Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 7 - Chapter 3.2

Bonus chapter: "Yachii? The Visitor" 

On my way back home, I noticed the back of a person that I immediately recognized. I quickly broke into a sprint and caught up to her. 
While summer break might have been coming to an end, summer itself was anything but. 
It was for this reason that the mere act of running was enough to cover my skin with so much sweat that it made it look like I was being blasted with rain. 
"Heyo!" 
Softly, I reached for her back. She then turned around, her cheeks all puffed out, almost as if she had stuffed them full of something. 
"Hmm?" 
"Huh?" 
The person now staring at me hadn't been Yachii at all. 
...Huh? 
"W h a t?" she asked me in a really strange way, all the while raising both of her short arms in the air. Even now, she continued munching whatever it was that she had in her mouth. 
"Oh, err... umm... Sorry." 
Looking at her from the front, the two didn't seem similar at all. Take the length of their hair, for example. Totally different. So was its colour. And their eyes, different colour there as well. To top it all off, she was even smaller than Yachii was. Why on earth had I mistaken her for Yachii? That truly was a mystery. 
The one thing the two shared in common was that the same sparkly light was emitted from both of their hair. 
However, whereas Yachii's light was blue, hers was silver. 
"Sorry. I mistook you for a friend I have." 
They had appeared so similar from behind. How? What part of them? 
"That's it? Okay." 
The girl then began walking away. Really? She wasn't angry or anything? That was good. However, right as that thought passed through my mind, she turned back around and walked to me. Unlike Yachii's, her eyes were deep blue. Staring at them was like staring at the depths of the ocean. 
"Why did you mistake me for her?" 
Here came the questions. A bit late, I felt. It appeared that she was the sort of person who did things their own way. 
"It's just, you looked like her from behind, and so I thought you were her." 
"She looks like me?" 
This statement was apparently meaningful for the girl in some way as what she did next was start counting using her fingers with her head tilted to the side. What was she counting? I couldn't quite tell. Whatever the case, the way she did it quite reminded me of Yachii. 
"Hmm, no. That seems impossible. It's just too big of a misunderstanding." 
"Huh?" 
"Anyway. Thank you. You helped me remember something I already knew." 
Farewell, she then waved at me before running off. A few steps later, she took a sharp turn to her right. I could hear her mumbling something about this being the right way. The trails of light that she left in her wake were even more fleeting than the summer sun. 
"Err..." 
Just who on earth had that girl been? 
Unless I was mistaken, there was a graveyard in the direction where she was heading. 

"Besides, I feel... strangely serene." 
"......" 
Yachii was currently lying about in the corner of our room while reading one of Sis's mangas. As usual, she was speaking the dialogue out loud. She always did that whenever she read manga. I'd asked her why earlier, and the explanation she'd given me was that it made reading easier for her. I didn't really get it personally, but then again, this was hardly the first thing in the world that Yachii did her own unique way. 
Just like most days, she had once again come to our place, almost as if she belonged here. 
Where did she come from, and where did she go when she left? That I didn't know. 
"While I'm not sure what the story is about, this is perfect for practising the Earthling language." 
Having finished reading the book, Yachii put it aside and walked over to me. 
"What about you, Shou? Are you finished with your home-work yet?" 
"Hmm. I still have a bit more to do." 
I really felt like there was something messed up about them using summer break as an excuse to drown us in homework. 
The whole purpose of a break was to rest. 
"That is unfortunate." 
Crawling on all-fours, Yachii returned to the corner where she'd come from. There, she rolled on her back and grabbed another volume of manga. 
She didn't go to school. She really didn't. Truly, what a mystery that was. 
While a part of me was definitely jealous about her not having to do homework, I also found myself slightly worried; what about her future? What if she grew up to be a delinquent like Sis? That would be pretty bad. Then again, since she didn't go to school, I guess she was already a delinquent. 
I turned to take a look behind me. There, I saw Yachii lying on her side, her hair spread out on the floor. While it was actually quite deep in its blueish tone, the intense light that was being emitted from her hair made it appear much lighter than that. A distinct similarity could be seen between it and a sky without a single cloud. 
While I was so used to it by this point that it barely registered as something out of the ordinary to me anymore, actually thinking about it, her hair truly was a strange colour. 
I found myself staring at her. 
I wonder, how must Yachii have interpreted my stare for her to lift herself up and let out a giggle as she did. 

"I can see right through you, Shou." 
"Huh?" 
"You're quite sharp-sighted to have noticed my rice crackers." 
Having said that, Yachii pulled out a bag of crackers from within her clothes. I'd had no idea that she'd had something like that with her. 
"So, you know how to utilize the staring technique too, huh?" 
"The staring... what? I've been staring at you?" 
"Yes, you have. For a while now." 
Had I really? For whatever reason, I found myself feeling really embarrassed all of a sudden. Though I wanted to argue with her, tell her that I hadn't, one look at the amount of progress I had made with my homework was more than enough to prove her correct. 
"Here you go", she said as she pulled the bag open and held it out to me. I suppose this was as good of a time for a break as any. 
Surprisingly enough, even though Yachii had been rolling on the floor, the crackers were perfectly intact. It was quite often that these sorts of mysteries took place when she was around. That, or maybe the strangeness lay with the crackers? I went ahead and took a bite, and immediately, the faintly sweet taste of sugary soy sauce filled my mouth. 
"Mmh, mmh." 
The way Yachii bit into her cracker made it seem like she found it at least ten times more delicious than I did mine. Not just that, the glimmer of her smile was totally different as well. 
Staring at her, I felt like something deep inside me was rising to the surface. 
That something was far warmer than the water which surrounded it. 
"The other day, I mistook another girl for you." 
"Hmm?" 
Quickly, her eyes—shining with a light that did not exist in the world that I knew—turned my way. 
"She didn't look that much like you. Or really, at all. But, there is one thing that you both share. It's... how to put it..." 
"Are you talking about my look-alike? Because I do have one of those." 
She continued munching on her cracker as she said that. 
"You see, the person I used as reference when I modelled my face, she's still out there." 
"O-Oh, really?" 
"Yes." 
She then swallowed with a gulp. When she "made her face"? I didn't really understand what she was talking about. 
I tried using her expression to gauge whether she was serious or not, but just like usual, what I was met by was the same joyful smile. 
Was she lying, or was she telling the truth? I did have an idea. 
"Yachii, are you really an alien?" 
"Of course." 
Having said that, she fell silent for a moment. 
I could see her eyes jumping about. Then, she grinned. 
"Actually, I'm not." 
"Huh? You're not?" 
"Nope. I'm just your average youngling." 
"Youngling?" 
While I didn't know what exactly she meant by that, it was clear that there was nothing average about her. 
As if done with the topic, Yachii then hid the bag of crackers inside her clothes before rolling back on the floor. But why? If she wanted to keep it a secret, then sorry, it was kinda late for that now. 
I also returned to my desk, but even there, I found myself still staring at her. 
Light like white waves on the surface of the ocean was being emitted from both her hair and eyes. 
"Those are all the crackers you are going to get for the day, Shou", she stated, lifting her eyes from the manga to look at me. 
"R-Right." 
Flustered, I quickly averted my gaze. 
"There's always tomorrow." 
I could hear her smacking her feet against the floor. Tomorrow? I kinda felt like it was too early for that. 
At the same time, it was also very much like her. 
I'd meet her tomorrow, once again. 

Today's Adachi 

Say that we'd gone to different schools. 
Say that our gym didn't have a second floor. 
Say that I'd been a slightly better student. 
If any or all of those things had been true, would something still have sprouted between us? 
Fate, it truly was a curious thing.