Battle Royale

Noriko Nakagawa was another girl who was neutral like Yukie Utsumi's group. Other than her kind eyes, which were noticeably dark, she had a round, girlish face and shoulder-length hair. She was petite and playful. In short, she was an average girl. If there was something particular about her, it was probably the fact that she wrote the best compositions in literature class. (This was how Shuya got to know Noriko. Shuya would spend break periods writing lyrics for his songs in the margins of his notebooks, and Noriko would insist on reading them.) She usually hung with Yukie's group, but because she'd showed up late today, she had no other choice but to take an open seat.

Shuya half-extended his hand and raised his brow. For some reason Noriko became flustered and said, "They're leftovers from the ones my brother begged me to bake. They're best fresh, so I brought them for you and Mr. Nobu."

"Mr. Nobu" was Yoshitoki Kuninobu's nickname. Although he had bulging, friendly eyes, the nickname seemed appropriate for someone who could be, oddly enough, mature and wise. None of the girls called him by that name, but Noriko had no problem calling the boys by their nicknames, and the fact that this hardly offended any of them indicated how uniquely disarming she was. (Shuya had a sports-related nickname, the same name as a famous cigarette brand, but in the same way that Shinji was referred to as "The Third Man" no one called him by this to his face.) He'd already noticed this before, Shuya observed, but she's the only girl who calls me by my first name.

Yoshitoki, who'd been listening in on them, interrupted. "Really? For us? Thanks so much! If you made them, I bet they're delicious."

Yoshitoki snatched the bag from Shuya's hand, quickly untied the ribbon, and took out a cookie.

"Wow, these are awesome."

As Yoshitoki praised Noriko, Shuya grinned. Could he be more obvious? The moment Noriko sat next to Shuya he'd been repeatedly glancing over at her, sitting upright, completely nervous.

It was a month and a half ago during spring vacation. Shuya and Yoshitoki had gone fishing for black bass at the dam reservoir that provided the city its water supply. Yoshitoki confessed to Shuya, "Hey Shuya, I got a crush on someone."

"Huh. Who is it?"

"Nakagawa."

"You mean from our class?" "Yeah."

"Which one? There are two Nakagawas. Yuka Nakagawa?"

"Hey, unlike you, I'm not into fat girls."

"What the... ? So you're saying Kazumi is fat? She's just a little plump."

"Sorry. Anyway, well, uh yeah, it's Noriko."

"Huh. Well, she's nice."

"Isn't she though? Isn't she?"

"All right, all right."

Yes, Yoshitoki was totally obvious. But in spite of his behavior Noriko seemed oblivious to Yoshitoki's feelings for her. Maybe she was slow with stuff like this or something. It wasn't surprising, given her personality.

Shuya took a cookie from the bag still in Yoshitoki's hand and examined it. Then he looked over at Noriko.

"So they lose their flavor?"

"Uh huh," she nodded. Her eyes strained, oddly. "That's right."

"Which means you're sure they taste pretty good."

He might have learned this form of sarcasm from Shinji Mimura, Shuya often used it lately, to the dismay of other classmates,

but Noriko just emitted a happy laugh and said, "I guess so."

"Come on," Yoshitoki interrupted again. "I told you they were good, didn't I, Noriko?"

Noriko smiled. "Thanks. You're so nice."

Yoshitoki all of a sudden froze up as if he'd jammed his finger into an electric outlet and turned mute. Staring silently into his lap, he proceeded to devour his cookie.

Shuya grinned and ate the rest of his cookie. The warm, sweet taste and smell spread through his mouth.

"These are good," Shuya said.

Noriko, who'd been observing him all this time, exclaimed, "Thank you!" He could be wrong, but somehow the tone of her voice was different than when she thanked Yoshitoki. Well, wait...true, she was staring at him while he was eating the cookie. Were they really leftovers from the batch she'd baked for her brother? Maybe she'd baked them for "someone else." Or maybe he was just plain wrong.

Then for some reason Shuya thought of Kazumi. She was a year ahead, and a fellow music club member until last year.