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 - An exposed diary and a little sister's tears
After school. The sky hung heavy with clouds, and a lukewarm wind was blowing.
Tadakuni walked out the school gate and started off at a brisk pace, phone clutched in his hand. Behind him, brown-haired Hidenori and blond Yoshitake came chasing after.
" Tadakuni, are you really going all the way to Chuo High?"
"Of course I am. I'm going to meet those two and settle this."
"Settle it? The other side's Yanagin and Ikushima, you know? The karate and wrestling prodigies."
Yoshitake shrugged with exaggerated flair. His lanky frame looked absurdly large under the overcast sky.
" So what? All I'm doing is getting my sister's diary back."
"But come on—judging from what they posted the other day, they're dead serious."
"So am I."
Hidenori pushed up his glasses. A guy with perfect vision who wore glasses anyway, for some reason.
" Tadakuni, you've been off since last night. You look pale, too."
"It's nothing. I just didn't sleep."
"Didn't sleep—you've been digging into this ever since you saw that post yesterday, haven't you?"
Tadakuni didn't answer. Instead, he picked up the pace.
Chuo High was about a twenty-minute bike ride from Sanada North. On foot, it'd take forty minutes at least. But he wasn't in the mood to ride. If he didn't keep his body moving, he felt like his head would come apart.
" Hey, Tadakuni. Since when were you the type to go this hard over your own sister?"
Yoshitake said it lightly, the way he always did.
"...Are you actually serious right now?"
Tadakuni stopped and turned around. He stared straight at Yoshitake's face.
" Uh—no, sorry. That was, uh, that came out wrong."
Yoshitake, for once, stumbled over his words.
" Yoshitake, read the room. Tadakuni's seriously on edge right now."
"S-sorry, okay? I'm worried about your sister too, you know."
"...Thanks. But this is my problem. I can't drag you two into it."
" Are you still on that?!"
Hidenori's voice suddenly rose.
"I told you yesterday. We're friends. A friend's little sister is in trouble—you think we can just stand by and watch?"
"That's right. We may not look it, but we've got a strong sense of chivalry."
Yoshitake puffed out his chest.
Tadakuni looked at each of their faces in turn.
(These guys are such idiots.)
But that idiocy—right now, just a little—was reassuring.
"...Fine. But if things get dangerous, you run. Got it?"
" What are you even saying? Like we'd run."
"That's right. The three of us go together. With three of us, we'll manage somehow."
Tadakuni gave a small laugh.
"Yeah. With three of us... we'll manage somehow."
The three of them set off again.
Under the cloudy sky, the Chuo High building came into view in the distance.
In front of the school gate, two high school girls were already standing.
One was a girl with sharp, unfriendly eyes behind glasses. Her black hair was pulled back in a single bundle, and the hem of her uniform skirt was folded up short. The Chuo High uniform.
The other was a girl with twin tails. She wore the navy blazer of Sanada East Girls' High and was smiling brightly. Cute at a glance—but there was something poisonous in that smile.
Yanagin and Ikushima.
When they noticed the group, their smiles deepened.
" Oh my, you actually came. The three idiots from North High."
Yanagin's sharp eyes glinted behind her glasses.
" And they walked here, too. No bikes? How poor."
Ikushima giggled.
Tadakuni stood before the two of them.
" Give me the diary."
Tadakuni spoke in a low voice.
"Huh? Why would I have to give it back to you?"
Yanagin tilted her head coyly.
"It belongs to my sister. Give it back."
"Oh my, that was your sister's? I had no idea."
" Don't play dumb! You two stole it!"
Hidenori stepped forward.
"Stole—what an ugly word. We just borrowed it for a bit."
Ikushima said it while swaying her twin tails.
"Borrowed? You broke into someone's house, stole her underwear and her diary, and you call that borrowing?"
Tadakuni's voice was shaking.
" Because of you, there are people who've lost something precious."
Yanagin's voice suddenly turned cold.
Her gaze wasn't on Tadakuni—it was aimed behind him.
"...Karasawa."
Tadakuni turned around.
At some point, Karasawa Toshiyuki had appeared behind the three of them.
His black cap was pulled low, and his sharp black eyes were fixed on Yanagin. A shadow power player on the student council, his body marked here and there with old scars.
" Yanagin. Ikushima. We already know what you've done."
Karasawa spoke quietly.
"Oh my, what do you know?"
"That you stole Tadakuni's sister's underwear and diary."
"Got proof?"
Yanagin smiled provocatively.
"Proof? I have it."
Karasawa took a step forward.
"Because of you, there are people who've lost something precious."
Yanagin repeated the same words again.
"What you took from us back then—do you have any idea how many people were hurt because of it?"
Karasawa didn't answer. Instead, he lowered the brim of his cap, just slightly.
" You don't know anything, do you."
Ikushima sneered.
"That's why you can say something so carefree, like 'give the diary back.'"
" That's got nothing to do with it! My sister has nothing to do with this!"
Tadakuni shouted.
"She does. That girl is your sister."
Yanagin said it coldly.
"Because she's your sister, because she's part of your world—she's our enemy."
"Don't screw with me!"
Tadakuni lunged toward Yanagin.
" Tadakuni, stop!"
Hidenori grabbed Tadakuni's arm.
"Let go!"
"Calm down! If you throw a punch here, you're the only one who comes out the villain!"
"But—!"
"I said calm down!"
Tadakuni gritted his teeth.
His fists clenched, trembling.
Yanagin looked down at him with cold eyes.
" I wasn't talking to you."
Yanagin said quietly.
"What?"
"I wasn't talking to you. I said it directly to your sister. That diary—tonight, I'm exposing it to the whole school."
Tadakuni's mind went blank.
"W-why would you do something like that..."
"Why? Simple. Your sister is your sister. That reason's plenty."
Yanagin pulled out her phone.
She thrust the screen in front of Tadakuni's face.
On it was the scheduled-post screen of Sanada North High's internal message board.
"Tadakuni's sister's diary—going public. Tonight, 9 PM."
The scheduled posting time was written out clearly.
" No..."
Tadakuni was speechless.
"Tonight, 9 PM. That girl's diary will be seen by every student at North High. The teachers too, of course."
"Stop it!"
"Stop it? Why would I?"
"My sister will be hurt!"
"That's exactly the point."
Yanagin smiled sweetly.
"If your sister gets hurt, you get hurt. If you get hurt, everyone around you gets hurt. Bit by bit, that's how we tear apart your everyday lives."
" Screw you! Why would you do this?!"
Hidenori roared.
" Nothing you do will matter. This is about settling accounts."
Yanagin said it coldly.
"Settling accounts? Settling what?!"
"You don't need to know. It's got nothing to do with you."
"Like hell it doesn't! Tadakuni's sister is about to get hurt for your selfish reasons!"
"That's why it's settling accounts."
Yanagin said nothing more.
" ...This isn't a joke. They're serious."
Yoshitake muttered, deadpan for once.
"That's right. We're serious. We seriously intend to destroy you."
Ikushima laughed, swaying her twin tails.
" So, I'll give you a choice."
"A choice?"
"Yes. If you get down on your knees and apologize to us right now, I might delay the diary's release. Just a little."
"You..."
"Well? What'll it be? Time's ticking."
Yanagin waved her phone screen back and forth in front of Tadakuni's eyes.
"...You."
"Oh my, did I make you angry? But getting angry won't help. You don't have the power to stop us."
Tadakuni clenched his fists.
His nails dug into his palms.
Blood welled up.
But he felt no pain.
He just felt bitter frustration.
He was pathetic—unable to do a thing.
" ...Give it back."
Tadakuni forced the words out.
"Give it back. My sister's diary—give it back. Please."
"Please? You're begging us?"
"...Yeah. Please. Don't hurt my sister."
Tadakuni bowed his head.
"Tadakuni!"
"Stop it, Tadakuni! You don't have to bow to them!"
"...But this is all I can do."
Tadakuni stayed bowed, trembling.
Yanagin looked down at him in silence for a while.
"...Hmph."
Yanagin snorted.
"Does your sister want you to bow to us like this, I wonder?"
"What?"
"Didn't she want you to face her properly? If you'd looked after her better, maybe none of this would've happened."
Tadakuni raised his head.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Who knows? Figure it out yourself. Though it's too late now."
Yanagin slipped her phone into her pocket.
"Well then, we'll be going. Look forward to tonight."
" Bye-bye, three idiots of North High."
Ikushima waved and followed after Yanagin.
The two of them disappeared beyond the school gate.
Tadakuni stood rooted to the spot.
"...Tadakuni."
Hidenori peered anxiously into Tadakuni's face.
"You okay?"
"...How could I be okay?"
Tadakuni laughed weakly.
"I couldn't do anything. In front of them, all I could do was bow my head."
"That's not true. You were just desperate for your sister's sake."
"Desperate, and it solved nothing. If anything, I might've made things worse."
"Tadakuni..."
" Hey, Tadakuni. Here's what I'm thinking."
Yoshitake spoke up.
"Isn't there some way to stop that post before the diary goes public?"
"A way to stop it?"
"Yeah. Like contacting the admin of the school message board, for instance."
"The admin—who runs it?"
"Who knows. But if we look into it, we might find out."
"...Yeah. It's worth looking into."
Tadakuni pulled out his phone.
"But there's no time. Tonight at 9."
"I know. So let's hurry."
"Yeah."
The three of them left the Chuo High gate and broke into a run.
When he got home, the house was dead silent.
A single light was on in the living room.
His mother sat on the sofa, watching TV.
"...I'm home."
"Welcome back."
When she saw Tadakuni, her face took on a slightly troubled look.
"That girl won't come out of her room."
"...I see."
"She skipped school today. When I went to her room this morning, she was wrapped up in her futon and wouldn't move."
"Does she have a fever?"
"Doesn't seem like it. But something happened, didn't it? She's been crying since last night."
Tadakuni was at a loss for words.
"Do you know anything?"
"...No. I don't."
Tadakuni lied.
"I see. Well, that's fine. But if you do know something, tell me, okay? She may not look it, but she's fragile."
"...Got it."
Tadakuni left the living room.
He went upstairs and stopped in front of his sister's door.
From inside, he could faintly hear the sound of stifled sobbing.
"...Hey."
Tadakuni put his hand on the door.
But he couldn't bring himself to knock.
"Hey, I know you're in there."
No answer.
"Come on, talk to me. I want to help you."
Silence stretched on.
"...It's none of your business, big brother."
His sister's voice came from beyond the door.
"It is my business. You're my sister."
"...You don't know anything, and yet."
"That's why I'm asking. Tell me what happened."
"...I don't want to go to school anymore."
Her voice was trembling.
"Why not?"
"...Because my diary is going to be read by everyone."
"It hasn't been posted yet."
"But it's going up tonight, right? Those people said so."
"Those people—you mean Yanagin and Ikushima?"
"...You know them?"
"Yeah. I met them just now."
"...You met them?"
"Yeah. I told them to give the diary back."
"...Did they give it back?"
Tadakuni couldn't answer.
"...So it didn't work after all."
Her voice dissolved into crying.
"I'm sorry."
Tadakuni pressed his forehead against the door.
"I'm sorry. If I'd just done better..."
"...You idiot, big brother."
Her voice came out small.
"You idiot. Why couldn't you have noticed sooner?"
Tadakuni couldn't s
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