Toradora! - Volume 2 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5

“…Huh!”

Ryuuji shuddered and unintentionally threw his head back.

He had gone to school with Taiga, keeping a subtle amount of distance between them as usual. Once they arrived in the classroom and took their seats, Ami approached him. “Thank you for yesterday.” But in the light of that glittering, early summer morning, her face seemed haggard and tired—strangely hollow.

“…Wh-what’s wrong?”

“Nothing…it’s just…” Her voice was also a bit hoarse. Her appearance was completely different from the day before.

“How do I say this… you look…tired.”

“I look that bad, huh…?” Haah… Face plain and pale, she gave a pitiable sigh. Ami pulled up a nearby chair and propped her head on her elbow as she sat at his desk. Melancholy wrinkles appeared on her brow.

“I guess I’m just still exhausted from yesterday…”

And then she planted her face down on the desk. Maybe from shampoo or soap, or maybe even because she was wearing perfume, a sweet smell gently drifted from her. 

Ryuuji felt slightly uneasy. Both his eyes gleamed like a beast’s. But he feigned composure, and spoke chivalrously. “Well, you were in a pretty scary situation yesterday. If you’re a little exhausted, that’s just to be expected.”

“It’s not what you think.” Ami suddenly raised her pale face and looked straight at Ryuuji with her glassy, shining eyes. “At Aisaka Taiga’s condo… for about five hours… no, six hours…”

“D-did Taiga do something to you?!”

“She had me dance. And sing.”

Dance? …Sing?

That was definitely not what Ryuuji expected. He tilted his head to one side, baffled. 

Ami breathed out. Phewww… Her gaze became distant, filled with ennui.

“She threatened to throw me out if I didn’t do what she said…and she made me do…a thing…all night long…”

“Wh-what did she make you do?”

“An imitation medley. One hundred fifty impressions, all in succession. She made me redo them until I got them perfect…Uganda…Falcon…I want to die…” Ami groaned, muttering, and put her face back down on Ryuuji’s desk. 

From a distance Haruta and Noto were whispering. “Noto-chi! Looks like that guy’s joined the bourgeoisie!” “We better make him rethink trying to associate with us.” 

Ryuuji noticed them glaring with envy, but didn’t engage with them.

“…She was merciless…!”

He recalled the smile Taiga wore when she’d invited Ami to her condo—the one he’d assumed was kind. Then he remembered her mood afterwards, when she was munching on the meunière salmon—like a well-fed bear about to go into hibernation. His heart froze.

When he looked over at Taiga and Minori, he saw that she was laughing loudly even now. She was totally in a good mood. Once he got that far, Ryuuji finally had a clear picture. When Taiga was in a good mood, no matter what, someone else would be suffering in her shadow—just like Ami was now, across from him.

What a terrifying person. Ryuuji looked at Taiga’s pleasant profile once again, and then…

“Can I have a second?”

Kitamura broke right into Taiga and Minori’s conversation. Ryuuji couldn’t hear the contents of the conversation well enough to know just what business Kitamura had with them, but there was no mistaking the sudden rise in Taiga’s mood. 

He looked at Taiga, who, unable to look at Kitamura, was looking at Minori…

“Matsumoto Seichou… Akechi Mitsuhide…” 

Ryuuji looked back at Ami, who seemed to be recounting her extended imitation repertoire. An old writer and a guy from ancient history? How the heck did she do musical impressions of those guys?

They’re both like creatures from heaven and hell.

Actually, it was even more complicated than that.

***

Soon enough, Ryuuji realized his mistake.

“Nuhhhhh!”

During afternoon break, Ryuuji had cheerfully taken his bento out of his bag. Now he cut across the classroom to get the chopsticks he’d left in his locker (which, of course, he had to wash every day). But then…

“What are you doing?! Guhhh!”

“…”

He suddenly found himself the victim of a murder.

The culprit was the sullenly silent Taiga. The murder weapon was an ice-cold can of recently purchased oolong tea. As he passed by, she’d forced it against the sensitive nape of his neck. Ryuuji stood on tiptoe and writhed. 

“That’s you, right?! If there’s something you want to say just… gah! I just said to stop tha—bwah!”

No matter how much he ran, Taiga persistently and forcefully pushed the cold oolong tea at him. Even now, his squinting eyes made him look about ready to snap. He gritted his back teeth, shifted his jaw, and ferocious wrinkles formed on his nose.

Taiga said, “My heart feels like it’s about to split wide open…!”

“Wh-what?!”

“I’ve got it tough!”

“Arrgh! Stop! I’m the one who’s got it tough!”

Finally, he stole the can from her small hand and hoisted it up high enough that Taiga couldn’t reach it. Like a tiger in a zoo that was going stir-crazy in captivity, Taiga paced around Ryuuji.

“I hate it, I hate it…! Why…?!” she continued grumbling to herself.

“What is it, what happened?”

“…Nngh, I hate it, but, but but…”

“Hey!”

“Nyahh!”

Reflexively, he pressed the cold can that was in his hand against Taiga’s nose. Taiga held her face and leaped back.

“What are you doing?!” She stood on her tiptoes, reached out her arm, and pinched Ryuuji’s cheek. 

“Owwwwww!”

“Ugh…the grease on your face got on my hand!” Taiga seemed to come back to herself.

“And your claw marks got on my face! Now, hurry up and say whatever’s on your mind, already. What are you so unhappy about?!”

“It’s…”

Nng. Taiga contorted her face in frustration, bit her lip, and took a breath. Finally, speaking softly and rapidly, she confessed what had made her so dissatisfied as to try and murder Ryuuji. “This morning, Kitamura-kun told me…to try and get along with Kawashima Ami. That I should invite her to lunch…”

“Wh…” Ryuuji faltered, blinking once. “Why…?”

“That’s what I want to know!”

Now he understood the feelings motivating all of Taiga’s shouting. No matter what, that invitation wasn’t happening.

Kitamura had seen both their first fight at the family restaurant and the attack she’d pulled off with Minori. So why would he ask for something like that…? It couldn’t be that Kitamura saw any chance of Taiga and Ami getting along. If that were the case, he needed to get his glasses fixed, stat.

“That’s… yeah… something nobody would be happy about.” Ryuuji let out a low groan and locked eyes with Taiga. She had the world’s most pitiful look on her face.

He did think he saw Kitamura talking to Taiga about something that morning, but he couldn’t have guessed it was this.

According to Taiga, this was apparently what he’d said:

“I know that Ami has a terrible personality, too. But no matter how much time passes, if she only ever puts on an act, she’ll never make any real friends, right? So, Aisaka, because you know her true personality, I want you and your best friend Kushieda to take care of Ami. Please, Aisaka. To me, you’re one of the few female friends I have who I can ask a favor from.”

So sayeth Kitamura.

“Aaaahh!”

After performing her rendition of Kitamura’s words, Taiga’s small frame bent and writhed. It looked like there was no way for her to avoid feeling very conflicted.

“I want to say no…but I can’t… This is no laughing matter… Kitamura-kun asked me… and why is he always worrying about that brat, anyway…?! Uhhhhgh, nnnnggghh, hrrnnnngg…”

Groaning, Taiga held her head and ended up crouched at Ryuuji’s feet. Flustered, Ryuuji stooped closer to her.

“Hey, calm down. You’ll give yourself an aneurysm or something.”

“B-but…! Wait, but… he said we were friends…! We really were just friends after all! I’m one of the few female friends he can count on… huh, or maybe that’s a good thing? …No! It’s definitely not a good thing! But he counts on me… am I happy? …No, I’m not!”

Ryuuji thoughtlessly breathed in her conflict. He rarely saw anyone this troubled. He didn’t have anything to say; he just watched her for a while.

“Ahhh, but… but, but, but!”

Taiga shut her eyes and latched onto Ryuuji’s sleeve. Her fingers tightly gripped him, and she opened her mouth and gasped, breathing in and out. Finally, she gave one big nod, and said “Uh-huh!” 

It seemed she had finally made a decision.

“I’ll endure the unendurable… I’ll suffer the insufferable!”

“…Uh, quoting the Emperor might be a little much…but I think I get you.”

As Ryuuji nodded, Taiga stood up right in front of his eyes. With a singular goal in mind, she briskly walked ahead with long strides. 

“Come on. Time to eat.”

Taiga stood in front of Kawashima Ami, who looked up at her with her mouth halfway open.

Ami held her bento box at her seat and had just been about to stand up. A little ways away, Maya and Nanako were waiting for her. “Ami-chaaan! Let’s hurry up and go to the roof!”

“…Huh?” Ami blinked several times, dumbfounded—until finally it seemed she had gotten back in her own rhythm. The smile she gave Taiga was so pure it was downright spiteful. “What are you trying to say? I have plans with Maya-chan and Nanako-chan.”

“Shut up.” 

“…Wha…?!”

Taiga curbed Ami’s protest with a shout. Like an animal, she growled at the Maya-Nanako duo.

“Oh, I see. Well, if it’s Aisaka who wants to eat with you, I guess we can’t do anything about it. Shall we go, Nanako?”

“Yup, it’s out of our hands. Well, Ami-chan, we’ll see you next time.”

Without pondering things too deeply, not even seeming afraid of the tiger’s growl, the pair simply nodded and waved at Ami, like there was only one inevitable outcome. The creature called the Palmtop Tiger was quite possibly a being well understood by the other girls.

But of course, Ami wasn’t going to just take it lying down.

“What are you thinking? What did you mean, ‘come on?’”

“That you’re going to come eat lunch with me.”

“Huh?! That’s a bad joke! Why would I do that with you?! …Hmph, fine. Even if those two are gone, I have plenty of other friends—”

“Michael Jackson as a tour guide,” Taiga unexpectedly muttered. You might think she was muttering to herself, but then Ami went…

“Eek!”

“Mona Lisa taking a corner at two hundred kilometers per hour… J-rock star Tsunku ♂ desperately trying and failing to sing western music… All these spectacles and more sit in the digital camera at my house. And just in case you get any ideas, it’s already all been burned onto a disc… off-site backup! The title is ‘Performed by That Model: ★ 150 Mysterious, Back-to-Back Impressions.’ Someday, sometime, if the whim so struck me, I might carelessly release it to the public…”

“S-stop! Fine! I got it! I just need to eat with you, right?! That’s all you want?! Damn!”

Close to tears, Ami forgot to put on her mask. Recklessly cradling her bento box, she transferred over to Taiga’s seat.

There, Minori was already on standby. “Hey, Kawashima-kun. I already went ahead and got started without you.”

She brought a gigantic ribbon she was holding with her chopsticks up to eye level. It seemed to be boiled konbu seaweed.

“Wh-what is it with you two…? Tsk…you’re not making any sense.”

“That’s enough of that. Please have a seat here, be my guest.”

Minori guided Ami to the seat at her left, and with her left arm, firmly held onto Ami’s shoulder. “Here, say ‘ahh!’”

She brought the konbu to Ami’s mouth.

“I’m telling you I don’t want it!” Ami kept crying out, but…

“…Mmn…that’s nice.” Ryuuji unconsciously muttered out loud as he watched the scene develop. Being close to Minori like that, having her say ahh to him and spoiling him… if only she would gently deliver ribbon konbu into his mouth… Ahh…

“Takasu, why are you sitting spaced out with your mouth open? Let’s go.”

“…Hm? Huh? Where?”

Kitamura had come to stand next to him at some point and was prodding him in the back. “Over to Ami and everyone. I asked Aisaka and Kushieda to invite Ami to lunch. If I just asked them to do that and then left, what kind of person would that make me?”

“Sure, but what does that have to do with me?”

“I can’t just barge into a group of girls eating their bento all by myself! I’m not that kind of guy.”

It’s you we’re talking about here. You’d definitely be fine, Ryuuji thought, but instead he said, “If you insist.” In reality, he was beaming on the inside as he followed behind Kitamura. He felt bad for Taiga, but this was an unbelievable stroke of luck. If he could spend his lunch break with Minori, enduring the sideshow of a tiger-vs.-Chihuahua showdown was nothing.

“Yo, can we join you?”

“Oh, is that Kitamura-kun and Takasu-kun I see? Take a seat, take a seat!”

The only one who welcomed the two boys when they broke into the group of girls was a grinning Minori. Ami was right next to her, brow still furrowed. 

“Why? Why do things have to be like this…?” she muttered in dissatisfaction. 

Meanwhile, Taiga was completely…

“…”

…speechless. Feeling the presence of Kitamura suddenly sitting at her right, she still couldn’t turn to look at him. Her eyes seemed to melt, as though she were in a trance. Her rosebud lips loosened, but…

“…Tsk.”

Then she seemed to suddenly remember that Ami was diagonally across from her, and she instantly scowled. But then she noticed Kitamura’s presence again and drooped—and then Ami’s presence made her perk up—and she went back and forth between the two emotions, trying to reconcile them, until…

“A-amazing…”

Finally, incredibly, so remarkably that Ryuuji couldn’t help but speak, the right half of Taiga’s face turned to Kitamura with an erotically lovesick expression, while the left half wore an unpleasant look for Ami. The left and right halves of her face were completely asymmetrical—a perfect Baron Ashura.

It seemed her face and her spirit had both reached a balanced equilibrium. Taiga didn’t try to take on Ami as she ate, and her anxiety over Kitamura wasn’t dominant enough to make her hands shake. She was able to smoothly open the top of her bento box. Her face was ridiculous, but whether it was down to luck or something else, not one person in this group was about to comment on it.

“Well, let’s dig in. Eating with the girls every once in a while is nice, too.”

“…Does this mean that you were the one who planned this, Yuusaku?”

“Hm? Whatever could you mean? Wooow, Kushieda, your bento is as huge as ever! See Ami, look at it!”

“Heh heh heh, even though this bento looks huge, there’s practically nothing in it… See, this one’s glass noodle, this one’s konyaku.”

As he watched Minori enjoy proudly displaying her side dishes, Ryuuji reflected on the small joy he was experiencing himself. He didn’t mind at all that he wasn’t participating in the conversation. Just being by her side like this was enough to make him happy—in fact, it was more than enough.

It had been about a month since the failure of their last “let’s eat bento together” plan, but this time it was different. He’d be able to eat bento with Minori after all. Ahhh, I’m so glad Taiga and the Chihuahua don’t get along.

While deep in thought, he tried opening the lid to his bento, but then stopped in realization. He was about to make exactly the same mistake as last time. The contents of his bento were exactly the same as Taiga’s.

Guess there’s no helping it… He would have to stingily leave the top in place to keep his side dishes hidden. But…

“Ahh, there really are kids who would do this sort of stuff! Now now, why are you hiding that, Takasu-kun?!”

“Ah!”

Minori suddenly stole his lid. She had exposed his egg omelet rolls interleaved with soybeans, a bacon and onion stir fry, and seaweed on top of rice…a beautifully constructed, handmade bento that was exactly the same as the one Taiga was already eating.

“…Uhh. …Yeah.”

Minori compared the two bento and paused in thought for a moment. “…Well, um, what was it again…? Hey. Takasu-kun, what’s your horoscope?” She casually returned the top.

“M-my sign is Pisces.”

“Well I’m fine with any horoscope, as long as it’s not an endoscope. Just kidding!”

Ahahahahahaha! 

But subtly, her eyes weren’t laughing.

It seemed that Minori had discerned Ami and Taiga’s subtle animosity. Instead of provoking Taiga by expressing her doubts over Ryuuji and Taiga’s relationship, she had chosen to frantically think of a way to protect the current miraculous balance.

“Wh-why would you talk about endoscopes while we’re eating…? And you didn’t even tell us your sign.”

“Sooorry! My sign is actually ‘out of order!’ ♥” 

Somehow, those words had resulted in a natural, congenial conversation between him and Minori. Then, at the very moment that he celebrated his good luck, it happened.

Completely unnoticed, Ami’s arm reached out across from Ryuuji and unexpectedly pulled open his bento top again. Unable to react to her speed, Ryuuji just froze.

“Why is your bento the exact same as Aisaka-san’s bento? Come to think of it, you two were together yesterday.”

Taiga’s eyebrows twitched.

At the same time, a hush fell over them, muffling the clamor of the class lunch break.

“…Did you hear…?” “Oh, I heard…” “She took it to the one place she never should have…” 

Before long, low, fear-touched voices began surreptitiously whispering. 

“Huh? Wh-what? Why did it get so quiet all of a sudden? Did I do something?”

Having just transferred, Ami didn’t know.

A calamitous disaster awaited anyone who asked about the relationship between the Palmtop Tiger and Ryuuji. Everyone in their whole class had internalized this knowledge. That was why, even though everyone wondered what type of relationship the two had…they would never speak of it. The Palmtop Tiger said they weren’t dating, so they weren’t dating. She demanded they never say anything so stupid again, so they never did. But then the newcomer had gone and done it…

In the calm before the storm, no one dared to move their chopsticks. The conversation remained frozen. Everyone had their ears pricked for the Palmtop Tiger’s next move. If they saw signs of her anger, they needed to be ready for an immediate escape.

“…You’re so weird. Does something like that bother you?”

The one who finally, quietly replied was Taiga herself.

Regaining the beauty of her normal, French-doll expression, she spoke in a strangely quiet way in her usual monotone voice. “In that case, if I do this, there should be no problem.”

“Ah, my ben—”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Taiga suddenly reached out her hand and stole Ryuuji’s bento. She just brought it up to her mouth, and MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH! …All his egg and his stir fry disappeared in three seconds flat.

Munching with her cheeks completely full, she continued to eat and chew, the food bulging at the sides of her mouth.

“Nuh froblem anahmoar, raight? …My bento is egg and stir fry. Ryuuji has a seaweed bento.”

She returned Ryuuji’s now lonesome-looking bento box to his hands. He heard sighs of relief around the classroom, and slowly, the liveliness of their usual afternoon break started to return. It seemed they had somehow averted the Palmtop Tiger’s wrath.

The only casualty was Ryuuji.

“But…! My bento is…!”

Despite himself, Ryuuji was about ready to cry at this horrible misfortune. But then a pair of chopsticks were extended across to him, and he was blessed by a solitary meatball.

“Here. Now you have a meatball bento, Takasu-kun.”

“K-Kawashima…!”

With an angel’s smile, Ami had divided her side dish with him. But still wearing that smile, she mercilessly rubbed salt in the wound. “Hey, why do you just let Aisaka-san walk all over you like that? Does she have something on you?”

I don’t know if you would say she has something on me, exactly. I have my reasons…and the timing and stuff just sort of lined up… But of course he didn’t manage to say that out loud. He just remained frozen and speechless. 

Taiga responded in his place. “You see, Ryuuji was my dog in a past life. So he’ll happily wag his tail and do anything his owner asks.” She spoke proudly, with a glamorous smile. “That’s what brings a dog joy.” 

…He tried to refute her, but…

“You two are going on like that again—even though everyone knows you’re really star-crossed lovers, bound by fate!” 

Apparently, based on whatever obscure set of metrics she was using, Minori thought she could get away with a joke like that. 

Ryuuji and Taiga’s breathing synchronized…

“No way.” “No way.”

…And they both shook their heads. 

Ami seemed to interpret that in her own way. “…Hmmm. You two are close, then…” She faintly narrowed her eyes, muttering to herself in a singsong voice. And though Ryuuji might have misheard, he thought he caught her faint voice continuing—this is no fun for Ami-chan~!

Taiga snorted, looking about done with any attempts to engage with Ami. She picked up her chopsticks and was about to go at her bento again, but then…

“Wow—y’know, Aisaka, you sure do eat a whole lot! I think that’s a lot better than having to diet.”

“…!”

Quite possibly at the shock from Kitamura’s words, Taiga unintentionally dropped her chopsticks.

Regardless of whether she was fat or thin, “you eat a lot” was the same as a death sentence to a girl—especially when coming from someone she was unrequitedly in love with.

Aaah… Ryuuji felt utterly exhausted as he quietly watched Taiga flap her mouth open and closed.

***

Taiga’s chance to dispel the nickname “gluttony girl” (though no one was calling her that) came after school, immediately after the last bow.

“Heyyy, everyone, sorry! Please listen up for a second!”

Kitamura’s voice echoed around the busy classroom. Those who were beginning their preparations to go home raised their heads.

“Sooo, I think you are all aware that today the student council is holding the traditional monthly volunteer town cleanup! But this time around, the main force of third years are having their mock exams at school tomorrow, so we have very few participants! I would like to extend an invitation to everyone and also encourage you to please participate!”

…Let’s go, let’s go home. The students continued to prepare to leave, pretending not to hear as they left in small groups. Naturally, Ryuuji was among them. He didn’t dislike cleaning, but this was different. No matter how much effort he put in, the town could never be perfectly clean. He already knew well enough that it would just leave him full of frustration.

This monthly volunteer town cleanup was in actuality intended for those third years with questionable student records—as a route to salvation. If suspect third years participated, they had a special menu of options available when they sought letters of recommendation, from “enthusiastically participated in volunteer activities” to “participated in leadership,” or in some cases, “their effort was remarkable.” And so, other than the student council members, most of the participants were normally third years, along with a few rotating members of the sports clubs whose participation was compulsory. The event was irrelevant to first and second years who weren’t in a sports club. No matter how many times Kitamura called for participants, there was no way anyone would bother to raise their hand to join—

“Oh, Takasu! So you’ll come!”

“…Huh?!”

A strange phenomenon had occurred.

Compelled by some sort of force, Ryuuji’s right hand was being raised up high.

“Great, I’ll be waiting. Change into your tracksuit and wait in front of the school gates! This’ll sure help me save face with the president… I would have lost a lot of cred if I’d brought no one at all! Right, I already added you to the list of names, so don’t think you can back out now.”

In high spirits, pen in one hand, Kitamura sauntered out of the classroom with a spring in his step.

“Wa-wa-wait…hey!”

The one who was gripping Ryuuji’s right hand and holding it up was Taiga, who at some point had snuck up to his side. “Hmph!” She stomped. She’d grabbed his elbow, and put his hand high, high up.

“Hey, hands off! Do you realize what you just did?! If I don’t go participate, it’ll be officially counted as negligence, and I’ll get docked points on my extracurricular participation score!”

Taiga let him have his elbow back. Then, in front of Ryuuji’s glaring eyes, she started chewing on her fingernails. “I’ll take responsibility for it. I’ll go along with you.”

“Huh? …Wha?!”

Basically, the point was she wanted to participate, so she had taken Ryuuji along for the ride. Embarrassed, Taiga’s cheeks flushed a cherry blossom pink. Playing with the ribbon of her uniform with her fingertips, she muttered softly, “I don’t want him to think I’m just a glutton… I want him to think that I ate a lot to get energy so I could participate in the town cleanup…”

“…You just want to spend some time with Kitamura, don’t you?”

“…That’s another way of looking at it…”

“Then you didn’t have to bring me into it!”

“But I’m embarrassed! Just use your imagination, you dimwit!”

It happened at the moment he was trying to build up the intestinal fortitude to respond to that horrible remark of hers. He felt a slight prod at the back of his jacket, and when he turned around…

“Takasu-kun, you’re going, too! I’m so glad!”

Minori was standing there. She had her bag and tracksuit in hand.

“This time, it’s the girls’ softball club’s turn for compulsory participation. They made me go because I’m president, even though I thought it was such a paaaiiin. We’re all in the same boat!”

On this day, too, her healthy smile illuminated Ryuuji’s heart all at once with bright sunlight. At the blinding rise in his body temperature, Ryuuji was pretty much entranced. “I-Is that so…?”

“That’s right. But I never could have guessed you would go and volunteer on your own. Yeah, you’re such a good kid! You’ve moved me!”

Whooaaa, she praised me…!

He desperately tried to hide his cheeks in his hands. They felt like they were about to turn bright red. Ryuuji’s eyes were seething, looking murderous. He was embarrassed.

“Minorin, I decided I might as well go, too. Along with Ryuuji.”

“Oh, really?! Well then, let’s go change together! I’ll wait in the hall.”

“Yeah, I’ll be there soon.”

The two of them stood side by side as they watched Minori’s back. Hu-humm, she hummed as she left the classroom. 

“…Well, don’t you have something to say?”

“…Th-thank you…!”

So long as you know, Taiga nodded, as though accepting his reaction. “If I’d known Minorin was going, then I wouldn’t have needed to invite you.”

“…I don’t remember being invited, but I do remember you forcing me to raise my hand.”

No matter what they said, the two were in high spirits as they each took their tracksuits and bags and left the classroom. Ryuuji headed to the boys’ locker room, and Taiga and Minori headed to the girls’ locker room. 

But no sooner had they started walking than a brilliantly sweet voice stopped the three of them in their tracks. “Wait!”

Ryuuji turned around. For a moment, he felt like he needed to adjust the glasses he wasn’t wearing. Taiga must have felt the same. She turned, fierce eyes wide open.

“…What?” she growled in a low voice.

“I’m glad I caught you! I decided to go, too! I just transferred, so I want to hurry up and learn about all the school activities!” Kawashima Ami grinned with the smile of an angel. She was unmoved by Taiga’s glare.

“Uhh…did Kitamura tell you to come? Trust me, you’ll be happier if you stay behind—and it’s not exactly something you’d really call a school activity.” In spite of himself, Ryuuji tried to give her real advice, but Ami cutely shook her head, voicing her opposition.

“Yuusaku didn’t tell me anything. I decided to participate myself. And if I don’t exercise, I’ll get fat, right? Minori-chan?”

“Ohh, I see. This is part of your diet, got it.” Minori wasn’t even surprised. She just nodded in acceptance. 

Taiga watched from the side of her eye, and wrinkled her forehead, unamused. 

“Right, shall we go?” Ami reached out her slim arm as though about to tuck it into Ryuuji’s—or, at least, so he thought. Right before Ami reached him, Taiga intervened.

“Gwah—”

“The girls’ locker room is over here, newbie.”

As though she were a gang leader, the gloomy-eyed Taiga firmly grabbed the nape of Ami’s neck with her right hand. Then she and Minori just pulled Ami along, on the verge of choking, towards the girls’ locker room.

“I-I can walk by myself, Aisaka-san.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ll lead you over, Kawashima-san.”

Unwittingly standing still while watching this devious exchange, Ryuuji suddenly came back to himself. Isn’t the boys’ locker room in the same direction? Recomposing himself, he started walking…and clutched at his strangely clamorous heart.

Well, shall we go? Ami’s expression as she tilted her head and looked up at him was strangely sweet, brilliant, and pure… really, it was so cute it could kill him. Regardless of her true nature.

She was a model, so of course she was cute, but there was no shaking the fact that he’d seen something he liked. It made him a little happy. He couldn’t shake that straightforward feeling—only natural, for a boy.

***

“ALL RIGHT, you pansies! You’ve prepared yourselves, RIGHT? You know perfectly well that I won’t accept a single one of you slacking off! We’re going out with our heads held HIGH!”

The drill sergeant was under the thick cover of silvery overcast clouds. Through the megaphone came a rapid, extremely macho voice. It reverberated throughout the grounds. Then, beside the speaker, another figure emerged.

“Today, as always, you’ve given us words that cut right to our hearts. Give it up for our amazing president!” 

Yeah, all right! The vice president of the student council, Kitamura, put his hands together in applause.

After school, twenty or so students had gathered in front of the gates. All wore the same uneasy expression. They were looking up at the boss of the cleanup, who stood a level above them… in short, they looked up at their student council president. The happy students trickling through on their way home watched the scene in amusement as they passed by.

“…Wh-what is this…?” Seeing it for the first time, Ami was truly shaken.

“…That’s our student council president. None of the opposing candidates got any votes—let’s just say it’s because of their aura of royal authority.”

“O-ohh…then this is definitely that person…”

“Come again?” 

“Yuusaku told me something a while ago. That there was an amazing upperclassman and they decided to join the student council or something like that…”

“Have you donned your work gloves?! Have you seized your trash bags?! Have you surveyed the terrain we march to clean?!”

Yeah, came their dolorous reply.

“You DUMBASSES!” The student body president stood with a wide stance, head thrown back, white throat exposed. The voice from the megaphone grew louder.

“Do not underestimate these streets! With that attitude, you’ll end up getting thrown off the boat, you IDIOTS! When you answer, you need to give it your all!”

“YEEAHHHHHH!”

“Okay, SHUT YOUR TRAPS! So with that, let’s start this month’s traditional town cleanup. Take care not to hurt yourself. If you’re caught eating something you bought on the job, there will be proper punishment! …Though really, that just means don’t get caught.”

The president’s lips contorted into a grin. The student body president—the third year Kanou Sumire—flipped her sleek black hair with a cynical smile.

Though she was clothed in a tracksuit, gloves, and long plastic boots, she still cut a handsome figure. With her white skin and tapering eyes, her hair that spilled in a black, silky bundle, and lips that were naturally scarlet without lipstick…on the outside, she was a graceful Yamato Nadeshiko in the flesh—the Japanese ideal of a perfect woman. 

But what lay within was different.

“All right, then. We’re going, you maggots! Your goal is one full bag per person! Because we have fewer participants than usual, you should be able to easily fulfill your quotas. Well, even though we’re calling them quotas, they’re actually not really that rigid. Anyway, just don’t show anyone outside the school that you’re undisciplined. Show the world your volunteer spirit!”

Sumire was masculine to her core. Her leadership was unrivaled; she was like a female general—no, to be perfectly honest—like a baron or patriarch.

“…She’s, like…super pretty, but…kind of…coarse, right…?” Ami spoke in a low voice, beside Ryuuji. She hadn’t failed to notice the glaring rift between the boss’s appearance and personality. She couldn’t bring herself to look away. 

Everyone was like that at first. Ryuuji nodded in understanding. “Yeah, but even though she looks like that, she’s had the top grades in the school since she enrolled. Supposedly, to the student council, she’s like a living legend—she turned around their financial situation in just one term.”

“You sure know a lot about her, Takasu-kun.”

“I’m just repeating what Kitamura told me.”

Kitamura was strangely cheerful as he clapped at each word from the beautiful patriarch on the platform. Maybe he was trying to rouse everyone’s spirits.

“…So she’s the senior he’s proud of, huh…?”

Ryuuji had the impression Kitamura would be a strong leader, but for some reason he was equally faithful in his duties as a grunt.

But how must that have looked to Taiga? She was a little further off, next to Minori, but Taiga looked completely taciturn and unhappy. He couldn’t tell if it was unconscious or on purpose, but she was shuffling restlessly, writing the word “die” on the ground with the tip of her toe.

“Well, you have one hour, starting now! Be absolutely sure you’re not late for the rendezvous time! I won’t release any of you until everyone is here!”

As a follow-up to Sumire’s voice shouting through the megaphone, the student council members each blew a sharp whistle. The twenty gathered students filtered through the school gates into the outside world, sent out in search of trash. 

There happened to be one person blended in with the group who was seeking to cultivate a friendship with the vice president. 

“The cleanup’s scope is pretty broad… oh, I just got something right off the bat.” As he left the school gate, Ryuuji found an old magazine by the school wall and bent down to grab it with his gloved hand.

“NO!”

He was grabbed by the elastic of his tracksuit and pulled back. Whoever did it kept on pulling him, right at the waistband. He turned around at that mild attack, tracksuit riding up, and found Minori behind him with a stern expression. She waved her index finger back and forth as though to scold him, clicking her tongue.

“Nuh-uh, Takasu-kun. Anywhere around the school is the third years’ turf. We underclassmen have to go out of the way on expeditions, that’s tradition.”

“I-It is?”

“Yeah! Here, look!”

Minori pointed to a subdued girl who seemed to be a third year. “This is why newbies mean trouble,” the girl muttered, as she chucked the magazine into her bag. It seemed like she was tired from studying from her exams. Haaah… She breathed out a protracted sigh and braced her back like an aching grandmother.

“I see…”

“Now, let us wee second years walk a bit more.” Minori smiled. 

Aaah, he felt like it was the first time in a while he had seen her real smile. Minori’s smile was like the sun. It was so bright, so radiant, so honest that Ryuuji couldn’t help but stare at it, enchanted. It was as though he were getting a healthy sunburn on the dimples on his cheeks, on his nose, and on his head. It was splendid. Just then, Ryuuji thought, her brightness is drawing me in.

And the reason he thought that was because of what was happening behind Minori’s dazzling back.

“Oh, this trash looks exactly like you, Kawashima-san. It seems you’ve added another trick to your repertoire of impressions.”

“Oh stop, Aisaka-san, your jokes are too harsh! That’s just so funny! Oh, Aisaka-san, don’t you think this piece of trash looks exactly like you? Especially because of how unfortunately small it is.”

Two dusky poison ivy blooms enjoyed themselves as they competed to exchange sarcastic barbs. Just watching them was exhausting.

“…Taiga, stop. We’re going, okay?”

He tapped Taiga’s butt with his empty trash bag. Not the best way to get them separated, but something was better than nothing.

“Don’t touch my butt! …Ugh…so irritating…! Tsk.” Taiga bared a high-strung fang at Ryuuji and simply walked forward at a brisk pace. She was actually probably worried about Kitamura and the student body president. Ami, being Ami, also turned away from Taiga and crossed her arms. 

Minori seemed to have sensed something as she watched the two of them carrying on. She lowered her voice and whispered to Ryuuji. “Hey, listen. I was…kind of thinking about this at lunch, too, but do you feel like there’s some kind of bad blood between Taiga and Kawashima-san? Or is it just me?”

Why now? he thought, but he couldn’t leave Minori’s question unanswered. “Yeah, it seems like they don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. They just don’t seem to get along.”

“I see! …So that’s how it is. Gotcha.”

Before long, the two of them started slowly walking side by side—Ryuuji was so nervous he was shaking. Right now, I’m walking with Minori. We’re slowly passing under the fresh leaves—strolling down a grove just like on a date. If you ignore the mob of tracksuits in front of and behind us, it’s exactly like a scene from a date. I never thought the day when this would be a reality would come…

“So, about Taiga and Kawashima-san… Somehow, it seems like Kawashima-san is completely different from the girl I initially thought she was. I don’t mean that in a bad way, exactly. I want Taiga to get along with everyone, but that girl seems difficult in some ways, too… the two of them paired together just might not work. Things get kind of complicated between us girls.” Minori nodded, expression slightly troubled.

Ryuuji also nodded back in the same way. Somehow, he had a hunch that some strange solidarity had been born between him and Minori. If his hunch were real, it would be his first direct “relationship” to her without Taiga or Kitamura acting as intermediaries.

If that was the case, he needed to nurture it into something bigger—Ryuuji suddenly sharpened his eyes, and in a rare move for him, went a bit on the offensive. “I-I don’t worry about Taiga too much, since because you’re here, K-Kushieda.” His voice splintered a little, but there, he at least spoke normally. 

Minori laughed and looked up at Ryuuji. “That’s what I should be saying. I think that as long as you’re here, Takasu-kun, Taiga will be okay.”

As usual, he’d been misunderstood, although…that meant that on the list of people Minori valued, Ryuuji was pretty high up. You might even say he was favored. They smiled at each other, and their eyes locked. Again, another step. He took just one more weighted step. This time he would say it—if he was a man, he had to say it. His bloodshot eyes seethed with naked emotion, and he cleared his tightened throat.

Taiga isn’t the only one I want to be close to—I’d like to be closer to you, too, Minori… That’s what he would say. This was it. He softly licked his dry lips and casually put his nervously shaking fists in his pockets. The timing was natural, it wouldn’t seem weird, and if worse came to worst, he could play it off as though it were a joke. He could only do it now, only now—

“Ta—”

“Ryuuji!”

BAM! He was forcefully thrown back.

“Ryuuji, it’s terrible! What should I do?!”

“…”

His voice wouldn’t come out. He regained his footing just as he was on the verge of falling over. Though Taiga was still looking up at him, Ryuuji couldn’t say a word.

“Come here, quick! Over here!”

And just like that he was pulled into the shadow of an alleyway.

“Kitamura-kun has been beside that president this whole time! This whooole time! He won’t leave her! He’s laughing it up like he’s having the time of his life and isn’t noticing me at all! I worked up my courage and tried telling him, I came with Ryuuji, but when I did that do you know what he said?! ‘Oh, I had no idea. I didn’t notice, thank you! That helps!’—and that was it. That was all he said! Is that what you say to the girl you once confessed to?! Right?! What do you think?!” she went on a tirade, saying it all in a single breath. Taiga pressed Ryuuji even more for an answer, “Do you think it means…he definitely isn’t interested?! Wh-what should I do?! What do you think?! I won’t get mad so just be honest!”

“I-I don’t think…well, to be honest—”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“I wish you would have left me alone… things were going well with Kushieda…”

“…What’s that?” From a looming distance, Taiga’s expression filled with quiet anger. “Even though things are going so badly for me, they were going well for you?! Huh?! This is bold, even for you!”

“I-Is it so bad? Didn’t you say you wouldn’t get mad?!”

“I’ll get as mad as I want! No, I won’t forgive something like that! I told you, didn’t I? Until I get together with Kitamura-kun, I won’t let you be happy! You…heartless brute!”

Taiga the tyrannical stalked off straight out of the alleyway.

“Taiga, what’s wrong? Just when I thought you’d appeared, you vanished again.”

“Minorin!” Taiga fell into the arms of Minori, who was standing around without anything to do. She firmly wrapped her arms around her.

“I don’t want to be here anymore… let’s go away, just the two of us, as far as our legs will take us!”

“Eloping? I can’t say I dislike the idea.” Minori’s smile got full marks for broadmindedness as she embraced Taiga’s small shoulders.

Then, the two of them nestled close and walked off into the distance. They didn’t even turn back to Ryuuji once. They seemed strangely happy.

“D-damn it…” he groaned in frustration as he stood stock-still. Left behind, Ryuuji could only watch as Minori’s back grew more distant. And I just made progress—

“Are you okay?”

“Huh?”

At the sudden words directed to him, he spun around like he’d been hit. Ami was standing beside him, bowing slightly. It seemed she had come out after Taiga, who she detested, had left. 

“Aisaka-san bowled you over just now, right? I saw it. Were you okay?”

“Uh…yeah, well…I’m used to it, anyway.”

“Takasu-kun, you poor thing. Aisaka-san and Minori-chan aren’t around anymore, and I don’t know where Yuusaku went either.”

“Oh…right.”

He suddenly noticed the other students, who were also restlessly walking around, taking starry-eyed glances at Ami. Though they watched the celebrated beauty with feverish eyes, ‘that Takasu’ was next to her, so no one seemed able to talk to her. Outside of their class, the name Takasu Ryuuji still was reckoned in the same standing as the Palmtop Tiger. They were both synonymous with terror.

There were still a few girls who had the courage to walk by and wave, saying “Ami-chaan.” When Ami smiled and waved back, they clamored in delight. But, Ami immediately turned her back to them.

“Well, looks like we’re the leftovers, so let’s work together and get on with it! Hey, where do you want to try going?” She looked up at Ryuuji with her dazzling angel’s smile.

“Uhmm… Are you sure you don’t want to go with those girls from just now?”

“It’s fine, it’s fine, I don’t know any of them anyway. I’ll go with you. That’s right, how about we go towards the riverbank? That was part of the cleanup area, right?”

“…I don’t mind, but…”

Are you sure you want me to go with you? He didn’t even get the chance to ask, as Ami happily started walking with long strides. Then she turned right around.

“Hey, you’re going to be left behind!” Just like in a scene from a movie, she held out a supple hand to him. Ryuuji couldn’t just clasp it, so he did the only thing he could and walked quickly to overtake Ami. He looked exactly like the trope of a villainous guy acting bashful. 

***

Wobble, wobble, wobble…the tip of the quivering stick finally caught the plastic bottle on the water’s edge.

“I-I got it…!”

“You can do it!”

Ryuuji pulled the empty bottle in against the current, and finally breathed a sigh. He shook his arm, which was heavy from stretching it as far as he could manage, and then dropped the bottle into the trash bag, touching it as little as possible. One down.

“Aah…I’m about halfway there…”

“I’m about the same. We don’t have too far to go, so let’s show some energy!”

At the Class A river that ran along the border of the town, Ryuuji and Ami once again carefully started walking along the lower part of the concrete levee, taking care to keep their sneakers dry. Under the greying clouds, whether it was because no one was there to take care of them or because they had been left to grow as they pleased, grassy patches sprouted between the cracks of the concrete.

The grass gave off a slightly sickening smell alongside the odor of the river water, which couldn’t be described as clean. Walking in front of Ami, Ryuuji secretly breathed in. The work had ended up even more lame than he had imagined. The amount of trash in the bags they each held were far from becoming one whole trash bag’s worth. Even though the quota wasn’t strict, this probably still wouldn’t be acceptable.

They had been searching on the promenade above the bank just earlier, but they couldn’t find any coveted bulky trash, and so ended up coming all the way down to the shoreline. Then…

“Whoa…”

“Ahh!”

Swash, Ryuuji narrowly avoided the downwind splash of a wave and turned to Ami. Ami also seemed to have been able to avoid the wave, but…

“Ugh… really… this is the absolute worst…”

Ryuuji gulped.

Her low mumble to herself approached irritation, and there were deep, grim wrinkles rippling across her brow. They didn’t suit her at all. On top of Ryuuji being worn out, it seemed that Ami was getting tired, too. The omens of her mask’s impending failure were there.

The clouds certainly were dark, and the wind was strong. There wasn’t any work more boring than this. It was getting unpleasantly cold, but they were far from finishing. They also hadn’t collected enough trash. In these circumstances, anyone other than Ami would normally have been in a bad mood, too. On top of that, there was the incredibly delicate air between the two of them. They couldn’t keep up a conversation; it was awkward, and Ryuuji, being shy, couldn’t even tell a good joke. He already had his hands full trying to keep his composure so she wouldn’t think he was gross.

“A-are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah! I’m completely fine! This is fun, it’s like exploring, right?! I really like stuff like this!” She had stuck on that angel smile without any problems, but the rift was still scary. Ryuuji felt he would have been a lot more comfortable if she had just kept being in a bad mood.

“Hey…you don’t have to push yourself so hard. You can rest if you’re tired. Even if we can’t fill the quota, it’s not like they’re going to kill us. And this is pretty hard for a girl, right?” That was Ryuuji giving it his all trying to check her mood, but it only made her double down on the act.

“Oh no, I’m completely fine, I’m telling you!” While making a big deal of waving her hand in front of her face, she looked up at him with her Chihuahua eyes, which were radiating sparkles. She inclined her head while spinning especially sweet words for him.

“I was thinking about this since way earlier, you know! That I wanted a chance to have a nice relaxed chat with you, Ryuuji. So…awah!”

It happened then.

A strong gust of mischievous wind had disturbed the water’s surface, creating a larger wave than before. Ryuuji quickly ran away to the slope and escaped the trouble, but Ami, down at water level, was too slow.

“…No…way…”

This was unfortunate.

“Are you okay?! I-I ran away by myself, but that was… what have I…”

“…”

Even someone as versatile as Ami didn’t seem to have the power to recompose herself right now. She looked long and hard at her sopping wet sneakers and at the hem of her tracksuit. She remained speechless and expressionless as she stood.

“K-Kawashima…”

But finally, he saw the edges of Ami’s lips lifting. Slowly, mechanically. Like a machine. Though she raised a grim, shaking look at him, he could see that she was trying her best to soften it.

“Ohh…”

She had a resolve that couldn’t be dissolved. Slowly but surely, Ami tried to regain her angelic mask, desperately, with great pain. Then, when she had recomposed seventy percent of it…

“Eep—”

…Her pretty features once again froze over. On top of Ami’s wet feet—on top of her sneaker laces—some sort of blackish, moist, and weird object wriggled and writhed. For about three full seconds, she just stared at it.

“Eeee…”

And then she shrieked.

“NOOOOOOOOOO AAAHHHHHHHHHHH GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFFFF!” Outright screaming, Ami tumbled over. She flailed her feet around.

“S-stop moving! Stop moving! Don’t kick my face, they’ll fall down! You’ll crush them!” 

On her feet were two, no, three tadpoles with composed faces. As Ami screamed on the brink of madness, nearly unconscious, Ryuuji somehow got her shoes off.

“Salvaged!”

He was able to return the tiny tadpoles to the stream.

“…Wh…wha…wha.”

But.

Collapsed on her back, Ami’s face was in rigor mortis. She was out of breath. Frozen over. Her hair was in terrible disarray, her legs were carelessly spread out, her tracksuit was sopping wet up to her shins, and it went without saying that her socks were covered in mud. “Kawashima Ami-chan” was in a horrible, unbecoming condition.

Ryuuji hesitantly approached.

“I-I’ll…put your shoes here. Okay. They’re wet, but there aren’t any tadpoles on them anymore, okay?”

He quietly put the sneakers together by her feet. Ami’s big eyes swerved to look down at those shoes.

“Ah, ah, ah…”

Ami-chan, he heard her say in a very low mumble.

It only took another second after he heard that.

“AMI-CHAN-DOESN’T-WANT-TO-DO-THIS-ANY-MOOOOOOOOOOOORE!”

Her white hands grabbed her shoes, and she chucked them straight into the riverbank.

“…Wha…uwaahh…!”

Without thinking, Ryuuji covered his mouth with his hands. He couldn’t say anything more. The mask was off.

Ami huffed with her shoulders like a beast. Words poured out of her, things like “I can’t stand it anymore,” and, “I really can’t do this anymore,” and, “Ami-chan is going home, I’m going home right now!” and on it went. Until…

“AAH?!”

She turned and locked eyes with Ryuuji. She finally seemed to remember his existence. For several seconds, the two of them stared at each other without words.

“…Eheh!” Ami put her fists up to her mouth, and put on her pure and deadly smile. “Just kidding! That’s a joke, a joke! C’mon, Takasu-kun, don’t make such a scary face!”

You’re the one who’s scary… Of course, he couldn’t actually say that. 

Ami smiled as she turned back to him several times and laughed, Eheheh. Still in her socks, she bravely went up the bank.

“Here I go, here I go… ahh! I found them! What a relief!”

In each hand, she was holding the shoes she herself had just thrown, all smiles. With a forced sweetness in her voice, she dramatically turned around. She put her shoes on then and there.

“Takasu-kun, do you want to race to the bank?”

“…Uhh…”

“The one who loses has to give the one who wins all their trash! Then the winner has their quota filled! I’m gonna staaart—aaand GO!”

As Ryuuji watched Ami’s back as she ran up the bank, he thought, The winner gets the trash, but…you just left behind the trash bags.

He reluctantly took the two people’s worth of trash bags in his hands and quickly went up the bank. He couldn’t keep up with her, but in this case, it was his only option.

In the grass, Ami disappeared from his field of view. Right about now, she was probably trying to desperately remake her broken mask where no one could see. He thought about going a little more slowly.

“You’re slooow!”

Then he saw her hop out from behind the grass onto the top of the bank with her features completely composed, cute as can be.

“Takasu-kun, you lost! But, I’ll keep helping you pick up trash, so don’t worry, you’ll be fine!” she said in a bright voice as she looked down at him. It seemed like she had fully regained her usual smile.

“…You don’t have to keep doing that.”

“Huh? Doing what?”

Contrary to her words, it was impossible to hide the bewilderment in her wavering gaze—it was because Ami’s eyes were too large. And then, just like Ryuuji, she was too tired to remake herself in the way she intended. 

“What’s the point of it all? All this suffering and effort just to look a little better in front of me? It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone or anything. So just go rest somewhere over there or head back early.”

At those unintentionally blunt words, Ami’s eyes became round with puzzlement. “…What are you talking about? I don’t understand what you mean.”

It seemed she was intent on seeing her charade through to the end. Even though the mask had broken long ago, it didn’t seem to be ordinary brashness. But, Ryuuji’s own brashness was a force to be reckoned with, too. If anything, it was because he was taking care of the Palmtop Tiger day in and day out. 

“…If you really don’t get it, that’s fine, too. You can do what you want. But I understand it even less than you do. Why are you forcing yourself to participate in this boring cleanup? What’s the point of it—to doing this? Is there one?”

He didn’t actually intend to accuse her of anything, but he couldn’t just not ask. He couldn’t help but think the work involved in the cleanup wasn’t suited to someone who wanted to keep up an act. Ami didn’t have to go this far. She already had a good reputation spreading among the class.

But Ami muttered, “You don’t understand the point?” Her smile suddenly disappeared. “…You don’t understand. Huh…”

Ryuuji stopped walking for a moment at that clear gaze. He found himself unintentionally straining his eyes to better see what kind of expression she had on, but the wind blew and scattered Ami’s hair, shrouding her face.

“It seems like you aren’t as easy as I anticipated, Takasu-kun. This sort of thing doesn’t work on you…”

I just wanted to play around with that shrimp, but this messed me up—he thought he heard derision in her hoarse voice.

“Huh? What were you playing at…?”

But, when he questioned her…

“Hm? Whaaat? That’s how you heard it? That’s weird, you must have misheard.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, and like an angel, smiled her usual calm smile as she looked at Ryuuji. “I told you earlier, but the reason why I’m here is that I wanted to have a nice, relaxed conversation with you, Takasu-kun. Is that such a mysterious reason?”

Those sweet words, that beautiful smile… this was undoubtedly the superficial Ami he was so used to. No matter what he said, he couldn’t seem to reach her. He just got the usual Ami, who looked down on other people.

Ryuuji breathed in, deciding against asking any more questions. No matter what he said, it wouldn’t reach this Ami anyway. If she wanted to do this, she could. It no longer had anything to do with him.

Then, suddenly Ami looked up at the sky. “…Was that rain…?”

Cold, heavy drops also fell on Ryuuji’s cheeks.

“…This is ridiculous, isn’t it…?”

They were beside the promenade, on a bench under a square gazebo. Ami was holding her slender legs as she sat, muttering as though in a daze.

She had recovered her mask but hadn’t been able to keep it on for more than ten minutes—she didn’t seem in any state to go on picking up trash.

Just as Ami had said, the scene beyond the cover of the simply built gazebo, its roof supported merely by posts, was ridiculous. They had suddenly been assailed by torrential rain.

Massive clouds covered the sky, and even though it was around four, a strange gloom engulfed the area. The downpour of slanting raindrops violently gouged the soft earth like bullets. It had only been a few minutes since it started, but here and there puddles were quickly forming, flowing like small streams. The river was right below the embankment, but it looked blurry and hazy.

The strong wind made the roof creak with its roar.

“…What if the roof just blows away…?”

“It won’t.” He tried to laugh it off, but it seemed Ami was actually afraid.

“I wonder if we’ll actually be okay…”

“With the way it’s raining now, it’ll probably stop in a few minutes.”

Ryuuji leaned on a post as he spoke, but Ami’s face remained gloomy at his words. Her wet hair was plastered to her white cheeks. Now it didn’t matter whether this was her mask or true self. The delicate awkwardness had been blown away in the face of the torrential rain, along with everything else. Ami simply shivered slightly from the cold, anxiously looking up at the moving sky. The tracksuit covering her thin shoulders was also thoroughly drenched.

“…Achoo!”

It was a small sneeze, like a baby mouse’s. It was completely different from Taiga’s weird, loud sneezes. It made him want to take off what he was wearing and put it on her shoulders. But, Ryuuji’s tracksuit was just as wet as hers.

“Aren’t you cold? …I have a trash bag I’m not using, so do you want to wear that? I can open a hole for your head.”

“Huh?! Like hell I’d do that!”

He was rejected in a flash. If Ami had had her mask on right now, she would definitely have smiled and accepted it.

“…Right. You wouldn’t want a trash bag poncho.”

“I don’t, I’d never. I wouldn’t do anything like that! Seriously… unbelievable.” With a bratty snort, Ami turned away childishly.

If this were the normal Ami, she definitely wouldn’t have shown how sullen she was. It seemed that the mask, once cracked open, could easily be shattered by some further incident. By (for example) a terrible, sudden burst of freezing torrential rain.

“…This is definitely the tadpoles’ curse.” He tried to break up the strained silence with something silly. Ami looked up at Ryuuji, unamused.

“…Why do I have to be cursed?”

“It’s payback for putting their lives in danger, right?”

“But you saved them, didn’t you, Takasu-kun?”

“…Well, in truth, I just pretended that I saved them, but I actually threw them over there into the grass…”

“Huh?!”

Ami suddenly sat up straight, speechless. Her mouth hung half open and her wide-open eyes seemed ready to overflow. 

“…Hey, I’m obviously lying. Do I look like someone who could do something like that?”

“Wh…what! Well! I was afraid you were serious for a second—I’m here to tell you, Takasu-kun, that you look exactly like someone who could do something like that!”

How rude.

“Hey, what’s that all about? Sorry, but I’m actually a pretty nice guy. Though I’m saying that about myself, which is kind of awkward… but I actually like animals a lot and have an inko I hatched from an egg and take very good care of.”

“An inko as in a parakeet? …Is that the ugly perverted parakeet that Aisaka Taiga was talking about?”

“I can’t believe Taiga said that! She’s actually a really charming and good parakeet.”

“Are there good and bad parakeets? What’s its name?”

“Inko-chan.”

“…”

Ami was silent for a moment.

“Ahahaha! What is that?!”

Suddenly, she laughed out loud. Not knowing what she meant, Ryuuji’s eyes sharpened with confusion as she pointed at him.

“Normal people wouldn’t name it something like that! That’s not a real name, that’s just what it is! You’re weird, weird, weird, totally weiiird!”

“…Am I?”

“You bet you are!”

Ami swept up her wet and dripping hair, displaying the entirety of her round forehead. Patting both hands together, she kept right on laughing. She stamped her legs—she just couldn’t help herself. “‘Inko-chan!’ What is that?! Takasu-kun, you’re completely different inside from what you look like on the outside. Though you’re nowhere near as bad as that president!” She turned her eyes towards Ryuuji, brimming with tears from laughing too hard. 

But then…

“Oh, no.”

Ami’s laughter ended just as quickly as it had started. It was as though someone had petrified her with a spell. Turned to stone, Ami looked past Ryuuji at something far behind him. Her expression looked more like a statue with every passing moment.

“What is it? Come on, hey! Kawashima!”

Without replying to Ryuuji, Ami ran out of the gazebo into the torrential rain. Ryuuji couldn’t keep pace with someone this inconsistent. Ami didn’t listen to him asking her to stop. She stooped and half-ran into the overgrown grass, bending over to hide herself. She took the cold rain head-on, but the distance between them grew and grew as she charged onward regardless. He didn’t understand what was going on, but he couldn’t just leave her alone, either.

“Wait!”

Ryuuji also jumped into the slanting rain. Then, once he caught up with her, he forcefully grasped Ami from behind. Somehow he managed to push her into a broken-down bike rack a ways out from the gazebo.

The bike rack at least had an iron roof, but the difference between it and the gazebo was like heaven and earth. They were still exposed to the wind and they didn’t have anywhere to sit. Rusted bikes lay piled in a messy heap right next to them.

“What’s going on with you?! Why’d you go out into this rain on purpose…?”

“Shh!”

“…!”

A cold hand reached out to the nape of Ryuuji’s neck. Between the coldness of her touch and Ami’s close scent, Ryuuji couldn’t speak, or breathe.

She clung to him, leaning her weight on him. Then, she roughly pushed him down into a crouch.

“Hey…wait…why…?”

“…Shh, because!”

Her body felt strangely cushiony and soft against him, but she was so slender, almost fleeting. Where Ami’s skin touched his, it felt so smooth he thought he might melt into it.

But he couldn’t do that. As his face turned a bright blood red, Ryuuji grabbed a pole out of earnest and absolute desperation. He pulled himself away to get free of Ami’s leaning body weight. In the sweet smell of rain, like a drowning man, Ryuuji sought to lose himself in the cold void and let his breath escape him.

But he heard the faint whisper of a hoarse voice.

“…Let’s hide like this…for a little…”

Then, Ami crouched and rounded herself up into a small ball. She completely settled herself into Ryuuji’s chest, as though using his body as a shield. He was so close that he could see her pearly gray eyes and her long eyelashes, which were wet and shimmering from the clear rain that clung to them.

“Ah, ah, ah… wai-wai…th-this is…” At his wit’s end, with a face so red that it looked like it would spray blood at a pinprick, Ryuuji raised his voice in embarrassment. If there was anyone who could act normally at such a sudden, transcendental embrace—and with an incredibly pretty girl, no less—he wanted to know who they were.

“…Over there…” she whispered in a small voice, pointing carefully to show him. He was still in a dreamy state as he looked in that direction, but the change came instantaneously. Ryuuji’s boiling blood dropped to below freezing in an instant, and he sunk down on his feet in a chill.

“…Th-that guy…”

Back at their original gazebo, the guy who’d just run in to escape the rain was unpleasantly familiar.

The man folded up his umbrella and looked around. It was that guy who looked like a college student at first glance, who, if he weren’t carrying a digital camera in this torrent, wouldn’t have been so strangely conspicuous. 

Instinctively, Ryuuji had goosebumps. He exchanged his spot for Ami’s and managed to completely hide her.

“It’s the weirdo from yesterday…right? Why would he be in a place like this? It’s too much to be a coincidence…”

“…Do you really think there’s any chance it could be?”

“…”

He couldn’t answer Ami’s question. But no—it definitely couldn’t be a coincidence.

“He was waiting while I was at school…and followed us here…!”

A gross sensation slithered through Ryuuji. He shuddered unconsciously—and that wasn’t just because of the cold. “How would he know the school you go to? You made it sound like he was a weird fan you happened to run into yesterday.”

“…Right, and he is, but…” Ami’s faltering voice was mixed with hesitation. He understood. Several times, she opened her mouth, but she kept silent. She held her breath, sheltered within Ryuuji’s arm. Just like that, her body froze up.

“Say it. Now that it’s come to this, you can’t keep it a secret.”

When he quickly jolted her cold shoulders, her back faintly shook. Then, slowly, in a quiet voice, she finally spoke the words.

“Well…there’s only one way to put it. That guy…is a stalker.”

At the reverberation of those words, Ryuuji recalled the furious shout Ami had given earlier in her treacherous fight with Taiga—you stalker! He thought that might pretty much have been the one and only time Ami’s emotions were laid bare.

“Yesterday, how do I put this… I was too embarrassed to say it. I don’t want it to be a big deal…and that guy is an infamous nuisance in the industry. Somehow, he researches you and appears around your house or your parents’ house or your school with camera in hand. He’s been prowling around after other magazine models besides me and causing trouble.”

“…For real…?”

At Ryuuji’s grumble, Ami nodded, and then continued on. “The reason I moved here was because of that guy. My mom is an entertainer, right? My mom’s office told me there were problems with a weird guy prowling around our neighborhood…so I ended up coming here alone and living with my relatives. My dad is also busy with work, so he couldn’t leave his office at the city center. But…I didn’t think that this guy would keep looking for me even after the move…”

“So that’s how it is…”

“Yeah. I don’t think I could have helped having to move, but…I’m scared. I’m separated from my parents, and until this cools down, I took a break from modeling work, and a break from the agency. So no one is here to protect me…before, my manager would pick me up with a car but…ugh, I can’t believe it…I can’t believe he would follow me all the way here…!”

That would be scary.

It was scary enough to make even him cold, and he was a guy. For Ami, who was the target, it was probably so terrifying that he couldn’t even imagine.

He unconsciously held her more firmly with his arm.

“…Takasu-kun…”

“Until that guy gives up and goes, let’s keep hiding.”

He was a coward who couldn’t bring himself to say I’ll beat that guy up, but even Ryuuji could at least hide with her. They both remained there, trying to lower the sound of their breathing, huddled up together, waiting for the time to pass. 

But while the rain might have made some people give up, this guy was still sitting on the bench. He started leisurely wiping his wet camera.

And during that time, the rain mercilessly changed directions. It blew right into them. Ryuuji’s tracksuit got wet and started to grow heavy. When he was wondering just how long they’d need to stay like this, he heard a voice.

“Heeey! Takasu-kuuun! Kawashima-saaan! That’s weird, they’re not anywhere. But in this rain… what’s goin’ on with it? Taiga, aren’t you cold?”

“I’m fine. What about you, Minorin?”

“I’m totes fine! But I really do wonder where they got off to. There was someone who saw them heading to the riverbank, too…”

“It’s raining pretty hard, so I wonder if they went back halfway. What if they already went back?”

“Wouldn’t we have seen ’em if they were on their way back?”

In the increasing wind and rain, the voices they heard were no doubt Minori and Taiga. He felt uncertain whether he could depend on those two. He wasn’t sure if he could trust that unpredictable pair—he wasn’t sure whether they’d been saved or if the situation had just gotten worse. But still, without thinking Ryuuji turned…

“Hey, those voices are definitely Taiga’s and Kushi… bwuh!”

He sputtered. Even though it was a time like this…

It was just such a terrible sight. Minori had opened a hole in a trash bag and was wearing exactly the article of clothing they’d talked about before—a merry see-through poncho. 

And Taiga was using an extremely small, see-through takeout box like an umbrella over her head. 

“Hey, Minorin, those takoyaki from earlier weren’t that hot. I know it’s a bit late, but I’m ticked off. Let’s go give them a piece of our mind.”

It was a takoyaki box…but it was somehow still keeping her completely safe from the rain. Was it fine if she got aonori and katsuoboshi stuck to her head? She really was actually stupid… no, if he laughed, his abdominal muscles would… but then the tension diffused.

Peering up at Ryuuji, who was desperately trying to suppress a laugh, Ami rebuked him with pinched lips. “Takasu-kun, you’re kind of…shaking.”

“Sorry…I kind of got caught up…it’s just that…a takoyaki box as an umbrella is… Bwahaha!”

Hadn’t he seen a goblin outfitted like that before? A Mizuki drawing clearly formed in his mind.

But it seemed Ryuuji wasn’t the only one who was inspired by the odd sight. The stalker, still in the gazebo, suddenly turned around.

“A cute, pint-sized goblin discovery!”

He brought up his camera, rude as you please. But there was no way that the queen of the beasts, the Palmtop Tiger, wouldn’t notice that move.

“…A goblin… me?” 

In an instant, Taiga’s face twisted, baring fangs that thirsted for his blood. She turned her brutal gaze directly at the place where the voice had come from—the gazebo. 

“You over there! I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but you’re pretty creepy! I didn’t just hear a suspicious looking person like you calling me a goblin, did I?!”

She licked her lips with a red tongue—when her bloodlust was up, it didn’t matter if she was dealing with someone she had never seen before, or even some kind of pervert. She would go off on them without hesitation.

She rolled up the takoyaki container she was using as an umbrella in her hands, and her simple sword was done. She gripped it firmly in both hands, and brought her elbows into a sturdy stance.

“Rain like this will wash away all the evidence,” she muttered, and went right into a fierce dash.

“Huh? Wha, whoa!”

Still silent, sturdily holding her sword-carton, her face was that of an ogress. She tore ahead at an unnatural speed. There was no way he wouldn’t be terrified of a mysterious goblin dashing full force towards him.

“Wh-what is this?!”

Flustered, the man grabbed his backpack. He barely got his umbrella open before he turned his back to Taiga and started running.

Taiga just kept on pursuing. “I don’t care who you are or where you came from—whoa!”

Sploop. Her foot was helplessly stuck in the mud.

All this happened right in front of the dilapidated rack Ryuuji and Ami were hiding by. Right before she was about to fall face first into the mud…

“…Y-you…”

…Ryuuji jumped out into the middle of the rain. With miraculous timing, he grabbed Taiga by the nape of her neck. He narrowly caught her in midair, posed like an ensnared beast. “You klutz!”

Stuck in the same position, Taiga checked her feet. “…I-I thought I was gonna fall for sure! I stopped breathing!”

She desperately clung to Ryuuji’s arm, wet hair drooping to her waist. She had a look on her face like a cat that had been hit by a car. She breathed in a delicate, long breath.

“Don’t go around chasing someone you don’t know! Throw that thing away! Toss it!” Ryuuji slapped the carton sword (or goblin umbrella) from her hands. The top of her head seemed to smell a little like katsuboshi. As he was intently and absentmindedly staring at the crown of her head, Minori caught up to them.

“Taiga, what are you doing?! And wait, who the heck was that guy?! And wait, Takasu-kun, where were you?!”

Her face seemed to have a giant question mark in the middle of it as she wiped the mud off Taiga’s face. 

At that point, Ami, equally soaked, came on out. She stopped in front of Minori, who turned in surprise. 

“…And wait, where were you, Kawashima-san?!” She picked rotten scraps of grass off Ami’s shoulders.

“…”

A single droplet rolled down and fell from Ami’s rain-soaked face. 

***

“A stalker?!” While Kitamura shouted, he pushed up his drooping glasses. “You didn’t tell me about anything like that at all! You said you were tired of modeling, and didn’t like your school, and that your parents didn’t come home much!”

“…It was hard for me to tell you. Because if I told you, Yuusaku, you’d just worry about me.”

As he looked into the face of his childhood friend, who had grown entirely too beautiful, Kitamura had a rare moment of hesitation. 

As a thank you for participating in the cleanup, and to make it up to them for getting soaked in the storm, Kitamura had invited them to a late-night fast food place. Although the rain had tapered off to a light sprinkle, there still weren’t many other customers on account of the bad weather. 

After Ami finished telling Kitamura about her incredibly bleak situation, for some reason, she turned her ivory face down in embarrassment. Ryuuji, as a witness, refrained from making a statement as he sat beside her. Minori furrowed her brow while looking at Ami in worry.

“…Oh…”

Taiga dribbled ketchup from the potato chip she was holding—probably succumbing to the nervousness that came with Kitamura being nearby. Ryuuji, still silent, pulled out the wet tissues he carried around for Taiga’s messes, and quickly wiped her skirt.

In a rare moment for the group surrounding the table, they were all silent.

“Anyway, for now…”

The one who cut the fuse was Kitamura.

“We need to go to the police.”

“I already talked to them,” said Ami. “There seem to be other girls with the agency who pressed charges against him, but that guy’s really sly. He doesn’t leave any evidence of his identity. And it’s not like the police will start a real investigation over something this minor…”

“Then I’ll catch him and bring him to the police myself. He’s been hanging around you, right? I’ll talk to the other members and have them help—”

“Don’t, it’s too dangerous. And something like that…it’d become too big of a deal. It would cause trouble. You understand, right? Something like this is too juicy a scandal. I could end up becoming a public ‘victim,’ which would be entirely too much for me to endure. And if by any chance you or anyone else got hurt, I couldn’t handle the responsibility. And anyway, my mom… I don’t think my mom’s agency would forgive me.”

After being told that, even the righteous one among them grew silent. Kitamura groaned in a low voice as he crossed his arms. “But if this keeps up…”

“Right! That’s it!” 

Bringing up her pointer finger, Minori suddenly raised her voice. She opened her eyes wide and told them, “This is our only option.”

“The reason why they can’t catch that guy is because they don’t know his identity, right? Then, let’s stalk the stalker! While he’s stalker-stalking Kawashima-san, we’ll take pictures or video as evidence to bring him down. We’ll take that to the police, and have them figure out who he is, and then have them catch him. That should be good, right?”

“Kushieda…! That’s it! Amazing! As expected of the girls’ softball club president! No, right now, I feel like I could even hand over the boys’ club to you!”

“I know, right?! Give me the boys! I’ll rearrange their bodies a little and make it an all-girls division!”

“Ahaha, you really are a maniac!”

Kitamura and Minori were getting all riled up. They slapped their hands together playfully, but Ryuuji couldn’t help but cut in…even if he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to get involved “But wait a sec. Who would do it?”

“Why not me?” Minori said without any pretension, taking Ryuuji captive with her dazzling smile. “A friend of the belly is a friend of the heart! I have enough room in both to help out with this.”

Yay! She flashed a victory sign. Minori was truly kind. A goddess, dropped to the earth amongst unworthy mortals. Ryuuji was moved by how expansive her generosity could be. He held his hand to his mouth and his eyes glinted madly. 

Though he wasn’t angry—he was just teary eyed.

“I-I’ll do my best to help, too.”

He didn’t have confidence in his strength, but to have his beloved Minori say something like that, and then for him to not say anything—he couldn’t do something so crude. His pride as a man wouldn’t allow it. Then, he took a glance at Taiga, whose presence seemed awfully subdued.

The Baron Ashura face was there again.

Ryuuji could more or less imagine why. The right half of her face was jealous of Ami because of Kitamura’s worry for her. The left side was excited over the anticipation of potentially doing something with Kitamura. Her whole body was afflicted by subtle worry for Minori, who was saying she would help, and probably… just very, very slightly, there was just a hint of worry for Ami. 

…At least, he wanted to think there was. “Hey, Taiga.” Really, if he didn’t send her a lifeline, she really would just turn to stone. “You’re definitely helping, too, right? You have a grudge against that guy, too. See, he said that thing to you right? He said…”

“…Something terrible. He called me a goblin.”

He couldn’t give away that he’d been thinking of exactly those words. Ryuuji nodded knowingly at her. “Then, you’ve gotta bring him down.”

For a moment she held her tongue and turned her gaze to Ryuuji. It looked as though her anger at the incident and even her interest in it had already evaporated. “…Right. …That makes sense. Yeah, let’s do it. Ami, I may not be able to stand you, but just this once, I’ll fight with you.”

Taiga turned to Ami, and nodded deeply at her once.

“Just now, our hearts became one!”

Beside Kitamura, who was so riled up from the tension he was about to make a speech, Ami was afflicted with worry and her face was still downcast as she bit her lip, unable to make a sound. Ryuuji noticed.

“Are you okay?” he asked her automatically. Ami raised her face as though she’d suffered a physical blow. Then she quickly conjured up a smile.

“…Uh, yeah! If everyone’s going to help me, I’m back to 100%! Thank you—you’re all so dependable!”

Those strangely light words echoed emptily through the deserted restaurant.