Toradora! Vol. 2
Page 6
Am I her servant now or something? He didn’t even know how to write down what had just happened, and he didn’t want to get caught up in their feud in the first place. Ryuuji made sure Taiga could see exactly what he was doing when he stuffed the scrap into his pocket. He pulled his textbook towards himself. I’m not gonna reply to you, was the point he was trying to make.
But out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw Taiga readying a submarine pitch.
“…Eep!”
By then it was too late.
It was too late, but he was saved.
By coincidence, Ryuuji had been holding his leather pen case as he scratched his head. A still-quivering mechanical pencil was embedded in that pen case like a dart. If not for that, the pencil would have been quivering right in the middle of his temple. The four other students who had the misfortune of sitting between Taiga and Ryuuji were all bending backwards with scared-stiff expressions, looking at the path of the bullet that had grazed the tips of their noses.
“H…how could you do something like…?”
She was trying to kill him. That girl was trying to kill him! But Taiga’s expression was indifferent.
She muttered, “Tsk… so close.” She cracked her knuckles, watching Ryuuji with cold and apathetic eyes.
Glaring at Taiga with the eyes of a rabid dog, he swore firmly to himself that he would never give her a reply. Whether he was dealing with a split personality or simple violence, to Ryuuji it was all the same. They were both about the same amount of trouble.
He could see Taiga mouthing complaints toward him at a glance, but he didn’t feel like humoring her in the least. First of all, if he simply told Taiga what Ami had just said, he could see it fanning the flames of their underhanded competition.
He decided to completely ignore her. Casually, he built a defensive wall at the edge of his desk using his textbook and notebooks. That ought to block any attacks from the troublesome thug.
But something happened several minutes later. When the teacher once again wasn’t looking, a folded note once again dropped onto his desk, this time from the person in front of him. Thinking it was Taiga again, he was just about to throw it away, when…
“…Oh…”
To Takasu-kun
From Minori
When he found those words, the sound of something that wasn’t quite a sigh escaped from his throat. When he looked, over on the opposite side of the room, in a seat adjacent to the hallway, Minori was turned his way. She gave a small wave, as if to say, “Heyyy!”
Still speechless, Ryuuji frantically turned the note in his hands, and then opened it carefully with trembling fingers. Don’t tear it… don’t mess it up… For the first time in his life, he had received a letter from the girl he liked. It was just this small scrap of paper, but it was still the treasure of a lifetime. He thought he would remember this moment of this day forever, even when he was an old man.
But…
“Bad Takasu-kun! Minori is angry with you!”
What’s with this opener…? Ryuuji swallowed bitter spit with a gulp.
“I heard from Taiga, but it seems like you’re doing something suspicious with Transfer-chan?! I told you before on the rooftop, but if you dump Taiga…there will be CONSEQUENCES!