(Short Short) A Careless Love

The corner of the rehabilitation room.
That was Ichika Akamine's usual spot.

Sitting in her wheelchair, she stared blankly through the polished window at a sky so beautifully blue it felt hateful.

(I wonder what everyone is doing right now?)

If it were three months ago, she would have been running under that blue sky faster than anyone else.

She had been blessed with great athletic ability and good friends, living a sparkling student life.

That was her pride. Until, during club practice, her consciousness snapped like a broken thread.

After hovering between life and death for a month, when she woke up, her entire world had changed.

Cerebral infarction.

That was the name of the culprit that had stolen her sparkling daily life.

She had loved this girls' school, which she had entered through middle school entrance exams and which offered a direct path to university, for its wonderful atmosphere.

She would never walk those hallways on her own two feet again.

(Why did I end up with a body like this...) An unanswerable question brought with it days of apathy.

"It's nice weather, isn't it?"

Suddenly, a bright voice came from behind her.

Startled, she turned around to see a boy about her age standing there on crutches.

Beneath his sweat-dampened bangs, a refreshing smile was directed at her.

(He looks like someone I know, but... I can't remember.)

"I'm Rua Mizuse. Fifteen years old. Nice to meet you, Ichika-chan." Saying that, he held out his hand without hesitation.

His guilelessness and overly familiar lightness made something inside Ichika's heart bristle.

(Who is this guy?)

Ichika ignored the hand offered to her and put her strength into the wheels of her wheelchair.

She wanted to run away from this place.

However, her arm, still suffering from paralysis, would not obey her, and the wheelchair did not budge an inch.

"I-it won't move... damn it." Tears welled up from impatience and frustration.

"W-wait, that's dangerous!" At the sound of Rua's panicked voice and the presence of the rehabilitation therapists rushing over after noticing the commotion, Ichika froze, her face still lifted in humiliation.

That night, on her hospital bed, Ichika was thinking back on what happened today.

That boy... Rua Mizuse.

When he saw my body like this, he didn't show any sympathy or pity.

He just spoke to me as if it were natural, as a "girl" who was just there.

(Even though my future is already pitch black.)

The sparkling student life, the glory of club activities, it's all over. Nothing matters anymore.

(But...) A cynical smile appeared on Ichika's lips.

(Maybe I'll try going out with that handsome guy.)
If I don't know what's going to happen from here on out anyway, I might as well have a little bit of a "good time" while I can.

One of the few weapons left to me now.
If that weapon is this face, which hasn't faded yet.

It was the signal fire of a girl standing on the edge of despair, a twisted counterattack.

The next day, as I was gazing out the window in the corner of the rehabilitation room as usual, he came, just as I expected.

"Hey, Ichika-chan. How are you doing today?"
While skillfully using his crutches, Rua stood next to me with the same smile as yesterday.

Ichika steeled her resolve and looked up at him.

The first step of the plan. First, make the other person let their guard down.

"Nothing much. Maybe a little better than yesterday." I replied, albeit bluntly.

That alone made Rua's face light up instantly.

(What a simple guy.) While cursing him in her heart, Ichika decided to go along with his pace.

"I see, that's good. My leg can bend just a little bit more than yesterday, too." Saying that, Rua showed off his leg happily.

He spoke nonchalantly about how he had collided with the goal post during practice before a basketball game and suffered a compound fracture.

"The game is coming up soon, too. It's seriously the worst. I feel so bad for everyone on the team." "Hmm..."
"Did you do any club activities, Ichika-chan?"

At that question, Ichika's heart froze.

The one place she didn't want anyone to touch.

"I used to do track. Short distance."
"Whoa, that's amazing! So that's why, I thought you had some kind of aura."
There was no hint of lies or pity in Rua's words.

There was only pure admiration there.

That only irritated Ichika all the more.

"I don't do it anymore." She emphasized the past tense to cut off the conversation.

It was then that an awkward silence fell.

The book she had been reading as part of her rehabilitation slipped from her limp hand and rolled onto the floor.

"Ah..." She leaned forward to pick it up, but it was far out of reach from her wheelchair.

Usually, this would be the moment she would immediately press the nurse call button.

She couldn't even pick up a single book without someone's help.

That fact pierced her chest like a fresh humiliation.

Then, Rua, who was next to her, let out a strange sound, "Heave-ho," and leaned his crutches against the wall.

And then, hopping on one leg, he slowly crouched down to the floor.
"Whoa, steady there..." While nearly losing his balance, he skillfully picked up the book and gently placed it on Ichika's lap.

"Here you go." With sweat on his brow and gasping for air, he smiles again.

Even though his own legs should be disabled. This couldn't have been easy for him.

Ichika looked back and forth between the book on her lap and Rua's face.

The words "thank you" were stuck in the back of her throat and wouldn't come out.

The cynical plan she had made yesterday was wobbling in her mind.

Perhaps in front of this person, no weapon or armor has any meaning.

That night, for the first time, Ichika's mind was completely filled with thoughts of Rua.

The version of herself that thought, "I'll go out with him" out of a sense of carelessness, now seems terribly small and childish.

(Rua Minase... what on earth is he?)
It was not a twisted interest born from despair.

It was a pure question, like a warm light that had shone just a little bit into Ichika's frozen heart.

The end.

↑I participated in this project.