敗者の物語！Volume 1 [Eng]

I sighed deeply as I looked up at the school building; it did not look too different from my last school, but something about it felt so unfamiliar.
The students were scattered around the courtyard outside the school, each of them drifted into various social groups.

I could tell they were all whispering about me, but I couldn't make out what they were saying.

My entire life I had always been a loser, but finally I had an opportunity to change that. I was at a whole new school, with whole new strangers and a whole new start - I could really just create whatever impression on people I wanted.

As I walked into the class, the teacher rose up and smiled at me. He was a middle-aged man with thick glasses and a moustache.

"Now, class, we have a brand new student! Taisuke Hayashi! He's just transferred here from southern Japan. Anything you'd like to say, Taisuke?"

I froze on the spot as everyone's eyes fixed on me. I had to try and create a good impression on people.

"I-I'm just a... A cool guy." I said, immediately realising how awful my choice of words was and cringing shamefully as I found my seat.

Nobody seemed to really care about my new presence. It was almost as if I wasn't even there.

As the lesson continued, I started to have my eye drawn to a girl sitting in the corner by the window. She had long, jet-black hair, and a very delicate frame.
She kept glancing over towards me every few seconds, then embarrassingly turning back again when she had realised I'd noticed her.

I wasn't sure what this strange girl wanted, but after the lesson was over I decided to follow her and introduce myself.

She made her way past where the other students spent their lunch, round the back of the school until she arrived at an old wooden shack, covered partly by plants.

She approached the door, but being as clumsy as I was, I lost my footing and her head darted towards me like a shocked rabbit in headlights.

"Y-you! What are you doing here!?"

I was speechless, stammering for words, as I came crashing down towards her. I tried to hold my hands out to grab something, but to my dismay the thing I managed to grab were this girl's breasts. Blushing and with an expression of shock on her face, she kicked me across the ground.

"Get off me!! Did you follow me here? Pervert!"

"N-no! You've got it wrong!"

She marched towards me, fuming.

"Well? Explain yourself."

The door behind her opened, and a girl with chestnut brown hair poked her head around inquisitively.

"Who's this, Miyako?"

"Some pervert who decided to follow me here."

The girl smiled at me. "Sorry about her, she has a tempter. Who're you?"

I tried to collect myself. "T-Taisuke Hayashi, I'm new."

"Oh, right, I know you. I've seen you around school. Why were you following Miyako?"

Miyako glared at me. "He tried grabbing my boobs, too! I say we have this pervert hanged!"

"Well, She kept staring at me during class, I was just going to say hi." I stammered, trying to protect my case.

Miyako blushed, the other girl smiled.

"Is that so? Why exactly were you staring at him?" She giggled teasingly at Miyako.

"You said we should try and find new members." She trailed off, clearly rather embarrassed.

"Members?" I asked.

The girl stepped out of the shack, and immediately I couldn't help but be drawn to her breats; they were much larger than any girl I'd ever seen.

"Yes. This is our club."

"C-club?"

"Yes! Our club for losers!"

"L-losers?"


~

CHAPTER TWO

"How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Sen Mitsuya."

"Hey."

She smiled at me.

"Would you like to join our club?"

"S-sure."

The Miyako girl looked at me again.

"You really want to? We are called the losers club, after all."

"It's fine. I just want to make some new friends."

"Perfect!" Mitsuya-chan gestured me inside, I followed.

The room had been kitted out with a carpet, comfy sofas, coloured lights and an old TV. It looked quite impressive.

"What is this place, exactly?"

"It used to be the old janitor's quarters, but they moved him into the building. Just took a little sprucing up and now it's our HQ!"

"HQ, Huh?"

"Indeed!"

I noticed another girl, one with mid-length silver hair, sat on a sofa reading manga.

"Who's that?"

"That's Kaiya Arakaki. She doesn't talk much."

"Oh."

"So, you're now a member of the loser's club! How does it feel?"

I wasn't quite sure what to say. I really wanted to crush my reputation of being a loser, but everyone in the club seemed friendly.

"Great!" I said at length. Sen smiled.

"That's great! Now, I have a mission I'd like everyone here to attempt today. We need at least one new member."

"We have him." Miyako said bluntly, pointing at me.

"That's good, but this club will function best with five members. See if any of you can find someone and report back at the end of the day!"

Quite coincidentally the bell rung to indicate lunch was over. Everyone exited the room and all wandered off to class.

It seemed like Miyako was in most of my classes, as we once again ended up waiting outside the same room.

"Sorry... I-If I was rude earlier."

"That's fine."

"I guess I'm not so prepared for new members. You know it's just been us three for a year?"

They'd had this club a whole year?

"Sorry for intruding."

She smiled, slightly embarrassed. "No, no! It's actually nice to have a new face around the club."

It was almost as if Miyako realised she was being a little too nice for her liking, and immediately shook it off.

"B-but no perverted stuff!"

I laughed. "Of course not, Miyako."

She went red.

"It's Uoya-chan to you!"

Class went extra slowly. Me and Miyako shared a couple of glances but ultimately she treated me as a stranger.

I couldn't see anyone in the class who could be a potential new member for the club. Everyone seemed to be set firmly in their own social groups. Hopefully the others had had better luck.

At the end of the lesson our teacher's tone lightened up.

"Now, class, next week is the school festival, and we need to pick a new class president to make sure everything runs smoothly. Over the next week I'll be monitoring all of your behaviour and choosing a candidate accordingly, so be on your best behaviour!"

The sun was beginning to set and paint the sky a nice shade of purple as I found my way back to the secluded 'HQ', as Sen insisted on calling it.

Miyako and Kaiya were the only two there,
Miyako kicking her feet against the wall and Kaiya still sitting in the same spot and reading manga.

"Where's Sen?" I asked as I sat down myself.

"How should I know? She's not here yet."

Just as Miyako said this the door burst open.

"I found a new member!" Sen-chan announced as she marched through the door. I looked up as a girl with shortish pink hair followed her, holding a bowl of ramen and eating it noisily.

"Who's this?" Miyako inquired.

"Michiru Momotari!"

The girl smiled and waved, through her mouthful of noodles trying to say "hey, everyone!"

"I found her in the cafeteria. She said she would be interested in joining."

Michiru came and sat next to me, her face cheery and warm.

"What's your name?"

"I'm Taisuke Hayashi. Nice to meet you."

As I held my hand out, Michiru opened wide and from the depths of her stomach erupted a long, loud roar of a belch.
The warm smell of ramen wafted over me as she blushed and flapped her hand around to diffuse the smell.

"I apologise, I apologise!"

"It's alright."

"That wasn't nearly loud enough!" She giggled, before burping again and giggling some more. This girl certainly didn't care for manners.

She got up to go and greet the others, the disgusting smell still lingering around me a bit. Sen came over.

"Forgot to warn you, she's a bit gassy. She wouldn't stop burping all the way here." She whispered to me with a smile.

"I could see."

"If she asks you to pull her finger, please don't."

I was puzzled, but before I could ask what she meant Sen left me and pulled out an old blackboard, clearing her throat.

"Okay! Now let's get to business as we have all our members."

"Business?" Kaiya asked.

"Yes. We haven't even told our new members what our club's objective is!"

"We have one?" I asked.

"Yes! Considering we've all been deemed losers, it's our mission to try and increase our popularity and notoriety in the school. It's been our mission since this club's inception!"

"How do we do that?" Michiru asked; finishing her ramen, she pulled a large bag of prawn crackers from her pocket and started eating.

"As you should all know, next week is the annual school festival. There will be activities, stalls, and all sorts of things hosted around the school."

"How does that help us?" Miyako asked, crossing her arms.

"Well, I spoke to class 2-B's president, Iyata Monoko, who is running the event, and she said we can run something in the cafeteria."

"Cafeteria! That means food, right?!" Michiru piped up enthusiastically.

"Lots of food!" Sen smiled, "but we need to decide what to do. Any ideas?"

"We could decorate the cafeteria in a traditional Japanese style; all wear kimonos and serve traditional dishes." Miyako suggested.

"That's a great idea!" Sen wrote it down.

"Eating contest!" Michiru suggested excitedly. "We can offer a prize and everything!"

Sen also wrote that down.

Kaiya, having stayed mostly silent the entire time, seemed to smile and look up.
"We could have a cosplay cafe. I'm sure students would like that. It can be just like all the ones in Akhihabara!"

Sen nodded and wrote that down also.

She turned to me.

"Do you have any ideas?"

"I-I'm not so sure, really. I like the other ideas that were suggested, I think... What if we combined all three?"

"Hmm... I suppose that would work, and we'd have more options for the students, too. Yes, let's do that!"

She wrote some more notes on the chalkboard before signing and putting the chalk down.

"Now, Let's celebrate the new members with this!" Sen produced what looked like a very expensive bottle of champagne, taking out five flute glasses.

"Ooh! Ooh! Let me open it!" Michiru jumped up and down like an excited child.

Sen handed her the bottle and opener, and with a loud pop it was open. Sen poured it into all five glasses and we started to drink.

"It's been a successful day! We've made lots of new members!" Sen smiled. We all raised our drinks, and amongst the chatter was a low, rumbling brassy blare;

-Brrrrrrrrrrrummpt-

We all looked at Michiru, who was innocently waving her hands behind her butt.

"Oh, Michiru! You didn't!" Sen held her nose.

Miyako backed away. "Ewwww."

"Michiru-chan, that stinks! Someone open a window!"

Michiru just laughed. "Sorry, prawn gives me gas!"

"It smells like off milk." Kaiya commented bluntly, holding her jumper over her nose.

The girls all coughed, myself included, but I couldn't help but laugh.


~~


CHAPTER THREE

When I arrived at the HQ the next day at lunch, I was greeted by the girls wearing various outfits. Miyako was in a kimono, as was Sen. Michiru was wearing some sort of cat outfit consisting of ears and a tail. Kaiya was sitting contently dressed in some sort of elaborate outfit which I could only assume was from some manga.

Sen smiled broadly as I entered.

"What kept you? We're trying costumes on. We need to start preparing, after all."

"We are?"

"Yeah!" Michiru cut in. "You should go get your kimono on and join us!"

"I'll show you where it is." Sen smiled.

I followed her to another room at the back of the shack. Inside was a blue kimono laid on the floor. She closed the door behind us.

"Have you... Ever worn one before?"

She seemed nervous.

"Of course."

She held it out to me. "Do you want me to help you try it on?" Her voice seemed smooth and seductive.

I wasn't sure how to respond, and my lack of an answer seemed to convey something to her. She shook herself and started laughing nervously.

"Of course, I'm joking! You know how to put on a kimono, you're not a kid!"

Jeez, she was really stumbling over herself about something.
Sen slipped out and I got changed. As I walked back to the main room I was greeted by various gasps, most audibly from Michiru.

"You look great in that, Taisuke-Kun!" She cried.

Kun?

"Now, we need to put up some flyers so people will know what the dress code is. Kaiya, can you and Taisuke-Kun go do that?"

There was that kun stuff again...

She nodded, and the two of us left the others.

The journey around was mostly silent. I felt as if it was awkward, but Kaiya seemed to be silent a lot of the time.

As we reached the roof, I decided to try and spark some conversation.

"So... You like manga?"

She looked round at me sternly. She was clearly onto me.

"I hate small talk." Is all she said.

"Oh.. Sorry."

"Don't be. Norms like you can only resort to something as trivial and meaningless, but that's okay."

I couldn't really tell if she was being insulting or not.

"N-norms?"

"Norms. People like you. Normal people. It's a contraction."

"N-normal people?"

"I'm not like other people. I have abilities."

"What sort of abilities?"

She suddenly turned at me and pointed with a smirk.

"I'm an extraterrestrial being from another world. I didn't have human parents; I spawned from a meteor that broke into the atmosphere. I was sent to learn about humans and their lifestyle, and gather information."

I was a little speechless. The way in which Kaiya had told me this made me really believe she believed it to be true. She was certainly an odd girl.

"What sort of information do you need to collect?"

"Everything. Culture, mannerisms, idioms, customs and simply the human nature and its conventions. It's an arduous task, sure, but I can hold it up."

"You sure you can? Humans are very diverse."

"That's what makes it more fun." She smiled at me.

"A-anyway, norm, we'd better get back to putting up these flyers."

There wasn't another word spoken during the rest of our time together, but I felt like she was more comfortable with my presence now.

~~

"You guys took forever!"

"Sorry, there were a lot of flyers to put up."

"Well, at least now people should get the idea. The loser club is on its way up!"

We met again after school, this time the girls were out of their outfits.

"I heard people talking about the costumes. It's spreading around school." Miyako said happily.

"Excellent!" Sen added. "We still have a lot to organise, but I think if we all work hard enough at it we can do it!"

Everyone cheered.

We may have been a club of 'losers', but I was really starting to feel a sense of companionship between us, and we'd only all just met yesterday.

Michiru rushed over to me, her hand held out.

"Hey! Hey! Taisuke, pull my finger!"

"Noo!" Sen and Miyako cried as they ran over to stop me.

~~

Sen decided to walk home my way when the day was over. She seemed far less talkative when the two of us were alone, but eventually she started to talk.

"So... Did you get on with Kaiya earlier?"

"Yeah, she's an interesting girl."

"Interesting is right. I guess she told you the alien stuff."

"Yeah... Is that... True?"

Sen stopped as we reached the top of the hill, the sun setting warmly over the city.

"She believes it's true. Her parents died when she was only a baby. Car accident. She grew up in an orphanage, but of course she didn't really know what was going on, so she created this story for herself. She thinks that instead of having parents, she's some kind of alien. Of course it makes her happy, so there's no reason to tell her otherwise."

"Oh.. Is she okay?"

Sen smiled. "She's fine. She doesn't even know what happened to her parents, and she never even knew them, so it's not a problem."

There was a moment of silence.

"The sunset's really beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

The awkward silence returned; Sen shuffled uneasily on her feet, staring at the ground, until without any kind of warning she threw herself at me, wrapping her arms around my shoulders as she pulled me into a kiss.

I froze on the spot, not knowing what to say as I felt her tongue explore my mouth. It only lasted an instant, and Sen pulled away, blushing deep Crimson as she quietly added a "thank you." And ran off. I tried to call her, but she was gone.