Toradora! - Volume 4 - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“Hey, Takasu, Ami has a moped, so she said to go shopping right now. Do you want to ride together while the girls are cleaning…?”

“Hm?”

For a moment, Kitamura looked petrified behind his glasses at the look on Ryuuji’s raised face.

Ryuuji had a Takasu-stick in his right hand. In his left, he had a bottle he brought from home. He had a dry washcloth at his waist, and a bucket and a wet washcloth beside him. He was on all fours, had his own rubber gloves on, and was in the middle of scrubbing the foreign-made kitchen sink to Takasu standards of lickability.

He got up and took off the rubber gloves to answer Kitamura’s question. “What? What did you just say?”

“Uh, no…it’s fine. You’re being really…thorough about cleaning up, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, it’s worthwhile.” Ryuuji exhaled as he sat on the floor, legs folded under him. He took another look around him with pulsing bloodshot eyes that seemed dangerous at first glance. His tongue rolled out to lick his lips—they were just dry.

This villa was even more spectacular than he had expected. It was a two-story building. On the first floor, there was a fireplace in the living room that seemed easily bigger than twenty tatami mats. Next to it was a dining room with a view of the beach and, separated from it by a counter, the kitchen with its own table that seemed like it could be as big as six tatami mats. The second floor supposedly had five-bedrooms and there were supposed to be toilets and showers on both floors.

“Kawashima had said it was a five bedroom or something…it’s amazing, I think my place is smaller than that living room alone.”

“When Ami was living next to me, her house used to be even bigger than this. Her condo in the heart of the city is supposed to be much, much bigger than this, too. I don’t understand why. Anyway, they’re like celebrities or something.”

“I guess they are…”

The two boys put their hands to their faces and hummed like middle-aged women as they gazed against their better judgment at the undeniably tall ceiling. A fan whirled above their heads like one in a house in an overseas soap opera. This really was a different world. Neither Ryuuji or Kitamura could even understand why that fan was there. They sighed absently.

“Yuusaku, here, this is the key. What are you going to do? Are you going shopping with Takasu-kun?” Ami peeked her head out from the door. 

What do you mean by shopping? Ryuuji was the only one who hadn’t been able to follow the conversation.

“No, it looks like Takasu’s cleaning enthusiastically, so I’ll go by myself.”

“What? There’s no way you can do that. There isn’t a basket, and it’s not a scooter, so you can’t put anything by your feet. It doesn’t even have a luggage rack you can tie things down to, so you need someone to hold stuff for you.”

“Then will you come?”

“If I’m not here, nobody will know anything about the villa.”

I see… As soon as Ryuuji grasped the flow of the conversation, he raised his hand. “Go with Taiga,” he said. “She can’t clean, so she wouldn’t be useful here. Heeey, Taigaaa!”

“What? What are you shouting for?”

“Whoa!”

Taiga was a lot closer than he had expected and surprised him.

He didn’t know whether she was cleaning the floor, simply sitting, or had gathered wind of Kitamura’s presence and stealthily approached, but for some reason, she was on all fours on the floor, her head poking out from between Ami’s long legs.

“What are you doing?! Don’t stick your head through weird places!”

In defiance of Ami’s shrieks, like a regular customer flipping up the doorway curtain of a restaurant to ask, You still open? Taiga put her hand on the inside of Ami’s knee and casually looked up only at Ryuuji.

“No, Kitamura is looking for someone to go shopping with him, so I thought it might be good if you went.”

In sync with Ryuuji’s words, Kitamura waved the jangling keys Ami had given him in front of his face. “Yeah, want to come?” he asked. “It’ll feel nice to go up that mountain road we just came down on a moped.”

“Uh!”

Taiga suddenly stiffened like she’d gone into rigor mortis, her mouth shrinking into a small triangle. Her round cheeks were like peaches, and her eyes tipped up into sharp slits. That was Taiga’s expression of astonishment, nervousness, and delight. Right, right, Ryuuji nodded to himself. Sitting with Kitamura on a moped, touring the beachside… she probably couldn’t have fathomed this situation even in her dreams. What a nice assist. No matter what happened, he would end up helping Taiga out like this. But well, if that was the natural way things progressed, it wasn’t like he could do anything about it.

“I-I can’t.”

“What?!”

Ryuuji, drunk on his own goodwill, turned with an expression like an ogre unintentionally washing over his face. He wasn’t mad—he was surprised. Why was she throwing out his support? Why was she throwing out the chance he had just given her?

Unaware of Ryuuji’s thoughts, Taiga pressed her face against Ami’s calves. She shyly hid her face as though she were the big sister in a poverty-stricken household peeking from behind the shadow of a tree at her younger brother, who was aiming to become a star of the Giants baseball team, and their slightly paranoid father.

“I’m scared of mopeds,” Taiga said. “So I can’t.”

“Wait, you…”

She unconsciously kneaded Ami’s butt and then backed off when Ami twisted in discomfort. Taiga shyly pressed against the wall. “I think Minorin would go, so I’ll call her. Miiinoooriiinnn,” she said as she stepped away into the hall.

Did that mean Taiga wasn’t just letting go of her opportunity but also getting rid of Ryuuji’s chance to talk to Minori? What does she think she’s doing? Ryuuji quickly got up and went after Taiga. He grabbed her elbow and pulled her back.

“Wait a sec! Why are you doing this?!” he asked in a low voice that Kitamura and Ami wouldn’t hear from the kitchen.

“Aren’t you noisy?!”

“Fuh-gah!”

She gave him a sharp elbow to the stomach. He fell to his knees wordlessly. With the frozen gaze of a saber-toothed tiger whose corpse had been found in the bottom of eternal ice, Taiga looked down on Ryuuji.

“I have my reasons,” she said. “Unlike you, I’m acting systematically and logically.”

“Y-you were just being shy. I saw all of it…oof!” PSHT! He got a slap on the mouth.

“A mosquito. There was a mosquito.”

It seemed getting more out of her was out of the question now.

Shopping? I’ll go, I’ll go! The carefree Minori threw aside her Quickie Wiper and straddled the moped with Kitamura as they aimed towards the supermarket near the station. “Let’s become the wind,” she muttered as they left.

Taiga lowered her voice as she sneakily watched them from the front door that lead to the wood deck.

“Okay? From now until Minorin comes back, we’re going to look for a place we can use for the plan, like an attic or a place where we can get into Minorin’s room through the window. We’re going to check all the places in this villa where we can hide or surprise Minorin. You’re a dog, so you’ll probably be good at this.”

Ryuuji nodded, pretending he hadn’t heard the insult she nonchalantly tacked on. “I see, okay. But if Kawashima catches us, that means trouble. Actually, where did Kawashima go?”

He looked around but didn’t see any sign of her. 

Taiga huffed and shrugged her shoulders. “I dunno. If she catches us, we’ll figure out how to trick her when the time comes.”

Hurry up and get going. She slapped Ryuuji on the back insistently. Although what she said was clearly off the cuff and not at all logical, they didn’t have any other ideas at hand. Still being pressed on, he returned to the villa.

“You go look around the second floor,” Taiga said. “In order starting next to the stairs, it’s Kitamura-kun’s room, your room, my room, Minorin’s room, and then Dimhuahua’s room. Dimhuahua was saying that earlier as she was carrying the sheets or whatever in.”

“Got it. And you’re doing the first floor, right? There were cockroaches, so be careful.”

“What…?”

Leaving behind Taiga, whose unsettled expression was starting to set, Ryuuji went up the stairs to the second floor. It’s fine, Taiga would win in a fight against a cockroach.

He admired the wide pine boards of the floor, the spacious hallway, and the row of south-facing doors once again as he walked. He felt like the whole thing was more tasteful by far than a small, garish hotel or motel.

Whether it was Taiga’s house or Ami’s, he knew there were people in the world who were richer than you could imagine. The thought of his own snug rental came to mind, and Ryuuji softened his footsteps as he headed to Minori’s room. He snuck in and checked whether it was possible to knock on her windows from the outside. If he had time, he wanted to even go up to the attic.

Taiga and Ryuuji intended to scare Minori out of her wits. Of course, he felt sorry for her, but if he didn’t scare her thoroughly that day and the next, he’d barely get any results when he showed up as her knight. It was all in the name of avoiding his future as a kowtowing dog with puppies, so there was no way around it. It was incredibly selfish, but unrequited love wasn’t anything but selfishness in the first place, anyway. It was just a way to trick yourself into selfish delusions and convenient misconceptions. Though his guilt didn’t conveniently disappear when his thoughts turned serious.

Going all the way into the room was a little bit like being a stalker. But, she hasn’t unpacked, and I wasn’t going to touch her personal things, and it’s just for a little bit. He justified it to himself again and again as he continued down the hallway.

“Huh? What was this room?”

Opposite the southern rooms were two unfamiliar doors in line with the stairs. He gently opened one of them. Oh, Ryuuji shrugged his shoulders. He hadn’t checked it yet, but this was the restroom. I’ll clean this later, too. He pointed at the toilet. Be prepared. 

In that case, this is the shower. He opened the door and peeked inside.

“Hm? Seriously?”

The lights were on and shining brightly in the changing area where the laundry machines were. It wasn’t like Ryuuji was footing the electricity bill, but it was in his nature not to allow meaningless waste. Though he thought of turning it off, he didn’t know where the switch was. It was probably in the back where the half-open glass door was. He stepped in and looked around. There was a sink and a closed shower curtain around the bathtub. He found the switch along the wall next to the glass door.

For a moment, he thought, That’s strange. For some reason or other, it felt humid—but of course that couldn’t be the case, and he erased the incongruity from his mind. Then, as he turned off the light switch…

“Ah?!”

“Oh, sorry! …Huh?”

It was a girl’s shriek. Reflexively, Ryuuji turned the lights back on and tilted his head. Who was that…?

“Seriously, is that you, Takasu-kun? Could you not walk in on a girl’s shower?”

…It came from the other side of the shower curtain.

…The sound of a turning faucet, the dripping of a shower.

…The rising temperature.

…The owner of the voice was Ami.

Uh.

“Ahhh, I-I-I-I-I’m sorry! I didn’t notice…ahh!”

“Ho ho…♥”

A pale arm stretched from the other side of the still-closed shower curtain. Ryuuji frantically averted his eyes and tried to run away, but, for some reason, the wet hand firmly grasped his arm, pulling him with amazing strength. Ryuuji’s feet slipped futilely against the tiles like spinning wheels.

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you…?!”

“Heeey.” Ami’s voice, high and sweet like a kitten’s, filled the small shower room. “Takasu-kun, you’re so bold. I had no idea… did you come to take what you want?”

“No! It wasn’t on purpose! I didn’t know!”

“You’re saying that again…you don’t need an excuse, you know? No one’s watching in here. We’re completely alone…”

“Are you stupid?!”

From behind the still closed curtain, he heard an indistinct, quiet laugh. Ami was a demon. Still firmly holding Ryuuji, with a voice that seemed to cast a spell of immobility, her whisper continued to thrum, melting and sickly sweet. “You’re not happy? I’d keep it a secret from Yuusaku and that jealous tiger…from Minori-chan. It’ll be a secret…”

“Waaah!”

The curtain fluttered. Through the thin fabric, he saw a shadow slowly stand. Wait a second, please wait. Ryuuji, who felt like he was going to die and not sure what was happening, covered his eyes desperately with his other hand.

“Wh-wh-wh-what are you thinking?!”

“It’s fine…Takasu-kun, if this is what you want…”

“I don’t! I don’t!”

“Are you sure? Hey, are you sure? …Do you really not want this?”

“What am I supposed to want?!”

“This!”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

“…Ah?”

Ami flung the shower curtain fully aside and looked down at Ryuuji as he desperately averted his face and eyes. He shrieked as he fell on his butt.

“…Puh-ha!” The demon’s cheeks inflated as she snorted vigorously. “Aha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha haaa!” She laughed, as inhumane as a machine gun firing at the idiot sitting with his legs trapped under him, unable to stand.

“Wh-wha…wha?”

Standing in the sudsy bathtub was Ami, writhing with wicked laughter. She was almost crying as she jumped for joy, amused as she pointed at Ryuuji’s pitiful form.

“Nooo waaaay! Taaakaaasuuuu-kuuun?! What you were expecting?! That face…ah ha ha ha ha! It’s super funny! A masterpiece! Aha ha ha ha ha!”

She was in a T-shirt and jeans, holding a sponge, and pounding her hand gleefully against the wall.

“You…wh-what were you doing?”

“Cleaning. The. Tub. ♥ I was thinking I could switch with you, Takasu-kun, since you love cleaning.”

“Oh, Ryuuji! How was the second floor? I found a ladder that goes up to the attic… what?”

The amount of shock, suffering, and embarrassment Ryuuji had gone through was unbearable. He caught Taiga on the landing while fleeing down the stairs, and tried to communicate using body language to tell her what had happened. His slanted, psychotic, sanpaku eyes were bloodshot, and he was on the verge of tears. If he’d been talking to anybody but Taiga, he might have been arrested on the spot, prosecuted, and found guilty. 

“What? Mmm hmm… Dimhuahua did what? Completely? She pretended like she was taking a shower? Herself…to you? She teased you? She showed herself to you naked. To pretend to seduce you.”

How he had conveyed that to her so well was a mystery, but Ryuuji pinched his earlobe and deeply nodded to say, “Exactly like that.”

“Well, what happened? Did you go look at Minorin’s room?”

He shook his head “no” vigorously.

“You’re useless!” she jeered at him. 

Ryuuji was already dejected, and as he pitifully backed against the wall, his hand unconsciously crept towards his back pocket for his phone. If he called right now, Yasuko would answer. Maybe she’d let him talk to Inko-chan…

“Don’t ask for someone to comfort you!” Taiga snapped. “You really are useless. Why are you putting yourself at the mercy of someone like Dimhuahua?! Seriously, fine, I got it. I’ll go look and have a word with her, too!”

He had no idea if talking to her would do anything, but Ryuuji, at that moment, wanted to leave it all to Taiga. Yeah, go tell her, go have a word or a thousand with that demon. Go complain or curse her. Pitiful? Call it whatever you want. It was obvious Ryuuji’s manly pride and naivete had been mercilessly smashed.

Taiga narrowed her eyes and ran up the stairs.

“Hey! Dimhuahua!” she shouted. She sounded incredibly in charge to Ryuuji as he waited on the first floor.

Rattle. He heard the sliding door open and then a shriek. He sensed an argument—and then silence.

The strained silence continued for a short while, until even Ryuuji started to wonder what had happened.

“I-I can’t believe it. Seriously, what is it, what was that…” Ami grumbled as she came down the stairs. She was wearing sweats now, unlike before. Irritated, she brushed Ryuuji aside on the landing as though to send him flying. Her wet hair smelled sweet.

…Her wet hair?

Then Taiga came down after her.

“Wh-What happened?!” Ryuuji asked.

Taiga was dripping wet, and, on top of that, she had a distinct, red handprint on her cheek. Her eyes were frozen wide, like a cat that had been grazed by a car. “…Dimhuahua really was taking a bath,” she said.

“You don’t have to say any more than that!” Ami snapped at her, turning. Ryuuji was afraid to ask what had happened. All he knew was that Taiga was cross-eyed.

“T-Taiga? Keep it together, what did you see?” he asked.

“Ryuuji, um… Dimhuahua was like BAM! And…” She opened her right hand around her right breast. “BAM! And…” She opened her left hand at her left breast and then, finally, opened up both her hands together on the bottom half of her body. “…BAAAM! Like that.”

Ami leaped back toward them, practically suspended in the air. “I told you to stop!” She karate-chopped Taiga’s head. 

The Palmtop Tiger would normally never allow something like that without retaliation, but Taiga was still slightly stunned. She stumbled to the phone table, where she picked up a memo pad and pencil.

“Ryuuji,” she said. “Um…Dimhuahua is like this here…and this part’s really abnormal…and right here, it’s like BAM!”

“Don’t draw me naked!”

The illustration was so bad it became very realistic. Ami snatched it and tore it to pieces. 

It took thirty minutes for Taiga to come back to her senses.

***

Almost an hour later, they heard the sound of the moped braking out front.

“We’re back! Heeey, Takasu-kuuun!”

Ryuuji raised his head from the silverware he was polishing like a faithful dog. Minori had really called him.

He sprinted down the long hallway in his slippers to the front door, where her voice had come from.

“Sorry, sorry, could you help me carry this?” she asked.

“Whoa, don’t you think you bought too much?!”

“You think so? But it’s five people’s meals for tonight, three meals tomorrow, and hopefully for the morning the day after. And oolong tea and seasonings and stuff.”

“We can’t leave anything behind.”

“We’ll just have to eat it all. Oh, oh.”

Minori dragged four bags stuffed with groceries across the wood deck. Clack. The more breakable things on the bottom clanked and Ryuuji rushed over to take the bags from her.

“Don’t drag them,” he said. “Seriously, what’s Kitamura doing?”

“He said he’d put away the moped. Sorry, I’ll carry that. What are Taiga and Ahmin doing?”

“Kawashima’s in hysterics on the phone with her parents since the TV isn’t working right. Taiga is…in the restroom, I guess. Let’s move all of these to the kitchen in one go.”

Right. Minori nodded, and Ryuuji felt as happy and embarrassed as a newlywed. Hee hee… In order to hide his softening expression, he rose and brought the heavier bags to the kitchen. He couldn’t just let himself by overcome by momentary happiness and do nothing. It was fine—he hadn’t forgotten their goal.

Of course, they had everything prepared—Taiga hadn’t peeked into Ami’s bath for nothing. Ryuuji confirmed the faint creak from the ceiling and casually calculated the distance. It’ll be right around here.

“Oh, could you leave the groceries there for a minute?” he asked. “I’ll separate the stuff we’re putting in the fridge.”

“There ya go.” Minori said.

He casually stopped Minori right before she entered the kitchen. Minori crouched in the hallway and started rummaging through the bags.

“Uhh…can sauces be in room temperature? Curry roux is…room temp. What about you, onion?”

Ryuuji knelt beside her, pretending to look into the bags. As Minori looked down, he watched her unexpectedly smooth cheeks and glossy hair. Her scalp was slightly sunburned where her hair parted, and her upper lip thinned out as she pouted. She really is cute—no, wait. This isn’t the time for this. 

His throat was dry from nerves, but he cleared it casually.

“K-Kushieda. Does this need to be refrigerated? Hey, do you think it says so somewhere?”

“Hm? Let me see, could I have that? Um…”

He handed the can of tomato puree (there’s no way this thing would go in the fridge) to Minori and had her read the fine print. Minori’s eyes flickered, going back and forth as she huffed and narrowed them.

“Eek?!” she suddenly shrieked.

“Hm? What’s wrong?” Ryuuji casually asked her as he pretended to be surprised while he raised his head.

“I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I…”

Minori had turned into Inagawa Junji, the radio host who told ghost stories. Her eyes went wide, her face was scared stiff, and she frantically turned to look between Ryuuji and herself.

“I-I-I-I-I, j-just…just now, there was some-something behind me… I-It, whoa… what was that?”

She looked around as though she was searching for something and roughly pushed back her bangs as if she wanted to say she didn’t believe it. She looked at Ryuuji again as though for confirmation.

“You must have been imagining it,” he said. “There wasn’t anything behind you.”

“…”

“Did something happen?” he asked.

“No… nothing… it was…nothing, I guess. Maybe I was…mistaken? Right… that muuust be iiit, it muuust be,” Minori sang as though talking to herself. Her face remained petrified. Slapping her cheeks, she lowered her eyes to the can once more.

It was behind her. 

The setup was happening one more time. Of course, Ryuuji could see it.

One board of the ceiling was slightly shifted, and from a gap in that dark space, a fresh piece of seaweed from the beach was making its way down to the back of Minori’s neck from a string. The seaweed was tied into a pom pom and heading towards the collar of defenseless Minori’s parka. Finally, the slippery, soft tip of it shrugged against her skin. Naturally, that primitive contraption was powered by Taiga in the attic. According to Taiga, the seaweed was apparently, “Dimhuahua the First, a floating faux-spirit.” He hadn’t even felt like telling her to cut it out.

“Uh…”

Jolt. Minori’s expression froze. Slowly, slowly she turned to look behind her. Of course, Dimhuahua the First was quickly being hauled back up and had disappeared without a trace.

“What is it, Kushieda?”

Sorry… he thought even as he looked at her dubiously. Minori gaped as she pointed in the wrong direction and her gaze wandered.

“J-Just now, something definitely really did touch me. It was like slimy or slippery…like…seaweed? That’s what it seemed like…”

That’s because it is seaweed…

“…Like the hair of a corpse that seems like seaweed… it was like the soul of a living thing that was killed by being wrapped in seaweed… A sea otter, maybe? If it was wrapped in seaweed, maybe it was a sea otter? A sea otter corpse? A sea otter with scallop corpses filling its skin pouches?!”

There it is. Ryuuji sighed. As expected, Minori had the endless ability to inflate the truth and make anything spooky. Eventually, her front teeth started chattering.

“I-It’s wet…” she said. “It’s wet where it touched me! This smell is…” Sniff. She touched the back of her neck where the seaweed liquid was and sniffed her hand. “Gyaah! It really does smell like seaweeeeeeeeeeeed!”

You’re completely right, though.

“H-hey!” 

“It’s the corpse of a sea otter! It’s the curse of the seaweeeeeeeed!”

As though she had touched something unclean, she stretched her hand away from herself. Minori sprinted down the hallway. To think she was this scared by something that small… Ryuuji said a hearty prayer of thanks as he watched her back.

Eventually, Minori’s footsteps grew distant.

“I kind of feel guilty…” he said.

Of course, the pale face that emerged from the widened gap in the ceiling was Taiga’s. As she scrubbed the dust off herself, she looked down at Ryuuji.

“If you do stuff like this, you’ll end up in hell,” she said, sounding vaguely similar to a horoscope.

“But you’re the one who committed the crime!”

“You’re the ringleader. Well, I’ll go clean up Dimhuahua the First. I wonder if I could jump down from here?”

“That’s rude. And don’t do that, it’s dangerous.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” Taiga said as she pushed the board even further aside and pulled her head back in. Then the bottoms of her feet slid down from the ceiling. “It would be a hassle to use the ladder to come back down.”

“Hey, wait…are you serious? Don’t fall.”

“Stop. I’m not that clumsy.”

She would fall. And this was how it was going to happen.

Ryuuji was confident. He waited with his arms stretched directly below Taiga to support her just in case something happened as she lowered herself. Taiga’s bare feet kicked as though measuring the distance to the floor. Eventually, her lower half slowly crawled out of the gap in the ceiling tiles. 

“Ugh…”

What was that sound? He didn’t have time to ask. 

Slip! Taiga dropped ten centimeters all at once. Before she could fall, Ryuuji grabbed her bare feet and saved her from dropping to the floor.

“Uh-Uh-Uh…this might…be bad,” Taiga said. “My hands are slipping!”

Her armpit caught precariously on the ceiling tile, leaving Taiga to support her body with her arms alone. She struggled, her feet kicking futilely, urgency filling her voice.

“I-I can’t go up or down anymore…” she said.

“Look, didn’t I tell you?! I’ll hold on to you, so just let go!”

“N-no!”

“Why not?!”

“Because then you’ll see my underwear, you perverted dog! What kind of scary guy tries to panty peep at a time like this?!”

“You’re the one who’s scary! I’m not even thinking of the ‘u’ in underwear!”

Even though he was holding onto her, Taiga tried to kick Ryuuji, her bare feet slapping him on the cheek. Just when he was thinking he should just leave her like this, he heard voices.

“Y-yeah! There really was a seaweed ghost!”

“A seaweed ghost~? What’s that?”

“It might have been Ishidata Tetsuo’s ghost.”

“Oh~? Who is that? One of your relatives, Minori-chan?”

“If it wasn’t that, then it’s a sea otter spirit.”

“Sea otter spirit~? That’s kind of cute, isn’t it~?”

Fwoosh. Ryuuji’s face went blue. His sanpaku eyes sloped until they were terrifically narrow. He wasn’t planning on strangling the two girls who were approaching with seaweed—he was so flustered he thought he might vomit his heart out.

“Wah, this is bad this is bad this is bad this is bad…”

Naturally, Minori and Ami were the ones approaching. Possibly hearing them, Taiga’s feet struggled furiously. She hesitated, and then at the last minute, tried to get back into the attic. As Ryuuji panicked and supported her bare feet with his fully outstretched hands to try to return Taiga to the attic, she showered his face with footprints.

“Hurry up, hurr…gah!”

Schwump! Taiga was so hurried that she dropped her flashlight. It hit him square in the nose. As he collapsed in agony, Taiga pulled herself up and replaced the ceiling tile with a thump.

“Uhh, where is the ghost of that Tetsuo-san or whatever?” Ami asked. “It’s just Takasu-kun sitting there. Actually, Takasu-kun, what are you doing?”

“Huh, that’s weird…” Minori said. “Takasu-kun, what’s wrong?”

“Uh, I-I’m just a little…”

It’s nothing. However, the moment the two of them turned around, simultaneous, superhuman shrieks erupted from Minori and Ami. 

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

What just happened? He put his hand on his aching nose as though nothing were wrong.

“…Whoa!”

Slip! He was of course surprised to find something wet and slippery there. When he looked at it, his hand was red and slick. His nose was gushing blood. Maybe this was payback… He couldn’t make up an excuse for what had happened and ran wordlessly into the kitchen to wash his face and hands.

“Takasu-kun, what happened?!” Minori asked. “Did the seaweed ghost attack you?!”

Ryuuji couldn’t even give an honest response to Minori’s question as she karate-chopped his neck in concern. He desperately washed the dripping blood away and pinched his nose, looking up. 

Ami also seemed astonished as she looked at Ryuuji’s face. “Anyway, here’s a tissue!” she said. “What in the world happened?! Ah, could it be that thing that happened earlier was too stimulating for you?”

Ho ho ♥, she whispered, unable to read the room. 

He did his best to pretend not to hear. “No. I picked my nose too hard.”

“Are you an elementary schooler?!”

His joke seemed to have both hurt Ami’s pride and embarrassed her. In order to keep Minori from seeing, he hunched his back and stuck a tissue gently up his nose. Ahh, the self-loathing…this is the worst…the worst…

“Hey, what’s going on, why are you all together?” Kitamura’s refreshing voice chimed in.

“Oh, well Takasu-kun got a nosebleed from the seaweed. Whaaaat’s going oooooonn?!” Minori shrieked unexpectedly, her voice cracking. 

Ami and Ryuuji turned to look at Kitamura. They were speechless.

“Aha-ha.”

“This isn’t something to laugh about!”

“I tried putting the moped away in the shed, but it was a little tight, so I tried moving the equipment in there around…and got a little caught up.”

Kitamura was laughing. His whole body was covered in dirty oil. Even his glasses looked like sunglasses. His cheeks and elbows were scraped, the cuts faintly tinged with blood. It completely overshadowed Ryuuji’s nosebleed.

“No way! Yuusaku, are you okay?!”

Ami and Ryuuji held up tissues and pushed them towards Kitamura, who seemed like he was in critical condition. 

Taiga finally appeared. “What’s with this racket? What in the world happened?” When she saw Kitamura, who looked like an oil-slicked bird, and Ryuuji with his doubled-up nose plugs, her forehead wrinkled in surprise.

“Ha-choo!” She sneezed heartily. 

They did a double take.

“Whoa…whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa…Taiga, you got it plenty, too! What happened?!”

“Huh? Uhh, well there was a little… ha-choo! I was cleaning and… achoo! Then, a ton of dust irritated my nose… hack-choo! …Waah…choo! …Haa…”

Slurp. She sniffled pitifully and rubbed at her reddened eyes. Her hair, clothes, hands, feet, and her small body were completely covered with an unspeakable amount of dust bunnies. After losing her flashlight, crawling out of the attic had obviously been a mess. Every slight movement of her body must have dislodged dust. Every time she tried to sneeze, FWOOSH! The dust must have scattered like the flowers on the splash page of a shoujo manga.

“…Everyone’s weird! You’re aaaallll weird!” Ami said, flatly.

Kitamura handed the tissues to Taiga, whose nose was dripping more and more.

In that situation, they couldn’t really say, It’s okay. So are you.

***

Because they had been busy with their own activities as soon as they reached the villa—making a fuss in the ocean, going on a cleaning spree, shopping, manufacturing Dimhuahua the First, being attacked by Dimhuahua the First—they didn’t eat lunch until after four in the afternoon.

“What a pretty sunset…” Ryuuji said.

He stood alone in the sparkling kitchen he had scrubbed clean himself and turned his eyes to the window as though to escape from reality. His nosebleed had completely stopped and he had changed out of his smelly T-shirt. The sea breeze wafting in from the still open window was cool and pleasant. Ahh…this really is a nice place.

The sunlight coming through the window was, at long last, slanting calmly, and the horizon radiated a magnificent orange. He could hear only the sound of the waves and wind and the occasional seagull’s cry.

Even though it wasn’t a city, the populated town Ryuuji lived in was a far cry from this. He wanted to invite the girl he liked on a walk, to turn his ear to the sounds of the waves, to slowly stroll along the beach as he spoke about plans for the future, but…

EIEEEEEEE.

The shrill voice dragged Ryuuji back to reality.

“Let go! You spoiled brat!”

“No! I don’t want it spicy! I don’t want this roux!”

“You’re so noisy. If you were going to be so stubborn, you should have gone shopping! This is fine! I like spicy! Here, you take it, Takasu-kun!”

“…”

Ami handed him the curry roux box, bringing him into the fight. And then…

“Whoa!”

His face scrunched in pain. Taiga had jumped, latching onto Ryuuji’s arm and hanging from it. In an impressive feat of acrobatics, she pinched her bare legs around his legs and back.

“Nooooo!”

“Ow…ow!”

Like a monkey shaking a tree, she rocked him back and forth until he trembled, afraid his arm would come off. 

“What is it?!” Ryuuji said. “What are you doing?! Why are you climbing on me?!”

“Ryuuji, you can make good curry without roux, right?! You did it before, didn’t you?! You sauté wheat and mix in spices, and you can make it like that, can’t you?! You should do that tonight, don’t use this roux!”

You’re so stubborn. Ami tried to pull Taiga off without waiting for Ryuuji’s answer.

“It’s easiest to make it using the roux,” Ami said. “And it’s good that way!”

“It’s waaaay better when Ryuuji makes it!”

After having them scream into his ears, having his arm pulled around, his body flailing this way and that, Ryuuji finally sank to his knees. He pulled Taiga off with one hand and pushed Ami away with the other.

“I got it!” he said. “I got it, okay! Taiga, my prized spice collection isn’t here, so I can’t create that flavor like I normally do.”

“What?!”

Uh huh. Ami snorted as if to say, See, there.

“But, well…you don’t like spicy things, right?” Ryuuji continued. “I’ll separate a small portion into a different pot for you and add a ton of milk and ketchup to make it sweet.”

“Uwh…” Taiga pouted, but at least she wasn’t yelling. 

Ami took her place and puffed her cheeks, “You’re spoiling her!” Forehead furrowed, eyes narrowed, she put her hand on her hips like a child. “Takasu-kun, you’re giving Aisaka-san special treatment again! If you do that, girls won’t like you, you know?”

She had been putting on her usual nice girl act until that point. Even letting him see her mad had a craft to it. Ami took him by surprise when her lips contorted into a smirk, wickedness bubbling up in the back of her eyes. She lowered her voice until even Taiga couldn’t hear.

“Maybe even Minori-chan won’t like you,” Ami whispered.

“Wha…?!”

What’s she saying? His whole body became stiff as a board. 

Ami was so close, her breath touched his ear. She continued her pursuit, her final blow like a verse in a song. “Oh, that really did get you flustered. Hmm…”

Her gaze flicked mockingly over him, looking Ryuuji’s body up and down. Hmm. The edge of her lip curled, and she smiled faintly.

“Takasu-kun, if you keep up that attitude, maybe I’ll tell Minori-chan that you got a glimpse of me in the shower…”

“B-but you weren’t taking a shower!”

“Oh ho. There’s no way to prove that now, is there?”

She let go of him and ran her hands through her hair. A devilish smile rested on her pale and beautiful features. She looked like a beauty, but she also looked twisted, maybe because her black heart was showing. Ryuuji was speechless. Why had it suddenly come to this? Did she know about his feelings for Minori?

Taiga inserted herself into the odd tension between them. 

“…What did you say about Minorin?”

She compared Ryuuji and Ami’s faces suspiciously. 

Ami said, “Nothing,” with her usual angelic smile, but Ryuuji just gulped. Schwoop. 

On top of everything else, one more person jammed herself between Taiga and Ami.

“Did you call? Did someone call me?”

It was Minori—when had she gotten here? Her round eyes glittered innocently as she smiled at her friends. It seemed she hadn’t noticed Ami’s earlier remark. 

Ryuuji surreptitiously licked his dry lips. “Oh, Minorin, do you feel better?”

“Yeah. I lay down in bed for a little while and felt better, so I thought I could help in the kitchen,” she said. “Hee hee hee, I want to see the rumored Takasu Fist of God, too. It’s said you can chop up an onion in ten seconds, Takasu-kun.”

Ahh. Ryuuji felt like bowing before Minori’s smile. Because he and Taiga had surprised Minori with Dimhuahua the First, she had been resting up until now. Even though the principal offender, the person who enacted the crime, and the model for Dimhuahua the First were all gathered in one place, she smiled charmingly at them all. 

“Ten seconds is impossible, but…” Ryuuji averted his eyes quickly, nearly blinded by Minori’s brilliance, but he wanted to live up to her expectations. He skillfully grabbed three onions in one hand. “If I had fifteen seconds…”

“Whoa! You’re talking the talk! Then I’ve got to see your skill. What should I help with? Would you be fine being the head honcho for tonight’s meal, Takasu-kun?”

He wasn’t close to tears from the onion he hadn’t yet cut, but from that phrase—what should I help with? The words he longed for anyone to say to him had been uttered by the one person in the world he most wanted to say them. He turned without a second thought.

“Hm? What’s with your eyes?” Taiga asked.

He’d accidentally looked her way. Of course, she probably had zero intentions of helping, but she had plunked herself down on a chair. She toyed with a yogurt that had been left on the table as though she wanted to eat it, and Ami was trying to take it from her. In a way, Ryuuji wished just as badly that Taiga would say it, too, but it was different than Minori… which was fine. He would say it was fine.

“Th-then, Kushieda, you could…peel the potatoes maybe,” he said.

“Okay. I wonder if there’s a peeler? How many?” Minori stuck her hand into the bag and pulled two small potatoes out with her slender fingers. 

Then it happened.

Plat plat. The sudden sound of uncovered feet approached the kitchen. “Ahh, I feel refreshed! Oh, so you’re starting to get dinner ready right away. I can’t help at all with cooking, but I can at least help get the dishes out. Just say the word!” Plat! Kitamura, who smelled of soap now that he’d showered away the oil, hit Ryuuji’s shoulder. But…

“H-Hey! You’re…”

“Yeah, it’s hot, hot… woops! Yeah, sorry, didn’t know there were girls.”

“Uh?!”

Turning at Kitamura’s voice, Taiga dropped the yogurt. As her chair fell directly behind her, she hit the back of her head against the wall and rolled to the ground. The color in her face changed strangely from red, to blue, to white, as though she had been poisoned. She looked for a place to run away, moved along the wall and, in the end, hid herself behind Ami, though she’d been fighting her until then. 

Ami, who hadn’t noticed the state of affairs until now, twisted around at this nuisance. “Wait, what are you doing all of a…huh?!”

She blinked for a while, as though doubting her eyes. She stared carefully at her childhood friend, then, when the time was ripe, said, “Yuusaku, are you crazy?!”

Ryuuji wanted to wholeheartedly agree. Kitamura, without being shy about it, scratched at his wet face as he laughed, hee hee hee.

“I left my change of clothes in my room,” Kitamura said. “I was about to go put them on.”

“Why did you come here before you did?!”

“Well, I saw Takasu.”

“Are you an idiot?!”

Ha ha ha, I didn’t think you’d be here, too… The class chairperson, vice president of the student council, and softball club manager—this guy—laughed. What could he be hiding…? Actually, there wasn’t much to hide. He was standing there, intimidating and reckless, displaying himself as he had been born, with just one towel covering his obscene bottom half. Even Ryuuji was jealous of Kitamura’s thin, trim, sports-forged body, but this wasn’t the time to say that. Kitamura was wearing even less than he had when he was in his swimsuit at the pool. From behind, his keister was probably fully exposed.

“T-Taiga, hold it together!”

“Fwah…” 

Taiga, who had seen the idiot from behind him, was broken. The light left her eyes. She was in a compact fetal position and staring at the wall. She might have seen it—she might have seen the derriere on public display. Her fate was very closely tied with encountering other people naked, Ryuuji thought.

“You don’t feel like an exhibitionist at all, do you?” Ami asked. “You’re the worst.” With the familiarity of old friends, she gazed coldly at Kitamura’s naked body.

“Ho ho ho… Kushieda isn’t opposed to humoring the exhibitionist…” Minori muttered, nodding shallowly and raising her lowered face. “Narcissus, you bratty demigod! Give me your nudes!”

Hop! Like a grasshopper, Minori jumped to her side and onto the floor. Fwoosh! She slid onto her shoulder and rolled at the nudist Kitamura’s feet like she was breakdancing.

“What are you doing? Stop that! I said stop!”

“What do you mean, coming here in that getup, huh?! You can’t say you don’t want this. You can’t tell me to stop. You’re faking innocence! When in Rome, do as the Romans do; when in a nudist village, do as the nudists do. This is a spectacular photograph!”

Minori pulled her cell phone from her pocket and enthusiastically pointed the camera at him. He didn’t know whether she really was taking pictures, but whether he opened his legs or turned around to show them his butt, he wouldn’t forget how her quick words shamed him.

“N-now I’m embarrassed all of a sudden!”

His sense of shame awoken too late, Kitamura tried to retreat from the kitchen by bashfully backing away. And then…

Fwish.

“Uh!”

The towel concealing his obscenity fell to the ground. Ryuuji jumped to save the eyes of his favorite girl from being soiled. Amazingly, with his desperate dive, he hid Kitamura’s crotch with a plate.

“…I saw some kind of negative afterimage just then… It was kind of…black and…?” With a grim look, Minori pinched the corners of her eyes. She sat on the floor with her legs folded snuggly beneath her and tilted her head.

“I-It was probably a seaweed ghost.” Hiding the nudist with his whole body, Ryuuji prayed. Forget, forget. Then he turned back to Minori.

“Kushieda, you’re done with everything here,” he said. “So you can go rest in your room for a while. Yeah, we’ll call you when the curry’s done.”

“Okay…? Maybe I’ll do that. The seaweed ghost’s impression is kind of shifting in my mind… it’s like it infected my eyes or something…”

Minori haltingly left the kitchen, her footsteps uncertain. 

As soon as she left, Ryuuji’s eyes slanted up fiercely, like a brutal god. “You know, you’re really the worst! The worst!” He hit Kitamura’s bare butt with the plate (he could have Taiga use the plate later). “Did you just come on this trip to do stuff like that?! If you run for student council president, I definitely won’t vote for you!”

“I regret it!” Kitamura said.

Ryuuji kicked the guy he used to call a friend out of the kitchen and chased him to the second-floor rooms. What kind of guy is he? Ryuuji wanted to show this side of Kitamura to Maya or Nanako and the rest of Kitamura’s ardent fans. He really wanted them to know. The boy “with some quirks, but he’s really everyone’s favorite Maruo-kun” was this kind of idiot. He thought about his absent friends’ smiling faces. Right, isn’t that right, Noto, Haruta. The vision of them whirled around him as they whispered. Yeah, that’s right Takasu… It’s weird that he’s the only one who’s popular… I can’t agree with that… That guy’s an idiot, too… no, he’s the one who’s an idiot… Yeah, right, that’s exactly how it is.

“Seriously, damn that guy…”

As Ryuuji righted the trashcan and resumed peeling the onion, he couldn’t stop cursing. He had finally gotten a chance to stand beside Minori in the kitchen. He didn’t think Kitamura would have been the one to interfere.

“Ahh, I feel sorry for Minori-chan,” Ami muttered, nonchalantly. She didn’t sound at all sorry.

To vent his anger, he half turned. “Kawashima, you help. I lost a hand because of your childhood friend’s blunder.” He jerked his chin and indicated the potatoes Minori had left in progress.

“Huh?” It took her 0.1 seconds to respond. Ami’s face scrunched, and he wanted to tell her, well you don’t have to make that face at me. 

She twisted to look into Ryuuji’s eyes from below him, smiling thinly, as if to spit out, you’re kidding, right?

“Why would I need to do that?” she asked.

Until now, there’d been no phrase that encapsulated how plainly stubborn, tyrannical, intolerant, and conceited she was. Why would I need to make dinner? Why would a pretty girl like Ami-chan need to do anything with potatoes? Why would Ami-chan, the rich model celebrity, help someone like you?

Ryuuji was correct in understanding what Ami wanted to say and nodded once. “Then go take barley tea or something up to Kushieda,” he said.

“What~? But I was going to watch you cook…oof!”

When he quickly cut a piece of onion in half, Ami immediately looked away from his hands. The onion juice assaulted her right in the eyes and nose.

“…I-I got it! All I need to do is take barley tea to her, right! It’s like you’re trying to drive me out. I don’t like this…” Her eyes were going immediately, horribly red as she let out a trickle of curses and left the kitchen with a glass in hand. 

The only ones left in the kitchen were Ryuuji and Taiga.

“Hey, are you okay?” he asked.

“…”

Taiga was still clinging to the wall and her shoulders heaving as she breathed in and out. Kitamura’s derriere must have been a big shock to her, and she still hadn’t gotten over the trauma of Ami’s BAMs! He automatically reached out, grabbing her arm to help her up.

“You’re not in a position to worry about others right now.” Taiga swatted his hand and unsteadily stood up along the wall. “I’m fine. If anything, I’ll take one horrible trauma and use it to suppress other ones. Ya-chan’s giant breasts, Ya-chan’s giant breasts, Ya-chan’s giant breasts…whoa…”

“Don’t use my mother as your trauma.”

Taiga gave her head a shake. She finally seemed to have regained her breath. She stared into Ryuuji’s eyes as he looked worriedly at her. “You slow dog,” she said.

Haaah. She sighed dramatically and continued, her words quick. “You really astonished me today. Why would you waste a chance to cook with Minorin? It was an opportunity to appeal to her with pretty much your only positive quality.”

“I couldn’t do anything about it, no matter what you say. It wasn’t my fault. It was Kitamura’s.”

“And you’re blaming someone else again! This is why dogs are on all fours! You don’t have a sense of urgency at all, do you?” Taiga pulled her hair away as a deep seeded sense of gloom clouded her face. She stared piteously at Ryuuji.

“Wh-what do you mean by sense of urgency?” 

“Until now, nothing’s been going well at all on this trip. We’ve only scared her a little bit, and you got nowhere with your personal charm. You haven’t done any of the work to get closer to Minorin. It’s shocking.”

“Don’t say that. At the very least, we did scare her and that was a success. Remember, that thing—Dimhuahua the First?”

“But we don’t have squat for the next part of the plan. You didn’t think that was all we were going to do, did you?”

“Well, no, but—”

Taiga clicked her tongue coldly and shrugged. She interrupted him as though to say listening to Ryuuji’s vague response wasn’t worth her time. “Don’t just grumble,” she said. “I’ll help you, I’ll do anything to crush our future as dogs, but I can’t manipulate Minorin’s heart. You have to work for that. Quite frankly, I haven’t seen you do a lick of work so far.”

“…”

I don’t have anything to say to that. Ryuuji looked at the onion he had cut in half and forgotten. He fell into silence. It really is true.

“Ahh, what a depressing face. You just need to work as hard as you can from here on out. Put all your effort into recovering. I’ll back you up as much as I can. For now, this is all I can do…”

As Taiga grumbled to herself, she slowly opened the refrigerator. Then she brought Dimhuahua the First, the seaweed ghost, out from its hiding place into the light of day.

She pulled it out of its plastic bag and shook it to bring some of its volume back.

“We don’t have anything better than this, but it’s probably better than nothing at all.”

She tore out the long string that she had used to hang it from the attic. Next she put the seaweed on the end of a broom standing in a corner of the kitchen and said, “It’s done. The thrusting faux-spirit, Dimhuahua the Second.”

“That was easy. Hey.”

Taiga looked to the side of the kitchen, where a sliding glass door led onto the wood deck. It was probably used to take out the trash. Like a cat, she surveyed the area cautiously.

“If you leave from here, you can get to the deck outside the living room. If Minorin’s sitting on the sofa by the window, I’ll try to open the window quietly and somehow surprise her with this thing. You pretend like I’m still here.”

“Pretend? Hey wait, what am I supposed to…?”

“You can come up with that part, at least.” Taiga took off her slippers, footsteps soft as she tried to go quietly outside.

“Ack!”

Rattle rattle rattle! She dropped a bowl. They both froze, clinging to the wall as they held their breath, but it seemed no one had noticed. Taiga carefully picked up the bowl, and once again slipped through the sliding door and onto the wood deck.

So I need to pretend like Taiga is still here… should I do that like this?

“Right! That’s good form, Taiga! You’re more skilled than I expected!”

Chop chop chop chop chop chop. Ryuuji skillfully used the knife to chop the onion into splendidly thin pieces. He spoke in a loud voice as he worked, doing his best to make sure everyone could hear.

“Could you grab that bowl for me? Right! Thank you! Could you do the carrots next? Yeah, that’s good! Taiga, you really can do it!”

Starring in a one-person play of his own design felt very odd, but he had to do it right now. Face spasming, Ryuuji spoke even more loudly.

“Good, Taiga! Next…”

Then, it happened.

Gyaaaaaaaaaaaah…!

A terrific shriek came from the living room. Good. 

Ryuuji raised his eyes.

“I did it, I did it! It was such a success, it’s like it’s too good to be true!” Taiga sneaked back in through the kitchen door. She very carefully closed the window and shared a small, soundless high five with him.

“Minorin was all by herself when she was sitting on the sofa,” Taiga said. “So I hit her shoulder with this from the other side of the curtain!”

“Great!” Ryuuji gave her a thumbs-up and nodded with her. 

Grabbing various knives and carrots, they pretended to be bewildered.

“What was that scream just now?!” Ryuuji asked.

“Minorin, are you okay?!” Taiga added.

They stomped into the living room. Minori had collapsed with her arms akimbo on the rug.

“Minori-chan, what happened?! Keep it together!”

“Kushieda, hold it together!”

Ami and a now-clothed Kitamura were fussing over Minori. 

Minori looked harried and petrified. For some reason, she pointed at Kitamura. “I-I-I-It was here… Kitamura-kun’s vengeful spirit… Kitamura-kun’s doppelganger…!”

“Mine?! Why?!”

For some reason, the conversation had become about Kitamura’s vengeful spirit. Then Minori went limp and shivered, visible goosebumps covering her body. Her face was beyond pale. She flushed, pink as a blossom, as though incredibly excited.

“M-Minorin…” Taiga, the one who had committed the crime, fearfully approached her. Taiga was probably feeling the twinge of guilt like Ryuuji. She plopped down by Minori’s side.

“T-Taiga…is that you…?”

“Yeah.” She wiped the sweat from Minori’s forehead sorrowfully.

“Taiga…be careful…there’s some kind of nefarious intent haunting this mansion…uggh.”

“I-Is there?” Taiga’s eyes darted suspiciously. Right, right, right. That would be the case. Talking about nefarious intent with those responsible was incredibly awkward. Ryuuji couldn’t even bring himself to look Minori in the eye. His heart raced, stinging painfully.

“M-Minorin, is there anything we can do…?” he asked.

“Is…the curry done?”

“Even Ryuuji can’t make it in five minutes, Minorin…”

“Right…then…make it suuuuuper suuuuuuuuuuper spicy. Make it something that’ll wipe away all this fear. I’m counting on you…”

Her shaking hands brushed Taiga’s cheek softly. Minori suddenly lost her strength and closed her eyes. 

Taiga nodded. “We’re doing it,” she muttered firmly. For Minori’s sake, it seemed Taiga was determined enough to forgo having a small pot for herself. 

Ryuuji’s resolution was also firm. If he could calm his guilty conscience with hot curry, he would make it as spicy as he needed to.

Ryuuji turned into a kitchen demon.

“Wah! This is amazing!”

Peeking in, Ami was amazed by the way Ryuuji handled the frying pan, making the ingredients dance nimbly in the air. He flambéed the food with one of Ami’s father’s fruit dessert liquors and then put everything in a pot to make an easy, Takasu-style chutney.

“Is there anything I can do?” the chief of the nudist village, Kitamura, asked. 

“Wash it like you’re praying to it! Pray to the rice!” He issued orders as Kitamura washed the rice. “Taiga. You understand, right?!”

He turned to Taiga, eyes as sharp as a sword. He wasn’t trying to dispose of Taiga for not paying a loan—he was just very determined.

“Yeah.” Taiga nodded. “You don’t have the prized Takasu spice collection right now, so you can only use this…” She held the red spice packet that came with the roux, which read “Hot Spice Booster (This is incredibly spicy. Only add a small amount at a time. There is a chance it may endanger your health.).” If Minori 

wished it, he had to do it. With that in mind, he cut open all the spice packets that had been included. For Taiga, who had yet to try anything more than mildly spiced, this was an adventure. No—it was reckless.

He melted the spices into the pot and let it boil for about fifteen minutes. 

“We had this,” Ami said. “It’s from last year, but maybe we can use it?” Without hesitating, she threw in curry powder and togarashi chili powder she found in a kitchen drawer. 

Another fifteen minutes passed. 

Then, making absolutely sure not to overboil it, he finished a simple curry that secretly followed a school lunch theme. It was rolling with potatoes, contained the archetypal onions, had carrots, and was filled with slightly charred pork.

“For example, the spiciness can be salty and sharp, wasabi can smolder, togarashi can burn your tongue and your throat. I think it’ll be spicy in a whole lot of other ways. When I tried tonight’s curry, I felt a spiciness that was so hot it went straight to my head. I made a simple meal for the villa while also fulfilling Kushieda’s request.”

They each piled their plates with rice and curry and sat side by side at the dining table. They steadily watched Ryuuji’s lips as he began his explanation. His lips were swelling—they were bulging.

If he’d gotten duck-lips just from tasting it, how much potential was hidden in the curry? The spicy smell wafted quickly to them at the quiet dining table as the waves echoed around them.

“And so, be careful as you eat,” he said. “I’m digging in!”

“Thanks for the food!” They said in unison, taking their spoons in hand and stuffing their mouths. For a second, the table was hushed.

“Hm? It’s not really that spicy?” said Minori.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s good, but it tastes normal,” said Ami.

“I got the part of the pork with fat…” said Taiga.

“Yeah, this is good! As expected of Takasu!” said the nudist.

It took them a good three seconds to go from, What it’s not that spicy, to voiceless screams.

“Ack…”

Their spoons froze as they went for a second bite.

“It…it’s spicy, spicy, spicy! It’s suddenly spicy!”

“I-It’s spiiiiiiicy! Water, water waaaateer!”

“It’s hot, it hurts, it’s spicy, gnyaah! I spilled my water!”

“Uh… cough cough cough cough, this, my throat…cough!”

As he looked at their contorted faces, Ryuuji focused quietly on Minori’s. 

Minori said, “It’s spicy, spicy! Okay, it burns! I ate it! Okay, it’s getting spicy again!” She ate the curry bite after bite with gusto like a man. Then, she noticed Ryuuji’s gaze.

“T-Takasu-kun! You’re amazing!” she continued. “It’s super spicy and good! It’s ultra-spicy, the whole package! I’m in heaven! It’s even better than I expected! The scary things and gloomy things were just blown away!”

She gave him a thumbs-up. 

The inside of Ryuuji’s mouth was burning like hell, but the bottom of his stomach was bubbling with so much happiness, he couldn’t help but be embarrassed.

“Well…you said you wanted it to be spicy so…” he said.

“What? And then you really made it this spicy because of that?! No way, I’m moved! I’ve gotta get seconds!”

Minori’s face was red from the spiciness as she grinned. She showed Ryuuji her perfectly empty dish. Waah! His heart was painfully full with happiness. If something like this makes you that happy, then I’ll make it everyday for your whole life. Of course, he couldn’t say that. Ryuuji wordlessly snatched Minori’s plate and heaped it with seconds.