Welcome to Part 19 of Azure Striker Gunvolt: Fleeting Memories! If you missed any of parts 1 through 18, make sure you read those first.

Part 19

Himeshiro’s demeanor wasn’t completely calm and collected like she normally is. There was a part of her that unmistakably looked very frantic. Rei thought about trying to overpower her, but for the time being he went along with it.

Himeshiro eventually led him to the home economics room. “The home ec. club has no club activities today, ya know. But don’t worry, I have permission to be here.” With the being said, she gracefully reached up onto a shelf and grabbed two tea cups.

“Do you prefer coffee or tea? They’re both instant but they’re still good…hey…what’s the matter?”

“Nothing…I just don’t really know what to say…” Rei had a hard time forming his answer because her attitude just felt so unnatural and hard to read. For now though, he thought it was best to play it cool.

He was trying to figure out if she was teasing him or not, but on the way to the home economics room Himeshiro was trying to absolute hardest to keep her cool and taking lots of long, deep breaths. Rei couldn’t help but notice.

However, he just could not figure out way she was acting like that.

Is there any way he even could know? No, the only things he knew about Himeshiro is what he saw yesterday, nothing more. Other than that, anything he could come up up would just be conjecture.

“…I’ll have coffee, then,” Rei sheepishly uttered.

“Hmm, I see. I guess I will too then.”

She grabbed two packs of instant coffee, emptied the contents into the two cups, and began to pour some hot water from a teapot.

“Hey Rei, could you go fetch the sugar? You know where it is, right?”

Despite her request, Rei didn’t actually remember where the sugar was, but he got up and began to look aimlessly for it anyway.

As he made his way back to his seat, he noticed a plate on the table piled high with little cream puffs. Himeshiro must have set those there while he was away from his seat and not paying attention.

“Sorry, but lemme eat one of these, and then we can talk about what you wanted to talk about. Is that cool?”

Rei put the container of sugar on the table and sat down in his chair.

“……”

“What’s your deal, Rei? Not a fan of sweets?”

“That’s not the problem…just, what is all this? What do you want with me?” Rei questioned.

“You’re the one who wanted something with ME. Isn’t that right, Rei?”