I was taking in the scenery with a much lighter heart.
"So, you transferred to Hikarizaka Academy?"
Breaking the silence, Okazaki spoke first.
His tone was much gentler than it had been earlier.
"Yes. I transferred in as a second-year at Hikarizaka Academy."
"Huh. Transferring right at the start of your second year..."
Okazaki muttered, lightly shaking his canned coffee.
Between what Sunohara had said at the dorm earlier and this,
it seemed next Monday was the first day of the first term.
Once I realized that everyone would be starting out in new classrooms,
with unfamiliar friends and surroundings,
somehow, the pressure eased, and I felt much more at peace.
[Question. Does that reason stabilize your mental state?]
‘Just say I’ve calmed down.’
If I had to explain my timid reasoning, it went like this.
It was the first day of school, so I wouldn’t be the only one feeling awkward, right?
Everyone’s classes would change, and they’d all be watching each other cautiously, right?
Then the attention focused on me as a transfer student would be spread out.
[A reason befitting the user.]
‘...And stop calling me “user.” Just call me Suho. It sounds weird.’
[The user’s request to change their form of address has been received.]
[Under review...]
[Committee approval complete.]
[You will henceforth be addressed as Suho.]
‘Why is the Committee getting involved?’
[Special selection personnel have somewhat limited authority, so changes can be made following approval.]
This was unsettling.
Did that mean they were watching me even now?
There had to be plenty of other users, too.
Did the Committee really need to appear just to change what I was called?
Something about it felt uncomfortable.
[Negative. We are not continuously observing you.]
‘That means you do observe me sometimes...’
"Sigh."
A deep sigh slipped out before I knew it.
"Hm? What’s with the sigh?"
"Oh, no..."
"Are you nervous about transferring?"
"...A little."
"..."
Okazaki crushed his empty coffee can in one hand and rose to his feet.
"I don’t know what brought you from Tokyo to a backwater like this, but..."
He stared into the distance for a moment, as if catching his breath, then spoke again.
"I hate this town."
"..."
For a moment, I had no idea what to say.
It was a confession so calm and heavy
that it was hard to believe it had come from someone who had been gazing at the sunset just moments earlier.
"What?"
Only after a delay did I manage to get a word out.
Rather than answer my bewildered reaction,
Okazaki shoved his hands into his pockets and jerked his chin.
"You said you live in the dorm, right? I’m headed that way too. Want to walk together?"
"Oh, yes!"
My voice came out louder than I expected.
For some reason, it didn’t feel like I could refuse.
I hurried to my feet and followed after Okazaki as he started down the hill ahead of me.
His earlier words lingered in my mind,
but I didn’t ask about them.
The walk down was much more comfortable.
Aside from the awkward silence.
‘He spoke to me first before... so this time, I should be the one to start a conversation, right?’
Wanting to break the silence, I gathered my courage and opened my mouth.
"Um... do you live in the dorm too, Okazaki?"
"Huh? No. I’ve got a friend there."
"Oh..."
So he was going to visit someone.
"You... no, Morita."
"...?"
"You don’t have to speak so formally."
"...It’s a habit."
"That’s a strange habit."
"...Sorry."
"Why are you apologizing again?"
Okazaki let out an incredulous chuckle.
Maybe thanks to my desperate attempts at playing the fool,
by the time we reached the dorm, the awkward atmosphere had loosened considerably.
Just as the dorm entrance came into view,
the area around the front door seemed strangely noisy.
"Aaaah! Morita! Morita Shu! Where are you?! Get out here right now!"
"Sunohara! You were acting like you were dying in the bathroom until just a while ago, so why are you out here yelling? Can’t you be quiet?!"
I heard the familiar wail of a blond-haired man
and the sharp voice of Misae, the dorm supervisor, sternly scolding him.
...
I had a bad feeling about this.
"Sunohara...?"
Okazaki, standing beside me, frowned and turned to look at me.
"Sounds like he’s calling your name. What did you do?"
"Nothing! I absolutely didn’t do anything...!"
That was what I said,
but I was desperately retracing everything that had happened today.
What if I had caused some kind of trouble without realizing it?
Just then,
Sunohara burst out from the entrance, his pale face streaked with tears and snot, and locked eyes with me exactly.
"Moritaaaaa!!"
Before I could even slowly back away,
Sunohara, out of his mind, charged at me like a wild beast.
"Uh, um..."
Panicking, I couldn’t even speak properly, and my body froze.
In an instant, the distance between Sunohara and me closed.
But then Sunohara looked beside me and opened his eyes wide.
"Okazaki! Perfect, grab the guy next to you!!"
‘...Huh?’
His friend was Sunohara?
With my body still frozen, I only shifted my gaze toward Okazaki at my side.
"Sigh..."
As though this happened all the time, Okazaki let out a deep sigh with a weary expression and shook his head.
"You bastard! You gave me bread with poison in it, pretending it was a gift! Do you know how many hours I spent crying while clutching the toilet bowl because my tongue was paralyzed?! This is reveeeenge!"
Reveenge?
...
Ah, revenge. First “paint,” and now this...
No.
More importantly.
Poison?
He said poison?
The bat-wielding man I had met at the park that afternoon
had smiled and given it to me, saying there was some left over.
Bread given out of kindness had poison in it?
What was wrong with this world?
"Wait! It’s a misunderstanding!"
"Uoooooh! Die, Moritaaaaa!!"
I had always bowed my head first and avoided confrontations in real life, too,
because I hated dangerous situations like this.
Was I really going to get hit for the first time here?
I squeezed my eyes shut at the fist flying toward me.
...
...
Huh?
No matter how long I waited, I felt no impact.
When I cautiously opened one eye,
I saw the back of Sunohara’s neck right in front of my nose, dangling in midair as he flailed.
"Hey, Sunohara. Cut it out."
At some point, Okazaki had moved and grabbed Sunohara by the collar, stopping him.
"Okazaki! Even if it’s you, I won’t forgive you for interfering with my reveeeenge!"
‘...Revenge.’
Then Misae came sprinting out from behind the entrance like a bolt of lightning and seized Sunohara by the collar.
An aura more crimson and menacing than the sunset poured from Misae’s entire body.
‘Are older-woman characters always this strong...?’
In the midst of all this chaos,
only pointless thoughts kept popping into my head.
"Huff, huff... Honestly! Sunohara!"
"Eek?! M-Misae?!"
Sunohara’s face, which had been so wild moments ago, instantly turned pale.
Misae gave the hand gripping Sunohara’s collar a light squeeze, while a murderous black aura seemed to rise behind her.
"Sunohara."
"...Eek! Y-Yes?"
"Surely you weren’t about to use violence?"
"N-No! Absolutely not! This was just a little harmless body communication...!"
"Shut it! Cause a scene in front of the dorm one more time, and I’ll really throw you out!"
Once Misae stepped in, that hellish situation ended in no time at all.
...
Why was I here?
Once things were more or less settled, I thought we would all return to our rooms and rest.
I had planned to lie down on the bed in my cramped room, reflect on my eventful first day, and close my eyes.
Instead, I was sitting in Sunohara’s room,
facing Okazaki and Sunohara,
in an awkward three-way confrontation.
Just where had things gone wrong?
With an old kotatsu in the center of the room between us,
Sunohara glared fiercely at me with tissues packed tightly into both nostrils.
Beside him, Okazaki lay on the floor with one hand propping up his head, flipping through a comic book with the complete attitude of someone watching a fire from across the river.
"Hey, care to explain now?"
I knew what he meant, but I didn’t know either...
Sunohara narrowed his eyes and spoke in a voice that sounded almost like a groan.
His nose was stuffed, making his voice nasal enough to rob it of any authority.
"I let it slide in front of Misae because you helped me today and because we’re neighbors, but this is the room of truth for us men."
"Tell me straight. Who was behind feeding me that lethal poison this afternoon?"
"...It wasn’t poison. It was just bread."
"Does ordinary bread paralyze someone’s tongue?!"
"Your tongue wasn’t paralyzed."
I mean, he was fine now, so that counted...?
"Whatever!"
"It doesn’t count."
"It felt like it counted!"
"I’ll grant you that, but..."
I had eaten a piece of the leftover bread myself to find out what had caused it.
It was awful.
"Then why did you give it to me?!"
"Because I didn’t know!"
I was starting to understand how the actors in [Assassination] must have felt while performing.
Okazaki snapped his comic book shut and spoke.
"You’re noisy."
"Okazaki! Whose side are you on?!"
"Neither. More importantly, transfer student, let me ask you one thing."
Okazaki sat up and looked me directly in the eye.
His characteristic cynical yet sharp gaze made me swallow nervously without realizing it.
"Where exactly did you get that bread earlier?"
"...Some man gave it to me at the park."
"A man?"
Sunohara cut in, making the tissues stuck in his nose tremble.
"What kind of man?! Was he a robot from the future? A Terminator?!"
"No. He had brown hair... and he was wearing an apron and carrying a baseball bat. He looked really intimidating. I think he called it Sanae’s Special Masterpiece? He smiled and said it was leftover bread, and that he ran a bakery..."
For some reason, I thought it would be better not to tell them where Furukawa Bakery was, so I shut my mouth.
Okazaki spoke as if squinting.
"He was wearing an apron and holding a bat?"
"Yes."
"..."
"That does sound suspicious."
"See?! I told you! That guy has to be a Terminator from the future, trying to throw Hikarizaka into chaos by recruiting the transfer student as his minion!"
Sunohara grew agitated all by himself and pounded the kotatsu repeatedly.
One of the tissues lodged in his nose fell out from the impact, but he didn’t even notice as he continued his passionate speech.
"Couldn’t he be a Terminator?"
Okazaki seemed to be subtly going along with him too. Though maybe he was just teasing.
"Um, but for a Terminator, he just seemed like an ordinary local man..."
One thing was certain: this wasn’t an SF world.
"Are you an idiot, Morita?! Real evil organizations always hide their true colors behind an ordinary facade!
Okazaki, shouldn’t we report this to the police right away?!"
"...I don’t know. I think they’d get beaten with that bat before the police ever arrived."
Okazaki propped his chin on his hand and muttered as though it were a bother.
"Whatever he is."
"...?"
"From now on, don’t just accept free bread from people."
"..."
"Especially not for Sunohara."
With that indifferent advice, the long, long commotion of my first day in this other world finally came to an end.
For a moment, I thought Sunohara and I would become mortal enemies.
I had definitely been treated like a poisoner.
Yet by the time we parted, we were laughing together.
...
He really was an incomprehensible creature.
The moment I lay down on my bed, fatigue swept over me.
There were still two days until school started.
...
And my stomach already felt like it hurt.
I closed my eyes.
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