1: When your regular attacks improve, adventures get way easier

1

When your regular attacks improve, adventures get way easier

The end of summer vacation didn’t mean the end of summer, and the heat was stubbornly hanging on into September 1.

I was in a slightly aged classroom, yawning after the first early morning in ages. Across from me was Hinami, sitting up straight with her big eyes open wide and alert.

For the first time in a little over a month, Hinami and I were having a morning meeting in Sewing Room #2.

“All right. Before we talk about the next steps, we need to go over a few things.” Hinami sounded as brisk and efficient as always.

“Such as?”

I looked around the classroom. The place didn’t feel as run-down as before—maybe because every time we met here, we brushed aside some of the dust and moved the desks and chairs around so it was easier to talk. Now it had a faintly lived-in feeling. What hadn’t changed was Hinami’s cool attitude.

“You finished training for your part-time job over summer vacation, didn’t you? How did that go?” Hinami tucked her silky hair behind one ear as she spoke as clearly and fluidly as ever.

“Oh, that’s what you meant… Well, training was two hours a day for five days with the boss and other employees. Nothing special to report. I had a close call with Mizusawa, but I haven’t had a chance to talk about it with him yet.”

“Gotcha. So nothing’s changed since we last talked… In that case, we’d better set your new goals for the second semester today.”

“’Kay.”

So it was time for more “goals.”

We were back to our usual routine after a summer vacation full of challenges: the overnight trip to get Nakamura and Izumi together, my dates with Kikuchi-san, and the argument and reconciliation between Hinami and me. Just like before, Hinami was focused single-mindedly on the future.

“After five full days of training, I was hoping you’d have taken the initiative on some independent study…but I guess I expected too much.”

“I know, I know. I’m sorry. I did have good intentions, but…”

“Hmph. Did you wear yourself out rebelling against me?”

“Uh…”

“You’re such an open book.”

“Shut up, you don’t have to tell me.”

This was so familiar, interjecting pointless banter into our strategizing for my personal growth.

But…

“Whatever. Anyway, let’s talk about your goals moving forward.”

“Okay.”

There was just one thing.

“We had a minor checkpoint of you going out alone with a girl other than me, and you’ve completed that objective. So I suppose the next one should be sharing secrets with a girl.”

Hinami shifted her gaze away, slightly uncomfortable. Yes, just one small thing had changed.

“…Do you have a problem with that?” she curtly asked.

She was getting my approval for the goals she set.

“No…,” I said, reflecting for a moment. “I’m not making any shallow speeches or telling a girl I like her, but otherwise, I’m fine. What did you have in mind?”

I was getting better at comparing Hinami’s objectives with my own values and telling her what I thought. She gaped slightly, momentarily surprised by my outspoken reply, but quickly regained her composure.

“What I said, pretty much. When you share a secret with someone, it shows that both of you see the other as special, and it’s also a sign of trust. It’ll be a big step toward your mid-term goal, which is to have a girlfriend by the time you start your third year of high school.”

“Er, okay.”

“But it has to be mutual . It’s not enough to tell a secret without hearing one or to hear a secret without telling one. You each need to open your hearts to the other.”

I’d already thought of Kikuchi-san’s secret about writing a novel, but apparently, that wouldn’t count because it wasn’t mutual. But if I told Kikuchi-san a secret, would that check the box?

As I was thinking, Hinami batted her eyes at me oh-so-vulnerably.

“Just like this secret relationship between you and me…”

“Hey, wha…?”

My face was on fire after her sneak attack. She smiled playfully and watched my reaction.

“What’s the matter?”

She peered into my face with her big eyes, delivering the follow-up punch.

“N-nothing…”

“Really?”

She grinned with satisfaction, seeing me so tongue-tied, then resumed her neutral expression and pointed at me.

“You need to strengthen your defenses against this kind of thing. Normie girls are naturally good at getting close to guys. If you can’t stand your ground, they’ll get the upper hand.”

“You…”

As usual, she had me wrapped around her finger, and I pulled myself together. Ugh, shit. My defenses were currently around zero, so this stuff stung. I will not give in.

“And I know this is obvious, but I want you to give your daily goals everything you’ve got. Of course, you can’t forget your short-and mid-term goals, either. And finally, the most important thing is—”

“I know!” I interrupted her rapid-fire stream of orders (partially as a retort to her previous jab, too). “If I come across a situation I think would net me some EXP, you want me to take the initiative and jump in.”

Hinami blinked twice. “…You got it. Glad you understand.”

“Okay.”

I raised one eyebrow to show I did. Not long ago, I didn’t even know how to make that expression. It was a tiny taste of revenge. She pursed her lips in a brief pout, then quickly grinned.

“The sooner you learn how to improve yourself, the faster things will proceed.”

I knew I didn’t fully understand her, but even if I couldn’t explain why, she made sense.

“That could be.” I nodded, feeling oddly satisfied.

“’Cause it is .”

Hinami looked pleased with my response. Watching her, I had a sneaking suspicion that she had me in the palm of her hand. Well, she did . Let’s be real.

She was still way beyond my level. All the same, I didn’t like constantly losing to her, and I wanted my revenge, so I decided to deliver one more shot.

“Plus, when I figure out my own strats…it’s more fun .”

She furrowed her brows suspiciously. “More fun, huh?”

Hinami examined me up and down, her gaze rising from the tips of my toes all the way up to my head.

“Yeah,” I said with an extra shot of confidence. “Priorities, y’know?”

I grinned.

After we’d argued on the platform, we’d had another talk at the place where we first met, and I gave it to her straight. The most important standard for all this was my own desires—what I wanted.

For me, being true to myself was like becoming my character in a game—really throwing myself into something I love and enjoying it to the fullest. What I wanted wasn’t a temporary misconception or something I had to convince myself to believe. It was real.

Of course, I had no proof for my theory. I couldn’t lay it all out with logic. But I’d really pressed this point, and I’d need something to show for it if I wanted Hinami to be convinced. Not that I had any idea when that would happen.

As I thought about all this, the confidence steadily drained from my smile. I was starting to worry, actually, and my smile started feeling like a mask that was covering up my anxiety. Yeah, what am I going to do about all this?

Hinami must have sussed out my weakness, because she gave me a sadistic look.

“Proving it is certainly going to be a merciless, virtually impossible assignment. I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with,” she said.

“Uh-huh…”

All I could do was nod helplessly as she reminded me that she still had the upper hand. That was the Hinami I knew—she never left herself open for a millisecond, and she refused to let me hide behind ambiguity.

“Anyway, we’ll put that aside for now,” she said, changing the subject.

“Okay,” I agreed. “On to today’s assignment?”

She sighed, smiling. “Yes. I’d like you to observe our class for a while.”

“What should I observe?”

“For your previous assignments, you’ve been working on basic skills, such as your expression and way of speaking, and learning the fundamentals for manipulating the mood of a group. You’ve also completed some basic training on how to establish yourself in a hierarchy.”

“Yeah.”

I’d made a habit of training my muscles for my expression and posture. I’d practiced getting people to take my suggestions when I went shopping for Nakamura’s birthday present and applied that experience during Mimimi’s student council speech. I’d joked around with Mizusawa and Nakamura as part of my practice in casual conversation, too. When I thought about it, I’d actually accomplished a lot.

“Which means the next thing you need to do is start applying them.”

“Okay.” Made sense. “And…you’re saying observation is necessary in order to do that?”

Hinami nodded.

“You’ve built up your abilities and learned the basic rules, and those make up the foundation of some of the skills you’ve practiced now. You already have most of the basic techniques down, more or less.”

“I do?”

“Well, you’re not great at them yet, but yes,” Hinami said. “Anyway, you don’t go and learn new things right after you start applying the basics, do you? Application is just polishing those skills and using them in real situations. This practice is part of polishing, plus you’ll develop your ability to decide what to use when. Those two points will be very important… But I don’t have to tell you that, right?”

“Yeah…,” I said, thinking about Atafami . “I get what you’re trying to say.”

Atafami was the same. Once you learned the basic moves, you had to get better at using them until you could whip out whatever you needed when you needed it. If you mastered that, of course you’d improve. And when everyone starts using them, we call them “combos” or “strats.”

“So, practice and decision-making. For practice, all you can do is repeat, repeat, and repeat until you’ve got it down. But for decision-making, as long as you’re conscious of your strats on a daily basis, you should be able to improve somewhat.”

I thought about it and decided she was right.

“And that’s where observation comes in?”

Hinami smiled affirmatively. “Yep. Who talks when, and why? What are the relationships in the class? What determines them? When the group decides on what to do together, what factors caused that to happen? I want you to carefully observe, analyze, and verbalize all those things.”

“So…I’ll be observing people and groups? To get better at decision-making?”

Hinami stood up and walked over to me. Then she leaned down to my ear and breathily whispered, “Hexactly.”

“Eeyah!”

Once again, she smiled with sadistic satisfaction as I jumped up, my face burning.

“Anyway, that’s the deal. Hopefully, you’ll also be analyzing normie skills and weaponizing them for yourself.”

All of a sudden, she was talking in her regular tone again, implying I’d overreacted.

Cool and sadistic—that’s Aoi Hinami for you.

* * *

“Hey, Fumiya.”

Hinami and I had left Sewing Room #2 a few minutes apart. When I got to the classroom, Mizusawa was talking by the back windows with Nakamura and Takei. He casually raised one hand as he called out to me in his smooth voice.

“Hey, Mizusawa.”

Consciously imitating him, I smiled casually, raised my hand as nonchalantly as possible, and returned his greeting. Since he already knew I was aping his moves, I didn’t try to be subtle. I wasn’t at his level yet, but I was getting pretty good compared with before. Or so I hoped.

I wandered slowly to the back of the classroom, wondering what to do.

There was a choice here.

I had to decide whether I should keep walking toward Mizusawa until I joined up with the Nakamura Faction. In terms of EXP, the answer appeared to be yes, and I did want to level up, so that seemed like a good option. But was two whole days together enough to allow me to join their group at school? The overnight trip felt like a separate thing, so maybe I was still forbidden from getting too close to them here. After all, this was me we were talking about.

To buy myself some time, I took smaller and smaller steps as I approached. I had to make a decision. And in the midst of my embarrassing internal struggle, Takei suddenly pointed at me with amusement.

“Farm Boy, what’s with the shuffling? What are you, a penguin?!”

“Sh-shut up!” I shot back. Hinami had taught me it wasn’t good to sit there and take it all the time, and I’d seen she was right through experience. It was another one of those things you gotta practice. Plus, Takei’s normal speaking voice was what most people would consider shouting, so telling him to shut up was instinctive. Thank you, Takei’s loudness. Just…keep it down when you’re calling me Farm Boy.

The wave of normie aggression wasn’t going to end that easily, however, and my relief after the comeback was short-lived.

“How do you expect a stupid Fumin to walk?” Nakamura sneered.

I wasn’t sure how to respond, but in a situation like this, speed outweighed content. I took a deep breath.

“Who are you calling stupid?”

“Uh, you? Duh.”

He fired back immediately. Ugh, typical Nakamura. He had no trouble punishing me with a full combo. But I couldn’t give in now. The most valuable challenges are the ones just on the edge of your ability level. I should be thinking of this as a lucky opportunity for snagging EXP.

I was just about to snap back as strong and as smoothly as I could when it happened.

With no emotion, like it was no big deal, Nakamura took one step to the side in the little circle he’d formed with Mizusawa and Takei. There was a space big enough for one more person. It was like…an invitation.

“…Uh…”

What?

Everyone ignored what he’d just done and started talking again.

I was so surprised that I didn’t manage a comeback for Nakamura, but I finally picked up my pace and approached the circle with some nervousness.

I stepped into the open space.

The new circle was made of Nakamura, Mizusawa, Takei—and me. What a mismatched group. Suddenly, something touched my butt, and I looked to see what it was. Mizusawa smiled jokingly, his eyebrows raised, and punched me in the shoulder. His expression was definitely teasing, but for some reason, it didn’t bother me. In fact, it was comforting.

I looked around the circle again. Mizusawa, Nakamura, and Takei. I could see they planned to keep messing with me…but I didn’t sense any malice or any desire to eliminate me from the group. My mind was still fuzzy, but…

I’ve always lived as a loner, but just maybe…

…if I join a group like this, maybe my life at school will be more peaceful and fun.

Suddenly, I heard a click and returned to Earth. I looked up. There, I saw a cell phone in a bright-red case, its camera aimed at me.

“…Ha! Farm Boy looks so out of it! I’m putting this on Twitter!”

“Hey, wait a second!”

On second thought, there’s nothing peaceful about this!

* * *

After a few minutes of desperate pleading, I successfully prevented Takei from posting the photo on Twitter, and the four of us left the classroom. They teased, I argued back, I couldn’t muster the courage to mess with them, and pretty soon, we were in the gym. We parted ways to line up in height order, and the opening ceremony ended without incident.

And yes, I was happy to walk back to class alone, but cut me some slack, okay? I can’t be training all the time.

As I was sitting down before first period started, I heard someone say “Hey!” and looked over. Izumi was waving her hand next to her chest and smiling a little playfully at me. Her usual friendly expression and actions were a clear reflection of her communication skills.

“Oh, hey, Izumi. It’s been a while.”

Managing a reply to her sudden attack, I made sure to lift the corners of my mouth and smile as naturally as possible.

“For sure! Not since the barbecue, right?”

For some reason, she looked embarrassed for a second. Huh? Then I realized it was probably because the trip had been all about getting her and Nakamura together. After the test of courage, Nakamura had asked her out on a date, which counted as a small success. According to Hinami, she’d told Izumi later about our ulterior motives, and Izumi had been embarrassed but extremely appreciative. Nakamura was the only one who didn’t know about it now. Which I think is for the best.

“Oh yeah, you’re right.”

I got my brain moving. She’d shown some vulnerability. Could I mess with her a little? Usually, my skills weren’t up to teasing Izumi, but she’d left herself open. After all, even a dull blade can slice into a stomach. I’ll ignore the fact that the blade might be weak as well as dull. Anyway, I reviewed what I knew about Izumi, found the words, and imagined the right tone.

“So? Anything happen with Nakamura?” I asked quietly so no one would overhear me.

Izumi blushed and looked around. “What?! Um, well…”

Success. I guess if I played dirty and made a sneak attack on my opponent’s weak point to give myself an advantage, even I could get to Izumi somewhat.

“Um, Shuji said he was busy with family stuff over summer vacation, so we still haven’t gone out…”

“Oh, really?”

The conversation returned to normal.

“Yeah…but, um…”

“What’s up?”

She glanced down. “Next weekend…we’re supposed to go shopping together,” she said, clearly enjoying her announcement.

“Oh, wow! Really?”

I was honestly happy for her, so I used my eyes and voice to communicate it as directly as possible. I had a hybrid style—expressing real feelings with skills.

“Yeah…”

Though they’d agreed over summer vacation to go out sometime, they wouldn’t actually meet until the second week of September. I had to keep myself from smirking at their typical snail’s pace. Still, Izumi and Nakamura were finally going on a date. This was good news—I wasn’t wishing death on them or even jealous.

“You did it!”

“Yeah… I’ve made it this far, so I’m gonna keep going,” Izumi muttered, nodding slowly. I think she was talking to herself as much as she was to me.

“Yeah… Well…one step at a time, y’know?”

I did my best to sound genuine. But she took advantage of my slightly emotional mood to make a sudden counterattack.

“What about you?!”

“Um, me? What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean! Don’t you have some news from your love life these days, too?”

“Uh, no…” Where did this come from…? I couldn’t say I didn’t have someone in mind, but I didn’t have the courage to tell Izumi about it, so I just looked away. “There’s nothing special going on…”

“That was a very suspicious response!”

“Wh-what are you talking about…?”

“Hmm? Very suspicious!”

As usual, Izumi’s eyes were glittering at the prospect of romantic gossip. But what even gave her this impression…?

“What are you two whispering about?! Are you talking about sex?!” The voice erupting suddenly from behind me had way too much energy, and I didn’t need to look to know who it was. I turned around anyway. Yup. Mimimi.

“Hey, Mimimi! Tomozaki was just saying…”

“Be quiet, Izumi! You don’t have to tell her!”

“Oh my god, it is sex, isn’t it?!”

“No, it’s not!”

As the uproar grew, someone in the front of the classroom shouted “Shush!” Tama-chan was pointing sharply at Mimimi.

I hadn’t seen Tama-chan since before summer vacation. She was as tiny as ever, her chestnut hair shining. She probably sat in the front because she was so small.

“If you’re gonna talk about it, at least keep your voice down!”

This tiny girl’s scolding didn’t have much force by itself, but her posture was threatening enough. Mimimi being Mimimi, she shivered with happiness at Tama-chan’s reproach.

“Ooh… A good tongue-lashing from Tama-chan is just what my tired body needed…”

“That’s not what I meant!”

It was fun watching Tama-chan energetically complain. Of course, Mimimi was ten times as energetic as Tama-chan. What was with those two?

“Ah, my Tama-chan deficiency is being replenished!!”

Mimimi bounded over to Tama-chan for a good old-fashioned bear hug. Business as usual.

“Hey, stop it, Minmi!”

Ignoring Tama-chan’s attempts to resist, Mimimi nuzzled her face happily into her friend’s neck. When she was content, she lifted her head slowly and stared at Tama-chan’s face with a strangely serious expression.

“Oh, Tama…”

She touched Tama-chan’s nose experimentally, then looked down.

“…What?”

“You haven’t…?”

She paused sorrowfully. Her gaze darted around anxiously, and her mouth opened slightly like she wasn’t sure what to say. Wh- what’s wrong, Mimimi?

“What…?” Tama-chan asked nervously.

Mimimi looked her in the eye again and slowly began to speak.

“…You haven’t changed your bodywash, have you?” she asked forlornly.

Tama-chan was silent for a few seconds. Then she pointed fiercely at Mimimi, her face bright red. “What I smell like is none of your business!!”

“Nya, nya!”

Mimimi grinned broadly and stuck out her tongue. Was I just imagining it, or was Mimimi getting more perverted by the day? If I didn’t watch out, this could go way too far.

Anyway, once the initial uproar was over, the two of them settled into their usual routine of scolding each other and chatting cheerfully. Whew. I was just thinking the fuss was over and I could get back to my peaceful routine when I noticed a gleam in Izumi’s eyes.

“Getting back to what we were talking about… Do you have any romantic gossip for me, Tomozaki?”

“Um, no, it’s…”

Another thing to watch out for: Izumi’s tenacity on this kind of topic.

* * *

I managed to evade Izumi’s interrogation until the first-period bell rang. As Kawamura-sensei walked in, Izumi abandoned the conversation with a satisfied smile. I guess she’s happy just to talk about that kind of thing even if she doesn’t get any real information?

“Okay, take your seats, kids. The bell’s ringing!” Kawamura-sensei said briskly. Man, she’s a fighter.

Everyone stopped talking and silently sat down for long homeroom, the first class of the second semester. Kawamura-sensei straightened the stacks of half-size paper on her desk and started on an important-sounding lecture.

“…You may all still be second-year students, but college entrance exams are on the horizon. I assume you each studied on your own over summer vacation, and you’ll soon be starting classes here at school to prepare as well. Today, I’ll be giving you a career survey and explaining your elective options.”

Completing her speech with her usual confidence, she handed out the stacks of paper to the first student in each row. The survey that landed on my desk basically assumed we were all going to university, which was obviously the goal our school had for us. We might be in Saitama Prefecture, but Sekitomo High was still a respectable college-prep school.

“Please select your classes based on which exam subjects you’ll be taking…”

Instead of following the gen ed curriculum, we were shifting into test-prep mode. Kawamura-sensei explained that the class would be divided into several sections based on our elective subjects and that we’d be studying the content of the upcoming exam intensively.

After all, the exams were coming up in a little over a year. I wasn’t awful at studying, but I hadn’t made any concrete decisions yet about the future. Guess it’s time to give some serious thought to my career. So far, all I know is that I want to try to get into university.

Kawamura-sensei finished up her explanation and gave us some time to fill out the surveys and turn them in. Once we were done, her expression relaxed as she flipped through them.

“…Right. We’ve got some extra time, so let’s discuss the sports tournament. It’s coming up in three weeks!”

“Yes! I’ve been waiting for this!” Takei shouted cheerfully. The class giggled. Wow, a couple of words, and he got a laugh.

I thought about stealing some of his skills but quickly realized it would be hard to copy him directly. I mean, if I said I’ve been waiting for this! everyone would just be confused. He was building on his existing character, while my existing character was a loser and mostly invisible. Sad. I guess I better focus on observation for now, like Hinami told me.

“Yes, Takei, we’ve all been waiting eagerly for this. But what we need to do now…is pick the girls’ and boys’ team captains.”

Kawamura-sensei wrote the word Captains on the blackboard.

“Their main job is to attend the captains’ meetings. The captains from each class will get together to decide which grades will be playing which sports, and they’ll create a schedule for using the courts. The captains will also help get the courts and equipment ready on the day of the tournament and manage the teams during the matches. Basically, they’re in charge of the business side of things. We need one boy and one girl for the role. Any volunteers?”

“I’ll do it!”

Takei’s hand shot up so fast, it seemed almost like a reflex. Another ripple of giggles passed through the class. I’m pretty sure this is less a skill for Takei than an inborn gift. It feels like the defining property of his character. You could sum him up in one word: simple .

“Okay. If there aren’t any other volunteers, then Takei will be the boys’ captain.”

“Yes! I’m gonna get us soccer!” Takei pumped his fist, burning with an innocent sense of duty.

“Except last year, you lost at rock-paper-scissors, and we got stuck with volleyball,” Nakamura jeered. The class laughed. So Takei ran for the position two years in a row…

Wait. That jab was interesting, actually.

If I thought about it systematically, this was an application of the messing with people skill. Nakamura was just teasing one person, but because he did it in front of a group, he got some laughs.

I’d practiced this already, so this might be within the realm of possibility for me. The problem was whether I had the courage to do it publicly, and there was a chance that everyone would just think it was really weird… Yeah, I’m not touching that yet. Better watch and practice some more first.

“Who cares? Hey, Aoi! I choose you to be my partner!”

Takei energetically gestured at Hinami.

“Hmm, but I don’t think I can. Right, Kawamura-sensei?”

She tilted her head playfully, nailed Takei with a smile, then looked at the teacher.

Takei stared at Aoi in shock. What kind of trick was that? Her ability to get guys tied up in knots was archery-on-horseback territory. If Hinami had a trait, hers was shape-shifter .

“That’s right. Starting this semester, Hinami will be serving as student council president, so unfortunately, I’ll have to reject her nomination as captain.”

“No way!! I only volunteered because I thought Aoi would be the girl’s captain!”

The whole class laughed again. Were they laughing because he was being so honest? I was good at saying what I thought, too, but I didn’t have the skills yet to give it such a comical spin. If I wanted to copy him, I needed to practice giving a happy-go-lucky delivery.

That aside, Takei really was crazy about Hinami, huh? On the barbecue trip, he’d been dying to pair up with her in ping-pong, too. Or was she just that popular?

“Ha-ha-ha. My condolences,” said Kawamura-sensei. “Do you want to quit now?”

“No way. I’m doing this!” Takei pumped his fist again.

“Ha-ha-ha. Then the job is in your hands, Takei. Which means we have a boys’ captain… Now how about the girls? Anyone?”

Kawamura-sensei surveyed the class, but the girls just glanced around at one another. I did my best to pay attention to their glances and the general atmosphere. This time, I was observing the overall mood instead of their individual skills.

One thing I knew was that the warmth generated by Takei’s joking earlier was steadily cooling. Honestly, captain wasn’t such a desirable job to start with. From Kawamura-sensei’s explanation, it didn’t sound very fun. In fact, it sounded annoying. Takei was just a special case.

I half expected Mimimi or someone to throw up their hand like Takei had, but no one made a move. Mimimi was a much more thoughtful person than her ditzy persona would suggest. The class’s forward momentum ground to a halt.

Suddenly, Mizusawa let out a dramatic sigh that cut through the silence like a knife, and he turned toward Takei.

“Aw, don’t worry, man. Don’t feel bad just because no one wants to be your partner.”

“Wait, what?! Is that why no one is volunteering?” Takei shouted in a tone that betrayed both his anxiety and sadness. The guys in the class burst into laughter at his emotional reaction. Aha, this was the same method Nakamura had used earlier. But damn, Mizusawa’s delivery was perfect. I wouldn’t expect any less, of course.

I looked around at the girls. About half were laughing, but the other half were just smirking a little. Huh. It wasn’t a super- serious situation, but I think they were having a hard time relaxing enough to laugh when the possibility remained that they’d have to be captain. Makes sense. Everyone hates annoying jobs.

What about the queen of our class, Erika Konno? I glanced in her direction. She was slouched in her chair with her legs crossed, bored and neutral as she examined her fingernails. Wow. What an impressive aura. Her trait would be queenly dignity . I looked away quickly, since I’d be in big trouble if our eyes met.

“No volunteers for the girls’ captain?”

Naturally, no one responded.

“…Hmm. In that case, we’ll decide later. The tournament isn’t for a little while, and the captains’ work doesn’t start until…looks like next week. If anyone decides they want the job between now and then, please sign up. Moving on…”

But just as Kawamura-sensei was about to wrap up the discussion…

“…What about Yuzu?”

The queen’s voice rang out sharply.

“Um, me?” Izumi floundered at being called out so suddenly.

“You were captain of Class 2 last year, weren’t you?”

“Um, uh-huh…,” Izumi said hesitantly, rubbing the nape of her neck like she didn’t know what else to do.

“I thought so! You already know how to do it, so like, why not?”

“Uh, um…”

Konno knew she had the logical upper hand here, and she was pressing her advantage, while Izumi was refusing to give a solid yes or no.

Yeah, I recognized this dynamic.

When I went to Izumi’s house last semester, she talked about how she always went along with the mood, even if she didn’t want to. That was probably how she ended up with the job last year. And given how good Erika Konno was at bending the mood to her will, I was expecting Izumi to cave and take the job again.

But sometimes things don’t go how you expect them to.

“No, but…”

“What?”

Izumi shifted her gaze nervously. “It’s just…I don’t want to be captain this year…”

She answered quietly but honestly.

This was fairly surprising. I hadn’t noticed a strong will in Izumi’s eyes, but she’d managed to resist Erika Konno’s grumpy, controlling gaze. Last semester, when we went to her room, she’d told me she wanted to stop letting the mood control her, and she was gradually making that wish a reality. I was mesmerized. On the surface, it seemed like a tiny, maybe even weak rebellion. But in that action, I saw concrete signs of her will to grow, however slowly.

There was a brief silence, and then Erika Konno looked away from Izumi, annoyed.

“Oh. Okay,” she replied a bit snappishly, resting her cheek on her hand.

Izumi let out a soft breath, the tension draining from her hunched-up shoulders. Her eyes looked a little moist. That really took her outside her comfort zone, and she’d almost cracked. Nice work, Izumi.

I felt myself relaxing, too, and I was sure I wasn’t the only one, now that the crisis had been averted. Erika Konno truly was a powerful mood manipulator to be able to create so much tension out of just a few words and glances. As the tension dissipated, I started to wonder where in the world that power came from.

A moment later, however, Erika Konno shot her second arrow. Her cheek still resting on her palm, she absently twirled a piece of hair between her fingers.

“Well, how about Hirabayashi, then?”

“…Huh?” Hirabayashi-san was too startled to say more than that. She had long black hair with thick bangs, and she was one of the quieter girls in our class. I’d seen her with friends, but not often—she was a loner, as they say. Why had Erika Konno named her? I tried to figure it out, but I couldn’t come up with an answer.

“Come on, Hirabayashi. You should do it. You’re good at, like, setting up and stuff.”

Erika Konno gave a short, vaguely mocking laugh, which made it clear the supposed compliment was code for You’re boring .

Then, as if they were following Erika Konno’s silent orders, the members of her group started chiming in.

“She does seem good at setting up.”

“What’s that mean anyway? Ha-ha.”

“I hope she does it, for the team.”

This wasn’t outright coercion, but they were definitely pushing her in that direction. And in the background, Erika Konno was watching over it all. Invisible violence inflicted through the mood. Damn.

“Someone has to do it, after all.”

“Exactly! And we have to choose the right person for the job!”

“Seriously, though, how is someone good at setting up? Ah-ha-ha.”

Erika Konno’s groupies were getting all worked up over this as she looked on like it was completely normal.

Hinami defined mood as “the standards for right and wrong in a particular situation .” As I observed the situation based on the “rules” she’d taught me, I started to draw some conclusions.

What Erika Konno and her followers were doing was probably very simple. They were using the existing mood of the class to indirectly attack Hirabayashi-san. Most likely, one of the norms in our class dictated that it was bad to be boring and practical. By that standard, plain people had a lower status than loud attention-seekers.

By labeling Hirabayashi-san as being good at setting up , Erika Konno was using that norm to indirectly belittle her and affirm their hierarchical relationship. And then after establishing her superior status, she was trying to push an annoying job on her.

Now that I’d laid it all out in words, I really did not like this norm.

I kept thinking and observing quietly. How could I intervene using the skills I had? Could I change the mood? I searched for a way to combine my observations with my existing skills so I could change the outcome.

But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like my skills weren’t up to the task. I mean, I couldn’t even smooth out the mood of the class in a normal situation. How was I supposed to suddenly leap over this high hurdle?

It was frustrating, but I decided to keep watching silently. It would have been one thing if I was the only one at risk, but if I screwed this up, Hirabayashi-san might get hurt, too. Better play it safe.

“How about it, Hirabayashi? Yes or no? If you’re not gonna do it, say so.”

Erika Konno made the full-court press, probably to make the mood impossible to resist. Her groupies pushed, too, murmuring, “Yeah!” and “Come on!”

Izumi was the only member of their group who didn’t say anything. She just stared at Hirabayashi-san with worry.

Hirabayashi-san seemed to hesitate for a moment, but she finally gave up, smiled faintly, and raised one hand next to her face, her arm pressed tightly to her side.

“Okay…I’ll do it,” she said to Kawamura-sensei.

“…Hirabayashi. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. Plus, we don’t have to decide today. We have plenty of time.”

But despite Kawamura-sensei’s serious, scolding tone, Hirabayashi-san shook her head.

“Um…it’s fine. I’ll do it.”

She smiled weakly again, like she was trying to ward off her own discomfort.

“…Well, okay.” Kawamura-sensei didn’t seem fully convinced, but she accepted Hirabayashi-san’s offer. I guess she didn’t have much choice when Hirabayashi-san herself was volunteering. “So we’re going with Takei and Hirabayashi for the captains?”

“All good here! Can’t wait to work with you, Miyuki-chan!” said Takei. He had the spirit, if nothing else.

“Uh, um, right… Me too.”

Hirabayashi-san’s brief smile then was real.

So that was what happened in the long homeroom on the first day of the second semester. I spent the whole time silently observing for my assignment, and what I saw wasn’t pretty. Mood maneuvers are like boxing for normies. Honestly, this kind of thing is way outside my wheelhouse, but I guess it’s necessary for conquering life?

On the upside, I could take some pointers from Takei’s people skills, like the way he remembered Hirabayashi-san’s first name and acted so friendly to her. The only possible reason such an idiot could be so socially successful must be that there was a part of him that was impossible to dislike. To continue the boxing metaphor, he was like the mascot character who only showed up in the ring between rounds. I’m rooting for you, Takei.

* * *

It was break time after first period. The bell rang, Kawamura-sensei dismissed us, and everyone wandered over to hang out with their respective group of friends. I glanced to the side and noticed Izumi was still sitting in her chair, staring dejectedly at her desk. I didn’t want to just leave her, so I decided to say something. Lately, I think my training has been starting to merge with my own feelings.

“…Izumi?”

“Huh? …Oh, Tomozaki.”

Returning to Earth with a start, she tried to hold on to her smile as she turned to me. I didn’t exactly tease her, but I had that sense in mind as I took a step closer to her.

“You thinking about…what just happened with Hirabayashi-san?”

“Um…yeah,” she said awkwardly. “…Could you tell?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

Izumi sighed and lowered her voice. “It’s just…I wasn’t sure what to do.”

“Yeah?”

Izumi glanced quickly at Erika Konno, then smiled darkly. “What do you think I should have done?”

“…Hmm.”

I could tell she was feeling bad about not doing anything to rescue Hirabayashi-san. So was I.

“That’s tough. There wasn’t much we could have done.”

Izumi nodded. “Yeah… It’s not like Erika was doing something so bad that I could have told her to stop.”

“…True.”

I agreed. Like Izumi said, all Erika Konno and her friends actually did was nudge Hirabayashi-san; they didn’t force her or threaten her. Plus, all they were pushing her to do was be captain of the sports tournament. Yeah, it was a hassle, but it wasn’t that much work. If it was so horrible to push someone into that job, then why did Takei volunteer for it himself? Once again, we’d return to the fact that Takei was an idiot.

“Konno didn’t force her to do it.”

“Yeah…”

It would be easy to condemn her if she’d clearly threatened Hirabayashi-san, but ultimately, the main reason Hirabayashi-san ended up with the job was because she herself said she’d do it. The mood had created an invisible coercive force, but that invisibility made it hard to condemn.

“I guess all you can do is avoid making too big a deal of it and see how things go,” I said.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Izumi answered, looking down and smiling. “But…”

“But…?” I prompted.

She nodded and then continued. “If I just became captain myself, the problem would be solved.”

“…Oh.” Yeah, that would be one way of rescuing Hirabayashi-san.

“But then that would be bad for me on a personal level.”

“Um, bad how?” I asked, not completely sure what she meant.

“Well, it would be easy for me to take her place, but…”

“…Yeah?”

Izumi pressed her lips firmly together for a second. “But that’s exactly what Erika wanted.”

Now it was coming together. I thought back again to what Izumi had told me at her house.

“…Oh.”

She didn’t like how vulnerable she was to the mood.

“I want to change that part of myself…so I’ve been making more of an effort in these situations, you know?”

She sounded shy and a little ambiguous. I think by “these situations,” she was including the Atafami match between Nakamura and me in the old principal’s office. I could still remember Izumi clumsily but insistently rebelling against Konno’s crew when they were attacking Nakamura.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding intently.

Izumi lowered her voice a little more. “And then today…I tried it again when I told her I didn’t want to be captain. Man, she was scary! Did you see her eyes?!”

“I was getting scared just watching!”

“Right?!”

We both giggled. Wow, laughter in a normal flow of conversation. I had to admit it felt good that we were laughing without even trying. I was also enjoying how the conversation seemed kind of secret. Wait, what am I talking about?

“Didn’t I do a good job of standing up to her? C’mon, give me some credit here!”

“Fishing for compliments much? Didn’t you almost start crying?”

“Shut up! Seriously, though, Erika is terrifying when she gets like that!”

As I rode the wave of conversation, remembering to tease her here and there, something occurred to me. I was a bottom-tier character, but I wasn’t the only person struggling to grow one day at a time. Izumi was going through the same thing as a normie.

“Aaanyway…I think you are changing little by little.”

“What?! Really?”

I really meant it, and Izumi’s eyes lit up. S-stop! Back up a step! I’m still not used to that normie smell—soft, slightly sweet, full of teen spirit… My magic defense is practically zero.

“Um, uh,” I mumbled incoherently.

“Uh,” Izumi said, examining her palms. “You did say…that it wasn’t too late for me to change.”

“…Oh yeah.”

When she opened up to me that one time, she’d mentioned her troubles with the mood, but also that she believed that would never change. And I’d disagreed.

“Ever since then, I’ve been trying when I can.”

“…Oh, uh-huh.”

Izumi nodded and smiled playfully. “Plus…you were the one who let her have it that one time. It was so cool, I had to step up my game, too!”

“Oh, um, thanks.”

I managed to reply even though she’d just dropped a “cool” on me and scrambled my brain. The ability to deliver these surprise attacks is definitely a normie trait. They have a big impact on us bottom-tier characters, even when we know there’s no meaning behind it. It’s super effective!

“But…anyway. If I gave in and agreed to be captain, I’d be going right back to how I used to be. I guess I didn’t want that to happen.”

“…Makes sense.”

Like she said, if she gave in to Erika Konno’s manipulation of the mood to make whoever she wanted the captain, that would be the same as giving in to the mood itself. Especially if Izumi didn’t want to be captain.

“Yeah,” Izumi said softly, sighing with deep exhaustion. “…People can be such a chore. Especially in groups.”

Her words startled me. All the struggles I’d been through to complete Hinami’s assignments, including this current one, spun around my mind like a carousel, and before I knew it, my mouth was moving almost against my will.

“They are… They really, really are…,” I said as all the emotions of the past few months welled up inside me.

“Geez, you don’t have to make it that big a deal!”

Izumi seemed a bit weirded out.

* * *

Since it was the first day of the second semester, we got out of school at noon. Hinami had told me she couldn’t meet after class, so I was planning to head straight home. According to the extremely businesslike LINE message she’d sent during break, she was having lunch with Mimimi and Tama-chan, and it would be hard for her to get away.

I was planning to get home as quickly as possible and use the extra time to practice Atafami , but twenty minutes or so after school, I instead found myself at the game center near the station by our school.

“Holy shit! Farm Boy’s good!”

Takei was standing behind me, cheering as I played. Nakamura was sitting in the opposite arcade cabinet and playing against me, and Mizusawa was standing behind him.

Yes, Nakamura’s henchman Takei had kidnapped me as I was getting ready to head home and taken me here (unharmed) to the slightly smoky Cruz Game Center.

“Damn, Farm Boy, you’re kind of a freak at this!”

“Shut up, Takei.”

“Ouch!”

As I coldly snapped back at Takei, I racked up another victory. It was getting really easy to fire back at him. An idiot like him was practically holding up a neon sign saying Just go for it! Sure made practice easier. Training-mode Takei.

The screen in the cabinet in front of me refreshed. I took a deep breath and looked around. Unlike the arcade I went to sometimes in Omiya, this was a small place, probably independent. It seemed like a hangout for the semi-rough crowd at the local high schools—in other words, I did not belong here.

“…Shit, dude, you’re way too good. It’s so… Eh. It’s whatever.”

Nakamura scratched his head in irritation as he stood up and walked over to my side with Mizusawa. Judging from the round we’d just played, Nakamura had spent a decent amount of time practicing this combat game called Dogfight 4 —but not as much time as I had. Maybe that was why he wasn’t bashing me as hard as usual for kicking his ass. He hadn’t even insulted me, so that was a big step forward. Sad that it is a big step forward, but I’m gonna ignore that.

Nakamura plopped down beside me. The run-down game center’s beat-up chair creaked as he spread his legs wide apart, invading my space. Damn. He acted like it was totally natural to be so domineering. I squeezed my legs together. The pressure of the situation made me nervous, but I focused on not stammering like an idiot.

“I did practice…”

“Huh,” he said without looking at me.

Mizusawa seemed impressed and peered at the screen. “So you’re good at games aside from Atafami ?”

“I’m okay. This one’s pretty famous.”

From what I could tell after a quick glance around the arcade, all the games they had were famous. They probably went for the usual suspects because they didn’t have a lot of space. I could probably beat Nakamura at any of them—after all, I’d put in a ton of solo practice. Ha-ha.

“I’ve never lost to any of the guys here. You practice too much, man. Go outside once in a while.”

Nakamura was pushing me around, like always. He really was a force to be reckoned with.

Still, I made an effort to observe, as Hinami had instructed me. When I did, I realized his comment to “go outside” had a similar structure to Erika Konno’s comment about Hirabayashi-san being “good at setting up.”

By labeling Hirabayashi-san as good at setting up , she’d established Hirabayashi-san’s inferior position according to the standard that dictated plain and practical were bad.

Similarly, Nakamura had treated me as plain by saying I should “go outside,” using the same norm as Konno to put me in my place. Nakamura at least accepted that I was good at gaming, so his comment felt a lot milder than hers, but the structure was identical. Must be a typical normie strat.

“N-nah, I like gaming more.”

Given that I was getting Hinami’s help to become a normie myself, I wasn’t sure if I should be quite so proud of it, but what else could I say? That’s genuinely how I feel, and that’s not about to change. I’m not about to give up what I like. I’m going to beat this game of life as a gamer and have a good time doing it.

“Whatever. Okay, Fumin, this one’s next.”

“Oh, okay.”

“You’re running him ragged, man.”

“Go, Farm Boy, go!”

For all my worrying, they brushed over my declaration of nerdiness like it was nothing, and Nakamura proceeded to use me as his practice partner for a while longer.

* * *

It was already past six. We’d taken a break for lunch at a Gusto diner nearby, but other than that, we’d been battling the whole time. We’d already been playing for five hours, in fact. Seriously?

“Shuji, how much longer are you gonna go?” Mizusawa asked with a cynical smile.

“Yeah, Shuji, let’s get out of here soon,” Takei added, sounding a little unhappy.

“You guys go home first. I’m gonna hang here a little longer.”

“I’d like to go home, too…”

I felt like Nakamura was assuming I’d stick around as his training partner, so I made sure to correct that idea. I mean, if I stayed any longer, my parents would really start worrying.

“Oh yeah? Okay, see you later.”

“Later.”

Surprisingly, he let me go. I thought he’d tell me to stay. Well, okay then.

“Ready, guys?” Mizusawa said with a sigh, as if he’d guessed what was up with Nakamura, and then he led Takei and me out the door of the game center. I glanced back as we left. Nakamura was sitting expressionless in front of the game cabinet, his arms crossed, illuminated by the light of the screen. There was something sad and vulnerable about his face in the light of that dim, old-fashioned game center.

After we left, the three of us headed toward the train station. The afternoon had been hot, but now the heat had settled in favor of a comfortably warm breeze. Mizusawa sighed quietly once more.

“Looks like it’s happening again.”

Takei swiveled his head toward Mizusawa and pointed at him in agreement.

“I thought so, too! You think they had another fight?”

This was an interesting conversation.

“All he can do is wait it out. Yoshiko’s super strict.”

“Think it’ll last for a while?”

I didn’t recognize the name Mizusawa had mentioned, so I decided to ask.

“Who’s Yoshiko?”

Was there a girl in our class named Yoshiko? If so, why would they mention her?

“Shuji has a complicated family situation. His mom is really overprotective—one of those helicopter parents. If he gets bad grades, messes around too much, or stays out too late, she gets super pissed. And she’s tough to beat on the best of days.”

“R-really?”

So Yoshiko was Nakamura’s mom. Was calling her by her first name a normie thing? But now that I think about it, I remember somebody mentioning that his mom was scary when we had the Nakamura-Izumi strategy meeting at my house.

“I’m guessing they’re fighting right now,” Mizusawa said, checking the train schedule on his phone.

“A fight, huh…? But won’t he make it worse by staying out late?”

Mizusawa smiled innocently. “You’d think so, right? That’s the frustrating thing about Shuji.”

Takei threw his head back and guffawed in agreement.

“What do you mean?”

“He’s stubborn,” Mizusawa said warmly. “When they fight, Shuji stays out on purpose.”

I smiled cynically.

“So…he doesn’t want to see her ’cause they’re fighting? Or does he want to make her worry?”

“You got it,” Mizusawa replied, pointing at me gracefully.

I sighed. So basically…

“What is he, a little kid?”

“Ha-ha! Seriously!” Mizusawa laughed loudly. “He’ll stay at a friend’s house or go home really late so he doesn’t have to see his parents.”

“Th-that is so childish…”

Still, it was also in character… I pressed my fingers into my forehead, a little frustrated with him myself. Takei grinned, as if to match my gesture.

“You’re spot-on, man! He’s so childish, I worry about him sometimes!”

“You’re hardly one to talk,” I shot back.

“Ouch!”

I’d said what was on my mind in a natural tone. I’d practiced enough by now that I was able to do it fairly smoothly and naturally. This must be what Hinami was talking about when she mentioned repeated practice. It kind of felt like reflexively responding with an uppercut to an attack from the air.

“Why’s Farm Boy being so mean to me today?”

“Ha-ha-ha. But come on, you really can’t talk.”

“Takahiro, you’re getting in on this, too?”

That was basically the tone of the conversation on the way home, and I actually felt fairly comfortable.

* * *

We split up, and I went home. My mom complained about how unusually late it was, but I just ate dinner and headed for the bath. As I soaked in the hot water, I reflected on the day.

I’d gone to the arcade after school with some normies, and we’d hung out till night, messing with one another. I’d been careful to observe, but I hadn’t forced myself to do anything weird simply for the sake of an assignment, either. Still, strangely enough, school had become a little livelier for me.

Actually, the change was so dramatic, I could never have imagined this a few months ago. But I knew better than anyone else that this seemingly personality-transforming change was made up of one tiny, inevitable step after another. I wasn’t using a continue, a cheat, a shortcut, or anything else like that. I’d just advanced a little further each day, until I turned around and realized the starting point was far behind me.

But if that was the case…

…there was someone else who had come much further than me.

Just how long had Aoi Hinami been walking this path, and how far had she gotten?

Right now, she was so far ahead of me that it was hard to even imagine where she had started. But at some point in the past, the one and only Aoi Hinami must have been standing where I was now. It was probably so long ago that her footsteps had worn away. To get from here to there, she hadn’t used a time warp or magic or anything like that. She’d just walked straight ahead, one step at a time, like I was doing.

But there was one major difference between Hinami and me.

For me, each step of this journey, from the feel of the earth beneath my feet to the landscape stretching out before me, was new, exciting, and full of enjoyment. That’s what kept me moving forward.

But not for Aoi Hinami.

It seemed like for her, moving forward in and of itself was the goal. She didn’t enjoy the journey, she didn’t look around at the new scenery, and she didn’t look back at the starting point. She kept her gaze fixed on the goal, and she forged ahead almost like a machine. At least, as far as I could tell.

What had allowed her to keep at it for so long?

I had to wonder.