Not cute.
Not tough or brimming with savagery or intelligence, either.
Pitiful faced. Miserable and shabby and disgraceful, more than
anything.
Ryuuji was just a dog.
By the time he realized it, he was alone. Just walking left him out of
breath, and he was helplessly lonely. He was so helplessly lonely that all he
could do was prostrate himself.
He bowed to her and begged. "Please, somehow, please be with me,"
he begged. "I can't live all by myself, please marry me."
"I suppose," she said and put her heel on his dog head. She let out a
long sigh through her nose. Her lips contorted, and her eyes filled with a
complex mix of contempt and pity. "If you're desperate enough to say that,
I suppose I'd be willing."
And so, she and the dog were married.
Their new home was the Takasu house. What had happened to it?
With some remodeling, the second story rental had become a doghouse
complete with a triangular roof.
"Ryuu-chan, look, look, see how many babies there are. This one's
white, and this one's speckled, and this one's brown. See, a whole bunch of
puppies were born. Taiga-chan gave birth to so many. I'm a grandmother to
puppies now!"
"…"
Takasu Ryuuji's eyes popped open.
His heart felt like it was connected to a defibrillator.
The sleep paralysis finally released him. It was the first time he'd
experienced it, and now he couldn't even wipe the sweat that drenched his
forehead. He gasped several times and finally rolled out of his bed to
escape. He got on all fours like a dog on the worn but clean floor. Then he
squeezed all the carbon dioxide from his lungs while putting his forehead to
the ground, prostrating himself.
"It was a dreeeeeeeam…"
He couldn't even wail. As if in rigor mortis, he couldn't move. Sweat
drenched his shirt, and every muscle in his body shook from the vestiges of
the nightmare. He combed his stiff fingers through his hair, which was
dripping with sweat as though he had taken a shower. He pulled at it,
mussing it up.
What a dream. What kind of nightmare was that?
He, a dog, had failed at life and bowed to Taiga so they could be
together, and she had given birth to dog children for him. Was any future
more pitiful than that? If there was, he wanted to know. He wanted someone
to tell him about it. He wanted to water down the shock of that dream, even
if only slightly. He had had a glimpse of a shockingly bleak future. He was
a dog bowing before Taiga. There had been a doghouse, and a dirt-poor
doghouse at that, he thought. Granny Yasuko and Taiga, who were holding
the dog children, were wearing simple, primitive animal skins. Taiga had
been wearing a tiger hide.
It was too much to take in at four o'clock in the morning. It was midsummer at dawn. Outside the window, the world was already growing light.
He could hear cicadas crying even this early in the day.
He took a breath and felt his strength leave him. Something came to
mind.
After dinner the night before, it was so hot and everything on TV was
so boring, and on top of having nothing to do, the AC was barely working.
They felt like watching a scary movie, so he and Taiga rented a DVD.
A True Story: In the Islands of Japan was the title of the one they'd
chosen, for some reason. It was so crudely made that it transcended being a
cheap film and entered the territory of farce. Aside from the obvious CGI,
they could clearly see the rope pulling along the mannequin that was
supposed to be a corpse. They could even see the guy, who seemed to be
part of the crew, pulling it. Incidentally, that man was also an actor in the
next story and was chased around by a female stalker with long, evenly
trimmed hair. She was wearing a trench coat. The whole thing stank of a
rip-off.
Though they made fun of the terrible, three-part mini-drama, they
still watched to the end out of sheer boredom.
The third story was that. "Terror Island: Kansai Region Compilation:
I Gave Birth to Dog Children!" The terrible appearance and screaming of
the low-budget, unknown actress was a little scary.
"Noooo, the children are getting spots all over 'em!" She carried a
Dalmatian puppy, enthusiastically playing her part with an obviously fake
Kansai dialect.
They burst into laughter together and said it was a waste of time and
money. Then finally, Taiga went home to her condo next door because she
was tired.
Ryuuji knew he was pitiful for letting such a terrible drama give him
nightmares. If he'd known things would go this far, he would have wanted
his money back. If he'd known he would be subjected to this much terror,
he would have even paid money to avoid it.
"That really was…the worst…"
The individual elements of the dream weren't so bad—rather, it was
awful in its entirety. He released several sighs and rubbed at the nape of his
chilly neck, damp from cold sweat.
In order to at least breathe in the refreshing, early morning air and try
to do something about the horrible feeling, Ryuuji opened the window
beside his bed with a clatter. However, the air was muggier than he
anticipated. He stuck out his tongue and gagged.
Then he froze.
"Uh!"
A reality even more frightening than his dream had developed outside
his window.
It was on the second floor of the high-class, neighboring condo that
was separated by a divider. The person wearing a disheveled camisole and
glaring at him from the open window of Aisaka Taiga's bedroom was none
other than Taiga herself.
He didn't know what had happened, but she stood there with wrinkles
crossing her forehead like lightning bolts. Her upper lip twitched, and she
sneered with overflowing disgust. He didn't know if she had done it to
herself, but her hair was a mess, as if she'd just finished enacting a skit
about explosions. She stared at him with the brimming madness of a tiger
who had tried to eat a viper and gotten the snake stuck in its throat. Ryuuji
didn't know how long she had been staring at him and the window of the
Takasu's house.
He couldn't possibly say something like "good morning" to her. He
could almost feel dreadful fireworks sparking off of her like antagonistic,
poisonous radio waves.
"Ryuuji…" she said.
He felt a shudder of cold blood rising from the bottom of his
stomach.
"I had a horrible dream. It was an extremely, extremely…hateful
dream. You were a dog, the dog was my husband, the children were dogs,
and I was wearing a tiger hide. It was the worst…"
Gulp. He swallowed, unable to respond.
No way.
Could they really have had the same nightmare on the same night at
the same time while next door to each other? Their sync levels were
practically maxed out—if they kept this up, would the rental and high-class
condo meld into one?
Please make this a dream, too. Ryuuji slowly closed the window and
pretended he hadn't seen or heard anything. He burrowed back into his bed
again.
I don't want to think about anything else.
***
"It's an ooomen," Aisaka Taiga mumbled.
"Oh men? What kind of dating app is that…ah!"
"No, you idiot. A prophetic dream."
This girl threw shredded green onion at a person's eyes if they simply
misheard her.
"I'm talking about that outrageous nightmare from this morning," she
continued. "I think something like that is called a prophetic dream. We're
going on that trip tomorrow, so our subconscious showed us that dream."
"What?" Ryuuji asked as he wiped at the soup broth hitting his face.
As Taiga slurped her noodles, she glanced at him, watching his mouth as he
nibbled on his spiced myoga ginger. His eyes glinted like a Japanese sword
that had absorbed too much blood, but he wasn't chewing on illegal
contraband and having rainbow-colored dreams—he was just affected by
how terrible his nightmare had been.
The sun blazed outside the window, the rays hitting the muggy twobedroom apartment mercilessly at eleven in the morning.
Though it was summer vacation, the Takasu household was having
morning breakfast unreasonably late.
Taiga, who was across the table and facing him, muttered, "You don't
know anything," haughtily and swept away all of her coveted somen
noodles.
"Agh!"
She dropped the noodles from her chopsticks. Silently, Ryuuji lifted
exactly the right amount of noodles with his own chopsticks and put them
into Taiga's broth. Of course, she didn't thank him. Slurp. In a moment, the
white noodles disappeared into her teeny, rosy mouth.
"Basically, that dream was an omen," she said after slurping the
noodles. "It's saying that if we don't take countermeasures, we'll end up
like that."
"I see… which means we shouldn't watch weird DVDs before bed. So,
what does that have to do with the trip to Kawashima's place?"
"Haaaah," Taiga sighed dramatically and put down her chopsticks as
if she was fed up. She raised her chin and looked down on Ryuuji as she
arrogantly rested her head in her hand. "Your horrible guesses are especially
irritating today. I've lost my appetite. You can take this away now."
"You ate two people's worth of food. At least clean up after
yourself."
"I'm so full I can't move."
"You'll turn into a cow."
"I'd still be more useful than an incompetent dog."
Withdrawing was faster than arguing; it was also less exhausting. Go
ahead and turn into a cow, then. I'll milk you. Ryuuji gave her the evil eye
as he piled up the empty dishes. A future as a lifelong dog-slave wasn't as
heartening as being a dairy farmer with a cow in tiger's clothing.
"So, to continue," Taiga said. "That dream was our sad future if you
aren't able to confess to Minorin and I can't get together with Kitamurakun. You don't want that to happen, right? It's terrifying, right? Then you
have to do better, right?! That's what it means. You don't want that, do
you?"
"Well… of course I don't want to end up like that," Ryuuji muttered
unpleasantly as he gritted his teeth. With bitter, glinting eyes, he looked at
Taiga, who wasn't helping to clean up.
"You're the one who bowed down to beg me, you cheeky…
whatever. Basically, that was an omen, and if we don't take advantage of
our big chance on this trip, that's our future. That's how I see it." Taiga took
the floor cushion from under her butt, folded it in half, and lay down, using
the cushion as a pillow. Sprawled out like a synchronized swimmer, she
stuck her white legs in the air and the soles of her feet against the wall.
She's got such bad manners. Even as Ryuuji frowned, he didn't refute
her. Well, I guess if you leave out that shady part about the dream being an
omen and stuff…
The big chance was the upcoming trip, of course. A three-day, twonight stay at Kawashima Ami's villa that they would go on the next day.
At the end of the semester, they had a pool showdown involving the
whole class to decide whether they would go on the trip or not. In the end,
they settled on Kitamura, Minori, and Ami going along with Ryuuji and
Taiga, too. When all was said and done, it was the one and only event of
this plain and incredibly boring summer break that Taiga and Ryuuji were
having because, for various reasons, family trips were irrelevant to them.
Even though they didn't say it out loud, they were excitedly counting down
the days on their fingers. They planned to go shopping at the station for the
trip that day.
Of course, the biggest reason for their excitement was that the
atmosphere might be just right. They were staying overnight on a trip with
each of their love interests. For Ryuuji, of course, that was Kushieda
Minori.
Continuing to clean up, Ryuuji's face softened until he was beaming.
"You don't have to call it a prophetic dream or anything ridiculous
like that," he said. "We never get a chance like this. I can't really talk to her
at school, so I think this time, if I can, I want to try to get a little bit closer
to Kushieda."
"There it is. That's it." As she remained on the ground, Taiga's
dangerous, glittering eyes rested on Ryuuji.
"Wh-what?"
"This is why you get terrible prophetic dreams. Because you're like
that."
She pulled up her long hair, which had been softly flowing over the
tatami mat. Taiga lifted her face and propped her chin in her hands on the
sitting cushion. From between the gaps in her long bangs, her round
forehead was dripping sweat, and her nose formed a delicate line. Her small
lips were like a rosebud. She looked up at Ryuuji with eyes like sleepy,
malevolent jewels. Her long eyelashes fluttered. Her eyes shone bright.
"You're a stupid dog, right down to the marrow in your bones. Your
base is a dull soup, only good for people who are soup fanatics."
If it wasn't for her personality, the girl in front of him would have
been a magnificent beauty.
"What are you ogling at? I'll lay you out."
"…"
In her case, she wasn't just saying that—she could actually do it.
Aisaka Taiga, as her name suggested, was as brazen and violent as a
tiger. People called her the "Palmtop Tiger"—she was tiny for a secondyear high school student, at one-hundred-forty-centimeters tall. Because of
her power, her bad temper, and her ferocity, people feared her and stayed at
a distance.
Be that as it may, based only on appearance, Ryuuji, sitting next to
her with his legs folded under himself, looked like an appropriate
accomplice to the Palmtop Tiger. His piercing sanpaku eyes looked
ferocious and sinister enough to kill five run-of-the-mill delinquents with
nothing more than a glance. But those were just genetics. He just had that
kind of a face.
He was methodical and awkward, an unassuming person, and
performed household chores as naturally as breathing. Takasu Ryuuji was
just that kind of boy. Ryuuji thought again about how astounding it was that
he had come this far living with a girl like that.
But, of course, he couldn't share such a delicate emotion with Taiga.
"You got it? I'll explain it again from the beginning for someone as
dull as you, so listen up."
"Ugh."
She thrust up a thin finger in a controlling manner below Ryuuji's
chin. Tyrannical contempt flickered in her eyes. "You said, 'if I can,' and
'even a little bit,' and 'try doing better,' and stuff like that, right?"
"I-I did! What about it? Don't poke my chin!"
"You're always like that. 'If I can do it.' 'If it works.' 'It'd be nice if I
said something good.' You can't just giggle and go yakety-yakking like
that. Up until now, the whole time you've… no, we've gotten comfortable,
waiting for luck to come to us. Then we make mistakes. It's a pattern. If we
keep this going, before we realize it, you'll be a dog and I'll be a bride, and
Minorin and Kitamura will probably have a banquet in our doghouse and
give a moving speech about how they were always rooting for us to be
together."
"No…way…that wouldn't…"
He didn't remember giggling and yakety-yakking, but the theory that
they were caught in a rut was spot on. They might have been. He couldn't
deny it.
At Ryuuji's expression, Taiga gave him a deep nod. "Right? That's
precisely why it was a prophetic dream. We have one shot now to decide
this once and for all. If we don't break out of this horrible, terrible pattern
we're always falling into, your future as a dog actually awaits. If we let this
one-in-a-million chance that fell into our laps get away, there might not be
another one."
"Which means, we need to work together during the trip to make sure
something good happens…"
"See, you're doing it again! That's the losing pattern. So, I thought,
instead of that, this time around we'll seriously fight it. I don't ever, ever
want that nightmare to become reality. So I think one of us should back up
the other, and we can go at it at full power. It's better than going down
together."
"Right…" He couldn't nod with her finger still thrust against his
chin, but she was right—maybe. Sometimes even Taiga said smart—
"So you can forget about yourself and focus on working for me and
Kitamura-kun, and do your best because we're leaving our fate up to you."
"Huh?"
She spoke outrageously quickly, like the contract of a corrupt
financier trying to hide the fine print on the other side of the paper. Leaving
Ryuuji in the dust, Taiga once again lay down on her cushion.
"Ahh, I'm thirsty," she said. "Hey, you, get me barley tea. Water it
down, too."
Wait a second. Ryuuji sat down with his legs folded under himself.
He looked intently at Taiga's face as she lay down. Of course, he couldn't
not follow up on the incredibly important decision she'd just made.
"Don't joke," he said. "I heard you loud and clear. Why would the
conversation automatically steer in that direction? Based on what you just
said, it could also be flipped around. You could back me up."
"…"
"Don't ignore me!"
"Shut up… ow!"
He pulled the cushion out from under Taiga's head. "This isn't a joke!
You talked your way around all that stuff and, in the end, you just wanted to
say that?! Just how far are you going to twist this around?!"
"What do you think you're doing, baldo?!"
"I'm not balding!"
"I've got my own interests at heart! What's wrong with that?!"
"Wh-what's with going on the offensive…"
"Give me back my pillow."
"This is my floor cushion!"
"It's my pillow!"
"It's a floor cushion!"
For a short while, they had a futile tug of war with the floor cushion.
Still sitting, they pulled on it as though the one who stole it would win.
"Ngh…"
"Ugh…"
SHRRK! The cloth tore, and Ryuuji instinctively let go. (King
Solomon should have overseen this case.)
Taiga tumbled straight back. "Ow!" She hit her head heavily on the
table. BAM. The incredibly loud sound lingered as she curled up, hugged
her spoils, and held her head, falling silent.
"H-Hey…are you okay?" Ryuuji asked.
That sound wasn't a joking matter. If she got any stupider, it'd be a
problem. Ryuuji thought of approaching her from the back and seeing if she
was okay.
"Ow!"
"Whoa?!"
Still silent, Taiga's beautiful face contorted from pain and loathing
into a man-eating demon. She started beating Ryuuji with the floor cushion.
Ryuuji ran away, disgracefully dodging the cushion as it careened towards
him. Bop, bop.
"Stop it! Don't be violent! You're raising up dust!"
"Shuddup!"
As he avoided the Palmtop Tiger's full-out, floor cushion attack, the
sliding door behind Ryuuji clattered opened. Taiga didn't stop.
His ugly pet parakeet Inko-chan's ugliness increased three-fold as she
suddenly cried, "Haaaagah!"
But the unyielding cushion attack didn't stop.
"Guh! Wah…wah, wah, wah…"
BOP! It hit her perfectly.
The cushion hit Yasuko-chan, Ryuuji's thirty-something-year-old
Lolita mother, who had just opened the sliding door, right in the face. The
breadwinner of the family, she had come home at eight in the morning and
had just gotten to sleep after working a hard day.
"S-s-s-s-sorry…"
Even Taiga tossed aside the floor cushion and jumped at Yasuko, who
was holding her face and seemed about to cry. Apparently unable to take on
the force of that impact, she collapsed onto the floor in her ridiculous getup
of Ryuuji's junior high shorts and her own zebra-striped camisole.
Ryuuji was at a loss for words. Taiga, who also noticed something
was off, jumped away. Now he understood. Inko-chan's earlier "Haaaagah!"
was an attempt to say "Hag!"
Yasuko had aged suddenly. It might have been the heat or lack of
sleep or that she hadn't fully taken off her makeup when she'd fallen into a
drunken slumber, but her usual jiggly, estrogen-filled skin was now wrinkly
and had aged horribly.
"Wh-what's wrong? Why did you age…? What in the world
happened?! Hurry and drink a supplement or something! Put something on
your face!"
"W-waaaaah… it's because you're so noisy that I can't sleep…! If I
don't sleep, I age…"
He didn't have any words for his mother as tears ran down her face.
The son and the freeloader continued to apologize earnestly. To let
her get a good night's rest, they quickly left the house.
***
"This is all set. Are you done?!"
"Ready when you are!"
Across the street from Taiga's condo was a park.
A green road of Zelkova trees surrounded it with a spacious open
area at its center. People walking with their dogs chatted occasionally, and a
group of children from the nearby kindergarten sat under the trees
complaining, "It's hot." "It's muggy." A cacophony of cicadas filled the air
and, though there was a breeze, it wasn't much different from the heat
blasting from a dryer.
It was midsummer, midday, and even their eyes seemed to burn.
Ryuuji and Taiga stood across from each other. They had drawn a line
between them with the tips of their feet. They held badminton rackets they
had borrowed from the landlord. Sweat ran down their foreheads, and their
cheeks were flushed with excitement.
Both were incredibly determined. Taiga had even gone back to her
condo to change from her fluttery dress into a shirt and shorts. Her long hair
was tightly tied up, and her glowering eyes burned.
"It's a three-point match. That's it—whether you're crying or smiling
at the end. The one who loses… well, you know about that part, right?"
"Fine by me."
This wasn't just badminton. They were betting on their futures with
this game. The loser of the match would have to back the winner on the trip.
As Ryuuji lightly played with the shuttlecock in the grassy smelling
air, he snickered to himself. Though he was against Taiga, who had the
reflexes of a wild animal, (except when it came to swimming) he had this
game in the bag. The truth was that Ryuuji, despite appearances, had been
in badminton club in junior high.
There was no net in the center of the rectangle acting as their
impromptu court. The game would be harsh. Rulings would be made with
that line, period. They would play roshambo for the serving rights and
quickly finish the game before they got heatstroke.
If that nightmare was an omen, he didn't want to end up like that.
Honestly, he didn't think Taiga's support would help much but having to
back Taiga would be a serious burden. At the very least, he didn't want her
getting in his way. He was doing this for the sake of the trip he had been
looking forward to—for the sake of a bright future with Minori.
"Let's do it!"
Ryuuji floated the shuttle up into the blue sky and swung the racket
with all his strength. Schwip! With a comforting sound, the shuttle flew
diagonally, straight toward the ground.
Or so he thought.
"There!" Taiga dashed like a beast, carving through the grass and dirt
with her racket, just barely hitting the shuttle so it flew back up. To think
she would have made it! Now Ryuuji was flustered. He followed after the
shuttle barely floating above the centerline and dove for it.
He managed to just barely bop the shuttle so it arched. Taiga laughed,
"Ha!" and caught the slowly falling shuttle perfectly in the center of her
racket as she swung.
"Ugh!"
"Got it!"
She pumped her fist. Ryuuji, on the other hand, was speechless. What
had just flown past him? A rocket?
"Come on, what are you standing around for? I got a point!" Taiga
laughed and swung her racket around. The shuttle had fallen behind Ryuuji,
hitting the soft ground.
"Y-you… you've played this before?!" Ryuuji didn't think she had
but asked anyway.
Taiga nonchalantly said, "Hmmm? When I was at private girls'
school for elementary and junior high, I was in the tennis club aaaall nine
years. That might have something to do with it."
Fwish!
Her high-speed swing was eye-opening. It was so powerful that, had
it not been a racket but a cleaver in her hand, she would have made a herd
of stampeding buffalo part.
Taiga calmly fanned herself and said, "It's hot, let's hurry up and
finish this."
Wait a second, Ryuuji thought. He couldn't let his gaze timidly drift
away as he picked up the shuttle. What was this? He didn't have the
advantage at all. This was supposed to be a match he couldn't lose.
"Okay, this time I get to serve," she said.
"R-right." Though it was early, he was sweating. He wiped his
forehead as he handed the shuttle to Taiga with the best poker face he could
muster.
Taiga tossed it up lightly in her hand several times. "Here I go!"
She threw the shuttle high into the pure, blue, midsummer heavens.
She extended her thin arm to its fullest extent and sprang with her whole
body to swing the racket up.
Ryuuji held his breath as he stayed in the center where he could
respond whether it went to the right or left.
"Huh?!"
Taiga swung the racket as hard as she could and hit empty air with a
swish. The shuttle pathetically plopped at her feet.
"Right, one point, one point, right! It's a draw, we're at a draw!"
Ryuuji had abandoned all pretense of maturity.
"Nuh-uh! That doesn't count! It doesn't count!"
"You can't do that. Of course it counts, you klutz!"
With a desperate look on his face, he ran to where Taiga was
positioned and tried to take back the shuttle by skillfully popping it up with
the edge of his racket, but she grabbed him by his collar.
"Wait a second!" she said. "You're going to do that?! That's cheating!
You're cheating! Cheating!"
"What?! You dropped it, didn't you?! You can't do that, so it's my
turn to serve!"
Their ugly, heated argument spread across the grass. They pushed
each other with their rackets. Taiga hit Ryuuji's fist with her own to get the
shuttle back. Ryuuji used their height difference to his advantage and stood
on tiptoe with his hand raised in defense. Using his butt sumo skills, he
began wriggling away from Taiga.
The bored troop of wives walking their dogs laughed at them from
afar.
"I can't believe they're doing that when it's so hot."
"That boy looks like a delinquent at first glance."
"But they're so lively."
"Won't they collapse from heatstroke?"
Even their dogs had their mouths open and were panting as though
they were somehow laughing. But Ryuuji and Taiga didn't have time to pay
attention to that.
"Just give it to me! I'm going to do it over!"
Taiga, worked up, had thrown her racket to the side and was cracking
her knuckles. She took a step toward Ryuuji as though to attack him.
"Gyaaan!"
The racket she'd thrown went farther than anticipated and hit the
head of one of the dogs. Wham! It was a clean hit.
Oh no. Ryuuji and Taiga turned as the owner raised her voice.
"Oh dear, oh no. Are you okay, Chiiko-chan?!"
"Wooh wooh…"
Chiiko-chan, who did not look okay, raised her face to glare at Taiga.
She was a muscular, ferocious-looking, double-coated, unfamiliar and
gigantic husky that was bound to be hot in the midsummer.
The dog stared at Taiga, her expression like an ogress mask. Chiiko's
nose wrinkled as she stepped forward. It was you? those eyes asked. If you
apologize, I'll forgive you.
Taiga glanced at Chiiko's face and immediately looked away. Then
Taiga lowered her head in obedient apology that showed her regret only to
the owner standing behind the dog.
She raised one eyebrow as she looked one more time at Chiiko,
huffed a breath, and haughtily raised her chin. Though she didn't say so out
loud, her attitude indicated that she would apologize to the owner but would
not bow to a dog.
Then it happened.
"No, no, it's fine," the owner said. "Chiiko has a cute face, but she's
actually super healthy despite her looks, and she's proud of her strength.
My friends call her grand sumo champion Chiiko…ah!"
Shaking off her leash, Chiiko made a mad dash toward Taiga. Kyaa!
The troop of owners shrieked, and Ryuuji automatically backpedaled at
Chiiko's ogress expression.
But Taiga remained facing forward.
"You wanna go?!"
"ARF!"
BAAAAAAM! She stopped Chiiko's attack.
In the grassy expanse of midsummer, a high school girl and a husky
who were the same height grappled with each other. They were evenly
matched, their power balanced. Chiiko's back legs shook, and Taiga's
sneakers slipped little by little.
Just when Ryuuji thought they were about to start a daylong battle,
the human and animal separated and quickly put distance between
themselves.
"Ah!"
"Woof!"
Urgh. Chiiko growled in a low voice. She raised her curled tail high,
lowered her neck, and stared up at Taiga with her light blue eyes.
What? Taiga also growled and fought back. Her bright feline eyes
turned to slits, and her arms hung loose and ready.
There was no rationality in their eyes; it was a fight between a pair of
brutes.
The two beasts circled, still keeping distance between them. The first
one to move was Chiiko, standing on her hind legs, her giant front legs
furnished with claws.
Wham! She pushed Taiga in the stomach.
"Ugh." Taiga stumbled and glared at Chiiko. "Now you've done it!"
"Woof!"
She slapped at Chiiko's long snout.
"How could you do that to an animal?! I-I'm so sorry!" Ryuuji
couldn't help but worry. What was Taiga doing to someone else's pet? He
bowed his head incoherently to the owner but didn't have enough courage
to get in between the two.
"N-no, no…I'm the one who should be apologizing," the dog's owner
said. "I wonder if that small girl will be all right." The middle-aged woman
took a glance at Ryuuji's face and turned red, "Oh, what a handsome young
man."
The other owners surrounded them and whispered to each other.
"His eyes have definitely got something wrong with them."
"She's into that stuff."
Please leave me alone, Ryuuji thought. I know Chiiko and I are in the
same category when it comes to our faces.
The peanut gallery swallowed their breaths and watched. Taiga and
Chiiko continued with their evenly matched fight. They exchanged slaps
several times, glared at each other, and assessed their opponent.
"There!"
"Wuff!"
Once again Chiiko went on all fours.
Taiga was so caught up in her fight with the dog and its ragged breath
that she'd completely forgotten about Ryuuji.
Ryuuji thought for a bit. "Hey, Taiga. We'll let go of that last point,
so I'll serve," he mumbled.
Taiga raised her face in surprise. "Huh?! Huh?! What did you just
say?! I can't hear you over this stupid dog's breathing!"
You don't have to hear anything.
He took the shuttle and racket in hand and made an impromptu return
to the court by himself. Plop. Ryuuji hit the shuttle gently. It fell into
Taiga's ground. He walked over, picked it up, and hit it again. It fell into
Taiga's ground. He walked over, picked it up, and hit it again.
"There, it's done," he said. "First to score three points. I'm the
winner. You make sure to back me up during the trip."
"H-huh?! Hey, you can't decide that all by yourself! This isn't a joke!
Move aside, I don't have time to play with you anymore!"
Taiga returned to her senses and tried to shove Chiiko away, but
Chiiko was still grappling with her, ogress mask in place, and wouldn't
move. It was as though Chiiko thought her pride as a sumo champion would
crumble if she lost this contest of strength.
"I said we're done! Argh, okay, fine, I got it, I give, I give! I was
wrong! I'll apologize! I'm sorry! Okay, now move! Go home!" Taiga tried
to pull away, but it didn't get through to Chiiko. Her face had turned bright
red and she was dripping sweat. "Come to think of it… oh, it's hot… it's
hot! Your fur is hot! Your fur is super hot! I'm gonna die!"
Grappling with Chiiko was probably exactly like wearing a fur coat
under the blazing sun.
Fruitlessly trying to peel Chiiko off, Taiga tried to wrench herself
away. Chiiko just adjusted and took a step closer with her back leg. Taiga
took another step back and to the side. Chiiko also took another grand step.
Though he felt bad for Taiga's (and Chiiko's) desperate expressions,
as a spectator, it looked to Ryuuji like they were salsa dancing.
"What's she doing…? They're facing off."
It might have also pulled on the heartstrings of the owner. She slowly
took out her cellphone and, naturally, started taking a video, memorializing
her pet and the local high school girl's strange dance.
"Get away! I said get off! Ahh, your breath is hot, too!"
It was the height of summer. The merciless sun beat down, heating
Chiiko's fur and Taiga, who was firmly grappling with her. The frequency
of their steps increased, their passionate rhythm a notch more danceable.
Taiga was nearly in tears. Sweat poured from her, and she started to shake.
Chiiko started stealing the lead.
"Agh, I got it! I got it, okay! Fine, you guys won! Ryuuji, aren't you
a dog? Come and take it off of me! Tell it to stop!" Taiga pulled her face
back and turned, pleading with Ryuuji.
"Are you sure you're fine with me winning?" he asked.
There was a second of speechless hesitation and then another, until
finally, she breathed roughly into the silence. "I-It's fine!"
Ryuuji and the owner desperately persuaded Chiiko to let go of Taiga,
who had thrown in the towel.
And, like that, Ryuuji was triumphant.
Frankly, although Ryuuji had won, he didn't really expect Taiga to
help. The klutz god had showered her entire body with blessings, after all.
He didn't even expect her to try.
But, Taiga said, "I have an idea for a really good approach."
In Pseudobucks, where they'd gone to cool off in the air
conditioning, Taiga raised her face from her iced milk tea. Her T-shirt was
covered in dog prints. Her whisper trickled faintly out into the café. The
voice of the part-time female college student rang out, "Welcome to Sudoh
bucks…" This was the Sudoh coffee stand and bar. There was no "bucks" in
the actual name.
Taiga whispered.
His mouth still filled with iced coffee, Ryuuji's sanpaku eyes went
wide. "Are you serious? I see, well… talking about it is one thing, but how
are we actually going to do it?"
"We'll do it together." Taiga pointed at herself and then Ryuuji in
turn with her thin fingertip. Then she said, "You cheated in the match, and I
don't want to work hard for you either, and I don't think you're good for
Minorin, but that nightmare was unbearable, so I'll actually help you this
time. Well, it's better to hurry up and be rejected rather than having
unfulfilled dreams, right? If you're rejected, you can grow as a person, and
that dream future probably won't happen, right?"
"Do I really have to be rejected first?"
"Don't be stubborn. With the way you are right now, when your
proposal bombs, you'll probably throw yourself on a grenade, hurt your
back, and have to be hospitalized. You'd only be able to look at the ceiling
and sigh."
The large feline eyes that looked across at Ryuuji quivered with
contempt stronger than the midsummer sun.
***
It was six in the morning on the day following the midafternoon
badminton match.
"Okay!"
In the dark kitchen, Ryuuji checked the freezer and nodded once as
though in confirmation.
He looked at the spare rice he had made. There were a good five
portions. He had finished separating them into individual bowls and
wrapping them. Unfortunately, he could only get a variety of frozen side
dishes.
"I have something I want to tell you before I go on the trip and leave
you behind," he said. "It might be annoying, but listen to me carefully.
Right, I've prepared everything, so you can make it all in the microwave.
Be careful not to use the stove."
"…Drr…"
"You can eat the Caspian Sea yogurt I've made. I want to keep the
one in the small bin from being completely sterilized so I have it for the
next batch, so don't touch it. Make sure not to forget to mix the pickling
rice bran every day. You can put a plastic bag on your hand when you do it,
but when you do, whisper, 'Thank you for everything,' in your heart and
cherish it. Also, you can eat the cucumbers today and the eggplants
sometime tomorrow."
"…oo…"
"Even if Inko-chan's water isn't out, change it twice at least, once in
the morning and once in the evening. Even if it looks like she still has food,
it's the same, twice a day at minimum. Change the newspaper at the bottom
of the cage every day. Talk to her every once in a while and put the cloth on
her before you go to work. If that's all you can do, that'll be fine."
"…ool…"
"I've paid the bills, so no one should come by. I think they shouldn't
come. …They probably won't come. Well, just have something prepared if
they do."
His mother was speechless. She tilted forward, backward, left, and
right as her son repeated his precautions.
"Hey, are you really listening?" he asked. "Do you understand? Try
repeating it back."
"…Drool…"
They were in the gloomy two-bedroom apartment where, as always,
the morning sun didn't penetrate. Yasuko's breath still completely reeked of
alcohol. And of course that would be the case—he had forced her up just an
hour after she came home and was ready to sleep and then pulled her into
the kitchen.
Yasuko, who kept wobbling around, opened her eyes two millimeters.
But, well, there were things in the world you could learn while sleeping.
When he asked her to repeat the words back to him, her reply was "drool."
She was at least listening to him, so it might be fine.
Two years earlier, in junior high, he had left home for four days and
three nights on a school trip. The laundry became a mountain, the takeout
containers in the sink stank, and the raw garbage that hadn't been taken out
was rotten and fermented, but Yasuko and Inko had survived.
"Well then, I'm going."
"…Have a nice time… huh?"
It seemed that she might have finally noticed his T-shirt and shorts, as
well as the bag her son had in hand.
Yasuko furrowed her brow. Puzzled, she tilted her head.
"Ryuu-tan…where're yoo goin…?"
"On a trip. I told you about it didn't I? I told you earlier?"
"A tri…? Tri…"
He didn't know whether she had completely understood or not, but
Yasuko nodded several times. "Uh huh. Trip," she muttered and plipplopped in her bare feet back to her futon.
Well, guess it's fine. Ryuuji turned.
"Inko-chan…I'm off." He walked towards the birdcage next to the
window and gently lifted the cloth that covered it.
"Oh…"
Inko-chan's face flashed as she was sleeping. She was at max output
the morning they parted. He still didn't have an answer for why her beak
wouldn't completely close or why froth dripped from it, or why she
squinted with the whites of her eyes showing, or why her body continuously
convulsed.
Even so, no matter how gross she was, she was definitely still his
beloved pet. He lovingly put out new water and food for her.
"Well then… guess I'll head out!" Ryuuji stood, lifting his
methodically packed bag onto his back.
When he opened the creaking front door, breeze left over from the
summer morning cooled his eyelids. You wouldn't know from being in the
house, but the weather outside was fair. Fluffy clouds bubbled in the distant
sky, predicting the day's heat.
By the time it got hot, they would probably be at the villa—no matter
what was said and done, it was enough to soften his face with excitement.
Well, this is a two-night, three-day trip. What sort of fun things will
be waiting for us? What'll I talk about with Minori, and how close will we
get? Meeting up with Kitamura for the first time in a while will also be nice.
Thinking about the battle that would start between Ami and Taiga already
tired him out, but it was still summer vacation. They would be going on a
short trip without any parents, and there would probably be a lot more fun
things than not. Definitely.
He softened his steps for the landlady as he went down the iron stairs.
Under the early morning sky, he made the ten-second walk to the condo
next door.
This was Taiga, so she might not have been ready to go yet, and
because of that, he had left home early.
"Oh."
Taiga, who was on the stairs of the marble entryway, lifted her face
when she saw Ryuuji. She raised her right hand and gave him a morning
greeting.
"Whoa. Well, that's unusual, you're early," he said.
"I am occasionally."
In another rare occurrence that morning, Taiga was wearing a new
mint-green dress. Her hair was prettily put together and braided only on the
side. Her lips were even made up a light color. She was like a pure rose
blooming in the summer morning. Ryuuji averted his eyes as though
something were shining into them, raised his left hand and returned the
greeting.
Taiga had said she would devote herself to backing him while going
on a trip with the boy she liked. In the end, Taiga must have been excited
like him and woken up early. Ryuuji felt like laughing a bit, and in order to
keep her none the wiser, walked ahead of her.
They were meeting in fifteen minutes. They would make it even if
they walked slowly, but he was restless and felt like hurrying.
One of their friends had showed up early to the meeting spot at the
terminal station ticket gate.
"Hm?"
"That's…Minorin? Isn't it?"
Even though there were only a few tourists, salarymen who seemed
to be on trips, and others accompanying their families in the station, people
still milled about. One person, however, was standing in a spot by
themselves.
"Good morning!"
Ryuuji and Taiga could only see the girl with the supple body and
smile. It looked like Kushieda Minori. When Minori noticed them, she
abruptly but slowly widened her stance and bent her knees. Then she hinged
forward and slowly circled her head. When she did that, a bespectacled face
appeared behind her, imitating her movements with slightly different
timing.
"Yo! Right on the dot, how great of you two."
The two of them stood directly in line with each other as they
continued to revolve. Ryuuji and Taiga, unsure how to respond, stood stockstill. The surrounding passersby stared at the mysterious young ones. That's
the zoo, that's the move from the zoo, a pair of thirty-year-old businessmen
in suits were probably thinking as they squinted in nostalgia.
Minori and Kitamura, the softball club manager combo, turned their
faces like a propeller.
"Ha ha ha, they're pulling back, they're pulling away! They're
retreating, Kitamura-kun!"
"And even though we practiced."
Smiling, they broke apart to the right and left, patted each other on
the back, and praised each other.
"Nice dance!"
"Nice zoo!"
It seemed it wasn't only Ryuuji and Taiga who were in high spirits
and excited for the trip.
"You guys are really lively first thing in the morning," Ryuuji said.
"What's the 'zoo'?"
"Don't worry about it, don't worry," Minori replied. "I was excited,
and when I came early, Kitamura-kun was here, too."
"And there was a full-length mirror right there, so we started
practicing to greet you like this," Kitamura said.
"You're really stupid." Ryuuji jabbed Kitamura in the side. "Like
actually. Yo, glasses, long time no see."
"Yo, yo, sanpaku!"
Ryuuji smiled with his entire face, but his eyes were fixed on
Kushieda Minori.
Once she'd stopped her odd dance, Minori looked like a radiant child
sent from the sun. As she toyed with Taiga's hair and Taiga sniffed her, she
shone blindingly bright like no one else.
Though she wore simple knee-length shorts and a short-sleeved
parka, she was incredibly, unimaginably cute. She might have been more
sunburned since he had last seen her. Like a kid, just her cheeks and the tip
of her nose were red. Minori's eyes narrowed when she smiled. The way
she looked was really unbelievable to Ryuuji. The way her bag sagged from
one shoulder was adorable, and her thin ankles above her sneakered feet
were adorable, and that smiling face, in such a good mood, was so brilliant
he couldn't look straight at it.
"Hm? What's wrong, Takasu-kun? We're finally going on the trip!
Say something!"
"R-right."
Bop. Minori hit his shoulder and his dumbfounded stupor
metamorphosed into quivering nervousness. Seeing her again after such a
long time, his anxiety was even stronger.
And Taiga, who was at his side, was no better.
"Oh, but Aisaka, it's been a long time," Kitamura said. "We haven't
seen each other since closing ceremonies, right?"
"Ah, uh, oh…"
Kitamura grinned, and Taiga stood straight as a rod. Ryuuji didn't
know if she was trying to appeal to Kitamura with her outfit or just being
shy, but she played with her braided hair with her fingertips and seemed
unable to reply. She looked around dubiously, seeming suspicious as her
mouth opened and closed. She silently mouthed something but seemed at a
loss for words.
"So, is Kawashima not here yet?" Though he had no intention of
being her lifeboat, Ryuuji asked Kitamura to break the silence.
"Not yet. She hasn't messaged me, and it's still a little before the
meetup time."
"Right. Hm, in that case…come over here!"
Minori beckoned Taiga, Ryuuji, and Kitamura in front of the mirror.
Huh?! No way! But Minori pulled them in, squashing Ryuuji and Taiga's
protests with a, "Well, well, well, well, well."
Kawashima Ami arrived at the ticket gate several minutes late.
"Huh, I wonder where everyone…hm? Hmm?!" She slightly tipped
the sunglasses that hid half her pointed face. Her lips, which were like rose
petals, half-opened in a cute way, as if she was speechless.
"Yo, Kawashima."
"You're two minutes late, Ami."
"Good morning, Ahmin!"
"It's not like I'm doing this because I want to. Minorin just told me to
do it."
Ryuuji, Kitamura, Minori, and Taiga stood lined up one behind the
other, from tallest to shortest. They moved their arms, at different heights,
around. From Ami's point of view, it probably looked as though Ryuuji had
eight arms.
"I wonder where they are?" Ami asked. "Where is everyone…?"
"Hey, Kawashima!"
"Ami, we're over here!"
"Ahmin, where are you going?!"
"Don't you dare run, you dumb Chihuahua!"
"I wonder where they are? Where are they…?"
Ami pretended not to know them as she dashed away. The four of
them chased her, waving their arms grandly as they scampered after her.
"It was a great Asura imitation for just five minutes of practice,"
Minori reminisced afterward.