Ch.97Chapter 15. Daily Life (1)

I’m not accustomed enough to say that going straight to school from the hospital feels normal.

Since coming here in mid-April, the frequency of my hospitalizations seems quite high, but if you only count the number of times rather than the duration, it’s not that many.

And going directly to school from the hospital has happened even less frequently.

So I wouldn’t say I’m used to it, but…

How should I put it?

Even if it’s not familiar, there’s something strangely comfortable about it.

Isn’t there?

I was hospitalized at a hospital in Minato Ward, so naturally it doesn’t take an hour and a half to get to school.

The hospital has beds. They’re much softer and more comfortable than sleeping on a futon on the floor.

Plus, the heating and cooling systems are perfect, so I could stay neither too hot nor too cold all night. My side got a bit sweaty because Koko was stuck to me, but that was much more bearable than being sandwiched between Koko and Kuro in midsummer.

And the food is delicious.

It might be a bit bland compared to Japanese food you’d eat outside, but it was still tasty. Being able to eat meals with balanced carbohydrates and protein is a blessing.

Considering my cooking skills and the limited variety of ingredients we have at home, the hospital food was luxurious by comparison.

Koko ate with me, her eyes sparkling. Since all three of us were technically hospitalized, Koko and Yuka received the same meals.

Koko ate everything without leaving a single grain of rice like me, but Yuka just picked at her food.

“Oh, right.”

Yuka suddenly spoke up as if she’d just remembered something.

“The kid you saved yesterday has recovered safely. Looks like we weren’t too late.”

“…That’s good.”

Judging by the lack of further comment, it seems the kid won’t be coming to thank me, nor will their older sister.

I understand. Actually, it’s strange to think I saved anyone at all.

From that child’s perspective, I probably just suddenly disappeared, but from a normal person’s viewpoint, they wouldn’t think “someone teleported to save a person.”

Usually, they’d just think they lost sight of me.

Besides, does it make sense for a high school girl to enter a blazing building with no protection? The fire department hadn’t arrived for some reason, but police were guarding the entrance.

Still, entering the building was a dangerous move. No one knows what might fall in a burning building. If any burnt exterior parts had fallen, I could have been injured or even killed.

Well, those people must have been desperate to go that far.

And that little sister… she truly survived miraculously. The probability of someone who fainted from gas inhalation being “safe” is extremely low.

Well, this isn’t the end of their story.

I don’t know if both parents died, but at least one of them did. If their wrongdoing was severe enough to attract a fire spirit, it was likely someone who controlled the family’s finances.

In such a situation, with that person dead, can the family manage to survive?

…No, they probably have much more money than I do.

Someone who would torment a child they disliked to the point of death must have had substantial resources.

“…”

While eating my meal with a bitter feeling, I suddenly sensed something odd.

Pondering what that oddity was, I looked at Yuka.

“Hm? What is it?”

When I suddenly turned to look at her while eating, Yuka asked with slight confusion.

As always, I was in a private room. I wasn’t sure where Koko and Yuka were supposed to be hospitalized. Koko was eating with me at the table attached to my bed, while Yuka was eating at a table a bit away from the bed.

…No, that’s not the important thing right now.

“Yuka.”

I stared at her and said:

“How did you know that child was the one who bullied me?”

“Ah.”

Yuka’s hand, which had been picking at her food, froze in mid-air.

Although Yuka was generally quite expressive, I think this might be the first time she’s shown such a flustered expression in front of me.

“You’ve never seen that kid before, have you?”

That’s right.

Yuka did get involved in the incident. When we had that street fight.

But the person there wasn’t the child herself, but a boy who claimed to be her boyfriend. So Yuka had never directly seen the girl.

Yet she recognized the girl before I did, which means she didn’t just hear about her but actually knew what she looked like.

“Um… well, you see.”

Yuka sweated nervously and darted her eyes around, but as I continued staring at her, she finally sighed deeply and said:

“…I looked into it later. Grandfather also spoke with their parents.”

Hmm.

Well, Yuka herself might have let it go, but her grandfather would have been furious.

He might have laughed it off at the time for my sake, but it’s not unreasonable to think he later sought out those who had laid hands on his granddaughter to give them a stern warning.

Bad people lack loyalty, which is why they’re bad. Even married couples might have minimal loyalty, but with just a girlfriend, it’s different.

“The kid confessed everything.”

Yuka summarized simply.

So, the boyfriend admitted that it wasn’t really his fault but that he had just followed his girlfriend’s instructions.

“…”

“I-It’s true! I didn’t investigate it myself!”

That makes it even more suspicious.

…Well, what does it matter?

I narrowed my eyes at Yuka, then shrugged.

She always worries about me. If there are problems following me, she’d want to know the cause. In the end, the biggest cause lies with me.

“Alright. I believe you.”

“Uh, umm…”

When I responded generously, Yuka seemed a bit taken aback and reacted awkwardly.

“Wait, why do I have to explain myself about this?”

She finally realized this and glared at me.

Yikes.

I turned my attention back to my breakfast tray and focused on eating.

*

A fall sports festival, huh.

When I was in school, I thought sports festivals were nothing special except for skipping classes.

The school I attended didn’t have any nationally famous high school sports teams, nor did it have any outstanding club activities.

Whether it was wrestling, volleyball, soccer, or basketball, it was basically just like neighborhood kids playing together, except it was a competition between classes.

It was held on weekdays, so not many outsiders came. The elementary school sports festivals actually felt more festive.

But here, the atmosphere was a bit different.

“Wow!”

Koko’s eyes sparkled.

Many students were moving around the spacious field. Everyone was in athletic wear.

Well, it makes sense to wear gym clothes for a sports festival.

Seeing the female students wearing bloomers reminded me that this really is a light novel setting.

In the early to mid-2000s, such descriptions were so common that I thought these gym uniforms were standard in Japanese high schools, but years later I heard that “they were actually almost extinct even in the 2000s.”

In fact, most works that came out after that period mostly showed characters in t-shirts and shorts. If a character is wearing bloomers, it’s likely that the creators are older otaku who remember that era.

…Well, that’s from the world I used to live in.

Here, this is normal.

I’m wearing them too, after all.

“Alright, everyone gather around!”

Fukuda called out, gathering our class’s cheer team.

They were all girls.

There were only seven students in our class who were purely on the “cheer team,” including me, Fukuda, and Koko. Many students were needed for ball sports, so this was inevitable.

Some were even participating in multiple non-overlapping events.

Especially for the highlight of the sports festival, the relay race, all the participants were already representing the class in other events.

So, not just in our class but in others too, the “cheer team” was joined by “students who didn’t have immediate competitions” to cheer together. Of course, those students were just in regular gym clothes.

I was the only one on the “cheer team” wearing a gakuran.

While Fukuda was actually the leader, since I was the only one dressed that way, I ended up taking the central position in the cheer team.

My role was to wear the male school uniform with a headband and shout things like “Ossu!”

Fukuda and Koko stood on either side of me, with other girls lined up beside them to cheer together.

…Mako, thanks for giving me clothes without exposure, but I didn’t want to be in the center…

But we had already practiced in this formation, so it was impossible to change it.

“So, the first event is… arm wrestling!”

It was quite a quaint competition for a high school sports festival.

Well, I guess it’s convenient for the school to start with short and simple events like this.

“Let’s all go cheer! Let’s make our class representative pump up!”

Thinking that was a very gyaru-like choice of words, I rushed out with the others.

*

And the cheering was quite effective.

Isn’t that right? After all, the ones we’re cheering for are high school students.

They might be past the age where they blush at the slightest mention of something risqué, but at 10th grade, there are still plenty who aren’t immune to girls.

Our class representative who received our cheers immediately turned bright red.

Yes, it was effective, but in the opposite way.

Even though she wore undershorts, the sight of a curvaceous gyaru in a short skirt jumping around shouting “Play! Play!” with her navel showing in what seemed like a deliberately designed cheer uniform rather than an actual one put the male student through a trial.

“Ah.”

For a moment, the boy who had been looking at Fukuda flinched and was immediately defeated.

His already red face turned even redder, and the scene fell into silence.

Well… that’s unfortunate.

But what can you do? One of them had to lose anyway, and falling when you lose is just the nature of competition.

However, I should suggest that from the next match, we cheer from behind our team rather than in front.

That way, the opposing male students might make mistakes while looking at Fukuda.

*

Cheering turned out to be quite fun.

Although the first cheer ended so pathetically, afterward we followed my suggestion and cheered from behind, successfully inducing mistakes from the opponents.

Well, when we switched sides at halftime, our team was a bit flustered too, but since they were in the same class as Fukuda, they seemed somewhat more immune than students from other classes.

Plus, the boys had seen us practice a few times.

“We won!”

When the basketball team won, nearby students jumped around as if an Olympic national team had won. Even girls who rarely spoke to me hugged me and jumped around.

It was a bit uncomfortable at first.

“Wow!”

But seeing Koko happily jumping around, I thought, well, I guess it doesn’t matter.

Whatever.

Go, our class.

“Amazing, Mako-chan!”

We also cheered happily when our class’s dodgeball team with Mako won.

Mako, who was designated as the ace, turned bright red. Unlike usual, she wasn’t wearing glasses, so her sealed beauty seemed to come alive.

Despite looking like someone who would only read books, Mako performed incredibly well.

The relay race with Yamashita is almost at the end of the festival.

The tug-of-war is something everyone participates in. It was scheduled right after lunch, so I hadn’t participated in any events besides cheering yet.

But I felt my energy dropping a bit, as I had unconsciously been having fun with the other kids.

Realizing that made me feel a bit embarrassed.

*

I’m not sure if they actually do this at real sports festivals.

I think they did when I was in elementary school, but my memories of middle and high school are rather vague.

Middle school aside, my high school was probably all-boys, so they wouldn’t have done it. These things can feel more awkward with same-sex friends.

What I’m talking about is… you know, that event that always appears in “romantic comedies”?

The one where you run to find a note, then bring back whatever person or object is written on it.

In “Tokyo Slayers,” the sports festival is skipped over, so there’s no detailed description, but there is a general outline of the situation.

Yuka becomes her class representative for that event.

Actually, she was also the representative for other running events.

Well, that’s understandable. Yuka was really fast. I can vouch for that, having seen her fight for her life multiple times.

It’s not explicitly described what note Yuka drew, but by the time the post-sports festival episode begins, Yuka and Sasaki were being teased by their classmates.

Not bullying, but you know that situation? Where classmates enjoy teasing a couple who seem to be developing feelings for each other.

I don’t know what note Yuka drew, but she grabbed Sasaki and dragged him back, winning first place.

Given that Yuka was an extreme tsundere character, it definitely wasn’t something like “the person you like,” but it must have been something that became extremely embarrassing in retrospect.

As a result, at the beginning of that episode, Yuka is heavily checked by other heroines.

I wonder how it will be this time.

The event was inserted like a bonus game just as the morning competitions were ending and the excitement was dying down a bit. It wasn’t a serious competition but more of a relaxed event everyone could enjoy.

The venue was just the 50-meter track, but at the end of the track was not a finish line but a basket full of notes.

The notes inside had random instructions, and the participants had to bring back the matching object or person.

Despite being a bonus event, the competitive students had no intention of losing.

Especially the cheering students, who had already laid out their possessions on their knees or on the ground in front of them.

Our class representative was Yamashita. And Yuka’s class, as mentioned in the original work, was represented by Yuka.

I was intrigued.

Although Yuka here didn’t show the tsundere behavior toward Sasaki as in the original work, they still had some kind of friendship.

If the note had a description similar to Sasaki, she would naturally choose him.

[Now, everyone please stand at the starting line.]

A student holding a megaphone called out. Probably a member of the student council.

Judging by their already amused expression, the notes inside probably weren’t all easy tasks.

Maybe there’s something like “the person you think is handsome” in there?

With such thoughts, I quietly watched.

[Then everyone—start!]

Bang!

The sound of a starting pistol used in track competitions rang out, and the students ran energetically.

No one was running half-heartedly. Even Yuka seemed quite immersed, running neck and neck with Yamashita.

But this race doesn’t end just by reaching the finish line.

They arrived almost simultaneously, drew notes, read the contents, and turned back.

The first to raise her head was Yuka.

And for some reason, her gaze immediately turned toward me.

…And Yuka quickly ran toward me.

Huh?

Wait, you’re in a different class from me?

But Yuka ignored the surprised voices around her and grabbed my arm. I stood up in confusion and faced her.

Yuka smiled brightly and said:

“Let’s go.”

And I ran.

Unlike when she ran to get the note, Yuka didn’t run too fast, probably being considerate of me. She ran slowly enough that Yamashita, who arrived later and grabbed Mako’s hand, was faster than us.

In the end, we came in third place.

Yamashita was showing his note to Mako, who looked as bewildered as I felt. After seeing the note, Mako smiled broadly and high-fived Yamashita with a slightly shy expression.

What’s going on?

Yuka, catching her breath slightly, handed me the note as I stood there puzzled.

Taking the note, I saw—

“Ah.”

[Your best friend]

was written on it.

I see.

If she had brought back a boy as her “best friend,” the kids might have misunderstood.

Well, she probably brought me along partly out of her own preference too.

I smiled wryly.

“There was no rule saying you couldn’t bring someone from another class, right?”

Yuka said, looking a bit embarrassed.

“If you had brought Sasaki, couldn’t you have gotten first place?”

When I said that, Yuka tilted her head.

“Sasaki… well, I consider him a friend, but you’re my best friend, aren’t you?”

Yuka said it so matter-of-factly that I couldn’t help but laugh again.

That’s right. That’s true.

Best friend, huh.

Someone with whom I share many secrets.

As Yuka held out her hand with a bright smile, I slapped it for a high five.