8

You’re sure to find what you want on the other side of the magic door

It was the second day of the school festival and the last morning of second semester, with the closing ceremony at midday.

“First off, congratulations. You finally did it.”

Hinami’s smile was kind, and her eyes were full of good wishes, with no trace of their usual harsh sharpness.

“Yeah…thanks.” I glanced away, feeling kind of shy.

As always, we were in Sewing Classroom #2, the room where it all began.

I was telling my teacher in life that Kikuchi-san and I were dating.

She lifted one eyebrow and one side of her mouth. “Reeling her in by using your position as cocreator of the script. Not a bad strategy at all,” she teased.

“Hey, that’s not what I was doing!”

I chuckled. That was a hell of a way to compliment me for finally reaching a major checkpoint. Her mean joke needled at my habit of overthinking, but I was in such a good mood that it didn’t even bother me.

“But thank you, Hinami, for your help.”

“My help?”

She tilted her head in confusion at my earnestness.

“It’s thanks to you that I was able to get here.”

“…Hmm. Well, you’re welcome.”

Brushing off my thanks, she rested her chin lightly on her palm. I’m sure I was only imagining that she glanced away for a second.

“I just wanted to prove to you that I’m right.”

“Right, I forgot.”

That brusque reply was so typically her that I couldn’t help laughing dryly. Was she being disingenuous, or were those her true feelings? Whichever it was, I didn’t dislike that chilly part of her personality so much anymore.

“But anyway. You can admit now that your character’s stats have improved, right?”

“My stats, huh?”

Thinking back, I realized everything had started with those two words.

I’d met NO NAME, and she’d told me exactly what she thought of me—which was that I sucked.

I said some characters were just better than others, and that’s why things weren’t going well for me. Those differences couldn’t be overcome.

I was a bottom-tier character.

She’d seized on my argument, taken me to her house, and proposed that I put in the effort to improve my character.

And now here I was, having achieved that goal so fully that no one could tell me I hadn’t.

A huge success indeed.

“Shit, you really do hate to lose,” I grumbled.

“Come on, are you really one to talk?”

“Ha-ha-ha. Guess you’re right.”

We laughed together as two extremely competitive gamers. I respected her as a teacher, but I was also confident I could catch her off guard now and then.

I was probably only able to pull that off because I was nanashi and she was NO NAME.

“But seriously, thank you.”

“That’s your second thank-you,” she teased, snorting.

“Sh-shut up! I said it twice because it’s important!”

“Oh, no, the more important something is, the more you have to put all your feelings into saying it the first time. Otherwise, your words start to lose all meaning.”

“Ugh, fine…”

Even at a moment like this, I had to admit she probably had a point.

“But you’re right,” she added with a wicked smile, like a little girl who had just come up with a practical joke. “To balance it out, I’d better say my part again, too.”

She pierced my eyes with her own dizzyingly attractive gaze.

“Tomozaki-kun. Congratulations.”

She spoke in a warm, soft voice, clearly using her skill with tone.

Her gentle gaze, like that of a mother watching over her child, left me a little bashful.

“…Thanks.” I earnestly accepted her words and told myself that behind the constructed mask and tone were genuine feelings.

“Well, on to your next assignment.”

“Damn it, I knew you were going to say that.”

She was so completely predictable sometimes; it was both reassuring and frustrating.

“Of course I am. You might not understand, since you’ve never had a social life before, but real life isn’t like a romance novel or a movie about young love. Agreeing to date is only the beginning. Did you know that if you stay together all the way to graduation a year or so from now, people will be stunned? High school relationships often don’t last.”

“Oof… I guess so.”

The picture of reality she painted was terrifying. Stories might be stories, but this was the story of life.

“Did you forget the big goal I set for you?”

“…No.”

Of course I remembered it.

“I’m supposed to get as good at this as you, right?”

She nodded. “So you can’t just focus on love. Apparently, on the Internet, a lot of people equate having a girlfriend with being a normie, but that’s an oversimplification. The high-level normies have a lot more going for them than that, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Truth be told, unless she was hiding it from me, Hinami didn’t have a boyfriend herself. But no one would call her a loser. Anyway, if she wanted one, she could probably find someone in fifteen minutes or so.

But I had something else on my mind.

I was wondering about “high-level normies.”

“Hey, Hinami?”

After our showdown in the summer, I’d said something to her. This idea of “what you really want” is key in all sorts of games, life included. Letting that guide you forward is what makes those games fun in the truest sense of the word. I swore that one day, I’d prove to her that it was a real thing.

Of course, I still hadn’t come up with proof for its existence that I could confront her with.

It wasn’t the sort of thing you could do overnight, and it might not even be provable with logic, where she reigned supreme.

But all the same, clues were lying all over the dungeons of the game of life.

That’s why I had to go along collecting tablet fragments, crystals, and jewels, and trying to open the door to the next world. You never knew when you’d find the key that solved everything—the right item at the right time, just when you least expected it.

So right now, I wanted to take the first step.

And I wanted to take it with this magician.

“There’s somewhere I want to take you.”

* * *

“Man, Fumiya! I knew you’d do it eventually, but not this soon!”

I was in our classroom before homeroom.

Mizusawa, Nakamura, and Takei had surrounded me and were jabbing my whole body with their elbows and fists.

“Everyone could tell something was up.” Nakamura’s even, white teeth glittered as he spoke. By the way, his hair was back to its usual bleach-blond color.

“I know! You guys were working on that project together, like, all the time! And this wasn’t your first time teaming up, was it?!” Somehow, Takei looked super excited and disappointed at the same time. He was using more words than usual, and I was having trouble following.

“Y-yeah, I guess so.”

The night before, after Kikuchi-san and I decided to start dating, I figured I’d better at least tell Mizusawa. I sent him a LINE message, wondering what would happen in the morning…and here we were. Okay, so I expected something like this, but damn, guys sure are merciless when they get going.

I shot Mizusawa a resentful glance, but he just laughed. “Hey, it’s not like you’re doing anything wrong, so why hide it? They’d find out eventually.”

“Yeah, I know…”

“So putting it all out there right away is your best bet, don’t you think?”

“I guess so…?” He can convince me of anything in almost no time at all—he’s like Hinami that way.

Pretty soon, Nakamura’s other bros caught wind of the ruckus, and I was the man of the hour.

“No way!! Tomozaki has a girlfriend?!”

“Seriously?! Was it the festival?!”

Daichi Matsumoto, Kyoya Hashiguchi, and some other normie guys were now poking me along with Nakamura, Mizusawa, and Takei. I’m sure they didn’t even know I existed until I started training and walking home with Hinami’s crew.

“K-Kikuchi-san…? R-really…”

But what stuck in my mind most of all was Tachibana’s quiet, helpless reaction when he heard the news.

* * *

Later that day, after the closing ceremony, I was on my way home from Kitayono Station.

“Ah…so that’s what happened.” Mimimi seemed to guess everything, said and unsaid.

“…Uh-huh.”

“So it all went well! Nice job, Mr. Stubborn Top Gamer!”

“Uh…yeah.”

It was so cold, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it started snowing. The two of us were the only ones in sight.

We were walking home together on our usual route.

“I told her how I felt, and she said she’d go out with me…”

“Uh-huh… After all, you chose her,” Mimimi replied sadly, kicking a stone by the side of the road. I felt like I’d seen her shrinking in on herself that way before.

“Yeah. That’s what I wanted to do.”

Mimimi, who had battled Hinami with me.

Mimimi, who was always so spontaneous and fun whenever we talked.

Mimimi, who’d told me how she felt.

And—who’d pushed me forward when I wanted to give up.

She was my friend, one who was so important to me. She turned toward me with a smile that was bright and teasing, yet it seemed ready to vanish any second.

“Brain, you’re a real jerk! Such a playboy!”

“Hey…that’s not true…”

She’d told me her feelings, but I started dating another girl without ever giving her an answer. I couldn’t really deny her accusation.

“I guess, like, this is what happens when I try too hard to be sincere…”

I wasn’t sure how to explain, but I put together some words anyway.

Mimimi interrupted loudly, seemingly wanting to change the subject. “Oh, just forget about it! I understand anyway! You’re Tomozaki; I’m sure you thought it all through way more than I did and made a sensible decision.”

“…Mimimi.”

“And…I’m sure you really considered me, too! I know!”

“…Sorry,” I mumbled.

“Don’t apologize! No one did anything wrong!” she answered cheerfully.

“I—I guess not. Sorry,” I said, accidentally apologizing again.

She pouted and poked my shoulder. “Argh, it’s annoying! I don’t wanna hear it!”

“Ouch! Okay, okay…I get it.”

Mimimi smiled suddenly like she felt all better, then blew out a puff of white air as if to let out her warm feelings. “But to be totally honest…I still like you.”

“…Yeah.”

“I didn’t fall for you on the spur of the moment… You’d be surprised, but I can be pretty serious about this stuff.”

I nodded without saying anything, taking in her words. She seemed outgoing and loud on the surface, but in reality, she was smart and worried about a lot of things, and her feelings were sincere and honest.

I knew that about her.

That’s why I didn’t apologize again or say something nice just for the sake of politeness. I had to just let her speak and hear her.

“So anyway, don’t worry about what happened this time. And I won’t, either. Okay?”

“…Okay.”

Her resolute profile was full of a strength that seemed to take everything in and then laugh it all off.

More than anything, I was proud that a girl like her had fallen for me.

“—But listen.”

Mimimi walked a few feet in front of me and then spun around.

Somehow, the gaze she turned on me was both looking toward the past and boundlessly optimistic.

Her eyes were overflowing with emotions I knew she couldn’t even make sense of herself, joy and sorrow all at once—and she said this.

“If you think I’ll like you forever, you’re wrong! Silly Brain!”

With that, she ran off, and all I could do was watch her go.

* * *

It was the end of December, and winter break had started a few days earlier.

I was at the café I’d been to with Kikuchi-san once before.

The two of us were sitting there in that odd little restaurant, with its retro vibe and displays of colorful sake jars and Western-style knickknacks. Now that I think of it, Hinami was the one who told me about it. I’m so indebted to her.

“Yes…this is very good.”

As usual, Kikuchi-san ordered the omurice, and I ordered the cheese hamburger—guess a certain someone’s tastes in food are contagious.

“This is good, too. Look at the cheese; it’s just dripping off.”

Wait, wasn’t this when we were supposed to trade bites? But that didn’t happen, and instead, we went along in our usual gentle mode. This was our safe zone.

We talked about a lot of stuff—the play, since we never really got a chance after the performance; what we’d been thinking about since we started talking; and how life used to be before we met.

I realized I hardly knew anything about Kikuchi-san, and I hadn’t told her much about myself, either.

We had a bottomless well of topics.

After we finished eating, I went to the restroom, and when I came back, I noticed something on the table.

A stack of A4 paper.

Printed on the first page were the words On the Wings of the Unknown.

“…The script?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No, it’s the rest of the short-story version.”

“Ah…”

That’s right.

The play our class performed for the school was based on an unfinished story.

The story was only partly written when she adapted it as a script and came up with an ending for the play. But she’d never finished the story version.

Now she had.

“I finished the original story… I’d love if you would read it.”

She shyly held the manuscript out to me, more embarrassed than I’d ever seen her.

I’d already read it a million times, so why would she be blushing like that just because it was the short-story version?

“…What’s the matter?” I asked.

“Um,” she said, looking panicked, but since we always had conversations like this, she seemed to resign herself and started explaining. “Um, actually…this isn’t the official version; it’s something I wrote for myself.”

“For yourself?”

She nodded. “You told me I should be true to my feelings.”

“…Uh-huh.”

“So this isn’t the official version…but I decided to write this version how I wanted it, not based on what’s best for that world—but what’s best for me.”

Her moist eyes were incredibly human, so I was sure that they must be seeing a brilliantly colorful world.

“Okay. I’ll read it today and text you what I think.”

That was how our relationship was: respectful, mutually understanding, comfortable.

None of that gentle, cozy feeling had gone away just because we were dating.

Or so I thought.

“…No, that’s not what I want.”

“What?”

Her cheeks were as red as candy apples, and her words revealed just the tiniest bit of the hidden emotions exploding inside her. My emotions were rising, too.

“I want to hear what you think here and now.” She hit me right in the tenderest part of my heart. “I-I’ll wait.”

I wasn’t sure if it was because we were dating, or because she’d decided to be true to her own desires, but…

“I’ll sit here quietly and wait while you read it…but I’d like to hear your impressions directly…”

…Kikuchi-san had gained the ability to ask for something just a tiny bit selfish.

“O-okay. If you insist…”

“…Yes,” she replied in a happy, soft voice. Then she bowed in my direction. “I’m…very glad.”

Somehow, that exchange made me truly feel that we were dating.

She was irresistibly cute.

Sometimes, we climbed slowly over short walls, and sometimes, we accidentally jumped over high ones too quickly.

I was sure our relationship would go on like that, sometimes going well and sometimes less so.

“Hee-hee… This is fun, isn’t it?!”

A relationship between a girl called Fuka Kikuchi—and me, her first boyfriend.

* * *

I was back home in my bedroom.

Smiling wryly at the LINE message on my phone from Hinami asking [How’d it go?], I dived onto my bed. She could ask me all she wanted, but there was no way I could sum it up in one word—my brain was way past capacity.

“…Oh yeah.”

Just then, I remembered something.

Before I told her the details of our date, there was something else I wanted to let her know.

I mean, I was positive this other thing would catch her completely off guard.

I whipped my exhausted body into action and typed into the reply box.

I finished all the goals.

But I did it in a different way than she imagined.

After making sure the message was sent, I let the tension drain from my body.

Everything that happened that day, every word we exchanged, every expression I saw Kikuchi-san make for the first time…it was all so overwhelmingly precious to me, I felt like I was going to explode with happiness.

But that was what I’d decided I wanted—what I chose for myself.

With all my heart, I wanted to keep this feeling forever.

Well then—I knew what to do.

I’d read that final scene in Kikuchi-san’s story one more time.

After all, it was the conclusion of the story that she and I created together.

She’d written down her own feelings, and for me, that was the greatest masterpiece in the world.

* * *