Episode 12 – A Deal With The Neighbor

Meeting up is something that friends and lovers do.

It’s that event where good friends meet at a certain time and repeat the exchange of [Sorry to keep you waiting.] or [I’m not waiting at all.]. I don’t know what’s so good about it, but there’s something that even I can clearly understand.

“Hey, Yukihana san?”

Once again, a meet-up is something that best friends do together. It should definitely not be something where you stake out a spot near a train station in the morning, and as soon as you find them, you approach them and talk to them one-sidedly or something like that.

And yet…..

“Geez, Yukihana san, you shouldn’t look so sleepy in the morning, you know? See, being energetic is the best thing in the morning !”

I was expressing my grumpiness with all my might by squinting my eyes and scrunching up my face, but it seemed to her that it looked like I was sleepy. Or rather, the noisiness caused people around me to stare at me.

“…..It’s only morning and you’re so noisy.”

“That’s just the right amount of tension for your health !”

For some reason, I was being followed around by Kisaragi Yuu again, as I had been yesterday.

My house is near the train station. The reason for this is that I have to pass in front of the station to get to the school. When I left my house as usual and was walking in front of the station…..

[Yukihana san ! Good morning !]

At first I tried to ignore it as a hallucination, but as the voice got closer and closer, Kisaragi Yuu appeared as if to confront me with reality. It seems that she had been waiting in front of the station since morning and had finished her breakfast at a fast food restaurant that was open from morning.

With a drink in her hand, which she might have bought at a convenience store, she began to walk alongside me. And here we are now.

(……On a day like this, I forgot my earphones.)

If I had earphones, I would be the first to put them in my ears and enter my music world. I would’ve been able to completely ignore this girl, and I want to punch myself for forgetting my earphones when I left home.

“Yukihana san, we have a math quiz today, are you feeling confident?”

“……”

“Excuse me, Yukihana san?”

“……I’m fine.”

“Oh, I envy you !”

….I’m still fine. I can barely stand it. If this were my house, I would yell at this girl, turn her into a sandbag (Although I don’t have that much muscle power), and finally tattoo her on my back.

I guess I’m still kind enough for not yelling at her in the morning. Yes, I’m awesome.

I couldn’t do it anymore without praising myself like this.

“So, yesterday, Sato san was……”

Unaware of my kindness, this girl talks about all kinds of unimportant things. I listened to her story at first, but the conversation with this girl was somewhat lighthearted. It was as if she was forcing herself to act cheerful and talk about things she wasn’t interested in.

I walked for about fifteen minutes. It was a hellish commute, but I finally arrived at the school. Of course, I don’t remember anything she said. My memory capacity is not large enough to remember such useless things.

“Oh my, we’re already here. I guess the commute to school seems to fly by these days…” 

(…… Enough, enough !)

I calm myself down, clenching my fists. The only thing in the world that has ever irritated me so much is my family. 

I walked into the classroom without waiting for Kisaragi Yuu to change her shoes. If I was right there was a math quiz today. Yesterday, I couldn’t study much because I stayed up late reading a book I had purchased. Well, I’m sure I’ll be fine.

Unaware of my thoughts, Kisaragi Yuu changed her shoes in an instant and walked right alongside me. Every time I exchange greetings with a student I know, I get the attention, so I really hope she releases me.

And finally, I arrived at the classroom.

“Well then, Yukihana san, good luck for the rest of the day !”

“……”

Finally, Kisaragi Yuu got away from me.

I feel like someone said something, but I completely ignore the words and walk to my desk. Even though school hadn’t started yet, I felt that my shoulders were extremely stiff.

I glanced over at that girl and saw that she had joined another group of friends and was chatting happily with them. I was amazed that her throat hadn’t dried up after all the talking she’d been doing all morning.

I then sat down in my seat with a sigh. I don’t know why, but I want to go home. I moved my tired head and arms to get my textbooks out of my bag for now.

“Looks like you have it rough.”

“….Eh?”

This time, I heard an unfamiliar voice coming from the next seat and I got a little jumpy. That guy is as unmotivated as ever, and in some ways, he’s even more expressionless than I am.

(……Shiina, Kanata?).

I wonder what kind of sorcery that made him talk to me. Yesterday, I had not had a single conversation with him, not even during class.

After that troublesome girl, it’s overworking to be involved with this guy, but I want to get to know him, so I can’t ignore him like her.

“….What do you mean?”

“You’ve been caught by the troublesome one.”

“……”

That’s exactly what happened. I don’t know how much stress I had accumulated in this short time. It was already clear that it wasn’t good for my mental health if this situations were to continue. If this continued, I was going to have to use the power of my lineage to get that girl to…..

‘Well, good luck with that at best.”

“…As if it were someone else’s problem.”

“Because it really is.”

I was going to be sarcastic, but he responded with a good answer. Certainly he has nothing to do with what happens to me. I don’t know if he’s worried about me, but if he is, it’s really none of his business.

I’ll show him my way through this.

“Want me to help you?”

“….Huh?”

Just when I was about to make up my mind. Here, Shiina Kanata said something I didn’t expect. Help me?

“……What’s your intention?”

“Nothing, it’s just that having a neighbor make a face like that makes me feel negative, too. I can solve all of Kisaragi’s problems at once if you want me to.”

“……I’m sorry, but I don’t trust you.”

Hypothetically speaking, if Shiina Hisata really had the ability to do something about this situation, what would he ask for in return?

Surely he must be after something. And sure enough, he continues to make suggestions to me as if he were trying to wrap his arms around me.

“I don’t need a relationship of trust. It looks like you didn’t prepare it the other day, so I went to the trouble of making it this morning.”

“……What’s this?”

He held out a piece of paper to me. I thought he was going to ask me for something, but I didn’t expect this turn of events. Is this……a contract?

I looked at the paper. If this is to my benefit, fine, but signing a written pledge with disadvantages is out of the question. There’s nothing more unreliable than a document prepared by someone you don’t trust.

“It’s impossible to use something like friendship, sympathy, or anything else that we can’t see as a driving force for our collaboration. Then let’s just enter into a temporary contractual relationship.”

“……Well.”

He certainly has a point.  At least he’s different from someone like Kisaragi Yu whose head is full of flowers. For now, though.

“Anyway, read it properly to the end.”

“……”

Taking a bit of time, I finished reading the contract I was given and looked at Shiina Kanata. My eyes must’ve been the sharpest ever. The contract contains details that make you wonder if this kind of thing is even possible. It was clearly impossible and nonsensical.

“…What does this mean?”

It looked like a normal contract, but mixed in with it were several mysterious pledges. I picked up and looked at the questionable pledges again.

During this period of time, Shiina Kanata will use all of his abilities to support Yukihana Ruri. However, the opposite may be true in some cases.

Yukihana Ruri must get a perfect score or close to a perfect score on today’s math quiz.

Shiina Kanata instantly resolves the one-sided trouble that Kisaragi Yuu is causing to Yukihana Ruri.

Yukihana Ruri will ultimately be in charge of class decision-making and be the effective leader of the class, or its equivalent.

The cooperation described in this agreement is limited to the moment Yukihana Ruri becomes the leader of the class or its equivalent. After that time, the agreement in this contract will be automatically terminated.

(……)

I don’t understand what this means no matter how many times I read it. There are some things in this contract that prohibit hostile actions and confidentiality of the contract, but I don’t care about those things.

The leader of this class has already decided that it was Kiasaragi Yuu. Is he going to tell me to take the position of class president now? If so, it’s too ridiculous. In the first place, I don’t want to be a class president or a class leader or something troublesome like that. And as for the quiz crap, it makes no sense at all.

It just seems like this guy is playing with me.

“……Sorry, but there’s no point in agreeing to something that doesn’t make sense.’

“No, it’s too early to judge.”

“…..You still have something for me?”

He then pulls another piece of paper out of his bag. The previous contract was typed on a computer, but this one is handwritten. And when I looked at it closely, I saw a series of mathematical formulas that looked familiar. This is …..

“This is today’s quiz prediction. The numbers and the wording of the questions may be slightly different, but the format and content of the questions should be almost identical to this. As long as you follow these, you should be able to get a solid score of 90% or better.”

“…….”

“As stated in the contract, I will do everything in my power to assist you during the term of the contract. You can think of this as a trial period.”

He then handed me a piece of paper with formulas and diagrams on it. I looked it over, but it was very neatly written and to the point. In fact, it was as if I was looking at the answers to a quiz that was to be given today. Even the trick questions were carefully explained.

“….You want me to test you?”

“Yeah. You can sign the contract later, but first you can test me to see how competent I am. Based on that, I respect your opinion.”

“……”

The content of the contract is to get a perfect score on the mathematics as stated in the contract. Could this be a deliberate attempt to bring me into this negotiation?

I was completely taken in by his pace. It was as if he knew everything that was going on in my mind. But maybe he is……

“….Okay. It’s not necessary, but I’ll give it a shot.”

“Go easy on me.”

‘…..I don’t intend to.’

If I were to sign a contract, he should be able to do that. And so, as I look over his predictions, morning homeroom quickly comes to an end.

And then we go straight into the first period. The math quiz is in the fourth period today. Kisaragi Yuu also seems to be busy with her own studies and talking with her friends, so I don’t expect her to talk to me until lunchtime. For me, I was able to maintain an ideal study environment.

Then time passed and we finally entered the fourth period……