07 Rin
I was in different classes from Sakurako in my first and second years of middle school, but in our third year, we finally ended up in the same class.
Although Sakurako became able to use magic in our first year, she doesn’t often show it off in front of people other than me. That gave me a sense of being “special” and was a little point of pride for me, but it was also the teaching of Sakurako’s grandmother. Apparently, it’s not good to use magic frequently in front of people.
If you’re going to make magic your profession, you shouldn’t show it easily; you have to add “value” to it. In short, I think it means you should act like it’s a big deal.
That’s why Sakurako only showed her magic in front of people in special cases, like the incident where her magic book was stolen. If people asked her at any other time,
“No.”
she’d just flatly refuse
I think she could have phrased it a bit better, but that was very like Sakurako, too.
As for me, I was doing fairly well in the basketball club. In my third year, I was even made captain, and I think I was having a good time.
Since father had been looking over my studies the whole time, my scores for the five main subjects were usually around 90, so it looked like I could get into a decent high school.
My classmates would ask me in wonder,
“How do you get scores like that without even going to a cram school?”
But unlike the kids who were doing cram school work, I was only doing school work, so it was only natural. For midterms and finals, I’d start preparing three weeks in advance. On the flip side, I’d never done any “entrance exam” specific studying. I was worried if I could actually pass a high school exam like this.
“Is it really okay if I don’t do any entrance exam prep?”
I asked my father…
“It’s important to use your time at school efficiently, so just focus on your schoolwork there. After that, during summer or winter break, you can clear the requirements via the shortest path by repeatedly solving past exam papers for the high school you want to attend. Listen, just be thorough about cutting out waste. Your school grades are tied to your internal assessment, and it’s the perfect way to solidify your basics. If you neglect the basics and jump straight to advanced applications, things won’t go well, right? Besides, the only people who actually improve by going to cram school are the ones who were smart to begin with. Cram schools focus on those kids because they make for good advertising. Most people are just sold the feeling that they’ve studied. It’s impossible for every single person to get into their school of choice, after all.
In that case, studying on your own is much more effective. If there’s something you don’t understand, just use me or your school teachers. That’s a teacher’s job, after all. Or, asking a smart kid is also an option. Asking is free. Anyway, use the resources around you to the absolute limit. Don’t be ashamed of it. There’s even a proverb that says: [To ask is a moment’s shame, but not to ask is a lifetime’s shame.]”
He said all this with total confidence. Honestly, I felt his way of thinking was a bit biased and it made me a little uneasy, but having come this far, I had no choice but to believe.
I wasn’t so much believing in my father, but rather in a gamer who sticks to an efficiency-obsessed playstyle to the point of drawing flak from other players in online games.
By the way, Sakurako-chan didn’t go to cram school either. Yet, her grades were higher than mine, averaging around 95 points. She said that compared to studying magic, schoolwork was easy, and she understood most of it just by listening in class. So, taking advantage of being in the same class, I constantly asked Sakurako-chan about my studies. She was easy to talk to, and if anything, her explanations were easier to understand than my father’s. However, feeling a slight pang of guilt, I honestly confessed to her what my father had told me.
Then, Sakurako-chan smiled and said:
“Answering questions is a form of study for me, too.”
This girl might actually be a goddess.
“You think so? Isn’t saying ‘asking is free’ a bit stingy? I mean, he did tell me, ‘You can go to cram school if you want to.’ It’s just, I feel like if I went to a cram school, I’d end up satisfied just by thinking I studied, exactly like my father said. So, I think I’m fine the way things are.”
“Rin-chan’s father has always been a bit eccentric and interesting. I think it’s amazing that he can have a way of thinking that isn’t swayed by those around him.”
“I think he’s too eccentric, though. He treats his daughter’s entrance exams and games with the same vibe. Like a raising simulation? I’m grateful he isn’t the ‘you absolutely MUST go to a good high school’ type, though.”
My father teaches me, but he never forces me. He doesn’t even say “Do your best.” If I said I was “quitting studying” tomorrow, he probably wouldn’t stop me and would instead joyfully increase his gaming time. He is fundamentally self-centered.
“I’m jealous. My parents are just… normal,”
Sakurako-chan said, casting her eyes down slightly. Her parents were negative about her becoming a mage and seemed to want her to live a normal life. They weren’t bad people, but precisely because of that, they had a stance of “we don’t want our daughter doing magic.”
In reality, it seemed magic couldn’t really be used for high-profile jobs. Most were like the fortune-telling or spiritual stuff Sakurako-chan’s grandmother did.
Personally, I wanted Sakurako-chan to have a wonderful profession that spread magic to the world, but such a thing didn’t exist.
That kind of reality starts to become visible once you become a junior high student, and I could no longer irresponsibly say, “I want you to be a mage.”
Even Sakurako-chan, who had stubbornly continued her magic studies during recess since elementary school, had started to cut back after she actually became able to use magic. Now, she spends that time talking to me like this.
“Sometimes I wonder if it’s really okay to keep doing magic,”
Sakurako-chan once confessed her anxiety like that. Perhaps by becoming able to use magic, she had achieved her initial goal and felt satisfied. But I couldn’t say anything. I haven’t even decided what I want to do in the future, so there was no way I could say, “That’s definitely the right path.”
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And so, the third year of junior high, filled with nothing but studying, flew by, and the high school entrance exams finally arrived. Sakurako-chan and I discussed it and chose the same high school as our first choice. It was a bit of a challenge for me, and a place where Sakurako-chan had a bit of room to spare.
At first, I was simply happy that we might be able to go to the same school, but gradually, I started to worry: “Is this really okay?”
It was January, with some time left before submitting applications. On the way home from school, walking along a wide road lined with palm trees—despite not being in the tropics—I asked Sakurako-chan:
“Are you really sure about the same high school?”
At that moment, Sakurako-chan had an indescribably complex expression.
“Actually, I’m a little anxious too. I feel like I was only able to get by because Rin-chan was at the same school in elementary and junior high. Back in elementary school, you protected me when I was being stubborn, and in junior high, Kobayashi-san—who was so kind to me in our first-year class—was originally your friend, wasn’t she? I thought it was amazing how you and Kobayashi-san have kept a friendship going since kindergarten.”
Since I had moved to my current apartment from the area where the junior high was located, I had acquaintances other than those from my elementary school. Among them, because Haruka-chan lived nearby and our mothers were close, we were the kind of friends who saw each other occasionally even after becoming elementary students.
That’s why, when I found out Sakurako-chan and Haruka-chan were in the same class, I asked Haruka-chan: “Please look after Sakurako-chan, she might stand out a bit.”
“I feel like you can get along with anyone now, though, Sakurako-chan.”
Even as I said that, I noticed a sort of possessiveness—wishing I could always be Sakurako-chan’s number one—and I felt a bit disgusted with myself.
“I wonder. But, even if I have to make it on my own someday, I want to be with Rin-chan a little longer. That’s why it’s okay.”
Sakurako-chan smiled, her black hair fluttering lightly in the strong winter wind.
We both passed the exams for that high school.
The high school was a private co-ed school in Shibuya, Tokyo. It was technically an affiliated school, but it was a “hybrid” school where you could also aim for better universities. It sounded good on paper, but it also felt a bit non-committal. For us, who couldn’t decide on our future paths, it was perhaps just right.
It was, of course, our first time commuting by train, and at first, I went to school with Sakurako-chan. There was even a time when she pulled me by the hand and saved me when I was about to be hit by a car at the crosswalk in front of the school. However, our classes were different; I joined the basketball club in high school while Sakurako-chan joined the literature club, so our daily cycles naturally drifted apart. Consequently, I gradually began to commute alone more often.
We kept in touch via mobile, so we never became estranged, but I felt our distance was no longer the same as it had been in elementary and junior high.
And then, after being a high schooler for a while, Sakurako-chan became immersed in magic once again.
She had decided to become a mage in earnest. It might have been the influence of a senior mage in the literature club, or perhaps she really did admire her grandmother’s way of life.
I was cheering for Sakurako-chan to aim for being a mage, but since I could see myself proceeding normally to university, I also felt lonely that we were heading down different paths.
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