One day, Kamikishiro was gone. She just stopped coming to school.
I didn't know much, but it seemed that she had run away.
"You're kidding?" I said as I heard the news.
"Really! The teacher told us. She hasn't come home," one of the girls in class said calmly.
"Why? Why would she run away?"
"I don't know. That girl hardly ever talked to us. I bet she thought her pretty face would let her get by in Tokyo or something," the girl snorted.
The girls in class were much less expressive than Kamikishiro, who was always laughing and joking.
"B-but... She had good grades. She looked like she was ready to pass the entrance exam for the college that she wanted to go to, right?"
"You sure know a lot about her."
"What, did you have a thing for her, Takeda-kun?"
"It's not like that. Still..." I started to say.
The leader of the girls in class, Sasaki, said quietly, "I think I know how she felt. Ultimately, she just wanted to escape."
"Escape? From what?" I asked, surprised.
Kamikishiro had two boyfriends, one a first year, one in second year. I wondered if she was escaping them.
But Sasaki meant something else.
"You wouldn't understand, Takenda-kun."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't have exams. How could you possibly understand the pressure?"
I had no defense against that argument.
"Right, you can't understand."
"Yeah, yeah."
The other girls joined in, almost accusatory.
The other students weren't watching us directly, but they weren't not watching, either. They just sort of sat around us, flipping through their Vocabulary flashcards.
"I'd run away if I could. But I can't. We're not as irresponsible as Kamikishiro," Sasaki said very coldly.
Everyone nodded.
Not one of them appeared to be the least bit worried about her.
'When you see a fellow human crying,' I heard Boogiepop's voice whisper in my ear.
The teacher arrived. We stopped talking and went back to our seats.
I could barely manage to sit through class.
The guy in front of me was studying something else.
Everyone was only in class for their transcripts; all of them were certain that their test scores were far more important than learning itself. Even the teachers agreed, so they just lectured tediously, never calling on anyone, never asking if there were any questions.
Why the hell were we even here?
What had happened to Kamikishiro? Had her cheery exterior been a lie? I thought it was sometimes, but I didn't think she was the sort of girl to just up and run away.
"For those of you who know no tomorrow."
But even so, I was just like the people around me. I knew nothing.
I hadn't even known that Touka was possessed by this Boogiepop guy.
I didn't listen to the teacher for the rest of the class, and I sure as hell didn't take any notes. For all my complaints, I was even less serious about this than the people taking exams.
Without any purpose, I just sat there stewing.
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That day, Boogiepop wasn't waiting on the roof.
"..."
I waited for him a while, but eventually the sut set, and I had to give up and go home.
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When I climbed up to the roof the next day, Boogiepop was waiting for me, but this time in a girl's school uniform; no strange costume.
"Hey," he said, raising his hand.
This gesture is how I knew it was hime. Otherwise, I would have taken him for Touka.
"No costume?"
"Don't need it anymore. So she didn't bring it with her."
He had explained once before that Touka would unconsciously carry it around with her, but I hadn't ever thought anything of it until now.
"What do you mean?"
"The danger is over," he said flatly.
"Eh?"
"Everything's finished, Takeda-kun."
"W-wait! That's so..."
"That's all there is to it. That's the way I'm made. When the danger is gone, I disappear. Like bubbles."
"The danger... Weren't you going to save the world? It hasn't been saved at all."
"But my job is finished. What you mean by 'save' is not my job," he said, shaking his head quietly.
"But you said you were going to fight the devil that lives in this school!"
"I did. I'm not the one that killed it, though..."
My mouth flapped wordlessly. I couldn't think of anything else to say.
"But... But... That's."
"Thank you, Takeda-kun," Boogiepop suddenly bowed his head. "I enjoyed my time with you. Until now, I had never done anything but fight. You're the first person I could really call a friend. Perhaps you only spent time with me because I'm part of Miyashita Touka, but I had fun. I mean it."
"..."
I suddenly realized just how much I liked him. I'd liked him since we first met in town. And not because he had Touka's face.
Everything I wanted to say but couldn't express... He would at the drop of a hat. That's why I liked him so much.
"Don't go."
"Eh?"
"Don't go anywhere. You about the only friend I have. I'd really like to keep meeting you," I hung my head, almost whispering. I may have been crying.
Boogiepop made that face again.
"That's not true, Takeda-kun."
"It is!"
"You simply aren't connecting with the world around you right now."
I stopped breathing.
"Miyashita Touka's worried about you too. Don't let yourself think you're only one who's worried."
"But... But what about you? If you just vanished without anyone the wiser, doesn't that make you sad?"
"You're the wiser, aren't you?"
"But I'm-"
"I'm afraid you and Miyashita Touka have your job to do, just as I have my duty. You two have to make your own world. You don't have time to waste belittling yourself," Boogiepop said curtly.
There was nothing left for me to say. I hung my head and stuttered, "B-but-"
When I looked up... There was nobody there.
Startled, I raced across the roof.
But there was no sign of him anywhere.
Just like the first time I saw him, he'd vanished in the wind.
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When I came down the fire escape, I found Miyashita waiting for me at the bottom.
I could tell instantly that it wasn't him.
When she looked at me, she smiled.
"You're late, Takeda-senpai!" she said, in a voice that seemed to tumble.
"Eh..."
"You told me to wait here? And then you show up late, you big meany."
I was taken aback. Then, it hit me.
'She doesn't know anythiing.'
'She doesn't even notice that she doesn't know. Her memories are automatically connected.'
That explained it.
She had automatically created a reason for her to be here.
"Ah, uh... S-sorry. I bumped into a friend."
"On the roof? Were you called out by the school thugs?"
"Does our school even have any?"
"Good point," she laughed.
Suddenly, I felt a great affection for her.
"You got cram school today?"
"Yeah, at five."
"I'll walk you to the station."
She looked surprised.
"Leave school together?"
"Hey, I'm on the discipline committee."
"You sure?"
"The gate guards are all my kouhai. They'll let us by."
I didn't let her squirm out of it, but we didn't hold hands or anything.
Niitoki was watching the gate. For some reason, the school's problem child, Kirima Nagi, fresh off from the suspension the previous Friday, was standing next to her. She was slim and tall, and all the guys said she was a pretty as a model, but she looked a little harsh to me.
She was the polar opposite of Niitoki, and I was surprised to see them acting so friendly towards one another. When they stood next to each other, they looked like sisters with years between them, or perhaps a mother and child who were closer in age.
"Oh, senpai," Niitoki said, smiling despite seeing her classmate Touka standing next to me.
"Hey," I grunted.
"Hmm. So, you're Miyashita Touka," said Kirima Nagi abruptly, suddenly standing right in front of her.
"Y-yes."
"I'm Kirima. Nice to meet you," she said, thrusting out her hand. She sounded more like a man.
"Hey!" I said, butting in, but Touka bobbed her head and took the offered hand.
Kirima Nagi made a wry smile that reminded me of Boogiepop, and walked on by.
While we were still stunned, Niitoki said, "Come on now, senpai, Miyashita-san. Run your cards through."
We did as we were told and exited the school.
The road was covered in fallen leaves.
"These maple leaves look so beautiful when they're falling, but once they've fallen, they're just a mess," Touka said, walking carefully to avoid getting them stuck to her shoes.
"Mm. but they're still lovely when they fall."
"That your opinion as a designer?"
"Not really."
"I'm jealous of you, you know," Touka pouted as she suddenly started stomping through leaves.
"H-hey."
"I've got to take a quiz on idioms today. I hate it." The leaves squelched beneath her feet as if she were tap dancing.
"You say that, but-"
"But I'm still going to college," she inturrupted, still I-
Keeping her face turned away from mine, slopping through the leaves. "No matter what you say."
"What I say?" I couldn't remember saying anything against it.
"You went and decided what you were going to do all by yourself. You're all confident now. Like you're snickering at the rest of us."
"That's what..." I was about to say, 'Everyone else was doing,' but she looked up at me seriously, and I bit my tongue.
"That was pretty stressful, you know. I thought it was going to eat me alive. But I'm over that now. Finished with it."
She looked up.
I was surprised.
She looked just like Boogiepop.
"To tell you the truth, senpai, I remember standing you up that Sunday."
"Eh?"
"But I wanted to mess with your mind a bit. Sorry," she said, and bowed her head.
Her movements were Touka's. There was no hint of Boogiepop.
(It can't be...)
Her anxiety had called out Boogiepop?
Was that the 'devil in the school?'
Does that mean - that I had defeated it?
She had told me of her worries through Boogiepop, and she no longer needed to be afraid. The 'danger' had passed.
I stopped in my tracks. My eyes wide. Touka was staring at her shoes.
"They're all dirty now," she said.
She giggled then, sheepishly.
Boogiepop had said he had no dreams. He never laughed.
"Eh heh heh."
I looked at Touka's pretty, cheerful smile, and thought, Boogiepop can't do that.
It's our job to laugh.