Step. Step. Step.
I make my way towards the cssroom. My steps echo along the hallways, but I no longer hesitate. Upon reaching a certain amount of steps, my feet take me to the front of our cssroom. I breathe in and out and open the doors, going straight to my chair.
Takashi, being on front, turns around and asks me.
“Kibe. Did he say anything?”
“…Takashi.”
“Mm?”
“Kibe is telling us to give us everything we have.”
“I already am doing my best though.”
“No, we have to stake everything. Put out all out trump cards.”
“What’s gotten you fired up?”
“Because I remembered I have something to protect, something to cherish.”
“I see.”
He positions himself back to the appropriate way, but he says a bit more once he settles in.
“I’ll… do my best too, even more so than I have.”
Because of this gentle remark, I can’t help, but think that I have such great friends.
“Thanks.”
Kazuhiko-san raises her hand and doesn’t utter a word. It was obvious what she was trying to tell us, so I nod to her, therefore commencing the continuation of the challenge.
Round 5
With strict compliance to the rules, the girls must take the lead for this round, and as if by instinct, Tanimoto-san grabs coffee pudding.
Approved by Kazuhiko-san.
Now it comes down to the two of us. I and Takashi look at each other and I nod to signify that I was going to be the one taking the turn.
Immediately start with the second loudest food in your arsenal…
For that, I bring out a pretzel and begin eating.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
It was extremely loud to crunch that I became afraid to be caught. Thankfully, I finish and live to see another day. The girls go in disarray. As I thought, the sound I produced was really loud.
Konishi-chan puts out a can of nuts and munches on them in an attempt to compete, yet fails to reach the same volume as mine. Then I hear a voice in front, although what happened were events that unfolded too quickly for me to comprehend in few seconds time.
“次!” (Next!)
Whoosh.
A chalk fshes through our eyes and explodes in front of Konishi-chan’s face.
Note: Ratio-d
Konishi-chan faints from the force of the chalk, face cluttered with white powder. It was so out of pce that everyone in css looks at the dead Konishi-chan.
“Yuka?!” Tanimoto-san gasps.
Kazuhiko-san crosses her arms, implying that she was out of the count.
It worked!
I csp my hands and pray for her departure.
I’m really sorry, Konishi-chan! I’ll make it up to you ter!
…
..
.
“Boooored…”
Finished all the updates of my anime and manga series again.
“Urgh…”
Wasting away per usual, my legs go up and down against the bed. With bed hair, I get up from my bed.
“Yeah, this won’t do.”
Going out my room, down the stairs, and I sit at the sofa to watch the TV, in front of it. My hands reach for the remote, but someone else grabs it before I do.
“Huh-”
Then I look to my side, on the other end of the sofa, a funny little hacker- oh pardon my words, I meant trespasser casually watching TV.
“Mieko. What are you doing in my house?”
“Oh, hi onii-chan. What brings you here?”
“I live here. Expin yourself.”
“Hm, I kinda got bored at school, so I called in sick and made myself home here.”
“Bored?”
“Well, yeah. I pretty much know everything they teach there and…”
Her body shivers, probably from disgust.
“…I had enough romance from my friends at school.”
Nakatani and Tetsuo, huh?
“Wow, nothing’s interesting,” she mutters to herself.
“I get what you feel.”
Instead of getting angry, I feel that someone retes to me even on a basic level, so I set that emotion aside for now.
We emotionlessly change channels left and right. From the live-action adaptations of popur manga, game-shows, sports, with occasional weird commercials. But nothing piques our interest, that we both have our jaws open, drooling.
“Boooring…” she groans.
“Why are you here instead of home, actually?”
“Well, I don’t want to be in the way of my younger brothers. There’s no peace to be had there.”
“Hmm, you have siblings? Speaking of which, won’t they trash the pce up?”
“No, my older sister’s got that covered.”
“Hmm, how many are you in the family?”
“4. My older sister, me, and my two younger brothers.”
“Wait, that still doesn’t expin why you’re trespassing here.”
“Onii-chan, how are you going to get a girlfriend if you act that way?”
“No one’s gonna take a loser like me.”
“Ahahah! Don’t be like that! Anyways, Nakatani-chan simply said I could go here whenever I wanted to, so I simply helped myself.”
“Ah- You know what, I don’t care. Feel free.”
I do my business at night only anyway.
I go to reach for the cabinets to get the snacks I stashed just the other day. But once I open them, they were robbed empty.
“Huh? I swore I stashed them here.”
Did I get the wrong cabinet?
I look above and below, opening them, but revealing no snacks. Then I think of only one cause to this.
“Mieko-chan. Did you eat my snacks?!”
“Yeah, I may have helped myself, a teensy bit, hehe,” she chuckles.
“Teensy, you say? I had a whole stock here! Do you know how hard it took me to get that?!”
I didn’t really work hard for it, but that’s beside the point.
“It was too,” she belches, “delicious.”
“That cost a fortune, you know?!”
“I’ll treat you to some dinner sometime, so please let this pass, okay?”
“Urgh…”
My mood sours even more.
“I don’t even care anymore… I’ll just go buy some drinks instead. Do you want some, Mieko?”
She turns around in surprise.
“Really? Even when I ate your food, you’d buy me stuff?!”
“I don’t feel like getting angry. I feel too empty.”
“I’ll get a boba tea please!”
“Demanding, eh? Fine. Going pces, might take me somewhere interesting.”
I head for the door and go out.
…
..
.
Round 6
The boys and girls are tied, and two of each remains. I sweat nervously, because things are getting heated. At this point, I think it can be called the endgame.
“Begin!” Kazuhiko-san decres.
The girls begin this round. Though, instead of Tanimoto-san, she lets Mari fight this time around.
Her food was…
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
… a carrot.
Miraculously, she finishes without being caught.
They’ve caught on to our tactic.
As it was very loud, Takashi had no way to fight back, so it was left to my hands to sacrifice my ace, the apple, to save our asses.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
Even I could not tell if it was any louder than Mari’s, but thankfully Kazuhiko-san deemed it so.
“Tough competition,” Rin mutters.
To fight, she takes some cereal and eats it dry.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
However, to her dismay, it wasn’t any louder than the previous. Kazuhiko-san crosses her arms. Denied.
Then and there, I see for the first time, that she was actually worried. She gets some chips, but remembers it was already eaten previously. Digging frantically through her bag, she sees only cookies, crackers, and nuts.
In a drastic attempt to save herself, she eats all of them at the same time, creating an amalgamation of sounds and crunches, only to fall ft of the apple. Noticing that she had nothing, but softer sounds, she slumps.
“I forfeit…”
“What?!” Mari wonders, “Can’t you restock?!”
“No, Mari, there’s nothing in the cafeteria that can beat this one. I’d rather out myself than be killed by Yano-sensei.”
I and Takashi hide our happy faces from overhearing her announcement.
“Are you sure, Tanimoto-san?” Kazuhiko-san confirms.
“Yeah,” she answers.
“Tanimoto-san is eliminated!”
“Yes!” I celebrate.
Mari tugs at Tanimoto-san’s uniform, however, to calm her nerves, she calmly touches her hand.
“We all believe in you, Mari.”
Then finally, she parts. Well, not really, she just remains in her desk.
…
..
.
Round 7
Finally, we reach an advantage for the very first time. 2 boys against 1 girl.
We can win this!
Now, it’s time for us to begin again. This time, Takashi insists to me that he takes the lead.
Takashi begins by eating popcorn.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
At this point, the game has come down to using the loudest foods immediately.
As I was waiting for Mari to make her move, I fail to notice that Kazuhiko-san hasn’t yet given her approval.
Huh?
The reason for that is the gring eyes of Yano-sensei at Takashi.
“I certainly have a lot of brave students today, eh?” Yano-sensei jokes with seething bloodlust.
Just like that, the round was over and that quick advantage was all, but lost.
Why…
…
..
.
Round 8 (Final Round)
“Final Round… begin!” Kazuhiko-san decres.
It’s time for Mari to start, but the two of us only look at each other, feeling for what the other possibly has.
A lot of foods have been eliminated, but we don’t have a lot of loud foods at our arsenal anymore.
Possibly stalling for me to give up now, I humbly reject that offer. Now, she begins.
She eats yogurt, producing little to no sound. I follow it up with avocado. Next jelly, then porridge. These don’t really make much sound, but we try to make them produce much louder sounds. We’re still pying it safe; it’s the final round after all.
Pancakes, then muffins. Rice, then pie. Cheesecake, then pie.
Though, we start to realize that we have to eventually finish the challenge and we’re being inefficient.
She starts by eating a candy.
What?
Then, she starts crunching it.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
She twitches a bit and I know it hurts in the teeth, yet she crunches it start to finish. It was really, really, loud, but she wasn’t caught whatsoever. Left with that, I find no foods that can somehow compete with that.
Come on! Is there nothing I can py at hand?!
I backtrack through our memories, one by one and remember a simir situation where it was only us boys and Kibe competing with us, desperately wanting our approval.
Ice.
Thankfully, my tumbler provided just that. I open it and take out an ice cube, then proceed munching it.
Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.
There’s no way she can beat that right?
To my misfortune, I suddenly feel dizzy.
Wh-What? What’s going on?
I see powder spray from in front of me and through my impaired sight, I see Yano-sensei with shining red eyes.
Ah… so that’s how it is.
I lost.
Losing more and more of my consciousness, I give in and faint.
Thump.
…
..
.
Step. Step. Step.
Yet again I am forced to see the bright outdoors. Honestly, I’m starting to think that I’m a vampire with my negative affinity to the light, but I think it’s just what being a shut-in does to a person.
This time, I make sure to check if my wallet is there. Thankfully, it’s here, recalling earlier that I picked it up.
“I wonder if the boys are winning.”
Walking silently, I happen to take a good view of my surroundings which makes me reminiscent of visual novels and the calm atmosphere they give off during times like these.
Hm, nothing unusual.
“Hm?”
Nothing unusual? That’s unusual, especially in a world of protagonists. Normally, chaos ensues just about every corner.
“Maybe it’s the Overruling Statement constantly at py. I’ve been seeing fewer and fewer people from other genres.”
Hm, but then again… if that were the case, wouldn’t more important or more reality-breaking stories take pce before Slice-of-Life? By that logic, wouldn’t Hentai rule like 100% of the time?
“Maybe the order of genres in the Overruling Statement aren’t as straightforward as I thought. There has to be other factors in py.”
Hm?
“Isn’t that-”
The convenience store of which Yoshio Kase, the Shounen Protagonist had an action sequence was still in shambles.
“Yeah, I think that’s just about right.”
Destruction of any kind in Shounen are permanent and reconstruction will probably be managed by the organization Yoshio was roped in.
“Man, that was my favorite convenience store too.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot people in bck suits with tons of paperwork.
Those people… no way, they’re the people I described a while ago, right?
END OF EPISODE 37
