Happiness Belongs to Them

"I really do think you're capable of doing something like that."

"Senpai..."

Mikage Touji was touched and was about to speak, but suddenly stopped, hesitating.

"Don't tell me that's your intuition again?"

"Partly." Kiryūin Fūka propped her elbow on the table and studied Mikage Touji's face. "Actually, from the first moment I saw you, I thought you were a little special, not quite like other people. How should I put it... Hmm... Oh, right!"

"You don't quite fit into this world."

The pen in his hand stopped moving. "Is that some kind of pseudo-scientific mysticism?"

"Other people probably feel that way a little, too, but your strange personality tends to overshadow it."

Mikage Touji pinched his chin, looking rather pleased. "Could it be... I'm... the protagonist?"

The thought lasted all of one second.

"Never mind," Mikage Touji said, shaking his head. "Being the protagonist of a school like this doesn't feel like a good thing. Now that I think about it, figuring out how to wash away the disgrace of getting nine points in Japanese Literature seems more practical."

"You can't talk so dejectedly. You're my junior, recognized by me, Kiryūin Fūka."

Kiryūin Fūka slapped the table. "Let's get started. This is your official tutoring session. I'll help you raise your Japanese Literature grade to the top twenty in your year."

Ah, the top twenty in Japanese Literature? Me?

At that moment, Mikage Touji understood how frustrated Kamuro Masumi had felt a few days earlier.

It wasn't that he doubted Kiryūin Fūka's ability. Her grades were famous in their second year—she was absolutely one of the best, and calling her number one wouldn't be an exaggeration.

It was just that they only had half a day...

"Come on!"

Kiryūin Fūka circled various topics in the textbook's table of contents, then pushed it toward Mikage Touji.

"These are all topics you haven't fully mastered yet. For the next hour, review them on your own. Use whatever method you like, just make sure you understand them. After an hour, I'll give you some similar questions based on these topics." Kiryūin Fūka stood up.

That's it?

Mikage Touji shook his head, a confident smile spreading across his face.

"For every two you get wrong, you have to go shopping with me once."

Mikage Touji instantly turned gray and lifeless...

"That's settled! See you in an hour!"

"Wai—!"

"Bang—!"

The heavy sound of the door closing landed in Mikage Touji's heart and echoed inside him, leaving him unable to calm down for a long time.

His hand, reaching for the door, froze in midair. He looked like a carbonized statue caught in a nuclear blast.

So that was what she'd been waiting for all along.

And, Senpai, could you actually be holding a grudge? Is this payback for asking you to marry me just now...?

Mikage Touji slowly turned around, his gaze settling on the material Kiryūin Fūka had circled. He swallowed, gritted his teeth, and steeled himself.

An hour and a half later.

Mikage Touji was completely spent, lying motionless on the desk. His corpse had probably been stiff for a while now.

"Junior," Kiryūin Fūka said, capping her pen and looking at the dead-looking Mikage Touji in astonishment. "I underestimated you. You only got one question wrong?!"

Mikage Touji smiled silently.

As if. He'd used Detection to scan the topics circled in the textbook over and over, forcing them into his brain.

The price was that Mikage Touji's CPU was now overclocked, and his mind was completely drained. He wouldn't be able to use it again until tomorrow.

And he also felt like throwing up... No, not just felt like it!

Bleugh—!

Mikage Touji forcibly suppressed the churning in his stomach.

"You really are different from the rest." Kiryūin Fūka scrutinized Mikage Touji's half-dead face. "I only wanted to see where your limits were, but it seems this level isn't enough. I'm becoming more and more convinced of my judgment."

"I just happened to know the material. This should be a normal pace, shouldn't it? You always seem so relaxed when you study, Senpai." Even though he was on the verge of dying, he still refused to back down.

"Of course. I spotted you in a crowd at a glance, after all."

So that was the real point? Mikage Touji smiled awkwardly.

"But you're mistaken about that. I put a lot of effort into studying. After all, it affects which university I'll attend in the future."

You'd never guess. Could that senpai who spent every afternoon enjoying her leisurely free time really work hard at studying, too?

Mikage Touji had thought she'd say something like, "Once you reach a certain age, knowledge just appears in your mind on its own," the kind of dragon-like thing someone might say.

"Looks like you can make the top twenty on your own without my help." Kiryūin Fūka looked over Mikage Touji's test again and reached her conclusion.

"Then, Senpai, does that mean our tutoring is—"

"So we should correct the goal to the top ten, to do your talent justice. If you slack off for too long, even the heavens will take it back."

Kiryūin Fūka firmly rejected his suggestion and doubled down, raising the bar again. She kicked Mikage Touji, who had just been about to come back to life, straight back down.

"Next, here are your assignments for this week..."

Kiryūin Fūka quickly wrote down the goals on a piece of paper, tore it off, and handed it to Mikage Touji. Her handwriting was elegant and bold.

"I'll come check your progress next weekend. If you don't finish, you'll go shopping with me." With that, she stood and headed for the door.

"Senpai..." Mikage Touji stood up too, looking at her with a forlorn gaze. "Was your real goal to drag me shopping from the beginning?"

"..."

"How could it be? Training a genius from scratch is much more fulfilling than shopping with you, isn't it?"

"Has anyone ever told you you're terrible at lying, Senpai?"

"Because I've never met anyone who made me want to lie before." Kiryūin Fūka was perfectly candid. She picked up the bag hanging on the wall. "That's that. See you next week!"

"Senpai!"

Mikage Touji instinctively called out to Kiryūin Fūka as she was about to leave.

"What is it?" Kiryūin Fūka turned around.

Mikage Touji stepped forward and straightened the black headband on her head, which had gone crooked during their earlier antics.

"It looks better like this. Otherwise, it doesn't suit your cool, dashing image."

"..."

After standing quietly for a moment, Kiryūin Fūka reached up and touched the headband.

"What a shame. I still prefer it when you call me cute, Junior."

"It's the same thing."

Chapter 50: Happiness Belongs to Them

Youth was a lie, a reckless impulse. Those who sang its praises were often deceiving themselves and the people around them. They looked at everything in their circumstances in a positive light. No matter what terrible mistakes they made, they saw them as symbols of youth, something to be... something to be...

Uh... I forgot the rest.

Anyway, let all the popular kids explode!!

In a dark corner the KTV's laser lights couldn't reach, Mikage Touji munched on potato chips with a deep-seated grudge, spying on the boys and girls who smiled brightly, enjoyed each other's company, and happily sang along together.

On Sunday afternoon, Class 1-A held its first class gathering since the start of the school year. Katsuragi Kōhei had booked a huge karaoke place and spent the morning making all kinds of preparations. Drinks, snacks, fun little games—everything was ready, all to give the Class A students a wonderful memory.

But happiness belonged to them, while Mikage Touji had nothing at all.

"Here..."

Mikage Touji slurped up a spoonful of jelly and offered his potato chips to Morishita Ran.

"I don't want those. I want the Bamboo Shoot Chocolate."

"I'll get you some later."

Mikage Touji passed the chips to Yamamura Miki. "Yamamura, do you want some?"

"Thank you, Mikage-kun..." Yamamura Miki quietly accepted the chips and thanked him.

Mikage Touji stood up, planning to get some Mushroom Mountain Chocolate. He liked that one better.

"Mikage-kun, could you get me some sweet milk?" asked Shiraishi Asuka, sitting right next to him with a smile.

"Sure..."

"Bro, what do you want?"

Mikage Touji asked Kamuro Masumi, who was curled up in the corner playing on her phone.

As someone tone-deaf, Kamuro Masumi had planned to sneak out as soon as the gathering started. No one would notice if one person out of forty was missing. Unfortunately, Mikage Touji was too devious and had seen right through her plan. He'd used an order to blackmail her, forcing her to stay here against her will.

"Nothing." Kamuro Masumi glared at Mikage Touji irritably, then lowered her head and went back to her phone.

Just as expected, all the fun belonged to them. Mikage Touji felt nothing but peace within.

After leaving his dark, comfortable seat, hidden away from the light and love, Mikage Touji turned a corner and was immediately drawn to someone else who shared his plight.

Kito Hayato was a boy with an aura just as unusual as his. He, too, sat alone in a corner, silently watching the boys and girls bathed in colorful spotlights. Half his face, as terrifying as a demon's, was hidden in shadow, and the crowd had left a vacuum around him.

Mikage Touji picked up a drink, walked straight over, handed it to him, and sat down.

"Kito-san," Mikage Touji said, patting him on the shoulder in a friendly manner, like they were obviously the real best friends here. "No need for words. Let's drink in place of wine and get completely wasted."

Kito Hayato had been used to this kind of treatment since he was a child.

Instead, he stared blankly at Mikage Touji, who had suddenly rushed over and gotten completely carried away on his own. For a moment, he didn't know what to say, so he could only awkwardly play along. "Cheers..."

The two bottles clinked together in midair with a dull thud.

Mikage Touji scooted closer to Kito Hayato and sighed. "We're definitely the same kind of Stand users, the two lonely souls the world can't accept. But it's all right. The world didn't reject us—we rejected the world! Come on! Let's finish this one, too!"

Kito Hayato raised his hand and looked at the label on his drink. There wasn't any alcohol in it, so how had he gotten drunk?

Also, he recalled the direction Mikage Touji had come from... His lips moved a few times, but in the end he didn't say anything.

"By the way, where's Hashimoto-san? Wasn't he with you?"

"Over there." Kito Hayato nodded toward the direction Mikage Touji should look.

Under the neon lights, Hashimoto Masayoshi was doing everything he could, sweet-talking people and flitting between the boys and girls like a flamboyant butterfly. He was having the time of his life.

"Tch..." Mikage Touji clicked his tongue. "Hashimoto really is a traitor, a two-faced turncoat. He's betrayed our class!"

Although he didn't particularly like Hashimoto Masayoshi either, Kito Hayato thought that Hashimoto Masayoshi was getting a raw deal.

After chatting with Kito for a while longer, Mikage Touji staggered away from this peaceful corner. It was time to set out on a new adventure.

Was he really not drunk?

Watching Mikage Touji's retreating figure, Kito Hayato asked himself the question of a lifetime.

After wandering around, Mikage Touji made his way over to the event's organizer, Katsuragi Kōhei, and his sidekick.

The two were sitting on the sofa with the widest view, where they could see all their classmates at a glance and quickly handle any problems that came up. A few other classmates were chatting with them.

"Katsuragi-kun, you can't let Shijo steal the spotlight from you. Get up there and show off your singing voice. Let them know what you can do, and then you'll earn more of your classmates' trust."

Totsuka Yahiko urged Katsuragi Kōhei as hard as he could to get up and sing.

Katsuragi Kōhei carefully compared Shijo's slightly husky voice with his own voice, which was as deep as a swamp. He suspected Totsuka Yahiko was trying to make a fool of him.

"Yahiko, singing isn't one of my strengths. Shijo-kun's voice is much better suited to getting everyone in the mood." Katsuragi Kōhei frankly admitted his weakness.

"No! I believe Katsuragi-kun can do it!"

"That's right, Katsuragi-san. You won't know you can't do it unless you try, will you?"

Mikage Touji joined in, a drink in his hand and a straw between his lips.

"Y-You! What are you doing here?" Totsuka Yahiko was startled by Mikage Touji's sneak attack.

Totsuka Yahiko was a little wary of Mikage Touji. The guy was not only unpredictable, he'd also taken Katsuragi-kun's place in the class. Even Katsuragi-kun trusted him a lot.

More importantly, Totsuka Yahiko had to admit that even he had a vague feeling this guy was impressive.