Before I knew it, a girl in a tracksuit was running alongside me. Part of me still assumed she was a hallucination, and I reached out towards her on impulse. I couldn’t even begin to guess about her thought process at that moment, but for whatever reason she grabbed my hand, and we ended up exchanging a mid-sprint handshake. Meaning I touched her; meaning she was real.
“Kazuki? What’re you doing here?!”
It was indeed Kazuki Rena, a kouhai of mine at Oumei High and ace of the track team. We went to the same school, so it made sense that we’d seen each other, but by all rights a no-clubber like me wouldn’t come into contact with her much at all. We had one other point of contact, though: my best friend, who also happened to be her first love. We’d talked a few times on account of that. Actually, we’d just talked about how she’d given up on said first love pretty darn recently, and things were definitely a bit awkward between us as a result.
“I’m doing some road running! Are you working out too, Senpai? Talk about a coincidence! I’ll run with you!”
“Sorry, who’re you talking to right now?!”
“My senpai! Duuuh!”
“Then don’t you think you should, I dunno, ask?! Respect your elders, lady!”
“You think? But we’re talking about running! You don’t need words to communicate with a fellow runner!”
“So what, you ambush every other runner you happen to come across?”
“Aha ha ha, you’re such a kidder! I don’t think I’m ambushing anyone, really. And besides, I only talk to people who’re running at my pace! Running with a slowpoke would really mess up my rhythm.”
“You can be pretty harsh, huh...?” I guess that’s only to be expected from a girl who’s famous in the track-and-field world on a national level. Supposedly, bigwigs in the business had great expectations for her future.
“And on that subject, you’re actually the first person I’ve talked to like this!”
“Yeah right!”
“No, for real, totally serious! And speaking of, you’re running at a real nice pace, Senpai! You should’ve told me you could run like this sooner!” Kazuki grinned as she ran beside me, looking pleased yet laid-back in spite of the sweat that was dripping down her face. We were actually running at a really notable speed. There wasn’t anyone else around to compare it to, but most likely, we were moving faster than most people could pedal a bike. In that sense, Kazuki and I were both solidly abnormal.
Could it be? Is my mana back?
Using mana had been like breathing for me back when I was a Hero. I couldn’t actually cast magic with it in any real capacity, of course, but I could channel it to enhance my physical abilities. Ever since I returned to this world, though, I’d been unable to refresh my mana reserves. My gas tank was stuck on empty in perpetuity, and my physical abilities were dropped down to a normal human level (albeit an abnormally well-trained one). I fit into the average high school student framework to the bitter end.
Plus, I’d only just recently used my magic in spite of being in that mana-less state, and I’d been completely incapacitated by the backlash! And yet there I was, running along at that ridiculous pace without even feeling especially tired. The logical conclusion was that, somehow, my mana had been replenished.
But, how? And when...?
“Senpai? Lost in thought? Guess this is pretty easy for you after all!”
“Like you’re one to talk—do you know how fast you’re running? It’s unbelievable!” With my mana recovered, I’d regained my former superhuman physical abilities, and yet Kazuki was keeping up with me like it was nothing. I wondered for a moment if she was in the same sort of position as me, but I wasn’t sensing any sort of magic vibes from her at all. In other words, she was genuinely, naturally that fast. Is this girl really even human?
“Sounds like you’re makin’ fun of me,” she replied. “I’m going pretty all out, for the record! This is the first time since I got into high school that I’ve felt like I might lose! Actually, make that the first time, period!”
“You sound, uhh, pretty happy about that.”
“Well, duh! It’s the first time I’ve found someone who can actually compete with me! I always thought that the only person I’d ever get to try and exceed was myself!”
“Oof, yup, sounding like a real prodigy there!” That sounds like the sort of thing you’d accidentally alienate your best friend by saying in middle school! They’d get snippy and be all “you’ll meet someone faster than you in no time!” But regardless, my speed was more or less a cheat. By this world’s standards I was effectively doping, and her ecstatic smile made me feel profoundly guilty.
“Hey, Senpai, why not join the track team? If you can run like this, you’ll do great things for the team, no question about it! The two of us could team up and aim for the top of the track-and-field world together!”
“Are there even any track events that let guys and girls team up?”
“I dunno, three-legged race?”
“That’s a field day event!”
“Let’s aim for the top of our school’s field days together!”
“Are you really okay with scaling down your ambitions like that?” Bantering with her was throwing my mind way off track. I didn’t have the time to be chattering like that in the first place. My first priority was to catch the old man, beat the ever-loving crap out of him and take vengeance for my first kiss! I felt a bit bad for Kazuki, but accomplishing that goal meant speeding up. My magically enhanced abilities would blink out the second my mana was exhausted, and I had to catch him before I hit that time limit.
“Oooh, picking up the pace, eh? All right, I like it! Let’s do this!”
It did not go as planned. I figured I could pull away from her, but she let out a carefree shout and kept pace with me perfectly.
“Okay, seriously, what the hell’s your deal?!”
“Man, you’re really something, Senpai! Here I am, thinking that I’m getting used to your pace, and you speed up at the perfect moment!”
“I didn’t do it for you!” I couldn’t tell how fast we were going, but it felt like we could race a car. I could feel myself closing in on my target, too. But then there was Kazuki.
“Oh wow, the wind feels great!” She closed her eyes and shouted with rapturous glee. She accused me of taking it easy earlier, but it felt like she was having an even easier time than I was. “Oh, by the way, Senpai?”
I hesitated. What now? “Yeah?”
“Don’t suppose you’d mind if I ask you what your name is?”
Two largely contradictory thoughts flashed through my head simultaneously: Wow, that was abrupt, and It took her this long to ask?! “Why’re you asking this now?”
“’Cause I need your name to fill out the club registration form.”
“You’re planning on making me join the track team by force?!”
“Duh! I wouldn’t be able to sleep at night if I let someone with legs like yours get left by the wayside! I’d be doing a disservice to all the track-and-field fans all around the world!”
“Then I guess you’d better be ready for some sleep deprivation!” Probably quite a lot of it, considering just how many fans there were all around the world. If making sure I didn’t get forced out of a rom-com world and into a sports drama one meant that Kazuki had to become an insomniac, then so be it.
The idea was even less appealing considering that extras in sports dramas are well known to have it incredibly rough, even by sidekick standards. They have to show up to their club just as often as the main-character squad and go through all the same stupidly brutal training, but somehow they still never seem to get any screen time! And it goes without saying that they absolutely never end up on the field during games, so they never get the chance to show off the fruits of their labor.
The only time they have any presence is when they’re on the bench during the big-game scenes and get to shout out the names of the main-character squad’s special moves. The only exception’s when the series is about to wrap up, and they get to take the field for a single brief, fleeting moment. It’s like a cameo appearance—nobody actually cares if they do well or not, and it’s over an instant later.