The Bus

"Huh? You mean this..."

U Amakusa touched his eye patch. His eye was swollen underneath, and he still hadn't figured out what to say.

Seeing that U Amakusa couldn't bring himself to speak, Satoshi Satonaka realized he'd been rather rude and felt awkward.

Seeing this, Naoki Shimizu hurried to step in and smooth things over.

"Satonaka, you came to buy some daily necessities too, right? What do you think of this? I highly recommend it."

Changing the subject was a good idea, but clearly neither of them was going along with him.

If anything, neither of them wanted to hear him rave about his 13-in-1 shampoo.

"Sorry, I stuck my nose where it didn't belong. I'm Satoshi Satonaka. What about you?"

Good grief. Anyone who made it into Class A had to be pretty impressive—at the very least, a model student, right?

U Amakusa lowered the hand that had been touching his eye patch, smiled, and held out his hand. "No, it's nothing serious. I'm U Amakusa. Nice to meet you."

Shaking his hand, Satoshi Satonaka said, "Likewise. Nice to meet you."

"Want something to drink? My treat." Satoshi Satonaka pointed his thumb at the refrigerator behind him.

"Then I won't hold back. I'll have a bottle of Lezi. The good stuff."

Naoki Shimizu, still holding the 13-in-1 shampoo, felt like he was somehow superfluous. Hey, can't you see there's another person standing right here?!

Naoki Shimizu sighed and put the shampoo in his shopping cart. The awkward person had gone from two to one—and that one was him.

As he was sighing away, an arm suddenly hooked around his neck.

"What are you sighing about? You drink Lezi too, right? All right, Lezi it is." Satoshi Satonaka made the decision for him.

"No, I want Mitsuya."

"No way. I said I'd buy you Lezi, so I'm buying you Lezi."

After the commotion was over, the three of them finished shopping and headed to the checkout.

The supermarket had a lot of checkout counters, about five or six, as well as self-checkout machines.

Even though the lines weren't very long—and some had only one person in them—all three of them joined the same line.

Perhaps U Amakusa thought he could become pretty good friends with these two.

Though Naoki Shimizu and Satoshi Satonaka had teased him about a little incident in the snack aisle earlier, neither of them seemed to think much of it now.

After paying, the three of them stepped outside and gazed into the distance in unison. Naoki Shimizu took a deep breath and spoke first.

"We've still got plenty of time today. What do you say, gentlemen?"

In other words, it was already around noon. U Amakusa realized Naoki Shimizu had a bit of a chuunibyou streak, just like he'd shown earlier.

Of course, the implication behind Naoki Shimizu's words was obvious.

"Generals, shall we march straight for Undersea City?"

Satoshi Satonaka pointed into the distance, his eyes shining.

What? How could you follow that up so naturally? We're standing right out on the street! If you want to go to Haidilao, just say so!

U Amakusa suddenly understood why the two of them had become such good friends in such a short time.

In that case...

Good grief.

"We mustn't act so rashly." U Amakusa took out his phone and checked the nearest Haidilao restaurant. It was a little far away.

"I just used my Mangekyō Sharingan... no, my Evil Eye to scout the area.

"Carrying our provisions all the way to Undersea City would be too much of a journey. In my opinion, we should take Fire City nearby instead. It's close to our base, too."

That made sense. They'd bought quite a lot, after all, and carrying it around would be a workout. Even if they dropped it off at their dorm first, they'd still have to make a round trip. It would be quite a hassle.

Naoki Shimizu and Satoshi Satonaka considered it for a moment, then exchanged smiles.

"No objections."

"No objections."

With the decision made, the three of them set off.

U Amakusa led the way toward the nearby hot pot restaurant. Honestly, wasn't it spring? Yet the weather felt like summer was just around the corner.

Was there something wrong with these three, eating hot pot in this heat?

"Hm?"

As they walked, U Amakusa noticed the two sages behind him had stopped, so he turned around and asked,

"What's wrong?"

"Look at Shimizu."

Satoshi Satonaka gestured in Naoki Shimizu's direction. His gaze was fixed on a small group of girls.

U Amakusa got the picture. Yep, the guy was in heat.

One of the girls said goodbye to the group and sat down at the bus stop. She was waiting for the bus.

Naoki Shimizu abruptly turned around, his expression utterly serious. "What a coincidence. Student Nishikawa, are you waiting for the bus here too?"

"Have you eaten?"

"I heard there's a new amusement park that just opened. Tickets are half price right now. Would you like to go together tomorrow, Student Nishikawa?"

"How's that? Do you think that'll work?"

U Amakusa and Satoshi Satonaka exchanged glances, then simultaneously grinned and gave Naoki Shimizu a thumbs-up.

"Good. Say it just like that."

Naoki Shimizu, who had been about to set off, stopped and picked up the plastic bags—the things they'd bought at the supermarket. He lifted his chin slightly.

"Here, take these. You two go order. I'll be right there."

The smiles on U Amakusa and Satoshi Satonaka's faces instantly fell, and they spoke in unison. "No."

"Daddy."

Their smiles sprang back up. The two of them nodded in satisfaction and took the plastic bags from Naoki Shimizu.

Turning their backs to him, they waved.

"All right!"

After giving himself a little pep talk, Naoki Shimizu stepped toward his target.

"Huh? Student Nishikawa?"

Ryoko Nishikawa had been engrossed in her phone. Hearing someone call her, she stopped what she was doing and looked up, only to find a stranger standing in front of her.

"Hm? You're...?"

When Naoki Shimizu saw that Ryoko Nishikawa didn't recognize him, he felt something in his chest shatter.

"It's me, Naoki Shimizu, from our class."

"Oh, oh! Are you taking the bus too, Shimizu?"

As Nishikawa spoke, she slipped her phone into her pocket and gave him a polite smile.

"Yeah,"

Naoki Shimizu replied. He looked around and found a seat, but it wasn't the empty spot beside Ryoko Nishikawa.

There was plenty of space beside Ryoko Nishikawa, yet Naoki Shimizu sat on the bench on the other side.

"Mm," Ryoko Nishikawa replied softly.

"..."

The atmosphere gradually fell silent.

"Um..."

Naoki Shimizu finally couldn't take it anymore and tried to break the silence. He still wanted to invite Ryoko Nishikawa to...

"Hmm?"

"Oh..."

"What is it, Shimizu?" Ryoko Nishikawa tilted her head toward him. Her expression was a little strained, and a bead of sweat seemed to run down her cheek. She felt awkward too.

Naoki Shimizu couldn't bring himself to meet Ryoko Nishikawa's gaze. He looked away and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"It's nothing..."

"..."

Silence settled over them again.

Beep beep—

Traffic streamed by on the road. Before long, several buses came and went one after another. The number of people at the bus stop soon dwindled, though new people quickly arrived to wait for the bus.

"My bus is here. I'll be going, Shimizu."

"Oh! Okay..."

Naoki Shimizu watched Ryoko Nishikawa board the bus. He kept watching until it drove away and disappeared from sight before finally looking away.

Naoki Shimizu stood up and walked a few steps to the back of the bus stop sign. Two people were sitting on the ground, drinking cola and eating the konjac snacks they'd bought at the supermarket.

"Huh? Student Nishikawa?"

"Hmm? You're...?"

"I'm Naoki Shimizu, from our class!"

"Oh, oh! Are you taking the bus too, Shimizu?"

"Yep!"

Naoki Shimizu watched the two of them with a blank expression and vacant eyes, like a puppet.

But a large, cross-shaped vein bulged on the puppet's forehead.