Correct and to the Point

"Then why did Sakiko-chan leave Crychic?" Nagasaki Sose asked coldly.

To her, Crychic had once been a place like family. But after Toyokawa Sakiko left the band and everyone drifted apart, she hadn't even known what had caused it all.

How could she accept that?

She would get back that beautiful past, that warm place that had felt like family, those people who had filled it with laughter!

"Why not ask her yourself?" Riki replied casually.

"Don't be ridiculous!" Nagasaki Sose snapped, glaring at Riki. "Wasn't it because of you?"

"I can tell you plainly that I only met Sakiko after she left Crychic. And one more thing... aren't you being a little too self-centered?" Riki narrowed his eyes.

He remembered Toyokawa Sakiko crouching in the bathroom last night, crying silently. Anyone could see how helpless she looked—even a heartless machine.

Toyokawa Sakiko was at the lowest point in her life, bearing pressure no ordinary girl should have to endure, while Nagasaki Sose only wanted to reclaim the beautiful past that belonged to her.

"You only ever think about yourself," Riki said with a smile.

Nagasaki Sose clenched her fists and stared straight at Riki, her eyes full of fury. Whether or not he had anything to do with Sakiko leaving the band, she really did hate him!

She hated him so much!

Just then, Takamatsu Akari spoke up. She glanced cautiously at Riki and asked, "Then, Riki, do you think Sakiko will come back?"

"You should ask her. I can't decide for her, but right now, she probably doesn't have the energy to think about that." Riki replied.

"You mean you know the real reason Sakiko-chan left Crychic?" Nagasaki Sose asked quickly.

"I do."

Nagasaki Sose's eyes lit up.

"But I'm not telling you," Riki said.

Nagasaki Sose's expression darkened.

See? She was getting worked up again.

Riki shook his head.

"I'm her friend, at least. I'm not going to reveal her personal business," Riki said calmly. Telling her the real reason would only hurt Toyokawa Sakiko all over again. He wasn't going to do that.

Nagasaki Sose took a deep breath. "All right. Let's stop here for today. We can talk again next time. Let's exchange Line contacts first."

There was going to be a next time?

Riki's expression soured, but Nagasaki Sose insisted on adding him anyway. He saw that she had saved him as "Annoying Guy."

Damn, she really looked down on him... Riki changed her contact name to "Scheming Little Sister."

Nagasaki Sose's expression darkened.

Riki exchanged contact information with Takamatsu Akari, too.

"By the way, Akari-chan, your lucky color today is pink," Riki told Takamatsu Akari with a smile.

Pink?

Takamatsu Akari froze. It wasn't until they had walked out of the Cafe that Nagasaki Sose smiled gently at her and said, "Akari-chan, don't worry about what that person said. I'll definitely bring Sakiko-chan back. We'll go back to how things were in Crychic."

Takamatsu Akari nodded. On her way home, Chihaya Anon, who had just transferred to her school, suddenly called out to her.

"Takamatsu-san, are you in a band?" Chihaya Anon asked with a smile.

Pink hair... Takamatsu Akari thought as she watched Chihaya Anon's pink hair flutter.

It's my lucky color.

Riki looked up at a giant screen on a skyscraper. The two girls on it were members of the idol duo Sumimi. One of them was Mikumura Shioka, Toyokawa Sakiko's childhood friend.

She had a truly magnificent face.

"What are you looking at?" Toyokawa Sakiko pressed a hot coffee against Riki's face. He pondered aloud, "Wasn't it supposed to be cola?"

"That kind of drink is junk food," Toyokawa Sakiko said. She had come straight over after work. When she looked up and saw Mikumura Shioka on the screen, her expression shifted, but she didn't say anything. She and Riki headed into the supermarket together.

"What did Sose want with you?" Toyokawa Sakiko asked.

"She asked why you left. Of course, I didn't tell her anything," Riki replied.

Loyal!

Toyokawa Sakiko smiled and pushed Riki into the supermarket. "Then I'm counting on you to get our half-price bento tonight. I can never beat the other people to them."

The bentos at the supermarket were marked down at a set time. Even being a minute late made no difference. Since their quality didn't drop much just because they were discounted, lots of people came to grab them every time.

"I heard half-price bentos are a battlefield. There are different ranks—the pigs, the dogs, the wolves—and it's a fight to the death..." Riki said with determination.

"How could that be?" Toyokawa Sakiko replied, exasperated.

They got their half-price bentos. Suddenly, Riki noticed Toyokawa Sakiko stiffen. He followed her gaze and saw several girls in Tsukinomori uniforms. They noticed Toyokawa Sakiko, too, and hurried over.

"It really is you, Sakiko! Which high school are you going to? Why aren't you at Tsukinomori anymore?"

"Well..." Toyokawa Sakiko's expression stiffened, and her breathing almost stopped. She forced out a strained smile. "My family made arrangements."

"Oh, I see. What did you buy? A half-price bento? Isn't that the sort of thing middle-aged men buy after work?"

Toyokawa Sakiko held on to her strained smile. Beneath the streetlight, her shadow seemed to shrink. She wrapped her arms around herself and trembled, unable to speak.

Her old classmates seemed to cut her pride out of her with a knife. The pain made it hard to breathe.

Suddenly, she heard Riki speak with a hint of amusement—

"Sakiko asked me to pick this up for her," Riki said with a smile. "I'm Sakiko's music tutor. I'm only a first-year college student, but I'm pretty good. I just got out of class and didn't have time to buy anything to eat, so I came along with her to pick something up."

Riki chatted with them with a smile. Once they had left, he asked Toyokawa Sakiko, "Old classmates?"

Toyokawa Sakiko lowered her head and nodded silently.

She felt awful.

Her body felt as heavy as a corpse's.

She wanted to scream and cry, but her pride wouldn't let her. Her tangled emotions made her tremble.

"Smack!"

Toyokawa Sakiko clutched the back of her head and stared at Riki in disbelief. "What are you doing!?"

"I'm turning your sadness into anger," Riki replied seriously.

I was afraid if you stayed emo any longer, you'd turn into Flying Sakiko.

"Then you succeeded. Right now, I really want to punch you," Toyokawa Sakiko said expressionlessly.

"Then wait until you've eaten," Riki said with a smile.

Toyokawa Sakiko's stomach growled. Her cheeks flushed, and she glared at Riki.

They returned to the apartment. Toyokawa Sakiko's father still wasn't home. Riki didn't bring it up; he just ate his bento with her.

"I don't like green peppers," Riki said, his face twisting in misery.

"No picking out your food," Toyokawa Sakiko said.

Riki could still see the emotions on her face from running into her old classmates. It must have reminded her of the past. The contrast with her life now was plain to see, and the pain clung to her.

Then he knew what he had to do.

Riki stood up and pulled Toyokawa Sakiko to her feet.

"Hey, what are you..." Toyokawa Sakiko was still caught up in her emotions. She looked flustered.

"I found a really beautiful place today. Let's go check it out together."

"But it's already eight thirty at night!"

Riki found a bicycle nearby and quietly rode off on it, with Toyokawa Sakiko sitting behind him. "This bicycle's been sitting here for ages. We'll borrow it for a bit."

"That's theft," Toyokawa Sakiko said, unable to believe him.

"If we're going to return it, it's not theft," Riki said righteously. "Hold on tight. We're going to the Sky Tree!"

The Sky Tree?

Before Toyokawa Sakiko could react, Riki stood up and gave the pedal a hard push. The sudden acceleration made her grab hold of Riki from behind.

The wind rushed at them from every direction. Toyokawa Sakiko had never ridden on the back of a bicycle going this fast. Neon lights streamed past them, and all sorts of colored lights blurred together, illuminating the night. Toyokawa Sakiko stared at the scene in a daze.

"Pretty fast, huh? I used to be known as the Little Prince of Bicycles," Riki said with a laugh.

"Idiot, you're going too fast!" Toyokawa Sakiko exclaimed.

"That's the whole point!"

A silver-haired girl with catlike eyes stood by the roadside, staring blankly as Riki raced through traffic on her bicycle with another girl riding behind him.

"What an interesting person," Kaname Runa said, looking intrigued.

Riki and Toyokawa Sakiko gazed down at the sleepless city of Tokyo from inside the red-and-white Sky Tree. The city lights illuminated their faces.

"Do you really think I, a local, have never seen this view before?" Toyokawa Sakiko said, annoyed.

"Yeah, I figured you'd seen it before," Riki said, rubbing his chin.

Toyokawa Sakiko puffed out her cheeks and stared at him. Was he teasing her on purpose?

"But I haven't seen it," Riki said with a smile. "More precisely, I haven't seen it with you."

Toyokawa Sakiko froze.

"You may have seen this view lots of times, but would you look at it with me anyway?" Riki said with a smile. "You've probably come here with lots of friends before, but this is my first time in Tokyo. To me, this is the most beautiful view there is, so I wanted to share it with you. This one... no, every view we see from now on, I want to share with you."

"So don't you dare give up," Riki said to Toyokawa Sakiko, who was staring at him in a daze.

Toyokawa Sakiko felt her heart give a sudden thump. All the grievances she had suffered seemed to burst forth at once, like a dam breaking. Tears rolled down her cheeks, traced a beautiful arc, gathered at her chin, then glittered as they fell to the ground.

Before, Toyokawa Sakiko would have hidden her embarrassing tears, just as she had while they ate. But now she let them fall, simply staring at Riki.

Riki smiled at her. Toyokawa Sakiko looked beautiful when she cried, too.

"What kind of resolve did you have when you said that?" Toyokawa Sakiko finally came back to herself. She gave Riki a cold look.

Before Riki could reply, she continued, "Since you've said something like that, you'll have to stand by it for the rest of your life. I won't let you run away halfway through."

The lights of Tokyo shone through the Sky Tree's glass, painting her face with a beautiful rosy glow.

"Ah, of course," Riki said with a smile.

Toyokawa Sakiko's smile was completely different from the proud, guarded one she used to wear. It was soft and gentle. She suddenly pointed at Riki. "And that wasn't a confession just now. Don't get the wrong idea!"

"What!? Damn it, you didn't fall for it! I thought I'd gotten you!" Riki said in disbelief.

"Ha ha!" Toyokawa Sakiko couldn't help laughing at his fake shock. Riki's reflection shone in her beautiful eyes. She chuckled softly.

"Idiot!"

Chapter 7: Correct and to the Point

On the busy streets of Tokyo, Riki pushed the bicycle as he walked home with Toyokawa Sakiko. He had pushed too hard and snapped the chain. The two of them were bickering as they went.

"I wasn't crying just now. You definitely saw wrong," Toyokawa Sakiko said, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, right. I saw those big, bean-sized tears. You were having a grand old cry."

"That was definitely a hallucination."

"Good thing I recorded it."

Toyokawa Sakiko's cheeks immediately flushed. She reached for Riki's phone, and he dodged her again and again. In the end, Toyokawa Sakiko still managed to snatch it. She opened it, saw that there was no video, then let out a sigh of relief and glared at Riki, who was laughing.

Riki looked at Toyokawa Sakiko, whose eyes were still a little red. Her circumstances hadn't changed, but she seemed to be in much better spirits. At least she wouldn't turn into Flying Sakiko. And maybe it was just his imagination, but she seemed less guarded around him than before.

That had to be a good change, right?

As Riki was thinking, he saw a police officer ride up beside them and stop.

"Hey, you two lovebirds over there! It's late, so get home. You're underage, aren't you?" The officer frowned. With his forty years of being single, he could tell at a glance that the two were practically giving off the stench of young love. It made him feel so jealous... admiring that he decided to uphold public morals before they did anything improper.

Young people, get your butts home and study!