Chapter 2 Finale
I, reluctant research assistant Sakuragi Toji, am going slightly out of my mind.
Once Fujimura and I were done eating, conversation very naturally turned to the question of “what the fuck do we do now”, which quickly spiraled into “what the hell is going on”.
Fujimura tried doing a quick search on her phone, only to be met with results alternately unhelpful and/or horrifying—shocking, I know—after which she promptly marched us here, to the public library, where she now sits across a table from me towards the back of the library.
She looks completely engrossed.
A book on the occult is open in front of her, one on folklore is face-down to her left, and a queue of yet-unread books form a high stack that occupies the table between us.
Her fingers fly over her phone as she glances back and forth between pages. At first I assumed she was texting someone, but nope. Notes app.
Summarizing.
Cross-referencing.
Writing an entire fucking dissertation about magic gender-change weirdness like she’s getting graded and her top spot is in danger.
Meanwhile, my role so far has mostly consisted of rereading text I didn’t understand the first time, pointing out anything that sounds remotely relevant, and being completely unsurprised when Fujimura has already thought of it ten times over.
So glad I can help.
-----
I glance at my phone—6:22 PM.
We really did spend the whole day here.
That feels… weird.
A librarian rattles a cart past our table. When I make eye contact, she gives me a pointed stare. They must be closing soon.
“It’s getting kind of late,” I say.
Fujimura stretches a little in her chair and glances at the clock on the wall. “Oh, wow. Guess we kind of lost track of time.”
She looks at our stack of books—well, her stack—I’ve added two books to her six—not that I’m counting.
“At least we got some somewhat useful leads?” she muses as she closes her book.
“That ‘somewhat’ is doing a lot of work there,” I laugh.
She smiles faintly.
My stomach growls.
“…You heard nothing,” I mutter.
She suppresses a grin. “We did kind of skip lunch.”
“Hey! You skipped lunch. I’m pulling up my union rep’s number as we speak.”
“Pfft. You don’t get a union. Your shift is over when I say it’s over.”
“Wowww. Bitch.”
I mean it as a joke, but she kind of blinks at me, like it takes a second to register.
“...Right,” she says, finally looking down at herself.
I chuckle. “Forgot?”
“Yes? No? I don’t know!”
I give her an incredulous ‘go on’ look.
“Well, like, obviously we’ve been here all day researching transformations and stuff, so I didn’t forget forget. But it’s been less than a day, so I guess it hasn’t really sunk in yet.”
“Hmm that’s fair.”
“Mhmm. But! Dinner?”
“I honestly have a lot of homework I still have to get done, so I was probably just gonna grab something at home.”
I stand up, and then her.
She doesn’t miss a beat.
“That works! You can grab your stuff and then we can keep going during dinner: you can do homework, and I’ll keep researching and tutor you when you inevitably need help.” She smirks. “Not to be rude, but I was making better progress than you anyways.”
I roll my eyes at the jab.
…Then rewind to the rest of what she said.
“Wait… Keep going during dinner where?”
“I don’t know,” she shrugs. “I’m not really picky.”
“It’s not like people can tell it’s me anyways,” she adds with a laugh.
“Um… I kind of meant I was gonna go do my homework. Like, at home.”
“…Oh.”
“Yeah.”
“Well… do you have to?”
“Do I have to… do my homework?”
“No! I mean, do you have to do it at your place? We need dinner anyways—you can just do it there.”
I pause.
I can see the logic, but… I wasn’t really planning on staying out that long.
“Well, the homework is probably gonna take a while. Restaurants don’t usually like it if you use their tables for that long.”
“Hmm. That is a good point.”
She thinks for a moment, then her face brightens.
“Oh!” she beams. “There’s that place over by the river! That place is usually pretty dead. Maybe they wouldn’t mind if we use one of their tables?”
God damn it.
I picture it.
A restaurant. Not a family restaurant, a nicer one—one you might get dinner at.
The two of us sitting across from each other.
Patrons all around us, wait staff passing by our table every few minutes.
I clear my throat. “It might be kind of… crowded.”
She looks at me. “Crowded?”
“Yeah. Like… lots of people around?”
“Oh. Do you get distracted super easily?”
“No, I mean…” I grit my teeth. “People who could, like,… see us?”
She tilts her head. “You’re worried it would look like a date or something?”
Someone two tables over clears their throat pointedly.
“Look. Fujimura. This is a small town—people talk. You don’t want rumors about you; I don’t want people thinking I’m cheating on my girlfriend.”
“Yeah… I guess you’re right.”
Thank fuck.
A tense silence falls between us as we both try to think of what to say.
A chime rings.
“The library is closing in 15 minutes,” says the intercom.
Fujimura seems to feel it, too.
“Okay, well… what if I go with you, then?”
Huh?
“Go with me…?”
“To your place.”
Huh?!
“I… Doesn’t that kind of go against your whole ‘no one must know’ thing?”
“Not necessarily.”
“Uh, yes, necessarily. Or is my mom not a part of ‘no one’?”
“Oh god no, your mom—my coach—is definitely ‘no one’. Like, the head ‘no one’.”
“Right! So my place is out then.” I try not to sound relieved.
“Well. Maybe you could sneak me in. Or something.”
“Sneak you in? Sneak you in where?”
“I don’t know. Where do you usually do your homework?”
“…In my bedroom?”
“Okay, then there.”
“I’m sorry, so your plan for me to avoid people thinking I’m cheating is to… bring another girl home, lie to my mom about it, and sneak her into my bedroom?”
“I’m not telling you to lie! Just… don’t tell her.”
“Fujimura.” I rub my hand down my face. “I’ve spent the last twenty-four hours with you and your family—she is at the very least going to ask how it went. Ending with ‘and then I came home’ is definitely a lie.”
“Hmm. More like a half-truth.”
“Half isn’t good enough.”
She grins. “So you’re really telling me you’ve never snuck Sasaki-san in?”
“No,” I say. “And even if I had, Hina-chan is my girlfriend.”
Her face darkens.
“So what, you just want me to skip dinner too?”
“I’m not saying that,” I snap, then realize how loud it probably was.
“I’m saying we can figure it out before I leave,” I say more quietly.
She doesn’t look too pleased by this answer, but she flops back into her chair regardless.
Sigh.
“Okay. So. Where are you planning to sleep tonight?”
“Wait, ‘sleeping’? I thought we were talking about dinner.”
“We’re talking about everything! Everything you need for the night.”
“Okay, and food is more important.”
“Food is definitely not more important. You can live without eating for a day. You can not live if you get murdered in your sleep.”
Someone from the next table over shushes us, and I sit back down.
“Okay, fine,” Fujimura stage-whispers. “More urgent then.”
“Don’t care. Just answer the question.”
“Question?”
“Where are you sleeping tonight?” I intone.
She opens her mouth to retort, surely with some witty and cutting remark.
Then hesitates.
“I…I hadn’t thought that far.”
“You hadn’t—fucking hell, Fujimura.”
“I’ve been in research mode all day!”
“Research mode doesn’t magically produce a bed.”
“I know that. What am I supposed to do?” She points to herself. “Homeless, remember?”
“Right; I know you can’t go home. What about somewhere else?”
“…Like where?”
“I don’t know. A hotel, maybe?”
She scoffs. “With what money?”
“Okay, well, what about someone from school?”
“…Like who?”
“I don’t know! You’re saying that you haven’t made friends with any of our classmates or your teammates?”
She rolls her eyes. “Must not be quite myself right now.”
“Fujimura.”
“No, okay? There’s no one at school I can call.”
I exhale sharply. “Fuck.”
I can’t sit still.
I get up out of my chair and start pacing.
Impossible. Fucking impossible.
She watches for a second.
“Well…” she takes a deep breath. “Maybe… your place isn’t such a bad idea after all?”
I freeze in my tracks next to her. “Myplace?”
“Well, yeah. We did talk about it earlier.”
“We talked about studying earlier. Maybe dinner. Absolutely not you spending the night.”
“It’s not what we talked about, no. But it’s one possibility, at least?”
“It is not a possibility. Not without telling my mom. And Hina-chan.”
“It… it wouldn’t even be like that.”
“It doesn’t matter what it would be like. I would still have to tell her.”
“Tell her what? That some mystery girl needs a place to sleep? Or were you planning on spilling all my secrets?”
I take a deep breath, rub my hand down my face.
“You still don’t want my mom to know, so it’s a moot point.”
She goes still. Serious.
“So that’s it, then?” she says. “I just sleep on the street?”
Her words come out too loud for the quiet of the emptying library, and I shush her on instinct, which does not help.
“I’m not telling you to sleep on the street,” I whisper as I lean closer.
“Just shooting down the only option available,” she whispers back angrily.
“That’s not the only option.”
“Then name another one! Name one other option.”
I open my mouth.
Close it.
Straighten.
She looks up at me, tries to smile.
“I know it’s not ideal.”
I huff out a laugh.
“And you know I wouldn’t be asking this if it wasn’t important, right?”
“…Yeah.”
She swallows.
“…I really need your help, Sakuragi-kun.”
The overhead lights hum.
The library feels too big all of a sudden.
“I… I’m sorry. I can only do so much.”
She blinks.
There’s silence.
One second.
Two.
Then she nods.
Not at me. Just down.
“Okay,” she says. “…Okay.”
She stands up.
Fast.
Her chair scrapes loudly against the library floor.
I flinch a little.
“Fujimura—”
She’s still looking down.
She grabs her bag. Leaves the books. Walks past me without looking up.
And by the time I’ve packed up all our research books, Fujimura is long gone.
Most of the tables are empty now.
Another chime plays.
“The library is now closed. Thank you for joining us today.”