"I"ll protect you with my magic."
As the 18th of May was becoming part of mynormal high school routine, those words changed my world.
The shoe rack was so old it clearly neededreplacing and was held together in several places with shoddily-placed packingtape. I had gotten used to its musty odor over the past month, and as I took inthe moldy smell the hand picking up my loafers stopped in midair.
"Ex...cuse me?"
Although we had never spoken before, I couldtell from the graceful-looking girl"s sailor uniform and red ribbon that shewas a fellow first-year. While her chestnut hair was done up with a red hairband on the back of her head, it felt too short to truly call a ponytail. Herfeatures were reminiscent of a movie star, with a pet.i.te face, wide eyes, andskin so white it seemed practically transparent. In contrast with my ratheruna.s.suming stature, she was graced with such appeal that any who glimpsed heraround school would have practically no choice but to turn their head. She waswithout a doubt the most gorgeous person I had met in my life.
"Oh right, I guess it would be prettyconfusing to be told out of the blue that you"re being protected, huh!"
With a smirk, the girl I had just met beganslapping my shoulder in an overly-familiar manner. Even given our lack ofcloseness, between her looks and her behavior I suspected that the majority ofpeople would feel comfortable around her.
"But you know, I couldn"t just leave you onyour own like that. You basically don"t have any, after all."
Her face grew serious as she said thefollowing.
"Magic resistance, that is."
That"s not a phrase you hear every day.
My fifteen years of life up until this pointhad left me woefully unprepared to respond to such a ridiculous proclamation,so I had no choice but to stare dumbfounded at the one who voiced it.
To make matters worse, I"m shy. While myfriend Masato would disagree with that a.s.sessment, the fact that I had no ideahow to interact with people when meeting them for the first time wasindisputable. In any case, my head was still spinning as I futilely tried tothink of an appropriate response.
To that, the girl mumbled something to theeffect of "yup, he didn"t even realize how low his magic resistance is,"reaffirming her a.s.sessment of the situation.
In the face of such strange conduct, I finallyremembered the name of the character standing in front of me.
"Are you by any chance Miki Kouzuki?"
"The one and only!"
That I knew her name was unlikely to come as asurprise to Kouzuki. It was only natural. She was famous, after all.
She was simply that attractive. Like manybeauties before her, as soon as she enrolled she caught the attention of malestudents throughout the school. However, before long the ranks of suitorsquietly receded.
The cause was the circulation of a particularrumor.
The rumor that the girl was delusional — aself-proclaimed magus.
"So what"s this "magic resistance"?"
"Exactly what it sounds like. It"s yourresistance against magic. How immune to magic you are. I wonder how you got thatway, though. Maybe there"s something strange with your astral body?"
Oh look, she started saying somethingundecipherable.
"...And what on earth is magic?"
"Huh? Hiiragi, you haven"t heard of magic?Haven"t you ever played a video game?"
Somehow or other it seemed she knew my name aswell.
"No, what I"m asking is—"
What is the real-world concept that you"rereferring to as "magic"?
...Or, that was what I was going to ask, but Istopped myself mid-sentence. If the rumors that she believed herself to be amagus were true, asking that question would cause the conversation to quicklygrow awkward. After all, that phrasing would be virtually the same as rejectingthe concept of magic outright. After thinking for a moment, I decided to ask adifferent question.
"Who exactly can use magic? Are you able to?"
"Oh, anyone can use magic. Whether or not theyrealize it, everyone uses magic all the time. Obviously, I"m no exception."
"I don"t recall ever using magic, though…"
"Like I said, you just don"t realize it. Inour world, even really strong magi sometimes don"t realize their ownabilities."
"Is that... so…"
It seems she was… the real deal. It felt likeit would take some time before I could figure out how to interact with her.
"Yup. Just as I suspected, Hiiragi, you have atalent for magic."
I had no idea what the basis for thata.s.sessment was, but as she said it the corners of her mouth turned upwardshappily.
"Didn"t you just say that I had no magicresistance or something?"
"That"s exactly why you"re talented! Thereisn"t a direct causal relationship, but it"s really easy for a person like thatto become a magus if they spend time around another magus."
"Huh…"
"Even an unenthusiastic response like that isokey-dokey! I get the feeling you have no idea what I"m talking about, butthat"s fine! I"ll teach you magic, starting from some super-basic runes! Onceyou start getting some hands-on experience, you should start picking it up likethat!"
I still had no idea how to respond, so for thetime being I just set the loafers I had been holding for some time on thefloor.
"Come to think of it, I haven"t properlyintroduced myself yet, huh. I"m Miki Kouzuki from cla.s.s 1-3. Nice to meet you~"
"...I"m Kouta Hiiragi from cla.s.s 1-2."
"Oh, I know. Nice to meet you!"
With a carefree smile, Kouzuki presented herhand.
When I naturally responded in kind, Kouzukiclasped my hand tightly as if refusing to let it escape. Between the sensationof her soft hand against mine and her charming smile, I could feel my heartpounding in my chest.
You could hardly blame me, right? If not forher comments about magic and such, Kouzuki"s beauty would be sure to make herpopular even within her own s.e.x.
"...Is it ok if I go now, Kouzuki?"
"Oh, that won"t do. Please, call me by myfirst name. A nickname would do too."
I"d never before called a woman by eithertheir first name or a nickname. Was my first time going to be taken in thisgirl who I"d met through the conversational equivalent of a fender-bender?
...It was, wasn"t it. I was the type of personwho tended to go with the flow.
"Given names are similar to incantations, yousee. Calling someone by their last name generates magic too. If we do that,we"ll be cursed to never quite be friends. With me so far?"
I was in fact not with her. All I was pickingup was she didn"t want me to call her by her last name. But that would have tobe good enough.
"Miki, then?"
"Hmm… it still feels a bit off… but I guessit just barely pa.s.ses muster. As for you, Kouta, I guess you"d probably beopposed to having a girl suddenly talk to you too familiarly. We can get tothat point gradually."
It seemed she was capable of at least thatlevel of forethought.
"Now then, could you give me your phone numberand LINE ID?"
As instructed, I exchange contact informationwith her. Under normal circ.u.mstances, this might look like something to beenvious of. But while it might seem that way on the surface, it"s a differentmatter when the other party is the kind of troublemaker who would callthemselves a magus. That"s the conclusion I arrived at.
While putting on pretense of indifference,Kouzuki asked me this without taking her eyes from the phone screen:
"Kouta, you think of yourself as prettynormal, right?"
Of course.
"Because you aren"t. Magic aside, even now youseem out of place."
"I mean, people say that I"m unambitious…"
"This is on a whole "nother level, though."
I had no intention of getting any moreinvolved than I already was, so this line of discussion held no interest forme. After I registered the user with the handle "Magus" as a friend on LINE, Ia.s.sumed that the conversation had reached its conclusion, so I finished puttingon my loafers.
"Umm, can I leave now?"
"Oh, hold on a sec. I left my bag in thecla.s.sroom, so let me go grab it real quick."
As my mouth hung open like a dunce, Kouzukiflashed a mischievous smile.
"I"m leaving with you, of course. Didn"t Ijust say that I would protect you?"
As she said that, she nudged my shoulderinnocently.
And that was how my first time going home fromschool with a girl, which I had been eagerly looking forward to since themoment I enrolled, was stolen by a self-proclaimed magus.
The following day, Friday the 19th.
It was morning, just before homeroom. I leanedback in my chair, exhausted from my unusual experience the day before. Gettingto know new people always tends to wear me out, but when that person happenedto not only be a beautiful, high-spirited girl but also a self-proclaimed magusI suspect nearly anyone would be drained afterwards.
As I lifted my head from my desk, I could seechalk dust falling from the rim of the blackboard and fluttering throughout thecla.s.sroom. It gets cleaned every day, so it"s probably just my imagination, butthis ancient, not-up-to-code building seemed oddly dark and dusty.
I recounted the previous day"s strange eventsto my friend, who was sitting in the seat in front of me with his head on hisdesk. After halfheartedly listening to my tale, he said this once I finished.
"Normally ya"d justa.s.sume she has the hots for ya, Kou."
With his eyes half-closed, Masato Yaharalazily gave me a blunt response. Blunt as it was, though, it seemed he hadtaken interest in my story. If he hadn"t, he wouldn"t have even botheredreplying.
At our traditionalist high school, Masato"s bleachedbrown hair and perm were in clear violation of the dress code. And histransgressions didn"t stop there; he also regularly smoked and shoplifted. Onlooks alone it wouldn"t be strange if he were a member of a certain well-knownidol group, but his att.i.tude revealed a level of delinquency such that none ofthe other student would dare get near him.
"But Miki isn"t exactly normal, right?"
"You ain"t wrong; that chick"s f.u.c.ked up inthe head. You sure she"s not just gonna kill you as some ritual sacrifice?"
He laughed cynically. But I was used to thispersonality of his.
"Kill me? It"s not like she"s you oranything."
"I don"t f.u.c.kin" get it. She"s gottahave some ulterior motive. If she was normal, I could chalk it up to asad attempt to get your attention, but that"s not necessarily the case withher. Whatever she wants to do to you, it might be something completely out ofleft field."
Masato jabbed me with his thumb.
"But even though you get the same feeling,you"re not going to be able to turn her down, are ya."
I couldn"t deny it. I was non-confrontationalby nature, after all.
"Hey, may as well make the best of it, right?h.e.l.l, if nothing else, you"ll be able spend your adult life bragging that youspent your high school days hanging out with a hot chick."
As it didn"t directly affect him, Masato"sadvice might seem rather irresponsible.
However, he was rarely off the mark when itcame to stuff like this. He had a good head on his shoulders, and his hunchestended to be astute. Although most what came out of his mouth was extreme, ifyou ignored his generally dubious manner of speaking what you were left withwas fairly insightful.
A sacrifice, huh.
It was scary how plausible that seemed.
As I buried my head in my arms, Masatosuddenly dropped his gaze from me, and muttered,
"Ahh… I wanna kill someone."
This was something of a catchphrase of his.Whenever there was a lull in the conversation, he would murmur this as if hewere remembering something. Although it wasn"t exactly a praiseworthy habit, ifI paid him any heed it would likely just drive a rift between us.
"Still, for her to make a move on you withouteven knowing you… looks like our girl Miki Kouzuki"s oddity puts the rumors toshame. Just talking about magic"s one thing, but the kind of personwho"d graduate to actually doing something ain"t exactly a dime adozen."
"You know, the two of you are weird in oddlysimilar ways."
"Kouzuki and I are?"
Masato frowned, then pondered for a moment.But before long, he replied with an uncharacteristically serious expression.
"Nah, we aren"t."
"You"re not?"
"We just aren"t. In fact, we"d probably getalong like cats and dogs."
I didn"t quite follow, but given Masato"sintuitive prowess I had no reason to doubt him.
As our conversation wound down, the morningbell began to ring. Although our school had a bell that signaled that homeroomwould begin shortly, I"d never seen it have much effect on the other cla.s.ses.Until the moment the homeroom teacher walked in the door, the students wouldgenerally continue chatting and milling about.
But our cla.s.s was different.
"Everyone, note that the bell has rung. Iwould appreciate it if you took your seats."
The cla.s.s representative, Shuuichi Akiyama,issued an order. Although the rest of the cla.s.s balked at the prospect ofaccepting direction from a fellow student, they didn"t feel it was an issueworth fighting over and quickly fell in line. That was simply how our cla.s.soperated.
Masato hated that arrangement from the bottomof his heart.
"h.e.l.l, if it gets down to it, our relationshipmight become like mine and that f.u.c.ker"s."
"Like yours and the cla.s.s rep"s? No way."
Masato and Akiyama were on poor terms.Although delinquents and honor students seldom got along well, it was commonfor the two groups to intentionally avoid interacting and to simply ignore theother.
But these two were constantly at each other"sthroats, making their disdain for the other clear.
Let"s turn the clock back a month to April19th for a moment. Much like today, Akiyama took it upon himself to act in theteacher"s stead, to which Masato vehemently resisted. Slamming his desk todrive his point home, Masato declared, in a voice dripping with contempt:
"You make me f.u.c.kin" sick."
I, along with the rest of the cla.s.s, froze. Tobe completely honest, the rest of us also found something about Akiyama alittle bit off-putting. However, his actions were objectively exemplary, son.o.body could find reason to reproach him. We had no legitimate reason to becautious around him.
But Masato simply gave voice to his revulsion,offering no reasoning. I would be lying if I said I didn"t find it a littlerefreshing, but Masato had clearly taken it too far.
Normally, an honor student like Akiyama wouldbe unused to such violent outbursts. I was certain that Akiyama would befrightened and atrophy in the face of such a verbal blow.
Which is why I was more surprised by Akiyama"sresponse than by Masato"s outburst.
"And what of it, may I ask?"
Rather than falter, Akiyama struck backdefiantly. I was half concerned that Masato would lose his temper and theargument would devolve into a fistfight.
But instead of leaping at Akiyama, Masato justmuttered "go figure" to himself with a disdainful look on his face. Unlike therest of us, it seemed he antic.i.p.ated Akiyama"s response. Glaring at Akiyamawith eyes that gave the sense they were gazing at filth, Masato ended histirade with "You"re beyond help," and returned to his seat without causing anymore commotion. Fortunately, things hadn"t gotten out of hand.
For his part, although he said no more,Akiyama was able to clearly convey his contempt for the delinquent Masato. Butbecause Masato didn"t press the issue further, neither did he.
From that point on, their relationship hadbeen akin to a lit powder keg.
"Akiyama and I are like opposites."
Casting a sidelong glance at Akiyama, Masatosmiled contemptuously.
"In what way?"
"Y"know, one of us desires chains, the otherrejects them."
I tilted my head in puzzlement.
"Don"t worry about it. h.e.l.l, don"t even thinkabout it. No good"ll come of you overworking that poor brain of yours."
"Are you calling me stupid?"
"Stupid is as stupid does, Kou. Just try toempty out that head of yours."
"You"re awful."
Although he says that, I know he doesn"tactually hate me. I"m so used to it that it doesn"t even bother me anymore.
"Well, for now you should probably figure outhow to dodge Kouzuki"s weird-a.s.s solicitations. You know she"s probably gonnacome after you again, right?"
Just as Masato predicted, Miki made her way toour cla.s.sroom just as fourth period ended. Entering an unfamiliar cla.s.sroom isoften cause for nervousness, but I didn"t pick up on any whatsoever from Miki.
"Welp, let"s get going!"
Grasping my hand, Miki gave it a tug. I didn"tneed an explanation to see that she had no intention of letting me refuse.
I could feel the collective gaze of mycla.s.smates boring down on me. I couldn"t blame them. Her reputation as aneccentric aside, Miki Kouzuki was widely hailed as the cutest girl in ourschool. Yet someone like that was calling my name and grasping my hand, eventhough I had no notable characteristics to my name other than my relationshipwith Masato.
"H...hold on a second!"
If I put myself at her mercy, I would no doubtfind myself the victim of my peers" boundless curiosity. My peaceful life wouldbe shattered.
Planting myself in place, I stopped Miki.
"Don"t get all rebellious with me, Kouta! I"mdoing this whole bodyguard thing for free, you know. The least you could do isbe a little more obedient."
"At least explain what you"re planning ondoing with me!"
"I called for you during lunch, so isn"t itobvious that we"re going to eat together? Use your head! It"s because you"relike that that you don"t have any magic resistance."
For some reason, she scolded me in earnest.
I felt that I should be the one scolding herfor her audacity and lack of common sense, but I suspected that my reb.u.t.talwould fall on deaf ears. I could almost picture it.
Releasing my hand for a moment, Miki pulledout two picturesque yellow lunchboxes and displayed them to me proudly.
"Behold, two lunchboxes made personally by mycute self! Consider yourself lucky!"
"Well, I guess it would be hard to argue thatyou aren"t cute..."
Upon hearing this, Miki put both hands on hercheeks and displayed a bashful expression.
"He called me cute! C"mon, I promise theytaste good."
She pounded on my back exuberantly. She"smaking a racket, and her acting sucks. Given her reaction, she must be completelyused to being called cute.
"Let"s go to the courtyard!"
I could no longer muster the energy to resistMiki, who had begun pulling me along once more. My cla.s.smates" inquisitive eyeswere no doubt still on me, but... oh, whatever. Peace at any price, right?
Masato, who was watching us out of the cornerof his eye, made no move to lend me a.s.sistance, instead just putting on thesame cynical grin as always and gently waving me goodbye.
Although it was in fact a courtyard, it wasn"tthe type of place you could easily envision students gathering or eating lunchat. It was simply a poorly-maintained lawn with a few apologetic-lookingshrubs, without even so much as a bench to its name. As a result, the two of uswere alone aside from the occasional pa.s.serby.
Ours was a rural public high school that oftenused tradition as an excuse to avoid change and fundamentally rejected the ideaof a vibrant adolescence. Both the courtyard and the old-fashioned buildingserved to bore us into submission.
The clearest symbol of that was the uniforms.Despite being widely regarded as unfashionable by the students, our schoolstill used black gakuran and black sailor uniforms of old.
Clearly in a bubbly mood, Miki laid a sheetshe had brought on the unkempt lawn and took a seat. I followed suit.
"Is eating lunch together part of my becominga magus too?"
"Yeah, pretty much. That"s about right."
By eating her homemade lunch, I could become amagus.
When I put it like that, the causalrelationship felt a little dubious. I unconsciously let out a sigh.
"Are you going to make me eat lizard tails orsomething?"
"What are you talking about? This isn"t aWitches" Sabbath or anything like that, you know."
I wanted to ask what exactly a Witches"Sabbath was, but I realized that if I got hung up on everything she saidour conversation would go nowhere.
"Of course, I don"t really expect you tobelieve me when I say that eating lunch together will help you become a magus."
Pouting a little, Miki pa.s.sed me one of theboxes. Upon opening the lid, I found... well, to be frank, everything insidelooks perfectly innocuous. Nothing inside seemed to be magic-related, nor didanything seem like it was made with a loved one in mind. It was, all in all, anextremely normal lunch.
How anticlimactic.
"Hey, let me guess what you"re thinking rightnow!"
Miki brought her face close to mine as ifinvestigating something.
"Be my guest."
"You"re thrilled at the prospect of eating acute girl"s homemade lunch!"
"What? That"s completely off. I was justthinking how anticlimactic it was."
"You"re awful!"
Although now that she mentioned it, eating agirl"s homemade lunch was a part of adolescence I had been looking forward to.Miki had stolen yet another of my firsts.
"But being able to speak your mind like that isa step in the right direction! Keep it up, keep it up!"
For some reason, I was being encouraged.
Her wide eyes gazed straight into mine as shespoke. That was probably how she truly felt.
If that"s how seriously she was taking this, Ifelt that I should do my part to understand this whole magic thing.
"In that case, I"ll ask you... you see, I"m alittle confused. I don"t really understand what you mean when you say "magic".After all, even though you sometimes borrow their terminology, your magic isn"texactly like the stuff you"d find in fantasy novels, right?"
The whole time I was talking, Miki continuedwatching me with those large round eyes of hers. Feeling uncomfortable, Idropped my gaze.
"I don"t really understand it, but I can"tjust unconditionally accept it. At this rate, I might not ever be able to usemagic."
Miki was listening to me earnestly.
Upon hearing my denial of magic, would shetake offence?
But Miki"s disposition didn"t sour. Shequietly pierced a piece of freezer-aisle karaage with her fork.
"You know, I"ve been dragging you around andsaying some pretty confusing things. I"m the reason you"re so confused. I haveat least that much self-awareness."
My eyes still downcast, she spoke again.
"Do you hate me for that?"
In response, I quickly shook my head.
"I mean, you"re doing it all with goodintentions, right?"
Miki"s eyes widened slightly as if insurprise.
"You understood that?"
"Yeah."
"Even though I was saying cryptic things, likethat I"d protect you from magic or that I"d be your bodyguard?"
"Yeah."
"There"s no way I was really conveying my goodintentions by doing stuff like that..."
This time it was my turn to be surprised.
"So, you did realize you were beingcryptic..."
If she realized how odd she was being,couldn"t she have just acted more normally in the first place? If she wasafraid that I would come to hate her, wouldn"t it make sense to try getting toknow me more normally?
"Well, "cuz... it"s like this. I had to take agamble. The way I saw it, you were really in danger; someone else could havedone you in with magic in the blink of an eye. That"s why I was in such a rush- I had to, like, get really close to you as quick as possible so you"d trustme."
"And that"s why you were walking home with meand making me lunch and stuff?"
"Yup. But you see, I knew you wouldn"t rejectme. Given your lack of magic resistance, I was confident I could get away witha little bit of coercion."
"You mean people without magic resistance areback at rejection?"
"Hmm... it"s not like that"s a rule oranything, but that"s generally how it turns out. Once the two of us have astrong bond of mutual trust, by that point you"ll already be a splendid magus.Once you get to that point, you"ll be able to protect yourself from otherpeople"s magic."
There was no way that was the whole truth.
However, I was pretty sure Miki wasn"t sayingit halfheartedly. I could tell how serious and earnest she was being.
Although I still wasn"t fully clear as to whatMiki"s brand of magic entailed, I got the feeling that it had a stronglygrounded concept. If that was the case, I had to deal with it as sincerely aspossible.
"You really are Kouta, aren"t you."
Peering at my face, Miki laughed happily.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, nothing... Hey, that"s right! We stillhaven"t eaten yet!"
I was puzzled, but we wouldn"t make anyprogress if I questioned every little thing she did or said. So I did asprompted and began to eat my lunch.
The lunch had a notably brown hue, and anordinary pair of chopsticks were bundled along with it. Looking at it, it wasobvious the creator wasn"t used to cooking. And most of the items werestore-bought. Well, it looked edible, if nothing else.
"Oh no... this is terrible..."
Miki, who was sitting beside me and picking atthe same a.s.sortment of side dishes, clutched the sides of her head.
"I... think it"s pretty average, don"t you?"
"...Sorry. I messed up. You see, I"m actuallypretty handy, and I can do most things pretty well. But this is... man, thesecarrots are too firm... and half of this is undercooked... Oh geez, I"m reallysorry."
"Couldn"t you use magic to make it better?"
"Excuse me? Are you just trying to pick afight with me like that? You"re picking a fight, aren"t you?"
Grabbing my shoulder, she started shaking meback and forth. My head rattled from side to side. Miki seemed to find thisamusing, and with a grin on her face refused to stop.
"You two look like you"re having a blast, fora couple of freshman s.h.i.tstains."
With a start, Miki turned to face the sourceof the malice-filled voice.
Sauntering towards us was a third year withlong blond hair and dark roots. Although his fashion sense immediately outedhim as a delinquent, his degeneracy didn"t seem nearly as refined as Masato"s.I quickly discerned that what set him off was seeing an una.s.suming guy like meeating lunch with a world-cla.s.s girl like Miki.
The long-haired blond, who by now was besideus, looked down at Miki with the vulgar eyes of a small-time brute.
"Now that I look atcha up close, you"reh.e.l.la f.u.c.kin" hot."
"...Thank you."
"Hey, wanna go for a drive with me nextSunday? I just got my license, so I wanna hit the road."
"I appreciate your kind invitation.Unfortunately, I"m afraid I"m busy that day."
Putting on a sweetly smile, Mikidiplomatically declined. I was impressed that someone as audacious as her couldrespond like that.
Although the long-haired blond initiallynarrowed his eyes in irritation, as he continued casting his viscous gaze atMiki, a crude smile began to slowly dance around his lips.
"Man, normally this is where I"d backoff, but... You"re so d.a.m.n hot I just can"t. I think I"vefallen for ya already. f.u.c.k, man, you gotta go out with me!"
Upon hearing this, Miki"s poker face brokedown for the first time, and she grimaced.
"C"mon, you can"t just leave a guy hangin"like that! ...Oh, that reminds me. You mind if I switch topics for asec? You wouldn"t think a guy like me would give a s.h.i.t, but I actuallycan"t f.u.c.kin" stand people who disrespect public morals. I"m always thinkin"about how I wanna stamp guys like that out. It"s like, uh, one of thoseworld peace-type things."
Although he was clearly violating severalschool regulations himself, he continued his speech.
"So the other day, right, I see thesetwo second-years named Takahashi and Shinjou gettin" it on after cla.s.s. Man, mysense of justice flared up like you wouldn"t f.u.c.king believe. The campus issacred, ya know, you can"t just go dirty it up by having s.e.x here! And I"mlike, I can"t just sit here and watch this. So I was thinkin",the best thing to do would be to get them to break up. That s.h.i.t"s what theycall an illicit s.e.xual relationship, man. So I brought over a couple ofmy buddies and we broke them up. But chicks are like, they can"t bear it ifthey don"t have a boyfriend, right? I felt super bad for her. Me and mybuddies were worried Shinjou"d be all lonely, so to prevent that we decided totake turns being her lover. Well, until we got bored of her body, at least."
This was bad. I may have called him asmall-time brute, but it looked like I had underestimated his deviancy.
And unfortunately, I was a far cry from someprotagonist who could easily take down a small fry; I was Student A, who was athis wit"s end at the mere sight of a delinquent.
"I"m like a demon who uphold the publicmorals. Looks like I might have to do the same thing here, huh."
"Well... the two of us weren"t doing anythinguntoward."
Although her reply was stout-hearted, Miki"svoice was trembling. It seemed that she too could do nothing but tremble, nomatter how unrefined this delinquent"s brand of violence was.
"I guess you"re right. Well, Ican let off the hook for becoming my lover this time. But ya gotta at leastspend an evening with me. If you don"t, I get the feeling that yourboyfriend there won"t be able to make it to school any more... So, let me askagain."
Having established just how dangerous he was,the long-haired blond asked again.
"You"ll go for a drive with me, won"tcha?"
"...If you insist."
Miki answered him expressionlessly.
When I looked at her face, she was smiling.
"Don"t worry about me, Kouta. I"m a magus, I"msure I can manage."
There"s no way that was true. If she could usemagic to do something about this situation, she would have done so already. Andthere"s no way she would be trembling so much.
"Oh yeah, I should clear it with yourboyfriend. We all good?"
"I"m thinking."
Frowning, I crossed my arms.
"By the way, is it really true that you wantto make friends with Miki?"
"Hah?"
"I understand the desire to fulfill yours.e.xual desires, I really do. I understand how strongly a person would want tohave s.e.x with a cute girl. But... if we compare how much you do want toto how much Miki doesn"t want to, Miki"s desire not to is stronger.That"s the way I see it. So I"d really rather you didn"t."
For some reason, the long-haired blond seemedtaken aback.
"The f.u.c.k is this kid talking about?"
You asked "we all good?", so I answered.That"s all there is to it...
It was clearly my job to stop him. Although Ihad only just met Miki, she was taking action on my behalf. But if I tried tooppose him with violence, I would just be met in kind and thoroughlyoutcla.s.sed. I had to consider retribution, as well. So what options did I haveleft?
For some reason, Masato"s catchphrase sprungto mind.
I wannakill someone.
"Ryuusuke Yamazaki."
I then heard a voice that belonged to the sameperson the catchphrase did. Although he wasn"t raising his voice, I could hearit from somewhere above me.
When I looked up, I could see Masato staringat us expressionlessly from the second-floor hallway window.
Masato pointed at me and spoke succinctly.
"He"s with me."
Succinct as it was, that was sufficient forthe blond, who was apparently named Yamazaki, to display an uncomfortable lookon his face.
"...Hey, Yahara. Didn"t know thiscapybara-lookin" kid was a friend of yours. It"s not like I was tryin"to pick a fight with a buddy of yours or nothin"."
"Uh huh."
With a bored look on his face, Masato wanderedaway from the window.
Yamazaki was a vicious delinquent who casuallyterrorized the rest of the student body. But in spite of this, he seemed unableto turn on Masato despite the latter being a first-year.
It seemed I had unintentionally made friendsin high places.
Scratching his head and frowning, Yamazakiwhispered in my ear.
"If Masato"s sticking up for you, does thatmean you"re the "manager" I"ve heard so much about? Are you in themiddle of "stocking up"?"
I had noidea what he was talking about.
"Well, noskin off my back. If you get any cute girls in, send "em my way, wouldja?"
Giving myback a firm thump, Yamazaki quickly strode off.
I turnedto face Miki.
"Kouta."
Ratherthan being relieved, Miki stared intently at my face. I had never seen her lookthis scared.
"I thoughtI understood, but you really are... Kouta, aren"t you. You"re really just seethings the way they are."
That"s...unlike her previous statements about "magic resistance," that"s a little easierto understand.
"Look, Iknow he saved us this time around. And I"m sorry, but there"s something I haveto say."
Mikipeered into my eyes.
"Pleasedon"t spend any more time around that guy. I"d like you to also avoid thatYamazaki guy from just now, and a second-year named Matsumi too."
I had nointention of breaking ties with Masato, so for now I just nodded.
But as ifpicking up on my noncommittal response, Miki heaved a heavy sigh.
"I reallydo need to protect you."
Protect.
Let"ssuppose for a moment that magic really was something capable of protecting me.Let"s suppose it"s something that could enrich my life.
Even ifthat"s the case, there"s something I can"t tell Miki.
I couldn"treally care less.
Icouldn"t care less what happens to me.
I can"treally remember how I got to know Masato. We sat near each other in cla.s.s, andbefore I knew it we were regularly chatting.
But Ididn"t spend time with him outside of school. We never hung out together, andwe didn"t chat on the phone. If we got put into different cla.s.ses, it"sentirely possible we would stop interacting altogether. Barring that, even notsitting near each other might be enough to put a halt to our conversations.
But once,I think it was about two weeks ago? He called me to a park near my home at onein the morning.
Masatowouldn"t tell me, so I didn"t know what was going on, but when I got there Iwas startled by how haggard he seemed. I got the impression that it didn"tmatter who, he just needed someone to talk to.
Atop arusting jungle gym with an out-of-order sign plastered on it, the two of usheld a rather aimless conversation. After glancing at the "no b.a.l.l.s allowed"sign, the out-of-order vending machine, and the rather unenticing publicrestroom for the dozenth time, Masato gave an obviously fake laugh and quipped,"This f.u.c.king place is less a park and more of a cesspit."
Atop thejungle gym, Masato took a drag from his cigarette as he toyed with a b.u.t.terflyknife. Although he was a minor, he was no stranger to cigarettes, beer, andoccasionally even harder drugs. However, he never offered me any. And even whenhe was engaging in such antisocial practices, he showed not a glimpse ofenjoyment but the same bored expression as always.
The moonwas so full that night I thought it might perhaps be a supermoon, and itsillumination was clearly making Masato uncomfortable.
"Kou,whaddya see what you look up at the moon?"
I answeredautomatically.
"Arabbit."
"You"rejust saying that "cause everyone else does, right? Let"s be real, it doesn"teven look that much like a f.u.c.king rabbit."
He wastotally right. Looking back up at the moon again, I completely agreed.
"So whatdo you see?"
Igenerally tried to avoid answering questions like this, as I inevitably gotmocked for my lack of imagination.
"To beblunt, the moon doesn"t look like much of anything to me."
"Whaddya mean?"
"I mean, Ican"t really see the craters as anything but craters."
But ratherthan mock me for my entirely mockable answer, Masato looked almost impressed.
"Huh, sothat"s your angle."
Seemingpleased, he lit another cigarette.
"Makessense. h.e.l.l, if anything it"s weirder to a.s.sign meaning to s.h.i.t like that."
I wasn"tsure what he was so pleased about.
To fillthe lull in the conversation, I asked a question of little import.
"Masato,why do you act like a delinquent?"
"You"re acheeky little b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Normally if you asked a delinquent that, they"d beat yousenseless."
But Masatogave me a serious answer.
"Ijust didn"t know a way to resist it."
It wasn"ta very concrete answer. But I could tell that Masato himself didn"t haveanything firmer.
Theconversation died down again, so I asked the next question that came to mind asI gazed upwards.
"What doesthe moon look like to you, Masato?"
Furrowinghis brow, Masato tossed his cigarette aside.
"Whenever Ilook up, I get uneasy. Even though I know I can"t reachit, I wanna smash it. So on bright nights like these, I alwaysjust look at my feet."
He put anew cigarette in his mouth and lit it.
"Feelslike there"s a monster baring its fangs above me."
Wrenchinghis face in despair, Masato whispered as if he were spitting out a mouthful ofblood.
"Ahh... Iwanna kill someone."
"It"s beena while since we walked home together, Masato."
We hadn"tplanned it ahead of time. But our houses were in the same direction, and wewere both in the so-called going home club, so we occasionally found ourselveswalking together. The reason it had been so long was due to a certain magusattaching herself to my hip.
By theway, the magus in question had been invited somewhere today by her friendSayuri, who apparently wouldn"t take no for an answer. Although I was surprisedthat Miki was able to make friends at all in the face of her blatant audacity,it turned out she was actually on good terms with most of the girls in hercla.s.s. Of course, this was self-reported, so I had no way of confirming whetherit was true or not.
By theway, when I expressed my surprise at the size of her friend group, Miki gotrather indignant. She then went on an incomprehensible lecture about howmaintaining the unstable bonds of female friendship was part of magic"swheelhouse or something. Well, her communication skills were exceptional, soperhaps it wasn"t so strange after all.
"You"rethinking about that chick again, aren"tcha. You"re f.u.c.king engrossed."
"Kinda."
"You"resupposed to deny it, man, I"m just f.u.c.king with you."
Afterletting him know that I had, in fact, been thinking about her, Masato gave offa sigh while smirking.
"Go figure."
Withoutbreaking his smirk, Masato continued.
"Ya know,that magus freak told me to stay away from you the other day."
"Really?Miki did?"
Masato"seyes reflected their a.s.sent.
"I toldyou, right? Kouzuki and I will never get along. She f.u.c.king hates me."
Thatreminded me. Miki had told me to stop spending time with Masato.
"Are yousure you didn"t just make fun of magic or something?"
"Imight"ve."
"C"mon!"
"But thisand that don"t have jack s.h.i.t to do with each other. She just can"t stand thetwo of us being around each other."
The word"jealousy" sprung to mind, but Miki had really just been one-sidedly meddlingin my affairs.
All shecould think about was magic.
"I guessyou being around me gets in the way of her plan to make me into a magus?"
"That"spretty much on the mark."
I wassurprised at Masato"s matter-of-fact answer.
"Wait, doyou understand what she means by "magic"? Is that why you can tell why shehates you?"
Masato"sbrows furrowed.
"Hmm...it"s not like I understand it per se. But us not being able to seeeye-to-eye shakes out to about the same thing."
"I"m notsure I follow."
"Imean, you"re starting to get an idea of what her magic is, right? She"s beendragging you around for two d.a.m.n weeks now."
"...Sortof."
"Vaguely" was about the level my understandingcapped out at.
It was just like translating English intoj.a.panese; coming up with a word to describe magic was difficult. But I couldtell by now that it wasn"t "sorcery" or "witchcraft".
As far as I could tell, the kind of magic Mikiwas talking about generally referred to something along the lines of"imposition of notions."
But it wasn"t just brainwashing, where youcould impose things forcibly. Things like daily habits and cultural norms,where they took root before you even noticed, were also included in herdefinition of magic. Miki"s vision of a magus was likely someone who couldfreely manipulate the notions of others. When she said I didn"t have any magicresistance, what she meant was that I was in danger because my notions wouldchange so readily.
But I couldn"t understand what made peoplewithout magic resistance better at becoming magi. I didn"t see why spend timearound Masato would keep me from becoming one, either. I felt like there wasstill quite a bit to magic that I didn"t understand.
"Quit thinkin"."
Speaking rudely, Masato lightly jabbed mysolar plexus.
"Nogood"ll come of a dumba.s.s thinking too hard."
"Surely there"s a kinder way to put that."
Masato tilted his head with a playful look onhis face. But just as I was thinking that, his expression grew grave.
"Honestly, some of the stuff Kouzuki"s talkin"about has merit. Even I"d rather you go be a happy-go-lucky magus freakthan a homicidal delinquent."
"What? I mean, I"d really rather not becomeeither..."
I responded with a light-hearted joke, butMasato"s intense expression didn"t fade.
"Well, if you don"t think about it too muchyou can probably stay just the way you are."
"Kusukusu...kusukusukusu..."
We heard a peculiar laugh that sounded as ifsomeone were exhaling through a gap in their teeth.
The two of us turned our heads. Behind usstood a short girl. Her jet-black hair hung down in braids in the back, withher bangs were cut at a diagonal slant. I could infer from her sailor uniform"sgreen ribbon that she was a second-year. While that meant that she was olderthan us, her childlike face gave off a very different impression. That,combined with her innocent expression, would have led me to believe in aninstant if I were told she was a grade-schooler. Upon closer inspection,though, her bust was large enough to leave a thoroughly immoral impression.
But her most notable characteristic was herpeculiar eyes. Although they were as just as black as her hair, they seemedsomehow out of focus and were oddly reminiscent of a rainbow.
"You two are quite interesting."
There was n.o.body else around, so it seemed theunfamiliar uppercla.s.sman was addressing us.
"h.e.l.lo."
With the expression of a pleased child, shegave a quick bow. I returned the greeting.
"...Masato, do you know her?"
Pulling a wry face, Masato shook his head.
"Kusukusu... you really areinteresting!"
Her smile was innocent. But it was strange. Infact, it was so innocent it was unsettling.
"Whaddya want?"
Masato spit out the question in his usualaggressive manner, but the uppercla.s.sman showed no sign of fear. Nor did sheeven seem to mind. It seemed like she was a bit slow when it came tointerpreting other people"s emotions.
"Oh, Ririko was just thinking how she wantedto become good friends with Hiiragi!"
It seemed she knew my last name.
Although she had called us "interesting," Iquickly realized that she was paying little attention to us. Her gaze seemed tobe drifting all over.
"What did you find so interesting? Our conversation?"
"Yes. Aaaand no."
Her voice dripped with saccharine. But itwasn"t the type of flirtatious saccharine that Miki occasionally put on forplay.
It was like a child"s. Not just that, but herbehavior and expressions were like those of a child as well.
"What"s so interesting about you two are thecall signs you"re giving off."
"...Call signs?"
"Yup. Call signs."
Although I parroted her words back at her, noexplanation was forthcoming. It felt as though she thought her manner ofspeaking were the most natural thing in the world.
As if striking upon something, Masato suddenlyasked her a question.
"Hey, are you that Ririko Matsumi chick?"
"Oh, yes. Ririko is Ririko, of course."
Without any questions as to how Masato knewher name, the uppercla.s.sman named Ririko Matsumi nodded.
"Masato, who is she?"
"Her name gets around. You can guess why,right?"
Indeed. If this was representative of herstandard behavior, it was no surprise that people would have heard of her.
Oh, right. Now I think about it, "Matsumi" wasalso on the list of people Miki told me to stay away from. And on top of that,I vaguely remembered hearing rumors about her somewhere.
"Interesting, aren"t they? White andultramarine, huh. Aren"t most people orange? But you two are different. Ririkolikes white, you know. Makes her want to do something."
Unable to contain her excitement,Matsumi-senpai continued.
"Hey, hey, can Ririko read you?"
"Read me?"
I parroted her words again.
"Oh, that"s right. Most people can"t doscanning. But, but, you see, Ririko can do scanning!"
Puffing up her chest proudly, she spread herhands as if to say "here I go!"
In a flash, her innocent expression vanished.
It was replaced with something inhuman, almostmannequin-like.
A strange voice. A voice that couldn"t quitebe said to be coming from her throat. The noise sounded exactly like that of amachine, but it was clearly emanating from her half-open mouth.
As if being infiltrated by darkness, her eyesslowly lost their light. They lost their focus and seemed to stop perceivingaltogether. But I could tell. Even though they were out of focus, they wereholding me tight in their gaze and refusing to let go. As if I were afflictedwith paralysis, I was unable to so much as wiggle a fingertip.
What was going on?
Still frozen in shock, I could see Masato outof the corner of my eye. Although Masato despised other people showing weaknessaround him, he was simply staring speechless.
Everything about this was abnormal.
"Beep bibibi, bip bip bibeep."
As if it were travelling not through myeardrums but through my bones, I could feel the noise resound within my body. Icouldn"t tell where it was coming from any more. Coming not from in front ofme, nor behind me, nor beside me or above me, that mechanical noise simplywrapped around me and continued resonating.
Beep bibibi, bip bip bibeep.
The noise rang in concert with my very cells.My entire body trembled with stinging pain, almost as if I were being scalded.
I still couldn"t move my legs. I couldn"t moveat all. It had transformed from paralysis into sheer violence. A paralysis sostrong it felt as though my body were bound with electric cables. Cables thatboth bound me and tore me to pieces. They exposed me, comprehended me, bound upmy insides and scattered them.
While exposing my everything, those eyescontinued holding me. Capturing everything, yet reflecting nothing. Eyes thatwere both jet-black and snow white.
"Scanning complete."
As Matsumi-senpai said that, the sceneryreturned and the world began turning once more. Of course, I knew that thescenery had never left. The only thing that had changed was me. For just thatmoment, the "me" who was able to perceive that scenery was changed.
Only a few seconds should have pa.s.sed. Butthose seconds felt so dense that I would have believed if I was told that hoursor even days had pa.s.sed.
A breath.
Good... I took a breath.
I can still breathe.
"Well then, next up is..."
The innocent girl"s eyes turned to Masato.
"Ah—"
Masato"s eyes were wide open. I had never seenhim like this before.
Matsumi-senpai"s eyes, which had by nowreturned to their original color, steady became black and white again.
"...don"t."
"Beep bi—"
"DON"T!!"
Masato screamed.
In response to his ragged breathing and scareddemeanor, Matsumi-senpai lips began to quiver.
"You don"t have to shout like that, youknow..."
Despite being the source of Masato"s terror,she simply pouted, seemingly as indifferent as ever to the emotions of others.
"Excuse me, Matsumi-senpai, what was that justnow...?"
"Hold on, hold on. Ririko"s going to put itinto words now."
Matsumi-senpai stood still, her mouth hanginglazily half-open.
She stayed in that state for a little while,not so much as moving a muscle.
"Kouta Hiiragi, age fifteen."
Still expressionless, her mouth began moving,and like a machine began speaking.
"Lives with his parents and younger sister.Lives in a room with a skylight on the second floor of an old single-familyhome. Has many friends, but no close friends. Values emotional distance. Hasrecently begun courting a member of the opposite s.e.x. Virgin. Gets tired whenconversing with others. Largely apathetic towards himself."
I had no idea what she was talking about. Butas she went on, it became clear that she was talking about me.
"Unconsciously rejects his mother due to herhysterical temperament. Receives mixed messages from his father. Neither parentapproaches parenting with any degree of consistency. His sister enjoys killingcats. Has been ordered by his family to deal with the cat corpses. Will listento anything he is told. Susceptible to brainwashing. Versatile. Abnormally goodat understanding the value systems of others. Has no self, so regards otherswith-"
"Th... that"s enough! Matsumi-senpai, pleasecut it out!"
I raised my voice, almost to a scream, andMatsumi-senpai, whose eyes had been open this whole time, finally blinked. Herexpression began coming back.
"So? So? How was that? How"d you like myscanning? Did Ririko get that all right?"
She looked like a proud kindergartener asking howgood her crayon drawing was. Knowing that it would make her happy, I decided tohumor her and nodded vigorously.
I didn"t want to listen to this anymore.
I didn"t want to learn anything about myself.
"Senpai, can we go now?"
For some reason, Masato seemed exhausted.
"Whaaat? But Ririko wanted to chat more! He"swhite, after all! He"s the only one!"
"Sorry, but we got places to be."
"Ririko understands... Well, Ririko guesses itcan"t be helped then."
Matsumi-senpai"s shoulders slumped.
"Ririko guesses she"ll see you later then,Tanihara."
His lips pursed, Masato scowled atMatsumi-senpai.
"Huh? Aren"t you Tanihara?"
"It"s read "Yahara", Senpai."
"You"re kidding! Ririko wonders why she madethat mistake... Ririko wonders if it"s because the scanning stopped partway?Oh, by the way! Ririko doesn"t normally make that kind of mistake! Ririko"snormally always right!"
Waving both her hands, Matsumi-senpai gave anodd excuse.
But neither of us could muster the energy fora reb.u.t.tal, so we simply turned and walked away.
Walking in silence, we pa.s.sed through adeserted shopping district, with almost half the stores shuttered up. I feltlike my feet couldn"t quite reach the ground. I was filled with an unpleasantfloating sensation.
What exactly was that "scanning"?Wasn"t that magic? And a foul magic at that, one that overturned every value Ionce held.
It felt like the world was shaking. Althoughthere was no heat haze to speak of, I was having difficulty telling exactlywhere the ground was. It was as if I should have able to fly, but for someabsurd reason the cracked concrete was shackling me to the earth.
Perhaps it was a childish delusion. But...that"s right. Ririko Matsumi had no such restrictions. And perhaps she was soabsurd a person as to truly believe she could fly.
"Kou."
Breaking the silence, Masato spoke.
"Get this through your head. Don"t talk tothat birdbrain ever again. She"ll be a bad influence on you, got it?"
I wasn"t sure what harm a simple conversationcould do, but Masato looked dead serious, so I just responded with a firm nod.
Honestly, I was surprised that Masato wouldshow such concern for me. He reminded me of Miki.
"Masato, did you understand what was going onwith that scanning thing?"
"... not even a little."
I see. So he had "not even a little" desire toexplain it to me, huh.
But even knowing that, I didn"t feel the needto press the issue. If he didn"t want to tell me, it wasn"t like I could makehim.
The traffic light in front of us turned red.
We stopped.
"f.u.c.k."
Masato spit out a small expletive and beganchewing on his lip.
"What"s wrong?"
"Why the h.e.l.l"d we stop?"
"The lightwas red, wasn"t it?"
"There"sno cars here."
I lookedboth ways to verify his statement. Indeed, there were no automobiles in sight.
"...Thendo you want to cross?"
"That"snot what I"m talking about... that"s not what I"m f.u.c.king talking about. I"masking why I stopped."
I wasperplexed. What was Masato so irritated about?
"Well, redmeans stop, so obviously we"d stop, right?"
"Right.Even though we coulda crossed, we stopped just because that"s how it works."
Masatobegan scratching at his head, almost as if he were trying to plug up his ears.
"Masato,is something the matter? Is it because of that uppercla.s.sman?"
"...Yeah, Iguess. There"s something wrong with me right now. There"d have to be for me totalk to you like this, huh."
The lightturned green.
"Masato,let"s go."
"Right..."
As hebegan walking, I could see Masato"s expression surpa.s.s irritation and shift torage. He was scratching at himself to an abnormal degree. The expression he wasgiving made it seem is if his entire body were swarming with caterpillars andthey were digging under his skin to lay eggs.
With nochange in demeanor, Masato spoke.
"Ahh... Iwanna kill someone."
I couldtell.
We werepast the point of no return.
The dayafter our encounter with Ririko Matsumi, Masato didn"t show up at school.
Thatwasn"t too strange in and of itself. Masato had skipped school twice in thatpast for little to no reason. But given the state he had been in yesterday, Icouldn"t help but be concerned.
Iwanna kill someone.
He wasjust saying it like he always did, right?
"Goodmorning, Kouta."
I heard avoice I was now fairly used to. I turned my head and responded.
"Goodmorning, Miki."
"...Yaharaisn"t here today, huh."
Her voicelacked its usual pluck. Her expression also seemed somewhat gloomy.
"What"swrong? You seem out of sorts."
"You cantell?"
Giving aweak smile, Miki heaved a sigh.
"You cantell?", huh.
It wasobvious that she was wearing her lack of energy on her face to elicit myconcern. But I kept that to myself and simply nodded.
"Would youmind coming to the courtyard with me, Kouta?"
"Rightnow?"
Therewasn"t that much time left before cla.s.s began.
"Yeah...there"s something I want to talk to you about, and I"d rather not beoverheard."
In otherwords, it was a matter of some importance. That was what Miki was trying toconvey. She was extraordinarily skilled at conveying her intentions to others.
So I puton an obedient expression.
The skywas overcast and it looked liable to start raining at any moment, so thecourtyard was unpleasantly chilly. The scent of earth mingled with thehumidity, and I felt as though I might choke.
Regardlessof the fact that she herself was the one who called us here, Miki simply hungher head in silence. It created an oddly docile atmosphere.
"Miki,what was it you wanted to talk about?"
Although Itried to break the ice, Miki still just cast her eyes down. Realizing that Ishould wait for her to speak, I did just that.
"...I"mreally just a bother, aren"t I."
That wasthe first thing that came out of her mouth.
"I"m notblind. I can at least tell that I"m a bother..."
"Um...what"s this, all of a sudden?"
Even ifMiki had realized that she was being bothersome, she had gone to some lengthsto feign airheadedness and conceal it.
"I spentall day yesterday thinking about how I could deal with this without having todo something wrong."
I wasn"tsure what brought about this abrupt change of heart. All I knew was that Ishouldn"t point out the fact that it was a change of heart. If I did,Miki would become difficult to deal with.
Miki"seyes grew watery, and she seemed to put herself on guard.
As far asI was concerned, that was much more worrying than the actual words coming outof her mouth.
"What doyou mean by something "wrong"?"
"Pushingmagic on you would be wrong. I know that people laugh at me and call medelusional. But even so, I was trying to forcibly push my value system on you."
I didn"treally care about that. And Miki should have known that.
"But, youknow... even though I knew what I was doing was wrong, I couldn"t bear watchingyou turn into an insane magus! I just couldn"t!"
Her eyesstill moist, she spoke with conviction.
I couldn"tsay anything. As I still didn"t fully comprehend magic, I couldn"t understandwhat Miki was saying. But that aside, in the face of Miki"s staunchearnestness, I felt it would be improper to interject, so I couldn"t sayanything.
"So I"vebeen thinking."
Miki tookmy right hand and embraced it in hers. My heart began pounding at theunexpected feel of her touch. Miki peered at me with teary eyes.
It feltvery intentional. She was intentionally manipulating my heartrate. But in hereyes, I could see her slyness tinged with indecision.
Closingher eyes for the first time in some time, Miki let out a long sigh. I couldfeel her grip on my hand tighten ever-so-slightly.
...Howstrange. I felt a warmth other than simple body heat transfer from her hands tomine. If she told me that it was part of her magic, I wouldn"t doubt it for asecond.
Mikiopened her eyes again.
They werefilled with resolution.
Theyseemed to be entreating me.
"Kouta...do you think you could fall for me?"
Herunexpected question left me speechless.
"Or isthat impossible, I wonder..."
It was,quite clearly, a confession.
Perhaps toan outsider, confessing in this situation might seem completely natural. But asthe party in question, I could tell how unhealthy it was.
After all,Miki was simply trying to protect me. It wasn"t as if she held any romanticfeelings towards me. I understood that much.
"Am I...no good?"
"Th...that"s not it at all! You"re extremely charming, Miki!"
Reflexively,I gave Miki the exact response she was looking for.
Of course,it was true that she was charming. Her looks would make her at home in any idolgroup, and although she was selfish, she had a timidly side to her that obsessivelytook the needs of the others into consideration as well.
But thatwas nothing more than an objective observation. What did I personally think ofher?
To beginwith...
Under whatcirc.u.mstances would I fall for a girl?
"Do youthink you could fall for me?"
"That"s..."
Eventhough I knew what answer she was looking for, I couldn"t bring myself to sayit.
"...Kouta,you"re a guy, right?"
"Well,yes."
"Even ifyou only want me for my body, if that"s enough to get you to fall for me,I"m... okay with that."
Miki"seyes then widened.
"S...sorry!I said something really weird! But... I really do want you to fall for me! Evenif that"s what it takes!"
I couldn"tcomprehend it. I couldn"t comprehend why she would go to such lengths.
...No,that"s not true. For the sake of magic, she would go to any lengths. She feltthe need to do something about me and my lack of magic resistance. Even if itmeant sacrificing her own chast.i.ty, she had to protect the notion of magic.
Mikiwouldn"t be Miki if she didn"t abide by her magic.
But evenrecognizing that, I was still uneasy. Although I couldn"t put it to words,there was something that didn"t sit right with me.
There wasone thing I was sure of, though. Regardless of how it looked, Miki sought me.Knowing that, how could I turn down her confession?
The answerwas simple. I couldn"t.
"I willfall for you. So you don"t have to say weird stuff like that anymore."
Miki"seyes widened, and she stared straight at me.
"So youmean we"re going out now?"
"Yup."
"You"reokay with this? I"m going to be your first girlfriend, right? Are you okay withit being me? You can"t take it back, you know that, right? You know you"ll takeon my attribute, right?"
"Like Isaid, I"m fine with that."
Before my eyes, Miki"s expression brightened.
"Really?You"re really okay with this? ...Yay. Yay!"
The tearyexpression she had been displaying up until a moment ago vanished like it hadnever been there, and she broke into a radiant smile. Seeing it, I wasconvinced I had made the right decision and was filled with relief.
I was finewith this.
"Yay!Thanks so much, Kouta! I look forward to our continued times together!"
Mikimerrily shook my hand up and down.
Mydiscomfort didn"t fade, but there was one thing I knew for sure. From now on,Miki and I would spend a great deal more time together. Little by little, wewould stop holding back around each other. My days would be fulfilling, and Imight even earn the jealousy of my peers. That was the shape my life would takefrom now on.
Irecognized this, and accepted it without resistance.
Justaccording to Miki"s script.
A week hadpa.s.sed since Miki"s confession. Unsurprisingly, we had grown a good dealcloser, but Miki hardly behaved as if we were lovers and instead treated memuch the same as before. So I did the same.
But Mikithe object of no small amount of attention. The fact that we were datingquickly became public and rapidly circulated throughout the school. Even if theway we treated each other didn"t change, the way the people around us reacteddid. Feeling cramped by the way the people around me forced their definitionsonto us, even my awareness of our relationship began to gradually shift. Beforelong, pressure from the peanut gallery would likely transform us into aconventional boyfriend and girlfriend.
I see. SoMiki formally asked me out knowing that this would happen.
"Wellthen, I look forward to another week together!"
"Yup. Seeyou later."
As weparted at the usual street, Miki exaggeratedly waved me goodbye. I smiled ather and returned the wave.
Miki and I had made plans to spend the day ather house on the Sunday of next week. Although she had said that her parentswould be out of the house, I harbored no improper expectations. Or did I? What