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“Good morning, everyone!”
“Good morning!”

Mika and I arrived at our classroom after finding the usual (though somewhat reduced) pile of love letters in our shoe cubbies. It was crazy that people still kept leaving them there.

“Morning, Mika,” Sanada spoke up. “I’m sure you guys know already, right?”
“Good morning, Sana,” Mika greeted her. “Are you talking about Shuu’s double victory at the prefectural tournament? We were there and saw it in person.”
“That’s the one. I’m sure it will be the talk of the school today. I’ve been telling everyone since yesterday.”
“Heh, I can’t say I’m surprised.”

If she had told everyone she knew about Shuu’s victories in both the individual and team competition, then it was likely that the whole school was already in on it.

“Isn’t that crazy? Like, seriously crazy?”
“It totally is.”
“Hm? What’s going on?”

Several boys from our class grew noisy as they looked at something on their smartphones. That made me curious.

“Oh, Ayumu. We were watching a video of Hino’s fight in the finals yesterday. Sanada sent it to us.”

Hang on, did she also come to watch the tournament? She’s quite elusive and unpredictable. I never even noticed she was there.

“I do luchador style wrestling at the gym, so I can tell. It’s crazy just how strong Hino is.”
“It’s insane how even the last fight ends in an instant.”
“Well, it’s Shuu. He makes it possible.”

As the talk about Shuu picked up, the door to the classroom opened with a clatter. My muscular friend and Rir entered.

“Oh, good morning, Mika, Sanada. Huh? Did something happen, everyone?”
“Mornin’, you two. What’s with this atmosphere?”

Shuu looked confused as everyone’s attention turned to him.

“Good morning,” Sanada spoke up. “Well, I’ve simply been spreading the word about your double victory at the prefectural tournament since yesterday. I even attached a video, heh-heh-heh.”
“Are you serious…?”

At the same time as Shuu showed a somewhat displeased smile, everyone pressed in on him at once.

“That was awesome! Keep going like this and you’ll win the national tournament!”
“You’ll be going to the Olympics, right? Next year, I mean!”
“R-Right, I was plannin’ to win the national competition… but whether I go to the Olympics depends on exams.”
“You can do it, Hino!”
“We’ll be rooting for you!”
“Th-Thanks, guys.”

It looked like the harem king had become popular with both boys and girls.

_____
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“How were the Mapo glass noodles¹? Did they taste good?”
“They were so good, I’ll never be able to eat them at a restaurant again. You have somewhere else to be, right? See you later… and take care.”
“We will! Let’s go, Kanata.”
“We’ll be off.”

Kanata and I left the house. It was 8 pm. Normally, you’d see many passersby in the city even at this time, but this was a residential area and close to a Jizou statue rumored to cause strange phenomena, so there were barely any people. Though pedestrian traffic was normal during the daytime.

Either way, we arrived at our destination as I was lost in thought. There were already two cute visitors there.

“Hey there, Mika, Sakura!”
“Hi, Ayumu!”
“What did the two of you eat for dinner?”
“Hamburgers.”

They told us they’d be eating out, so that was apparently what they’d settled on. I hadn’t eaten at any of the fast-food restaurants in a while. I occasionally craved that kind of fatty food, whether you could call it delicious or not.

“Looks like we’re only missing Shuu…”
“There he comes. Together with Rir.”

The two of them had arrived with perfect timing. From where I was standing, I could vaguely see a girl with white hair peeking around a corner three houses away. Unless there was a haunting in the area, this had to be Rir.

“I can see Rir, that means we’re all here.”
“Okay. Let’s start, then.”
“Yeah.”

Alright, this is getting scarier and scarier.

“Kanata, we’re all set.”
“…Yes. If you would, Bro.”

I gave a Japanese style prayer, apologized profusely, and then grabbed the statue’s head. Even though the stone should’ve been heavy, I could feel it shift easily. That moment, I remembered fixing the statue back in the day. I wondered how it looked back then, but I couldn’t remember looking inside.

“Hng… there. Huh?”

I finally managed to get the head off. But all I could see was stone without an opening anywhere.

“There’s nothing?”
“Huh? How weird.”
“Then let’s put it back and this time use the Anazuman style prayer.”
“Alright.”

I very carefully placed the heavy head where it had been and then performed the other kind of prayer. The moment I did, the atmosphere changed somehow. I could tell that it was completely different, as if there was some kind of pressure.

“I-I’ll take it off, alright?”
“A-Ayumu… should I help you?”
“I’m good…”

I put my hand on the statue’s head again. It somehow felt lighter than before. And once it was off… an aperture had appeared where there hadn’t been one before.

1. Mapo (麻婆), likely the shortened version of Mapo Tofu, is a Chinese dish with tofu in spicy sauce. I assume they eat that together with glass noodles here.

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