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?"

                                                                                                                                            ==> Next 

October Update

 Happy Halloween,  everybody! Hope you're all doing well. I'm . . . so-so, I guess. Had computer trouble (rest in peace), so my writing slowed down quite a lot. I still am writing though. I still have my smartphone, after all. I've made some progress on my latest Eternal Witch book. I've been focused on that one a lot lately, although I still have a Paladin Academy book still in the works. I'll really put my focus on that later, although there are still a lot of other things that need doing, like a redo of The Dandy Monsters, the online stories based on the Ben and Co. Universe, etc.

Anyway, that's what's been up with me. Stay safe out there, and happy reading!