The Bus

"Ah? You mean this..."

U Amakusa touched his eyepatch, his eye behind it somewhat swollen. He hadn't yet figured out what he should say.

Seeing U Amakusa struggle to find the words, Satoshi Satonaka realized he had indeed been a bit rude, and the situation turned awkward.

Noticing this, Naoki Shimizu quickly stepped in to smooth things over.

"Satonaka, you're here to buy daily necessities too, right? What do you think of this? It comes highly recommended by yours truly."

Changing the subject was certainly a good tactic, but it was clear that neither of the other two was following his lead.

Or rather, neither of them wanted to hear him brag about his 13-in-1 shampoo.

"Sorry, I spoke out of turn. I'm Satoshi Satonaka. And you?"

Yare yare, the talents who make it into Class A are supposed to be at least academically and morally outstanding, aren't they?

U Amakusa took his hand away from his eyepatch, smiled, and extended his hand. "No, it's nothing major. I'm U Amakusa. Pleased to meet you."

After shaking hands, Satoshi Satonaka said, "The pleasure is mine. Pleased to meet you too."

"Want something to drink? My treat." Satoshi Satonaka gestured with his thumb toward the refrigerator behind him.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony. I'll have a Lezi. Make it a Coke."

Standing to the side holding the 13-in-1, Naoki Shimizu felt like he was becoming a bit redundant. Can't you guys see there's another person right here, hey!

Naoki Shimizu sighed and placed the shampoo into his cart. The awkwardness shifted from two people to one—himself.

Just as he was sighing, his neck was suddenly locked in a headlock by an arm.

"What are you sighing for? You're drinking Lezi too, right? That's settled, Lezi it is." Satoshi Satonaka decided on his own.

"No way, I want to drink Bizi."

"Not happening. I said I'm buying you a Lezi, so it's a Lezi."

After the farce ended, the three of them finished purchasing their items and headed to the checkout.

This supermarket had many registers, about five or six, and even had self-checkout machines.

Even though the lines weren't long—some even had only one person—the three of them ended up queuing together in the same line.

Perhaps U Amakusa felt he could become decent friends with these two.

Despite the small incident in the snack aisle, Naoki Shimizu and Satoshi Satonaka had teased him a bit, but he didn't really mind it now.

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

"We have plenty of time left. For a single day, what do you say, gentlemen?"

In reality, it was just noon. U Amakusa realized that Naoki Shimizu had a bit of a chuunibyou streak in him, as did their previous conversation.

Of course, the subtext of Naoki Shimizu's words was also very obvious.

"Two generals, shall we advance directly upon that Undersea City with me?"

Satoshi Satonaka pointed into the distance with glowing eyes.

What? How are you able to play along so naturally? We're still on the street, hey! If you want to go eat hotpot, just say hotpot!

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

Since that's how it is...

Yare yare daze.

"We must not act so rashly." U Amakusa pulled out his phone to check the nearest hotpot restaurant and found it was a bit far.

"Just now, I used my Kaleidoscope Sha... oh wait, my Wicked Eye to survey the area.

Carrying our provisions all the way to the Undersea City would be too long a journey. In my view, it would be better to take this Fire City nearby; it's closer to our base."

It was true; they had bought quite a lot, and carrying it around was a chore. Even if they dropped it off at the dorms first, it would be a back-and-forth trip, which was quite troublesome.

After Naoki Shimizu and Satoshi Satonaka pondered for a moment, they looked at each other and smiled.

"No objections."

"No objections."

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

U Amakusa led the way toward the nearby hotpot restaurant. Honestly, wasn't it spring? Even though it was spring, it felt like they were stepping into summer.

And were these three crazy for wanting to eat hotpot in this sweltering heat?

"Hm?"

As they walked, U Amakusa noticed his two virtuous brothers behind him had stopped, so he turned back to ask.

"What's wrong?"

"Look at Shimizu."

Satoshi Satonaka signaled toward Naoki Shimizu, whose gaze was fixed entirely on a small group of girls.

U Amakusa confirmed it. Yeah, this kid is in heat.

One of the girls bid farewell to her small group and sat down at the bus stop; she was waiting for the bus.

Naoki Shimizu whipped his head around, his expression deadly serious as he said, "What a coincidence, is Ryoko Nishikawa waiting for the bus here too?"

"Have you eaten yet?"

"Come to think of it, I remember an amusement park just had its grand opening, and tickets are half-price right now. Would Ryoko Nishikawa like to go together tomorrow?"

"How is that? Do you think saying it like that will work?"

U Amakusa and Satoshi Satonaka exchanged glances, the corners of their mouths curling upward in unison as they gave Naoki Shimizu a synchronized thumbs-up.

"Good, say it just like that."

Naoki Shimizu, who had just been about to set off, stopped in his tracks, lifted the plastic bag (containing items bought at the supermarket earlier), and tilted his head upward.

"Take this, you two go ahead and order, I'll be there in a second."

The corners of U Amakusa and Satoshi Satonaka's mouths, which had just been curled upward, dropped instantly as they said in unison, "No."

"Foster Father."

The dropped corners of their mouths curled back up again, and the two nodded in satisfaction as they took the plastic bag from Naoki Shimizu.

The two turned their backs and waved their hands.

"Yosh."

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

"Oh? Ryoko Nishikawa?"

Ryoko Nishikawa was focused on playing with her phone. Hearing the call, she stopped what she was doing and looked up, only to find a strange face standing before her.

"Hm? You are...?"

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

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

"Oh, oh, is Naoki Shimizu taking the bus too?"

As Ryoko Nishikawa spoke, she tucked her phone into her pocket, a polite smile appearing on her face.

"Yeah."

Naoki Shimizu replied, looking left and right before finding a spot to sit down, though it was not the empty seat next to Ryoko Nishikawa.

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

"Mhm." Ryoko Nishikawa responded softly.

"..."

The atmosphere gradually grew silent.

"Um..."

Naoki Shimizu finally couldn't help himself and tried to break the silence; he still wanted to invite Ryoko Nishikawa to...

"Hm?"

"Oh..."

"What's wrong? Naoki Shimizu?" Ryoko Nishikawa tilted her head to look at Naoki Shimizu, her expression a bit strained, a bead of sweat seemingly rolling down her cheek; she also felt a bit awkward.

Naoki Shimizu didn't dare meet Ryoko Nishikawa's gaze, turning to the side and sheepishly scratching the back of his head.

"It's nothing..."

"..."

Silence enveloped them once again.

Beep beep—

Vehicles flowed incessantly on the road, and before long, several buses pulled up to the stop one after another. The number of people at the station decreased significantly in a short time, though new people soon arrived to wait for the bus.

"My bus is here, I'm heading off... Naoki Shimizu."

"Oh! Right..."

Watching Ryoko Nishikawa board the bus, Naoki Shimizu didn't withdraw his gaze until the bus drove away and disappeared from sight.

Naoki Shimizu stood up and walked a few steps behind the bus stop sign, where two people were sitting on the ground, drinking cola and eating the konjac snacks bought at the supermarket.

"Oh~ Ryoko Nishikawa?"

"Hm? You are...?"

"I'm Naoki Shimizu from your class~"

"Oh, oh, is Naoki Shimizu taking the bus too?"

"That's right~"

Naoki Shimizu, watching these two, remained expressionless, his eyes vacant, like a wooden puppet.

But on the forehead of this puppet, a prominent vein mark pulsed.