Toradora! Vol. 1 Read online

  That was why he was doing this. Even though it was foolish and stupid, even if the pole didn’t fall down, in the autumn night, they became howling beasts.

  Aisaka’s enemy was a lot bigger than his and seemed a lot heavier. Ryuuji had that thought while watching the back of her head from beside her. I get it. In order to stand against that invisible enemy, you became a tiger, he thought. Her foe was much bigger than a pole, much heavier, and far harder, far more difficult to take down. Aisaka had always wanted the strength to fight against that enemy. That was why she had to become a tiger.

  It was a strange thing that Ryuuji and Aisaka’s short lives—short in their own ways—had overlapped. Because of that, Ryuuji thought maybe he understood Aisaka. He just couldn’t leave her alone with her terribly tired face and horribly hungry stomach.

  Even though she was a nuisance, even though she was frustrating, he wasn’t sure he would be able to abandon her even if he tried.

  And to Ryuuji, that wasn’t anything to be unhappy about at all. In fact—

  “Ryuuji, stand back!”

  “What’re you suddenly saying that fo—whoa!”

  When he saw Aisaka suddenly raise her face, his thoughts turned to mist and dissipated, out of sheer surprise.

  Aisaka was laughing. It was a horrible laugh. Her eyes sparkled atrociously, glinting barbarically with every blink. She attacked her prey with the pure strength of the Palmtop Tiger, crying, “I’ll kill you!”

  She went to the start of the street and gave herself a lot of space. Then, she pulled up her skirt.

  “Just you wait, Kitamuraaaaa! I’m going to confess to youuuuuuuuuu!”

  The single member of her audience (Ryuuji) breathed in through his teeth. It was a gruesome approach. Her timing was perfect, and her steps strong. Her short body lithely jumped, and she soared in mid-air. The moonlight reflected in her eyes. Then, her right leg cleaved through the air, and she howled, headed straight towards the pole.

  “…Tsk.”

  At that over-the-top scene, Ryuuji had closed his eyes without thinking. There was an awkward thump, and finally he opened his eyes in panic. He ran over to Aisaka, who was on her butt at the base of the pole.

  “Y-you idiot! You, your foot…”

  “…Ryuuji. Behold.”

  “Huh?”

  Aisaka pointed to the pole that reached towards the heavens. What about it? Ryuuji returned her gaze questioningly as she gave him a broad smirk.

  “Don’t you think it’s a little crooked?”

  “What?! No way, it couldn’t be! No matter how much a person kicked it, it wouldn’t—”

  Comparing it to the brick wall behind it, Ryuuji breathed in sharply. “It is crooked!”

  “See?!”

  Victorious, Aisaka laughed. Of course, the pole might have been crooked from the start, or the wall behind it might have been leaning over. Those explanations were more likely than Aisaka’s idea that she’d made the pole crooked with one of her kicks.

  But Ryuuji believed in her.

  He believed that Aisaka, the Palmtop Tiger, had kicked the pole and made it crooked.

  Because Aisaka was smiling.

  Then Ryuuji glimpsed something in the distance. “…Uh-oh, we’re in trouble. Is that a cop?” he said.

  They must have made too much of a disturbance—a bicycle was approaching from the other side of the street, and the person riding it was in fact wearing a police uniform. Ryuuji turned to Aisaka, flustered.

  “This is bad. We’d better scram! Oh…what now?! What’s wrong with you?!”

  He found himself with a grimacing klutz, still sitting on the ground.

  “O-owww…”

  “What?!”

  Aisaka, who had until now battled the pole with vigor, sat on the ground with her skirt hem strewn around her. She was rubbing at her right shin. Then with a pitiful expression, she looked up at Ryuuji.

  “I might have hit it wrong…It hurts.”

  He pursed his lips into a thin line. Oh no! Ryuuji scratched his head.

  “Of course, you would! Jeez…this will probably swell…”

  He crouched down and unintentionally scowled. In the dim of the streetlight, he could see that part of the skin just above her thin ankle was horribly bruised.

  “Poles sure are hard, huh…? Ow, this hurts a ton…”

  “Of course, they’re hard! You…”

  Ryuuji took in a deep breath. There was only one thing to do. He crouched down by Aisaka and turned his back towards her. This was what they called chivalry. Even he had some.

  “Get on. Really, sometimes, y—ugh! Urgh!”

  He had expected her to timidly climb up, but this was the Palmtop Tiger, after all. Even though she said her leg hurt, she swung onto Ryuuji’s back with a strong hop. She clutched at his neck so hard he felt like he might die.

  “I-It hurts…!” He frantically smacked Aisaka’s arms, which were crushing his windpipe and pushing on his arteries. He was trying to convey just how big a crisis she’d put him in.

  “Oh no, Ryuuji! Isn’t that a policeman? Hurry, you’ve got to run!”

  I just told you that! he thought. With his neck cut off, he couldn’t speak, but he nonetheless started running in a hurry.

  It was a more roundabout route, but he went down a deserted side road. He tried to soften his footsteps but still ran for his life through the nighttime streets. He slipped into a dark alley bereft of streetlamps. In the strange quiet, they were both at a loss for words, but with the reassuring heat of each other’s bodies, they at least didn’t need to voice the words, I’m scared.

  Ryuuji held Aisaka firmly to his back as he moved. She gently pushed her chin against his pulsing neck.

  They didn’t speak any unnecessary words. They just aimed wholeheartedly towards the light of the large road coming up ahead—

  “Ow!”

  WHAM. He heard a blunt noise and Aisaka’s soft exclamation.

  “What?! What happened?!”

  Without thinking, Ryuuji stopped and craned his neck around to look at Aisaka on his back. They were close enough that he could feel her breath in the darkness as they exchanged glances.

  “I-I got hit by…a signboard or something…it got me right in the forehead!”

  “What?! Why didn’t you avoid it?”

  “It came up suddenly, okay! It’s pitch black, and it’s not like you noticed, either! …Owww, ughh, I’m so sick of this…”

  “Where? Here?”

  Ryuuji reached out his hand and felt Aisaka’s slightly warm forehead—it was so dark that he couldn’t tell how bad it was just by looking.

  “…It’s not bleeding. I can’t feel a bump, either. You’ll be fine, yeah, definitely.”

  “I have the worst luck.”

  “It wasn’t bad luck, you’re just a klutz.”

  On his back, Aisaka snorted in contempt at the correction. Then Ryuuji set off once again. If he made it to the main road, home was just beyond.

  “…Honestly, you’re lucky you didn’t get cut.”

  A horn sounded from somewhere far off. Because of that, Ryuuji’s faint voice might not have reached the person holding on to him from behind.

  “It would’ve been terrible if you had hurt your face, what with confessing tomorrow and all… You really did get lucky.”

  Aisaka said nothing, which was fine.

  He could feel her soft cheek against his neck. She wasn’t hurt, and she was safely on his back. It was fine like that. He was fine with just having that.

  Keeping an eye out for any sign of the police bike’s pursuit, they finally cleared the alleyway. They returned to the broad sidewalk of the roadway, brightly lit by streetlights. Every now and then they passed someone on their way home from work, or a middle-aged woman walking her dog. No one spared Ryuuji or Aisaka a glance. Each and every one of them had their own hardships to bear. The salary men and office ladies, the grandmas and grandpas, all of them probably had their own enemies and their
own weights. All of them must have had nights when they felt like beating up a pole. But they were adults, so they didn’t.

  Suddenly, the strange image of passersby locked in a bloodbath with a pole floated through Ryuuji’s mind, and he chuckled without thinking.

  Aisaka noticed. “What are you laughing at?” She contorted and bent forward. She breathed against the side of Ryuuji’s face.

  “Nothing… It’s not a big deal.”

  “What?! What is it? Tell me, tell me! Spit it out!”

  “Ugh-gug.”

  His neck was being firmly squeezed.

  “Y-you know…”

  “I want to know. Hey, what were you laughing about?”

  “…It’s nowhere close to a big deal, so don’t worry about it… I-I can’t breathe!”

  “If you’re not gonna talk, I’ll make it so you can’t talk at all.”

  “Guuuhhh!”

  All right already—she’s really something, Ryuuji thought, flailing about to try and defend his windpipe. She was tyrannical, stubborn—and selfish. She was a despotic tiger who wouldn’t let anything go any way but the exact way she wanted. He’d endured a mountain of suffering—that one time, and that other time, and that time, too—just from getting involved with her.

  He’d had that thought over and over again…and it kept coming back, to the point he figured himself immune to it. He had thought the warm frame clinging to him wouldn’t be able to stir any emotions in him at all. He never thought approaching the upper-class condominiums Aisaka lived in would make his heart pound.

  But even though he thought that…

  The arm around his neck suddenly loosened.

  “Here’s good,” Aisaka whispered, and patted his shoulder once.

  In front of the condo’s entrance, she hopped off his back. His back was suddenly bare and without weight, and the warmth also disappeared. Losing it all, he turned to look at Aisaka, who stood before the glass door.

  And then he felt his heart squeeze painfully—so this was how much it hurt.

  “Well, Ryuuji. We’re right on time. See?” She put out her slender wrist and pointed at the face of her wristwatch. The two hands on the face pointed right at 11:59.

  “Ahh, that was exhausting, right?” she went on. “But we made it home safely. Today’s the end of it all. Once the day’s over, you won’t be my dog anymore. There’s thirty seconds left… Hey, don’t you have something to say for yourself?”

  “…Something to say…? Like what?”

  “As a mutt. Don’t you have any last words for your owner, Ryuuji?”

  “…Uh… Don’t you think that’s a little sudden…?”

  With a distance of two meters between them, Aisaka was thinly smiling. At least, he thought she was. She tilted her small head to the side and seemed to be waiting for Ryuuji’s words. But did he even have something to say? Was there anything to say?

  “…Ten seconds…five seconds…”

  He didn’t say anything.

  The wind that passed through divided them. Aisaka lowered the arm she’d used to show him the watch. Then, she said, “Bye bye.”

  “Right… T-tomorrow! Good luck tomorrow!”

  And that was it.

  “Bye bye, Takasu-kun.”

  Chapter 6

  He slept in.

  He thought he had made rice for breakfast and the bento, but he’d forgotten to turn on the rice cooker.

  He forgot to give Inko-chan her food and change her water, too.

  He left the house in such a hurry that he wore mismatching socks on either foot.

  “…There’s got to be something wrong with me…” he said to himself in a low, small voice, as he looked at his own feet. The right foot, black. The left foot, navy.

  It was when he stood in front of the shoe cubbies at school that he first noticed his regrettable mistake, while changing from loafers to slippers. He couldn’t do anything about it now; they stood out strikingly. The colors were completely different. How had he screwed up so badly…?

  But he had no time to think about it. He was on the verge of tardiness, and the guidance counselor was standing right there. Rushing students continued to hurry in. Ryuuji hung his head a little and sprang up the stairs to the classroom, hurrying along at a speed that wouldn’t get him in trouble. But…he completely missed the last step and hit his shin. Pure agony struck him; he couldn’t make a sound. His eyes narrowed in his delirium, accidentally scaring the people passing by below.

  He was already out of breath, and as he rubbed his leg, he only thought of one thing. The reason why his life was in such disarray must have been because he had parted ways with Aisaka the day before.

  Ryuuji’s morning should have been easier, as he hadn’t had to go through the trouble of getting her in the morning, or making an extra bento. This morning was supposed to have been the return to his comfortable life. Even so, with all that had happened, it seemed that a life disturbed couldn’t so easily recover. Maybe living as a dog left a stain on me, he thought pitifully, but the quiet morning without Aisaka’s jeers also felt strangely quiet.

  He wondered how she was doing. He couldn’t help but think about it as he walked at a snail’s pace. Had she woken up without him coming to get her? Was she running late? Had she been able to bring a lunch? Not that he was one to speak—today he was eating a convenience store meal, himself…

  Thinking about such thoughts wouldn’t do him any good, though, so he shook them away. He threw open the classroom’s sliding door and took a step in.

  “…Whoa!”

  He stumbled, completely taken by surprise. Without thinking, he backed out of the room and closed the door.

  What was that?

  While he was still alone in the hallway, he took a deep breath in and exhaled. He calmed himself, then thought, What was that I just saw? How did it get like that?

  He couldn’t calm himself down, but he had to check again. Or, really, he couldn’t just not go into class. Resolute, he focused on his hand and, calming his heart, he opened the door again.

  “…You got that, right?”

  This time Ryuuji froze.

  What had entered his ear was a low, thoroughly menacing voice. The words were hard, vibrating with the promise that they’d never forgive anyone who disagreed.

  “If I hear anything this boring from anyone else, ever again…I’ll show them no mercy.”

  The person making an address at the center of the classroom, with her back to Ryuuji, was Aisaka Taiga. Also known as the Palmtop Tiger.

  And the whole class was nearly plastered to the wall, trying to distance themselves from Aisaka as much as possible. Everyone vigorously nodded their heads up and down in frantic agreement.

  “What is this?” Those were the words that he got to come out. He’d say them as many times as he needed to: “What is this?”

  “…You’re sure you heard me? Don’t make me repeat myself!” The small tiger roared one more time.

  The quaking boys and girls chorused a pitiful, “Understood!”

  When he looked more closely, the desks and chairs around Aisaka were all tumbled over, like they’d been kicked. Bags and people’s belongings were scattered around—the classroom was really in a terrible state. It was like a hurricane had blown through. Aisaka’s voice had been quiet, but her shoulders heaved violently with her breathing. They went up and down, as though she had just been yelling. Maybe—no, it was definitely Aisaka who had done this. But why?

  “Oh…Takasu…” Someone noticed him and muttered his name. Yes, he was indeed Takasu…

  “Wh-what…? What is it?”

  Why did everyone in the class have the same strange expression? He was glad they weren’t expressions of disgust, but their faces made him uneasy—they were strained. They were all lined up, all of them wearing an expression he had no words for.

  And then, Aisaka turned around without a sound. Her eyes silently met Ryuuji’s. Aisaka didn’t even say a good morning. Instea
d, she dropped her chin, and told the people in the class, “Scram.”

  Everyone who had been trembling together started heading back to their own seats in groups. Several stopped by Ryuuji.

  “…T-Takasu…sorry. For spreading weird rumors.”

  “Huh? Weird rumors?”

  “Sorry, we won’t do any prying again.”

  “…Wh-what? What are you talking about?”

  He approached Noto, who he was normally friendly with.

  “…Hey, Takasu, I didn’t mean anything bad by it. I actually thought it was pretty awesome for you and that’s it… And I guess I was feeling a little jealous, too. Sorry. I won’t ever do it again.” Noto spoke meekly, with a strained expression. Ryuuji grabbed Noto’s retreating shoulder and, flustered, asked him what he really meant.

  “Wait a second. What are you going on about? What the heck happened? This definitely looks like one of Aisaka’s rampages. Just what did she do?”

  “Well, um…”

  “Just tell me already.”

  Noto’s face twitched uneasily, and his eyes nonchalantly wandered to the left. He was among those who weren’t scared of scrutiny from Ryuuji’s sanpaku eyes, which were now pressing him for an answer. But Ryuuji didn’t move to let go of Noto’s shoulder. He didn’t intend to, not until he knew the reason. Maybe understanding that, Noto said, “Let’s see, how can I phrase this…”

  He told Ryuuji the gist of what had happened. “Uum… It looks like she found out that…we were gossiping about you and the Palmtop Tiger.”

  “Gossiping?”

  “Uhh…yeah, like that you two were maybe dating and stuff. And then the Palmtop Tiger got all fired up and put an end to it. She was like, ‘Takasu-kun and I aren’t involved with each other at all,’ and then she turned into a monster… I was terrified… This was, like, the first time I ever saw the Palmtop really show her stuff. I’m never gonna mess with her. Then she said, ‘Don’t say anything stupid. Don’t just spit out whatever comes into your heads. If anyone spreads any more gossip like this, I’ll kill them. I’ll really kill them, in the nastiest way you can think of—got that?!’ And Kushieda tried stopping her, and that was a complete bust, yeah? Right, Kushieda?”