Grimgal of Ashes and Illusion - Volume 12 - Chapter SS

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Bonus Short Stories

Scene #5: My Peter-kun

Mimori-san was over one hundred and eighty centimeters tall. She didn’t know exactly how tall she was, but it was definitely taller than that.

Once she’d gone over a hundred and eighty centimeters, she’d started cheating when it came time to measure her height. She would bend her neck and hips, look down, anything to make herself a little shorter. Even when the school doctor scolded her, Mimori-san didn’t care. She would keep quiet, no matter what was said, and the doctor would have no choice but to give up.

That was why Mimori-san didn’t know her own height precisely. She didn’t want to know.

When Mimori-san got into high school, she was invited to join the girls’ basketball team, volleyball team, softball team, track team, judo team, and kendo team. But she didn’t join any of them. Her peers all said that was a shame.

Mimori-san didn’t say anything back, but she thought it was none of their business.

Soon, there was a chance for her to play basketball in P.E. Mimori-san threw the ball at the hoop from the center line. She only did that because anything else would be too much effort, but it went in for some reason.

Her classmates said it wasn’t too late for her to join the basketball team, and she really should. Mimori-san just kept quiet, resolving never to take a shot again, even in class.

Mimori-san had a dog at home. He was a french poodle, and his name was Peter-kun. Peter-kun was a energetic, cute, friendly dog, but for some reason Mimori-san was the only member of the family he wouldn’t approach.

Whenever Mimori-san called, “Peter-kun!” he’d tuck his tail and run away. And if she tried to pet him, Peter-kun would take off like a ghost was appearing in front of him.

Mimori-san didn’t like scaring Peter-kun, so she usually watched him from a distance.

At school, it was decided that the class would be making a large paper lantern for a float in the school festival.

The parade they would be dragging their paper lantern float around was a regular event that locals looked forward to.

Mimori-san was interested enough to take part in drawing the pictures for it, but she couldn’t voice her opinions, and she stopped halfway through. Working on cutting the wood for the float instead, she repeatedly made mistakes and broke things. Her classmates covered for her, but she felt bad enough about it that she quit.

On a recommendation, she took part in painting the pieces of paper to be pasted on the float. Here she managed to paint not just the paper, but her hands and uniform as well. Well, it would be solved easily enough by washing off, but her classmates made a huge fuss about it and said she should just go home for the day, so she did.

That sort of thing happened a few times, and more and more, Mimori-san was left to just watch.

All the work made a lot of garbage. An idea occurred to Mimori-san, and she decided to carry all the garbage out to the designated spot for trash collection. Checking with her classmates, asking, “Is this trash?” she went around collecting rubbish. Once she had enough, she’d throw it all out at once.

She didn’t want to admit it, but Mimori-san was tall, her body was large, and she was strong, too. She tried to take as much garbage with her as she could, but she misjudged what she could handle, and nearly tripped going down the stairs.

“Oh, Mimori-san. I’ll carry that.” One of the boys in her class was passing by and snatched some of the garbage out of Mimori-san’s arms.

She was spared from falling down the stairs as a result, which made things easier on her, but she was a little upset. Still, she couldn’t explain it, so she kept quiet.

“...What’s wrong?” her sleepy-eyed classmate asked hesitantly.

“Nothing, really,” she replied.

“Oh, okay then,” her classmate replied, before stealing a few more pieces of garbage from her.

“You took more.”

“Oh. Sorry. Should I not have?”

“It’s not that you shouldn’t have. But...”

“But...?”

Without replying, Mimori-san started going down the stairs.

One piece of garbage fell from her arms, and her sleepy-eyed classmate went, “Whoa there,” and caught it.

Mimori-san glared at him.

“Ha ha...” Her classmate let out a forced laugh.

Mimori-san bit her lip a little, hurrying onward. Her sleepy-eyed classmate walked a little ahead of her, peeking back at Mimori-san occasionally. He seemed concerned she might drop something again.

They threw out the garbage where they were supposed to.

“I only know your first name,” Mimori-san said.

“Huh? Oh, come to think of it, we’ve never talked before, huh. My family name’s...”