00100: First Hints

“You liked her, didn’t you?” Tokiko shot me a mocking smile. “You got embarrassed, when she looked at you.”

I didn’t answer right away. That embarrassment came more from recognizing that the girl in the flower dress looked a bit like Lynx. “She was definitely cute, but I don’t know …” I sighed. Tokiko was completely unaware about Lynx. I never told her about our meeting, and I was not planning to do so. I guess, I had to live with her false conclusions.

“You didn’t notice the way she was looking at you, did you? I’m just saying. She is not completely walked off.” She looked back to the girl who could still be seen not far off in the distance.

Even if I would be interested in her … what was Tokiko thinking? That I ran off to a girl I just met for the first time and ask her for her phone number? This was not some of her Shoujo Manga. Instead, I just wanted to escape this situation. I saw a group of three guys approaching the entrance to the store in front of which we had stopped.

I made a step towards them, presenting the business card. “Hey, excuse me. Does any of you happen to know a school in Yokohama named Ineigaikan?”

They stared at me a bit ambushed, looked at each other and then at my sister who had just turned at them as well. She smiled and it obviously was that moment I lost them. All three just looked at her in delight.

“This would really help us,” Tokiko added and snapped them out of their trance.

They suddenly shook their heads.

“Uh, no sorry.”

“Never heard.”

I bowed. “Well, thank you anyways.”

They moved off into the direction they were coming from. “Weren’t they planning to go into …?” I shrugged the thought off.

“Don’t think you’ll get around the topic forever, Onii-chan. I want to become an aunt one day,” Tokiko said and bumped me into the side with a mocking grin still on her face.

How about leading by example?

To my luck she was merciful with me for the day and did not bring that topic up another time. We made our way to the Yokohama Viver a big shopping mall with several floors and stores ranging from clothing over hair saloons to multimedia.

Tokiko tried a lot of clothes. We ran to the fitting rooms several times of what felt like all the stores there were in this building and compared seemingly all sports clothes there were. In the end she got a neon-colored sports dress with short dark pants and another one in red, three T-Shirts, a hoodie and the next volume from a light novel she was reading. I just bought a pair of new sneakers and an interesting JRPG. Sure, the shopping trip was still a bit one-sided money-wise, but we also asked a lot of people about Ineigaikan for me. On top of that I could still get enough possibilities to even the difference out once we stumbled across the next game center.

When we left the mall, it was already noon and both of us were up for something to eat. Our choice fell on ramen and the next restaurant was found fairly quickly. After waiting in queue and ordering, we took our seats.

“Thank you for the food,” we said in unison with our hands held together and dug into our respective bowls.

It was crowded, but that mostly was an indicator for good restaurants. Next to us sat another group of three girls that looked around the same age as us. I saw how Tokiko’s gaze got drawn towards them. “Hey, let’s finish this first,” I said and slurped my noodles.

She rolled her eyes and chewed up. “They were here earlier. They will probably be ready before us and when they walk off, we can’t talk to them.”

“It’s rude to disturb people while eating. Also, we can’t ask everyone.”

Tokiko made some sounds, holding a hand over her mouth, then swallowed. “But we can at least talk to all the people we meet.” She split her seasoned egg with the chopsticks. “And I’m sure those guys don’t think it’s rude but would surely love to chat a bit.”

I sighed, took another slurp of noodles and peaked at them. They all were really pretty, especially the one right next to Tokiko. She got … “Hey, sorry! You’ve got such beautiful hair.”

I flinched at the voice of my sister.

She shot me a sneaky smile. “Hehe!” Then she looked back at them, as their heads turned towards us. I sighed inwardly.

The girl she spoke to, ordered her long brunette hair, and got a little red around the cheeks. “Uh … thanks.”

“Now you see, Arano-san! I am not the only one who thinks you are pretty,” the girl in the middle said and started smiling. Or wait … this voice! It sounded light and gentle, but not like it belonged to a girl. It was … a guy! He had a skinny figure and looked somewhat cute. His clothes were even a bit on the edge between male and female.

“Urgh … shut up!” The brunette girl violently continued eating her ramen, probably because it was the only way to flee out of this embarrassing situation. Poor girl. Two extroverted people against her.

“But it’s true and you know thaaa …” The girl furthest away from us hit the guy into the side and murmured something into his ear with an empty expression. She was really small for our age, almost looked like a child if it weren’t for the … hugely disproportionate height/bust ratio. I noticed pink cat ear headphones wrapped around her neck. Her silk hair had a similar light pink shade and reached even beyond her buttocks. The straight cut bangs made her face look like it was framed in them.

“Oh, no you got it all wrong! I just want to boost her self-esteem a bit,” the guy explained. “You know I love only you,” he said, giving her a little hug with his free arm.

“You guys seem to get along quite well,” Tokiko concluded, invading their conversation again. “Are you friends?”

“Schoolmates,” the brunette girl said with an annoyed tone.

“Yeah, but Airii-chan here and I are also a couple.” The guy still stroked the pink-haired girls back. “And you two surely are as well.”

Tokiko laughed. “No, we are siblings. How did you come to that assumption?”

He blushed, scratched the back of his head. “Oh, uh, sorry! Me and my bigger sister are more on a level of scratching each other’s eyes out. You both seemed too close for my perception of a brother and sister. But I should have guessed: You even got the exact same hair color.”

It was quite interesting to see this conversation unfold. The brunette girl between Tokiko and the guy still tried to stay occupied with eating while they conversed over her back. In the end at least she was disturbed by Tokiko. Or the whole situation in general bothered her. There were certainly more pleasant things than being the third wheel on the wagon with a couple.

“By the way, I am Tokiko Kanaoka and this is my older brother Isato Kanaoka,” Tokiko introduced us.

“Oh, nice to get to know you. I am Naoki Fujinami.” He looked to his pink-haired girlfriend.

She bowed briefly, introducing herself in a flat voice. “I am Airii Izumida.”

“Rukami Arano,” grumbled the brunette girl without looking up from her ramen and took another portion into her mouth. She looked still embarrassed from the compliment. I examined her face from the side. It stroked the right balance between young and mature, her expression was very serious.

“What are you doing here in Yokohama?” Fujinami-kun asked and slurped a few of his noodles.

Tokiko was still occupied with the same task, so I answered for her instead. “We are going shopping a bit, but there is also something I am searching for here.”

“Oh, what are you searching for? We are all locals from Yokohama, so we probably know.”

I took the card from my pocket and gave it to him. “My former informatics teacher left to this school called …” Before I could end my sentence, a small hand pressed on my mouth. I just noticed how Arano-san’s long brunette hair swung after. She had somehow managed to swirl around Tokiko, clench one arm around my neck and push the free hand of the other right onto my mouth. I had not even noticed the slightest movement until I blinked at the wrong moment. Her face was right in front of mine. Red eyes glared up at me. “Don’t … ever … say this name in public! Did you understand me?”

It took me a second to grasp what had just happened. Then I nodded, unable to even think about contradicting. She gazed at me for another second, then loosened her grip and returned to her seat, continuing her meal.

I looked at Tokiko, who eyed me with the same shocked expression that she probably saw on my face. I heard how my heart started hammering in my ears.

“Did you notice anyone following you?” Fujinami-kun asked suddenly more silently. He looked around the store. His hand covered the business card on the counter.

Tokiko and I looked at each other. “No, I don’t think so,” I said.

“Good.” He slid the card back to me. “Stop asking around for this stuff or you’ll get yourself into some dead serious trouble. Literally every secret agent in Japan is searching for this school.”

“Shut up!” Arano-san shouted semi loud through her clenched teeth. “What if this place is bugged?”

His eyes darted between Arano-san, Tokiko and me. He pushed air through is nostrils, then turned towards his ramen, ate a last huge bit and put the empty bowl onto the counter. “Thank you for the good meal!” Then he turned back at us. “Sadly, we already have to go. But it was really nice, talking to you. Why don’t you give me your number?”

I was a bit taken aback by his haste. “Uh … yeah, sure.”

When we exchanged our contact details, I noticed how much I was shaking. It took my jittering fingers a few tries to hit the correct buttons. Fujinami-kun waited for a moment, laid his hand on my shoulder and smiled. “And please don’t worry too much. Arano-san can be very paranoid sometimes.”

The group of three left the restaurant, making space for the next people in queue. Tokiko and I looked at each other for a moment, still unable to say a thing.

“What the hell?” I whispered at her.

“Seems like we found what we were searching for.”

I swallowed and looked back at my meal. Somehow, I felt a really twisted feeling in my stomach. Quickly finish this and then we’re out here.

“This Arano-san was quite beautiful, wasn’t she?” Tokiko’s attempt to kill this strange atmosphere was unsuccessful.

I slurped the rest of the noodles, chewed them, and swallowed. “Yeah.”

“Maybe she just wanted to make a move on you.”

I exhaled. This topic again. For sure she wanted …

Tokiko swallowed. “Well, forget about it … Where should we go next?”

A vibration came from my phone. I took the device out and looked at the screen.

Naoki Fujinaimi:
Heyho Kanaoka-kun! I just wanted to say, that you don’t need to worry. We can talk in more detail later, but for now go to the TATO Station near Yokohama Station and take a look around. You will find something that should look familiar to you.

“Is that from Fujinami-kun? Wow, did he type all this in such a short time? What did he write?”

My eyes went through his text. “I guess, I know where we’ll go next.”