“One cream bun,” she said, addressing the woman at the counter.
The woman must not have heard her. She didn’t respond.
“One cream bun,” Mai said again.
But the woman still didn’t react, like she couldn’t see Mai at all. She accepted a thousand-yen bill from a businessman who’d arrived after Mai. Like she couldn’t hear Mai’s voice. Next, she handed over some melon buns to a junior high school girl.
“Can I get a cream bun?” Sakuta asked, stepping up next to Mai.
“Coming right up!” the woman said. She passed a paper bag across the counter, and Sakuta passed back 130 yen.
A few steps away from the stand, he handed Mai the bag with the cream bun inside.
She was staring uncomfortably at her feet.
“Seems like there’s a downside.”
“Yes. It would never do to be deprived of this shop’s cream buns.”
“I know, right?”
“But…you believe my crazy story?”
“I know a little something about stories like these.”
“……”
“Adolescence Syndrome.”
Mai’s eyebrows twitched.
He’d never specifically heard of any cases where people turned invisible, but… “I can read people’s minds!” or “I can see people’s futures!” or “We swapped bodies!” There were plenty of well-known stories about seemingly supernatural phenomena. Checking any relevant online forum would turn up a mountain of them.
Responsible psychiatrists dismissed it as a suggestive state induced by emotional instability. Self-proclaimed experts talked about it like it was a new form of panic attack brought about by the rigors of modern society. Regular people just enjoying the crazy stories likely assumed it was some sort of mass hypnosis.
Another popular theory was that it was a mental illness brought about by the stress of reality not living up to the afflicted person’s ideals.
The one thing all these explanations had in common was that no one took the condition seriously. Most adults were sure it was all in children’s heads.
Somewhere in the storm of casual opinions, people started using Adolescence Syndrome as a collective name for these bizarre phenomena—like the one happening to Mai right now.
“Adolescence Syndrome is just an urban legend.”
Mai was right. It was an urban legend. No one would normally believe such a thing. Everyone would react like Mai just had. Even if they witnessed something strange happen right in front of them, most would assume they’d imagined it. Even if it happened to them personally, regular people would struggle to accept it. The world they all lived in was a place where fantastical things like this simply couldn’t exist—that was common sense.
But Sakuta had good reason to think otherwise.
“I have something to show you. It should be a convincing reason for why I believe you.”
“What are you going to show me?” Mai looked dubious.
“Mind coming with me?” he asked.
Mai thought about it.
“…Fine,” she said, nodding, her voice barely above a whisper.
4
Sakuta led Mai to a certain spot in a residential area about a ten-minute walk from the station.
“And this is?” she asked, staring up at a seven-story apartment complex.
“My place.”
“……”
He felt a suspicious, scornful glare stabbing into his side.
“I’m not gonna try anything.”
Under his breath, he added, “Probably.”
“What was that?”
“If you decide to seduce me, I’m not sure I’ll be able to resist.”
“……”
Mai’s lips pursed.
“Oh? Senpai, are you nervous?”
“N-nervous? M-me?”
“There was an audible squeak to your voice…”
“I think nothing of entering the bedroom of some younger boy.”
Mai hmphed loudly and walked into the lobby ahead of him. Sakuta followed, trying not to laugh.
They took the elevator to the fifth floor. The third door on the right was Sakuta’s apartment.
“I’m home!” he called, stepping inside. No answer. Kaede was normally waiting for him, but he was back at a weird time, so maybe she was sulking. Or just asleep? Maybe too absorbed in a book to notice her brother’s return…
“Come on in,” he invited, realizing Mai was still standing in the entrance with her shoes on.
Sakuta’s room was right by the front door.
Mai put her schoolbag down and set the paper bag from the station locker next to it, then sat down on the bed, palms down on either side. Sakuta stole a peek inside the paper bag and saw the ears from the bunny-girl costume. She must have been planning to do her wild bunny-girl routine somewhere else.
“Well, at least you keep it tidy,” she said, looking around the room. She didn’t sound particularly impressed.
“I just don’t own anything.”
“I can tell.”
The bed, his desk, and a chair—there was nothing else here.
“Senpai,” he began.
“Stop,” she said, interrupting him.
“What?”
“Could you not call me senpai? It doesn’t feel right.”
“Sakurajima?”
“That’s too long to use all the time.”
“I could shorten it to Jima? Urp!”
Mai had grabbed his necktie, pulling hard.
“No weird nicknames.”
“I thought it would make us closer!”
“I hate people who don’t know their manners,” she growled. There was a real tension here, one that did not allow jokes. Were these strict principles also the result of her acting background?
“In that case…Mai?”
“You don’t seem like an Azusagawa, so I’ll just call you Sakuta.”
He wondered what her mental image of an Azusagawa looked like.
“So? What is it you want to show me?”
“First…if you could let go?”
Mai finally released him. Sakuta straightened up, loosened his tie, and undid the buttons on his shirt. Moving smoothly, he also peeled off the T-shirt underneath it, leaving him naked from the waist up.
“Wh-why are you undressing?!” Mai yelped. Uncomfortably averting her gaze. “Y-you said you wouldn’t try anything! Gross! Pervert! Flasher!”
After this stream of insults, she turned her eyes on him again with great trepidation.
“Ah—”
And then she let out a yelp of genuine surprise.
Three macabre scars carved into Sakuta’s chest. It was as though he’d been raked by the claws of a giant monster. They ran from his right shoulder all the way to his left hip.
The scars were raised, like unusually large welts. One glance was all it took to know something was wrong. You could get attacked by a bear and get off with less. If he’d been hit by an excavator’s shovel, that might explain it. Sadly, Sakuta had never fought an excavator.
“Were you attacked by mutants?”
“I had no idea you were an American comics fan.”
“I’ve only seen the movies.”
“……”
“……”
Mai was staring fixedly at his scars.
“Those are real?” she inquired at last.
“Do you think I’d be dumb enough to do this with makeup?”
“Can I touch them?”
“Go ahead.”
Mai stood up and reached out, pressing her fingertips lightly against the scars at his shoulder.
“Oh!”
“Don’t make weird noises!”
“They’re a little sensitive. Be gentle?”
“Like this?”
She lightly brushed her fingers along the scars.
“That feels really good.”
Without her expression changing at all, she pinched his side, hard.
&n
bsp; “Ow! Ow! Let go!”
“You really seem to be enjoying this.”
“It actually hurts!”
Mai let go, presumably deciding this was a battle she could not win.
“So? How’d you get these scars?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“Huh? What do you mean? You wanted to show me these, right?”
“Actually, no. These don’t really matter. Forget you saw them.”
“How can I? If they don’t matter, why take your shirt off?!”
“I always change the moment I get home, so…habit?”
Sakuta unlocked his desk drawer, took a photo out, and handed it to Mai.
“This is what I wanted to show you.”
“……?!”
The moment she saw the picture, Mai’s eyes went wide with shock. Then she looked up at Sakuta, grimly demanding an explanation. “What is this?”
The photo depicted a girl in her first year of junior high. Her summer uniform left her arms and legs exposed, making it plain to see that they were covered in purple bruises and painful-looking cuts.
“My sister, Kaede.”
The uniform hid her back and stomach, but Sakuta knew those were blanketed in the same injuries.
“…Was she attacked?”
“No. Just bullied online.”
“…I’m confused.”
That was only natural. Almost everyone introduced to the incident reacted the same way.
“She left a text message unread or something, and one of the class leaders got mad at her. The social media the whole class was using filled up with abuse. ‘You suck,’ ‘You’re so creepy,’ ‘Drop dead,’ ‘You’re so obnoxious,’ ‘Don’t bother coming to school.’”
As he spoke, Sakuta undid his belt.
“And then one day, that happened to her body.”
“Really?”
“At first, even I assumed someone did it to her. But by then, she’d already stopped going to school. If she hadn’t left the house, how could anyone attack her? That’s why I thought the stress had gotten so bad, she’d done it to herself.”
He took off his pants, hanging them over the back of the chair so they wouldn’t get wrinkled.
“It’s true that some victims come to think the bullying is their fault,” Mai said. For some reason, she was staring very intently at a corner of the room.
“So I skipped school, staying with her the whole time. I needed to know the truth.”
“Before we get to that…”
“What?”
“Why are you still undressing?”
Sakuta glanced at himself in the mirror. He was only wearing boxers. No, wait, he also had socks on.
“Like I said, I always change as soon as I get home.”
“Then put some clothes on!”
He opened his closet to do just that. As he did, he kept talking. “Where was I?”
“You skipped school to stay with her. What happened?”
“The moment she opened the app on her phone, a new wound sprouted up. Her thigh just…split open. Blood came out…and every post she saw caused more injuries or bruises.”
Almost as if the pain in her heart was carving itself into her flesh.
“……”
Mai seemed unsure how to respond to this.
“Anyway, that’s why I believe Adolescence Syndrome exists.”
“…It’s not an easy story to believe, but I can’t see why you’d make it up. Or fake this photo.”
Mai handed the picture back. Sakuta returned it to his desk drawer and locked it.
“Was that also when you got the cuts on your chest?”
He nodded.
“Those clearly aren’t from anything human.”
“Still, I have no idea how I got them. I just woke up covered in blood and was rushed to the hospital. Seriously thought I was gonna die.”
“Is that the truth behind the so-called hospitalization incident?”
“Yeah. I’m the one who was hospitalized.”
“That’s the complete opposite! You really can’t trust rumors.”
Mai sighed and sat back down.
As she did, the door opened, and a calico cat slipped in, meowing.
Behind it…
“Oh, you’re home?”
A face in panda pajamas popped out from behind the door.
“Er…,” she said, flummoxed.
Sakuta was standing there in his boxers. An older girl was sitting alone on his bed.
“……”
“……”
“……”
None of them spoke. Three sets of eyes swiveled. Only the cat, Nasuno, was happily rubbing against Sakuta’s legs.
Kaede was the first to break the spell.
“S-sorry!” she yelped, fleeing into the hall. But then she peeped back through the crack of the door, her eyes bouncing back and forth between the two of them several times. Finally, she beckoned to her brother.
“What?” he asked, picking Nasuno up and moving closer. When he reached the doorway, Kaede stretched to put both hands around her mouth and whispered in his ear.
“If you’re going to hire a professional, warn me ahead of time!”
“That’s one hell of an assumption, Kaede.”
“I don’t see what can explain this besides a burning need to indulge your uniform fetish!”
“Where did you even pick up these things?”
“I read a novel last month about a lady in that line of work! She’s a wonderful person who leads sad men to heaven!”
“Well, everyone sees things differently, but I think most people would assume I brought a girlfriend home.”
This seemed like a much more natural conclusion to Sakuta.
“I don’t even want to consider that nightmare scenario.”
“Nightmare, is it?”
“The ultimate nightmare. Like the destruction of the earth itself.”
“Well, I consider the end of the world a fair price to pay for a girlfriend.”
“Are you done yet?” Mai called.
He turned back to the room. Kaede pressed herself up against his back, hands on his right shoulder, hiding herself behind him while peering suspiciously at Mai. Kaede was fairly tall, though, so she wasn’t all that well hidden. Mai could probably spot quite a bit of her.
“This lady didn’t make you buy a vase, did she?”
“No.”
“Did you promise to go check out a painting?”
“Nope.”
“English conversation textbooks…?”
“She isn’t trying to sell anything. Don’t worry. This isn’t some dating scam. She’s a year ahead of me at school.”
“I’m Mai Sakurajima. Nice to meet you.”
When Mai spoke to her, Kaede hid herself in Sakuta’s shadow like a small animal fleeing a carnivore. Her lips were close enough to his back that he could feel her breath as she spoke, even if the voice was too small to make out the words properly.
“Uh,” she said, “nice to meet you. I’m Kaede Azusagawa.’”
“Ah.”
“And the cat here is Nasuno.”
He held the cat up so Mai could see. Nasuno meowed again, stretching herself.
“Thanks for telling me that,” Mai said.
Kaede poked her face out for a second, but then she snatched Nasuno from Sakuta’s arms and dashed out of the room. The door slammed behind her.
She talked a lot when it was just her and Sakuta, but if anyone else was around, Kaede always acted like this. When Yuuma had come over, the two of them had only managed to converse when Sakuta stood between them.
“Sorry, she’s painfully shy.”
“Don’t worry; I’m not upset about it. Tell her that for me later, would you? And I’m glad her injuries have healed up.”
Strangely enough, none of her injures had left any scars. Sakuta was really happy about that. She was a girl, after all. At the same time, it made him wonder why his own scars h
ad persisted. It remained a mystery, but…not one to think about now. He focused on Mai.
Mai had put her hands behind her and was leaning back, crossing her legs.
“I’m surprised she doesn’t know who I am.”
“Well…she doesn’t watch much TV.”
“Hmm.”
He wasn’t sure if Mai had found that explanation convincing.
“Back on topic… Mai, when you left, you said something about wanting to visit a world where no one knew you. How serious are you?”
“One hundred percent serious.”
“Really?”
“…Sometimes. Other times, I worry I’ll never get cream buns again.”
Mai took the cream bun out of her bag and took a bite.
“I’m asking because it’s important.”
“……”
Mai kept chewing.
He waited a good ten seconds before she swallowed.
“I meant what I said,” she explained. “How I feel changes moment to moment.”
“Yeah, but…”
“Then let me ask. Why do you want to know?”
Sakuta’s eyes turned toward the door. He was checking for Kaede, even though she was long since gone.
“In Kaede’s case, distancing her from online stuff seems to have resolved the issue.”
She no longer checked social media. No longer read forum posts. No longer joined in class group chats. They’d canceled the contract on Kaede’s phone, and Sakuta had thrown it in the ocean. They didn’t even have a computer in the house.
“Seems to?”
“The doctor who examined her said, ‘You think your stomach will hurt, so it does’ and that something along those lines was probably happening. That said, there was no convincing the doctor that the physical injuries weren’t self-inflicted.”
Ultimately, he had taken the doctor’s assessment with a grain of salt. But parts of it seemed eerily accurate. Having her friends turn on her had obviously been rough for Kaede. With her heart in tatters, the pain she felt began presenting itself on her body as actual injuries. Watching it happen from up close, that seemed like the only possible explanation to Sakuta. The idea that the state of the mind influenced the condition of the body also just seemed to make sense to him. If someone was dreading something, their body wouldn’t stay in tip-top shape. Just the sight of a hated food is enough to elicit nausea. People who hate swim class might find themselves running a fever when pool time was approaching. Pretty much everyone experienced something along those lines.
Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai, Volume 1 Page 4