Toradora! Vol. 7

  Chapter 1

  She hadn’t really intended to worry about it.

  Sitting on the shabby, freezing bench with a glove over her downturned head, Kushieda Minori still couldn’t bring herself to stand. The other team members were giving her words of encouragement. Captain, you’ve got to keep it positive. None of us were doing that well today. We all have days like this. It’s just a practice match, so don’t let it get to you. Of course, she couldn’t not let it get to her. As the team captain, it was too pathetic. She couldn’t forgive herself after such a terrible play.

  Plus, to be blunt, if anyone asked whether she had her head one hundred percent in the game, it was a fact that she hadn’t.

  They had been on the ninth inning with two outs and no runners, and they had a three-to-one lead in the final inning.

  The ball made a dull sound as it connected with the bat. It traced a loose arc; it could have been caught after one bound. It was almost as though the ball were happily jumping into her glove. Yes, we’ve scored ourselves a win, she thought as she went to catch it. She would get it to first base, and the match would be over—or it should have been.

  “Huh?!”

  “What are you doing, Kushiedaaa?!”

  “Kyaah!”

  The screams were coming from the very bench she was sitting on. The players on the other school’s bench were yelling, “We did it! We did it!” “You got it, run!” She couldn’t believe it was true. All her hair stood on end. Why had the ball spilled out of her glove right before she had thrown it?

  The more flustered she grew, the worse the situation became. She kicked the ball with the tip of her shoe as it rolled away and then tried to pick it up. “Roll, roll,” she could hear people yelling. No way, no way, no way. This is bad, this is bad, this is bad. When she failed to pick it up again, the runner was coming around the second base. Amid the shrieks and cheers, she finally got the ball and threw it at third. She missed. The runner simply reached the home plate. And then there was the rest of it.

  There was the smell of the suffocating dust.

  The midwinter wind that she was powerless against, as it chilled her.

  It was a late Sunday afternoon. The rays from the sun were beginning to slant.

  She was a loser who couldn’t even stand up.

  They were like falling dominos. Once their ace player’s blunder threw off the team’s concentration, they weren’t able to recover. Someone got a base from a walk, and on top of all that, their stacking errors got the other team a home run before they knew it.

  “Ahhh…seriously…”

  Minori hunched over with her glove covering her face like a hood. She held her head in her hands. She didn’t seem to care that her knees were grimy with dirt as she pushed her nose between them. It wasn’t anyone else’s fault. She wasn’t convinced that it didn’t matter because it was a practice match. This hadn’t happened because they were having an off day. This day wasn’t a one-off fluke.

  It happened because her thoughts were in a mess and she had lost her focus. That was why things ended up like this. In other words, if she continued to be like this, they would probably never win another match.

  “What am I even doing…?”

  ***

  “What do you think you’re doing?” said Taiga.

  “I’m not doing anything…”

  You lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy oaf!

  The winter winds that assaulted him combined with the jeers to create a tornado-like vortex that swirled around Takasu Ryuuji. His bangs were sent dancing by the freezing wind and his eyes were wide open, so he looked like the spitting image of a demon king materializing out of thin air. He looked sinister enough that he could have easily blown away a planet or two, but in actuality he wasn’t trying to do that, and he wasn’t going to become a demon king. He was just feeling slightly down after someone had publicly pointed out the truth.

  “I couldn’t help it! Because—”

  “SHAH-HUP!”

  At the same time she yelled that unintelligible phrase—WHAM-BAM!—he got a double slap coming at him from the right and left. She was probably telling him to “shut up.” Ryuuji held both his cheeks and did just that. Her sudden assaults always surprised him.

  “Don’t make excuses, you lazy oaf! You butt-ugly, lazy oaf of a stupid perverted Russell terrier! You lifelong bug repellent! You fish flake-covered idiot! You’ve got the face of a harebrained walrus!”

  Further attacks were fired at him like countless missiles that originated from another dimension. They assailed the demon king from all angles and dug their way into his heart. For the finishing touch came Taiga’s scornful voice. “Keh!” She was a brute… No, that wasn’t strong enough. The one he would rather call a demon pompously stuck up her arrogant chin.

  That arrogant way she stood. The haughtiness in the way she held up her chin. The cold-bloodedness in her half-open eyes, which were filled with contempt. The one whose cheeks had turned rosy from the cold wind and who now pushed up her hair was Aisaka Taiga, known as the Palmtop Tiger. She was the beautiful demon in the flesh.

  Her face was as delicate as a French doll’s. She was called “Palmtop” because of how petite she was, but the cool, monotone voice that came from her physique was lower than expected.

  “Ryuuji, I wonder if all that’s left for you now is to die alone…”

  Slash—she cut him down in a flash.

  Ryuuji transformed into a speechless statue in the middle of the road. This was even more merciless than the double slap. Aren’t these practically the same as acts of violence? he thought. Are you fine with that, police officer? Is this justice, Japan? Isn’t this something that should be outlawed? He gathered his scattered courage and cradled his neatly halved heart. Ryuuji readied himself and glared at Taiga.

  “D-don’t think that a constitutional country will leave you unchecked forever…!”

  “Huh?”

  His desperate comeback turned to dust and disappeared within a moment when faced with Taiga sticking her finger in her ears as she jeered at him. Cold wind blew through the prickly silence that came between them.

  It was a winter Sunday.

  The sun set early. It was barely past five, but the sky was already darkening into dusk. It was a bit congested, with the housewife regulars of the street-side stores bringing their families in tow, a group of old ladies wearing masks, and young kids who seemed to be heading out for a night on the town.

  Ryuuji’s elbows bumped into the passersby. He quickly bowed his head and made way for them. Right, no matter how horrible her words were or how terribly he was hurt, he couldn’t stay petrified in the middle of the street forever. He’d be blocking traffic. He reverted back to a conventional living human being, ready for the rest of the walk home.

  “Huh? Taiga?”

  That was when he finally realized that the demon that had been dispatching multidimensional missiles had disappeared before his very eyes. She may be a demon, but she’s still the Palmtop Tiger. He didn’t really know what he was saying, but what he was getting at was that she was small. Because she was petite, Taiga might have been pushed around by the crowd and gotten lost.

  “Heeey! Taigaaa, where did you go?!”

  With the hefty ecobags hanging from both his hands, Ryuuji wandered through the crowd for a while, looking left and right for the top of Taiga’s head. The landmarks he was looking for were her waist-length wavy hair, the white angora coat that looked expensive at a glance, and the warm men’s scarf that was wrapped a full three times around her neck.

  They would both be going back to the Takasus’ place anyway, and even if Taiga had gone back to her own home, her condo was right next door. With things coming to th
is, it would have been fine for them to go home separately, but under the December sky, he felt anxious after losing sight of her. What’s the deal? he thought, his forehead wrinkled as he looked around.

  “Eep…”

  He saw a young mother shy away to the side of the road while holding her child and told her in his head, I’m not some random attacker.

  “What do you think you’re doing? You look exactly like you’re going to randomly attack someone, the way you’ve got yourself planted to the ground like that.”

  “Whoa!” said Ryuuji. “Where were you? I was looking all over for you! Actually, it’s like you don’t even really care whether I’m even here…”

  Taiga, who had slipped from between the passersby and reappeared, smiled in satisfaction. She thrust something she was holding in her right hand at him. There was no mistaking what that half-uncovered, half-wrapped-in-paper object was, especially with its sweet milky and buttery fragrance paired with the all-too-recognizable ring shape.

  “A doughnut… Where did you even get that?”

  “Over there. Hee hee, it smelled so good that I had to buy it! I don’t know how it’ll taste, so I just bought one for now. If it’s good, I’ll get in line again and buy a ton.”

  There was a van stopped in the alleyway that Taiga pointed at with her doughnut. The truck’s back hatch was open to form an impromptu storefront where several men and women were forming a line. Now that she mentioned it, he really could smell the sweet scent of doughnuts in the air. For people with a sweet tooth (Taiga included), the smell was certainly too enticing to ignore.

  Ryuuji didn’t dislike sweet things, for sure. Huh, he thought as he scanned the handwritten sign, tilting his head in confusion. The words written on the sign in permanent marker spelled out “Krispy Creamy,” apparently the store’s name. It seemed like an obvious knock-off—in fact, it couldn’t have been anything except a knock-off.

  “Are you sure about that place? The name looks suspicious right off the bat.”

  “It’s fine. Look, that person’s eating one and walking. They’re not poisoned…probably.”

  “Why are you even eating it if that’s something you’ve got to worry about?”

  “Because, look, it’s Krispy Creamy. Ha ha, this is definitely a knock-off.”

  “That’s why I said it’s suspicious. If they were an actual doughnut shop, they wouldn’t name themselves something that sounds like another place because of trademark, or something.”

  “But I definitely won’t ever get to eat one from the real place. I’ve checked it out in the past, but it’s still so crowded! I got fed up just seeing the line! All of the people who have tried them say they’re crispy and fluffy. They’re supposed to melt right in your mouth until they disappear. I’m set on trying one no matter what.”

  “Well, they’re supposed to be completely different from any other doughnut.”

  “Right, exactly. They’re bold enough to sell these under practically the same name, so they’re probably made to taste like the original, right? Mmm, it smells so good! Well then, now to see what it tastes like…”

  Ahhhh. She opened her mouth wide. Taiga rudely sunk her teeth into the edge of the doughnut right in the middle of the crowd. For a moment, she had a pleasant look on her face, but it slowly clouded as she chewed. Her expression became odder as her chin moved up and down.

  “How is it? Is it different from any other doughnut place?”

  As she chewed, Taiga nodded, but her excitement dwindled to the point where he could see it in her eyes.

  “It really is…completely…different. It’s like it’s dry. It’s like it’s sucking all the moisture out of my mouth…”

  “Don’t let it go to waste. Remember—mottainai.”

  “Oh, I just thought of something! I’ll put this in your closet. I think it’ll be a great dehumidifier.”

  “Don’t let any go to waste,” Ryuuji repeated again. “Mottainai.”

  “Ugh…”

  She looked at the giant doughnut a bit resentfully and pouted. The other people who had bought the same doughnut were eating as they walked. They still looked pretty healthy. No one had collapsed, but their expressions looked questionable. Taiga was also part of that group.

  “It says they have doughnuts~!”

  “It’s Krispy Kreme!” They were mistaken.

  The doughnut wasn’t so bad that Taiga or Ryuuji were about to go out of their way to tell the squealing junior high school girls, who had happily joined the line with their allowances in their hands.

  “Seriously, what are you doing ruining your appetite right before dinner? How much was that thing?”

  “Two hundred yen…”

  “Two hundred yen! You paid two hundred yen to eat a dehumidifier that you’d put in a closet!”

  He wasn’t trying to get revenge on her for picking on him earlier, but he couldn’t go without saying something in front of Taiga, who was becoming less enthusiastic about the doughnut in her hand. This was a teachable moment. Ideally. she wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  Incidentally, that day’s dinner was going to be a simple Japanese rice wine-marinated amberjack fish and mizuna mustard hot pot. He also planned to make finely chopped lotus root and burdock with chicken skin in it and multigrain rice with ginger cooked into it. To be frank, the amberjack had been expensive. He had just bought it in fillet form, but it was expensive. It had been expensive because it was wild fish. It had been expensive buying enough for three people. But it’s in season! The farm-raised ones weren’t cheap either, so why not buy it wild when you can?! Right, and also—

  “Plus, I bought the amberjack today to celebrate!”

  “I said I get that…”

  “That wasn’t enthusiastic! You don’t get it! That’s the reason why you got tricked into buying a doughnut from a weird stand! You saw how much the amberjack cost, didn’t you?! You knew how excited I was about it, didn’t you?! And then you still went and gave up space in your stomach for something that didn’t even taste good…I didn’t want to ruin things by saying anything more than I had to, but amberjack is super luxurious for my place! Damn it, you better be happy about the amount I paid for this, even if you’re faking it!”

  “Yay! Yay! It’s amberjack!”

  “More! That’s weak!”

  “Amberjack is a huge catch! Yippee!”

  He watched her long hair fluff up as she, still expressionless with a doughnut in one hand, leapt for joy. Good, Ryuuji nodded to her. With this, the amberjack, and also the several bills that had disappeared from the Takasu’s household budget, could rest in peace having not been used in vain. Though Taiga’s two-hundred-yen allowance would become a forever wandering vengeful spirit, that wasn’t in Ryuuji’s jurisdiction.

  That’s right. That night would be a celebration. On Monday morning, Taiga’s school suspension would be over. Starting the next day, Taiga would be able to go to school. Come to think of it, two weeks had gone by quick.

  In other words, two weeks had passed since that nightmarish incident. Ryuuji sighed again. He didn’t know whether to call it a nightmare or not, but… No, he wouldn’t think about it anymore. No good would come from thinking about it. The reality was that Taiga would no longer be suspended and would be able to go to school the next day. Wasn’t that enough?

  “…So. We were in the middle of our conversation. Why are you like that?” The young lady in the angora coat narrowed her eyes. Just that faint motion of her eyelids gave him the premonition of her overflowing tyranny.

  He cautiously took his distance as he asked back, “Like what?”

  “I was asking you why you’re so lazy. Why haven’t you done anything when you had a chance without me being around to get in your way? Why haven’t you been able to get any closer to Minorin? That’s what I want to know, personally. What do you think you were doing? What was the point of me going out of my way to get myself suspended?”

  “You didn’t do that for me.”


  “Don’t you go changing the topic, you coward!”

  “…”

  At this irrationality, which made his stomach curdle, Ryuuji unintentionally held his tongue. Taiga quickly closed the distance between them.

  “While I was gone, you two should have been going to school together! You should have invited her to lunch! You should have hung out with her on the weekends! There were a ton of things you should have been doing, weren’t there?! What happened to all of that?! You didn’t even message her?! Ha! You’re a laughingstock, you lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy, lazy…ow! I bit my tongue!”

  She held her own mouth as she writhed. Ryuuji took it as a chance to successfully get a word in edgewise and make his excuses.

  “Well, I couldn’t do any of that! When you’re not around, Kushieda won’t come to our meeting spot in the morning, and she eats with other girls at lunch, and I don’t know those girls at all. She always seemed like she was at softball club after school, too! I couldn’t think of a reason to message her out of the blue, either!”

  Now that he had said it out loud, he realized how pitiful he was. But it was the truth.

  Once Taiga was suspended, the common thread between Ryuuji and Minori just disappeared. Up until then he thought that, even if only slightly, the distance between him and his long-unrequited love had shrunk over the passing days. Though there was nothing romantic between them, he had thought they were friends, at least. Instead, it turned out that without Taiga as common ground between them, Ryuuji and Minori didn’t even have anything to talk about. Of course, it wasn’t as though they were ignoring each other. They would exchange greetings, like, Good morning, Bye, Yo!, or How’ve you been?

  Ryuuji heaved a long sigh and stopped in his tracks. Wait a second, he thought, raising his head.

  “But compared to how we were in April, I guess we’ve made a lot of progress? Yeah, I think we have.”

  He crossed his arms and nodded in agreement with himself.

  “Of. Course. You. Haven’t. You. Lazy. Oaf,” said Taiga.

  “Ahhhhh…ugh.”

  A shriek the likes of which had never come from him before overflowed from his throat. He expected no less from Taiga, architect of rare shrieks—but it wasn’t the time to be thinking that.