Chapter 5

"Wait a second! You got in a fight with the girls?"

"You made Ami-chan and the other girls mad? What were you

doing?!"

"Stuff happened. To sum it up, you're outta your mind if you think

you can be friends with girls. They think they can make guys do whatever's

convenient for them. They see us as their pawns. All they can think about is

how to justify themselves for it. You'll never be able to be on an equal

footing as friends." Noto pouted as he nibbled at his pickled vegetables.

"Well, that's probably enough," Kitamura admonished him.

Ryuuji washed down the last of his rice with miso soup and looked at

the table where the five girls from their group had congregated. It looked

like the situation was about the same over there—the girls were also talking

to other people from Class 2-C.

Even with the heating, the dining room was sprawling and freezing.

Filled with the groups of high school students, it bustled like a poked bee's

nest under the fluorescent lamps. They'd finally been released from their

terrible ski gear, free to wear tracksuits or their own clothes as they pleased,

while they ate from the same menu.

Enjoying a good meal with everyone else should have been fun,

but…

The girls had huddled together and were talking about something.

They definitely had to be badmouthing the boys. Maya looked unhappy and

sullen, and absolutely would not look at them. Looking a little troubled, but

still trying to smile, Minori was talking brightly with Maya, but it seemed

that she wasn't getting any results.

Under circumstances like these, Ryuuji couldn't ask how Minori

actually felt, talk to her, or even approach her. It seemed like the trip might

even end without him ever being able to. He hadn't even gotten in a fight

with Minori, but given the situation, the other girls probably wouldn't let

him talk to her.

Just how had they ended up in this boys-versus-girls scenario? Next

to Minori, Taiga also looked troubled as she gripped her chopsticks and

looked at a giant, dried-out, boiled fish. Normally, her gluttony couldn't

even be subdued by a full serving of rice.

He and Taiga were both probably about as disappointed by how

things had turned out. Ryuuji didn't think to question why Taiga would be

upset—they had had a fight, after all. The back of his head still hurt from

her hitting him with the sled. She had hit him over and over again, and he

was just upset that he hadn't been able to get her back even once.

"Heey, Taka-chan, you wanna swap? Can I eat the rice you've got

there?"

Ryuuji shook his head and gave Haruta the rest. Taiga wasn't the only

one put off by the bland boiled fish. Regardless, Ryuuji still used his

chopsticks to skillfully separate the meat from the bone so that it looked

prettier.

"You don't have much of an appetite. You've just been poking at it

and not actually eating anything."

Kitamura, who was sitting next to him, peeked at his hands. Ryuuji

stopped.

"Hm? What is it?"

"No, nothing…"

Looking at Kitamura's face, Ryuuji wanted to put down his

chopsticks. He'd just realized something.

It wasn't just Taiga who hadn't told him about going shrine visiting

during New Year's—Kitamura hadn't, either. Now that he thought about it,

the reason why Kitamura hadn't asked what happened to Taiga when she

left the Christmas Eve party was probably because they met with each other

behind Ryuuji's back.

Of course, Kitamura didn't need to tell him everything that had to do

with Taiga! It was just a little strange that he hadn't said anything. It felt as

though Taiga and Kitamura had colluded to keep something from him.

What would he call this feeling? Was it alienation? Basically, was he just

sulking?

There are things I don't tell you, Taiga had said to him. The world

was still turning, even if he didn't know it. There were people living in

places he had no clue existed, and they were doing as they pleased—why

did it shock him to realize something so obvious as that now?

"You don't look too happy. In the afternoon…you and Aisaka had

some sort of fight while we were out skiing. Is it that?"

"No…my stomach is upset. Sorry, I know it's dinner."

Even though he was super oblivious about his own stuff, Kitamura

was strangely sharp when it came to how other people were feeling. In

order to escape from that, Ryuuji stood up. He felt the presence of

Kitamura's ever-watchful eyes on his back as he left the dining area alone.

Beyond the corridor with the cheap-feeling carpet that wasn't really

to his taste, there was a dim lounge-like area that was a little worse for wear

but had a bathroom in a corner.

Perhaps because it was cold, there weren't many people around.

Ryuuji sat down on one of the sofas and breathed in. If someone asked him

where he went, he wouldn't be lying if he said it was the bathroom.

Beyond the large window was the broad scenery of snow. The sky

was already dark, but there were visitors going out night skiing, and the

lights reflected off the slope.

At some point, powdery snow had started falling. It looked beautiful

enough for him to want to take a picture, but he didn't really feel like doing

it at that moment. Ryuuji closed his eyes.

"Ahhh…"

"I've caught a sigh!"

He practically jumped as he turned around.

Gotta catch 'em all! she said and gave him finger guns. Minori was

standing there. Her black fleece jacket was zipped right up to her chin, and

she was wearing casual cargo pants tied at the waist with a rope.

"You can't do that," she said. "Don't sit around sighing by yourself."

Her wide smile scrunched up her face as she turned to Ryuuji, who

was so shocked he couldn't breathe.

"Why're you here…oh. The bathroom…sorry, I'll hang around over

there instead so you can go in without worrying about me. Do your best."

He didn't know why he was doing it, but he gave Minori a fist pump,

expecting her to go.

"Noooo! I saw you leave, Takasu-kun, so I told everyone I needed to

go to the bathroom and left, too!"

"Huh…"

"Secrets should stay hush-hush, shush-shush."

Minori went around, putting a table between them as she sat down on

a sofa. She looked him straight in the face. He could see her eyes light up.

Ryuuji's heart felt like it was being squeezed.

What are you trying to say this time? he tried to say, but his mouth

wouldn't move the way he wanted it to. What came out instead was "What

say you…?" It made him sound like an old nobleman, but Minori seemed to

get what he meant.

"Actually," she said, "I've been waiting for an opportunity for a

while. Look, I have my hands full with Maya-chan still being like that, and

you probably have to deal with Noto-kun, too. That was my thought

process."

"Y-yeah…"

I was waiting for an opportunity, too! The thought felt like it was

being squeezed out from the bottom of his gut. Ryuuji nodded his head up

and down like a puppet. His neck felt stiff, and his whole body shook

almost comically. He tried to move around so that Minori wouldn't notice

and crossed his legs, but he couldn't stop trembling. He couldn't stop

fidgeting, either.

He wanted a chance to ask Kushieda Minori how she really felt.

He wanted a chance to get a different answer.

Was this it? This might be it.

Trying to find words to say, he writhed as he faced her. However,

Minori spoke first.

"This all turned into a fight, didn't it? I want to find a good way to

settle it."

She looked serious, her forehead wrinkled. She hadn't even come

close to broaching the subject about what was going on between them.

Gwah! Ryuuji choked on his own breath.

It's fine, he thought. This isn't anything to get worked up about. Do it

slowly. It's fine if it's slow.

"H-how?"

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. This school trip is

supposed to be fun, after all. I really don't want it to end with everyone

fighting. I want them to patch things up and go back to how we were."

"I do, too…right. That's what I was thinking, too."

I might even want the fight to end sooner than you. He didn't say that

part out loud. Minori was scowling slightly as she nodded. She took her

slippers off and put her hands on her folded knees as she sat with her feet

ungraciously on the spongy sofa.

"I wonder if there's a good way to fix things? Basically, well, in the

end…Maya-chan is all mixed up about Kitamura-kun, and that's the

problem. That's one of the things that led to this."

"…" Ryuuji froze even further. His vital functions were going to stop,

and he was going to turn to stone.

"So that's related… But actually, what happened was Noto-kun said

some stuff that started the fight. And then everyone started saying the stuff

they were already kind of thinking. Hmmm, this is going to be difficult…"

Minori hadn't even noticed that he'd turned to stone. As the dizziness

closed in on him, Ryuuji thought, How can you talk about people's love

lives in front of the guy you rejected?

"I wonder if you know, Takasu-kun?" Minori brought her

defenseless, completely oblivious face even closer. "The reason why Notokun is trying to get in the way of Maya-chan's romance is because, well…

he's got the wrong idea that Taiga-chan likes Kitamura-kun. Apparently,

he's trying to cheer Taiga on, so he clashed with Maya-chan…"

Ryuuji knew he didn't have the right, but he couldn't help but feel

something impatient and almost irritated rise up in him at her obliviousness.

What even is this? he wanted to say. Just how little did she know? She was

Taiga's best friend and didn't even know Taiga's feelings.

"Are you sure he's actually got the wrong idea?"

Ryuuji's voice was suddenly prickly. Minori's eyes went wide.

"There are things you don't know about Taiga, too, right Kushieda?

Taiga might actually like Kitamura and just not have told you."

"There's no way… I try to know everything about Taiga."

You're saying that again… Ryuuji thought about telling her about

Taiga and Kitamura going shrine visiting, but he just barely stopped

himself. Spreading that around wouldn't help anyone. It was just an

unshakable fact that Minori wasn't aware of.

Minori didn't know, and she didn't know she didn't know.

"Anyway," he said, "the situation is way more complicated than you

think. But I agree with you about wanting to make everything better."

"It's complicated… You're right, it might be. It might be more

complicated than either of us think. That might be true."

She pouted a little and pushed up her hair as though it were bothering

her. The sound of the not-very-useful heater was the only thing that echoed

through the lounge. Ryuuji was uneasily silent, and Minori was, too.

They definitely both had things they couldn't say to each other.

Minori was acting as though she hadn't rejected Ryuuji. Ryuuji could tell

that she didn't want to talk about it, but he didn't feel the same way. He

couldn't forget what had happened. In fact, he wanted to try it again.

I used to be able to talk normally to her about things like this, he

thought. So why couldn't he talk to her now?

"I wonder what we should do… Like really." Minori hummed in a

low voice.

Realization dawned on Ryuuji at last. There was only one way to

cancel out the discord between them, and that was for him to join her in

pretending that she hadn't rejected him and that he hadn't been rejected by

her. The two of them were like gears within the same mechanism that

refused to bite and that resisted adjustment. They were starting to grate

disharmoniously. If this kept up, the mechanism would break down.

If he wasn't able to follow along, pretending to be an oblivious part

of Minori's nothing-happened-at-all world, their gears would never turn

together.

But if he did, it would be nothing more than a lie.

Yes—that was right. Not a single thing had gone well so far. Not

when they carried Taiga's bag together, not when they spoke window-towindow or were in Taiga's kitchen, not even when they were just skiing

together. The reason why he had thought things were going well—the

reason he'd thought they would be able to keep this up—was because he'd

successfully deceived himself. It was because he'd stifled himself and gone

along with Minori.

If Ryuuji ever tried to change Minori's path, he would lose his

balance. Just like when they were skiing.

"Hmm, we need to do something for the sake of the trip. Plus, this is

the last one. I'd really hate that… I really want us to just stay like this."

Minori slowly put her hand in her pocket and pulled out something small

and shiny. She used it to pin up her pesky bangs.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Hm? This hairpin? Taiga gave it to me. She told me it's special, so I

have to keep it really, really safe or something. Cute, huh? Oh, I don't mean

me, I mean the pin."

As Minori smiled, an orange hairpin glittered in her hair. It was the

one Ryuuji had chosen himself. So Taiga had had it all along.

"Ha ha…"

Ryuuji laughed and put his face in his hands.

I'm done.

After seeing the hairpin that had been the last remnant of his feelings

for Minori, he realized that the gears had broken beyond repair. If you tried

to forcibly align things that just wouldn't work together—well, look.

Everything would come crashing down.

She wanted things to stay as they were. She didn't want anything to

change. Minori had said as much herself. It would be better if everyone

could stay like this. It would be better if we could always be like this.

To turn in harmony with Minori's gear, Ryuuji would have to take

that hairpin and stomp on it in secret to kill the truth. He would have to kill

a part of himself.

He could have gone along with Minori's nothing-ever-happened

world, laughed it off, and pretended he hadn't ever been rejected. But…he

couldn't do that anymore. Ryuuji's heart was still alive. If he tried to kill it,

he'd just be bleeding.

Everything that had played out so far was all a way for Minori to

create proof that nothing had happened. The feeling of when she had

touched him, when they laughed and he felt ticklish, even her coming out of

her way now to see him—all of it.

She was doing it all on purpose. So she could pretend Christmas Eve

had never happened.

"Aha ha…right… so that's how it was."

"What's wrong, Takasu-kun? Why have you been so quiet? What is

it? Hey?"

"No! It doesn't matter anymore."

Ryuuji kept his face covered but opened his eyes.

Everything was in pieces. He couldn't stand bleeding in secret or

deceiving himself any longer. Minori's desire to keep the status quo

basically meant Ryuuji would have to keep slaying his feelings, and Minori

knew that. She'd gone out of her way to preemptively reject him that night

on Christmas Eve because she knew that, and still, she wished for nothing

to change.

I'm stubborn and unfair, Minori had said to him in the past. He

finally understood what she meant.

If you like me, stubborn and unfair as I am, then you need to still like

me despite knowing that. She wanted him to be aware of that, even as she

asked him to crush his own heart. She wouldn't reciprocate, but if that was

fine with him, he could keep on liking her.

But why?

Why wouldn't she just tell him that she didn't want to date him

because she didn't like him?

Oh, I see. It's because she's stubborn and unfair.

It was because she didn't have the courage to hurt him.

"Takasu-kun…Takasu-kun! What's wrong? Did something happen?

Sorry…did I say something wrong?"

Ryuuji raised his head and smiled as though to say, Nothing,

nothing's wrong. There's nothing wrong at all. He stood up and took two

large steps away from Minori. When he heard her voice call to him, "Where

are you going?" he turned on his heel without saying a word.

Everyone was probably still in the dining hall. He kept his smile

plastered on his face as he quickly walked down the hallway and back to

the bustling dinner area. He went back to the table, where only his seat

remained empty.

"I'm going to go back to the room early. My stomach hurts. Where

are the keys?"

"Takasu…"

He realized Kitamura was shocked at the sight of his face. He

realized that Noto and Haruta had stopped talking and were looking at him,

too.

But they said nothing, and Ryuuji took the keys and left the dining

area.

***

Ryuuji had thought the worst night of his life was Christmas Eve. He

couldn't have imagined that those ugly memories would be unearthed so

soon.

He returned to the dim and dusty smelling Japanese-style room on his

own and quickly laid out one set of the bedding that had been piled in a

nook. He set his bed up in the farthest corner of the room possible. He

didn't even tuck in the sheets but only put out the bottom-most layer of

bedding and threw the pillow and blanket down onto it. He hadn't even

taken his evening bath, and he was still in a sweatshirt and sweatpants, but

he dove right in.

He wanted an hour—no, even just thirty minutes alone like this. He

prayed no one would come into the room.

On that night, he'd had a home to return to. There was a bed he could

slip into without anyone seeing. On top of that, his flu symptoms had

started, and his head had been fuzzy. Even his memories of going home

were ambiguous, like it had been a dream.

Now, though, reality was playing out incredibly clearly and tangibly

before his own eyes. It was being etched right into the folds of his brain.

Kushieda Minori would never accept his feelings. Kushieda Minori

had decided that. It was a reality he couldn't change. She had scrubbed

everything clean from start to finish so that Ryuuji's unrequited love no

longer even existed.

Minori would never accept that he liked her. She wouldn't even

accept that his feelings existed in this world. Ghosts aren't real, UFOs are

just your eyes playing tricks on you, and Takasu-kun doesn't have feelings

for me.

That's how it was.

But why?

Why?

He held his pillow, rounded his body up, and squeezed his eyes shut.

He bit his lip. Please, please, make it so no one comes into this room.

At that moment, he heard shuffling.

"Takasu, what's wrong? Did something happen?"

"Is he asleep? We're worried about you, Takasu. We're just worried."

"Does your stomach actually hurt? Did you eat something by

yourself?"

His wishes were easily betrayed. The three guys gathered around him

without hesitation.

You've got to be kidding—unfortunately this was reality, too.

Pretending he hadn't heard anything, Ryuuji stayed curled up in the

bedding like a raccoon.

"Hey, you." Haruta's finger poked him right in the butt. If he really

had been sleeping because his stomach hurt, that would have spelled

disaster. "What? He's seriously sleeping?"

Haruta actually tried to pull the covers off him. Ryuuji held onto

them, but resisting too much would have been suspicious, and he was

forced to let go. The covers were stripped right off of him, and Ryuuji felt

the creepy sensation of the idiot's breath on his cheek as Haruta looked over

his face. He curled up his whole body and desperately kept his eyes closed.

"Ugh…"

"Oh, there we go! Let's see, is he really sleeping?"

He absolutely didn't have it in him to tell everyone what had

happened. He just wanted to be alone right then. He wanted them to

somehow read his leave-me-alone aura.

"Aw, he's asleep. Ah well. Then we'll just have to be really quiet!"

Right, right, that was good. Sorry, Haruta. Sorry, everyone. But the

moment Ryuuji began to feel the slightest bit of relief, the most mindboggling of comments came from none other than Noto's mouth.

"Hey, Kitamura, what do you think you're doing?! Why're you

taking off your clothes all of a sudden?!"

The eyelids of the sleeping raccoon twitched. Stop. Don't do that.

Ryuuji held his breath in spite of himself, feeling some incredibly

unpleasant presence nearby.

"Well, Takasu is sleeping, so I thought I'd get ready for bed, too."

"Gaaaah! Why're you taking off just your pants? How perverted are

you, master—I mean, ass-ter?!"

"I'm sleeping with my shirt on. Now, where's my bag? Where'd it

go?"

"Ahhhhhh! You're being a little too liberal, ass-ter!"

"Put that thing back! This is too realistic!"

Kitamura…your bag is on the bottom shelf of the cupboard! Ryuuji

desperately told him, but unfortunately, it seemed his telepathy didn't reach

Kitamura. He heard Kitamura walking on the tatami mats. Just imagining

Kitamura's disrobed state was terrifying, and even more terrifyingly, those

footsteps came to a halt directly above Ryuuji's pillow. They stopped

literally right above his head.

He can't be straddling my head right now. His mind was occupied by

the unthinkable image—

"Oh, dear. I feel some mysterious gassy substance coming out of my

butt…"

"That's a direct hit, Kitamura! It's not even going to filter through

anything!"

"Phew! You're the worst! Poor Taka-chan, that's such a tragic fate!"

No way.

No way. No way. No way. Nowaynonononono—

"Poot."

"YOU…IDIOOOOOOOOOOT!"

Ryuuji sat up.

"Kitamura, you better not have gotten your noxious, filthy spray of E.

coli-filled gas on my face—oh?!"

"We lied…"

"I didn't think he'd believe it…"

"He so fell for it…"

He faced the three stooges. Kitamura stood over Ryuuji, fully clothed

in his normal tracksuit, hands pressed together as he squeezed the air

between them out into jovial "Poot poot poot ♪" noises.

"Why…you…"

For a good five seconds, Ryuuji just looked at them in a stupor.

"ARGH! Do you guys even know how terrified I was?!"

"Sorry, but we were worried because you were acting weird."

Faced by Kitamura's serious face, Ryuuji held his head and writhed.

He couldn't put it into words, but he wanted to tell them, You're the ones

being weird with that convincing performance!

"So, what happened?" Noto also looked earnestly at Ryuuji with eyes

about half the size of Kitamura's (and they weren't cute).

Haruta said, "My feet are cold. Lemme under there, too." He tried to

force his toes into the toasty covers Ryuuji was under.

"Nothing…really…happened…"

"Would a guy who had nothing happen to him go back to the room on

his own and pretend to sleep? You were worried about me before, and you

talked to me about it. This time, I—we—want to do that. If there's anything

we can do, we want to do it. We're worried about you. Talk to us, please."

Kitamura sat down with his legs folded directly under him and leaned

forward. Ryuuji understood painfully well the feelings that made Kitamura

say that. He really had been worried the time Kitamura had gone blond.

But Kitamura has things he can't talk about himself, doesn't he?

Ryuuji ended up thinking.

"Hey…please."

Suddenly, he felt embarrassed for thinking that. The moment he

raised his eyes, he was hit with Kitamura's sincere, direct gaze. Noto and

Haruta were looking straight at Ryuuji's eyes, too.

These guys were his friends.

Whether he liked it or not, they were allies.

All allies did was believe in the person they were there for, didn't

they? If an ally didn't tell him something, then Ryuuji just had to believe

they'd had a reason for it. It was time to throw up his hands.

Ryuuji—mostly unconsciously—had already raised his hands in

unconditional surrender.

"I couldn't tell any of you for a long time, but…" He hesitated. "II…"

Haruta straightened up. Noto and Kitamura had already been sitting

upright.

"…l-l-l-liked Kushieda, but—"

"Wha?!"

"Huh!"

"Keep going!"

"…she rejected me on Christmas Eve…"

"Ngh…"

"Uhh!"

"Keep going!"

"…then I talked to her just now…and it's completely over…"

"Guh…"

"Fwoo…"

"K-keep going!"

"That's all I've got!"

Whoo! Ryuuji collapsed. All the strength rushed out of him at once,

and the inside of his head went white. He felt like he was about to crumble

into ash. He felt like he'd be scattered by a passing wind.

All of them were silent.

Kitamura looked stealthily at Noto. Noto was looking hesitantly at

Haruta. Then Haruta looked slowly into Ryuuji's eyes.

...…

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

They flipped.

"EEEEEEEEK!" "WAAAAAAAAH!" "OHHHHHHHH!" They

yelled like idiots. "NUOOO!" They writhed, rolled on the ground, scratched

at the floor, and arched their bodies backward.

"What the hell, Takasu?! Since when?! Kushieda… Kushieda!

KUSHIEDAAAAA?!"

"Wait, Takasu, why? Why is that how it is, and how is it like that, like

why?!"

"Kushieda?! Kushieda?! Huh, but Kushieda… You can't possibly

mean that Kushieda?!"

Ryuuji jutted out his chin and stared at the ceiling. "That's right! It's

Kushieda Minori! That—that weird girl is the one I liked for over a year!

I'm sorry I ever liked her! But she doesn't seem to have feelings at all! It's

like she couldn't even imagine it happening! She doesn't feel anything for

me, I'm telling you! Nothing at all! WHYYYYYY?!"

He fell face down onto the blankets. He didn't care what happened

anymore. He didn't even care if he breathed in mites. He didn't even care if

he had a slight allergic reaction. He wouldn't even care if he started crying

right there.

"But actually, come to think of it, you and Miss Kushieda were pretty

close, weren't you?! Like I remember seeing you guys talking enough to

make me think twice?!"

At Noto's voice, good old Haruta with his weak memory followed

suit.

"I thought so, too!"

Like that would console him… Ryuuji started to deny it, but they

kept going.

"Why'd Miss Kushieda reject you, Takasu?! What's her reasoning?! I

can't accept that—like at all! I haven't heard of her having a boyfriend

either, and it's not like she'd like anybody else?! But I'd never ever have

imagined…a guy liking Kushieda! Like seriously, why?!"

"That's what I want to know! Why don't you ask her?" Ryuuji wailed

desperately.

"How about we do it? Let's ask her."

Kitamura quickly stood up. Huh? Ryuuji looked up at his face.

"I can't believe it either. If I'd been a girl, I definitely would've dated

Takasu."

Me, too! Yup, yup! Noto and Haruta raised their voices. Kitamura's

expression was completely serious. He pushed his glasses up on his nose as

he declared this without hesitation.

"Are you an idiot?!" said Ryuuji. "That's not funny! That's not even a

joke!"

"Well, it's not just asking Kushieda about you, Takasu. Actually, I'm

in the mood to ask the girls some stuff."

"Then why don't you pay a visit to their room by yourself?! D-D-DDon't use me as an excuse!"

Kitamura put a gentle hand on Ryuuji's shoulder as he writhed.

"Instead of staying in bed like this, you should be facing up against

the girls, fair and square, starting with Kushieda. There's been so much

happening today, even my head feels like it's going to explode. Since it's

come to this, we might as well be frank about it. Nothing comes of fighting!

Mutual understanding is the first step to a stable society!"

"No, no, no! There's something wrong with what you're saying!

Don't get me involved, I'm begging you!" Ryuuji waved his hands in a

desperate attempt to stop Kitamura's recklessness.

"Well, Takasu, there's stuff I want to ask the girls, too. So, let's go.

I'm pretty sure the girls' room is one floor down."

"Taka-chan! This is definitely how you get your revenge! Like no

matter what happens…we want to protect our precious Taka-chan! I won't

forgive her for rejecting you! Curse you, Kushieda!"

"Okay, let's go. Right now."

"Okay, we're all going now. C'mon Takasu."

"HURAH! GURAH! We're coming for you, Kushieda!"

"Stop, stop, stop! Stop! Anyway, just sit down—huh?!" Ryuuji

grabbed Kitamura's enthusiastic arm and tried to stop him, but instead, his

hand was taken, and he was pulled right out of bed.

"Noto, you have the key, right?! Let's go!"

"Wait, wait, wait, you're serious?! You're really serious?!"

The other three nodded solemnly.

"This is just like Chushingura—that story where the forty-seven

ronin avenge their master. If you're the master, Asano Naganori, then we're

the Aka-roshi that were involved in the attack."

"Aren't you just using me as an excuse to go there?!"

"Think of Kushieda as the villain in Chushingura—she's Kira. But

we're trying to have a gentlemanly conversation with her. Okay, room's

locked."

"It's not like we can talk to them about it! We'll just end up getting in

another fight!"

"Oh yeah, Kira. He's so cool! I've got every volume! It's kind of hard

to follow though! Maybe I'll cut my hair, too! Bringing a manga to the

hairstylist might be kind of embarrassing, though?!"

"I think you're talking about something completely different?

Whoa!"

Kitamura and Noto took off running down the hall, and Haruta

followed after them without hesitation.

"Hey! Damn it…seriously…seriously. I seriously don't care what

happens anymore!"

Ryuuji was on the verge of crying, but he couldn't stand them pulling

a Chushingura without him. He ran after his friends as fast as he could.

***

"We're coming in, girls! Be good now and open this door… Wait, it's

already open?!" The door just popped open as Kitamura grabbed the cheaplooking doorknob.

"We got hella lucky! Hey, gals! I don't know if you're changing or

doing something else, but you're the exhibitionists for not locking up!"

"We're heading in, Kitamura, Takasu!"

Haruta opened the door without hesitation and dove in. He pushed

Kitamura before him and grabbed Ryuuji's arm. Noto followed after them.

As they rushed into the room, Ryuuji froze up, automatically preparing

himself for shrieks and denunciations.

"Huh? What? No one's here!"

"Yeah…they're just careless. Actually, what even is this?!"

Ryuuji looked around the eight-tatami mat room and scowled like a

medium possessed by a spirit. Could this room really have the exact same

layout as theirs?

The girls' five people's worth of bags were laid out right on the floor.

The ones that had their zippers closed were in a better state, but there were

several that were wide open, their contents spilling out. Brushes, hot

curlers, phones with too many key chains on them, pouches, magazines, and

girly stuff that he didn't recognize were scattered all around. They had

dropped their still-damp gear wherever they wanted, and the only things

they'd put up on hangers were two jackets and four skirts.

To top it all off, there was just a single sock thrown into a corner.

Ryuuji really just could not stand socks in uneven numbers.

"This is so gross! Ahhh!"

"Hold back, Takasu! You can't clean this!"

As Kitamura held him back, Ryuuji's body shook. Incidentally, under

Ryuuji's instructions, the boys had put all their bags into the cupboard and

put their uniforms up on hangers. Their gear was already wiped down and

drying by the window. He even had a rule that everyone had to put their

personal belongings back in their bags after using them.

These eight-tatami mat rooms had to have four to five high school

students stuffed into them, after all. If they didn't clean it up right, they

wouldn't be able to keep their own zones of privacy. Plus, messes always

invited friends. If one thing was left out, it would immediately contaminate

the area around it. If a place was messy, the minds of those living in it

would also be scattered. Actually, if he had to live in such a small, messy,

chaotic room like this, Ryuuji would probably have gotten sick.

How did they even do that…? Why wouldn't they want to live in

more comfort for the two nights and three days they would be there? He at

least wanted to do something immediately about that gear and those

uniforms. The gear would get smelly, and the pleats of the skirts would get

all messed up…

No. He couldn't. Ryuuji bit his lip and desperately turned his eyes

away from the area he wanted to clean.

"They left the room unlocked when it's like this… I wonder if they

thought it'd lock automatically behind them? Maybe they're at the baths?

Just how many snacks did they bring?" Noto also seemed exasperated as he

looked around the room. Then, he exclaimed, "Oh!"

"What's wrong, Noto-chi?"

"I saw it! I saw a camisole! It's blue!"

"I found a whole bunch of damp towels! Whoo!"

Haruta raised the treasures he had found. Class 2-C's conscience,

Kitamura, admonished them. "Hey, stop that you two! And even you?

Takasu, stop!"

"Oh no…I'm not doing that. That's not what I meant." Ryuuji

quickly hid that unbearable, single dropped sock behind his back.

"Seriously, even you, Takasu? You can't touch other people's

personal stuff. Now, put it back! Oh no, I stepped on something. What is

this… 'Aroma cream'? Oh…so it's a type of hand cream, and you can put it

on your face? Ohhh…yeah, that's an aroma. It smells like what you'd

imagine for an aroma."

"Lemme see, oh…"

"Yeah, this is it. It's an aroma…"

"Ohh…it's kind of a sexy smell, hee hee."

Kitamura had squeezed a tiny bit of the cream from the tube onto the

back of his hand, where everyone sniffed it. Kitamura rubbed it in and said,

"Yeah, it's smooth." How was this the conscience of class 2-C?

"Hee hee…"

Suddenly Haruta laughed.

"If anyone were looking at this scene right now, we'd really look like

perverts. This is the kind of thing you end up in cuffs for."

"Stop being stupid. We just came here for revenge, right? Our final

goal was to be diehards."

That was right. Ryuuji and Kitamura nodded at Noto's words.

"But we look kind of outrageous."

Well, they might have looked weird from an outside perspective.

Haruta had a towel someone else had used around his neck. Noto still

had the camisole in his hands. Ryuuji was still hiding the sock. And

Kitamura was being allured by the fragrance of the cream he'd rubbed on

his hand.

"You're right that it might look like that," Kitamura said. "We might

look a little dangerous, but we're not perverts, and we didn't come here

aiming to mess with the girls' stuff. How about we put everything back

before the girls come in, and then start over, my friends?"

It was a splendid idea. Everyone agreed, but just then…

Clack. The door the perverts had come in through to mess with the

girls' personal things began to open.

***

Out of anyone it could have been, it was Taiga.

The boys just barely managed to jump into the small closet, their

hearts racing. Out of all the girls, the most savage and unreasonable one had

come back to the room alone.

They lined their eyes up to the slightly open sliding door, where a

line of light spilled through, to see the room.

"This is bad. This is bad…"

Shhhh. They hushed Haruta's wail, but Ryuuji, too, felt overwhelmed

with despair and was close to peeing himself. This went two steps beyond

just playing around with people's personal belongings while the owners

weren't present. They couldn't say, "We're diehards" or "We're getting

revenge," anymore. There was absolutely no way they could say any of that

now.

Still unaware of the fact Ryuuji and the rest were watching from their

hiding place, Taiga threw her key onto the tatami. It looked like she hadn't

even noticed that the door had been open.

She'd probably just finished taking a bath. She was wearing a parka

and, unusually for her, matching pants. Her long hair was still soaking wet.

Her face was red, and she was breathing loudly.

Taiga wiped her hair with the towel around her shoulders and

grabbed a dryer that she had left sitting right out in the middle of the room.

She pulled on the cord as she let her eyes wander around. It seemed she was

looking for an outlet. There was one right before her eyes in an easy-to-spot

location, but Taiga seemed despondent.

"Guess there isn't one…" she muttered, and her shoulders slumped.

Ryuuji slipped. If his butt hadn't fallen onto Noto's leg, he probably

would have made a sound.

"Takasu!"

"Sorry!"

Ryuuji couldn't help it—Taiga was just too much of an idiot. She

hadn't even noticed the outlet right in front of her! She gave up on the

dryer, tossed it aside, and then trotted across the room as though she'd

remembered something. She opened the room's refrigerator and pulled out a

bottle of tea she seemed to have brought with her. Perhaps she was feeling

thirsty from her bath. Taiga put a hand on her hip and heartily tipped the tea

back.

"Gah-hah!"

She coughed hard, and in that moment, spilled tea all over the place.

"Oh, ew."

Don't say ew… Inside the closet, the same sentiment bloomed like a

cloud. Ryuuji felt like grinding his teeth as he looked at the tea spilled on

the ground. If they didn't wipe it up quick, it'd form a stain.

As though Ryuuji's thought had made its way to her, Taiga

immediately bent down and started wiping the tea off the tatami. But—she

used the towel she had been using on her hair. What was she going to do

with her wet head now?

As Ryuuji watched, disturbed, Taiga did the unthinkable. With that

very same towel, she once again started drying her hair.

Whaaaaa?! Even Haruta made a low noise. Ryuuji nearly fainted.

Oh, Taiga—why are you so careless?

Despite that, when Taiga started drinking her tea again a bit more

carefully, her profile really looked exactly like a doll. She looked like a

princess from a fairy tale.

"Guff!"

Stop… Don't burp either, please.

Taiga capped the bottle and held it in one hand as she started

wandering around the room. She wiped her hair with the tea towel as she

walked.

"Ah!"

She tripped on someone's bag. BAM! She fell onto her face. And

then, out of all the things that could have happened…

"Ow!"

…the bottle that had flown out of her hand landed right back down

onto her head.

"…!"

"Oh…" The boys wriggled, covering their mouths before they could

blurt anything out. The klutz god had descended to earth right in front of

them. That said, this was probably an everyday occurrence for Taiga.

"Ugh, what's with this…ngh…"

Taiga held her head but stayed calm. Still on the ground, she rolled

over onto her back and lay splayed out on the tatami. She yawned. She

arched, and her back cracked loudly. Then she closed her eyes and began to

hum.

Vrmmmm vrmmm. ♪ Vrmmmmm vrmmmm. ♪

Her humming sounded just like a mass of cicadas. That was Ryuuji's

limit.

"Bwah ha!"

"Huh?!"

Within the closet, three fists hit Ryuuji in the back. However, the

sound he'd released could no longer be taken back. With her usual cat-like

reflexes, Taiga leapt up. She held her bottle like a bat.

Her pale face looked like a Noh mask, and her large, emotionless

eyes were open so wide they seemed like they might split at the seams.

Taiga scanned the whole room and somehow, now of all times, came to the

correct conclusion. She stared at the closet.

Bottle held high in her right hand, and poised to defend her face with

her left, her footwork was obviously far from amateur as she stepped

towards the closet.

And then, something unthinkable happened.

What if Tiger locked the room and went to sleep?

Unbelievable! But when it comes to Tiger, I'd believe it.

Aha ha ha ha…

They heard the sound of four people laughing. They heard Maya and

Ami's voices approaching them through the thin walls of the closet. They

were close. They were almost there.

And then, right before them, Taiga's hand was on the sliding door.

"Ahh! To hell with it!"

It was his fault for making a noise. Ryuuji sent up a quick prayer to

heaven and then, faster than Taiga could reach out her hand, he suddenly

threw open the sliding door. BAM!

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeep…"

It seemed that when people were truly afraid, they couldn't even

scream. Taiga made a noise like a strangled baby monkey as Ryuuji

appeared before her eyes and grabbed her legs, making her fall backward

onto her butt.

"Please, please, be quiet, please! Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, please,

forgive us!"

"HAGBHAABABABARYURYURYU…"

Ryuuji grabbed her frozen arm and pulled her into the bottom half of

the closet while apologizing, his face in full-on possessed-medium mode.

Taiga was halfway to fainting.

"I'll explain things later," he said, as if he were a husband caught

cheating. The timing was dangerous and last minute.

"Huh, it's still open. Hey, Tiger, you're so careless!"

The door opened with a clack, and Maya's voice echoed through the

room… Just as Kitamura quietly closed the sliding door.

"Hel…!"

…lp me! Taiga probably tried to yell.

"Please…just this once…please…please, okay…"

Ryuuji had become an actual pervert. He whispered hotly into Taiga's

ear as he begged her, pinning her arms behind her back with all the strength

he could muster. He could feel the warmth from her skin through her parka

and pants, as though she were a child who had just come out from the bath.

This really could land him in jail. On top of that, even as he

apologized, he covered her mouth. Taiga tried to bite him like a wild

animal, but he somehow stopped her from screaming. Her wet hair flailed,

and her hard head hit his chin. BAM!

Even then, Ryuuji didn't yell. He couldn't make the same mistake

again. He noticed the thinness of the arm he held so tightly, and weakened

his grip, but then she butted his chin again hard enough to make him feel

like he might die. Her strength weirdly reassured him. He felt something

that was a little different from guilt, but it dispersed with his pain.

"Huh? Taiga's not here…but she said she'd come back first to dry her

hair."

"The key is over there, so maybe she went to the bathroom? Ahh, that

was a nice bath. It wasn't a hot spring, but it's nice when it's that big."

"I so agree. I want to go in again later. We can go as many times as

we want before lights out, right?"

"Nanako, you seriously love baths. But if you're going, I'll go, too. I

want to get thinner. Actually, Ami-chan, why don't you become a pinup

model? I think you'd seriously be a hit! For sure!"

"You think so? It's not like I want to become an entertainer, though."

As soon as they entered the room, Minori, Ami, Maya, and Nanako

immediately started talking. They were bustling around, asking to be

handed their toner, eating snacks, and turning on the TV. No one had noticed

the secret sexual harassment feud in the closet, but Ryuuji couldn't hold

back the Palmtop Tiger all by himself forever.

Just when he thought it was only a matter of time before Taiga

escaped, Maya spoke.

"Hey… Maybe Tiger went to the boys' room by herself? Maybe she's

with Maruo-kun right now."

Maya wrapped her long hair with a towel and plopped down crosslegged. Taiga's body froze as her name was said. Kitamura probably jolted,

too.

Across from Maya, Nanako smiled, putting cream on her face (the

same one Kitamura had been rubbing on his hand). She sat down, as well.

"Tiger? Go to the boys' room by herself? No way. You're

overthinking it."

"Oh, but maybe she's doing something with Takasu-kun, and

Yuusaku will come by, and there'll be a situation," Ami said. "That could

happen."

"What do you mean, they're doing 'something'?" Nanako poked fun

back at Ami. Ryuuji agreed with Nanako, too. What are we supposedly

doing? he thought.

"What?! It'd be so terrible if that actually did happen! Actually…

what is it with Tiger, really? Is she actually after Maruo? No matter what

anyone says, the one she's really the closest to is Takasu-kun, isn't it? Back

when we went to Tiger's house, Takasu-kun was doing the dishes. That's

pretty clear, isn't it? Maybe the whole Maruo thing is just a

misunderstanding, and in the end, she's really after Takasu-kun? Honestly,

that'd be nice!"

That was the point at which Taiga stopped resisting. Even if she got

free of Ryuuji's arms, this newest development put Taiga in a situation

where she couldn't really jump out and say, "I've been here the whole

time!"

She stopped moving and looked up for a second at Ryuuji's face. He

felt like her lips were moving to mouth something. Remember this…

"Hey, Kushieda, what's going on with that? You're close to Tiger,

right? Who is Tiger really after, Takasu-kun or Maruo? It's Takasu-kun,

right? Right?"

"Well, that's hard for me to say, partner. Why don't you ask Taiga

directly when she gets back?" Pinning up her washed hair with a clip,

Minori cocked her head.

"What?! It's not like Tiger would tell us! Actually, Kushieda, you've

been kind of quiet since earlier? What happened?"

"You think so? I might have skied too hard. I'm kind of sleepy."

"What?! We're not going to let you sleep tonight! We're having girl

talk! Actually, if Tiger would just like, hurry up and get Takasu-kun already,

we wouldn't have any problems!"

"Oh, that stings…and then Minori-chan pleads the fifth. ♥" Ami

smiled suggestively.

For a moment, the air in the room froze. The air in the closet froze in

the same way.

"Huh, what? What do you mean? Ami-chan, I wanna know. You do,

too, right, Nanako?"

"Yeah, of course. Actually, Ami-chan said something that only

Kushieda got a while ago, too, right?"

"Ohh, you two heard that? Sorry, Minori-chan…you pretend to be

oblivious so often that I've said too much, now."

Minori turned to face Ami. Ami was blinking her big Chihuahua

eyes, acting purposefully cute as she smiled and looked back at Minori.

"Look, don't just talk to each other through your eyes. Just say it,

Ami-chan!"

"Maya's asking, but should I say it? Should I let it out?"

Minori tilted her head. "Say what?"

Ryuuji swallowed. Putting aside the dangerous topic at hand, it was

Minori's expression that got to him. Her eyes were a little narrowed, and

her chin was raised. She was looking right through Ami.

He'd seen that face once before. He could never forget it. It was

during the practice for the culture festival. Minori had asked him about

Taiga's dad, and her face now looked exactly the same as it had back then.

In other words, it was her face when she was actually angry.

But Ami wasn't cowed. She put a placid smile on her face. Then she

said:

"Minori-chan rejected Takasu-kun when he tried to confess to her on

Christmas Eve. Did you forget? No way, that's how precious popular girls

are! You're so calm about it! How cool! Like you don't even remember that

you rejected him! Aha ha!"

"Huh? What? Whaat?! Takasu-kun tried to confess to you?!

Seriously?!"

"And then you rejected him?! On Christmas Eve?! No waay!

Actually…how do you know that, Ami-chan?!"

"I wonder… It's a mystery."

Maya and Nanako were getting excited, but next to them, Minori

inhaled and said, indifferently, "Ahmin…I wonder why you would say

that…"

Ami replied, "Because you were acting so airheaded all the time. I

can't believe you're pretending everything is fine."

Her words and voice were terrifyingly true to her nature. She came

directly at Minori, targeting her weaknesses, spoiling for a fight.

"Takasu-kun likes Minori-chan, not Tiger, it turns out. But, Minorichan rejected him. But now she's acting all oblivious, like, 'We all need to

get along!' and 'Don't you wanna be like this forever?' Like…what? Do

you really think someone can stay friends with the girl who rejected him?

You were obviously clinging to him on purpose when we were skiing. You

were just trying to show him how oblivious you are, right? Just how cruel

are you?"

The team in the closet and the one in the room both swallowed

without thinking. No one could say a word…

"When did you see me acting fine? Did you really see that? What do

you know about me? Can your eyes see through to my heart? Actually, this

doesn't have anything to do with you, Ahmin. Don't stick your nose into

this."

…other than Minori, that was.

"So this doesn't involve me, huh? Oh, I see. Sorry. But…when I

heard that you rejected Takasu-kun, I had this thought that you might be

acting out of a sense of guilt. I guess it doesn't involve that…"

"I told you already. It has nothing to do with you. I don't know what

you're trying to say. If you think I'm doing fine, then that's great. Just leave

it alone."

"Oh, good. I'm so relieved it doesn't have anything to do with me.

And that it doesn't have anything to do with the guilt, either. Oh, what a

relief—so Minori-chan and Takasu-kun clearly aren't as upset as I thought.

See, I thought you'd rejected Takasu-kun because of guilt over a certain

someone, Minori-chan, but I guess you just really genuinely hate him? I'll

tell Takasu-kun that tomorrow. I'll tell him you rejected him because you

hate him. It's much kinder not to string him along, like you are now. You

should just tell him exactly what you think and break things off."

"Do what you want…"

"Okay, I get the message. Oh, maybe I'll go tell him right now?"

"I said you could do what you want."

"Your face looks pretty great on the surface…"

"What're you even saying?"

"I wonder what I mean…"

"Get a hold of yourselves!" Maya sounded resolute as she intervened.

Time, which seemed to have frozen over, finally started to creak forward

again.

"Ami-chan, what's gotten into you, too? Let's stop. We're on a nice

school trip and fighting among girls is just so—I don't want to know any

more about this! It's Noto we should be angry at! Isn't that enough?

Kushieda, you too, okay? Let's just move on from this, please!"

"I think it'd be really hard on Tiger if she came back and she saw you

two still fighting," Nanako said. "Tiger's parents are divorced, aren't they? I

only have one parent at home, so I get it. When you see your friends

fighting, you remember your parents and how the house felt. But…you said

too much just now, Ami-chan. Please just apologize and let it end here."

There was a bit of a pause.

"Sorry, Minori-chan. I said way too much. Could you forget it all?"

Ami lowered her head slightly. Seeing that, Minori slowly and loudly

clapped her hands together once.

"There! It's a deal. Okay, I've forgotten it!"

Finally, the air in the room relaxed.

"Actually, where is Tiger? How about we look for her for a bit?"

Maya said in a much brighter voice. Everyone, probably wanting to change

the mood, nodded to each other and left the room.

The sliding door of the closet fwooshed open.

"I feel like we saw something we really weren't meant to see!"

The first one to fall out was Kitamura. Noto and Haruta also rolled

out after him.

"Actually, Miss Kushieda is kinda…like how do I put this…I'm

really, really glad that I didn't ask her anything weird, now."

"Am I the only one who didn't get the point of their fight at all? How

is Ami-chan involved in this? Taka-chan, what's going on?"

"That's what I want to know! Really! Everyone…everyone is just…"

Disoriented, Ryuuji crawled from the closet.

"You…you…you baaaaaastaaaaaaaaards…"

Her wet hair disheveled, her face red from wrath—among other

things—Taiga was breathing heavily as she got up. It stood to reason. He

had done all of those things to the Palmtop Tiger. He had asked for this.

Ryuuji closed his eyes and waited in silence. He prepared himself for

a slap with the weight of her whole body in it, but Taiga's right hand just

passed limply through the air. She drifted to the ground, sat with her legs

folded to the side, and pitifully hid her red face in her hands.

"This is just too awkward! What is this… Why did you have to

involve me in something like this?! It doesn't hurt you—you can just go

back to your rooms and be fine! I have to pretend that I don't know

anything for two more nights and pretend to be upbeat when Minorin and

Dimhuahua are so on edge! I need to put on an act…"

"Oh, right, that's pretty hard."

"Shuddup, you brainless, hairy caterpillar! But, but, really what is

this… Why are Minorin and Dimhuahua fighting? Maybe I shouldn't have

told Dimhuahua everything…"

There wasn't a single person who could answer Taiga's question. The

boys could only look at each other uneasily, still overwhelmed by the fight

that they shouldn't have seen.

"Anyway…" Kitamura said in a low voice, his glasses still halfway

down his face. "We didn't see anything. Aisaka met Takasu on the way

back to her room and was talking to him in the hallway. When she came

back, it seemed the girls had been there but had gone somewhere again.

That's right…right?"

Taiga somehow nodded, though her face was still hot.

"We really did something stupid, getting carried along like that."

Kitamura lightly smacked his own head. Ryuuji didn't know what he meant

by that, but the words didn't seem to be meant for him.

The closet perverts had successfully made their escape. Left alone by

herself in the girls' room, Taiga, who had to pretend not to know anything

for two days, watched them leave with an endlessly resentful gaze.

"Actually, what did you guys come here for…?