Toradora! Vol. 7 Read online

“This is, of course, for the couples out there,” said Kitamura, “and you, with the romantic troubles… It’s also for you, the one who hasn’t been able to ask out the person who caught your eye. Why don’t you ask out that special someone you’ve been thinking about this romantic Christmas Eve? We’re creating a prep committee and are waiting for your help. Please keep a look out for our fundraising campaign, too. The student council supports your love.”

  Kyaaah~! …Two pre-teen girls appeared on the scene.

  This is it. This is what we wanted! A project like this! Ryuuji and Taiga lost control and couldn’t express themselves in words. Kyah kyah, they squealed as they high-fived each other. They squealed even more; they were practically hugging each other.

  With this, Ryuuji could ask Minori out naturally. Wanna go with everyone else?—that was all he had to do. They would go to the party together, and then depending on how the mood went and how things progressed… No, he would just enjoy being with Minori during Christmas Eve. That was enough for him. Taiga wouldn’t have to mumble about whether things were fair or not, and just needed to go to the party to see Kitamura. It would be hard for them to be alone together, but they would at least spend the evening together, anyway.

  Then, it wasn’t just Ryuuji and Taiga who had turned into a bunch of screaming schoolgirls.

  “We don’t have plans on Christmas Eve anyway~!”

  “It sounds like it might actually end up being fun?!”

  “I hope they’ll let us go in something other than our uniforms~!”

  “I want to wear a cute dress or something!” They were shouting on and on. Several people around the class were already planning on attending. The students of class 2-C already liked events, and this one was headed up by the patron saint of broken hearts, the leader of class 2-C, so they couldn’t help but be excited.

  What a mood… Ryuuji let his relentless reptile eyes scan the place. It wasn’t that he had been cursed by a snake that had been killed by his ancestors—he was just so exhilarated he couldn’t stop his eyes. They could all look forward to the romantic Christmas Eve party…and then maybe, quite possibly, he might actually be able to confess to Minori for real. Then maybe—if that really did happen, what answer would Minori give him? He licked his lips, which had dried out and split from his excitement. He stifled his enthusiasm as he sneakily tried to turn toward Minori.

  “That’s right, why don’t you join the prep committee, Tiger?”

  “Yeah, you just said you love Christmas, after all.”

  “That’s perfect! You’ve got to do it now!”

  Unexpected voices started joining in from around Taiga. Noto also smiled at Taiga and was saying, “Yeah, go join the committee!”

  Amid those voices, Taiga’s face turned red, and she struggled to stand up.

  “I-I-I-I-If everyone’s so insistent, I-I-I-I-I’d be okay with it. Fwa ha ha ha ha ha!”

  She laughed in a high-pitched voice to hide her embarrassment. “Hmph!” Then she became arrogant.

  “You’re joining too, you salt-slug dog!”

  She pointed at Ryuuji, but her face still looked as though it would melt right onto the floor. She would be able to help prepare a Christmas party with Kitamura, and on top of that, it seemed natural because she was just responding to the nomination from her classmates. In that moment, every one of Taiga’s desires had been fulfilled in exactly the way she wanted them to be.

  Taiga suddenly pointed at Minori as well.

  “Minorin, you have to do it, too! Do it with us! Join us!”

  Kyyaaaaaaaah! She’d even kicked Ryuuji into the vortex of delight. What an amazing thing Taiga had done. She really was a producer that went by the name of the angel of love. She was a heaven-sent child of Christmas with a doughnut halo over her head. Ryuuji’s ogre-mask face rose, and he turned to Minori. Let’s do it! Join us! We’ll do it together!

  “Sorry. I have to pass this time around.”

  “What?! Why?!”

  Ryuuji’s internal monologue was fully in sync with Taiga’s voice. Minori, who had been joking around just earlier as she had been retreating from them, now shook her head obstinately. Her lips were pursed.

  “I’m not in the mood for a Christmas party or anything like that. I’m really not. It’s like it’s not the time for me to be happy…with what happened at that match I was talking about earlier. I really, really feel a weight on my shoulders from what happened. If I were just running around yelling and having fun in this situation, I feel like I’d seriously be setting a bad example for the rest of the club. There’s another game right after New Year’s, so I need to practice, too. So, I’m sorry. But you have fun, especially you Taiga, you have lots.”

  But—basically, she wasn’t going to join the prep committee or go to the party? Ryuuji was speechless. He had been so excited in his selfishness that he couldn’t tolerate the sudden plummet. It was as though all the color in the world disappeared.

  “Whoa!”

  “Ehee hee. ♥ In that case, maybe I’ll join in Minori’s place~?!”

  Bam! Half-running into him, the one heartily hitting Ryuuji in the back where he sat down was Ami.

  “What a face you’re making,” she added in a small whisper. Taiga’s face crumpled momentarily.

  “Geh, Dimhuahua?! No, don’t, don’t do it. We don’t need a hairy beast joining us! Beat it! You should go back into the woods where you belong, you hairball!”

  “Oh, my~? Tiger-chan, should you really be saying that? Aren’t you being a good little girl until Christmas comes around~? Your buddy Santa is watching, you know~?”

  “Ugh…”

  Ami put her pointer finger up to her lip-glossy shiny lips and looked at them with upturned eyes. With that one finger, she made Taiga shut up. Then she let a sickeningly sweet smile open up over her face like a flower, and her large, radiant eyes looked down slowly at her classmates’ faces. In a moment, her unfair beauty took hold of the mood in the class and forcefully pulled in the eyes of everyone in the room.

  “Aren’t you super excited for the party?! I’m definitely going! Yuusaku’s plan to have a Christmas party everyone at school can go to is way too amazing! I seriously love plans like this~! We’ve got to use our power as a class to make it a night to get excited for! Right, everyone?!”

  Yay! Someone shouted, and they naturally followed with applause.

  “I’m definitely, definitely going!”

  “I’ll join the committee, too!”

  “I can’t believe I can spend Christmas Eve with Ami-chan!”

  “This is the high point of my life!”

  And on and on they went. There were guys getting choked up with tears. The girls pointed at them and laughed, and though they clamored, their eyes glittered with joy.

  She really is good at this stuff, Ryuuji thought as he looked up at Ami in surprise. Ami had the whole class filled with passion again with another smile, and she even went so far as to hug Taiga and give her a peck on the cheek.

  “Let’s do it together~! ♥”

  “Gweh!” Taiga pushed her away, but because of the “good girl” constraints that she had imposed on herself, she couldn’t actually say no.

  “Oh~? What’s with that look? You don’t want to work with me?”

  Noticing Ryuuji’s eyes, Ami raised one eyebrow slightly while still smiling. Her large eyes lit up. She took a glance around the others who started getting excited and then pulled away from them. In a low, spiteful voice she whispered:

  “I see. You’d rather be with a certain someone more than me.”

  Ryuuji, of course, was irritated. In a similarly whispered voice, he chanted ardently and insistently into her ear, “You idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot, idiot!”

  He was self-conscious of his poor vocabulary, but this was all Ryuuji could muster in his counterattack against Ami. Ami held her ears and tried to run, “Uwaah!” That was an unexpected reaction. It seemed that he had tickled her ears. I won, Ryuuji thought as he l
aughed at her.

  “Heh,” he said, “see what you get.”

  “That was low!”

  Ami glared at him with harsh, provoking eyes, but he knew she would. Yaah yaah. He danced a little and made fun of her all the more.

  “Hmph, just because Tiger’s acting weird and docile, you’re getting full of yourself! I’ll tell you this, Takasu-kun, but you’d be better off being nice to me.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “Oh~? You don’t know? To be blunt, plans like this play into the palm of my hand. I can pull everyone up or bring them all down. I wonder what you’d think if it were up to me whether a certain melancholy someone is encouraged to come…”

  Ryuuji’s forehead wrinkled. A smile formed on Ami’s lips. What did that smile mean? And what was Ami’s aim?

  The only thing he knew was that what Ami was saying was true. When it came to events, parties, and plans that involved getting everyone excited…all of those things were Ami’s domain. But, of course, he couldn’t have thought that Kawashima Ami, the darkest-hearted person in the whole country, would lend him her strength and help him with realizing his unrequited love. She whispered to him in a soft, sweet voice.

  “Takasu-kun, you want the party to be a success, right? I’d like it to be a success. I’m not Tiger, but I really do love Christmas. I don’t have a boyfriend to spend it with, unfortunately. Plus, even if I went home, my parents would be busy. I think I’d like to get everyone excited and have a fun party at school…I really mean it.”

  Ami grinned and then laughed. She pushed up her hair, and her eyes, which had an unfathomable depth, lit up and glistened.

  “So. Because. Of. That. Let’s work together, okay? Don’t you feel like putting your heart into it?”

  Ryuuji raised his face. Then, with a force that almost made Ami recoil, he nodded, “Yeah!” The answer was naturally Yes. Yes, yes, yes. He did want to put his heart into it.

  He couldn’t stall out in a place like this. He didn’t have time to get lost in Ami’s depths, either. For now, he could only act. The battle for Christmas with Minori had already started.

  “Right! Let’s do our best! Let’s do it, Kawashima!”

  “Aha. ♥ You’re finally into it. ♥”

  Ryuuji and Ami’s breathing was in sync as they high-fived in the middle of the excited shouts of joy.

  “Hey, don’t get all buddy-buddy with Ami-chan!”

  “We’re done for. We’ve got to deal with Takasu quick.”

  He felt resentful looks coming from all around him, but right now he just needed to ignore all the eyes. There was just one thing he knew. Somehow, somehow, he wanted Minori to be excited, too. In the blazing, fiery battle for the person he loved, for the one special day in the whole year, he wished for a fire to be lit in Minori’s heart.

  But Minori’s eyes were quiet and cold in that moment. She just looked up, expressionless, at the center of their classmates’ shouts of joy where Ami was. She just stood there. When Ami saw her, Ami smiled even more charmingly. She whispered strangely slowly to Minori.

  “Huh~? What’s wrong, Minori-chan? Have you decided that you want to join in? If that’s the case, I’d be happy to welcome you anytime.”

  “I already said it’s not possible.”

  That was all Minori said. She abruptly averted her eyes. Ryuuji saw Minori’s profile in that moment. He thought it was odd, but he didn’t question her. He simply continued to watch her.

  As Minori averted her eyes, Ami silently watched Minori’s face for a while, too. It was as though she were waiting for Minori to say something.

  On that day, dozens of girls and boys from all different classes volunteered for the prep committee, which was more than enough. They weren’t just made up of students who liked festivals, either. There were even people in other classes who had been told about Kawashima Ami saying that she would participate. That might have accounted for the explosive increase in volunteers.

  ***

  “What~?” said Yasuko. “Ryuu-chan, you’re studying for the end of semester exams~? And Taiga-chan is, too~?”

  “That’s right. At the family restaurant we normally go to. There’s a salmon patty in the fry pan, so warm it up a little and eat that. Be careful not to burn the red beans. There’s daikon-and-tofu miso soup in the pot. And then in the fridge, there’s some mustard greens, so make sure you actually put them on a plate before you eat them.”

  “Ahh, that sounds like a yummy menu~! But if you already made it, you could eat before leaving.”

  “We’ve already promised to eat with everyone else.”

  “Then I’m all alone…”

  From behind him, his mother made a lonely noise. He thrust his arm into the down jacket as though he were shaking off his guilt. He had told Yasuko a lie. In actuality, everyone else was going to meet after already having eaten dinner. He didn’t need to go to the family restaurant to eat. Ryuuji, though, had a reason for wanting to get an early start no matter what he had to do. Even if it cost him extra on their food budget. Even if he had to lie to his mother, who made that money.

  He stuck his studying supplies into a canvas tote bag and made sure not to forget to stuff the patriarch’s sheaves of notes into it. Then he checked the inside of his wallet. He put his phone and his keys into the back pocket of his jeans. He put on his scarf, which had made it through the day without being stolen by Taiga, and wondered whether he needed a beanie.

  “Chi. I’m so lonely, be-yotch.”

  He dropped everything. He turned around.

  In their freezing, two-bedroom apartment (they had a heater, but didn’t turn it on because they had a heated kotatsu table), the silence fell thick upon them. What was that just now?

  The mother smiled at her son. “Ehee ☆.” She lay down under the kotatsu with the blanket covering her all the way to her shoulders. She was practically melting into the floor.

  “Ryuu-chan, you don’t know? It’s what the cool kids say these days~! A new girl taught it to me, she told me it’s how all the kids are talking these days~! It’s cray cute! It’s so fleek, yo~! Ehee hee! ☆ And then, I’m keeping up with the kids, so I’m super-duper amazing—so fleek!”

  “Please, no! Stop! You’re completely off!”

  Ryuuji felt like holding his ears closed as he hysterically yelled. The wound this inflicted on his heart ran deep. First, Yasuko was completely wrong in all sorts of ways. How stupid was she? Next, for her to merrily report to her son that “this is what the kids are saying these days” just revealed how old she was. He had thought of her as young and even immature, but she really was old, through and through. The heaviness of this truth that had been laid on him! “As I held her and felt how light she was / I was shocked / At my mother’s age.” He remembered the famous tanka poem from one of his textbooks. It turned in his brain.

  Without noticing the wound she’d given her son, Yasuko pouted as she lay on a floor cushion under the kotatsu table.

  “What~? I can’t be off fleek. This is all so turnt. I can’t be wrong, yo.”

  Without makeup on and in Uniqlo lounge clothes, she breathed out through her nose, “Hmph.” Unfortunately, all her actions did was show that her brains were like corrupted files. In times like this, even Ryuuji thanked God that he had mostly inherited his father’s genes. He was really glad he hadn’t inherited Yasuko’s slippery-smooth brain. Ryuuji had never met him and didn’t know whether he was even alive or not, and had no way of imagining what his head was like, but it was at least a small thing to know that his brain must have had a few deeper folds and denser nerve bundles than Yasuko’s. Even imagining the type of chaos their household would have been in if both of them had “smooth, on fleek, cray brains ☆” was scary enough.

  “Inko-chan, I’m leaving Yasuko to you. The only one I can trust with anything now is you, Inko-chan,” he told his parrot, who was standing in the birdcage with her wings closed. When he did that, Inko-chan’s haggard eyes twitched beneath their lids.
Froth dribbled and drooled from the edge of her rotten-meat-colored beak. Schlurp… Inko-chan snuffled the foam back into her mouth with her long tongue. Several long strands of that cloudy stuff traversed the top and bottom of her beak.

  “Impossible.”

  She just said that one word. Then she showed him the whites of her eyes and stomped her feet, which were like shaking, torn twigs. She turned her back to her owner and, with perfect timing, she defecated.

  “Whoa! What rebellion!”

  “Inko-chan is lonely, so she Zs all day, right, Inko-chan? ☆ Gyah! ☆”

  Inko-chan had torn off a piece of the tip of Yasuko’s finger, which Yasuko had stuck in a crack of the cage. “Peh!” Next Inko-chan spat it out. This was a terrible act of rebellion. Without thinking, Ryuuji’s stern voice rose like the hollow needle of Étretat.

  “What’s gotten into you, Inko-chan?! Where’s my normal, obedient, cute Inko-chan?!”

  “Hah. ☆ I got it~! Ryuu-chaaan, it’s because of that~!”

  Yasuko pointed to a cooking book Ryuuji had checked out from the library that was sitting face up. It said “Exceptional Christmas Hospitality” on the cover, and accompanying the title was a giant, whole roasted bird. Right next to it in big letters were the words, “Roast a magnificent, whole bird!” In a fluster, Ryuuji jumped at the book and thrust it under the sitting cushion to hide it.

  “I’m sorry, Inko-chan. I was insensitive. I won’t roast a bird in this home. Never.”

  He sat properly in front of the birdcage and lowered his head. In the same custom as her son, Yasuko also lowered her head, “Sowry. ☆” Inko-chan’s clouded eyes turned to the mother and son who owned her.

  “…Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Never ever?!”

  “Never ever.”

  Inko-chan’s shaking beak and bulging eyes gleamed as they reflected the sharp eyes of her owners, which were emitting the prospect of imminent danger. Her bald head was covered in goosebumps and open pores. Just when it seemed like the rift between pet and owners was about to be fixed…

  “Ugh… This is not okay! Whatever this is, is like, super not okay!”