“Am not!”
“For the record, I did end up staying over at her house, but nothing in particular happened between us. The worst I could say of the experience is, well...” Her sentence trailed off halfway. Kiryu blushed and looked away from me.
“I knew it—something sexy totally happened after all!”
“It did not!” She went after both my cheeks, nails and everything. It hurt, but to an outside observer, it probably looked like I was grinning! Or it would’ve—if it weren’t for the tears in my eyes. Ow.
My body might’ve been unusually healthy thanks to the mana that dwelled within it, but under normal circumstances I was still just a totally ordinary human. Painful things were still painful, and my tear glands worked just fine. As did my stomach, which grumbled with all the force and volume of an orchestra’s bass section. Kiryu paused, cocked her head, and let go of my cheeks.
“Are you hungry?” I rubbed my still-stinging cheeks with both hands as I nodded vigorously. “I have some sandwiches... Would you like one?”
“For real?!”
“For real.”
She smiled kindly. It was the smile of a saint; a smile most men would fall for on the spot. Her carrot-and-stick treatment got me good, and I would’ve just wallowed in that expression if I could’ve.
❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤
“Man, it’s been ages since I’ve had your cooking, Hikari-chan... All the shame and misery I had to live through to get to this point finally feels like it was worth it...”
“That’s a bit much, Yuu-chan.”
I shivered as I dug into the sandwich that Kiryu gave me. I could clearly hear Ayase and Yuuta shouting and giggling as they ate their own lunches behind me.
“What?” said Kiryu, who was sitting so close to me that our shoulders were almost touching and giving me a casual glare. Just how many different glares does this girl have up her sleeve, anyway? She’s got quite the repertoire. “You’re the one who said you’d taken an interest in those two, aren’t you?”
“Great phrasing there—definitely not gonna cause any misunderstandings.”
“I think I’m on the verge of misunderstanding something, myself.”
“Yeah, guess you would be.” I felt my cheeks grow even hotter and redder than they were when she pinched me. Wonder why? Who can say! It’s a real mystery! “Anyway, are you really sure about this? Aren’t we way too close?”
“The best place to hide a tree is in a forest.”
“You’re just saying that ’cause you think it sounds cool! The forest doesn’t help if the tree’s literally right next to you!” We were, in fact, more or less right next to them. Specifically, we were sitting on a bench that was installed right near their table, facing away from it. Our backs were turned to them, sure, but that was all we had going for us stealth-wise.
“It’s not as bad as you’re making it sound,” she argued. “It’s not like we’re all that distinctive from behind or anything.”
“What, a looker like you? I could pick you out of a crowd from the back of your head, no sweat.”
“O-Oh, really...? I could do the same with you, though!”
“Is this a competition now?” Kiryu took a bite out of her sandwich and pointedly didn’t reply. The conversation ground to a halt.
Ayase and Yuuta, in contrast, were still merrily chatting away as they enjoyed their happy little lunchtime. Nothing in their conversation was particularly interesting, though I did take note of how Yuuta was extolling the virtues of Ayase’s lunch box with the tone and vocabulary of a gourmet food reviewer.
“They sound like they’re having fun,” noted Kiryu with a slight smile.
“Oh, huh. Didn’t think you were the type to care about whether or not other people enjoy stuff.”
“Do you want to get pinched again?”
“Oh, Kiryu-sama, how wondrous a person you are! Oh, how my heart is moved by your kindness and affection!” Yup, there’s the carrot and stick again. She’s got me for sure. “But yeah, agreed. Kind of a relief to see them like this.”
“Right... Now then, about yesterday. Explain.”
“You really don’t let yourself get sidetracked, do you?” That said, I couldn’t completely dodge the question. As long as I left out all the bargain-bin fantasy novel nonsense about magic and alternate worlds, it’d probably be fine to fill her in.
So I did! I tinkered with the details, of course—the way I framed it to her, I’d bumped into Kazuki mid-chase and ended up letting the old creeper escape as a result, but all that running cleared my head and I ended up getting over the whole debacle when all was said and done.
Kiryu looked more than a touch skeptical. “Really? You’re telling the truth?”
“Yeah, and I know, it’s hard to believe. I barely even believe it myself, and I was there.” It ranked so low on the plausibility scale, even I had to admit it. If going for a run to clear your head was enough to heal that sort of emotional damage, all the therapists of the world would’ve been better off going into sports instruction instead.
“By the way, who is this ‘Kazuki’ person?”
“You don’t know her? First-year, genius runner, ace of the track team?”
“I don’t know any of the first-years. I mean, except for Ayase-kun’s sister. She’s the only one I ever come into contact with.”
“Huh, weird. Thought she was pretty famous...” You didn’t have to be tuned in to the rumor mill to have heard about how she figuratively kicked the crap out of the rest of the track team right after she started at our school. All the more so considering her looks! On the other hand, it wasn’t all that surprising that somebody like Kiryu wouldn’t know about her if she didn’t have any specific, personal connection with her.
“So then,” Kiryu continued, “you decided that our concern about you was less important than spending quality time with this beautiful track star?”
“I mean, if you’re trying to make it sound nasty, I guess you could say that.”
“Of course I am.”
I hesitated. “Are you, uhh, angry?”
“Angry? Why should I have to be angry with the likes of you?” Yup, she’s angry all right. That’s the sort of roundabout phrasing people only use when they’re genuinely pissed. She sighed, then continued. “You’re unbelievable, really. I don’t know why I bothered worrying in the first place.”
“Sorry about that.”
“I ended up wasting the better part of a day and half a sandwich on top of that.”
“Sorry about that too.” Time is money, and grudges over food can get pretty scary. I was in an incredibly disadvantageous position.
“You’ll have to compensate me appropriately, of course.”
“Sorry about...huh?”
“I don’t like leaving debts unclaimed. Y-You have to pay back at least as much as you borrow, right?” She was talking noticeably faster than usual and avoiding eye contact to boot. She sounded like a clerk at a national bank or something. Not that I’ve ever talked with one of those. “S-So I’ll give you the chance to pay me back someday soon! You’ll be treating me to a meal, of course.”
“O-Okaaay? Sure...” I wasn’t totally sold on her logic—hell, I’m not even totally sure I understood it—but her face lit up at my response, so it looked like she wasn’t angry anymore, at least.
“I’ll look forward to it, then!”
“G-Great.”
At that point she jumped up off the bench, apparently having said her piece. She almost looked like she was skipping as she left the courtyard. If I didn’t know better, I’d have probably gotten the wrong idea... But before I could follow that train of thought any further, it was blown from my mind as I heard Yuuta start yelping behind me.
“Ahh! Oh jeez, we’re in trouble, Hikari-chan! Our fifth-period class is in a different room than usual! We gotta move all our stuff!”
“I moved my things already, actually...”
“You what?! Traitor!”
“Oh, come on, really?”
“Anyway, we’ve gotta get back to the classroom! C’mon, hurry, hurry!”
“Wait, don’t run! You’re going to trip!” They almost sounded like a mother and her tragically dim, misbehaving child. A moment later, Yuuta sprinted right past me. Thanks to the back of my head being thoroughly nondescript, she didn’t notice me at all and ran off on her way without even pausing to look.
“Really, that girl...” Ayase followed along after her. Needless to say, she didn’t take note of me either. She couldn’t, in any case—her memories of me were dead and gone, so even if she happened to turn around and look at me, she wouldn’t pay me any mind.
And then, at just the right moment, a sudden gust blew through the courtyard. It wasn’t one of those mischievous bursts that come up from below and flip skirts, though. Just a perfectly normal, unremarkable gust. More of a breeze, even—a pleasant, refreshing wind to relieve us of the summer heat for the slightest of moments.
And yet that pleasant breeze caused Ayase to stop in her tracks. It had been just enough of a disturbance to make her drop the little case she kept her chopsticks in. She crouched down to grab it, glanced up, and, by pure coincidence, our eyes met.
“Ah...”