At the edge of a creek, under a bridge in a park in southern Ikebukuro, sat four oddly-shaped, translucent rocks.

They were tinted a subtle violet, and were surprisingly pure. You could almost see clean through them.

Tomori was utterly taken by their sight. They glistened so beautifully in the sun, reflecting the clear winter sky, the flowing water of the little rivulet beside it. She crouched by them and simply looked, looked in abject fascination as she could at all the crystalline patterns, at all the odd jutting shapes and crevices.

She was about to become completely lost in the patterns when it hit her.

The date was February 23rd. Yesterday had been Raana’s birthday. And she hadn’t managed to come up with a single good gift for her.

Of course, Tomori had made sure to apologize. She’d caught her as she was leaving the small party MyGO threw her café and made her regrets clear.

But all Raana did was say “it’s fine” and walk away. Tomori had no idea how she could possibly interpret this.

It had been bothering her ever since. It was even bad enough to break her unshakable rock-staring concentration.

But as she gave them another look, she realized this was the perfect opportunity.

Tomori inched closer and began to carefully, lovingly stash every rock in her pockets.

The walk to the SPACE parking lot was long and arduous. The wind chill dug into Tomori’s skin through her winter coat as she crossed street after street. But she was determined. Resolute.

She arrived as the sun began to set. And there Raana was, just as Tomori had expected; sitting on the curb, strumming on her unplugged guitar, and surrounded by cats.

“R-Raana-chan.”

Raana opened her blue eye and looked Tomori over. She said nothing back.

“Um… I… Ah, er, hi. Sorry.”

Raana closed her eye. She strummed a minor chord.

Tomori began to rifle through her pocket. She searched for the perfect rock to give her, finding its shape with her hands.

“I… I brought you… a present. A belated… birthday present.”

Raana opened her eye once again.

“H-here. Look.” Tomori held the rock out in the palm of her hands. It was relatively large, and unusually symmetrical. “I picked it because… I thought it kind of looked like a cat.”

It sort of did, if you squinted.

“…Don’t need it.”

Raana turned away and began playing a crescendo in her guitar.

Shock and dejection washed over Tomori. It was painted on her face as clearly as the sky above.

But she fought through it, determined to make something work. She went back to her pockets and felt around for her next best option.

“Here! Um, this one… looks a little bit like a guitar, doesn’t it…?”

Raana reached the apex of her crescendo and paused.

“Dunno. Don’t need it.”

Tomori visibly recoiled. She felt herself losing her grasp. The icy wind grew colder and harsher, almost as if it were trying to wear through to her bones. A terrible chill ran down her spine.

“A-ah… W-well, what about… this one?”

It had an unusual hue to it. Some manner of impurity or inclusion in its crystal structure had tinted part of it green.

Raana gave it a good, long look.

“Matcha?”

“Y-yes! Exactly! It’s—”

“Don’t need it,” she said once again, and went back to playing.

Tomori was on her last legs. It was as if the world itself was coming down around her. She was fraying, coming apart at the seams.

Slowly, with the last of her strength, she groped around for her final hope. She pulled it from her pocket and, meekly, gingerly, offered it to Raana.

There was nothing particularly unique about this rock. It was ordinary. It was about as average as a mineral aggregate could possibly be.

Raana eyed it up and down.

“…So?”

“S-sorry?”

“Why this one?,” she asked.

Tomori blinked. She scratched the back of her head.

“Um. W-well… I kind of just… like it.”

The wind suddenly went still. Raana stopped her playing, reached over, and swiped the rock from Tomori’s hand.

“I’ll take it,” she said with a smile. “Thanks.”