Chapter 5

Naoto had been shocked to find out that everything Amagi had said about the television was true. Unfortunately, getting herself kidnapped meant that she spent days trapped in there with her shadow. It was not a comfortable or ideal situation. The worst part was when Seta's group came to rescue her. Her shadow let her secret out in front of the others. She wasn't sure who seemed more shocked, Hanamura or Tatsumi. The others were surprised, but accepting. Much more accepting than she had been of her own self. After she accepted her shadow and they left the TV, Kanji told her she was too reckless, and called her a dumbass. She supposed it was better than ignoring her completely. Over the next two weeks while she recovered, all of the others visited her apartment to see how she was. Except for him. She had no idea what to think of this. The rest of the teens seemed to get over the fact that she had lied to them for months immediately. Perhaps he was having a harder time with it. Maybe it would be best to apologize?

The day she returned to school, she cornered him at lunch, in an empty stairwell. "Kanji-kun," she began, looking way up to meet his eyes. "I wanted to apologize for my previous behavior."

"Uhh, what?" he asked, looking at the floor.

"For… the way that I lied to you. And to everyone. About… myself." He looked at her curiously for a moment, searching her face, then shrugged and looked away.

"Whatever. Ain't a big deal. Are we done here?"

"O-Oh. I suppose." She wasn't entirely sure what direction the conversation had gone in. Was he angry? Had he forgiven her? Did it even matter to him to begin with? "I-I have asked the others to meet after school to discuss the case. I would like it if you were there as well," she said softly.

"Uhh, yeah, right. Junes, yeah? Senpai already told me."

"I will see you later then," she said, finally stepping aside to let him pass.

"Yeah, later," he called over his shoulder. Naoto couldn't help but feel disappointed at how determined he was to get away from her.

The meeting at Junes that afternoon went well. Other than a few outbursts about her recklessness and not trusting the police, Kanji kept quiet while the others questioned her about the kidnapping. Seta agreed to let her join the team, and no one objected. She began attending the regular team meetings where they all brainstormed about the case. She often asked to train on meeting days. As she was the newest member, she was also the weakest. She took every opportunity to get stronger. Kanji never chose to train when she did. From what she understood, he was training on different evenings when Seta-senpai and a few of the others were free. Naoto couldn't help feeling like it was personal, but she had no evidence to back it up, so she said nothing.

It seemed like every time she tried to talk to Kanji, something went terribly wrong. She complimented his scarf on the way into school one morning, and he got all defensive, insisting that it wasn't new. She had merely said that it was a nice color on him. She had stopped asking if he was going to train after the meetings when he glared at her and told her he had more important things to do. And when she congratulated him on a better than usual exam grade, he snapped at her to stop making fun of him. Naoto felt crushed. She had genuinely been proud of his effort. Rise had been present for this last catastrophe. "Oh, Naoto-kun," she soothed, "don't take it so personally. He's just really… defensive about certain things."

"I'm not even sure that's the real problem," Naoto sighed.

"What do you mean?"

"I have absolutely no idea how to talk to boys, Rise-san. A month ago, everyone thought I was one. I have no experience with this whatsoever." Rise's face lit up with a happy smile.

"Well you've come to the right person, Naoto-kun! Come with me, we're going to have us a little lesson called Risette 101: How to talk to boys and make them unable to resist you!"

"O-Oh, no, Rise-san, I don't think that will be -"

"Uh uh, you're not getting out of this one! You really need my help with this. I promise it won't be painful." Naoto sighed again.

"Fine. When do we start?"

"Right now! Let's go to my house!" Rise answered. Oh, what have I done? This is a terrible idea, Naoto thought.

Thankfully she was able to talk Rise into discussing other topics on the walk home. It would have been bad if someone had overheard. Especially considering that half the town still believed her to be male. When they arrived, they said a quick hello to Rise's grandmother, and then Naoto was dragged upstairs to Rise's overwhelmingly pink bedroom.

"Alright, let's get started," Rise began. "What else have you tried besides making Kanji-kun feel like a failure?"

"I-I did no such thing!" Naoto exclaimed. Rise shrugged. "I… I have tried complimenting him. And asking about his training schedule."

"Hmm… and he got all defensive, right?"

"Y-Yes, how did you know?"

"Because Kanji-kun always gets defensive when he thinks someone's teasing or nagging at him. Complimenting him isn't a bad tactic, but you have to give some cues that indicate that you're interested in him," Rise explained.

"What sort of cues?" Naoto asked.

"Weeeeelllll, like, you should lean in towards him when you talk to him. It shows that you're interested in what he has to say!"

"A-Alright. I suppose that makes sense."

"And you should definitely show a little skin," Rise added.

"Absolutely not!" Naoto shouted. Rise burst into a fit of giggles.

"Oh, come on, Naoto-kun. You want him to notice you, don't you?" Rise taunted. It was true, but this tactic sounded all wrong to Naoto.

"Yes, but -"

"Then you're going to have to give him a little something to notice," Rise said with a wicked grin. "Nothing too major, at least at first. But that shirt of yours could stand to pop open a button or two."

"W-What?!"

"Whatever it is that you're doing to keep things, umm, underwraps is going to keep anything from really showing anyway. It'll just give him the impression that there might be something he'd like to see there," she said with another ridiculous smile.

"I…" Naoto wasn't sure what to think of this plan at all. Maybe Rise was right. She certainly had more experience with this than Naoto did. "I will think about it."

"Great! Hey, do you want to try on some of my clothes? It wouldn't hurt your cause to try something new while you're at it."

"No. No, I don't think I want to do that," Naoto said, turning pale at the thought of the frilly, feminine things in Rise's closet. Rise winked at her.

"Alright. We'll save that for phase two." As Naoto tried to object, Rise laughed and dragged her down the stairs to look for snacks.

Naoto considered Rise's plan all evening when she arrived at home. Maybe it wasn't a terrible idea. She undid the top button of her uniform shirt and looked in the mirror. It wasn't much skin at all. Just a bit of her throat was showing. I don't think that's what Rise meant by skin. She popped a second button and let out a breath. Rise was correct; nothing was really showing, but it made for an interesting suggestion. She would go ahead with the plan, but not at school. It needed to be somewhere a little less public. Naoto pulled her phone out and composed a text.

STUDY TOMORROW? Y/N

She wasn't big on texting, so she wasn't sure how long was reasonable to wait for a reply. She supposed she should research texting etiquette if she was going to communicate this way more often. Ten agonizing minutes later, her phone buzzed.

Uhh, sure, I guess. After school?

YES. JUNES AT 3:45?

K, I'll be there.

Naoto wasn't sure when she had started to hold her breath, but she let it out slowly now. She could do this. It wasn't a big deal.

The next afternoon, she hurried to Junes when school let out. She stopped in the bathroom, unbuttoning the top two buttons of her shirt and making sure it still looked alright in the mirror before proceeding to the food court to wait for Kanji. She pulled out a few textbooks and began to read before he arrived.

"Uhh, hey, Naoto," he said. "Am I early or something?"

"Kanji-kun. You're right on time, please have a seat," she said nervously, gesturing to the chair beside her.

"Ok. Who else is coming, Rise?" he asked as he sat down.

"No. It's… just us."

"Oh," he said, sounding surprised. He looks disappointed, Naoto thought. It was too late to worry about it now. Kanji pulled out his chemistry notebook and opened it to his most recent notes. The margins were littered with sketches. Some were just random patterns, and others were full drawings. Bunnies? And bears, too. This could be the opportunity she was looking for. She leaned in towards him, looking at the drawings and then up to meet his eyes. She smiled, batting her eyelashes slightly like Rise had taught her last night. She hoped that she didn't appear to be having a seizure or something.

"Your sketches are very cute," she said. Kanji blinked.

"Uhh, thanks." He glanced down, his eyes landing on the open part of her shirt. He frowned. "What's up with your shirt?" he asked. "Are your buttons coming loose or something? I could probably fix them if ya wanted." He shrugged, indicating that he didn't care either way.

"N-No," she said, her heart sinking yet again. "But th-thank you. Shall we begin? We have quite a few chemical equations to balance."

"Yeah. Sounds like a blast," Kanji replied sarcastically. Naoto should have known that this would never have worked. She sighed and opened her textbook to the problem set. At least they would both get their homework done before dinner.