3.2
“Hey. I guess I’ve already brought this up, but why exactly are we in my room?” I asked.
For some reason, part of our usual group had gathered in my room after dinner that night. Ike and Yamauchi were there, as they’d promised. Kushida also came, as did Sudou, after he finished his club activities. If Horikita had been here, too, it would’ve been perfect.
“Kikyou-chan, do you know the other girls’ birthdays?” asked Ike.
“Yeah. I think I’ve memorized the birthdates of everyone who’s told me, more or less. Whose birthday did you want to know?” she answered.
“Well, the thing is, it might not be someone from Class D,” Ike added.
“If it’s an upperclassman, I don’t know most of them, to be honest. But if it’s a first year, I’d probably know them,” said Kushida, just as I’d expected.
“Which girls have birthdays on the twenty-ninth of this month?” asked Ike.
“A girl whose birthday is on the twenty-ninth? Hold on just a minute,” said Kushida.
She pulled out her phone and went through what had to be a birthday list. After she scrolled for a little while, she looked back up at us.
“Sorry, but it doesn’t seem like anyone I know has a birthday then.”
“I think it’s probably a girl from Class A.”
“Class A? Hmm… I know all their birthdays, though.”
However, Kushida didn’t seem to know one girl’s birthday, which was the day after tomorrow.
“If it’s a first-year girl, I should know everyone, but I can’t think of anyone who fits,” mused Kushida. If even her overwhelming social network couldn’t produce a name for us, it probably meant that the girl was from a different class.
“Does this mean it’s probably an upperclassman?” said Ike, throwing his arms up in defeat and collapsing onto his back.
“What’s the matter with the girl born on the twenty-ninth?” asked Kushida.
Ike responded matter-of-factly. “Just listen to this! You know that baldy in Class A, Katsuragi?”
“Yeah. Katsuragi-kun is famous. He’s the class leader. I was in the same group as him during the test on the ship,” answered Kushida.
“Well, that baldy is giving someone a birthday present on the twenty-ninth. Even though he’s bald!”
Ike kept repeating the word “baldy," causing Kushida to give him a word of warning. “Katsuragi-kun lost his hair completely when he was young, due to illness. You really shouldn’t make fun of him."
“Uh…”
Scolded, Ike fell silent. He should’ve been fully aware that mocking the ill was shameful. Doing so for a cheap laugh made him less likable.
“Okay, so, from now on, you’ll address him properly, won’t you?”
“O-of course. I’m sorry, Kikyou-chan.”
“It’s okay, as long as you understand now.” There was a brief pause. It seemed like Kushida had one more thing she wanted to talk about. “Also, about what happened today with Shinohara-san…”
“Uh…”
Ike had apparently forgotten about the incident, but Kushida hadn’t.
“You understand what you should do about it, right?” She didn’t touch on the subject directly, but simply asked that question in a gentle manner.
“I’ll apologize,” Ike answered sullenly. He looked dissatisfied, but he sounded genuine. He glared at Yamauchi, who was chuckling.
“Good. If you do that, I think Shinohara-san will forgive you.”
Ike might actually have matured a little bit, thanks to Kushida.
“So, you were talking about Katsuragi-kun giving someone a birthday present?” asked Kushida.
“Oh, yeah, yeah. I was wondering if you might know something about that, Kikyou-chan.”
Kushida seemed to be mentally scanning her social network, but couldn’t come up with anything. “Hmm. I never got the impression that Katsuragi-kun was the romantic sort,” she mused. “At least, not before.”
“Could the gift be for an upperclassman?”
“I suppose so. There’s still a lot I don’t know, after all.”
It would be pretty impressive if Katsuragi had started going out with an upperclassman just a short while after beginning school. I genuinely admired the leader of Class A. That said, should we really be narrowing our search at this stage? We seemed to have already decided he had a girlfriend.
“Since it’s come to this, let’s locate Katsuragi’s girlfriend at any cost!” Ike urged.
I felt badly for interrupting when they were in such high spirits, but felt I ought to point out another possibility. “Should we really conclude that Katsuragi was shopping for a senior girl?” I asked.
“Kikyou-chan said she doesn’t know any girl with a birthday on the twenty-ninth, so there aren’t other options, are there? Or am I missing something? It couldn’t possibly be Horikita-san, could it?”
It was a completely baseless assumption, but I couldn’t exclude that possibility.
“Well, I guess that’s possible.”
“Huh? Come on, you’re messing with me, right?” Sudou, who’d been listening quietly to our conversation, suddenly grabbed Ike by the collar and glared at me.
“Guh! C-come on. I just said ‘possibly’!” Ike shouted, panicking.
“Hey, Ayanokouji. When is Suzune’s birthday?” Sudou growled.
“Dunno,” I replied.
“The hell, dude? You’re worthless,” he barked.
I still didn’t know when Horikita’s birthday was.
“I don’t really think anyone at our school knows her birthday,” I replied. The only person who might know was her older brother Horikita Manabu, the student council president.
“I see. Yeah, I guess you got a point. Just because I don’t know, and Ayanokouji doesn’t know, don’t mean that he knows, I guess.” Sudou shrugged.
“I know Horikita-san’s birthday. It’s on February 15. I don’t think that has anything to do with this,” Kushida announced.
“Just as we’d expect of you, Kushida,” I said.
I’d praised her without thinking. I hadn’t expected even Kushida to obtain information about stubborn loners like Horikita and Ibuki, especially Horikita. I was one of the few who knew that Kushida hated Horikita, and Horikita hated Kushida.
I hadn’t thought they were on such good terms that they’d tell each other their birthdays.
“February 15, huh? Sounds like I’ve snagged some good info,” Sudou chuckled. He wore a wide grin. Ike, still in a headlock, tried to tap out as his face turned blue. “Oh, sorry. My bad. Kinda forgot about you.”
“Ken, you really gotta be more careful. You’re stupidly strong!” Ike groaned, wheezing.
“You asked for it,” Sudou answered.
“Then you should’ve done that to Ayanokouji, too! Why’d you only hurt me?!”
“‘Cause you were closest.”
“You single-celled organism!”
“Huh?”
Sudou moved to grab Ike by the collar again, and Ike panicked and put distance between them. I wished they wouldn’t cause a ruckus in someone else’s room. Or at least, not in my room.
“Well, the conversation kind of got off track, but I have a different idea. There are other potential candidates for Katsuragi’s present as well. It could be for a teacher, or one of the Keyaki Mall workers. I mean, the people we saw while we were shopping today were all beautiful, right?” I said.
“I-I see. When you put it like that, you have a point.”
Who knew whether an adult would even consider dating a first-year high school student? From a legal and moral perspective, there was almost no way they could become a couple. I was sure that Katsuragi understood that, too. However, we couldn’t exclude the possibility. We had to be careful not to arbitrarily decide it was an upperclassman.
I wanted Ike and Sudou to understand that it was probably best just to leave things alone.
“How about we quit while we’re ahead, and not get too carried away looking for whoever Katsuragi’s partner might be, okay?”
“Are you seriously okay with that?! Even if that baldy has a girlfriend with huge boobs, who’s also really into him, even though she’s older?!”
“I mean, he’s in Class A. It wouldn’t be strange if he’s popular with older girls.” And if he did have this idealized girlfriend, I didn't wish him ill because of it.
We, on the other hand, were from Class D. Just being slightly attractive or having a good personality weren’t enough to make us popular. That said, Hirata was popular with both our class and upperclassmen. Kouenji seemed to have a degree of widespread popularity, too.
In the end, the one thing I had in common with Ike and the other guys was that we weren’t exactly popular.
“I absolutely hate the idea of Katsuragi beating me!” Ike whined.
“Look, there’s nothing we can do, right?”
“That ain’t true! Just because we’ll probably lose to him doesn’t mean we don’t have a chance of winning!” Sudou shouted.
He peered at us, slapping his shorts-clad thighs.
“In basketball, you can use plays that are just barely allowed. You can even commit a foul, if it’s absolutely necessary to win. A strong desire for victory is what really matters. If Katsuragi giving a present to some girl will bring them closer, then we gotta stop him from doing it,” Sudou continued.
That was high-handed. In an athletic competition, Sudou's logic might have made sense, but what he was saying right now wasn't coming from a place of jealousy, not rationality. It wasn’t good, although Sudou seemed fiercely motivated.
“That reminds me, your tournament’s coming up soon,” Yamauchi told Sudou.
“Yeah. It’s on Thursday. I don’t know if I’ll get put in the game, but I’ll be ready, for sure,” Sudou replied. Smack! He slammed his right fist into his open left hand.
“All right, that’s it! I’m gonna get in his way!” Ike jumped on board with Sudou’s plan to interfere with Katsuragi.
“Kushida, please say something to him,” I said.
“Kanji-kun, you can’t interfere,” she said.
“Huh? But… Kikyou-chan, you’re interested in knowing who Katsuragi’s girlfriend is, too, aren’t you?”
“Of course I’m curious, but getting in the way is not okay.”
Just like that, Kushida extinguished Ike’s excitement like she was dousing a fire. Ike looked disappointed. He turned toward me, perhaps dissatisfied that Kushida had rejected his scheme to interfere, or remembering what had happened with Shinohara before.
“Okay. You, then, Ayanokouji. You find out the mystery person’s identity. Find out who Katsuragi is giving the gift to.”
“Impossible.”
“You gotta do it. I mean, you got free time, right?”
I couldn’t deny that, but I preferred that Ike just investigate the matter himself.
“Okay, sure, you want me to find this person. But I’m not even in the same class as Katsuragi, and we’re not friends, either,” I answered.
Trying to investigate someone whose name I didn’t even know, let alone gain their contact information and room number, was going to be a Herculean task.
“I have Katsuragi-kun’s contact information. Do you want me to give it to you?” Kushida asked.
“…………”
It wasn’t strange that she’d know Katsuragi’s contact information. Kushida was a beautiful girl with a huge social network. She even knew when Horikita’s birthday was, after all.
“How do you know Katsuragi’s number?” I asked her.
“We were placed in the same group during the last special exam, remember? I asked him for it.” To casually exchange contact information like that was honestly amazing. “So, you want me to tell you?”
“No, that’s okay. If I suddenly contacted him, I think even Katsuragi would be surprised,” I reasoned. He might just ignore an incoming call from a number he didn’t recognize.
“You stopped me from interfering in Katsuragi’s plans, so you gotta take responsibility,” Ike told me.
“Okay, but even if you tell me to take responsibility…”
“I’m curious, too. You gotta investigate,” added Sudou, giving me a rather high-handed order.
“Don’t you think you should do it yourselves?” I asked.
“Huh? I have a big tournament on Thursday. I don’t got any free time until after. I only got a few more days left to practice, you know?”
When I remained silent, Sudou glared.
“Should I force you?” he asked. He swung his arms around, starting to wind up.
It looked as though he intended to put me into a headlock. There’d be no escape if he decided to make an example of me.
“Okay, I understand. I’ll do some digging tomorrow. Just don’t expect too much. I have no idea how this is going to go,” I told them.
For the time being, I supposed it was better to just grin and bear their request. If I reported back to Ike and Sudou later, and said I couldn’t find anything, that would be the end of it.
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