That day, Azusagawa Sakuta and the wild bunny girl met.
On the last day of golden week.
He only had 20 minutes to ride his bicycle from his apartment. It had been visible from the streets in the vicinity of Shonandai Station, where the Odakyu Enoshima line, the Sagami Izumino Line and the Yokohama Municipal third line intersect. In the calm atmosphere of the bed-town, there were few suburban looking tall buildings.
While reaching the station to the left, Sakuta arrived right as the signal rang. In less than a minute he would reach the library.
After stopping to park his bike in the half-full bicycle lot, Sakuta set foot in the library.
Even though he had gone there many times, the tranquility that libraries had was hard to get used to. His body slightly tensed up.
There was only one large library in the entire area and many people used it. Entering the library, after seeing the magazines are placed by the entrance and the newspapers in the corner, now Sakuta sees why Uncle had a hard look when he read the sports section today. He wondered if his favorite team was defeated yesterday.
If one went to the counter where they lent out computers, they would notice the majority of desks in the back were occupied. From college students to high school students, they were all conspicuously on laptops.
After confirming them from a distance, Sakuta moved toward to the bookshelf marked Hardcover Modern Novels. Looking over the books, his eyes loomed over the back covers. He looked through the “Yu” section of the books. The bookshelf was relatively short, as it didn’t even reach Sakuta’s waist, which measured 172cm.
His sister had asked him to find a book, the author named “Yuigahama Canna.” The title of the book was called “The Prince Who Gave Me a Poisoned Apple.” It must have been on sale four to five years ago. Recalling that his sister has the previous work of the same author, it seems that she was collecting all of the author’s works.
The book was used up and dirty, and after grabbing it, Sakuta moved away from the small bookshelf.
He raised his head and went to the checkout counter. In a single moment “that” had appeared in sight.
On the other side of the bookshelf, standing in front of Sakuta was a bunny girl.
“…”
He blinked several times. Doubting his vision for a minute, but blinking didn’t change the sight in front of him. He could still clearly see her figure.
She wore bright black high heels. She had long slender legs that were wrapped in black stockings, transparent enough to see the color of her skin. Similar to a black leotard, the outfit highlighted the lines of her slender, well-defined body, while the chest made a firm, modest valley.
The white cuffs accented her wrists. The neck adorned by a black bowtie.
Her height was about 165 centimeters, minus the added height from the heels. She wore a cold expression, looked up with a bored look; she was different from him with her mature, languid, and seductive atmosphere.
At first Sakuta doubted whether someone would be filming. However, as he looked around, there were no adults that looked like television staff. She was completely alone. Just like a loner. Surprisingly, it was just a lone bunny girl.
Of course, in the early afternoon at the library, her presence brought up quite a lot of serious attention. In the first place, she was rather out of place, as bunny girls tend to reside in casinos, such as the ones in Las Vegas. Sakuta also thought of shady shops, but the bunny girl was just out of place in general.
However, the real reason why Sakuta felt a true sense of surprise lied in a different place.
Even though she was dressed conspicuously and flashy, nobody was looking at her.
“What on earth is this?”
She had spoken out loud involuntarily. Coming into the librarian’s line of sight, he aimed at the librarians and whispered, “Please be quiet.” Returning a light nod, no way, it seems some people are more worried about this than others, Sakuta thought.
But for this very reason, Sakuta was able to get a strange sense of confidence.
No one was worried about the bunny girl. Rather than a commotion, which was not too far fetch to bear in mind, it seemed that no one had noticed her.
Generally, with such a stimulating bunny-san right beside, even students with serious faces from struggling to read six codes would at least raise their heads. The older men that were reading the newspapers would take a peak. Even librarians under the appropriate circumstances and paying careful attention would say, “Your clothes are…”
Suspicious. This was really suspicious.
This was like a ghost, the kind that only appears in Sakuta’s presence.
Cold sweat started to go down his back.
Despite Sakuta’s unrest, the bunny girl saw a book, reached for it, and then turned for the study room in the far back corner.
Along the way she peeped at the face of a female college student in one of the studies, started a bit of mischief and poked her tongue. Looking at an adult who was on a tablet PC’s, to confirm that she couldn’t be seen, she placed her hand between the face and the screen and moved it up and down. When both adults did not react, she gave a pleased smile.
Later, Sakuta sat in the vacant seat at the very back.
Directly in front of her while studying various materials, the male college student did not notice the bunny girl. Lowering a small amount of her leotard from her chest, and even doing small lifting gesture, the male college student did not react at all. Certainly, she was in his field of vision and yet…
After a while, the college student began to put his research material in order, putting it away as if nothing had happened. And, as if nothing had happened, he left. When he left, he made no notion of trying to glance or look down at her chest.
“……”
Feeling a bit troubled, Sakuta went to the vacant seat, and sat in a way that made him look like a college students.
As he looked ahead, he could see that the bunny girl. He looked at her from her bare shoulders to the soft curves of her arms. Between her neck and her chest, her white skin could be seen.
Moving slowly with each breath she took, it was strangely lascivious, especially when inside the library, as it is a symbol for seriousness. There was a strange mood in the air. No, it had already become a strange mood.
After a while, she looked up from the book in her hand and her gaze met with his.
“……”
“……”
Both of them blinked at each other twice.
She opened her mouth first towards his direction.
“This is surprising.”
Somewhere in her voice, a bit of mischief pops up.
“It seems that you can see me.”
It seems that she is remarking to the fact that she should be invisible to him, like other people.
But, as the one receiving her words, she was probably right.
In fact, from the people around them, nobody was aware of her presence even though she was completely different.
“Well then.”
She stood up and closed her book.
You could essentially call this a farewell. Meeting with a strange person today, one could play it off as a funny story in the future, so it would be nice. However, Sakuta had a simple incomprehensible reason.
There was one problem: He knew about her.
She attended the same high school as him, and she was his senpai. She was a third year at prefectural Minegahara high school. He could say her name. He remembered her full name.
Sakurajima Mai.
That’s the name of the bunny girl.
“Um..”
He tried calling to her in a small voice, towards her white back in front just as she was about to leave.
Suddenly her feet stopped.
Using only her gaze, Mai asked, “What?”
“Are you Sakurajima senpai?”
As he opened his mouth, he became cautious about the volume of his voice as he spoke her name.
“…”
For only a moment Mai’s eyes shook from surprise.
“The fact that you called me, does that mean you are a student of Minegahara high school?”
Mai returned to the seat. She looked straight at Sakuta.
“I’m Azusagawa Sakuta from Year 2 Class 1. Azusagawa like the service area and to bloom (花咲く) and taro (太郎) for Sakuta. All together Azusagawa Sakuta.”
“I am Sakurajima Mai. The Sakurajima from Sakurajima Mai and the Mai from Sakurajima Mai and you have Sakurajima Mai.”
“I know. Senpai is famous.”
“Is that so.”
She seemed uninterested; Mai rested her chin on one of her hands while continuing to stare out the window. By slightly bending forward, her cleavage was emphasized even further. His eyes were naturally attracted down there. It sure was a sight for sore eyes.
“Azusagawa Sakuta-kun.”
“Yes.”
“I’ll give you one piece of advice.”
“Advice?”
“Forget everything you saw today.”
Before Sakuta could open his mouth to say something, Mai continued.
“If you talk to me, considering I am weird in the head, you might become weird in the head for spending time with this particular life.”
Well, that certainly is advice.
“Even if the world ends, it does not matter to me.”
“……”
“If you understand, “Yes” is all you need to say.”
“……”
Sakuta became silent while Mai showed a disgruntled look on her face. However, she immediately returned to her languid look and stood by the seat. Then, she returned the book to original spot in the shelf and walked towards the exit of the library.
Meanwhile everyone was still not paying attention to Mai. If you were to pass the front of the checkout counter and look, the librarian and his friends continued their work in silence. Only Sakuta was fascinated by the black stockings wrapped around her beautiful slender legs.
With Mai’s appearance completely out of sight, Sakuta, who was left behind, fell face down on the desk.
“I also said I would forget.”
All alone he vented to himself.
“That rabbits-san’s stimulating appearance, it is impossible to forget.”
Her bare open skin from her shoulder to her chest was sexy. Thanks to Mai holding her head up with her hand, she highlighted her chest. There was a nice smell leftover in his nose. The whisper of a small voice that Sakuta could only hear lingered in his memories. He stared straight to where she was, and with completely cleared eyes that stimulated Sakuta’s male part, the one part of the body suddenly became very healthy.
Thanks to that, if he were to get up and people around him were to see it would change the mood. So, he could not stand up.
It seemed unlikely to sit quietly for a while.
It is, and even though he wanted to hear more things from Mai, it was also the reason why he did not immediately chase after Mai.