25. Directions

"Uh, Nagisa-kun..."

Nagisa turned around, surprised to find Kanzaki behind him. It was rare for Nagisa to talk to anyone other than Sugino or Kayano, much less the class madonna Kanzaki. For Kanzaki to approach him? Is the world ending I wonder...

"What's wrong, Kanzaki-san?"

They were three streets from Kunugigaoka's hill, where most of the class, including Kanzaki herself, split off in different directions.

Usually, they would never meet past that point, so it was strange how Kamzaki was behind him. Her house was in the other direction, after all.

"Uh, would you happen to know where the Sakurai Florist's is?" she asked, holding up a hand-drawn map before her as she laughed a little sheepishly. "I've heard it was around this area, but thinking again, this is my first time wandering to this part of town..."

Nagisa chuckled in response.

"The streets here are narrow, so it's hard to find your way around," he said, stepping closer to her in hopes to catch a look of the map she had.

Kanzaki breathed out a heavy sigh in relief, "I'm so glad I caught hold of you! I'd have been lost for hours..."

That would surely be terrifying.

But what exactly was Kanzaki trying to do, coming to such uncharted territory alone? It wasn't even a Friday...

"Sakurai Florist's... ah, isn't that Kuma-sensei's house?" Nagisa asked, surprised to realize it belatedly. "Come to think of it, he didn't make it to class today... do you think he had another surgery he didn't tell us about?"

"I wonder..." Kanzaki hummed, "but, Kuma-sensei told me to drop by if I was ever in need of his help, so I believe I should take full advantage of every occasion, right?"

Kanzaki was an unexpected opportunist.

"Ah, Nagisa! Oh, and Kanzaki-san's here too," came a voice from further away.

Fuwa Yuzuki made her merry way over to their company, a similar hand-drawn map in her hands. Her greeting was cheerful and just the slightest bit obnoxious, but Kanzaki flawlessly, without even a second of hesitation, returned it.

"Nagisa lives in this area, right? Perfect timing, I'm totally lost!" Fuwa laughed at herself, as if she was proud of it, "I'm trying to find my way to Sakurai Florist's."

"You're looking for Kuma-sensei too?" Nagisa didn't really know why he was surprised.

"Uhn!" Fuwa pumped her fist, "I finally finished my novella and Kuma-sensei is definitely the first person I want to show it to!"

She held up a stack of papers that looked incredibly thick, but Nagisa really didn't want to question it at all.

"What a coincidence," Kanzaki smiled back, "I've written a story as well and hoped to hear Kuma-sensei's opinions on it. I believe we will have to share his time."

Woah, Kuma-sensei is popular. Does he even have enough time to read that many books? Nagisa felt kinda bad to be leading two she-demons into his direction.

"Oh, then Kanzaki-san will go first, followed by me!" Fuwa claimed the order immediately. After all, it was only reasonable for Kanzaki to go first, since she'd found Nagisa first. "Whose do you think he'll like better?"

"We write in different genres, so it is rather hard to determine..." Kanzaki responded humbly at first, "but when it comes to the quality of writing I do not think I would lose out, Fuwa-san."

"Oh, Kanzaki-san is declaring war on me!" she sounded so ecstatic, "you're scary, but you're still so beautiful! How can this ever be?"

"Well," Nagisa decided he'd heard enough, holding a hand up to stop their conversation, "but for now, let's just go and ask Kuma-sensei."

Beside them, simply passing by, a man in a coat paused.

"Yes?" he turned, addressing the three children.

Huh? The three turned back to him, confused. After a few moments of blank staring, the man connected the dots.

"Ah, my bad," he said, a bashful chortle rumbling from his throat, "people often call me that too... Kuma-sensei, I mean. I'd forgotten that I was in Kunugigaoka now."

Well, that was a little awkward.

"No... it's perfectly fine," Nagisa said, only out of politeness.

The man was tall. As tall as Karasuma-sensei, perhaps. His hair was also black, but it lacked the stern kemptness Karasuma always exuded. This man had a salt and pepper stubble.

He wore an old-fashioned coat, and held a little briefcase along with his map. Nagisa noted that his briefcase was stuck all over with animal stickers. Was he a teacher? Or a pediatric? He worked with kids, that was for sure.

From the little dirt on his clothes and the disheveled state of his hair and collar, he had probably just gotten off from a long train ride.

Nagisa wondered who he was.

"Ah, this is great timing, would you kids mind if I ask for directions?" he inched closer.

He felt Kanzaki take one step closer to him, and Fuwa took the opportunity to stand behind Nagisa as well, hissing a little too sharply about how this guy was a picture-book pedophile or something.

(Fuwa-san, shush, he can hear you!)

The strange man smiled at them, a farce of kindness that was probably nice, or probably just the face of a kidnapper. But it's okay, Nagisa thought, they can uh, probably defend themselves to like, a certain degree. Or not.

Nagisa panicked internally. He may not seem so, but he was the guy of this current trio. That did not exactly boost his confidence at all, and most would agree that Kanzaki could single-handedly nerf a delinquent gang if you let her.

But Nagisa's anxiety quelled immediately at the question the man asked.

"Would you happen to know where Sakurai Florist's is?"

All time stopped.

"Huh?"

-

-

"Ah, you kids are from Naomasa's class, aren't you?" the lady that opened the door was infatuated by the children immediately, "come on in!"

The lady was so chipper and lively, she left the staff door open and headed inside, expecting them to follow.

From the store, the distinct call of "Nacchan! Your students are here to see you" could be heard.

A few seconds of silence happened with them wondering whether they should follow (but it's a little rude) (but she did give permission) (but this is like, an unannounced visit shouldn't we just wait till Kuma-sensei comes out and lets us in himself) (I think she wants to serve us tea so we should follow her...)

"Nacchan," Fuwa fawned, hands on her cheeks from the utter moe of the situation, "she calls him Nacchan!"

"She seems like a very nice mother," Kanzaki agreed.

Nagisa felt kinda sorry for him now.

Suddenly Ms Sakurai doubled right back from the door, looking beyond the three children with a sort of surprised realization.

"I didn't realize at first because of your awful hair, but is that you, Kazu-kun?"

All three children paused. They turned to the passer-by that had asked for directions before this, and all of a sudden something made sense.

In fact, they had ignored him moments before because they thought he was simply an eccentric customer, but it seems it was more than that. He was crouching down to look at the orange lilies at the front porch.

He seemed to look at them almost sadly, cradling each flower as if it was a hurtful thing to remember-- then he straightened and smiled at Ms Sakurai.

"It's been a while, Ms Sakurai," he greeted her, "I hope you are well. Is my younger brother around today?"

And Ms Sakurai, who previously looked chipper, sighed almost helplessly.

"He's been dreading your arrival for so long, he was entirely ecstatic to have a seminar scheduled today in his school later this evening," she told him, "unfortunately for him, you managed to arrive before he could leave."

The man laughed boisterously at that.

"Well, our relationship has never been the best," he admitted dryly, "he even left out the orange lilies for me, how mean of him."

"He wanted to pick out the black roses, but I stopped him," Ms Sakurai sighed for the nth time that hour, "enough of that. Come on in and I'll get him to come downstairs. You children too!"

The three children flinched, suddenly realizing they'd probably listened in on some familial banter they had no business hearing, but really couldn't escape anymore.

Much more, this man was Kunomasu Kazumasa... the older brother Naomasa had always been reluctant to speak about.