Chapter 3

Only a few traces of snow remained at the bases of the street-side

trees, but bands of elementary school students had already done their

damage, poking at it until the snow grew muddied with dirt and started to

melt. Snowballs that could hardly be called pristine were gathered at the

bottom of the tree planted in front of Taiga's condo entrance. The variously

sized balls were lined up together—large, medium, small, and mini. Ryuuji

looked at the "mini" one, and his lips warped into a smirk. They were

shaped a bit more like beans than snowballs.

The cold air that morning seemed cleaner than normal, possibly

because of the overnight snow shower. Far out of the children's reach,

bright white caps of snow perched on top of eaves and streetlamps, but their

fate was sealed by the blue sky and bright sun. The edges melted first,

falling in large drips to create scattered puddles on the asphalt.

Ryuuji avoided the water as he walked in long strides under the

Zelkova trees. Eventually, he spotted the person waving at him from the

corner of the crosswalk.

"Taaakaaasuuu-kun! Yo! Yo—"

"Ma!"

He lifted his hand and returned her greeting in earnest. He thought he

heard a passing junior high school girl half-spit, half-mutter, "It's cold!" but

when she saw Ryuuji's face, she just sped up and left him behind. Minori

was at the crosswalk as usual, her cheeks red from the cold. She stood there

with her sports bag over her shoulder, wrapped in her checked scarf, both

her hands plunged into her peacoat pockets.

"I knew it, Taiga's not here. I thought she'd come here like she

normally does, so I've just been hanging around waiting for her." The wind

scattered her hair, which stuck out slightly at her chin. She narrowed her

eyes like she was looking at something blinding. "She didn't come back to

the condo?"

"She didn't. I kind of hoped she would, so I stayed up until three…

but then I fell asleep. I think she'll come to school… If she doesn't, we'll be

in a tight spot."

"Righty-o. What were you doing staying up till three?"

"I was cleaning the room and the kitchen drain and polishing the

tarnish off the pots."

"Whoa… What's with that…?"

"I ate dinner, and then I tried to eat Taiga's chocolates but gave up."

"Oh, I tried that, too. My teeth felt like they were about to crack."

"In the end, I melted them in milk and had some hot chocolate."

"Hold up—what? That's a good idea. I'll copy you. You said you

used milk? Did you actually get them to melt?"

"There was some weird oil floating on top, but it went away. I also

kind of passed out…"

"What was Taiga even trying to feed us…"

They allowed the light to cycle in silence. At the next green, Ryuuji

and Minori walked in step with each other. It's so cold, but it's nice weather.

They made idle conversation for a few meters, but their only goal in doing

so was using their voices.

"So, you're running away?"

"I am."

"Where to? Ahmin's villa? Are you just going to disappear together,

never to be heard from again?"

"What're you saying? Are you actually worried we'd do that? You

really must not trust me."

When his eyes met with hers, Minori seemed a bit flustered. She

waved her hands at him vigorously. "It's because I'm worried!" she wailed.

In other words…

"Then I wasn't completely wrong about you not trusting me…"

"I trust you, Takasu-kun, but I started rereading The Poem of Wind

and Trees because I was so anxious. If you haven't read it, I won't spoil it

for you, but it's terrible! Or, here's something else, just think about that

show Skins! I couldn't really get to sleep yesterday, and I started to way

overthink things. I even remembered what Ahmin said. And what

Kitamura-kun said, and what Taiga said, and what I said. There were all

kinds of things I was thinking about…"

"What about the stuff I said?"

"The cold wiped it into oblivion… Actually, ahh…what was that

about declaring your love at the epicenter of the world? I remember that.

That even made Ahmin cry." Minori half-jokingly and half-seriously pursed

her lips as she turned her face down. She rounded her back to look at her

own toes and ended up going silent; she was thinking something over.

Ryuuji hesitated just for a bit before he addressed her back. "Hey,

'Minorin.'"

He used the corner of his bag to bump Minori's back. The bag shook

a lot more than he thought it would, making a loud thump as it prodded at

the back of her coat.

"Nguh…!" Minori turned around with an incredibly ridiculous

expression. She looked like an upside-down candle melting from the flames

of a grudge. Even Kira Kozuke no suke must have groaned when he was cut

down on a snowy December day like this years ago.

"You've got a really terrifying look on your face right now…"

Without thinking, Ryuuji accidentally told her what he really was thinking.

"How's that now?!" Minori wriggled herself around as she shrieked.

"But you promised me you'd keep looking forward. I promised that

I'd keep believing in you while you did that. You're supposed to be looking

forward, Minorin…I mean Kushieda."

"I guess so."

"Then don't just stand around thinking. Let's go. Let's get to the next

thing—the next place we're going to is always going to be scary, but you've

got to decide you'll go and get it done. That's what you taught me."

"Have you decided what you're going to do too, Takasu-kun?"

"I have. I'm going to run away and then come home."

"And Taiga?"

"Taiga will, too. She'll definitely come home. She'll come back to

where you and I and everyone else are. That's the whole reason we're

running away."

Ryuuji gave his finger a wide twirl and pointed at their feet. Minori's

head bobbed and swayed as she traced the path of his finger. Her face

sprung up, and finally, a full, blinding smile bloomed over her face for the

first time that day. In the bright morning rays, her wide-open eyes seemed

to glitter more intensely than the sun.

"Okay, we're about to be late! Let's run for it!"

"What?! W-wait a sec!"

She started running down their usual road with long strides—nearly

leaping, really. Ryuuji followed after her in a fluster. He couldn't quite keep

up in his sleep-deprived state, but when his breath leapt, the cold air that

penetrated his chest felt good.

Another girl in the same uniform smiled and turned to Minori, Oh,

Kushieda-senpai, good morning! Minori raised her hand, Yo! and

exchanged a garbled answer with the girl. You two sure are in good spirits,

the bicycling classmate said, laughing. "It's all good!" "It's all good!" the

two of them said together, like Taiga said the day before.

"Hey, Takasu! You're too fast! Wait for me, you're going too fast!"

Noto waved his hand widely as he ran. Ryuuji slowed his speed slightly to

let him catch up. "Where's Tiger?! You're not with her today?!"

"Taiga had something she needed to do. She might already be at

school."

"I-I'm glad…so uh, you know, there was something—" In order to

keep his glasses from slipping down, Noto held them with one hand as he

kept pace with Ryuuji. He fumbled slightly with his words (which wasn't

cute). "Takasu, could you ask the master something but without letting him

know it's coming from me?"

"What is it?"

"Whether he got chocolates."

"From whom?"

"I-It doesn't matter! Hmph!" (He wasn't cute.)

"Sorry, sorry, that was just a joke, I totally get it." Ryuuji ran after

Noto, trying to soothe his friend, who had taken offense and started running

ahead. They had just made it through the school gate when they ran into

someone else.

"Oh! What do we have here but a traitor?!" Noto exclaimed.

"Hmm? I was wondering who the military grunts doing laps were,

but I see it's just Noto-chi, Taka-chan, and Kushieda. Yo!" In his usual

idiotic style, Haruta wore a grey parka hood that he had forced under his

school jacket. His long hair had dried in the wintry air.

Noto crossed his hands in front of his chest and, with his legs

working in tandem, jumped slightly to the side to signal his complete and

utter rejection of Haruta. In a low voice that made his inferiority complex

obvious, he groaned, "Youuuuu traaaaaaiiiitoooooor!"

"What?! Stop name-calling! It wasn't like I was hiding it~!"

"Tch, what a lewd aristocrat! Just go ahead and build your slimy,

carnal tower of Babel while you slip and slide with that middle-class girl!

You'll get your divine punishment before long…!"

"Noto-chi~! Please wait! Please, you've got to believe me, I'm pure

as the virgin snow! I haven't done any carnal sliding, I'm telling you, she

hasn't let me do anything!" Haruta dashed sorrowfully after Noto.

"Haruta-kun has a girlfriend?! Seriously?! Wait a second! Come tell

your uncle Minori your story!" Her eyes glittering at the scent of scandal,

Minori also started chasing after Haruta.

"And she's older, and kind of pretty! I can't let it happen…!" Noto

answered Minori in place of Haruta. "You could at least have told me ahead

of time! You just suddenly appeared in front of me. Do you know what a

shock that was?! I felt like I was being left behind! I felt like I'd been

betrayed! Do you get that?!"

They all headed to the shoe cubbies, making a scene as they ran.

Ryuuji gently patted Noto from behind. "Noto, I've actually got something

I need to get off my chest. So—"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" His friend leapt into the air. "It's fine, I

don't want to know!"

Breaking into a sprint with terrific speed, Noto ran away. Well, if

Ryuuji told Noto that he'd proposed to Taiga and she said yes, his friend

really might die of indignation on the spot.

He ran up the stairs and sped through the school building's entrance,

only to hear Noto yell again, followed by a girl's voice raised in complaint.

"That hurt my ears! Was that you, Noto?!"

The sound really was chafing. Smoke almost seemed about to rise up

from the soles of Noto's shoes from the force of him spinning around. The

girl standing before him raised one eyebrow coldly.

"You're a nuisance!"

It was Kihara Maya. She raked up her smooth and straight long hair

and pouted her glossy lips. She then buried her sullen chin in a purple scarf

that had a slightly metallic sheen to it. It was flashy and didn't seem to suit

her.

"Y-you think I'm the one in the wrong?! Damn it, and you're going

around wearing a scarf like you're that drag queen Miwa Akihiro!"

"What?! No way?! I don't look anything like Miwa-san!"

Ryuuji pretended to cough to cover his laughter as he got to the shoe

cubbies. Meanwhile, Maya frantically signaled for support.

"Umm, well, uh, well." Toying with her long, curled, and soft hair,

Kashii Nanako ambiguously tilted her head next to Maya.

"It's okay, Maya!"

"Ami-chan…!"

They all turned around at the sound of Ami's resonant voice. She

seemed to have come to school with the other two.

"You're not like Miwa-san, Maya! It's just that your scarf is!"

"You serious?!"

It was a direct hit. Maya took off the scarf and put it in her bag.

Haruta spoke up, possibly because he had a girlfriend now: "I think it's

nice! It kind of gives you a sense of mystique!"

"I don't care what you think…"

Like a cat having a flehmen reaction, the bottom of Maya's nose

scrunched up as she watched Haruta go. Ryuuji put his shoes in an ecobag

instead of in the shoe cubby. He started to follow after Noto and Haruta,

then hesitated.

"Kihara, are you still on bad terms with Noto?" he asked.

"Have we ever been on good terms?"

"I guess not. Did you give Kitamura chocolates or anything?"

"What does that have to do with you, Takasu-kun?"

"You're the one who said we're fellows in arms, Kihara. Well, I've

got something to report to you: I confessed."

"Even though I said that I…hm? What? What?! Well, I didn't give

him any, but…actually, what?! What was that? In other words—basically,

you mean to…Tiger?! AHHHHHHHHH!" Maya shrieked in a high-pitched

voice. Her eyes glittered as she pounded on Nanako's back. "Oh no, oh no,

oh no, Takasu-kun and Tiger!"

"Gimme the deets!" Nanako burst into a grin. Wait a sec, tell us

more! Ryuuji ran quickly up the stairs, the two girls making a commotion as

they followed. When he turned back at the landing, he saw Ami and Minori

talking behind him.

"Ahhh ahhhh ahhh, everyone's so happy… What's going on with

them?!"

"So, I just heard, but apparently Haruta-kun's got a girlfriend…

What're we going to do about that?"

"Whaaaat?! No way?!"

"It must be the end of the century."

"But we just started a new millennia… Ahh, how is it that even that

idiot has one and I don't?! I feel like I'm about to get depressed for reasons

I don't comprehend…"

Ryuuji evaded the girls' pursuit and opened the door of 2-C. "Yo,

what up," he greeted the new faces in order.

"Takasu, morning. We might have…a slight issue." Kitamura

sounded anxious.

There was no sign of Taiga in the classroom. During the morning

homeroom, another teacher appeared in place of Koigakubo Yuri. Their first

period started and then their second.

But Taiga still didn't come.

***

The class representative apparently had to check with the homeroom

teacher about announcements before class started every morning. Though

Kitamura Yuusaku had a lot of things on his mind, he'd headed to the

teacher's office at the usual time that morning, but Koigakubo, their

bachelorette teacher, had been called away to meet someone and wasn't at

her desk. It couldn't be, Kitamura thought, but he said there hadn't been a

way for him to confirm whether she'd been meeting with the Aisakas.

"Do you think it's weird?"

Ryuuji didn't know who said that, but that utterance caused the dam

to break. Whispers started to fill class 2-C after their third hour of mandated

self-study. Normally, they would be having their English class, which their

homeroom teacher was in charge of. However, their teacher never appeared,

and a different teacher dropped in and told them to self-study. Why? they

asked, but the teacher closed class 2-C's door, decisively ignoring their

questioning voices.

"I wonder what happened to Yuri-chan?"

"She's not taking a vacation, right? What could she be doing?"

"I wonder if she's sick. But if that happened, they could have

announced it to us."

"I heard earlier that class A had to self-study their whole second

period during Yuri-chan's English class."

"Come to think of it, when I said Tiger still hadn't come during

morning attendance, they just said 'We know.'"

That's weird. Ryuuji didn't even open his English textbook as he

grabbed the edge of his desk. A strange sweat broke out on his palms.

"Takasu, is Tiger out today?"

"No, she's supposed to come. She said she would," he finally

managed to grumble. He couldn't answer the question that came after that, I

wonder if it's related to Yuri-chan not being here?

Ryuuji was scared, too. What would he do if their brief parting the

other day at that crosswalk really was their last moment together? He'd

thought that going back home would give Taiga's mother a sense of relief,

and let them prepare, so when an opening came, it would be easier to run

away. Maybe that had been naive of him.

Have a good life—what if, with that meager phrase, Taiga just

disappeared? This is serious, Ryuuji thought as he stared at the packed book

bag hanging from the hook of his desk.

"Quiet! The other classes are in session!" Kitamura warned them like

the rep he was, but he was lacking his usual composure. Minori opened and

closed her flip phone over and over again, and Ami had been touching her

fingers to her lips the whole time. After making a scene trying to get

something out of Ryuuji just that morning, Maya and Nanako also seemed

to have inferred something was up and were currently silent.

Noto turned around to mouth, "You okay?" Haruta hadn't even dozed

off, and his head was upright.

"Maybe Yuri-chan's turned in her announcement that she's retiring

after a spur-of-the-moment elopement?"

"'I have a spur-of-the-moment announcement for everyone. I've…

bought a condo.'"

"Are you really going there?!" Several people laughed at someone's

joke.

"Actually…maybe Tiger did something bad again?"

In that moment, everyone in the class went silent. They still recalled

the time when the third years had rushed into their class and clamored, "The

Palmtop Tiger is on a rampage!" That event hadn't just scarred Ryuuji and

his close friends.

"In that case, it wouldn't be a laughing matter."

"She's already been suspended once, maybe this time she's really

out…?"

"No way…but that would be so bad! Kushieda, what do you know

about it?!" a girl asked Minori, and Minori seemed troubled as she turned

her eyes to Ryuuji.

"Taiga is—"

Ryuuji raised his head and said, "She's not going to disappear. Not

ever! I won't let her do that!" He was trying just as hard to convince

himself of that.

Taka-chan, what's the matter, why are you getting out of your seat—

came Haruta's anxious voice. "So it's weird enough to make that guy

worry!" The class was reduced to even more confusion, and that was when

it happened.

Clatter. The front door opened.

"To your seats. Everyone, get to your seats. I have something I need

to speak with you about."

Their teacher, who had been nowhere to be found—the bachelorette

homeroom teacher Koigakubo Yuri (age 30)—finally appeared before them.

She held a hand towel to her face, sniffling, as if to hide her smudged

makeup. Her voice was hushed and her shoulders shook.

Every single person in class 2-C was at a loss for words as Taiga

entered the classroom after the bachelorette, holding her pale, small face in

her hands. Every single one of them understood that something terrible had

happened to Aisaka Taiga.

Taiga—Ryuuji's eyes opened, glowing softly. You're late, you dumb

girl! I can't do this anymore, it's over! Over, I tell you! I'm slaughtering

everyone! Of course, he hadn't snapped, only released the breath he'd been

holding. She's finally here, he thought.

"Aisaka-san, do you want to tell them? Or do you want me to…?"

"P-please tell them for me…uh, ugh, uwh…" Taiga was clearly

faking her distress. Ryuuji saw no sign of her mother beyond the door Taiga

had left open. He grabbed the bag that he left hanging on his desk.

"Then I'll tell them. Everyone, please listen." Koigakubo had

probably been crying the whole time. She raised her bright red face.

"Aisaka-san needs to move because of family circumstances, so she is

going to be leaving school."

Whaaaat?! No way?! The students raised their voices in shock.

Standing behind the teacher, Taiga slowly lowered the hands covering her

face. Ryu-u-ji, her rosy lips voicelessly moved. Her tough, beautiful face

was defiant with arrogance, and she shamelessly raised her chin. She had

her coat and a bag across her body, and in one of her hands, she—good job.

Ryuuji nodded at her. She was holding her shoes in a plastic bag, just as she

was supposed to.

"I know everyone is probably shocked. I also haven't really been able

to accept this—"

Taiga raised the thumb of her free hand and then pointed it at the

hallway. Ryuuji once again nodded at her. A question mark seemed to float

above the heads of the students of 2-C as they followed these motions,

which their teacher couldn't see.

Koigakubo, the bachelorette, told them from where she stood in front

of the teacher's podium, "I've been asking her mother to reconsider this

whole time, but—"

She seemed oddly towering, almost like she was forming a wall

between Taiga and Ryuuji. Ryuuji felt he would immediately be caught if

he displayed any out-of-the-ordinary movements, but Taiga was already

gradually shifting a little bit at a time towards the door, so he held his bag to

his chest and tried to raise his butt from his seat.

"And Aisaka-san herself is so incredibly sad about this—"

Koigakubo was crying fat tears again. She was clearly trying not to upset

them, but to Ryuuji, just then, she was like the guardian deity of an

impregnable iron wall. "As your teacher, I also wish I could have done

more… I'm so sad that I don't have enough power to protect you—"

Once the teacher was finished talking, Taiga would be returned to her

mother's side. Ryuuji slowly pulled his body away from his desk until his

butt was in the air. All the muscles in his body shook. He had to go now,

had to leave now, but couldn't get caught.

Then suddenly something happened behind him.

"Tigeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeer!"

A shriek echoed through the class, and Ryuuji automatically jumped

up and flipped around. Haruta, the one who cried out, stood up. His eyes

rolled back into his head until only the whites showed. He had the shadow

of death upon him. Ahhhh! While the girls screamed around him, the idiot

twitched as he dramatically knocked over his seat and desk, swooning to the

floor like a marionette cut from its strings.

"H-Haruta-kun?!" Koigakubo's gaze was nailed to the collapsed

idiot.

"What's wrong, Haruta?!" Noto ran over with enough momentum to

practically slide to Haruta's side. His black-rimmed glasses were horribly

askew. "Teacher, this is terrible, Ms. Koigakubo! Haruta fainted!"

"Why?! What happened?! Is he okay?!"

Koigakubo climbed down from the lectern, weaved between the

confused students, and ran over to Haruta's side, where he was splayed on

the ground. She got to her knees and checked that he was breathing, then

hesitated slightly before shaking him. "S-s-someone go to the office and get

another teacher! We need to get him to the nurse's office!" she yelled as she

looked around at the students' faces.

Ryuuji and Taiga snatched at each other's hands.

For a moment, Koigakubo Yuri thought she'd seen a hallucination of

the two madly dashing as fast as they could into the hallway. Then she

realized it wasn't an illusion but reality.

"I'm sorry, Yuri-chan. We're actually the Haruta theatrical group…"

The idiot who should have been stretched out on the ground apologetically

opened his eyes a crack. The others who'd played along with the scenario

Haruta spontaneously devised lowered their heads to their teacher in the

same way, one after another, as if to say, Sorry, teach. However, it was too

late for apologies.

"W-w-waiiiiiiiiiiiiit?!"

Kushieda Minori ran from the classroom with light steps. Kawashima

Ami ran the opposite direction. "Don't have any clue what's going on, but

guess we'll go, too," Maya and Nanako said as they followed after Ami.

Other students also yelled, one after another, "Escape!" "Let's all go!"

"Actually, what is this?!" Getting carried away, they kicked away their

chairs and scattered as they ran from the classroom like juvenile fish

escaping from a net. The layered sounds of their footsteps came from

everywhere until it was impossible to separate out whose were whose.

Of course, it was only twelve months until their college exams. There

were some students sitting at their seats with their textbooks spread open,

unaware of the state of affairs. There were students who froze as they

watched the situation, confused and unable to grasp what was happening.

There were some who hadn't been paying attention to start with and some

who tried to reel in their disorderly classmates, crying "Everyone get a hold

of yourselves!"

"Wait… Did they… Did they just stage a mass revolt against me?"

As Koigakubo babbled in confusion, someone appeared in front of her.

"I'm really so sorry!" Kitamura Yuusaku lowered his head at a steep

angle. "We are really incredibly sorry for causing you so much trouble.

We're just stupid children… I'm sorry…"

"Ah ah ah—" Koigakubo grabbed Kitamura by the shoulders and

shook him as hard as she could. "If apologies could fix these sorts of things,

we wouldn't need the police! I won't ever ever ever ever eeeeveeeer accept

this kind of childish behavior from you! I underestimated you idiot kids!

I'm going to catch every single one of you!"

"Teach, look!"

Someone showed the scrap of notebook paper Ryuuji left on his desk

to Koigakubo. Ms. Koigakubo, read the first line. When Koigakubo looked

at that writing, she suddenly turned her gaze to the hallway. She grabbed it

and threw aside her wet hand towel. The rubber of the nursing sandals she

was using as indoor slippers slapped against the floor as she ran from the

classroom, her skirt fluttering.

She grabbed a boy on the landing of the stairs and then dragged him

along as she sprang into the staffroom. "They escaped! Please help me

catch them, catch everyone!" she cried at all the teachers within.

Koigakubo pushed her catch at the first male teacher who stood up

and didn't even knock on the waiting room door as she dashed to it and

threw it open.

"Th-they ran away!"

"…"

Clunk. Taiga's mother, who had been sitting on the sofa in the waiting

room, dropped the teacup in her hand. She stared at Koigakubo's face as the

teacher hovered on the verge of crying. "I feel like I'm about to go into

labor from the shock…"

"Eep?!"

"I'm joking. Well, didn't I tell you?! I said I'd just leave with her! I

can't believe this happened… What an idiot I have for a daughter! Where

does she think she's going to run to?!"

"Please read this."

What Koigakubo offered her was the scribbled note that Ryuuji had

left on his desk. It read: "Ms. Koigakubo, I'm sorry. Taiga isn't the type to

just let herself be taken away. Please believe in us. I'll make sure her

mother hears from her by tomorrow."

Taiga's mother's light-colored eyes scowled as if to say, What is this?

She glared at the homeroom teacher.

That fearless gaze, that way she bites her lip and scrunches them

when she's frustrated, really is exactly the same, Koigakubo thought.

"Takasu-kun isn't the kind of boy who'd break a promise. I'm sure

they have a plan. Of course, we will do everything in our power to go after

them. We will find Aisaka-san. But please believe him… Please believe me

and at least wait until tomorrow, won't you?"

"I don't know Takasu-kun, and I don't know you either, but I do

know my daughter. She's not the type of kid to obediently come back to

me! She betrayed me yesterday, and now she's done it again. What are you

telling me I'm supposed to believe in?!"

"I may be overstepping my bounds, but you can't fix a relationship

immediately once trust has been broken. You need time. You and your

daughter need time."

"I'm her mother!"

"I'm her teacher!"

For a moment, the two women went silent and stared at each other

like they were breathing fire. However, Koigakubo immediately lowered

her face and took a step back.

"I'm sorry, but I choose to believe in the kids. I'm sure that they

believe in me, too. I will put my eight years as a teacher on the line for

them. Eight years may be nothing in the scheme of things, but to me,

teaching is my whole life. I'm sure they'll come home on their own. Please,

believe in those kids."

"They ran away from you, right in front of your eyes. They just

betrayed you, too. You still believe in them, despite that?"

"Yes. Because I know that they believe that I believe in them. They

ran away because they've put their trust in me. He promised they would

come home, so I choose to believe him—I'll believe in his promise, our

bond, and our connection. Believing in them is my job."

"In that case, why don't you put that in writing for me? You can even

write it on this scrap of paper. If my daughter doesn't come home before

tomorrow, you'll quit being a teacher. You couldn't possibly put your trust

in a flimsy little scrap of wastepaper—isn't that right, Ms. Koigafuchi?"

"My name is Koi-ga-ku-bo!"

Koigakubo flipped over Ryuuji's note on the marble table. Though

she didn't notice it herself, her ballpoint pen shook as she wrote. She signed

it, dated it, and as she did so, bet her teaching career on the backside of a

scrap of paper. This little note was like a cliff's edge of unemployment she

would be blown off of. Please, Takasu-kun, please, Aisaka-san, she said

quietly.

"I know just enough that I'm sure Taiga won't trust me. I've done

enough to make sure of that. Aisaka and I have both tried to hurt each other,

and we've ruined Taiga's life in the process. I wasn't a good parent, and I

can't become one, even now." While watching Koigakubo's hand move,

Taiga's mother seemed to grumble to herself. "But right here and now, I

can't just leave her and go home."

The reason why the person in front of Koigakubo's eyes seemed like

an impudent seventeen or eighteen-year-old student was definitely because

the mother moved her lips in the exact same way as her daughter.

Koigakubo put the pen down and once again looked up at the deeply

chiseled face of the frustrated but elegant woman in the very expensive suit,

who wore high heels despite being pregnant. Suddenly, anguished wrinkles

appeared on her forehead.

"Ugh…so if I give birth on the spot, you'll deliver it, right…?"

"You're kidding, right…?"

"I am."

"I was actually scared, please stop! You're fine, right?!"

"I think so." As Taiga's mother looked haughtily at the teacher and

spoke with a teasing tone, Koigakubo thought, again, that she looked

exactly like her daughter.

The escapees of class 2-C were caught before third period ended or

made their way back to the classroom on their own.

Around the same time, still not knowing that their homeroom teacher

had bet her teaching career on them, Ryuuji and Taiga had long since

jumped out of a window, run outside, cleared the fence, and escaped from

the school. They were running on side roads where the public's eyes

wouldn't follow them.

***

"Okay, in the one-in-a-million chance we get stopped and asked,

'Aren't you supposed to be in school?!' we tell them that we're late and

heading over right now… Taiga?!"

"…"

"Taiga! You can't just check out like that!"

"Huh…"

Ryuuji stretched out his hand to Taiga's shoulder where she was

running next to him and gave her a small poke. Her eyes didn't focus as she

simply moved her legs.

"That hurt?!" She returned the poke with the same force, mostly

unconsciously. "Well, I'm trying not to think much about anything right

now."

"Why?!"

"When I think too hard about things, I end up getting really clumsy

and doing things like pushing you over into a river or something. That's

why I was thinking of just going into a trance. All I've got to do is stick by

you and avoid tripping or getting lost. Make sure you do a good job guiding

me to Dimhuahua's villa, got it?"

"You can't do that! You need to actually be thinking, too! Actually,

we're about to be in big trouble—no, we already are in big trouble."

Ryuuji grabbed Taiga's elbow and steered them into a narrow

alleyway. The truth was, he'd already settled on an escape route. They

wouldn't use the nearest station but would make their way to the villa

changing trains and taking a roundabout route to get there. And as for their

destination, that was—

"A problem?! What problem?!"

"When I got home yesterday, Yasuko had run away from home!"

She didn't respond. When he checked Taiga's face to see if she was

back in her trance, he saw she was so startled she was at a loss for words.

Her eyes and mouth were wide open as she looked back at Ryuuji, and she

stopped running. She grabbed Ryuuji firmly by the elbow.

"Wait…a second."

Her eyelashes fluttered in confusion, and she kept blinking. Wait a

second, she groaned, repeating herself. She rubbed her pale forehead

furiously with the back of her hand.

"Ya-chan ran away from home? And she did it…because she felt hurt

from what you said yesterday?"

"I think so."

"Y-you think so?! We're trying to run away right now, you know! If

Ya-chan is running, then…you might never see her again…"

"I might not."

"I don't want that to happen!" Ryuuji watched quietly as Taiga raised

her voice. "I decided that I would live with you, just the two of us, but that

doesn't mean that I want to hurt Ya-chan or abandon her! I know we just

made a break for it, but after we run, even Ya-chan…if Ya-chan wants it,

then I want her to be with us, too! I thought that's how things would end up,

but us trying to run away… I know we're trying to run away from home

like this… But…"

Taiga was practically in shock. Now that things hadn't gone as she

expected, she dropped her gaze. She was frightened.

"Wh-what should we do…?!"

She might have understood for the first time what it was she was

actually trying to do.

"What do you want to do?" Ryuuji asked Taiga, grabbing her hand.

Taiga might have been surprised by the firmness in his voice. She lifted her

eyes and peered into Ryuuji's face, searching for something. She started to

look anxious, like she was thinking that if she answered incorrectly, she

would end up being left behind. "There's no wrong answer, so think it over.

What's the number one thing you want to do?"

"That's—that's obvious, isn't it? I want to be with you! I want to be

happy with you, but I want Ya-chan to be happy, too! I know what I'm

saying is stupid, b-but you know—"

"I do. I get it now. I'm not going to give up on either—on either

living with you or on Yasuko. In order to do that, we need to do something.

There's a place that we need to go, and it's not Kawashima's villa. Will you

come with me?"

Taiga nodded without so much as hesitating. "Of course I'll go! If

you say you're going, I'll believe in you and go!"