Beyond The Boundary (Kyoukai No Kanata)

Chapter 1-3

Thursday, April 12th - lunch break.

My destination: the cafeteria. I buy my lunch from the cafeteria and eat there fairly often, so it wasn't a particularly novel experience.

Perhaps our school was capitalizing on the fact that we weren't in a particularly urbanized area. Though our school cafeteria was by no means huge, it was certainly sufficient for our needs. With every step you take towards the cafeteria, the dull roar of lively chatter gets louder and louder. It was a vigorous place and at the same time a gentle one. There, underclassmen and upperclassmen alike dined under one together. I grabbed one of the trays from near the entrance and walked past the bread-and-side-dishes corner. In the back, there was a window where you could order rice bowls and noodles---you tell them what you want, and they'll whip something up just for you. At the very end of the line, there were four registers, where they'd price out the items on your tray and ring you up.

As I stood by the noodle-ordering window, I spotted a girl who looked wonderful in glasses. It looked like she had already ordered: steam was rising from the kitsune-udon on her tray. When I saw her there, blending into the crowd, I couldn't see her as anything but a delicate girl. Of course, I often tended to overlook that, given the unsettling encounters she and I usually had. I would've felt weird if I had pretended not to know her, so I figured I ought to say hi.

"Yo."

With my tray in hand, I smiled at Kuriyama when she turned to face me. All of a sudden, she seemed to be in a hurry. She seemed to have noticed that the tray she was holding was occupying both her hands, thus preventing her from attacking me... or something like that. Her bowl of udon tilted a bit, and the broth started to slosh around. Luckily for me, there were students lined up at the window after her, thus depriving her of a place to set her tray down. She was trembling as she glanced around frantically. With a deep sigh, I called out to her.

"Want me to hold that?"

"Th-thank you very much."

I politely took the tray off her hands. Kuriyama clenched her fists and adopted a fighting stance. In my hand, though, I held her tray, atop which was the kitsune-udon she had not yet paid for. She was obviously troubled by this state of affairs. She looked up at me with a bitter look in her eyes, like she was cursing me. You should be thanking me, not cursing me, dammit.

"...(I can't attack him)..."

"...(Oh, that wretched kitsune-udon)..."

Even if she didn't say that out loud, I knew what she was thinking. After a few seconds, bit her lip vexedly and dashed off like a hare.

"Wait, wait, wait! Whaddaya want me to do with this kitsune-udon!?"

Alas, my voice did not reach her. Well, in a situation like this, there's just one thing to say.

"Frickin' metal slime. ...Well, I guess I'm having kitsune-udon for lunch."

I paid for the udon and left the queue. There were a number of long tables repurposed to function as bar-style seats, as well as some two- and four-person booths. I quickly surveyed the cafeteria, and spotted the person I was looking for in one of the four-person booths.

"What's the occasion, Akihito? We don't usually meet in the cafeteria."

"It sounds like you're implying that I usually spend my lunch break holed up in the club room."

"Isn't that the case?"

I sat down across from Mitsuki. She had a plate of spaghetti aglio e olio and a salad on her tray. Apparently bust size isn't directly proportional to caloric intake. She looked at me glumly.