ch1-ch20 · 007-ch7

Episode 7: Yamanai Sousuke's Tribulations

　Yamanai Sousuke was irritated.

　He returned to the classroom after lunch break, only to be met with cold stares from the girls and kept at a distance by the guys.

　Word had spread to the boys' basketball team from the girls' team members in class, making club practice absolute torture for him.

　And it was all Yamanai's own doing, of course.

　Back when he was immersed in basketball in middle school, he'd noticed a particularly tall girl in the girls' team.

　Her name was Arizuki Sumi. Despite her flashy gal appearance, he fell for her serious attitude during practice.

　Even though the boys' and girls' basketball teams were nearby, they were in different classes during middle school. They were only acquaintances who occasionally chatted.

　But once they advanced to high school, they finally ended up in the same class, just as he'd hoped.

　From there, he planned to deepen their bond through both class and club activities, and eventually confess. That was his thinking.

　As the ace of the middle school basketball team, Yamanai was reasonably popular and had even been confessed to a few times. To be honest, he had confidence.

　However, Yamanai's plan came to a screeching halt right away. Sumi didn't join the high school basketball team.

　Given how earnestly she practiced, he was sure she'd continue in high school too. For that reason, Yamanai's disappointment was immense.

　And that led to the lunch break incident.

　Being in the same class made it clearer than ever—Sumi got along well with all the girls in class and was popular with the guys too. In other words, she was at the top of the social hierarchy.

　Yet, the ones always by her side weren't the flashy types from the top tier, but a weirdo who loudly proclaimed her otaku status without hiding it, and the tiniest girl in class.

　Yamanai felt like Sumi had been taken by those sorts. He thought Sumi belonged with people like them—the top caste. That was how things ought to be.

　But that was completely off the mark.

　Sumi doesn't think about her classmates in terms of ridiculous categories like caste.

　Individuals might have close friend groups or groups with shared interests, but there's no ranking between them.

　And Sumi's way of thinking spread to all her friends around her. Thanks to that, ever since elementary and middle school, Sumi's classes had been very comfortable places to be socially.

　Sumi's best friends are Ai and Kiriko.

　Sumi is gentle and kind to all her friends, but she cherishes her two childhood friends most of all. She doesn't hide that fact, and it's well known among her friends.

　Yamanai, unaware of this, ended up hurling insults at Ai and Kiriko.

　At that point, the possibility of Yamanai's romantic success had already vanished, but what made the situation even worse was his subsequent reaction.

　The ace candidate for the basketball team insults a girl, angers her friend, then runs away in fear without apologizing. ...Even just reading it, it's the absolute worst.

『What was with that pressure?! ...That was basically a delinquent, wasn't it?!』

　Sumi is definitely not a delinquent. But when she's angry, her pressure surpasses even a delinquent's, and Yamanai was completely cowed, fleeing exactly as Ai told him to.

　He was irritated with his own pathetic self too.

　Yamanai's irritation didn't subside even after club practice ended, and while he kept walking with that frustration pent up inside, he ended up passing his destination station and straying into the entertainment district.

「Ah, crap. Gotta get back...」

　Knowing a shortcut to the station, Yamanai ducked into a narrow alley to cut through the back roads. It wasn't the kind of road where rough-looking types gather, but it had fewer lights than the main street and was dark and creepy.

　He tried to hurry through, and just as he reached the corner...

　Voices of men drifted from the other side of the corner.

「...He really won't use the 'egg', huh?」

「Stop nagging. Don't make me say it so many times. In this world with thin eiyōso, the 'egg' won't grow, and he himself is weakened too. You lot just need to carry out the plan as instructed.」

「R-right, I got it. If it goes well, you'll definitely keep your promise... huh?」

　One of the men sensed a presence and turned toward Yamanai, who was peeking around the corner. Seeing his face, Yamanai trembled. It was clearly not normal—a huge scarface from a severe cut.

『What's with that nasty scar!? And they're all huge...』

　Three men with un-Japanese features, deep-set eyes. All of them had rough faces that didn't look like ordinary citizens.

　Beyond them, the man furthest in back was hard to see in the backlight, but he seemed a bit smaller in build.

「A brat? Might've been heard. Boss, what do we do?」

「Leave it. These locals wouldn't understand what we're talking about anyway.」

　Since the biggest and scariest-looking of the three showed no interest, Yamanai breathed a sigh of relief inside.

　But that only lasted a moment.

「No, wait. ...That outfit, someone from that school. Perfect, we'll use this guy. Catch him.」

　When the man in back gave the order, the three rough-looking men briefly looked annoyed.

　But they obeyed the order, and without responding, they all closed in on Yamanai at once.

「H-huh!?」

　Yamanai tried to run, but one of the men circled around in front of him at an abnormal speed.

「F-fast...」

　A speed that didn't just catch up to Yamanai, an active sports club member, but overtook him in an instant and blocked his path.

　Yamanai, dumbfounded by this incomprehensible event, stopped in his tracks.

「—Guh!」

　The next instant, he took a heavy blow to his stomach and Yamanai lost consciousness.