“So, you’re back.”
“Oh, did you miss me?” Momomi asked sarcastically, shaking out her hair.
Kaname put her head against the wall, closing her eyes languorously. “On the contrary, I’ve been savouring the time you’ve been away. That peace is gone, now.”
“And what have you been doing?” Momomi asked, collapsing onto her bed. “Staring at the door and working out the biting things you’d say to me when I arrived?”
“I took the chance to think,” Kaname said. “Certainly, that might be alien to you. But it pleases me.”
“You? Think?” Momomi laughed sarcastically. “You are many things, all of them unpleasant, but you are no thinker. I see it with every step you take.”
“Oh?”
“Like earlier,” she continued. “What on earth was that? She didn’t say a thing.”
“That one was the leader,” Kaname said. “She didn’t need to say anything. There’s no point in defeating the lackeys. You must take down the leader, and they fold.”
“That’s all very well,” Momomi said. “But breaking the nose of a supposedly innocent girl does not make you look good.”
“She deserved it,” Kaname said. “I enjoyed it. And I’m not afraid of the sisters.”
“How do you manage not being thrown out?” Momomi asked rhetorically, folding her arms behind her head. “It’s unreal what they tolerate in you.”
“My mother. That and the sisters understand more than they let on. They see past the superficial, unlike you.”
“It would take a mind infinitely subtler than mine to see reason in your madness,” Momomi said. “That’s because there is none.”
“In any case… you seem to know a lot about this,” Kaname said. “I doubt they would have talked.”
“I saw it.”
“I’m flattered. Stalking me now?”
“Don’t be arrogant,” Momomi said. “But I have my reasons for becoming concerned with that group. For my own interests, not because of you.”
“You’re having problems with them, aren’t you?” Kaname said.
“You can hardly talk,” Momomi said. “What punishment did the Sister give you?”
“Well, they said they’d isolate me, and I’d be moved out of my room,” Kaname said.
“You’re kidding? When are you going?”
“I’m not,” Kaname said. “I laughed so much they changed their minds.”
“Idiot.”
“So now I’m isolated from the class for the next two weeks,” Kaname said. “Being taught by sixth years with free time instead. And I can’t leave my room at other times.”
“They don’t get it, do they?” Momomi said. “I wish I got gifted with a punishment like that.”
“But don’t skitter away from the topic,” Kaname said. “You’re having problems with Olesa’s group too, aren’t you?”
“I’m planning to deal with it,” Momomi said testily. “Someone that stupid, can’t be too hard to deal with.”
“God, but I hate that bitch,” Kaname said softly. “The worst kind of idiot. She’s a weakling, but she’s got strong friends. They’re dumb, but she’s smart. Regardless, they always and only attack lone targets, five to one. And they pick on us, not because they have something to gain, but because they find it fun. What sense does that make?”
“They’re getting to you, aren’t they?” Momomi said.
“At least I broke that stupid girl’s face,” Kaname said.
“The doctor said it wouldn’t cause any lasting damage.”
“I should have punched harder,” Kaname said.
“You look a mess yourself,” Momomi said. “That’s why it’s stupid. Not just the sisters. But fighting five to one, that’s really stupid.”
“So, how about you?” Kaname asked. “What’s your grand plan?”
“I’m going to outthink them,” Momomi said. “I can do that. When I have proof of their behaviour, a record of everything they’ve done, then they’ll be in trouble. I can blackmail them or simply hand it to a Sister, or even our year. Or perhaps the Etoile.”
“I doubt you’d ever go and beg any of those for help,” Kaname said.
“Well, yes,” Momomi said. “I’d be uncomfortable with that. But Olesa doesn’t know that!”
“It’s a great plan, apart from that,” Kaname said. “Except for one thing…”
“What?”
She turned and walked forwards, leaning down and looking intently at Momomi’s face.
“What? That’s creepy, you know!”
Kaname suddenly lunged forwards, dragging her up by her hands. “You’re so weak, I can do this,” she said. “And this.” She hugged a struggling, furious Momomi, feeling brown hairbrush against her cheek, hand running down her body. Abruptly, the gasped and went stiff, moaning slightly. Then Kaname let go, and was rewarded with a hard slap. She ignored it, pushing a frightened Momomi down and pulling up her jacket at the waist. “Your stomach,” she said.
“Don’t touch it!” Momomi said, kicking.
Kaname stared down at the patchwork of bruises. “That’s why you’re late, right? You went to confront them. And it didn’t end well for you.”
“I just picked an unfavourable situation,” Momomi said. “I’ll work on it.”
“You need to see a nurse, at least,” Kaname said.
“Don’t pretend to be concerned.”
“Don’t be concerned?” Kaname asked rhetorically. “If you take so much care in my business that you spy on me, I can only return the favour. Besides, I want you to remember one thing.” She pushed Momomi onto the bed, looking down at her with intense eyes. “You’re my enemy. I’ll be the one to bring you down.”
“Your enemy,” Momomi said as Kaname turned away. “That’s pretty funny, isn’t it? Trash picking on trash, really. I guess you can do not better.”
Kaname shrugged, walking across the room and sitting on her own bed. “I hate you, Momomi. And I do think I’m holding you back. That makes it all worthwhile.”
“Hardly,” Momomi said. “Holding me back from what? I told you before; I’ve no intentions for this school, but to survive it. I want no friends.”
“You said so before,” Kaname said. “But, to be frank, that sounds like the affected attitude of someone who has no friends, and so pretends they like it that way.”
“You’ve no friends either,” Momomi said. “And you’d say the same thing. In your case, it’s because you completely and utterly lack anything approaching social skills, restraint, and possibly sanity.”
“So I’m alone because I’m messed up,” Kaname said. “Cracked, you could say. And I genuinely enjoy it, because I’m so messed up. But you… I’ve never seen such a smooth liar. You have no excuse, and no reason.”
“I told you,” Momomi said. “I have a reason.”
“Which is?”
“The last time, I got close to people,” she said, folding her arms and glaring at the ceiling. “It didn’t end too well, for me. Because of my stupid family. That’s all there is to it.”
“That’s it? Fear of your family?” Kaname said scornfully.
“Better that, but with independent thought, than to be so screwed over by them that they define you,” Momomi said. “That’s what you’re like. That’s what I hate about you.”
“I’ve chosen,” Kaname said. “Don’t mistake that. And I chose this way, because I know what I am.”
“And you lack the initiative to change it,” Momomi said.
“So? Is there any point in change? No matter what I did, do you think anyone we know could ever come to tolerate me? Let alone like me?”
“That’s true,” Momomi admitted grudgingly. “Sometimes the past matters. And even if I wanted friends, I’d have no luck either. Because of you, in no small part.”
“We chose our paths ourselves,” Kaname said. “Don’t pretend anything else.”
Momomi sighed, tilting her head and looking at the other girl in silence for a few heartbeats. “You know, you say more here with words than you even do with fists, outside.”
“I miss the days when I was alone and happy here,” Kaname said.
“Ha. I miss more things about last year than you could ever imagine,” Momomi said. “I hate it here.”
“But you’re the only person worth talking to I’ve ever met, here.”
“Eh?”
“You’re like me,” Kaname said. “I can’t think of any terms more damning.”
Momomi frowned, then shrugged. “Yeah. I’ll bet you thought you were unique. You were that foolish.”
“You were the same.”
“Yeah. Not that I’m like you, though.”
“Or me you,” Kaname said.
“That would be terrible,” they said, at once, then glanced at each other.
“But, I still find it odd,” Momomi said. “If you hate me so much, then why-” she fell silent.
“Realised that what you were going to say was apt to be reversed?” Kaname asked. “And perhaps you wouldn’t like the answer.”
“Ha.” Momomi bit her lip and closed her eyes. There was a few moment’s silence, then she sighed. “Ah, I can’t do it. But it’s okay. We don’t want friends, right?”
“That’s for sure,” Kaname said. “They’re all so stupid. But the way they crowd around Aname, and just drift and do everything normally… people are irritating.”
“Amane especially,” Momomi suggested. “If I had the kind of popularity she did, I’d use it. She wastes it. And I’d even make people happier, by using them. But… my point. We don’t want friends. But…”
“But?”
“An enemy’s okay,” Momomi said. “We can talk to an enemy.”
“I’ve always had enemies,” Kaname said. “It’s the only way to know you’re alive.”
“And when I’m dragged back to Italy, I won’t miss an enemy,” Momomi reasoned. “We talk to each other a lot, even so.”
“Well, yeah,” Kaname said. “I’ve talked to you more these last six months than I probably managed in the year and a half before that, with everyone else put together.”
“I see…” Momomi said. “But you’ve been here ever since the start of first year? That’s hard to believe, even now. You really are stupid.”
“Real unpopularity starts at the beginning, and from then on,” Kaname said. “With a sufficiently bad start, they’ll never give you a chance to recover. You went through the same process, just in the middle of second year. It comes to the same thing.”
“I suppose it does,” Momomi said.
“My empty room was the only thing I had to look forwards to,” Kaname said. “That’s gone, now.”
“Well, I can certainly understand the melancholy with which one returns to this room. But you say that so much I often wonder whom you’re trying to convince. Don’t you like having an enemy?” Momomi smiled. “Am I too much for you?”
“Sometimes I get tired,” Kaname said. “You’re doing well for someone so injured, though.”
“This wouldn’t stop me,” Momomi said dismissively. “It hurting doesn’t stop me talking.”
“Or are you talking because you’re hurt?” Kaname said. “I imagine that you might need diverting, from dwelling on the circumstances.”
“You’re actually pretty smart,” Momomi said. “Outside, you just seem dull. But you’ve got quite the incisive, over-analytical mind. You’re completely wrong, of course.”
“If no one cares what I think, why should I tell them?” Kaname asked. “But you care.”
“Don’t get presumptuous.”
“You’re the same,” Kaname said. “But I’m tired. This has been a hard day.”
“I’ll grant that,” Momomi said.
“Sometimes, alone is hard. And because, I need distracting. So do you. So I’m going to tell you a story.”
“A story?”
“It’s a story about a girl,” Kaname said. “A story I hate.”
“I’m listening.”
“But it begin with a man. A kind of gangster, a piece of lowlife trash with no redeeming features whatsoever. Violence was his way, and theft, and murder. If he wanted something, he took it. And he came upon a woman that he wanted, and he took her. By force. He lacked the capacity for anything else.”
Momomi stared at her, wide-eyed.
“And the woman was something,” Kaname said. “A Catholic. A fanatical, zealous, insane Catholic, as thick in faith and insanity as he was in violence. So of course, she couldn’t have an abortion. Because the words of a stupid book and some old idiots in a far away country she’d never been meant she had to have a child born of violence, a child she hated, a child that had no right to life. A girl.”
“But, isn’t that inspiring, that she lived?” Momomi argued. “Someone like that, being born regardless? It’s like a life, stolen, from this world…”
Kaname put a hand against the wall, staring at it ferociously. “Theft is the right term. That child should never have been born. And from that moment on, the world had no time for her. It extracted the highest price it could for her stolen right to life. It still does that. She never found anything worth living for. But she survived. That struggle became her life. Her mother hated her with a passion, regarding her as a sin and a bastard, ugly creature without merit. Almost as incandescent as her hate for the father. Regardless of that, and regardless of the law- he had the luck far better men than he deserved- he took the child away. I’d call that the most responsible thing he ever did, but nothing good ever came of it. Regardless, until eight that child was his child, whenever he remembered, which wasn’t often. She was always alone, and learned to live alone, except when he was there. Then she learned how to be beaten, abused, and destroyed in every conceivable way. But he also taught her how to fight. The best, or the worst, thing he ever did, from the only thing he ever knew. And she remembered. She became harder than he could have imagined, because now she’d stolen life she had no intention of giving it back for anyone. But that was when it began. The faults and weak-points, that made her more an animal than human.”
“What happened to her?” Momomi asked.
“Ask what happened to him,” Kaname said. “I said until eight. Then he got himself killed. No one mourned his passing, least of all his child. But the authorities wouldn’t let a little girl die alone. And somehow, belatedly, they dragged the kicking, screaming, twisted creature back to her mother. Grudgingly, hatefully, furiously, on both sides, she was taken in. By her mother had no love for her. Love was something she read about in books, after her mother taught her to read, but mostly something that recurred in the Bible. In a world without love, that girl had no time for the love of any God, only hate. In any case, her treatment was no better, except that the beatings were less hard, simply due to lack of strength. And…”
“And?”
“That’s it,” Kaname said. “At the age of twelve, she was sent to a private school, far away, and out of her mother’s sight. It was well out of her mother’s financial means, or inclinations, but the child insisted, and took scholarship tests. She passed. If nothing else, she was smart and strong.”
“It’s hard to believe a story like that could be real,” Momomi said.
“If you could see the girl, you’d believe it,” Kaname said. “She has no restraint, no social skills, no understanding of people, no love and no friendship and no goodness to give. She’s tough and strong and smart, but she can only use those talents to hurt others and herself. She’s been taught nothing but the capacity to take and receive harm, she has no ability to do good. She’s been cracked, warped, distorted, broken through. She barely lives as a human being. People merely see the surface cracks, and think her strange. But she’s been shattered to the core. That is the penance. That is the price, for being a sin of birth.”
“Did her mother tell her that?” Momomi said.
“It was the only thing she ever got right.”
“She’s wrong,” Momomi said. “If I ever meet her, I’ll slap her, and tell her that.”
“Aren’t you a Catholic, too?”
“By birth, not inclination. But I know sin. That’s a circle of sin, a stratified tower of hurt on hurt, crime on crime, an insult to humanity if not God. But the child there is the only innocent. There is no Original Sin.”
“An interesting type of Catholicism,” Kaname remarked, holding her knees in her hands.
“Meet my eyes.” Momomi stared her down steadily after she turned round. “That’s not Catholicism. That’s bloody common sense, the rarest thing in this world.”
“Whatever. Its not that kind of story, though, whatever you want. It’s the darkest parts of humanity.”
“Is it… just a story? An imagining?”
“You make your own mind up,” Kaname said. “I’m flattered, at least, that it inspired so much eloquence in you.”
“If that was an act, you’ve earned my rise to it,” Momomi said. “I’m very, very distracted.”
“I see.”
“But… if that girl was real,” she said slowly. “I’d love to meet her, I think. Anyone who could live a life like that would be so strong.”
“If that girl was real, she’d only hurt you,” Kaname said.
“And I’d fight back. But I’d still be glad to meet her,” Momomi said. “Whatever happened.”
“In any case, don’t tell anyone that story,” Kaname said. “It’s a story that should never be told. And I never have told it before. But you don’t understand how broken some people can become. You need a warning.”
“I understand it,” Momomi said. “I’ll embrace it. This world should be one where that story can be told as a mere remembrance.”
“It’s only a story,” Kaname said uneasily. “Don’t take things so seriously.”
Momomi got up suddenly. “That worries you, doesn’t it? But, you know, even we have emotions.”
“It’s easier,” Kaname said, looking away. “If you don’t take it seriously. If you laugh or snort. That means it doesn’t matter. To me, too. But if you take it seriously… I have to, as well.”
Momomi walked over to her, looking down. She felt… what? Something. Something she found difficult to place. She hated Kaname. She liked Kaname. As she hated and liked herself, because Kaname was like her. They fought. They called each other “enemy”. They sparred verbally with every breath. Contempt and mockery artfully mitigated every show of concern. But the concern was there. And when they reached out to each other with their words, what they meant to say and what they said were two different things. Kaname had told that story as a show of strength. Momomi wanted to think that it was a lie. Perhaps it was. But her intention had been… betrayed. Her words were twisted by that uncanny way the boyish girl she hated touched her, with words designed to hurt. And she reached out, and Kaname shied away, and was afraid. And that scared her. Why? “Suddenly, I think we’re a lot less strong than we like to think.”
“What?”
Momomi froze for a moment, poised between conflicting instincts and emotions. To fall one way, or the other… which was better? She didn’t know, and the struggle felt like it was pulling her apart. If that was happening, everything she’d done for the past six months wouldn’t help. Maybe. But… too much thinking. She closed her eyes, and flung her arms round Kaname’s neck.
The girl went stiff, gasping slightly. One hand reached out and touched Momomi’s arm, then she froze again as Momomi laid her head against her shoulder. “It’s okay,” the brown-haired girl said softly. “It’s okay… just once… for my to hug my enemy.”
Kaname looked down. “Stop it,” she said.
“And it casts my own wounds into relief. Who am I doing this for? You? Or me?”
“Stop it!”
“It’s okay… it’s okay…” Momomi said softly. She wasn’t sure who she was trying to persuade. “To be a girl. Just once.”
“Stop it… stop… it hurts…”
Momomi’s stomach twinged with pain. She ignored it. “You can stop me,” she whispered. “If you don’t want this, hurt me. Throw me off, toss me away, you’re so much stronger, you’re so strong. But I don’t want that. Do you want that?”
“I don’t… get it,” Kaname said in a low voice. She stared at the floor. “How?”
“Did you expect me to run away?”
“I’m the one running away. I like that… but you…”
“It’s okay,” Momomi said, more simply. She reached out and touched Kaname’s face. Tears. She felt a rush of shock. A rush of fear. “Why…”
“If you were me…” Kaname choked, “you’d hate that touch.”
“I-”
Kaname turned, looking at her with those eyes. Hard blue eyes, framed by blue hair. Even streaked by tears that face was strong, harsh, and independent. Everything she wished she could be. But she could see through the mask that had cracked in tears and suffering, and there was anguish beneath. It resonated with the pain she bore in her heart, and for an instant she couldn’t move. This… this was what she’d done to Kaname.
“It’s okay,” Kaname said. She turned fully, and threw her arms round her. For a few seconds, they held the embrace, then they fell down, brown hair spilling across white sheets, the world wheeling around them. For a heartbeat’s breath, that was all they needed.
What would this be, for it to be a new moment? I can only imagine. But it’s a new moment for me, too, when I really think about. I had a sister, and though we were close, once, we never did this. What is this? Why am I doing this? I thought I could understand this, but I don’t understand anything at all. I’m pained. I’ve been pained since… to long. And I run away. Only now, I’m turning to it. And for what? This… violent, cruel, crude, savage, cultureless, guiless hateful creature… and here and now, those words are so far away. I can’t feel the passion, the anger. Was that ever real? It’s like the world is different, here. All I can see, say, is strong, tough, wilful, independent, and that’s everything I want to be. Is she that? Am I just saying that? Why does this moment feel like a prism? Everything’s distorted. There’s nothing I can know. It’s… scary. I have everything planned out. I’m always in control, I never let anything but that happen. Except with Kaname, when I’m flying on my wit alone, only we always know what’s going to happen. There are rules. No, not rules. An understanding. I’ve broken that, clean through. We’ve no idea what we say, what comes next. That’s so frightening. And yet, so exhilarating.
“But this must be what it feels like. To have a family.”
“A little,” Momomi said, collecting herself. “But not that much.”
“It’s all I have to go on,” Kaname said.
“One day, for you, things will be different. That’s my promise.”
“I don’t put much stock by it.”
Yes, that was right. That was how they’d return to this world. “You won’t, which is why I’m right,” Momomi said serenely. “You wouldn’t know anything about it.”
“You’re so oversensitive, though,” Kaname said. “It’s ridiculous.”
“Says the girl who cried.”
“I cry for myself. There’s no shame in that. But that you’re so effected by someone else’s sorrow, when you should use it- that’s weakness.”
“No. When I take on the burden of your sorrow. That’s strength. You, who can’t even bear your own pain- that’s weakness.”
“I’m not sure,” Kaname said. “I’m tired.”
No, things had changed.
“But I’m not through yet. I’m fighting. One day, I’ll win. Then, I’ll tell you.”
“And I’ll wait, I guess,” Momomi said, feigning a tired patience. “You’re not giving me much choice.”
“How about you?” Kaname asked. “Still running away?”
Momomi said nothing for a few moments. To her surprise, her heart was pounding. “I’m… sorry. I still need to run, and I need to think. Now I’m thinking, at last. One day, I’ll tell you. That’s a promise.”
“Stop making promises,” Kaname said.
“Get used to them,” Momomi said. “This is the first time in six months I’ve felt like guaranteeing anyone anything. I’m not going to stop just because of you.”
“What time is it?”
“I don’t know. Can I get up?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”
Later, they’d spar again. Later, they’d exchange the whispered thoughts of twisted and incisive minds. Later, they’d again be the two enemies who saw themselves in each other. But for a few minutes, in that place and that time, they were silent, a silence of thoughts they could never commit to words. Because one, then the other, they’d reached out. For a moment, they’d touched. And the world had changed forever. That echoed in their thoughts.
“I’ve finished.”
“Then it’s terrible, no doubt,” the sixth year said irritably. “You’ll stay here the same length of time, regardless of how much you rush, you know.”
Kaname didn’t answer, simply sliding the sheet of paper across the desk. Then she returned to her meditations. Momomi… that girl has confused me. I’ve either been checkmated, or got Momomi but good, or maybe both, or something else. It was excruciatingly embarrassing, and confusing. My onlyconsolation is that Momomi too lost control. So no doubt we’ll never suffer to speak of it again. Mutual hypocrisy is our motif, but that’s just too painful to discuss. No, not entirely painful. That’s what’s so confusing. I can’t believe I lost it like that. It makes no sense. After all these years in control… what is it about that girl? She’s dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. She just messes with my head, in a way that has nothing to do with her being clever and everything to do with her merely being herself. Just like Aname- but like Aname, my passionate hate isn’t hate through. But, no, I don’t admire Momomi that way. At the same time, she makes me talk just by being her… it’s like her opinions matter to me, or something. It all makes no sense- especially as- it’s almost fun to be around her. This is- bad. I need to find some subtext. Some way to get away from her. But I don’t want to-
“Full marks,” the girl said grudgingly. “How do you do it?”
Kaname just shrugged.
“Then your history book. Pages 117-126, take full notes.”
She didn’t bother to reply to that, simply pulling out the relevant book, turning to a fresh sheet on her pad of paper, and beginning.
“What’s wrong with you? Cat got your tongue?”
Kaname didn’t reply, scribbling down her first note without looking up.
The senpai sighed irritably. “You’re allowed to talk, you know.” She waited for a reply that did not come. “Fine. It’s lunchtime in fifteen minutes. You can take a break then. And I’ll expect you to actually speak, at that point.”
This one’s annoyingly curious.
“Or are you afraid of being punished, or of your seniors? You never talk at all, when you’re being punished. I guess that’s fear.”
Now if that was Momomi, I’d rise to it. But you’re not Momomi. Not even close.
“I’m distracting you, then. I’d congratulate you on your conscientiousness if you weren’t a vicious bully.”
You’re not very bright, are you? But I don’t get it… why are you talking to me? She looked up for a moment. Yes. Sympathy, of all things. Hard work can excuse a lot of things, it seems. That, and this girl would just love to get through to me on some level. That’s not going to happen.
“Never mind. Just keep working.”
Kaname kept working in a detached manner until lunch break, then stopped and simply rested without saying a word. She wondered idly what Momomi was doing. Probably eating alone in the canteen, or planning another suicidal confrontation with Olesa. It wasn’t of much importance. And surprisingly, she didn’t find the image that funny, either.
“Don’t you have a lunch?” the senpai asked eventually, after growing bored of watching her implacable subject.
Kaname shook her head.
“What? Idiot… fine. I’ll go get one when the Etoile arrives.”
“Etoile?”
“At least one of them should be visiting you. No doubt you’ll receive a lecture from her, and won’t say a word. A waste of their time…” There was a knock at the door. “Ah, here she is.” The senpai stood and walked across the cabin, opening the door.
Kaname frowned slightly. As she said, a waste of their time. And everyone’s. This is so futile. They’d expel me if I wasn’t from my disadvantaged backgrounds. Looks good in reports, but by God it pisses me off…
“What? Who are you?”
“Just let me through. It’s not that hard, is it?”
Kaname sat bolt upright. What? What’s she doing here?
“She didn’t bring a lunch, did she? She just does it to be awkward, I’m sure. Well, I have one here, two in fact. Aren’t you lucky that I came?”
“You can’t-”
“Momomi! What are you doing? I can barely stand your company in the dorms!”
“If you go hungry, then you’ll be even more irritable!” Momomi shot back, stepping past the protesting senpai. “And if you did do this just to be a pain, I’m not letting you have your way!”
“You’re the one being a pain! No one wants you here!”
“Really? Well, I don’t want to be here,” Momomi said. “But I’m doing it because I enjoy being a pain. So you’ll need a better argument than that.”
Kaname sighed. “You’re not going to go away, whatever I say, right? So fine. Come in.”
“Wait a moment!” the senpai said angrily. “You don’t just barge in here-”
Momomi walked past her and sat, lowering the tray and folding her arms. “Here. You’ve no idea the trouble it took me to bring that all the way here, so you’d better be thankful. I haven’t even spilt the soup.”
“I didn’t ask for this,” Kaname said. “Though despite that, you’ve taken some care to bring the food I like. Very considerate of you.”
“The way you eat, it’s easy to tell what you like,” Momomi said. “I have to pick it out of my hair.”
“Stuck-up snob, you are. I thought only servants fetched and carried?”
“Well, only a thug would be here in the first place,” Momomi said. “And if you wanted slavery, you should have joined Miator. As it is, I’ve doubly lowered myself.”
The senpai opened her mouth to shout, and paused suddenly, just watching.
That’s right. That’s her. That’s my weak-point. Kaname took a sip of her soup. But you’re not smart enough to use it. “You’re right. Even first-years would have got this here sooner, and less cold.”
“Well, you’d have dropped it half-way there to punch someone,” Momomi said. “Consider it a relative measure.”
“I wouldn’t have brought it at all. I don’t have that much time.”
“Oh, quite. Always in various punishments, aren’t you?”
“But thanks. It’s appreciated.”
Momomi blinked, then snorted. “Now that, I don’t believe.”
“You built on those foundations.”
“Oh, I did. But I needed them to be there.”
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