Time slipped by minute by minute, and now it was the hour when classes let out.
Sakayanagi Arisu was still leaning back against the head of her bed. Right now, her condition was honestly rather poor—her cheeks were flushed, that rosy tint bleeding out from beneath her fair skin, making her look as though she were running a fever.
Sakayanagi Arisu lowered those purple eyes of hers a fraction, her gaze falling on the phone in her hand, its screen already gone dark.
No messages. No calls.
That detestable fellow... hadn't even sent a single message to ask after her.
Sakayanagi Arisu couldn't help thinking this in her heart, her slender fingers unconsciously stroking the phone case, the motion carrying a trace of an agitation that even she herself hadn't noticed.
Honestly...
Sakayanagi Arisu drew a deep breath inwardly, trying to calm her emotions.
Today, because of her physical condition, she hadn't gone to class.
Of course, Sakayanagi Arisu was well aware that she could have avoided getting sick in the first place.
With that massage Shikime Natsu had once given her, and that so-called promise of "two months of a normal body," her current physical state was actually quite good—better, at least, than at any point in the past dozen-odd years.
But... Sakayanagi Arisu had chosen to get sick.
The moment she made that decision, Sakayanagi Arisu even wondered whether something might genuinely be wrong with her head.
Because over the past dozen-odd years of her life, Sakayanagi Arisu had always been the one strategizing, the one in control of the whole picture. She was used to making others move at her pace, used to calculating everything with her intellect—yet she had never once imagined that a day would come when she would trade harm to her own body for a chance to see a certain someone.
Utterly... idiotic.
Sakayanagi Arisu told herself this in her heart.
And yet... even as she cursed herself a fool in her mind, Sakayanagi Arisu understood perfectly well why she had made such a decision.
Because whenever a classmate fell ill, Shikime Natsu, as the class leader, would always go to visit them.
This much Sakayanagi Arisu had observed long ago.
Whether it was a classmate from Class A, or someone from another class who was on good terms with Shikime Natsu, so long as someone fell ill, that fellow Shikime Natsu would always carve out the time to go check on them—bringing along something to eat, or simply offering a few words of comfort.
That fellow... though he usually seemed so vile, so utterly incapable of tender consideration, in moments like these he would unexpectedly show a heart-warming attentiveness.
And now... Sakayanagi Arisu was banking on exactly that thought.
To make that fellow Shikime Natsu come see her.
Just the two of them, with no other girls getting in the way—no Kamuro Masumi, no Sakura Airi, no Shiina Hiyori...
Only... herself and Shikime Natsu.
At the thought of this, Sakayanagi Arisu's cheeks, already reddened by the fever, couldn't help but grow a few degrees warmer.
She lightly bit her lower lip, the gesture carrying a coquettishness that even she herself did not realize.
Ever since that incident on the Deserted Island, Sakayanagi Arisu had deliberately kept her distance from Shikime Natsu and the rest of them.
After all... that sort of thing was not something anyone could easily accept.
In that cramped little cabin, over those several absurd nights, she had been forced to become the sole audience of that "group activity," forced to listen to those sounds that made faces flush and hearts race, forced to replay in her mind, over and over, those images she had no desire whatsoever to imagine.
And what's more... on that final night, she herself had even done that sort of... that shameless thing.
Even now, whenever Sakayanagi Arisu recalled it, she felt as if her brain were about to explode.
She must have gone mad.
She must have been led astray by that fellow Shikime Natsu—that was the only way she could have done something so irrational, so governed by pure instinct.
And so, after returning to school, Sakayanagi Arisu had almost instinctively chosen to keep her distance from Shikime Natsu.
She needed time—time to digest the shock those absurd nights had brought, time to rebuild the line of rational defense she had always prided herself on, time to tell herself that those events were merely the product of the circumstances, merely the instinctive reactions of the body, and had nothing to do with the true feelings in her heart.
Right. Nothing to do with them.
Sakayanagi Arisu told herself this again and again in her heart.
However... be that as it may.
After some time had passed, Sakayanagi Arisu was forced to admit a fact she found rather galling: she had regained her composure, but at the same time that she came back to her senses, a strange feeling arose within her heart—an itch she couldn't bear.
That feeling... was as though something were missing.
It was as if the person who ought to have been present in her life, the very one she had deliberately been avoiding, had left behind a blank where he should have stood—and that blank kept expanding, expanding, until it grew so large that Sakayanagi Arisu felt her entire self had become somehow off-kilter.
Every time she glimpsed that fellow Shikime Natsu's figure from afar in the hallway, every time she heard that fellow's name mentioned by other classmates in the room...
Sakayanagi Arisu's heartbeat would, against her will, quicken a few beats.
She wanted to talk to that fellow.
She wanted to stand before that fellow, to tease him a few times in that mocking tone of hers, then watch him wear that not-quite-a-smile expression, and be mercilessly shot back down by him in return.
That feeling... though it left her gritting her teeth in exasperation every time, she had to admit that those moments of bickering with Shikime Natsu were actually... actually rather something to miss.
Sakayanagi Arisu grudgingly admitted this in her heart.
But... every time she wanted to approach that fellow Shikime Natsu, Sakayanagi Arisu always found that there were other girls at his side.
Kamuro Masumi, or Sakura Airi, or Shiina Hiyori, or any of Shikime Natsu's other girlfriends—those girls clung to Shikime Natsu like flypaper. No matter when she looked over, there was always at least one of them at that fellow's side.
This left Sakayanagi Arisu unable, for the time being, to find an opportunity.
Of course, if it had been the Sakayanagi Arisu of before, she naturally wouldn't have minded how many girls surrounded Shikime Natsu.
No matter how many girls there were, Sakayanagi Arisu would have stepped forward of her own accord.
Since when had she, Sakayanagi Arisu, ever been afraid of such things?
Even if a hundred girls encircled Shikime Natsu, she would have had the confidence to walk in among them with composure and draw his attention.
But... the Sakayanagi Arisu of now was different.
Now Sakayanagi Arisu genuinely worried that, with her still standing right there, Shikime Natsu might carry on doing those shameless things with the other girls as if it were nothing at all.
The mere thought of such a scene made Sakayanagi Arisu feel utterly unwell.
That fellow... was truly capable of doing something like that.
In that little cabin on the Deserted Island, hadn't those fellows carried on into the small hours of the night, utterly heedless of anyone else, even though she'd been sleeping right beside them?
That sort of thing... that behavior of wallowing so wantonly, so utterly indifferent to the feelings of bystanders, in that base indulgence—just recalling it was enough to make Sakayanagi Arisu feel her ears begin to burn again.
She most certainly did not want to go through such a thing at school as well.
No matter how thick-skinned Sakayanagi Arisu might be, there was no way she could accept a scene in which she stood off to the side while Shikime Natsu got intimate with another girl right in front of her.
And so... and so Sakayanagi Arisu thought to draw Shikime Natsu out on his own.
To find a setting with just the two of them.
Sakayanagi Arisu had thought it over: at school, arranging to be alone with Shikime Natsu was not, in fact, an easy matter.
There were simply too many girls around that fellow—so many that even Sakayanagi Arisu found it a bit preposterous.
But... what if she were sick?
What if, on account of her physical condition, she didn't attend class and rested alone in the dorm?
Then... as a classmate, as the leader of Class A, surely that fellow Shikime Natsu would come alone to visit his sick classmate?
Sakayanagi Arisu turned this calculation over in her mind.
So long as that fellow Shikime Natsu came, then it would be the two of them alone.
No third wheel, no one getting in the way—only the two of them.
Sakayanagi Arisu could talk with that fellow properly, slowly, at her own pace.
As for what she'd talk about... Sakayanagi Arisu hadn't actually decided.
She just... just wanted to see him, that was all.
At the thought of this, the corners of Sakayanagi Arisu's mouth couldn't help but curve up into a slight arc, a smile that carried a maidenly shyness and anticipation she herself did not even notice.
However, this smile did not last long.
Because... a thought that left her somewhat uneasy suddenly welled up from the depths of her heart.
That fellow Shikime Natsu... he wouldn't... he wouldn't fail to come, would he...?
Sakayanagi Arisu thought this in her heart, and a trace of worry couldn't help but surface in those purple eyes of hers.
If... if that fellow Shikime Natsu didn't come.
If that fellow hadn't taken her illness to heart at all, then wouldn't she have fallen sick for nothing?
Sakayanagi Arisu suddenly felt she was being rather foolish.
To have actually done such a thing.
Letting herself catch a chill, tormenting her own body, all just to make herself fall ill and then use it as a pretext to make a man come see her...
Such a thing, in the past, Sakayanagi Arisu would absolutely, absolutely never have done.
She was, after all, Sakayanagi Arisu.
But then again... perhaps her head had long since gone wrong—ever since that night on the Deserted Island, ever since she had done that sort of thing, ever since she had decided to keep her distance from Shikime Natsu yet found herself itching with restlessness...
Her head had already stopped being quite normal.
Sakayanagi Arisu shook her head with a touch of self-mockery.
The wind blew in through the window, carrying the chill peculiar to the night, gently brushing past her silver hair and her flushed cheeks.
Sakayanagi Arisu felt dizzy, her whole body aching with discomfort.
Just as she'd thought... the taste of being sick was thoroughly miserable.
Whether in the days when her body had been frail, or now that she possessed a normal one, the taste of illness was never a pleasant thing.
That sensation of having no strength anywhere in her body, of a head clouded and heavy, of even breathing feeling like a laborious effort—Sakayanagi Arisu had, in fact, experienced it many times before.
But... for some reason, this bout of illness felt more miserable to her than any before it.
Perhaps... it was because, in the past when she fell ill, she had never once been like this—waiting for someone.
Sakayanagi Arisu drew a deep breath, then picked up her phone from the bedside.
She pressed the power button, and the screen lit up.
That fellow... still hadn't sent any messages.
Sakayanagi Arisu stared at her phone screen, those purple eyes of hers carrying a complex tangle of emotions.
It was already after classes had ended, and if her guess wasn't wrong, Shikime Natsu ought to be arriving soon.
After school, that fellow would probably first return to his own dorm to drop off his things, and then...
And then he ought to come over, right?
Sakayanagi Arisu thought this in her heart, those purple eyes of hers carrying a measure of anticipation, and a measure of unease as well.
She set the phone down at the bedside, and then simply forced herself to keep waiting.
Time slipped away minute by minute in the silence.
The sky beyond the window grew ever darker, and the chill of night grew ever thicker.
Sakayanagi Arisu still leaned against the head of the bed, those purple eyes of hers glancing now and then toward the phone at her bedside—but the screen remained dark the whole while, without so much as a single message notification.
She hadn't even eaten dinner.
Of course, in Sakayanagi Arisu's current state, preparing her own dinner was rather difficult.
Her whole body was limp, her head spinning, even standing up felt like a strain—let alone cooking.
And besides... she really had no appetite.
When one is sick, all the senses within the body grow dull, until even the feeling of hunger becomes vague and blurred.
Sakayanagi Arisu had never imagined that a single illness could reduce her to such a state.
This was even more miserable than the days when she'd walked with a cane.
In the days when she'd leaned on a cane, at least her mind had been clear; her body may have been inconvenienced, but at least she hadn't been so hazy and clouded as now, with even thinking feeling like a chore.
Of course... thanks to Shikime Natsu's help, she wasn't suffering quite as much as she had during illnesses in the past.
Just then, a steady, forceful knock at the door suddenly rang out in the silent room.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Those purple eyes of Sakayanagi Arisu's lit up in an instant, and her whole spirit lifted a few notches; the listless state brought on by her illness seemed, in this moment, to be dispelled by no small measure.
It was Shikime Natsu!
It had to be that fellow, come at last!
Sakayanagi Arisu thought this in her heart, her heartbeat quickening a few beats despite herself.
But... after thinking it over, Sakayanagi Arisu couldn't help but find it a little strange.
She hadn't expected that this fellow wouldn't send a message, but would instead knock directly on the door.
That truly was a bit odd.
Given that fellow Shikime Natsu's temperament, if he really meant to come visit a sick classmate, he would generally first send a message to ask after the person's condition, confirm whether it was convenient, and only then come over.
After all, though that fellow's temperament was vile, when it came to details like these he was actually quite mindful of propriety.
But... today there had been no message.
Had he forgotten?
Or else...
Sakayanagi Arisu didn't dwell on it too much.
No matter what, it was enough that that fellow had come.
Sakayanagi Arisu drew a deep breath, doing her best to make her state look a little better.
She didn't want Shikime Natsu to see her in this listless, dispirited condition.
Although... she really was sick, at the very least, in front of Shikime Natsu, she—Sakayanagi Arisu—still had to maintain that elegance and composure that belonged to her.
Sakayanagi Arisu slowly sat up from the head of the bed, her fair, slender legs pressing lightly against the floor.
Her body was still rather weak, and as she stood, she even felt a wave of dizziness.
But... Sakayanagi Arisu gritted her teeth and forced herself to stand steady.
She reached out a slightly trembling hand, tidied her somewhat disheveled long silver hair, then tugged at the loose nightgown she wore, making sure her appearance wouldn't seem too improper.
Then... Sakayanagi Arisu walked toward the door, one step at a time.
When she reached the door, Sakayanagi Arisu stopped, drew a deep breath, then reached out her hand and grasped the door handle.
She slowly opened the door.
"Shiki—"
There was a joy in the voice with which Sakayanagi Arisu spoke that even she herself hadn't noticed, and in those purple eyes of hers glimmered the light of anticipation.
But before the words were even finished, her voice came to an abrupt halt.
Sakayanagi Arisu froze entirely.
On that exquisite little face, the anticipation and joy she had worn a moment ago congealed in an instant.
Because the figure standing at the door was not the one she had imagined.
Standing at the door were two people.
One was Morishita Ai, and the other was Yamamura Miki—neither of them the person she had been waiting for.
"Sakayanagi Arisu, we've come to visit you."
Morishita Ai spoke to Sakayanagi Arisu in a flat, indifferent tone.
____
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