How nice it would be, if my powers lent me such ability. Maybe, if I thought harder, harder than I ever had before, I might be able to grant her that eternal night.
“So, what…should we do…to…night?”
Apparently she hadn’t noticed how my droplets quivered.
“I mean, I dunno.”
Naturally, I hadn’t been thinking about such things. I had come here to apologize, after all. But I was still a bit relieved to hear Yano-san’s question, to hear her tossing out suggestions as usual, not appearing particularly upset about what happened earlier that day. Maybe she did understand that what I had done was only the logical next step of the things that our classmates had done.
Even so, I still couldn’t think of a way to broach that conversation.
“The baseball club’s window isn’t even broken anymore,” I said.
“They probably couldn’t keep up with it any…more.”
“Keep up with what?”
“Let’s…go to the…gym.”
Yano-san completely ignoring my question raised my hopes. The same as always. She was the same as always.
It might be nice to go to the gym. It was a more open space, and in a less serious atmosphere. It might be easier for me to apologize, and there would be plenty of things there to pass the time.
I decided to go along with her suggestion.
“Acchi…kun, you don’t really have any…opinions, do you?”
“I mean, there’s just nowhere that I really want to go in the school at night.”
“Oh, I…see.”
Her observation might have actually contained a deeper dig at my own character, I thought momentarily, but I felt sure that I was overthinking it.
I had Yano-san exit the room first and then locked the door. “That’s so han…dy,” said Yano-san as she watched me dispatch a clone to run ahead, though she had already seen me do that plenty of times before.
We descended the stairs and headed for the gym. Yano-san’s footsteps were as noisy as ever, but I didn’t scold her for it. We passed by the changing rooms and by the place where I had kicked her. Beyond the passageway, the door to the gymnasium was firmly shut.
Yano-san waited by the door while I slipped inside.
I returned from my liquid-like state back into my full monster form. The interior of the gym was like being sealed away in an airtight prison. Amidst the piercing silence, it was as though I could hear the echoes of all of the sounds generated by the classes and club practices during the day, shut up in here with me.
Suddenly growing fearfully aware of the fact that I was literally shut inside, I quickly opened the door with my tail. Without so much as a word of thanks, Yano-san, who was still waiting patiently, shed her shoes and stepped into the gym. She took in a deep breath, an almost calculated motion.
“It feels like…there’s a lot of sounds in…here.”
Seriously? That’s what she picked up on by doing that? Not the smell? Then again, I couldn’t say anything, since I had thought the exact same thing.
As I closed the door again with my tail, she let out a big noise. “Whoooa. It’s su…per dark in…here.”
“Yeah.”
The emergency lights were on, of course, but in a space as large as the gym, that amount of light wasn’t enough for the human eye to rely on.
“Hang on a minute,” I said.
I leapt up to the upper floor, leaving Yano-san standing there as I opened up all of the curtains on the high windows with my tail and turned on one row of lights. That should have been enough for Yano-san, the human, to see as well as I could. I prayed that it would not be so much that anyone outside would notice.
By the time I returned, Yano-san had run over to the wall and begun walking along the perimeter of the gym. I changed myself to my comfortable resting size.
Unlike me, the tiny Yano-san had a tiny stride as well, so walking the full length took her some time, after which she returned to me. As she returned, she pointed up at the ceiling.
“Hey… Acchi-kun, go get…that.”
I looked up, but at first did not understand what she was indicating. All that I saw when I looked where she was pointing was the ceiling.
“The…ball.”
I finally noticed it once she pointed it out. My perception wasn’t all that great.
After pondering for a moment what to do, I moved away from Yano-san and unfurled my wings. Just as I had imagined, I heard Yano-san’s awed voice behind me as I rose into the air. I could have simply jumped up there, but it was worth bothering to do it this way.
I nudged the basketball that was trapped in the scaffolding until it fell, catching it midway, to keep it from hitting her in the face. I circled the gym as I landed.
I gently chucked the ball in the direction of the arrhythmic applause I received, and it plunked perfectly into the space between Yano-san’s hands, mid-clap.
She bounced the ball once against the ground, again not extending any thanks. The ball sprang up in the wrong direction, as though she had not even thought to adjust her power or angle, and then rolled towards me. I grabbed it with my tail and tossed it back. The ball missed her, soaring past, and Yano-san trotted off after it.
For a brief while, she clumsily practiced dribbling, throwing some free throws that fell well short of the basket. Eventually, growing either tired or frustrated, she walked my way and flung the ball at me. What was with that, all of a sudden?
This time, when I caught the ball with my tail and threw it back, she caught it properly and then threw it again my way. Apparently, she had decided we were going to kill time playing catch now. I could go for at least that much.
As the ball went back and forth, back and forth, sailing behind Yano-san countless times, the sound of rain upon the roof grew stronger and stronger. We might have been shut up inside of here, but at least we were protected.
“It’s lucky for this little one that you were…here, Acchi…kun,” she said, abruptly as ever.
Little one?
“You mean the ball?”
“Yeah. Now we…get to see it living pro…perly, as a ball.”
“It’s not alive, though.”
“It might…be alive, just very quiet.”
“That’s creepy. We’re throwing it around.”
Conversation and a game of catch. I realized then that, somehow, somewhere during all this, I had started having fun.
“Isn’t there some…thing like that in…the world of Harry…Potter?”
“Well, the pictures and broomsticks talk and move around and stuff, so kind of.”
“I see, so…then don’t be…so stupid.”
“What?”
“Though I guess…we should still be care…ful.”
“What are you talking about?”
“So, Acchi…kun.”