Chapter 6: A wholesome school life

It will be a while until the next event unfolds. Until then, this anime’s genre will be switched to slice of life. I don’t mind. I need to catch my breath every once in a while.

The only thing that’s stopping me from doing that is the classes I have to attend as an A Rank. Students ranked A and above are expected to be leaders during missions. Therefore, we have to attend classes like one that teaches us how to come up with an efficient strategy on the spot, psychology classes to ensure you and your teammates are mentally stable during missions, and even law classes, in case we had to travel abroad.

One afternoon, when we are finally done with lessons on the difference between the law of England and the law of China, I slam my head at my table in despair. I’m almost at a limit here. There’s a reason why I didn’t go to a law school in real life, even though everyone says the money is good. It’s just one memorization after another.

‘Um, are you okay, Kagenashi-kun?’ the person in front of me asks in a worried tone.

I look up and find myself looking at a girl with brown long hair and brown eyes. She tied part of her hair as a ponytail at the right side of her head. Although not as much as Mashiro, this girl is also quite tiny. According to the data given by the production studio, Mashiro’s height is 143cm, while this girl’s is 152cm.

Instead of the Academy’s red jacket, this girl is wearing white long-sleeved vests commonly wore by shrine maidens. Since her family runs a temple, she wants to wear her vest as much as possible, and had asked for the principal’s approval.

Currently, she is looking at me with an expression of concern, even though I’ve probably startled her with my head-slam and has every right to be angry.

Her name is Kiryuu Yui, who is another member of Yuuji’s harem. At first, I was devastated for being transferred to Class 2, but then I remembered that she is in this class, so I cheered up again. Better yet, I’m sitting right behind her.

The fandom of this anime had been constantly at war for deciding the number one little sister between her and Mashiro. As to the reason… you’ll find out soon enough.

‘Oh, don’t mind me, Kiryuu. My brain is overheating from the lesson.’

‘Well, you just got transferred here from Class 6, after all, so it’s no wonder you have trouble catching up. If you ever have a problem with the lessons, please feel free to ask me.’ she says with a smile brighter than the sun.

Oh. My. God. My fatigue just disappeared the moment I saw the smile. See? This is what I’m talking about! Smiles with this kind of healing power should be illegal, I tell you! No wonder she’s one of the top contenders for the perfect little sister. Why can’t the little sisters in real life be this cute? I have a younger sister at my home in real life, and comparing her with Yui is like comparing a mountain gorilla with a Goddess.

Then I remembered all those animes with the theme of incest.

Never mind, the younger sisters in real life should be like a hippo on the outside and a hyena on the inside so that their elder brothers won’t even have the thought of touching them.

Am I a pot that’s calling the kettle black? So what if I am? I was born first, so I get to complain.

‘My friends and I are going to have our lunch at the rooftop. Do you want to come with us?’ Yui asks me.

‘Um, that’s kind of a bad idea.’

‘Why is that?’

‘The thing is, I’m not exactly a sociable guy, so if I’m with you guys the atmosphere might get weird. Besides, your friends might not want me to go with them.’

‘Well, I’m not sure about you being unsociable, but the second part is definitely not true. Come on, I’ll prove it to you.’ she pulls me away form my seat.

‘Huh? Hey!’

Before I could pull away, Yui had already dragged me in front of her friends, which consists of two guys and three girls including Yui.

‘Hey, everyone. It’s okay if Kagenashi-kun joins us, right?’

‘Of course.’

‘I don’t see any problem in that.’

‘Sure thing.’

‘Of course it is! Welcome to our little group, Kagenashi-kun!’

‘Oh, then… please take care of me.’

‘See? I told you it would be fine.’ Yui whispers at me.

I’m not really sure about that. They’re probably fine with it because Yui’s the one who asked them. You might think I’m being too doubtful, but you can’t really blame me. These guys are the cool kids clique that you can find in almost every anime and in real life. You seriously think they would make the clique’s reputation go down by letting a gloomy loner like me to join them?

For now, I’ll just hang out with them, since I can’t say no to Yui either.

Not long after we left the classroom, we bump into Ichika and Mashiro. Both of them are very surprised to see me hanging out with a clique.

‘I’m eating lunch with them today. You guys wanna join us?’ I ask the two of them.

‘My apologies. I would love to, but I have some work to do at the student council, so I am having my lunch there.’ Ichika says apologetically.

‘Oh, no worries. Maybe next time. How about you, Mashiro?’

‘Sure.’

Oops. I forgot to ask about the clique’s opinions in this.

‘Uh, are you guys cool with Mashiro joining us?’

‘Of course. The more the merrier, as they say.’

‘Great.’

And so, Ichika left us to go to the student council’s room, while the rest of us head for the rooftop. While we are walking down the corridor, lots of girls got excited they saw one of the cool kids, a guy called Shimazaki Shinra.

‘Look, it’s Shinra-kun!’

‘No matter how many times I look at him, he’s always so cool and handsome!’

‘Kyaa, he looked over here!’

Shimazaki is the vice captain of the fencing club. He’s kind, handsome, fun to talk to, smart, athletic, modest, came from a rich family, popular with both guys and girls, and is totally the type of guy that I can never get along with.

The other guy in the clique, Miyahara Isao, is also looked at a lot, although not as much as Shimazaki. I honestly don’t know how did he managed to stand being around Shimazaki and getting compared with him.

Naturally, none of the girls talked about me. Considering the fact that I was constantly glared at just a few days ago, I’d say this is an improvement. From being hated to being invisible. That’s how a mob should be.

When we reached the rooftop, we sat down at a spot and took out our lunch by using teleport magic. Man, I seriously feel like an idiot for bringing it to the Academy on my first day. Anyway, I brought out Mashiro’s lunch and hand it over to her.

‘Kagenashi-kun, did you made those yourself?’ Yui asks me curiously when she saw those lunchboxes.

‘Oh, yeah. It is.’

‘But why did you made one for Fuyukaze-san as well?’

I tell them about the first time both of us met, and say that things somehow turned out like this.

‘You’re surprisingly caring, huh?’ Miyahara tells me.

‘I guess so.’

‘More importantly!’ an overly loud and energetic girl called Oomori Saya says all of a sudden. ‘Fuyukaze-san! Is it okay if you come and sit at my lap?’

Mashiro looks absolutely confused, but decides to humor her anyway.

‘Hawawawawa, now I can die happy…’ Oomori says with an expression of absolute bliss.

‘Saya, you’re being creepy.’ the third girl of this clique, a cool beauty by the name of Takayama Shizuku says to Oomori.

‘Am not!’

‘And Fuyukaze-san, you can refuse if you’re feeling unpleasant.’

‘It’s fine, I don’t mind it at all. And you can call me Mashiro. We’re the same age, after all.’

‘Okay then, I’ll be calling you Mashiro-tan! By the way, you can call me Saya-chin!’ Oomori shouts excitedly while squeezing Mashiro tightly.

Someone had too much sugar.

The others took this chance to introduce themselves, while Mashiro nods politely at each of them after the introduction. After the pleasantries is over, we start to eat our lunch.

‘That egg roll look delicious. Mashiro-tan, can I have one?’ Oomori asks Mashiro.

Mashiro nods. ‘Go ahead.’

Oomori picks up one of the egg roll with her chopstick and puts in inside her mouth. After two chews, her eyes became very wide.

‘This…this…’

‘Yeah?’ I suddenly got very scared.

‘This is deliciooooooooooous~!’ Oomori says while still having the egg roll in her mouth.

Upon hearing that, I breath out a sigh of relief.

‘This is literally the best egg roll I ever had! How did you managed to do it, Kagenashi-kun?’

‘Well, it’s actually kind of simple. I can show it to you one day if you want.’

‘Please do! I absolutely must know!’

Her reaction sparked the others’ interest, and before long all of them are munching down on the side dishes I made after exchanging them with one of theirs.

And all of them love my cooking.

‘You know, with your skills, you should join the cooking club.’ Shimazaki tells me.

‘Or even better, go join a competition. I’m sure that you can win at least second place in those small regional ones. ’ Takayama says.

‘You guys are just exaggerating.’ I tell them, although I’m secretly proud after hearing what they said.

‘Speaking of clubs, aren’t you in any?’ Miyahara asks me.

‘Nope. The thought never crossed my mind. I was always too busy with my training, after all.’

‘Then, how about a weapon-using club? I will always welcome you at the fencing club.’ Shimazaki says.

‘Thanks for the offer, but I’m not really interested in fencing.’

‘A shame. Well, my offer is always available to you.’

‘Yeah, thanks.’

And so, for the first time ever since I came to this world, I had lunch with people other than Mashiro. I thought I would have a hard time talking with them, but starting up and continuing a conversation is much easier than I thought.

Maybe, just maybe, if I had been more assertive in the real life, I will probably have lots of friends. And maybe a girlfriend too.

Oh well, it’s already too late for these “maybes” and “what ifs”. I’m stuck in this world now, so I should enjoy my second school life while I can.

Alas, times always fly faster when you’re having fun. Before long, the bell that signals the end of lunchtime and the beginning of afternoon classes has rung. We put back our lunch boxes to where we got them from and got up to go back to our respective classrooms.

Before Oomori goes into the classroom, she hugged Mashiro for quite a while. We had to physically drag her away or she’ll never let go.

The afternoon class was another torturing one involving more laws. By the time the lesson was over, my brain was overloaded with too much information.

‘Urgh, finally it’s over. I thought I was gonna die…’ I got up from my seat slowly, as I’m kind of mentally and physically tired right now.

As for my classmates, some are going back to their dorm room, while some are heading over to their club. Yui and her gang are the latter.

Clubs, huh? Maybe I should do a tryout. After all, I never went to any clubs throughout my school and college life when I was still at the real world.

For my first stop, I go to the cooking club. There are only girls in there, so I was looked at in a weird way when I told them I would like a tryout.

Today, they are making rice balls and miso soup. The real simple stuff. Apparently, this club is formed five days ago, so they’re still doing some basic cooking first before trying the more complex ones.

First, we cook the rice with a rice cooker, since we need to cook it and cool it down. After it’s done, we take it out and let it cool down. In the meantime, we start to cook the miso soup.

There’s enough pots for everyone, so all of us are supposed to make our own soup. Step number one, boiling the miso paste. I have done this so many times I could just scoop out the right portion of miso without measuring it.

‘Um, Kagenashi-kun? It’s better to measure the amount, or your soup might become too salty.’ one of the girls tells me.

‘Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.’ I assure her.

I put the right amount of water into the pot to dissolve the miso paste, then I put the pot on top of the stove and light it up. While waiting for the mixture to boil, I cut up the tofu by using my palm as a chopping board.

‘That’s…really impressive, Kagenashi-kun.’ the club president Nishi Kiyoko, a second year tells me after she saw me cutting the tofu.

‘It’s nothing, really.’

‘It kind of is. And it’s a big deal too. I mean, the tofu is cut into perfect cubes! If I didn’t know, I would have think that you used a machine!’

While we’re talking, the miso soup is done. After getting my permission, Nishi-senpai tries it out.

‘And you grasped the ratio between miso paste and water so well! Without measuring too! This is not something you can do overnight. Do you cook all the time?’

‘Well, yes.’

‘That explains it. You know, boys who can cook are popular, you know?’

‘They are?’

‘Of course! Nothing’s sexier than a man in apron!’

The other members nod their heads in agreement, their expressions kind of dreamy. Some of them are even drooling. Well, it’s pointless if it’s a plain guy like me who’s cooking. Girls would always go for handsome guys like Shimazaki and Miyahara.

I just shrug off her comment and proceed to make the rice ball. I was praised by Nishi-senpai once again for the way I handled the rice with care, instead of squishing it with brute force like how a lot of people do.

Soon, all of us are done, and we tasted each others’ cooking. All of them liked mine the most.

‘Well, if you ever want to join us for real, just hand me the application form. I’ll be waiting for you.’ Nishi-senpai tells me.

‘Yes. Thank you for your time.’

Next, I decide to visit the kendo club.

Unlike most schools, there’s only one kendo club in this Academy, so it accepts members of both genders. Ichika is the president here, even though she's only a first year.

When I got there, she was busy sparring with a male member,although a one-sided beat down is a more accurate term. At one side, I see a lot of the members being piled up into a small mountain irregardless of genders. I take it that all of them got defeated by Ichika.

While I’m looking at the pile, Ichika defeated the member and hits him hard at the waist horizontally, making him fly like a baseball and lands straight on top of the pile.

‘Is that the best all of you can do?’ Ichika asks them. ‘If so, I am truly disappointed! Starting from tomorrow, your training shall be increased by threefold!’

‘Yes, president…’ all of them answer her weakly.

I like a good workout as much as the next guy, but I definitely won’t enjoy getting beaten to a pulp by Ichika every single time. I back away slowly so that she doesn’t notice me, then bolt once I’m out of her lines of sight.

‘Where to go next…?’ I ponder while walking at the corridor.

‘Oh my, if it isn’t Kagenashi-kun.’

I look towards the direction where the voice came from, and it’s Takayama who spoke. Instead of the Academy’s uniforms, she's wearing a green traditional kimono.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asks me curiously.

‘Nothing much, just visiting random clubs. By the way, what’s with the kimono?’

‘I belongs to the tea ceremony club. Naturally, I’m supposed to wear one of these.’

‘Ah.’ I nod understandably. ‘It looks good on you.’

‘Why, thank you. I suppose being born in a traditional Japanese family helps. More importantly, would you like to pay us a visit?’

‘Oh, sure.’

Like the cooking club, every members of the tea ceremony club is a girl, and all of them look like rich ladies from traditional Japanese households. I feel more like I’m being interviewed to be their servant than just having a tryout.

The club president herself, Miyata Nadeshiko, serves me tea made in the traditional way. I pick up the bowl and take a sip. It’s way too bitter, but I try not to let it show on my face.

‘It is too bitter for you, yes?’

‘Huh?’ did she read my mind or something?

‘Do not worry, none of us here will get mad. The taste is indeed something only enjoyed by those who are used to it.’

‘I’m sorry, senpai. It’s just that I rarely drink anything else other than water. For me, it’s either that or iced chocolate.’

The other club members look at me like they’re looking at a heretic.

‘Well, I guess everyone has their own favorite drinks. If you ever awakened in drinking real Japanese tea, feel free to come visit us again.’ she says while flashing me a motherly smile.

‘Yes, thank you very mu…’

BANG!!!

Suddenly, I hear something like a hard object hitting another hard object very hard.

‘What was that?’ I ask in an alarmed way.

Takayama lets out a long sigh. ‘Saya is at it again.’

‘Oomori? What’s she doing?’

‘She belongs to the dodgeball club. I think you can figure out the rest.’

‘Ah.’

I got curious, so I left the tea ceremony club and head for the dodgeball club. I don’t need to know the direction, all I need to do is to follow the sound of the loud bang. When I reach the club room, I see Oomori throwing a ball as hard as she can. Her opponents are too scared to catch it, and scatter all over the place.

‘Oomori! How many times do I have to tell you to not throw the ball that strongly? You might kill someone!’ a male student who looked like the club president yells at Oomori.

‘But president, isn’t this what dodgeball is all about? You should put your heart and soul into every throw, or you’ll be disrespecting your opponents!’ Oomori says in a loud voice.

I could be imagining it, but I think I saw flames coming out of her eyes.

‘Well, you won’t have anyone to disrespect if you send them all to the hospital, or the morgue! Now decrease your strength or you’re getting out of the club!’

‘Aw~’

She suddenly looks in my direction and sees me. Great, now I can’t run away.

‘Hey there, Kagenashi-kun! Whatcha doing here?’ she asks while waving her hand energetically.

‘Well, I was just wandering around to check out clubs, and then I heard the commotion from here.’

‘I see, I see! Well, since you’re here, you might as well give dodgeball a try! A one-on-one with me! What do you say?’

I look at the other club members. All of them are either shaking their heads vigorously or making an X with their hands.

‘Come on, don’t be scared! I promise I’ll go easy on you! Like, 50 percent!’

‘Incidentally, how much was strength was in that throw just now?’

‘Ah, that one! 55 percent, I think?’

Yup, I’m screwed. I just hope I won’t get a head shot. As to why I don’t straight out refuse her, she might just pester me everyday at the classroom until I have a round with her, so I might as well get it over with as soon as possible. I take off my jacket and go to the opposite side of where she’s standing.

‘Well then, here I go!’ Oomori picks up a ball and throws it at me.

If I lowered down my head a second slower, I would have been brained.

‘Come on, Kagenashi-kun! You’re supposed to catch it!’

‘Yes, yes, I know.’

It’s my turn to throw. I threw it with all my might, but she catches it easily.

‘Too bad~! Now, it’s my turn again!’

For some reason, I could see the ball flying at me this time, and I manage to catch it before it hits my stomach. I almost lost my balance due to the ball’s velocity, but I manage to held my ground.

I hear collective gasps coming from all the other members.

‘There, that’s what I’m talking about! Now how about another round?’

‘No thanks, I still have other clubs to go, so I’m good for now.’ I tell her while putting down the ball.

‘Aw, too bad! Well, you can always come back!’

‘Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.’

Just as I pick up my jacket and was about to leave, the club president calls out to me.

‘Wait! Kagenashi, was it? Wouldn’t you seriously consider joining the club?’

‘Um, like I said, I’m just here for a visit.’

‘Please! You’re the only one so far that could stop her!’

‘Sorry, not interested.’

‘No, don’t abandon us~!’

While wishing the other members luck, I depart for my next location. Thankfully, he is not as pushy as Oomori, so I can just leave like that.

And so, I spent the entire evening going around clubs and trying out their club activities. Some was okay, some was definitely not for me. All in all, I couldn’t find a club that I was really interested in.

A few days later, I somehow became a provisional member of a club that I didn’t know it existed.