Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu

I’m feeling so lethargic today. Studying is tiring. Reading is tiring. Even typing is tiring. Did some Mexicans visit me in my sleep and siphon away my life force? This is exactly why Australia needs a great wall as well…

Right after the athletics carnival was the mid-sem exams, and thanks to my remedials and cramming, I somehow made it back as far as 16th place. I let out a secret sigh of relief. With this, the teachers should trust me again.
But Enjou and Kaburagi are at the top as always. This time it was Enjou that was 1st place though.
I bet it’s because of that, right? Kaburagi was too busy training for the cavalry battle. I wonder what on earth makes him so obsessed with that.

Our next class was in another room, so I was walking with the friends in my class when I noticed a girl walking our way with her head hanging.
Hm? Wasn’t that girl in my remedials? What was her name again?
As she got closer, I noticed a group of girls laughing from behind her. When the girl noticed, she left with hurried steps.

“What was the name of the girl who just walked past us, again?”

“Who knows. I’ve seen her face though.”

“That girl is in the same class as Ayame-san, isn’t she? Remember? The one who messed up during the great skipping rope event.”

“Aahh, that girl.”

“Great skipping rope event? Speaking of which, I do believe I heard something about a big failure in Ayame-san’s class for that event.”

“Apparently she practised quite a bit, so Ayame-san was frustrated as well, wasn’t she.”

I see. So that’s the girl who stacked it?
The girls behind her seemed to be in the same class. I wonder if she’s finding it uncomfortable to be there.

*imouto*

“Ah, Mochida-san. She’s being isolated in class at the moment.”

At lunch break, I tried asking Oomiya Ayame-chan about the earlier girl, while we were eating together.

“Isolated? Why?”

“Everybody practised really hard for the event, so when she messed up at the very beginning and disqualified us, she earned a lot of ire. My class had quite a bit of confidence that we would do well, after all.”

Ehh~ Because of something like that?

“When it happened I was angry as well, but of course I am not angry any longer. Only, the problem is that it wasn’t just the skipping. She stumbled during the three-legged race as well, and even injured somebody else.”

“She injured somebody?”

“It was simply a scrape on the knees, but the issue is that the injured girl belongs to Tsuruhana-san’s group.”

Tsuruhana Maki. The leader of the gyaru group, huh. What terrible luck to injure a girl from that group.
I did the three-legged race too, but the girl I was paired with said “Reika-sama! Let us pace ourselves loudly!” and pulled me along, so we managed to run smoothly until the end.
If I remember correctly, one of the contending classes for top suddenly dropped in rankings. So that was Mochida-san, huh~

“Ever since then, Mochida-san has been eyed by Tsuruhana-san’s group.”

“Is she being bullied?”

“I wouldn’t say that. But I do hear them bad-mouthing and blaming her.”

Isn’t that bullying then?

“All this just because of the athletics carnival?”

“I understand what you mean. To us, simply watching Kaburagi-sama and Enjou-sama’s exploits is enough, but Tsuruhana-san’s group is a lot more athletic, and seem to be enthusiastic about sporting events like that.”

Aahh~ Yeah, there are girls like those too, huh.
The girls around me started to heatedly discuss the Two Tops.

“The dead heat during the relay!”

“Enjou-sama was so cool during sprint!”

“But the coolest really was the Emperor during the cavalry battle. He was so skilled~”

“Speaking of the cavalry battle, the Student Council President was wonderful as well, wasn’t he.”

WHAAT!?

“Yes, certainly. I had no idea that the middle school StuCo President was such a dreamy person. Tomoe-senpai, wasn’t it.”

“Yes, Tomoe Senju-senpai. He joined the middle school as an External, and his grades are always in the top three; a model student. He’s skilled in basketball too, you know.”

“He’s a little scary when he’s silent, but once he smiles he’s cute.”

“I know exactly what you mean~!”

OH MY GOD!
When did I get all these rivals!? And some of them know even more than me!
Pretty much the only thing I’ve ever done for him is smuggle him some sweets from the Pivoine after the athletics carnival.
When he thanked me with a smile, my heart fluttered so much. I really wanted to bring him some more stuff, but then I realised that with my personality, I might really be tricked by some bad guy, and turn into his wallet, so lately I’ve been a little uneasy.

*imouto*

*imouto*

*imouto*

In order to give her the Snow White Akizawa-kun photo, I met up with Sakura-chan for the first time in a while.
Shockingly, we were chatting and drinking tea at a stylish open cafe. Having tea at a café? It’s like we’re totally friends! So nice!
I’ve been keeping in touch with her through lots of emails, because our schedules haven’t lined up, I haven’t been able to see her recently.
I only went to her house once during the summer break. That day I told her to keep our conversation a secret from Akizawa-kun, and did nothing but talk about Senpai.

“So since then, you’ve made no progress? That’s hopeless. You even had a chance to get close to him during the athletics carnival.”

“But…”

Getting closer to him, is actually pretty difficult you know?
Sakura-chan is tough when it comes to love, so if I let her be she’ll just keep lecturing me.
I changed the subject.

“Audibly badmouthing them? Yes, that does happen a lot, doesn’t it.”

“Mn.”

I decided to tell her about Mochida-san.
She’s been on my mind since then, and I tried observing her, and it turns out that she probably was being targeted after all.
They weren’t openly bullying her, but would whisper stuff while walking past her, before snickering to each other. They were clearly hurting her.

“It happens in my school as well, but I don’t suppose there’s much you can do about those things except wait them out.”

“I see.”

In my old life, there was a time when people suddenly started ignoring me. They wouldn’t even tell me why. But after a while, the target would change, and they would speak to me as well.
I guess this sort of stuff happens no matter the age or world, huh.
I feel bad for Mochida-san, but we’re in different classes, and don’t know each other at all, so it would be hard to help her.
But at the moment they’re just harassing her with sharp words, so I guess it might be fine?

Sakura-chan was really happy about the Snow White photo.

*imouto*

After I left the Cafe, I went and looked at some cute accessories with Sakura-chan at a miscellaneous goods store.

A miscellaneous goods store in Shimokitazawa.

Having a look at misc. goods stores on a day off? It’s like we’re totally friends! So nice!
Anyway, while we were in the area, Sakura-chan suddenly said she wanted to go to a nearby shrine to a marriage god.
I wasn’t really into it, but Sakura-chan wanted a charm no matter what, so I decided to follow her.
Sakura-chan got ‘middle blessing’. I thought it was a plenty good result, but she said “I don’t know about that. Takumi still isn’t decisive about us, you know,” with a frown.
I brought Senpai’s face to mind, before pulling a charm. Bring it on! My first charm since ‘future blessing’!

“Hii!”

Shockingly, it was ‘curse’. It’s my first time getting a curse. So they really exist…
Sakura-chan peered in from the side, and then immediately backpedalled. Stop that! Stop treating me as cursed!

‘The awaited person, will not come. The things you lost, you will not find. Chance of proposal is far off. Very dim prospects.’

“Ummmm, when you get a bad fortune, apparently you’re supposed to tie it to a tree with just your left hand, okay?”

“…Really?”

“Y-, Yeah.”

I folded up my terrifying fortune, and tried to tie it just like Sakura-chan said.
But it was harder than expected.
It was so hard that I messed up and it fell on the ground.
Should I purify myself and go home?

“I’ve been keeping in touch with her through lots of emails, because our schedules haven’t lined up, I haven’t been able to see her recently.”
A reminder that Japanese phones use an email system in place of SMS.

If you’ve forgotten about the charm results, you can refresh yourself here:
https://oniichanyamete.wordpress.com/2015/12/25/reika-sama-038/

‘The awaited person, will not come. The things you lost, you will not find. Chance of proposal is far off. Very dim prospects.’
The way it was written was obviously done in the way of shrine charms, but since I don’t know of any famous precedence of those being translated into English, I just translated it however I liked.