Chapter 29 – Settling In
The morning air was cool. A thin layer of cloud stretched across the sky like the world had pulled a gray curtain halfway shut. Kotarō walked through the school gate with his usual quiet steps, hands in his pockets, head low.
A voice fell into step beside him.
"So. You joined."
Haruka.
He glanced over. She didn't look surprised. She never did.
"Souta didn't scare you off?"
Kotarō shrugged slightly. "He tried. Failed."
She smiled at that. Not a teasing grin this time, but something smaller. Quieter.
"I knew you would."
He gave her a look.
"Mikako texted me," she added. "'Your emotionally damaged bird joined. Seems functional.'"
Kotarō sighed through his nose.
"I guess that means I passed.
Somehow."
Class was uneventful. Kotarō sat in his seat like always. Teachers lectured. Notes were taken. Pages turned.
But the buzz hadn't died down completely.
A pair of students two rows over whispered between themselves.
"Did you see the final match video?"
"Haruka was so good. She sounded like a lawyer on caffeine."
"What about that guy? The second speaker?"
"The quiet one? He was... like a ghost with grammar."
Kotarō heard it. Didn't look up.
"That's fair.
I was trying not to collapse."
He opened his notebook and scribbled in the margins of a debate prep handout. Just practice. No one needed to see it.
The English clubroom was loud again.
Kotarō stepped in after school, and the noise hit him like warm static. Familiar, if still a little overwhelming.
Souta jumped to his feet.
"He returns! Stronger, wiser, still visibly traumatized!"
Haruka was already sitting near the window. She rolled up a paper and threw it at his head.
"We're trying to keep members, Souta."
Mikako, seated at the center table with a new stack of flashcards, waved him over.
"You're doing warm-up today, New Guy."
Kotarō blinked. "Me?"
"You joined. This is the hazing ritual."
"It's not," Haruka said flatly.
"It is now," Mikako shot back, shoving a prompt card at him. "Five lines. Impromptu. Don't freeze or I will write it down as a quote."
Kotarō stared at the card. It read: Should uniforms be banned?
"Still not used to being in the center. Still don't want it.
But... I didn't come here to watch."
He cleared his throat. Everyone quieted.
"Uniforms aren't the problem. Standardization without context is."
A pause. Then another line.
"Ban the thinking behind them. Not the fabric."
Someone clapped. Then Souta clapped louder. Mikako clapped sarcastically, but she was smiling.
"Not bad for a ghost," she said.
Later, they packed up. Souta knocked over a binder trying to reenact a rebuttal. Mikako insulted his metaphor choice.
Haruka stood and grabbed her bag.
Kotarō lingered near the door.
"You fit in fast," she said.
"I don't think I did."
"Exactly," she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. "That's why you belong."
"Somehow...
it felt like she meant it."
Chapter End