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.
"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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