The final exams had been over for over a week. It meant that it was, in fact, the last week at school before the summer vacation began. During our morning homeroom, we had received our results—like I expected, I scored well, but not perfectly. It was enough to place me in the top 5 of our class, though. 

After each exam, there was a leaderboard hung on the hallway with the top 20 results of the entire grade. While I doubted it, I was curious to see if I made it there, but more importantly, I wanted to see whether that peculiar girl—whose grades apparently were surprisingly good, although I didn’t know how good—appeared on that list. 

In the classroom, there were two types of people. Some gathered in groups to comment on their results together, and others left in order to check the leaderboard. I was the latter, but it wasn’t even possible for me to be the former, since I had nobody to share my results with. 

There was a large crowd in front of the notice board. Even though there were only twenty results listed there, there was way more people interested in seeing them. Well, it’s not like I was different, most likely. 

People there were noisy and kept pushing. I thought that I may give up and try again later, but somehow, I didn’t mind waiting this time. I waited, but the crowd didn’t become smaller. When someone managed to find themselves in a place where they were able to see the board, they didn’t let go of it, remaining without movement for as long as possible and when finished, calling a friend to replace them. It was annoying. 

Before long, I managed to catch a sight of the last 10 results. I couldn’t see my name there, so most likely I hadn’t made it to that list. That was only to be expected, I thought, but I didn’t notice that girl’s name there either. She might have as well made it to the first 10, so I didn’t decide to give up yet and tried to catch sight of the rest of the list, but then, a familiar, small voice grazed me from behind: 

“Mission. Very important.” 

There was no doubt—it was Lumiya. Both the tone and the words matched her perfectly, but when I, confused, turned my head around, I couldn’t see her. Just my imagination? I thought, but I decided to leave the crowd and advanced toward the place I knew I could meet her most of the times—the small forest behind the club building. 

•

Today, the weather was mild. Not only the sun was hidden behind numerous gray clouds obstructing the blue sky, but the wind blew more eagerly than usual. I wouldn’t be surprised if it rained later, but for now, I didn’t need to worry about that since the temperature itself was nearly perfect. 

Entering the forest, I saw Lumiya’s figure standing with her back to me. I deliberately made my steps slightly louder, so she wouldn’t be surprised when I approached her—although if she really did call out to me, she should be expecting that. 

This time, it was she who wanted something from me. Most of the times, I came there without an idea what to do—we usually ended up eating our lunches without talking much, which was awkward, but I got used to it so it didn’t bother me as much as it did in the beginning. 

As I caught up to her, she didn’t turn around, but only said in a low voice: 

“Human.” 

She always called me human. I had long grown to pay it no heed. Her blonde hair fluttered in the lively wind along with her skirt swaying slight sideways. I was rather incautious, so instead of talking to the back like she most likely wanted me to, I saw that there was plenty of space in front of her and decided to pull ahead of her instead. 

“Yes...?” 

That’s when I noticed it—her head was cast down and her hand kept pinching at her skirt. I already knew what those signs meant—she was going to tell me something embarrassing—or at least what she thought was embarrassing. 

“T-there is something I must tell you, human”, she continued uneasily, “A-actually, my real...” 

Her body was swallowed by the omnipresent shadow, which made her look gloomy. Her stuttering voice grew smaller in volume as she proceeded, to a point where I could no longer hear what she was saying. Was she doing it deliberately? Still, I was quite curious what she was going to tell me since she bothered to call me here. 

“Umm...” after a long pause, she hesitantly mumbled, one of her hands raised to her hair which she began to fiddle with restlessly. 

“Yes?” I said, unconsciously prompting her to hurry up. That made her stop fiddling with her hair and lower her hand. Unexpectedly, she raised her head slightly as well. She had the eyepatch properly on, and the expression on her face seemed to be troubled. 

Uneasily, she moved her head to look around. She was most likely confirming that there was no one nearby who could possibly overhear us. Really, what she was going to tell me that she took such precautions and appeared that troubled? 

“Err... you can sit down if you want”, I made a suggestion that could help her to calm down a little. 

“But you have to sit down too. And don’t run away no matter what happens.” 

“Okay...” 

She proceeded to sit down on the ground, and I followed suit soon. I wasn’t going to run away no matter what she told me, because even if it was something humiliating both of us, I didn’t want to make her even more humiliated. 

“Umm, human.” 

“Y-yes?” 

Before I knew it, I started getting nervous too. That’s because I had a sudden, dumb thought—what if she was going to confess to me? Come to think of it, it was a perfect time to do it. There were only a few days left until summer break—in case something went wrong, we wouldn’t get to see each other for over a month, possibly killing all relations between us, and in case everything went well, we would get to spend a few days together since we were going to have a lot of free time. 

So... how would I respond if she actually did it? Please don’t ask me about it, I would think after she actually did it. Then again, there was no way she was going to do it. No way for sure. 

“Err, I am...” 

Wasn’t it the same way she would begin a sentence if she actually wanted to say that? No... seeing how peculiar she was, there was no way she would do it the usual way. She would ask me for a contract or something... I don’t know! But my heart was beating heavily, possibly as much as hers. 

The fact that she couldn’t hurry it up began bothering me possibly no less than her. 

“Y-you’re the only human that knows about my real identity, so... please keep it a secret...!” she spurted it out all at once, casting her head down. 

Was that what she wanted to tell me? I couldn’t really see why she thought it was embarrassing. To be honest, after all that buildup, it underwhelmed me. No, no, it wasn’t like I expected to hear a confession. But... I already knew about that, or at least suspected that. Besides, I guess it was too late to tell me to keep it secret. Anyway, she was lucky, because I hadn’t really said anything about her to anyone. 

But I knew something was wrong. I could feel that it wasn’t what she actually wanted to say. She just changed it in the last moment. 

“I understand. I haven’t told anyone and I won’t.” 

“And... promise that you will not betray me, or leave that place immediately and forget about my existence.” 

She unexpectedly continued. That one sounded more legitimately—was it that what she truly wanted to say? Sure, I could see why she thought it was embarrassing. This betrayal thing was rather ambiguous, but I probably understood what she meant by that. 

It was how she had always been—distrustful towards other people. She seemed to particularly despise lies, and for some reason, she deemed me trustworthy enough. That’s why I wasn’t ever going to betray her—I wasn’t that sort of person. 

“I...” 

At first, I was confident in my answer, but at the last moment, I hesitated. Was I really trustworthy enough for her? We wouldn’t be able to talk as much as now after we went to high school, because we probably wouldn’t choose the same one. Still, I guess we lived nearby... but, what was I actually thinking about? It wasn’t that we were that close to each other. We weren’t a couple, but friends at most. I couldn’t even define that properly because of how odd she was. 

Then again, I guess it wouldn’t count as betrayal. I wasn’t going to hurt her directly, no matter what happened. I absolutely couldn’t imagine what we were going to do after we graduated, though. Actually, how long would she keep her peculiar act? 

Still, I was quite sure that until the graduation ceremony, it would become clear. For now, I didn’t have to worry. Honestly, I liked her a little. I mean, I liked that act of hers. 

“I won’t betray you”, I responded with confidence. 

It took me some time to come up with this response, but it seemed that she had been waiting patiently. Still, after I said that, there was an awkward silence for a few seconds. 

“That’s good. I won’t betray you either”, finally, she raised her head, fully revealing her face to me. She wasn’t dejected anymore, but glad. There was a slight smile on her face—I don’t think I had seen it before. 

After that, she turned around and proceeded to leave, having said her usual “Till we meet again, human.” 

It was... some kind of step forward, wasn’t it? 

•

After the hype subsided, I’d approached the notice board in order to see whether she was among the top 10 best scorers. 

Her name wasn’t there. Well, it was only to be expected. Come to think of it, why did I have my hopes up? 

“You didn’t make it to the top 20, huh...” 

It was Thursday. Tomorrow would be the last day of school before summer break... time sure flies fast, doesn’t it? I guess that vacation would come to an end before it managed to truly settle in, as always. 

Anyway, the true last day of school was actually today. Tomorrow, there was only the closing ceremony and club activities for those who had them. I did not. 

“...fufu, such primitive matter doesn’t concern me.” 

On the last lunch break before summer vacation, I was eating my lunch in a desolated small forest behind the club building as rather often lately. Next to me was the peculiar blonde girl, doing pretty much the same. She wasn’t talkative, but when she talked, she pretended to be, as I recently learned, an alien, often having a condescending attitude towards mere humans like me. 

“How well did you score?” 

“Enough to cause neither trouble nor suspicions.” 

“You see, to be honest, you don’t seem like you concern yourself with studies whatsoever.” 

“Because I don’t.” 

“Huh?” 

“Kaka, after all, I don’t need to learn what I already know again.” 

“Ah, so that’s how it is...” 

As she decided to refuse to share the results of her exam with me, I didn’t know exactly how good her grades were. I didn’t know how much did she actually study every day either. 

I didn’t feel bad. In fact, I think I felt good. Even though I wasn’t especially looking forward to summer vacation, I was glad that I wouldn’t need to attend school for an entire month. At this moment, I also enjoyed the fact that the sky was cloudy, making the atmosphere pleasant while it wasn’t raining. 

There was also the girl sitting next to me. She was slowly biting at a rice ball and staring at her phone she kept fiddling with. There was nobody else around. Only me and her. We even sometimes talked to each other. Something that I hadn’t thought would ever happen happened—I made friends with a girl. 

“By the way, do you have any plans for summer break?” 

She was peculiar, which made it difficult to talk about normal topics. Not that it was impossible—it was just that she usually responded in a roundabout way and I didn’t get what she meant. That said, I didn’t dislike it. 

“But of course. Unfortunately, I cannot provide you with more information, human.” 

You see? I didn’t know whether she responded as such only to appear cool or something, or she really had many plans like a family visit she would rather not tell me about. 

“I see. So you won’t have any time left to spare.” 

“I will, but not on short notice. I might be involuntarily taken to my old place of residence. As I have to retain my human disguise at all times, I don’t have much freedom in that matter to avoid raising suspicions.” 

A family visit, huh? 

“If you don’t mind telling me, what is that place?” 

“It’s called Osaka.” 

I learned where she came from. It wasn’t the countryside, but another large city... To be honest, if I had a choice where to go on a trip during summer, I would choose a small town or a village in the country instead of another large city. Since she had lived there before, it wasn’t like she could go sightseeing there, so she would probably be doing the same things as here. 

The chances of her giving me a plausible answer were poor, but I asked her nevertheless: 

“Do you like it?” 

“Not at all”, she responded immediately in a firm voice, “Humans there are even more loathsome than here. It hasn’t been confirmed yet that I’ll be forced to go there, though. If they give me a choice, I will refuse.” 

She was talking about her parents, right? It seemed that she particularly disliked the place she came from. Perhaps something had happened to her there? 

“I see.” 

“And you, human? Do you have plans?” 

That surprised me—her asking me about my own plans out of her own concern. Since I didn’t really have any more specific plans, I wasn’t going to mention it. 

There was an idea in my mind that wouldn’t let go no matter what. Namely, I thought about going to hang out with her sometime as normal people did. I would have asked her, but my cowardice didn’t allow me to do so. 

“N-not really.” 

I always had time to spare—it was also going to be the case during summer vacation. Not that I expected her to ask me of something, though. 

“Good”, her reply was short. 

Subsequently, she stood up, apparently having finished her lunch. Noticing that, I shifted my attention to her figure, unsteadily returning my stare. 

“Therefore... I shall message you later.” 

Having said that, she turned around and left the forest at a hurried pace. I see, so she had thoughts like that as well? 

As always, I finished my lunch and slowly returned to the classroom. Tomorrow was the last day of school before summer break.