Tokyo Ravens Volume 5 Chapter 1

--Am I cute?

--I'm cute right?

--Say I'm cute.

--I win.

The sky was clear and cloudless on the comfortable May day. The streets of s.h.i.+buya no longer gave off the lazy air of spring, welcoming the season and a refres.h.i.+ng new look.

The seasons changed, spring flouris.h.i.+ng like life blooming from a bud and preparing to enter the next phase. The people walking on the street were also all in high spirits.

Unfortunately, not everyone could move forward so positively like the seasons.

"......Ah......"

Tsuchimikado Harutora walked on the asphalt road with a lifeless expression, lifeless face, and lifeless presence, heading towards the Onmyou Academy building. He walked on the familiar road with heavy footsteps, his entire body lacking motivation.

Next to him was his childhood friend, Tsuchimikado Natsume, the master that he served as a s.h.i.+kigami according to 'family tradition'.

Natsume wasn't any better than Harutora. She had a languished expression, a languished face, and a languished, low-spirited presence as she walked next to her childhood friend. Her beautiful self had become a withered flower, and it was quite difficult to tell that that figure walking to the academy was a prodigious excellent student. The black uniform she wore contrasted with her greatly.

"......Ugh...... I really don't want to go to cla.s.s......"

"......Yeah......"

"......I don't actually want to skip cla.s.s, I just don't want to go to school......"

"......I understand...... I really understand your feelings......"

"......Ahh...... I really don't want to go in the academy......"

"......Yeah......"

It wasn't too hard to understand this situation if it were just Harutora, who essentially had a negative att.i.tude towards studying. But it was rare and even unprecedented for the serious, hardworking Natsume to be as depressed as Harutora.

It wasn't because of the so-called May Fever that the two of them were so listless. Actually, they had lost their fighting spirit last month already.

Everything could be attributed to a new student who had just entered the Onmyou Academy - Dairenji Suzuka, a First-Cla.s.s Onmyouji known as the 'Child Prodigy' and who had a fatal relations.h.i.+p with the two of them. She had entered the Onmyou Academy to study with the ident.i.ty of a special student - and she had noticed Natsume's 'secret'. Since then, Suzuka had used this as leverage on the two, making them into slaves who had to obey her orders and who she bullied wantonly.

On the outside, she maintained the idol appearance of the youngest of the Twelve Divine Generals, but in secret, she bullied the two who had no means to oppose her. Her behavior was insidious and cunning. Since they couldn't beg their teachers or cla.s.smates for help, the two could only silently endure the outrage that was Suzuka.

As for the 'secret' that Suzuka had a hold of, in short, it was Natsume's 'true ident.i.ty'. Natsume wore the black male uniform, hiding her own gender according to the tradition of the famous Tsuchimikado family. She had entered the Onmyou Academy to study posing as a male, but actually she was a girl. The people who knew this secret included Harutora of the Tsuchimikado branch family as well as the good friend and cla.s.smate of the two, Ato Touji. However, before Suzuka had entered the Onmyou Academy - in the summer of last year - she had once seen Natsume first-hand when she was back home, when she was dressed as a miko with her original appearance and trying to impede Suzuka's actions.

"......Hey, Natsume......"

"......What is it, Harutora......"

"......You were dressed as a miko last year......"

"......I was dressed a miko last year...... So what?"

"......Can't we pretend you're actually a guy who crossdresses?"

"......It would be good if we could smooth things over that way...... But she shouldn't be that easy to fool, right? Also, it's too late to look for reasons now."

"......That's true......"

"......It's no use to struggle anymore......"

"......Everything's over......"

"......There's no chance of success at all......"

The two of them spoke listlessly and depressedly. Natsume had purposefully feigned a boy's tone when she was posing as a male in the past, even towards Harutora, but recently she showed her 'true nature' often. It was evidence of how exhausting her everyday life was and how hard she had it.

"Come to think about it, it's all your fault because you went to eavesdrop at the store that we're so miserable now!"

"Didn't I apologize many times for that?"

"At the start, you said that you would leave things to me. Could it be that you don't trust me?"

"Those things are over now, how long are you going to bear a grudge? Also, Harutora, back then weren't you also--!"

The two of them started arguing and finding fault with the other, and the pedestrians on the side of the road hastily moved away one by one in surprise. The two of them didn't have the energy to pay any heed to the surrounding responses, too busy arguing.

Since they had been persecuted by a tyrant for a long time, the originally deep relations.h.i.+p between the childhood friends had taken a hit. This kind of quarrel had almost become commonplace recently. Excessive pressure and exhaustion led to the mind becoming overburdened, and to lighten the pressure, the mind seeked an emergency escape outlet to vent itself, starting the mind's self-defense mechanisms. The two of them argued fiercely with each other for a while, then suddenly went silent like they had lost their power. Their faces, which once again seemed gloomy, was the best proof.

The symptoms had already entered the final stage.

"......Sorry......"

"......No...... I should apologize......"

The two of them lowered their gazes, apologizing to each other with wooden tones.

It was Natsume's own fault that her ident.i.ty had been exposed for making a big mistake and acting impulsively. But, since Suzuka remembered Natsume's appearance, the problem of her ident.i.ty being exposed was just a matter of time. When she had appeared before the two of them again, they no longer had anywhere to run.

Harutora and Natsume sighed in unison, once again walking towards the academy building with heavy steps. They were numb inside, even gradually losing the feeling of 'emptiness'.

"......She'll probably call us to come over again today......"

"......Probably after school ends......"

"......She'll probably make us talk about what happened in the first year again......"

"......I really don't know what else there is to talk about...... No, there's something...... But......"

"......All that's left are things that we 'can't talk about'......"

"......Yeah......"

Their melancholic faces once again twisted in bitterness.

"......Why is it that we can never trick her with those harmless lies... Does that brat have telepathy or some other extraordinary ability......"

"......We're too bad at lying......"

"......Can we find some way to resolve this......"

"......What can we do......"

The two childhood friends repeated their dejected conversation.

A new day was about to start in the sunny, comfortable month of May.