Chapter 2: Like Ordinary High Schooler (1)
Waiting for the traffic light is still too long, it will kill more time, thought Ken with both legs still running and eyes fixed on the countdown at the red light. He think for a moment, then accelerated his running pace and turned around entering the narrow street between the ramen shop and the sweet food stall that were both still not open. If only he hadn't woken up late, Ken wouldn't have chosen that path as an alternative.
Ken braked suddenly as the sound of a dog barking startled him and made him retreat backwards. The barks shouted at each other, as if the hordes of dogs blocking Ken's path didn't like him very much. Ken clicked his tongue in annoyance, reached into his pants pocket, then threw something—who knows what—was palpable by his finger. The dogs are distracted and now busy chasing something Ken threw while Ken immediately takes a slide to jump over the two-meters-high brick wall in front of him. When the dogs had lost interest in something Ken had thrown at them, Ken had vanished from their sight.
"Ah, Oyaji Ramen 30% discount coupon!" Ken suddenly exclaimed, still as he ran, when he finally remembered the thing tucked in his pocket. A 30% discount coupon at the Oyaji Ramen shop that Ken got when he and his friends filled their stomachs there a few weeks ago. "If only I knew it was Oyaji Ramen discount coupon, I'd rather hit them one by one with a stone! Damn!"
Ken vented his annoyance by running faster. The tortuous little path he walked suddenly reminded him of an escape game set in a maze. In the past, he always hoped to be able to play the role of the final boss because of his very agile movements as if he had memorized it outside the head of the maze path he was going through. Thinking about it, Ken suddenly grinned and went back to jumping over the wall.
Now, ten meters in front of Ken, the school gates are already half closed. A teacher who was in his late 30s noticed Ken's appearance, then hastened to close the gate. Feeling challenged, Ken picks up his speed and manages to slip between the remaining narrow gaps. Ken clenched a fist upwards, while the gate-closing teacher yelled at him because Ken had impudently hit into his body when he entered the gate.
The challenge isn't over there yet. Five meters in front of him, Ken could recognize a figure of a back covered in green knitwear. Unmistakably, it's his homeroom teacher. Big problem number two that Ken doesn't want to experience is dealing with his homeroom teacher. Hard, disciplined, and not empathetic. Just thinking about it gives Ken a headache.
"Imai-kun."
Ken forgot. In addition to being hard, disciplined, and not empathetic, the level of his sensitivity is also very strong. It may range from 80 to 90%, the rest is because Ken is known as a student who always arrives late.
"... Sensei." Ken walked up to his homeroom teacher while bowing his head.
"Late again," he muttered in a flat voice. A pair of sharp eyes behind the glasses observed Ken fixedly from head to toe. "What's the reason this time?"
Ken racked his brains, but could not find the right reason.
"New game releases ...."
There was a sound of the door sliding. Ken looked up slightly, seeing his homeroom teacher who was just standing still while his hand was still against the door, as if telling Ken to get in first. Ken looked at him somewhat incredulously, then walked in with his head down.
Ken came over to the empty seat at the back, still wondering inwardly. One thing that is almost arguably impossible if the reason for the delay can be immediately accepted without a single comment. Very unusual.
"Oi," Ken whispered to the two boys sitting next to his right. They both looked over. The one sitting next to Ken looked at him and raising his eyebrow, while the one sitting in front looked at him with a smirk. "Since when did Taniguchi rise to the rank of principal?"
The boy who had been staring at Ken with a face holding back laughter could no longer help it, especially when the question came out of Ken's mouth. All eyes in the classroom suddenly turned to him, including the homeroom teacher, Taniguchi.
"Ogawa-kun, please go out if you still want to laugh."
The person concerned, clears his throat, holding back his laughter with all his might. "Sorry."
After the atmosphere returned to calm, the homeroom teacher spoke behind his pulpit while opening the yellow folder he always carried. Ken observed silently, with his eyebrows intertwined in a deep manner, then he cleared his throat.
"Ken, what did you hit your head this time?"
Ogawa almost spit out a laugh for the second time. The boy sitting behind Ogawa, who asked the question, looked at Ken with a look of judgment as well as guessing.
"It's not because of the promotion, Ken. It was because of the bunkasai the other day."
Another friend of Ken's who was sitting right in front of him, straightened out the wild presumptions in Ken's head. Ken held up his chin, then muttered softly as he nodded as the memory appeared in his head.
"Oh, an unprecedented bunkasai concept record ...." Ogawa said with a snap of his fingers, along with Taniguchi's departure. "If you remember again, it's your fault to play nintendo during Taniguchi's lessons. Luckily, your ability isn't just playing games, Ken. Otherwise, you're just making a shame."
Ken remembers. On such a hot Thursday afternoon, Taniguchi's history lessons were five times more boring than usual. The night before, Ken spent exploring the latest releases of his favorite games until two o'clock in the morning. Ken wanted to take a nap that afternoon, but at once he remembered that the nintendo he had brought yesterday was still in the bag. After that, Ken was busy pushing his nintendo button from under the table, while Taniguchi began to notice irregularities in one of his students.
Ken's nintendo was almost confiscated. Ken balked, of course. Taniguchi then gave Ken a choice. Give up the nintendo or fully contribute to the bunkasai event which will be held in a month. Without thinking, Ken chose the second option. Ken is not willing to have his beloved items confiscated, let alone items purchased with the proceeds of his own savings.
Beyond Taniguchi's expectations, the 2-3rd class bunkasai got a record as 'a rare concept that has never been implemented before' as well as 'the class with the most income'. In essence, a great success. As a result, Ken managed to regain what had been taken away from him.
"What's the money used for?"
"Karaoke."
"Eh ...?" Ken put on a disappointed face.
"Don't blame them. You said you didn't want to come."
Ken exhaled in frustration. "If I had known they were using the bunkasai's income money only for karaoke, I should have taken the money secretly before they left."
The boy sitting in front of Ken turned back with a smile in amusement, "And hopefully none of the classmates, other than three of us, have heard your complaints."
"Why? Basically, I'm the one who thought through all the plans to the smallest. After all, Yasu, the money has already been used. It's over. No one cares about my complaints anymore."
Nomura Yasuhiro shrugged his shoulder, still smiling. He then stood up, leading his three other friends to immediately go to the science lab.
"That's it out, Selfish Kensuke. You haven't eaten yet, huh?"
"No need to ask if you already know the answer, Chika!"
The boy sitting behind Ogawa, Shimada Chikara, snored with a grin on his face. He took the textbook he kept in the desk drawer and then caught up with Yasuhiro's footsteps.
"Hm ... no, no. It's worse than Chikara guessed," Ogawa chimed in, acting like a detective. "Think of it guys, if Ken is hungry, the 'Selfish Kensuke' mode will not come out so soon. There must be other triggers. Are you lost or miss something, Ken?"
Ken snapped his fingers. "As expected, Detective Kazuhiko-san! You know, I was walking down the narrow street in 3-Chome, that mad dogs were blocking my way. I didn't have anything with me so I reached into my pocket and threw away whatever was there. I just remembered that the thing I threw at the mad dog was an Oyaji Ramen coupon! 30% coupon!"
Ogawa Kazuhiko nodded respectfully, still steeped in his role as a professional detective. "Hm hm ... so it's like that."
Chikara looked back, then hit Kazuhiko's head with his textbook. "You don't have to act so smart that in fact you always take remedial classes."
Ken and Yasuhiro laughed, while Kazuhiko snoring loudly.
***
Ken and his three friends prefer to spend their break time on the roof even though access to the place is prohibited, especially for students. The four of them sat on the edge of the roof fenced by two-meter-high wire nets while enjoying their meals.
Ken opened his lunchbox quickly, then immediately devoured the sausages that were there before they were all snatched by Kazuhiko and Chikara. Yasuhiro who was aware of Ken's agile movements, chuckled, while Kazuhiko and Chikara seemed to be engrossed in chatting about the results of last night's softball so they didn't realize that Ken had already opened his lunchbox.
Suddenly, there was a noise coming from the football field. The four boys sitting on the roof looked down and saw from the gaps of the nets. Down there, right in the middle of the football field, the dry ground was split as if there had been a terrible earthquake a few seconds ago. However, the situation down there did not show any tension at all. Quite the opposite.
The group of boys from the left-hand goal were seen laughing shrieking. Meanwhile, the group from the right-hand goal swarmed up to one member of his team who was near the gaping ground crack. One of the boys from the right group began to be seen shouting unacceptably at the left group, demanding responsibility for what had happened.
From a distance, they looked like they were fighting. But if observed again, one of the boys from the left group raised his hand and cheered apologizing for his unwillingness. That boy from the left group then stomped one foot around the wide gaping ground, then the crack slowly closed again as if there had not been any incident before.
"Show off," Ken commented as he chewed on his egg rolls.
Kazuhiko laughed. "We'll see you later when Ketteibi, Ken. I'll be the number one who'll laugh and yell at you if it turns out that you're also showing off your powers."
"Ho!" snapped Ken as he swallowed his food, then nodded. "Treat me yakisoba bread if I win."
Kazuhiko laughed again, this time louder.
"... Ketteibi."
"What's the matter, Yasu? Ketteibi still has one month and ten days left. Be patient."
"Oi, Ken. Without you telling him to, from the beginning Yasu was the most patient person among the four of us," Chikara said as he hit Ken on the head with his empty orange juice box.
Kazuhiko was still laughing, the melon bread in his hand was not finished yet. "Ketteibi is only held once every end of the year, while Yasuhiro's birthday is at the beginning of the year. What's the point of the oldster used to tell us how good it was to be 17 when it was actually like this?"
Chikara nodded. "They said, we can unleash our elemental power at the age of 17. But, it's almost been a month since my 17th birthday and I haven't been able to bring out my elemental power that my father meant."
The four of them laughed.
"I used to expect to be a superhero when my elemental powers appeared," Kazuhiko said as he stabbing a straw into his milkbox, then sipping it out in one gulp. "Higami's fireball is cool. Suimi's ice bullets are cool. Futen's wind arrow is cool. Jikai's golems are also cool. Well, it's all cool."
"Fireballs are cooler," Chikara rebutted.
"Wind arrow," Ken chimes.
Kazuhiko, Chikara, and Ken turned to look at Yasuhiro who hadn't chimed in. The boy with his clear blue eyes blinked innocently, staring at his three friends one by one.
"... In my eyes, everything is cool. I got confused about choosing the one I liked the most."
Kazuhiko laughed and put his arms around Yasuhiro. "I know right? I think the four groups are indeed cool. Fire, water, earth, wind, and not to mention other combined elements. Aah ... I hope a month and ten days isn't long."
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