Yuuji Yugami

Yuuji in the Volume 10 cover.

**Yuuji Yugami** (湯神 裕二, *Yugami Yūji*) is the main protagonist of "Yugami-kun ni wa Tomodachi ga Inai". He is the Ace of the Kamihoshi baseball team and the first person Chihiro Watanuki meets when she transfers into Kamihoshi. He tends to do things at his own pace, always marching to the beat of his own drum. He is notoriously known as a troublesome weirdo amongst not only his baseball club teammates, but also his classmates and this causes him to be isolated by his peers. However, being alone doesn't faze Yuji at all, and he claims he doesn't need friends. After all the third-year member retired at the end of summer, he is given the new captain role of Kamihoshi baseball team even though Yuji himself is uninterested.

* Profile
* Relationships
* Story

Yuuji Yugami is a student of Class 2-A who sits at the right end, beside the window of the classroom often isolated by most of the class due to his unusual behavior that some people are uncomfortable with. He is often seen listening in a Rakugo through his earphones.

## Appearance

Yuuji is a fair-skinned teenager with black hair with gray eyes as depicted both in the manga and the animated promotional video and a slim body.

## Personality

Yuuji prefers to be alone and believes he does not have any friends and does not need one.

Most of his classmates avoid him due to his eccentric behavior often misunderstood. One of it is his straightforwardness. His way of doing things is direct and firm once he sets his mind to. It also caused him trouble as some people find his comments and advise insulting due to his hones and brutal words.

Most of his philosophies in life are lessons he learned from Rakugo—a storytelling with a touch of entertainment and wisdom about life. He mostly base his quick decisions from those.

Yuuji has a habit of creating a planner for his daily schedule. Whenever it gets interrupted, he tries to come up with a different way, no matter how, just so he could attain the specific goal he had for a day. Though when results turn different from his expectations, he finds someone to blame for it.

### Yuuji in Class

Yuuji is isolated in his class due to his eccentric behavior that many find weird. Though he doesn't really mind as he actually prefers to be alone.

### Yuuji in Baseball Club

Yuuji is the ace pitcher of the baseball club, but most of the baseball club members are annoyed at him due to his harsh remarks. This caused him being bullied by the seniors, yet for someone who does not tolerate such act, he often gets head-to-head with them. On the other hand, members younger than sees him as the only savior for the baseball club in leagues. Seeing his performance, the juniors instinctively believe that he is a leader for the team.

## Interests

### Baseball Club

Yuuji is the ace of the Baseball Club despite being a loner. Because of his eccentric attitude, the rest of the club members cannot go along well with him, especially the seniors. Out of their coach's decision, Haruki Kadota is the only member of the club patient enough to be his catcher.

Yuuji became fond of baseball after Masaki Hayashiyama taught him how to playback when they were young. Yugami was not part of the playing members but by the time Hayashiyama got sick, and the coach of the young league saw Yuuji's potential, the once ace of the younger baseball league, Hayashiyama, was replaced by him.

### Bowling

Yuuji likes bowling. During his upcoming exam, all club activities are halted, including the Baseball club. Yuuji went to a bowling center and was seen playing alone by Chihiro Watanuki, Wakana Kuzumi, Haruki Kadota and Masaki Hayashiyama.

### Handicrafts

Yuuji found interest in making wooden handicrafts after getting some unused woods from a younger member of the Baseball Club. Ever since then, he meticulously create wooden crafts that are others find it useless.

### Rakugo

Yuuji is a huge Rakugo fan. Whenever he has free time, he always puts his earphones and listens to it. He gets enthusiastic whenever he encounters another Rakugo fan like the time when Chihiro identified what he was listening to.

The lessons given by the Rakugo is what guides him in his decision making and actions.

## Etymology

* The name **Yuuji** means "abundant" (裕) (**yuu**) and "two" (二) (**ji**).
* Yuuji's surname **Yugami** means "hot water, bath, hot spring" (湯) (**yu**) and "god, deity" (神) (**kami**/**gami**).

## **Family**

Yuuji lives with his father, mother, grandmother, and sister. He is sometimes visited by his cousin in which he finds annoying due to her imposing attitude.

### **Suzune Yugami**

Suzune is Yuuji's cousin who is a year older than him. Yuuji bore a resentment to her after she acted too sister-like towards him, keeping him from doing things he wants when they were young. After they got older, Yuuji keeps getting annoyed whenever he sees Suzune and revolts at her in every possible way.

## **Friends**

### **Chihiro Watanuki**

Chihiro is Yuuji's classmate who transferred in their class at the start of their second year. She is someone Yuuji assessed as a person who craves for attention.

Chihiro is someone considered by the class 2-A as the only one capable of talking to Yuuji for more than a minute.

Despite Yuuji doing things alone, he is often helped by Chihiro. He ends up returning the favor by solving some of her own problems or by sharing his Rakugo CDs.

Two years after their graduation, Yuuji looked for Chihiro and invited her to a live Rakugo show. His reason is because Chihiro is the only person who understands him when it comes to Rakugo stories, and she is the only person who can confirm that Heiraku featured them. They watched several of Heiraku's shows to see his different ways of narrating their story.

### **Wakana Kuzumi**

Wakana is the manager of the Baseball Club and often the most stressed person when the topic is about Yuuji.

### **Haruki Kadota**

Haruki is junior and Yuuji's catcher in the Baseball club. He told people that the reason he became his catcher is because nobody has a patience enough to partner up with him. As a younger member of their club, the coach gave him the position.

### **Masaki Hayashiyama**

Masaki considers himself as Yuuji's rival.

He is the one who taught Yuuji to play baseball and the one who hung out with him in their younger days per their homeroom teacher's instruction.

After he got sick during a practice match in their Little Baseball Club, Yuuji was picked as his replacement and later on, replaced him as the ace player of the team. He held a grudge for long and aimed to defeat Yuuji in a baseball match.

Unfortunately, Yuuji does not recall the incident between the two of them, nor does he recognize him.

### **Rio Fujisawa**

Rio had once fallen in love with Yuuji after helping her when they were first-year students, but upon learning Yuuji's eccentric behavior, she immediately gave up on him.

Due to her long, unrequired feelings for him, Rio ended up supporting and learning rules on baseball team and whenever she watches a match, she often found to be the most enthusiastic supporter of the Kamihoshi Baseball Club.

### **Kaori Momose**

Kaori is known to be the one who hated Yuuji the most for a reason of causing Kuzumi too much trouble.

### **Ryouta Yaegashi**

Ryota respects and admires Yuuji's strong will and independence despite not having friends, which is the opposite of him.

### **Kouichi Watanuki**

He is not close to Yuuji but Yuuji is thankful for him, for letting him watch a live Rakugo that is around in their area. Kouchi once believed that Yuuji is Chihiro's boyfriend and they let them watch the Rakugo together but turned out he was mistaken and Yuuji is only interested in Rakugo.

Yuuji follows Kouichi's blog out of his gratitude for giving him the ticket for the live Rakugo.

## Meeting Chihiro Watanuki

Yuuji first met Chihiro Watanuki in the school's bicycle parking lot where he helped her parked her bicycle by removing someone else's bicycle and placed hers.

Their second meeting is in the classroom where Chihiro was introduced as a new transfer student and their new classmate. Her seat was decided to be beside Yuuji in which he got annoyed so much since he prefers to keep the back end space of the room only for him. He tried to drive her away by asking if she could sit around the aisle then suggesting a belief that women cares about ultraviolet rays.

Their next encounter is when Chihiro is being ganged up by the upperclassmen in the Baseball club room and was forced to write an apology letter to them for not parking their bicycles properly which were removed by Yuuji in their original places and replaced theirs. Yuuji involved in the situation and fought against the seniors—insisting that they, juniors should not do the work for them.

Later on, Chihiro has become a person Yuuji often talks with that caused rumors to silently spread within their class.

## Yuuji in the Baseball Club

Despite the Baseball club being a team sport, Yuuji believes that he has to do things alone for the success of the team. This made every member of the team to loathe him and thought of him as a person pain to deal with.

The senior members of the club have a habit of dominating over the new members. Yuuji's open defiance against them caused him to be hated more.

## Yuuji and his Rival, Masaki Hayashiyama

The Baseball Club had a practice game against Amagi High's Baseball Club. During the practice session, Chihiro, Kuzumi, and Haruki noticed Yuuji's glare against the Amagi High Baseball Club members. Meanwhile, Masaki Hayashiyama, the ace player of Amagi High, is glaring at Yuuji. This led them to believe that there is a rivalry between Yuuji and Masaki.

Kadota tells them that Yuuji stole his position during their Little Baseball Club as he got a fever in time of their practice. Their coach saw Yuuji's potential in pitching that he became the regular pitcher even after Masaki returned back to health. Yuuji ended up stealing Masaki's pitching position which caused him to be begrudged by Masaki for a long time.

Yuuji though, cannot recall the incident and firmly denies knowing him. Instead, he told that he has been glaring at the bench member of the opposing team, Uchiyamada. He revealed that Uchiyamada always put him in trouble by ratting him out at their teacher for not following the triangular method of taking a meal—a way Japanese people eat.

The conversation was overheard by Masaki and languidly performs at the latter half of the practice game. It became even worse after Yuuji insistened he never know Maski after a thorough explanation from Kadota. Eventually, Masaki lost the will to play the game.

## Yuuji and the Class 2-A

Yuuji is a man who follows a certain schedule for a day. On one rainy day, Yuuji was annoyed by how Chihiro went to her seat in a roundabout manner as she tried to start a conversation with their classmates but failed to do so. As he tried to find the cause of Chihiro's isolation in the class, he noticed the classroom was empty with only a notice at the board left saying, "Their class is in a different room."

Yuuji tries to find the new room their classmates went to but got into wrong classrooms several times. This makes him complain loudly to the sloppiness of the written notice of the board for not adding the specific location.

After finally finding the right location, Yuuji was scolded for being late and was excluded during class session. Unfazed by the teacher's punishment, Yuuji then listened to Rakugo through his earphones.

Chihiro later accompanied him outside for feeling out of place when Yuuji is not around. While outside, she overhears the sound coming from his earphones and pointed out that it is a Rakugo. This delighted Yuuji and their conversation about Rakugo then started. His voice became louder that they are both scolded and punished by cleaning the hallway.

Since Yuuji has club activities, he has to utilize his time in managing the tasks given to him, punishment included. This caused discomfort to his classmates and Chihiro did not fail to notice. Chihiro offered to do the cleaning alone instead out of concern to the awkward atmosphere but she was not taken seriously as Yuuji is skeptic to her goodwill and thought she may have an ulterior motive. He then later agreed after seeing no particular reason for his doubts.

Due to the rain, club activities are forced to be done within the interiors of the school building. Despite the exhaustion from the heavy workload of his schedule, Yuuji is satisfied for meeting his goals on time.

## Yuuji's Failed Perfect Game

Yuuji failed a "Perfect Game" and a "No-Hitter No-Run" during their baseball match. Kadota had seen signs of Yuuji's disappointment by his endless foot tapping.

While at home, Yuuji expressed gloominess by not answering Yuuko's call after calling him endlessly behind the bathroom door. He was enraged after his sister entered the bathroom without knocking only to reason out that she was only following his advise of family members should respond whenever they are called from the bathroom to avoid accidents.

The next day, Yuuji was enthusiastic and energetic the whole day, believed by many that he has moved on from the failed game. After learning Chihiro got sick, he headed to the clinic to check on her which surprised Chihiro and others. There, he met Chihiro's mother who noticed he was in baseball uniform and the ace player based on its number. She nonchalantly spoke to Yuuji and his failed "Perfect Game" and "No-Hitter No-Run," which led many to believe that it would trigger the bad mood Yuuji had. Chihiro affirmed her suspicion after seeing his menacing glare towards her.

Several days later, Chihiro was surprised on Yuuji's visit to her home. It turns out her suspicion was all a misunderstanding. Yuuji was disappointed in the failed "No-Hitter No-Run" record only for a moment and he had already forgotten about it after his Rakugo CDs arrived in his mail. He lent him his CDs as a gratitude to her taking his share of responsibility with the cleaning duty and as a casual Rakugo fan.

## Yuuji and Rio Fujisawa

Yuuji was able to meet Rio Fujisawa after a complicated conversation through e-mail in which started through a love letter. Because Yuuji was having trouble giving a proper reply to the letter, Kadota suggested that he should do it in his stead, believing that he is helping him get his focus straight in baseball. Only, it caused a more troublesome event where Chihiro met the troubled Rio Fujisawa by not receiving a reply through an e-mail from Yuuji in which she thought he is supposed to turn her down properly.

It turned out, Kadota exchanged e-mails with Rio by pretending to be Yuuji and they ended up emailing each other daily until the conversation reached to point that they have to meet.

Yuuji decided to solve the matters fast by directly talking to Rio and decline her properly but he failed and instead had a date with her.

He arranged a plan in which the two of them will follow it but due to some unexpected circumstances, his plan failed to follow the schedule.

Chihiro, Kuzumi, and Kadota were worried that they have to see the situation from afar. In the end, Yuuji told Rio the whole situation with the three being part of the plan. This caused Rio to cry and ran away.

Yuuji explained that he told her the necessary truth because that is one of the lessons of the story of the Rakugo he was listening to. It led him to do the right thing.

Rio Fujisawa happened to like Yuuji after he helped her make a backdraft for the Cultural Festival.

After Yuuji confessed the truth, Rio lost her interest at him but discovers a friendship with Chihiro.

## The Kamihoshi High Baseball Club in Semi-Finals

After the Baseball Club reached the Semi-Finals, the students of Kamihoshi High were forced to watch the game.

Yuuji believed he can win the game alone as he thought he cannot rely on his teammates since they lack the skill and cooperation. This led to him and Kadota quarrel in the middle of the game.

It led him to exhaustion as he tried his best to have the game in their lead. It motivated his teammates to work hard on their gameplay. He ended up nodding to any strategy the other members came up with and gestures given to him by his teammates. Rio believed they were working as a team.

They won after a double play—an act of making two outs in one session of play—pulled by Iwaki.

Yuuji was left behind as his teammates praised Iwaki for winning the game. He left the field pissed.

## Yuuji's Home

Yuuji was visited by Chihiro, Rio, and Haruki after he suffered from a leg injury from the semi-finals game and had been absent ever since.

Rio came along with Chihiro for a home visit at Yuuji's house to clear up the misunderstandings that they had ever since their encounter. Unfortunately, Yuuji blocked off her sincere intention by giving several reasons for her ulterior motive after taking the effort of visiting him home. It caused her to leave without saying anything, leaving Chihiro alone with Yuuji.

Chihiro tried to defend Rio's goal for coming over, but Yuuji does not want to believe so. Chihiro decided to leave as she found useless reasoning to Yuuji further, leaving Haruki alone fixing the video recorder for Yuuji's grandmother.

## Yuuji's Summer Break

For his leg's rehabilitation, Yuuji spent time in a hot spring alone which his grandmother commented he has the luxury to enjoy alone. Yuuji also enjoyed the Summer Festival as he explored different stalls alone.

Chihiro's mother approached him after seeing him alone in the festival and asked him to hang out with her daughter since she's alone as well.

Knowing Chihiro's tepidness toward others, Yuuji made the initiative of calling Kadota to call Kuzumi and have Chihiro enjoy the festival with her.

After failing to game of scooping turtle despite his effort of practicing at different stalls, he asked Chihiro to help her scoop turtles at a specific stall. He used her so the manager can be less aggressive, as he believed the owner is soft on girls. He wanted Chihiro to scoop the turtles more than what she paid so he could have revenge against the owner who beat him once after complaining about his impartiality toward his customers.

It turned out he also wanted to get revenge on the owner for tricking his sister once.

## Yuuji Working on a Pet

Yuuji was asked by Chihiro and Rio to take care of a dog that was abandoned in a store they are working at.

He was against the idea at first but due to the others' circumstances, he was forced to take care of it.

He observed how problematic the dog was so he decided to keep a journal about its behavior and some ways to deal with it, as well as the expenses he spent at it.

## Yuuji and Zaizen Jouji

Zaizen Jouji asked Chihiro to give his original Rakugo on his behalf. Yuuji was hesitant at first to accept it since he does not know who gave it but after seeing his name in one of the books, Yuuji unwillingly accepted it. The next day, Chihiro and Haruki saw him writing tags on every page of the book.

By Haruki's recollection, he once saw Yuuji arguing with Zaizen about what to write that interest the readers in which he answered Rakugo. A year later, he let Yuuji read his original work of Rakugo and Yuuji found it interesting. They made a promise that Yuuji will be his editor for the Rakugo pieces that he will do. Ever since then, despite Yuuji is troubled about it, he earnestly edited Zaizen's work.

In his seat, Chihiro observed Yuuji complaining about promising to a stranger out of the blue but he insisted to keep the promise, else their positions will be unequal.

## Yuuji's Request

Yuuji suddenly called Chihiro for them to meet up at a certain place because he has something to say that cannot be properly conveyed through an e-mail.

Yuuji waited for Chihiro and after seeing each other, he asked if she could have some of her goldfish that she won during the Summer Festival. His reason is his turtles were not lively and his grandmother suggested they need a live bait and it crossed his mind Chihiro's goldfish.

After finding out the truth, Chihiro adamantly refused. Yuuji used the earthworms as an alternative and his turtles became lively again.

## Yuuji's Second Semester

At the start of the second semester, Chihiro observed how Yuuji is the same as always. Yuuji ordered Haruki to buy him a curry bread after they have seen each other in the Faculty Room. Haruki complained that he should have friends so he could have a relationship in which he could give and take. Yuuji dissed off the idea by setting Chihiro as an example who depends too much on the relationship which causes her to be dependent and could not find what truly makes her happy.

As some of their classmates believe Yuuji is a mean person, Chihiro, on the other hand, though it is just Yuuji's nature to be straightforward and he is a good person.

Chihiro caught in the rain after she cleaned the classroom herself. Yuuji saw and approached her to tell how she was dying of friendship and easily taken advantage of that she could not look after herself properly.

Leaving for a moment, Yuuji returned with an umbrella he bought at a convenience store for Chihiro. He asked her for payment.

## The Baseball Club's New Captain

When the retiring Captain of the Baseball Club decided Yuuji be the next captain, Wakana and Haruki strongly refused and suggested an election instead but the result ended up Yuuji to have the highest voters and made him the new captain in the end.

At first, Yuuji was against the idea and asked somebody else to take his place but no one dared to. The next day, he acted what a captain should as he looked thoroughly to the other members' stances which made Wakana relieved but the next day, Yuuji slacked off as well as the members. This led Wakana to scold Yuuji but he expected her rants and before he could listen to her, he gave a notebook that contained detailed information to each member and a pointing system that. He explained that each of the members started with fifty points and every time they slack off, their points were decreasing. It was his way of lessening the trouble of repeating the reminders for each member.

Instead of solving the matter, Wakana believed it will cause distrust to each of the members and decided to seal the notebook and keep it in her house's storage.

As Yuuji suspected and questioned Wakana never using the notebook, she used the pointing system on him as well.

## Heiraku's Student, Heitarou

Yuuji's excited after announcing that they are about to watch a live Rakugo performance by Heiraku's student Heitaoru.

While he immersed himself in Rakugo stories through his earphones, Chihiro approached him to have a small talk about her problems. He firmly declined as it will ruin his mood before the show and left.

He was shocked and disappointed in Heitarou's show because he performed a classic Rakugo which was not his forte but the original ones and made the show boring. His frustrations led him to ask advice from Chihiro, who is a Rakugo's casual fan but she dissed her off just like he did. They agreed to listen to each other. Unfortunately, they did not reach the answer as they did not accept the suggestions of each other.

## Yuuji's Preparation for the Rakugo Performance

Yuuji's disappointment with Heitarou's performance motivated him to perform one himself. During his practice, he was approached by Rio who was troubled by Haruki's remark of resembling Yuuji. He dissed the idea and insisted that they are not the same since he knows what he wants. Their conversation led up to Chihiro asked by Rio to call her by her first name, thus strengthening their friendship more. Her resolution, though, shocked Yuuji.

Before a baseball match, Kido noticed how Yuuji was troubled at something. He believed that it was due to the team. She tried to cheer him up who was about to doze off by telling him that he pitched too hard for that day's match. Yuuji replied that he had to work hard since the other members kept making errors. Kido then suggested to Haruki that he should care more for Yuuji as his catcher, thus ending up carrying the bag for him.

During class, Chihiro noticed Yuuji is still down after the match, but soon realized that Yuuji was not depressed over the performance of the Baseball team but for his upcoming Rakugo performance for the Cultural Festival.

At his home, Yuuji is often seen practicing his performance before their cat and working on the props at home and in school. Though before the Cultural Festival, Yuuji had several conflicts before the show. One of it is the schedule of occupying the stage. It caused the Drama Club to cut their show only to 40 minutes that he ended up being confronted by a Drama Club member. Yuuji instantly settled the conflict by forcing Yaegashi, who was dragged by the enraged member of the Drama Club as their president and Yuuji's classmate, in a Jankenpon that he won by. Yaegashi wondered how Yuuji ended using the game to settle the matter in which he replied that the man complaining will never listen and just did what he did to settle the matters as soon as possible. Unknown to him, Yaegashi was thankful at his quick resolution. Later that day, Yuuji pondered that he has the luck if he was alone.

Just a day before his performance, Chihiro noticed Yuuji was in a hurry. It turns out that the Rakugo stage used by Heitarou which he planned to reuse was returned to Civic Center. He tried to contact the owner only to learn that the stage was already booked by somebody else. Yuuji immediatly went home to get the pillow he was going to use but it was dirtied by the cat's fur and torn apart at his force. Back at school, Yuuji hastily created an improvised backdrop but it was a disaster as several factors ruined his preparation. This was witnessed by Chihiro and pitifully offered a help by fixing the pillow case while he worked on his backdrop. He was delighted by the end result that offered a pre-performance to Chihiro but he was stopped by Zaizen pointing out that his chosen piece does not fully expresses himself. At the day of his performance, Yuuji realized that Zaizen was right.

## The Fall Tournament

As Wakana and Haruki were worried over Amagi High losing to Houjou Academy, Yuuji, on the other hand, was worried over his Rakugo performance. Chihiro noticed the two and asked Yuuji out of concern, but he stoically replied that he had enough practice and brooding over the upcoming match will not do him any good.

Their conversation ended up to Chihiro taking up a qualification exam which made Yuuji come up with an idea for his performance. He believed that Chihiro took the exam to make a good appearance which he thought it is what he needs to improve his Rakugo. Later that day, Chihiro accidentally saw Yuuji walking around in a kimono. Yuuji ended up meeting with Chihiro and gave her an update. He told her that he was trying to make a good appearance by buying a handkerchief that will compliment his kimono. He ended up asking advice from Ikuto and his girlfriend.

At the same time, Masaki also witnessed Yuuji in a kimono and immediately called Haruki to warn him about Yuuji's behavior before the baseball match. He ordered him to follow Yuuji and saw him having a conversation with Houjo Baseball team's ace, Ikuto Nanda together with his girlfriend. Haruki ended up joining their conversation and bragged about Yuuji as the ace player of the Kamihoshi Baseball team and his slider.

During the match, Haruki insisted on giving sign for throwing a slider, but Yuuji strongly disagreed with the idea. He argued with Haruki that he will never throw his specialty when it is what the opponent is expecting.

Houjou Academy won the match after Kamihoshi team's poor performance. Yuuji pointed out to his coach that they lost not because of bad luck but someone else's as he is someone who works hard to accumulate virtues.

## Yuuji's Rakugo Perforamnce

At the day of the Cultural Festival, Yuuji was shocked to the few number of people who came to watch his show. He became conscious of the time limit given to him that his performance became stiff and abrupt. He skipped the prelude and ended the story just as he saw the time was about to run out. His performance was underappreciated that Rio even nagged him at his way of ending the story.

The next day, Yuuji sulks while cooking a yakisoba for the Baseball club stall, thinking that he would do better if he is given another chance to perform.

Yaegashi and some members of the Historical Research Club borrowed the props Yuuji used for their Cultural Festival event. They meant to display some documents of the Edo Period but thought it was too plain. The arrangement resembles a Rakugo stage that it sparked the idea of asking Yuuji to perform again a Rakugo only this time, there was no time-limit. Yuuji performed the Rakugo again with a larger crowd and kept the show according to his plan. His delivery impressed everyone and gave him an applaud. Unfortunately, Yuuji was unsatisfied with his own performance and reflected that he forgot his goal of making the show fun, yet he realized that Rakugo performers' skill are truly amazing.

## Yuuji Paying Gratitude to Chihiro

As a gratitude of Chihiro's help during his performance, Yuuji decided to help Chihiro on making friends. He observed her in any ways possible to find out her methods of befriending others but realized she never changed her timidity ever since she transferred. He kept an observation diary about her to find out problems that must be solved but it creeped Haruki out.

Yuuji later decided to create the Rakugo club with him as the president with Chihiro since they both have knowledge on it, but it was denied by the teacher because of Yuuji being a member and the president of the Baseball Club.

Chihiro ended up being invited by the Handicraft members to their club after seeing her sewing skills.

## The School Trip

The Class 2-A prepare for the school trip by starting with creating small groups. Yuuji is unhinged with the commotion created by his classmate and will just join any group with incomplete number. The group arrangement ended up following the roster of class register, thus Yuuji ended up joining a group with Chihiro, Kaori, Ryouta, and Hiroto.

The five ended up doing their own ways as they travel to different locations. At their last destination, Yuuji insisted on getting to a shrine atop of a mountain as quickly as possible. He suggested a detour used by other students to his group mates for them to finish their trip and return back to the hotel. Unfortunately, a swarm of wasps came flying at them, causing each of them to go separate ways.

Yuuji used the survival strategies he learned and tried to find Chihiro, Hiroto, Kaori, and Ryouta. He successfully found Chihiro unconscious at the bottom of a shallow cliff. As soon as she came to, he checked on her in which she believed that she is fine as she does not feel any pain at all. They then found Hiroto singing as they walked on the riverside. Hiroto told them that he started singing after thinking of possibly encountering wild animals. Kaori who was on the higher ground spotted them and overheard Hiroto badmouthing her while Chihiro defending her. She ran away and Yuuji followed her to keep her from getting separated further. She ended up getting trapped in a pond and almost crying for help, but Yuuji found her. He helped her get out of the pond and removed the leeches that got stuck on her. He even let her borrow his jersey pants he is wearing beneath his uninform after her skirt got drenched. Kaori felt uncomfortable as she could still feel Yuuji's warmth. On their way back to where Chihiro and Hiroto are, they found Ryouta on lower ground who cried in joy after seeing them. Ryouta explained that he went down the valley after hearing a singing voice and luckily found Chihiro and Hiroto, but they got scared and ran away from him.

Yuuji moved alone to look for Hiroto and Chihiro. However, the four found each other and Yuuji ended up getting lost on his own. He gave up getting back on his group and stayed as the night gets dangerous. As the dawn came, Yuuji ran and found the mountain path. He went down the road and saw a rescue team at the foot of the mountain. He returned back to where they got lost while wearing the rescue gear together with the rescue team.

## Rumors After the School Trip

Three days after the school trip, the incident became known to the school. At one time, Yuuji was greeted delightfully by the baseball club members in which he felt disgusted to. There, he told them how he survived the wilderness and saved the four members of his group. The team was amazed to Yuuji's story and regretted talking him trash when they gather at the time Yuuji and his group mates got lost. Meanwhile, Hiroto retold the story differently that the members of the Historial Research Club confirmed the story to Ryouta. Ryouta compared Yuuji to Ryoma Sakamoto by the way they were saved.

Rio confirmed that Yuuji's reputation became good after the incident. False stories were mixed with what really happened that Chihiro got surprised and Hiroto got angry and added some to the story such as fooling with a woman while his group mates are lost in the woods that caused Yuuji's reputation to hit rock bottom.

The next day, Kaori returned the jersey she borrowed from Yuuji that some of her classmates witnessed it and believed that Yuuji became her boyfriend. The rumor affected Kaori that she lost her chance to confess to her crush, Kizaki, who congratulated her after believing the speculation circulating around.

Ryouta and Chihiro were worried over Yuuji as the story gets far beyond the truth. Yuuji does not mind and prefers not to get heated up over the fictional story. After Ryouta pointed out that the spreader of the story should at least held responsible. Yuuji analyzed that people who are present within the events are likely the one who exaggerated the story. He dismissed Kaori as the suspect as the incident involving her was too embarrassing and she would not likely spread such story as her pride is too high. Chihiro, on the other hand, has a small social network that she would not spread the story too far. Despite clearing their name, Chihiro and Kaori are both annoyed for the reason Yuuji has given. It led them to conclusion that the person responsible in spreading the exaggerated truth was Hiroto.

Hiroto explained that he exaggerated the story in front of the girls to make Yuuji appear bad while they were in trouble such as getting a kiss from a girl and taking off a girl's skirt and let her wear his jersey. The girls who told Hiroto the story to assumed Kaori was the one involved with Yuuji after seeing their secret meeting.

In the end, Hiroto rectify on his actions and told the true events happened, but people lost interest after hearing nothing out of the ordinary. Kaori's story also cleared up after seeing how she vocally loathed Yuuji. She got even angrier after Yuuji declared that he forgot that they talked before the school trip and insisted that it was their first time talking to each other. Still, Yuuji remained unbothered after the commotion on the rumor stopped.

## Heiraku's Live Rakugo in Town

Yuuji learned from his grandmother that Heiraku, a famous Rakugo performer will have a show in their town. To buy a ticket, Yuuji, bicycled from home to school despite the heavy rainfall for a week.

Yuuji's classmates and teammates noticed his strange behavior such as bicycling on the way to school and listless during class, and wondered what he was up to. Kaori suspected that the reason for it is because Yuuji is on a diet. She detailed how Yuuji changed his eating habit such as portioning his meal into small pieces and drinks a lot of water during breaktime instead of the usual eating from morning until lunch. However, her friends noticed how she looks often at Yuuji lately only reasoning out that she is doing it so that she could find his weakness.

The next day, Yuuji was enraged after realizing he lost his wallet and Chihiro learned that his actions was so that he could buy a ticket for Heiraku's Rakugo performance. It turned out that Kaori found it under his soaked raincoat and decided to use it to make him apologize to her. Kaori went after Yuuji to tell him that she found his wallet but she was stunned and blushed at his sudden delighted reaction. However, she retracted and regretted her reactions after Yuuji snatched his wallet from her, counted the money to check if it is still complete, and gave her a 500 yen coin as his gratitude.

Chihiro later noticed Yuuji now eating expensive curry breads all morning while mumbling in dismay. She realized that Yuuji probably couldn't get a ticket and vocally pointed it at him. Knowing he is a big fan of Rakugo and is mad for failing to buy a ticket for the show, Chihiro offered the ticket of her own with the suggestion that she should go with her father.

Yuuji gladly accepted the ticket and was grateful enough to give a present for Chihiro while thinking of possibly meeting and talking to another Heiraku fan.

Yuuji called Chihiro while she was in the middle of explaining to her father what he did in hope of directly thanking him for handing him a ticket. Through Chihiro's responses, Kouchi misinterpreted Chihiro having a relationship with Yuuji. At the day of the show, Yuuji was unobthered of being with Chihiro waiting for the performance to start, but then he suddenly get conscious after two strangers thought they were a couple on a date. Yuuji went stiff and awkward when talking with Chihiro as the remark given to them marked on his head. He recollected himself after buying souvenirs and seeing commemoration gifts for Heiraku. Before the show start, Yuuji was calm and Chihiro noticed he has returned to his old self. They both enjoy the show and thankful to Chihiro for giving him the ticket.

After the show, Masaki witnessed the two together and assumed that Yuuji is on a date with a girl. He called Haruki to find out whom Yuuji is dating. Haruki give a description about the girl thinking it was Kaori but after seeing the girl she is with, he was surprised to learn that it was Chihiro.

Kouchi approached the two crying after getting touched on the story of Nakazou. He suggested they get some food in which Yuuji declined as he is about to immerse himself on the Nakazou for two days. Kouchi concluded that Yuuji is not Chihiro's boyfriend and just a guy who likes Rakugo.

## Chihiro and the Christmas Parties

Yuuji was hooked Chuushingara, a fictionalized literature of Japanese histor, while his family and classmates are preparing for a Christmas party. On his way to a supermarket, he noticed Chihiro excited for the upcoming parties yet on his way back from shopping, he found her at the corner of the establishment. Yuuji suspected that her plan failed just like her grandmother's. He suggested a solution to her problem, but Chihiro declined out of concern of the people who gladly invited her. Out of annoyance to Chihiro's disagreement to his recommendation, Yuuji told him angrily that he should just ditch all the parties he planned. Haruki coincidentally found them and Yuuji decided to let him handle the problem instead. He stopped Yuuji believing that as her boyfriend, he should help her come up with a solution. After recalling her grandmother at home postponing her Christmas party due to fever, Yuuji suggested to throw the Chirstmas parties at one place and chose the karaoke bar his grandmother was supposed to have reservations for. Yuuji commended Chihiro for making her plan go smoothly in which she is thankful for. He responded that he only did that as his gratitude for the Heiraku show, yet warned her that a sacrifice should be made for a plan to go smoothly.

At home, Yuuji followed Chihiro's suggestion of checking Kouchi's blogpost about the commemorative towel he gave. After giving a like, he then noticed the post about the pet turtle getting lethargic. Yuuji immediately went to the karaoke bar where the Chirstmas parties were held. He checked every rooms to find Chihiro, causing everyone to get frantic at his appearance. Everyone left their respective rooms to confirm Yuuji coming to the party where they witnessed him giving something to Chihiro. They realized that all them are within the same place and decided to held the Christmas party together.

Yuuji left immediately after fulfilling his goal. Chihiro checked what Yuuji gave to him after Kaori asked her and it turns out to be an equipment to keep the turtle alive during winter together with a letter suggesting that the tank should be put inside their home.

After seeing the update that Chihiro's pet turtle is energetic again, Yuuji read another blogpost of Kouchi saying, "I have decided to transfer!"

## Chihiro Transferring to Another School

At New Year, Yuuji was enjoying himself playing in the stalls near the shrine when she encountered Chihiro together with Wakana. He gave his stuff toy prize from a shooting game as a farewell gift believing she was about to transfer.

Suzune, Yuuko, and Haruki noticed Yuuji meeting Wakana and Chihiro. Haruki mistakenly pointed out that Chihiro is Yuuji's girlfriend and witnessed the awkward interaction between the two. Out of concern, Suzune intervened and suggested to be nicer to Chihiro. Yuuji cleared out the reason he acted that way is because Chihiro was moving to America, based on Kouchi's blog. Suzune then pushed him to talk to Chihiro more and bid his farewell intimately. She became forceful and snatched his bag as her way to force Yuuji to talked to her more and expressed his feelings for her. Yuuji is simply annoyed at Suzune's behavior and just get along at her whims after declaring that she would not go home until he follows her.

Yuuji ended up spilling Kouchi's job transfer first to Chihiro that in her disbelief, she immediately went home to confront her father. He later saw an update of Kouchi's blog about Chihiro breaking a door. He enjoyed how Chihiro put up a fight against her father.

## Yuuji and His Family

Yuuji was defeating Masaru in different games one at a time when he was invited by Suzune to join the New Year's Quiz Tournament as a family. He adamantly refused even after Suzune tried to tempt him with the prizes.

As Suzune and her grandmother, Toyoko is about to practice, Yuuji entered the room and declared that he will join too. His grandmother was glad to see her grandchildren participating in the event.

At the tournament, Suzune and Masaru both lost in the written test, leaving the final round to Yuuji and Toyoko. Toyoko realized that the questions are what they have reviewed, but before she could answer, Yuuji already did. Since Yuuji is the youngest participant and type of never holding back, he got most of the points thus getting the advantage. It annoyed Toyoko that she suggested him to hold back in which he ignored.

While Suzune and Masaru were cheering for Yuuji's advantage, Yuuko predicted that he might lose later. Her prediction came true as Yuuji failed to answer questions that he did not review or beyond his interest.

At the final question, Suzune knows the answer and mouthed it to Yuuji that even the other participants were able to see. But Yuuji ignored her suggestion and answered "no comment" instead.

After Yuuji gave the second prize to Masaru and thought they are getting along, Masaru spilled out that they are not. It turned out Yuuji stepped and broke his game console. He was about to compensate but his pocket money is not enough. Only then Yuuji joined the quiz show after seeing the second prize is the same as Masaru's console.

## Yuuji's New-Found Hobby

Yuuji found interest in wooden handicrafts after feeling satisfied fixing his grandmother's croquet mallet. He brought a doorstopper which he furnished at school and Kido happened to compliment his work. She then suggested of bringing pieces of scrap woods used in reconstructing their home.

A few days later, Yuuji's finished more wooden crafts that occupied space in the baseball club room. He even boast to Haruki his finished finger bath box without using a nail which he deemed useless. Wakana decided to throw it all out or else, she would smash them. Yuuji found a chance to save the woods at Chihiro's club room which she occupies alone. He suggested she needs decorations in her interior in which he puts in his wooden crafts.

While working on one, Haruki noticed how stressed is Yuuji is. Yuuji implied that hobbies are meant to stress you out since one considers perfection to achieve a high quality craft.

At Kido's generosity, she supplied Yuuji with more woods thus, ended up having more materials and developed his handicrafts skills. He also became inconsiderate in placing his furnished works in Chihiro's club room that she later noticed how the room is too occupied with Yuuji's raw materials and finished crafts that it caused her into few accidents. Chihiro decided to remove all of it inside the club room, but still, out of consideration, she kept the shelf as she needs one anyway.

## Yuuji and the Valentine's Day

While everyone is getting hyped on the Valentine's Day, Yuuji suggested that manjuu is way better than chocolate. The members of the Baseball Club are expecting a chocolate from Wakana, their manager, and hung a whiteboard and wrote how many people wants to receive a chocolate from her on the 14th. While training, Yuuji noticed how Yokomizu is so fat and slow as well as how everyone are so carefree especially in the upcoming Valentine's Day. Yuuji lost his temper after he was hit by Yokomizu's button and banned the chocolate giving at 13th, 14th, and 15th, thus loosing Wakana her chance to give the chocolate.

On the 13th, Hiroto is bragging the chocolates he received to Ryouta and his friends. He tried to compensate them, who didn't get some by sharing some of his received chocolates. Ryotua and his friends were irked about it and planned to get back on him by using Yuuji as a bait to trick Hiroto. They placed a chocolate on Yuuji's trick box and place it in the hallway where Hiroto was about to pass through.

## **Gallery**

Yuuji enraged.Yuuji excited to hear someone is interested in Rakugo.Yuuji, four years old.Yuuji in baseball uniform.