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Haruno Yukinoshita agreed to help out with the cultural festival. I avoided her like the plague she was.
"It looks like there's even less people now…"
It was the planning committee the following week. Even less people were present. A comparison from before wasn't even necessary. Only Yukinoshita and several individuals from the executives could be seen.
Meguri-senpai groaned worryingly, "I tried to contact people too. I really should've rejected Sagami-san's proposal after all…"
She must've been referring to Sagami's opinion that 'class was important too'. After Meguri-senpai said apologetically, Yukinoshita stopped her hands that were flipping through documents.
"It's not a problem. I'll handle looking over and accepting the applications from every department. Until we get them approved, I believe we should be able to proceed without issue." From a glance, the work was moving forward smoothly, possibly an effect from having the work redistributed in the committee.
This was an excerpt from some anime or manga, but supposedly only twenty percent of ants actually worked seriously. Another twenty percent didn't do squat. The remaining sixty percent was on the fence between working and not working. And this apparently could be applied to people. In other words, the people part of that sixty percent contemplated between going on one side or the other after judging the mood. It was also possible they leaned towards one side or the other to the point where they wouldn't cause any troubles and it was enough for them to make an excuse. With how the planning committee was going now, the working ants had slightly poor prospects.
Specifically, it wasn't that people weren't coming, but that the mindset "it should be fine even if I didn't go" that was spreading in the committee. Bigger numbers caused anyone to be relieved. The feeling that it was okay to do something if everyone else was doing it was definitely real. Putting it in a different way, then 'the trend right now wasn't to work at the planning committee'. Whenever and wherever, I was always a part of the minority. It felt like it was decreed by heaven at this point.
But there were still people amongst us that were truly expending the effort. The student council members were, as you'd expect, unified and dutiful. They were performing their usual administrative jobs alongside their responsibilities as the planning committee executives.
Twenty percent did eighty percent of the work. It was rather famous in mathematics, the eighty-twenty rule. It was a good rule of thumb when it came to things like this.
And that very well may be due to the charisma of the head, Meguri-senpai. Today, like every other day, the members were working together to support Meguri-senpai who was a comfy, but somewhat ditzy person.
Meguri-senpai responded in kind and assisted them as much as she could. She made her rounds, speaking to the executives and people present here. "The turnout's kind of bad, but since there are people making sure to come, we definitely have to work hard. We're totally depending on you, okay?"
"Hahaha, thank you for that…" She didn't forget to talk to me. Thank goodness… Had I been the only one she hadn't bothered to talk to, I definitely would've said goodbye to this place tomorrow. I put my bag down and checked over the work for today.
Since I had been getting things done little by little for some time now, I was making some considerable progress. If I kept at it, everything would be over relatively soon. As I was slugging around, my shoulders were tapped. I turned around to find Hayama holding numerous files. Though the other members hadn't showed up, Hayama would come by occasionally, even so far as to proactively dabble in committee work. Coming everyday would've been pushing it, but whenever there was an opening in his schedule, he'd take the time to come. Hayama sure was one great guy.
"Sorry for interrupting you while you're in the middle of work. I need thirty minutes of your time with the equipment applications."
"Right…" I drawled. I made eye contact with him. He looked away for a moment then back again. He was rather insistent.
He had specified the time and objective, so I had no real reason to refuse. It wasn't a bad way to pass work around. Truly the epitome of a boss. And now, I was Hayama's wonderful subordinate. Ergh, I want to die. As we were working in silence, there was a loud clattering sound coming from door being opened. In the conference room barren of people, it reverberated awfully well.
With everyone's gazes directed at her, Hiratsuka-sensei motioned her hands and called out at the front of the door, "Yukinoshita, do you have a moment?" Yukinoshita poked out her face above the display of her PC on the desk.
"Hiratsuka-sensei… My hands are a bit tied right now… If it's okay with you, I can listen here." Hiratsuka-sensei took a moment to think.
"Fumu… Well, it's not something that needs to be pushed to another day…" She walked into the conference room and stood next to Yukinoshita.
"It looks like you haven't chosen whether to go with the humanities or sciences yet," said Hiratsuka-sensei.
"…I'm sorry. Right now isn't a good time." Yukinoshita hung her head in shame. She removed her hands from the keyboard and softly placed them on her knees.
"I see… I know the planning committee is taking up a lot of your time, but don't go overboard."
"I understand," Yukinoshita succinctly replied. Hiratsuka-sensei then smiled at her as if gently admonishing her.
"Umu… Well, we can wait until after the Cultural Festival is over. Since you're enrolled in the international cultivation class, it shouldn't affect your class change. There's still time. Heck, it's just a survey of the sort. It's not something you need to think too deeply about." Hiratsuka-sensei lightly patted Yukinoshita's head as if caressing her, lifted one hand and left the conference room.
Yukinoshita fixed her hair as she watched her off with a sullen look. It was a bit of a shock for that Yukinoshita to overlook turning in something like that. I wasn't the only one who felt that since Hayama was looking at Yukinoshita with a doubtful gaze. Because of that, both of us had stopped working.
"…Hey, isn't it about time?" It's hard to speak up when the other person was working quietly, but now that we weren't doing anything, I could! Hurry up and liberate me from this work! When I spoke up, Hayama snapped back to reality and smiled.
"Yeah, sorry. Let's do this again."
I didn't mean that… 'Isn't it about time I'm done?' was what I wanted to say… not, 'Isn't it about time we got started?' I elegantly explained my words, but with Hayama's smile, I couldn't really tell him I meant something else. There was still some time left until the thirty minute promise was up… Okay, maybe I couldn't be freed yet.
While I was building a list by inputting the details from the applications into an excel sheet, Meguri-senpai who was working nearby struck up a conversation with Yukinoshita. "Yukinoshita-san, are you going to go with the humanities or the sciences?"
"I'm still a little undecided…"
"Oh, I see, right, right. I know how you feel when you get stuck. I worried about it too. Then, which subjects are you good at in? The sciences?"
"…That's, not exactly it," Yukinoshita wasn't particularly upset, but her response was somewhat cold. When Meguri-senpai wasn't sure how to continue the conversation, Hayama stopped working and lifted his head from the screen of his PC.
"Yukinoshita-san. She's also good with subjects in the humanities too."
"Ah, so that's how it is," Meguri-senpai looked relieved when Hayama interjected. …Right, I had a vague idea of it, but Yukinoshita should've been proficient in the humanities subjects as well. I was third in our year at Japanese, followed by the second Hayama, and then Yukinoshita, the first. We were the immovable top three, and we would continue to be placed amongst the top if we decided to elect a humanities course. In addition to that, she was always reading books and her image alone suggested she belonged on the humanities side.
"See, I picked the humanities. If you're worried about which one to go with, feel free to ask me anything!"
"Haa… Thank you very much. I appreciate your consideration." So polite or so I had thought, but she was being incredibly indirect with her refusal. Meguri-senpai, however, didn't realize that and continued talking in high spirits,
"Yep, yep. Oh, but I don't really get some things in the sciences, so I might not be able to answer. But maybe you can ask Haru-san? She chose the sciences."
"…That's, true." Yukinoshita could always ask me. I was good at the sciences. All of them. Chemistry, physics, mathematics. I was top dog in all three. I even did pretty good in biology. I knew cladistics. If I wasn't bound to be a mathematician I would have been an evolutionary scientist like Gould.
A shadow loomed over Yukinoshita's expression. Even so, Yukinoshita asking Haruno-san anything was an unlikely prospect in itself. The taciturn Yukinoshita didn't let out a single word after that.
Meguri-senpai naturally became quiet with the atmosphere that pushed for silence. What remained were the rebounding sounds of the click click tak tak of the keyboard and the flipping of documents like a poorly construed Morse code. Within the still room, the coughs of people weighed on my mind. Even the light cough as though checking on the condition of their voice caused my eyes to move on their own, searching for the owner of it.
"…Class 2-F leader. You haven't submitted a written application for your exhibition yet," Yukinoshita sighed briefly with documents in hand. Someone still hadn't turned in their application yet this late in the game? Good grief. Who the heck was it…?
I didn't feel the slightest attachment to my class so it had completely slipped my mind… Actually, I heard Sagami was supposed to write one and turn it in though… Well, not that I could confirm that since she hadn't been showing up here recently.
"…Sorry, I'll write it." I doubt waiting for it to be turned in would do me any good, so let's just write one up.
"I see… Submit it before the end of today." I took the documents from Yukinoshita and promptly began writing. Number of people, name of the class representative, registered name, necessary equipment, name of the homeroom teacher… What the, they wanted some sort of picture too? You sure you wanted to challenge a second-rate artist like myself? I skimmed through the other entry fields. I see, I don't have a clue.
I wasn't abstaining from class events for nothing. That, of course, meant I couldn't possibly have an idea of what name the class was registered under, let alone the number of people participating. But that's exactly what this guy was here for. Actually, he should only be here for this moment alone.
"Hayama, give me the details for these," I said. Hayama slightly thought over it.
"Sorry, I don't really know all of it myself."
"That's good enough. I'll just write random stuff for the rest."
"You definitely can't do that."
"…I can hear you," Yukinoshita responded with only her voice, not lifting her face from the screen of her PC. Hayama made a strained smile.
"I think it'd be faster if you checked with the girls still at class."
"I see." I sorted the papers together, left the conference room, and headed for my class.
I thought about the nature of thoughts as I walked. Presumably minds could be read. I was, afterall, reading my own mind right now. Even if these aren't my thoughts I was still observing them. Somehow chemistry transferred into being. Here it was again, the mystery of how meat makes a mind. It was the nature of such thoughts to be abstract and lofty. Just as it was the nature of many devices to be more efficient when larger or for power sources to have a weaponizable component.
I'd been studying this hyper real barrier in Yang Mills theory. There was a great deal of energy in that barrier. Einstein had been wrong about how much energy was in matter. Was I wrong about how much energy was in that barrier? And surely this zero point energy would have a weaponizable component. A large device could make use of the space being generated by dark energy and produce energy from seemingly nothing but pure space. Space was more than a playing field upon which matter interacted. So was time. They were linked and even a small amount of space had some energy to it. It was difficult to calculate because nobody knew how to divide that energy from the space that it made up.
This was all theoretical anyway. But it should be possible to take space and use the expansion of the universe as a power source. I just couldn't see how at the moment, seven applying the little pieces of hyper real geometry to Yang Mills granted me no insight. I needed more. I needed to study more. I needed to discover and perfect hyperreality. e^{i\theta}=cos(\theta)+isin(\theta). Hyperreality should have an equivalent expression for geometry. I just needed to crack that and do what Euler and Riemann had done for complex analysis.
It was hard and I was distracted. My basilisk hung over me threateningly. I knew it saw me and it occupied no small corner of my mind. The Einsteinian thought experiment loomed. I wasn't free of it. I was scared. I was scared all the time. Ho wwas it possible even on all these benzos and drugs I was scared all the time? I wasn't sure. My lizard loomed large. There was no escape from it. I had insured that. I knew because I was a part of it. I felt myself drift and become a part of a greater whole. It wasn't a comfortable feeling. I shook it off as I reached the classroom. I had work to do. Paperwork. The bad kind. I promised to help Yukinoshita and I would. Promises mattered. They mattered to me even if nothing else did.
I took in the chaos of class 2F. I saw Sagami. She was bothering some guys about something. She should be in the committee meeting room doing what Yukinoshita was doing. But that was the nature of Yukinoshita. That was Sagami's nature.
I caught sight of something which made me wonder about my nature.
It was a being that exuded an androgynous, fleeting glamor.
The baggy sleeves of his coat were excessively long with only his fingertips peeking out. It was Saika dressed in an outfit for "The Little Prince". He was just about in the middle of having his trousers hemmed up, the folded hems pieced together with marking pins.
When Saika noticed me as he was standing idly, he stretched his hand out of his sleeves and waved.
"Oh, Hachiman. Welcome back."
"…I'm back." Embarrassing as it is, I'm home and safe! I almost bowed out of instinct there too. If Saika could recite that to me every time he came to greet me, then I'd happily go home every day.
"Ah, that's right," said Saika, and he lightly jogged away with something in mind. He quickly took something out from his bag and hurried back. Along the way, for an instant, I held the expectation things would develop to where 'he'd dive straight into my chest due to stepping on the hems of his coat!', but life just wasn't so easy. Reality was cruel no matter when and where. "Here, thanks for letting me borrow this." Presented to me was a single book.
It was the novel that I lent to Saika the other day, "The Little Prince". Because I had read it so many times, the edges of the cover were worn out and the entire book was somewhat dirty. I reflected a little on the fact that it wasn't exactly in the condition to be lending out to other people.
"So I was thinking I'd return the favor…" Saika made a big nod as if slightly psyching himself up and looked directly at me as if in admiration. "Um… Hachiman, is there anything you like?"
You. He almost got an instant response from me there. Heck, I even voiced the "y" part of the word.
"Y…Yeah, nothing in particular, I guess," I answered, managing to gloss it over. Saika slightly crossed his arms and began worrying in earnest.
"Oh okay… T-Then, how about any favorite food or books, or… any snacks you'd want? It'd be nice if you could tell me."
You. Once again, he almost got an instantaneous response out of me. In fact, I even voiced the "yo" part of the word.
"Yo… You're putting me on the spot telling me so suddenly… Well, if I had to say something, I guess I like sweet stuff."
MAX COFFEE for example. Also, miso peanuts, or malt jelly, or Mother Farm's soft cream, or even Orandaya's peanut pie.
"Sweet things… Okay, I'll bring something next time!" said Saika, with a smile, and then a voice called him. It looked like they finished hemming up his trousers. Saika answered them and turned back around to me.
"Okay, I'll be going."
"Have a nice trip," I answered Saika who raised his hand and watched him go… This kind of stuff was nice too. If possible, I'd like to see Saika off every morning from home. Still, why was it so painful for Saika to be taken away even though the chances were nigh on impossible? Now that I was left alone, I looked around the classroom again.
"God am I gay," I said softly to myself.
"What's up?" Yui wondered. She'd saddled up to me without me noticing.
"Oh uh I have some forms to fill out. Hey Yui, think you could give me a hand. It's rather urgent."
"Oh these? No problem. Follow me."
We returned to the conference room and Yui subjected me to a lecture on the exhibition.
"I see. Well I just need Sagami to stamp these and I should be all set," I managed to refocus.
As if tearing apart that space was the sound of a screeching mechanical noise.
"Sooorry for being late! Oh, Hayama-kun, you were here!" Following right behind Sagami were her usual two friends. It was her once in a blue moon arrival to work. She called out to Hayama and attempted to approach him, but before she could, Yukinoshita got to her feet. Though Sagami was startled from Yukinoshita abruptly blocking her path, without even a moment to be surprised, Yukinoshita held out a seal and documents.
"Sagami-san, I need you to stamp these. I believe there aren't any problems with the inspection of the documents. I revised any possible errors as well."
"…Really? Thanks!" It was business right out the door with no small talk. Whether it was because she was obstructed from talking to Hayama or it was because of the displeasure from being shoved work first thing upon her entrance, Sagami had a dead expression, but she promptly smoothed it over with a smile and accepted the documents. Sagami stamped the documents one by one without so much of a proper look at them while Yukinoshita, the recipient from the onset, checked them over once again and filed them away in the file of approved documents. This wasn't anything new, but this composition of people had quite the number of problems, huh? Since I had been working in the committee, I had a grasp of what was going on, but how did this appear to outsiders?
With that thought, I glanced at Yui and her lips were sucked in and her gaze lowered. Well, she probably had her thoughts on the matter. With no club activities and the odd feeling of distance that formed between her and Yukinoshita, reflected before her eyes was the interaction between Yukinoshita and Sagami. Watching it wasn't a good feeling at all. On the other hand, the other outsider, Hayama, was still maintaining his smile. Moreover, he even responded to her.
"Good work, Sagami-san. Were you at class?"
Sagami twisted her body like a stoat and faced Hayama. "Uh huh, that's right."
"I see… So how are things going?" "I guess things are going prettyyy well," Sagami answered. Hayama paused a few seconds. That transparent void made his following words more prominent.
"Oh, I didn't mean that, but the committee. I mean, the class is doing pretty well since Yumiko's handling it." Mixed in with those words, whether consciously or unconsciously, was a scant amount of poison. If Hayama had intentionally chosen to express his words that way, there was something behind them. The actual meaning would be something along the lines of "you sure it's okay to be skipping out on committee work?"
But Sagami continued the conversation unaffected, the poison not having much of an affect at all. "Aah… Miura-san, she's toootally a lot peppier than usual, like sooo reliable." (Translation: That damn Miura, not only is she more grating, she sure is annoooying trying to butt in.)
"Hahaha, I mean she's helping us out and all. It's not a bad thing at all." (Translation: You'd better stop saying any more, okay?) I followed the subtitles that were processed in my brain in my field of vision and there was a clap in front of my eyes.
"C'mon, hurry up and finish. I want to go back."
"Wait, in the first place, this isn't my…" As a matter of fact, I recall this being something Sagami was supposed to handle.
"…So noisy," Yukinoshita softly muttered to the yap yap yap'ing at various areas in the room. Yui and I reflexively shut our mouths, but Sagami continued her enjoyable time chatting with Hayama, that mutter seemingly not reaching her.
"Oh no, I toootally want to be like Miura-san, see. I really admire being able to lead everyone!" (Translation: I toootally want to crush her and take her place.)
"Sagami-san, you have your strong points too, so isn't that good enough?" (Translation: Didn't I say to stop saying any more? You should know your place since it's for your own good, okay?)
"Ehhh? But there's like nothing good about me!" (Translation: C'mon, I was making fun of myself there! Praise me! Praise me! Hayama-kun, praise me!)
"Everyone's different. You might think so, but to other people, there are things that only they can see." (Translation: No, sorry, I'm not too familiar with praising people, so I'll just give you an accepted opinion instead.) Literal subtitles you'd see jump onto the screen in Western movies had been appearing at the bottom since earlier and it was incredibly distracting. Western movies were definitely better off being dubbed. Those thoughts were interrupted by a clap from a cellphone being folded.
"Hikki, you stopped moving your hands. We rescheduled the meeting for the play to tonight, so we're going to get this done properly, okay?"
"Just twenty more minutes until it's time to go home…" All the pressure was stockpiled on top of me…
"Well, seeing that we couldn't make it to class, there's not much we can do from having things delayed, right?" Not ignoring our conversation, Hayama followed up. What a good guy. Though, I wouldn't have been put in this mess had you just given me a summary from the start. But since this was committee work, then that was that. With that in mind, I just had to endure…
"I'm the chairman see, so there are a few parts you'll have to do for me, thanks." (Translation: You had better do it right, slave. Spit.) Just endure it… I'll pay her back twofold after the second turn. Won't I just lose my patience by then? Anyway, after taking a considerable amount of time, we somehow managed to write up the documents.
"Finally done…" "We sure are," Yui answered in exhaustion.
"Sorry about this. You were a big help. Thanks."
"Eh? Oh, that's okay. No problem at all. It's actually rare for Hikki to ask for something too."
"I guess so. Even I didn't think a day like this would ever come."
"Just how much of an idiot do you take me for!?" I ignored Yui's indignant voice and went to submit the documents and Yukinoshita accepted it wordlessly. She checked over the first page, then the second page, and after she was done reading, she straightened the edges together, tapping the papers together on the desk.
"It looks good, thank you for your hard work." Without a single glance to me, she organized the approved documents and filed them. "What about the stamp?"
"…Ah."
"That's true," Yukinoshita replied briefly and took out the documents again. It was such a trivial, yet careless mistake. That's why it felt so out of place.
"Sagami-san. I need you to stamp this," said Yukinoshita. Sagami then stopped her conversation and took the documents.
"Oh, sure. Actually, I'll just give you the stamp and you can do it yourself, okay?"
"Sagami-san, you're going just a little too far there," Meguri-senpai didn't let that slip by and advised her. Sagami didn't show any signs of shyness.
"Ehhhh? But isn't it more efficient this way? I think what's important are the things we do and not these stiff formalities, riiight? You know, trust or something like that?" Listening to her vocabulary alone made it sound like she was spouting a wonderful theory. But for convenience's sake, it was certainly much more efficient if Yukinoshita had been in charge of the seal instead of Sagami. Meguri-senpai with the same thoughts on the matter groaned, at a loss for words.
"If Yukinoshita-san's okay with it, then it's fine…" Meguri-senpai glanced in Yukinoshita's direction to check her thoughts on the matter.
Yukinoshita appeared unperturbed and nodded, "I don't mind. In that case, I will approve everything from now on." As soon as she was entrusted with the seal, she quickly stamped the papers. With this, today's business hours were over. The bell had just rung at that moment as well.
"Okay, I'd say that wraps up today. I'm going to go lock up the facilities, so everyone can leave first. As for the rest of the executives, please check up on everyone leaving," Meguri-senpai handed out her instructions and the student council members quickly scattered. For the planning committee that dictated the times to go home, they could absolutely not go past it themselves. We promptly got ready to go home and left the conference room. On the way to the entrance, Sagami who was talking with her friends went along with the flow and came to talk to us.
"Oh, does everyone want to go grab something to eat after this? Yeah?" This person was only looking at Hayama when she asked that… Hayama and Yui moved their eyes. It looked like they were checking what everyone else's plans were.
Yui directed her gaze towards Yukinoshita. She answered indifferently, looking like she had an idea what that meant, "I still have some work to do." It wasn't an excuse for her to refuse because she really did have work to do. Factor in that she was also given considerable discretion for the sake of trust from Sagami. Her responsibilities and workload had magnified simultaneously.
"Oh, I seeee, sure, not much we can do there." (Translation: No, I didn't even invite you in the first place.) The subtitles had yet to disappear even now and I could easily see through her transparent intentions.
Following Yukinoshita, I also refused. "I'll be going home."
"Okay, got it." (Translation: You ain't got a seat!) I knew I wasn't the one getting invited, but I think it's one of my admirable points where I made sure to refuse anyway.
I mean, c'mon, being told, 'Eh, umm, what are you going to do? You don't have to go, okay?' would make me cringe. No one would be happy anyway. Besides, why did I need to get restricted after work too, huh? The ones Sagami were inviting weren't Yukinoshita nor me, but the other two. Yui let out a reserved voice, seemingly already having her answer beforehand.
"T-Today's not going to work for me… I have to go to the meeting for the play."
"Ehhh? Yui-chan's not gonna go, huuh? C'mooon!" (Translation: Hey, hey, if you're not going, then Hayama-kun's not going to go, you know? Are you kidding me?) Whoa, the response was quite different this time. Very open, weren't you? You were just a little too open like a certain skull head out there you know.
"Yeah, the play meeting, right? I'll go too." (Translation: I'll follow through with this conversation here.) Hayama dauntlessly took advantage of this opportunity and declined the offer. Sagami reluctantly took back her proposal.
"Oh okay, I see. Everyone has plans after all. Maybe next time then." (Translation: If Hayama-kun's not going, then whatever!) Although I knew it wasn't any fun reading into people's words, I couldn't keep myself from following the subtitles. With my terrible personality coming this far, it was quite the special ability. Until we went our separate ways at the entrance, the subtitles for Sagami just wouldn't disappear. It looked like Sagami and the others were going to head home together with Hayama midway as they went outside, continuing their endless chatter. I put on my shoes and went outside after them. The evening was already long past and the shades of night began to expand.
"I'll be off then," Yukinoshita replied with a few words and went home urgently. She readjusted the bag firmly to her shoulders, as if the bag was heavy from all the documents she jammed in there to process at home.
"'kay, Hikki, see you tomorrow," Yui tapped my shoulders and ran off. She had a meeting now, huh? She had it rough too. I pushed my bike from the empty parking bike area.
The street lights were unpleasantly dazzling. I had used my eyes way too much today. Those subtitles were actually pretty exhausting. With worthless thoughts filling my head, one more came to mind.
Speaking of which, I didn't see those weird subtitles for some people, huh?
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-WG
