Free Black Bullet, Vol. 1: Those Who Would Be Gods by Shiden Kanzaki Page B

behind her?”
    “Who knows? A servant or something?”
    A guy from your class! At least remember my face!
Rentaro silently replied to the voices as he followed behind Kisara.
    As they exited the school gate, Kisara got into the limousine—or at least pretended to as she turned back and passed it gallantly.
    “Hey, fake rich girl,” Rentaro called toward her.
    “Did you know, Satomi?” said Kisara. “You can call for a limousine on the phone.”
    “Then why aren’t you getting in?”
    “If I do, they’ll want to be paid.”
    “Did you prank call them?”
    “Don’t worry. I pinched my nose and gave them a fake name.”
    “No, no, that’s not the issue here.”
    “Oh, Satomi, look. It’s a stray Chihuahua.”
    “Listen to me!”
    Kisara broke into a run and started playing with the dog. When she leaned over to pat its head, the stray Chihuahua started licking her hand, and she laughed like it tickled. As Rentaro looked at the profile of her face, his heart started beating violently.
    “Satomi, do you have something I can feed him?”
    “Oh, huh?” he said, startled. “Hmm, oh yeah, I do have something. A lot of stray dogs come to our garden, and Enju likes to feed them. Here,” he said, pulling out a bag of beef jerky from his back pocket and holding it out to Kisara.
    Kisara’s stomach rumbled with emptiness. Kisara stared at the beef jerky for a while. Before he could react, she grabbed it out of his hand with the force of a purse snatcher, turned around with her back facing him, and then—of all things—she started eating it.
    Rentaro gaped, unable to move.
    The poor Chihuahua, its food stolen from it, started to tremble, looking up with big wet puppy dog eyes.
    Before long, Kisara, who was red up to her ears, turned just her neck to face Rentaro. “What? Do you have something to say?”
    “Kisara, that was for the dog.”
    “I was a dog in a past life!” She’d moved into the “unreasonable” phase of the argument.
    “Kisara, shake.”
    Kisara glared at him with a look that could kill, but before long, she bit her bottom lip and put her own hand on top of Rentaro’s palm, looking as red as a boiled lobster, and then turned her head away suddenly.
    If she found it so humiliating, why was she giving him her hand?
    “Turn around.”
    Kisara spun in circles.
    Somehow, it was starting to be fun.
    “Weenie.”
    “Pervert!”
    “Wait, was there a trick like that?”
    “You’re a pervert, Satomi!”
    “Joking aside, Kisara, are you really having that much trouble making ends meet?”
    Kisara looked down, embarrassed, and pulled out her wallet, opening it to show him. Looking inside, he suddenly felt the desire to cover his eyes with his hands. He didn’t realize she had fallen so low. “Hey, Kisara… You don’t have to purposefully pay a lot of money to go to a rich girl’s school. You could just go to a regular public school, can’t you?”
    “Attending Miwa Academy is all that’s left of my pride as a Tendo,” she said defiantly. “I’m allowed, aren’t I? It’s the money I made from properly managing the meager assets I have as stocks and exchanges.”
    “But Kisara, I thought you hated being called a Tendo?”
    “How other people see me is a different matter, isn’t it?”
    “Well, yeah…it is, but…,” said Rentaro. He tried a different tack. “Well then, how were you planning on getting to the Ministry of Defense with what’s left in your wallet?”
    Kisara smiled an extremely charming smile. “Satomi, you withdrew money from the ATM two days ago, didn’t you?”
    Rentaro looked away from Kisara. His boss was trying to bum off of him!
    “Satomi, you withdrew money from the ATM two days ago, didn’t you?”
    “I did, but…” His voice trailed off.
    “Satomi, you’re such a hard worker, and so strong, and reliable, too!”
    “I thought you called me ‘good-for-nothing’ and ‘weak’ and ‘unreliable.’”
    “That was ages ago. I’ve long since