Get up. Wash my face. Go for a run. During the run, I had to listen to a rant how great the concert was and accusations of not going ‘with them’. Come back and take a shower. Get ready for school. Walk there by myself. The Koyama sisters usually leave before me, so I could quietly contemplate on my way there. Just another day. And this is good. Actually, someone decided to join me today. Yesterday afternoon, Shina fed that stray cat to bursting, who was almost the only animal in the Koyama neighborhood that did not belong to the canine race. I wasn't surprised when I saw him lying on the fence of the neighboring house. Lounging languidly, he waved his paw at a pair of dogs, who were wagging their tails, barking and jumping up, supposedly trying to get him. Given that one of the dogs was a robust German Shepherd, that could have jumped over the fence without any effort, I was pretty sure that they were just playing. After all, the local dogs were kind of tolerant. The result was obvious: fed and entertained, the stray cat wasn't about to leave the neighborhood. Plenty of scraps to live off, the dogs aren't that aggressive, fed occasionally fed by pretty girls... Would you leave? He just needed a name now because animals without names caused me dismay.
I had a special attitude towards names. I must admit that I had been brainwashed pretty well during my time of service. Honor, glory, and name. My honor was very specific, the glory was quite normal, and the name could only be taken away by the bosses. That meant that it would be erased from all official documents. The name then turned into a nickname. Logically, it was nonsense, but in reality, it wasn't very pleasant. In this world, however, Sakurai Shinji was, in fact, no one, a complete nonentity. The nickname was given to somehow indicate my biological entity. Tokyo Dwarf was the opposite to that. That nickname had earned a certain glory, but it was still just a nickname. Had I been back home, I'd have blown up a long time ago. Here, logic saved me. Regardless, I wanted something more significant for myself. My desire to get a coat of arms was not an insignificant reason. The founder of a family line was a big deal!
I glanced at the cat, walking along the fences parallel to the road, right in front of me. Shina might have thought of a name for him already. The cat would hardly care though.
Ohajasi was already waiting for me at the gate. Actually, it looked more like he was taking a snooze. He was leaning up against the wall without a care. I walked up to him and saw that I was right. He was sleeping. I've only ever seen anything like that in the army. I was even guilty of it myself when I once took a snooze while leaning against a truck. I also saw a soldier on duty sleeping on a cabinet which had nothing to lean against. He even had his eyes open. I just didn't expect it from Rydon. Poking my finger at him, I called his name.
'Rydon, buddy, wake up!' No reaction. 'Wake up!'
Shall I play a prank on him? Nah. I wouldn't like it if someone did that to me. I decided to just give him a shake.
'Huh? What?' he opened his dopey eyes and focused them on me: 'Oh. Is it time?' he said rubbing his eyes. 'It's gonna be a hard day.'
'Face the music.'
'Yeah, it was fun last night.'
After the advisory, which was the first thing we did on Mondays, Rydon made a slick move. During the first class, he asked to go to the nurse, with the excuse of having a stomachache. The teacher let him go. Cunning bastard! He’s left me to suffer here by myself. Now they aren't going to let me go to the nurse if I make the same excuse, and Rydon will be suspected too. Why did I not think of it earlier? What rotten luck!
Rydon didn't come to the next class. He didn't show up at the third either. He disappeared until lunchtime. At lunch—that's when we had our long recess—having rested and caught up on sleep, he was waiting for me at the entrance to the cafeteria.
Stopping in front of him and looking him over from head to toe, I sighed, shaking my head.
'Be careful your sister doesn't find out.'
'I can do without 15 minutes of preaching,' he said waving his hand. 'Let's go eat instead.'
By the time we had finished half of our lunch, a bento box was placed before me.
'It's time to get used to the fact that mom takes care of your lunch.'
'Tell her not to worry about it. It's becoming uncomfortable.'
'You know her,' Shina replied. 'School is just an excuse to feed you to death. Okhayashi-kun,' she said nodding to my friend.
'Koyama-san,' he answered with a small bow.
'You should have seen the bento box that she wants to fill with food. Mizuki and I resisted. You, probably, would have not eaten it all.'
I just shook my head. Oh, Kagami, Kagami.
'Where's your tail?'
'Kino? 'She'll be here anytime. She forgot her lunch box today, so she's in the queue right now.'
'By the way...' I started and paused, thinking that Shina might not be willing to answer my questions about the incident on Friday while Rydon was there. Yeah, I had a chance to ask earlier. I had two and a half days. 'Never mind.'
Five minutes later, Mineh came to the table. Gently placing the tray in place next to Shina, she froze uncertainly. Then she looked around just as uncertainly.
'Ahem,' she cleared her throat. Is she okay? 'Sakurai-kun. Ahem. I am... umm,' she paused, deeply inhaled, and exhaled. I looked at Shina from the side. She paid no attention to me. She knows something, that's for sure. From looking at Rydon, I was assured that he was no less surprised than I was, but he tried to act as if everything was fine. 'Sakurai-kun,' it seemed she had finally worked up the nerve. 'My deepest apologies for what happened on Friday. It was the most stupid joke I could have played,' and then she bowed deeply.
Huh? Apologies? Publicly? Is she really admitting that it was her initiative and her fault? I chuckled, Rydon snorted but did not say anything. I looked at the indifferent Shina again and then at Mineh.
'I hope this kind of thing will not happen again?' I asked Kino, who hadn't straightened up yet.
'It won't.'
I looked at my neighbor again. Well, okay.
'Your apologies are accepted. Let's think of it as an unsuccessful joke. I don't care what happened, but we won't be friends.'
'Thank you.' After that, finally straightening up, with a face red with shame, she sat down at the table and was silent until the end of lunch.
'By the way, Shinji, given that mom will continue making your lunches, you could stop by in the morning to pick them up. It's not that hard for me to pack them with my things, but I don't think it'll be hard for you to stop by.'
What? Does she realise what I'm gonna look like doing that? Like a real freeloader. And that's with the best of intentions. She sure knows how to put me in an uncomfortable position.
'Is this something your mom asked you to tell me or one of your own ideas?'
'Mom? No. Why would it matter?'
Oh my. Couldn't she wait to tell me when we were alone? I don't care about Mineh, but Rydon is no fool. By offering me such a thing, Shina is not presenting me in the best light. If it had been Kagami's suggestion, I wouldn't have cared but going to their house and asking for food? Twice a month would have been okay. But every day? Saying that in front of a person from a different clan?
'Umm. I'll think about it.'
'What's there to think about?'
Why is she doing this? She's not stupid, but sometimes, it's unbearable.
'Shina. I told you already. Let's change the subject.'
I, probably, have to thank this world for how they bring up girls. Shina heard the tone of my voice and immediately obeyed. At least, in front of the others. When we are left alone, I can explain to her where she's wrong.
After classes, Rydon went to his school club, and I went to choose my own. At some point, it had to end. Yesterday morning, I talked to the old man Kenta about this club nonsense, and he assured me that no one is indulged or made an exception, not me, not the granddaughters, nor anyone else. It involved both the good name of Kenta himself, politics, and business. He simply could not afford to act outside the rules of the school and ch
ange them, even in such a small thing for no reason. So I didn't have much choice. I could either enter the school council and seek to change the rules, make my own club, or find one that suited me. The first option was a total mess. The second one wouldn't have worked either because I didn't have five participants, including myself. That's how many people were needed to start a club. I just had to find a club that did not require much of me.
I skipped the first floor because all they had was housekeeping, cooking and needlework. There was also mystical sciences, UFO, and paranormal activities clubs. There was even a club on wine collections. All the clubs co-existed with the natural sciences: physics, chemistry, biology, and others.
The second floor had the musical and technical clubs. Robotics, computers and programming were fields of interest. At the moment, the hall was empty, and I moved through it quickly and peacefully, thinking about where I should go. I discarded the option of the musical clubs right away: too time-consuming and, besides, they offended me. It's their fault that I'd rather supply Inter with my texts now. The rest of the clubs were time-consuming as well, but I decided to stop by anyway. One was a remote-controlled car club.
I stopped by a few others, smiled politely, bowed and looked around, but did not spend too much time anywhere. Yet, the clubs on the second floor all took too much time. They were all made for enthusiasts. I had been at the robotics club before, but decided to stop there once again. Even though they didn't let me play with the robots, I wasn't feeling down because they had a whole bunch of other stuff to do. For instance, they had a miniature analogue of several combat robots that could walk, run, ride, and even shoot. I even wanted to buy one.
In the computer games club, games were created; the programming club worked with computer programs and design, while the regular computer club remained a mystery to me. Everyone was sitting at their computers, silently, just banging away at the keyboard. In complete silence, they didn't even look at me once while I was there.
On the third floor, things started getting interesting. There were clubs for travelers, archeologists, paleontologists, mountain climbers, wild nature survivors, skydivers, manga and anime enthusiasts, manga illustrators, card and board games.
In the club of world travelers, I noticed seven guys and two girls who gathered in the middle of the room and leaned over a map on the table. I found out that they were avid travelers, in fact, but not to the extreme. They'd been to cities, towns, popular world destinations, and any place that did not require worrying about food and lodging. Once in a while, they had meetups with enthusiasts from other schools, where they shared their experiences, plans, souvenirs, etc. In the meantime, they made bulletin boards, cataloges, travel guides, and made plans for the next trip. Anyway, the club wasn't a good fit for me. I suggested they go to Baikal, walked out into the hall, and continued my search.
The various gaming clubs were not for me, and I didn't go in: I wasn't interested, and they had a busy schedule. I'd had enough of anime and manga in real life and didn't want to spend more free time on it. The fireworks club was closed, just as mountain climbing next to it. The ancient world architecture club, however, was open. After I opened the door to the room, I realized this was not for me either. The noise and yelling that could be heard coming from the room indicated that people were busy working. That did not fall into the category of an ideal club for me. The sailing club was discussing what they needed to prepare for the next regatta. After hearing that, I just closed the door. Having walked around all of them, I stepped in the last room in the hall.
The archeology club wasn't for me either. First, a twenty-inch layout of Mount Fuji with eleven people finicking around it did not look like fun. Judging by the fact that the room had many other layouts lying about, I could confidently say that people weren’t just sitting around here. Secondly, pictures of the club members across the large room gave me a hint that the layouts made by the locals, were designed based on what they'd seen with their own eyes. That was just too much. I love archeology but only in front of the TV with a cup of tea.
Interestingly, I even wanted to become an archeologist like Indiana Jones. Then I grew up and found out what exactly these scholars do, but that didn't kill my desire. Even the decades of my service and family life didn't change it. Once I went on vacation to Persia. I went there with my co-worker, Stylish, who had a talent of getting into a pretty mess. This is what happened. A five-thousand-year-old mummy, super strong and relentless, started attacking me while Stylish was busy dealing with a tank, a couple of a dozen guns and a whole bunch of bombers. Being an Absolute, I almost died at the hands of the lousy mummy, which shouldn't have even been there according to all the laws of logic. That parasite, Stylish, didn't believe me and kept lamenting that I abandoned him. So many years had passed, and I was still outraged. Even Maclaud didn't believe me. The same Maclaud, with whom I escaped from a detachment of Afghan zombies. That's my fate. That's why I don't like Applied Archeology. A look from the outside wouldn't hurt though. I walked into the room and asked a girl, who was passing by, if it was okay to walk around and look. She said that it'd be okay and even suggested she be my tour guide if I waited a couple of minutes. They're all so benevolent here. While I wandered around the building, no one told me to leave or said a rude word.
The girl came back and I was taken around the room, shown layouts and photographs, and told about the history of ruins and the discoveries made by the various club members. Greece, Egypt, Italy, Iran, India— this was still not a complete list of the countries the amateur archaeologists had visited. Their latest project was Mt. Fuji, home of the Titans. So many books have been written about them, so many movies have been shot, and to this day, we still don't know what they looked like. There were many theories though. They were called gods, and their homes which had survived until our day were turned into temples, homes for monks and druids. There aren't many temples left according to the scientists, and they aren't well explored.
Mount Fuji, as the girl explained to me, was a home project. Due to the inability to arrange an expedition, the layout had to be created by assembling available information: stories, pictures, and photographs. All repositories in the world, by the way, were built based on the same principle and are very similar. So creating a layout was possible, however, not very detailed, of course. Anyone was capable of making a layout nowadays, and they were even sold as souvenirs. However, it'd be unacceptable for a school club as they had to do it with their own hands. Perhaps, their version would turn out to be better than the store one. As for me, it would be better if they were looking for their lost repository, like in the movies about Indiana Jones.
Overall, I was quite impressed with the club, mainly, because it related to my childhood dreams. It was time to wrap it up though. I politely finished the excursion and went to the fourth floor of the building.
That was a contrast between peace and war. On one side of the hall, there were rooms with clubs that centered around weapons, and on the other side, there were clubs centered around the arts. The missile weapons club was located across from the painting club, and the military history club—opposite the literature club. The weapon clubs were involved in not just learning the history of weapons, but also the design and building of their own weapins. However, I wasn't sure how successful they were at it. There is no need to explain what members of the architecture club did.
When I was taking the stairs to this floor, I actually wanted to skip it. All these clubs were too time-consuming. Standing by one of the shelves presented by a sculpting club, I noticed Aketi's sister, standing like a statue.
'Hmm. I think I'm gonna go.'
'Sakurai-kun? Sakurai Shinji-kun?'
Another girl came up to us. She had brown hair, blue eyes, oval glasses, two long pigtails, and not a very childlike chest.
'That's me,' I said carefully. 'Do we know each other?'
'No, but I know this babe,' she said, putting her hand on Aketi's shoulder, 'I've known her since
childhood. My name is Hiki, by the way, Hiki Makinami. This is Aketi Toremazu,' the brunette patted her shoulder.
'Sakurai Shinji,' I bowed, 'it's nice to meet you.'
'Very nice to meet you. It's cool to meet a person who can give Tore-chan a mental block.'
'Well, I wouldn't say it excites us.'
'Oh! You don't think she's excited?' I looked at Aketi, who still reminded me of a statue, I turned to Hiki:
'I'm not seeing the excitement on her face.'
'It doesn't matter what the face shows, what's important is what’s going on inside her,' the girl said with inspiration, lifting her index finger.
'So are you an empath? Or a pathologist?'
'I am her friend!' she responded with aspiration.
'Oh yeah? I'm glad she has a girlfriend who is able to read her emotions. I'm gonna go. She's not gonna come out of her trance anyway,' I said nodding towards the girl.
'Sure. See you later. It's always a pleasure!' Hiki said chuckling.
I can't say I'd have wanted a friend like Hiki. Poor Aketi. Actually, she was a fun, pretty girl and didn't look silly. Her jokes weren't excessive, and she didn't get offended by other people's jokes.
I bowed to both girls and started walking towards the exit, thinking about my search. I decided to stop at the fifth floor and then go home. I doubted I would find anything worthy there, but I had to cross it off the list.
The first room on the fifth floor was a journalism club. I walked past it without thinking. Definitely not for me. Then, we had the jurisprudence club, the pet owner's, club, the logical puzzles club and all kinds of other stuff. The cosplay club was next to stamp collecting, and the train enthusiasts had settled next to the fashion historians. So many clubs, but none of them was suitable for me. That was sad. I reached the end of the hall and shook my head. Well, I'll think of something.
When I got home, I turned on the TV and started dinner. The news chanted about the new fashion exhibition, the Kaiser's visit to Tokyo, and another possible war in the Free Territories. Nothing new or unexpected. The chant of the TV helped me think about the clubs issue. I had only one option left: gather information. I could gather information only from people who had been going to Dakisyuro for more than a year or who were well acquainted with these people. Shina was one of them. I could also ask Rydon to get some information from his sister. Lastly, I could go back to the sculpting club and hope that Aketi's friend might untie her tongue. Who else do I know? Oh. I could ask around in my own class. I better start now because I only have two weeks. What's gonna happen if I don't join a club? Are they going to expel me? For such nonsense? If I had no choice, I could join a club and just not show up. They would drop me out, of course, but that would be okay because there are plenty of other clubs. I hope I'll find a good one before I end up getting dropped out of all of them. That's it. That's my plan for now. The first step is to talk to Shina. Looking at the washed vegetables, boiling water on the stove, and thawing meat, I thought I could implement my plan right away. I hadn't started cooking yet, and I could just eat over there.
Changing Masks Page 24
