After Story: Compassion

Chapter Six: The Needs of the Many

"She needs help with carving her starfish," Ryou explained as we made our way to her place. Kyou had some kind of activity after school, so she couldn't join us. "Her body is at the hospital in the next town, but somehow her spirit's able to do all this."

"Her spirit..." I mused; for some reason, I wasn't surprised. "Wouldn't this be right up your alley, cutie? I mean, you do fortunes, and that's occult stuff, right? Isn't this connected to that somehow?"

"B-But I'm not into the occult!" she declared passionately. "I just do fortune-telling for fun, not to try to c-contact anything s-spiritual!"

"Okay, sorry, sorry," I replied. "I didn't mean to set you off like that."

"I-I'm okay," she said. "I'm sorry for blowing up at you like that."

"You're fine," I replied, starting to feel like we were going in circles.

We were quiet for several minutes until I felt like I had to say something. "So...summer's really close, huh?"

"Yeah..." she replied noncommittally. "Um...T-Tomoya-kun?"

"Yeah, cutie?"

Her pace slowed, slowing me down as well. "H-How many cute g-girls do you know?"

"One," I replied easily, "and I'm very lucky to be dating her."

"Thank you." She giggled briefly before falling serious again. "Maybe I asked the wrong question. Um...other then Onee-chan and I, how many girls do you know?"

"Well, let's see..." Thinking about it, I realized that, other than Sunohara, everybody I'd come into contact with recently had been girls. "There's Furukawa and Sakagami – you've met them – Fuuko too...Miyazawa from the Reference Room...I think that's about it, unless you want to count the girl from the library, but I didn't really talk to her much."

"Y-You seem to get along with g-girls okay. What about the guys?"

"Just Sunohara," I answered easily. "And that's just because Koumura-sensei put us together. Now that I think of it, I haven't been to his place in a while." Ryou said nothing, and I looked over in concern when the silence became uncomfortable. "You okay? Did I say something wrong?"

"Eh?" Ryou looked up at me so quickly I was afraid her neck would pop. "N-No! You're fine! It's just..."

I kept my concerned expression but otherwise kept silent.

"...I don't know what to think about you being friendly with other girls."

"I see. Well, if it helps, I haven't had much to do with any of them since we started going out. I guess...I guess I just get along better with girls. Too many of the guys at school are trying to be something they're not, and I'm not interested in being like that."

"We girls can be like that, too," Ryou said quietly.

"I believe you," I replied, "but I don't see it, so I don't know about it."

In spite of my attempts at reassurance, I felt an uncomfortable tension the rest of the way to her house.

***

"Sorry about yesterday," I said, bowing to the student body president. "We got caught up in another drama."

She chuckled softly. "Drama seems to find you, doesn't it? It's okay. Are you ready to give me an answer?"

My girl and I exchanged awkward smiles. "I don't know how much use we'll be, but we'll help as much as we can."

"Great," Sakagami said as she drove a fist into her palm. "Let's get started as soon as possible, then. Are you free after school?"