I think I killed someone yesterday. Probably. Me, holding a kitchen knife, and someone lying on the ground. I think I had a dream like that.
They say bad dreams come with all sorts of omens, and I'm the kind of person who believes in that stuff. I don't know what they mean in detail, though. Middle-school girls and high-school girls often pick up books with titles like Dream Interpretation—This Will Make You Happy! in one hand, going on and on about how "totally cute" they are while loudly critiquing other people's dreams. But I think half the point is just having something to talk about with their friends, and for the most part, they don't genuinely believe any of it.
But I believe it anyway. It's not like I'm a particularly religious person. If anything, I don't think there's anyone farther removed from faith than me—not among middle-schoolers, or even high-schoolers. Well, whether someone believes or not is up to them. I still believe, though. First, I should check the sky I saw when I woke up and the news again. Rain today. The temperature is high, and it's humid on this April first. Apparently, the lucky item for Scorpio, dead last in the horoscope today, is "candy."
Something's wrong. Days with auspicious signs like these are usually sunny, and it wouldn't be strange if a shower of cherry blossoms had dyed the whole world pink. Apparently, God has been messing up the adjustments nonstop today.
While I was idly mulling all that over first thing in the morning, the train arrived.
That's right, today is Monday, April first. It's the day I enter high school.
Unlike my bicycle commute during my middle-school years, I now have a roughly thirty-minute commute by train, and this morning I was getting initiated by the early train. Office workers were packed tighter than cotton swabs in a box, fresh off the shelf, and the sweaty stench, as if someone had put a lid on a pot, mixed with old-man smell and assaulted my nose. The moment I thought the doors had opened, a wave pushed me along, stepped on my feet, and turned me into a sandwich again. The bread was middle-aged guys, and I was the filling. If only the bread could be a young girl whose surface was crisp and seemed firm, like country bread, while the inside looked soft and moist.
Even with that gloomy start to the morning, I managed to make it through the entrance ceremony without falling asleep, eyes wide open until the very end. There was a perfectly legitimate reason for that.
The bad omens that had been piling up since morning were probably leading to this. Actually, it was my intuition telling me so. That I should transfer schools immediately and go somewhere else.
It was during the new students' representative address. At this high school, the student with the highest total score on the entrance exam gives the address, and that student was someone I knew. No, I suppose I should say she was someone I used to know. A black-haired ponytail tied with a vermilion ribbon. Her face was probably more perfectly formed than any girl's I'd seen during elementary or middle school. It seemed more beautiful than cute. Strikingly beautiful, in the truest sense. But I knew her. Beneath that appearance was some company president's daughter who's a walking natural disaster, brazenly self-centered and utterly disastrous.
"The ceremonial address will be given by Rei Hayasaka."
The way she unfolded the paper and read from it was the very picture of an exemplary student, but I knew her. If my memory was right, she was supposed to have transferred to another prefecture because of 《《that》》 before graduating sixth grade. I was so shocked that I looked at her face twice. Normally, seeing someone you used to know would make you want to talk to them, but there was no question that getting involved with her would lead to nothing good.
I squeezed the strawberry candy in my pocket. Please work, lucky item.
But my wish scattered as mercilessly as cherry-blossom petals. When I first came to the classroom, for some reason the seat next to mine was empty. I'd spent the morning cooking up a thought steeped in pride and prejudice: Oh, they couldn't make it to the entrance ceremony. Maybe they caught a cold. What a shame. Since they're sitting next to me, I guess I'll talk to them when they come to school. But it seemed that unfortunate person had apparently come to school today after all.
Rei Hayasaka. It was her.
No matter how I looked at her, she could only be Rei. No, maybe these eyes of mine, with vision that exceeded eleven, had finally malfunctioned. I tried wiping my glasses just in case, but the figure of the person standing there didn't change. I see. Apparently, God had abandoned me. Being dead last in the horoscope and the bad dream I'd had last night had probably both been leading to this.
When I turned my gaze from the ceiling back toward her, I found Rei Hayasaka looking at me, her eyes opened as wide as they could possibly go.
Let me say that again, deliberately.
When I turned my gaze from the ceiling back toward her, I found Rei Hayasaka looking at me, her eyes opened as wide as they could possibly go.
If I had to add one detail, the corners of her mouth were gradually rising. Apparently, she'd figured out who I was. She spoke to me.
"...Hello."
"............Hello."
It was terrifying. We clearly knew each other's faces, names, and various other things from elementary school, yet the fact that she didn't say anything else scared me.
"..." She didn't say another word beyond the greeting. Things were getting awkward, so I turned my face toward the blackboard and decided to listen to the teacher.
As I listened to our homeroom teacher explain the schedule after enrollment and other things, I thought about what I wanted to do for the rest of the day. I didn't have anything in particular I wanted to do after school, and I was debating whether to have soup dumplings or pizza for dinner when the teacher finished speaking. "That concludes things for today." I stood up and picked up my things. Good. Once I left the classroom, I was done. "Then, everyone, have a good year. Goodbye, everyone." At that moment, I turned my navel toward the classroom exit. Now all I had to do was point my feet toward the hallway and take a step.
But my foot couldn't take that step. Something had grabbed the flesh on my back. As pain from the pinch spread through me, cold sweat poured down my back. It was still spring, yet sweat was streaming off me, and heat probably wasn't the only reason. A voice came from behind me.
"Excuse me. Do you have a moment, Mujō?"
I slowly turned my face around. There stood Rei Hayasaka, giving me a bright, cheerful smile. Ah, I see. Apparently, my high-school life was completely over. No, wait. Think of a plan, me. You've ridden out situations like this before, haven't you? It should work out somehow. First, don't get involved with her. Impossible. She's already spoken to me, and she's sitting next to me. There was nothing I could do about that. Then what about limiting my involvement to the bare minimum? An acquaintance from elementary school whom I'd met again after a long time. A female student who had transferred to another school partway through. Maybe I could make that work. Besides, maybe the reason she wanted to talk was to ask me not to tell anyone about what had happened back in elementary school. If so, that would be a stroke of luck. The problem would be solved, and both she and I would be happy. It would literally be a win-win. ...Though if she kept sticking her nose too far into my problems, I'd have to deal with that somehow.
For the record, all of Mujō Karinē's thoughts up to this point took 0.2 seconds in real time.
That thinking time brought him a ray of hope.
"...I'm sorry, but I can't make time today because of family circumstances. I have to go straight home."
I wasn't lying. The pizza I'd decided to have for dinner was going to be baked in an oven made by stacking bricks in the yard. That meant it would take time. Housework counted as family circumstances, too. I wasn't lying.
"...I see. That's too bad."
The cold sweat stopped, and I relaxed. Good. Now I wouldn't have to 《《sweat it out for no reason》》. The crisis had passed. Tomorrow's me would handle the rest somehow. Do your best, tomorrow's me.
"In that case, let's exchange contact information."
She pulled her smartphone from her skirt pocket. I see. This might not work. Not only might I fail to get home safely, but there could be trouble waiting after I got there. My smartphone was in my right pocket, ready to be taken out at any time. Incidentally, this school allowed students to bring smartphones. Using them during class was prohibited, but they were allowed during breaks and after school. Well, the relaxed rules were one reason I'd enrolled here, but I never imagined they would come back to bite me.
...It couldn't be helped. I would have to face the problems of the past. I would kill the version of myself from the past who hated getting involved with her. That was why she had come today. That's what I decided.