She held herself up against the side of the door, like a special forces squad about to infiltrate a room a criminal had shut themselves up in, before reaching out just her hand and opening the door.
“Uhyaah...?!”
A girl fell down onto the floor with a painful-sounding thud, along with her scream. She must have been leaning on the door outside.
“Murata-san...?” Kyouhei muttered as he looked at the girl twitching on the floor.
With another yell, Sanae flicked herself up from the floor like a click beetle into a kneeling position.
“I-I’m okay... I wasn’t doing anything, um... I really wasn’t. I didn’t panic when I was following you and Pamil-chan and lost sight of you, and I wasn’t peeking into shops looking for you, okay?!”
Kyouhei sighed.
“You dropped something,” he told her, looking around her.
Her bag had burst open when she fell, the contents spilling out.
There were candles, a nail... amongst other things.
“Ahhhhh... T-Those are...!”
“...Is that a nail?” asked Kyouhei, picking it up. “What’s... What’s a nail doing in a girl’s bag?”
“Um, that’s, uh, um, I use it to, uh, not with a strawman... right, I do woodwork! I do woodwork as a hobby! Ah hah, hah, ahahaha!” Sanae said desperately.
Kyouhei sighed again. He didn’t think that fit her image, but decided not to question others’ hobbies.
That’s when...
“Murata-san?” he asked, staring steadily at the nail.
“Y-Yes...?!”
“Can I borrow this for a minute?”
“Wha...?”
Then, with a pop, the lid came off the tea tin.
A thick coin wouldn’t, but the pointed tip of a nail easily got between the lid and the tin. Then, all he needed to do was use it as a lever.
“Thank you, Kyouhei-kun, I appreciate it!”
Kyouhei passed the tin to Kaoruko and then looked back to Pamil.
“See?” he asked her.
Pamil was silent. He’d meant it to say “A girl doesn’t need superhuman strength in day-to-day life, see?”
“Pamil-chan?” Sanae called to her.
“...Ah, it’s... nothing,” she answered with a blank expression, shaking her head.
● ● ●
Accidents were sudden things in most cases. It was that suddenness that made them accidents; if there was a clear sign beforehand, then someone could do something about it.
Therefore, as many that went before it, this accident also happened out of nowhere.
“...What?!”
Screams sounded through the shopping district, as well as an almighty crash.
Kyouhei and the others stood there in confusion for a moment, but then immediately left Kaoruko’s side to go outside.
“That’s...”
The accident had happened several meters away, in front of a shuttered store.
There was a performer dressed as a clown sprawled on the floor.
They had seen that performer before, or rather, passed by his performance before they entered the store.
He had been juggling nearly a dozen plastic balls as he walked around smoothly, so that you could feel the skill needed as he spun the balls through the air.
Now, though...
The balls were scattered away from their owner, and one of them was still rolling on the ground until it came to rest by their feet.
There was a huge figure above the clown, in the form of an angel over two meters in height. It had been a decoration on the wall of the shop.
“It’s fallen!” someone screamed.
It had been hanging on a wall, so it probably wasn’t metal or stone, but if it was used as signage, then it would still be relatively hard. And even if it was made out of light materials, put enough of them together for a two-meter humanoid figure, and it certainly wouldn’t be light anymore.
Having that fall on your head could easily be enough to be lethal.
The clown trapped beneath it was motionless. The people around were filled with the premonition of a grisly end to the man.
“It’s dangerous, you two stay here!” Kyouhei warned the two girls with him before running off.
He was probably going to help move the figure. They couldn’t see what state the clown was in, but if he’d broken a rib, then leaving the heavy mass on top of him could make it puncture his lung. They had to get it off of him as soon as possible.
But then...
“Pamil-chan?” Sanae addressed her curiously.
Pamil... was standing stock-still with a pale face. It looked like her pretty face was about to twist up into tears, but that might have just been Sanae’s interpretation.
“What’s wrong, Pamil-chan?”
“...I’m...” she groaned out before falling silent again.
Looking at her, Sanae thought that she was concerned about Kyouhei’s safety. He might only be helping to move the heavy figure, but that was still dangerous. He’d probably told them to stay there to avoid them getting caught up as secondary victims.
“Are you worried about Senpai? It’s okay he’ll—”
“No!”
Sanae froze at the sharp yell. “Pamil-chan...?”
“Ah... no...” she said, her eyes falling to the floor and her expression clouding over, “it’s nothing... nothing at... all...”
Her words were muttered towards her feet.
● ● ●
The journey home was tense, and it certainly wasn’t just because of the sun setting in the eastern skies.
Onwards, the three of them trudged.
After the ruckus in the shopping district, Sanae had ended up joining them on their way home.
“I... I’m glad the clown guy wasn’t too hurt,” Sanae said brightly, not being able to stand the heavy atmosphere, but knowing that this wouldn’t help.
The clown wasn’t on the verge of death or anything. The arm of the figure had happened to act as a support, and he’d been stuck in the space between it and the ground. As a result, he’d ended up just having a relatively light impact. He’d gone to the hospital just in case, but he’d got into the ambulance under his own power.
And yet...
“The fixings were, uh, apparently pretty old; that was close.”
There was no response.