THE sports day that put Mia in such a tight spot ended and autumn rolled on; it was now November. Whir, whir, vroom, vroom. Mia was skipping class, riding a bus for a change instead of flying. As a general rule, she didn’t use magic except for when she acted as the Supreme Ruler of Evil. Today, she had something she wanted to discuss with her legal guardian. Mia had no relatives, so there was a person that managed her property, which mainly consisted of her father’s life-insurance money, and kept an eye on her. That’s not to say they were particularly close—he was her lawyer.
They weren’t chummy, sure, but he oversaw her finances in a conscientious manner, and for that, Mia was grateful to him. Apparently, he was an acquaintance of her father and their relatives knew each other. The lawyer didn’t like talking about private matters much, and Mia had little interest in finding out more anyway, so their relationship was strictly business.
Mia held onto a strap in the moving bus, absently staring out the window. Speaking of the bus, it was very crowded, probably because it was the time when most people commuted to work. Mia always went to see her legal guardian at his office early in the morning, so every time she took a bus to get there, she was amazed at how packed it was.
One time Mia was even harassed by a pervert on the bus. It was the first pervert she had ever encountered. Rather than get angry, she was surprised. Ah, so they really do exist, she thought. The hand that groped her breast was gone before she knew it. A weird calm overtook her as she was musing how unexpectedly short the fondling had been, but then she heard a voice at her ear saying, “So flat”. Her calm instantly flew out the window, and so did the guy standing behind her, blown away by her kick. It was a memory she wouldn’t soon forget.
As Mia was revisiting her sad past while staring out the window, she heard a tiny voice saying, “No…” somewhere close to her. She looked to the side and noticed a woman standing some distance from her, squirming in place, discomfort written plainly on her face. She was obviously upset about something, twisting her arms. Mia lowered her body a bit and observed the woman for a while. Through the tiny gaps between human bodies pressed together, she spied a stray hand digging its fingers into the woman’s behind. As soon as Mia noticed it, she shot into action. She weaved her way through the crowd, drawing close to the woman, grabbed the hand that was touching the woman’s posterior, and raised it overhead.
“Gah!”
“What are you doing, making an unwanted pass at a woman? If you want to fondle bums so badly, go and pay money to do it!”
“Wha—I-I wasn’t—”
The man agitatedly tried to defend himself, but the people around him had probably noticed what he had been doing, so everyone looked at him with disgust in their eyes. He then yelled at Mia, “Nonsense! Stop making strange accusations! I didn’t do anything!”
“How can you say that after having groped her buttocks that firmly? I have heard from Father that there are special establishments for people with your kind of proclivities. A go-go bar in a train car was it, I think? It’s not a bus, regrettably, but apparently it is a place where you can choose a girl you like by touching her butt. It is part of their service, so you can fondle bottoms all you like there.”
She had no idea why anyone would go so far as to shell out actual money just to grope women’s asses, or what “choosing” a girl entailed. She was just passing the information she had heard from her father on to the man, but he, for some reason, only screwed up his face in disbelief instead of gratitude.
“D-Do you even realize what you’re saying?!”
“Naturally. There are a lot of different establishments available. There is also one with an army setting, or a place where you can pretend to be a baby; there is a wide variety to choose from. What I am trying to say is, if you are so desperate for a touch of a woman’s body, just go to that kind of… Ah! Hey!”
They were arriving at a bus stop. The man violently slapped Mia’s hand off and hopped off the bus as if the devil himself was chasing him. She wanted to try and give chase, but couldn’t move her body properly in a bus chock-full of people. While she was standing there at a loss about what to do, the bus started moving again.
“Hmph… He escaped, huh. Well, I shall have to teach him a lesson the next time I find him.”
While Mia was imagining how she would lead the man to the train car go-go bar and lecture him there, she heard the woman who had been harassed by the groper address her timidly in a small voice, “Um, thank you so much.”
“Huh? You do not need to thank me. I failed to admonish that man, after all.”
“No, you helped me plenty just by chasing him off. You’re amazing. You’re just a girl, but you can speak your mind so freely… That’s remarkable.”
Strangely enough, to Mia’s ears, it sounded more like words of envy than words of praise. She studied the woman curiously.
She was slender; a wisp of a woman would be an appropriate way to describe her. She had a dignified presence about her, as if she enjoyed a high-class upbringing, and was dressed with impeccable taste. Unlike Mia, she seemed to be the kind of person who found it difficult to be assertive. She looked like she’d get swept away if you blew too hard on her.
Mia was stuck for words to reply, and the woman seemed troubled too, not knowing where to go from there. Mia was just thinking about what to do with this tense air between them, when the stop she had to get off on came into view.
“Oh! Stop the bus, I’m getting off—”
Almost squished to death by the mass of bodies around her while fighting to exit the bus, she reached the front doors, paid the driver and stepped off. As she was rejoicing at the feel of fresh air on her skin, she noticed that the woman from the bus was standing next to her again.
“Huh?”
“Um, this is my stop, too.”
“Oh, I see. I need to go to that law office over there. …I have to say, every time I ride this bus, I am amazed at how packed it is. I wonder if there’s anything I can do to improve this,” Mia lamented the current state of public transportation with her arms folded over her chest, which elicited a small chuckle from the woman.
“You’re speaking like a town mayor.”
“Town mayor… Well, you’re not entirely mistaken there. I’m not the mayor, but I do wish to create a town where the ordinary citizens can lead more fulfilling lives.”
She had said that with utmost seriousness, but the woman, widening her eyes for a moment, dissolved into giggles as if she had said something very amusing. “You are so funny! Ahaha!”
“Funny?! I had no intention of making a joke here.”
The woman only started laughing harder.
Her smile was as pretty as spring flowers, so captivating that Mia felt like admiring it forever. The woman put a hand over her mouth, trying to suppress her laughter, and refocused her eyes on Mia.
“I’m sorry my voice was so quiet back on the bus. I would like to express my gratitude again for what you have done for me. My name is Sayoko Tougou.”
“I’m Mia Oonari. Yeah, when something like that happens, the best thing to do is to yell and make sure everyone knows what is going on. When someone did that to me, I kicked his ass, though.”
Sayoko’s eyes grew round like saucers at the phrase “kicked his ass”. All of her facial expressions screamed class and grace, which served to reinforce Mia’s belief that she must be from a wealthy family.
“You are amazing! I never seem to have the heart to express myself so spontaneously. I’m a bit jealous of you in this regard, Mia.”
“You should be honest about your feelings with other people, Sayoko. Bottling it all up is not good for you, you know.”
“…That’s true,” Sayoko answered, her gaze slightly dropping. Then she raised her face again, as if having remembered something suddenly. “Oh, you had somewhere you need to be, right? I’m sorry for holding you back.”
“Don’t worry about it; it’s right there, so I don’t really mind. By the way, where were you going, Sayoko?”
“I need to speak to someone at the police station.”
Police station? Mia cocked her head to the side in confusion. There were police in the area, sure, but…
“Did you ride the bus all the way here just for a visit to the police box? There’s one practically at every corner though?”
“Police bo… Huh? Police box?! There’s nothing but a police box in this part of town?”
“Yeah. The town’s police station is in the opposite direction from here,” Mia explained, pointing out the way with her finger.
Sayoko blanched, “Oopsies…”
“Oopsies?”
“Ah, no, I meant… I, uh, seem to have gotten lost. I don’t know this town all that well.”
Mia sympathetically looked the woman in the eyes. There was something so vulnerable about her that appealed to the natural instinct to protect; she was the type that was especially irresistible to people like Mia who were born with a strong sense of justice.
Mia crossed her arms, conflicted. “If you are all right with waiting until I’m done, I could take you there? Dropping you off at the door should work out fine, I think…”
After all, the town’s police station was hostile territory to Mia. Sayoko, though, was blissfully unaware of that fact, and a bright smile bloomed on her lips at Mia’s words.