That Monday, I was in Sewing Room #2.
"So have you made any progress on your assignment?"
As usual, I could hardly tell that Hinami had just
finished morning practice. I decided to start with a basic
overview of my current position.
"Um, well, I've finally got an idea of the conditions I
need to create."
Hinami nodded admiringly.
"Wow. If you really have, you're moving faster than I
expected."
"Really?"
I guess talking to all those people had sped up my
progress.
"We still have plenty of time, so I'm not gonna ask you
about your approach just yet. I'm looking forward to the
outcome."
"You don't want to hear the details?"
"Nope. In the early stages of this assignment, you need
to experiment for yourself."
As I suspected, it was on me to choose and implement a
course of action independently instead of relying on
Hinami's instructions.
"So you're telling me to stand on my own two feet?"
"Yup," she said curtly. The ideas behind this assignment
were obvious from the way she was acting.
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"Got it… By the way, I've been getting advice from a lot
of people on how to tackle this. Do you have a problem with
that?"
Hinami smiled and shook her head.
"No, that's actually the right approach. Isn't that what
you typically do in games? Since you're up against a tough
boss this time, you need to get help from other people on
anything you can't handle alone. Making sure that's taken
care of is part of the assignment."
"So this is good?"
"Yes."
"…Okay, got it."
I thought back to how I'd relied so heavily on Tama-chan
when Mimimi needed help. This was similar. It was okay to
get help from other people if I had a strategy but not the
skills to carry it out on my own.
"But if you leave everything, including the planning, up
to other people, then you've got your priorities backward.
You're the one who needs to be playing the game. If you
hand the controller over to someone else, there's no point to
any of it. You understand that, right?"
"Yes, of course."
Having checked the rules with Hinami, I started
planning my strategy.
* * *
We finished up the morning meeting and left Sewing Room
#2. As soon as I got to our classroom, I noticed something. I
walked over to Mizusawa and Takei.
"Nakamura…isn't coming today, either?"
Mizusawa frowned worriedly. "Seems that way. I sent
him a message on LINE, but this is all I got back."
He showed me the conversation on his phone.
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[You skipping again? Something happen with Yoshiko?
It's crazy how tough she is on you.
C'mon, don't ignore me.
Playing Dogfight again? ]
[Yeah.
Tell Kawamura-sensei I have a fever. ]
"Huh."
He was so damn stubborn. He ignored everything else
and just made his point.
Dogfight was the game we were playing the other day at
the arcade. So he was playing that again. Must be busy with
both Atafami and Dogfight to keep up with. Well, for a
gamer, that's not a bad thing.
"You see how he's acting? All I can do is leave him alone
for a while."
Mizusawa sounded tired.
Takei agreed. "Shuji's so annoying when he gets like
this!"
"S-so that's what's going on…"
I tried to judge how involved they were with the problem
based on how they were reacting.
Mizusawa nodded. "This fight is really dragging on. He
skipped school last Friday, and now he's skipping again after
the weekend."
"Oh, has that not happened before?"
He nodded again. "Before, he'd typically take a day or so
off, then come back to school like nothing happened… If
they've been fighting all weekend, this could be their biggest
blowup yet."
"Could be. Wonder what set 'em off this time," Takei
said.
"No idea. I'll ask him later. Not that he'll answer me."
"All we can do is wait it out, huh?"
"Yeah. He better come back before the sports
tournament, though. We're gonna need him."
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"Geez, Takahiro. Now we know what you care about."
"Ha-ha-ha."
They wrapped up the conversation and shifted smoothly
back to normal subjects. Listening to them talk, I noticed
they were concerned about Nakamura, but they kept a
certain distance. This must be how guy friendships work. I
was stepping into a whole new world here.
The next morning, I was in class again before first
period.
"Looks like he's breaking his record for longest absence,"
Mizusawa said, frowning.
Once again, Nakamura wasn't here. Even I was getting
slightly worried.
I'd gotten used to my daily morning meeting with
Mizusawa and Takei, but today, the mood was a little heavier
than usual.
"He's taking it too far this time."
Takei was acting more or less the same as always, but I
sensed anxiety now. I didn't know he was capable of that
emotion.
"I got this from him," Mizusawa said, showing us his
phone.
[Say I've had a fever all week. ]
My mouth dropped open.
"This is getting worse."
Mizusawa nodded.
"Yeah. I mean, we have exams coming up. We're about
to start prepping for them, and it's gonna hit hard if he
misses the whole first part."
"…True."
I agreed. The teachers were handing out worksheets and
booklets and explaining how to use them and how their
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classes would generally go. If he missed all that, it wouldn't
be a fatal blow, but it definitely wouldn't be good.
"Shit. What the hell is he thinking?!"
Takei ran his fingers through his hair, genuinely upset.
Mizusawa smiled slightly as he watched him, but his eyes
were serious.
"Well, he might know all this already, but Shuji never
liked thinking things through."
Mizusawa scratched his neck, then folded his arms in
thought.
First period ended after a painful initiation into math,
and then we had a short break. Suddenly, I felt someone
poking my left shoulder.
"Ack!"
"Overreaction much?"
I looked to my left and saw Izumi leaning away from me
with a frown.
"Oh, s-sorry."
I might have gotten somewhat used to talking to and
even teasing people lately, but I still fell apart when someone
caught me off guard. I'm still a bottom-tier character, after
all.
"What's up?" I asked. Izumi glanced down but then
made eye contact.
"I was just…wondering about Shuji."
She looked very serious, and her cheeks were slightly
flushed. Now this was a top-tier character—stirring my
protective instincts with her vulnerability. Crafty, too. But I
knew how these top-tier characters used their cuteness, and
I stayed firm.
"Uh…um, you mean about him being absent?"
When I finally managed a response, I found I was more
shaken than I thought, but it wasn't a big deal. Izumi was as
flustered as usual to be talking about Nakamura.
"Yeah," she said with a nod. "I saw you talking to Hiro a
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minute ago, so I thought you might know something."
Oh right, Izumi called Mizusawa "Hiro." I wasn't sure
how to respond.
"…Well, on the one hand, he's just skipping today, but
we were saying he's gonna have a hard time if this keeps up."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking," she said, nodding
glumly. "Wonder how long this'll go on."
I thought back to the LINE message Mizusawa had
shown me.
"Mizusawa got a message saying he'd be out all week."
"From Shuji?"
"Yeah."
"All week? Yikes."
I agreed. "Yeah. We've got entrance exams to think
about, and if he misses the beginning of the exam-prep
classes, he'll be in a bad place."
"Oh…I hadn't even thought of that."
Izumi seemed to be uncertain about something. I
wondered what exactly she meant.
"What were you thinking about?"
"Oh, nothing… It's just…"
Izumi paused, scratching her nose, before continuing. "It
seems like he fights with his parents a lot, but it's already
been a week. And it's still not over. Like, missing school is
bad, too, but…I'm worried about his relationship with his
parents."
"Oh…"
I hadn't thought that deeply about the situation. I
already knew Izumi had a kind heart, but seeing her worry
about Nakamura's relationship with his mom was another
reminder. She really had a lot of empathy for him.
"That's important, too, right?" she said.
"Yeah."
Izumi bit her lip worriedly. "If he would at least come to
school, I could drag the whole story out of him. But if he's
not here, there's nothing I can do…"
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She sighed with exasperation, and I decided to bring up
the point Mizusawa and Takei had been talking about the
day before.
"He'll come in time for the sports tournament…won't
he?"
"Maybe? I hope he does. If we're going to do it, I'd rather
everyone be there."
"Me too…"
"Yeah." Izumi nodded solemnly.
"We were just talking about how he tends to act before
he thinks."
"Oh, he totally does," she said, pointing at me. Guess I
hit the nail on the head.
I couldn't help but smile ruefully. "So he's always like
that, huh?"
Izumi knew that about him, and she liked him anyway.
When you're in love, everything about the other person is
beautiful to you, huh? Aww.
"That's just who he is. We were in the same class last
year, so I'm used to it."
She sounded happily resigned to his flaws.
"You sound like you're already married!" I joked.
Izumi turned red. How about that? That was actually
kinda smooth, wasn't it? It came out so naturally because I
wasn't really trying—I just said what I thought, and it
happened to have that result. I felt like I'd been button
mashing and accidentally delivered a perfect uppercut. Oh
well—it worked out just fine, looks like.
* * *
It was sixth period, the last class of the day—a long
homeroom.
"All right, since we chose the captains for the sports
tournament last week, let's nail down a few other things for
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the tournament today," Kawamura-sensei said, writing the
words Top Sports Choices on the board. We were starting
the meeting without Nakamura. "Like last year, the boys and
girls in each grade level will choose one sport respectively
and compete against the other classes in the same grade.
Last year, we had…soccer, basketball, dodgeball, volleyball,
and softball. But as long as a court is open, you can choose
other sports, too. Captains, please lead the discussion…
Takei, Hirabayashi, come up here."
She gestured for the two of them to come to the front of
the class.
"All right, guys! We're going with soccer, right?!"
The class giggled as Takei walked up to the front.
Hirabayashi-san followed quietly in his shadow. She didn't
seem used to this kind of role. All I could do was let Takei
handle the situation. I don't quite trust you, man, but…do
your best to take the lead, okay?
"There's no guarantee you'll get your first choice at the
captains' meetings, so you should choose your top three. I've
heard Takei always loses at rock-paper-scissors, so that's the
safest bet."
"Hey! C'mon, you're supposed to be a teacher!"
The class laughed again. When I looked at Hirabayashisan, I could see she was too nervous to fully smile, but at
least she looked amused. Keep it up, Takei.
I glanced at Erika Konno. She was laughing normally.
Maybe she didn't need to be uptight now that the captains
had been chosen. At moments like this, she reminded me of
one of those trendsetting fashionistas—cute and impossible
to ignore. Her ordinary attitude was just too scary.
Anyway, sports. And motivating Erika Konno. We had to
make the right choice here if I was going to complete my
assignment. If our first choice ended up being something she
hated, the cost part of the cost-performance equation would
go up.
"…Hey, Izumi," I whispered. After all, we had the same
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goal here. "Which sport do you think Konno would care
about the most?"
"Hmm…" She whispered back, "Maybe softball?"
"Huh. Really?"
I'd been expecting her to say none , so a straightforward
answer like this was good news.
"Yeah… She doesn't wanna get hit with a ball, so
dodgeball, volleyball, soccer, and basketball are out."
"Oh, makes sense…" That was one way to narrow it
down. "Does she like any other sports?"
"Let's see… She's fairly athletic, but I haven't really seen
her having fun with anything else."
"Huh…"
"I think we should try to get everyone on board with
softball."
"Okay."
I nodded. Izumi took a deep breath, preparing herself for
a fight. I liked that gamer spirit—figure out what you need to
do and do it. Nice job, apprentice! I better give this my all,
too. Not that I had much say in which sport the girls chose.
"Okay, you have twenty minutes, guys. Until…two thirtyfive. Captains, you're in charge of the discussion. The best
option is to come to a consensus. If you can't, we'll decide by
majority rule. We'll start with the boys."
"We're going with soccer, right?!"
The second Kawamura-sensei handed the reins to Takei,
he made his proposal to the class. This wasn't so much a
normie thing as it was just…a Takei thing. He'd announced
soccer as his choice as soon as he got the position, so I didn't
expect much discussion.
I was wrong.
"Nah, we should do basketball!"
Tachibana, the guy I'd talked to the other day, was
rebelling. Before, I'd only guessed he was on the basketball
team, but it looked like I was right. I hadn't expected the
guys to split at this point in the process. I'd better observe
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and analyze the situation carefully to figure out why.
"What?! You're kidding! Not soccer?!" Takei said,
throwing the "leader" mantle out the window. Typical Takei.
"I'd rather do softball."
The second guy to shoot his arrow was a member of
Tachibana's group. Uh, what was his name? Shimizudani?
He was buff and had a shaved head, which suggested he was
on the baseball team. I think I've been judging people based
on their looks too much lately.
"Okay, softball is fun, but…"
Once again, Takei wasn't so much pulling the class
together as saying his personal opinion. Yeah, you're not
really suited for this . I thought about why the class hadn't
just gone along with soccer, even though Takei had
announced before that he would get us soccer in the
captains' meeting. Plus, the high-ranking Nakamura was on
the soccer team. Then it hit me.
Nakamura wasn't here.
The guys who'd just suggested basketball and softball
were jocks—they had decent status, but they were below
Nakamura. They had less power in the class even though
they had more members in their group.
If Nakamura had been here, the midranking guys would
probably have gone along with whatever he wanted, but
since he wasn't around to control the mood, some
individuals had started to splinter off, dividing the overall
opinion. It was starting to come together. And since there
were so many of them, we could be in big trouble. Wow,
Nakamura has a huge presence, doesn't he?
"We've got a lot of guys on the basketball team, so we
could probably win."
"True!"
"We've got a lot on the baseball team, too…"
"Yeah, both could work."
Multiple positions were emerging within the jock group.
They weren't being pushy, though. It was more like they
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were testing the waters and adjusting in response to one
another. Compared with Nakamura's usual method of
insisting on what he wanted, these guys seemed downright
considerate. Their group probably had no clear central figure
equivalent to Nakamura, and so they had no clear, single
direction.
Takei looked helpless. He was probably panicking
because he couldn't get everyone to reach a consensus.
"Uh, so what are we going with? Soccer, basketball, and
softball?" he asked.
"I say we just vote."
"Yeah, sounds good," Takei said, nodding. We were
going to vote before the time limit was even up. Takei wrote
Soccer , Basketball , and Softball on the board and started to
count up votes.
"Okay, guys, who votes for soccer?"
Aside from Takei, only three other guys raised their
hand, including Mizusawa. I didn't raise my hand, by the
way. I might suck at sports, but I planned to vote for
basketball to get at least some enjoyment out of this event.
For us nerds, manipulating a ball with our feet or a bat is
even harder than throwing it. Sorry, Takei, I've gotta vote
for fun. Sorry to you, too, Nakamura.
"Seriously?" Takei sighed, writing a big 4 next to Soccer .
Uh, I think people usually use tally marks for stuff like this. I
almost laughed, just because it was such a Takei thing to do.
Close call.
He took the votes for basketball and softball and ended
up with nine for the former and six for the latter, which
decided the ranking of our top three choices. Soccer was
third, unbelievably. With Nakamura out, the midlevel guys
had fragmented, and then all the lower-ranking "boring"
guys in the class had gone for basketball. They probably
figured they could get away without much court time—I
know, because that's how I thought until this year.
"Shit, no way! It's basketball, then softball, then soccer."
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Takei wasn't even pretending to be neutral about this.
The guys' discussion was over in around five minutes, and
the baton was passed to Hirabayashi-san.
"Um, so let's decide on the girls' top choices now."
The class suddenly felt very quiet. It was probably
because Takei was so loud, but as everyone sensed the hush,
the whole temperature of the class grew colder and colder. I
glanced around, observing the people sitting nearby. They
all looked tense. Or maybe I was just making assumptions.
I looked at Erika Konno, wondering what she would do
in this situation. I watched as she slowly removed her hand
from her cheek, folded her arms over her chest, and slumped
grumpily back in her chair. Well, that was easy to read. Just
watching her or sitting near her would be enough to make
you shrink in on yourself a little.
"…Damn," Izumi whispered.
"…Erika Konno?" I whispered back. She nodded rapidly
several times, her round eyes glittering. She reminded me of
a frightened dog. But yeah, given how obvious Erika Konno
was making her opinion, everyone must have noticed it.
That's when I realized something.
Was this another method Erika Konno used to control
the mood?
She displayed her opinion not just with words, but with
her glances, posture, and actions. In fact, the first thing
Hinami taught me was how to control my own expression
and posture.
Thanks to her, I could tell a healthy debate would be
hard, but that didn't mean the class had completely frozen
up.
"I vote for basketball! With Hinami and me on the team,
we'll win for sure!" Mimimi was waving her hand
enthusiastically.
"Well, I can probably only be there for half the game,"
Hinami said, smiling a little regretfully.
"What?! …Oh right. You're student council president!"
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"Yup. But I still think basketball is best."
They were cheerfully ignoring Erika Konno and carrying
out their own plans. Unlike the guys, who were dominated
by Nakamura's group, the girls in class had two major
factions: the Konno group and the Hinami group. There was
more to the power structure than met the eye.
"Okay, basketball… Anyone else?"
No one responded to Hirabayashi-san's question. Shit.
Someone needed to do something, or we'd never end up with
softball. I checked to see how Izumi was doing. She seemed
nervous, too, glancing back and forth between Mimimi,
Hinami, and Hirabayashi-san. Finally, she looked at me. I
nodded rapidly a few times to encourage her. Damn, I'm
picking up more of her gestures. She nodded back at me a
couple times herself. After a few more moments of hesitation
—
"I wanna do volleyball," Tama-chan said, shooting her
hand straight up. Huh? Izumi's hand was already halfway in
the air; she brought it to her head and combed her hair with
her fingers instead. Come on, don't wimp out! Of course, I
knew where she was coming from.
"Okay, volleyball. What should we do? Which one should
be our first choice? Or does anyone else have a suggestion?"
Rather than rushing into the majority rule like Takei,
Hirabayashi-san was trying to follow Kawamura-sensei's
instructions to decide by consensus. Good job.
Tama-chan had some real power in situations like this.
The queen at the top of the hierarchy had created a silence
so heavy, only Hinami and Mimimi could break it, and yet
Tama-chan still raised a third opinion. Maybe it was because
she was friends with those two. Either way, it was
impressive.
It seemed likely to end up a close call between basketball
or volleyball. Izumi glanced at me again uncertainly. Of
course she was nervous. Suggesting yet another choice at
this point would take some willpower. That was
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understandable. From the outside, it didn't seem like much,
but when you were the one sticking your neck out, it was
exhausting.
Still, setting the stage properly was crucial if we were
going to convince the queen. Plus, it would be way easier to
have fun in the tournament and help Hirabayashi-san if both
of the top two girls' cliques in class were on board. I pumped
my fist at Izumi to encourage her some more. She nodded
rapidly again like a dog and turned decisively toward the
front.
"…I think I'd rather do softball," she said, timidly raising
her hand. Yes! You did it, Izumi!
"Okay, softball. Um, do each of you have a reason for
your choice? Oh, Nanami-san already said why she wanted
basketball," Hirabayashi-san said. She sounded hesitant, but
she was sticking with the consensus method. "Natsubayashisan, how about you?"
Tama-chan paused for a moment.
"Uh…because I want to play volleyball?"
There was a brief, awkward silence. Maybe a little too
honest.
"Come on, that's not a real reason!" Mimimi shot back
jokingly, gesturing comically with both arms outstretched.
That was the signal for the class to burst into laughter. Okay,
so this is another method for getting the group to laugh—
poke fun at someone else if they say something a little
weird. I tried to imagine myself doing that at some future
point. Key word being tried . Yeah, that was still beyond me,
even on an imaginary level.
In any case, that was an impressive move by Mimimi.
Not only did she make the group laugh, but she was
protecting Tama-chan. I remembered that Tama-chan had
been described as not very flexible. In the exchange just
now, Mimimi had very clearly helped her blend into the
group. If she hadn't done anything, we might still be in an
awkward silence.
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"Okay, Izumi-san, you're next…"
Just as we were about to continue the discussion, a
grumpy voice interrupted.
"Look, if we can't all agree, we should just vote."
The queen was attacking the captain.
"Uh, um, yes, but…"
Hirabayashi-san immediately crumbled before the
intimidating and vaguely hostile reply. She glanced at
Kawamura-sensei and the rest of us pleadingly, and the
teacher finally stepped in.
"…Konno. I'd rather not jump straight to using the
majority rule. I was hoping we could try coming to an
agreement through dialogue. So I'm going to take over from
here. Okay, first…"
With that, she smoothly took over leading the
discussion, protecting Hirabayashi-san with cool confidence.
Hirabayashi-san sighed with relief.
Pretty soon, Izumi-san was giving her reason for
choosing softball, which was carefully adjusted to fit the
general mood. I glanced at Erika Konno. Like before, she
was leaning back in her chair with her legs crossed to make
sure we all knew she was bored. Izumi sat back down. Our
eyes met.
"…Erika scared me to death," she whispered.
"Yeah…," I whispered back as I kept watching the
discussion.
Ultimately, the girls took a vote: six for basketball, five
for softball, and two for volleyball. That made basketball
their first choice. Welp. So much for softball. Guess this
wouldn't be so easy.
To be honest, I hadn't expected Erika Konno to vote at
all, but Kawamura-sensei was watching her. She ended up
voting for softball, so Izumi had been right. She really was
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good at reading people.
After the discussion, we had a break. Izumi was slumped
on her desk, looking exhausted.
"…Nice work."
I wanted to congratulate her for surviving, even if it was
a small struggle in the scope of things. She looked up at me
and smiled vulnerably.
"Thanks."
"Of course."
Her unguarded face was like a magnet drawing my eyes.
I forced myself to look away so I could regain my
composure, and thought about our next move.
"Konno is an iron wall, isn't she…? I can't imagine her
getting into this."
"Ah-ha-ha, me neither."
She smiled naively, trustingly. Stop that! If you don't, I
might trust you, too. Wait, is that really such a bad thing?
"At this rate, we're gonna have a hard time no matter
what sport we get."
"Yeah. Maybe I should give up on this. But poor
Hirabayashi-san…" Izumi sighed.
"We're going to need some new tactics…"
Izumi looked at me blankly.
"Tactics? Oh yeah, I guess so. Do you have any ideas?"
"N-not yet…" Tactics—something to hit her weak points.
"I'll give it some thought."
"All right!" Izumi said, making an okay sign with her
finger and thumb.
Hmm… So we needed a way to get Erika Konno excited.
Some trick to convince her that everyone will look down on
her if she doesn't. Or we could appeal to something else she
wants.
I asked Izumi some more questions about Konno, but I
didn't get any new information or new ideas. Still, I felt like I
was on the verge of a breakthrough.
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* * *
It was after school, and I was at my usual meeting—but not
the one in Sewing Room #2. This time, I was standing at the
window where Nakamura's group always hung out.
Mizusawa, Takei, and I had been chatting when Izumi
and Hinami joined the conversation, which eventually
turned to the Nakamura issue. Apparently, all the sports
teams and clubs had the day off because the teachers were at
some training event away from school. It went without
saying that the topic of conversation was whether or not we
should leave Nakamura alone.
"…I mean, there's not much we can do," Mizusawa said.
Hinami smiled cynically. "Yeah, it's tough when he won't
tell us what's going on."
"Exactly," Izumi said, nodding.
Mizusawa frowned. "Which means…we really shouldn't
do anything. At least for now."
Izumi seemed upset by this idea. "What? Why? If there's
something we can do, we should do it, right?"
Takei nodded. "I think Yuzucchi is right! If Nakamura's
in trouble, we've gotta help him!"
"Okay, but…," Hinami said with a vaguely reluctant
smile, "it is a family issue, and Shuji doesn't seem to want us
to get involved…"
"And that's our real problem," Mizusawa said.
They were right. I understood Izumi's and Takei's desire
to help, but it was a delicate question. How far do you stick
your nose into a family fight? Hinami nodded at Mizusawa
with a frustrated look on her face.
"Yeah. If we force our way in when he doesn't want us
involved, we'd just end up being pushy…"
The group was silent for a moment. I wasn't sure if
Hinami's comment came from the heroine mask or NO
NAME, logic incarnate, but I got the sense it reflected her
true feelings. I mean, this was directly related to her earlier
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point about rights and responsibility.
"Your rights only extend as far as you can take
responsibility."
Imagine if we butted into Nakamura's problem without
his permission, and something bad ended up happening.
None of us would be ready for that level of responsibility.
Ergo, we shouldn't get involved. Personally, I agreed.
"I guess so…," Izumi finally said. She seemed convinced,
but unsure what to do.
"Yeah, Takahiro and Aoi are usually right, but still…"
Takei also sounded uncertain, even though he was
putting his trust in the other two.
"We can let him know we're here for him if he needs to
talk, but I really think we should hold off on anything else,"
Hinami urged.
"Yeah…you're right."
Izumi was clearly depressed, but she nodded slowly. She
probably still wanted to help, but Hinami believed that
acting on one's own desires was the wrong choice in this
case. She was wearing her perfect heroine mask and
softening the edges of her words, but she was still trying to
control Izumi.
A quiet disagreement was taking place.
Hinami's unwavering principle was to choose the most
rational path of action. It was extreme, but it had put her at
the top in all realms of life, so of course she was going to
keep Izumi, who just wanted to do something different, from
acting irrationally. But then a thought occurred to me.
I'm not Hinami.
I have one basic guiding principle: I plan to enjoy the
game of life, so I put what I want first. Meaning, I shouldn't
just choose the most rational approach like Hinami did. If I
was really trying to live life consciously, I needed to ask
myself what I wanted in this situation. Answering that
question was my first order of business.
"…"
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Not that I was any good at it yet, but I tried to sort out
my emotions into words. I needed to prioritize my own
feelings, my own direction, my own wants.
For a moment, I remained introspective, groping for an
answer. Then I looked at the dejected face of my apprentice,
Izumi, and made my decision. It was very different from
Hinami's "rational" conclusion, but I felt like I had to stick
with it. And if I wanted to make it happen, I'd need to get the
mood on my side. I came up with a plan, carefully chose my
words, and turned to the group.
"I agree; we shouldn't get involved in Nakamura's
problems carelessly."
Basically, the current situation called for waiting it out.
Hinami was right that the logical way to handle this was to
wait until he came to us for help. And that was why I kept
talking.
"…But here's the thing."
"…Hmm?"
It was Hinami, not Izumi, who reacted. I kept going, in
part to organize my own thoughts and in part to make them
into reality.
"It would be a mistake to do something before he asks.
But I think we can start getting ready now to help him when
he does."
"…How?" Hinami sounded unconvinced.
"Yeah, what do you mean?"
Izumi's eyes glittered with a small spark of hope. I
continued explaining my idea to the two of them.
"It would be wrong to, like, force him back to school or
say something to his mom so they make up. But as long as
we don't make things worse, I think it would be a good idea
to try to find out what's going on and start getting ready to
help him in case we do need to act eventually. We wouldn't
implement any plans just yet, but we'd be prepared to help
when he needs it."
I wasn't saying anything groundbreaking—just that we
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could start thinking about this now. Maybe he'd never ask us
and we were wasting our time, but what I wanted in this
situation was extremely simple.
I wanted to respect Izumi's desire to help Nakamura.
That was the conclusion I'd come to after taking a look
into my own heart.
"Yeah, yeah! Maybe we could end up helping him!"
"Exactly," I said, nodding at the sparkly-eyed Izumi. I
glanced quickly at Hinami, then back at Izumi. "If you want
to help him, then I think you should go for it and give it your
all."
I was talking to Izumi, but I was also sending a little
irony Hinami's way. What can I say? It's how I really felt.
"Yeah! I totally get you," Izumi said excitedly.
"Huh… I guess that's one way to look at it."
Hinami looked unsure, but on the surface, at least, she
wasn't contradicting me. After all, I wasn't saying anything
that extreme. I was only suggesting we do everything we
could, regardless of whether it'd end up being a waste of
time. She probably couldn't find a reason good enough for
the perfect heroine Aoi Hinami to contradict that idea.
But I could read her real thoughts like a book.
Right now, Nakamura was rejecting any involvement
from us. And knowing him, he wasn't gonna change his
mind. Anything we did now was almost certainly going to be
a waste of time, and that wouldn't accomplish her goals. It
would be ineffective, unproductive, and just not an
objectively good decision. If we had time for this, we'd be
better off using it for something productive. Therefore, we
should take a wait-and-see approach.
Taking it even further, if Nakamura had chosen a course
of action that would cause himself harm, he should take
responsibility for his own decisions. There was no need for
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us to go out of our way to help him.
I would have bet money that was what she was thinking.
I'm a gamer, too; I get it. And I essentially agreed with her.
But life was just more fun when you put what you
wanted first. That was my philosophy.
I'd told Hinami I would teach her how to enjoy life, and I
meant it. We were starting now. I had no idea if it was the
"correct" thing to do, but we shouldn't set the bar too high
just yet!
"Let's give it a try!"
Izumi looked around at everyone with her innocent eyes.
She wanted to help so badly; she really was in love. In my
opinion, that's one of the hardest "moods" in the whole
world to overturn. So this time, I was using it to my
advantage. I figured it wouldn't be a bad thing if the mood
respected what Izumi wanted. Maybe I had inherited some
of Hinami's cold logic. The important point was that the goal
itself wasn't false.
"Fine, if Fumiya insists, I guess we can try it out,"
Mizusawa said, smiling with exasperation.
"Yeah!" Izumi said brightly.
Takei nodded, too. "I'm with Farm Boy!" he said.
Once we'd established that, even Aoi Hinami would have
a hard time reversing the course. I grinned and looked at
her. For just an instant, she met my eyes with a meaningful
glare.
"Agreed! It definitely makes sense to give it a try!" she
said with the smile of a perfect heroine. As usual, an
impeccable performance. I knew she was internally groaning
about the waste of time, but she couldn't say that without
breaking character. Her mask had come back to bite her. She
had to accept a truly irrational plan so that Izumi and I could
get what we wanted.
"All right, so we'll do what we can."
As Mizusawa restated the final decision, our overall
direction fell into place. Hinami looked at us nonchalantly.
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"So the first thing we need to do…"
She took the lead in organizing our plan. Wow. Slightly
surprising, yet in character. Even if the direction wasn't what
she'd hoped for, once it was decided, she'd throw herself into
making it as efficient as possible. She'd never allow these
irrational standards to take hold. That defiance was her
strength.
Oh, and if she asks me later why I suggested that plan,
I'm going to tell her I thought it would be good experience
for defeating Erika Konno. That should save me. Making
excuses is an important life skill.
* * *
The discussion began, with Hinami at the center.
"First of all, if we don't know what's going on with Shuji,
we can't do much to help. I think we have two options to
learn why he's been gone for so long—we either find a subtle
way of asking him directly, or we ask his mom without
making everything worse."
Mizusawa turned to her in surprise.
"Wouldn't asking his mom be a little much? Just going
to his house would be making a huge deal out of it."
Hinami shook her head.
"Well…he's got a lot of handouts on his desk now, right?"
"Huh? Oh yeah," Mizusawa said, nodding but still
confused.
"Plus, he texted you saying he wouldn't be back for
another week, right? We could say you offered to bring them
home to him when you told the teacher. Like, If he's going to
miss a whole week, we thought we'd come by! "
"Oh…yeah, I guess that wouldn't be weird." Mizusawa
sounded a bit outmaneuvered.
"And since he's still fighting with his mom, he won't be
home. Then we can just strike up a conversation! If we're
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smart about it, we should be able to find out why they're
fighting! But we don't want to make too big a deal out of it,
so we should probably only have one person go. She may be
a tough nut to crack…but I think I can handle it!"
Hinami jokingly made a macho muscleman pose with
one arm. I was honestly surprised by how smoothly she
explained her ideas while keeping the whole mood positive.
I'd intended to pull her into a more subjective approach, but
instead she'd created a pocket of rationality within this
irrationality and was racing along the shortest path possible
to a solution.
I realized I'd never actually seen her work at solving a
problem. She was always the one putting me through tests,
so she didn't offer solutions herself. I'd like to steal a few
skills from this girl. After all, observation was one of my
assignments, wasn't it?
As I watched her speedily string together the most
relevant bits of information we currently had and casually
propose a workable plan, I felt like I was witnessing the very
essence of Aoi Hinami, a terrifying force of efficiency and
productivity. If this plan failed, she'd have two or three more
waiting in the wings.
"Makes sense to me…so can we leave it to you, Aoi?"
Mizusawa was once again attempting to pull together the
group's position when someone interrupted.
"Um, would it be bad if I was the one to do it?"
It was Izumi—shy but resolute.
"Uhhh…"
Hinami hesitated. What was she thinking right now? She
was probably searching for a way to turn down Izumi's
suggestion without causing trouble. Or maybe she was
calculating the risk of failure that would come with handing
off the job. Before she could say anything else, though, Izumi
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broke in again, more forcefully this time.
"I want to do it."
She looked at Hinami with even more determination
than before. I'd never seen her fight this hard against her
tendency to disappear into the flow. Ah, the power of love.
I was fairly sure she was taking this stand because she
wanted to help Nakamura personally. It wasn't a rational
position. She was just putting her feelings out there. The
power of her will to do what she wanted was no joke, but it
had no logic to back it up.
Basically, this was about as irrational as you could get.
She was totally prioritizing her own desires over efficient
problem-solving. Of course Hinami disapproved.
"I totally get where you're coming from, but…"
Her tone was bright, but she avoided saying anything
conclusive. Just as she was trying to find the shortest
possible path of escape from an illogical approach, Izumi
was again blocking her way.
Izumi's proposal might have been irrational, but it arose
straight out of her very genuine feelings for Nakamura. The
perfect heroine couldn't very well toss the idea away without
a backward glance. Hinami was probably internally
screaming. This was getting fun. The mood of the maiden in
love was powerful indeed.
Eventually, Hinami broke her silence.
"Okay! It's in your hands, Yuzu!"
Once again, logic had lost. She probably had to accept
irrational choices now and then as part of her role as the
perfect heroine, but doing so when she had to solve a
practical problem was the polar opposite of Aoi Hinami's
approach to life.
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Takei jumped in with a joke.
"You sure you can handle this, Yuzucchi?! Don't you
think you should leave it to Aoi?!"
I was surprised to hear Takei using his head, even
accidentally, but Izumi just raised one finger and winked.
"Leave it to me! I'm an expert at reading a room!"
She looked at me and smiled. Why was she being so
masochistic? And looking at me? Was it because she'd talked
to me about this? Well, if she was comfortable enough to
poke fun at it, that was a good thing. Plus, she was doing a
good job of stating her opinion.
In this short period of time, she'd really made progress.
EXP gained from love was a marvel to behold. Leveling up in
life wasn't exactly a competition, but I couldn't let my guard
down with her.
"Gotcha. So that's the plan," Mizusawa said, wrapping
up the meeting.
"All right, step one: talking to Kawamura-sensei!" cried
Hinami.
With that, the plan swung into action.
* * *
About an hour later, after Kawamura-sensei gave the goahead and Mizusawa led us to Nakamura's house, Izumi
headed off to her task while the rest of us went to wait in
front of a convenience store nearby. We'd been there for
about fifteen minutes when Hinami started to worry.
"It's been a while…"
Takei nodded.
"I wonder what they're talking about."
"Maybe Shuji was home, and they got into a
conversation," said Mizusawa.
We hung out, chatting and making random guesses, for
another ten minutes or so. Finally, Izumi returned, and she
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looked exhausted.
"Hey! What were you doing in there, Yuzucchi?!" Takei
asked, waving exaggeratedly. Izumi waved weakly back,
holding her hand at chest level.
"I got the info… Had to listen to Shuji's mom complain
about him the whole time…"
She gave a thin, weak laugh.
"Good work…," I said, almost without thinking.
"Yeah…thanks."
Izumi rested both her arms on Hinami's shoulder and
slumped there. Hinami patted her head.
"There, there."
"I'm not a baby!" Izumi protested. Hinami kept patting
her head for a little too long, teasing her. This was fun to
watch.
After a minute, Izumi leaped away from Hinami and
clapped her hands.
"…Anyway!"
"So? Why are they fighting?" Hinami asked, smoothly
switching modes. Izumi nodded quickly.
"I figured it out! Well, I mean, she just kind of told me,
but…"
She smiled awkwardly.
"…C'mon, tell us!" Hinami said eagerly, watching her.
Izumi sighed and frowned as she answered.
"He was playing Atafami too much, so she told him he
couldn't play at home anymore. That's why they got in a
huge fight…"
…
Everyone was silent for a second. Then Mizusawa and
Takei both let out huge sighs.
"I think I've finally met someone dumber than Takei…"
"Hey! Wait a second, that's harsh!"
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Izumi sighed, too, watching them. I could tell she
thought it was about the stupidest reason ever for such a big
fight.
But I also had my own feelings about this, and I probably
wasn't the only one. I glanced at Hinami. She was looking at
me. We nodded at each other, confirming our unspoken
thought, then looked away. When we heard the reason for
Nakamura's fight, we'd been on the same wavelength.
I don't care what's going on; you can't just ban Atafami!
But I decided not to let it show.
* * *
After leaving the convenience store, we went to a family
restaurant nearby.
"Well, whatever his reason, now is not a good time to be
missing a lot of school…"
Our morale had plunged, and Mizusawa was trying to
boost it again by reminding us of our goal.
"Yeah. It's really not. Anyway, the reason may be dumb,
but a fight's a fight…," Izumi said weakly, like she was trying
to find her motivation again.
"Right…" Takei was completely deflated.
On the other hand, Hinami and I were both feeling a
little more motivated than before.
"Yeah, we can't let it stay like this forever."
"Exactly! Plus, it must be tough not being allowed to do
his favorite thing!"
"What's with you two…?" Mizusawa said, noticing the
difference and looking at us suspiciously. Hinami quickly
changed the subject.
"Anyway, I think there's a lot we can do!"
"Really?! Like what?!"
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Izumi scooted up against her and waited eagerly for her
next words.
"Shuji's mom probably thinks playing Atafami makes his
brain rot or something."
"Oh… Yeah, she did seem to think that!"
"So…Tomozaki-kun," Hinami said, suddenly mentioning
me by name.
"Huh?"
"What was your class ranking at the end of last
semester?"
"Um, last semester? Around fortieth…"
Actually, it was thirty-eighth. Given there were a little
under two hundred kids in our year, that wasn't bad. I didn't
have bottom-tier grades, at least. But why was she asking?
"So you're probably above Shuji, right?"
Mizusawa nodded. "Yeah. He's not too bad, but I'm
guessing he's right around the middle."
Hinami grinned. "Plus…I've actually been playing a lot of
Atafami myself lately."
"Really? Guess everyone's getting into it these days."
Mizusawa smiled.
She said "lately," but NO NAME popped up online more
than six months ago. Well, in gamer terms, that was recent.
"Yup. Which means Tomozaki-kun and I both play
Atafami , and both of us are fairly good students. What if we
found a way to casually drop that info in front of Shuji's
mom?"
"…Aha."
Mizusawa smiled, but without much enthusiasm.
I got Hinami's point, too. She continued happily.
"Couldn't we clear up her misconception that Atafami
makes you dumb?"
The idea was slightly silly, but if the plan went well, the
problem would be resolved almost instantly. Telling her we
were both good students and Atafami players would be easy
enough.
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Mizusawa wasn't really enjoying this conversation, but
he rubbed his chin solemnly.
"It's not a bad idea… From what I've heard about
Yoshiko, she'd have respect for the top student in the class."
"…True."
I nodded. It was a stereotype, but I definitely had an
image of those overzealous helicopter moms latching onto
trustworthy information about other people: The smartest
kid in class is doing such and such!
Plus, I might not be that convincing on my own with my
grades, but the other Atafami player happened to be Aoi
Hinami, who was at the top of the class. This boosted the
persuasiveness of our argument significantly. We could even
argue that Atafami was excellent exercise for the brain. The
strategy was classic Hinami: a head-on attack; bulldozing
through with sheer effort.
Mizusawa agreed.
"So basically, we'll have Aoi go and chat with Shuji's
mom… But hasn't it been a while since last semester's
exams? Wouldn't it be unnatural bringing them up now?"
Aoi acted unsure for a second. Right before she
answered, her lips seemed to curl upward very briefly, but
maybe it was just my imagination. I was still bracing for the
worst.
"You have a point… It's already second semester, so that
might be weird… Maybe something else would be more
natural."
"Like what?" Mizusawa asked. Hinami hesitated again
and then, for some reason, looked me in the eye as she
continued.
"We have a math quiz the day after tomorrow, right?"
"Huh? Uh, yeah, but so what?" I had a bad feeling about
this.
Hinami grinned. "Well, when we go to his house again in
a few days to bring him his handouts…we'll bring Tomozakikun's and my answer sheets from the test! With scores of at
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least ninety."
"What?!"
Hinami's full-on sadism threw me for a loop. Hold up!
Ninety percent?!
"M-math isn't my best subject…," I protested.
Hinami laughed. Though she was smiling, her eyes were
glittering sadistically.
"Maybe so, but can't you try a little harder than usual for
Shuji's sake?"
"Uh, okay…"
I was trapped; she was using the same argument I'd used
earlier. What a perfect counter. She was getting her revenge.
"Uh, um…"
Suddenly, Izumi broke in, haltingly but with
determination. I glanced at her, and she was timidly holding
up her hand next to her face. Hinami blinked dramatically.
"Yes, Yuzu?"
Izumi looked at her.
"I've been playing Atafami lately, too."
"Oh, you have?"
I could tell Hinami wasn't ready for that.
Izumi nodded firmly. "Tomozaki told me I was almost
ready to be Shuji's practice partner. I think I practice more
than most people!"
"Really?" Hinami said, tilting her head quizzically. She
didn't sound very convinced.
Eventually, Izumi's gaze stopped shifting around, and
she met Hinami's eyes.
"So I'm thinking that if I also do well on the math quiz,
maybe that'll help convince her, too."
She waited solemnly for Hinami's answer. Once again,
she was insisting on what she wanted.
Hinami glanced at me, probably to see whether Izumi
was telling the truth about Atafami . Or maybe she was
thinking the two of us were enough, and Izumi didn't need
to take the trouble to score high on the quiz. And Hinami
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would never recommend wasting effort. After all, between
the famous Aoi Hinami and an extra person like me, we
ought to be plenty convincing. Not to mention, she was just
good at talking people into things.
From Hinami's logical perspective, Izumi didn't need to
wear herself out trying to ace the quiz. Which was why I
decided to argue.
"Izumi has been practicing hard lately, that's for sure.
And I know what I'm talking about when it comes to
Atafami . I think it's a good idea for her to join us."
Still looking at me, Hinami furrowed her brows for a
second, then went back to smiling cheerfully. Well, she
might have her ideas about what's best, but I'd made up my
mind to respect Izumi's desire to help the boy she liked.
Logic would just have to take a day off. After all, I knew what
it felt like to want to achieve something. Really, really knew.
"…All right, then!"
Hinami clapped her hands, pushing the conversation
along. Her tone was bright and sincere, but I bet she was
complaining deep down. "So that's your approach, huh,
Tomozaki?" I was gonna pay for this.
"So the three of us will get scores of at least ninety
percent on our math quiz! And when we bring the quiz to
Shuji, we'll casually bring it up during a conversation with
his mom! Sound good?"
"Yeah!"
"Sure."
Izumi and I nodded, and so did Takei and Mizusawa.
Hinami smiled enthusiastically. It was so weird how her
smile could be so nice when this wasn't going her way at all.
"The only other thing is whether Shuji would actually
want us to do it," she said.
"That's the question, isn't it?" Mizusawa smiled.
It wasn't like we were going to make things worse, but
Nakamura probably wouldn't take very well to us going over
and getting information from his mom, then coming back
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with a math quiz and making a little speech about how
playing Atafami doesn't rot your brain or whatever. In
which case, somebody should probably get him on board
with our plan first…
"So how are we going to convince him this is a good
idea? What—?"
"I'll give it a try."
Once again, Izumi broke in with great determination.
"Oh, okay. I'll leave it to you, then!"
Hinami must have learned her lesson, because this time,
she handed Izumi the baton without a fight. Izumi had
finally gained the inner strength to bend Hinami to her will.
The power of love was even stronger than the perfect
heroine.
I felt like this was a good job for her. After all, it was
almost an established fact that they both liked each other.
"But wait, isn't it gonna be hard to get Shuji to see you?"
Takei pointed out. Izumi giggled confidently.
"We have plans to go out this weekend! Shuji can be
difficult sometimes, but he wouldn't stand me up at the last
minute!"
Oh right, they had a date for the second week of
September. But Izumi's belief in him wasn't quite ironclad
just yet.
"…I don't think so, at least."
"Now you're not sure?" I asked, making an effort to tease
her and get a laugh from the others. I was really just copying
Nakamura's and Mizusawa's skill here. Mizusawa chuckled.
"Nah, I don't think he'd blow you off," he said, before
adding a teasing "…Probably."
"Hey! Have a little more faith in us, Hiro!"
Everyone laughed at Izumi's reaction. Yeah, watching us
speak back-to-back like this, it's obvious that Mizusawa still
has the upper hand when it comes to messing with people.
Gotta work on that.
Hinami looked at Izumi, her hand on her chin.
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"You know the quiz is on Thursday, right? You don't
mind studying before you check with Shuji?"
Her point was that if Nakamura didn't give us his
approval, then it wouldn't matter if Izumi scored 90 percent
or not. In other words, this could be a big waste of her time.
But for Izumi, Hinami's argument was trivial. She had
already made up her mind.
"I know I may not need to, but if there's a chance it'll
help, I want to do it."
"…Okay."
Izumi wanted to help Nakamura more than anything
else, even if there was a chance her effort would be wasted.
See, Hinami? This is what it looks like to follow your heart.
With our plan basically decided, Hinami started to wrap
up the discussion.
"Well, the rest is up to Shuji now. If Yuzu can convince
him, we'll use the plan we discussed to get his mom on board
with Atafami . Case closed. If not…we'll come up with
something else!"
"Agreed!"
Izumi was beaming. And with that, the strategy meeting
came to an end.
* * *
That night, I was sitting at my desk in my room, studying
math and reflecting on the events of the day. Hinami's overly
rational approach to the problem had surprised me. But
what stuck with me even more was the way Izumi was so
intent on following her heart. The reason Izumi took action
—her desire to help—was uniquely her own, but this wasn't
the first time I'd seen something similar. I didn't think she
was the only one who'd acted like this…
That was when I connected the dots between what
Kikuchi-san had said to me at the café and the reason Izumi
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took action in the current situation.
"So that means…"
I had a small aha moment.
It wasn't quite the same as Konno and her fear of others
looking down on her, but if my theory was correct, this new
weapon could play a major role in my quest to defeat her.
Maybe I should be thinking more along these lines—but
it probably wouldn't be enough. I'd just discovered another
way to strike at Konno's weaknesses, but it wasn't a powerful
enough weapon for a one-hit KO.
So do I need a way to strengthen it…or…?
I thought about it late into the night.
* * *
After school the next day, instead of the usual meeting with
Hinami, I was attending a different kind of gathering: a
study session for Izumi and me, led by Hinami.
"Yep, yep. If you substitute there…see?"
"Oh, that makes sense."
Predictably, Hinami was a good teacher. She instantly
intuited what I was having trouble with and knew exactly
what to say to help me put it together. Instead of giving me
the correct answer, she'd tell me just enough for me to
realize my mistake, fix it, and have the satisfaction of solving
the problem, which helped me remember the formulas much
better, too. She made an excellent tutor. Plus, she was
pretty.
But just as I was thinking that such a perfect teaching
style would guarantee better grades for anyone, the
exception to the rule popped up.
"Um…substitute for this 'X'?"
Izumi's brain was working so hard, I could almost see
the steam coming from her ears.
"Right. And then you can use this formula, which we just
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went over…"
"Um…which one was that again?"
"It's… Okay, here—"
"Oh…I-I'm sorry."
Izumi was having more trouble than I'd expected. She
was getting more and more dejected until finally, she was
reduced to apologies, and the tension was starting to rise.
But Hinami just turned to her with a slightly teasing,
mischievous smile.
"Yuzu…how in the world did you get into our high
school?"
"Sh-shut up!"
The two of them burst into giggles. The mood lightened.
Wow. That was a completely insignificant exchange, but
it was incredible to me. Instead of following Izumi's lead
with something like Don't worry about it! Hinami had
lightened the mood by teasing her for being a hopeless
student. It was a very advanced skill.
The funny thing was, her approach ended up creating
the impression that it didn't matter. If she'd said we still had
time or she shouldn't worry, it would have added more
weight to the failure by suggesting she didn't want to hurt
Izumi's feelings. Her tactic produced a better result, but it
was a bit too advanced for me to copy at this stage. I think
she was able to pull it off because she perfectly controlled
her tone and expression. If I tried the same thing, it would
probably come across as a low blow and hurt Izumi even
more.
Izumi laced her fingers together and stretched her hands
high over her head.
"I just happened to do well on the Hokushin test and got
in on early admission. This was actually the only place I
applied to."
"Oh, really?"
I listened from the sidelines, thinking about Saitama's
mysterious early-admission system. A couple times a year,
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junior high kids took the Hokushin, a prefectural scholastic
aptitude test. If you did well on that, you were virtually
guaranteed to pass the high school entrance exam. Basically,
if your two best scores were above a certain level, you could
count on passing the exam. Also, it was easier to pass if you
only applied to one school. Izumi must have lucked out and
made it to our school by scoring high enough on her top two
tests and getting the bonus for only applying here. Welcome
to the dark side of Saitama Prefecture.
"Yeah… But I think I'm starting to get this math stuff!
Thanks, Aoi-sensei!"
Hinami made a pained expression. "I've gotta head to
practice soon. Are you gonna be okay?"
"Oh right! I've gotta go, too!" Izumi said, hurriedly
packing her bag.
"So for the rest, will everyone just study on their own?"
Hinami asked us, sticking her notebook into her already
packed bag and slinging it onto her shoulder. She was even
efficient about this.
"Yeah, I think so…"
Izumi shut her notebook uncertainly and stuffed it into
her bag. I couldn't help thinking she'd have a tough time
studying enough tonight to get a ninety on the test the
following day. Hinami probably thought Izumi didn't need
to do that well as long as the two of us did, and that was why
she wasn't pushing her too hard. Which was true, if you were
only concerned about solving Nakamura's problem.
But the thing I wanted to avoid the most was for Izumi to
fail in what she wanted, which in this case was to get a high
score. It might be a silly goal, but I could feel something
indefinable in my heart saying I needed to go for it.
That's why I did what I did next.
"Um, Hinami?"
"…Huh? What?"
Hinami turned to me and answered just a moment too
late. She might have known she wouldn't like where this was
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going—and if she did, she was right. I scrunched my face
into a look of concern instead of a grin and told her my idea.
"I'm still feeling a little shaky on some points, so I was
wondering if we could go to a diner or something to study
some more after your practice."
"Uh… I won't get out till late…," she said, not giving a
clear yes or no.
"I was just gonna study in the library and go meet you
whenever you're done."
"Oh, really?" she said with clear displeasure. Now came
the meat of my proposal. I looked at Izumi.
"If you've still got questions, too, you wanna come with
us?"
Her eyes lit up. "If it's okay with you, Aoi, that would be
a real lifesaver!"
Anyone could have guessed her feelings from the
sparkles in her eyes—she was counting on Hinami from the
bottom of her heart. It was next to impossible for Hinami to
see all that hope and turn her down. She'd proven that much
several times the day before.
"…Okay then, let's all meet up afterward!"
She accepted our plan with a well-guarded smile, and I
could almost hear her yelling Goddammit, Tomozaki! at me
in her head. But I'd done it. Now Izumi would have a
fighting chance at getting a top score.
After Izumi used the power of hope to defeat Hinami, I
hunkered down in the library to study for a while. When
Hinami was available again, we met at a diner near school,
got another great tutoring session from her, and headed
home.
Well, I'd done everything I could. Now we just had to
take the quiz.
Man, following my heart was fun. The world seemed a
little brighter and more colorful—and I don't think I was
imagining things.
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* * *
It was break time before math class on the day of the test.
Izumi was on edge. Her eyes were puffy, and she was gulping
down a can of black coffee to drown her sleepiness. She
grimaced with every sip. She probably hated coffee and only
bought it because that's what people do when they're tired.
"…I hope this goes okay…" Shivering like a puppy, she
went over the notes from the day before again and again.
"You'll be fine! Think about how much you studied!"
Hinami said encouragingly.
"Y-yeah," I added. "Honestly, I'm worried, too…"
"Tomozaki-kun. We're focusing on Izumi right now,
okay?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, r-right… You'll be fine, Izumi."
"Uhhh, that wasn't very convincing!"
"Yuzu, why don't you go over the problems I showed you
yesterday? The ones that are most likely to be on the test."
"Ooh, good idea!"
"Y-yeah!"
"I wasn't talking to you, Tomozaki-kun…"
Under Hinami's watchful eye, the two of us looked over
our notes until the end of break. As soon as class started, the
math teacher handed out the quizzes, and I got to work on
the rows of numbers. I was slightly more nervous than usual,
but I muddled through all the questions.
Compared with our other quizzes so far, this one seemed
slightly harder. But thanks to Hinami's tutoring, I was fairly
confident in all my answers. And she was right about a
bunch of the problems she said would probably be on the
test. I'm bad at math, but this time, I think I might have aced
it.
When the time was up, we handed in our tests, and the
teacher quickly looked through them. In the meantime, I
leaned over to Izumi.
"…How'd it go?" I whispered.
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Her lips pressed together tightly, she nodded a few
times.
"Well, I'm not a hundred percent sure I couldn't do it. So
I can definitely say I don't know," she said in a rather
clipped tone. Huh?
"Uh…so I guess we just have to wait for the results."
"Yep. That's all we can do."
"…Yeah."
Maybe because she'd used part of her brain that she
didn't usually use, or maybe because she was anxious about
the results, Izumi was acting stiffer than usual. I decided to
leave her alone and focus on class.
Izumi, I really hope you reach your goal, even if it's by a
hair…
* * *
The next day was super embarrassing.
"Congratulations, Yuzu! You make your tutor proud!"
"Thanks! I really have you to thank!"
Izumi threw her arms around Hinami, who patted her
head. This time, Izumi let her do it without insisting she
wasn't a baby.
During the break after our math quizzes were handed
back, the three of us had gathered with Mizusawa and Takei
to go over our scores. Of course, Izumi and I had already
shown each other what we got, since we sit right next to each
other. Anyway, the all-important scores…
Hinami: 100 percent.
Izumi: 95 percent.
Me: 85 percent.
Meaning this little strategy ended with everyone but me
achieving their goal. What was I thinking the previous day? I
was the one who didn't reach my goal, and by quite a bit
more than a hair.
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"Aw, don't sweat it, Farm Boy!"
"Fumiya… Well, it wasn't a horrible score…"
"Sh-shut up! I told you, math isn't my thing!" I snapped
back, playing up the despair. All four of them laughed. Well,
that went over well. The area of effect for my skills must be
improving with practice. Now if I could just expand it to the
whole class, that would be huge.
Hinami seemed pleased by the results.
"But anyway, two of us scored over ninety, and
Tomozaki-kun… Well, he didn't quite hit the target, but his
score was still good. I think we'll be able to make a
convincing case!"
I was sure her smile had much less to do with the
support for our argument and more to do with her sadistic
pleasure in my low score. Still, I turned to Izumi and
nodded.
"So now all you have to do is tell Nakamura about the
plan."
"Right!"
Izumi nodded back, her smile full of that freedom and
relief that came with completing a difficult task. It was
impressive to think she'd gone from being that bad at math
to acing her test—all thanks to how strong her desire to help
Nakamura was. This was her special gift. Of course, what
right does the worst scorer have to be thinking about it at
all?
Hinami slapped Izumi's back lightly.
"Good luck talking Shuji into our plan this weekend!"
she said.
"Of course! I got this!"
Izumi patted her own chest with new confidence. I felt
like she'd just taken a step up toward the next tier. I also felt
like her chest jiggled a little when she patted it. Wait, what
am I talking about?!
* * *
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The following Monday, I had a quick morning meeting with
Hinami, then I headed to our classroom. The members of
the Nakamura Crisis Team, including Hinami, were already
together by the back windows. Most likely, Izumi was giving
them the rundown on her date with Nakamura over the
weekend.
"Man, you're late, Farm Boy!"
"Oh, uh, sorry."
Actually, I'd gotten to Sewing Room #2 early, and the
only reason I was late now was because Hinami had headed
to class first…so Takei's comment struck me as slightly
absurd, but my only option was to apologize.
"I told Shuji everything, just like I promised! I told him I
studied my butt off even though I hate math and got a
ninety-five, and he got all grumpy and called me stupid! You
can't get a ninety-five if you're stupid, though, right?"
"I don't think that's what he meant," I shot back. Izumi
brightened right up.
"Anyway, he said to 'do whatever,' so we're okay to move
forward with the plan! I was just telling everyone I think we
should go to his house today!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
So Nakamura's "do whatever " meant yes ? Normie
language was hard. Putting that aside, I was happy about
Izumi's good news. As I watched Izumi bask in her success, I
remembered the other thing I'd been wondering about.
"But…how did the date go?" I asked her.
"C'mon, it wasn't a date !"
Her face turned bright red. Talking about romance was a
weak point for her. Her and everyone alive, really.
"I was wondering about that, too! Give us the deets,
Yuzucchi!" Takei said.
"Um, well…"
As Izumi was trying to avoid answering, a massive pair
of hands reached out and grabbed her head, messing up her
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pretty, dyed-brown hair.
"'Sup?"
The owner of the hands was Nakamura. Wait,
Nakamura?! I did a double take. We were all staring at him
as he let her go. For some reason, Takei's eyes were filled
with tears.
"…Shuji!!"
Takei grabbed Nakamura by the shoulders and shook
him back and forth. Nakamura didn't look happy about it,
but he didn't brush him off immediately.
"…Stop it already, man!" he finally said, elbowing Takei
when he'd had enough.
"Owww!" Takei yelped, a huge smile on his face.
So Nakamura was back. Which meant the problem was
solved before Hinami ever implemented her plan.
"Hey. What's it been, a week?"
Mizusawa looked at Nakamura with a smile of defeat.
"I just skipped a couple days; you guys are making way
too big a deal out of this. I don't get why you studied super
hard just to argue with my mom."
Nakamura scratched his head roughly.
"What are you talking about? We busted our butts for
you!"
Hinami elbowed him teasingly. She was one of the few
people who could tease him naturally. I'd done it a couple of
times as an assignment, but I could never pull it off the way
she could.
"Yeah, yeah, fine. Thanks. Aren't you already good at
math?"
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"Yeah, but I had to work hard to teach these two!"
"Fine, I'll give you that. Not like I asked you to."
Nakamura made sure his thanks came along with some
snark. What he was saying was logical enough, and he
probably didn't want to come across as too humble. Some
good lessons there.
Izumi was standing next to Nakamura, shooting him shy
glances.
"…Morning."
Finally, she sighed out a quiet, vulnerable greeting for
his ears alone, blushing and peering up at him through her
lashes.
"…Hey."
She seemed to have had an effect, because Nakamura
looked away and sounded the tiniest bit embarrassed when
he answered. How can you two turn a simple good morning
into flirting? That's communication on a whole different
level. Even as dense as he was, Nakamura must have
realized how much effort Izumi put in over the past couple
days. Of course he would feel embarrassed. He quickly
rallied, however.
"But come on, you worry too much. What the hell,
getting a ninety-five on the quiz?"
And now he was needling Izumi, too. I think it might
actually kill him to be honest for once.
"What?! You made us so worried, and that's all you can
say?!"
"You always get a ton of problems wrong! It's just a
weird way of helping," he said bluntly. Maybe I was
imagining it, but I thought I saw a very un-Nakamura-like
glint of kindness deep in his eyes.
"That's so mean! It was all your fault!"
"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I'm not skipping school anymore,
so you can cut it out with all this," he said lightly, flicking
Izumi's forehead.
"Ouch! Stop it!" Izumi protested, but Nakamura had
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already turned to Mizusawa and started a different
conversation. She stared at his back with a mixture of anger
and reassurance.
I realized something as I watched her. The reason
Nakamura was back in school had less to do with Hinami's
rational strategy and more to do with Izumi's efforts. Her
simple desire to help Nakamura got through to him. That's
all there was to it. And that knowledge made me extremely
happy.
The bell rang a few minutes later. We all wanted to keep
talking, but we had to sit down. In the minutes before the
teacher got to class, while everyone was chatting noisily, I
heard someone whisper my name.
"Hey, Tomozaki!"
"…Yeah?"
I turned toward the voice. Izumi was looking down,
somehow staring off into space with fire burning in her eyes.
"Uh, what's wrong?"
This was different than usual. She tightened her fingers
around her pen on her desk, as if that fire was burning
brighter minute by minute.
"I just had a thought."
As if whatever was possessing her had released her, she
looked suddenly calm, with a quieter kind of excitement.
"What kind of thought…?"
She slowly turned toward me and looked me straight in
the eye. "Well…" Her gaze was powerful. I'd noticed her new
core of strength recently, but right now, that core suddenly
seemed way stronger. I remembered what Kikuchi-san had
said to me at the café in Omiya: "You're facing the future
more straightforwardly than you were before." That's
exactly how Izumi struck me at that moment.
"So…remember how I wasn't sure if I should help
Hirabayashi-san or not?"
"Huh…? Oh right."
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I nodded.
"I was on the fence at first, but not helping would be the
same as letting Erika tell me what to do. I'd be letting the
mood carry me along. I'd be the kind of person I'm trying
not to be anymore."
She strung the words together little by little, awkwardly
but steadily giving her feelings a concrete shape.
"Yeah…you did say that."
I sensed she'd arrived at an answer. My job right now
was just to listen. I had to become the bottom-tier character
again and hear her out without getting in the way.
"But…I realized right now I was wrong."
"Wrong about what?"
Izumi reached over to her right hand and squeezed her
fingers.
"I did everything I did because I wanted to help Shuji,
right?"
"Yes…"
She seemed to be working out her feelings as she spoke.
"I did everything I wanted, like volunteering to talk to
his mom and studying math. I got Aoi and everyone to help
me, and…I went a little crazy. Like, geez, chill out, right?"
She covered up her embarrassment with a little joke.
"Maybe—you were really going for it."
I couldn't help smiling as I thought back to how she'd
been acting lately. True enough, she was so intense about
this that Hinami was powerless against her. To say nothing
of the studying for math.
"Ah-ha-ha. Thought so. I was on overdrive, and now I'm
kinda regretting it…"
"Ha-ha-ha…really?"
In a sense, she'd lost sight of reason.
"But at the same time…Shuji came back to school after
all that. And I realized something."
"Mm-hmm?"
She looked down at her chest like she was trying to see
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into her heart.
"It seems obvious, but…I did everything because I just
wanted to help Shuji, right?"
"…Yeah."
"No one told me to do it, right?"
"Nope, no one did."
Izumi took a deep breath. "So I think the same should go
for Hirabayashi-san."
"…How so?"
She looked back at me.
"Erika tried to make me captain, but that doesn't matter.
I want to help Hirabayashi-san, so I'm going to help her.
That's it!"
I was fairly surprised to hear that.
"Really…? So you'll just do what you want?"
She nodded deeply again.
"Yeah. I don't care about the mood. If I want to help her,
then I should help her. That's what I want to do!"
Her words and expression were gentle, yet firm and
powerful, like a willow tree. She looked at Hirabayashi-san,
who sat near the front of the classroom.
"I'm going to ask her if she wants me to take over the
role of captain. If she still says she'll do it, then I'll leave it to
her, but I think she's probably having a really rough time
with Erika."
Her voice was full of resolve, as if the fog had cleared.
"…Huh, that could be a good approach."
"I think so… Thanks for listening to me, Tomozaki! I feel
better now!"
Her tone clearly required major skill—soft, but full of
energy—and her charming smile was like a ray of sunlight.
"Er, I mean…you're welcome."
"Oh, also," she said, lowering her voice. "Let's keep
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working on Erika, too."
She smiled mischievously and jokingly raised one finger.
Her expression was as cheerful as a sunflower, but filled
with a light that was uniquely Izumi's.
The teacher had arrived, and class was about to start, but
I nodded back at Izumi.
"Sure thing!"
She grinned and then turned toward the front of the
class.
Interesting.
I mulled it over for a bit.
Even when everyone had been trying to pin the role of
captain on someone else—
Even though the class queen had tried to force her into
doing it—
Even though she'd rather not do it—
Even though doing it would require sacrificing herself—
Even then.
If she wanted to help someone and made the choice
herself, then she wasn't succumbing to the mood or
someone else's will.
It was an act she chose herself, thanks to her own
steadfast will.
That was a discovery she had made on her own. From an
outside perspective, it probably didn't look like a dramatic
change. You could even say her actions themselves took her
back to her old self—helping someone in trouble and taking
on a job no one else wanted.
But it was what she wanted to do. And that was why she
was able to walk down her own path so confidently.
When I realized that, I was filled with admiration for
Yuzu Izumi's strength. She had found how she wanted to live
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and grabbed hold of it.
"Damn…she's one strong character," I murmured,
nodding at my own conclusion.