Chapter 35
Closing In
The day after securing the Master's group's cooperation.
As usual, I went to school, attended my classes seriously, and spent the day unable to have a proper conversation with my classmates.
It was already May. The groups in our classroom had been formed ages ago. Joining one now would take a tremendous amount of courage.
Even so, I occasionally tried talking to people. There were other boys in my class who seemed to like games and manga, after all.
But they blatantly avoided me, cut the conversation short, and ran away.
Today, too, I spent time staring at my smartphone from my seat, but there was still something I had to do.
The ability user in the neighboring class, Tōmi-san.
Her older sister, or perhaps her cousin, might be Tōmi Torimari from Public Security.
I wanted to somehow contact her and find out. If possible, I even wanted her to let me meet Torimari-san.
But going to the neighboring class to visit some girl I didn't know was... far too intimidating.
Was there some good plan I could come up with? If I had a plausible excuse, it would be easier to go see her...
Time passed without me coming up with anything, and then it was lunchtime.
For now, I would look for somewhere I could be alone without causing a problem today. If I thought things over there, perhaps an idea would come to me.
I was about to stand up, fully aware that I was only running away, when...
"Huh, you have business with Yahiro-kun...?"
Hearing my name, I turned toward the voice.
"Yes! Could you tell me which one is Yahiro-kun?"
A girl with brightly colored hair and cat ears stood in the classroom doorway.
It was Tōmi-san.
A murmur ran through the classroom.
"Um..."
A female student near the doorway looked toward me awkwardly. But as soon as our eyes met, she looked away.
"So that's him? Thank you!"
"Ah, wait!"
After giving the girl a quick bow, Tōmi-san ignored her attempt to stop her and walked briskly toward me.
Huh? What? What's going on?
Sweat poured down my back as she approached with a bright, innocent smile.
This was completely unexpected. No, wait. When I thought about it calmly, perhaps it wasn't all that strange... Was it?
"Nice to meet you! I heard you're an ability user like me... Is that right?"
"...Yes."
Ability users were rare.
If there was another ability user besides me in the same school, and even in the same grade, some people would naturally want to meet them.
I could only marvel at the social skills of someone who could visit a member of the opposite sex in the neighboring class for that reason alone.
...Wait, was it possible that my social skills were simply too terrible?
"I'm so glad! My name is Tōmi Torimari! You're Yahiro-kun... right?"
"Ah, yes. Yahiro Kōta... that's me."
No. I had to focus on her now.
...Wait.
"What, your name...?"
"Yes? Oh, it's unusual, isn't it? “Komari.” It's written with the characters for “tiger” and “ball,” and read “Komari”! My parents gave it to me because they wanted me to grow up strong like a tiger and cute like a ball!"
Tōmi-san put her hands on her hips and proudly puffed out her chest.
That was the same name as the “hero” Takanashi-san had told me about.
What did this mean? Was she the Public Security agent in question? But she clearly looked underage. No, apparent age didn't apply to ability users.
Was she using an ability to change her appearance? But if I considered that possibility, then perhaps even her name and Race had been fabricated, and the real Tōmi Torimari was someone else...
"Yahiro-kun? What's wrong?"
"Ah, no. It's nothing."
I hurriedly shook my head when Tōmi-san leaned in to peer at me.
For that matter, this person was strangely close.
"Yahiro-kun, are you perhaps a demi-human like me? Your ears are shaped just a little differently from everyone else's."
"Yeah. Well, technically. I'm a quarter-elf and a quarter-oni, so..."
"Oh! That's rare! May I touch your ears?"
"Huh!? Oh, sure... Go ahead?"
Without knowing why, I nodded instinctively.
Before I could take it back, Tōmi-san's small hand reached out and touched my ear.
"Hmm, hmm. The tip is just a little pointed. I couldn't tell without looking up close."
"I see."
Somehow, it was embarrassing.
Her hand felt soft and warm against my ear. Was this person slightly warmer than normal?
I couldn't remember the last time someone else had touched my ears. It might have been when my parents cleaned them for me as a small child.
I could feel my cheeks reddening. Mixed with the scent of shampoo, I thought I detected a faint milky smell from Tōmi-san.
"Thank you!"
Her hand left my ear, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
"That was my first time touching another demi-human's ears. Oh, I don't know if this counts as thanks, but would you like to touch mine too?"
"Huh?"
Tōmi-san brought her face close to mine and made her cat ears twitch.
She wore a bright, guileless smile.
"The girls in my class say they're fluffy and nice to touch!"
"Ah, no... I'll pass."
Touching a girl's ears was far too intimidating.
Though I was still sitting in my chair, I moved a little farther away from Tōmi-san.
"Oh?"
Unlike me, who was becoming pointlessly tense, Tōmi-san merely tilted her head to the side.
How should I put it? Not just her appearance, but even her personality was childish—or perhaps simply unguarded.
"If you ever feel like touching them, just let me know! For fellow ability users!"
"Uh, sure."
"Oh, shall we exchange contact information? Since we're here, let's be friends!"
"...Okay."
My first friend since entering high school.
I suppose I should say the friend I'd been longing for, but this was too sudden for my mind to keep up.
I took out my smartphone and exchanged contact information with her as instructed.
"Heehee... I've made another friend! I'm so glad I transferred here!"
Tōmi-san hugged her smartphone to her chest and smiled happily.
That smile was dazzling to me.
Was this... the difference between an extrovert and an introvert...?!
I felt like a vampire being exposed to sunlight. I really wanted to run away.
"Oh, sorry! I was keeping my class friends waiting! Let's talk together again sometime, Kōta-kun! Oh, may I call you by your first name?"
"Ah, yes."
"Great! Please call me Torimari too!"
Tōmi-san slipped her smartphone into her pocket and gave me a quick bow.
Then she immediately raised her head.
"I look forward to getting along with you, Kōta-kun!"
"...Likewise."
Overwhelmed the entire time, I had completed my first contact with Tōmi-san... No, I would call her Torimari-san. My first contact with Torimari-san was over.
Looking utterly fearless, she left the classroom after cheerfully bowing to my classmates as well.
Silence descended on the classroom, as though a typhoon had just passed through.
A few seconds later, everyone resumed their conversations as they pleased, and I suddenly thought of something.
In the end, I hadn't learned a thing about “Public Security's Tōmi Torimari.”
＊ ＊ ＊
"Her name was “Torimari” too?"
"Yeah."
As the bus rocked along, I told Takanashi-san about what had happened that day.
"...Could she really be a completely different person?"
"Who knows. Maybe she's a different ability user with the same name, maybe she's using the other person's name, or maybe that picture was wrong. I have no idea."
I had said it myself, but the first possibility seemed unlikely. Ability users were rare enough already; what were the odds of finding one with the same name and Race too?
But the second possibility was far too nonsensical. Even if someone wanted to use another person's name, would they really choose such a distinctive one as “Torimari”? Then again, I didn't know much about spies, so there might have been some reason for it.
Personally, I thought the third possibility was the most realistic.
It wasn't uncommon for historical figures to be described with inaccurate appearances as their stories were passed down to later generations.
In the first place, Takanashi-san's world and this one were different. Since they were parallel worlds, perhaps her appearance had been different from the start.
"In any case, it may be too soon to draw a conclusion..."
The third possibility was only “realistic,” and nothing more.
I couldn't imagine that bright, carefree girl being a Public Security agent. ...Though perhaps the very fact that I felt that way was itself a Public Security tactic. But taking that line of thought led nowhere.
She was in Public Security, so she was probably good at acting, and as an ability user she might have been controlling her physical age with some mysterious power. In the end, though, those were only possibilities.
"That's true. Fortunately, we successfully exchanged contact information, so if we deepen our friendship from here, the answer should reveal itself naturally."
"..."
"Yahiro-san?"
Takanashi-san looked at me curiously when I fell silent.
"No, um..."
"Yes?"
"...How exactly am I supposed to deepen our friendship?"
"Huh?"
Takanashi-san's mouth fell open.
No, what can you do? My entire high-school life has been gray, and it's about to turn black. It'll be a dark history—dark history, I tell you. I'm headed straight down the “†Lone Wolf†” route, seriously.
I wasn't a social butterfly like Riko-senpai, the Master, or Torimari-san.
I was... weak...!!
"...Yahiro-san."
"Yeah..."
"Please do your best."
"Okay..."
Takanashi-san looked at me with eyes that brooked no argument.
Heh. This was painful...
Still, I had had ordinary friends until halfway through middle school. Maybe I could manage surprisingly well through email exchanges.
Hang in there, Yahiro Kōta. Don't lose, Yahiro Kōta.
For the sake of a bright future, I'd somehow or other do whatever needed doing!
...That was unbelievably nonspecific!
Besides, maybe Tōmi-san would be my chance to finally have a blue-hued youth.
Or maybe I might have a wonderful encounter and get to enjoy a rosy youth...!
"I'll do my best, Takanashi-san...!"
"Yes. That's the spirit, Yahiro-san."
As I steeled myself, Takanashi-san clenched her fist.
When she did, her enormous breasts were pressed against her arm and changed shape slightly. They really were huge.
...If possible, in the rosy youth ahead, I wanted to meet a woman as beautiful as Takanashi-san and with a figure as good as Takanashi-san's.
Huh? Isn't that just Takanashi-san? No, fantasizing about making someone I actually knew my girlfriend was a little difficult.
Besides, I couldn't imagine someone who knew the real me falling in love with me. I was confident that not even a stock light-novel heroine who fell for the protagonist at the drop of a hat would give me the time of day.
...How strange. Why are my eyes sweating?
"Yahiro-san? What's wrong? Are you playing Hyakunin Isshu?"
"...I think you mean making a hundred faces?"
"That's it."
"Don't worry about it. It's normal for me."
"I suppose it is."
She wasn't going to deny that?
Was my every emotion really that obvious on my face?
As I wondered that, I heard the driver announce our stop. Since the destination was close, I pressed the nearby button.
A few minutes later, the bus stopped. I paid the fare and stepped onto the cracked asphalt.
"Well then... shall we go?"
"Yes."
There were many things to think about and many things to do, but...
For now, I'd focus on the dungeon.