After stepping out through the gray school gate, Shino felt the merciless cold wind hit her head-on. She pulled one hand out of the warm pouch pocket at her waist and quickly tugged her scarf higher around her neck, covering her thin lips before slipping her hand back inside. Her upper body was wrapped up tightly enough, but as expected, her legs, covered only by a short skirt and black thermal tights, still felt faintly cold.
Still, keeping one's legs warm outdoors in winter with only tights was practically a high school girl skill.
Shino Asada did not have much of the cuteness implied by that cute phrase, "high school girl," but she had grown used to what that kind of outfit did to the body after so many years of student life.
Beyond her round glasses, the world had turned dull gray under the bleak winter wind. Fallen leaves lay scattered all over the sidewalk. She tucked her head down a little and walked slowly along.
She followed the same road as always. Behind her scarf, her small mouth drew in a long breath, pulling the dry, clear, everywhere-cold air into her lungs. The chill was sharp enough to drive away the drowsiness left over from the stuffy classroom, where the heater had been on and every door and window had been shut.
Her slight, slender body shivered again despite herself.
Another day was over.
Three years of high school. Six hundred and eight days.
One hundred and fifty-six of them had now passed.
A literary director might have found a kindred spirit in that way of thinking, breaking time down into fine pieces and feeling the sediment of experience and emotion.
At last, one quarter of it was over, Shino thought, moved by the progress of this compulsory hardship.
In truth, though, even after graduation, she was not the sort of person who had a goal, a direction, something she wanted to do or become. She simply wanted to be released from the group called high school students. Every day she went to a place like a detention facility, listened to teachers lecture in lifeless voices, stood in rows for exercises... She could not find much meaning in any of it.
She had once told her grandparents what she wanted. She did not want to go on to high school. She wanted to start working right away, or enter a vocational school and learn a practical skill. Her old-fashioned grandfather had turned red with anger, and her grandmother had said that if Shino could not go to a good school and marry into a good family, then she would be letting her father down.
With no other choice, Shino studied desperately and somehow got into a school in Tokyo. But in essence, this place was not that different from the public middle school back in the countryside.
She lived alone here in an apartment only six tatami mats wide. Every day followed the same fixed route and routine. Even when a sequel she liked came out at the bookstore, she had to save money and walk away in pain. She checked how much money she had left and had to decide on dinner before she even reached the convenience store on the way home.
Nutrition and price came first. Taste and appearance were secondary.
Day after day, she repeated that assembly-line life.
Shino Asada was not cute.
She was not graceful, either. If one wanted to be generous, perhaps "petite" was the best word for her. She did not know how to dress herself up, so even features that were not bad had little color to them. Above all, her expression rarely changed throughout the day. She always looked tired, unable to make the kind of face that would draw anyone in.
Her material poverty left her with few luxuries or hobbies. The poverty of her spirit and personality made it difficult for her to obtain anything like a brilliant youth.
Actually, being such a mass-produced doll might not have been bad, if only she had been strong enough. If only she had the endurance to bear it.
Unfortunately, she did not.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter. No matter how brilliant or withered the scenery before her became, she had no one to share it with. Her memories were gray. Her future was uncertain. It was like that behind her and ahead of her, so the present caught between them had been infected too, left without a ripple.
With steps that lacked any real drive, she approached the supermarket.
Tonight's dinner would be celery and daikon soup with tofu hamburg steak. It did not sound bad, but Shino was only sixteen. Her cooking was still merely acceptable. Even now, she embodied the limits and stamina of an ordinary sixteen-year-old girl. If she got a little older... would she become a little stronger?
The girl, her thoughts turning slowly, was just about to enter the supermarket.
"Asada-"
From the narrow alley beside the supermarket, formed by the gap between it and the neighboring building, came a voice that irritated her. Her feet stopped by reflex. Holding down her feelings, she slowly turned toward it.
Standing at the mouth of the alley were three girls in the same uniform as hers. Their skirts were deliberately hiked up, exposing far more thigh than Shino ever did. With the way they leaned against the wall, carrying an air that belonged more to the street than to school, there was no way to connect them with the image of good students. Their makeup was heavy too. If someone wanted to be malicious, they could easily mistake them for girls working the street.
Every school had girls like this, probably. Girls who formed groups on campus, were open with their personalities, good at socializing, and loved hanging around outside.
Shino had no intention of judging other people's lifestyles. Even so, she could not bring herself to think there was anything wonderful about stringing along several boys at once and privately bragging about how attractive they were.
One of them aimed a fake smile at her.
"Come here."
Shino did not move. She only asked quietly what they wanted.
Another girl strode over and grabbed her wrist.
"Don't ask. Just come."
When Shino was dragged stumbling into the depths of the alley, the girl who seemed to be their leader finally looked at her. The student named Endou wore pitch-black eyeliner, but her eyes slanted upward, and her chin was sharp. Her first impression was that of a carnivorous insect. With lighter makeup, she might actually have looked much better.
"Sorry, Asada. We were singing karaoke just now and got a little too into it, so now we don't have money to get home. We'll pay you back tomorrow, so lend us some money."
Endou raised one finger. From what she meant, it was probably ten thousand yen, not one thousand. There were too many holes in her words and tone. School had ended less than twenty minutes ago. How could they have gotten that carried away already? And for train fare, they had commuter passes. There was no reason they would need ten thousand yen.
Shino thought all of that.
But this blatant, clumsy extortion was not the first time.
"I don't have that much money on me," she said.
Endou's smile faded a little.
"Then go get it. We'll wait. There's an ATM nearby. Oh, and leave your schoolbag and wallet here. Just take your card. Otherwise, if little Asada doesn't come back, we'd be waiting for nothing."
Now it all made sense. Shino looked at the three smiling girls and realized how stupid she had been to think she might still be able to become friends with them.
She drew in a deep breath of cold air and looked Endou straight in the eye.
"No."
"Huh...?"
"No. I don't want to lend you any money."
She would not soften the refusal. She would not leave room for them to push her around, or answer with some vague hesitation that sounded like permission. She was done giving in.
There was already enough weakness in her. Even if it was only a little, she wanted to find courage through her own effort. The courage and confidence to become stronger.
"So now you're looking down on me..." The corner of Endou's eye twitched with anger.
The other two girls moved behind Shino as well, and the three of them boxed her in.
"I'm leaving. Move."
Shino forced her voice to stay low and steady.
"Oh? You can make a scary face like that too?" Seeing Shino show no fear, Endou's expression twisted into something disgusting, half mockery and half the look of someone playing with prey. She slowly raised her right fist. But she did not mean to hit Shino. Instead, she extended her index finger and made the childish, boring shape of a hand pretending to be a gun.
And with only that, all the strength Shino had built up vanished.
Her body began to tremble. Strength slowly drained out of her. Her breathing quickened. Endou's finger, its nail painted bright red, seized all of her attention and tore through the defensive line she had built inside herself. Her heartbeat sped up. A ringing sound roared in her ears.
"Bang!!"
Endou suddenly shouted. Shino let out a terrified scream she could not control. Fear crawled over her limbs and bones like countless ants.
"Hah. You know, my brother has a realistic toy gun at home. Maybe I'll bring it to school next time and show you. You'd like that, right? Handguns and all?" Endou looked with satisfaction at the fragile girl in front of her.
"..."
Her tongue would not move. Her rapid breathing pulled more dry, cold air into her body, and everything inside her was freezing. Shino unconsciously trembled and shook her head. Even her stomach began to churn, and her body bent forward despite herself.
"Hey, hey, don't throw up here. You threw up and collapsed during world history class that one time too. Cleaning it up was such a pain. Seriously, you looked just like some drunk old man puking his guts out. You're really pathetic."
The three of them laughed louder and louder, enjoying themselves more and more.
I want to run.
I want to get away.
Shino thought that sadly, holding her head.
"Anyway, we'll just take the money you have on you for now, okay? This isn't robbery. It's a loan. We'll definitely pay you back... someday when I'm in a really good mood."
Endou reached for Shino's schoolbag. Shino wanted to resist, but she could not.
She was trying so hard not to remember.
But those images flashed in front of her on their own.
The heavy, damp weight. The feel of steel. The smell of gunpowder forcing its way into her nose, and the smell of blood too.
Just as Endou was about to pull open the zipper of her bag-
At the entrance to the alley, an extremely sharp engine roar suddenly rang out. Then came the fierce shriek of tires scraping against pavement. Some driver, as if he had lost his mind, had suddenly stopped outside and spun his tires in place. The calm winter shopping street was sliced open by the noise as if with a knife.
Endou's hand jerked.
Shino herself was snapped awake by the loud sound. For that one instant, at least, those terrifying memories flew away.
"This way! Officer, hurry!"
A young man's voice sounded from the alley entrance. The three girls made their decision in an instant. With astonishing speed, they ran out of the alley and disappeared into the crowd of the shopping street.
Only then did Shino's legs finally lose all strength. She swayed, looking as if she might collapse at any moment.
She desperately adjusted her breathing and forced down the signs of the phobic attack. Slowly, she began to sense things again: the commotion from customers who had come to shop, the smell of yakitori drifting from the supermarket entrance.
It must have taken several dozen seconds.
Then, from behind her, came a stammering voice.
"...Are you okay, Asada-san?"
After taking one last deep breath, Shino poured courage into her powerless legs and stood.
She straightened her glasses and turned around. What she saw was a thin, small boy.
The first things she noticed were his nylon pullover and the dark green shoulder bag he carried. His face under the black baseball cap looked a little round. Even in casual clothes, he looked like a middle school student no matter how she looked at him. But the deep shadow in his eyes made him seem far more mature than that.
Shino knew this boy's name. In this town, he was the only person she recognized as, at the very least, not an enemy. And in another world, one that was not here, they were even close enough to be called comrades-in-arms.
As her heartbeat finally began to settle, Shino gave a small smile.
"...I'm all right now. Thank you, Shinkawa-kun. Where are the police?"
She looked behind him. The dim alley was still empty, with no sign that anyone else was about to appear.
Kyouji Shinkawa scratched his capped head and laughed.
"That was fake. You see scenes like that in movies and manga all the time, right? I always wanted to try it once. I'm just glad it scared them off."
"..."
Shino stared blankly for a moment, then shook her head softly.
"...That was quick thinking. Why were you in a place like this?"
"Ah, there's a game center over there. I came out the back door and..."
Kyouji turned and glanced behind him. On the rain-stained concrete wall of the alley, there really was a small silver door.
"Did those girls corner you, Asada-san? Should I actually go look for an officer...?"
"No. You helped me a lot. Thank you."
"And that loud car sound just now...?"
"When I came over, there was a small car parked by the entrance. I don't know why, but the owner suddenly made a huge noise. It startled me too. Then I kept coming this way, and about five or six seconds later, the car drove off," Kyouji Shinkawa said. "What a weird guy. I've heard of doing a burnout start, but making that much noise in a shopping street causes trouble for everyone, doesn't it?"
Shino gave a small hum of agreement, but she still found it strange.
That sound had come at exactly the right time.
Almost as if someone who could not stand what was happening here had let out a shout of rebuke.
But... it had to be a coincidence, right? How else could she explain it?
...
Driving smoothly along the road, passing the cars beside him one by one, Satoru kept one hand on the steering wheel. A cheap, low-quality cigarette he had not yet had time to light hung from his mouth. His face remained calm as he felt out the handling and quality of the secondhand car he had bought with the money from selling rare GGO equipment.
Well, for that price, this was probably a pretty good find.
That was what he thought.
In the rearview mirror, the supermarket where he had stopped a moment ago was already out of sight.
"Schools really do gather hope and bullying in the same place... But those three ran off, so that high school girl should be okay now, right?"
Twenty-two-year-old Mr. Suzuki made that small observation, pulled out a lighter, and lit his cigarette. He exhaled smoke with satisfaction, turned the wheel, forgot the small episode, and drove calmly toward his apartment.