Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 9 - Chapter Ep

Intermezzo - A New Season

The entrance ceremony ended, and he left the venue to find cherry blossoms floating in the spring breeze.

“Whew, it’s finally over.”

He tried to stretch, but the shoulders of his suit were too tight, and he couldn’t raise his arms properly.

But Sakuta’s heart was dancing. It felt free, like never before.

He was finally in college.

His last year of high school had been spent cooped up and studying…

Study guides on the train to school, English vocab drills on breaks, paying full attention in classes, and reviewing it all on the train home. He’d even studied during breaks at work.

Occasionally, Mai would give him a pop quiz and reward him if he passed. Even if he failed, he’d get a nice smile. Although that was a bit unnerving, if he was being honest.

Near the end of the year, his practice exam results had been disappointing, and she’d quit talking to him. That was rough. To get back in her good graces, he’d had to turn to Nodoka for help studying—she was applying to the same college they were.

He’d done everything he could, and it had finally paid off.

Now it was time for his college entrance ceremony.

Sakuta felt like he was finally and truly free of exams.

Nodoka had sat the exams with him, and she passed, too. Different department, though. She must’ve been here somewhere, but he didn’t know where she was sitting. And she’d decided showing up blond would be a bit much, so when they’d met up outside their Fujisawa apartments, her dazzling gold had been dyed jet-black.

“Who the—?” had been Sakuta’s honest reaction.

She usually kept her hair bunched on one side, but she’d let it down and was genuinely unrecognizable.

“It’s me, asshole.”

The two of them were attending a city-run college in Yokohama. The mayor had attended the ceremony and made a speech. Sakuta had already forgotten every word of it, but he was sure it had been very impressive.

“Never gonna find her like this,” he muttered.

He was looking for Nodoka, but the ceremony was in the main gymnasium and filled with freshmen in similar-looking suits. Without the blond locks, he had no way of locating her.

That did not improve on the main street through the campus.

All the way to the main gates, the road was packed with new students in uncomfortable suits and upperclassmen already recruiting for clubs or teams. There were signs and flyers everywhere. People dressed up to draw the eye, even several mascot costumes. Quite festive.

“Very college.”

It was a college, so that was entirely accurate. But it wasn’t often real life was this close a match to your mental image.

And that really made him feel like a college student.

He pushed through that typical college hubbub and headed toward the gates. If he waited there, he’d likely spot Nodoka eventually.

It wouldn’t be a huge deal if he just left alone, but she’d said, “My sister asked me to grab a photo,” so he figured he shouldn’t actually leave the grounds.

But as he drew near the gate, he spotted something and stopped in his tracks.

Someone who seemed out of place here. Too small to be a college student.

And not his imagination.

He saw that red leather knapsack. She was skipping along, slipping through the forest of college kids. Her beautiful black hair flouncing, she ran right past Sakuta.

He never got a clear look at her, but he felt sure it was the same kid. The girl who looked like child-actress Mai. The vision his Adolescence Syndrome had shown him. Or at least the kid he’d thought was a vision.

“Uh…”

He turned to call after her.

But the knapsack kid was nowhere to be found. He’d lost her already.

But instead, someone called his name.

“……?”

Blinking, he scanned the crowd.

“…Azusagawa.”

The voice was clearer this time. Definitely his name. It sounded kinda familiar, but not enough that he could place the speaker.

“You are Azusagawa, right?”

He found the speaker in front of him. A girl in a navy pantsuit. Which meant she must’ve been a freshmen, too. A newly anointed college girl.

“……”

Her eyes were looking right at him through thin-framed glasses. When he didn’t say anything, she started to look worried.

But he did know this girl.

He’d forgotten her once, but events last year had brought her to his attention again. Given the nature of those events, it took him a second to respond. Eventually, he managed to speak.

“Akagi?”

That was her name.

Ikumi Akagi.

“Yeah. Been a while,” she said.

Her expression never changed.

That day, Sakuta Azusagawa was reunited with a junior high school classmate.