Battle Royale

After she finished half of her roll and took a sip of her water, Yumiko said, "You feel a little better now, Yukiko?"

As Yukiko chewed on her bread, her round eyes grew wider.

"You've been shaking all this time."

"Oh," Yukiko broke into a smile. "I think I'm fine now. I mean with you by my side."

Yumiko smiled and nodded. She wondered whether she should bring up "what they should do" while they ate...but decided against it. She just wasn't feeling confident enough about her idea. It could be extremely dangerous. To go through with it wouldn't only endanger herself but Yukiko as well. But on the other hand, it was this kind of danger that was forcing everyone to panic over the deadline. What was the right thing to do?—Yumiko just wasn't sure yet.

They remained quiet for a while. Then Yukiko all of a sudden said, "Hey, Yumiko."

"Hm? What?"

"You might think this sounds stupid but..." Yukiko lightly bit on her small but full lips.

"What is it?"

Yukiko hesitated but then finally let it out, "Did you have a crush on anyone in our class?"

Yumiko's eyes suddenly grew wide.

Wow. This was exactly the kind of topic you discussed at night when you're on a study trip. After going through the rituals of playing cards, pillow fighting, and checking out the inn, late at night you could bitch about your teachers, or talk about the future, but none of those were in the same league as this topic. It was the holy topic. And of course she'd expected to have this kind of conversation during their study trip, until they'd fallen asleep on the bus.

"You mean, a guy?"

"Yes."

Yukiko's downcast eyes bashfully looked over at Yumiko.

"Hmm." Yumiko hesitated a little but then replied honestly, "Yes, I did."

"I see." Yukiko looked down at the knees of her pleated skirt and said, "I'm sorry I never told you, but I like...Shuya."

Yumiko nodded without saying a word. She already had a hunch.

In her mind Yumiko pulled out her file on Shuya Nanahara. He was 171 centimeters tall, weighed 58 kilograms, his eyesight was 1.2 in the right eye, 1.5 in the left, and although he was thin he was muscular. In elementary school he was a Little League shortstop and batted first, but he quit and now preferred playing music. He was an excellent singer and guitarist. Because of his status as the team's best player during his Little League days, combined with the fact that the first kanji character to his last name meant "seven," he had the baseball nickname of "Wild Seven," just like the cigarette brand. His blood type was B, and he was born, just as the first character of his first name indicated, in the fall. He lost his parents when he was young, and now he lived in a Catholic orphanage called the Charity House. He was best friends with Yoshitoki Kuninobu (oh God and now he was dead) who also lived in the Charity House... His strongest subjects were in the humanities, literature, and English, so he was a decent student. He had a unique face, his lips were slightly curved, but his double eyelids were sharply defined and kind looking, so he wasn't bad looking at all. His hair was slightly wavy and long, covering his neck and touching his shoulders.

That's right. Yumiko's file on Shuya Nanahara was filled to bursting (she was pretty confident hers was more thorough than Yukiko's). One of the more important subjects in the file was his height. Because, she thought, if Shuya didn't grow any taller then she wouldn't be able to wear high heels with him, because that would make her taller than him if they walked together.

But now that she was sure about Yukiko, she wouldn't be able to share these thoughts with her.

"Huh." Yumiko tried to look as calm as possible. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Hm."

Yukiko looked down. Then she made the point she'd wanted to make all along, "I really want to see him. I wonder what he's doing."

As she sat with her hands glued to her thighs, she burst into tears.

Yumiko gently touched Yukiko on the shoulder. "Don't worry. Knowing Shuya, no matter what happens—" Realizing though that this might have sounded funny, she immediately added, nervously, "You know how athletic he is, plus he seems really gutsy. I mean I don't really know but..."

Yukiko wiped away her tears and nodded, "Uh huh." Then as if she felt better, she asked, "So who do you like, Yumiko?"

Yumiko could only look up at the ceiling and force a moan, "Hmm," as she thought it through. She was in trouble. Maybe I'll just randomly pick someone just to avoid the issue.