怪獣の放出 / Kaijuu no Houshutsu / Unleashed Beasts

第17章 (Chapter 17)

"A long story...?"

Suddenly, the flow of time began to move again. Kirai stretched out her hand to Kimura Tetsumai. "Come on, get up. I'll tell you about it."

Tsuki and Hinote were watching, and they saw the two girls instantaneously appear at that position. To them, it was as though time never stopped, because they were stuck in the stopped world; therefore, it seemed as though the two fighters teleported to a completely different place.

Kimura sighed, grabbed Kirai's hand, and got up. She walked with a rather disgruntled face alongside Kirai, toward Hinote and Tsuki's bench.

They sat down, Kirai sitting next to Tsuki, and Kimura went and sat on the other side of Hinote, opposite from Tsuki.

Hinote, meanwhile, was heavily embarrassed; he had three girls sitting next to him on the bench, and they were sitting uncomfortably close to him. If you were to ask him, however, he would prefer being closer to Tsuki than to Kimura, funnily enough.

Tsuki took notice of this, and said, "Hinote-kun, are you all right?"

"Umm... I guess..." he said nervously. Kirai glared at him with scary eyes. "Well... I'm fine. Not nervous." She weakened her glare.

"So..." Kimura spoke up. "What's this about your ability you said you would tell me about...?" Kirai looked over at the girl of martial arts and said, "Well, I don't know that I'm going to tell you just yet. If you truly want to know how or why I have this ability, then you'd have to answer some of my questions first."

"Hmm... Sure. What's the question?" She replied.

"Earlier, you said Hinote belonged to you, as though you 'own' him. What in the world did you mean by that?" Kirai asked. She was genuinely wondering this. Remember, Kirai is still a bit new to the feeling of emotions; she had only gained that ability barely a month ago.

Kimura blushed heavily. Next to her, Hinote also blushed and wore an extremely embarrassed expression. Kimura said, "Um... W-Why would you ask a q-question like that?"

"Uh... Are you nervous to answer such a question?" Kirai asked. 

"O-Of course! That's like asking for c-confirmation of whether or not I have a c-crush on someone!" Kimura's words were professional, but the articulation of the statement was sloppy.

"A... crush?" Kirai asked. She wasn't exactly aware of what this meant; she did have a vague idea. Note that they were talking in Japanese, so instead of saying a word meaning "crush", they were saying a noun form of the word "好きが (suki ga)", meaning "to like (especially in a romantic sense when talking of a person)".

Kimura's face was bright red, and she muttered, "B-baka...". Kirai asked another question. "Kimura-san, when you say crush [suki ga], do you mean feelings for someone?"

"Yes, you fool..." She said a little angrily.

"So... what you're talking about is some kind of lovers' thing that I don't understand yet..." Kirai's voice trailed off, as though she were commenting to herself, thinking aloud.

"Huh...?" Kimura was confused, as was Hinote as well.

Tsuki, who was silent for most of the conversation, noticed their confusion, and decided to speak up. "You guys... Kirai doesn't understand the idea of having a crush or feeling love. I'm sure you've heard about her before, right?"

"Well, yeah, pretty much everyone knows her... especially after what happened three years ago..." Kimura responded, looking off to the distance.

"Tsuki-san, what do you mean when you say that Kirai can't understand those feelings...?" Hinote asked. He was curious, and looked to Tsuki for answers. There was a hint of jealousy in Kimura's face at this.