"Hey, hey!"
He doesn't immediately recognize that he is being talked to, so he doesn't stop walking.
"Are you leaving now? Let's walk home together!"
He stops his pacing and sees the girl approaching him. Long dark hair, a serene expression with a calm smile, and a pink hair clip. He recognizes the features as the same ones he saw in the classroom that day.
"My name is Takane Tsubomi. What's yours?"
He already knows her name because he heard the teacher calling her. Still, it takes him a moment to answer. He is a little bit tired from his first day at school (Did he really had to go there every day?).
"Kageyama. Kageyama Shigeo".
She furrows her brow.
"Shigeo? Oh, I think I heard the teacher saying that name…we are in the same class, then! I didn't see you".
Shigeo saw her in class but didn't talk to her. He didn't talk to anyone, really. And besides, they didn't sit near each other.
There is something about her expression that Shigeo can't recognize. Is similar to when her mom gets annoyed at him for getting things wrong (Was it unusual to not talk to anyone? It was just their first day).
Before he can start feeling self-conscious about it, Shigeo notices the corners of her mouth curve upwards. That, he can recognize.
"Well, it doesn't really matter. How did you like our first day, Shigeo?"
He feels lighthearted at seeing her more animated but doesn't know why. Sometimes the people around Shigeo would get annoyed at him for being too quiet. But he doesn't feel that annoyance from her. He feels calm now.
They walk through the streets and talk for a while. They talk about their teachers, which classes they like more, their favorite food (she likes milk too! Shigeo feels happy knowing that), which animals they like most (She also likes frogs! Shigeo makes sure to remember that), the cartoons they watch on TV, and he even shows her how he can make things float with his telekinesis (She doesn't really react to it, instead making an attempt to keep the conversation going. Shigeo is a little surprised, but doesn't stop feeling calm around her).
As they keep walking, he can recognize the houses from his neighborhood.
Before Shigeo can say goodbye, she says something that snaps him out of his momentary blissfulness.
"Guess you are really easy to miss within the crowd of students. I barely even noticed you in our class today".
Shigeo can't recognize the expression she is making. Her lips are upwards again but is not the same smile as before. He is too focused on her eyes to make sense of it. She continues.
"But still, now that I got to talk to you, I'm really glad I met you".
He widens his eyes and blushes a little.
She closes her eyes while giggling.
"I think I'll call you Mob-kun from now on!"
A/N:
Last year I had this dream with a vivid image of an anime-only scene that Studio Bones added when they eventually animated the final arc of the manga, right before the internal conflict between Mob and ?%.
It didn't quite translate how I envisioned it to how I ended up writing it, but hey, I'm pretty sure that's the same for everyone. Still, imagine this as a little less-than-a-minute scene they put at the beginning of an episode, with the opening starting right after Tsubomi says the last sentence.
I think, in a way, Tsubomi coining the nickname "Mob" nicely ties the series together, and may put in perspective how important she actually is as a character and for the development of Mob, so I really like this little idea.
Thank you for reading! any comments or feedback is very much appreciated.