The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Eight)

*****
Yuna
*****

It's dark. Everywhere is dark. I can't see anything. Where is everyone? I have to find them. I have to find her.

I hate this. I hate this. I hate this! It's so dark. It's so dark. It's so dark! Where is she? Where is she? Where is she?

As I ran down the road, I called out for her. But the only response I got was my own words coming back to me as an echo.

Judging by my footsteps, I was in a place made of stone. And the echoes my footsteps made gave away that I'm inside someplace cavernous. It's a tunnel. I'm sure of it. But it wasn't anything natural. The ground was smooth beneath my feet, which meant that the stone I'm stepping on is pavement. The tunnel was manmade. 

Well, of course it was, I thought to myself. We were in the middle of a short road trip from one town to another when we found ourselves here, a tunnel at the base of a mountain that we needed to take to our destination.

It's no good. I can't run anymore.

Out of breath, heart pounding, and feet hurting, I stopped. I was completely soaked in sweat, and it was already severely stuffy in here. But I didn't wait long to catch my breath. As soon as my heart eased up a little I resumed my run.

However, after just a few paces forward, I accidentally stepped on something soft and lost my footing. I managed to catch myself, but my hands got scraped on the pavement, making them sting a lot. Even though I couldn't see, I was certain that they must be bleeding. My knees also hurt as I had landed on all fours.

I sat down to wait for the stinging to subside, and when it did, albeit a little, I moved to get back on my feet. That was when my hand touched something on the ground. The feeling was unmistakable. It was a smartphone. 

Excited, I picked the smartphone up while praying with all my heart that it still worked. My prayers were answered and I could turn on the phone. Better yet, it wasn't password protected. I don't know what happened to my own phone. I must have dropped it in the confusion earlier, and after coming so far when I realized that, there was no way I could just turn around and go back to look for it.

I immediately searched for the phone's flashlight function and turned it on. It was an incredible relief to have light again. But my relief was short-lived.

While taking a look at my surroundings, I turned around to the spot where I had tripped. I was curious as to what that soft thing I stepped on was. But when I saw it, I froze. My heart drummed fast. Something unpleasant rose up from my stomach, and strength abandoned my fingers that I ended up dropping the phone.

The tunnel plunged into darkness again, but what I saw was seared into my memories.

It was a hand, a genuine, human hand.

And then my eyes flew open and I was no longer in the tunnel.

Was that a dream? I wondered as I blinked my eyes. I was staring at a white ceiling, right at the panel of built-in lighting. No, that wasn't a dream, I told myself. That was a memory, a memory I wished was only a dream.

Where am I? I wondered as I slowly turned my head to look around. This room . . . I spent quite a lot of time in a room like this, so there was no mistaking where I was. I was in a hospital. But why am I here again? The last thing I remember, I was . . . That's right. I was picking up trash with the others down by the river. Not what I considered a fun activity, but I thought if I did something like that Auntie would stop worrying about me. But I suppose that wasn't going to happen anytime soon now that I was back here.

Slowly, I sat up. That was when I noticed my cousin, Hisao, sitting beside me on a chair while staring at his phone. He heard the rustling I made with my bedsheets and looked up.

"You're awake!" he cried out. "How're you feeling?"

I opened my mouth, but then stopped and looked around some more.

"If it's your phone, I have it right here," Hisao said. He took another phone out of his pocket and handed it to me.

I quickly took it and typed my reply into it before showing him.

"I see," he said. "That's . . . good to know."

His face was stony as he spoke, which made it hard to really gauge what he's thinking, but I already figured out that he was one of those withdrawn types who have a hard time expressing themselves in person. Even now, I believe that he was trying to be nice in his own way.

*****
Hisao
***** 

After Yuna had fainted, me and Mirai quickly took her over by the first aid station. We let her lie on a mat until the ambulance arrived. The paramedics didn't see anything wrong and that she had just fainted due to shock. But just in case, they decided to take her to the hospital to have her checked out. I had called Mom, explained what had happened and got her permission to have Yuna looked after. As her relative, I went with her and left the others behind.

After Yuna woke up, police detectives in plain clothes showed up to take our statements. But there really wasn't much we could tell them, so the interview lasted just a few minutes at most with me explaining what we did and what we saw, which was really unpleasant to recollect.

While the detective, an old man with graying hair and a blue suit, read through Yuna's testimony on her phone, there was something in it that made his eyes lit up a little, and he muttered, "Unpleasant memories? What does this mean, exactly?"

"Huh?" His partner, a younger man in a faded brown jacket took a look at the phone and then at the girl. "Hey, aren't you . . . ?"

"What's this? You know her?" the older gentleman asked.

"Yeah, I do, actually," the younger detective said. "She's from a case I handled a while back before I moved here. You must have heard about it. She's . . . you know . . . the one from that tunnel accident."

"Oh . . ." The old man fell quiet and quickly returned Yuna her phone. "Ahem! Never mind, then. Sorry about that."

I wondered what tunnel they could be talking about, but thought better not to ask.

When the detectives were done with their interview with us, Mom came in and took us home. The doctors didn't find anything wrong with Yuna so they discharged her from the hospital almost immediately.

Mom made a huge fuss about what happened today the whole night through. Her demands of us from now on were simple: no more weekends out for club activities, and to be back at home before sundown. There was not much I could say other than, "Okay," and "Got it." I learned a long time ago that there was no use arguing her. And for the most part, I didn't mind the demands.

**********

As expected, the school was abuzz with gossip as news had spread that a body had been found floating in the river. It was all our classmates would talk about. They spoke to each other in hushed whispers, some excited while others fearful. A few people joked around, feeling that this sort of stuff was so far away from their lives.

From what the news reporters said on TV, I learned that the man we saw was a college freshman who lived in the next town over, where police believed he had also died. When he passed away, he ended up in the river and taken downstream where we had found him. The reporters declared clearly that he was murdered and that the culprit was likely the infamous Piper.

Thankfully, the reporters didn't say where at the river the man was found, or when. So, although people knew me, Yuna and the rest of the CSC were by the river on the weekend, no one figured out that we had anything to do with it. Thus, our school day ran like any other, perfectly normal as if what had happened was just a dream. It was both relieving and slightly disturbing. But when me and Yuna got to the clubroom after school, reality sunk in again.

When we got to the clubroom, I was surprised to see that Mirai was not in his usual ridiculous costume. It looked like he opted to keep his normal, school day look for this meeting. 

"Hey, you guys," Omoyo said. "How're you doing, Yuna? Are you okay?"

She had a look of concern in her eyes. She had been really worried about Yuna after Yuna's fainting by the river, and would sometimes text both her and me for updates on her condition.

Yuna flashed a shaky smile and nodded before sitting down. I sat down next to her.

Once we were seated, Mirai began his meeting. While wearing what was supposed to be a grave scowl, he leaned forward and propped his chin on his hands as he rested his elbows on the table.

"Comrades," he started, "thank you all for coming. I have gathered you here today in this Demon Lord's war council to discuss the future of our campaign of conquest."

Even with his costume discarded, he was still acting his delusional self in the clubroom.

Omoyo got up and walked over to Mirai. Once she was by his side, she raised her hand and then sharply whapped him in the back of his head.

"Take this seriously, Toshiro," she snapped. "You want to talk about what happened at the river, isn't that right?"

"Ow! That hurt!" Mirai bemoaned. "You didn't have to do that, Homura. I was just trying to lighten up the mood."

"Well, you're doing a terrible job of it," Omoyo said.

"Fine!" Mirai said. "Then how about if I do this?"

He went over to a box at the corner of the room and dug out that pink elephant head. 

"Da da-da daah!" He sang and then put the plushie costume over his own.

Omoyo sighed and shook her head. "Now you're just being stupid," she said.

It was like they were doing a comedy skit. But no one else seemed to mind, especially Yuna who I caught smiling a little. I wasn't about to ruin that, so I said nothing. 

But Isaneko was a different story. Growing tired of the comedy skit, she interrupted Omoyo and Mirai and said, "Can we get on with this? What is it that you wanted to tell us?"

Mirai was about to speak, but then the door opened with a really loud bang that made me jump out of my seat. 

A rather tough-looking guy with an aggressive glare barged in, flanked by two others who appeared to be lackeys. The image they created was not unlike a yakuza boss and his henchmen making a visit for "business".

"Yo, Mirai," the leader said. The very way he spoke, all oily and low, was like something out of a TV show. And he had his nose pointed up to give the impression he was looking down on everyone in the room. "You got something I want. Hand it over."

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Seven)

*****
Hisao
*****

After being checked over at the nurse's office, I returned to the gym, got changed and then headed to the clubroom. I had Yuna go ahead of me to wait at the clubroom since it seemed better than waiting at the nurse's office. When I got to the clubroom, Omoyo checked to see if I was okay and asked me what I talked about with Naoko. I told her everything.

"Huh? Friends!? With her!?" Omoyo looked at me in disbelief.

"Now don't be like that," said Isaneko. "We were all sort of like friends to her, growing up. Although I'm surprised she would still call us that, after breaking away from her faction."

"Factions? What's up with that?" I asked.

"It's exactly what it sounds like," Isaneko said. "I'm sure you already know this, but we're not the only psychics in this town." After looking at my face, she corrected herself. "Never mind. You don't know."

"This town has a deep history with psychics," Mirai said. He was sitting at the head table like usual with his feet kicked up while wearing his usual cape and domino mask. "It used to be ruled by the Shirogami Clan, the most powerful clan of psychics in the country. Thanks to them, this town became sort of like a secret capital for Japanese psychics. But with the town growing over the years, a lot of psychics who came to live here split themselves into different groups."

"And one of those groups is the Soushu Family?" I asked.

Mirai nodded.

"That's right," he said. "I heard that the Soushu Family lived in this town for about as long as the Shirogami Clan, but they weren't all that powerful. They started to gain influence fifty years ago thanks to the leader's work in politics at the time. I think Naoko's mom is a member of the National Diet."

"A member of the National Diet!?" I cried out. "Get out of here! You're pulling my leg, aren't you?"

"No, it's true," said Omoyo. "I have an uncle who works closely with her mom back at the big city."

"If Omoyo says so, I guess it's true," I said.

"Ah, it hurts, Underling Hisao," Mirai said softly, with a high, shaky voice. "It hurts how you don't believe what I say until someone else says so."

I ignored him and his cartoony acting.

"But with a mom like that, what's Naoko doing in a town like this, going to a school like ours?" I asked. Don't get me wrong. My hometown is a pretty nice place, and up to date with most modern cities. But, it's still a bit of a small town when compared to places like Tokyo.

Mirai recovered from his earlier injury to the heart and answered my question.

"Well, like I said, this town's sort of like a capital for the country's psychics," he said. "So it wouldn't be a stretch to say that controlling this town is the same as controlling the country. You'd be surprised by how much pull supernatural powers has in politics. Because of that, lots of the people living in this town is connected to a powerful family or organization, or whatever."

As I sat back in my chair, taking all this new info in, a thought crossed my mind that filled me with a sense of dread.

"Say, Pres," I said.

"Yes, Underling Hisao?" Mirai said. "What is it?"

"With all this talk about different groups, control of this town, and control of the country, us in this club aren't going to get mixed up in some big trouble are we?" 

"What are you saying, Oota?" Omoyo cut in. "You make it sound like there's some big war brewing over the horizon. This isn't some comic book. Sure some groups don't get along with each other, but we still got the Shirogami Clan. If there's ever a problem, they'll butt in and put a stop to it."

"But I think his worries are warranted," Isaneko said. "With the way things are going lately, you have to wonder just how long the peace in this town will last. And you heard Mirai. It USED to be ruled by the Shirogami Clan. They're still around and still play a big role in the town's shape, but they're not as powerful as it used to be. Not to mention having our newest recruits join in helping the Kendo club even though they're both complete amateurs leads me to suspect that something is up. It's as if you're getting them ready for battle, Toshiro."

Omoyo snorted.

"This is just stupid," she said. "Come on, Toshiro. Tell her she's overthinking things."

All our eyes were on the guy who brought us all together. To our surprise, he threw off both the cape and the mask and rest his chin on his clasped hands as he leaned forward while facing us all.

"I will admit that Aika has a point," he said.

Oh my god, I thought. He was talking properly in the clubroom, and he wasn't even using nicknames anymore! This must be serious.

I swallowed hard and tried to listen, but it was hard because of my heart beating loudly against my chest. And from my back, nervous sweat broke out.

"Things have been heating up lately between the Soushu Family and another group," Mirai admitted. "Naoko told me herself. But I also don't think we have to worry. Even though we have superpowers, we're still a bunch of high schoolers in a small high school club. As long as we keep going on with our normal lives, there shouldn't be anything to worry about."

And then he got off his chair, put back on the cape and mask, and gave us a twirl, throwing the cape to flutter at his right.

"That's right!" he said, all melodramatic. "No matter the dangers, or the evil that comes our way, I will keep you safe. So this demon lord swears."

He broke out in loud, bold laughter and then sat back down, pulling a sheet of paper out from his desk.

"Anyway, moving on," he said, "this weekend we'll be going by the riverbed and join other volunteer groups to pick up litter. The cleanup is supposed to start at 9, so we'll meet up by the bridge at 8:30. That's it for today. Dismissed!"

Done with his announcements, he threw off his cape and mask once again, straddled his bag over his shoulder and rushed out the door before anyone could stop him.

He clearly didn't want our earlier talk about warring factions to continue, but there was nothing any of us could do about it now that he had fled. So, we decided to give up, gather our things and go home.

When me and Yuna got home, my mom asked how our day. She had us sit on the couch in the living room.

"Are you okay, Yuna?" she asked when I told her that we helped out the Kendo club. "You didn't push yourself too hard did you?"

But Yuna just shook her head. She never did all that much except do a few practice swings. The rest of the time, she just watched me and the others spar with the Kendo club members.

And then I told Mom about the club's plan for the weekend. She was, of course, worried for Yuna. Because Yuna had been in the hospital for a long while, Mom probably thought she shouldn't move around too much. I thought there was nothing to worry about, though. As far as I saw in gym class, Yuna didn't have any problems. Yuna also said to Mom that she was fine.

Still, despite assurances from Yuna, Mom was not at ease. She did, however, give her okay for Yuna to join the club for our weekend volunteer work so things ended up as well as they could be with her.

And then the day of our cleanup of the riverbed came.

Apart from all five of us from the Community Service Club, close to a dozen people showed up for the cleanup, including a few elderly people, two of whom were a pair of high school sweethearts married for more than sixty years. Other than the CSC, the old couple were the most frequent volunteers. They probably had nothing better to do on the weekends.

When the old man saw me, he smiled and said, "Well, if it isn't the aloha shirt boy. How are you doing?"

Most of the grownups I run into on the weekends know me as the aloha shirt boy because, well, I always wear button-down aloha shirts. They're comfy, so I like wearing them.

After a little bit of small talk with me, the elderly couple went over to the people in charge of today's cleaning to grab what they needed. Each and every one of us was given a pair of long, stainless steel tongs and a plastic garbage bag and then sent off to find a place by the riverbed to scour for garbage. After getting brief greetings and getting our cleaning supplies, we went straight to work. 

Us high schoolers took a space closer to the hill along with the old people, while the fitter grownups took the spaces closer to the river. There were also two men on lookout. By their feet were bags with letters that read: "LIFEGUARD". The organizers probably didn't want anyone accidentally falling into the river and drowning.

It was a bit hot out, but having grown up in this town, I was used to it. Yuna seemed to be holding up well, but I kept an eye on her just in case. Mom wouldn't let me hear the end of it if anything were to happen.

If this were a TV show, this would normally be the part where cheery, lighthearted background music, maybe from a guitar, is played while a montage of event stills showed our happy faces as we chat with each other and goofed around a little during our work. But this was reality. Sure there were some smiling faces to go with friendly chats among the volunteers, but to me, there was nothing really to smile about about while toiling under the sun, picking up garbage that stupid, litterbug jerks couldn't take care of themselves. And with my hands full, I couldn't take out my phone and fiddle with it.

Not too far away, kids gathered by the stream, playing soccer. There was also a family having a picnic nearby on a bright pink cloth. And joggers ran by along the edge of the hill topside.

After half an hour of sifting through grass and weeds, a question suddenly popped into my head and I had to ask it.

"Hey, by the way," I said, "what sort of power does Naoko have?"

"Oh? Taken an interest in the Student Council President, have you Underling Hisao?" Mirai said, while rubbing his chin with an evil grin. "Perhaps you hope to find a weakness of some sort with which to trip her up as you start your own world conquest."

I scowled at Mirai and said, "I was just curious. It's no big deal if you don't tell me."

I turned around and started to look for garbage again, but Mirai said, "Alright, alright! My bad. It's not that big of a secret, anyway. To answer your question, Naoko's an Omni-Kinetic Type."

I looked up and went, "A what?"

"Omni-Kinetic means she has more than one type of kinetic power," Omoyo explained. "You know how you only have psychokinesis and Aika only has telekinesis?"

"Yeah," I said.

"Well, Soushu has both," said Omoyo. "She can move things with her mind and make that Psy-Armor thing. Not only that, she can make and control fire, water, ice and wind. She can shoot lightning out of her fingers. And I think she also has healing powers."

"Wow," I said. "I didn't even know it was possible to have more than one power, let alone a whole bunch like that."

"There are actually quite a lot of psychics who're Omni-Kinetic, actually," said Mirai. "Most of the most powerful families in the world of psychics have Omni-Kinetics. Though being born Omni-Kinetic is really rare, major families like the Shirogami Clan can create Omni-Kinetics. I'd like to know how they do it, but security is so tight that there's no way for me to find out. Well, gotta make do with what you can get."

"Now that I think about it, where'd you learn to give people powers in the first place?" I asked. "That doesn't sound like something just anyone can do."

But Mirai held a finger to my face, wagged it and said, "That, my friend, is classified. Anyway, I have to go talk to the organizers about where we'll go next week. Do you guys think you can handle things without me for a bit?"

"Honestly, I think we'd do a better job with you gone," Omoyo said.

Mirai whistled and said, "Harsh. Well, see you guys later."

And then he walked away towards the shade beneath the bridge where the organizers' table was stationed, as well as the first aid table. After watching him leave us for a bit, we turned around and went back to looking for litter.

As I brushed aside weeds with my tongs, not for the first time, my thoughts drifted to imaginations for what I could do with my power. I already knew that I could create armor for myself. And I could shoot psychic energy missiles. But maybe there was even more I could do, like stretch my Psy-Armor to cover whatever I hold and turn it into a sword or make extra hands to work in place of telekinesis. I mean, if I could make a wall out of psychic energy, I should be able to do stuff like that, right?

That was when I encountered a semi-crushed soda can lying behind some weeds. I decided to put my power to the test, just a little bit, to see if it was possible.

I looked right. And then I looked left. With the coast clear, I held out my hand and tried to imagine it stretching towards the can on its own to pick it up. Space rippled around my hand and, just like I imagined, extended towards the can. The point of the clear ripple wrapped itself around two sides of the can much like fingers would and slowly lifted the can off the green grass.

It's working! I thought excitedly. It's actually working!

And then someone screamed. 

"I didn't do it!" I cried out as my concentration broke and the can dropped back down onto the grass.

I turned around, but no one was looking at me. Omoyo, Isaneko, and Yuna were all staring at the river, along with everyone else, I noticed. They were all really pale and Yuna and Isaneko both had their hands cupped over their mouths. I turned around again to see what at the river captivated them so much, and saw what looked like a person in the river.

With so many people blocking my view, I thought that some idiot was doing backstrokes in the river while fully clothed. I could tell by the clothes and general outline that the person was a man. But as he continued to drift down the river, I got a clearer view of what everyone else was seeing.

I was right that the person in the river was a man, but he was not swimming. No, far from it. The way he looked, how it made me sick to my stomach made it clear to me, without a shred of doubt, that he was dead. 

I was looking at a corpse.

 As the corpse passed us by, I could hear heavy breathing nearby. Although the corpse was a horrific sight, too terrible for me to describe, I had to turn around. The one breathing heavily was Yuna. Her eyes, so very wide, so very fearful, and so very wild, were fixated on the corpse as it drifted away. And then all of a sudden, she screamed. She screamed and screamed, and screamed, gripping her head tightly between her hands.

None of us, especially me, could do anything or say anything to her as a terrible shriek spilled out of her throat. And then, when she couldn't scream anymore, she fainted on the spot.

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Six)

I looked at Naoko Soushu in surprise.

 "Really?" I cried out. "You have a special power too? What kind?"

Naoko Soushu had a surprised look on her face, as if she had been expecting a different reaction from me. 

"I don't think you heard me," she said. "I'm Naoko Soushu, as in the daughter of the Soushu family."

"Yeah, I heard you," I said. "You're the daughter of the Shoyu family. They make that sauce, right?"

"No!" Soushu snapped. "It's Soushu, not Shoyu! What kind of family would have a sauce for a name?"

"Oh," I went. "Never heard of them."

Soushu smacked her palm against her forehead.

I was really clueless about a lot of things back then. But luckily, I was surrounded by people in the know. Including my own cousin.

Yuna tugged at my kimono sleeve and showed me her phone. It read: "The Soushu family is famous. They have a lot of power in the world of superpowered people and psychics."

"So she's like one of those underworld organization princesses you see in games and comics?"

Yuna rolled her eyes and then replied, "Yeah. Something like that."

"That's right," Soushu said, after calming down and regaining her composure. "I could be called a princess, given how powerful my family is. But given that you didn't even know about my family, I take it you really are an artificial psychic?"

I blinked once and said, "I'm a what?"

Soushu sighed and explained, "It means you weren't born with powers."

"Oh," I said. I probably looked like an idiot to her, but I try not to think about that. "Yeah. Before two months ago, I didn't even know that psychic powers were real."

"Was Toshiro the one who gave you that power?" Soushu asked.

"Yeah," I replied.

"And what about you?" she asked Yuna. "Did he give you a power as well? Since you're in the Community Service Club, I'm assuming you have one."

Yuna, however, shook her head. She typed into her phone and showed Soushu, "I was born with my power."

"By the way, Miss Shoyu," I said. "You seem to know Mirai and Omoyo really well, calling them by their first name and all. How are you related to them?"

"Again, it's Soushu. But never mind that," Soushu said. "To answer your question, we grew up together. Our families are all connected to each other and we've gone to the same school since Kindergarten. We got along so well back then. Sometimes I wonder how they're doing. If you don't mind, I'd love it if you could tell me what they've been up to."

"Hmm," I went, rubbing my chin. "There's not really much I can say. If you grew up with him, I'm sure you know how weird Mirai can get. Sometimes he shows up in some random costume, gives us weird nicknames and talks like some comic book villain. Most of the time, Omoyo's the one who signs us up for volunteer work outside school in the weekends. Mirai handles the clubs who come to us for help. We do practice using our powers sometimes, but most of the time is just normal school and club stuff."

"I see, "said Soushu. "What about any plans?"

"Plans?"

"Yes," said Soushu. "Like plans for the future. Has he ever mentioned anything he wanted to do? I'm speaking outside of club activities, of course."

I thought for a bit and then replied, "No," while shaking my head.

"I see," said Soushu. "Then, what about club members? I heard you recently got a fifth member. That is Yuna Oota here, right?"

Yuna nodded and I replied, "Yeah."

"Has there been others who visit the club a lot? Anyone else who wanted to join?"

"We do get a lot of visitors asking for help," I admitted. "But I haven't heard about anyone wanting to join. And Mirai hasn't tried looking for new members after I joined. I guess since he had enough members to make an official club, he lost interest in getting more."

"I see," Soushu said. She looked deep in thought. "So, it looks like you don't know anything after all. I expected as much but . . ."

She mumbled something beneath her breath. I heard what she was saying, but I didn't really get what she was after. For some reason, she reminded me of a detective from a mystery drama I liked to watch. She made the same kind of face the detective made after questioning a witness.

"By the way, Miss. Shoyu, couldn't you just ask Mirai all this?" I said. "You guys are friends, aren't you?"

"Once again, my family name's Soushu!" Soushu said. "And while Toshiro, Homura, Aika and I are friends, we've been so busy with our own thing that we haven't had time to talk. Anyway, we're here."

While we were talking, we had arrived at the nurse's office. Soushu opened the door and there, waiting to greet us was the teacher in charge, a man in a white coat, sitting at a desk. He looked up from some paperwork to see who had come in and said, "What happened now, Oota?"

"I . . . uh . . . got hit in the head," I explained to him.

"Again!?" the teacher exclaimed.

Both Yuna and Soushu blinked.

"Again?" Puzzled, Soushu looked at me and then at the teacher and then asked, "Has this happened before?"

"Oh yeah," I said. "Lots of times. Almost every other day, there's something flying to my face."

"That's a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?" Soushu said. "It can't be that bad."

"It's not an exaggeration," said the teacher. "I've had him rushed here for getting hit by a flying baseball, volleyballs, and soccer balls,"

"Don't forget that one time someone accidentally slammed a door into me," I added.

"I still don't understand how that happened," the teacher spoke back.

"Uwah . . ." Soushu was struck speechless with a baffled look on her face. But she quickly recovered and asked, "Have you always been this unlucky?"

I shook my head. "No," I said. "From middle school to before, I think my luck was pretty normal. At least, I haven't had something fly into my face before I became a student here."

"The way you say it, it's as if this place is a jinx to you," the teacher said, looking dismayed. "Well, it doesn't look like you're hurt, like always. I'll just do a quick check-up and send you on your way."

"I'm in your care, Teach!"

"You seem to be in good hands so I'll excuse myself now," said Soushu.

"Huh? Oh, sure," I went. "Thanks for coming with me, Miss Shoyu."

"It's not Shoyu!" Soushu snapped. "You know what! Forget it. Just call me Naoko. Naoko's fine."

"Oh, in that case you can just call me Hisao," I said. "And this is my cousin, Yuna."

Yuna bowed when her name was called.

"I'll do that," Naoko said. "Well, see you later."

"Later!"

And then she left.

Just to give you a little heads-up, I will not be the only narrator for this story. If we relied solely on my perspective, the full story can't get out. So from time to time, someone else will take over storytelling for a bit.

*****

Naoko

*****

"Unbelievable!" I muttered to myself as I walked briskly down the hall. "Seriously unbelievable!"

After leaving Hisao Oota and his cousin under the care of the teacher in charge of the infirmary, I decided to return to the Student Council office. At this time, there were still students lingering around the hallway. A few saw and greeted me, but most simply passed me by without so much as a glance. I might have allowed comics to influence me a little because I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed at how little attention I was getting despite being the Student Council president, let alone that I'm the daughter of the esteemed Soushu Family.

"To think my family name would be mixed up with a sauce! A sauce!"

As I headed down the hall to the stairs, a boy appeared and started following me. I wasn't alarmed because the boy was Eiji Shikouyama, the vice-president of the Student Council and my right-hand man. His family was also a supporter of mine.

"So, did you find out what Mirai's up to?" he asked as we walked to the Council room together.

I shook my head and shrugged.

"Not at all," I said. "Other than the fact he created one new psychic, it seems like Toshiro's not up to anything. At the very least, his new recruits don't know anything. But I expected that."

"Ahem!" Eiji coughed. "Well, it's like I always say, you never know if you don't try. But he must be up to something. You don't just create new psychics for no good reason."

"I know," I said. "But he hasn't made any active effort to recruit followers. He's only got one new member to his club in two months, a natural born who joined on her own. Other than his usual riffraff, he's been very quiet the last few months. I seriously don't like it."

Toshiro was always a bit of a schemer, I thought. It was strange that he hasn't made a move yet, and that worried me. It was like the calm before the storm.

"Well, whatever," I said as I opened the door into the Student Council office. It sat right next to the faculty room and was twice as big as a normal clubroom, which isn't a particularly big room to begin with. "As long as he doesn't get in our way, it doesn't matter what his plans are. And even if he does turn against us, all we have to do is crush him and his merry little band. We will show him, and all the other gangs that oppose us that the Soushu Family does not mess around!"

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Five)

While we're a bunch of superpowered teenagers, we're also members of the Community Service Club. Because of that, it's not strange to find us running around the school helping out whoever asked. This time, the Kendo club came to us needing someone to fill in for a few members who couldn't make it to a practice match they were having with each other. Mirai and Omoyo were usually the ones to take those requests. It seemed like the two of them had experience with swords before. 

But now and then, Mirai would make me join him as well, even though I never even held a sword before. That's why I was right now dressed in ink-black armor, holding a bamboo sword while someone charged at me with a ferocious attack. I raised the sword to defend myself, but the end result was I got hit. Fun fact: I've never once landed a hit in all the times I was made to help out the Kendo club.

That's right, I was extremely terrible at it. Well, what did you expect from a guy who spends most of his time watching TV and surfing the Internet on his phone? The only thing I ever got right was the form when I slashed at the air. I had no idea why Mirai would keep making me come help out with this.

With the match ended on my loss, me and the other swordsman bowed and then separated to different sides of the gym. Yuna, Mirai and Omoyo were gathered at the entrance, so I headed over there and sat down on the floor. I pulled my helmet off and shed the rest of my armor off before I leaned my back against the wall and grabbed the water bottle that Yuna handed to me.

She sat down patiently next to me as I drank, and when I put the bottle down, she tapped my shoulder and pointed towards a huge poster hanging on the wall. The poster was an old photo of a girl in Kendo robes proudly holding up a trophy.

"Who is she?" Yuna asked through her phone.

"Huh?" I went, glancing sideways at the poster. "Oh, that's Hanako Yamamoto. They call her the legendary Sword Princess. She's pretty famous over here as the first one from our town to make it to a national tournament."

"She's not from our school, though," Yuna pointed out. The white banners hanging behind Hanako Yamamoto had the name of a different school. "So why do we have a picture of her hanging on our wall?"

"It's to remind ourselves." The Kendo club president approached us with his helmet tucked beneath his armpit and drenched in sweat. He must have just finished his own match now.

"Remind ourselves of what?" Yuna asked.

"To remind ourselves of the bitter feeling losing to her has given us," was the Kendo club president's dark reply.

Yuna didn't seem to get it, and neither did I. Mirai must have sensed that because he joined in as well and explained, "You see, Team Oota," he said, "our school's Kendo team used to be called the best in town. But all that changed when Hanako Yamamoto appeared."

"That's right!" the Kendo club president shouted. It really startled us. I almost jumped out of my skin, and Yuna had a look like a deer frozen by headlights. "She appeared out of nowhere and took the local town championship from us! Her school used to be the lowest of the low in the world of high school Kendo too, so our loss thanks to her was an utterly humiliating one! We've never made it to the top again after that. And to add insult to injury, she led her team to the nationals, a dream generations of our club have strived for but never succeeded! Oooh! Just talking about her makes my blood boil!"

"Then shouldn't you get rid of that poster?" I said. "High blood pressure's not good you know."

But the Kendo club president shook his head.

"No can do," he said. "As the president of the Kendo club, I must keep this resentment, this regret alive for future generations!"

"They've had this grudge for decades," Omoyo chimed in. "It's not going to go away anytime soon."

"That's right!" the Kendo club president shouted. "Only when we have avenged ourselves and reach the nationals will we finally put the past behind us! That's why, Mirai! Won't you and Omoyo join the Kendo club?"

"Sorry, but I have my hands full with my own club," Mirai said. "And I need Omoyo with me to keep everything running smoothly. Instead, why not take Hisao under your wing?"

"Huh?" I went. "You're gonna pawn me off just like that!?"

I knew he was just joking around, but the Kendo club president looked at me and, with a very serious look, said, "No thanks. He's so terrible at Kendo that even my kid brother in Kindergarten can beat him. Why do you even bring him here? He's no help at all to get us ready for the tournaments."

I know that everything he said was true, but did he really have to say it like that? So harsh!

Mirai, however, chuckled and replied to the Kendo club pres' inquiry with, "Just a precaution. I thought that I should have my club members learn how to fight. We go all over town for our activities, and even in a town like this, there's no telling what sort of dangers could be waiting for us. I mean, did you see the news?"

"Ah, right." The Kendo club pres seemed to calm down a little. "You're talking about the Piper."

The Piper. I don't watch the news a lot, but even I've heard of him. In the big city, there's a guy going around attacking people with a pipe, hence the name "The Piper". Old or young, man or woman, it didn't matter. A lot of his victims died, which made him a serial killer.

"But he's all the way in Tokyo," I said. "And that's really far away from here."

"I'm just using him as an example," Mirai said. "All I'm saying that it's better to be careful than not."

"That's true," the Kendo club pres said, nodding. "In that case, I'm more than happy to help tutor your clubmates in sword fighting. But that means you owe me. Since you won't join us, at least help us get ready for the next match by training with us."

"Sure thing," Mirai said. "I'll take you on right now."

The Kendo club president grinned, pleased with Mirai's answer. "Then let's get started!" he said. "Omoyo, you should take part too!" And then he pulled his helmet over his head and made his way to a free floor mat.

Mirai started to follow him there, but then he stopped and turned to me.

"You might want to turn on your Psy-Armor now," he said. And then he left.

Yuna turned to me with a puzzled look and then typed into her phone, "What's Psy-Armor?"

"It's that armor thing you saw me use a few days ago," I explained to her. "We're calling it Psy-Armor, short for Psychic, or Psychokinetic, Armor. See?"

I held up my hand for her to see. The space around it was all blurry, kind of like how the air above a concrete road looks in the middle of a hot, hot day, all ripple-y and stuff. That's what psychic energy looks like for psychokinetics like myself.

As I was showing her my power, not too far away, a newbie member was having a match with a senior. With a yell, he raised his bamboo sword over his head and swung it down. But the senior swiped upward and struck the sword out of the newbie's hands. It flew high in the air and (wouldn't you know it?) it fell right on top of my head. The tip of the sword struck right between my temples, bounced off and hit the floor in a loud clatter.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the newbie cried out. "Are you okay?"

I tried to play it off with, "Yeah, I'm okay. As you can see, the thing barely even touched me."

"Okay? Okay, nothing!" the senior cried out. "I saw that sword go straight to your forehead! There's no way you're okay! We need to get you to the nurse's office pronto!"

"I'm fine!" I cried out. "Really!"

I was really, truly okay. Even though that sword hit me in the head, it didn't hurt me one bit thanks to my Psy-Armor. But it wasn't like I could just tell them that. It was unnatural enough that I was unscathed after an impact like that.

Things got messy as I tried to play it off as nothing, but then Omoyo cut in and said, "I'll take him to the nurse's office."

"Huh?" I went. "But Omoyo!"

She cut me off and said, "No buts!" In a lower voice, she hissed, "Things will only get worse if you stick around. Let's just head to the nurse's office, make something up to the teacher and then be on our way!"

"Fine," I whispered back. "Let's go then."

We were just about to depart, but then a girl suddenly appeared at the door and said, "I heard a commotion. What happened?"

I wasn't sure what to say so I glanced at Omoyo. But Omoyo said nothing. She was oddly tensed as she glared at the girl.

I knew that it would fall on me to say something, but then the newbie and senior involved in my accident came and explained to the girl what had happened. The girl put her hand to her mouth and went, "Oh my! Let me take you to the nurse's office, then!"

"Huh? No, wait!" Omoyo cried out. "I was just about to -!"

But the girl cut her off. "It's fine, Homura. I'll do it. You stay here and help Toshiro calm everyone down. There's no telling what might happen if we leave them alone. Some unfavorable rumors might get spread out. And we both don't want that to happen, do we?"

There was a sharp glint in her gaze and you could practically see the pressure on Omoyo's face. She just couldn't talk back to this girl. She couldn't even keep her eyes locked onto the girl's and looked away, glancing back at Mirai who was trying to get the crowd under control with the Kendo club president. A lot of people were gathering, wondering what the commotion was about.

"Fine," Omoyo said, finally caving in. "But Yuna go with him. She could probably use an extra hand."

Yuna nodded.

Before we set off for the nurse's office, Omoyo whispered into my ear, "Be careful what you say to her."

"Huh?" I said. Before I could ask her what she meant by that, Omoyo hurried off to help Mirai.

"Come on," the girl called out. "Let's go!"

While confused and unable to understand what was going on, I followed the girl out of the gym and back to the main building. Yuna followed close behind me.

As we walked down the hallway, I decided to break silence and said, "Thanks for coming with me, but I can go my own way, You don't have to go to all this trouble."

"Oh, it's no trouble at all," said the girl. "We need to help each other out in times like these, no?"

"I . . . guess," I said.

"But I must say," said the girl, "that was really careless of you, what happened back there."

"Yeah, I know," I said sheepishly. "I'll be careful of flying objects from now on."

"There is that, but that's not what I was talking about," said the girl. "I was talking about using your powers in public like that. You really need to be more careful about that."

Both Yuna and I stopped and gaped at the girl. My blood ran cold.

"Y-you know about powers!?" I cried out. "How?"

The girl frowned at us.

"You don't recognize me?" she said.

Yuna and I exchanged looks and then we shook our heads.

"Unbelievable," the girl muttered. "I spoke at the Welcome Ceremony! Doesn't that ring any bells?"

"Nope," I said bluntly. "I never paid attention to it."

She looked at me in disbelief, but then recovered and went, "Ahem!"

"Then let me introduce myself," she said. "My name is Naoko Soushu, a second year. I am this school's current Student Council President. And like you, I also hold a special power."

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Four)

 Yuna and I exchanged looks.

"Trial?" I said.

Omoyo nodded. "Hold on," she said as she dug her hand into her pocket. She took out a crumpled piece of paper, straightened it out and read out loud in a really deadpan manner.

"Insert fanfare here. Congratulations, heroes. You have made it past the first trial, the Trial of Tree in a Forest. Thanks to you, the beautiful pri-!"

Omoyo quickly tore the paper apart, crumpled the pieces in her grip and then stuffed it in her pocket, probably to toss into a trashcan later. I had to admit, I was kind of curious what the rest of that script could be.

"Long story short," said Omoyo, "you got two challenges ahead of you when you find the others. Don't ask me what the other challenges are. I don't know. But if I had to guess, they're probably related to your power to find people, Yuna. I can't think of any other reason Toshiro would make me put on this getup and go somewhere with a lot of people."

Omoyo was probably right, I thought. She knew Mirai best, after all.

"So now we just need to find Isaneko and the Pres," I said. "Where to next, Yuna?"

With Omoyo joining the party, Yuna led us next to a classroom on the third floor at the very end of the hall. Because it wasn't in use right now, all the tables and chairs had been stacked at the sides, leaving the glistening faux wood floor bare. We found Isaneko sitting on the teacher's desk beside the chalkboard as we entered the room. Even though she must have heard us come in, she kept gracefully gazing out the window with a hint of sadness across her face. I've only known her for two months at this point, but I knew that she was doing this on purpose just for dramatic effect. It was something she and Pres Mirai had in common. But in her case, she was going for the old-fashioned, pretty noble girl look. It's why Mirai kept calling her "Lady Isaneko".

Only after I closed the door behind me, did she turn her gaze towards us while brushing strands of her hair behind her ear. With a gentle wave of her hand, the door clicked and locked.

"Welcome, adventurers," she said. "I am Isaneko, and I will be in charge of your next trial."

She waved her hand again over her head and about ten box-like things flew out from beneath the desks towards the center of the room where they stayed, drifting around like balloons. I call them box-like because it was hard to tell what they really were beneath those black cloths that covered them. All I could say was that they were 3-D squares, maybe rectangle-like.

"Allow me to explain," she said. "In just one of these boxes, there is a trio of bunnies. You must find those bunnies and free them from my spell. There is no set number of chances to find the right one. But if you choose the wrong one . . ."

She snapped her fingers and one box had its cloth flown off revealing a clear plastic container. All three of us adventurers recoiled in shock and disgust because piled up inside that container was a huge mass of black creepy-crawlies. With a really wicked smile on her face, Isaneko snapped her fingers again and the creepy-crawlies exploded out of the container like a hot spring geyser.

"EEK!" both me and Omoyo screamed. We rushed to the door and tried to pry it open, forgetting that it was locked. And only Isaneko with her powers could unlock it.

A huge, wicked grin appeared on Isaneko's face as a dark shadow was cast over her eyes. It was even more evil than the smiles that Mirai usually wore whenever he was being cunning. I had never seen Isaneko like that before, not once ever. So needless to say, I was really shocked. I wondered, this was all an act, right? Mirai was making her do this, wasn't he? There's no way that was Isaneko's true nature.

I turned to Omoyo to ask her the above questions, but never got my chance to when Isaneko's voice cut in.

"Anyway," she carried on as she used her powers to collect the scattered bugs back into their box, "just to make things even more interesting, there will be a timer. If you fail to find the bunnies before time's up, every single box containing my many, many little friends will be opened, and my friends will rain down over your heads." She giggled madly. "I can't wait. You have ten minutes, starting . . . now."

"Huh? H-hey! Wait!" I cried out. "Can't we talk about this first?" But it was too late. Isaneko already twisted the kitchen timer on and set it down beside her.

"Better hurry up," she sang. She waved her finger beside her head and all the floating boxes took turns, one by one, to move to a different place. And they never stopped moving.

"Oh, come on!" I cried out. "That's not fair! How're we supposed to find the bunnies if you keep moving around the boxes?"

"Tooooo bad," Isaneko said. "My game, my rules. Now, time's ticking. It won't be long now before this room becomes Cockroach Utopia."

"Gah! There's no reasoning with her!" I cried out. "Hey, Yuna! Hurry up and find the bunnies!"

But Yuna, blue-faced with fear shook her head and refused to go near those boxes, knowing that almost all of them were full of roaches that could explode out the instant she accidentally touches one of them.

"You're a man," Omoyo shouted, "so you go find the bunnies!"

"What? I don't want to go near that!" I snapped back. "Why don't you go? You're a Sensory Type too, aren't you?"

"My powers only work on humans," Omoyo argued. 

"Then Yuna's the only one who can find them! Because I certainly can't tell which box is which! Come on, Yuna! If you don't do something quick, we'll all get covered in roaches! Do you want that!?"

Yuna furiously shook her head and then she opened her mouth as if to scream. Her lips formed words, but no sound came out, which was expected. But I could tell, she was saying, "Alright, already! I'll do it! I'll do it! Are you happy?"

Slowly, she inched towards the boxes, trembling more and more the closer she got. I could feel the hairs on my arm bristle, but it was no longer brief like the last couple of times Yuna used her power. She was keeping it constant to keep track of the bunnies as their box moved.

But as she made her way through the swarm of floating boxes, while staying as far away as possible from the ones that probably had roaches in them, Isaneko sighed while looking very, very bored. And then a wicked smile spread across her face again. Seeing that evil grin, I couldn't help but think, "Well, that ain't good." And it really wasn't.

"This is taking forever," she complained, "so let's shorten the time a bit, shall we?"

"Huh?" went me and Omoyo. "Wait!"

But Isaneko wouldn't listen and twisted the timer which cut our time really short. The amount of time she took away from us sent a fearsome jolt to my heart and I couldn't help but jump.

"Hurry up, Yuna!" I screamed. "Hurry before it rains roaches!"

Rushed, Yuna nearly ran into a box. She stopped just in time and stumbled back, But she ended up losing her footing and fell towards another box. Afraid that box would be wrong, I quickly used my psychokinesis to create an energy wall between Yuna and the box. I made it just in time so she bumped into the wall and bounced back on her feet. Over Yuna's and mine's sighs of relief, I heard a sharp "Tch!" as a certain little fancy lady clicked her tongue in clear disappointment.

Yuna managed to catch up to the box she was chasing just in time and ripped off its black cloth, exposing the bunnies to the afternoon sunlight shining through the window. Me and Omoyo couldn't help but cheer as Yuna held the pet cage over her head in triumph.

"Ahem!" With a cough, Isaneko regained her composure. After settign all the floating boxes down with her power, she stood up from the table and dipped her head in a deep, formal bow. 

"Congratulations," she said, while maintaining her dip. "You have passed the second trial and defeated the wicked witch. The spell has been broken and the wickedness that possessed me is no more. But now the final and most difficult challenge awaits." 

She straightened up and looked us all square in the eye as she raised one hand to the door. 

"The final trial, the Cursed Wanderer," she said. "Will you be able to find him and break his curse, just as you've broken mine? You had best be on your way now, before the sun sets and a curse falls on you all as it had on me. I must stay behind and atone for my sins as the wicked witch."

I took that to mean she needed to stay behind to clean up and put everything back to where they belonged, including the three bunnies and the roaches.

"Fare thee well."

When she was done speaking, the door clicked and slid open on its own. None of us adventurers wasted time getting out of the room.

As we headed down the hall with Yuna in the lead, I asked Omoyo, "Say, what was with that act back there? It was like Isaneko wasn't really acting."

"That's because she wasn't," Omoyo replied. "What you saw was her real personality. Aika likes to look prim and proper, but deep down, she's an evil demoness that has fun tormenting people."

"Really?" I said. "But we've all been together for two months and I never saw her like that before."

"That's because there was never a good chance," Omoyo explained. "As long as there's no reason to, she won't break out of her Miss Noble Princess persona. But if an opportunity comes around to mess with someone, she won't miss it. Toshiro knows that better than anyone, but still gave her that role. When I get my hands on him . . . !"

While grumbling revenge plans to herself, she opened and closed her fists and held her hands up as if to strangle someone.

"Speaking of the Pres," I said, "where is he? Do you have a ping, Yuna?"

Yuna nodded and pointed towards the west wing. She led us to the library, but after searching the place top to bottom, we couldn't find him anywhere. She used her sonar again and then led us to the cafeteria.

Stumped at failing to find Mirai twice, Yuna glanced back at us while scratching her head. I thought it was weird, too, given that she had found both Omoyo and Isaneko without any problems. But just as I was about to suggest we linger around the cafeteria a bit to think, Omoyo spoke up.

"That guy's still moving around," she said. By "that guy", she could only be talking about Mirai. "He hasn't stuck to one place like me and Aika."

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

"Positive," Omoyo replied. "I can't think of a better test of Yuna's power than finding a moving target."

"So our game of Hide and Seek just became a game of Cat and Mouse," I said, scratching the back of my head.  I sighed and said, "What a drag this day is turning out to be. So what now? Knowing he's moving around isn't going to make it any easier for us to find him. And it'll be even harder to catch him if he uses his powers since he'll know right away if we get close. Maybe we should just give up and head back to the clubroom?"

Omoyo shut that idea down with a blunt, "No!" And then she explained, "If we do that, Toshi'll throw a tantrum and I really don't want to deal with that. Let's try and get more information first before we throw in the towel. Toshiro might be a selfish moron with Middle Grade Syndrome delusions, but he usually plays fair. There should be a way for us to beat his game even with his power. Yuna, try to keep track of where he goes and write it down. There might be a clue there. Can you do it?"

Yuna nodded and closed her eyes. Several minutes later, she showed us her phone with a list of places. Apparently, after we reached the cafeteria, Mirai went back to the library. He stuck there for five minutes before heading out to a different room where he waited another five minutes before heading out again. I won't go into details about the list since it was really wordy (Yuna didn't know what all those rooms were so she had to describe them in as much detail as she could), but there was a clear pattern to his movements. There were five rooms in all, including the library, that he visited. He went to these rooms in a cycle, in the same order at least three times when Yuna stopped tracking him. The end of the list showed he was on his fourth trip to the library.

Omoyo looked at the list while rubbing her chin thoughtfully.

"That third room sounds like the second year A/V room," she said. "If he sticks to this pattern, which I'm sure he will, we can catch him if we wait around for him there. But we'll need to go now or we'll miss him. Come on!"

The A/V room, or Audio-Visual room, is where computer classes are normally held. It's a room full of computers that's also sometimes used for watching movies on the big projector screen. There are three such rooms in all at our school, one for each grade. For obvious reasons, the second year's A/V room was on the second floor.

Now, as we had talked about earlier, the plan was for us to wait at the A/V room for Mirai to come to us. But when Omoyo opened the door, there was already someone inside the dark air-conditioned room full of old PC computers lined up in neat rows, standing at the very end of the room, right beneath the projector screen.

It was a dude in a cape, wearing an elephant plushie head.

"MWA HA HA HA!" he laughed. "Congratulations, adventurers. You have caught me and thwarted my plans. Yes! It is I! The mastermi-!"

Omoyo closed the door and turned to us.

"Look at the time," she said, holding up her phone. "Time to go home. Let's get back to the clubroom, grab our bags and get out of here."

Yuna and I followed her without a second thought.

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Lead Ups

 Hey everyone!

I hope you're all doing well. I'm just peachy, doing pretty well given the situation. Today, I wanted to share with you some of my hardships as a writer. For me, my writing, I get flashes of inspiration for a scenario. I can see the scenario clearly and it comes with lots of good dialogue for me to choose from. But there is a catch, and that is I still have to lead up to that special scenario.

How do I get there? What happens before the scenario? Basically, I see the ending, but I have trouble thinking about how to get there. And that's true for the stories I'm writing now. Take my Mysteries of the Community Service Club. There is a certain part of the story that I have a clear vision of, but right now I'm a bit stuck on how to get there. It's like my fingers don't even want to type no more while I try to get the next part into words.

 I've managed to power through before, although in some cases, that sometimes leads me to feel uncomfortable with the end result and it'll be a long time before I find a way to redo it again, either just a certain chapter or two, or the whole book.

Because of that, while right now my goal is to give out one chapter a week for the Mysteries of the Community Service Club, some chapters might end up delayed. It makes me miss the good old days when my fingers just flew across the keyboard almost without end. Now I get writer's block sometimes and, among other things stopping me from typing, a stiff shoulder.

Anyway, that's all I got to share for now. 

Happy reading!

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Three)

You know, thinking about my past now, I think I might have been set up. No, hear me out. I think when I first joined the club, Mirai fell down on purpose and made Isaneko use her powers in front of me. They all planned from the beginning to show me their powers and get me to become one of them.

But that's not important right now. We just reached the part where Mirai was trying to recruit Yuna.

"I can give you superpowers too, if you join us," he had said to her. "What do you say?"

But a computer lady in Yuna's phone answered for her, "Granting me powers is unnecessary. I am already one of you, someone with a power."

I was, of course, surprised when Yuna confessed to having a power. As far as I knew, my family was completely and utterly normal before I joined the CSC and got a superpower. But to hear that one of my relatives, even a distant cousin on my dad's side, had a power was super shocking.

Isaneko and Omoyo were also dumbfounded, but Mirai didn't look the least bit surprised. He still had that sly look on his face, like he knew what Yuna was going to say. Well, he could see into the future, so I suppose he did know what Yuna was going to say.

But even if he did, he couldn't help but keep up the pretentious villain who got his interest piqued act.

"Oho?" he went. "And pray tell what kind of power do you hold?"

Yuna's reply was, "I know where people are."

"Can you show us?"

Yuna put on a troubled face, probably wondering how she was going show us her power. I mean, just the answer alone was enough to tell me that her power type was Sensory, which isn't really the showy kind of power. But after a bit of thought, she was able to come up with something and put it to action.

She pointed right and held up three fingers. And then she pointed left and held up four fingers. After that, she pointed down and held up one.

"So, what do you guys think?" Isaneko asked Mirai and Omoyo. "You two are Sensory Types, aren't you?"

"Don't look at me," Omoyo said. "I just know what people are feeling. If they're all feeling different things, I might be able to count how many people are in another room. But there's no way  I can do that if they're all feeling the same thing. What about you Toshi?"

A glint flashed from the corner of Mirai's eye.

"A hundred out of a hundred," he said. "She's the real deal."

"Now that I think about it, the only limit to your future sight is you can't see more than fifteen minutes ahead," Omoyo said. "So I'll take your word for it. But I'm really surprised. I didn't know that Oota had any natural-born psychics. I thought you came from a regular, everyday family."

"So did I," I said. "I didn't ever hear anything about being related to psychics from Mom or Dad."

"That is because my powers came from my mom," Yuna explained. 

That was right. Yuna was connected to my family through her dad. If the Oota Family was normal, before me, then the only way Yuna could have gotten her power would be through her mom.

"My mom told me that we had an ancestor who was a priestess with amazing powers," Yuna continued. "But that was a long, long time ago and our family has mostly lost those powers."

"Well, putting aside where you got your power from," Mirai said, "I'm kind of curious about its limits."

Yuna bent her head one side with puzzled eyes.

"Limits?" I said.

"Yeah," said Mirai. "I want to know what limits this power has. We all know mine. I can't see more than fifteen minutes ahead. I think Omoyo explained hers. And Isaneko needs to see something in order to move it with her mind. And Hisao . . . Well, actually, I don't know what your limits are either. But it's not like we can put that to the test. There's no telling what trouble we'll get into if we push psychokinesis to its limits."

"Gee," I went. "Thanks for not making me feel like those emo heroes in comics who're always afraid of their destructive powers."

I was being sarcastic, but Mirai ignored me and moved on.

"Anyway, I really would like to find out about your limits, Yuna," Mirai said. "Do you know it?"

Yuna, however, shook her head and shrugged. She did not know the limits of her power.

"Hmm." Mirai rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "In that case, why don't we play a game?"

"I do not like where this is going," Omoyo said. Isaneko nodded in agreement.

Having gotten to know just how crazy Mirai could get in the two months I've known him, I couldn't help but feel the same way.

Mirai, however, scowled at us and said, "You make it sound like I'm a deranged criminal or something. I'm not that bad, am I?"

"You conned me into getting superpowers," I pointed out.

"So you realized that was all an act," Mirai said. I guessed he saw no point in hiding it now that I'm one of them. "Anyway!" He continued on. "For the game, how about Hide and Seek?"

"Hide and Seek?" we all exclaimed.

"That's right," Mirai said. "That's the perfect game to test out Yuna's power. Not only that, it could double as a tour of the school."

"So you're planning to turn the whole school into your playground, again," Omoyo said. "Haven't we gotten on the Student Council's nerves enough already?"

"Oh, what's the harm?" Mirai said. "It's not like we'll break any rules with this game. You, me and Lady Isaneko will split up and wait in rooms at different corners of the school. Underling Hisao, since Yuna is not familiar with the school yet, you'll keep her company to ensure she doesn't get lost. In other words, this game of Hide and Seek will be the Community Service Club versus the Oota Family."

"I'm guessing that none of us have a say in this?" I said, letting out a resigned sigh.

"Not at all!" Mirai shouted. "Ha ha ha!"

"Will you cut that out?" Omoyo snapped. "You're not some character from a kid's cartoon!"

Unfazed, Mirai replied with, "If I did become one, that would be a dream come true!"

Omoyo sighed and glanced at Isaneko. "Can't you say something to him?" she asked.

"Please don't look at me," Isaneko replied. "I gave up a long time ago. Let's just get this game over with so we can move on to more important things."

"Excellent!" Mirai cried out. "You two just wait in here while we go find our hiding places. We'll call you when we're ready."

Mirai, Omoyo and Isaneko shuffled out of the room. Isaneko gave me and Yuna a bow before closing the door. When their footsteps receded, I pulled out my phone and opened a game app. Now and then, I would glance at Yuna to check how she was doing, but she just fiddled with her phone like I was.

About ten to fifteen minutes later, my phone rang. I answered it and put the phone one speaker, since the caller I.D. had Mirai's name on it. He only said two words to us before hanging up, and it was "Game Start."

When the connection cut, I got up, stuffed my phone into my pocket and headed for the door.

After opening, it, I turned around and said, "Let's go." But Yuna held her hand up for me to wait and then closed her eyes. Suddenly, I felt my arm hairs go prickly and I realized that Yuna must be using her powers. It was probably like a submarine's sonar or a bat's echo-location. Basically, she had shot off a psychic shockwave everywhere and whenever that shockwave hits someone, she'll know where that person is.

After she was done with that, she got off her chair and walked towards me. I stepped aside to let her through first before I closed the door and locked it.

"So where to first?" I asked.

Yuna answered by pointing down the hall to the right and then started walking ahead. I followed after her, pointing out the different places I thought she should know about, like the rest area on the first floor where people can sit down, relax and drink whatever they got from the blue vending machines. When we got there, I offered to buy her something, but she just shook her head, showing that she wasn't thirsty. So I just bought a soda for myself. I pressed the button on the machine, swiped my phone over the credit card terminal and grabbed the can that fell down the chute. And then we headed outside.

With summer upon us, I knew that it was going to be hot outside, but I never expected it to be so sweltering. It was so hot out, that the instant I stepped out the door, I was sweating buckets. Yuna had it worse.

As soon as the hot air hit her, she fainted backwards. I was afraid she was going to fall, but she managed to stay on her feet.

"You okay?" I asked. "Maybe we should go back and - !"

Yuna cut me off by holding her hand up. Her other hand was braced against her lap and she kept her gaze to the floor, but it was clear she was saying, "I'm fine."

I hesitated, wondering what I should do or say when a sudden sharp "pow!" got my attention. When I turned around, a ball smacked right into my face super hard and bounced all the way back into the grassy field. The guy who kicked the ball to my face ran over to pick it up, ignorant of what he had done to me. 

I could feel Yuna's gaze on my back and figured that she must look very dumbfounded and worried. But there was really nothing to worry about. Thanks to my psychokinesis, I could create an armor of psychic energy that could protect me from pretty much anything. So even taking the full force of a flying soccer ball to the face wasn't enough to sting me.

"Are you okay?" spoke a phone's computer voice.

Without much of a care, I turned around and replied, "Yeah." After I explained to Yuna about my power, I said, "Come on. Knowing Mirai, if we don't find everyone before school closes, he'll spring some kind of penalty on us."

With Yuna leading the way, we made our way over to the gym where the girl's basketball team was having a practice match. And boy was it an intense match. Both teams were tied with a score of 9, with the next score to end it all. The girls in red had the ball first, but then a blue-vest player cut in between as one red passed the ball to the other. The blue-vest stole the ball and dribbled to the end of the court. She was about to score a point, but then a red-vest slapped the ball out of her hand, snatched it into her own and made her way to the other end of the court.

As usual, the place was packed with people at the bleachers who had come to watch the match. And they watched it with such enthusiasm that you wouldn't believe that it was just simple practice between members of the same team. I mean, they were just going wild with their cheering. Maybe it had to do with how the two star players of the team were on opposite sides for the match. 

I scanned the court for any familiar faces, but couldn't find Omoyo among the players. Helping out sports clubs was sort of her thing, so I figured that she would have joined the match while she waited for us.

Instead, however, Yuna took me high up the bleachers towards a girl wearing a thick-framed glasses beneath a black baseball cap. Over her blouse, she wore our school's jersey. I didn't recognize her at all, but when Yuna held up her phone and pressed "play", there was a voice that said, "I found you, Omoyo."

I was pretty shocked, to say the least, as Omoyo shook her hair free of the cap and tossed the glasses aside.

"Congrats," she said. "You found me. You passed the first trial."

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The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter Two)

Let's rewind a bit to maybe around two months ago. I know that flashbacks can be annoying sometimes, but I figured talking about my own origins will add a little context to the story. And now really is the best time for me to talk about myself now that the main cast introductions are out of the way.

It all started a week after I entered high school. The cherry blossoms were still in bloom and I had more or less gotten used to everything. School had ended, and I was walking around the front courtyard. Clusters of kids my age held up signs advertising for their respective clubs. And they were really gung-ho about getting someone to join them. Maybe a little too gung-ho.

Now on a day like this, when clubs will be out scouting for new members, you expect to see large signs decorated to be eye-catching being waved around while members passed out colorful flyers to anyone passing by. You expect to hear boys and girls calling out to the crowd in loud voices, asking if you'd be interested in this club or that? You expect them to hold performances to showcase a bit of what the club does, like holding chess tournaments, basketball dribbling sessions, or handing out free food samples. And they got all of that. What you wouldn't expect, and what I didn't, was how much of a battlefield it turned out to be. And it was a literal battlefield.

There were clubs screaming their heads off at each other to go somewhere else. A girl in a tennis uniform pushed a guy in a basketball uniform to the ground as she made her way to some first years. Teachers were there holding back students in black kendo armor while some first years found themselves playing the rope in three separate tug-of-war games. And at one point, I thought I saw a small dude from the Shogi Club do an elbow drop on a member of the Chess Club.

I kept my head low and my phone out while thinking to myself that I wanted to go home already. The only reason I was sticking around now is because my mom said that I had to absolutely join a club.

"You're in high school now," she said. "Go spend time outside with other people. Socialize!"

Being the good son I am, I listened to her. It certainly wasn't because she threatened to cut off the internet. So there I was, looking around for a club to join. But none of the clubs I'd encounter so far really fit what I'm going for. Just looking at me, you could tell that I wasn't the sporty type. I also didn't really have any talent for the arts. I considered joining a board game club, but those clubs were aiming for championships so I passed. I wasn't really a fan of traveling for those things, and I wasn't confident my skills would be up to snuff.

So, as you could see, I was having a hard time finding the right club for me. That was when I was approached by three students. They were Mirai, Omoyo, and Isaneko.

"Hey there," Mirai said. "The name's Toshiro of the Mirai Family. I'm a second year. This here's my childhood friend, Homura, also a second year, and our other friend, the esteemed Lady Isaneko."

The girl called "Lady Isaneko" scowled. "Please stop it with the 'esteemed Lady' stuff, Toshiro," she said. "It's embarrassing."

"Whatever," Mirai said. And then he turned his attention back to me. "Anyway, I was wondering if you'd be interested in joining our club. We're pretty much brand new and need one more member to become official."

"Uh . . ." I went. Although I figured they had approached me to have me join their club, I couldn't think of anything to say at first and hesitated. But after getting back my wits, I asked, "What kind of club is it?"

Mirai had a big smile on his face when he answered.

"I'm glad you asked," he said. "Ahem! We are the Community Service Club!"

"The . . . Community Service Club?"

"Yeah," Mirai said. "The name pretty much spells it out. We're a club that does volunteer work for the community." 

"And what exactly would I have to do?" I asked. That may have come out wrong, but I couldn't help it. I never really cared about joining any clubs to begin with.

But to my surprise, Mirai said, "Nothing. Like I said, we just started the club and are desperate for members. As long as you sign up, you can come and go whenever you want and use our clubroom however you want. As long as you don't break any school rules, that is. Hell, you could just sit around and play games all you want there."

I had to admit, with a sales pitch like that, I couldn't turn them down. I said I'd be interested and they took me to their club room.

"Great!" Mirai said, smiling. "By the way, what's your name?"

When I first saw them, I thought Mirai, Omoyo, and Isaneko were normal students. Mirai seemed really sociable, Omoyo looked tomboyish, and Isaneko felt like an old-fashioned lady, but that was about it. So I never really had my guard up and just told them my name. Little did I realize from Mirai's happy-go-lucky smiley face, lurked a sinister spirit.

Now, before entering high school, I had only ever seen clubrooms in TV shows, but the room Mirai and the others took me to was a lot smaller than I thought it'd be. I actually felt a little claustrophobic going in. It'd probably be a little more roomy without the pair of bookshelves at one side and those plastic storage boxes at the other. I was a little curious about what was inside those boxes, but kept to myself like always.

"Welcome to your new home!" Mirai said. "Now that we're here, let's just cut to the chase and have you sign the entry form."

"Sure thing," I said. "Oh, no need to lend me a pen. I got my own."

I pulled a ballpoint pen from my pocket and placed it on the table. While I sat down, Mirai reached into one of the desks, and then stopped.

"Hmm," he went. "That's strange." He shoved his arm further into the desk and felt around. "I was sure I put them here."

I guessed he was looking for the entry form for me to sign, but couldn't find any.

"Let me try the bookshelf," he muttered as he got up and moved. He looked at the shelves up and down and then went, "Aha! There they are!"

I looked up to see him pointing at thick, green binder that sat at the very top of the shelf. That was probably where the forms were usually kept. Now that he had found what he was looking for, all he had to do next was to grab it, but it looked like he was having a hard time reaching it. I got off my seat thinking I should go help him, but then -

"Whoa!" 

Mirai's hand finally caught the binder, but as he pulled it off the shelf, he lost balance and fell. But before he hit the floor, he stopped midair and slowly floated back up. A chair moved on its own and stopped right beneath him for him to make a gentle landing. The binder, meanwhile, flew over to Isaneko and entered her hands.

"Phew!" Mirai said. "That was a close call. Thanks, Lady Isaneko."

I quietly stared, unable to process what I had just seen.

"What . . . was that?" I asked. "Y-you were falling, but then you weren't, and then you went all floaty like a balloon. And then the binder just flew into Isaneko's hands on its own. And then you thanked her. Wait, does that mean that floaty thing was her doing? That was your doing, Isaneko? You did all that floaty stuff? Does that mean you have superpowers?"

"Homura?" Mirai said while he and the others stared at me.

"Yeah, Toshi?" Omoyo said.

"Lock the door."

"Huh?" I went. "Wait, what?"

I turned around, but Omoyo had already reached the door and locked it. And then she picked up a baseball bat that had been left at the nearby corner, tapped it on her shoulder and leaned against the wall.

"Sorry, Hisao Oota," Mirai said. "But you just saw something that you shouldn't have. Now we can't just let you leave."

"Wait, what?" I cried out. You can imagine just how scared out of my mind I was. "Yes you can. Just open the door and let me out."

"Sorry," said Mirai, "but there's a chance you'll tell someone about our superpowers, and we can't have that."

"I won't tell anyone!" I shouted. "I swear! I promise!"

"I wish I could believe you," Mirai said. "I really do. But there's no way to be sure you'll keep your promise or not."

"Wait, Mirai," Isaneko suddenly cut in. "I have an idea that may benefit both sides."

Mirai turned his gaze to Isaneko and said, "I'm listening."

"If Hisao Oota has powers, he would be in the same boat as us," she said. "That way we'll all go down together if he tells anyone about our powers. And I'm sure he doesn't want that, right? Right, Oota?"

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" I went.

"Hmm." Mirai rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You have a point. Alright! Today's your lucky day, Hisao Oota. You're about to get an opportunity that most people could only dream of. I will give you superpowers. And in return, you will tell no one about our secret. There's no room to negotiate, and you can't back out of this deal. Of course, you will have to join the Community Service Club as an official member. But you were going to do that, anyway."

And that was how I, Hisao Oota, became a psychokinetic, basically a guy who can shoot psychic energy beams out of his hands among other things. There are a bunch of other stuff I could do with psychic energy, but we'll leave that for another time.

Huh? What's that? You want me to tell you what Mirai did to give me my powers? Sorry, but no can do. I signed a contract, so I can't say a word about that. All I can tell you is that Mirai can give people superpowers and that's it.

So, from then on, I was a member of the Community Service Club. We met in the clubroom everyday after school to just hang out and do our homework and stuff. Once in a while, we help out other clubs when they're short on people for something. And on the weekends we're out with volunteers to clean up litter off streets and parks. And that was my life in a nutshell. There weren't any major incidents, no drama, no conflicts of any kind. It was just regular, boring, peaceful everyday stuff. And I was cool with that. 

Of course, I had to practice to know how to keep my powers under control. But that was it. And after a few days, moving around psychic energy just felt really natural to me. 

Okay! Now that we're all done talking about me, let's get back to the present.

**********

Mirai leaned forward with a wide, almost sinister-looking grin on his face. He rested his chin on his hands and stared directly into Yuna's eyes, awaiting her answer. She stared into them for a moment, and then pulled out her smartphone. When she was done typing into it, she hit a button with her thumb and held the phone out towards the president. The computer's lady voice read out her answer.

"Granting me powers is unnecessary. I am already one of you, someone with a power."

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A New Story

 Hey, everyone!

I hope you're all safe and sound, and generally doing good. My life's still pretty much so-so. Anyway, as you can see from the title of this post, I'm here to talk about a new story I've decided to start on here on this blog. It's called the The Mysteries of the Community Service Club. Just like the title says it's a story about members of a high school Community Service Club who gets involved with mysteries. The story takes place in a small town in Japan and, if you've already read the first chapter, the members of the club all have some kind of superpower.

Now, if you've been following my blog for a really, really long time, you'll know that I've been planning to write a sort of spin-off story based on the universe of one of my earlier series, the Ben and Co. Novels. As we get further and further into the story of the Community Service Club, you'll start to notice elements from the Ben and Co. Novels showing up here and there.

Now, I know my track record for online stories has been shaky. I have one more online story that's still ongoing, but I've put a pause on it for a while now. However, I hope to be more consistent with The Mysteries of the Community Service Club. It's the kind of story that I've wanted to try writing for a while now, and I hope to give you, the readers, the feeling that you're reading a light novel, a popular form of novel from Japan.

Even though I do think ahead about what I want in my stories, I really don't know how they'll turn out in the end. I never really plan the whole thing and just add whatever comes to mind, forcing it to fit. This new story will be no different. But what I do know is that sometimes the story'll be slow, and sometimes it'll be fast. There'll be comedy, drama, suspense, and maybe, just maybe, a little action.

Anyway, that's all I have to say. I'm gonna get back to writing the next chapter now.

Happy reading, everyone!

The Mysteries of the Community Service Club (Chapter One)

Now you might be thinking to yourself that this is going to be one of those lame school stories where a bunch of kids band together to solve mysteries. And you'd be right. It's right there in the title. Our club, the Community Service Club, do get mixed up in mysteries from time to time. But you're in for a surprise what kind of mysteries we get. But before that, you're going to have to endure some slow pace, boring everyday stuff. Apologies in advance.

Our story begins in the morning. I, Hisao Oota, a first year high school student at Megugami High School, had come down the stairs and walked into the kitchen where my parents were having breakfast. On my way, my eyes were caught by the hallway mirror and I couldn't help but stop to check one last time if I couldn't take care of an annoying zit beneath my nose. It wasn't like anyone could see it, but I just couldn't ignore the feeling it left, and I had to get rid of it. I was in the middle of pressing my fingers down against my upper lip when my mom called out to me.

"Hey! Hurry it up!" she shouted after sticking her head out of the kitchen. "You'll be late for school! Look! you're keeping Yuna waiting. We can't have her late on her first day!"

She pointed her spatula at the girl sitting adjacent from my old man, quietly munching on some toast as she stared blankly ahead with dull, frankly soulless, eyes. That girl is my cousin, Yuna.

Now you might be wondering why a cousin of mine would be having breakfast at my house, or why her first day of high school would be today even though summer vacation was just around the corner. I didn't really know much myself, at the time. And I thought it'd be better not to ask. All I did know was that before a month ago, Yuna had been staying at a hospital. As for her parents, it became pretty obvious that they weren't alive anymore after a month of no mention of them.

I gave my cousin a quick glance as I passed by her to the last free seat at the table. Today's breakfast was bacon, eggs and toast, a standard breakfast, but one of my favorites. While we all ate together, we said nothing and minded our own business. I had my smartphone out to take care of my games' login bonuses for the day. 

A soft growl came from my mom, and I could feel her eyes drilling a hole into me. She sent me a clear telepathic message to me through those eyes. "Talk to her already!" she must be thinking. But it was not something I could oblige. 

It wasn't that I hated Yuna or looked down on her, or anything like that. I was just not much of a talker. I'm what professional psychologists would call an introvert, and someone who has a hard time taking the initiative on my own. But being an introvert wasn't the only reason I couldn't have a chat with Yuna, which I'm sure you'll learn about later on.

As soon as we were done with breakfast, me and Yuna grabbed our book bags and were out the door. 

"We're heading out now!" I announced at the front door.

My folks responded together, "Have a safe trip!"

Our humble house wasn't that far away from the school, so we took our time strolling together among the river of other teenagers wearing school uniforms like we were except in different colors and styles based on the school they're enrolled. Our town isn't exactly big, but it's not really small either. There were plenty of schools all around, each with their own colors and symbols.

Eventually, we all took separate paths. Our path, mine and Yuna's, took us across a bridge over a small canal and past an old inn that's been around for close to a hundred years. As always, the black road we took was quiet. And yes, even with the hustle and bustle of dozens of high schoolers, I thought the short trip was quiet. Although sometimes, someone would come up to me and say, "Yo! Mornin', CSC!"

I would reply back with, "G'morning!" with a friendly smile. I might be an introvert, but I wasn't totally antisocial. And in case you're wondering why I was called CSC, it's because in English, the name of the afterschool club I'm a part of is called the "Community Service Club". But you already knew that.

My school, and Yuna's starting today, is Megugami High School. It's one of the more larger schools in town with its own soccer field and tennis court outside in addition to the gymnasium/auditorium. But that said, it's not all that large so all the sports club have to share those spaces with a rotating schedule. Not that it mattered to me since I'm not in a sports club.

The first thing I did upon arriving to school was to take Yuna to the teacher's office and introduced her to our homeroom teacher. After leaving her in the teacher's care, I made my way to Room 1-7 where most of my classmates had already arrived and settled down. There was still some time before the class bell, so I took out my smartphone to do a little grinding to level up my game character. I wanted to get it ready in time for the next part of the game's main story.

When the bell ran and the teacher walked in with Yuna following closely behind, it was the usual morning routine. The class rep ordered everyone to rise and then bow. We all said good morning to the teacher and then sat back down after the teacher returned our greeting.

"Today, we're going to have a new friend joining us," he said. "This is Yuna, Hisao's cousin. You'll have to forgive her for not greeting you herself. Unfortunately, she's unable to talk."

I could see my classmates all exchange looks. Some appeared surprised while others had unreadable faces.

"Now, I just want to let you all know that even though she can't talk, that doesn't mean you should treat her any differently from anyone else," the teacher continued on. "She can still understand us just fine and can answer any question, either on the blackboard or with a notepad.

"Anyway, for now, since you two are cousins, why don't you sit next to Hisao, Yuna?"

Yuna wordlessly nodded to the teacher and slowly trudged towards me. As she passed them by, I noticed some students looking her way. It was hard to tell if she noticed or not, given how stony her face was. After taking the seat left of mine, she glanced at me with a blank look, nodded "hello" and then turned to face the teacher as he read from the morning announcement paper.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We listened to the teachers lecture, took down notes, and had lunch. As usual, whenever I had free time, I was on my phone. But that's not to say I wasn't looking out for Yuna. Every few seconds, I would glance at her just to see how she was doing. Some of the classroom girls decided to try and talk to her. Yuna, of course, had to use a notepad or her phone to answer back, but it seemed to be going well. But when the subject of clubs came up and Yuna looked at a loss, I paused my game, put down my phone and stepped in.

"Sorry, but she's going to be checking out the CSC," I said to the girls. 

It was already decided that Yuna would be coming with me to the Community Service Club. My parents tried talking to her about clubs before, but apparently, she wasn't interested in anything particular. So my mom pushed me to introduce her to the CSC. 

There are plenty of places in the school where clubs could gather. The sports clubs obviously had the fields and the gym. Some clubs are lent classrooms. But for many clubs, there's a special wing of the school full of rooms for them to use. One of those rooms is used by the CSC, which was where I took Yuna once classes were over for the day.

It's a pretty small room, even smaller than my bedroom. But there's at least enough space for around five people to sit around a table and chat. 

"Right now, including me, there are four people in the club," I said to Yuna as we headed down the hall. "There's the club president, the vice-club president, me, and another first year like us. I'll introduce them to you once we get to the clubroom."

Yuna looked at me and nodded.

When we reached a door with a sign plate that read, "CSC," I announced, "Here we are!" and reached to open it.

Now, our clubroom was pretty small. I'd estimate it was about three-fourths the size of my bedroom. But there was at least enough space for five people to just sit around a cluster of desks and chat. And even if the lights were off, the room was normally plenty bright from the sunlight let into the room. That's why, when I opened the door a crack, I thought that it was really weird that it was so dark inside.

I hesitated to open the door further, but after looking back at Yuna who was waiting for me to let her in, I took a deep breath and pushed the door all the way open. At the same time, I flipped the light switch on. White light instantly bathed the room and showed, standing right in front of the black curtains was a boy wearing a long black cape with a high collar, like a vampire's. His head was covered by an elephant plushie costume.

"MWA HA HA HA!" the boy laughed. I could tell he was a boy from the uniform he was wearing. "Welcome to my lair of darkness! I've been expecting y-!"

I slammed the door shut.

Yuna looked at me, as if to ask, "What the hell was that?" But I could not answer that question.

Suddenly, an apathetic girl called out to us, going, "Hey! What're you all standing outside the door for?"

"Oh, hey Omoyo-senpai," I said. For all you foreigners out there, kids in Japan call their school seniors senpai.

The girl who called out to us was Homura Omoyo, a second year student, and the vice-president of the club. She looks tomboyish and sporty and usually had her long hair tied in a ponytail, except for some bangs that she left hanging over her left eye. She was accompanied by another girl who was a head shorter and had a bobbed haircut.

"Oh?" Omoyo looked at Yuna. "There's a face I don't recognize. Is this the cousin you were talking about Oota?"

"Yeah," I replied. "This is Yuna Oota, my cousin."

"Oh, hey," Omoyo said. "Nice to meet you. I'm Homura Omoyo. You can call me however you like, but most people just call me Omoyo. Since we already ahve an Oota, you don't mind if I call you by your first name instead, do you?"

Yuna shook her head and pulled out her smartphone to type in it. When she was done, she showed the screen to Omoyo, which read, "I don't mind. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all ours," said the girl with the bobbed haircut. "My name is Aika Isaneko. I'm a first year like you, but from a different class."

The girls bowed to each other and then Isaneko turned to me and asked, "By the way, Oota, why are you and your cousin just standing around outside? Is there trouble with the door. You have your own key, after all, so you should be able to get in just fine on your own."

Rather than explain myself, I thought it'd be better to just show the girls, so I had them stand at the door while I placed myself beside it. That way they had a clear view of what was inside when I opened it.

The guy inside still had that elephant head on and laughed again, "MWA HA HA! Welcome to my lair of darkness!" he said again. "I've been expecting you, Yuna Oota! Excellent work bringing her here, my underling Hisao!"

Yep, no doubt about it, I thought. The guy in the elephant head and vampire cape was definitely the club president, Toshiro Mirai.

With a groan, Omoyo asked Mirai, "Seriously, Toshi? Don't you ever get tired of these shenanigans?"

"Ha ha ha," the president laughed dramatically. "Nope! I don't ever get tired of this. Not. At. All!" 

As you could see, he's a bit funny in the head with a flair for drama and delusions. Looking at him, you wouldn't believe that he was the one who started the CSC in the first place. But that wasn't the only unbelievable thing about him.

"Anyway, it looks like everyone's here!" he said. He took off the elephant head and set it down on the table. Honestly, he was a very handsome guy. He'd be really popular if he'd just drop the weirdo act. "Then get seated! You can sit wherever you want. That goes for you too, Miss Oota."

Slowly, we all piled into the room and took our seats around the table. I couldn't blame Yuna for being hesitant as she walked inside. If I had run into a weirdo wearing an elephant plushie head in the clubroom on my first day here, I'd turn, run and never come back. But I had to hand it to her for sticking around. It impressed me and made me think that she was a lot braver than she appeared.

Once she sat down next to me, we began. 

"So, first of all, I'd like to give Yuna Oota a warm welcome to our humble clubroom," he said. "Now, I'm sure that Hisao has told you everything about what we do here, so let's - !"

"Uh," I cut in. "I actually didn't explain everything."

Mirai looked at me and went, "Oh? And what didn't you explain, Underling Hisao?"

"Well, I told her about the volunteer work we do, picking up trash and all that," I said. "But the other stuff . . ."

"I see," Mirai said. "Say no more, compatriot! I understand. Then we will start with that. Lady Isaneko, if you will."

"Oh, very well," said Isaneko, getting up. She walked over to Yuna and held up her hand. Yuna looked at her with a puzzled look on her face, but Isaneko just smiled. "Please pay attention, Miss Yuna."

Yuna looked at Isaneko's hand and then at me, but I just shrugged and said, "Just wait and see."

So she did. She looked intently at Isaneko's outstretched hand and a second later, a cup flew into her hand. It was followed by a pink mechanical pencil, a blue pen, and a ruler. The blue pen flew out of the cup later and landed right in front of Yuna alongside a sheet of paper with the words "Club Application Form" printed at the top.

Yuna stared at the paper and pen and then stared at Isaneko as she made three erasers orbit around her head. My cousin was clearly astonished.

"As you can see, Lady Isaneko here has the power of telekinesis," Mirai said. "In other words, she has the power to move things with her mind. She has a superpower. And she's not the only one. Underling Hisao, Homura, and myself all have special powers. Although only Underling Hisao and Lady Isaneko are Kinetic Type. Oh, by the way, there are a lot of different kinds of superpowers out there, but they can be split into two main types, Kinetic and Sensory. Kinetic Types are superpowers that make things happen like shooting fire from your hands, moving things with your mind, that sort of thing. Sensory Type powers lets its users know things they would normally never know, like mind reading or seeing into the future.

"By the way, I'm a Sensory Type, same with Homura. My power is the power to see the future. But I can only see up to fifteen minutes ahead at most. Homura is an Empath, someone who can tell what others are feeling, no matter how well they try to hide it.

"In other words, we're not just some ordinary high school club full of ordinary high schoolers. We're a superpowered club full of superpowered high schoolers. And I can give you superpowers too, if you join us. What do you say?"

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