False Record and Brilliant Smiles

False Record and Brilliant Smiles

It barely took any time for the Sanshuu Middle Hero Club to become an enormous family of 32 people.
The three elementary schoolers were in the lounge of the school dormitory, observing a certain something from the shadows.

“We… really should not be doing this.”

The diligent and serious Washio Sumi had yet to accept what they were doing.

“Whoa, that’s awesome! I’ve never seen her do that move before!”

The voice from her side came from the ever-lively Minowa Gin, known also as the Fireball Girl, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Wasshi, Mino-san! Shhh!”

Trying to silence her two friends all while running her pencil across the pages of her notebook was Nogi Sonoko, the girl who tiptoed the line between genius and weirdo.

“Waaah! Gun-chan, help!”

“Takashima-san, I’m coming!”

The scenery the elementary girls were secretly observing was that of a horde of zombies scattering to dust under intense gunfire, contained in a large TV.

“Thanks! You rock, Gun-chan!”

“Not worth mentioning. Here’s a medkit for you.”

Takashima Yuuna and Koori Chikage were evidently enjoying the game they just bought. But for some reason, the slightly flushed Hanamoto Yoshika next to them was shedding emotional tears at the horror game.

“Ah… Koori-sama protecting Takashima-sama… Like a steadfast guardian… God bless these zombies!”

For the girl who had an unceasing adoration for Chikage, it was a perfectly normal reaction.

“God bless zombies…? That doesn’t sound right.”

“I agree. Surely we could use a Japanese word for the living dead instead?”

Gin and Sumi exchanged their completely disconnected thoughts on the matter in whispers.

“I’m done!”

Seemingly done writing something in the meanwhile, Sonoko showed the contents of her notebook to the other two.

“As she sung praises to god, Hana’s heart beat fiercely with feelings for the one closest to her god. Yet at the same time, that was an act of betrayal to the god Hana loved so much. “Ah, what am I to do!?” Hana’s glasses went cloudy from the dangerous love she felt.”

“Hey, hey, hey! What the hell is this!?”

“This is a complete fabrication!”

True enough, the text made it sound like Yoshika secretly harboured affection for Takashima.

But that was the Bleep Note. The fruit of Sonoko’s imagination, where the Hero Club’s flirting and desires were sweetly embellished and bleeped up for good measure. The truthfulness of it was not relevant.

Sonoko’s attention span usually darted all over the place, but only when writing in her note did she display incredible concentration. That’s why she failed to notice. To notice the approaching Takashima.

“What are you writing?”

Three “Gyah!” rung out in unison and the elementary schoolers jumped up. The notebook caught Takashima’s eye.

“...If the word comes out that Hana is in love with me, her life will be cut short by the god’s scythe. So I have no choice but to continue offering her my false love…Hmmm?”

“Scythe… God… Wait, is that about me!?”

Naturally, Chikage heard everything Takashima read out.

“H-Hanamoto-san is in l-l-love with T-T-Takashima-san!? T-T-Takashima-sa… F-False love!?”

Chikage was shaking with a miserable expression that made it look like she was about to drop dead on the spot.

“A-A-A-Absolutely out of the question! Someone like me could never *cough cough* Takashima-sama!”

Yoshika started choking from the shock and was trying to adjust her glasses with every oncoming cough. Takashima looked around, confused.

“Huh? You mean this is about us?”

“Wah! No no, not at all! This is, uh, well, that… Just kidding!”

You could always count on Minowa Gin in cases like those. She grabbed Sonoko and Sumi and immediately dashed away with them in tow.

“Oh, you were just kidding!”

Takashima laughed, as the teary-eyed Yoshika continued to ferociously shake her head in front of the pale-faced Chikage.

“Sonoko, what were you doing!?”

“But you understand how to take notes now, right?”

In a shocking turn of events, everything that had just transpired was supposedly meant to be a crash course on how to fill out the Bleep Note.

“Of course we don’t! And Gin, why did you run here of all places?”

Before they realised it, the three had run all the way to the coast. Catching their breath under the refreshing breeze, they looked around.

“Too sloppy, Miyoshi Karin! Haah!”

“Look who’s talking, Kusunoki Mebuki! Iyah!”

The loud clanking of wood on wood and the all-too-familiar full name basis reached their ears.

“Itsuki, don’t hold back. Swing at me and Mebuki whenever you want!”

“E-Even if I wanted to, you don’t have openings for me to do that…”

Unusually, Itsuki joined their training session that day, standing confused with a wooden sword in her hands, apparently having no idea what to do.

“Swing at me… Are you asking if I swing that way? Despite never letting your guard down? Stupid, oblivious Iwashi!”

“Wait, what are you even talking about!?”

Gin was confused by Sonoko, who immediately began writing. But Sonoko, being the bleeping tom she was, had already locked onto a new target.

“Whoa, Natsume, I got a pull!”

“Fuu, are you alright? I’ll help.”

The two third-years were enjoying some fishing, with Inubouzaki Fuu holding a fishing rod and Kohagura Natsume supporting her from behind.

“Kya! What’s with the sudden embrace from the back… Wadatsumi?”

“Nothing… Just marry me, Fuujin.”

“That’s way too sudden! Though, it doesn’t feel that out of place when you write it like that…”

“That’s because… it’s those two.”

To the eyes of an elementary schooler, middle school third-years were essentially adults. Sumi and Gin tenuously agreed.

“Mebuki-senpai! I brought some cold barley tea! Keep it up!”

An angelic figure bearing a radiant smile said in a voice resemblant to the sound of a windchime. The personified conscience of the Hero Club, Kokudo Aya.

“Thanks, Aya-chan.”

“Don’t get distracted!”

Karin didn’t fail to capitalise on Mebuki’s momentarily dropped guard, and Sonoko didn’t fail to take note of that either.

“Keep your eyes on me, not on the angel! Same goes for you, Fuujin! If you want to fish, Iwashi (sardine) is right here! Hang me up to dry with love, and I’ll turn into something delicious!”

“Okay, you’re just messing around at this point.”

“Sonocchi, what exactly do you see Karin-san as?”

“Someone with a bit too many options?”

Faced with a question in return, Sumi and Gin both fixed their gazes on Karin.

“Karin-senpai, you keep it up too!”

“Whatever, I’ll just start cheering too. Karin-san, keep it up!”

“Eh? U-Uh, right… Thanks.”

Karin was left flushed and defenceless by her cute juniors’ support, but Mebuki didn’t attack and simply grinned.

“Yeah, I guess you have a point…” Sumi and Gin nodded.
“If only we had more people here, then we could’ve seen some perfect, omnidirectional bleeping. What a shame.”

Sumi breathed out in relief, thankful for how few people there were. If the “one with too many options” found out about the title she was given, the three of them were in for a world of pain.

“Okay, let’s move somewhere else. I need the two of you to observe some quality flirting so you can become professional bleepists.”

“I’d rather not, thank you.”

“Come on, Sumi, don’t say that. Doesn’t it sound cool? Like “pianist”!”

“Not at all!”

Evidently, Sonoko wanted the two of them to join her pastime. Gin was easy to convince even if she didn’t understand what they were doing, but Sumi had qualms about peeping on people to begin with and puffed up her cheeks in protest. Though, in the end, Sumi would end up tagging along the two of them anyway.

“I smell a big catch!”

“I smell trouble, personally…”

Sumi had every reason to believe so. In front of them should’ve been Shiratori Utano and Fujimori Mito, the pair the club president herself called a silly couple. However…

“Huh? What are they doing here?”

“*Wheeze*… Haah… Utano-kun? Don’t you think that tilling this entire field is an endeavour entirely excessive?”

Fuyou Lilienthal Yuuna was slouched over, wheezing and swinging a hoe. Next to her, an unusually cheerful Yuzuki Yuuna. The thrifty Yuzuki was overcome with admiration for Utano, the very image of self-sufficiency, after coming to this world, and sometimes helped out at her fields in exchange for some of the produce.

“Keep at it, Lily. Your labour will come back as delicious vegetables. Though, tell me if it actually gets unbearable. Don’t want you collapsing on me.”

“Yu! Zu! Ki! Kun! I can bear this no longer!”

“You’re hopeless. Here, grab on.”

“”Ah… What a handsome peasant”, The Farming Queen, consort of the Farming King, felt her heart skip a beat.”

“Why is it from Mito-san’s perspective when she isn’t even here!?”

“But… She is, over there.”

Sumi pointed towards the healthily growing crops.

“Mii-chan, look how big the tomatoes got!”

“You’re right, they’re so pretty and bright red!”

“Not as pretty as you, though!”

“W-What’s that all of a sudden… Jeez.”

“I’m just telling the truth. Mii-chan, you’re all red like a tomato, that’s a-do-ra-ble!”

How highly “you’re more beautiful than a tomato” ranks on the list of compliments is up to debate.

“Jeez, Utanon, Utanon, Utanon!”

“Mii-chan, Mii-chan, Mii-chan!”

The elementary trio, Fuyou and Yuzuki stood spellbound, looking at Utano and Mito shouting each other’s names out loud without any context.

“And so, the King and Queen of Farming stood with tomatoes in their hands and poked at each other’s cheeks. And all lived happily ever after.”

“Surprisingly realistic.”

“Truth is bleepier than fiction!”

The astonishing Hero of Suwa, able to overwhelm even Sonoko’s fantasies.

On their way back, the three spotted an ice cream truck in the park. As luck would have it, the three Sentinels, Miroku Yumiko, Kagajou Suzume and Yamabushi Shizuku, were enjoying some ice cream right there.

“Commoner food can be quite enjoyable on occasion!”

“Miroku-san, commoner food is the only food you’ve ever tasted.”

“Su! Zu! Me! San!”

“Anything’s good when you’re eating with friends…”

Suzume’s provocation into Yumiko’s anger into Shizuku’s whispering - a formula of beauty. Noisy yet peaceful and heartwarming, their typical conversation put a smile on the elementary schooler’s faces.

“Ah, damn! I got some major brain freeze from that!”

The sudden pain made SHIZUKU switch places with Shizuku.

“I could go for some ramen right now. Piping hot!”

“Noodles after a dessert does not sound like any full-course meal I have ever heard of!”

“And I don’t have any chirping money left!”

With the conversation gaining volume again, Gin turned to Sonoko.

“There’s no way there’s anything bleepy about this, right?”

“Your instincts are softer than soft-serve!”

Sonoko’s right hand had already finished writing.

“Come on, I know you want to do it. To slurp on my noodle!”

The utterly bizarre wording of the following phrases left Sumi and Gin bewildered.

“Lady Bodhissatva already has a mandarin in me, so cooit it!”

“Would the two of you please stop? I belong to sir Skipjack, body and soul. There is room for neither ramen nor mandarins!”

“What’s with the “cooit” part?”

“I’m using a pigeon “coo” instead of chirping!”

“I think I’m getting a headache now…”

Right around that time, Sekka was airing out the club’s stockpile of outfits at the school’s sewing room. That being said, since the club often either traded its event outfits in for discounts at the textile store or took them apart to make into new ones, neither airing out nor storage were as hard as one would’ve expected. That’s why it was inevitable that Doi Tamako, who volunteered to help out, was quickly turned into a dress-up doll by Kiryuu Shizuka, Iyojima Anzu and Aki Masuzu who were also free at the time.

“Kya! Tamacchi-senpai, you’re adorable!”

“Sure is. Tamako, Tamako! Say cheese!”

“Gyah! Don’t take pictures!”

A few years ago Sekka would’ve found the commotion annoying, but for the present her it was quite pleasant.

“Secchi, what’s that?”

Shizuka pointed at the empty cookie tin filled with scraps of cloth.

“Scraps of cloth leftover from making outfits. They wouldn’t take those at the store, so I was keeping them in case they end up useful for something.”

“Ya sure have a lot here.”

Shizuka uncharacteristically thought to herself about how those pieces were, in essence, the fun times the Hero Club has had. The girls’ very dreams, taking the form of colourful scraps of cloth.

“You know, I’m… thinking of putting these into the time capsule.”

Sekka’s words brought back some memories for Shizuka.

Right after she and Miroku Renge were summoned, they learned about the plan to bury a time capsule in order to preserve their memories for the future. But the appearance of the neutral god right after the rebelling god left put a damper on the plan, and it was still yet to be put in action.

“I know they want to reorganise… But when will we finally get to do it?”

Sekka carefully closed the lid on the tin, mumbling to herself when Anzu and the others joined in, done with their dress-up.

“The timing of it… We’ve yet to work that out.”

“You said it. What if we get new members? Then what, we gotta dig it back up again?”

“Oh hey, how about this?”

Seeing Anzu and Tamako troubled, Masuzu, as a sister figure to them, saw it necessary to come up with a fresh suggestion.

“Why don’t we just bury stuff individually, one by one?”

“That ain’t happening! What, ya want the school grounds to be a minefield of weird containers?”

Shizuka’s outburst made everyone laugh for a moment, but then the room turned somewhat glum.

“Ta me… It’s important to leave memories behind, even if it’s a pain to dig it back up!”

“Agreed. And if we can, then, just like Yuuki-san said…”

In the past, Yuuki Yuuna firmly declared that she would remember no matter what. Those words stuck deeply with everyone, always reminding them to finish the project one day.

“We still have time, right? Until the final battle.”

“Like I know…”

The elementary schoolers were sitting in the hallway right outside the sewing room, hugging their knees. When they came back to the school building, the loud voices drew them in, but when the conversation went places they didn’t expect, it became hard to just walk into the room… So there they remained.

“I thought there would be something whoa-worthy here since Anzu-senpai sounded so excited…”

“That talk about the time capsule… I think it’d be better to do it ASAP, really. Since if the final boss suddenly jumps out at us, we’d just smack it into the ground in no time, haha.”

The bravado in Gin’s voice was palpable. Sumi hung her head.

“I want the fighting to end… But…”

Sumi didn’t finish her sentence. With the defeat of the neutral god, they would all be sent to their original eras. At the same time, that meant they would have to face whatever cruel fate was in store for them.

Sumi felt a lump form in her throat and tears swell up in her eyes.

“Wasshi…”

Sonoko could find no other words and simply frowned.

“Okay, we’re done here! No use thinking about it! Let’s use our muscles instead of our brains!”

Gin stood up with a wide grin all over her face. Every time her friends talked about returning, their faces turned grim. And Gin wanted her precious friends to always be smiling.

“Eh…”

The three of them came to the dojo to clear up their minds, but instead found a baffling scene. The scene in question was Nogi Wakaba standing with her arms crossed and the middle schooler Nogi Sonoko sitting on her knees in front of her. Akamine Yuuna, Miroku Renge, Tougou Mimori and Yuuki Yuuna were staring at the two with indescribable expressions on their faces.

“Hello, you came here together?”

Uesato Hinata called them out from behind their backs as if nothing unusual was happening. The unusual scenery only made her smile seem more threatening.

“Uh, what exactly is happening here?” Gin whispered to Hinata, when…

“I told you to cut it out with the notebook!”

Wakaba’s roaring shout made the situation crystal clear.

“That’s right, Sonoko. How could there be any jealousy between me, Renchi and Wakaba-san? Right, Renchi?”

“Heh, exactly. To think that Miroku would ever worry about someone other than Miroku herself is baseless conjecture. But…”

“But?”

“I can’t deny the possibility of you having some sort of misguided jealousy.”

“Huh!? What are you talking about!?

Middle schooler Sonoko, having two years on the elementary schooler one, naturally had a much thicker Bleep Note, and was a lot harder to deal with to boot.

“Sonocchi! You’ve really done it this time!”

Tougou followed up. Unusual, because normally she was on her side. Yuuna, unusually cheerful for the overall mood in the room, explained why.

“Yeah, Sono-chan, that’s rich! I mean, really? Tougou-san having a secret room in her house that’s all plastered with photos of me? Ahaha!”

“Yuuna-chan, that’s a complete lie, okay!?”

“I know! That’s a mystery novel with you as a villain, right? I mean, there’s no way you’d sneak into my room at night to look at my face for hours while I’m asleep!”

“Yes, yes, exactly! I would never do anything like that, Sonocchi!”

Tougou was enraged by the text describing her doing things one step removed from stalker behaviour, though there was hesitation in her words.

“And then there’s me and Hinata…”

It was finally Nogi Wakaba’s turn.

“How dare you call the two of us an old married couple!? We’re still in middle school!”

“That’s your problem!?”

The three elementary girls were baffled by how minor of an issue her fury was caused by.

“Now, now, Wakaba-chan, that’s not too bad. I think it’s actually a compliment to how close we are, heehee.”

“I think you’re all misunderstanding something…”

Sonoko, from her kneeling position, saw Hinata’s happy, flushed expression as a chance.

“I haven’t written anyone’s names in the Note! How did you even decide that it was written about you? Hey, how exactly?”

“What… did you say!?”

Everyone in the room was lost for words and could only squeeze “A… a… a…” out like a gathering of ghosts, whether because of anger or embarrassment.

“That was an unfair argument. Both you and Sonoko-san write your nonsense in such a way that it’s immediately obvious who you’re writing about.”

The trio slinked away from the dojo during the chaos and was recapping the events of the day in a room.

“It’s a rule of the Note to either use fake names or no names at all!”

“So you can make excuses when you’re busted just like at the dojo?”

“Yeah, of course. It’s a way to get out of trouble… or at least it was at first.”

“At first?”

Sonoko’s joking attitude suddenly disappeared. Gin and Sumi unconsciously straightened their backs.

“Remember how we all decided to bury a time capsule? That’s when me and Sonoko-senpai thought of something. That if we wrote down things that didn’t actually happen in reality and without using names, Shinju-sama could leave them as they are.”

“Ah…”

Sonoko brought up a hopeful line of reasoning that the club thought of a while ago. Something that didn’t have the possibility of bringing up memories that shouldn’t exist had a chance, if a slim one, to make it to the future.

“That’s why since that day we’ve been exaggerating even more in our writing and wording it as weirdly as we possibly can.”

“Why go this far…?”

“I don’t want our memories of how well we got along, how full of love everyone here was to just disappear. I want to preserve them, no matter the form.”

“Sonocchi…”

“But you were doing it with Sonoko-san, right? Why did you invite the two of us today?”

“I wanted the two of you to write as well…”

Despite the looks, the little Sonoko was the leader of the elementary girls. She might’ve instinctively realised that their final battle with the rebelling god was close, and wanted Sumi and Gin to preserve their own image of “how well everyone got along”, not just her own, in the time capsule. She thought that…

“I’ll remember better that way. If Nogi Sonoko sees the notebook, she’ll remember for sure. Remember the days spent with you two and the Hero Club. That’s what this precious, fake but real record is for!”

Nobody could’ve expected such a pure-hearted reason to have been beneath all of Sonoko’s mischief.

“I’ll write”, Sumi answered resolutely, having fully accepted the wishes of her dear friend.

“Eeh!? The ultra-serious Sumi, really?”

“Don’t make fun of me. I can fool around just fine if I apply myself!”

“Thanks, Wasshi!”

“For real…? Well, I guess I’ve got to buckle down too!”

Gin tightly hugged Sonoko with a mischievous grin before even finishing her words.

“If you only write about others and not about yourself, the Hero Club Bleep Note isn’t gonna complete, right? Love ya, Sonoko!”

“Me too, Mino-san! Wasshi, now’s your chance! Write it down, write it down!”

“Eeh? Wait a minute! Jeez! It’s not fair if it’s just you two!”

The flustered Sumi squeezed herself between her two friends, smiling.

“Wasshi, you’re a-do-ra-ble!”

“Hey, are you imitating Utano-san!?”

“You’re cuter than an eggplant, Sumi! Ahaha!”

The three laughed, huddled together.

Washio Sumi. Minowa Gin. Nogi Sonoko.

The three girls shouldered a burden of cruel fate. But they were playing around like any normal children and being happy like any normal friends.

The three of them might be Heroes. But their brilliant smiles will forever stay in their hearts.