It was Saturday, a little bit after 6 pm. On the sky, there were many clouds that obstructed the sunlight and foreshadowed that it was going to start raining soon. In front of me, there was a strange figure standing. Its overall height was just a little bit smaller than mine, mainly thanks to a pair of cat ears on top of the black hood that made it taller than it actually was. 

Covering its face was a black gas mask. Ridiculous as it might seem, I had already grown to stop asking myself questions about it. If it hadn’t been for the muffled voice that every now and then leaked from under it, I wouldn’t have discerned its real identity. 

“Enter first.” 

That’s right—the real identity of the disguised figure was a certain peculiar girl I happened to know. What was her reasoning behind wearing seemingly such an uncomfortable and inappropriate outfit? I didn’t have a clue. She actually claimed it to have some unusual properties, like the ability to keep her cool. 

“Yessir.” 

We were standing in front of our destination, a certain three-story bookstore. I didn’t know why she had brought me there with herself—I could only guess that she wanted to show me something or the other way around. 

As prompted by her, I took a few steps ahead of her and pushed the door leading to the bookstore open. Usually, I would feel relieved having stepped into a place devoid of the insufferable heat, but it wasn’t the case this time. It was because I hadn’t realized that it wasn’t that hot outside anymore. The weather became pleasant just like every day lately in the evening, but this time it was probably caused by the approaching rain. 

I started doubting that I would make it home in time—I would either end up having to walk drenched, or hiding myself under a roof for a certain period of time. To be honest, I was quite an impatient person, hence I would rather choose the former option even in spite of the risk of catching a cold. 

“I hope security won’t throw us out because of your strange outfit...” I spoke discreetly, having turned my head around to take a glance at her figure following me suit with her head cast down. 

If something like that happened, then well... I guess she wouldn’t take the mask off even if she was asked to do it, so we would have no choice but to leave the store. All I would be able to do then would be to enter the store without her and buy what she wanted in her stead. 

I hoped that it wouldn’t ever happen, though. 

“Where do you want to go now?” 

Before us, there were numerous rows of bookshelves, and narrow stairs leading to the next floor. The store was relatively huge—between each bookshelf there was enough space for two people to comfortably pass by each other. Obviously, there were some people walking around, although not as many as on a weekday. Nobody had conspicuously given us a glance yet, but it was only a matter of time, unless they had a regular customer that always wore a cosplay. 

Without saying a single word, her figure appeared in the corner of my eye and moved ahead of me. At an unhurried pace, she proceeded to lead me to the second floor. The width of the stairs was enough for no more than a single row of people to use them at a time, but there wasn’t anybody else either following us or walking down. 

“...” 

Before long, we arrived at the second floor. She didn’t proceed to turn around to head upwards, but instead walked toward one of the bookshelves. Coincidentally, this floor was dedicated entirely to light novels and manga—it looked that my intuition had been right. 

It wasn’t my first time here, and it didn’t seem that it was hers either; I could guess so from the fact that she immediately knew where to go. 

Seeing her figure clad in pure black walking ahead of me, I realized that, aside from the gas mask, it wasn’t unseen to spot someone dressed like that. I had seen people walking in black hoodies that hid everything, concealing even their faces, although slightly. That said, they were mainly delinquents, or at least they appeared as such. That girl didn’t give off such a feeling—I guess it was mainly, aside from her blonde hair that I could hardly imagine belonging to a guy, because of those cat ears. I knew that girls could be delinquents as well, but I somehow couldn’t imagine her being one. 

Besides us, there were some people on this floor, mainly minding their own business browsing through the bookshelves or particular books. 

Before I knew it, she stopped before a bookshelf and picked up a certain book. There were some titles I recognized, some of them I had even read, but nonetheless the majority of them were unknown to me. 

“What do you have there?” I asked her, not necessarily out of curiosity, but more because I wanted to get rid of the awkward silence that had fallen between us at some point. 

"This? You should know that. It’s not a source of knowledge, but entertainment to help me persevere in this world.” 

Having said that, she turned to me and showed me the cover of the book she was holding. I didn’t recognize the title, and all I could deduce from it was that it wasn’t the first volume—she either grabbed it unwittingly or had already been following that series, so she came here to buy the next volume. 

“Hmm...” 

She turned around and started walking further, without placing the book back on the bookshelf—most likely she was going to buy it. There was a person that displayed a rather amazed expression on his face as he closed a book he had been browsing and noticed the disguised figure. 

Our eyes inadvertently met—awkwardly, I returned him a faked smile. Honestly, at that moment I felt as though I had been her guardian of sorts—meaning a parent or a sibling that took care of her. 

At first glance, her behavior might have been mistaken with a child’s, walking around without a care in the world. That outfit, covering her body almost in entirety, was just like a means to cut herself off from the world around her, replacing it with her own, imaginary one. 

If she had really believed in that, it would’ve indicated that there clearly was something wrong with her mental health, but I was assured enough that inside, she was well aware of the world around her. Perhaps it could be proven by the fact that her studies went amazingly well, or at least so I’d heard. 

That didn’t change the fact that there was something wrong with her; after all, normal people don’t go around pretending to be extraterrestrial beings and have supernatural powers at all times. Then again, I had a feeling that if the situation became serious, she would be able to act like a normal person. While lately she’d been keeping her pretense at all times, during our early days I had gotten to see a bit of her human side. She was nothing but an easily embarrassed, withdrawn girl that put a mask on in order to overcome that... or that’s what I thought, but I’d never been good at evaluating people. 

Unfortunately, she couldn’t remain like that for her entire life. In fact, it’d be best if she stopped before she graduated—if she entered high school like that, she was likely to become a laughingstock, even if she kept doing her studies well. 

As such, we walked around the floor without exchanging a word—I just kept watching her as she picked up more books. At some point, there were so many of them that they began making a pile on one of her hands. It had to be uncomfortable for her, so I offered her my help: 

“I can carry some books for you.” 

“Thank you.” 

After she turned around to me, I took all of the books that she had picked up. At first, I wanted to take half of them, but I changed my mind when I saw how many of them had actually piled up. They were heavier than I had expected—if I was carrying them like that, I doubt I would be able to return home without taking a break. 

“What are you doing, human.” 

Her voice appeared to be slightly surprised. She lifted her head up, but I couldn’t see her current expression since her face was hidden by the mask. Every time she did something like that, I felt strangely intimidated. 

“I thought that I would carry them for you... since I just keep following you and do nothing.” 

“...” 

Having heard my response, she didn’t add anything but lowered her head and turned around in an indifferent manner. Promptly she resumed her stroll forwards, and I followed suit. 

Honestly, a slight feeling of humiliation arose inside me because of the way she seemingly discarded what I said to her. The chances of it being a misunderstanding of my part were large, because I might have simply made her embarrassed, but I couldn’t confirm that because there was no way I could read the expression on her face, nor did she reveal it with her voice. 

All of a sudden, I almost found myself running into her back by accident. That was because she abruptly stopped midway. Moreover, she quickly turned to directly face a bookshelf to our left, sideways to me, and raised one of her hands to discreetly pull her hoodie forward. 

For obvious reasons, I couldn’t tell where her eyes were directed, but she didn’t use the remaining hand to reach for anything on the shelf. Likewise, I couldn’t hear a single sound coming from her to explain it. 

Puzzled, I stood there, rendered unable to make a single move by confusion. 

“Err, Lumi—” 

Before I could finish saying that, I was startled by an unexpected move of hers. Namely, a hand with a black glove on shot out from the black coat. It seemed that I had been absentminded, because for a split second I thought that it was some kind of a ghost. 

“Be silent.” 

Her voice was silent, just as her contents said. Instead of explaining anything, it made the situation even more confusing, but I listened to her. 

That was when I realized—we were not alone in that store. Furthermore, at this exact moment there was a group of three girls passing by us. Engrossed in their relatively loud chatter, they hadn’t even taken a note of the girl disguised in black. As far as I could tell, they were the same age as us. 

Perhaps she was hiding herself from them? 

Proving my suspicion, as soon as their voices grew smaller in volume, she let go of her hood, and having turned herself back to head forwards, started walking again. 

“Was it because of those three girls?” 

“There was a risk of them recognizing me in spite of my disguise. They belong to the same group in the confinement facility.” 

A confinement facility... quite an odd way to call school. It didn’t make much sense to me, even taking her pretense into account. How could she, a self-proclaimed alien, have been caught into it? Did the school management know about her real identity and nevertheless let her wander freely? Perhaps the story I didn’t end up hearing would have explained that. 

“I see, so they were your classmates.” 

“This may be the way you humans call it, but they neither belong to the same class as me nor are they mates of mine.” 

Did Lumiya have friends? A question I had asked myself a long time ago, but still hadn’t gotten a concrete response to it. While all signs on the sky told me that she didn’t, I might have overlooked something. According to her, I was her human servant, but what if she did know, for instance another self-proclaimed alien? 

While I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I was sure that there was more people like her. Pretending to be some higher beings they weren’t, that is. 

How would it turn out if I asked her this question bluntly right now? I knew—awkward. That’s why I refrained from doing so for the time being. 

“By the way, it seems that security hasn’t come for us.” 

I decided to change the topic to a lighter one. We’d been walking around the store for a few good minutes already and nobody had appeared yet to kick us out or question her strange outfit, so we were safe enough, probably. 

“...” 

A response... didn’t come. The disguised figure was, after all, inaccessible. Honestly, I was left with no ideas what I could say to get the conversation to last longer. What had proven to be the most effective were questions about her presumed personality, but there was no way it was everything she had to say. Or was there? Seeing how reserved and withdrawn she had always been, I wouldn’t be that surprised were this to be true. 

Our faces met for a short time only when she picked up a book from a shelf and having skimmed through it, handed it over for me to carry. Even that wasn’t exactly right—all I could see was a black mask. 

There were two holes she could see everything through—both our surroundings and my face—although for me, it was nothing but pure black glass that instead of allowing me to see her eyes, barely reflected my disappointed expression. Similarly, her voice that reached me was muffled, and although it wasn’t entirely indistinguishable, it made identifying her emotions more difficult. 

Every time she looked at me from behind it, I was strangely intimidated, or rather made to feel awkward. I guess it was because I was walking around with a person that evidently appeared to other people as a weirdo. 

That made her feel distant, even though she was right by my side. 

“Human, if you want to procure something from here for yourself, this is the right time. I can hold on to this pile of books.” 

Did I want something from that store? Well, I had been reading a few series, and I had brought some money with myself so why not. 

“Okay.” 

As such, I handed her the pile of books I had been carrying for her and unwittingly walked in a random direction. Yes, it was completely random—I didn’t know where I could find the book I was looking for, so I decided to pretend that I did for no specific reason. 

Unexpectedly, she followed me suit, just like I was doing earlier. 

The series I had been reading were mainly the most popular ones, so having noticed a shelf with a huge “Bestsellers” written above it, I made my way to it. 

“Hmm...” 

Just like I expected, I could find a book from one of the series I had been reading there. I picked up a volume that I hadn’t had in my collection yet and continued. 

“So you read only the most popular ones”, a short comment came from behind me. As it soon turned out, it was the girl that had been following me the entire time. 

I didn’t know how much she was into things like that, but all I did was sporadically read in the evening. No surprise that I had read only the most popular series. I didn’t put much thought when I bought something—I picked up what was selling well, because I guessed that it was relatively good and suitable for an average reader like me. 

“Yeah, I’m not that necessarily interested in that.” 

“Wait here for a moment.” 

She turned around and ran off to somewhere. Just like she told me, I waited there and before long, she returned with a book in her hand. 

“Try that. This series is completed, so you can read all of it in one go if you want.” 

Giving me a recommendation? She had done it once with an anime, and it turned out to be a good one, so I think I could trust her if it came to things like that. It wasn’t like I had many things to do overall, so I could spend my free time reading a book she recommended me. 

“Okay...” 

It seemed that we were done shopping, so we drew near the stairs and returned to the first floor, where the cash register was located. A small worry appeared in my mind—how would the cashier react to her strange outfit? I think it was alright as long as what she pulled out was money and not a gun, but still, she would certainly earn an awkward look. 

We made our way to an aisle between bookshelves, but in the middle of it, she suddenly came to a stop. 

“Hmm?” 

Her figure gradually turned around to me again. That was when I noticed that I forgot to take the pile of books from her back—all I was holding in my hand was the single book she had showed me. 

“Ah, sorry.” 

Having reminded myself of that, I placed the remaining book on the pile and took it from her. 

Even though I had done that, her disguised figure remained standing before me with her masked face cast down. 

“Err... human...” 

Her voice appeared to be hesitant. Wouldn’t it be her first time today? It seemed to be something that even her “battle” attire and gas mask wasn’t enough to reassure her. 

With one of her hands, she reached... inside her coat. Soon after, she pulled out a pink pouch and proceeded to hand it to me. If I’m being completely honest, I was quite confused by this situation. Nevertheless, I held out my remaining hand to take it from her. 

“I’d rather not risk revealing my identity. C-could you take these books to the merchant in my stead...?” 

Ah, I see. She wanted me to go to the cash register in her place, and the contents of the pouch had to be money. Perhaps she was afraid of the cashier’s reaction to her outfit—I couldn’t be surprised. 

“Sure.” 

I moved ahead of her, going towards the cash register. By the way, with the way bookshelves were placed, the cashier shouldn’t have been able to see us. I wasn’t sure if he had access to security cameras, but if he didn’t, then it was likely that he hadn’t noticed the disguised girl. 

Unwittingly, I turned my head to look behind me because I couldn’t feel any presence next to me—as it turned out, she wasn’t following me. 

“Welcome.” 

I reached the register and placed the pile of books on the desk. As the cashier scanned each of them, a bleep could be heard and the sum to pay displayed on a small electronic screen increased. 

“That’ll be * yen.” 

When the cashier packed all of the books into a bag, I pulled out the pink pouch... oh, I just realized that it had to be quite unusual to see a guy with a pink pouch... but well, I guess that it wasn’t unseen. Regardless, it wasn’t as weird as walking around the city in a completely black outfit, as if cosplaying. 

“Thank you.” 

With the pile of books now residing inside a bag, I returned to the girl that had been waiting for me between the bookshelves. Having returned the pink pouch to her, I headed for the exit with her without exchanging a word. 

How much time we had spent inside the store wasn’t something I knew, although I could easily bet that it’d been over fifteen minutes. At any rate, I knew that it wasn’t the end of our day together—she lived in the same neighborhood as me, which meant that we were bound to walk some of the way together. I didn’t think that we would visit any other store on the way—all I could think of was grabbing some food, but she had a mask on she refused to take off, so that left her unable to eat. 

As we reached the exit, I could hear a constant sound of something pounding against the window. It caused us to stop in front of the door, left confused what action to take. 

“It’s raining...” 

That’s right—it was raining. And it was raining quite heavily—so much that it was barely possible to see the other side of the road. Just fifteen minutes ago, there were only slight traces of it about to happen, and now it was just as if we were transported to another world. I wouldn’t be surprised if we were in for a typhoon, so I doubted that it would get any better soon.  

Looking at the girl standing by my side, her outfit appeared to me in a completely different way. Like, I could hardly believe that she hadn’t been prepared for that. With that hoodie and the mask, neither her hair nor her face would get drenched. To be honest, I’d love if she pulled out a similar one from under her skirt of something. 

Again, it seemed that there was a little twist in my already unusual day.