1
Kajiura Rikka had been behaving quite odd recently.
It was a day in the student council room of Hijirigasaka Academy,
where the forthcoming of early February also heralded the arrival of
Valentine's Day with it.
Even as Tachibana Nanao was occupied with student council affairs,
she would occasionally lift her head in doubt, revealing their features,
adorable as such that her current reputation as a male student would
otherwise be easily mistaken for that of a female, riddled by evident
concern and doubtfulness.
Her gaze drifted off to thinking of something concerning Kajiura
Rikka. The change in the latter was clear as day to Nanao; having known
her for quite some time as an excellent student and student council
member, she had been prone to uncharacteristic, unbelievable mistakes
as of recent.
The unsettling atmosphere concerned Nanao, knowing that nothing in
particular had sprung up yet as of today.
"Kajiura, you've left off the official documents we need to promote
our club activities for next year. Is everything going to be okay?"
"Ah, I'm sorry…I'll get to work on that immediately." After
answering thus to Kano—another member of the student council—she
quickly attempted to leave the room, only to forcefully bump into the
door without managing to open it.
"Rikka!?" "Rikka-senpai!?" Kano and Nanao raised their surprised
voices in unison upon witnessing the accident.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Staggering and clutching her nose
that was sore from the impact, she left the room, looking as if she were
hiding something—only to knock herself upon the door once more, and
at such close proximity, at that.
Kano and Nanao reflexively exchanged glances with one another.
"Good grief…" Kano let out a sigh. She stared at the door left ajar
after Kajiura had left the room and could no longer be seen, as if she
were in a daze; her eyes held some semblance of warmth and kindness to
it.
"What's wrong with you, Kajiura-senpai…" Nanao murmured.
"Eh?" Kano turned toward Nanao wearing a puzzled look, "You don't
know what's going on with her?"
"You know something about it?"
"I see you don't know about it at all."
Nanao could not understand why Kano had responded that way; while
Nanao had been largely under the care of Kajiura Ritsuka in the student
council and wanted to repay her for all her efforts, they were not close
enough as such that they could understand each other without
exchanging a word…at least, that was what Nanao thought.
Kano looked as if she were lost in thought for a moment; she then
clapped her hands together as she remembered something.
"Kajiura's worried about something, Tachibana."
"She's…worried about something? Well, I do indeed get that vibe, I
suppose…"
"Yeah. That's why she's been acting quite strange lately. I'm sure
you've noticed how clumsy she's been recently?"
"Now that you mention it, you're right about that…"
"Go and give her some advice."
"You mean to say I should do it?"
"Of course. Who else is there?" Kano said, as if it were the natural
answer.
Nanao could not stop her eyes from widening at Kano's response.
"I do want to talk to her, but…" Nanao wasn't displeased by the idea
of talking to Kajiura; she was hesitant.
She could not repress the doubt in herself as to why she was the one
that was best suited to do so; at the same time, she could not deny that
she had been harbouring feelings that she herself couldn't understand.
She didn't want to leave Kajiura alone, and wanted to listen to her if
something was truly weighing on her fellow student council member's
mind. That said, she had been keeping a close eye on Kajiura for the past
few days.
She now felt rather surprised at her actions as she recalled them now.
"But why?" Nanao muttered, the question not being directed to
anyone.
2
"You think I'm bothered by something?"
"Yes. Kaijura-senpai, you look as if you've…been having something
on your mind lately. Just maybe, perhaps, possibly…"
Several days later, having found themselves alone in the student
council room, Nanao finally spoke her mind; Nanao herself had doubts
toward her own feelings on the matter of Kajiura feeling troubled, so she
didn't seem very confident when she asked Kajiura about it.
Her concern was met with a composed gaze by Kaijura, and she stated
her answer clearly. "I'm not worried about anything."
"I—Is that so…" Having heard her confident response, Nanao
struggled to find any other words to say.
The student council room fell into silence after that as the two
members went about their work wordlessly; only the sound of Kajiura's
fingers fiddling on the keyboard echoed across the room. It was only
after a while that Kajiura abruptly stood up from her seat.
"Tachibana-kun," Kajiura turned toward Nanao as she addressed him,
"I'm well aware that I've been inconveniencing you and the others with
my recent blunders lately. I just want you to know that I'm really sorry
about them. I'll pull myself together, so don't worry about me
anymore." She switched off the power of her PC as she finished.
"I, that's…I don't mind at all, really." Nanao could only respond
awkwardly, as Kajiura picked up her things during the exchange.
"I'll be heading home now."
"Alright. Good work today."
"Good work as well." With that, Kajiura left the student council
room.
"Kajiura-senpai…"
She really was behaving odd; it felt as if she was forcing herself.
What's more…she forgot to bring a certain bag with her. It was a bag
left on one of the chairs, where a neat stack of textbooks laid within it.
It wasn't something that she would leave behind carelessly—especially
given the excellence of a student of Kaijura's caliber and how she usually
behaved. Her supervision of the finances of the student council was
usually very efficient, with any signs of error from her being few and far
between.
"This is…as I thought, something's really wrong with her…"
Was she troubled by the way she even dared to assume that? She
wondered.
At any rate, Nanao decided it would be best if she went after her, and
she rushed out of the student council room.
There were many routes for Nanao to opt for to reach the shoe shelf;
even if she carelessly gave chase right now, she was certain that Ritsuka
would be there waiting for her. Even then, Nanao knew that she could
always just give Rikka a phone call if the latter had already left.
As she moved forward slightly, however, she suddenly heard Rikka's
voice in apparent conversation with someone. Turning around the
corner, Nanao could notice her figure from her current distance.
"—!"
Nanao reflexively hid herself. Rikka was there; and she was indeed
talking with someone.
She was talking with Toujou Basara.
"Toujou-kun…"
Kajiura and Toujou must have just met there by coincidence; for the
two them to have conversation such as this was commonplace and
nothing particularly out of the ordinary. There was thus no need for her
to conceal herself.
However, for a moment in time, Nanao detected an expression on
Rikka's profile that she had not seen in a long while; her composed
countenance that usually came across as cold was instead replaced with a
bashful, happy expression.
"—I see, Kajiura-senpai. So you do feel that way about Toujou-kun."
And Kano was well aware of it; perhaps it wasn't a stretch to say that
even the rest of the student council members knew about it.
And then Nanao remembered that she herself had nominated Basara
as a candidate for being the student council representative—someone
who would be the face of the student affairs—under the grounds that she
had interacted with Basara the most.
So that's why Kano asked me to speak her earlier, Nanao thought. She
abruptly clutched her chest with her hand, realizing it had gotten larger.
Nanao, who had been passing her days as a normal human student in
Hijirigasaka Academy, was in fact a half-vampire; half-vampires
possessed no stable gender and biological sex until they reached
adulthood, and Nanao had to go through periodical gender changes. It
was because of this that Nanao had been incapable of reverting to his
original form since the end of last year.
She was unable to understand the prickling, somewhat painful feeling
that suddenly surfaced in her chest; she froze in place, unable to move as
she held Rikka's bag in her hand.
Their conversation ended before long, and Basara turned to leave.
Kajiura waved him goodbye as he left, seeing him off.
"…Valentine's, huh? It's so strange thinking about it…" Rikka
muttered, staying until she could no longer see any traces of Basara.
And Nanao finally understood what was going on after hearing those
words.
That was what Ritsuka had been worrying about; and Nanao had all
the reason she needed to fully understand Rikka's feelings.
Nanao had yet to consider giving chocolate to Basara; however, before
Nanao transformed into her current state as a girl, she had enrolled into
the school as a boy.
That said, it would be strange if Nanao were to give Basara chocolates
on Valentine's Day out of gratitude; that was why it was impossible for
Nanao to actually give Basara chocolates for the occasion.
Such was why Nanao felt her chest twist uncomfortably when Rikka
had muttered those words earlier.
"Tachibana-kun?"
"Ah…"
Before Nanao realized it, Kajiura had took notice of her.
"K-Kajiura-senpai. I wanted to give you something you left behind…"
"Don't get the wrong idea, okay?"
"Eh?"
Rikka was frantically shaking her hands before Nanao in denial, as the
latter stared at her in wonder.
"Sure, I said something about Valentine's and all, but if I'm going to
be giving Toujou-kun chocolate for that occasion, it'll be only for
nothing more than to thank him for what he did during the school
sports festival. Nothing more than that. I don't have any intentions
otherwise. After all, he's living together with Naruse-san and the others,
isn't he? And he's also really close with Nonaka-san as well…if I were to
give him chocolate for any intimate reasons, don't you think it'll just
come across as weird and cause him trouble? I really shouldn't trigger
something that might end up causing Toujou-kun and the girls to fight
amongst one another…that said, it would be best if I just decide not to
give him any chocolate, right?"
Never before had Nanao seen Rikka pile on excuse after excuse for her
current predicament, and she found the spectacle to be quite adorable.
"Also, all my mistakes recently have nothing to do with this. Nothing
at all!"
Nanao felt the spiralling whirlpool in her chest that stirred her
gradually fade away.
She understood very well what it meant to feel that way Rikka did
right now. That said—
"Rikka-senpai…"
Nanao's eyes lit with an ominous glow behind her glasses as she used
the power of her magic eyes; it was a power that vampires possessed that
allowed them to see through the hearts of people and control them at
will.
Rikka abruptly stopped speaking, and she could not take her own eyes
off Nanao; however, Nanao did not do anything of the sort to
manipulate her.
Nanao only used just a little bit of her power to sway Rikka to open
her own closed heart; she used her power if only to let Rikka to be the
slightest bit honest with herself.
Rikka let out adorable breaths as she hung her head; the shackles that
were weighing on her heart had finally been lifted.
Now you understand what your true feelings are, Nanao thought.
"You don't intend to give him some chocolate?" Rikka asked Nanao.
3
Valentine's Day was just around the corner.
"Ah! Why is it frothing all over?!" "Kurumi-chan, turn down the
heat!" "Naruse-san, your chocolate's burning!"
Sounds of business echoed across the kitchen of Hijirigasaka
Academy.
Nanao wasn't involved, though; he could only hear the sounds of
Kajiura, Mio and Kurumi from outside the kitchen, and none of the girls
seemed to have noticed him.
"Good luck, senpai." He said silently, peering into the kitchen.
While Mio and Kurumi were working on a chocolate truffle, Kajiura
was making a plate out of a ganache mixture…it was more appropriate to
describe it as a piece of namachoco Japanese ganache, which was a piece of
chocolate shaped like a brick. After shaping the chocolate, she wrote a
rather large "Obligatory!" on it using confectioners sugar.
Stepping out of the campus, his gaze turned toward the chilly winter
sky, welcoming it with a dazzling smile as he withdrew a single basketlike box; apart from Nanao, no one else knew the contents of the box
hidden beneath the beautiful wrapping—chocolate. His hand extended
itself toward the nearby trash can in the courtyard, attempting to throw
it away.
"What a waste, don't you think?"
He turned toward the voice with the chocolate still in his hand;
standing below a tree of falling leaves was Hasegawa Chisato.
"Hasegawa-sensei…"
The school nurse's keen gaze pierced through Nanao through her
glasses, as if she saw through the student's very heart; Nanao made
herself alert at her gaze.
Hasegawa, however, didn't seem intent to ask him about anything;
Nanao thus felt it was safe to put her guard down, but he remained silent
regardless. His shoulders involuntarily relaxed upon processing the
situation.
"It was just a hypothetical statement." Hasegawa finally spoke again.
"It seems you did want to give that chocolate to someone. And I
suppose you're wondering that when the time comes and that person
finally knows that you care about him in some way…you're scared at
what they'll think of you, that they'll be creeped out by you after that?"
"Ah…" was all that Nanao could let slip.
It was just as Hasegawa had described; Nanao had wanted to give that
chocolate to Toujou Basara, someone who wholeheartedly accepted his
status as a half-vampire. Despite hailing from the Hero Clan, he had not
looked upon him with scorn like the rest of the clan, and he neither
pursued him nor condemned him.
That was why Nanao had wanted to give chocolate to him.
"Sensei, how did you know what was going on with me…"
"Someone's been worried about you." As she said so, she turned
around and walked away without glancing back at Nanao.
"Someone's been…worried about me?" Nanao had been unable to
finish what he wanted to say before she left; in Hasegawa's place came
another distant figure walking toward him the very figure that Nanao
had pictured in his mind earlier.
Toujou Basara.
"Toujou…kun…"
"Yo," Basara said, waving at Nanao.
Slightly scratching her cheek in hesitation, she steeled herself and
raised her head. Her eyes looked at Basara directly in the eye, staring at
him intently as if to pin him down, unafraid of him knowing of their
magic qualities.
"Have you been worried about something, Tachibana?"
"Eh?"
"I'm sorry if I'm mistaken, but…you just seem to have been behaving
quite odd recently."
"Me…?"
Nanao had indeed been troubled by something, but he didn't let it
show; it was only natural that Basara would have noticed it.
"Do you really think I've changed that much?"
"No….I just felt that way, that's all. If I really am misunderstanding it,
I'm really sorry."
"Oh, no, I—" Nanao could not continue after that. Her vision became
blurry, since that she could not make out Basara's face clearly. It was
then that Nanao realized that tears were welling up in her eyes.
"Tachibana!?"
Nanao shook her head. The tears that streamed down her cheeks did
not come from sadness; it was none other than warmth that now welled
up in her chest.
Nanao had put all of her attention on worrying about Rikka upon
noticing that the latter was troubled by something; similarly, Basara had
realized that something was troubling Nanao and had been worried
about her too. And even now he was still looking at her, worried about
her.
She was truly happy from the bottom of her heart.
"Toujou-kun!" Nanao presented the chocolate she held in her hand to
Basara. "T-This is…it's a little early, but here, have my Valentine's
Chocolate!" The red on Nanao's flushed face spread to her ears, and her
flow of tears were never-ending.
Basara received the scene with a momentary look of surprise, but he
accepted Nanao's chocolate just as anyone normally would, nonetheless.
"Can you hear me out for a bit…?" Nanao lowered her head and
unwrapped the wrapping of the package, exposing a large, heart-shaped
chocolate within it. Truth be told, Nanao overdid the heart-shape
somewhat, though she knew full well it was already too late to think
about it now.
"U-Um…I've been in your care during the school sports festival and a
lot of other things since…and besides, my body's that of a girl right
now….So please!"
With a plopping sound, Basara gently patted the top of Nanao's head,
eliciting an affectionate smile in response.
"Thank you."
"Mmm!"
Wiping away the unceasing flow of her tears, a genuine smile lit itself
on her face, one born from the bottom of her heart.