Before long, the school bell rang to signal the end of lunch and the beginning of the afternoon break. Tobi watched through the classroom windows as students started flooding out into the hallways. A small number of them—one in ten, or even less—had what could only be described as strange entities riding on their heads or shoulders. Tobi, however, wasn’t particularly surprised by this.
Take, for instance, a group of three girls walking through the second-floor hallway. Tobi didn’t know their names, but he was dimly aware that they were all in Class 2-3, just like him. One of them—the girl in the middle of the group—had what looked like a bat, or maybe some sort of flying squirrel, clinging to her back.
Perhaps she happened to own a very unusual pet and loved it so much that she couldn’t bear to leave it at home. Tobi couldn’t completely rule out that possibility. But on the other hand, this wasn’t the first time he’d caught sight of that particular creature. He’d seen it in the classroom as well. It was attached to the girl at all times, in fact, but none of the teachers or other students ever made a fuss about it. As far as Tobi could tell, not even the girl herself noticed its existence.
“Sure is weird,” Tobi muttered to himself.
“Huh?” Baku grunted. “What’s weird?”
“Nothing.”
“Yeah, sure. I heard you! You said something was weird, plain as day! You’re not talking your way outta this one! Spill it! What’s weird?”
“…If I had to pick, then you are.”
“Huh? How am I weird?”
“You really need to ask?”
“Hey, you!”
“Ugh…”
Tobi dropped his gaze down toward the courtyard. That last shout hadn’t come from Baku, but from a man in work clothes, who was looking up at Tobi. It was the school janitor.
“…Me?” Tobi replied, pointing to himself.
“Yes, you!” shouted the janitor. “Who else would I be talking to?! You’re the only one up there!”
“Right… Fair enough, I guess.”
“‘Fair enough,’ my rear…”
Judging by appearances, the janitor was a bit younger than the rest of the school’s staff. He always seemed to be wearing a big, friendly smile, though it was hard to tell if he was actually upbeat, or if that was just how his face looked. One way or another, he’d always say hi to Tobi whenever they passed each other around school, much to Tobi’s irritation. Tobi made it a policy to ignore him at all costs, but the janitor never took the hint and kept stubbornly talking to him anyway.
“Look, Otogiri. You know the roof’s off-limits, don’t you?! And this isn’t the first time you’ve been up there, either! How do you keep doing it?! I know that door’s locked! In fact, I keep a pretty close eye on it! Did you get your hands on a copy of the key, or something?!”
“I don’t have a key, no.”
“Yeah, figures! You’d be in huge trouble if you copied it without permission! But that’s not important. You need to get down from there right this instant!”
“You mean I should jump?”
“No! Why would I mean that?! Absolutely do not do that! Ugh, why do I even bother? Just stay right there! I’ve got a lot more questions, so I’ll come up to you!”
The janitor headed back inside. Most likely, he’d go to the staff room, grab the rooftop key, then make his way up the stairs to Tobi.
“Sooo, what’s the plan?” Baku asked, amused.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Tobi replied, slinging Baku onto his shoulder. “Of course we’re not waiting around. Sounds like a pain.”
“I know, right?”
“Sucks, though. I was starting to like this place…”
Tobi sighed, then stepped over the parapet. Descending the wall back into the courtyard took him no more than ten seconds. By the time the janitor reached the roof, Tobi was long gone.
When school let out for the day, Tobi’s homeroom teacher, Mr. Harimoto, called him straight to the staff room and sat him down for a lecture. Tobi couldn’t remember what he said. It was probably about him being up on the rooftop, but most of the teacher’s words went in one ear and out the other. Not all of them, to be clear—just most of them.
“Are you listening to me, Otogiri? What do you have to say about that?” asked Harimoto. Every few minutes, he would check to make sure Tobi was still listening. Those were the only points in the lecture when Tobi would reply with a “yes” or an “understood.”
Harimoto was around forty years old and virtually always wore a red sweatsuit to school, only changing into more formal clothing on the most special of occasions. The way he kept his short hair brushed back and styled with product made it look like he had a head full of spikes, which led some students to call him “Mr. Hedgehog” behind his back. Others—the ones who were fonder of him—just called him Harry, as a play on his name.
“Look, Otogiri, I don’t like these lectures any more than you do,” said Harimoto. “The thing is, there’s only so much misbehavior I can overlook. I’m not asking for perfection. All I need from you is the bare minimum, okay? Society has rules, and some of them are important enough that you can’t just blow them off. Not to mention…”
By the time Harimoto’s speech finally came to an end, and Tobi was allowed to leave the staff room, it was already past four thirty PM.
“Peh!” Baku spat. “Harry just can’t cut to the goddamn chase, can he? You know how hard it was to keep quiet that whole time?”
“Don’t call him Harry…”
Tobi headed out at a rapid clip. He wasn’t in a hurry, but strolling at a leisurely pace just wasn’t his style. In general, he either took big, slow strides, or else he walked so quickly that he was practically jogging—one of the two.
“Just look at you go! Is this a race or something?” jabbed Baku.
Without even thinking about it, Tobi slowed his pace as he got up to the school gate. “Shut up,” he replied.
“You’re always in such a hurry, y’know? Ever think about taking it slow and easy?”
“Didn’t I tell you to shut up…?”
Tobi glanced down at his watch. The institute was about fifteen minutes away on foot at his usual pace, and it was less than an hour before curfew. Thanks to Harimoto’s lecture, Tobi only had forty minutes of free time left. Meanwhile, his old neighborhood was twenty minutes away by bus.
“…Guess it’s not happening today,” Tobi muttered irritably as he stepped up to the school gate.
It was a little less than two meters tall—short enough for him to climb over easily if he felt like it. But that wouldn’t be enough to cheer him up. Instead, he kicked off the tiled gate, propelling himself to the top in a single bound.
“Yes!” Tobi hissed with a pump of his fist. His goal had been to make it up onto the gate without using his hands, and he’d pulled it off without a hitch.
“C’monnn, Tobi. Really? Society has rules, and some of them are important enough that you can’t just blow them off, y’know?” Baku said, quoting Harimoto’s lecture with a scornful laugh.
Tobi almost fired back, but before he had the chance, his mind went blank. There was a girl—another student from his school—standing on the far side of the gate, and she was looking up at him.
“Ah…”
The girl’s long hair was done up in a pair of buns, and she had rather sharp facial features Tobi recognized from somewhere. No, not just somewhere—she was in the same class as him, and for once, he actually remembered her name. It was rather unusual, so seeing it written out once was all it had taken for him to memorize it. Her first name was Ryuuko, written with characters that meant “dragon’s child,” and her surname, Shiratama, had an equally idiosyncratic meaning—literally, “white gem.”
Ryuuko Shiratama blinked rapidly, seemingly surprised by Tobi’s sudden appearance. Tobi, to be fair, was just as shocked. Why would she be there, of all places? Nobody else was lingering near the school gate. Tobi had assumed, in fact, that nobody was there at all. The fact that he’d been wrong—and that the person present just happened to be a girl from his class—caught him off guard.
Tobi took a deep breath and pursed his lips tightly. What now? he thought. Irritatingly, Baku wasn’t chiming in with any advice. This was the one sort of situation where Tobi deeply wished he would pipe up with some words of wisdom. Or, for that matter, any words at all. Even his usual jabbering mockery and stupid jokes would be better than total silence. Not that anyone other than Tobi would be able to hear him, of course. Shiratama, incidentally, was also dead silent for some reason, which just made the whole thing even more awkward.