“...?” She tilted her head in confusion. After thinking for a while, she suddenly clapped her hands together, laughing. “I know you! I know I’ve seen you, somewhere...ummm...you’re Denkiya-san, the second-year, right? I remember, I couldn’t stop laughing when I learned the ones managing the electronics store were named ‘electronics store’! Hey, you really are Denkiya-san, aren’t you?”
Sigh. “Yes, I’m Denkiya. Uhhh...Kagamimori-san, was it?”
“Hmph,” she huffed. “Who else would I be?”
I tried my best to act sociable, but something hit Utena the wrong way and she looked away with a grunt of displeasure. She seemed to be even harder to please than the rumors said.
“That’s great! You two really are acquaintances.” Kurashima was sitting in what could only be described as the perfect position; out of arm’s reach of Utena, but not too far away, either.
Utena innocently replied, “We’re not friends, but we do go to the same school!”
“Hey, you. Denkiy-haha— Okay, I can’t stop laughing when I say that, so can you tell me your given name? Sorry, I’m not trying to be mean or anything. Please understand!” Utena talked to me without reservation, in a very free and open manner.
“You see, Utena has no idea what the heck is going on right now,” Utena said whimsically. She was referring to herself in the third person, as if she thought it was cute. “Like why I’ve even wandered into this weird space... Getting to meet Yuudai-kun, here, was really the only bit of good luck I’ve had. Everything else has been just the worst! I really just want to go home, or at least get into a shower.”
“My given name is Hitomi.” I finally manage to squeeze in an answer to her first question, although in that time Utena never stopped talking.
“Hitomi? Ok, then I’ll call you Hitomi. Or maybe Hitomi-senpai? That sort of thing is important, right? Isn’t Utena clever?” Even as she talked, Utena broke off a piece of nearby chocolate biscuit and threw it into her mouth.
She really doesn’t have any worries, does she? I thought. She hasn’t even thought of the possibility that all this stuff is poisonous.
Well, she is our town’s princess. She was raised with a lot of love, and that smile had not a care in the world.
“So you see,” Utena continued to speak cutely, “at least, in Utena’s situation, she wants to say goodbye to this place as soon as possible. She’s been thinking of ways to do that, but as of now, there’s no progress at all. You, Hitomi...senpai, do you know anything? Like how to get home, or what this amusement park-like place is?”
“Uh-” She’d been talking one-sidedly for so long, my brain couldn’t keep up; this is because Utena says whatever is on her brain the second she thinks of it.
While I was trying to come up with a reply, her thin neck bent oddly, looking off at an angle to the right. “Hey,” she said, “why don’t you come greet Hitomi-senpai, too? We might be working together for some time, after all. Greetings are important, you know? Isn’t Utena clever?”
Isn’t Utena clever? I thought incredulously. She repeated that phrase as if it was her favorite saying.
Chasing Utena’s line of sight, I noticed the presence of another girl for the first time. She was hidden really well under the cover of some snacks, so I hadn’t noticed her. She was also wearing my high school’s uniform. It seemed she was rather tall and thin but, because of her bad posture, that height didn’t have much impact. I couldn’t read her face, because she had it hidden under a set of long bangs.
The girl muttered something incomprehensibly. She seemed gloomy, even at a glance. I also remember her: she’s from a year above me in high school— a third year. I don’t quite recall her name. Even if we went to the same school, if we’re in different years, we wouldn’t have much contact at all.
From Utena’s perspective, that girl, wrapped in a melancholic air, should be two years above her. But, I observed, from her gaze to her word choice, she’s showing none of the accompanying respect.
“It’s hopeless, huh?” Utena said to me. “This one’s so rude. “Umm...she’s called Saba Torii; that’s ‘Saba’ written with the characters for raw rice. What a weird name!” Utena sighed. “Even her name is depressing. You can just call her Torii. You can just baaaarely see that as being a pretty name, can’t you? Utena-chan is-”
The slightly creepy girl named Saba Torii, who had a somewhat foreign-sounding name, whispered something in my ear that didn’t really have any relation to the subject: “You really like pretty things, don’t you?”
“Well, is there anybody that likes dirty things?” Utena scolded her with a sigh. “I’m telling you, instead of Utena you need to be greeting Hitomi-senpai. You really are unpleasant, aren’t you?” For some reason Utena kept hammering her spite one-sidedly into Torii.
“Now now, let’s all get along,” said Kurashima, who then stretched his long legs out, so as to come in-between them. He looked over at me from his relaxed position. “Hmmm. You’re all from the same school, but it doesn’t seem like you’re friends. Utena-chan and Torii-chan seemed friendly with each other, so I thought you would be the same.”
“We don’t really get along,” Utena protested. “She’s more like my servant, or a gopher: Torii is like that, you know? Utena is protecting her like that, right?”
Utena really is rather childlike in a way, referring to herself in the third person like that, I thought to myself.
Without confirming or denying what was just said, Torii looked at me with upturned eyes. “Umm...sorry,” she said. “I’m Saba Torii. I look forward to working together...?”
She didn’t really need to apologize, I thought. She was taller than me, so she really had to jump through some hoops to bend her neck like that and look up at me. That seemed like it would get tiring really fast, so I hurry and return the greeting.