Chapter 1 — A Wonder Came to be Called a Wonder

1

Sakuta dreamed that day. He dreamed of days gone by… though it was actually only about two years in the past.

He dreamed of when he was in his third year of middle school, of the time ten days after three mysterious gouges had been carved into his chest and he had been taken to the hospital covered in blood… Sakuta had grown tired of looking at the doctor’s troubled face and left the hospital before boarding a train from the nearby station.

He didn’t care where it went and decided to just go to the sea because the TV show he had watched to kill time the day before had a character that had looked out to the sea with a melancholic expression. It seemed a fitting place to go with being in the doldrums.

That was how he came to Shichirigahama beach and walked through the surprisingly loud sounds of the crashing waves until he reached the water’s edge.

The sea breeze carried the scent of salt, and the early-afternoon sun was pleasant on his skin. There was a path towards the sun on the surface of the sea. Was the atmosphere clear past that far off distance? He could clearly see the horizon.

He stared at the boundary between the sea and sky for a while and then noticed someone next to him.

“Did you know? The distance from a person’s eye-line to the horizon is about four kilometres.”

The voice was barely there and had a weak timbre, but there was a cool purpose contained within it.

Sakuta remained silent for a while and glanced to his side. Standing there was a girl in high school uniform, holding her hair down against the wind. She was wearing a beige blazer and a navy blue skirt as she stood barefoot on the sand.

He didn’t recognise her face, and didn’t know her name.

Noticing Sakuta’s look, the girl gave a slightly playful smile. At the very least, there was no one else around. He could see an elderly couple walking their dog, but there was no other explanation than that the girl was talking to Sakuta.

“Are the people around here all like that?” He asked her.

“Hm?” The girl tilted her head, not quite understanding the main part of his question.

“Do they all just start talking to strangers out of nowhere?”

The area was a seaside tourist destination. Enoshima was to the west, and Kamakura to the East, so there might be the culture of being friendly to visitors to make them feel welcome.

“Ah, did I make you think I’m a strange person by any chance?”

“Nope.”

“Thank goodness,” the girl breathed a sigh of relief.

“I just think you’re annoying.”

“Calling a high school girl that is a taboo,” the girl pouted with her hands on her hips, apparently miffed, “annoying, lame, incapable of reading the atmosphere, those are the three great taboo insults for high school girls.”

“You’re an irritant then,” he revised.

“And that’s the fourth.” The girl gave a somewhat reproachful look before carrying on. “You look rather far from home, did something bad happen?”

“About earlier,” Sakuta answered, completely ignoring the actual question. It was probably this kind of attitude that a girl he had just met was telling him he looked far from home.

“Yes?”

Even with her question ignored, the girl didn’t frown and instead smiled cheerfully, her expression changing from the earlier pout.

“You were talking about the horizon,” Sakuta stayed before her, still discouraged, “is it really about four kilometres?”

“It’s surprisingly close, isn’t it?”

The girl picked up a twig from the beach and drew a circle in the wet sand. Atop that circle, she added a person that consisted of a circle and a straight line before finally adding a straight line that touched the circle.

“If you use the geometry that you learn in high school, you can easily calculate the distance to the horizon.”

Using the beach as a board, the girl wrote out an equation, but it was washed away by a strong wave. Flustered, she moved a step back up the beach.

Sakuta fell back into silence and stared back at the horizon. It had seemed so distant before, but now seemed strangely close.

“Now it’s your turn to answer my question,” she said.

The moment that she said that, Sakuta had decided to ignore it, but in the end, Sakuta ended up talking to her about why he had come to the sea.

“I…”

He started by telling her that he had a sister, then that said sister had been bullied in middle school.

Once he opened his mouth, he couldn’t stop talking. He spoke of his sister getting strange cuts and bruises with the bullying, how he couldn’t do anything for his injured sister, and then eventually, even about the bizarre wound on his own chest. Finally, he finished by telling her about nothing going well… about how he had come here today to escape from the all-pervading sense of powerlessness that weighed on him.

It wasn’t that he wanted sympathy, and nor was it that he wanted comforting. He had in fact thought that the girl, who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, would recoil and leave once she heard. Those malicious feelings were what drove Sakuta to speak. That itself was just as the girl had said, Sakuta was far from home.

“So that’s what happened.”

Surprisingly, the girl didn’t show a hint of doubt, even once he had finished relating everything to her. She didn’t give him sympathy or try and console him. She didn’t even allude to the scars on his chest or seem to doubt that the tale was the truth, she just offered her right hand.

“I’m Makinohara Shouko, Makinohara Shouko is from the Makinohara in the ‘Makinohara Service Area’, and the Shouko in ‘a child soaring through the sky’. What’s your name?” Said the girl.

“I’m…” Sakuta opened his mouth reflexively, haltingly reaching to respond to her handshake, but before he could grasp her hand, the dream ended.

Sakuta’s hand that had moved in vain within his dream touched something. A round and soft sensation filled his hand…

From there, Sakuta noticed the warmth of a body on his own, the slightly damp skin against the right side of his body. The softness and weight of it brought a girl to mind.

As these thoughts danced vaguely through his head, he felt a tongue lick his lips.

He slowly opened his eyes.

There was a fluffy white creature in front of Sakuta’s eyes, a white-furred kitten that was licking Sakuta’s face with its rough tongue.

There was a reason for this, it was the cat that had come to live in Sakuta’s house a fortnight ago… on the last day of the school term.

He picked the white cat up off his face. However, he still couldn’t get up. There was another little one… well, calling her a little one wasn’t quite right, another large creature was lying across Sakuta.

She was a panda, or well, his little sister wearing panda pyjamas. She was fifteen this year, but still sometimes crawled into Sakuta’s bed like this.

Atop her chest was the Azusagawa household’s pet cat, Nasuno, who was a female calico cat. The source of the soft and round sensation in his hand was apparently the cat’s backside and Sakuta breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn’t accidentally groped his sister.

Sakuta removed his hand from Nasuno and pinched Kaede’s nose as it whistled slightly with her breath as she slept.

“Mgh.” Came a noise from Kaede’s throat as she made a pained expression, but she soon opened her mouth and maintained her oxygen supply. He considered covering her mouth too, but decided it wasn’t something he should do to his teenage sister.

“Kaede, wake up,” he told her instead.

“Ngh? Ah, Onii-chan, good morning,” she answered, suppressing a yawn as she rubbed at her eyes.

“How many times do I have to tell you to stop crawling into my bed?”

“Is it because you’ll awaken to a forbidden love?”

“No, it’s not.”

“It’s okay, I’ll sink to whatever depths you want me to.”

“It’s just because it’s too hot.”

It being summer, it was the time of year when the warmth of a person’s skin wasn’t the slightest bit pleasant. If anything, it was the season where you wanted to avoid contact as much as possible.

Of course, his older girlfriend, Sakurajima Mai, was an exception, and he would rather be in contact with her all-year-round.

However, the world wasn’t fair, and the days with no skinship from Mai continued and they had only been able to meet a few times since the holidays had begun.

Mai had gone back to show business and so was busy recording for TV dramas, adverts, and even modelling for the covers of fashion magazines, doing interviews and appearing at publicity events, so her days were filled with work.

She had said “Half of it I’ll be working” about the holidays, but her schedule had been filed in the blink of an eye and she barely had any time off.

“Hah…”

It was because of this that Sakuta would sigh dejectedly once or twice throughout the days.

“What’s wrong, Onii-chan?” Asked Kaede.

“Kaede, what day of what month is it?”

Kaede checked the digital alarm clock and then answered.

“It’s the second of August.”

“So we’re about a fortnight into the holidays.”

“We are.”

“And yet, I’ve not been able to have any fun with Mai-san.”

“Then do you want some fun with me?” She asked, suddenly moving her face close to his.

“No, I don’t,” Sakuta answered, pushing himself up past Kaede who still showed no sign of getting off of him.

“What’s displeasing about me!?” Kaede yelled, leaning forwards suddenly. She was awfully close to pushing him down, so Sakuta quickly got up off the bed.

“You’re being pretty desperate today.”

“That’s because I’m currently facing the largest crisis in the history of Kaedeism.”

“The hell’s that supposed to mean?”

“I need to master imoutodo as soon as possible!” Kaede proclaimed loudly, with a nod at her own words.

Just what was imoutodo? Sakuta wondered to himself. Well, it was made up of the characters for ‘little sister’ and ‘way’, much like ‘kendo’ was made up of sword and way, and judo was made up of ‘gentle’ and ‘way’, so maybe it was something similar? No, he decided, if I put them together like that, I can just see the organisations that deal with them phoning up to complain.

Whilst his mind was occupied with that kind of pointless thoughts, the doorbell sounded. Looking at the clock, he could see it was ten o’clock in the morning, so he already knew who it was before he got to the door. There was only one girl that came at this hour.

“Yeah yeah, I’m coming,” Sakuta said, stifling a yawn as he went to greet his guest.

The visitor was a prim and proper looking young girl with a white dress that promoted her innocence all the more.

She was twelve years old and in her first year of middle school, but her polite bow and composed greeting, “Hello, sorry to intrude,” made her seem more adult and her general demeanour was polite and courteous.

She entered the hall and shed her shoes when the white cat came running from Sakuta’s room to curl around her… Makinohara Shouko’s feet, rubbing its back at her.

“We haven’t eaten yet,” Sakuta told her.

“Ah, then can I feed him?”

“Would you do Nasuno’s food at the same time?”

“I will.” Shouko smiled happily.

He showed her into the living room, the kitten running around underfoot.

“Onii-chan, come here a second,” Kaede beckoned him as they passed past his him. Sakuta went to the living room with Shouko, then came back to Kaede.

“What?”

“Do you prefer younger younger sisters?” She asked, seeming near tears.

“What’s with that question?”

“Are you the kind of person that prefers polite and courteous little sisters?” She continued, shooting furtive glances at the living room. Apparently, that was the largest crisis in the history of Kaedeism to Kaede.

“I’m the kind of person that prefers you as my sister.”

“R-really?”

“What did you think I’d say, I-”

“T-then what is Shouko-san to you?”

“…I wonder…”

Two weeks had passed since their shocking meeting. He had speculated a lot, but there were no answers to the existence of ‘Makinohara Shouko’.

Her face was too similar to just have the same name, and a family wouldn’t give siblings the same name. At the very least, she didn’t know Sakuta, so he thought that she wasn’t the same girl as he had met two years ago. But still, Sakuta couldn’t see the first year middle school student looking after the kitten as anyone but the second year high school student he had met two years prior from her appearance, to an unthinkable extent…

There was thus one possibility he could think of.

It was some form of Adolescence Syndrome. It was usually spoken of online as some kind of false supernatural phenomenon, consisting of urban legends like ‘a person suddenly disappearing from in front of you’ or ‘being able to hear people’s thoughts’. However, Sakuta knew that it was not a simple internet rumour. Sakuta had experienced two instances since the year had begun. The first was Mai’s and the other was his junior Koga Tomoe’s.

Perhaps something similar had happened with Shouko, though there was no way to know whether it was happening now or two years ago…

“Um, Sakuta-san?” Asked the girl, turning around from where Sakuta was observing her and thinking.

“Hm?”

“I’m, uh, sorry.”

“What for?”

“For this little one,” she answered, gently stroking the kitten’s back as it ate. “I said I wanted to adopt him, but I haven’t been able to bring it up with my parents.

Nasuno came up next to the kitten.

“I’ll definitely speak to them about it, so please wait for a little longer,” she said.

That was the reason the kitten was in Sakuta’s home.

“Are your parents strict?”

“They’re very kind to me.”

“Are they bad with animals?” Sakuta suggested.

“I think they like them, they’re always just as happy as me when we go to the zoo.”

“Are they allergic to cats?”

“No,” she shook her head.

“Do you actually live in a restaurant?” He asked, maybe it was a consideration towards hygiene or customers with allergies themselves.

“Dad has an office job and mum is a normal housewife, we’re just a normal household.”

“I see,” was all he said, wanting to refrain from making it seem like an interrogation.

However, then Shouko spoke, “If I said ‘I want a cat’, then I’m sure they wouldn’t object.” Her face clouded slightly there. She was being oddly indirect, so though he was, of course, curious, Sakuta didn’t question her, if she could put it straightforwardly from the start, Shouko wouldn’t have picked this way to say it. “But, that’s why I can’t say it…”

He still didn’t really get what she meant, but answered with, “I see.”

“I’m sorry, you probably don’t get what I mean.”

“Yeah, not at all.”

Sakuta answered with what he’d been thinking and Shouko seemed to find something about it amusing as she started to giggle.

“Well, he can stay for a while. Nasuno’s happy with it too,” said Sakuta as Nasuno licked the kitten’s face, “and you can practice how to take care of a cat here too.”

“Right!”

“Oh yeah, have you chosen a name?”

“I have,” nodded Shouko with a sudden smile.

However, she didn’t continue and they both fell silent.

“Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“Eh? Ah, right… please don’t laugh?”

“Is the name that funny?”

“I-it’s not, I think it’s normal, but… It’s Hayate.”

The cat looked up at Shouko, looking at her in puzzlement, almost like it somehow knew they were talking about it.

“He’s like a white whoosh, so I thought of Hayate.”

“That works, he can be Nasuno’s Tohoku buddy.”

Apparently, the connection with the Shinkansen hadn’t come through, it wasn’t worth explaining, so Sakuta just waved it off.

Shouko then played with the cats for a while before looking up as something occurred to her.

“Um,” she began with a whisper and upturned eyes. Her gaze darted to the side, behind Sakuta… where Kaede was watching from the slight opening of the door. “Does Kaede-san hate me?”

“That’s just her normal reaction to people, don’t worry about it.”

“It does worry me though,” she replied with a reasonable point of view. And now she mentioned it, it was more relevant to Sakuta too.

“Kaede,” he called out, “have you finished what you were studying today?”

“There was some stuff I didn’t get, so I want you to explain it to me,” she answered.

“Come here then.”

Clutching her books to her chest, Kaede timidly came out into the room and immediately clung to Sakuta’s back.

“And how am I supposed to teach you anything like this?”

“Here,” she said, putting her book in front of his face. The pages were on factorisation, with the calculations written out in full and all the questions solved.

“I don’t get what you don’t get.”

“I don’t get when factorising will be useful in my life.”

“It’s useful when you take an exam for the high school you want to enter,” Sakuta answered with the one time he had found a use for factorisation.

“Got it,” said Kaede in understanding, writing ‘useful in exams!’ on the book. He wondered if she really did get it and if she would be fine with that answer or if she would ask for something more concrete, but Sakuta would have no answer for her. Sakuta himself wanted to know what use differential and integral calculus would have, and trigonometry for that matter. Who on earth thought that up? Sine, cosine, tangent…, While lost in his thoughts, he felt Shouko’s gaze on him.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Can I do my homework here too?”

“Your summer homework?”

“Yes.”

“Sure, use this table,” he answered, gesturing at the table in front of the TV.

“Thank you,” she said politely before sitting and taking a print-out of her homework from her tote bag. Apparently, she was doing maths too, the sheet having a list of simple linear equations to solve, twenty in total. A little concentration should see the whole exercise done within fifteen minutes.

In spite of this, Shouko sat stiffly in front of the sheet, her mechanical pencil held in her hand. The first question was ‘3

Chapter 1 A Wonder Came to be Called aWonder1Sakuta dreamed that day. He dreamed of days gone by though it was actually only about two years in the past.He dreamed of when he was in his third year of middle school, of the time ten days after three mysterious gouges had been carved into his chest and he had been taken to the hospital covered in blood Sakuta had grown tired of looking at the doctor's troubled face and left the hospital before boarding a train from the nearby station.He didn't care where it went and decided to just go to the sea because the TV show he had watched to kill time the day before had a character that had looked out to the sea with a melancholic expression. It seemed a fitting place to go with being in the doldrums.That was how he came to Shichirigahama beach and walked through the surprisingly loud sounds of the crashing waves until he reached the water's edge.The sea breeze carried the scent of salt, and the early-afternoon sun was pleasant on his skin. There was a path towards the sun on the surface of the sea. Was the atmosphere clear past that far off distance? He could clearly see the horizon.He stared at the boundary between the sea and sky for a while and then noticed someone next to him.Did you know? The distance from a person's eye-line to the horizon is about four kilometres.The voice was barely there and had a weak timbre, but there was a cool purpose contained within it.Sakuta remained silent for a while and glanced to his side. Standing there was a girl in high school uniform, holding her hair down against the wind. She was wearing a beige blazer and a navy blue skirt as she stood barefoot on the sand.He didn't recognise her face, and didn't know her name.Noticing Sakuta's look, the girl gave a slightly playful smile. At the very least, there was no one else around. He could see an elderly couple walking their dog, but there was no other explanation than that the girl was talking to Sakuta.Are the people around here all like that? He asked her.Hm? The girl tilted her head, not quite understanding the main part of his question.Do they all just start talking to strangers out of nowhere?The area was a seaside tourist destination. Enoshima was to the west, and Kamakura to the East, so there might be the culture of being friendly to visitors to make them feel welcome.Ah, did I make you think I'm a strange person by any chance?Nope.Thank goodness, the girl breathed a sigh of relief.I just think you're annoying.Calling a high school girl that is a taboo, the girl pouted with her hands on her hips, apparently miffed, annoying, lame, incapable of reading the atmosphere, those are the three great taboo insults for high school girls.You're an irritant then, he revised.And that's the fourth. The girl gave a somewhat reproachful look before carrying on. You look rather far from home, did something bad happen?About earlier, Sakuta answered, completely ignoring the actual question. It was probably this kind of attitude that a girl he had just met was telling him he looked far from home.Yes?Even with her question ignored, the girl didn't frown and instead smiled cheerfully, her expression changing from the earlier pout.You were talking about the horizon, Sakuta stayed before her, still discouraged, is it really about four kilometres?It's surprisingly close, isn't it?The girl picked up a twig from the beach and drew a circle in the wet sand. Atop that circle, she added a person that consisted of a circle and a straight line before finally adding a straight line that touched the circle.If you use the geometry that you learn in high school, you can easily calculate the distance to the horizon.Using the beach as a board, the girl wrote out an equation, but it was washed away by a strong wave. Flustered, she moved a step back up the beach.Sakuta fell back into silence and stared back at the horizon. It had seemed so distant before, but now seemed strangely close.Now it's your turn to answer my question, she said.The moment that she said that, Sakuta had decided to ignore it, but in the end, Sakuta ended up talking to her about why he had come to the sea.IHe started by telling her that he had a sister, then that said sister had been bullied in middle school.Once he opened his mouth, he couldn't stop talking. He spoke of his sister getting strange cuts and bruises with the bullying, how he couldn't do anything for his injured sister, and then eventually, even about the bizarre wound on his own chest. Finally, he finished by telling her about nothing going well about how he had come here today to escape from the all-pervading sense of powerlessness that weighed on him.It wasn't that he wanted sympathy, and nor was it that he wanted comforting. He had in fact thought that the girl, who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, would recoil and leave once she heard. Those malicious feelings were what drove Sakuta to speak. That itself was just as the girl had said, Sakuta was far from home.So that's what happened.Surprisingly, the girl didn't show a hint of doubt, even once he had finished relating everything to her. She didn't give him sympathy or try and console him. She didn't even allude to the scars on his chest or seem to doubt that the tale was the truth, she just offered her right hand.I'm Makinohara Shouko, Makinohara Shouko is from the Makinohara in the Makinohara Service Area', and the Shouko in a child soaring through the sky'. What's your name? Said the girl.I'm Sakuta opened his mouth reflexively, haltingly reaching to respond to her handshake, but before he could grasp her hand, the dream ended.Sakuta's hand that had moved in vain within his dream touched something. A round and soft sensation filled his handFrom there, Sakuta noticed the warmth of a body on his own, the slightly damp skin against the right side of his body. The softness and weight of it brought a girl to mind.As these thoughts danced vaguely through his head, he felt a tongue lick his lips.He slowly opened his eyes.There was a fluffy white creature in front of Sakuta's eyes, a white-furred kitten that was licking Sakuta's face with its rough tongue.There was a reason for this, it was the cat that had come to live in Sakuta's house a fortnight ago on the last day of the school term.He picked the white cat up off his face. However, he still couldn't get up. There was another little one well, calling her a little one wasn't quite right, another large creature was lying across Sakuta.She was a panda, or well, his little sister wearing panda pyjamas. She was fifteen this year, but still sometimes crawled into Sakuta's bed like this.Atop her chest was the Azusagawa household's pet cat, Nasuno, who was a female calico cat. The source of the soft and round sensation in his hand was apparently the cat's backside and Sakuta breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't accidentally groped his sister.Sakuta removed his hand from Nasuno and pinched Kaede's nose as it whistled slightly with her breath as she slept.Mgh. Came a noise from Kaede's throat as she made a pained expression, but she soon opened her mouth and maintained her oxygen supply. He considered covering her mouth too, but decided it wasn't something he should do to his teenage sister.Kaede, wake up, he told her instead.Ngh? Ah, Onii-chan, good morning, she answered, suppressing a yawn as she rubbed at her eyes.How many times do I have to tell you to stop crawling into my bed?Is it because you'll awaken to a forbidden love?No, it's not.It's okay, I'll sink to whatever depths you want me to.It's just because it's too hot.It being summer, it was the time of year when the warmth of a person's skin wasn't the slightest bit pleasant. If anything, it was the season where you wanted to avoid contact as much as possible.Of course, his older girlfriend, Sakurajima Mai, was an exception, and he would rather be in contact with her all-year-round.However, the world wasn't fair, and the days with no skinship from Mai continued and they had only been able to meet a few times since the holidays had begun.Mai had gone back to show business and so was busy recording for TV dramas, adverts, and even modelling for the covers of fashion magazines, doing interviews and appearing at publicity events, so her days were filled with work.She had said Half of it I'll be working about the holidays, but her schedule had been filed in the blink of an eye and she barely had any time off.HahIt was because of this that Sakuta would sigh dejectedly once or twice throughout the days.What's wrong, Onii-chan? Asked Kaede.Kaede, what day of what month is it?Kaede checked the digital alarm clock and then answered.It's the second of August.So we're about a fortnight into the holidays.We are.And yet, I've not been able to have anyfunwith Mai-san.Then do you want some fun with me? She asked, suddenly moving her face close to his.No, I don't, Sakuta answered, pushing himself up past Kaede who still showed no sign of getting off of him.What's displeasing about me!? Kaede yelled, leaning forwards suddenly. She was awfully close to pushing him down, so Sakuta quickly got up off the bed.You're being pretty desperate today.That's because I'm currently facing the largest crisis in the history of Kaedeism.The hell's that supposed to mean?I need to master imoutodo as soon as possible! Kaede proclaimed loudly, with a nod at her own words.Just what was imoutodo? Sakuta wondered to himself. Well, it was made up of the characters for little sister' and way', much like kendo' was made up of sword and way, and judo was made up of gentle' and way', so maybe it was something similar?No, he decided,if I put them together like that, I can just see the organisations that deal with them phoning up to complain.Whilst his mind was occupied with that kind of pointless thoughts, the doorbell sounded. Looking at the clock, he could see it was ten o'clock in the morning, so he already knew who it was before he got to the door. There was only one girl that came at this hour.Yeah yeah, I'm coming, Sakuta said, stifling a yawn as he went to greet his guest.The visitor was a prim and proper looking young girl with a white dress that promoted her innocence all the more.She was twelve years old and in her first year of middle school, but her polite bow and composed greeting, Hello, sorry to intrude, made her seem more adult and her general demeanour was polite and courteous.She entered the hall and shed her shoes when the white cat came running from Sakuta's room to curl around her Makinohara Shouko's feet, rubbing its back at her.We haven't eaten yet, Sakuta told her.Ah, then can I feed him?Would you do Nasuno's food at the same time?I will. Shouko smiled happily.He showed her into the living room, the kitten running around underfoot.Onii-chan, come here a second, Kaede beckoned him as they passed past his him. Sakuta went to the living room with Shouko, then came back to Kaede.What?Do you preferyoungeryounger sisters? She asked, seeming near tears.What's with that question?Are you the kind of person that prefers polite and courteous little sisters? She continued, shooting furtive glances at the living room. Apparently, that was the largest crisis in the history of Kaedeism to Kaede.I'm the kind of person that prefers you as my sister.R-really?What did you think I'd say, I-T-then what is Shouko-san to you?I wonderTwo weeks had passed since their shocking meeting. He had speculated a lot, but there were no answers to the existence of Makinohara Shouko'.Her face was too similar to just have the same name, and a family wouldn't givesiblingsthe same name. At the very least, she didn't know Sakuta, so he thought that she wasn't the same girl as he had met two years ago. But still, Sakuta couldn't see the first year middle school student looking after the kitten as anyone but the second year high school student he had met two years prior from her appearance, to an unthinkable extentThere was thus one possibility he could think of.It was some form of Adolescence Syndrome. It was usually spoken of online as some kind of false supernatural phenomenon, consisting of urban legends like a person suddenly disappearing from in front of you' or being able to hear people's thoughts'. However, Sakuta knew that it was not a simple internet rumour. Sakuta had experienced two instances since the year had begun. The first was Mai's and the other was his junior Koga Tomoe's.Perhaps something similar had happened with Shouko, though there was no way to know whether it was happening now or two years agoUm, Sakuta-san? Asked the girl, turning around from where Sakuta was observing her and thinking.Hm?I'm, uh, sorry.What for?For this little one, she answered, gently stroking the kitten's back as it ate. I said I wanted to adopt him, but I haven't been able to bring it up with my parents.Nasuno came up next to the kitten.I'll definitely speak to them about it, so please wait for a little longer, she said.That was the reason the kitten was in Sakuta's home.Are your parents strict?They're very kind to me.Are they bad with animals? Sakuta suggested.I think they like them, they're always just as happy as me when we go to the zoo.Are they allergic to cats?No, she shook her head.Do you actually live in a restaurant? He asked, maybe it was a consideration towards hygiene or customers with allergies themselves.Dad has an office job and mum is a normal housewife, we're just a normal household.I see, was all he said, wanting to refrain from making it seem like an interrogation.However, then Shouko spoke, If I said I want a cat', then I'm sure they wouldn't object. Her face clouded slightly there. She was being oddly indirect, so though he was, of course, curious, Sakuta didn't question her, if she could put it straightforwardly from the start, Shouko wouldn't have picked this way to say it. But, that's why I can't say itHe still didn't really get what she meant, but answered with, I see.I'm sorry, you probably don't get what I mean.Yeah, not at all.Sakuta answered with what he'd been thinking and Shouko seemed to find something about it amusing as she started to giggle.Well, he can stay for a while. Nasuno's happy with it too, said Sakuta as Nasuno licked the kitten's face, and you can practice how to take care of a cat here too.Right!Oh yeah, have you chosen a name?I have, nodded Shouko with a sudden smile.However, she didn't continue and they both fell silent.Aren't you going to tell me?Eh? Ah, right please don't laugh?Is the name that funny?I-it's not, I think it's normal, but It's Hayate.The cat looked up at Shouko, looking at her in puzzlement, almost like it somehow knew they were talking about it.He's like a whitewhoosh, so I thought of Hayate.That works, he can be Nasuno's Tohoku buddy.Apparently, the connection with the Shinkansen hadn't come through, it wasn't worth explaining, so Sakuta just waved it off.Shouko then played with the cats for a while before looking up as something occurred to her.Um, she began with a whisper and upturned eyes. Her gaze darted to the side, behind Sakuta where Kaede was watching from the slight opening of the door. Does Kaede-san hate me?That's just her normal reaction to people, don't worry about it.It does worry me though, she replied with a reasonable point of view. And now she mentioned it, it was more relevant to Sakuta too.Kaede, he called out, have you finished what you were studying today?There was some stuff I didn't get, so I want you to explain it to me, she answered.Come here then.Clutching her books to her chest, Kaede timidly came out into the room and immediately clung to Sakuta's back.And how am I supposed to teach you anything like this?Here, she said, putting her book in front of his face. The pages were on factorisation, with the calculations written out in full and all the questions solved.I don't get what you don't get.I don't get when factorising will be useful in my life.It's useful when you take an exam for the high school you want to enter, Sakuta answered with the one time he had found a use for factorisation.Got it, said Kaede in understanding, writing useful in exams!' on the book. He wondered if she really did get it and if she would be fine with that answer or if she would ask for something more concrete, but Sakuta would have no answer for her. Sakuta himself wanted to know what use differential and integral calculus would have, and trigonometry for that matter.Who on earth thought that up? Sine, cosine, tangent, While lost in his thoughts, he felt Shouko's gaze on him.What's up? He asked.Can I do my homework here too?Your summer homework?Yes.Sure, use this table, he answered, gesturing at the table in front of the TV.Thank you, she said politely before sitting and taking a print-out of her homework from her tote bag. Apparently, she was doing maths too, the sheet having a list of simple linear equations to solve, twenty in total. A little concentration should see the whole exercise done within fifteen minutes.In spite of this, Shouko sat stiffly in front of the sheet, her mechanical pencil held in her hand. The first question was 3