Chapter 14: Mother

Tsubame smiled in mock innocence while Shiori glared at her.

The small girl held a tiny book, barely a pamphlet, bound in soft leather.

“Did you find it in his shoe locker?” Shiori asked, irritation rising.

“Nope. Guess again.”

“I’ve guessed ten times.”

“No, only eight.”

Shiori shook her head in frustration. “Can’t you just tell me where you found it and we can move on to more important things?”

“No,” Tsubame said, generously explaining something her friend should find obvious. “I spent my entire lunch looking for this stupid book while you flirted on a lunch date with the hottest guy in school.”

“The school’s under a spell cast by a mysterious Speaker. We need to find that Speaker, not play guessing games.” Shiori paused. “And that was NOT a lunch date.”

“And during your lunch date,” Tsubame continued, “I slaved away, searching for this book. Then, through my brilliance, I found it after wasting my entire lunch hour. I didn’t get to properly enjoy my katsu lunch.”

“I saw you eat it. It was like watching an entire box of rice and fried meat get chucked into a woodchipper, but sped up.”

“Exactly,” Tsubame said, happy to be proven correct. “A katsu should be savored delicately. I had to hurry. Terrible shame. The least you can do is savor my genius by guessing where I found Otonashi’s book. Now guess.”

Shiori sighed. They were near her house and planned to use the studying excuse with her mother again. “If it wasn’t in his desk, then the neighbor’s?”

“No.”

Shiori sighed. “Somewhere hidden on the school grounds?”

Tsubame pouted, which was easily one of her top skills. “Be more specific.”

Shiori glanced at Tsubame sideways and was surprised it worked.

“A girl in our class followed Otonashi yesterday to confess her love for him. He’s been on her mind for weeks.”

Shiori opened the gate to her front yard. “That spell is thorough.”

“I know, right? She saw him lift a stone in the school yard. I told her to give up since he’s picked a girl and took her on a lunch date. Poor dear was terribly heartbroken.”

“It wasn’t a date,” Shiori said, mostly to the sky since her head was hung back in defeat. “Can we open the book now?”

“Oh, it’s small. I already read through it.”

“What?”

Tsubame’s smile was a cat’s mask of false innocence. “Most pages are filled with names. I can barely read them. And there are drawings.”

“Drawings?”

“Not that you’d care. It’s not like you’ve been on a date with him.”

“It. Wasn’t. A. Date.”

Tsubame opened the book to where a leather strap served as a bookmark, careful not to let the long charcoal in a leather loop at the edge fall out.

It opened to a drawing of Shiori.

The drawing was good. She recognized herself and the pose. She looked down in the picture, entirely beautiful, regal, confident, and graceful. It was the moment she had stared down at Otonashi from atop the playground slide.

She had felt ridiculous atop the slide. Is that how he had seen her?

“Good that you weren’t on a date with him because the girl he’s drawing pictures of would be so jealous of you going after her man.”

Shiori looked down at her feet and asked, “Wait, was that a date?”

Tsubame tried to control her laughter. Tsubame failed. She handed the book to Shiori, shoulders still shaking.

Shiori closed the book, opened the door, and let Tsubame go in first.

“Hey Mom,” Shiori called into the house as the girls changed shoes.

“More study today,” her mother said from the living room. It wasn’t a question. “I left snacks for you two in front of your door.”

“Ah,” Shiori said, pausing in the act of putting her bookbag in a cupboard. She had already taken Kawamura’s The Last Word from the bag. Wincing, she realized she’d left her school books in the same cupboard yesterday. Had her mother noticed they hadn’t been studying?

Shiori leaned over to Tsubame. “Check out those snacks. I’ll be right up.”

“Sure?”

“I think my mom wants to talk, but she won’t say so until I’m really in trouble.”

“No, I mean I might not leave any snacks for you. Be quick.” Tsubame ascended the stairs toward Shiori’s room.

Shiori’s mother sat reading printed spreadsheets on their couch. Shiori did mental math. Her mother had predicted Tsubame would visit again today. She wanted to talk. The math didn’t look good.

“How did studying go yesterday?” Her mother asked, conversationally, as Shiori sat, putting the books she held down between them on the couch.

“Oh, fine.”

Her mother didn’t respond immediately. Shiori resisted the urge to wipe sweat from her palms onto her school uniform's skirt.

Her mother glanced behind her at Shiori’s bag with her school books, where it had sat yesterday while she was supposed to be studying with Tsubame. Instead, they had talked about Kryptopeda.

“Was Tsubame interested in the box of old books you’ve been collecting? I noticed it was out.”

Shiori wiped her hands on her skirt unconsciously. “Ah, they’re more popular than I thought.” She pointed to The Last Word on the couch between them.
“I finally got the last one. Others at school have been talking about them.”

Her mother’s eyes widened. Shiori could have spat on the floor and gotten a more muted reaction. “I see,” she said. “When did you get it?”

“Ah, yesterday.”

Her mother’s mouth pursed in thought. “Do you remember when you spent days in the summer traveling to bookstores but couldn’t find it?”

Shiori laughed nervously. “Yeah, and here it is.”

“But you came home right after school yesterday. Where did you get the book?”

Shiori inhaled sharply, hissing through her teeth.

Her mother relaxed, although the tension hadn’t been obvious in her shoulders before. The game was over.

Shiori had been caught. It was a game she was ill prepared for and would have likely lost even with the best preparation.

If Shiori’s mother became a detective, criminals would protest the destruction of their livelihoods, and a judge might have pity on them. Nothing got past her.

“I, ah, got the book from a boy. At school”

“Yesterday? Funny you didn’t mention him or the book. And you’ve been so excited about that book.”

“Oh, ah, I don’t really,” Shiori took a breath. “We didn’t know each other. He talked with Tsubame and found the book. He, um, I think he likes me and wants to go out.”

Her mother smiled, but there was a worried look only someone close would recognize. “Can I meet him?”

“No,” Shiori said, thinking about how Motohara-senpai was in Kryptopeda.

“No?” came the response in a dangerously calm tone.

“I mean, he’s away right now.”

“Well,” her mother said, pointing to the small leather book that had opened to the the drawing of Shiori, “it seems he likes you very much.”

This was worse than the strawberry cake incident last year. She looked down at her hands, blushing. “I don’t really know.”

Her mother reached for her hand. “Shiori, you’re growing. You’re making decisions. There are two things you need to know.”

Shiori looked up, nervous, “Yeah?”

“I’m proud of you, and you can talk to me about anything.” Her mother squeezed her hand, almost too hard. “Please talk to me.”

Shiori smiled at the reassurance. “I will.”

“Get up there before Tsubame-chan eats all the snacks. Don’t worry, I didn’t get any strawberry cake. We don’t want a repeat of the strawberry cake incident from last year.”

They laughed.

As Shiori gathered her books and left the room. She looked back. Her mother was again invested in the printouts.

Her mother seemed composed, but only someone close would notice her nervousness. Shiori might have spilled embarrassing secrets, but the woman was keeping something secret too.

Almost, Shiori broke down and told her mother everything about Kryptics attacking, boys flirting before getting lost in another world, and strange magical soldiers that drew pictures of her.

Shiori climbed the stairs toward Tsubame and the surviving snacks.