Vol 1 Chapter 5 (1/2)
VOLUME 1-1
Chapter 5
A rainy morning.
Homura’s room was dimmer than usual.
After stopping her ringing alarm clock, Homura felt that something was out of place.
“Ah, that’s right…”
Today was Sunday.
One week had pa.s.sed since she started running and making boxed lunches.
Touya had told her to take a break today, but she’d forgotten to turn off her alarm clock.
Strangely, her body didn’t feel tired. Her muscles had been in terrible pain the first two or three days, but her body had gotten used to it soon after.
When she closed her eyes and listened to the rain outside, she felt as if she had returned to her depressed and gloomy self.
The week-long morning runs seemed unreal at that moment, as if they were all a dream.
After falling back asleep out of a coveting for indolence, Homura got up at noon and went out to Honmachi.
There was no sign of that woman at the station today. She glanced at the leaflets on the wall as usual as she went through the ticket gate.
She strolled along the boutiques in front of the station before arriving at the store that she was heading to.
It was a famous traditional j.a.panese restaurant that she read about in a magazine.
It was primarily a restaurant, but they also sold boxed lunches at the storefront.
When Homura arrived there, they had just opened up for the afternoon hours, and she was able to buy freshly made boxed lunches after standing in line for only a short time.
Having no motivation to immediately return home, Homura headed to the nearby shopping mall and took a seat at the food court.
“Oh right, gotta take a picture.”
After splitting apart her chopsticks, she realized she had forgotten to take a picture first, and she hurriedly put down her chopsticks. While holding back her hunger, she used her phone’s camera to take pictures of the boxed lunch from various angles for the sake of study.
The taste was good, as expected. Plenty of nourishment was poured into it.
When she reflected on her own efforts, she recalled how she had finally been shouted at by her taste-tester yesterday.
How is it that only the appearance of it has improved despite the fact that the taste hasn’t changed at all? he asked.
There are things you need to do before adding in anything like octopus or rabbit decorations, he said.
But no matter what she did, it seemed like Homura killed the taste of her ingredients the more she cooked them.
She was bad at things that took time to do.
Therefore, she wasn’t suited for cooking.
Even this boxed lunch wasn’t all that impressive in terms of appearance. Though she had studied the photos of it, it didn’t look that tasty to her, so much so that she even disdainfully thought that her own boxed lunches surpa.s.sed it.
But when she properly tasted it like this, she would strangely come to think that a gaudy appearance was unnecessary and that this kind of plain decoration was actually the best.
In the center of the food court’s atrium, there was a wide pillar with screens showing news reports on it.
Noticing it, Homura glanced at the news and talk shows being displayed, and a broadcast about the Imaginary Earth caught her eye. Though much less compared to the name of the UNPIEP, the name of the Exploration Club came up often. In particular, the image of the Exploration Club advisor from a public high school in Osaka being interviewed as a commentator appeared several times. He seemed like a kind and interesting teacher.
If I’m going to enter the Exploration Club, I’d rather join his instead. Such thoughts brushed through Homura’s mind.
Of course, that was realistically impossible, and she didn’t think they would accept her over there if she failed to join the Exploration Club at Seiran High.
And though she was currently chasing it off to the farthest corner of her thoughts, there was also the matter of her studies.
Well, she was in quite a pinch in all regards.
Suddenly, she noticed a shadow fall over her table, and she looked up.
“Are these seats empty?”
A group of three boys with jingling keys hanging from their pants stood in front of her. They were probably university students or older high school students. They had matching fired-up hairstyles. She could smell the hairdressing product even from this distance.
“Ah, go ahead.”
Due to the rainy weather, a lot of the seats in the food court were empty.
While feeling bad about it inside, Homura brought a boxed lunch from outside the mall and bought only drinks here before sitting down, but for these guys to purposefully approach her in this situation…
Their goal was, of course, to hit on her.
“Are you alone?”
Speaking of which, it had been a while since she had last come to Honmachi by herself.
“No, I’m waiting for someone,” she replied with a forced apologetic smile.
“Eh, that’s wrong, right? It looks like you’ve been sitting here alone for a while.”
They ignored her indirect hint.
“Or have you been stood up?”
“Ah, it does look that way.”
Just as expected, things were becoming troublesome.
Even though boys all talked to her quite kindly when they were by themselves, for some reason they became absurdly compet.i.tive the moment there were two or three of them together.
While knowing it wouldn’t work, she checked her cell phone’s texts and made a disappointed expression.
“I’m not getting any replies, so I guess I’ll give up and go home now.”
“Then that means you have nothing to do. You have some free time, right?”
It’s true I had lots of free time. Until now, that is. You guys are a week too late.
“Rather than that gloomy boxed lunch, how about you eat some grilled meat or grilled meat with us?”
“Hey, what’s with the overblown meat appeal there, dude?”
“No, no, this is quite tasty, actually.”
Ah, she said something unnecessary.
“Really? How tasty? Please tell us.”
“Eh? Err…”
“If you’re not going to eat anymore, how about giving some to me?” “Like I said, your gluttonous streak is coming out too much, dude.”
Homura was being gradually pressured.
Since her seat faced the handrail of the atrium, she was in a difficult position to quickly get up from.
She wouldn’t be able to get up unless she stood between the chairs and pushed the other guys aside.
She thought about pretending to cry since it was troublesome, but that would be a declaration of defeat in its own way to her, so she didn’t want to. She disliked the idea of making matters serious by calling for the local security guards even more.
“Sorry for making you wait.”
Just when she was troubled over what to do, a husky voice rang out.
However the owner of the voice was hidden from Homura’s sight behind the backs of the boys.
“Eh, who?”
When they turned around, a single girl stood there.
She was somewhat shorter than Homura and had a wild atmosphere about her.
She had a slightly long, wolf-cut hairstyle. She carried a wind instrument case over her shoulder, and the case was covered with stickers, giving off a rock punk image. Her clothing perfectly matched that impression as well, making it look as if she really was about to stand on stage.
“Yes, yes, sorry.”
She forcefully cut through the smooth-talking boys and sat down next to Homura.
“Here.”
“Y-Yes?”
Going with the flow, Homura received the instrument case from the girl.
“Hey, are you a friend of this girl?”
“That’s right. Got a problem with that?”
The girl, who Homura had met for the first time today, replied nonchalantly.
“Right?” she said as she turned to Homura seeking agreement, to which Homura could only nod repeatedly.
“No, she just said ‘Who?’ a second ago, didn’t she?”
Yes, that she did.
“You really can’t follow along, can you?” the girl said as she glared at Homura.
“Ah!”
One of the boys suddenly cried out.
“This girl is Kamikoma from Hiyos.h.i.+.”
“Geh!” “Kamikoma… wait, y-you idiot!”
The boys suddenly went into a panic and surveyed their surroundings.
They were just like herbivores from the Savanna who were wary of predators, despite the fact that they’d been making such a fuss about meat earlier.
“This girl? Idiot?”
The girl called Kamikoma expressionlessly tilted her head.
“A-Ah, no, sorry.”
“Pipsqueak? Tiny b.r.e.a.s.t.s? Small-boned and scrawny?”
“W-We didn’t say any of that!”
“Oh my, are you guys free right now? How about I treat you all to some tea?”
“We’re sorry. Please forgive us!”
“We’re sorry!” “Sorry!”
After pitifully bowing their heads in apology, the boys left the food court.
No, it would be more accurate to say that they ran away. Homura didn’t understand the reason why at all.
Though Kamikoma is short and had thin arms, they say she’s actually a master at hand-to-hand combat…
They say there’s actually a hammer covered in thorns in her case…
Well, leaving all that aside—
“Thank you very much.”
Homura stood up from her chair while holding the case and bowed her head in thanks.
“It’s fine. You seem like you’re used to that kind of treatment. You wouldn’t have had any trouble with them even without me.”
“That’s not true at all. You really saved me there.”
“It’s just because they were being a bit of an eyesore.”
After saying that, Kamikoma stretched her arms and looked around the food court.
“Oh, there she is,” she muttered and then waved her hand. “Sorry about that, Orie. Over here.”
By Orie, could she mean…
“You really did make me wait, you know.”
Kamikoma turned around and smiled mischievously.
The one who appeared before them was Homura’s cla.s.smate Kujou Orie.
She wore a black formal dress and bolero jacket. She held a violin case in her hands.
Unlike Kamikoma, she gave off the impression of a cla.s.sical music performer.
Her current adult atmosphere made her seem quite different from when she was wearing the school uniform.
“Hinooka-san…”
“Like I thought, it’s you, Kujou-san. What a coincidence!”
Kamikoma looked back and forth between the two of them.
“Do you know her, Orie?”
“……”
Kujou remained silent with an indecipherable expression.
“Hey, Orie.”