They are all of the same kind.

"Tokyo? You're going to study in such a far-off place?"
"Yup!"
"Why? High school's pretty much the same everywhere, wouldn't it be better to stay local for now?"
"I'm going to university in Tokyo eventually anyway, so I'll just think of it as getting a head start on big-city life. Besides, the teacher promised to write me a recommendation letter for a high school in Tokyo."
"Mmm..."
"Please, Mom, Dad, I want to go to Tokyo."

After much nagging and pleading, Mom and Dad finally agreed to let me go.
However, being a middle school student, there was obviously no way I could live alone in Tokyo without a guardian.
Even if I was a genius, in their eyes, I was still just a fourteen-year-old brat.
Mom's younger sister had been living alone in Tokyo for over a decade, and word was she was willing to act as my guardian, taking care of my daily life for the three years of high school.
So, during the spring break after graduating middle school, I eagerly awaited the arrival of my new life.
I bought a fashion magazine at a convenience store—something I never would have done before—and tried to copy the style of big-city gyarus, but that astonishing level of exposure? Yeah, absolutely not for me.
I mean, I'm still wearing children's underwear that comes in packs of three for a thousand yen.
Anyway, I decided to give up on making my high school debut as a gyaru.

Thus, as the start of the semester drew near, filled with a mixture of anxiety and excitement, I boarded the Shinkansen to Tokyo all by myself.
Mom's younger sister was a stylish woman who spoke fluent, standard Japanese. I barely had any memories of her, but she recognized me at a single glance.
Upon seeing her for the first time, I couldn't help but wonder if she and Mom were actually blood-related.
Gazing at her breasts, which felt even more majestic to me than Mount Giza, a delusional thought flashed through my mind that perhaps I, too, could reach those dimensions one day.
Tokyo really is huge.
Mom, you really should come to Tokyo too.

...
...

After entering high school, I tried searching for people around me who were like me.
Specifically, I wanted to find someone who couldn't read the room, someone who was talked about behind their back, someone bound by their own talent.
Because that was what I was.
In a metropolis like Tokyo, such people surely had to exist—people identical to me.
What kind of lives were they living?
Were they crushed by their talent? Did they bask in the title of genius? Were they bearing the expectations of others?
Through the perspective of such a person, I wanted to objectively observe "Youmiya You." I hoped they would be able to tell me.
Was my way of living wrong after all?

And then, I found him.

"Waaaah~~ You-chan, you got first place in the entire grade on the midterm exams! That's amazing!"
"Heh-heh! Keep praising me! More, more!"
"Hahaha~~ You-chan, you're so cute!"

I had made a good friend who would praise me as cute, even when I kept hogging all the spotlight.
I loved making friends. Although folks back home said people in Tokyo were arrogant and impossible to get along with, I seemed to have good luck; everyone I met was wonderful.
Could this be considered a talent for making friends?
I wasn't quite sure.
"You-chan, You-chan! Look at this, the second-year grade report! There's someone who got a perfect score in every single subject, just like you~"

That was the first time I learned his name.
It felt as though the invisible air wall within my own world had vanished entirely, revealing a new continent hidden just beyond it, making my heart leap with joy.
Could I understand myself through that person?
Could I understand what kind of person Youmiya You really was, and why I had been blessed with such a gift?
I thought I had found a kindred spirit, a precious companion.

Yet, it seemed I was wrong.
Even though I had never approached him, never spoken a single word to him.
His back, his gaze, the attitude of the people around him toward him—
I could smell it. He was exuding a deeply sorrowful scent.
Despite possessing the ability to change his current situation, he didn't put in the slightest effort. I simply couldn't understand his way of thinking.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, I felt as cold as if I had been plunged into an ice cellar, the warmth in my heart freezing instantly.

...I had become just like them.
The people who told me to work hard, the people who told me not to waste my talent, the people who made me carry their willpower.
Imposing one's own worldview onto others without permission—I was deathly afraid of turning into the kind of person I hated.
Driven by this nameless fear, I chose to look away.
I pretended not to care about him at all, pretended not to recognize his face. Before I knew it, I had forgotten the very reason I came to this school, the reason I came to Tokyo.
——I had come to search for my own kind.

"Youmiya-san, if you really don't want to join a club, would you be interested in joining the student council?"
One day during the second term, a woman claiming to be the student council president appeared before me.
"Madam President, did you invite anyone else besides me?"
"Yes, there is one more person."
"Who is it?"
"I believe you've already seen him. It's Jinguji-san from the second year."
"...Alright, I agree to join the student council."

That was probably the beginning of everything.

...
...

Dazzling fireworks slowly rose into the sky, bursting into countless scattered sparks of starlight. The girl sat on a stone pillar, gazing up at the bright night sky.
The boy beside her was also tilting his head back. She secretly watched him, and deep within the boy's pupils, she found the blooming fireworks of the entire sky.
"The fireworks are so pretty," she murmured once more.
Not far away, the twins and Yamada Sou had also stopped walking, completely captivated as they gazed in the direction where the fireworks were rising.

Even to this day, Youmiya You still hadn't figured out why a girl like her had been gifted with talent.
And at the same time, she understood that even while carrying a talent envied by others, the troubles unique to adolescence would not decrease by a single bit.
She was like that, and the boy beside her was too.
They were kindred spirits, and in the end, they were even kindred spirits with those who couldn't understand them.
For human beings to truly understand one another is a terribly difficult thing; perhaps, by the end of one's life, true mutual understanding with anyone remains out of reach.
Genius or ordinary person, living beneath the very same blue sky, each harboring their own distinct troubles.
At their core, it is because they are each a unique, irreplaceable self in this world.

In that case, Youmiya You no longer needed anything else.

"Hey, Senior."
"...Hmm?"
"Next year, let's all come together again."

Jinguji Tsukasa paused slightly, looked at the underclassman beside him, and spoke softly, "Dolt~ Next year, it'll be your turn to lead them."
"Graduation isn't death, you know. What's wrong with coming to check out the summer festival?" Youmiya You retorted.
"You really have a lot of nerve saying that," the boy said, ruthlessly messing up her hair while the girl let out a sound of futile resistance.
Abruptly, the boy withdrew his hand, stopped looking at the girl, and fixed his gaze unblinkingly on the fireworks in the sky.
"Yeah, if we get the chance, we'll come again."