After a difficult quest, your latent abilities rise to the surface

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.