The Assassin Girl Who Stayed by My Side in Another World… Somehow Followed Me Back to Modern Japan - Chapter 25: I Don’t Want You Looking at Anyone But Me

Chapter 25: I Don’t Want You Looking at Anyone But Me

So… what do we even do in art class?

I’m pretty sure the teacher explained it during the last lesson, but come on—like I’d remember that.

It was eight years ago!

And I wasn’t exactly spending those eight years painting flowers and doodling in sketchbooks—I was living in a world where your life could end at any moment.

Unless you’re some kind of art nerd, there’s no way you’d remember what the last project was.

“Today, we’ll be continuing where we left off last time.”

While I sat there spacing out, wondering what the plan even was, I heard the teacher say that.

Cool, cool.

Now if someone could just tell me what “last time” was supposed to be.

“W-Well… shall we get started?”

As I casually glanced around the room, trying to get a clue from what everyone else was doing, I heard a voice from the seat next to me.

The girl sitting there… her name was…

Crap. I got nothing.

I mean, sure, I remember Honoka and Hayato—those are my actual friends.

But classmates I barely talked to? Yeah, no way I’m remembering their names after eight years.

…Pretty sure I used to know it, back then.

“So, um… what exactly are we supposed to be doing again?”

I decided to just be honest and ask.

No way I was about to ask her name, though.

Even if we weren’t close, we’re still classmates.

It’d be seriously rude—so I gave up on that idea completely.

“Eh? You forgot? Chiba-kun.”

…She called me by my last name.

Yeah, figured.

That pretty much confirmed we weren’t all that close.

I mean, I already assumed as much from the fact I couldn’t remember her name—

But there was always that tiny chance I was just a terrible person who forgot a friend’s name or something.

So in a way… this actually made me feel a little better.

“I, uh… had a lot going on over the weekend.”

Not sure if that counts as a real excuse, but it wasn’t a lie.

…Though calling eight years of another world life “stuff that happened over the weekend” felt a bit off.

“Oh, really? Well, it’s that, y’know. The drawing thing—with your partner.”

“Ahh, right. That’s what we were doing.”

Now that she brought it up, I did vaguely remember something like that.

…Sketching, huh?

I had no artistic talent to begin with, and now I’ve got an 8-year gap on top of that.

This was going to be a total disaster.

Not like I remembered anything from art class anyway.

“R-Right. So, uh… let’s just get started.”

“Yeah, good idea.”

Might as well get this over with as quickly as possible.

Thinking that, I grabbed my sketchbook and turned to face her.

And the moment I did—

I felt a weird pinch on my back, like someone just clawed me out of nowhere.

“Ow—!”

The word slipped out before I could stop it, but I quickly covered it up with a fake cough.

“You okay?”

She meant my throat, right?

Yeah, had to be.

I totally played that off with the cough. No way she noticed.

“Y-Yeah. I’m fine.”

I forced a smile as I answered—

And then got pinched again.

Didn’t even need to think about it.

That was definitely Aira.

…Okay, yeah. This is getting a little ridiculous.

I’m seriously gonna have to say something to her later.

This kind of thing? It’s clearly not okay.

…She never acted like this back in the other world either.

“All right, let’s get sketching!”

“Yeah. I’ll try my best too!”

With that cheerful exchange, we got started on the sketching assignment—

And Aira gently leaned into my back.

Not like earlier in first period—this time, it was soft. Light.

…………Maybe she really was feeling lonely.

Guess I’ll let her cling to me all she wants during lunch.