Chapter Text
Ayano Aishi did not care about anything.
Everyone else cared. Even her family cared, in their own strange, disturbing little way. She still remembers when her mother told her about her Senpai. About a kind boy who would bring an explosion of light and color into her life, and everything would finally make sense.
To her mother's abject horror, she said it sounded dreadful.
Ayano Aishi did not want to feel emotions, or see color. She did not want to be flashbanged by a stranger and experience a number of things she could never understand all at once. It would be miserable. It would be messy. It would be inefficient.
Efficiency was the closest thing to anything she could care about. She had no emotional attachment to it, nor any true need to engage in it. It was simply logical. It made sense. In a world of gray, you rely on the black and white. Efficiency is objectively good. She understood objectivity. And that's how she remained. Meticulously organizing everything she owned. Planning out every meal to maximize nutrition and consumption speed. She did not care how her things looked, or how her food felt or tasted. She had no preferences. She did what fit.
Her mother would always tell her that she would change her mind someday. A 'curse', she called it. Ayano preferred to call it a condition, because, objectively speaking, that was what it was. The patterns, the irregularities, the almost supernatural aspects of it… they were rogue variables and outliers to be ignored. She had a hereditary mental condition that prevented her from experiencing emotions. She liked that. Feelings were subjective, and moved things around when you weren't looking. Unnecessary. Obnoxious. Her other relatives (sans her great-great-grandmother, for whatever reason) had already given up on her, calling her disabled, broken, and other words polite society would not repeat. Good. Their nagging was an obstruction.
Every other Aishi desperately longed to be someone else, but there is no one Ayano Aishi would rather be than herself.
Of course, she wasn't infallible. Sometimes, things don't go to plan- which is of course why she found herself standing behind a tree in the school's inner courtyard, watching a girl with garish orange twintails berate a boy with the personality of white bread.
"Senpai, you always keep me waiting!" Osana Najimi huffed, stomping her foot. Ayano didn't bother to listen to the other boy's response, because it was negligible. His name was Taro Yamada, but she simply called him 'pet rock boy', because you could replace him with a rock and nothing would change. "Ugh, you do this every day!"
Ayano's brow furrowed, and she forced herself to look away. She wanted to think about something else. A distraction. A system shock to return to full efficiency. 'My bookshelf is color-coded by genre, then organized by size from largest to smallest, left to right. Please and thank you are necessary to avoid irritation, but you're welcome can be replaced with a nod. The incinerator behind the school takes an hour to finish cycling. Osana Najimi is commonly associated with the color orange, but her favorites are salmon and persimmon pink…' she trails off mentally, shaking her head in frustration. 'Dammit.'
She swiveled around the tree again, but she couldn't put her head out too far. The Goldendoodle was on the prowl; Raibaru Fumetsu, martial arts extraoirdinaire and amateur stalker lurked at the tree opposite, watching her owner like a hawk. Technically, she's more like a Chihuahua/Italian Greyhound mix- she has the cutesy appearance and aggressive demeanor of the former, the hunting skills and loyalty of the latter, and legs longer than her torso like the mix- but Goldendoodle feels more insulting, so it's what Ayano goes with.
"I can't hear a thing," the much better trained stalker (although Raibaru was most certainly well-trained in a different sense) hissed under her breath. Swiftly, quietly, she snuck her way up the tree trunk and into the cover of the branches. Osana wasn't discussing anything interesting anyway, of course. Why was she so invested in this again?
Ah, yes. Seven days ago. Monday of the first week of the school year. The first week was a unique one, with no actual classes- just time to get integrated into the environment, meet your teachers, join clubs and learn your schedule. Ayano, of course, had taken that last one to its most efficient conclusion- she would learn everyone's schedules. They'd obviously change once classes started, but if she ever needed to find someone for one reason or another, she'd at least have a rough idea of where they might be, which significantly reduced the amount of time spent searching random places or having unnecessary conversations. It was a brilliant idea, if she did say so herself.
Naturally, that meant heading to places where people normally wouldn't be, because knowing what places people avoid is useful too. She had no immediate plans to use most of the heinous things her mother had taught her, but if push came to shove and her efficiency was at risk, she'd do what she needed to, and deserted spots with a low chance of witnesses would do the trick. It was in one of those places- sitting against the rocks behind the Confession Tree's hill, north of the building- that she found none other than Najimi-san, bawling her eyes out.
Ayano had seen girls cry, of course. Plenty of times. Mostly as a child, sometimes because of her- it wasn't her fault they didn't like her face, or her voice, or the way that she walked, but they certainly seemed to think so. Regardless, it was nothing of note, something she quickly learned to tune out and avoid. This time should've been the same. It really should've. The momentary pause Ayano took to assess the situation should've been all she did before moving on… but then the girl spoke.
"I ruined it… I totally blew it all…" Najimi whimpered, sniffling unhygenically. "I was totally keeping it together! But that stupid vending machine ate my money, and I just HAD to kick it in front of everyone, and…!" she trailed off, wailing. "I'm such an idiot. Nobody likes me anyway. I'm just… stupid, aggressive Osana. Why can't I just be normal? Why can't I just treat people right? Why do I always push everyone away?!" Unable to hold in her tears, she curled into herself, shuddering.
Ayano stared quietly at the messy, emotional scene in front of her. It appeared she was wrong about her. Najimi-san was more than 'stupid, aggressive Osana,' as she put it. She was an abandoned church, it seemed, with no priest and no mass. A pretty exterior, with lovely stained glass windows that glittered in the sunlight. Everyone could see the designs on the glass, the colorful iconography showing a life once lived. But Ayano had just seen inside. She looked not at the window, but through it- and within those once-hallowed halls, there was a girl, lost and alone, sitting on shabby chairs and hoping to god she wouldn't be kicked out for squatting. It was not just a pretty building. It was occupied, and through sheer coincidence, she was made privy of this rare, unexpected knowledge.
'Interesting,' she thought, and then, '…is it?' She supposed things could be interesting. It was impossible to ignore that people were unique from others, after all. You see someone, you learn who they are, and even if they don't matter, that graphic tee or nasty scar is different, so for a moment, your brain focuses on it. This, too, would pass in a moment, shoved to a dark, musty corner of her brain with all the other information that had no objective purpose to grow cobwebs and mildew and make her regret having a basement. That was that, or so she thought.
But then she kept noticing. Osana was there, and she would realize that she was there, and she would look at her, even if only for a moment. There was not a reason for it. If she tried to ask herself for one, she would once again conclude that Osana is interesting. 'But why does that matter?' she questioned. 'Never once has anything interesting been enough to occupy my mind like this before.' This was not the other kind of interesting- or, perhaps, the other kind wasn't interesting at all. Just different. Many people would categorize such things as interesting, but to Ayano, that did not mean that they were.
So Osana Najimi was interesting. Very, very mildly interesting. To anyone else, it would be a single droplet in a water tower-size tank of feelings- something to consider for a moment or two before thinking about something else, if they even noticed at all- but to a girl like Ayano, whose most passionate wish was to live to see a future where every individual hex code color has a standardized name, it was new. It was subjective. She had never had that before.
For the rest of the week, half of her time was of course dedicated to what she had planned, picking up where people went and when, determining which places were safe and at what times of day. But the other half, regretfully, was dedicated to Osana. Learning about Osana. Studying Osana. Trying to read her like a book, for answers not only on her, but on Ayano herself. On why she mattered at all. She wanted to know why this, this childish, petulant, more-than-meets-the-eye girl, was the hill her brain chose to die on. Efficiency was dead, and Osana had killed it.
It was annoying. Annoying, annoying, annoying. She tried to get rid of it, but it quickly became clear that anything short of reconstructive brain surgery wouldn't remove the Najimi-shaped parasite from her conscious- that didn't stop her from continuing to try every so often, but considering how dreadfully inefficient it felt to repeat the same tasks with no results, it slowed down. She was stuck with it… and so, reluctantly, she began to cling to it. Sure, it was a pain, but compared to the alternative of an existential stun grenade, it was small. It was something that wouldn't take over her entire life. Ayano still lived for herself, even if what herself wanted was occasionally irrational and peculiar in target.
"H-hey, Senpai…" Osana mumbled in an unusually shy fashion, snapping her surveyor back to the present as she rubbed uncomfortably at the back of her neck. "Is it just me, or it kind of feel like we're being watched…?"
Ayano's eyes widened slightly in an uncharacteristic display of surprise. She had… detected her, even only slightly. "Uh… I don't feel anything abnormal," pet rock boy muttered with a slight raise of one eyebrow, confirming her suspicions. She wasn't being obvious- not that she had any doubt about that anyway, but still- Osana was just paying attention.
"She's more perceptive than she looks," she growled, low and quiet, flattening down against the branch like a panther- she wouldn't want Osana to see her, nor Raibaru, who began fiercely scanning the area at that unnerved declaration. This was another layer added onto the extraordinary depth of the twintailed menace, another piece to pull apart and study. If she was stuck with this interest, she was going to do it right. Objectively right. Her gaze studied every inch of the girl's face and body, categorizing every little twitch and shift in expression and demeanor. She pulled out her notebook, beginning to frantically scrawl in what looked like scribbles to everyone else, but made complete sense to her, because people finding and questioning her extensive notes on the people around her was inefficient.
The glorified rock shook his head gently. "Anyway, would you like to hear about the book I'm reading?" Her pen stopped.
"Ehh?! Sure, Senpai- but it'd better be interesting!" Osana boisterously responded. "Well, if you're reading it, it probably is…" she added, more softly, turned away. Taro probably didn't hear a word of it, nor see the blush on her cheeks… but Ayano most certainly did. Her brow furrowed. 'What? No. Go back to talking about me. This is thoroughly uninteresting.'
Unfortunately, her psychic urging was no match for the sheer, unabashed density of Taro "The Rock" Yamada, and he began to ramble on about some classic literature- one that probably contained zero practically useful information and went on and on about curtains for paragraphs on end, by Ayano's assumptions- while Osana asked vaguely relevant questions that probably were just to appease her childhood friend. She frowned, defeated- she knew very well there was no stopping this flood of drivel, short of muddying the waters with her own involvement, which would of course be no good. She let out a soft sigh as the bell rang, and the two got up, beginning to walk to class together, knowing they would have to split up soon enough. 'That boy is a problem.' Most people weren't interesting, but this one was actively uninteresting, and now he was intruding on her one interest. 'At least that Raibaru is tangentially interesting, considering her relationship to Osana…' she thought as she slipped down from the boughs, sliding down the trunk…
"Hey! You!"
…only to be met by the sight of a rather suspicious Raibaru Fumetsu, arms crossed and lips curled downwards. 'Speak of the Doodle…'
"Why were you watching my friend like that? That's kind of weird, you know…" the puppy growled, sporting an expression that told her it was more than just 'weird'.
Ayano stood her ground, unintimidated- she couldn't feel fear, after all. She knew it was logical not to start a fight, of course- she may be a small breed, but Raibaru bites like a German Shepard, or so she's heard- so she decided to push back. Look normal. "Why were you watching her like that, Fumetsu-san? Did she know you were there? If she knew you were watching, why would you need to hide?" she pressed in return, a practiced look of suspicion being mirrored on her own visage.
"Wh- that's not the point! She's my friend, I have to keep her safe from weirdoes like you!" the spunky mutt stammered, not expecting to be put on the back paw by an off-putting stranger.
"You wound me. Did Najimi-san tell you to tail her like a guard dog, or did you decide to do it without asking if it's what she wanted?" Raibaru winced. Jackpot. She had a feeling this arrangement was dreadfully one-sided.
"I… that's… who do you think you are, huh?! Talking to me like that…" she snarled, nervously shrinking into herself like a stray left in the rain.
"Ayano Aishi," she responded bluntly. "We should get to class." She turned towards the doors, beginning to walk regardless of the protests from behind her.
"Hey! You can't just go! I'm not done talking to you, Aishi-san!" Raibaru barked, jogging after her in confusion and offense. "If you think you can just brush me off like that, you've got another thing coming!"
"I'm not losing my perfect attendance this early in the school year for the sake of a single hopeless hound," the stoic girl bit back with a vengeance. "I'll speak to you once I don't have more important responsibilities. See you after class, Goldendoodle."
"…Goldendoodle?" the martial artist repeated in an appalled murmur, momentarily frozen in place by the sheer audacity of the nickname before remembering she needed to get to class as well. "I- fine, but I'm holding you to that!"
Class went as usual. Ayano carefully unpacked her meticulously organized school bag, in which everything was stacked in the proper order and each pen and pencil had its own pocket, so rigorously separated that she could navigate the entire thing blindfolded. She got out everything she'd need according to the syllabus, nothing more and nothing less, arranged them optimally on her desk, and began to write notes. Not just on the lecture, but on her surroundings; specifically, her classmates. While she was intimately familiar with her classmates in her previous school, not all of them transferred over, and none of the ones who did ended up in Class 2-1. She already had vague knowledge of Riku Somatomo and Daku Atsuzawa, and was unfortunately familiar with Hana Daidaiyama, but the rest were relatively new to her.
Even as she worked, though, she could feel Raibaru's eyes boring into the side of her head the entire time. She was delightfully unsubtle about it as well- her head was halfway turned towards Ayano and her body slightly leaned towards her, whereas Ayano herself obviously knew you should keep your head straight and only move your eyes to avoid drawing attention. It wasn't… distracting, persay, merely a variable she had no particular place for. Perhaps some people would question what the glaring was all about, but not enough of them to lower her reputation to an inefficient level. Osana certainly didn't care, whispering away at her pup and barely acknowledging that her mind was elsewhere.
"Hey, what are you writing?" Raibaru hissed, eyes narrowed, gazing in suspicious confusion at the incomprehensible script upon her page- Osana was momentarily preoccupied, scratching her head at a math problem that, in reality, wasn't particularly difficult.
"None of your business, Fumetsu-san. Please let me finish my classwork in peace." That shut her up, even if she clearly didn't like it one bit, a momentary look of indignation crossing her face before being covered up by a shaky, cheery grin as her bestie asked her for help.
The moment the bell rang for lunch, the pigtailed pooch waved her friend off, saying she'd catch up with her in a minute, and immediately turned on Ayano. "Alright. Class is over. Let's chat," she snapped, tapping her foot impatiently.
"Not here," Ayano responded, turning to head for the door. "There's no such thing as a private conversation in front of the orange blossom," she added at the sight of Raibaru's face wrinkling up.
"Aww, Yan-chan, you're no funnn!" Hana pouted, startling the peach-haired girl opposite. "Whatever, I'll let you two lovebirds yap, or whatever~…" she drawled dramatically, heading out of the classroom to join the throng of students- but not before quickly taking a picture of Ayano from the doorway, and then rolling her eyes at the girl's continued rivalry with photogenicism. Ayano 32, looking good in pictures 0.
"…you know her?"
"Regrettably. That is irrelevant to our discussion."
"Um, right, yeah," Raibaru agreed, shaking off the surprise and shifting back into attack (dog) mode. "So, why were you watching Osana? And don't try to deflect this time."
"I was studying her." A vague truth. She'd lie if she had to, but a factual statement that merely didn't give anything away would almost always be more efficient. "I find her interesting."
"Studying her. Because she's interesting," Raibaru repeated, her face dunked in a bucketful of incredulous disdain. "You know, coming from someone as strange as you, I almost believe it. What exactly does this 'study' entail, exactly?"
"Observation, mostly." At the further narrowing of her eyes, Ayano added, "I have no intention of hurting her, Fumetsu-san. It would sabotage my own study."
Raibaru clutched her forehead, growling. "Ugh, the way you talk is giving me a headache. Just… just quit being such a weirdo, okay?"
"I could say the same to you. You're too conspicuous."
She raised one finger, prepared to make a retort, then faltered. "I-… what?"
"It means you're obvious," Ayano insisted. "When watching others, whether it's Najimi-san or myself, you make no effort to conceal what you're doing. It's marginally better than being visibly paranoid, but will still read as strange to the people around you."
"Well, I mean-" the shorter girl sputtered, clearly not having expected a lecture on her people-watching habits. "Why do you know so much about this?! And… what would you even say I should do, anyway?"
Ayano shrugged. "Learn how to hide in plain sight. Look natural enough that people barely notice you even when you're doing something that would be questionable on a second glance. Figure out how to blend in with the crowd."
"That's… pretty good advice, I guess," Raibaru mumbled, unable to find a proper rebuttal. "Well, I need to get to lunch before Osana gets worried. You'd better keep your word about not hurting her!"
"Of course." Without another word, Ayano took off for the roof at a brisk, efficient pace, weaving through the hallways with a practiced ease. Most didn't take much notice of her- the few who did barely spared a glance, only several of them bothering to quickly look away, and Kumi Demura gave a lazy wave as she passed the library.
"Hey, wait, where are you going?" Raibaru called after her, struggling to keep up with her gait. Ayano easily sidestepped Shiromi Torayoshi's outstepped foot, but the martial artist wasn't so lucky, faceplanting in the crowded hallway as the culprit skittered off like the jubilant gremlin she was. Sure enough, though, only a few seconds later, Ayano could see those peachy-blonde pigtails bobbing doggedly after her. "You're not going to watch them, are you? I told you not to be a weirdo!" she hissed, frustrated and rubbing her slightly sore snout.
"You did tell me that. You will note that I never agreed to it," Ayano pointed out as she pulled open the door to the stairwell and began taking the steps two at a time. "I will not alarm them. I merely intend to observe, as usual."
"Ughhh, you're like some kind of… really deadpan genie," Raibaru griped as she followed her out onto the rooftop, looking around. "Oh, she's right over there, on that bench," she pointed out, preparing to head over, before-
"Really, Fumetsu-san?" Ayano tugged on her arm, pulling her over to sit against the wall nearby. "This is not a cartoon. Poking your head around the corner like that is incredibly visible to everyone around. Also, it's bad for your posture."
"Don't just grab me like that!" she snapped back, yanking her sleeve out of the deadpan genie's grip. "And my posture is just fine, thank you very much."
"It won't be if you keep doing that."
"Well, I didn't ask for your input!" She paused as Ayano reached into her bag without looking and pulled out a protein bar and granola bar. "…is that all you're eating?"
"It is sufficient in terms of nutrition and energy," Ayano replied simply, unwrapping both and sticking the former in the latter's wrapper so she could bite into both at the same time.
"I guess… I mean, granola bars aren't bad, I'm a fan of them myself, but… I don't think I've ever met someone who likes the taste of protein bars before."
"I do not like the taste." She takes another bite, chewing and swallowing in perfect rhythm. "I am ambivalent towards it. It sustains me, and so I consume it."
"…okay," Raibaru replied, unsure how to respond to such a peculiar statement. "Well. I would say I hope you enjoy it… but I get the feeling you aren't going to feel any particular way about it," she murmured, pulling out her own lunch of grilled salmon and wasabi peas.
"You catch on quickly. An admirable trait. It will serve you well in the future."
"Uh… thanks, Aishi-san," she responded, genuinely caught off-guard by the compliment, irregular and slightly ominous as it was. 'She really is an enigma. I want to trust her, but she's so strange… I just can't get a good read on her.'
"Call me Yan-chan," Ayano insisted, pulling out her notebook.
"I… guess I can if you really want." Raibaru leaned over to peer at her as she worked. "Writing more scribblies?"
"I suppose that's one way to describe art," the solemner of the two deadpanned, beginning to sketch Osana, watching as she kicked her legs and waited for her dull companion to arrive. To the peppy pupper's surprise, it actually looked quite good- Ayano had a natural talent for the animesque style. It occurred to her that this was probably more of a sketchbook than a notebook- the 'notes', if that's what they even were, were secondary to the drawings.
"That… actually looks really good," she murmured, popping a few peas in her mouth and crunching on them. "You must practice a lot… Yan-chan."
"I do. I see no inherent value in art itself, aside from the entertainment it brings to some, but the act of sketching is very convenient." She added a few extra details to Osana's eyes, making them shine with a light Raibaru had never quite caught onto. "Despite how often it's recommended as an activity, sitting down and doing nothing is often considered suspicious or weird- surely, if they can't see you doing anything in particular, that must mean you're doing something they're not aware of." She erased and redrew one of the twintails several times, attempting to make it look suitably dynamic. "By drawing, I establish an activity I'm publically engaging in, meaning my gaze is nothing to be followed, and I can work in peace."
"I see. You sure think a lot about other people being suspicious of you… it sounds kind of paranoid, honestly," Raibaru suggested, scratching her head. "Have you always been like that?"
"It is a learned behavior. People generally consider my inscrutable countenance unnatural, and I have to actively work to counteract that- otherwise I risk facing bullying, as I did when I was younger. I don't particularly care about being harassed or insulted- other people's input is generally irrelevant to me- but time spent being bullied is time that could otherwise be spent doing things that actually matter, so I try to avoid it."
"You have… a very unique perspective," Raibaru said thoughtfully, chewing on a slice of salmon. "Ah, looks like Taro-kun is here!"
"Lovely," Ayano groaned sarcastically, posture unconsciously slumping. "And with that, my investigation ceases for the time being."
"Wait, what? But he just got here!" Raibaru hissed, taken aback.
"I'm finished eating, and there is nothing of interest to be observed when she's around that boy- so I'll take my leave." The artist snapped her sketchbook shut and carefully slid it back into her bag in the exact point in the stack at which it belonged. "Good day, Fumetsu-san."
"H-hey, wait! Don't just bow at me and leave!" Raibaru grabbed at the retreating analyst's skirt in fashion not unlike a rambunctious labrador biting and tugging at her owner's curtains. "What do you mean, 'nothing of interest'? They're in love! Isn't that interesting?"
Ayano blinked for a moment, stunned that someone could, from her perspective, be so utterly moronic. "Fine. Watch with me." She crouched back down, grabbing the other girl's shoulders to spin her back around. "Tell me what you see."
As Raibaru cautiously peered over at her friend, Osana visibly perked up at the sight of Taro arriving, before awkwardly suppressing it. "It's about time, Senpai! What took you so long?"
"Sorry about the holdup… class got kind of rambunctious. Zametora-san was trying to get a reaction out of Tsubaraya-san again, and Shibakoya-san made a sarcastic comment under her breath, and then Zametora-san tried to pick a fight with her. We ended up having to stay late while Kanokogi-sensei ranted about how 'uncouth we were'. I'm never getting the cigarette smell out of my hair, am I…" Taro said with a sigh, rubbing his neck.
"Eh? She rants? I thought you said Kanokogi-sensei, like, doesn't care about anything."
"I mean, she's still really detached about it, but she kind of rambles on in a really tired voice about whatever we're doing that's bugging her," he explained. "…and she pauses every half-sentence to smoke," he added with a grimace.
"…yikes. At least our teacher is just really strict… well, I guess you get a pass this time. Just, sit down already! And take a shower when you get home, geez…" Osana scolded, trying to hide the concern in her face and voice.
"Huh? Right, sure." He sat on the bench next to her, not even remotely noticing the blush that broke out on her cheeks at his proximity. "You could've started eating without me, you know. You shouldn't have to starve because I was running behind…"
"Wha-?! N-no way I'm gonna start without you, Senpai! We're supposed to be eating together, idiot! I'd look like a total loser eating alone!" she snapped. "Here, take this! I… made extra by accident, and I figured I might as well give it to you, s-since you'll eat pretty much anything!"
"Uh, thanks, I guess?" He took the bento, raising an eyebrow at the way she stared at him expectantly instead of digging in. "…why are you looking at me like that?"
"Eat it, dummy! I wanna know if you like it!" she snarled, before backpedaling immediately. "I mean, I want to know if it's good, or if I messed it up! I don't care if it fits your tastes! Dummy!"
"Ahaha, alright," he said, making a ceasing gesture with his hands before taking a bite. "Hmm…"
"…so? What do you think?" she mumbled, leaning in more than anyone without unspoken intentions would in this scenario.
"It's pretty good," he answered through a mouthful of rice. "Definitely better than last time, at least."
"Wh- don't bring that up! I thought I told you to forget about that?!" she yelped, scandalized.
"I could never forget about the feeling of burnt, crunchy rice in my mouth as you forcefed it to me before your mom could see," he teased. "I may not be a picky eater like you, but even I have my limits."
"Shut uuuup! Someone's gonna hear you!" she squeaked, slamming her hand over his mouth, before realizing what she was doing and pulling away. "You're so… I…" she stammered before huffing, turning away and crossing her arms, a scowl adorning her visage. "Just… eat the damn food, Senpai," she muttered darkly, downturned eyes scanning the rest of the roof. Raibaru flinched at the girl's gaze sweeping over her, but Ayano was unfazed, looking like she had no idea what was occurring nearby.
Taro raised an eyebrow at her response, but shrugged and continued eating in silence. Pleased by the lack of attention from strangers, but frustrated by her companion's unromanticness, Osana hunched over and started eating as well, stink-eyeing anyone who walked by.
"Well… that could've gone better, huh?" her wingwoman whispered, grimacing. "I did tell her she should just be honest about making it for him…" she muttered, before jumping slightly as she turned to see her comrade's eyes glazed over like a corpse. She had to slap a hand over her own mouth to keep in the 'Gah!' that nearly followed, feeling a strange sense of kinship with her tsundere friend.
"…eugh. So boring," the ponytail'd girl slurred in vague disgust. "He's like an anticatalyst. He stabilizes her intrigue into a stereotype."
"I… that's… you're kind of mean, Yan-chan."
"Look me in the eyes and tell me I'm wrong," she quietly retorted, and her eyes narrowed in subtle triumph at the way the other girl looked away. "I am interested in Najimi-san because she is highly reactive. There are a great number of facets to her personality that swivel and shift depending on her mood and situation. When he's around, the number of facets is reduced to one, and it's flat as a board. Just like him."
Raibaru had to take a moment to process just how opinionated that statement was. "Gosh, Yan-chan, that's… I guess you're not completely wrong, but it isn't a very nice thing to say. And if you're so bothered by it… then just, watch her when she's not around him."
"Believe me, I'm trying. But it seems like he's worming his way into every aspect of her school life- and she's actively letting him in. I can't stand it," Ayano drawled. "My ocean of fascination has been dried up into a shallow husk of a desert, and there's nothing I can do."
The Goldendoodle sighed, conflicted. "Okay… look. I'm still not sure if I can really trust you, and you really need to work on your filter, but… just this once, I'll get him away from her for a bit, okay? Don't do anything unwise, alright? I'll be keeping an eye on you."
"Seriously? You'd do that?" the stalker said, side-eyeing her suspiciously. "What are you asking in return?"
"That you behave yourself," Raibaru replied firmly. "After second period, I'll distract Taro-kun for a short while. That way you can… observe Osana to your heart's content, within reason."
"Brilliant. I appreciate it."
"And you promise you'll be good?"
"Yes." There was a strange intensity in Ayano's eyes that the other girl couldn't quite parse. "I swear upon my entire bloodline." She'd swear just about anything upon that, but peachykins had no way to know that. "Do we have a deal?" She held out her hand.
"…alright. I'll trust you. We have a deal." Raibaru took Ayano's hand in her own with a firm grasp that spoke of grappling practice and a muscled frame, and shook whole-heartedly. "Remember- I'm watching," she reminded her as the bell began to ring.
Ayano couldn't quite focus in class afterwards. The prospect of getting to percieve Osana without the imbecile's influence had her on the edge of her seat, to her own consternation. 'It's just a girl who's kind of interesting. Get it together and pay attention.' Raibaru, by contrast, seemed much less on edge, or was at least doing a good job of hiding it. Good. 'At least I'll show that meddling mutt she's got nothing to worry about… for now, anyway.' She furrowed her brow as she realized her hand had moved from encrypted notes to cutesy doodles of cats and Osana's head in the margins the moment she stopped paying attention. 'Dammit!'
The very instant the bell rang, she shot up out of her chair, startling several of her fellow students. Normally packing up at a rapid pace like this would seem vaguely suspicious, especially if it became a habit, but every once in a while, it'd be easy to pass off as normal excitement- or at least, that's how she rationalized it to herself, knowing deep down she'd damn well be doing it now either way. She ignored Fukahori-sensei's questioning stare and shoved Hana's phone out of her face as she hustled out of the room, the latter earning an amused huff from the delinquent in the back right corner she hadn't yet memorized the name of. Osana and Raibaru would be following behind soon enough, and for once in her life, she couldn't wait for a better reason than the inherent inefficiency of being idle.
"Someone's feeling hasty," Raibaru muttered dryly under her breath, one blonde eyebrow raised as she watched the girl rush to the door, shaking her head.
"Huh? What'd you say?" Osana asked, packing up her stuff.
"Oh, nothing important. C'mon, let's get to the plaza," the long-legged girl assured her with a soft smile, gently tugging on her arm. "You don't want to be late starting on cleaning, do you?"
"Ugh, no…" The twintailed menace shuddered, giving an aside glance to their teacher. "Nabatame-sensei was bad enough last year… why do I always have to get the stupidly strict teachers?"
"Better than a chainsmoker. I'd rather not get secondhand lung cancer, thanks."
"Yeahhh, you're right…" she grumbled, in a voice that said loud and clear that she wasn't pleased to admit it. "Anyway, I've got my stuff, let's just go." The two brightly-colored besties began ambling in the direction of the plaza, Osana's mood brightening at the thought of speaking to her childhood friend again. 'Okay, so maybe lunch didn't go great, but we can just chat now and forget that ever happened!' Spying the boy at the fountain, already wiping off the rim, she waved as she went to run in, only to be cut off by her best friend.
"Hey, Taro-kun! Mind if I talk with you while you work?" Raibaru called out, casually striding up to him and cocking her head. 'Sorry, Osana, but I made a deal…' she thought, resisting the urge to give her friend an apologetic glance.
"Huh? Oh, sure, Fumetsu-chan," the boy said, mildly surprised to see her taking initiative, but taking it in stride.
"Great! And you can call me Raibaru-chan, you know- Osana's such good friends with both of us, we might as well be familiar."
"Oh, sure. I guess that makes sense, haha."
"Great! So, I was thinking…" she began, squatting down to wipe along the fountain's side.
"I..." Osana started, before freezing, unsure how to respond to being cucked out of Senpai time so blatantly and unashamedly. 'I guess it must be something important if she has to chat with him now.' Awkwardly, she began to pick up trash and the like off the ground nearby, continually looking over at the others as they cleaned the fountain together.
"…and so I said, 'Sis, you have to learn to clean up after yourself! I can't help you with it all the time!'" Taro said, gesturing animatedly with his free arm as he spoke. "You wouldn't believe the tantrum she threw after that one, let me tell you…"
"Ahaha, Hanako-chan sounds like a real handful," Raibaru responded, giggling. It had only been a few minutes of chatter, and Taro was surprisingly- or perhaps unsurprisingly, given how simple he is- easy to talk to, and she found herself actually getting into the flow of the conversation. "I'd like to meet her at some point- do you think she'd like me?"
"Oh, I'm sure she'd love you. She's already obsessed with Osana, and she could definitely use you as a role model," he assured her, wiping the sweat from his brow. "Maybe later today, if you're not busy? She gets out of school before I do, so she's probably already waiting by the door to tackle me the instant I get home. I bet if she tried that on you, it'd be like trying to sack a brick wall."
"Heh, maybe…" Raibaru murmured, looking over her shoulder to check on Osana… who wasn't there. She did a double take, wondering if she had gone to grab cleaning supplies or something, before turning back to her conversational partner. "…hey, where'd Osana-chan go? Did you see her leave?"
"Huh? Oh, she's been gone for a bit. She just wandered off at some point, I think. Maybe she just got bored of picking up crap off the ground every day… or decided she was done cleaning and wanted to do something else, knowing her."
"R-right." Her eyes darted over the scenery, looking for any sign of the tsundere's return, but she was well and truly vanished. Ayano wasn't there either- she hadn't actually spotted the keen observer, but the mysterious girl's single-minded focus had a weight that settled in the air like a dense fog. The atmosphere was completely unburdened now, and it made her heart sink in her chest. 'Oh no… I should've been keeping a closer eye on her. I guess I'll just have to trust that Yan-chan will keep her word… she will, right?'
"Raibaru-chan? You okay?" Taro asked in concern, tapping her shoulder.
She jumped slightly, but shook her head. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just… got lost in thought for a moment. We were talking about your sister, right?" she insisted, trying to bring the conversation back to normal as not to worry him, even as her internal monologue ran a mile a minute. 'Don't do anything stupid, Yan-chan… for your sake and mine…'
Osana flounced through the halls with her arms crossed, aimlessly wandering east as she stewed in her own jealousy. 'It's not like I could just… hang around there while they're doing that! It's way too weird! Is this what Raibaru-chan feels like when I'm talking to Senpai? Maybe I need to cut her some more slack…' The school was alive with movement- people mopping the floors, wiping the windows, lugging trash bags around… she tossed what little she had picked up before meandering off in an entire trash can someone was carrying, and they flipped her off in return. 'Whatever. I'm not just gonna… walk around for the rest of the day. I gotta… go somewhere. Do something.' She pushed open the doors to the outside, maybe a little too hard, and stomped out, hands on her hips.
Ayano Aishi was not far behind. Her cleaning regimen was quick and easy, enough to finish in a few minutes and leave as much time as necessary to do what she needed to do- perfect for a scenario like this. 'There she is… she's heading towards the hedge maze. Plenty of blind corners there.' Waiting until the hallway was clear, she swept out the doors much more quietly, stalking towards the retreating orange twintails. Her hands were shaking a little, but she willed them to stop.
Osana stopped at the edge of the hedges, peering left and right. "I've… never actually been here, have I? Not even last year… I always just went to the plaza after class. What's this dumb thing even for, anyway?" She tapped her foot on the grass, deliberating. "You know what? I'm going to find out!" she declared to no one in particular, marching on in and ignoring the slight prickle on the back of her neck, not consciously knowing someone was following behind.
Her gaze drifted left and right as she wandered aimlessly among the masterfully manicured bushes, their rectangular shape so unnatural, yet so satisfying. Living proof of humanity's dominance over nature. "Is there even anything in here?" she murmured to herself. "I mean, really, it's just some hedges. How much do they pay the groundskeeper to snip this stuff when it tries to grow? What a waste of money."
Ayano slunk through the bushes themselves alongside her, carefully sliding between sticks and leaves to make the least noise possible, and syncing what little she could not avoid to Osana's own footsteps on the grass, masking them in her quarry's unstaunched sound. 'A waste of money… how apt. And yet I can't quite bring myself to agree, what with the privacy it's granting us in this moment,' she thought, eyeing the stubborn girl beside her. 'Tell me more about your thoughts, Najimi-san. Let me see inside your head. I want to read your every whim like a newspaper, even if you don't know you're selling it.'
The tsundere sighed, peering over one of the hedges. "Nope, nothing over there either. Does this place even have an exit, or is it just some kind of… stupid, blind-sack body-plan piece of junk? A maze with no exit! What a joke…" She rolled her eyes."I'm sure Senpai would tell me something about how it's 'calming' or whatever, but really? It's an enclosed space made out of bushes. You can't even see the patterns, unless you're, like, a bird, or something! Is that what we're stooping to, now? Making art for pigeons? Gah, why did I even go here! Why am I so on edge?!"
She shook her fist, before groaning, sitting down against a hedge as all the anger left her like a deflated balloon. "Oh, who am I kidding. I'm always on edge… I'm a whiny moron who lashes out and makes enemies with everyone I see. Hell, I even got mad at my childhood friend because I couldn't just say what I actually mean. I'm the real joke…" She curled up, head on her knees, glaring half-heartedly at the bush opposite. "I just… I miss when everything was simpler. When I was simpler. We were the loud girl and the quiet boy. There were no fronts to put on, or misunderstandings to make, because it was all exactly what it looked like. That was so much easier… when we just played in the sandbox, or shared snacks at lunchtime. We were friends, and that's all that mattered. Now… now I don't even know what we are. I don't even know if we're 'us' anymore. Maybe we're just each other. I need to find a way back…"
Her stalker had to physically force herself to hold in her breath, as to not be audibly fuming, blindsided by a malevolent concoction of bafflement and aggravation. 'Why would you ever want something stupid like that? Aren't people supposed to like being unpredictable? Isn't that the joie de vivre, what makes you human?' Her mind roiled as she struggled to comprehend the sheer, agonizing relatability of the statement, even as it went against everything she found herself hoping for. 'You want it to be simple, and yet for once, I don't. Why can't I want that too? Why are you different from everything else? Why must you torment me like this? Why do you grant me feeling and then say that you want to rip it away, you… you infuriating, inconsistent, unpredictable little enigma?'
Osana froze as she felt a sudden shiver down her spine, and a thick, heavy sensation washed over her like syrup or molasses coating her whole body. But at the same time… it stung. Honey, with the bees still clinging to it. Aloe gel, laced with poison ivy. "…w-what the!?" The sensation, the attention was overwhelming and cloying and biting and it felt like spit was dripping on her head from the jaws of a monster and she had to get out-
Ayano watched in surprise as the girl leapt to her feet and took off running, hands clinging tightly to her bag. "I d-don't know who you are or where you are or WHAT you are, b-but, leave me alone!" she squawked as she started dashing through the hedges, thoroughly losing her way in a panic. Ayano blinked in (admittedly mild) shock- sure, she had felt her watching her earlier in the day, but the way she took off like that… this girl was seriously attuned to the world around her. That was dangerous. 'I have to do something before she fully catches on…'
"Gyaah! Stay away!" the other girl squealed as she heard rustling from the hedge directly in front of her. 'If I keep cutting her off, I can prevent her from calming down, and then she'll continue panicking, giving me more time.' Scrabbling to stay upright, she swiveled on the spot and darted in the other direction, not even getting a single glance at the one following her before she hightailed it away… only to find the same rustling at the other end of the maze. "Ack!? No way! Leave me alooooone!"
The hijinx continued for about a minute- Osana clearly had no idea where she was going, while Ayano knew the place like the back of her hand, same as every other inch of the premises, making for a perfect game of cat and mouse. She darted through the shrubbery like a shark through water, and she smelled blood pooling right at the other girl's feet. The way Osana shrieked and stammered, tripping and spiraling as she tormented her, was such a unique opportunity, a sight that she was certain the girl would rather die than show any other student (or her, for that matter, but still), and she used the power of that intrigue as fuel as she kept going, tuning out the little scrapes and bruises as the flora fought back in indignation.
"Huff… puff… t-there's no way… someone could keep up this long." Ayano raised an eyebrow in doubt from her vantage point- it was pretty clear this girl didn't do much cardio. "It's gotta be… hahh… a ghost! No living person could do something like this-" she cut off as she stopped short, ice taking over her entire nervous system as she felt a cold, lifeless hand on her shoulder.
"Boo," a charmingly flat voice echoed out from right behind.
Osana wailed like a banshee, startled beyond belief, and in a feat of terror-induced logic, vaulted over the outer hedge and ran for her life, looking and sounding for all the world like a gijinka of a firetruck with a paint job done by someone who was colorblind. '…huh. I didn't think that would actually work.' Ayano swiftly emerged from her spot and calmly began walking towards the entrance, which had been right there the entire time. Despite her demeanor, her heart was racing. 'Well… that was oddly invigorating. I'll… have to add that to my documentation.'
Suddenly, something caught her eye- leaning down, she spotted a phone charm, in the shape of a stylized ginger cat's head. "Ah. She must've dropped this." She peered at it for a moment, observing how its plastic glinted in the light. "I should probably give this back to her, shouldn't I…" she mused, but her urges told her otherwise. There wasn't a logical reason for it, but she wanted to keep it. "…finders keepers, I suppose. A tangible record of the events of today. Look at you, Ayano, keeping mementos… who would've thought."
She played with the object in her hand, the way one would toss and catch a baseball or an apple, eyes narrowing in thought. '…this can't ever happen again. I was careless, and ended up on the verge of being caught. I'm compromising the integrity of the observation.' Her free hand gravitated to her chest, feeling the way her pulse thumped rapidly like a piece of faulty machinery. 'Subjectivity… it's even worse than I thought. I can't let it poison my results like this. Contamination will not be tolerated. I need to stay back, even if getting closer makes me… feel.' Some part of her seemed reluctant, and she quashed it down without hesitation. Feelings are not to be acknowledged.
Having successfully purged her sickening sentimentality, she gave herself a moment of indecision before stuffing the charm in one of her under-skirt pockets and marching onwards in the direction her target had left like there was an ethereal dotted line on the ground between them, or something else Midori would say. She headed back to her classroom to snag her bag, barely paying any heed to the confused and slightly alarmed wave Fukahori-sensei gave her before going back to grading papers- perhaps the emotion was still showing on her face.
She wormed her way through the halls, ignoring the stares of her peers, surely motivated by her supposed uncharacteristic expression, until she reached the looming school gates. Various other students passed her by as they too joined the flood of teenagers heading home from their first real day of schoolwork, giving her passing glances that were becoming increasingly difficult to pass off as nothing important. 'I can feel my reputation dropping with every second that passes- truly, the horrors of passion never cease.'
"You look like shit," Kumi Demura said dryly, startling her out of her reverie.
"…thanks for your input," Ayano's response came out just as dry. "Any other helpful observations you'd like to share, Kuu-chan?"
"No, seriously, you look like a crazy person," Kumi insisted, pointing at her. "You're covered in scrapes and you've got sticks and leaves in your hair. You look like you fought a garden and lost."
The more authentically emotionless girl hesitantly put her hand to her hair, immediately finding a twig in her grasp. "…so I am. So… I am." She did her best to tame her mussed-up tresses, to minimal effect, tugging out several more baby branches before giving up until she had access to a mirror. "Thanks for the heads up, I suppose. You wouldn't happen to have a comb, would you? A hairbrush, perhaps?"
"Look at my haircut and tell me to my face you think I keep a brush on me."
"Touché. Anyway, did you need anything? Besides the dire necessity of commenting on my appearance, of course, that was obviously mandatory."
"I was wondering if we could go home together. Like the old days. Maybe chat it up a bit. Sound like a plan?"
"Sure, I don't see why not. You're probably the least objectionable person to chat with I know."
"Heh. That's a compliment, coming from you."
"Don't get used to it."
"Like I'd ever." With that settled, they turned toward the gate, slouching towards the road in unison. Her heart finally hit a normal pace again, and she felt herself relax. 'Finally. Back to normal.' Her gaze drifted lazily to the left, only to spy none other than Osana and Taro walking together, Raibaru lagging a bit behind with a peculiar expression.
"It was terrible! There's totally a ghost in the maze! I swear!" Osana whimpered, clinging to her childhood friend with her eyes blown wide like a coked-up koala. "I could feel its eyes on me! It was watching me so intently!"
"So you're saying you tackled me to the ground, waving your arms and screaming, because you got paranoid in the hedge maze?" he grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Really, Osana-chan?"
"I did NOT get paranoid! It was real! I swear it!" she yelled. "Stupid! Idiot! Dummy! Absolute moron!"
"Ugh, whatever… let's just get home already," he groaned, half-heartedly attempting to shake her off. "You try to pretend to be tough, but you're really just a scaredy cat, aren't you?"
"H-huh?! No way! Just shut up, Senpai!" she stammered, face turning redder than red as she leapt off him at the speed of a bullet train. "God, do you have to embarrass me at all times?! Geez…"
Ayano couldn't help but roll her eyes as well. 'And would you look at that, she's right back to the first dimension. Who could've seen that coming?' She felt… bitter. It left a bad taste in her mouth just looking at such a sorry scene. 'I have to get her away from him, or him away from her. If they end up together, all of that depth and reactivity will get flattened like a pancake. I won't stand for it.' She turned her gaze to the boring, negligible being beside the object of her observation. 'I suppose if you have to go against someone, you need to learn about them first. Know your enemy, as Sun Tzu once said.' She bristled slightly, already formulating a course of action in her calculating little head. Everything would go to plan.
Tomorrow would be Taro day.