Adachi to Shimamura - Volume 9 - Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: Young Hougetsu Shima

"Ah, Shimamura."

I was just on my way home from school when I heard someone call my name. Curious, I turned around, only to catch sight of a familiar face riding a bicycle.

Me stopping in my tracks was immediately met by the winter wind hitting the back of my thighs, making me painfully aware of the cold surrounding me.

"Yo. Been a while", I lifted my hand and greeted the girl. She was someone I knew in middle school. More precisely, I'd been a mentor of sorts to her at the basketball club we'd both attended.

Her name was... err... what was it again? I'd always been horrible at remembering the names of people.

Whatever the case, I was pretty sure her name had "Yama" somewhere in it. Yama... kawa? Hmm, no. That didn't sound right. Tana... ka? Whatever. I'll see if I can remember it.

"Did you always live in this direction, Shimamura?"

"Yep."

One look at her uniform made it clear she went to a different high school than I did.

"Do you still play basketball at your new school?"

"No. I'm not part of any clubs, actually."

"Oh, really? I still play, at least for now. I'm not really serious about it or anything."

"Right."

The only reason I'd ever chosen to play basketball was because I'd been curious to find out why it had a girls' club when neither baseball nor soccer did. That, and whereas bouncing a ball against the floor during regular gym class was more than enough to earn an angry comment from the teacher, I was free to do so while practising without anyone getting mad at me. Otherwise, I would have been perfectly fine with doing ballet or something similar.

There was something very alluring about that, being able to do something you weren't normally allowed. So alluring that I'd ended up basing my choice of middle school club on it.

Looking back to it now, it really was quite strange, was it?

Were I to be given the permission to do something like that these days, I'd probably just say "No thank you" and go to bed.

But, enough of that. I found myself quite shocked as I stared at the girl. She really had gotten a lot taller since middle school, hadn't she?

"You've gotten pretty tall."

Right away, my words were met by the girl waving her hand in front of her, followed by a quick laugh.

"And you've gotten pretty round", she then stated, still grasping her bike's handlebar.

"You think so?"

"No, but I heard it said that whenever someone used to speak ill of you back in the day, you'd kick them."

"You must have heard wrong."

I hardly had the courage to resort to violence. It took a lot of willpower to hit another person—willpower that I lacked.

Being as soft as I was, such things were far beyond my capabilities.

"I do know for a fact that you never passed the ball to those you didn't like."

"Hmm... Yeah, I might have done that..."

I ended up mumbling there. Why? Because there were a lot of things hidden in my past so embarrassing I'd rather not touch on them.

"I need to ask, have you found yourself someone? You feel so different now."

"Huh?"

"Come on, you know what I'm talking about. This thing."

Giggling to herself, the girl showed her middle finger to me.

"You picking a fight or something?"

"Oh, crap. Which finger was it again..."

This one? Or this one? she mumbled as she went through all of her fingers one by one. She even lifted her ring finger, to which I have to ask, how was she able to do that while keeping the rest down? I certainly couldn't do it.

I went ahead and tried it out to see, but unfortunately, all I managed to accomplish was to make my fingers tremble.

Putting all that aside, it was now clear what the girl was trying to ask me.

"Hmm... I wonder."

I have found myself a girlfriend, yes. While that was the truth, I couldn't help but wonder how she'd react were I to tell it to her. Would she stare at me in shock with her eyes wide open? Most likely.

"I guess I've just matured or something."

"Haha."

What was the laugh supposed to mean? Was she impressed by me? I'm going to assume that she was.

Another gust of cold air soon assaulted my legs, causing my body to shiver. The girl seemed to notice this as well.

"Well, anyway. Bye now."

"Yeah. Bye."

We waved each other goodbye before parting ways. She was quite tactful, that girl. I definitely remembered talking with her quite a bit during practice.

Err... Nakayama. Yeah, that sounded about right.

"In the end, which finger was it? Hmm..."

The sigh that left my mouth was met by yet another gust of wind.

I decided that if we were to ever meet again, I'd tell her. Then again, it seemed very unlikely that we were going to.

I spent the majority of my days doing a whole lot of nothing, and as such, these sorts of encounters tended to come about quite infrequently. That, and my poor attitude back then had left few of my classmates wanting to reconnect with me now.

"How immature I used to be, seriously."

I'd been really quick to react, almost too much so. At the same time, I also felt like my will had been much stronger compared to the present.

Did something like this ever happen to Adachi as she walked down the streets of the town we lived in? While I couldn't say for certain, I had to assume that it didn't. Adachi's world was so very small. And yet, I couldn't say that was necessarily a bad thing. The world being small would have made all sorts of organizing quite easy. You could also get a look at everything around you all at once. Hmm, yes... Maybe that actually was preferable.

A world needing only one little thing and nothing else.

That "little thing" of course being me. I could feel myself sniffle as I thought about it, my cheeks growing slightly warm.

Winter had come to town.

"Bam!"

I continued making my way forward, lost in thought, when all of a sudden, someone bumped against my shoulder. I staggered for a moment, but quickly realised who that someone was.

"Oh, Shima-Shima."

It was Nagafuji, appearing quite shocked herself for whatever reason. Bumping into me had caused her glasses to slip off her nose, and she was currently busy readjusting them.

Given where she lived, it wasn't often that we ran into one another this close to my house.

"You saw that?"

"Only the part where you smacked her."

"Err, no. Nothing like that happened."

Sometimes I found myself wondering, how exactly did the world around her appear in her eyes? Were the lenses of her glasses perhaps not of the right strength? That, or maybe there was something more serious wrong with her vision.

Whatever the case, I had to say, it was pretty rare seeing her by herself. Having seemingly sensed my confusion, Nagafuji quickly went ahead and explained in the form of drawing the outline of a person next to her. It was the outline of Hino. Air-Hino.

"Hino threw me out. She said she had housework to do."

"She's dumping her trash on the street? Can't say that I approve."

What exactly was that supposed to mean? No idea. I just said it randomly. And yet, I still managed to earn myself a few approving nods from Nagafuji. I seriously had trouble understanding her sometimes—or really, most of the time.

Moving on to the other thing she'd said, Hino was busy with housework, huh? That seemed like a pretty common occurrence with her. While her personality did cause me to ignore the topic most of the time, once I actually thought about it, it instantly became clear that her family was on a completely different level of living standards compared to the rest of us. Naturally, that also came with all sorts of ties and obligations. Not that Nagafuji seemed to care. No, she always hung out at her house as if there was nothing strange about it.

"Anyway, I'm just loitering around now since I have nothing better to do."

"That's honestly more or less what I expected."

Her doing stuff without any real reason behind it, that was. Now, what part of loitering around the residential area did she find interesting or fun? That I couldn't tell you.

"Ring ring", Nagafuji rang the bell of her bike as I thought about that. Or rather, she didn't; she wasn't even riding one. No, it seemed more like she was imitating the girl I'd talked with earlier. Why was she doing that? Again, I couldn't tell you. Whatever the case, she decided to even copy what came after: "You've gotten round."

"Where?"

"Hmm..."

My question was met by her pinching my arms. Hey!

"Looks like I was wrong."

"Well, hooray."

"Not that I know what you were like in the past."

Figures.

"Say, Shimama."

"Sorry if this sounds weird, but do you even know what my real name is?"

"Of course. It's Shimacchi."

So, the answer was no, huh?

"Hmm, hmm... Yep! Got nothing to add to that."

"Well, hooray."

What on earth was going on with the conversation here? Was this what Hino put up with every single day? It all felt completely unproductive to me.

Then again, thinking about it some more, what exactly counted as a productive conversation?

Most of the ones I had with Adachi weren't that meaningful either.

"If I come up with something later, I'll let you know."

"You do that."

This time, I was the one who ended up mimicking the girl from before. As for Nagafuji, well, she simply turned around and ran off.

"Ah, I almost forgot. Hey, Shimamama!"

She made it quite a distance away before turning around for a second time and calling out my name—or rather, something that sort of resembled it.

"Yes?"

"Yay!"

This cheerful exclamation was followed by her raising her middle finger at me. What? I was really confused at first, but after a few moments of thinking about it, I decided to respond to her with a similar gesture.

This appeared to be enough to satisfy Nagafuji. She nodded her head a few times before running off for good this time.

"What was that about?"

Was she really just that much of an airhead? Or was there something more to it?

I couldn't help but feel like I would have absolutely hated her had I met her in middle school.

I used to really dislike people like her, the kind that always joked around.

Not anymore though. No, now it only made me laugh. I'd fully embraced what sort of person I'd become.

Anyway, let's move on from that topic.

"I'm so tired now."

Interacting with people sure was taxing. Plus, I'd dealt with not just one, but two.

Sadly, despite those feelings, I'd not actually lost any weight.

I hung my head, and my mind hung too.

Like I was buried under a layer of snow, the cold of winter surrounded me.

That was the situation here. Or to put it less poetically, I felt very cold and very tired.

The movements of my body had grown increasingly sluggish, so much so that in a lot of ways, it felt like I'd become a poikilothermic animal of some kind.

How many times had I grumbled the words "so cold" while changing out of my uniform after coming home? Probably at least a dozen or so. To make matters worse, the indoor heating was barely even trying. I mean, sure, neither was I, but I did wish that the house would at least have the decency to act better than its master. Speaking of, though my sister's backpack had been left on top of her desk, its owner was nowhere to be seen. She was so much better at dealing with the cold than I was. Just the other day, she'd repaired the aquarium she owned without once complaining about how cold the water was. I might not be one to talk, but even I can say, that sure was something.

"How diligent."

Then again, I guess there wasn't any point to praising her when she wasn't around to hear it. Anyhow, I spent the next few moments the way I was, the entire length of my body shivering.

Coincidentally, my phone began shivering too. Or vibrating, rather. I figured it was probably Adachi calling me, and to no one's surprise, that's exactly who it turned out to be.

"Yes?"

"I was just thinking, wanna do something on Christmas?"

Despite her attempts at hiding her true intentions, it was still very much clear what she wanted to say. Christmas, huh? It was getting pretty close to that, wasn't it?

"Sure, why not."

No sooner had those words left my mouth than the memories of our previous Christmas rushed to fill my mind. What I remembered in particular was the colour blue.

"I wonder, how will you dress up this time?"

It'd been a while since I'd last seen her wearing a China dress, and I couldn't deny that there was a part of me that wouldn't at all have minded seeing it again.

"How would you like me to?"

Knowing Adachi, I could probably get her to wear anything I wanted if I just asked.

"......"

Okay, not like that. I decided not to even suggest the horrible thought that had passed through my mind on the off-chance that she'd take it seriously.

"Just normal will be fine, I think."

Having said that, I put the phone down.

"Now then."

I knew I should go crank up the heating. At the same time, I also wanted to crawl under the blankets and spend a few moments warming up. It was clear what would happen were I to do that, obviously, but even so, I simply couldn't resist the temptation.

"Zzz..."

Sure enough, my mind ended up fading away before my body had a chance to fully warm up.

When I next opened my eyes, it felt as if only a second had passed by. My first instinct was to check the clock to see what time it was, but before I could get to that, what caught my attention was the person resting on top of my stomach. Who just did that, used another's person stomach as a pillow? Doubly so while lying face down.

Did this lion not have trouble sleeping like that?

"Zzz... Zzz..."

What a simplistic snore. Almost too simplistic... Was she actually awake?

"Hey, you. Weird creature."

"Are you talking to me?"

Immediately as I spoke to her, Yashiro raised her head. I couldn't help but admire her awareness.

"Out of all our family members, you're definitely the most mysterious."

Now, while Yashiro technically wasn't a member of our family, I did count her as one. Mostly due to how much time she spent at our house. That reminds me, the other day while Mom had been out buying snacks, she'd bought some for her as well. It seemed that she'd really taken to this strange little creature for whatever reason. I guess she thought of her as a dog or something, one that talked and laughed and loitered around. And also ate more than a normal one. And shone.

"I wanted to give her a ride home, but when I asked her where she lives, she answered 'in space'. That's pretty far away."

"Huh? And that's your problem with that?"

"Is there some other problem I should be having?"

"Yes!"

"Hmm. Well, she's not a bad person, that's for sure. You can tell as much just looking at her face."

"Looks can be deceiving. Well, I guess not in her case, but still..."

"You wanna see the face of an evil person? Just look in the mirror!"

"I do get told I resemble my mother a lot."

That was Mom's reaction. As for Dad, he once said something to the effect of "she sure is here often" as the two passed by each other and exchanged greetings, after which he never commented on her ever again. Our family was kinda like that, very relaxed.

"I'm the only one with a solid grip."

"Hahahaha."

What was that laugh supposed to mean?

"Anyway. Now, why are you sleeping on me?"

Not that it was particularly rare that this happened. I'd look down, and there she'd be sleeping. She was kinda like a cat in that way.

First a dog, then a cat, then a lion. She sure had a lot on her plate.

"I thought you looked warm."

"Warm, huh? Hmm... Hey!"

What did she think she was doing, calling a person's stomach "warm"? I pinched her cheeks and pulled on them to punish her for the cheeky remark, but even with her squishy skin spread further than should have been possible, a cheerful smile remained on her face. Also, as usual, her body felt oddly cool to the touch.

She'd been sleeping with her face pressed against my stomach, yet none of my warmth had been transferred to her. How truly mysterious.

Then again, I guess it kinda made sense; it wasn't like my stomach had some sort of a heating element to it. Probably not, at least.

"I wanted to play with Shou, but it seems that she's too busy at the moment", the girl went ahead and explained, her cheeks still being stretched to their limits by my hands. She was too busy to deal with Yashiro? That seemed a little odd. Or not, I suppose.

Also—and I know this observation came awfully late—why exactly did she call her "Shou"? That wasn't even close to her real name.

Mere moments after I'd let her go, Yashiro's face had already returned to normal. Following this, she then pulled down her lion hood, exposing her blue hair. I spent the next few moments staring at her. There was something very enthralling about the unusual colour of her hair, as well as the faint light it emitted. It wasn't often you came across people with this sort of hair. Or rather, you never did. At least I hadn't.

"Why don't we sleep for a bit longer?"

"I think it'd be warmer for you if you got under the blanket", I quickly replied, stopping the girl in her tracks before she could lie on top of my stomach for a second time.

"Ah, you're right."

With those words, she rolled off me. She then crammed herself inside the futon, and before I knew it, I found the two of us lying next to one another.

"It's very warm indeed."

"Thanks to me, yes. You better be grateful."

I took a peek at the wall, only to see that the heater's switch was still in the "off" position. Why was that? Thinking about it some more, I realised I'd forgotten to turn the device on earlier.

Moreover, I couldn't go do it right now. I was stuck under the blankets.

Yashiro was so fluffy, and staring at her idly, I could feel the inside of my head dissolving into fluff as well.

Would Adachi get mad if she saw me like this? That was what I found myself thinking of as my mind continued melting away.

She honestly might. It wasn't difficult to imagine that she would. And yet, and the same time, I didn't want to leave. Between attempting to unravel the complex mess that was this topic and losing myself to the innocent grin on Yashiro's face, I happily chose the latter. It was a bit similar to how Nagafuji approached the world, I suppose, but also a lot different.

"Well, whatever."

"Wahaha."

I ran my hands against Yashiro's hair, stroking it. With each stroke, small particles of light would scatter off. What were those really? Some sort of fungi? Or perhaps spores? Did breathing them in infest one's mind, making them not question her presence? I wasn't sure why, but that was something I randomly thought of. I was probably wrong though.

"I can hardly wait for dinner."

"You sure do love eating, huh?"

"As much as you love sleeping, Shimamura."

"Right."

Both of those were interests very true to our instincts.

"You ought to spend more time having fun while you're still young", Yashiro stated all of a sudden. She spoke in a very strict tone of voice, which clashed hard against the smile still on her face. "I heard that while watching tele-vision."

"Yeah, I figured."

It wasn't that uncommon to find both her and Mom lying in front of the TV together.

"Are you no longer young, Shimamura?"

"Hmm. Probably not compared to you."

"Hehehe. My, you must be blind."

"Err, no. I don't think so."

For some reason, I didn't exactly feel like I was being praised here.

Not that youth was everything that mattered. Far from it.

Really, what did it even mean to be young?

"What kind of an earthling was young Shimamura?"

"Me but younger, I guess."

I was personally of the opinion that I was still quite young. Also, "earthling"? I decided I'd be better off not thinking about that too hard.

There was something about the warmth of the futon that caused my memories to grow blurry, making it easy for the past and the present to intertwine.

As for those memories themselves, they were neither so soft nor so warm.

"Back in middle school..."

A lot of stuff had happened. It was honestly difficult to remember it all.

If nothing else, I definitely felt like I'd spent a lot more time running compared to now. Yes, that's right. That was exactly it.

To this day, I can still recall the feeling of disgust I felt as I walked into the sports hall on my first day in middle school and saw the other students gathered there, all wearing uniforms. It was as if I'd walked face-first into a wall—a wall formed of the thick air I was met with. A part of me wanted to turn back. And yet, I pushed through; unable to put a name to the feeling I was experiencing, I let the flow carry me and became a part of it. So began the long, boring opening ceremony, and with it, my long, boring school days.

It'd been April back then, yet for some reason, the air inside the sports hall had felt awfully cool. Moreover, we'd each been given a specific spot where we were supposed to stand, and as was the case with mine, I couldn't exactly rely on the sun for warmth either. What I did notice, however, was a piece of tape marking a part of a basketball court just beneath my feet. I decided to step on it. Doing so, I could feel my foot being pushed back.

I spent the next few moments staring at the teacher giving a speech on the podium.

It didn't take long till I began feeling like I'd had enough.

Making up some excuse about how I needed to use the restroom, I left the others behind. Why had I done that? I wasn't really sure myself. Some distant part of my mind had told me to act, and that was all the motivation I'd needed. I continued making my way through the crowd of students. It was tough, yet I didn't stop.

All by myself, I headed towards the hall's exit.

That's right: I was alone.

Tarumi, the person I'd played with so much in grade school, was no longer by my side. I'd come to the conclusion that the two of us were probably never going to see one another ever again. Regardless of how close we'd once been, that was all in the past now. It had no connection to the present. It was meaningless.

Friendships, by their nature, were not guaranteed to last.

They required a reason—an excuse—to exist.

Friendly feelings might have been a part of it, but only a part.

With each step I took having exited the sports hall, I could feel myself growing increasingly anxious.

"Maybe this wasn't a good idea."

It was my first day in a new school, and already I was breaking the rules. Like wind brushing against a peeled scab, waves of uneasiness blew over me. I decided to stop what I was doing and turned back.

Were I to return now, the anxiety eating me up inside would surely go away. And yet. And yet...

There were no words to explain the disgust I felt staring at the backs of the students gathered at the sports hall. The sheer boredom, I hated it. I wanted no part in it. And the cold. It was so cold there. I hated feeling cold.

Standing there, I found myself unable to take the decisive step forward.

My gaze slowly shifted up towards the sky.

Through the leaves of the sakura trees already done blooming, I could feel warm rays of light shining down upon me.

There at last, with the weight of the light softly pressing down on my shoulders, my mind reached peace.

Like abandoning a part of myself, I'd begun my struggle to leave it all behind.

I'd become Shima Hougetsu.

"Hmm? Ah, Shimamura", the girl spoke while poking her head through the door of the sports hall. I chose not to reply and instead continued wiping myself clean of sweat, only for her to remove her shoes and take a step inside. On the other side of the door she'd left half-open, I could see members of the other sports clubs walking back and forth. The light tinge of red that painted the track let me know what time it was currently.

I was pretty sure her name was... Ike? Hata? Ikehata? No, no. That didn't sound right. Mizu... Gawa... Well, who cared.

She was a second year student, and I'd just met her. It wasn't that unreasonable for me to not remember her name.

"What are you up to?"

"Can't you tell just by looking?"

"Hmm. I'd say you're training in secret."

Close, but not quite; I was hardly doing this in secret. I thought about correcting her, but deciding that to be too bothersome, I ended up simply giving the ball I was holding a toss.

The ball hit the rim of the hoop and bounced off. Quickly, I ran after it.

"Do you do this every day?"

"Only when I feel like it."

It didn't seem like the girl was about to leave. Far from it; by the time I turned back around, she'd already sat down near the side of the court.

"You're not leaving?"

That was a polite way of telling her to screw off.

"I'll watch you for a bit first", she stated back.

"Hmm. I guess that's fine..."

It wasn't like it changed anything. I'd be tossing the ball and running after it all the same.

"This kinda reminds me of a dog playing with a frisbee by itself."

"It works when you're as skilled as I am."

This attempt at comeback was met by the ball once again hitting the hoop and bouncing off. Weird. Usually, I landed a way higher percentage of my throws. Was it because I had an audience today? Possibly. Probably. And so, I'd made it someone else's fault. It was when the ball bounced off the hoop for a second time that the girl once again opened her mouth.

"I wonder, why is it that you're here training by yourself after school when you never take the regular practise all that seriously?"

I leaned forward to pick the ball up, only for the sweat dripping down my face to enter my eyes.

"Even if I did try, the practice wouldn't get me anywhere."

Having done this for over a year now, I was more than aware of my own limits.

"Hmm. Anyway, you're practising shooting, huh? Any particular reason?"

"Yeah. I got tired of just bouncing the ball around."

Things stopped being fun once you got good at them. It was for that reason I'd decided to do something else and devote myself to throwing shots.

Somehow, I got the feeling I wasn't going to grow tired of it anytime soon.

I watched as the ball drew a beautiful arc through the air, only for it to once again hit the side of the hoop and bounce off.

"You're not really all that popular, you know?"

The girl seemed to find it quite enjoyable watching me fail over and over again.

"Yep. Lots of people hate me."

"I didn't say that."

Yes, but that's what you meant. I was the one smiling this time.

"Since everyone dislikes me, I don't think I'm going to be attending the game either."

"Hmm. Maybe it's better that way, what with you never passing the ball."

Ahahah, the girl laughed. She really hadn't held back with that comment, and all I could offer as a response was a short "yeah".

"Why is that, by the way? Why do you never pass the ball to anyone?"

"Simple. I find it way more fun keeping it to myself."

"Kinda selfish, don't you think?"

I did. I knew I was being selfish. If anyone disliked me for that, I didn't blame them. I fully accepted the consequences of my choices.

"These kinds of things really aren't for me."

"Hmm?"

"Team games, I mean."

It had become evident that not only was I bad at doing favours for people, the same was also true for receiving them.

Focusing too much on that side of things was the reason why I'd begun finding others a nuisance. That said, I'd lately found myself wondering, had doing that actually helped? Or had it only made things more complicated and more bothersome? If the club was the issue, then maybe I should just quit. I could always practice shooting on my own time like I was doing currently. I threw the ball like I had done so many times till now, only for it to once again smack against the hoop.

"Your aim is pretty good. Assuming you're trying to hit the hoop, that is."

Are you? she added, to which I replied with a short "no" while picking the ball up for what felt like the hundredth time.

"Are my legs not strong enough or what?"

"I think that if you jump a bit higher before you throw, that should help."

What an oddly casual remark. Had she not heard what I just said? Still, I had to wonder, if I were actually able to jump that high, would it let me free myself from all the weight—all the baggage—that bound me to the present?

One more try. One more try, and if I didn't get it in, I'd quit for the day. Wouldn't you know it, I ended up not even getting close.

Taking a deep breath and wiping my nose clean of sweat, I decided I'd had enough.

Next, I shifted my attention towards the girl still sitting there.

"Hey, umm..."

"Yes?"

"I can see inside your skirt."

"Ah!"

Clearly flustered, she instantly rushed to straighten up her posture and pull down the hem of her skirt.

"Why didn't you say so right away? Are you a perv or something?"

"Shut up."

"If I asked you what colour they were, would you be able to answer?"

"Hmm..."

I wasn't quite sure what I was meant to say to that. As such, I decided not to say anything, choosing instead to start tidying up the place. As for the girl, she remained completely motionless. Even after I shot a few glances her way, she refused to get up and help me. No respect for her seniors, huh? Somehow, I felt like I had a habit of making myself acquainted with people like her. Still, considering that she was still here, it did seem like she planned on waiting till I was done at least.

"Others might hate you, Shimamura, but I don't."

"Really? Well, thanks."

We'd left school behind and were now walking home. It was there that the girl spoke those words to me. They sounded cold, almost like she'd said them just for the sake of being polite. I continued walking for a bit before turning around to face her.

"Why is that? What part of me don't you hate?"

"Huh? Oh, err... I guess I just find it pleasant talking with you."

Really? Judging by the tone of her voice as she said that, I honestly might have guessed the opposite.

"You come across so, how to put it, unfriendly when we talk."

"And that's pleasant?"

Again, to me, that felt like it should've evoked the opposite feeling.

I could hear the girl mumble something to herself as she turned her head away.

"I guess I just wasn't expecting anything more from all this. Really, it's better that way. A lot simpler. If we aren't friends, then I can just say anything I want. None of it matters. Having a person like that in your life is quite valuable, I think."

"Hmm. Valuable..."

I guess that made sense; the classroom was small, yet you still needed people to interact with.

Moreover, there was always the possibility that were you to anger one of your friends, the rest would follow suit, and you'd quickly find yourself all alone.

Looking at it from that point of view, it made perfect sense why she'd chosen me; I had no connections to speak of.

If she ever got on my bad side, well, then who cared? She'd only lose me.

Just me. Only me.

"There's nothing better than being able to talk without having to use your head, don't you think?"

"......"

What did I think? Looking back to our earlier interactions of which I barely had any memories left, I suppose yes, I had enjoyed myself quite a bit.

I'd enjoyed it, meaning that I should continue going down the same path. That seemed logical enough. And yet, for some reason, doubt still remained in my mind.

"Well, later then."

"Right. See you tomorrow."

Apparently, the girl lived relatively close to my house. It was for that reason we'd often depart from school together like we had done today and walk all the way over to the residential area side by side. There, we'd exchange thoughtless greetings before parting ways. Once again, like so many times till now, that ended up being exactly how it played out. However, today, something was different; with just a few steps worth of distance between us, the glimmer of the sun in the corner of my eye managed to bring a certain thought from the back of my mind to the forefront.

"Hey."

"Yes? What it is?"

I pointed my finger at the sun, prompting the girl to shift her gaze upwards.

"Hmm, yes. It's quite pretty."

While true, that wasn't what I was trying to say. No, it was the light itself that mattered.

Its colour.

"The colour", I emphasized while waggling my finger.

"Hmm?"

Sounding a bit confused, the girl once again turned her head to face the sun. She stared at it for a few moments, when all of a sudden, a faint gasp escaped her mouth. One look at the faint tone of red which appeared on her face instantly made it clear that she'd just now understood the true meaning behind my words.

As if to clear any suspicion, she hastily lowered her gaze and took a quick peek at her dress.

"That's a pretty sentimental way of saying pervy stuff!" she yelled at me. Or screamed, rather. You could really hear her voice tremble.

"Err, but, you're the one who..."

I had no time to finish that sentence; with a cheerful smile on her face, the girl turned around and ran off. What did she find so funny in all this? I had no clue. Did that matter? No, not really.

"Hmm. Whatever."

The chances were that we wouldn't ever see each other again after graduating.

I meant nothing to her. What I thought, it mattered not.

It was precisely due to a combination of those two factors that she was able to so easily relax around me.

Our relationship stayed mostly the same from then on. We'd talk, yes, interact, but even when we did, there was always a clear sense of distance between us.

At no point did I even bother to remember what her name was.

Nothing spectacular happened on our way to the day of graduation, at which point we parted ways for good.

Looking back to it now, it was clear that experience had played a big part in making me the person I was upon starting high school.

"...And that's kinda what happened with her."

"I see, I see."

A sigh left my mouth as I finished this long-winded tale of the past. I was honestly a little surprised how well I remembered it all.

Then again, I supposed that made sense; it'd only been two years since my middle school days.

The only reason why I felt like it'd been longer than that was because the year I'd spent with Adachi had been far richer than most.

In both good and bad, she'd begun overwriting my other memories.

Would there one day come a time when memories with Adachi would be all I had left? Perhaps. I could see that happening.

"Hmm, hmm."

"Were you even paying attention?"

"Yes, yes. Of course. I heard it all."

Though Yashiro sounded very confident in herself, her closed eyes told a different story.

"I think it was better for both of us that I didn't meet you while in middle school."

No way would the me back then have as much as acknowledged this tiny ball of warmth.

It was only in the present that I was able to lie side by side with her.

Was it fate that had brought us together? Or was it simply luck? Of course, I was fully aware what her answer to that question was.

"It must be destiny."

"Right."

I had no reason to argue with that. Instead, I chose to once again close my eyes and let my conscious mind fade away.

Like falling through a vast void of nothingness with no wind to slow me down, I could feel myself shiftily approaching the land of sweet dreams.

I loved this sensation, this moment of tranquillity. If I had to guess, I'd say that my love for sleeping likely meant I got to experience it a lot more compared to other people.

What a fortunate thing, truly.

I could hear my sister open the door, but even that sounded so distant.

I'd just been about to step through the doorway when a name I'd been hearing increasingly often as of late reached my ears. Quickly, I turned around to look behind me.

A middle-aged woman with black hair stood there. She was currently heading towards the pool. More importantly, she'd just been called "Adachi" by a person who'd walked past her. Adachi, huh? There sure were a lot of Adachis in this world. That was what I thought at first. However, taking another look at the woman—at her face, to be precise—it hit me. The resemblance was too great to be a coincidence. I turned around fully and began approaching her.

With my eyes fixed on the back of her swimsuit, I took steps towards the woman, following after her into the direction of the pool. Apparently, she'd yet to notice me. Should I keep tailing her? Sure, why not. That seemed like fun. Her unawareness of my presence survived her opening the pool door, only coming to an end as we reached the showers. It was there that she at last noticed me.

She turned around and glared at me fiercely.

Well, enough of that. I straightened out my back, still hunched after the earlier sneaking. Doing so, I had one last good look at her.

"Hmm..."

As if in response to my stare, the wrinkles on her face grew deeper.

"What? Also, who are you?"

"You're Adachi, yes?"

"Well, that is my name."

"Right, right. You look a lot like your daughter. She's in high school."

That was the conclusion I'd reached. I felt like saying it out loud, and so I did. Thinking about it some more, looks weren't the only aspect in which the two resembled one another. No, the aura they had about them was quite similar as well. A second passed, after which the intense expression on the woman's face began to soften just slightly.

"I assume you're too old to be friends with her. So?"

"I know her, yes."

At least sort of.

"Hmm. In that case, is it fair to assume you have a child of your own?"

"I do. Two girls."

One cheeky, and one slightly less so.

Then again, give it a few years, and she'd be right up there with the first one.

Trust me when I say this: Hougetsu had been quite the rebel in middle school.

"Hmm?"

This time, it was the other woman staring at me. She brought her face so close to mine. Almost too close. Was she perhaps short-sighted?

There was something about the way she frowned that really reminded me a lot of her daughter—that being the younger Adachi.

Keeping in tone with the impression of a very obedient child the girl gave, it was rare to see her facial expression change in any meaningful way. Personally, I didn't think there would've been anything wrong with that, her being slightly more expressive.

"Hmm?"

"I remember coming across a certain person one time while I was here. She looked an awful lot like you."

"Oh, yeah. That was probably my daughter."

I'd once brought her to the gym with me. Had she seen her then? That seemed possible.

If I remembered right, she'd still had blonde hair back then. I'd always thought that didn't fit her at all. Not in the slightest.

"Hmm... Now it makes sense."

Having taken a step backwards, the woman began scratching her face. What made sense? What was she talking about?

These questions apparently ended up coming through in the way I stared at her, and while letting out a sigh, she began explaining.

"I was just thinking about how Sakura has found herself a friend."

Sakura? Sakura who? A second later, it dawned on me; that must have been the given name of little Adachi—Hougetsu's friend. Did I know that already? Or was this my first time hearing of it? I had no clue. I was honestly terrible with names. Well, not that it mattered; things had a way of always working out in the end.

"So then, did you want something?"

"Nope. I only followed you because I thought you looked like her."

That was all there was to it. That was my entire motive for doing what I'd done. And yet, even after hearing it, the woman remained silent.

I ended up having to wave my palm in front of me to signal that I was done. As I did so, a stern frown formed on her face.

"Huh? Were you not satisfied with that?"

"Not in the slightest. You seem like a real nuisance."

"My, how rude."

I did get that often. My daughters especially seemed to find me quite annoying most of the time. My husband also.

I'd asked them all why on multiple occasions. Guess what their answers boiled down to? Apparently, I was too "easy-going".

Seriously, what was wrong with those people? How could they be so mean?

"How long are you planning on standing there for, by the way?"

"Hmm?"

"I came here to shower."

Those words were followed by her shooing me off with the shower head she had in hand.

"Why don't we shower together? It'll take just a moment."

"What? Are you an even bigger moron than what you look like?"

And so, I got kicked out. What a bummer. I could've done it so fast.

I was left with no choice but to use the shower next to her.

"......"

On a whim, I decided to point the nozzle upwards and shoot some water over the partition standing between us.

Splash, splash.

No reaction came, and so, I kept doing it.

"Stop or I'll kill you."

"Whoa!"

Not quite what I'd been expecting. She didn't sound like she was messing around either. As for me, I felt like I was still a bit too young to die. I quickly turned the shower off.

As I exited the shower area, I was followed by a woman dripping with far more water than I was. I couldn't help but stare at her.

The long strands of wet hair sticking to her face really did make it look like she might curse me if I wasn't careful.

"Seriously, what's up with you?"

"One out of three people would describe my personality as 'humorous'."

"So, this is supposed to be funny? Why aren't you laughing then?"

The woman was spot on there; I hardly ever laughed. That was something Hougetsu and I very much had in common.

"Speaking of, Sakura spends a lot of time at your house, doesn't she?"

"Hmm? Yeah, she does. I see her quite often."

I had to imagine there weren't all that many high schoolers out there who still visited their friends as regularly as she did.

Tarumi was another person who used to come by often. These days though, I never saw her.

Friends were so much fun, and yet, you couldn't spend your whole life with them. It was the very way the world worked that stopped you from doing so. How mysterious was that? Myself, I found it quite intriguing.

"Right."

With that, the woman once again fell silent. It almost sounded like she'd been about to say something more.

"Hmm? Got something on your mind? Spit it out."

"Shut up", she mumbled in response to me giving her a smack on the arm. "That girl... I don't really get her. What goes on in her mind, in her heart, it's all a mystery to me."

"Umm... Can't you just ask her directly?"

She'd hardly asked for my opinion, yet I ended up giving it to her anyway. I couldn't think of a better way to sum up my character.

I suppose it also explained why certain people found me so annoying.

As for the woman, she proceeded to stare at me with her eyes wide. Was what I'd said really that shocking to her?

"Is something wrong?"

"No, no. It's nothing..." she mumbled before turning around as if about to walk the other way. "I'm heading to the sauna."

"Sure thing. Bye then."

No way could anyone convince me to spend a minute somewhere that hot and unpleasant.

Me waving my hand at her was met by yet another confused stare. And yet, behind it, the woman did also smile a little.

Then.

"Atsuka. My name's Atsuka."

"Yoshika Shimamura. The pleasure is mine."