The person who likes me is a yandere.

When I tried to lock the door, the key broke off at the base. Unbelievable.

Before I arrived at school, I had a string of bad luck.

For example, stepping on dog poop as if it were deliberately placed there to aim at my foot when turning a corner, or various bird droppings flying in from the air.

While there are many unfortunate things related to feces, the most terrifying was almost being mistaken for a pervert on the school bus.

When I arrived at school, it was already the break between the second and third periods.

My classmates, of course, didn't know that Asuna, Sora, and I lived together, and they made up all sorts of wild guesses about why Asuna and I were late together. For example, they speculated that arriving at class after 10 a.m. was right around the hotel check-out time.

They said, "Speaking in a shallow language should be punished with death." But to me today, that statement doesn't sound like a joke at all.

If I were killed because of bad luck, then the person who became a murderer because of it would be quite unlucky.

It's really hard to say what kind of bad luck you might encounter when there are other people around.

During lunch break, I wanted to eat alone, so I went up to the school rooftop—an unpopular spot at this time of day because of the intense direct sunlight. To avoid anything flying down from the sky, I kept my eyes on my head.

I glimpsed a balloon flying toward the roof.

Although it could be ignored, the balloon lost its ability to fly and was forced to land.

When I got closer, I saw something tied to the bottom of the balloon with a string.

That wasn't a plastic bomb or anything like that. It was paper rolled into a cylinder.

I opened it.

"Whoever finds this letter will be unfortunate. If you don't want to be unfortunate, please scatter five thousand balloons with unfortunate letters tied to them into the air."

...This is truly a brand new way to have bad luck.

I ignored the balloons and started eating.

I didn't make a bento box today, so I went to the cafeteria.

Since the rice balls were sold out, I bought three skewers of soy sauce glutinous rice balls.

I'm always afraid of doing something unlucky that might happen. But eating a soy sauce glutinous rice ball shouldn't be a problem. I carefully ate it, making sure not to drop it on the ground.

The heavy door on the roof creaked open, as if metal were emitting a mournful cry.

"...We found Qianyu."

Asuna makes an appearance on the rooftop.

Good afternoon, Qianyu. Any dangerous news?

"What does that mean?"

"News like which country fired a missile at Japan. I think that missile would probably fall on my head."

"The world is very peaceful. The chance of rain is zero. Not even a single drop will fall."

Asuna stood before me, sitting on the rooftop floor. Although her skirt swayed in the cool breeze, perhaps due to bad luck, I couldn't see the secret fabric beneath it no matter what I did.

"...Was Qianyu's luck really that bad today?"

Do you think so?

"Hmm. Just now in math class, when Qianyu was writing the answer on the blackboard, the blackboard suddenly cracked. It's the first time I've ever seen something like this."

"me too."

"Besides, there's a rumor that Asahi bought out all the amazing soy sauce glutinous rice balls that the school cafeteria only sells occasionally. Several people are furious, yelling, 'Does he want to monopolize the transfer student and the glutinous rice balls?!' They're absolutely mad."

"Just buying three skewers of glutinous rice balls can attract resentment... That's really bad luck."

Just as I was about to savor the last skewer of amazing soy sauce glutinous rice balls, and put one in my mouth...

Click.

An unpleasant sensation spread through my mouth.

I spat it out and found that the silver powder from the filling was stuck to the pill.

...Perhaps all my silver powder will fall off today.

"Um, Qianyu, what exactly happened? Did you hug Xiaoqiong for more than five seconds this morning?"

No, that—

"Ah."

"...Doesn't Qiong get up to go to the bathroom at night?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then she seemed to drift off to sleep and crawled into my bed in her room... I've always had the habit of using body pillows."

Asuna's face suddenly darkened, like a cloud obscuring the bright sun.

"...So, you're using Xiao Qiong as a body pillow and continuing to sleep...?"

"…………Um."

"Liar!"

Asuna covered her face with her hands. She was sighing because she was worried about me... What a kind ex-girlfriend.

"Even I haven't slept in the same bed with Qianyu yet... Qianyu, it's my turn tonight, isn't it?"

"What are you talking about? Weren't you worried about me?"

"...Because I'm really envious!"

Asuna looked at me with pleading eyes.

"I'll wear a mascot costume. How about using me in my mascot costume as a body pillow?"

"There won't be enough space on the bed. Also, I'll be sweating all over while inside the mascot costume."

Asuna rested her hand on her chin, adopting a thoughtful posture. She drifted into the detective's thoughts.

"When I said I wanted to wear the mascot costume, Qianyu complained about everything and wanted me not to wear it... In other words, Qianyu, you want Guo, so let's sleep in the same bed together."

"...Asuna, that's not deduction anymore. That's severe delusion."

"Honestly, Qianyu, you can't be thinking about sleeping with me right now. You need to think about how incredibly unlucky you are!"

You're the one whose attention is being drawn away by the idea of ​​sleeping together.

Chapter Thirty-Five: An Unexpected Event

"Qianyu needs to get through today safely. Is there anything she can do to suppress the bad luck to the bare minimum?"

"Although I'm not exactly a master of bad luck... well, it's probably better to stay in one place than to wander around aimlessly. A dog that walks around gets hit with a stick (author's note: Japanese proverb, meaning that when you want to do something, you encounter bad luck), I encounter bad luck when I walk around."

"So staying on the roof is the best course of action?"

"Hmm, perhaps."

Bad luck is something you can't avoid. Even just staying on the rooftop won't stop your misfortune.

Asuna and I were alone during our lunch break. The rooftop door was locked from the inside by some random, absent-minded person. This kind of bad luck caused by human error must have been caused by some random, absent-minded person.

Asuna and I searched for shade on the school building rooftop, where the sunlight was directly overhead, at one o'clock in the afternoon.

Even though I wanted to tell someone about this situation, Asuna, who had been staying at my house for two days, only had one bar of battery left, but she seemed to have been polite and hadn't charged it. So this morning her phone was dead, and my phone, whether unexpectedly or as I expected, inexplicably lost signal.

Today is Friday, and school is closed tomorrow and the day after. If no one notices, we might end up dried up like mummies.

I was sweating profusely.

However, even if you are locked on the roof, it is September now, and all the classroom windows on the third floor of the school building are open. If you shout loudly on the roof, someone should be able to find you.

But at this moment, the classrooms on the third, second, and first floors were all empty.

This was also due to terrible bad luck. There was an intra-school debate during the fifth and sixth periods today, and all the students moved to the gymnasium.

To get out of this predicament, I came up with a plan.

First, tie the ribbon from Asuna's uniform to my shoelaces to make a long line. Tie your phone to this line, write a distress message saying "I'm locked on the roof," and send it to a friend.

Of course, there's no signal here, so even if you operate the phone, you can't send a text message...

The instant I pressed the send button, I threw the phone off the roof (holding the other end of the rope that was tied to the phone) and tried to get the phone to receive radio waves as it fell to the ground.

Press the send button.

↓

Throw it off the roof.

↓

A few dozen seconds later, I pulled my phone back.

↓

I was disappointed to see the error message.

After I repeated this action several times, the shoelace that had been firmly holding the phone broke when I threw it (this was the second time my shoelace had broken today). The phone crashed miserably onto the concrete.

I stared at the shattered remains of the phone from the rooftop.

A few weeks ago, my phone was broken in two in the women's changing room, and I just got a new model. Looks like I'll have to get another one. Is the warranty still valid?

Asuna and I suddenly disappeared from class, and we can't get through to each other on our phones. I'm afraid everyone is worried.

It was almost time for the fifth period to end.

Asuna suggested listlessly on the sweltering rooftop:

"Asami, let's go to the shrine after we leave here."

After leaving this place... I have a very bad feeling about it.

"What are you going to the shrine for? To draw all the fortune slips that are marked as unlucky?"

"Haha, that's interesting. No, I'm going to the shrine to pray. I'm praying that Asahi will be safe and sound."

"No need. If I go there now, I might be mistaken for a thief stealing incense money."

"I'm telling you, there's one thing you absolutely must remember. I'm so happy to have met Qianyu."