The Pet Girl of Sakurasou

Chapter 1: Part 2

The shortest way from Sakurasou to the station was via the red-brick road that led through the shopping district. It gave off the pleasant feeling of an old-school shopping street, and for Sorata who was born and raised in this town, it even once served as a place to play.

Perhaps because of that, just by walking through, Sorata was greeted one after the other by people he knew.

In front of the fishmonger:

"Hey, you're the Kanda boy, aren't you?! Come over, try the mackerel today!"

And at the butcher right ahead:

"Oh, if it isn't Sorata-kun~~. Hey, are you hungry? Have some croquettes on the house."

Like that, without even buying anything, Sorata got some croquettes from the shoptender.

"Hey Sorata, long time no see. You're going to Suikou now, right?"

Indeed, he even bumped into a friend from his junior high days, who happened to be helping at the grocery store.

This town was bristling with the kind of close-knit camaraderie that was difficult to find in the big cities.

Part of the reason was that it wouldn't really be to anyone's advantage for them to push for urban development this late in the game, and part of the reason was that everyone felt pretty comfortable with how this shopping district was now.

Around three years ago, there was a huge supermarket with cheap prices and good selection that opened on the other side of the station, but Sorata continued to exclusively do his shopping at this shopping district. He just felt much more at ease here.

And perhaps because there were others who thought the same way, the shopping district had remained like this.

As he stuffed his cheeks with the croquettes he had received earlier, Sorata soon found himself in front of the station.

Even though it had been dubbed the "Geidaimae Station" (1), it would take an adult no less than fifteen minutes to walk to the school from here. Because of that, this spot was quite famous for snaring college hopefuls into arriving here just barely on time for the entrance exam, and then bringing them to tears when they realized they would be late.

It was a rather inconvenient station with only one ticket gate, which forced the people who lived on the other side to first cross the tracks via the railroad crossing to use the station.

Sorata sat down on the railing right in front of the ticket gate and waited.

He took out the photo he had put in his wallet and checked it over once more.

Shiina Mashiro.

It was a weird name.

Chihiro had said that this was her cousin, but their ages seemed way too different.

As Sorata thought about these things, a train headed away from the city pulled into the station.

Usually, Sorata would expect to see a number of junior high students getting off the train, but because it was Spring break, there weren't many people on the train. The only people who got off the train were people of unknown origins and unspecified age, who left the station to do God-knows-what.

Among those people, Sorata recognized a single face. The person in question seemed to recognize Sorata too, and widened his eyes in surprise. He lightly trotted over until he was standing in front of Sorata.

"What are you doing here? You waiting for me or something?"

"Not at all."

"Didn't think so."