Chapter 5

I wake up and put on a pair of workout clothes that I got yesterday and go outside to do my exercises. It was nice and calm, no one was awake yet, and everything just felt so serene. When I finished my workout and martial arts practice I went back up to my room to shower and put on my uniform. When I left my room refreshed I still saw nobody. I checked my phone for the time. It said 6:15 about two and a half hours before the start of the first period, I sigh.

I decided to just go to the convenience store to get my lunch. I buy a pre-packaged ham sandwich and make my way to school very early and take a look around everywhere. I start with the main building and take a look around and build a comprehensive mental map of the place. I continued until I reached the top floor of the main building where I encountered something interesting.

I could hear noises coming from inside of the 'Student Council' Room, so I decided to enter and see what was going on. What greets me is a bright room with only two people inside it, a girl with purple hair that is tied in two buns with bangs hanging over her eyebrows and peach-brown eyes standing behind a man with short gray hair that is swept to the left, violet eyes and square-rimmed glasses who was working on some papers. I thought that the guy looked familiar and quickly placed the face, he looked similar to Horikita. I look at them and try to justify my entry.

"Oh! I didn't know anyone was here at this time. Sorry!" I said and at least the purple haired girl seemed to understand, she was still annoyed but she understood. The gray-haired man just sat unflinching until he spoke up.

"You must be one of the new freshmen. Do you mind telling me your name?" He asked as he finally looked up from his papers and stared me in the eyes. I call it a stare but it was very similar if not a glare. I matched his stare without yielding to it and told him my name.

"I am Doi Katsu. A pleasure to meet you, Horikita" Both of them seemed very surprised that I knew the gray-haired man's family name. He inquired further.

"Do you know me?" He asked a perfectly reasonable question. I had to reply sooner rather than later.

"Nope!" I say giving a long pause before I continue so the room can cool down a little bit. The elder Horikita didn't let himself show his emotions.

"I do know your sister though, I had the displeasure of sitting next to her on the bus. Not a very friendly one." The older Horikita nods regretfully and formally introduces himself.

"I am Manabu Horikita, the Student Council President. This." he pointed with his thumb at the purple-haired girl behind him.

"Is Akane Tachibana, my Secretary." She nodded with pride at being named his secretary. I continued the pleasantries.

"Nice meeting you, Tachibana, and Student President" I do a deep bow to show my sincerity. After I was done with my bow Manabu started talking.

"You can leave now." he said in a monotone as he went back to working on his papers. Tachibana also continued not paying attention to me. I shrug my shoulders and turn tail out of the door. When I exited the light assaulted me and caused me to go blind for a short period. I still exited and closed the door calmly, and didn't make a scene.

I continued with my exploration of the school grounds and found something interesting. There are multiple spots on school grounds where there is no camera coverage. This includes the special building, where the chemistry labs are, and behind most of the school buildings are also excluded from coverage. There are other areas but the others might attract doubt since they are mostly alleys.

I check my phone for the time and see that I guess I should get to class, it's not like i'll be late or anything, I'm still 20 minutes early but it's better than two and a half hours early so I make my way to class slowly, and using a longer route.

I turn a corner and bump into a small silver haired girl around the same height as Sakayanagi and make her drop her books.

"Sorry! I'll help you with those!" I say as I kneel down to pick up the books. The petite girl weakly says back.

"It's fine, it was an accident anyway" She also gets down to pick up some of the books.

While helping her I see what has apparently become the new fad, 'Cry For Exile', I sigh inwardly, but continue helping her until we have picked up all the books. All the books were very sizable, I'm surprised that she was able to carry all of those around with her little body. I introduced myself to her.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Doi Katsu." She ponders for a little bit before mustering up the courage for her introduction.

"I am Hiyori Shiina, pleasure to meet you Katsu, and thank you" Shiina said very softly. I didn't really catch the last part, but I assumed it was a thank you. She holds her hand that isn't clutching books to her body out towards me, I see what she wants me to do, but I won't do it. I take the books in her other hand and add them to my arms swiftly.

"Ok. Where were you going?" I ask insinuating that I was going to help her carry these all the way to her destination.

"Oh no… That's not necessary. I'll be fine." Shiina says unconfidently

"I've got nothing better to do anyway" I say knowing that if I wasn't helping her I probably would be just sitting on my desk fiddling with my phone for a bit. At least here I have the opportunity to be with a cute girl and kind of get some exercise in, it really is a win-win. She seemed to still feel bad about it, so I just started walking in the direction of the Library.

"Ah! Wait!" She caught up with me. Instead of being in awkward silence the rest of the way, Shiina decided to start the conversation.

"Are you related in some way to the author Doi Katsu?" she asked me, I can't say that I didn't see this question coming eventually but I decided to reply as best I can.

"Well of course I know him. He's me." I laughed at my own response. Sadly, Shiina didn't seem to understand the joke, but she did understand that I am in fact the author of 'Cry For Exile'.

"Wow! So do you like books?" Shiina asked me very excitedly. I decided to answer in kind.

"Of course! Why do you think I wrote my own!" I say she seemed excited at the prospect of having someone who also indulges in her hobby as a friend.

The rest of the way was filled with chatter about our favourite book, favourite characters from different books, it wasn't analytical, just who we like more or hate more. It was good fun. When we arrived she guided me to where she read the day prior and asked me to set them down there. I looked at my phone for the time.

"It's almost time for classes, See you around Shiina." I made my way to Class-A and arrived with ample time to spare, and was in fact the last one to come in. I felt a bit embarrassed since I did accentuate being early and a good student, but I was still not late, so I didn't do any bad. I went to my seat and sat down, as soon as I did the bell rang. It felt like I blinked and it was the lunch break.

I took out my ham sandwich I bought earlier and started talking to a group of Class-A kids. Sakayanagi followed after a girl with thigh-length purple hair that is tied in a long ponytail on the right side with bangs to the right side and purple eyes, who introduced herself as Masumi Kamuro. My discussion with the group was broken up by an announcement on the speaker system.

"Today, at 5pm in gymnasium number 1, there will be a club fair. For those of you with an interest in clubs, please come to gymnasium number 1. I repeat, today" A cure girlish voice announced on the PA. I think that girl was Tachibana, it would fit her. I didn't get to hear her talk, but I would think that a cute girl like her would have a cute voice. The conversation in the group veered towards the likes of 'Which club are you looking to join?'. Until the question came out.

A fellow called Yahiko Totsuka slung his arm over my shoulder and asked the fateful question.

"Which club you got your eye on?" I sigh inwardly.

"A writing or literature club ideally, maybe an improv club" I say thoughtfully. The group of people seemed a bit shocked even Totsuka took his arm off my shoulder in shock.

"You wanna do all that boring stuff even after school ends?" Machida, one of the group members says. It seems to be the question of the hour since everyone nods along to the question.

"You guys might find it boring, but I like it" I say with a small smile on my face, seeing that the atmosphere was getting stale others went in for their choices of clubs