107 – Weathering Not Only With You

August 27.

"Oh, didn't expect you here, G."

Before I even got to think that Rin and I will get to sit on the bench by ourselves on this very day, G has already been sitting comfortably.

"At least expect me to be here. Oh, hi, Ringo."

"Walked her home since she wanted to visit this place too."

"Birds of a feather flock together…"

"The only difference is that I am the only one who sat below that bench."

"Can you not say it like that, Gin…?"

"That's a life lesson where life can be extremely painful."

"Meow. (Fancy meeting you here, Aruji.)"

As expected of a cat, I didn't feel Haku's presence even before he climbed on my shoulder and made himself a scarf on my nape.

"Oh, now the family is complete."

The two of us may have maintained our straight faces but deep within, we were so embarrassed to hear that. But as expected of this cat, again, he understood what was said but he didn't care about it.

"Oh, how's CCI, Ringo?"

"Mghhh… I always manage to find myself weird people wherever I go."

"Am I one of them?"

"You know how much Potato is astronomically weirder than you, right?

But speaking of something along the lines… it feels weird that we don't see each other anymore often. Things changed so much, and quickly, at that…"

"I think that's just how it is when we begin to go on our ways. Good for you, though, Ringo. You still see Gin everyday."

"Like you can talk, G! I saw you at the station with Yui last week!"

"Ah…"

"Has she acceded you?"

"We don't even bring that up these days…"

"But wait, Potato. How is it that the concepts you already knew are only being taught to us just now? You could've just taught me about it, seriously!" the topic changed.

"Have you met Chef Donnie? He's the head instructor of the fourth years I gave a beating, but I or even Hiro are ways away from him. I probably won't get what you later courses will be like."

"That's something… I guess I'll try to sneak away from Chiba-chan and ask him some tips."

"That girl really is persistent. That's why you really should invite her sometime. Surely she'd like to have a match with a sous chef right?"

"Hey! I kinda get the feeling that you're going to make her cry."

"Uwaahhh… That's mean, Gin… You still make girls cry…"

"Geez, now I look like the bad guy… How did you come to the impression that I'll make her cry anyway?!"

Before we knew it, our idle conversations have gone long. And just the same, I ignored the several trickles that landed on my shoulder.

And now the rain is borderline from being a downpour.

But just in case, I have at my hand an umbrella that can cover two people and one cat at most. Obviously, it seems like G is going to be in trouble if the rain doesn't let up.

"Rin, can you and Haku wait for us for a sec?"

"'Kay."

…

"Be thankful that I'm a good fellow, G. I know someone that can lend you an umbrella."

"Don't tell me… Anew?"

"Bu~sted."

Meanwhile…

The cloud coverage has made the skies dark, and so the lights above the bench lit up early. But even before the illumination, Haku can see how much the human in front of him has been intently staring at her.

"Meow…? (What's the matter, Ringo-ojou?)

Mr-! (Bad habit…! She won't hear me.)"

Cats… or this particular cat needless to say has his limitations. Haku was perhaps unsurprisingly unable to understand why Rin is staring at her with a subtle frown.

But on the human's side of thinking, Rin was and only upset, not on Haku, but on the fact she doesn't have the ability to interpret "cat language", and is sulking.

With her eyes somehow twitching from embarrassment, she uttered…

"Nyaa…"

…which gave the cat a look of disapproval.

But then, he finally got a hint of what is going on. Thus, he started meowing on his own pace.

"Meow. (You are beautiful, Ringo-ojou.)"

As he expected, there was no response.

"Meow. (No one in this world likes you more than Aruji.)"

"…"

"Meow. (I have a confession. I love sleeping on your lap because it's warm, soft, and cozy.)

Mew-! (Ack…! She'll think that she's fat if she understood that…)"

"…"

"Meow. (Please take care of Aruji and I as always, ojou.)"

"…"

But somehow, the tables have turned, and now the cat is the one that's desperate.

"Meow. (I like exercising, you know…)"

"Meow. (I hope that you will hear me someday.)"

…

On the way home under the rain, I realized that Haku was somehow in a good mood. I tried asking him about it, but he said that it was a secret. I also tried asking Rin, but she didn't even realize that.

▪ ▪ ▪

09/16/2020

Nagi Heeeyyyy

Nagi 18th is a holiday woop

Shiro tru dat

Yea dont have work thay day

*that

Jean me 2

Nagi hangout? Where tho

Akira Ah yea been a while huh

my house we gud?

Rin ayy

oi

Jean woop

Akira u guys said u went for a sleepover right?

ohhhh nice idea

cool

Jean Can Ai come?

Rin yipyip

Jean thx

Shiro what time???

hmmm

before lunch maybe

hope the storm wont landfall

Rin potato ur also a storm but lv u

Shiro yieeeeeeee

⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄

Nagi if you've watched K-*N let's sing…

Akira FUWA FUWA TIME wwwwwwww

Shiro (husky voice) FUWA FUWA TIME

WWWWWWWWWWWWW

Rin don't waste ur voice! Hey

Rin ay wut her name is also yui lol

I'll prepare cake and tea

Nagi mugi best gril

but there's also Mio uuuuggghhhhh life is hard

who to choose

ah, rin of course

Shiro YIEEEEEEEE

Rin ⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄

Nagi hi shiro

Shiro eh stahp

yieeeeeeeeeeee

Shiro >:(

wwwwwwwwwww

▪ ▪ ▪

Wow, our conversations are super embarrassing.

But disregarding the extremely flustering half of our conversation, the meeting plan has been indeed set after that, and this all happened as a new special holiday has been declared in the country which means that both students and members of society have the day off on Friday.

That conversation surfaced on September 16th, which is Wednesday. But there has been a tropical cyclone being observed by the four countries that are closest to the Pacific Ocean. Most notably, storms begin to form east of Philippines and strengthen over the ocean. One can't really say if a storm is going to make a landfall or not, and chances are that the said country is the first to be hit. But it has been observed that storms at this time of the year travels towards northwest, and most commonly, when a storm is pinpointed northeast of Philippines, it changes track and then goes northeast which it either make landfall on this country or in Japan, or sometimes it thankfully dissolves or "decided that it's a waste of its time to step on our land" and then scram.

What we are hoping is for it not to do grief and make roofs of so many houses fly to the infinity and beyond just like when we were in northern Cotona. At least for me, or perhaps only for me, it feels extremely unusual that I don't see my old friends as frequently anymore. I already know that times like this won't come often, so I really don't want our time to be spoiled.

I am a kid inside after all.

"Potato."

"Hmm?"

"Aren't you going to tell them that I'm pretty much beside you when we were on the chat?"

"C-Can you not…? You already saw my reaction earlier, so stop!"

"Ahahahahahaha…!"

And thus came Friday.

We were preparing lunch early when the first visitors came. As I expected, Jean, if not on schedule is early as always but now with Ai-san, even if a drizzle has started.

"Th-Thank you for having us."

"Ossu, did you guys get wet?"

"We're fine."

"Long time no see, Ai-san. Thanks for taking care of the plants. It sucks that I don't see you guys when I water them myself."

They haven't been in my house for five minutes, and Ai-san has already been giving us a displeased look and actually worded her inner thoughts.

"Senpai… are you intentionally making yourselves a married couple or is this just a stretch of idiocy?"

We realized too late that we're matching aprons.

"Woah, first time hearing Ai-san retort…!"

"Dear, she is going through rebellious phase…!"

"As you can see, Ai… this is a stretch of stupidity."

"I can see that… but I've been through that phase even before coming to this country…!"

"Chiwassu~ Yes, I'm not late!" Akira immediately celebrated.

"I know I'm not in the position to say this… I'm surprised that you two are still not dating yet after two years."

"Did it seem a bit weird?"

"Nahh, I'm just a bit shocked."

"Let's go at our own pace, shall we, Jin?"

Ai-san, your smile is scary.

"Ah, Haku-san…!" Ai-san ran to the cat. "You're still as cute as ever…"

I saw it.

I saw how Haku stopped himself from responding when his eyes met with Rin's. You cheeky cat, making my girlfriend cheat on me and making her jealous.

"**Girls are scary!" I shouted as I proudly raised my arm with a closed fist. Even if I said that on Japanese, Akira… and Nagi who is apparently on the entranceway also raised their hand with Jean and Nagi roaring in agreement.

Only Nagi was hit on the head by Shiro.

And now we're complete.

…

Wait… Reunion Plus One much?

"You sure have an easy week today, sous chef! I didn't even see you much these few days."

"Those were paid leaves. I was helping out Ken and the others on the base with AMM stuff."

"Ehhhh, we were on a pinch last Tuesday, you know?"

"Sorry, sorry."

"Ah, Ai-san, Shiro. Which way do you want it—use the guest room or in my room?" asked Rin.

"We'll just use your room, Ringo. It's easier to make a mess there."

"Y-Y-Y-Y-You have a room here, R-Ringo-senpai?!"

"…!

A-A-Ahhhh…! T-That's not what I mean, Ai-san…! My room… my room on our house!"

The way Rin said that… it sounded like she was lying when she's not. Rin is sus.

"I-It's not like I don't want to be with Gin, 'kay…?!"

"Why the tsundere act now, Rin…

You should put more of your emotions on that line!"

"H-Hai…!!"

"Idiots…"

The cooks may be idiotic, but it seems that our lunch was stupidly good, thankfully.

Getting their fill, Rin explained to Ai-san how she can easily come to this house right in my room. Although I'm worried that she's probably rummaging through my photo albums and showing them to her junior.

But while we were starting to cool down after a hefty lunch, the roof has become loud as the rain got significantly stronger.

Even I didn't notice why, but Nagi suddenly got anxious.

"I know we're staying and all… but this surely feels like a deja vu, Gin…"

"Oh… it's like May from last year again, huh.

I guess the typhoon is quite near now."

Quite frighteningly, yes, the storm has been categorized as a typhoon now after it strengthened on the ocean. They eye is not going to make landfall on Orio, but its radius of the circulation is definitely bringing a lot of rain and wind.

"Oh, yeah. There's something cool outside."

Even I was amazed when I first saw my solar panel roof under the rain. Up to this day, the panes are still very clear as I clean them regularly, but it's plainly bizarre that I have an invisible roof that shields me on the rain even if I'm outside, and it is weird that the concrete below isn't getting really wet after all the rain that has fallen on us.

I am somehow refreshed to see them with an indifferent reaction.

Well, not for too long.

~ ~ ~

"Shouldn't the rain be stopping any time now…?" Akira expressed his worry.

I promptly looked on my phone only to send myself frustration after once again realizing that Orio actually doesn't have a broad coverage of hyperlocal weather, so forecasts coming from my phone can be a hit or miss.

As much as I wanted to make it a pun for the storm, I can't connect it cleanly.

Then I switched gears and turned my television on which showed a very noisy and unclear reception. It did not even make me think of coming out to look at my local antenna that is most likely damaged by the wind a bit.

It was however clear enough to see that the news is coincidentally about the weather.

"By the time of 1:00 in the afternoon earlier, we have observed that the Typhoon Dante suddenly changed its course and is most likely heading towards either Capital or Cotona. Very powerful winds are expected in two hours' time, and houses made from light materials might suffer from moderate to severe damage.

We ask all of you to be very cautious and please stay inside your homes for the time being."

"Thankfully it's getting quite cold now…" Nagi took the words that I only had in my mind. "Ah, no. I think that it will just get colder if the typhoon really hits us…

This is even freakier than the deja vu I had just now…!"

THUD

It goes without saying that all of us shuddered at once after we heard an extremely loud sound outside.

"Oi… I feel like something hit my wall just now…"

"What?!"

I immediately stepped out through my terrace door and was bombarded with a very powerful gust of wind. Grasping the earth in no time, I managed to look up and see that there is a large tree branch that has flown to my wall and landed on my solar roof.

"Aggghhh… Look at what you did, you darn branch! Now I have to repaint my wall after this…!!"

"Wait, that was your problem, Gin?!"

I quickly came in and out of the house to grab myself a raincoat made out of AMM. I quickly ran a simulation of what would happen to me if I jump while the strong winds are blowing. I don't have a mass that a strong wind can lose to, but I suddenly remembered how much I ruined my body to get where I am now, and it seems that I have cheated physics itself a bit.

Just ask yourself: How is a 66kg man with a normal BMI can exert newtons exceeding the given mass exponentially and with extreme acceleration?

Oh, hey. I actually know physics! I just don't know if my stuff is accurate!

In the end, I still took the jump and proved my theory with me not getting caught by the wind. I then grasped on the thickest part of the branch and took it down on the yard beside where the car is parked at.

"Ahh… Still getting some exercise, huh…"

"W-What was that about, Jin?!"

"Ehh. Ask the man himself, Ai."

"What was that-"

"Okay, stop."

"Potato~ Dad said that power just went out next door."

"Ack… We're at this again. Good thing I have a lot of backup power so we'll be good for quite a while."

"Okay. I'll turn off the lights upstairs. Should I plug your PC off, Gin?"

"Ah, thanks."

"Do we still have internet, Gin?"

"Ah let me check…"

And suddenly, Nagi's face paled while looking at his phone screen.

"Oi, oi, oi… Now there's a waterspout near us…"

"Seriously…? Is there a video, Nacchi?! Where is it?!"

"It looks like on the lake at Zen Park…"

"Hmmm…"

"What now, Gin?"

"I think I can cheat it even without a very large surface area…

Oh, Rin. You done?"

"Yup."

"Alright. Can you promise me that you won't be very worried? I'll be extreeeeeemely careful!"

"…You're telling me this now…"

"H-Hey… your minds don't work the same as ours…

Can someone tell us what is going on?"

"Simply put… Well… I'm kinda getting irritated on this storm now so…

I'll try giving the typhoon a push."

.

.

.

"THAT'S ABSURDLY RECKLESS…!"

"Oi, Gin! Give this some more thought! This is so different from the stuff in the past…!"

"I am well aware, Akira—just like how aware I am with the strength of this typhoon."

"T-Then… why?!"

"I'm also aware that I am not being reckless this time.

Well, Rin also knows that, but her hands can't seem to stop shaking."

At that point, she immediately tightened her grasp on my hands while she looks at my still straight face.

"Alright… To put you guys up to speed, I should be stronger than this typhoon numerically."

"…?!"

"I don't know if I have my estimates wrong or my usage of concepts is entirely incorrect but…

Akira, we have the same phone brand right? Can you fire your calculator up?"

"Alright."

"Let's do some physics stuff here then even if it's wrong… I'm stupid in science that I don't like after all.

9.8x98 is…?"

"960.4."

"The first one was the value of Earth's gravitational acceleration, right?" Jean, the smart one has emerged.

"Imagine how much gravity that was. I would be falling just shy of a kilometer every second.

But what is the maximum wind speed of the storm?"

"190 kilometers per hour, I think."

"Then let's do this…

We now have 0.96 km per square second. Our calculator should have a speed converter, Akira. Don't mind if our calculations may be wrong."

So I assume that he would convert the km/s to km/h.

"T-T-The result is…

3457.44 kilometers per hour…"

Five seconds later.

"Itterasshai, young'un…"

They got over it.

※ There is absolutely no guarantee that the numbers in here are even close to accurate.

"Well, wherever I will land, I'll make sure to bring back some sweets… or probably pizza?"

"Please both…!" the men wholeheartedly bowed their heads.

"Well, I guess I'll be…"

There's something I forgot. Actually, at times like this, you probably know that Rin asks for my cheek so that she will be assured that I will be safe on occurrences like this but…

"I know how you feel, Rin-san… But I'm very sorry… please restrain yourself…! (Because there are other people here!)" and then I put together my palms so as to apologize and lowered my head.

"Awwww…

How are you planning to give it a push anyway?"

"Got a really huge scrap of AMM sheet that I never used so I played with it and folded it to a fan…"

"Don't make toys out of that, you idiot!"

"Now that I think about it… Gin-senpai is an Exile, right?"

"Yep. You saw me back then on the school trip."

"O-Okay…! I'll keep quiet about it."

"Thanks.

Alright, for real, I'll take off now. See you in a minute."

«T-Minus 3… 2-

In fairness, Gin gave them a warning before springing up.»

"I-Is Senpai a Kr*ptonian…?"

"Please don't say that, Ai-san…"

▪ ▪ ▪

"Amazing… I've never felt that falling from the sky can be this cool…"

You know… Only ten minutes passed after I leaped up. But now I find myself on a free-fall with a thinking gesture and legs crossed.

*Prev button pressed*

I missed being able to jump like this… but I would really appreciate if I didn't need to wear a mask. I so want to feel the wind on my face while I elevate.

But then… my hypothesis keeps getting proven. For some reason, it really does seem like my body isn't fazed at all on the strong gusts coming from the storm. If what my theory says stays coherent, then I should be able to get really near on the waterspout.

As much as I didn't want to stand out, the fan I made is taller than me. And even if I have a raincoat that looks so much like a cloak right now, I wouldn't be surprised if people have captured me already on their cameras.

I still hope not though. Don't open your windows, people.

But at least… it feels like I'm Tobi of Ak*tsuki right now.

There is one thing I have realized, however. Thanks to Ryota, or Teardrop, I have learned my current limits. If I try to just kick away the waterspout with the wind that I can produce by compressing the air on my leg, it won't be enough. That is to say… I won't be able to stop that with my body only.

And that's how I came up with the idea of bringing the scrap AMM I had lying on the house. It is far better with a larger surface area which would capture more roughly compressed air to be shot on the tornado over a body of water. And well… a fan is supposed to push air.

Not knowing how high I leaped from the highest place I can jump on the Zen Park, I shot forward to the waterspout and swung the fan upwards while I spun upon the momentum.

I may have regretted a little that I closed my eyes. When my sight came to it, the tornado has already disappeared and it got significantly brighter for some reason. I know that Cotona or most likely the entirety of Orio is covered by the typhoon through the satellite, and this province and Capital are so near to the eye. That means that there should be thick cloud coverage even above Zen Park, but it seemed like the cloud thinned out…

Then I saw a curvature that looked like a few layers of clouds were blown away.

A whistle subconsciously came out of me as I landed while my eyes are still locked on the sky. But with that… I looked for another higher point to leap. Somehow, I felt very encouraged to continue if not confident.

What I was at least confident about is that I would come home unscathed with the shield I have on me. But in all honesty, I thought that "giving the typhoon a push" was just ambitious or a tall order. But when I saw that I managed to "scrape" the typhoon without putting every ounce of force I have, I suddenly felt lighter.

Once I found the optimal place to take off anew, my lower limbs—from my thighs down to toes—my legs immediately hardened as I launched with everything I can muster.

…

Suddenly, the two years that I had to endure on the absolutely frightening gravity of Void came running on my memories fast. For three years, I have never gotten to see the full potential of the body that came out of that room, while I immediately saw the changes in my mind.

I was in extreme awe… as I see myself somewhere low in the troposphere… but close to the underside of the typhoon.

"Apples… I know I'm not above the clouds… but I call this close enough…!

Haha…! Where are the water fishes?!"

Keep in mind that I am still sane at this point. Props to you if you got the reference.

Once more, I was encouraged further after almost seeing the same thing I saw on the big screen a year ago.

I unfolded the fan once again and positioned to drive the typhoon eastwards with a supposed-to-be clockwise blow that shall go against the circulation.

"Now I know what we'll watch later once I come back…"

As if my throat began being scorched from the inside, I screamed everything that I can.

The swing has been commenced with my open eyes. It felt like I saw a timelapse of clouds in real time. The rain has weakened and so is the wind. The skies got whiter, as I failed to open it up to the blue sky.

"Look at that… Light still pierces through the clouds…"

This time, I felt my whole body. Well, it absolutely hurts. I don't feel like a bone got broken again, but whatever movement I do, I feel pain on my limbs like every muscle fiber of my body has been ripped to shreds. But then again… I'm already used to this kind of physical pain.

And so, ten minutes have passed.

I was ready, you know? I pulled my zip locked phone, removed my mask, and took a selfie with the view from the surface seen, which does not happen commonly.

Coming back to my total senses, I realized that I am still thankfully in Cotona, so I dropped by the greenhouse to temporarily hide the fan and the raincoat so that I could go out on the public with my mask on. My clothes are thankfully dried after I got literally rained down.

I am a man of my word, so I went to the mall to keep my promise. I bought three boxes of pizza and two boxes of cupcakes. I then leaped around town to get my things back and came home seeing the others with a reassured look.

"Did the power come back on the neighborhood?"

"Seems like it…"

"Ah, I fixed the antenna just now. Let's see what the news will say."

"An unprecedented occurrence has happened just now. Suddenly, the satellites picked up that the category of Typhoon Dante suddenly went down to tropical depression and it seems to be moving surprisingly at 95km/h moving eastward towards the Pacific Ocean."

"Aaaahhhhh… That was tough! I'm not good enough to completely decimate the storm. Ahahaha."

"Okay… we already get that you literally pushed the typhoon away…

But why is Ringo clinging on your back?"

"Pfft… How cute…

Rin-san~! I need to take a bath and soothe my torn fibers. You look like how Haku is when he doesn't let go of my shoulder."

"Meow. (I won't deny that.)"

"…

You smell like sugar."

"Ehhh… That's probably because the sweets shop was too fragrant earlier."

"Now, now. Please let go for the time being," and she really did. "Ah, I bought a DVD of Weath*ring with You last June. Let's watch on dinner. I'll bring out sheets so we can lie around."

"Aw, yes! We'll get to watch it again!"

"Hina-saaaaannnnn…!"

"Shut up, Akira!"

Flooding here is incredibly gross but thankfully it didn't today. O, how I wish to see flood as clear as the one seen in the movie, but that's fiction so it won't happen.

But in the end, Rin is still my 100% sunshine girl!

Is there still anything that love can do? I think yes.

Chapter Message:

Sometimes I think about the wild things I wrote compared to what this story was initially. We went from a teenager getting hit by a truck to a guy that fended off a typhoon.

Anyway, next chapter won't be a part of the main story. I am reintroducing "What If" chapter that was first used in the prequel.

Thank you for reading!

Next

108: Hold on, we've been isekai'd before.