You & Me, Etc.

"Someday We'll..." — Iku and Keita have been childhood friends for as long as they can remember. Naturally enough, when one of them took up baseball, the other followed suit. In their final year of middle school, however, Keita's baseball career came to an abrupt end after he suffered severe injuries shielding Iku from an oncoming truck. The two now attend the same high school, but ever since the accident, Iku has kept his distance from both the sport and his friend, apparently weighed down by guilt. What, then, does Keita make of the gulf that has grown between them? "The Sakura Pilgrimage" — Sugaya is convinced that students like Fujishiro, a high-achieving pupil rumored to be the next student council president, inhabit a completely different world and have no bearing on his own life. That certainty is shattered one fateful day when he catches Fujishiro making out with a teacher after school. Fujishiro buys Sugaya's silence with money, but not without a parting jab at how easily his confidence was purchased. Rounding out the volume are the additional stories "The Beautiful Tomorrow" and "All About Us, Etc."