Chapter 19 – This is not a Date II
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It was a certain summer afternoon in June, a little bit before 6 pm. On the sky, some signs of the sun about to set could already be seen, although the sweltering air still hadn’t given up. This peaceful Saturday would have been nothing out of the ordinary if it hadn’t been for the fact that I was meeting with a certain person today. 

That person was a girl—and a really peculiar one on top of that. While I knew about that, and therefore was prepared to see her wearing some kind of an unusual outfit, what was standing right now before my eyes was simply beyond my expectations. 

The bright rays of light, which not blocked by any kind of cover overran our bodies, couldn’t reach her face—not only because of a black hood with a pair of cat ears on top of it put on her head, but also because of a gas mask that left me unable to catch a sight of her face, let alone her expression. There were two separate eyeholes on it—being pitch-black, they had an advantage over her usual eyepatch by letting her see through them, but leaving the look of her eyes imperceptible to the other people, that obviously including me. 

Had it not been for the fact that I was supposed to meet with that girl in that place, the thought of that disguised figure being her wouldn’t have ever occurred to me. If she somehow hid the strands of blonde hair sticking out, I wouldn’t recognize her even if she passed me by on an empty street. 

“Fret not, human. This is me.” 

My astonishment was immeasurable at the moment the strange figure, having unnoticeably approached me, called out to me. I was already familiar with the voice I quickly recognized even though it was muffled. When I heard it calling me “human”, I had no doubts anymore—after all, there was only one person in this world that called me that. 

“L-Lumiya...-san?” 

The prevailing color of her current outfit was black, accompanied by an occasional white accent. It didn’t fit the current weather whatsoever—while single layers of her outfit were rather thin, they all put together gave a rather bulky feeling. 

The only exposed part of her body aside from hair was a fragment of her neck. In addition to her face being concealed under the gas mask that most likely made her breathing more difficult, even her hands were entirely enveloped in black gloves, the end of which I couldn’t see. 

“Why do you have a mask on...?” 

Without saying as much as a proper hello, curiosity took the upper hand of me, resulting in me asking a question reluctantly. As soon as I finished it, she proceeded to raise one of her hands up to her face in order to made a gesture—which, in my opinion, looked three times as weird as usual combined with that gas mask. 

“Fufu, there is no way I would breathe the same air as those filthy humans”, she responded in a contemptuous manner.  

Aside from the fact that “those filthy humans” evidently included me since I didn’t have any kind of mask on, I didn’t recall her covering her face with anything at school, where there easily were more people than right now here, in front of the train station. While I could point out that obvious flaw in her train of thought, which I would be surprised she hadn’t noticed herself, I didn’t feel like doing so because I would simply make her flustered. Or perhaps she would come up with some justification? Like, she somehow was able to use a power of purifying air inside school, but for some reason it didn’t work here? 

“It also works as a disguise. After all, you don’t want to be seen with me, do you?” 

While it was nothing but truth, bringing it up straightforwardly was likely to cause misunderstandings, so I hadn’t thought about doing it myself—but it seemed that she concluded it herself. 

“Yeah... But, aren’t you too hot in there?” 

“Kakaka, don’t underestimate me, human. I’ll let you in on a secret, this suit has some cooling properties.” 

To be honest, as much as I didn’t believe her words, her outfit actually did give off a slight refreshing feeling. It might have been because the material seemed to be quite thin—perhaps if it wasn’t for the additional layer of gloves or tights, it wouldn’t appear insufferable. 

This probably wasn’t enough of a proof, but the only part of her body that was exposed, her neck, appeared normal—it wasn’t reddened, nor could I notice as much as a single droplet of sweat flowing down it. 

“What’s more, as I call it, the Battle Attire, is made from the finest selection of cloth brought from another world, hence your earthly eyes may not appreciate its utmost quality.” 

The Battle Attire? Who was she fighting with? 

Before I knew it, she proceeded to explain specific parts of her outfit. First off, she held forth one of her hands, coated with a long, black glove. To be clear, I didn’t recall her having those at school either. 

“Those gloves serve mainly as a protection from human germs. Therefore, after being put to use, they have to be cleaned thoroughly.” 

“I see...” 

Well, I couldn’t say that this part didn’t make sense. I mean, it would’ve been pretty much alright if they’d been of a standard length. Most people didn’t wear gloves at all times in order to protect themselves from bacteria, which were present for instance on a doorknob one touched when opening a door to a store, but instead cleaned them thoroughly under tap water upon returning home, or at least that was what they should be doing. 

Either way, aside from being part of her pretense, it was quite clever. 

“The purpose of this mask is, like I said earlier, to protect me from the air contamination caused by humans. Kakaka, but it’s not its only purpose. Hiding my face, it serves as an excellent disguise; after all, even you didn’t recognize me at first. You probably noticed that you can’t see my eyes; kaka, that’s right! It works just as the eyepatch, preventing the tremendous power in my left eye from leaking out, but it’s even more convenient. It doesn’t exactly seal it, but lets me control it at ease! Kaka, that’s right, I don’t have the eyepatch on right now... but don’t try to take the mask off by force, unless you want to die.” 

“Alright...” 

“This black cloak... is nothing more than a disguise, and a fancy addition. It makes me unrecognizable from behind or a greater distance, and paired with this mask, basically impossible without coming into direct contact with me. As for this pair of cat ears... their purpose is a secret. Fufu, sure it’s convenient.” 

She wasn’t exactly right, though—a strand of blonde hair could be noticed from behind, and given that it was a rather rare occurrence, paired with her strange outfit, someone who knew about her peculiarities could already suspect something. That was the case for me, although if we hadn’t been appointed to meet there, I doubt I would’ve recognized her. 

Her disguised figure standing before me, I felt strange when muffled sound came out of it without her body giving off the slightest sign of movement. I couldn’t see her mouth opening because it was hidden under the mask—that way, she appeared like a lifeless doll to me. Still, there was voice coming out of it, and her hands were sometimes moving as well... 

It was completely different from the Lumiya I knew from school. Usually, she was easily embarrassed, and even when she entered her holier-than-thou mode, small signs of uneasiness could be seen. Right now, it simply wasn’t here. The mere fact that she was able to stand there, in the middle of the city, dressed in such a conspicuous manner, made me surprised how come she hadn’t been embarrassed. When somebody saw her gas mask, they surely thought of her as a weirdo, since there wasn’t a cosplay event nearby to justify it—she didn’t care about that. 

“Human, what do you think?” 

For her, it was quite the opposite. How avidly she described each part of her outfit left me flabbergasted. She didn’t give off the slightest bit of awkwardness, even though as much as I wanted to make my replies relevant, they still turned out inapt. It wasn’t like that—I wouldn’t mind even if she kept going for even an hour, it was quite intriguing. But still, she kinda overwhelmed me. 

“Uh... you called it a battle attire, so do you have some kind of weapon?” 

The disguised, seemingly lifeless figure raised a hand up to the mask and used a gesture to point at its left eyehole. 

“Fufu, weapon? I’m not a human, but in case somebody attacked us, everything I need is here.” 

Her left eye... the one she thought had a hidden power capable of ending someone’s existence. If I remember right, she said that it could suck someone’s soul out, leaving only a bowl of rice—although the latter seemed too ridiculous and out of place. I don’t know if she really believed it, but she did eagerly act as such at all times, since she had it concealed under an eyepatch at all times. 

“Those loathsome humans may laugh at me, but they don’t know that they’re at my mercy. Kakaka.” 

What I couldn’t help but notice was that this time she didn’t include me in “those loathsome humans”. Come to think of it, it made some sense—I was supposed to be her servant, although she simply called me the human. In the end, it was one peculiar friendship. 

“So, this is some sort of a magical suit?” 

“Fufu, I guess you humans would call it magic. It’s nothing supernatural, but it does have properties unachievable in this world.” 

Instinctively, I lifted my gaze to stare right at her. Obviously, there wasn’t a trace of any expression on her face—seeing it being hidden under a mask, it made me feel a little bit awkward. On the other hand, I had to admit that it was actually easier—her eyes couldn’t be seen, and so they simply couldn’t meet with mine. The figure resembled the person I knew in voice, hair and behavior, but not being able to confirm with her face, there was a grain of hesitation inside me, an utterly dumb thought—what if it wasn’t her? What if this figure wasn’t Lumiya, but someone else, for example her sister? There wouldn’t be a plausible reason for that happening, hence this thought was dumb, but I still couldn’t brush it off. 

Even though it would make me uneasy, I’d rather be able to see her face, even with the eyepatch on. On the other hand, the mask most likely made her calm and assured, so it was easier on her. Well, it wasn’t like it was insufferable. 

“So, what is the store you want to go to?” 

I realized that we’d been talking without moving for a few minutes—I wouldn’t be surprised if our initial meeting time had already passed. In the middle of that, I had forgotten the true purpose of our meeting, so when it suddenly occurred to my mind, I decided to remind her about it. 

“It’s a certain knowledge repository… I guess you would call it a bookstore.” 

A bookstore, huh? It made sense, I guess. There were a few nearby that I visited quite often, although not enough to be considered a regular customer. While there was one in the shopping center behind us, it was relatively small so she might not find what she wanted there. There was a larger one, though, no more than a fifteen-minute walk from here. 

Somehow, I had a hunch that what she was looking for were either manga or light novels, so the latter was a much better choice. She might have already chosen one. Speaking of which, she was a transfer student, wasn’t she? Since I’d been living here for my entire life, I knew the area quite well. It’d already been a few months since she transferred here, so she might have already gotten to know the surroundings well enough too, though. 

“It’s time for our departure”, she said as she turned around and began walking away. It took me a while longer than it should before I became conscious of that and started following her. 

As soon as she turned her back to me, there was no trace of the blonde girl called Lumiya left. All I could see was a mysterious figure clad in black. There was no blonde hair fluttering along as she proceeded forward—the only part of her outfit that swayed slightly was her black skirt and coat. 

To be honest, it made me quite insecure. I was afraid that were I to lose sight of her for as little as a second, I wouldn’t be able to recognize her anymore. That was, obviously, nothing but my mind playing tricks on me—her black disguise made her more conspicuous, so I wouldn’t have much trouble finding her even in a dense crowd, as long as there wasn’t anyone else dressed in the exact same way. 

That being so, I had decided to pick up my pace and catch up to her in order to walk right next to her. A little bit humiliating as it might have been, I was actually more assured that way. 

We made our way out of the plaza before the train station, and were now walking on a regular sidewalk, which being right next to a relatively busy road, was wide enough to fit at least four people in its width. 

Just as it was only to be expected, people occasionally passing us by took a glance at the disguised figure belonging to the peculiar girl walking next to me, and as soon as they approached us, they tried their hardest to pretend that they hadn’t ever been looking. While I found it intimidating and appropriate, I couldn’t be surprised. It wasn’t every day that you saw someone casually walking around the city clad in black robes and a gas mask. 

It left me wondering, wouldn’t the security of the object we would come in, seeing her strange outfit, throw her out? It wasn’t like I could find any reasoning for that, after all it wasn’t like she was misconducting herself only by wearing that. On the other hand, somebody certainly could take her as a criminal about to rob the store... But seeing that she came in with a completely normal person, which was me, they should be reassured sufficiently, shouldn’t they? 

“Err, actually what kind of being do you pretend... are you, Lumiya-san? Perhaps a vampire?” 

In order to break the awkward silence between us, I decided to speak up, because there still were a few minutes left until we reached the bookstore which was our destination. 

“Human, so you still don’t believe me... Well, I’m not surprised. I haven’t shown you my powers, mostly because I simply can’t. Regardless, I wish I could see a real vampire, but they do not exist.” 

The reason I suggested a vampire, was that they tended to protect themselves from the sunlight, and that was exactly what she was doing. I hadn’t seen her drinking blood, though, nor did she have a noticeably large fang... so I guess that didn’t make sense in the end. 

“I see... maybe an alien, then?” 

I didn’t have any reasoning behind that, except that I assumed she wasn’t a human. But for real, as far as I was concerned, I didn’t disregard the possibility of extraterrestrial beings existing, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they looked exactly like humans. What I did disregard though, was the possibility of one walking right next to me. 

“An alien... Fufu, I guess that would be the most accurate term.” 

“An alien, huh...” 

Alright, so now I learned that she was (pretending to be) an alien. I wouldn’t have guessed it myself—there was nothing about her behavior that suggested so. For example, I’d rather expect her peculiar outfit to be a spacesuit. Well, it seemed that she was a peculiar alien. Or maybe were all aliens like that? 

“So... how did you come to this planet? Has your spaceship crashed or something?” 

“This world has so many secrets. I can tell you the entire story if you want, but I think you’re better off not knowing some things.” 

She suggested that she’d rather not tell me about her background. It might have been that she hadn’t come up with it yet, or maybe it was really disturbing. While, to be honest, it did increase my curiosity, I decided to play along with that. 

“I see... true enough. Then, can you tell me what is your purpose here? Why haven’t you come back yet?” 

“Well, to explain that it would require me to tell the entire story. I can’t come back—not only I don’t have the means to, but I also doubt they would want me back there. What is my purpose on this planet? Who knows.” 

“Huh?” 

Saying that sentence, the utterly black figure whose pace I found difficult to keep up with had slowed down. Her last words were odd. She hadn’t prepared even that? She didn’t have something or someone to find? I found it hard to believe. There was a place she called her base at school, what was it for, then? 

“I might have simply forgotten it. Therefore, it could be said that my purpose here is to remember my purpose.” 

Honestly, I didn’t know what to think about it. It was certainly a weird explanation—in another sense than her overall peculiarity. As we walked down the street, I felt a light wind passing by, cooling my entire body down. In general, the current weather started resembling an evening one—through the sky being alarmingly cloudy, the bright light of the sun couldn’t reach us as much as earlier. 

Speaking of which, it looked like it was going to rain soon. I hadn’t checked the forecast earlier, so it was possible. Also, it hadn’t been raining much lately, which was odd for a season exceptionally hot like that. We’d better hurry, I thought—while she didn’t need to be concerned by that as her outfit would provide proper protection, I wasn’t that lucky and was likely to catch a cold if that were to happen. 

“It looks like it’s gonna rain, doesn’t it?” 

Having heard that, she had to lift her head up in order to look at the sky. By the way, seeing how dark were the eyeholes in the mask of hers, would she be able to properly judge the color of the clouds? 

“That would be nice...”, she responded in a preoccupied manner. 

At that moment, I recalled a certain scene that happened within the first few days after we had first met each other. It was on a rainy day, when we met in her classroom for some reason. We hadn’t talked much there, and she proceeded to leave the school. She didn’t bring any kind of an umbrella with her as she left into the heavy rain. Worried by that, I ended up overcoming my anxiety and running after her to give her an umbrella. For some reason, I remembered it clearly—not exactly like yesterday, but perhaps like the day before yesterday. 

I like rain. I feel much better when it’s raining. 

That’s what she said back then. I hadn’t forgotten it—those words had always been present in my mind as if burned into it. Perhaps she had checked the forecast earlier, chosen this exact day and led me into choosing this time of the day only to see the rain? 

Well... she should have told me that, I would’ve brought an umbrella. I might be wrong, though—she might have not known that it was going to rain today. 

As such, we reached our destination before I knew it—this bookstore was in a separate, three-story building. I could see some people entering and leaving—it was certainly open. 

Following her, I stopped just next to the entrance. Looking at her figure dressed strangely, I had some concerns whether she wasn’t going to be thrown out of there. In fact, if she took her mask and hood off and obviously put the eyepatch back on, the chances of it happening would drop by half. 

She might have not had the eyepatch at hand, though. Besides, it didn’t seem that she wanted to take anything off—she just stood next to the entrance, turned with her back to me, without showing any intention to enter. 

“Lumiya-san?” 

Coincidentally, a couple had left the store at the same time I said that. They were not older than college age, and as it could be expected, inadvertently took a glance at her peculiar figure. On their faces, a bit of surprise could be found before they smiled at me awkwardly. 

The girl standing before me turned around unexpectedly. I was able to see the mask I hadn’t seen for a few minutes and her blonde hair that sneaked out of her black hood.  

Looking at it, I felt slightly awkward, although it was in a completely different sense than if I’d seen her face uncovered. It was that, even though she was able to see me more or less clearly, I couldn’t see anything.  

I couldn’t see the color of her both eyes, even the uncovered one. I couldn’t see the eyepatch—which honestly I had taken a liking to for some reason. I couldn’t see the expression on her face—there was no way I could judge whether she felt completely calm or anxious other than from the tone of her voice. And most importantly—I couldn’t see her face. Even though I rarely could bring myself to look at it, I missed it. I had nothing against any other part of her outfit, including the hood, but I’d rather if she took off the mask. Not right now, but the next time we met. I was going to ask her for that, if that ever happened. 

“Enter first.” 

Ah, so it was about that. She still had some embarrassment left in her, huh. I couldn’t be surprised—if I were her, I wouldn’t bring myself to walk around the city in an outfit like that, let alone walk into a store, even if it effectively concealed my real identity. 

“Yessir.” 

Having said that, I passed by her and opened the door to the store. The girl, which had been leading me this entire time, was now right behind me. Her face, which in spite of being covered by a mask, was cast down so it couldn’t exactly be seen. 

While walking down the street with her disguised figure next to me was awkward enough, entering a store with her like that took it to the next level. 

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