The group of five walked out of the cat café together, continuing their lively conversation as they made their way down the street. The afternoon atmosphere was peaceful, with the sounds of passing cars, distant chatter, and the occasional breeze filling the air.
Himiko, Toru, Mei, Nejire, and Mineta walked together as though they had been friends for years rather than a group that had only recently come together.
Their conversation jumped from one topic to another, with Mei enthusiastically talking about her latest inventions, Himiko occasionally teasing Mineta, Toru joining in whenever she could, and Nejire asking question after question whenever something caught her attention.
Mineta could only smile as he listened to them, occasionally answering questions while wondering how his life had somehow become this chaotic.
Eventually, they reached an intersection where the five of them would have to split up and head in different directions.
Himiko adjusted the strap of her bag and looked toward the road leading toward the Mineta residence before giving Mineta a small smile.
"I have to go home now. Aunt Umeko is probably already preparing dinner, so I should help her before she starts complaining that I abandoned her in the kitchen again," she said with a small laugh.
Toru, meanwhile, raised her hand slightly and admitted, "I didn't finish the homework we were given yesterday, so I really need to go home and do it before I forget about it completely."
Mei gave a small shrug as she adjusted the goggles resting on her forehead. "And I need to get home too. I still have to work on that grenade launcher. There are several parts I need to adjust before I can finish the next stage."
Mineta gave her a slightly nervous look but decided not to question her definition of a normal afternoon project. "I'm heading to the trash beach to train," he said, while Nejire sighed and added, "And I have to study. We have a test on Monday."
After everyone finished explaining where they needed to go, the group finally began parting ways.
Himiko waved goodbye before heading toward home, while Toru went in another direction, her invisible presence becoming harder to distinguish among the people walking down the street.
Mei also turned toward her own route, already muttering something about the materials she needed for her grenade launcher.
Nejire and Mineta, however, continued walking together because their routes happened to overlap for a while.
As they separated, Toru glanced back over her shoulder one last time. Her invisible face contracted slightly, and although nobody could see the sadness that had settled across her features, the feeling was there. She quietly watched Mineta walking beside Nejire, chatting with her so naturally, before finally turning away and continuing toward her own home.
Meanwhile, Mineta walked beside Nejire without noticing Toru's lingering gaze.
For several moments, the two simply walked together while the afternoon breeze passed through the streets. Then, without warning, Nejire suddenly started talking about something completely unrelated to what they had been discussing earlier.
Mineta's expression twitched slightly as he listened to her chatter. 'There it is. That endless chatter. The Nejire I know from the future is finally showing up in full force. Honestly, Nejire and quietness are two concepts that should never be placed in the same sentence,' he thought, trying to keep his expression calm while listening to her jump between topics.
However, his thoughts abruptly came to a halt when Nejire turned her head toward him and asked, "Mineta, were you stalking me yesterday?"
Mineta nearly tripped over his own feet. His eyes widened as he immediately looked toward Nejire's face, expecting to see the cold and angry expression she had worn back at school.
Instead, Nejire was looking at him with a completely calm smile, as though she had merely asked him what he had eaten for lunch.
That somehow made the question even more terrifying.
Mineta swallowed nervously and looked down at the road while continuing to walk beside her. "Yes... how did you know?" he finally asked, his voice carrying the reluctant acceptance of someone who knew he had already been caught.
Nejire giggled softly. "Well, for starters, Himiko lives with you, right? So I thought it was strange that she wasn't with you yesterday when we met on that rooftop while saving those two kittens. If you were simply going home after school, there would have been no reason for you to be wandering around near me alone."
She paused for a moment before continuing with the same calm smile. "Then there was the direction we were walking. Your house is in the opposite direction from mine, so you weren't heading home. Once I put those two things together, it wasn't really that difficult to figure out."
Mineta let out a long sigh, realizing that trying to hide anything from Nejire might be nearly impossible once she started connecting the smallest details together.
Nejire tilted her head curiously and asked, "So why did you follow me?"
Mineta became quiet. His gaze slowly shifted toward the cherry blossom trees ahead of them as the two approached the Sakura Garden intersection.
The beautiful trees stood along the road, their branches moving gently in the breeze while a few petals drifted through the air.
Mineta took a breath before finally answering. "It all started yesterday at school. You and I bumped into each other during lunch, and when I apologized, you barely reacted. You had this cold expression, and there was this feeling around you that made it seem like you didn't want anyone coming near you. Then I heard the other third-year students talking about you."
Nejire's expression gradually became more attentive as she listened. Mineta continued, choosing his words carefully. "From what they were saying, I pieced together that you weren't always like that. Apparently, during your first year, you were much more cheerful and outgoing. You talked a lot, asked tons of questions, and didn't seem afraid of approaching people. But because you sometimes asked questions without thinking about how sensitive they could be, people misunderstood you. Eventually, they started isolating you."
Nejire's eyes widened slightly as Mineta turned his head towards her and continued, "I figured that the cold expression wasn't really the real you. It was probably something you built around yourself because you were tired of being misunderstood and pushed away. So I wanted to break that shell and bring out the real Nejire hidden underneath it. That's why I followed you yesterday. I was trying to figure out some way to approach you without making you uncomfortable."
He scratched the side of his ball-like hair with his eyes closed, then gave an embarrassed grin. "But somehow, I didn't even have to do anything. You came out of your shell yourself after we saved those kittens. So it seems like all that worrying I did was completely unnecessary."
Nejire stared at him silently for several seconds before a gentle smile appeared on her face. "You're wrong."
Mineta opened his eyes, confused by her response. "Huh?"
Before he could ask anything else, he suddenly felt something soft against his cheek. His entire body froze as his eyes widened in disbelief.
Nejire's face was incredibly close to his, and her lips had just pressed a brief kiss against his cheek.
She slowly stepped away, leaving Mineta completely frozen in place.
Mineta's hand immediately rose to his cheek as his entire face turned bright red. Steam practically seemed to rise from the top of his head while his mouth opened and closed several times without producing a coherent sentence.
"W-W-Wait... W-What... You... Just..."
Nejire giggled at his reaction, but her smile soon became softer and more sincere. "You're different from everyone else, Mineta. You didn't know me. You didn't have any responsibility to approach me, and nobody asked you to help me. You could have simply ignored me like everyone else did."
She looked directly into his eyes as she continued, "But you didn't. When I started asking you all those questions yesterday, you didn't look annoyed. You didn't look uncomfortable. You didn't make fun of me. You looked relieved. You were actually happy that I was finally acting like myself."
Mineta's expression slowly changed as he listened.
"And when I didn't have any friends, you stepped forward anyway," Nejire continued with a warm smile. "You didn't wait for someone else to introduce themselves to me. You became my friend yourself. Then you introduced me to Himiko, Toru, and Mei so that I could become friends with them too. You didn't just help me talk to people again, Mineta. You gave me a place where I could belong."
The breeze moved through her blue hair as Nejire closed her eyes and smiled. "That's why, to me, you're my hero," she said softly. "You saved me from my loneliness."
For a moment, Mineta couldn't find a single word to say.
The wind gently fluttered Nejire's hair while cherry blossom petals drifted around them, some passing between the two of them before continuing down the street.
Mineta remained rooted to the spot, staring at Nejire as his mind desperately tried to process everything that had just happened.
The girl standing before him was smiling happily, completely different from the cold and distant third-year student he had encountered yesterday.
'She really means it,' Mineta thought, his heart beating faster. 'She genuinely thinks I saved her.'
Nejire opened her eyes and gave him another bright smile. "Well, I'll see you at school on Monday, Mineta!"
Before Mineta could recover enough to respond properly, Nejire turned around and began running in the opposite direction. Her footsteps gradually became quieter as she disappeared farther down the street.
Mineta remained standing in the exact same spot.
Ten seconds passed.
Thirty seconds passed.
A full minute passed.
He simply stared at the corner where Nejire had disappeared, his hand still resting against the cheek she had kissed.
His face remained bright red as his brain replayed her words again and again.
'I'm her hero.'
His lips slowly curled into a grin. Mineta suddenly clenched his fist, raised it toward the sky, and shouted with all his strength, "YES!!!!"
The shout echoed through the street as a few birds flew away from the nearby trees.