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 - The Jaw Guy's Probability Experiment and the Little Sister's Secret
"So this is the day after your little sister stuffed your underwear into a vending machine, huh."
Sanada North High, Class 2-A. The after-school air was the same as yesterday, dyed orange by the western sun slanting through the windows. Tadakuni spun his pen on his desk, eyeing his blond, spiky-haired friend with half-lidded eyes.
"Quit phrasing it like that. Don't drag yesterday back up."
"Drag it back up? That was a historic incident. A guy's underwear came out of a vending machine. That's surreal."
Yoshitake spread both arms theatrically. His tall frame looked absurdly large in the sunset light. Tadakuni set his pen down and heaved a deep sigh.
"But hey, your sister emailed you after that, didn't she? Said she had something important to talk about. Wants you to come to the student council room today."
Hidenori, brown-haired and bespectacled, leaned against the window frame, grinning. His eyesight was supposedly perfect, yet he always wore glasses for some reason.
"Yeah, what about it?"
"What about it? Come on, you barely have a real conversation with your sister once a month. And now she's specifically asking you to come to the student council room? Something's definitely up."
"Beats me. I don't get it either."
Tadakuni pulled his phone from his pocket. The screen lit up, showing the message from his sister that had arrived last night.
"Big brother, come to the student council room after school tomorrow. I have something important to tell you. You have to come, okay."
Something important. His sister, saying something like that. Tadakuni furrowed his brow. It was literally yesterday—had she done something again? No, wait, the one who'd done something was her, stuffing his underwear into a vending machine.
"Hey, Tadakuni. Has your sister had some kind of run-in with the student council lately?"
Hidenori turned his bright brown eyes toward him, sparkling with curiosity behind his glasses. When he got like this, he wouldn't let go until he'd heard the whole story.
"Well, apparently she's been talking to Karasawa about something..."
Tadakuni answered haltingly. Even he didn't understand why it was so hard to say. His sister was relying on Karasawa Toshiyuki from the student council—not her own brother. That fact was caught somewhere in his chest.
"Karasawa? That guy's got a lot of respect, sure. Your sister's probably attached to him."
"Attached is one way to put it. She trusts him more than me."
"Man, what kind of brother does that make you?"
"Shut up. It's not like I chose for it to be this way."
Tadakuni sighed again. Yesterday's hellish spectacle—his own underwear pouring out of the vending machine in front of the school gate, one after another. And afterward, his sister had looked him dead in the eye and lectured him: "That's what you get for being such a slob, big brother."
Then that night, the email. "Sorry about today. But I really do have something important to tell you. Will you come to the student council room tomorrow?"
His sister, apologizing. That alone was strange.
"Well, you'll find out if you just go. Anyway, what are we doing today?"
Tadakuni deliberately raised his voice, trying to change the subject.
"Oh, right! Today let's see if we can make the Jaw Guy's vending machine do something even crazier!"
Hidenori's face lit up instantly.
"You still haven't learned your lesson? After all that chaos yesterday?"
"Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today. Science marches on."
"It's not science, it's your random ideas."
"Random ideas are the mother of science."
"How does that even follow?"
Tadakuni fired back his retort, but somewhere inside, he wanted to mess around with Hidenori and the others today. He'd be lying if he said his sister wasn't on his mind. But thinking about it wouldn't give him any answers. Better to goof off like always.
"All right, let's go. To the Jaw Guy's place."
Yoshitake stood and stretched.
"You're on board too?"
"Come on, that vending machine gives you orange juice when you press cola. That's objectively insane. Sounds fun."
"Well, it is kind of interesting..."
"All right, unanimous! Let's move out!"
Hidenori burst out of the classroom. Yoshitake followed. Tadakuni let out a small breath and chased after them.
The hallway was sparsely dotted with students heading to club activities. Outside the windows, the baseball team was running laps on the field. Somewhere in the distance, the brass band was practicing. Sanada North High's after-school hours were as lively as ever.
On the way to the school gate, Tadakuni glanced absentmindedly toward the student council room. That room at the end of the second floor. His sister would be there after school today. What could this "important talk" be about?
"Hey, Tadakuni, hurry up!"
Yoshitake was waving at him from the gate. Tadakuni shook his head slightly and picked up his pace.
In front of the gate stood an old vending machine, bathed in the setting sun. A weathered piece of machinery said to have been in use since the Showa era. And standing before it, legs planted wide, was a single man.
A man with a jutting jaw and an oddly self-assured face. Former chemistry club president—known to all as the Jaw Guy.
"Oho, you've come. I've been waiting, gentlemen."
The Jaw Guy spoke with his arms crossed. He looked like a scholar about to announce the invention of the century.
"Why are you lying in wait for us?"
"This is a continuation of yesterday. Today I intend to perform a demonstration that will shake humanity's understanding of probability."
"Whoa! You hear that, Tadakuni? Humanity's understanding of probability!"
"I heard. So why are you the one getting excited?"
The Jaw Guy slowly approached the vending machine. He stood before the cola button.
"Watch closely. I am about to press this cola button."
He extended his index finger slowly toward the button.
"Pressing now."
"Just press it already."
"Silence. History is about to move."
Like a sacred rite, he pressed the button slowly.
Clunk.
The machine made a sound. What came out of the slot was—
Orange juice.
"Behold! I pressed cola, and orange juice came out! This is the fruit of my research!"
The Jaw Guy puffed out his chest with pride. His face shone as if he'd just won a Nobel Prize.
"Yeah, I saw this yesterday too. What's so impressive about it?"
"What's so impressive? You don't understand. This is an invention that fundamentally overturns humanity's understanding of 'press it and it comes out.' Press cola, get cola—you think that's obvious, don't you? But this machine is different. Press cola, get orange juice. In other words, the relationship between cause and effect can be artificially manipulated."
The Jaw Guy said this with a completely straight face. The seriousness of it was, conversely, ridiculous.
"Wow, that's amazing. So what's it good for?"
"It's not about whether it's useful. This is the pure pursuit of knowledge. It is the first step toward shaking humanity's understanding of probability."
The Jaw Guy spoke with his chest still puffed out.
Then a voice came from behind.
"Coming from the man who blew up the club room, nothing you say has any credibility."
Tadakuni turned to see a male student with neatly slicked-back black hair. Motoharu, a member of Sanada North High's student council. He had delicate features and stood with his arms crossed, staring at the Jaw Guy.
"Oho, Motoharu. That was an experiment gone wrong, not an explosion. Science is built on failure."
"The chemistry lab was half-burned, and you call it a failure? The student council had to write the incident report, you know."
Motoharu spoke with a sigh mixed in.
"That's precisely why I'm giving this demonstration today—to repay that debt. Look at this magnificent achievement."
"Pressing cola and getting orange juice is a magnificent achievement?"
"Yes. This is the first step in probability manipulation."
Motoharu pressed a hand to his forehead and let out a deep sigh.
"Haah... this is going to be a pain again."
He muttered this, then walked over to the vending machine as if resigning himself.
"So what are you doing today? Surely it's not just another demonstration."
"Today I plan to examine this machine's wiring and expand the scope of probability manipulation."
"Oh, I'll help with that!"
Hidenori jumped in, eyes shining.
"Don't, man. You'll get us blown up again."
"It'll be fine. I'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 heaved another deep sigh. But Hidenori was already behind the machine. The Jaw Guy was happily explaining something to him.
"Hey, Tadakuni. Those two are gonna screw something up again, aren't they?"
Yoshitake sounded worried. No—he looked worried, but his eyes were laughing.
"They will. No question."
"But you're not gonna stop them?"
"Can I? Those two are already in scientist mode."
Where Tadakuni pointed, Hidenori and the Jaw Guy had opened the panel on the back of the machine and were fiddling with the wiring.
"Oh, this wiring—if we reconnect it like this, couldn't we do something even cooler?"
"Hmm, you have quite a sense for this. I hadn't considered that."
"Stop, Hidenori! Don't touch it any more!"
Tadakuni shouted. But it was too late.
Hidenori pulled out a wire.
The instant he did—
BWOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!
The vending machine began to shudder with an unnatural sound.
"W-what the hell!?"
"I told you so!"
The next moment, every button on the machine lit up at once.
And then—
DODODODODODODODODODO!!!
Every button began spewing drinks at once. Cola, orange juice, sports drink, a mysterious brown liquid—every conceivable beverage shot out with tremendous force.
"UWAAAAAAAH!"
"W-wait, stop, stop!"
"Impossible! It won't stop!"
Tadakuni stood frozen. A flood of juice was erupting before his eyes. Cola splashed his face. Orange juice soaked into his clothes. Sports drink drenched his shoes. The mysterious brown liquid—no, seriously, what was that stuff?
"What the hell are you all doing?!"
Motoharu shouted, soaked to the bone.
"I told you! Messing with the wiring is dangerous!"
"Sorry, Motoharu! But this is an unforeseen result!"
"It's not unforeseen—it was completely foreseeable!"
Motoharu clutched his head. Cola dripped from his hair.
Several minutes later, the vending machine finally fell silent. The area in front of the school gate had become a sea of juice. Empty cans and paper cartons littered the ground, and a sweet smell hung in the air.
"Haah... this is the worst."
Tadakuni looked down at his soaked uniform. A stain of mixed cola and orange juice was spreading across his white shirt. Sticky. The worst possible feeling.
"Well, that was pretty fun in its own way!"
"How was any of that fun?! You're soaked too!"
"Come on, every button shooting out juice at once—you don't get to see that every day. It's surreal."
Yoshitake ran a hand through his soaked blond hair, cackling.
"Hmm, this was unexpected, but as probability manipulation research, it's fascinating data. Simultaneous output from all buttons... this is a state where probability failed to converge and diverged instead. Note, note."
The Jaw Guy, dead serious, had produced a notebook from somewhere and was scribbling in it. Tadakuni couldn't even muster the energy to retort anymore.
"You really never learn, do you..."
"A scientist learns from failure. This failure will be the fuel for the next success."
"And that failure left us covered in juice."
Tadakuni wrung out the hem of his shirt. Cola dripped onto the ground.
"Man, I wonder if the smell'll come out in the wash."
"It'll be fine. Cola stains come right out."
Hidenori said this while wiping his glasses with a handkerchief. The glasses were cove
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