Chapter 53: The Lost Future
Translated by SoundOfDestiny Edited by Zil
After dinner, it is customary for the Saints & Heroes to take a break and have a pleasant conversation with their good friends around the table to pass the time before going to bed.
With a few exceptions, such as Megane, there is no change in the basic class hierarchy, even though all classmates have been given fair cheat skills.
The top of the class caste is still talking to Misuzu in a friendly manner, although they have some changes in their interaction.
The lowest level of the group, the otaku group, has also changed slightly, with Ryuzaki leaving and being replaced by Aya Mikoshiba, but the basic line-up remains the same.
So far, no student has been ostracised from the group because of their skills or abilities although their voice and power in the class has increased.
Anyway, with twenty high school students in the school, it is only natural that some of them do not like to be in groups and prefer to spend their time alone.
Although it is customary for students to spend time in the cafeteria, not all of them stay there until just before bedtime.
To give an example –
The otaku group basically stays until the end of the day, talking about their hobbies and tastes, but Aya Mikoshiba doesn’t wait for them to come back to the room and leaves the cafeteria first.
Other examples include Aihara Sakuya and Onigawara Hibiki.
In the past, they would stay behind until the return of Reika and Subaru.
These days, they quickly put away the dishes and go right back to their rooms.
As they are two of the less important girls in the class, no one should be bothered by their disappearance from the canteen.
Some boys are unhappy with the fact that they have less time to watch Hibiki Onigawara, a high school girl who is also known as a walking masturbator.
So, the cafeteria slowly starts to decrease in number.
Sayaka, who was listening to Yuri and Emi talk about women otaku and sipping on fruit juice after dinner, suddenly felt the urge to urinate, probably because she had drunk too much, and decided to go to the toilet closest to the cafeteria.
Even though they are the closest, the toilets in this world are not very hygienic.
There is no way that such a place can be found near where they eat or where they handle food before it is cooked.
With the help of a light ignited by magic, Sayaka ran down the long corridor.
“……Oh, God. I don’t know why I drank so much. I haven’t run without peeing since primary school.”
I’m sure it was because of the tap water that I drank after gym class.
After fifth period physical education, the return meeting took a long time – I was waiting for a friend who was late getting ready to go home (at the time Sayaka was too shy to assert herself, she couldn’t say “I’ll go home first!), it took longer than expected, so..
I remember how it ended, and my hips shudder with horror.
For some reason, only on that day, I was interested in the flowers on the roadside and the posters searching for pet dogs on the telephone poles, so I had to leave school.
I left my friend and rushed off down a side street to get home, but I was glad I did it.
“I’m glad I made it in the end, but looking back it was really embarrassing….”
Sayaka, a primary school girl, desperately runs along her way to school while holding her sensitive parts in her hand, all the while greeting her neighbours, which she does every day.
It was fortunate that she didn’t run into any of her classmates or other boys she knew, but the past of exposing a serious and quiet girl holding back her pee with her face red in front of the public is quite a black history for Sayaka.
As it turned out, I was able to jump into the bathroom at home before my bladder gave out on me.
If I had been unlucky – well, I might have ended up with an irreversible outcome.
While keeping the worst possible ending in mind, when she reached the vicinity of her destination, Sayaka suddenly stopped running.
Sayaka is also a flower schoolgirl. If someone saw her busily jumping into the bathroom, she would be embarrassed and out of control.
After checking her surroundings, Sayaka walks to the secret flower garden to start picking flowers for the maidens.
When Sayaka had finished picking the flowers without any catastrophe, she left the bathroom humming a slightly out-of-tune tune.
“Now, I have to get back to Yuri and Emi.”
I’m sure the two of them will be waiting in the dining room for Sayaka to return.
I started to run, thinking that I should hurry back without making any unnecessary stops, when I suddenly saw a figure that shook my vision.
Sayaka braked her right leg, which she had just thrust out involuntarily.
“eh? is that Tanaka-kun?”
Even though the world has no electricity, there are still lights to pass the night.
At the end of the corridor, lit by a torch that is probably magical in nature, a familiar face – a boy in a familiar school uniform – is scurrying around, looking anxious.
In fact, the sight that met Sayaka’s eyes was that of a classmate waiting for someone – or, to put it more precisely, a boy of his age waiting for the arrival of a girl he is interested in on a date or something.
It’s not really an interesting scene to stop and think about.
If it had been any other student, other than Haruto Tanaka, Sayaka probably wouldn’t have even noticed.
But not him. It’s not entirely because he’s a boy who has confessed to Sayaka, but it’s also because he’s a boy.
The main reason why Sayaka was so surprised was because of the gossip she had heard from Emi just before dinner.
“I thought they said he had found a girlfriend … If I stay here, I may be able to see them together?”
Staggered by the sudden stop, Sayaka unconsciously hides behind a piece of furniture.
Leaning her back against the wall, she hides herself behind a magnificent ornamental plant. It’s a little frustrating, but it’s quite relieving to be completely hidden behind a long, slender tree, thus Sayaka peeks out from behind it.
Even if Sayaka doesn’t think anything of Haruto Tanaka, it’s a natural desire for a girl to be curious about her classmate’s love life.
And it’s adding more to the curiosity on who Tanaka has to meet in such a way that he has to avoid the public eye.
I had a momentary delusion that it might be a boy, but my worries, probably poisoned by Yuri and Emi, quickly disappeared.
She concentrates on her nerves and momentarily stops breathing.
There is a strange sound, like something hard hitting something.
Sayaka listens carefully to the sound and gazes carefully at her vision through her glasses.
The excitement of spying on my classmates and the nervousness of what to do if I got caught is mixed, and the annoying pounding of my heart is deafening.
I fondle my flat chest and take a deep breath.
Eventually the footsteps stopped, and he saw Haruto Tanaka’s cheeks relax with happiness.
He held out his arms and gave some kind of signal, and the contrast of black and white jumped into Haruto’s chest.
“…… Hart-!”
“I’m sorry you had to wait so long. You’ve been waiting a long time, my little kitty.”
“Meow misses you more than anything!”
“I miss you too, Meow. –I’m going to make love to you tonight.”
“Nyan! Haruto-san”
“……what’s this?”
It was more theatrical than I had expected, and I could feel the emotions that had been rising in me subside in no time.
What happened in front of Sayaka’s eyes was quite simple.
A male classmate was hugging a gray-haired maid with cat ears, that’s all.
The contrast of black and white was the maid’s outfit.
The only disturbing footsteps were the heels of the maid’s shoes tapping on the floor.
Sayaka can’t hide her confusion at the current situation, which is beyond her imagination.
It is true that the relationship is somewhat healthy compared to Yuri’s bombshell theory.
But I feel like I’ve been let down.
I know it’s impossible, but somewhere in the back of my mind I was imagining that the person Haruto was meeting was a female classmate.
And even though I don’t have any feelings for Haruto, the sight of a classmate of the opposite sex hugging a beautiful, unrealistically fantastic girl who has spent her entire life in the same schoolhouse is unacceptable for a healthy high school girl. It was hard to accept.
“I’m getting cold feet.”
She peeled her gaze away from the maid who was literally catcalling, sweet-talking and Haruto who was grinning happily, and made his usual calm expression.
In any case, if I have encountered a scene where Emi or Yuri is kissing Haruto, I wonder what kind of face I should put in the future.
If he was flirting with other girls, like Misuzu or Kanami, he’s not going to be able to get away with it. But that would still be a problem for Sayaka.
After convincing herself that it was a good thing, she didn’t have to worry about anything else, she turned to go back to the dining room and bumped her shoulder on something hard.
“Ouch.”
“Oh, sorry. Are you okay?”
A strong arm catches my shoulder, luckily, I was able to balance myself back.
I almost screamed reflexively at the sudden touch on my shoulder, but the familiarity of the face in the torchlight almost made me cover my mouth.
“Yamashiro-kun”
The person Sayaka bumped into – whether by accident or inevitability – was a male student who was close to Haruto Tanaka – Yamashiro Hirokatsu.
Like Haruto, he is an ordinary high school boy with a bland and ordinary appearance. He has a slightly gentler face than Haruto, and his appearance gives the impression that he is a caring boy.
Sayaka, who has found someone that has her heart set on, which is Ran Kirishima, is unlikely to develop romantic feelings for Hirokatsu.
The boy, Yamashiro Hirokatsu, who smiles naturally and kindly, is certainly the type of boy that Sayaka, a quiet literary girl, can talk to and get to know easily.
I was momentarily relieved that it wasn’t the type of student I was uncomfortable with.
Sayaka looked at Hirokatsu and tilted her head curiously.
“Yamashiro-kun. What are you doing here?”
“I think it’s the same reason as Sadogashima-san.”
When Sayaka heard that it was for the same reason, she couldn’t help but be upset.
Could it be that Hirokatsu was the perfect witness to the scene where Sayaka jumped into the ladies’ room?
And I think I’ve revealed such a shameful thing as I was running to the bathroom just a few minutes ago, while holding the same important part of my lower abdomen.
And to a male classmate who I have barely spoken to.
“What do you mean?”
Blinking her downcast eyes, Sayaka asks Hirokatsu in a whisper.
Hirokatsu answered Sayaka’s question with a smile and twisted his thumb and pointed in the direction Sayaka had been staring at earlier.
“You’ve been following Haruto, haven’t you?”
“Eh? Ye-yeah.”
Hirokatsu’s gesture makes me look at him reflexively.
Through the plants, Sayaka can see a man and a woman happily wrapping their arms around each other and hugging tightly.
The maid called Nyanya seems to be shorter than him, and she stretches like a child, rubbing her cheek against Haruto’s breastplate.
Her unrealistically long tail is curled up softly and her grey cat ears on the top of her head are twitching.
The apron dress, with its frills and ribbons emphasizing the chest and waist, mismatched with the plain high school uniform.
“Isn’t it amazing? Haruto’s going out with that maid. Honestly, I envy him.”
“Is that what boys like?”
“……Hey. I thought that Sadogashima-san was rather knowledgeable about such things.”
Hirokatsu looks puzzled, as if he has lost his nerve.
When I saw this, I turned my head and spoke.
“Yuri and Emi seem to know a lot about that kind of thing, but I don’t know that much about it.”
“Wow, ……, that’s a bit surprising. I thought Sadogashima-san would like that kind of thing, since she’s good friends with Fujiyoshi-san and Otomezaki-san.”
“I’m surprised that Yamashiro-kun is interested in such things.”
“I’m not really an expert either. I don’t know anything about it but lately, I’ve been thinking that I want a girlfriend too.”
Leaning his body against the wall, Hirokatsu looks at Haruto enviously.
In response to the boy’s comment about wanting a girlfriend, Sayaka didn’t know what to say, so she kept silent for now and turned her head in the same direction as Hirokatsu.
If you are a witty person here, you might jokingly say, “I’ll introduce you.”
As far as Sayaka knows, most of the girls in the class are in Ran’s harem.
Even if she irresponsibly mentions someone’s name, it is unlikely that there will be a happy future between Hirokatsu and that girl.
I don’t want him to resent me for doing something unnecessary, so even if I’m aware that Hirokatsu is waiting for my reply. I decided to remain silent.
“What about you?”
“Huh?”
“Sadogashima-san, do you ever wish you had a boyfriend?”
But Hirokatsu didn’t intend to end his conversation with Sayaka like this.
Sayaka is not so sure, but she knows that some people are not very good at being silent.
Sayaka wondered if perhaps Hirokatsu was one of those people, and after confirming that Haruto and Nyanya had disappeared into the darkness. She turned to Hirokatsu.
“Why are you asking me that?”
“Well, I was just wondering what girls are like in general. You know, in our class you don’t often hear about such frivolous things.”
It’s true that they rarely talk especially if it had anything to do with frivolous things.
But in reality, when high school students are at a sexually sensitive age and live together every day with a mixture of boys and girls, it’s not surprising that such things happen.
It doesn’t matter what started it or how. It can be an overt sexual urge, a curiosity about the opposite sex, or a simple infatuation.
This is a situation in which 20 high school students, both male and female, in the prime of their adolescent years, who are both physically and mentally desirous of the opposite sex, are crammed into one place and living together.
In fact, I think it’s strange that nothing happens to them.
In fact, something is happening that makes this all the stranger.
For example, if it hadn’t been for the disagreement that took place at the time of the transfer.
Misuzu and Torasei would have crossed the line into a male-female relationship sooner or later, and as their relationship developed as the centre of the class, the rest of the classmates would also follow suit.
It may have somehow created an atmosphere of awareness between men and women about their partner.
If that had happened, Sayaka would have had the courage to tell Ran about her genuine feelings.
It may not be the same as a normal high school romance, but it could have been a future where the two of them would slowly work their way to a happy ending.
But at that moment, in that place, all the bets are off.
Fearing a lack of unity and cohesion, a classmate who was considered to be a risk factor was mentally & physically excluded from the group.
The fear of being ostracised at any time for not conforming to the group’s wishes – or for doing something they didn’t like – erased any trust in the class.
The poison that Ran has spread slowly dissipates the friendships and infatuations that should have developed between the boys and girls.
The result is a loss of unity in the class because the danger factor has been eliminated.
“Boyfriend, huh? ……”
Thinking back to Hirokatsu’s question, Sayaka mutters in her mouth.
What if – what if? If the skills that were given to Ran were the same as those of Sayaka and the others.
What if he hadn’t clashed with Onegane and Torasei and had continued his life with everyone in class?
What would Sayaka say to this question?
Sayaka now has a very important lover, Kirishima Ran.
If I tell people that I have a boyfriend, they will look into it.
It would bring trouble if her secrets were pried into, and the existence of the Ran might be exposed.
“Well, even the girls are curious about the opposite sex. …If there is any good man, they might want him.”
There was nothing emotional or romantic about her confession to Ran – her first experience with Ran.
If Sayaka disregards everything.
If Sayaka had not yet started a formal relationship with Ran.
I’m sure Hirokatsu would have answered that.
Now, of course, she has a very important boyfriend, so she wouldn’t say that she wants a boyfriend.
“Yeah, I know, right? ……”
In response to Sayaka’s answer, Hirokatsu mutters something meaningful.
After those words, there is finally a silence between Sayaka and Hirokatsu.
After a short pause.
Seeing that the conversation had come to an end, Sayaka walked away quickly.
Hirokatsu’s gaze softly pierces Sayaka’s back as she runs down the dark corridor.
What was Hirokatsu thinking when he approached Sayaka? What was he thinking when he asked her such a question?
Sayaka didn’t even notice that Hirokatsu’s eyes were staring at her back were narrowed like a beast.
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮