-san,” he clarified. “With everything.”
“Well... you saw what she went through,” Kotaro grumbled, sticking a straw into his coffee milk pack. “You know.”
“Yeah.”
“She’s started talking lately about what happened that led to her injuries,” said Kotaro.
“What did she say?” Shinji asked, feeling surprised. Ever since her discharge, any time someone talked about something even slightly related to the incident, Kyoko had just grimaced.
“Well...” Kotaro began, then trailed off, hesitant to say more.
“Tell me,” Shinji insisted.
“Okay... It was about Sagara.”
“Sagara-kun?”
“She said he tried really hard to help her,” Kotaro told him. “He defused a bomb that had been strapped to her, even knowing it was a trap.”
Shinji was speechless.
“And despite that, she said awful things to him,” Kotaro continued. “Seems like she really feels bad about it.”
“Well... I can see why she did that, though,” said Shinji. “It must’ve been terrifying.”
“Yeah,” Kotaro agreed awkwardly. “I guess.”
From what Shinji knew about the situation, the organization that had kidnapped Kaname and used Kyoko as a hostage had really gone all-in. They’d sent in a black arm slave model—one he’d never seen in any military magazine—and set up bombs all over the school. It was basically a miracle that none of the staff or students had died, and Shinji felt this could be attributed to the fact that Sousuke and his white AS had fought so hard on their behalf.
Of course, many students still blamed Sousuke for having put their school in the crosshairs, and Kotaro was one of them. He had fiercely rebuked Sousuke the day he’d left the school, grabbing him by the lapels, crying and cursing at him. “Were we never really friends?” he’d asked. Sousuke hadn’t tried to argue, and from that day onwards, Kotaro had never spoken his name again until just now.
“Hey, Ono-D,” said Shinji. “I never mentioned it, but...”
“What?”
“I think... maybe Sagara-kun was fighting really hard for us.”
“You don’t know that,” Kotaro said grumpily. It was a childish response, a sulking denial. “And Kyoko still almost died because of the things they hid from us. They could’ve run off a lot earlier than that if they’d cared.”
“You really think that?” Shinji asked.
“H-How should I know?”
“You don’t feel sorry,” Shinji pressed him, “like Tokiwa-san?”
“Huh? Why should I feel sorry?” Kotaro retorted. “They’re the ones who should feel sorry.”
“Okay... Then why did you bring it up?”
“Huh?”
“The Tokiwa-san thing,” Shinji clarified.
“Well...”
“You weren’t saying it because you felt the same way? That you wanted to apologize for what you said?”
“I... I wouldn’t say...” With Shinji staring straight at him, Kotaro stammered and turned his face away. “I... I dunno what you’re talkin’ about.”
“I’ve got a little plan,” Shinji told him.
“A plan for what?”
“We won’t be able to all get together once February hits, so I want to film it before January’s over...”
“Seriously,” said Kotaro, “what’re you getting at?”
That was when Kyoko entered the classroom.
“Hey...”
“Oh, she’s here.”