Fuyou Yuuna wa Yuusha de nai - 1

Hero History Apocrypha - Part 2

Fuyou Yuuna is not a Hero

Chapter 1 - There is no time like the present.

A torii gate stood atop a mountain summit bathed in twilight air. Below it stood a girl. There was no one else there but the two of us. The girl had an ephemeral, mysterious air to her.

She looked at me and smiled.

"I've been waiting. I'm impressed that you figured out what my words meant and got all the way here."

That was how I met the girl named Fuyou Lilienthal Yuuna.

===

That day I opened my eyes at 6 in the morning, as I always did.

I was drenched in sweat. Even mornings could get sweltering in July.

."..I should start leaving the AC on at night."

I forced those words out loud in order to wake up and rose from my bed. I left my room and went to the kitchen.

An apartment in an old apartment complex in Kanonji city. That's where I lived, together with my mother.

I cleaned the floor up a little and put a slice of bread into the toaster. While waiting for the bread to toast up, I took eggs and bacon out of the fridge and made some fried eggs with bacon.

I put toast, fried eggs and milk on the table. I wasn't the kind to eat a lot in the morning or a demanding gourmet, so that kind of breakfast was plenty for me.

I turned on the TV, and just so happened to end up catching the weather forecast. The smiling lady on the screen with the weather map behind her said: "Today's weather will be sunny, and the temperature is expected to exceed 30 degrees during this midsummer day. According to the Taisha, there are no irregularities in Shinju-sama or the sea wall. Let's have another lovely day and make sure to look out for the heat!"

Listening to the voice coming out of the TV and putting bread in my mouth, I looked at the school application list I got from my school.

There were three spaces to write your preferred schools in, and all three of them were still empty.

I didn't even want to advance to high school anyway.

Unable to get myself to write down any preferred schools, I decided to at least fill in the name and date.

Year 29 of Divine Era, 2nd of July.

2nd year, 3rd class. Yuzuki Yuuna.


Yuuna.


I hated that name.

It's like a brand that signifies that you're supposed to be someone special.

But I wasn't special at all...

As I was thinking that, my mother came out of her room, yawning.

"Oh, Yuuna, good morning."

My mother just woke up and her hair was a mess.

"I made breakfast, so go wash up first."

"Alright, alright."

While Mom was washing her face and brushing her teeth, I made another serving of fried eggs, bacon and toast.

When she came out of the bathroom, I could see bags under her bloodshot eyes.

"Did you stay up late yesterday?" - I asked, and she nodded in response.

"The deadline for my manuscript is pretty close. But I'll be done by tomorrow."

My mother was a translator. She translated foreign literature from the old era - all sorts of genres, from novels to scientific papers - into Japanese.

Because of her job, she often stayed up late into the night and had issues waking up early. And because of that making breakfast was my job.

Mom noticed the school application list I left on the table.

"Preferred school list? Huh, you even have this in middle schools?"

"We do. But our teacher said this is just for reference since we're only 2nd years."

"I see. Well, you aim for any school you want, public or private. Don't worry about the money."

."..Okay."

I nodded in response.

I did the dishes, put on my uniform and went to school.

I left earlier than usual, so there was still time before the classes began.

I dropped by the Kotohira park, which was on the way to my middle school. The park is near the Ariake beach. When I got there, I could see people on their morning strolls here and there.

If you looked towards the sea, you would see the Ibukijima island and the horizon. And beyond the horizon, as far as the eye could see, stood a long, long wall.

That wall wasn't just off the coast of Ariake beach, no. It surrounded the entirety of Shikoku since before the era named the Divine Era - apparently, it suddenly appeared in year 2015 of the Christian Era, encircling Shikoku. And thanks to that wall, Shikoku was separated from the outside world.

It was said that since 2015, the only people who had ever went outside the barrier were special women, called Heroes and Mikos.

By the way, my name "Yuuna" was given to me in honour of one of the aforementioned Heroes. It was apparently a name given to people who made some specific action when they were born (what action exactly, I had no idea).

The Heroes were brave people who protected Shikoku from monsters called Vertexes around 30 years ago, or so they say.

I sat down on the beach and pulled the application list out of my school bag.

"Haaah..." - I let out a sigh.

I didn't want to go to high school. I wanted power.

If you asked me what exactly that "power" was, I couldn't give you a clear answer.

Probably the power to live on my own, without relying on anybody... Put bluntly, the power to earn money.

But I also couldn't help but feel that wasn't it.

I haven't had a father for as long as I remembered myself. I didn't know why I had no father, either. Mom kept telling me that she'd tell me when I grew up, but when exactly would that be? And what exactly qualified one as a grown up anyway?

The point is, my mother raised me alone since I was a child.

Raising a child on her own must've been difficult. Regardless of the circumstances, there must've been some negativity from the society because our family wasn't whole, accompanied by the monetary difficulties of raising a child.

But my mother had power. She was fluent in English, Spanish and Chinese and so could work as a translator. The numbers of translators fell catastrophically in the Divine Era, so my mother's power was valued greatly, which let her make a living.

Power... Because she had the power to earn money, Mom was able to proudly live by herself and raise me.

No matter what kind of life I would end up living in the future, as long as I had power, I could proudly walk through even the thorniest paths in life. But if I didn't have that power, I'd stumble over the smallest things and lead a miserable existence.

I wanted power.

If I had the leisure to spend on going to high school, I would rather do something to obtain power instead.

"Phew..."

I sighed again, for the second time that day.

In the end, I still couldn't get myself to write anything on the application list.

While I was spacing out on the beach, the time for classes to start was approaching. But hey, it wasn't even the deadline for submitting the application yet. I could think a little more. It was just the first school term too, so there must've been plenty others who hadn't submitted their lists either.

I stood up, brushed the sand off my skirt and headed to school.

My school was a short walk away from the Kotohira park.

By the way, I'd heard a rumour that all areas of Shikoku would be getting renamed in near time. I wondered if that would also cause places like my school, that had their names based on the local area, to get renamed as well.

Thinking about things like that, I passed through the school gates. As I was nearing the school building, a sheet of paper descended to the ground in front of me.

."..Eh?"

No, it was more than just one sheet. When I looked around, I saw countless sheets of paper raining from the sky like sakura petals.

I raised my head.

A small girl was standing at the edge of the rooftop and scattering those sheets of paper. She had a good-looking, almost doll-like face and unusual blonde hair with a hint of red to it. It was obvious even from afar that she was pretty.

But...

"Go against the tide! The abyss of truth about the wall, Shinju and the Heroes is being taken further away from us! We are not ignorant masses who can be kept in the dark! We should have the choice of facing the abyss or looking away from it! Those who wish to look into the abyss, assemble at my side!"

The things she was saying were incomprehensible and at a total contrast with her pretty looks.

As I looked up at the rooftop and wondered what was wrong with that girl, I saw two teachers appear on the rooftop. Using her small size, the girl slipped away from the teachers... then tripped and fell. She was then promptly caught by the two teachers.

"Unhand me! I won't give in to oppression! Non-violent disobedience!"

The teachers yelled "Keep quiet!" at the screaming girl and took her away.

"What was that...?"

When my astonishment went away, I picked up one of the papers the girl scattered around.

The paper read: "Please! Those who wish to protest against the lies and falsehoods spread by the adults! Contact the Hero Club -> 070-XXXX-XXXX"

I stil had no idea what that meant.

I was planning to throw the leaflet away and pretend I hadn't seen anything... But I ended up putting it in my bag.

"That was Fuyou-san. You mean the ruckus this morning with leaflets getting thrown around, right?"

After school, Ikuma-san from the girls' basketball club told me about the "pretty rooftop girl" during her club practice break.

"Fuyou?"

"You don't know her? She's pretty famous at out school. Second year, Fuyou Yuuna-san."

"Eh... Yuuna?"

"Yep, yep. Just like you, Yuzuki-san."

There was another Yuuna in the school aside from me?

"Second year, that's the same as me. There's the way she acts, how pretty she is, and she's a Yuuna too... How did I never notice such a piece of work in the same school year as me?"

"Ahaha, Yuzuki-san, you think she's pretty too, don't you?"

."..I only saw her from afar, but I think she's objectively rather pretty."

"If only she didn't have that personality. Also I can't blame you for not noticing her earlier. She didn't come to school that often as a first-year, plus she was pretty calm back then. She started coming to school every day as a second-year, but she's only been acting this weird for the last month or so. Made some kind of association called "Hero Club", talking about wall this and Taisha that. The other day she used the school's account for emergency announcements to send all the students messages about how the Hero Club was recruiting members. The teachers got really mad at her."

Which reminded me that Mom mentioned some weird spam on the emergency announcement network recently. Maybe that was the same thing.

"What kind of transformation is that?"

"Dunno. But you know, Yuzuki-san, maybe you never noticed Fuyou-san because of your personality."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you don't exactly show a lot of interest in other people."

.".."

That might've been the case. Thought it wasn't so much as that I had no interest in others as that I had my head full thinking about myself already. How to obtain power. That was the only thing on my mind. So I rarely ever though about what kind of people there might've been in my school year.

"Well, I don't know much about Fuyou-san myself, either. It's not like we're friends."

"I see... Thanks."

The basketball club's break was about to end.

I turned around and went towards the exit of the gym hall.

"Wait, you're not going to practice?"

I could hear Ikuma-san's dejected voice from behind my back.

"I'm not. I'm not even in the basketball club."

"But you even join our matches."

"That's just a side gig for me. I get a thousand yen for a single match I play in, remember?"

I wasn't a part of the basketball club, but I occasionally joined their matches when requested. I made a deal with their club president that I'd get a thousand yen for a won match. I had similar agreements with the volleyball and tennis clubs.

"Yuzuki-san, you're good enough to aim for the top! And you're even a Yuuna!"

.".."

"S-Sorry. Don't glare at me like that."

Ikuma-san lowered her head, looking a little frightened.

."..No, I should be apologising. I didn't mean to glare... Though I don't like being told that kind of stuff. It's not like being named Yuuna gives you special powers."

The name Yuuna was given for specific reasons. Which means that those named Yuuna must've had some special power.

Somewhere deep down, most people felt that way.

Those prejudices were especially strong in people over thirty who actually saw the Heroes in action, but even younger people still unconsciously saw the name "Yuuna" as something special.

But the only reason you got the name Yuuna was because you did something weird with your hands when you were born. It didn't mean you had some special talent or powers.

"I'm just tall, that's all."

I was gifted with a height of 171cm. Thanks to that, I did pretty decently at sports. Good enough for all the clubs to ask me to help them.

But only good enough for that.

Basketball, volleyball, tennis. Even just in Kagawa alone there were plenty of people better than me at those sports. It wasn't some special power.

."..Say, does Fuyou Yuuna-san have something special?" - I asked Ikuma-san.

She folded her arms, thought about it for a while then responded: "She has really cute looks, I guess?"

Nope. That didn't help me at all.

I came back home, sat down on the sofa in the living room and looked at Fuyou Yuuna's leaflet. She was named Yuuna, just like me...

The leaflet said "contact the Hero Club", but what even was the Hero Club? The name gave me zero idea of what their club activities were.

I typed the phone number written on the leaflet on my phone, planning to call it... but stopped. As I kept repeating that again and again, Mom came out of her study.

"Phew, time for a little break... Yuuna, I'm gonna make dinner, any requests?"

Caught off-guard, I crumpled the leaflet and put it into my pants' pocket.

."..Mom, are there a lot of people named Yuuna?"

"Hm? I don't think there are. I've never met one aside from you."

"There's one at my school. Name's Fuyou Yuuna."

"Fuyou Yuuna... Eh!? Do you mean Lili-chan!?"

"Lili-chan?"

"Fuyou Lilienthal Yuuna-chan! Wow... She's in the same year as you?"

Mom's eyes were wide open in shock.

"Lilienthal? What kind of name is that? Wait, Mom, why do you even know Fuyou-san?"

"Oh, you don't remember? I guess you were just a little girl back then. I think anyone older than their twenties would know her. 6-7 years ago she was everywhere on TV as a child talent. Dramas, commercials, variety shows - you name it."

"A child talent..."

"Yeah. She was cute as a button, and named Yuuna to boot. She's a half-foreigner too, that draws a lot of attention."

"Oh, that's why her name is Lilienthal."

I had heard that some people who came to Japan before the wall appeared had a middle name in addition to a first and a last name.

"I think Lilienthal is just her stage name. Kids born after the wall appeared all had their names written into the Japanese family registry, and you can't put a middle name in that. But huh, Fuyou Yuuna was her real name? She used to be really popular, but stopped her activities a year ago, so I had no idea what she was doing these days... And what a coincidence! She's in the same school year as you!"

.".."

I recalled the girl on the rooftop I saw in the morning, one who could rightfully be called a weirdo.

A former child actor.

Half-foreign, a Yuuna, a pretty girl - three outstanding elements. She was a one-of-a-kind person.

I wasn't very knowledgeable about show business, but her income must've been considerable.

I was envious.

That weirdo of a girl had a lot more power than I did.

The next day was a Saturday.

Mom pulled an all-nighter finishing her job the previous day, so she would probably sleep until evening.

I tried calling the name written in Fuyou Yuuna's leaflet.

Several rings later... The call went through.

"Uh, hello..."

I didn't think about what I would say.

"You know, I read the leaflet you dropped from the rooftop, and..."

."..Heh heh heh. I've been waiting. Waiting for someone to call this number."

It was just one sentence, but I could tell that the voice I heard over the phone wasn't the voice of a normal person. Her voice wasn't loud, but it was extremely clear, as if it resounded from the ear straight into the brain. Of course, she was a former actor, it made sense that her voice would be a lot clearer and reverberant than a normal person's.

"O you, who seeks to be my comrade! Heed my words! I shall be waiting as the sea god who stares at the wall and the sky. O Hero who seeks to shed the veil of darkness covering her eyes, come hithe-"

I ended the call.

"Phew..."

I looked up at my room's ceiling and let out a sigh.

Her voice was alluringly pleasant, but her words were nothing if not suspicious. Was she a dangerous person or just someone extremely self-conscious pretending to be one? Regardless of who she was, it seemed like a good idea to not get involved with her.

"Just forget about Fuyou Yuuna", - I thought to myself. What I should really have been thinking of was how to obtain power.

...Or so I told myself.

A few dozens of minutes later, I was pedalling my bike under the blazing July sun, drenched in sweat, looking for Fuyou Yuuna.

"Haah, haah... What am I even doing?"

I decided to not get involved with Fuyou Yuuna, but then ended up calling her once again.

But the call didn't go through.

I thought to myself: "What if her words were a riddle of some sort? What if she's trying to lead me to some particular place with that riddle, like in some sort of mystery drama?" It sounded plausible if she was the self-conscious kind pretending to be dangerous.

"I shall be waiting as the sea god who stares at the wall and the sky." That must've meant that Fuyou was waiting somewhere you could see the wall from.

And the "stare at the sky" part must've meant it was a high place... A top of the mountain or a rooftop, maybe?

Then the "sea god" part... I had no confidence in my guess, but I assumed the "god" part meant a shrine or some other god-related place.

The conclusion I came to was the Takaya shrine. It was a famous shrine at the summit of Mt. Inazumi in Kanonji, with a torii gate sometimes called "The torii in the sky."

I left my apartment and got on my bike. I passed my school, headed north and eventually reached the foot of Mt. Inazumi.

I got off my bike and began to climb the mountain. Just walking had me dripping with sweat. I occasionally took a plastic bottle out of my backpack to drink some water, all while still moving.

It wasn't long until I saw the stairs that read "Inazumi Taisha" and the torii gate.

But those weren't the stairs I needed. The side path to the left of them led to the summit of the mountain, and thus, to the Takaya shrine.

The road from that point became a simple mountain trail, without any asphalt. And I began to walk that trail, with the blazing July sun shining at me.

"Aah.. What am I even doing..."

What did I even want to accomplish by meeting Fuyou Yuuna? Did I want a "Yuuna" comrade? Did I want to talk to her about how rough us people named Yuuna have it?

But Fuyou Yuuna was a lot more special than me, and had power too. So maybe she didn't feel that the name Yuuna had any drawbacks.

As I kept advancing through the mountain trail, I could see the city of Kanonji through the trees. A little further, and a flight of stairs long enough to make you raise your eyes showed itself. Some parts of it were broken, and some were made out of simple piled-up stones.

"Haah, haah..."

Wheezing and out of breath, I managed to climb the stairs... And finally reached the grounds of the Takaya shrine.

The view that opened from the top of Mt. Inazumi was the very definition of breathtaking. Look up, and you would see an uninterrupted expanse of the summer sky. Look down, and you would see Kanonji and the Seto inland sea in one sweep of the eye. And beyond the sea, you would see the wall surrounding Shikoku.

However...

No matter how hard I searched the shrine grounds, the small girl was nowhere to be seen.

"Haah... Am I stupid or what?"

In the first place, I didn't know if Fuyou Yuuna's words were a riddle or not. She might've just said a bunch of deep-sounding nonsense without any meaning. And thinking about it, the chances of that were high.

."..I'll just go home. This time I'll definitely just forget about Fuyou Yuuna. No biggie."

Talking as if persuading myself, I began to descend down the stairs. And at that very moment, my phone began ringing. The call came from a number I recognised - it was Fuyou Yuuna's number.

.".."

I was at a loss, thinking whether to answer the phone or not. I must've thought about it for a good 30 seconds.

The ringing didn't stop, so I finally gave in and answered the call.

"Hello?"

."..Where are you right now?"

Fuyou Yuuna's voice was as reverberant as ever. But it was slightly different from the voice I heard back home. I couldn't quite place what exactly was different about it, however.

"I'm at the Takaya shrine. You said stuff about a water god and whatnot, so I decided that you could be here. I didn't find you, though."

"I see, so you really did go there after all. A Herculean task..."

"I'm going back now. I don't have the time to put up with your games."

"Huh!? Wait up, O comrade of mine. Giving up because of one minor setback is for the faint of heart and weak of mind. Your deduction wasn't wrong. There must be another place that fulfills these same conditions. A shrine at the summit of a mountain. Pay special attention to the "water god" part."

.".."

"I'll be waiting for you to co-"

I ended the call.

Why should I have cared if she was waiting for me or not? I was going back. I would ignore Fuyou Yuuna.

...Or so I thought, yet I found myself riding the train heading east on the Yosan line.

"What am I even doing...?" - mumbled I to myself, quietly enough so the other passengers wouldn't hear me.

I was planning to go home, why was I riding a train!? It must've been because something about Fuyou Yuuna's voice felt strange. Something could've happened to her.

No, even if it did, that had nothing to do with me. I had my hands full with my own problems. There was no reason for me to give her special treatment just because we had the same name.

And while my mind kept going in circles like that, I reached the Takamatsu station. There I left the train, walked for around ten minutes until I reached the Takamatsu-Chikko station and got on the Kotoden Kotohira line.

Kotoden's small two-car train passed through residential areas and private houses.

I was heading towards Mt. Dake in Miki town. That Fuyou said my line of thinking wasn't wrong. So maybe there was some other mountaintop shrine with a view of the sea wall aside from the Takaya shrine?

When I looked up mountaintop shrines on my phone, the search results were nothing but the Takaya shrine. After a lot of scrolling down, I found Mt. Ishizuchi in Ehime... and Mt. Dake in Kagawa.

Ishizuchi was too far away, and it was the highest mountain in all of Shikoku. Climbing it would be impossible given the time, so I decided to go to Mt. Dake. It wasn't deduction, but a simple method of elimination.

I got off the train at Gakuendori station and went south, looking up the directions on my phone on the way. After walking a considerable distance, I finally reached the foot of the mountain. There was a small sign by the side of the road that had "Path up Mt. Dake - Entrance" written on it.

"For real...?"

Since there was a shrine on the summit, I thought there would be other piligrims like at the Takaya shrine. That was not the case. The path up Mt. Dake was so small and dimly lit that it felt like it was rejecting humans. Moreover, I couldn't see any other people. Was there really a shrine up there?

That being said, turning back after I had come that far would be insane. My ascent up the mountain path began. The sun was already starting to set. If Fuyou wasn't there, I would probably give up.

...Give up?

What nonsense. It's as if I wanted to meet Fuyou no matter what for some reason. True, I was curious about her since we had the same name. But I wasn't obsessed with her to such a degree that I'd want to meet her no matter what. As far as I was concerned, Fuyou was nothing but a good-looking weirdo.

Advancing up the dimly lit mountain trail, I eventually got out of the forest and reached the part of the path with a good view. But the trail became rocky and treacherous. There was even a chain set up for climbers to grab on so they wouldn't fall.

Moreover, the slope began to get steeper and steeper, and at some point just stopped being a road and turned into a rock face.

"You've got to be kidding..."

The sun was already setting, and it would be dark before long. It was unlikely that anyone would go up the mountain after sunset, so if I fell and got hurt, no help would come.

I took my school bag off my shoulder and put it down on the ground. I wanted to be able to use both my arms freely if something happened.

Gripping the chain and carefully watching my step, I climbed the rock face. There wasn't that much distance left, so I would manage as long as I stayed careful.

When I finally climbed the steep incline and looked over it from the top, it was like looking down from a cliff. If I had a fear of heights, my legs would've definitely buckled there.

"Of course there wouldn't be any piligrims on this path..."

A little more walking and I reached a torii gate with "Ryuo [Dragon king] shrine" written on it. But the only thing past the gate was a small hokora shrine. No shrine building or hand-washing basin. It didn't look like a shrine at all.

And...

Right under the gate, amidst the scenery filled with madder red, stood a girl. Her pale hair and skin were faintly dyed scarlet by the setting sun. Her childishly small stature and almost too well-defined features made her look like a fairy of some sort.

It was Fuyou Yuuna.

I finally found her.

Fuyou looked at me and a smile appeared on her lips.


"I've been waiting. I'm impressed that you figured out what my words meant and got all the way here. I-I've been w-waiting for a person like you..."

Her confident expression crumbled and she clung to me, crying. She pressed her face, which was a mess of tears, on my chest.

W-What was even happening? Was she emotionally unstable?

"Wait, wait, what's with you!? Why did you suddenly start crying!?"

"B-But... I managed to climb up here, but got too scared to go down... And it kept getting darker, *hic*, I didn't know what to do if nobody came here before night... Waaaah!"

.".."

Oh, I got it.

She was an idiot.

Like a cat who can climb atree but not get down.

She must've climbed up to the Ryuo shrine, but got too scared to go down the cliff.

I finally realised what felt so off about the call I got from Fuyou. Back then, her voice was trembling, ever so slightly. Like she was scared of something.

I kept petting Fuyou's head until she stopped crying, like how you would comfort a child.

"I'm done for! My legs are shaking, what if I make the wrong step somewhere and fall down!?"

"Enough already, calm down and climb down. And don't look down! I'll catch you if you fall, okay?"

"P-Promise me! Promise me you'll catch me!"

After Fuyou finally stopped crying, the two of us descended down the cliff-like slope. If it got dark, the path would be dangerous even for me, so we had no time to waste.

I was the first to go down the cliff, then reassured Fuyou that I'd be there to catch her even if she made a misstep.

After that desperate struggle, we somehow managed to safely reach the gently sloped part of the trail.

."..Heh heh, you have my gratitude. You saved me. I thought I'd have to spend the night there. That would've been very dangerous."

The moment we got to a safe place, Fuyou, who had been crying and wailing up until then, immediately straightened up. The girl had an impressive ability to change her attitude on the fly.

"So, what's your name?"

"Yuzuki... Yuuna."

"Yuuna!? You, too, are Yuuna? Just like me! Birds of feather flock together! Since you contacted me after reading my leaflet, you must want to join my Hero Club, right?"

.".."

"Glad to have you, Yuzuki Yuuna! Welcome to the Hero Club!"

With a beaming smile, Fuyou extended a hand to me.

But...

"No, I'm not really planning to join your club or anything."

."..Fweeeeeeeh!?"

A weird sound escaped Fuyou's lips.

Fuyou Yuuna is not a Hero - Chapter 1 - End

===

Xth of July

Yesterday I scattered leaflets for club recruitment from the rooftop and got scolded really hard by the teachers, but it hasn't even been a day and someone (Yuzuki Yuuna. A Yuuna, like me!) already wants to join the club and called me about it. But to join my club which seeks to find the truth about the world, she will need inspiration and proactivity. I cannot let someone half-baked join the club.

"Water god" meant a dragon, "staring at the sky" meant a mountaintop, and you could see the sea from here too. The solution to my riddle was Ryuo shrine at Mt. Dake. <- (I thought you could see the wall from up here, but when I climbed up, I could barely see it! Just barely!)

I waited for Yuzuki Yuuna at the summit of Mt. Dake. And in the end, she solved my riddle and appeared. Some unexpected things happened, but I managed to create a cool and mysterious atmosphere and welcome Yuzuki-san.

But she declined my offer to join the club even though she cleared the entrance test. Why!? We humans have limited time.

Nobody knows how long one has left to live.

Life is fleeting, like the spark of lightning, like morning dew. Time flies like an arrow.

I must convince her as soon as possible and make her join my club.

The goal of the Hero Club is to overcome that loathsome wall surrounding Shikoku.

And I need more comrades for that, even if just a few more.