Senzaemon Nakiri stopped in front of us with his arms crossed behind his back. Even though he was smiling slightly, he was still intimidating. He was huge and seemed to radiate an incredible energy.
"I see you've found your runaway, Kaede-kun," he said in a deep voice that seemed to make the floor vibrate.
Soma and the others from the Polar Star Dorm were left speechless. They couldn't believe that the big boss of the school knew my sister so well.
Soma, however, recovered immediately with his usual cheeky attitude.
"Well then, we're heading back to the dorm to celebrate!" the red-haired boy exclaimed. "Yuya, the invitation to the party still stands, but I guess you're busy right now. Give me your number so we don't lose touch!"
Yuki and Marui pulled out their phones at lightning speed. We exchanged numbers in a second. "Bye, Yuya!" the others called out before scurrying away from the figures standing behind me. They seemed relieved to get away from the Headmaster.
I was left alone with Kaede and Senzaemon.
"So, is this the boy you're always telling me about, Kaede?" Senzaemon asked, fixing his steel-like eyes on me.
I felt as if he were reading my mind. "Tell me, what is your name?"
"Yuya Kazuki, sir. It's a pleasure to meet you," I replied. I tried not to let my voice tremble.
"Yuya... Kaede told me you're a difficult type to read. She says you spend half the day sleeping," the old man said, before breaking into a loud laugh. "Hahaha! So, is that why you ran away from the park?"
"I was just curious," I admitted, scratching my head.
Right at that moment, two girls emerged from the shadows of the arena tunnel. One was blonde, walking like a queen with a gaze that seemed to say "I am better than you." Beside her was a girl with short hair and a very serious expression.
They were Erina Nakiri and her assistant, Hisako Arato.
"Grandfather, we're finished for today. Why are you still here talking to..." Erina froze upon seeing me and my sister. "Oh, Kaede-san. I didn't know you had visitors."
"Erina-sama," Kaede replied with a nod. "This is my younger brother, Yuya."
"Nice to meet you, I am Kazuki Yuya," I told them, lowering my head slightly as a sign of courtesy.
Erina looked me up and down. If she was beautiful in the anime, in real life she was... wow. She had perfect skin and stunning blue eyes. She really was the heroine of the story. I tried to stay calm and not make a stupid face, keeping a serious expression.
"Your brother?" Erina asked, narrowing her eyes. "I didn't know the 'Iron Lady' had a brother."
"This is Erina, my granddaughter, and the girl beside her is Hisako, her friend and assistant," Senzaemon introduced the two girls. As he did, I noticed his gaze shift from them to me twice until he burst out laughing.
"Perfect! This works out great. Kaede, we need to go to the office to sign the last few papers before heading home." Then he looked at his granddaughter.
"Erina, since you have nothing to do, give Yuya a tour of the school. We can't just leave him here alone."
Erina made a face as if she had just bitten into a lemon. "What? Grandfather, I have things to do and—"
"It will only be twenty minutes, Erina. Do me this favor," Senzaemon said. His tone allowed no room for argument.
Kaede gave me a strange little smile, as if she were enjoying herself at my expense, and followed the old man toward the exit. They left me there, alone with the two girls.
The air had become incredibly heavy. Erina let out a loud sigh and crossed her arms.
"Fine then," she huffed, turning toward the corridor. "Follow me, and don't touch anything. Hisako, you come too."
We began walking through the Totsuki gardens.
The sun was beautiful and... the silence was awkward, so I decided to say something to break the ice, but without sounding too interested.
"So, besides scaring the students, what do you usually do here?" I asked in a calm tone.
Erina stopped for a second, surprised.
"I don't scare anyone. I evaluate dishes. I am part of the Council of Ten and I make sure everything is perfect. And you? What do you do, besides being dragged around by your sister?"
"I try to enjoy life by playing volleyball," I replied simply. "Nothing special like judging expensive dishes."
Then I looked at Hisako, who was walking a step behind her. "And you? Is your job to stop her from striking people down with her stare?"
Hisako didn't expect me to talk to her. "I am Erina-sama's assistant. I manage her schedule and study medicine applied to cooking."
"Cool," I commented. "Better than staring at sheets full of numbers like my sister does."
As we walked, we started talking about normal things. I discovered that Erina was obsessed with perfection in everything she did. It reminded me a bit of how I feel when I train seriously.
Deep down, we had something in common. Erina seemed surprised that I wasn't afraid of her and began to speak in a less acidic way.
As we passed in front of a giant greenhouse, we heard fast footsteps. It was Kaede returning with her bag over her shoulder.
"Time's up, Yuya. We have to go," my sister said as she reached us.
She looked at the three of us and saw we were talking peacefully. "I see you didn't kill each other. Excellent."
"Your brother is less annoying than I thought, Kaede-san," Erina said, immediately returning to her cold persona, even though she seemed more relaxed now.
"I'll take that as a compliment," I replied with a nod.
"Thanks for the tour, Erina. Nice meeting you, Hisako."
We headed toward the car. As we pulled away, Kaede looked at me in the rearview mirror with a sly smile.
"You've got guts, Yuya... talking to the Queen of the school like that," she teased. "So? Did you like her? Have you fallen in love already?"
"Stop it, Kaede. You're not funny," I replied, letting out an exasperated sigh while looking out the window so she wouldn't see my face.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. Anyway, I'm hungry. I'm taking you to a little spot in Tokyo I know. They make incredible ramen..."
After eating and filling myself up completely, Kaede and I got on the train to head back home.
When I asked Kaede why we took the train instead of the car, she looked at me with a playful gaze but didn't answer.
"What a pain, but that ramen was really good," I thought to myself, remembering the lunch I had just finished.
As the train journey continued, I kept looking out the window. Tokyo was a chaos of lights and buildings, but my eyes stopped on a giant billboard hanging over a diving gear shop.
My eyes widened and I almost choked on my own spit. On the poster were two huge guys, muscles everywhere and completely insane faces, smiling while holding wetsuits.
Above them, it read: "Peek-a-Boo Diving Club - Come discover the deep blue!".
"I don't believe it..." I whispered to myself.
I felt a desperate urge to laugh. That poster was identical to the one from Grand Blue, the anime I always watched in my old life. I still remembered the absurd scenes of those lunatics drinking liters of alcohol and always ending up running naked around the university.
"Yuya? Why do you have that stupid look on your face?" Kaede asked, looking at me sideways.
"Nothing, nothing," I replied, trying to pull myself together. "I just remembered something funny."
Kaede snorted but didn't ask any more questions. The journey back to Miyagi Prefecture was long, and the silence in the car was broken only by the radio.
I was dead tired, but my head kept spinning with everything that had happened at Totsuki.
Finally, we entered our area. Just as we were about to turn toward home, two figures blurred past us on the sidewalk.
An orange-haired boy and a black-haired boy were running as if the devil himself were chasing them. It was Hinata and Kageyama. They were sweating like fountains and screaming at each other while trying to overtake one another.
"I'M IN THE LEAD, KAGEYAMA!"
"SHUT UP, BOKE! YOU WON'T WIN!"
Kaede braked sharply to let them pass at the intersection and slapped a hand to her forehead, letting out a sigh full of exhaustion.
"Those two again... don't they ever get tired?" she growled, looking at them with a mix of disdain and fatigue. "They remind me too much of certain Totsuki students. They have that same psychopathic look of people who only think about one thing from morning till night. How annoying."
I chuckled. Honestly, the determination of those two wasn't much different from Soma's when he stood at the stove.
As soon as we got home, Kaede went straight to the kitchen to make some coffee, muttering something about how much she hated hyperactive kids. I, on the other hand, went straight to my room. Despite the fatigue of the trip, I felt a strange energy. That day had recharged me.
I searched under the bed and pulled out my volleyball. Feeling the touch of the ball's skin on my fingers relaxed me instantly.
I stood in the center of the room and started setting the ball upward.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The sound was rhythmic and precise. My hands moved with incredible naturalness, as if I had been doing this for a thousand years. I watched the ball go up and down, controlling it with my fingertips.
While I practiced, I thought back to Soma, Erina, and even those two crazies running in the street.
In this world, everyone was giving their all for their dream. And me? I couldn't be any less.