Murakami was smiling brightly and blushing.

"That was fun!" The girl said.

"Through my belly hurts a bit…"

Silently, I stopped grasping her waist. I had been holding onto the girl through our entire dive toward the foot of the mountain. It was a pleasant experience, in some ways. However, I couldn't pay much attention to it. It's hard to pay attention to anything at all while driving at such a high speed.

"Ha…" The girl sighed.

I looked at the sun. It was lying low on the horizon. Not so long ago, it was blinking at me through the leaves while we had been driving down the mountain road.

I jumped on my feet from the bike and, while somewhat shaking, walked to the bus stop. Murakami started driving behind me. Then, I sat down on the bench. The girl stopped.

"Thanks," I told her.

"My pleasure!"

"I will ride a bus now."

"Yeah."

"…"

"…"

"Yeah" what? Why is she still here? Is she going to accompany me to the city? Why?

On the other side of the road, there was another bus stop. A wooden house was standing behind it. Suddenly, a bus approached.

"It's mine."

"Oh… See you then."

"See you too…"

The bus stopped. I walked inside of it and found myself a seat.

Soon, the bus started moving. Suburbs were passing by in the window. I found myself bored looking at them, and was about to kill some time with my phone, but then I remembered that it had been out of power. Having nothing to do, I slowly fell asleep…

When I woke up, I suddenly felt afraid. Have I missed my stop? However, soon the mechanical voice pronounced the name of the street that I have been going through, and the doors of the bus opened. I walked out.

There were many people on the street. It was evening already, and everyone was going home. Somehow, I managed to get through the crowd and entered the hotel.

Then, five minutes after, I entered my room.

It was dark inside.

Curtains were drawn.

I walked through the room and entered the balcony. The cold and yellow sky was hanging above. The mighty wind was blowing in my face. Trying to endure it, I gazed at the city below.

It was big. Really big.

It resembled both Hong Kong with its oversized skyscrapers and Tokyo with its abundance of advertisements shining from everywhere no matter where you look. I could see a Ferris wheel far away…

And right in the middle of the city (very far from where I was), a truly gigantic skyscraper was stretching toward the heavens. It was glassy and enormous. As I knew from the information I managed to get about the city in the meantime, that building was the headquarters of Misuragiri-corp. It was a very rich corporation, though I didn't remember what was their trade exactly.

Somehow, I felt that there was a potential for a story here.

I had been just standing there, looking at the scenery until once again I felt very hungry. I walked back into the room. A small fridge was standing there. I found a pack of sausages and ketchup.

And that was my meal.

After that, I took the suitcase with all my stuff and left the room for good.

Once again, I walked into the street. Then, I waited for the bus.

It was already evening when I came back.

I was about to walk toward the school when, suddenly, I saw a red bike near the bus stop.

I felt surprised and then I saw a girl on the bench.

It was Murakami.

What is she doing here? Has she been waiting for me? Why? I was about to ask her, but then I stopped myself from doing that. I saw that the girl was sleeping. Her eyes were shut. She lowered her head, and her hair was hanging almost to her knees. Her pose seemed very unstable. As if even a slight push could make her fall.

Carefully, I walked toward the girl and said:

"Hey… Get up."

Silence.

I touched her shoulder. Murakami shivered and opened her eyes. They were beautiful and blue. Then, she smiled and looked at my suitcase.

"Can I help you? We're…"

"Neighbours… Sure."

Murakami smiled and stood up.

"Guess we can tie it to the bike somehow…"

And so we did with a wire the girl had on her for some reason.

Then Murakami started pedaling while I was pushing the suitcase from behind.

We were ascending the mountain.

It was hard. I had already been very tired by that moment. However, soon, for some reason, it was becoming easier and easier. I had been confused until I noticed that it was because of the girl. Murakami was pushing harder and harder so that I will be able to relax.

Well, that's good. She's in much better shape than I am, and she had been sleeping not so long ago. So she isn't as tired as I am… If that was any other day in my life, I would have left all the work to the girl.

However:

"Go get I rest. I will do it on my own after that," I said to her.

For a simple reason.

A shonen protagonist should be overprotective of women and he shouldn't let them do any hard work even if they are stronger than he is.

That is what I thoughts, and it turned out to be right, for soon after I was granted points for my behavior:

(18+2=20)

Murakami turned and looked at me.

"No!" she said.

…

Oh well.

We continued our ascent. Soon, the girl started to whistle a song.

Yellow Submarine.

Strange, wasn't she a fan of another famous British band? Maybe in this world, every song written by the Beatles has actually been written by Queen.

What a cursed world it is then…

"Hey, look at that cloud," said the girl all of a sudden pointed at the sky. A prolate cloud, colored in yellow by the sun, was flowing up there.

"It looks like an eggplant," said Murakami.

"Yeah..."

It did.

…

I was wet from sweat when we, at last, ascended the mountain. Murakami, on the other hand, was as active as ever. There was a great difference in our strength.

We entered the forest path. The wind died down by then. The world was still and yellow as if it was frozen in a drop of amber.

Soon, I saw our dorm.

"Here we are," said Murakami with a smile on her face.

"Will be back soon," she said and started driving her bike to the storeroom.

Suddenly, watching her walk away, I had a thought. The day hasn't ended yet, so maybe I still could accomplish my mission.

It was a bit risky. And awkward, but… I should at the very least try.

"Hey."

I called her and the girl turned to me.

"Do you want to be friends?"