I’m not quite accustomed to directly going from the hospital to school.
Since I came here around mid-April, my frequency of hospital stays might seem quite high, but if I exclude the duration, it hasn’t been much.
I’ve gone directly to school from the hospital even less than that.
So, I wouldn’t say I’m used to it…
What should I say?
Even though I’m not used to it, strangely, I feel a sort of comfort.
Isn’t that right?
I was hospitalized in a hospital located in Minato Ward, and of course, it wouldn’t take me an hour and a half to get to school.
The hospital has beds. It’s much softer and more comfortable than sleeping on the floor with just a blanket spread out.
Moreover, the air conditioning is perfect, so I could stay throughout the night without feeling too hot or too cold. I did sweat a little because of Koko next to me, but that’s nothing compared to being sandwiched between Koko and Kuro in the middle of summer.
Plus, the food is delicious.
Compared to the usual Japanese food I eat outside, it might be a bit bland, but it’s still tasty. Being able to eat meals balanced with carbohydrates and proteins is a blessed thing.
My cooking skills aside, when compared to the limited ingredients I can usually use at home, this is a luxurious level.
Koko also sparkled her eyes while having meals together. Technically, all three of us were hospitalized, so Koko and Yuka had the same meal served to them.
Koko finished everything without leaving even a grain of rice behind, but Yuka seemed to be nibbling at hers.
“Oh, right.”
Yuka suddenly brought something up as if she had forgotten something.
“That girl you saved yesterday, she has recovered safely. It seems like it wasn’t too late.”
“…I’m glad to hear that.”
Since there were no other specific comments, it seems like she isn’t coming to thank me or that girl’s older sister isn’t coming to express gratitude.
I understand. To think that I saved her is a strange thing.
From that girl’s perspective, I must have appeared to suddenly disappear, but from an ordinary person’s viewpoint, it’s unlikely they would think “Oh, he just teleported to save someone.”
Usually, they’d probably think, “Did I just lose sight of him?”
Plus, can it even make sense for a high school girl to dive into a burning building like that? The firefighters were conspicuously absent for some reason, but the police were guarding the entrance.
Still, it was a dangerous move to enter the building. No one would know what could fall inside a burning building. If a part of the building’s shell fell, not only could they be injured, but they could even die.
Well, I suppose they must have felt desperate enough to take that action.
And that younger sister… she really survived miraculously. The chances of someone fainting from gas inhalation being ‘safe’ are extremely rare.
Well, their troubles are far from over.
I’m not sure if both parents died, but at least one of them must have. If it was something that would attract a Yōkai like Hacha, there’s a high probability that it was the person financially supporting that family.
In a situation where such a person dies, will that family properly get by?
…No, they probably have more money than I do.
If someone tortures another to the point of wanting to kill them, they must have had some considerable trust in them.
“…”
Feeling a bit bitter while eating, I suddenly sensed some discord.
When I wondered what that discord was, I looked at Yuka.
“Hmm? Why?”
As I suddenly turned to look at her while eating, Yuka seemed a bit flustered and asked.
I was lying in a private hospital room, as usual. I wasn’t sure where the room that Koko and Yuka were to be hospitalized in was. Koko was sitting across from me at the table attached to my hospital bed, and Yuka was at a table a little away from my bed.
…No, that’s not the important thing right now.
“Yuka.”
I looked directly at Yuka and said.
“How did you know that girl was the one who bullied me?”
“Oh.”
Yuka’s hand, which had been nibbling at her food, abruptly halted in midair.
Yuka was generally quite expressive with her emotions, but I don’t think I’ve seen her show such a confused expression in front of me before.
“You haven’t seen her, right?”
That’s true.
Yuka also got involved in the incident when we had that street fight.
But it wasn’t the girl herself who was there; it was that girl’s boyfriend. So, it means Yuka hasn’t directly seen the girl.
Yet, she recognized her before I, the one who was bullied, did. This means she not only heard about her but also knew what she looked like.
“Uh… well, that is to say…”
Yuka rolled her eyes around, sweating a little, but as I stared at her, she eventually sighed deeply and said,
“…I asked later. My grandfather had a talk with her parents.”
I see.
Well, Yuka might brush it off casually, but her grandfather would probably have blood boiling at the thought.
While he might have laughed it off back then because of me, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to think he sternly warned those who touched his granddaughter afterward.
A bad person is a bad person because they lack loyalty. If it were even between a married couple, there might be a minimum level of loyalty, but if it’s just a boyfriend-girlfriend situation, it’s a different story.
“That girl actually pleaded.”
Yuka simply summarized it.
So, her boyfriend was actually saying he wasn’t at fault but was just listening to what his girlfriend said and it resulted in this situation.
“…”
“Re-really? I didn’t investigate or anything!”
Now, saying that just makes me more suspicious.
…Well, what does it matter?
Narrowing my eyes as I watched Yuka, I shrugged my shoulders.
I tend to worry Yuka all the time. If there are issues trailing behind me, I would want to know the causes. Ultimately, the biggest root cause lies with me.
“I got it. I’ll believe you.”
“Uh, uh…”
As I generously replied, Yuka seemed a bit flustered and dumbfounded by the reaction and then realized,
“But, why am I even explaining this to you?”
Suddenly realizing that, her eyes widened in surprise.
Oh no.
I turned my gaze back to the tray and focused on my breakfast.
*
A fall sports festival.
Honestly, when I was in school, I thought the sports festivals were pretty much just a way to skip classes and nothing more.
The school I attended wasn’t particularly famous for its sports team nationwide, nor did we have outstanding extracurricular activities.
Unless you count sports competitions like wrestling, volleyball, soccer, and basketball, it was pretty much just neighborhood kids gathering together.
It was held on weekdays, so there weren’t many outsiders coming in. Honestly, the elementary school sports festivals felt more festive.
But here, the atmosphere was a little different.
“Wow!”
Koko’s eyes sparkled.
On the spacious playground, an enormous number of students were bustling around. Everyone was in gym clothes.
Well, I understand that they’re in sportswear since it’s a sports festival.
Seeing the female students wearing “buruma” made me realize that we’re definitely in a light novel setting.
This kind of portrayal became a norm only in the early-to-mid 2000s, so I casually thought that in Japanese high schools, it would be standard. It wasn’t until years later that I learned it was practically extinct back in 2000.
Most shows that came out later just had characters in T-shirts and shorts. If characters wore “buruma,” that probably meant the creators were old otaku who remembered that era.
…Well, that’s just a story from the world I lived in.
Here, this is normal.
I mean, I am wearing it too.
“Okay, everyone, gather around!”
Fukuda shouted, gathering our class cheerleading team.
All the members were female students.
Among our class, the only pure “cheerleading” kids, including me, Fukuda, and Koko, were just seven. The number of kids needed to participate in the ball games was quite a lot.
Some were even registered for different events, so they wouldn’t overlap.
Especially for the flower of the sports festival, the relay race, all the students participating were already representatives from other categories.
So, based on our class, as well as others, it seemed that those who were not competing at the moment cheerfully cheered. Of course, they were just in sportswear.
As for the “cheer team,” I was the only one in a gakuran.
In reality, while Fukuda was the leader, I was the only one dressed like this, so naturally, I ended up occupying the central spot of our cheer team.
In my male school uniform, with a headband on, I took up the role of cheering, yelling “Osu!” or something like that.
On both sides were Fukuda and Koko, and beside them stood other girls who cheered along with us.
…Mako, I appreciate you giving me non-revealing clothes, but I really didn’t want to stand in the center…
But since we had already practiced in that formation, turning back was impossible.
“Well, the first event is… arm wrestling!”
It was quite a cute competition for a high school sports festival.
But I suppose resolving these lighter and shorter events first is convenient from the school’s perspective.
“Then let’s all go cheer! Our class representative will give it their all!”
I thought the word choice was pretty “gyaru”-like, but I rushed out with the kids.
*
And the cheering turned out to be quite effective.
Right? The one we were cheering for was a high school student.
Now that I’ve passed that phase where I’d turn beet red at just a slightly risqué conversation, if you’re a first-year student, many might still not have any resistance toward girls.
The representative student from our class who was getting the cheer turned bright red in the face.
That’s right. The effect was effective, but it backfired.
Even though he was wearing shorts underneath, the sight of a girl in a short skirt, “Play—Play—!” bouncing around showed off her belly button; it seemed like something aimed specifically at male students.
“Ah.”
For just a moment, the boy who had been looking at Fukuda got flustered and ended up losing.
His already red face turned even redder, and silence enveloped the area.
Well… I guess it’s unfortunate.
What can we do? One of them had to lose anyway; falling behind is simply how competition goes.
However, I think I need to suggest from now on that we cheer from the back rather than in front.
That way, the male students on the other side might make mistakes when they look at Fukuda.
*
Cheering turned out to be more enjoyable than I expected.
Though our first cheer ended in a hollow conclusion, afterward, following my suggestion, we cheered from behind and succeeded in inducing mistakes from the opposing team.
Well, after the first half ended and we switched positions, our side got a bit chaotic, but at least among those who were in the same class as Fukuda, I seemed to have built up some immunity compared to other classes.
Moreover, the boys had seen us practicing several times.
“We won!”
When the basketball team won, the nearby guys exploded with excitement as if they were Olympic representatives jumping around. Even girls who usually didn’t talk to me much came and hugged me, jumping around with me.
At first, it felt a little uncomfortable.
“Wow!”
But seeing Koko joyfully jumping around with me made me feel like, well, maybe it didn’t matter anymore.
What does it matter?
Our class should win.
“You’re amazing, Mako-chan!”
When Mako’s piebald team won, we cheered happily.
As the ace, Mako was blushing bright red. Since she wasn’t wearing glasses for once, her unsealed beauty seemed to shine.
By appearances, she gave off the vibe of someone who just reads books, yet Mako performed fantastically.
Yamashita’s race was towards the end of the event.
The tug-of-war was just something everyone participated in. Having been scheduled just after lunch, I still hadn’t participated in any events aside from cheering.
Yet still, I could feel my energy dwindling as I unknowingly mixed in with the kids, having fun.
Realizing that made me feel a bit embarrassed.
*
I’m not quite sure if they do it during actual sports festivals.
I feel like we used to back in elementary school, but my memories of middle and high school are quite faint.
Leaving middle school aside, high school was likely a boys’ school, so they probably didn’t do it. Since we were friends of the same gender, such things tend to become more awkward.
What I’m saying is… in a “romantic comedy,” there’s usually a particular event, right?
Where you run to find a paper and then bring back the item or person written on it.
In [Tokyo Slayers], they simply skipped the sports festival, so there isn’t a precise depiction, but at least there’s a rough description of the situation.
Yuka gets to represent their class in that game.
In fact, she ended up representing not just that event, but other running events as well.
Well, that much is understandable. Yuka runs incredibly fast. I can vouch for that since I’ve seen her fight for her life every time.
It’s not detailed what paper Yuka ended up picking, but when the episodes started following the sports festival, she ended up getting teased by her classmates after the event.
Not bullying, but you know those situations, right? The kind where everyone laughs while teasing a boy-girl couple.
I’m not sure which paper Yuka picked, but she ended up dragging Sasaki along and came in first place.
Considering that Yuka was the most extreme tsundere character, she definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as “someone she likes,” but looking back on it later, it would have been extraordinarily embarrassing.
Thanks to that, at the beginning of that episode, Yuka starts off getting surrounded by other heroines.
What about now?
Around the time the morning competitions were nearing an end and the excitement had calmed down slightly, that competition was like a bonus. It wasn’t a serious contest, just something everyone could enjoy lightly.
The race venue used was just the typical 50-meter running track, but instead of a finish line, there was a basket full of papers waiting at the end.
Each paper had random instructions, and the objective seemed to be to return with the corresponding item or person.
Even though it was a bonus, the kids leading the cheering showed no signs of wanting to lose.
Especially the kids cheering already laid out their items on their laps or on the ground in front of them.
Our representative was Yamashita. And as stated in the original work, Yuka represented her class.
Now that I was curious, even though Yuka isn’t showing her tsundere side towards Sasaki like in the original, she still had a bit of rapport with him.
If there were descriptions similar to Sasaki’s in the notes, it would only make sense for her to choose Sasaki.
“Okay, everyone, to the starting line!”
A student with a megaphone shouted. She seemed to be one of the student council members.
Seeing her already wearing a happy expression, it didn’t seem like there was only easy content in the notes.
Could it possibly say something like “a person you think is handsome?”
While I was pondering that, I quietly watched from the side.
“Okay then, everyone—Go!”
Bang!
The sound of the starting gun fired, and the kids dashed forward energetically.
No one dawdled. Even Yuka, quite invested, was running neck and neck with Yamashita.
However, this race wouldn’t just end if they went on till the end.
Both reached the end almost simultaneously and started to read the instructions from the papers they pulled out and turned back.
The first one to lift their head was Yuka.
And for some reason, that gaze headed straight towards me.
…And Yuka quickly ran towards me.
Huh?
Wha—what is this? You’re in a different class, right?
But Yuka ignored the surprised murmurs gathering around her and reached out, pulling my arm. Stunned, I stood up to face her.
Yuka smiled brightly as she spoke.
“Let’s go.”
And I ran.
Unlike when going to pick up the paper, Yuka didn’t run too fast, seemingly trying to be considerate towards me. Her speed was such that she was slower than Yamashita, who had reached after us and was pulling Mako along.
In the end, we entered the finish line in third place.
Yamashita was showing that paper to Mako, who had a similar dumbfounded expression as mine. Upon seeing what was written, Mako’s face lit up, and she cheerfully high-fived Yamashita.
What’s going on?
To my puzzled face, Yuka heaved a light sigh and handed me the paper.
I received the paper and tilted my head in confusion—
“Ah.”
It said “Best Friend” written on it.
I see.
If you go with your best friend, the boy must be a point of misunderstanding.
Well, of course, Yuka had her own feelings about the choice, though.
I chuckled.
“There’s no mention saying you can’t go with someone from another class, right?”
Yuka, looking a bit bashful, replied.
“If I brought along Sasaki, wouldn’t we have been able to come in first?”
As I said that, Yuka tilted her head in confusion.
“Sasaki… well, I think of him as a friend, but you’re my closest one, right?”
Yuka said that so matter-of-factly that I couldn’t help but laugh again.
Yeah, that’s true.
Best friends, huh?
So many secrets shared.
With a refreshing smile, as Yuka extended her hand, I slapped her hand back for a high five.
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