Ayano POV

Honestly, I’m a little scared of Marry-chan now…

I mean, she’s completely different from before.

She’s faster, smarter, and she seems to hold a grudge on everyone but Chi-chan, Kano-san, and Kido. Speaking of Kido she’s well enough to walk, it seems. Marry doesn’t seem to care, though. Whenever Kano laugh at her, she pulls the punches instead of Kido. Marry’s punches send him flying.

Kano doesn’t laugh at Marry-chan anymore.

Once, Chi-chan thought it would be fun to take us to a shooting range. Here were the rankings once we were done:

1st: Takane Enomoto=250 shots

1st: Shintaro Kisaragi=250 shots

1st: Chinatsu Chiyo=250 shots

1st: Marry Kozakura=250 shots

1st: Konoha Kokonose=250 shots

2nd: Kido Tsubomi=207 shots

3rd: Kano Shuuya=200 shots

4th: Seto Kousuke=187 shots

5th: Momo Kisaragi=159 shots

6th: Hibiya Amamaiya=124 shots

7th: Ayano Tateyama=27 shots

Yes, five people tied first with 250 shots. And guess who came in last?

Yours truly.

While Chi was complementing Konoha on his handling, I kept my head down on the walk home. Shintaro drifted over to me. “What’s wrong?”

I looked up at him. “Nothing!” I said brightly. “It’s nothing.”

He stared at me sternly. “It is not nothing.”

“Fine, if you want me to tell you…” I hesitated. “I was outclassed by Chi again.”

“No, you weren’t! And what do you mean, ‘again’?”

“Well, she’s prettier than me, stronger than me, and who saved us the day we met? And, you have a crush on her, don’t you?”

“Eh?! A crush?! No! Why would I have a crush on Chi?! She’s nothing compared to you—” a looming figure came into view behind Shintaro as he was babbling about the things he like about me. I felt my eyes grow wide. Shintaro stopped blabbering. I could hear the others talking in hushed tones. Shintaro slowly turned around.

There was Chi standing there, eyes hidden behind her bangs. Her hands were on her hips, and I could practically see the “I’m mad” symbol hovering beside her head. You know, the one from manga and anime? “I can hear you, you know.” She said, her voice an octave lower than usual.

“A-ah, y-you see, I-I—”

Chi cut him off with a practical punch just below the ribs. At least that was what she was about to do, but she was too busy laughing and snapping pictures of him with her phone.

“Hey!” Shintaro tried to grab the phone, but she was too quick, she snapped the phone out of reach, tossing it to Kano. They kept tossing it to each other until Shintaro was breathing hard, lying on the ground.

Chi, phone in hand, laughed along with everyone. “Ah, sorry for scaring you that way, Ayano-chan. You will forgive me for this, won’t you?”

“Of course!” I said, shocked that she was asking such a thing.

“Perfect…” She said, turning to Shintaro. “Now, you can continue chatting with your giiiirllllfrieeeeend.”   She snickered, stretching out the syllables for emphasis.

“Eh?!” we said in unison, staring at each other. We both started blabbering nonsense about how we didn’t like each other like that, while Chi just stood, laughing.

We were still walking to the apartment in that alleyway when Chi, talking to Kano, collapsed.

 She was in mid-stride, mid-sentence, and in the middle of the alleyway. Not to mention, it was twelve o’ clock sharp, and she just… collapsed, face first onto the pavement.

Out of her pocket fell two small things—her phone, and a little bottle labeled:

“Paralysis Prevention Pills”

Alliterations, they make me laugh.

Kyaa~ sorry this is a day late, yesterday I was being lazy and chatting with Seita. C'mon people, lazy Sunday is totally a thing. I had some major feels Sunday, so I was like: "Oh screw it, I'll do it tomorrow. It's lazy Sunday anyway. Monday is the day that I'll probably have to do three or four chapters on~" 

This pic of Chi is when she was being abused by her parents. I will say no more on this subject because that was a major spoiler in itself.

Yes, I know, It looks like that lady from that anime-- but it's not. My friend loves that anime, so she even included the eyepatch... I'll kill her.

Well, onto the mext chapter -_- 

Bai, now. Be safe.