Airi’s Anger, Minato’s Anger

The fireworks display was over and now the four of them were on their way home.

"How was it, Ninomiya? Did you enjoy it?"

"Yes, it was a lot of fun."

"Then it's worth it for me to invite you!"

When he asked Airi what she thought, she smiled with satisfaction. The fireworks display was a success for now.

The problem was that it was still very crowded and it would be a struggle just to get home.

They could only move along with the flow of people, and Kazuma warned Momose with concern.

"Shiori, stay close to me. There are too many people. It's not good to stray."

"I know. You guys be careful too."

"Yeah. Ninomiya, are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fi– Kyaa! "

"Ninomiya!"

Minato heard Airi's scream and looked to the side to see her silver hair being swallowed by the crowd.

He tried to hurry up and chase after her, but he couldn't go against the flow of people and lost sight of Airi.

He gritted his teeth, wishing he had held hands with her if this was going to happen.

"Damn it!"

"Calm down, Minato. There's no way you can go against the flow here, and we've decided on a meeting place in case we get sidetracked. I'm sure Ninomiya-san will be there too, so it's going to be fine."

"…I guess you're right."

So the three of them went to the meeting place, but there was no sign of Airi.

They waited for a while, but there was still no sign of her, so Kazuma and Minato decided to go look for Airi, leaving Momose behind.

"Sorry, Momose. I'll borrow Kazuma."

"Feel free to use him! Both of you, please find Airi!"

"Leave it to me. Contact each other if you find Ninomiya-san. If any of us don't find her in thirty minutes, gather here again. All right?"

"Yeah."

Although he was with Kazuma until halfway, they split up when they reached the main road.

Minato knew there was nothing he could do if he was in a hurry, but he had to find her as soon as possible, so he ran.

Passersby looked at Minato in surprise, but he couldn't care less about what others thought.

Airi was not the type to lose track of where she was walking, so she was definitely in some kind of trouble.

When Minato's breath started to pick up, he finally saw a silver color at the edge of his vision.

Found her! …But.

Thinking about what he would do if he didn't find her, he was relieved.

As he approached Airi, trying to control his breathing, he saw that several men were surrounding her.

"Hey, Ninomiya-san, it's just a coincidence that we met here, so let's go grab something to eat."

"I'm leaving."

"Don't say that. You're alone, right? I'll walk you home. Let's get something to eat while we're at it, okay?"

"I just got separated by the crowd, so leave me alone."

"Why would I care about someone who would deviate from Ninomiya-san like that? It's not safe for a girl to be alone, you know?"

"As I said–"

From the way Airi was talking, it seemed they were all classmates. The boys were trying to win her over with their flirtatious eyes.

Airi responded coldly, but she seemed to be getting fed up with their persistence.

For now, Minato contacted Kazuma and Momose, but he was not sure if he should intervene.

If he intervened, he would certainly be suspected of being involved. However, he thought he could get away with it by telling them that he was a beneficiary of Kazuma and the other two, so he called out to them.

"Sorry for the detour, Ninomiya."

"Kujo-senpai."

When Airi saw Minato, she felt a moment of relief, but quickly switched to a blank expression.

The boys glared at Minato, who had suddenly interrupted them, without hiding their displeasure.

"What? Who are you?"

"I'm Ninomiya's companion. Sorry."

"You're Ninomiya-san's companion? Hahaha! There's no way, there's no way an unattractive guy like you can match up!"

The people with him laughed loudly along with the boy who grumbled to Minato.

Looking at the faces of the boys, it was clear that they were well put together. They were very different from Minato's, so it wasn't surprising that they said so.

However, there was no way Minato could leave Airi alone if she didn't want to be there.

The face thing was a fair point, but Minato was not so good-natured that he wouldn't feel uncomfortable being mocked to his face by a complete stranger. His voice unexpectedly turned cold.

"What about it? And don't forget to use honorifics with your seniors, junior."

"Oh, yes yes, I apologize for that. But we have something to do with Ninomiya-san, so could you please step aside!?"

"Sorry, but I can't leave. I'm sure Ninomiya wouldn't like that."

"It's much better to be with us than with you! Right, Ninomiya-san?"

He thought there was nothing he could do by complaining to Minato, so he changed the person he was talking to to Airi.

However, she would refuse, so Minato would have no problem with it.

When Minato shut up, Airi, who had been silent until then, opened her mouth.

"Will you please stop that?"

The air was filled with silence.

There was a chill in the air. The boys, who had been so excited, were now quiet.

Minato had never heard such a chilling voice before, so he didn't open his mouth.

No one opened their mouths, but the boy who had spoken to Minato seemed to regain his composure and spoke to Airi again.

"Th-Thank you, Ninomiya-san. I knew you'd rather be with us and leave this guy–"

"Have you been listening to me at all? Don't call Minato-san 'this guy'."

"Ju-Just now, did you just call this guy's name?"

"So what? It's my choice to do what I want with whomever I want. Why do you have to interfere?"

A voice of absolute zero echoed in the dark night. Her expression was as expressionless as a doll's, much like when Minato first met her.

The boys were struggling to keep the conversation going with their twitching smiles.

Airi seemed to be completely pissed off, and she couldn't stop berating the boys.

"Hey, is it all about the face? Is it all about looks? Why do I have to be told that by you strangers?"

"Strangers? We're in the same grade, aren't we?"

"So? I don't intend to be friends with you guys, nor will I ever be. Why should I be with someone who makes fun of Minato-san?"

"…Hey, is this guy that important?"

Perhaps unable to answer Airi's questions, the boys turned their attention to Minato.

As a result of this, Airi's voice became even more piercing.

"He's very important, much more so than any of you."

"Wh-Why? What do you like about this dull guy?"

"Don't make me repeat it. It's none of your business what someone I care about looks like."

"Then it's his personality? Is he rich by any chance? I'm rich and I'll be nice to you!"

Minato let out a sigh quietly as he knew that just now, that boy was completely stepping on Airi's land mine.

She said she wanted an ordinary, peaceful life. It was a completely bad move to turn to money.

And there was nothing convincing about being nice to Airi after forcing himself on her. What should she believe in such a person?

When Airi heard what the boys were saying, her face twisted in discomfort.

"Don't make me laugh. Money has nothing to do with it, and I don't feel a trace of kindness from you. I've already seen the way you look at me."

"What…"

"Let me get this straight. You all give me a flirtatious look and then make fun of Minato-san all the time. I don't even want to see your faces."

Airi must have been really pissed off, because she started to swear in a way that was unthinkable from her normal self.

The boys' faces turned red with anger, probably because they didn't expect to be called that much.

Minato didn't think it would get this heated, though. Wanting to end it here, Minato interrupted.

"Hey, that's enough. Let's wrap it up here."

"This is bullshit! I don't understand how–"

"We're drawing attention. If we're not careful, they'll call the cops."

Even though they were close to the edge of the road, there were still many people there after the fireworks display.

There were already quite a few people looking at them and whispering to each other.

The boys finally noticed and suddenly started to get frightened. However, the boy who spoke to Minato was not happy.

"Shit! Why do I have to go through this?!"

"Ask yourself. Nothing good comes from forcing yourself on a girl."

"I don't give a shit! I was going to get her because she looks good, but there's nothing interesting about her!"

"…You can't say that."

Perhaps out of desperation, a male student suddenly lashed out at Airi.

Minato called out to stop him, but he didn't stop at all.

"This expressionless girl who just looks good is too scary."

"…Oi."

"I guess they were right about the ice doll!"

Airi's body jumped at his words.

Minato stood in front of her, shielding her from their gaze. As expected, that was a terrible thing for her to hear.

He glared at the boys, but they seemed satisfied with what they had said and tried to walk away without giving any heed to Minato.

"Stop. Take back what you just said."

One of the boys, perhaps irritated by Minato's voice, raised an eyebrow and looked at him, turning on his heel.

"What is it, Senpai? We're leaving now, so why don't you do whatever you want with that doll? Well then."

"Enough of this–"

"Minato-san. That's enough."

Unable to stand the boys who just said what they did and left, He tried to run after them, but Airi grabbed his arm.

He let out a sigh once to calm himself down, thinking that he was only looking for her in the first place.

Airi, who was holding Minato's arm, had her face deeply downcast, so her expression was hard to make out.

"I'm sorry, Airi. I wish I could have rushed over sooner. No, before that, I should have held Airi's hand to prevent her from straying, like you said."

"…No, it's okay. You're here."

"I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

"…Minato-san, can you hold my hand?"

"Yeah."

When Minato apologized, she forgave him, but still, he couldn't see her expression. Moreover, her voice was devoid of emotion, so it was hard to tell if she was angry or sad.

However, he had no intention of refusing Airi's request, so he held her hand.

Airi's hands were cold to begin with, but now they felt even colder than ever, as if they were ice.

"Airi, let's go home."

"…Yes."

He pulled Airi's hand and started walking.

The silence was heavy and painful, even though it was a usual thing among the two of them.