Haru-Naru ♪♪♪ Love is a Comedy

We were on the way back from the Big Sight convention center. Descending down a wide set of stairs, we went through the main street towards the station. The sky was getting more and more cloudy, and was filled with gray. Just as we were about to reach the station, I heard a familiar voice.

"Naruko? Is that you?"

In front of me, Naruko suddenly stiffened, and faced the direction the voice came from. I also moved my gaze that way. Somehow, the person who was standing there was none other than Naruko's classmate and friend, Amesaka Juvia. She was wearing a snug black tanktop, a short-sleeve blue jacket, sunglasses, a silver accessory… etc. etc. I was familiar with her figure already, but her outfit exposed her belly button, which startled me as I looked at her. But perhaps it was just the atmosphere she exuded, but I didn't feel even a shred of indecency in her outfit. She stood on the shoulder of the road, with her hands still holding onto the door handle of a station wagon with tinted back windows. It seemed like she had just gotten out of the car.

"Ahah, it really is you! Haha, ohh, what's up?"

"…J-Juvia—…?!" Completely stiff and shocked, Naruko mumbled. Naturally, she was still holding in both hands the paper bags filled with doujinshi and other goods. For Juvia, she was simply just surprised at this chance meeting. It seemed that being able to meet with a close friend in an unexpected place genuinely made her happy.

"Oh, I'm so happy! I can't believe it! Even though we didn't plan it, to be able to meet like this… that's amazing! It's like invisible strings bind us together or something, don't you think? Ahh, haha, that made it sound like I'm your stalker or something! Even though I'm not."

She really seemed excited about this. Under normal circumstances, Naruko probably would have joined her in the festivities, but of course these circumstances were far from normal.

"…y-yeah…pretty amazing! What a coincidence…!" In front of her best friend who had suddenly appeared, Naruko's face seemed to cramp.

"This screwed up coincidence… this isn't good…! This has to be my imagination…! A dream… a mistake…!" is what she seemed like she wanted to say.

"Hey, what's wrong, Naruko? That's quite a strange expression! Come on, you're meeting here with a good friend, you should be happier! Ah, right right, why exactly are you here anyways? I heard that right after Obon, track would get so busy that you would have to stop working too. Maybe you're shopping… no that's not it. So, what are you doing then?"

It seemed that when Juvia got worked up about something, she tended to go on and on without letting anyone get a word in edgewise. My mother was the same way, and every time she did that I would get irritated, but for some reason when this girl did it she seemed cute instead. Something was different. Or maybe, everything was.

"…-umm… t-that is…" Faced with her friend who was bubbling with joy, Naruko clearly seemed at a loss for words.

Now that I think about it, this situation felt similar to that offline meeting when Naruko was excluded from the group. No matter how almighty she might be, Naruko seemed to be unexpectedly bad at dealing with situations like this… but man… this really was not good. Well, seriously though. If I were in her position, this would be like meeting Yang on the way back from Comiket in front of Kokusaitenjijo Station… haha.

Well, to be honest, though… right now, faced with this situation that my sister was freaking out about, even though I was completely shocked, I also found it slightly hilarious. I mean, come on. Meeting a friend here with this timing… is pretty insane, right? As I thought, her behavior was just too unacceptable in the past. Karma is a bitch, you could say.

What are you going to do, Naruko? How are you going to squeeze your way out of this predicament? Eagerly to see how she would skillfully handle the situation, I watched intently, when… I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but Naruko looked towards me desperately for help. "Do something!" she seemed to be saying.

Me? Even if you ask me to do something… also, is this really a time to be turning to me for help?! I mean, aren't you the one who believes that Juvia thinks I'm a hentai of a brother who pushed down his sister?! Argh, dammit! Geez… I guess I had no choice… reluctantly, I faced Juvia and walked towards her, giving her a "yo" in greeting. Of course, I was still holding onto those dangerous paper bags in both hands.

Having been completely focused on Naruko up until now, Juvia seemed to have finally noticed my presence. Her eyes widened and she blinked in surprise.

"Ah, if it isn't Haruto-san! It's certainly been a while! Hm?! Hmmm?! Could it be, could it be… you two are on a date right now?!"

Why did she jump suddenly to that conclusion? Could it be that she still hasn't been able to get over that accident that happened before? I really wanted to scream "Hell no!" at the top of my lungs, but if I did that the conversation would just get more jumbled, so I steeled myself and went the safe route.

"Well… something like that."

"Wha—?! What the hell are you saying?!" Blushing, Naruko raised a protest (she probably was also surprised that I seemed to be strangely friendly with Juvia), but I quickly regained control of the conversation and talked to Juvia in Naruko's place.

"You too. What are you doing around here?"

"Well, I was doing some model work."

Ah, that's why you're wearing such a revealing outfit. I'll definitely buy that magazine when it comes out.

"I was working right over there, but we had to suspend the shoot because of the rain… I was talking with my managers and taking a break in the car." After saying that, Juvia looked up at the sky. It was as cloudy as ever, and the rain was pitter-pattering down.

"Ahh… I see…" I see, it was probably difficult to take photos outside in this weather.

Well, it's good that I was able to steer the conversation somewhere else for a bit, but where do I go from here? Juvia probably didn't know anything about otaku… so she shouldn't know anything about Comiket, or that there was an otaku festival going on at the Tokyo Big Sight Convention Center today. So let's just wrap this up quickly and without incident, and go our separate ways. That would definitely suffice. But, I mean… wouldn't it be alright just to tell this girl the truth? Of course, it would still be best to just be able to get out of this situation skillfully without exposing Naruko's secret. They're close friends, so if she really did find out that Naruko was an otaku, would she really be that disgusted and go spreading rumors about it? She wouldn't, right?

At the very least, if I came out to Yang that I was an otaku, nothing would change about our relationship with each other… in fact, she wouldn't care what types of hobbies I had and would still continue to be my good friend like she's been doing up until now. And I couldn't ask for anything more. But, I couldn't say that my relationship with Yang was the same as Naruko's relationship with Juvia. But, the only person Naruko, with all her attitude, could sincerely and proudly identify as a close friend was Juvia. And I've also met with her before, if only just for a bit, and I've been able to talk to her and get a decent reading of her disposition. She was absurdly softhearted, a bit quick to jump to conclusions, kind, and sincere… so I mean… No matter how she manages to trip up, in the end they'll just end up laughing about this, right? But most of all, just like I had almost wanted to cry when I imagined what it would be like to be exposed like this to Yang, for Naruko, this was a life or death situation.

Well, let's see if we can't lie our way out of this safely.

"Umm, Amesaka-san…"

"Please, call me Juvia."

"Ah, well, Juvia-san… sorry, but we're a bit busy right now…"

Looking very apologetic, when I signaled our intention to leave… Perhaps Juvia had misunderstood something, but with a worried expression she closely examined Naruko's face. "Hey, Naruko, are you not feeling well? You haven't really talked at all this entire conversation… you don't look good…"

Well, that's just because you've sort of driven her into a corner and she's about to blow her fuse. She's really relatively bad at dealing with adversity, this girl.

"Y-Yeah, that's right… I'm not feeling that well… so… sorry, we have to go."

What a liar… a child could lie better than she could. Naruko spoke in that weird tone of voice she used with her school friends and put on a forced smile, but that excuse seemed to backfire with Juvia.

"If you want… you can ride in the car with me. Should I take those heavy looking bags for you?"

"T-Thanks… ! E-Ehehe! But really, I'm fine!" Naruko wildly refused Juvia's offer. Each time she fervently waved both hands back and forth, the dangerous paper bags waved in the air.

H-Hey, Naruko… those bags look really filled to the brim… if the bottoms of the bag rip and everything falls out, no matter how you spin it this situation is going to turn serious, you know?

Completely ignoring my concerns, Naruko continued to deny Juvia's persistent invitations. At last, the good-natured Juvia seemed to admit defeat. "I see, alright, Naruko… I shouldn't interfere with your date with Haruto-san."

"Y-Yeah…" Naruko nodded, an amazingly complicated expression showing on her face.

"Ugh… I guess I have no choice but to say that now…" she seemed to be screaming while she tried to justify her words. Was it really that bad? Although, it's not like I wanted her to say something like that.

"By the way, Naruko… there's been something on my mind since I saw you…"

"W-What is it now?!" Naruko seemed to be halfway to tears as she yelled. Juvia stretched her neck, and tried to peek behind Naruko.

"…crap." The same word issued forth from both my mouth and Naruko's mouth as we turned around. Because right there stood the two people who had been left in the dark up until now, Mio and Ruby.

Dammit, I had completely forgotten about those two! I'm sure Naruko felt the same way. Juvia seemed to be somewhat drawn to those two otaku behind us, and she raised her eyebrows. "Umm… those two… are they your acquaintances…? "

"Eh, a-ahh… ummm… ?!" Naruko seemed even more at a loss. I understood how she felt all too well. I mean, take Mio who was dressed in that gross otaku fashion, or Ruby in cosplay costume. The more you looked at them, the stranger and more suspicious they seemed. And when I inevitably compared them to Juvia, they really stood out way too much.

"U-Umm, umm, ummm…" As Naruko looked over her shoulder at her otaku friends, cold sweat flowed down her face.

"Crap! I'm going to get exposed because of those two!" That's probably what she was thinking. Her distress was completely visible on her face.

Mio seemed to be unusually stiff, a forced smile on her face. Being as perceptive as she was, she probably was thinking carefully about whether or not she should introduce herself as Naruko's friend. And Ruby was the only one here that maintained no expression on her face. With eyes that betrayed none of her thoughts, she watched as the events unfolded before her… and before long—

"You must be mistaken… shall we go? If we don't hurry back, we won't make it in time to catch the anime at 5:30. And I do want to see today's episode." Quickly turning around and heading towards the station in a route that went far around us, Ruby walked away. Next, standing between us and Ruby and looking back and forth a number of times, Mio in the end also followed after Ruby.

Lately, one thing I've come to understand about Ruby is that what she does on the surface is almost completely independent of her actual inner motivations. So here, it may well have been that she wanted to go watch the anime, or it may have done that for our sake… I'm not sure which was the case. But… sorry about that… thank you. I muttered these words under my breath, inaudibly. Naruko also looked uncomfortable, and silently watched as the two of them left.

With Mio and Ruby having somewhat unexpectedly withdrawn from that place, only Naruko, Juvia, and I were left.

"W-What was up with that…? Those two… those were some really strange outfits… weren't they?" Juvia mumbled a bit timidly while making sure that the two otaku had left the area.

Well, I guess for her, the outfits those two were wearing would be quite a shock… but honestly, despite their appearances, they were both honestly good people, you know? I tried very hard to prevent myself from saying this out loud.

"B-But, yeah! I definitely don't know gross people like that!"

Hey Naruko… in the unlikely case that you're actually saying that sincerely, I would definitely smack you. I don't think that's the case though.

"A-Ahh…" Juvia looked around her, looking uncomfortable. Of course, all around us there were otaku who were headed towards the station on their way back from Comiket. There were also ones who were holding the same paper bags as we were, so I was really nervous… I really hope she doesn't notice.

"Hey Naruko… for a while now I've been seeing a lot of strangely dressed people… and buses with anime art drawn on them… is there something going on around here today?"

"I-I don't know! M-Maybe it's because Comiket is today?"

What the hell?! Is she an idiot?! No matter how flustered you are, isn't it clear that to someone like Juvia with no knowledge of otaku culture, those words don't make any sense?! If you say something like that.

"Comiket… what's that?"

See, now look at what you've done! What are you going to do now?!

"C-Comiket… it's that event that's going on over there, right? I really don't know though… they sell d-doujinshi, and stuff."

"Doujinshi… what's that?"

"Eeehhh…"

This isn't good at all! You're digging your own grave here, Naruko… even though those two had so thoughtfully left the area for us… What exactly are you trying to do here? I looked up at the sky in disbelief. Giving out so many hints like that would give Juvia plenty of reasons to get suspicious.

Juvia put on a mildly distrusting gaze, and began to pry further. "Naruko? Umm… are you hiding something?"

"N-No, I'm really not…? " Naruko denied her accusation with a terribly weird tone of voice. But Juvia's gaze had already turned to the paper bags that Naruko was carrying, and seemed to be reading the words that were printed… on them… next… Juvia began to alternate her gaze between the flustered Naruko and the paper bags.

Well, this is it, isn't it? The countdown to Naruko's otaku exposure has begun… having realized the situation, I interfered, "We really are very busy! Sorry, we'll see you later!" Forcibly pulling Naruko by the hand, I tried to get away from that place. The situation had already gotten this bad, so I couldn't think of any other way to resolve it other than getting away from here and just persist in playing dumb from here on out. "Let's go, Naruko."

"Eh, ahh, yeah… see you, Juvia…" Even though she was still completely bewildered, Naruko obediently took my hand and allowed herself to be dragged away. I really hate to say it, but if you looked at us at just that second, we really may have looked like a good couple. But…

"Wait!" Juvia's thunderous voice boomed out behind me. I was completely prepared to run away, but I was forced to a stop. The atmosphere became incredibly charged. To think such a thing could come out of a docile-looking creature like this… when I turned around, I saw that Juvia had grasped Naruko's wrist tightly, as if trying to tell her that she wouldn't be allowed to run away.

"J-Juvia…? "

"Naruko, why are you running away?"

"Umm… uhh… I'm not running a—"

"Liar!"

And that's that. Juvia crushed Naruko's denial in an instant.

"You're lying… lying lying lying lying lying… don't lie to me… you were running away, weren't you? You were running away, right? Running away? Why are you lying to me?"

Huh? W-what was up with this strange forcefulness all of a sudden?

Still gripping Naruko's wrist tightly, Juvia continued to accuse Naruko of lying to her and trying to run away. In the face of this eerily threatening atmosphere, Naruko and I were both completely taken aback. And since the words were directly intended for her, Naruko seemed especially shocked.

With my hands still holding onto Naruko's, I began to speak timidly. "…J-Juvia-san…? Umm…"

"Shut up!"

Huh?! H-Hey, wait wait wait… who exactly was this person?

"Haruto-san, please stay quiet, won't you? I'm speaking with Naruko right now."

What the hell was up with this scary girl?! That was an intense glare! Clearly, she was not the same person she was a few minutes ago! Multiple personality disorder?! Spiritual possession?! If you just took her words out of context, you could feel that she was a bit angry… but it was way more than that. Seriously. What a ferocious intensity. The rain that had started falling mixed in with Juvia's long blue hair… a terrifying atmosphere drifted about in front of the Kokusaitenjijo Station. It was almost like a scene out of a horror movie. My mother was also pretty terrifying, but fear on a whole different plane of existence now attacked me and my sister. What the hell was up with this sudden change? Did we really do something to anger this girl?

"I'm sorry for shouting so suddenly… but, I'm…just worried about you, Naruko." Changing her tone, Juvia went with something more gentle and apologetic this time. It was a tone of voice that made me feel like feathers were tickling me in my ears. "So Naruko… please don't run away. Won't you answer my questions? You're hiding something, right?"

She went right back to being scary there at the end! The gap between that tone and her gentle whisper is so startling!

This is why pretty women are so… t-t-this is why! Give me a break! Naruko, my mother, Yang, Ruby, Mio, even Erza! Why is it that this always happened, that there wasn't a single pretty woman I knew with an upfront and honest personality? Was there a wire loose somewhere?! What the hell was up with my luck with women?! And also, Naruko! Y-You, did you know that she was… that she was like this? Having drifted off from reality for a second, I returned to my senses and turned my gaze to my sister, goosebumps rising all over my body. And then…

"U-Uhhh…" Naruko seemed much more scared out of her wits than I was.

U-Uwaah… she didn't know this side of Juvia existed either, did she?

"…N-No, that's not it. Juvia… that's not it. So uhh… please don't get angry?"

"You too, Naruko, please stop making excuses, won't you? I'm being serious, alright?"

"Uhh…"

"Right now, you were running away, right? You were trying to run away from me, right? Please don't give me excuses… if this really is a misunderstanding though, just tell me, alright? If you can, that is. "

"U-Uhh…" Groaning, Naruko looked down at the floor. I mean, if I had something said to me with such intensity, I would probably do the same. Honestly, she really was just making excuses… there's no way she can refute that.

Staring at her friend with an empty expression like that, Juvia snarled and bore her teeth. "See, you can't say anything! Don't you know? You know, don't you Naruko? I absolutely hate being lied to. I absolutely hate people who lie to me! But even then, why would you do something like that? Why would you lie to me? Come on, tell me. I thought we were close friends?"

S-Scaaary… and what's more, how she's getting angry is leaving a bad taste in my mouth. What's up with her unpleasant accusations? See, look, the otaku around us are getting scared as well and are starting to glance over here… and I mean, in the first place… why did this girl suddenly get so hysterical?! Sure, it wasn't right for us to try to trick her and run away… but no matter how you looked at it, this was an overreaction, wasn't it? She really doesn't have to get so charged up about this.

Naruko did not offer a single response, and continued looking downwards. I couldn't see her face from where I was standing, but I could feel her hands tightly holding onto mine. Her palm was hot, her hands were wet with sweat, and she was trembling. As Naruko stood like that, Juvia closely examined her. Her eyes were narrowed, and she spoke coldly, "Come on, say something for yourself."

Naruko kept silent.

"Not being able to say something means that you have something to be guilty about, yes? Or maybe, there's something you don't want to talk to me about? How shocking, considering I thought we were close friends. I must have been mistaken."

"N-No, that's…"

"No? Did I say something wrong? What did I say that was wrong? And you aren't talking again. Cut it out." Juvia brought her face close to Naruko's face. All while she still had a firm lock on Naruko's wrist. And then, suddenly, she did a complete about face and put on a painful expression. Her dark blue eyes became wet with tears, and she raised an appeal. "This isn't you at all, Naruko… what in the world has gotten into you? Hey, did I say something wrong? Was I mistaken? Am I wrong to want to know why you were running away from me, why you were trying to lie to me?"

Not being able to bear watching this scene anymore, I pulled Naruko's hand and interposed myself between the two girls. "Hey… let's leave it at that. Even close friends can keep one or two secrets from each other, can't they? Come on, let go of her hand. If you grab it that hard, it'll bruise."

At my words, Juvia seemed a bit ashamed. A bit later, she put on a smile and let go of Naruko's hand.

"… I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?" She sincerely apologized in a sympathetic manner.

"Yeah… I-I'm fine…" Saying that, Naruko put on a weak smile, but as I feared, there was a red hand mark left on her wrist… exactly how hard was she holding onto Naruko's wrist, that girl? With rather gloomy thoughts, I gazed at the swollen red mark.

"I guess that's true… even close friends can have one or two secrets, right?" Juvia was by no means speaking in a joking tone of voice, but her expression and words were both very serious. "…but, I want to help support you. I mean… you've been such a help to me… it's always been like that. With the modeling job, as my senpai, as my classmate… for many years, you've always supported me in everything I do. To me, you're a very, very important friend."

I could not feel any semblance of artificiality or ulterior motive in her words. She was speaking from the bottom of the heart, and she truly was fond of Naruko. That's why she wanted to help Naruko in any way possible. Even if Naruko refused her help, she couldn't just stand by and watch, pretending everything was alright. It was a line of reasoning I feel like I've heard before. It was a line of reasoning I understood all too well. I could almost see her next words coming.

"Just by how you've been acting, I can tell that you're hiding something from me, that there's something you don't want to tell me. But, this time, for some reason, I felt like I just couldn't let it go. You could call it a woman's intuition… although that might be a bit too grand. I just had a bad feeling about this… so I couldn't leave it alone."

"A-Ahh…" Naruko awkwardly looked down at the floor while Juvia gave her a worried expression. Her hand trembled nervously. Juvia followed Naruko's line of sight.

"Is there something in those paper bags?" Giving the paper bags a piercing, ferocious glare, Juvia spoke in what was probably the scariest tone she had used up until now. Of course, we couldn't respond to that question at all. Both Naruko and I could do nothing but stay silent.

This time, without urging us on or insulting us… Juvia soon appeared by our side and stared into our eyes. It was incredibly unnerving.

"Comic Market… Hm?" Juvia read the event name printed on the paper bags in an annoyed tone of voice.

A period of silence once again elapsed… "plop, plop…" only the sound of the rain around us slowly increasing in intensity could be heard in my ears. And then, finally… the rain began to come down in torrents. It was an unadulterated downpour. Naruko suddenly became worried that the paper bags would get wet. She promptly tried to move somewhere with a roof hanging overhead… but once again her wrists were caught.

"Where are you going?! Is that really more important than this conversation right now?!"

Naruko must really feel driven into a corner at this point. I should probably act now and there would be plenty of ways to deal with the consequences later, so I had already begun to move to help, but—

"Let go!" Naruko forcibly tried to shake off her friend's hand. I really don't think she meant to make it look that way, but there was no way to view the situation other than that Naruko was rejecting Juvia. There was no mistaking that Juvia felt that way. Her face flushed red hot.

"Naruko… ?!" Not wanting to lose her grip, Juvia's hand that was being shaken grabbed onto the paper bag…

Riiiip!

By the time the hollow sound reverberated in my ears, it was already too late.

"Ah…" As Naruko looked back, she made a soft exclamation. In the midst of the present tussle, the paper bag's bottom had torn. The doujinshi that Naruko had bought all spilled nakedly onto the ground. Watching them getting cruelly soaked in the rain, even someone like me, who had very little emotional attachment to them, felt heart-stopping shivers go down my spine. Even though she was so happy to have bought them earlier… that's… pretty terrible.

Naruko seemed to have fallen into a state of complete and utter shock, and stood stock still while going ghastly pale. Juvia looked down at the doujinshi which had dropped at her feet with cold, frightening eyes. Slowly, she picked up one of the Siscali doujinshi. Her facial expression didn't change, but her eyes widened. Flip flip, flip flip… she turned through the wet pages, speaking with a tremble in her voice.

"Don't…worry. I won't tell anyone about this. To think someone like you would be into these… kinds of things… that you would go so far to lie about it, to try to hide it… I don't think anybody would believe that kind of ridiculous story even if I told them… but," right then, the trembling in her voice ceased. She spoke in an unfeeling tone of voice, sending a chill down my spine, "I'm sorry. I cannot be friends with someone like that… Uzumaki-san. Please don't try to talk to me at school from now on either."