Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 7 - Chapter 2.2

2

“This is actually not bad.”

Sakuta had come back from the future in a school tracksuit, so the bunny outfit was providing a lot of protection against the snow and cold.

He’d left his shoes in the future, too. The costume also helped with that.

It came with a full headpiece, but he needed to see, so he carried that under his arm.

He first headed to Shichirigahama Station.

He didn’t have his train pass or the money to buy a ticket, but since nobody could see him anyway, he just walked right in and boarded a train bound for Fujisawa.

He grabbed a spot by the door and scoped out the car.

It was packed with passengers traveling in from the Kamakura area, but nobody seemed to notice him or his costume. If anyone had, no doubt he’d be hearing a lot of whispers.

“Isn’t that crazy?”

“He crazy.”

“So crazy.”

And lots of stifled smirks. But nobody did anything like that. Not one person met his eye and hastily looked away.

It was like he was made of air.

Last spring, when Mai had been grappling with her Adolescence Syndrome, this must have been what she’d felt like.

It was very different from typical ostracization.

If people were ignoring you, you felt ignored—but Sakuta wasn’t even getting that.

He just…felt nothing.

This gave him a newfound understanding of why Mai had chosen to walk around in a racy bunny-girl outfit. That was just how badly she’d wanted someone to see her.

The outfits might make them look ridiculous, but being imperceptible was just that terrifying—for Sakuta now, and Mai back then. He was ready to clutch at any straw.

“I’ve still got her bunny-girl outfit.”

When this was all over, he’d have to ask her to wear it again.

He glanced out the windows as the train pulled into Enoshima Station. Half the passengers got out, but just as many got on.

None of the new arrivals could see Sakuta, either. He was standing by the door, right in their line of sight, but nobody even glanced his way.

Without anyone noticing him, he reached Fujisawa Station—the end of the line.

He hopped off first, moved to the exit gates, and turned back to scan the platform. Then he flung out both costumed arms.

“Can anybody see me?!” he yelled, loud enough to fill the station.

He felt very silly, but a hundred people filed past him, running their cards through the gates—none of them aware of his antics.

Nobody here saw Sakuta. Nobody noticed that their shoulders bumped his. Sakuta couldn’t feel the impact, so he was certain they didn’t, either.

Not letting this get him down, he turned and left the station.

As he passed through the JR station, he stowed the costume’s head in a locker. It was a good ten-minute walk from here to his apartment—maybe five if he ran. The big head would only slow him down.

He used the same locker Mai had kept her bunny-girl outfit in. It just happened to be empty, so he went with it.

He didn’t have a coin to lock it.

“It’ll be fine.”

Right now, Sakuta had an impenetrable invisibility barrier. Worrying about a costume head seemed like a complete waste of time.

With his arms free, he ran out into the snow. The cold air tore at his lungs and made his nose hurt.

Five minutes later, badly out of breath, he was outside the apartment building where he and Kaede lived. Kaede had left the day before to stay with their grandparents, so if anyone was here, it would be big Shouko—and of course, their calico cat, Nasuno.

Sakuta stood at the entrance, peering through the auto lock doors. He hadn’t brought his key back from the future, so he didn’t have a way of getting into his own home.

He tried the intercom.

He punched their apartment number and hit the call button. This was surprisingly difficult. He lived here, so he’d never used it. He always just used his key.

“Is it ringing?”

He wasn’t even sure.

Just to be sure, he punched in his room number again and tried once more.

“……”

He waited, but no answer came.

He’d been hoping Shouko would answer.

He wanted to try the apartment door next, but without a key, he’d have to wait here for someone to go in or out.

Figuring pacing back and forth would just wear him out, he sat down and leaned against the wall. He was working against a time limit here, and sitting still wasn’t doing his mental health any favors. He could feel the impatience rising up within him.

When he’d caught his breath again, he got to his feet.

Hoping to distract himself, he looked in their mailbox.

And found something unexpected.

“…Huh.”

There was a key inside.

It looked familiar.

He was sure it was the key to his apartment. The spare he’d given Shouko while she was staying with them.

It was a challenge picking the key up with the costume on, but he managed it.

It also took a gratingly long time to get it in the keyhole and open the front door.

He took the elevator to the fifth floor.

He ran down the hall to his apartment. The door was locked, so he opened it.

“Shouko!” he called, already certain she wasn’t here. He had to know for sure, though.

No answer came.

No one came out to welcome him.

“Shouko!” he called, bursting into the living room.

He was met with the specific quiet of an empty apartment. Only the whirr of the heater at work.

No sign of Shouko in Sakuta’s room, in Kaede’s room, in the toilet, in the bathroom, or in the closet.

The room was clean and tidy. The kitchen sink was polished and gleaming, not a drop of water anywhere. Even the dishes always left on the drying rack were put away in the cabinets. The kotatsu futon had been straightened out. It felt like a showroom for a housing development project, like no one had ever lived here.

Shouko had wiped away every sign of her presence.

The key from the mailbox was the only thing she’d left behind.

She’d promised to meet him at six for a date. By the dragon lanterns in front of Benten Bridge.

And he was just now finding out how early she’d left. He’d had no idea she’d cleaned this thoroughly, erasing herself like this. His head had been too full of Mai to notice the state of the room.

“……”

Back in the living room, he stopped moving—until something hopped up on the kotatsu. Their cat, Nasuno. She was why they left the heat on all day.

Nasuno seemed to be staring at him.

“Nasuno?” he said, and she turned away, scratching her neck with a hind leg. Then she hid back under the kotatsu.

He’d thought she could see him, but it must have been his imagination.

“…I’m doomed.”

Saying it out loud seemed to provoke a physical reaction—a chill ran down his spine.

First he couldn’t find Mai, now Shouko.

Kaede was at their grandparents, too far to reach in time. It was two hours either way, and the trip there and back would take until after six. With no guarantee she’d even be able to see him, it wasn’t a good risk to take.

“I’ve just gotta find a crowd, I guess.”

Maybe someone would see him. This felt like betting on a miracle, but at least it would be more productive than standing in the living room staring at a cat.

Giving up wasn’t an option.

That choice did not exist.

He opened the fridge and took out a bottle with a blue label. The sports drink Mai did commercials for. A big two-liter. It was a third full, but he chugged the whole thing.

Rehydrated, he dropped the empty bottle on the counter and was out the front door an instant later.

Sakuta was back at Fujisawa Station.

At the heart of a city of four hundred thousand.

Most of the inhabitants passed through here every day.

Three train lines stopped at this station—JR, Odakyu, and the Enoden. The area was packed no matter what time you arrived.

It was just after two thirty, and there were lots of junior high and high school students in uniform. Plenty of college groups and couples, too. They were all off to Enoshima to enjoy Christmas like the young are wont to do. A lot of them were excited by the faint dusting of snow.

On the opposite end of the spectrum were young business types, lots of suits and ties. These were looking up at the sky with expressions even gloomier than the clouds above. Most opened umbrellas before leaving the station awning.

Sakuta was wandering aimlessly though these crowds.

No umbrella, still dressed as a bunny.

Nobody paid him any attention.

Dusting the snow off his shoulders, he walked into the station. He took the head out of the locker and put it on, but this did not attract any attention.

They were still completely oblivious to his presence. Not even that—he had no presence. They didn’t even perceive him in the first place. Sakuta did not exist.

But he called out, hoping against hope that somebody out there would hear him.

“Can anybody see me?!”

He slapped the hands of his costume together as he jumped up and down.

“Come on! Look at me!”

Every few minutes, a train pulled in, carrying another flood of people. Sakuta was facing the JR gates. Another stream was coming up behind him from the Odakyu Enoshima Line and the Enoden.

There seemed to be even more people than usual. Probably the holiday. Lots of people went to Enoshima for Christmas Eve dates.

“Hello!”

Far too many people to count. Hundreds wouldn’t cut it. There were thousands passing him by.

But none of them could see Sakuta. Or hear him yelling.

Less than twenty minutes of this, and his voice stopped working. The exhaustion caught up with him, and he just couldn’t summon the energy.

At the thirty-minute mark, Sakuta noticed an emotion growing inside him.

Fear, spreading like a vine, its tendrils invading every inch of him, winding around his heart, locking his body in its grip.

He didn’t plan on giving up.

But…what if he couldn’t do anything?

That possibility was ballooning up inside, tearing away at him.

“Somebody! Anybody!” he yelled, trying to fight the fear. “Can anyone hear my voice?”

He looked left and right, watching the people around him. People running to catch their next train. People stopping to muck with their phones. People calling friends or laughing with whoever they’d been waiting for.

Every type of person—except the type that could see Sakuta.

“Please listen! Hear my voice!”

The kernel of fear grew one size larger.

It suddenly seemed all too possible that he might still be doing this at six.

The fateful accident might happen again.

That thought made him tremble.

He didn’t want to remember.

The vehicle knocking over the signpost.

A black minivan.

Mai curled up next to it.

Her body on the snow. Unmoving.

And a pool of her blood turning the white to red.

The ambulance came and couldn’t save her.

The hospital they took her to…couldn’t save her.

 “By the time she reached us, it was already too late.”

The doctor’s words, post-surgery, still echoed in Sakuta’s ears. He tried to peel them away, but they came back up at the slightest provocation, rattling his heart. Squeezing it. Ever since, he’d been bound by invisible chains that prevented him from doing anything.

And that horrible future might happen again.

If Sakuta didn’t change it.

And if this was the present, this time he couldn’t try again.

He couldn’t fail. Failure was not an option. There was no next time.

“Hey! Listen up! Hear me!”

His voice got more desperate as Sakuta tried to keep the fear at bay.

“There’s gotta be someone!”

He wasn’t scared that nobody could see him.

“There has to be one!”

He wasn’t scared of being alone.

“Come on!”

He was scared of losing Mai.

“Hear me!”

Scared of not saving her.

“Can anyone see me?”

He found a man staring at his phone and grabbed his shoulder.

“Can you see me?”

He tugged the arm of a station attendant.

“Please! I just need one!”

He clung to a passing police officer.

“Find me!”

But there was no one. So many people were filling the station to the brim—and still nobody could see Sakuta.

“Give me a chance to save Mai…”

He squeezed those words out. A heartfelt plea.

“Please. I’m begging you.”

But his pleas and cries went unheard. To them, Sakuta’s begging did not exist.

The ebb and flow of the crowd felt featureless and hollow. Every person in that crowd had a face, but they all looked the same to Sakuta. He could no longer tell anyone apart. And once that happened, his vision swam. He felt dizzy. He found himself on the ground. His knees had buckled.

He tried to stand but lacked the strength.

He’d thought he was still hanging in there emotionally, but his body had instinctively given up.

This senseless nightmare had become unbearable.

Sakuta tried again, straining the muscles in his legs.

All he had to show for it was the hiss of air escaping his lungs.

Then a shadow fell over him.

All he could see were the tiles on the ground—and then a pair of feet stopped in front of him. Navy socks, brown shoes—typical high school girl fashion.

“What are you doing, senpai?”

A voice called to him from above. He recognized it.

Even if he hadn’t, there was only one person who called him “senpai.”

“Koga…,” he rasped, lifting his head.

Before him stood a petite high school girl wearing a Minegahara uniform with a coat on over it. A cute brown one. She had fluffy short hair and flawless makeup. But the look on her face was the opposite of cute. She was staring down at him with a mix of disgust, confusion, and alarm. But her eyes were clearly focused on him.

“…You can see me?” he asked, his lips and voice shaking.

“What are you talking about?”

She genuinely didn’t seem to know. He saw himself reflected in her eyes.

“…You can hear me?”

“I can hear and see you. Look, everyone’s staring.”

Tomoe glanced at the crowd around them, seeming embarrassed.

“Huh?”

The moment she said it, he could feel eyes on him. Countless people were looking. Nobody went so far as to stop moving, but the stream of people going in and out of the gates were all glancing at Sakuta in passing. Seeing a weird kid in a bunny costume sitting on the ground was out of the ordinary.

“Ha…”

That was his honest opinion on the matter. In a single instant, he’d gone from backed into a corner to wide-open horizons. Someone had opened the lid of the box he’d been trapped in. He was suddenly actually here.

And Tomoe had done that for him. She had found him.

“Senpai, have you completely lost it?”

There was an extremely wary look in her eyes.

She really could see him. Really could hear his voice.

As that realization finally seeped in, his hands reached for her legs.

“Holy— Stop that!”

Tomoe quickly backed away.

“Come on, don’t run.”

“You’re the one going for the bad touch!”

“What’s so bad about ankles?”

“Last thing I need is snide comments about chubby ankles, too,” she muttered.

“Then I’ll settle for calves.”

“That’s worse!”

“I don’t care where, but you have to let me touch you.”

“……”

Tomoe gaped at him, eyes half-lidded, clearly beyond words.

“You definitely took that the wrong way,” Sakuta said.

“I take it that you’re a public menace.”

“Where can I touch you?”

“I don’t want you touching me at all!”

This wasn’t getting him anywhere.

“Fine. You touch me instead.”

“……”

Tomoe made the exact same face. Like she’d spied some filth on the pavement.

“Save whatever fetish this is for Sakurajima,” she grumbled.

“Nah, this isn’t…”

He tried to explain himself but couldn’t find the words. If he went for the whole story, it would take forever, and even if he did that, she likely wouldn’t believe him. And if she did believe him, it would just make her worried. This whole thing was inherently concerning.

“Senpai, have you aged years since I last saw you?” she asked, interrupting his reverie.

“Huh?”

“You look like crap,” she clarified. She’d knelt down and was peering into his face.

“I can imagine.”

“……”

Tomoe seemed taken aback. She must not have expected him to agree with her.

“This is weird.”

“How so?”

“You’d normally be all, ‘Well, you’re fat! Especially your butt!’ Like you just love harassing me so much.”

“As if. I don’t do that.”

“You totally do! Like three times a week.”

“Wish it was four.”

“See? You know you do.”

“If it seriously bothers you, just say the word and I’ll stop.”

“……”

Backing off just seemed to make Tomoe even more disgruntled. She was straight-up scowling now.

“You’re really weird today.”

“I’m always weird.”

“True, but…”

She seemed unconvinced.

“Argh! Okay. Fine.”

She angrily held out both hands.

“Touch my damn hands, then.”

“That was one way to say that.”

“Oh, who cares! Just get it over with.”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

He put his fluffy paws on Tomoe’s tiny hands and held them tight.

“On-a-counta-three!” he said, going for the Fukuoka-style cheer.

Still holding her hands.

Savoring the feel of her palms.

“Yeesh, leggo a me!”

Tomoe snatched her hands away, turning bright red.

Sakuta had definitely felt her hands. They were tiny but absolutely real. His sense of touch was normal again and he couldn’t be happier.

“D-don’t make it weird, senpai.”

“I’m not.”

“You did! I mean, my hands…” She hesitated.

So he said, “Koga, I need you.”

“……!”

She got even redder. All the way to her ears. The cold wasn’t causing that. Their eyes met, and she hastily looked away.

“I-I’m not reading too much into that, I swear,” she explained.

He hadn’t even said anything yet.

“So what do you need from me?” she asked, with only a hint of spite.