Raifufirudo, Japan, in between Kyoto and another
similiarly small town, 1987.
Hitomi Eaheddo, a complete slacker, and general
loser in every regard, gets pressured into
taking the exam for his local prefecture's
best school.. but.. he decides to do something
astounding. Instead, he's going big time,
a high-end school in Tokyo.
Of course, his parents were not happy with
him in the slightest for leaving the community,
but.. he felt like the people in his junior
high school.. just weren't his type. As in,
too obnoxiously energetic.
Here's the thing though.. he never studied
for this exam. Other than going to classes,
and practically falling asleep every time
he couldn't pay attention, nothing really
boosted his smarts. He was confident he was
going to make it, despite not having the grades
to have said confidence.
The day of the exam, he realized he was running
late, ate some sugar cereal, ate his bread
on the day to the station, and rode it all
the way to.. the capital!
..But then he realized. All the other guys
seemed exactly like his old classmates, only
even more stuck up and obnoxious. He had truly
made the biggest mistake of his life. And
with that disappointment, he wrote the exam.
He hadn't a clue on what could possibly be
the right answers other than to the most basic
things. And math. But he always was good at
math.
He finished, walked out.. but realizing the
train wouldn't come until 4.. he.. kinda was
upset. But he held onto his bravado like a
champ!
Good thing that a schedule inconvienced him,
because he got to look at the female students,
all of them acting seemingly much more his
speed. Maybe, well, it wasn't a bad idea.
He'll just befriend the girls. Not really
date them or anything.. he's not like that..
Until one of them came to him. What the hell?
What's his neighbour Manami Shimomura doing
here? She had grown to be quite a keeper,
and kind of.. beautiful. Thing is, they're
childhood friends, and it'd be real weird
to date someone who lives right next to his
house. That's privacy invasion 101 right there!
'Oh hey Hitomi! Never thought you wanted to
come here of all places!'
'Yeah, I want some independence, and besides,
I need some new guy friends and a better life.'
'And.. have you found any of that yet?'
'..No.' He depressingly says.
'That's my Hitomi for ya! Picky and selective
when it comes to everything! Believe it or
not, this school is going to be perfect for
you.'
'Thanks! I never actually did any research
about the place.'
'Wait, you were going in blind?'
'Of course! I mean, I'm a proud member of
the go straight home club.. or board in this
case.. yeah, maybe I do need a club.'
'..I'll go get a list for you to read over.'
She goes back inside, while he just sits there
and waits. Once she gets back outside and
hands him the paper, she says:
'And when on earth are you going to ever let
me come over? I gotta make sure you don't
have any mags lying about!'
'What a funny joke Manami! You know I don't
do that thing at all.'
'So why on earth DO you keep them then?'
'Free sketching materials actually.'
'Wow, surprisingly innocent. Well, since we
got 30 minutes before we have to move to catch
the train, are you really proud of anything
you make so far?'
'No, it all feels dry, like it doesn't have
something you know? Just like my life.'
'Profound and also sad. Tell you what? I'm
coming over.'
'What? You can't do that out of the blue!
My parents will kill me!'
Manami teases Hitomi until 3:30 PM, which
they then take the route together to get back
home, and against all of his protests, she
comes over. They spend the evening playing
8-bit video games and looking at drawings.
She leaves at 9, and he doozes off into sleep.
It came to an utter shock, weeks later, when
he found out that he and Manami were the only
students to actually pass the test.. with
him somehow getting fantastic marks... meaning..
two student school.
This immensely disappointed him, even though
everyone on the street held a party in his
honour.
However, when he finally went to school..
he realized what two person school actually
meant. He and Manami are the only ones who
got boarding, meaning they have a whole complex
to themselves. However, that did not stop
students from attending.
To his horror, only 2 of the girls he saw
from the exam actually made it, and the women
who got in seemed to be.. strangely stuck
up just like everyone else.
At the end of March, Hitomi's entire friendbase
were athletic girls. He didn't have thoughts
for them, neither did they. To him, they were
like boy friends, the kind you hang out with,
phone, go to movies casually to see action
films, that kind of friendship. Hitomi remained
club-less. The year really seems to suck so
far.
But all that would change. To the shock of
everyone, an American transfer student by
the name of Alice Tanner showed up, in her
custom-made uniform. And.. it seemed very
obvious that she was, being feminine with
her words, always being ultra-confident and
snarky at times. That was in the first day
though. No interest in her was really gained
when she came in. It was only when she, like
himself, took playing volleyball in Phys.
Ed as casually as possible, did he figure
out something. She's got a small body, and
is perfectly aware of the fact. So, stressing
herself out would be a waste.
Well, until someone thought she was a pussy
and challenged her to a 1v1. That 1v1 showed
many things. First off, she was fantastic
at sports despite her chill attitude. Second,
her booty lit up the whole male side of the
room, and finally, she mauled the shit out
of the top jock in class. That put her on
a double pedestal, most sought after girl,
the boys were trying to flirt with her and
date her, as well as fantasizing about her.
The average slap rate of guys trying to hit
on her per day is on average 10 times.
The girls on the other hand, were very jealous,
except for Manami, who honestly is more concerned
about Hitomi's well-being than whether or
not Alice not having boobs is an unfair advantage.
To her, Alice was just another American idiot.
..Until she ended up getting the room in between
Manami and Hitomi, which had Manami barge
her way into her room, and call his parents.
Which had them call Hitomi and tell him not
to sneak into girl's rooms at night, or go
after women that want to take his flower.
Day 4 of Alice being at school. She now has
a fan club, all members of which were slapped
for trying to peek and snapshot her changing.
The other girl's are leading a coalition to
make sure she doesn't ruin their school lives
and are even running for class president as
a united party. However, Hitomi's circle is
practically unaffected. They still do exactly
what they keep doing, despite Manami spying
on Alice whenever she gets the chance. No
one's going to get past Hitomi's best friend
after all
Day 9 of Alice being in the school. Turns
out she's also club-less, but for some reason
shows up to the volleyball practices and whoops
people in 1v2s. It's a great time for the
boys to look at her volleyball butt without
being noticed, but despite them succeeding,
Manami takes the cameras away and burns them
in a campfire in June. She also wonders if
Hitomi is actually getting naughty feelings
like the other guys, and is afreaid puberty
might change him too much.. but he's just
off playing his 8 bit games that day, with
Susumu, his first new (girl) friend this time.
He mostly treats her like a guy, and they
both are entertained. Manami checks on the
two, and they're far away from each other,
appropriately clothed, and with Susumu wanting
to sleep in his bathroom instead of by him.
Day 13 of Alice being at school. The fan club
has grown bigger and bigger, and the school
is now on an electoral civil war, those who
think Alice is a goddess, and those who think
Alice is a bad influence. Alice very clearly..
doesn't care, and moves. Also Susumu and Alice
don't know how to swim. This pleases the guys
who wanted to look at Alice's butt once again,
but the girls are beginning to.. really not
like the lack of attention they're getting,
because they're doing a much better job. Hitomi
is planning a shopping trip with the 3 friends
he has, as well as continuing his sketches,
still thinking they don't have that something
he's looking for, but he still has no idea
what. That's the only thing stopping him from
being a mangaka already..
Day 14 of Alice being at school. Alice seems
to like comics and manga, anything with pictures.
She often goes to the library, takes out a
book, reads it inside her room, and the next
day, return it and get another. The fan club
often reads whatever she read yesterday in
hopes of being able to get her attention,
but at this point, Alice takes shortcuts to
avoid stalkers at all costs. Also, this is
the first time when Alice talk gets into Hitomi's
circle. They think the whole drama and obsession
is ridiculous and honestly pretty immature.
Alice is just a girl, not some super celebrity.
She deserves her own privacy too. They proceed
to laugh at ironic humour on TV right after.
Actually, today is when Susumu brings up that
she can't swim, bewildering everyone there.
For someone who happens to be great at basketball
and volleyball, she can't paddle? Oh well,
looks like they're going to have to help her.
It's April after all.
They get to the indoor pool, only to find
Ichino there. Wait, the bumpkin family kind
of Ichino?
'Hey guys! How's it going? Just swimming to
forget all this whacky drama, am I right?'
He then looks to Hitomi. 'Wow, I heard stories
about the legendary quiet kid from Raifufirudo!
I knew you could pull off some cool tricks
if you tried!'
'But we haven't even met you before..'
'Nonsense! To god, everyone is a neighbour
no matter what. Anyway, it's about 6.' he
thinks for a moment. 'Let me guess! Susumu
is trying to figure out how to swim? At a
girl!'
This guy sure is weird.. but strangely soothing.
They get into the pool, Mr. Ichino getting
out of the pool just to be nice, and Manami
holds Susumu by the hands. She seems to be
able to float pretty well, but her thing is
that she can't stand water in her nose, making
her be blinded by the water all the time.
So, the friend group tries a solution, by
putting some swimming googles on her. She
can see now, but the water in her nose is
bothering her again. Mr. Ichino still seems
to be cheering for her. Holy that guy is nice.
But, Susumu keeps trying, and trying, and
trying. Eventually, she is bothered by it
a little less, and they congratulate her for
it. They don't jokingly flirt since Mr. Ichino
is here, and he probably is holding a Christian
pool gathering.. but once they do get out,
he says something encouraging.
'If you guys are really worried about if you'll
be noticed, don't worry about it! I already
think you three girls are pretty cute, and
being blessed with a guy like Hitomi for a
friend is amazing.'
'Don't worry! We won't try to date him! He's
not into us!'
They jokingly say, as they leave the pool
and enter their gender locked changing rooms.
The three girls.. felt strangely warm for
some reason, and they had no clue why. However,
Manami gets praised for her swimming abilities,
but she says she's just average, ya know?
