Whether Mizusaki’s joke had landed, or the pointless exchange had relaxed her guard, Kannabi Rei had her lips twisted on her straight face, shoulders shaking slightly. That girl who’d worn the black curtain was laughing.
Perhaps having given up, Kannabi Rei finally raised her face properly. From behind her bangs, sharp, upturned eyes that gave a much keener impression than I’d expected peeked out.
“I’m… Kannabi Rei… I joined the biology club. S-so… nice to meet you.”
That might have been the first time I’d clearly heard her voice. Her self-introduction in the classroom had been too quiet to hear well. It was a somewhat husky voice that was strangely pleasant to the ear.
In the end, the first activity concluded with only the modest achievements of self-introductions and exchanging contact information.
The problem was that night.
—Sorry for the sudden message. If you’re free, could you show around Tsunagai tomorrow?
Such a message came to me personally from Kannabi Rei.
While bewildered by the suddenness, I had no particular plans so I accepted. As fellow first-years in a biology club with only three members total, it was important to deepen our relationship.
—Should I ask about Mizusaki’s schedule too?
When I sent an additional message, a reply came immediately.
─—No. That’s fine.
It must mean that Kannabi Rei was handling the coordination. Since she said it was fine, I thought there was no need to check specifically, so I entered the given schedule into my calendar.
Noon, meet at Tsunagai Station North Exit ticket gate.
And the next day, I would come to bitterly regret not having confirmed.
The crisp, clear air seemed to continue high into the sky, and the sun was dazzlingly bright.
At the north exit of Tsunagai Station, there was a small bus rotary surrounded by banks and restaurants. The family restaurants in this area were often filled with middle and high school students who commuted by train. That’s precisely why locals like Mizusaki and me rarely used them.
The street extending north from there was a shopping district lined with specialty stores on both sides. The customers tended to be older, and for that reason, bus stops were installed at ridiculously short intervals throughout the shopping district. Since elderly people frequently got on and off, it was practically like an all-stops train. That’s why we didn’t use the bus much either. Bicycles were overwhelmingly faster.
Incidentally, on the south side of the station, beyond the bypass was immediately the ocean.
Since it was a holiday, the station area was bustling. For a station with only one line, it was quite crowded. Though not as much as during cherry blossom season, tourists could be seen as well. There were plenty of places to enjoy, like shrines, temples, and seaside parks.
I stood against the wall so as not to be in the way, waiting for Kannabi Rei and Mizusaki.
A train arrived, and people poured out from the ticket gate all at once. Among them, I recognized an unexpected person.
“Ah, Del-chan!”
The one waving at me with a nickname I’d never heard before was—Iwama Rio.
She was in casual clothes. A white shirt with a light beige knit cardigan, and below that a violet culottes skirt. Her shoes were sporty black sneakers. The impression was more casual than when in uniform, but her overwhelming honor student aura was magnificently maintained.
Normally I’d greet her with “good morning,” but since it was almost noon, I couldn’t use that. I lowered my head slightly while making a sound like “sup” from my mouth.
Just when I thought it was a chance encounter, Iwama came to stand beside me.
“It’s such nice weather. I’m glad!”
“Y-yeah…”
My bewilderment clearly showed through.
From Iwama’s tone, it seemed she recognized me as her companion for today’s outing. But I had no recollection of this whatsoever.
So the conclusion was simple. Kannabi Rei had called Iwama. Her message to me hadn’t mentioned a single letter about Iwama… But thinking logically, could such a thing really happen?
A communication error? When calling people out on a holiday, could you fail to mention other members?
Not an error but deliberate? Would that make Kannabi Rei the kind of girl who does things like Mizusaki?
…Setting that aside, there was something I wanted to confirm.
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“By the way, that way of addressing me?”
“Huh? Way of addressing?”
Why was she so surprised? We weren’t in the kind of relationship where we’d use such a nickname.
“That ‘Del-chan’ thing just now.”
“Oh, Rei told me about it… sorry, did you not like it?”
Iwama’s eyebrows drew a beautiful figure-eight. I was taken aback by that honest expression.
“It’s not that I dislike it…”
“Then Del-chan it is! And you don’t have to use ‘-san’ with me either.”
Before I knew what was happening, a mysterious nickname was decided. Was this also Kannabi Rei’s doing? I’d thought of her as a quiet, reserved girl with few words, but if all of this was deliberate, I’d have to reconsider that assessment. If I thought of her as the type to conceal outing members, it wouldn’t be strange for her to fabricate someone’s nickname without permission. But “Del-chan”…
“…Where are we going today, again?”
To get a handle on the situation, I threw out an ambiguous question. It was a way of asking that would work whether Iwama was supposed to be coming along, or if Iwama had plans to act independently.
“You’re going to show us around, right, Del-chan?”
“Ah, yeah, that’s right.”
True, I’d been asked “Could you show around?” and answered YES. I had, but I never imagined that much would be entrusted to me.
In the first place, why was I going out with Iwama on a day off? We should have been nothing more than classmates whose seats happened to be near each other.
But at this point, worrying wouldn’t help. I tried naming a tourist spot that came to mind.
“Have you been to Hachiman Shrine?”
“I have! Just once, during cherry blossom season. But it was so crowded then that I could only see people’s backs. I was just thinking I’d like to take my time and see it properly.”
“Then… let’s try going to Hachiman Shrine.”
After saying it, my eyes naturally moved toward Iwama. Since Iwama was facing the ticket gate, I could now see her profile. Her ponytail was tied high on her head.
Sure enough, a handcrafted cherry blossom ornament was blooming there.
“Rei!”
“Rio, good work.”
Hearing their exchange, I snapped back to reality.
It was absolutely impossible, but situationally, I’d ended up looking as if I were entranced by Iwama. And before I knew it, Kannabi Rei—dressed all in black—was staring intently at me.
While removing her black wireless headphones and hanging them around her neck, she gave her greeting.
“…Was I intruding?”
She really says things just like Mizusaki.
Since it was right around lunchtime, we decided to eat first.
I’d had a bad feeling since Iwama arrived, but Mizusaki hadn’t been invited in the first place.
“Today I was planning to tour Tsunagai with Rei, but neither Rei nor I are from here, so we thought it would be nice to have a local person show us around.”
For some reason, Kannabi decided to call me out. Although Kannabi wasn’t lying, she invited me without telling me the crucial information that Iwama would be coming. I fell completely for that trick and mistakenly thought it was a biology club gathering, which is how I ended up being dragged along on an outing with two girls and one guy.
Mizusaki also lives in the neighborhood, and I could even call him right now, but if I contacted him at this point, I could already see the future where he’d tease me with “Honestly, Delta, you can’t even talk to girls properly without me!” and then turn me down saying “I’d feel bad interrupting your situation with a flower in each hand.”
Like with the cherry blossom incident, I was determined to get through today peacefully on my own, out of sheer stubbornness.
“There’s an udon shop I recommend. If you don’t have any allergies, how about there?”
“Udon! Sounds great!”
Kannabi nodded at Iwama’s reaction.
“Actually, I was just thinking I could eat wheat until I die.”
Really?
We’d only spoken for the first time yesterday, and I still couldn’t grasp Kannabi’s character, but apparently when she’s with Iwama, her communication skills get amplified. The conversation was flowing relatively smoothly. However, I still had no idea what she was thinking. The reason why I was called as the sole guide also remained unclear.
While walking toward the udon shop, I decided to listen to the two girls’ conversation for a while.
“Rei, you always get off at the next station, right? Is your house nearby too?”
“That’s right. The neighboring Sunamizu Town. But I’m the ultimate indoors person, so I actually haven’t come over here much.”
“Ultimate indoors person” was quite a unique way to put it.
Kannabi was conversing quite normally with Iwama. I’d often seen them talking in the classroom, and since they were close enough to go out together on holidays like this, they must be quite comfortable with each other.
Iwama, the class representative, versus Kannabi, who emanated an aura that kept people at bay. They were polar opposites, but perhaps they had some hobby in common. Or perhaps—Iwama was just looking after Kannabi, who didn’t seem likely to make friends anytime soon.
“Rio, which area do you live in?”
“I’m in Ebiwakagawa. It’s close but far, and I also didn’t really come here until middle school.”
Ebiwakagawa City was the most urban town in this area. Ebiwakagawa Station was the eastern terminus of the line that runs through Tsunagai, and several large commercial facilities lined up in front of the station. When Tsunagai City residents wanted to make a big purchase, they’d sometimes travel about thirty minutes to Ebiwakagawa.
I was inwardly relieved to learn that Iwama wasn’t a student from out of prefecture.
“I’ve always thought this, but isn’t Ebiwakagawa a weird place name?”
Kannabi suddenly said something like that.
“Is it the sea or a river, is it old or young—I wish they’d make up their mind.”
I wondered how Iwama would react to having the name of the town where she lived called weird, but—
“Right?! I’ve been curious about that forever too!”
She agreed wholeheartedly.
“When I looked up the city history at the library, they had the origin of the place name, and there’s a theory that it was originally a river called Wakagawa, which was renamed to distinguish it from the nearby Akagawa. Apparently Wakagawa had lots of freshwater prawns called tenaga-ebi, and they were a local specialty. When I actually investigated, I could still catch lots of them in the gaps between the tetrapods at the river mouth and…”
After saying that much, Iwama closed her mouth as if realizing something, and Kannabi said:
“Interesting. Maybe I should try looking for ebi (prawns) sometime.”
Iwama smiled happily.
“I’ll help! If you’re going to fish for them, the bait can even be fish sausage—”
From there until we reached the udon shop, they were engrossed in conversation about how to catch freshwater prawns.
Incidentally, the caught ebi are apparently good when deep-fried without batter.
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