Akira stepped outside the bookstore, a large book in his hand. The things he does for his cat…

"Oh, Akira!" Akira looked up and saw Shiho approach him. They moved to the side, away from the entrance. "Are you busy?"

He shoved the book into his bag. He was certain his shoulders were going to drop. "Not at the moment."

"Do you mind accompanying me to the supermarket?"

The door slid open when they approached it, the two teens holding several plastic bags. "Thank you for helping me. I wasn't sure how I was going to carry all this by myself."

"I'm surprised your family would make you get groceries."

Shiho shook her head. "No, I wanted to. I needed to. I don't want to be useless anymore. And I told my mom I had a reliable friend, to ease her worries."

"You're not useless."

"You sound so sure… Anyway, thank you again."

He nodded and looked down at the bags again. "This is a lot of groceries for a small family."

"Well... actually never mind. Come on, I'll show you where I live."

Compared to the big city, a small town was far easier to traverse. Walking didn't take long and buses were nowhere near as packed as the trains. Except waiting for a bus took much longer. Either way, they arrived at Shiho's house relatively quickly.

"Thank you again."

"That's the third time you've thanked me."

Shiho smiled and began unloading the groceries. Akira also helped, though he couldn't help but feel a little out of place. Messing with someone else's kitchen didn't seem right, but after raiding Sojiro's fridge for a year, it wasn't too bad.

"The cake mixes and other ingredients go in the pantry. Top shelf please."

He nodded, although she didn't see as she was busy unloading other groceries. Akira opened the pantry door and began scanning it. The entire pantry was fill, except the top shelf. But there was a good reason for why. "Will you be able to reach it?"

"Oh, that's a good point." Shiho had appeared over his shoulder. "Um, I should have thought about this beforehand. Hm."

Akira looked up and down the pantry some more. "Is that curry powder?"

"Oh, we don't make curry that often. You can put that on the top shelf. What else…?" While Shiho was analyzing the pantry, Akira grabbed the bottle of curry powder, giving it a nostalgic look before placing it on the top shelf.

Together, they managed to make space on the lower shelves to place the groceries.

When they finished, Shiho dusted her hands. "Thank you for helping, Akira."

Akira held up four fingers. "Four times now."

"Actually, now that I think about it, Ann said you were quite the gourmet."

Akira rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, wondering what exactly did Ann tell her. "Not really. I'd eat anything because my diet for the year was basically just coffee and curry."

"Coffee and curry…? That… doesn't sound healthy."

"Anything I can grab was a blessing, really." Not to say he didn't like Sojiro's meals, but he would always relish the trips to the diner or even Big Bang Burger.

"Hm. Did Ann tell you I can cook?"

His eyes widened with interest. "Really?"

Quickly, Shiho shrunk slightly. "Well, not cook, but I can bake. I didn't do it often, but Ann always liked whatever I made. When my mom says they're good, it's hard to tell if she's just being nice or not. But Ann's too honest. She can't lie to save herself. That's how I know that baking is something I'm good at."

Akira glanced back to the pantry. "I assume you plan on baking soon.

She nodded. "I want to get back into it. I haven't baked anything since my first year of high school. I'm not in any clubs either so I have the time."

"If you ever need a taste-teste, you know my number."

"I don't know if I need a taste-tester, but it wouldn't hurt to bake an extra batch for you."

Akira grinned, licking his lips. "I look forward to it."

Extra: Strength

Silence was comforting to Shiho. After dealing with noise, detailing disgusting lies about her friend, it was nice to have some peace and quiet. Only the sound of scribbling pencils on paper echoed in the room.

She looked up to see her study partner writing notes down furiously on his own notebook. He was going fast through the textbook, surprising her with how studious he was. "I was wondering how Ann and Ryuji managed to pass their classes."

Akira stopped writing and looked at her with a grin. "Well, we also had the student council president to help. She taught me some useful studying tricks, and I her. By the end, we managed to top our respective years."

"Wow…"

"You're not bad yourself though."

"I'm average. Although the only subject I'd consider myself bad at would be English." Akira hummed, and she could already tell what he was thinking. "Funny, huh? How Ann's the opposite. Bad at everything but English."

"You two fit together really well."

"That we do. I think the only reason she passed her courses in first year was because of me." The two laughed when a thought occurred. "Although, Niijima-senpai graduated, right?"

Akira nodded. "And Haru as well, another third year who helped us study."

"And we're all the way over here…"

"Yep. They're screwed."

She sighed, reaching over for her phone. "It's a miracle Ann hasn't texted me yet."

"Huh, you're right."

Both of their phones go off simultaneously. Shiho shares an amused glance at Akira before looking down at her phone.

Ann: HELP

Ann: I don't know what any of this stuff means

Ann: Akira's not here. Makoto's not here. Haru's not here. You're not here.

Ann: THE ONLY ONE HERE IS RYUJI IM SO SCREWED

Shiho: Sorry, I'm studying right now.

Ann: :(((

Shiho put down her phone, watching Akira do the same. He smiled, amusement written all over his face. "I guess we're going to have an online group study session soon."

"Hopefully they don't get distracted…"

"It's Ann and Ryuji. That's what they do."