{Extra Story 1} Cell Phone
“Finally done, it’s hot. Is this going to go on for a whole month?”
Hiroto shouldered a basket stuffed full of pulled weeds and came up to the gymnasium where the girls’ kendo club was practicing.
After school, Hiroto had been ordered by his homeroom teacher, Takano Mirei, to alternate daily between weeding and cleaning the toilets in every school building.
And as his supervisor for that punishment, his classmate Shizuka Mito had been appointed, so whenever the day’s work was finished he had to report to Shizuka.
Mirei called it a punishment for skipping school, but officially it was presented as punishment for causing trouble at school. That was because Hiroto’s non-human friends(Youma) including Kiyoko and the others who were attending classes disguised as him, so to everyone else it looked like Hiroto hadn’t been absent at all.
The only ones who knew Hiroto was actually cutting classes were his homeroom teacher, who was also a senior Taoist and a super-cool beauty, Mirei, and his close friend Ichigo.
“What on earth did Kiyoko and the others do…?”
He didn’t know what had happened, but even his childhood friend Matsuri was furious, very furious and had taken the lead in supervising Hiroto’s punishment helping Shizuka, or rather, she had completely taken over.
As for the Kiyoko and the others who could be called the cause of this whole situation, they hadn’t shown up recently, maybe they had some business, so he couldn’t even ask them what had happened.
“Ichigo just trembles and won’t tell me anything…”
Even so, Hiroto was the one who had skipped school. The situation had escalated beyond his imagination, but the fault was his. He was prepared to be scolded.
Hiroto sighed and, to report that he’d finished weeding for the day, poked his head through the slightly open metal sliding door of the gym.
That day the gym was being shared by the girls’ basketball club and the girls’ kendo club.
Showing up with a basket full of weeds was honestly embarrassing.
In his sweat-drenched gym clothes, Hiroto turned his face toward the kendo club members who were giving spirited shouts.
“Hey, the weeding guy’s here! Mito-san, Shirasawa-san!”
A kendo club member who’d noticed him called out to Matsuri and the others, and Matsuri and Shizuka, dressed in their keikogi, came over to Hiroto.
With Matsuri’s chestnut, softly waved hair and a composed face next to the petite, energetic Shizuka, the two in kendo uniform were oddly striking.
Because of Matsuri’s excellent looks she had already won overwhelming popularity among the boys and was treated like an idol around the school.
And yet she was polite, ladylike, and fair to everyone, so she didn’t attract much jealousy from the girls.
Matsuri and Shizuka were almost always inseparable these days, so Shizuka’s name was starting to become known too; from what he heard later, Shizuka’s popularity had surprisingly been growing.
When Shizuka heard that she grinned widely and teased Matsuri, “leftovers, leftovers.”
The two of them checked the basket Hiroto had set down by the gym entrance.
“Ohhh, Domori-kun. You’re working hard, I’m impressed, really impressed!”
“Hiroto, you’re not slacking off, right?”
“I’m not! I mean, how would I even slack off?!”
Matsuri was carefully inspecting the weeds in the basket like a strict aunt.
Matsuri was kind to everyone, but her attitude toward Hiroto was different.
If anyone else saw this they’d probably be shocked, especially the dreamy boys.
(I wish she’d be a little kind to me too, really.)
“Hiroto, did you say something? No, what are you thinking right now?”
“Nothing! I’m not thinking about anything! No-mind! In a state of complete silence!”
(And…what’s with that sharpness? Telepathy?)
Since Hiroto came back from Miramar, Matsuri has been inexplicably harsher than usual.
Apparently something had happened with Kiyoko and others impersonating Hiroto while he was away, but since he couldn’t ask about it, he was left more puzzled.
Everything that happened at school was being blamed on Hiroto.
It would be strange for Hiroto himself to be the one to ask about it.
The other day Matsuri had been angrily reddening and acting embarrassed, but he couldn’t figure out what had happened to that extent.
(Really, what happened? No, what did they do? Kiyoko and others…)
Other classmates had mostly forgotten about him, so the fallout wasn’t too bad, but for those who still remembered him, Matsuri, Ichigo, Shizuka, the effects of his absence lingered.
“Well, fine. You’re doing it properly with genuine remorse, right?”
“Of course!”
What else could he say in the face of that intensity?
“Pfft… Okay then, thanks for your hard work, Domori-kun! You can go home now! Nothing else today?”
Shizuka looked amused as she regarded Matsuri and Hiroto and spoke in a lively voice.
“Well, actually… I have to help the library committee sort books now.”
“Oh, on helping duty? Tough luck~ Which storeroom? If it’s the second storeroom it’s pretty far, you know? It’s at the very edge of the school.”
The Kitsurin High library was famously large, far too big to just call a “library”, and its collection size wasn’t something to scoff at. Some students even aimed to enroll just for that reason.
But with that came a lot of work.
Which was why a help like Hiroto’s was so appreciated, and why Ichigo, who acted as intermediary for Hiroto’s helper duties, kept getting frequent offers.
The library representative from Hiroto’s class was a small girl named Shigami, so when it came to heavy tasks like sorting the stacks, the request almost always went to Hiroto, the helper.
Shigami always looked apologetic, but she asked for help every time because it was obvious that those jobs were pretty brutal for such a small girl and inefficient when she handled them alone.
So Hiroto accepted gladly, trying not to make her feel bad.
“Eh? Really? I thought this time it was the second storage room. Um, I have a schedule memo somewhere…”
As Hiroto dug through some pocket for the note he’d been given, Matsuri , who already knew about Hiroto being a helper, made an indescribable face.
“Hiroto, if you’re that busy, why don’t you join a club? I heard the boys’ kendo team’s short on first-years this year. You’d be a regular for sure…”
Matsuri, knowing Hiroto’s skill from his family’s old-school swordsmanship dojo, suggested this with a bit of concern. Swordsmanship and kendo aren’t the same, but she was sure Hiroto would be fine.
“Hm, I’ve thought about it, but it’s still tricky. Being a helper isn’t every day, and once my life settles down a bit, ”
“I see… th-then! I’ll, I’ll come and cook for you….., ”
“There!”
Hiroto fished the memo he’d been given out from his back pocket.
At the same time, something slipped from his pocket with a clunk onto the gym floor.
“…Ah!”
Hiroto noticed, his face going pale, and immediately picked it up and shoved it back into his pocket.
Matsuri and Shizuka watched that whole series of movements in silence.
“…”
“…”
Cold sweat ran down Hiroto’s back, but he spread the memo out as if nothing had happened.
In a way, it was a brute-force gamble.
“Ah! Right! It is the second storage room like Mito-san said! Ah, it’s getting late, well, I’ll head out then!”
Saying that, he turned, but his arm was grabbed.
Hiroto froze.
“Y-Hiroto…”
“W-what is it, Matsuri-chan?”
At that moment, Shizuka slipped quickly in front of Hiroto.
“Domori-kun…”
“Mito-san? Why are you standing in front of me with that huge smile?”
The grip on Hiroto’s arm tightened.
“Now… what did you drop just now?”
“Matsuri-chan? W-what are you talking about…?”
When Hiroto turned, Matsuri’s face was right in front of him.
She raised her free hand, palm up, in a smooth motion.
“Hand it over…”
“W-what?”
Shizuka, with a mischievous-child kind of look, closed the distance as well.
Then Matsuri leaned close in Hiroto’s ear, her face hidden in shadow, and whispered.
“Your cell phone…”
“Hiiii!”
Hiroto’s eyes widened at that whisper, as if it had come straight from hell,
A few minutes later… Hiroto was being dragged by the two girls to the back of the gym.
◆
(Note: Inside the mind of three characters)
The three of them sat in an impromptu interrogation room behind the gym.
Matsuri, Detective.
Shizuka, record-keeper.
And for some reason, suspect: Hiroto.
“First, tell me when you bought it.”
“Um… is your club activity okay, Matsuri-chan?”
“I got the captain’s okay. We’re on break, so don’t worry, Domori-kun!”
“I am worried! Mainly about my own safety! And what are you writing, Mito-san!?”
“Hiroto! The break is only fifteen minutes. Answer concisely.”
“Okay.”
“So… when did you buy this?”
“Three days ago.”
“You’d better be telling the truth.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“If you’re lying, ”
“There’d be absolutely no reason for me to lie, particularly not for my own benefit.”
Tap tap tap! (Shizuka typing the report into the computer)
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I wanted to, but you looked in a bad mood, so I thought I’d leave it for later…”
Bang! (Matsuri, slamming the table)
“Don’t lie!”
“I-I’m not lying! If you speak to her when she’s like that, it usually never ends well…”
Tap tap tap tap!
“M-My mood wasn’t bad!”
“That’s what you’re worried about!?”
“Ahem! So?”
“Huh? So, what?”
“I mean! What are you going to do with that cell phone?”
“Huh? I’ll use it, of course…”
Thud!! (Detective Matsuri pounds the table with her fist)
Crash! (Hiroto, startled, falls back out of his chair)
“That’s not what I asked! There are things to know before you can use a phone!”
“Huh? Ah… y-yeah.”
Tap tap tap tap !
“So, what’s the answer?”
“Ah, Inspector Matsuri.”
“Just Matsuri is fine.”
“Matsuri-chan.”
“Yes?”
“Could you… please give me your phone number and email address?”
Clap clap clap clap clap clap! (Shizuka’s really getting into it)
Swish-swish, (the sound of Matsuri running her index finger across the desk)
“If you’d been honest from the start, you wouldn’t have had to come to a place like this (※the interrogation room). Knowing you, Hiroto, you probably didn’t have anyone registered in your phone yet, right? Honestly, what a pain. I’ll help you register your first contacts.”
“What!? Ah, no… I already have a few saved.”
“…Huh?”
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!
“Oh… your family, or Hakamada-kun, right? Well, that’s fine, that’s nothing.”
“…”
Suspect Hiroto averts his eyes.
“…”
Detective Matsuri doesn’t miss that.
“…”
Shizuka, in charge of writing the report, watches the two.
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!
“H-Hiroto? You wouldn’t, “
“Wha-what?”
Matsuri smiles.
A smile that terrifies Hiroto.
The high point of this interrogation, according to Shizuka.
“You have the right to remain silent regarding the contents of your phone.”
The gaze of Commissioner-General Matsuri (※she’d been promoted) pierces Hiroto.
With a smile.
Hiroto realizes this country (※the one inside the three of their heads) doesn’t grant him the right to remain silent.
“Also, your statements may be used as evidence against you in court.”
Hiroto realizes that whatever he says or doesn’t say will only work against him.
“You have the right to request the presence of an attorney.”
There is no such person.
“If you can’t afford a lawyer, you have the right to have a public defender assigned.”
He has neither the means nor the right.
“Now! How many addresses are currently registered?”
Rattle rattle rattle rattle! Wham!!
(the inexplicable shaking of Hiroto’s chair and the sudden sound of leather straps binding his hands and feet)
“Eeek! T-three.”
“Hmm… I see. And of those three addresses, how many are… female?”
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!!
“…Thr, “
“Wha! Thr!?”
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!
“Three!”
Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap tap Tap tap tap tap tap tap tap!
Drip drip… (the sound of Hiroto’s sweat falling onto the desk)
Rumble! (an invisible pressure gathers around Matsuri)
Ting! (Shizuka has a sudden flash of insight like some new kind of person)
“Aha, ! Domori-kun, that’s the Gaston guy you said you met at that certification exam…”
Buzz buzz buzz! (Hiroto frantically tries to shake his head to send a “please stop!” signal, teary-eyed)
“They’re those two who are super cute, right!? Huh? But there’s an extra one now.”
Sigh… (Hiroto, disappointed that Shizuka shows him no mercy, as he suspected)
Rumble rumble rumble! (more invisible force gathers around Matsuri)
“They’re friends from work, those two! And so it’s easy to contact them! The extra one is… um, right! She’s the president’s secretary who assigns our jobs!”
“Hiroto…”
“Y-yes!”
“So they’re coworkers? You’re not being tricked by some bad person?”
“Yeah! Of course! They’re all really serious people!”
Rumble… (the invisible pressure eases a little)
Snap! (Hiroto opens his eyes, he can’t miss this chance!)
“Matsuri-chan! Give me your number and email. I want to ask about studying stuff sometimes!”
“…!”
Matsuri’s eyes widen, and then her expression softens.
Skrree, (the leather straps around his hands and feet come undone)
“Phew.”
Knowing that Matsuri is the kind of person who loves to fuss over others and be relied upon, Hiroto wipes his sweat, having won this one bet.
The three return to the real world.
They were behind the gym, though.
“Matsuri, it’s time, we’ve got to go!”
“Yeah! Ah, Hiroto, do you want to walk home together today? We’ll exchange phone addresses then.”
“Got it. Meet in front of the school gate?”
“Okay, see you later.”
With that, Matsuri and Shizuka hurried back to practice.
Running, Shizuka glances at Matsuri and smiles.
It’s because… Matsuri’s face looked the happiest it had been in a long time.
(She’s really simple at heart, isn’t she~. I’m glad for her, Matsuri)
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