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Chapter 66: Chapter 4 Part X

While Kushida headed towards the back of the store, I wondered just how many times she\'d come here. Sakura and I followed close behind.

"I wonder if they\'ll fix it right away..."

Sakura, looked rather anxious as she took out her digital camera and held it tight.

"You really love your camera, don\'t you?" I asked.

"Yeah. It\'s weird, isn\'t it?"

"No, not at all. It\'s a good hobby to have, isn\'t it? I get the feeling there\'s a significant story attached to that camera. It\'d be great if they fixed it soon."

"Yeah."

"There it is! The repairs counter."

The store was crowded with a huge number of products and difficult to navigate, but towards the back was the place where they handled repairs.

"Ah..."

For some reason, Sakura suddenly stopped in her tracks. When I glanced over at her, I noticed she was wearing an expression of blatant fear and revulsion. It seemed that something had upset her quite a bit. However, when I followed Sakura\'s line of sight, I saw nothing out of the ordinary.

"What\'s the matter, Sakura-san?" Kushida asked.

She also must\'ve thought Sakura\'s behavior was strange.

"Ah, umm... Well..."

Although it seemed like she was about to say something, all Sakura did was shake her head and take a deep breath.

"It\'s nothing."

She donned an earnest smile, and walked to the repair counter. Kushida and I exchanged looks, but decided to follow her. Maybe it really was nothing, like she said. Kushida talked to the store clerk and asked him to repair the digital camera. Meanwhile, incredibly bored, I checked out the appliances on display.

Kushida\'s worldly wisdom was certainly impressive. Even though it was her first time meeting the store clerk, she was soon talking to him as if they were longtime friends. Sakura, the camera\'s owner, spoke only when she needed to give her consent or to clarify something. Even so, the store clerk appeared pretty fired up. He aggressively engaged Kushida in conversation, without even pausing for a breath. Although I could just barely hear the conversation, it sounded like he was asking Kushida on a date. He asked if she wanted to see a certain female idol\'s concert, which was being screened over in the theater.

He seemed like quite the otaku, judging from how passionate he was about a wide range of subjects, from idol elections to idol magazines. Because Kushida didn\'t show any signs of disliking the conversation, he probably thought he could successfully ask her out. However, I believed she would try her hardest to sidestep the invitation.

He seemed to be getting excited over talking to such a cute girl, but their conversation didn\'t proceed any further. As I\'d expected, Kushida began to feel awkward. In order to conclude their business, she urged Sakura to hand over the camera. When the store clerk opened up the camera to confirm the contents, he saw that part of it had been damaged from the fall. That was why the camera wouldn\'t turn on properly. Fortunately, because Sakura still had the warranty card, the item could be repaired free of charge.

Finally, all Sakura had to do was fill out her contact information, and we\'d be done. But Sakura\'s hand suddenly stopped as she filled out the form.

"Sakura-san?"

Kushida, thinking that something strange was going on, called out to Sakura. She seemed to be hesitating for some reason. I didn\'t intend to say anything at the time, but her attitude seemed to weigh on my mind. And also—

The store clerk, who had previously been absorbed in his conversation with Kushida, now stared directly at Sakura. Both Sakura and Kushida were looking down at the form, so they didn\'t notice. But the clerk had unsettling eyes. Even men would find it a little creepy.

"Can I see that for a second?" I asked.

"Huh?"

Standing next to Sakura, I reached for the pen she was holding. She didn\'t seem to understand why I wanted it, but she anxiously handed it over.

"When the repairs are finished, please contact me."

"H-hey, wait a minute. Contact you? She\'s the owner, isn\'t she? That would be..."

"The manufacturer warranty explicitly shows where the item was sold and the date of purchase. Also, I doubt there\'d be any legal problems with me putting my information down. It should be perfectly fine if the user\'s name is different than the purchaser\'s."

Before the clerk could say "I understand", I\'d entered my name and my dorm room number into the required fields.

"Or, is there a reason why she specifically has to enter her information?" I added, still without looking back up.

"N-no, not at all. I understand. There\'s nothing to worry about," the clerk said.

Shortly after I\'d completed the form, I handed it over with the camera. Sakura gently patted her chest and sighed in apparent relief, but when she learned it\'d take two weeks for the camera to be repaired, she grew discouraged. Her shoulders slumped.

"That clerk sure was something else. He talked with such incredible passion, I was just so shocked," Kushida said.

"Didn\'t you feel kind of disgusted?" Sakura asked.

"N-no, I wasn\'t disgusted by him. Do you know something? About that clerk?"

Sakura gave a meek nod. I guessed that something had been off even when she first purchased the camera. Turning to me, she asked, "What do you think, Ayanokouji-kun?"

"Well, he had this sort of vibe, like he\'s kind of hard to approach. Especially for girls."

"That was kind of what I was trying to get at before... I was scared to go to the repair shop alone because of that..."

Kushida seemed to have an epiphany. She turned to me with wide eyes.

"Did you know about this, Ayanokouji-kun?"

"Well, she\'s a girl. I thought she might be reluctant to write down her address or cell phone number."

Being a guy, I wouldn\'t be troubled if my information got out there.

"Th-thank you...Ayanokouji-kun. You really...saved me."

"Nah, I didn\'t really do anything. I just wrote down my address. When they contact me about the repairs, I\'ll get in touch with you right away, Sakura."

Sakura nodded, looking glad. If that\'s all it takes to please you, then it actually makes me sorry for you.

"You really looked out for Sakura-san," Kushida said.

"Well, you\'re making it out to be bigger than it was. Honestly, I was only watching out for that rather weird clerk. I guess he gave the impression that he really, really loved girls."

"Ha ha... That\'s certainly true."

Even Kushida appeared nonplussed. For someone like Sakura, though, who wasn\'t accustomed to fawning male attention, I thought it was the right answer.

"Since you were with me today, Kushida-san, we completed our task without me having to talk at all. Thank you."

If Sakura had faced that store clerk one-on-one, she probably would\'ve run away.

"Oh, no need to thank me. If you\'re okay with my help, then I\'m happy to lend a hand any time. Sakura-san, you really like your camera. Don\'t you?"

"Yeah... I\'ve liked cameras ever since I was little. My dad bought me one before I entered junior high, and I absolutely fell in love with it. Or I suppose you could say that I just love taking pictures... I\'m not really well-informed when it comes to this stuff, though."

"I think being knowledgeable and liking things are separate matters. It\'s wonderful to be so passionate about something."

"Sakura, you usually take pictures of landscapes, right? Do you ever take pictures of people?"

"Huh?!"

Sakura stepped backwards, looking quite flustered. Did she find that question unpleasant? It\'d seemed like an extremely natural question to ask. Like, did she just take pictures of landscapes or were they her specialty? Sakura shut her mouth, and her body stiffened.

"Th-that\'s a secret."

Well then. It sounded like she didn\'t want to go into the details with me.

"W-well, it\'s just... It\'s embarrassing," replied Sakura, her cheeks reddening. She looked down as she spoke.

Although my imagination ran wild, I couldn\'t let it show on my face. I had to remain neutral.

"Oh hey, that reminds me. Sorry to ask, but since we\'re here, is it okay for me to look around the store?"

"Was there something you wanted?"

It wasn\'t so much that I wanted something, as there was something on my mind.

"The two of you can wander around, if you want."

"I think we\'ll come in, too. Right?" Kushida said.

"S-sure. After all, I feel bad you both had to come with me... Besides, I do have the time."

I didn\'t exactly want them there, but apparently they\'d decided to come along. Kushida and Sakura. When I watched the two of them walk side by side, I realized that they\'d managed to grow closer in just one day. Kushida, I wish you\'d share a little of your people skills with me.

Since they seemed to be having girl talk, I decided to leave them alone and went to look for what I wanted. I went into my phone\'s contacts. Back when Ike had involved me in the whole gambling thing, I\'d exchanged contact information with some people. Even though I still only had a few names in my address book, it was clear that my number of friends was increasing. I selected the name "Sotomura (Professor)" and called him.

"Hey Professor, do you have a minute?"

"Hmm? It\'s rare to get a call from you, Ayanokouji. What do you need?"

Sotomura\'s nickname was Professor, which undoubtedly made it sound like he was rather intelligent. In reality, he was just a huge otaku. He gathered information daily, comprehensively spanning a wide variety of topics, from dating sims to anime and manga.

"Professor, did you buy your laptop computer from the school, with your points?"

"Yes, I most certainly did. It cost 80,000 points. But what of it?"

"I\'m looking for something."

I explained the gist of what I wanted. Although many similar products sat on the displays in front of me, I didn\'t know which one to choose. It probably would\'ve been faster to just ask the store clerk, but I didn\'t want to for various reasons.

"Ayanokouji. Though I am considerably well-versed in that particular electronic field..."

"It\'s okay if you don\'t know."

"Please wait," said the Professor as I was about to end the call. "I do know. In fact, I have two of them at my parents\' home."

"No way! You\'ve had them since junior high? Isn\'t that bad?"

"Do not misunderstand me. They were only for experimentation, for the sake of my language studies."

"Well, could I trouble you to help me set it up?"

"Puh, leave it to me. I\'m sure that someday I will have a favor to ask of you in return."

Clearly, he was the man for the job. When entering a subject that I didn\'t understand, it was important to find an expert.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," I said to the girls.

"Have you already finished?"

"Today was just a preliminary inspection. I don\'t have enough points to buy anything."

Suddenly, Kushida froze while glancing over at Sakura\'s profile.

"Sakura-san, have we met somewhere before?" Kushida murmured.

"Huh? N-no. I don\'t think so, but..."

"Sorry. It\'s just that when I look at you, I get this feeling that we\'ve met before, Sakura-san. Hey, weird question, but could you try removing your glasses?"

"Huh?! B-but that\'s... My eyesight is so bad, I wouldn\'t be able to see a thing..."

Sakura put her hand up and waved it, signaling to Kushida that she did not want to.

"We should hang out together again, Sakura-san. Not just with me, but with my other friends, too."

"That\'s..."

Sakura looked like she wanted to say something, but she couldn\'t find her way to the end of the thought. She said nothing. Kushida seemed to feel that it would make trouble if she pressed the issue, so she kept quiet. Or rather, she didn\'t ask anything else. In the end, we returned to where we\'d started.

"Umm... Thank you for everything today. You really helped me out," Sakura said.

"It\'s okay, it\'s okay. There\'s no need to thank us. Actually, Sakura-san, you can talk to us normally, you know? If it\'s okay with you. We\'re in the same grade. It sounds a little weird when you speak so formally to us."

It was certainly true that Sakura\'s speech patterns weren\'t exactly what you would expect from a peer. But changing that might be easier said than done for her; she was visibly perplexed.

"I didn\'t mean to sound that way. I wasn\'t aware of it... I sound weird?"

"It\'s not really a bad thing! I mean, I\'d be happy if you didn\'t speak so formally to me, though."

"Ah... O-okay... I...I got it. I\'ll do my best."

I thought that Sakura would have rejected the notion, but she managed to squeak out a few words of agreement. It seemed like she wanted to accept Kushida\'s proposal. Perhaps this was how people became friends, little by little. Even Sakura, who seemed to have hardly interacted with another person ever, was steadily growing closer to Kushida.

"It\'s okay, though. You don\'t need to force yourself."

"I-It\'s okay. I...will."

Sakura kept her eyes down as she spoke. Partway through her sentence she began to sputter, and her words faded so much that we couldn\'t hear them. However, it didn\'t seem as though she felt uncomfortable. Kushida smiled in satisfaction, but didn\'t try to coerce anything more from Sakura. That specific distance felt exactly right for where they were at the moment. If you tried to strong-arm people who weren\'t good at socializing, it could backfire. Rather than be grateful, they\'d probably find it off-putting. Rather than draw them nearer, being overbearing would probably end up pushing them further away.

"Well then, we\'ll see you at school. Okay?"

With that, Kushida thought the conversation had ended. However, rather unexpectedly, Sakura didn\'t move.

"Well!"

Sakura spoke in a small voice, but looked straight at us. When our gazes met, however, she immediately averted her eyes.

"About Sudou-kun... As my way of saying thanks for today, I... Well, that might be a little misleading, but if you like..."

She paused, and started again more clearly.

"I-I may be able to help you with Sudou-kun\'s case."

In her own words, Sakura told us that she was the witness. Kushida and I exchanged glances.

"So, does that mean that you saw Sudou-kun fight with those other students?"

"Yes. I saw everything. It was a total coincidence, though... I\'m sure you don\'t believe me."

"No, we do. Why did you decide to tell us now, though? I mean, I\'m happy you did, but I don\'t want you to force yourself. You don\'t have to do this just because you\'re grateful, you know?"

Sakura couldn\'t seem to get her words out. She lightly shook her head. The fact that Sakura had waited until now to talk proved that she was more concerned about Sudou\'s case than anything else. I wondered if getting a foothold on friendship made her want to cooperate.

"Is that really true? You\'re not forcing yourself?" Kushida asked. She must\'ve been thinking the same thing as me.

Sakura nodded sheepishly, as if she could feel that we were worrying about it.

"It\'s okay... I think that if I kept quiet, I\'d probably come to regret it. I...don\'t want to cause trouble for my classmates. But, if I spoke up as a witness, then...I would definitely stand out. I hated the thought of that... I\'m sorry."

While Sakura apologized to us repeatedly, full of remorse, she also promised Kushida that she would testify.

"Thank you, Sakura-san. I\'m sure Sudou-kun will be really happy."

Kushida took Sakura\'s hand, and Sakura looked at Kushida\'s smiling face. I wondered if a new friendship had been born right here, right now. At any rate, we had Sudou\'s witness.