Mahou Shonen Just Say No Chapter Nine

<-----First Chapter

<-Previous Chapter

"You're really going?" Kotomi questioned, frowning as she pulled open a can of beans that she fully intended to straight-up drink, "I mean, isn't this totally not your assignment, or whatever?  Do I need to call Kaiba-chan?"

"No, you don't," Sayaka rolled her eyes as she finished packing things up into a bag, provisions and the like, "Kaiba-nee doesn't ever need to know that I'm doing this.  I'm not breaking any rules, Blade is fine with me doing it, and you should be too, Tanako-chan.  We both know that I'm more capable than any of those idiot men, if they run into any real danger then they're going to need me there."

Kotomi sighed, stretching one arm out above her head as she lifted the can of beans to her lips, but didn't consume any yet, talking over the edge of it, "You can say that, and I guess I appreciate what you're doing for Rukkun and all, but I still think you'd be better off staying here..."

"Since when do you worry about me?" Sayaka questioned, turning to look at Kotomi.  She glared while her benefactor downed the beans.

Once Kotomi had finished chugging the entire can of beans, she answered, "I worry about you since what happened to him, okay?  I look at you, and I see a kid who's in over her head.  The others are adult men, and maybe you are better at combat than them, but they're more prepared to handle the consequences of their decisions, you get me?"

Sayaka scowled, "You're only what, four years older than me?  You graduated the year before I got to high school.  You can't say I'm a kid in over my head when you and Rukkun are hardly adults to begin with."

Kotomi groaned, tossing the now-empty can to the side and adjusting her mask back on now that she was no longer eating, "I can say that, and I am saying that.  Plus, I may be twenty, but I ain't a magica.  Chew on that, yeah?  Don't lump me and Rukkun together when we both know I'm better at making life-altering decisions than he is."

Sayaka Yamaguchi (Summer)

"Oh, shut the fuck up," Sayaka brushed her off and shrugged the backpack onto her shoulders, "You know I don't have any regrets.  I never will.  Yeah, I know what happened to him, and I don't care.  I've endured plenty of pain in my life, if my mark ever got hit, I'd endure that too.  It isn't like I'm about to die.  Nobody has ever died while in the top 30."

Kotomi stood up and reached out, grabbing Sayaka's knapsack from behind, "Maybe so, but you know what has happened to people in the top 30?  Mysterious, unsolvable disappearances.  So forgive me for not exactly having faith in you based on your ranking."

Sayaka spun back around, snapping, "Stop acting like you understand!  You're not a magical girl, and you just live your life free and easy from one job to the next.  You're not in any position of authority over me, and as grateful as I am for it, I never needed your pity!  Let me be."

"...Fine," Kotomi sighed, releasing her grip on the backpack to turn away, looking at the ground with a defeated look, "You're right.  I don't understand, and I never will.  Just be careful, okay?  Please be careful.  Or as careful as you can be.  I don't want to be the one to explain to Kaiba-chan that I let you go get yourself killed, okay?"

Sayaka laughed, shaking her head, "I won't get killed.  You won't have to tell Kaiba-nee anything."

"Have fun storming the castle," Kotomi gave her final, good-natured offer of a goodbye, and Sayaka nodded before she transformed, leaping up onto a nearby building to make her way towards the train station that she and the rest were departing from.  The train trip to Nagasaki prefecture from Tokyo was a long one with a number of transfers, but it was the only option for a group of five magica.  One magica could get through airport security with some extra measures, but a whole group would definitely be denied flight on the same plane.  Too risky.

Sayaka arrived at the train station in good time, and she was the second of their group to arrive.  She landed nearby, transformed back, and walked the rest of the way.  Upon arrival, she spotted Tsukune, who was standing there beside a woman who she recognized, oddly enough.  She wasn't expecting to recognize that woman, but she did, and she approached the pair of them, hands clasped behind her back, "Shirato-san!  I didn't know that you knew Madara-kun."

"Hm?" Kyoko looked down, being a good deal taller than Sayaka, then offered her a smile which seemed quite forced, "Oh, Shinku-chan.  It's a pleasure.  I can't say I expected to see you here!"

Sayaka froze, then tilted her head to the side, "Oh, I don't use that name anymore.  Didn't you hear when I was on the list of survivors?  My real family name is Yamaguchi.  Anyway, Madara-kun and I met a few months ago.  How do you know each other?"

Kyoko shrugged, "After Korekara, I was kind of homeless.  I mean, we all were.  Headmaster Kira didn't give a damn about us survivors after that happened... I decided I needed a roommate, and he was on the streets too, so I decided if I was going to claw my way out of Hell, I may as well be kind enough to bring somebody with me," She laughed a little, "Don't worry, just because he's a homeless guy several years older than me doesn't mean he's doing perverted things to me!"

Sayaka glanced around, then smirked, "Honestly, Shirato-san, I would worry about it the other way around.  Last I checked, Madara-kun is a very nonthreatening adult man.  You, on the other hand, are a very threatening adult woman," She turned to Tsukune, her tone still joking but with a slightly concerned undertone, "Madara-kun, show me on the doll where Boss Idol Kyoko touched you."

"She leaves me alone, Red.  Don't worry," Tsukune crossed his arms over his chest, looking between them, "I can't say that for most people she meets.  A real man-eater, this one, but I'm safe.  Anyway, I hope you don't mind, she wanted to visit another city along our way, I couldn't be bothered to remember which one, so she's getting on the same train as us."

Sayaka adjusted her backpack, "Why would I mind?  It's not like it matters to me.  I don't care about the five of us as a unit at all, it'd be Moron-sensei that you'd really have to run it by.  He's the one who keeps thinking we're a team.  Him and Rukkun, anyway."

"Right," Tsukune mumbled, shifting between his feet.

Kyoko paused a beat, then looked between the two of them, coming to a conclusion, "Oh!  I get it.  Okay, so that's what this is about.  Jesus Christ, there's five of you in this city?  I can't decide if that number is absurdly low or absurdly high.  I kind of thought that Tokyo was more of a hide of scum and villainy, but I also can't say I thought there were that many of you."

"Don't talk so loud about it, we're in public," Tsukune chided Kyoko, and she actually took a step back physically, seeming to signal her backing down socially as well as her posture turned to a more relaxed one, "And stop acting like I'm the only one who's not a criminal."

"Well..." Kyoko brought up, adjusting her hat, "Yamaguchi-chan is a criminal.  A career criminal.  But I'll take you at your word."

"Only one of the others besides her is a criminal.  Kano-kun and Wang-kun are perfectly fine people who just also happen to be... You know?" Tsukune was really not doing a great job of socializing with the woman who he shared an apartment with.  Conversation wasn't a normal thing between them.  Luckily, he would soon be rescued from the situation when one of the aformentioned non-criminals arrived.

"Hello there," Zhou greeted them, sleepily.  He didn't ever seem to be rested.  He had luggage too, a suitcase which he rolled up onto the train platform and immediately sat down on.  He was also making quite the fashion statement; he was wearing a flannel and a t-shirt, and normal shoes, but those were paired with pajama pants and a travel pillow worn like a necklace, "Tsukkun.  Yamaguchi-sama."

"Those are indeed our names," Sayaka noted, turning to him with a scrutinous look, eyebrows raised, "We're going on a train, you know.  The travel pillow really necessary?"

Zhou looked up at the ceiling of the train station, kicking his legs out in front of himself.  He was short enough that he could do that when seated on a rollerbag, though the intelligence of the action seemed a little lacking, "There's a false culture associating travel pillows with air travel specifically.  Travel, implies that they are perfectly acceptable for any and all uses as long as one is moving from one location to another.  It isn't as if nobody ever wants to sleep through a train trip."

"How can we rely on you if you intend to sleep through a train we are leaving on in the mid-morning?" Sayaka demanded, putting her hands on her hips.

Tsukune stepped forward, "I think, maybe, it means we can rely on him more.  If he sleeps a lot now, then he'll be awake during any fights we might get ourselves into, right?"

"Precisely," Zhou pointed at Tsukune, then laughed a bit, "Though I must admit, even I find it annoying how often I'm resting these days.  It doesn't make much sense, I used to be capable of function on only four hours a night, but ever since I made that contract, I just need to sleep all of the time.  I think it's because my intention is to rescue Mayu.  Her favorite thing to do was sleep, so now that's bleeding onto me.  I guess that means my fixation is a little unhealthy..."

"Yeah, whatever.  Unhealthy fixations are commonplace these days.  We got a stalking problem in the country," Sayaka waved it off, "So it's not so weird that you want to save your dead sister.  That's the plot of at least four animes, anyway, so we can let it slide."

"Jeeze, Ruka-san, I told you that we'd be late..." The three who were already at the station turned to see the approach of their final two members, who seemed to have decided to collaborate their travel given that they lived in the same building.

"Kyosuke-san," Yuuri rolled his eyes as he checked the time on his phone, trailing behind, "We're not late.  Everyone else was just early.  Even the human embodiment of oversleeping, somehow."

"Hello," Kyoko waved, "I'm Madara-kun's girlfriend."

"No she's not.  My girlfriend is the video-game recreation of Maki-chan I made using Ambition's spectacular DGF app," Tsukune corrected her in a deadpan, moving to stand in front of her, "This is my roommate.  She's staying on the line at our first transfer, so none of us have to put up with her for very long."

"Sometimes I forget how much of a NEET you are," Sayaka noted, "Then you say shit like that and I remember why I didn't want to work with you in the first place."

"Girls, girls, you're both pretty," Yuuri joked, trying to diffuse the situation, but he somehow only made it worse, in that Tsukune turned away and ran off to stare at the map of the different train lines as if it was a fascinating book.  He looked over at that whole situation with scrutiny before looking back to the others who were still present, "Uh... What'd I say?"

Zhou gave an exaggerated shrug, "Beats the fuck outta me!"

"Oh my God, are you telling me, none of you know?  Holy shit" Kyoko burst out laughing, bending over herself in her raucous cackling, "How don't you know?  I've seen his outfit, you know!  It's a spandex catsuit, and like, this group that has at least two obviously gay men didn't even notice that what should, y'know, be an extra clear package in a catsuit... Isn't?" She turned to Yuuri with a lopsided grin, "Wow, you were just the biggest asshole!"

"Oh, I see," Zhou tilted his head to the side, "Perhaps I am mistaken, seeing as I haven't known him for an especially long time, but it has been long enough that I can honestly say I didn't take him for the type.  Being that, he is such a nihilist I honestly doubted he would have the capacity to care enough about gender dysphoria to act on it.  Clearly I was mistaken."

"Obviously," Kyoko groaned.

"Shit," Yuuri grimaced, still staring over at Tsukune, "Not just caring, caring well enough that none of us could even tell.  And I was just, accidentally, the biggest asshole.  The has-been's right."

"...So you do recognize me," Kyoko froze, glaring at him, "Doesn't matter, you're still worse right now."

"I'm not going to refute that," Yuuri groaned.

Kanoshi looked between everybody, then held his arms close to himself as he wandered over to Tsukune, "Hey, Tsukki.  You know that Ruka-san didn't mean anything, right?  He was quoting a movie to try and get you to stop fighting.  Like a joke."

Tsukune turned to Kanoshi, his one visible eye narrowed and clearly burning with anger, though his voice didn't reflect it at all, "I know he didn't mean anything by it, that doesn't magically make it that I'm not filled with a vicious fury."

"Tsukki-" Kanoshi started again, only to be cut off.

"That's not how this works, Kano-kun.  I'm not mad at Ruka-san, but I am mad, and I need some time to cool down, okay?  I'm sick of this trend of people insulting me without knowing what the Hell they're even saying," He scoffed, "You calling me a mag, Ruka-san calling me a girl.  I'm really goddamn tired of not being able to even be mad at anyone because it's always an accident.  If someone was being an asshole on purpose, I could just set them on fire."

"I... I don't think that's a good solution," Kanoshi mumbled.

Tsukune rolled his eye, "Look, I'd put them out before any permanent damage was done.  Just ,let them experience the feeling of being burned alive for a few seconds.  I can't do that to people who don't mean anything by it, though."

"I can't say I understand your philosophy," Kanoshi shrugged, "But please try not to set anyone on fire on the train at least, okay?  I understand if you'd rather sit alone.  We've already discussed tactics, so it's not important that we all stay together during the travel."

"Yeah, I know," Tsukune nodded, then walked onto the train as it pulled up.  Kanoshi regrouped with the others, and they got onto an entirely different car from Tsukune.  Kyoko slid in next to Sayaka, with her being the only other magica that she actually knew.  Kanoshi sat beside Yuuri, and Zhou sat across the aisle from them and promptly laid his head down on the table in front of himself.  Long-distance trains tended to have those when the subway cars usually didn't.

"So, I got a question," Kyoko started, leaning forward with one hand twirling her hair, "While you hunks are off doing whatever it is you're leaving for, what's Tokyo gonna do if any of those monster things show up?  Aren't you leaving the city totally unprotected?"

"We aren't," Yuuri explained, drumming his fingers against the table, "A few others are covering for us.  Last I heard, it was Fukushima being sent to Tokyo.  She can get backup from nearby cities if anything really bad shows up, too."

"What sort of name is that?  That's distasteful," Kyoko questioned, then shifted in her seat with a smile, "Oh, let me guess her power!  Fukushima must have either earthquake or tsunami powers, right?"

"Close," Zhou answered without lifting his head, "Fukushima can control any water she can visually see, so I guess she could cause a tsunami, explaining the name."

"Wow, okay," Kyoko picked at her nails, "Anyone know who she really is?  I'd like to give her my number."

"She's too old for you," Sayaka answered, tilting her head to the side, "I don't think you ever met her in your brief time at Korekara, actually.  Her name's Kaiba Rokujo.  She's about eleven years older than me, and my only Onee-san back home."

Kyoko paused, took a slow blink, then stared at Sayaka, "How come your last name is the syndicate's, and hers isn't?  That doesn't make much sense."

"I was an orphan, I didn't have a last name.  I became Yamaguchi when I was adopted," Sayaka explained, shifting, "Kaiba-nee was caught in crossfire.  Her older brother who she was living with picked a fight with the mob, that obviously didn't end well, and she was given the choice to go back to her parents or join.  She chose to join."

"Well, that makes sense," Kyoko nodded, then looked across the table, "Hey, what are your tragic backstories, huh?  Why did you become magical boys?" She then leaned over to shout, "You too, Sleepyhead!"

"My sister died at Korekara, now let me rest," Zhou answered, and that was a satisfactory response.

"I was a middle school teacher..." Kanoshi started to explain.

"Oh, you were at Aoba Public Middle, huh?" Kyoko concluded before he'd even finished, then stretched an arm over the back of her seat, "I heard things about that school.  All sorts of things.  I don't blame you for freaking out after the sort of stuff I've heard goes down  there!"

"...Right," Kanoshi nodded, turning to look out the window, "Yeah, that's true.  Actually, what made me become a magical boy was when I got told I'd be fired at the end of the school year.  Parents were making false correlations between my class and bad things happening to their kids.  Several Korekara victims had been my students before, and those kids who disappeared a few years ago, and with the murders earlier this year... It was too much, I guess."

"It was bullshit, is what it was," Yuuri jumped to his defense, glowering, "With Kyosuke-san gone, there isn't a single good teacher left at that school."

"Oh, goody," Kyoko giggled, leaning in Yuuri's direction now, "Does that have anything to do with your tragic backstory, hot stuff?"

Yuuri rolled his eyes, "I'd appreciate if you didn't call me hot stuff, but yeah, sure, fine.  I'm trouble.  I smoke, and I get in fights, and I'm a disaster, okay?  I'm the one person here who actually fits the profile of who you'd expect to become a magical boy, and that's the extent of what I'll tell you because that's the extent anyone who meets me generally figures out."

Kyoko blinked a few times, then raised her eyebrows, "Huh, so you don't like pretty girls calling you flirty nicknames?"

"I don't like pretty girls, period," Yuuri responded, "Well, I'm sure you're delightful as a friend.  Or not, since Madara-kun doesn't seem to like you much."

"Weird, I could have sworn that out of all of you lot, you'd be the most likely one to be straight.  Or at the very least, bi," Kyoko glanced over to Zhou, "Hey you!  Mister Sandman!  What's your sexual orientation?"

"Tired," Zhou answered with a grumble, sitting back up, "Have enough respect to let me sleep, okay?  Anyway, I used to be bisexual, I guess.  I haven't thought about it in a while.  I've had crushes, and in college I dated a few different people, but I haven't really cared about that sort of thing for a whi- And there you go," Zhou noticed as Kyoko pushed her way past Sayaka, coming to sit down next to him.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to date a magica," Kyoko pressed up against him, "Well, for as long as magica have existed, anyway.  I've had sex with people on drugs before and that was a hoot, so I bet that magic would be even cooler."

"I don't have time for dating right now," Zhou leaned away from her, just bored by her seduction attempts, "I need to spend all my time sleeping, working, and fighting monsters.  That's a very full schedule."

"You have the same job as me!  I have plenty of free time," Kyoko protested, "I mean, I've seen you around.  I fill in on guitar!  You know two instruments, right?  Piano and violin?  You must see more work than me, but that's still not a huge load."

"I sleep at least fourteen hours a day, and that's when I'm especially busy.  It's usually much more," Zhou explained with a laugh, "It's a pain, actually, I think it's because I'm working so hard for Mayu.  I mean, I'd be glad to try going on a date with you once this is all sorted out, but I doubt I'd make for a good dinner conversation partner if I just wanted to go home and sleep the whole time."

"That's good enough for me," Kyoko decided.

"So, Rukkun," Sayaka started, ignoring the one-sided conversation that Kyoko took up with Zhou as he drifted off again, "Your arm.  How's it healing up?  Anything else weird happen with it?"

Yuuri held up his arm, bandage still wrapped around where his mark was, "It's fine.  Healing up no problem, it wasn't a deep cut or anything.  The scab fell off yesterday, but I'm keeping it bandaged just in case until I need to transform.  Oh One said that the only way it would get worse would be if I re-injured it, or if I tried to transform before the injury was fully healed.  Apparently the only time the mark actually gets used is while transforming to magica from human."

"That's good to know," Sayaka nodded, leaning forward, "So if it gets hit in battle, we can technically keep fighting.  We can finish off the fight, anyway, assuming we can get through the pain.  Rukkun, what did you say it felt like again?"

"It felt like every inch of my body all at once was being stabbed by seven simultaneous knives, or you know, something in that neighborhood," He answered, rubbing his fingers against the edge of the bandage, "I don't think anyone would be in a position to continue fighting a monster after experiencing it for even a moment."

"I would be," Sayaka rested her chin in one hand, elbow on the table.  "Kyosuke-kun.  Wouldn't you be?  Wouldn't you fight through the pain for the sake of the rest of us, if you were injured during a really important battle?"

Kanoshi looked over to her, having been invited into the conversation, and shrugged, "I'd definitely try, but I mean, I could probably heal it if it happened during battle.  In order to heal a wound, I need to block a hit with the same level of intent as the one that inflicted it.  I couldn't heal Ruka-san's because there was no way to recreate his intentions, but if it were a monster, I'd just have to block the next hit.  So I guess it would just be the moment, and then I'd fix it, so yeah.  Roundabout, but in the end I would."

"I guess that's true," Sayaka sighed, "Well, it makes sense that I'm the only one strong enough to fight through it without something like that, but it doesn't exactly bode well.  You do realize we're investigating strange monster behaviors?  We have no idea the type of battles we might end up in once we reach Nagasaki."

"Well," Yuuri shifted in his seat, "That's true, but I trust in everyone's abilities.  Plus, I'm getting close to a breakthrough on smokes, I might be able to make a stronger acid that actually has an effect on the monsters, but not on magica or civilians.  It'll take more magic than creating smoke usually does, but I'm sure it would be helpful!"

"Good," Sayaka laughed, "You always were the most useless in combat, for real.  I mean, you're good for what you are, but that baby revolver..."

"Okay, yes, my weapon isn't the best," Yuuri chuckled, shaking his head, "But I'm a good shot, and I'm working to improve upon my magic. I'm just as capable as the rest of you."

"Yeah, that's true," Sayaka agreed, then giggled again, "I'm only teasing, Rukkun!  Besides, you're like, super effective against humans and other magica.  Kyosuke-kun told me all about what you did to Lionhardt, which sounds way more impressive than anything I've seen you pull off against a monster."

"It wasn't that impressive.  I just subdued him," Yuuri shook his head, "We barely engaged, really."

"That's what's impressive about it!" Sayaka insisted, leaning across the table with an enthusiastic smile, "The fact that you were able to finish off the fight so quickly, without doing much at all, is actually really great.  That does take skill.  Sometimes combat doesn't hinge on holding your own throughout, but just one move to prevent a battle before it happens.  That was the sort of thing I had to do all the time when I was a human, and I still do it when I can."

"Well... Thanks?" Yuuri shrugged, "Doesn't feel that way to me, but I guess that's because the type of fights I tend to get into on a human level usually have more honor than that in question.  Like, catching somebody by surprise and ending the fight before it's began is widely regarded as playing dirty.  If anyone catches you fighting like that, you'll have more to deal with than the original one-v-one you avoided."

Sayaka rolled her eyes, "Well, street fighting is different, I guess.  That's like when two cats get in a fight over some roadkill that they found..." She froze, then sighed, "Oh, good grief.  Tanako-chan's rubbing off on me."

"What do you mean?" Kanoshi questioned, furrowing his brow.

"Oh, right," Yuuri turned to Kanoshi to explain, "Kotomi-chan has a thing for cats.  She feeds a lot of strays, and even built a cat playground in a storage unit for the particularly friendly ones.  It's not just her mask design that's cat themed, she really is just... Like that."

"She's my favorite human!" Another voice butted in, and Sayaka looked down to see that Blade had decided to appear in the seat which had previously been occupied by Kyoko, "I don't think she'd make a very good magical girl, since she doesn't care about much and she's already witnessed its horrors firsthand, but she is a great human indeed!"

"Glad to see you could join us, Blade," Sayaka noted, looking down at it, "Weren't you busy with Ribbon Green in San Francisco?"

"I was, but how could I leave my girl to go off into dangerous and trauma-linked territory all on her own?" Blade questioned, jumping up onto the table, "Misa is going to be fine while I'm here.  She's really climbing up those rankings!  She might surpass you soon, you know.  Not that that will change anything.  You're always going to be number one in my book!  I just can't resist your tsundere charms!"

"...Are any of your distributors going to be joining us?" Sayaka questioned of the magical boys across from her, ignoring Blade's comments about the odd friendship that the two of them shared.

"Yes," Yuuri nodded, scratching his neck, "Oh One went with SC to check up on Uamake and Graveyard in Hawaii, but Blem is going to meet us in Nagasaki, and Must Pope will probably join us at one of our transfer stops.  I forget which one."

"I wonder if they'll manage to recruit anybody new while they're at it," Blade commented, looking up at the ceiling, "Those islands could use some extra protection; not that I'm doubting Uamake, but you have to admit, she's got to be tired handling an entire island chain all on her own.  Any monsters that form in the nearby oceans will be going there, too."

"Since when do you encourage Oh One's posse?" Sayaka questioned, glaring at the shitty cat with a click of her tongue, "I thought you had a bitter rivalry."

"Come on, your info's outdated!" Blade protested, "That bitter rivalry was just before Kanoshi Kyosuke became a magical boy.  Since then, I've contracted Ribbon Green and Ribbon Velvet!  Both of them are spectacular, and I think Misa could even reach the top ten!  And Velvet's just the sort of magical girl we needed at a time like this, you know.  Rivalries are silly to have when we're all in a state of confusion and crisis."

"Are you really capable of confusion and crisis?" Yuuri asked, leaning towards the distributor, "I mean, do you have a full range of emotions like humans have?"

"A full range and beyond," Blade answered, "But humans could never understand that.  In any case, we're all very confused, and very in crisis.  Of course we would be, if you think about it.  We've never encountered a mysterious disappearance like these before, let alone the number of them.  Except for Skorgles, who seems to have dropped its compassion somewhere along the line, of course we'd set aside our differences to solve the mystery."

Kanoshi joined the conversation, "You said that Velvet's the type of magical girl needed at a time like this.  What does that mean?  Does she have a special power?"

"Yes, bingo," Blade nodded, looking to Kanoshi as it answered, "Actually, it's useless in combat.  She's making a website, though.  She's clairvoyant towards monsters.  Being, she can tell when, where, and what level monsters are going to spawn.  We're working with a human friend of hers to create an easy web interface to RSVP to certain battles, sorted by level, area, and of course, calendar date and time of day.  After that first level eight, and with magic's best all missing, it's a much-needed creation."

Yuuri blinked a few times, "Hey, that's exactly what I've been all freaked out about!  It took so much work from such powerful magica to take down that first one.  Fizzy Pop and Horace were both involved, and they're both gone.  I was concerned that we wouldn't be able to take down something so strong without them..."

"Everyone's getting better every day, and we're still making new magica," Blade answered, swishing its tail, "And with Velvet giving everyone a chance to know about it and plan, that makes it easier.  The magica of sixteen different distributors can involve themselves in battle with a level eight and still get rewards, and if a bunch of magica all know, for example, that a level eight is spawning in Brazil in four months, they can plan around that.  Quantity over quality can still save the day."

"That's a good point," Yuuri agreed, then pulled his phone from his pocket, frowning as he muttered at it, "Jesus Christ, Yamada.  I can't cover for your shift, I got this time off for a reason and that reason was not so that I'd be free to relieve your lazy ass of Saturday evening duty..."

"I should get a job," Sayaka noted, looking up at the ceiling wistfully, "I'd love to be able to angrily mutter out loud at unfortunate texts from my coworkers."

"Very funny," Yuuri rolled his eyes as he tapped away at his phone with his thumbs, giving back a response that was a somewhat more polite version of the gripes he had.

Sayaka paused, then tilted her head to the side, "Oh, no, I'm being serious.  I don't get hired for any hit jobs these days, so it gets a little... boring.  Not that I don't love living with Tanako-chan, but she won't take me along on transport jobs or anything, so I don't have anything to fill up my days," She pouted as she leaned on the table again, "Plus, I'm still just sixteen.  I went to school in the first place to try and experience normal childhood, but that didn't pan out.  Part time jobs are another normal part of growing up, though, so maybe I should experience it."

"If you have the opportunity to not work a part time job, I would absolutely not recommend that you do," Yuuri shook his head with a bitter chuckle, "Anyone who never has to spend a single moment in customer service is somebody whose life should be the envy of everybody."

"Heh," Sayaka laughed, then looked up as she felt the train stopping.  She pulled out a small notebook from her pocket, then returned it as she stood up, shifting her bag, "Sorry Blade, no room for you in here, you'll have to walk across the station.  This is our first transfer.  After this, we have about a five-hour stretch on the same train before we need to transfer a few more times on some shorter distances," The others followed her, and she tapped Zhou as she passed by him to get his attention.  He wiped the sleep from his eyes and joined his fellow magical boys in following her, "I hope that Madara-kun knows this is where we're transferring..."

"Don't worry, he'll catch up to us," Kanoshi noted with a slight, quiet laugh, "Tsukki's good like that.  He's very reliable.  He's the only person I've ever met who has never had his LP sitting on full."

Sayaka shook her head with a groan, "As if I'd know what that means.  Whatever, I'll take you at your word."

Next Chapter->

Checkboxes Chapter Nine

<-Previous Chapter

<--------First Chapter

The next morning, the chaperones announce that due to some poor planning on their part, the list of landmarks to visit was actually much too long for every student to reach, so instead, groups would be drawn at random and handed the list, from which we would be required to pick at least three to visit and take some photographs of or notes on the historical significance of the location.  It’s during breakfast that the groups are called, though I wasn’t really listening until I hear my name called.

“Box Hako, Ayano Ueda, Gin Sakuya, Touko Nozomi.  You will be group number five,” Kaiba was the one to announce it, handing Box the list of locations with a wink, “Here you go, kiddo!  I’ll give one to the Student Council President too.”

I take the paper and give the list a long look over, blinking a few times at just how lengthy it is.  I have no idea how anyone on the faculty could have ever expected everyone in the school could make it to all of these locations.  There’s nothing in particular that I want to see, so when I meet up with my assigned group members following breakfast, I just ask, “So, what does everybody want to visit?”

“I definitely want to see the Kinkaku-ji temple,” Gin answers first, then sets her own copy of the list down in front of herself, “My family says that it’s impressive.  Is anyone in this group Buddhist?”

“I’m agnostic,” I offer, setting down my own sheet so the others have two options to look at.

“Shinto,” Akane cuts in, leaning forward, “Speaking of which, I’d love to see the Fushimi Inari Taisha Shrine.  That’s the one with a ton of Torii gates.  My mom and my Grandma both used to be geisha, and they both went all the way up the mountain for spiritual reasons  I think it’s really cool.”

“I’m Buddhist,” Touko adds, tapping at her cheek, “Not actively, but a temple would still be nice to see, especially one as famous as that.  We should try to go at a time when there will be fewer tourists, though… So maybe that should be our first stop?  It’s such a popular landmark.”

“My religion’s pretty obvious,” Ayano mumbles, thumbing at her cross necklace.  She seems nervous… Now that I think about it, she’s actually pretty quiet in group settings, and as far as I know there isn’t really anyone at this school right now who considers her a friend.  Maybe Sayaka would be interested though, since they do have some things in common, “But actually, I’d like to visit the Shi-Tomura Shrine… Since Ryoko Tomura was actually Doctor Same’s aunt, you know.”

“Great, so that’s three landmarks!” I note with a grin.

“Three… But shouldn’t we try to do a little bit more than the bare minimum required of us?” Gin questions as she stands up, picking up her list again and thinking, “Though I suppose… Three locations does account for food breaks and travel time, with enough padding left on the end to get back to the inn before nightfall.  If that’s all they expect of us, there’s no reason to break our backs while on a trip, then.”

“I don’t think we’re even being graded on this,” Akane shrugs as she strides past Gin, “Anyway, Sakuya-senpai, we should get going, right?  We have a busy day ahead of us, just like you said!”  At the doorway, she pauses to throw a look towards some of the other groups.  I notice that Amai and Rena ended up grouped together, as did a few other people I know to be friends with each other.  Certain students are nowhere to be seen… I suppose I can’t hold skipping against them, though, because the faculty doesn’t seem to care.  I hope Gin doesn’t notice, though, and seeing as she follows Akane straight out of the door upon her exit, it seems I had nothing to worry about.

I follow as well, and wonder about this group.  I know we’ve all met before, but it doesn’t really go beyond that.  I know that Ayano’s some sort of activist against a fringe religious group, and I know Touko’s brother was a victim of that very same group.  I know that something happened between Gin’s side of the family and Sayuri’s when I was in my first year of middle school, her second.  I know that Akane works in the library… So she’s the group member I know the least about.  I can tell she’s got some confidence behind her, leading even the Student Council President… Touko walks at about the same pace as me, and Ayano’s lagging behind, holding her backpack close to herself.

I frown upon noticing this, and slow down to meet her for two reasons.  The first reason is that I don’t want her getting separated from us in the middle of a city, and the other is that I want to know why she’s not keeping up with the group, and she seems on the brink of panicking, “Ueda-chan?  Is something the matter?”

“U-Uh…” She mutters, furrowing her brow as she squeezes the straps on her backpack so tight that her knuckles are turning pure white, though she was already pretty pale to begin with, “Y-yeah… I don’t do well with new places, and I feel like you’re the only person in this group who likes m-me at all, and I really shouldn’t have brought up the Shi-Tomura shrine, and I’m scared, and one of the chaperones almost took my medicine away, and… I’m just not doing great t-today…”

“You brought up the Shi-Tomura shrine because you’re a red woman, right?  Just like Ryoko Tomura was?” I ask, keeping my voice down so the others can’t hear.

“Where did you hear that?” Ayano questions, staring at me.

“I heard it from Sayaka Shinku,” I explain, “I also heard that you collect stuffed animals with red eyes and that you take medicine which keeps you from hurting anybody… But that’s all she could tell me.  Um, I won’t hold it against you at all, so if you want to talk to me about any of it, then I’ll listen, okay?”

“Oh, yeah…” Ayano nods, biting her bottom lip, “She figured it out as soon as she met me… Would you really be saying things like this if you knew what I’d done, though?”

“I know what Sayaka-chan’s done,” I answer, then hold my arms behind myself, “And even though Amai-tan never said anything in detail about it to me, I kinda figured out by now that the Vagrant Killer attended Aoba Public Middle.  And then, there’s that mostly-erased calligraphy in the bathroom that spawned a mystery.  Haruhi-san said I didn’t need to solve that one, but… I think I did anyway.  Because you do calligraphy, right, Ueda-chan?”

“You got me,” She sighs, tucking some hair back behind her ear, “But… That’s in the past now.  You can understand, right?  Middle school was a troubling time.”

“I can,” I nod, reaching out to grab her hand, hoping it will be comforting, “Because you helped my best friend, Ueda-chan.  How could I ever be mad about that?  I could never protect her, and I could never get revenge in her name either.  That’s not something I’m capable of, because I’m weak and I’ve never been in a fight.  I’m glad she found somebody who could do that for her, and I’m glad it was somebody as sweet as you.”

“You know…” Ayano starts, taking a few steps forward to at least stay close enough to see the rest of our group, “It’s not even like you’re the only person who knows.  Your friend does, the adults in my life do, my own childhood friend does.  I guess if you’re joining those ranks, I can tell you a little bit more.”

“Hm?” I wonder what more there is to tell.

“I’m not like Sayaka-chan.  I’m no distant relative, I’m not somebody in the bloodline, somebody who was really and truly meant for this kind of life,” I swear, I can see tears in her eyes, “I would have just b-been a normal girl, you know, I would have.  This me, with the medicine, this is the real me, the me that would have been if my mother and father never agreed to that experiment.  My status as a red woman… It’s a synthetic one.”

“I guess we’re kind of the same, then,” I chuckle, still smiling at her, “You’re not The Vagrant Killer.  The Vagrant Killer is someone who’s a part of you, but you’re Ayano Ueda.  And I… I’m a synthetic person too, in a way.  I don’t know what it is to think entirely for myself.  That’s something I haven’t been allowed to do in years, and I’ve forgotten how to do it at this point.  My actions, every day, they’re fake too.  I would’ve died a long time ago if I didn’t have that fakeness on my side, though.  So, Ayano, I want to know.  What do you really think would have happened if you were never The Vagrant Killer?”

“If I never was…” Ayano’s eyes go wide and she wipes her tears as she works through her words, “I won’t even begin on maybes, but if I never did those things… I couldn’t have gotten revenge on behalf of others.  Not Oishi-senpai, and not Hikari either.  Those people never would have paid for hurting them.  That’s just what’s certain.  There’s things which would be better… but it could be worse too.”

“Just keep that in mind,” I nod to her, then point at the rest of the group, “Anyway, we need to keep up with the others!  Try and forget about everything bad for now and just enjoy the school trip, okay?  There’s no reason to think too much instead of having fun.  Everything’s going to work out okay.  You still have your medicine, and nobody will let anything happen to you, and nobody here hates you, even if they don’t have anything to like about you yet, it’s fine, they don’t dislike you.”

“Are you sure?” Ayano asks, loosening her grip on the straps of her backpack.  I give her one more reassuring nod, then pick up the pace.  She does as well, and it isn’t long before we’ve caught up with the rest of our group.  Nobody seems to notice we’d been lagging behind, or if they do, they don’t mention it.  I think that’s for the better, actually.  The first landmark that we arrive at is the temple, as per Touko’s suggestion.  There aren’t too many tourists this early in the day, like she expected.

I can see why this temple is a big tourist spot, though.  The walls are covered in gold leaf, which would be impressive even to somebody who doesn’t know a thing about the religion this place is connected to.  It’s understandable why anyone would want to see it.

“It’s pretty,” Gin notes, staring up at it, then pulls out her phone to take some photos of it, “Prettier than it probably used to be.  In 1955 it was rebuilt, and the gold leaf used was much thicker than it originally was.  Still, it’s rather impressive to see something like this.  It’s just… So shiny.  I know there’s a reason, but who made that decision?  People make fun of abstract art and modern architecture all the time, but somebody in the past had to sit down and decide… Let’s make this temple gold.”

“Yeah, I gotta wonder,” Akane nods, putting her hands on her hips as she squints up at the building, “But that’s what history is, right?  The past is all the same as today, except without so many easy avenues to find out what’s going on, what reasons people had to do strange things or make odd decisions.  If somebody made a temple covered in gold leaf today, there would probably be something on the internet like ‘lol guys what if I made a temple covered completely in gold leaf’.  But since it’s history, we don’t have dares or shitposts to hunt down.”

“There is research to be done, though,” Touko mumbles, side-eyeing Akane, “The reason for it is because gold is believed to purify and mitigate negative feelings toward death.  Plus, visual excess was important in the Muromachi Era.”

“Oh!” Akane nods, “That’s cool!  So this sort of thing was normal for the time… I wonder if future people will look back and wonder what possible reason we could have had to create things like skyscrapers?” She clasps her fingers together in front of herself, “Hey, you said they had to rebuild it, right?  Why, though?”

“It burned down in 1950,” Gin answers, fiddling with her hair, “I did some research, you know.  It was the act of a novice monk who tried to kill himself after he did it.  He was sentenced to seven years in prison, released early, then died of tuberculosis in 1956.”

“Arson, huh?” Akane asks, frowning, “Well, that doesn’t make sense, why would somebody burn this place?  Gold leaf isn’t flammable, so it must have been way more trouble than it was worth, for one thing.”

“How do you just… know off the top of your head that gold leaf isn’t flammable?” I can’t keep myself from asking.  That seems like an odd thing to have memorized, though if she reads as many books as her library aide status would imply, I guess there’s all sorts of things that she might know.

“I’m smart,” She answers with a shrug, then turns to face me, giving a slow blink before she continues, “What’s so weird about knowing that an extra-thin sheet of a certain precious metal wouldn’t be likely to catch fire?”

“I guess that’s true,” I nod, then take a few steps backward, “Well, we’ve seen it.  Should we head to the next stop?  Or figure out which shrine is closer to here, anyway…”

“Right, good plan,” Gin nods, walking over to me and switching her phone from camera to maps, “We can write down some notes of the knowledge we already had, and coupled with the photographs, that should be plenty for the teachers on this location,” She runs two different requests for directions and compares them, “Looks like Shi-Tomura is closer to here, so we should head there next.  Then we can get lunch to beat the rush, and make it to Fushimi Inari Taisha while most of the tourists will be taking a break for their own lunches.”

“You’re so smart…” Ayano mumbles, barely audible, but Gin seems to hear her, looking over wide-eyed, blinking in surprise.

“Ah, I’m just good at planning.  I have to be, since I’ve been involved in student councils ever since elementary school.  Planning things out is a big part of the job, really it’s almost the entire job.  Usually the faculty collaborates with the Student Council to plan these trips out properly, but for some reason they didn’t this year.”

“That is strange,” I nod, leaning back against a nearby fence, “I wonder why…  Maybe I’ll find out eventually.”

Don’t worry, you most certainly will.  You’ve been going above and beyond so far… So if we continue this path, you’ll learn about it.

If we continue this path?  I’m not sure what that means, but I feel like Fucko’s said it many times before, even though I can’t consciously recall hearing it at all.  It’s a really strange feeling, so I shake it off before I start feeling sick from it.  I don’t know why, but feeling particularly strong emotions, (especially it seems, this overwhelming deja vu) can at times make me physically ill.  Another reason why I try not to make my own decisions too often.  If I make a wrong move and end up having feelings, it can end up making the situation worse.

It really is a pain.  Especially when, just as an example, I’m eating somebody’s food and my feelings toward that person make me feel too ill to eat any more, even though what I’m eating is delicious, and if I was eating it alone my stomach would stay settled.

The rest of the day goes just about the same as it already has; we go to the other landmarks, take photos, and conspire to write down the facts we already knew anyway.  Ayano and Akane know a lot about the Shi-Tomura shrine, then Gin and Akane have facts on our final destination, so we don’t even need to bother with trying to get past anyone else to read the informational plaques, though Shi-Tomura was empty enough that I decided to grab some photos to read later anyway.  Back at the inn, while waiting for the rest of the groups to get back so we can all eat dinner together, the information seems like a crude bastardization, though, knowing what my peers have to say about it.

All the plaques say is that Ryoko Tomura was a respected spirit medium who was mysteriously assassinated in 1994.  A terrorist group calling themselves ‘The Order’ claimed responsibility, but no motive, leaving debate on if they only wanted to get reactions without being the actual culprit.  The Order… Wasn’t that the cult that Ayano and Ssnad are standing up against?

Yes, it was.

Well, that’s the motive right there.  If they’re a fringe religion with extremist tactics, of course they’d kill somebody as famed in Shinto as Ryoko Tomura.

What’s not mentioned at all in the shrine is that the spirits Ryoko was most skilled at channeling were those of her own ancestors, Red Women throughout the ages.  It leaves out the fact that she was a red woman too, though that may be a matter of making sure that anyone who doesn’t already know the story doesn’t think it’s too absurd.  The ‘Shi’ portion of the shrine’s name comes from that fact, though.  It’s rumored that Ryoko would personally kill those who came to her shrine to confess any crime other than petty ones or manslaughter, and offer protection to victims and those who killed others accidentally or under duress.  

Akane even heard that there was one G.I. back when they were still occupying Japan after the second world war who thought to visit Ryoko, only to find that anyone in his platoon who was cruel to him was murdered, or at least grievously injured.  I don’t know how valid this account is, since she admits it’s only hearsay, but knowing what I do about Ayano, and Sayaka, and even Iwako to an extent… I’d believe it.  Red women seem to have their own sense of justice, and while I don’t understand it completely, I can respect it.

Akane seemed to be holding back on her Shi-Tomura facts though, so I go seek her out to see if I can get any more information out of her.  She’s reading at a table by herself, so it’s easy to sit myself down next to her.  I take note of the book she’s reading; The title is in English, so I’m not sure what it means, but the cover has a bird on it, so it seems nice.  I lean a bit towards her, “Fujishiro-chan, I’m no detective, but I noticed earlier that you cut yourself off when talking about the Shi-Tomura shrine.  Is there a reason for that?”

“Huh?” She looks up, blinking slowly, “Oh, right, that.  Well, it’s nothing that’s a big deal, right?  It just wasn’t something that everyone in the group needed to know, especially not Sakuya-senpai or Nozomi-san.  They both kind of annoy me… And got annoyed when I made a joke about the gold leaf being the product of a dare.  Would you disclose your family history to somebody your relationship was so lukewarm with?”

“No, I guess I wouldn’t,” I shake my head, “But… Does saying that it’s family history mean that you’re willing to elaborate on that to me?”

“I guess it does,” Akane closes her eyes and her book, setting the latter down on the table and holding her hands over the back cover, “The truth about that shrine, Shi-Tomura… I wasn’t born yet, but I’ve heard the stories.  My mother and my elder brother spent a lot of time there,” She explains, opening one eye as she continues, staring straight ahead, “My mom used to be a geisha, I mentioned.  Normally they’re hired as sophisticated entertainment for things like office parties, but Tomura-sama paid for her to come live in Kyoto, if she’d work as a shrine maiden for as long as she liked.”

“Really?” I question, “Why would she do something like that?”

“My mom always wondered the very same thing,” Akane opens her other eye now and turns to look at me, “Tomura-sama apparently always answered in the same way.  ‘Because nobody else makes tea the way you do’.  Something so mundane made a famous spirit medium open her heart to a young woman who didn’t know what she was doing, at the time.  The job didn’t last long, since she and Mitsuru-nii moved back in with Grandma after he was in an accident, but I hear that it was nice.  That Tomura-sama… Was nice.  It really is a shame what happened to her.”

“...Fujishiro-chan?” I prod, leaning a bit close to her.  I’m surprised by this melancholy she’s slipping into.

“It’s just… I have to wonder about it.  That group, ‘The Order’, who took responsibility for killing her… It’s not like that’s common knowledge to most people, nobody made a point of spreading the word.  Maybe it was to avoid giving that group the attention they wanted, but isn’t it wrong?  Tomura-sama’s killers… They’re still out there, still recruiting people.  Someone who went to the shrine for help, years ago, could end up in that group none the wiser, not even knowing that they’re betraying her memory… Why aren’t people afraid?” She questions, digging her fingernails into her cheek, “I’m afraid.”

“I’m afraid too,” I nod, reaching out to pull her hand from her face so she doesn’t hurt herself, “And I know lots of people are afraid too, of a lot of things.  I think the only way to live in this world, is to be afraid… And say that it’s fine.  Come on, repeat after me.  If some terrorist group decided they wanted to kill me, it’s not like being scared will stop them.  The best I can do is do the best I can until the day they do.”

“I’m not going to repeat that,” Akane shakes her head, a slight smirk poking at the corners of her lips, as if something I said was funny, “That’s absurd.”

“No, just try it,” I tilt my head to the side, “I promise, it’ll make you feel better, even if only a little bit, okay?”

“...Fine,” She brushes her hair away from her face and steels her shoulders, “If some terrorist group decided they wanted to kill me, it’s not like being scared will stop them,” She takes a deep breath, “The best I can do is do the best I can until the day they do.”

“See, that does make you feel better, right?” I question, “If you pretend like it’s inevitable, that you’re going to get killed, you can just put it out of your mind.  It becomes just like any other way you could die.  Someday it will happen.  Just do your best until then, do your best because living each day like it’s your last is what everyone does anyway.  We keep going.  We make the best of our world, even when it’s cruel and painful.  You don’t have to be afraid.”

“I have a friend who could stand to hear that, too,” Akane taps the table, “But it’s dumb, too.  A dumb way to think.  If it was that easy to stop being afraid of death, wouldn’t everybody have done it by now?  Maybe that works for you, Hako-chan, but you can’t just assume it’s going to help at all.”

“I guess you’re right,” I nod, looking up at the ceiling, “But maybe it will help that friend of yours, if it didn’t help you?  Mind me asking who it is?”

“Ryouma Kobayashi,” Akane doesn’t even hesitate, watching me out of the corners of her eyes, “It just isn’t terrorists that are inevitably going to kill her, but, you know.”

“But there’s always luck,” I note, “It’s always possible that she’ll avoid disease for a very long time, so I think it’s extra important that she just live like she has her entire future waiting.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think too,” Akane nods, smiling at me, “So your advice may be useless to me, but it’ll help somebody.  So… I have to thank you for it, even if it was dumb to say to me.”

“Anytime!” I nod, then flash her a grin.

-----

Dinner is fine that night, and not memorable.  I just spend it seated between Amai and Sayaka, and we just chat about what sort of things we saw during the day; pretty mundane.  I skip out on dinner early so I can get a shower before the bathrooms get busy, then head to my mattress in the sleeping area.  I’m about to sit down, when Fucko speaks up.

Actually, you should go to the bathroom again.

That’s a particularly weird command, but I listen anyway, turning around only to find upon arrival that there’s now a line out the door.  I don’t want to wait, especially since I don’t know what reason I would have to be back here.

There’s another one that’s only toilet stalls and sinks on the other end of the building, head that direction.

I follow the instruction, finding that the other bathroom is so far away from everything else that I don’t even see anybody in the hallway towards it.  I enter the room, only to find that it’s empty… No, mostly empty.  There is one person in here, or at least there was pretty recently, since there’s smoke rising up out of the stall on the far end.  I wander over there and tap on the door, “Hey, hey, why’ve you got a cigarette going indoors?”

“Who’s there?” The person within the stall questions, and I have my answer just from hearing her voice.  I’d assumed it was one of the chaperones who was smoking, but if this was a student who wasn’t allowed to go outside after dinnertime, it would make sense.

“Box Hako,” I answer, then hear the latch undoing, and the door’s kicked open.  I lean in to look and see that Yukari Akashiya’s seated on top of the toilet’s water tank, holding a cigarette in her left hand.

“Hey,” She greets me, looking down with her eyes but not her entire head, “You come on back here to smoke in secret too?  Didn’t think you were the type.”

“I’m not really,” I shake my head, “I just wandered over here.  Don’t worry, though, I won’t tell anybody.  Why are you smoking on a school trip?”

“I didn’t think I would, honestly.  I’m not an idiot, I didn’t want to risk getting caught,” She scoffs, rolling her eyes, “But I guess I at least had to go ahead and bring a pack in case I had a shitty day, and would you look at that, I did.”

“Oh no,” I frown as I look up at her and continue, “What happened?  How did you have a bad day on a school trip?”

“Because not everybody can have a high school life as charmed as yours?” Yukari shoots back, and while it catches me off-guard and feels aggressive, she does continue on, “Look, it’d sound stupid if I said it aloud, so let’s just say I didn’t really get along with my group.”

Yukari Akashiya

“That’s a shame,” I sigh, moving to lean against the wall, “I guess that’s the problem with having groups that are randomly assigned… One person in my group didn’t really get along with two of the others, either.  I’d think that we could all get along okay, since there’s only, what, fifty something students in the whole school?  But I guess people will always have problems.”

“Tch,” Yukari taps her knuckles against the wall, grimacing, “I wouldn’t really call it people having problems, Nagata’s just a magnetic bitch.”

“Magnetic bitch?” I question, unsure of what she means by that.

“Yeah, magnetic bitch,” Yukari confirms, tilting her head, “Someone whose cruelty is magnetizing.  Hanamura and Akabane are so weak-willed they just went along with it when she said she heard that I do compensated dating.  Look, I might break the rules occasionally, but I didn’t make the cut of delinquent enough to be in No Boys or anything, so it should be pretty obvious I don’t do that shit…”

“How mean,” I furrow my brows, looking down at the floor, “If you say you don’t do something, why would they still think you do?  And even if you did, that’s not a reason to be cruel to you.  Girls who turn to compensated dating have pretty desperate situations, they deserve sympathy, not rudeness like that at all!”  With this information, I’m not so sure I’m looking forward to having any conversations with Natsuki Nagata.

Don’t worry.  She has her reasons not to behave that way toward you.

“Well,” Yukari climbs back down to stand on the floor, staring off into the distance, “That’s true, isn’t it?  Anyway, I should be getting to sleep.  So should you, Hako-san.”

“...Right,” I nod, watching her leave, and I somehow feel like that conversation didn’t quite go the way it should have.  Did I mess that up?  Yukari doesn’t seem to be any better off for me encountering her in here and talking to her.

No.  You’re doing perfectly.  Let’s go back to bed.

I hold my arms to myself as I make my way out of the restroom, only to freeze in the hallway at the sound of a large crash.  Yukari’s already gone, out of what would have been earshot for that noise, but I turn around again and return to the doorway of the bathroom, looking inside only to see that the last stall in the line seems… Off.  It’s now shrouded in some level of darkness, and I could have sworn there wasn’t a dent on the top of the wall before.  I cautiously make my way back in, only to see that the light on that end’s fallen, knocking the door off the stall.  It must be a heavy light, too, because there’s a powder of the toilet’s porcelain scattered on the floor, the ceiling light lodged in the bits it’s displaced.

Come on, Box.  Do you really need the proof?  Just go to sleep.  You never need to know what would have happened if you hadn’t done as I asked.

Next Chapter ->