Revelation Of An Ordinary Life

Twilight Days

It appears that the phone number he gave me back then was a little useful now.

"What's the matter?" I asked him.

"The bus was more late than I originally expected. So while I was supposed to get there by 2, I'll be there by 4 instead. And now, to compensate for that, since the bus is practically at max capacity, the next bus is going to come earlier. So when compared to the few hours I originally had, I only have one hour now. I also have some errands to run, so I can really only be with you for half an hour," he said over the phone, sounding apologetic.

Some errands, huh? He had told me that he had something to do before in the morning, but I didn't ask him back then. With the person who is sitting across from me right now, I could pry a little deeper.

And the time issue is something that, while disheartening, can't be changed. It's set in stone.

"Out of curiosity, what type of errands?"

"The Nagumo type of errands. He had asked me to meet just like you did, but he was going to be in a week, obviously, that's not possible now. So on the day of the last video, he asked to move it up to today. I apologise."

What an odd coincidence.

"It's fine. I'll leave Nagumo up to you then. I'll see you at the gate just like last time then to make it easy for you to catch the bus when it arrives. I suppose we'll meet by 4:30 or somewhere around that time, then."

With a quiet 'alright' coming from the line, the call disconnected.

I looked over at the person in front of me who I had met by pure chance today. I had already planned on talking to him sometime soon, but this just saved me time.

"You're going to leave me up to him? You know, Ayanokouji, it's a little rude to talk about me as if I'm not there," Nagumo chuckled.

We were sitting at one of the random diners that are here in this section of Keyaki Mall.

"Sorry for the sudden break. I couldn't really let that call go unanswered."

"And you didn't think you had to distance yourself?"

"I didn't see any value in doing so. My matters with you and his matters are entirely different. I do feel a little bad for the elder Horikita, though. Getting pulled around everywhere," I told him as I took a sip of my water.

Nagumo just chuckled as I said those words. He looked over at his glass, almost as if trying to see something that wasn't there.

"Only thing I'm disappointed by is that our match never ended up happening," he grumbled with dead eyes.

This was also the thing I wanted to talk to him about.

"If we had done our match, would you have liked to engage in some meaningless slaughter?"

Nagumo was taken aback at my blunt words.

"That's a dark way to put it. I'm not a murderer, you know," he remarked as he fidgeted with the fork in his hand.

"In other words, would you have liked an expulsion contest? Originally, you wanted to do this with the elder Horikita, so I apologise if I don't suffice, but I'll be his replacement."

To take as many futures as possible.

Nagumo's lips crept upward into a sadistic grin, locking eyes with me.

"I was waiting for you to say something like that. From what I've seen, you tend to fight people when they're in their element, so a battle that revolves around something basic like academics or athletics won't suffice."