Toradora! - Volume 2 - Chapter 6

Chapter 6

“The feared, the strong-armed, the captain, Kushieda Minori!”

“Yo! My Kanto-regulated ‘Bullet Back Home’ pitch ain’t just for show!”

“The chef with the evil eye, Takasu Ryuuji!”

“Y-yo…this’ll be over by five, right? There’s a limited time sale on chicken today.”

“The one with the most powerful name, the one and only, Aisaka Taiga!”

“…”

“And then me, Kitamura Yuusaku! Everyone’s on board, right?”

Pointing at each of them as they sat in a row to confirm, Kitamura balled his fingers tightly into a fist. It seemed that even the ever-busy Kitamura had taken time off from his club of his own volition. He’d obtained a special exemption from his student council activities in order to come along.

No other students lingered in the four o’clock classroom. The pale sunlight only illuminated the three henchmen sitting around Kitamura and Ami, who stood a bit further away.

Well then, Kitamura’s well-projecting voice rose. His presidential nature was on full display. “We’ll start our maneuver without delay, just as we planned yesterday. Here are the assignments. Kushieda, Aisaka, and I will take the picture of the stalker. We’ll use this digital camera, and also everyone’s cellphones. Takasu, please go with Ami and be prepared for the worst case.”

Ryuuji raised his hand, and after getting Kitamura’s approval, chimed in. “…Wouldn’t it be better for you and me to take the picture of the stalker and for the other two girls to be with Kawashima?”

At any rate, Taiga had thought that that assignment might have been too dangerous for Minori. But Kitamura discarded Ryuuji’s words. “No, if something were to happen and we had to leave taking the picture to them, it would be bad if the girls were left by themselves. There’s a chance that if he finds out we’re doing this, he might be provoked into something. In that one in a million chance, you’ll protect Ami—with your scary face.”

“…Well, I sort of understand why you’re asking me to…but I’m not confident I can really convince anyone I’m ready to fight.” Looking at the fist that he’d never swung at someone in anger, not even once since birth, Ryuuji shamefully lowered his voice. But then Ami walked over to his side and wrapped her hands around his arm.

“It’s fine! I know you’re reliable, Takasu-kun! I believe you’d definitely protect me!”

“Uh…ah…huh?!” At her sudden approach, Ryuuji couldn’t get out any words. He didn’t even know how to get her to let go. While he moved awkwardly and restlessly in an attempt to quietly take back his grasped arm, his cheeks became shamefully hot. Compared to this, even Taiga’s cold, piercing gaze was comfortable.

“There. Then let’s get moving. We don’t know where he’s been watching for her, so when we leave the shoe racks, Takasu and Ami go first. Take the route we talked about yesterday. Let’s communicate at our discretion via cellphone.”

At Kitamura’s command, they filtered out of the classroom and walked single file down the hallway.

“…Hey, what’s this thing?” Ryuuji noticed something strange in Taiga’s collar as she walked in front of him.

“I brought it just in case. Doesn’t this thing feel nostalgic?”

She twisted her lips into a grin. A wooden, rod-like object was faintly visible through Taiga’s hair. Wondering what it was, Ryuuji pulled it out slightly. “…If you start waving this thing around, you’ll make this into a big deal.”

“I know that, that’s why it’s for just in case.”

She quickly pushed the handle of the wooden sword Ryuuji had seen back into the neck of her jacket. Ahh, it is nostalgic—that spring night, when she tried killing me with this… When he looked closely, she had strangely good posture. The reason was undoubtedly because that thing—that thing he had unfortunately seen—was set along her back. It was only the length of her hair that kept it concealed. 

“More importantly, Ryuuji.” Suddenly Taiga lowered her voice and looked straight up at him, large eyes intent. She was still hiding the wooden sword behind her back.

“Hm?”

“You really are such a hopeless, perverted dog…that mooning face you made earlier…was slovenly. It’s embarrassing to your owner, frankly.”

“Wh…what are you talking about…?” Even while he asked her, he of course knew what she was talking about. 

At Ryuuji’s face, Taiga made an exaggerated sigh. “I guess that means you’ve gotten real close to Kawashima Ami. …Well, I guess that’s fine? You’re planning on forgetting about Minorin quick since she doesn’t like you, so you can switch over to a pretty girl who’s willing to get all cozy with you. Guess you’re that kind of guy. I’ll remember that.”

“That’s… y-you’re totally misunderstanding something there.”

“I wonder if I am. Well, do as you please. I can’t be bothered to deal with a dog in heat.”

“…Man, where do you get off saying that?”

Hmph. In the end, she gave him a poison-filled smile. Taiga averted her face haughtily and left Ryuuji behind with a trot. Then, just like that, she shook her long, pale, smoky hair and stuck close to Minori, who was walking up ahead.

“Yo, if it isn’t Taiga-chan. You’re lookin’ cute today.”

Taiga purred like a cat. Though it was hard to say if Minori could see the thing or not, Taiga playfully poked Minori’s butt with the point of the wooden sword that just barely fit under the hem of her skirt.

“You’ve got something hard in there.”

“You can’t ever be too careful.”

Ryuuji automatically stared—no, he sighed in exasperation. You go around calling me a perverted dog, but you’re the one who’s way more perverted.

And even from Taiga, calling him that was way too terrible an insult. Just what did I do, anyway? But the time when he could have made a comeback had already passed.

“Takasu-kun, what’s wrong?”

“Ah…no, nothing.”

At some point, Ami had caught up to his side. From the shock he got at seeing her smile, he tensed up. They were practically bumping shoulders as they walked side by side, and even his anger hazily dissipated. He started to feel strangely impatient.

At any rate, the girl called Kawashima Ami was unexpectedly way too close…which accounted for the hotness of his cheeks. He broke off staring at her, the corners of his mouth turning slowly downwards.

***

They walked side by side along the residential street.

“And that’s when I asked them to let me try on the light pink one. But the person at the store, right? They said that the white one would definitely look good on me and she could only see me in white, so she pretty much forced me to try the knitted shirt. And then, I was like, maybe white’s better than I thought, and then I remembered the shirt I bought the other day was also white. Oh, maybe it wasn’t white, but like a pale gray one that I bought…or beige? Maybe it was beige?”

Ami grinned and continued chattering endlessly about her shopping. You could probably call this her ‘so preoccupied by shopping, can’t think about anything difficult, cute and fashionable girl’ face.

“Takasu-kun, are you listening?”

“…Yeah.”

“White or pink, which would you choose?”

“…For me, I think pink’s a little…”

“Not you! I’m talking about my clothes!”

“Oh, that’s what you meant.”

Ahahahaha—hahaha…haha…ha…

After all this time, Ryuuji finally understood Kitamura’s true motive. There hadn’t been anything wrong with him when he’d said he wanted Taiga to get along with Ami.

“I really love buying clothes.” What happened the day before might as well have been a long-forgotten memory. Ami spoke like an endearing child and gave him the smile of an angel. But he felt like the Ami who would fiercely glare at Taiga was much better than this one. The Ami who cursed as she threw her tadpole-tainted shoes into the riverbank was much easier to understand.

He felt something entirely distinct from boredom, or the slight chill he got on seeing Ami’s mask—instead, he felt as though he’d now seen something dangerous. This face was a lie, after all.

Her mask was thin ice—there was no doubt that her true face was mired in unease underneath. But why was she hiding that? Putting aside whether she had a good or bad personality (well, it was pretty bad), he couldn’t help but wonder why she would go through the trouble of hiding her true nature after she’d already been found out.

“Oh, your phone’s going off.” Ami indicated Ryuuji’s pocket with one seashell-like fingertip. The phone had started buzzing at some point. He quickly flipped it open…

“…Hello?”

“Private Takasu! What’s the situation over there?!”

He answered Kitamura’s impassioned and enthusiastic voice quite normally. “Nothing’s changed on our end. What about over there?”

“We spotted our suspect right away. He’s on approach about ten meters off your six. We’re keeping our distance and are in pursuit.”

“Takasu-kun, it’s Yuusaku, right? Let me talk to him, too.” Ami reached out and took the phone from Ryuuji. “Hellooo, Yuusaku? Yeah, we’re fine here, plus I’ve got Takasu-kun! But, you know, my feet are kind of getting tired… yeah, yeah… oh really? Then we’ll do that.”

She hung up the call without another word and flipped the phone closed.

“Yuusaku said to find someplace to go indoors. Somewhere where we can get a drink, with seats by a window,” Ami said, smiling happily. “Are there any places like that around here? Can you take us somewhere?”

“Somewhere where we can get drinks…nearby… can you see the sign over there on the other side of that road?” He felt that going with Ami to get a drink at a café would be tough, but it was on Kitamura’s orders. He pointed at a round sign with a flat green theme just a bit further ahead. 

“Oh, it’s a Starbucks! So there are some here, yay! I can finally get a latte again!”

“It looks like a Starbucks, right? But…”

“…Hm? …Huh? …What?”

As Ryuuji brought them closer, Ami’s head tilted more and more in suspicion. The sign did look exactly like one from the famous North American coffee chain. It was round, had a green border, and some sort of ambiguous, humanoid illustration. “T-this is…”

But that illustration was the likeness of the old, male shopkeeper.

“It’s the Sudoh Coffee Stand and Bar… we call it the Pseudobucks…”

“…Geh…”

Brrring.

As the incongruous door chime sounded, Ryuuji and Ami entered the Pseudobucks. The interior decoration, at least, approached that of a real Starbucks. There were comfortable looking sofas to sit in, the employees at the self-serve cafe looked to be college aged women, and it wasn’t that crowded, either.

“Wow…Pseudobucks…the atmosphere is pretty nice…” Looking around the place, Ami nodded in great interest. Then an old man stood up from a window seat.

“Oh! Aren’t you Mirano-chan’s kid?” he called out to Ryuuji, familiar. It was Inage-san, a Bishamon Heaven regular who was grieving his divorce from just that spring.

“Oh, good afternoon.”

“Wellll, what have you been up to? You’ve brought in a good-lookin’ gal today, too…did you break up with that pipsqueak terror of a kid? Yeah, you broke up, didn’t you?! That’s nice, a second marriage… err, I mean, a new girlfriend…”

“No, you’re mistaken. Kawashima, that man’s seat is gonna open up, so sit there. I’ll go buy something and bring it over.”

“Okaaay.”

How cute~, you’re such a pretty girl~, don’t you look almost exactly like that actress Kawashima Anna~, yes~ I get that a lot~! Ryuuji turned his back to the cheery chatter and went to the counter.

“Welcome to Sudoh-bucks!”

It was normal for the employees (who wore black polo shirts and green aprons) to arbitrarily use that store name. Even though they made such an effort to rip off Starbucks, they had a relatively normal menu for a café. Ryuuji ordered two Americanos and returned to the seat where Ami was waiting. 

“Were you okay with coffee?”

“Yeah. This place is pretty comfy… it kind of makes me feel like doing homework.” Letting her body sink into the sofa, Ami seemed to be completely captivated by Sudoh-bucks. That’s right, that’s right, everyone in this town loves Pseudobucks. And everyone knows that a real Starbucks won’t come here even if we waited a hundred years. 

“The cakes are pretty good, too. They’re handmade by the head guy’s daughter.”

“Cake… cake…I’d really like to eat a slice…” No no. Ami obstinately shook her head. It may have been unconscious, but her hand went to her belly. It seemed she was determined to resist after suffering a blow from Minori’s Convenience Store Shin Ken just the other day. 

Without making any more recommendations, Ryuuji called Kitamura on his cellphone. “Hey, I just got into Pseudobucks with Ami.”

“Good, we saw you as you went in, roger that! Pseudobucks is a great place.”

Yes, yes, Ryuuji nodded in agreement with his fellow local from across the phone.

“The stalker also followed you and is watching the window. He’s hiding himself in a building entrance’s shadow on the other side of the crosswalk. Just stay there for now.”

“Got it.”

When he hung up, Ami immediately asked about the conversation, “What did Yuusaku say?”

“That guy’s hiding in that building over there. He said to just stay here for now.”

“…Guh. That’s creepy… he really must be watching.”

Ami tried to hide in the shadow of the curtain. “Oh, right.” She immediately came to a realization and went back to her original position. “If I hide myself like that, there’s no point right?”

“Right, right, if he doesn’t take pictures, we won’t be able to take pictures of him doing that.”

“I understand that but…I don’t like it. It’s creepy…” Ami looked down. Her pretty features contorted into a gagging expression.

“Well, it really is creepy. To have some weirdo sneaking pictures of you.”

“That’s true, but the thing I really hate isn’t just that. Way earlier, that guy put a picture he’d secretly taken into my mailbox…and I really hated that.”

“Y-your mailbox?! That means he went right up to your front door! That’s…”

Ami waved her hand, no no no, to Ryuuji, who had become speechless, then bitterly grimaced. “I hate that he came to my house, of course, but, to me, the photo itself was as much of an issue. I was shopping on the way from work and…I was making a really unpleasant face, like a sulky one. It was obviously the face of a bully. I really got fed up when I saw that…like, is that really my face?! Is my bare face really that terrible?!”

But you’re an absolute beauty, so that’s not so bad, Ryuuji thought.

“No, no, I really hate it… that face. I actually hate it. I loathe it. …I don’t want to show that face to anyone.” Ami’s lips twisted as she practically spat out the words. To her, this seemed to be something she couldn’t forgive, something she resented from the bottom of her heart. It was probably terrible for Ryuuji to say so, but when it came to a problem like that, no one had him beat.

“If you’re talking about faces, look at mine. You thought I was a delinquent at first, too, right? It might be because I look so unpleasant, but people walking along the street point at my back. You have it way better, and people call you cute and stuff.”

“Then, Takasu-kun, you can put on a cute face, too.”

“How?”

“Like this. Be like, ‘I’m cute! I’m the cutest!’ Really, seriously, like this.”

Prod. She poked her cheeks with her index fingers. Grin. She narrowed her eyes into a sweet grin. Tilt. She cutely inclined her head. 

I’ll do it, then. Don’t you end up regretting it. 

Ryuuji gave it his all. “Like this?” 

Prod, grin, tilt.

“…BFHHH!” Ami sprayed her Americano. She sputtered like that for a while, as if in very real pain. “…Wh…wh…cough…Ta…Taka…cough cough cough!”

“…I know exactly what you’re going to say. And I knew before I even got started.”

Covering her mouth with a handkerchief she’d desperately brought out, Ami was in tears. Her face was red from coughing—she’d fallen over on the table, breathing painfully. But, she somehow managed to point at Ryuuji…

“S-scary… cough cough… really…just terrifying!”

“I told you I already knew, didn’t I?!”

Her reaction was within the scope he expected, but it still really did hurt. And he couldn’t just tell her how much. “I’ll tell you this, but you’re doing the same thing. No matter how cute your face is, what you’re doing with it at its essence is terrifying. Practically a horror show! That’s where it’s the same.”

“Ahhh, you wound me! Really, stop it, Takasu-kun, how am I and that the same?!” Hehehehehehe. She laughed like she was having a grand time, after she’d just described his face as “that,” there wasn’t a reason to hold back anymore.

“It’s the same. I didn’t want to say it, but your change in personality yesterday was a horror show all by itself. It wasn’t because you got angry, but because you thought you could pretend everything was fine and put on your act again right after…”

Of course, he wasn’t going to say I’ve known your true nature since we first met. Even what he had already said might have been too much, but he couldn’t take it back now. Once the words began flowing out his mouth, he had to continue until he was completely finished.

“Just stop with that mask already. I figured it out a while ago. When you’re remaking your mask, whether you’re putting on a cute act or whatever, it’s unpleasant for whoever has to watch.”

In the end, he went that far.

“…Kawashima…?”

Maybe I really did say too much—but, eventually, he noticed Ami’s expression.

Ami was still smiling…still wearing her unnatural, soft angel’s smile. She carefully watched Ryuuji. Her face didn’t change in the slightest to reflect her emotions—she seemed to be pushing everything into that smile. “The thing that happened yesterday? What was that? …It’s like breathing, saying that sort of stuff is a breeze for me. You can’t trip me up with something as small as that.”

Ryuuji couldn’t even tell if the gaze that stared straight at him was cold or hot. What he could tell was just one thing—no matter what he said or what words he used, her iron-clad mask of a smile would repel him. He wouldn’t be able to reach the flesh and blood parts of her that lay beneath.

“I need this face. I know that better than anyone.”

“Uh…um…” He didn’t know how to respond to that, but it seemed that Ami didn’t really expect a response. She continued, smile as pristine as ever.

“Whether this has meaning or value or anything like that is a completely different conversation. Yesterday, maybe it didn’t have any. Meaning or value, I mean. What it did have though, was…just the spirit to annoy that annoying shrimp, maybe? Because that shrimp’s face is too funny when I’m near you. When it comes to stuff like that, I just can’t help myself. Though I admit tadpoles were unexpected.”

“…Sorry, this is kind of…I don’t really understand, but…I think I said too much…”

“Hmmm? What are you talking about? Takasu-kun, did you say something to me? I don’t remember aaany of it.”

Meeting Ami’s eyes, which were round with puzzlement, Ryuuji could only lightly suck in a breath. So this girl is so stubborn about keeping her true self hidden that she’s willing to go as far as this.

“Come ooon, what’s with that face? You don’t have to think about it that seriously. Because this is a tactic. A tactic to say strange things and make you think about me. …But there’s really no meaning in all this.”

“…I’m not really following you anymore, Kawashima…”

At Ryuuji’s words, Ami cutely tilted her head, and as though satisfied, laughed. “It’s fine, it’s fine, that’s fine. See, I’m just ‘oblivious.’”

If I really don’t need to understand…then I won’t think about it. Ryuuji shrugged his shoulders and looked at the girl with the split personality who proclaimed herself oblivious. He pretended not to know anything as he sipped his Americano.

Finally, probably ten minutes into the death of all fruitful conversation, Ryuuji’s phone vibrated.

“Hello, Takasu? The situation isn’t that great. It seems the guy can’t take a good picture of Ami from where he is and gave up. He’s reading a manga and waiting until you two leave the store. Sorry for having you go in, could you come out?”

“Yeah, I got it.”

He explained the situation to Ami, then together they quickly cleaned up their trays and left Pseudobucks. Kitamura and the others seemed to be checking in on their actions from nearby.

“Sorry about that. Just stick with the original plan and head to the park located down the northwest highway.”

“Got it. Kawashima, let’s walk this way.”

Side by side with Ami, Ryuuji once again started walking at a slow pace, but then Kitamura went on.

“And—I have one other sad piece of news. We’ve lost private Kushieda.”

“…What?!”

Ryuuji unintentionally stopped walking. The one who suggested this in the first place? Already? Wh-while we weren’t even doing anything?

At his excessive surprise, he unconsciously raised his voice. Ami’s eyes opened wide as she looked up him. …This wouldn’t do. If he didn’t feign composure, the stalker would suspect something was up.

“Wh…why?”

“She had an emergency call from her part-time job. Rumor on the wind is that they needed her to fill in for someone. Her hiring manager was crying and saying something like if you don’t come in, you’re fired, or rather, if you don’t come in, Kushieda, I’m fired. She herself was crying as she left the battlefield… Kushieda left a message. She said, Let’s meet again, but actually I’m so sorry. We lost a good soldier…”

Ryuuji gulped. Minori had left the front, which meant only one thing.

“…Th-then that means right now it’s just you and Taiga over there…”

“Private Aisaka is doing well.”

“P-put Taiga on the line for a bit, it’s an emergency!”

After a while…

“…Tsk.”

The noise dribbling from the phone was a peculiar way of breathing—one that could just as easily presage speechlessness or a storm of tears.

“T-Taiga…are you okay?!”

“…Wuh…waah.”

It doesn’t seem like she’s okay—Ryuuji vigorously scratched his head. Taiga was in no state to endure being alone with Kitamura. She turned to stone when he so much as approached her. If they had to walk alone together…Taiga would probably die.

“Hey, keep it together! Have you tried a conversation?! Do you have a subject you can talk about?!”

“…F…f.”

“F…fine?! You’re fine?!”

“…Flustered.”

Boop, the line suddenly went dead.

“Huh…huhhh?!”

What just happened. Ryuuji’s mind was blank as he stared at the phone. Taiga (who was already a klutz) was alone with Kitamura, too flustered to even have a conversation with him, and following a stalker, and then the phone had suddenly cut out… his uneasiness was profound.

“Hey, what happened? Just now, that was Yuusaku and everyone, right? Did you have a bad signal?”

“Ah, yeah…for some reason it cut off suddenly…”

“Try calling them back?”

Nodding at Ami’s best advice, he tried calling them again, but the sound that streamed through was, “The phone number you have dialed is disconnected or no longer availa…” When he tried calling again, he got the same result. He sighed and put the phone away into his pocket.

“You can’t reach them? What did Yuusaku say?”

“I-It seems like Kushieda is out, and Taiga seemed to be in trouble. I really wonder what happened… should I try calling again? No, the signal isn’t coming in…”

Suddenly, he noticed Ami was staring intently up at him.

“…Wh-what?”

Ami was speechless.

That look didn’t seem like fear of the stalker. Instead, it seemed like Ami was searching the depths of Ryuuji’s heart. That transparent, but direct and perfectly lucid gaze… more than anything, it made him become flustered. He couldn’t put himself at ease…

“Wh-what is it?”

“…Nothing?” She faintly smiled and released Ryuuji from her gaze at the same time. He felt like he’d been saved.

“But I just had a thought. Takasu-kun, you really seem to be kind. Especially when it comes to that girl…”

That girl? Which girl? A little faster than he could ask out loud, the phone in his pocket vibrated once again. It seemed the signal had finally come back. He pressed the accept button. “Yo.”

“Uuwuuh…uwah…”

“…T-Taiga?”

He automatically pushed the phone right up to his ear. He didn’t know what had happened on the other side of the phone, but he heard Taiga’s crying.

“Hey, what happened?!”

“K-Kitamura-kun is…”

“Something happened to Kitamura?!”

At those words, Ami snapped up to look at Ryuuji’s face.

“Kitamura-kun got stuck in a storm drain!”

“A storm drain?!”

“Just now, we almost got cut off at the crosswalk and ran in a hurry, then he fell into the drain… Kitamura-kun was completely dirty all over and told me to just leave him behind…!”

“HUH?!”

“A-and, he told me to get as far as I could and gave me the digital camera… and… now I’m alone…!”

This is just stupid, Ryuuji thought. He could hear it faintly on the other side of the phone… Aisaka! Be careful…! That distant voice was definitely Kitamura’s.

“…Like, seriously, I don’t know why I’m doing this anymore…”

“D-don’t cry! Umm, right…r-right…for now, umm…”

“AHH!”

“What happened?!”

Without thinking, he stopped in his tracks and breathed in. Just now, that was Taiga’s scream.

“…I…I have something to tell you…”

For a moment, he was soothed when she continued speaking, but…

“I just fell in the gutter too. Today is impossible… I’m completely dirty. So’s the camera…the plan is a failure, I’m ending the call.”

“Wh…what?! Taiga?! Hey, Taiga! …Sh-she…hung up…”

…What has this come to?

Ryuuji was mostly in a stupor as he stared at the disconnected phone. What is it with the gutters? Are there really so many over there? Is it that easy to fall in? Are gutters…ugh, gutters…

“What happened to everyone?! What happened?!”

The situation was hard to believe, but he still needed to explain it to her. Resolutely, Ryuuji turned again to Ami, who was looking up at him with worry.

“It’s total annihilation. Kitamura and Taiga both fell into gutters.”

“…What? G-gutters?”

They stared at each other blankly for a while. It was now four in the afternoon. The two of them, now left behind, had nowhere to go…

“…No.”

Ami’s shoulders shook. At about the same time, Ryuuji reflexively turned around.

The stalker, who’d shaken off Kitamura and Taiga, was standing mere meters away. He probably hadn’t even known he’d been a mark. Calm as can be, he carried his phone in one hand and looked as though he were checking his messages—but the flash on his phone’s camera was left on. He might have been taking a video.

“L-let’s go…”

Ami’s brow furrowed, the color disappeared from her face, and she started running at a jog. Ryuuji quickly ran after her. He allowed himself the naive thought that there was no way they’d be followed…

“Wai…what’s with that guy…?”

The man was boldly running after them, still holding up his cellphone camera.

The place is deserted. If something happens, do I have the confidence to do anything by myself? Ryuuji pondered while he ran. Why was it that normally, when he didn’t need it, people were completely terrified of him—but in moments when it was vitally important, his glare was useless? Was he being completely underestimated right now? When he glanced quickly behind him, he got his answer. The man was enthralled with the phone screen and only focused on recording Ami. Ryuuji was just some kid—and it was probably true—the man was probably looking down on him. If his (prodigal) father, who he inherited his sharp eyes from, had been the one glaring, the situation would probably be different.

“What should we do? He’s still on us!” Ami was at her wit’s end. At her voice, Ryuuji’s heart also sank. They had to lose him somehow. Somehow, without anything happening, they needed to get back to their everyday world.

“Uhh…the closest police station from here is…ugh, damn it, it’s pretty far! But maybe we can manage to make it anyhow!”

“I don’t want to do this anymore…!” Ami, pitifully, was almost half-crying. Her voice quivered with tears. “Why do I have to be in a situation like this?! It’s all his fault that everything’s messed up! Yuusaku might even be hurt… seriously, what can I do now?!”

If the only one who had been left here with Ami was Kitamura, he might have turned around, thrown down the gauntlet, and fought. He was an idiot who could fall into a gutter, but his pluck and sense of justice were the real deal. And he probably wouldn’t have let a girl cry like this—if only, if only though.

Ryuuji at least wanted to hold Ami’s hand as she ran away to encourage her. But with Ami desperately running, it didn’t seem like the right time. Ryuuji could only catch her fists. He was unable to do it, unable to protect Ami as her quivering voice grew louder.

“I took a break from work, and moved, and even transferred schools over that good-for-nothing loser…! But then, in the end, I’m still in the same situation! What is this…and in the end, all I can do is run away again! No matter where I run, he’ll follow me…what should I be doing?!”

“K-Kawashima!”

Gradually growing more agitated, Ami pitched her voice louder and louder. She seemed about to snap again as her voice went higher still. Before he knew it, the voice that he thought had been shaking from tears seemed to overflow with rage.

“Hey, he can hear you! …If you provoke him too much…”

“But I’m pissed off!” Ami’s voice snapped, like she was ready to bite him. “Because of that loser, I’ve been so agitated and so stressed out, I’ve been completely pigging out! My stomach’s going to turn jiggly! If it keeps like this, I really will have to give up being a model…like, what is that?! HUH?! Unbelievable! Just how hard do you think it’s been for me?! But with this fat… with… with this belly… it’s fat!”

Seeing that fierce look from the side of his eye, Ryuuji gasped. Up until now, her profile had been tearful. Now, her lips were lifted, veins were standing out on her temple, both her eyes were narrowed, and her nose was wrinkled into a snarl. It was exactly like a Chihuahua baring its teeth. This was the true Ami.

“What the hell…damn it…that means, am I really being beaten by that worthless loser?!”

She had arrived. Ami-chan was here.

“This Ami-chan, beaten and ruined by that pervert! Agh! Damn it, what the hell?! It really makes me angry..it really makes Ami-chan…so…angry…! Argh!”

“K-Kawashima…hey, hold up a second…”

“Takasu-kun, you said it, right? Stop with the mask… you just said that to me, right? Well, I get it. I’ll stop. Ami-chan’s done. I’ll stop, I’ll stop, I’ll stop, I—will—stoooop! I’ll live with my terrible personality on my face, I’ll live on!”

“Wai- that’s…not what I…”

“SHUT UP! That shrimp, Aisaka Taiga, wasn’t losing to that guy! So Ami-chan won’t let him just keep doing what he wants, either! And I have a guy with me! I’m gonna show that stalker! Don’t underestimate the daughter of an actress!”

There beside Ryuuji (who was at a loss for words), Ami suddenly made a one eighty. He realized too late that she’d turned on her heel.

“HYYYYAAAAAA!!”

She dashed out fiercely with all her strength, aiming at the man behind them. She swung around her bag, pretty features distorted into those of an ogre.

“Hah?! Huuh?!”

It wasn’t unreasonable for the man to run away. The pursuer became the pursued in an instant role reversal.

“GET BACK HERE YOU SCUMBAAAAAG!”

The man ran away desperately, Ami just behind, spitting out her scorn. 

Of course, Ryuuji couldn’t just stand by and watch. “Don’t be stupid! Stop it! Calm down! Even though I look like this, I can’t stand fights!”

But Ryuuji’s words seemed to fall on deaf ears. He saw the man run into the park.

“THERE!”

With an amazing leap like a fawn, Ami jumped over the shrubs. She cut him off with the short cut, and readied her finishing blow.

“DAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

She threw her bag at him. The rectangular bag tumbled and flew low through the air.

“GAH!”

It hit the running man’s feet. As the things he carried flew from his arms, he dove face-first into the sand.

Without hesitation, Ami picked up the man’s fallen phone.

“…Haah….haah…haah…!”

With the face of an ogre, she was still out of breath, speechless. 

Crack crack crack!

…She broke it right in half.

“H-horri…”

She tossed the two pieces of wreckage down before the man, who was backing away in terror. But she still wasn’t done.

“Haah… you’ve got another one… Ami-chan saw it… take it out… take out the camera…NOW! Hurry up and fork it over!”

“…I-It’s there…”

The man shakily pointed at the ejected contents of his bag. A state-of-the-art model camera indeed was laying there. Ami bent down and took it into her hand. For a while, she turned it around, pressing buttons. She fiddled with it for a bit, like she was trying to figure out how to delete the data.

“S-stop! You’ll break it!”

“…Haah…haah…”

The man didn’t quite grasp the position he was in. And his voice seemed to have touched on Ami’s nerves. Still breathing roughly, she took the strap of the camera in her hand.

“HI-YAH!”

…And after twirling it around for a while, she used its centrifugal force to smash it against a concrete bench.

“WAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” The man was shrieking. As was maybe expected from a state-of-the-art camera, its casing withstood one or two attacks (though who knew about the inside).

“TAKE THAT! TAKE! THAT! TAKE THAT! 

…TAAAAKE THAAAAAT!”

After suffering repeated atrocities, the camera at long last cracked with a satisfying crunch. Pieces that never should have disconnected came falling down. But Ami kept right on hitting it against the bench.

“DAH! DAAAH! DAAAAAHHH! Break…BREAK…! Into pieces…BREAAAK!”

…Ami must have built up a lot of stress. She kept hitting it again and again, with the strap still in her hand, until the camera no longer looked like a camera. The man, half-buried in sand, was already soundlessly crying. Seeing that picture of hell before him, Ryuuji couldn’t find words to address either of them.

“Uhh, wha, my camera…”

“There…I wonder what should I break next? Ami-chan’s kind of having fun now. Oh?”

Ami ground the wreckage of the dispersed and broken digital camera under her heel. She cruelly twisted her lips into a smile.

“Hey, can Ami-chan break some more? Can Ami-chan break eeeeverything? Are you even listening? Answer me! Should I break you in the same way?”

“P-please forgive me!”

The man prostrated himself in the sand, and with his hands shaking, firmly faced Ami.

“Can you promise me that you won’t follow me around anymore?”

“I don’t need to swear, I’ve already had way more than enough!” the man, who had become strangely childlike, cried pathetically. “Now that you’ve shown me that demonic face, I won’t anymore! Ami-chan isn’t my angel anymore! You’re a liar—you’re really an ogre! You’re pitch-black! I don’t want to be involved with a fraud like you anymore! The cute angel Ami-chan never actually existed! ‘Ami-chan’—what a joke! Come to think of it, why are you with that scary delinquent?! I just noticed him!”

“H-how am I supposed to be the delinquent here…?”

It seemed that rather than his shattered camera, his shattered dreams were what the man was really struggling with. There was no sign he was planning a counterattack. He just raised his voice and kept on shamefully crying. Ami was lucky he wasn’t a “real” danger who would do something like wave around a knife. 

At last, the man spoke his last words:

“You’ve got a terrible personality!”

“So what?” Ami shot back coldly. As though she had just remembered it, she pulled a hand mirror out of her uniform pocket. Then she looked at her reflection, smiled, and made a cutesy pose.

“Ami-chan is this cute. ♥ Her personality doesn’t matter. ♥”

***

Ami’s show of courage only endured until they left the park and turned the first corner.

“Here, sit! Move those newspapers!”

“Uwaah… wah…”

Ryuuji led Ami, practically carrying her, and tried to sit her down on cushions, but…

“I-I can’t let go.” Ami looked up at Ryuuji, tears streaming from her eyes. The fingers she used to grab onto Ryuuji’s arms were shaking, frozen so stiff that she couldn’t peel them off by herself.

“Just relax. Take all the time you need.”

The setting sun’s rays pierced into the Takasus’ two-bedroom home. Sitting on the burned tatami mats, Ami closed her eyes and desperately tried to regain control of her breath.

Ami had been fine while laying into the stalker…but as she had lumbered down the sidewalk and turned the corner, she’d suddenly fallen to her knees. “I-I was so scared!”

She’d shuddered all over. Tears had dripped from her eyes. Her whole body had been tensed up with nerves, and Ryuuji had had to halfway carry her. She was in no state to walk or stand alone. Even her dry lips had been shaking—she certainly couldn’t go on by herself.

The Takasus’ house wasn’t that far if you went around the park. So, somehow, he’d managed to lend her his shoulder and bring her in.

“…Where the heck is Yasuko when you need her?”

Ryuuji sat Ami down on the cushion and went into the kitchen. He looked around his own silent home, troubled. He couldn’t believe that no one was there. If he’d known, he would have called a taxi to take Ami back to her own house. Bringing a crying girl home to an empty house wasn’t something Ryuuji could handle. Even a girl who wasn’t crying was out of the question. As for Taiga? That was just one big exception.

At any rate, in order to calm Ami down, he brought over milk he’d heated up on the stove and sweetened with honey.

“Th-thank you…”

“If you want more, you can have as much as you want. If you don’t like sweet things, I have tea or coffee… or actually just coffee, I guess.”

“…No, this is fine…” Ami took a sip and finally let out one long breath. “It’s good. Hey, could you put in more sugar?”

“It’s honey, is that okay?”

Ami nodded, and he carefully dripped some honey into her cup. After he mixed it up with a spoon, Ami’s lips finally lit up with a pale smile. “…How unexpected. Takasu-kun, do you drink stuff like this?”

“No, not so much. Taiga’s the one who likes it that way.” After he accidentally blurted that out, Ryuuji glanced up at Ami and noticed her looking up at him.

“…Taiga. Takasu-kun, you always call Aisaka ‘Taiga,’ right?”

“It’d be weirder to hide it, so I’ll tell you.” It’s not really an excuse, because there isn’t a reason to need an excuse in the first place—that was his preface. “We live pretty close by, and she lives alone, and I just live with my mom, but that’s mostly like living alone so… well, somehow or another… you could say I’m helping her with chores, but we started eating together, kind of like siblings…”

“…Hmm. So that’s how it is.”

He wasn’t sure if she accepted his explanation or not, but Ami didn’t say anything more about it.

“This really is good. I think I’ll try my own version at home.” She held the cup in both hands, the hot milk now flavored with a considerable amount of honey. She kept on drinking, lapping it up.

“How are you feeling?”

At his inquiring voice, Ami raised just her eyes. With the cup still at her mouth, she smiled, as though embarrassed. Then she suddenly turned her face to the side. “Ahhh, seriously…it’s just humiliating! And after I committed so hard to going after him, too! I really thought I had what it takes, but…in the end, you had to put up with seeing me turn into a terrified, shaking mess.”

“That just comes with the territory. Because as soon as you started running, I was terrified, too. You were seriously lucky that guy didn’t get violent.”

“…I’m really sorry.” Ami finally turned back and put the empty cup on the table. Maybe it was because of the setting sun shining on her cheeks, but she was faintly dyed in pale orange. Her brown eyes looked like transparent amber.

“I can’t believe it myself… if my mom finds out, she’d kill me for doing something as dangerous as that. Maybe it’s Aisaka Taiga’s influence? Yesterday, I saw her chasing away that stalker guy so easily at the riverbank, and then, I suddenly got embarrassed that I was scared. And I guess you could say… I kind of felt…like she’d shown me up, somehow…”

“…Taiga is kind of a special case. I’m not sure you want to use her as a benchmark.”

“The Palmtop Tiger, right? I heard it from Maya-chan and everyone. Hah, it fits her too well, that nickname. Since crossing paths with the Palmtop Tiger, maybe I’ve grown a little braver, myself.”

“…Kawashima, you were a strong girl from the start.”

“A strong girl? Aha, I’m just messed up. I’m saying this about myself, but Ami-chan is a really messed up girl, and inside her belly is darkness. I’m a mean girl—you know that now, don’t you? Maybe since yesterday… or maybe even before that. There’s no point to putting on my act again at this point.”

Ami shrugged and laughed. It wasn’t her normal mask. Somewhere in her big eyes lurked the glimmer of an awakened arrogance. Her mouth was warped with a slight hint of what you might call cruelty. There was no trace of an angel’s purity there. In its place, what her face revealed was her slyness and mercilessness, a real spite—the arrogance of a person who didn’t think of others as people. But somehow…it was still beautiful. 

But at the same time, something about that face made Ryuuji feel awfully judgmental…

“Oh. I forgot about the other two. Who both…fell into gutters…somehow.”

“If she’s with Yuusaku, she’s fine,” said Ami—though Taiga being with Yuusaku was probably exactly what was dangerous. Her expression faded after she spoke, remembering the two. Her smiling face slowly tensed up, and she quietly held her breath. She looked as though she were trying to endure a faint pain. “That girl has it good.”

“That girl… you mean Taiga?”

Without answering, Ami looked down. “…For example, like with that stalker earlier…it’s easy to get people like that to like you. If you just put a little effort into being cute in pictures or on TV, people can’t help but like you. …See, because Ami-chan is super cute!”

She said those last words as though they were a joke, but Ryuuji didn’t feel like laughing. When Ami dropped those words, he looked at her hard-set profile—and he didn’t see anything to laugh about.

“…It’s more or less just as easy to get people to hate you. If I told everyone that this isn’t the real Ami-chan, that this isn’t what I’m actually like… if I showed them the real Ami, everyone would just hate me.”

Ryuuji averted his gaze in spite of himself. Ami’s self-effacing expression was so pitiful he couldn’t look—though if he told her that, she would definitely be hurt even more. “You shouldn’t say something like that.”

“But it’s true. The guy just now was just like that, right? What’s difficult is getting someone to like the real me. That’s it right there. That’s why that girl… that’s why I’m jealous of Aisaka Taiga. That girl doesn’t even feel like she needs to keep up appearances. But you don’t hate her at all, not even a bit. That’s a little… no, that’s extremely frustrating. And I tried to steal you away from her just because I wanted to see that girl frustrated…and I couldn’t get so much as a grip on you. That’s a first. ‘Why?’ I thought. ‘Ami-chan is definitely cuter, so why? How can I fail to be number one? Isn’t this unbelievable? Isn’t this unforgivable? Are she and I so different?’ …I really am jealous of that girl, aren’t I?”

Ryuuji quietly breathed in.

Ami was jealous of Taiga. Taiga was so jealous of Ami that she holed up to cry by herself. They each wanted the things that the other had. In the end, they were just both the way they were, so things were bound not to go well. Their feelings naturally clashed, and unlike Taiga and Minori, they didn’t have the rapport they needed to stick close together. That was just the way it was—and there was definitely nothing anybody could do to change it.

Although Ami had said Taiga didn’t feel the need to put up appearances, there was one thing he wanted to say, for Taiga’s sake. He wanted to say it for the part of Taiga that desperately put up appearances in ways no one except Ryuuji could see. “Kawashima, you’ve got Kitamura though.”

“Yuusaku?”

“That guy, he really worries about you, thinks about you, and takes care of you. He really understands the real you. He even got stuck in a gutter for you.”

“You’re right. But…Yuusaku is no good.” A tendril of her hair slipped and fell over her face. At that moment, Ami’s expression was hidden from Ryuuji. “Because Yuusaku has already chosen the one and only girl he likes.”

“…Huh?”

Ryuuji’s brain stalled.

He immediately thought of the person Kitamura had confessed to right after enrollment—Taiga. But Kitamura had plainly told Taiga he just wanted to be friends. Regardless of whether Taiga accepted that, he didn’t behave like she was the girl he liked. At least, he wasn’t acting like that at the present. But who was it? If it was new, then Minori? Or maybe Maya? Or maybe…

“What about you, Takasu-kun…?”

Ryuuji’s heart jumped.

With her body arched like a cat’s, Ami’s face drew near. She didn’t make so much as a sound. He could smell the milk on her breath. Not daring to look at Ami’s face, Ryuuji just shuffled backwards on his butt—but his back immediately hit the wall.

Ami didn’t come any closer.

She didn’t come any closer, but he felt like he was being drawn into the bottom of those damp, amber eyes…

“…Takasu-kun, if I showed you the real me…what would you do?”

“Wh-what would I?”

“…Would you like me?”

The world was robbed of sound.

Ryuuji’s feet hit the legs of the table. In the silence, the cup rolled onto the tatami.

They were five centimeters from their noses touching.

Right at the last moment—right before it was too late to play it off as a joke—Ami’s lips suddenly lifted up into a smirk.

“…Just kidding! Did I get your heart racing?”

And it was a joke, but… the only ones who would see it as a joke were the two of them. 

“Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear, oh dearie me…”

Thump. Thump. At the sound of plastic bags being dropped onto the tatami, Ryuuji pretty much jumped.

Ami reflexively turned. She was straddling the lower half of Ryuuji’s body.

Ryuuji reflexively turned. He was nonchalantly supporting her waist.

“…Oopsie! I…I didn’t do this on purpose, promise! Umm… I went shopping and I found Kitamura-kun and Taiga-chan stuck in the storm gutters, and then… uhhmm… ahhh, this is awkwarrrrd!”

Yasuko brought both her hands to her bare face and wriggled around in a pose reminiscent of Munch’s “The Scream.”

Behind her, Kitamura’s whole body was covered in mud. He looked to be in a terrible state. He tried to push his bent glasses up his nose, using a wooden sword as a cane in his other hand.

And then there was Taiga, who also was covered all over in mud. “No way…” Taiga, who was being carried on Kitamura’s back. At the sight of Ryuuji and Ami, she was struck dumb—both eyes wide open.

In an obscure corner of the room, wholly unnoticed, Inko-chan shed fluffy feathers from her whole body. As it turned out, she’d seen everything.