It is a story beyond the superfluous part. Please be aware.
The perspective is Maito.
The cherry blossom season is still a little ahead.
The plum blossom season has just barely passed.
But the sky is clearer than clear.
On such a day, I arrived at the station nearest to my alma mater.
It has been three years since we graduated.
“Hey there.”
Kadomi-kun also arrived early. How unusual!
When I called out, he responded by raising one hand in a casual wave.
Kadomi-kun is the same as always.
“…Did you bring anything?”
“No, nothing in particular. How about you, Kadomi-kun?”
“I didn’t bring anything special either… Is that okay?”
Yeah, I think it’s fine. Everyone else will probably bring various things anyway.
After waiting a bit, Toriumi and Kariya arrived on their bicycles.
“Hey, um, it’s still before the meeting time, right?”
Kariya is the same as always. Don’t worry, it’s fifteen minutes early.
“It’s strange that Kadomi-kun is here early… Oh no, I didn’t bring an umbrella today.”
“…Isn’t that harsh?”
Yeah, take the teasing with grace. Kadomi-kun has enough of a track record to deserve it. Yeah.
While we were chatting and waiting, President arrived.
“Am I late?”
No, you’re not late. …It must be because of Kadomi-kun. Yeah. It does feel a bit off, though.
“I didn’t know what to bring, so I didn’t bring anything in particular.”
“I brought Dominion.”
The case Toriumi was carrying seemed to be just that.
…Wow, it looks like he has all the expansions too. Impressive!
“Ah, I didn’t bring anything… oh.”
Even without following Kariya’s gaze, I saw that Suzumoto, Hagasaki-kun, and Hariu had arrived. They must have been on the bus that came earlier.
“Now everyone is… not here yet. Where’s Katori?”
“I haven’t heard anything from him.”
I checked my phone again just to be sure, but there was nothing.
“He probably overslept, as usual.”
Hagasaki-kun was blunt.
“Yay, I wasn’t the last one today!”
It’s quite surprising that Hariu made it on time… I guess he was really looking forward to this. Yeah, I get it.
We waited about five minutes past the meeting time, and then Katori arrived on his bicycle.
“Sorry, I overslept.”
Did he rush over? He looked a bit tired. Yeah, thanks for your effort.
“…Alright, let’s get going.”
The place was already reserved.
We entered the meeting room at the community center.
I made the reservation. Yes. I was a bit hesitant about stating our purpose honestly, but apparently, many people rent rooms for similar reasons, and the staff was quite experienced with it. My apologies.
“So, what do we start with?”
“Let’s split into two groups and play Dominion and Catan, switch after two games, and if we get bored, we can play Werewolf and Shadowhunters.”
The number of people was just right. Yeah.
By the way, Katori brought Catan, and Suzumoto brought Shadowhunters.
I could understand bringing Catan, but it was impressive that Suzumoto had Shadowhunters since it’s out of print.
“Roads! Roads! Roads! Roads! This colony is claimed by Toriumi!”
“Wow, it’s a road game.”
“…Does anyone have wood?”
“I could trade two iron for it.”
We played for a while, then switched games.
“Saboteur~”
“Stop it!”
“Stop it!”
“…Oh.”
“Hehe, now the Longest Road is mine!”
We had fun, took a break for lunch, and continued playing.
Then we all played Shadowhunters, and I won as Daniel with a solo victory. After that, we started playing Werewolf.
“Alright. The village chief and Hagasaki-kun were found dead.”
…Ah, Hagasaki-kun was the Werefox… Getting killed on the first night is bad luck.
“Don’t worry!”
“Poor Werefox.”
“Try harder in your next life!”
After some awkward encouragements, we began the discussion.
Yeah. The danger of the Werefox was gone from this village. Not having to spend turns on Werefox care is a big advantage.
“I’m the madman. Werewolves, come out. Let’s do a power play.”
I got bitten and died on the first night, but I’m fine. Yes.
Amidst this, President claimed to be the madman.
…Neither Toriumi nor Hariu claimed to be werewolves.
“Ah, did the werewolves rely on the madman and pull it off?”
“Let’s just hang President and be done with it.”
And so, gleefully, we entered the voting time. …Fools. That was President’s trap…
“Alright. The werewolf team wins. It was perfect, wasn’t it?”
Getting hanged is part of the madman’s job too…
You should have realized something was off when Toriumi joined in, Hariu… No, with those members, it was probably impossible…
We played a few more games, but it was no good.
Hagasaki-kun, Katori, President, and Toriumi were ridiculously strong.
I, Hariu, and Kadomi-kun were ridiculously weak.
The weakest was Kariya, though.
Yeah, it was really funny from an outsider’s perspective when Kariya, Hariu, and Kadomi-kun, all as werewolf, madman, and madman, were stuck in a stalemate, doubting each other.
…So, we played and had a lot of fun until around 7 PM.
After that, we went to a nearby family restaurant and chatted while eating.
“So, have you all gotten used to your new environments?”
I have gotten used to it.
“Well, I’m managing…”
“Katori, you need to cut down on your part-time jobs… you’ll ruin your health being a part-time warrior.”
“And Kadomi-kun too. Why are you working so much? Are you trying to exceed 1,030,000 yen?”
“No… I’m barely safe… Suzumoto helped me last time, and I managed to stay under…”
I wish the part-time warriors would take better care of their health and be mindful of income tax.
“Toriumi, it’s amazing you can handle it. I couldn’t possibly manage experiments three times a week.”
“Yeah, well, I did fail two lecture courses because of it. I’ll reduce my load next term.”
I don’t even want to think about it. Experiments three times a week…
“I haven’t failed any.”
“Neither have I.”
The two show-offs must be putting in a tremendous effort behind the scenes, so I won’t say anything.
“I’m studying to get a qualification.”
…Yeah.
“What qualification?”
Hariu, how could you not guess?
“The Poisonous and Deleterious Substances Handling Qualification.”
I thought it would be that or the Hazardous Materials Handling qualification.
“Wow… that’s so like President…”
Honestly, I wonder what you’ll do with it, but if it makes you happy, that’s fine.
We continued chatting, and the conversation shifted from job hunting and lab assignments to politics, and then somehow to old manga, and eventually to philosophy.
Yeah, the other customers were giving us strange looks.
As for the content of those discussions… I’ll just say President’s dystopian ideas were still alive and well. In fact, they had powered up, or rather, they were charging full speed ahead in a bizarre direction…
“Well. Spring break is still long, everyone. We might be able to gather at least one more time, right?”
After lingering at the family restaurant for a while, we left the place and headed home.
“Who’s organizing next time?”
“Who’s left that hasn’t done it yet?”
“No one, actually. We went through twice with Maito.”
…Oh. I see.
So we’ve… gathered like this eighteen times since graduation.
Man, I’ve got some good friends. Even though we’ve all gone our separate ways after graduation, we still come together like this. It’s a blessing.
“Alright, let’s decide with our usual rock-paper-scissors.”
Katori suggested, and everyone clenched their fists.
“Ready, set…”
“Rock!”
“Paper!”
“Paper.”
“Rock… huh?”
“Scissors!”
“Paper.”
“Rock.”
“Rock.”
“The promised day… oh, I can’t clench my fist.”
…Yeah. Toriumi, who tried to hold Kadomi-kun’s hand next to him, lost, so he became the organizer for next time.
It’s… nostalgic, this kind of interaction.
“Alright, I’ll contact you all again.”
“Yeah. See you later.”
Each of us headed home by bus, train, or bicycle.
…Well. I should go home too.
What will we do next time, I wonder?
…It doesn’t matter what we do, because it’ll be fun anyway.
As I walked home, my body felt a bit lighter.
Just thinking there will be a next time makes the way home enjoyable, doesn’t it?
Author’s Note:
For now, this concludes the extra chapters.
However, there’s a chance I might add more if the mood strikes, so I don’t plan to mark it as complete.
PS.
Since there seems to have been a change in the completion setting, I will aim to complete it when the time comes.
