My voice echoed through the hallway, its volume out of place with the emptiness.

     Showing no surprise whatsoever, she turned to face my direction.

     As the gentle sway of her golden hair came into my view — so beautiful that I thought it to be not of this world — its brilliance caused me to involuntarily squint.

     My stomach sank. I wasn’t even at home, and yet this was the first time I had felt such a weight.

     「What is it, Kurumi?」

     Her serene voice. Her tender smile. Her refreshing scent. All of these qualities, an average human like me could never compare to. I felt that within the way she carried herself, there was reflected an accumulation of experiences that I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

     I wondered what sort of life Sorahashi-san had lived up until now.

     Such thoughts, as improper as they were, were what I found myself thinking in this moment.

     「You shouldn’t do that.」

     「…Do what?」

     「Make some big announcement to ask him to be your master.」

     「Why? Kurumi, this doesn’t concern you anymore, doesn’t it? You refused to become my master, did you not?」

     「Well… Yeah, but…」

     Her gaze pierced through me. Inside those eyes, I failed to see the same person that had just asked someone she barely knew to become her master.

     Why was she so unfaltering, I wondered?

     Normally, one would have been at least a little embarrassed to say the things she said.

     No — even despite our unfamiliarity with each other, I knew that she was the type of person to which words such as “normal” had no measure.

     「Sor…」

     I halted just as I was about to say her last name.

     Her gaze stopped me in my tracks. I knew that no matter how much I tried to sway her with common sense, she would never give up. Her unbelievable proposal was dreadfully earnest, perhaps motivated by circumstances beyond her control.

     I took a deep breath.

     If she continued down this path, all that awaited her was her own ruin.

     …And besides. This was the first time in my life that someone had ever told me that “it has to be you”. I wasn’t unhappy at that. I’d always thought that I was replaceable, that there hadn’t ever been something for which I was absolutely needed.

     Whether it be about dogs, pets, or masters…

     I didn’t have a clue about any of that. Not a single bit, but…

     「——Sera.」

     Once again, I took a deep breath and then called out to her.

     If there was something I knew nothing about, then I simply had no choice but to do it in a way I knew how. Just like how I once did so for Mizuki, and just like how I do so now for Mutsuki.

     「It’s no good to be this selfish.」

     There was so much I didn’t understand. I had no clue what she saw in me, and I had no clue what the right thing to do was.

     Even so, I thought that I had to do what I could.

     That was the way that I had lived my life up until now.

     「I don’t know how much you want a master, but…  it’s a dangerous thing to pursue, so it would be no good to say anything to Kiyomura-kun.」

     「…No matter how much you tell me ‘no good’ this, ‘no good’ that, all of that is simply just bothersome, you know?」

     She said in her sweet voice.

     I knew that if I wanted her to stop, I would have to say what she wanted me to say. Feeling my breath about to catch, I began to speak.

     「I’ll do it. …I’ll become your master. So don’t do anything dangerous. It would make people sad.」

     「…Aha. Does that include you?」

     「Of course it does. …If someone I knew were to be put in danger, then obviously I’d be sad.」

     I spoke with a confidence that surprised even me.

     Even so, it was the truth, so there was no need to correct myself.

     Sorahashi-san’s expression turned into one of surprise, and she promptly let out a giggle.

     「I see, I see. Then you’ll have to make sure you properly collar me, okay?」

     「Collar…?」

     Was that some sort of metaphor?

     As I was lost in confusion, she daintily stepped toward me.

     She was like a fairy inviting me into the unknown. For a moment, There was a weight in my stomach much heavier than even before. I felt as if there was no turning back.

     「I’ll be in your care, Master.」

     She innocently laughed.

     Unsure of what to say, I opened my mouth just to close it again. Without waiting for my reply, she walked away with a satisfied look on her face.

     Was this really for the best?

     The moments where I felt that weight in my stomach were usually moments when something bad was going to happen, or when they had already happened. For a second, I contemplated on if there had been a better way to go about this, but there was some other small detail on my mind.

     Why was there, just a little bit, this fluttering feeling in my chest?

★

          It broke my heart to see Mizuki cry.

          When we were young, our parents were busy with work and often wouldn’t come home until after we had fallen asleep. Her tears of loneliness made me pained and miserable, so I’d always stay by her side until those tears stopped, cook her the Hamburg steaks she loved, and fall asleep together with her.

          Now that I think about it, those times are why I’m like this now. It’s made me unable to leave someone in trouble by themselves.

          When I did something that brought others joy, it made me happy too. Just the smiles of others were enough to fill my heart. Now that our parents had changed jobs and could make time for our family, I’d stopped needing to take care of Mizuki myself.

          It made me kind of happy that Mutsuki and my other friends still leaned on me, even if it could, at times, be difficult.

          I never thought that my affinity for being relied on would bring me this sort of trouble.

          It’s not even something I could grimace at.

          「Good morning, Kurumi. Did I keep you waiting?」

          I had hoped that this might be a dream after all, but that hope was dashed in an instant.

          This Saturday was supposed to be just like any other, but it had turned into a Saturday full of the abnormal. Sorahashi-san had invited me over to an area that I had never been to before. Until last year, I had been so busy at home that I’d rarely ever gotten a chance to hang out with people, so I was a little nervous.

          I didn’t need to be there to cook for Mizuki anymore though, so it wasn’t a big deal now if I went out for some fun.

          But for some reason, I just couldn’t calm down, perhaps because I felt like I was doing something wrong.

          「No, I just got here.」

          「I see.」

          In truth, I had shown up half an hour before we were supposed to meet. I didn’t mention it because I thought that I would have come off as overenthusiastic.

          Sorahashi-san looked at me and giggled.

          「…What’s up?」

          「Nothing at all.」

          She suddenly began to walk off.

          I rarely ever got to see my classmates in clothes other than their uniforms. I lived quite far from school, and I could count on my hands the amount of times I’d been out with my friends. I wasn’t too sure, but maybe that was why it felt refreshing to see Sorahashi-san out in normal clothes.

          Come to think of it, I’d heard someone say before that she looked like a princess. Perhaps they were right. She already gave off a dainty feel in her uniform, but today, her appearance was especially delicate. It was because all the frills made her even girlier.

          Those were the sorts of clothes I used to dress Mizuki up in. I couldn’t recall what sorts of things I used to wear, though.

          「Hey.」

          In that instant…

          Her crystal-clear eyes came ever closer to me. As indifferent of personal space as always, my body froze in surprise at her approach.

          Yeah. She and I certainly lived in different worlds. The sights reflected within her eyes and the ones reflected in mine must be completely different.

          「It’s a Saturday. Why the uniform?」

          「I don’t really own many clothes.」

          「Is that so?」

          「Mhm. I don’t really go out much, and the uniform works well enough. That’s why I thought it’d be fine to go out in this.」

          「Hmm?」

          She walked around me with a glimmer of curiosity on her face.

          Then, she smiled.

          「Yep, just as I thought.」

          「What is it?」

          「Your uniform suits you, Kurumi. You’re cute.」

          Her compliment was straightforward. It seemed that Sorahashi-san was entirely unconcerned by things like roundabout phrases and ambiguous words.

          I supposed this was one of the reasons why people liked her so much.

          I let out an aimless laugh.

           「That’s good, then.」

          Truthfully, I wasn’t used to receiving nor giving compliments. Giving them to Mizuki was one thing, but to anyone else, it was a different story. Because of that, I couldn’t even naturally return that sentiment with something like “You’re cute too, Sorahashi-san.” In the first place, just meeting up with her on our day off made me nervous. It was taking my all to have a conversation with her.

          I suppose, though, that the events of yesterday also still lingered in the mood.

          As I thought on that, she began to stare at me. Her eyes, as beautiful as today’s blue skies, clearly reflected back my appearance. For some reason, I understood immediately that her gaze was filled with expectation.

          Maybe she was just easy to read?

          Anyway.

          For a moment I searched for the right words, and then I softly spoke.

          「Sorahashi-san, your clothes are cute too.」

          「My clothes?」

          「…Sorahashi-san, you’re cute.」

          She brightly smiled at my words.

          Her bearing carried an innocent air, but somehow, she wore a mature smile.

          I was a bit surprised at how different it was from how she usually smiled in class.

          「For that, you get plus 100 points in the Master category.」

          「What is that, even?」

          「Maybe if you save up enough points, something really good will happen?」

          Saying nothing more, she started walking.

          「Come on, Master. Let’s go!」

          I wished she wouldn’t call me “Master” in broad daylight.

          Perhaps because I’d ended up saying something that I usually wouldn’t, I began to feel a bit in high spirits. Without feeling the need to call back in response, I went to stand with her shoulder to shoulder. I could no longer sense that invisible line that stood between us in the classroom.

          But, if you asked me if that was a good thing, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.

---

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