Toba Shigeru, the Tool

The karaoke room was dimly lit, with a music video playing unwatched on the screen.

"I'm up first!"

Toba Shigeru grabbed the microphone and picked a rock song that had recently become a hit.

As soon as the intro started, he caught the beat. His singing was surprisingly good, and he instantly livened things up.

"Your turn, Ishida." Toba Shigeru passed him the microphone.

"Sure."

Ishida chose a ballad. When he began singing, his steady voice took Takahashi Ren a little by surprise.

Both of them were pretty good singers. At least, they were much better than him.

"Takahashi, you're up."

He took the microphone but did not pick a song right away. Instead, he warned them first. "You two had better brace yourselves."

"Don't tell me you can't sing?"

Toba Shigeru was already prepared to heckle him.

"You'll know when you hear it."

He went over to the song selection console, browsed for a while, and picked the only song he knew reasonably well.

The intro began. He held the microphone, feeling the rhythm of the music.

Once the intro ended, he started singing.

And went off-key on the very first line.

Toba Shigeru and Ishida exchanged a glance and burst out laughing together.

Neither interrupted him. They simply laughed as they listened to him sing the entire song off-key.

"Takahashi, you're the most outrageously off-key singer I've ever heard," Ishida said.

"Thank you."

"That wasn't a compliment."

"I know."

Toba Shigeru clapped his hands over his ears theatrically. "Other people charge money to sing. You charge lives."

"..."

Takahashi Ren put down the microphone and returned to the sofa. He was not particularly embarrassed.

He had not wanted to sing in the first place. They had insisted.

So he could only show them what a "soul singer" really was.

When Ishida began his second song, Toba Shigeru quietly edged over to Takahashi Ren with a drink in hand.

"Takahashi, there's something I need to tell you."

The music was loud enough that Toba Shigeru practically had to shout.

"What?"

"About when I met up with Shiraishi that day," Toba Shigeru said.

"Go on."

"Shiraishi didn't come alone. Nishikawa Ryoko was there too."

"Hm?" Takahashi Ren turned his head.

"At first, Nishikawa did all the talking. I was wondering if Shiraishi had brought her along as a wingwoman."

Toba Shigeru spoke quickly. "Then Shiraishi spoke up, and guess what-"

He paused with an air of mystery, then spread his hands. "All she asked about was you. Your interests, your hobbies, what you liked doing."

Takahashi Ren said nothing.

"Get it now? I was just a tool."

Toba Shigeru gulped down some of his drink and continued, "Shiraishi didn't ask me out because she wanted to see me at all. She came to pump me for information about you."

Toba Shigeru sounded relaxed, smiling as though he did not care in the slightest.

But Takahashi Ren had known him for more than a day or two.

The more upset he was, the harder he smiled.

Some things still hurt, no matter how lightly you talked about them.

Takahashi Ren did not rush to ask more, and Toba Shigeru fell silent too.

The music kept playing, and Ishida was absorbed in his singing, conveniently covering their brief silence.

Only after a long while did Takahashi Ren ask, "So, did you tell them?"

"Of course not," Toba Shigeru said. "I know what I should and shouldn't say."

"Was that why you kept quiet at lunch too?"

"Yeah. I figured this involved you, after all. I had to tell you first and see what you thought."

"Thanks," Takahashi Ren said.

"Of course." Some of Toba Shigeru's smugness returned.

"But speaking of which, do you know why Shiraishi was asking about you?"

"No," Takahashi Ren said.

But he had some idea. The system had told him long ago that Shiraishi looked at him the way a researcher looked at a lab rat.

So this time, did she just want to see how I'd react, or was she laying the groundwork for her next move?

Did this have anything to do with the romantic rumors surrounding Shiraishi now?

"If you ask me, she's definitely into you."

Toba Shigeru looked as though he had seen through everything. "Why else would she go to all that trouble to ask me?"

He grew more animated as he spoke.

"And did you notice? Shiraishi wasn't even trying to hide it. She knew I was your friend, but she still asked so directly. Doesn't that mean she wanted me to pass it on to you?"

Realization dawned on Toba Shigeru, and he slapped his thigh. "I get it! This is love-"

Takahashi Ren interrupted him. "We haven't figured things out yet. Don't jump to conclusions."

"Really?"

Toba Shigeru did not argue further. Instead, he asked, "Should we tell Ishida about this, then?"

"No need. The fewer people who know, the better."

"True."

He was just about to say something else when Ishida came over.

"What are you two talking about? I called you a bunch of times, and neither of you answered. So you just left me singing over there by myself while you hid here having a little meeting?"

"Coming, coming."

Toba Shigeru immediately stood up, snatched the microphone, and shoved it back into Ishida's hand without another word. "Let's do a male-female duet. You sing the guy's part, and I'll sing the girl's. How about it?"

Ishida snorted, but he took the microphone in the end.

The room grew lively again.

Toba Shigeru rushed to pick songs, Ishida complained about his choices, and Takahashi Ren leaned back on the sofa, occasionally getting dragged up to join in for a couple of lines, still singing outrageously off-key.

After another while, Takahashi Ren glanced at his phone and stood up. "That's about enough, right? Time to head back."

"Sure." Ishida put down the microphone and rubbed his throat. "All that singing's made me a little hoarse."

The three left the karaoke place. The setting sun hung on the horizon, bathing the entire street in warm gold.

On the way back, Toba Shigeru suddenly remembered something and took out his phone.

"Oh, right. Did you guys hear?"

He tapped the screen as he walked. "There was a post on the school forum last night saying Sakayanagi was on a date with some guy at the shopping mall. It blew up."

Takahashi Ren froze slightly but kept walking.

"I saw it too," Ishida said. "Too bad whoever took the photo didn't get the guy's face."

"Yeah. Whoever took it missed the most important part. Their photography skills suck."

Toba Shigeru looked down and scrolled a couple of times, then his expression suddenly stiffened. "Huh? It's gone."

"What's gone?" Ishida asked.

"The post got deleted." Toba Shigeru refreshed again, frowning. "I still saw it this morning."

Takahashi Ren said nothing, but inwardly he felt a little relieved.

It was probably Sakayanagi. She handled it quickly.

"Even though they didn't get his face..."

Toba Shigeru stopped and held up his phone, comparing the image to Takahashi Ren. "The more I look at this figure, the more it looks like Takahashi."

"I've been wanting to say that," Ishida said, looking over too.

Toba Shigeru and Ishida exchanged glances and spoke at once. "Takahashi, don't tell me this is you?"

Faced with their searchlight-like stares, Takahashi Ren fell silent for a second.

"It is me."

"What? It really is you?" Ishida's eyes widened, his voice rising involuntarily.

"When did you go and hook up with Sakayanagi too?" Toba Shigeru sounded fairly composed, but he could not hide the surprise on his face.

"You've got it wrong. We just happened to run into each other and chatted a little."

"Do you have any idea how wild the forum went?"

"I didn't check the forum. I don't know. Was it really that bad?"

"You really... That's Sakayanagi we're talking about.

"She always has people around her. I've never seen her alone with anyone. And she actually went shopping with you."

"Hasn't the post already been deleted?" Takahashi Ren said. "In a few days, no one will remember."

"Listen to him. Is that something a human being would say?" Toba Shigeru turned to Ishida. "A textbook humblebrag."

"Agreed."

"Then we do this the usual way."

Toba Shigeru cracked his knuckles and advanced a step toward Takahashi Ren. "What should we do with someone who gets lucky and still acts all innocent?"

"Beat him up," Ishida said succinctly.

Playing off each other, the two closed in with clenched fists, one on either side.

"Hey, hey, no violence. We can talk this out." Takahashi Ren backed away quickly, his face full of the will to survive.

"Lectures are useless." Toba Shigeru grinned. "Broken bones make better textbooks."

Under the setting sun, the three chased and tussled with one another along the road.

Their shadows overlapped, parted, then overlapped again.

Together, they went on ahead.