What Exists for the Sake of People (1)
How does humankind differ from the other animals? Any number of answers might be given to that question, though some would reply that we use tools.
"Ack!"
Granted, certain animals—the great apes among them—use tools as well. Even so, there is no question that extraordinary creativity numbers among the hallmarks of humanity, and it is not rare for that creativity to turn a tool toward some end entirely other than the one for which it was made.
"Ack! Ack! Ack!"
…Well. Whatever else the present situation might have been, it was certainly not an experiment meant to test humanity's primordial creativity by denying a pillow its essential nature and granting it new life as a sandbag.
In a bedroom with the lights out, Ninomae hammered a plush pillow again and again and let out a wail that never managed to become language. The fuel feeding that barrage went, of course, by the name of shame.
What did I even say…!
At the time she had blurted it out thinking it sounded perfectly reasonable. Only afterward, turning it over, did she grasp how mortifying the line had been, and unable to bear it a moment longer she buried her face in the pillow and screamed.
"……Ehehe."
Then, without warning, she clutched the pillow to her chest, rolled a little across the bed, and broke into a slack, foolish grin. Judged by the swing of her feelings alone, she might have looked like someone whose mind had come a little unmoored.
"Heheh, ehehehe…!"
But suppose she had. So what? What did it matter if anyone took her for a madwoman? For this one moment, she felt as if the whole world were hers.
Shion is my lover.
Simply turning that fact over was enough to make it feel as though dopamine and endorphins were pouring through her brain without restraint. She could not keep the corners of her mouth down.
Ah, what do I do. I'm not sleepy at all…….
Thank goodness she had become a vampire. Sleep, for a body like hers, was nothing more than a choice, so she would not wreck how she felt tomorrow.
And by the time that thought occurred to her, Ninomae was already well aware that falling asleep tonight was a lost cause.
"Good morning."
"Good morning, Shion."
In the end, Ninomae never slept. She had expected as much, so from somewhere in the middle of the night she passed the hours on Etube, cycling through streams by the other members of Anathema Production.
Morning brightened all the same, and when the usual hour to rise arrived she shuffled out of her room. Down the stairs, Han Seoyeon sat on the sofa, sipping coffee.
She was certain it was something Seoyeon had once received as a gift… and yet nothing came to mind beyond church connections. It was not that the memory had gone fuzzy. That really had been the whole of the explanation she was given at the time.
"Is it good?"
"It's decent enough. Would you like a cup as well, Ninomae?"
"No. I'm not very fond of black coffee."
Trading those few words, Ninomae carefully took the seat beside Han Seoyeon.
"……."
"……."
And silence settled over them again. The only sound was Seoyeon, awkwardly turning her gaze aside as she drank.
S-so… what do lovers usually do at a time like this?
The scenery was that of an ordinary day. What had changed was the relationship between the two of them.
Before, they had simply pulled each other close or clung together without thinking very hard about it. Now that they had shared what they felt and set themselves down anew as lovers, she had no idea what she was supposed to do.
"L-let's just be the way we usually are."
"Y-yes. That would be better, wouldn't it."
They reached that agreement at once. As things stood, merely being beside each other set their hearts pounding hard enough to kill them. Unless at least the way they acted on the outside stayed as it had been, ordinary life would be impossible.
"Usually…"
"Mmmn……."
Ninomae looked at Han Seoyeon, and her cheeks flushed pink. Seoyeon did not color enough for it to show, but she swallowed a small groan and wore a look of distress.
"We were, um… unexpectedly, ridiculously bold, weren't we……."
"Yeah, we were… uuugh."
They leaned their faces close—and flinched. A hand reached to circle a neck—and flinched again. Things that, only yesterday, they had done without a shred of self-consciousness now heated their faces at the mere attempt, and both of them found themselves quietly impressed with who they used to be.
"Y-you don't have to push yourself."
"I don't want that. I still want to, though."
"……."
Her face burned crimson with shyness, and still she clenched her fists tight and spoke as if she would die unless she could kiss her. At that sight, Han Seoyeon squeezed her eyes shut.
"…Honestly. Do you do this on purpose every single time?"
"Mmph."
When Seoyeon opened her eyes again, desire was burning in them, plain to see. By now it was enough to make one wonder whether Ninomae was doing all of this deliberately, just to tempt her.
Their mouths met. Not a mere touch and retreat—their lips worked lightly against each other, a caress drawn out between them, all while they gazed at one another, heated and unblinking.
"—♥"
A tongue, lost as to where it ought to rest, stayed awkwardly in its proper place. Then Ninomae gathered a little courage and let hers slip forward, just slightly.
A small poke, light as a tap—she brushed the inside of Han Seoyeon's lip. At that timid strike Seoyeon's eyes widened a fraction. It had been a tiny movement, and still, it seemed, outside what she had expected.
Pleased by that, Ninomae smiled, soft and shy. Breathing had grown a little tight, but even the pressure felt like Seoyeon's affection.
"Haa…"
"Pwah… Shion……."
The scent of coffee filled her mouth. She disliked the bitterness of black coffee, but she did not dislike the aroma of coffee itself. Or perhaps she was simply glad because she had decided the scent belonged to Han Seoyeon. Either way, Ninomae thought, it hardly mattered.
Even after their lips parted, the two of them looked at each other with eyes gone soft and wet, gazing as if spellbound at themselves reflected in the other's pupils.
And then their mouths met again. Unlike the first time, which Seoyeon had committed on nothing but impulse, the second was something they both wanted.
This kiss was a little shorter—brief enough that, in some cultures, it might have passed for a greeting between the fond. Even so, it was enough to feel what the other felt.
"Hehe."
Ninomae smiled, bright and helpless as a child given a Christmas present, and Han Seoyeon, seeing her, answered with a small smile of the eyes.
"I like you."
"…You've taken the first move from me again."
At Ninomae's ambush, that smile thinned into a faint, defeated laugh. It had been the same with yesterday's confession. She had been thinking the very same thing, and still she was always a beat behind.
Ninomae was so hopeless at mind games that the moment she stepped into PvP she got called washed-up scrap—so why, only when she stood before Seoyeon, did she become such a master of the surprise attack? Seoyeon could not understand it.
"Then you just have to counter, don't you?"
Even under that faintly displeased look, Ninomae only smiled with a little pout and spread both arms.
"You know how I am. If you say even a single word, my heart starts pounding and I fall on the spot."
"This also feels rather like I'm being led into it."
"So… you're not going to say it?"
"…I like you."
"Fufu~"
Having said so, she pressed another kiss to the beaming Ninomae's cheek.
They stayed like that a little while, wrapped around each other and trading soft, silly talk, until Han Seoyeon spoke as if something had just occurred to her.
"Come to think of it, I believe you have a rehearsal this afternoon."
"Yes. And the concert is tomorrow. …Aaah! Even so, the final rehearsal is the one thing I can't show you, you know?"
So long as nothing went wrong, it was meant to be a performance almost perfectly identical to what would air tomorrow. Spoilers from the first note to the last—Ninomae waved her hands, insisting that this, at least, she could not show. Letting her watch practice now and then was one thing, but a spoiler this large would only drain the pleasure out of tomorrow's concert.
"No. It isn't that. I only wondered whether you might have something else scheduled this morning."
"Oh, I don't. What's going on?"
"I was planning to go out today on a personal matter. Would you be able to come with me?"
"A date invitation… doesn't seem to be what this is."
Han Seoyeon nodded.
"I'm sorry, but let's save that for next time."
"Right. Now that we're together, I want to put real care into our first date, so I think it's better than suddenly heading out the same day."
Of course, had it been Han Seoyeon asking, she would have been delighted even by a sudden same-day trip. Ninomae added that last part in a small voice.
"Then how about a real date in three days? The day after the concert and the after-talk stream are both finished."
"If it suits you, Ninomae, then by all means."
The day after every last obligation of the first anniversary was done. A request for a date on the day after that. Han Seoyeon answered while thinking over her schedule.
…No. To be honest, she thought about her schedule after she had already answered. Any plan that failed to spring to mind at once was, set beside a date with Ninomae, obviously the lower priority.
"I'm looking forward to it already. Then, as for the plan…"
"That day, let's just walk wherever our feet take us. The two of us, together."
She simply felt like it, Ninomae said, and smiled.
"That aside… anyway, getting back to what we were talking about, what is this schedule of yours, Shion? If it's personal, is it Church business?"
"No. It's far more personal than that. I simply heard that someone I've been wanting to meet has returned to Japan."
"Returned to Japan? A celebrity? No—I didn't think there were any Japanese celebrities you were particularly a fan of……."
"Not a celebrity. Closer to… how should I put it. A hero, or a great figure."
Ninomae tilted her head. If even this failed to strike any chord, then famous or not, the person in question was probably famous only in the hidden world.
"I don't know who it is, but if it's someone you'd describe that way, they must be worthy of respect. I'd like to meet a person like that too."
"I'm glad to hear you say so. We're to meet at half past eleven, so if you could be ready by then. We'll likely be eating lunch out as well."
"All right. I understand."
Ninomae nodded.
Of course, her curiosity about the person Han Seoyeon meant to meet remained, turning over in her head.
Just what kind of person could it be?
"…Um, Shion?"
"Yes. Ninomae."
Ninomae Hitomi looked at the sign before her once more, and went on in a trembling voice.
"To my eyes, um… no matter how I look at it, this is a mahjong parlor, isn't it…? And not the legal kind, either. The sort of atmosphere that feels connected to a criminal organization……."
"It looks that way to my eyes as well."
"…Here? Really?"
In contrast to Ninomae's dismay, however, Han Seoyeon nodded with a perfectly calm face.
"You didn't happen to read something like Akagi or Saki recently, get inspired, and come to respect some professional mahjong player, did you…?"
"Ah. No, not that. I don't even know the rules of mahjong. It's only that the person I mean to meet happens to like gambling."
"…They are a great figure worthy of respect, right?"
And so Ninomae decided to simply give up on thinking about it. That seemed like it would be easier.