” The autumn morning had already taken on a touch of chill.
Before his body’s clock could go off, a strange ticklish sensation against his face woke the boy a few minutes early.
In his vision was the girl’s upside-down face.
Lying in his futon, Ryōgi Minato blinked, and only then noticed she held a feather—picked up from who knew where—brushing it lightly across his cheek.
“Shiki?”
“Good morning, Minato.”
A bright, breezy smile surfaced on the girl’s face, enough to make Ryōgi Minato feel the girl from last night’s stroll and the one before him now weren’t the same person.
Sitting up out of the futon, he looked at her—and only when she showed a flicker of confusion did he blurt out the question he’d been turning over for a long while.
“You… are you SHIKI?”
The fingers idly playing with the feather suddenly went stiff, and obvious surprise crossed the girl’s face, as if she hadn’t expected the question.
Still, seeing the inquiry in his eyes, she smiled, fingers rubbing the feather on reflex, and said—
“You already know?
That’s right—I’m SHIKI.
The everyday one is Shiki.
Mine is the name written with the character for weave.”
As she spoke she traced the character’s strokes on the tatami with a fingertip, then went on—
“But Ryōgi Shiki has always been just one person, really.
The only difference between me and Shiki is in how we rank things.
I think it’s only when we put the things we like in order that ‘we’ come to disagree.
“Shiki isn’t good at facing you.
For her, it isn’t the thing she most wants to do—so I do it in her place instead.
Put that way, does it make sense?”
Though she smiled from start to finish, there was a thread of loneliness in her brow, as if she half regretted pouring it all out at once.
But what was done was done, and that left a tangle of reluctance and resignation.
Ryōgi Minato spent a few minutes taking in her words, then nodded.
“So you’re saying SHIKI and Shiki are really the same person?”
“That is the truth—but shouldn’t you be a bit more surprised, Minato?
Your fiancée has a troublesome condition like dual personality, you know.”
SHIKI gave the boy an odd look, feeling there was something strange about where his attention landed.
“Why would I be surprised?
Aren’t SHIKI and Shiki the same?”
Genuine confusion in his eyes, Ryōgi Minato didn’t quite understand her question.
She blinked as if stunned, and then that familiar restlessness welled up from deep inside again.
The girl moved her gaze off him and answered herself in a voice only she could hear.
“I see… so this is why she’s no good at facing you…”
“SHIKI, did you say something?”
Having caught only a faint sound, Ryōgi Minato asked, puzzled.
“Nothing.
Just that Shiki’s view of you isn’t wrong at all.”
SHIKI curled her lips, her smile brimming with life once more.
“Shiki’s view of me?”
The boy blinked, a little curious.
“Mm-hm.
Shiki thinks you’re not any kind of ‘prodigy’ at all, but a—”
SHIKI stood, leaned in to ruffle the boy’s black hair, and looked over her “handiwork” with satisfaction, her smile widening a little.
“—an idiot.”
Not having expected the answer to be that word, Ryōgi Minato blanked for a moment, then frowned slightly, as if displeased.
“I am not an idiot.”
His schoolwork was always full marks, after all—how could he be an idiot?
“Sure, sure.
But rather than argue about it, hurry up and get out of bed.”
Taking a wooden comb from the drawer with practiced ease, the girl gave a soft laugh, moved around behind the boy, and slowly tidied his hair.
“Are we going somewhere?”
Not knowing why she’d grown a little hurried, Ryōgi Minato asked, curious.
“No real destination, no.
It’s just such nice weather today—staying home feels like a bit of a waste…”
The girl stopped her hands, suddenly lowered her head to look into his faintly bewildered eyes, and smiled.
“So—today, let’s go out on a date, Minato!”
…
[I’m crying.
Why are some people winners at life from childhood, while I’ve never even held a girl’s hand?]
[Inner peace.
As long as I hold on to my inner peace, no one can hurt me, sob sob sob.]
[Ah, today’s lemon has grown even bigger.
Let me pick one and have a taste—damn it, why is it this sour?!]
[Looking at it this way, this is nothing like the Nasuverse—it’s clearly a slice-of-life anime.
(smug)]
[Stay calm.
Me, I’m happy as long as I’ve got sugar to eat; the rest has nothing to do with me.]
[Yay—the kid and the little lady, side by side!
╰(°▽°)╯]
Glancing at the danmaku drifting past in his idle moment, Ryōgi Minato then felt his arm tugged, and his attention went back to the girl holding his hand.
“Spacing out, Minato?
Drifting off like that on our first date isn’t a good look, you know.”
Teasing him as if on purpose, the girl deliberately came to a stop.
Ryōgi Minato was taken aback for a few seconds, a touch of confusion and worry rising in his eyes.
“Then what should I do, SHIKI?”
Hearing that perfectly earnest reply, SHIKI couldn’t help a laugh.
“Relax—I was only joking just now.”
“But I really don’t know what you’re supposed to do on a date.
Do you know, SHIKI?”
The knowledge he’d been born with hadn’t included this one; Ryōgi Minato’s grasp of the word “date” went no further than the dictionary’s.
“I don’t know either, but people in class have mentioned it.
Anyway, as long as two people go wander the shops together, that should count, I’d think.”
She’d been the one to propose it, yet SHIKI herself hadn’t quite worked it out.
For she wasn’t a sociable person at school.
The other her was indifferent to everyone, and bit by bit “Shiki” had come to reject—to loathe—people.
So even at school no one came near her; but “Shiki,” for her part, found such an environment ideal.
There were exceptions, of course.
Even on that overly energetic elementary-school campus, there was one boy—an idiot—who would come close to her without caring in the least what anyone around him thought.
As for this so-called outing, this “date,” it was no more than an impromptu notion she’d settled on—catching some classmates’ chatter in a bored moment and pairing it with her own offhand assumptions.
Looking at the boy still earnestly fretting in front of her, SHIKI quirked the corner of her mouth, and without waiting any longer simply kept pulling him by the hand, walking on down the shopping street.
“Rather than think about complicated things, let’s just get on with our ‘date,’ Minato!”
“Mm.”
After a pause he nodded, and Ryōgi Minato fell into step with the girl, his gaze this time resting entirely on her.
The two children in their yukata strolled idly down the street, the girl wearing a smile full of energy, now and then letting out a boyish exclamation of wonder, while the boy stayed quietly behind her, listening carefully to every word she said.
This somewhat eye-catching pair naturally drew the notice of a few passersby—but whenever someone made to step up and offer a greeting, they would suddenly feel a chill crawl up their backs.
Turning to look, they’d find several men in suits, their faces impassive, mixed into the crowd not far off and glaring daggers at them—enough to make every one of them drop the idea.
And in an alley not far from the shopping street, the young man in the suit hung up the phone—a report from one of his men had just come through—slipped out of the alley, and silently raised the binoculars in his other hand to his eyes, fixing them on the two small figures out on the street.
Rest assured.
I, Akitaka, will be the one to protect Minato-sama and the young lady.