After class cleanup duties were inevitable; even a prestigious school like Hope's Peak Academy couldn't do well without it. Sure, janitors and other such cleaning staff are available at the main building, which already made the school even more odd compared to normal Japanese schools, but then, their benevolent teacher thought otherwise.
She figured that traditional cleanup would help teach the 'rotten oranges' a sense of responsibility. Not only that, but she also thought it'd make for a good bonding exercise between everyone.
And by that, he meant the unlucky sods that were picked out by random. Speaking of unlucky sods, for every single day until the end of their school years, including today, he's also one of those unlucky sods. Yeah, as a class representative, there is no way he can worm his way out of this one.
A single drop of sweat goes down his head as he thought about that. 'Well, there's no point in complaining about it now.' Then again, it did help that it helped in taking his mind off of a few things. Somewhat.
That said, he's not going to give their teacher an ounce of credit for that one.
While he's in the middle of sweeping dust off the floor, he hears someone call out to him.
"Hey, Hinata."
"Oh," Hajime pauses himself from sweeping on the floor. Broom still in hand, he turns around and, despite the kind of person the classmate who called him, proceeds to ask her, "What is it, Koizumi? Is there something you need?"
Before she says another word, she sighs to herself. "I hate to say this," Koizumi pauses, averting her eyes away from his. Her hand remains firmly grasped onto the chalkboard eraser she held. She muttered, "But…"
He nods towards her direction. "Go on. I'll listen."
"You remember my friend, Hiyoko, right?" The artist half-asks, half-mutters.
The counselor thinks about it, before letting out a thoughtful hum as he replies, "Oh, Saionji? Yeah, I remember her." His rather brief, distasteful expression quickly changes to that of a concerned one, however, once he thought that maybe this was something he should have more tact on, even if it's a classmate nobody likes. "Why, did something happen to her?"
Koizumi opens her mouth to say something, only to close it again. She puts the erasers away, no doubt to dust them off later, and then says with a mellower tone that was so unlike her usual self, "I'm starting to get worried for her."
"I see. Did she get herself in bigger trouble?"
"Not exactly. She's her usual self, but…"
He notices her pause. He raises a brow. "But…?"
The artist groans in frustration. "But I don't know what I should do about her and Kuzuryu's petty feud! Yeah, we indeed had some history together, but she hasn't mentioned it once or even threatened me as badly as she used to, and if anything, it's my friend of all people who often escalate things these days!"
Hajime hasn't said a word, only slightly nodding to let her know he's still listening.
Not that Koizumi notices at all. Without any interruption, she then adds, "Don't get me wrong, it doesn't mean that I've completely forgiven her or that I've forgotten about it. It's just that," She puts a hand over her face, "As Hiyoko's friend, I'm afraid that someday, Kuzuryu can, and probably will retaliate if my friend ends up pushing her too far."
"I can see where you're coming from." He admits once the artist made no signs of saying anything more about her troubles. Although Kuzuryu was more of an 'all bark and no bite' kind of person, the fact that she's still a yakuza doesn't help things. "I'll be blunt here; although a lot of things she's done were very crappy, trying to piss off a person like Kuzuryu like that isn't a good idea." He then asks in a sharp tone, "Saionji's your friend, right?"
At that question, Koizumi snaps at him, "Of course she is! Are you trying to doubt our friendship? I was trying to tell you something, and now you're—"
He raises a hand to gently stop her. When she did, he then adds, "What I'm trying to say here is, if that bothers you so much, do you think, maybe you can talk to her about it? Let her know that you're starting to get worried about her sake?"
A bitter laugh comes out of her. "Did you think I haven't tried? I did, and did you know what she told me? She said that as long as we're classmates, she won't stop until Kuzuryu either apologizes or gets what's coming to her."
"That sounds rather concerning."
"I guess you have nothing else to add to that, then?"
Faced with no other options, he shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. There's only so much you can do for a stubborn person."
She huffs. "Huh, I thought so. There's nothing else I can do." She turns away from him, her arms crossed.
The atmosphere, now heavy and so very awkward, he can't think of anything else to say; at least, something that wouldn't worsen his classmate's mood. Something comes up to him, but he isn't sure if it'd hurt more than it'd help.
Deciding that it's worth a shot, he admits, "I'm sorry I wasn't much of a help to you, but, do you think you can, maybe try talking to her again? Let Saionji, know that you're serious about that. If she truly is your friend, she should at least try to listen to you about your concerns, and not just hear you out." And then, he adds, "If not that, there's also the option to talk to Ms. Yukizome about it, but I have a feeling she's more of a last resort in that case."
"I don't know. But, I guess it won't hurt to try one more time." She turns her head back to him. "Still, thanks, Hinata. For listening to my problem, anyway."
He lightly waves a hand at her. "Don't mention it. It's what I do."
She does the same. "Well, I'll be off now. See you." Koizumi waved her farewell at him as she walked towards the door of their class.
A loud click resonates within the classroom as that same door closed afterward.
Hajime's grip on the broom grows tighter. 'I had no idea that something like that was going on.' He looks back on where Koizumi was only a moment ago. 'I guess there's no use fighting it. There isn't much I can do for them, but to listen.'
It's not like he can complain about it anymore.
Listening is all that he's good for, isn't he?
Another ordinary day goes by.
"Yo, Hajime."
He turns his head around. A fond smile goes over his laps once he saw who it was. "Oh, it's you, Kaz." He leans his face on one arm, lazily asking, "Let me guess; it has something to do with Sonia and Tanaka's weird conversations again, isn't it?"
Kaz looks mildly insulted by that. "Hey, Miss Sonia isn't the only thing I talk about with you, you know that?" He crosses his arms with a rather miffed expression. It's hard to take that seriously when his two pet rats, the same ones who were currently perched on either side of his shoulders, try to mirror their owner's mood.
He sheepishly chuckles; it's less because of him assuming the usual thing and getting it wrong, and more on because that display's kind of funny, but he'd look like a massive ass if he makes that too obvious. "Sorry."
"Nah, it's alright." Kaz shakes his head. Refocusing himself, he leans himself in and places a hand over his friend's desk. "Actually, the thing I want to ask you about has nothing to with that, like at all. Yeah, yeah, I know that sounds hard to believe, but really."
He straightens his posture and returned the other guy's look. "Alright. I'll hear you out."
"Okay, so," The other boy begins, "You got any plans for summer vacation? I mean, we've got at least two weeks to think about it left before that."
"Summer vacation?" Hajime repeats. He rubs a couple of fingers over his chin. "I've done so much these past months, I kind of forgot about that."
Kaz looks like he got deflated by that confession. "Oh. So, you don't have any plans, then?"
"Cut me some slack. It's not like my talent is the 'Ultimate Event Organizer' or something like that." He shrugs his shoulders. "I mean, for my past school years, all the trips I've ever been to are somewhere in the countryside or beaches—"
He almost jumps back in surprise when that guy slams both of his hands on his desk, which came out of nowhere. Before he can question what the hell's wrong with him, Kaz's face is suddenly a bit too closer than he'd like.
"In that case, a trip to the beach sounds good!"
Hajime raises a hand and places it over the other guy's forehead, slowly pushing him back to regain his personal space. "I don't know. I mean, I've got nothing against them. It's just that, you know."
"Why? What's wrong with beaches?"
"Don't get me wrong, there's nothing that bad about beaches," He mentally adds, 'Aside from the sand getting in your shoes and having saltwater splashed in your eyes. There are also unneeded misunderstandings to add to that,' He also thought about what to say next, and with the best tact he can muster, adds, "It's just, they're a pretty popular destination, especially at this time of the year. Don't you think they're just going to get crowded with too many tourists and students from other schools?"
Kazuichi hums in disappointment. "Huh, you have a point there, Hajime. When you put it that way…"
'I'm glad you saw where I'm coming from.' Hajime internally sighs in relief. 'Honestly, that's just a terrible excuse for me to not go to one. I think summer should be fine even without-'
"In that case," Kazuichi steps back and looked like he just had a big 'eureka' moment. "Then maybe we can reserve a big beach just for us. I'm sure Ms. Yukizome can make that happen!"
Internal horror fills up his thoughts at the realization of what he'd just done. 'NO!'
Hajime futilely reaches his hand towards Kazuichi, who dashes off to the door and is already long gone. Also, he would've been talking his mouth off to Ms. Yukizome by now.
Either way, he's too late to do anything about it.
Before everyone knew it, time flew by so fast. Now was the month of August, and so, that went with everything expected. That of course, includes this mandatory school trip. Ms. Yukizome outdid herself; not only did she manage to get permission from Headmaster Kirigiri as well as securing the funds somehow, but she also managed to drag everyone in class onto the trip.
Whether he meant that in a literal or metaphorical way remains to be seen.
'Remember, Hajime.' He continuously reminds himself as he and everyone else step onto the warm sand. 'You brought this on yourself. You just had to open your big mouth.' A strained smile over his face is starting to become his new resting face; or, as a fond friend of his would've called it, a 'default expression'.
Thinking about that fond friend, a heavy feeling went over him. It's too bad Chiaki couldn't make it to the trip; she said she had a lot of work from her classes to catch up to.
He understands where she's coming from. Still, it would've been nice if they could hang out more often, especially in times like this. Oh well, there's still plenty of time left in their summer break. He can try visiting her after the beach trip's over.
Not to mention, they can still talk via their phones, like they were doing back when the class was on the ship.
Speaking of the class, he can't help but wonder what it'd be like if she met with his classmates. He quickly dismisses that thought; knowing the kind of people his classmates are, they'd probably—no, on second thought, they'd end up scaring her off, especially when it's Hanamura, or even worse, Kazuichi. He's not saying it to be a jerk towards them; it's just that, well, that's the most probable outcome.
A vein pops at the side of his neck when he hears a whistling catcall from his least favorite classmate.
"I can't believe there are so many kinds of eye candy to pick from!"
As soon as Hajime lands a stern glare towards Hanamura, the pervy gardener pauses himself from saying any more lewd comments. "Oh, um," He twiddles his thumbs; he looked like he was having an internal dilemma on whether he should stop altogether to keep himself from getting decked again, or to say some more so that he'll get decked again.
Deciding that he's done entertaining that pervert, he discreetly scoots away from Hanamura as much as possible without making himself look too rude in doing so. Thankfully, the pervert hasn't noticed it since he's still stuck thinking about his dilemma.
The rest of the class got off to do their own thing; he can only guess what they're all up to. For instance, a hyperactive voice breaks through the background noise. "YAHOO!" And with any further prompting, Mioda dives in headfirst into the waves. Two more splashes join, and at least one of them is louder than the other. It's pretty obvious who joined in next.
From a corner, Ms. Yukizome has already changed to her swimwear—Hajime squints and then rubs his eyelids. He blinks once more, and by then, he knew his eyes aren't deceiving him. 'Who wouldn't have guessed? Our teacher really does live up to the hype.'
It's kind of a given, since she was the Ultimate Boxer. While her muscles aren't super big like say, the former Ultimate Biker Gang Leader's form, there's still a fair amount of bulk on them, which would otherwise be hidden by her uniform most of the time. And to say that they look perfectly sculpted wouldn't be enough to give justice to them; her shoulders, arms, and abdomen are especially the most well-defined, but her legs aren't a slouch to see either. It's clear that she's very mindful of that, and so maintained them all the same.
Overall, Ms. Yukizome's body has a healthily balanced-look, combining both beauty and sheer power into one cohesive form.
As soon as he notices Saionji and Koizumi are close by, he can see that the former didn't agree with his sentiment. If anything, she has a shell-shocked look; the kind that'd probably voice out her exact thoughts as, 'Ms. Yukizome's a monster.' And then she scoots behind the artist for extra measure.
Although this island has been reserved just for them, the sun is a lot more intense than he thought it'd be. 'Oh well. Now might as well be the best time to do it.' He unbuttons his shirt to keep himself from getting too humid but still kept it on.
A whistle comes from behind him. "Huh. For an ordinary guy, you've got bigger pecs than I expected you to have, Hinata."
With a surprised yelp, Hajime covers his chest with his arms both in shame and self-consciousness. Once his initial startled expression wore off, he shoots a nasty glare towards the yakuza heiress' direction. "Can you please not say something like that while we're out here?" He partly whispers, mostly yells. The effect he intended didn't work as much because his arms were still crossed over his chest.
"Yeah, sure." Kuzuryu unconvincingly replies, and she did that with another shit-eating grin. That ended up devolving into full-on trollish laughter.
'Oh God, she's so terrible,' He decides with a mental groan. He turns his eyes away from her and finally let his arms drop to his side, relaxing them at last.
Her laughter subsides, and from the corner of his eyes, he watches her wipe a tear away from one eye. "But hey, I swear, you've got nothing to worry about." She shakes her head as her shoulders shrug. "Guys like you aren't my type anyway. Not to mention, it isn't exactly the most impressive set I've seen so far."
He forces himself to unhear that. He strains to put on the biggest poker face he can ever pull off. 'I don't know whether I should feel relieved or insulted about that.' His lips involuntarily twitch.
While everyone else was busy swimming, playing volleyball, or doing all the usual beach stuff, Hajime opts to relax under an umbrella, texting a friend over. He already put some sunscreen off, and yeah, he put it on himself to minimize awkwardness. While they're in the middle of a conversation, a loud noise interrupts them.
He grunts. It's not even halfway through the day, and there's already a big ruckus going on. With his phone placed in his shorts' pocket, he reluctantly leaves his spot to investigate what's going on, and, he palms his face. 'Seriously?'
On the other side of the beach are two classmates he knew, Pekoyama and Sonia. They both stand on the opposite side of each other. The others are there too as their audience. Meanwhile, Tanaka is in the middle, probably to act as their referee.
There's probably no harm in it, and that's how Hajime ends up taking a front seat to the mock battle, right beside the only other person who's been willing to talk his mouth off to him.
"You're just in time, Hajime." Kazuichi pats his back with a big grin.
He chuckles back in reply. "I just wanted to see what the fuss is all about."
"Whoever emerges victorious," Sonia shakes a fist as her eyes shine at the same time. "Shall be entitled to a two-hour petting session with Speedy and Jerry, Kaz's adorable pet rats!"
"In that case," Pekoyama brandishes her sword. Her glasses shine with a dangerous glint to them, which had the, perhaps intentional, effect of hiding her eyes behind bright white. "I shouldn't hold myself back."
'Woah. Pekoyama's looking a lot more fired up than usual.' Hajime dully notes.
Back in the background, Kazuichi's yells and hollers are rather impressive today. "You can do it! Go beat her, Miss Sonia!" He even waves two flags, one on each hand, around as he jumps all over to make his presence even better. Where he got the flags or how he even had the time to prepare them, no one has a single clue.
He strains a smile at that display as his lips twitch. If Kazuichi wasn't the Ultimate Animal Breeder, Hajime has a feeling that his talent would've been the Ultimate One-Man Cheerleader instead.
"And," Tanaka's hand strikes down in a slamming motion. "Begin!"
Hajime perks his head up before he realized what's going on and focused himself back on the impromptu match.
Both Ultimates move faster than any ordinary human could ever dream of. Fake sword slashes against fake sword; parry after parry and block after block. It's only the beginning, and it's already hard to tell who'd win.
Everyone had their favorite. Obviously Kazuichi's already accounted for, and there's Kuzuryu who's busy yelling at her bodyguard to kick the other girl's rear already. Both fighters are evenly matched both in skill and in supporters.
Some time passes, and it honestly felt like it's getting nowhere. It might as well become a draw.
Hajime thought that, if things went on the same, he won't miss anything important if he looks away for a while. Taking his phone out of his pocket, his fingers tap over the keypads.
While typing out a message to his friend, someone leans over to try and take a peek. He quickly rotates himself to keep them from seeing it, but it didn't matter much anyway.
"You're still keeping in touch with your secret girlfriend, Hajime?" Kazuichi says that with a snicker. He playfully nudges his side with an elbow a few times. "I bet she's missing you so much right now."
He rolls his eyes. "Shut it, Kaz."
A few more minutes passes by, but at long last, the match finally ended. The two Ultimates were evenly matched, but in the end, it was Pekoyama's resolve for fluffy things that made the battle end in her favor.
Speaking of which, even though her face didn't make it obvious, the bodyguard is in complete bliss; her fingers gently rubs and caresses over the rat's tiny head, while the other contented himself to lay on her lap.
In Sonia's case, she's currently having a conversation with the yakuza heiress. She took the loss in stride, and even gracefully handed the two rodents over to Pekoyama, with Kazuichi's (unusually delightful, if Hajime might add) permission, of course.
"Kuzuryu, may I ask you something?"
"Sure, hit me with what you've got."
"I've heard that members of the yakuza have tattoos all over their bodies, and I find it odd that you have none on yours. Are you planning to have some in the near future?"
A grimace forms over Kuzuryu's face as she shakes her head. "You do realize we're both still in high school, don't you?" Placing a hand over her forehead, she then adds, "The answer should be really obvious for you."
To say that Sonia looked rather disappointed by that answer is kind of an understatement.
Things went on more or less peacefully for the rest of the day. When he looked back on some of his classmates' (and also teacher's) antics, it's a good thing that they're the only guests on this island. He can only imagine how terrified ordinary beachgoers would be if they had to share with the Ultimates.
But then again, he had a feeling in his gut that someone, someone whose name he won't mention, felt that this beach trip wouldn't be complete without this.
'As if things didn't get clichéd enough.' Hajime has a blank look towards the rest of his companions within the warm, steaming water. 'We just had to have a moment in hot springs too.'
Not all of the guys made it here, though. Two of them opted out, Mitarai declined on joining them; he said something about cramming in his new schedule while they're on the trip. Hanamurua skipped out as well, which is surprising because a normal person would've thought that the pervert wouldn't pass up the opportunity to come up close on a bunch of naked guys.
When he thought about that kind of scenario happening, he immediately decides that it's definitely for the best.
'Well, as long as the men's-only bath hours doesn't suddenly switch to a women's-only shortly after we just got here,' He grimaces, 'And cause terrible misunderstandings, it shouldn't that bad.'
"It's great of you to join us tonight, Hinata!" Nidai bellows, giving out a hearty laugh while he wraps a heavily muscled arm around Hajime's waist. The big guy must've been lost in the moment, as he sort of unintentionally locks the poor boy in a chokehold.
Hajime grunts, mostly in slight pain, and to keep himself from choking his breath out loud.
It might've looked like it's an effect of the warm bath, but for a completely different reason, a sweat droplet passes by the side of Kazuichi's head. "Hey, Nidai, mind letting Hajime go right now? You're going to squeeze him purple and blue all over soon if you don't."
By the time the muscled cook checks over the counselor, his eyes are a blank white and foam was starting to form out of his mouth. He immediately releases his swelling chokehold on him, causing Hajime to loudly gasp in relief.
"Sorry about that." Nidai apologizes, lightly scratching the back of his head sheepishly.
Hajime raises a hand while he coughed out the last of it. His once tensed up chest slowly relaxes to get him back on more balanced breathing. "It's fine. Just please, don't do that again." He wheezes. "And, if you somehow did anyway, at least try to warn me first. Please."
A burst of honest and damnably sincere laughter comes out of Komaeda. "I think it's amazing that I get to see our bonds as Ultimates growing even deeper."
Tanaka harrumphs in response to that. "That's a far too presumptuous belief, even for a mere mortal like you. You have yet to prove your worth to someone on the likes of my level."
The other boy didn't notice the backhanded insult directed towards him. "Oh, in that case, I'd gladly try my best and prove myself worthy to you, Tanaka." And Komaeda ends it all with another sincere and serene smile of his.
"V-Very well, then." Tanaka turns away, his face slowly going red from the hot springs' heat and his arms crossed. "However, prepare yourself for disappointment, should your efforts turn out fruitless; for I have standards that are so impossibly high, not even a mortal like you can hope to achieve even a shred of them."
"That sounds fine by me."
While Hajime watches the rest of his guy classmates banter with each other, he let himself dive deeper, until the upper half of his face was just a few centimeters shy away from the warm waters.
This is definitely one of the, if not the liveliest hot springs gathering Hajime has been through in his ordinary life.
On the other side of the wooden fence, a different group of Ultimates gather around there. Their numbers are five people, around the same as the boys who were still inside the hot springs.
Sonia whistles to herself. "I frankly don't see why this seems to be a popular rite of passage for the Japanese, especially for people our age, but I believe this is still a great way for our bonds to grow deeper."
A bead of sweat drops by the side of Mahiru's head. "I don't know what to say about that, except that everything you just said sounds so wrong on all levels."
She wishes that she skipped on this like Hiyoko did, but, it's not like she's here because she wanted to; the only reason she's out here in a group peeping on the guys is because no one else will watch over and keep them in check. As for Kuzuryu and Pekoyama, from what she last heard, those two were out to somewhere. No one had any idea exactly where, but thankfully, it's nowhere near where Hiyoko was staying in.
"Woah, this is so much fun! Ibuki's starting to understand why guys like to do this kind of thing." Their resident genki girl excitedly says to herself. "Maybe she should use this as an inspiration and make something nifty out of it."
Meanwhile, a disappointed groan comes from their other companion. "Hey, where're the sausages at? I don't see them anywhere here."
"Shh! Keep your voice down, Akane!" Mioda momentarily turns her head back to scold the blacksmith, before putting her attention back to the peephole.
Tsumiki's whole body might as well be completely red at this point. She quietly yelps to herself, looking away from the peephole she's using, only to come back and stare through it again. Rinse and the cycle repeats itself.
A rustle comes from the bushes.
"Did anyone hear that?" Mahiru asked with a gulp. To her immense exasperation, not a single answer came to her; if anything, the others look they're too caught in watching the naked guys. She palms her head. At this point, they're going to get caught.
The artist considers her options. She could escape the embarrassing, awkward, and incriminating moment that'd come after, but if she did that, it'd be a low thing to do even for her. She already went with them in the beginning when she could've sat out of it, and so, turning her back against them would've made her a big hypocrite. The fact that she did it for reasons different from them didn't matter.
Deciding to take matters into her own hands, she stealthily gets behind the bush. Her hand strikes out faster than either of them realized, and she fishes out someone from there.
A surprised yelp that came from what's unmistakably a person, got the rest of the girls' attention at last.
"Hanamura?!" The lucky student squeaks as the known pervert made his presence known.
Mioda wastes no time going behind her to cover her mouth, to keep the startled girl from giving them away. Tsumiki squirms a bit in her grasp, but other than that, she didn't do much to fight her off. If anything, her body temperature ends up rising a bit more.
Mahiru keeps her hold on the back of the gardener's clothes. Now that she knew who it was, she wants nothing more than to drop him off and wash her hands so thoroughly to the point they'd be erased out of existence. Yes, it's that bad holding him.
Shortly after that, she does just that. She lets him drop ungracefully onto the hard ground, making him land kind of painfully on his rear.
That classmate scrambles up to his feet while he tried to rub and soothe his aching behind. "Don't worry, ladies." Hanamura then wildly waves his hands around, as if that'd help his case. "I won't snitch on you. I swear."
"I don't think that's the problem here, though." Mahiru points out with a sigh.
Sonia goes over there, glancing at him now and then with a critical eye. "What do you think we should do with him?"
Even though Sonia hasn't said anything that sounded at least vaguely threatening towards him, Mahiru will have to say this…
That was the fastest she ever saw someone like Hanamura leg the hell out of there in her life.
Now with that pervert out of the way, she went back to the elephants in the hot springs and sighs to herself again. How is she going to live the rest of her life guilt-free after participating in something like this?
The answer's very simple: she never will.
Hajime lets out a sigh of contentment as he got himself dressed. It might've happened a lot before, but he can't believe he's been pretty ignorant since the start of the trip; he can't believe he's forgotten how relaxing hot springs were.
It's probably just him, but it feels like he got to know some of his guy classmates a bit better. He feels like he's starting to understand Tanaka's way of talking a bit more. Aside from the literally crushing first impression, Nidai also isn't that bad of a guy. Komaeda is the most down-to-earth guy he's ever talked to, and Kaz…well, he's still Kazuichi.
With that out of the way, Hajime thought that he's only being his usual, irrational self, but he can't help but feel that there's something fishy going on. An ominous feeling of some sort ran over his spine once he and everyone else got out of the baths.
It's a bit weird that Koizumi refused to look at him in the eye. Now that he thought about it, most of the girls in the class did the same thing for the rest of his guy classmates too. It's even weirder in Sonia's case because she's talking to Tanaka and Kazuichi as usual, except that there's some strain in her voice.
And then, there's Hanamura himself, who looks a lot happier than he usually is. He skipped around every once in a while, which raised the counselor's suspicions a bit more.
But, when he and the rest of his guy classmates got to their room, he drops the subject in mind altogether.
'It's probably nothing.' Hajime shakes his head off those lingering thoughts. He lets his exhausted body sink into the futon. From what he's heard, the trip's going to last for a few days more. He's going to need all of the sleep he can get.
For the rest of the night, the guys (minus Hanamura for obvious reasons) remain completely oblivious about an awful fact.
A/N: This probably feels a bit like filler (and to be honest, it probably is), but don't worry; this'll be one of the last moments before school slice-of-life takes a backseat. Next chapter should be about certain things, so stay tuned.