Toradora! (Español):Volumen2 Capitulo3

Chapter 3

Aparentemente sin que ocurriera nada importante, un par de días pasaron tranquilamente.

Aunque Taiga estaba tan problemática y tirante como hasta ahora, ciertamente estaba ignorando a Ami completamente, y mientras Ami seguía actuando sin descanso como una niña buena frente al resto de sus nuevos amigos, no parecía estar provocando ninguna discusión con Taiga o nada parecido. Como mucho se atrevería a mirar a Ryuuji con sus ojos de Chihuahua de vez en cuando, pero no hizo nada más.

Dejando eso de lado, estas personas que compartían un odio mutuo estaban en la misma clase después de todo. Cuando ocurría que pasaban la una junto a la otra o escuchaban la voz de la otra, las cosas por suerte acababan como si no se dieran cuenta---aunque, eso no quería decir que no se echarían miradas en silencio la una a la otra o se metieran en una batalla de voluntad por algunos segundos. Pero aún así, todo el rato en el que Ryuuji había estado observando durante los días que habían pasado, Ami y Taiga no habían intercambiado palabras cara a cara ni una sola vez.

Si de alguna forma pudieran pacíficamente seguir así por el resto del año... No, en verdad esperaba que pudieran mantener esto hasta la graduación. Cuando cambiaron de uniforme en la segunda mitad de mayó ocurrió un evento que destrozó las pequeñas esperanzas de Ryuuji en piezas incluso menores.

"¡Takasu~! ¡¿Estás libre ahora?! ¡Tengo una mágnifica noticia!"

Era ya muy entrada la tarde; la tutoría había acabado finalmente y ya podían irse a casa.

Con unas brillantes gafas de montura negra y jugando con las puntas de su pelo alborotado a proposito, Noto estaba totalmente contento y feliz mientras se acercaba al asiento de Ryuuji.

"¡Haruta dijo que hoy nos presentaría a 3 de las chicas de primero del club de atletismo! Por supuesto, iremos, ¡¿cierto?!"

"...Sorry, tendré quepasar. Tengo algo que hacer. De todas formas, incluso si fuera, acabarían diciendo algo como 'Ese chico da miedo' y ese sería el final de la fiesta. ¿No se irían corriendo tras eso?"

"¡Eso no es cierto! Estarás con Haruta y conmigo, así que definitivamente vendrán con nosotros! Venga, Vamos, debes venir; ¡nos encontraremos en el McDonald's frente a la estación!"

Increíblemente feliz, Noto agarró los hombros de Ryuuji mientras tenía una sorprendentemente feliz sonrisa y comenzaba a imaginárselo todo como un idiota. De todas formas, Ryuuji rápidamente se soltó del agarre de Noto.

"En serio, tengo algo que hacer. Si no me crees, intenta mirar a tu derecha."

Estaba señalando al punto situado en la puerta de la clase. Justo allí,

"...Gwa, es la Tigre Compacta. Mi, miedo..."

Cruzando sus brazos en una postura agresiva y asustando sin querer a todos los que intentaban pasar a su lado, Taiga estaba mirando fijamente a Ryuuji intensamente. La expresión de su cara denotaba una orden silenciosa---Date prisa y ven aquí.

"Me ha pedido una cosa. Y es por eso por lo que tendré que dejarlo por hoy, lo siento."

"Ehh, pues anda... Que aburrido. Supongo que no hay nada que hacer, quizás tengamos que intentar ir a un 3-para-2. Si se trata de la Tigre Compacta, no hay realmente nada que pueda decirle."

Dándose por vencido, Noto se separó de él, pero,

"... Lo que pasa, Takasu."

Volviéndose a mirar a Ryuuji de nuevo y repentinamente, comenzó a pronunciar de manera muy apenada.

"La Tigre Compacta está bien y eso... Bueno, es increíblemente guapa, y hay veces que os veo juntos y honestamente pienso, 'Qué bien están~'. Pero, creo que no puedes ser realmente feliz así, ¿me entiendes? Es el tipo de persona salvaje que amontona pupitres y sillas antes de lanzarlas por toda la clase."

Con el comentario sobre las sillas y mesas, posiblemente se estuviera refiriendo al mes anterior en el que Taiga se puso histérica diciéndole a todos que no estaban saliendo.

"...¿Por qué debería ser feliz con Taiga de todas formas? Ya dijimos desde el principio que no somos nada de eso."

"Bueno está bien entonces, si tú lo dices. Pero, déjame darte una pequeña advertencia. ¿No deberías intentar salir propiamente dicho con una guapa chica distinta y más normal al menos una vez? No digo que deberías intentar decirle de salir a una chica de la máxima calidad como Kawashima-chan o nada parecido, pero al menos prueba una chica que no sea un tigre."

"Si en verdad pudiera hacerlo de alguna forma, entonces no habría problema alguno, ¿no crees?"

"Bueno sí, pero simplemente estoy diciendo 'intenta fijarte en alguien más'. Si la cosa sigue así, ¿no te será imposible tener una relación amorosa con nadie porque estarás al cuidado de la Tigre Compacta de por vida? Bueno a todo esto, ¡nos vemos mañana!"

Noto tan sólo dijo lo que quería decir antes de irse de la clase con paso rápido que encajaba con su humor. Pensando en las palabras de Noto 'una distinta y más normal chica', Ryuuji inmediatamente no pudo evitar pensar más que en Minori Kushieda.

O mejor dicho, pensó que se había pasado---Estaba claro que no tenía intención de estar pendiente de Taiga durante toda su vida. Cuando llegara el momento, tenía intención de conseguir una chica, preferiblemente Minori, y vivir felizmente por siempre.

"¡Hey Ryuuji! Te dije que vinieras inmediatamente; ¡¿Acaso el término 'inmediatamente' no te dice nada?! ¡¿O es que te estas volviendo lento?! !Menudo futuro jubilado! ¡Jaa...Senil! ¡Ja!" (NdT: inventado el chiste para darle sentido)

"...Vale, vale, vale..."

Mientras Ryuuji se encogía de hombros ante sus pesados gritos, obedientemente aceleró como siguiendo las ordenes de Taiga. Entonces, recién llegado al pasillo,

"¡Sólo mira eso! Es simplemente lo peor, ¡¿Qué se supone que debo hacer?!"

"¡E, esto es...!"

Con tan sólo mirar a donde Taiga estaba señalando hizo que su sangre se helara. Era horrible...

Los casilleros de los estudiantes estaban totalmente alineados lateralmente en el pasillo, pero totalmente a la izquierda, el casillero de Taiga estaba abierto y con batido de fresa esparcido por todo el interior; su jersey, libros, e incluso su diccionario estaban totalmente cubiertos por un fluído lechoso de color rosa claro..

La culpable era Ami... estaba totalmente seguro de ello, pero,

"¡¿Cómo ha ocurrido?, no me lo puedo creer!"

"¡No fue a propósito! ¡No pude evitarlo!"

...Lo había hecho ella misma, esta chica que era la persona más patosa de toda la historia.

Mientras Taiga estaba preparándose para irse a casa, había estado de cara a su casillero mientras bebía batido de fresa. Abrió el casillero e iba a dejar los libros que no necesitará antes de irse a casa---Pero había tropezado. Su batido de fresa se le fue de las manos y aterrizó dentro de su casillero.

"¡Esto... dará algo más de trabajo del que pensé que sería...!"

Pronunció silenciosamente, pero al mismo tiempo, los ojos de Ryuuji comenzaron a brillar con una mirada peligrosa. La corriente de excitación que corría por su espalda era casi un calor parecido a la lujuria.

Lo primero, necesitaría sacar todo...Llevarse a casa el jersey y lavarlo...En el caso de los libros, tenía que limpiarlos muy a fondo y secarlos, o sino quedaría un poco de olor...Entonces, se encargaría del interior del casillero a fondo...¡muy a fondo!

"Dudo que puedas limpiar esto."

"...Ah...lo estará...Definitivamente lo dejaré limpio..."

Poniéndose ajustadamente los guantes de goma que siempre guardaba por precaución, Ryuuji sentía su sangre recorriendo apasionadamente su joven cara. En cierta medida, había algo que últimamente le encantaba---limpiar, todo sobre la limpieza, o quizás dedicarse a fondo a limpiar. Un desastre que a simple vista pareciera una ruina imposible de reparar, devolverle a la vida con sus propias manos le hacía sentir más vivo que nada más en el mundo. La prueba de ello era la montaña que había en la cocina de Taiga. La primera vez que se la encontró, había estado totalmente bañado en moho y todo el tubo de desagüe dejaba escapar un horrendo pestazo dulzón, pero ahora estaba tan perfectamente limpio que uno podría con seguridad comer de encima de ella. Se había desentendido de un poco de su tiempo para limpiarla y organizarlo todo a la perfección ya estuviera dentro o cerca de la cocina de estilo moderno, así que Ryuuji no estaba en contra de comentar que sería difícil de encontrar una cocina más limpia y brillante.

'Así que ahora es tu turno'... Ryuuji totalmente encantado escaneó el casillero de Taiga con una mirada de peligrosa excitación en sus ojos. Aunque, en esta ocasión no tenía tan sólo deseos de limpiar.

"Taiga...Lo prometes, ¿verdad? Que me lo darás a cambio de hacer esto."

"Ya te entendí, de acuerdo."

Ryuuji había acabado cometiendo una acción demasiado atrevida---O eso podría decir, pero había sido cosa de Taiga, al pedirle que lo limpiara por ella, quien había realizado la excepcional promesa claramente. La gran bolsa Hermes sin estrenar a la que Ryuuji había echado el ojo desde hacía algún tiempo...Taiga le había prometido que le daría la bolsa que contenía 2 gordas toallas de baño de marca en compensación por sus servicios.

"Ohh, mis tan esperadas toallas Hermes...Incluso si fueras a decir que estoy siguiendo una moda o algo, siempre y cuando ponga mis manos en esas toallas naranjas Hermes en mi armario del baño, ¡no me importará lo que fueras a decir de mí! Las vi en una revista de decoración de interior, las he querido por tanto tiempo...En serio..."

"H, haz lo que quieras..."

"Estoy diciendo esto por adelantado, pero también he echado el ojo a esas toallas de lino que tienes, aquellas de algodón Egipcio. Estoy seguro de que tienes unas cuantas sin usar. Las vi el otro día cuando estaba ordenando tu armario...La próxima vez que algo ocurra, puedes darme algunas de esas."

"No lo sabía...Me voy a esperar a la clase."

Como si no pudiera soportar la visión de Ryuuji actuando como una alocada ama de casa, Taiga asustada le lanzó una fría mirada, meneó su largo pelo, y acabó yéndose dentro de la clase.

Ahora que se había ido, ese era el reino de Ryuuji. Mientras sus ojos observaban animadamente, Ryuuji estaba a punto de empezar a trabajar, pero espera, necesitaba un delantal, así que fue a su propio casillero. Tarareando, sacó su delantal de reserva del casillero que siempre tenía limpio, y comenzó a ponérselo como excitadamente---Entonces pensó para sí.

Estaba dejando de lado un encuentro con chicas de primero para realizar este tipo de trabajo.

Eso era. Eso era sólo...

"...Bueno...es normal para mí... saltármelo ¿no?"

Intentando convencerse a sí mismo, asintió con fuerza. Ya que después de todo le encantaba limpiar. Porque le encantaba organizar, tanto que hasta se sorprendía a sí mismo.

No era que estuviera desperdiciando una oportunidad de relacionarse por ocuparse de Taiga, definitivamente no. Simplemente usaba su tiempo para limpiar algo que Taiga había ensuciado. Taiga en verdad hacía algunos errores caso increíbles, así que tan sólo estaba arreglando lo que formaba. Estaba a su lado regularmente, así que comprensiblemente él simplemente estaba ahí para ayudarla a recoger lo que desordenaba. Así, que había una diferencia.

--- 'Si la cosa sigue así, ¿no te será imposible tener una relación amorosa con nadie porque estarás al cuidado de la Tigre Compacta de por vida?'

Había una pequeño pero importante error en lo que Noto había dicho. No era cierto, no con ese tipo de idea; quería seguir estando junto a Taiga continuamente porque quería mantener una atenta mirada a posibilidades para limpiar. Eso es lo único en lo que él estaba pensando. Porque si seguía a Taiga, tan seguro como que respiraría, esa chica iría armando alborotos e inevitablemente ensuciando algo.

'Ja, ja', mientras Ryuuji estaba sacando las cosas de Taiga, respiró profundamente igual que un adicto sufriendo el mono mientras seguía intentando convencerse a sí mismo. Con seguridad tenía algún tipo de adicción, pero posiblemente ni el mismo se diera cuenta.

Llegó a pasar una hora desde que empezara a limpiar---no, espera, era probablemente un poco más. Podía haber parecido raro que su cabeza estuviera dentro del casillero de otra persona cuando comenzó en serio, pero las personas que le hubieran lanzado a Ryuuji miradas extrañas se habían ido hace rato; el pasillo se había sumido en completo silencio, y Taiga debía ser la única persona en la clase.

"Tan sólo un poco más y estará perfecto..."

Ese pedazo de monólogo que escapó de sus labios resonó en el apretado casillero.

La limpieza ya había alcanzado el momento cúspide, y mientras estaba totalmente inmerso en el casillero, Ryuuji no pudo evitar dejarse llevar en pequeños detalles como darle a las esquinas con una balleta de algodón. No parecía que nada del batido de fresa había llegado tan lejos, pero la suciedad era la suciedad.

Entonces escuchó suaves sonidos de alguien recorriendo el pasillo. Parecía una chica. Si le vieran como estaba con el instituto totalmente vacío de vida, casi seguramente acabaría asustándola. Dejándose llevar totalmente por sus ideas descabelladas, Ryuuji se escondió completamente de su rango de visión dentro del casillero y casi cerrando la puerta completamente aguantando su respiración. Aunque, casi le entran ganas de gritar alocadamente cuando mirando a través de la abertura del casillero, vio a la persona que pasaba frente a él a apenas unos centímetros.

Esa inconfundible belleza no podía pertenecer a nadie más que a Ami Kawashima. Y aún así, sin darse cuenta de que Ryuuji estaba allí, Ami estaba entrando en la clase donde había nadie más que Taiga.

Tuvo un terrible presentimiento. Uno verdaderamente malo.

El raro chico que había estado escondiéndose en el casillero en silencio atravesó sin que nadie se enterara el pasillo y, dudando de si debía o no entrar en la clase, decidió en principio intentar echar un vistazo por la ventana.

"Ahh qué mala suerte...¿Por qué sigues aquí? Eres una verdadera molestia~."

...Parecía que su presentimiento había dado en el clavo. Ami estaba insultantemente lanzándole sus palabras. Girándose hacia Taiga, que estaba limpiando uno de sus libros, Ami la miró con desdén. Los labios de Ami estaban formando una mueca molesta. Había pasado tiempo, pero Ami Kawashima-san (la verdadera) había aparecido nuevamente.

Todavía sentada en su silla, Taiga entrecerró sus ojos,

"No te acerques más, maldita niñata."

Con un nivel de voz que no denotaba emoción alguna, Taiga se desentendió de lo que Ami había dicho.

Ami perdió su mirada momentáneamente mientras recibía esas palabras por sorpresa, pero sólo fue por un momento. Soltando un 'Hmph' y dejando a Taiga a su espalda, la Pequeña y Falsa Señorita comenzó a hablar.

"¡Kya~, qué miedo~! ¡Eso fue tan propio de Aisaka-san! ¡Por eso por lo que hasta los profesores creen que eres una molestia! Incluso aún cuando estaba en la sala de profesores haciendo preguntas sobre la clase hace un rato, todos los profesores estaban haciéndome fiestas, como 'Ami-chan es tan guapa' o 'Me alegro mucho de que vinieras a nuestro instituto' o 'No te estará molestando Aisaka, ¿verdad?', ¡Si es que..! ¡Y todos sonriéndome y riéndose~! ¡Pero empezaban a hacer sentir mal a Ami-chan~! ¡No paraban de decir 'Ami-chan es tan guapa', pero incluso si no lo dijeran, lo tengo muy presente!"

"¿...Ehh?"

With a bemused smile on her rosy lips, Taiga was nearly laughing at Ami’s words.

“That’s just no good. If you’re like that, then just how long will I have to endure your disgusting two-sided personality; at the very least, let me have fun watching you. Ahh, even when I switch classes, even when I graduate, will it ever end? This who~le time, I’ve been closely observing you.”

“…Wha?”

“Oh I look forward to it, to when you bare your faults. I’ll say this ahead of time, but revealing your true nature or whatever, that would be ‘simple’. But that would just be boring, so I’m not going to do anything. I’ll be watching you for a while, so let me enjoy it for a long, long time. Just…You should probably watch that mouth of yours. Life is long after all…Only if you want to continue living it.”

For an instant Taiga’s subtle voice tinged the atmosphere of the classroom black, like some sort of sing-song curse. However, Ryuuji understood the situation. Taiga wasn’t being seriously angry yet. Like a cat playing with a trapped rat, she was just toying with this fellow she couldn’t stand and simply enjoying herself…Because both her eyes remained calm and she was even holding back her full strength. If the tiger was actually angry, that kind of thing wouldn’t be possible. She wouldn’t stop her flurry of attacks until her prey had been completely ripped to shreds by her every tooth and nail.

But, Ami couldn’t have any idea that Taiga was pulling back.

“You…stalker!”

She had probably been overly disgusted by what Taiga was saying. Ami’s face visibly twisted with negativity as she yelled that one word. A momentary tension filled the air in that classroom where a devious battle was developing.

"…Haha! Really, you’re such an irritating shortie, aren’t you?"

Flipping her hair, Ami regrouped and went back on the offensive with a smile.

“Isn’t it because you’re like that that you have no friends? Despised and all alone, how, very, sad~. Though if Ami-chan had known we were going to be classmates, she probably would have chatted with you using the super cute good-girl version, you know? How regrettable, that you weren’t able to become friends with the popular Ami-chan~…Huhu, doesn’t it seem like that Ryuuji Takasu is completely smitten with Ami-chan? That guy, he’s always looking at Ami-chan with a glint in his eye. It’s really annoying, so won’t you tell him to stop it already?”

---With that kind of thing being said, it was just about impossible for him to enter the classroom or anything like that. Rather than that, what did she mean by ‘glint in his eye’…That was just his normally bad expression. It was hereditary, that’s all.

“I’m so glad you made such a mistake…Hey, could you hurry up and go home for me? Looking at your weird face is making me want to vomit.”

“I was planning on leaving even if you didn’t say anything, because after all unlike a shitty midget like you, the popular Ami-chan has things to do…The thing is…I guess maybe Ami-chan feels sorry for you? Even Yuusaku, the most kind-hearted person Ami-chan knows, dislikes you.”

“…What did you say?”

Taiga’s tone dropped even lower. Her large eyes that were directed at Ami gave off a blood-red glow. Without realizing, Ami---She had stepped on a landmine.

“That is, I was thinking about it after the first time we met, but you know Yuusaku, he had never mentioned even a word about you, like that you were classmates or anything…Even if I asked him ‘Who’s that girl?’ he didn’t really say anything, so it seems like he doesn’t think much of you at all…Or to put it more plainly, Ami-chan's enemy is Yuusaku’s enemy. I went ahead and told him everything you did to me at the family restaurant, so I think he probably already hates you a lot. If you’re hated by even the totally charitable Yuusaku, then it’s all over for you."

She spewed all that out.

Then,

“Well, see you tomorrow!”

She took her bag and smiled! Putting such an expression on her pretty face, there was no hint of her maliciousness. Just like that, she walked right out while humming merrily to herself.

“U, uwawa…~”

Ryuuji broke into a dash. He slipped into the locker in the nick of time.

It probably would have been fine if he hadn’t hidden at all, but---He couldn’t keep himself from hiding. Waiting until the last of Ami’s footsteps had faded away, he then took a cautious step into the hallway,

“Ta,…Tai, ga?”

He checked on Taiga through the window.

Still there Taiga had her back to Ryuuji, and she very slowly tilted her head. It looked as though she was contemplating the meaning of the words Ami had thrown at her.

‘He dislikes you’.

‘It seems like he doesn’t think much of you at all’.

‘Ami-chan's enemy is Yuusaku’s enemy’.

‘I think he probably already hates you a lot’.

‘It’s all over for you’.

“U, u, u, u…”

She looked up to the sky.

She screamed with a forced voice.

“…That. Damned. Brat…!”

“Hey, Taiga! Calm down!”

At his desperate cry, Taiga jumped up and turned around. As soon as she noticed Ryuuji over the windowsill, Taiga gave a sudden leap forward and grabbed his gakuran sleeve at point-blank range.

“Ryuuji~!”

“Hey!”

Taiga’s eyes right then were unfocused, pretty much just swirling round and round.

“Ryuuji, Ryuuji, Ryuuji, Ryuuji~! Were you listening?! Hey, just now, did you hear that?! Did you?! Did you?! What did you think, about this, and that, and everything she said…Hey, is it true?! Really?! I’m despised?!”

“C, calm down a bit! There’s no way it’s true, just think about it rationally!”

“Yeah, but that brat, s, she, about me, Ki, Ki, Kiki, Kita, hates…Kiiiii~!” (!)

“…U, wah…”

---He just wanted to collapse. Taiga had ended up snapping for real. Violently kicking over three nearby chairs in a row, Taiga was even baring her fangs as she looked up to the sky and gave a low roar.

“Grrr, you damned braaaat! Right now, haaa…I’m going to kill her!!

“Calm down! Don’t be hasty, come on, just take a deep breath.”

“Shut up!

“Hey!”

She yelled curtly and pushed Ryuuji away with a master’s authority before breaking into a full-out run. She probably intended to chase after Ami who had left and gone outside. This was bad, if things kept up like this, someone might end up dead.

In trying to stop Taiga, who was headed to the door, Ryuuji was also running to the same door from outside the classroom,

“Stop it, don’t go! Calm do…”

“---!”

Bang! It was a horrible sound.

Ryuuji was opening the door as Taiga was trying to open the same door. They had each pulled at the sliding door in opposite directions on their respective sides. So Taiga, moving at full speed, had crashed her forehead straight into the door that Ryuuji had slid across to her side. It was such a surprise that after confirming what happened, Ryuuji was left speechless. Taiga was staggering like a drunken cat…two steps, three steps she took backwards.

“…Ow…it…hurts…”

“Taiga~!”

He just about screamed.

As she was slowly on the verge of falling onto her back, he caught her in the nick of time just before she fell.

“S, s, sorry! Are you okay?!”

“Fine…I’m fine…It’s okay…I’m, all, ri…”

This looked really bad. It looked like Taiga didn’t even have the strength left to belittle him.

* * *

“Ryuu-chan, Taiga’s room, the lights are off and the curtains are still closed.”

While she curled her hair with an iron, Yasuko walked barefoot into the kitchen. Ryuuji shrugged as he finished cooking the last of their tonkatsu.

“Seriously?...Even though it tastes best freshly fried.”

“Ooh, looks so good~…Ya-chan really loves tonkatsu.”

With similar timing, the mother and son both stared at three servings of tonkatsu that were making a delicious sizzling sound. Though their faces didn’t really match, their thoughts were exactly the same---If they didn’t eat quickly, their food would end up becoming cold.

Since that incident after school, Taiga had seemed rather strange. It looked like she had hit her head pretty hard, but without showing any worrisome symptoms like nausea or bleeding, she had returned to her usual self soon enough. ‘You, just where were you looking?’. ‘Were you trying to kill me, you mutt?', she had gone back to saying things like that.

However, while her displeasure was the same as usual, there were times she seemed just a bit ‘gloomy’. After the incident, the Taiga who was usually like a spontaneous firework was more like a piece of fruit rotting from within by her own poison. Immediately after she said her few words of complaint, she had fallen completely silent and didn’t open her mouth again even once on the way back to her apartment. She didn’t even mention anything about Ami.

It wasn’t the same as being ignored. Rather than consciously ignoring Ryuuji, it might have been that she was stuck in thought, or perhaps a better way to put it was that she was being despondent in replying because she was deep in thought.

And then, even though it had become habitual for Taiga to come over at 6:30pm to eat dinner, she still hadn’t shown up at the Takasu residence.

Folding his arms while holding chopsticks in one hand, Ryuuji looked over the tonkatsu and muttered.

“Could her health have possibly deteriorated? Then maybe she went to the hospital…alone? If it’s like that, then even if I had to force her maybe I should have taken her to the hospital as soon as we got back…maybe this wasn’t really the best time to be frying tonkatsu.”

“Iya~, I bet she’s in there. I can sort of feel her presence through the window, you know.”

Yasuko made her declaration as she looked into a mirror while holding a one-piece in front of her chest.

“Ya-chan is pretty sensitive to the presence of women, after all. Inko-chan thinks so too right!”

‘Eh…? Ahh, yeah’, looking confused and a little stupid, the bird that was suddenly pulled into the conversation oddly enough made a suspiciously human-like response that could have been mistaken for an actual reply.

Inko might somehow be right in this case, as Yasuko’s intuition really was quite often accurate. In her own words, it was just that she was a ‘mini esper’.

“Ryuu-chan, if you’re worried, then go ahead and bring her over here~.”

As she was saying that, Yasuko had decided on her outfit and hung it to the side, and she was now doing her hair with her left hand and skilfully typing an email with her right. Yasuko wasn’t really the type to multitask, but she was usually in a hurry around this time and would noisily send work-related emails as she was getting dressed.

No choice, Ryuuji just nodded at the tonkatsu. While he couldn’t continue worrying like this, he couldn’t just keep Yasuko waiting since she needed to go to work soon.

“Well then, I’ll be going for a bit. Go ahead and eat it when it’s done, okay?”

“Uwa~o.”

Averting his gaze from his real mother who was making a strange sexy pose as part of her reply, Ryuuji went out the entrance hall while wearing a T-shirt.

His sandals clanged as he descended the iron stairway; it was already evening in early summer. In the sky there was a beautiful struggle for dominance going on between indigo and crimson while the wind gently and peacefully blew by.

Ryuuji took a great deep breath, as if to remove the stain of his house’s odorous frying oil from his chest. With a good supply of oxygen to his head, even his excessive worries became distinct.

He wondered since they were in the same class, just how in the world did Taiga and Ami plan to get through each day. Having such treacherous quarrels in the cramped classroom, if they were going to slowly whittle away at each other’s hit points until one of them collapsed---was there any point in that? Ryuuji couldn’t understand the world of the aggressive at all.

It was after nearly a minute of walking when he entered the familiar marble entranceway of the bourgeois apartment, but Ryuuji hadn’t dealt with his worry at all. He could see just by looking at the two girls that they weren’t going to be on good terms with each other, but he also knew that they were going too far. Even so, he was thinking. Couldn’t they just maybe respect each other even a little bit so they could have more peaceful lives, rather than rueing the fact they had become classmates.

Images came to mind of the <most unfortunate> Taiga glaring upwards with a visibly intense desire for murder and the <fickle> Ami sharply averting her gaze before putting on a faint smile. If Taiga was the Palmtop Tiger, then Ami would probably be a purebred Chihuahua that only acted amiably to its master. She might yelp and act aggressively, but when it became dangerous, she would leap into her master’s (Kitamura’s) arms and resort to making faces instead. She was even dressed up in designer clothes.

“…It’s too perfect.”

He just imagined a tiger and a Chihuahua staring one another down, then feeling completely exhausted, he rang the bell for the auto-locking gate. When no one answered after a while of waiting, he rang it once more then a third time as he nodded to himself. Perhaps a bit of a mother-con, he was convinced that Yasuko’s intuition wasn’t off, so he rang the bell yet once more. Then,

“…Who’s there?”

With a tense curtness that seemed to be asking ‘Who the hell are you?!’, Taiga’s voice resounded gloomily.

“I…It’s me. I’ve prepared dinner, so get down here and come on over. It’s tonkatsu.”

“…Don’t need it.”

Ryuuji’s normally sharp expression looked like it was tinged with just a little bit of insanity---It wasn’t an indication of anger but of surprise. Taiga, who could be counted on to have an insatiable appetite, was saying she wasn’t going to eat dinner. This just might be more serious than he had thought.

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Could it be that you’re not feeling well? Does your head hurt?”

“…Shut up. It’s not that I’m hurt anywhere.”

“If you skip dinner, you’re going to collapse again.”

Taiga’s small body had horrible energy efficiency, so if she skipped a meal, she would immediately shrivel and become anemic. Ryuuji knew that’s what would happen, so that’s why he took a sharply terse tone.

“Anyway, open up, I’m not going to stop feeding someone who won’t properly explain why they’re not going to eat.”

Before long, an almost silently faint click of the tongue. Soon after, the auto-locking door opened.

“…Oh.”

He was on the second floor of the first-class apartment.

Ryuuji had unthinkingly yelled out in surprise at the face that appeared from beyond the oak door being slowly pulled open.

“W, what happened…?”

“…”

The silent Taiga was wearing a blanket over her head, and her cotton lace one-piece was a mess. Her hair was also all tangled and stuck to her face as if trying to hide it, and the one eye that showed through was all red, completely blood-shot---Her face even looked damp throughout, so it was pretty evident that she had been crying alone.

Taiga was a girl prone to crying, but even so this was…

“H, hey. Wait up.”

Dragging her blanket behind her, Taiga ended up moving down the elegantly designed beige hallway towards the living room. A little bit hesitant, Ryuuji nevertheless took off his shoes and chased after her.

Past the massive glass door, the magnificent living room that was more expansive than twenty tatami mats was wonderfully decorated like something straight out of a foreign magazine, but,

“…Aah…”

Ryuuji mumbled and scratched his head.

On the carpet apart from the sofa, crumpled sheets and blankets that looked like they had been taken from the bedroom were piled up, and in the center of it all, there was a large depression just the size of Taiga. She fit in perfectly, squatting in the hole and completing the round pile. As if using the blanket she wore from her head as a lid, Taiga hid her whole body and turned into a complete Hikikomori Tiger.

The crystal chandelier wasn’t turned on at the time, and only the recessed lights were casting a gentle illumination from the ceiling. She had probably been exactly like this just moments earlier, sitting in this gloomy room without even being able to tell what color the sky was through her closed curtains.

“…Hey.”

“…”

She had been balled up just like this, seriously depressed.

He hesitated for a moment. Still, Ryuuji focused his resolve, pulled away part of her cover, and bent down to sit next to Taiga, who was like a baby bird trying to hide in its nest.

“Come on, what’s wrong?...Could it be that the spot you banged earlier is hurting? Want to go to the hospital?”

Anyway, though it might have been coincidental, the one who injured her was Ryuuji. Even if she might think he was being annoying, he couldn’t keep himself from speaking. However, Taiga just balled up like a baby tiger without replying and pressed her face into the sheets.

“…Are you okay…really…?”

A little bit later, she finally said something with a voice like the buzzing of a mosquito.

“…Hey…”

“Hm?”

“…Kitamura, could he actually…really hate me now?”

Turning her hidden face just a little to the side, her eyes that were wet with tears and peering out from gaps in her hair looked just a little desperate. Taiga was staring at Ryuuji intently.

---He gave a long, long sigh.

“Hey, come on…Are you still worrying about that kind of thing?”

“But-”

“I told you already, right? Kitamura, he saw everything that happened at the family restaurant. He understands you were provoked and that’s why you did that kind of thing, and in the first place, he already knows about Kawashima’s real personality. And anyway, Kitamura isn’t the kind of guy to hate people because of something like this; you should know that more than anyone else, right? You really shouldn’t be so depressed over such a trivial thing.”

“…Is that, really true…?”

“I’m telling you it is.”

“…Well then…Just why am I such a shortie?”

“Eh?”

That question really caught him off guard, as he didn’t really spend any time thinking about why people are what they are. A few seconds later he tried to spit out a few words,

“T, that is…I guess it’s hereditary, isn’t it…”

He was able to make a passable, relatively safe attempt. However, Taiga in a low voice continued speaking along the same vein,

“…I’m a shortie, and my name is even weird…and I can’t do anything on my own…”

Right there she ended up falling silent.

It was something he was hearing for the first time. That she wanted to do something about her name ‘Taiga’, which was a little over the top considering she’s a girl, and her short stature, which was even the reason she was called ‘Palmtop’. Now that she had mentioned it, it was certainly true that Taiga would greedily consume dairy products all the time.

“I had no idea…So you were worried over that kind of ridiculous thing.”

“…It’s not ridiculous. Unlike you, I’m more sensitive.”

Rubbing her eyes with her small fists, Taiga finally lifted herself up and sat down next to Ryuuji. He couldn’t see it earlier because it had been hidden by her hair, but there was a cooling pad stuck to her round forehead. Maybe it had even ended up swelling. Feeling a pricklish pain in his heart, Ryuuji almost unconsciously started gently stroking part of the cooling pad with the tip of his finger. Taiga just let him do it,

“…What’s that…I’m 165 centimeters tall, so…”

Her lips showed some displeasure as she mumbled that, and she hung her head a little. ‘I’m only just a little taller’, he thought, but then Ryuuji realized. She wasn’t talking about herself here---

“…And my name, it somehow feels like something from Mercury, so…so, so…"

These were things that Ami Kawashima said.

With her stylishly proportionate eight headed figure and her name that seemed cute like an anime character’s. Taiga’s ideal woman who had all the things she wanted, that would be Ami Kawashima.

‘Now I get it’, Ryuuji breathed. Taiga had fallen into depression like this because in addition to worrying about what Kitamura thought about her, she was also feeling an inferiority complex caused by Ami. The fickle woman she despised had all the things she ever wanted. On that point, there was just no way she could win...If it was like that, just about anyone would want to crouch in a dark room and gloomily shut themselves in, probably.

It’s not like Ryuuji couldn’t understand the kind of state she was in. He nodded a few times seriously,

“And more than that, she’s an old friend of Kitamura. Even their families are on good terms.”

“Auh…”

---He had meant to show his support, like ‘I understand what you mean’, and yet. In some way resembling melting ice, Taiga’s face ended up twisting pitifully.

…Crap. I ended up hitting the largest complex…

If it was just that Ami had the proportions and her name was cute, Taiga wouldn’t have gotten so depressed, but in addition to all that, Ami was on close terms with Kitamura. That most important point, it was because Ami had that advantage in what was the most serious concern for Taiga that she was getting this depressed. She was just futilely chasing after the things that Ami had and she didn’t.

Ryuuji finally realized his mistake, but it was all ready too late. Looking like the contents of a confused jack-in-the-box, Taiga shuffled back to her hikikomori corner. Finally, she completely closed herself in with her blanket,

“…I wonder why you’re so insensitive like this…I’m just amazed at your thick-headedness…”

Her low mumble resounded with bitterness. With her saying that kind of thing, he couldn’t keep himself from retorting,

“Well, I’m always dumbstruck with the way you live your life.”

“What?!”

At his accidentally rude comment, Taiga quickly became livid. She flung aside her blanket and stood up.

“W, well aren’t you energetic?”

“Tell me, just, what, part, of me, is, so, surprising!”

“Well, like that! Right now! Wait a! Oh! Auh!"

Interrupting him, she started hitting upside the face with a cushion,

“You! You’re a! Dog! Mutt!”

“Dust! It’s flying everywhere! Stop it! Pah!”

“Quiet! Shut up! Ha…choo!”

“Ah! Oh!...Uwa, your nose is running!”

More than the physical impact was the emotional degradation…It was enough to keep him from even resisting, but then…Taiga’s stomach rumbled with a sound similar to an earthquake.

“Huh?”

Widening her blank-looking eyes and halting her attack, Taiga looked down at her own stomach that was making such a tremendous sound with a surprised face.

“I wonder what that sound was just now.”

“Don’t go ‘Huh’! That sound’s coming from your stomach!...Geez, I knew it, you’re hungry, aren’t you? Come on, let’s go eat tonkatsu.”

“…I told you I don’t need it didn’t I?”

“I believe your stomach more than your words. It’s almost time for Yasuko to leave, so come on, get up.”

“…The meat, is it black pork?”

“It’s black pork.”

“…The fatty parts, can I eat them?”

“Ah, yeah.”

Looking a little reluctant, Taiga finally got up from her nest of blankets. First he made her blow her nose, then check to make sure the doors were secure and she had her key, and had her put on sandals over her bare feet; like that, Ryuuji successfully brought Taiga out from her apartment.

Then they walked beneath the sky that was being overtaken with indigo more than before, and after ascending the stairway of the rented house next door,

“Ryuu-chan!”

Yasuko’s teary face peered out from the entrance hall doorway. Looking as if she had been waiting earnestly for the two of them until now without eating,

“Even though we’re having tonkatsu, we don’t have any sauce; this is no good~!"

She held the empty sauce pot in one hand and told her son the shocking news.

With a quick about-face, Ryuuji and Taiga dashed off and with a fast pace leapt into the nearest convenience store. Ryuuji went all out to the aisle with sauces, while Taiga went on her own to browse magazines.

Having paid for the sauce,

“Come on, we’re in a hurry, so let’s go.”

He hit Taiga in the rear with the convenience store bag. Taiga looked back at him offended,

“I get it, so stop being so noisy and don’t touch my butt, you perverted dog. Just give me a sec…Ah.”

Flipping through a magazine, her fingers that were turning the pages suddenly stopped. Then as Ryuuji was nearly out of the store in front of her, Taiga caught the end of Ryuuji’s t-shirt and pulled him back.

“Hey, look at this.”

She was showing him a page. Turning around and thinking ‘What?’, Ryuuji instinctively stopped walking when he caught sight of the picture being shown.

“…If it isn’t Ami Kawashima.”

At the bottom of the open magazine there was a small column featuring Ami in casual clothing and the following words.

---Starting with this month’s issue, Ami-chan will be taking a break for a while to take care of school-related matters. Look forward to seeing her again!

“That means she’s taking a holiday. That’s what this is saying.”

“So she’s taking a break from work because she moved over here?...Our school, is it really all that great…”

Somehow, he felt like it just didn’t make much sense, but,

“Pf, this isn’t the time to be messing around talking like this. If we don’t hurry, Yasuko will be late.”

Putting away the magazine, the two of them jogged out of the store, passed through the parking lot and just made it to the street.

“…Hm?”

“…What is it?”

Practically at the same time, they ended up seeing something weird and stopped. They instinctively turned to look at one another.

There was a bizarre and mysterious-looking person passing by closely in front of the two. She had a black full-body jersey on and wore sunglasses, even though it was night, so it was obviously a cover, and then on top of all that, she wore a wide-brimmed hat. Yet, with her long, slender limbs, her exposed, sheen hair, her small face, and her great style, no matter how you looked at it, she could only be the person who was surely the only model in this town---The person they had just seen in the magazine.

Taiga understandably frowned with displeasure,

“What, you ask…It's her…”

“…Speak of the devil…But what’s with her appearance?”

With such a bizarre outfit, she just ended up standing out even more. If this were Hiroo or Azabu, then, just maybe, she could have blended into the city with the air of a private performer hiding her identity. However, in this residential district no one would complain about misdeeds, even if she was mistaken as a fashionable convenience store robber and reported.

Ami went into the convenience store dressed like that and naturally picked up a basket, but afterwards, it was remarkable. She took just about all the pastries and ice cream products lined up on the shelves and threw them in her basket with tremendous aggressiveness. That was followed by bentous, side dishes, and even pastry breads. PET bottles of non-diet drinks---sweet carbonated beverages as well. Even the shop clerk was leaning from his register to keep a watchful eye on her strange behavior.

“…What a weirdo…Is she having a house party or something?”

“No…That’s not it, not with those things. Fu~n, I see…I ended up seeing something interesting.”

With a small laugh, Taiga stood up in front of Ryuuji and started walking quickly. It seemed she figured something out on her own, but didn’t feel like sharing the information.

“Ryuuji, let’s run.”

“Ah, yeah.”

They were in a hurry, after all. Putting aside what just happened for the time being, Taiga and Ryuuji took off along the asphalt road towards the Takasu residence where their tonkatsu was waiting.

But at that time, strangely, as if enjoying herself, Taiga’s mouth was parted with a smirk.

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