Kokoro Connect

Chapter 1 - A Love Confession by Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi

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Chapter 1 - A Love Confession by Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi

The appearance of «Heartseed», and the occurrence of aberrant phenomena——These events may serve as valid reasons for distress. However, only a coward would use them as excuses.

Not to mention, they had sworn together.

As long as they keep it under control, they would overcome it together. And then, if possible, make it truly the end.

Their countermeasure was to continue living normally.

It had already been a week since then. Nothing has happened so far, so there shouldn"t be any problem.

In order to not fall behind everyone else, he too treated his current situation as part of his reality and went about his life as usual.

Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi had come to his resolution.

Today, he would end his half-hearted situation with his own hands. He will not allow himself to remain spoiled any longer.

The day was the thirteenth of February, one day before Valentine"s Day.

This was his personal deadline.

Gifting chocolate on Valentine"s Day is a special tradition thanks to the efforts of j.a.panese confectionery making and retailing industry.

There are occasions where people would give chocolate to their friends or simply have some for themselves, but between boys and girls, this tradition holds a single, significant meaning.

Fourteenth of February, Valentine"s Day——the day when girls would present their feelings to the boys of their affection through their gift.

Two girls had shown their affection towards Taichi.

If he doesn"t resolve it before the fourteenth, he would most likely receive two presents.

As a man, Taichi could not tolerate himself doing nothing while being fully aware of such a fact, and pa.s.sively await the arrival of the fourteenth.

He must give an answer.

Hence, he asked the person of his affection to meet him behind the east school building after school.

He was worried that the other CRC members would hear him, but it seemed that he was overthinking it... at least he hoped that is the case.

And now.

That person was standing in front of Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi.

"The... timing might be inopportune, but I don"t think it matters anymore... I must say it now... No, I mean I must tell you now."

As Taichi finished, the other responded "Okay" with a light nod.

His heart began racing.

His feet quivered and his mouth became numb.

His chest wrenched; he felt like he was about to throw up.

Foo... Taichi let out a deep breath. He readied himself for the greatest challenge in his life.

He looked forward.

Don"t run away, make up your mind, he told himself in his mind.

Fight.

Then, he spoke.

He spoke once more the words that he had spoken before to Nagase Iori.

"I... I love you and I"m still sure of it. Therefore, would you... go out with me?"

He said it.

He finally said it.

Taichi said it——the words that carried a different weight than before, he finally said them.

He moved forward, and confronted his once-in-a-lifetime challenge.

Now, he could only wait, and see how the other would respond.

Nagase heard his words and lowered her head, as if to hide her expression.

Then, she turned around, facing Taichi with her back.

Would she accept my feelings? Would she consider my confession?

Taichi thought to himself.

They had come a long way.

It had been a long time since he first confessed to her. He should have come to this point sooner. How long had he made her wait? Thinking that he had been such an embarra.s.sment, Taichi could never bring himself to say "Free me from this suspense, please give me an answer." or anything of that sort.

Taichi remained silent, and fixated his gaze upon Nagase.

Her back view was beautiful.

Her tied hair looked sweet and pet.i.te.

Her happy, angry, sorrowful, and joyful look. Nagase possessed more expressions than anyone else that no one would ever get tired of.

However, what Taichi truly loved was her smile, which was as bright as the sun.

"——I"m sorry."

Nagase murmured something.

But Taichi didn"t hear her properly.

"Eh?"

"...I"m really sorry."

...Sorry?

She said "sorry", what did she mean?

"...I cannot... go out with you, Taichi."

He couldn"t believe it.

He didn"t want to believe it.

The confession was not sudden——both of them had already exchanged their feelings before.

Didn"t Nagase... have feelings for Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi?

"I keep feeling that... this isn"t right. So... about what I"ve said before... that I love Taichi, please... pretend it never happened."

That was the final blow to Taichi.

No glossing over, no escaping. Taichi couldn"t feel anything even though he was aware of the situation. His mind went blank.

"...I"ll be going."

Nagase left these words, and began to walk away quickly.

Wait.

Why?

A thousand words raced through his head, but Taichi couldn"t get his mouth to work.

"...W-Wh... Why? Nagase!"

Words finally came through.

Was it pitiful for him to say that? But Taichi had to ask.

Nagase stopped, and said in a shaking voice:

"...I...I..."

But she did not finish the sentence.

Before she spoke again——

[ This isn"t right. I"m not the kind of person Taichi thinks I am. ]

Nagase"s inner voice echoed clearly, without doubt, in Taichi"s mind.

At the same time, there was a burning yet murky, odd, and incomprehensible feeling that wasn"t his own pierced through Taichi.

"...Ah."

Nagase seemed to have realised that her thoughts were heard by Taichi.

She started to run.

She ran quickly, as though she was saying, she didn"t want to linger another minute longer.

Taichi stood motionless, alone on the spot, like an abandoned puppy on the streets.

A northern breeze blew, and Taichi"s body began to waver.

"This can"t be... What"s going on..."

Taichi did not understand.

Had he done something that upset Nagase?

Even though Taichi never thought of it this way, was it because he had been comforting himself in a position where he could choose, that made Nagase upset?

"...Why...?"

Taichi murmured absently.

He didn"t understand. He did not understand it at all.

Yet, no matter how much he refused to understand, the answer was clear before him. He could only accept the truth.

"...I"ve been rejected."

In other words, this meant——

——————————————————— The Love Story of Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi, The End.

Valentine"s Day — The day that would make any high school boy across j.a.pan restless.

"It"s just the 14th of February, what"s the big deal?" Some boys would say that, and pretend that it was just another day. But in truth, even these individuals couldn"t help but keep an extra eye on the girls" movements.

Not surprisingly, the boys from the Yamabos.h.i.+ Private High were exceptionally excited.

The same could also be said for the girls. The air among them was brewing with enthusiasm.

While the entire school ground was filled with this antic.i.p.ating, dubious yet spirited atmosphere, Yaegas.h.i.+ Taichi alone dragged himself along the hallway with footsteps many times heavier than others.

Seeing the enthusiastic and antic.i.p.ating students around the school, Taichi felt infuriated for a moment, but was quickly overcome by a certain emptiness.

"Sigh..."

Taichi had lost count of how many times he had sighed since yesterday.

Until yesterday, he never once imagined himself to greet such a significant day like this.

He thought it would be another bright and wonderful day, but...

Students pa.s.sing by glanced at Taichi and gave him a strange but surprised eye.

Taichi knew fully how gloomy he must look.

I probably look like c.r.a.p right now.

He knew, but he couldn"t bring himself to cheer up at all.

Yesterday, too, he had been grumbling depressingly towards himself.

Should he not have confessed during the phenomenon? He had been warned before. But this time was different though. Not to mention, this had nothing to do with the phenomenon... It was all because he kept thinking that his inner thoughts were exposed.

Having his hidden thoughts exposed to others.

And finding out the hidden thoughts of others.

This created many kinds of problems.

However...

It won"t create any problems, it will be alright; they will overcome it together, and end it once and for all —— They had sworn to get through this together.

Luckily they haven"t found out about the most crucial factor of the problem yet. It will be fine. Now stop thinking... Stop thinking...

Taichi kept repeating that thought to himself.

Yet his mind was still stuck in the same state.

——Clak, Taichi slid open the door and entered his cla.s.sroom of cla.s.s 1C.

"Yo, Yaegas.h.i.+! It"s Valentine"s Day, we gotta be more..."

Taichi"s friend, Watase s.h.i.+ngo, suspended his chatter.

"Oi, Yaegas.h.i.+... What"s up with you?"

"...Nothing."

"Eh, but your face looks as if the girl you fancied came up to you, with what looked to be a chocolate wrapper, and said "This is empty, can you throw it out for me?" So you went "Hey hey, you know you want to give me chocolate yet you said to "throw it out". What are you, tsundere?" Never would have thought they actually exist in reality. Then, as you were really excited, you realised there really isn"t any chocolate and that she really was asking you to throw it out... Anyway, you don"t look "nothing" to me at all."

"...I don"t think my expression was that detailed."

Watase"s story sounded surprisingly convincing, could it have been what happened to him?

"Well, cheer up. If you keep up with that look, you"ll scare away all the chocolates you might receive!"

Truth be told, Taichi didn"t care about how many chocolate he would receive.

The only one he truly wanted was the one from that person.

However, the chance of that happening —— had become zero.

Before Taichi realised it, it was already the last cla.s.s of the day. Taichi had no recollection of the lectures, nor whether he had made any notes. Yet he hadn"t been called on by a teacher. Or was it because he actually made notes in his subconscious?

It"s almost the end of cla.s.s, Taichi thought to himself.

What would normally be a joyful end of cla.s.s bell chime, sounded like one from h.e.l.l to the current Taichi. He felt like a prisoner waiting to be executed... Actually, that might be over-exaggerating.

He wasn"t really dying, but his mood made him feel like he was dying.

Taichi was not able to converse with Nagase for the whole day, or even look at her face.

However, club activity still awaited him after school.

He went straight home yesterday due to the shock from being rejected, but he couldn"t bring himself to do that twice in a row.

I have to show up.

But if he goes to the club room, he is bound to meet with Nagase Iori.

Taichi and Nagase.

The guy who was rejected, and the girl who rejected.

It would be embarra.s.sing. No matter how one would try to perceive it, it would be very embarra.s.sing.

Not to mention, Inaba would be there as well.

Even though he had not proclaimed it yet, Taichi rejected Inaba.

In other words, Nagase(the rejector), Inaba(the rejected), and Taichi(the rejector and rejected) would gather in the same hall.

That would be awkward beyond words.

Nagase would probably feel the same too. "Maybe I should just sit out for Nagase"s sake" — Taichi gave serious thought to such a foolish idea.

Ugh... Useless, pathetic, good for nothing.

It was not going well. At this rate he would lose all confidence in himself and feel completely worthless.

If this feeling was found out, he would be utterly embarra.s.sed.

Embarra.s.sing, embarra.s.sing, so embarra.s.sing! I just want to wipe myself off the face of the earth! Dammit, I"m now stuck in a pessimistic loop again. Didn"t I swear not to repeat the same mistake again? Didn"t I learn it the hard way during the "Desire Unleash" phenomenon? Stop thinking, don"t cause any trouble, we are going to overcome it together, we must, I must...

"Yaegas.h.i.+-kun... can I have a moment with you?"

As the after school hours arrived, Taichi, still trapped within his murky thoughts, was halt by the cla.s.s 1C representative——Fujis.h.i.+ma Maiko.

Taichi did not have the reason nor will to decline, so he nodded and went along.

As they exited the cla.s.sroom, Taichi could hear chatters like "Fujis.h.i.+ma"s target is Yaegas.h.i.+?" "The love expert herself is finally joining the battle!" "It"s finally time for the expert to show what she"s got in her sleeves~" "Hey! Yaegas.h.i.+, weren"t you supposed to be after other girls? Hey, I thought you knew who my target is! C"mon man!" (That last remark was most likely Watase"s)

Just as he was wondering where they were heading, Taichi found themselves at the roof of the cla.s.s building.

Even though the roof was open for use (they even have benches for student use), in these wintry times, no one would want to bring themselves up here for the chilling wind.

In fact, Taichi was feeling extremely cold.

"Oi, Fujis.h.i.+ma, aren"t you cold? You didn"t even bring your coat."

Taichi inquired, then Fujis.h.i.+ma, who had been staying quiet the whole time, spun around and faced him.

After briefly stroking her hair, Fujis.h.i.+ma, who had tied her hair into a ponytail which revealed her forehead, finally spoke:

"Yaegas.h.i.+-kun, you seem to be running into some trouble with love. By the way, this cold is nothing in front of my burning heart right now, so there"s no need to worry."

Her gla.s.ses gleamed sharply as she lifted it.

Taichi knew well that Fujis.h.i.+ma could not hear his thoughts, yet she still read right through him. As expected from the "Missionary of Love" (self-proclaimed by Fujis.h.i.+ma).

"...I am, but that has nothing to do with you though right? Please stay out of this."

There was no point in venting his anger towards Fujis.h.i.+ma, but Taichi couldn"t stop himself from las.h.i.+ng back at her.

"It"s Valentine"s Day, the top season for love. Everybody is absorbed in antic.i.p.ation, yet you"re walking around with that discouraging, gloomy look of yours. That"s kinda problematic you know."

"I know, I feel bad for it too."

He responded coldly when his friend tried to converse with him after all.

"Does it have to do with Nagase-san?"

"...Yeah."

Taichi knew Fujis.h.i.+ma would not let him go even if he told her off, so he nodded in reply. Though, half of his reason was out of self-depreciation.

"You"re not rejected, are you?"

Those words echoed heavily in Taichi"s mind.

"Yeah."

In order to make himself accept this hard truth, Taichi nodded in confirmation.

Fujis.h.i.+ma"s eyes widened in shock.

"You"re kidding... Is it true? I"ve been watching all these time, I thought you two were going great."

"...I"m not kidding."

"I see..."

As he saw Fujis.h.i.+ma lower her head heavily, Taichi felt his chest wrenching.

He wanted to tell her that, there was no need for her to feel bad for him.

Just as he thought that, however, Fujis.h.i.+ma lifted her head——

"MY · CHANCE · HAS · COME!!!"

——And shouted with extreme excitement towards the sky.

Taichi could not believe what he was seeing: Could this really be happening in reality?

Just as somebody else was heartbroken over love, she openly expressed her joy for it... No, Taichi forgot one important thing: Fujis.h.i.+ma had been after Nagase all these time! What had he done!?

"Ah! Sorry, Yaegas.h.i.+-kun, I accidentally prioritised my joy."

"...I"m just gonna say this first: Just because I"ve been rejected doesn"t mean you"ve won."

"Yeah, yeah, so says the underdog. Thanks for your hard work. Hehehe~"

"Grrr... Why you..."

What"s with that sympathising look? Taichi wished she would stop treating him like an idiot.

"Truth to be told~ Haha~ You two were getting along so well~ Pff~ Yet you got ditched~ Ahaha~ This is the funniest thing ever~!"

"A—Are you trying to pick a fight or something? And besides, since when did you become this expressive? You"re like a completely different character!"

"Phew, you look better now. Using my normally exercise-lacking facial muscles sure is exhausting."

As Fujis.h.i.+ma said that, her expression returned to her usual calmness. She even pound her shoulders as if relaxing her muscles.

"What"s that supposed to mean... it"s like you"re..."

It was like she was playing as some sort of weird character just to cheer him up.

What on earth are you, Fujis.h.i.+ma Maiko?

"So this is what people mean by getting good out of misfortune! This is just fascinating ★"

"You really are happy about it aren"t you? And are you really trying to treat me like an idiot?"

Seriously, what on earth are you, Fujis.h.i.+ma Maiko?

"Anyway, cheer up Yaegas.h.i.+-kun."

She finally returned to her usual, serious demeanour.

"While I don"t know the details, the fact that you gave your answer before Valentine"s Day is actually very commendable. Did I say it right?"

"...You sure know it quite well."

"Who do you think I am? I"m everyone"s G.o.ddess of Love!"

Before anyone realised, Fujis.h.i.+ma had ascended to G.o.dhood. She was slowly moving towards the higher realm.

"Well, there"s no point beating yourself at it here. Why don"t you take this as an opportunity and try going out with Inaba-san?"

"...! How? When did you notice I and Inaba..."

When did she find out? This is terrifying, dear G.o.ddess of Love!

"Well I knew from the start that Inaba-san had feelings for you, Yaegas.h.i.+-kun. I mean she"s completely in girl-in-love mode, it"s kind of hard not to notice. In fact, she"s already at the point where I find it absurd that n.o.body else"s noticed."

She was right.

It was exactly because Inaba treasured him so much, that...

He could no longer return her feelings.

When he was forced to choose between the two in the end, he did not choose Inaba.

To ask her out because he was rejected by the other —— Taichi would not tolerate himself to commit such a disgraceful act. He would never forgive himself if he did.

——I don"t see why not.

For a moment, Taichi thought his thoughts were transmitted towards Fujis.h.i.+ma and was briefly startled —— of course, that couldn"t be the case.

"There"s nothing wrong with asking another person out after being rejected. Based on both the usual circ.u.mstances and my experience, it"s not at all uncommon that the rejected one and the one who comforts them get together."

"But that"s just..."

"Of course you can! "Love" does change after all. Especially if you have feelings for each other... Or we can take a step back and say, suppose you don"t have feelings right now, but you know that you will eventually, then I think it"s fine."

"That isn"t something fitting for the Missionary of Love to say, is it?"

"Of course it is. I stand by the principle that "Love is Free". Then again, I agree that you have to be honest with each other. However, if you become overly rigid with the rules and get yourself stuck, don"t you think that"s wrong too?"

But that"s just my personal opinion, Fujis.h.i.+ma added towards the end.

At that moment——

[ Now, what would be a good time to give him the chocolate? ]

Taichi heard the voice of Inaba Himeko far away from scene.

He could feel the warmth and antic.i.p.ation of Inaba Himeko"s heart.

Then he remembered something very important:

Taichi had originally planned to tell Inaba that he could not return her feelings yesterday, but he had completely forgotten about it.

No, rather than forgetting, it was more like things had completely derailed from his plan and put him at a complete loss.

"And besides, experience matters in everything. Since it"s Yaegas.h.i.+-kun, I suppose I could tell you how I really think. To be honest, we"re just ordinary high-schoolers. We don"t even know how to begin spelling "Love", so it"s alright for us to keep trying and learn from our mistakes."

Fujis.h.i.+ma said with a brief smile.

At that moment, Fujis.h.i.+ma was not the love expert, nor she was the Missionary of Love or the G.o.ddess of Love.

Even though it was a given fact, Taichi couldn"t help but think that, Fujis.h.i.+ma was just another ordinary girl after all.

"If you can accept yourself giving up on Nagase-san, then you and Inaba-san could also be a pretty good match."

"But that"s just..."

That would be terrible towards Inaba.

"And then, while Yaegas.h.i.+-kun and Inaba-san are being all lovey-dovey with each other, I"ll happily take Nagase-san for myself ❤"

"So that"s still your main goal after all!"

Her thoughts are still a mystery.

However, one thing Taichi could be certain was that Fujis.h.i.+ma tried to tell him something important. He also cheered up slightly from his dejected mood.

Thanks to Fujis.h.i.+ma, Taichi felt slightly loosened up, enough so that he could bring himself to head to club room.

Since he had already sworn not to cause any trouble, there would be no reason for him to stay depressed. Simply having others to stay well wasn"t enough; Taichi, himself, also needed to stay well.

With his lessons engraved deep in his heart, Taichi brought up his courage and entered the club room.

But G.o.d seemed to have no bounds of being merciless.

It would pick with the worst timing to bestow them a problem that had nothing to do with unreality, but rather the reality.

They were in room 401 of the recreational building after school. Nagase Iori and Inaba Himeko, the president and vice president of the Cultural Research Club respectively, were relaying to the remaining three members what they had heard from their homeroom teacher of cla.s.s 1C and club advisor.

"He even said at the end: "I"m really sorry for bringing up this serious topic when you are busying yourselves with Valentine"s Day... Hm? Well it doesn"t seem to be that serious, we"re just changing advisors. Anyway, that sums it up. Please understand~""

Nagase repeated Gotou"s lines.

Taichi tried to keep his mind blank, only listening the words he heard. Pretend that it"s not Nagase"s voice, this is a synthesised voice, this is synthesised, synthesised...

"What he mean by "Please understand"!? Dammit! This is a life and death situation for us!"

An angrily hollering Inaba Himeko hit on the desk with a loud bang.

Today"s vice president of the CRC, with her ice beauty features and her trademark jet black hair, was s.p.u.n.ky as usual.

Easy, easy~ Kiriyama tried to calm Inaba down.

"Calm down, Inaba, Go-san doesn"t know why it"s a big problem for us after all—"

Kiriyama paused for a moment, then she pulled her chestnut-brown hair back behind her ears and continued:

"And... what you"re thinking in your head is too menacing... You don"t need to imagine torturing the poor guy like that you know..."

It seemed that Inaba"s hidden thoughts were transmitted to Kiriyama.

After being called out by Kiriyama, Inaba stiffened for a moment and bit her lip, but soon after, she smiled at Kiriyama and said:

"Hmph, of course."

Seeing Inaba maintain her snarky demeanour, Kiriyama smiled in relief.

It won"t matter even if our thoughts are revealed to each other——they had proven this beautifully.

"Anyway... What should we do now?"

Aoki Yos.h.i.+fumi"s lanky body joggled about like his slight-curly hair.

Since Taichi had tried very hard to separate the words from the voices, he remembered what Nagase and Inaba said clearly.

Allegedly, Gotou would be transferring to his new post next semester.

Allegedly, when that happens, according to school policy, he may only take part as an advisor for one club.

Allegedly, Gotou was the advisor for both the Cultural Research Club and the Jazz Band, hence he must withdraw from one of the two.

Allegedly, he couldn"t bring himself to choose which one to withdraw from, so he was planning to withdraw from the club with the lower score in the coming club presentation at the end of the semester... Something like that.

It was a topic that was out of the blue, but it was obviously a serious matter.

Inaba said: "To be honest, Gotou never made any contributions to the CRC, so I was tempted to say feel free to replace our advisor. But at the same time, it is all thanks to him that we"re able to remain carefree with our club activities."

In Yamabos.h.i.+ High, its variety of club activities was a well known feature, almost any club could be admitted and established. In return, the school demanded a required "standard" of quality for student"s club activities. In other words, students must earn their privileges.

"Normally there wouldn"t be any problem for us to work seriously on our club activities, but right now we"re being plagued by «Heartseed» and his troublesome friends..."

Half a year had pa.s.sed since «Heartseed» first caught them, yet he showed no signs of loosening his grip. Due to «Heartseed»"s interference to their daily lives, «Cultural Research News» had already been delayed once, twice, even thrice.

"We don"t know how long they will keep it going; even if we beg them to stop, they won"t leave us alone. Under these circ.u.mstances, having Gotou, who rarely ever comes to the club room, as our advisor... is actually an advantage."

Inaba"s word left Kiriyama sighing.

"If our advisor is the serious and prompting type of teacher, it would be a headache for us... Even though it"s supposed to be a good thing!"

Taichi thought he should comment on it as well, so he asked:

"I"ve heard about the club presentation before... but what exactly is it?"

"This I can explain."

Inaba said, and proceeded to break it down to Taichi briefly.

After final exams, the school would organise a club presentation event that spans for several days.

The purpose of the presentation was to simply report the clubs" accomplishments over the year, but the presentation score would also affect how much budget they were going to get to share, so in truth, it was more like a promotional performance for them.

The judges would consist of five teachers and five members of the student council.

The stage was arranged to be the media cla.s.sroom. In order to maintain openness to the public (and to avoid having too many empty seats), regular students were also allowed to spectate.

The content of presentation would have to stay true to Yamabos.h.i.+ High"s motif, in that it could be anything within comprehensible grounds. Students would have up to 15 minutes for their presentation.

"In any case we should find some more information about the presentation event first, as well as inspect the Jazz Band"s strength, then we can figure out how to beat them... Ah, why don"t we just barge into the Jazz Band now? We can see for ourselves what they"re up to. Two birds with one stone, don"t you think?" Nagase suggested in a cheerful tone.

She was acting so normal that it became terrifying; she looked as though she had already forgotten the fact that she had rejected Taichi.

Did she not care about what happened the day before? If that was the case, it would be quite sad. Or perhaps she did care, but she didn"t show it? If that was the case, she was simply too good at hiding her emotions.

If the phenomenon can trigger at a good time, maybe I"ll know what Nagase really thinks... Taichi thought, and immediately felt disgusted at himself.

In the end, they headed out to visit the Jazz Band on Nagase"s suggestion.

"Now that I think about it, if the Jazz Band thinks "it wouldn"t matter even if the advisor isn"t Gotou", wouldn"t that solve the problem? We can negotiate with them too, to ask them to cede Gotou to us. But seriously, why is this turning out like we"re competing for Gotou? It"s sickening."

Inaba murmured to herself as she led in the front, while Taichi and the others followed closely behind.

They arrived at the practice room of the Jazz Band, the second music cla.s.sroom.

"Oh h.e.l.lo, Yaegas.h.i.+-kun, Inaba-san... and Nagase-san."

The person greeting them in front of the music room was s.h.i.+royama Shouto, who belonged to cla.s.s 1C with Taichi. He was a rare cheerful and handsome boy by modern standards, and was quite an easy-going person where people could naturally accept his comparably courteous manner of speaking. Some people in the cla.s.s jokingly nicknamed him as the "Prince".

"Oh, s.h.i.+royama you"re in the Jazz Band?"

Taichi asked. He was not close to s.h.i.+royama, but being cla.s.smates of the same cla.s.s, they were able to converse casually.

"Yes. I remember Yaegas.h.i.+-kun you are... from the the Cultural Research Club, am I right? How can we help you?"

Taichi explained their purpose. s.h.i.+royama mused for a bit, and showed a hesitant look.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Oh it"s nothing... I"m afraid we can"t compromise to that, because we really wish Gotou-sensei can remain our club advisor."

s.h.i.+royama"s remark made Inaba burst out "Wha—!?" with a brazen look of disgust.

"Why? Is there any particular reason that you want that sloppy guy to be your advisor?"

"Aren"t we the same?"

s.h.i.+royama smiled wryly and led Taichi and the others in the music room.

A Jazz Band band was rehearsing, and the one who stood in the middle was...

The performer that was playing his saxophone with such exceptional skill that even a rookie could tell, was none other than——Gotou Ryuuzen.

"What..."

Taichi was speechless.

Gotou continued his awe-inspiring performance. While they did not understand how it worked, Gotou appeared to be leading the band with utmost expertise.

As the performance ended, a mesmerised Taichi forgotten his original purpose and applauded. The same went for the other members (minus Inaba).

Kiriyama, Aoki, and Nagase said after each other:

"Go-san you"re amazing!"

"That was awesome!"

"The other members are very good too!"

Nagase"s word made s.h.i.+royama replied shyly: "It"s nothing, I"m not that good, really. Hahaha."

"I don"t think she"s complimenting you but... okay." Taichi jabbed at that remark anyway.

"Hm, what"s up? Why is everybody from the CRC here?"

Gotou asked in his usual carefree tone.

"...I"ve heard gossip about your musical prowess, but I"ve always deemed them as false rumours..."

Inaba seemed reluctant to admit it for some reason.

"By the way, it"s not much compared to his saxophone skills... but Gotou-sensei is pretty adapt at all kinds of instruments as well."

s.h.i.+royama added.

"Ugh... So, about that impossible rumour that Gotou was once invited to join a professional band, is that..."

"Ohh~ I seem to recall something like that! But it was way back then."

Gotou did not act pretentious, and replied simply.

But Inaba sure knew a lot, as expected from an information collecting hobbyist.

"Gotou... why did you become a physics teacher? If you want to teach, you could also teach music no?"

"You ask me why, but it"s because I like physics."

At that moment, Gotou was very cool.

The five returned to their club room and began discussion once more.

"Well, it looks like the Jazz Band won"t be letting Go-san go now~"

Nagase said, and Inaba replied:

"But we can"t back off either. At least not right now, no matter what."

Not that they had high hopes to begin with, but their attempt to negotiate had failed just like that. Inaba tried doing what she does best, offering a deal with information, but the Jazz Band was determined on their stance.

"So I guess we"ll be facing them head on?"

Aoki said, then Kiriyama sighed:

"Their performance spoke volumes about their skill. If we want to beat them, we gotta bring out something impressive too..."

"Club presentation... Looks like we"ll need to show them the best of ourselves and start brainstorming."

Inaba nodded in agreement at Taichi.

"Even with his expertise in music, Gotou still proclaimed to use the presentation score as the basis of his decision. I suppose we should thank him for that. Does he really think it doesn"t matter which club he advises? Or was it out of fairness? Oh whatever, I bet he wasn"t thinking of anything at all, pfft!"

Inaba clicked her tongue, and continued:

"So now what? Should we come up with a some ideas first? Even though they said we"re free to present anything, we should still stick to what we do in our club activities. So based on our function, we"d be presenting in form of an oral presentation..."

Suddenly, Aoki jumped up from his seat.

"Indeed we are now facing a crisis that we can"t afford to lose, and we gotta think about it clearly too. But!" Aoki raised his first in the air, and began his pa.s.sionate speech. "Isn"t there something more important than that today, my friends?"

Mid February. Today was——

Aoki peered around the room, n.o.body spoke a single word.

"...Odd. Why is n.o.body agreeing with me?"

"Ao—Aoki, that"s..."

Kiriyama stuttered embarra.s.singly.

"We"re kinda caught in this strange situation, I think we need not to bring it up..."

"That"s exactly why we should bring it up now! Rather than being found out at the most awkward timing, we should openly express ourselves! Isn"t that our measure this time, Inaba-chan?"

"Um... Yeah I guess."

Inaba stuttered as well.

"Not to mention, there"s no reason to hide "Who you"re giving chocolate to" or "Which one is giri-choko, which one is honmei-choko" [1] and other love topics like that, right?"

"...Hmm, after a second thought, you"re right. I"m curious about Iori and Inaba"s plans too~ Even if I ask them, they tend to just gloss it over~"

Kiriyama said with a happy smile. It was a smile that spoke her confidence in a bright outcome.

Not to be affected by any abnormal phenomenon, to live as they would usually do, to not create any problems, and overcome the challenge without anyone getting hurt.

Aoki and Kiriyama took the perfect course of action, but...

Wouldn"t it be risky? Is it okay? No, it will be okay... At least Taichi would like to believe as such.

"Hey, Inaba, I know it was a while back, but didn"t you ask me for tips on making sweets? I was like "Could it be?" I highly doubt Inaba would be the type to gift giri-choco to boys in cla.s.s!"

"That"s because..."

Inaba had not told that to Kiriyama and Aoki yet——

[ How am I supposed to tell anyone right now, that I truly love Taichi... ]

Taichi heard them clearly. The words that Inaba deemed herself "not able to say".

While they had no idea how it really worked, presently, Taichi and the others" inner thoughts would be "randomly exposed" within the group. In other words, their inner voices and feelings would transmit to one another on their own.

Taichi suppressed his racing heart and peeked at everyone else"s expression.

Even though they are under such a phenomenon, their inner voice would not necessary be leaked to everyone. The one who hears it was also randomly determined. It could be one, it could be four. And in this case, Taichi was the first to hear Inaba"s thoughts.

Who else heard it besides him? Or was he lucky enough to be the only one?

The answer was clear upon seeing the others" expression.

Both Kiriyama and Aoki heard it.

Also, since "Inaba"s feelings" were transmitted together with her words, they could fully feel that it was a feeling that wasn"t just for talks.

It seemed Nagase was the only one not in sync.

"Eh? What"s up? Was someone"s thought exposed?"

She asked carefreely.

"Ahh, er~ I see, oh..."

Aoki said with a difficult look on his face. Kiriyama whispered next to him:

"So... it"s really true..."

"...I used to think this might have been the case, but she seemed to support Taichi and Iori... In fact, Inaba once discussed with me, that she wanted to "match them two together", so all this time I thought Inaba liked somebody else, hence... Ah!"

Kiriyama realised that she got too talkative and shut her mouth.

Inaba quickly recovered from her frozen state and said:

"A-Anyway, don"t worry about it, the matter was already resolved. I"ve been wanting to find a chance to explain... b—but..."

Inaba was panic-stricken.

"That"s why I... But... Because... Erm... Uch!"

Inaba pound around her thigh twice, faced forward and exhaled in a laughing manner.

"That"s right... It"s the truth. Our situation is interesting. Iori and I are competing for Taichi, isn"t it funny?"

Inaba openly proclaimed to the dumbfounded Kiriyama and Aoki.

"But like I just said, you don"t need to worry about whether it would create any problems. Am I right? Iori, Taichi."

Taichi was startled from suddenly being inquired like that. The same went for Nagase. But, he had to say something.

"...Yeah, it will be fine... Even though it"s odd for me to say it."

Taichi answered.

However, he probably would not need to worry any more.

Because that story was over.

Because——

[ I confessed to Nagase yesterday, and I was rejected. Completely rejected. ]

Taichi"s heart jumped.

He knew his thoughts were heard.

And he knew who heard them.

Inaba, Kiriyama, Aoki, Nagase.

In other words, everyone heard it.

They too, all felt what Taichi was feeling.

"Eh... Uh! E—Ehhhhhhh!?"

"Wha-Wha-What!?"

Aoki and Kiriyama were too shocked for words.

A trembling voice came to Taichi"s ears.

"What does that mean..."

It was Inaba"s voice.

"...I know I"m the third wheel who b.u.t.t in between you two afterwards... I understand I have no right to say this, but... you do know I"ve prepared chocolate for you today right? ...I mean... You heard my thoughts, didn"t you...?"

Inaba"s distorted expression looked as though she was about to cry.

"What is this... What about my feelings..."

"...Ah, uh, that..."

Taichi lowered his head, avoiding Inaba"s eyes. Even though he knew that he mustn"t run away, he was unable to look at her face to face.

He could not bring himself to look at how much he had hurt Inaba.

Let me run away, this thought caused Taichi to say the worst choice of words:

"...I"m sorry."

Taichi knew how much this would further hurt Inaba.

"You say sorry... you mean..."

Even without looking at her, Taichi was able to picture Inaba"s shocked expression in his mind.

In fact, those words had became a rejection sentence for Inaba.

Taichi never wanted to tell her like this.

In the end, he thought that it was his fault it ended up this way.

Inaba smacked the table with a loud bang. Her anger spread through the air on impact.

"What is the meaning of this Iori!? What do you mean you rejected him!?"

If she was in her usual calm demeanour, Inaba wouldn"t flip out this violently.

It"s my fault that she"s las.h.i.+ng out at Nagase, Taichi thought. This is terrible.

Nagase, startled, waved both her hands at Inaba.

"Eh... It"s true that I rejected him... B—But calm down first——"

[ This is none of your business anyway, why are you flipping out on me? ]

A voice from Nagase that sounded completely different to what she said, echoed in Taichi"s mind.

Nagase"s sentiment, that was extremely cold yet contained an emanating heat, was transmitted along, embroilling Taichi"s mind.

Was it extremely cold because she was watching Inaba from an indifferent angle? Was heat building up because she was angry?

"...Ah."

Inaba winced and backed away like she was in fear.

It seemed Taichi was not the only one who felt Nagase"s sentiment. Inaba did as well.

"N— No it"s not like that, Inaban! I"m not trying to blame you——"

[ What are you feeling so dejected for? You"re the one who flipped first, how petulant can you get? ]

The phenomenon triggered, and Nagase"s thoughts and sentiments were transmitted to Taichi once again.

Even though she may be right, if these were transmitted to Inaba as well, it would be too cruel.

But why did the phenomenon trigger several times in a row? Was this how it was meant to be?

More importantly, Nagase she——

[ She"s so different than what my impression of her was. ]

Taichi could tell that his inner voice and feelings were transmitted to Nagase.

Also, in Taichi"s mind, he could also hear something else.

[ Iori is scary. ]

[ Is Iori-chan that type of character? ]

These were words leaked from Kiriyama and Aoki"s thoughts.

Kiriyama and Aoki"s thoughts were coincidentally heard by Taichi. Then, were these words forwarded to Nagase as well? Also, was there anyone else"s thought he didn"t hear?

"No! It"s not like that Iori!"

Inaba suddenly cried.

What made Inaba say that to Nagase? Something was odd.

But... He could be sure that the phenomenon triggered between Inaba and Nagase.

What sort of words did Inaba leak to Nagase? And what sort of sentiment was it?

Knowing what should not be known, and others finding out what should not be found out.

With no way to adjust your tone, along with your raw feelings, it would mercilessly pierce through others.

A look of despair emerged on Nagase"s face.

The mood of the scene froze, one may even argue that the dilemma brought by Gotou was a blessing when compared to this.

Then, from this moment onwards——Nagase Iori slowly began to break.

Taichi headed to his room on the second floor at home.

As he climbed up the stairs, his fifth-grader sister came out of her room. Her soft curly hair shook slightly.

"Onii-chan~ How did it go? Did you receive any choco... late..."

His sister slowly retracted her innocent voice and blinked in surprise.

"Are-Are you okay, Onii-chan? You are looking extremely gloomy! Onii-chan isn"t the type without any luck with ladies right? I"d expect you to receive at least giri-choco... D—Don"t tell me you didn"t receive any..."

"If you"re talking about giri-choco, then yes, I"ve received a few."

"Oh~ Then isn"t that good? Ah, I know, Onii-chan didn"t receive from you truly like did you~? And then you saw her gave her honmei-choco to someone else~"

"...Excuse me, I"m gonna head to my room now."

Taichi said to his sister, and took a step.

"Wai-Wait, Onii-chan! Se-Seriously, are you alright? Are you feeling ill?"

"No, it"s not that."

Taichi believed it would be fine.

He kept telling himself, it would definitely be fine.

"If you have anything troubling you, I can help, you know!"

Taichi was very happy to have his sister, who was usually reliant on him, say that to him.

"Thank you... But... I"m fine."

He shook off his sister"s grip on his sleeve.

He could not get his sister involved with that abnormal world, even if she couldn"t enter it to begin with.

"B-But you don"t look fine at all! Here, take this! My chocolate! Please cheer up, okay?"

Taichi received a small, pink paper wrapper.

"Oh... Sorry."

"B—By the way, this... this is my honmei-choco."

His sister lowered her head slightly, cutely playing around with her fingers.

"Okay then... I"ll see you at dinner."

Taichi turned his doork.n.o.b.

"Eh? Strange. I thought Onii-chan would be happy that I say that, how come you"re not responding at all? Wouldn"t that make my effort in vain? You have to return the favour like usual, by five times! And our teacher gave us really difficult homework, you gotta help me out! Hey, Onii-chan, are you listening? Listen to me~~"

Please don"t let anything bad happen.

Please let them make it through together.

Taichi prayed. Yet, under «Heartseed»"s phenomenon, there was no hope to achieve such a foolish dream.

Translator"s NotesJump up↑ Giri-choko (義理チョコ) & Honmei-choko (本命チョコ): Obligation(Giri-) chocolate are given to friends and colleagues, while Favorite(Honmei-) chocolate are given to loved ones. There also exist tomo-choko (友チョコ) where Tomo- means friends.

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