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“Check.”
Hifumi Togo finished the move with a snap. Her lance taking the opponent’s defensive rook, and threating to do the same to their king if immediate steps were not taken.
Her worried opponent reviewed the board, looking vainly for any avenues of escape. Sadly, every single move was blocked by pieces that had previously seemed purely defensive and were now clearly anything but. In fact they now seemed to be doing the metaphorical equivalent of cracking their knuckles and looming menacingly.
Unable to find a way to escape her predicament the girl finally bowed her head and accepted her defeat.
“I concede. Good game Togo-san”
Hifumi bowed her head in response. There was an excited murmur from the audience.
The supervising teacher cast a pained look to the remains of her demoralised team.
“Well, that concludes the tournament. A clean sweep to the visitors from Kosei. Congratulations on your victory.”
They hadn’t been expecting an easy victory, particularly when Kosei had sent through the list of players that made up their team, but none of the students had been expecting quite the overwhelming defeat that had just transpired.
“Feel free to make use of the room for the rest of the afternoon.” The teacher bowed and followed the last of her drooping students out into the hall, leaving the Kosei students free to collect their belongings.
The girls chattered amongst themselves as they packed. Normally this would be the point in the afternoon that they’d take time for some sightseeing, but this small town was in the middle of nowhere and it had somewhat a shortage of sights to see. Unless you counted rice fields, and grumpy old farmers of course, it seemed to have a surplus of those. Sadly, neither rated very high on the excitement meter.
Hifumi finished jotting a few notes on the game in her notepad, and then began packing away the last of her things. Before standing, frowning, deep in thought down at her watch as her teammates and teacher headed out the door on their quests for souvenirs and snacks.
“Was that a new move?”
She jumped and turned at the unexpected voice. Behind her was a short girl wearing glasses and the Kosei uniform, her brown hair in a pixie cut and a grin on her face that suggested she was up to no good.
Since she’d known her since middle school, being one of her few friendships that had survived her mother’s interference, Hifumi was well aware she frequently was.
She turned back to her bag. “No, Ruri. I beat you with it last week.”
“Not the ‘Thieves of Hearts.’ You tragic Phan-girl.” The girl stuck out her tongue and laughed at her friends embarrassed flush. “The other one, the Lance-general-rook combo.”
Hifumi slipped her notebook back into her bag next to her board and nodded distractedly.
“Oh, yes. Something I was working on with a friend. I think it still needs tweaking.” She replayed the move in her head, thinking.
The other girl’s face slipped into a sly grin.
“A ‘Friend’ or ‘THE boyfriend’?”
Hifumi looked around in agitation and hissed at her.
“RURI, shhh!”
“Everyone’s already gone, Hifumi. Chill.” Ruri pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and grinned.
Hifumi frowned at her obvious enthusiasm.
“No, just a friend. And didn’t you promise not to bring him up at school? Last thing I need is more gossip.” She sniffed and checked her watch again.
“But you always go so RED! It’s ADORABLE.” The girl caught the look in Hifumi’s eyes and rolled her own, giving a long-suffering sigh.
“Fine, I promise I won’t bring up tall dark and absent again. Unless it would be really funny. So what’s the new move called?” Ruri pulled out her phone and winked at her, ready to write the information down.
“I don’t see…”
“I need to add it to the list. I mean, you’re coming up with all sort of interesting things lately. I need to get it right for the match report.” The girl tapped through her recorded notes. “We’ve had ‘Last surprise’ in that match last month. ‘Showtime’ in the exhibition in June and ‘The demon kings embrace’ in that match against Juno.” Ruri looked sidelong at her and smirked, knowingly.
Not for the first time Hifumi questioned the wisdom of ever mentioning her boyfriend within earshot of the girl.
Even though she’d known her for years, Ruri’s enthusiasm for teasing her was apparently still boundless, and her reaction to being told that Hifumi had gained a boyfriend had been immediate, enthusiastic and loud enough that they’d been asked to leave the library. Since then the girl had made it her life’s work to find out everything she could about her friend’s boyfriend. To Ren’s confusion when he’d run into the two of them after school one day and the girl had acted like she’d met a celebrity.
It was good to have someone to talk to about Ren, though. Other than Yusuke, of course. But then talking to Yusuke was always an odd proposition. Sometimes you’d have a normal conversation. Most of the time he’d be too distracted by his sketching to add much. Occasionally you’d get a random diatribe about colour and light, the dichotomy of the human heart and, for some reason shellfish.
A few teasing comments seemed a fair price to pay to avoid the risk of seafood.
“They don’t all have to have names!” Hifumi frowned and finished packing the last of her belongings away.
Her friend raised a knowing eyebrow.
“Hifumi. This is YOU. They ALL have names, and backstories. And in the case of your demon king there’s probably an X-rated version.” The girl scrolled through a list of moves on her phone and tried not to laugh.
Hifumi gritted her teeth.
“Ito-san. Perhaps you should be a little more interested in your own games! You barely won that one.”
“My games are boring. Yours have Dragons.” The girl grinned at her, unrepentant.
Hifumi buried her face in her hands and sighed in defeat.
“Fine, it’s called…” Hifumi coughed and looked embarrassed. “Fist of justice.”
Ruri stopped tapping on the phone and looked up at her.
“Fist?” She asked, deadpan.
“Of justice.” Hifumi refused to meet her eyes.
Ruri considered this.
“Didn’t I tell Amamiya to keep you away from Kamen Rider? I would have thought he’d worked that out after the Featherman incident.”
“Ito! I told you, it was nothing to do with him. I was playing shogi with Makoto, she practices martial arts. Is that enough information?” She busied herself with her bag.
Ruri still looked unimpressed.
“That college student he introduced you to? How do you get to fist of justice from her?”
Hifumi sighed realising there was no way to get out of this.
“We had a game in the park the other day and a few… troublemakers decided to press their attentions on us.” She adjusted the contents of her bag and tried to look innocent.
The girl looked up from her phone, eyes lighting up behind the glasses, sensing a story.
“Go on.”
“Well… They were being very persistent.”
“And…” The girls tone fished for more information.
“And Makoto may have taken offense to being called sweetie. He only needed a few stitches.”
Ruri regarded her with wide eyes.
“And what were you doing during this?”
“Well after I hit the other one with my bag I called them an ambulance.”
Ruri blinked at her, attempting to make sense of this information.
“Hifumi Togo! Have you been getting into BRAWLS?! What did….Does Amamiya know?!”
“Please keep your voice down, Ito. Yes he does, he already laughed at me enough for both you. Besides, it wasn’t a brawl. It was self-defence. Now, can we talk about something else?” She swung the bag onto her shoulder and turned to head to the door.
That was only partly true. He’d laughed at her, then he sent Makoto a text message saying he was trusting her to protect his girlfriend, Makoto had seemed subdued after she read it.
The shorter girl shrugged and fell into step behind her. Still shaking her head.
“Sure, you can tell me what’s wrong.”
Hifumi froze her hand on the door. It was rare to hear Ruri’s voice without some degree of teasing in it. Her serious voice belonged to another person.
“I’m not sure…”
The girl gave her a flat look and crossed her arms.
“I’ve known you since middle school, Togo. I’ve seen you play hundreds of times. You are NEVER that savage. You looked like you were a few seconds off dropping all pretence and hitting that girl with the board.”
Hifumi’s jaw tightened.
“In fact, since you first agreed to fill in for the team when Mikki got sick you’ve been flipping between a bundle of nerves and looking like someone stood on your foot. Now spill Togo. What’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“Oh, nothing. Clearly. So the fact you’ve been rubbing our opponent’s faces in the mud all day is what? A new strategy?”
“They annoyed me.” Hifumi deliberately didn’t meet her eyes.
“Hifumi, I’ve seen you been icy calm through matches with people you hated. You don’t annoy easily. What’s up?”
“I told you, it’s nothing.” She turned and pushed the door open and walked out into the old school’s corridor. Ruri fell into step behind her, clearly not giving up on the line of questioning.
“That’s fine. If it’s nothing you won’t mind if I just ask Kitagawa what he knows once we get back. Good ol’ Yusuke will spill anything if you promise him food.” The girl made a great show of inspecting her fingernails.
Hifumi spun to face her.
“That’s not fair!”
“Oh come on, you know him! That boy is made of twigs and I’m sure you could get his life story for a pork cutlet. I’m tempted to try just to find out how you two started talking in the first place.” The girl grinned suddenly as a thought occurred. “So whatever is wrong DOES involve the boyfriend, hmm?” She raised a knowing eyebrow.
“How did you come to that conclusion?” Hifumi frowned at her then headed down the stairs to the ground floor and started walking along the corridor connecting the schools club building to its main classrooms. Her friend fell into step behind her.
“Because, Togo, Kitagawa is dense as a tree stump about girls feelings, and the only way you’d be worried he’d even UNDERSTAND there is a problem is if it involves Amamiya. I know he introduced you two.”
Hifumi looked conflicted.
“Yusuke’s not that bad. He just has an interesting perspective on things.”
“Hifumi, he can paint a sunset better than anyone I’ve ever met but I’ve seen ROCKS that can read a room better than Yusuke. So what exactly does a backwater shogi club have to do with your prince charming?’
Hifumi sighed and her shoulders slumped.
“It’s what she said, that they didn’t have a men’s team this year. Since they were particular about who joined.”
Ruri raised an eyebrow.
“Who, the captain? Is that why you looked like you wanted to kick her? I don’t get it.”
“Someone wanted to join, but they didn’t let them. Not because they couldn’t play. Because of their reputation." Hifumi’s fists clenched. “I don’t like that.”
Ruri looked up at her frowning friend.
“Maybe they had a good reason …”
“AND MAYBE THEY SHOULDN’T LISTEN TO RUMOURS!”
The girl jumped back, startled. Hifumi rounded on her angrily, eyes flashing.
“Whoa! Hey, Hifumi. It’s ok. Calm down.”
“MAYBE THEY SHOULD GET THE REAL STORY BEFORE THEY JUDGE SOMEONE!”
“HIFUMI!”
She started then flushed, looking away.
Ruri looked at her with her eyes wide.
“Wow, Ok. Wasn’t expecting that. I’ve never seen you light up like that, girl. Is Loverboy having rumour trouble back home?”
Hifumi looked back at her friend and sighed.
“No he isn’t.”
“Hifumi…”
“He isn’t and… that’s the problem.”
Ruri’s lips moved as she tried to think her way through that.
“The problem is there isn’t a problem?”
“Exactly.” She turned and walked out into the school courtyard.
“So the problem is with that crazy girl hanging around him?”
Hifumi stopped suddenly and spun to face her in shock.
“WHAT?! WHO IS SHE?!”
Ruri stepped back quickly out of range.
“You, Space-case!”
“Oh.” She crossed her arms, embarrassed.
Ruri frowned at her.
“You BADLY need to chill out, Hifumi. So…you going to explain that? Or do I just assume you’ve lost your last few marbles on the bus.”
Hifumi frowned at her.
“Do you remember why Ren came to Tokyo last year?”
The girl grinned at her.
“Well I’m fairly sure you said something about destiny, then there was something about a fated meeting, a couple of steamy make-out sessions in a church…” She fanned herself and swooned.
“ITO! We never made out in the church!”
“Oooo Where did you usually make out then?”
“RURI!”
She caught Hifumi’s glower and winked. “Kidding, I was trying to lighten the mood, Geez. I remember. He was on probation for assault. Never thought you of all people would be into bad boys.”
“He wasn’t…”
“Yes, yes. I remember.” She waved her off. “He was innocent. Victim of a corrupt system. It’s been proven in court. Etc. Etc. I still don’t get how him NOT having problems back home is bad, though.”
Hifumi sighed and stopped before gesturing to the bench on the edge of the school courtyard. Her friend regarded her suspiciously and sat.
“It’s not that he’s not having problems, Ruri. It’s that he is, and he doesn’t seem to CARE.”
Ruri looked at her in confusion.
“I’m still not following. Spell it out for me.”
The girl sat next to her and frowned sadly at the ground.
“The town doesn’t care that he’s innocent. They still treat him like a thug. He can’t get a part time job, the school won’t let him join clubs. Most of the stores in town barely serve him. He’s in a worse position there than he ever was in Tokyo.”
Ruri patted her hand in sympathy.
“Ouch, Rough. I can see why that would worry him.”
Hifumi pouted.
“That’s just it!” She frowned down at her watch. “It DOESN’T!”
She stood and began pacing back and forth in front of the bench.
“He couldn’t get a job in town. So he’s working from home, doing things remotely. They won’t let him join a club. He shrugs it off. He can’t shop in town, he orders online and through it all…”
She turned to the confused girl in the glasses.
“He just keeps LAUGHING at them!”
Her friend pinched the bridge of her nose.
“Sounds like he’s handling it pretty well then.” She watched Hifumi pace back and forth. “Togo, do you NEED him to be miserable?”
Hifumi spun round to face her.
“I NEED HIM TO BE SANE! He spent most of last year with everyone out to get him, he got in SO MUCH TROUBLE, but he never stopped caring. Now he’s back out in some town that’s just a speck on the map, hours from his friends, from ME! He’s out there alone with just that cat of his for company and everyone against him and he’s and he’s acting like he doesn’t notice! He’s not allowed to go crazy out there, Ruri! I NEED HIM BACK!”
Ruri sighed and then patted the girl’s shoulder.
“Dawww, look at you all worried about him. You really do have it bad, don’t you?”
Hifumi blushed and turned away.
Ruri smiled in response.
“Hifumi, I haven’t spoken to your prince charming much, since you keep chasing me off.” She grinned. “But I don’t think he’s the kind of person to fold under rumours. From what little you told me it didn’t happen in Tokyo, and I really doubt it’s going to happen now.
Hifumi still looked worried.
“But…”
The short girl cut her off.
“Listen up, Togo. What’s the one big difference between when he came to Tokyo and now?”
The girl looked at her startled, the bowed her head, thinking.
“They cleared his record?”
The girl shook her head in response.
“He has you.”
Hifumi stiffened.
“He has friends. He has a place to go back to. He’s not stuck with nothing and no-one on his side. I think all the small town people thinking he’s a villain doesn’t matter to him because there’s people.” She poked Hifumi in the shoulder. “That know he isn’t.”
The ghost of a smile flittered around Hifumi’s lips.
“So, no, I don’t think him not caring is an issue. Because I think what he’s doing is keeping his head down and behaving so he can get back to Tokyo for university and the two of you can get back to ‘Playing shogi’.” She mimed the air quotes.
Hifumi’s face briefly matched her hair ornament.
“What you should be worried about, Hifumi, is making sure he DOESN’T get himself in more trouble before the end of the year. Besides, he’s not just out there by himself. He’s with his parents, isn’t he? Maybe they’re just keeping him busy.”
“I’d like to see them try. His mother is a lovely person, but she’s no miracle worker. Ren is a magnet for trouble and I don’t trust that cat to keep him out of it.”
“He’s already introduced you to his parents?!” Ruri grinned.
“Not important right now.”
Ruri filed that one away to follow up later.
“Riiiight. Anyway, I’m sure they’re doing their best. At least all this explains why you’re so on edge.” The girl shook her head then smiled at her softly. “You’re worried he doesn’t need you.”
Hifumi froze and stared at her startled.
“How on earth did you come up with that?!”
“Because I’ve been playing against you for years, Hifumi, I know how you think. You said he always came to you to relax. The two of you gave each other breathing room when things were going wrong. You’re worried if nothing is wrong he won’t have to come to you.”
“That’s…” She trailed off frowning.
“And you’re an idiot, btw.”
The girl got to her feet.
“You, Hifumi Togo play too much Shogi. Real life isn’t like that! You’re not responsible for EVERY move! I swear, you spend so much time in your own head you blow everything out of proportion.”
She spun and poked Hifumi in the chest.
“Did it occur to you to talk to Amamiya about this? Did you consider telling HIM you’re worried? That you’re lonely? That you miss him? Dear god, if you’re really that worried about him being out there by himself undo your top button and send him a photo. He’d be outside your door before you could blink!”
Hifumi stared at her, mouth agape.
“You think he only comes to you when he needs to relax? I’VE PLAYED SHOGI AGAINST YOU! It’s not that relaxing, space-case! You keep getting excited and shouting about dragons out of nowhere! I need to wind down after we play! He wasn’t coming to you to relax, Hifumi. He was spending time with this cute weirdo he was interested in! Dear god. At least you talked to me about it before you worked yourself up to some big crazy plan… to…”
She trailed off as she caught sight of Hifumi’s face.
“Uh oh. I know that look. What have you got planned?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Hifumi glanced down at her watch.
“Hifumi, what have you done?”
The girl refused to meet her eyes.
“Nothing, yet.”
She glanced at her watch again.
“Why do you keep looking at your watch, Togo?”
The girl dragged her eyes up from the timepiece realising what she’d been doing. She tried to look innocent.
“No reason.”
Like hell… Hifumi was pretty easy to read when it wasn’t about shogi. Watch meant timeline. Timeline meant…
Realisation dawned in her face as she looked at the time.
“Hifumi. This is Ren’s school, isn’t it?”
“Um…”
“I KNEW YOU WERE UP TO SOMETHING! HIFUMI!”
The sound of the school bell interrupted her as the students left their last class of the day and began heading out to clubs and a familiar figure with messy black hair walked out of the door and crossed the courtyard to sit under a tree, followed by a couple of other boys.
Hifumi tensed as she saw him, If he had been alone Ruri had a feeling she would already have been halfway across the courtyard.
“C’mon Amamiya. It’s one mixer. I told you chicks dig bad boys.” The shorter of the two boys said.
“I’m busy.”
“Told you Sato. He’s isn’t interested, he’s got that girl in Tokyo.” The other boy chipped in.
“Tokyo is a long way off, and she can’t be that hot! Besides, she’s probably found someone else by now anyway.”
Ren, in the meantime, had taken a seat and carefully pulled a book from his bag and began reading, ignoring them.
The first boy turned back to him.
“Dude, Takaguchi digs you. You’d be IN! Help a man out!”
“She’s not my type.” Ren didn’t look up from his book.
“She’s HERE! Your girl isn’t! She’d never know! Live a little.”
Ruri was slowly becoming aware she was standing next to his girl, that she was in fact very much here, and VERY unamused with the suggestion. She fought down the urge to step away from her friend just in case.
“Ruri, hold my bag.”
Ito turned to her friend, her eyes widening as she caught sight of the expression on her face. It was a moment that demanded some sort of glowing aura of flames. Sadly the special effects budget wouldn’t stretch to that.
“Am I about to be an accessory to something?” She reached out and took the bag Hifumi held out to her.
Hifumi didn’t turn to face her.
“Sometimes, Ruri, You just have to commit to a strategy, and deal with the fallout later. Wish me luck.”
She took a deep breath. Straightened her ribbon and turned to walk across the courtyard.
The girl watched her walk away, wincing.
“Knock him dead, Togo.”
“C’mon. Amamiya. It’s ONE mixer. Help me out.”
Ren still didn’t look up.
“I have plans.”
“What plans?! You just go straight home! You can’t be THAT busy…”
“Well he clearly doesn’t have time to play shogi.” A girl’s voice cut in.
Ren froze at the sound of the voice. His book dropping from his hands.
The two boys standing next to him turned to look at the newcomer.
“I thought, with him here, your shogi club would have given us a challenge. Sadly not.”
“Well hello miss...? Amamiya, who’s your friend?”
“And is she single?” Sato asked hopefully.
Ren still hadn’t moved, except to very deliberately pinch his cheek and wince.
Then he stood slowly and faced her.
“Togo-san, what an unexpected surprise.”
There was a startled noise from the bag he’d left on the ground, he tapped it with his foot.
“I have to say I’m disappointed Amamiya. I would have thought you’d at least TOLD them you’re innocent. I understand you’re a private person. But everyone here seems to still think you’re a thug.”
Ren watched her, his eyes unreadable. Trying to see where his girlfriend was heading.
“Unless you’ve been causing fresh trouble since you came back, of course. I’d be disappointed if you were. I was rather looking forward to resuming our games when you came back to Tokyo. I’m still having trouble finding decent players to test myself against.”
Ren arched an eyebrow at her but his eyes softened.
“We’ve discussed this. Don’t worry, I’ll be back in Tokyo before you know it.”
“I’m holding you to that.”
“Don’t worry, Togo-san. It won’t be long and you can stop terrorising school shogi clubs as a hobby.”
Hifumi frowned at him.
“We didn’t terrorise them, they simply refused to supply a challenge. I’m not very impressed by this town overall. Honestly, you should just come back to Tokyo and finish your last year off there. ”
Her lip quivered.
“I mean…”
“I’ve missed you too, Star.”
Hifumi froze. Then she blinked, took two big steps forward, grabbed his collar, dragging his head down, and kissed him.
There was an excited mutter from the small crowd of students who’d stopped to look on at the show. On the edge of the courtyard Ruri buried her face in her hands.
“Looks she’s taken, Sato.”
Sato stared at the couple who had not yet come up for air.
“Uh, I guess she is that hot. Damn.”
“THAT WAS YOUR PLAN?!”
The two Kosei students were perched on the fence, just outside the grounds of the school.
“Not exactly… I may have improvised a little. It was mostly the same effect though. It established his credentials with the shogi club, showing that he’s my student and I respect how he plays. It shows how silly they’ve been and it gave them something to gossip about other than his record.”
Ruri shot her a sharp look.
“And it told all the girls he’s taken in case they get any ideas…”
“That’s incidental.” Hifumi looked smug.
“Sure it is. On the plus side he didn’t push you off when you tackled him so he’s not that angry. Buuuut I’m not sure I would have gone with embarrassing the hell out of him in front of the entire school, myself.”
Hifumi looked worried.
“Too much?”
Ruri buried her face in her hands and groaned.
“YES TOO MUCH! THEY ASKED US TO LEAVE THE PREMISES! Dear god Space-case! You just could have called, told him you’re lonely and sounded pathetic! It would have taken TWO SECONDS! Miyani-sensei is going to have KITTENS when she hears about this!”
“If it helps, you can blame it on me. Everyone else will.”
Ren walked through the school gate with his bag slung over his shoulder and smiled.
“Yo, Amamiya.” Ruri looked at him trying to spot what had changed since she last saw him. “You get contacts?”
Ren laughed and shook his head.
“The glasses weren’t real. All part of my cunning disguise.” He wiggled his fingers at her.
The girl regarded him with a cocked eyebrow.
“Huh, well then, Clark Kent, You sure you want to date Hifumi? I think she’s faulty.” She shot a grumpy look at her friend.
“Ruri!”
“Well I think she’s scared off all my other prospects by now so I’m stuck with her.”
He raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend who tried to be inconspicuous.
“On top of adding ‘Prior warning of visitors’ and ‘Acceptable Standards of behaviour’ to the long list of things I have to follow or they’ll expel me. Again.”
“Nice. I’ll leave you to explain to the space-case why that was all unnecessary, then? I need to grab a souvenir for my sister. Anywhere you recommend?” Ruri swung her bag onto her shoulder.
Ren rubbed his chin in thought.
There’s a textile shop in the main shopping district. They have some nice handcrafts there. I can show you the way.”
Ruri held up a hand and stopped him.
“Nope, just directions are fine. You need to disarm that disaster there before she goes off again. I’ll find it.”
“Ruri!”
“I don’t want an encore, Hifumi. I plan on graduating this year!”
“Morgana can show you the way if you like?”
Ruri looked to Ren in confusion.
“Who’s Morgana?”
There was a muffled meow from his bag.
Hifumi looked at it, startled.
“REN! You AREN’T STILL…”
A black and white cat popped out of the bag and gave Hifumi a smug look.
She sighed then rubbed the cat’s ears.
“I’ve missed you as well, Morgana.” She then gave her boyfriend a questioning look. “Ren, why are you still bringing him to school?”
“He gets lonely.”
The cat glowered at him. He smirked.
Ruri took in the exchange and stared at the cat, baffled.
“You have a cat in your bag? Is that… Is it always in there?”
Ren shrugged.
“He, and usually. The gravel hurts his paws. Morgana, can you show Ito-san the way to the textile shop near the shrine?”
The cat meowed at him, looking pained.
“Well don’t let him see you then, besides, you’re faster than him. Run if you don’t want him to pet you. Remember you still owe me.”
The cat hissed in response.
Ren narrowed his eyes.
“Two.”
Ruri watched this exchange in confusion as her friend’s boyfriend and his cat apparently began arguing. She leant over to Hifumi without taking her eyes off the sight.
“Hifumi, is he negotiating with his cat?”
Hifumi shrugged at her.
Another loud hiss came from the aggrieved cat.
“Three, last offer.”
The cat nodded, then jumped off his shoulder and landed on the street, then turned at looked at Ito, waiting.
“I see what you meant about the cat, Hifumi. Can you understand him too?”
The cat turned to Hifumi and gave her a nasty look.
“Not in so many words, but he has a way of getting his point across… and he doesn’t like being reminded he’s a cat.” There was a hiss from Morgana.” The feeling is mutual, Morgana.”
The cat rolled its eyes and then headed off down the street with a confused girl in pursuit.
“So…” Ruri could be heard asking as she walked away. “Are you a magic talking cat?”
Morgana meowed in response.
“Does that make Amamiya a Magic girl, or is he, like, the cat whisperer?”
The cat proceeded to ignore her.
Ren watched them head off then shook his head.
“You’re going to have fun explaining that one, try and keep my part time job out of it.. Right then.” Ren Turned to his girlfriend and raised an eyebrow. “Did your plan for getting me in trouble extend to what to do after they kicked us out of the school?”
“I didn’t PLAN on getting kicked out. That just happened.” Hifumi said primly.
“And the day you don’t have a backup plan to your main gambit is the day I beat you. So…” He looked sidelong at her.
She smiled back impishly.
“Well I did want to see that lookout you mentioned. Maybe the fishing spot near the floodplains? Perhaps that shopping district? I’m sure you can come up with some way to entertain a visitor?” Her eyes lit up as the list grew longer.
He held up his hands to slow the avalanche.
“Whoa there! That’s a lot of places, Star. That will take some time. First, how long do I get the pleasure of your company this afternoon before I need to get you back to the inn?”
“You don’t need to, I’m not staying at the inn. I just have to be back there before nine tomorrow to catch the bus back to Tokyo with the rest of the team.” Hifumi picked up her bag and smiled at him. “I’m staying with a friend of the family tonight.”
He looked at her in surprise.
“You never told me you knew anyone except me out here! Who is it?”
“Nozomi…” Hifumi brushed her hair behind her ear and tried to be subtle. “Amamiya…”
Ren stopped dead.
“My mother is in on this?”
“It’s like you’re not used to me outplaying you, General Amamiya, have you forgotten our games already?”
He laughed at the mischievous look on her face and laced his fingers with hers.
“I knew she was up to something. Well, while I come up with a plan to deal with the two of you, you can tell me how your tournament went. Unless of course you want to show off in front of any more students first?”
A brief calculating look washed across his girlfriends face.
“That depends… is that Takaguchi girl still around? I’d rather like you to introduce me.”
Ren smiled.
“I doubt it, I think she went home after her crushing defeat earlier.”
Hifumi looked at him raising an eyebrow in question, he winked.
“She’s the captain of the school Shogi team.”
Her lips twitched as she fought down her urge to laugh.
“Then apparently I won BOTH of my matches with her today.”