Toradora! Vol. 2

by Yuyuko Takemiya

  ***

  Taiga’s chance to dispel the nickname “gluttony girl” (though no one was calling her that) came after school, immediately after the last bow.

  “Heyyy, everyone, sorry! Please listen up for a second!”

  Kitamura’s voice echoed around the busy classroom. Those who were beginning their preparations to go home raised their heads.

  “Sooo, I think you are all aware that today the student council is holding the traditional monthly volunteer town cleanup! But this time around, the main force of third years are having their mock exams at school tomorrow, so we have very few participants! I would like to extend an invitation to everyone and also encourage you to please participate!”

  …Let’s go, let’s go home. The students continued to prepare to leave, pretending not to hear as they left in small groups. Naturally, Ryuuji was among them. He didn’t dislike cleaning, but this was different. No matter how much effort he put in, the town could never be perfectly clean. He already knew well enough that it would just leave him full of frustration.

  This monthly volunteer town cleanup was in actuality intended for those third years with questionable student records—as a route to salvation. If suspect third years participated, they had a special menu of options available when they sought letters of recommendation, from “enthusiastically participated in volunteer activities” to “participated in leadership,” or in some cases, “their effort was remarkable.” And so, other than the student council members, most of the participants were normally third years, along with a few rotating members of the sports clubs whose participation was compulsory. The event was irrelevant to first and second years who weren’t in a sports club. No matter how many times Kitamura called for participants, there was no way anyone would bother to raise their hand to join—

  “Oh, Takasu! So you’ll come!”

  “…Huh?!”

  A strange phenomenon had occurred.

  Compelled by some sort of force, Ryuuji’s right hand was being raised up high.

  “Great, I’ll be waiting. Change into your tracksuit and wait in front of the school gates! This’ll sure help me save face with the president… I would have lost a lot of cred if I’d brought no one at all! Right, I already added you to the list of names, so don’t think you can back out now.”

  In high spirits, pen in one hand, Kitamura sauntered out of the classroom with a spring in his step.

  “Wa-wa-wait…hey!”

  The one who was gripping Ryuuji’s right hand and holding it up was Taiga, who at some point had snuck up to his side. “Hmph!” She stomped. She’d grabbed his elbow, and put his hand high, high up.

  “Hey, hands off! Do you realize what you just did?! If I don’t go participate, it’ll be officially counted as negligence, and I’ll get docked points on my extracurricular participation score!”

  Taiga let him have his elbow back. Then, in front of Ryuuji’s glaring eyes, she started chewing on her fingernails. “I’ll take responsibility for it. I’ll go along with you.”

  “Huh? …Wha?!”

  Basically, the point was she wanted to participate, so she had taken Ryuuji along for the ride. Embarrassed, Taiga’s cheeks flushed a cherry blossom pink. Playing with the ribbon of her uniform with her fingertips, she muttered softly, “I don’t want him to think I’m just a glutton… I want him to think that I ate a lot to get energy so I could participate in the town cleanup…”

  “…You just want to spend some time with Kitamura, don’t you?”

  “…That’s another way of looking at it…”

  “Then you didn’t have to bring me into it!”

  “But I’m embarrassed! Just use your imagination, you dimwit!”

  It happened at the moment he was trying to build up the intestinal fortitude to respond to that horrible remark of hers. He felt a slight prod at the back of his jacket, and when he turned around…

  “Takasu-kun, you’re going, too! I’m so glad!”

  Minori was standing there. She had her bag and tracksuit in hand.

  “This time, it’s the girls’ softball club’s turn for compulsory participation. They made me go because I’m president, even though I thought it was such a paaaiiin. We’re all in the same boat!”

  On this day, too, her healthy smile illuminated Ryuuji’s heart all at once with bright sunlight. At the blinding rise in his body temperature, Ryuuji was pretty much entranced. “I-Is that so…?”

  “That’s right. But I never could have guessed you would go and volunteer on your own. Yeah, you’re such a good kid! You’ve moved me!”

  Whooaaa, she praised me…!

  He desperately tried to hide his cheeks in his hands. They felt like they were about to turn bright red. Ryuuji’s eyes were seething, looking murderous. He was embarrassed.

  “Minorin, I decided I might as well go, too. Along with Ryuuji.”

  “Oh, really?! Well then, let’s go change together! I’ll wait in the hall.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be there soon.”

  The two of them stood side by side as they watched Minori’s back. Hu-humm, she hummed as she left the classroom.

  “…Well, don’t you have something to say?”

  “…Th-thank you…!”

  So long as you know, Taiga nodded, as though accepting his reaction. “If I’d known Minorin was going, then I wouldn’t have needed to invite you.”

  “…I don’t remember being invited, but I do remember you forcing me to raise my hand.”

  No matter what they said, the two were in high spirits as they each took their tracksuits and bags and left the classroom. Ryuuji headed to the boys’ locker room, and Taiga and Minori headed to the girls’ locker room.

  But no sooner had they started walking than a brilliantly sweet voice stopped the three of them in their tracks. “Wait!”

  Ryuuji turned around. For a moment, he felt like he needed to adjust the glasses he wasn’t wearing. Taiga must have felt the same. She turned, fierce eyes wide open.

  “…What?” she growled in a low voice.

  “I’m glad I caught you! I decided to go, too! I just transferred, so I want to hurry up and learn about all the school activities!” Kawashima Ami grinned with the smile of an angel. She was unmoved by Taiga’s glare.

  “Uhh…did Kitamura tell you to come? Trust me, you’ll be happier if you stay behind—and it’s not exactly something you’d really call a school activity.” In spite of himself, Ryuuji tried to give her real advice, but Ami cutely shook her head, voicing her opposition.

  “Yuusaku didn’t tell me anything. I decided to participate myself. And if I don’t exercise, I’ll get fat, right? Minori-chan?”

  “Ohh, I see. This is part of your diet, got it.” Minori wasn’t even surprised. She just nodded in acceptance.

  Taiga watched from the side of her eye, and wrinkled her forehead, unamused.

  “Right, shall we go?” Ami reached out her slim arm as though about to tuck it into Ryuuji’s—or, at least, so he thought. Right before Ami reached him, Taiga intervened.

  “Gwah—”

  “The girls’ locker room is over here, newbie.”

  As though she were a gang leader, the gloomy-eyed Taiga firmly grabbed the nape of Ami’s neck with her right hand. Then she and Minori just pulled Ami along, on the verge of choking, towards the girls’ locker room.

  “I-I can walk by myself, Aisaka-san.”

  “It’s fine, it’s fine, I’ll lead you over, Kawashima-san.”

  Unwittingly standing still while watching this devious exchange, Ryuuji suddenly came back to himself. Isn’t the boys’ locker room in the same direction? Recomposing himself, he started walking…and clutched at his strangely clamorous heart.

  Well, shall we go? Ami’s expression as she tilted her head and looked up at him was strangely sweet, brilliant, and pure… really, it was so cute it could kill him. Regardless of her true nature.

  She was a model, so of course she was cute, but there was no shakin
g the fact that he’d seen something he liked. It made him a little happy. He couldn’t shake that straightforward feeling—only natural, for a boy.

  ***

  “ALL RIGHT, you pansies! You’ve prepared yourselves, RIGHT? You know perfectly well that I won’t accept a single one of you slacking off! We’re going out with our heads held HIGH!”

  The drill sergeant was under the thick cover of silvery overcast clouds. Through the megaphone came a rapid, extremely macho voice. It reverberated throughout the grounds. Then, beside the speaker, another figure emerged.

  “Today, as always, you’ve given us words that cut right to our hearts. Give it up for our amazing president!”

  Yeah, all right! The vice president of the student council, Kitamura, put his hands together in applause.

  After school, twenty or so students had gathered in front of the gates. All wore the same uneasy expression. They were looking up at the boss of the cleanup, who stood a level above them… in short, they looked up at their student council president. The happy students trickling through on their way home watched the scene in amusement as they passed by.

  “…Wh-what is this…?” Seeing it for the first time, Ami was truly shaken.

  “…That’s our student council president. None of the opposing candidates got any votes—let’s just say it’s because of their aura of royal authority.”

  “O-ohh…then this is definitely that person…”

  “Come again?”

  “Yuusaku told me something a while ago. That there was an amazing upperclassman and they decided to join the student council or something like that…”

  “Have you donned your work gloves?! Have you seized your trash bags?! Have you surveyed the terrain we march to clean?!”

  Yeah, came their dolorous reply.

  “You DUMBASSES!” The student body president stood with a wide stance, head thrown back, white throat exposed. The voice from the megaphone grew louder.

  “Do not underestimate these streets! With that attitude, you’ll end up getting thrown off the boat, you IDIOTS! When you answer, you need to give it your all!”

  “YEEAHHHHHH!”

  “Okay, SHUT YOUR TRAPS! So with that, let’s start this month’s traditional town cleanup. Take care not to hurt yourself. If you’re caught eating something you bought on the job, there will be proper punishment! …Though really, that just means don’t get caught.”

  The president’s lips contorted into a grin. The student body president—the third year Kanou Sumire—flipped her sleek black hair with a cynical smile.

  Though she was clothed in a tracksuit, gloves, and long plastic boots, she still cut a handsome figure. With her white skin and tapering eyes, her hair that spilled in a black, silky bundle, and lips that were naturally scarlet without lipstick…on the outside, she was a graceful Yamato Nadeshiko in the flesh—the Japanese ideal of a perfect woman.

  But what lay within was different.

  “All right, then. We’re going, you maggots! Your goal is one full bag per person! Because we have fewer participants than usual, you should be able to easily fulfill your quotas. Well, even though we’re calling them quotas, they’re actually not really that rigid. Anyway, just don’t show anyone outside the school that you’re undisciplined. Show the world your volunteer spirit!”

  Sumire was masculine to her core. Her leadership was unrivaled; she was like a female general—no, to be perfectly honest—like a baron or patriarch.

  “…She’s, like…super pretty, but…kind of…coarse, right…?” Ami spoke in a low voice, beside Ryuuji. She hadn’t failed to notice the glaring rift between the boss’s appearance and personality. She couldn’t bring herself to look away.

  Everyone was like that at first. Ryuuji nodded in understanding. “Yeah, but even though she looks like that, she’s had the top grades in the school since she enrolled. Supposedly, to the student council, she’s like a living legend—she turned around their financial situation in just one term.”

  “You sure know a lot about her, Takasu-kun.”

  “I’m just repeating what Kitamura told me.”

  Kitamura was strangely cheerful as he clapped at each word from the beautiful patriarch on the platform. Maybe he was trying to rouse everyone’s spirits.

  “…So she’s the senior he’s proud of, huh…?”

  Ryuuji had the impression Kitamura would be a strong leader, but for some reason he was equally faithful in his duties as a grunt.

  But how must that have looked to Taiga? She was a little further off, next to Minori, but Taiga looked completely taciturn and unhappy. He couldn’t tell if it was unconscious or on purpose, but she was shuffling restlessly, writing the word “die” on the ground with the tip of her toe.

  “Well, you have one hour, starting now! Be absolutely sure you’re not late for the rendezvous time! I won’t release any of you until everyone is here!”

  As a follow-up to Sumire’s voice shouting through the megaphone, the student council members each blew a sharp whistle. The twenty gathered students filtered through the school gates into the outside world, sent out in search of trash.

  There happened to be one person blended in with the group who was seeking to cultivate a friendship with the vice president.

  “The cleanup’s scope is pretty broad… oh, I just got something right off the bat.” As he left the school gate, Ryuuji found an old magazine by the school wall and bent down to grab it with his gloved hand.

  “NO!”

  He was grabbed by the elastic of his tracksuit and pulled back. Whoever did it kept on pulling him, right at the waistband. He turned around at that mild attack, tracksuit riding up, and found Minori behind him with a stern expression. She waved her index finger back and forth as though to scold him, clicking her tongue.

  “Nuh-uh, Takasu-kun. Anywhere around the school is the third years’ turf. We underclassmen have to go out of the way on expeditions, that’s tradition.”

  “I-It is?”

  “Yeah! Here, look!”

  Minori pointed to a subdued girl who seemed to be a third year. “This is why newbies mean trouble,” the girl muttered, as she chucked the magazine into her bag. It seemed like she was tired from studying from her exams. Haaah… She breathed out a protracted sigh and braced her back like an aching grandmother.

  “I see…”

  “Now, let us wee second years walk a bit more.” Minori smiled.

  Aaah, he felt like it was the first time in a while he had seen her real smile. Minori’s smile was like the sun. It was so bright, so radiant, so honest that Ryuuji couldn’t help but stare at it, enchanted. It was as though he were getting a healthy sunburn on the dimples on his cheeks, on his nose, and on his head. It was splendid. Just then, Ryuuji thought, her brightness is drawing me in.

  And the reason he thought that was because of what was happening behind Minori’s dazzling back.

  “Oh, this trash looks exactly like you, Kawashima-san. It seems you’ve added another trick to your repertoire of impressions.”

  “Oh stop, Aisaka-san, your jokes are too harsh! That’s just so funny! Oh, Aisaka-san, don’t you think this piece of trash looks exactly like you? Especially because of how unfortunately small it is.”

  Two dusky poison ivy blooms enjoyed themselves as they competed to exchange sarcastic barbs. Just watching them was exhausting.

  “…Taiga, stop. We’re going, okay?”

  He tapped Taiga’s butt with his empty trash bag. Not the best way to get them separated, but something was better than nothing.

  “Don’t touch my butt! …Ugh…so irritating…! Tsk.” Taiga bared a high-strung fang at Ryuuji and simply walked forward at a brisk pace. She was actually probably worried about Kitamura and the student body president. Ami, being Ami, also turned away from Taiga and crossed her arms.

  Minori seemed to have sensed something as she watched the two of them carrying on. She lowered her voice and whispered to Ryuuji. “Hey, listen. I was…kind o
f thinking about this at lunch, too, but do you feel like there’s some kind of bad blood between Taiga and Kawashima-san? Or is it just me?”

  Why now? he thought, but he couldn’t leave Minori’s question unanswered. “Yeah, it seems like they don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. They just don’t seem to get along.”

  “I see! …So that’s how it is. Gotcha.”

  Before long, the two of them started slowly walking side by side—Ryuuji was so nervous he was shaking. Right now, I’m walking with Minori. We’re slowly passing under the fresh leaves—strolling down a grove just like on a date. If you ignore the mob of tracksuits in front of and behind us, it’s exactly like a scene from a date. I never thought the day when this would be a reality would come…

  “So, about Taiga and Kawashima-san… Somehow, it seems like Kawashima-san is completely different from the girl I initially thought she was. I don’t mean that in a bad way, exactly. I want Taiga to get along with everyone, but that girl seems difficult in some ways, too… the two of them paired together just might not work. Things get kind of complicated between us girls.” Minori nodded, expression slightly troubled.

  Ryuuji also nodded back in the same way. Somehow, he had a hunch that some strange solidarity had been born between him and Minori. If his hunch were real, it would be his first direct “relationship” to her without Taiga or Kitamura acting as intermediaries.

  If that was the case, he needed to nurture it into something bigger—Ryuuji suddenly sharpened his eyes, and in a rare move for him, went a bit on the offensive. “I-I don’t worry about Taiga too much, since because you’re here, K-Kushieda.” His voice splintered a little, but there, he at least spoke normally.

  Minori laughed and looked up at Ryuuji. “That’s what I should be saying. I think that as long as you’re here, Takasu-kun, Taiga will be okay.”

  As usual, he’d been misunderstood, although…that meant that on the list of people Minori valued, Ryuuji was pretty high up. You might even say he was favored. They smiled at each other, and their eyes locked. Again, another step. He took just one more weighted step. This time he would say it—if he was a man, he had to say it. His bloodshot eyes seethed with naked emotion, and he cleared his tightened throat.