Transition and Restart, book one: Arrivals

Chapter one, 2016, school start, part two

Normally there would have been rumours about a few named freshmen in the beginning of a new year. Like, for example, the clown Wakayama Ryu, who had a mobile personal harem swooning for him wherever he went. Or the fashion model with the strange name, Ageruman Kuritina, or something like that. Or the 'magic duo', the Watabe twins, who took an obscure middle school all the way to the district finals in soccer.

In this case, however, they had all been grouped into the same class, and so the halo of fame spread to just about anyone who was a part of that class.

This was, as far as Matsumoto Yukio understood it, a blessing for his friend Urufu-kun. They had officially gone their separate ways when Urufu-kun was summarily expelled after he maimed four students from their escalator high school over half a year ago.

Yukio picked apart his memories from the preceding half a year while he waited for Urufu-kun outside the mall. Their mall. Urufu-kun always took an early train, switched to his bike and rode here where they met up. Because the story about what had happened was a lie. One that Urufu-kun made no attempts to gainsay. Two lies to be more exact.

Urufu-kun had indeed maimed three students, and Yukio had his own reasons to keep that a secret. That the fourth student had been sent to hospital by none other than the popular clown in 3:1.

No wonder the rumours about 3:1 had awakened those memories.

The second lie concerned to what degree Yukio and Urufu-kun really had gone their separate ways. For half a year, during which Urufu-kun was placed in an institution for juvenile delinquents, he had been studying Japanese as if his life depended on it. Despite this he found time and ways to sneak out from the compound.

And that was why Yukio stood in the morning shade waiting for his friend outside what had become their own mall. This was where they always met, and that was the reason Urufu-kun didn't take the train to the station closest to school.

Now, one would have thought that the two mismatched friends would have spent the time together loitering in the city, something they to a certain degree had done. Most of the time though the two of them learned a language each. They agreed upon a peculiar system where Urufu-kun spoke in atrocious Japanese and Yukio answered in equally awful English.

When the time came for them to find themselves in the same high school class Urufu-kun's Japanese was merely poor and Yukio's English was substantially better that just about anyone else's in their class. Well, Urufu-kun excepted obviously.

This day after Urufu-kun had locked his expensive bike to a bike stand in front of the mall, the way he did every day, they walked the last fifteen minutes to school. And it was fifteen minutes. Urufu had some strange habits of his own, like how he repeatedly pulled back his shirt sleeve and turned up his left arm to check his old style wrist watch.

It was just as stupidly expensive as his bike.

Yukio's thoughts meandered back to the source of the rumours.

"3:1. They say they need extra chairs there for lunch break," he said.

They both looked back as they turned a corner, as if to make sure Urufu-kun's bike was safely locked to its stand.

"They say a lot of things about 3:1," Urufu-kun agreed. "Ryu Wakayama and Christina Agerman play in the main cast."

Almost right, but you're really supposed to name them more politely. "Wakayama-san and Ageruman-san really are the main source for the news these days, aren't they?" That had to suffice as a reminder of proper naming conventions Yukio thought.