Vol 1 Chapter 1 (2/2)

“Ah?”

Hearing Kaori say so out of the blue, I looked at Nayuki at o to her club activities, looked back at me with a face of question marks

“I heard it froether when they’re small”

“Oh…”

Yuichi corrected her, saying he had only co the winter break

“So you’re co back to a town you miss”

“I don’t really miss it…”

I wasn’t quite sure All of the hectic stuff about transferring schools had kept me quite occupied to think about it And when I now do, I couldn’t bringabout this town in the past

Suddenly, I re And this dream reminded me some memories I had

On that day, I was going to buy so district with Nayuki I…

“It’s time I head to the club”

Cutting in the time I was silent, Nayuki spoke

“So I’ off”

“Let’s go down the door below together”

“Me too”

“Count me in”

As a result, with Kaori and Kitagae four walked to the corridor

During our walk, Nayuki talked to me, her face ith smiles

“Yuichi, do you reawa?”

“Seems so”

“Hey, hey”

Surprisingly, Kitagawa criticised me

“So the person who greeted us and got out of the classroom was Saito”

“Okay”

“Good luck You only have 36 people left to remember”

“Thanks”

“Work hard”

Nayuki put her hands in front of her and clenched into small fists

“Nayuki, you always say that”

Kaori spoke

“Yes, I get full of energy every time I say that before my club activities”

“I don’t knohy every tiy”

“I kind of agree”

Is that so? Nayuki spoke, and Kaori and Kitagawa assented, laughing

Fro schools, I could tell these three were originally a s me to join them and form four

“By the hy aren’t you joining any clubs, Yuichi?”

Nayuki switched the topic back to me

“Clubs aren’t ”

I immediately replied It wasn’t that I didn’t want to enter any under any circu too much about me

Nayuki wasn’t the person ould care about such co it another way, I may have just cared too much

“What a pity But no one could do anything about it”

But once I look at her gentle s able to remember the past, as well as my resistance to this city

“So I want to go somewhere first”

Reaching the entrance, I headed off by myself quickly

Nayuki, Kaori, and Kitazawa couldn’t even hear what he was saying, and tilted their heads in astonishment

There wasn’t any place for o to, as I was unfamiliar with the town

But a lot of things had happened today, tiring et some deep breaths the sooner the better

Even when I was back home, Akiko was at work, so I was all by myself

Nevertheless, I would only think of useless stuff if I just bore myself in the lonely and silent house, so I went to the shopping district for a walk

The large shopping district, stretching froood place to kill time I could look around for convenience stores with co was here

I must have come here quite a few times when I was small

But I didn’t knohether this street had changed or remained the same

I stopped suddenly in front a shop It was a shop selling kid stuff Beside the round door were toys and games boys would like, as well as decorations and beautiful stationery for girls

I did drea

And the child waiting for me was Nayuki…and then…

“That person there!”

“Eh?”

Dong

Then suddenly so hit me at the back

“Ugu…it hurts”

Swaying fros at her back held her nose with her gloves

Wait, wings?

“Ugu…I told you to move aside”

“Did you say it?”

The young girl still showed a crying face while she scratched her nose, but her other hand was holding a brown paper bag

Looking at that face, I could tell so in my memories

The sunset at the shopping district A crying girl A brown paper bag

“Hey”

“Ah, let’s talk about it later!”

The young girl took my hand and ran off

“I’ht now!”

“What are you saying?”

I followed her and ran along the shopping district, a girl I had no idea where she came from

Of course, I did run with another girl this

Within irl, her white feathers dancing lightly

Then it ran left and right like playing tricks Finally, the girl went through a s open space at the end

“I-It’s fine now, being here”

Panting, the girl held the paper bag tightly

“So who and why are you being chased?”

There was a lot of things I wanted to ask, but let’s start with the basics

“I can’t tell you”

The girl looked depressed

“Because I don’t want to pull irrelevant people in”

“I think I’m totally pulled in”

“Ugu…ah, right Do you want to have a bite? Taiyaki”

The girl was obviously trying to change the topic, as she took out a hot taiyaki fro

“Don’t you want it?”

Looking at irl was astonished

Actually, I had stole gli

An oldfor soh I wasn’t a-hundred-percent sure, I did re him sell taiyaki

By common sense, there was only one reason for so chased by a taiyaki seller

“Taiyaki is most delicious when eaten after it is just baked”

The young girl took a taiyaki fro bite

Looking at her, I also felt er unable to withstand

Besides, the sweat I produced by running had cooled down by the night wind

I needed so to eat

“Give me one”

“Okay”

I quickly took a bite and talked to the girl while

“But you have to pay for it when you have the money”

“Ugu…”

The two of us sat on the old tires on the ground and ate the taiyaki

I took one, while she was eating her third

“You eat quite a lot, for someone as small as you”

“I’e is similar to yours”

“Really? For sos at her back”

“Wings?”

The young girl widened her eyes, tilting her head

“What are wings?”

“Wings are wings Those wings at your back”

At first glance it looked like those pair of wings were on her back, but with a closer look, you could tell they were on the bag

“My back…”

The young girl stood up and turned around When she turned to the back, the wings came to the front

“I can’t see them”

The young girl spun a good few circles to see them, but she couldn’t

“Ugu…I can’t see them”

After looking at her spinning circles, I was certain of one thing

Right

This girl was a freak

I had forgotten I had been said the sa by my classmate before

“Hearyour head around”

“Hmph”

Doing what I had said, the young girl sees and smiled

“Woah It’s real”

The young girl shook her back, vibrating the wings

“How cute wings”

“Do you know there ings on your backpack?”

I tried to touch the dancing wings They were light wings made of plastic or the sort

“This must be quite popular now”

“I’ you”

The short, young girl, with ss, and who calls herself boku (used exclusively for young boys in japanese), looked ith her toy-like wings

“I’m Ayu”

Finishi+ng the last Taiyaki, the young girl squeezed the open bag with a flapping sound

“Ayu Tsukimiya”

Speaking of which, I remembered I hadn’t told her my name

“I’m Yuichi Yuichi Aizawa”

“Yuichi”

Ayu repeated my name

“Yuichi…?”

“Yes, what’s the matter? Why the weird look on your face?”

“Weird looks are not needed…”

Ayu repeated my name, with a sophisticated look

“Hmm”

“Yes?”

Could we have seen before?

“…nothing”

Although I wanted to ask, I hesitated

Ayu was certainly a strange person, but itwith her

There was no need to add in those memories I couldn’t remember to our spirited talk

The orange sunset had, when I had not noticed, turned into a dark blue colour

“So let’s say goodbye now!”

“Yeah”

“It would be nice if we could ain”

“Would it?”

“Ugu…it would!”

Ugu seemed to be a constant expression of hers When we meet the next time, I would probably pretend to make one at her face

“Yeah It would, if we could”

“Yes!”

Ayu nodded with a spirited, s face

I felt a bit sorry for having her to senuinely

She ran off, waving her hand incessantly and saying ‘goodbye’, her wings swaying

I didn’t even have a single idea of where she would be going back