Toradora! Vol. 1 Read online

  ***

  The Palmtop Tiger’s outrageous, real name was Aisaka Taiga. She was one hundred and forty-five centimeters tall. She and Kushieda Minori were supposedly close friends.

  If rumors held true, her prodigal father supposedly controlled the Japanese underworld, or was a genius karate master who controlled America’s underworld—or something like that. She herself held an advanced karate belt but had been expelled after attacking her teacher—or something like that.

  Supposedly, when they first started high school, one guy after another initially mistook her for a vain beauty and made insistent romantic advances. However, they all got brutally rejected—they were threatened, chewed out, torn up, and teased mercilessly. A whole mess of guys were now beyond any hope of recovery. It was said Aisaka left a path of male corpses in her wake.

  Anyway, when it came to Aisaka Taiga, there was no end to the dark rumors. Whether those were myths or facts, what Ryuuji was sure about was that she ranked as the school’s most dangerous creature.

  Ryuuji learned all about those rumors over the days following the opening ceremonies.

  Chapter 2

  Even with the shocking start, Takasu Ryuuji’s high school life as a newly minted second-year student was going well.

  There were several reasons for this.

  For example, despite his most pessimistic expectations, the rumor that Takasu was a delinquent quickly evaporated. Along with Kitamura, he was lucky to have quite a few people from last year’s class with him once again. But more than anything, the simple fact that he had been terrorized by the Palmtop Tiger on opening day sealed the deal: He was just a normal kid. (On that point and that point alone, he wanted to thank Aisaka Taiga.)

  On top of all that, he also wasn’t inconveniently pushed to join the student committee, and the seat he got by drawing straws was a window seat three rows from the front. It was in a location where he could pretty much lay back and relax. He also knew their homeroom teacher (Koigakubo Yuri, single with a capital “S,” twenty-nine years old) from when she had been the assistant homeroom teacher the year before. Although she was getting on in years, and still single, she wasn’t unhappy at all.

  And then…

  “…And then, the part near the rim of the bucket was solid, right? Like, the parts around the—what’s it called? The parts around the circumference were solid. But then the entire center was still liquid, and if you tilted it, the jiggly parts around the circumference would go like this…”

  “Ow!”

  “Ah, Takasu-kun! Sorry!”

  But the most important reason things were going well was this one:

  The existence of his new classmate, Kushieda Minori. She was the sun that cast a beautiful, rose-colored tint over his life, his sunlight that shined without fail. That radiance would never harm him, but only warm his heart—even if, for example, it poked him in the eye.

  “A-are you okay?! Sorry, I didn’t know you were behind me! Ohh…I totally touched the squishy part, didn’t I?”

  “…Don’t worry about it. It’s not a big deal.”

  “I’m really sorry! …Uh, what was I talking about? Oh yeah! Like I was saying before, the part around the rim of the bucket that firmed up, right, was like this…”

  “Ow!”

  “Yikes! I think I got you even deeper that time. Sorry!”

  Despite that incident, which he magnanimously waved away, Ryuuji was happy. As Minori bowed her head down in apology, an indescribable floral fragrance wafted from her hair. Regardless of what had happened, as she apologized, her eyes were currently looking at him, and only him. Getting poked in the eye twice was nothing compared to that happiness.

  It didn’t even matter whether she was talking to him or not. It would have been enough if she were just talking to someone near his seat. He could listen to Minori’s voice forever, sweet enough you could practically smell it, and when she swung her arm around to describe the circumference of that bucket, her fingertip even touched him—touched his eyeball, to be exact, but still: She had touched him!

  But why were they talking about a bucket just now? His face must have looked puzzled, because she explained: “I, like, made pudding…in a bucket.”

  “Don’t hurt anybody else,” Minori said, admonishing her own finger as she grabbed it with her other hand. Then she gave Ryuuji a very thorough explanation. No, wait—what she actually said was, “Takasu-kun, do you like pudding?”

  They were having a conversation. Ryuuji’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. He couldn’t respond with anything sensible. He was well and truly flummoxed. Even mustering the full strength of his will, all he could say was, “Yeah…”

  She probably thought he was a boring guy. She probably didn’t want to talk to him anymore. But Minori was already leaving Ryuuji behind, unaware of the inner turmoil that never reached his face. Minori’s charming cheeks took on a rosy color as she continued. “Bucket. Pudding. A woman’s greatest weakness.”

  “But I just couldn’t get it right! Getting it to firm up is hard. Still, because it’s so big, the gooey parts and jiggly bits live in perfect harmony… Oh, I know—Takasu-kun, do you want to judge it for yourself? As an apology for poking you in the eye.”

  “Wha? J-judge it…?”

  She couldn’t mean she wanted him to try a taste of her homemade pudding, could she? Did she really mean that she wanted him to try it? Ryuuji’s gaze intensified as he looked at Minori’s adorable, smiling face.

  Minori nodded. “Yeah! I’ll bring it over right now, so you can take a look at it.”

  If this kind of happiness waited on the other side, what a lucky day, to be poked in the eye! However, as Minori cheerfully made her way to her own seat, and Ryuuji’s eyes bored into her back, he felt a sudden urge to flee.

  Once he received the pudding, what expression was he supposed to make as he ate it? And wouldn’t it be weird for a guy like him to be slurping up pudding when it wasn’t even lunch time? And before he even considered all of that, was it the type of thing he was supposed to eat straight away, or was he supposed to thank her for it and put in his bag?

  “I-I don’t… I don’t know…”

  He stroked his cheek nervously, but for the time being, he cleaned the notebooks off his desk, just in case he got his heart set on eating it right there.

  Both nervous and excited, Ryuuji skillfully averted his gaze as Minori came back. She was so bright he couldn’t look at her. Minori tilted her head and stopped right in front of Ryuuji with a brilliant smile on her face. Then she said, “Here, Takasu-kun. Here you go.”

  Her voice was so gentle, he could hear a heart emoji follow his name. Ryuuji nervously lifted his face and, with both hands, reverently received the pudding.

  “O-oh. How nice…”

  It was thinner than he thought it would be—lighter, too…

  “…That you took these pictures…”

  “But it’s kind of gross, right?”

  When she said, judge it for yourself, she had meant to judge the pictures—not the flavor. And on top of that, the thing in the photo looked downright disgusting. His brain felt like a crashed web browser. A huge bucket lay squarely planted on a vinyl rug, and inside it was a dead squid, pale yellow in color… No, worse—it was filled with something that looked like slime. He felt like he was letting Minori down, but no matter how he looked at it, it just didn’t look like pudding. In the second photo, the part-liquid, part-solid slime had dribbled onto the vinyl.

  “It tasted weird, too,” she said, as he looked at the third picture. “Maybe I didn’t wash the bucket well enough?”

  In the picture Ryuuji now had in hand, Minori was sitting down with one knee bent, eating the slime with a massive spoon. I’ll take just this one, Ryuuji thought for a fleeting moment, but then she spoke again, interrupting the thought.

  “Thanks for looking at them! I’ve got to show them to Taiga, too. Huh? Where did she go? Wasn’t she just over there a second ago?”

&nbs
p; Minori quickly collected her photos. Then she darted away from Ryuuji to search for her companion, the Palmtop Tiger Aisaka Taiga, who had vanished unnoticed. And with that, the time had run out on his dream.

  Taiga, too, huh?

  Ryuuji involuntarily let out a sigh as he watched the apple of his eye disappear into the hallway in search of her friend.

  It was an unexpected blessing that Minori was in the same class. Every day, be it during class or whenever, he got to see Minori. He could see her smile without having to peek from into some class he wasn’t part of. To return to soccer terms, sometimes even being a steady sweeper paid off. If this wasn’t happiness, what was?

  Still, if he wanted to get even closer to Minori, there was one huge problem he had to overcome. That problem was that more often than not, she hung out with Aisaka Taiga.

  Other than the incident during opening ceremonies, Ryuuji had tried to avoid getting involved with Aisaka, who somehow seemed to be an actual thug. Avoiding her, however, inevitably created a new problem: He couldn’t approach Minori. (Granted, there were plenty of other reasons why he couldn’t start up a conversation with her.)

  He was about as interesting to Aisaka as the husk of a dead bug. As long as Ryuuji kept his distance, they didn’t really make any contact, and it seemed unlikely that any real harm would come his way. Ryuuji’s current goal was to do his best to avoid getting involved with the Palmtop Tiger and get close to Minori alone. If he could just accumulate more lucky moments like the bucket incident and turn them to his advantage, it might not be completely impossible.

  All things considered, Ryuuji’s bittersweet days were going pretty well.

  …At least until school ended that day.

  ***

  “Uh…”

  When Ryuuji opened the door, he stood stock-still, at a loss for words. There were two chairs—no wait, three—flying through the air.

  As they smashed onto the floor, he saw a single shadow in the middle of all the racket. It flitted across the edge of his vision, kicking at the chairs.

  What on earth is going on? As Ryuuji narrowed his eyes into a dreadful glare, he was so bewildered by the truth that his breath stopped. He’d been asked to do some odd jobs after finishing the day’s chores, so it was long after the end of school—no one should have been in the classroom. But he’d seen her.

  He was certain he saw a uniformed girl jump headfirst behind a locker to hide, at the very moment she caught sight of Ryuuji. He definitely saw her, right at that moment, and he had certainly heard the loud noise she made when she kicked at the chairs. On top of that, he could still see her. There was a full-length mirror set up on the classroom wall and her back and head were reflected there, facing away.

  The little klutz had curled up into an incredibly tiny, compact ball—cowering. Completely unaware of the mirror, she was stretching her neck out and peeking stealthily out at Ryuuji.

  Ryuuji swallowed and decided to pretend he hadn’t noticed—for that tiny, suspicious klutz’s identity was none other than…the Palmtop Tiger. The reflection of her back in the mirror gave him more than enough information to know for sure. Part of it was that long hair and the white profile of her face, but most of all it was because, out of everyone he knew, Aisaka was the only one who could make herself that tiny. But why her, out of all people? he wondered.

  I saw nothing. I know nothing. I noticed nothing.

  Taking that mantra to heart, Ryuuji proceeded into the room. He really didn’t want to go into the classroom, where the Palmtop Tiger lurked for reasons unknown, but he had left his bag on his desk, and he couldn’t just go home without it.

  The classroom was silent in the twilight, as though he had crossed the threshold into some spider’s trap, a web spun by Aisaka. The moment he set foot in the room, it felt like his soul was being ripped from his body. Cautiously, gingerly, Ryuuji did his best to feign a casual air as he moved his feet. In order to avoid provoking Aisaka, he tried to play oblivious, but then…

  “AAHHH!”

  Ridiculously, a faint cry of urgent despair echoed throughout the classroom.

  Something came rolling out that completely undid all of Ryuuji’s efforts. Aisaka Taiga, until then curled up, lost her balance. She flopped out from behind the locker with a forward somersault and, in a stroke of bad luck, landed right in front of Ryuuji.

  “…”

  “…”

  Aisaka looked up. Ryuuji looked down. Neither of them had the luxury of ignoring each other anymore. Their gazes crossed, and they remained silent. They stayed like that for several seconds.

  “A-are you okay?”

  At long last, Ryuuji finally managed to choke out some words. Then, he extended a tentative hand out towards Aisaka, while she slowly got up. In response, she gave him a nearly inaudible reply.

  “No thanks,” she said, or “I don’t know”—or something along those lines. From between the strands of her disheveled hair, Aisaka’s steely eyes effortlessly cleaved straight through Ryuuji.

  Instinctively, he took a large step back. Noticing the opening, Aisaka shakily came to a standing position. Head still hidden, she dusted off her skirt and took long strides to distance herself from Ryuuji. She put her back to the window and narrowed her eyes, but didn’t make any moves to leave the classroom. Isn’t she embarrassed? A normal person would have been, but it seemed those kinds of thoughts weren’t of any concern to the Palmtop Tiger.

  If Aisaka was going to stay, then naturally, Ryuuji would have to leave first.

  “M-my bag,” he muttered purposefully, before darting towards it.

  Aisaka Taiga still stood by the window, watching him wordlessly. He didn’t know what sort of expression was on her face, because he couldn’t even bear to look at her. He just tried his best to dampen the sound of his footsteps and make himself invisible as he crossed the classroom. He could feel goosebumps prickling across his cheek, where he sensed her glare, but he couldn’t show her a reaction. He couldn’t provoke her. If he could get through this without anything happening…

  The bag wasn’t at his desk—instead, it was where he’d left it on top of Kitamura’s, where they had been talking earlier. If he could just get that bag, he could withdraw from the classroom. Controlling his impatience, he stretched out his arm. Just twenty centimeters away, ten centimeters away…

  “Ah!” she said, jumping up.

  He must have done something wrong. He must have done something wrong, to make Aisaka Taiga yell out at him. Ryuuji looked over his shoulder in dread and stared at the small doll standing by the window. “Wh-what…?”

  “J-just what…d-do you think you’re doing?” she asked.

  Spontaneously, an eye-catching scene began to unfold right there on the spot. The Palmtop Tiger was reeling.

  “I just came to get my bag,” he said. “But…A-Aisaka? What’s wrong? You’re acting pretty weird.”

  Her puckered mouth opened and closed, and she shuffled her feet, as though performing some odd dance. As she brought a wavering finger up to her cheek, she started to jitter and shake. “Uhhhh, you mean, that’s your bag? But that’s not your chair. Wh-wh-wh-why, h-h-h-h-how?” she stammered, as she admonished Ryuuji.

  “…I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “A teacher just called me while I was talking to Kitamura…and I just left it here… Argh!”

  Aisaka, standing totally flummoxed several meters away from him, closed the gap in moments. Where does she hide all that athleticism in such a tiny body?

  “Urk…! Urgh…ugh!” She pulled at the bag Ryuuji clutched to his chest, trying to rip it away. She wrenched at it with incredible strength.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa?! A-Aisaka?!”

  “G-give! It! Back! Hand it over!”

  From up close, he could see her cheeks turn a red that rivaled the sunset. Her cute face distorted into a bloodcurdling, demonic mask.

  “Give it back, give it, I’m telling you!”

  “Uggh!” He wouldn’t let
go. Out of pure, stubborn machismo, Ryuuji planted his feet solidly on the ground. Besides, if he were to release his grip now, Aisaka’s tiny body would go flying.

  To think he put all that effort into reading the situation for nothing.

  “Hnnnngh!” She twisted her hips, dug her nails into the bag, and squeezed her eyes shut as her face went red, until a blood vessel popped out on her temple. She was determined to win their contest of strength.

  Little by little, Ryuuji’s fingers were slipping. Even his braced legs were slowly edging forward. Simply put, he’d probably lose. He couldn’t bear it any longer.

  “W-watch o…! Caref—stooop…!” he said.

  “Hnnnnnnnnnnnngh! Ah? Aaah!”

  I can’t do it anymore! he thought, but in that moment, Aisaka suddenly threw her head back. He saw a distant look in her eyes as her little hands flung wide open, and she let go… SHE LET GO?!

  “ARGH!”

  “ACHOO!”

  CRASH!

  The scream was Ryuuji. The sneeze, Aisaka. The crash was also Ryuuji. Scream, sneeze, the back of his head.

  When Aisaka’s sneeze loosened her grip, Ryuuji had naturally flown backwards. He stumbled, bag still grasped in both hands, and slammed his head into the teacher’s desk.

  “Ow, oww… Th-that hurt! Wh-why…y-you…that really freakin’ hurt! Were you trying to kill me or something?!” He was half crying as he protested.

  “Ugh.” Even after sending Ryuuji flying with her peculiar sneeze, Aisaka seemed oblivious of her surroundings. She sniffled, wobbled over to a desk, and hunched down.

  “A-Aisaka? Hey, what’s wrong?”

  She curled up into a ball, her long hair draping all the way to the floor. She made a low moan but didn’t answer. Was she feeling sick? He rubbed the back of his head and rushed over. He peeked at her face, which had just been bright red, but was now rapidly losing color. Her quivering lips were white as paper. Her forehead had strangely broken out into a sweat.

  “Whoa… You’re white as a sheet. Are you anemic? Here, grab my hand.”