Truth - Part 2

In the first place, why was I alone with her in that room?

What possible set of circumstances could have led to a situation where the two of us, an adolescent boy and an adolescent girl who barely knew one another, would be holed up alone in that room for five hours?

Our strange tale begins about two hours earlier.

It's currently Monday. Already a week has passed since the incident with Jack. Though I say already, it was a long and agonizing week filled to the brim with awkward tension.

Scarlet and I had not said a word to one another since then.

I'm not sure if she's avoiding me or not, but I decided to take the hint and not say anything to her in return.

Though I was happy to not be driven around by her anymore, in a way, I was also relieved that she hadn't officially ended her request. I enjoyed the few conversations we had, even if they did seem a bit hostile on her end. I guess once you've made the mistake of joining the 'Fated Ones', the company of any girl my age is something to be treasured.

In any case, this story isn't about Scarlet. I'm merely prefacing the incident that had given me a small peek of something that I should not have seen.

By some coincidence, Sig and I were heading to homeroom together at that exact moment in time.

That's right, a complete coincidence.

I had to accept at that point that life was all about these strange coincidences. After all, it was that exact coincidence which had sparked Sig's earnest request.

Here we were, strolling through the hallway about fifteen minutes before homeroom where we witnessed a strange scene.

A rather well-built senior, an athlete on one of the school's sports teams most likely, was walking aimlessly through the hallway with absolutely no intention of paying any mind to where he was going.

And walking toward him while completely immersed in her book was none other than Momoka Kudo.

Looking back on it, it almost seemed as if he was purposefully looking away from his intended path forward.

"Oi oi, this isn't good. Momo-chan's gonna bump into that guy!"

I remember Sig expressing his worry using his usual nonsensical slang. I believe Nick called him a weeaboo for speaking in that manner so I suppose we can go with that. In any case, I tried as casually as I could to assure him that nothing bad would happen and that they would both be fine. I only wanted to remove the what I had deemed needless worry from his mind.

If only I could go back in time and slap myself in the face for ever being that blindly optimistic.

As Sig had predicted, Momoka bumped into the sturdy chest of the unfamiliar senior in front of her and fell straight to the ground.

It was strange seeing her like that. Usually, Momoka carried this air of dignity that made her seem almost completely infallible. And yet somehow, simply by crashing to the ground like a regular girl would in this scenario, that intense aura had completely dissipated.

It felt strange to think it right after she had crashed clumsily into someone else like that, but for the first time since I'd met her, I thought she was kind of cute. That's right, cute. It was a complete 180 of my first impression of her.

"T-this isn't good Chase."

"Huh? Cause he'll get mad? No way, if anything she's the one who'll be upset."

"No, it's worse than that…"

I didn't understand it at the time, but he informed me on the subject matter a bit later. If you're as unfamiliar with this type of scenario as I was, then I'll explain it to you as best as I can.

To Sigmund Jackson, no. To any geek who spends too much time watching anime, the mere act of bumping into a girl like that is one of the most popular types of character introductions within a subcategory known as "romance flags". The act of coincidentally meeting that way is a sweet, albeit clichéd way of introducing two characters in romance anime and even some western movies. It gives both characters a good opportunity to briefly get to know one another before they hit it off in future scenes.

Which is why, to them, it's the ultimate beginning of an innocent, adolescent romance.

The senior male extended his hand down at Momoka.

"I'm very sorry about that. Are you hurt anywhere?"

Momoka studied his hand for a moment, then placed hers into his palm and allowed him to pull her up.

The sound of Sig grinding his teeth at that simple gesture was so palpable that I almost visibly cringed.

"Sorry, and thanks."

She said it while slowly rotating her head in order to survey the area.

"You remember me right? Ryan from the football team? We've met a few times before."

"…"

Momoka had completely ignored him.

Rather, she seemed distracted by something else.

At first, Ryan appeared confused, but eventually he realized what was off.

"Ah, are you looking for this?"

He lowered his body in order to pick up the fallen object that was at his feet.

It was the book that Momoka had been so heavily invested in.

Only, the book had fallen rather awkwardly onto the ground. The pages were all spread open onto the dirtied floor of the hallway.

Ryan didn't seem to care that much about that though. In fact, he seemed more concerned about that dirt getting on his hands just moments before class.

As a result, he ended up pinching two opposing corners of the book and lifting it from the ground.

"Here you go, girlie."

He grinned at her slyly. I remember wishing I was that smooth with women.

But only for a brief moment.

"…"

As for what came after that, only Sig believes that it had truly happened.

Not I, nor Ryan, nor the other students who happened to be walking the halls at the time, had been able to process that sudden transformation.

Because at that moment, after Momoka had accepted the book from him, she pulled her leg backwards and…

FWOOP!!

With one swing, every guy in the area felt an unsettling chill travel up to their lower region.

What followed that was the scream of Ryan as he crumpled to the ground in pain.

He hadn't the energy to make so much as a peep afterwards. He could only grasp at his crotch as an apocalypse of pain traveled through his body.

The abruptness of it all had stunned me completely. No one could have anticipated that kind of sudden outburst.

Momoka picked up her book and, in one swift movement, she stomped her foot down onto the face of Ryan.

"What do you think you're doing, maggot? Who the hell gave you permission to touch my belongings?"

I thought I was dreaming. I thought it had to be a dream.

The silent, elegant, and ever so poised Momoka Kudo had suddenly begun grinding the sole of her shoe into his face like the insect that she thought he was.

Mercilessly.

"God, what an idiot. Now the cover's bent."

She sighed aloud, speaking to no one in particular.

She was in her own world.

The fact that she had just trampled over someone as intimidating as Ryan probably hadn't even been registered in her mind.

"This is unbelievable…"

She shook her head in frustration.

And with that, it all but seemed over.

Since her voice mellowed out, I had assumed that the worst was done. Her rage had simmered and now she would quietly mourn the damage alone.

And I was right, for the most part.

However, she had probably mellowed out a bit too suddenly. It seemed as if Momoka had completely forgotten the fact that she was currently stepping on Ryan's face.

And thanks to that forgetfulness, she wounded up putting all of her body weight into stepping down onto his skull and walking over him.

All I could do was thank god that Momoka looked so light, even by freshman standards.

I was petrified by the idea of Ryan having his skull crushed right before my eyes.

No one had any idea what they had just witnessed.

Everyone had been completely silenced by the scene before them.

Everyone, except Sig.

I turned to him in shock and warned him not to get involved with a girl like her. I told him that she seemed messed up in the head. That such an open act of violence wasn't normal and that he should probably find someone else to pursue.

But my words had fallen on deaf ears.

He turned towards me and grabbed my shoulders rather forcefully, then uttered these simple words.

"I'm going to marry that girl."

His logic was completely lost on me.

He insisted that it was because I was a normie. That to men of taste like himself, there was no girl in Sunchester High who was more attractive than she was.

But all I could do was wonder how assaulting someone in broad daylight made that girl more attractive to him than before.

"How is it not attractive? Think about it for a sec, dude. The stark contrast between her beauty and the strength required to take down a footballer three years older than you, doesn't that just make her seem really cool? When you couple it with how unapproachable she is, it almost feels like no man except for "the one" could possibly make her their own. There's just something crazy beautiful about dating a girl so strong yet alone."

In other words, as Nick would probably so delicately put it, she was waifu-bait.

As much as I am not a fan of his overall misogynistic outlook, I had wished he were there to talk some sense into Sig about Momoka. This girl seemed like a disaster waiting to happen to him.

Though to be fair, I can't say I didn't see where he was coming from. I do think that, at least on some level, men would become more attracted to her after realizing how unattainable she seemed from afar.

But there was a more pressing issue.

"Do you think Ryan's gonna try getting revenge on your, uh… waifu?"

"Impossible, there's no way he'd hit a girl. And besides, like I said, she seems more attractive than before, right? He's going to be even more interested in her for sure now."

I thought at first that having more rivals would be an issue for him, but it seemed that he wouldn't have to worry about that being the case.

Because the moment Ryan picked himself off the ground, he turned back to the direction of our homeroom and muttered heavy words.

Words that made me aware of the gravity of the situation.

"That bitch… I'm gonna make her cry for this shit!"

My brain was probably still somewhat numbed at that time. No, it's probably still numbed. Because even now, I still refuse to believe that Momoka's tantrum was something that had happened in reality.

That a display of such genuine sadism had come from such a quiet girl.

It was only after he uttered those words that I had realized the gravity of her actions.

How messed up would it be if someone had suddenly assaulted you like that when you were just trying to make conversation?

No, I get that he was flirting with her. I understand that. She might not have found his tone nor his language very comforting to listen to at all.

But did his actions warrant getting hurt in that sacred place? Did they warrant being stepped over like an insect?

The answer is a hard no.

And yet still, I found myself worrying about Momoka. Because while Ryan had definitely been the victim in this situation, the severity of her actions had probably awakened something even worse than herself.

"Sig, this isn't good. You have to help her out."

I turned toward my friend who was frozen stiff from hearing that.

Ryan's threat had clearly shocked him far more than I could have imagined.

His downcast eyes refused to turn my way, even as I offered him an excuse to speak to the girl of his dreams.

"Umm, Sig? This is your chance to be her knight in shining armor."

"… I can't."

"You can't?"

"…"

He couldn't respond.

Defeated. Before anything could happen, before he even took a single step forward, his entire will to push on had been spirited out of his body.

"I-I mean look, homeroom is starting in a few minutes right? He can't do anything to her right now."

"Sig, the school day lasts seven hours. She won't be able to avoid him forever if you don't warn her."

"But…"

But.

And I understood it better than anyone. That defeated look, it made a lot of sense to me. Was it because I had seen so many boys like him since middle school? I'm not sure. But either way, Sig's mindset was already clear to me.

To put it plainly, he was frightened of being rejected.

It's something teens have to deal with at one point or another so long as they continue on their pursuit of romance. But for geeks like Sig, rejection is worse than usual.

It's actually fairly common for them to get reprimanded for liking popular girls. What usually happens is that they'll not only reject the nerdy kids, but they'll also make their heartfelt confession into a topic of gossip within the classroom. It's always the nerdy kid who's on the receiving end of it; as if their desire to be validated is just too amusing to the popular kids. It really feels like geeks are seen as lesser beings in the school environment.

Despite what I saw back there, I don't think Momoka is that kind of girl, but similar situations have occurred this semester so I wouldn't be surprised if they had terrified him.

In any case, one thing's for certain; if he tries to get in contact with her, if he makes advances at her, he'll be opening himself up to rejection from the girl of his dreams.

And that's probably the last thing he wants to deal with.

"… I understand. I just have to warn her, right?"

"I'm sorry."

I patted his shoulder sternly.

"I'll make sure to put in a good word for you, okay?"

"Thanks man. Let's just head to the classroom."

"Sure…"

It was a while, but Sig managed to regain himself and we continued on our way.

Once we arrived, he immediately ran off to converse with Nick in their usual obnoxious manner. However that wasn't where I was headed at the time. My eyes carefully scanned the classroom in search of my target.

There.

Over in the same corner as last week, Jennifer and Scarlet sat together while discussing their usual drivel, with Momoka seated next to them quietly reading her book.

"…"

I found it difficult to approach that group.

Not only was I on bad terms with Jennifer, but things between Scarlet and I have been awkward ever since that whole Jack incident. To make matters worse, the girl I actually needed to speak to was a whole different kind of beast who assaulted a male student three years older than her like it was nothing. To be honest she was the most intimidating of the bunch at that moment.

But, I had to do this.

For Sig.

I braced myself and approached the group of three as casually as I could.

"…"

Jennifer pretended to ignore me while continuing her conversation with Scarlet, which was about as much as I expected.

But for a brief moment, Scarlet's eyes met mine.

And in that brief moment, I could sense the same emotion in them as last week.

Pity.

That pity made me feel inferior to her.

More inferior than any of her charming insults could ever manage to make me feel.

The truth is, I've probably been avoiding her all this time because of that look. It probably stung so badly that I'd subconsciously ended up following her lead and avoiding conversation. That might be how I felt seeing her in the past week.

Which is why I decided to ignore her and focus on my current goal.

"Hey."

I said my greeting aloud.

Not to Scarlet, and certainly not to Jennifer.

But to Momoka Kudo.

Even Jennifer had turned to look at me in surprise. She'd probably assumed I was coming over to talk to Scarlet and was focused on keeping her attention away from me.

But that doesn't really matter to me.

"We need to talk outside. Do you have a minute?"

"…"

She was completely unreceptive and that scared me. I thought she'd been ignoring me.

But it seemed as if she had only wanted to finish off the page first so I decided to wait.

The tension as both Jennifer and Scarlet's gazes drilled into me as I awaited her response felt like a real, physical attack.

For a moment, I thought for sure that I was going to die from the awkwardness.

"Okay, sure. I don't mind."

But after a good ten seconds had passed, she relieved me of the heavy atmosphere and shut her book close.

"Thanks. It won't be long."

I waited for her to get on her feet and walked her out to the door, much to the behest of her silenced friends.

Once outside, she leaned against the wall and yawned innocently, as if she hadn't done something completely inhumane mere moments ago.

I felt like there wasn't any point in formalities, so I got to the point by explaining that I saw what happened with her and Ryan back then.

At my words, she looked down at her feet and pondered.

"Ah that. How to put it… Hmmm…"

She placed a finger to her lip as she calmly attempted to find a way to explain herself.

"No, I don't think I owe you an explanation. But I will say I believe that he did deserve it. He deserved much more than that, in fact."

"…"

No part of what Momoka had just said made any sense to me. He deserved it? For damaging her book? What is she, the Queen of England?

"Why are you looking at me like that? I'm not trying to excuse my actions. I'm fully aware of how wrong I am."

"That's probably because you aren't even trying to sound apologetic."

"What, are you telling me I should apologize for being human?"

"… Exactly what part of assaulting someone like that counts as being human?"

"Well, if you don't understand even that much then I doubt you'll ever understand."

"Try me."

She stopped playing with her hair to stare into my face. Her eyes carried no real emotion. They were empty, as if she were just going through the motions.

"If you don't express your anger somehow and keep it bottled up all the time, then you're eventually going to become a failure of a human being. That's what I think. A pathetic, emotionally-numbed creature filling the world with negative energy simply because she won't get angry when she needs to. If you look at it like that, then I'm doing the world a favor by getting rid of useless negative energy, aren't I?"

All I could do was wonder what on earth this woman was talking about. Was this a philosophy class?

Not only that, but her logic made no sense. Should we hurt one another whenever there's verbal conflict then?

"If someone wrongs you then you should be allowed to wrong them back as you please. I may be naïve in believing such a thing but, believing in it makes me happier than just going along with everyone's harmful whims."

"…"

Her way of thinking was definitely wrong.

But just from those words, I was able to understand the kind of girl that Momoka really was.

Honest. Painfully straight-forward. Always shooting to the heart of whatever problem arises. With no regard for what is right, Momoka Kudo only cares about the truth.

If something's bothering her, she'll openly speak out against it. If you're bothering her, she'll let you know without sugarcoating her words. If you wrong her, she'll put you into the ground and force you to grovel at her feet. Everything she does is self-satisfaction with no remorse for those around her.

She's essentially an emotional hedonist.

But knowing that wouldn't do me any good. I was here to deliver Sig's message and warn her about Ryan. So before I strayed too much further away, I decided to inform her about Ryan's last words to her.

"Oh, that so? How chivalrous. You really are Lysander, aren't you?"

"Lysander?"

I wondered if it was a character from one of the novels she always reads, but I figured there was no point in pushing it.

"In any case, please be careful. He sounded completely bent on hurting you."

She pushed herself off the wall and headed through the classroom doors.

"Thank you for the warning, I'll be sure to avoid him."

Her words sounded as if she didn't take my warning completely seriously, but I could tell that she was pondering her next actions.

After speaking with her though, I could only come to one conclusion.

She is an enigma.

She may have spoken monotonously while using complicated language, but I could tell that every word that came from her lips was filled with emotion. She truly felt as if she hadn't done anything wrong by hurting him like that. For someone so cool and calculated to strike him down like that, I can't help but wonder what exactly he had done wrong.

But regardless of that—

As things stood, I could tell that the two of us would never get along.