Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 5 - Chapter 0.1

Chapater 0.1 - If Everyone Was Little

Every child is different. Though they are mostly similar in terms of height, their personalities do not match at all, allowing you to tell them apart at glance. Furthermore, as children are in general adorable, most people find themselves wanting to protect them. That is how the world works; the weak are looked after until they grow strong. In a strange way, life itself felt like something I could manage relatively well back in those days. 
And yet, the current me was far more unique as a person compared to how I used to be in my childhood. 
There was a lot of variance between the kids in front of me; one girl had blue hair, and another child currently playing with her always wore a hat. Truly, they were all unique in their own way. Maybe not as unique as the girl and her strange hair, but still. 
"Shima, wait." 
It was currently free time, and the hallway and classroom were both bustling with children running in all directions. The noisiest... or I should say, most energetic of the senior kids were Shima and Taru—the latter always chasing after the former. 
With both of her hands stuck out in front of her, Shima continued running forward, her stubby feet making an amusing sound as they repeatedly came into contact with the floor. The way she ran was as peculiar as ever. And yet, there was something strangely soothing about it. As for Taru, well, she could be found right behind her as was tradition, her hands in turn raised above her head. She too was weird in her own way, but also adorable. Both of them were. 
As good as it felt watching the two have fun, there was a downside to it; you could never relax as there was no telling what high jinks they might get up to next. Shima especially was quite reckless, and though it was good that she didn't put up walls between herself and the other children, I do wish that she would've been conscious of the walls of the building. Why was it that running with her arms in front of her so often led to her bumping her forehead against things? 
I watched as the girls ran through the centre of the classroom. Coincidentally, I wasn't the only one doing so. No, there was someone else too. 
Shifting my attention towards her brought me face to face with a scene I'd grown quite familiar with; the girl in question was sitting silently all by herself. 
Her hands were playing with clay, but her eyes followed after Shima—the one running in the lead. 
If I had to rank this year's senior class in terms of them being problem children, I would likely put her in the number one spot—"her" being Sakura. Don't get me wrong; it wasn't that she got into fights with the other kids or anything like that. She wasn't particularly bothersome, either. No, the difficulty with tending to her came about in a different way. She hardly ever talked, barely reacted to anything, and all in all, had a lot of trouble communicating with her surroundings. Based on the conversations I'd had with her mother, it seemed to be how she was home as well. There's no making sense of that child, the woman had stated with a pained smile on her face. Part of me wondered if that truly was so, though obviously, I'd been in no place to be making such objections. 
Despite how she appeared at a glance, I actually found the way Sakura behaved while here surprisingly easy to comprehend. She didn't have anyone she was particularly close to, and though this did limit the interactions possible for her, there was one girl who didn't care; Shima. She approached her as she would any other kid, which in turn seemed to have led Sakura to hold a certain interest towards her. And yet, she never made an effort to talk to her herself. 
Though she obviously wanted to play with Shima, she simply wasn't able to make the words come out of her mouth. And she really did want it; it was evident from the way she acted that Sakura wished for nothing more than for Shima to walk over to her, to play with her, to notice her. Rather than being too shy to do it, the impression I was left with was that she simply didn't know how she was supposed to go about talking to her. The more friends surrounded Shima, the further back she withdrew. 
The two people who most strongly contrasted with Sakura were Akira and Tae, currently busy playing amongst themselves in the corner. As far as I was able to tell, this "game" of theirs consisted of one person wrapping their arms around the other and lifting them in the air. Or something. 
Whereas Tae—the one being carried—smiled without much care, Akira—the one doing the carrying—didn't appear to share her enjoyment; the girl's face was practically bright red. This seemed to signal her being at her limit, and wouldn't you know it, it was only mere moments later that she collapsed on the floor, dropping the other child she'd been carrying. Tae quickly crouched down next to her. 
"Well done." 
"Yeah. Now, reward." 
This request was met by Tae grabbing her hand and pressing her lips on her forehead. I could see Akira grin. 
Those two really did get along. Honestly, it was more often that I saw them together than by themselves. Speaking of which, I'd actually been invited to Akira's house once by her parents, and let me tell you, that place was a real mansion. A bamboo grove between the streets, seriously? It had taken me more than a couple of moments to comprehend what was even happening. 
To make matters worse, I'd mistaken the young person who came to greet me to be her father, only for him to politely correct me and let me know that he was, in fact, her older brother. Again, confusing. 
Going from the pair of good friends back to Sakura, the girl was still staring at Shima, now playing with building blocks on the floor alongside Taru. The blocks connected like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle and were currently being used to form what appeared to be a half-completed house. A moment ago, the girls had been running around, but the instant I took my eyes off them, they moved somewhere else entirely. No part of me envied the parents of these two rascals. 
While that was good and all, the thought of leaving Sakura like this did cause me to hesitate, and ultimately, I was forced to conclude that it would be for the best if I gave her a hand. 
It wasn't my desire to meddle with the relationships between the children. It really wasn't. And yet, she simply looked too pitiful to ignore. 
"Shima, could you come here for a second?" I called out to the girl, completely absorbed in her little roof construction project. Gripping a building block in her hand, Shima ran up to me. 
"I promise teacher, I've not broken anything today." 
Her hands remained placed on top of her head as she scanned my expression. 
Wait, so she knew? 
"Yes, and that's good. Now, it looks like Sakura would like to play with you as well." 
I could see Sakura jolt in the corner of my eye as I said that. It appeared that was she listening. 
"Okay", Shima nodded obediently before turning around and dashing to where the other girl was currently sitting. This prompted Sakura to jolt once more, this time with double the intensity. 
Her head hung, she pretended not to notice. Shima didn't care, however, and instead... 
"Hey, come." 
...grabbed her hand without any sort of introduction and pulled her up on her feet. The clay she'd been playing with stayed on the floor. Confused, the girl looked at Shima, then at me, then at Shima again. The restless movements of her eyebrows indicated anxiety, but also happiness at the same time. Shima proceeded to drag her along, and Sakura, well, she pretty much just allowed herself to be dragged. 
"Here, a block. Put it where you want", Shima said as she handed her the building block she'd been carrying. With that done, she returned to construction work, picking up from where she'd left off. And yet, Sakura didn't join her; all of the earlier joy had vanished from the girl's face, and if I'm being honest, it looked like she might start crying any second now. Taking a slightly longer path than Shima had, she once again closed the distance between the two of them before grabbing the other girl's hand and pulling on it. 
"Huh? What?" 
"L-Let's play over there." 
By "over there", she was referring to the lonely spot where she'd been sitting all by herself earlier. Though brave, her attempt was met by failure as Shima showed no signs of moving, instead choosing to stare at her puzzled while holding up the block in her hand. 
Desperately, Sakura yanked her arm again, this time harder. It looked for a second like she might end up being dragged along, but ultimately, the girl held her own. 
"Let's play with everyone." 
"That's right. Don't hog Shima to yourself", Taru followed. 
The two girls appeared to be completely against the idea. Met by their reactions, Sakura's shoulders twitched. Oh no. 
Tears began welling up in her eyes. Should I swoop in? Or not? Unsure how to proceed, I sat there observing the situation before me. It seemed that my attempt to do good had resulted in failure. 

She wanted to play not with everyone, but by herself. That was the kind of girl Sakura was. 
Was one of those approaches more correct than the other? I couldn't really answer that; making those sorts of value judgments wasn't something I wanted to be doing. At the same time, she was pretty awkward around others, wasn't she? That was the impression I was left with. 
Part of me wondered, when she started going to school, would she be able to make friends? 
"Friends need to be cherished." 
The sudden voice caught me off guard. I turned my head, and saw that it belonged to a girl who had at some point appeared next to us. Her blueness only added to the mystery. 
Like the one playing on the other side of the room, she was yet another girl with blue hair. They both shone with the same soft light as well, and really, the only difference between the two was found in their hairstyles; the long hair of the closer girl was tied behind her head in the shape of a butterfly. The rest of it dangled straight down, giving off the impression of a waterfall. All in all, these factors combined to form a dreamlike whole, and if not for the onigiri in her hand, it would've been difficult for me to believe she was actually real and not just a figment of my imagination. 
From the centre of the triangular food item stuck out a piece of kombu seaweed. 
"Everyone always says that, so it's probably the way it is with Earthlings." 
The girl's water bottle swayed at the end of a short string as she stated that. Considering the rain currently happening outside, it wasn't hard to see why her choice of outfit appeared so curious to me; she almost looked like she was dressed for a picnic. 
"Huh? Who are you?" 

Shima seemed just as shocked by the girl's sudden appearance as I was. Then, a few moments later, she proceeded to straighten out her back, almost as if planning to stand against her. 
"Hehehe. Please. You're no match for me at present." 
With those words, she took Shima's hand and started to spin. The two spun around together. 
What was happening? 
They continued for far longer than I would've anticipated, only stopping when the girl's feet eventually grew tangled. 
"Ooh, ooh", the now-released Shima exclaimed as she staggered around in an attempt to regain her balance, her eyes having turned into spirals. 
"So, what do you think?" 
In a similar manner, the girl also hopped about while asking her that. Just what was up with her? 
"What are you doing?" 
"Hehehe. This is the inevitable outcome when you do something like that without caring what happens." 
Despite the proud look on her face, she too appeared to be having a lot of trouble keeping herself from tumbling over. 
"Of course, when you're as strong as me, then it's a different story." 
The girl went on to straighten out her back. Again, she was clearly still in the process of trying to steady herself, and looking at her from behind, it was easy for me to tell based on the way they were twitching that she'd had to force her feet to stop them from moving around. Assuming a slightly gentler tone, she then spoke. 
"Nothing big can be done while you're still not used to it." 
With those words out of her mouth, the girl turned to look at Sakura, prompting her to immediately hang her head; coming under the gaze of someone she didn't recognize was simply too much for her to endure. I wasn't sure why the girl chose to react to this by laughing wholeheartedly, but she did. 
I was left shifting my attention between the two. 
Shima's head moved in a similar manner. 
I see. 
While her choice of how to express herself was still a complete mystery to me, I now more or less got what the girl was trying to say. 
So, how is it? That was the question her actions conveyed. 
Shima turned to look up at her, and as if absorbing the blue shine of her hair and pupils, her own pure eyes once again grew tinged with a similar colour. 
Following this, she then... 
"I don't really get it, but okay." 
...nodded her head. 
"Today, I shall play with Sakura." 
Her statement sounded oddly poetic and old fashioned for some reason. Was that something she'd picked up from the kid who always wore a hat? 
I wonder, who was he imitating with those weird expressions he occasionally mixed into his speech? 
I'd almost managed to arrive at a conclusion when something else caught my attention; it seemed that Shima had figured out what it was that the girl was trying to convey to her. 
She turned her head around, prompting Sakura's expression to brighten, even if she was still clearly holding back tears. 
The corners of her mouth grew to be pointed upwards, and in a similar fashion, her eyes opened wide. 
"But, once you stop being flustered, let's play with everyone else too, okay?" 
This statement of Shima's was met by Sakura slightly drawing in her chin. What she meant by it, that was anyone's guess. Regardless, she then grabbed her hand for a second time and pulled her to where the clay from earlier was sitting. All in all, it was a pretty amusing arrangement; Shima—the one always pulling others along—was now dragged by Adachi—the one with a tendency to act introverted. What wasn't amusing though was the unsatisfied look on Taru's face, annoyed that her friend had been taken away from her. Hmm, yes. It was difficult trying to satisfy everyone. 
Were I to swoop in to comfort her, would she accept me or turn me down? As I was busy scratching my head over that, I found that the girl from before had at some point appeared next to me. She was laughing with her chest puffed out. 
"In side-stories, I act as the mediator." 
Not only did her statement sound like total nonsense to me, the girl was also taller than all the other children. Had we always had someone like her here? She wasn't on any of my lists, that was for sure. 
"Whose kid are you again?" 
The fact that she was munching on an onigiri was more than a bit odd too: we'd already had lunch by that point. 
"Of course, this is not the proper past, but rather, a what-if scenario showing what might have happened were they to meet at this stage. Yes, yes." 
"Umm?" 
"Would you like a drink?" 
The girl's question was followed by her presenting me with her water bottle. 
"Huh? Oh... Thanks", I replied before taking the bottle and pressing it on my lips. What flowed into my mouth was fermented milk, so sweet I couldn't help but wonder if it was perhaps undiluted. It also kinda got stuck in my throat, though watching her drink it, that seemed to be a problem which only affected me. 
"Still, it is unfortunate that Shou isn't here." 
Having said that, the girl ran off. She was the kind of person who didn't care for listening to others. 
Sweet, yet suspicious. That was how I'd describe her. I wonder, was it really okay for me to just ignore her? 
"What do you want to make, Sakura?" Shima asked while kneading the clay in her hands. 
"What... What should we... Hmm..." 
You could hear the girl's voice waver ever so slightly as she responded. It was there that I really got a sense of just how susceptible she was to such acts of kindness. Then... 
Albeit awkward, a smile appeared on Sakura's face. 
That was it. All the anxiety that had been building up in my chest instantly disappeared, flushing down into the depths of my stomach. 
She was a difficult child, yes. No doubt would her life be filled with many hardships going forward. And yet. 
As long as she knew that, she'd definitely choose the right path. 
As long as she knew how to smile, everything would be just fine.