It was Friday, the day of Mashiro's welcome party.
I tried to talk to her whenever I could. First period, second period, third period, fourth period, lunchtime... but every single time she ignored me, putting up an unbreakable A.T. Barrier between us.
Finally, the day came to an end. The moment homeroom ended, I turned to look at Mashiro's desk, but she had already gathered up all her things and disappeared from the classroom. Clearly, she had been expecting me to try and catch her.
"Is everything ready on your end?" I asked Ozu, who was setting up his laptop at the desk behind mine.
He grinned at me. "All good over here. Though I'm pretty sure being forced to set up a program like this in under a week violates some kinda labor laws."
"I only asked 'cause I knew you're good enough to handle it. You finished up yesterday, right?"
"Yeah... at the cost of some sweet, sweet shut-eye." Ozu added a yawn.
"Don't worry, you can call in a favor from me whenever you want for this. Just bear with me for now, 'kay?"
"Sure thing, chief."
I pulled out my phone and opened up LIME before starting a group call with everyone.
"Operation PT is a-go," I announced. "Get into position, everyone." "Yes, sir!" Iroha, Ozu, and Sumire all replied at once.
I immediately shot up from my chair and went chasing after Mashiro. I
sped down the corridor, narrowly avoided slipping a few times, and charged down the stairs before finally spotting Mashiro at the school entrance.
"Mashiro!"
"A-Ah! Wh-What are you doing?! Why are you chasing me?"
"I need to talk to you!"
"I-I already said I'm not going to your dumb party!"
"Oh, so you remembered that it's today? I thought you weren't interested." "I... I didn't say it was today. Besides, you've been bugging me about it
all week, so of course I'd remember..."
"I guess so. Well, no worries, okay? You gotta be the one to make the
decision in the end. I won't force you if you don't wanna come." "...Really?"
"Really really."
"I dunno if I believe that." Mashiro paused. "If you're not going to make me go, why did you come chase after me?"
"This isn't about the party. I just wanted to walk home with you."
Immediately, Mashiro's eyes narrowed like a tiny munchkin cat with its haunches up. Considering how I'd been treating her this entire week, I shouldn't have been surprised how wary she was of me.
"I mean, we live in the same building, right? Makes sense to go home together."
I really wasn't asking much here. Surely she could humor me just this once? I could understand why she'd find it difficult to attend a party with a bunch of strangers, but walking together with just me shouldn't be too big a deal. It was just a teeny-tiny alteration to her daily routine. I mean, come on. To refuse something like this, she'd have to really, really hate me, like, more than anyone else on the entire planet, and I doubted—
The moment she had her shoes on, she was racing away.
I... I guess things are worse than I thought?
I stood there in shock for a while, long after she disappeared from view.
Thinking back, I couldn't really think of anything I'd done to her that wasn't desperately annoying, so maybe I should've expected this after all.
If this were a romcom light novel, I found myself thinking, something like this would definitely end up sorting itself out. But then I remembered that it was Ozu, not I, who held that peculiar power in his palm.
The girls in my life all hated my guts. Even the non-picky girls avoided me like the plague.
So if I was going to crack this nut, I really had to give it my all. And giving my all was something that I, Ooboshi Akiteru, was particularly good at.
"You're not getting away that easy, Mashiro! I'm gonna walk home with you no matter what!" I cried out after her.
***
"Why... Wh... Why are you following me?!" Mashiro asked through gasping breaths.
"Don't be so full of yourself! I'm just goin' back to my place."
"You're going back to 'your place' while... while running like a... a madman!"
Both Mashiro and I were racing down the sidewalk, long running out of breath. At first, she outran me easily, but she was a shut-in up until last week, after all. It wasn't long until she was gasping for air, and her steps were becoming unwieldy. Then there was me, who worked out every day. There was no way she could beat me when it came to stamina. I reached out my hand to grab her, but I just fell short.
"I-I'm... going... going... a different way!" Mashiro darted into a backstreet, forcing me to come to a sudden stop.
"H-Hold it!" I called out.
"See! You are following me!"
"So what if I am?! Is stalking a crime?!"
"So you admit it!" Mashiro yelled back at me, continuing through the
narrow backstreet.
She ran and ran, pushing past whatever cardboard boxes and trash lay in
her way. The boxes and their contents scattered over the path in front of me, hindering my progress. Meanwhile, I set my eyes on her and kept up the chase, ignoring the black cat whose tail I accidentally stepped on in the process.
"Wh... What do you care... about me, anyway? Y-You don't need me to... to have fun at your party! I... I can't barge in when... when you guys are already so close!"
"Who... Who else are you gonna hang with?!"
I heard her gasp.
"Have you even spoken to anyone except me this past week? There are
forty kids in our class, you know! How many have you talked to?" "S-Stop... Stop harassing me!"
I knew it was a mean question to ask. I already knew that the answer was a big fat zero, from all the time I'd spent hounding her this week. But the purpose of my cruel question wasn't just to upset her.
"Is this the kinda life you changed schools for? It's not, right?!"
"Y-You don't know what you're talking about!"
"Look, I'm sorry about what happened at the restaurant. I'll apologize as
many times as it takes. I'll even get on my knees and beg for forgiveness, if you want! You can even remind me about it every day for the rest of my life. I'll buy you sweets, or grab you lunch, or whatever you want. I'm not gonna ask you to forgive me, and I don't care if you hate me for it forever, but..." I took a deep breath. "Just stop lying to everyone by pretending you're happy with your life the way it is now!"
There was a pause. I saw her body tremble. But still, she didn't turn around. She shook her head and kept on running. Soon, we were out of that backstreet and back on a main road. I continued to chase Mashiro, who dived into a sea of cars and shouted apologies at the drivers who hurled insults at her. I chased and chased until we ended up by a riverbank.
It was clear that she wasn't thinking straight at this point. Why else would she choose to run up a slope?
"Aaand... gotcha!"
It was just as she was reaching the top of the slope that Mashiro stumbled, and I finally caught up to her.
The elation of my victory was quickly crushed by the reality of the situation.
"Huh?"
"Aaah!"
Mashiro had come to a very sudden stop, and there I was, charging into
her at full speed. There was no way her petite, feminine body was going to be able to withstand mine, which had all the mass of a full-grown man.
She screamed. I yelled. Our bodies colliding, we ended up flying over the low fence behind her and rolling down the other side of the slope in a tangle of limbs.
At the bottom of that slope lay the river itself, as if I have to tell you. Its only saving grace was that it wasn't particularly deep. At least drowning wasn't on the menu today.
Everything else about this situation was ass, though.
"Uugh! Gah! Where the hell'd this water come from? Satan's sewer pipe?" I coughed and spat.
Mashiro sat up and spluttered next to me. "I-I'm soaked!"
"Mashiro, are you... o...kay?"
"Huh? What's the matter, Aki?" Mashiro asked, having picked up on the
strange crack in my voice.
The next moment, she understood.
You know too, right? What happens when someone falls into a river? If
not, grab a seat 'cause I'm about to tell you.
Her uniform was completely soaked and clinging tightly to her body
underneath. Her round thighs, her socks, her lovely hair, her pale white skin... Small drops of water dripped from every last inch of her like melting snow on a frosty morning. I know I'm trying to be poetic here, but to be honest, there was only one word to describe it:
Hot.
Sorry to be crude, but there was no other word for it. Maybe I was just relieved that we came out unscathed. Usually, social expectations would keep those kinds of thoughts from bubbling to the surface, but right now I didn't have the strength to hold them back. She was so mysteriously beautiful right then, that it felt like my hand would go straight through her if I tried to touch her. I just couldn't look away.
Mashiro probably realized just what sort of state her half-transparent uniform was in. Her white skin was flushed red as a poison apple, and her lips began to tremble.
"St-Stop... Stop looking at me, you pervert!"
"I'm sorry! You just look so hot right now!"
"Seriously?! That's your excuse?!"
She had a point. I really didn't need to admit that out loud. Mashiro
scrambled backwards, water splashing around her feet as she went. All the while she tried to cover her body with her hands. She didn't get very far though, as the heavy water pressure began to hinder her movements.
"Careful!" I yelled, darting forward and catching her wobbling body.
Our wet bodies were pressed together, and our faces were mere centimeters apart. I felt my heart starting to pound, and I had to look away to avoid making yet another social faux pas.
"Tell me when I can let go," I said. "I'm not planning to hold on to you
forever."
"O-Okay..." Mashiro looked away.
Either my plan to reassure her I wasn't up to any funny business had
worked, or she was simply embarrassed. Whichever it was, the tension in her body quickly loosened as she allowed me to support her. The moment she was steady again, she let out a sigh of relief.
"You can let go now."
"All right. Don't fall over again, okay?"
"...Okay."
She was still wobbling a little as we made our way back up the slope, so
I kept my arms out just in case. The moment we were past the railing and back in familiar territory, we both flopped to the ground, exhausted.
"This is the worst day ever."
"Agreed."
"We must really look like a couple now, huh? We're even pulling off the
same 'soaking wet' look." I didn't mean anything by it. It was just the first thing that came to mind now that I could properly see the state we were in.
And then, Mashiro began to giggle.
Image Here
"Are you kidding? This look'll never catch on!"
"Maybe it's just God's way of blessing our fake relationship, then." "More like Satan's."
"Huh? If he's after us, I guess we'd better say our prayers. Maybe then
God can make this into a 'fond memory' for us."
"I wouldn't get your hopes up. Curses don't just disappear overnight,"
Mashiro mumbled. All of a sudden, she looked so sad somehow. Like a girl hiding from her angry parents in the corner of a dark room.
"Guess not. Anyway, why are you so sure you don't wanna come to the party?"
If she didn't seem lonely before, she definitely did now.
She had worked so hard to convince her dad to send her to a new school, and, far from making friends, she didn't even look like she was having fun in class. Even if she told me she was fine, there was no way I could believe that at this point. Remember, Ozu was supposed to be the dense protagonist, not me.
That was why I had to ask her. Even though I knew it was a sensitive subject, I just couldn't leave her dwelling in loneliness like this. I knew that the real Mashiro had to be hiding just beneath the surface.
"You really are stubborn, you know, going through all this just for me. I think you need your head examined."
"So I'm the weirdo, huh? Listen, even if you pretend to be normal in class, right now you look just as messed up as me."
"I'm not really trying to hide that part of me at school, though. But I feel like I've seen another side to you now. Your friends must be similar..."
By "friends," did she mean the rest of the 05th Floor Alliance? I wanted to ask why she'd bring them up now, but I hesitated, and Mashiro continued before I could voice my question.
"I'm sorry, Aki. It's not you. I don't hate you, really. So please don't hate me, either."
"What makes you think I hate you? Though I guess it's a relief to hear you don't feel that way about me." I smiled awkwardly, noticing that there were tears welling up in her eyes.
I knew that there was something in Mashiro's past that she had difficulty talking about. That was exactly why I was determined to avoid any sort of words or actions that would force it to come to the surface, despite my
constantly harassing her. But now, Mashiro was trying to talk. She was trying to come out of her shell, all by her own power.
"Um... the truth is... I'm scared."
"Scared?"
"Scared I won't fit in with your friends. Scared that they won't like me
and start ignoring me, and then you'll start ignoring me too... I know it's weird, but..."
"It's totally understandable."
"Huh?"
I understood completely, and I wanted her to know that. "You're
preoccupied with the whole fake-couple thing, so maybe you haven't realized it yet, but basically 99% of the class already ignores me. I know what it feels like to be invisible."
"Wh-What? But..." Mashiro's eyes were wide with disbelief.
"They're not doing it to be mean, or anything. I just don't stand out. My grades are average, my looks are average. I'm just not very interesting. I'm as average as average can be."
"That's not true! You're the head of the 05th Floor Alliance!" "Oh, you've heard of us?"
Did I mention our name to her already?
"That uh, my... my dad told me," she said.
"Oh, right. Makes sense."
Tsukinomori-san loved his daughter as much as he loved women. I wasn't surprised that he wouldn't mind breaking a few NDAs when sharing things about his life with her. Not that we had an NDA with him.
"Y-You're making a really interesting game, right? He said you're already making so much money, even though you're just a high schooler."
"We split the profits," I explained, "and most of them are going into making the next game anyway. I'm not as rich as you think I am."
"But still, you're in charge of a game-development team! And people of all ages are playing it, too! That's... That's just so incredible. You should be super popular!"
"No one's clamoring to befriend a game dev, y'know. Besides, we haven't told anyone at school."
Mashiro frowned at me. "Why not? Are you... Are you scared they'll tease you for it?"
"That's not it. I just don't want all the attention. Otherwise I'd probably get big-headed." I could really see that happening, to be honest.
"But don't you want the glory?"
"'Course I do. I'm human just like everyone else." Attention and validation was something everyone was after in this world, and it wasn't like being invisible made me happy. "Like I said, I don't wanna get a big head. I'd probably waste so much of my time bathing in the attention and bragging, that it's better to keep it a secret. It'd be more efficient to keep that time for the important things, right?"
Mashiro stared at me for a while, mulling over my answer.
"You're a freak," she finally decided, smiling more brilliantly than she had so far.
"So you're really not coming?"
Mashiro and I had walked home together, our water-sodden clothes making us look like a punk version of Hansel and Gretel. We finally made it to the lobby of our apartment building.
Mashiro glanced up at me before shaking her head. "I'm sorry... I appreciate the invite, though."
"They're nice guys, really. They'll make sure you feel welcome and all." "I know, I just... wouldn't be comfortable."
"That's fair, I guess. All right, you win. I won't badger you about it
anymore."
We stepped into the waiting elevator and stayed silent the rest of the way
up.
In the end, I wasn't able to persuade Mashiro. She was more withdrawn
than I'd realized, scared even to make acquaintances, let alone friends. It'd only been a few days since we were reunited, so maybe it was a little naive to think she'd open up to me so soon.
We even ended up falling into the river and laughing together, but Mashiro still wasn't ready to put aside her fears. I knew she was hurting, but even though I thought that being with people would be for the best, I decided to respect her decision for the time being.
"Goodbye, then." Mashiro turned around to return to her room the moment the elevator arrived at the fifth floor.
I smiled as she went. "You'll at least talk to me normally at school from next week, right?"
Mashiro paused. "Okay."
I watched her totter towards Room 501, the room right next to mine, not moving until she got to her door.
"Huh? Did I forget to lock up this morning?" Mashiro stared at the doorknob in confusion.
"What's wrong?"
"Oh, um... My door's unlocked. That's weird."
"D'you think someone broke in?"
"I-I'm not sure..." She looked up at me anxiously.
This was her first time living alone, and she still wasn't used to her new
home. To find her door unexpectedly unlocked on top of all of that must have been really frightening. It'd be fine if it turned out she just forgot to lock it, but what if it was a burglar? And what if the burglar was still inside?
The color drained from Mashiro's face. I wondered if those same fears were flooding her head right now.
"Let's take a look. Don't worry, I'll go in with you."
"Okay..."
I positioned myself in front of her just in case, and stepped into her dark
apartment. We kicked off our shoes before we moved in deeper. The two of us crept forward, practically clinging to each other.
The apartment was deathly silent, with not a hint of activity. Our footsteps seemed to thunder off the walls despite how lightly we were treading. My heart pounded louder with every step, and I could feel a sheen of sweat forming on my forehead. Mashiro was clinging to my shirt like a lost child looking for its parent.
Together, we stopped in front of the door to the living room. I looked down at Mashiro. She gulped before nodding at me. I grabbed the doorknob, then swung the door open with full force and pushed Mashiro inside.
"Huh?"
"I'm not gonna try and convince you anymore."
Mashiro turned round and looked at me, confused.
"But I'm not about to respect your feelings, either!" I grinned at her with
all the malevolence of a serial killer watching the death of his rival, now ready to take his place as the god of a new world.
Bang!
The next moment, gunshots rang through the air.
Just kidding. They weren't gunshots.
Mashiro stood flummoxed in the middle of the room, as bullets—I mean, confetti—rained down upon her.
"Welcome to the fifth floor!"
Welcome, Mashiro-chan! yelled the banner on the living room wall. All sorts of different teas and alcohol lined the dining table. There was juice, fancy takeout food, and a large, fragrant pot of Iroha's homemade vegetable curry. To top it all off, Iroha, Ozu, and Sumire were standing 'round the table with their recently-exploded party poppers.
I had delivered Mashiro straight into the hands of the hungry witch waiting in her delicious gingerbread house. Poor Gretel probably wasn't expecting that her beloved brother would lead her to her doom.
"What... What's all this?" she asked.
"I told you we were plannin' a welcome party for you, right?"
"I know, but... why is it here? You guys broke into my apartment?" "Trust me, I tell Iroha every day just how much of a crime breaking and
entering is," I said.
"You mean—"
"But this is different. We didn't break into anywhere. This is my place." "What? No. This is my apartment."
"Oh? Did you even read the doorplate?" I asked.
"I don't have a doorplate. I just moved here after all."
"Which is why it was so easy to fool ya. All I had to do was take the
doorplate off my place."
"But... But this is..."
"Take a look. Is this how your furniture's arranged? Have you ever been
in this room before?"
"No..." Mashiro admitted after a pause.
"Your Honor, I rest my case."
"But I'm sure I came through my own door!" Mashiro protested.
It was time to give her another hint.
"How do you remember which door is yours?"
"Well, it's the furthest down the hall."
"Right. Humans identify and memorize their location by the environment
around them."
Mashiro's memory of this place was still fuzzy. While she'd get used to it
after coming and going so many times, at this point she was still using basic information to find her way around.
"You remember which room is yours 'cause it's the one at the end of the hall."
"Of course. The door at the end. The door I just came through!"
"Hold it! You didn't go through the door at the end. Otherwise you wouldn't be in this room. Your testimony contradicts the evidence."
She still looked utterly confused. I didn't blame her.
"Come and take a look." I led her out into the hallway again.
When we opened the door to her apartment, there was nothing but a solid
wall on our left. Mashiro frowned at it while I reached out my hand towards it. The next moment...
Mashiro gasped.
"It's just a screen. We made sure it had the exact same texture and color as the wall and then we set it up here."
"W-Woah. Yeah... You can see where it's been pushed a bit too hard to fit..."
"By the way, I chased you this afternoon so I could give the others time to set this all up."
"You really put that much thought into this?"
"Yeah. We put together all sort of back-up plans, just in case you refused, or somethin' went wrong."
If Mashiro accepted the invitation, we wouldn't have needed to go through all this trouble, of course. Since she didn't, I ended up chasing her, and was careful not to let her go straight home.
"We broke our backs settin' this up, y'know! All just to fool you. Aki's requests are always insane, and always on a tight schedule."
"But you always succeed somehow. I guess that's why we're friends." I smiled at Ozu, who had come out to join us.
Ozu was arguably the most important member of the 05th Floor Alliance when it came to getting tricky stuff like this done. As the programmer, he had all the technical skills of the group. In just a few days, he'd managed to create a program capable of manipulating incredibly detailed images, using Sumire's artistic eye for help along the way.
"Looks like Operation PT was a huge success!" PT. Partition Trap.
"Why?!" Mashiro finally broke through her confusion, and was now trembling in anger. "Why would you do something like this, just to get me to go to your stupid party?"
"You'll get it once you come back in. I promise that none of these guys are the type to ignore you."
Mashiro was simply too naive. She had always been trapped inside her head, shut inside her room. So much so, that she couldn't even recognize a fake wall. In her eyes, she was the protagonist of her own world. No one else's view mattered to her. That was what made her so easy to trick, and we did it to teach her a simple lesson: The world didn't have it in for her.
"B-But... you can't expect me to make friends with... with these people just like that."
"C'mon, Mashiro-senpai! Lighten... Woah!" Iroha, who had just jumped out of my apartment to fling her arms around Mashiro, was greeted by a soggy sensation. She immediately pulled back. "What happened to your uniform?! Did Aki-senpai do something to you?! You can tell us! We'll be your witnesses!"
"Can it. Can't you see I'm soaked, too?"
"Ooh, she's a squirter, huh?!"
"Woah, grab a drink. You're thirsty as heck," I said.
Did this girl not have a shred of decency?
And why was I asking a question I already knew the answer to?
"Oh, my sweet, innocent Aki! You poor child of summer! All girls my age
know about that kinda thing!" Iroha turned her attention to Mashiro, giving her a small tap on the tip of her nose. "Listen up, Mashiro-san! You've got it wrong! The four of us ain't friends at all!"
"What?" Mashiro blinked.
"Well, I guess Aki-senpai and my brother are. Actually, they're probably more like lovers! Wouldn't that be hot?!"
"Omgosh, totally hot! You've got the super-sadistic cool and collected Aki as the top and the princely Ozu as the bottom! It's just too perfect!"
"Get back inside, you drunkard. Also, at least wait till Mashiro's arrived to start drinking!"
"Come on! It's your fault for leaving me in the room alone with the drinks!"
Ladies and gentlemen, our class's role model, Sumire-sensei. Someone
who was incapable of having a good time without getting hammered. "Wh-What do you mean you aren't friends? You get along so well!"
Mashiro protested.
"Well, I mean. Aki's not my friend. He's my brother's friend. And my
brother's not my friend 'cause he's my brother. Then Sumire-chan-sensei can't be my friend either, 'cause she's a teacher. Get what I'm sayin'?"
"Right, it's the same for me," I chipped in. "Ozu's my friend, but Iroha's just his sister. And this drunkard is my excuse for a teacher."
"That's it! Detention!"
"What? For tellin' the truth?"
Iroha shoved Sumire back inside to stop her wailing, then said over her
shoulder, "We just happen to live on the same floor, so we decided to socialize a little, y'know? That's all. Nothin' to do with friendship."
"Really? What about the game you're all making together?"
"Huh? You know about that?" Iroha shot me a questioning glance.
I nodded back at her, realizing now that I'd failed to warn them.
"I guess that's a pretty big deal, yeah. But it's not really why we have
parties like this. Otherwise I'd be left out, since I've done nothin' for it!" "That's... true," Mashiro said.
"In fact, I've done nothin' to earn my invitation, and neither have these
guys! None of us are friends or lovers, and most of us aren't family, either. We were all just chuggin' along, contributing nothing to society when Aki- senpai came along and—"
"Enough! You've said enough." I slapped my hand over Iroha's mouth to stop her explaining how the 05th Floor Alliance was formed.
It wasn't an interesting tale in the least, and nothing Mashiro needed to know about, either.
"Anyway, you get it now? You're Aki-senpai's fake lover, and I'm your fake lover's friend's sister. That's enough to qualify you to hang out with us! You don't have to be friends with us to join the 05th Floor Alliance! In fact, you don't even hafta live on the same floor! We got someone called Makigai Namako-sensei in our group too, and he lives like a billion miles away! But he's still one of us!"
The moment Iroha mentioned the name "Makigai Namako," Mashiro made a strange noise and her face crumpled into a frown. She must've heard the name before if she knew about us as a group. He was the most famous
member of the Alliance, given that he worked in the industry.
That his absence didn't affect the way we included him as one of us was
the biggest proof that we didn't care for labels such as "friends." "Do you get it now?"
"I-I can't believe you tricked me!"
She wasn't wrong there. What we did was kinda unfair.
"It worked though, right?"
"Yeah... Thanks." Though Mashiro was doing her best to keep up her frown, the happy flush to her cheeks was genuine.
***
First things first, Mashiro and I went to take a shower. We weren't gonna party while stinking of river water, after all.
Don't get the wrong idea though. She went back to her place and I showered at mine. Once I was done and out of my uniform, I waited outside for Mashiro to come back, and then the two of us went back to the living room where everyone was gathered.
Except they weren't there.
I could hear the sound of voices coming from the furthest bedroom of my three-bedroom apartment.
They'd better not be doing what I think they're doing...
"Everyone's gone," Mashiro said.
"They've transcended into the adult world."
"They've... what?!"
"This is probably gonna be your first time, right? Well, don't worry. I'll
teach you everything you need to know."
"W-Wait a second! This is all too sudden!"
"Don't worry. The anxiety disappears pretty soon. Let's go, yeah?" I took
Mashiro by the hand and led her forward.
She tried to resist, but I wasn't letting her go. It was too late for her to get
out now. It was time to bring her down to my own filthy level.
"P-Please stop! I don't want... I mean, if it was just you, I wouldn't mind,
but I don't want... to be part of your weird orgy!"
I ignored her quiet, unintelligible pleas, and opened the door. There was
the noise of shuffling bodies.
"'Sup, Aki. We were just gettin' started."
"Yay! Senpai's here! A threesome just ain't enough, y'know! The more the merrier!"
"A threesome?!" Sumire burst out laughing.
"Don't say it like that! You'll give Mashiro the wrong idea! Ah, thanks for that, Sumire-sensei! Ron. That's 12,000 points for me!"
"No way!"
"Huh?" Mashiro was staring at the scene before her with a blank look at her face.
I didn't know what she was expecting, but apparently it wasn't this. I couldn't blame her; after all, who did own an automatic mahjong table these days?
"What's going on?" Mashiro asked slowly.
"We eat, we drink, and sometimes we play mahjong!" Sumire explained. "Come join us! Four players is way better than three!" Iroha said. "Whaddya think, Mashiro?" I asked.
"I've... I've only ever played online before."
"Oh, I've heard that before." Ozu sighed. "Anyone who uses that line ends
up being super good."
"For real! It's like 'Yeah, you want us to believe you're crap, right?'"
Iroha laughed.
"I wonder if she'll beat you, Ozuma-kun? Though nothing beats my super
awesome hadaka tanki!" Sumire grinned and rolled up her sleeves. This was probably a good time to point out that she was the worst
mahjong player I'd ever seen in my life, evidenced by how Ozu just called ron after her poor play.
The good thing about Sumire as a player was that she enjoyed the game no matter how many times she lost. I pushed down on Mashiro's shoulders to make her sit.
She looked up at me with frightened eyes. "I-I don't want to bet anything..."
"Don't worry, we don't get money involved. I'd never allow gambling under my roof!"
"All we're betting is our dignity!" Iroha giggled.
Mashiro didn't look reassured.
"Winning is everything!" Iroha continued. "C'mon, you can play instead
of Aki-senpai! He won't mind just this once, okay?"
"I won't mind, huh?" I snapped. "Well... you're right, actually."
Unlike Iroha, I didn't care whether Mashiro won or lost on my behalf. "Go on, just join in for one game to start with. This is the kinda game that
brings out the players' true colors, too, so you'll get to know them straight away," I said.
"Okay... I'll try." Though she still seemed uncertain, Mashiro reached out to pick up her first tile.
That was how Mashiro's welcome party started off with a mahjong tournament. It was a pretty casual affair though, allowing everyone to introduce themselves and chat as the games went on. Names, interests, and favorite foods were shared all around the table. What started as light-hearted conversation soon moved on to the topic of late-night anime, one of Mashiro's passions. As she learned more and more about the others, the stiff expression on her face gradually loosened.
By the way, Ozu was consistently the strongest player in the tournament, using his logical mind to evaluate the strength of each of his hands. Mashiro was at zero points, having missed every opportunity to score, likely because she was nervous meeting so many people. We didn't allow for negative scores in our house rules, so she was on the cusp of losing.
"Ooh, you're in trouble now, Mashiro-san!" Iroha cackled. "All I need to do now is trash Ozuma and then I win! As for my prize, I think I'll choose an evening alone with Senpai! Haha, just kiddin'! Did I get y'r hopes up?!"
"No."
"Aww, c'mon! I know your tiny virgin brain's been obsessed with my boobs since the day we met!"
"Shut up and focus on the mahjong. Mashiro's dealing."
"Big deal! She hasn't declared riichi once!"
"Um... Iroha-chan?" Mashiro called out, her voice nearly lost among the
noise of tiles being stacked. "'Sup?"
"Are you sure you're not... going out with Aki?" "What?! Sure, we're datin'! We're totally in love!" "Huh?"
"Just kidding! Gottem! Right?"
"Uh... Yeah, you did..."
Mashiro really needs to learn to stand up for herself...
"Careful, Mashiro. This one'll take any chance she can to get on your nerves."
"Hey! Quit makin' me look bad! I'm not gonna try and piss her off as much as you, so don't worry!"
"How about you leave me alone too, then?"
"Sorry, no can do! Pissing you off gives me life!"
"It doesn't take much, huh?" I sighed before noticing Mashiro was being
awfully quiet. "Mashiro? What's wrong?"
She had completely stopped midway through discarding a tile, and even
looked a little mad.
"You two get along really well considering you're not dating," she said.
Image here
"What? You jealous?" Iroha asked.
"O-Of course not!"
"I dunno, you're actin' awful sus. Besides, aren't you fake dating him?
Those kinda things always end up with one fallin' for the other in the end, right?"
Mashiro gasped.
I didn't get it. It was like Iroha had her wrapped around her little finger. Wait... Unless...?
"Don't be ridiculous! I'd never fall for a total pervert like him!" "Damn, you're almost as harsh as Senpai!" Iroha grinned.
"Huh?"
"What? Whaddya lookin' at me for?" I asked.
"If you act like that with her, then... Aki, how do you really feel about
Iroha-chan?"
"Oh, right. Well, I feel about her the same way you do about me." Yup. I hate her guts.
Mashiro stared at me in silence.
"Oh, now I get it!" Iroha studied Mashiro, a glint in her eye.
I didn't know what was going on, but it sure seemed like trouble. Why
were the two girls looking at each other like that? "Oh..."
"Ron."
The victorious word was out of Mashiro's mouth the moment Iroha dropped the tile in her hand.
"Thirteen orphans. That's 48,000 points."
"Wh-What?!"
"Sorry. I thought it was time for a comeback."
"Damn. Getting a yakuman hand as the dealer, and at this stage? That's
insane!"
"Nooo! I was just about to win!" Iroha wailed, passing her scoring sticks
over to Mashiro.
Mashiro smirked.
I guess stranger things happened every day. If Iroha had actually been
paying attention, maybe she wouldn't have discarded the exact tiles Mashiro needed for her thirteen orphans. I wondered what it was that was distracting her.
***
The evening wore on, and it was now past midnight.
I sighed as I looked upon the mess my room had become. Everyone had gone back to their own places, leaving me with my table covered in mahjong tiles, and empty cans and bottles littering the floor.
"Can't believe those savages would just scuttle back to their rooms and leave me to clean up all this mess..."
Maybe it was my fault for letting them leave so easily. Ozu was the last one to go, and he did offer to help clean up, but I felt bad asking for his help now when he did so much work to make Operation PT a success. Mashiro was the guest of honor, so she got a pass. Iroha and Sumire were the real targets of my rage, but I'd be a fool to expect any better of them anyway.
At the end of the day, I was just glad that everything went just as planned. Going forward, I hoped this would help Mashiro open up a little, and that she'd be able to have fun in her last couple years of school.
Wait, what am I saying?
I'd just done Tsukinomori-san a huge favor.
Before you start lauding me as a hero or a saint though, remember that I only did this because it was in the best interests of the 05th Floor Alliance's future. Mashiro benefiting from this was only a bonus. As long as this improved my relationship with her father, it didn't really matter how it affected her (although I was glad it helped her out, of course).
I only went as far as I did for myself and my development team, and I did it with full knowledge that I risked causing Mashiro stress if it went wrong. Putting it like that made me realize just what a scumbag of a human being I was.
I'd been called heartless before.
It was in elementary school, and I was in a soccer match with another school. One of our members was terrible, to put it kindly, and I warned my team not to pass the ball to him. Once the teacher in charge caught wind, she scolded me. She told me to think about how that would make him feel. I only wanted to keep the ball away from him to give us the best chances of winning, but apparently that was "cruel."
Later, the kid in question told me he was actually relieved that no one passed the ball to him, and that he didn't even want to take place in the
tournament to start with. He was worried that he'd just let the ball get stolen, and either let the team down or make a fool of himself.
He was okay with it, but everybody else said I was a real piece of work.
Since then, I've become a lot less narrow-minded, and now I can kind of see where my peers were coming from. I'd forgotten that my actions could have caused someone to get hurt. As long things ended up how I wanted, other people's feelings didn't matter. That was why they called me "heartless."
I couldn't remember when I came to understand their point of view, but it all started making sense to me at some point along the way.
I guess all that stuff doesn't really matter anymore anyway...
At this point in life, I was committed to my lifestyle of maximum efficiency. Even if that meant other people got hurt. Because, on the other side of the coin, there were people who benefited from my life choices.
Just as I was finished cleaning up and piling the garbage bags in the corner of the living room, I heard a knock. It wasn't at the door, though; it was at the window that led out onto the balcony.
What sort of person would be knocking at a five-story window at this time of night? It was either going to be a burglar, or some other troublemaker.
I decided to repurpose the broom from cleaning tool to weapon, and slowly made my way towards the glass door hidden behind the curtain. The tapping noise continued. I reached out to unlock it.
I swept the curtain aside and thrust the window open before bringing the broom down hard on the head of the person outside.
"Take that!"
There was a satisfying bonk followed by a scream. The evildoer fell to the ground, twitching and holding their head.
"Oh my God! What kinda senpai attacks their poor, defenseless kouhai?!" "Oh, it's you, Iroha."
"Don't lie! You knew it was me!"
"No I didn't! I was only 95% percent sure."
"Next time round it up to 100%, dumbass!" Iroha snapped far too loudly for this time of night, still clasping at her head with tears in her eyes. "And even if it wasn't me, you still shouldn't go round hittin' people!"
"It's way past midnight! It was either gonna be you or a burglar, and both of those deserve to be hit."
"I call domestic violence!"
"It's not domestic when you're outside and you don't even live here. Anyway, why're you comin' in through the balcony? You know I have a front door, right?"
"This is the only way to get in without my parents finding out!"
"Yeah, but if the apartment manager finds out, you'll be in even more trouble." I sighed.
Between each balcony in this building, there was a partition which was breakable in case of emergencies. Iroha had broken a hole in the partition between our balconies so that she could come by whenever she wanted. The hole was in the bottom and she usually hid it behind a large pile of cardboard boxes, but if anybody ever found out, she was done for. Her excuse was that her room was by the window closest to my place, so why shouldn't she come over whenever she wanted?
"So whaddya want?" I asked.
"I just wanted to talk to you."
"You coulda just stayed behind after the party."
"Then you woulda roped me into helpin' you clean up though, right? No
thanks! I'm only here 'cause I thought you'd probably be done right about now."
I don't think I've ever met somebody as unashamedly ill-mannered as her in my entire life. I couldn't get mad though, since I was used to it by now.
"You wanted to talk about something serious, huh?"
"Kinda, yeah."
"I'll hear you out, then."
"Thanks." Iroha grinned and twirled around before leaning forward on the balcony railing.
Image Here
I kicked my sandals on before joining her. It was early summer, and so the wind was still slightly chilly at this time of night. I glanced at Iroha, who was wearing a jacket over her pajamas. She was rubbing her arms, as though a little cold. She must've had a good reason for leaving the warmth of her comfy bed to come talk to me.
Iroha leaned her chin on her folded arms atop the railings and looked at me sideways.
"Nice job getting Mashiro-senpai to come to the party. You went through a lot for that, right?"
"I guess."
"You can touch my boobs if you want. That'll help re-energize you, right?"
"I'm not falling for that one again."
"Okay, so maybe I'm not gonna let you touch my boobs, but I do wanna help in some way."
"Yeah, still not buyin' it."
"Hmph. Whatever, then." Iroha prodded at the back of my hand on the railing in a huff. "It's been a while since I've seen you put your mind to somethin' like that, y'know."
"Yeah. I guess it was kinda bad of me to stick my nose in Mashiro's business."
"I wasn't sayin' it was bad, dummy." Iroha stuck her tongue out at me before turning her gaze to the balcony opposite her family's place. "You said Mashiro-senpai was your cousin, right?"
"Yeah, and her dad's a real big shot."
"So the reason you're being nice to her is so you can get into his company?"
"That's right. It's all about..."
"...Efficiency."
I was being serious. Everything I did to give Mashiro a warm welcome to
the fifth floor was for my own sake. I wasn't out to "save" her or anything heroic like that. Operation PT was entirely for the benefit of me and my team. If Iroha was here to call me "cruel" or "heartless," I could well understand that.
"You really are kind, Senpai."
Iroha's soft spoken words were the last thing I expected from anyone with
any common sense.
"I must be, or you'd already be dead. I'd have thrown you in the woods
somewhere to be eaten by wolves."
"Hey, I'm tryin' to be serious here! Can't you try and meet me halfway?" "Sorry."
It was hard to keep up with sometimes. That Iroha was scolding me for
not being serious was weird enough in itself.
"You are kind, Senpai. I mean..." Iroha glanced around as if to make sure
nobody else was listening and lowered her voice before continuing. "You haven't even told anyone that I'm the voice actor for Koyagi, but you still let me hang out with everyone."
Our indie game had over one million downloads. The impressive story, the charming character designs, and the finely tuned game mechanics were all highly praised, but there was one more thing that impressed the players.
The voice acting. The praise was universal: All the character voices were expressive and enchanting, but it was strange that none of the twenty actors involved were credited. Social media was swimming with rumors. They used famous actors who simply didn't want to be credited. The project had taken on voice actors who were unknown, but had a good future ahead of them. The voice actors were gathered from people they scouted on the streets, but just so happened to be super talented. Seriously, there was no end to these stupid rumors. They'd never get it right, anyway.
Who would ever believe that all of the voices, both male and female, were done by just one high-school girl?!
Though I guess she wouldn't be the only voice actor out there with an incredible range.
I thought back to when we were in the tiny recording studio together. It was just me, Iroha, and Otoi-san, the sound engineer who signed a strict NDA. I remember being blown away by Iroha's astounding and diverse performance. She almost had me believing in the existence of these characters.
"You really are talented, y'know."
Iroha giggled bashfully.
"The problem is your ego is too easily inflated."
"Aww, c'mon! I need praise to grow!"
"No you don't. You grow enough just livin' off tomato juice."
Honestly, Iroha didn't need me at all. Hers was the kind of talent where she woke up one day, and suddenly realized she was actually really good at voice acting. I was just the leech who was there to profit off it.
"C'mon. I wouldn't be here without you, Senpai."
"I dunno about that. I think you have a lot to thank that cheerful personality of yours for, to be honest."
"Open your eyes, Senpai. I only act that way with you and the rest of the Alliance."
"Right. Around other people, you pretend to be normal."
"Around my family, too."
"I guess you really haven't changed."
"If I had, maybe I wouldn't mind being credited as the voice actress." She
winked at me, but there wasn't much feeling behind it. "Our parents would never let me do that kinda work for real. They won't even let us have a TV, so the only anime I get to watch is the stuff that's streamed online."
"Did you ever find out why they're so against that kinda thing?"
"No clue. It's probably got somethin' to do with my mom's old job, but she never lets us ask about her past at all. I keep waitin' for a chance, but sometimes I think it'll never come, y'know?"
"Right..."
I knew there was some kind of complicated reason behind her parents' mentality. A few years ago, Ozu even stopped coming to school for a while and now, Iroha was barred from making her own choices in life.
I knew she had talent. I wanted her to be able to spread those beautiful wings of hers and fly out from her cage, into the sky where she belonged.
It was because of her parents that she was keeping her voice roles a secret. She wasn't in the Alliance's LIME group for the very same reason. Even Ozu thought the only reason I hung out with her was because she was his sister. It was a little tough to get her into our regular parties without anyone getting suspicious, though.
"Me, my brother, Sumire-chan-sensei... You're working so hard to try and set all of us free from our families and our chains..."
"By flaunting my connections in your faces, yeah."
"Welp, that's just how the world works when capitalism gets involved!" She had a point.
All the members of the Alliance had talent, but that talent was restricted
in some way by their families or circumstances, leading them to give up on what they really wanted. I was the one pulling them out of that pit and letting them shine. I wasn't going to let them give up on their dreams. There was nothing less efficient, or more harmful to society than ripping someone away from a profession that actually suited them.
Every one of my fellow members had a particular talent that I could only dream of, and yet they were on the cusp of throwing it all away. But I was there to pick them up, using those talents for my own success. What were they thinking? Keeping their super programming, writing, drawing, and voice acting skills to themselves was just plain selfish.
Those were the feelings which led me to forming the 05th Floor Alliance. I knew now just how cringey and selfish I was being back then, and it wasn't something I liked to think too hard about. That was why I tried to stop anybody talking about the past if I could help it. I was powerless when it came to the pain in the ass that was Kohinata Iroha, though.
"I'm never gonna stop talkin' about the past, 'cause that's how grateful I am. I don't wanna forget."
"I know, but—"
"Yeah, yeah. You were just lookin' out for your own future, right?" "Yup. So you really don't have any reason to be thanking me."
"Your reasons don't matter, though. You helped me learn what it was I
really wanted. I don't care how icky you feel about it; lemme thank you!" "So you snuck out in the middle of the night just to say 'thank you' for the
millionth time?"
"You got it!" She grinned at me.
"You really shouldn't have," I said. And I meant it.
"There you go again. The whole thing about getting Mashiro-senpai to
come to the party for your own sake is just an excuse too, right? Y'know, just in case anybody dares think you might be a nice person or somethin'."
"It's like you read my mind. But yeah. I don't want the credit."
She could believe that if it made her feel better. It made me feel gross to think I'd done something purely out of the kindness of my own heart. I hated it when people praised me for my selflessness, because it just wasn't who I was. Iroha knew this full well, and yet she was still smiling as she lifted herself up from the handrail.
"Look, you can paint yourself as some undeserving chump all you want,
but I'm still allowed to be grateful to you, okay?"
I didn't reply.
"I know the truth, even if you don't wanna admit it yourself. You are a
good person." Iroha wrapped her arms around me from behind and squeezed me tight. It felt the exact same as the time she "forgot" to wear her bra. I guess she wasn't wearing one under her pajamas. Not that it mattered right now. I could feel myself relaxing under the warmth of her body, only now realizing just how tense I had been.
I'd been through a lot recently. There was my reunion with Mashiro and putting up with her constant "hatred" of me while being her fake boyfriend, and then there was the whole matter of getting her to open up after years of shutting herself off from the world. I guess anybody'd be exhausted after all of that.
"This does actually make me feel better."
"Haha! That's what they all say on TV when the girl hugs 'em!"
I could feel Iroha's laughter warming my back. Or maybe I was just
imagining it.
Neither of us spoke, as neither of us were sure what to do with the strange
feeling in the air. I wasn't even really conscious of the soft sensation of her chest anymore. Instead, I focused on the gentle rhythm of her heartbeat, as my own started to settle into the same comfortable pattern.
Just then, Iroha mumbled something. "I just want you to be a bit more honest with yourself, and everyone else. It's kinda sad seeing you lock all these feelings up inside you."
"What do you mean?"
"I know that I'm just your best friend's sister, and that kinda sets me apart from your other friends but... I think I wouldn't mind it if you did call me a friend. Then we could just be nice to each other without any sort of weird background ideas of 'efficiency' or whatever. We could just be... equal, I guess."
"You're not happy with how things are now? You mean you wanna be closer?"
"Well... Yeah. I mean, we're not even in the same grade, and..." She quickly cut herself off. "Wait, who cares why?! I'm just sayin', quit bein' so hard on yourself! I want you to do something about that, okay? 'Cause it's super annoying!"
So we were back to the insults, huh?
I did get what she was saying, though. Up until now, I purposely kept my distance from all the other Alliance members apart from Ozu. I was worried that if we ended up getting too chummy and comfortable, I would stop being able to lead them as effectively. That was how little confidence I had in my own skills.
I only became friends with Ozu because it was necessary. It was the easiest way to remove the obstacles that held him back, and help him find his true calling. Otherwise, I would've kept him at arm's length just like I did the others.
But ever since Mashiro showed up, my relationships with everyone else had changed. I'd never had anyone I let in close enough to become my girlfriend, but I had no choice with her, even if it was a fake relationship. At the same time, it seemed to weaken the relationships I had with Iroha, Sumire, and the other members.
I had to stop us from drifting apart, and what Iroha said to me tonight proved it.
"Iroha?"
"What?" came the reply from behind me.
I wasn't planning to start harping on about how much nicer I was gonna be
from now on. But at the very least, I wouldn't mind acting more like a friend going forward. Luckily, tomorrow was Saturday.
"Wanna go shopping tomorrow?"
"Huh?! You mean like a date?! An incel like you asking me on a date?!" "Y'know I'm close enough to smack you, right?" Despite my threat of
violence, I was secretly relieved that she was back to her normal self. "I wanna invite everyone. You can join as my friend, instead of just my friend's sister."
***
Murasaki Shikibu-sensei: What do you think about AKI's invitation? OZ: I'll pass.
Murasaki Shikibu-sensei: lol, me too
OZ: I'd just ruin the whole thing if I went, y'know?
Murasaki Shikibu-sensei: ikr! He's gonna be stuck with his friend's
little sister and his fake girlfriend all alone! Getting his male friend involved would just make things less awkward! I can't wait!
OZ: Looks like you know a lot about harem anime too, huh?
Murasaki Shikibu-sensei: I know bits and pieces. Anyway, while they're out on the most awkward date ever, I'm gonna be reading through these shota manga I got piled up! This kinda stuff is getting more mainstream and it's the best thing ever!
OZ: Haha, nice. I'll probably just stick on some YTube or something. I just hope they have fun out there.