Chapter 03: が

Heading out of the underground bullet train station, we were suddenly hit by a brilliant flash of sunlight. Reflexively casting my eyes downwards toward the shadows, I waited for my eyes to adjust.

Akihiro, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He had stared directly at the sun and was probably feeling some searing pain in his eye, although minor. He bent down and crouched into a squatted position, unknowingly blocking the stairs path.

"U-umm," I heard a soft voice behind me, and glanced down into the stairs. There, just a meter away from Akihiro was the cute girl that Akihiro had stared at. With the sunlight from above, her entire being was illuminated.

It was then that I truly noticed how cute she looked. She had a medium length, light caramel chocolate-y hair, brilliant reddish-brown eyes, and tender pinkish-red lips. To the right of her hair was an ornament hair clip that brought out the features of her pretty face even more.

Like us, she donned the standard school uniform, but the female version instead. Her tightly wrapped jacket showed off her lean body figure and her short skirt exposed her pale, slender legs.

With her eyes absorbing the sunlight, the reddish-brown in her eyes blended together to form a beautiful texture. It reminded me of the dawn. The dawn of birth and love.

Snapping out of my daze from her cuteness, I nudged Akihiro with my feet. "Oi, move out of the way, you're blocking the exit from the stairs." Akihiro, with his hands still covering his eyes, awkwardly shuffled to the right.

It was at that moment that his eyes recovered, the worst time it could have recovered. Akihiro slowly slid his hands back into his pockets and looked up, before seeing that he was crouching a meter away from the girl.

Red-faced Akihiro instantly apologized politely, "I'm sorry for getting in your way. My bad, I shouldn't have been standing in the middle of the stairs." The girl simply smiled and replied, "It's fine... Plus, you go to the same school as me, hmm?"

I made the connection, saying, "Ah! So you go to Zee High School. Well, I guess that makes sense, after all, we're both wearing the same uniform. So, uhm, what year are you in?"

"Nyo, I'm in my first year of high school." answered the girl. She then suddenly realized something and questioned, "Oh! Now that I think of it, we haven't introduced ourselves properly. My name is Makabe, Izune Makabe. But you can call me Izune, it's what I'd prefer to be called."

Akihiro finally mustered the courage to talk and stuttered, "F-first names?" "Yup!" Izune cheerfully confirmed. "You two seem like people I would like to be good friends with, it's just a whim. So feel free to call me by my first name!"

"S-souka," murmured Akihiro. "In that case, feel free to call me by my first name too. My name is Akihiro Yamada."

"Huuuhhh? THE Yamada?" Izune made a grossed out face before shuffling back a few steps. "I've heard of you from my friends... Sorry for my rudeness, but aren't you the guy who's super horny and willing to do anything for a girlfriend...?"

"I-It's not like that!" blurted out Akihiro. "I mean sure, I used to be desperate for a girlfriend back them. But I'm not like that anymore!"

I gave Akihiro a doubtful face, before stating, "So, uh, Akihiro may be horny, but he's honestly a really good, trustworthy friend. I don't think I could ever find a friend who could replace him."

"Ah, so that's the case... To be frank, I don't really believe in rumors myself, for many malicious lies are spread that way. However, there are some rumors that are true, so sorry for moving away after hearing your name."

"O-oh, it's fine. In fact, most people wouldn't even believe me when told the truth. Thanks for believing in me..."

"Oh!" With a casual smile, Izune turned towards me, "I still don't know your name yet, mind telling me?"

"Ah, my bad... I'm Kyuki, Kyuki Shinoya. Also feel free to call me by my first name instead."

"Oki, I'll call you two Akihiro and Kyuki, if that's fine with you. Uh-oh, we should really get going. School's about to start in ten minutes.

"Oh shoot, let's go. It'll be really troublesome if we miss the post summer break ceremony. Remember when we were late to the first day of school Kyuki? We were forced to write an apology letter to our teachers."

"Agh, don't remind me of that. We even had to read it directly to our teachers, I was about to die of humiliation. Just thinking of it makes me wince."

"Alright, we better not be late this time, let's sprint to school." decided Akihiro.

I sighed, as I hated the idea of arriving at school all sweaty and tired. The few times we had to sprint to school when we were late, my performance in school had dropped significantly that day.

With all of us in acceptance of sprinting to school, we headed out of the stairway and into the harsh sunlight. We slowly set off in a slow jog, exponentially increasing our pace over time. From the train station to school was approximately two kilometers, which meant we had to keep a twelve kilometer per hour pace to get to school in time.

Running at a twelve kilometer pace for an hour is nothing for me, so the next few ten minutes would probably be soothing and easy. Akihiro is more athletic then me, so he could probably arrive at the school without working up a sweat.

The main problem would be... Izune. She seems like quite a frail girl, so she might not be able to keep up the twelve kilometer pace. I glanced behind me at Izune in fear. However, my suspicions were all for vain, for she was easily keeping up the pace without effort.

"Uh, Izune?" I questioned. "Hm?" Izune wondered. "So uh, how are you keeping up with this pace. This is quite a vigorous and fast pace."

"Fufufu, I'm actually the ace of the archery club, even better then all of the guys." "Ooooo, I've always wanted to try archery. Can I join the archery club too?" quipped Akihiro.

*Heh, what bullshit Akihiro. You just want to get closer to her. I'm sure you don't give a damn about archery, in fact, you've never even mentioned your interest in archery to me before.*

"Sure!" responded Izune. "If you want, I can introduce you to the archery captain after school." "Ok, where do you want to meet up after school?" blushed Akihiro. "Hmmm... would the school entrance be fine?" asked Izune.

I gave Akihiro a look of exasperation, but he went on ahead and said "S-sure, I'll meet you there at 3:30." I felt like I had no choice, "Uh Izune? Would you mind if I also joined the archery club?"

She shook her head with a smile, before saying "No, I wouldn't mind if you joined. In fact, I would be pleased if you joined." I gave Akihiro a thumbs up before saying, "Ok, so we'll all meet up at the school entrance all right?"

I then heard a loud groan coming from Akihiro. He complained, "Speaking of school entrances, the school entrance gate is already closed." "Wait what? We arrived two minutes earlier then the ten minute deadline though..." I murmured.

"They must've closed the gates earlier then expected. Hopefully we'll be able to convince them that we weren't late." Izune thoughtfully murmured. "Aaaagggh!" I moaned. "Well, let's try convincing them then."

We walked up to the school entrance booth together, where a guard was stationed with his feet propped up against the table. He wore a blue guard outfit, with a floppy blue police hat. Tucked behind his ears were shaggy black hair and he was currently deeply engrossed in a novel of some kind.

He glanced at us with little interest before asking, "Names?" clearly wanting to go back to reading his novel. "Oh, I'm Izune Makabe, he's Kyuki Shinoya, and he's Akihiro Yamada. The gates closed two minutes earlier then usual-" The guard gave us an exasperated sigh, before interrupting, "Off to your homerooms now, I've marked you three as late, so don't try pleading with me. Be sure to not be late next time. After all, this isn't a normal public high school, this is one of the top academies of Japan, where lateness isn't tolerated."

Me and Akihiro sighed deeply, before heading off toward our homerooms. "Psst," murmured Izune, "What class are you in?" This time, it was Akihiro who answered. "Uh, we're both in class 4-b, why?"

Izune then bashfully blushed and smiled before saying, "Oh, that's the class I'm supposed to be transferred to after summer break." Akihiro answered again, "How come you transferred classes?"

"Well... I got into an argument with this girl and it 'disrupted the learning experience of others'..."

"Huuhhh? What a slut." an angry Akihiro replied. "What's her name?" Izune put her right hand up to her chin while making a thoughtful face before saying, "Hmmmm... I think it was... Yuumi... Kiyutoka...?"

The moment I heard that name, I started coughing contagiously and asked for clarification, "Y-yuumi kyitoka?" "I'm pretty sure that's the name..." replied Izune. *It's probably just a coincidence. It's probably just someone with the same name. It's probably not even her.* I was in deep thought trying to convince myself that it was someone different from the girl I once devoted myself to.

Akihiro looked at me questioningly before nudging me and motioning that we had arrived at the classroom of 4-b. Akihiro and me slowly opened the door with Izune behind us, bracing ourselves for the onslaught of interrogation questions and scoldings that we would soon get from the teacher.