Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 1 - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 Isosceles Triangle

Never before had anyone run away from me in such showy fashion. 
Even now that Adachi had left, the TV remained on, with me still facing it. There was a slight depression in the futon between my legs where she had sat. Thinking back to Adachi's face—redder than a goldfish and slightly blue by the end—I couldn't help but wonder what had been going on with her. It felt like she had wanted to say something, but the words had gotten stuck in her throat. What was something she'd have that much trouble saying? What would be hard for Adachi to say? Well, for example... 
"Hmm..." 
No, there was no way it was that, right? 
"Shabadaba!" 
My little sister entered the room. She was in fourth grade of elementary school, yet I was still lumped with her in a "kids' room". I had an inkling that us being sisters is what made our parents think that this was fine; had I been a boy, we probably would've gotten our own rooms a long time ago. Armed with a portable heater and an electric fan, I occasionally took refuge in the storage room next door for late night studies, though it did come with the cost of having to breathe in a lot of dust. 
"She's not here? Nope." 
Having taken a look around the room—to check whether or not Adachi was still there, presumably—my sister slid in front of the TV. I watched as she picked up from the floor the controller she'd dropped, still connected to the console. Was she planning to resume playing the game from earlier? Just as I thought that, she turned my way. 
"Let's play, Sis." 
"Huh?" 
She always wanted to play with me despite the fact that she sucked. To make matters worse, she got grumpy whenever she lost and stopped speaking to me, meaning that I had to go easy on her and occasionally let her win. It was kinda tedious, honestly. Especially right now. 
"Well, good luck." 
Not waiting for my reply, she turned the TV on, changed it to the right channel, and pushed the console's power button. Eager, were we now? 
"Well, I guess I have to", I mumbled as I grabbed the controller. As I did, she instantly hopped between my legs and leant against me. I normally wouldn't have thought anything about this, but right now, it caused my heart to groan. The reason was simple: it reminded me of what had happened with Adachi moments earlier. 
This wasn't a weird thing to do, was it? Adachi's strange behaviour had planted a seed of suspicion in me. 
"That person left pretty quick, huh?" 
"She sure did", I answered absent-mindedly, my chin resting on her head. Now that I thought about it, she really hadn't stayed for all that long. Kinda made me wonder why she had even bothered to come in the first place. 
"Did you have a falling out with her?" 
"Hmm, I'm really not sure myself." 
The game my sister had chosen for us was a competitive puzzle one. Colourful orbs fell from the top of the screen one after another. When you connected four orbs of the same colour, they disappeared, and the goal of the game was to pile them up in a way that they disappeared in a chain. Just dropping them down randomly, you could sometimes get a two or three chain to happen on its own. That's what I was doing, and from the looks of it, my sister was as well. 
Should I have played something like this with Adachi? Kinda late to be thinking about it now, I suppose. 
My whole life was filled with moments of regret just like this one, yet I was utterly incapable of utilizing my experiences in any sort of meaningful way. 
Even if I found myself in a situation completely like one I'd been in previously, I likely wouldn't recognize that in time. I was conscious of my lack of interest in most things, at least on some level. 
I never played games by myself. Neither did I read books, nor go see movies. I barely went shopping either, and those rare times I did, it was mostly just to buy clothes whenever the seasons changed. Adachi had once asked me how I spent my days off, but honestly, I hadn't really known how to answer her. A lot of the time I just, sat there. 
That was to say, my choices were limited. Well, not that there even were enough answers for me to be able to choose. Sometimes, my fingers looked thin, really thin. I never felt well when that happened. 
What about now? Was it my fingers that tapered off like a dead end leading nowhere, or perhaps something else? 
Whatever was happening with Adachi was a mystery to me, one that I couldn't bring myself to solve. 
Those thoughts took all my focus, and for once, my little sister won without me deliberately allowing her to do so. I could feel her celebrate below my chin. 
Briefly, I pulled my body back. 
"Hey", I said, prompting my sister to look around. I had my index finger ready, and as soon as she turned, I poked her soft cheek with it. To be perfectly honest, I'd been planning to do this to Adachi, but she had turned around herself before I'd gotten the opportunity. Wanting to dispel any lingering regrets, I had tested it out, and who knew, it'd worked perfectly. 
Good going, Sis. 
"Instant-kill headbutt!" 
"Gah!" 
Launching a counter attack, the girl tilted her neck and headbutted me. 
My chin throbbed intensely, and the resulting shock wave of pain travelled all the way to my temple. 
Needless to say, the use of such a special move earned her a thorough punishment after I recovered. 

Taking the events of yesterday into consideration, I had anticipated that Adachi might come here, and arrived a little earlier myself. I was still waiting as the bell indicating the start of the first class rang. Sitting on the second floor of the gym by myself, I checked the clock. 
It was 9 o'clock, give or take. I stared at it for a while. Maybe it was still too early for her? That was the conclusion I came to, and I sat back down. It wasn't like she had promised to come or anything, yet for some reason, it felt like she had. Why? Gripping my toes and pulling them together, I pondered this while rolling back and forth like a daruma doll. As I did that, it began feeling like this was the natural flow of things, her not coming. She really was blowing this out of proportion. What had even happened? Nothing. 
I got up and pulled my bag to me. Grabbing my phone, I decided to message Adachi. 
We had exchanged numbers when we first became acquainted, though I hadn't really used hers for anything till now. We saw each other in school every weekday, and even then we could barely keep up a conversation and fell silent a lot of the time. As such, there wasn't really anything for me to call or text her about. Still, I supposed it was good to have her number for times like these. My fingers paused as I wondered what I should write. 
"Why did you leave yesterday?" 
A little too direct, perhaps? I could definitely see her taking this as me being mad at her. I needed something softer, something that Adachi might actually reply to. 
"Hmm..." 
In any case, once I got a reply from her, this whole mess would be over. That's how it felt to me. As such... 
"Are you feeling okay? Wanna meet?" 
After thinking about it for a while, this was the message I came up with. Personally, I was feeling perfectly fine. Send. 
I placed my phone on top of my bag and waited for a reply. Just then, I realised something: I had forgotten to put my phone on silent. I was currently skipping class, after all. I quickly fixed my mistake and hunkered down. 
Gripping my hair and stroking it between my fingers, I could feel the muscles around my mouth grow tense. 
If yesterday was to be the last day Adachi ever came to school, would that be my fault? No, that was a dumb question. What had I even done? Adachi had gotten all flustered on her own, and in a way, I couldn't help but see her as a cat, unable to get down from a tree it had climbed. Perhaps it was Adachi herself who had caused this all to happen. Still, whatever the reason or cause might be, the fact remained that she was unable to climb down. And if you wanted to change that, your only option was to put assigning blame aside and start working on moving. 
What I really wanted to say was, stop being such a shut-in. 
Not that I had any clue how much of one she was. 
"You're weak, Adachi." 
In the end, I waited till lunch break without receiving a reply from the weakling in question. 

Loitering into the classroom in the middle of lunch break earned me a few looks. I obviously wasn't walking with my hands on my hips like some big shot or anything like that, but even so, everyone whose eyes I met instantly looked away. Were they afraid of me? I wasn't really good at telling. What I did have a sharp eye for was whether or not my sister was making fun of me, but that was a whole other issue. 
I soon found the two people who weren't afraid of me. 
"Ooh", Hino reacted as I approached her and Nagafuji. "So, you were here, huh? Wait, I feel like I said something similar yesterday." 
Holding a piece of onion between her chopsticks, Hino tilted her head. 
"Yep, you did", I replied back while taking a seat next to them. The two had brought their own lunches with them today which they had spread on the desk. 
Hino's lunch was mostly potato stew with meat and rice. I really felt like she'd taken the leftovers of yesterday's dinner and shoved them all there. Nagafuji's, on the other hand, consisted of multiple omelets. They looked delicious and I asked if I could have one, but with a stern look on her face, she pretended not to hear me. How rude. Had she already forgotten who ate her carrots for her yesterday? Well, we were talking about Nagafuji, so there was a chance. Did she scrub her head a little too hard in the bath each night? 
Leaving that aside, I turned my eyes towards the classroom's entrance. Adachi's empty seat really stood out. 
"Adachi's not coming, is she?" 
"She said she's taking a day off", Hino replied. 
"Really?" Nagafuji tilted her head, as was the norm. 
"She said she caught a cold." 
"Pretending to be sick, are we?" 
I sighed with relief. It seemed that Adachi was just being her usual self. I had to admit, some part of me had been a little worried that she might have gotten into an accident while rushing home. Thankfully, those worries had been lifted. 
"Since you were both missing, I thought you might have been skipping class again at the gym", Hino spoke. I lifted my index finger to indicate that it was just me today. 
"It's not like we're always together or anything." 
"Really? I think you mostly stick together, though", Nagafuji objected, in a manner that invited misunderstanding. 
"Not really", I denied, all the while feeling a little flustered. Did it really look like that from the outside? Holding hands, sitting side by side... Maybe we did stick together. Well, those were all things that Adachi had wanted to do. At the same time, I'd been the one to accept them, so it would have been a little odd to say that I was against it somehow. 
"Did you eat anything, Shimaa?" 
"Stop it with the nicknames already... Actually, no, I don't think I have." 
Mom never made me lunch, and as she knew that I didn't take studying seriously, she probably wouldn't have made it even if I had asked. It was ultimately my fault, so I rarely even spoke about it. 
I had never seen Adachi bring lunch with her either. Made sense; she wasn't on great terms with her parents from what I'd heard. There really were those parts to Adachi that I kept getting glimpses of, warped parts, or perhaps twisted. She'd acted far less friendly when we first met, which had given me the impression of indifference. 
"Really now? You must be starving. Here, say 'aah'!" 
Much like yesterday, it was a piece of carrot again. If you don't like them, just tell them to not put them in. 
Well, she probably did do that, but they likely just ignored her. 
In turn, Nagafuji's chopsticks wandered above her lunch box. 
"She'll eat anything!" 
"Do you just see me as a walking organics bin?" 
"No, no. I'm doing this out of love for you. Here comes eggs." 
"Whoa!" 
I spent the break surrounded by my sweet friends. That's what I decided. 
Cleaning time came next, which I spent idling in the hallway with a broom in my hands. I checked my phone when I thought no one was looking, only to find that I still hadn't gotten a reply from Adachi. 
I decided to try sending her another one myself. 
It did feel pretty boring to just leave her be, after all. 
"I was thinking about coming over to your place. Would you mind, Adachi?" 
No reply. Still, Adachi was nice, so she'd probably let me in if I went there, right? 
Probably. 

I came up with various reasons for why Adachi hadn't replied during the afternoon classes. 
First: she was simply ignoring me. 
Second: she still hadn't decided what to write. 
And third: she just hadn't noticed my messages. This seemed like the most likely option. 
If it really was the first one, that'd be pretty depressing, even for me. Although, realistically, it'd only take around three days for me to accept it and move on. At the same time, I knew well how saying something like that made me look, which is why I had no plans of telling anyone. 
The map Adachi had drawn for me when I went to visit her house the other day was still in my bag. I quickly found it, folded in half. It was a pretty long walk there, but if I couldn't contact her through phone, my only option was to meet her in person. I was sure that once we met and talked for a bit, we could settle this issue. 
Human relationships were always born naturally, by themselves, and in a way, I couldn't help but feel that there was something wrong about spending effort on them. Though I was reluctant to do so, once school ended, I set out in the opposite direction of where I usually went. For a while, I'd just be walking, with nothing to do. You'd think that this would be right up my alley. 
Thinking about myself from an outside perspective, I stared up at the cloudy sky. I couldn't see any blue today, just grey. Temperature-wise it was also a bit colder than yesterday, which—combined with it being late October—could indicate that autumn was finally about to kick in. Summer had lingered pretty late this year. It was still warm at the second floor of the gym. Once it eventually did get cold, Adachi and I would likely forget about that place, like baby birds leaving behind their original nest. 
I passed by a group of elementary school students at the road through the residential area. They spoke in loud, high-pitched voices, completely oblivious to their surroundings. Some of the kids were also playing the recorder while walking, perhaps preparing for an upcoming test. What freedom. I wasn't all that jealous, just a little intrigued. I'd been a good girl, you see. 
"Hello", I suddenly heard someone greet me. 
"Huh?" 
I quickly turned to the direction of the voice. I then took a step back. 
Next to me stood a petite little girl. Pretty weird. What's weird, you ask? Her hair, that's what. 
Her hair was blue. I stood there frozen, completely taken aback. 
Blue. And this wasn't an optical illusion or a trick of the light or anything like that. No, that would've been a different colour. Her hair danced in the wind despite it not even being all that windy, and I could almost see some sort of tiny particles flowing from it. 
That was the kind of person who had greeted me. Who was she? I had no idea. 
"Sorry, who are you?" 
"Oh, you don't recognize me?" 

The girl tilted her head before running off somewhere. She disappeared behind the corner of a distant house, and after a few moments, returned with a helmet on her head. Its visor reflected light, and I couldn't see through. And yet, it was just the clue I needed to recognize her. Though she wasn't wearing the space suit, this person was undoubtedly Yashiro. 
"So, this is what was inside the suit, huh?" 
"Khooh, khooh, khooh!" 
Her breathing was heavier than usual. Running with that thing on her head seemed to have exhausted her. This being perhaps too much for even Yashiro herself, she removed the helmet, causing her blue hair to once again become visible. 
Though it was my second time seeing it, the sight still managed to overwhelm me. Her hair was like a rift to an alternative dimension. That's how much it stood out, how sharp the contrast between it and everything else was. Now that I looked at it, her face was pretty cute, too. Her eyelashes were the same vivid blue as her hair, and so were her eyes. A constant stream of blue particles circulated inside her, and I could even see some shooting out. It was those particles that gave various parts of her body their blueish colour. They felt powerful, like a source of energy, but also fleeting. 
"I really wish you would've recognized me just by my voice." 
Yashiro tapped the helmet, now carried under her arm. She sounded like a completely different being now that her voice was no longer muffled. 
What she'd been wearing under the space suit was a dress. It exposed her shoulders, emphasizing just how slender and pale she was. On one of her feet she was wearing a sneaker with a manufacturer logo I'd never seen before, and on the other nothing. Also, her free hand—the one that wasn't holding the helmet—was placed on her hip. 
She looked young enough for me to easily imagine her wearing an elementary school backpack. And yet, no such backpack was anywhere to be seen. 
"I thought I'd show my face to you now that it's done. What do you think?" 
"What do I think? I'd... I'd prefer if you didn't ask me that." 
I was at a complete loss for words. Looking at it closely, even her lips glimmered with faint blue light. It was impossible to claim this colour to be makeup. I tried wiping her lips with my finger as a test, but nothing came off. Dim particles danced around the tip of my finger for a few moments after I touched her before soon vanishing. My eyes once again opened wide. What was this? I came close to gripping Yashiro's hair and interrogating her but, but somehow managed to resist the urge. 
"I modelled it after the face of an Earthling." 
"You're trying to mock the Earth? So, umm... no more space suit for you?" 
I had to wonder where she'd gotten the helmet, but whatever. 
"Hmm..." Yashiro murmured with her finger pressed against her temple. "Yep. I was under the impression that everyone on this planet dressed like that, but from the looks of it, it seems to be a bit more uncommon of an outfit than I thought." 
"'Uncommon'? Try 'non-existent'." 
Well, I suppose there was one group of people who I sometimes saw wearing one on TV: astronauts. 
"As such— Oops." 
Yashiro quickly placed her hands on her mouth. Then, after closing it, she proceeded to hop up and down in place, all the while clapping her now-extended hands together in front of me. 
"What are you doing?" 
"Please, your ear. No one else can hear." 
"Sigh..." 
Turns out, she'd been after my ear. She wasn't going to grab it and pull it, was she? I wouldn't put it past her. I bent my knees and brought my eyes down to her level, and Yashiro in turn brought her face close to mine. The soft particles emitting from her enveloped my nose, as if visualizing smell. Yashiro's face was now right next to me, and its outline shimmered, as if her body was emitting light. Staring at her made me feel anxious that the light might swallow me, but at the same time, there was something fascinating about it. 
"Whisper, whisper", she said, her mouth pressed against my ear. Was that part really necessary? 
"I'm actually an alien from the future." 
"Yes, yes. You already told me that." 
I had to admit, it would be bad if someone heard her say that. They might start to question if she was sane. 
Regardless, her appearance did lend some credence to her words. On some level, I began to wonder if she really was speaking the truth. 
"If people find out that I'm an alien, they're gonna dissect me." 
"What? Dissect you? You have some pretty serious prejudices about Earth people." 
To be fair, I felt like I'd watched a TV program where the United States released footage of an alien autopsy or something like that when I was young. I remember my mom—who'd been watching it with me—laughing hysterically and holding her stomach. Looking at it now, I could see why she had found it so funny, but back then, I'd been really grossed out by the idea of an autopsy. 
"As such, I've decided to leave those clothes behind to make sure that I don't stand out." 
Done explaining, Yashiro pulled her head away. Sure, I get it. Just stop looking so darn proud of yourself already. 
"Hate to break it to you, but you still stand out." 
A significant portion of the elementary school students passing us by had their eyes on Yashiro. Made sense. She stood out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the townscape, as if someone had taken two photos and combined them badly. Her hairstyle was pretty weird too, now that I looked at it. It was tied into a bow behind. And I don't mean a decorative bow or anything like that. No, it was a bow made of her hair. 
She was beautiful enough to bring to mind the blue butterflies of faraway lands. That's also what the bow seemed to be modelled after, and— Wait, hold on. Was it really okay to tie your hair like that? The knot looked pretty tight. 
"Doesn't that hurt?" 
"I tied it too tight, and now I can't undo it." 
I yanked the knot, and she let out a sharp scream. Despite her miraculous appearance, she didn't differ much from my little sister once you got past that. Around the same height, too. They'd probably make good friends if they met. 
On a second thought, no, that probably wouldn't work. She'd likely shrivel and run away once she saw the colour of her hair. 
"You're on your way home from school, correct? You don't smell nearly as sweet today." 
Pulling the sleeve of my uniform, Yashiro sniffed my fingers. She probably meant the smell of doughnuts, huh? 
"Hands off me!" I shouted as I shook her off, with a tone of voice like something straight from a period drama. She'd been pulling pretty hard, and my blazer had come close to falling off my shoulder. 
"Lii-laa", was the sound Yashiro made as she spun off. 
She was surprisingly carefree. Or rather, no matter how you looked at it, she clearly wasn't an alien. 
"Still. Hoo, hoo, hoo." 
Having returned, Yashiro was now jumping around me, staring at me intensely. She stood on tiptoes, rotated behind me. The passing school children still had their eyes on her, as well as on me. One way or the other, she really did stand out. 
With every hop she took, blue particles scattered in the air, drawing a river of stars. After a while, Yashiro stopped in front of me. 
She then gave me an innocent grin, one that exposed her teeth. 
"I can feel that we're bound by destiny." 
"Is that so?" 
There wasn't much weight behind my answer. I'd just said the first thing that had come to mind. Really, how was I supposed to reply to something like that? 
Based on her appearance, I could definitely buy Yashiro carrying with her a grandiose destiny or two. As for me, however, my goal was just to be a normal high school girl. Dyeing my hair had caused my little sister to start calling me a delinquent, and Mom had also used some words which in retrospect might not have been quite so nice, but other than that, mostly normal. 
"You were likely born so that you could meet me. That's what I think." 
It was quite shocking to have her suddenly start talking about destiny and such. 
While confused, I decided to think about her words, really chew on them. Hmm. 
"Huh? I was? Are you sure you're not the one born to meet me?" 
Not that that would've been any less strange. Having a cute girl say something like that to me, it felt kinda weird, honestly. 
"No, can't be. I have plenty of other missions too, you see." 
With a firm look on her face, Yashiro shook off my suggestion. I was a little offended: it sounded like she was calling me an idler with nothing else to do. I gripped her cheek, and pulled. 
"Hohoho! Ih won'h worh!" 
A fearless smile remained on Yashiro's face. No matter how much I pulled and twisted her soft cheek, it didn't seem to hurt her; her face already looked like that of a flying squirrel, yet she appeared to be completely fine. At the same time, yanking her hair knot—which, looked at from the front, resembled an ?-symbol peeking from behind her head—had made her scream. As one might have expected, her hair wasn't soft. I released Yashiro after playing with her face for a while. 
For the next few moments, a faint light danced on top of my palm. 
This time, I was too enthralled by its beauty to wonder what the heck it was. Although, I did do that too. 
"Oh, right. I was in the middle of procuring dinner", Yashiro stated, having stopped stroking her hair to look at the sky. She seemed to have done so to check the time, despite the sun not even being visible due to all the clouds. Also, "procuring dinner"? Just what kind of a life did she live? 
She was far too clean for me to imagine that she lived on the street. That seemed extremely unlikely. 
"We'll probably meet again, I think. Now, unty unty, until next timey." 
Those were Yashiro's parting words. She waved at me before turning around and running off. 
Her hair flapped like the wings of a butterfly as she ran. 
The trail of fluttering particles she left behind her caught my attention. I was reminded of a fairy, like Tinker Bell or something. Although, she was pretty vulgar for a fairy. Or perhaps gluttonous would be a better way to describe it. 
Her free-minded attitude combined with the rest of her to form a pretty mysterious package. I found it hard to believe that I shared a town with someone like her. 
"Now then..." 
Should I go over to Adachi's place? Though my meeting with Yashiro did make it feel like I'd finished something, the truth was, I hadn't even started yet. 

I reached Adachi's house without too much trouble. For one last time, I checked my phone. Alright, no reply. Ding dong. 
I did think about whether or not I should state my name into the intercom, but before I could come to a conclusion, I heard the sound of the door opening. 
"Yes?" Adachi asked as she pushed the door open, sounding completely unenthusiastic, as if she'd just woken up. Pretty careless of her to not check who was on the other side of it first. 
"Yo", I greeted her shortly, slightly lifting my hand. Adachi—who had been rubbing her eyes—instantly froze. 
I couldn't help but laugh at her appearance. She was wearing a worn-out t-shirt with a picture of a trunkless elephant on it, and her bed hair was horribly messy. It was clear that she'd been sleeping the whole day, and in a way, I felt jealous of her. Little by little, Adachi's eyes grew larger and larger. 
She then slammed the door on me without a word. Her movements were the exact reverse of her previous ones, as if someone had pushed the rewind button. 
"Hey, wait." 
"Give me 15 minutes!" 
"Huh? That's so long." 
I could hear her footsteps along the hallway as she sprinted back inside. Looked like I really was going to be made to wait. I quickly surveyed the surroundings for any neighbours; standing in front of someone's house for that long was bound to make me look suspicious. 
"Help me! Open up!" I yelled as a joke as I pounded the door. The lack of reply made it clear that she wasn't going to open, however, and so I slumped down against the door. Sitting there, I pulled out my phone and checked it, only to find out that it was already past 4 O'clock. Just as expected, walking here really had taken a while. In addition, I had also come across the weird shiny person. 
By this point, all those particles of light had vanished from my palm. Seemed that the mystery surrounding Yashiro wasn't of the contagious type. If I shone like that too I wouldn't need to wear makeup, I thought, though whether or not it'd look good on me was a whole other question. In the olden times, it'd been the pretty things that had shone, but nowadays, you could find any piece of trash that did, and it didn't make them any more appealing. Wait, no, that came out wrong. I'm not saying that I'm trash. 
Anyway, back to reality. What was Adachi planning to do in those fifteen minutes? Change her clothes? Fix her hair? Quite the overreaction, if you asked me. She was just talking to me, not to someone important. At the same time, I could understand her feelings, why she disliked being seen in such an untidy state. There was a certain amount of discomfort associated with tearing down the mental image of yourself from school, or in this case, having someone tear it down for you. 
I killed the time by playing repeated rounds of single-player rock-paper-scissors and word chain. 
After what felt like an eternity, I felt the door push against my back and stood up. Adachi opened it in a far more reserved manner than the first time; only her face peeked out through the gap. 
She panted heavily, like she really had been rushing to get herself ready. In a way, her choice of fifteen minutes felt like the worst of both worlds: making me wait either zero or thirty minutes both seemed like they would've resulted in far less shame for her. Though she had fixed her bed hair, it was still quite messy due to all the running around she'd done. There was also another factor that completely baffled me. 
"Why did you put on your uniform?" 
"Well, I just, grabbed something", she stated while combing her hair with her hand, clearly embarrassed. Her cheeks were bright red and reminded me of yesterday. 
"You're going to school now?" 
"Stop that." 
At last, Adachi smiled a little. She then opened the door wide. 
I lowered my hand that'd been resting against it and took a good look at her. The expression on her face could best be described as a forced smile. 
"Still, I hope you never scare me again by showing up without a warning." 
"What do you mean, 'without a warning'? I messaged you." 
"Oh, really?" 
"Figures. You didn't read it, did you? Damn Adachi", I poked her head jokingly. After looking around for a bit, she nodded. 
"Well, yeah. I forgot my bag in your room, so..." 
"Oh, I see." 
In other words, Adachi's phone had been ringing in my room for no one to hear. 
"I barely use my phone, so I figured leaving it there wouldn't be that bothersome." 
Her reactions thus far had been quite ingenuous. However, her eyes suddenly shot wide open, as if she'd realised something. She took a step forward, almost like kicking the door flying with her knee. 
"My phone. Did you open it?" 
"Nope. I didn't even know you'd forgotten your bag till now." 
"Well, that's good." 
Adachi sighed in relief. What sort of top-secret information did she have stored in there? I found myself a little curious. 
"So, is that why you didn't come to school? Were you like, 'I don't have my bag, I can't go!'?" 
"I was just sleepy. It's your fault... in part. Kinda..." 
Really? Adachi dropped her gaze as if she had remembered something. Maybe it was just my imagination, but I could swear that her ears were slightly red. 
"Darn. I wish I'd noticed your bag so I could've brought it to you." 
"No, it's fine. I'll come to school tomorrow. You can give it to me then." 
"Sure, got it. I'll bring it. I also won't touch your phone, so relax." 
I laughed at my unfunny joke. Adachi didn't laugh at all. 
She simply mouthed to me, you better not look. 
Yeah, I won't, I nodded back. 
"What kind of message did you send?" 
"I just asked if you were okay." 
"Well then... I'm doing fine." 
Adachi bent her arms and struck a muscle pose. 
A split-second later she stopped, however, perhaps embarrassed. 
"One more time." 
"No." 
Getting my phone's camera ready, I asked her to do it again, but she instantly declined. Too bad. 
"Anyway, can I come in now? I don't like talking while standing." 
"Well, umm... I have work today", Adachi stated, like she was making an excuse. She might skip school, but she didn't skip work, huh? Well done... maybe? 
"I see. Okay, bye then." 
I'd seen her face, exchanged a few words, and solved the mystery of the messages. That was everything I'd come to do, right? No more business with her. 
"Oh, you're going already?" 
I'd already begun to turn around as Adachi pulled me back. Didn't you say you had work, was the look I gave her. She hastily replied. 
"There's still time. We could talk for a bit longer." 
"Hmm... Do we have anything to talk about though?" 
During moments like these, both Adachi and I always fell silent. Our interests didn't match, or rather, I didn't have any interests to match with hers. Most people of our age could at least complain about school and classes, but as we barely put any effort into that stuff, even that wasn't an option for us. 
"Bring up a topic or something, Adachi", I said, commanding her to fill the silence. It only made sense; she'd been the one to pull me back, after all. A worried expression quickly appeared on her face, as if the upper half of it had frozen. I could also see a faint smile. 
"A-Are you doing okay?" 
"Yep, I'm fine." 
I didn't strike a muscle pose. From how do you do into I'm fine and then thank you. 
"..." 
"..." 
In the end, I was the one to start a conversation. 
"You sure look well rested." 
I pointed at the bed hair she'd now combed away, causing Adachi to avert her eyes. 
"Yeah, I kinda happened to sleep late." 
"I'm pretty jealous. I was super tired during class." 
It'd felt like the teacher had been speaking gibberish, and it hadn't even been an English class. The gap was so wide that the slight studying I'd done simply wasn't enough for me to catch up. I really needed to bridge it soon. 
"By the way, has your cold gotten better?" I asked her snarkily. Adachi immediately coughed, clearly faking it. 
"It gets worse every time someone asks about it. A real mean one." 
"I better leave before I get infected then. I bet you wouldn't want that either, Adachi." 
"Oh, that was a lie. It's cured." 
The cold itself had probably been a lie too, but whatever. We both laughed before falling silent again. 
Though under normal circumstances I would've accepted that, today, I wouldn't allow it. No particular reason why. 
"Alright. Next topic, Adachi", I demanded. I made beckoning motions with my hand, and Adachi opened her mouth. 
The way her eyes moved around, restlessly, left a mark in my memory. 
"Umm, Shimamura." 
"Yes?" 
I didn't actually think she had anything to talk about. After a few moments of waiting, she finally mumbled: 
"Would you like to go on a da— go hang out with me? Next Saturday. Somewhere, I don't know." 
"Go hang out? Where?" I asked back. There were definitely parts of her statement that I'd found curious, but I simply chose to ignore them. 
"Anywhere's fine", she mumbled back. 
"You don't have work on Saturday?" 
"I do, but it's the night shift. I'll be free during the day." 
"Well... Okay then. As long as you choose where we're going." 
Adachi didn't seem to mind me leaving the tedious parts to her, and nodded with a happy-sounding "sure". 
"Anyway, I think I should get going. Good luck at work." 
Though not all that much time had passed since my first attempt to leave, it didn't seem like we had anything else to talk about. Adachi was perhaps satisfied too, and didn't move to stop me this time. Her hand had lifted against the door at some point. 
Saturday, huh? This would be the first time I went out with Adachi on a day off. 
Although, as far as Adachi was concerned, today had been a day off as well. Ahaha. 
"One last thing. Where did you buy that elephant t-shirt you were wearing?" 
"Please don't ask." 
With those as my parting words, I left her house. 
I'd been walking for about five minutes as I asked myself the following. 
"Just now, hadn't..." 
Hadn't she been about to say "date"? 
Could it really be? 

A giant mall served as our meeting place. A bench and a large tree, those were what we'd agreed to use as landmarks. I had thought about suggesting we meet in front of a Shimamura (the store) like a true masochist, but that didn't seem too fun, so I hadn't. 
A group of old men sat on the bench next to the tree. They were sipping coffee from paper cups, seemingly on a casual stroll. There were around six of them in total. I did wonder what sort of group they were at first, but after listening to their conversation for a while, I learned that they were heading to the bowling hall located within the mall. 
I'd gone there when it had first opened with my little sister. You could also play billiards and darts there. 
...Thinking that, I glanced to my side. She was still there. 
"Why are you here?" 
"Destiny." 
The way Yashiro pronounced that word—elongating the first vowel—always made me think she was about to say "delicious". 
For some reason, Yashiro had been here at our meeting spot. She wasn't wearing her helmet, nor the space suit for that matter. More precisely, she was sitting on the bench, staring at me as I stood next to her. Her arms were folded, who knows why. 
"We met without knowing that the other would be coming here. Looks like destiny really does exist." 
She let out a strange laugh while puffing her cheeks. Destiny again, huh? She sure liked throwing around that word. 
"The way you speak, are you reading a script or something?" 
"I've studied the basics of this country from these things called 'dramas'." 
"Figures. Destiny is a pretty common theme in those." 
In other words, she didn't really know what the word meant. Looking at her youthful facial features, she seemed even more oblivious than before. 
Her hairstyle was quite similar to the one from the other day, the only difference being that the butterfly knot appeared to be tied a little looser today. She possessed the ability to learn, huh? Her clothes, on the other hand, were completely different. She was wearing a blue skirt, as well as a t-shirt with the words "butt hair" written on its chest. 
"Are you a foreigner?" 
"No, I'm an alien from the future." 
Yashiro pumped out her chest, further emphasizing the "butt hair". I looked at it again. Wow. Butt hair. Of course, you were actually meant to read the characters as "Shikke", which was the name of a place around here. All the locals pronounced and spelled it like that without batting an eyelid, but when looking at it from an outside perspective, it was definitely amusing. Even I fell victim to it all the time. 
"By the way, what are you doing here?" 
"That's what I want to ask you... I'm meeting a friend." 
"I see, I see", Yashiro nodded. I was a little suspicious about whether or not she was even listening. 
"And you?" 
"I just happened to come. That's when I found you." 
"Hmph." 
"Destiny." 
"Yeah, yeah." 
Adachi soon appeared, putting an end to this meaningless exchange. 
The mall was pretty far away from her house. I had thought she might take the bus, but judging from how hard she was panting, it seemed more likely that she'd come by bike. She stopped, and with her hands on her knees, looked up to give me a smile. 
However, that smile quickly disappeared as she noticed Yashiro, standing next to me. 
"Ah, you are the person from the other day. Hello", she bowed politely. That's fine and all, but next time, try doing it in a way that your particles don't sprinkle everywhere. 
"Huh? Who's this?" 
Adachi was confused. Couldn't blame her, really. There was definitely more than one thing wrong here. 
"Should have brought that thing..." 
"Oh, great idea. Just one second, please." 
Surprisingly, Yashiro seemed to have understood what I meant, and disappeared behind a nearby corner. She then returned wearing the helmet, just like the last time. What sort of a magic trick was that? Trying to figure it out made my head hurt, and so I didn't. 
"Remember? It's the alien girl from before." 
"Hello!" 
The helmet still on her head, Yashiro waved both of her arms innocently. Something about it felt a little creepy, and so I removed it. 
It definitely had a feel to it. And, weight. Contrary to what her pulling it out from nowhere would suggest, this thing really wasn't an illusion. 
"Hmph..." 
I tried putting it on as a test. As I did, everything other than what was straight in front of me became dark. It was also really hard to breathe, and my head felt heavy. I turned towards Adachi, causing her to take a step backwards. 
"How is it?" 
"Definitely doesn't bring out your best qualities." 
Adachi took the helmet off this time. It was now in her hands, though it didn't look like she was planning to put it on. She looked at me, distressed, as if asking, what am I supposed to do with this? 
Just give it to her, I said with my eyes as I pointed them towards Yashiro. With trembling hands, Adachi presented it to her. Yashiro grabbed it and placed it under her arm. 
"What's your name?" she asked Adachi. Still trembling, she mumbled back an answer. 
"It's... Adachi. What about... you?" 
She looked at me, and then at Yashiro. How are you two connected, was what her eyes were asking. 
Acquaintances? Sure. Friends? Still kinda iffy on that one. 
"To put it simply, I'm an alien from the future." 
"...Shimamura, translate." 
"Just think of her as a quirky kid from the neighbourhood." 
Her true nature was beyond even my grasp. I wasn't quite naive enough to accept her words at face value, though at the same time, the blue particles made it impossible for me to simply close my eyes and deny them. They floated in the air near her hair and eyes, much like the last time I'd met her. 
There were two things I knew for sure about this fairy-like girl: one, she loved sweet things, and two, she'd taken an interest in me for some reason. 
Had I done something? Not as far as I remembered. We didn't even talk all that much. Was it because I'd given her that doughnut? Probably. 
Unfortunately, I was never the one to randomly show up, like destiny had brought us together. 
The first time I'd seen her, she'd been wearing a space suit. Then, she'd taken it off and revealed there to be a fairy inside. One shock after another. How was I expected to pay attention to the details? 
"Is this the friend you were waiting for?" Yashiro asked, pointing at Adachi. 
"Yep, that's her", I replied. As I did, Yashiro moved. 
"Shall we go then?" Yashiro began walking, as if guiding us along. 
"Huh?" I questioned, prompting her to look around her shoulder. 
"I'll treat you for lunch as thanks for the dough-nut you gave me the other day." 
"Wait, you're coming with us?" I asked Yashiro. The look in Adachi's eyes showed that she'd wanted to say something to that effect, so I thought I'd take the initiative. 
"Oh, I can smell something sweet over there", she stated, completely ignoring my question. Her egocentrism reminded me of my little sister. 
Adachi knitted her eyebrows, clearly confused. It didn't seem like she was able to keep up with what was happening. Don't ask me; I didn't have a clue either. All I knew was that Adachi seemed less than satisfied. 
"Stay close or you might get lost!" Yashiro waved at us, having walked a bit ahead by herself. If anyone here gets lost, it'll be you, I wanted to say, but whatever. I guess we'd have to follow her. 
"Ah!" 
It was there that I realised it. I grabbed Adachi's wrist, causing her to flinch as if a current of electricity had just run through her body. 
"Wh-What?" she asked, shocked by my abrupt grab. 

"I thought you might run away." 
"Huh? Oh..." 
She seemed to realise that I was referring to what had happened in front of the station. The pairing this time was quite similar to the one back then. Paying no attention to the awkward expression on Adachi's face, I laughed. 
"We just got here. It wouldn't be fun at all if you left right away." 
How was I going to spend the rest of the day? 
Looking disheartened, Adachi rubbed her cheeks with her fingers. It was like they were itchy or something. 
"I wasn't... going to run away though." 
"But, you do have a lot of questions, don't you? Well, not that I don't as well. Anyway, let's follow her for now." 
Pulling Adachi's hand, I walked briskly towards Yashiro. If she really was going to buy us lunch, I didn't have any special reason to refuse. Rather, I was more interested in her having money. 
"Oh, also, good morning", I greeted Adachi while walking. She seemed completely lost, but after blinking twice, she replied to me with a "good morning" of her own. The expression on her face was pretty difficult to read, but I suppose you could call it a smile. After that, she too began walking. 
We followed Yashiro's tiny back, sparkling so intensely that we likely wouldn't lose sight of it no matter how many hundreds of meters long the distance between us grew. It kinda felt like we were chasing a fairy—hand in hand—and would soon find ourselves lost in the world of a fairy-tale. 

Yashiro had led us to a restaurant located before the mall's supermarket. According to the sign in front of it, they served not only pizza and pasta, but omelette souffles as well. I was honestly relieved by her choice of establishment. If I had told Yashiro that there was a doughnut store near the entrance, she'd probably have gone there. 
"Good, good." 
As if drawn in by the smell, Yashiro entered the store. The waiter was momentarily taken aback by the pseudo-fairy, but nevertheless, welcomed us in with a smile. 
"Three people", Yashiro stated with three fingers lifted. Why hadn't she waited for the waiter to ask? Who knows. 
The restaurant was quite popular with old ladies, it seemed, judging by how many of them were eating here. We were guided to a table right in the middle of them. Yashiro was the first to slide onto the seat. I began to sit opposite of her, but just then... 
"Come here. Sit next to me", she said, beckoning me over to her. 
"Huh? Sure. Sigh..." 
I sat down next to her. The innocent smile on her face reminded me of my little sister, and before I knew it, I found myself patting her head lightly. As I did, an endless number of particles spilled out from between her hair and my hand. 
Sitting down had made the angle between me and Adachi grow larger, causing my palm to rub against her wrist. It was there that I remembered that I'd been gripping her hand this whole time. She wouldn't be able to sit down before I let go. 
"Oh. Sorry." 
I released her wrist. She probably wasn't going to run away, right? She'd said she wouldn't, at least. 
Adachi didn't move right away, however. She stared at Yashiro, looking kinda pissed off. With that look on her face—the expression of a pouting child—she stood there next to me. Then, she pushed my shoulder lightly. 
"Slide in a bit further, Shimamura." 
"Huh? Sure. Sigh..." 
I reacted exactly as I'd done with Yashiro. Once she was done jamming me deeper in, Adachi sat down next to me. 
"Wait, wait..." 
Something was wrong here. Why were we all sitting on the same side of the table? It wasn't like someone was going to come later on and fill the opposite side. Simply put, this was unnatural. The waiter bringing us water was definitely weirded out too, I bet. 
With someone sitting both on my left and my right, trying to change sides seemed like a huge pain to say the least. Furthermore, I didn't get the feeling that Adachi was going to move anywhere. She stared at us two, awkwardly. 
If anyone here was feeling awkward, it was me. Yashiro simply gulped down water. 
"So... Call me when you're ready to order." 
Having given us the menus, the waiter left in a hurry. Seemed that the strange atmosphere surrounding us had gotten to her. People certainly did have the ability to sense things that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. If you thought about it that way, would it be that much of a leap to say that ghosts might exist? I found my mind drifting to thoughts like those, completely unfitting to the occasion. 
"I've chosen. I will take this 'fluffy souffle omelette'." 
Having finished drinking her water, Yashiro pointed at a picture on the first page of the menu. It was a browned, fluffy omelette on a tiny plate, and looked delicious. I considered ordering that myself as well, but looking at the fancy pizzas the people sitting at the table next to us were eating, those didn't look bad either. Pasta sounded good, too. In short, you like everything, one might say, and, well, you'd be right. 
"What are you gonna take, Adachi?" 
"Take what you like", Yashiro stated, looking extremely proud of herself. Adachi gave us a glance, and then extended her hand. 
"I can't see the menu well. Give it to me for a sec." 
"Oh, sorry." 
I handed the menu to Adachi. She spread it open in front of her, making it impossible for me—not to mention Yashiro—to read it. Not that Yashiro had to, considering that she'd already decided what to order. For now, she was solely focused on flapping her feet below the table, like a child who just couldn't calm down. 
"What will you order, Shimamura?" Adachi asked, pulling my sleeve. 
"Which one, which one..." I muttered, looking at the menu with her. 
I glanced at the pizza that'd been brought to the table next to us, and could instantly tell that that thing was way too big for me to eat by myself. 
"Wanna order pizza and pasta and then share?" 
"Sure", Adachi nodded to my proposal, delighted. Just then, something stabbed my side. I let out a small scream and looked around, only to find out that Yashiro had poked me with her index finger. 
"You little..." I pinched her cheeks. "Why did you do that?" 
"I was bored." 
"Is that what you do when you're bored, you start poking people's tender spots?" 
She might have looked like a blockhead, but this girl was dangerous. I played with her cheeks for a while, until suddenly... 
"Eek!" 
This time, Adachi had squeezed my side. Were my sides really that attractive? That didn't make me happy in the slightest. Still pinching Yashiro's cheeks, I looked around, and saw her staring at the menu nonchalantly. I didn't really mind, though I wish she'd tell me what her goal had been. 
"You take the pizza, Shimamura. I'll go with the pasta", she stated, as if nothing had happened. Just so that you know, she was still squeezing my side. Yashiro was still being squeezed as well, though by me. 
"Okay, let's go with this", I chose the pizza—the bacon-zucchini one—not sure what was happening anymore. 
"Well then, I'll take this", Adachi stated back, choosing a ripe-tomato pasta. We signalled to the waiter with our eyes that we were ready to order, and she quickly walked over to us. 
There was a smile on her face this time, as if she was holding back laughter. Me pinching Yashiro's cheeks was most likely the reason why. Don't tell me, we looked like a pair of sisters to her? Being closest to the waiter, Adachi was naturally the one to speak to her. Her voice sounded cold and uninterested, the complete opposite of us two. 
Feeling the weight of the atmosphere, I released Yashiro's cheeks. 
"You could have ordered more", she stated proudly after rubbing her sore cheeks for a moment. I replied with a forced smile. 
For a short while after ordering, silence fell upon us. Yashiro was playing quietly with her napkin, as if doing origami. Adachi and I were like we always were. That being said, I felt as if Adachi was in a slightly worse mood than usual. 
Did she perhaps not like Yashiro? If so, then what part of her? I glanced at the girl in question. 
Even when she was merely sitting, there was something extraordinary about her presence. She didn't match the wall behind her at all. The strange colour of her hair as well as her well-proportioned facial features gave off the impression that she might hold the fate of the world in her hand, or perhaps possess the ability to operate a giant, mega-powerful robot. 
"Hehehe. What do you think? It's a grasshopper", Yashiro proudly presented to me her randomly folded napkin—a so-called grasshopper—snapping me away from my delusions and reminding me of what sort of person we were actually dealing with here. 
Even I could've made that. To prove it, I picked up a napkin and began folding. 
"Oh, is that a chopstick rest?" 
"No, it's a grasshopper. It looks exactly like yours." 
"What part of it?" 
She tilted her head, looking genuinely puzzled. Now I was pissed. 
"Doesn't mine look way more like a grasshopper?" I asked Adachi for support. With her chin resting in her hand, she gave us a bored look. 
"Neither of them does", she stated coldly. Dammit. 
"I see. Earthlings truly have no eye for these things", Yashiro grieved. I decided to leave her alone for a moment. 
"Adachi." 
I placed my hands on her shoulder, and just as she turned around, pinched her cheeks. I'd caught her by surprise, and it had been quite easy to get a grip on them. At first, Adachi stiffened up with no change to her expression, but soon her cheeks grew red, as if blood was rushing into them. 
"Is something bothering you?" I asked her, gripping her cheeks and forcing her to look me in the face. The aura of bad mood she'd given off till now was gone, and I could feel through my fingers that she was confused. I squeezed her cheeks. They'd grown soft, and so had her eyes. 
"Ihh... nohhing." 
"Well then, do that thing. Do it while you smile." 
"What thing?" 
"That thing from the other day. Say it. Are you okay?" 
Saying that seemed to have brought our exchange from earlier back into Adachi's mind. She averted her eyes for a while, not wanting to do it, but as I was in control of her cheeks, she had no choice but to eventually give in. Her eyes were still desperately trying to avoid mine, though. 
"I-I'm doing fine." 
She even bent her arms and struck the pose and everything. Then, much like before, she instantly pulled them down. 
I was satisfied. Good enough for me. 
Speaking of which, Yashiro was being awfully quiet. I glanced at her, and saw that she was currently in the progress of making her second grasshopper. Was it her goal to turn this table into a grasshopper nation? The one I'd made stood there too. 
Well, whatever, let her have fun, I thought and finally released Adachi's cheeks. She immediately placed her head in her hands, clearly embarrassed. 
"There's no knowing what goes on inside the heart of another, why they are dissatisfied, what they desire. However, if we are going to meet, I'd like to have some fun. That's how I want to be, and that's how I want you to be as well, Adachi." 
I could feel Adachi's gaze through the gaps between her fingers as I spoke to her, and saw her nod slightly. Though it wasn't a clear answer by any metric, it still filled me with a strange sense of satisfaction, one that stayed with me as I waited for the food to arrive. 
"Oh, it's here! It's here, it's here, it's here!" Yashiro waved her arms at the waiter, like a child. I felt a little embarrassed on her behalf. At the same time, due to her supernatural appearance, I could neither complain, nor laugh at her immaturity. Food was placed before Yashiro. 
As expected, it was a souffle omelette on an iron plate, though unlike in the picture, this one was quite flat. 
"Pour!" 
Yashiro poured the entire cup of maple syrup that'd been brought with her food on it. Ignoring the cup of tomato soup next to it, she plunged her fork into the omelette. There appeared to be scraps of French bread buried within the fried egg yolk. I kinda wanted to take a bite. 
"Sloosh, sloosh! Ooh! Sloosh!" 
She kept repeating that as she cut the omelette with her fork. I guess it was fair; that was kinda the sound the syrup was making. Before I knew it, I found myself being pulled in by the soaked goodness. 
Yashiro opened her mouth wide before biting in. The look of happiness on her face, as well as the lively way she savoured the taste further built up my curiosity. I waited for her to drink, and then asked. 
"Let me have a bite of that." 
"Sure thing." 
Yashiro cut off a piece of the omelette, just like she'd done earlier, before scooping it up with her fork. 
"Here you go." 
"Huh!?" 
Adachi reacted before I did. I turned around to look at her, and saw that she was clearly flustered. 
"What's wrong? You want to taste it too, Adachi?" 
"That's not the issue here..." 
Her eyes jumped around, as if there was something that she wanted to say. One of the points they jumped to was the fork Yashiro was holding. Knew it. She did want to taste it, didn't she? Although, if that really was it, the timing of her reaction had been a bit odd. 
"Hurryupanddoitplease." 
"Yeah, yeah. Why are you talking like that?" 
I turned back to Yashiro, now pretending to speak like an alien. While I was at it, I decided to specify my order. 
"No, I want the part with the French bread." 
"Aren't you the selfish one, Shimamura." 
"I do get called that sometimes." 
After eating the piece she'd cut originally, Yashiro cut me a new one, matching what I had requested. She presented it to me, and I ate it off her fork. I didn't have to push my teeth far for an overwhelming sweetness to fill my mouth, seeping all the way to my gums. There wasn't much flavour to it, though, just sweetness, to the point that I had a hard time telling whether it tasted great or horrible. 
"Damn, so sweet. I think you overdid it with the syrup." 
"Oh, really?" 
Yashiro seemed to have quite the sweet tooth, and judging by the look on her face, even this wasn't enough for her. I laughed at her a little, but just then, I felt someone once again touch my side. More precisely, my shirt—along with my flesh—was being pulled. How rude. I wasn't even floppy there or anything. 
"Hey, Adachi. Could you please not pinch me?" 
"Oh, sorry. I'll give you a bite too." 
Was there a half of a conversation I'd missed here? I turned around, and saw that Adachi's pasta had arrived as well. 
"What are you talking about? Wasn't half of it supposed to be mine anyway?" 
"Well, true, but... I'll give you an extra bite." 
Adachi hurriedly wrapped pasta around her fork and presented it to me. An extra bite, huh? Was she trying to fatten me up? Though a little worried, I did understand this to be a favour, and so, I ate it. Flavours of tomato and olive oil soon spread through my mouth. 
Yashiro had a sweet taste, and Adachi a firm and tomatoey one. For some reason, it kinda fit. 
As I munched the pasta, Adachi stared at Yashiro. Not sure why; the area around her mouth was covered in pieces of her omelette, and there wasn't really anything appealing about her. Yashiro, in turn, was completely focused on eating, and didn't even seem to notice that Adachi was looking at her. 
Adachi's eyes were filled with... Well, "hostility" might have been too strong of a word. "Rivalry", perhaps? 
That really felt more like a Yashiro thing. There were surprisingly many child-like parts to Adachi, huh? 
She wouldn't calm down even after I finished eating the pasta. She stared at the fork, shook her head. 
And let us not forget about the long stares she gave Yashiro. 
I sat in the middle of those stares, and let's just say, it was quite exhausting to have to worry about her feelings as well. This dinner definitely wasn't good for my stomach. I felt small and all curled up, to the point if someone had asked me where we were going next, I would have probably answered "to a pharmacy". Why had it gone like this? I had an idea, but in the interest of not having to confront it, I instead chose to turn my eyes towards the counter to see if my pizza would be here soon. A fragrant scent drifted from the depths of the kitchen, teasing me lightly. 
Adachi, Yashiro, and I. 
We hadn't yet seen all that there was to this day. 
With no basis for doing so, I chose to believe that was the kind of destiny that awaited us. 

I'd once heard that a bowling ball and a human head weighed approximately the same. 
I didn't actually know if that was true or not, but if it was, it sure would explain why my shoulders were always so sore. 
"So heavy", Yashiro stated as she staggered towards us. You didn't have to look any further than at the bowling ball she was carrying with both of her hands to see why. She eventually made her way to us, and I immediately took a step back; I didn't want that thing dropped on my toes. For some reason, Yashiro only got closer as I did. 
"It must be because of destiny that I was able to do that." 
Stop making everything about destiny. 
We'd headed for a game centre located within the mall after finishing lunch. I'd talked with Adachi about how boring it would be to leave immediately after eating and how we should go hang around the stores and do some shopping. Just then, a certain child had butted in, stating that "this place looks fun". As Adachi and I were both quite lacking in the autonomy department, we'd simply gone along with it and allowed Yashiro to guide us to the game centre. 
It was quite a large place, and bowling wasn't the only thing that you could do there. They also had karaoke, billiards, darts, table tennis, and bunch more stuff. Table tennis. Yes, almost like fate. I'd suggested that we play it, though because it wasn't really a game for three people, we'd ended up going with bowling instead. The darts section had been occupied by a bunch of scary looking men, and I refused to go anywhere near it. As for billiards, Yashiro wasn't tall enough for it, and so that had been rejected as well. A process of elimination, I suppose you could've called our selection method. 
It was 690 yen for a game. Yashiro had only offered to treat us for lunch, meaning that the cost would be split. 
Adachi paid her share without any hesitation, though she still wasn't talking. Every now and then I could feel her staring at me, but as I turned towards her and asked what it was, she'd just shake her head, say that it's nothing, and not talk to me any further. 
...Honestly, Yashiro taking the lead might have saved us. I had a feeling that otherwise we'd have just been standing there, aimlessly. 
"By the way, what is this thing used for?" she asked me, holding a blue bowling ball in her hands. 
"You were so eager to do bowling, and now you're telling me you don't even know what it is?" 
"Yep. And, I still figured that it was fun. I'm pretty amazing, don't you think?" 
"No, I don't", I answered before gripping her head and turning it. 
"That's how you do it. You roll the ball and knock down the pins." 
I twisted Yashiro's neck so that her eyes were pointing towards the lanes. 
Video from each individual lane was broadcast on a large monitor located above the pins. The father of the family next to us had thrown his ball just at the right time, and I adjusted Yashiro's head so that she was looking at him. Though the man was wearing gloves that seemed like they were made specifically for bowling, the trajectory of his ball was just about the most amateurish one I'd seen. That was to say, it curved straight towards the edges. Nevertheless, the bumpers meant for family use stopped the ball dropping into the gutter where it belonged, and instead bounced it back to the centre of the lane where it knocked down the pins. 
In conclusion, it counted as a strike, even if the sound of the pins being knocked down did leave something to be desired. The father cheered. 
"That's pretty much it. Got it?" 
"Actually, I already knew. Hahaha! My ninja tricks got you good." 
That earned Yashiro a smack on the head. A cloud of particles puffed in the air as I did that, which then drew near me, as if chasing my hand. I was pretty shocked to say the least, and almost fell on my butt. 
Looking at those particles move, it almost seemed like they all had a mind of their own. Once again, I could feel just how different Yashiro was compared to us. 
Never mind the particles, I couldn't even get the girl herself off me. 
It seemed that she had really taken to me. She only talked to me, and didn't even attempt to make conversation with Adachi. Same went for her too, of course; I didn't get the feeling that Adachi was planning to get friendly with Yashiro any time soon. Still, even if they weren't on the same wavelength, I wished they'd at least acknowledge each other's existence or something so that I didn't feel quite so trapped in the middle. There was something bothersome about being made to have two separate conversations at the same time. 
I didn't even like talking to people. I was horrible at chitchat. My throat felt like it'd turned into a desert. 
"Shimamura!" Yashiro called to me, having observed the neighbouring lane for a while. "Can I go first?" 
She was now holding the bowling ball above her head, or at least trying to. Was everything really okay with this girl? 
"Sure, I don't mind." 
"Hehehe. I just had a great idea", Yashiro stated proudly, her eyes shining. Convinced that it was probably something worthless, I moved over to Adachi next. She stared into the distance, out of it, as if thinking about something completely different. I sat next to her, and decided to give her one more reminder to really drive the point home. Not in a mean way, of course, but with a smile. 
"Don't run away now." 
"I told you, I'm not gonna." 
Her lower lip stuck out a little, like that of a pouting child. Even so, her expression soon grew slightly softer. 
"You're pretty good with kids, huh, Shimamura?" 
"Yeah. My little sister is like that too, restless. I guess I've gotten kinda used to it, having to deal with her all the time." 
"What about me? Am I your little sister too?" 
"Sure, you can call me 'Big Sis' if you want", I joked, going with the flow. I expected Adachi to giggle, or perhaps to reject the offer outright, yet she did neither. For a while, she simply sat there, silent, until finally... 
"...Big Sis." 
She actually called me it? What the heck was up with the obedient look on her face? And why had she paused for so long, like she'd been embarrassed or something? 
"Wh-What is it, Little Sis?" 
Did my actual sister have a new challenger? I turned to face Adachi, and she instantly lifted her gaze. 
"Shimamura, look." 
Adachi's expression changed in an instant as she pointed towards the lanes. What was it? I looked around, and saw Yashiro running towards the pins with a bowling ball in her hands. A lot of other people were also staring at her, and I couldn't really blame them; it wasn't every day that you saw someone choosing to not roll the ball and instead run down the lane with it. Not only that, she'd taken her shoes off at some point as well, and was now barefoot. 
There was obviously no way that I could leave this little rascal be, and I immediately ran to stop her. Why do I have to take care of her, I muttered to myself as I grabbed her by the neck. 
"Hmm?" she looked around her shoulder, as if unable to understand why I had stopped her. 
"What the heck are you doing?" I demanded an explanation. 
"From watching others do it, I could see that it's really difficult to hit the pins from far away." 
"Huh?" 
"It'd be way easier to hit them if you got closer, would it not?" 
Yashiro stared up at me proudly, as if seeking praise for her incredible idea. I felt exhausted. 
"Sigh... Yeah, that's pretty smart." 
"Right?!" 
"However, this place is a bowling hall. So, let's bowl, shall we?" 
Build your own lane at your home and you can play all the weird sports you want there. I dragged Yashiro away from the pins. 
"Hey, no fair. Cheating." 
"You're the one who's cheating. Just toss it from the other side of the line like everyone else, okay?" 
Having moved Yashiro outside of the lane, I once again asked her. 
"You don't actually know what bowling is, do you?" 
"Nope. We don't have games like these in space", she stated, completely naturally. Furthermore, it didn't seem like she was joking about not knowing what it was. 
If Yashiro was raised, say, in a foreign country where they didn't do bowling, I could see how that could be possible. Although, in that case, her Japanese was pretty damn impressive. It was this mismatch that made it so hard to judge whether or not she was speaking the truth. 
"By the way... Your hair, what's up with it? Have you dyed it?" I decided to ask her, because why not. 
"You mean, this?" Yashiro asked back, holding up a strand of her hair. 
"Yeah, exactly. No one has hair of that colour." 
"Pretty stylish, huh?" 
"Absolutely not." 
"I was actually planning to use the head of one of my brethren as reference, but accidentally got them mixed up with the person next to them." 
What the heck was she talking about? Leaving out all the stuff that made absolutely no sense, it sounded like she'd wanted to imitate the hair of a sibling or relative of hers, but before she knew it, she'd been influenced by their acquaintance's hair and had ended up like this, or something like that. Still, this explanation assumed that there'd been someone with this colour of hair in the first place, and that was quite weird in and of itself. If that person really did exist, they must've been an alien for sure. And that left just one question: what was Yashiro? But, I digress. 
"Well, that's probably not something I need to think too much about. Hey, toss the ball normally this time, would you?" 
I tapped her back, telling her to get going. 
"Well, if you insist..." Yashiro lamented as she began running. 
At last, she tossed the ball. Although, the way she did it was pretty weird too. 
Yashiro ran towards the lane and lunged forward, head first, and at the end of her slide, gave the ball a push. This wasn't a normal technique, like spinning the ball before releasing it; never in my life had I seen someone toss a bowling ball like that. She just lay there, watching it roll, which was pretty weird too, honestly. The ball hit the bumper hard, but strangely enough, bounced right back towards the pins, which it then proceeded to topple over a few seconds later. Would you look at that. A strike. 
A lot of people were staring at her, in part due to her eccentric technique. And yet, Yashiro wouldn't get up until I lifted her. As I placed my hands under her shoulders and picked her up, she turned to look at me. 
"Did I do well?" 
"I suppose. Still, the way you tossed it, what was up with that?" 
"I thought getting just a little bit closer might be advantageous." 
"...Does this really count as 'eccentric'? Are you sure there's not something wrong with your head?" 
If Nagafuji tried doing that, it'd no doubt be painful. On her breasts, mainly. 
The frontside of her shirt had gotten all messy due to the slide, and I brushed it clean for her. ...Yeah, I guess I really was good with kids. 
Just the regular amount, though. Holding Yashiro in my arms, I returned to Adachi. Her feet dangled in the air with every step I took, making me want to tell her to walk by herself. Nevertheless, she was unnaturally light and quite easy to carry, and as such, I had no complaints. Was her body filled with meringues, or was the cluster of particles she emitted from her hair the real Yashiro? I had quite a few theories, some even more ridiculous than that. 
Leaving cosmic mysteries aside, Adachi seemed quite dissatisfied. I'd had a hunch that she might. A wry smile appeared on my face. Having a little sister your own age was quite troublesome, wasn't it? 
Yashiro, who I'd been carrying like a pet, sat down on my lap, showing no signs of ever getting up. I didn't really mind as she was quite light, although the particles gushing from her hair did make it feel like I was about to choke. 
"Wanna go next, Adachi?" 
"No, I'm good." 
"Please, I insist." 
Not taking "no" for an answer, I picked up one of the balls next to us and handed it to her. For kids like her who wouldn't listen, going pushy was always effective. That was something I'd learned recently. Though Adachi clearly still had her doubts, she took the ball off my hands, her stubborn attitude nowhere to be seen. Was this the kind of person she was, easily pressured? Not that I was much different. 
"By the way, do you get anything good if you win this game?" Yashiro asked, staring at the ball she'd tossed as it returned via the machine. The question came out completely calmly and didn't seem to have anything to do with the fact that she'd just gotten a strike. She stared at me with eyes of innocence, as if the concept of winning and losing didn't exist to her, making it quite difficult for me to come up with a proper answer. 
"When you beat someone, doesn't it make you go all 'Woohoo! I did it!'?" 
"But I love you, Shimamura. Beating you wouldn't be fun at all." 
I flinched. I love you. Now that was something I hadn't been expecting to hear. 
Incidentally, I heard something thud against the floor. For some reason, Adachi had dropped the bowling ball she'd been holding. The ball began rolling away from her, and she rushed after it. You know, kids... I wanted to say as I stared at her back. 
"Well, hmm... I see." 
I averted my eyes. It was quite difficult to look straight at someone who'd just said "I love you" to your face. Even as a child, I'd never been one to say something like that, so perhaps I was overreacting. 
Having caught the ball she'd dropped, Adachi now returned to us. She stood there, directly in front of me. Her eyes weren't pointed towards me, however, but towards Yashiro. I couldn't help but sense tension in the air. 
"Alright. Why don't you play against me then?" 
Holding the ball in her hands, Adachi challenged Yashiro. Though the lack of expression on her face made it hard to grasp her true motives, she clearly held no pleasant feelings. 
"Hoho! You think you can beat me, a pro bowlinger?" 
"Pro bowler" seemed to be the word she was looking for. Either way, it was a massive lie. 
"Of course I'm going to win", Adachi stated, stroking the surface of the ball. There was much dignity in the way she moved her hand. "And once I do..." 
She cut her words short and gave me a look. That pretty much confirmed it. For whatever reason, she was planning to tell me to do something if she won. The last thing I wanted was to become the subject of a bet. For goodness' sake, it wasn't like I was Yashiro's guardian or anything. 
"Lend me your ear for a second." 
Adachi pulled Yashiro's hand, dragging her off my lap to the corner of the bowling hall. The way they held hands looked more like a kidnapper and her victim than a pair of loving sisters. Was it because one of them had hair that was black and the other's was anything but? 
Bent over, Adachi whispered something to Yashiro. She nodded randomly as she listened, stroking her chin. Yet, as soon as Adachi was finished speaking... 
"Hmm. Nope", I heard her say. What a straightforward refusal. She turned around and hopped back to me. 
I could sense such liveliness as I watched her jump up and down. In comparison, Adachi's shoulders sagged, likely due at least in part to her complete inability to get through to the girl. Her steps were heavy, too. Having returned, she threw the ball. No fancy tricks from her, just a regular throw. Six pins, she knocked down. I felt relieved seeing this after Yashiro's weirdness. But, at the same time, I wasn't sure how to properly react. 
What was I supposed to do at times like these? Praise her? Encourage her? Without a word, Adachi took her second throw. 
Two pins still remained afterwards. Scratching her head, she sat next to me. 
As far as the competition went, she was currently losing. Perhaps the right call was to comfort her. 
"Too bad." 
"Not really that much of a bowler." 
Excuses. Although, she had said that she wasn't close with her family, meaning that she wouldn't have had many opportunities to go. Perhaps she was speaking the truth after all. Furthermore, she didn't seem like the kind of person who'd insist upon going bowling with her friends. 
"Anyway, you're next, Shimamura." 
"Oh, me?" 
Though a little lost, I picked Yashiro up off my lap, placed her on the chair next to me, and stood up. 
Was it really okay for me to throw in the midst of their battle? Though I had paid the entry fee, I also had a feeling that refusing might be the option someone capable of reading the room would take. I watched the two, wondering what to do, when... 
"Just throw the ball already, Shimamura." 
"Huh? Oh, right." 
I threw the ball as I'd been urged to do, not really caring what I hit. It rolled, rolled and rolled. And then, it was over. 
It didn't matter what the result was. Strike, gutter, it was all the same. 
Only things of importance needed to be understood. 
I sat down on the chair, and Yashiro immediately climbed on my lap. Like a dog. 
Furthermore, she showed no signs of moving anywhere. She really liked using people as her chair, huh? 
"Hey, don't sit. It's your turn next." 
"Ohh, you're right", Yashiro said as she hopped off. Come to think of it, she wasn't carrying her helmet with her anymore. I wondered where she'd stashed it. I felt like I was going to get dizzy if I spent too much time thinking about it. 
"Well then, time for the pro bowlinger to go for round two." 
Again, "bowler", not "bowlinger". 
Yashiro trotted towards the lane. Particles scattered around as she did, drawing her tracks in the air. The people on either side of us—a family on one and a group of high school boys on the other—stared at her unanimously. Well, couldn't blame them. 
With all eyes on her, Yashiro threw the ball as she'd done before, even did the slide and all. 
The ball left her hands as she bent backwards, to the point that I became worried she might twist her neck. Nevertheless, as she didn't cross the line, her throw likely wouldn't be counted as a foul. The ball swayed, curved, hit the bumpers, and yet, through some miracle, didn't miss its target. Incredible. 
"Wow!" 
Even with the bumpers, it was quite the achievement to get two strikes in a row with a throw like that. I began to wonder if she perhaps possessed some supernatural abilities to match her looks. I wouldn't be surprised at all, to be honest. Then again, if she did, she wouldn't have needed to throw the ball like that. But, regardless. 
"Well done again, huh?" 
Yashiro returned to me, walking in a weird way with both of her hands extended forward. Her knees had gotten awfully red, and though I hated to admit it, somewhere deep inside me I did worry about her. 
"Won't your knees get scratched?" 
I touched them to check, but much to my surprise, it seemed that her skin was still perfectly intact and without a scrape. Yashiro herself showed no signs of being in pain, either. Still, touching her knees made me see just how tiny they really were. 
This small child had bought me lunch. I couldn't help but feel a little guilty. 
There was someone who didn't seem too pleased by the turn of events, however. That someone was Adachi, her opponent. There was a deep frown on her face. Made sense: Considering the atmosphere surrounding Yashiro, it was easy to imagine her scoring nothing but strikes till the end. And trying to beat that... well, it was impossible. 
"Aren't you glad you didn't bet anything?" 
That seemed like a good thing to say to smooth things over. Adachi grunted in response. 
"Hehehe. Feel free to imitate me if you wish." 
It was Yashiro who spoke this time, her voice filled with pride as she advised Adachi, though it barely counted as advice. Adachi merely shifted her attention. 
"I think you'd do just as well if you did it normally." 
At the same time, the results spoke for themselves, making it quite difficult to deny there being something to her technique. Furthermore, she hadn't stepped over the foul line, and so it was impossible for an amateur like me to tell whether or not a rule had been broken. Well, not that I could tell anything when Yashiro was around. What was one more mystery in the pile? 
Adachi picked up a ball. She must have had some serious guts to keep going. Just as I admired her in my heart, she walked in front of me. Hiding her mouth behind the ball and her eyes looking elsewhere, she spoke. 
"Which one are you cheering for, Shimamura?" 
"Huh?" 
Did you really have to ask me something like that? 
"Which one is it?" Yashiro asked cheerfully from my lap. 
I really wished they hadn't asked me that. 
I want to pick neither, I wanted to say. 
I might have been good with people, but that was just a front; in my core, I found most things bothersome. 
Effort and experience alone weren't enough to overturn reality. And in that reality, being thought of dearly, being relied on, being loved, those all came with negatives. I just wanted to hunch my back and crawl away. 
I bet everyone found me a curious thing. Poking my back as I tried to run away, chasing me, that was fun for them. You run away, and someone chases after you. That was all there was to it, I thought. 
Even if I did become defiant and ask the people around me, my face from when I was chased was gone, and as such, everyone simply ignored me, like I didn't even exist. That's how I had felt, whether or not it was merely an assumption didn't matter. 
Based on the way my mind worked, I knew well I was a person meant to live alone. 
And yet, here I was here. 
"Shimamura!" said one. 
"Shimamura", followed the other. 
"Yes, yes", I quickly answered to both of them. 
It was like I'd become the main character of a romance manga, and let me tell you, it was exhausting. 

I returned home after this day off—filled with ups and downs—yet the clock had barely turned three in the afternoon. Our group had slowly begun breaking up following the bowling game, and after parting ways with Adachi, I'd gone straight home. I probably don't even have to say who won. Someone was left disappointed, let's just leave it at that. 
That sure had ended sooner than I had expected, I thought, though as soon as I reached my room, my knees gave out. 
"I'm done." 
No more thoughts left my mouth. I lay there, collapsed on the futon. I wanted to bury myself inside, fuse with the pillow, and sleep for at least six hours. Nevertheless, much to my surprise, I wasn't feeling sleepy in the slightest. I rolled around for twenty or so minutes, until finally getting bored of it and opening my eyes. As I did, there was a manga book in front of me. 
It was what my sister had been reading last night before going to bed. I picked up the book and flipped through the pages, before landing on one where the main character said something that seemed like an excuse. Laughing, I closed the book and turned over. 
"I'm more tired than a day when there's school. That's not good..." 
Meeting people, talking to them, considering their feelings and all their quirks. 
I was... wounded. Was that a good way to say it? 
No, probably not. Worn, perhaps? A part of me had been shaved off, vanished. That seemed about right. 
Avoiding hurting each other, sitting awkwardly in the wind to make sure that we don't touch. 
It was obviously going to be tiring. I wanted to stop, to hide, sometimes even run away. And yet, it was when I'd gone to hide that I had met her, met Adachi. That was probably a good thing, that much I could acknowledge. 
Being alone was boring. It was far worse than isolation, like a disease you couldn't endure. And the only medicine to cure this horrible disease, to change me, was something invisible born between people. 
For this reason, my days of wear would continue. 
I'd lose more and more, all for my own sake. 
I muttered to myself the words I'd just read in the manga, as if licking them with my tongue. 

Even when things don't go well, even when it hurts all around, don't bear a grudge.