Introducing the Three Hopeless Idiots
For a long while, Shalla couldn't bring herself to say a word to Vella. The canned coffee in her hand had long since gone cold, though she didn't so much as notice it. Vella simply waited, unhurried, until at last Shalla opened her mouth.
"He found out... the one thing Rai could never, ever be allowed to know."
"..........."
"The secret I'd been desperately trying to hide... he found out."
Vella's eyes widened a fraction.
"Did Rai Sunbae catch you with something naughty?"
"What?!"
Shalla jolted upright and shrieked. "It's nothing like that!!"
"Just kidding~!"
Vella took a perfectly casual sip of her coffee.
"If I were ever caught with something like that, I'd have to kill Sunbae and then myself."
"............"
For a split second, Shalla felt a strange, creeping dread off the girl across from her.
"Do you even notice when you say things that creepy?"
"Do I?"
Vella was the very picture of serenity.
"Anyway — please, go on."
Shalla studied her a moment longer, then bowed her head again.
"Rai found out the secret, after all..."
Her hands were shaking.
"And he told me to explain myself."
"And then?"
"I..."
Shalla bit her lip.
"I screamed that I would never show my face in front of him again."
The instant the words left her, her expression crumpled.
"And then... I ran out of the house."
Vella said nothing for a long moment.
Then she asked, quietly, "Was it really... something Rai Sunbae could never be allowed to know?"
Shalla nodded without a heartbeat's hesitation.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if he knows..."
Her voice trembled.
"Rai can never go back to an ordinary life."
"........."
"The life he's lived until now, the people around him... all of it changes."
She hid her face in both hands.
"Rai is going to be unhappy."
Her voice was growing dimmer, unraveling with every word.
"I was supposed to stop that..."
Her shoulders shook.
"But I couldn't stop it to the very eeeend..."
And then the tears spilled over.
"It's my fault..."
Vella regarded her quietly for a moment.
Then she sighed.
"Haah. How pathetic."
"Excuse me?"
Shalla looked up, face streaked with tears.
"It is your fault, Miss Bug-Eater."
"Weren't you supposed to be comforting me?" Shalla grumbled through her sobs.
"I'll comfort you later," Vella said with flat finality. "The biggest problem right now is that you ran away from home."
".........."
"You bolted out of that house without one thought for the situation Rai Sunbae is in."
Shalla flinched.
"That's..."
"A little while ago, you asked me why I'd go this far to help you. Remember?"
"Huh? Oh... yeah."
Vella looked her square in the eye.
"Because you are someone special to Rai Sunbae."
"............?"
"When I first met Sunbae, he honestly couldn't have cared less about anything."
Vella's gaze drifted somewhere far away.
"Anyone who spoke to him got a halfhearted answer and nothing more. Other people's business simply didn't exist to him."
".........."
"But then, at some point, he changed."
Her voice went soft.
"He'd grumble about having to listen, and then hear people out to the very end. He'd complain whenever someone asked a favor, and then give it everything he had..."
Vella looked back at Shalla.
"And more than anything... he got brighter."
".........!"
"Do you know when that turning point was?"
Shalla couldn't answer.
Vella said quietly:
"It lines up, almost to the day, with the moment Miss Bug-Eater moved into Sunbae's house."
Shalla's eyes went wide.
"Because of me?"
"Yes."
Vella nodded.
"From the day you walked into that house, Rai Sunbae began to change."
Shalla had no words at all.
"So I came to a conclusion," Vella said, a faint smile touching her lips. "That to Rai Sunbae, Miss Bug-Eater is... a very important person."
Shalla's eyes wavered all over again.
"An important person..."
"Yes..."
Vella glanced away for just a moment.
And a touch of color rose in her cheeks.
"So, honestly... I envied you."
"What...?"
"I was jealous, too."
Shalla could only stare at her, stunned.
Vella dipped her head, looking faintly embarrassed.
"Am I not allowed to be jealous?"
"..........."
Shalla had absolutely nothing to say to that.
Swish.
A moment later, Vella rose from her seat.
"So — is Rai Sunbae at home right now?"
"I don't think so..."
Shalla's expression darkened all over again.
"Someone's chasing him. Right now."
"Huh...?"
Vella's face froze solid.
"I'm sorry, WHAT?!"
"I said, someone is chasing him right now..."
Silence stretched between them.
"And yet..."
Slowly, Vella's hands closed over Shalla's shoulders. Grip.
"You ran away from home in the middle of that?"
"............"
"Are you in your right mind?!"
"Aaagh!"
Vella shook her hard.
"Sunbae is out there being chased by someone and you just left him all alone — what were you thinking?!!"
"No, but he's...!!!"
"Who is it?!"
"Someone I've known for ages!!!"
Shalla rushed to explain. "There's no way he'd actually kill Rai!"
"And how do you know that?!"
"That's not what he's after!"
She shook her head.
"He's clearly here to torment us. If he'd wanted Rai dead, he would've done it already..."
"That doesn't matter!!!"
Vella seized her shoulders again.
"The fact remains that you left Sunbae behind all alone!!"
"..........."
"What on earth were you thinking?"
".........."
Shalla looked down at the hands gripping her. Then she let out a long, long breath.
"...You're right."
Her head sank.
"I... really don't think I was in my right mind."
Wiping her tears dry, Shalla slowly rose to her feet.
"I have to find Rai."
"Yes."
"And..."
She clenched her fists.
"I'm going to apologize."
Vella nodded.
"That's the right thing to do."
Then she asked one more question.
"And the secret you've been hiding?"
Shalla's expression stiffened.
"That's..."
"What exactly will you say to Rai Sunbae?"
Shalla thought for a moment.
"I'm... going to tell him everything..."
"..........."
A worried look crossed Vella's face.
"Will you be all right?"
Shalla met her gaze as she wiped the last tears from her cheeks.
There was no hesitation left in her eyes.
"I've already made up my mind."
".........."
This time, she would not run. No matter how much the truth terrified her — she had resolved that someday, she would lay every last piece of it before Rai.
"Let's go, Vella."
"Yes."
And with that, the two of them set their footsteps toward the night streets, in search of Rai.
Meanwhile.
Rai stood in the middle of a dark alley, restless as a caged animal, one hand clamped tight around Orchi's.
"When on earth are they getting here..."
He checked the mouth of the alley for what felt like the hundredth time.
Orchi peered up at him.
"Rai, gotta poop?"
"Ah— no. We're waiting for the people who're going to protect us."
"People who'll protect us?"
"Yep."
Rai nodded with utter seriousness. "Really, really strong people. So don't you worry."
"Ooooh."
Orchi nodded along, satisfied.
And that was the exact moment it happened.
VRRRROOOOM!!
"...Huh?"
A monstrous engine roar erupted from somewhere beyond the alley.
SCREEEEEECH---!!!
Tires shrieked against asphalt, and something came hurtling toward them at a speed no sane vehicle had any business reaching.
"Hold on..."
Rai's face drained white.
"No way..."
CRRAAAASH---!!
A battered old car barreled into the alley in a thunderclap of noise. Its bodywork was scraped all over and one headlight hung shattered — and yet it was moving far faster than any car in perfect condition.
"WhaAAAAAT?!"
THUNK--!!
Rai yanked Orchi into his arms.
"THE BRAKES! WHERE DID THE BRAKES GOOOOOO--!?!"
SCREEEECH!!
Along with someone's scream, the car ground to a halt mere inches from Rai and Orchi's faces.
A long black stripe of tire mark scorched across the pavement.
Rai's hair whipped in the wind.
"..........!!!!"
A beat of silence.
Rai stared at the car with trembling eyes.
"Are you..."
And then he screamed with every last ounce of strength he had.
"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND, TRYING TO RUN PEOPLE OOOOVER---!!!"
Clunk.
Then, the car door swung open.
".........."
Rai's expression stiffened.
The first thing to emerge from the car was an enormous black fur hat.
Long silver hair spilled down from beneath it — and then a pair of pink eyes glinted in the darkness.
"Heave-ho!"
A girl in a black double-breasted jacket and skirt climbed out, planted her hands on her hips, and flashed a huge grin.
"Ta-daa~!"
Behind her, a girl bundled in a black hooded coat climbed out with exaggerated care. Pale-faced, with eyes the color of violets, she glanced nervously around before gluing herself to the fur-hat girl's back.
"U-um... Miss Kana...?"
"Hm?"
"Did we... maybe overdo the entrance a little...?"
"It's fine, Misa!"
The girl called Kana thrust a thumb into the air.
"The flashier the entrance, the better!!"
"R-really...?"
The girl called Misa fidgeted, unable to hold still.
Last out of the car was a blonde girl — short, tousled golden hair, sleepy half-lidded eyes, and a lollipop still clamped in her mouth.
Thud.
She yawned as she kicked the car door shut.
"What are we even doing at the crack of dawn... what a pain..."
"Yuna! Your face!"
Kana barked. "We're supposed to be making the coolest entrance of our lives right now!!"
"We already got out, didn't we."
The girl called Yuna replied like even that was too much effort.
"Pose!"
"No."
"Pose!"
"Haah..."
Yuna reluctantly dragged herself into motion.
And with that, all three of them abruptly struck bizarre poses in front of Rai and Orchi. Kana took center stage, one leg thrust forward and arms flung wide. Misa, cheeks burning, hoisted one arm to an awkward half-mast while gazing at Kana. Yuna, lollipop between her teeth, simply listed sideways with the dead-eyed apathy of someone doing the bare minimum.
No sane person could have made sense of the tableau.
"...Huh."
Rai's jaw hung open at the sight.
Kana took his reaction as applause and beamed all the brighter.
"Ready?"
"Yes...!!" Misa nodded, quivering with nerves.
Yuna rolled her candy across her tongue and muttered, "Let's just get this over with."
And then, one after another, the three of them cried out:
"ANYTIME, ANYWHERE---!!!"
"J-j-j-just leave it aaaall to ussss...!"
"Haah. The greatest Awakener fix-it agency."
"WE ARE MECHAKURACHACHA---!!"
Their voices thundered through the alley and echoed off its walls.
"........."
Silence.
Emotion drained from Rai's face, little by little.
Orchi tilted her head.
"Who're they?"
Rai pointed a finger at the trio.
"Those are..."
He trailed off mid-word.
His gaze — on its way to finishing the people who're going to protect us — slid instead across the three of them.
Kana, in her enormous fur hat, beaming at the world with total, unclouded innocence.
Misa behind her, face scarlet, eyes fixed on no one but Kana.
And Yuna, lollipop in mouth, already radiating the aura of someone deep in regret for having come at all.
Rai's eyebrow gave the faintest twitch.
"...who're... going to protect us..."
He looked them over one more time.
Kana was still proudly holding her pose. Misa was sweating buckets trying to copy it. Yuna had abandoned hers entirely and was leaning against the car, yawning.
Rai murmured, very quietly:
"....... Is a refund possible?"