Chapter 13: Certainty and mystery

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Translator: Soafp

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On the first Friday after they started working together after school, Ginji and Sora were, as usual, handling the tasks Aika had pushed onto them in the reference room.

However, the pile of documents they faced was noticeably smaller.

“We’re done. Anything left?”

“Huh? You’re already finished? That’s amazing. No, that’s it. Today’s assigned work is all done. Student council work at school isn’t actually that heavy. I guess they’ve run out of harassment ammo—or it’s just become too much trouble to find new stuff. That’s thanks to you, Ginji.”

“…Coming from someone who does three times more work than me, that doesn’t mean much.”

Though Ginji was efficient with his work, Sora’s workload and speed were on another level—so much so that Ginji secretly wondered if she had two brains. And one thing in particular had been bothering him.

A tray was placed in front of Ginji and Sora.

“Here's your reward. Today it’s seared karasumi (dried mullet roe). There's also cheese and daikon—try them together. They go great with strong roasted tea. Someday I want to make karasumi myself.”

“…You do three times the work, manage design jobs, and now you're feeding me too. You enjoying this?”

Ginji glared at Sora, a vein popping on his forehead. The karasumi he put in his mouth was rich and right up his alley.

…Is this b*****d starting to learn my taste based on my reactions? Ginji shuddered internally.

“It's the best. You always look like you're enjoying the food so much, Ginji.”

Sora declared with a beaming smile. A few days ago, she'd become totally obsessed with having Ginji eat her snacks and meals. Even though she was already helping out with tasks and shouldering some of the hate from other girls, she was adding more to her plate. If left alone, she'd try to do everything around him, so Ginji had to set a limit of once a day. …Though one could argue that she was becoming dependent on Ginji in place of Aika, Sora insisted to Ginji that it felt entirely different.

“Put the same energy into your morning greetings.”

“…Everyone has things they're good and bad at.”

She turned her head away.

“Tch. Well, since we finished early, let's review this week's progress.”

“Y-You got it!”

Pushing the laptop aside, Ginji plopped his elbow on the table and pulled out a notebook while munching on karasumi.

“Well, you've made some male acquaintances, right?”

Thanks to the greetings over the past few days, Sora's face had at least become recognizable to the boys in their grade.

“Honestly, I'm not sure what effect it's having. But… maybe I've gotten more comfortable talking to people.”

“It's groundwork for the day when you decide to go all out and need to be properly evaluated. This kind of thing pays off slowly. Next, the main issue… the harassment from some of the boys and girls.”

“That's been going on for a while, so I'm used to it.”

The petty, snide verbal harassment from Aika's clique still continued, and it made Ginji furious to watch, but Sora didn't seem bothered at all. From what Ginji could tell, she had been worn down before, but had bounced back in just a few days—dramatically, even.

“They're not stealing your stuff or cornering you when I'm not around, right?”

“I'm staying cautious. I mean, sometimes they hide my gym clothes, but I've got spares. I always keep my shoes in the locker, and if they make things too obvious, the teachers would get involved. So it's mostly just gossip now. The boys haven't done anything violent since that time either. You're the one who's gotten pretty hated by the girls, though. You okay with that? Weren't you trying to be popular?”

“Like I'd want anything to do with girls like that.”

Ginji, having clearly acted as Sora's shield, was now despised by the girls as if he were poison, and had grown distant from some of the boys. But he still got along with others as usual, and had accepted the consequences, so he wasn't really affected.

“What about Shiki? She keeps assigning you work every day to harass you.”

“…Hmm. Ever since I started hanging out with you, she hasn't invited me over to her house anymore, so I'm not sure. I guess Aika-chan's busy with a party her father's acquaintance is hosting this weekend. If she's going to do anything to me, it'll probably be next week.”

Sora popped a piece of karasumi into her mouth. Though she said it lightly, Ginji noticed her fingers trembling slightly.

She was still clearly afraid of Aika. Pretending not to notice, Ginji continued the conversation.

“A party, huh. You're going too?”

“Yeah. I'll help with Aika-chan's makeup and dress adjustments.”

“She even makes someone else do her makeup…?”

“Well, when you're wearing a dress like that, it's pretty normal to have someone else help you.”

“It's weird that it's you doing it. Or rather, it's weird that you can do it at all.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

As he pieced together what had been going on, Ginji started to understand something about Shiki: for years, she had been making Sora do things she didn't even need Sora for. It could look like dependency, but Aika didn't seem particularly attached to Sora. It was more like she believed Sora could be replaced at any time.

After months of observing and a few days working together, Ginji had become convinced of one thing:

Sora was the real deal—a true genius. He'd only seen a glimpse of it, but she was on a different level. Her communication skills were weak, and she had an odd sense of personal boundaries, but she could absorb and process most things with ease. She had low self-esteem and rarely showed her capabilities, but there was no doubt she was irreplaceable. And yet Aika, who likely knew that better than anyone, treated her like this. Did she really believe that Sora was useless and she herself was superior? That would be utterly absurd.

“What does Shiki think of you, Sora?”

“To Aika-chan, I'm probably just a toy. A toy she can break anytime she wants.”

“…I don't like that.”

Ginji scowled at Sora, who truly believed that.

What do I need to do to make her happy? What am I missing? he wondered, munching on karasumi.