Chapter 26: Let Me Start by Telling You How Meiko and I First Met
Now then, as for this suddenly appearing Inugashi-whatever-his-name-was, there was only one course of action for me to take.
From the looks of it, Inugashi was Meiko’s childhood friend, a ninja, and apparently in love with her… or something along those lines.
In other words, it wasn’t hard to imagine that he had his own reasons for showing up here.
…So what?
Meiko was my precious “childhood friend,” an irreplaceable person whose absence simply could not be allowed.
More importantly—
I had a duty to protect her.
“Hey, Inugashi-whatever. What exactly do you want with my Meiko?”
“…What?”
As though shielding Meiko—who had stubbornly maintained an attitude of ‘I don’t know this person’ toward Inugashi the entire time—I stepped in front of her and faced him directly.
The moment I blocked his line of sight, I could sense the faint relief that escaped Meiko behind me.
In contrast, Inugashi stared at my face and his eyes flew wide open.
“Y-You’re…! Kirishiro Gouto!”
Apparently, he even knew who I was.
Hmm.
In that case… this might already be beyond salvaging.
While calmly considering, deep in my mind, what sort of disposal method would be appropriate for Inugashi, I spoke to him in an intentionally composed voice.
“I don’t know what you’re shouting about, but Meiko is my ‘childhood friend.’ I don’t know anything about you.”
“Wha—!?”
“Isn’t that right, Meiko?”
“My only ‘childhood friend’ is Gouto-kun~”
As expected of Meiko.
Even in this situation, she gave me exactly the words I wanted.
But having been utterly rejected by her, Inugashi’s eyes widened even further as he desperately protested.
“I’m her real childhood friend! He’s the fake one!”
A fake, huh?
What nonsense was he spouting?
I glanced briefly toward Taketsuru and Kuwajima nearby, only to find both of them looking completely lost about what was happening.
The difference in accumulated achievements was obvious.
I had built up years’ worth of Childhood Friend Points with Meiko.
He had none.
In other words, it was painfully clear whose position held more weight here.
No matter how much Inugashi babbled out his delusions and desires, facts would not change.
“Sure, maybe you were Meiko’s childhood friend at some point. So what?”
“W-What did you say?”
“That fact does not negate the fact that I am Meiko’s ‘childhood friend.’ Which means the only truth here is Meiko’s own words. Right, Meiko?”
“Yeah, I seriously don’t know that guy. Gouto-kun’s the only one for me.”
Meiko still refused to even look Inugashi in the eye.
Faced with that repeated rejection, the poor guy looked moments away from collapsing to his knees.
Alright. That should be enough.
“First of all, we’re standing right in front of the university gate. Stop yelling. You’re bothering everyone nearby.”
“Ghk… y-you’re right. Sorry.”
“Second. Meiko has no intention of talking to you, so quietly back off.”
“Wha— no! That can’t be true! Meiko is my childhood friend!”
He was still going on about that.
Good grief.
I really hadn’t wanted to use this move, but there was no helping it now.
“Inugashi. If you don’t cut it out already, I’m going to expose the fact that you’re a ninja.”
“!?!? N-N-Ninja!? Th-there’s no such thing as ninjas! What proof do you even have that I’m a ninja!? D-Don’t say weird stuff!”
Seriously, did all ninjas react the exact same way whenever someone pointed them out?
I quietly turned toward Taketsuru, who had been standing beside us watching the whole exchange with a blank expression.
“Taketsuru. If I told you that guy was a ninja, would you believe me?”
“Eh? Well… if you say he’s a ninja, then I guess he’s a ninja. Dunno though.”
“Kuwajima?”
“If Kirishiro-kun says so, then he’s probably a ninja, yes. Ah, can I record this? I kinda want to upload it to social media under the title ‘Modern Ninja Suffers Heartbreak.’”
And just like that, the two of them accepted my words without hesitation.
Behold.
This was the power of friendship forged over time.
The strength of a bond that transcended ordinary companionship!
…Kuwajima, maybe the reason you don’t have many friends is because you immediately think about turning everything into online content.
“WHY WOULD YOU BELIEVE HIM!?” Inugashi shouted, staggering backward in visible panic after the nearby civilians casually accepted that he was a ninja.
I gave him a smug look.
“This is the power of friendship built by an utterly ordinary college student.”
“No, friendship and believing in ninjas have nothing to do with each other!”
Apparently, Inugashi was unfamiliar with one of the most basic truths of the normal world:
You do not doubt the words of your best friend.
In a last-ditch struggle, he fired back desperately.
“I-If I’m a ninja, then Meiko’s a ninja too!”
Ah.
So he intended to drag her down with him if he was going to die.
A naïve move.
Taketsuru and Kuwajima were my best friends, not his.
His words held no weight with them.
“What the hell is this guy talking about…?” Taketsuru muttered.
“There’s no way ninjas exist in modern society,” Kuwajima added flatly. “Do you not have common sense?”
“That’s insane!!”
Taketsuru and Kuwajima had made perfectly reasonable, common-sense statements.
At that moment, I knew it was time to finish this.
“Inugashi. Back off for today. This is your last warning.”
“Tch—! J-Just you wait, Kirishiro Gouto! I’ll absolutely take Meiko back from you someday!”
Throwing out that stereotypical parting threat, Inugashi finally stormed off.
Left behind were Taketsuru and Kuwajima, both still struggling to process the bizarre theatrical performance they’d just witnessed—
And Meiko, who was shooing Inugashi away with repeated flicks of her hand like she was chasing off a stray cat.
“Well then,” I said, “shall we head home?”
The garbage cleanup was done, after all.
Meiko nodded repeatedly in agreement.
“Oi, seriously,” Taketsuru cut in, “at least explain what the hell that was. Aren’t we your best friends?”
“Exactly,” Kuwajima said. “Please tell us what kind of fascinat— I mean, terrible circumstances are going on here.”
It seemed my best friend and my female best friend both wanted to know the details surrounding me and Meiko.
Which was fair.
After forcing them to watch that, refusing to explain anything would be a bit abnormal.
I turned my gaze toward Meiko.
This involved her too, after all.
“Meiko.”
“I’m fine. It’s not exactly something we should reveal… but, well, if it’s those two, it should be okay.”
“Understood.”
Meiko answered with a weary smile.
Now then.
If we were going to explain everything, we’d need both time and a place.
Meiko, Kuwajima, and I were free anytime, but Taketsuru had work.
“Taketsuru. You’ve got your part-time job later, right? In that case, the timing shou—”
“Dude, if my friend’s wrapped up in some crazy situation, there’s no way I’m going to work. I’m taking the day off.”
“…What?”
I froze in genuine horror.
That single statement from Taketsuru shattered my understanding of common sense far more thoroughly than the existence of ninjas ever could.
“Y-You’re allowed to do that? Just casually skip your part-time job like that…? Normally speaking, even if you’re in the middle of a life-or-death battle, shouldn’t you still avoid missing work at all costs…?”
“Well, normally yeah, you shouldn’t skip,” Taketsuru admitted. “But your textbook on common sense is seriously warped.”
That… couldn’t be.
Wasn’t it standard for part-time workers to crack a cynical grin and say things like—
“Ah crap, I’ve got work after this, so let’s finish saving the world quickly.”
Wasn’t a part-time job schedule supposed to symbolize irreplaceable everyday life itself—something whose priority occasionally rivaled the fate of the world?
As expected of a hero from another world.
He truly was abnormal.
And so, after all that, the four of us gathered in my apartment like usual, sitting around the table with drinks and snacks laid out between us.
When I was alone, I normally kept the air conditioner off to save electricity, but with four people packed into the room, it was unbearably hot.
I switched on the ancient built-in AC unit, and as the machine rattled to life while releasing the faint smell of mold, I found myself hesitating over where to even begin.
Now that it came time to actually explain everything… I honestly didn’t know how to start.
“Um, before we hear the story, can I ask one thing first?”
Just then, Kuwajima quietly spoke up.
I gestured for her to continue with my eyes alone, and she looked toward Meiko.
“I’ve been wondering this for a while, but… Meiko-chan talks way more casually whenever she’s around Kirishiro-kun, doesn’t she?”
At that observation, the person most shocked of all was Meiko herself.
Normally, Meiko only used that rough, underling-like speech pattern around me. Whenever other people were present, she spoke like a perfectly ordinary college girl.
There probably wasn’t a single one of her friends who knew about that side of her.
“U-Um, well… I have really good hearing, so sometimes I accidentally overhear you two talking…”
“Ah… well… uh…”
But Kuwajima wasn’t merely Meiko’s friend.
She was my best friend.
Given how often she stayed near the two of us, it wouldn’t be strange if she’d caught occasional moments where Meiko let her guard down.
Taketsuru nodded along as well.
“Yeah, I kinda noticed too. Nekoyanagi-san only relaxes her expressions around you, Kirishiro.”
“Well, it’s subtle enough that most people probably wouldn’t notice,” Kuwajima added.
“Ugh, this is awkward…”
Meiko laughed in embarrassment, trying to brush it off.
It wasn’t like they were criticizing her speech pattern.
She was simply mortified that her carefully maintained act had already been seen through.
“Isn’t it fine, Meiko?” I said. “At least around these two, you can relax.”
“…Yeah, guess so. If we’re explaining everything anyway, it’ll probably be easier if they know about that stuff too.”
At my encouragement, Meiko cast aside the mask of the refined college girl and returned to the rough, underling-like tone she always used around me.
Taketsuru and Kuwajima smiled warmly at her.
Once again, the perfectly ordinary relationships between us had grown even stronger.
“Well then,” I began, “I guess we should start with the story of how Meiko and I first met.”
The moment I opened the discussion, Taketsuru immediately interjected with a lingering question.
“You two seem insanely close, but that Inugashi guy earlier was also a childhood friend… right? Sorta? But he felt weirdly distant from you.”
“Yeah,” Kuwajima agreed. “Especially with Kirishiro-kun. You two felt like complete strangers. Though maybe your social circles just never overlapped except through Meiko-chan.”
A fair question.
Still, it wasn’t surprising that Inugashi and I barely knew each other.
After all, the periods during which he and I each became Meiko’s ‘childhood friend’ hardly overlapped at all.
“Alright then. I’ll start from how Meiko and I met. The first time we encountered each other was—”
And in a perfectly matter-of-fact tone, I declared:
“Exactly one year ago.”
“…Huh?”
“Fweh?”
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【Me＠Apparently the Appraisal Skill★】
One-line comment: ‘Wait, what does that even mean?’
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Hey.
Don’t start throwing hallucination pop-ups into the middle of this.
Besides, you can literally see the past anyway, so you already know, don’t you?