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Isshiki and I walked to the community center. I walked my bike. She carried her bags. Truthfully, I've yet to step foot in the community center. But since I tend to see it quite often in my everyday life, I didn't have any problems finding it.

Isshiki excused herself and went into the convenience store across the street. I just stood and waited. I didn't have much going on and could be patient.

I sat there in a daze and coming out from the convenience store on the other side was Isshiki. In her hands were seemingly heavy bags. Upon noticing me, she trotted up to me.

"I'm sooorry for making you wait. I had to do a little shopping…" Isshiki let out a breath as if the convenient store bags were heavy.

"…No, that's fine." As I answered her, I turned towards Isshiki and extended out my hand. When I did, for some reason, Isshiki softly avoided my hand and looked at me fixedly. She tilted her head unsure of the meaning behind what I did.

"Huh?"

"What's with that irritated face of yours? Wasn't that your appeal to have me hold the bags for you because it was heavy just now?"

Hearing that, Isshiki rubbed her hair and softly averted her gaze from me. Her face was slightly blushed as if she was surprised or confused. "

Haa… Aah, no, I was just being myself there…"

Ah, that's right, huh? In her case, she tended to see guys only as laborers so I ended up thinking that was the kind of appeal she was doing. See, it's just like how Tobe naturally became the errand boy. Isshiki froze up for a moment, but she suddenly poised herself with a sudden realization and took a step away from me.

"Ha! Could it be that you were making passes at me just now, I'm sorry, for an instant that made my heart skip a bit, but now that I think about it rationally, it really wouldn't work out."

"Aah, I see…" Just how many times will I have to be rejected by this girl…? Even her rejection was becoming a hassle now… Still, if that was enough to make her heart skip a beat, then she had better be careful because she wouldn't even be able to go on trips peacefully.

"Well, whatever." I wholly ignored what Isshiki said and snatched the bag out of her hands.

"Ah… Thank you very much…" Isshiki squeezed the sleeves of her cardigan and vigorously bowed her head. Thanks to that, I couldn't get a grasp of what her expression was like, but her unexpected, polite words of gratitude made me feel embarrassed.

"…It's fine. It's just a part of my duties." If she was insistent in expressing her gratitude every time for something like this, eventually, she'd end up adopting Komachi's habit of saying 'thank you so much onii-chan, I love you', darn it. My intention was to tell her indirectly not to make a fuss out of it, but in the next instant, I quickly regretted it.

"Waaa! Sooo reliable! If that's how it is, then I'll be counting on you next time ." She linked her fingers in front of her chest and suddenly made a radiant smile.

"So what schools do you want to invite to this league?" I wondered.

"Well… all of them I suppose."

"Yeah. You might need to set your sights a little lower. Why don't we start with one and see where that gets us."

"Nnn!" She gesticulated. "I know the Kaihin Sogo's student council president."

"Great. We can start with them," I nodded. "Well? Lead the way."

"Oh. Right." She led into the community center. She hiked up to the third floor and knocked on the door.

"Come in." We were beckoned. I entered behind her bags in hand. I left my bike chained up outside.

I followed Isshiki into the room.

Upon the opening of the door, a clamor of voices poured out the room. The presence of desks and chairs made the room feel like a classroom at school.

"Thank you for your hard work." Isshiki gave her bubbly-like greetings as she went into the room first.

Even after I followed her in, there weren't any signs of the chatter dying down. On top of that, not a single person directed their gazes at me. Everyone was seemingly engrossed in their own conversations that they had no particular interest in me. But it looked like Isshiki was properly recognized as a voice coming from the group called out to her. On closer inspection, the one who called out to her with a raised hand was a boy wearing the Kaihin Sogo High uniform.

"Iroha-chan, over here."

"Aah, gooood evening."

Isshiki waved her hands while she headed towards that group. I naturally followed right after her. When I did, now that I was in front of him, the boy that called out to Isshiki looked at me with a puzzled expression. He then quietly whispered into Isshiki's ears.

"Who's this?"

"Aah, one of our helping workers!"

That's one crude explanation for how big your grin was, wasn't it, Isshiki? But even with that kind of introduction, the boy let out an impressed "ooh" and turned towards me. "I'm Tamanawa. I'm Kaihin Sogo's student council president. Nice to meet you!"

"…Ah, nice to meet you."

Suddenly given an erratic, prompt introduction, I dillydallied over whether I should give my name as well to which Tamanawa didn't seem to mind as he continued on.

"I'm really glad we could plan together with Sobu High. I was thinking about how we need to form a PARTNERSHIP that'll bring about a SYNERGY effect where we both can RESPECT each other, you see."

Pull your own head out of your own ass. "Right…" I went with a better answer. "Look can you help us set up this champions league or not?"

"Oh, Hikigaya?"

"…Oh."

When my name was called by a surprising person, I was startled and responded late. Unknowingly, a drop of sweat ran down. That girl's Kaihin Sogo High uniform was slightly crumpled and she was combing through her black perm with her fingers.

Orimoto Kaori.

She was a classmate from middle school and also the girl I confessed to long time ago. Just recently, we had an unexpected reunion and then I was thrown into an unexpected situation. What happened long ago and just recently weren't very pleasant memories. Speaking of which, Orimoto went to Kaihin Sogo High, didn't she? The fact that she was here meant she was involved in the student council, huh…? That suspicion was also held by her as well it seemed.

She let out a surprised voice. "Hikigaya, you're in the student council?"

"That isn't why I'm here…"

When I answered, Orimoto nodded convincingly. "Aah, I see. Then I guess we're on the same boat. I'm here because a friend invited me, you see."

As she said that, Orimoto peeked behind me and looked around restlessly. Was she looking for something? "Hikigaya, are you alone?"

"Yeah, the same as usual." After I answered, Orimoto snorted and burst into laughter as she held her stomach.

"What the heck, that's super hilarious."

"No, no it isn't…"

"It totally is! Ah." When she said that, Orimoto looked like she lost interest and quickly left my side to her original place.

Isshiki returned as if she tagged in. Isshiki fixedly stared at Orimoto closely and slipped out. "Senpai, there was someone you knew?" The way you're saying that sounded like you're actually saying 'you had someone you knew?' Let's stop that okay, Irohasu? Also, you, you've seen her at least once before, haven't you? Well, she probably didn't remember because she was so far away at the time. At first, I was a little unsure about how to go about explaining it, but thanks to that, I was able to shoot out the usual answer in the end.

"Yeah. Well, just a classmate from middle school."

"Heeh…" Although Isshiki inquired about her, she didn't look particularly interested as she sat down and began spreading out the snacks that she brought. Seeing that, the people from Kaihin Sogo High began preparing their snacks and drinks as well. It looked like the meeting was going to start up any minute now.

Tamanawa called to one person in his group of teammates who moved to the front of the white board. As the sound of the pen pushing down echoed, Tamanawa opened his mouth as he watched with a sidelong glance

"Similarly to last time, let's do some BRAINSTORMING."

What? Why? Who needed to think about this? I shook my head.

"Look, can you just introduce us to the president of your soccer club?" I demanded.

"Er… well…"

"This is complicated and you aren't the only school we want in the league. We have to make contact with the other schools and get the ball rolling." I cut him off again. "Can you help us or not?"

"Er… um… yes. I have email addresses…"

"Perfect. And if you have contacts in other schools that would be appreciated. Otherwise we're going to have to spend a lot of time walking and waiting. The quicker we wrap this bad boy up and take it to go, the better."

He gave Issiki the email addresses.

"Thanks senpai~!"

"I have yet to have done anything. Thank me when I do something helpful," I cut Isshiki off. "Send your emails. I'm going to hop online and see if I can't wrangle up email addresses for the other soccer clubs and student councils in the valley."

"Can you really do that?"

"Our student council email address is online. I'm not sure who actually watches the inbox but it's online. It isn't a stretch to think that the other schools have their email addresses online as well."

"Nnn!" She started typing away in her smart phone.

I flinched at the sight of it. It just took me back to my fears about the internet. All that data up for grabs. All by the device which never leaves your side. Like some sort of kraken. I had heard stories of people who didn't know they were pregnant getting targeted ads for pregnancy stuff. The internet could know more about you than you did.

I flinched again at the recollection that it knew what kind of porn I liked. It knew hot to turn me on and like a dog with a collar get me off. I thought about the rush of chemicals in the brain when I do get off. That was powerful stuff. It could get you hooked on stuff. It could get you high.

And of course I loved learning. I studied and what not. It gave me a chemical hit to my brain to figure something out. Like my sofa couch. I loved problem solving and learning new things. When I was unable to learn new things like my phone was dead or something I was in psychosomatic pain. It physically and mentally hurt to be separated from the internet. It was in my head and had been since I was young. I grew up around it. Like some kind of lattice for vines to grow upon. I was dependent on it.

I pushed those thoughts aside. Thought challenging. I'd practiced it with my therapist. I challenged my own thoughts and put them away. I wasn't not going to think about it. But I was not going to think about it right now.

I pulled Kaisha High School's website and started browsing for their student council contact info. That would be fine. Their soccer club would be preferable but failing that I'd go after the student council. I found it and sent them an email with our intentions and a request to be put in contact with their soccer club president.

I started looking for the next school. I wanted all the schools in the valley if I could. But I'd settle for fifteen or sixteen of them. That would be enough for a champions league. I informed Isshiki of what I was doing and told her to make a twitter page for the league. Then I told her to link it to everyone in the soccer club and tell them to retweet her announcement tweet which I wrote for her. That should do for spreading the information around. I got up and swung my bag over my shoulder.

"Is that it?" Isshiki asked me.

"For now. If I hear back from any schools I'll let you know. Have all your soccer friends retweet that tweet and it should be enough to spread it around and get in contact with the other schools. Besides that we're done."

"Really? It seems so…"

"Go on."

"Well… that's not the point. Thank you senpai. You've been a real help."

"No problem."

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-WG