Toradora! - Volume 1 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“Hey. Move your head. I can’t see the TV.”

The head blocking half of Ryuuji’s vision didn’t even turn. All that he got in return was monotone backtalk. “Shut up. You can just watch from the side.”

“Excuse me?! This is my house’s TV! If you’re gonna say stuff like that, just go back home! It’s right outside the window!”

“…”

“Don’t! Ig! Nore! Me!” he shouted at her, and finally Aisaka showed him a glimpse of the side of her face. From under her long eyelashes, the curved surface of her eye held a misty sheen. 

“I’m watching TV. Can’t you be quiet for a little while? It’s things like this that make me wonder if you’re even housebroken, mutt.”

He gave her a cold glare. “Y-you…”

These were always the kinds of moments that made concerns 

about that dreaded two-word phrase, “neighborhood nuisance,” disappear from Ryuuji’s mind. He leaned forward on the dining table and attempted to prod at the self-appointed head of the house, who had planted herself right in front of his TV. But 

then…

“Ryu-chaan, don’t be so louuud.” He was gently rebuked by Yasuko, who appeared from behind the sliding door, which opened with a rattle.

“Y’know, yesterday, I got in trouble with the landlady. She said that we’ve always been a noisy family, but lately, we’ve been especially loud.”

 “Well, it was because this… Argh! You’re naked!”

At Ryuuji’s voice, even Aisaka turned around with surprise on her face. Inside her birdcage, even Inko-chan made a face as she looked at Yasuko, as though gasping in surprise. All three gazes pierced into Yasuko’s white skin. But she was perfectly calm.

“Am nooot. That’s just how this outfit’s made to look. And I’m going to wear thiiis on tooop.”

She bent down in her string style dress, which was way more skin than string. In her hand was some kind of ridiculous fluffy jacket, sporting a faux leopard-fur print.

“…That outfit is way over the line.”

“Hee hee! It’s cute, right? Taiga-chan, whaddya think? Hee hee!” Yasuko swung the hem of her skirt around. 

Aisaka looked at it with an unchanging expression. For some reason or other, Ryuuji held his breath. 

“…Look there.” Aisaka’s small hand swiftly pointed at the center of Yasuko’s rear. “Your underwear’s showing.”

“Aaaah! You’re riiight!”

But without missing a beat, Inko-chan shouted, “But that’s the good part!”

She didn’t even hesitate. How stupid. Who would listen to a bird? Ryuuji knitted his brows as, before his eyes, his very own mother’s face lit up. She was completely eating it up. Still holding onto the hem of her skirt, Yasuko made a full twirl with her panties completely showing.

“Then I guess this’ll do! I’m off to work!”

With a giant smile, she jiggled her giant breasts. Then, she happily cradled her one Chanel bag (which she’d diligently saved up for) and childishly waved both her hands.

“See you, Ryu-chan, Taiga-chan. I’m going out!”

“Okay, be careful. Don’t drink too much. If someone strange bothers you, call home.”

“Yuuup. Oh, Taiga-chan, don’t stay out too late.”

“I won’t. See you later.”

The old iron door closed with a clunk, creating a heavy partition between the world and the Takasu household.

Simply put, their subsequent activities went more or less like this:

“Phewww. I’m having tea.”

“Make me some, too. And snacks.”

“Snacks? I wonder if we have anything… You know, you could do more than just chow down. Why don’t you try making yourself useful and bring over some food yourself every once in a while?”

“…”

“I was just telling you not to ignore me!”

Before they knew it, Takasu Ryuuji and Aisaka Taiga had gotten completely used to each other. They acted just like family. That was only natural, however, as their lives had grown almost completely interdependent.

In the morning, in order to keep Aisaka from sleeping in, Ryuuji would pick her up from her condo. He made the bento boxes at home and brought them over, and while Aisaka was dressing, he prepared a simple breakfast.

Then, they both left home together, and after reaching Minori, they put some space between themselves. With a subtle feeling of distance, they walked to school.

Once they got there, they came up with new strategies to capture Kitamura on a daily basis. When it came time to actually execute the plans, however, they generally failed.

When they went home, they went to shop at the supermarket, and until recently, they made dinner at Aisaka’s house. That was where things got problematic. Ryuuji could eat with Aisaka, but making Yasuko’s dinner was a bother. Making one dinner and then going home to make another meant twice the time and effort. And he just didn’t feel like making one at Aisaka’s place and carrying it the few meters it took to get home.

With that in mind, it made sense for him to cook at the Takasu household and for all three of them to eat together. They had come up with that idea on a whim and from there, it had gained momentum. Thinking back on it now, maybe he’d finally got fed up with the obligations of a double life. It might have also been because, although Aisaka’s kitchen was squeaky clean, it was surprisingly hard to use. But that might have just been because he was frustrated at the dull knives and lack of plates.

Yasuko, for her part, unexpectedly accepted Aisaka as a normal fixture, and Aisaka was equally unconcerned about Yasuko’s unique personality. They just ate dinner together, and whenever Yasuko left to work her odd hours, Aisaka would wave goodbye along with Ryuuji.

At first, Aisaka would walk home with Yasuko when she left for work, but because of the TV, because of the manga, because she didn’t feel like it, because she was tired, because of something about Kitamura-kun, because Kushieda-san did something, or because of any number of reasons, her stays at the Takasus’ grew longer and longer.

“…Ah!”

By the time Ryuuji realized it, it had already come to this.

He rubbed away his drool with the back of his hand and, in a fluster, called out across the table.

“Hey, Aisaka! Wake up!”

“…Hm…?”

At some point, it seemed they had both fallen asleep while leisurely watching TV. They were still lying around on the tatami mat, Ryuuji in his tracksuit and Aisaka in her frilly dress. It was three o’clock in the morning.

“No matter what, you can’t just sleep over here. C’mon, get up and go home! You can snooze in your own bed!”

“…Nnn.”

He couldn’t tell if she understood or not, but she rubbed her face into the floor cushion she’d folded into a pillow and scratched at her belly under her clothes. Jeez, you’re just like an old man. He tried to pull the cushion forcefully from under her head, but…

“Uh…mnn…nn…”

The back of her head hit the tatami mat, and she furrowed her brow for an instant. Eventually, she rolled her head around to feel out the tatami mat, and, position more or less stabilized, she once again started breathing the deep, peaceful breaths of sleep.

Beside her, Ryuuji sat with his legs folded under him. He tilted his head as he looked down at her sleeping face. Just how close of a relationship did they have? To think there would come a time when he would so naturally spend time with a girl… No, this wasn’t the time to think about that. She wasn’t just any girl. His opponent was the Palmtop Tiger. But was this really the same Palmtop Tiger who once roared so ferociously?

An imprint of the cushion showed on her pink cheek. Near her mouth was the hot milk she’d been drinking before falling asleep. Her hair was delicately tangled over the mats and there was not even a trace of nervousness on her peaceful, sleeping face.

Even though she was sleeping in a boy’s house.

“…Hey. Aisaka… Aisaka, wake up.”

In the silent two-bedroom house, the only sound was the faint hum of the refrigerator motor. It was too early for daybreak and there was a little time before Yasuko came home. Under the cloth, Inko-chan was also sleeping in her peaceful, ugly way.

“Aisaka Taiga.”

Her eyelashes cast a long shadow over her cheek. When he looked closely, her slender neck quivered with her pulse. Thinking he would speak closer to her ear, he turned over her upper body. Then, suddenly, she stiffened. A mysteriously sweet smell made Ryuuji’s nose quiver. This was Aisaka’s scent.

“I swear, if you don’t wake up…I-I’ll…molest you…?”

He didn’t mean it for real. The thought of really having his way with Aisaka didn’t so much as enter his head. There were already other people he treasured inside his heart (Minorin…) and he didn’t want anything like that. Seriously. …But still.

She was just so shameless about not waking up. He wanted to shock her, and those words came out. That was it. Really, he thought she would suddenly get up and tell him off.

But she didn’t respond at all. Instead, he noticed something. A single piece of straw from the tatami was stuck to one of Aisaka’s cheeks. It probably prickled…but it didn’t seem to bother her… It did bother him, though. So, purely out of goodwill…he considered just picking it off for her. With a gulp. Ryuuji swallowed his spit. Then he slowly reached his hand out…

“Ngah!”

And was thrown across the room.

“Mnn…? What are you doing…?”

“N-nothing…”

That was just way too lucky to be a coincidence. He’d collided with Aisaka’s arm as she was sitting up. She’d gotten Ryuuji with a firm hook to the chin right upon his approach.

Pulling up her hair, she sat up. She raised her brows. A suspicious look lingered in her eye as she glared at Ryuuji, who’d just turned a somersault.

“…You’re so gross. What are you doing, making all that fuss all by yourself? It’s the middle of the night. You’ll tick off the landlady.”

“L-leave me alone.”

If Aisaka had been awake, Ryuuji probably wouldn’t be alive. He only got off this easy because she’d been sleeping.

Aisaka really was the Palmtop Tiger. The ferocious DNA that ran through her veins flowed throughout her whole body. She was a girl who lived impulsively, biting anyone she pleased, without a care as to who they might be—it was just in her aggressive nature.

Although he had learned how to get along with her, Takasu Ryuuji had just re-affirmed her identity by taking the opportunity to touch her.

***

Testimony #1

“I’m Haruta Koji, from second-year class C. I’m totally positive I saw it! It was when I was on the way back from club. I was thinking of getting something to munch on for the trip home and stopped by the supermarket near the station. It was definitely Takasu and the Palmtop Tiger. Takasu was carrying a shopping basket and picking out fish or something, and the Palmtop Tiger tried to put meat in and got in trouble. He was like, ‘Nope, we’re getting boiled fish today,’ and then she put it back on the shelf. Then, the two of them bought green onion and Japanese radish and stuff, and then, when they got to the front of the register, Takasu was like, ‘Take one thousand yen out of the communal purse.’ And then the Palmtop Tiger actually listened and took out the wallet. Dude, who has a ‘communal purse’? Doesn’t that sound like a husband and wife thing to you?”

Testimony #2

“I’m in the same second-year class. My name is Kihara Maya. I saw them in the morning while going to school. I live on Chari Road, but there’s a really luxurious new condo pretty close to school. Whenever I go by, I always think about how I want to live in a place like that—and that’s when I saw them. Suddenly, who would you know but Takasu-kun comes out. And just when I was thinking ‘Huh, you live here?’ Aisaka-san came out like she was following him, and then she was, like, saying she was sleepy. And she was like, you should have woken me up earlier. And just as I was thinking, No waaayy, Takasu-kun turned around and yelled at her, ‘I tried waking you up more than once!’ That’s, like…you know…right?”

Testimony #3

“Um, I’m Noto Hisamitsu from second-year class C. Takasu and I were in the same class our first year, so we still hang out a lot. But lately, whenever I’ve been thinking of going home with Takasu, he disappears. And I was like, ‘What’s up with that,’ y’know? Yesterday, a band I like dropped a new album, so I wanted to go to the CD store with Takasu to check it out, and during lunch I tried asking, but…it was definitely weird. He said something like, ‘Wait a sec,’ and then says, ‘Hey, Aisaka, I won’t go home with you today, is that okay?’ And then he goes, ‘I’ll be there at 8 o-clock.’ Like…where? To do what? And then while we were looking at CDs, I asked him, what was that all about? But he was like, ‘Don’t worry about it,’ and that was it… Talk about weird, man.”

Testimony #4

“I’m Kushieda Minori from second-year class C. First off, I’m close friends with Taiga, but…I’m certain that she’s hiding something from me. We meet up every morning and go to school together, but it’s like…Takasu-kun is there…and he walks a little further back and pretends like he doesn’t know us. They’re totally a twosome. They’re lovebirds. But Taiga says, ‘We met by chance,’ and, ‘Oh? I didn’t notice,’ and stuff like that. Well, last year she would sleep in one out of every three days, so I think it’s good she’s not being late anymore, but…I don’t like how she’s being so dodgy with me. And when they get to school, they’re always whispering secrets to each other…and I was like, wait, maybe this feeling…maybe it’s envy?! Now what’s that thing about the rose’s thorn, and the red and white sisters…how does that go again?! Oh, I can’t think of the word that’s used nowadays!”

Ryuuji being Ryuuji, he was used to being the target of gossip when onlookers misinterpreted his stares. Or to put it another way, he had learned the art of not letting stuff get to him partially as an instinctive act of self-defense to keep himself from getting hurt.

Aisaka being Aisaka, she was used to everyone keeping their distance out of fear of her wild temperament and near-professional punches. She wasn’t the type of girl to lend an ear to others’ gossip to begin with and generally didn’t take an interest in people other than herself (excluding Minorin and Kitamura).

In that way, because the two were accustomed to unwanted attention, they had for the most part failed to notice the current state of affairs—the restless class. The whispered words being exchanged. The scattered glances. And, of course, the voices of agreement.

“…I saw it too, I saw them coming out of the same condo…”

“Just before, they really were at the supermarket together.”

“They’re whispering to each other again…”

“Oh, they disappeared together.”

“The Palmtop Tiger was calling him Ryuuji.”

“Takasu being Takasu, he was calling her an idiot and stupid like it was fine.”

“He said that and he came out alive…”

“The insides of their bento were the same again!”

Maybe Takasu Ryuuji and Aisaka Taiga were…

“Oh. Right.”

At the tiny Palmtop Tiger’s mutter, the shoulders of those around her jolted.

“What’s going on?”

“Are you going to mess with her?” they asked each other. But Aisaka, now the center of the attention, didn’t betray any awareness of them.

“Hey Ryuuji. I almost forgot,” she said, trotting over to Ryuuji’s seat by the window, completely unaware of the people around her who had their ears pricked up.

“What?” he said.

“Yesterday…”

Aisaka’s voice became softer and the rubberneckers shifted, trying to hear.

“…I forgot to tell you, but…”

Ryuuji raised his face, listening to Aisaka’s soft voice. Aisaka continued to mutter to him in a voice only Ryuuji could hear. Every ear in the class was pointed in their direction.

“…Can’t go home tonight…”

The person directly behind Ryuuji’s seat startled, going completely tense upon overhearing those words. What, what did you just say? He had a barrage of questions that he couldn’t voice, so he wrote down what he had heard. She said she can’t go home tonight, the note said.

Leaving his dumbfounded classmates in the lurch, Ryuuji continued on with the conversation.

“…Staying over?”

“…Yeah…”

“Then…already prepared…”

“…Yeah…”

The surreptitious commotion propagated throughout the class.

“No way, no way, no way! Are they serious?”

“Wait, just now—they couldn’t have… Could they…by staying over…? By prepared, they can’t mean…!”

“In other words, that means the Palmtop Tiger is sleeping at Ryuuji’s house?” the long-haired Haruta-kun gulped, speaking in a small voice.

Turning to Haruta-kun, Noto-kun, in his black framed glasses, lowered his voice. “By prepared…they mean, in other words…like, they’re gonna do it?! U-uh…th-that’s pretty kinky, dude…!”

One of the girls murmured a sound of surprise. “It’s officially the first time for anyone in the class,” she said.

However, Kihara Mayu stubbornly insisted, “I don’t think it’s the first!” as her face turned red.

One of the boys looked pained. “I always thought the Palmtop Tiger was kind of cute… I was praying she wouldn’t become anyone else’s…”

After he said that, a new piece of testimony arose from elsewhere in the room. “I even confessed my love to her last year, but…when I did, she didn’t hesitate to tell me she thought all men should just die…”

Everyone was turned towards Ryuuji and Aisaka, who were still standing there quietly. The scene between the two of them had a certain charm to it, as though they were tying together their futures. Aisaka faced the window, without showing her face to anyone, while Ryuuji was scowling, an expression that hinted at some secret resolve to fight someone—maybe even Aisaka’s old man.

“K-Kushieda, it seems like your friend might be in trouble tonight!”

Kushieda Minori was silent.

“Kushieda?”

Even after one of the girls hit her in the back, even when she was elbowed, even after other things were done to her, she kept silent as she watched those two.

Incidentally—it wasn’t actually that interesting—what had really happened was this:

“Yesterday, your mom left without eating, right? Well, she gave me a message at the time. She said, ‘I forgot to tell you, but I can’t go home tonight.’ I guess it’s a regular’s birthday, so they’re having a party until morning.”

“That’s Yasuko for you. Does that mean she’s staying over at the shop?”

“Yeah, that’s what she said.”

“Then, she’s really already prepared to listen to that old man at the bar, Inage, grumble all night. The regular is old man Inage, right? He just got divorced last year.”

“I think that’s what she said. Yeah, she asked how Inage-san was… Ahh, what a boring errand. I wish she wouldn’t use me to leave messages about household stuff.”

“If you’ve got a problem with it, then don’t come over to eat anymore.”

“…”

“I told you not to ignore me!”

***

It was a normal break time, no different from any other for the second-year class C. Takasu Ryuuji was reading manga at his sun-lit desk, and Aisaka Taiga was bored, emanating her don’t-bother-me aura while sucking milk out of a carton.

But there was one girl who had the courage to hit Aisaka from behind.

“Hey, Taiga… Could you perhaps spare a minute?”

It was Kushieda Minori. At long last, she had finally made her move. Every eye in class focused on the Palmtop Tiger and the back of the girl who was with her.

“Why are you suddenly being so formal? Wait, Minorin?”

With an unusually serious look on her face, Minori grabbed Aisaka by the nape of her neck and, just like that, yanked her friend up, forcing her to stand and not once letting go of her petite build.

“I-I can walk without you doing that,” Aisaka said. “You’ll make me fall over!”

“Just get over here.”

The only person in the world who could do something like this to the Palmtop Tiger was Minori. If it had been anyone else, they probably would have been chewed up and killed in three seconds flat. Minori pulled Aisaka (still facing away from her) through the onlookers as they all held their breaths. She was pulling the Palmtop Tiger behind her like somebody wheeling luggage.

“…You’re coming, too,” Minori said.

“Huh…? M-me?”

The one she had designated bluntly with a pointed finger was none other than Takasu Ryuuji. Despite her terseness, and though it was impossible to tell at a casual glance, he might have indulged in a secret smile. After all, even if Minori was making a scene, even if it had just been with a “you,” she had still talked to him.

The situation had grown tense on the rooftop—it wasn’t obvious, but it definitely had.

The weather was calm and clear. A peaceful breeze blew across the blue skies overhead. But…

“M-Minorin…?”

“Kushieda…?”

Kushieda Minori had turned her back to Ryuuji and Aisaka after dragging them up here. Now she emanated an unusually foreboding aura. For some reason, she wore her jacket on her shoulders, letting the sleeves blow in the wind. “You sweet birds of youth,” she muttered to herself in a low voice.

Ryuuji pitched his voice as low as he could manage. “Hey…what exactly is going on here?” he whispered towards Aisaka’s ear, thirty centimeters below him.

“Beats me… It’s the first time I’ve ever seen Minorin make a face like that. I wonder if she’s mad about something…”

Aisaka’s face was also a bit cloudy, just then. She tilted her head uneasily. However, she soon made up her mind and took a step forward.

“H-hey…um, Minorin.”

It happened the moment she reached out her hand. Abruptly, sound seemed to stop. It felt as though the world had ceased to function. At the moment she turned, Minori’s eyes both glimmered, and right in front of Aisaka, she suddenly leaped up.

“Uh?!” Aisaka exclaimed. She instantaneously protected her face with crossed arms. “What the—?”

With a loud thud, Minori leaped past Aisaka, who stood on guard.

“Takasu-kuuuuuun!”

“Whoa!”

She was right in front of Ryuuji’s eyes, just a few centimeters away. She had forcefully slid across the ground, jumped up, then prostrated herself magnificently before him. Her skirt and jacket fluttered in the dust that rose from the concrete.

“I entrust Taiga to youuuuuu!”

It was a scream that could break through the heavens.

“…Wha? Uh? Whaaa?!” Ryuuji stood paralyzed. Minori lowered her head, until the top of it touched the ground before him. Aisaka froze, too. Her jaw stayed dropped as Minori spoke.

“Takasu-kun, this girl…Taiga is an incredibly important close friend of mine! Sometimes she’s moody, but she’s really a kind girl! Please, please make her happy!”

With loud sobs, Minori embraced Aisaka from afar—she hugged her with her gaze. They remained like that for one second…ten seconds…thirty seconds…

The first one to come back to himself was Ryuuji.

“Kushieda, w-wait, wait—about that, what does that—?”

“Please, stop!”

Minori’s face suddenly grew serious. She raised her head and fixed an uncomfortable stare on Ryuuji.

“Please, you can end the charade! Please, Takasu-kun! There’s no need to keep acting. I compleeeetely understand what’s going on here. I’m on your side!”

Minori’s eyes were serene; she spoke in a resolute voice. As she stared straight into Ryuuji’s eyes, she cornered him with an almost violent purity.

“Did you think I hadn’t noticed? You’re both coming to school together every day, aren’t you? I always feel like such a third wheel, and I was waiting for the day you’d open up to me about your relationship…but! No matter how much time passed, you didn’t say anything to me! So that’s why we’re here!”

“No, no, no, no, no way! That, that was—Kushieda, that’s wro—”

“I wanted to tell you both—you don’t need to sneak around anymore, Takasu-kun, Taiga! I know that you two are dating! I’ve been wanting to say that for sooooo long!”

While still prostrating herself on the ground, Minori pointed bluntly at Ryuuji. Then, veins burst out on her temple. With a smile like the sun, she gave him a knowing nod.

“No matter what, no matter what, you’re the person Taiga was meant to be with, Takasu-kun! I won’t forgive anyone who interferes with destiny! So please, don’t worry about anything and keep on dating! Okay?!”

Don’t just say ‘okay’! Like he just took a hit to the knee, Ryuuji lost his strength and collapsed on the spot. In that moment, his soul left his body.

He was so shocked he couldn’t even open his mouth. His voice wouldn’t work. Even though he wanted to deny it. Even though he needed to—

“Y-you’re completely wrong! Minorin, you’ve totally got the wrong idea! We’re not in a relationship like that! Just listen to me. Let me explain. Stand up!”

Aisaka was the one making a frantic appeal to Minori as she sidestepped in front of Ryuuji, who was suddenly moved to tears. That’s right, Aisaka. I’ve become useless, but you can still fix this misunderstanding in my place. He cheered her on silently, still collapsed on the concrete floor.

But…

“Hee hee hee, no need to be so coy. Congratulations to the new couple!” With flamboyant grace, Minori stood up and beat her skirt. As she did that, she looked at Ryuuji quietly over Aisaka’s shoulder.

“…Takasu-kun. If you make Taiga cry…I won’t ever forgive you.”

For a moment, she looked serious.

Now wait a second! That’s not how it is. That’s really not how it is. Gasping, Ryuuji frantically tried to squeeze out some words. He reached his hand out and tried to give the retreating Minori an explanation. But his throat. His hands. It was as if he’d been paralyzed from the shock, and his body wouldn’t listen to him.

Then, while Ryuuji remained powerless, he saw Aisaka—his last hope for explaining what had happened—killed with the stroke of a sword right before his very eyes. In Ryuuji’s vision, the life departed from her small body, as though it were being torn out from behind. Just like that, she stopped moving. The spray of blood dyed Aisaka’s whole body red.

“So, that’s how it was…” a new voice said. “I thought you two had been together a lot lately. Takasu, I needed you for something and came up here, but…we don’t need to worry about that anymore. Congratulations! But that was kind of cold, man! Why didn’t you tell me about something so big?”

Kitamura had been there the entire time.

He was standing at the door. He’d seen the whole thing. He’d heard Minori’s speech. He had all the wrong ideas.

Then he approached the tiny corpse and dealt the final blow.

“Aisaka. Please take care of Takasu. Please love him for all the many years to come. Now that I think about it, for some reason you two seem like you belong together.”

The quiet corpses—one large and one small—remained there, unable to get up.

***

“Um, sir. Your order…?”

“…”

“…”

“…M-ma’am. Would you like to order something…?”

“…One soda…”

“…The same for me…”

“…Two fountain drinks coming up. The cups are over there.”

After that last exchange, the waitress left, but there was no one there to rise and get drinks—just two lifeless bodies.

It was around ten at night, in a family restaurant along the highway, at window seats in the non-smoking section. It was there that the pair of corpses lingered…

Even though it was still April, the larger one wore a loose t-shirt stretched out at the neck. It even had a hairband on—the type that people wore to keep the hair out of their eyes when they washed their face. The smaller one had messy long hair and wore a red checked shirt, its skirt a matching checkered green.

The two of them were worn out. Complete messes. Neither said a word. They hardly even blinked. They were idle, just letting time flow by.

“Why…did it…come to this…?”

The first to speak was the larger corpse, Ryuuji. He put his elbows on the table and held his head. As though speaking to himself, he lowered his voice and muttered, “Wh-where…did we go wrong…? How could Kushieda Minori get such a wrong impression…?”

An aspect of Minori that Ryuuji never knew about had—to his great joy, no matter the circumstance—come to light that day: she was stubborn and wouldn’t listen to others. Put another way, she was completely headstrong. Although, given that she was best friends with Aisaka, perhaps it should have been expected that she’d have some idiosyncrasies.

“On top of everything…Kushieda misinterpreting stuff like that…”

To think that his unrequited love interest of nearly one year would jump and prostrate herself before him like that. But, Aisaka, too, who was sitting across from him, had been wounded in the same way.

“…”

Looking like her soul had been completely ripped from her body, Aisaka’s empty gaze roamed. She sat on the edge of the sofa chair and stared upwards. Even now, she seemed as though her butt might slip down and send her falling to the floor. Was this the Palmtop Tiger? Was this the tiger who could knock out a guy with a look, who released her raw power in classroom 2-C? It pained Ryuuji overwhelmingly.

“A-Aisaka…come on. Get ahold of yourself.”

He reached out over the table and shook her small shoulder.

“…”

But Aisaka’s soul wouldn’t return.

“Aisaka…”

It took up the last of his strength. Ryuuji laid his head down, limp on the table. Really…what have we come to?

He should have been used to getting hurt.

He should have been used to being misunderstood. People had mistakenly imagined him to be something he wasn’t ever since kindergarten.

“…Oh, right.”

Ryuuji came to a realization. It wasn’t being misunderstood that had given him such a terrible shock. Minori had cheered him on so seriously with a broad smile on her face. He knew now that he didn’t have a hope in hell with her and that was what really got to him.

You’re an idiot, he told himself. That was already so obvious. It should have been crystal clear that she wouldn’t take any particular interest in him—and on top of that, he hadn’t done anything to make her like him. What had he been doing getting his hopes up, anyway? Really, he probably didn’t even have the right to be depressed.

He stayed in that position for several more minutes, then finally raised his face when he noticed a faint presence.

“Oh…”

Tunk, tunk. He heard two hard sounds.

“…Here. I didn’t know what you wanted, so…this is acerola juice with vitamin C.”

Aisaka had quietly risen from her seat and brought back bright red drinks for the two of them. She placed the glasses on the table in a line, then slid back down onto the padded seat.

“…Aisaka…”

At some point, life had filled her once again. In front of Ryuuji, Aisaka took in one deep breath, then stretched her back straight and raised her face.

“Sorry. Because we’ve been together so much—something that I insisted on—it’s come to this. It’s all my fault. Even though I called you a mutt, I failed you as an owner…”

As she muttered, her eyes looked as ill-natured as usual, but she seemed spent. The light that burned in her eyes seemed empty.

A heavy lump had formed in Ryuuji’s stomach, and now, it dropped.

Being not-quite together like this was the reason they’d been misunderstood, and Aisaka had been hurt in the same way. In the end, they had both invited this upon themselves. Just like this, by facing each other and always being together.

But…

“…I… doing stuff like this… It’s not that…”

He tried saying something, but stopped. Aisaka was hurt in the same way he was. Because of that, he felt he couldn’t be selfish with his emotions. He couldn’t ask her to confirm that their relationship had caused a misunderstanding. Aisaka opened her mouth in his stead.

“I’ve…decided…”

She started playing with the ice in her juice with her straw, but she abandoned that and raised her head to look at Ryuuji face to face.

“…I’m going to. Confess. To Kitamura-kun. I’m going to lay it out straight, so there’s no room to screw it up… Just a normal, straightforward declaration of love.”

Even though her eyes shook with anxiety, she once again added, “I’ve decided.”

Ryuuji sucked in a parched breath. “…Aisaka…why’re you suddenly…? No, really, it doesn’t matter what you do…”

“That’s right. It doesn’t matter. And…” She trailed off and said to herself, hoarsely, “If we leave the misunderstanding like this, even you…” Then she spoke audibly again, saying, “…And then we’ll end it.”

“End it,” Ryuuji echoed

“We’ll end whatever this is,” she said definitively.

After making that declaration, Aisaka’s gaze became distant. As though she had sunk into water, the outline of her features abruptly became blurry. Ryuuji was speechless.

“After today, I’m setting you free,” she went on. “And then…you can do whatever you want. I won’t do anything to stop you. Whether you confess your love to Minorin, or whatever else. No matter what happens after tomorrow’s confessions, you don’t need to follow me around anymore.”

“…”

“As of now, your service as a dog is over. Starting tomorrow…let’s go back to how things were before the love letter incident.”

A declaration of emancipation.

You don’t need to follow me anymore.

That should have been a moment of happiness.

But, really, he still felt speechless.

He wasn’t resentful of the way she’d acted until now, he wasn’t thankful—he just wasn’t anything. There was just one thing, though. That’s right—he just wanted to tell her, Don’t be lonely. But Ryuuji couldn’t get the words out of his throat. Even though he’d held the cold glass so long that the tips of his fingers prickled in pain, even though his fingers were getting so cold they were nearly freezing.

However, at some point, Aisaka started smiling. Without making a sound, she smiled. She looked at Ryuuji, but also averted her gaze, slightly awkwardly, as she covered her mouth with both hands and looked down.

“…It’s funny. Why’ve we even been together so much? Even today, we didn’t have any plans, but we still naturally got together, like zombies… It’s funny. We’ve been eating together every day, hanging around doing nothing all this time, and getting into fights…”

A moment passed and then a faint laugh leaked out from between those small hands. Her large eyes were thin like the shape of a new moon—Aisaka was really laughing. It was the first time Ryuuji had seen her smile directed at him.

“I didn’t want to go home to that big, empty apartment all alone,” she said. “So, I kept forcing myself into your house and even made you feed me. Really, I was… Yeah, I was really…”

Hesitating, Aisaka became quiet, and shrugged. Thinking about something, she let her gaze slowly drift away. She quietly shut her thin eyelids. In those eyes, she was closing away something important, something that he’d never seen before—softly, softly, without a sound.

“I really—ha ha, I wonder how to put this. It’s just…yeah, that’s right. I was lucky I didn’t starve. That’s right, I really am a klutz. I live by myself in that condo, right?”

She probably wasn’t looking at Ryuuji’s expression of agreement.

“There’s a terrible story, there,” she went on. “I never got along with my parents and always fought with them. One time I said, ‘I’d rather live anywhere else but here,’ and then they really did just conveniently deposit me in that condo. Before I realized it, I was moving out…but it was too late to back down. So then, once I’d moved, I had no idea how to do any chores… I was in trouble. Real trouble. And no one—no one—came to check up on me, either. And my parents knew I was a klutz better than anyone, but I still left home, out of sheer stubbornness. It’s stupid, right? I’m a klutz, right? Go ahead and laugh; I won’t get angry.”

Aisaka’s eyes opened.

After she had said all of that at once, he saw all the strength leave her shoulders.

What kind of story is that? Ryuuji wanted to ask, but he held back the groan at the back of his throat. Because—that’s right, isn’t it? It really is something that would make you think, What kind of story is that? Right? Because the strange, brief story Aisaka just told was merely the sad tale of an abandoned child. Because those could only be the words of a doll that had been left behind by the king’s household, to live alone in the castle.

But Aisaka was laughing. It seemed like she wanted Ryuuji to laugh out loud, too. So…

“Ha…ha ha. Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha! You really are a klutz…”

“Right.”

He laughed. He felt like his heart was being torn to pieces, but with her, he laughed merrily, kindly. Never once before had he wanted to laugh at something so much.

Today was it. Starting tomorrow, it would be like before. Like before—where they didn’t even exchange greetings. Just the Palmtop Tiger no one dared to go near and another fearful classmate.

If that were the case, tonight he would laugh as hard as he could. In this shabby restaurant, he’d do it and savor the sight of Aisaka’s final smile.

And then, because of that, he showed it to her. He thought she would get a kick out of it.

“Hah, all right,” he said. “I’ll show you something good. Do you know who this is?”

It was an old picture he always carried around in his wallet.

“Huh? Oh…is that…your dad?!”

“Yeah, you got it.”

She blew a huge raspberry and then she laughed. “Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!” She laughed so much that she got cold stares from the other patrons sitting nearby.

“Wh-what is this! A spitting image! Aha ha, it’s great!” Her sides were splitting.

“Look at his eyes. Two peas in a pod, right—me and this old delinquent.”

“I can’t—c’mon, put it away! Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha!”

Contorting her body, crying, Aisaka laughed until she fell over onto the table. Bam, bam, she hit the tabletop, becoming even more of a public nuisance, flailing her feet around. Even when her voice turned hoarse, she kept laughing. It seemed that, using the dread-zilla DNA he’d so thoroughly inherited, he had pushed some button in Aisaka. They were genes he had bemoaned and begrudged, and he was more than a little bitter about them, but if they made her this happy, then there was at least some merit to the inheritance.

“…I’ve never shown anyone this picture.”

“Hah, oh boy, it hurts! I’ve never laughed this hard in my life! Your family’s got weird genes!”

“It’s funny, right?”

“It’s too funny! All right, then. In return for seeing one of your secrets, I’ll show you something good—I’ll tell you my secret, too,” she said and lowered her voice. “Okay, right…” She pursed her lips, trying not to laugh. Her glowingly rosy cheeks puffed up, and her eyes twinkled with mischief. She beckoned him in, and he brought his ear close to those lips.

“…They were salty, right? Those cookies.”

“What?!” At the whisper, Ryuuji raised his voice. How—why did she know about how those cookies tasted?

“Gah ha ha! You see, as soon as I got them back, I was so frustrated that I ate one! And it was the worst! But you didn’t even give me a chance to stop you before you ate them—and you even lied—”

Suddenly, she stopped, right in the middle of her sentence.

She held her breath. Her smile faded. It seemed as though she were searching for the words she’d lost. Then she took one breath. She turned her face down. She hid it from him. 

“You’re… Ryuuji, as far as dogs go, you’re just a mutt. But as a person, you’re…okay. So…because of that, because I get that, now, I’m going to stop. You’re not worthless. You’re really… How should I say this? You shouldn’t be a servant, but I think…someone to stand with, shoulder to shoulder…”

She paused, then said, “I don’t know what I’m saying.”

And just like that, she unexpectedly cut herself off. The next time she raised her face, she wore her customarily cool expression.

“Got my appetite back,” she said, as she opened the menu. Ryuuji followed suit. They ordered two Hamburg steaks. They complained about how the Hamburg steaks he’d made earlier were better, which was obvious, and they fought about who would go get the fountain drinks until Ryuuji got kicked out of his seat and was forced to do it. And then, the passing time piled up, hour by hour.

Neither one faltered, and neither one stood higher than the other.

After paying the check, they both started walking home in the middle of the night.

 The autumn night was strangely warm, and the crosswind was like something from a dream. It seemed to tickle Ryuuji’s skin until he couldn’t stand being silent anymore. As though she were drunk, Aisaka also seemed oddly talkative.

They walked along the road for nearly twenty minutes, Aisaka complaining about how her real mother was in another prefecture and how her terrible stepmother was another reason why she had been thrown out of her home.

Ryuuji talked about living alone with his mother and about how he was poor and how people acted like he was stupid and how Yasuko’s stalker was a creeper. He talked about how he was misunderstood because of his eyes and about how they continued to make the days of his adolescence humiliating.

That was a wound Ryuuji had never shown anyone. Aisaka, too, had probably shown him wounds she had never shown anyone else. He had enough tact not to ask her, but he was pretty sure that was the case.

And, just then, he was actually really happy. This time passing by was precious.

But, no one could stop time, and slowly, it did pass, until eventually, they found themselves below a corner streetlight …

“Oh, I can’t stand it!” Aisaka vented her anger at the unfortunate, unspeaking electrical pole with an explosive kick. Whack, thump—she acted exactly like a drunk as she released one violent kick after another.

“I just hate it…! I swear, the world’s built to be cold to kids like us! Why doesn’t anyone understand that we’re dealing with all these things, that we’re worrying about all this stuff?!”

She practically choked out those words in frustration. They echoed around the neighborhood in the dead of night. Because of that, Ryuuji didn’t stop her; he stayed by Aisaka’s side, nodding and agreeing with her.

“Seriously. That’s right! Normal people just can’t imagine that those of us stuck with sulky-looking faces like you and me get overwhelmed sometimes, just the same as them!”

“Yeah, it makes me angry—angry! Angry, angry, angry!”

Her practiced kicks hit in succession. Suddenly Aisaka turned around, her shoulders heaving with her breath.

“Hey, Ryuuji… Do you think about Minorin and come up clueless, too? Do you agonize over why it never seems to work out and wonder how you could get her to date you?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

After answering, he thought about it. Now that she said it, for a while now, ever since he started spending each turbulent day with Aisaka, he felt more distant from those sentimental feelings…

“Then Ryuuji…do you ever cry, too?”

“…Do you cry?”

“I do.”

She opened herself up. And then there was a moment of silence.

Aisaka slowly looked up at the night sky and tore herself away from the pole. She swept up her disorderly hair so that he could see the white profile of her brittle-looking face.

“Today, I wondered if he thought that I was weird, and whether I might get closer to him, and whether he has a girlfriend and…lots of other things. I thought about all kinds of stupid stuff all by myself… I’m sure no one else knows I do all of that, but…when it comes to me, no one…”

The next word tapered off, so quiet that Ryuuji couldn’t hear it completely. Only the echo of her lonely voice passing surreptitiously through the thin clouds of the night sky.

“…Yeah, if anyone knew about that side of you, they’d probably be surprised,” Ryuuji whispered, as he too looked up into the darkness and searched for the invisible moon. “No one would think you’d cry like that… I’m the only one who knows.”

“Aren’t you audacious,” Aisaka said. She took a breath, and her gaze shook. “I could say the same thing about you, Ryuuji. I think there are a lot of things only I know.”

“What do you mean…? Like what?”

“Even though you’ve got a… a face like that, you’re the type of guy who can barely even talk to the girl he likes. You’re the type of guy who can’t actually get mad at anyone or hurt anyone. You’re the type of guy who can cook, who can clean perfectly… You’ve got eyes so scary that it makes people afraid to come near you, but you’re actually more conscientious than anyone… I’m right, aren’t I?”

“Do I really come off that pitiful?”

“…I wouldn’t say you’re pitiful. It’s more that you’re…”

Aisaka turned around. Her hair drifted around her like lace in the breeze of the gentle autumn night. She put up a slim finger and said in a faint, quiet voice, “You’re a kind person.”

 “Aisaka…”

So that means I’m just a boring “nice guy,” he wanted to retort, but he couldn’t put it into words because he saw pain somewhere in Aisaka’s expression.

“I’m the complete opposite of you, aren’t I?” she said. “I’m no good. I can’t be kind. Because there’s so many things I just can’t forgive… No, in this world, there’s really only a few things I can tolerate. What I see in front of me, everything, all of it, all of them, everyone…”

Her skirt lightly turned up. Her white leg extended out magnificently, cutting through the wind.

“MAKES…ME…ANGRY!”

She landed a deadly high kick on the serene pole. Ryuuji was so shocked by the sudden explosion of emotion that he couldn’t speak. He took a big step back, exclaiming to himself in surprise. He could only watch the tiger go berserk.

“It makes me angry, it makes me angry, it makes me so angry! Palmtop Tiger, my ass! Everything is NOT completely fine! Why doesn’t anyone understaaaaaannd?!”

As though called by the tiger’s roar, the golden moon appeared above the two of them.

Aisaka’s shadow stretched across the cold asphalt towards the half-dead pole. Ryuuji was just watching, but his shadow also stretched, closing the distance between them.

Their two shadows overlapped, but their bodies didn’t touch.

“Everyone, all of it, makes me furious! Stupid Minorin… Why wouldn’t she listen to me?! Kitamura-kun is the same—why did he just swallow whatever Minorin said?! Why won’t he understand?! Minorin and Kitamura-kun both, everyone…every single person, even my mom and dad, all of them, I’ll never forgive any of them! Because they don’t even try to understand…! No one ever understands!”

Aisaka’s voice choked as she took the pole in both hands and kneed it hard. There were probably nights when she worked herself up so much she wanted to cry. On the verge of feverish tears, her breath wavered in frustration, then…

“U-ugh…!”

“Whoa! You idiot, stop!”

She turned around and, with all her strength, headbutted the pole—or at least, she nearly did. Ryuuji dashed forward and put out the palm of his hand, stopping her forehead right before she put herself in danger. Even her forehead wouldn’t win against a pole.

“But I’m so aaannngry!” she yelled. Then she burst into tears.

Next to him, like a child, Aisaka kept on crying into the autumn night. There was nothing to be done. Ryuuji made a gut decision. But, still, it wasn’t like anything he could do would amount to much. It was just better than telling her, I understand, and sounding completely shallow.

“…I’ve got your back,” he declared and sucked air into his lungs. Then he shouted in one breath, “I’m aaaanngrrryyyy!”

Although he was unaccustomed to it, he threw in a kick, too, and then a roundhouse. He imagined the K-1 kickboxing he’d seen on TV as he precariously balanced himself.

And just like that, Ryuuji and Aisaka (somewhat unfairly) attacked the pole together. Ryuuji had his own enemies. He felt like a rock placed against the flow of life. Aisaka had enemies, too—at least, he thought she did. She must have had a similar obstacle in her life, embodied by something or other, he thought. That enemy was the feeling of liking someone. It would only get heavier when the time came that she wanted to marry someone. It could probably even be called a psychological complex. Or maybe calling it destiny, or nature, or nurture, or something like that, would be more fitting. Or maybe it was being aware of your own adolescence, of your own helplessness—there were probably a lot of ways to think about it.

But anyway, whatever it was, it didn’t have a physical form you could punch or kick, and she’d probably have to keep fighting with it for a long, loooong time. If she didn’t kick the pole like this, she wouldn’t be able to get it out of her until she died. It would have been better if it had been a wall or a futon, though… Sorry, pole, you were just unlucky.

That was why he was doing this. Even though it was foolish and stupid, even if the pole didn’t fall down, in the autumn night, they became howling beasts.

Aisaka’s enemy was a lot bigger than his and seemed a lot heavier. Ryuuji had that thought while watching the back of her head from beside her. I get it. In order to stand against that invisible enemy, you became a tiger, he thought. Her foe was much bigger than a pole, much heavier, and far harder, far more difficult to take down. Aisaka had always wanted the strength to fight against that enemy. That was why she had to become a tiger.

It was a strange thing that Ryuuji and Aisaka’s short lives—short in their own ways—had overlapped. Because of that, Ryuuji thought maybe he understood Aisaka. He just couldn’t leave her alone with her terribly tired face and horribly hungry stomach.

Even though she was a nuisance, even though she was frustrating, he wasn’t sure he would be able to abandon her even if he tried.

And to Ryuuji, that wasn’t anything to be unhappy about at all. In fact—

“Ryuuji, stand back!”

“What’re you suddenly saying that fo—whoa!”

When he saw Aisaka suddenly raise her face, his thoughts turned to mist and dissipated, out of sheer surprise.

Aisaka was laughing. It was a horrible laugh. Her eyes sparkled atrociously, glinting barbarically with every blink. She attacked her prey with the pure strength of the Palmtop Tiger, crying, “I’ll kill you!”

She went to the start of the street and gave herself a lot of space. Then, she pulled up her skirt.

“Just you wait, Kitamuraaaaa! I’m going to confess to youuuuuuuuuu!”

The single member of her audience (Ryuuji) breathed in through his teeth. It was a gruesome approach. Her timing was perfect, and her steps strong. Her short body lithely jumped, and she soared in mid-air. The moonlight reflected in her eyes. Then, her right leg cleaved through the air, and she howled, headed straight towards the pole.

“…Tsk.”

At that over-the-top scene, Ryuuji had closed his eyes without thinking. There was an awkward thump, and finally he opened his eyes in panic. He ran over to Aisaka, who was on her butt at the base of the pole.

“Y-you idiot! You, your foot…”

“…Ryuuji. Behold.”

“Huh?”

Aisaka pointed to the pole that reached towards the heavens. What about it? Ryuuji returned her gaze questioningly as she gave him a broad smirk.

“Don’t you think it’s a little crooked?”

“What?! No way, it couldn’t be! No matter how much a person kicked it, it wouldn’t—”

Comparing it to the brick wall behind it, Ryuuji breathed in sharply. “It is crooked!”

“See?!”

Victorious, Aisaka laughed. Of course, the pole might have been crooked from the start, or the wall behind it might have been leaning over. Those explanations were more likely than Aisaka’s idea that she’d made the pole crooked with one of her kicks.

But Ryuuji believed in her.

He believed that Aisaka, the Palmtop Tiger, had kicked the pole and made it crooked.

Because Aisaka was smiling.

Then Ryuuji glimpsed something in the distance. “…Uh-oh, we’re in trouble. Is that a cop?” he said.

They must have made too much of a disturbance—a bicycle was approaching from the other side of the street, and the person riding it was in fact wearing a police uniform. Ryuuji turned to Aisaka, flustered.

“This is bad. We’d better scram! Oh…what now?! What’s wrong with you?!”

He found himself with a grimacing klutz, still sitting on the ground.

“O-owww…”

“What?!”

Aisaka, who had until now battled the pole with vigor, sat on the ground with her skirt hem strewn around her. She was rubbing at her right shin. Then with a pitiful expression, she looked up at Ryuuji.

“I might have hit it wrong…It hurts.”

He pursed his lips into a thin line. Oh no! Ryuuji scratched his head.

“Of course, you would! Jeez…this will probably swell…”

He crouched down and unintentionally scowled. In the dim of the streetlight, he could see that part of the skin just above her thin ankle was horribly bruised.

“Poles sure are hard, huh…? Ow, this hurts a ton…”

“Of course, they’re hard! You…”

Ryuuji took in a deep breath. There was only one thing to do. He crouched down by Aisaka and turned his back towards her. This was what they called chivalry. Even he had some.

“Get on. Really, sometimes, y—ugh! Urgh!”

He had expected her to timidly climb up, but this was the Palmtop Tiger, after all. Even though she said her leg hurt, she swung onto Ryuuji’s back with a strong hop. She clutched at his neck so hard he felt like he might die.

“I-It hurts…!” He frantically smacked Aisaka’s arms, which were crushing his windpipe and pushing on his arteries. He was trying to convey just how big a crisis she’d put him in.

“Oh no, Ryuuji! Isn’t that a policeman? Hurry, you’ve got to run!”

I just told you that! he thought. With his neck cut off, he couldn’t speak, but he nonetheless started running in a hurry.

It was a more roundabout route, but he went down a deserted side road. He tried to soften his footsteps but still ran for his life through the nighttime streets. He slipped into a dark alley bereft of streetlamps. In the strange quiet, they were both at a loss for words, but with the reassuring heat of each other’s bodies, they at least didn’t need to voice the words, I’m scared.

Ryuuji held Aisaka firmly to his back as he moved. She gently pushed her chin against his pulsing neck.

They didn’t speak any unnecessary words. They just aimed wholeheartedly towards the light of the large road coming up ahead—

“Ow!”

WHAM. He heard a blunt noise and Aisaka’s soft exclamation.

“What?! What happened?!”

Without thinking, Ryuuji stopped and craned his neck around to look at Aisaka on his back. They were close enough that he could feel her breath in the darkness as they exchanged glances.

“I-I got hit by…a signboard or something…it got me right in the forehead!”

“What?! Why didn’t you avoid it?”

“It came up suddenly, okay! It’s pitch black, and it’s not like you noticed, either! …Owww, ughh, I’m so sick of this…”

“Where? Here?”

Ryuuji reached out his hand and felt Aisaka’s slightly warm forehead—it was so dark that he couldn’t tell how bad it was just by looking.

“…It’s not bleeding. I can’t feel a bump, either. You’ll be fine, yeah, definitely.”

“I have the worst luck.”

“It wasn’t bad luck, you’re just a klutz.”

On his back, Aisaka snorted in contempt at the correction. Then Ryuuji set off once again. If he made it to the main road, home was just beyond.

“…Honestly, you’re lucky you didn’t get cut.”

A horn sounded from somewhere far off. Because of that, Ryuuji’s faint voice might not have reached the person holding on to him from behind. 

“It would’ve been terrible if you had hurt your face, what with confessing tomorrow and all… You really did get lucky.”

Aisaka said nothing, which was fine.

He could feel her soft cheek against his neck. She wasn’t hurt, and she was safely on his back. It was fine like that. He was fine with just having that.

Keeping an eye out for any sign of the police bike’s pursuit, they finally cleared the alleyway. They returned to the broad sidewalk of the roadway, brightly lit by streetlights. Every now and then they passed someone on their way home from work, or a middle-aged woman walking her dog. No one spared Ryuuji or Aisaka a glance. Each and every one of them had their own hardships to bear. The salary men and office ladies, the grandmas and grandpas, all of them probably had their own enemies and their own weights. All of them must have had nights when they felt like beating up a pole. But they were adults, so they didn’t.

Suddenly, the strange image of passersby locked in a bloodbath with a pole floated through Ryuuji’s mind, and he chuckled without thinking. 

Aisaka noticed. “What are you laughing at?” She contorted and bent forward. She breathed against the side of Ryuuji’s face. 

“Nothing… It’s not a big deal.”

“What?! What is it? Tell me, tell me! Spit it out!”

“Ugh-gug.”

His neck was being firmly squeezed.

“Y-you know…”

“I want to know. Hey, what were you laughing about?”

“…It’s nowhere close to a big deal, so don’t worry about it… I-I can’t breathe!”

“If you’re not gonna talk, I’ll make it so you can’t talk at all.”

“Guuuhhh!”

All right already—she’s really something, Ryuuji thought, flailing about to try and defend his windpipe. She was tyrannical, stubborn—and selfish. She was a despotic tiger who wouldn’t let anything go any way but the exact way she wanted. He’d endured a mountain of suffering—that one time, and that other time, and that time, too—just from getting involved with her.

He’d had that thought over and over again…and it kept coming back, to the point he figured himself immune to it. He had thought the warm frame clinging to him wouldn’t be able to stir any emotions in him at all. He never thought approaching the upper-class condominiums Aisaka lived in would make his heart pound.

But even though he thought that…

The arm around his neck suddenly loosened.

“Here’s good,” Aisaka whispered, and patted his shoulder once.

In front of the condo’s entrance, she hopped off his back. His back was suddenly bare and without weight, and the warmth also disappeared. Losing it all, he turned to look at Aisaka, who stood before the glass door.

And then he felt his heart squeeze painfully—so this was how much it hurt.

“Well, Ryuuji. We’re right on time. See?” She put out her slender wrist and pointed at the face of her wristwatch. The two hands on the face pointed right at 11:59.

“Ahh, that was exhausting, right?” she went on. “But we made it home safely. Today’s the end of it all. Once the day’s over, you won’t be my dog anymore. There’s thirty seconds left… Hey, don’t you have something to say for yourself?”

“…Something to say…? Like what?”

“As a mutt. Don’t you have any last words for your owner, Ryuuji?”

“…Uh… Don’t you think that’s a little sudden…?”

With a distance of two meters between them, Aisaka was thinly smiling. At least, he thought she was. She tilted her small head to the side and seemed to be waiting for Ryuuji’s words. But did he even have something to say? Was there anything to say?

“…Ten seconds…five seconds…”

He didn’t say anything.

The wind that passed through divided them. Aisaka lowered the arm she’d used to show him the watch. Then, she said, “Bye bye.”

“Right… T-tomorrow! Good luck tomorrow!”

And that was it.

“Bye bye, Takasu-kun.”