Episode 1: The Girl Who Prays in the Kitchen and the Girl Who Wants to Slip on a Banana Peel (Part 1)

🌸 Harbor Town and the Castle of Words

In the corner of the staff room.
The afternoon light of July was gently pouring in through the window.

“Kirino—if you truly desire the recommendation for the designated school, I would like to recommend you.”
The homeroom teacher said this, sliding a sheet of paper across the desk.

“Waseda University, School of Humanities and Culture... It is the castle of words you have longed for.”

On the far right of the list, the words “Candidate/Evaluation A” seemed to glow faintly.

“It is not finalized. But, at this moment, you are the top candidate. What do you say? Would you like to aim for it?”

Koharu could not answer immediately.
Even though she should have been happy, something was snagging deep in her chest.

The teacher said with a smile,

“I can picture you holed up in the secondhand bookstores of Kanda... I envy you.”

—That kindness was something to be grateful for, yet it also made her feel itchy...
However, there was something bothering Koharu.

“...Teacher, thank you. Could you please let me think about it a little longer?”

“Of course. There is no need to rush. Think about it a little during the summer.”

“...Yes.”

On the way home. Inside her uniform pocket, her fingertips were gently interlaced.

Koharu thought of the paperback book in her bag.
And—
What she had started seeing “after the story” at some point.

Below the author's name of the book she had finished reading.
The small text added there.

“Waseda University, School of Humanities and Culture”

Chuya Nakahara. Banana Yoshimoto. Shuntaro Tanikawa. Yoko Ogawa. Haruki Murakami. Mieko Kawakami...
The people I love were all there.
As if in an atmosphere where the “density of words” was different.

“Castle of words”—
I felt that if I went there, my own “words” would also be saved.

However, her feet suddenly stopped.

An afternoon at the library in Okurayama.
The cityscape from Mount Rokko that she saw with her family.
Sannomiya Center Street, the casual after-school hours spent with friends.

Perhaps I will be leaving Kobe.

“...Is this really, truly okay?”

That whisper melted into the sound of the cicadas and vanished into the summer sky.

🌸 God and Banana
~In the usual library

It was a quiet afternoon.

Leaving the bustle of the classroom and heading to the library at the very back of the school building, the sound of the air conditioning and the rustle of turning pages quietly filled the world.
There was no one there. Light fell on the window seat, and the wood grain of the desk felt vaguely warm.

Koharu Kirino headed straight for the literature section.
In the middle of the shelf—what she picked up was Banana Yoshimoto's “Kitchen”.

She had seen the name many times.
But this was her first time reading it.

She turned the page. The writing style was lighter and simpler than she had imagined.
However, at the edges of the faint words, there was a strange warmth, as if the emotions she had been suppressing for so long were slowly seeping out.

—And then, she suddenly encountered it.

“God, please, let me be able to live.”

Her heart stopped at that one sentence.

...Whose voice is this, she wondered.
Someone's prayer? A scream?
But it was neither—it felt like words that had come from within herself.

Koharu could not turn the page for a while.
Her fingertips stopped at the corner of the book, and her gaze remained fixed on that one line.

The days that had been taken for granted until now.
She had only been longing for the future and had not noticed the warmth beneath her feet.

The premonition of loss that had always been by her side. She had looked away, pretending not to see it.

Going to university.
Leaving her family.
“Becoming alone.”

An anxiety that could not be put into words.
Even so, if she didn't put it into words, it was a contour that she felt she might lose.

“...Please let me be able to live.”

She repeated it just once more in her heart.
It was a voiceless voice that no one would hear.

🌸 Light Shining into the Castle of Words

In front of the classroom, several students were standing in front of the bulletin board.
Their eyes were fixed on the final exam ranking list that had just been posted.
Koharu also naturally stopped her feet in front of the paper with “Japanese” written in red pen.

—The name at the top was different.

1st Place: Tsumugi Shirai, 97 points
2nd Place: Koharu Kirino, 95 points

“...Eh?”

She gasped softly.
She rubbed her eyes a few times without thinking.
But the ranking did not change.

(Tsumugi Shirai...?)

Her memory focused on that name.
—That girl who was getting laughs at the teacher's desk.
The comedy person. The person who was “only” funny.

To think she would surpass her in Japanese.

“It wasn't Koharu.” “Is she in our class?” “That funny girl, right?”

The voices around her remained in her ears strangely.
She was surprised herself.
Rather than frustration, it was “unexpected.”

She had always been good at Japanese.
She had never lost to anyone.
She believed that words were her weapon.

“Shirai... Tsumugi-san...”

She rolled the name around in her mouth.
When spoken aloud, it was soft and strangely easy to remember.

That was when it happened.
Laughter rang out from inside the classroom again.
That voice. That atmosphere.

Koharu quietly took her eyes off the bulletin board,
and felt “something” move softly deep in her chest.

—I have to see her. That person.

⸻

(In the world of words, I had always been alone.
But now, for the first time—I feel like someone has come to my side.)

🎤 Comedy Routine: “What is studying for?”

“Hello! I'm Tsumugi Shirai, feeling like I'm in my third life!
If you're free during lunch break, listen up~”

She raised her hand and stood in front. She started using the teacher's desk like a stage.
The teacher was absent, and the classroom atmosphere was a bit buzzing with “It's started again.”

“You know, I've been thinking a lot lately.
‘Why do we study?’”

She posed, flipping through a textbook.

“For tests? For the future? To become an important person?”

Pause.

“...That's not it, right.
I realized it yesterday.
Studying is ‘to put parents at ease’!”

Ba-dum.

“No? When you memorize 10 English words, it's not ‘this will be useful in the future.’
It's that Mom's mood gets better! Instead of being kicked, I get two extra pieces of fried chicken at night!”

She paused and grinned.

“...But if it were only for that, it wouldn't last, right?”

She lowered her voice a little.

“That's why I decided to turn it into ‘play’.
I decided to do tests thinking of them as making material.
Math is a way of thinking,
English is a password,
Japanese is... a seed for laughter!”

Applause and laughter.

“‘Mencius’ in classical Chinese is the best, right?
‘Instead of giving a fish, teach how to fish.’
That. It makes you think, ‘That's a good thing to say!’ but,
if someone says that when you're hungry, it makes you want to kill them.
Give me the fish you caught!
What's mine is mine,
and what's yours is mine!
By the way, I'm good at singing.
Just a side note.”

She held it for a moment.

“But you know, if you can say even that kind of ‘anger’ in words, it's a little easier.
If you have knowledge,
the variations of ‘Damn it!’
increase, right?
Your soul gets carried into your words!”

(Giggling)

⸻

“I'm not smart.
I'm just ‘picking things up to talk about.’”

Pause.

“...There's not a single thing wrong with collecting words.
You might be able to use them someday to untangle someone's heart.”

She became serious.
Suddenly, the teacher's desk was no longer a stage.

“At that time, maybe you'll think, ‘I'm glad I studied.’”

One beat, a blank space.

“—I don't know, though!”

(Classroom, laughter and applause)

“So with that,
for today's classical Chinese quiz, I'm going to borrow a fishing rod from Mr. Mencius!”

She bowed her head and returned to her seat while laughing.

Koharu just stared at her back.
(...This person is not just a funny girl!)
She is using laughter as a tool to deliver words.
Even though I was only doing my best to protect them.
...She is living a different way.

🌸 My Heart That Clunked

While laughter echoed throughout the classroom, Tsumugi returned to her seat with a light step.
As she sat deeply in her chair, her gaze stopped at the desk next to her.

“—Hmm?”

The paperback book Koharu had on her lap.
On the cover, a gentle light blue title.

“Kitchen”

“...Ah, I cried at that one.”

Tsumugi said suddenly.

For a moment, Koharu thought she had misheard.
She never expected that title to come from this person.

“...You read it?”

“I read it. I was shot through by that part, ‘God, please, let me be able to live.’”

Koharu was even more surprised.
To think that the very passage she had been captivated by would come out of Tsumugi's mouth.

“...I thought that was a prayer.”

Tsumugi tilted her head just a little and smiled.
“I thought that was a ‘defiant declaration of freedom.’”

Koharu's gaze stopped.
“...A defiant declaration of freedom?”
The moment she tried to ask the meaning of those words—

“The rest will be in the next comedy routine!”
Tsumugi said that with a smirk.

After a few seconds of silence, Tsumugi laughed and said,

“But, ‘kitchens’ are nice, aren't they.
I like the sound inside the refrigerator.
The one that only rings in the middle of the night, ‘clunk...’
Isn't it kind of cute?
Am I the only one who thinks so?”

Tsumugi waved one hand and left the classroom.

Koharu suddenly felt a warmth deep in her chest.

To be continued in Part 2