Editing A Simple Survey:Volume1 End2 (section)

===Part 3===

Rainy days were so melancholy.

After barely paying attention to a foreign language lecture he doubted he would remember, Anzai ran across Hotaru who he had been 80% sure he would never see again. It seemed the other three were not with her.

She was beautiful, but she was the upperclassman type of girl who was so beautiful that guys would be reluctant to speak to her.

She was the type of beauty that would bring about silence during karaoke.

Anzai himself could feel the gears within him clenching up.

“Anzai-kun was it? What is your next class?”

“Math. Today’s the day I work through my general education requirements.”

“So skip it.”

“What do you mean ‘so’?”

“You’ll never use what you learn in that class, right?”

Anzai had a feeling that same line of reasoning would make all 5 subjects through middle and high school unnecessary, but he did not particularly want to go to math class that day, so he did not argue.

The real issue was what they would do instead.

“So what are we doing? Are we going somewhere?”

“Remember yesterday’s survey?”

They left the lecture hall as they spoke.

Hotaru’s expression did not change.

“Do you remember the name of the professor who ran it?”

“Tanaka-san, I think. I’m pretty sure he introduced himself before the survey.”

“Yes, that is all the information I had. I had some business with the office, so I asked them while I was there, but it seems there is no professor named Tanaka at this university.”

“…Hah?”

Anzai’s thoughts froze up.

He understood what the words Hotaru was speaking meant, but he could not grasp what she was getting at.

“Tanaka is a common name. It’s probably in the top 5 of Japan’s most common family names. The fact that there is not a single person with that name working here left a strong impression with the office worker I asked. He called it a university with no Tanakas.”

Anzai’s mind was blank, but he could still feel sweat on his cheek. It took a bit longer for him to realize why it was there. It was raining outside. The actual lecture hall may have been a bit warm, but a pleasant coolness from outside had filled the hallway. In other words, the sweat had not been produced by heat.

“…Then who was that professor? …Or what was that survey for that matter.”

“It makes you curious, doesn’t it? Some suspicious person came in from outside the university, gathered some students, gave them a creepy survey related to their minds and hearts, and then left. What was it all for? And how did he do it? This is a national university, so its security is decent. He could have carried out this survey anywhere, so why did he choose somewhere as dangerous as the university. Also, why did he choose us and go so far as to research our personal situations to lure us in?”

“Wait, what does this mean about my credits!? If this supposed Tanaka-san isn’t a professor here, I might not actually make it through the first term!”

“…”

Hotaru fell silent and kicked Anzai lightly in the shin.

Anzai cried out, jumped back, and had tears fill his eyes.

“Can you please not ruin the mood?” she said expressionlessly.

“I don’t want to hear that from the person who convinced me to skip class!!”