Jinnai Enta was the kind of kid who tried to uphold the rules. The entire world seemed to run on rules, and there were consequences for breaking them. In soccer, for instance, which he completely devoted himself to, you could be kicked off the field for violating the rules.
But, right after they finished their early practice this morning, the soccer team’s adviser delivered some shocking news.
“What’s this about you quitting the team?! You haven’t said anything to me about this!” Enta blurted in a rush, still dressed in his practice uniform with a ball in his arms.
“I figured I’d talk to you about it later,” said Kazuki.
“What, update me after the fact?! Aren’t we supposed to be the Golden Duo? We have been ever since we were kids!”
Kazuki was making that same bitter face he always did when he heard the words “Golden Duo.” Here we go again, Enta thought.
They’d taken the term from a soccer manga that was popular years ago. Of course, Enta hadn’t known about the manga during its publishing run; he spent his childhood overseas due to his parents’ jobs. He was pretty sure he only heard about it from his soccer-loving older sister. When he discovered the series, he became enamored with it, and was soon after knee-deep in playing the sport itself.
“Good morning! Homeroom is about to begin!” The boundlessly cheerful voice of their classroom teacher, Jinnai Otone, preceded her into the classroom. This hot-blooded adviser to the Asakusa Sara soccer club was also Enta’s older sister. “Ah, hey, Jinnai! Haven’t I told you repeatedly to change into your uniform after morning practice?!”
“Ugh, Sis,” Enta grumbled. “Now’s not the time for that, okay?!”
“That’s Ms. Jinnai to you, so long as we’re at school!”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry!” he said, defeated.
“One ‘okay’ is more than enough, thank you!”
His usual banter with his sister cut off his previous conversation, so Enta reluctantly slunk over and took his seat in front of Kazuki. “I won’t accept this, just so you know,” he told him, his tone confident and proud, befitting Kazuki’s childhood friend.
The truth was, Enta knew deep down that it was unlikely he would be able to change Kazuki’s mind. Maybe what he really needed to do was be a more assertive presence in Kazuki’s life. But their friendship and his position as Kazuki’s childhood friend meant as much to him as soccer; it was a field he didn’t want to be kicked off.
“Now, allow me to introduce the new transfer student!” said Otone.
That was odd. Transfer students didn’t usually come this late in the year. Enta briefly glanced at the podium but immediately lost interest. A cute girl might have been one thing, but the person standing there was an unsociable-looking boy. He had a black hoodie pulled over his uniform, with a rigid belt and crude lace-up boots. You could tell with one look that he was a delinquent, best to be avoided.
“This is Kuji Toi-kun. Be nice and get along with him, everyone! ♪”
Like that’s gonna happen. He’s not even interested in greeting us, Enta thought, taking out his irritation from earlier on the transfer student. But then a loud sound rang out behind him.
Ga-thunk!
When he glanced back, he found Kazuki wearing a look of shock as he stared ahead at the podium.
“Kazuki?” Enta said. He had a bad feeling about this. And his bad feelings had a habit of being right.
Both Kazuki and the delinquent uttered the same words, words that were more than enough to plunge Enta further into the pit of foreboding.
“It…wasn’t a dream?!”
The boy from Kazuki’s dream transferred into the same class as him. If they were a man and woman, this might have set them on the path of a delightfully otherworldly romantic comedy, but the unfortunate reality seemed more like an enemy encounter with a very-much-in-this-world delinquent wielding a ruler. Said delinquent seemed to remember Kazuki’s face as well, and the last thing Kazuki wanted was to be blackmailed by him.
Hmm. For some reason his throat felt awfully dry today. During their recess, he purchased a bottle of water from the school canteen, opened the cap, and—
Ching!
A faint, refreshing sound chimed in his ears. Gluk, gluk, gluk, gluk…
Kazuki couldn’t help the sigh that slipped past his lips after he dumped the cold liquid over the top of his head. “Aahh…”
Beside him, the transfer student from earlier, Toi, was also bathing himself in water at the same time.
“Aaahh…” they both said together.
The otherworldly string of events continued.
Their next period was gym. As Kazuki stood in front of the vaulting box, he heard that sound once again echo in his ear. Ching!
In the next moment, both he and Toi stomped hard on the ground, their legs splayed wide apart like sumo wrestlers, chanting, “Dosukoi!”
Enta stared at the two of them as if they were aliens from another planet.
Ching!
The next time Kazuki heard the noise, he was in the school kitchen, chomping on a cucumber. “Otherworldly” no longer did the situation justice; they were entering full sci-fi territory here.
For better or worse, at least he wasn’t going through it alone. Toi, the delinquent, had his back pressed against Kazuki’s as he munched away on a cucumber, too. The two boys turned at the same time, and their eyes met. In unison, they exclaimed, “Something is calling to us!”
Scene 2
“TIME FOR THE NEXT news item, dish! ✩ This morning, the kappa statue in the shopping district was found broken. Ka-klink!”
An old woman sat in front of the television—which featured Azuma Sara’s offhanded news delivery—with a gaudy bandana wrapped around her head, hands pressed firmly together. The room she occupied was built in the traditional Japanese style: a tatami-floored living space sectioned off by sliding paper doors, leading outside into a vibrant garden. Adorning its interior was a chaotic spread of Asakusa performing arts and soccer memorabilia. The former was her hobby, while the latter reflected the hobbies of her grandchildren—an older girl and a younger boy.
One of those grandchildren was Enta, who was currently mumbling to himself as he gazed down at a box that just arrived. The large exterior box made the tiny one tucked inside seem even smaller. Contained within the latter was a friendship bracelet made of knotted red embroidery floss.
“Ugh. I went to the trouble of buying this, but now what do I do with it? I knew it might take a while, but I really believed he would come back eventually.”
When Kazuki first began taking a break from club activities, Enta hadn’t pushed him to come back. He tried to be understanding of Kazuki’s feelings, but believed that, eventually, time would fix everything.
“Kazuki sure was strange today, though. Was it because of that delinquent transfer student? Actually, it seemed like they knew each other. That jerk, what was he doing going off on his own and getting involved with a creep like that, anyway?”
On the television screen, Sara was getting all pumped up after having shattered a glass bottle. “The Asakusa police don’t currently have any leads on the vandals and are still investigating,” she said. “Hmph! ✩”
“I bet the culprits will have their shirikodama plucked right out of them by Kappa-sama,” the old woman remarked.
Unfamiliar with the term she used, Enta echoed back, “Hm? What’s a shirikodama?”
“It’s an organ located within a person’s anus,” his grandmother told him. “Back when I was a little girl, our parents used to warn us that if we were bad, Kappa-sama would come and pluck out our shirikodama.”
Enta struggled desperately to imagine his grandmother’s “younger years,” but his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Otone throwing open the sliding door.
“Enta! You wasted your money again, didn’t you? I see that box. What did you buy this time?!”
“It’s not what you think! This is for Kazuki,” he explained.
It would be his older sister who caught him, of all people. Enta developed a bad habit of spending too much money on online shopping. This was different, though. And now that his sister knew—his nosy, gossip-guzzling, rumor-loving sister—it was only a matter of time before she leaked it to Kazuki. If Enta was going to give him a friendship bracelet, then he wanted to do it on his own terms, when he deemed it appropriate. And that time was not right now!
“N-no way…” The menacing look on Otone’s face disappeared as her eyes widened in shock, staring at something behind Enta.
He followed her gaze. The box, which had moments ago been sitting atop the tatami, now floated in the air. It whizzed right out of the room and through the garden, disappearing instantly.
“W-wait! That’s my box!”
Ching! Ching!
Kazuki and Toi returned to the plaza where they first met that morning. There was no mistake: that strange noise they’d been hearing was definitely coming from here. Yet other passersby seemed entirely deaf to it.
“So no one else can hear it, huh…” Toi mumbled.
“We’ve been cursed by Kappa-sama,” said Kazuki, “for breaking the statue.”
“There’s no such thing as curses.”
The plaza had yellow tape reading “Keep Out” strewn across it, and the area around the broken kappa statue looked like a sectioned-off crime scene.
Ching! Ching!
“If the police catch us, we’ll get arrested, won’t we?” Kazuki asked.
“The heck am I going to get caught by the cops!”
Kazuki squeezed his box tightly in his arms and shouted back, “I don’t want to either! Not if it means I won’t be able to connect with them anymore!”
Bwoooosh! Suddenly, smoke started spilling from the broken kappa statue’s splintered buttocks.
“Something’s coming!” Kazuki exclaimed.
“A fart?!”
In the next instant, the statue’s beak flapped open, triggering an enormous explosion.
Once again, the two boys screamed in unison, “What the heck is thiiiiis?!”
“Good morning!”
As the smoke gradually cleared away, the haze lifted from their minds.
“We had this same exchange…” Toi began to say.
Kazuki finished, “…this morning.”
“I’ve been waiting for you two, ribbit.” Atop the pedestal, previously occupied by the kappa statue, now stood a new object—a large, white, round piece of mochi. “I am the Kappa Crown Prince, Keppi, ribbit.” The strange noise they’d been hearing all day was coming from the mochi, echoing off its head as it struck itself with a cucumber. “I erased your memories of this morning, ribbit.”
“You erased our memories?”
“Yes, com-plate-ly.” The mochi gave a jiggle as it moved, bringing its drowsy eyes and beak into focus.