Date A Live

Chapter 8

Prev List Next

Prologue: New Daily Life

"s.h.i.+dou! I baked something called a cookie!"

Her night-colored hair fluttered around her waist.

Her eyes sparkled like radiant crystals.

An impossibly beautiful girl said those words excitedly, while thrusting the container she held in her hands towards s.h.i.+dou.

Itsuka s.h.i.+dou was under incredible pressure as he turned his body and called the name of the girl.

"To-Tohka..."

"Umu? What!?"

With a carefree smile that could make flowers bloom, the girl —— Yatogami Tohka answered.

"......Well, about that…"

There were so many things he wanted to say, but he couldn"t find the appropriate words in the face of her dazzling smile.

Unable to find something wrong with s.h.i.+dou"s expression, Tohka lifted the container"s lid.

"More importantly s.h.i.+dou, look at this!"

The many things inside were irregularly shaped and had burn marks everywhere. They could barely be called cookies.

s.h.i.+dou and Tohka were in the same cla.s.s, but in order to "give the individual students a holistic education"... or so they were told, things like laboratory practicals and home economics were conducted in small groups of students.

In other words, only the girls had home economics today.

"What is that..."

"Umu, I had everyone teach me. I made this, so try eating it!"

s.h.i.+dou felt a s.h.i.+ver run down his spine.

Not because of Tohka"s cookies. . .

Putting it simply ——, all the other boys were watching him with glares of resentment.

But that wasn"t completely unreasonable.

The fact that he was even able to enjoy the girl"s homemade cookies made him the target of all the other guys jealousy.

What"s more, it was said that right after transferring in, that Yatogami Tohka had exploded upwards in the (rumored) "Girl You Want Most as a Girlfriend" rankings.

The guy closest to him, just next to him, his friend Tonomachi Hiroto, had a hollow expression on his face, [f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, FUCCCCCK... only a dead Itsuka is a good Itsuka] was grumbling something under his breath.

"Hm? What"s wrong s.h.i.+dou? You’re not going to eat it?"

"I... Err... About that..."

s.h.i.+dou said with a nervous twitch in his cheek. Tohka"s shoulders began drooping little by little.

"Ugh... I see, it"s because s.h.i.+dou is good at cooking..."

"—! I-It"s not because of that. I-I’ll eat it!"

s.h.i.+dou made up his mind, and took a cookie from the container.

And then, as he slowly lifted it to his mouth——

"...!?"

While his attention was elsewhere, a silver blur flew in a straight line in front of his eyes.

The shot came from the hallway, and after breaking the cookie in s.h.i.+dou"s hand into small pieces, it pierced the wall.

"Wha-What...!?"

He shouted as his body instinctively stiffened.

Tracing back the trajectory of the silver blur, he saw a fork stuck into the wall. *Biiiin……* was the hum from its vibration. It had a simple design. Probably some utensil from the cafeteria.

"What, who threw that! That"s dangerous, you know!"

Tohka shouted as she turned toward the hallway. s.h.i.+dou did the same as his eyes turned in that direction.

Standing over there as if she had just thrown something a few seconds ago, was a silent girl with her right hand stretched out.

Her skin was light colored, and she had hair that brushed the top of her shoulders. Her features were unusual, but graceful; she had no expression whatsoever on her face, giving off the impression of a lifeless doll.

"To-Tob.i.+.c.hi?"

"Nu."

Sweat was sliding down s.h.i.+dou’s cheek, while Tohka had knitted her eyebrows together in displeasure.

This girl——Tob.i.+.c.hi Origami, slowly approached them while looking at both of them.

After stopping in front of s.h.i.+dou, she lifted the lid of the container she was holding with her left hand and brought it out like how Tohka did a few moments ago.

"You don"t have to put Yatogami Tohka"s thing in your mouth. If you are going to eat something, then eat this—"

Inside the container, there were perfect cookies that were uniform in shape lined up in neat rows. It looked like a product straight from a factory line.

"E—Errrr……"

"Don"t interfere! s.h.i.+dou is going to eat my cookies!"

While s.h.i.+dou was having trouble responding, Tohka answered with a high-pitched voice.

However. Origami didn"t flinch at all. Her expression didn"t even twitch as she shook her head.

"The one who is interfering is you. You should leave immediately."

"What are you saying? Coming afterwards and acting all high and mighty!"

"The order in which we arrived does not matter. I cannot allow you to have him ingest your cookies."

"Wha— WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"

"You did not sufficiently wash your hands . What"s more, while you were baking, you choked during the rising of the wheat flour, causing you to sneeze three times. This is unusually unhygienic."

"Wha……"

As if she got thrust into the void, Tohka’s eyes spun around.

For some reason, the moment Origami finished speaking, the surrounding male students started to get very noisy and excited. All eyes were on Tohka’s cookies.

But Tohka wasn"t in any state to notice this influx of attention; *Grrr...* she clenched her fist.

"s.h.i.+-s.h.i.+dou is strong, so that much is okay for him!"

"You appear to be unaware of the consequences —— Also, you messed up the proportions of the ingredients. I don’t think by skipping parts of the recipe, that your cookies can be considered finished."

"...?!"

When Origami said that, Tohka frowned, she looked at Origami and her own cookies.

"Wha... Why didn"t you say anything when we were in cla.s.s?"

"It wasn"t my duty to point it out. ——In any case, the odds that my cookies would satisfy him are obviously higher."

"Shu-Shut up! There"s no way cookies from someone like you could ever be delicious!"

Tohka shouted, while her eyes were spinning at an unstoppable speed. She took a cookie from Origami’s container, and put it in her own mouth.

And then crispy sounds could be heard as she started chewing on it——

"Fuaa..."

Her cheeks were dyed the color of cherry blossoms, as she made an ecstatic expression. It seemed that the cookie was delicious.

But Tohka immediately changed her expression by shaking her head vigorously.

"Fu-Fuun, It wasn"t such a big deal! If your cookie is like that, then mine is more delicious!"

"That is most unlikely. You should just gracefully admit your defeat."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?"

"What?"

"Ca-Calm down, both of you"

If they were left alone, a fight might break out; so s.h.i.+dou went in between and created some distance between them, while saying "Maa, maa" in order to calm them down.

"Nu… then s.h.i.+dou, whose cookies do you want to eat?"

"Eh?"

And, faced with such words all of a sudden, s.h.i.+dou made a idiotic sound.

Tohka and Origami, from both the left and right at the same time, brought out their containers.

"Well, s.h.i.+dou?"

"..."

Both Tohka and Origami had glints in their eyes that could pierce and pin down an enemy, and as they stared at s.h.i.+dou, a sweat drop began to flow down his cheek.

...Somehow, it was an atmosphere where no matter which one he ate, he would be killed.

s.h.i.+dou followed what are his survival instincts— and took the cookies from both containers with both his hands, and put them in his mouth at the same time.

"Uh, y-yeah, they are great! Both of your cookies taste great!"

Tohka and Origami stared at s.h.i.+dou’s condition.

"Umu, my cookie was eaten a bit faster!"

"Mine was 0.02 seconds faster."

These words were both said at the exact same time.

"..."

And then, their faces quietly met.

"...Errrr"

Today was not the first time that the ambiance was like that.

s.h.i.+dou felt like giving up or something like that, but jumped once again in between both of them.

And at that very moment, as expected from both sides, a huge amount of stress that was building in their fists was released and aimed at each other"s vitals ——and ended up hitting the head and the belly of the poor boy who got between them.

Prev List Next