Eccentric (TechiNeru+) <DROPPED> - Thank You For Reading, a Summary

[Shinoki]

ECCENTRIC

~a Keyakizaka46 fanfiction~

PROLOGUE

Darkness. She could only see darkness as hands grappled at her wrists. The air was stuffy; there was something over her head, but there was only darkness.

She heard a clicking sound and cold metal around her wrist. Those people, who she couldn’t see, took her by the arms, dragging her along even as she struggled weakly against them.

Even though she couldn’t see, she knew that no one was watching and no one was stepping out to stop this.

The girl reached out, as if calling for her brother.

—Choosing is important. He always said.
—It’s stranger if everyone is the same. He had reassured her.

However, he wasn’t here anymore. In her memories of him, there was darkness. The warmth in her heart had already been extinguished because he was no longer by her side as the kind older brother of her childhood.

Click. Click. Click.

—I didn’t choose this! She wanted to scream.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

Her ears were filled with the disorienting sound of metals clashing. Pushed along, stumbling along, she could vaguely make out the sound of a door slamming open and closed.

She didn’t know how long it had been since she had been thrown into this chaotic darkness, but it hurt.

Finally, the darkness ended. Her capturers removed the sack from the girl’s head, letting go of her arms that were already starting to bruise, and pushed her through the open door in front of her before leaving.

The girl stumbled, and the door closed behind her.

She was in a classroom. The board was state of the art technology, and from first sight, the teacher’s podium was loaded with tools. The lockers in the back of the room looked to be brand new as did the 21 desks in the room.

Her vision was still tumbling, but she could see 16 girls already in the classroom. Each of them seemed to have a bracelet on their wrist.

She lifted her left arm and touched the ring around her wrist.


“Welcome to the Keyaki class.”


It's been a long time since I've written fanfiction. In fact, let's not talk about the old fanfiction I used to write for AKB48. I'm slightly embarrassed of my middle school self. But, since I've gotten into Keyakizaka46 recently, I've found that Keyakizaka doesn't have much fanfiction and that's kind of a shame. That's why, I'm going to write this.

Eccentric. That's the title of this story.

In the near future, a group of 21 girls are gathered for a special project called the Keyaki class. Each given a bracelet on their wrists, they form a special class at a prestigious private academy.
Each one of the girls is in the Keyaki class for a different reason, and their lives, which wouldn’t have crossed paths before, cross as if fated.
An eccentric class. An unsmiling class. A class whose smile is brighter than anything else in the world.

Although I'm inexperienced in writing, or rather I can't say I'm a great writer, please take care of me from now on. I'm open to advice on how the members should act and what ships there should be (although there are two that have already been decided for this fic). I hope this story can be an enjoyable read for everyone.

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 1

The Keyaki class. A special class in Sakamichi Private Academy for Girls. That was what they said. No teacher had entered the classroom, but a teacher-like person appeared on the board in the front of the classroom to explain the class through a video call.

By the time the video call properly began, 20 girls had gathered and were situated into their seats. The last seat, in the front of the room, was empty, but it seemed as if that last girl wasn’t coming.

Hirate Yurina, a short haired girl, ran her fingers over her mysterious wristband as she sat in her seat. Her bangs slightly covered her eyes as she looked down at her desk.

She had come in after over two-thirds of the other girls had entered, so she was stuck in a seat near the front of the room, just behind the empty seat.

Although she was listening half-heartedly, she suddenly perked up when the figure on the screen said, “I’m sure you’re wondering what the bracelets around your wrists are for.”

Murmurs sounded in the back of the room. There were all sorts of voices, even two girls who let out a few words in Kansai-ben.
The figure on the screen waited for the girls to calm down before continuing his explanation.

“These bracelets are your special identification tools. They work as your student id as well as a credit card. By attaining achievements, you can gain points, which you can then translate into goods, commodities, and even money.”

“The specifics will be included in your student handbook, which will be distributed to you later.

“Please do not remove the bracelets because there will be consequences. Also, do not attempt to exit the school campus without permission either. Everything will be available here, so please enjoy your time in the Keyaki class.”

Again, the classroom began to be filled with murmurs as the girls took a closer look at their wristbands.

“As you may have concluded by your lack of homeroom teacher, there will not be teachers coming to teach in the Keyaki classroom. Instead, there will be guest lecturers who will be shown on this board.”

The figure on the board began to explain the academic curriculum of the Keyaki class, and Hirate couldn’t help but let his words enter one ear and exit the other.

Before long, the explanations began to finish. Some of the girls stopped paying attention though they were still strangers, so they hadn’t starting chatting much while the figure spoke.

“As a start, everyone please give a self-introduction to the rest of the class. This assignment will earn you each 100 points.” The figure on the board smiled mysteriously, “Enjoy your school life this year. That will be all.”

The screen turned blank, ending the video call.

Silence filled the classroom. No one seemed to be willing to start the self-introductions. It was just a room with a class filled with girls wearing blazer uniforms and silence that could make crickets sound loud.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

In reality, the electric clock in the front of the room made no sound. However, no one spoke at all, so it seemed as if the silent clock was noisy.

A girl whose hair slightly curled at the ends finally stood up. “I’m Sato Shiori. I’m interested in doing art in the future. Nice to meet everyone in the Keyaki class.”

“I’m Suzumoto Miyu. I like chestnuts.”

“Hi, I’m Oda Nana!”

“Shida Manaka.”

“Watanabe Risa.”

“...ah… I’m Watanabe Rika…”

“It’s a pleasure to meet everyone. I’m Sugai Yuuka.”

Before long, the girls began to introduce themselves one by one. As each finished, their wristbands gave a small light that read ‘+100.’

“I’m Ozeki Rika…” This girl started sniffling about wanting to be a big sister to her younger classmates because they were going to live in the dorms.

“I’m Koike Minami.”

“I’m Nagasawa Nanako.”

The introductions continued until there was only one girl left who hadn’t introduced herself. All eyes turned to Hirate Yurina at that moment.

“I’m Hirate Yurina from Aichi-ken. Nice to meet you.” She gave the class a weak smile.

Ding. The ‘+100’ appeared on her bracelet. The self-introductions were finished.

—The murmurs of the general students.
“Keyaki class?” “I wonder what types of geniuses we have?” “She looks so cool!”
—What do they know about me?

The 20 girls gathered in the dorm, located on campus. This dorm building was apparently for the Keyaki class only, and it had a gym, dance studio, as well as a cafeteria built in.

“Wow! This is amazing!” A couple of the girls exclaimed.

A pair with short hair stood to the side and coolly nodded, “Impressive.”

They entered a lounge area at the entrance of the building, and there was an announcement posted on the bulletin board. It listed the room numbers the girls were assigned and said that their luggage had already been delivered.

Although all the rooms were assigned, when Hirate looked at the list, she was surprised to see that she was rooming alone. In fact, although all the other rooms were double rooms, there was one with three people and one with only her on the list.

The girl who had introduced herself with chestnuts popped up next to Yurina, “Hirate-chan, you’re alone in room 46?”

“It looks like it, Suzumoto-san.” Yurina replied. Looking at the board again, she noticed that Suzumoto was in the three person room with a girl named Oda Nana and Kobayashi Yui.

“I guess they didn’t group us by prefectures. I’m from Aichi too.” Suzumoto pondered. “But, if you ever feel lonely, let’s hang out.”

“That sounds good.”

The girls chatted for a while, getting to know their roommates and their new classmates.

Grumble. Grumble. It was getting late, and the normal time for dinner had arrived. Yurina felt hunger, but she didn’t say a thing, letting her bangs cover her eyes as she watched the rest of her classmates.

One of the girls, Nagasawa, said quietly as her new roommate, one of the Watanabes, nodded in agreement, “I’m hungry. Let’s go to the cafeteria.”

“Let’s eat.” The other Watanabe said as well.

Everyone was getting hungry, so they quietly spoke in agreement.

As Yurina went with Suzumoto, Oda, and Kobayashi, she heard Suzumoto mumble to herself, “I wonder if they have chestnuts in the cafeteria.”



Watanabe Risa entered the cafeteria while talking with her roommate, Shida Manaka. She felt lucky that it looked like they were getting along quite well.

Although Risa had her own reasons for applying for the Keyaki class, she had been a bit apprehensive about whether or not it was a good idea. At least for now, she knew that she wouldn’t be stuck with a troublesome roommate.

Risa looked ahead. The cafeteria seemed to use a ticket system where the students had to get a ticket from a machine and then obtain their meal order.

Suddenly, she heard a sound of surprise, “Eh? 10 points for one meal?”

The cool Watanabe lifted her left wrist to look at the metal bracelet and looked ahead again toward the ticket machine. It was true that there appeared to be a place to scan someone’s hand, and in fact, there were small numbers under each meal option like prices.

Risa frowned.

The line moved ahead. Eventually Risa and Manaka got their food and settled down at a table near their other classmates.

‘-10: =90’ flashed on Risa’s bracelet. She shook her head and looked away from her bracelet, saying a quiet “itadakimasu” as she began to eat her dinner.



Dinner proceeded. Yurina ate the warm food on her tray gratefully and listened in on the conversation, chiming in once in awhile at her new friends’ urgings.

Halfway through the meal, Suzumoto turned to Yurina and asked, “Want to exchange LINE addresses?”

Yurina replied, “You have your phone with you?”

“Yea. Hirate-chan, do you not have your phone on you?”

Pausing for a moment, Yurina said awkwardly, “I dropped it in a puddle and broke it before I came here.”

“Ah, that sucks. I wonder if you can get a new one on campus.” Suzumoto gave Yurina a pat on the shoulder and turned to Risa, “Hey, Watanabe-san, want to exchange LINE addresses?”

““Huh?”” Two Watanabes responded.

Yurina gave Suzumoto a pat on the shoulder.

Shida Manaka lazily drawled, “Watanabe Rika, right? We can just call you Berika and Risa can be Berisa.”

“Weird nickname.” Risa scoffed without much anger.

“If we’re talking about having the same name, there are two Yuis in our class too.” Another girl, Imaizumi Yui, chimed in, “You can call me Zuumin or Zumiko instead.”

Somehow, various nicknames were made along with a LINE group for the class for the girls who had LINE accounts.



Amidst the youthful commotion, Yurina said to herself...
“Probably, if we don’t have points, then we can’t eat.”

—Question: Approval. Is it that important?

My writing is still clumsy, so I hope this chapter wasn't boring. I really respect the people who can write stories with a lot of characters since I have trouble doing that.
The main character of this story is Techi along with Risa's group. The other members will get their screen time in their own separate arcs or receive story interludes about their times together as roommates or friends in the Keyaki class. Of course... this isn't going to be a fluffy, happy story, so what will happen in those story arcs or interludes is a thing to wonder about.

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 2

It was raining. Uncomfortably, as she stood in the rain, she couldn’t move from her spot as she looked at her bruised reflection in the puddles on the ground.

The world was laughing as it rained. Those were mocking tears.

Hirate Yurina woke up from her nap in class. Without meaning to, she had fallen asleep during the lecturer’s explanation on determining the derivative of a curve.

In other words, when a small exit card quiz appeared on the special screen built into the students’ desks, she utterly failed it.
After the lesson, she laid her head down on the desk and wondered to herself why she was even in the Keyaki class.

It had been three weeks since the start of the Keyaki class, and everyone had gotten somewhat acclimated to the system. Although unsteady at first, everyone was getting a decent amount of points.

‘+0’ appeared on Yurina’s bracelet from her performance on the quiz.

“Techi, how did you do?” Suzumoto came over during break time after the end of the class.

Yurina gave a sheepish smile, “Not very well.”

“Me too.” The chestnut loving girl sighed, “I don’t get it at all.”

“We have history and then gym class, so there’s no more math for a while.”

“I’m looking forward to gym class.”



Break time was a long time, so Yurina made her way out of the classroom for a breath of fresh air.

The school grounds were eerily quiet to the point that it made her shiver. The quiet was to be expected though as aside from the Keyaki class, all the other students were in class at the moment.

She passed by the track field where some of the normal students were having gym class, not noticing the looks of curiosity she received.

Before she knew it, Yurina was in front of the school campus gates. The school building was close to the gates, and the dorms and other places, which made up a town by themselves, were more to the inner parts.

A flock of birds flew by through the blue sky.

The short haired girl looked up for a moment, shielding her eyes from the sun.

Yurina looked through the bars of the school gates. The world outside didn’t seem any different than it did a few weeks ago, but somehow, it looked brighter nonetheless.

She didn’t know what to think, so she didn’t ponder on it.

“Meowww…”

Yurina noticed a cat by the gates. It had a collar around its neck, but it had escaped its owner to this school. The cat stared at Yurina as if asking to be pet.

The girl reached her hands out through the gates when—

Pain. There was a sharp pain in her body. Yurina recoiled, falling on her bottom. She blinked away tears from the sudden sensation of pain, and when she looked for the cat, it wasn’t there.

Her bracelet vibrated.

When the short haired girl looked, she noticed a glaring red ‘-50,’ a deduction from her point values even when she hadn’t bought anything.

“...Is this a punishment?”

Yurina took another look at the school gates. Then, she shook her head and turned back to hurry back to class.



History class finished.

In the back corner of the classroom near the window, a group was chatting. Asking Saitou Fuyuka, Shida Manaka, and Watanabe Risa, Moriya Akane brought up the question, “Why did you decide to join the Keyaki class?”

“It was by chance.” Manaka offered.

Risa replied in the same vein, “I didn’t think I would get in.”

“I’m not sure. Maybe it’s that I thought it would be nice to get paid for going to a prestigious school like Sakamichi.” Fuyuka pondered aloud.

“With me,” Akane glanced away from her group at her long haired roommate, “I guess I don’t really know either.”

They spent a moment not talking, thinking.

Fuyuka interrupted the very brief silence, “Let’s play a game.”

“Huh?” Risa asked.

“Like the mozzarella cheese game.”

Akane chuckled, “I don’t think we can play that in the classroom.”

“The aishiteru game?”

Manaka responded, “Strange games are dangerous.”

“It’s not strange at all. Come on. Let’s do something.” Fuyuka smiled, “Mona and Risa, how about it?”

“Fine.” Risa huffed. “I love you, Manaka.”

“I love you.” Manaka replied smugly.

“I love you.”

Without a warning, Manaka swooped in and landed a teasing kiss on Risa’s cheek, “I love you.”

“Ah, Risa blushed.” Fuyuka laughed along with Akane.

“Geez…” Risa made an angry face toward the laughing two. “You two do it too then. Come on, aishiteru game.”

“Uh.” Akane stared at Risa as if Risa made an unreasonable request.

“Okay then. I love you, Akanen.” Fuyuka started.

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

“I— Oh, geez. What’s with that look?”

Manaka laughed at Fuyuka’s indignance of being ignored by Akane.

Akane shrugged, sending a quick glance back to her roommate again, and smiled victoriously. “You blushed.”

—The murmurs of the general students.
“I want to have gym class with the Keyaki class.” “They’re so athletic!”
—What meaning is there to that?

Changing into gym clothes was a quick process for Risa. Some people took longer to change, like Hirate who always seemed to disappear when changing, but Risa and Manaka changed quickly.

The gym clothes were a simple t-shirt and jersey in red with the school’s logo on the sleeves.

Risa felt her heart rate increase a little as she looked at Manaka in the jersey, remembering the playful kiss on the cheek received in the game she played earlier in the day.

The cool Watanabe shook her head and looked at the clock. Their gym class was scheduled for in a few minutes, and it looked like most of the girls were done changing.

Just as the class was about to leave for gym class, the door slammed open.

“Who are you?”
—Who should we trust in this world?
—Isn’t it lonely fine being alone after all?

NEXT CHAPTER

[BelieberJ]

Hoho I can see the beginning of MonaRisa here interesting

[Shinoki]

Interlude 1

On the first day, when Moriya Akane looked at the room announcement sheet, she noticed the name Sugai Yuuka as her roommate. On the first day, when Moriya Akane heard Suzumoto asking about LINE, she ended up exchanging LINEs with Sugai Yuuka as well as joining the group chat.

The thing that Moriya Akane thought the most when she met Sugai Yuuka was that ‘this person is an interesting person.’ Akane wasn’t sure whether or not to be surprised by the horse icon that her new roommate had as her LINE profile.

As Akane lounged about on her bed in the dorm room, she noticed Yuuka reading the student handbook that had been distributed to the rooms.

Yuuka was wearing glasses, and Akane couldn’t help but look toward her roommate, thinking that Yuuka looked reliable when reading. Although Akane’s hands were idly tapping on her phone, chatting in the class LINE group about cosmetics, her attention was on her roommate.

“Moriya-san, I’m going to take a shower now.”

Akane was jolted out of her thoughts by Yuuka’s voice.

“Go ahead, Sugai-san.” Akane responded, trying to keep a calm face since she couldn’t tell if her roommate had noticed her staring, “I’m going to take one in the morning.”

Yuuka smiled and went into the bathroom with her change of clothes.

Akane returned the smile before rolling over on her bed and scrolling through the chat to see what she had spaced out for. It looked like some of the girls were already going to sleep, so the group chat was getting inactive.

She set her phone aside and stretched before standing up from her bed.

“Hm?” Akane noticed the student handbook still open on Yuuka’s desk. The page it was open to had a cute horse sticky note attached to it.

Akane started reading the page.

‘Points can be exchanged for monetary gains. For example, 1 point can be exchanged for 1 yen. As more points are gained, more money can be gained. The exchange rate is non-linear, meaning that while 1 point is worth only 1 yen, 1000 points is worth 2000 yen, and so on. The conversion table is detailed below.’

The girl lifted her left wrist and looked at the bracelet. She pressed a small button on the metal band and ‘=90’ flashed on the bracelet. That was barely 100 yen if she were to exchange it for money, not even enough to buy a yakisoba bread from the convenience store.

Giving a complicated look, she shook her head and decided to think about that later. She looked back at the student handbook and noted that Yuuka was already half-way through the booklet.

“Wow, she’s diligent.” Akane thought aloud, a grin of respect appearing on her face. “I’m not going to lose either.”

She stepped away from the desk and changed into her pajamas. Akane made sure to set her alarm for the morning and made a mental note to check out the tennis club some time soon.

Before long, Yuuka finished her shower and stepped into the bedroom in pajamas. The horse loving girl’s hair was dried via blowdryer, unexpectedly disappointing Akane.

It was soon time to turn in for bed.

“I’ll turn off the lights now, Moriya-san” Yuuka said to Akane.

“Thanks.” Akane smiled. Then she added hurriedly, “By the way, you can call me Akanen. That’s what my friends call me. Moriya-san is a bit stiff between roommates.”

“Oh. Then you can call me Yuuka.”

“Yea, let’s get along from now on.”

“Yes.” Yuuka smiled, switching off the lights. “Good night.”


@BelieberJ:
You are correct~ One of the main two ships in this fanfic is MonaRisa. The other one is yet to be seen, but this interlude shows the focus of one of the future arcs. Since Akanen is part of the same group as MonaRisa, her story with Yuuka will probably be one of the earlier arcs.

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 3

Dribble. Dribble. The basketball bounced up and down on the floor between her hands as the short haired girl weaved between her classmates.

Sweat wetted her black bangs, but she didn’t pay them any mind. Stopping for just a moment, with the ball in her hands, she jumped and threw the basketball.

And, the ball—

—21 seats. 20 students. That’s wrong, isn’t it?
—There are so many things we don’t know about this class.

The door slammed open to the classroom. Even though they had finished changing, the girls still recoiled in surprise, letting out girlish screams that perhaps a pervert had gotten in.

Hirate Yurina slowly moved her hands away from her eyes, resetting her bangs that had been messed up in her sudden move to hide from whatever caused that slamming noise.

“There’s no one there.” She said slowly, looking toward the door apprehensively.

The short haired, cool Watanabe also returned to a relaxed pose, crossing her arms, and drawled out, “So, a ghost?”

“Eek!” Someone yelped.

“Eh? Probably not.” The other half to Watanabe Risa, Shida Manaka, shrugged.

The class was silent for a moment. Then, everyone started chatting, letting out sighs of relief, and laughing about how their friends made such funny faces at the sudden sound.

Slam! Something from outside of the classroom crashed into something else.

““Eek!!”” The class let out a noise of surprise again.

Acting cool, Watanabe Risa crossed her arms again, “Doing it twice is a little repetitive, don’t you think?”

“Risa, you say that, but you screamed too.” Fuyuka sighed.

Although some of the girls were able to engage in friendly banter, they still stood stiffly, looking toward the door. They held a long breath, wondering what would come next after that loud slam.

Yurina stepped forward again, pointing toward the open door, “We should check it out.” After a pause, she specified. “That sound.”

“Hirate-chan, that sounds kind of dangerous.” Suzumoto made a face.

Yurina tilted her head, “This is a school. I don’t think it should be that dangerous.” Although she said that, inside, she was also somewhat unconvinced of her own words.

“Hirate’s right about that.” Risa spoke up.

Yurina nodded, “Let’s check it out then.”

With those words, Yurina started walking toward the door. For each step she took, she felt that her classmates weren’t exactly following very closely behind. Nonetheless, she continued toward the open door.

Crash!!!


“Oh, no! Hirate-chan!”
“What the heck? Isn’t this kind of bad?”
“Kyaa! W-what?”
“Wait… isn’t that just…”
“Oh, it’s just a student. What’s she doing here?”
“No, wait, she has a bracelet. Look at her left wrist.”


Hirate Yurina braced herself a little too late as she fell onto the classroom floor, suddenly impacted by someone who had suddenly been flung into the room through the door.

“Ow…” She cried out.

“I’m so sorry!”

“...?”

Yurina opened her eyes, which she had squeezed shut in fear from being crashed into. Right there, mere centimeters away from her face, was a girl’s face, a pretty girl with long black hair.

The short haired girl couldn’t help but mumble, “...pretty...”

The long haired girl quickly apologized, “I’m so sorry for crashing into you. Um, what did you just say?”

“It was nothing.”

“...Um. Well, I’m really sorry—”

“You don’t need to apologize. It was just an accident that we collided.”

Yurina started getting up. Her cheeks felt a bit warm, and she hoped that she wasn’t blushing because she got a close up of the new girl. The short haired girl reached a hand out toward the new girl to help the latter up.

“Thank you.”

“It’s nothing.”

The long haired girl held onto Yurina’s hand for a second longer after getting up.

Then the two were interrupted by Watanabe Risa’s voice.


“Who are you?”


Watanabe Risa looked at the girl who had suddenly crashed into the room suspiciously. Tapping her foot, crossing her arms, Risa couldn’t help but be irritated that she didn’t know what was going on.

Manaka put a hand on Risa’s arm reassuringly and gave her roommate a nod.

Risa repeated her question, “So, who are you?”

The long haired girl replied, “My name is Nagahama Neru.”

“Nagahama-san, why did you come crashing into our classroom like that?” Manaka piped up curiously.

Neru laughed awkwardly, nervously clenching her hands as she tried not to be intimidated by the class, “Ahaha, that’s a good question.”

“So, Nagahama-san, what are you here for?” Oda Nana added in as well.

Neru stepped back unsure what to say. To her surprise, she found a gentle hand of encouragement behind her.

Yurina stepped forward, a little in front of Neru. She offered her hand to Neru, and when Neru took Yurina’s hand, Yurina looked at her classmates calmly to explain her hypothesis.

“Nagahama-san is probably the person who that empty seat belongs to.” With her free hand, Yurina pointed to the desk in front of her desk. Then she elaborated by directing the class’s eyes toward Neru’s left wrist. “She has a metal bracelet like we do.”

There was silence. At serious moments, the class couldn’t help but be excessively silent as everyone took a moment to come to their conclusions.

Risa relented after a few moments, “That’s true.”

“Yes, you are correct.” The board in the front of the class flickered on to show the figure from the first day of the Keyaki class.

“Nagahama Neru is the 21st member of the Keyaki class. Her enrollment had been decided beforehand, but she couldn’t attend class until today. I’m sure the class will be able to take care of her and treat her as a classmate from now on.

“She will be rooming with Hirate Yurina-san, so Hirate-san, apologies, but you will have to share a room from now on.

“I will make further announcements later. However, right now, it is time for you to head to gym class. You are not late as I have informed Tsuchida-sensei about your new classmate, but class will start soon.

“It appears that it is basketball today. Hirate-san’s specialty, if I am correct.

“Enjoy yourselves, Keyaki class. Show your abilities and earn points. That will be all for now.”

—Murmur, murmur. In the end, life continues.
“Ah, I’m Hirate Yurina.” “Thank you for helping me.” “No, it was nothing.”
—Gym uniforms. Rushing to class. Is this so interesting to you?

Yurina stood on the basketball court in the gym with the ball in her hand. The figure on the board had been right about the lesson being a basketball game in gym class, and since he called her own, she had been chosen to throw the jump ball to start the game.

The class had been split up into two teams, Team Serious and Team Relatively Peaceful, named by the girls. Neru was off on the side, spectating, because she didn’t have her gym clothes yet.

Yurina was on Team Serious, led by a certain Moriya Akane. Team Relatively Peaceful was led by Akane’s roommate, Sugai Yuuka. The roommates appeared to get along, but as far as the short haired girl could see, they still wanted to win against each other.

Akane said seriously as she stood, ready to hit the jump ball for her team, “Tecchan, we’re going to win this.”

“Hirate-chan, throw this fairly.” Yuuka jokingly retorted at Akane.

Yurina nodded to both of them. She thought to herself that it would have been better for Tsuchida-sensei, the gym teacher, to throw the ball, but he was more interested in soccer and thought that having Yurina throw it would add a bit of fun to the game.
The whistle blew.

The ball went into the air.

Yurina joined the game, a smile unknowingly gracing her face.

—There’s nothing wrong with doing what you like, right?

The game sped by. At one moment, Yurina was in possession of the ball. In the next, the ball had already entered the hoop in a magnificent jump shot, scoring the last points of the game in the last minutes of gym class. And then there was clapping and cheering as well as good-hearted laughter.

She wiped away the sweat on her forehead, letting out a breath.

“That was awesome, Techi!” Suzumoto gave Yurina a jump-hug from the back. “I didn’t know you could do that.”

“Thanks.” Yurina smiled. “Techi?”

“Yea. Hirate-chan is a bit long to say, right? So, I think I’ll call you Techi from now on. Is that okay?”

“Techi. Techi is fine.”

Akane came jogging over as well, exchanging high-fives with the team, “Good job, Tecchan. We did it!”

“It was a good game.” Yuuka smiled. “We did our best even if we couldn’t earn any points...”

“Good game.” Akane agreed to Yuuka’s words.

Yurina echoed the same opinion, “It was a good game.”

The short haired girl walked around the court being congratulated by her teammates. The team received 75 points for winning. She lifted her wrist to look at the metal band around it and noted that it read ‘+100.’ Whoever distributed points decided that her performance was worth that much.

She gave no one in particular a wry smile. Yurina wondered to herself how long it had been since the last time she could play basketball like this.

—Isn’t it uncomfortable to be judged on things you like though?

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 4

It was lunch time. The girls had moved their desks together into their own groups within the class, and they were eating. Some of them bought bread from the school store. Others made their own lunches, ingredients from the on-campus grocery store near the dorms. Hirate Yurina was eating a pre-made bento bought from the bento store also near the dorms.

In the group of desks she was with, there were also Kobayashi Yui, Oda Nana, Suzumoto Miyu, and the new Keyaki class student, Nagahama Neru.

Neru said to Yurina, “You were really cool.”

“Cool?” Yurina asked, not understanding why Neru would suddenly praise her like that.

“During gym class.”

Yurina paused before saying a quiet “Thank you” to Neru.

The two girls exchange smiles. Yurina continued eating her lunch, moving her chopsticks to pick up rice and side dishes. She was happy to be able to eat decent food like this, but she kept glancing over to Neru.

The long haired girl didn’t have any food on her desk.

Suzumoto noticed too as she asked Neru, after finishing a chestnut snack, “Are you not going to eat lunch?”

Oda Nana nodded and chimed in, “Nagahama-san, are you dieting?”

“Oda Nana, don’t be rude.” Kobayashi Yui frowned.

“I was asking because she’s cute. What type of diet would she be doing?” Oda pouted. “Ah, but not as cute as you, Yui-pon.”

“Dani...” Suzumoto mumbled under her breath, looking at her two roommates jealously. “Hey, what about me?”

“Ehhh, Suzumoto is…” Oda started.

Yurina looked at the triple room trio and looked at Neru again. Neru looked a bit confused since she wasn’t used to their antics, so Yurina just gave Neru a shrug of ‘that’s normal.’

“Not hungry?” Yurina asked.

Neru shook her head, “No, actually, I just don’t have any food with me right now. I don’t have any points or my wallet, so I’m just going to tough it out for now.”

“Being hungry is…” The short haired girl trailed off, shaking her head to rid herself of negative thoughts, and instead, she picked up a small omelette with her chopsticks to give to Neru, “Here. You can have some.”

“It’s okay.”

Yurina insisted, “You should eat. Open wide.” The omelette was still in the chopsticks, ready to be eaten.

Neru finally relented, “Thank you then.”

Without any hesitation, Yurina fed Neru the omelette. Neru blushed a little, but it looked as if the short haired girl didn’t understand why it would be embarrassing to be fed by someone else.

The chopsticks kept moving. Yurina gave Neru some rice.

Suzumoto gave Yurina a thumbs-up, “Wow. Techi, you’re good.”

Oda Nana offered, “Nagahama-san, do you want some of my vegetables?”

Suzumoto did the same, “You can have some of this.”

Yui-pon sighed, shaking her head at her two roommates, “Aren’t you just giving her food you don’t like?”

“Eh? Yui-pon, you don’t like those foods either, right?” Oda pouted.

—Noisy, noisy. This seems like normal life, doesn’t it?

Watanabe Risa’s group looked on at Neru and the rest somewhat amused. Risa was eating her lunch without really paying attention, ignoring Akane’s happy aura from the gym class victory.

“They’re being pretty rowdy.” Fuyuka grinned as she held her lunch, yakisoba bread, in her hand, “It looks like fun to exchange food like that.”

“Maybe.” Manaka nodded.

Risa shrugged, “None of us can cook though.” She wouldn’t have minded exchanging bento with Manaka, but somehow, she had the feeling that exchanging home-made food with any of her group mates would end up with strange food.

“Hey, maybe we could all try to make a bento some day and exchange side dishes.” Fuyuka suggested. “I don’t think it would turn out that badly.”

Risa looked at Fuyuka blandly. Akane looked at Fuyuka with a weird look. Manaka looked at Fuyuka and then looked away, laughing.  With nothing to say, Fuyuka took a bite from her yakisoba bread and chewed silently, shaking her head as if she should have expected it.

After a while, Fuyuka said, “Yea, it would probably turn out badly.”

They changed the topic. Akane brought up clubs. “By the way, when I was talking with some of the tennis club girls, they said that Risa and Manaka were doing something for the photography club. I thought you didn’t want to do clubs, Risa.”

Risa responded, “I don’t.”

“It was more like a favor to the photography club. Modelling?” Manaka elaborated. “We got some points for doing it.” She raised her left wrist as if to emphasize the point earning.

Fuyuka sighed wistfully, “Modelling? That sounds amazing. Sakamichi sure is a prestigious school.”

Akane laughed, giving Fuyuka a pat on the back, “Fuu-chan, we’re the Keyaki class.”

“Even if we’re the Keyaki class, I don’t really feel any special except for having this bracelet.” Fuyuka raised her left wrist and looked at the metal band. “It’d be nice to be popular like in manga where a special class with superpowers has fangirls all across campus.”

“No, you’re popular.” Manaka interjected.

Fuyuka joked in response, “When did that happen?”

Without missing a beat, Manaka responded, “The photography club has a secret blog for the Keyaki class.” She took out her smartphone and opened up an internet browser to get the page up.

“Wait, what?” Risa stopped her chopsticks and sharply turned to look at her roommate.

Manaka pressed her fingers on the phone screen, looking through the secret blog and showed it to her friends, “It doesn’t have Nagahama yet.”

“No, wait, Manaka.” Risa narrowed her eyes.

“Hm?”

“Ah, never mind.”

Akane said, “You should share that on the class LINE.”

“I want to see this blog. Eh, that’s so weird.” Fuyuka muttered as she finished up her yakisoba bread. She gave her friends a disbelieving look, wondering if they were all in a prank together.

“Done.” Manaka said after a few clicks on the smartphone.

After taking a few looks at the blog, they changed the topic again. While finishing up her store-bought bento, Risa lazily said, “So, Nagahama. What do you think about her?”

“She’s cute.” Fuyuka replied.

Akane looked over to Yurina’s group, “Tecchan seems to get along with her already. She seems like a good girl right now.”

“Really late for school.” Manaka offered.

“Yea.” Risa narrowed her eyes. “...it’s a little suspicious though. Keyaki class. Why would she be so late? And what was with those violent noises?”

“Well, maybe—”

Flicker-flicker. Click. Fuyuka’s next words were interrupted by the board in the front of the room turning on. With a shuffling sound, everyone turned to look at the figure from the first day who was once again displayed in a video call to the Keyaki class.



Hirate Yurina looked at the figure on the board. Somehow, she couldn’t help that the man looked somewhat familiar. She shook her head; she had seen this person so many times on the screen before but hadn’t had that feeling before. The short haired girl wondered if it was the feelings from playing basketball that had brought on this strange sense of deja vu.

“It’s good to see that you’re getting along with your new classmate.” The figure started with a smile he covered up with his hands crossed in front of his face. “I have an announcement to make about an update to the points system.”

Yurina glanced over at Neru, noticing her new classmate sitting oddly stiffly.

“I’m sure that many of you have read your student handbooks and looked over the sections about the points system. For example, the section about future updates. Of those updates, the points sharing system has now been implemented. That data has been transmitted to your bracelets through a wireless device, and from now on, it is possible to give or receive points from your classmates.

“As this information is not in the student handbook, I will not explain how to exchange points. Listen carefully as this will not be repeated. Put your bracelets together so that the portion that displays the point values is touching between bracelets. Then, the button on both devices must be pressed simultaneously for three seconds. A holographic screen will appear. That screen is the interface for your device and will be updated in the future. On the screen, under the ‘Social’ tab, you can find the point sharing program. Afterwards, you may decide how many points to exchange.

“This can only be done between two people. In the future, the holographic screen will be implemented for other uses as well, but for now, it is only for point sharing.

“Enjoy yourselves, Keyaki class. I must remind you that stealing is bad. That is all for now.” With those words, the figure cut off the video message, and the board returned to its default state.

—Ding. Dong. Ding. Dong.
—The end of lunch and a wonder if those words really needed to be said.
—Isn’t it sad to not be able to trust anyone?

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Interlude 2

The train chugged along the tracks. A girl with somewhat short hair was heading toward Tokyo from Ibaraki. She looked out the window, sitting down in a train seat, with nothing to do as her phone’s battery had died.

The school year was starting soon, and she had been accepted into a special program that she applied to on a whim. Apparently, she was supposed to meet an escort in the city who would take her to the school campus.

Whoosh. Click. More people got on the train.

Seeing an old lady unable to find a seat, the girl stood up and offered her seat to the old lady. The old lady thanked the girl, and the girl replied that this type of action was only to be expected of young people.

The train continued as the girl stood, holding onto a handle for standing passengers. The scenery went by. Ibaraki was a little far from Tokyo, but in her heart, she was still a little excited. However, she maintained a cool face, uninterested.

Whoosh. Click. More people got off. More people got on.

Among the people who got on, there was a girl wearing blue headphones. The girl from Ibaraki couldn’t help but think that the headphone wearing girl was rather pretty.

The girl from Ibaraki glanced at the headphone girl once but continued to look out the train window after that. She was in for a long ride, and likely, the headphone girl wasn’t going to the same destination.

Whoosh. Click. Another stop and another set of ons and offs.

The headphone girl was still on the train. What she was listening to was a mystery, but she seemed rather happy with her music. The girl from Ibaraki didn’t notice the headphone girl take a glance in her direction.

Whoosh. Click. Whoosh. Click. After a number of stops, the girl from Ibaraki finally arrived in Tokyo. She had to change stations to go to her destination and to her surprise, the headphone girl was also boarding the same train.

The girl from Ibaraki stood on the new train. It was crowded, filled with more people than she’d seen before in her hometown. Even though she wasn’t from the middle of nowhere, the capital of Japan was definitely a different world. There were people bumping into others as they tried to find their positions and make their stops.

A salaryman bumped into the girl from Ibaraki. It was crowded, so she just frowned and thought that perhaps he had been pushed.

The train started moving.

Flinch! The girl felt a hand on her skirt. She wondered if she had imagined that, but she looked and saw the same salaryman. Scowling, she was shocked to find a pervert on the train, but even as she wanted to say something, she found that she couldn’t. Unexpectedly, she was scared.

The man continued to touch her butt, getting bolder and bolder. Suddenly, his hand was torn away and he was tripped to the side, stumbling and nearly falling on the crowded train.

The girl from Ibaraki turned to see what happened, and she saw the headphone girl with the headphones around the girl’s neck. The headphone girl frowned at the man and said, louder than a normal talking voice, “Hey. Are molesters common in Tokyo or something?”

Everyone in that area of the train sent a disdainful look toward the man who had fallen. Seeing those looks, he scrambled to his feet and started running away.

“Thanks.” The girl from Ibaraki said to the headphone girl shakily.

“Don’t mind.”

“No, really. Thanks. What’s your name?”

“Shida Manaka. You?”

“Watanabe Risa. Nice to meet you.”

—That was the first time Watanabe Risa and Shida Manaka met.
“It was unexpected that we would be going to the same place, but…
honestly, I didn’t mind that very much.”

Risa folded her arms and sighed as she watched her classmate, Harada Aoi, scurry off unhappily with the last word of “Risa, you’re a meanie!” That girl was really childish and would bug Risa now and then, but the cool Watanabe saw her as an annoying little sister who appeared out of nowhere after the first week of school. She wasn’t sure where she picked up that annoying little sister either.

Nonetheless, she didn’t bother going after Aoi.

It was after school, and the class was dispersing. Some of her classmates were going off to clubs and others were just hanging out on campus. Risa was bored, going through the hallways at a slow pace as she wondered what she should do and where her roommate was.

“Risa!” Risa heard a voice and found her eyes covered by hands.

The cool Watanabe calmly replied to her assailant, “Manaka.”

“What are you doing?”

“No clue.”

“Want to walk?”

“Sure.”

“Music?”

“That’s fine. Do you still have those blue headphones?”

“I don’t have them on me right now.”

Manaka dug out a pair of earbuds from her bag and offered one to Risa. Risa took one. Manaka then pulled out her smartphone to choose a selection of music, scrolling through her folders when Risa pointed out a song.

“How about that one?” Risa asked.

“That’s good.” Manaka selected the song.

The two of them walked through the hallways together, listening to music. Since they were sharing a pair of earbuds, they had to walk quite close to each other, their arms bumping against each other.

That was when Risa heard a snap. She turned and found a student, not from the Keyaki class, with a camera, recoiling in horror, awe, and all types of emotions.

“Oh, no! I got caught. By Watanabe Risa-sama too. Ahhh, I knew I shouldn’t have done this. But, it’s the Cool! Senpai is going to kill me…” The student cried out, saying inexplicable things. “The photography club’s honor is on the line…”

“What’s your name?” Risa sighed and asked.

“K-Kanemura.” The student replied, gripping her camera in fear.

“And what were you doing?”

“Taking your picture. I’m so sorry!”

“Stalkers.” Manaka noted.

Kanemura cried out, “I’m so sorry. I-I-I’ll commit seppuku!”

Risa sighed again, “In the first place, that’s going way too far. If you really wanted to take a picture, you should have just asked. Aren’t you the photography club?”

“R-Risa-sama!”

“...-sama?”

“I mean, Watanabe-sama!”

“What?”

“Please model for the photography club! Just this once. And Shida-san too.”

“Huh? Why am I the only one called -sama…?”

—One way or another, ‘+100’ points.
—Strange things happen. Isn’t it more interesting to be weird?
—It would have been nice for the fun days to continue forever.

To everyone who left a 'thank you,' thank you very much. Seeing that kind of thing is very encouraging. I'll continue doing my best writing this fic. Even if it seems to be somewhat listless and random at times, I hope you'll continue reading.
I wonder if the interludes are a little out of place sometimes. The next interlude is planned to be after the end of the current arc, but in general, the interludes aren't in the same chronological order that the main story is in, so I hope that isn't confusing.

Again, thank you for reading. I'll update soon.

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Before you read this chapter, I have to warn you that it gets a little dark in the middle. If speaking of death and violence triggers you, it may be good to skip over the part after the first scene break. On this chapter, the highlights are the subtle actions that Neru takes. While what is set up in this chapter will take a long time to come to light, I hope you can look out for them. Enjoy!

Checkpoint 5

Hirate Yurina looked at her new roommate, Nagahama Neru, as Neru got settled into their shared dorm room. Class had ended a few hours ago. Yurina was sitting on the edge of her bed while Neru was getting set up. Like Yurina, Neru didn’t have many belongings with her as she moved into the room.

“Are you okay?” The short haired girl asked, elaborating, her fingers running over the metal band around her wrist, “With your points.”

Neru looked over to her roommate and smiled, “I’m okay. Thank you for asking, Hirate-san.”

“You don’t have to call me Hirate-san, Nagahama-san.”

“But, you’re calling me formally too.”

“Then… Neru.”

“Yurina-chan.”

Yurina froze, part of her felt cold hearing those words from Neru’s mouth but her heart started pounding. She didn’t expect to be flustered by being called by her first name. The short haired girl just couldn’t remember what she was suddenly reminded of when Neru spoke.

“What’s wrong?” Neru asked worriedly at Yurina’s silence.

The short haired girl shook her head hurriedly, “It’s nothing. No one has called me that for a long time, so I just felt a little weird. It’s not a bad thing though.”

“Yurina is very pretty name.”

“Neru is pretty too.”

“Thank you.”

“Anyways, if you’re ever in trouble with your points, I’m willing to help. I don’t use my points very often.” Making sure to say this as a whisper, Yurina muttered to herself, looking away from Neru, “Since it isn’t like I have anything much to look forward to.”

Neru paused for a moment, not hearing Yurina’s mumbles, and she said again, “Thank you.” The long haired girl looked at her left wrist and then at Yurina again and thought to herself, ‘thank you. Really. I’m sorry.’

Before long, the sun fully set. It was nighttime, and everyone had long finished dinner. Neru completed her unpacking, and Yurina offered the shower to her. When the long haired girl finished showering, she found that the short haired girl had already fallen asleep and hadn’t even covered herself up with a blanket.

Neru saw Yurina’s sleeping face and murmured to herself, “Yurina-chan is like a cute little otter.”

She stopped herself from reaching out to the short haired girl. Shaking her head, Neru simply adjusted Yurina’s blankets so that the other girl would be covered as to not catch a cold. Then, she went to bed herself, turning off the lights.

—Isn’t life tiring? But don’t you want to live?
“I’m sorry.” “I’m sorry.” “I’m sorry.”
—Everyone is fickle. So, it’s fine to be alone, but isn’t it cold that way?

Click. The lights turned on dimly. It was in a gym. From nowhere, a basketball bounced from behind her, making a loud sound on the ground. It rolled after losing momentum. Hirate Yurina’s tired eyes followed the ball, and she walked to pick it up.

As she bent down, she felt a heavy force hit her from behind, forcing her down to her knees. Click. A spotlight focused on her, and she couldn’t help but squint her eyes in pain from the light. As she tried to get up to soothe her knees that had hit the ground harshly, she felt another hit to her body and saw the ball roll away into darkness.

When she looked up, she saw a very familiar face who spat and kicked her, “What do you think you are?”

Yurina didn’t cry out in pain. She just looked away. However, before she knew it, she was surrounded by people who she recognized.

“It’s all your fault.” A slap, a hand grabbing her by the hair roughly.

A stomp, a foot crushing down on her dominant hand and grinding it into the ground. “Don’t ever touch that ball again.”

The short haired girl didn’t make a sound. It was because she was already used to it. That was a truth. However, it was because she knew that this was just a perpetual nightmare that she wouldn’t wake up from with her own power.

“Disgusting.” Painful words.

“Go die.” Painful hits.

“You’re worse than trash.” Yurina tried to ignore them.

She breathed heavily as she heard them say, “Everything is because of you.”

“Why were you ever born?”

“It would be better if you were to just disappear.”

“It’s your fault. All your fault. Take responsibility for this.”

“Who do you think you are?”

“You’re the worst.”

“Do you think you’re so amazing?”

“Trash. You should just stay where you belong in the trash.”

“Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die. Die instead.”

The short haired girl looked down, panting. Even if it hurt, she wouldn’t say anything back. The tears in her eyes didn’t matter. The cold sweat that had beaded up on her skin didn’t matter. She was just waiting for her hell to end even if she knew that it would continue every night.

Finding that the attacks had temporarily ceased, Yurina looked up.

Her eyes widened.

From her lips, a single name escaped, “——————?”

And she saw a smile, a cruel smile.

“Yurina-chan, why did you have to be born?”

—Say no. Even if you’re hit, stand up for your own justice.
—If you say nothing, they’ll take it as agreement.
—Isn’t that wrong?

She screamed. She couldn’t hold back that scream. Jerking up, Hirate Yurina screamed, her heart racing in horror and her eyes tearing up. Then, she quickly slapped her hands over her mouth, looking around to see that she was still in her dorm room. The clock read 3:00 AM.

The short haired girl took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down.

“Yurina-chan, are you okay?”

Yurina flinched at the sudden voice. When she looked at Neru’s bed, she was surprised to see Neru up already at such an early hour. Class didn’t start until past 7 and the cafeteria didn’t open until 6.

Neru gave Yurina a worried look. “Yurina-chan?”

“I-I’m okay.” Yurina’s words came out less steady than she wanted them to. “I’m going to take a shower.” Thus, she made a strategic retreat, getting to her feet in such a hurry that she nearly tripped and went for the bathroom.

Before she entered the bathroom, she made sure to hurriedly add, “I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“No, you didn’t wake me up.” Neru replied, but Yurina was already in the bathroom and the shower soon turned on.



Under the hot water of the shower, Yurina closed her eyes, letting her bangs cover her eyelids. She made a weak smile and mumbled to herself, “Neru definitely won’t like someone like me.”

That thought made her sadder than she expected.

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 6

Hirate Yurina sighed, laying her head on her desk. The class had finished a big test regarding all the subjects that they had learned so far, and her head was throbbing from that as well as bad sleep.

The board in the front of the class displayed the class rankings based on their scores on the test. She wasn’t surprised to see herself in the lower half of the class though it turned out that her roommate, Neru, was a genius because Neru had tied for first place with another girl called Yonetani Nanami.

“Hey, Techi, are you okay?” Suzumoto called out to Yurina. “Um, getting a bad grade isn’t a big deal. I did pretty badly too. It’s not that many points anyways. Right?”

Yurina moved her left wrist so she could see the metal bracelet. Since she failed this test, she received demerits to her points. Everyone below a certain score received a point loss, but despite complaints, the class had accepted it as a way that the school was making sure they kept their grades up.

“Techi?” Suzumoto repeated.

“Oh. Um, sorry. I’m okay.” Yurina sighed, “I hate school.”

“Yea. Studying is hard.”

Yurina widened her eyes in surprise at Suzumoto’s words. Then, the short haired girl realized that she said her words of ‘I hate school’ out loud. She didn’t mean to do so, but luckily, Suzumoto didn’t notice her internal conflict.

Suzumoto nodded. “Let’s do our best together. Maybe Nagahama-san can help us out. Actually, maybe I can get Dani to tutor me…” She gave a scheming laugh.

“Yea. Let’s do our best.” Yurina smiled weakly in reply.

—Sometimes, you don’t realize where you are until you’re too late.

Watanabe Risa grumbled to herself as she glanced at the board in front of the class. Although she knew she wasn’t the best academically, it was embarrassing to have the numbers displayed like that without any warning of an exam. Her roommate Manaka was also on the lower part of the board.

“That was bad. That was really bad.” Fuyuka held her head in her hands as she looked away from the front of the room.

Akane made a face like she ate something bitter as well. She glanced toward her roommate and the board again though, conceding that at least Yuuka did well, so the exam wasn’t a total flop. Of course, Yuuka’s whole friend group did decently.

Manaka sighed, flopping over and leaning on Risa, “Yea, that was bad.”

“How did Nagahama even get first ranking?” Risa muttered loudly to her group, “She wasn’t even in class for these lessons.”

“Did she cheat? She doesn’t look like the type to cheat.” Fuyuka wondered.

“Probably not. Not to be rude to Techi or Suzumon, but Nagahama’s not in a seat that’s easy to cheat from.” Manaka pointed to Neru’s seat near Hirate and Suzumoto, using nicknames without a care in the world.

“I hope Tecchan isn’t feeling too down from flunking the test.” Akane looked to where Manaka was pointing, “It looks like Nagahama isn’t with Tecchan right now.”

Risa’s eyes followed as well. She frowned as she spotted the new girl in another corner of the room, “She’s talking with Yone? Nagahama’s suspicious. Like a tanuki.”

Fuyuka asked, “Risa, are you sure? That might be going a little too far.”

“This is my gut feeling.” Risa replied coolly.

Akane redirected the conversation back to Neru-watching, “Oh, Nagahama is going over to talk to Tecchan now.”

—Suspicious. Resistance. This place is not without what?
—That conversation really wasn’t that interesting in the end.

It was raining. When it had started raining was a question, but Hirate Yurina couldn’t quite remember. It was probably sometime during lunchtime. The bell dismissing all of the students from their afternoon classes had just rung, but the short haired girl was only paying attention to the rain.

Neru approached Yurina, “Yurina-chan, do you want to go to the dorms together? I bought an umbrella this morning.”

“Are you sure though? You’ll get wet if we try to share the umbrella.” Yurina asked.

“It’s okay. We can stand closer together so we both stay dry.”

Neru extend a hand out toward Yurina. After a moment of hesitation, Yurina took Neru’s hand. They walked out of the school building together, holding hands, Yurina being led by Neru.

With surprising dexterity, Neru flicked open her red umbrella and held it over their heads. They stepped into the open, their shoes still somewhat splashing on the ground.

Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter. There was only the sound of rain.

They continued walking, and Yurina noticed that Neru was having trouble holding the umbrella over Yurina’s head because Yurina was a few centimeters taller. There was also an awkward gap between them, leaving Neru’s shoulder to get wet because the long haired girl seemed intent to keep Yurina dry.

“Neru, let me hold the umbrella. I’m taller.” Yurina offered.

“Thank you.” Neru smiled and handed the umbrella over. “Sorry to trouble you.”

“No, it’s nothing.”

The rain continued, and their lightly splashing footsteps continued as well. Yurina let go of Neru’s hand when she took the umbrella and made sure that Neru was kept dry from the rain.

“Yurina-chan, your shoulder is getting wet.” Neru gave Yurina a wry smile.

“It’s not a big deal.”

“That ruins the point of having an umbrella, right? You can stand closer to me.”

“Then… thank you.”

Pitter. Patter. Pitter. Patter. Yurina still heard the sound of the rain, but she could also hear the sound of her own heart as she walked with Neru, arms extremely close. It wasn’t a bad feeling to share an umbrella with someone so warm.

Even though they weren’t talking, Yurina could hear Neru softly humming to herself over the sound of the rain. That humming was a little off-key, but the short haired girl could still tell that it was a song that Neru liked.

Unknowingly, Yurina smiled.

—This feeling welling up in your heart must be an illness.
—Because, —————— isn’t allowed to feel this way.

Watanabe Risa looked at the cafeteria food ticket machine and frowned as she put her wrist into the scanner and pressed her meal ticket choice. The price had gone up to 30 points, gradually but surely. It would be better to cook than to eat at the cafeteria eventually, and she had noticed the price rising pattern in other places too.

After Risa got her tray with food and sat down at a table with Fuyuka and Akane, Manaka appeared, sitting down next to the cool Watanabe, “Risa, what did you get?”

“Udon.” Risa replied, opening up the supplied disposable chopsticks.

Manaka nodded, “I got omurice.”

As the group of friends said “itadakimasu” in tandem, Manaka reached for the ketchup on the table and started to draw on her omurice in ketchup. Risa sent Manaka a questioning look, seeing the demented hearts on the dish.

“I wanted to see if ketchup actually goes well with omurice.” Manaka joked, “Do you want me to draw hearts for you too?”

“Not in udon.” Risa retorted.

“Maybe it would taste good.”

“Not in udon.”

“Nagahama’s putting ketchup in stuff too. Wait, is that yogurt…?”

“What?”

“That’s bad.”

“You’re serious…”

Fuyuka took a look at the disgusted faces that appeared on her cool, short-haired friends and tried to offer, “Maybe it tastes good.”

“No, it doesn’t look like it tastes good. Tecchan, don’t… eat it.” Akane sighed as she looked at Yurina and some of the other girls try Neru’s concoction.

The conversation eventually turned to strange food combinations and weird foods that actually tasted good together. Risa and the group were having fun talking, but Risa still felt a nagging doubt of suspicion toward the new Keyaki class girl and it wasn’t because of her questionable taste buds.

She ate her udon and pondered to herself.

—I don’t trust her.

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 7

Over a week had passed since Nagahama Neru joined the Keyaki class. Although the normal students at Sakamichi had already discovered her and set up a section for her in their fan-page, Watanabe Risa was still cold to Neru. That coldness was so steady that Neru hadn’t been invited into the class LINE chat yet.

Contrary to Risa, Hirate Yurina was getting along extremely well with her new roommate. Although the short haired girl was too reserved to go for sitting in Neru’s lap like Suzumoto would often do to Oda Nana, Yurina would often hold hands with Neru when Neru offered a hand.

The class was currently heading toward the home economics classroom. Similar to gym, home ecs was one of the few classes where the girls had a physical teacher rather than a person on a screen. It was only taught every two weeks.

They entered the classroom, and the teacher split the girls up into groups of 5 with one group of 6.

To Risa’s chagrin, Fuyuka, Akane, and Manaka were all in the same group with the two Yuis in the class while Risa herself was stuck with the other Watanabe, Yurina, Nagasawa, and most importantly, Neru.

Today’s lesson was how to make a simple hamburger steak. The teacher gave a quick demonstrations and wrote out the instructions on a movable whiteboard that she placed in the front of the room.

Although Risa hadn’t made hamburger steak before, she saw that the Watanabe-Nagasawa pair looked like they knew what they were doing.

“Naako, this…” Berika said quietly to Nagasawa.

In a similarly mild manner, Nagasawa replied, “I’ve made hamburger steak before. Pe-chan, what type of hamburger do you like the best?”

Risa shook her head. Perhaps only Nagasawa knew what she was doing. The cool Watanabe didn’t particularly see the soft Watanabe knowing how to cook. Risa was relieved that at least one person knew how to cook in the group although she frowned when she eyed Neru.

“Do we split up the tasks?” Yurina asked, “Nagasawa-san, what do you suggest?”

Nagasawa thought for a moment before assigning the tasks, “Hirate-chan can make the rice. Berisa-san and Nagahama-san can help cut things and make the sauce. I’ll cook the hamburger steak. Pe-chan can help out random things and set out the dishes.”

The group chorused out a “Okay” with varying rates of enthusiasm. Then, they all got to work.

Risa and Neru stood side by side. Neru felt that the cool Watanabe was excessively cold toward her, but she couldn’t really understand why. Nonetheless, she had an uneasy feeling being with Risa even though she wanted to get along with Risa.

Neru asked her partner, “We cut the onions first, right?”

“Yes.” Risa replied curtly.

After retrieving two onions from the supplies they were given for home economics class, Neru showed the onions to Risa, “Do you think these look good?”

“They’re fine.”

Without another word, Risa and Neru cut the onions. Chop, chop, chop, chop. Although Risa was doing it a bit clumsily and Neru was doing normally, they worked without talking. When they finished, they handed the onions over to Nagasawa and started working on the sauce after washing their hands.

As they went to start the sauce, both Risa and Neru reached out for the ketchup. It was almost as if a zap of electricity went between the two as their fingers touched because Risa quickly pulled away.

“Um…” Neru started.

Risa replied crisply, “What?”

—Trust might be something that’s hard to earn.
—Who are you supposed to trust in this world of dog-eat-dog?

Yurina finished washing the rice and starting the rice cooker. She finished her part rather quickly, but when she looked toward Neru and Risa, the short haired girl felt a strange pressure coming from that area.

She noticed her groupmate, Berika, daydreaming.

Then, Yurina looked toward the other groups, some of which seemed to be rather troubled. Unconsciously, she rubbed her left wrist where the metal wristband had been for weeks.

“Hirate-chan,” Berika called out to Yurina, “what are you thinking about?”

“Nothing in particular.” Yurina answered before asking, “How do you feel about the Keyaki class? Being here?”

“Hm… I guess, it’s fun.”

“Yea, it’s nice.”

“I didn’t think I could have so many friends. Even if I’m not close with everyone, I have a lot of fun everyday here.”

“Really?”

“I’m glad I decided to join.”

Yurina nodded, “Yea.”

After another few minutes, the hamburger steak and rice started to finish cooking. Nagasawa called Berika to help set up the plates, and Yurina followed after, offering to help.

When the short haired girl and her group finally sat down to eat their creations, Yurina couldn’t help but feel grateful that she could eat delicious, warm food.

“This is delicious.” Berika said softly with a smile.

Nagasawa replied as she ate, “I’m happy.”

Yurina ate quietly, sitting between Neru and Risa like a wall. “Yea, it’s delicious.” She said like a whisper as she took another bite of the warm hamburger steak.

—Warm, handmade cooking is like the taste of home.
—What is home defined as?

After school, Yurina went to the library by herself. Although she had thought to study a little, she ended up in the manga section, browsing through volumes. Her fingers brushed against the spines of the books as she wondered to herself what to read.

“Ah…” She let out a small noise as she reached a series that her brother used to read.

She hesitated to slip the book out of its place, but she took it off the shelf anyways. Flipping through it, she gave the manga a sad look and put it back onto the shelf. That series was as lame as she remembered it to be.

Yurina went down the aisle, eventually picking out a short shoujo manga series.

She read it, flipping through the pages. At some moments, she blushed. At others, she wondered if the actions were really romantic as she had done things like share an umbrella with Neru.

Before the short haired girl knew it, an hour had passed. She put the books back and looked up at the clock. Yurina decided to return to the dorms.

A voice called out to the short haired girl, “Um, excuse me, Hirate-san.”

“Yes?” Yurina responded, not recognizing the girl who called her. It was someone from the normal classes at Sakamichi.

“Can I shake your hand?” The unknown person asked.

“Um…”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I think you’re really cool. Out of everyone in the Keyaki class, I think you’re the coolest.”

“Thank you?”

The atmosphere of the conversation got awkward. However, the Hirate-fan managed to squeeze out the words, “If you’re not in any clubs, please join the basketball club.”

That was when another student came up from behind the fan and grabbed the fan’s hand, dragging her away, “Hey, stop bothering Hirate-san.”

Yurina watched as the two left. Her apparent fan waved goodbye to the short haired girl, so Yurina gave a weak wave back. Her only thought about that was that it was a strange occurrence.

She headed back to the dorms.

—Not being the LINE group.
—The screen of that phone had cracked a long time ago.

NEXT CHAPTER

[nevxist]

I'm a silent reader of this fic. It's really good  Thanks for the update anyway 

[Sakamichi]

I wonder if this is going to be a TechiNeruRisa triangle love? ^_^

[Shinoki]

@nevxist: Aahhhh, thank you! I'm glad you like this fic enough to comment. Hehe, I'm smiling a lot right now.
@Sakamichi: Thanks for commenting! If we're talking about a TechiNeruRisa love triangle, that isn't in the plans right now. But that does put some ideas into my mind. (Mona would be sad if her Risa was taken away though, haha.)

@everyone who reads this fic: Thank you for reading this fic all this time. I'll continue doing my best. Your support is very encouraging, but for now, please enjoy this next chapter.

Checkpoint 8

It was early morning. Although Hirate Yurina had a small nightmare, she still had to go to school. Walking side by side with her roommate, Neru, Yurina entered the school building and opened the door to her classroom.

Everything was normal. Everyone who had already arrived was in their seats, chatting with their friends. Like always, the teacher podium was utterly empty, and the board in the front of the room had yet to turn on.

Yurina and Neru took their seats and said their “good morning”s to their classmates.

Time moved on. Like always, the digital clock in the front of the room was silent. What normally counted as homeroom was about to start, but that was usually just an overview of what the day was going to be about.

Just as the morning bell was about to ring, Suzumoto, Oda Nana, and Kobayashi Yui ran into the room. With that, everyone had gathered. The three roommates sank down into their seats with a sigh of relief.

“What happened?” Neru asked lightheartedly.

Oda Nana answered, “All three of our alarm clocks didn’t ring.”

“I was having such a nice dream about chestnuts…” Suzumoto groaned as she buried her face into her head, feeling that school started way too early.

“I woke up thinking that it was strange…” Yui-pon sighed.

Neru said, “That sounds terrible.”

“Yea, it was.” Oda Nana added jokingly, “But when we ran past the staff room on the way here, I heard some commotion. I guess it’s not just us who have trouble in the morning.”

They chatted a little more, giving Techi a pat on the head because she too was tired. Then, the morning bell rang. However, the board in the front of the room didn’t turn on.

—Out of the norm. That’s not acceptable.
“Huh, is it broken?” “Eh, no way.” “Maybe the overview uploading guy overslept.”
—What a terrible feeling.

Watanabe Risa scrolled through LINE as she waited for the board in the front of the room to turn on. She was chatting with Manaka through the phone even though her roommate was sitting closeby.

“Risa.” Manaka wrote. Then her icon was beside a set of ellipses for a few moments before the ellipses disappeared, Manaka not having written anything more.

Risa replied on LINE, “What is it?”

There were more ellipses. Risa peered over to her roommate, wondering what exactly she was typing but not sending. Then, she received Manaka’s message, “Just wanted to say Risa.”

As the short haired Watanabe was about to reply, the door to the classroom opened with more force than needed.

A man in a suit stepped into the classroom. Rather than just being a man in a suit, he was a teacher at Sakamichi, but the Keyaki class had never had him before, and it had never been planned for them to have him teach their class ever.

He gave the girls a mean look before stepping up the teacher’s podium.

Clearing his throat, he said, “You girls are the Keyaki class?” As he saw a few of them nod and murmur yes, he continued, slamming his palm down on the podium with a smack, “Put your phones away!”

The girls flinched. Some of them hurriedly stuffed their smartphones into their bags while others, like Risa, put their phones into their desks, ready to message each other under the cover of their desks. Risa especially frowned at his command.

“Do you think you’re special? That the Keyaki class is something special?” The man asked the girls.

No one knew what to say in response to him. He looked angry.

“Well, do you think your class is special?” He repeated, stepping towards the girls, walking through the aisles and stopping at a random girl.

Ishimori Nijika who had been randomly singled out could only squeak out a “Yes?” in confusion. She didn’t know if it was the right answer, but after hearing that single word, the teacher walked back up to the podium.

“Yes, you girls must all think that you’re so special. That you can do as you please just because you’re the Keyaki class.” He frowned.

Risa sent him a dour look from her seat in the back of the class. She peeked down at her phone, seeing the messages in the class group LINE from the girls who hadn’t put their phones away.

“What’s he talking about?”

“Did someone do something?”

“Eh…”

“Who is this old guy?”

“A lit. teacher?”

“What’s he doing here?”

“Revolution!”

“Keyaki revolution?”

“Berika, not the time for jokes.”

Then, she looked back to the teacher who was continuing his rant. No administrator from the Keyaki class was stopping this man, and none of the girls knew what to do.

“Do you think you can steal from a teacher? Do you think that you’re really that special?” The man asked. “You Keyaki girls are the same students as everyone else, so don’t assume that you can do things that aren’t allowed.”

A ripple of nervous mumbles went through the girls. That was cut off by another slam of the palm onto the podium.

“Who did it?” The teacher began to walk through the aisles again, stopping at random girls to ask. “Who did it?” They shrank away from him, but he continued. “Who stole the gradebook from the staff room?”

“Was it you?” He asked a girl. “Was it you?” He asked another. Everyone of the girls he asked had long hair, and eventually he walked up to Neru.

“Was it y—” The teacher began to interrogate Neru.

Then the sound of a chair being pushed aside interrupted his question. A short haired girl stood up, Risa found it to be Yurina and widened her eyes in surprise. With a steady voice, Hirate Yurina started, “Please wait a moment.”

—You must beat me down because I won’t let go of my justice.
“...Tecchan…” “Techi…” “Hirate-chan…”
—What meaning is there in standing up?

“Do you have any evidence that one of us stole from the staff room? We rarely interact with the teachers in the staff room.” Yurina elaborated.

From the back, Akane stood up as well, “Yea, that’s right. We don’t even know what you’re accusing us of.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but I have to agree.” Yuuka hesitantly stood up as well. “We have no idea what you are talking about.”

The teacher gave Yurina an annoyed look before walking back up to the podium, yelling at the girls to “Sit down!” He frowned when he saw that the short haired girl hadn’t sat down and was returning an apathetic look.

“One of you Keyaki girls stole a gradebook from my desk in the staffroom. All I need is for the culprit to step forward now.” The man explained.

Yurina repeated, “Like I said, how do you know that it was one of us?”

“I have video proof from the security cameras.”

—Suspicion. Suspicion. That terrible feeling welling up inside.
—Will we play the blame game too?

NEXT CHAPTER

[Sakamichi]

Kuritaro and her daisuki chestnuts  waiting for next update   

[Shinoki]

@Sakamichi: Yea, Kuritaro's love for chestnuts is too strong. Will Oda Nana be able to date Kuritaro, or will the power of chestnut dreams and Yui-pon overwhelm them? Dun dun dun. Just kidding. There will be an arc featuring Dani, Mon, and Pon in the future though. Thank you for commenting~ Enjoy this chapter.

Checkpoint 9

A video was put up onto the board in the front of the class. It was slightly fuzzy and the color quality was bad, but the time stamp showed yesterday afternoon. It was the security camera’s video, and the area being recording was the hallway the staff room was in.

Then, a figure walked onto the screen. The person was wearing the Keyaki class version of the school uniform and appeared to have long black hair. She opened the door to the staff room and entered.

Within a few moments, the figure exited the staff room, holding a binder that was likely the gradebook in her hand. She noticed the camera and scurried away. The face was too blurry to make out, but Yurina felt that she saw piercings on the ears of the figure. That was a fleeting thought though as the figure turned away quickly, and the video quality was too poor to make out facial features, much less piercings.

The video ended, and the screen went blank again. The room was filled with murmurs, and Yurina took a seat, unsure of what to make of the video.

“The question now is who stole the gradebook.” The teacher cleared his throat and looked at the class with an ugly glare. “Step forward now, and your punishment will be lightened.”

No one stepped forward. It was only natural because it had already been stated that a punishment would be doled out.

The tense air was finally broken when the bell signalling the end of what should have been homeroom rang.

The teacher in the suit scowled, but he relented. “Come to the staff room and confess to your crimes. I have to go teach first period now, but that does not mean that we will accept you stealing from teachers just because you’re the Keyaki class. If no one confesses after the next week, then this matter will have to be seriously investigated.” He finally left after those words.

—A collective gasp of relief.
“Who was that?” “There are a lot of people with long hair.” “No way…”
—Even though we didn’t commit a crime, isn’t it so tempting to be blamed?

First period for the Keyaki class started quickly. The lecturer on the board was teaching about science, the structure of nucleic acids as well as three-prime to five-prime strands of DNA. Some girls were studiously taking notes, but others were on their phones, chatting about the theft incident they had just been informed of.

Watanabe Risa was not among those too distracted to listen to scientific explanations. She had her phone on her lap and was in the group LINE.

Akane asked in the chat, “Who did it?”

“Long hair.” Manaka typed.

One of the two Kansai girls in the class, Koike Minami, wrote, “Habu-chan?” She tacked on a crying penguin emoticon that said that she didn’t want that.

“Too tall.” Fuyuka replied.

The tall girl, Habu Mizuho, typed into the LINE chat, “I wouldn’t do such a thing in the first place…” She added a sad face emoticon at the end.

“Who in the class has long hair?” Ozeki asked.

“Granny Rina, Berika, Yukka, Aoi?” Manaka typed.

Fuyuka wrote, “Hm.”

Berika inserted a sticker. “Revolution!”

“Berika was with me yesterday afternoon though.” Nagasawa joined the conversation as well.

“Alibis.” Manaka noted.

Risa looked through the chat log again, frowning to herself. Then, she typed out one name, “Nagahama Neru.” That was her suspicion, the idea that Nagahama Neru was the culprit.

The cool Watanabe looked toward the front of the room where Neru was diligently taking notes. Even though there wasn’t anything visibly off with the long haired girl, Risa still couldn’t shrug off the feeling that there was something wrong with Nagahama Neru.

“She’s suspicious.” Risa couldn’t help but mutter.

She looked back down to her phone, noticing that Manaka sent her a LINE message in their private chat. The message read, “Really paying attention to Nagahama?”

“Nagahama’s suspicious.” Risa messaged back.

“Culprit?”

“Possibly. She has long black hair too.”

“Doesn’t really add up.”

“We’ll see.”

Risa returned to the class LINE group that had been chatting the whole time. The other girls stated their alibis for yesterday afternoon and were chatting curiously about the crime, not really caring yet also not wanting to be dragged up into something that reflected so badly on the class.

Rather than paying attention to class, they were looking forward to the next break time. The cool Watanabe looked up at the clock. There was still a while before class was over.

—Those who are silent aren’t agreeing.
—Speaking up and trust.

With the bell, it was break time. Hirate Yurina put her biology notebook away, having realized that she understood very little of what was being taught. As the girls got up to chat, Yurina looked around the room and wondered which of her classmates wore earrings.

Suddenly, murmuring broke out in the classroom. Everyone seemed to be looking at the board in surprise, so the short haired girl turned as well.

A message was on the board. ‘Find the culprit of the gradebook theft from the staff room. Failure will receive a demerit of 1000 points from each student. Completion will give 1000 points to each student.’

1000 points was a large amount of points, and the apprehension in the room rose due to that. The people who hadn’t care much of the crime suddenly felt displeased with the thief.

“1000 points is a lot. Who did it?” Oda Nana sighed as she looked at the board.

Yurina wracked her head and frowned to herself.

From the back of the room, Risa spoke loudly enough that the rest of the class could hear, “Who do you think did it?”

Everyone turned their heads toward the cool Watanabe.

“1000 points is a lot of points. Altogether, if whoever did it got away, we would be losing 21000 points total.” Risa started, crossing her arms. “We know that the culprit has long, black hair, correct? That narrows it down to a few people. For example, Nagahama Neru.” Risa pointed her index finger to Neru.

Neru widened her eyes in surprise, “Eh?”

“Where were you yesterday afternoon? Do you have an alibi?”

“I was in my dorm room, reading.”

“Techi?” Suzumoto whispered to Yurina, wondering if she knew anything as Neru’s roommate.

“Hirate, were you there with her at that time?” Risa asked.

“No. I was in the library, but Neru was reading in our room when I entered the dorm room.” Yurina shook her head, frowning that Neru was being accused.

“No alibi then.” Akane said, sitting on her desk.

Suspicious murmurs travelled through the class. The girls gave Neru suspecting looks, and even Suzumoto’s group seemed a little uneasy and distrusting of Neru. Neru looked down at her feet.

Fuyuka said, “If you did it, you should just confess.”

“But, I didn’t do it…” replied Neru.

“We won’t blame you if you own up to it.” Another member of the class, Sato Shiori, added on.

“I didn’t do it.” Neru repeated her innocence.

Risa drawled out, “How do we know that? Isn’t it better if you just own up it?”

—People hate being punished for the crimes of others.
—One simple accusation and a jump in logic to a judgment of crime.

A clear voice interrupted the accusations, “Wait a moment.”

NEXT CHAPTER

[Shinoki]

Checkpoint 10

Hirate Yurina frowned as the mood in the classroom soured, making the girls more and more suspicious of each other. It was weird how quickly people started doubting Neru, but at the same time, it was normal how people wanted to find someone to blame.

The short haired girl couldn’t stand listening to her classmates anymore and stood up from her seat, pushing the chair aside. With a clear voice, she said “Wait a moment.”

Her words broke the class’s murmurs apart, creating a tense moment of silence.

“Neru didn’t steal the gradebook.” Yurina explained, punching a hole into the accusation. “What motives does she have to do that?”

“What motives do any of us have to steal something from the staff room? That doesn’t clear up anything.” Risa retorted. “The person in the video was wearing our uniform, so she’s one of us.”

“Neru doesn’t have piercings.”

“Piercings?”

“The person in the video had ear piercings.”

“Aren’t you just making that up? There’s no way you can see that in such a blurry video, and we can’t check it either.”

“Maybe so, but can you prove that the person in the video was Neru?”

“She doesn’t have an alibi.”

“Does everyone else have an alibi? They could be lying. There could be accomplices that help the actual thief create an alibi.”

“What motives do they have to do that?”

“We don’t know. They could be trying to undermine Neru or some other long haired girl in our class. The thief might even be trying to make trouble for the Keyaki class in general.”

“And how do we know Nagahama isn’t trying to make trouble?”

Yurina and Risa came to a standstill. Neither was willing to budge from their stance. While neither had anything against the other personally, they were extremely split on Neru’s innocence.

Finally, Sato Shiori interrupted the standoff, “Let’s not fight!”

For a long moment, silence filled the classroom. Then Risa and Yurina both sat down in their seats, standing down from the argument for the time being.

—Is it better to fight or agree?

Literature class went the same way as biology did. The girls were vaguely paying attention but at the same time, they were preoccupied with the drama going on with the crime, so they couldn’t help but check LINE.

Risa was looking at her phone under the cover of the book they were supposed to be reading and analyzing in class.

Nagasawa asked in the LINE chat, “So who’s the culprit?”

“Tecchan made some good points.” Akane noted.

Suzumoto joined in the conversation, posting a chestnut sticker with her words, “I don’t want to think it’s Neru.”

“Nagahama has no alibi.” Risa typed.

Habu wrote, “Accomplices?”

Ishimori Nijika dropped in with a thinking ostrich sticker, “Maybe Berisa since she doesn’t like Neru.”

“Risa wouldn’t do that.” Manaka retorted quickly.

Fuyuka added. “Neru is kind of sketchy.”

“But she’s nice.” Suzumoto posted another chestnut sticker, a worried chestnut this time.

“Tanuki-like?” Manaka joked.

Akane asked, referring to the site that Manaka had found a while ago from the photography club, “Ah, from the Sakamichi Keyaki class fan site?” Some normal students who were members of the Keyaki fanclub and had accounts on the strange fan site had described Neru as tanuki-like.

“Maybe the normal students are seeing something we’re not. Though didn’t Risa say that before?” Fuyuka wrote.

Suzumoto typed again, “Neru culprit theory.”

“Berisa culprit theory.” Nagasawa noted.

Berika joined in, “I want to take in the culprit.”

“Berika murderer theory?” Manaka said.

“Madagascar!” Berika inserted another Gorgeous joke sticker.

Nijika questioned, “Are you talking about that fanfiction on the fan site? Toku something?”

Fuyuka joked, “Risa-loving Nijika culprit theory?”

“Ehhh??” Nijika posted, not being particularly close or far from Risa as a friend.

“RisaNeru accomplice theory.” Suzumoto added, referencing the relationship Risa and Neru apparently had in the Tokuyama Daigoro story that someone had posted on the Keyaki class fan site.

Manaka refused, “Risa is mine.”

Risa looked up from her phone for a moment and shook her head, wondering if she was feeling too happy at Manaka’s words.
However, her mood was still sour from her suspicion of Neru who she had a bad feeling about from the start.

“Anyways, 1000 points is bad.” Nagasawa wrote with the feeling of a sigh.

Fuyuka nodded in her seat as she typed, “I hope everything ends well.”

—Tempting fate. It would be good to end well.

The rest of the day was spent with an awkward mood in the class, but no big debates over who the culprit was happened again. The next day started, the message of points still large on the board, but with no progress in finding the thief, the girls gradually returned to normally paying attention to class.

Lunchtime arrived. As it looked as if everyone in Yurina’s lunch group had forgotten to bring a drink, they played rock paper scissors to decide who would go buy drinks from a vending machine. In the end Neru lost.

The short haired girl couldn’t help but see that her friends were uneasy handing over their points to Neru.

Yurina thought to herself that they definitely suspected Neru was the thief. Even if they weren’t making a big deal out of it, Yurina could tell that there was a sense of mistrust in the air.

She hurt, wondering if friendships were so weak as to be burdened by senseless accusations. She knew the answer by experience, but she didn’t want to think of that kind of conclusion to her new friendships in the Keyaki class.

“I’ll buy it.” Yurina stood up from her seat, listing out her friends’ typical drink choices with a weak smile, “Water, orange juice, soda, and oolong tea, right? My treat this time.”

Suzumoto said, “Thanks, Techi.” Oda Nana and Kobayashi Yui nodded along in thanks as well.

“Thank you.” Neru gave Yurina a grateful look.

The short haired girl acknowledged that thanks, and then she went off to find a vending machine where she could buy those things.

Going through the hallways, there were other students going about their normal lives, the broadcasting club broadcasting, and even people practicing for clubs. Although Yurina saw a few people looking at her strangely, whispering excitedly, she tried to ignore them.

‘Aren’t I the one running away from things?’ Yurina thought to herself as she walked. ‘It’s not Neru, right?’

When she went to the usual vending machine, she found that it was out of order. When she went to another, it was also missing just the four items that she wanted.

In the end, Yurina found herself in front of a vending machine in the back of the school. It was outdoors, in a grassy area that no one seemed to use for eating lunch, and there was a small section of bushes near the vending machine.

Luckily, the vending machine had the place where the Keyaki class students could scan their points in. Yurina bought the four drinks plus a water for herself, looking at the continuous ‘-12’ points on her bracelet for only a moment.

As the short haired girl held the cool drinks in her hand, ready to hurry back to the classroom, she stopped in her tracks.

In the bushes, she spotted a hint of a black rectangular shape. Using her feet to part the leaves, she narrowed her eyes at what she saw. However, with her hands full, she decided that she would figure that out later, first hurrying back to the classroom.

—The item of the theft.
—Is that evidence for or against your precious person?

NEXT CHAPTER

[dragon522]

Lol the regular students wrote fanfiction. I was just thinking that this arc had Tokuyama Daigoro vibes. Thank you for the interesting story. I look forward to what you come up with next!

[nevxist]

Uwaaah~ I wonder who really did it Looking forward to the next checkpoint  Thanks for the update 

[Shinoki]

@dragon522: I'm glad you think the story is interesting. Sometimes I worry if it feels a little too aimless or paced badly, but I'm happy to hear you enjoy it. This arc definitely does have some TokuDare vibes, but stay tuned to find out the true culprit~
@nevxist: Thank you for reading! Who did it? This pseudo-checkpoint will drop some hints, but I wonder if I'm too blatant about it. But, the mystery will be resolved in the next 2-3 checkpoints. (so within the next 2-4 days if my update schedule keeps up) Look forward to it~

@everyone: Thank you for reading up to this point. It's super encouraging to see people enjoy my writing. It's nowhere near done yet, so I'll do my best to make this an interesting ride! I hope you'll keep reading too~

Checkpoint 10.5

After school, Moriya Akane and Sugai Yuuka were walking through the hallways together, talking as they headed back toward the dorms. Akane’s tennis club meeting had been cancelled for some reason, and Yuuka hadn’t joined any clubs as there was no horseback riding club.

Yuuka sighed to her roommate, “I think whoever committed the theft should confess to it.” She rubbed her left wrist uncomfortably.

“Who do you think did it?” Akane asked.

“I don’t know.” Yuuka replied, “I don’t really think that Nagahama-san would, but…” She trailed off, not knowing what to say.

The two girls continued walking through the hallway. Suddenly, another student who wasn’t watching where she was going bumped into Yuuka’s shoulder, pushing her to the side a bit harshly.

“Ow.” Yuuka cried out softly.

“Ah, I’m sorr—” She started to apologize. Then her eyes widened as she got a better look at the pair’s uniforms, but rather than finish her apology, she shot the two girls a glare and spat out, “Watch where you’re going.”

The unknown student had short, dyed hair and piercings, appearing like a delinquent. Then, she stomped away before the Keyaki class pair could react.

Akane called after the delinquent, “Hey, you should watch where you’re going.” However, the response she got was a pair of middle fingers in her direction.

“The nerve of some people. So rude…” Akane grumbled. She turned to Yuuka and asked, “Are you okay?”

“Ah, I’m okay. Thank you.” Yuuka replied.

—In the end, it’s about hatred.

Night had fallen. Watanabe Risa and Shida Manaka were in their dorm rooms, both having showered and were on Risa’s bed, playing on their phones.

Manaka’s hair was still slightly damp, having only used a towel to dry her hair, and Risa could smell her roommate’s shampoo. It was a fragrant smell, vanilla if Risa smelled it correctly, and it was distracting.

“Hm?” Manaka looked up from her phone.

Risa caught herself and replied quickly, “Your shampoo smells nice.”

“Thanks,” Manaka smiled. “It’s a new scent that my usual brand released recently.”

Risa nodded. She felt her heart speed up a little at Manaka’s smile, and she wondered what was wrong with her. The short haired Watanabe put on a cool smile, feigning calmness.

The two spent the next few minutes quietly tapping on their smartphones.

Manaka rolled over on Risa’s bed after putting her phone to the side, getting closer to her roommate on the small bed, and she broke the silence by asking quietly, “Why are you so caught up with thinking that Nagahama is the culprit?”

“She’s suspicious.” Risa replied.

“...she’s suspicious…” Manaka repeated, looking away.

“It’s okay.” Risa said, “I’ll definitely protect you if Nagahama does something.”

Despite Risa’s words, Manaka didn’t look particularly pleased, “Thank you.”

The two spent a little more time lounging around on Risa’s bed. Manaka, who seemed bored, wrapped her arms around Risa and laid her head down on the bed. What she didn’t know was that Risa’s heart was beating nervously from the sudden contact.

A quiet time continued for a little longer. Risa’s alarm clock already read around 11 ’o'clock, so it was time to go to sleep. However, as Risa was about to say something about going to sleep, she noticed that Manaka had fallen asleep hugging Risa.

“Manaka, are you asleep?” Risa asked, but she received only breathing sounds as reply.

Although she could have, Risa didn’t push Manaka away to wake her roommate up. It would have been somewhat difficult as Manaka was hugging rather strongly, so in the end, after a few moments of trying to gently pry Manaka off, Risa gave up.

Risa turned off the lights, her bed being near the light switch, and whispered, “Good night,” turning in for the night.

—What is crime? What is accusation?

Suzumoto Miyu yawned as she shut off her alarm clock. The sun was already rather bright outside, but it was early morning and she was just getting up. When she looked around her dorm room, she saw that her roommate Oda Nana was waking up as well and her other roommate, Kobayashi Yui, was in the bathroom, showering if Suzumoto heard the water correctly.

The chestnut loving girl yawned. She looked at her alarm clock and around the room again. Then, she plopped back down onto her bed.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep again.” Oda Nana called out, repeating when she saw Suzumoto about to fall asleep again, “Suzumoto, don’t fall asleep again.”

“Dani, I’m sleepy.” Suzumoto groused.

Oda Nana replied, “Yea, yea. We have to get to class in an hour.”

Suzumoto nodded, getting off of her bed. Instead of getting ready for the day, she decided to walk over to Dani’s bed and take a seat on Dani’s lap. Then, she said, “I still want to sleep.”

Before Oda Nana could retort, Kobayashi Yui or Yui-pon walked out of the bathroom, hair still damp from her morning shower. She spotted her two roommates and sent them an odd look.

“Get off, Suzumoto.” Oda Nana got her roommate off her lap.

The three girls got ready for school, going to the bathroom, brushing their teeth, washing their face, and changing into their school uniforms. Of the three, Yui-pon finished the earliest, having woken up the earliest.

As they went through their morning routine, the three chatted.

Brushing her hair, Suzumoto made a squished face of displeasure, thinking about meeting with her classmates again today. “We still haven’t found the culprit.”

“Isn’t it Neru?” Oda Nana asked.

“Urgh, I don’t know.” Suzumoto replied. “But, she’s our friend, so I don’t want to think about if she actually did do it.”

Oda Nana nodded, “I don’t really want her to be the thief, but… She’s the only one without an alibi, right?”

The members of the class had mostly put down their alibis into the LINE group chat. Berika and Nagasawa had been together that afternoon. Akane had been with the tennis club, and Yuuka had been helping Aoi study. Although not all the alibis could be confirmed, they were there in the chat.

“Not the only one.” Yui-pon interjected, “She’s just the most suspicious one since she has long hair and she hasn’t been part of the class as long as everyone else.”

Suzumoto made a strange noise, “Ahhh, this is too much. Friends doubting friends is too much for me.”

“Hm.” Oda Nana hummed as she thought to herself. “Is it even someone in the class at all?”

“A normal student? That’s so many people…” Suzumoto sighed.

Yui-pon was done with her morning preparations, so she looked to her roommates and said, “The case will probably work itself out. We don’t know who stole the gradebook, and we don’t know if Neru is guilty at all, so we should just put these thoughts aside.”

After saying those words, Yui-pon’s great words as Oda Nana would put it, Kobayashi Yui walked out of the bathroom. The conversation about the theft ended there.

The new school day was beginning. Without much else in the drowsy morning, the spring sun of almost summer in the sky, the three roommates headed to breakfast and then to class.

—What disappears when you don’t see it?

NEXT CHAPTER