Chapter 3

It'd be better if we just didn't do anything. The atmosphere drifting

through the classroom after the school day was somber.

Unable to go home, every person in class 2-C was cold and quiet at

the compulsory event. Their desks were all pushed to the back of the

classroom like when they cleaned it, and they had their butts planted on the

hard floor. Each and every one of their tense faces looked up at Haruta, who

was on the teacher's platform.

Did they blame him? No, they were indifferent. As they sat in rows,

their eyes were filled with harsh apathy. They didn't want to engage. If they

could, they wanted to pretend it had never happened. Every one of them

wanted to escape from this idiotic situation, even if they were the only

escapee. All of their egoistic self-preservation instincts were going full

throttle.

"Here…take one each. Could you hand them to the back?"

Haruta, the root of all evils, timidly concealed his eyes as though

trying to escape from their gazes. He tried to distribute the mystery

booklets, but no one would take them from him. Unable to do anything else,

he got down from the teacher's platform and walked around to push the

booklets into each one of their hands himself. He put the booklets down

gently by the feet of the ones who wouldn't even reach out to take one.

Then, as though they had conspired beforehand, they didn't listen to him

and simply left them on the floor. If they listened, they'd lose. If they

showed any interest, they'd lose. That feeling covered the classroom like

the austere, heavy scent of incense swirling from a grave during the Obon

holidays.

"I felt responsible for what happened. So…I tried making it up to you

all by writing…this. I-It's a script. It's a pro-wrestling show, no kayfabe…

Well, look, it's right here." Though no one had asked him about it, Haruta

started to unnecessarily explain as he passed around the booklets. No one

was listening.

Yes—though it was terrifying, class 2-C's exhibition for the cultural

festival was really a pro-wrestling show. Either because she had gone mad

from jealousy of their youth or simply because her growing anxiety had

caused her to self-destruct, the spinster (age 30) had unnecessarily used her

homeroom powers to formally present the unfortunate proposal to the

acting committee. She had even gone to these extremes to cause trouble.

That was the situation when Haruta had said, I-It's a script. Everyone

was still wordless as they averted their eyes from the sloppily stapled

printer paper. Even Ryuuji and Noto, who were always friendly when it

came to Haruta, wouldn't humor him this time. The two of them were

feeling uneasy as they sat huddled together in a corner.

"I'm scared of any script Haruta would write, too."

"Yeah, this is a mess…"

They whispered to each other in bated breaths. Ryuuji's eyes were

unsettled and twitching for some reason. They gleamed dangerously, as

though about to shoot down the idiot Haruta with the blue lightning of

punishment. Haruta inferred that and couldn't bring himself to meet

Ryuuji's eyes.

Ryuuji, however, was actually sympathizing slightly with Haruta in

his Ryuuji-like way. Poor Haruta. Would the day come when that kinship

would reach Haruta?

In front of Ryuuji, Kitamura, who would normally take the lead and

make a big deal of class events, looked sort of tired. His glasses were

slipping down his nose. "We can't get excited like this… My plan to get

everyone excited about the cultural festival is…" he was muttering to

himself.

Even further in front of him, Minori was sitting cross-legged. Taiga

was clinging to Minori's back with all her weight.

"Ugh. Ugh."

"Ahh, you're heavy. You're heavy, Taiga."

"Ugh, Minori-ugh."

"Minori-ugh? Who's that? Ahh."

Taiga had turned into an animal with no higher reasoning skills,

rubbing and nuzzling Minori as though she were scent marking. Maya had

boldly laid down on the floor and was sneakily rolling up Kitamura's shirt

hem from behind. He wasn't wearing a jacket, so she was pointing and

giggling with the other girls at his underwear, which was poking up over his

belt. As for Nanako, she had taken out a giant mirror and brush. She

dexterously put pins in her curly hair, practicing an updo.

"Everyone, I'm begging you to show some interest. We can't take it

back." Haruta's cry echoed emptily through the class. "Heey, Kitamura," he

said. "Say something. Aren't you the class rep? You take some

responsibility, too, and get everyone pumped up~! Did you forget you're

indebted to me for saving your butt from that crisis?"

"Hm, I can't complain now that you've said that… Th-then, let's do a

round…"

Desperate, Kitamura lumbered up. That was the moment the incident

occurred. They didn't know how it had happened, but Kitamura's belt was

off, and his slacks slipped right down to his feet.

"Whaaaaaat?!"

"Kyaah!"

For some reason the belt was in the hands of Maya, who screamed

first. It seemed that, at some point, the attention-seeking, beautiful girl's

absentminded dexterity with her hands had taken the belt off.

His underwear was in full view. Everyone surrounding Kitamura

withdrew all at once, like debris being blown away from the center of an

explosion by its terrific force.

"Nooo!!"

"What're you doing?!"

Displeased screams crossed through the classroom.

"Why…" the one who groaned was Kitamura himself.

"Eeeek!" Taiga's voice rose like a whistle.

"The trauma from the seaweed…" said Minori as she covered Taiga's

eyes with her hands. Her cheeks were hollow.

Waah. Ryuuji distanced himself from Kitamura. His suspicion that

Kitamura was an exhibitionist who liked to take off his clothes was

solidifying all the more.

"A pervert's revealed himself," Ami coldly spat.

Far from being excited, the class fell into pandemonium from

suddenly being in close vicinity to an exhibitionist and his lower half. They

screamed as though singing in rounds. Haruta held his head and stared a

hole in the teacher's platform. Kitamura pulled his slacks up in a fluster, but

he couldn't wipe what had happened from everyone's minds.

"I'm done with this!" said a girl in the back. "I'm going home!"

"This is completely useless! It's a waste of time!"

"Sorry, but I can't go along with this!"

"Let's go home. Let's go home. Break uuup!"

It seemed the sober air that filled the classroom had burst all at once

from the Kitamura exposure incident. As they spouted their complaints, the

students got up and went to get their bags. Their desks clattered as they

pulled them back in place. Everyone felt ready to go home.

"W-wait a second!" said Haruta. "Don't go hooome!"

They all ignored Haruta's shouts, which floated futilely through the

air. No one in the classroom knew what to do with this situation.

But then that's when it happened.

"Oh?"

A lifeboat arrived from an unexpected direction. The ears of those

going home pricked up at the sweet and curious sounding voice. In that

moment, their feet froze. Several people spun back around.

"Huuh. Hmmm…this seems pretty fun. Everyone has a role and lines.

Hmm, Haruta-kun, this is surprisingly good."

"A-Ami-chan!"

At some point, Kawashima Ami, the teary-eyed youthful angel of

class 2-C, had used every ounce of her strength to peel her eyes off her

childhood friend's lower half and turn them to the script.

"Ho ho ho," she said, "I'm the main character? Yaay. ♥"

Beside Haruta, Ami grinned as she narrowed her eyes into slits.

Ryuuji, who was preparing to go home like everyone else, looked up at

Ami's suspicious smile. His eyes were seething like the flash of light right

before critical mass. He wasn't trying to look through her with X-ray beams

—he was just surprised.

Wasn't Ami the type who would be the first to take an amateur script

like this, grind it under her heel, tear it to pieces, throw the pieces away, set

them on fire, spit on them, and toss the ashes at a withered tree? On top of

that, wouldn't she laugh loudly and say something like, "If you have the

time to read something as cruddy as this, you might as well spend your time

praising my beauty, you ugly commoners! Oh, but don't you dare open your

ugly eyes! Your eyes wouldn't be able to handle this beautiful face, so use

the power of your imagination to make up for that! What? You can't come

up with anything? Then think of diamonds and the starry night sky. Just

think of all the beautiful things in your memory. Bwa ha ha!"

Wasn't she that type of girl?

Hearing Ami enjoying herself, the students who had been going home

came back into the classroom one after another. They put down their bags

and started gathering around Ami with great interest.

"See, look, this page is super funny," Ami said, lightly fanning the

flames. That was enough to get them going.

"Huh, what? Where, Ami-chan? Which page are you looking at?"

"Which one?"

They all started paging through the distributed scripts.

"Huuh, it's true. It's actually kind of really good…"

"Haruta-kun's pretty bold, considering. Hmm, my role is Bodyguard

C for Ami-chan."

"Whoa, he's even using his kanji characters correctly. It's amazing

what spellcheck can do for you these days, isn't it?"

"Oh, I'm team Ami-chan's staff officer. I've got a lot of lines."

A graceful smile floated over Ami's face as she looked down in

satisfaction at her classmates. Haruta was practically close to tears as he

looked at Ami. He seemed dangerously close to gleefully licking her shoes

or even her bathroom slippers out of adoration. Ami winked at Haruta.

"Oookay, Haruta-kun, let's give it all we got! Well then, how about

we start practicing?"

"Yeah!"

"How about we put tape up in the shape of a ring?"

"Yeah!"

How about you hand over all your valuables? Yeah! How about we

take off some of our clothes? Yeah! How about we surgically extract one of

your kidneys? Yeah! It felt like she'd built enough momentum to take it that

far. Ami's wholesome smile could even manipulate students who'd been on

the verge of losing their sanity moments ago.

"This might be better than expected," she said, egging them on.

"What's your role?"

They sat back down on the ground again. The boys and the girls

rolled up the scripts in their hands and seemed really motivated.

What's she trying to do? thought Ryuuji, who knew about Ami's darkhearted personality. He automatically turned a doubtful eye on her.

"Huh? What, huh?" she said. "Oh dear~? What is it~? Stop it,

Takasu-kun. Why are you staring at me like that~?"

"I'm not staring at you or anything," said Ryuuji.

"Ohhh?"

Ami's large eyes glinted with spite. Her lips gleefully contorted as

though she had found something fun to play with. "You don't come on until

much later, so you don't need to be in character right now, Mr. Supporting

Role. ♥"

"Huh? Supporting role?"

Ryuuji's face went white. He saw Haruta's smile and un-cute tongue

sticking out. He didn't understand. It was as he was trying to open the script

in a panic that it happened.

"WHAT IS THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS?!"

The one who had let out a high-pitched scream a step ahead of him

was Taiga.

Under their leader Ami-chan, all the students of class 2-C lived in

peace and harmony.

"No way," said Ami. "This seems fun~!"

"What do you mean 'lived in'?!" said Ryuuji. "Where was everyone

living?! At the school?! What happened to everyone's homes?! Are the

parents not going to say anything?!"

"It's weird right from the point where Dimhuahua is the leader!" said

Taiga.

But there was someone dissatisfied with that peace. It was evil

incarnate, the Palmtop Tiger and her delinquent henchman Takasu Ryuuji.

"No way, how scary~!"

"Why am I her henchman and a delinquent?! I don't agree with this!"

"Evil incarnate?! Me?! Why?! Never mind Ryuuji, this is terrible!"

The Palmtop Tiger and delinquent attack 2-C. Ami-chan's hard work

proves to be for naught as her friends in class 2-C are brainwashed by the

Palmtop Tiger.

"No way, this is super terrible!"

"Brainwashed?!"

"By who?!"

Under the Palmtop Tiger's command, 2-C goes berserk. But then

Ami-chan's desperate persuasion dissolves the brainwashing. Through their

combined power, they drive out the Palmtop Tiger and delinquent. They live

happily ever after. The end.

"No way," someone cried out, "they dissolved the brainwashing~!"

"They dissolved?! Isn't that bad?!"

"You gave the whole plot away, stupid!"

The classroom filled with applause. Everyone sat hunched over with

their legs pulled to their chests outside the temporary wrestling ring they

had made with tape. Every mouth praised Haruta, who had written the

script.

"Yeah, you've done a pretty good job. Go Haruta."

"It's simple yet dramatic. Isn't the plot unexpectedly good?"

The earlier bed-of-nails situation underwent a complete one-eighty.

Haruta happily scratched at his long, scruffy hair.

"Hee hee, you think so~?" he said. "Maybe I've got some talent? No

way, this is amazing. Maybe I'll be a writer in my future? Nooo way, that's

amazing. I've made it."

"No, you haven't!"

Ryuuji spontaneously smacked Haruta on the butt with his script. He

actually wanted to hit Haruta with his hallway slippers but didn't want his

clean slippers to be sullied by Haruta's butt.

"That hurt," said Haruta, "What're you doing, Takasu?"

"I'm not doing it for real, so relax, you idiot! What part of this is prowrestling?! You think you can just put anyone into villainous roles however

you please!"

"What?" Haruta said. "Takasu, I thought you'd have some reading

comprehension. This is pro-wrestling, no matter how you look at it. First,

look at this, they 'attack 2-C,' right? And then, 'Ami-chan's hard work was

for naught' right here is wrestling. Then the class 'go berserk,' too, and

there's the 'desperate persuasion' and using 'their combined power' to drive

them out. Just read in between the lines and figure it out, okay?"

Was there anything more humiliating than having Haruta comment on

his reading ability? Ryuuji shook and a dark emotion flared up from the pit

of his stomach. He felt like he was being eaten up from the inside. His feet

were dangerously unsteady.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!"

On the other side of things, Ryuuji's boss Taiga, evil incarnate, was

lying on the ground with her huge mouth open. She was howling like a

beast.

"Aisaka-san," said Ami, "you're so stubborn. You. Can't. Do. That."

"THIS ISN'T A JOOOOOOKE! I'm fine with doing the Miss

Festival. That's fine, but why am I the one doing all the weird stuff?! It's all

your fault! It's your fault!"

"Noo, what an ugly thing to accuse me of—ow ow ow!"

FWOOSH! With terrifying power, Taiga bounded in one leap on

Ami's back. In an instant, she had all the joints in Ami's body cracking.

"IT'S. YOUR. FAAAAUUUUULT!"

"Owwwwww, owwwww, owwwww!"

Taiga had Ami firmly locked up in a cobra twist. She put more and

more weight on Ami's thin and creaking body. Ami writhed and yelled as

Taiga wrapped around her further without mercy. Her combo execution was

perfect.

"Whoa," cried out a classmate, "you're really getting into it, Palmtop

Tiger."

"You're already starting to practice. You're way more serious than I

thought."

"That cobra twist…is beautiful. It's too perfect."

"They look like a drawing on a hanging scroll… No, like a limitededition figure."

Oh ho, the students gasped. At their applause, Taiga released Ami in a

fluster and kicked her away.

"All of you, shut up!" she said. "I'll never do this! What is this? Isn't

this bullying?! Are you trying to trick me into embarrassing myself for

laughs?! This is horrible! You're horrible! Horrible, horrible… I'm done! I

got it, I'll kill you all!"

Her bloodlust was peaking. She simply snapped. Her mad tiger eyes

looked as though they were spitting flames as she glared at the classmates

surrounding her. She ferociously licked her lips, as though she were going

to clean them up starting from the right—no, actually starting with the

closest person. They all panicked as they backed up to escape. They were

toppling over each other here and there, turning into a cluster. Taiga put her

sights on the cluster and wound up her lower limbs for attack. It was then

that it happened.

"Aisaka-san! No, Palmtop Tiger! You still don't understand!"

In that chaos, a clear, dignified voice rang out. It was Ami.

"Whaaat?!" said Taiga.

Ami desperately staggered to her feet as though she was still hurting

from the cobra twist. She was full of love, but the light in her eyes was

similar to that of a mother's strict anger. She expanded her arms like the

wings of an archangel as she stood in Taiga's way. Taiga had her claws out

and was about to jump into the crowd. Her eyes filled ominously with the

color of blood and burned even hotter.

"Shut up!" she said. "You're bold for being a Dimhuahua! This is all

your fault, isn't it?!"

"Ouch!"

WHAP! Taiga slapped Ami on the mouth, but Ami still did not shrink

from her. Guh, Ami bit her lip and raised her battered face.

"If hitting me will satisfy you, hit me all you want! But it won't

accomplish anything."

"Ohh, then will I ever!"

"Fugah!"

Taiga pinched the tip of Ami's nose and pulled, assaulting her with

the infamous iron forehead poke as she staggered. However, no matter how

many times Ami fell, she got up again and raised her pale face. Eventually,

a thin smile appeared on her features.

"Guh…you really did it…" she said. "Now…have you gotten your

fill?"

"WHHHaaaaaaat~?! That's bold for the likes of a Chihuahua!"

"Stop, it's reckless," someone yelled. "You'll get killed by the

Palmtop Tiger!"

Ami cut them off with a smile that said It's fine and took a step

towards Taiga. Taiga's wild eyes, which thirsted for blood, continued to

glare at Ami as she approached. The air was tense, but Ami was calm right

to the very end.

"Aisaka-san, there's one thing I want you to know. Once you

understand that, you can boil me, or roast me, or do whatever you like. No

matter what happens, I wanted to tell you that we're doing this for you. You

drift around like you're separate from us… For some reason, you just don't

get along with anyone. You're distant; you might even be scared, the

violent, vicious shrimp you are. What I'm saying is everyone is using this

event as an opportunity for pitiful little you, Aisaka-san, so you can connect

with your classmates! Did it work?! Did everyone's warmth and kindness

finally get through to your empty heart, or do you still only understand

violence?!"

"What're you doing," said Taiga, "getting all carried away?! I'm not

distant or anything!"

Yeah…you're not distant, Aisaka…yeah…not distant at all…right…

The bleated words from her surrounding classmates, meant to placate Taiga,

seemed to intentionally go back and forth. Realizing that, Taiga clutched at

her own neck as though she were being suffocated.

"Wh-what is this?" she asked. "It feels like there's a silk cord…"

"You see. This is the truth."

Ami closed her eyes as though she were satisfied. She shook her head

as if to say That's enough and raised her hand at her classmates. As she

waved her hand, all their voices died down at once. Like a chairperson at

lunch break from a certain long running TV show, Ami had gained

complete control over the audience at some point.

"Anyway," she said. "It means that we don't want you to think of this

as a bad thing, okay? You got it? Look, let's try going at it from here.

Together. Let's go from page four in the script, the start of scene two. It's

your biggest scene, Aisaka-san. Bam! You pull Takasu-kun in with you,

make a smart entrance, and brainwash all the people in the class."

"Liiiike I saaaaaaid! I said I wouldn't do any of this, didn't I? I can't

do that! First off, I've never brainwashed anyone before!"

"D-don't act like it's real," said Ami. "Pretend. You can just pretend

until the end. Let's try a little trial run. Okay, go! Tiger, your brainwashing

line!"

"Huh?! That's so sudden… Uhhh… 'DIIIIEEE!'"

"Just how—well, I guess it's fine, but do you really have to lead with

that?"

"Oh, what, the lines are written out? 'Tiger shouts something as she

appears!'"

"That's not a line… Those are stage directions."

"What're stage directions?"

Before they realized it, even Taiga was going along with Ami. Taiga

and Ami's baffling enthusiasm enveloped them. Ryuuji was half-shocked

and still hadn't joined in with the classmates who were laughing,

applauding, and yelling interjections. Before he realized it, they had given

in and were actually using the script. If only Taiga had been a little more

serious about rejecting it, they might have gotten somewhere.

"Fool!"

"Scum!"

Now Taiga was simply happily (?) embroiled in an insult-slinging

match with Ami. Ryuuji couldn't do anything about it. He threw in the

towel. The guys in the class were into it, and complaining about it all by

himself wouldn't do anything.

His natural honesty kicking in, if there was nothing he could do about

it, he thought he needed to not cause trouble for those who were genuinely

enthusiastic about this. Anyway, first of all, he needed to get a firm grip on

his entrance. When he started reading the script, someone yelled, "Hit her…

hit her…hit heeeer! You're the kiiiiiiiiing ooooooof theeeee kiiiiiiings…"

"…" Ryuuji doubted his eyes. The many other students who tilted

their heads around him were probably doing the same.

"Wh-what's your role?"

"Huh?! Oh, this?! U-uh, well…I don't really know, either."

On her knees at the side of the ring and passionately watching the

scathing exchange between Taiga and Ami, Minori was in a bald cap, had

an eye patch, sported buckteeth, and also wore a stomach band even though

it was the first practice. She was fully in costume for her role.

"Well, Haruta-kun said it's an apology for throwing me into the

morgue. It looks like he gave me an especially good role. He gave me the

costume just now, too. Hee, hee, Haruta-kun's a pretty good guy."

"I see…I see?"

Minori, seeming a little bashful, popped out her buckteeth. Still in her

eye patch and bald cap, she turned her glaring smile straight at Ryuuji. For

the first time in a long time, that perfect golden smile was radiant, exactly

like the midsummer sun. Ryuuji stood visibly straighter, like a plant being

showered in sunshine.

Minori's smile really was the warmest light in the world. It was the

source of all vitality itself. It was shiny and smooth all over…and no, he

wasn't talking about her bald cap. Ryuuji couldn't release his eyes from

Minori.

"So, um, Takasu-kun."

"Y-yeah?!"

Minori was trying to continue the conversation. She was still in her

eye patch and bald cap, but that didn't matter. He'd take any conversation

he could get, no matter what it was about. His eyes were so wide they were

about to split at the seams.

If he could though, he wanted to talk about that. He could talk about

the present she had promised him over the summer vacation and actually

got him for the new school semester. That pretty set of two navy and khaki

towels. He washed them with fabric softener and used them in rotation

every day.

"Ahmin seems kind of different lately."

"Right, right, that tow…huh…you mean Kawashima?"

Why was Ami the topic of conversation now when he had gotten this

far? He felt let down but nodded and agreed with her.

"Well…now that you mention it," he said, "she does."

He glanced at Ami, who was leading Taiga through the performance

in the middle of the class. He remarked that her beautiful face, femininity,

and popularity hadn't changed since she had originally transferred in, but he

went on:

"She's different, like…she wasn't the type of person to jump into

someone's shoes like that. Usually, she's more like—"

She's more like, afraid or something.

He noticed what he was about to say and stopped himself. Ryuuji was

suddenly feeling deeply emotional.

Right, he thought. Ami had always seemed to him like she had been

afraid and timid. In order to keep the mask she had formed intact, and to

prevent anything from getting shaken up, Ami had built a wall around

herself. She had put down land mines to blow away anyone who got close.

No one could get near her. She had put up defenses to protect herself, to

keep anyone from seeing her true self, but they had been too strong. But she

was changing that. Her ironclad, good-girl mask, as always, was—

"That's not it!" Ami said. "Hmm, Aisaka-san, I wonder if you

couldn't possibly just be…a bit of an imbecile. How sad…"

"What're you saying?! You Dimhuahua!"

Ami was in the middle of the class, messing around and laughing

spitefully at Taiga. It seemed that, regardless of whether she was allowing

her iron mask to go slightly askew, and regardless of whether she might

come across as pushy, she was prioritizing putting herself out there. He

didn't know what had caused that change in her, though.

However, timing-wise, it was too soon for him to let those thoughts

slip out loud. If anything, there were too many people around. Ryuuji

stopped himself from saying it, and instead, looked somewhat spitefully at

Ami.

"Seriously," he said. "I wonder what's up her sleeve. That blackhearted girl."

He averted his eyes from her.

"Heeey! Don't say that! Ahmin is a good person!"

As she smiled, Minori took off her bald cap and lightly hit Ryuuji

around the arm with it. As he dodged her, he felt very slightly like he did

want to divulge what he was really thinking.

"You're kind of different, too, though," he said.

"Huh?! Ya' talkin' to me?!"

Did that really surprise her so much that she had to change accents?

Minori's voice cracked as she looked at Ryuuji. She plucked off her

eyepatch. She was back to being the real Minori. Seeming kind of frantic,

she pressed him:

"Really?! H-how have I changed?! I-Is it in a good way?!"

"Wouldn't you be the only one who knows that?"

"Whaat?! I don't know anything about it! What is it? Seriously,

you've got me flustered. Why are you blurting this out all of a sudden,

Takasu-twerp?"

It wasn't like he could just say, Yeah, the distance between us is

weird. Instead, Ryuuji picked up the bald cap Minori had let fall down. He

knocked off the dirt with his hand and, with an intimacy she would

probably forgive him for, placed it on her head.

Then it happened.

"NGYAAAH!"

"Huh?"

Minori yelled like a cat being attacked by a crow. With her bald cap

still askew on her head, she took a big step away from Ryuuji.

B-but.

Had he been too chummy with her? Maybe he had, but she didn't

have to back up that far away from him. Ryuuji now had another scar on his

heart. He might have shown it on his face.

"Oh, no, no, no, no…" she said. "That's not what I meant. That's

not…uhh…"

He didn't know whether she was trying to be considerate. Minori

waved her hand back and forth. She took a half step toward Ryuuji once

again. Their eyes met, and even Ryuuji didn't know what to say now. He

was only confused.

"No, no, no, no… Well, uh, well…that's…it's that. Right."

Minori took just another half step away from Ryuuji again. It's fine

now, he thought. Just decide whether you want to take off or fix that

lopsided bald cap.

Vexed, he could only look down at Minori. They didn't even notice

the gaze of someone watching them.

***

Several days later, Takasu and Taiga's habituated relationship was

becoming colder and colder. On their way home, the cold fall air blew

between them. Even the dry leaves that seemed to slither across the ground

as they were blown away seemed chilly.

Yes, it had been a while since the sounds of their bright laughter had

petered out that night (though it could be said that they never laughed

together in the first place). Despite that, Taiga would obstinately go to

school with Ryuuji following her like always, every morning. In the

evenings, she went to the Takasu house to eat dinner and went with him to

the supermarket when they went home, like they were now.

If you're in that bad of a mood, I'd rather you not stick near me,

Ryuuji thought. He would have said it, but the usual ritual would start off

with Taiga saying, "I'm not in a bad mood or anything. I don't have a

reason to be. If you see it that way, then it's because you're so persistent

about saying I'm in a bad mood." She would try to turn the situation around

to her benefit like the one-trick tiger she was. Of course, it was clear from

her completely sullen face that she was in a bad mood.

"What are we having tonight, then?" she said.

"Amberjack fish," said Ryuuji. "We just bought it, didn't we?"

"What are we doing with the fish?"

"Teri."

"…Yaki, is that what we're having?"

"Yeah."

Shwoo—air even colder than the wind froze the full meter of distance

between them. It chilled them to the core.

By the time practice for the cultural festival was over and they

finished shopping at the supermarket, it was already nearing six. They were

right in the middle of fall. Lately, the days had become noticeably shorter,

and the sky was darkening into a nearly black dark gray. The presence of

night quietly came over them and made their skin fill with goosebumps.

Though it was early, the streetlamps lit up.

Ryuuji pulled together the collar of his school jacket. Hmph. Taiga

turned her face away. Hmph. He turned his own eyes away from her profile.

He didn't need to go along with this stubborn and moody tiger when it came

to everything.

Even when he turned his eyes to the side, Taiga's hair came into his

vision as the wind blew through it. Her gray-tinged, mysteriously pale, soft

hair swelled with a relaxed ripple. It covered Taiga's round cheeks for a

moment and then immediately fluttered, spread, and dispersed. The path it

took was gentle and incredibly smooth. It moved in a way that seemed

ungraspable.

"Ow, ow, ow!"

"Whoa!"

He had grabbed it. A tendril of Taiga's light hair was in his hand.

Taiga snatched back her own hair.

"What do you mean 'whoa,' you long-haired maniac! You trying to

pick a fight?!"

"S-sorry…"

"You reaaaally are a bully breed! You've got an atrocious face, get

away!"

Taiga was seething. The fire of hatred was in her eyes as she glared at

Ryuuji. It was his fault for sure, but did she have to be that angry about it?

Ryuuji kept his face turned away as he followed Taiga's back. She

was ahead of him and emitting her wrath. Well, he wasn't really following

her. They had to take the same road home.

The situation hadn't been as complicated as it was now when Taiga's

father had been grabbing her hair. Though he, of course, couldn't tell her

that. If he said anything as meddlesome as that, there was no mistaking he

would be the Palmtop Tiger's live bait in no time. What an idiot, he thought

as he looked at Taiga's slender back.

Several days more passed since then. It seemed Taiga wasn't taking

messages from her father again. Ryuuji had scruples about telling her "Your

old man wants to live with you," straight out. He bet if he so much as said

the words "your old man," she'd be enraged. No, even if he said nothing

and kept up the silence, she would start to get angry and say something like

"What're you about to say now?!"

"Why can't you even be stubborn like a normal person…" he

muttered to himself, figuring she wasn't listening anyway.

"Who are you talking about?!"

Only in times like this, Taiga's ears were sharp and could hear

anything. She attacked Ryuuji with her spinning bag.

"What! What! Seriously! This makes me angry! If you have

something to say, you can just tell it to me straight!"

"Ow! Ow!"

She hit him again and again with the hard bag. Could he do anything

other than scream? With his house just ahead, Ryuuji ran pitifully away

down the sidewalk of the Zelkova tree-lined road. Taiga, of course, sprinted

after him like a cold-blooded cyborg.

"Get back heeeeereee! I won't be patient anymore, I won't be patient

about the cultural festival, either! Why do things! Like this! Keep

happening! Lately?!"

"How is that my fault?!"

"Isn't it your fault?! Uwah…"

She continued to spin the bag around until her klutziness came to the

fore. Taiga lost her balance and tripped on a sidewalk drain cover. Right

before she fell over, she grabbed onto a sidewalk pole.

"Wah wah!"

It must have been punishment for her violence. The pole wasn't

properly fixed in place and Taiga simply toppled over. Together with the

steel pole, she fell right into the street. Her terrific scream traveled across

the neighborhood.

"Are you okay?!" said Ryuuji. "Y-you're embarrassing…"

"Sh-shut up! Whose fault do you think this is?!"

"Can't say it's mine."

Whatta klutz, Ryuuji muttered as he picked up Taiga's fallen bag. No

matter how much she ridiculed him, when she would go as far as to fall

over like this, Ryuuji couldn't leave Taiga without helping her up. Taiga,

who was turning red from the blood rushing up to her face, was struggling

to get back up. He tried to offer his hand to her.

"Tsk."

"Whoa."

"N-nice seeing you again."

A hand that was slightly smaller than Ryuuji's but slightly larger than

Taiga's, had grabbed Taiga's hand first.

They were in front of the entrance to Taiga's condo. A beautiful,

silver Mercedes was parked there. Its top was down even in this season.

The black shadow that was lengthening in the twilight took on the

shape of a petite, middle-aged man.

A cold light like a fire glistened in Taiga's eyes as she raised them to

look at him.

With the strength of a petite forty-year-old man, that shadow heaved

Taiga up from where she had fallen on the sidewalk. He stood her up and hit

the dust off her uniform.

"Sorry. I was waiting here this whole time. I had something to talk—

ohhh…"

"Die. You stalker."

She got him right in the family jewels.

Without a lick of mercy, she deeply kneed him in a place she

shouldn't have. The shadow—Taiga's father—simply collapsed to the

ground. Unable to make a sound, he balled himself up and writhed in

agony. As a member of the same sex, Ryuuji could only look on with a blue

face. Even though he was only watching, one particular part of his body

reeaaally hurt. Taiga, the perpetrator and the man's own daughter, didn't

even look back at the results of her bloodshed.

"Ryuuuuji! Let's hurry and get home! This place is dangerous!"

"You're more dangerous than anyone else!"

As he was paralyzed by terror, Taiga snapped onto his arm and pulled

him to the next-door rental's outer stairs. She started dragging him up.

"W-wait a second!" he said. "Wait, wait, wait! Are you planning to

leave it like this?!"

Ryuuji desperately grabbed the iron railing and planted his feet. He

forgot his sympathetic pain. He couldn't leave the situation as it was now.

He couldn't just leave that guy like that. He couldn't go home with Taiga.

In one fell swoop, the situation had gone from simply tense to an enormous

mess. That guy had actually come to take her away. That day had come. It

was here and now.

However, at that terrifying prospect, Taiga tried to pull Ryuuji and his

weight up, right along with the iron railing.

"Hmph!"

A blood vessel stood out right on her temple. The iron railing that

Ryuuji desperately latched onto creaked. If they continued like this, either

his shoulder joint or the rental was sure to give out. With a look of

desperation on his face, Ryuuji flipped the tables and grabbed Taiga's

shoulders.

"Damn it, you're really such a nuisance! Come to your senses and

stop putting up a fight!"

"Whaat?! The puppy dog's got something bold to say!"

Even when she slapped his cheek, he wouldn't let go. Instead, he

hung on stronger and pulled her towards him. Then he roughly held her

against the wall at a distance where they were practically breathing on each

other. As they yelled, their spit flew.

"Wait…stop!" she said. "Let go!"

"You're the one who was grabbing me first! I can't let you into my

house like this! Definitely not!"

"Why not?!"

"He came for you, didn't he?! At least listen to what he has to say!

Who do you think that is?! He's your dad, isn't he?!"

"No! That's a stalker! I don't need one of those!"

"Don't say stupid stuff! You cried and said you were thrown out,

didn't you?! Be honest! At least go to him and give it a try! Actually look

him in the face!"

"A-are you on his side?! You're terrible! You double-crossed me?! I

thought you at least were the only one on my side… You backstabbing

dog!"

"I'm saying this because I'm on your side! This is for your sake, it's

what you wanted! Your dad came to get you! Don't you want to go home?!

Don't you want to live with him?! He said your annoying stepmother's out

of the picture now!"

"Wh-what do you know about me?! I gave up on expecting anything

from that guy! That discussion was over a long time ago, it's finished! I

don't need a guy like that. I don't have any need for him anymore! Having

someone you don't need suddenly come back into your life is just a

nuisance! What kind of idiot would be happy about trash they threw out

returning back home?!"

"You…"

Unbeknownst to him, he was gripping harder and harder. He didn't let

go even when she shrilly shrieked.

"D-do you really think this person who's planted himself to the

ground waiting for you to come home is trash?! No matter how much I wish

my dad would come home, he—"

He had made a mistake.

He shouldn't have said that.

Conflating his circumstances with what was happening now was just

selfish.

"…"

Ryuuji bit his lip and let go of her hand. Flustered, he drew away

from her. As he exhaled, his breath seemed like it could catch on fire. He

had kept saying it was all for Taiga—for Taiga's sake—and yet what had he

done? He had exposed himself as the joke he was.

He was trying to fill the hole in his heart that had been carved out by

seventeen years of abandonment. Even though it had nothing to do with her,

he was trying to fill it with Taiga's happiness. He'd just been yapping away,

exposing his own worthless self-pity.

Maybe I really am nothing but a worthless dog, he thought.

The pain that came along with the failure naturally made Ryuuji turn

his head down in shame. His heavy hand rubbed at his eyes with regret. He

still couldn't say anything. He felt like pulling out his own insides at his

shallowness. At the very least, if Taiga slapped him or something like she

normally would, his self-mockery would be fulfilled.

"It's…okay… I understand."

Her voice sounded angry, but Taiga gently touched Ryuuji's lips,

which he had bit until they bled. He held his breath at the coolness and

softness of her fingers.

The tips of her fingers simply slipped down as though tracing his

features. She grasped Ryuuji's chin, as he was still unable to speak, and

pulled up his shameful face. Then she looked straight at him with her

brightly shining eyes. Without any fear, she looked deep into his mind.

"If that's what you think…it's fine. So don't make that face."

She pinched Ryuuji's cheek and forcefully pulled it straight up.

"Taiga…"

"This is a good thing, right? I'll think of it that way. I don't know if I

can actually see it that way or not, but you're asking me to, so I'll say I do."

She let go of Ryuuji's cheek. His forehead was still wrinkled from his

moroseness and nervousness. Then he slowly narrowed his eyes.

"I…" he said. "I…"

"It's fine now…"

Taiga rubbed her face with the back of her palm like a cat.

Suddenly, their knees, which had been rubbing each other, were

pulling away.

Taiga pushed him, and her small shoulders slipped down and away

from him.

Oh, I can't hold her, he thought.

Taiga's shoulders and her hair and her skirt hem lightly fluttered and

turned like a beast's supple tail as it went back into the depths of the woods.

She escaped from him right before his eyes. Like he had unconsciously

done, he tried to grasp her with his hand, but he knew that he couldn't

actually grab hold of anything. His empty hand slackened.

I see, he thought, there isn't any reason for me to hold Taiga and keep

her here anymore.

Then like a bullet that was just about to actually be released, like she

had suddenly been set free, Taiga ran down the stairs. In the fall night, she

said something to the middle-aged man, who was still in pain as he grabbed

the car door to stand. As though surprised, the man turned to Taiga. It didn't

seem like they needed words anymore.

He put his arm around Taiga as though he were afraid, but he did it

firmly. As he buried his face into Taiga's shoulder, the man continued to

earnestly nod. Taiga seemed slightly unhappy at first and tried to pull away

from him, but she eventually seemed to give in. She quietly put her hand

around the man's back. Little by little, she relaxed and finally, it looked as

though she were resting her whole weight and a whole lot of other things on

her father.

Ryuuji watched them up to that point. Finally, he slowly started going

back up the shabby iron stairs again. This is good. This is good. This is

good, he muttered to himself, like an old man.

"Ryuu-chaaan…"

"Whoa!" said Ryuuji. "You scared me!"

As he opened the front door, his mother greeted him from up close.

Yasuko had her makeup off and Ryuuji's full junior high tracksuit on—both

the top and bottom.

"Why are you still in that?" he said. "Aren't you getting ready? Don't

you have work today?"

"I do, but…I sort of heard your voices," said Yasuko. "W-was it a

fight?"

Her huge chest swayed as she knitted her brows, which were too thin

when she didn't draw them in.

"It wasn't," he said.

It seemed that Yasuko had been surprised at Ryuuji and Taiga's raised

voices coming from outside, so she had been listening at the front door.

Acting in a way that was very much not like someone in her thirties (and a

high school student's mother, to boot), Yasuko seemed even now like she

was about to cry. She nervously hovered at the front door.

"It's fine, just let me in."

Despite her son's prompting, she stretched out her thin neck as though

still wanting to see what was happening outside. Even now, she had her

sandals on as though she were about to run out with no bra on. He roughly

pushed her back into the house with his shoulder.

"It's really not a fight," he said, "so it's fine. It's fine, so just get ready

to go to work. It's already six. I'll hurry and make the food. Anyway, put up

your hair. It's a mess."

"That's true, but…what about Taiga-chan? Will she come after she

changes?"

"She's not coming today."

"What?! Why not?"

What could he say? As he thought, Ryuuji's hand skillfully started

cleaning on autopilot. He quickly piled up the mail order pamphlets Yasuko

seemed to have spread out. Before she could order weird things, he put

them up together in the usual place where the recyclables went. He brought

an empty mug to the sink and quickly washed it. He even finished greeting

Inko-chan, too. In a few brief minutes, barely in the blink of an eye, he

returned the small living room to the clean state it had been in that morning.

"No reason," he said. "It's fine like this."

Ryuuji's reply wasn't good enough.

"That isn't fine! If Taiga-chan doesn't come, I'm lonely! We're a

three-person family now! Ryuu-chan, you're lonely, too, aren't you~?! I

want Taiga-chan to come! Go and get Taiga-chan~!"

Yasuko sat on the floor cushion and put her head down on the table.

Her cheeks were puffed up like a schoolgirl's on the tabletop. She pouted

and wriggled unhappily. Keeping her in the corner of his eye, Ryuuji went

into his room, which was partitioned only by a sliding door.

"This is the best thing for Taiga," he said. "Well, it's not like she'll

never come over again. Probably."

Yasuko nibbled on the sleeve of her tracksuit. Still on the table, her

large eyes turned up to look straight at her son.

"Really? It's a good thing?" she said. "This is a good thing?"

"That's right. This is really the best thing that could have happened."

There weren't any lies in that. Ryuuji put his bag in its usual spot. He

put his cellphone in its charger and took off his school jacket.

"The best thing that could have happened, happened for Taiga. The

reason she came to our house in the first place was because she needed

emergency attention when she was on the verge of starvation. The issue's

been resolved, so she's not coming over. It's fine. It's good like this."

"What's good about it?"

He hung his jacket on a hanger. Like a machine, he misted it as usual

with deodorizing spray. With skillful hands, he straightened it. As he did

that, he thought about putting one of the three slices of fish into the next

day's bento lunches. Once he decided where to put the fresh food, the inside

of his head followed suit to organize itself.

"Taiga's dad is down there. He's divorcing his last wife, whom Taiga

didn't get along with, so he says he's going to live with Taiga again. Isn't

that a good thing?"

He spoke the simple truth.

"Nnnnngh…"

With her face still pressed to the table, Yasuko seemed unable to

accept it. As Ryuuji came back from his room after changing, she looked

intently up at him like a child with her big eyes.

"He kind of seems like a selfish dad, doesn't he…"

"Why're you saying something like that?"

"Because it's kind of…"

She pursed her lips. He wondered what she had remembered that had

made her stop talking. Yasuko shrugged her shoulders. Still in the tracksuit,

she went to stand in front of the sink in order to get dressed.

"I don't have any right to say anything about other people's fathers,"

she said in her usual carefree voice. Ryuuji wordlessly watched his

mother's back.

If she'd said, Taiga's father is selfish, Ryuuji couldn't deny that.

But, actually, he thought at that moment that he was right to have had

Taiga run over to her dad.

He remembered the day when he had watched Yasuko's back from an

even lower vantage point than he did now.

The morning of that day, Yasuko had suddenly told him he was taking

a break from preschool, and they got on a train. They rode and rode it, until

they reached a town he didn't recognize. He was tired and ate sweet bean

paste bread Yasuko had bought for him at the station platform. They exited

the turnstile, and Yasuko pulled Ryuuji's hand. They walked along a

neighborhood with rows of huge houses all over.

They turned the same corner over and over in circles, until eventually,

Yasuko had Ryuuji sit on a bench in a small children's park. Yasuko was

standing and intently watching a house surrounded by pine trees. For hours

and hours, she stared at the second-floor window.

Mom, Ryuuji had called her, but she didn't move. He called her a

second time: Mom. He didn't get an answer and thought he would stop

calling her for a while. They remained silent until before long it was sunset.

Eventually, it turned to night and, finally, Yasuko turned around to him.

Sorry, her smile said to him. Then the two of them firmly held hands and

went back down the same path they came from, back to the apartment

where they lived at the time.

He didn't know it then, but that was probably Yasuko's parents'

house, Ryuuji thought. Thinking about it now, around then was the tightest

they'd ever been financially. Yasuko left Ryuuji at the preschool and

worked day and night. She might have run herself ragged. Though he didn't

know the name of the disease, she'd been in the hospital for a long time.

There were many times when he had to wait by himself for hours at the day

care in the hospital.

It was difficult. She'd wanted to go home, but she hadn't been able to.

She probably couldn't go home. She hesitated for hours and kept staring at

the window of the house where her parents lived. Still, Yasuko, who at the

time was barely in her twenties, brought the unforgivable child she wasn't

allowed to have with her, and could no longer return home.

Poor Yasuko, the unforgivable child thought. He wondered how the

girl, who at the time wasn't much older than he was now, compared the

husband who wouldn't come home and the house she couldn't come home

to. She must have thought about who was right and who was wrong.

She must have regretted it, too.

"Ryuu-chaaan! Waaah, I ran out of my hair stuff!"

"You have an extra! It's under the sink!"

She definitely must have.

Standing in the kitchen, Ryuuji opened the shopping bag. He washed

his hands and took out the three slices of fish to lay them skin-down on a

tray. He skillfully measured soy sauce, sake, and mirin by eye into a cup.

He drizzled it onto the fish and poured it into the tray. As it marinated, he

started preparing the miso soup. He didn't need to make rice since he had

several servings stocked up in the freezer.

The least Ryuuji could do was be of even the slightest bit of use for

the girl who could only choose her child over her parents. He could only

make her think I'm glad you're here; it wasn't a mistake. If he could

alleviate even the slightest amount of her sadness, that was enough. That

was all he could ever do.

And now Ryuuji didn't want to burden another girl with this kind of

sadness. He remembered her back as she ran. The image went through his

head several times, and he turned it into words.

This is really for the best, he thought. Their father-daughter

relationship was complex, so he didn't think she would live with her dad

immediately that day or even the next day, but, still, they could slowly

move towards that together.

This is a good thing, he thought. It definitely is.