Shiori had been rather surprised when Asahina had bounded up to her one day and asked if she could borrow a book from her–and of course, she had been overjoyed and leapt at the chance to share her love of literature, even going so far as to allow her to read one of her favorite novels. Perhaps she should have been a bit more hesitant about loaning out something so dear to her, but she knew deep within her heart that the swimmer would take good care of it; while it took her a while to finish it she really didn’t mind, taking it as a sign of how much she enjoyed the story and how much she didn’t want it to end. At least, that was what she hoped was going on…
At the sound of the excitable girl’s voice coming from behind her one day after class, she turned and beamed at her as soon as she saw the book held out, looking rather plain as she had taken the dust cover off so that it wouldn’t be torn or crumpled on accident. Taking it from her, she shook her head and giggled softly, simply happy that her classmate seemed to have loved it so much; perhaps they could even keep this up and exchange books with each other, sharing their thoughts on the ones they had both read? “Ah, it’s no problem at all…I’m so glad you enjoyed it…! Would it be alright if you told me what your favorite part was…?”
“Ah--!! Just one favorite part? Mm, that’s a tough one...” It had been such a colorful, lively adventure, that story, and Aoi realized reading it for herself exactly why it was so popular to begin with. But putting into words exactly why she liked it was going to be hard. Sometimes you couldn’t really do that, sometimes it just... was.
But, Koizumi looked so excited, Aoi couldn’t just let her down right?
“Well... I did really like all the stuff with Inigo and his revenge. It all felt... really real, I guess, is the way to put it? Like, I could really root for him through the whole thing, and when he finally did kill the count? It felt like such a relief! Even with everything else going on at the end, once Inigo did that, it was kinda the first sign that everything was gonna turn out okay, I think. I mean, the story ends kinda vaguely, but still! Does that make sense?”
Maybe it did, maybe it didn’t, but that certainly wasn’t all she had to say, her look of concentration dissolved into one of full on excitement. “But oh, oh my God, Koizumi-chan, everything that happened in the Fire Swamp? And Buttercup pushing Westley down the hill, before she knew it was him? I swear, I almost dropped the book, I did not see any of that coming. It was so gooooood!”













