Anda Kokoro Connect Volume 6: Nise Random

1. Auflage 2019
ISBN: 978-1-7183-2610-1
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 317 Seiten

Reihe: Kokoro Connect

It's a brand new school year at Yamaboshi High School, and the Cultural Research Club has gained two new members: the shy, soft-spoken Shino and the decidedly disinterested Chihiro. Everyone's busy gearing up for the Sports Festival-but there's an impostor on the loose. «Heartseed»'s at it again, and this time, it's sink or swim for the new kids! Will they bite off more than they can chew, or can they find their place in this reality of their own making? Pick up where the anime left off in volume 6 of the hit ensemble dramedy light novel from award-winning author Sadanatsu Anda!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Anda, Sadanatsu

Weitere Mitwirkende

Shiromizakana

Lee, Molly

Leseproben

This picturesque little moment was intensified further with the addition of Nagase Iori, president of the Cultural Research Club and generally considered the most beautiful girl in their grade, wrapping her arms protectively around Nakayama. These days she wore her long hair down, and lately it felt like her personality had matured to match her more refined hairstyle.

“You jelly? Me and Yaegashi-kun are besties now.”

“What?! Besties?! Then me and Taichi are SUPER besties! We went through a whole year of club stuff together!”

But Taichi had to think that “club stuff” was putting it far too lightly—and yet here they were, smiling. His friendship with Nagase had survived. What else mattered? In that sense, maybe it really just “club stuff.”

And should that threat rear its ugly head once more, they would join forces to fight it, just as they always had.

“Earth to Taichi! Come in, Taichi! How can you possibly zone out when you’ve got two total babes right in front of you?! Wait, I get it... Other girls don’t catch your eye now that you’ve got your wifey Inaban, huh?”

“Wifey?! I shoulda known! Ol’ Yaegashi-kun’s gotta be head over heels for that cutie!”

“What’s that? You wanna bury yourself in a harem of cute girls?! Me too!” shouted Kiriyama Yui, fellow member of the Cultural Research Club. Why she felt the need to broadcast this was a mystery.

With her petite frame, long silky reddish-brown hair, and an eternal love of all things cute, Kiriyama was the paragon of a girly-girl... except she was also a veteran of girls’ full-contact karate.

“Nobody said that...” Taichi muttered.

“They didn’t? Dang... And here I thought I’d found someone who could understand me...”

“You know, sometimes I really worry about you, Kiriyama,” he commented. Normally she was fairly level-headed, but that all went out the window the second someone said the word within earshot.

There, Taichi and the girls each went their separate ways. As he headed over to meet up with the other guys, their newly minted sports rep Watase Shingo (soccer player, good-looking and popular) called out to him.

“Gimme a break, dude. You can’t even walk to my desk without talking to some girls first?”

“Quit showing off!” someone shouted.

“Trade me! Name your price!” someone else hollered.

“Okay, first things first,” called the girls’ representative, Kurihara Yukina. Tall and slender, she was close friends with Kiriyama. But despite what her bleached hair and thick makeup might otherwise suggest, she was no airhead; on the contrary, Kurihara was a good student who devoted a lot of her time and energy to the track team.

She raised her hand in the air to get everyone’s attention—including the boys, apparently. “Let’s make one thing clear: Are we trying to win this?”

“Hell yeah!” a few students shouted in unison, followed by murmurs of agreement.

“Why wouldn’t we? The winning team gets some sweet perks come Culture Festival time!” Nakayama exclaimed.

At Yamaboshi High School, the Sports Festival was a competitive school-wide event wherein each team consisted of one class chosen from each of the three grade levels, for a total of three classes per team. The winning team was then granted special privileges to be redeemed during the Culture Festival, such as the freedom to hold any exhibit, as well as first dibs on event space, and so on.

“Yeah! If we win this, it’ll make the Culture Festival ten times better!”

“I mean, if we gotta do it anyway, why not at least try?”

“It’ll be more fun for all of us if we try to win!”

“Alright, everyone, settle down. I can tell we’re all passionate about this,” Kurihara called, shushing the crowd.

“Come on, Yukina, you’re our You’re supposed to be setting an example for the rest of us! You can’t just phone it in!” Kiriyama scoffed.

“Yes, yes, I know. For the record, the whole reason I wanted to set the record straight about this.”

“Me? How come?”

But Kurihara ignored her and turned back to the others. “Alright ladies, if there’s one thing we can all agree on, it’s that we should enter the Goddess of War Kiriyama in every competition. So, that’s one slot filled.”

“Wha...?! Hold on a minute! You can’t just decide these things without asking me! And where did ‘Goddess of War’ come from?!”

But despite Kiriyama’s flailing, everyone else was already nodding—

“Whawha...?! Seriously, you guys, I can’t be in all of them! There’s a limit to how many solo competitions each person can enter! It’s against the rules!”

“Don’t worry. We’ll list you as ‘Masked Kiriyama 1’ and ‘Masked Kiriyama 2’ for some of them.”

“Oh, do you guys need a mask? If so, I can lend you the one I’ve got in my bookbag,” Taichi cut in. “It’s a replica from the shortest world champion in WWE history, Rey Mysterio, a San Diego native who—”

“You know that’s not allowed, Yukina! And Taichi, don’t like, go around telling people you bring masks to school! You’re weirding me out!”

“I guess we’ll put the Masked Kiriyama thing on the backburner for now...”

“Not ‘for now’! ”

As Kiriyama’s little comedy routine with Kurihara came to a close, the guys and girls turned back to their separate discussions.

“Okay, guys... So the girls might already be doing this, but I think our plan should be to prioritize the jocks and enter them in competitions where they can net us some points. Then we’ll take the average guys like Yaegashi and use them to fill the gaps, and then the rest of you can kinda go wherever. Sound good?” Watase asked.

The others nodded, especially the jocks.

“Sounds good!”

“I’ll do the relay race!”

“Maybe I could do capture the flag...”

“Yeah, feel free to put me wherever you need me,” Taichi agreed.

“You guys don’t mind, right?” Watase asked the less athletically-gifted guys in the crowd.

“Oh, uh, sure.”

“Yeah.”

“It’s cool.”

“Alrighty! First, let’s start with the competition worth the most points: the infamous Yamaboshi High School co-ed cavalry battle...”

Once everyone had been assigned to at least one event, the students all returned to their desks, and Setouchi moved back behind the teacher’s lectern.

“Okay, everyone! Now it’s time to choose our representatives for the cheerleading competition.”

At Yamaboshi, the cheerleading competition was the centerpiece of the entire Sports Festival. It wasn’t just a performance—it was a huge opportunity to win points for one’s team. In recent years, students had generally put a lot of effort into the planning, with rehearsals starting a solid month before the big day. These rehearsals were then overseen and directed by a handful of guys and girls chosen as representatives for each grade level.

“...anddd Yaegashi. Alright, now we’ve got our three boys. As for the ladies, we’ve got Kiriyama, Nagase... Anyone else want to volunteer?”

This was where they hit a snag.

“You do it!”

“No way, I can’t direct the whole thing!”

“What about you, Nakayama-chan?”

“Mmm... I’m not the athletic type, y’know...”

“I’d be willing, but the rules don’t allow it since I’m already on the committee...” Kurihara mused.

“Same here, since I’m class president. Hmm... What do we do...?” Setouchi folded her arms in contemplation.

That was when the bell rang, rousing 2-B’s class advisor Gotou Ryuuzen from his slumber. He had summarily passed out at his desk after dumping all the responsibility on Setouchi.

“Wuh...? Ack, look at the time! Are we all set to go? Let’s—”

“No, sir, we’re not done.”

“Are you kidding me?! But it’s time to go home!”

“How is this a surprise to you?! If you want to go home so badly, then help me out! We need to decide on one more girl to join the representatives for the cheerleading competition!”

Gotou had served as Taichi’s class advisor back during his first year at Yamaboshi; he also supervised the Cultural Research Club. In both cases, he was often derelict. (At this point, it was a wonder he wasn’t fired for incompetence.)

“Rrgh... Let’s see. Right now you’ve got Nagase and Kiriyama... Hmm, feels like you’re missing someone... Oh, I know! Fujishima! It’s gotta be Fujishima!”

“...What? Me?”

Fujishima Maiko looked up in surprise. While she had filled the role of president of Class 1-C last year, she had since been demoted to mere constituent of 2-B.

At the time, she was a brilliant leader who oozed charisma. Back then she would have almost certainly been a key figure in this discussion, but these days she tended to keep her head down.

“I... I can’t do that... Surely there’s someone...