Sakura Kiss (Wizard School Romance)

"Hey," you say, as you descend the final step and look up at Arashi. She is already preparing to pull the ladder back up, but before she does she waits for you to speak. "I liked listening to you play. Maybe I'll stop by sometime?"

"No thank you," she says, and then the door swings shut.

Y1E4

In all Japan, there is no name more ancient or more powerful than Yuhara. In the centuries since the gods first blessed the world with magic, a hundred hundred magi clans have risen and fallen, ascending to unimaginable heights of power and splendor before being crushed by their enemies, or merely withering on the vine. But not Yuhara. Yuhara has remained, and will remain, until Japan itself succumbs to ocean, and all mankind is lost.

It's an enormous legacy, and yet it seems impossible to imagine anyone more capable of bearing it than Yuhara Kanoko, representative for Class 1-A and the girl currently sitting across the table from you. She watches you expectantly, patiently. Her face is a flawless mask of polite interest, an expression you've practiced for hours in the mirror and never been able to achieve to this level. In the light of the late afternoon sun she looks almost carved from marble.



You shift in your seat. "Uh, what was the question?"

Yuhara smiles. "This isn't a test, Takami-san," she says, "I only wanted to get to know you a little bit."

Ah, right. It's your turn at this. Over the past few weeks you've been watching from the sidelines as Yuhara takes the time to introduce herself, personally, to each 1-A student. She finds them everywhere – in the halls between classes, in the club rooms, in the dorm common areas before the day begins. You can't say you haven't been curious.

"There's no need to be nervous," Yuhara says, as if she isn't the closest thing to divinity this side of the Chrysanthemum Throne. "Would you prefer we talked somewhere more public? Or we don't have to do this one-on-one. I haven't spoken to Ban-san yet."

She...cornered in a harsh word, but it's not entirely inappropriate...you after the school day had already ended. It's your turn to clean up the room class, and you'll admit to a little procrastinating, so the school has already mostly emptied as the majority of the student body makes their way to the club rooms. There's no sound except the steady tick-tick-tick of the clock and the hum of cicadas from outside. And Arashi's music, drifting in from her secret attic through god only knows what hidden airway.

"I'm okay, thanks," you say, flashing a smile of your own. "I guess I'm not used to such a...formal getting to know you process."

"I'm sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable."


"Though I'm a little surprised you aren't more used to this," Yuhara says. "Considering your own position. And your friendship with Ban-san."

You shrug. "Yeah, I guess that's always been more on the casual side. His family helped mine after my parents died. I was at their estate a lot while my brothers worked...we were the same age. It just sort of happened."

"And now you protect him from delinquents."

"That one's going to follow me around for a while," you say, rolling your eyes. "Hinata-san apologized," (though not particularly convincingly) "and we haven't had any trouble since."

"I'm so glad," Yuhara says. "It would be a shame for your first experience at Hiyari to be a negative one. Yours or Ban-san's."

"Ah, well, Ban's pretty live and let live. As long as Hinata-san stays on her side of the hallway, I think he'll be fine."

"I see," she says. "That really is a relief. And...he's been adjusting okay otherwise?"

You've been Ban's friend for a long time, and in that time you've developed a fairly precise radar for the more...uncomfortable aspects of being his friend. Things like being seen as a window to his thoughts and feelings. Or a gateway into his life. So perhaps it's paranoid of you to lean back, to slip on your own practiced smile. But it's what you do. "You know, I thought this was my interview," you say, "so how come we keep coming back to Ban?"

Yuhara shrugs a single shoulder, as if she hadn't even considered it. "I was just trying to get you talking, Takami-san," she says. "And I'm glad that I did. It's let me see why you're so popular amongst the rest of the class."

"I have a way with people," you admit. "It helps that I'm pretty. And a black-belt in conversational judo."

"Conversational judo?"

You give the hint of a grin. "Sure, you know. Like, when you get an uncomfortable question, so you deflect with a compliment."

Yuhara's smile doesn't even flicker, but she's not quite as good with her eyes. They're more pensive than amused, studying you carefully as if from a hundred miles away. "You don't think that's a cynical way to interact with your classmates?"

"Pot. Kettle. Black."

"I'm sorry if I've done something to offend you," Yuhara says, and shit, maybe you are being paranoid. She looks so perfectly sincere. Maybe it only strikes you as artificial because that's what it looks like in the mirror. Maybe, for Yuhara Kanoko, perfect is just her natural state. "I didn't realize this was such a fraught topic."

"It's not." You push back your chair and stand, running a hand through your hair. "I just...have a lot of schoolwork I should be doing."

"It's important to keep up on your studies," Yuhara says blandly. "But I hope we can continue our conversation sometime soon."

"Yeah," you say, already halfway out the door. "Maybe."