A heavy silence filled the room, broken only by the soft scratching of mechanical pencils on paper. We had borrowed a room in Yuji’s house and were holding a five-person study session, with our midterm exams just two days away.
That pleasant tension was suddenly shattered when Mika flung both hands into the air and flopped backward onto the floor.
“Moo~! I don’t get any of this!”
“Haa… Not again.”
She seemed to have gotten stuck on another problem. We had been holding these sessions for the past several days, but how many times had she complained like this already?
Before I could say anything to Mika as she clutched her head and rolled across the tatami, Saori-chan spoke up, her voice colored with exasperation at the dramatic display.
“…Mika-chan, where are you stuck this time?”
“…Umm, here.”
Mika sat up and pointed out the troublesome section to Saori-chan.
“Let’s see… You can solve this by using the formula in the textbook here. It’s a trick question, but if you follow the steps correctly, you should be able to get it.”
“…This formula?”
“Yeah. Look, if you plug these numbers in right here…”
“…Ah! I got it! Thank you, Saori-chan!”
Following Saori-chan’s instructions, Mika tackled the problem again. She struggled for a moment but eventually solved it. After thanking her friend, she continued working through the rest of the questions with Saori-chan’s guidance.
“…Hey, Mika. You won’t learn anything if you don’t try solving them on your own first, you know?”
“Eh, but… These formulas are so hard. I can’t solve them without Saori-chan’s help…”
“Even so, at least try thinking for yourself first. Plus, if you keep relying on her, Saori-chan won’t have time to study for herself, right?”
“Uuu… Fine, I understand. Thanks for helping me, Saori-chan.”
“No problem. Good luck, Mika-chan.”
Mika reluctantly thanked her and began tackling the problems by herself. With Saori-chan finally free from playing tutor, I turned to her.
“Thanks for looking after Mika, Saori-chan.”
“Not at all. Mika-chan has been helping me with the liberal arts subjects I struggle with, so we’re even.”
“I see. Still, Mika really does seem to have trouble with science and math…”
“Yes. She’s strong in liberal arts, but…”
Together, Saori-chan and I watched Mika groan, head in her hands as she stared at her desk.
“Uuu… I have no idea how to solve a string of numbers like this…”
She was clearly struggling.
That made sense. Mika’s strengths lay in liberal arts. Science subjects seemed to be her complete weakness.
“By the way, Saori-chan, are you okay with everything? Nothing you don’t understand?”
“Yes. I’m fine for now. Yukino-san taught me the question trends from last year’s midterm exams, so I’ve been focusing my review on those areas.”
“I see. If you run into anything you’re unsure about, just ask.”
“Yes.”
It seemed Saori-chan had no major issues. While she said she was weak in liberal arts, it was only relative to her strong science and math skills. Unlike Mika, her weak subjects didn’t appear to be below average.
During a break in the study session, Yuji asked the girls a question.
“Speaking of which, Mika-chan, what’s that group centered around the repeating first-year students doing? Are they actually studying for the exams?”
“Eh? Oh, yeah. They’ve been surprisingly quiet lately. Right, Saori-chan?”
“Yeah. It looks like even they realize how the teachers are watching them. Once the test preparation period started, they stopped doing any blatant recruitment. Thanks to that, we can finally enjoy our school life in peace.”
“Seriously. It’s such a relief that those constant recruitment attempts during every break have stopped.”
“……”
Seeing the two girls happily declare this with gentle expressions, Yuji realized they weren’t joking and fell silent. Listening beside him, I felt my eyes grow hot at how miserable their usual school days must have been.
The test period being a time to finally relax… said everything.
“But those people gathered members without any screening, so now they have to raise everyone’s grades. It must be really tough. They even said they were holding study sessions with all their group members.”
“Yeah. If even one person ends up with a failing grade, the teachers will use that as an excuse to put the whole group under supervision.…Serves them right. Don’t you think so too, Yuji-san?”
“…Yeah, I guess.”
As they spoke, both Mika and Saori wore wide smiles that didn’t reach their eyes. They must have been incredibly frustrated. The moment those smiles were aimed directly at him, Yuji’s face twitched and his body stiffened for a second.
They were right, though. The fact that the repeating students were now frantically trying to improve everyone’s grades was the price they paid for expanding their organization without screening members. The larger a group became, the more varied its members. Some would be top students, but others would be chronic failures. If they had waited until after the first-semester midterm exams to expand, they could have avoided taking in students who would become weaknesses for the group.
Still, if they hadn’t recruited early, the first-year explorer hopefuls probably would have splintered into small, scattered groups. In the end, they had chosen to expand despite the risks.
“If a bunch of them end up needing remedial classes, maybe the teachers will finally intervene…”
“I don’t think that’s realistic, Saori-chan. They’ll probably lock them in a room and force them to study if they have to—just to avoid any failing grades.”
“Yeah… What a shame.”
“Such a shame. If they would just self-destruct, it would make things so much easier for us…”
The two of them sighed deeply with genuine disappointment and sipped their tea.
They had clearly built up a lot of stress.
After listening to all of Mika and Saori-chan’s school-life complaints, we resumed the study session. We taught each other our strong and weak points and traded self-made mini-tests. The results were quite good, and I felt the sessions were clearly paying off.
“Phew… Shall we start wrapping up the study session soon?”
Stretching my stiff back, I glanced at the window, which had begun to glow with the colors of sunset, and murmured to everyone. We had been concentrating for quite a while.
“Hm?…Yeah, the sun’s starting to set. It’s about the right time.”
“…Yes. It wouldn’t be good to stay too late. Let’s call it a day here.”
Reacting to my words, both Yuji and Hiiragi-san looked out the window and agreed.
“Mika, Saori-chan. We’re at a good stopping point. Shall we finish up?”
“Yeah!”
“Yes. Just let me finish this one problem first. Please wait a moment.”
“Yeah, of course.”
Hearing my suggestion, Mika happily tossed her mechanical pencil onto her notebook, while Saori-chan worked to finish the problem she was in the middle of.
The difference in their reactions really showed their personalities…
“Once Saori-chan finishes that problem, let’s head out before the sun completely sets, okay?”
“Alright.”
“Yeah.”
As I began putting away my notebook, textbooks, and study materials, the other three—except for Saori-chan—started cleaning up as well. Then…
“…I’m done. Sorry for making you wait.”
“No rush. How was it? Did you solve it properly?”
“Yes. It was an application of what I learned today, so there wasn’t any problem.”
Saying that, Saori-chan quickly put away her study materials. After waiting about a minute, she was finished.
“Alright. Shall we head home?”
“Yes. Well then, Hirose-kun, we’ll be taking our leave for today.”
“Thank you for having us!”
“Yeah. See you at school tomorrow. Daiki, I’ll leave seeing Hiiragi-san and Saori-chan off to you.”
“Leave it to me.”
Seen off by Yuji, we left his house.
After leaving, we first headed toward Hiiragi-san’s house, which was the closest.
Considering her ability, it might have been unnecessary concern, but I couldn’t let a girl walk home alone on a dimly lit road at dusk.
“Kokonoe-kun, you really don’t need to see me off. There’s no way some random molester or thug could do anything to me.”
“Well, I know that, but…”
If anything, I was more worried about the criminal who might try to attack her. Even if Hiiragi-san only lightly brushed them aside, to the attacker it would probably feel like being mauled by a bear…
As I was thinking that, it must have shown on my face, because Hiiragi-san sent a sharp glance my way.
“…You weren’t thinking something rude just now, were you, Kokonoe-kun?”
“No. I wasn’t thinking anything?”
“…I see.”
When I hurriedly turned my face away in an attempt to dodge the question, I heard what was probably a sigh from Hiiragi-san. When I looked in that direction, I saw Mika and Saori-chan staring at me with exasperated expressions.
“…Sigh.”
“It’s written all over your face, Onii-san.”
It seemed I hadn’t managed to cover it up after all.
After walking for a while in a somewhat awkward atmosphere, we arrived at our destination—Hiiragi-san’s family shop.
“Thank you for walking me home, Kokonoe-kun. And thank you too, Mika-chan and Saori-chan.”
“It was nothing. Take care.”
“See you later, Yukino-san.”
“Thanks for today.”
“Yes. Kokonoe-kun, take care of the other two, okay?”
“Leave it to me.”
Waving her hand, Hiiragi-san parted from us and went inside the shop.
We hadn’t seen each other much lately. I wondered if Miyuki-san and Eiji-san were doing well. Maybe I should stop by the shop sometime… though Eiji-san’s teasing was always annoying.
Once Hiiragi-san had completely disappeared inside, I turned back to Mika and Saori-chan.
“Alright, next is Saori-chan’s house.”
“Yes. Thank you again today.”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about it. There’s no way I could let a girl walk home alone on a night road like this.”
Saori-chan bowed her head to us. I lightly waved my right hand in front of my chest, telling her not to worry. The sun was already close to setting, and there was no guarantee a pervert wouldn’t appear. Unlike Hiiragi-san, Saori-chan was truly just an ordinary person, even if she had received some instruction from Juzo-san. If she were surrounded, she wouldn’t be able to handle it.
“That’s right, Saori-chan. Onii-chan went out of his way to act as a bodyguard, so it’d be a waste not to make use of him.”
“But Mika-chan. Walking me home is a detour for you two, isn’t it? I feel bad since you always do this.”
“Even if it’s a detour, it’s only about ten minutes. Like Onii-chan said, we can’t possibly let you walk home alone. We want to walk you home, so don’t worry about it, okay?”
“…Yeah. Thank you.”
With Mika’s persuasion, Saori-chan seemed convinced. We started walking toward her house.
While chatting about various things to pass the time, I remembered something and decided to ask Saori-chan.
“By the way, Saori-chan, have you already sent in your application for the Armed Exploration Permit for Special Underground Structures Issuance Exam?”
“Yes. I already got my parents to sign it and sent it to the Dungeon Association.”
“They didn’t oppose it?”
“It was fine. I had done a lot of persuasion work beforehand, and my parents already knew I was seriously preparing to become an explorer. They were a bit reluctant, but I got their signatures.”
Saori-chan puffed out her chest proudly as she told me this. I watched her with a gentle smile.
Still, it looked like she couldn’t get their full approval. Unlike when we took the exam, the public image of explorers had accumulated quite a few negative points. It was true that the profits were large, but the risks were equally significant. Since fatal accidents had already occurred inside dungeons in Japan, it was natural for parents to hesitate. It was an understandable reaction.
“What test date did you request, Saori-chan?”
“I put down the same one as Mika-chan—next Sunday.”
“Next week… That’s right after the midterm exams. Are you going to be okay?”
The explorer exam included a written test, even if it was a simple one. There would be preparatory lectures, but I was worried whether her head would be too scrambled right after the midterms. Mika was full of baseless confidence, but Saori-chan seemed more level-headed.
However, my concern proved unnecessary.
“I’ve also read how-to books for the explorer exam, so I think the written portion will be fine. And compared to Juzo-san’s training, the practical test should be… no problem, I think.”
Saori-chan wore an expression like she had come to some realization.
It was true that if you prepared properly, the explorer exam was only difficult enough to be passable. With the how-to books and Juzo-san’s training, she should manage.
While we chatted amiably, we arrived at Saori-chan’s house.
“Onii-san, Mika-chan, thank you so much for walking me all the way home.”
“Don’t worry about it. We only did what was natural.”
“See you, Saori-chan. See you at school tomorrow.”
“Yeah. See you tomorrow.”
Saori-chan gave us a small wave, said her goodbyes, and went inside.
Alright, that finished today’s escort duty.
“Well then, shall we head home?”
“Yeah! Oh, Onii-chan. Want to stop by the convenience store on the way?”
“Hm? Is there something you want?”
“Yeah, well…”
After seeing Hiiragi-san and Saori-chan home, Mika and I finally began making our way back to our own house.
We were in the final stretch of cramming for the midterm exams.
And with their applications for the explorer exam already submitted, whether Mika and Saori could actually take it would all depend on their test results!