Toradora! Vol. 2

by Yuyuko Takemiya

  Table of Contents

  The Girls of Toradora!

  Credits and Copyright

  Title Page

  Table of Contents Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Side Story

  Afterword

  Chapter 1

  It was the last day of Japan’s mega-long holiday: Golden Week.

  “You’re free, right?”

  The time was one o’clock in the afternoon.

  “Hey, you’re not doing anything, right?”

  The Takasu residence was dim, as if the fair weather outside were a lie. South of the wide-open window, the neighboring condominium’s fence looked nearly close enough to touch. The bright natural light of the early summer sun couldn’t even hope to get past it.

  Nonetheless, the inside of the room was methodically well kept. The entire place had been thoroughly cleaned, and though it was small, a bit of clever planning miraculously kept the place habitable. That marvelous comfort and livability were the fruits of Ryuuji’s housekeeping skills. The only son of the household had his back to the living room while he cleaned the kitchen after lunch.

  “Are you listening?”

  No one answered his question, much less thanked him for his work.

  Ryuuji stopped doing the dishes for a moment and shot an overly-sharp glare back at the muslin-colored lump sprawled on the floor. That lump lay in a messy heap beside the low dining table, her chin propped up on a folded cushion. She stuck her finger through the bars of the birdcage next to her, staring, spaced out.

  A yellow parakeet—Inko-chan—grunted as it gnawed on the tip of the intruding finger. She seemed to be savoring the experience. Inko-chan’s ugliness was her most charming attribute. Her mulberry-colored beak opened earnestly wide, and her little tongue, licking at the intruding finger, was the same color as a cow’s…if the cow’s had gone rotten, maybe. Her eyes also happened to be wide open, the whites so prominent that she looked just about ready to keel over. Her eyelids spasmed with a dangerous, bird-like delight that humans could never fathom. If this went on, Ryuuji was going to have trouble looking at it, and he owned the bird.

  “…Taiga. Make Inko-chan stop doing that. She’s acting strange.”

  “…Huh? Oh, you’re right.”

  Finally turning around, the muslin-colored lump—Aisaka Taiga—returned to her senses and pulled her finger from the birdcage. Or she tried to, anyway.

  “Huh? I’m stuck.”

  …You klutz. Ryuuji could only sigh as he saw her tilt her head.

  “What do you think you’re doing just standing around and sighing? I think I might really be stuck!”

  She got up and sat her petite body straight down on the tatami mat. Growling in displeasure, Taiga held the birdcage with one hand and made an earnest attempt to pull her finger out from between the bars. Not about to let go, Inko-chan redoubled her efforts and latched onto Taiga’s fingertip even harder.

  “Ah…she’s strong…!”

  Taiga’s swaying, waist-length hair was softly tangled, the color of chestnut touched by smoke. Her delicate body was enveloped in a fluffy dress piled with lace. Paired with her figure, Ryuuji thought the unbleached overskirt left her with an elegantly volumized and cute—

  “Hey, Ryuuji. What are you just standing there staring for? Your bird is misbehaving, so hurry up and do something about it, you…you…Y.S.D.!”

  “Why Ess Dee?”

  “‘You Stupid Dog.’ I was trying to soften it for you. Aren’t you grateful?”

  Well, that came out of nowhere. He lost all will to retort.

  If it weren’t for the sharp tongue, Taiga would have been like a living French doll. Her eyes were like sparkling jewels, her pale lips like rosebuds; her sweet, refined features were as dangerous as a trap drenched in condensed milk. But she had one problem.

  “UGH! I’m so over this. Hmph.”

  Creak. The birdcage started to warp.

  Unfortunately, Aisaka was born under the star of the ferocious and brutally violent tiger. Her nickname was the “Palmtop Tiger.” Even if she was practically small enough to hold in one hand, her ferocity could only be compared to that very particular feline.

  That said, the power of the look Ryuuji was giving her couldn’t be beat, either.

  From his still-growing height, his overly-sharp gaze peeked from between the gaps in his long bangs. Those incredible, hardened eyes glinted dangerously. Even though he wasn’t physically stronger than most people, the aura emanating from his body was dangerous, like the darkness overflowing from the soul of a youth about to snap.

  But…

  “Hey, hey, hey, don’t break it! No! Gently!”

  …In Ryuuji’s case, the only dangerous thing about him was his appearance. In order to protect his pet’s home from the tiger, he kneeled next to Taiga, wiping his wet hands. He tried pulling on the birdcage to take it away, but…

  “Owowowowowow!”

  “Oh, sorry!”

  He leaped back at Taiga’s shriek and left her finger stuck in the cage. Maybe it was surprise at that cry, or a result of being provoked, but—WHOP!—Inko-chan sharply stabbed at the small gap between Taiga’s flesh and fingernail.

  “Oooooow!”

  Taiga shrieked even harder…and her finger popped right out of the cage’s gap. Maybe all that pain was good for something.

  Taiga held her finger in speechless agony atop the tatami for several seconds.

  “…That hurt… why you…!” She raised her head and turned her eyes—glistening from faint tears, a gleam like an assassin’s sharp knives—to Inko-chan.

  The bird surely understood that it had made a terrible, terrible mistake. “…Squaa-wa-wak?” Inko-chan’s whole body trembled as she looked up at Taiga. Several feathers came fluttering down, a consequence of sheer stress.

  Ryuuji quickly held the birdcage to his chest. “Ahh! Inko-chan’s balding! Keep it together, girl; get a hold of yourself! If you get any uglier, I don’t know if we could stand to keep you around. Let’s put you somewhere safe—who knows what she might do to you…?”

  Then Taiga stood up, too. “Are you for real, Ryuuji? It’s not like I’d seriously do something to a parakeet.”

  “Then what’s with the clenched fists?!”

  “They’re to punish you!”

  Cornering Ryuuji against the wall, she curled her small hands into solid fists.

  “What did I do?!”

  “Look at my finger! It hurts!”

  “How’s that my fault?!”

  Taiga circled around and around the room, chasing after Ryuuji, who still held the birdcage.

  “Gyahh!”

  Bam. Taiga face-planted onto the tatami.

  Something white had slid out from the sliding door, which had been left partially ajar.

  “…Why are you poking out here?” Ryuuji still wore a scowl, one that made him look like he might start swinging a knife around at a moment’s notice. He set down the birdcage to investigate.

  It was his mother’s bare leg. Ryuuji wasn’t angry, really—just puzzled.

  With her foot poking out between the sliding doors that partitioned her room, the matriarch Yasuko was in a deep sleep. She kept busy working as an entertainer at the town’s one and only hostess bar, Bishamon Heaven. True to form, she’d come home drunk that morning at six.

  “Oh. Did we wake her up?”

  Still laying right where she’d fallen, the Palmtop Tiger—that human trifecta of stubbornness, wickedness, and self-centeredness—lowered her voice. She told the family breadwinner: “You did good, kid. You deserve a break. Go on back to sleep.”


  “No, no, she’s still asleep.”

  Of course, Ryuuji also lowered his voice, and was pushing the protruding bare leg back into the bedroom. Then…

  “Nn…nnngh…”

  There was a childlike, nasally sound. And…

  “…Waaaaaahh!”

  “Yeah? What? What’s wrong?”

  The body attached to the bare leg suddenly broke into a wail. Wearing her son’s old middle school PE shorts and a thin T-shirt that showed the black lace of her bra, she flailed her arms and legs. She rubbed at her white cheeks with the back of her hands and flopped on top of the futon. Alarmingly, she was thirty-three years old this year, and her pride was her giant, F-cup breasts.

  “I-It smells like omurice! Ryu-chan and Taiga-chan were eating while Ya-chan was sleeping! Waaaahhh!”

  “Come on, it’s not like that. I left a serving for you. It’s all wrapped up in the kitchen. I’ll stick it in the fridge on my way out, so just zap it in the micro whenever you get up.”

  “…Did you write Y-A-S-U-C-O on it in ketchup?”

  “Nope. It would have gotten messed up when I wrapped it, right? And it’s Y-A-S-U-K-O.”

  “Uggghh… Your mother is still very sleepy, so no English lessons, please…”

  Once again, Yasuko flopped onto her pillow. The less-than-perfect single mother immediately started breathing shallowly in her sleep. Even though she couldn’t do chores, she did earn enough money for them to subsist off of. She was a kind and gentle mother, but her head had a few screws loose…and her son Ryuuji spent his days watching out for where she dropped them. Incidentally, according to Yasuko, when she was in her third year of middle school…

  “I was in the lower seventeenth percentile for math. My homeroom teacher didn’t know what to say, so he just stared at me until the sun went down.”

  But for the time being, anyway, the Takasu household hadn’t gone bankrupt. They held up okay. The breadwinner was Yasuko, the one in charge of the household was Ryuuji, the pet was Inko-chan, and lately, they’d had one extra fixture around the house…

  “Oww…I scraped my chin. Ugh, this place is just way too small. Hey, Ryuuji, do you want to have sashimi for dinner tonight? It’s completely unrelated, but after falling down just now, I was thinking I could go for some raw fish.”

  Ryuuji stared at her raw, red chin. “…Is it really completely unrelated…?”

  “What? Am I not allowed to eat sashimi?” Rubbing her chin, she stared at Ryuuji with both big eyes—she was one violent-tempered tiger.

  “The Super Yontoku mart in front of the station has a limited time sale on tuna sashimi starting at five o’clock. I think.”

  “I want to go with you when you buy it, so come get me at four forty-five. I’m going home.”

  “Huh, you’re going home?”

  “You’re complaining?”

  Although Taiga wasn’t living with them, on their days off, they were together during the day. They were together at night. They were together while shopping. They had an unwritten rule that she wouldn’t stay overnight, but it wasn’t uncommon for them to doze off after dinner and keep each other company late into the night. They were pretty much living together, but they weren’t involved, not as a couple, anyway. But as Taiga stood up, Ryuuji dawdled, lingering behind her.

  “Why’re you going home? You never have anything to do. You’re free, right? Can’t you stay over longer?”

  He was pretty much asking her to spend more time with him, even if it was for a short while. Taiga flipped her hair dismissively and turned a cold gaze on him. “You’re the one who doesn’t have anything to do. I have some very important laundry to get done. The weather’s perfect for it.”

  “Your laundry? All you have to do is press a button. Your machine’s a washer-dryer combo, too, so it’s not like you have to line-dry it. So don’t just tell me you’re going home for that.”

  Tsk. Taiga clicked her tongue in frustration. She aimed a deadly stare at the scary-faced guy who had walked around in front of her. “Ugh! Your whining is killing me! Just what are you trying to say? If you want to say something, just spit it out!”

  Ryuuji fidgeted and mumbled, “…W-would you wanna maybe go with me to that one sit-down restaurant…?”

  “Again?!”

  Instantly, Taiga’s face contorted with irritation. But Ryuuji didn’t back down.

  “It’s not like it’s a huge favor or anything. I can’t go alone! And today you practically begged me for omurice, so I made it, and… come to think of it. Do you realize how much trouble you give me all the time over Kitamura? Why don’t you help me out every once in a while, huh? You could at least do that much!”

  “Gawd, you’re so loud! Shut up, or I’ll tear it off!”

  “Tear what off?!”

  As their fruitless shouting contest ground on, a noise echoed from the other side of the sliding door. “Ugh, ugggh, uuugggghhh…!” Yasuko groaned, in the throes of a hangover.

  They were silent for a moment.

  “…I guess I’ll go. If you insist. Ugh.”

  In the end, Taiga was the one who caved.

  “It’s on you, got it? And you’re buying me a magazine. Going through the hassle of talking to you is like…” She made a spitting noise off to one side. “…That.”

  Taiga had an especially eloquent way of expressing her mood.

  But Ryuuji took it without a word of complaint, a masculine “yeah” his only response. If it got her to go with him to the diner, he figured expenses like that were no big deal.

  After all, this was that restaurant.

  ***

  “There you go! One order served up!”

  Thump. A yogurt parfait was planted right before Taiga’s eyes, so large she couldn’t see past it.

  “This is just between you and me, but this one’s a Taiga special with HEAPS of extra vanilla ice cream. Hide it from all the other customers while you eat, ’kay?”

  “Are you sure, Minorin? Won’t you get in trouble with your boss?”

  “Naaahh, it’s fine! You pretty much came in every day this break. We’ve gotta give you at least this much service! Takasu-kun, do you want anything, too? I recommend the matcha parfait or, if sweet’s not your thing, then maybe the french fries. I’ll give you tons—I’ll pile ’em up real good!”

  “Oh, no, I…” It’s okay, it’s okay. Ryuuji waved his hand in front of his face, unable to even look up from his self-serve coffee. Actually, he couldn’t even open his eyes to start with.

  It was just too bright.

  She was too bright—Kushieda Minori in her waitress uniform.

  Her hair was in a seductive ponytail, the slender nape of her neck in full and glorious view. The pale orange dress and white mini-apron were just too cute a uniform. Her chest, which normally didn’t attract much attention, gently lifted the thin fabric. Her cheeks were aglow with her smile, possessing the allure of a still-ripening peach.

  Looking down to hide his face, which was quickly growing hot, Ryuuji desperately evaded the gaze of his unrequited love of nearly one year. He wanted to look, but he wouldn’t look—no—he couldn’t look.

  Such was the ambivalence of a boy in love.

  “Weeell, can you two really say that you’re not dating when you’ve been coming to eat here together nearly every day all break? You’re a regular pair of lovebirds!”

  At that, they both had just one thing to say to Minori, which was…

  “No way.”

  “No way.”

  Even their breath was in sync as Ryuuji and Taiga shook their heads.

  “Is that sooo?”

  “You bet.”

  Taiga narrowed her eyes, as though exasperated. Then she turned an extremely cheerful gaze up at her friend, not a drop of ill will to be found within it. “Minorin, you’ve been here day in and day out working all break long, but you’re not going out with the manager or that old guy in the kitchen, are you? It’s the same for us. How can you ass
ume we’re dating just because we’re here together?”

  “You’re the kind of kid that would jump to that conclusion.”

  “Well, the whole you-guys-are-dating thing is that level of bogus.”

  Takasu and Aisaka’s official statement was currently that they were not dating. Minori was the one who persisted in mixing her groundless suspicions about their relationship into her jokes whenever the chance arose.

  For Ryuuji, who was secretly in love with Minori, that was the cruelest joke of all.

  “Okay, okay, say no more, grandpa.”

  “Who are you calling grandpa?”

  “I’m not with the manager, and not with the shabu-shabu store manager I work for every other evening, or the karaoke manager, or the manager for the convenience store I work at early mornings. In the same way, Taiga, you and Takasu-kun aren’t together. That good enough? Well then, I gotta get back to work.”

  “…Just how many part-time jobs have you got?” Ryuuji let those words slip out without thinking. But hey, it sounded natural, at least. Go me.

  “Hey, even with all of that, I’m restraining myself, y’know! We still have club meetings even during break, right? And as president, I can’t afford a single day off!”

  Ryuuji was left at a loss for words at her reply.

  Taiga replied for him. “He’s saying you’re working way too much. Are you making all this money because there’s something you really want?”

  “I have extra time, so I gotta put it to use. We’re all the stars of our own stories, right? Mine’s the X-tra Work Files!”

  “…Say what?”

  “Or maybe The Employee Strikes Back! Well, I’ll be back, okay?”

  Leaving only those cryptic words behind, Minori dashed off to the kitchen. Who knew she was such a workaholic? Their eyes followed her exit.

  “That’s some work ethic… she isn’t just cute, she’s serious. Completely unlike a certain somebody I know.”

  “…Meaning?”

  “You wake up in the afternoon, come by with your hair and clothes still messed up, get lunch, and then just lay around watching TV, eventually eat dinner, laze around all night, and then just go home. You’re lazy.”