On The Side Of The Pitch With You

Aftermath Arc: The Afterparty

She took one and observed it like some specimen. "What are these?"

"I'm not quite sure of their names, but I heard Kusaka-san and Tetsukado-san saying that it tastes like beef steak."

"And these?"

"Perhaps their salad?"

"And this one?"

"That... To me, that appears to be some sort of dipping sauce..."

"Huh... Alright, well, if this doesn't kill me, then something else will."

It took everything he had in him to stop himself from overreacting. Though he had to wonder, what was with her and morbid jokes today?

"Bad influence from my brother, sorry."

Ah, right, she can still read my mind...

"Yup."

Ack―

Her features softened into a wry smile. "Well, thanks for the food."

"Of course."

They stayed standing as they ate. It was mostly silent aside from the sound of the wind and Faram Orbius' equivalent of birds chirping around. He first found it strange as he hadn't seen any of those creatures when they first arrived, but he soon realized that it was perhaps because of the black hole. Now that the threat in the sky is gone, all walks of life are able to return to their true routines.

"Sorry." She suddenly blurted out.

"Eh? What for?"

"For dropping the '-san' suffix back in the finals."

"Ichikawa!" His eyes snapped open when her voice entered his ears. "Stop holding yourself back! It'll only hurt you! Let everything out! Your spirit, your emotions, everything that makes you what you are!"

Oh, that... "I don't mind. After all, you do so with everyone else on the team. I've always found it a little strange that you didn't do the same with me."

"It's because you're also really formal to everyone, so I felt the need to be respectful in return..." She sighed. "And I made the mistake of calling all of Raimon's first years by their first names with no suffixes just because of how I keep calling Kyousuke 'Kyou', so like... Yeah. I'm lucky none of them minded, but I didn't know if you'd be the same. And you're a third year student too."

"So is Kusaka-san."

"Kusaka isn't formal with anyone though, so it was a lot easier to ask."

He supposed that was fair. But did that mean that if he wasn't so... like this... he could've...?

"Ichikawa-san?"

"It's alright." He gave her a smile. "I don't mind whatever name you wish to call me by. The captain and many others called me by my first name immediately upon meeting. Those like Matatagi-san and Ibuki-san are a year younger, and yet they also don't use any formalities with me. You don't have to force yourself to do the same."

"I'm not exactly forcing myself..." she let out a chuckle. "But does that mean I have the green light to call you just 'Ichikawa'?"

"Of course."

"Then, Ichikawa it is!" She said as she took her last bite. "Mm... These are pretty good. The sauce thing is a bit weird, but maybe it's because I expected it to be more salty than sweet. I guess that's just this planet's taste buds though, since the vending machine drinks I tried were also really sweet."

He remembered her mentioning something along those lines before, though he couldn't quite recall when.

... Actually, how was she able to buy from this planet's vending machines in the first place?