In the end, Blake and Aika didn't manage to spark a friendship with each other during the party.
Given what happened, you could say that it was wrong of me to try and get Blake to join the game club in the first place, but it was still a bit too early to make that conclusion. I would exhaust all our options before I admitted defeat.
The welcoming party was already over, and we were cleaning up the classroom afterwards. Aika held a bulged garbage bag in one hand, and was busy ordering around the rest of the club members.
"Now now now, all you senpai, go throw out the trash please. Once you're done with that, you should feel free to go home first. I'll do the rest properly." Aika smacked a hand to her chest.
She volunteered to finish cleaning by herself and let the older students go home first… it was a pretty admirable attitude to take as a younger student, but to me, she just came off as a nagging wife who was throwing her snoozing husband out of the living room to do her cleaning.
"Sorry, Kiryuu-chan. I'm the guy in charge of this party, so I can't leave before the end."
The president was the one who had said that. Aika held a broom out to him.
"Alright, then you can help out."
"Roger."
The president took the broom. Next, Aika turned around to look at me.
"Hey hey, Namikaze-senpai? Why are you standing there looking so confused? If you're planning to stay here, how about you help out a little?"
"Ahh. Sorry about that." This girl sure liked to be in charge. I hurriedly acted to follow her orders.
… But this might be a good opportunity. Yes, indeed. Right now, the only people left in the classroom were me, the president, Blake, Yuuto, and Aika. Five people I could put my trust into. And if the situation were like this, then my trump card would be easy to play as well.
"You seem like you're pretty busy, so Uchiha-san, you can leave too."
"… I'm not busy today. So I can do what I want."
Aika and Blake. The atmosphere hanging between those two was dark and gloomy.
Back then… from their very first meeting, Blake and Naruko had hit it off, but that was because they could clash with each other without holding anything back and could come to a mutual understanding. And of course, Kiryuu Aika was not Namikaze Naruko. She wasn't, but I still thought it wasn't unreasonable to use Blake's experiences with Naruko as a reference for helping her make otaku friends in the present.
So, then… using that case as a reference, the problem here was obviously that Aika was no Naruko… that is, that unlike Naruko, Aika had no desire to open up her heart to Blake. In short, she wasn't being true to herself.
… if things continued like this, there wouldn't be any progress. If I wanted to get things moving, then I would have to offer some support.
"Hmmm… well, I guess there are some things I could try if I had to…"
I didn't think the things I had in mind would go so well, but at the rate we were going nothing was going to happen at all. So I would try to do what I could.
I walked closer to Aika while cleaning up, and resolving myself, I casually struck up a conversation.
"Hey… you know…"
"What is it?"
"You said earlier that you joined this club so you could study programming, but does that mean you don't like playing games?"
"That's not true at all… I like playing games. More or less."
"Thought so. If you didn't like playing games, it just wouldn't make sense for you to be so good at them."
"Why are you being so indirect? What exactly are you trying to say?"
Ah, so she noticed. I scratched the back of my head, and looked just a bit away from Aika as I answered.
"Just a while ago, you said that if other people asked you why you joined the game club, you would tell them that you joined to study programming, right?"
"Yeah, and what of that?"
"It's just that, in that context, it really feels like that wanting to study programming is just an act you put on for others." I took a quick glance at her eyes. "Is that not the case?"
Aika bit her bottom lip ever so slightly, and seemed to fall into thought for a bit, but in the end she gave out a sigh.
"Ahh, it seems I said something I shouldn't have. Well, that's fine. The truth is that it was just hard to say, and there really isn't anything I'm trying to hide. I'll confess then… what I said was only half an excuse."
"Half?" What did she mean?
"… Well, in the future… I want to be a game designer."
"Game designer? So you want to make games?"
"Yes. Umm, and, if possible, I want to find a job at a major game company like SEGA or Nintendo ."
"And that's why you're studying programming."
"… Well, yeah, that's pretty much it."
Aika turned her gaze away from mine. It seemed that she was still young enough to be embarrassed when she talked about her dreams. I knew where she was coming from. I was the same, after all. I nodded with pleasant thoughts swirling in my head.
"Ah, I see. Then… haha, you don't just 'more or less' like games."
"You're right. I'll admit it, I love games. I love playing them, and I love making them." She blushed, seeming embarrassed at what I had gotten her to say. She was just too cute when she acted like that.
"Have you ever played 'Homoge Club'?"
"THAT GAME IS AMAZING ISN'T IT!?"
"…!"
… As I thought. She's his sister
"P-please just pretend you didn't hear anything!"
"A-ahh, but I did hear it. Clearly, with my own two ears."
And for the first time since I had met her, I saw Aika break her composure.
To explain, I had expected her response based on an inference I had made from two statements my friend Sun had made a while ago: "My little sister is a fujoushi" and "My little sister is a first year and extremely beautiful." She also bore some resemblance to her older brother, so I couldn't help but think that I was probably right… and it seemed that I had hit the nail on the head.
"W-what are you saying all of a sudden? I-I-I-I have no idea what you're babbling on about."
As one might expect, Aika calmed down and returned to her senses after taking a single deep breath, but there was a certain someone who had seen a crack of a chance to attack this impregnable student committee chair, and I was sure that person wouldn't let that chance escape.
"… Oh my, how unexpected. The diligent student committee chair has that sort of hobby?"
"Please listen to what I am saying, Uchiha-san. I definitely do not have that kind of hobby."
"Then why do you seem so shaken? Why did you say what you said? Kukuku… isn't it because everything is completely true?"
"No. I told you, you're wrong… taking pleasure in other people's pain… what a horrible personality you have, Uchiha-san." Aika retorted with something rather insulting, but she had chosen the wrong sparring partner.
"How happy that makes me feel. Thank you for your kind compliment." See? This girl was completely aware of what she was doing.
"Uuughh…" Aika looked back and forth between me and Blake with an annoyed expression. I was sure that she was trying hard to figure out how someone like me could possibly know her secret.
Oh, well, you know, your brother just went on and on about your hobby even though I never asked him to…
… Is something I couldn't say, so I just stuck with silence.
Blake smirked, and it honestly was a rather unpleasant smirk.
Blake being Blake, she was probably thinking about ways she could use this to ridicule Aika. I was the one who had lured her in like this, but she was really taking it admirably well.
… But still. To think that it would come to this… I felt a prickle of guilt run through my chest. And I had thought that I would try and make the situation right, but… how was that even possible when she yelled it out so loudly like that?
Blake slowly licked her lips, and began to whisper demonic curses into Aika's ear, "I may not know very much about that culture, but I do know that Moonlight Fantasy has been pretty popular there lately."
"… A-ah… Moonlight Fantasy? That culture? What do you mean?"
"The Crimson Warrior Kirt, the Golden Sand Shukaku, handsome male characters, with their dark and aesthetic view of the world. You see them used in BL master-and-slave settings quite often, it's a protagonist that is born out of a 'union' between two fellow males, or more than anything else, the delicate love-hate relationship between Kurama and Shukaku these are all just direct hits on rotten minds, and continue to spread little by little even though the anime has already finished airing, yes?"
"No, what are you saying? I have no idea. Please just cut it out."
"… Hmph… you don't have to play dumb, you know? After all, I'll bet that you're one of those types who worship and daydream about the Shukaku x Kurama coupling, are you not?"
"YOU FOOL!"
Uwaah! Aika just opened both her eyes wide and shouted that out.
"If we're talking about Moonlight Fantasy, then a Kurama x Shukaku heroic seme x tsundere uke pairing is a sure thing! And of all things, you want to reverse the pairing? Hmph, that's absurd. Doing something like that would warp the characters! You make it sound like you know everything, but you don't know a thing at all, do you? I hope you sink into hell right this instant. Y-you damn amateur!"
W-what the hell was this woman!? I thought she was calmly denying everything, but then she suddenly snapped!
… What? At what point during that conversation did Blake bring the wrath of the fujoshi down upon herself? I looked around for help, but the president and Yuuto were just standing there and blankly staring at us. And after being yelled at by Aika like that, Blake began to grin.
"Of course I know what I'm talking about. That when it comes to that couple, switching left and right is ridiculous. But… it seems I've caught a fool."
"… Hya-!?" Aika covered her mouth.
Blake looked at Aika with a smile on her face, as if Aika had let out some big secret, but I honestly had no idea what these two were talking about. It was even more mysterious to me than the anime otaku chats that Blake and Naruko had.
Each and every word they said seemed like it was in a secret language. It was almost as if they were trying to make themselves difficult to understand on purpose.
"Hn, you tricked me, didn't you… !?"
"Whatever may you be talking about? Hmmm… but this is quite troubling. To think that you could act so arrogant even though you had such a peculiar hobby like this. How very improper of you. Are you sure you can still talk about other people?"
"Yes I can! Unlike you, I'm well aware of the fact that my hobby isn't something I should just air out in public! Yes yes yes, I admit it! I love BL! I'm rotten to the core! But I'm making sure to hide it and live my life normally, so isn't that fine!?"
She got all defiant again all of a sudden. Did she forget that she's in school right now? Her usual cool demeanor had flown out the window, and Aika blew steam from her nose in her excitement.
"… Ah, is that so? And I wonder, would such a rotten-to-the-core Kiryuu-san even be able to get excited by half-live things like the Prince of Tennis musical?"
" Not even a problem! Not to brag, but I'm really flexible, you know. It could be real people, or 2D people, or even things that aren't even alive, but once you pull at my heartstrings, it's possible for me to fantasize about them all I want in my head. In the worst case scenario, as long as I know who's the fork and who's the spoon, that's enough for me to imagine the love scenario."
"What impressive conviction you have… so, that means that you fantasize about real boys as well?"
"Hmph, I have nothing to hide. Just last night, I had a dream that Kiba-senpai was being gang raped by all the other game club members."
T-this girl is insane!
Her face remaining emotionless, Blake asked her a question. Even for Blake, who more or less understood fujoshi culture and was just trying to goad Aika into embarrassing herself, what Aika had said right now came as a shock. Her eyes widened, and a cold line of sweat ran down the side of her face.
"… Keh, that went beyond my expectations… t-to think you had so much evil hidden within you…"
Even Blake probably didn't expect that Aika would be this abnormal. Wasn't this girl supposed to be a clean freak? What exactly was she planning to do with that fork and spoon? Even the president, who was watching Blake and Aika's argument from afar, looked really frightened when he said what he said next.
"H-hey, Yuu-chan… you sure drew in a really scary hentai into our club…"
"… ( Д)"
Yuuto didn't respond, but just stood there completely dumbfounded. And then, having spent the last few minutes spitting out her wild delusions in her excitement, Aika gave out an "Ah!" and seemed to come back to her senses…
"GYAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhh!"
Aika's face paled as if she had just taken in all the despair in the world, and she let out a tremendous shriek. If we were living in a manga, I'm sure that at this point, you would be able to see swirly swirls appearing on her glasses.
Cough cough cough cough cough…! Aika held her throat as she coughed. With her face completely red and her eyes filled with tears, Aika stood in front of Yuuto and began to desperately apologize.
"Kiba-senpai, you have it all wrong! T-this is a huge misunderstanding!"
Yuuto didn't say a word in response, but I could just see the life draining out of him. Aika grabbed him by the shoulders and began to shake him.
"Uwaah! I-I'm sorry! I'm really sorry, Kiba-senpai! I'm so sorry for fantasizing about you and the president! I mean, seeing you respond to him with your retorts the way you did, I honestly couldn't see you as anything other than a tsundere! It made me really moe moe! I-I also thought that, maybe the president didn't want to graduate because… because he was waiting for the person he loved!"
"H-hey, stop it already! Yuuto looks like he's about to faint! Don't traumatize your clubmate more than you already have!"
"Ack!? Did I seriously just go and blabber something disgusting again!?"
"Just stop it!"
"O-oh my! My my my! N-next time I'll make it Kiba-senpai x Namikaze-senpai!"
"You're doing that on purpose, aren't you!?"
Look! Yuuto looks like a lifeless husk right now! I now understood all too well what he was going through after having experienced it myself. Let me just put this clearly… being made the object of a fujoshi's fantasies is just incredibly sickening.
"I'm begging you, just stop it! Please, for the love of god!"
"AAaaaaaaaaahhhhh! I did it again! J-just kill me! Put me out of my misery!" Aika covered her face with both her hands and shook her head quickly back and forth, wishing death upon herself. In a way, I'm partly to blame for things getting to this point…
T-there was nothing that could save this situation anymore. Terrifying… So this was what a fujoshi was like…
Although, I really wanted to believe that she was just far and beyond the usual level of hentai… but in either case, I seriously have to give credit to Sun. He is seriously amazing. If I had a sister like this, I honestly might have already hanged myself.
A-ah right, Sun! He's probably the only person who would be able to get out of this situation! I quickly took out my cell phone, and dialed out to Sun's onii-chan to ask for help.
… Riiiiiiiing… Riiiiiiiiing… Click.
"What is it, Haruto? Need something? I'm on my way to the next town over for a practice match right now."
"Sun! Your sister went crazy! What exactly should we do!?"
"Just keep on telling her that she's cute and a good girl until she calms down."
"… Ah, I understand now. You're just as sick as she is. What the hell!? As if I could do that!"
Like sister like brother!
"… Well, I'm putting your sister on the phone right now, so please just do something about her."
"Alright, leave it to me!"
After I heard Sun's enthusiastic response, I approached Aika, who was still covering her face and shaking her head, and held out my cell phone to her. It honestly looked like I was offering food to a wild animal right then.
"H-hey, your brother is on the phone for you…"
"A-ahh…?"
Once she heard the word "brother", Aika seemed to calm down a little and took the cell phone from me. She put the cell phone to her ear.
"… O-Onii-chan?" She muttered. "… Yeah… yeah… yeah, that's right… at the club… the welcoming party… yeah…"
Aika heaved up and down with sobs as she explained the situation to her brother. Her voice was filled to the brim with trust for the person on the other end of the call… for some reason, I felt a pain prickle in my chest. When it came to her brother, this girl seemed to drop all her defenses and let her fawning, child-like sideshow.
"… Alright, I'll do that… Thank you. Sorry, Onii-chan. Good luck with your match." Aika said farewell and hung up. She passed the cell phone back to me. "… Umm, I seem to have embarrassed myself…"
"Nah, that's not…"
Well, no, it was sort of true… but it seemed that she had calmed down, so that was good. Aika took a few deep breaths, and raised her head, seeming to have resolved herself.
"Umm… Namikaze-senpai? Are you… good friends with my brother?"
"Yeah. We've been buddies since junior high school, so we do hang out a lot."
"I see… hmm."
I wanted to ask her why she asked… but before I could do that, she looked at the ground and gave an eerie chuckle.
"Wuhihi…"
"Hey! You're imagining something weird again, aren't you!? Something incredibly disgusting, aren't you!?" I really don't want a kouhai like this anymore!
And after the curtain fell on that particular act…
After she was successfully calmed down (at least, that's what I guessed) by her onii-chan Sun, Aika returned to her senses and blushed from ear to ear. She once again apologized to everyone.
"… I am very sorry. It's… it's a bad habit of mine to get carried away when I get excited." She spoke in a gloomy tone, and it was obvious that she regretted what she did from the bottom of her heart. I wasn't completely free from blame here either, and I felt bad about my actions as well.
"We got it. It was also wrong of us to lead you on like that. I promise that I'll never tell anybody about what happened here."
"… I promise too."
"I didn't hear a single thing."
Yuuto and the president both cheerfully agreed with me. I took a quick glance at Blake.
"You promise too."
"… Yeah yeah. I got it, I got it."
She really seemed reluctant about it, but even if I didn't mention it, she probably wouldn't have told anybody.
Well then… with that, after a wild and stormy welcoming party, this one issue was settled for the time being. But there still was no progress on the other issue of making Blake friends. At any rate, when I tried to help her out in that regard, it turned out that the target was a hentai. I really had to go back and think long and patiently about all of this.
When we finished cleaning up, we all went our separate ways from what had been a rather complicated welcoming party. Blake and I left school together. We did not talk to each other. We just continued to walk in complete silence.
I thought back to what had just happened between Aika and Blake. Thinking back to the outrageous fujoshi side of Aika I had caught a glimpse of. But that girl returned to her senses quickly, and was definitely ashamed of her actions. And sure, Blake and Aika had gotten into a fight, but it was different from that time Blake had met Naruko. They just didn't seem to hit it off in the same way. In the end, Blake probably thought of Naruko as a person with whom she was especially compatible.
Just because the situation was similar didn't mean the outcome would be just as good. But this much was obvious… Kiryuu Aika was no Namikaze Naruko. Just like Blake wasn't a replacement for my now-gone sister, to Blake, Aika was no replacement for her now-gone friend. I shouldn't forget that. If I did, it would be disrespectful towards Blake. Sort of like that time before when she got angry at me. Nobody was ever anybody else's replacement.
I whispered something to Blake as she walked beside me, "… Sorry."
"… And what do you have to be sorry for?" Blake's response was painfully curt. Even though she was willing to be here at my side right now, it seemed that, as I thought, she still hasn't forgiven me. I decided to be honest and admit it. Unfortunately, I wasn't the greatest talker, so I didn't really know how to put it… but I tried to put it as frankly and as sincerely as I could.
"I admit it. Not having my sister here is a bit lonely."
"I see."
I understand that now. Even if I tried to talk big, even if I didn't realize it myself, not having my sister here made me feel unbearably lonely. That's why, with Blake having once called me "Nii-san" and behaving a bit like a little sister, I had begun to use Blake as a substitute for my sister. I would treat her like a little sister, do my best to take care of her, and in that way distract myself from my loneliness.
It was pathetic, really. When she suddenly disappeared from me, I was impacted really deeply… I think. I gave a long, deep sigh.
"Even though she was like that, not having her here really feels lonely."
"Yes, I see."
With that, the conversation dried up for a moment. Both in my whispers and in Blake's mutters were contained feelings that couldn't be expressed in words… I'm certain that we were both thinking the same thing. We didn't try to meet each other's eyes, but just continued to mutter together.
"I am pretty worried about you, you know. Even after this, I'm going to butt into your business."
"Just do what you want. I already gave up trying to stop you."
"I just wanted to ask you one thing. Did you stop calling me 'Nii-san' because you didn't want me to look at you like a replacement for Naruko?"
"No. Don't you remember? When I first told you that I would stop calling you that, your sister was still in Japan."
Well, now that I think about it, that was true.
"So, why did you stop calling me that?"
"No real reason. If I had to give an answer…"
"If you had to give an answer?"
"I just had… a 'change of heart'."
And Blake didn't say anything more than that.