"I'm so bored..."
In a quiet corner of Nishikino Academy, Sakuraba Ryo lounged against a bench by the roadside, staring up at the sky and grumbling to himself.
It was already mid-December now, less than half a month away from the Arima Kinen.
With the date when he'd inevitably start making money drawing closer and closer, all the ideas in Sakuraba Ryo's head for how to lose money had dried up completely.
"No inspiration..."
Losing money took ideas.
And with no ideas left in his head for how to lose money, Sakuraba Ryo had naturally lost all motivation to do anything. He lay there in the sun like a salted fish.
The national rollout of his foot-massage parlors was basically complete.
There were no fixed large-scale projects at Nishikino Academy for him to invest in, either...
And as for the galactic superteam plan, there were no new members for him to sign at the moment...
All of a sudden, Sakuraba Ryo felt like his body had been hollowed out. He had no idea what he was supposed to do next.
"I'm lost..."
"So this is what being lost feels like...?"
"I kind of want to lie here in the sun until I die..."
Sakuraba Ryo closed his eyes and squirmed around on the bench. Just then, someone quietly sat down beside him.
"You can't sun yourself to death, you know? You'd turn into dried fish~"
Sakuraba Ryo lifted his eyelids a little and looked at the person beside him.
"Obey... what are you doing here? At this hour, shouldn't you be with the international class kids?"
The girl sitting beside him was Obey Your Master.
Hearing him complain, she just chuckled and replied,
"The international class kids are fine with Tony handling them on her own. As for me, I only need to help gather some materials."
"Besides, I'm just the assistant instructor. It's not like it matters whether I'm there or not."
"That's skipping work, you know?"
Sakuraba Ryo said it in a lazy drawl.
"Hehe. Then are you going to dock my pay?"
Obey Your Master asked him with a beaming smile.
"..."
Sakuraba Ryo glanced at her smiling face and let out a sigh.
"If you've really got nothing to do, go chat with the principal. He'll find something for you."
"Haha, no need for that."
Obey Your Master's gaze drifted into the distance. From that direction, a figure was quietly watching them.
"We'll keep a close eye on that girl you're so interested in, so just relax and keep being a salted fish over here~"
That girl I'm so interested in?
A baffled look appeared on Sakuraba Ryo's face.
Who?
Was there someone he'd been paying special attention to?
He turned it over in his head, but got nowhere...
The one he paid the most attention to at Nishikino was Tamamo.
But Tamamo Cross was still in Tokyo preparing for the Arima Kinen...
So Obey Your Master obviously wasn't talking about Tamamo Cross.
Then who was she talking about?
While Sakuraba Ryo was awkwardly racking his brain trying to figure out who she meant, Obey Your Master stood up and looked at him seriously.
"We're going to turn that girl into this school's star, so don't worry!"
"..."
So who is it?!
Sakuraba Ryo screamed internally.
...
With light steps, Obey Your Master walked over to Sunday Silence's side. Following her gaze, she looked toward the bench in the distance, where Sakuraba Ryo was sprawled out under the winter sun like a salted fish.
She gave a soft laugh, as if talking to herself, or perhaps to the girl beside her.
"He really does look awfully relaxed."
Sunday Silence did not look away at once. Her eyes remained fixed in Sakuraba Ryo's direction, and only after a while did she ask softly,
"You and him... what kind of relationship do you have?"
Obey Your Master turned her head, sharply catching the faint ripple in Sunday Silence's voice. It sounded like curiosity, but also as though she were probing for something.
Obey Your Master blinked, and a hint of mischief entered her smile.
"What kind of relationship do you want us to have?"
Sunday Silence did not answer.
Her gaze remained on that distant figure lying there without a care in the world. The winter wind brushed past the ends of her hair and carried away her already nearly inaudible breathing.
Silence spread between them like a thin sheet of ice.
Obey Your Master did not rush her. She simply stood there quietly, as though waiting for the ice to melt on its own.
Sunlight filtered through the treetops, scattering small shifting patches of light at their feet.
Far away, Sakuraba Ryo turned over on the bench and continued his great mission of sunning himself to death.
And over here, the silence still lingered.
Seeing that Sunday Silence seemed determined to carry that silence through to the bitter end, the playful light in Obey Your Master's eyes gradually faded, replaced by a trace of boredom.
She gave a light shrug, as if brushing off leaves that were not really there.
"Well, I guess you don't have anything you want to say."
Her tone stayed easy, but it carried a sense of distance, stopping cleanly at the line and no farther.
"Then let's talk about something practical. Right now, I'm his specially appointed assistant instructor for the international class."
Her gaze returned to the direction of the bench, and her tone turned flat and direct.
"So if you also want to... well, walk up to him naturally like this, talk to him, or get him to notice that you're there..."
She turned her face back, letting her eyes rest for a moment on Sunday Silence's expressionless face. The corners of her mouth lifted into the faintest trace of a smile, and her voice came out clear and calm.
"Then you'll have to become strong enough."
"Strong enough... that he won't be able to ignore you."
"Maybe then, just like me, you'll be noticed by him. Maybe he'll even invest in you too~~"
After saying that, Obey Your Master turned and walked away.
Her words cracked open the silent shell Sunday Silence had built around herself over so many years to protect herself, like a stone dropped into water, sending layer after layer of complicated ripples through her heart.
She did not look at Obey Your Master's departing back. Her gaze remained fixed on that slumped figure on the bench.
Was she jealous?
Yes. A little.
That ease—being able to sit down beside him so casually, joke with a smile about him turning into dried fish, while he only answered in that lazy way of his, even tolerating a certain degree of "skipping work"...
That atmosphere, so natural it almost seemed ordinary, was something she had never experienced, and something that still felt far beyond her reach.
It was he who had given her a place to stop, to train, to... exist as she was.
That gift weighed heavily on her, enough that she always wanted to do something for him in return.
But other than running on the track, she could not seem to find any other way.
To get closer to him, to know more about him—
The thought had been like a vine growing quietly in the dark. Usually she kept it tightly pressed down, but now Obey Your Master's offhand words had dragged it out into the winter sunlight and laid it bare.
Strong enough that he couldn't ignore her.
And then what?
Become a "teacher" who could stand by his side, like Obey Your Master?
Sunday Silence's gaze shifted slightly and settled on the outline of the school building in the distance.
A teacher... seemed like a reasonable role.
It would let her cross paths with him openly and properly. She could discuss training, report on things, maybe even... walk over during quiet moments like just now and exchange a few words.
That vague idea gradually gathered into a faint but unmistakable light in her usually still eyes.
It actually... did not sound like a bad idea.
She drew back her gaze and gave the bench one last look.
Sakuraba Ryo seemed to have shifted into an even more comfortable position by now, fully immersed in his salted-fish philosophy.
Sunday Silence quietly turned and started walking.
No longer toward wherever she had been aimlessly lingering before, but toward the path leading to the training grounds.
The winter wind no longer seemed quite so cold. It lifted the ends of her hair and carried off the last scraps of her hesitation.
Get stronger.
Then find her own way to walk to a place where he would be able to see her.