Haaaaaaaahhhhhhh… I propped up my chin with my hands on my desk, and let out a huge sigh.
I was just way too fed up with the lecture to listen. We were in the middle of class. The world history teacher was writing on the blackboard with a ferocity that rapidly filled the entire board with chalk, so everyone was desperately trying to take notes. My arms were already so damn tired.
Alright… I think I'll take a little break and rest my eyes for a bit. Quite a few people had basically reached the same point that I had, and every single boy with a window seat was gazing out the window, down into the schoolyard.
The first-year girls were in the middle of PE class. I think any boy who's been through junior high school knows this already, but if you let your attention drift in a situation like this, an entire hour could fly by in a single minute, so a bit of care was necessary.
Although, what I was looking at weren't the PE uniforms of the numerous girls below. Rather, what I was staring intently at was Blake in her PE uniform doing calisthenics, with her belly button flickering in and out of visibility. People might misinterpret that, so let me just clarify that I wasn't looking at her with only wicked intentions.
The first years had grouped into pairs and were doing their warm-up exercises, but one girl didn't have a partner, and was doing her exercises with the teacher instead.
"… What the hell…"
Blake, unlike the other students who were chatting with their partners as they exercised, Blake was just going through her exercises with her usual indifferent, emotionless expression.
I watched her from the window.
"… What the hell does that idiot think she's doing…?"
Annoyance rushed to my head, and I felt pangs in my chest. Not even her pale thighs, so pale that I wondered if they just refused to absorb sunlight, were enough to lighten my mood. And this wasn't an isolated incident.
When I saw her walking down the hallway during breaks or in between classes, it was never with a group of friends, but just alone by herself.
When she had walked home with Weiss and me, her classmates had called out to her, but they didn't call out to her anymore. Even though I had often seen her classmates try to approach her few days ago.
To be frank, there wasn't any way out of this situation. She was just too antisocial, and way too rude. And during breaks, she probably just never dropped that expressionless, unfriendly attitude of hers.
So it's no wonder nobody liked her. She was just reaping what she sowed. I knew how bad she was when it came to dealing with people, but couldn't she try to do just a bit better?
"So, how's it going at school? Made some new friends yet?"
"… Hmph, that has nothing to do with you."
After school I asked her directly what I had wanted to ask her, she responded just how I had expected her to respond. As the leading researcher in the field of Blake-nese, allow me to translate. "Friends? As if I could make friends. Asking about it is just going to make me grumpy, so just don't ask," is what she meant… What a poor girl.
She sat on top of the bed hugging a pillow, and quickly turned away from where in my room, and Rias was also present.
Rias was wearing her usual otaku getup, and Blake was in her uniform. My predominant mental picture of Blake was slowly shifting from her in a cosplay outfit to her in a uniform. Just like how she had shifted from calling me "Nii-san" to calling me "Senpai."
"No, it has everything to do with us. Come on, that time before, your classmates invited you to hang out again, but you declined and just came over to my house, didn't you? That's exactly why you can't make any friends!"
"… Hmph, how tragic. But a noble demon like me does not have the time for lowly humans like them. Doing things like that make them dislike me? Well, that's perfectly fine. I hate them too."
"You know, you…"
Geez. She was just pretending to be strong here, but from her tone it didn't even sound like she was aware of it. Even though she looked really lonely, not being able to fit in at school.
At that point, having heard what Blake had said from her position on the floor, Rias let out a chuckle.
"Fufufu… no no no. Haruto-chan is quite a sharp one, he is… in other words, what Blake-chan wanted to say was, '… I would rather be with you than play with my classmates.'"
"!?"
Uwaah, she was really good at doing a Blake impression. I almost imagined that Blake had indeed said that, and I felt my heart jump a little.
Bam!
Suddenly, I felt the pillow Blake was holding collide with my head.
"D-don't jump to any strange conclusions…"
"I didn't say a single word! Throw the pillow at Rias, dammit."
"But you were thinking it, weren't you? Your face suddenly had this ugly look on it and you seemed pretty happy… you're disgusting."
"I was born looking like this. Sorry about that."
Well, all jokes aside…
"Let's get back to the original topic. I honestly don't think letting things go on like this is a good idea."
"… Hmph… and what's the issue, exactly? I already told you, I am the one who is deliberately isolating myself. The Witches of Salem might send their people after me at any time, so it would be reckless of me to become intimate with anybody."
"Liar."
"… Haruto-chan, that was pretty blunt."
But it was obviously a lie. I mean, if she was being serious, how was she going to explain her friendship with us? Blake's eyes narrowed slightly, and a faint scowl formed on her face.
"It's not a lie. And also, having to care about human customs, having to be cautious about offending anyone, having to be shrewd and pay attention to the small details just conflicts with who I am."
Really? But weren't you the one being careful and shrewd that one time you cheered me on? Seeming to guess my intentions, Blake's mood now seemed to be completely sour.
"… My goodness. Aren't you pushy? You think that I have no friends, so you want to do something to help? You really should get a dictionary and look up the word 'busybody'."
She nailed it. That's exactly what I wanted to do. Granted, she wasn't too off the mark when she called me a busybody. Even if she was just pretending to be strong, it was pretty presumptuous of me to tell her to fix something she said she had no problem with.
At that point, still listening to our conversation, Rias curled her mouth into a ω shape and chuckled.
"Fufufu… no no no. Blake-chan is quite a sharp one, she is… in other words, what Haruto-chan wanted to say was, 'I want to look good in front of my cute little kouhai. So I'll solve all her problems and then ask for ecchi things in return!'"
"How can you look so proud of yourself, interpreting it like that!? Do you seriously see me as the kind of person who'd think that way!?"
"… Impossible… Haruto-chan, don't tell me you didn't have any ulterior motives…"
"No no, what's more shocking is that you can be so surprised that I wouldn't have any ulterior motives when I want to help my kouhai."
Well, I admit, I was used to Rias making these kinds of jokes. Also, Blake, don't sit there looking like a frightened animal wanting to escape.
"Y-y-you… what did you intend to do to me…?"
"I already said I don't have any ulterior motives! Don't start covering up your legs with that blanket! It's not like I'm trying to catch a glimpse of your panties or something!"
"Haruto-chan, how do you even know that you can see Blake-chan's panties from that position?"
"That was the lowest, most evil retort I've ever heard!"
Dammit, why did she decide to be so sharp now of all times? Just because I pointed out that I might be able to see them from this position doesn't mean I was looking. I ended up throwing out a response somewhat nonchalantly.
"Alright, yeah yeah yeah, you'll be happy if I admit it, right? Well… sure, I had a bit of an ulterior motive! I was really happy hearing her call me Senpai, you know. So, I guess I would be lying if I said I didn't want to help her deal with one of her problems… and that I didn't want for us to become better friends from that. However, just so you know, I also am worried for her, and I just want to do something for her… that part is definitely the truth."
I sigh and turn the other way. When I glanced back at the two of them, I saw Rias nodding and smiling as if she had been enlightened, while Blake was still on the bed with her head resting on her knees.
"Ufufu, you know, I quite like Haruto-chan when he bursts out like this."
"… It's quite incredible that he can just stand there saying that with me right in front of him and still not seem embarrassed at all… 'a bit of an ulterior motive'… I wonder if saying those words by itself counts as sexual harassment…" Blake whispered that to herself, while her cheeks flushed crimson.
Lately, I've come to realize that calling Blake shy was a complete understatement. After all, the very thought that a game character who looked like her could've been shown naked was enough to paralyze her and throw her for a loop, so it wasn't an unreasonable description. It's ironic, considering she draws erotic doujins. Speaking of which, there was also a certain someone who played lots of eroge, but still transformed completely into a demon when she heard that I was going on porn sites. Women were just complete mysteries to me.
"In. Any. Case. That's what we're here to discuss today."
I was deliberately keeping my language vague. After all, putting myself in Blake's shoes, it would be pretty unpleasant to meet with your friends just to talk about how to deal with the fact that you weren't getting along with your classmates.
She might even be tempted to call us busybodies. But Blake looked quite openly annoyed about this. I said I had an ulterior motive, but at this rate, even if I solved her problem, it didn't seem like her affection points for me would increase at all.
Still, even then, I didn't mind. After all, I was trying to do this out of my personal sense of righteousness. So if she disliked me for it, that was perfectly fine.
"Well then, if I may be so bold, I have a proposal… or rather, an idea."
"Oh, please go ahead."
"What if Blake-chan joins a club? I learned this when I made my own community, it's much easier to get along with people who share your hobbies."
"… I see your point."
Last year, I tried to help Naruko make friends with the same hobby, and I recommended that she try to join the SNS community "Otaku Girls United!" and Rias's suggestion here was basically the same. She wanted Blake to join a club that had otaku with similar hobbies, and thus to find people who shared her interests.
"That's not a bad idea."
Unlike Naruko, Blake wasn't trying to deliberately hide her identity as an otaku.
"What do you think about that plan, Blake?"
"… I can guess what you're thinking. You're thinking about that Game Research Society from before, aren't you?"
"Something like that, I guess."
Bingo. For some reason, Blake kept rejecting their repeated invitations, but considering how persistent they were in recruiting her, I'd bet that if she actually joined, they would treat her incredibly well. Also, I would assume that the club was predominantly male, so having a cute female gamer was probably a plus to them.
Wait, that might be a problem. Naruko also said something before about male otaku being scary…
"… What if I joined too?"
"But, didn't Senpai already have a club?"
"Well, yeah, that's true. But there's nothing in the school's rules that prohibit students from joining multiple clubs."
For a while, Blake seemed to be thinking silently on the bed, but she finally gave me a sweet smile and a threatening stare.
"… Alright, then. I will go. In return, of course, I expect Senpai to come with me. After all… you said you were worried about me, correct?"
"Sure. Got it." I nodded without a second thought.
Around an hour after the two of them left, I got a call from Rias.
"What's up? It's usually me calling you, and not the other way around."
"Now that you mention it, I guess that's true. But I wanted to talk to you about Blake-san."
"What about?"
"It's about the reason why no matter what, Blake-san always refuses invitations to join a club. This is just my own theory, but… I think it's the same reason why she always refuses invitations to go somewhere with her classmates."
"… And what in the world is that reason?"
"Blake-san probably just doesn't like anything taking away from the time she can spend with us. She has a part-time job, she writes doujinshi… and although I haven't heard any details, she also seems to have a lot of other obligations after school. If she added any more to her plate, then that would mean that she would have to spend less time with us. So—"
"So she doesn't join clubs, and she's antisocial when it comes to her classmates?"
"Of course, she was never very good in social situations in the first place. But, I do believe Haruto-san had hit the nail on the head back there. And I think that's exactly right. Precisely because our friendships are so important to her, she's isolated herself from her classmates on purpose."
"I see…" I let out a soft sigh. "That girl… ever since Naruko went away, she's been coming over more and more often."
"I think I can understand what she's feeling. I… I feel the same way. Up until now, us four… Naruko-san, Blake-san, Haruto-san, and me… we've become a pretty inseparable group. And that group naturally evolved into something special, and our days were filled with lots of joy. But… then one person disappeared… and I got scared. I became frightened that at this rate, our relationships would all start to fall apart."
Rias was talking about her own state of mind, and inferring that Blake might have felt the same.
Also… this is something I've thought for a while, but how was she so good at figuring out what Blake was thinking? Something just felt off about the situation. It's almost as if…
"Hey, Rias-chan. You have a lot of friends, don't you?"
"… No, I don't have many friends Haruto-san. Of course, I consider all my community members as precious friends… even close friends. Having fun with them at offline meetings, having great chats with them online, those are all really important to me. But, in terms of real friends I can hang out with often, in terms of people I can go to with my own personal problems… I only have that deep of a relationship with three people. Naruko-san, Haruto-san, and Blake-san."
She spoke in a tone of self-derision that I would never expect from someone like Rias.
"Friends are not meant to last forever. There's graduation, or going overseas, or arguments, or accidents, or school transfers, or illness, or misunderstandings… it's naïve, optimistic. Friendship vanishes at the smallest opportunity. I knew that from the start. So what is this? What is this anxiety, this fear I'm feeling?"
I think I understood just a bit what she was feeling. That's why she was such a kind person. In the limited time she had with her friends, Rias wanted to do as much for her friends as possible, precisely because she knew that friendship wasn't something that lasted forever. She wanted to treasure the happiness that came out of the times they could be together.
That's probably how she was thinking. The joyful life of the party, or the fragile, weak Rias… they were both one and the same person. I knew that now more than ever.
"Haruto-san. I beg of you, please take care of Blake-san. If there is anything I can do, please don't hesitate to ask me to do it. It would make me really happy if you could do that for me."
"Yeah. Leave it to me!" I gave her a firm, reassuring response.