One day you'll think back on this and laugh.

Three weeks. 

Aikawa Goda would be suspended from all club activities for three weeks starting today.

He wasn't particularly distressed by this development. It's not as if he was a starter or even a role player for the team at this point. In fact, the only reason he'd joined the basketball club was because he'd failed the baseball tryout spectacularly.  

Most schools didn't even have a tryouts for clubs, but the high school had recently hired a former professional ball player to teach physical education and coach the baseball team. Fans and prospective players from all over the prefecture had turned up for a spot on the team. Which meant the new coach was forced to put a cap on how many players the club would accept.

 Goda had not been one of them. It's not because he was bad per se, if anything he thought of himself as average with occasional bursts of excellence. A shame those bursts were no where to be found during the tryout. 

Goda cringed at the memory as a shiver ran up his spine.

No. No use in thinking about it now. He'd long since been indoctrinated into the basketball club, whose captain had attended the baseball tryouts in search of raw athletic talent. In Goda's case his slightly above average height had probably gotten his senpai's attention. They probably counted on him growing more over the next couple of years. The captain's exact words had been something to the tune of "You can't teach height!" Apparently that lousy captain couldn't teach his players to behave themselves either. If that was the case Goda wouldn't be stuck with nothing to do for three weeks and a shoddy reputation to boot.

Not that there was any point reflecting on the incident that got him suspended, mainly due to the fact there had been no incident to begin with. No one with him involved anyway.

A third year on the team with a similar build to Goda had severely beaten a student from an opposing school during a night out with friends. Since it had been dark the witnesses couldn't quite pinpoint the aggressor aside from their silhouette and school uniform. Early the next morning the third year players had come to Goda and explained the situation, including how he would need to claim responsibility so that the teams starting player didn't get suspended before the upcoming tournament.

It had been framed as a request, but it was obvious that refusing would lead to considerable social and physical grief on his behalf. Realizing that the troublesome third years threatening him, and the useless captain, will have graduated by this time next year, Goda decided to go through with it and revealed himself as the assailant to teaching staff. 

Some among the staff had been skeptical, having known him for his somber nature up till this point. Fortunately he'd punched a few trees to gnarl up his fists, making it seem like the result of a one sided beatdown. Even still there had been a few doubters, which honestly had nearly made Goda cry and break the facade. What finally sold it was his claim that the other student had learned of his family circumstances and used it to antagonize him.

It was common knowledge among the staff that Goda's father had long since passed away  and that his mother had raised him by herself. Making it a plausible thing for a hormone driven teenager to get worked up about to the point of losing control. 

For coming forward he wasn't outright kicked out of the club, instead being handed a suspension. He'd also have to write several letters of apology and complete an anger management course online. All things he should be able to get done quickly now that he had so much free time after school. Not today though, he was still too pissed off about the whole situation.

Rather than go straight home Goda decided to walk around for awhile, maybe go down a few streets he couldn't be bothered to before. During his trek down one such street he came across a multistory arcade on the corner. It didn't seem very busy, perhaps a result of the late time of day or it being the middle of the week.  

He entered the building and recoiled slightly at the high pitched J-Pop being blasted over the speakers inside. Moving over to the directory he looked to see if any of the sections caught his eye. Fighting games were fun, but Goda didn't feel like playing anything that even remotely made him think or strategize. Going down the list he landed on something that wouldn't tax is mind very much. 

"Crane games it is then..." 

Those were mostly luck right?

Climbing the stairs to the second floor he noted how empty it was. In fact he appeared to be the only one on this floor. He wandered the rows of claw machines for a bit, looking for anything that might catch his interest. Eventually settling on a machine with One Fleece figures. Goda had a middling interest in the show about high profile deception battles after one of his neighbors introduced the show to him over summer. Maybe that's how he could spend these three weeks, watching shows his neighbor recommended to him.  

Just as he was about to put his first coin in the machine a tapping sound came from his right. Turning towards the source of the noise it took him a moment to make sense of what he was looking at. It almost looked like a girl in his school's uniform was trapped in the machine next to him. As in trapped inside the glass, alongside the would be prizes. 

Surely thats not possible, he couldn't even begin imagine how one would pull it off. And yet the longer he looked the more he realized all of this was really happening. Not to mention the girl's face had gone from pleading, to embarrassed, and now angry in the course of his blank stare.  

"Are you going to help me out of here or not?!"

Not quite liking her tone, Goda took the coin he'd been about to use in the One Fleece machine and put it into the Bagemon machine the girl was trapped inside of. The claw proceeded to lower itself down and pluck at the girl's uniform.

"What do you think you're doing you perv?!"

"What am I doing? What about you. How the hell does this even happen?" He gestured at the machine.

"This conversation can wait until I'm out of this contraption! What if I run out of oxygen yelling at you!"

"Nah, I doubt these machine are airtight. Although it's probably getting hot in there, huh."

"Exactly! So go grab a staff member from downstairs already! No one's come up for some reason!"

"Aren't you in class C? I think you name was Nakabara or something?"

"It's Nakahara! Now. If. You. Don't. Mind."

Sensing the girl's patience was at an end, Goda decided to cease his teasing. "Alright, alright. Look I'm going, ok."

"Wait!"

Goda paused and gave a puzzled look. That sounded surprisingly desperate.

"You'll really get me help right? You're not just going to leave me here?"

He sighed and made eye contact with Nakahara. "Despite my newly acquired reputation, I'm not such a lost cause that I'd leave a girl in a situation like this." He reached into his pocket for his phone and took a picture.

"Hey!"

"C'mon can you blame me. Staff won't believe me otherwise. I hardly believe it and I'm staring right at you. Now stay put, this'll only take a couple minutes."

"You'd better delete that picture later..."

"Pfft. I get that you're mad now, but one day you'll look back on this and laugh."

"Don't bet on it."

Goda made to head downstairs, but not without a parting suggestion.

"And shove one of those Bagemon through the slot while you wait, I'd prefer the fire type one."

"You cannot be serious..."

"Consider it payment for getting you help." 

"Why you...!"

"Easy! Think of the oxygen you're wasting!" 

Leaving the fuming girl behind, Goda returned downstairs and flagged down the only staff member. All things considered, not a bad way to start his suspension.