Daily Lives of High School Boys: Sanada North Scramble
Tadakuni just wanted a normal after-school life. Instead, he's stuck between Yoshitake's bizarre "carbonation divides humanity" theories and Hidenori's deadpan nonsense—and that's before his little sister texts him that she's stocked the school vending machine with his underwear.
Now Tadakuni is sprinting for the school gate, his two idiot friends tagging along for the show, only to find the legendary Jaw Guy conducting "probability manipulation research" on the very machine dispensing his brie
Daily Lives of High School Boys: Sanada North Scramble - My underwear is coming out of the vending machine.
"So basically, the feeling of carbonation bubbles popping on your tongue—it just feels like bugs crawling around in my mouth, no matter what I do."
Sanada North High School, second-year Class A. The after-school air was dyed orange by the western sun pouring through the windows. Tadakuni, his black hair lightly swept, spun a pen between his fingers and watched his blond friend in the front seat with a look of half-hearted resignation.
"You've told us this story five times already."
"Not five—I've heard it seven."
Hidenori, brown-haired and bespectacled, leaned against the window frame with a grin. His eyesight was supposedly 2.0, yet for some reason he always wore glasses.
"But come on, not being able to drink carbonated stuff means you're missing out on half of life, right? You can't even drink cola or cider?"
Yoshitake, his blond hair spiked upward, stood and spread both arms dramatically. His 178-centimeter frame looked oddly huge bathed in the sunset.
"It's not like you'll die just because you can't drink carbonation."
"You won't die, but it's surreal, man. Just because you can't drink carbonated stuff, your life's options shrink."
"No, they don't shrink."
Tadakuni let out a small sigh, pen still wedged between his fingers. This exchange happened every day after school. Yoshitake would cook up some bizarre logic, Hidenori would jump on board, and he'd be the one to shoot it down. In Sanada North High's second-year Class A, this scene was just everyday life.
"Hey, Tadakuni. You're on the can-drink-carbonation side, right?"
Hidenori turned his bright brown eyes—behind those glasses—toward him. At 175 centimeters, his slightly springy brown hair glowed translucent in the sunset, blurring his outline.
"I can drink it. What about it?"
"See, Tadakuni can drink it! But Yoshitake can't! Don't you think there's an evolutionary branching point of humanity right here?"
"I don't."
"Well, I do. Humanity splits into two based on whether you can drink carbonation. The carbonation faction and the non-carbonation faction. And those two factions will never understand each other, ever."
"You just made that up on the spot."
"I did not. This is serious analysis."
Hidenori said it with a straight face. When he got like this, you genuinely couldn't tell what he was thinking. Tadakuni spun his pen once and set it on the desk.
Just then, his phone buzzed in his pocket.
"Hm?"
He opened the screen. The sender was his little sister. His sister, who he talked to maybe once a month if that—getting a message from her was rare. A bad feeling crept up on him.
He opened the body of the message.
*"I stocked the vending machine with your underwear, big brother. Come pick it up ☆"*
Tadakuni froze.
He could feel the blood draining from his face. His hands trembled. No—wait. This had to be some kind of mistake. It had to be. There was absolutely no reason for his sister to stuff his underwear into a vending machine.
"What's wrong? You look pale."
Hidenori peered at him curiously. Tadakuni hurriedly flipped his phone face-down.
"N-nothing. It's nothing."
"That email's surreal, man."
Tadakuni's heart nearly stopped.
"When did you get behind me?!"
"I've been here the whole time."
Yoshitake was grinning, leaning over Tadakuni's shoulder as if peering at the face-down phone.
"What what? From your little sister? What'd it say?"
Hidenori leaned in. Tadakuni clutched the phone to his chest and backed away from both of them.
"Nothing! It's really nothing!"
"That reaction is definitely not 'nothing.'"
"'I stocked the vending machine with your underwear, big brother,' she says."
"Don't say it out loud!"
Tadakuni shouted. It was already too late.
Hidenori blinked in blank surprise for a moment, then doubled over laughing.
"Wait, wait! Underwear!? A vending machine!? What even is that!?"
"No, this is art at this point. Your sister's sense of humor is genius-level."
"Shut up! You two, this isn't funny!"
Tadakuni stood up. His mind went blank. Underwear. Vending machine. In front of the school gate. Right now, at this very moment, my briefs might be getting dispensed from that old machine.
"Let's go!"
"Where?"
"The school gate!"
Tadakuni bolted out of the classroom. He ran down the hallway. He flew down the stairs. Hidenori and Yoshitake chased after him.
"Wait up! We're coming too!"
"This is an event you can't miss!"
"Don't come! I said don't come!"
Tadakuni shouted as he burst through the entrance hall and ran toward the school gate.
Sanada North High School was a prefectural boys' school in the northern part of Sanada City. About 720 students in total. The building was three stories and thirty-eight years old, and in front of the gate stood a single old vending machine that had been in use since the Showa era. The school had a serious, community-beloved atmosphere—they even had volunteer trash-picking events built into the calendar—but occasionally there were incomprehensible events like the "70-Hour Fast." That kind of school.
And in front of that old vending machine, there was a figure.
"What the hell is that?"
Tadakuni stopped in his tracks. In front of the machine, a boy in uniform was fiddling with something. He was short, and his most distinctive feature was—his lower jaw.
His lower jaw jutted out.
Put into words, that was all it was—but seeing it in person, its presence was overwhelming. His profile was like a crescent moon, with only the jaw jutting forward.
"Jaw Guy..."
The former head of the chemistry club. A rumored eccentric who had modified vending machines and was researching how to manipulate the probability of getting a different drink than the button you pressed.
"Oh, you've come at a good time."
Jaw Guy turned around and said happily when he saw Tadakuni.
"I'm about to conduct an experiment that will shake humanity's understanding of probability."
"Huh?"
"Watch closely. This vending machine, by my hand, is no longer just a vending machine."
Jaw Guy said this with a completely straight face, then pressed the cola button. With a *clunk*, a can dropped from the slot.
Jaw Guy held the can up in both hands like a treasure.
"Behold. I pressed cola. But what came out is..."
The label on the can read *Orange Juice*.
"Orange juice! How about that, magnificent, isn't it!"
Jaw Guy puffed out his chest proudly. His jutting jaw, lit by the sunset, was emphasized even more.
"No, it's not magnificent. Not magnificent at all."
"Why not! This is an extremely important step in probability manipulation research!"
"That's not the point—my underwear is coming out of it!"
"What?"
Jaw Guy tilted his head. Just then, fabric came sliding out of the vending machine's slot. Light blue checkered pattern. Familiar—no, impossible to mistake—Tadakuni's briefs.
"W-what is this?"
Jaw Guy peered inside the machine. But before he could, a second, then a third piece of underwear came tumbling out one after another.
"Wait a second! Why is there so much in there!?"
Tadakuni frantically tried to collect the underwear. But the slot was small, and the underwear kept sliding out and spreading across the ground.
"Tadakuni, don't tell me this is..."
Hidenori, who had caught up at some point, said while stifling laughter.
"Surreal... no, this is art at this point."
Yoshitake was saying incomprehensible things while gazing at the underwear scattered on the ground.
"No! My sister did this on her own!"
"Now now, blaming your little sister isn't cool."
"I'm telling you it's true! You saw the email!"
"We only read the content of the email. Maybe Tadakuni's the one who actually did it."
"Why would I stuff my own underwear into a vending machine!?"
Tadakuni's scream echoed across the after-school schoolyard.
Passing students began to gather, wondering what was going on.
"What's that?" "There's underwear on the ground." "Hey, isn't that Tadakuni's?" "No way." "What's that guy doing?"
Whispers—but clearly audible. Tadakuni felt like his face was on fire.
"Hmm, this is an unexpected result, but as probability manipulation research, it's fascinating data."
Jaw Guy was writing something in a notebook he'd pulled from his pocket, completely serious.
"Don't turn someone's shame into data!"
"It's not shame. This is a precious sample. The probability of discharge when underwear is inserted into a vending machine, and the reactions of the people around. Both are indispensable to my research."
"They're not indispensable!"
Tadakuni screamed inwardly as he gathered up the underwear. Give me back my everyday life.
That was when it happened.
"Aaah, big brother, so you did come after all."
A familiar voice. Tadakuni turned around to find his little sister standing there. A petite girl with black hair cut neatly at shoulder length. Her dark brown eyes—the same as her brother's—stared at him with flat annoyance.
"What the hell did you do!?"
Tadakuni shouted. But his sister didn't flinch at all.
"It's because you're sloppy, big brother. You leave your underwear lying around, so this is what happens."
"I don't leave it lying around! I put it in the laundry basket properly!"
"Putting it in the laundry basket isn't the same as doing the laundry. Mom's always troubled by it."
"That's... well, yeah, but..."
Tadakuni was at a loss for words. It was true that he'd been letting his laundry pile up. But that was still no reason to stuff it into a vending machine.
"Besides, you're always getting advice from Karasawa-senpai, so maybe you should get your act together a little too, big brother."
"Karasawa-senpai?"
Tadakuni furrowed his brow. Karasawa-senpai. Karasawa Toshiyuki from the student council. The one with the scar on his forehead who always wore a hat—that Karasawa.
"Why is the student council's Karasawa coming up?"
"Just because."
His sister said only that, then spun around and started walking away.
"Hey, wait! Explain!"
But his sister didn't look back. Her figure disappeared beyond the school gate in an instant.
"Tadakuni's little sister has always been a girl of action, huh."
Hidenori murmured with a tone of deep feeling.
"The way you said that really bugs me."
Tadakuni stared past the gate where his sister had vanished, a conflicted look on his face.
Back in the sunset-lit classroom, Tadakuni was slumped over his desk. The underwear had been collected. But what he'd lost was significant. The stares from classmates, the humiliation in front of the school gate, and the fact that his sister was consulting Karasawa about something.
"But man, Jaw Guy's vending machine modification is kind of amazing."
Yoshitake said, gazing out the window.
"If he can manipulate probability, maybe we could do something too?"
"Right!? I thought the same thing! If we mess with the wiring a bit, we might be able to do something fun."
Hidenori chimed in enthusiastically.
"Stop it. We'll get blown up again."
Tadakuni said, lifting his head.
"It'll be fine. We'll do it properly this time."
"You said that last time and the club room got scorched."
"That was an unforeseen event. This time I'll keep it within expectations."
"Keep it within expectations—what exactly are you expecting?"
Tadakuni let out a deep sigh. But Hidenori and Yoshitake were already getting fired up about their vending machine modification plan. These guys really never learned.
Just then, his phone buzzed.
It was from his sister again.
*"Big brother, sorry about today. But I really have something important to talk about. Could you come to the student council room tomorrow?"*
Tadakuni stared at the screen. *Sorry about today. But I really have something important to talk about.*
His sister, apologizing. And something important, no less.
Tadakuni felt a slight stirring in his chest.
"What's up?"
Hidenori peered over.
"Nothing. It's nothing."
Tadakuni closed his phone and looked up at the sunset sky. A sky
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