Chapter 23: Kuroita Mutsumi (Mu-tan), Ushiroda Eiko

"Mu-tan?"

"Yessu~ Heyy, you're not Sato."

"Yeah, she had to cancel. I'm her replacement, Ushiroda Eiko."

"Oh no! What happened?"

"She tried to help an ailing fisherwoman few days ago, and now she's helping her fix her boats."

"...a high school gal fixing a ship sounds cool. Anyway, Ushiroda, was it? Can I call you Dakko?"

"...sure. What are we doing?"

"We're cleaning the park."

Ushiroda looked around the small park. There were leaves or bits of trees, but also wrappers, plastic bags and even cardboard boxes. The benches were splattered with mud. A bird made a nest on the drinking fountain. "How did it get this dirty?"

"The author of Gomi-san lives next door," Mu-tan said, pointing to a nearby house. Ushiroda could swore she saw stink lines coming out of one window of the house. "Lessu start! I'll take this section, and Dakko can take...whatevs!"

The two started cleaning. Mu-tan sorted the garbage into tree stuff and the rest. She prepared giant red plastic bags for the former and yellow bags for the latter. Showing her experience, Mu-tan picked the trash rapidly. She turned around to see Ushiroda behind her. A few minutes later, she was still behind her.

"Dakko~? Want to clean that side?" Mu-tan pointed to another section of the park.

"Oh, I'll be fine."

Ushiroda remained behind Mu-tan for the next ten minutes. Making a fake excuse of having to go wash her hands, she left Ushiroda's sight and watched her from behind. Ushiroda kept on cleaning the park, so clearly she didn't need to be behind her all the time. Mu-tan intended to watch Ushiroda from behind for a few more minutes, but barely a minute passed before Ushiroda stopped, clutching her head, her face deathly pale.

"You're okay, Dakko?" The moment Mu-tan appeared next to her, Ushiroda's face brightened up.

"Oh, I'm fine now."

"Oookaay." Ushiroda kept walking behind Mu-tan. No matter where she walked, Ushiroda was behind her. When she turned around, Ushiroda seemingly transported behind her.

Mu-tan went to the restroom for real this time, to sit down on one of the toilets. She pulled a chalk from her pockets and began drawing on her skin. She drew the outline of the park and the path she should take so that with Ushiroda tailing her to minimise the time. In the end she decided to walk in a spiral going out.

She went back and was about to execute the plan when she noticed a very sparkly bench. She passed this bench before, but only to pick some litter. Ushiroda...did the rest. She then looked at the sections of the bench she had passed. It was all very clean. Mu-tan did some cleaning, but Ushiroda finished it. In fact, even if all Mu-tan did was walked pass it, Ushiroda would clean it to perfection.

Mu-tan went to the centre of the park and started jogging outwards in a spiral motion. As she jogged slightly faster than her normal speed, she could hear the furious whooshing of brooms, the ruckus of putting things into plastic bags, and the squeezing of mops and rags behind her. It was as if she was being chased by a furious robotic maid.

As she finished the spiral, she saw the result: a completely clean park, no debris or litter, spotless benches, tidy lawn and smooth ground. Anyone can even drink from the water fountain now.

"Dakko! You're amazing!"

"I'm just following in your example," she said.

"Amazingly humble too! You know what, let me treat you something! What do you want? Mu-tan's made of money, so you can ask me for anything!"

"Help me help Sato fix the boat."

"No can do. The day I come anywhere near a coastline will be the day my grandson spread my ashes."

[break]

"Wait, I think there are moments where Ushiroda was in front of somebody and she was fine," Tadano said.

"Maeda was behind her," Komi said. "I think that's the only exception."

"Those three really are a special trio," Tadano said. The two stopped walking when they heard a commotion. Some people were arguing and even worse, Komi and Tadano knew the voices. "This is Ohai's voice."

"And Sonoda's," Komi added. "Hanya too!"

Author's note: Gomi-san is the comic book Najimi read at the library in episode 6 of the anime, though you can see Hitomi reading it in episode 3. "Gomi" means trash. The kanji for "Kuroita", Mu-tan's family name, can also mean 'blackboard', which is why she was writing on her body with a chalk.