by Yoru Sumino
The moonlight-tempered darkness returned to the rooftop, and there in the midst of it sat two notebooks burned to a crisp.
The two of us looked at each other.
“Whoa! Wow! That’s a…mazing!”
Yano-san stared fixedly at me as she walked from the edge of the rooftop back to where I stood. Inadvertently, I stared right back with all eight of my eyes.
“No way,” I said.
I had hoped, at least a little bit, that I might be able to do something like that, but I never believed that I actually could.
I totally was a kaiju.
If I wasn’t careful with this fire-breathing, I could set the whole town ablaze, just like a real kaiju.
I could still feel the flame kindling within my body. Excitement burned with its own fire deep inside my heart.
“That’s so…cool, Acchi-kun. How’d you…do it?”
How had I done it?
“I just, like, imagined how I thought it would feel, and then I did it,” I tried to explain as Yano-san timidly approached. She stared at me with the wide-eyed look of someone facing down a monster.
“With the power of…imagination, any…thing is…possible,” she said.
“Power of imagination?”
Was there really such a thing? A real power, like a wizard or sorcerer’s?
Yano-san gave the burnt notebooks a powerful kick, and they scattered into black flecks. Apparently, I had burned them completely to ash.
After scattering the ashes to her satisfaction, Yano-san took a step back and once again stared at me. I wondered if she might be afraid, knowing that I was a genuine fire-breathing monster, but that was probably wrong. I realized then that the color in her eyes was a completely different hue from what they’d shown before. It was the color of envy.
She really was a strange girl. Who would want to be a monster? I doubted that I could really do anything I wanted, like she’d implied, anyway. But then…what if I could…?
As I pictured it, a whisper of fear ran through me.
But just what was I so afraid of…?
“…Say… Acchi…kun.”
I was afraid that she might come to say something like, If you can do anything, then rescue me.
So I interrupted her. “That reminds me, Yano-san.” It was time to finally finish the business that had brought me here in the first place. “Do you know about what happened with the baseball club?”
“Hm? What…happened?”
“Seems like someone smashed their clubroom window.”
“Right, some…one was saying…that.”
“Yeah, so…”
I had only spoken two words when Yano-san suddenly began to cackle. She kicked at the ashes again, her feet loudly thumping on the ground. Just when I was starting to wonder if she’d finally lost it, she pointed at me.
“And you thought…I was…the culprit.”
Though she was in fact right on the mark, I was startled that she could guess it.
“Uh, well, yeah. I thought, maybe.”
“I’d never…do something like…that.”
For the first time that night, she showed me that smug grin.
“If I got…revenge for my…self, I would be…just like…them.”
Just like them—by which she meant she would be just the same as Motoda. Which further meant that, as far as Yano-san was concerned, that was a bad thing.
“If not for yourself, then what about for the frog?”
“I…wouldn’t. I have no…idea what that…little one would have…wanted. I wouldn’t… do something so…stupid.”
I was lost for words. For so many reasons, but mostly because I was stunned that Yano-san would ever think that carefully about her own actions. If that were the case, why didn’t she always exercise a bit more self-awareness, I wondered. And as I wondered, I realized that the insults written on those notebooks might be a little bit off the mark.
Not that I had the slightest intention of validating Yano-san, of course.
“Ah, seems like…you still…doubt me.”
“I mean, uh, not really.”
“Well then.”
Yano-san grinned again, not smugly, but as though she were plotting something.
“Let’s…catch the true…cul…prit.”
“Hm?”
The true culprit? That was the first time I’d ever heard a phrase like that outside of a detective manga.
“Acchi…kun, are…you a…Detective Conan fan or a…Kindaichi…fan?”
“I prefer Neuro. Anyway, it’s not like I doubt you. There’s no point in searching for the true culprit just to prove me wrong.”
“I like…Yako-chan.”
“Oh, cool.”
So she was a Jump reader. I found myself getting more and more surprised every time I found out this strange girl shared something in common with me.
“Why don’t you…want to look?”
“I mean, it was obviously just a random idiot throwing a rock or something.”
“Oh, I see, so…the broken window was…on the road…side.”
Once she said that, I realized what it was that I had just assumed, not even thinking. The broken window was on the field side. That I needed Yano-san to point that out, even though I had been the one to see the broken window, was embarrassing.
“Anyway, let’s…go and see the…scene of the…crime.”
I didn’t see any reason for Yano-san to be so enthusiastic, but when I heaved a heavy, obvious sigh, she merely replied, “It’s im…portant to breathe…deeply.” Oh, forget it.
“Won’t you get caught if you go out on the field?”
“It’s mid…night break, so it’s…fine. I’ll stick along the…wall, which should block views from…the outside, too. Acchi…kun, you can…hide yourself in the…shadows.”
“Wait, I’m coming, too?”
“Oh yeah, I…hear it’s gonna… rain to…morrow.”
As usual, she wasn’t listening to a word I said.
If she was going to ignore me, then I really should have just ignored her, too. I got the feeling that someone somewhere was condemning me as a softie.
If it rained tomorrow, that meant that Yano-san might not make her nighttime visit to school. I prepared a Shadow and then headed down the stairs back off the roof. Today would be the last day. I could do her at least this much of a favor for now.
Along the way I became aware of the sound of Yano-san’s indoor shoes tapping on the floor. I warned her about it, and she smiled dimly. She removed the shoes, stuck them on her hands, and then proceeded to clap them together, which meant I had to warn her again. Was she a little kid?
As I considered where the safest exit from the building might be, a question occurred to me. “How do you usually get into the building?”
“I come…through the front…entrance from the…main gate.”
“I don’t mean during school hours.”
Seemingly uninterested in my clarification, Yano-san walked right on ahead of me. I quickly sent the Shadow down first to make sure that no one was around. Thankfully, we were able to make it to the first floor without running into any guards. The guard room was located in another structure that adjoined to the main hallway. Next to the front door that the teachers used as an entrance was the guest reception area. Now that I thought about it, the student entrance didn’t face out onto any conspicuous places like the fields or the courtyard, so that might be fine.
As I pondered, we arrived at the entrance. Of course, though I was perfectly fine barefoot, Yano-san would need to switch from her indoor shoes to her sneakers.
I waited nervously as she rummaged boldly and noisily through the shoe box. She switched her shoes on the spot and proceeded straight for the closed door. Wouldn’t the door be locked? I wondered, but neither Yano-san nor the door itself cared about my concerns.
By which I mean, the door was open.
Why?
“Let’s…go.”
“Why was that
unlocked?” I asked.
“Be…cause it was un…locked when I…got here.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
Ignoring my retort, that idiot plodded out towards the field. When I pointed out that no matter how far we were from the guard room, there was still a chance that they might spot us out on patrol, Yano-san only replied, “Keep it…down.” She crouched low and stuck close to the side of the building. I wondered whether I shouldn’t just stop her mouth up with black specks but stopped myself before I could try. It would turn into a pretty dreadful ordeal if I accidentally suffocated her, and since I hadn’t yet made physical contact with any human in my monstrous form, I had no idea what might happen. I couldn’t even begin to think about how I’d cope if the black droplets swallowed her up the same way they did me.
We crept low along the building walls, passing behind the gym until we approached the cluster of clubrooms. Poised between the trees that grew up against the fence, we ascertained the location of the broken window. Obviously, it hadn’t magicked itself back to normal; the carboard sheet was still fixed in place.
“It’s hard to…see it from…here.”
“Even if we got closer, it’s not like we could fix it or anything. Let’s go back.”
“A perpe…trator always re…turns to the scene of…the crime.”
“Even if they did come back, I don’t think they’d come back right now.”
“You like Harry…Potter, right?” She leaned back against the fence, clearly confident in her words. I resisted the urge to rip my own hair out (so to speak) and sat down on the ground, resigned.
“We’ve got them at home, anyway. My parents bought them because they were popular.”
“Oh…so you’re more…of a DVD type than…a movie theater type?”
“…I prefer the books.”
Even though that was true, and even though there was no reason anyone ought to be embarrassed by it, for some reason, I still hesitated to admit it. I’d never anticipated anyone in class asking me what kind of books I read, so I hadn’t taken the time to prepare a sufficiently appropriate answer.
Yano-san looked shocked. “Wow!”
That girl was way too loud. “Come on, quiet down…”
“I can’t…believe you’ve read…books that big. Are you…a big reader, then?”
“I mean, maybe a little. Not that much.”
Of course I had read all of Harry Potter. The books weren’t hard reads, and they were fun, too. Knowing how worked up she got when it came to talking about her interests, though, I didn’t elaborate.
“I can’t imagine being…interested in…books.”
Just as I was thinking that the girl in front of me did not seem like much of a reader, she confessed to it herself. Wait, confessed was probably a little too in line with Yano-san’s detective game. It was more like an admission. One that she had made of her own free will.
“I wonder if I should…watch the movies. Books are…all full of letters, and my eyes…get tired. And they…take so long. I…know that there are…people who can get…through a book just like…that, but manga are way…quicker to read. And more…fun.”
“There are novels that are fun, too.”
Crap, I thought. I hadn’t meant to get into a debate with her, but she just shook her head, saying, “I…doubt that.”
I was shocked at myself. For the first time in these last three nights, I was glad that she was the only one here. The late hour, being a monster…it must have all been getting to me. Here, now, I had asserted my own interests. During the day, I never would have made that stand. I just would have gone with the flow.
“I feel…like you…would just get…stupider…if all…you read…is letters.”
Yano-san’s words floated out into the air as though they were a song.
I couldn’t help but feel those words were directed towards a specific one of our classmates. Come to think of it, Yano-san’s midnight breaks or whatever, all this sneaking into the school, it was directly related to that one girl who did nothing but read books.
Midorikawa Futaba.
What did Yano-san think of her ever since that incident? I can’t say that I wasn’t curious to know, but I had no interest in sticking my nose into problems that I couldn’t solve, so I didn’t ask.
We remained there until the alarm rang on Yano-san’s phone, but the true culprit never showed. I told her that I would search for them later, so she could shut off the alarm, but she let it ring all the way through.
“If you get caught, I know nothing about this, seriously.”
“You’re so per…sistent. There are…guards here, so…it’s fine.”
But that wasn’t fine. Also, I had no idea if there were any teachers who ever came in after dark, but if any of them caught her, the consequences would be far more dire than just being caught by a guard. I had kept silent about the possibility at first, since I knew that no matter how much I warned her, she wouldn’t listen…but if she wanted me to come with her, then…
“Worry…wart. You’re such a…worrywart.”
I was annoyed at the teasing. And so, as I faced the entrance, sticking to the wall, I decided to finally lodge one complaint that I had been putting aside.
“Yano-san, why are you always so thoughtless? Why’d you go and yank that eraser from Iguchi-san like that, after she picked it up for you so nicely?”
“Don’t talk about…the daytime,” she said dismissively, not looking at me. Gazing at her from behind just then, I felt the droplets of my body grow restless, like hackles standing on end.
Any longer and that restless motion would have become something unspeakable.
“I’m…sure that…”
It was only because Yano-san began to speak that the trembling of my body settled. I was a monster who listened closely to what others had to say.
“…Igu-chan is a…nice girl.”
Really? Was that all she had to say? Obviously, I knew that already.
We shared no more words until we reached the school gates, which for some reason were open like normal.
I gave her the simplest word of parting and left the school behind. As I leapt up into the sky and headed for the sea, I saw Yano-san below me, climbing atop a bicycle near the gates. I worried a little about whether she would be okay all alone at this time of night, but she was grinning as always, so I let her be.
My anger at her had drifted somewhere far away without me ever noticing.
Friday
Day
YANO’S BULLYING was due in large part to the sense of unity that our class shared.
The next morning, just like Yano had said, it started to rain.
On rainy days, I walked to school with an umbrella. To be honest, I would rather have ridden my bike like usual, but if any teachers spotted me wielding an umbrella while riding I would be chewed out. That’d be a major pain, and no one ever went around wearing ponchos, and I wasn’t about to be the one dweeb using one.
Walking to school took a fair while longer, but since I no longer required sleep, I could wake up early and take my time eating breakfast and get to school without issue. I was much hungrier than usual that morning and ended up eating four slices of toast. I wondered if it had anything to do with last night’s fire breathing.
I arrived at school after a relatively easy commute, my walk scored by the sound of my music player. It was full of popular tunes. On rainy days, some students had their parents drive them to school, and there were others like me who preferred to walk, so more students than usual came skirting in just before the bell. I, on the other hand, arrived much earlier than I predicted, while the entryway was fairly empty. Still outside, I folded up my umbrella and shook off the raindrops before heading in.
Yano stood there, drenched from head to toe.
I hadn’t anticipated this encounter. My expression was probably a bit strained. When I looked at Yano, who was busy wringing out her skirt, she gave me that satisfied grin. “Good mor…
ning.”
Yano offering pointless greetings to her classmates was the norm. Even so, I stood there for just a moment, struck dumb. The gods of fortune must have truly been on my side, given that none of our other classmates were present.
“Some…one took my um…brella.”
Before she could even finish informing me of this tragic circumstance, I returned to my senses. I averted my gaze and successfully carried myself to our class’s shoe boxes. Despite my ignoring her, I caught Yano still grinning in the corner of my eye. Just as I was thinking to myself how truly strange she was, I heard a voice from behind us.
“Good morning, Yano-san. Why don’t you come with me to the nurse’s office? I’ll lend you a towel.”
“Thank…you very…much.”
Classic Noto, always on the ball. I silently thanked her. With her arrival, both my wishes had been granted. Not only did I avoid having to talk to Yano, the girl was going to stop dripping everywhere. Thank the heavens above.
When I arrived at the classroom, sure enough, over half of the seats remained empty. Two cliques had already arrived: Takao’s group of boys, with their loud voices, and Nakagawa’s group of girls, who had been the ones to attack Iguchi yesterday. All of them bubbled with talk of how they had destroyed a classmate’s umbrella. I put my umbrella into the stand and my bag into my locker, pretending not to listen.
I worried that just sitting silently at my desk might be bad for my health, so I turned and discussed a show that had aired the night before with my neighbor, Kudou. It was a garden-variety romantic drama with very few twists. It was popular, and I had been watching since the second episode. Honestly, I still didn’t get what was so great about it, but other people seemed to be moved by it—and I wasn’t opposed to having a close female friend rave about it and show me her full, double-toothed smile.
Kasai arrived after a short while, giving a spectacular greeting that reached every corner of the room. I raised a hand to him as well. Since Takao had already enthusiastically confessed to the divine punishment he had dispensed, I decided to chime in, too. I picked my moment, waiting until Kasai was passing by my seat to take his bag to his locker.