When I arrived at school and walked into the classroom, I realized the rest of the class already knew Rinne.
“Rinne! Long time no see!”
“Yeah, it's been a while.”
She was greeting one of the girls in class as if they were old friends. It seemed everyone else recognized Rinne as someone who had always attended this school.
My mind was a mess. The strange, bizarre building I’d seen this morning, the feeling that my memories had been tampered with, and the way everyone reacted as if Rinne had always been here—it was all scrambling my thoughts.
Even on the way to school, Shido had suddenly started talking as if he'd known a girl named Rinne his whole life. At this point, it was fair to say I was the only one who found her presence strange.
Why was all this happening the moment the day started? I was in a terrible mood, unable to make sense of any of it.
Perhaps it showed on my face, because Shido asked me, “Hieta? You look pretty down. Something wrong?”
“...Shido. What did you say that girl, Sonogami Rinne, was to you?”
“Huh? She’s my childhood friend. We’ve known each other since we were kids. She was even there the last time you made those dragon cookies. Are you seriously okay?”
Shido looked genuinely worried.
“Haha, I’m fine. It’s just...”
I still couldn’t figure out who this Rinne girl was. Why had she suddenly appeared? Why was she claiming to be Shido’s childhood friend? And why were the others treating it as perfectly normal?
“Just what?”
“Ah, no, never mind.”
For now, my suspicions were entirely my own, so I kept them to myself. Still, I intended to keep my guard up around Rinne. There was no doubt she was an unusual girl.
Just as I was sorting through my thoughts, the teacher entered and class began.
*****
When lunchtime arrived, the usual group pushed their desks together. The problem was that Rinne was now part of that group.
“Shido, try some of this too.”
“Y-yeah. It’s good.”
Rinne was handing Shido some of her side dishes. Seeing that, it was only natural that Tohka and Origami started shoving theirs toward him as well.
I looked at the four of them and sighed inwardly. Anyone who saw this—heck, even a random passerby—would think they were friends who had known each other forever.
For a moment, I wondered if I was the one who was wrong. I didn’t know much about memory manipulation, but perhaps I was being too suspicious.
“Hieta! Save me—mmpf!”
Even Shido seemed to genuinely like her.
Everyone except me knew Rinne and got along with her.
“Ghk! Ghk-ghk!”
While I was lost in thought, Shido finally started choking on his food.
The culprits were Tohka and Origami. The two of them were relentlessly shoving side dishes into his mouth.
Seeing him struggle, Rinne quickly produced her water bottle and handed it to him.
“Are you okay? Drink this.”
“Phew, thanks, Rinne.”
Once she confirmed Shido was safe, Rinne turned to me while I was still eating and asked cautiously, “Um, Hieta. Do you still not know who I am?”
“Hmm. Regrettably, no. I still don’t know who you are. You simply don’t exist in my memories.”
Rinne didn’t seem satisfied. She looked a little dejected, murmured that she understood, and turned her gaze back to Shido.
And then, at that exact moment, Tonomachi dropkicked Shido.
“Guhk!”
It was a perfect dropkick. I didn’t know how he managed it, but he landed a clean hit on Shido while skillfully avoiding Tohka and Origami.
I had no choice but to give him ten points for the execution.
“Ten points. Ten points indeed. What a flawless dropkick!”
“Thanks for noticing, Hieta!”
“What the hell are you doing?!”
As soon as he scrambled up, Shido started yelling at Tonomachi. Tonomachi’s response was predictably absurd.
“What do you mean, 'what'? It’s a show of affection between friends.”
At that ridiculous answer, Shido flew into a rage, shouting that a dropkick had never been a sign of affection.
“But, but! You were the one flaunting yourself with Tohka, Rinne, and Origami! I was consumed by the flames of jealousy... nghh!”
Tonomachi answered while squeezing out fake tears. Based on his tone alone, he sounded like the victim.
“You’re the one who set yourself on fire! More importantly, since when did you become an okama character?!”
“They really do get along well,” Rinne commented.
I agreed with her, though it looked more like Tonomachi was just one-sidedly messing with him.
“Exactly! I guess I have no choice but to really start dating Shido.”
“I refuse with all my might! Ack! Don’t cling to me! Gross!”
How could anyone look at that and say they got along?
“Clap clap clap. Congratulations!”
I applauded and congratulated them. Be happy from now on, Shido!
“Get off me! And stop looking at me like that, Hieta! Why are you looking at me like a mother marrying off her son?!”
“Don’t say such hurtful things, Shido. You and I have the glorious achievement of ranking second in the 'Best Couples at School as Chosen by Girls,' after all.”
“That’s a total black history!!!”
I had no idea such a thing even existed. But second place, huh? Then who was first?
“Then who’s number one?”
“That? Hieta and Shido.”
“...Huh?”
Why? How? No, what on earth did I do with Shido to get us ranked like that?!
“No, why...?”
“Huh? Well, you’re always together, and you go to school and come home together, right? That’s why.”
If Rinne had been the thing making my head spin before, now it was this ridiculous ranking.
Me. I was picked as part of a gay couple. This was impossible! Absolutely impossible!
“...Hieta. Aren’t you being a little too openly disgusted?”
“Stay away from me! Don’t come near me, I’m telling you! I like women!”
“Same here, okay?!”
Hearing us bicker, Tonomachi burst out laughing.
“Hahahahahaha!!! You two are hilarious!”
“It’s your fault! Hurry up and shut up!”
“Can’t do that. Shido, did you watch the news this morning?”
The topic shifted abruptly. Since Shido and I had been unconscious until morning, we hadn’t seen the news.
When we asked what happened, he told us there had recently been a string of disappearances involving pets and people.
And apparently, all of it was due to the [Tengushi’s Calamity].
“What’s that supposed to be?”
“Back in the days when tigers smoked cigarettes—”
Tonomachi went on and on with his explanation, but to summarize: there was once a cow called Tengushi that caused trouble in a village by eating livestock.
A samurai with a strong sense of justice challenged Tengushi to a one-on-one drinking contest, only to discover that Tengushi was actually a good guy.
The two of them drank together all night until the samurai passed out first.
Then the villagers arrived and ganged up on Tengushi; even the samurai, who tried to stop them, was tied up and beaten.
After waking up from the beating, the samurai realized what had happened to Tengushi, slaughtered the villagers, and then died himself.
Basically, that was the story.
“So? What’s that got to do with anything?”
“In other words, we need to offer up a sacrifice to calm Tengushi down.”
In the end, it was clearly something Tonomachi had made up because he wanted to organize a test of courage.
I’d suspected it was a lie from the start, but Tohka didn’t suspect a thing and took Tonomachi’s words at face value.
“Tengushi must be feeling so wronged!”
“Tohka?”
“As expected of Tohka! You get it!”
“Mm! Then let’s all go soothe Tengushi together!”
Because of Tohka’s enthusiasm, we agreed to gather in the evening and play along with Tonomachi’s little story.
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