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Kaede walked through the empty school auditorium, the clacking of her footsteps echoing across the walls and the rows of seats adorning the floorboards.
It was about an hour after Hope’s Peak’s annual Christmas concert had ended, and everyone had already left. The auditorium was a lot more peaceful like this, Kaede thought—in all honesty, even playing a whole concerto didn’t tire her out as much as having her photo taken over and over again afterwards by dozens and dozens of journalists, guests and audience members. It was really sweet whenever a little kid walked up to her beaming, saying that they loved her music and wanted to be just like the Ultimate Pianist one day, but the rest was attention she could do without.
She knew it was different, and that those people didn’t mean anything by it, but… it always reminded her of how everyone from back home used to call her ‘Piano Freak’, like it was weird of her to have such a love for music, like that was the only thing about her that they could really see. Not a student who worked hard in her lessons; not a girl who was kind and compassionate and just wanted to have real friends; not Kaede Akamatsu. Just ‘Piano Freak’, and now, the Ultimate Pianist.
Well, Hope’s Peak did love their publicity. It was annoying, but Kaede supposed she could withstand being forced into the spotlight for another three years if it meant she got to be around such great schoolmates.
In fact, the school year had been going pretty well so far. Kaede had already managed to befriend most of her class, the closest friends she had being Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective, and Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate Adventurer. Lately, she’d also started hanging out with the Ultimate Aikido Master, Tenko Chabashira, and while the other girl was overwhelmingly energetic and had… questionable opinions on boys, she was also extremely supportive and kind. On the whole, Kaede found her presence quite refreshing.
Aside from her classmates, Kaede had also gotten acquainted with some of her upperclassmen. There was Sayaka Maizono, the Ultimate Pop Sensation, and Ibuki Mioda, the Ultimate Musician, both of whom were also performing in the Christmas concert. They were both really friendly, and they’d spent many a rehearsal break chatting animatedly over lunch, sharing their experiences with each other. (Kaede was especially appreciative of the fact that Ibuki also liked girls—finally, someone she could ramble to about her gay feelings who actually understood!)
Surprisingly, Kaede had also managed to develop a friendship with Kyoko Kirigiri, the Ultimate Detective from Class 78. Shuichi had introduced them to each other one day, and though Kyoko was quite reserved and closed-off at first, that only made her all the more interesting to talk to and try to figure out. Over the past few months, they’d gone to the nearby café and bonded over drinks a couple times (Kyoko always ordered black coffee), an activity Kaede had grown to look forward to. There was something about the matter-of-fact way the purple-haired detective spoke, combined with her thoughtful comments, which made talking to her unexpectedly enjoyable.
… In fact, Kyoko reminded Kaede of one specific girl from Class 79, that Kaede really wanted to get to know better. Maki Harukawa (a very pretty name, in Kaede’s opinion) had remained really quiet and antisocial since the beginning, and though Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Astronaut, had been trying to break her out of her shell lately, his efforts were kind of hit-or-miss.
(Kaede giggled at the memory of Kaito trying so hard to physically drag Maki to go stargazing with him that he lost his balance and fell down the stairs. At the time, Maki only called him an idiot and went back to her room, but Kaede could hear a slight twinge to the other girl’s voice, like she was trying not to laugh.)
In September, word had gotten out that Maki was actually the Ultimate Assassin, and not a child caregiver like she’d originally told them. It was surprising for sure, but somehow, Kaede really couldn’t bring herself to think Maki was a bad person. The few times they’d talked could hardly be called conversations, but even with what little input she had, Kaede could tell that the assassin’s eyes were really sincere. She seemed trustworthy, too, and Kaede thought that she would be a really good friend, when she managed to actually make that happen.
(Also, Maki was really pretty. Like, she had really long flowing dark brown hair that went all the way down to her calves, that was somehow always silky and never had any knots in it. Her eyes were a vibrant ruby red, and whenever Kaede looked directly into them, she felt her breath hitch slightly and her heart skip a beat, like a deer in the headlights.
Simply put, Kaede was very gay. And well, there wasn’t much of a way around that, was there?)
The pianist was going through a list of possible methods to try and befriend Maki when she found the tip of her shoe step on something soft, and she picked it up to take a closer look at it.
It was a scrunchie, the kind Kaede would’ve used to tie her hair into a ponytail back in elementary school. The colouring of the fabric had faded ever so slightly, but it was still obviously red, which… was oddly familiar, actually. Kaede couldn’t help but think that she’d seen someone wearing this exact scrunchie somewhere before…
Could it be? Maki’s scrunchie?
But there’s no way, Kaede thought to herself as she passed the scrunchie between her hands. It was the middle of Christmas break, and there was no reason for any of her schoolmates to be on campus right now, apart from the ones who’d had to perform in the concert. Besides, Maki had never really seemed like the musical type…
The scrunchie could’ve just as easily been anyone else’s, really, but… something compelled Kaede to take it and stuff it in her backpack. For safekeeping, she told herself, knowing that it was most likely completely unnecessary—if it belonged to someone from outside Hope’s Peak, they probably wouldn’t come back for it anyway.
But what if it was something important to Maki? What if someone cleaned it up before she came back for it? Kaede thought it’d be nice to be the one to give it back to her, even if (or, if she was honest with herself, for the exact reason that) it seemed like a scene that would come out of a teenage romance TV show. And if her hunch was incorrect, then, well, Kaede would just have an extra red scrunchie. No big deal.
As she tidied up the rest of her scores and tucked them carefully into her backpack, Kaede glanced at the wall clock next to the stage and gasped. Holy crap! It’s half past eleven already?! Mom’s going to be so mad! Hastily, she zipped up her backpack, pulled on her cardigan (it didn’t go very well with her concert gown, but it was chilly out, so it’d have to do) and ran out the backstage door, not noticing when one of her buttons got caught on a shelf and came off.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The first day after Christmas break, there was to be an assembly in the auditorium after school. Nothing important or anything, probably just Mr. Kirigiri talking about how he hoped everyone had a nice break (which Maki didn’t, really) and briefing the students on the various school events that would happen over the next few months.
Ten minutes before the assembly was due to start, Maki excused herself from class to go backstage and prepare the audio-visual equipment. It wasn’t supposed to be her job, strictly, but since the Ultimate Audio-Visual Artist had just graduated, Mr. Kizakura had randomly picked Maki to inherit their role. And because the assassin was both efficient and a quick learner, it just sort of… stuck, all because Hope’s Peak didn’t want to spend money hiring a proper full-time technician even though the school was more loaded than Amami’s dad, which… was saying something.
Maki wasn’t about to complain about an excuse to keep her hands busy with something other than honing her stupid talent, though. As she walked over to the corner of the backstage area to turn on the dimmer, something shiny in her peripheral vision caught her attention, and she picked it up.
It was a small lilac plastic button in the shape of a flower. It was far from unique—judging from its size, it looked like the sort of button you might find on a cardigan in a regular clothing store, nothing fancy. In fact, it could’ve very well come from a kid’s shirt, if not for where it had been found. Despite all that, Maki knew she had definitely seen this specific button somewhere before… but where?
The answer came to her as she saw her classmates filing into the auditorium through the gap in the curtain. They were all in their Hope’s Peak uniforms now, of course, but she was suddenly reminded of one November weekend, when all the girls in their class had gone on a day out to the nearby shopping centre. Maki wasn’t much interested in the perfume stores and the cheesy romance movie they’d ended up seeing, but… wasn’t Akamatsu wearing a cardigan that day? Rose-coloured, with little flower-shaped buttons? Maki vaguely remembered complimenting it in an attempt to make small talk.
Maki didn’t enjoy small talk at the best of times. It was always an awkward, tedious affair trying to think of things to say, or to even discern whether the other person wanted to have a conversation at all. But silence was smothering, sometimes, so Maki was fine putting up with banal comments regarding the weather, or guessing what Mr. Kizakura had been drinking before he came into class that day. (She’d gotten pretty good at telling the difference between the smell of whisky and that of vodka.) That kind of thing was detached enough from talking about herself to handle without much trouble.
It wasn’t like she didn’t want to get properly acquainted with her classmates. It was just that… there were so many—too many—things about Maki’s life that she didn’t want to explain. Compared to her other classmates, her whole existence just seemed like a long sob story. That, or anything she said would be far too terrifying for a normal conversation. Like, Yonaga might talk about how she was working on a sculpture, and Maki could reply with the time she had to stab a target’s throat with a carbide pointer for a mission, and then where would the conversation go?
And, Maki had to constantly remind herself, the act of making friends always came with the risk of getting too close, and if that happened… she didn’t want the same thing that happened with Mitsuko to happen again.
She didn’t need to relive that.
“Good morning, Harukawa-san,” sounded a voice from the backstage door, interrupting her thoughts. Maki turned to see Mr. Kirigiri, tired but trying his best to sound bright and happy for the students, as usual. She could spare a tiny bit of sympathy for him, but this was also the man who’d decided it was an okay decision to scout Maki as the Ultimate Assassin, knowing full well why she’d become an assassin, yet not try and save her from having to go back to that life after graduation—or do anything about that cult, really. Maki could afford to save the rest of her sympathy for other people.
“Good morning,” she replied curtly, standing up to greet him.
She’d probably return the button to Akamatsu tomorrow morning before class, she thought as she watched the headmaster step up onto the podium and tucked the small plastic flower into the pocket of her blazer.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The assembly was done in all of half an hour, just as Maki expected. After she’d finished turning off all the lights and sound equipment in the auditorium and raised the projector screen, however, it was already a quarter past five—well past dismissal time.
So she definitely didn’t expect to be greeted by a cheerful, “Hey, Harukawa-san!” the moment she stepped out the backstage door. She looked up, eyebrows raised, to find one (1) Kaede Akamatsu waving at her excitedly.
It wasn’t that rare for an image of a puppy to pop up in Maki’s mind when she was around the pianist, and this was no exception. Right now, Akamatsu looked like a young golden retriever who was absolutely over the moon because its owner had just returned home. The sparkle in her eyes when Maki appeared was way more than what the assassin thought she deserved just for showing up completely within expectation, but she supposed Akamatsu could suit herself if it made her happy.
“I think I have something of yours—well, I don’t know if it’s yours, but I thought it might be, but on second thought, your hair’s tied how it usually is, so maybe it wasn’t…” the blonde started before Maki could even say a word, “… anyway, I meant to ask you about it earlier, but you always leave so early after class and I can never catch you, so… here I am!”
“I’d enlighten you, but you haven’t told me what it is you’re talking about,” Maki reminded her, unable to stop herself from smirking a little. Iruma had some basis behind ‘Bakamatsu’.
“Oh, right, sorry.” Akamatsu smiled sheepishly, bringing her backpack in front of her to rummage through it. “Is this yours?” she asked after a few seconds, holding out a carmine scrunchie.
Maki accepted and examined it closely. It was definitely hers, all right. She’d dropped it that one night as she was leaving the concert, but it was getting kicked around too much by the crowds for her to be able to retrieve it, so she’d decided to just leave it. She thought the janitor might’ve taken care of it or something.
“It’s mine,” Maki confirmed. It occurred to her that she should probably thank the pianist; say something polite to let her know the action was well-received.
“… You didn’t have to take it. I have more than two of these, you know.” Dammit, Harukawa. You had one job.
To her surprise, the other girl only giggled, earning herself an indignant glare from Maki. “You’re welcome! I found this in the auditorium after the Christmas concert, so I figured you must’ve dropped it by accident. I didn’t know you would be there, Harukawa-san! I didn’t know you liked going to concerts; we should totally go see one together sometime!”
Maki was, in fact, not usually a music person, and she hadn’t planned on letting anyone know she’d attended the concert. The reason she’d even gone at all was because she had nothing to do that night and she’d wanted to get away from her thoughts.
(Or, well, okay. It was also because Akamatsu was really good at what she did, and the first time Maki ever heard her play it was so mystifying that she’d wanted to hear it again, because the blonde could paint a picture of a whole galaxy and make the air feel as soft as flower petals with whatever piano sorcery she was practising. But Maki wasn’t about to admit that to herself.)
“… Sure. Anyway, I have something for you too,” she said, holding out the button and dropping it into the pianist’s hand.
“My cardigan button! I was wondering what that went… I only bought that cardigan a few months ago, you know,” the blonde’s eyes widened in surprise, then crinkled softly as she beamed at Maki. (She decided that she liked it when Akamatsu smiled. It kindled a little bit of warmth inside her that she didn’t even know she had.) “Thank you so much for finding it!”
“You don’t have to thank me. I just saw it backstage. It wasn’t any trouble,” the assassin returned, puffing out her cheeks and grabbing one of her long twintails with both hands.
“That still counts for something! Besides, this must be some sort of sign from the universe that we should be friends!” Kaede said brightly.
“That’s stupid, Akamatsu. The universe doesn’t send signs,” Maki retorted. “It’s just a coincidence, nothing more.”
Akamatsu pouted. “Well, coincidence or not, I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to befriend a pretty girl like you!” she said, seemingly completely earnest.
… She’s blunt, Maki thought to herself, feeling her face starting to heat up. This was unexpected. “... Do you want to die?”
“If it’s because you made my heart stop, then sure!” Akamatsu replied brightly. She really didn’t get it, did she? … Idiot. Maki was an assassin. A cold-blooded murderer. Getting too close could legitimately put the other girl in physical peril. Did she not understand?
“That’s not what I m-” Maki started, before getting interrupted by a laugh from the pianist.
“It’s not? Well, guess I’ll just have to try harder, then!” the blonde girl quipped cheekily. “It was nice talking to you today, Harukawa-san! See you tomorrow!”
And just like that, Akamatsu waved goodbye with a smile that lingered in Maki’s vision like a warm ray of sunlight and left tiny butterflies fluttering in her chest.
It wasn’t like Maki was about to let her guard down and actually befriend the pianist, all of a sudden. That wasn’t how things worked. But, she thought as she put the scrunchie round her wrist, maybe Kaede Akamatsu was someone she could learn to trust.
See you tomorrow.