All Within the Zone of Friendship

Today’s UN Training --- Absolutely nothing

Sometimes, priorities must be put on the back burner. Although Tani consciously tries to put everything around him in a neat little box--- a box that he can reach into for help climbing up the societal ladder that he has created for himself... it doesn’t always work that way.

Tani has just learned that it is impossible to plan for everything.

Sometimes, even the highest level person above us must operate on the cold, rock hard ground.

And because it isn’t possible to plan on an unexpected problem, he’ll have to rely on every last detail of his training to pull out the ability to solve that unexpected problem when it pops up.

The pressing issue is that he’s found himself doubting if his years of prep can even handle a situation like this. A sudden reunion with an old friend, who has become a villain to Ume? The sudden revelation of an ex boyfriend? The sudden collapse of how his booth is supposed to operate, at the very moment Dr Mizuno from TIU is watching?

This has to be some kind of joke, right?

Maybe, in a way, this is his truest test thus far. Having never been put in a position that both jeopardizes his future, and the safety of his best friend, the stakes are just as unexpectedly high. If he can pull this off, wouldn’t that be proof that all the time spent honing his many talents have been worth it?

Right now, he doesn’t have a choice but to find out.

The famous actor Hagihara Katsurou is here to challenge him…

------------------------

“Come on up!” Tani says, greeting both Taira and Hagihara with the fake and welcoming smile of an MC at a carnival.

The two boys arrive with the crowd, then the piercing crystal blue eyes of Hagihara lock onto Tani. Despite not wearing his glasses, he can see the bright blue just by the waves of energy it emits his way. It’s almost as though this famous actor can spot his discomfort and is visually dissecting him. 

The pressure of his gaze prompts Tani to look towards the boy next to him, Tairabayashi Kaede. Although he still can’t fully recognize him in the blur of his vision, he’s able to implant the image of his face underneath the different colored hair he remembers him with.

“Tai-san, was it?” Tani asks, purposefully choosing not to reveal the fact that he knows his identity.

“Yeah that’s right, I see you have a good memory.”

Taira said that with a hidden accusatory tone that Tani didn’t miss. However, Tani knows that there is a reason his old friend didn’t reveal himself yesterday. He doesn’t know why, but he can safely assume that it has something to do with the issue involving Ume.

There is a delicate balance he needs to navigate here, and it feels like he’s teetering on the edge of a cliff--- so much so, that the hairs on the back of his neck are standing up.

“Aha,” he chuckles, tossing a sugary smile his way. “I wouldn’t forget the name of Emilia’s new friend.”

It’s at this moment that Emilia walks to their side and makes her presence known.

“Tai-san,” she says, the little pitch in her voice broadcasting muted excitement. “Thanks for coming back.”

Taira scratches his head and smiles. “Told ya I would!” He then gestures towards the good looking lad to his right. “This the friend I was telling you about, this is---”

“Hagihara Katsurou.” Emilia interrupts him. “I recognized him right away. You weren’t lying when you said that your friend is famous.”

Hagihara steps up and offers his hand to her, which she obliges for a shake.

“Tai here seems to be quite smitten by you, Emilia-san. I'm glad I finally get to see the person he's been talking so much about since yesterday. ”

“Smitten?” she asks with a tilt of her head.

Taira jumps in between the two and jumbles his words. “O-Okay that’s enough of that! Classic Hagi-senpai, teasing me in front of all these people!”

“I’m just being friendly.”

“Friendliness is dangerous, coming from you!”

Hagihara lets a puff of air escape his nose and he shrugs his shoulders.

“Anyways,” Taira says, changing the subject. “We’re here to participate in your booth. You gonna introduce us to the rest of your club?”

Emilia turns around, she sees everyone in their correct position behind their podiums. Everyone that is, except Ume.

“Oh?”

Tani feels like he can read her mind, and he steps in to keep her from saying anything more.

“We can’t introduce you to them yet," he says loudly. "You see, this is all part of the game. If you know their names beforehand, it just might give you an easy route to victory.”

Emilia tilts her head again, this time more confused.

“If you don’t mind,” Tani shoos Emilia back towards the podium, he follows her while looking over his shoulder towards the two boys. “I just need to make sure my team is on the same page before we start, we’re a little bit nervous around such a big crowd so we don’t want to screw anything up. This’ll only take one sec.”

“Sure…”

Once there, Tani huddles everyone around him in a circle behind the Italian flag draped podium under which Ume is hiding. It’s only now that all of them notice what she’s doing, and it takes a lot of facial ticks to communicate his desire for them to keep quiet about it.

Huddled together close enough for Ume to hear their whispers, Tani begins to speak.

“We have an issue here, and Ume can’t participate in this particular game. We’re going to have to adjust accordingly.”

To his surprise, no one immediately objects to the sudden audible. No one even bothers to question this development. He can read it on Anita, Mariko, and Charl’s faces.

They know exactly why this is happening.

He's come across the secret that they’ve been keeping from him, meaning he was the last to find out and is the only one here scrambling.

“...What’s going on?” Emilia asks.

Actually, it’s he and Emilia who are still guessing. 

Shirai too for that matter, she is huddled in close without a clue as why the energy has shifted this way. All she can assume is that the nerves of performing for this celebrity is causing them angst. As the teacher, she's here to support them and chooses to watch them work through the pressure instead of offering up her opinion.

None of the people in the know dare volunteer to speak up and explain to Emilia what is happening. 

The silence lingers until Ume tugs at the skirt of Emilia’s maid outfit. Thankfully the tiny Italian girl isn’t much of the expressive type, she doesn’t make a gesture towards Ume that any onlooker would notice.

Ume whispers when she explains, “I know both Tai-san and Katsurou very well…”

Hearing Ume so casually say his first name, is a surprisingly painful pinprick to Tani's heart. He shrinks away from the inexplicable nature of that ailment, turning his cheek and disguising a wince.

“The thing is, Katsurou is my ex boyfriend, and ever since we broke up he’s done nothing but try to get back at me. I’ve been hiding from him for months now, and I can't let him find out that I know you guys or he’ll try to destroy me by going after you.”

“...What about Tai-san?”

Emilia glosses over the confession and slides headfirst into the most pressing issue for her.

“....”

Ume bites her lip and looks down to the ground.

Tani taps Emilia on her shoulder and speaks up. “Let’s worry about that guy later.”

“...But…”

“For now, I need you to take Ume’s spot at the podium. I know you didn’t train for this, but it’s our only option. Without you there we can’t complete the game for them.”

Emilia is obviously confused, and this makes her reluctant to move. Tani shifts his gaze to Shirai, grabs his glasses from atop her head and puts them on. He then reaches out to lift Emilia’s dark sunglasses up to her forehead, revealing her eyes.

A few rapid blinks dispels the brightness, and then she immediately becomes aware that without the crutch of her sunglasses, her timid disposition returns with a vengeance.

She goes deathly silent.

“Emilia,” Tani says sternly, he puts his free hand on her shoulder and doesn't allow her to look away from him. “Even though I am in the dark about all this just like you are, I can only imagine how you’re feeling. You’re at an inflection point in your training where you’ve reached the most important part of having friends.”

"...This is training?"

Tani puffs and says, "Everything I have you do is training, Emilia. I brought you to this festival in hopes that you'd make new friends, I still haven't given up on that. But if you ever want to make new friends, you have to understand how to hang on to the ones you already got."

“...And that is?”

“It is trusting them… she will tell you about Tai-san soon, it’s your job to understand that there’s a good reason why she's doing this without her having to explain it to you.”

Emilia’s sunglasses-free face remains deadpanned, but a little inhale is evidence of her consideration. After a brief pause, she replies, “...Okay…”

“Good,” Tani lets the sunglasses drop back onto the bridge of her nose. “We just got to get through this challenge first.”

He then glances at the others. Despite the circumstances, they have done a remarkable job of not showing much emotion. A shared, almost heroic determination is evident among them. And when his eyes meet Anita's, she offers him that familiar smile--- the one that always reassures him everything will be fine, the very smile he instinctively seeks out whenever anxiety or stress takes hold. 

With all of them at his side, he believes that he can protect Ume in her moment of need.

“You guys know what to do.”

He claps his hands and breaks the huddle up, and everyone returns to their positions behind the podium.

“Sensei,” he says, turning to Shirai. “You go and entertain Togashi and Dr Mizuno during this game, and try to talk us up, will you?”

“Roger that.” she replies, saluting him before making her way off to the side.

Tani turns towards the crowd, finally recognizing his old friend Tairabayashi Kaede with the aid of his glasses. Taira looks so different now compared to how Tani remembers him, yet Tani notices a distinct look in his eyes, something unchanged from the past.

Despite that newfound familiarity, Taira looks like a villain.

Standing taller and even more confidently, glistening in the afternoon sun as though he were a god descended from the heavens, is Hagihara Katsurou.

To Tani, he looks like a monster.

And just how will he go about dealing with them?

He's not sure...

But, he has an idea.

To be continued!