『』『』『』『』『』
After leaving the café, Kumagawa simply followed Otogami around, much to the latter's displeasure.
For Kumagawa, it wasn't as though he had anything better to do. Since he had no plans in particular, tagging along with Otogami seemed like the most natural choice.
『By the way, senpai— 』
"Just call me by my name. Don't call me 'senpai.' It's disgusting."
『Ahaha. But wouldn't calling you "Otogami-kun" be even ruder? You're my senior, after all. Even if I was the reason you got expelled, that doesn't suddenly erase your age, does it? I'd hate to be mistaken for someone with no manners. 』
"On the contrary, calling me 'senpai' is even more degrading, especially when you're the reason I got expelled. It's not that I'm complaining. It's more a matter of pride," he said while complaining.
『.... 』
Kumagawa's question, which sounded like he was simply trying to fan the flames, and Otogami's cynical answer should have ended the conversation right then and there. From anyone's perspective, it was clearly the end of the discussion. But, as usual, Kumagawa had no sense of social cues or proper decorum and continued anyway.
『Then, Otogami-kun. Do you happen to know a girl named Ikari Momoko?』
"Hmm? She's my girlfriend."
That was Otogami's answer.
『Eh? You can have a girlfriend?』
Hearing that, Otogami couldn't help but scowl.
"What do you mean by that? Of course I can have a girlfriend... huh? Wait. Is she still my girlfriend, or is she my ex-girlfriend?"
For some reason, he suddenly started questioning his own relationship status.
Even Kumagawa was giving him a strange look. 『You don't know whether she's still your girlfriend? 』
"Well, it's not like we ever broke up. Even after I got expelled, she said she still loved me and told me to wait for her or something."
『Isn't that a good thing? It sounds like you have a childhood friend faithfully waiting for you.』
"I don't have any problem with how she feels, and I could easily accept it. But we can't even keep in touch until she graduates, right? What if she changes her mind halfway through? Not that I'm complaining. I wouldn't blame her if that happened, but I don't want to tie myself down to that kind of relationship," he said. "In that sense, I'd rather devote myself to music instead."
『Even though you say you can accept her feelings, it doesn't really sound like you're attached to her at all. Not that I'm complaining, but are you even willing to wait for her? 』
"Tsk, then stop complaining. If she comes back to me after she graduates, then I'll accept her. If she doesn't, that's fine too. I don't particularly have a problem with either outcome."
Contrary to his attitude, Otogami Hibiki was surprisingly someone without any real conviction regarding his love life.
Then, without any warning...
『Then, do you want to meet her? 』 Kumagawa suddenly asked.
"Who?"
『Your girlfriend. 』
"Eh? She's here? Did she get expelled too? Did you expel her?"
『How rude. What kind of person do you think I am? Besides, don't you know your girlfriend is in the volleyball club? Didn't I mention that I was accompanying the sports clubs to their competitions?』
"You never mentioned it was the volleyball club.
『Shouldn't you have been able to guess that? What a horrible boyfriend you are. Ahaha. 』
"....."
How was he supposed to guess that?
Did he have any idea how many sports clubs there were at the school, let alone how many were participating in the Winter Cup? Even if not every club qualified, ANHS was still a prestigious school, so there were bound to be quite a few that did.
『Well, in any case, I was supposed to accompany both the boys' and girls' volleyball clubs. They both have matches tomorrow, and your girlfriend is competing as well. 』
"Hmm...?"
Otogami blinked.
『What is it? 』
"Now that I think about it.... Why did you suddenly bring up my girlfriend? Even if I'm her boyfriend... no, was her boyfriend? Anyway, how did you even know about us? Just because you're accompanying the volleyball club doesn't necessarily mean you'd know we're in a relationship, does it?"
It was a perfectly reasonable question.
Even if Kumagawa had been assigned to accompany the volleyball club, that alone shouldn't have been enough for him to know something as personal as who was dating whom. Unless someone had told him directly, or he had gone out of his way to ask, there was no reason he should have known about Otogami and Momoko's relationship in the first place.
At the very least, Otogami couldn't remember ever mentioning it to him.
『Well, I just tried my luck with the girls' volleyball club. 』
He said.
"...What?"
『Isn't there a Shounen Jump cliché where you're supposed to find love during a tournament? You know, friendship, effort, and victory. But just as you'd expect, not only did I get rejected, it turns out some of them already had someone they loved. Your girlfriend happened to be one of them. 』
What a bold thing to admit.
Otogami simply stared at him.
For a brief moment, he wondered whether he had misheard something. Unfortunately, judging from Kumagawa's expression, that didn't seem to be the case. The idiot had apparently confessed to trying to hit on every girl in the volleyball club with such casual honesty that there wasn't even a trace of shame in his voice.
"Well, putting that aside, if I had to choose whether to meet her or not, it'd definitely be a—"
"HEY, HEY, GET OUT OF THE WAY!"
His words were suddenly cut off by the shout of a girl, prompting both of them to turn toward the source of the voice. They could hear thunderous footsteps that seemed capable of wearing down the asphalt, followed by the screech of bicycle brakes.
The brakes of a BMX.
It came to a stop right in front of them.
Just then, Kumagawa found himself face-to-face with the girl on the BMX. For a brief moment, the two simply stared at each other.
The panic on her face lasted only an instant before twisting into outright disgust.
"Geh!? Why are you here? Shit! I didn't see anything about this!"
『Hmm? Aren't you... 』
"AH! Whatever! I don't have time for this—"
"There she is!"
Before she could finish, several men dressed in black suits burst around the corner.
Every single one of them pointed toward the girl on the BMX.
"Don't let her get away!"
"Cut her off!"
The girl clicked her tongue. "Seriously? You people are still chasing me?"
The men immediately gave chase.
Within seconds, what had started as a normal afternoon street had turned into a full-blown pursuit.
『Shouldn't you stop and try negotiating with them at this point? 』
"Like hell I'm stopping!"
The girl didn't even glance back.
Without slowing down, she stood on the pedals and shot the BMX into a narrow side street barely wide enough for a single car. She weaved past pedestrians, slipped back onto the road between moving cars, then disappeared into an alley across the street.
"Dammit!"
"The alley!"
The suited men split up without hesitation. Some charged straight into the alley after her while the others broke off into adjacent side streets, seemingly intending to intercept her from the other end.
Kumagawa watched the chase disappear into the distance as casually as if he were watching children play tag.
『Should we follow her? 』He said.
"...Why?"
『Why not? 』
"Not that I'm complaining, but... she's obviously running away from something troublesome. The people chasing her don't exactly look normal either. Anyone with common sense would stay as far away from that as possible."
『Well, that's how a normal person with common sense would think. But neither you nor that girl is exactly normal, right? 』
Otogami fell silent. After a while, he let out a sigh.
"...You realized?"
『Of course. As Anshin'in-san's favorite human, and her former superior, it's pretty easy to notice things like that. I have a pretty good eye, you know? 』
"Right... good enough to the point of rotten. Why would you even pay attention to something like that?"
『Now, now, don't sweat the small stuff. As one of her kind, shouldn't this be your job? Why am I the one who has to motivate you? It should be the other way around. Come on, let's go! 』
He said that while following the trail left by the BMX.
"...Is that really what you've been thinking our relationship was all this time?"
There was nothing sadder.
With another reluctant sigh, Otogami shoved both hands into his pockets and followed after him.
When they entered the alley across the street, instead of being a normal passage connecting two roads, it felt more like a maze. The paths branched off in every direction, so unless someone already knew the way, getting lost wouldn't have been surprising, let alone trying to find someone.
Fortunately, the girl had left behind a trail from her BMX tires. All they had to do was follow it.
But for some reason...
『Oooh... how impressive. 』
"No, no, no, no. Not that I'm complaining, but... why is there a tire track going straight up the wall?"
Not only was it vertical, but one of the tracks even curved into the shape of an "S," as though the girl had been riding along the wall instead of the ground.
After following the bizarre trail left across the ground and walls for a while, they finally caught up to the girl. Instead of riding her BMX, however, she was lying face-first on the ground, while the bike itself had bent into a strange shape.
Walking over until they were right beside her, Kumagawa crouched down and called out to her.
『It's been a while, isn't it? 』
"—!!!"
The girl immediately lifted her head and found herself face-to-face with Kumagawa Misogi. Naturally, after what was probably a face-first crash into the concrete, blood was running from her nose. But the moment she recognized his face, every trace of pain vanished from her expression.
It was immediately replaced by disgust.
『Hello, Uranaiya-chan. It's me. 』
Uranaiya Urushione
The fortune teller girl.
She was the one who had set up a pop-up fortune-telling booth during summer break. It was there that she had the unfortunate encounter with Kumagawa, who immediately figured out that she was one of Anshin'in-san's terminals.
Of course, Kumagawa was a little surprised to see her here. He hadn't expected to run into two of Anshin'in-san's terminals in the first place, but now that he had, he could only assume it was another one of Anshin'in-san's schemes.
Not that he minded, though.
"Did you finally get expelled?" she asked.
『Ahaha, is that really the first thing you say after seeing me again? Why does everyone's first guess always have to be that I got expelled? 』
She clicked her tongue.
"No wonder my calculations haven't been working, and nothing has gone my way since earlier. So it's because of you."
『Eh? It's my fault? Why? 』
"It's because of you that I can't even read my own fortune anymore!"
『Ah... you mean that talent of yours? What was it called again? "Occupercent"? 』
If he remembered correctly, Skills didn't work in this world because of some kind of rule. Talents, however, were different. Even though Anshin'in-san had said it originally fell under one of her Boss Skills, she had also mentioned exploiting a loophole, allowing it to function more like a Talent instead of a Skill.
『But isn't that the talent that reads probabilities to reconstruct the past? How do you even use something like that to tell fortunes? 』
"Even though it's mainly a talent for reading the past, that doesn't mean it's useless for fortune-telling. It's a little hard to explain, but I basically read the probabilities of future outcomes first, then work backward from there." She said that while wiping the blood from her nose with her sleeve.
"Not that I'm complaining, but... aren't you supposed to be running away?" Otogami finally spoke up.
Uranaiya turned to him with a scowl.
"...What?" he asked.
"You're useless."
"Huh?"
"You're standing right next to Kumagawa, and instead of dragging him somewhere else, you brought him straight to me. Do you have any idea how much trouble that causes? You're completely useless."
"Huh? Wait, wait, wait. Not that I'm complaining, but isn't that a little rude? Besides, isn't this your own fault? Why are you still hanging around Tokyo when you know Kumagawa is here? What kind of fortune-teller are you if you can't even avoid something this obvious, you quack?"
"Stupid? Look who's talking, Mister Expelled Great Musician—"
The two of them immediately started arguing.
They kept repeating the same points and throwing the same insults at each other in different variations. It was almost a miracle they hadn't started throwing punches yet, especially considering how creative some of the insults had become.
『Mm? You two seem pretty close. Did you know each other before this? 』
Without paying any attention to the tense atmosphere between them, Kumagawa asked the question.
""Hah? In what way?""
The two of them answered in perfect unison.
『What are you talking about? Isn't friendship built on fighting? I mean, trading insults could also be considered fighting in a sense. Besides, you're both terminals, so shouldn't that make you close? 』
"Just because we're both terminals doesn't mean we're close. We didn't even know each other until recently," Uranaiya replied.
『Recently...? Ah, you mean during summer break? 』
The only opportunity they could have met recently was probably when Uranaiya had opened her pop-up fortune-telling booth. Since Otogami had a girlfriend, it wouldn't have been strange if the two of them had stopped by together.
"Not that I'm complaining or anything, but even if we're both terminals, and in some ways identical to Anshin'in-san herself, we still have our own lives. It's entirely possible for me to live my whole life without ever meeting another terminal. That's just the kind of person Anshin'in-san is, right? We're not her underlings, after all."
『That's true. 』Kumagawa gave a small shrug.
Anshin'in-san had always been fond of their idiosyncrasies after all.
"Hey! She's here!"
Just then, a man's shout echoed through the alley, immediately followed by the sound of several pairs of footsteps. Before long, while the three of them were still talking, they found themselves surrounded by several men dressed in black suits.
It was the same group that had been chasing Uranaiya moments earlier.
And because they were in a narrow alleyway, there was no doubt they had been cornered.
『Now that I think about it, why are you being chased around in the first place? Are you such a famous fortune teller that you warrant this kind of treatment? 』Kumagawa finally asked the million-dollar question.
"Didn't I mention it the last time we met?"
『You did mention a lot of things. But I don't think any of them were about this. Or maybe I just wasn't listening.』
"Well, long story short, I got involved in one of Anshin'in-san's projects. They valued my talent enough that they wanted to bring me back." She said.
『If it was one of her projects, shouldn't it pay quite well? Or at least enough to make a fortune? 』 Kumagawa tilted his head. 『I'm not interested in whatever project she's working on, but surely it pays better than being a fortune teller. 』
His eyes drifted over her clothes as he spoke.
Although she was a beautiful young woman by any standard, she looked more like a homeless person than a fortune teller. Her tattered clothes certainly added to the image of a mysterious fortune teller, but at the end of the day, she still looked like a hobo.
"Well, I traded away my original talent for this fortune-telling talent with Anshin'in-san. It was basically an exchange. So even if they brought me back now, I'd be completely useless to them."
『Ah... she did mention something like that. 』
Anshin'in-san had also mentioned that it was because of Uranaiya's personality that she chose to make the trade in the first place.
"Miss Uranaiya."
One of the men in black stepped forward.
"We apologize for the disturbance, but we'd like to ask you to come with us. We have a vehicle waiting outside. If you cooperate, we can resolve this peacefully."
"No way." Uranaiya rejected the offer without a second thought.
"I've already told you before. I have no intention of going back. Why do you think I ran away in the first place?"
"Our orders are simply to bring you back. Whether you're willing or not doesn't change that." said the man.
"So, in other words, you're only asking for the sake of appearances."
"...If that's how you wish to interpret it."
She let out an annoyed sigh.
"Why are you all so fixated on me? Isn't that old man still there? Based on ability alone, he shouldn't be that far behind me, right? He's a fixer, for Christ's sake. He's loyal too, so there's no reason to drag me back."
"That may be true, but our orders are to bring you back. If you refuse to cooperate, we'll have no choice but to escort you by force."
The atmosphere in the alley immediately became tense as the men in black quietly tightened their formation around the three of them.
Watching the exchange from the side, Kumagawa tilted his head.
『So, what are you going to do now? 』
"Help me."
『Hmm..... 』
Kumagawa immediately struck a thinking pose, resting a hand on his chin.
"Tsk. Why are you pretending to think? Aren't you the kind of person who can't even weigh the pros and cons? Take responsibility for dragging me into this!"
『Ahaha, now you're being unreasonable. Not that I mind being treated like this, but how is this even remotely my fault? Aren't you the one being chased? 』
"No, it's definitely your fault," Uranaiya said without the slightest hesitation. "If you weren't here, my calculations would've probably let me escape. But the moment you showed up, everything went off the rails. So take responsibility."
She said it with complete certainty.
It was as if this was the one thing she absolutely refused to compromise on. Even if she was wrong, even if her life depended on it, she would still insist that Kumagawa was the one to blame.
『Hmm. I don't really understand things like responsibility or duty in the first place. Honestly, I only came here because I thought your predicament looked interesting.』
"What a horrible human being..." she muttered.
『Ahaha, don't be like that. But you're right. 』He nodded to himself. 『If I just stand here and watch, I might really lose my chance at romance. I suppose I have no choice but to help my girlfriend. 』
"Who the hell is your girlfriend?"
Saying something that made absolutely no sense, Kumagawa stepped forward until he stood in front of Uranaiya.
Fighting without his screws felt strangely inconvenient. It could even be called a disadvantage. But being at a disadvantage, cornered, and forced to fight multiple opponents at once...
That kind of misfortune was nothing unusual for him.
『What about you, Otogami-kun? 』 Kumagawa turned to look at Otogami.
"I'm just going to watch."
He casually raised both of his gloved hands.
"I'd rather not hurt my hands, you know? Not that I'm complaining, but I'd rather die than let anything happen to them."
『I see. So music really does come before your own life. 』
"It's common sense."
"No, it's not," Uranaiya immediately shot back.
『Well, suit yourself. 』
Kumagawa gave a small nod before turning back toward the men in black.
Seeing him step forward, the man who appeared to be their leader let out a quiet breath. From his perspective, Kumagawa looked no different from an ordinary high school student. Judging by the uniform, he had simply gotten caught up in something that had nothing to do with him. Though it seems that he was know who Uraniay Urushione was.
But there was no reason to involve a minor if it could be avoided.
"Young man," the suited man said, taking a careful step forward. His tone was rather courteous, "This matter has nothing to do with you. We'd appreciate it if you stepped aside. We have no intention of involving students in this."
『Eh? Really? 』
"Yes. As long as you don't interfere, you'll be free to leave."
Kumagawa glanced back at Uranaiya for a brief moment before looking at the suited man again.
『Hmm... But unfortunately, I've already decided to interfere. I can't exactly let my girlfriend be taken away right in front of me, you know? No matter how much of a loser I may be, I have no intention of handing my girlfriend over to someone else. 』
"I'm not your girlfriend!"
Uranaiya immediately shot back.
Well, Kumagawa had no intention of taking back what he had just said, regardless of how much she complained. In the first place, he had already decided she was his girlfriend. Whether she agreed or not was apparently a completely separate matter in his mind.
The suited man fell silent for a moment before letting out a heavy sigh.
"...I see. That's unfortunate."
The suited man stepped forward first.
His intention was never to hurt Kumagawa. If possible, he only wanted to move him aside with the least amount of force necessary.
Unfortunately, the moment he reached out for Kumagawa's shoulder, his hand never managed to reach it.
"—!!!"
Kumagawa had already caught the man's wrist with his left hand.
His grip tightened in an instant.
It was so strong that pain shot through the man's arm, and just as he instinctively opened his mouth to scream, another burst of pain struck him across the face before a single sound could escape.
Thud.
The suited man staggered backward, both hands flying to his face as blood poured from between his fingers. He hadn't even realized Kumagawa had headbutted him until the pain reached him a heartbeat later.
"Gghak...!"
『Oops. 』
That single exchange was enough.
"—!!!"
They weren't foolish enough to ignore what had just happened. They were professionals. Even without anyone giving the order, the remaining ten men immediately abandoned any intention of treating Kumagawa like an ordinary high school student.
Without hesitation, two charged from the front while another circled behind him. Their movements were clean and coordinated, the result of working together for years rather than something that needed to be commanded.
From any objective standpoint, Kumagawa was at a disadvantage.
He was outnumbered, and although the fight was taking place in an alley, it was wide enough that the men could maneuver freely without getting in each other's way. They could surround him from multiple directions with little difficulty.
It was an overwhelmingly unfavorable situation.
『Ahaha. This is my first time fighting against so many adults. 』
"...Yeah."
The man whose nose was still bleeding forced out a bitter smile.
"As much as I hate to admit it... this really isn't your fault, young man."
Even if Kumagawa had chosen to interfere on his own, none of them truly blamed him. Part of it was to ease their own conscience for what they were about to do.
And yet...
For some reason, a chill ran down their spines.
The student standing before them wore a strangely ominous smile.
『That's right. You said it yourself. It's clearly not my fault! 』
The moment those words left his mouth, Kumagawa burst forward.
He immediately swung a violent kick into the chest of the man standing directly in front of him, forcing him back before charging straight into the middle of the group with that same ominous grin still plastered across his face.
When it came to situations that had already turned violent like this, there was never much Kumagawa could do in a useful way. There was no room for him to make use of his abilities. But from experience, just because he couldn't rely on them didn't mean there was nothing he could do.
Especially when it came to weak points.
With movements so fast they were almost instantaneous, Kumagawa immediately incapacitated most of them by striking the weak points scattered across their bodies.
Head and Throat.
Liver and Joints.
No matter how much they tried to stay on their feet, once Kumagawa landed a blow on one of those weak points, there was little they could do. One after another, their vision went black as their brains momentarily shut down.
It still felt strange fighting without a screw in his hand, but at least his experience against Munakata had proven useful.
Now only two people remained.
They were the two men who had tried to circle behind Kumagawa.
Once again, Kumagawa kicked off the ground and closed the distance in an instant, appearing right in front of them before either of them had time to react.
『Sorry, sorry. I don't really know proper martial arts, so you'll have to make do with this. 』
As soon as he finished speaking, he drove another violent kick into one of the men while his fist slammed into the other's abdomen, sending one crashing into the wall while the other collapsed on the spot.
But just before the man could hit the ground, Kumagawa bent down, picked up a rusted crowbar lying in the alley, and swung it without the slightest hesitation.
"—!!!"
The rusted crowbar tore straight through the suited man's shoulder before burying itself deep into the wall behind him, pinning him there.
"AAAGH!!"
The man screamed.
Just as he was about to lose consciousness, the sharp pain forced him awake again.
This wasn't simply being stabbed through the shoulder.
The crowbar had gone clean through his body and embedded itself into the concrete wall with enough force to suspend him in midair.
Rather than being impaled, it looked as though he had been screwed to the wall.
The only difference was that, instead of a screw, Kumagawa had used a rusted crowbar.
As the man continued screaming in pain, he failed to notice the very person they had been chasing casually approach him. The pain clouded his mind so much that he didn't even realize she was speaking so calmly despite the gruesome sight before her.
"Isn't it a little too fast?" Uranaiya asked as she looked up at the man pinned to the wall.
It really was.
Not only had Kumagawa fought against multiple opponents at once, but they were professionals. They weren't necessarily exceptional fighters, but compared to ordinary people, they were undoubtedly above average in their field. Uranaiya could at least acknowledge that much.
And Kumagawa hadn't relied on any real technique either. Even though his movements were fast enough to catch trained professionals off guard despite them already being on alert, what he used was little more than overwhelming speed and brute force to bring them down.
Knowing his abnormal nature, that part wasn't particularly surprising.
But more importantly...
"You really didn't hold back, did you?"
She stopped in front of the man pinned to the wall and tilted her head slightly, observing him with a hint of curiosity despite the blood and the rusted crowbar penetrating through his shoulder.
"Did you really have to go this far?" Otogami asked as he looked at the same man. "Not that I'm complaining, but... isn't this a little too brutal?"
『Mm.... I didn't want to admit it, but it seems I'm slowly regressing into who I used to be. 』
"Regressing?" Uranaiya tilted her head. "Did your personality change or something?"
『Eh? You didn't know? 』
"Isn't that obvious? I was born in this world. Even though I'm technically one of Anshin'in-san's terminals, she never really shared much information with me. It's the same for the others. At most, I know the general idea of who's who and what they're like."
If she had to compare it to something, it was like applying for a job only for HR to never contact you again after the interview.
It was essentially a one-way message.
『Well, it's mostly because Medaka-chan isn't here to keep me grounded. All of my friends are in another world, so maybe that's why I'm gradually regressing. Besides, I don't have my abilities anymore, so I guess that tweaked my personality a little too. 』
Even so, "regressing" was probably too strong a word.
There hadn't been any drastic change in his personality. If anything, he had simply become a little less restrained than before. It wasn't enough for anyone who knew him to think he had become a different person, but there were moments when the softer parts of him seemed to fade.
In more ways than one, Kumagawa was even more 'incomplete' than he had been before.
"...I don't really get it." Uranaiya shrugged. "I've only known you like this, and only heard bits and pieces from Anshin'in-san, so I can't really tell the difference."
『Is that so? 』
"Yeah. If anything, you already seemed horrible enough from the very beginning."
"Not that I'm complaining, but I agree with that," Otogami chimed in. "You don't exactly look like someone who's becoming a worse person. You've always been like this. I've already experienced firsthand just how horrible your personality is."
『Ahaha. That's a pretty harsh thing to say. 』
Kumagawa laughed as if it didn't bother him in the slightest. If anything, he seemed rather pleased to be called horrible.
『But what do we do about this? 』
The three of them looked around the alley.
Having nine unconscious men lying on the ground was already bad enough, but the real problem was the one still pinned to the wall by the crowbar.
By now, he had already lost consciousness again.
Although the pain had forced him awake for a brief moment, it hadn't lasted long. If they simply left him hanging there, this would stop looking like a fight and start looking like a crime scene.
"I guess there's no helping it."
Letting out a sigh, Uranaiya walked over to the man.
She grabbed the rusted crowbar with both hands and tried to pull it free. Despite being one of Anshin'in-san's terminals, she didn't possess abnormal physical strength like Kumagawa, so it took all her effort before the crowbar finally came loose.
The moment it did, blood immediately poured from the hole in the man's shoulder. Some of it even splashed onto Uranaiya's face, but she didn't seem to mind.
Without wasting any time, she tore off part of the man's clothing and wrapped it tightly around the wound to slow the bleeding.
"Oooh? You seem pretty good with your hands, and it was surprisingly smooth too." Otogami remarked. "Have you ever thought about becoming a musician instead of a quack?"
"Shut up and help me line them up."
Uranaiya shot him a glare.
"Move them against the wall. Make them sit properly instead of leaving them scattered everywhere."
"Not that I'm complaining, but why?"
"Because if someone finds ten grown men lying all over the alley, the first thing they'll do is call the police. At least if they're sitting against the wall, it'll look a little less suspicious."
"That's still suspicious."
"Just help."
With nothing else to say, Otogami sighed and grabbed one of the unconscious men by the arms.
If an outsider had happened to witness the scene from the beginning, they would probably have thought the three of them were complete sociopaths. Not only had they remained perfectly calm after watching someone get impaled through the shoulder, but they were now casually discussing how to arrange the unconscious bodies as if it were normal occurence.
Thankfully, there was no one around to watch them calmly tidy up what looked suspiciously like a crime scene.
The unconscious men were now lined up neatly against the wall, sitting shoulder to shoulder as if they had simply decided to take a nap together. Their bruises, swollen faces, and the occasional stain of blood certainly ruined the illusion, but at the very least, they no longer looked as though they had been carelessly thrown across the alley.
"...There."
Uranaiya wiped the sweat from her forehead before taking a step back to inspect their work.
The three of them quietly stared at the row of unconscious men.
"It still looks suspicious," Otogami commented.
『Well, even so, something like that should be fine in this case, right? It's not like someone would willingly walk into this alleyway. 』
"Well... I guess that's true."
Even though it look less like a crime scene, it still definiely look really suspicious. But it's less suspicious than leaving them scattered all over the place. But For some reason, lining them up neatly against the wall made the sight even stranger than before.
After a brief silence, Uranaiya let out another sigh.
"Let's just get out of here before they wake up." Said Uraniaya.
With that, the three of them left the alley behind, leaving ten unconscious men sitting neatly in a row against the wall.
『Ah, speaking of which. 』
"Hm?"
『What are you going to do about your BMX? 』
"...My BMX?"
Kumagawa pointed back toward the alley they had just left.
『It got bent, didn't it? Rather unnaturally too. How did you even manage to crash badly enough to bend it like that? 』
For a brief moment, Uranaiya froze.
"...MY BMX!!"
She immediately spun around and stared toward the alley they had come from.
"I forgot about it!" She grabbed both sides of her head.
"It got bent! Completely bent! Do you know how much trouble I went through to get that thing?! Why are you only bringing this up now?!" she screamed.
Without waiting for a response, Uranaiya immediately turned around and sprinted back toward the alley.
"My BMX! My poor BMX!"
She disappeared around the corner without a second thought.
『....』
Otogami watched her leave before letting out a long sigh.
"Not that I'm complaining, but... shouldn't she be more worried about the people who were chasing her?"
『I think she's more attached to her BMX. 』
"...I can see that. Though I think I understand how she feels. It reminds me of my grand piano after it was broken. I think I became suicidal for a while."
『Ahaha, you're quite a unique person, aren't you, Otogami-kun? 』
"My BMX!"
Even after she was gone, Uranaiya's voice could still be heard echoing from somewhere in the distance. After watching the direction she had disappeared for a few more seconds, Kumagawa turned back to Otogami.
『By the way, what are you going to do now? 』
Otogami shrugged. "I don't know."
He stuffed both hands into his pockets as he continued walking.
"I mean, I don't exactly have anywhere to go. I was only wandering around because I had nothing better to do."
『Then are you going home? 』
"Eventually..." He thought for a moment before scratching his cheek. "Or maybe I'll stop by my girlfriend's parents' house."
『Eh? 』
"I mean, if she's still my girlfriend." Otogami frowned as though he was genuinely trying to figure it out. "I got expelled, so I can't contact her anymore. I don't even know if we're still dating or not. Not that I'm complaining, but if I'm going to wait for her answer until she graduates, I should at least tell her parents what happened."
『You have a surprisingly serious side, don't you? 』
"It's just basic manners. If I suddenly disappear without saying anything, she'll probably think I dumped her. Then she'll tell her parents, they'll report me to the police, I'll become a wanted criminal, get arrested, and end up in prison, destroying my dream of performing at the Sydney Opera House."
『.... 』
Wow.
He really had quite the imagination.
Was this perhaps one of the perks of being a genius musician? His imagination had managed to run from simply visiting his girlfriend's parents all the way to ending up in prison with a surprisingly coherent chain of events.
No wonder he was one of Anshin'in-san's terminals. Not only was his personality unique, but his imagination was as well.
『So basically, you're going to greet your future father-in-law and mother-in-law? 』
"...Don't make it sound like I'm asking for their daughter's hand in marriage."
Otogami let out a sigh before continuing down the street, while Kumagawa simply followed after him as though the destination had now become his own.
"Ah, there he is!"
Once again, their conversation was interrupted.
Just like earlier, someone called out from behind, prompting both of them to stop and turn around. This time, however, instead of men in black suits charging toward them, it was a boy and a girl hurrying over with visibly relieved expressions.
Kumagawa! Where the hell have you—"
The boy froze midsentence. Both he and the girl beside him stared at Otogami in surprise.
"...Eh? Otogami?"
"...Otogami-kun?"
Otogami looked between the two of them.
"...Do I know you two?"
"What the hell, man? We're your classmates. Can't you at least remember that much?"
The two of them were Souta Kakeru and Minoshita Tsumugi, both from Otogami's former Class 2-B.
To be honest, Otogami had never paid much attention to most of his classmates. Souta and Minoshita were simply people who had happened to share the same classroom as him. Outside of that, they had almost no connection. They were the sort of acquaintances one could meet every day at school yet forget entirely after graduation.
"Ah... Souta, and... Minoshita-san, was it? Long time no see. Not that I'm complaining, and I'm not even mad at you two, but I can't really remember the names of people who threw me under the bus. So there you have it."
"....."
An awkward silence immediately settled between them.
Neither Souta nor Minoshita could find the words to respond, though it was mostly Souta, the vice president of the boys' volleyball club.
After all, there wasn't really anything he could say.
Otogami wasn't wrong.
He had been one of the people who threw Otogami under the bus during the majority vote. It wasn't that Otogami still held a grudge over it, but that didn't mean he had any reason to think fondly of them either. Under those circumstances, expecting him to remember their names as if nothing had happened was simply asking too much.
"...Fair enough," Souta muttered with a bitter smile as he rubbed the back of his neck.
He quickly shook his head before turning toward Kumagawa.
"More importantly, where the hell have you been?"
『Searching for a toilet? 』
"In the middle of the city?! What kind of excuse is that? You're not even putting any effort into making one, are you?"
『Well, in an emergency like that, I don't think anyone should be worrying about making excuses. No matter how you look at it, the matter transcends the issue of my vanity. 』
By no means was Kumagawa sincerely trying to make an excuse to his fellow students. Rather, he was simply sticking to a promise he had made to himself. One could even call it an oath.
Souta let out an exhausted sigh.
"Do you have any idea how much trouble you caused? The coaches were asking where the student council representative went, the club members couldn't find you, and we ended up splitting into groups to search the entire area."
But regardless of everything, they had finally found him.
And they intended to drag him back by any means necessary.
『Well then, Otogami-kun. I suppose this is where we part ways. 』 Kumagawa gave a light wave. 『Please give my regards to your girlfriend's parents when you visit them. 』
Otogami looked at him for a few seconds.
"Not that I'm complaining, but if I suddenly walk up to them and say, 'By the way, some student named Kumagawa told me to give you his regards,' they're going to think I've been hanging around some really questionable people."
『But you have been hanging around some really questionable people. 』
"..."
Otogami couldn't even deny it.
Looking back on everything that had happened since they met, he had somehow ended up witnessing a bicycle chase, watching a group of grown men get beaten unconscious, seeing one of them pinned to a wall with a crowbar through his shoulder like some kind of decoration, helping line them all up afterward, and then casually walking away from what looked suspiciously like a crime scene.
No matter how he looked at it, it had been an incredibly questionable afternoon spent with incredibly questionable people.
"Well, anyway," Otogami said as he adjusted his gloves. "It was definitely a displeasure meeting you today, and I sincerely hope we don't meet again. That said... it was a worthwhile day. Not that I'm complaining, but goodbye, Kumagawa."
『Bye-bye. And don't complain too much. It usually leads to an early death. 』
"I'll take my chances."
Without saying anything else, Otogami raised a hand and continued walking toward the station.
Kumagawa quietly watched him disappear into the afternoon crowd before turning back toward Souta and Tsumugi, both of whom had patiently waited for the conversation to end.
"...Can we finally go back now?" Souta asked, sounding more exhausted than annoyed.
『Of course. I never said I wasn't going back. 』
"It would've been even better if you hadn't run off in the first place. Weren't you supposed to make amends with the second years anyway? Why are you making them work even harder just to find you?"
Kumagawa tilted his head.
『Then would you like to make amends? 』
"No."
Souta rejected the idea without a moment's hesitation.
"After you took half my private points? There's no way."
『Well then, there you have it. 』
With another sigh, Souta gestured for Kumagawa to follow, deliberately walking beside him this time so he wouldn't suddenly wander off again. After spending nearly an hour searching the city for the missing student council representative, neither he nor Tsumugi intended to let him disappear a second time.
In a sense, Kumagawa was being treated almost like a prisoner
He didn't have any particular problem with it. After all, he was only returning to his duties as a member of the student council.
And it wouldn't be long before Kumagawa returned to the school and immediately found himself carrying out his duties as the student council vice president once again.
『END』
『』『』『』『』『』
Here you go, peasants. Another chapter.
Turns out I don't lie after all.
That aside, what did you think of the fight scene? It's been a while since I last wrote one, so it's probably a little rough around the edges, and maybe a bit on the shorter side, but I think I'm finally starting to get the hang of writing them again.
Anyway, that's all for today's chapter.
Hope you enjoyed it.
[Thanks for reading!]