Toradora! - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was the last day of Japan’s mega-long holiday: Golden Week.

“You’re free, right?”

The time was one o’clock in the afternoon.

“Hey, you’re not doing anything, right?”

The Takasu residence was dim, as if the fair weather outside were a lie. South of the wide-open window, the neighboring condominium’s fence looked nearly close enough to touch. The bright natural light of the early summer sun couldn’t even hope to get past it.

Nonetheless, the inside of the room was methodically well kept. The entire place had been thoroughly cleaned, and though it was small, a bit of clever planning miraculously kept the place habitable. That marvelous comfort and livability were the fruits of Ryuuji’s housekeeping skills. The only son of the household had his back to the living room while he cleaned the kitchen after lunch.

“Are you listening?”

No one answered his question, much less thanked him for his work.

Ryuuji stopped doing the dishes for a moment and shot an overly-sharp glare back at the muslin-colored lump sprawled on the floor. That lump lay in a messy heap beside the low dining table, her chin propped up on a folded cushion. She stuck her finger through the bars of the birdcage next to her, staring, spaced out.

A yellow parakeet—Inko-chan—grunted as it gnawed on the tip of the intruding finger. She seemed to be savoring the experience. Inko-chan’s ugliness was her most charming attribute. Her mulberry-colored beak opened earnestly wide, and her little tongue, licking at the intruding finger, was the same color as a cow’s…if the cow’s had gone rotten, maybe. Her eyes also happened to be wide open, the whites so prominent that she looked just about ready to keel over. Her eyelids spasmed with a dangerous, bird-like delight that humans could never fathom. If this went on, Ryuuji was going to have trouble looking at it, and he owned the bird.

“…Taiga. Make Inko-chan stop doing that. She’s acting strange.”

“…Huh? Oh, you’re right.”

Finally turning around, the muslin-colored lump—Aisaka Taiga—returned to her senses and pulled her finger from the birdcage. Or she tried to, anyway.

“Huh? I’m stuck.”

…You klutz. Ryuuji could only sigh as he saw her tilt her head.

“What do you think you’re doing just standing around and sighing? I think I might really be stuck!”

She got up and sat her petite body straight down on the tatami mat. Growling in displeasure, Taiga held the birdcage with one hand and made an earnest attempt to pull her finger out from between the bars. Not about to let go, Inko-chan redoubled her efforts and latched onto Taiga’s fingertip even harder.

“Ah…she’s strong…!”

Taiga’s swaying, waist-length hair was softly tangled, the color of chestnut touched by smoke. Her delicate body was enveloped in a fluffy dress piled with lace. Paired with her figure, Ryuuji thought the unbleached overskirt left her with an elegantly volumized and cute—

“Hey, Ryuuji. What are you just standing there staring for? Your bird is misbehaving, so hurry up and do something about it, you…you…Y.S.D.!”

“Why Ess Dee?”

“‘You Stupid Dog.’ I was trying to soften it for you. Aren’t you grateful?”

Well, that came out of nowhere. He lost all will to retort.

If it weren’t for the sharp tongue, Taiga would have been like a living French doll. Her eyes were like sparkling jewels, her pale lips like rosebuds; her sweet, refined features were as dangerous as a trap drenched in condensed milk. But she had one problem.

“UGH! I’m so over this. Hmph.”

Creak. The birdcage started to warp.

Unfortunately, Aisaka was born under the star of the ferocious and brutally violent tiger. Her nickname was the “Palmtop Tiger.” Even if she was practically small enough to hold in one hand, her ferocity could only be compared to that very particular feline.

That said, the power of the look Ryuuji was giving her couldn’t be beat, either.

From his still-growing height, his overly-sharp gaze peeked from between the gaps in his long bangs. Those incredible, hardened eyes glinted dangerously. Even though he wasn’t physically stronger than most people, the aura emanating from his body was dangerous, like the darkness overflowing from the soul of a youth about to snap.

But…

“Hey, hey, hey, don’t break it! No! Gently!”

…In Ryuuji’s case, the only dangerous thing about him was his appearance. In order to protect his pet’s home from the tiger, he kneeled next to Taiga, wiping his wet hands. He tried pulling on the birdcage to take it away, but…

“Owowowowowow!”

“Oh, sorry!”

He leaped back at Taiga’s shriek and left her finger stuck in the cage. Maybe it was surprise at that cry, or a result of being provoked, but—WHOP!—Inko-chan sharply stabbed at the small gap between Taiga’s flesh and fingernail.

“Oooooow!”

Taiga shrieked even harder…and her finger popped right out of the cage’s gap. Maybe all that pain was good for something.

Taiga held her finger in speechless agony atop the tatami for several seconds.

“…That hurt… why you…!” She raised her head and turned her eyes—glistening from faint tears, a gleam like an assassin’s sharp knives—to Inko-chan.

The bird surely understood that it had made a terrible, terrible mistake. “…Squaa-wa-wak?” Inko-chan’s whole body trembled as she looked up at Taiga. Several feathers came fluttering down, a consequence of sheer stress.

Ryuuji quickly held the birdcage to his chest. “Ahh! Inko-chan’s balding! Keep it together, girl; get a hold of yourself! If you get any uglier, I don’t know if we could stand to keep you around. Let’s put you somewhere safe—who knows what she might do to you…?”

Then Taiga stood up, too. “Are you for real, Ryuuji? It’s not like I’d seriously do something to a parakeet.”

“Then what’s with the clenched fists?!”

“They’re to punish you!”

Cornering Ryuuji against the wall, she curled her small hands into solid fists.

“What did I do?!”

“Look at my finger! It hurts!”

“How’s that my fault?!”

Taiga circled around and around the room, chasing after Ryuuji, who still held the birdcage.

“Gyahh!”

Bam. Taiga face-planted onto the tatami. 

Something white had slid out from the sliding door, which had been left partially ajar.

“…Why are you poking out here?” Ryuuji still wore a scowl, one that made him look like he might start swinging a knife around at a moment’s notice. He set down the birdcage to investigate. 

It was his mother’s bare leg. Ryuuji wasn’t angry, really—just puzzled.

With her foot poking out between the sliding doors that partitioned her room, the matriarch Yasuko was in a deep sleep. She kept busy working as an entertainer at the town’s one and only hostess bar, Bishamon Heaven. True to form, she’d come home drunk that morning at six.

“Oh. Did we wake her up?”

Still laying right where she’d fallen, the Palmtop Tiger—that human trifecta of stubbornness, wickedness, and self-centeredness—lowered her voice. She told the family breadwinner: “You did good, kid. You deserve a break. Go on back to sleep.”

“No, no, she’s still asleep.”

Of course, Ryuuji also lowered his voice, and was pushing the protruding bare leg back into the bedroom. Then…

“Nn…nnngh…” 

There was a childlike, nasally sound. And…

“…Waaaaaahh!”

“Yeah? What? What’s wrong?”

The body attached to the bare leg suddenly broke into a wail. Wearing her son’s old middle school PE shorts and a thin T-shirt that showed the black lace of her bra, she flailed her arms and legs. She rubbed at her white cheeks with the back of her hands and flopped on top of the futon. Alarmingly, she was thirty-three years old this year, and her pride was her giant, F-cup breasts.

“I-It smells like omurice! Ryu-chan and Taiga-chan were eating while Ya-chan was sleeping! Waaaahhh!”

“Come on, it’s not like that. I left a serving for you. It’s all wrapped up in the kitchen. I’ll stick it in the fridge on my way out, so just zap it in the micro whenever you get up.”

“…Did you write Y-A-S-U-C-O on it in ketchup?”

“Nope. It would have gotten messed up when I wrapped it, right? And it’s Y-A-S-U-K-O.”

“Uggghh… Your mother is still very sleepy, so no English lessons, please…”

Once again, Yasuko flopped onto her pillow. The less-than-perfect single mother immediately started breathing shallowly in her sleep. Even though she couldn’t do chores, she did earn enough money for them to subsist off of. She was a kind and gentle mother, but her head had a few screws loose…and her son Ryuuji spent his days watching out for where she dropped them. Incidentally, according to Yasuko, when she was in her third year of middle school…

“I was in the lower seventeenth percentile for math. My homeroom teacher didn’t know what to say, so he just stared at me until the sun went down.”

But for the time being, anyway, the Takasu household hadn’t gone bankrupt. They held up okay. The breadwinner was Yasuko, the one in charge of the household was Ryuuji, the pet was Inko-chan, and lately, they’d had one extra fixture around the house…

“Oww…I scraped my chin. Ugh, this place is just way too small. Hey, Ryuuji, do you want to have sashimi for dinner tonight? It’s completely unrelated, but after falling down just now, I was thinking I could go for some raw fish.”

Ryuuji stared at her raw, red chin. “…Is it really completely unrelated…?”

“What? Am I not allowed to eat sashimi?” Rubbing her chin, she stared at Ryuuji with both big eyes—she was one violent-tempered tiger. 

“The Super Yontoku mart in front of the station has a limited time sale on tuna sashimi starting at five o’clock. I think.”

“I want to go with you when you buy it, so come get me at four forty-five. I’m going home.”

“Huh, you’re going home?”

“You’re complaining?”

Although Taiga wasn’t living with them, on their days off, they were together during the day. They were together at night. They were together while shopping. They had an unwritten rule that she wouldn’t stay overnight, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to doze off after dinner and keep each other company late into the night. They were pretty much living together, but they weren’t involved, not as a couple, anyway. But as Taiga stood up, Ryuuji dawdled, lingering behind her.

“Why’re you going home? You never have anything to do. You’re free, right? Can’t you stay over longer?”

He was pretty much asking her to spend more time with him, even if it was for a short while. Taiga flipped her hair dismissively and turned a cold gaze on him. “You’re the one who doesn’t have anything to do. I have some very important laundry to get done. The weather’s perfect for it.”

“Your laundry? All you have to do is press a button. Your machine’s a washer-dryer combo, too, so it’s not like you have to line-dry it. So don’t just tell me you’re going home for that.”

Tsk. Taiga clicked her tongue in frustration. She aimed a deadly stare at the scary-faced guy who had walked around in front of her. “Ugh! Your whining is killing me! Just what are you trying to say? If you want to say something, just spit it out!”

Ryuuji fidgeted and mumbled, “…W-would you wanna maybe go with me to that one sit-down restaurant…?”

“Again?!”

Instantly, Taiga’s face contorted with irritation. But Ryuuji didn’t back down.

“It’s not like it’s a huge favor or anything. I can’t go alone! And today you practically begged me for omurice, so I made it, and… come to think of it. Do you realize how much trouble you give me all the time over Kitamura? Why don’t you help me out every once in a while, huh? You could at least do that much!”

“Gawd, you’re so loud! Shut up, or I’ll tear it off!”

“Tear what off?!”

As their fruitless shouting contest ground on, a noise echoed from the other side of the sliding door. “Ugh, ugggh, uuugggghhh…!” Yasuko groaned, in the throes of a hangover. 

They were silent for a moment.

“…I guess I’ll go. If you insist. Ugh.”

In the end, Taiga was the one who caved.

“It’s on you, got it? And you’re buying me a magazine. Going through the hassle of talking to you is like…” She made a spitting noise off to one side. “…That.”

Taiga had an especially eloquent way of expressing her mood.

But Ryuuji took it without a word of complaint, a masculine “yeah” his only response. If it got her to go with him to the diner, he figured expenses like that were no big deal.

After all, this was that restaurant.

***

“There you go! One order served up!”

Thump. A yogurt parfait was planted right before Taiga’s eyes, so large she couldn’t see past it.

“This is just between you and me, but this one’s a Taiga special with HEAPS of extra vanilla ice cream. Hide it from all the other customers while you eat, ’kay?”

“Are you sure, Minorin? Won’t you get in trouble with your boss?”

“Naaahh, it’s fine! You pretty much came in every day this break. We’ve gotta give you at least this much service! Takasu-kun, do you want anything, too? I recommend the matcha parfait or, if sweet’s not your thing, then maybe the french fries. I’ll give you tons—I’ll pile ’em up real good!”

“Oh, no, I…” It’s okay, it’s okay. Ryuuji waved his hand in front of his face, unable to even look up from his self-serve coffee. Actually, he couldn’t even open his eyes to start with.

It was just too bright.

She was too bright—Kushieda Minori in her waitress uniform.

Her hair was in a seductive ponytail, the slender nape of her neck in full and glorious view. The pale orange dress and white mini-apron were just too cute a uniform. Her chest, which normally didn’t attract much attention, gently lifted the thin fabric. Her cheeks were aglow with her smile, possessing the allure of a still-ripening peach.

Looking down to hide his face, which was quickly growing hot, Ryuuji desperately evaded the gaze of his unrequited love of nearly one year. He wanted to look, but he wouldn’t look—no—he couldn’t look. 

Such was the ambivalence of a boy in love.

“Weeell, can you two really say that you’re not dating when you’ve been coming to eat here together nearly every day all break? You’re a regular pair of lovebirds!”

At that, they both had just one thing to say to Minori, which was…

“No way.” 

“No way.”

Even their breath was in sync as Ryuuji and Taiga shook their heads.

“Is that sooo?”

“You bet.”

Taiga narrowed her eyes, as though exasperated. Then she turned an extremely cheerful gaze up at her friend, not a drop of ill will to be found within it. “Minorin, you’ve been here day in and day out working all break long, but you’re not going out with the manager or that old guy in the kitchen, are you? It’s the same for us. How can you assume we’re dating just because we’re here together?”

“You’re the kind of kid that would jump to that conclusion.” 

“Well, the whole you-guys-are-dating thing is that level of bogus.”

Takasu and Aisaka’s official statement was currently that they were not dating. Minori was the one who persisted in mixing her groundless suspicions about their relationship into her jokes whenever the chance arose. 

For Ryuuji, who was secretly in love with Minori, that was the cruelest joke of all.

“Okay, okay, say no more, grandpa.”

“Who are you calling grandpa?”

“I’m not with the manager, and not with the shabu-shabu store manager I work for every other evening, or the karaoke manager, or the manager for the convenience store I work at early mornings. In the same way, Taiga, you and Takasu-kun aren’t together. That good enough? Well then, I gotta get back to work.”

“…Just how many part-time jobs have you got?” Ryuuji let those words slip out without thinking. But hey, it sounded natural, at least. Go me.

“Hey, even with all of that, I’m restraining myself, y’know! We still have club meetings even during break, right? And as president, I can’t afford a single day off!”

Ryuuji was left at a loss for words at her reply. 

Taiga replied for him. “He’s saying you’re working way too much. Are you making all this money because there’s something you really want?”

“I have extra time, so I gotta put it to use. We’re all the stars of our own stories, right? Mine’s the X-tra Work Files!”

“…Say what?”

“Or maybe The Employee Strikes Back! Well, I’ll be back, okay?”

Leaving only those cryptic words behind, Minori dashed off to the kitchen. Who knew she was such a workaholic? Their eyes followed her exit.

“That’s some work ethic… she isn’t just cute, she’s serious. Completely unlike a certain somebody I know.”

“…Meaning?”

“You wake up in the afternoon, come by with your hair and clothes still messed up, get lunch, and then just lay around watching TV, eventually eat dinner, laze around all night, and then just go home. You’re lazy.”

Taiga turned up her chin with the utmost hauteur, aiming her parfait spoon across the table. “We’re on break, so taking it easy is A-okay. And it’s not like you’re that different. You’re completely missing the important part. I’m the one always making the effort to come over here with you, aren’t I? And on top of that—okay, first of all—”

“Gah…! You flicked ice cream in my eye!”

“The reason why I have nothing to do is you, Ryuuji. Do you get that? Huh?” Taiga spoke arrogantly. Rather than anger, the color of scorn flooded her large, shimmering eyes. “You’ve got it real good. You can count on me to help you see the person you like, but I don’t have a ‘me’ for myself. I don’t have a kind-hearted person like me to cheer for my love life.”

“…Man, do you think you could beat around the bush a little more? It’s not my fault that you couldn’t meet Kitamura during break. I helped you like I was supposed to.”

“…”

“Don’t just ignore me when we’re having a conversation!”

“Shut up.”

After speaking her mind, Taiga lapsed into sullen silence. She dropped her eyes to the women’s magazine she had bought at a bookstore on the way there. Ryuuji didn’t like it, but it wasn’t like there was a lot he could do. He could only drown his indignation in black coffee.

The Kitamura situation absolutely wasn’t his fault. 

He recalled what had happened, early in the afternoon, on the first day of their break.

Ryuuji, bowing to Taiga’s endless pestering, had made a phone call to his close friend Kitamura—Taiga’s unrequited love. Knowing that the softball club Kitamura and Minori were members of had about three days off during the break, Taiga wanted Ryuuji to find out what Kitamura’s plans were for that time. Although Taiga didn’t have the courage to invite Kitamura out herself, she wanted to have Ryuuji make plans to meet Kitamura, and then, under the pretense of a coincidence, run into them. She had concocted that pitiful plan.

But the blunt reply that came over the phone (while Taiga stood beside Ryuuji in a cold sweat) was: “Nope! Sorry! I wanted to hang out for a day, too, but between student council and stuff I have to do at home, my schedule is completely booked!” No matter how you looked at it, it was just bad timing. There wasn’t any room to blame Ryuuji.

“Even if you did see him, you’d just go all tongue-tied anyway.”

“…”

Taiga looked up. She didn’t make a sound, or change her expression, as she whispered using only the movement of her lips… 

Go. To. Hell.

“…Go to hell? What, are you going to push me in?”

“You heard that? You have good ears.” Taiga snorted with the coldest scorn, gazing at Ryuuji with an expression more devil than tiger.

In times like these, Ryuuji couldn’t help but think, despite himself: Why am I practically living with her—with someone like this, who belittles me and looks down on me…?

“Ah!”

His thoughts were interrupted by Taiga’s exclamation. 

“Ugghh! What are you doing, you klutz?!”

Still holding his head in one hand, Ryuuji quickly grabbed a tissue and got up to kneel like a proper manservant beside Taiga’s sofa chair. A drop of blueberry sauce had dripped out of her mouth and onto the lap of her dress. He needed to wipe it off before it stained the lace.

“Ugh, now I’ve done it… do you think it’ll stain?”

“No, we got it just in time. If we go home and deal with it right, it’ll probably be fine.”

He wet the tissue lightly in a cup of water and nervously gave the dress light pats while Taiga let loose pitiful whines. After all, the dress was easily at least twenty times the price of any outfit Ryuuji wore…and even if it wasn’t Ryuuji’s, he had to take care of it, or he would be blaspheming the money gods. Even if the two of them had been bickering a minute ago, that was irrelevant, now. Before he knew it, Ryuuji had lapsed back into their normal tempo—and that was all right. In the end, this was how it worked.

He and Taiga were always like this. While Ryuuji absentmindedly deployed his emergency stain removal techniques, his eyes grew distant.

Come to think of it, their common ground had originally been that they had crushes on each other’s best friends. When that came to light through chance and circumstance, they eventually formed a strange, united front…which pretty much mostly favored Taiga, but anyway, the point was that they’d formed a relationship because they were both at the end of their ropes.

Since Taiga lived by herself, she came to depend on Ryuuji’s natural love of chores and cleanliness and all things housekeeping-related. Ryuuji, instead of refusing that request, deftly synched their complex household environments, yielding the current arrangement.

Taiga, you klutz.

Ryuuji had found out about the other surprising side of the feared Palmtop Tiger—the part of her that was unfortunately vulnerable, the part that only Ryuuji knew about in the whole world. Because of that, Ryuuji couldn’t let Taiga out of his sight. She was the kind of person who would trip over herself three times in a day if she were left alone. When she was behind him, he couldn’t help but look over his shoulder and, when she used fire, he couldn’t help but want to intervene. If he didn’t prepare her meals for her, she had nothing to eat, and then she would crash. He felt like he had to chaperone her on a daily basis just in case she did anything reckless.

But, on top of that—he had accidentally witnessed the scene where her sensitive, once-in-a-lifetime confession of love had been exchanged. And unexpectedly, he’d also discovered that she was a crybaby.

Things had escalated until Ryuuji and Taiga reached a miraculous equilibrium. They settled into a strange relationship where they were having meals together, going to school together, and even shopping together, but weren’t dating. Such was the nature of their strange relationship.

At any rate, if Ryuuji had to admit it, there was another reason he stuck by her. Ryuuji was a Ryu—a dragon—and Taiga was a tiger, and a tiger and a dragon always came as a set.

“Ah!”

The second blueberry-colored droplet broke Ryuuji’s thoughts.

“…That was close. Out of all places, why would you spill it where I’m already wiping up? It fell on my finger though, so it’s fine.”

“Quit yapping. It wasn’t on purpose, and it’s not like I even asked you to wipe it up, anyway.”

“That’s some gratitude! Well in that case, do you know how to remove the stain? I think I know the answer! I’ll have you know I’m not doing this for you; I’m doing it for this dress.”

“Ohhhh, is that so? If you like it so much, then it’s all yours! Why don’t you try it on?”

Well…now the fight was getting worse, escalating.

But he couldn’t let expensive clothes get stained right before his eyes, not without doing something. Ryuuji’s gaze hardened into the stare of a criminal who’d done ten years’ hard time on three convictions (he might have been a little peeved). Heedless of other people’s stares, he once again became absorbed in dabbing at the dress. Then…

“Oh!”

At that involuntary noise from Taiga, Ryuuji raised his face reflexively. “What did you do this time?!”

“Nothing. …This is cute, I’m buying it. I’m definitely buying it.” Mumbling to herself, Taiga folded down the corner of one of the magazine’s pages.

“What are you going to waste money on now? How many times do you need to buy the same dress before you’re satisfied? They’re all the same frilly and fluffy style, too. So hit me—which one is it? How much does it cost?”

“Jeez, you’re so obnoxious! Do you think you’re my mom or something?!”

“You’re going to make me put it away anyway, so I’ve got the right to check it first.”

Ryuuji got up and promptly sat down next to the clamoring Taiga, so close that he was practically rubbing elbows with her. He glanced at the page she was looking at. The memory of furiously organizing the vast array of expensive outfits that had overflowed from Taiga’s closet was still vivid in his mind. He had a right to stop her from squandering money on frivolous shopping, once and for all. 

But then he saw something.

“…Th-this one? I…wonder about that…”

He unconsciously cocked his head to the side. I’m definitely buying it, Taiga had muttered at the model on the page, who was beautifully posed in slimming jeans that showed off her long legs. It wasn’t frilly or fluffy, but…

“This isn’t Chushingura, you know. You can’t go around letting your hakama drag on the ground in the Shogun’s castle halls.”

Taiga was barely one hundred and forty centimeters tall, after all. The length of her legs was easy to guess, but Taiga cut right into his thoughts.

“…What I want is this. This bag.”

With her nail, Taiga gouged at the small purse the model was holding.

“O-oh…that’s what you meant.”

“Sorry for having short legs.” Her monotone voice was strangely calm, yet rang with terrible, ominous tones. Ryuuji was taken aback and instinctively prepared to escape. Taiga’s savage eyes narrowed, and the corners of her mouth turned up in a silent laugh.

“Wait, see, calm down…this is where Kushieda works…and it’s the palace, my liege.”

“What was that?! Are you messing with me?! I can’t stand that kind of attitude! If you know you’ve put your foot in your mouth, then why don’t you start by apologizing?!”

Fierce wrinkles appeared on Taiga’s nose—his rookie attempt at humor was a swing and a miss. This is bad, I really made her mad. He certainly wanted to hurry up and get that apology over with, but…

“Guhhh…!”

“Anyway, yes, I have short legs! But that hasn’t ever caused anyone else trouble even once!”

Taiga had grabbed Ryuuji by the nape of the neck and was furiously shaking him back and forth. It wasn’t really so much that he couldn’t apologize as much as that he couldn’t breathe. He hit the table with his hand pitifully as he struggled. What he was trying so desperately to say was: “Tap out, tap out!”

Then Taiga’s hand unexpectedly slackened. Released, Ryuuji collapsed into the sofa, coughing.

“Y-you know…someday you’re gonna accidentally kill me! Like for real!”

“Wh-wh-wha…?” Taiga’s mouth popped half open as she blinked in childlike surprise. 

Thinking she’d finally understood just how violent she’d been, Ryuuji gave a sage nod. “Right, it’s a shock, yeah? Now that you’ve learned your lesson, don’t pretend to strangle anyone ever again.”

“What?! What are you going on about? That’s not it at all. Here! Look at this!” Taiga glared at Ryuuji in irritation, pointing to the magazine page she’d just been examining. “Look, look!”

“…You already said you wanted the bag.”

“Nooo, not the bag! This! This person!”

Above her cherry-blossom-pink fingernail lay the beauty with the long, smoothly crossed legs—or more specifically, the beauty’s smiling face. Complementing the cool black background, she wore a camisole that cost several tens of thousands of yen along with an even more expensive pair of jeans. Her loosely curled hair trailed in the wind. Of course, she was a very pretty model, but then she was a model, so of course she would be pretty. It all looked pretty typical to him.

The moment he tried to ask what about it, she grasped his head—“Owowowow!”—and twisted it nearly one hundred and eighty degrees in the opposite direction.

“…Oh!”

Without thinking, he made a sound of wonder nearly identical to Taiga’s own.

A few seats away from where Ryuuji and Taiga were sitting, a waitress led in a new customer.

Taiga and Ryuuji weren’t the only ones looking at her. The customers inside the busy restaurant turned around and whispered to each other. Pretty much all of them had turned their gazes to the newcomer.

The first thing that drew their eyes was her slim body, reminiscent of a slender fawn. She didn’t look that tall, but that was because her dainty head possessed the golden proportions of the perfect woman. Her hair was lustrous and silky, beautifully maintained all the way to the ends. But instead of falling straight, it had a wild feel to it, softly arrayed about her shoulders.

On her childlike, elfin face, she wore the huge sunglasses of a Hollywood celebrity, and she walked with the utmost poise. Thin-heeled sandals encircled her ankles, as well turned as any sculptor might have chiseled out of stone.

Even though she paired her slimming jeans with an incredibly plain knit top, the outfit made her exceptionally long limbs—unheard of for someone Japanese—shine brighter than any dress would have. The brand-name bag on her shoulder and her polished ivory skin spoke of a woman who was no amateur.

Long story short, she was stunning. No one could keep from turning to look at her—the woman was the center of their gravity.

When she casually pulled off her sunglasses, the entire restaurant was wrapped in strange excitement.

Ryuuji was no exception. “Whoooaaa,” he exclaimed, unintentionally concentrating his sharp, manic eyes on her.

Her own dewy eyes were subtly childlike. The features of her face seemed to radiate a light all their own.

Like a miracle, two giant eyes were set in her petite face. Her smooth cheeks were flushed a bewitching, cherry blossom pink. Her soft, relaxed face was elegant, delicate, and sweet; her refined figure was eye-catching on a whole other level.

Everything about her was charming and pure. She was kind and gentle and graceful. Undoubtedly, she was like an angel. She was an angel who had descended upon a restaurant like this and deigned to generously shine her resplendent aura down on the mere mortals who happened to dwell within. He felt he could almost see a ring of light above her head.

And those good looks…

“…It’s her…”

“…Yeah…”

It was undoubtedly the beauty Taiga had picked out on the page.

“It’s the model…”

Seeing a model for the first time in his life, Ryuuji sighed deeply. When he saw her in the magazine, her looks didn’t seem anything so special, so how could the real thing be this dazzling? Could someone so exquisitely refined as this actually exist?

“Her name’s ‘Kawashima Ami.’ She was on the cover a month before last, too.” Taiga, cheeks unusually flushed, spoke with slight elation.

“I see… wow. I just might be her newest fan… Kawashima Ami-san, huh…? What’s she doing in a boring suburb like this…?”

“Her mom’s the actress Kawashima Anna. I saw it in another magazine a while back.”

“Wow… I just saw her on TV last night.” Ryuuji launched into a TV announcer impression. “Somewhere on the charming Izu Peninsula! A murder case—a capybara onsen temptation—the debutante coroner, Yuudzuku Reiko! Don’t miss season four!” He stopped to think over it. “…So she’s Yuudzuku Rieko’s daughter… now that you mention it, I can see the resemblance. Only one thing to do—take a cellphone picture.”

“Hey, knock it off. You’ll make her mad.”

“R-right, maybe so. …Yeah, I’ll chill out. I got a little too excited.”

“You peasant.”

“Oh, come on. Like you weren’t excited, too?”

Close together on the same sofa seat, they both took several deep breaths.

“Not that excited, but…we did get to see something really great.”

“It’s our one and only memorable thing from over break.”

He nodded in agreement, and they both grabbed their cups at the same time. Then it happened—at the very moment they both took a sip. Ryuuji with his coffee, and Taiga with her mineral tea.

“Yuuusakuuu! Auntie, uncle, our seats are over here~!”

“Right!”

“Ptooie!” 

“Ptooie!” 

It was a furious, simultaneous spit take.

The two of them suffered terribly as they coughed in unison. And it was only natural. The beautiful model who had appeared before their eyes was affectionately calling over a familiar jerk.

“Wh-wh-wh…why?”

“K-K-Kita—Kitamura-kun?! No, no, why?! How is this happening?!”

Completely shaken, Ryuuji began furiously wiping the table with a napkin. Taiga was busy flailing around like a beached octopus and got her arm tangled with Ryuuji’s. Of course it would be then that they were noticed.

“Huh? If it isn’t Takasu and Aisaka. What a coincidence! What are you doing all tangled up? You two are as close as always!”

Kitamura Yuusaku had sauntered into the restaurant as if everything were totally normal. He waved his hand as he walked over. Such was Ryuuji’s turmoil that his knife-like eyes honed themselves to sharper and sharper points. Taiga was being washed away by a full-on wave of emotion, so intense that she couldn’t even speak. But Kitamura didn’t mind.

“Apparently Kushieda works here part-time, too. Did you see her?”

Relentlessly cheerful, he continued to walk towards them.

“No, we saw Kushieda, but—never mind that!” With an expression grim enough to rival the monks of Mount Hiei, Ryuuji intensely pressed his carefree friend. “You—that—just what’s going on here?! Why is—”

“Huh? Oh, right. This is good timing, I’ll introduce you. These are my parents. Ryuuji, you met my mom at our parent-teacher conferences, right?”

“How are you, Takasu-kun, is your mom doing well?” Kitamura’s parents bowed their heads, but he had to excuse himself.

“No, not them! That’s not it at all!” He couldn’t stop shaking his head. “The other thing. That… that… over there! That!”

Ryuuji’s emotional lexicon was kind of on the small side. He was left twisting to the left and right, literally flailing for a way to convey his distress to his best friend.

“What’s wrong, Yuusaku?”

“Right, I was just about to introduce you.”

It was a catastrophe.

The source of the disturbance was approaching Ryuuji and Taiga on her own two feet, right before their eyes. Glittering particles of light seemed to surround her body as her sweet fragrance softly drifted towards them.

“This is Kawashima Ami. It may not seem like it, but we’re the same age, and she used to live around here. In fact, she used to be my neighbor before she moved. I guess you could call her a childhood friend.”

“What do you mean, ‘it may not seem like it?’” Even when smiling, she puffed up her cheeks as though she were pouting. Like she was just a regular girl, making fun of Kitamura with a glare. 

There she was, in front of Ryuuji’s eyes. She was real. In the flesh. In all three dimensions. 

Just what kind of miracle was this…?

But Kitamura wore a completely indifferent expression. “It’s just a figure of speech. Anyway, this is my good buddy Takasu Ryuuji, and this is Aisaka Taiga.”

He’d introduced the oddball boy-girl duo sitting side by side on the sofa to the angel. 

The angel, Kawashima Ami, smiled cutely. “Nice to meet you! I’m Ami!”

She suddenly extended both her defenseless hands.

Ryuuji stared at those two beautiful hands… or rather, he was paralyzed by fascination, like a robot that couldn’t even comprehend the gesture.

“C’mon, let’s shake hands. If you’re a friend of Yuusaku’s, you’re a friend of mine.”

His hands just might melt, first. Syrupy sweat beaded on either palm.

“…Uh, uh, uhhh…”

Kawashima Ami gently scooped Ryuuji’s hand up from where it was resting on the table and wrapped it in both her own. They were cool and cold, and the touch of her rings to his skin was even colder.

“Oh, is that—it couldn’t be.”

Ryuuji was spaced out when Ami dropped his hand. Instead, she pointed her pretty finger at Taiga’s magazine, which was still spread out on the table.

“Kyaaaa!”

What a lovely screech. 

Ami grabbed the magazine, flustered. She pulled her shoulders in, holding the magazine tightly to her chest. She seemed…embarrassed? She lowered her elfin face, still clutching the magazine to cover it. She looked up with just her eyes, batting her lashes such that her pupils glittered. “No way…! What a coincidence…! What are the odds of that? Maybe… oh no, you definitely know, don’t you? That I… if you saw me in here, then, that is to say…you know…that I’m doing this kind of work…!”

It seemed that there was real embarrassment wavering in that sparkle—it pierced through for several seconds. What are you saying? Ryuuji thought, half-stunned.

With those looks, no one needed to see a magazine to think Ami was a model or a star, anyway. It only took a glance. But what he couldn’t understand was how Ami thought she wouldn’t be found out. Maybe Ami didn’t realize just how extraordinary she looked?

He condensed those thoughts and somehow squeezed out a reply. “No… just looking at you, you look like…a model…”

They were incredibly blunt words, for Ryuuji. That was his limit. But…

“Huuuh? That’s not truuue!” Ami’s voice rose high, her eyes open wide. She tilted her head in doubt, her skepticism undoubtedly springing from the bottom of her heart. “That’s not true at all! I don’t even have makeup on, and this outfit’s just a bunch of stuff I randomly threw together. What on Earth about my look says ‘model’?”

Which meant she really had no idea—this angel. Maybe this was innocence, or purity.

“See, my hair’s all messed up, and I haven’t done anything to it since I woke up and like, really, I didn’t even comb it! I was like, this is fiiine, and then I went out, right? I wonder why you… it’s so weird… I don’t understand…”

As he watched the worry on her face, Ryuuji somehow understood. People who are born naturally beautiful are oblivious to how rare their beauty is. That’s definitely what’s going on here. But because of that, they might be able to stay pure. And then that purity makes her even more beautiful. Then, while he was absentmindedly thinking all that…

“Ah!”

Ami’s fingertip suddenly thrust at the tip of Ryuuji’s nose.

“You just thought I was ‘oblivious,’ right?”

“Huh?”

Shaken up, Ryuuji froze. Right in front of him, Ami puffed up one cheek and glared at him with mischief in her eyes. He really had thought she was oblivious, but the connotation was a little different… or no, maybe it was right—at least, in this case.

“Well, I know, okay? You did think that, right?”

Somewhere in the depths of Ami’s eyes he could feel the presence of a hidden smile, and he automatically gave in to her by nodding.

“I knew it!”

Aaaahh. Ami sighed sweetly in lamentation, and peevishly pouted her lips. “Well, people always say that to me. Ami is reeeaaally oblivious, they say. I wonder why? I’m not oblivious at all, but everyone says I am. …Yuusaku probably thinks so, too. Because he looks really bored.”

“That’s not true.” Kitamura waved away the subject before giving a faintly bitter smile, and shrugged. Then, as though he had been waiting for an opportune moment, he started lightly pressing on Ami’s back. “Come on. Let’s head back to our seats. Our parents can’t order without us.”

“Oh, right! Oops, we made them all wait, didn’t we?”

Sorry! They raised their hands to Ryuuji and Taiga.

“You’ll be here a while, right? Our parents said they’d go home right after eating, so we’ll come talk to you once dinner’s over.”

“Oh, sure.”

“See you later!”

Waving her hand and turning on her heel, Ami carried herself so beautifully—what a turbulent affair. And it seemed the turbulence was far from over.

While watching Ami and his close friend depart, Ryuuji slunk back into the sofa chair, as though exhausted. He carefully watched the two until they reached their seats.

“Ahhh…”

Enraptured, he sighed. Several times.

She was that beautiful. And not only that, her mom was a famous actress. But even then, she wasn’t arrogant at all. She was eternally pure. It didn’t even cross her mind that she was beautiful. She was a little bit of an airhead, but wasn’t that part of her charm? To think there was a girl like that in this world… she was like some kind of superhero, the perfect woman.

She was completely different from a certain similarly beautiful, but strangely quarrelsome and woefully twisted Palmtop Tiger. Even trying to compare them was a fool’s endeavor.

“…Hey, even though Kawashima Ami’s famous, she seems really sweet. She’s pretty, but she’s got a nice personality, too. Maybe you could learn a thing or two. To think Kitamura would have a childhood friend like that… Right, Tai…”

“…”

“Tai…ga…?”

He gulped audibly, fidgeting in his seat. Casually, oh so casually, he tried to move back to the opposite side of the table.

He’d been careless. He hadn’t noticed the soundlessly grumbling tiger beside him. Now that he thought about it, her whole presence had been strangely muted—but in actuality, the ornery predator had merely concealed herself in the brush, the better to stalk her prey.

Like a beast with one paw out of the thicket, Taiga’s body seemed to emanate an aura of turbulent bloodlust. Her small, beautiful features had become an eerie Noh theater mask. It seemed even now that her contorted lips might part, revealing the fangs of a beast ready to rend flesh from bone. The piercing, ferocious light in her large eyes was half-hidden by thin eyelids as she watched Ami’s departing back. She settled her small frame back against the cushions but arrogantly jutted out her chin.

Taiga was in a terrible mood.

Even if he ignored the more obvious differences between her and the passing angel, Ryuuji couldn’t resist making a comment. “You… how do I say this… are you sure the attitude’s a good idea? You don’t need to look so ticked off just because Kitamura’s got a beautiful childhood friend. Weren’t you just all charged up and happy a moment ago?”

“You’ve got the wrong idea.” Her voice rang ominously, low and quiet, like the rumble of a tiger licking her chops. “It’s not something as stupid as that. It’s not…”

But Taiga paused, and pushed her hair up. She snorted, and the tension in the tiger seemed to loosen.

“…Whatever. It’s fine.” Her bright, sharp eyes seemed to melt into a cruel smile as she turned them on Ryuuji. “Isn’t it stupid to humor her? Did you see it, just now? Even you should have been able to notice, and you’re dumber than a box of rocks.”

“…Did I notice what, now?”

“I’m good at sniffing these things out. I guess I can at least give you a hint—how many people have you met before who could honestly say that everyone calls them oblivious?”

“…Did she say something like that?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.” Taiga huffed, spitefully twisting her rosebud lips as she looked away from Ami. 

She’s in a bad mood, but chances are good that she won’t ask to go home if there’s any opportunity she could talk to Kitamura, Ryuuji thought.

Taiga continued to read the magazine with an unreadable, stone-faced expression. Ryuuji flipped through pages of the bento recipe book that came bundled with it, unable to put himself at ease. Half an hour must have passed.

“Yo. Our parents went home.” Dressed in his regrettably shabby Uniqlo outfit, Kitamura accompanied the beautiful model to their seat. She seemed to radiate inner light. When Ami crossed the restaurant, her charm drew all the customers’ gazes without exception.

“Sorry for keeping you waiting!” One step behind Kitamura, Ami wore a beatific smile as she waved at Ryuuji. Without realizing it, he was lured into waving back.

“Aren’t you cheerful… like a dog wagging its tail…”

At Taiga’s cold words, he felt a strange embarrassment, and lowered his hand.

As expected, he couldn’t get out the words to say, “Kawashima-san should sit by me. Kitamura should sit by Taiga.” So it was only natural that the boys sat on one side and the girls on the other.

Settled in next to Ryuuji, Kitamura opened the menu and questioned the girl across from him. “Ami, you’re still okay on time, right? Do you want to order something?”

“No, thanks. We just ate! I’m stuffed. …What about you two?”

At the sudden change of topic, Ryuuji’s shoulders jumped with a start. Taiga, unable even to look at Kitamura in his everyday clothes, was looking down at her own knees, frozen.

“Uhhhh, what… wh-what should we do? Taiga?”

Taiga swung her head side to side, still looking down.

End of conversation. Well, what should we do next? What should we talk about next?

With eyes full of hope, Ryuuji waited for Kitamura, the one person he knew best out of all of them, to continue to speak. This is probably the last opportunity in my life to share a table with a model. Please push the conversation somewhere fun—make this a moment to remember, he prayed.

But then…

“Ahhh, I’m pretty tired after so much time with relatives. Excuse me, I’m going to take a quick bathroom break.” Kitamura was, as usual, the only relaxed one among them. He stood from his seat, oblivious of the atmosphere he would leave behind.

“Uh, wai…”

Flustered, Ryuuji stretched his arm after Kitamura, but he couldn’t just say it. You’re not actually going, are you?

He looked at Taiga. She had turned to stone, still looking down.

He looked at Ami. She smiled happily, a question mark practically visible in the air above her. She tilted her head in puzzlement at Ryuuji—who was, after all, acting pretty suspicious.

It was impossible. No matter how hard he tried, he just wasn’t capable of keeping things together. Ryuuji pretended to casually scratch his head. “Oh, I kind of think I have to go, too. Uh, where was the restroom again…?”

Though he was late, he followed after Kitamura, accompanying him in formation. Onward to urination!

Of course, he did wonder. Was it really okay leaving Taiga with that girl when she was in so bad a mood…? Shamefully, his nerves won out. He was bad at talking to begin with, and Ami was a girl, and a mega-gorgeous model, at that. In times like these, he couldn’t depend on Taiga. Ryuuji didn’t have a shred of confidence that he could rally things without Kitamura.

Ryuuji couldn’t even look back at his abandoned seat. He followed after Kitamura, who was heading towards the men’s room in an awful hurry. This was about as pitiful as it got, but he couldn’t help it. He’d take the opportunity to pee to his heart’s content.

But Kitamura took him by surprise by turning around just before they reached the restroom door.

“Good. You came.”

“Wait, what?”

“Just as planned. I was sure if I got out of my seat, you’d follow along in short order,” he murmured, pushing up his silver-rimmed glasses. 

Ryuuji, his sharp eyes glinting, wondered just what was going on. Kitamura beckoned him over to hide in the shadow of the cigarette vending machine. “There’s something I want to ask you. I want you to answer honestly.” His apricot-shaped eyes bored straight into Ryuuji. Then, unblinking, he came straight out with it. “Takasu, what did you think of Ami?”

Then he waited.

“…So you don’t have to pee?”

“Nope.”

He looked dead serious. It seemed Kitamura really had come here just to talk to Ryuuji. Even though he didn’t understand the reason for the question, it seemed like he had to answer. It wasn’t like he had any good reason not to.

“…I didn’t think anything in particular…and you shouldn’t just suddenly bring over a cute girl like her without giving me any warning! I got so nervous I didn’t know what to do.”

“Well, she is cute. I’ll admit that.”

“No, she’s not just cute, though. She’s a really good girl. How do I put this… she’s, like, pure… like so pure she needs someone to protect her…”

“…Yeaaah.” In a moment of uncharacteristic behavior, Kitamura scowled, pushed his glasses up to his forehead, and rubbed his eyes, as though dreadfully tired. Abruptly, he pushed against Ryuuji’s back.

“Whoa, wait a second. Wait a—where are we going? What about the restroom? Aren’t you going back to your seat?”

“Well… for now, crouch down.”

The safety of the bathrooms got further and further away. They headed back towards the seating area. Then, stooping and hiding behind decorative plants, they concealed themselves behind the barrier that divided the smoking and non-smoking sections. Though he still had no clue why they were doing this, Ryuuji couldn’t do anything but hide. They had gone the long way around so that they were right behind the seats where they left Taiga and Ami. They could see the two perfectly clearly, but from where the girls sat, this was a blind spot. 

“…This kinda feels like stalking. What are we doing?”

“Trust me. Pipe down and watch.”

***

Over where Kitamura pointed, Ami was slowly crossing her legs. She threw an arm across the back of the booth.

“Gahh, it’s so hot in here. Hey, hey, I’m thirsty, you wanna run along and get Ami-chan an iced tea?”

Brushing her fine hair, plainly irritated even at a glance, Ami kept her chin propped on her hand—and brazenly shoved her glass over toward Taiga.

“…”

Taiga took a quick glance at it, then without changing her expression, returned her eyes to her knees. The one who lightly clicked her tongue wasn’t Taiga, but Ami.

“Are you for real? You’re useless. Or maybe just sad… Don’t you think it’s bad manners, ignoring me like that? Not that it matters. I’ll have Yuusaku get it for me when he comes back, anyway. Or maybe I’ll ask that weird guy with the creepo eyes pretty please. I bet he’s up to doing just about anything, if it’s Ami-chan who asks him.” She spoke in a sickly-sweet voice, strawberry-colored lips slightly contorted. But her veneer of pure beauty didn’t so much as crack. And then, recklessly, not even bothering to glance at Taiga, Ami asked, “Hey, hey. Is he, like, your boyfriend?”

“…”

Taiga remained silent as a doll.

“Mind if I steal him from you? Not that I actually want to keep him or anything.”

“…”

“And what’s up with those eyes? Is he like a delinquent or something? How’d you end up hanging out with a loser like that? Y’know, I kind of respect your total lack of shame.”

“…”

With her mouth still closed, Taiga turned her clear eyes on Ami.

“Well, y’knooow. In a place like this, with nothing to do, I guess beggars can’t be choosers. Ah, this town. It’s. The. Worst.”

After letting out that little singsong conclusion, Ami didn’t even seem to be waiting for Taiga’s reply. She brusquely pulled her brand-name bag towards herself, took out a huge hand mirror, and started gazing upon her own beauty. Then she combed her fingers through her hair several times, rearranging it, before carefully applying a transparent gloss. She posed to the front. She posed to the side. She faced the mirror again. “I’m so cute,” she muttered happily, suddenly grinning in satisfaction. “Ahhh, I feel like doing something fun all of a sudden… what do you usually do with that guy? Go out joyriding?”

“…He’s not my boyfriend.” Anyone who knew Taiga would be shaking at the sound of her flat, emotionless murmur.

“Ohhh? Is that sooo? Not like I care, but…I guess that these days, even delinquents have standards. Kind of hard to believe, but if you’re asking me? Dating somebody so different, so below me, just wouldn’t work out.”

Still looking into the mirror, Ami snorted in apparent scorn. Then, suddenly, she took her eyes off the mirror and turned a condescending eye on Taiga. 

“Hey, how tall are you, anyway? I just noticed, but you’re kinda freakishly small.”

“…”

She leered at Taiga, slowly peering from head to toe—and then, as though astonished, raised her eyebrows. “Honestly, I’m amazed you can find a store that sells anything your size. But, like, really—when you buy jeans, how far up do you have to hem them? Must be a pain. I’ve never had to do mine.”

***

“…And that is her true nature.”

“That girl is evil!”

“You said it. That’s Ami’s real personality. She’s been like that since before she started kindergarten. She’s spoiled. Stubborn. Tyrannical. The quintessential example of a spoiled princess.”

Ryuuji trembled as he looked at his friend’s face. He was on the verge of crushing the leaf of the decorative plant he was holding. “Wh-what kind of terrible personality is that…? Where does she get off calling herself ‘Ami-chan?!’ God, she scares me! Was she possessed by the devil? Because that’s the only explanation I can think of!”

“…You said it.”

Up until now, he hadn’t ever seen a girl talk like that in his life. …Well, someone in his class might have, but Ryuuji barely approached girls as a rule, so he probably never noticed. The one and only girl Ryuuji spent his days with was Taiga (who of course was her own flavor of terrible), but he had a feeling Taiga’s personality and Ami’s charted widely different trajectories. It might’ve had something to do with the accidental way he found out about how brave Taiga really was, or how she was pretty much an underdog, but he felt like he’d pick Taiga’s personality over Ami’s every time.

“It’d be great if Ami’s outer persona were the real thing, but for some reason or another… there are underlying problems with her personality. When she doesn’t care about the person she’s with, her real self comes out. And the people she doesn’t care about are usually girls.”

“…D-does that mean that models really do need to be that nasty to make it professionally…?”

“I don’t think it was quite like that. It’s more like she created a mask when she started modeling. Personally, I’d rather she just dropped the facade and acted like her real self all the time.”

“Well, her real self being what it is… I have to wonder if that’s a good idea.”

Kitamura slowly, slowly tilted his head at his friend’s words, but Ryuuji suddenly leaned forward. What’s wrong, Palmtop Tiger? “Is Taiga really okay letting her walk all over her like that?” At least hurry up and tell her I’m not some delinquent thug… He bit his lip, both his eyes glinting brutally. Ryuuji stared at the two beautiful girls. 

Taiga, still silent, wore a calm expression.

“Don’t tell me she’s holding back because she’s your childhood friend!”

“Holding back” were words that normally wouldn’t have a place in Aisaka Taiga’s vocabulary, but she had a definite weakness for Kitamura. That must be it. He couldn’t think of another reason for Taiga’s silence.

And that was the moment when it happened.

How did it come to this?

A scene exploded into Ryuuji’s vision. There was only one word for it.

SLAP!

“…Wha?!”

Ami clutched her cheek, eyes open wide. She couldn’t get out a word.

“A mosquito. There was a mosquito on your cheek.”

Beside Ami prowled the tiger, fangs momentarily bared in a thin smile. For just a moment, her red tongue flashed across her lips. 

“You’re lucky, really. Imagine trying to sell that precious face of yours after it got devoured by mosquitos.” Taiga paused. “Oh. My bad. It was just a fly.”

“Erk…!”

She opened one wee hand to display the corpse of the fruit fly she’d just ruthlessly executed. 

When she saw it, Ami’s face turned scarlet before their eyes. “Wh-wh-what have you done?!”

Naturally, she was in a rage. But then Taiga scoffed at Ami with a snort of her nose. “Hey, I did it out of the goodness of my heart. You ought to have a better sense of gratitude.”

“Gratitude?!”

Ami’s screech approached the ultrasonic. The surrounding customers began to notice the commotion.

“GRATITUDE, MY ASS! What’s wrong with you?! I can’t believe this! Where do you get the nerve?! This is the worst—the worst! The! Absolute! Worst! This is why I didn’t want to slum it in a joint like this!”

“…You sure are loud.”

A single wrinkle carved a line across Taiga’s forehead. Her glittering eyes narrowed eerily. Her blood-tinged aura grew. Tsk. Even the click of her tongue was a bullet loaded with malice. And then—

“Shut up, you spoiled brat.” Taiga threw out her words with sharp, high-handed contempt.

Ami’s voice finally petered out. She’d met her match.

“…Awha…uhh…uh…wha?”

Ami’s thin shoulders started shuddering. Her breathing grew ragged. Her cute face suddenly contorted. 

“Ah, this isn’t good,” Kitamura muttered, already on his feet. Ryuuji dashed along with him, back towards a very awkward table.

It got worse when they arrived.

“Yu…”

It was like a shoujo manga. Flowers in full bloom blossomed behind Ami as she turned around—or that’s what it seemed like. And Ami carried herself to match. So pretty, so dramatic…

“Yuusakuuuuuuuu! Waaahhh!”

She jumped straight at Kitamura’s chest, tears in freefall.

Her delicate shoulders shuddered as she sobbed, the sound of her voice never quite forming words, until finally she whispered… “I wanna go home now.” She lisped out her complaint like a child. She looked up at Kitamura from up close, eyes wet with huge teardrops.

“Siiiigh… Why can’t you just get along? Really…sorry that she’s making such a commotion, Aisaka. Takasu, you too. I’m going to take her home.”

Kitamura lowered his head and his eyebrows alike. Every inch of his body expressed profound apology. Then, still holding onto Ami, he skillfully retrieved her bag from the seat, turned towards the gawking restaurant crowd, and pulled Ami along to the exit.

The one who was left behind was…

“Ta…Taiga…?”

“…”

“…Hey, keep it together!”

The phrase won the battle but lost the war was written all over Taiga’s face.

Taiga pouted faintly, but her eyes slowly grew calm. She looked like a statue of the Buddha. Empty… silent. This development called for consolation, but Ryuuji illustrated another classic phrase—at a loss for words.

“Well, um…right. Yup. Uh. Cheer up.”

“…”

“Let me put it simply. Kitamura and I saw everything. Kitamura doesn’t think one bit that you teased Kawashima Ami at all.”

“…So what you’re really telling me is—after seeing everything, Kitamura chose to protect that girl and agreed to take her back home.”

“…He didn’t protect her.”

“…He gently held her, softly consoled her…”

“…I don’t think he was holding her, but…whoa!”

The waitress shrieked at the same time they heard the sound of breaking glass. The plate she was clearing had shattered to pieces on the floor. And that wasn’t the end of it. Probably feeling that something was off, a kid who’d been puttering around nearby suddenly burst out crying. Waaaahhh! 

Ker-splash! The milk steamer at the drink bar suddenly broke and belched out smoke. 

“Kyaa!” “Eyaagh!” The customers standing in line scattered away from the roiling milk steam. 

“Manager! The toilet is clogged…gahhh!” The sound of an employee who didn’t want to know what had happened rung out and immediately trailed off.

“…I HATE that girl!” Murderous anger exuded from Taiga’s whole body, spewing thundering blue sparks. And she went right on emitting them, the force terrible to behold. 

It was all out of Ryuuji’s control now. 

Taiga’s lips were pressed tight together, mostly devoid of color; her clenched fists were shaking, and then…

“Hey! Don’t cry!”

“…Tsk.”

If Kitamura had been there, it would have been a totally different story. But now, transparent tears had begun to well up in Taiga’s eyes.

“People are looking. Pull yourself together!”

“Uhhhnngh…” Groaning in frustration, Taiga rubbed her eyes with the sleeve of her clothes. It was a disaster. 

Right when Ryuuji felt like holding his head in his hands, a piece of good news came to his ears. 

“Huh? What happened?”

“Minorin…!”

Back from wherever she’d been before, the waitress Minorin was on the scene. Her eyes went wide as saucers. “Taiga, you’re looking pretty unhappy. Did something happen?”

“…No, nothing… I’m going to wash my hands. Because I touched something dirty.”

“Wooow, you smooshed a fly.”

Taiga showed the palm of her hand as she stood up, and Minori gave way to Taiga’s path. After that, Minori watched Taiga’s back for a while, then slowly turned back to face Ryuuji.

“That other girl, what happened to her? Did something happen while I was on break?”

“…No…or, well, actually, there was some trouble.”

It wasn’t just because of his nervousness that he hesitated. He simply didn’t know how to explain what had happened. But why, out of all the times this could have happened, did it happen when Minori went on break? 

Minori, whose easygoing nature approached the divine, hummed in consideration. “I don’t know what happened, but she’s pretty mad. …It’s rare for Taiga to be so docile.”

“You call that docile?!”

Now why was it?

Why did Ryuuji feel more terror in that one moment than he had in the entire day combined?

***

All the same, they finished shopping and returned to the Takasu residence. By the time Ryuuji was starting to make the rice, Taiga’s good mood had returned. 

“We probably won’t ever see each other again anyway. And it didn’t seem like Kitamura was dating her. More than anything else, I can’t stand humoring someone like that.”

“Two cups is good, right? Should I make two and a half cups of rice?”

“Two and a half’s fine.” Her face was still puffy, but as she fiddled with the jar of sugar in the corner of the kitchen, Taiga said, “I’m gonna be the adult here. I’ll hold back my hate.”

“Is that something the person who went and slapped her can say? …Hey, I told you not to play with the sugar.”

“…”

“Don’t lick the spoon, either!”