On a bright and breezy day, if you happened to stroll through Haneoka Girls' High School, you might be fortunate enough to witness a rather peculiar sight:
Under the brilliant midday sun, the lush corridors of the school building were surrounded by concentric circles of flower beds, brimming with a rich variety of colorful blooms. The roots of the plants were blanketed in fertile black soil, amidst which tiny, dazzling points of light often caught the eye. These were various stones and gravel left over from the renovation of the old campus more than a decade ago; if you looked closely enough, you could always unearth a pretty piece of mica, some quartz, or God knows what else. A short, grey-haired girl, looking much like a fawn, would dart among the green leaves and red blossoms, quietly foraging for these treasures like a miner mole. If anyone happened to walk by, this Miss Mole would tremble and hide herself among the flowers, waiting for an unattended moment to make a flustered escape, perhaps with a few rose petals still clinging to her hair.
That was on a pleasant day, however.
On a wretched day like today, when the howling wind and driving rain were fierce enough to blow open loosely latched windows, the only sensible course was to stay quietly in the classroom to read or sleep. Any outdoor activity that wasn't strictly necessary was simply incomprehensible.Therefore, Miki Kashiwagi found it particularly baffling why a petite, grey-haired girl, holding a small umbrella, was squatting in a flowerbed right outside his infirmary windowsill, searching for something, making quite a loud racket, and getting so startled by his sudden pushing open of the window that she tumbled right over into the wet mud.
Baffling as it was, Miki Kashiwagi still politely invited the deer-eyed girl, whose gaze was filled with panic, into the infirmary.
"Hold this towel and dry your hair—uh, may I ask your name?" Miki Kashiwagi retrieved a dry towel from the cabinet, handed it to the girl, and the girl sitting in the chair timidly took it, then draped the towel over her head and gently wiped it.
"My name is Tomori Takamatsu." Tomori Takamatsu's eyes gleamed, her face was gentle, and even her speech came with slight stutters, word by word, making her as endearing as a small animal."Tomori Takamatsu, I'm sorry if I startled you, but I'm really curious—what were you doing hiding in the flowerbed?" Miki Kashiwagi asked with a curious look on his face.
He knew that Tomori Takamatsu was one of the main characters of MyGO, but from his friends in his past life, he had only ever received endless nonsense and memes. As for Tomori Takamatsu's personality and preferences, he was completely clueless.
"Looking for... stones." Tomori Takamatsu fished a handful of small, variously shaped pebbles out of her pocket. Some were round, some sharp, and their colors were mottled—overall, they were just ordinary limestone. As if showing off, Tomori Takamatsu raised her palm high to display her spoils to Miki Kashiwagi.
"Still, you shouldn't go out looking for stones in the rain. What would you do if you caught a cold?" Miki Kashiwagi felt a bit helpless, but he still picked up a few of the better-looking stones and examined them closely.
"My friend said that on rainy days, stones have a luster, making them much easier to tell apart!"
Ugh... What a truly convincing reason.
"Huh? Tomori Takamatsu, your knee—" Miki Kashiwagi suddenly noticed a bit of blood seeping from Tomori Takamatsu's rounded knee, likely from scraping her skin when she fell just moments before. "Let me disinfect it for you and put a bandage on."
"No need!" Tomori Takamatsu produced a sheet of bandages from somewhere, printed with all sorts of cute, clumsy-looking penguins. Pulling one out, Tomori Takamatsu carefully blew on the surface of the wound and then stuck the bandage on.
"Are these... Magellanic penguins?" Miki Kashiwagi asked with keen interest, still playing with the small stones Tomori Takamatsu had collected.
"Yes!" Tomori Takamatsu's eyes suddenly lit up, and her speech instantly became fluent. "Not only that, this is an emperor penguin, this is an Adelie penguin, this is..." Tomori Takamatsu began to show off her various bandages, on which it seemed not a single penguin pattern repeated."Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Tomori Takamatsu-san, I really don't know much about marine life, and there's no way I'll remember everything if you introduce it all in one go."
Tomori Takamatsu visibly wilted, thinking she had finally found a kindred spirit.
"However, I do know a thing or two about stones—"
Tomori Takamatsu's eyes lit up again. Indeed, she had found a kindred spirit! He was just like her!
"Let me show you my prized collection." Miki Kashiwagi went back to his desk, rummaged around for a moment, and fished out a small, exquisite cigarette case. Opening it, aside from a few remaining cigarettes, the rest of the compartments were filled with various colorful, pretty pebbles. After picking through them for a moment, Miki Kashiwagi pulled out the three plumpest, most eye-catching ones and displayed them in front of Tomori Takamatsu.
A fingernail-sized green cat's-eye stone, a perfectly square piece of pyrite, and a flat obsidian stone with distinct shades of color.
"As a first-time meeting and an apology gift for you, please choose one of the three," Miki Kashiwagi said very generously. In reality, these trinkets weren't hard to come by; whenever he found an excuse to accompany his supervisor on field research, the local natural environments always produced these pretty little knick-knacks.
Tomori Takamatsu's eyes shone brightly. She touched this one and squeezed that one, looking completely entranced, but in the end, she still reluctantly put them all back into Miki Kashiwagi's cigarette case. "These are too precious. I can't accept them."
"There's nothing precious about them, Tomori Takamatsu-san. Your feelings are far more precious than these stones."
"No, I really can't take them." Although Tomori Takamatsu had her desire written all over her face, she still stubbornly refused.
"Hmm... How about this, then?" Miki Kashiwagi reached directly toward Tomori Takamatsu, a sudden movement that startled her immensely. "W-w-w-w-what are you doing?"
"Calm down, Tomori Takamatsu-san." Miki Kashiwagi swiped a whole handful of adhesive bandages from Tomori Takamatsu's hand, carefully sifted through them, and chose one printed with an Antarctic penguin pattern to stick on the back of his hand, returning the rest to Tomori Takamatsu.
"This Antarctic penguin belongs to me now, and your few pretty little stones also belong to me. In exchange—" Tomori Takamatsu's few little stones went into the cigarette case, and a crystal gleaming with a bright yellow light ended up in Tomori Takamatsu's hand.
"This yellow quartz has a tiny flaw with a bit of impurity trapped inside, but if you observe it under a light, you'll find it looks as though a tear has been sealed within."
"How about giving it a name? As a testimony to our friendship." Miki Kashiwagi smiled as he watched Tomori Takamatsu admire her new gift in sheer astonishment.
"I... can't think of one right now. When I do, I'll tell you. Also, I'll give this to you."
An aquarium ticket for a location in the Ikebukuro district.
"If you're interested in penguins, come to me. I'll be your guide. What's your name?"
Miki Kashiwagi pointed at his name tag. "Miki Kashiwagi. You can call me by my real name, Miki Kashiwagi, if you don't find it a mouthful."
"Miki Kashiwagi, Miki Kashiwagi, Miki Kashiwagi..." Tomori Takamatsu repeated it several times, then nodded solemnly. "I remember!"
"On Saturday, let's go to the aquarium together, and I'll be your guide!"
She's just deciding my schedule all by herself, isn't she, Tomori Takamatsu-san?
Then the two of them added each other on LINE. After a moment of thought, Tomori Takamatsu changed Miki Kashiwagi's display name to his real name, "Miki Kashiwagi."
"Miki Kashiwagi, Miki Kashiwagi, Miki Kashiwagi... Okay, I'll try my best to remember."
"Goodbye, Dr. Kashiwagi. Make sure you come on Saturday!"
"Don't worry, I'll be there."
"I'll be waiting for you!"
Tomori Takamatsu finally left. Miki Kashiwagi let out a long sigh. How come interacting with Tomori Takamatsu-san felt a little heavy?
She was clearly just a cute kid.