But Ootsuka didn’t seem to care about the details, so when I pretended not to know what we were talking about either, she immediately shifted her interest to Shiika.
“Then let’s get started! Shi, Eripon, Nokki, ManaMana, nice to see you all!”
“Eripon…? We’re practically meeting for the first time, aren’t we? Of course, I think we both know of each other by reputation, though…”
“Yeah! This is our first time talking face-to-face!”
“But you’ve already come up with a nickname for me?”
“Well, yeah! We’re friends! If you don’t like Eripon, we can use something else. Eririn or something.”
“Ah… Er… Eripon’s fine.”
Shibuya accepted Ootsuka’s nickname for her with a bitter grin of defeat.
Beside her, Komae was grinning wryly, too.
“Wow, even Erio can give in to pressure sometimes. Looks like I have no choice but to answer to Nokki, too. Er…Mana?”
“Hee-hee… Hee-hee-hee! Fine. Being given a nickname by the one and only Ootsuka is major! For the sake of future connections…!”
Akiba’s eyes seemed to burn with passion. Yes, she’d do anything to capitalize on another’s gains.
Incredibly vulgar. Even Komae, who was usually quite forgiving when it came to girls, looked revolted.
But Ootsuka gives out nicknames willy-nilly, so wouldn’t it be more special to be one of the rare few she actually addresses by name? She was like a natural-born extrovert, someone with hundreds of friends, a slut for friendship, if you will… Still, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing or anything.
As I stood there stunned by the rift in values between myself and the popular Ootsuka, I realized she had grabbed Shiika’s hand at one point and was now getting her started in some flexibility exercises.
“See, see, Shi? You have to squeeze harder. Your body won’t break.”
“Mmm. Impossible. Already at my limit.”
“You’re not even trying to bend! It’s okay, it’s okay. I swear you can do it! Come on! Squeeze!”
“Ah… Tatsu… Can you be gentler…?”
“What?! You’re at your limit already?”
“Limit? I’m about to snap.”
“I’ve never seen anyone so stiff in my life…”
The angle between her butt on the floor and her back was almost ninety degrees. Shiika couldn’t bend forward any more, and even the positivity-monster Ootsuka wore a slightly deflated expression.
Shiika might look like an adorable, soft, floppy toy, but her body was extremely stiff.
Any way you slice it, she was a soft, weak creature (actually, her soft skin and amount of body fat were that of any normal girl’s), but her joints and muscles were stiff and rigid.
“Shiika almost never leaves the house, and her posture is bad… I think her physical age is probably that of a thirty-year-old.”
“Hey, now, don’t say that,” Ootsuka said.
“Nah, it’s about what we can hope for. Right, Shiika?”
“Mmm, yeah… I feel like a sprightly grandma.”
“Uh… Okay… Well, never mind! We all have our weaknesses!”
Shiika confessed to be well beyond the physical age of thirty. And Ootsuka accepted it with a smile, biting back a potential retort.
She had excellent people skills. She could change a negative situation into a positive one in seconds.
“Guh… Ngh! Muh!”
“Whoa. ManaMana, you’re incredibly stiff, too.”
“It’s not like…I’m proud of it… I’ve never been good at forward bends, not since elementary school…”
“I see, I see. So ManaMana’s another grandma… Well, I have to work with what I’ve got!”
“Gwah?!”
Ootsuka’s carefree smile seemed to hit Akiba like a dagger to the chest, and for a second, Akiba’s eyes rolled back in her head.
“Don’t call me a grandma! That’s so rude! I’m a fresh-as-a-daisy high school girl, I’ll have you know!”
“Fresh-as-a-Daisy High? I haven’t heard of that school. What are you, an old alumni reliving her glory days?” Ootsuka responded.
“Huh? What? What are you talking about? It’s an expression! Are you saying I look old?”
“Super old,” I said.
Akiba stiffened, stunned, as I interjected from the side. I thought it was pretty funny, to be honest.
“Grrr! Grandma? You think I’m going to stand for that?! Grrrr…!”
“Oh, look, ManaMana is giving it another try! Go for it!”
Ootsuka cheered as Akiba tried to bend forward again, her face contorted in agony as she stretched herself beyond her body’s limits. Ootsuka even jumped on Akiba’s back and pushed down, clearly trying to encourage her, but Akiba just screamed: “Ouch! Don’t do that! You’re gonna break my spine!”
Still, I wasn’t quite sure why Akiba was so upset.
She’s a vulture who leeches off other people’s success, and though she might talk big, she has never composed a single song. Despite that, she’s prideful and seems to get easily embarrassed over things others would barely flinch at.
One day I’d like to ask Akiba where exactly she drew the line on what she considered shameful.
“One, two, three… Oh my, what are we even doing?”
“I think I can easily predict what comes next.”
In total contrast, Shibuya and Komae made for a beautiful, calm, and flexible duo.
Shibuya’s long hair, with its contrasting black and gray locks, was spread out smoothly on the floor. The casual athleisure she wore showed off her lines and curves and her toned body that was like a leopard’s.
She was a diva who believed in the importance of physical appearance, and she put her money where her mouth was, too.
We finished the flexibility exercises, although it was like night and day among the two camps.
Finally, Tatsuki Ootsuka, top student in the Dance Department, began our lesson.
During our initial talk, I told her I wanted her to teach us the basics above all else.
For Shibuya and Komae, that might have been a bit low-level. But I needed to get Shiika’s stats up to at least level one. So we had no choice but to start off easy with the absolute basics.
“Okay, everyone, eyes on me! The world’s most easy-to-understand dance lesson is about to begin!”
Whoo. Clap, clap.
Shiika, Shibuya, and Akiba applauded listlessly. No one could keep up with Ootsuka’s level of enthusiasm, but she didn’t seem fazed, and she plunged ahead anyway.
“First, to learn how to dance, you need to know the four basics. Now, the first one is… Does anyone know?”
“Rhythm.”
“Shi is correct! Rhythm is important, super important!”
Ootsuka clapped loudly.
Shiika blushed, almost as if she was happy to have gotten it right.
“And what else?”
“We just did it. Stretching, that’s essential, right?”
“Eripon is correct! Actually, the flexibility exercise just now was already part of the basic training!”
“Basic? That’s considered basic?!” Akiba voiced her indignation.