Seishun Buta Yarou Series - Volume 13 - Chapter 4.4

4

The car came to a stop in front of Tsujido Station, one stop away from Fujisawa. The impressive size of the crowd was already obvious.

“Real fame,” Nene said, her bitterness directed inward.

“We here in time?” Takumi muttered.

The clock in the car said 1:55.

“Takumi and I will find parking, so you get out here,” Nene said, pulling into the bus stop.

“Thanks,” Sakuta said. He and Ikumi hopped out.

The shopping mall was on the far side of the street, so they first had to cross.

No nearby crosswalks. Too much traffic to jaywalk. Sakuta was already headed for the stairs to the pedestrian overpass that connected the mall and the station. A handy bridge, both letting foot traffic cross the road and leading them to the second-floor entrance to the mall itself.

A lot of people were pouring out of the station gates. Couples with kids in tow, pairs of high school girls—people from all walks of life. Some of them were definitely talking about Mai Sakurajima.

He pushed forward, slipping through the crowds. Ikumi was on his heels.

The police-chief-for-a-day event was already in progress, and as they approached, they could hear a female announcer’s voice through the speakers.

“Be mindful of the people around you as you watch the event unfold. Please refrain from taking pictures or videos. If you do, officers on patrol will have words for you.”

This was certainly a police-sponsored event. Security was handled by real cops. Few events could be safer.

With that thought, Sakuta and Ikumi cleared the overpass and were out the station’s north exit. The towering mall greeted them.

A lot of people were standing in the elevated passage leading to the entrance.

The side of it was packed, not a gap in the crowd.

Everyone was leaning over the railing, looking down.

All trying to see the stage set up in the open area between the mall and the traffic circle. There was a huge crowd in front of that stage, too. Not just a few hundred, but well over a thousand. If you added in the crowd on the walkway, possibly double that number.

“She really is that popular,” Ikumi whispered, peering through a gap in the crowd.

Her voice reached Sakuta’s ears, but he was past the point of responding.

His eyes were locked on the crowd by the stage, incapable of registering anything else.

He couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

Red hats, scattered through the crowd.

Not five or six. Not ten or twenty. Far more than that.

“Holy shit,” he muttered.

“Azusagawa? You okay?” Ikumi put a hand on his shoulder, sensing something amiss.

“Can you see them, Akagi?”

“See what?”

“The crowd by the stage is full of Santas.”

“Huh? Where?”

That proved she couldn’t see them.

“There, there, there, and there.”

They were just standing in the crowd. Five or six in the front row alone. Another five or six in the crowd right behind. Ten more behind them.

He pulled his eyes up and found more young Santas scattered along the walkway. Men and women, nearly all within a few years of twenty.

They weren’t doing anything strange.

Just watching the stage.

With interest.

But that alone was unnatural. Bizarre.

“There’s that many?”

He didn’t know the exact number.

“Easily a hundred.”

“……”

Ikumi gulped.

She looked around, unnerved by what she couldn’t see.

“Are they all…?”

The announcer drowned her out.

“And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for! We’re told she’s almost here!”

The speaker was a policewoman standing onstage, directing the event. The crowd’s anticipation rose.

“And here she is!” the MC said, looking at the traffic circle stage right. A black sedan pulled in, followed by a patrol car. They neared the clearing and stopped.

First, a male officer got out and opened the back door of the patrol car.

A uniformed policewoman stepped out—Mai Sakurajima, wearing a sash that read Police Chief for a Day.

The crowd applauded.

Mai beamed at them and followed the officer onto the stage.

“I’m sure she needs no introduction! Our police chief for a day, the one and only—Mai Sakurajima!”

The applause got even louder, welcoming Mai. The Santas were clapping with the crowd. No one was doing anything odd. But Sakuta found that terrifying. Everything about this was fanning the flames of his fears. He had no clue what was about to happen or if he could do anything about it. He was up against one hundred Santas.

His mouth went dry. His throat felt parched.

“Chief Sakurajima, are you ready to speak?”

“I am!”

Mai moved to the center of the stage and stood before the mic. She took a breath and began her speech.

“My name is Mai Sakurajima, and I’m serving as police chief for a day to help promote traffic safety.”

As Mai started speaking, the crowd felt silent, listening. The Santas with them.

“Last year, I got my driver’s license. Studying for that was a great review of practices for safety on the roads and the importance of accident prevention.”

“I’m gonna head downstairs,” Sakuta whispered to Ikumi.

He got on the down escalator. From up here, he couldn’t do much; if he wasn’t close to Mai, he couldn’t keep her safe.

“I hope this event will serve as a reminder that the obvious—yet oft forgotten—traffic rules exist for a reason. It’s an honor to help reinforce that fact.”

The escalator took him behind the stage, onto the ground below the walkway.

By this point, he was already seeing warning signs.

The crowd was pushing forward, trying to get a closer look at Mai. No one could see the Santas, so it looked like there were gaps ahead. “Close in!” “Move up!” The crowd in back surging toward the front.

There were even more Santas near the stage, and things were already approaching the breaking point. Pressed from behind, the front-row Santas were up against the metal barriers around the stage.

But the policemen working security didn’t register the problem.

With a scraping sound, the fencing was pushed toward the stage.

The cops finally noticed and started holding their palms up to stop the crowd. But they weren’t stressing it—why would they? The Santas were invisible, and to their eyes, there was still room. Nothing about this looked dangerous. Only Sakuta could tell how dire the situation was.

“And while we must make every effort to avoid accidents, I’d also like to remind people than if the worst does happen, being an organ donor could mean you save someone else’s life.”

The dams were about to burst. He could see no other outcome.

“And that’s all I’m here to say.”

Applause ran out.

The starting gun for disaster.

“Stop! Stop pushing!” someone yelled.

A moment later, there was a crash. The fence between the stage and the crowd had toppled over. The crowd spilled forward, the Santas with them. Thirty or forty people, all at once, the surge unstoppable. Tumbling, stumbling, like an avalanche.

“Mai!” Sakuta yelled, jumping up onstage.

Her eyes met his.

Confused, worried.

A Santa Claus was shoved into the giant speaker on the side of the stage.

The momentum of that caused the speaker to lean toward Mai.

Shouting something, Sakuta put everything he had into a run and then leaped in front of her.

He threw both hands up to catch the toppling speaker.

He couldn’t quite manage it. It struck his head.

“Sakuta!”

There was a thud.

He wasn’t sure what had happened to him.

He opened his eyes and saw the speaker lying next to him.

Beyond it, the crowd’s faces, registering shock. Mouths wide open. The Santas just as surprised.

Sakuta wasn’t thinking straight.

So he didn’t really consider his next action carefully.

He just got up like nothing had happened.

“I’m fine. Everyone, stay calm,” he said, addressing the crowd.

“Everything’s gonna be okay,” he added, looking at the Santas.

No one said a word.

Everyone just stared at Sakuta.

The Santas stared at him, too.

All looking like they were about to shriek.

Feeling was coming back to him.

Something unpleasant and wet was covering half his face.

Curious, he put his hand up, and his fingers came away red.

“Don’t move, Sakuta,” Mai said, concerned.

He turned her way to offer reassurance, and his head spun. He felt dizzy. His vision blurred. As he registered that, he landed on his backside.

Unable to even maintain a seated posture, he went flat on his back on the hard ground.

But he didn’t feel how hard it was, or how cold.

Something soft was there to catch him.

Mai had put her arms around Sakuta before he fell.

Relieved, he let himself slip into unconsciousness.

“Call an ambulance!” Mai said, sounding every inch the police chief.

Sakuta didn’t hear her.

“Why are there so many Santas?!”

“Was this a Christmas event?!”

“Santas everywhere! What for?!”

He didn’t hear confusion spreading through the crowd, either.