One of the short stories put up on Ensemble Girls’s 7th Anniversary website (link).
About one unnamed flower and one girl who taught it how to bloom (also four chaos factors). Ensemble Girls, again making you doubt the meaning of “service discontinuation”… Happy 7th Anniversary!
Of A Flower Without Name
Written by: Akira
“Transfer student-chan!”
That’s what they call me.
Due to my parent’s work──
I’ve had to transfer schools many times, and it’s made me more used to being addressed this way over my own name. Plus, being called by a label or a nickname feels more suited to me than by my real name, which I’m not really living up to.
It’s a touch lonely.
But I gulp down my discomfort as always and put on my best smile.
“What is it, Rei…”
“Gyuuuuu♪”
She pounces on me before I can fully say her name. Warm and soft, like a futon washed in sunlight. Being more petite than my peers, I always feel as if I’ve jumped into the sun each time she hugs me.
It’s not unpleasant in the least.
But it still. Feels. Like. I’m dying.
“Reika-chan──”
“Oh my, please don’t call me that in public? Walls have ears. Shall I remind you that people have started a trend of calling me by an idiotic title like Her Majesty these days, Transfer student-chan?”
While squishing me in her arms and nuzzling her cheek against me, she──
The student council president, Enjouji Reika-chan, smiles. In Kimisaki Academy, my new school, there isn’t a soul who doesn’t know of her.
She has long golden hair that seems as if woven purely from flower nectar selected and gathered with most prudency, rolling down her back in waves. Dozens of ribbons adorn it, like a flock of butterflies. She has a healthy, fine figure and spotless skin possible only for someone raised with as much love as she had.
She’s beautiful.
There isn’t a day where I see her and don’t think so. With each glance, she reminds me and captivates me all over again. A peasant like me would’ve never met her under normal circumstances – she’s a princess straight out of a picture book.
For whatever reason, residents of Kimisaki Academy instead name her a “Queen”.
“Don’t you agree that it’s idiotic? The whole Her Highness, Princess thing was absurd enough, like we’re all part of some pretend play, but getting ranked up to Queen status is even more perplexing.”
Reika-chan has a majestic air about her when she’s quiet, but she talks a lot. She keeps talking even if you ignore her. But you can partly blame that on our age; after all, we are high school girls blooming.
“But you know? I think absurdity is necessary sometimes, Transfer student-chan. Because it gives a sense of approachability, and if I were to be called Princess or Queen, then I’d want to be a ruler loved by many.”
“What…? Okay then, to what do I owe the pleasure, Your Majesty?”
“Ahh! I get it, stop! Forget everything I said! I can’t stand the thought of you of all people getting all subservient on me like that! Sweet little birdie, please say my name tenderly like when we first met! Stop that polite tone, too─you sounded so distant!”
Reika-chan shouts intensely, flailing around; each movement yanks me with her, whisking my feet off the floor. A girl like a typhoon, as always.
I, being an ordinary person dragged into her force, have to give my all hanging on for my dear life.
Not that I hate it ─ not in the least.
“Fufu.”
In fact, the comfort of her arms nearly lulls me to sleep; to this sight, Reika-chan caresses my cheek with a satisfied giggle.
However, her face clouds over in an instant.
It’s unnerving, as if a dark cloud has literally veiled the sun.
“Is something bothering you?” I ask casually, following her wish to drop the formality, and well, we are the same age anyway. Reika-chan is big, more like a gentle big sister than anything, so I don’t feel like her equal.
But this is what she wants from me.
She was the one who approached me when I didn’t know left from right, and whatever it is about me that has pleased her so much, she’s been treating me very kindly since. I feel indebted to her.
Kimisaki Academy is a bit abnormal, compared to the many other schools I’ve been part of. The students seem obsessed with studying, constantly on edge… I’m not settling in very well.
But only Reika-chan is always warm.
I’m a girl of little value, like a weedy plant no one knows the name of.
But weeds flower too, and even if only for as brief as the glance you spare it ─ it has the power to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Besides, even if nobody else is, the sun is definitely looking.
If it manages to make somebody smile however briefly, then a wildflower has value.
After that──
I roam the still unfamiliar grounds of Kimisaki Academy.
I got Reika-chan to disclose her problem a bit despite her persistent frown (she’s a fiercely simple girl, so she’s terrible with secrets), and as it turns out, she seems to have lost a certain item.
An important, red… something, that she unknowingly dropped somewhere.
As for what this something is, Reika-chan was being strangely shy about it, skirting around the question. But I got the hints I need, I have free time, so I thought I’d repay her for what she’s done for me.
I’m looking. By myself. For no particular reason.
It’s afterschool. Being the new transfer student, I haven’t joined any clubs, so I always either go straight home or aid Reika-chan through her busy president duties like a handmaid… But I’m not actually part of the student council.
Stuco people don’t like seeing a new kid like me hogging the attention of Her Majesty the Queen ─ I could feel it with my skin. So it’s a bit uncomfy, showing up there.
I’m not that shameless.
Over my many transfers, I’ve learned how to read the mood.
Don’t make waves. Infer what others are feeling. Walk near the corner.
This way of life isn’t fun by any measure, but it’s peaceful.
I’m going to be transferring again sooner or later, anyway.
Speading my roots deep will just make uprooting all the harder when it comes.
All the more miserable.
“… …”
Everything feels so pointless all of a sudden, and I stop dead in my tracks.
“Aahh──”
A mumble escapes me.
“Isn’t there anything fun──”
“Oh, damn it! Isn’t there anything not fun with life!? Ahahaha!☆”
Suddenly──
With enough force to knock my gloom-ridden monologue over, blow it away and more, someone’s delightful cackles shake the air.
I start to fidget.
I mean, nobody’s around. Kimisaki Academy is very study-oriented, with immensely rigid traditions, so clubs aren’t very alive and students go home as soon as classes are over.
Or not home; to cram school, most likely.
It’s been nearly an hour since my search for Reika-chan’s lost red thing begun, so the school grounds are barren of even students leaving. I’ve been spacing out next to our squeaky clean schoolhouse (apparently just newly constructed after abandoning the old one) and I don’t see anyone in the vicinity.
But. But even though I can’t spot a single soul, I can hear voices.
Boisterous, chatty voices of several young girls──
“Hey, look! Attention~! Didn’t you hear me say look or are you blind!? Damnit, Kuro, it’s cuz you’re covering your eye with your bangs like some emo kid that you can’t see! Cut that ugly fur already! Shave it bald! Maybe you’re gonna see the light then! Ahahahahaha☆”
“Gyaaaa~! Stooop~! Ya-Ya-Ya-Ya-Yakumo-san, do something about this troublemaker! Put that cursed hair clipper away, you she-devil! Stop, I like this haircut! It looks cute at this length!”
“Nfufu, you’d look cute in any hairstyle maaybe, Kuromori-chan♪ C’mon, Yako-chan! Hair is a girl’s soul! In other words, what you’re currently doing is a murder attempt! Surrender yourself!”
“What’re you playing at? You an idiot? Oh, of course you’re an idiot, you’re Chizuru!”
“Yup, yup, the thesaurus has Chizuru as a synonym for idiot, maaybe!”
“Haah!? Didn’t I tell you not to call yourself an idiot and abandon critical thinking!? Wanna go!?”
“Ehh, you said it first, Yako-chan, not me! You’re not making sense!”
“So what!? Humans never make sense! I don’t care who – even you’ll do, Chizuru – just let me cut your hair! My hair clipper is thirsting for blood!”
“Gyaaa! Stop swinging it around, you psycho! Why are you carrying a hair clipper around anyway? And I’m seriously wondering – does it work without electricity?”
“Doesn’t matter – I’ll make it work with willpower! My spirits will be its battery!”
“So it runs on battery~!? This is madness~ Stop, please, not my hair! If you cut my bangs any shorter, I’m gonna die from embarrassment!”
“Nyufufu. Sorry about her, Kuromori-chan. Yako-chan has terrible home life, so she gets anxious when no one is paying attention to her! She’s just an adorable attention seeker like that. Won’t you be patient with her?”
“That does it, don’t you move, Chizuru! I’m gonna start with shaving the skin off your face! Your grating pink hair’s gonna be drenched in blood ─ I’ll give you a full makeover the world will envy!”
“Eeh~? But you know, instead of being the envy of many, I’d rather be loved by my one destined prince…♪”
“Is the inside of your head pink too~!?”
… …
…What’s happening?
On and on, I can hear some squabbling that makes you doubt the sanity of those involved going on and on (it sounds fun, though). Hmm, but I still don’t see anybody──
Are these voices echoed from somewhere else?
Wait.
I crouch down and put my ear to the ground. I think the girls’ voices are coming from below… or am I just imagining it?
I hope this means it’s not a ghost thing though.
I can’t deal with ghosts. I’m a scaredy cat; I have guts the size of a flea to go with my equally tiny body.
“…Come again?”
The conversation coming from (probably) underground is still ongoing.
“Ahh, okay… You should speak more clearly, seriously; it’s hard to pick up what you say. Yeah, yeah─I didn’t just shout ‘Attention~!’ for no reason, y’know? I’m not that hungry for attention.”
“No, you are hungry for attention.”
“Yup, yup! The thesaurus has Yako-chan as a synonym for attention-hungry, maaybe ♪”
“Throw away your shitty thesaurus already! It’s pissing me off!”
“I have to throw away an imaginary thesaurus now? You always ask the impossible, Yako-chan─fuhya!? Geez, don’t whisper in my ear! It tickles ♪”
“I wish I were you, Yakumo-san──”
“Whoa, not sure why, but Kuromori-chan’s staring at me with envy… Okay, apparently, she wants an explanation since she can’t see where our talk is going? But also, it’s fun chatting with us like this, she says!”
“Why are you interpreting for her, Chizuru.”
“Ehehe, I’m pretty happy with the whispering! Makes us feel like besties, maaybe ♪ Yako-chan, Kuromori-chan, there’s no time like now if you wanna join our whisper game of love!”
“Pass. I don’t get the point of whispering into anyone’s ears when we’re close enough to hear each other normally. You two got insects eating your brains or something?”
“Geez, can’t you summon your inner romantic for once, Yako-chan?”
“Shut up. …Well, alright, we may be getting a bit air deprived down here, so I’ll cut to the chase. Y’see… I just found this.”
“? What’s that? Your panties, Yako-chan?”
“How does this even look like underwear to you? Is it your vision or your brain that’s dim?”
“I just can’t make heads or tails of it, okay… What is it?”
“Honestly, I haven’t got a clue myself. I decided from the start that I’d bring you guys to explore the underground tunnels today, but since I couldn’t wait, I came in the morning and explored on my own──”
“Ah, no fair! You stole a march on us, Yako-chan! Rat her out, rat her out! Let’s rat her out to Ahura Mazda!”
“Is there a reason you’re bringing up Zoroaster’s highest deity? Just feeling innovative?”
“You two are knowledgeable about the weirdest things, you know that… As for me, I never wanted to explore any strange tunnels, so you could’ve gone on your own for all I care.”
“Haah? You’re saying you’re not having the time of your life right now!? I’m gonna make you cry!”
“Eeek, stop threatening me over every little thing, you hooligan! Punk! Troublemaker!”
“You got that right. And you’re together with me in the troublemaker camp now.”
“So I am… Uukh, how did I let this happen?”
“Shut it with the whining. Anyway~ so the tunnel turned out to be connected to the school courtyard. When I got there I spotted, quote-unquote, Her Majesty the Queen having lunch.”
“Ah, Enjouji-san strolls around outside by herself once in a while, doesn’t she?”
“Hah! I bet she’s feeling suffocated with her clique shadowing her everywhere. Moving on, she’s got this weirdly happy look staring at this weird red thing──”
At the mention of this, my silence so far is broken. “Red thing?”
… …
“…Did you hear that?”
“Omigosh, is there somebody aboveground? S-Shouldn’t we run for it~?”
“What’s to run from? Tell me, are we doing something bad? No, we’re not.”
“Hmm. No, but we are doing something suspicious ♪”
“Hmph. Forget that; I hate leaving things halfway, so I’m gonna tell my story all the way through. So, Enjouji was staring at this red thing fondly. I bet it’s like, a family memento. So I snuck out of the tunnel and stole it.”
“A-A villain~! Theft is a crime, you know, Konan-san!? Aah, God, Father, Mother, please forgive me─by some fate, Suzu has allowed herself to become an associate of evil!”
“I-It’s okay, Kuromori-chan. If we return it and show how sorry we are, God and Enjouji-san will forgive us. Hopefully.”
“Ehh~… after all the trouble I went through to steal it? Why don’t we use this to blackmail her and defeat her once and for all? It seems important to her.”
“T-That’s exactly why we should return it! See, Yakumo-san agrees with me, right? Anzu-chan too──”
While keeping an ear sharp to the squabble underground, I consider my options──
Until I hear someone’s lively footsteps approaching.
“──Transfer student-chan!”
I jolt up from surprise and find a panting Reika-chan running up to me.
“Are you all right? I saw you crouching from the window; are you feeling ill? Please!”
“No, I──mugyu!?”
I get flustered, not knowing how to explain, when she pulls me into a hug as if it was the natural thing to do.
Seemingly warmed from the running, Reika-chan’s skin against me feels so much hotter than usual.
And I can hear her heart pounding louder against her chest.
Ah, she’s worried for me…
The thought just fills me with so much warmth that I find myself hugging her back for once.
“Whoa? W-What’s the matter? Are you in a spoiled mood, perhaps?”
Reika-chan stirs shyly, eyes wide in surprise.
“Say, is that voice──”
“Shit, it’s her! Her Majesty the Queen! If she finds us, it’s off with our heads! We’ve gotta scram! C’mon, you all, follow me!”
“There’s not going to be any beheading involved maaybe… We’re not in a Warring States period. You always make too big a deal of things, Yako-chan. You’re Princess Big Deal from Planet Big Deal.”
“Still, I think we’ll get an earful if we’re caught. No thanks to a certain thief stealing Enjouji-san’s treasure, that is. …whoa──wanya?”
The commotion building up underground ceases instantly.
At the same time, the ground right beneath me puffs up──and bursts open.
“Hya!?”
Reika-chan stiffens, pulling me to her with more strength as if to protect me. Because of this, she covers most of my field of vision─and I can’t see very clearly, but…
Like a seed budding into a flower, splitting open the earth, a girl’s face bobs up.
She has a vaguely indistinct feel to her, like I might have or might not have seen her before. Who is she again?──I’ve only just transferred, so I can’t identify that many of my schoolmates just yet.
“Anzu-chan!?”
Someone shouts from underground.
“What are you doing!? Geez, you’re always so spontaneous!”
At those words, the girl in front of me──
The girl apparently named Anzu-chan furrows her brows apologetically once, before reaching her hand out.
Towards me.
A red─what is that?─cloth of sort hangs from her hand.
Her extended hand seems as if wanting a handshake, so I hold out mine reflexively in answer.
Our hands touch.
With a soft grunt and a small animal-like nod, she passes the red cloth to my hand.
“Angie! What the hell are you doing, idiot!? Run!”
Several hands stretch out from behind Anzu-chan and gently clutch at various parts of her body, pulling her away. In an instant, the mysterious girl vanishes underground.
Their too loud voices and footsteps echo on and on──until they eventually fade to the distance.
“Umm…?”
Apparently, Reika-chan couldn’t see anything from where she was facing. She warily turns around once the events passed, tilting her head inquisitively when noticing the hole made on the ground.
“I wonder what was that about? I only heard strange voices, but──oh my?”
Surprised, Reika-chan fixes her gaze on the red cloth on my hand.
“Why do you have that?”
“Oh, umm──”
I’m too befuddled to form a coherent answer. But clever Reika-chan softens into an understanding expression, pulling me into an even tighter hug.
“Thank you. You found it for me, didn’t you, knowing how much it means to me? I’m happy, very much so. You’re such a sweet girl.”
Seemingly overcame with emotion, Reika-chan’s arms tighten around me even more, as if to absorb me into her flesh. It’s closer to pro-wrestling than a hug at this point.
I’m dying.
Still──I just can never find this unpleasant in the least.
“Oh my, forgive me. You must find it hard to speak with me suffocating you.”
Reika-chan smiles and separates from me a bit.
“You see──” She rests her gaze at the red thing on my hand, her cheeks pink. “My older brothers gave it to me as a gift. It’s a ribbon. It doesn’t go with my hair color, unfortunately, so I struggled to make use of it.”
Ribbon. She’s right, I can’t unsee it now.
So this unidentifiable piece of cloth was a flower petal meant to adorn this dazzling girl.
“And then I thought of what a lovely match it would be for your beautiful black hair, so I brought it, to give it to you. It was a pity when I lost it, but I’m glad it has found its way to you.”
“For me──”
This was a present for me?
“Why…?”
I’m ecstatic, but my confusion goes above it, that I fail to bite back my skeptical question.
“Why… are you so nice to me, Reika-chan?”
“My, a tasteless question, don’t you think? But──I find that side of you to be very well ♪”
Again, she seems pleased by something about me I can’t figure out, and cradles me in her arms for the hundredth time.
“Why, you see, Himari…” calling me by name, Reika-chan murmurs, “For a flower to be beautiful and for I to want to cherish that flower, does there need to be a reason?”
Easily removing the red ribbon from my hand, she gently holds it up to my hair. But for some reason, her face crumples, and the next moment, she lets out a chortle.
“I’m sorry! I didn’t think it would end up not suiting you! It’s getting in the way of your lovely hair, actually. What shall I do? I didn’t expect this!” she exclaims, in that self-centered way of hers that only makes her all the more endearing.
Reika-chan wraps the red ribbon around my arm.
“Yes, I see it now. This is the correct place. I will make it into an armband; I’m not very good with a needle, but perhaps I can trouble Yomo to teach me.”
She ties it respectfully, like part of a ceremony.
“Yes! It suits you very well, Himari.”
She looks so satisfied with herself as she says this, and just like that, nothing seems to matter anymore. In a good way.
It’s all so ridiculous I can’t help a smile from spreading.
“Oh my──”
Seeing me, Reika-chan bursts into childlike laughter.
“The flower blossomed. This is what I wanted to see.”
… I’d like to see that flower, too.
Because Reika-chan seems so happy…
And in so much bliss.
I seek that flower to this day.
I can’t see my own face unless I look in the mirror, so I decided to try make flowers bloom on the people around me instead.
Life is long, and youth is but a moment of it.
But even if only for that short moment, I want everyone to know what it’s like, to be a beautiful, blooming flower giving and receiving love.
Because I was happy.
That somebody would find and love me, a wildflower no one had ever looked back on.
I want to do the same thing for someone else.
If there’s a flower nobody knows the name of, then I’d like to be the first to discover and love it. Just as she had done for me.
Let’s take an overflowing amount of sunlight, nutrient, and water to satisfy the cold, dry lands of Kimisaki Academy. Let’s make this whole world into a field of flowers, where countless laughter resound loud.
It’s been my dream since that day.
That day.
When I was but a high school student…
I, Tsurumi Himari, learned how to make flowers bloom.