Off-Target Emotion
It was a gloomy day after class. The sky was cloudy and the air was dry.
Tsubaki Issei, president of the karate society, strode with determination along a tree-lined lane on a corner of the school grounds. He was young, short, and pale, but also a skilled warrior. His striking almond-shaped eyes held an indomitable warrior’s spirit that seemed to burn at all times, but his mouth was drawn in stubborn science.
He was en route to a duel.
That afternoon, incorrigibly, he had issued a letter of challenge to Sagara Sousuke. He simply couldn’t restrain his desire to fight him.
He’d been born with numerous handicaps—his height, his weight, his vision—but had overcome them all through careful dedication to refining his skills. His inferiority complex had propelled him into a single-minded pursuit of strength regardless of his deficiencies. Issei felt it was crucial to defeat Sousuke, the one who had defeated him, in order to reach even greater heights.
Yes... Ever since that day he caught me off guard, Issei thought, I’ve been unable to move on. But that ends today. At last, I will... His eyes snapped open. I will defeat Sagara! As if inspired by his sudden spike of fighting spirit, a wind blew up around him, stirring the dust and the dead leaves.
Soon, he arrived at the appointed site of the duel: the remains of a recently torn-down judo dojo. There was nobody else there just yet. He must have arrived a bit before the agreed-upon hour.
But then, Issei noticed something strange about a nearby zelkova; a piece of white paper had been stuck to its trunk with an army knife, at about chest height. There was some kind of long message written on it.
Issei squinted at it, but he was too nearsighted to make out the message from where he stood. He walked up to the trunk, leaned in, and found that the paper said this:
Tsubaki Issei, I have received your declaration of hostilities. Unfortunately, the student council has issued me an important mission today, and so I have no time to spare for you. Instead, your opponent will be the item below you.
“Below me?” Issei muttered, shifting his weight, and...
Click. A dull metallic sound came from the ground beneath his feet. Foreboding welled up within Issei as he kept reading and discovered what the sound signified:
If you heard a metallic sound already, it would be best not to lift your foot. I’ve buried an anti-personnel mine in that location. If you remove your weight, it will explode.
“What?!” Issei looked down, flabbergasted, then carefully moved into a squat. Still trembling, he dug a little ways into the soil beneath his beat-up sneaker from the side, revealing the first hint of a CD-sized mine right below his foot.
Shaking harder now, he went back to reading the message.
Use the army knife and try to dismantle the mine without removing your foot. If you manage to disarm it and survive, you win. That is all. Good luck.
Sagara Sousuke.
Issei threw his arms around the trunk and wailed, “Sagara... n-not again!”
Around that time, a sullen-looking Sagara Sousuke was himself working on carefully stapling a packet of paper. There was a mountain of similarly printed packets sitting on top of the student council table. This was the “important mission” to which he had referred: putting together this month’s student council newsletter, the Jindai News.
Several other students were there with Sousuke, all silently focused on their work. Perhaps because of the gloomy weather, nobody had much to say. But around the time they’d stapled their 200th packet, an explosion rang out. It echoed like thunder, causing the windows to rattle briefly in their frames before silence fell again. The students glanced over, frowning in curiosity.
Meanwhile, Sousuke merely closed his eyes meditatively. “He failed, then?”
Chidori Kaname narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you mean by that? What was that sound?”
“A man who came to fight lost his life in a far-away land. That’s all,” he responded gravely, then went back to methodically clicking the stapler.
“Uh-huh. You’re weird,” Kaname said before silently resuming her own work.
Not long after, one of the girls helping make the packets, Inaba Mizuki, let out a whine. “How did I let you drag me into this?” she complained. “I’m not even part of the student council!” Mizuki was a short girl who wore her hair in a mid-length bob and had a stubbornly intimidating air despite her rather childish appearance. Kaname had roped her into helping on her way out the door, as most members of the student council were busy with part-time jobs, clubs, or family business today.
“Give it a rest,” Kaname said. “Like you don’t owe me a million favors? Besides, it’s not like you had anything better to do.”
“Well, excuse me,” Mizuki harrumphed. “I was just gonna go home and waste my youth rewatching Shadow Warriors: Bakumatsu Chapter. You know, like the boyfriend-less, club-less loser I am.”
“Oh, yeah?” Kaname said disinterestedly.
“I hate it so much! Manami, Madoka, and Shoko all got boyfriends and they won’t shut up about it lately.”
“Your friends from middle school?”
“Yeah. We got together for the first time in forever and they basically spent three hours at Mos going on and on about them,” Mizuki sulked. “Like they don’t even know what I’ve been through! It makes me wanna call up their boyfriends and air out all their dirty laundry.”
“You’re a real piece of work, you know,” Kaname said in exhaustion.
It was then that the door to the student council banged open, and Kaname and the others looked up questioningly. “Sagara!” shouted Tsubaki Issei, who was clinging to the doorway for support, looking like he’d been through the wringer. His entire body was covered in soot and scrapes, his uniform had scorch marks on it, and his hair was still smoking.
“Oh, hey there, Tsubaki-kun,” said Kaname.
But Issei didn’t even spare her a glance. He adjusted the cracked glasses on his nose and, after confirming which of the people in the room was Sousuke, he shouted, “I’ll kill you!” and charged straight at him.
Sousuke had by then gotten up out of his chair and dodged the sudden straight punch by a hair’s breadth. The force of the punch caused his pile of packets to collapse, which sent paper flying through the air. “You survived that?” he asked in surprise. “You have impressive endurance.”
“Shut up!” snarled Issei. “I’m gonna make you pay, once and for all!”
“If you detonated the mine, it means you lost the duel,” Sousuke pointed out.
“That’s not up to you!”
“Then let’s try again tomorrow,” he suggested. “I have to finish these packets—”
“I don’t give a damn!” Issei bellowed, continually striking at Sousuke, who likewise continued to dodge lithely around the room. In a typical barehanded fight, the two would be roughly equal, but Issei was so enraged now that his attacks were extremely telegraphed.
“Here they go again,” said Kaname, scratching at the back of her head. Their rivalry had been a thorn in her side for a while now.
“Who’s the geek with the short fuse? What a freak,” Mizuki said with a sneer.
“Oh, just a guy we met recently with a grudge against Sousuke.”
“Do they squabble like this all the time?” Mizuki sighed.
“Yeah, though it gets pretty extreme for a ‘squabble.’ But I guess now’s not really the time for gossip... Hey, you two, cut it out!” Kaname told them.
But Issei continued his pugilistic pursuit of Sousuke.
“Okay, come on, would you just... Stop it, Tsubaki-kun!” she finally shouted at the top of her lungs.
At this, Issei seemed to notice Kaname’s presence for the first time. “Ch-Chidori?” he asked, stopping in mid-swing and flushing bright crimson. He seemed extremely embarrassed about losing his cool in front of her.
Sousuke, of course, didn’t miss his chance. He dove in with a sharp kick at his opponent’s stomach.
“Grrk!” Issei crossed his arms and just managed to block Sousuke’s strike in time, but the force of it still knocked him into the corner by the window to which the girls had retreated. Kaname dodged Issei’s incoming body... only for him to slam right into Mizuki instead, which triggered a horrible chain of events.
“Eek!” shrieked Mizuki. The impact caused her to lose her balance and stumble towards the open window of the student council clubroom, which was four stories up. She had only a split-second of realization before her little body was falling out the window, tumbling head-over-heels towards the asphalt a dozen meters below.
“Hrk!” Issei choked out, lurching out of the window himself in order to catch Mizuki just before her plunge began in earnest. Holding her ankle with a two-handed grip as she hung upside-down, he just barely kept her aloft. It had been a truly close call.
“Ah... aaaaaaaaaaah!” Mizuki began to scream as she realized her situation. At first flailing wildly, her priority quickly turned to holding down her upturned skirt as she writhed. “Yeek! Ahhh! Heeeelp!”
“Q-Quit struggling!” Issei told her.
“Let me go, let me go, let me go! ...I mean, don’t let me go, don’t let me go, don’t let me go!”
“I wasn’t going to! Just calm down! Stop struggling!” Issei’s face strained in desperation as he attempted to grab Mizuki’s other leg. He also managed to turn his gaze back, hoping for help from the others.
Sousuke strode slowly up to him.
“S-Sagara?”
“You’re trapped now, Tsubaki,” he pointed out.
“What?!”
“If you let go, Mizuki will die. In other words, you can no longer dodge my attacks. Checkmate.”
“D-Damn you...” said Issei.
“Admit your defeat like a man. Or else—”
Slam! A hard punch from Kaname hit him in the side, causing Sousuke to double over. She then pointed at Issei by the window, as white as a sheet. “Help save her already!”
“Understood,” said Sousuke, quickly righting himself to move in and help. With Kaname pitching in as well, they managed to carefully pull Mizuki back up, and disaster was avoided.
“Hmm... that was quite a close call,” Sousuke noted.
“You villain!” Once the moment of relief had passed, Kaname laid Sousuke out with another punch.
“That really hurts.”
“Shut up! Mizuki almost died, and you decided to take that moment to threaten Tsubaki-kun?” she lectured him. “Are you crazy?! How petty can you get? You really have a short circuit somewhere in your moral fiber, don’t you?!”
“Do I?”
“Yes!” Kaname exploded. “You should get yourself checked at the electrician by the station on the way home! You hopeless, idiotic, dunderheaded, crazy—”
While they engaged in their usual fight—Kaname chewing him out, Sousuke trying to argue—Mizuki remained flat and motionless on the floor, overwhelmed by her near-death experience.
“Hey... are you all right?” Issei, who’d finally regained his calm, knelt down next to her and waved a hand in front of her eyes.
She looked back up at him in a daze, and then her eyes widened in shock. “Ah...” Issei’s glasses had been lost in the commotion, and Mizuki’s manner did a complete 180 at the sight of his pale, symmetrical features. The usually shrewd aspect to her gaze turned dewy and covetous, and a sigh escaped her lips.
“I’m sorry about that. I hope you weren’t hurt,” Issei continued.
“I... I... I think I’m... fine,” Mizuki managed to respond. Her voice was so timid that one might not even recognize her.
“I see. I’m glad to hear that.” Issei stood up and turned towards Sousuke, who was still mid-scolding. “Sagara, I’m too tired to continue, so I’ll let you off this time. But the next time we meet... no mercy.”
“Right.”
“Be ready.” With those final words and an expression of exhaustion, he made to leave the student council room behind.
But Kaname called after him. “Wait, Tsubaki-kun!”
“Y-Yes, Chidori?”
“Be careful from now on, okay?” she cautioned him. “We’ve already got one walking hazard to deal with.”
“Y-Yes... I’m sorry. Goodbye, then.” Issei nodded slightly, then left the room with an awkward expression. For some reason, he was always strangely docile when it came to his interactions with Kaname.
“Sheesh... Hey, Mizuki, you okay?” Kaname asked.
“Yeah... I’m okay,” Mizuki said, distractedly.
“Really? You seem kinda weird.”
“Yeah. I feel kinda weird...”
“Huh?”
“His name was... Tsubaki-kun? That’s a wonderful name. He’s so handsome. And...” she trailed off for a moment, before briefly switching to English slang, “groovy, soulful, cute, and kitsch... strong, yet vulnerable. I’m in love...” Mizuki clasped her hands together as if wishing on a star.
Kaname found herself drawing back. “Th-This is...”
Mizuki had switched completely to head-over-heels mode.
The next morning, Issei was walking glumly along his usual route from the station to the school. He’d run into students from his class already, but they’d merely exchanged casual greetings. When he wasn’t getting worked up around Sousuke, he was typically a quiet boy with an icy air around him. His classmates saw him as being cold, aloof, and unapproachable (though his recent interactions with Sousuke had begun to change that). And as he was turning the corner, thinking over the question of how best to challenge Sagara...
“Watch where you’re going!” said a girl coming around the corner as she slammed right into him.
“Gwuh?!” Having been caught unawares, the full body hit laid him out flat on the street. Upon coming back to his senses, he glared at the one who’d done it and asked, “Wh-What do you think you’re... doing?” It was the second-year girl he’d saved from falling yesterday. He couldn’t quite recall her name... Mizuki, wasn’t it?
She was sitting on her backside, rubbing at her own ankle in a way that looked rehearsed, “Ow, ow, ow... it hurts. I think I sprained my ankle... or maybe broke it?” she said, looking at Issei. “Oh. You’re that boy from yesterday...”
“R-Right...”
“Fancy bumping into you again...”
Issei said nothing. He couldn’t figure out why she was doing this or how to respond.
Undaunted by his awkward silence, Mizuki boldly held out her hands.
Issei blinked at her in confusion.
“Carry me,” she prodded him.
“Wh-What?”
“I can’t walk like this,” she said impatiently. “Carry me.”
Issei stared at her for three full seconds, agape, before saying, “D-Don’t be ridiculous. Why should I... carry... some woman I barely even—”
“Owww! It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!” Mizuki suddenly began rubbing her ankle again, shouting at the top of her lungs. People were beginning to stop and stare.
“H-Hey!” he objected.
“My leg hurts! Tsubaki Issei-kun of Jindai High School Class 2-8 crashed into me and now I can’t walk! I can’t even move! First period is Fujisaki’s classic lit course and I’m gonna be late, and he’s gonna mark me absent and flunk me, and I’ll have to repeat the whole yeeear !” she wailed loudly.
“S-Stop shouting! I get it already!” Issei said, even though he could have run away.
She immediately stopped shouting and looked up at him needfully. “Really?”
“Er? Ah... well...”
“Carry me, then.” She held out her hands with a grin.
It was around lunch that day when Kaname heard the rumor from her classmate, Tokiwa Kyoko.
“Tsubaki Issei came to school with a girl from Class 2. He was carrying her. For real! They seemed really friendly, too!” she was saying, going into full gossipy housewife mode. “Tsubaki-kun was giving her a piggy-back ride, and Mizuki-chan had her chest pressed up against him, and Tsubaki-kun got so happy he danced a passionate flamenco with her on the spot... at least, that’s what they say. Of course, it’s all just rumors...”
“Wow, she moves fast. Lightning speed,” muttered Kaname, shocked by Mizuki’s decisiveness. The determination, the follow-through... such were the things that defined Inaba Mizuki. Kaname felt strangely outclassed by her, at least in certain regards.
Sousuke, listening to the story from a nearby seat, put a thoughtful hand to his jaw. “Tsubaki’s been in contact with Inaba? A curious combination,” he noted. “It smells like a conspiracy.”
“It’s not a conspiracy!” Kaname insisted. “Still, it’s hard to believe that that muscle-headed Tsubaki-kun went for it so easily...”
Kyoko stared at Kaname scrutinizingly. “Yeah,” she agreed. “I always figured Tsubaki-kun was in love with you, Kana-chan.”
Kaname laughed dismissively. “Yeah, right. Anyway, I’m fine with it! It’s a pretty fun pairing. I’m more than happy to wish them both well.”
“Huh. I thought you’d make more drama about it.”
“Really? How come?”
Just then, Tsubaki Issei himself strode into their classroom. The desperation in his eyes suggested he was anything but “well.” The girls looked up at him questioningly, but he didn’t spare them a single glance as he moved to hide behind the door.
Shortly after, Mizuki came running down the hall. “Issei-kun? Where did you go?” she called.
As her footsteps then retreated into the distance, Issei sighed in relief and relaxed.
“What are you doing, Tsubaki-kun?” Kyoko asked.
He startled in response, seeming to notice their presence for the first time. “O-Oh... Nothing.”
“We heard you’re dating Mizuki now? That’s nice,” Kaname said.
But Issei shook his head fervently. “I’m not! It’s not true!”
“Really? But everyone’s saying it.”
“They’re wrong! She just started hanging off me. Chidori... hearing you say that makes me... makes me...” he heaved, seeming more stressed than the situation seemed to warrant.
Kaname laughed. “C’mon, don’t be shy.”
“Chidori!” Issei’s face was consumed by despair.
“There you are!” chirped Mizuki, who’d doubled back at some point to find him in the doorway.
“Oh, drat.”
“Issei-kun, you silly! What are you doing dawdling around here? You promised to grab lunch with me!”
“When did I promise that?!” Issei shrieked back.
But Mizuki ignored him, blushing and wriggling coquettishly. “Oh, you’re bashful! It’s adorable!”
“Listen to the words I’m saying!!!”
Ignoring this, too, she sidled up to Issei and thrust out a boxed lunch. “I got up early today and made this lunch just for you, Issei-kun!”
“We only interacted for the first time today!!!” he howled.
“So what? Stop nitpicking everything! Go on, eat up!” she said, opening the box and seizing a mini-hot dog, cut to look like an octopus, in her chopsticks.
“Wow, Mizuki. I didn’t know you could cook,” Kaname muttered.
“A hot dog... shaped like an octopus. What could it taste like?” Sousuke mused at her side.
“Say ahh!” Mizuki held out the little hot dog sweetly.
But Issei swiped her hand away. “That’s enough!”
“Ah...” The little octopus sausage flew through the air and splatted onto the ground.
“Leave me alone already! You’re a nuisance! You’re making people spread rumors about me!”
Mizuki fell silent.
“All right? I make it a policy not to strike a woman, but... if you don’t stop bothering me, I can’t be held responsible for my actions!” Issei burst out.
In reaction to that statement, the room around them sank into awkward silence. Mizuki was hanging her head wordlessly, while Kaname and Kyoko were both flustered. Sousuke was gazing seriously at the mini-hot dog on the floor.
And then...
Mizuki’s eyes filled up with tears. “Fine, whatever. It’s not like you didn’t almost kill me, after all.”
“Wh-What?”
“Falling out of that window was traumatizing. I’ll never recover. It’s called PTSD. I’ll be scarred for life!” Mizuki said, weeping.
Issei seemed at a loss for how to react. “Well... I’m sorry about that, but it’s not really my—”
“And you saw my underwear,” she said accusingly.
“Geh...”
“My underwear,” she emphasized again. “I know you saw it. Don’t try to play dumb.”
“W-Well... I’d actually lost my glasses, so I actually just saw... a blur... so no, I’m innocent!” Issei declared, clearly panicking.
All the students in the classroom, Kaname included, began gossiping to each other now in whispers (except for Sousuke, who seemed to be wrestling with some deeper internal question as he stared at the dropped hot dog octopus).
“You knock a girl out of a window, get a full look at her panties, then play dumb? It’s cruel,” Mizuki cried pitifully. “Men are so cruel!”
“I-I apologize,” Issei stammered. “I’m really sorry.”
“Really?”
“Y-Yes,” he responded without thinking.
Immediately, Mizuki turned sweet again. “Then, say ah!” This time she grabbed a tamagoyaki roll with her chopsticks and held it out at him.
“Why is this happening to me?” Issei wondered as, holding back tears and under the watchful eyes of all around him, he ate it.
After class that day, Issei came right to Sousuke’s classroom just as he was preparing to leave for the day. He was alone, apparently having shaken off Mizuki somehow. “Could I have a moment?” he asked.
Another attempt at a duel? Stubborn fool, thought Sousuke, but followed him nevertheless.
As they made it to the roof of the northern school building, Issei turned back to Sousuke and came right to the point. “Sagara. Are you the one behind this?”
“Behind what?”
“That Inaba woman. Did you hire her to torment me?!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Sousuke responded.
Issei squinted at him suspiciously. “Really?”
“I can’t think of any reason why I’d lie.”
At this, Issei let out a rare sigh. “It’s true... these aren’t the tactics you’d employ. In that case... damn. She’s serious, then,” he muttered to himself and pounded his fist into his palm.
Sousuke tilted his head. “Is that an issue?”
“A big one!”
“Is receiving food at lunch that troubling? I’ll admit the hot dog octopus had a disappointing flavor, but...”
You ate that?! was a comment that, sadly, nobody was around to make.
“Idiot. I’ve got a woman I barely know acting like she’s my wife,” Issei had to explain. “It’s awful. People are spreading rumors about my lecherous nature, and Chidori’s jumping to all sorts of conclusions... It’s awful,” he finished in a limp whisper. He seemed completely exhausted after just one day of having made Mizuki’s acquaintance.
But Sousuke responded indifferently, “I see. That’s a shame. If you have nothing more to say, I’m going to leave now.”
But Issei grabbed his arm as he turned away. “Wait.”
“What?”
“You’re the reason I’m going through this,” he said accusingly. “You can’t just leave me like this!”
“Me? I don’t understand.”
“Don’t play dumb! You’re the reason I knocked her out the window!”
“Ah...”
“You’re still going to pretend like you aren’t a part of this?!” Issei reached for Sousuke’s collar, enraged. But perhaps his exhaustion was even greater than imagined, because when Sousuke dodged, he lost his balance and ended up clinging to his shoulder.
Just then, the door to the roof opened. The person who poked their face out was Kyoko, holding a box of Pocky and a pair of binoculars. “Eh?” Kyoko’s large eyes blinked behind her glasses, shocked by the sight of Issei clinging needfully to Sousuke’s shoulder.
Both men looked up at her questioningly.
“S-Sorry... I think I’ve interrupted something,” she said, forcing a smile before withdrawing back behind the door.
“What was that?” Issei wondered.
“I don’t know,” said Sousuke, “but let go of me already.”
“Hmm? Right.” Issei recovered his senses and stepped away from Sousuke. “The point is,” he continued, “that woman’s got me under her thumb because of you. You need to help me. Can we call a truce until then?”
It was rather presumptuous reasoning, but Sousuke didn’t argue. He had no particular reason to refuse, after all. “At first you just wanted a moment,” he pointed out. “Now you want my help?”
“Stop nitpicking. I’m desperate here.” Issei’s expression did indeed resemble that of a drowning man. The fact that he was willing to ask even his mortal enemy for help suggested how much of a bind he was in.
“So, may I ask, what is it you want?”
“I want to make her lose interest in me. But I’m not experienced in this field, so I don’t know how to do that. Any ideas?”
“Hmm.” Sousuke fell into quiet thought. “Let me see... You could kill an innocent pregnant woman or senior citizen while Inaba watches. She’d surely hate you then.”
“Not happening!”
“But isn’t beating people to death your specialty?” he asked very bluntly.
“The only thing my Daidomyaku style is designed to kill is the wielder’s own ego,” Issei told him scornfully. “Don’t make it sound sordid!”
“Didn’t you call it your ‘assassin fist’ earlier?”
“Shut up. Anyway, that’s not an option.”
Sousuke folded his arms and said casually, “Then I’ll speak to her myself. I do know Inaba rather well by now.”
“Speak to her?”
“Yes. It’s usually best to talk things out.”
The next day, at lunch, Kaname was eating in the classroom with Kyoko when an unhappy-looking Mizuki arrived.
“Hey, Mizuki. You aren’t eating with Tsubaki-kun?”
“I lost sight of him. He’s not in any of the classrooms or club rooms. After I made him another special handmade lunch...” Mizuki let out a sigh. “I’m sure he’s just being bashful again. He gets nervous when we make eye contact, so he stares up at the ceiling instead. Of course, that’s part of what makes him so charming! Heh heh heh...”
Kaname watched her skeptically, though she was partly envious of the nerve it took to talk like that about someone you’d only known for two days.
It was then that Sousuke, who was sitting a few desks away eating a plain roll, addressed Mizuki. He just said, “Inaba.”
“What?”
“I must speak to you. Could you come with me a moment?” He seemed somehow even more serious than usual. Mizuki looked suspicious, but she slowly stood up and followed after him.
Kaname watched them go, dumbfounded. “Sousuke talking to Mizuki? That’s unusual,” she whispered.
Kyoko nodded quickly in response. “Actually, that reminds me. Speaking of Tsubaki-kun and Sagara-kun, I caught sight of something unusual yesterday after class...”
“Unusual?”
“Yeah. They were talking on the roof together, alone. Which is weird because of how they usually hate each other, right? But it seemed pretty intense...” Kyoko gave a detailed eyewitness report about catching them in a tight embrace in the middle of a clandestine rooftop meeting.
“Seriously?” Kaname asked.
“Seriously. Tsubaki-kun was holding Sagara-kun from behind...”
“Huh? But that seems pretty out of nowhere...”
“I guess so,” Kyoko agreed, “but the atmosphere between them was seriously intense.”
“Sousuke and Issei-kun? A clandestine meeting?” Kaname folded her arms, a firm crease forming between her brows. What could they have been talking about? And what’s Sousuke talking to Mizuki about now? A hypothesis began to form in Kaname’s mind, and then suddenly, she cried out, her face frozen in surprise. Is it... Is it possible?!
“Kana-chan, what’s wrong?”
“H-Hang on, I’m going to check on them!” she said and stood up.
As they arrived on a stairway a ways away from the classroom, Mizuki spoke first. “So, what did you want to talk about?”
“It’s about Tsubaki.” Sousuke was standing very still, back turned to her, as he broached the subject.
“Issei-kun? What about him?”
“Watch out for him.”
“Huh?”
“An amateur like you might not understand... but he’s dangerous,” Sousuke clarified. “He’s a man who loves killing, who takes sadistic glee in tearing people apart.”
“Huh?”
After a long pause, Sousuke spoke again with gravity and sincerity. “He has lived a life stained in blood. He developed a love of killing at the tender age of six. His father would get drunk and beat his mother, and one day he shot him with a hunting rifle. Then, as his father bled out from a hole in his stomach, pleading for his life, he shot him four more times in the face.”
“Uh-huh...”
“After acquiring a taste for it, he embarked upon serial killings. He’s killed at least twenty girls before you. The youngest was four years old; the oldest, ninety. He sexually assaulted them all before killing them.”
“N-Ninety?”
“Yes. He is merciless with those he deems his prey,” Sousuke said gravely. “He’s also bombed two airplanes, assassinated ten international VIPs, and stolen three bicycles. A bloodthirsty psychopath... that is the true face of Tsubaki Issei.”
Mizuki said nothing.
“Do you see now?” Sousuke insisted. “Tsubaki is an unrepentant villain. You shouldn’t associate with him any longer. If you do—”
“Could you get a grip already?!” Mizuki said, interrupting Sousuke’s long speech. “This is what you wanted to talk about? So you want me to break up with Issei-kun, is that it?”
“Correct.”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” she exclaimed angrily. “Who even asked you about any of this?!”
“I—” He’d been about to say that Tsubaki had asked him, but before he could, another voice interrupted.
“Mizuki... stop it,” Kaname said, interposing herself between them. Her steps were listless, and her eyes had lost their sparkle.
“Kaname? What do you want?” Mizuki asked.
Kaname, who must have heard the whole conversation, looked between Sousuke and Mizuki with the hollow gaze of someone who’d just received a major shock. “I... I heard everything. I know what Sousuke wants. Let me explain.”
“Huh?”
“Listen, Mizuki. Sousuke is jealous.”
“‘Jealous’? What do you mean?”
Kaname gave her an empty smile. “Well... you know? I didn’t realize it all this time... but I think Sousuke and Tsubaki-kun are actually very close. Even though they hit each other and blow each other up, they actually care about each other... deeply.”
Sousuke shook his head rapidly, but Kaname continued on regardless. “It seems that without me even realizing it, they’ve grown close in all kinds of ways... off in secret. That’s why Sousuke can’t stand the thought of you having Tsubaki all to yourself. That’s why he said all that to get you to break up.”
Mizuki clapped her hands in realization. “Really?”
“Yeah... it surprised me too. I always thought it was weird how dense Sousuke seemed to be when it came to romance. But I never thought...”
Sousuke blinked in confusion. “What in the world are you talking about?”
Kaname ignored his question and let out a deep sigh. “That kind of relationship really is dangerous. I can’t stop you if it’s what you both want, but... the world will judge you for it, okay? If you have other choices, then getting off that path would probably lead to a happier life, you know?”
“Chidori. I have no idea what you’ve been talking about.”
“Seriously, don’t worry about it! I... I think this doesn’t change anything about our relationship, even though it did surprise me a little. But Sousuke? I don’t think it’s right to force Issei-kun to stay with you against his will, especially when he’s got a nice girl like Mizuki and things are going well between them. You should be happy for him and let him live his own life.”
“Kaname? What are you saying?” Mizuki asked.
Kaname wiped at her eyes and continued on bravely. “It’s all right. You don’t have to worry about me. Anyway, Mizuki, that’s what this is all about. No need to worry. I think you and Tsubaki-kun make a great couple. So go for it. Make it work!” Kaname said with all her heart.
While not understanding a single word Kaname said, Mizuki found her eyes filling up with tears. “Thank you,” she sniffled. “You’re a nice person, Kaname. I’ll do my best.”
Kaname nodded. “Yeah. Go for it!”
But just as the conversation was about to resolve with the exact opposite result of what Sousuke had intended...
“Why?!” In came the man himself—Issei—from behind a nearby pillar, his shoulders heaving with breath. He must have been listening the whole time, because he seemed extremely distraught as he marched towards them.
He was angry that Sousuke’s explanation had involved casting him as a dangerous criminal. He was furious with Mizuki’s selfish lack of regard for his feelings. And he was incandescent with Kaname for making a big speech that wrapped everything up in a tidy bow of nonsense. Yes... why is Chidori Kaname encouraging Mizuki? he wondered in despair. It’s too tragic a fate to be borne!
“Tsubaki-kun. What’s wrong?” Kaname asked with an oddly pitying smile.
“What’s wrong?! Chidori, why...” He couldn’t figure out what more to say. Issei had been deeply in love with her since the first day they’d met in that back alley and she’d put that adhesive plaster on his hand. The one true ray of light in a young life otherwise dedicated to the drudgery of martial arts practice—that was Chidori Kaname.
He had never really wanted to ask her out like an ordinary man would. He was satisfied just gazing at her smile from a distance. And yet... she perpetually had that honorless, war-addled idiot by her side. Meanwhile, he was constantly being chased by a completely different bullheaded, love-starved idiot. The whole world seemed to be conspiring to keep them apart.
Is this fate? Issei wondered. And yet, he would fight against that fate, as he had done against all the weaknesses he’d overcome in the past. Yes, he decided. I won’t run away. I’ll confess my feelings to her... right here and now, without ambiguity! It will likely confuse her. It will likely hurt Inaba. And Sagara... well, he’s hard to predict. But who cares what he thinks?
“All right... I’ll say it!” Tsubaki Issei declared under his breath. This would be a turning point of his life: his once-in-a-lifetime challenge. Now that he was in a fighting mood, everything had changed. The flame of his spirit, dampened these past few days, began raging once more.
“What’s wrong, Issei-kun? You’ve been quiet this whole time...”
“All right, you two...” In order to bare his soul, he slowly removed his thick glasses and showed his penetrating gaze. He was nearsighted, so the three of them looked extremely blurry, but he didn’t let that bother him. “Listen closely, Chidori, Inaba. You have the wrong idea.”
The blurs looked back at him questioningly.
“I don’t want to date Inaba. I’m sorry, but you should pin your hopes on someone else.”
“B-But why? I really—”
“Because I’m in love with someone else,” Issei proclaimed.
Mizuki froze up as if she’d been hit by lightning, while Kaname looked away in pain.
“I never told them, but I’ve felt this way since the day we first met. I love this person so much, I’d do anything for them. That’s why I can’t even consider dating some girl I just met.”
“And... wh-where is this person?” Mizuki asked, tearfully.
“Right here,” Issei replied.
“What...”
As if to overcome his nervousness, Issei took in a deep breath, and then pointed, firmly, at the object of his affections.
The whole group gasped.
“Yes! You see now, don’t you? I’m in love with you!”
“Ah... it can’t be...”
“It’s too cruel! How could you?”
“Tsubaki... you...”
After a short silence, Kaname spoke in a trembling voice. “Tsu... Tsubaki-kun.”
“I know it’s not good for either of us,” he persisted, “but I can’t stop the way I feel. Please... Please understand.”
“So... that’s how it is after all. After Kyoko told me what happened on the roof yesterday, I had my suspicions,” said Kaname, “but to hear you state it so plainly... I just don’t know what to say.”
“What?” Mizuki said next.
“I had no idea. So that’s what it’s about. You two... really are more than friends.”
“Er?” Scowling at the strange reaction, Issei replaced his glasses, causing the world to come into focus again. And now he could see that the person he’d proclaimed his love to was... Sagara Sousuke.
“It’s disgusting! Disgusting!” Mizuki said, running off crying.
After watching her go, Sousuke turned pale, sweat rising on his chilled face. “Well, I... don’t know what to say to that.”
Issei was at a loss for words, his mouth flapping like a goldfish.
The rumors of the Sagara/Tsubaki love affair spread through the school at lightning speed and became the talk of all the girls for the next several weeks. There was much debate over which of the two was the top and the bottom.
When Kaname asked the opinion of Kyoko, who was cheerful even about subjects like that, she responded, “Hmm... I’m not really sure. They both seem like bottoms. Though... well, you’ve seen how they act.” She shot a smile over at them as they fought in the hallway.
“This is all your fault!”
“Don’t blame this on me.”
“Shut up! Get down on your knees and apologize!”
“You’re the one who started it all.”
Issei, weeping, his hands clenched into fists; Sousuke, walking calmly beside him.
And all the students watched them warmly.
〈Off-target Emotion — The End〉
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