OreShura: Volume 3 Chapter 1

Chapter 1 It was clearly a Summer Cram School Class but is now a Mayhem

Summer vacation was so long.

If you didn’t have close friends to frequently hang out with, but only had nodding acquaintances among classmates, it wasn’t rare to see their appearance change in the months after saying goodbye. Girls often take the stage after dumping their summer boyfriends. These kinds of things happen very often.

Having said that—

"Wow——♪ These pork ribs! So delicious:"

But to the Chihuahua who directly gobbled it straight from the electric hotplate, that should be irrelevant, right!

So like this, I was still having dinner with Chiwa today. The fact that it was summer didn’t make a difference. The menu would not suddenly change into pasta, or bamboo wheat noodles. It was constantly meat! Meat! Meat! As long as Chiwa was still my dining partner, I couldn’t escape from a fate of fat and animal protein.

"Hey, Ei-kun."

"You already finished all the meat, so go eat some vegetables."

"Phuu—I’m not talking about that—"

Even though Chiwa said that, her eyes were still locked on the meat ribs still on my plate.

"I wanted to say that, this year’s summer seems pretty relaxed—"

"Mhm, because there aren’t any club activities."

Chiwa squeezed her chopsticks, and she only approached in the direction of my plate. Go eat some vegetables!

"It was supposed to be a passionate summer dedicated to becoming popular—but now it’s really boring!"

"Don’t worry, you won’t become popular whether you have club activities or don’t."

"That’s, so, annoying! You don’t understand these kinds of things. If I just grow up and get a ｢better body｣ then I’ll be fine!"

Chiwa’s shining eyes were fixated on my gaze: "So give me some meat?" It was so annoying. Go eat some vegetables!

"Ah—if only I signed up for summer cram school."

"What’s up with you?"

Chiwa smiled and said:

"Then I’ll be with Ei-kun every day!"

......

"............Let’s stop talking about this. Go eat some vegetables."

"Eh? Ei-kun? Why are you blushing!?"

Chiwa seized the opportunity and leaned forward.

And then she took advantage of my vulnerability, snatched the piece of rib and threw it into her mouth.

"Ah! Feel, so, satisfied~"

"You or me! Quick, spit it out!"

Chiwa stuck her tongue out.

"I ate it already! Just at the thought it was Ei-kun’s meat, the degree of deliciousness increased three times!"

"Y-you bastard......"

Ever since ｢Jien-Otsu｣ stared, I felt like Chiwa was harder to deal with than before. This must have been Masuzu’s influence, with all their practice in causing mayhem. In my opinion, nothing was more troublesome than this.

While I reluctantly baked some round slices of eggplant on the electric grill, I said:

"When you mentioned summer cram school, that reminded me. That girl is also there."

"That girl?"

"Fuyuumi Ai."

As soon as she heard that name, Chiwa’s smiling face from the ribs suddenly became more and more severe.

"Hey, so she’s not meeting up with that college student named Michael? Even though she has a boyfriend, how does she have time to study? It’s really like she’s lying!"

Chiwa’s voice was unusually sarcastic.

"Hey, have you always had a bad relationship with Fuyuumi?"

"How could it be good?"

Chiwa hit the table with a bang, and said:

"Do you remember the time when I was called to the staff office around the end of May?"

"Of course I remember."

That was before ｢Jien-Otsu｣ was established.

That was when Chiwa recklessly believed everything from teen fashion magazines, like ｢Looking up with the eyes is cute and popular!｣. As a result, she glared at boys with sharp eyes and stirred up trouble.

"The root of that matter was actually a fight with Fuyuumi. She said that using ｢gangster eyes to threaten everybody around, disrupts the discipline｣!"

"I see."

I definitely sounded like something Fuyuumi would say.

"It seemed like she was being especially strict towards me, kind of like thorn in the side."

"Have you done anything to make her dislike you?"

"I can’t think of anything—"

Chiwa suddenly sighed and said:

"And our young maiden’s club will be shut down just like that?"

"The keys to the club room have already been confiscated, so you can’t do anything about it."

"When you say it like that, does Ei-kun not care?"

"Of course not."

It really made me happy that I wouldn’t be wrapped up in all of these guy’s strange club activities. Like this, I could concentrate on studying.

"She was boasting about her boyfriend like that! How could we with the goal to ｢become the school’s most popular students｣ accept that?!"

"Okay...... but it doesn’t matter, right? Just being popular won’t get you into college."

Chiwa hung her shoulders and said:

"Why is Ei-kun so indifferent to these kinds of things? Have you never thought ｢I want to be more popular｣?"

"Never thought about it."

Just watching you all was enough for me.

Chiwa stared at me strangely:

"Actually, I wanted to ask you this before. Has Ei-kun ever been popular or been confessed to by a girl before Natsukawa?"

"How could that be?"

But after I said that—

"......Actually, there was one."

Chiwa suddenly left her seat, flustered, and said:

"You’re kidding, really? W-w-w-w-who was it? Is it someone I know?"

"No, it was something from kindergarten."

Chiwa relaxed as soon as she heard that, sat down again and said:

"Whut, so it was like that? That doesn’t even matter now."

"What was ｢Whut｣ supposed to mean? That’s not a very elegant response at all."

This was something that happened around ten years ago during this time of year, at Wakaba Kindergarten in Class Star.

Even though I already forgot the girl’s name and appearance, I’ll always remember that she was a gentle and lovely girl. Well, maybe this was my brain filling in the memories.

After we finished eating, we began to clean up.

We split the chores as usual: I washed the dishes at the sink, while Chiwa wiped them dry and placed them on the shelves.

"Hey, Ei-kun, what are you doing on August first?"

"W-what is it?"

"You forgot? It’s the annual Hane River fireworks festival!"

"Ah, so it’s already that time of the year?"

Hane River was a first class river that flowed through the center of Hane city. The fireworks festival on the riverbank was the largest summer activity in the city, known as the ｢Hanehi Festival｣. The festival has many night market stalls, and when I was little I used to always eagerly look forward to that day.

"Since I couldn’t go last year, can we go together this year?"

"With me?"

Chiwa’s father used to always take the two of us in elementary school, but ever since middle school we each went alone with our own friends.

"......T-this isn’t weird, right? Didn’t we used to go together all the time when we were little?"

Chiwa shifted shyly and blushed.

Well, this wasn’t anything but some fireworks.

"Okay, so let’s go—"

I was about to say ｢Let’s go together｣ when I suddenly realized:

—Isn’t this a ｢flag｣ for mayhem?

I don’t know why my feelings noticed this potential development.

First, I’ll agree to go to the fireworks festival with Chiwa.

Second, Masuzu will invite me, but I’ll refuse her because ｢I’m going with Chiwa｣, and Masuzu will get angry at me.

Third, Hime will invite me, but I’ll refuse her because ｢I’m going with Chiwa｣, and Hime will curse me.

Fourth, on the day of the festival, they’ll both come to disturb me, and it’ll become mayhem!

—Bad, this was very bad.

Chiwa looked as if she was in a daze, and said:

"What is it, Ei-kun? You don’t look so good."

"Nothing, my evil eye just foresaw a terrible future."

"??"

My Chuunibyou unconsciously relapsed, but we’ll forget about that for now.

The mayhem flag was bad enough, and we couldn’t allow that to be raised.

Saeko-san once said: ｢Whether it was in reality or games, one must carefully control the flags!｣

"Sorry Chiwa, let’s forget about it this year."

"Hey—! Then who are you going with? Natsukawa? Or Himecchi?"

I simply shook my head and said:

"I’m not going to the fireworks festival. I’m going to be in a study room at cram school, studying."

"But this is a once in a year event! As for studying, you can study another day?"

"But summer cram school also only happens once a year, right? And I paid an expensive fee, so I want to make it at least a little meaningful."

"You really are way too serious, Ei-kun."

"｢Way too｣ is redundant."

Chiwa gave a big sigh and said: "Well there really is no way—" "If anyone had enough time—" she murmured while wiping the utensils.

Sorry, Chiwa.

I've had enough of mayhem.

This summer I officially want to live the ideal high school life!

♦

The second day of summer cram school, formal lessons finally started.

Although the registered capacity of the class was fifty people, the classroom had around a hundred seats in a huge room. The air conditioning was good, as was the soundproof walls, which was the environment for studying.

Fuyuumi Ai sat a little away from Kaoru and I, and wore her uniform like yesterday. During math class, she was called on once, was finished with the difficult problem after two or three moments, and earned the teacher’s praise. From Kaoru’s report, I heard that Fuyuumi was number three in the entire grade during final exams. She was a formidable opponent, and if I didn’t pay attention, my place as number one could possibly be taken away.

Thanks to this, I became more enthusiastic, and was able to concentrate even during the difficult class material. I thought this kind of stimulating stuff was the merit of summer cram school, and it was worth the savings spent to attend these lectures.

After two 90-minute periods ended, it was lunchtime. I ate lunch with Kaoru at the cram school cafeteria.

Kaoru sucked on strawberry milk in a aluminum bag with a straw as he said:

"A-chan was really awesome back there."

I bit into the salmon and butter onigiri that I made myself as I said:

"Yeah, using that kind of approach to solve a quadratic equation, she’s pretty impressive."

When Kaoru heard that, he seemed to become very anxious, and he said:

"I wasn’t talking about studying!!"

"Ah?"

"Look, during break time, isn’t she surrounded by all sorts of boys from other schools?"

"Yeah, that’s definitely true."

Out of all of them, she was clearly hardworking. Against all of the plain girls, Fuyuumi’s silhouette distinctly stood out. Her appearance was delicate, and particularly striking. Besides her, there were boys who were pretending to ask Fuyuumi questions about schoolwork, but in reality they were flirting with her. Every once in a while, the classroom echoed with an angry sound, ｢go away｣!

Kaoru happily chuckled and said:

"A-chan is cute, smart, and clearly popular. But apart from that, she’s also great at cooking."

What?

Kaoru was really praising Fuyuumi.

Even I, who everyone said was slow-witted, could see it. Wasn’t this ｢one tends to praise the one they like｣?

In other words, could it be—

"......Kaoru."

"Eh, w-what?"

"I was thinking, do you like Fuyuumi?"

I struck a bell.

Kaoru fell off the cafeteria chair, while crying loudly.

"Are you okay, Kaoru?"

"That’s not the case, really!"

Kaoru found his seat again, and exclaimed.

"How did it turn into this? Were you listening to me at all?"

"I-I thought I was listening to you."

Kaoru angrily tore off a piece of sweet bread, and said:

"Then, let me ask you this, Eita!"

"O-okay."

"A-chan is more interested in you than all the other boys in the school. What do you think of that?"

"You’re asking what I think of that?"

I took a bite into my omelette as I thought out-loud.

"If that’s the case, then so be it."

"Mmm! And ｢that｣ is?"

"A follower of the love-struck religion. Those kind of people are really hopeless."

Kaoru’s eyes which were originally immensely interested, rapidly dimmed down.

"Girls that are flirting in summer cram school, what are they thinking? Even though they paid a lot of money to go to class, they’re really wasting it. If you want a romantic comedy, go somewhere else."

"..............................Ah, I guess that’s true."

Kaoru gave up and crossed his legs, while sipping strawberry milk.

That answer didn’t seem right.

Ehh.

What kind of response was Kaoru hoping for? I didn’t know what the correct answer was.

At this time, Kaoru was looking diagonally past my back.

When I looked past by reflex, I saw a figure rapidly duck behind the cafeteria vending machine.

Near the coin chute of the vending machine, I saw a vaguely familiar skirt waver.

It was a skirt from the Hane high school uniform.

And, considering the circumstances, there was only one person who met this criteria.

"Ahaaha—Eita, can you wait for me a little bit?"

Kaoru stood up while stiffly smiling, as he ran back towards the vending machine.

The sound of two people quarreling mixed into the noise of the cafeteria, the contents of which I could somewhat hear.

—What are you doing? It was really hard for me to arrange this.

—Y-you’re just meddling in other people’s business!

—You still won’t admit it? Do you think I don’t know who it is after you were crying and begging on the phone last night?

—Well, go on then. And this time don’t let your emotions mess it up.

—N-n-n-no, I can’t! No! I’m not psychologically ready yet!

—Then when will you be ready for it?

—T-tomorrow I’ll begin to try!

—That’s no good! You’ll be too late.

It seemed like the argument was quite intense.

What is ｢That’s no good｣ supposed to mean?

Did ｢Tomorrow I’ll begin to try｣ refer to studying?

If that was the case, if that kept on going it would definitely be bad. It would be just like Kaoru said. They wouldn’t be able to catch up by exam time. In the first part of ｢JOJO’s Bizarre Adventures｣, there was a similar kind of plot. When the shy teenager Poco was reprimanded by his sister: ｢To……. Tomorrow I’ll do…… I’ll do it!｣ ｢Which tomorrow are you talking about｣?

"S-sorry to keep you waiting, Eita."

"......"

Fuyuumi Ai was dragged and tugged by Kaoru, and brought in front of me.

Fuyuumi was blushing in the face, maybe because of the argument from not long ago.

"Hey, Fuyuumi."

"............"

Fuyuumi’s stern face was silent, and she didn’t meet my eyes.

"A-A-chan? Why don’t you say hello?"

"........................F-fool—!"

"No one says hello like that, right? Hey, no one does that!"

"O-okay Kaoru! Calm down."

I grabbed Kaoru’s shoulders to calm him down, and I guided him to his seat; Fuyuumi continued to have an expressionless face, as she sat next to Kaoru.

"That......"

I looked back and fourth between the two of them, feeling greatly unsettled.

So what should I say to Fuyuumi?

Normally Kaoru would help find some kind of subject to talk about, but today was definitely different than normal.

In the end, it’ll be, LET’S TALK:

"Fuyuumi, you went to the same elementary school as Kaoru?"

"Yes, do you have any problem with that?"

"............I don’t have anything wrong with that, nothing."

What was with this girl? Why did she seem like she always wanted to fight?

But I was the same. Why did I unconsciously use honorifics in m speech?

By then, Kaoru finally returned to his usual self after clearing his throat with a ｢cough｣:

"My friendship with A-chan started when we were in the same class in elementary school. We were classmates until fourth grade."

"Hey, you guys really seem to be fated for each other."

Incidentally, I was only in the same class as Chiwa three times up until sixth grade.

"During the first semester of fifth grade, A-chan’s family moved to another district, so we went to different schools in middle school. This spring, she came back to this city though."

"I see."

If she didn’t move, she possibly could have attended the same middle school as Chiwa and me.

"So to summarize, Fuyuumi and Kaoru are childhood friends."

At this time, Fuyuumi’s bowed head suddenly stiffened.

She lifted her head and stared at me with a terrible look.

"......W-what is it......?"

"Nothing? At? All?"

"What’s wrong with childhood friends?"

"There! Is! Absolutely! Nothing! At! All!"

"......"

Why did I think there was something about that……?

Was ｢childhood friend｣ a ｢landmine word｣ for this girl?

In conclusion, I should probably change the subject.

"Ah, right, Fuyuumi."

"......What?"

"I heard you have a boyfriend in college, right? His name is Michel?"

Several bells clattered with sound of vomit!

Kaoru gave an astonishing sound, and again slid off of his chair.

This time was several times more extreme than the last, and caused everyone in the noisy cafeteria to suddenly become silent. Everyone started at Kaoru, wanting to know what was the matter. Only Fuyuumi seemed embarrassed as she lowered her head.

"A-are you okay, Kaoru?"

Kaoru smiled stiffly and said, "Ahahaheheha, I’m fine, I’m fine—" and stood up.

"Huh, what? A-chan has a boyfriend? What is this? Where did you hear that? Where’d you hear that—?!"

"I heard Chiwa mention it."

Of course I couldn’t say I heard it while I was hiding in the infirmary, so I said it like this.

"A-chan, can you come with me out to the hallway for a moment?"

Kaoru said with a wide smile across his face + a threatening tone in his voice.

H-how scary.

Even though we knew each other ever since the start of our third year of middle school, I’ve never seen such a frightening Kaoru.

"Can Eita wait for us for a moment? I have something to say to Fuyuumi alone."

Kaoru dragged a crestfallen Fuyuumi out into the hallway. Maybe I was over-suspicious, but his behavior was even more rude than last time.

Kaoru didn’t know his childhood friend had a boyfriend……

But maybe this was always the case with childhood friends of the opposite sex. Chiwa and I were a special case, but in general it would be very embarrassing to talk about romantic things.

The sounds of two people could be faintly heard from the hallway. They seemed forget about me as they talked, and the volumes of their voices were becoming quite large. They probably didn’t notice.

—H-h-hey, what? Boyfriend? What’s the matter with this?

—There’s nothing I can do about it! It just turned out that way.

—What were you thinking? You’ve trapped yourself by trying to help yourself. Have you noticed at all?

—O-of course I have!

—By the ｢arranged｣ date, you won’t have time, right?

—Right, so I......

Then Fuyuumi’s voice became soft, and I couldn’t hear it.

The arranged date?

What does that mean? That was really a vague way to word it.

If it was Hime, she would probably say, ｢The final showdown between the evil dragon race and the holy dragon race has finally come! That is, the Twilight of the Gods—｣! That kind of Chuunbyou language.

Fuyuumi couldn’t also be one of those Chuunbyou people whose brains were filled with delusions?

......No, that was really impossible. For someone to become part of that devilish disciplinary committee, it was impossibly for them to become an irrational person.

—I said it yesterday. I still owe that person a favor.

—I know.

—I can only help you this summer.

—I said I know.

—I’ll help make a lot of opportunities for you to speak, so you better take advantage of it.

It seems like they finished negotiating.

When Kaoru returned to his seat, his expression seemed quite calm. Perhaps he finished saying everything he wanted to say. Even Fuyuumi, who was previously quite stiff, seemed willing to meet my eyes.

Fuyuumi took a cute pink bento box from her bag. Inside was an omlettte, octopus sausage, onigiri, and mini tomatoes. Everything was a smaller size than normal, and was completely different from the amount of food in Chiwa’s bento. People would hardly be able to believe these were both bentos belonging to girls.

While I was wondering if the amount of food was really enough, Fuyuumi placed the bento box in front of me with a ｢woosh｣, and said:

"K-k-k-k-kido!"

"Y-yes?"

Because her facial expression was too serious, the sound of my response was distorted.

"Please feel free to take anything!"

"......Ah?"

"Please feel free to take anything—!"

"......"

Even though I couldn’t quite grasp the situation, it seemed like she meant to say, ｢Eat my bento box｣!

"Is that all right? Your lunch is so small, there’ll barely be any left for you?"

When Kaoru heard this, he responded with the same serious face as Fuyuumi:

"Just eat, Eita! I’ll let A-chan have some of the jam bread I brought!"

"This is messing up the order......"

Anyways, this wasn’t the kind of atmosphere where I could refuse.

I took a piece of omelette wrapped in basil leaves from the bento box.

"Then I’ll swap this with you."

I took a piece of fried food from my own bento and stuffed it in the empty space where the omelette came from.

Fuyuumi looked dumbstruck as she stared at my face.

"Is that alright?"

"Okay, we’ll consider it an exchange of food."

I placed the omlette into my mouth. The amount of salt was just perfect, accompanied with the wonderful aroma of basil leaves in the mouth.

"Ah, delicious."

"Really?"

"Did you make this? It definitely lives up to Kaoru’s praise."

I was one of those people who liked sweet eggs, but these weren’t bad at all.

Fuyuumi began to tremble, which made one think she was cramping. She immediately picked up my fried food and put it in her mouth.

She didn’t even properly chew before she swallowed it, and then she stood up.

"I’m going outside for a run."

"Huh?"

"I’m going outside for a ruuuuunnn——!"

Fuyuumi leaped and jumped as she left the cafeteria, and it seemed like her head nearly hit the ceiling.

"W-what is that girl doing……?"

"Ah, what is she doing? She should be very happy, right?"

Kaoru suppressed his laughter in his throat while he spoke.

"Happy about what?"

"She must be happy that the dish she made herself was praised by Eita."

"......??"

Why?

Considered the enemy of the disciplinary committee, I was associated with Self-Recreation club. After receiving my praise, what was there to be happy about?

Could it be that she thought, ｢If I could receive the praise of even my enemy, then my cooking skill is really good｣!?

"Hey, Eita."

Kaoru’s face suddenly became serious:

"Although A-chan is stubborn, she definitely isn’t a bad person."

"So it’s like that."

If she could spring up and down so happily, I don’t think she could be a bad person.

"If she has a haughty attitude, there’s definitely a reason. I hope you can think about this reason carefully."

"What reason?"

Can’t tell you, Kaoru smiled.

When he spoke in just whispers, I felt like recently, Kaoru’s been involved in many secrets.

"......Well, forget it."

Just understanding that Fuyuumi wasn’t a bad person was enough. And this was a rare summer spent taking cram school classes, so it was too stupid to spend it fighting. If I could become friends with Fuyuumi, we might be able to help each other in school work.

Hahaha.

Without club activities, I didn’t imagine it’d feel so good.

This is it.

The summer I always wanted, this is it!

♦

However, before long my satisfied self was immediately knocked back into hell.

At the start of afternoon classes, I received a text message.

This famous RPG’s background music ｢Prepare to be cursed by my weapon｣ , was the ringtone I set that girl’s text messages to. As soon as I heard that music, my mood with clear-blue skies suddenly turned into a downpour.

[From] [email protected] 

[Subject] Thump Thump Thump... 

[Text] Anyone here? 

Right.

I forgot.

When I thought about it, of course I should have expected it.

I realized it was a harsh truth.

—Even if there weren’t any club activities, my girlfriend won’t disappear.

Let me repeat it again.

Even if there weren’t any club activities, my ｢girlfriend｣ won’t disappear!

---

Notes

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