Chapter 2.7: Cosplay Girl

The last bell rang. Tokio pushed his notebook into his bag and stood up. Around him, the classroom was loud with the usual end-of-day noise. Chairs moved and people talked. Someone was already upset about a quiz tomorrow.

He put his bag on one shoulder and walked to the door. The hall was full of students.

The air outside was warm and a little wet. It smelled like someone was burning leaves far away. The sky was gray with clouds. It looked like it might rain later, but not yet.

He was walking across the yard when he heard voices.

“See that? Over by the gate?”

“Dude. She’s pretty.”

Tokio looked without thinking. Three boys from another class stood near the bikes. They were not hiding their stares. One boy pointed toward the main gate.

“Damn. Is she waiting for someone from here?”

“No freaking way. Girls like that don’t wait. They get waited for.”

The others laughed. Tokio kept walking, but his eyes followed their look.

She stood by the gate wall, under the shadow of an old cherry tree. Her hair was long and white, straight and clean. She wore a black turtleneck and light jeans. She had no bag. She was just… standing there.

Her eyes were blue. Blue like the sky.

She looks calm, Tokio thought. Like she’s looking at something far away.

She leaned on the gate. She seemed relaxed, like she could wait for hours. But something about her was strange. She was too still. Too quiet in the middle of all the noisy students.

Tokio slowed down.

Something about her bothered him. The hair. How she stood. The—

Wait.

He stopped walking.

Cosplay girl?!

He stood still in the middle of the yard. Another student almost hit him, said something angry, and walked around. Tokio didn’t hear him. His legs moved before he could think. He stopped a few feet from her. Her blue eyes finally saw him. There was a little funny look in them.

“What the heck are you doing here?” Tokio’s words came out fast.

Shina Yatoizawa tilted her head. “Huh?”

“Yeah, it’s you.” Tokio pointed a finger at her, then felt dumb and put his hand down. “The cosplay girl. From—you know. The whole…” He moved his hand over his own face, like he was wearing a mask. “The whole thing.”

Shina blinked. She looked confused, and maybe a little upset.

“Cosplay girl?”

“You know what I mean.” Tokio crossed his arms. He saw other students look at them and he stopped.

Shina looked at him for a long time.

Then she let out a small breath. It sounded tired.

”…Anyway.” She stood up straight and fixed her hair. “I was looking for you.”

Tokio was surprised. “Me?”

“Yes. You.” She looked right at him.

After a while — Inside a cafe

The cafe was quite luxurious. Tokio had walked past it many times but never gone in. Inside, it smelled like coffee and old wood. Warm lights hung over old tables. Only two other people were there. An old man with a newspaper. A girl with headphones on a computer.

Tokio sat stiffly at a small table. Shina sat across from him. She was already drinking a cappuccino. Another cup sat in front of Tokio. He hadn’t touched it. The white foam on top was slowly going away.

He looked at the cup like it might be a trick.

She ordered for both of us, he thought. She didn’t even ask me. Just… two cappuccinos.

The foam kept going flat.

Is she really going to pay? She said she would. But people lie. Then the bill comes and they say ‘Oh, I forgot my wallet’ or ‘Can you pay this time?’ and then I’m paying two thousand yen for coffee I didn’t want—

“Hey,” Tokio said. “Are you sure you’re giving me a treat?”

“Yeah. Why not?” She put her cup down and looked at him.

“That’s—” He stopped. “So you mean you will pay?”

“Hmm?” She looked truly confused. “Well, yeah. I asked you to come. Of course I’m paying.”

Tokio stared at her. Then, very slowly, he picked up his cup. He brought it to his nose and sniffed it. Once. Twice. Like a super careful cat checking new food.

Shina’s face went flat.

“Well,” Tokio said quietly into the cup, “hope it’s not poison.”

“Huh?” Her voice went high. “Are you serious?! I can’t believe you’re still on that crap. Come on, that was just for dramatic effect to recruit you, you buffoon. No one’s going to put you to sleep and kidnap you with a silly little treat.”

“Well, someone’s looking angry,” Tokio muttered, mocking her as he took a sip.

“I’M NOT ANGRY!”

Tokio took another sip.

Shina spoke again, still huffy.

“Anyways, I need to borrow you.”

Tokio blinked. “Whaaat? Borrow me?”

“For shopping.”

The word just sat there between them.

“Shopping,” Tokio said in a flat voice.

“Yeah.” Shina’s cheeks turned a little pink. She looked away and started playing with the sugar holder on the table. “My mom and dad are busy. Always busy… And the other people are at school or work or…” She stopped talking. Then she added quietly, “And besides, it would be no fun to go alone. I would get bored.”

Tokio stared at her.

Get bored?

“You want me,” he said slowly, “to go shopping with you.”

“It’s not a big thing!” she said fast. Her voice went higher. “I just need a few things. Clothes. Maybe some stuff. It won’t take long. And I bought you coffee, so you kind of owe me—”

I knew it was a trap, damn it. And I fell for it…

“I didn’t ask you to buy me coffee.”

“—and it’s not like you have other plans, right? You said you’re not in any school clubs, so—”

When the heck did I even tell her that?

Tokio let out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair. “Fine.”

Shina looked up. “Wait, really?”

“Hah, whatever.” Tokio took a slow sip.

A few minutes later, he finished his drink, grabbed his bag, and followed her.

“I’m going to regret this,” he muttered. “I can feel it.”

Two hours later…

Outside a shop, under the awning that kept the rain from touching them, Tokio and Shina stood deadpan.

Tokio’s hands were full of shopping bags. Not his. All hers. He had been promoted to unpaid manual labor.

And the worst part? It was raining like hell outside. It was absolutely destroying the world.

Tokio was now certain of one thing.

He should’ve run.

He sighed. “It’s really coming down.”

“Yeah, yeah. Should’ve checked the weather first.”

He stared at the sky for a while, at the heavy, dark clouds.

“Hey.”

She looked up. “Hmm?”

“What year are you in?”

“Same as you. Third year.”

“I see.”

“Where do you go to school?”

She picked up a light blue scarf and held it up to the light. “South State Academy.”

Tokio’s grip tightened on the bags.

South State Academy.

The name hit like cold water. Everyone knew that private high school. It was the kind of place you saw in the news. “South State students win big science contest.” Private. Fancy. Expensive.

Whoa, he thought. South State… That’s the elite school. One semester there probably costs more than my parents send me in a whole year.

And Shina said it like it was nothing. Like it was just a normal part of her life.

“So you live in South City?”

“Yeah. Wait… you didn’t know?”

“How the heck am I supposed to know?”

She looked up at the sky. “I see.”

She paused, then spoke again after a moment.

“Anyway… thanks for today.”

Tokio blinked. “Huh?”

Shina didn’t answer.

Instead, she stepped out from under the awning. Right into the rain.

“Hey—what are you doing?!”

The rain hit her instantly, soaking through her hair and clothes in seconds. But she didn’t flinch.

She took a step forward. Then another. And then, slowly—

She spun. Once. Twice.

Her wet hair followed the motion, clinging and then lifting again. The rain blurred everything, turning the street into streaks of gray and light.

Tokio just stood there under the awning, arms full of bags, watching like his brain had temporarily shut down.

“…What are you even doing?”

Shina laughed. This time, it was clear. Light. Unfiltered.

“I don’t know.”

She spun again, a little faster.

“For once, I don’t have to think about anything… This world is so peaceful.”

The rain kept pouring.

Tokio shifted the weight of the bags in his hands.

“…You’re going to catch a cold.”

“Maybe.”

She didn’t stop.

Tokio clicked his tongue and looked away for a second, like that might somehow make this situation more normal.

It didn’t.

When he looked back, she was still there, spinning in the rain like the world didn’t exist.

Tokio exhaled slowly. “…Unbelievable.”