Free Web NovelChapter 114: Chapter 113 - The Shopping District Incident
Kuro had complete plans for this Saturday morning that were downright perfect. They didn’t consist of going out or hanging out with anyone, but rather to spend the day at home sleeping, reading and avoiding the human race. And possibly eating a snack. This was how Kuro planned to spend his entire day. Until...
At 8:03 am his phone vibrated.
---
Yui:
"Group bonding time!"
---
Kuro replied immediately.
---
Kuro:
"No thanks".
---
After three seconds, Kuro received another message.
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Yui:
"Too late".
---
After another five seconds, Kuro received another message.
---
Yui:
"Everyone else is in."
---
He couldn’t believe this was true, but then received another message.
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Yui:
"With the exception of you".
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Kuro absolutely hated how believable that was!
---
Two hours later he finds himself in the shopping district, shaking his head at how he got there.
---
As he surveyed his group, he regretted every decision he had made leading up to this moment.
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Presently:Yui Kanzaki , Akari Tachibana , Aoi Tachibana , Mina Fujikawa ,Rika Saionji
,Minami Asakura and Kuro .
This was a gathering of people that surely broke every safety regulation.
Yui stood in the center of the assembled crowd.
"Welcome all!"
There was no applause.
"Our goal today is to bond".
Minami sighed.
"Why am I here?"
"Because you need friends".
"I have friends".
Yui pointed at Kuro.
"He’s a friend".
Minami turned around and almost walked away when the day began.
But once it began, it fell apart.
Disaster 1: Akari is missing.
It took five minutes from the time they started.
That was it; five minutes and one conversation; five minutes and one distraction and then...
"Where’s Akari?"
Silence.
Everyone started looking around.
No Akari.
None.
Gone.
Vanish.
Like the universe had just...
"How?!" Kuro asked
Aoi instantly responded.
"She saw a crepe stand."
"That makes sense."
Unfortunately.
It took thirty minutes to find Akari.
They discovered her arguing with a mascot.
Nobody asked why.
Nobody wanted to know why.
Disaster 2: Mina’s Unnatural Luck.
They were walking past a prize booth.
Mina stopped.
"That looks fun."
Three minutes later.
She had won.
The grand prize.
A giant stuffed animal.
Silence.
The booth owner looked devastated.
Yui blinked.
"Again."
So, Mina tried again.
She won.
Again.
And again.
And again.
After ten minutes.
Mina had enough prizes to start her own business.
The booth owner looked like he was going to cry.
Yui physically dragged Mina away from the booth before she could bankrupt him.
Disaster 3: Rika Interviews Civilization.
At some point.
Rika went missing.
A bad sign.
A very bad sign.
Twenty minutes later.
They found her.
Interviewing random people. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
With a notebook.
And an unsettling amount of enthusiasm.
"How did you meet your wife?"
"Sir, have you ever had your heart broken?"
"What was the most dramatic confession you ever witnessed?"
People answered her.
Which somehow made it worse.
Rika now had 12 pages filled in her notebook.
The manga industry of the future will never recover.
Disaster 4: Aoi’s Secret Mission.
Unlike the rest of the group.
Aoi was calm.
Suspiciously calm.
The others were all exploring around while Aoi was busy tracking everyone quietly and no one even caught on, just Yui.
Yui seemed to notice everything and at one point, Yui showed up next to Aoi out of nowhere.
"Are you following us?"
"No."
"That’s a lie."
"No it isn’t."
Yui laughed while Aoi just smiled politely but neither one of them really trusted the other but they were both aware of it - so the silent war continued to rage on.
Disaster 5: Minami Apologizes to Society
Minami had spent all day today apologizing to everybody (not because she had done anything wrong but because everybody else was).
Akari knocked over a display and Minami said
"Sorry."
Mina accidentally won another prize and Minami said
"Sorry."
Rika interviewed a police officer (or something like that).
Minami said "Sorry."
Yui got a discount from a shop owner by convincing her (I guess).
Minami said "Sorry."
In no time whatsoever, even people that Minami did not know were apologizing back to her like it was an epidemic...
Disaster 6: Kuro Walks Fifteen Kilometers
Kuro may have moved five kilometers physically but fifteen emotionally.
Every ten minutes somebody was yelling for him
"KURO!"
"Kuro-Kun!"
"Kuro"
"Kuro!"
"Kuro!"
"Kuro!"
"Kuro!"
He had become a government-provided public service and therefore he was the walking emergency response team.
But by late afternoon Kuro’s spirit was depleted and so were his legs and his patience had become transcendent.
Even Yui saw that.
"You look tired."
"I’m three years older than I was prior to coming here."
"Just three?"
Kuro contemplated throwing her into a fountain.
Then realized prison existed.
Sadly.
Later that evening.
The group was once again in front of a café
Everyone had shopping bags with them
Everyone looked exhausted
Except Yui.
Of course.
As she is powered by chaos.
They sat together.
They started talking
About school
Classes
Future jobs
Then Mina asked the question.
"So Yui, what year of school are you in?"
Complete silence.
Yui drank her coffee.
As if that was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Oh, I failed medical school twice."
Time stopped.
Everyone froze.
Akari blinked.
"What?"
"I failed medical school twice."
More silence.
Total silence.
Even Kuro was surprised.
Minami almost dropped her drink.
Rika stopped writing.
Mina’s smile faded.
Aoi opened her eyes as wide as she has ever opened them before.
For the first time in her life Aoi was practically screaming.
"Really? Twice?"
Minami repeated.
Yui smiled proudly.
As if she were talking about an award or trophy.
Everyone stared at her.
Nobody knew what to say.
Because Yui is brilliant.
Incredibly, ridiculously brilliant.
And she’s failed.
Twice.
Yui shrugged.
"What?"
Nobody answered her.
The mystery continues to grow around Yui Kanzaki.
And, just because of that, all of these people will be that much more curious and want to know more about her.
And that’s exactly the way Yui wants it.
The ride on the train to return back home should have been relatively uneventful.
Should have been.
However, the group had lost any chance of being peaceful many hours before.
There were a number of seats taken already so everyone stood in clusters or groups.
Akari spoke up first breaking the silence.
Pointing directly at Yui she said, "You failed medical school two times?!"
Yui replied with a nod, "Yes."
Akari, very surprised, replied, "Two times?!"
The answer was also "Yes."
Akari inquired, "How was that possible?"
Yui answered simply, "I have no natural talent as a physician."
Akari seemed honestly impressed, "Wow! That’s impressive!!"
Minami, not at all impressed, hit Akari on the back of her head. "Don’t encourage her!"
Akari looked shocked, "Ouch!"
Yui laughed at that too, "See? This is exactly why I like her."
Minami said, "I’m not trying to get your approval for anything."
Yui stated, "You have my approval."
Akari suffered from an emotional blow.
Meanwhile, Mina was looking at all of the pictures that she and her friends took during their day together.
Half were just normal pictures.
The other half she would not be able to use.
For example, in one picture Akari is yelling at a mascot.
In another, Kuro is shown completely exhausted to carry every one’s shopping bags.
In still another one, there is a picture of Minami apologizing to a vending machine for kicking it.
Mina chuckled quietly to herself. "What a fun day we’ve had!"
Minami looked at her. "Had fun?"
Mina replied, "Yeah!"
Minami responded, "I checked my step tracker and I’ve walked 12,000 steps."
Kuro then chimed in, "Only 12,000?"
Minami then said to Kuro, "How many did you walk?"
"21,000!"
Everyone froze.
"WHAT?!"
Akari yelled out.
Kuro shrugged his shoulders.
"Someone needed something, I guess."
No one could deny it.
Rika was still off to the side, writing like crazy.
She had already filled up several pages in her notebook.
Yui leaned over her shoulder asking, "How many pages did you write today?"
"27."
"About what?"
"You."
Yui blinked.
And didn’t appear to be very happy about it.
It was the first time all day that she looked concerned about something.
Meanwhile, Aoi quietly watched the commotion around her.
As they went from the airport to the city on the train, the train was rocking back and forth as it passed through the city, but she was pretty sure everyone else in the train car was too busy to notice.
Akari was arguing.
Mina was laughing.
Rika was writing.
And Minami and Kuro appeared to be asleep.
Yui, on the other hand, was right in the middle of all the chaos.
That made Aoi a little angry.
Not that Yui had been unkind to her at any time, in fact, she was the total opposite.
She had an uncanny ability to just fit into this group of girls as if she had always belonged.
Aoi looked over at Kuro for a moment, and he was sitting next to Yui and listening to her and Akari argue about whatever ridiculously irrelevant thing they could think of at the moment.
Kuro actually appeared to be relaxed for a change.
A realization hit Aoi, and she quietly turned away.
Just as the train approached their stop, Yui suddenly started stretching.
"Today was fun".
No one could deny it.
Not even Minami, who physically winced at the effort it took for her to say that.
At that point, Yui was smiling.
For the first time today, her smile was genuine.
It didn’t seem to carry a teasing or mischievous connotation.
Then she nonchalantly dropped another bombshell.
"I’ll probably share with you the reasons why I was unsuccessful next time I meet up with you.
All of a sudden, the train was dead quiet.
Every person on the train looked at her.
Yui only grinned.
Kuro could just see that there would be another headache coming.
This was not yet the end.
It was actually only the beginning.
