P.E. Class Hijinks

We watch the three buddies with conflicting emotions coming toward the locker room, seeming joyful yet unimpressed? I'm curious as to why they're feeling this way; perhaps something happened previously that caused them to experience these current emotions? Let us investigate.

(+ TIME REWIND +)

We arrive at a situation wherein the trio is sitting at Susumu's desk, eating their lunch like good students, or so I thought. If you look closely at Fumio and Takashi, you will notice that their brows are pointing downwards. Fumio replies quietly, "What do you mean by lolis aren't the best choice?!"

Takashi shakes his head in disbelief as he points his chopsticks at Fumio, then says dismissively, "You're basically saying you absolutely love children! That's extremely disturbing, Moriyama-kun!"

We turn to Susumu, who is peacefully eating his meal, which is octopus hotdogs, which are delicious! He doesn't care in the slightest about their debate regarding lolis. He has the sensation that he is in another location, such as the vast plains or the summit of a mountain.

Takashi's snap of a finger brings him back to reality, and he follows it up with a tilted head, "What's your stance, Ishibashi-kun?"

Susumu's eyes widen as he contemplates Takashi's inquiry, and he laughs uneasily, "I—I personally don't know anything about lolis, sorry."

His two friends give him a blank expression and let out a disappointed grunt, then turn back to their bento boxes and grumble, "How boring." He's giving it his all, you know?

After a few moments of watching the three consume their food, albeit depressingly..., they pack their lunch boxes and readjust their chairs before heading out into the hallway. We're back in the present as they approach the locker room!

The sound of clothing rustling in a room full of lockers causes us to pan across to Susumu, who had just put on the blue school tracksuit, like the other schools I've observed while narrating other people's lives.

As he zips up the school tracksuit, he walks up to Takashi, who had just put on a white shirt that is worn underneath the tracksuit; after finding Takashi, he glances around the locker room and asks, "Where's Moriyama-san?"

"He said he was going to go outside first, no clue why, though," Takashi fixes his shoelace before standing up, Susumu squints his eyes as he passes past Takashi, thinking, <I hope he didn't go straight to the library like he usually does during gym class...>

Susumu leaves the locker room, Takashi strokes the back of his crimson hair as he watches him walk out the locker room... I wonder what Fumio is up to, hoping it's nothing strange or sinister.

We witness Susumu walk out of the locker room, scanning around the gymnasium for a brown-haired person of above-average Japanese height, around five foot nine inches, I'm talking about Fumio, by the way.

For those that don't know, Fumio is a terrible athlete who spends all of his time sitting on the bleachers.

Susumu thinks for a bit before walking up to the bleachers, assuming, <Hopefully Moriyama-san is on the bleachers?> and, to his surprise, discovers Fumio messing with his phone while sitting on the bleachers.

Susumu approaches Fumio, who is slumped over and staring down at his phone. Susumu glances at his phone and finds him playing a gal game, "Hey Moriyama-san, you're becoming more and more like Fujikawa-san nearly every day."

"Are you implying I'm inheriting his habits or something?" Fumio asks as he saves the gal-game he's playing. He then switches off his phone and inserts it into his pocket.

Yes, the narrator answered, their voice blank.

"Yes," Susumu replied. Fumio shakes his head and looks past him.

Susumu then turns around to see what Fumio is looking at; I'd ask what it is they're looking at right now, but they can't hear me because I'm an omnipresent entity.

What they're staring at is a certain girl, a dark-brown-haired girl with a ponytail who reminds me of someone but I can't lay my hands on who... Maybe a certain book cover girl?

"I still can't process the fact that she told us to act like we don't know her..." Fumio sighs deeply as he scratches his nose.

Susumu smiles at Fumio and says, "I guess it was due to reputation concerns... if people found out that the class princess is actually a closeted otaku, everyone would flip out."

"At least Shinsato-san told us we could hang out after class," Fumio adds with a pout, resting his head on his palm which is resting on his thigh.

Oh, here is a wonderful opportunity for a large information dump; the person they're referring to is Shinsato Ayano, their classmate, and friend, but also the class princess.

She has amazing grades and is all that everyone strives to be, with great fitness and intelligence, yet she's an intense otaku... I tell you, an EXTREME otaku.

After hearing what Fumio mentioned, Susumu compulsively nods his head. After a few moments, we see Takashi exit the locker room, glance around the gym for his pals, and spot Susumu standing in front of Fumio.

He starts walking toward the girls, waving his hand in the air, "Hey guys!" Then, all of a sudden, he is encircled by the underclassmen. Susumu and Fumio turn to Takashi as he is surrounded by the girls.

Susumu tilts his head and whispers to Fumio, "I still can't believe Fujikawa-san is so popular among the underclassmen." The two of them watch him softly push away the girls, and Fumio answers, "Yeah, that's surprisingly bizarre."

Takashi emerges from the sea of girls, wipes his forehead, and walks toward the two, saying, "Sorry about that, now, what are we going to do?"

Susumu and Takashi take a seat behind Fumio on the bleachers, and Susumu says, "Weren't you listening? We're going to do some stretching and the sorts first, nothing extraordinary."

Nothing out of the ordinary... Why must every gym class begin with stretching? Why not start with something enjoyable like dodgeball?

As a whistle echoes around the room, everyone on the bleachers and the trio stands up and begins walking toward the court in the middle of the gym.

I don't like narrating folks stretching, so I'll skip ahead to something more entertaining...

(+ TIME ADVANCE +)

Susumu is seen standing among his fallen companions, while Takashi and Fumio are seen lying down on the gym floor's cold wood. He is observed with a red dodgeball in his right hand and is heavily breathing while looking at the wooden floor.

W—wait... I suppose I fast-forwarded a little too far; perhaps I should rewind a little before this happened.

(+ TIME REWIND +)

We hear a whistling sound, then a red ball is hurled toward a random person's face, it hits that person's face, and spit flies out of his mouth as he falls backward to the cold wooden floor.

The ball then rolls toward someone's foot before being seized by that someone, who is Susumu; he glances behind him and sees the person who was taken out by the ball; he clenches his teeth and thinks to himself, <Poor guy... I'll make sure to avenge him, or something along those lines.>

He then looks ahead and observes his opponents in this dodgeball game; he sees steam coming out of a dude's palm, and he appears massive, like bulging muscles huge!

Susumu awkwardly laughs and adds, "M—maybe you should be the one who should toss the ball..." He was presumably the one who threw the ball. He then looks at Takashi to his right before handing out the ball.

Takashi looks at him with wide eyes and a slightly open mouth, "Y—you serious?" he muttered, and Susumu nods slowly. Takashi accepts the ball, albeit grudgingly, and then hears the underclassmen yelling, "Fight on, Fujikawa-san!"

He squints his eyes and stares intently into the buff dude's eyes, then pulls back the entire right side of his body before throwing the ball toward an unsuspecting opponent, the red ball leaves a trail of steam before hitting that poor opponent in the abdomen, he falls to the ground while gripping his stomach, Takashi's crimson hair flowed in the wind.

The girls on the sidelines cheer, and Takashi straightens his back as he looks at them and smiles, rubbing the back of his red hair.

Susumu gives him a disappointed look before turning to Fumio, who is also looking at Takashi with his eyes squinted and slowly shaking his head.

<Why does he look so smug?> the two of them wondered. Meanwhile, the ball begins to roll toward Takashi's foot, but no one bothers grabbing it because they expected Takashi to grab it, but to everyone's surprise, it comes into contact with his shoe.

Takashi looks down at his shoes and his eyes widen, he falls to his knees, "I-Impossible..." he mumbled before hitting the floor.

Everyone in the gym is perplexed about what happened, Fumio comes up to the dodgeball and picks it up with both hands, then aims it towards an opponent and tosses the ball...

Or attempted to throw, because the ball landed in front of the person he was going for, the person kneels over, and... Would that be Ayano who knelt down and grabbed the ball? That's really cool.

If I could hear what she was thinking, Ayano straightens her back and gazes at Fumio with a dissatisfied expression... Oh, I just realized, that's something I can accomplish! "Moriyama-san? Seriously? I thought your athleticism increased over the years," Ayano puzzled for a moment.

Ayano then takes a step back, pulling her right arm back before bringing it forward and throwing it toward Fumio, his eyes widening as the ball flies toward him, too quickly for him to react in time.