Chapter 5 - Don’t Screw With Me

“Young man, are you stupid?” Haimura sighed when Kai handed him a club application form with ‘go-home club’ written on it.

“No good?” Kai asked in resignation.

“Of course it’s no good,” the old teacher scolded him. “Were you listening to what I said yesterday?”

“‘You have to join a club no matter what at this school,’” Kai quoted.

“So you do understand.”

“...No matter what?”

“We do have a few exceptions, but I haven’t heard anything from your folks. You’re gonna have to join a club.”

Kai heaved a heavy sigh.

“You’re too young to be sighing like that! Go on, go look around at some clubs,” Haimura ordered him.

Kai bowed once before excusing himself from the teacher’s lounge. His eyes naturally fell down to the floor. He unconsciously let out another sigh and sluggishly began to walk down the hallway. Now, what was he to do? There weren’t any clubs he wanted to join. Not a single one, as he’d found out yesterday. Plus, after getting a tour once, it was hard to force himself to go ask again.

As he walked along with his head down, a voice came out of nowhere.

“Oh!”

He knew there was someone else in the hallway, but didn’t go as far as to check who it was. There were two girls standing there. One had blonde hair and the other had black hair, and the pair were definitely familiar. The two of them were in the social game club room yesterday.

“It’s you, senpai.” Aya lazily waved her hand as she walked over to him.

“And who on earth would this be?” said the other.

“Whaddya mean... Oh, right,” Aya commented dryly. “You climaxed yesterday before you noticed him.”

“Don’t call it ‘climaxing’! It is a graceful ascension of my dear soul!”

Privately, Kai had to admit that he couldn’t really tell the difference between climaxing and ascending.

“This is Shiraseki... Uhhhh...”

“...Kai,” he finished for her.

“Ahh, yup, that’s right,” said Aya. “This is Shiraseki Kai-paisen. Nana-sen brought him to our club yesterday.”

Disregarding Aya’s introduction, the girl glared at him like she was eyeing a suspect. Her long bangs completely covered her left eye, but the look coming out of her exposed right eye was sharp enough to pierce through him. “...Kuroba Eru.” She mumbled like she was talking to herself, so it took a second for Kai to realize that she had told him her name.

“...Oh, uh, I’m Shiraseki Kai,” he said, attempting to introduce himself.

“I’ve already heard as much from that fool over there.”

“A-Ah, that’s right. Sorry.”

Perhaps she lost interest in him then, because she switched her gaze to the door of the room in front of them. The nameplate above the doorway read “Student Council.”

“By the way senpai, I heard you rejected Nana-sen,” said Aya.

“...Huh?!”

Eru’s ice-cold expression exploded in response to Aya’s sudden statement. She made her way toward Kai like she was about to strangle him at any moment. “You!” she hissed. “What is the meaning of this?!”

“W-What?!” said Kai, attempting to defend himself. “I just told her I wouldn’t join the club!”

“Ahh, then I guess the three of us got rejected together, huh?”

“No, that’s not what I’m trying to say!”

“Then why not join? Nana-sen’s in crazy trouble, so couldn’t you at least put your name down as a no-show member?”

“...In trouble?”

That very instant, the door in front of them opened, and Nanaka came out as pale as a ghost. She muttered, “Excuse me,” with all the power of a mosquito and closed the door behind her.

“Oh man, Nana-sen, that’s an awful look on your face.”

“...They said no.” Nanaka was all but whispering at this point.

“No to what?” asked Kai, jumping into the conversation without thought.

But Nanaka was so out of it that she didn’t stop to realize that Kai was the one to respond to her. “...They’re disbanding us.” Her words rippled through the hallway like a spilled droplet of water, and the entire group stood still in shock for a moment.

“C-Come on, Nana-sen,” Aya scoffed. “That joke was so out of character that we all forgot to laugh.”

“...I’m not joking,” said Nanaka, opening her mouth again to squeeze out the words. As she did so, a single marble-sized tear flowed out of her right eye and rolled down her cheek. The setting sun shone through the window as the tear stroked the outline of her jaw and fell to the floor, where it silently shattered.

“Dear me, I’d appreciate it if you stopped messing around,” Eru practically spat out the words as she tried to push Nanaka on the shoulder to move her out of the way. She seemed intent on going into the room. Nanaka came to her senses and wiped the corner of her eye before pulling Eru back.

“Why must you stop me?!” Eru demanded to know.

“Eru, you’re going to go on a rampage again!” Nanaka protested.

Again, Kai noted, which meant that she’d already gone on a rampage at some point.

Eru contorted her body like a bucking horse, trying to shake Nanaka off. She must have been stronger than she looked, because Nanaka lost her footing and Kai subconsciously moved to help her so she wouldn’t fall.

“Thanks...” Nanaka mumbled, and then stopped in realization. “Wait, what? Shiraseki-kun?”

“Oh, uh, it’s just a coincidence... Um, anyway.” It really was nothing but a coincidence.

“Be a dear and unhand me!” Eru demanded again.

“You know we can’t do that!” Nanaka yelled back at her.

The door opened with all the vigor of a clap of thunder. “Hey! You idiots are way too loud!” A single male student stood in front of them. He had a perm, and his blond hair had been styled with wax. He looked very well put together, all told, and he’d look like the foreign prince of a fantasy novel if he kept his mouth shut. But his aura of pride was so massive that it swallowed that initial image whole and still had room to spare.

Behind him was a female student who carried herself like a secretary. She had long hair and a good sense of fashion, putting on an air of maturity. Unlike the first boy, she stayed silent and observed the situation with a keen eye. Kai’s initial impression was that she seemed like the tutor who kept the prince in line.

“Oh, you were still here?” Asked the pretty boy, eying Nanaka and speaking with disgust.

“I see you’ve assembled everyone here, and for what? To fool around? Go, quickly, return to your club room and clean it. A club room used by morons like you must be in a filthy state of ruin.”

“Th-That’s not! ...Not, true.” Nana started speaking with a burst of energy, but it petered out when she glanced at Aya. Kai thought back to the condition of the club room he saw yesterday and couldn’t fault her for it.

“Listen to yourself hesitate,” the boy scoffed. “This is why I hate conversing with buffoons. You lot were squatting in that room to begin with. Make haste and leave!”

“That’s the social game club’s club room!” Nanaka protested again.

“How many times must I repeat myself before you understand? The social game club has never been recognized as a club. A club must have a minimum of four unique members who are not part of any other club. How many do you have? Can you not even count that high?”

“Well, we...”

“Then that is not your clubroom,” the boy told her flatly. “You lot are a gaggle of all-natural imbeciles who aren’t a part of any club. Just as it is the responsibility of a citizen of our nation to work, so too is it a responsibility of a student at this school to join a club.”

Kai finally understood what was going on. He didn’t know who the arrogant boy was, but it was clear that he was saying the social game club didn’t have enough members. Since it didn’t have enough members, it wasn’t an official club. Thus, the disbandment. He finally tied it to Nanaka’s earlier statement.

“I’ll dearly have you know that you ought to shut your mouth!” Eru said threateningly.

“E-Eru! Stop!” Nanaka just barely managed to stop Eru, who tried to grab the boy’s collar.

“Eek!” The boy jumped back, cowering pathetically. He seemed genuinely relieved to realize that she couldn’t reach him. He reset his expression and once again stepped forward with arrogance. “What am I to do with you savages? I know that you call yourselves the social game ‘club,’ but what worth is there to such club activities to begin with? Games are made for fooling around in the first place, and social games are even more worthless than that. It simply burns time. Wouldn’t you call something like that garbage?” he demanded. “Each and every one just aims to make money with their gachas, so they decorate themselves into a deluxe trash can. Well, people like you are making it, after all. Trash begets trash as a simple matter of course. Garbage should be properly disposed of, so you can move onto something more productive with your lives.”

Aya had been relatively removed from the conversation up until this point, but the boy’s last statement made something inside her snap. Nanaka’s eyes were wide open in shock and Eru was clearly displaying an even more heated look of rage than before.

Kai was no different.

“You—” Aya started, but before he knew it, Kai’s emotions were leaking out of his mouth and he cut her off.

“Don’t screw with me!” The world around him moved in slow motion, and his legs moved forward on their own as the distance between the two boys closed.

“—Listen up, Shiraseki. Don’t forget to look people in the eye. It’s good to have your materials on hand. But when you talk to someone, talk while you look them in the eye. Intent resides in the eye, emotion sprouts there, and it will bring life to your words. At times, a planner must butt heads with others. When those times come, the words you speak while maintaining eye contact will carry your emotions with them. That, and sometimes it’s useful when you need to overwhelm someone. That being said, it’s better to avoid situations where you’d have to overpower someone to begin with.” —Akane’s words floated in Kai’s mind as he looked the boy in the eye. He was glaring.

The boy jumped back in a panic yet again. “A-And who might you be?! I haven’t seen you around! ...Yup! Never seen you! I know the names and faces of every student in this school! It’s my responsibility as student council president! But I don’t know you. Is this some twisted trick you pulled knowing that I, Ryuugamine Takeru, am the student council president?!” Remarkably, the boy turned out to be the student council president.

The girl behind him stepped closer. “President,” she said. “He is the transfer student I informed you of yesterday. I informed you again today, so that even someone as bird-brained as you wouldn’t forget, but to think you had already forgotten.”

“I-I did no such thing, Shizaki-kun! Of course, he’s the transfer student! His name was Sekkai Seki-kun, right?” The careless misnomer insinuated that said transfer student was made of limestone.

“It’s Shiraseki Kai, Your Fowlness,” the secretary corrected pointedly.

“Your Fowlness?! As in, king of fowl?!” the student president protested vehemently. “I’m the leader of students, not the leader of chickens, okay?!”

“He came from Tsukigase High,” she went on, “which is famous for its social game club program.”

“...Oho. I see, I see. Birds of a feather flock together, I see.” The president nodded like he’d figured everything out.

“The social game club is being disbanded because it doesn’t have enough members. Is that right?” Kai asked.

“Indeed—” the president began to say, but that affirmation was all Kai needed. He completely ignored the president as he tried to get another word in and pulled out a slip of paper from his bag. It was the club application form he received from Nanaka in the morning. He’d refused to join the club, but she kept pushing and pushing, and he finally relented to at least take the form with him.

Kai now used his bag as a surface upon which to write his name in a single motion across the form. His handwriting was remarkably messy, but he figured it was legible enough to be used. He tried to slam the paper into the president, but the girl named Shizaki intercepted him, causing him to step back.

“This is incomplete,” she told him calmly. “Mark here.”

He didn’t carry around his stamp with him. Of course, he didn’t have an ink pad for one, either. Before Kai could even think, his hands were moving; perhaps that was proof enough of how much blood was rushing to his head. He forcefully sank his teeth into his right thumb. The blood flow was more intense than he expected, but he pushed his thumb onto the page where she asked him to mark.

“I’m joining the social game club,” he declared. “There shouldn’t be any problems now, right?”

“Indeed, we accept your application.” The girl’s answer was calm and collected, and her expression didn’t change a bit. In that moment, Kai felt all the strength leave his body.

“...Shiraseki-kun?”

“I—” I’m sorry for deciding everything on my own! ...is what Kai wanted to say, but his voice wouldn’t come out. It felt like the air around him had turned into water and his balance turned to slime, and he was having a hard time keeping himself upright. It was like he was in zero gravity, and his vision went white. Despite this state of affairs, he felt clear-minded, and could tell that blood was still pouring from his thumb. Now that Kai thought back on it, he had pulled an all-nighter and hadn’t slept at all. He was already stumbling on his way to the train station. Even then, this shouldn’t have been enough to make him anemic...

An overwhelming whiteness and the feeling of being dragged down by gravity enveloped him as he lost grip on his consciousness.

◇

When he woke up, the first thing he saw was still white.

He cleared his vision after blinking a few times. The blur of white he was looking at was a ceiling, and the surface he was laying on was a bed. He looked around without getting up and noticed he had been sectioned off by a cream-colored curtain, and the smell of medicine drifted to his nose. It seemed he was in the infirmary.

When he opened the curtain, he saw the white coat of the school nurse, who was sitting at her desk. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “You’re awake.”

“...Yes.”

“Do you remember passing out?”

“I do,” he told her.

“Good. You should be good to go then.”

The evening sun was still shining through the window. It was further sunken than before, and it wouldn’t be long before it was engulfed by the horizon. Still, it didn’t look like he’d been out for very long.

“You had a pretty light case of anemia,” the nurse told him, “so you should be able to get home, but I can call your parents for you if you want.”

“No, I’ll go home on my own,” he told her politely. “Thank you very much.”

“Be careful on your way back.”

Kai thanked her and left the room. Next, he found himself in a hallway dyed crimson by the deep scarlet rays of sun that were pouring in through every window. But there was a single black shadow stretched across the scarlet floor. A girl was looking down at her phone and took a moment to notice Kai. “Shiraseki-kun!” she exclaimed. “Are you okay?!”

“I-I’m fine.”

Nanaka rushed over to him and took his right hand, and a small jolt of pain reminded him that he’d bitten into his thumb. He looked down and realized that it had been wrapped in white gauze, in addition to the standard band-aid.

“Does it hurt?” she asked anxiously.

“I-I’m okay... So... could you... let go?” Kai suggested. No girl had ever held his hand before. Not once, not in his entire life. Frankly speaking, he found it embarrassing. If he included his sister, then there were plenty of times when she’d held his hand or he’d held hers, but that didn’t count. She was a species called ‘sister’ which was definitively, fatally, and fundamentally removed from a girl his age.

Nanaka may have noticed that his face was red for reasons other than the setting sun, as she herself made an embarrassed face and let go. “S-Sorry. I, um, I was worried. L-Let’s go home!” she declared.

“Y-Yes,” Kai shakily agreed.

The two walked side by side to the front entrance, changed shoes, and left through the school gate. It seemed like the majority of students were still in the middle of club activities, and they could hear the mixed sounds of various clubs from the school building.

After walking a good distance without saying a word, Nanaka nervously opened her mouth.

“Are you... really going to join?”

“Oh,” he had completely forgotten. “Yes, I will. I mean, if that’s okay with you. Sorry for deciding everything on my own back there.”

“Why are you apologizing?! I’m really happy! But I thought you didn’t want to join the social game club again.”

“...I don’t.” That was the entire reason he moved, but even so... “Even though I don’t like the club... I do like social games,” he explained. “That’s why I hated what the student council president said even more than the club... So, I just kind of blew up. Like, so what if I like social games? ...Aoi-san?”

Nanaka stopped in her tracks and looked at him. “Shiraseki-kun,” she said, “you really love social games, huh?” Kai had a hard time reading her expression as she said that. It was a complex face that seemed happy but also surprised—and even melancholic.

“No, well, uh—” he cut himself off, unsure of what to say.

“...Aww man,” she quietly let out a sad sigh.

“Huh?”

“Nevermind, don’t worry about it! Anyway, I really like that! So what if you like social games!” Nanaka looked like a child, singing as she walked along repeating, ‘so what, so what,’ and putting it into verse. Then, she turned toward Kai and smiled as she thrust out her right hand. “Well then, from the top! I’m Aoi Nanaka, the president and planner of the social game club. Let’s do our best together!”

“...Yeah, let’s do our best,” Kai agreed, timidly grasping her hand as he answered back. Her hand was thin and small, and his heart started pounding when he touched it, so he pulled back right away.

They lined up again as they walked toward the station.

“Shiraseki-kun,” she asked, “where do you live?”

“Uhh, it’s a short walk away from Niigata Station,” he told her.

“From the North gate?”

“Yes.”

“Oh! I’m glad. I go the same way, so I can send you home.”

“.........Send me home? As in... you’re going to walk me to my house?”

“...Yes?” Nanaka tilted her head, as if she couldn’t think of any other possibility. “Shiraseki-kun, you fainted earlier, you know? I’m worried.”

“N-No, wait!” he tried to protest. “I’m good!”

“You’re not good! I’ll walk you home whether you want me to or not!” She didn’t have any intention of backing down.

Kai found it difficult to continuously shut down someone that was truly concerned about him, so he ended up agreeing to let her follow him. When they reached the train platform, it was overflowing with Meikun students. A train headed for Niigata Station pulled up at just the right time, and they barely had to wait before getting aboard.

He had planned on buying a bento for dinner on the way home, but couldn’t bring himself to walk around the shopping district with Nanaka in tow. Instead, Kai headed straight home from Niigata Station. By the time he got there, the sun was almost completely out of sight and night was beginning to fall around them.

“Um, Aoi-san,” he said. “This is my house, so... I’ll be fine from here.”

“Huh?” Nanaka had probably imagined a normal family house, and she was noticeably surprised to see a small apartment building made for single residents. “...Do you live alone, by any chance?”

“Yes,” he answered simply. His sister’s face flashed up in his mind, but Kai waved it away in a puff of smoke. It wasn’t as if they were actually living together.

“...Shiraseki-kun, you really are amazing,” Nanaka said. “I feel like you’re able to live your life on your own... Everyone is so amazing.”

“I don’t think...” he started to say.

Nanaka seemed a bit down, but she caught herself and brought back a smile to her face. “Alright Shiraseki-kun, I’ll see you later!”

“Ah, right,” he agreed. “See you tomorrow.”

Nanaka waved her hands back and forth goodbye, and showed no signs of stopping until she saw him go inside. He bowed his head slightly and unlocked the door. He glanced back and saw that she was still waving to him, so he nodded toward her again.

He got a bad feeling as he opened the door: there were shoes. They were not Kai’s shoes. If they were not Kai’s shoes, then there was only one other person who would leave their shoes in this household. He could hear the loud, obviously forced sound of someone running toward him as his blood ran cold.

“Welcome back, darling~~~ You’re so late! Are you hungry? Or do you want a bath? Or maybe—” Misako came out in the same pink (fake) naked apron look that she had prepared the day before. She nearly got her whole spiel out in one breath until she noticed Nanaka behind him. “Huh?” she blinked. “A girl?”

Slam. Kai didn’t bother saying anything and slammed the door shut. The lock clicked as he relocked it, took a breath, and pretended he didn’t see anything. He did not see anything. Nothing. Therefore, by inductive reasoning, the girl standing behind him hadn’t seen anything, either.

“U-Um, Shiraseki-kun... Who was that?”

It hadn’t worked, he thought.

“Kai! Who’s the cute girl?!” The front door opened, and Misako rushed out in her imitation naked apron.

Stuck between the two girls as they exchanged surprised looks, Kai wanted to go dig a hole somewhere and die in it.