Tama likes Anzu.
Anzu likes Tama back.
Why don't we go out?
That was just a joke...
So why don't those guys get that ○○○?
Even when the silhouette was ○○-ish?

Judging by how unyielding they were
and how they were unwilling to accept ○○○,
There's only one answer... that Tama can think of.
It's not like they've been ○○ or whatever all along!
That's impossible!
Mark my words!
If I'm wrong, then just erase this entire diary!

Hero Diary November 2018
Doi Tamako Record

Chapter 5 -Flowerbud-

Between classes.
Tamako was listening to some music on her smartphone with Anzu as they shared one ear each of a pair of headphones.
"... So whatcha think about this song?"
Tamako asked Anzu for her opinion without taking off the headphones.
"It's a nice song, but I think I prefer softer love songs. Like this."
Anzu took out her own smartphone and plugged the headphones into it to play another song.
"... Mmm~... Not bad. Not bad... but I want something a little more powerful and upbeat... You really gotta go for punk rock when it comes to music!"
"That's not true. Ballads and love songs are the best, I'd say."
"No, no, it's the cries of youth! The culmination of passion! Punk rock!"
"A permeating melody! Heart-shaking romance! Love songs!"
As the two quarreled, the bell chimed. The teacher came into the room at the same time.
"Oh, time for class?"
Anzu and Tamako hastily put away the headphones and their smartphones and headed to their seats. But before they got to their respective places, Tamako softly whispered into Anzu's ear.
"Tell me the name of that song you liked later, Anzu. Maybe I'll understand what's so good about it if I listen to it some more."
"Yeah. Then give me some more of your recommended songs, Tamacchi-senpai. I'll try listening to them."

"Tama-chan and An-chan really get along, huh?"
Yuuna spoke merrily as she ate udon in the cafeteria.
Everyone was eating lunch together again today.
"Well, me and Anzu are like sisters after all!"
Tamako hugged Anzu as she spoke.
--That said, since Tamako was smaller than Anzu, it looked more like she was clinging onto her rather than hugging her.
"Eheheh."
Anzu didn't seem bothered by it at all.
"Actually, me and Anzu could even live together."
Anzu responded teasingly.
"Well... but it'd be tough if I moved in with Tamacchi-senpai. She's got a bicycle and lots of camp gear and other stuff lying around that I really don't quite understand, so she'd have to put all that stuff away first."
"Th-that's no ordinary bicycle. It's a road bike. I leave it in my room so it doesn't rust or anything. And I'm sure I'll be using that camp gear soon enough, okay!
...It's just that I haven't had much opportunity to do so after becoming a hero."
Tamako loved the outdoors, so on her days off, she'd go mountain climbing or long-distance cycling trips. She would really like to go camping in the mountains, but the Taisha was not very receptive to the idea of letting her spend the night in distant areas.
"It's not like your room's perfect either, you know, Anzu? There's books everywhere: your bookshelves, your desk, your bed's headboard... Nothing but books! And not just any books, but romance novel after romance novel after romance novel after romance novel after romance novel...! And they just keep multiplying each time I come into your room."
"I like it that way! It makes me happy to be surrounded by books."
Anzu spoke with an elated expression on her face.
Her love of reading was second to none. The walls of her room belonged to her bookshelves filled to capacity with romance novels and novels for girls. And there seemed to be no end to the daily growth rate of the room's book population.
"Tama just can't get how you do it..."
Tamako muttered in exasperation.
"You two... sure know a lot about each other's rooms, don't you...?"
Chikage looked up from her portable game device to say that, having quickly finished her lunch to play games. She didn't pause the game either; her fingers nimbly worked the buttons even with her eyes off the screen.
Tamako nodded matter-of-factly at Chikage's words.
"That's 'cause Tama's room's right next to Anzu's! We frequent visit each other!"
The heroes' school was an all-boarding school. The school building, that is, Marugame Castle, had a dormitory on its premises where the five heroes and the miko, Hinata, lived.
"In that case, Wakaba-chan always comes to my room too."
Hinata spoke somewhat boastfully with her chin up.
"Whenever Wakaba-chan comes to my room, she's either asking for advice with a troubled look on her face, or she's begging me to let her rest her head on my lap and clean her ears."
"H-Hinata!"
Wakaba tried desperately to cover Hinata's mouith, but it was too late.
"That isn't what Wakaba-san is usually like..."
Anzu shot Wakaba a surprised look.
Yuuna blinked in stupefaction for a moment.
"Wait, so you mean Wakaba-chan's like a dependent little puppy?"
"Only around me, that is."
Hinata spoke with a chuckle.
"Now that you mention it, Wakaba-san seems to naturally tend to sit next to Hinata-san. She's even sitting next to her now."
Wakaba's face became even redder at Anzu's words.
"B-but what about you, Hinata? You've been coming to my room every evening even when you don't have any business with me, haven't you? I bet it's because you feel lonely, isn't it!?"
"No. In my case, I come to make sure you're prepared for the next day, Wakaba-chan. You've always got your homework and reviews done perfectly, but you carelessly forget to put your textbooks back into your bag sometimes. Naturally, I covertly put your textbooks and notebooks back into your bag when that happens, though."
"Huh... You have!?"
Apparently Wakaba hadn't realized that.
"Hina-chan, you're kinda like Wakaba-chan's mom."
"Of course. I raised Wakaba-chan myself, after all."
Hinata replied with a smile at Yuuna's words of praise.
"L-let's just drop the topic here! Drop it!"
Wakaba-chan desperately tried to end the conversation, her face still red.

On the way back to class from the cafeteria, Hinata asked Anzu a question.
"Anzu-san, how do you think you and Tamako-san get along so well?"
Hinata was a miko, and thus received personal data on the heroes from the Taisha. Anzu and Tamako's birthplaces were nearby, but they had first met when the Vertexes appeared. They hadn't been close friends from the start like Wakaba and Hinata.
And yet Anzu and Tamako  already got along like longtime friends by the time they had all gathered at the school at Marugame Castle.
"Well..."
Anzu looked at Tamako from a few steps behind as she recalled the past.
"I've gotten better, but in the past, I had a very weak constitution. I've been hospitalized quite a few times too..."

--The third year of elementary school.
Anzu's constitution was particularly fragile that year, so she rarely ever went to school.
She ended up not meeting the required number of attendance days and had to repeat a year.
Her entire class and all her friends in the same grade moved on to the next year and she was left behind.
In the classroom full of students a year younger than her-- Anzu was an outsider.
But it wasn't as if she were bullied. The teachers and students took careful consideration to not treat her any differently than any other student.
But that consideration itself lead to discomfort. It placed just a little distance between Anzu an the others. A distance that perhaps the other students didn't feel, but only Anzu did.
Anzu always felt as if there were a thin wall between her and her classmates. Before she knew it, the distance between them grew, and she found herself spending more and more time reading books alone.
Being in the wrong grade made her feel uncomfortable, alone, alienated. Would the feeling never leave no matter how many grades she went up? Would it follow her out of elementary school and into middle school, even high school--
(Will I have to live my entire life never making friend with those around me...?)
Whenever that thought crossed her mind, even when reading her favorite book, she would cry.
The seemingly endless loneliness turned into bitterness, slowly tightening its grip around Anzu's heart.
Before she knew it, Anzu began yearning for something to save her. Like a prince from the girls' novels she had read--

Eventually, Anzu moved up to the fourth year of elementary school.
And on the last day of July, the Vertexes invaded.

Anzu's birthplace was northwest Ehime Prefecture in a town flanked by the ocean and the mountains.
For days, calamities like earthquakes and abnormal gusts of wind had occurred, sending local residents on alert, but on that night, they were told to evacuate inland due to a tsunami.
The Vertexes arrived when Anzu was moving to a shelter with her parents. Abnormal monsters descended from the sky. In the ensuing chaos of people running for their lives, Anzu got separated from her parents. Before she knew it, she found herself in front of a small shrine.
There, she awoke to her powers as a hero.
As if something were guiding her, she found an oyumi [Japanese crossbow/ballista said to shoot rapidfire. It's a different word used compared to Anzu's crossbow in 2018] that had been dedicated there. She came to an understanding beyond all conventional logic that it would give her the strength to defeat the monsters before her.
And yet, she could not fight.
Even if she had the power, her feet shook before the presence of the Vertexes. The young Anzu had no experience in battle whatsoever. There was no way she could be expected to face off against such gargantuan monstrosities with a single oyumi.
(Help me...)
As she shook in fear of the approaching monsters, Anzu prayed.
(Someone help me, please--)

"Over here, huhhhh!?"

Suddenly, the Vertex in front of Anzu's eyes was smashed by what appeared to be a circular sheet of metal-- a shield perhaps?-- that had been thrown. The shield pierced into the Vertex's gigantic white body and the monster let out a bizarre cry as it vanished.
The one who threw the shield was a girl-- a girl smaller than Anzu, but brimming with energy.
Anzu intuitively understood that the shield that had dealt a fatal blow to the monster was a weapon imbued with a special power just like Anzu's oyumi.
The small girl ran like the wind to retrieve the shield that had felled the Vertex. She then immediately attacked another one nearby.
As she stood in the midst the horde of white monsters, she used her shield as an overbearing weapon, butchering enemy after enemy.
Anzu could only watch her in amazement.
Soon enough, all the surrounding Vertexes were swept away--
Anzu had fallen onto her rear, so the shield girl approached her and lent her a hand.
That hand was covered in wounds, likely due to the preceding battle.
"Are you okay? Tama's on the scene, so you don't gotta worry about a thing."
That was Anzu's meeting with Doi Tamako.
The moment she first made contact with what would be her saving pillar of support.

"Apparently Tamacchi-senpai awoke to her hero powers at another shrine nearby and was told by a miko to come save me--"
"Uugh... That's such a nice story..."
Hinata's eyes had teared up as she listened to Anzu's story.
"Huh, h-hey, Hinata-san!? It wasn't really a story sad enough to cry over, was it!?"
"No, it definitely was. So much that I want to publish it online or in a book to tug at the heartstrings of the masses."
Hinata wiped her tears as she spoke.
"Ahahah..."
Hinata-san is kind of an odd person-- Anzu thought.
"Teehee... So in other words, Tamako-san is your knight in shining armor, then, huh?"
"Yes. She has the strength and dignity that I don't... She's given me a bond that's blind to things like grade or classroom status."
When Anzu talks about Tamako, she sounds as if she's proud for her.
Hinata smiled at seeing Anzu like that before deciding to tease Tamako, who was walking ahead of them.
"--Sooo, Anzu-san thinks of Tamako in that way, but how does Tamako-san feel?"
"!"
Tamako's face became pure red as she stopped in her tracks.
Anzu and Hinata had been talking right behind Tamako, so there was no way she hadn't heard their conversation.
"Aggh!! It was embarrassing, so I was pretending not to hear it! The hell's with the backhanded compliments right behind my back, eh!? Calling me a prince!? You trying to torture me!?"
As Tamako started to explode, Wakaba and Yuuna worked together to pin her arms behind her back.
"Calm down!"
"Yeah, calm down, Tama-chan."
"Mghghgh..."
Tamako got quiet after the two of them held her down.
"So, uh, how -do- you feel, then?"
Yuuna asked with deep curiosity.
"Yuuna!! Why you--!!"
That said, Tamako wasn't actually mad. Just trying to hide her embarrassment.
She shook off Yuuna and Wakaba and hugged Anzu.
"Just look at how cu~te Anzu is! Tama just -has- to protect her!"

Outside of their fight with the Vertexes, the heroes had peaceful days.
But--
When the time to fight begins, they must become humanity's shield. Humanity's sword.
The Vertexes next invaded Shikoku that very afternoon.

Atop the giant vegetation coating Marugame Castle's walls stood the heroes equipped with their weapons.
The Vertex horde approaching from beyond the wall looked so small from that distance.
Wakaba checked her smartphone map to confirm the invader's numbers. The enemy seemed to be 100 strong this time.
"...Hmm?"
Among the Vertex markers displayed on the map, one was noticeably different. Its speed was overwhelmingly faster than the others. It slipped out from the horde and headed towards Wakaba and the others.
"What's with this guy?"
Wakaba looked towards the vertex horde.
She saw "something" rushing at an incredible speed through the vegetation-covered land of Shikoku. It looked like a fragment of a human from the abdomen down. Sprinting bipedally on slender legs.
Its speed far outstripped the other Vertexes. It nimbly darted its way through the gigantic vegetative structures that crept across the land and what little uncovered buildings remained along its path.
"A... a pervert!?"
Yuuna drew her face back at the sight of the mysterious Vertex's eldritch movements.
"An evolved one, huh?"
Wakaba furrowed her brow and stared at the bipedal movements.
Unlike before, this Vertex seemed to have invaded in an evolved form from the start.
"... I can't eat that."
"No, please don't even think about it!"
Anzu quickly threw in a retort to Wakaba's muttering.
Then Tamako gave an insinuating smile.
"Heheheh..."
"What's up, Tama-chan?"
Tamako triumphantly answered the confused Yuuna.
"This time I've brought a secret weapon. --Tama's special udon tama!!"
As she spoke, Tamako held up a ball of udon with "Special Grade! Freshly Made!" written on the packaging.
"How... are you going to use that...?"
To answer Chikage's doubts, Tamako pointed dramatically at the bipedal Vertex as she spoke.
"The Taisha people say that Vertexes have intelligence, right? And look at that... that almost half a human shape... That thing might be almost human!"
"I see! So then maybe we can use the udon as a diversion if it reacts to it!"
"Exactly, Yuuna! No human can remain calm in the presence of this top-grade Sanuki udon! Teyaahhhh! Eat this! Literally~~~!!"
Tamako made a big windup and hurled the packaged udon at the incoming evolved Vertex.
The ball of udon flew as aimed and landed in front of the evolved Vertex's path.
However--

The bipedal Vertex paid no heed to the ball of udon and kept going straight on its path without slowing down.
(All 5) "!!!!?"
All of the heroes shuddered.
"The udon... got no reaction from it...!?"
Wakaba's hands shook in shock and rage.
"Was it because it wasn't served kamaage!?"
"No, Tama-chan... even if it wasn't served kamaage... how could it completely ignore top-grade udon like that...!!?"
Yuuna hung her head in sorrow as she wrung out the words from her lungs.
Tamako, Anzu, and Chikage all thought the same way as well.
It was then that the girls were firmly convinced:
Vertexes had not a shred of humanity in them. There could be no mutual human-Vertex understanding for perhaps all eternity.
"... I promise I'll come back for you."
Tamako muttered as she looked towards the thrown ball of udon. Since it was still in its packaging, the contents still seemed to be okay.
In their hands, the heroes held their weapons. In their hearts, they held rage and sadness.
"Revenge for the top-grade udon! That bastard's Tama's!"
First, Tamako lunged straight for the bipedal Vertex.

"Teyaaaaahh!"
Tamako hurled her bladed yo-yo. But the bipedal Vertex dodged it with ease.
"Khh!"
She hurled the bladed yo-yo a second and a third time, but the Vertex dodged each time.
"I can't hit it! This thing's too damn fast!"
This Vertex's properties were almost all completely different from anything they had fought before.
Vertexes had giant, sturdy bodies, but their movements were slow, making them simple to attack. But this bipedal Vertex just couldn't be hit at all.
"Tamacchi-senpai! I'll back you up!"
Anzu shot a volley of arrows from the side. As to be expected, the bipedal Vertex easily dodged those arrows as well before setting its sights on Anzu and approaching her.
"...!"
Anzu's crossbow has the advantage of long-range capability, but it is not suited for close-range battle. She frantically fired arrow after arrow, but nothing hit.
The bipedal Vertex began to attack Anzu with something akin to a dropkick--
"Don't you dare touch Anzu!!"
Anzu got inside the gap between Anzu and the bipedal Vertex and expanded her bladed yo-yo into a shield form. The shield was able to block the dropkick, but was unable to tank the momentum. Tamako and Anzu were blown away with the shield.
"Uwah!?" "Kyah!"
The two of them struck the ground. Tamako put herself on the bottom to protect Anzu from the impact damage.
"Tamacchi-senpai!?"
"Ugh... owww....!!"
Tamako grimaced as she applied pressure to her left shoulder with her right hand.
"My shoulder...!"
Anzu looked at Tamako's shoulder. There was a visible protrusion near her left collarbone.
A dislocation, or perhaps a fracture.
The hero's outfit increases defense, but it does not completely negate damage.
"Why..."
Anzu felt wretched about herself. If Tamako hadn't covered for her, she wouldn't have gotten injured like this.
Tamako was far superior to Anzu in terms of power as a hero. It would've been better if Anzu had been the one to get hurt and Tamako had been okay.
But even as her face warped in pain, Tamako made sure to smile as she talked to Anzu.
"It's okay... Tama's the one who decided to protect you. It's not your fault."
To protect Anzu-- That was what Tamako swore to do the day the two of them first met.

For as long as she could remember, people told Tamako she was a rowdy kid.
She was confident, and had superb reflexes and never lost any fights with boys.
She would get into fights every day and come back home after playing dangerous games outside, causing a constant source of worry for her parents.
"Why can't she be more feminine...?"
Her mother always looked troubled.
Tamako didn't understand what exactly they meant by "feminine".
But if she were "feminine" then her parents probably wouldn't look so troubled anymore.
(But... I can't help it.)
Tamako is Tamako.
Confident, rowdy, quick tempered. She couldn't change her nature.
And thus--
When she awoke to her powers as a hero, she thought it was perfect for her. She didn't fear her enemies. She fought without wavering. It fit her perfectly to be assigned the role of fighting.
If she just kept beating down the monsters, she could make everyone happy even without becoming more feminine. Her mother wouldn't have to look so troubled.
So when she followed the miko's words and went to go save Iyojima Anzu, Tamako was a little surprised with how different she was from her.
Anzu had fallen on her rear in fear of the Vertexes, without any hint of a will to fight.
(What? And she's supposed to be a hero...?)
Though she had that thought, she still saved her for the time being. Tamako used her shield, her individual weapon, to defeat the Vertexes.
She then lent her hand to Anzu to help her up. Though Anzu was taller, she was also paler and more fragile, like  a glass sculpture.
(Can such a delicate thing fight...?)
As Tamako pondered that question, Anzu took a look at Tamako's hand and muttered.
"Your injuries..."
When Anzu said that, Tamako noticed the injuries on her own hand. Apparently she got wounded during the battle.
"Ahh, this is nothing! Just a scratch! Just a scratch!"
Though Tamako tried to laugh it off, Anzu shook her head to the side.
"No.  Even scratches can get infected and cause illnesses..."
Anzu took a bottle of mineral water out of the bag she had taken for the evacuation and soaked it into a handkerchief to wash the wounds on Tamako's hand.
"Let's disinfect it properly later."
And with that, Anzu wrapped her hands around Tamako's wounded hand.
"Thank you... for saving me..."
Tamako looked at Anzu.
A frail, fearful girl completely unfit for combat.
But a girl with a gentle, compassionate heart.
(Ah, guess it's no use.)
Tamako smiled wryly.
You could probably call girls like that "feminine".
But she was a different being entirely from Tamako. No matter how hard she tried, Tamako could probably never be like Anzu.
So in that case--
(In that case, Tama will protect her, no matter what.)
She thought that if she couldn't become that ideal herself, then the least she could do would be to protect a girl who was that ideal.
While that decision may have been nothing more than settling for an alternative, it was a decision Tamako still swore upon.

And now--
Tamako somehow managed to bear the pain in her shoulder and stand up.
Good thing the injury was on her left. As long as her right shoulder's fine, she could still fight. She could still protect Anzu.
Tamako stood in front of Anzu and gripped her bladed yo-yo.
"Please, don't push yourself..."
Anzu tearfully pleaded.
But Tamako didn't want to make Anzu cry like that.
"I'm fine, okay? There's no way the amazing Tama can lose to a pair of pervy legs like that..."
Tamako stifled the pain as she spoke and searched for the bipedal Vertex.
Wakaba was standing up against the bipedal Vertex alone.
The reason the enemy hadn't immediately gone in for another attack on Tamako and Anzu was because Wakaba had kept it at bay.
Wakaba shouted at Tamako and Anzu as she swung her sword.
"If you're injured, stay down!"
"This is nothing! I can still fight!"
Tamako yelled back.
Wakaba nodded wordlessly at her reply.
Wakaba swung her sword against the bipedal Vertex. The sword flashed out of its sheath with tremendous speed, but could only deal a glancing blow against the bipedal Vertex. It was nimbly dodging so that it barely avoided ever getting dealt the decisive blow.
On the other hand, Wakaba kept dodging the bipedal Vertex's attacks without getting hit once, thanks to her reflexes and posture.
As the stalemate began to get stale, the enemy suddenly started running in a different direction.
"What?"
Taken aback, Wakaba froze.
The first one to quickly notice the bipedal Vertex's intention was Anzu.
She had taken out her smartphone and had brought up the map.
Among the dots marking the Vertexes, just a single one was moving with tremendous speed compared to the others. It was heading towards--
"That evolved Vertex is heading for the Shinju-sama!"
The Shinju was currently the foundation that supported Shikoku. If something were to happen to the Shinju, it could very well mean the collapse of the ark that is Shikoku.
Alarmed, Wakaba began to chase after the bipedal Vertex, but bladed weapons are at a disadvantage when attacking a fast enemy on the run.
Projectiles are more suitable in this case.
"Looks like it's Tama's turn then. Wait right here, Anzu."
"Huh...?"
"I'll take that bastard down right away!"
Tamako left Anzu with that and began to chase after the bipedal Vertex.
Each step Tamako took caused intense pain to run through her left shoulder, but thanks to the protection of her hero outfit, it didn't hurt enough to prevent her from running.
"Wakaba! Just leave that bastard to Tama!"
Tamako shouted to Wakaba as she considered her timing to throw her bladed yo-yo at the bipedal Vertex. If she just blindly attacked, it would probably just dodge it again.
"Tamacchi-senpai! Throw your bladed yo-yo as hard as you can!"
Just then, Anzu's voice echoed from behind.
Tamako looked behind to see Anzu following behind.
I thought I told you to wait!-- Before Tamako could say that, Anzu shouted.
"It's okay...! Your weapon will hit it, Tamacchi-senpai!"
Anzu spoke with a tone somehow full of conviction.
"... Roger!"
Before even thinking about it, Tamako placed her belief in Anzu and hurled her bladed yo-yo with all her might.
At the same time, Anzu shot her crossbow.
The bladed yo-yo and the golden arrow chased after the bipedal Vertex-- but the enemy easily dodged them both.
However, Anzu wasn't aiming for the bipedal Vertex.
With machine-like precision, Anzu's arrow shot through the wire attached to Tamako's bladed yo-yo. The deformed wire changed the bladed yo-yo's trajectory, causing it to forcefully hurl at the bipedal Vertex once more.
"Tamacchi-senpai, transform your bladed yo-yo into its shield form!"
"--Got it!"
Changing the trajectory and then changing the bladed yo-yo into shield form increased its attack area. Unable to dodge the attack, the bipedal Vertex took a direct hit.
It wasn't a fatal blow, but the bipedal Vertex took enough damage to stop it in its tracks.
"Anzu, we did it!"
"Yeah... I won't let myself just be protected forever...!"
Tamako couldn't help but smile at Anzu's words.
"Alright, let's finish it off in one go!"
"Yeah!"
Anzu shot volleys of arrows at the slowed bipedal Vertex as Tamako retrieved her bladed yo-yo and hurled it again--

Anzu and Tamako's chain of attacks caused the evolved Vertex to let out a bizarre cry as it vanished.

While the two of them defeated the evolved Vertex, Wakaba, Yuuna, and Chikage eliminated all the other Vertexes, ending the battle in a victory for the heroes.
The only major injury on the hero side was Doi Tamako's dislocated left shoulder. No other injuries besides light scratches were sustained.

The next day, Tamako's left arm was placed in a sling. Since there wasn't a fracture, it wouldn't take that long to heal, but for the time being, she couldn't use her left arm.
During lunch break at the cafeteria, Tamako complained about not bing able to move her left arm.
"My arm's wrapped too tight like a damn Tama-le... I want to take this thing off already!"
"No! You'll prolong your injury!"
Anzu scolded Tamako as she fed her udon.
Incidentally, the udon Tamako's eating was the top-grade Sanuki udon she threw during yesterday's battle. After the battle, the ball of udon was retrieved safely and made served as kamaage.
"Since the Vertexes showed no interest at all for such delicious udon, I guess the rumors about Vertexes having intelligence were wrong... By the way, Anzu, I can move my right arm, so you don't have to go outta your way to feed me."
"It's hard to eat with just one hand, isn't it?"
"Not really, but..."
Tamako sighed and let Anzu feed her the udon.
The others smiled as they watched the two of them.