Toradora! Vol. 7 Read online

  Caught up in her theatrics, she crossed her arms. She closed her eyes as though reminiscing.

  The boys held their breath at Taiga’s words. Then, Taiga stood imposingly in the middle of the ring they had formed and suddenly opened her eyes wide.

  “Buuuuuuut!”

  The guys were abuzz as they stood firmly at attention. I see, Ryuuji thought. This was also part of the special-edition Christmas good girl angel version of Taiga. Noting the approach of Christmas, Taiga the good girl was trying to make her troublesome fans happy.

  “You oafs must also know this! The person who stands in the ring last is the winner! In other words, I am the true viiiiiiictor!”

  “You think you’re Korosuke or something?!” Ryuuji was the only one poking fun at her.

  “Whoooooaaaaaa!”

  “We’ve got a declaration of victory at long last!”

  “Our Tiger-san is number oooooone!”

  Close to tears, the guys started setting off poppers that they seemed to have pre-prepared. They threw confetti. Amid the delighted claps and yells, they even naturally broke into a chorus for some reason, chanting “Weee are the champions…” Then they lined up along both ends of the hallway and put their hands high up together to create an aisle. They sent Taiga off to her classroom while passionately chanting “Tiger.” The angel Taiga generously nodded in response to the maddening chorus as she walked steadily through the aisle.

  “We’re counting on you from now on!”

  “Tiger-san, you’re the best!” they said.

  Even when they slapped her on the shoulders and back as though she were one of the guys, the pleasant smile on her rosy, flower-like lips did not fade.

  “Please give me a whack!” some guy cried, putting his face out for her, and when she gave him a full-powered slap, the cheers grew even louder.

  What is this? As Ryuuji tried to shift away, someone pushed at his back and said, “Takasu-kun, you go, too!” They pushed him into the aisle. He couldn’t back out and so, somehow, he put his hands on Taiga’s shoulders and followed behind her. The two of them looked like an athlete entering the ring and her manager as they ended up walking among the Tiger chant and chorus. But, well, it was kind of fun—though it was all really just a sham. He didn’t like what was happening.

  “A-are you…really okay with this?!”

  “Mwa ha ha ha ha! It’s the best! I had no idea there were so many fans waiting for me to come back to school! I’m glad I wasn’t expelled!”

  “Tiger-san! Give me one, too!”

  “My pleasure!”

  SCHWIP! She gave the guy another sharp slap. The receiver rubbed at his swollen cheek and, naturally, tumbled down onto the floor. He did seem to have quite a happy look on his face, but it wasn’t the time for them to be surrounded by the passion of guys like this.

  “More importantly…you know what we have to do, right?!” said Ryuuji. “Let’s get out of here and ditch these guys! We have to get to the classroom fast!”

  “Oh, right, right. I know.”

  Still connected together, they sped up and broke their way through the crowded, B.O.-filled aisle to head to class 2-C. Applause followed them in the background.

  They were probably both worried about the same thing.

  Minori hadn’t been at their usual meeting spot where they always met in the morning. She wasn’t there even though it was the day Taiga was coming back to school. They had cut it close, but they hadn’t been running late. They hadn’t even gotten an “I’m going ahead of you,” message from her. It was the first time something like this had happened. Could Minori have gotten sick and taken the day off, or had something else happened?

  “I felt your heart…”

  That was what Ryuuji was thinking the moment the classroom door opened. The shrill falsetto suddenly echoed over to him.

  “…quiver like a thigh tendon’s pulse…”

  “Wh-what is this?!”

  It was Kushieda Minori.

  She had a blade of grass between her lips. Her butt was perched on top of someone’s desk.

  Her face was red from the winter wind, and she wore a navy peacoat along with a checked tartan scarf over her uniform. It seemed like she had just gotten to school. The girl was singing like a castrato. Her eyes held the reflection of some ancient forest.

  Ryuuji stood silent, but this wasn’t unusual enough to surprise Taiga, who was at his side.

  “Minoriiiiin! I’m back at school! So stop singing that weird song and huuug meee!”

  She hopped and went into a jumping hug to clutch at Minori, which caused Minori to lose her balance on the desk and start to roll off. Just as she was on the edge, she stopped herself from falling.

  “Ugh…release me! I’m a human!”

  “Minorin, Minorin, Miiiinoriiiin!”

  “You must live! You’re also human!”

  “Minorin, I love you! Gah!”

  “Oh, I can’t resist you! Minorin loves you, too!”

  As she staggered, she firmly held Taiga, the indulgent destructor of humanity. Minori pushed her nose up against the top of Taiga’s head and rubbed it around until her hair was a mess, squeezing Taiga with reckless abandon. Incidentally, Taiga was wearing a pair of winter tights (made with genuine 100 denier) and her gray duffle coat. She hadn’t stolen Ryuuji’s scarf that day but had instead protected her neck by stuffing her own hair into her coat.

  “Seriously! Minorinnn! I seriously soooo wanted to see yooooouuu!”

  Taiga buried her face in Minori’s neck, sounding like she was practically crying. She bumped Minori over and over again with her forehead, which Minori took full against her chin. Mwah mwah mwah. Minori stamped Taiga’s forehead with kisses.

  “There, there! There, there! Your brains are in the same class as Rei! Oh, but I don’t mean Ayanami Rei, okay? By Rei, I mean the giant cow from outer space! Boomo!”

  “What? I’m not like that! More importantly, why didn’t you come to school with us this morning?!”

  “Well, honestly, I woke up late and had to scramble to school. That’s why my thighs are spent… Actually, how did I overtake you and get to the classroom first when I had a late start?!”

  Uhh, eh-hem, Ryuuji coughed to cover up his nervousness. At the ready, Takasu Ryuuji! Step forward! Take aim! 3, 2, 1…fire!

  “O-oh, well, we got mobbed by these weird guys.”

  “Silence, boy!”

  There it was—instant death!

  Though it was a metaphor, Ryuuji really did die. The letters S-H-O-C-K were carved right into his chest. He was convinced that he had seen life after death. He had been told to be silent. Minori, who was always so happy and kind, had bared her teeth at him and told him that in the voice of Miwa Akihiro himself. He had been shunned…

  The life in Ryuuji’s face disappeared. His soul was ascending. As she saw what was happening before her eyes, still clutching Minori, Taiga couldn’t help herself and snorted, “Bwaha!”

  Minori, however, was flustered.

  “Oh…whoa?! What’d I just say?! I couldn’t have…made a mistake (in my choice) of joke?! I fudged it (I think)! I’ve reaaaally doone iiiiiit! Oh no (sorry)! Forget all about it (please)! Ahhhhhhh, iiif onnnly I wereen’t aaaaan idiiiooot…uh?”

  She trembled and shook as she sang with gusto. Her face spasmed, but then suddenly she said, “Well, wait just a second?! This may have actually been a stroke of luck!”

  Her face lit up. It was as though she were leaving everything around her behind.

  “See! Because I made that mistake, I need to show how I’ve reflected upon it! Yeah, that’s right, it was all made possible because I made this mistake! Ahh! How lucky I am! I can use this fair and square—my most prized possession, which I take with me everywhere! This is way too lucky!”

  Pushed aside, Taiga plopped onto the floor. Without a care, Minori pulled out her bald cap from her bag and put it right on her head.

  “See! See how lucky I am! Why, I’m on a strea
k! Things naturally worked out so I could wear it! I have such good fortune, I can’t believe it, uwaaaaaaaaah!”

  And with that, she started to cry.

  Minori prostrated herself on the ground, still in her coat, and tossed aside her bag, all while still wearing her bald cap. Then she suddenly started blubbering like a man who had never cried once in his life.

  “Mi…Minorin?! What’s wrong?!”

  “Wai—Kushieda! At least get up! The floor is dirty!”

  It wasn’t just Taiga and Ryuuji—naturally, those around them had also gathered to gawk. “What’s going on?” “Kushieda’s gone off her rocker again,” they whispered to each other.

  “Yo, Takasu! Oh, Tiger! Been a while, hasn’t it, Tiger?! Kushieda, what are you doing?”

  “Ohh, it’s Tiger! Yay, how’ve you been?! Did Kushieda break down again?!”

  Noto and Haruta had also made their way over and patted Ryuuji on the shoulder. They looked down at Minori in her frantic state.

  Still wearing her coat, Minori crouched on the cold floor with her head in her hands. “Maybe I really should shave my head…” She eventually raised her head and sneezed. Her face was still haggard and snotty from crying as she yelled desperately, “Ahh, I’m so glad I had my bald cap! I’ll keep this on for a while!”

  With that, she really did stay in her bald cap for a while. She was in a bald cap despite being a high school girl in the full blossoming of youth.

  Ryuuji didn’t even know how to start poking fun at her. He was dumbfounded, robbed of his words. Taiga, in her own way, might have felt unsettled, too. Her chin jerked as she wordlessly mouthed, Stop that.

  “My, my, my… Well, actually…”

  With a manufactured voice that sounded strangely senile, Minori sniffed, wrinkled her brow, and drew circles on her bald cap with her finger. Ryuuji thought she was acting sort of cute… Wait, no… It wasn’t actually cute. He wanted her to take off the bald cap, at the very least.

  “Actually,” she said, “yesterday I made this unbelievably stupid, kind-of-want-to-die-inside mistake during a softball game, and we lost to a team we should have won against…so I was already feeling awkward.”

  Ahhhhhh. The length of her protracted sigh easily conveyed the depths of her depression.

  “So, I’m in terrible shape right now. I obsessed over it yesterday, and I just couldn’t really get any sleep in the end…ugh, cough cough…I’m even losing my voice…sorry, and Taiga just came back to school today, too… I wanted to celebrate or something, but with the state my body is in, all I’ll be is a burden…cough cough! Eek, it’s blood~!”

  Ryuuji and Taiga had no words for Minori, who had suddenly aged in front of them. Also, she wasn’t even bleeding.

  If she were her normal self, Minori would have at least prepared some fake blood to vomit, but instead she staggered toward her own desk, still in her bald cap. At the sight of that, Ryuuji was frustrated that he hadn’t said anything to her.

  He hadn’t been able to say anything even though Minori was so down. And then he was immediately frustrated that he even thought that. What a selfish way of thinking. In the end, regretting that he hadn’t been able to say anything to Minori while she was depressed was just regret that he hadn’t been able to appeal to her with his kindness. He had really made it all about himself. Was appealing to Minori more important to him than her pain?

  No, he thought, I really just genuinely wanted Minori to feel better. But no matter how many times he told himself that, in the end, the truth was that he’d wanted to take advantage of Minori while she was down. He went in circles gloomily thinking that for a good three seconds and then breathed in. Ahh. He was acting just like Taiga did. The weaker his unrequited love was, the more he was paralyzed by it being unfair to make a move. Then he was dead in the water. In the end, he would become a heartless person who hadn’t done anything when his crush was feeling down.

  He was overthinking it—Taiga, too. They were both mired in the theoretical. No, no, no, this won’t work.

  He scratched his head and rubbed his eyes. For the time being, Ryuuji straightened his back. Whether it was unfair or not, whether he was taking advantage of her, whether she was in a bald cap—who cared? The quiver in his heart was real.

  He approached Minori’s seat.

  “…Uh…”

  “That’s going to get stuffy.”

  Schwoop. He casually pulled off the bald cap.

  Though his actions might have harbored ulterior motives that even he didn’t know himself, he still wanted to show her he was worried about her. He would at least show her that. He would pretend he didn’t see the parts of this that were unfair or about appealing to her or taking advantage of her state. He already had enough regrets about overlooking others’ pain, and he wouldn’t let it happen again.

  For a moment, Minori looked up at Ryuuji and blinked as though she had seen something too bright. Their eyes met, or so he thought.

  Ryuuji hid his nervousness and somehow awkwardly smiled at her.

  Then, Minori averted her eyes from Ryuuji. Still not looking into his face, she took back her bald cap and put it away in her bag. “Hee hee hee, right you are. Ain’t no reason to wear a bald cap, is there?” She smiled. She smiled and then simply clammed up. He felt like something was off, for a moment.

  “Aaaaaaaiiiiiiisaaaaaaakaaaaaaaaa!”

  They practically jumped at the echoing scream. They turned around…

  “Oh, Aisaka! You’ve finally been able to come back to school. Congratulations! The last two weeks without you were unbearably long… They were so boring without you! I really mean that!”

  …And the new student council president Kitamura Yuusaku was straight as a board at Taiga’s feet as he lay himself down in a scrupulous, fully horizontal bow. Was that really his best friend? Ryuuji felt slight dizziness at the scene.

  “Ohhhhh m-m-m-my, K-K-K-K-Kitamura-kun. G-g-g-g-good morning.”

  Like a robot, Taiga haltingly lifted her right hand at the floor.

  “Good morning! Oh, it’s been so long since we’ve exchanged greetings like this, Aisaka! I’m so touched!”

  Still on the ground, Kitamura lifted his refreshing, smiling face. Then he noticed Ryuuji was there, too.

  “Oh, good morning, Takasu!”

  “Why are you doing that?!”

  “Because it’s morning, of course!”

  “No! I mean what’s with that pose?!”

  “Because prostrating myself just wouldn’t be enough! My feelings towards Aisaka just couldn’t be shown by just throwing myself on the ground at her feet! …Right, Aisaka? I’m so sorry I was the reason you got suspended. I can’t believe you risked sending your life into chaos because of me! And thank you. I was thinking that I wouldn’t be able to stay in school after that huge embarrassment, but because of you, Aisaka, I’m still here. I’ve even started my work as president.”

  Still straight as an arrow in his recumbent bow, Kitamura looked directly up at Taiga. His eyes squinted as he gazed kindly over his glasses at her with a peaceful smile.

  “If there’s anything I can do to back you up, I’ll do it. So don’t ever get into a fight again, for anyone, ever. Not even if it’s for the sake of justice. If there’s something that you just can’t get over, then come to me first.”

  Taiga said, “Ahhhh…”

  And then she fainted.

  “Whoa! Keep it together, Taiga! You’ve barely been scratched!”

  Ryuuji quickly stepped in from behind as she fell. He slapped her cheeks. Kitamura’s sincerity had been too strong. He checked to see that her eyelashes were moving faintly. Good, she was alive.

  “Breathe slowly…right…calm down…”

  “Phoo…haaa…phooo…haaa.”

  Ryuuji braced Taiga with his knee and desperately tried to bring her back to her senses by patting her shoulder. That was when it happened.

  “…?!”

  He was certain he felt someone’s eyes on his back.
It wasn’t just one pair, but several. He whirled around as though he were a murderous demon attempting to hunt all life on earth single-handedly, but…

  “…”

  “…”

  “…”

  “…”

  “…”

  …he was met with silence and the backs of several people’s heads.

  Well, must have been my imagination! Or so he wished. Ryuuji’s forehead furrowed. What is this?

  Pretty much everyone in the class had turned their backs to Ryuuji, Taiga, and Kitamura all at once. Their silence was as good as a confession. It wasn’t as though this were normal, but even Noto and Haruta were letting their gazes wander in a strange direction. They had nothing to say.

  This couldn’t be…bullying? At the moment that thought entered his mind, he heard Kitamura’s easygoing voice.

  “And so, I’ve started being a patron saint of broken hearts!”

  Bam! Taiga fell off of Ryuuji’s knee upon hearing those cryptic words. If this were the first he had heard of it, Ryuuji would have fallen over with Taiga, too. But that wasn’t the case. Yes, Kitamura had already proclaimed his intentions of being a patron saint. The idea of it was so stupid that Ryuuji hadn’t found it in himself to tell Taiga while she was suspended.

  Right in that moment, before the class was about to begin, a knock came at the door.

  “Umm, excuse me… I’m looking for the patron saint of broken hearts…”

  “Hey! I’m right over here!”

  Kitamura smoothly rose from his prostrated position and lifted a cheerful hand at the girl who was peeking into the classroom. She looked like she was an underclassman. Taiga was practically in a panic as she watched him head toward the fidgeting girl.

  “You became…a patron saint…? That doesn’t happen in a day…but…but wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-wha?! That. Little. Girl. Is. So. Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shameless!”

  Taiga had her teeth bared as she trembled all over; blood-red murder overflowed from her eyes. She continued watching the girl who had called on Kitamura as though she were about to kill and eat the student, but then grew flustered, shook her head, and bit her lip.

  “…Oops! I almost forgot! Good girl, good girl…”

  Only her eyes stayed pinned to the two and refused to budge.