Perhaps because it was still the beginning of a new term, an awkward atmosphere hung over the classroom.
Friends who had been in the same class during their first year gathered together to chat.
The more sociable students had already formed little groups and were talking amongst themselves.
But me...
Well...
There was also the misunderstanding that I was some weirdo who had been moved by a curtain.
Perhaps because so many things had happened, no one readily approached me.
...Honestly, that was something of a relief.
But why hadn’t the owners of the seats behind me come to school yet?
"Good morning, Morita."
Breaking out of my thoughts, I turned my blank gaze from the window toward the voice.
"Ah, Fujibayashi... no, Kyo."
I had made another small mistake.
"Huh? Where are Okazaki and Sunohara?"
"Who knows...? Maybe they went to the bathroom."
If they really had gone to the bathroom, they would be back soon.
But then...
The bell signaling homeroom rang.
Were they late?
Or had they skipped school without permission?
Kyo abruptly raked both hands through her hair and cried out in a voice full of irritation.
"Aah! Those two are such a headache!"
"Why does something like this have to happen in the first week, when I’m the class rep?!"
The stubborn cowlick sticking up from her newly tousled hair stood out especially clearly.
She must have gone through a lot of trouble fixing it that morning.
I felt a little sorry for her.
"You must have fixed it up so nicely..."
"You shouldn’t mess with your hair..."
"That’s not the problem!"
Kyo shot me a fierce glare.
Come to think of it, I had wondered why she was making such a fuss.
She was the class rep.
My awareness of her as a “friend candidate” had been so strong
that I had forgotten that fact.
[The user’s forgetfulness has been reconfirmed.]
[It is highly likely to be an issue unrelated to intelligence.]
"More importantly, as class rep, I have something to say."
Kyo glared sharply at the empty seats behind me, then suddenly turned her head toward me.
When her violet eyes stared straight into my face, my heart sank.
Facing someone else’s gaze head-on was always suffocating.
"What happened to the wound on your forehead? It looks like the swelling has gone down a little since yesterday, but..."
"Ah, this? It went down faster than I expected."
Perhaps thanks to raising my Stamina to 8, when I looked in the mirror after waking up, my forehead had healed cleanly with only a faint scar remaining.
"Really? That’s a relief."
Kyo let out a sigh of relief, then, as though trying to hide her embarrassment, confidently put her hands on her hips.
"I’m not the kind of person who can live with a debt hanging over me.
The sign yesterday, and you getting hurt—it’s been bothering me... so if there’s ever something you want to ask of me, make sure you tell me!"
"It’s not really something you need to call a debt..."
I meant it sincerely.
If I had just put the plywood away a little more safely yesterday,
that would never have happened.
But perhaps she had heard my muttering.
Kyo held up her index finger right in front of my eyes and pressed the point with firm determination.
"Make sure you tell me."
Overwhelmed by her forcefulness, I silently nodded.
...It was not an atmosphere where I could refuse.
...
In the end, the two of them ran into the classroom, panting, right before the homeroom teacher entered.
They had made it by the skin of their teeth.
Once homeroom ended,
the two, caught by Kyo while she was still in class-rep mode, had to listen to her lecture for quite a while.
...It was frightening.
...
Lunchtime.
At the sound of the lunch bell, Okazaki, who had been lying face-down on his desk, rose as he stretched.
"Hey, Morita. Sunohara."
"Let’s hit the school store."
"Huh? Bread again?"
"Sure."
I wondered what a Japanese school store was like.
After roughly tidying up my things,
I stood to follow the two who had headed out first.
Creeeak.
The moment the door opened—
"Eek!"
With a short cry, someone fell onto the floor.
"?"
The moment Okazaki, who was leading the way, opened the door,
he had collided head-on with a female student who had happened to be walking past the classroom.
"Hey, Okazaki, you can’t make a girl cry already!"
Sunohara immediately started needling him when he saw it.
"Shut up."
"Um..."
"Shouldn’t you help her up first?"
"...Huh? Ah, sorry."
Looking flustered, Okazaki scratched his head and held out a hand to the girl sitting on the floor.
...
The instant I saw the girl’s face, I was rendered speechless.
She looked alike.
Like our class rep, Fujibayashi Kyo.
No.
It was beyond simply looking alike.
They were similar enough that it would have been difficult to tell them apart if they changed their hairstyles.
Even Sunohara seemed surprised as he spoke.
"Hey, Morita."
"That girl... right?"
If what Kyo had said yesterday about having a twin younger sister was true,
then it had to be her.
"I think so."
"Isn’t she the twin little sister Kyo mentioned?"
At my answer, Sunohara gave an interested, "Ooh..."
I had a bad feeling about this.
...
"Uu... I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going properly..."
Fujibayashi took Okazaki’s hand and carefully rose to her feet,
but perhaps because of the impact from their collision, she lost her balance, twisted her ankle, and nearly fell sideways again.
"Hey!"
Startled, Okazaki tried to catch her as she fell,
and unintentionally ended up holding her tightly in his arms.
Fujibayashi’s face had turned red before anyone knew it.
Maybe she was flustered.
Or perhaps simply startled.
Her large eyes blinked as she could not tear her gaze away from Okazaki’s face.
Okazaki himself had gone rigid from the unexpected situation.
"Whoo~ Okazaki, you’re bold. Hugging a girl in the hallway outside the classroom in broad daylight?"
Perhaps Sunohara’s joke snapped them back to their senses.
The two, whose bodies had both stiffened, quickly pulled apart.
Embarrassed, Okazaki repeatedly rubbed the back of his neck,
while the younger sister desperately hid her face, which looked ready to burst, with her head lowered.
‘Love at first sight, huh.’
‘Does something like this really happen in real life?’
Watching the oddly ticklish atmosphere flowing between them, I swallowed a hollow laugh.
You never knew.
Sunohara, teasing them beside me, was the perfect comic relief.
And Okazaki, standing in front of us and clearing his throat with the tips of his ears red,
might actually be the true protagonist.
"U-um...!"
The younger sister was the first to barely manage to speak, clasping both hands tightly at her chest.
Her voice was incredibly quiet, unlike Kyo’s, but the hallway had grown so quiet that I could hear her clearly.
"Th-thank you for helping me...! I was so careless..."
"Ah, no. I’m the one who should be sorry for throwing the door open without watching where I was going."
Okazaki scratched his head and took a step back.
"Um... have you perhaps seen Fujibayashi Kyo... my older sister?"
It seemed she had come all the way to the classroom looking for her sister and had run into this mishap.
"Ah, Kyo?"
Okazaki had been sleeping face-down on his desk until just now.
He probably had not seen her.
"Ah, Kyo went to the staff room for a moment after the teacher called for her when the lunch bell rang."
When I explained in his place,
Fujibayashi seemed to relax with relief.
"Ah, that’s a relief...! Thank you for telling me."
"Say, you’re really different from your sister, aren’t you?"
It looked as though things were about to end without incident, but the moment
Sunohara butted in with an intrigued expression,
I had a feeling this would somehow grow into a bigger problem.
"Y-yes...?"
Fujibayashi looked at Sunohara with wide eyes.
"H-hey, Sunohara."
Okazaki tried to stop him by nudging Sunohara’s side with his elbow,
but Sunohara’s mouth did not stop.
"I mean, it’s obvious! Your sister was practically a violent class rep in the classroom after homeroom this morning! And yesterday, she—"
"Sunohara, I don’t think you should talk behind someone’s back to their family."
Even when I joined in to stop him, Sunohara did not stop, as though his brakes had failed.
"Talking behind her back? Morita, this is curiosity! Is she like that at home too?
She’s got such a fiery personality, while you look incredibly gentle and sweet. Are you really sisters? Huh?"
"U-uu... My sister is j-just a little blunt and impatient,
but she is absolutely not a scary person! She’s actually really kind, and she takes such good care of me, her little sister!"
Fujibayashi earnestly defended Kyo, looking deeply wronged on her behalf.
Honestly, I was a little surprised.
Seeing how timid she had seemed earlier, and hearing her quiet voice, I had thought she might not be able to speak up actively.
But now, even though her voice trembled a little,
she was speaking clearly for her sister’s sake.
Maybe that was what family was like.
But Sunohara’s sly smile did not fade.
"Hee~ Is that so? Isn’t she just putting on an act in front of her little sister? Just yesterday, she—"
Tap tap tap tap—
The sound of someone running echoed out.
When I looked toward it, I saw Kyo charging toward us with murder in her eyes.
"Kyo, wait a moment!"
I tried to stop her, thinking something terrible was about to happen.
"Sunohara!"
It happened in an instant. Kyo took a running start, leaped up, and sent Sunohara flying with a flying kick...!
Wham—!
"Gyaaaah?!"
With a dying scream, Sunohara rolled several meters across the hallway floor.
Sunohara slammed into the wall with a bang, then passed out on the spot, smoke rising from him.
Faced with the superhuman display of force that had happened in an instant, not only Okazaki and I but even the other students walking through the hallway froze solid.
"S-sis...?"
Fujibayashi clapped both hands over her mouth in shock.
Kyo, who had delivered that spectacular running flying kick,
landed lightly and dusted off her skirt.
The stack of handouts she had been holding was not the least bit disordered.
Ah.
She had gone to pick up handouts.
Just in case, I approached the wall and checked on Sunohara.
He did not seem to have any serious injuries.
"Just you wait..."
Even while unconscious, that was all he muttered.
...So he was not the protagonist.
He was apparently a durable comic-relief character.
That was the moment I became certain.
As I sighed in relief after checking on him—
"Who are you calling someone who puts on an act? And don’t spew pointless nonsense at my little sister, Sunohara."
After coldly rebuking the unconscious boy, Kyo turned and fiercely glared at Okazaki and me.
Once again feeling that this place was different from reality, I naturally swallowed at the murderous look in her eyes.
I did not even want to imagine what expression I might have made if not for the [Poker Face] skill.
Soon, Kyo’s sharp eyes softened as she looked at her younger sister.
"Ryo, these idiots didn’t do anything weird to you, did they? If anything happens, tell your big sister right away."
So her name was Ryo.
"N-no, Sis! Those two were actually trying to help me..."
When Ryo hurriedly waved her hands and explained the situation, Kyo’s fierce eyes finally softened a little.
"...Really? Then aside from that blond guy rolling around over there, you two are innocent."
Kyo’s gaze landed on Sunohara, sprawled out on the floor, before returning to me.
"Morita, I almost misunderstood. Thank you for helping Ryo."
"No."
"I should have stopped him sooner... I’m sorry."
I was still not used to being praised.
Feeling awkward for no reason, I lowered my head.
[Notification]
[Bond Rank Up]
Fujibayashi Kyo
[Candidate] → [Friend]
"Hey, I’m here too."
Okazaki looked at Kyo as though he found this absurd.
"Oh, right, right. Thanks."
"Isn’t the treatment a little too different?"
Okazaki grumbled with an incredulous expression, but Kyo merely snorted lightly in reply.
"You have your usual behavior to blame. And Morita only transferred here recently, yet he helped both me and Ryo, so of course it’s different."
"Ah, Sis, is Morita the guy you told me about yesterday? The one who threw himself in front of you to save you?"
In an instant, Kyo’s confident expression visibly stiffened.
"Ryo! When did I ever say it like that?!"
Kyo cried out urgently, her face flushing red.
The bold momentum with which she had just sent Sunohara flying was nowhere to be found,
and her violet eyes darted roughly about, unable to settle anywhere.
"Huh? But Sis, the moment you got home yesterday, you smiled and said, ‘A really dependable transfer student came to our class. When the sign was about to fall in a dangerous moment, he threw himself forward and saved me.’"
"Aaaah! I can’t hear you! I can’t hear anything!"
As Ryo’s innocent exposé continued, Kyo screamed while covering both ears with her hands.
As though she was used to situations like this,
Ryo walked past the embarrassed Kyo and approached me.
Then she cautiously held out her hand.
"Morita... may I call you that?"
I had been crouching beside Sunohara to check on him,
and without thinking, I took her hand and stood up.
"Ah, yes."
"Thank you so much for saving my precious older sister yesterday."
Ryo bowed her head before me.
...
I had no idea how many times I had ended up in situations like this since coming here.
More than praise,
having so many people’s eyes focused on me at once was far more difficult.
"No."
"If I had just cleaned up a little better in the first place, none of that would have happened."
"I only did what I was responsible for."
I said this while bowing my head as well.
"You really should just accept a compliment."
Okazaki, who had come up beside me without my noticing, grabbed my bowed shoulder and forcibly lifted my head.
"He’s just bad at accepting praise."
"He just feels awkward, so don’t worry too much about it."
The moment Okazaki spoke to her, Ryo’s face instantly turned red.
Could it really have been love at first sight?
It felt strange to watch a scene straight out of a romantic comedy unfold before my eyes.
"Ah... y-yes! I won’t worry about it...!"
The instant Ryo met Okazaki’s eyes, she nodded hurriedly, red all the way to the tips of her ears.
After a moment, Ryo took a deep breath, seeming to calm down somewhat, and looked at me again.
"My sister can be impatient sometimes..."
"But she’s a really good person, so please take care of her."
[Notification]
[Fujibayashi Ryo has been registered as a friend.]
A friend right away, rather than a candidate.
I still did not really understand the criteria.
"I’m the one who has been getting a lot of help from her."
At my short reply, Ryo gave me a shy, gentle smile.
It was certainly a warm smile with a different feeling from her sister’s.
It struck me anew that they could be so different despite looking the same.
"...Hey, Fujibayashi. How long are you going to keep doing that?"
Okazaki looked at Kyo, who was still covering her ears, with an incredulous expression.
Only then did Kyo slowly lower her hands,
then glare fiercely at us with her violet eyes.
More specifically, at Okazaki, who had his arm draped over my shoulder, and at me, standing stiffly beside him.
"You two, forget everything Ryo just said! Got it?! Especially you, Okazaki. Let your mouth slip even once anywhere, and you’ll be next after that blond guy rolling around over there!"
"Yes, yes. I’m terrified."
Okazaki answered halfheartedly with a shrug.
Kyo shouted one last, "Morita, you forget it too!" in my direction,
then grabbed Ryo’s hand and disappeared into the classroom.
"S-Sis! Wait a moment—"
I could briefly hear Ryo’s voice, as though she had something else to say, but it was soon drowned out
by the sound of the back door slamming shut hard enough to break.
In the hallway after the storm had swept through,
only Sunohara, still unconscious and sprawled out,
Okazaki, and I remained.
"...Hah. What exhausting sisters."
Okazaki stretched and let out a long sigh, then prodded Sunohara on the floor with the tip of his shoe.
"Morita."
"Yes."
"Let’s go. If we waste any more time, the bread at the school store really will all be gone."
"What about Sunohara?"
"Leave him."
"By the time lunch break is over, he’ll be walking around just fine as if nothing happened."
...
He sounded far too calm for someone talking about a person who had just been slammed into a wall and knocked unconscious.
We walked past the unconscious Sunohara as naturally as could be.
When I glanced back at him, I felt strangely uneasy.
"Okazaki, can we buy bread for Sunohara too?"
"I guess we should. The second he wakes up, he’ll definitely whine about being hungry."
Okazaki snickered and shoved his hands into his pockets.
Even though we were leaving his unconscious friend behind, he readily accepted my suggestion to get him bread because he might go hungry.
It seemed that, despite his rough words, Okazaki took rather good care of Sunohara too.
I silently walked down the stairs, looking at Okazaki’s back.
Earlier,
when I lowered my head because I could not endure the attention and praise of so many people,
he had casually explained things for me instead.
...
I think I have found a really good friend.
As I thought that—
"We’re here. That’s the school store."
At Okazaki’s voice, I looked up to see the school store bustling with countless students spread out before me.
A Japanese school store, a place I had only ever seen in anime.
Counting in my head how many pieces of bread we would need, including Sunohara’s share,
I stepped into the crowd with Okazaki.
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