Takumi 19:00 (read)
“Good evening”
Jun 19:02 (read)
“Heya.”
Saki 19:02 (read)
“Evening.”
Jun 19:03 (read)
“What’s wrong Takumi? It’s unusual for you to contact us from your end.”
Saki 19:03 (read)
“Yeah.”
Saki 19:03 (read)
“Is something wrong?”
Jun 19:03 (read)
“You don’t get death threats sent to your address or something like that right?”
Takumi 19:04 (read)
“It’s okay, it’s nothing like that.”
Takumi 19:04 (read)
“Well…”
Takumi 19:06 (read)
“Do you think you can afford to miss school tomorrow and come with me?”
♤♠♤♠♤
Saki and Jun didn’t know what they expected when Takumi invited them to skip school that night. He had instructed them to wait in front of the station as early as 7 in the morning.
At first Saki had her brother Haru accompanying her until Jun showed up, after which Haru returned home to return to his dreamland. Apparently, he had an afternoon class today so he pulled an all-nighter the day before.
Not long after, a metallic blue civic pulled up before them. In the passenger seat was Takumi, wearing his uniform as always despite skipping school.
“Get on, kids.”
Said the person sitting on the driver’s seat.
After looking at each other, Saki and Jun decided to get into the car. When Jun opened the backseat, they saw Shizuka, Takumi’s mother, already inside. With a series of “excuse me,” Saki and Jun entered the car. Saki sat in the middle, whilst Jun closed the door after them.
With that, the blue civic hit the road.
“Gosh, I can’t believe you’d treat me like a driver like this, Shizuka-san. Oh dear, look at the time, we’re running late. I hope none of you get carsick since I’m going to be a bit rough.”
The man, no, okama who was driving the car was speaking effeminately and was quite chatty, which was a contrast from the silent driver dressed in all black that drove the limousine for them.
“I’m sorry for troubling you again, Lindy-san.”
Shizuka apologized.
“Oh, it’s no trouble, Shizuka-san. My mouth just likes to run off on its own! Speaking of which, just like Tacchan here, the two of you are highschool students too, right?”
Tacchan? Perhaps she was talking about Takumi.
“Yes, we’re—”
“Oh, youth! I remember when I was in highschool I used to skip school all the time with my friends too, it was an all-boy school though. The classes were rowdy and there’s always a fight, you know, boys will always be boys. They just can’t fight against their hormones. You know my classmate, Gunta-kun, he’s big like a bear and his muscles, oh my god, his muscles you see—”
Jun hadn’t finished his piece when Lindy started to speak all on her own.
Saki and Jun still had no idea where they were being taken to, but they didn’t have the heart to interrupt Lindy when she was busy talking about herself. In the end, they still didn’t know why they were trapped in a car with a chatty okama for the rest of the trip.
The car cruised through the city streets, entering Ikebukuro.
“I still remember when Tacchan was still this small, he would hide behind his mother and — Oh, we’ve arrived. I hope we didn’t make the crew wait too long.”
Lindy stopped in the middle of her story. She stopped the car at a parking lot next to a white building.
When they were finally outside of the car, Jun pulled Takumi closer and whispered to him, huddling together with Saki.
“Takumi, who is that person? What are we doing here?”
“Yeah, you didn’t tell us anything, Takumi-kun.”
Saki and Jun interrogated him.
“She is Lindy-san, my mom’s old friend. She saw my clip and—”
“Hey you students! Stop standing around and come in already. The shoot is about to start.”
““The shoot?”” Saki and Jun tilted their heads 45 degrees.
“Let’s go.”
Prompted by Takumi, who followed after Lindy and Shizuka, Saki and Jun headed towards the glass front doors. The receptionist seemed to know Lindy as she let Takumi’s group in right away.
As they walked down the long hallway, Lindy continued her story.
“Imagine my surprise when I saw that little Tacchan is now an Omega Fighter! And I had to learn that from TikTok since Shizuka-san didn’t tell me anything about it. Had I known it beforehand I would’ve had Tacchan sign a contract with us and wear our brand on his debut match. We’ve had to rent this studio in a hurry since we need to ride on the trend before it fades, you know? Not to mention every other big studio is already occupied by our competitors since everyone and their dogs want to line up their Summer Collections! Imagine what a stroke of luck to see Tacchan dressed in the same style as our brand. Clothes being worn by Omega Fighters sell like hotcakes after all. That white vest, that sleek black pants, it screams Summer to my ears! —Oh, we’ve arrived.”
Lindy opened the door in front of her, and what was revealed was a large room with zero windows and black walls.
The room wasn’t empty, however, as there were ten-odd people attending to various equipment such as lighting, reflector, screens, and cameras. There was also a large white backdrop and various props.
“A photo studio!” Saki exclaimed it for what it was. “Eh, Takumi-kun, you’re going to have a photoshoot?!”
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“Oh, Tacchan didn’t tell you anything? I’m a brand designer for formal menswear from HAGO, you know?”
Lindy introduced herself. That was when one of the cameramen called for her, and she left the still shocked Saki and Jun with Takumi.
“Ta-Takumi, are you actually some kind of celebrity?”
“H-HAGO is a huge brand! How did you know a designer from such a huge brand?!”
“Well, my dad used to run a clothing store before the business went under. Lindy-san was a regular customer.”
Answered Takumi casually, not realizing the gravitas of the situation. That was when Lindy, who overheard it, chimed in.
“I was your dad’s number one apprentice! I guess you were too little to remember anything, huh. That man was a natural genius. He used to say ‘clothes are clothes, it’s nothing special,’ but everyone envied his talent.”
Hearing that, Saki seemed to recall Takumi saying something similar before. It was when Asa asked him to choose which swimsuit to buy, and Takumi said “they’re both swimsuits.”
It seemed like the lesson of the father passed down to Takumi, but not the fashion sense.
“Either way, Tacchan, the shooting is about to start. Come with me to the changing and makeup room. You students can wait here.”
Saying that, Lindy took Takumi to another room. When they returned 5 minutes later, Takumi was dressed similarly to his Battle outfit. His exposed face looked much more neat and sharp with the makeup, and instead of hiding it behind layers of foundation, the scar on his right eye was made to look more prominent.
As he was absent-mindedly watching Takumi being photographed in various poses, Jun opened his mouth.
“…say, Saki-chan.”
“What is it, Jun-kun?”
Saki responded, similarly watching the photoshoot going.
“Don’t you feel like Takumi is going far, far away? It’s like he’s from a different world than us. He said he needed a team, but I feel like Takumi can do everything by himself…even without us.”
“…yeah.”
Saki couldn’t help but share the sentiment. Thinking back, it felt like she had done nothing to help Takumi.
Saki didn’t know what she was expecting when she agreed to be part of Takumi’s team. She had envisioned herself with a pair of glasses over her eyes and a clipboard on her hand, guiding Takumi with her endless knowledge regarding Omega. Instead, she felt sidelined and could only watch Takumi taking the spotlight.
Even the plan against Daniel that she and Jun thought up ended up not being used. Takumi instead chose something that would truly bring Daniel down at the risk of his life.
When Saki and Jun were feeling down, Shizuka opened her mouth.
“Takumi-san has always been… bad with words. He rarely says what he wants, but once he decides on something, he’ll go straight for it without telling anyone.”
Shizuka was reminded of the time Takumi held onto a toy when he was a child. At the time, Shizuka and her husband panicked when they lost sight of Takumi inside a department store. When she found him, he didn’t say anything, he just clung onto the robot toy with a big pout on his cheeks.
“…Ever since his father’s death, he’s been trying to act though even though he must be hurting inside, probably out of consideration for me. However, last night, he insisted that we should invite you two. He said it’s not right to exclude you even though you’re part of his team, while in truth he probably finds strength in the two of you and just wants you to be here.”
“…”
“…”
“Once again, thank you very much for being such dear friends to my son.”
Saki and Jun didn’t know what to say. And when Shizuka started bowing to them, they panicked.
“N-no, we’ve done nothing worth thanking for.”
“Y-yeah, we’re just tagging along, right?”
Saki and Jun felt awkward and tried to brush it off, but Shizuka still lowered her head for a little bit longer.
♤♠♤♠♤
In the end, the photoshoot lasted for 5 hours, with a lot of different variations of vests and suits that Lindy had Takumi wore.
After a fancy lunch, courtesy of Lindy who footed the bill, the four of Takumi, Saki, Jun, and Shizuka were dropped off in front of a train station.
“…she’s like a storm.”
Commented Jun as he watched the blue civic cruising down the city street. In his hand was one of three bags of clothes that Lindy had given for Takumi.
“You’re right, she is. ”
Validated Saki, who was holding onto another bag of clothes. The last bag was in the hand of Takumi, who was looking at the content of the bag.
“So…what do we do now? I’ve never skipped school before, so I don’t know what to do in the middle of the day during weekdays.”
Jun brought up a question. Despite his frivolous nature, he was quite the model student.
“We still can make it for the last two classes.”
“Eeh, we’re going to school now?”
Saki offered a solution, but Jun protested.
“What class even is it? P.E.?”
“It’s 12:13 pm, so P.E. is over. Next is Oreki-sensei’s classic literature.”
“Man, I always sleep during Oreki’s lecture. I mean, it’s not like it’s boring, but…”
“Oh, I get you. The combination of a full belly after P.E. and Oreki-sensei’s soothing voice is just deadly, right?”
“Exactly! I wish I could record it and use it as a lullaby. —well, at least I’m not always sleeping in every class like Takumi. Isn’t that right, Saki-chan?”
Jun cracked a joke, expecting Saki to validate him or at least let out a bitter laugh. Instead, what he saw was Saki making a mixed emotion of fear and awkwardness.
Jun turned to Takumi, and he saw the boy with the long bangs facepalming.
That was when—
“I see, so Takumi-san sleeps in class a lot.”
Shizuka’s — Takumi’s mother’s icy voice came from behind. Jun had completely forgotten that she was there, due to how silent and reserved she was. For a moment, Jun could swear he saw there was a Hannya mask on Shizuka’s face.
After an audible gulp, Jun opened his big mouth again.
“M-maybe we should go to school. After all, a student’s job is to study, right?!”
“Y-you’re right! School is fun, let’s a go-go!”
With a weird tension, Saki and Jun expressed their love to school and were eager to leave the place as soon as possible. However, Shizuka prevented them.
“I have a suggestion.”
Shizuka held them by the shoulders. Chill ran down their spine.
People did say that the most silent people were the scariest when they were angry. Would Shizuka implement collective punishment, thinking that it was Saki and Jun’s fault too for pushing Takumi to join Omega that Takumi ended up sleeping in class?
Cold sweat began to run down their backs as they awaited Shizuka’s next words. And then—
“—since we have the time, why don’t we watch movies together?”
““eh?””
Not expecting to hear those words, Saki and Jun let out a weird sound.
They did end up watching a movie together. It felt awkward watching a movie with a friend’s mom, but both Saki and Jun soon lost themselves in the movie.
It was the first ever movie to have been fully produced within EXP zones. To say that the visual effect was stunning would be an understatement, as none of it used CGI but actual, real-life superpower.
The four of them walked out of the movie theater with a big smile on their lips.
“Nngh…! That was fun. Where do we go next? Bowling, arcade? I’m down anywhere we go.”
Asked Jun after stretching himself. He seemed to have completely lost himself in the fun.
However, Takumi poured cold water on his parade.
“I have an appointment with Hajime-san soon, so I don’t think I can go with you.”
Spoke Takumi as he looked at the time on his phone. Saki followed.
“Oh, right. Today is Wednesday, it’s your training day.”
“So we’re going to the EXP zone next? That’s fine by me, I need to train my super powerful telekinesis too.”
Jun rotated his right shoulder, as if preparing to throw a baseball. Saki asked him a question.
“By the way, how far is your progress with telekinesis, Jun-kun?”
“Hm? You want to know? Fufufu, the truth is, I am now able to lift 3 whole pet bottles, three!”
Jun lifted three of his fingers, but neither Saki nor Takumi seemed particularly impressed.
“I know, I know, it’s not a lot, but soon I’ll be able to lift a camera and capture Takumi at every angle.”
“Ooh, that’s a great idea! Since it’s telekinesis, you can just fly the camera to the angle you want to take a photo from.”
“Yup. That’s why, during the photoshoot, I asked a lot about cameras to Uozumi-san, the cameraman. I didn’t know cameras are actually that heavy.”
Jun shook his head.
“What about you, Saki-chan? Any progress with your eidetic?”
“Listen to this! I had asked Chaudhary-san about how to train my ESP since we’re both enhancers, but she only told me to memorize every digit of pi! Math is already my worst subject, I don’t want to see numbers in Omega too~!! If only it was trivia about Omega Fighters, I’d be able to memorize everything in a heartbeat.”
“You can do that even without ESP, Saki-chan.”
Jun retorted, and Saki unfortunately couldn’t deny it.
Takumi smiled when he saw that banter, and Shizuka was watching her son from the side before she opened her mouth.
“Takumi-san.”
Being called, Takumi looked at Shizuka. Saki and Jun, who walked ahead, also turned around.
“Would you mind if I go to this EXP zone too?”