Meaning and understanding
///
"What is a club." Is the first thing I hear when I enter the class.
I look to the left and see Harumi staring at me. The class was empty, most students wasting time before classes start and keeping their distance from the walking health hazard.
"What are you on about?" I respond in a somewhat sleepy manner still not fully awake.
"The day before, you asked me if I knew what a 'club' is."
I do vaguely recall something like that. But right now, my head is not working properly to answer... Did I drink my morning matcha today?
"Can't you just figure it by yourself? I mean didn't you memorize the dictionary I gave you? It had a definition of a club, didn't it?"
"It did, but there were multiple definitions and even then, I could not understand them. You said you won't run away, so explain." She grabs my hand instead of my wrist; I don't feel like even responding to that.
Even though I'm not running away, it seems not answering is equal to that. But that's beside the point, what's important now, is to give Harumi an answer that will at least temporarily satisfy her. And hopefully, let me relax.
I scratch my head, with my free trying to make the gears in my brain turn.
"How should I explain it..." I mutter to myself. "It's a… group of people who become a club due to their mutual interests."
"And how do you become a part of a club?"
Why is she asking these questions…? I feel like this will become a pain if I answer, but I'm too sleepy to think straight.
"Well, you just join a club you want, there's nothing difficult about it. Or you can make a club if you can't find one."
"Why do people join these clubs?" Another question comes my way.
Answering the girl will probably force me to do something bothersome. But again, due to being sleepy, I answer without really thinking, digging myself deeper.
"You said there are many different definitions to the word club, it's the same with the reasons for joining. People have different reasons for joining clubs, and there are as many reasons as there are people."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that there isn't a concrete answer I can give you. You like eating tasty food, right?" She nods in response. "Well, some people don't like doing that. For different reasons, like diets or dislike for eating meat. Is this difficult to understand for you?"
"This is difficult to understand…" Harumi says and looks at the ground. Seeing her like this, trapped deep within thought is unusual. It's even more unusual to see someone trapped in thought over something stupid and mundane like clubs. But then again Harumi, as I mentioned, has her own reasons. "…" She does not move for half a minute.
Seeing my chance to slip away, I try to quietly move to my seat and have some peace and quiet.
"Kaito, don't run away." She says in her trademark monotonous voice as she keeps grasping my hand.
And did she use my name in a casual conversation just now? That is a first…
…
Ugh. Looks like I'm trapped in the claws of a daemon. Again.
"…Fine, we'll have a look around after school. Got it?" Looks like I've got no choice. At the very least, I'll be fully awake by that time and able to think properly. Maybe I'll stop getting myself involved with all of this annoying stuff.
"Okay." Harumi responds and goes on to take her seat and I follow suit.
Speaking of that… I should check what kind of clubs are listed on the academy's website.
As I sit down, I pull out my cell phone from my pocket to browse the web. To my surprise, it's off for some reason.
Did the battery die or something?
I try to turn it on, and it does, with half of the battery full. I guess turned it off because of something annoying.
The first thing that catches my attention- is the six missed calls from an unfamiliar number. Now that I think about it Kanzaki did call me about something yesterday, it was something serious I think... What did he call me about again?
Probably nothing important, if it was important, I wouldn't have turned my phone off.
Yep, absolutely nothing important. Or was it important?
Well, whatever. Disregarding my thoughts, I start browsing the web.
///
The classes ended without much incident. The only thing of note was that we had lunch on the roof. It was now open to the public, but none was present up there, and it seems that poor Suzuki is still splattered on the roof.
Oh well, they will clean him up some day. Probably. Even if they don't it's not my problem.
After classes ended, me and Harumi walk in the direction of the gunshots, one of the outdoor shooting ranges was used by a club. Both of us are chewing on yakisoba bread that I bought in the convenience store.
As we walk, most people keep their distance away from us, or to be more specific, keep a distance away from the girl walking by my side.
"Kaito, where are we going?" Harumi asked and took another bite of the yakisoba bread.
"We're going to visit a club, or more specifically the marksman club." I point to the shooting range as I finish my bread.
The sounds of gunshots get louder and louder as we move.
"Marksman's club? What do they do there?" Harumi says as she puts the bread wrapping into a trash can.
"Shoot guns." I say as we enter the shooting range.
And as we do, one of the club members notices us. And then another one does. Another one. Another one.
Eventually...
"Hey, isn't that the one that killed Suzuki?"
"I heard she beat the student council president so bad, that Koshimizu-senpai needed an operation after that."
"I hear she threatens anyone going to the cafeteria during lunch and broke some guy's legs when he refused to move away from her."
...the whispers start going around the shooting range. A predictable and boring reaction, nothing new about people reacting like that.
Only one person seems to be composed that being the muscle mountain of a club captain they have here.
He quickly made his way towards us, trying to keep a cool and relaxed expression on his face.
"Can I help you with something?" He asks me, pretending that Harumi is not there.
"She wants to try some of you club act-"
"We don't accept new applications this late in the year, so scram." He seemed cool and composed, but it becomes instantly clear to me that he is about to shit himself. All of this is a façade for the team, a façade that will easily crumble.
I need to push a bit further.
"Listen just give Harumi a second to sho-"
"Are you deaf, I said that we don't accept anyone." Again, he tries to block out any mention of Harumi.
Someone pulls at his sleeve.
Looks like I don't need to do much.
The captain does not move towards the person, just keeps staring at me and going paler millisecond by millisecond.
"Please let me try one of your activities." Her tone is inexpressive and monotone. Nothing special about it, Harumi is speaking as usual. I'd say she might be a bit more expressive in the way she conveys her wishes. But that's just me.
Or at least it seems to be completely banal to me, this is the final push that I needed.
Whatever facade the captain was putting up, fell apart.
"...okay... just... don't hurt me... do whatever you want." His loud and confident voice became shrill and quiet. And it seemed like he was about to piss himself from fear.
I look around and the rest of the club members, they went paler and some started to shiver noticeably. With the captain freaking out they started to freak out even more.
Maybe this whole thing will be a bit entertaining after all.
The girl picks up the nearest thing to her hands, which was the ancient Nambu type-14 pistol. A gun that was used during the Second World War and is considered a symbol of national pride in Japan. Therefore, they were still produced today for gun enthusiasts.
Harumi looked over the pistol and turns to the target in the distance.
"So I just aim and fire at the target?" She says without turning to me.
"Don't think too hard about it, just aim for the head, like during class." I never pay attention to how well she does during class, but from how Munataka-sensei constantly gushes about Harumi, I'd say she's good.
"Like during class?" She repeated.
"Yep, like during class, wait for the signal and then start."
For a moment it seems Harumi wants to say something. But she just turns to the target in the distance.
I back off a bit to give her some space.
Everyone wanted to keep their distance away from the girl, so they did and hid behind anything they could find.
And just as the signal is given.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG
…
Eight shots resounded in quick succession. My brain could not even process how fast it happened.
"…That… was quick…" The club captain says in a befuddled manner. "Well, we need to check her accuracy. She probably missed most of the shots." He says and raises his binoculars.
I must agree with him.
Was she even aiming? Her posture seemed to be stiff, she only held the pistol with one arm so she couldn't have stabilized her aim.
"All… shots to the head…" The captain spoke, in disbelief as he lowered his binoculars.
"Let me see." I snatch the binoculars and use them to look at the target.
The target had only one bullet hole. I could not find any other confirmed hits.
"You said all the shots hit the head. I can only see one confirmed hit." I say while looking through the binoculars.
"She did… Look closely." His voice is still somewhat shaky.
I continue looking and understand what he means after a couple of seconds. As I stared, I could only come up with one 'logical' explanation.
…Harumi, with pinpoint accuracy, hit the same spot on the target. In what seemed to be seconds… Without a need to adjust her aim from the recoil.
…
…What kind of cartoonish bullshit is this?
"We'll take her." The club captains spoke up.
"…Huh?" I turn to him.
The other club members started to chime in too.
"We can win any contest with that girl"
"Don't you think if marksman clubs from other schools saw this they would just give up without a fight?"
The chatter starts getting louder, engulfing the shooting range and replacing the sound of gunshots.
"What's with the sudden change in attitude?" I say and look over everyone in the shooting range. All the club members look like they about to explode from amazement. "You we're just shitting yourself, just from Harumi's presence, because of the rumours that most of you can't verify." The rumours are true, but this situation seems a bit hypocritical to me.
"That doesn't matter. We can go to the internationals with her no problem!" The captain's voice just radiates excitement, like he found the light at the end of the dark tunnel.
The girl in question comes up to me.
"Well, what do you think about joining this club? It seems they don't have a problem with that anymore."
Harumi looks at me.
"No." And answers negatively.
The chatter dies down instantly. And the room becomes devoid of words.
"Why?" I ask without really caring, but the sheer fact that Harumi just didn't go with the flow shows that there should be a reason.
"You said clubs will make me experience new things, this activity is something we do during class. Therefore no."
So that's her reason huh…
"That's that I guess, let's go home." Trying to change the subject I start leaving.
My hand is grabbed, and I'm once again forced to a grinding halt.
"Kaito you said there are many different clubs. Show them."
In hindsight, I should have picked a better way of phrasing the things I say. Me and my dumb head.
"…All right what's next on the list." Not like it can be helped. Let's get a move one, I want to go home soon.
///
Next is the music club.
I'll just quickly summarise what happened. The peacock of a club leader, who's a colour pallet made my eyes hurt, was willing to let Harumi into the club. If the girl could beat her in a sing-off.
By that point, I stopped paying attention and start browsing the internet. Someone probably got scared at the prospect of Harumi joining, someone fainted and blablabla. I already know the drill.
'25 children disappeared in Tokyo. The Imperial Police is beginning another investigation.' Is the biggest new story on the net right now.
This subject again?
I could hear the club president singing. I could tell she was good even witht having my attention turned elsewhere.
And then it was Harumi's turn.
Harumi's singing voice? Well… how should I put it... uh… it's not like her usual voice.
I could tell she was copying the club president's song. But not only that, the intonation and the delivery were the exact same as the club president. It was for the first time I heard Harumi so unmistakably expressive, even if she was just copying someone else.
The result was a draw.
And like the last time, the club instantly took an interest in Harumi joining
Maybe, I could have Harumi sing one of Morozova-sama's songs.
…
…
…
But who cares about that? I do not, not one bit. Definitely.
After she's done with the showcase of her abilities, Harumi comes over to me.
"So, what about this club? We don't do stuff like this during classes."
"No." She responds bluntly almost immediately, in her usual voice.
"…Why?" And I'm starting to see a pattern here.
"You said clubs are like eating tasty, this is not like that. Therefore no." So, she doesn't like this huh?
Me and my sleepy... I should talk less.
I can see how the rest of the day is going to go...
…Okay what's next on the bucket list.
///
After that, we went on to other clubs that were found in the vicinity. Swimming club, paper-craft club, chess club, occult club, and that retarded car club too. All of them covered different areas of interest. Sports, social activities, cultural activities, and other different areas.
After I explained the point of the activities or the sports that the clubs were based around, the same thing happened. After a couple of attempts, the girl started outdoing everyone, with extreme precision in yhr paper clubs, good athletics in the swimming club, a good memory that allowed her to memorize everything Harumi heard in the occult club. The only exception was the chess club, where Harumi could barely take out a single chess piece of her opponent. Autonomy is a weak point of hers after all.
Most of the clubs instantly became interested in her joining. Completely disregarding what Harumi did on the first day here, the opportunity to gain recognition and accolades was more important.
Harumi for her part always responds with the same word.
"No." This time was not different, what was different was the reaction of the club members.
"Please. Just... get her away from here." The girl who was the captain of the tennis club was borderline crying. While looking at the damaged tennis court and injured club members.
This was the tennis club, the tenth club we visited. Naturally, Harumi easily beat everyone in the club, even the club captain was completely exhausted after playing a couple of minutes with her. She also damaged the court, ripped the net apart, broke and bent a couple of tennis rackets while injuring a couple of players in the process. I should mention that the equipment used by most sports clubs here are specifically made to withstand superhumans, but the girl managed to make this special equipment look like cardboard. That's some talent in making expensive and valuable things break, let me tell you that.
By this time, most clubs were done with their activities, only the clubs with serious activities and dedicated members were still doing something.
"…Well then this makes things difficult." I'm not even going to ask what's wrong this time. Probably something about it not being like tasty food.
What to do…
Hmm…
Well, if nothing works for her, then I can have at least a bit of fun.
"There's just one place that comes to mind where the practice is still ongoing."
"Where?" Harumi tilts her head while holding a twisted tennis racket.
///
"Remember this place?" I say as we come closer to the baseball field where the club is having a practice game. "Actually, don't answer that. It's a stupid question, of course you do."
We enter the field and as we do the batter hits a home run.
"Am I going to do combat with someone?" She said and tilted her head.
Looks like she assumed that's what the field is used for fighting and fighting only.
"No, not this time, but if you want to duel Koshimizu again tell me and I'll be there. This is what the field is actually meant for, baseball." I point towards the club playing a practice game.
"Baseball… I'm not familiar with this 'activity'."
"Then watch for a while. Also, the right word is sport, not activity." I say as Harumi continues observing the game.
Now that I think about it, this is the place where I saw Harumi for the first time. She probably didn't even take note of anyone but Koshimizu at that point…
…
…Wait a minute.
Was Harumi even aware of what she was doing at the time? Of course she wasn't.
Did someone put her up to fighting the famous student council president? No, that's not even a question, of course, someone did. Getting the feeling that I should act on my suspicions, I proceed.
"Harumi."
"Hmm, what is it Kaito?"
"Why did you fi-".
Whatever I was going to say was interrupted, the ball that was thrown in a tricky arc resulting in the batter hitting it and making it fly in a strange trajectory. And the trajectory was heading towards…
"Blegh."
…me.
"Kaito, that was a strange sound. You never made one like that before." Harumi couldn't help but to give a comment.
…
...I'm not going to say anything to that.
The ball drew the attention of the club members to us. They reacted. The reaction was so predictable that I didn't even pay attention.
I walk over to the captain.
"She wants to try playing baseball. Now." I say not wanting to put any effort into this conversation. Already being tired of convincing other clubs.
"…O-okay…" And he luckily does not fight back.
This was the easiest time I had convincing anyone today.
"Harumi get over here." As she comes over, I pick up a metal bat and hand it to her. "Take this."
"What is this?"
"It's a baseball bat. Just use it to hit the ball and send it flying off the field."
"Is that all?" I nod. "Ok, I understand."
With that half-assed explanation, I back off and stand next to the nervous club captain. I'm confident that Harumi can hit a homerun with no problem.
The pitcher was shaking like a twig as the girl was completely focused on observing the bat in her hand. He was present during Harumi's fight with Koshimizu, no wonder the pitcher didn't seem all there.
Harumi just stared at the bat for a while, the pitcher seeing a chance threw the ball. It was a clumsy and nervous throw, even a kid could probably hit it.
But Harumi was distracted.
"Strike one!"
The shout drew Harumi's attention. She looked around, into the mitt of the catcher and turned to me.
"Is that the ball I'm supposed to hit?" Harumi asked me.
"Yeah, if there are three strikes, you're out."
"Is that bad?"
"If you're the batter, yes."
Harumi nodded and turned her attention to the ball in the pitcher's hand, who while still shaking but now was a bit more relaxed and threw a much better pitch.
The girl did not react, her crimson eyes focused on the ball as it flew.
"Strike two!"
The girl just followed the trajectory of the ball from the hand of the pitcher to the mitt of the catcher.
Harumi started to hold the bat with both hands but did not change her posture at all. She looked like an amateur playing baseball for the first time in her life. Which was the case.
The pitcher confident in his past two throws and relaxed by Harumi's stiff pose threw again. He had no stake in this fight, but a part of the pitcher wanted to beat the monster who not only defeated Koshimizu, but also killed a school mate on her first day in the Academy. This time a flawless pitch was thrown.
But…
Harumi swung the bat clumsily.
There was… a loud and difficult sound to describe… I guess it sounded like a space cannon destroying a planet. Nothing else comes to mind.
As with all things involving the girl ,this was unreal.
The ball was already out of my line of sight. And I assume left the planets orbit into the setting sun.
The iron bat in Harumi's hand had bent into a… unique shape that can only be described as modern art. This equipment is specially made for superhumans by the way. So that is not supposed to happen.
No one tells her how the home runs work, being too perplexed by what just happened.
"Harumi it's a home run. You have to run through all the bases." As the only person who didn't lose my gift of speech, I inform Harumi pointing to where she has to run. I'm already somewhat blunted as to what the girl can do.
She does as I say and start running through the bases and running by the frozen baseball enthusiasts. She's still running with the baseball bat in her hand.
I turn to the captain who's face is white, like that of a ghost.
After a couple of seconds of standing and doing nothing.
"I'm so dead..." he mutters as he starts walking off while ripping out his own hair from the top of his head.
Harumi walks up to me after she finished running through all the bases.
"Let me guess, you're not interested," I say in a somewhat exasperated tone. She nods in response. "Remind me again what kind of club do you want to find?"
"I want to find a club that will help me to experience new things."
So, Harumi finally understood what she wants.
A club that will help her to experience new things… That's vague, too vague.
And there is no way I'm making a club. Too much effort.
"I'll look into that later."
"When?"
"Next week. I'll look for a club for you to join next week. For now..." I turn to the field to see all of the whole baseball club still frozen. Their egos and confidence were destroyed, the pitcher was even crying. "…I think we caused enough damage for now."
Mission accomplished, let's go home.
I start walking out of the baseball feet passing by the members of the club, who are still too stunned to move.
"You know, the clubs are supposed to help you experience new things. Do you enjoy doing this stuff to an extent?" I couldn't help myself, but comment on Harumi's insistence on continuing searching for a club.
"No." She answers immediately.
"If you don't enjoy these activities why do you insist on continuing with a club search?"
"Because I think I felt something."
...felt?
"Felt what?"
"I don't know..." She says as we continue walking together, again not giving me a solid answer.
...Well not that it matters, at least I can finally go home.
///
"Hey, Miria did you hear that?" A loud indescribable sound attracted the attention of two girls who were walking in the area, each of them carrying a cardboard box.
Both were wearing the usual academy uniforms, they had red ribbons that showed that they were second years. One was a bit taller with a boyish haircut, while the other one had her hair tied in pigtails and generally had a meeker look to her. Both of their hair was brown, but the taller girl had dyed her hair tips black.
"I think it came from the baseball field." Anwsered the meeker girl.
"What is happening over there?"
"Practice, I guess…"
Soon enough two figures left the baseball field.
One was a guy with dishevelled looking hair and the other was a girl with relatively short hair and small stature.
"Hmm isn't that Suzuki-chan." The girl with the dyed hair seemed to recognize one of them.
"Suzuki? Who's that?"
"You don't remember? He's also the guy who caused you trouble recently."
"What are you talking about?" The meek girl gave her friend a questioning look.
"You know…"
"Know what?"
"The bathroom incident last week."
The other girl went quiet for a bit as if trying to process information that just entered her head. Without a single change in her posture or facial expression, the girl with the pigtails became deep crimson. And stood still without moving an inch for a whole minute, while her skin was that of fresh tomato.
The girl with the dyed hair tips, could only chuckle at her friend's reaction.
The taller girl turned to the two figures melting in the distance. Their silhouettes were barely noticeable as they made their way to the ferry. But the oncoming sunset clearly showed that they were still there.
"But this sure is unusual. Him of all people hanging out with someone."
The meek girl snapping out from her fit of embarrassment, looked at the same direction her friend was looking.
"Umm, you talk as if you know him personally… is he an acquaintance?" The meeker girl guessed that this was the case since she never described the person who was in the bathroom at the time. Only that he looked dishevelled.
"Yeah, you could say that." And the taller gives an answer that neither confirms or denies the question. "Although knowing the guy, he probably forgot me completely."
"What kind of person is he?"
"That guy only thinks of himself and his own convenience." She sounded exasperated. "Hard to believe Suzuki-chan would give anyone any thought."
"He sounds… quite rude."
The other girl sight in response.
"He is like you wouldn't believe. But enough about that guy. Come on let's go back to the clubroom before Kurosawa-senpai gets lonely again." The girl wanted to move on, the subject obviously somewhat bothering her. And started to move.
"W-Wait for me!"
The two students start walking towards one of the many club buildings.