From that day on, Junpei threw himself into training.
“You said you were going to shut yourself away until you could use [Domain Expansion], so why are you here?”
“I still need to train close-quarters combat.”
“Then that’s not really shutting yourself away, is it.....”
“That’s the kind of resolve I mean.”
Of course, he didn’t forget to train his body either.
Muscles rust when they aren’t used. If he didn’t want the body he’d finally built to slip back into its old shape, he had to keep putting it under periodic overload.
“Huff, huff!”
“Good! One more set!”
He set up a routine.
From lunch until just before dinner, he poured about four hours into jujutsu, close-range fighting, and physical conditioning.
After dinner, the time was his alone.
- Encyclopedia of Marine Life
- Monsters of the Deep Sea
To decide carefully, he combed through all kinds of encyclopedias and dictionaries, shaping the appearance and abilities of his shikigami.
Before long, staying up all night reading and going to sleep at two or three in the morning became part of his daily life.
Gradually, books began piling up in Junpei’s room more than movie videos ever had.
[Shocking! True story! There’s a fish that swallows prey bigger than its own body?]
He also made sure to look up YouTube content whenever he had a spare moment.
- The gulper eel. It lives in the deep sea below 5,000 meters, and swallows prey with a huge mouth that takes up a quarter of its body length. But in the deep sea, it’s not easy to find prey that large, so most of the time it feeds on krill or crustaceans....
“Guess I can skip this one.”
“That’s actually pretty interesting......more importantly, why are you watching this?”
“I’m still coming up with the last shikigami. I thought it might be useful.”
“Hmm. Anyway, watch a little longer and come down. Itadori’s making chanko nabe today.”
“Got it.”
Some of it really did provide useful information, and Junpei even put a few creatures he liked on the shortlist.
But most of it was hopeless.
- This squid can beat a whale! Pshoom-pashoom-pshoom-pishoom~
“Oh.”
- Hello~ this is Koitsu TV! Today we’re looking at the giant squid, and apparently it’s fifty times bigger than the ordinary squid we eat! Wow, I’d really like to see one someday. At that size, if it hit a ship, wouldn’t the ship sink?
“....?”
- Giant squid versus sperm whale. What a fascinating topic. I don’t know who would win either, but leave a comment saying which one you think would win and why, and I’ll think about it too. Sea creatures are truly mysterious! That’s all from Koitsu TV~ Please like, subscribe, and turn on notifications! Then Koitsuwwwww will see you in the next videowwwww
“What the fuck is wrong with this asshole.....”
Countless idiot channels stuffed garbage information into his head, and every time, Junpei’s rage gauge shot straight to full.
“Junpei, dinner.”
“Already? I’m coming.”
“Look forward to it. I’m damn good at making meatballs.”
Even while eating, Junpei kept thinking about what kind of creature he should use as the model for his shikigami.
Deep-sea creatures. Poisonous sea creatures. Seafood.
Seafood.
Seafood.
When Junpei looked up, Yuji and Megumi briefly seemed like seafood to him.
“Sea squirts. Sea urchins......”
“What’s wrong? Aren’t you eating?”
“Nothing.”
At this rate, he’d really go insane.
Shaking his head, Junpei silently moved his chopsticks toward the pot.
Fortunately, the chanko nabe Yuji made was delicious.
“This is good.”
“Right? I’ve always been confident in it.”
“Even a worm can turn, huh.”
“What’s that supposed to mean, Fushiguro?”
Junpei kept stuffing tofu, meat, green onions, and more into his mouth without even realizing the roof of his mouth was getting scorched.
And Nobara watched him with concern.
---------------------------
On a bright morning during the holiday, someone knocked on Junpei’s door while he was still sleeping in.
- Knock knock
“Who is it?”
“It’s me. Open the door.”
The people who came to Junpei’s room were limited.
Usually it was Yuji dropping by to ask him to watch a movie together, and sometimes Panda would ring the bell and run off after a prank.
Other times, Ijichi would call him in for a mission.
But this time was different.
The voice from outside was familiar, but anyone could tell it was a woman’s, not a man’s.
With a pounding heart, Junpei opened the door and found Nobara standing there in casual clothes, one hip cocked.
“Kugisaki?”
“What are you so surprised about?”
It was the first time he’d seen her in anything other than her usual uniform or training clothes.
Today Nobara was wearing a classic grunge look.
She had thrown a checkered jacket over a roomy turtleneck knit, and shiny shoes covered her ankles beneath ripped jeans. To top it off, she wore a bucket hat with a tiny chain attached, giving her the finishing touch. She looked like she’d just stepped out of Shibuya Fashion Week.
It wasn’t exactly cute, and it wasn’t what you’d call especially feminine, but it suited her usual vibe perfectly and was more than satisfying.
“What brings you to my room?”
“There’s only one thing to do on a holiday. Let’s go out.”
“With the others too?”
“.....No.”
This is a date invitation, right?
Two emotions collided inside Junpei.
“Hey.....so when are you going to use [Domain Expansion]?”
“Are you crazy? A girl came all the way to your room on a holiday and asked you to go out. You’re going to refuse that?”
After about 0.000001 seconds of agonizing, Junpei sided with the latter.
“I’ll shower and be right out!”
He dashed to the bathroom, washed his hair at lightning speed, brushed his teeth, and scrubbed his body clean.
Only after making sure there wasn’t a speck of dirt left did he towel off, change into fresh clothes, apply lotion, dry his hair, and fix it in place with hairspray.
Fully armed, he was able to return to Nobara in about ten minutes.
“Why are you grinning like that? It’s gross.”
“It’s a holiday.”
“You’ve always gone out on holidays too, so what’s the big deal...”
Even Nobara, who was scolding him, seemed pretty embarrassed, trailing off at the end of her sentence.
Junpei found that satisfying.
They had never clearly confessed their feelings to each other, but every time he saw these occasional honest reactions, he felt it.
That he wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
“Anyway, let’s hurry.”
“Did you already decide where we’re going?”
“Yeah. Just trust me and follow along.”
----------------------------
Where Nobara took him was an aquarium.
“An aquarium?”
“You said you were coming up with a new shikigami. I thought this might help.”
Junpei felt a little confused.
He’d been planning to forget all that and just have fun since they were out already.
He was grateful for the thought, but it also left him with a complicated feeling.
“Seafood.......”
“?”
Lately, maybe because of a nervous breakdown, he felt like he’d start convulsing just from seeing seafood.
Especially deep-sea creatures. Why did they all have to look so disgusting and bizarre?
He needed something to soothe his battered mind and body.
“You said there are penguins here, right? Let’s go see the penguins first.”
“You sure? Your base is marine life.”
“I think I can do that later....”
The penguin exhibit wasn’t far away.
It was famous as one of this aquarium’s main attractions, and since it was a holiday, the place was packed.
After barely pushing through the crowd and finding a spot, Junpei and Nobara watched the cute penguins with pleased expressions.
Short, stubby bodies. Waddling little steps.
After staring at nothing but slick, fishy things for so long, seeing a furry animal again felt like a relief.
Nobara, who had been completely absorbed in the penguins for a while, pulled a Polaroid camera out of her eco bag.
“Let’s take a picture!”
“Where’d you get a Polaroid camera?”
“I bought it on Amazon for five thousand yen. It’s great, except that film is hard to get.”
Junpei quietly agreed.
People might say that since the 2010s everyone had stopped carrying cameras thanks to iPhone cameras and the like, but sometimes the old stuff was still better.
There was a reason people talked about “retro vibes.”
“There really is something irreplaceable about analog.”
“Go stand over there. I’ll take the first one.”
“We came together, so why bother? Let’s ask someone else to take it.”
Junpei looked around for someone to take the picture, his gaze carrying a little private intent, and spotted a handsome couple, a man and a woman.
“Excuse me, if it’s not too much trouble, could you take a picture for us?”
“Sure, no problem.”
“I’ll make sure it comes out pretty!”
Fortunately, they smiled brightly and agreed.
Junpei, who had been secretly worried they might refuse, gave an awkward smile and headed to the photo spot with Nobara.
As Nobara came up beside him after they’d taken their places, his heartbeat quickened a little.
The woman holding the camera urged them on as Junpei kept an uncertain distance, close enough to touch but not quite.
“I think you should stand a little closer.”
“Is that so.....”
It was embarrassing to do this already when they weren’t even officially dating yet.
While Junpei hesitated and edged closer, Nobara suddenly yanked him toward her.
Their shoulders touched as the distance between them vanished in an instant.
“K-Kugisaki?”
“Shut up, idiot. Why are you so damn timid?”
Nobara’s ears were a little red as she hooked her arm through Junpei’s and struck a pose.
Junpei, caught off guard, followed her lead and posed just as the camera flash burst in front of him.
“One, two, three. Say cheese~”
“Cheese~!”
“Cheese....”
After taking a few more photos, the couple handed the camera back to Nobara.
“Thank you.”
“Not at all. Young students like you two are lovely to see.”
As Junpei bowed and was about to move to another spot, the man flashed a sly grin and tossed out a teasing question.
“What’s your relationship? Lovers? Or are you still at the stage before that?”
Junpei’s mind went blank.
What are we to each other? Friends? Classmates? If you really had to define it, maybe something between friends and lovers, but should I actually say that?
No, more importantly, why am I taking this question so seriously?
“W-Well.....”
“We’re just friends.”
Before Junpei could stammer out an answer, Nobara cut it off cleanly, but the couple didn’t look convinced at all.
“I see. Friends can come to an aquarium alone together, after all.”
“Sorry for asking such a difficult question~”
They didn’t press it any further, but from their expressions, they clearly didn’t believe a word of it.
It was obvious the atmosphere would get awkward if they stayed any longer.
Junpei and Nobara hurriedly bowed and left the penguin exhibit at a quick pace.
“Seriously, what kind of question was that?”
“Yeah.....that was almost a problem.”
“And why were you so wishy-washy? Don’t take every little thing like that so seriously.”
“I was caught off guard because they came at us so suddenly. You’re the calm one here.”
- We’re just friends.
They were friends, that much was true. Officially, she still wasn’t anything special to him.
Even if he’d said it just to brush them off, answering “friends” without a moment’s hesitation stung a little.
At Junpei’s slightly sulky tone, Nobara let out a sigh.
“I did make something like a date invitation to you, but it was only as a friend. You’ve been holed up lately and barely come outside, you know.”
“I know. I’m grateful.”
“Then show a little sincerity. So you won’t regret the fact that I dragged you out today.”
...She was right.
She’d gone out of her way to think of him and invite him, so being petty over something this small would be rude to Nobara.
“Sorry.”
“Good.”
“Where should we go next? It’d be a shame to come all this way and only see the penguins.”
“I saw an event corner on the way in. Let’s start there.”
As Junpei moved ahead, Nobara’s gaze stuck to his back.
- We’re just friends.
“.....For now.”
When would that nerd finally work up the courage?
Hoping she’d never be the one to confess first, Nobara followed after him.
---------------------------
After that, the two of them wandered around here and there, enjoying a pseudo-date.
“Doesn’t this look like Fushiguro? You know, that thing from the other day. At Yasohachi Bridge.”
“Pfft, yeah, the hair really does look alike.”
“Right?”
They teamed up to make fun of Megumi’s sea-urchin-like hairstyle.
“Ack, this feels weird!”
“It’s similar to a sea anemone’s texture.”
“Ugh.....you fight with something like this wrapped around your body?”
“Once you get used to it, it’s manageable. Maybe because it’s my main thing?”
They also stopped by an experience corner where you could touch a mildly poisonous sea anemone with your bare hands.
“Look at this! Isn’t it cute?”
“You can tell at a glance that it’s cheap merch.....”
“You really have no romance sometimes. These things are all meant to become memories!”
He bought a bizarre shark hat at the souvenir shop.
“Woooow......”
“Amazing......”
They also savored the lingering feeling inside a tunnel styled like an underwater passage.
Before he knew it, Junpei had forgotten all about techniques and the like.
In the blue light shimmering through the water, everything felt soft and warm.
And,
just watching Nobara squeal happily was fun enough on its own.
By the time they’d had their fill of running around, it was time to head back.
After stepping outside the aquarium, they sat on a nearby bench and stretched.
“Ah, that was fun.”
“Yeah.”
“See? Sometimes this kind of thing isn’t bad, right?”
“....Yeah.”
Still grinning, Nobara seemed to remember something and rummaged through her eco bag.
From inside the bag, her hand emerged holding the Polaroid camera that had worked so hard just a little while ago.
“By now the photos should be done developing. Let’s look at them together.”
The film held the time they’d spent wandering around all day.
Nobara frowning in front of an ugly monkfish.
Junpei frozen after being splashed by an otter.
The two of them comparing the size of the stingray and the moon jelly inside the glass wall as it drifted by.
Looking at them made him feel wistful already.
Most of all, the first photo they’d taken after entering the aquarium.
With the penguins in the background, Nobara and Junpei were smiling brightly, having forgotten all worry and concern.
“How is it? Came out well, didn’t it.”
“Can I make copies and share them?”
“If you go to a photo studio, probably. I’ll keep it for now.”
Carefully tucking the photos into a protective sleeve, Nobara slipped them into the inner pocket of her wallet.
She put the wallet back into her eco bag, met Junpei’s eyes, and grinned mischievously.
“So, was today fun?”
A soft curve formed at the corner of Junpei’s mouth.
He never would have guessed that one day he’d get the exact words he once said to her thrown back at him.
“Yeah. More than I can say.”
Even if painful, difficult days came someday, even if he barely survived some brush with death,
these memories would keep piling up and give him the strength to live.
“We never know when we’ll die, so days where we can just goof off like this are important too.”
“......”
“Sometimes you think too much. You need a little refresh, you know? Well, that’s part of your charm too.”
Her brown eyes, lit by the streetlamp, shone with a clear, unclouded light.
The look that had held contempt and irritation just a month ago was now full of goodwill toward him.
- Thump
Thoughtful, quiet Junpei.
Bold, straightforward Nobara.
People are always drawn more strongly to what they don’t have.
Spending the day with her had cleared out the tangled mess in his head.
“I’m the one who keeps taking, aren’t I.”
I don’t have anything to give you.
His heart had been pounding so hard it felt like it was ringing in his ears.
He loved her honesty. Every one of her confident gestures made him smile.
He hadn’t been able to name this feeling before, but now he knew.
You, who never forget to care about a gloomy guy like me.
You, who keep crashing into my heart like this—
I like you.
For the first time, Junpei found the courage to approach someone first.
“Kugisaki.”
“Yeah?”
“That couple asked us something earlier. We said we were just friends, right?”
Nobara’s expression went blank for a moment.
“What’s that supposed to mean? Don’t tell me you were hung up on that?”
Just as her face slowly started to crease into a frown,
“I don’t want to be just that.”
“....What?”
Junpei grabbed Nobara’s dumbfounded hand.
He wondered if this was too fast, but so what?
There’s never a reason why people fall in love.
Nobody decides when it’s time to confess.
That’s why only the prepared can seize the chance.
Junpei had, in his own way, been preparing since the moment he decided to come out with her today.
“I kept wondering whether I should say it. What if you didn’t feel the same way? What if we couldn’t even stay friends? I kept thinking about that.”
“W-Wait, Yoshino.....”
“No. Keep listening. You’re the one who told me not to overthink everything.”
The warmth from the hand he held climbed up Nobara’s face.
“Whatever happens after this, I don’t care. I hate regretting things.”
“Let go of my hand for a sec......”
“I like you, Kugisaki. No, Nobara.”
It sounded like a pop.
Nobara’s mind was already a mess.
She had hoped for this a little, but this suddenly? Without any preparation?
And yet her mouth was already moving, completely beyond her control.
“Ah, honestly.”
She’d wanted to receive it in a more romantic place, but what was this, being so bold only at times like this?
Still. It wasn’t bad.
It wasn’t bad at all.
So, I’ll accept your feelings.
“I like you too.....”
Junpei, who had boldly confessed and apparently never expected to actually be accepted, trembled all over.
A laugh burst from Nobara’s lips.
“Pfft!”
There had been a time when that foolish look of his frustrated her.
She still wanted to hit him now, but even so...
he looked kind of cute.
“Remember this. I’m the one who ‘accepted’ you, so you’d better treat me well from now on, got it? Junpei.”
“.......”
After freezing there for a moment, tears welled in Junpei’s eyes.
“...Are you crying?”
“.......”
“Haa.....come here.”
As if there was no helping it, Nobara spread her arms and Junpei fell into them.
“Sorry.....”
“Don’t apologize, idiot.”
The two of them held each other there for a long time.
Night deepened, and even as the moonlight slowly began to rise, the hands holding each other showed no sign of letting go.
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