The two girls boarded the evening train and rode it to a town some distance away. They sat next to each other, speaking in low tones so the other passengers wouldn’t hear them.
“Sorry to make you come with me, Kumori. I know the train ticket wasn’t cheap.”
“Don’t worry about it, Hinata. I just hope your plan works. I hope…that you get your revenge.”
Hinata nodded and slipped her hand into her coat pocket. Her fingers closed around the plastic bag with her “weapon” inside it. Her breath quickened with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.
From the seat next to her, Kumori took Hinata’s other hand and squeezed it reassuringly. They sat there, holding hands while the train rattled on through town after town as the sun slowly sank into the horizon.
✦ ✦ ✦
Six Months Earlier…
Hinata and Kumori were on their way home from their elementary school and noticed a strange vending machine outside a drugstore.
“Hey, Kumori, look. What do you think this stuff is?”
“Huh? Injury Peeling Cream?”
The two of them looked at the product behind the display window, both tilting their heads in confusion. That cream seemed to be the only thing the machine was selling. The display sample was in a box with no other information, so the name was all they had to go by.
“Must be some kind of medical thing. Like, it’ll heal your injuries so fast it’ll be like you peeled them right off!” Hinata said to Kumori.
“Hmm…”
“Maybe we should take some home for the others. The younger kids are always getting scrapes and bruises, you know? They might like something like this. And also—”
“I don’t know about that. It’s only a hundred yen. I can’t help but wonder if something that cheap is even going to work.”
Hinata nodded. What Kumori was saying made sense.
“Besides, there’s no need for us to buy them anything,” Kumori added with a small smile. “There’s plenty of real medical supplies in the nurse’s office, after all.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
It was a good point, but Hinata still didn’t want to let it go.
“Come on, Hinata,” Kumori urged. “Let’s head home.”
“Right…”
Hinata turned away from the vending machine. But then somebody called out to her.
“Aww, aren’t you gonna buy any Injury Peeling Cream?”
Hinata turned to see a girl she didn’t recognize standing there. A girl with a really flashy sense of style. Her hair was entirely silver, and she wore a neon-pink hoodie so bright it almost hurt to look at it. Over her right eye, she wore an eye patch that same shade of pink, with a crossed-through heart on it. She looked about the same age as Hinata and Kumori, or maybe a little bit older.
“This cream is really great stuff, you know,” the girl said. “You just smear it onto a place where you’re hurt and peel it right off. You can use it to remove any injury, no matter how bad it is…or how old it is.”
She finished that last part with a smirk.
Hinata felt herself getting mad. The girl in pink had been looking at Kumori when she said that—she was laughing at her. At the big burn scar on her face.
A cream that can peel off any wound or scar? As if, thought Hinata.
There was no way something like that existed. This girl was obviously lying to them. But why?
Did she see Kumori’s scar and decide to come up with this to make fun of her? Well, I won’t let her get away with that!
Hinata took her coin purse out of her pocket and put a hundred-yen coin into the vending machine.
“H-hey, Hinata…”
Kumori tried to stop her, but it was too late. Hinata pressed the button, and a box of the cream clattered into the drawer at the bottom of the machine. She picked it up and thrust it toward the silver-haired girl.