Chapter 5: When You're Found, You Can't Escape

Rescue means getting involved. Getting involved also means having conversations.

A café. Only one cup is placed.

The water poured into it is transparent, with ice faintly melting. Condensation dripped and spread on the table. I want to escape reality through scene description, that's how much I'm at a loss for what to say.

The waitress bustles around the hall, and customers are enjoying their meals happily.

Outside the window it's already dim, and my smartphone has received worried messages from my mother. I tried various excuses to dodge the issue, but it didn't look like I could go home anytime soon.

「Hey, can you see me?」

She tilted her head like a broken doll.

I'm overwhelmed by the pressure and reflexively grimace.

(...What would be the right thing to say?)

It's not that I didn't want to help her.

I do want to help. It's just that when asked if it was my role, I can't help but have doubts. I'd rather not get involved in trouble, and I'd really rather not have the bullying target switched to me, but it turned out to be some kind of supernatural phenomenon.

(Won't someone please tell me it's a dream?)

I still can't fully comprehend such an absurd reality. I'd rather believe it if someone told me it was a dream.

More than anything.

Orimoto is a resident of a different world, and I had determined she wasn't someone I should get involved with.

Only I could see her, and I felt a responsibility I never asked for. I won't deny that.

Was this inevitable then?

Executing a tailing-like operation, extending my arm to Orimoto falling from the railing, being dragged to this café before I knew it, with the cup placed in front of me.

I tried developing my theory at length and pretentiously, but simply put——what should I do?

「Hey, you can see me, right?」

After giving her thanks at length, Orimoto has now entered interrogation mode.

I don't feel any accusatory tone, but there's definitely a flame of greed burning in the depths of her eyes, trying to know the answer and not letting me escape.

There's no aggression to the extent of blaming me, no glares, no resort to violence.

She just tries to ask. Tries to know.

I determined that Orimoto is seeking explanation, understanding, and comprehension for the cause of what happened to her.

There's something only I know.

There's something only I understand.

It was impossible for me to tell her the expected answer, and talking was my limit.

「...I've answered that many times already.」

「...But I'm anxious. ...I wonder if it's really true.」

「The extent to which I could act out a lie has been exceeded.」

I answered with a curt response.

「Hey——can you see this?」

Letting slip a murmur, Orimoto snatched my cup and held it up in the air.

The light from the fixture penetrates the glass. It's just ordinary light and a cup, nothing unusual. From a general perspective, the composition of a beautiful girl holding it up high would probably be more distorted.

「Oi, the angle. Don't tilt it.」

I say this and realize I'm drawing some attention. All of it with suspicious looks.

If, though it's hard to believe, Orimoto can't be seen by others, then I'm a man expressing irritation toward empty space.

「I'll apologize first. ——I'm sorry.」

「O-Oi, idiot! It'll spill, I mean, it's already spilling! Wait a sec——.」

The moment I tried to stop her.

There was a splash.

A sharp sound that also seemed to tear through the air rang out strangely clear with a sense of reality.

Transparent water spreads across the white wooden table.

I stared at it. It has no meaning.

I was somehow accepting it calmly.

「This too, while we're at it.」

「What?! You——!」

Orimoto presses her attack.

The cup that slipped through her slender fingers fell with a dry sound onto the splashed water.

A particularly loud sound bursts through the café.

「Look, here comes the staff.」

「Customer?! Are you alright?」

The approaching waitress's gaze was focused straight on me alone. The staff can't see Orimoto Suzuka. That's the tone of it.

This is the third time. The third time.

The first time, Orimoto's desk and chair had disappeared without a trace.

The second time, Orimoto wrote characters on the blackboard with whatever resolve she had.

And the third time occurred outside of school.

From this sequence, what I have to acknowledge whether I like it or not is——this isn't bullying.

Something inexplicable is occurring.

I had no choice but to believe that both Orimoto and I are caught up in that something.

「Ah! Um, I'm fine… I just, my hand slipped a little. Could I just get a towel?」

「I'm the one who did it.」

「Understood, customer. I'll bring a towel right away. Please wait just a moment.」

「My statement is being ignored.」

It's being treated as if I did everything. I pasted on a wry smile while deflecting the stares from around.

I felt dizzy from the strangeness while vaguely brushing it off.

Orimoto completely ignores me sideways and continues speaking without a care. What exactly is going on?

Being shown this so blatantly, I feel like I'm drowning in layers of strangeness piled up like mille-feuille.

「You're the only one. Who can see me. My classmate Kasugai-kun. What's going on?」

「How the hell would I know...」

I could see the staff member gripping a towel from behind. The focus is still fixed on me.

「My parents, my friends, everyone seems unable to see me, and all the actions I took were treated as if they never happened. Even screaming in their ears didn't cause the slightest upset.」

「...That'd be annoying.」

「Right? You'd go "Hie!" right? At first I felt like throwing up, thinking my head had gone crazy.」

But it was different, Orimoto shakes her head.

「When invisible me got pushed on the footbridge, if Kasugai-kun hadn't been there, I probably would have died.」

"Would have died", Orimoto spun those words with slight hesitation. It's somewhat heavy content.

「What, were you watching? From far away?」

I wonder how I should answer.

「...I have something I need to apologize to you about too. First, let me say again, I don't know what's what either.」

That's as far as our exchange got. The staff member who had made it to our table bowed slightly while asking.

「Um, customer...? Were you perhaps on a phone call? I thought you were talking to someone.」

「N-No. It's not like that, so it's fine. Ah, um, talking to myself is kind of a hobby...! Really, it's fine!」

「Talking to yourself is your hobby, sorry Kasugai-kun! I did talk to you too much.」

Orimoto clasped her hands together and smiled sheepishly.

It's more like a smile mixed with guilt than maliciousness.

I endured the staff member's gaze as if looking at a weirdo and accepted the towel.

After confirming that the staff member has trotted back to work, I quietly lower my voice.

「...The café might have been a mistake.」

「You're the one who brought me in here, but it was definitely a mistake. And I still haven't had anything but water.」

I casually glance at the menu.

Orimoto seemed quite interested in that menu, maybe she's hungry.

Behind her apparent absorption in reading the menu.

I told Orimoto the rest of the story.

There's something I should apologize for, and if I don't convey it, this uneasiness won't disappear.

「Actually, I could see you from weekdays onward. But I couldn't tell whether what was happening was bullying or something else.」

「Meaning? You could read the characters I wrote on the blackboard too. I see, I see——yeah.」

Isn't that a bit cruel?

Orimoto's words were a phrase that cut into me like a blade, but her tone was more like soft wrapping.

Orimoto's original reputation among students and teachers alike was excellent, and meeting her face to face, I can see why.

I'm a peaceful-ist.

I'm bad with rough situations.

I hate standing out even more.

For someone like me to get involved with Orimoto Suzuka, who flirts with Sera from the top caste every day, makes me shudder with fear.

Moreover, at first glance it looked exactly like large-scale bullying, so I'd like some understanding for my actions.

But there's little point in going on and on about such things. Hesitation. I put my fingertips to my forehead and respond.

「...Should I apologize additionally?」

「Hmm, wouldn't it normally be okay to talk to me? I cried a lot and it was tough. Eh, wait, did you see me shouting at the school gate too?!」

I get swept away by the popular girl's emotional waves.

I don't have the dexterity to surf on top of this scattered tempo wave.

Certainly, during the weekdays Orimoto had been crying and looked deathly pale, appearing fragile.

Yet that woman, Orimoto Suzuka, seems fine right before my eyes, so people are truly difficult to understand.

「Well, sort of. I ignored it though.」

「How cruel! This is the first time I've talked to Kasugai-kun, but you're surprisingly a cool character, aren't you? I'm shocked.」

Cool character? I think she means twisted instead.

「I don't think that's what it is.」

「That! Your way of talking isn't like a classmate at all!」

「...Male high school students are like this.」

Even as I say this, since I barely have any friends, I lack reference material. Orimoto has a point.

Orimoto laughs at something she finds amusing, then looks out the window, then talks to me again. Her manner and intonation were hard to grasp.

「So? Why was Kasugai-kun on the footbridge? Wasn't the timing too convenient?」

「Right. I need to apologize about that too.」

I pause a bit and speak honestly.

There's no need to lie or put on airs. Receiving Orimoto's gaze, I determined that deceiving her would be dishonorable.

I acted cool but there's no reason to hide anything.

「I was following you.」

「——Heh?」

Orimoto's eyes widen in shock.

「Kasugai-kun, are you a stalker?!」

「No way! It's not... maybe it's not entirely different. No... I want to say it's different!」

When I eagerly deny it, it makes me seem more suspicious.

And I drew attention again.

I reflexively started to stand up but applied the brakes and sat back down dejectedly.

This is a mess. My words aren't coming together.

I had naturally fallen into Orimoto's pace.

「At first I was just curious. You were being ignored so much in the classroom. It felt off.」

「Um, couldn't you have called out to me when you noticed?」

「...Normally that'd be your friends' job.」

「......Well, that's true.」

A slight silence. A few seconds of silence.

It's not the job of me, a stranger, but rather Orimoto's friends and teachers first.

「The premise was whether you really couldn't be seen, whether no one noticed, whether it was bullying, or some ghost-like thing──I didn't know.」

Orimoto listened quietly.

Occasionally nodding and saying "uh-huh" in agreement.

「Seeing you today was a coincidence. Really. Then on the footbridge ──that happened, and ignoring that moment would definitely traumatize me.」

「......Fuuhn... I see.」

Orimoto put her finger to her chin and narrowed her eyes as if thinking. Then she suddenly chuckles.

「Is Kasugai-kun the culprit? Of this supernatural phenomenon.」

Orimoto stood up with a thump and spun around dramatically. A serving robot passes by there.

A robot equipped with motion sensors should normally detect Orimoto's heat source and stop, but it just moves and bumps into her. Moves and bumps.

When I curiously reached out my hand, the robot made a gentle warning sound saying "Danger" and stopped. When I moved my hand away, it said "Thank you" and started moving again.

Orimoto said "Even robots, huh" while hanging her head with resignation and sat back down weakly.

「You become unable to be seen by anyone, and only Kasugai-kun is outside the rules. I'd be suspicious, right?」

「It's not me! ...I'd like to say, but if I were in your position, I'd definitely be pressing you about it. ...But it really isn't me.」

I raised both hands modestly.