CH 9

School ended today and I was on my way home alone.

There was one thing that was different today though.

The group of girls in my class who usually bully me didn’t bully me today.

I’d be very grateful if they finally got tired of the toy that is me…

I walked with an unlikely hope in my heart.

At that time, I found a petite girl staring dumbfoundedly at the pond by the school.

It was the very girl who was always in the back of the group of girls who didn’t bully me today.

“……”

She was staring at the pond with her beautiful wavy black hair swaying in the wind, her face pale with a look of heartfelt annoyance.

I remembered her more specifically than the rest of the girls.

But not just because she was exceptionally beautiful.

Because she was—

“Are you okay? Is something wrong?”

I spoke to the girl— Chieri Tohsaka.

Tohsaka was a little surprised when I spoke to her, then she composed herself and turned away from me.

“I’m fine. Nothing is wrong.”

Tohsaka, who responded in this way, was different from usual.

The beautiful necklace she always wears around her neck was missing.

“What happened to your necklace?”

“…………”

After showing some sort of slightly conflicted expression, Tohsaka muttered quietly.

“I dropped it… in this pond…”

This pond wasn’t that shallow.

Her short stature would not allow her to reach down to the bottom of the pond to find what she was looking for.

And above all, it was so dirty that there were a lot of insects, and the water was so muddy that it turned a true green color.

“All right, I’ll find it. Hold on a second.”

“— Ha!? I’m fine! I can take care of it myself!”

“You didn’t drop the necklace, someone threw it in here, right? Anyways, I’ve been hit a few times myself, so I’m used to it, don’t worry about it.”

I took off my shoes and walked into the swamp without hearing Tohsaka trying to restrain me.

Immersed up to the knees, I plunge my arms in and get them wet up to my shoulders.

“Look~ what’s he doing~?”

“Ughe— How can he put himself in such a dirty pond? He’s going to get sick.”

Some of the students leaving school saw me and said something like that.

I continued my search for the necklace, watched over by Tohsaka, who clasped her hands together in prayer.

— And a few hours later at dusk.

“There it is! Ah-ha-ha! No wonder they dumped stuff in this pond so many times!!”

After wiping the mud off my cheeks, I found Tohsaka’s necklace and held it up, laughing—

And Tohsaka burst into tears.