“Sagara?!”
“Hrgh... nnkh...” Terrified and confused, Kousuke spat and choked violently as soil and sand came sprinkling down around him.
“There he goes again. What did he blow up that time?”
“Looks like he stepped on his own mine.”
“Sagara’s definitely acting weird today...”
The observing students in their athletic outfits came to surround him, nevertheless keeping their distance.
“Wh-What in the world was that?!” Kousuke cried torturously, sitting up from where he’d been lying flat on the ground.
“What do you think? A landmine,” said one member of the audience—Chidori Kaname, also in her gym clothes. It looked like the girls, who had been in handball class, had also heard the commotion and come to see what was going on.
“A l-landmine?” he stuttered. “What is something so dangerous doing at a school?! Who put it there?!”
“You did, of course!” Kaname strode right up to him and laid him out flat, without showing an ounce of concern or care.
“Geh...”
“You buried them all around the flower bed, talking about crime prevention or something! And after I told you time and again to get rid of them, you still left some behind?! Give me a break already!”
“But I seriously didn’t—”
“And the fact that you triggered your own landmine is proof that you’ve completely forgotten about it,” she continued. “Are you trying to turn our school into rural Cambodia or something?!”
“I d-don’t know! I’m—”
“Oh, shut up!” Kaname hit him while he was already down, then pointed at a distant flower bed. “If you look closely, you can see small cylinders that look like landmines buried here and there like bulbs! Get rid of them right now!”
“Y-You have to be kidding me!” Kousuke spluttered. “Why should I—”
“You buried them, didn’t you?! Take a little bit of personal responsibility! You stupid little...” she growled, continuing to kick him.
“It hurts! It hurts!” Kousuke wailed as he rolled around under the force of her assault.
It was the established punishment for students of Jindai High School. The other students merely watched from afar, saying, “Here we go again.”
●
Meanwhile, Sousuke was still in the studio.
The various people on site had done their best to soothe the enraged photographer, but the job simply couldn’t go on. Shinomiya-sensei had eventually stormed out, claiming he would never work with their agency again, which caused an awkward air to hang over the venue.
“I told you to be polite with him!” his manager, Kotomi, told Sousuke in the greenroom while fuming. “We poured a ton of effort and money into securing that photographer! In addition to costs, rights, and the contract, we must have spent at least twenty-five million! Twenty-five million! You hear me?!”
“That’s the cost of one Hellfire Missile,” Sousuke informed her.
“Stop saying so many strange things! Honestly...”
At that moment, a man just shy of fifty years old entered the greenroom, dressed in an expensive suit. “Is Kousuke here?!” he demanded.
“Yes...” Kotomi trailed off and froze up at the sight of the man, whose face was twisted in rage, bright red and fuming.
The moment he saw Sousuke, he strode right up to him. “I heard everything, Kousuke! Do you have some kind of problem?! Have you forgotten everything I did to bring you this far?! Why in the world would you possibly— Wagh!”
Sousuke had grabbed the man’s arm, thrown him hard onto the floor, and thrust his pistol into his face. “You chose the wrong man to attack,” he told him coldly.
“Eek!”
“Tell me,” Sousuke demanded. “Who hired you?”
Before he could answer, Kotomi screamed, “Mr. Director!”
“Director?” Sousuke frowned. Staring in disbelief at his now pale-faced opponent, the director of the talent agency he worked for, he whispered, “You did seem awfully weak and craven for an assassin...”
“H-How dare you!” bellowed the director.
A panicking Kotomi tried to interpose herself between the furious director and Sousuke.
●
Meanwhile, Kousuke was still at Jindai High.
“I’ve... I’ve had enough...” Exhausted from the violence inflicted upon his person by both the antipersonnel mine and Kaname, he sat slumped in his classroom seat. It felt like the end of the day would never come, and he wanted to get as far away from this dangerous school as possible. If he stayed here much longer, he might not make it out alive.
Watching him from afar, the students of the class continued to whisper about him.
“It really is strange.”
“I’ve never seen him so exhausted before.”
“Were Kana-chan’s punishments that hard on him?”
Just then, the classroom door opened with a bang. “Sagara!”
“Eh?”
A short young man was standing in the door. He wore a short uniform jacket and a bandanna, and his eyes were bloodshot.
“Oh, Tsubaki-kun. Come for another death match?” Kyoko waved to him.
But the student in question—Tsubaki Issei—didn’t seem to notice any of the other students present as he swiftly strode up to Kousuke. “Trying to give me the slip again?! I know I gave you that letter of challenge!”
“What? Um—”
“No more fussing over the location! I’ll kill you right here and now!”
“Wait—”
Smash! Issei’s fist hit him cleanly. Kousuke went flying, carrying his desk and seat with him.
“Er... What?” Even Issei was surprised by how well his attack had gone, and stared back and forth between his fist and Kousuke. “What’s your game, Sagara?”
“Urk... I... guh...”
“Are you mocking me?” Issei demanded. “Are you saying my fist isn’t even worth dodging?!”
“Hrk... hrr...”
Issei grabbed Kousuke by the collar and squeezed mercilessly. “Fine! Then I’ll hit you until you take me seriously!”
“P-Please don’t—”
“Too late. Here I go!”
Crash, bam, pow! Tha-thump! A four-hit combo lashed out as Issei unleashed a flurry of punches against Kousuke, who’d slid down the wall to the floor. For the finishing blow, Issei hit him with his special technique, the Pampas-Growing Rock.
“Gwuh!” Blood sprayed from Kousuke’s mouth as his HP gauge hit zero in an instant. The sight of him slumping limply on the ground made Issei feel even more suspicious, but he wasn’t about to let up just over that. Instead, he interpreted it as more mockery, which caused his anger to only burn hotter. “Damn you,” he snarled. “You still don’t want to fight?!”
“No... please don’t... kill me...”
“Then lie there and die! I’ll give you the move I mastered just last week after pouring blood, sweat, and tears into my training! Haaaah! Daidomyaku Style ultimate technique! Piercing... Iron... Blow— Hey, cut it out! Let me go!” Issei had charged up his fighting spirit and was about to dish out another extremely dangerous move when Kaname and the others, unable to watch, pinioned him from behind and dragged him away.
Fluorescent lights on a white ceiling... Kousuke woke up in the nurse’s office.
“Looks like you’re finally awake.”
“Eh?”
Chidori Kaname was sitting in a folding chair next to his bed. It was the same girl who had beaten him up during gym class. But right now, there was none of that aura of violence about her. In fact, she looked worried about him. “I’ve been watching you all day... seriously, what’s going on?”
“What? Well...”
“I figured you were just tired from your real job, but if you’re seriously in trouble, you need to tell me.” She looked at him meekly. “You don’t like to make excuses, I know that. But... I feel kind of left out. You really don’t trust me enough to let me in on this?”
Kousuke had only just met her, yet he felt his heart skip a beat. Hey, now. She’s a nice girl after all. And now I get to be alone with her in the nurse’s office, with her doting on me... Is it possible she even has feelings for me? he wondered.
“That’s it! This is what I wanted!” he whispered to himself. These sweet moments after class—delicate, fleeting exchanges with the opposite sex. There were no scriptwriters or directors here. Just him and this girl, trading shy words and glances.
This is it! I’m finally writing this page of my youth! Kousuke sat up, his heart soaring. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to leave you out.” This might be the girlfriend of the boy whose place I’m taking... but what do I care? I can’t let this chance slip by!
For the first time, Kousuke tried to earnestly remember how his double spoke, and replicate it. How did that boy—Sagara Sousuke—speak, again? How did he look at people? And did he speak so timidly? No, he spoke forcefully! It’s no wonder they were suspicious of me... I have to pull back the reins on my excitement and think before I speak. That’s right! I’m an actor, after all!
“It’s true... I have been acting strangely today. You’re correct,” he said slowly, lowering his voice.
“But then...”
“I didn’t mean to make you worry.” Kousuke stared straight at Kaname, projecting an expression of 120% seriousness. “I’ve never been able to tell you this, but... Kaname. I love you.”
“What?” asked Kaname, her face flushing red.
“I’ve loved you since the first moment I met you,” he went on. “You’re the only one for me. The only person who can heal my battered heart...”
“Hang on... this is all really sudden,” Kaname said, flustered.
Kousuke gently put his hands on her shoulders. “The timing doesn’t matter, does it?”
“B-But...”
He gently moved a hand to the back of her neck, and moved his lips toward hers. She trembled a little bit, but didn’t attempt to resist. “No...”
“No?” His lips drew closer to hers.