The TV was reporting on today's Monster incident in Maple Plain City. Apparently, two Monsters had appeared at the same time, and an unnamed magical girl had taken care of them in the end.
Even without her, the Monsters had been dealt with just fine.
Kirishima Ai curled up a little closer to the corner, her legs pressed together. She lightly bit into her croquette, making a faint scraping sound, but didn't take a bite.
"..."
Maybe this city didn't really need her after all.
It wasn't that what she did was wrong.
Kirishima Ai took a bite of the croquette and ate it slowly. The lights were off, and she was alone in the room. Even the shadow cast across it looked lonely.
She thought back to what Hina had told her earlier that day.
It wasn't anything special. She was just feeling a little disappointed and dejected...
She still had school tomorrow.
If Monsters appeared again after that, she'd get back on her feet soon enough.
After slowly finishing the croquette, she remembered what her younger sister had told her before, so she picked up the phone and dialed a number.
After about half a minute, the call connected.
"Mom, um, it's me..."
Earlier that day, Hina had asked her about Little Vermilion—the pet bird she and her younger sister had raised together.
"How's Little Vermilion doing now?"
Their mother was probably taking care of the bird now.
But she didn't know what their mother had been up to lately. After all, her parents had divorced a long time ago, and they were both busy.
"...I mean the bird Hina raised. The white one with a bit of red on its head."
For some reason, Kirishima Ai had a bad feeling.
After a while, her mother answered.
Kirishima Ai froze, thinking she must have misheard.
"She's sick... and doesn't have long to live? Why...?"
"You don't have time to take care of her? But you promised Hina..."
After a while, her mother spoke again.
The woman offered plenty of explanations.
There were lots of reasons, and they all seemed understandable enough.
Besides, birds were naturally fragile creatures, and their lifespans weren't very long. Hina might not have many chances to see the little bird again.
"..."
She fell silent for a while. The emotion rising inside her gradually ebbed away, and her gaze lowered, its brightness fading.
Kirishima Ai instinctively curled in on herself. Her voice sounded dejected as she said:
"...I understand."
"Mm. That's all. Good night."
She didn't try to keep the conversation going.
And the woman on the other end of the phone probably didn't want to talk to her much, either.
Kirishima Ai said a brief goodbye and hung up.
She set her phone aside, then lightly punched the wall with one hand.
The wall made no sound.
But her hand remained there, as if she were frozen in silence.
Kirishima Ai lowered her head.
She couldn't tell Hina about this. It would only make her feel worse.
So she was the only one who knew.
But...
Who could she tell that she was hurting, too?
Lately, it felt like one awful thing after another.
She didn't sigh or burst into tears over it. There was no one else in the room, after all, and doing that would feel a little stupid.
Kirishima Ai closed her eyes and stopped thinking about it.
She still had school tomorrow.
And...
At some point, she began to feel sleepy.
Sitting in the corner of the cramped rental apartment, she slowly closed her eyes. Her head bobbed, and her consciousness gradually faded.
Meanwhile, the TV kept playing—
"Maple Plain City is expected to see continuous moderate to heavy rain over the next few days. Residents of Maple Plain City, please remember to bring an umbrella..."
In the morning, Kirishima Ai rode her bike to the area near the school. She found a place to leave it, but thought the light seemed a little dim today.
She looked up and saw the sky blanketed in clouds.
The weather had been like this for the past few days.
And the crows had been especially noisy lately. They often chirped away with other birds over the city, giving people an uneasy feeling.
After a while, Kirishima Ai felt a raindrop land on her head. It was a little cold.
She realized it seemed to be raining.
But today... she didn't seem to have brought an umbrella.
After parking her bike, she saw that the rain had already started outside the shelter.
Raindrops fell steadily, turning the world before her into a gray haze. Students by the distant school gate hurried toward the buildings, while those with umbrellas walked at a more leisurely pace.
After thinking for a moment, she held her schoolbag over her head and ran.
Of course, plenty of rain still fell on her.
It was a little cold.
The rain quickly grew heavier, and her schoolbag wasn't very big. Before long, even her hair was soaked.
By the time she reached the classroom, the back of her hair and half her back were wet.
Kirishima Ai glanced around the classroom. She'd arrived fairly early, and quite a few classmates had gotten soaked just like her.
She sat down. Raindrops trickled from her wet hair onto her chair and desk, leaving her looking rather bedraggled.
She took some tissues from her desk and gave her face and hair a quick wipe.
Then she picked up her Japanese textbook, ready to preview the morning's language arts lesson.
The classroom gradually filled during morning study, but the teacher still hadn't arrived.
Outside the window, the heavy rain continued to fall.
Only when the class bell rang did the students see their homeroom teacher, Haihara.
She wasn't wet from the rain.
One thing worth mentioning was that Sakaki Chika had come in with Haihara.
For the past few days, Sakaki Chika seemed to have been arriving at school at about the same time as Teacher Haihara.
Haihara walked to the front of the classroom and said calmly:
"It's raining pretty hard today. Did anyone forget their umbrella?"
Halfway to school, she'd felt like it might rain, so she'd gone back home to get her umbrella.
She hadn't gotten wet, but of course, she'd arrived late.
She scanned the classroom and spotted Kirishima Ai, her hair dripping wet.
She looked like she'd gotten soaked pretty badly.
"Looks like someone did forget an umbrella."
Haihara nodded coolly, then pointed toward the doorway.
"There's a hair dryer in my office. Any girls with wet hair should go dry it."
Long hair could easily make you catch a cold if it was left wet.
She hadn't called anyone by name, but Kirishima Ai was the only girl who'd gotten caught in the rain.
Kirishima Ai thanked the teacher, then went alone to the office to use the hair dryer.
Without paying any more attention to Kirishima Ai, Haihara searched through the books at the lectern. At last, she managed to find a battered textbook with several pages missing, then opened it to the day's lesson.
"All right, let's begin."
The morning classes started soon after.
It was worth mentioning that, according to statistics, Monsters were much less likely to appear on rainy days.
There were some water-dwelling Monsters suited to rainy weather, but they generally didn't choose rainy days to go on a rampage.
Perhaps even Monsters didn't want to cause trouble in the rain.
Fighting while getting soaked was a miserable experience.
Haihara, on the other hand, liked working on rainy days.
The rain was loud, but it gave her a peaceful, pleasant feeling.
And the students didn't have to run around everywhere.
As the lesson neared its end and Haihara reached the final paragraph of the text, a sound suddenly came from the front row—
"Ah-choo..."
It was a girl sneezing.
Haihara looked up toward the source of the sound.
Kirishima Ai's face was a little red, but she didn't look embarrassed. It was more like she had a fever.
Hopefully, she wouldn't catch a cold.
"Are you okay?"
Haihara asked casually.
"I-I'm fine."
"Oh."
Today's Teacherly Virtue
After school, the sky was still veiled in gray gloom. Murky puddles filled the potholes in the road, and as time passed, the sky grew darker and darker until it was hard to tell it apart from the clouds.
Kirishima Ai gazed out at the gray sky. She didn't go home. She wasn't on duty today and had nothing else to do, but she still didn't leave right away.
Whether she went home or not didn't really matter to her. No one was looking after her; home was just a place to sleep.
For reasons she couldn't quite explain, not long after everyone else had left, she headed for the Materials Room.
Her head felt heavy, and she had little strength in her legs. Kirishima Ai felt like she wasn't herself today.
Today, she wanted to find Lily.
Anything would do. She just wanted to hear Lily's voice.
Soon, she reached the place she'd visited several times before.
Before you continue