Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 10 - Chapter 1.4

4

The weekend passed, and Monday arrived.

October 3 was a rainy morning.

His classes that day started from second period, at 10:30 AM. He took his time getting up and getting ready to leave. “Take care,” Kaede said, seeing him out the door at 9:15.

The temperatures were getting a bit more autumny, but the humidity still spoke to summer. In a T-shirt and easy pants (cropped to leave his ankles bare), he was pretty comfortable.

This summer just wouldn’t go away. When it did end, it would probably lead directly into a sudden winter. It felt like fall was getting shorter and shorter, or was that just him?

With those thoughts running through his mind, he reached Fujisawa Station. There were still lingering traces of the morning rush. No uniformed students left, but plenty of older students and business suits.

On the station’s second floor, he went through the JR gates and down to the Tokaido Line platform. He didn’t have to wait long before the 9:32 to Koganei came in.

The usual train, the usual ride—it took about twenty minutes.

Sakuta got off at Yokohama Station and switched to the Keikyu Line’s distinctive red cars. Kanagawa Prefecture was shaped like a dog, and this express went all the way to the front legs at Misakiguchi. And there was no extra charge for riding the express—you could just use a regular ticket.

He got on near the front of the train, avoiding the congestion.

As the train pulled out, he stood near the door, watching the scenery go by. When he’d first started college, the view alone had not been enough for him to place himself, but after six months, he had a much better grasp on things. He’d naturally acquired the gist of what buildings and offices were where.

After riding for a while, he passed a high school known for having one of the best baseball teams in the prefecture. That was a sign they were almost at his station.

Since he still had a little time to kill, Sakuta let his eyes run across the interior ads. He found one for a fashion magazine with Mai on the cover. Two college-looking girls were talking about it. “That outfit’s so cute!” “It’s cute because Mai Sakurajima is wearing it.” “Point taken.” Et cetera, et cetera.

“She’s even cuter in person.”

“The world is so not fair.”

Sounded like they’d seen her out and about. If they were on this train at this hour, odds were high they went to Sakuta’s university. Which meant odds were high they knew who he was, too.

If he kept staring, they’d catch him looking, so he turned away. And found himself looking right at someone he knew.

Ikumi Akagi was standing in front of the next door down. One shoulder was resting against the door itself, but she kept her back bolt upright. She was holding a thick book in both hands, and there was no Japanese on the cover. He suspected the contents were entirely in English. She was very focused.

She’d been his classmate back in junior high.

Three years later, they’d run into each other at college.

But they hadn’t spoken since that encounter.

 “You’re Azusagawa, right?”

 “Akagi?”

 “Yeah. Been a while.”

That had been the end of it. Nodoka had caught up with him a moment later, and Ikumi had promptly said “Bye” and left. She hadn’t spoken to him since. He’d seen her around on campus but hadn’t felt compelled to make contact.

They hadn’t known each other well, even back in the day. She was just one of thirty classmates. The kind of person whose name you forget the moment you graduate.

Reuniting after a three-year gap had provoked no real emotions, and the encounter had led to nothing of note.

That probably was true for Ikumi, too. She’d just spotted a familiar face at orientation and said hello. Nothing more to it.

The only real development made over the last six months was that he’d learned she was in the nursing program.

Sakuta’s university had a medical school, and anyone trying to become a nurse would be in Ikumi’s division. The medical school had its own dedicated campus, but since the bulk of the first year was devoted to the core curriculum, first-years from other schools were also centered on the Kanazawa-hakkei campus. Ikumi was one of these.

At the party last week, two guys from the nursing school had come, plus one girl from the main school of medicine.

She must have sensed eyes on her. Ikumi’s head turned his way. He was pretty sure she’d worn glasses before but wasn’t now. But her gaze clearly focused on him. She blinked twice. Her expression was exactly as it had been when she was reading. She blinked a third time, then went back to her original stance. One shoulder against the door, glancing briefly outside to confirm the rain had stopped.

The train reached Kanazawa-hakkei Station without anything else transpiring between the two of them.

On the platform, Sakuta headed up the stairs to the gates. Kanazawa-hakkei Station had recently finished a major remodel, and the area around the gate still looked very new.

The Seaside Line station had originally been a short distance away, but the remodel had moved it into the station, allowing for smooth transfers.

The easiest way to campus was to go up the stairs and over to the west side of the station. The bridge over the tracks was nice and wide.

Once down the stairs, it was a three-minute walk along the tracks to campus. There weren’t that many students on the road with him today. The college itself had five times the students his high school had had, but since the class start times were all over the map, the station was never as packed in the morning.

The students coming in now all started with second period.

Sakuta joined the flow of the crowd through the front gate. There, he was greeted by two rows of gingko trees running right down the middle of the campus.

When he’d first come here to sit the exam, he’d looked at these trees and thought it made the place feel like a real college campus. This sort of scenery popped up a lot in college-set movies or TV shows.

To the left inside the gate was the main gym, where the orientation had been. Beyond that was the sports field. Five or six students were doing some running there. Likely soccer team members getting some extra training in between classes. The teams seemed to have a lot more control over their schedules than high school teams had.

Across the gingko trees from the field was a three-story building where the majority of the actual classes were held. It looked like a giant square, but it was actually a box with a park in the center. His second-period class was in there.

Near the center of the grounds was a noteworthy clock—the university symbol—and he turned right just in front of that.

Sakuta heard footsteps running up behind him, and a moment later, someone slapped his back.

“Azusagawa, ’sup!”

“Hey there, Fukuyama.”

Takumi Fukuyama started walking with him. He was the first person Sakuta had seriously spoken to after enrolling. He’d also been the first to work up the courage to ask, “It true you’re going out with Mai Sakurajima?” And since their elective choices had lined up a lot, they’d wound up spending practically all their time together.

“How’d it go Friday?” Takumi asked, his curiosity very apparent.

“How’d what go?”

Sakuta genuinely wasn’t sure why he was asking.

“You earned the enmity of every dude there! You took Mitou home with you!”

“I did no such thing.”

“You left at the same time!”

“Yeah, when the party ended. I had to go to work, so we split up at the station.”

“That’s so boring. Course, if anything had happened, I would’ve held it against you.”

There were no right answers here.

As Takumi nattered on, they went inside and headed for the third floor one stair at a time.

Takumi was telling him all about who’d sung what at karaoke, who’d been any good, and how popular Touko Kirishima’s songs had been.

“She’s still pretty big, then, huh?”

He’d heard the name before. Touko Kirishima had gotten her start online and was massively popular with the teen-to-early-twenties demographic. She’d never once shown her face in public, fueling endless speculations about who she really was. All they really knew was her gender and that she was roughly the same age as her audience.

“More like she’s big now or maybe will be.”

Sakuta wasn’t sure what that meant, but clearly she wasn’t going anywhere. Sakuta had no idea online singers could get their songs in karaoke machines.

“I mean, look.”

Takumi held out his phone.

It showed a pair of bare feet standing on the grass. Delicate looking, probably a girl’s. As he watched, beautiful, powerful a capella vocals started playing.

The camera angle changed, showing her from behind. More scenery was revealed—she was standing in the center of a stadium. No one was in the stands. The shape of the roof suggested it was probably the International Stadium Yokohama.

The next shot was from the side, showing only her mouth as she hit the chorus.

All the angles were pretty extreme, never revealing the whole girl. It never showed her face above the lips. She looked a little familiar, but the song ended before he could figure out why.

The last shot was of her ears, revealing that this had been a commercial for wireless headphones.

“That’s a Touko Kirishima song,” Takumi said.

“So…was that her?”

“Apparently not.”

“Huh?”

“That was a mysterious commercial beauty who can really sing.”

How could he call her a beauty when you couldn’t see her face? Okay, so she had given off that vibe.

“It’s a cover, basically.”

“So who’s the girl in the commercial?”

Keeping her face hidden like that got him interested.

“I’m telling you, it’s a mystery.”

“Nobody knows?”

“Yep.”

What a headache. Touko Kirishima was a mystery online singer. And the girl covering her song in the commercial was also unidentified.

“But there are rumors it’s Mai Sakurajima.”

“If it was Mai, they’d be better off showing her face.”

She’d been working since early childhood, and with her return to the morning soaps, people from all walks of life knew who she was. And if that was Mai, there was no way Sakuta wouldn’t have realized it. Even if he could only see her feet, back, and lips.

“No, not her—they say Touko Kirishima is actually Mai Sakurajima.”

That was news to Sakuta.

“Lots of people pushing that theory,” Takumi said, scrolling on his phone to pull something up.

“Watch your feet.”

It would be bad to stand idly by while someone fell down the stairs ’cause they were too busy with their phone.

“Is that a pickup line?” Takumi laughed.

Sakuta pretended he hadn’t heard this.

“What do you make of it? Is Mai Sakurajima actually Touko Kirishima?”

“No way in hell.”

At the very least, Mai hadn’t told him anything about that. And she was the one who’d first told him about Touko Kirishima. A younger colleague from her agency had insisted she was the next big thing, so Mai had tried her music out.

“The voice is kinda similar, though.”

At that point, they reached room 301. Today’s subject was foreign languages. Sakuta had gone with Spanish as his elective.

“Later.”

“Yep.”

Takumi had picked Chinese—on the grounds that he knew some kanji—so they split up in the hall, and Sakuta headed into class alone.

In the classroom, the first thing he heard was loud laughter. The source was five girls clustered near the doorway. They were all wearing long skirts somewhere between yellow and khaki, plus matching T-shirts, and sneakers. Their outfits were so similar you could tell people they were an idol group in costume, and he’d believe it.

Sakuta wasn’t really one to criticize fashion. Takumi had also been wearing a T-shirt, easy pants, and a black backpack, so they’d pretty much matched, too. Sakuta’s style was what Mai had given him to celebrate passing the entrance exam.

He slipped past the chatty girls and grabbed a seat on the aisle toward the center. The lecture hall was all long desks with three seats behind each. The width was about the same as a high school classroom, but this room was a little longer. That made it feel “long” rather than “big.”

Sakuta took out his Spanish textbook and then the math book he was using at work. He opened the latter.

To prep for his evening class, he first solved the practice problem himself.

As he scribbled equations in his notes, a voice said, “Mind if I sit here?”

He looked up and blinked at the owner of the voice.

It was Miori Mitou, the girl he’d met at the party Friday. Her hair was in that same loose knot.

“I’d rather you didn’t.”

He’d just been accused of taking her home, after all. Evidently, he’d riled up a few of the boys. The last thing he wanted to do was subject himself to more unwarranted suspicions.

“I’m sitting here anyway,” she said, tweaking her long skirt as she did.

“There’s plenty of room elsewhere.”

“But you’re the only person here I know.”

“You could have matched languages with a friend.”

The language program offered more than just Spanish and Chinese—it also had German, French, Italian, etc. She’d have known she had no friends here in their first class last week.

But in lieu of an answer, she sighed dramatically.

“……”

He pretended not to hear this, going back to his math.

She sighed again, louder.

“Sorry, am I being obnoxious?”

“Not to a level worth apologizing for.”

He kept solving.

“So I am being obnoxious, then.”

“Did you get some bad news?” he asked, like he didn’t care.

“Will you listen?”

“Do you want me to listen?”

“Manami and the others went to the beach over summer vacation.”

“And?”

“I wasn’t invited.”

She pursed her lips, looking very disgruntled. She glared balefully at the mascot character on the key chain dangling from her index finger. Sakuta’s eyes met the mascot’s. Perhaps it was a souvenir they’d brought back for her.

“Well, if she picked Sanpo-chan, your friend has great taste.”

“You know who she is?”

“I haven’t lived in Fujisawa three years for nothing.”

Her full name was Enoshima Sanpo-chan. A local mascot who officially and unofficially promoted the allure of Fujisawa.

“And the beach snub was probably just ’cause you don’t have a phone.”

This logical conclusion earned him a sidelong glare.

“What, did she come back bragging about the hunks who hit on her?”

“She didn’t, so I assume nothing like that happened.”

Miori looked a bit smug there. She hooked the key chain onto the fastener on her pen case.

“You act like you definitely would have been hit on if you’d been with them.”

“Not acting, just thinking.”

She propped her cheek up on her palm, scowling.

“So mean,” he said with a laugh.

“Ugh, what even are friends?”

“……”

“Uh-oh, that’s a ‘she crazy’ face.”

Miori was still leaning on her arm, but her eyes had turned toward him.

“More a ‘she crazy and a hassle’ face.”

“Now who’s being mean?”

“That barely qualifies,” he said, acting all modest.

This got an eye roll out of her, followed by a third sigh. This one wasn’t forced; it felt like it had spilled out naturally.

“She’s trying to make up for it by putting a mixer together for me.”

“Isn’t that nice.”

“……”

Miori shot him another reproachful glare.

“If you’re not into it, just tell her you don’t appreciate being the bait to lure hunks to her mixer.”

He figured it was a given that her name on the roster would attract next-level dudes. The vibe at last week’s party had proved that.

“Who do you think I am, Azusagawa?”

“A girl so cute she’d steal all the boys without even trying, so her friends won’t bring her to the beach,” he said, writing the next step of the problem down in his notes.

“So harsh,” she grumbled, but her tone made it clear part of her agreed with him. She was only too aware why they’d ditched her. This was likely not the first time that had happened. Nor would it be the last. And she was sick and tired of it.

“If you don’t wanna, don’t go to the mixer.”

Then—

“A mixer? I want in!” cried a cheery new voice. And not just the voice—the whole girl leaned into the gap between them.

Sakuta and this girl went back a bit, before either of them had started college.

Her name was Uzuki Hirokawa.

“Idols aren’t allowed at mixers.”

“Mmph-mm-mm.”

She’d probably said, “Oh, yeah, right,” but this was rendered unintelligible by the bubble tea she was sipping on.

Why was Uzuki here? Simple. She was also a student at this university. Like Sakuta, she was majoring in statistical science.

Nodoka had declared early on that she was going to college, and that had turned out to be infectious. Uzuki had decided to give it a shot herself.

Nobody had told Sakuta she was even sitting the exam; at orientation, she and Nodoka had just rolled up together, and he’d been pretty surprised.

But now she misread his gaze entirely and held out her bubble tea. “Wanna sip?” she asked.

“Better not.”

Indirect kisses from active idols were probably a whole thing.

“But bubble tea is da bomb!”

“Every time I drink it, I just wind up with a heap of tapioca at the end.”

“But it’s so good!”

“I just don’t have a knack for it.”

“Fair enough.”

Somehow they miraculously managed to come to an understanding with that last stroke. On the surface, at least.

Uzuki inhaled some more tapioca through her straw. He could smell the sugar from here. She munched on it for a moment, looking from Sakuta to Miori and back again.

“Your new girlfriend?”

That huge pause, and all that came out after it was nonsense.

“Nope.”

“She’s cute.”

“She’s…” He trailed off, unsure how to define their relationship. No apt phrases came to mind. They’d only just met Friday and didn’t really know each other yet.

“Miori Mitou,” Miori said. “I’m a potential friend.”

“Well, I’m Uzuki Hirokawa, and I’m already friends with him!”

She reached out and gave Miori an enthusiastic handshake. The up/down motion was so intense it shook Miori’s head as well.

“How do you know him?” Miori asked, surviving the violent greeting.

“He’s Kaede’s brother!” Uzuki said, like this explained anything.

His sister had been the primary reason they got to know each other, and she still thought of him as an accessory.

“You didn’t mention a sister, Azusagawa. She’s friends with Hirokawa?”

“You’ve saved me from a lot of exposition. Yeah, Kaede’s…a fan, I guess.”

While Sakuta was filling Miori in, Uzuki dashed off to the front of the class.

“Everyone! Good morniiiing!”

It was almost like she was onstage and greeting her audience. The five girls clustered up front started returning the greeting.

Uzuki joined them, and they were now six, but since the other five were all dressed in matching outfits, Uzuki’s thigh-hugging skinny slacks and long cardigan made her stick out like a sore thumb. Sakuta found himself remembering the ugly duckling—but this one was already a swan.

“Azusagawa,” Miori said, like she was logging a complaint.

“What?”

“You know a lot of cute girls.”

“Mitou, you’re one of ’em.”

“That’s not how I meant it.”

She glared at him like he knew better.

Then she frowned.

“Did you drop the honorific?”

“If you’re a potential friend, I figured we could close the gap.”

He’d finally finished solving the math problem. Now all he had to do was convey this knowledge to his students.

“Azusagawa’s a very long name.”

“So?”

“Azusa?”

“Sounds like an express train.”

“Sagawa?”

“Like the transportation company?”

“Sakuta feels a bit too familiar, so I guess Azusagawa it is.”

They’d looped back around to where they began, but at this point, the Spanish professor arrived.