He thought back on what had happened in the classroom the other day — Yanagisawa must have noticed Yuichi throwing the tactical pen.
He let Aiko go on ahead and the two of them moved to a corner of the hallway. From here, as long as they kept their voices down, no one would be able to hear them.
“So, what did you want to talk about?” Yuichi asked.
“Chiharu Dannoura.”
“Wait, what?”
“You know her, right?”
“Sure I do, but what about her?”
“Break up with her.”
“Huh?” Yuichi was at a loss for how to respond.
“You know I love Chihiro!” the boy declared.
“No, I don’t! This is the first time I’ve ever talked to you! And I can’t break up with her, anyway!”
“I see... I’ll have to resort to force, then.” Yanagisawa’s eyes immediately narrowed. Yuichi felt his malice like a tangible thing.
“No, I don’t mean it like that!” he said impatiently. “I can’t break up because we’re not dating. We’re not romantically involved.”
“Really?!” Yanagisawa’s face lit up immediately. He was apparently the extremely simple type.
“What in the world made you think that we were?” Yuichi asked.
“Chiharu told me that you were in her harem.”
“That’s defamation of character. I’m inclined to sue.”
“I know you’re surrounded by women all the time. The thought of Chiharu ending up with a playboy like you... but I guess there’s no fear of that, right?”
“None at all. So, you and Dannoura know each other?”
“We were childhood friends,” Yanagisawa said. “Both our families run old dojos, and they get along.”
“Oh, well, I’ll do whatever I can to help!” Yuichi said.
It was annoying having Chiharu talking about him being in her harem. Maybe if he could get these two together, that would stop.
“Really? After I ambushed you? Wow, you must really be a good guy! I had no idea!”
“Well, we’d never talked, so I guess you wouldn’t.”
“Talk to you another time! I’d better go.” Yanagisawa left Yuichi and went back into the classroom.
“Well, I’m glad it wasn’t anything serious,” Yuichi whispered in relief.
A voice spoke up behind him. “It’s not happening, by the way.”
Yuichi looked in the direction of the voice. Ende was standing there, wearing the uniform of Seishin High School.
“Um, why are you here?” he asked.
“I transferred.”
“That was fast!”
“Well, it was easy enough.”
“So what did you mean, ‘It’s not happening’?”
“Events are going to unfold around the two of them so that Chiharu ends up fighting Yanagisawa... at least, that’s what it says in this book. Want to read it?” Ende offered him a paperback she was holding.
“One of your books about the future, huh? But it’s not set in stone, right?”
“Guess not. The smallest things can change the future, so they’re not actually that reliable.” But even as Ende said that, Yuichi couldn’t help but feel like it must be their destiny to fight.
As he was stewing over what to do, the warning bell for the start of class sounded, and Yuichi raced into the classroom.
During lunch break, Yuichi headed to the cafeteria to buy himself a meal.
He was buying some bread when he found Shota Saeki at his side.
“You didn’t bring a lunch, Saeki?” Yuichi asked.
“Nah... actually, I wanted to talk to you about something.”
“Sure thing. What’s on your mind?”
Shota sat in the seat in front of Yuichi in class. The guy could probably talk to him at any time, so there was something strangely cryptic about his behavior.
Yuichi and Shota both bought bread and headed for the courtyard, where they found a bench and sat down.
“So, what is it?” Yuichi asked. “Something we can’t talk about in the classroom, I guess?”
“I’m not quite sure how to start. It might not make any sense, and you might think I’m crazy, but...”
“Go ahead, try me. You know how my sister is. I’m used to people saying crazy things. No matter how weird it is, I won’t make fun of you or anything without hearing the whole story.”
Shota was a pretty cheerful guy, but he wasn’t the type to make up something outrageous. Yuichi felt confident in promising that he could hear him out to the end.
“I was visited by aliens.”
“Uh?”
“You are making fun of me!”
“No, I wasn’t making fun, it was just a really surprising thing to hear,” Yuichi said. “Keep going.”
“Yesterday after we finished practice, aliens showed up on the field.”
“Okay, I’m not making fun of you, but what made you think they were aliens?”
“The UFO, I guess? They came in a flying saucer.”
“Uh-huh.”
“And then aliens came out.”
“What did they look like?”
“Just like Earthlings. Their skin was a little bluer, I guess. It was night, though, so I’m not totally sure.”
“And these aliens came all the way from space to visit Seishin High’s athletic field? What did they want?”
“Yeah, you are making fun of me!”
“No, I’m not. So, these aliens. What did they want?”
“Apparently they came to invade Earth.”
“Sounds like Earth’s done for, then,” Yuichi said. “I don’t know where they came from, but there’s no way we can fight anyone who has space travel technology.”
“Actually, from what they said, there’s a sort of space federation type of thing out there, and they’re a part of it, which means they’re forbidden from going to war. Instead, they want to settle it with a small-scale competition with a specific set of rules.”
“I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere before...”
“So now we need to play soccer against aliens,” Shota said. “I don’t know what to do. It feels weird having the fate of the Earth riding on my legs.”
“Yeah, that sounds tough.” Yuichi didn’t know what else to say.
“Well, I really did meet aliens, but when I hear myself explain it, I’m not sure I believe it either. Thanks for hearing me out to the end anyway.” With that, Shota stood up. It seemed like getting to say it all aloud had let him sort it out in his mind.