Chapter 25

“Hey Ryuichi, Golden Week is coming up soon. Got any plans?”
“…Not really thinking about it.”

April was already coming to an end, welcoming the arrival of May. With May came the customary long holiday, but Ryuichi had zero plans on his radar. Up until now, he usually spent this time drifting through street-scouting excursions or hitting up adult establishments with Makoto and the others, but wondering what he should do this year, Ryuichi finally opened his mouth.

“…Guess I’ll go check it out after a long while.”
“Oh, you’re going?”

It was a periodic party he had been invited to before but never ended up attending; Ryuichi figured showing his face there after so long wouldn’t be a bad idea.

“Right before the holiday starts, huh. Alright, guess we’re going then.”

The one who said that was Kurosawa Kaname, who had walked over alongside Makoto, the very same guy who had tried to lay a hand on Shizuna before. He was treated as a delinquent just like Ryuichi and Makoto, but at his core, he was a decent enough guy.

“I’ll clear my schedule. Well, if I’m not feeling it, I’ll just head right back.”
“Got it.”
“Yup, yup. Man, I’m actually looking forward to it.”

With that, Kaname excused himself to use the restroom and left the classroom.
Left alone with Makoto, their conversation flowed smoothly thanks to their easy friendship. Amidst that, feeling a slight gaze on him, Ryuichi looked over and, as expected, locked eyes with Shizuna. She had been chatting with her friends, but all of them were looking straight at Ryuichi together.

“…Good grief.”

Shizuna stared intently while her friends grinned teasingly. When Ryuichi gave a rough scratch to his head and raised a hand, Shizuna smiled happily, and her friends started fussing over her, playfully nudging her shoulders.

“Hey, Ryuichi.”
“Hm?”
“That choker around Rindo’s neck, did you buy that for her?”

Ryuichi gave a nod.
The black band fastened around Shizuna’s neck was indeed a choker. Up close, it featured a delicate floral pattern and made for quite a stylish piece; just as Makoto pointed out, it was something Ryuichi had bought and given to her.

“Well, she said she wanted it.”

When he had gone out with Shizuna a while back, Ryuichi had presented her with a decent-sized stuffed animal as a token of appreciation for her bento and other things. He had thought that would be the end of it, but she had happened to linger in front of a choker at a shop they stopped by.

“What’s wrong?”
“Eh? Ah, um… I just thought something like this was nice. It sort of looks like a collar, and it makes me feel like I belong to Ryuichi-kun… Ah, what on earth am I saying?”

Chokers could technically be considered a fashion accessory, but sure enough, some might say it looked just like a collar. When he bought it for her, she had blinked in wide-eyed surprise before immediately hugging it to her chest with radiant delight.

“Never figured she’d actually wear it to school, though.”
“Well, ain’t no harm in it? Might be a few people who catch on, but that thing just looks like ordinary fashion anyway.”

A fine woman generally looked good in whatever she wore. There were limits, of course, but that choker suited Shizuna remarkably well. Even now, she was absently pressing a finger against the choker as if touching something precious. Since she didn’t seem consciously aware of it, she must have treasured it straight from the bottom of her heart.

“So, did anything happen with him?”
“…Who knows. If you call it something happening, I suppose it did.”
“Figured. Haha, looks like you’re being thoroughly loathed.”

The person Makoto glanced at was Souhei.
Several days had passed since that incident, but Souhei still hadn’t figured out that the woman Ryuichi had been holding in his arms was Shizuna. Since Shizuna hadn’t mentioned anything to him either, he presumably remained entirely in the dark about the truth of that night.

“…It’s a bit of a pain how landing a fine woman makes you feel this weird sense of superiority toward the guy who likes her.”
“Ain’t that fine? Honestly, I think acting bold suits you better. Unless you’re actually dating or something, which you ain’t, right? Then Ryuichi’s got nothing to worry about.”
“Right… I suppose so. Heh, you’re being unusually nice to me today.”
“When ain’t I nice to my pals?”

Ryuichi laughed, wondering which side of his mouth he was talking out of.
Even as he chatted with Makoto, Souhei kept shooting daggers at Ryuichi with a glare fit for a mortal enemy. Ryuichi had a rough idea why, but he couldn’t pinpoint any definitive reason, especially since he hadn’t spoken a single word to Souhei since that day.

“…Well, whatever.”
“Don’t sweat it.”

With that, Ryuichi turned his gaze away from Souhei.
When school let out, Ryuichi met up with Shizuna and the two of them headed home together.

“Hey Shizuna, did you say anything to that guy?”
“That guy? Ah, you mean Souhei-kun?”
“Yeah.”

When Ryuichi nodded, Shizuna began to explain.
She didn’t seem particularly emotional about Souhei, but a faint trace of anger could be read in her eyes.

“He just kept saying whatever he wanted. Telling me to stop talking to Ryuichi-kun, telling me to stop getting involved with Ryuichi-kun, claiming that Ryuichi-kun goes to shady places and brings home loose, easy women.”
“Hmph.”

So Souhei had apparently been laying it pretty thick to Shizuna behind Ryuichi’s back. But right there, the full picture of why Souhei had been glaring so intensely finally clicked into place. In other words, Shizuna must have talked back to him.

“Well, at first I tried to hold back and keep my temper… but in the end I couldn’t take it anymore, so I told him I hated Souhei-kun and to never come near me again. Oh, and told him not to talk to me either.”
“You laid it out pretty clearly, huh.”
“Of course I did. I don’t have enough patience to sit quietly while someone talks trash about the person I love.”

Shizuna said this with a dead-serious expression, her eyes reflecting Ryuichi’s figure.

“…Is that so?”

Ryuichi still couldn’t wrap his head around why she could speak with such fierce conviction. Why go that far out of one’s own way for someone else? Was just “liking” someone really enough to make you care that much about an outsider’s opinion? It was a genuine mystery to him.

“Shizuna…”
“What is it?”

Her eyes pierced straight through him.
Spotless, clear, and unclouded—a beautifully straight gaze burning with light. Depending on how you looked at it, her very being had already been dyed by Ryuichi’s hands. Yet even so, the fact that she hadn’t lost her radiance made her truly dazzling.

“You really are a fine woman, Shizuna.”
“If you think so, it’s all thanks to Ryuichi-kun. Ryuichi-kun is the one who changed me like this. That’s why I was able to become a woman who makes Ryuichi-kun say things like that.”

Shizuna smiled with a grin that came straight from the bottom of her heart.
Thump. Ryuichi’s heart gave a massive leap. Captivated by her unwavering devotion and the way she looked at him with her whole being, his hand moved on its own. Reaching out to stroke her smooth, pale cheek, she leaned eagerly into his palm, rubbing against it like a affectionate pet. Seeing Shizuna look so endearingly cute, a soft chuckle slipped past his lips.

From there, the two of them walked side by side down a path stained by the setting sun.
As Shizuna’s house came into view, she seemed to notice something and suddenly grabbed Ryuichi’s hand.

“What’s wrong?”
“Over here.”

Pulled along by Shizuna, he hid behind the corner of a wall. Wondering what was going on, he watched as she pointed toward the front of her house. Standing there was Souhei, engaged in conversation with Sakie. While Souhei frantically gestured as if trying to convey something urgent, Sakie pressed a hand to her cheek, listening with an expression of casual disinterest… Shizuna let out a heavy sigh.

“He’s even talking to Mom now… He really doesn’t know when to quit.”

That was the exact moment “Souhei-kun” officially downgraded to “that guy” in her vocabulary.
From Souhei’s perspective, trying to warn Shizuna away from a dangerous individual was probably the correct, textbook behavior for a childhood friend. He wasn’t technically wrong; no, he wasn’t wrong at all—it was just that he was overwhelmingly, completely missing the bigger picture.

“Both Mom and I adore Ryuichi-kun… What a pathetic sight.”

The words dripped with outright dismissal.
To begin with, neither Shizuna nor Sakie had been forcibly violated by Ryuichi. They had offered their bodies and nurtured their feelings of their own free will. Even if outsiders couldn’t understand it from the outside, the fundamental premise of genuine mutual affection was right there.

“From his point of view, it’s goodwill… though you could call it self-righteousness. That’s probably why the more Shizuna talks back to him, the more he drives himself crazy wondering why she won’t understand. I’m the root cause of it all, but man, you’ve got yourself one troublesome childhood friend.”
“Ryuichi-kun isn’t the cause, he’s just the catalyst. The cause is me.”

In a sense, Shizuna wasn’t wrong either.
Watching Souhei flounder in his complete misalignment, Ryuichi found himself pondering. This world was the manga world Ryuichi remembered, and the people inhabiting it hadn’t changed one bit. Yet even as he existed here with his own conscious will, did he really need to keep stressing over the fact that it was originally a manga setting?

“……………”

To tell the truth, he didn’t really care anymore. Whether it was due to Ryuichi’s original carefree nature or not, to put it crudely, he simply stopped giving a damn. As long as he was alive, he figured the real winner was whoever enjoyed their life the most.

“Shizuna.”
“Ah.”

He placed a hand on the shoulder of the girl standing beside him.
In a single instant, the severe glare Shizuna had been directing at Souhei vanished, replaced by a look of adoration as she gazed up at Ryuichi.

“You are a woman who belongs to me alone.”
“You are a thing that belongs to me alone.”

A voice he had heard somewhere else overlapped seamlessly in his mind.

“Yes! Of course I am♪”
“Yes. Of course I am♪”

And Shizuna’s reply connected directly with the words lingering from his memories.
Something was bound to shift and manifest clearly before long. Ryuichi felt a distinct, undeniable premonition of it.