Author's Note: Thought of the first part of the concept, Iriya and Enomoto eating noodles on the roof, a while ago but really didn't have anything else for it. The rest of it came to me when I made a paper airplane on a whim. Not really any spoilers this time.
Enomoto climbed off of the ladder onto the roof, sitting down next to Iriya and handing her a cup of noodles and a pair of chopsticks. Somehow he had carried two cups, filled with hot water, up the ladder without spilling them.
The sun was setting and the sky colored deep orange as they sat. Enomoto lived in a small, two-story suburban house with a shallow roof close to the air base, in an area where many of the other residents were connected to it as well – civilian employees, intelligence personnel like Enomoto, a few American officers attached to the United States Air Force wing stationed at Sonohara. The September air was cool and a faint breeze blew across the roof and through the trees, gently rustling the leaves.
Iriya broke the chopsticks apart and scooped up a few noodles with them. She ate quietly and almost robotically, so much so that someone watching her might wonder whether she took any enjoyment from it at all. But, they were warm and the flavor was fine, at least.
"Why did you bring me here?", she asked between bites.
Enomoto finished slurping up some noodles and smiled. It wasn't exactly a warm smile, or at least, she didn't think so. But Enomoto was hard to read, even compared to other people.
"I thought I'd do something nice for you, believe it or not-", he answered. "-And when you have a ladder, you should eat cup noodles on the roof. It's one of my few principles."
She didn't say anything for a while, silently and methodically eating.
"...Because I flew sorties again?". It was Enomoto's turn to quietly eat a mouthful of noodles before finally answering.
"You always climbed up on the roofs at Tonopah, didn't you?", he said, ignoring her question. "Anyway, it's a nice sunset tonight."
They both finished their meal in silence after that. The wind had begun to pick up, the occasional strong gust rattling the tree branches as they looked out at the neighborhood. Sonohara was a small city, nestled in mountains, and outside of the downtown the high-rises quickly gave way to countryside, rows of suburban houses and stands of trees breaking up the fields.
Iriya drank the remaining broth and crumpled up the styrofoam cup. With the wind picking up it was liable to be blown off the roof if she set it down, and so she decided, lacking a better option without going back down the ladder and into the house to throw it and the chopsticks away, to put it in her school bag for now. Opening it up, she noticed the few blank paper sheets in it, and took one out before closing the bag again.
She thought back to the instructions. Fold two corners in at forty-five degrees. Fold again at about sixty degrees. Fold in half. Fold each side down at seventy-five degrees. Unfold.
Enomoto glanced over at her as she carefully folded up the sheet.
"Asaba showed me how it's made."
"Ah. I should've figured", he said, the cold-seeming smile on his face again. "I made them a lot when I was your age. Well, there's a reason I joined the Air Self-Defense Force over anything else. Once I spent all afternoon on the balcony of our apartment just seeing how far they'd go."
Sending airplanes up without any care in his mind for where they came down. Thinking about it that way, he hadn't changed a bit as an adult.
"...Why are you telling me this?".
"I can stop if you'd like". She nodded, turning it over in her hands.
"What is... The point of a paper airplane?". Enomoto crushed his empty cup of noodles and put it in the pocket of his suit jacket, letting her continue. "No matter what, it falls to the ground. The nose bends easily. Each time it hits the ground, it's bent out of shape and becomes harder to fold back. Until it's discarded."
He fished a pack of cigarettes and his lighter out of another pocket, pulling one out, lighting it, and taking a drag.
"What's the point of anything in this world, then?", he said. His expression seemed a bit darker now than the smirk he'd had on before. Enomoto glanced at her, seeing her nod in agreement, and he took another long drag of his cigarette, looking straight out again.
"You said Asaba showed you how to make paper airplanes, right?". The smirk was back once more. "Is that important to you? Say, come to think of it, you talk about him a lot at the base when you're off duty."
Iriya nodded again. "It's important...".
"Then, is that something that matters to you in this world?".
The wind had grown even stronger now, and the sky darker, and she stood up, ignoring Enomoto saying 'hey, careful' as she did. Iriya held the paper airplane between her thumb and index finger, the wind behind her buffeting it and making it seem to jump to life, twisting in her hand. She held it high, above her head, and smoothly flicked her wrist, releasing her fingers and letting it sail out over the street below.
The wind caught it as she let go, and a gust pushed it violently upwards, spiraling into the evening sky.