K Side: Red

The Girl in Blue part 2

What a tough case to crack.

Faced with Anna, who wouldn’t even turn to look at the tomato chicken curry, much less address a single word of reply to whatever he said to her, Totsuka found himself at a loss.

The wooden boards must have been cold, but the girl only continued to sit there on the floor and prod at the scattered red marbles, rolling them around with her finger. To Totsuka, it didn’t seem as if there were any particular rules to this mysterious movement of balls, so he couldn’t tell what kind of game she might have been playing at all.

For a while, he only patiently watched. But, as his curiosity got the best of him in the end, he finally reached out a hand. Testily, he poked one of the marbles on the floor with his finger. Much like a game of billiards would play, that one rolled into another, clashing against it, and further propelling it into others which scattered about.

As her marbles were thrown into complete disarray like that, Anna stiffened for only a moment. After that, she slowly lifted her head in Totsuka’s direction.

Since disturbing her game had finally gained him the chance to lock eyes with the girl, Totsuka childishly gave a bright smile.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

Anna was silent for a while. And, as she kept quiet, she stared at Totsuka. Her general expression didn’t really change, but maybe — just maybe — she might have been glaring.

“…I was looking.”

“Looking? At what?”

Lowering her eyes once more, Anna grew quiet again.

Totsuka studied her face in silence.

Although she looked very young, her eyes somehow showed an unusual trace of maturity. It wouldn’t seem as if the reason she spoke so little was because she had any form of shyness or a fearfully withdrawn personality.

Those were eyes which seemed to have seen too much, or had maybe given up on something.

A gut feeling told Totsuka he might be on to something.

“…So you can ‘see’ things other people can’t?” he gently asked.

Anna slowly lifted her gaze.

Those lightless eyes found a focal point on Totsuka’s face. But, although he was being intently looked at, somehow Totsuka didn’t really feel that way. Those eyes seemed to be aimed someplace else.

“How do you see me, then?” he testily said.

After watching him in silence for a bit, Anna slowly picked one of the marbles up with her fingers, and held it to her left eye.

Their gazes met through the red sphere.

And, that instant, a strange sensation assaulted Totsuka.