On Soya's first official day of class after becoming a high school student, the morning tram car was much more crowded than yesterday, and there were also second and third grade students from various schools.
"It's better to get up early tomorrow."
Soya held the armrest tightly and said to Akane Kirino who was also standing.
"If it were later, there wouldn't be so many people. It's just in time." She looked around and gestured to him, "These are all office workers going to Kyoto."
The tram swayed and sped along, finally arriving at Yamashina Station.
Zong Gu squeezed out of the carriage, with three girls hanging directly or indirectly on his arms.
The tram has to continue driving to Kyoto before turning back. The round trip is more than ten kilometers. As expected, the people who get off at this stop are all students.
Transferring to the Kosai Line and arriving at Danhai High School, Akane Kirino, who was laughing and joking all the way, suddenly changed her face when she walked to the back door of Class A. She asked Soya to arrange a class transfer for her, but naturally she failed to do so.
"That's great..."
Soya didn't answer, but simply said hello to Fushimi Keisuke at the front table.
"Good morning."
After chatting for a while, he saw that Fushimi was looking forward to it, so he asked, "Is something good going to happen?"
Hearing "good thing", Fushimi suddenly calmed down a lot.
"Whether it is a good thing or not is not yet certain."
"What's the meaning?"
"Did you forget what you were going to do later?"
Zonggu looked at the clock in the classroom and saw that there was still some time before class started.
"I have no idea."
"After entering a higher school or reclassifying, you must introduce yourself in the first class, right?" Fushimi was a little surprised, "Isn't that the case in Tohoku?"
"There may be some differences."
Soya was confused.
There was a gap of more than two years in his school education, and he had long forgotten about it.
"The fate of women in the next year..."
Fushimi said, half-turned around and patted the table, "That's it."
Only then did Zonggu understand why there was an open notebook on his desk, and he was writing a rough draft.
"come on."
Ten minutes passed quickly, the class bell rang, and the teacher Shibasaki Makoto walked into the classroom.
Sure enough, after saying hello, he clapped his hands and said that everyone should get to know each other first.
"Don't be nervous. We still have a year to get along with you, so be more casual."
Soya sat in the corner by the window, which was the last seat from the outside to the inside. He thought it would take a long time for his turn, but he saw Shibazaki Makoto walking up to Asagiri Suzu and knocking on the desk.
"Let's start from here."
"..."
Fushimi Keisuke suddenly became nervous.
"Oops, why do you start from the bottom? I'm not ready yet."
"It's been almost twenty minutes."
"I plan to refer to other people's ways of introducing themselves first and then make adjustments. Too pushy and lifeless methods are not advisable. I think..."
"That over there——"
The teacher in charge noticed the movement here and said, "It's not your turn yet."
"..."
Fushimi Keisuke had no choice but to turn around, and Soya didn't hear what he was thinking. Anyway, he wasn't studying hard.
At the same time, Asagiri Suzu, who was sitting at the front, stood up.
"Asagiri Bell."
She sat down.
"..."
The second student in the row stood up, looked at the back of his head at the table in front of him, and then looked at the dumb teacher.
"Yoshikawa Anko...please give me some advice."
She also sat down.
"..."
Asagiri Suzu took the initiative and Yoshikawa Anko consolidated it. The freshman self-introduction session of Class A continued in the same pattern and ended faster than any other class.
...
After a long absence from campus, the next contact was with high school courses at a prestigious school. Even Soya found it a little difficult.
After several classes in the morning, it was time for lunch break. As he was flipping through the notes he had just taken down, Fushimi at the front table came over with a lunch box.
"What? Souya is still studying?"
"Some parts are not understood very smoothly."
"Go and ask the first grader. Anyway, you seem to have a good relationship."
"First in grade?"
"Yoshikawa Anko."
Soya looked ahead and saw that Yoshikawa in the same row had a bento on the table and was saying something to Asagiri Suzu who turned around.
"Let's talk about it later."
He put away his notes and took out his lunch box.
"Soya's bento looks great too."
Fushimi stretched out his chopsticks, looked at Soya again, took away a piece of sausage after nodding, and then returned a piece of fried chicken.
"It tastes really good. But Sogu's mother's cooking skills are still a bit different from mine. Let's try it."
"I did this myself."
Zonggu didn't say much, picked up the fried chicken, put it in his mouth, and quickly laughed.
"The difference is more than a little."
"Right."
Fushimi was a little happy and gave him a few more pieces.
Yoshikawa Anko and Asagiri Suzu looked here and didn't come over, but Soya was a little concerned about the situation of Kirino Akane in the class next door.
"I heard from a former senior at East Middle School that the first week of school in Dangao is the so-called 'New Student Welcome Week'. After school in the afternoon, there will be various clubs in the atrium... Where are you going?"
Fushimi looked at Soya who suddenly stood up, "Would you like to buy something to drink? Bring me a can of juice, any flavor will do."
"No...there's something a little bit wrong."
When he came to the front door of Class B, someone happened to come out and the door was open.
Akane Kirino's seat was not only in the front row, but also facing the podium. Souya saw her at a glance.
While eating her bento, she chatted with the girl next to her. She seemed to have made friends.
Just as he was about to return to Class A, Kirino Akane also spotted him at the door.
"Soya?"
He shook his head and said it was okay, and she came out anyway.
"What's wrong?"
"Miss Kirino asked me to supervise whether you eat well in school."
"Liar." She smiled.
"New friends?" Zongya gestured to the girl inside.
"Middle school classmate."
"Yeah."
"We just happened to sit together and had dinner together."
"She's still waiting for Kirino."
Akane Kirino did not go back directly, but walked to the back door of Class A and imitated him and looked inside.
Chao Wuling looked over.
Then, Yoshikawa Anko also turned around.
Looking at each other, Akane Kirino tilted her head, smiled at her, and then turned around and returned to Class B.
"..."
When Soya came back, he saw Yoshikawa leaning against the back table in a daze, looking at something in the air.
"Is it okay..."
He returned to his seat and sat down. After a few bites, she suddenly came over.
"Thanks!"
"...No, I didn't do anything."
She didn't care, left a cup of pudding as a thank you gift, and then turned back.
Fushimi Keisuke looked at Soya, then looked back at Yoshikawa Anko's back, and finally settled on the cup of pudding.
"Sogu...what's going on?"
"It's complicated to say. I'll explain it when I have time. What did you say you had in the afternoon?"
"The welcome parties of major clubs...wait a minute, I still care about it!"
"Really? I heard that Danhai University not only has a high admission rate, but also has a lot of community activities."
"You already knew this when you were choosing a school, right? Don't change the subject!"
Soya picked up a piece of fried chicken cooked by Fushimi's mother and nodded again.
"What societies are there?"
...
After lunch, Soya went to the vending machine at the end of the corridor to buy juice as a thank you for the desk clerk's enthusiastic explanation of the school's traditions.
"Ah, Sugawara-senpai."
This place is relatively remote. Sugawara Kyoko was talking to a first-year girl here when she heard the sound and looked back.
"Sotani-san."
After nodding in greeting, she turned around.
There were many kinds of drinks in the vending machine. Soya spent a while choosing, and bought a can of juice for Fushimi. He chose green tea.
"Sotani-san."
He turned around and found that the first-grade girl had disappeared.
"What's the matter, Sugawara-senpai?"
Kyoko Sugawara only came up with the idea on the spur of the moment after meeting him. She looked at the green tea in his hand hesitantly, thinking about how to speak.
Soya turned around and bought another bottle.
"please."
"..."
She didn't answer, "Sotani-kun, do you plan to join the club?"
"I haven't looked into it carefully, so I haven't decided yet. Is the senior's club recruiting new members?"
"No, although I have my name in the club, it can be said that I have not joined the club."
"Because you want to go back to the shrine to help?"
Kyoko Sugawara did not deny it, “It’s especially hard to get away during this period.”
Zonggu held three bottles of drinks and listened to her continue.
"So, after school today, can Soya-san go back to the shrine with me directly?"
"I'm afraid not." Seeing that she really said this, Zonggu quickly refused, "There is a welcome party in the afternoon, I want to go and see it."
"Besides, what senior sister wants is not just today, right?"
"...That's right."
"Unfortunately, I don't have the same work enthusiasm as my senior sister."
After that, he handed over the green tea in his hand.
Sugawara Kyoko looked at him and accepted it.
Zong Gu turned around and left, "I will go there later."
"but……"
"——Just give it back to me."
"..."
Back in Class A of the first year, Soya put the extra bottle of green tea he bought on Asagiri Suzu's table.
Seeing that Yoshikawa was also looking at her, he simply gave her his bottle again.
"Eh...thank you."
After handing the juice to Fushimi, Soya returned to his seat and stared out the window in a daze.
Maybe Kyoko Sugawara made the right choice.
Starting to sort out the information as early as possible would also allow him to find the traces left by the Eight Thunder Gods in the world as early as possible - if they indeed existed.
But……
"At least let me get through my first day of high school."