Chapter 5: Not usually being aware of it, the closing credits are about to roll.
A day after Zaimokuza’s cool proclamation, the promised moment finally came.
As soon as the end of class bell rang, I promptly turned my head back and cast my eyes over to the back corner of the classroom - entering my sight was the typical group centered around Miura. Needless to say, Yuigahama was also part of it.
I breathed out deeply, made up my mind and then stood up from my seat. Maybe I was a little too fired up - I just created a fuss by pushing back the chair too hard and making a stupid ‘grrr’ sound as it scrubbed the ground. Yuigahama noticed that sound and looked in my direction. Well, in fact, everybody left in the classroom then were looking at me.
That was so embarrassing of me that I just wanted to get to the back of the classroom and dive right into the window glass immediately, till I reached the end of the blue sky. You’d think of it as exciting as ‘Grand Blue’ but I was so close to turning the school courtyard into red ocean.[11]
After all, the embarrassment I suffered wasn’t for nothing. Yuigahama immediately picked up her school bag and carried it on her back, waving goodbye to Miura and coming towards me.
“About to get going?”
“Yeah…”
What a relief… to have Yuigahama coming up and talking to me. But still, it’s kind of embarrassing to be talked to first. Shy egoistic 17-year-old Hachiman! To avoid further being stared at, I quickly left the classroom, followed by Yuigahama walking like a penguin making a “peta-peta” sound with her indoor shoes.
I walked ahead of her by half a step. We came to the same intersection as yesterday, where to the right lies the staircase and to the left the special-purpose building. Yuigahama then pecked my back asking,
“What shall we do today?”
“Ah, I heard something from Zaimokuza earlier...”
As I spoke I took out my smartphone to confirm the meetup location Zaimokuza sent over to me.
Yuigahama leaned her head, jumping back and forth, left and right, as if saying ‘let me also see it’. Hey! That’s disturbing but cute yet also annoying stop jumping stop leaping leave me alone.[12] Just give me a moment and I’ll let you see it…. Hence I did.
“Ehh, looks like we are also meeting someone else besides Zaimokuza there.”
“Hmm…”
Yuigahama peeked at the screen over my shoulder and blinked her eyes a couple times. After that, she leaned her head and asked me dubiously,
“... Who else is the Chuunibyou calling?”
I looked outside the window as she asked - no matter how far it goes the sky stays blue and perfectly clear. There, it seemed that I just saw an illusion of Zaimokuza in a thumb-up pose. I put up a bitter smile corresponding to my illusion.
“Let’s just trust him for now…”
“Even if you say so with a good face....”
Yuigahama’s uneasy mutter echoed in the corridor.
5-2
Shortly, we arrived at the special-purpose building according to Zaimokuza’s message, two floors below the Service Club, which was located on the fourth. Around the corner stood Zaimokuza like a Deva King[13]. He noticed us two soon and started waving at us.
“Oh, come here!”
While being waved at, I arrived at the front of a certain classroom.
“This place is…”
Yuigahama opened her mouth in surprise and cast her eyes into the classroom. So did I, before I noticed something too.
I had been to this place before. If I remember it correctly, this is… Ga...Gamer’s Research Club, aka Asoken[14]. My memory of this place was vague but I could recollect that I used to play Daifugou (or Daihinmin) here.
“Please come in.”[15]
Zaimokuza knocked on the door yet entered the classroom without waiting for any response. We were still bewildered but still we followed him quickly into the classroom.
Behind the door there was a pile of boxes, books, packages stacking on top of each other. They looked like intimidating walls standing there, leaving the room look like a maze. Entering my mind were images of a typical bibliomania’s home library and a packed toy shop.
“Hey… is this the Game Club?”
Yuigahama dragged my sleeve and asked. Thanks to her question now I remembered too. Yes yes, this is the Game Club. Ah… Yeah, that’s a thing in our school.
As I was thinking so, Zaimokuza ended up walking way ahead of us and was about to disappear amid the tallest pile of books and boxes.
I quickly chased him up, and there I saw two long desks and two more guys.
Those two guys noticed us and both pushed their glasses up.
“Hello…”
“... Long time no see.”
I felt like I had seen one of them - with that distinctive, fashionable pair of glasses[16]. While I was wondering his name, Zaimokuza eagerly prepared the steel chairs, laid out the tea and snacks on the table. He placed Yuigahama’s and my chair facing against those two glasses, and then sat down on their side of the table.
“Th.. thanks!”
After Yuigahama expressed her gratitude, Zaimokuza and the two Game Club guys all respectively mumbled “please have a seat”. Yuigahama quietly and politely pulled out the chair and sat down. In contrast, I sat down on the chair heavily.
“Zaimokuza, are they the so-called ‘helpers’?”
“Positive. They are Mr. Hatano and Mr. Sagami.”
He pointed at the two of them for us, proudly and happily. He smiled so excitingly as he was introducing them to us. Since when did you guys get along with each other so well… I wonder if it’s one of those arcade center friendships. Well, I have zero interest in Zaimokuza’s friendship circle anyways. Whatevs. Now here’s the problem. Which one is Sagami and which one is Hatano…? I stared at them for a while but still failed to match their names to their faces.
“Oh crap, the Sworder-san was actually being serious…”
“Ikr! I thought he was definitely joking.”
My guess - Hatano spoke first and the follow-up person looked like Sagami.
Overhearing their secret conversations, it seemed that Zaimokuza already told them about our business here. That makes things easier to explain.
“Let me get into it straight. In opposition to the actual prom, you guys are going to help us with this dummy prom proposal, which will ensure that the actual prom takes place.”
I quickly put my elbows on the table and leaned forward, trying to motivate their incentives. My body language was suggesting ‘Let’s all do our best together!’ to them. Well. The two Game Club guys looked at me disinterestedly.
“Is this guy a moron?”
“He is making a big deal just to do something like that? I wonder if there’s something wrong with his brain...”
Hatano was astounded and Sagami looked sympathetic. Zaimokuza seemed happy from his heart. He straightened his chest up cheerfully and said,
“That’s right! That’s him, Hikigaya Hachiman! Always using strange, bizarre and unexpected measures to get things done. Stupid! A fool! A jocular fellow![17]”
Shit! These guys really irritated me…! I was about about to kick the chair and say goodbye. I couldn’t do so, because Yuigahama was dragging my jacket sleeve again.
“Hikki, you have to ask them properly…”
I couldn’t say no - being asked by someone acting like a cute kid. But she was right. I was the one asking for the favor. It made sense to ask them nicely and directly for help. I signed briefly, dismissing all my dissatisfaction and irritation I had so far and bowed my head down.
“I’m sorry if I had to phrase it this way. I urgently need you guys to help to me without asking for pay-back. Think of it as volunteering for Olympic games. Quit complaining and just help me please.”
“He really should feel sorry for saying that way…”
“Even the politicians choose their way of speech better than him.”
Probably because I asked them too directly, Hatano and Sagami leant their body backward and faces upward. That was dismissive. Yuigahama moved her hands in panic, saying “Gaah… he won’t listen…” She jumped in and said,
“I’m sorry… Hikki is like this all the time. He’s quite unreasonable or...!”
What a follow-up rescue that ended up not being a good one. They probably couldn’t act tough on Yuigahama and only gave ingratiating smiles.
Immediately following that, meetings between the glasses took place. The glasses sitting in the middle whispered to the glasses sitting aside,
“... What should we do then?”
“Mmmh, I’m against helping him!”
For some reason, it came from Zaimokuza, who sat on the other side. Wait, what? Why are you against me… The glasses who was whispered at raised his hand languorously and asked,
“Hmmm… we actually don’t want the prom to take place to begin with.”
When he said so, the other two glasses nodded in agreement.
Same... I know your feelings quite well… I was thinking about saying that, but no! I couldn’t let myself retreat and surrender now.
That Zaimokuza, who had even worse communication ability than I did, somehow managed to asked for help from those who used to make fun of him. Look at how much sacrifice he made for me! So I couldn’t just destroy this thinny connection that he made for my sake. To repay for his precious sacrifice, I needed to somehow convince those two to hop on… Otherwise, I would feel really sorry for Zaimokuza after his death - as a ghost he would probably cry regrettably for all the sacrifice he made for today. At the very least, I want him to rest in peace then.
Now it’s the time for me to get serious for real. I made up my mind to persuade them patiently and wholeheartedly.
I seized everyone’s attention with a couple coughs. I began my sentence in heavy sounding voice as if I was trying to cover up the secrets that I was about to say,
“... None of my following words shall leave this room - we were actually asked to practice ‘self-restraint’ with regard to the prom event.”
Suddenly, upon hearing unexpected information, the glasses all went silence immediately. I had no idea why Zaimokuza was also silent. Hey, didn’t I tell you about this yesterday already?
Well, whatever. Let me get everyone’s hype further up by going into more detailed explanations.
“On the other hand, it’s ‘self-restraint’ after all, which means, it’s possible for us to force the prom to take place anyways… Actually that’s almost definitely going to be the case. If that happens, it will probably end up being an in-house preprom like what happened before.
“Wait, no. What if I just simply refuse to attend?”
I nodded my head in response to the counterargument raised by Sagami, or Hatano whatever, showing my great sympathy. I raised my hand, suggesting.
“Just be patient and hear me first. Think about it for a second. If you didn’t show up at the prom, then you probably wouldn’t have the courage to show up at the Coming of Age ceremonies or any alumni reunion events later in your life.”[18]
Think about the alumni reunions at the age of 30. Those who didn’t attend the Coming of Age ceremonies together with classmates or didn’t attend the alumni reunions right after graduation have a zero percent of chance to show up at alumni reunions at later ages - verified by my own research. For those who are courageous enough to attend it, you’ll see half of the attendees already got married, and you’ll even notice some of their kids are already attending elementary schools. That hurts one’s feelings -verified by my dad’s research. The attending fee would probably be around 5000 Yen. Looks like the accountant would be happy at ease if he/she receives Higuchi Ichiyou bills rather than bills with other face values - Teenagers Vying for Tops.[19]
However, the reaction from the Game Club did not change after they heard my words.
“Ehh, I still think it’s okay not to attend anyways...”
“I felt like the past me probably thought in that way at one point…”
Expecting the reply, I immediately said so and cast my eyes afar.
“Just think about it and imagine…”
And then I started storytelling like John Lennon.
“It’s the morning of Come to Age Day. Few days ago, you just went out shopping with your dad like you hadn’t done so in a few years. You are wearing a new suit that you bought with your dad for job hunting and interviews.
“He just started talking suddenly out of the blue….”
Next to me Yuigahama sighed with amazement. I tried to stop her with my hand gesture and continued anyway. I did a little trick of touching my collar and add some emotions into my words.
“And then, expecting that you are going to drink with everyone, you mom hands you a 10000 yen bill. Both your parents are so proud of your maturity and wet in their eyes while not bothering to see you off by walking you to the doorstep....”
I narrated so vehemently and waved my hands while wearing a mom smile. Seeing this, Zaimokuza and the Game Club two all showed their sickening faces.
“Ah, that’s so tough…”
That’s the Zaimokuza in his puberty! A bad guy who made a woman - his mom though - cry was confessing his sin and keeping his head down silently. Perhaps both Sagami and Hatano both were thinking about their parents. They both had their mouths shut.
Now it’s the time for the final attack to take place - I pour in more passions into my words.
“You then spend the next hour like this - you hold that 10000 yen bill delightfully, go to the game arcade center, used up almost all that money, eat an extra-extra large ice cream at a Happy Club, and if your stomach feels too cold you then swallow a lot of miso soup to make it feel warmer. In the middle of the night when your house is supposed to have the light out, your mom doesn’t bother to wake up to welcome you back. She asks if you had a good time and you reply to her mumbling like ‘eh, it was okay.’ She then weeps and gently wiped her eyes, saying ‘...Ah, Yoshiteru is already a grown man.’”
“Me!? It was me!? You were talking about me!?”
“Sworder-san, tough for you…”
Sagami and Hatano both tapped Zaimokuza’s shoulder to comfort him.
I peeked at them without directly looking at them, and said the following vehemently,
“Therefore, we shall learn in order to avoid ending up like him - learn the wisdom to get things done. I’d say the prom is the perfect learning opportunity to train us.
As I finished talking, the guys all sighed deeply. I wore a smile on my face and continued,
“Nevertheless, we cannot make the prom too fired up and hyped as much as we want it to be. It’s too hard to do so. Therefore, we need to stay low and serious… and put up a carefully-crafted prom that’s positioned at a sweet-spot to earn more experience.”
As I finished talking again, the three glasses glanced at each other and began their glasses meeting again.
“This guys sounded like he has as point.”, “When he brought up the parents it made me feel rough too…”, “He seemed that he did it pretty well.”, “Right, that’s what irritated me the most! He certainly didn’t look like that kind of person…”, “Hey, Sworder-san your face is too close. You are choking me”, “This distance is unacceptable as an image.”, “So, what shall we do then?”, “Hmm let me think…”
Yuigahama looked at their secret conversation apathetically. She looked really tired from her face - sorry about all this…
Short after, the Glasses Summit was about to reach its conclusion. The three pondered for a while. Considering their immediate rejection before, my persuasion certainly worked.
“Not really a way to say thank you, but starting from next year, I will collect your suggestion and feedback and promise to you that a prom that’s acceptable to you guys will be held. I will try my best to realize my promise. So, please lend me your hands.”
I just did a final push and brought up a benefit that’s not really a benefit to be honest. To make them ‘feel’ the merit from it, I bowed my head down.
After a moment of silence, someone spoke up politely.
“Hmm, is that okay? … Isn’t next year the time when you all graduate?”
“Ah, well. To be more accurate I meant starting from the next next prom.”
As I raised my head, I saw one of the Game Club member who looked like Sagami from the shape of his classes. He put up a sulky face, sighed briefly and said,
“... In that case, I’ll offer my help”
“Wait, wait, seriously?”
In reaction to Sagami’s words, both Zaimokuza and Hatano resounded together. And then Sagami put up a bitter yet determined face and exclaimed,
“I wanted to first defeat and get rid of the shame that resides in my own family.”
“Eh?”
I leaned my head after hearing his little bit unexpected reasonings to ask for further elaborations. Sagami then starting explaining in a voice as if it was holding a grudge.
“My sister is that type of person who will certainly come in and intervene with the event. So it might end up like that anyways next year. In that case, I’d like to intervene in advance and prevent her from getting the opportunity.”
“Hmmm….”
While I was listening to him, I looked at Sagami’s face carefully and noticed… They really looked alike indeed. Yuigahama next to me also exclaimed quietly with a little ‘ahh..’.
“Ah, Sagami, you are THAT person’s younger brother, right…”
The moment I said so Sagami’s face turned twisted, showing a very disgusting expression. Ah that face made them look so similar… Um, well, with her being the sister he is definitely living a tough life. Um um, I understand.
“Shame within the family… I can sympathize with you. Next year my sister is also attending this high school. I cannot withstand the shame when I think of the moment when my sister sees a pathetic me at school and starts feeling shameful and embarrassed. Just imagining whether my kind, adorable sister would get hurt in her heart makes me feel extra painful.
“Is that the case you are referring to…”
As I explained with my eyes wet, Yuigahama lowered her shoulders with a little surprise on her face. Well, don’t worry about Komachi. Back in middle school, we both acted like we were complete strangers at school, even though we had the same ahoge.
Speaking of which, Sagami Minami helped my argument in an unexpected way. My gratitude expressed - thank you for everything from the time we met.
And, the other glasses… Hatano, who was finally able to be identified. I looked at him as he took of his glasses and cleaned up the lenses.
“To be honest I don’t really care… But yeah, when I graduate, I don’t want to be looked and thought as inferior to others and being sympathized by someone who misunderstands me and looks down on me. Thinking about this irritates me. So count me in!”
“Really!?”
I almost reacted in ecstasy. Yet Hatana slimmed his eyes and stared at me.
“However, can you really put up a prom that all of us can accept?”
Speaking of which this Hatano, looking at his way of speaking and his eye contacts, they all looked kind of rottened and thus very good-looking to me! A little bit impressed by this guy, I then tried to act like a senpai and said.
“Ah, that’s not a problem. There is no way that there are enough personnel arranging the prom. So next year you guys can create and arrange another prom plan together yourselves. DIY it! To put it in practice, I shall dogeza in front of Isshiki and lick her shoes if necessary.”[20]
“Dogeza… that’s even surprising to me.”
“Licking her shoes is the more disgusting part, okay! Speaking so, I don’t think you need to go that far get Iroha-chan listen to your request.”
Saying so with full confidence, Zaimokuza was caught in surprise. On the other hand, Yuigahama seemed already used to it. Being disappointed at first but soon calmly returned to normal conversations. Nevertheless, both Hatano and Sagami still looked at me in disgust… As I was thinking so, both of them redirected their focus to something else…
“Isshiki…”
“Iroha…”
Murmured one after another, both of them looked at each other, and then turned their face to me at once.
“Are you referring to THAT Isshiki Iroha?”
“There shouldn't be a second one, right… Maybe, I don’t know.”
The Isshiki Iroha that I know of, is the President of the Student Council, the manager of the Soccer Club, the No.1 naughtily cute underclass kouhai. I do not believe there is a second Isshiki Iroha in our school.
“The worst… The worst woman ever...”
“Isn’t she the asshole bitch that owns the night pool annual pass… having a boyfriend who’s also the CEO of an IT company, only thinking about looking good on Instagram, indulged in luxurious cosmetics brand and a party girl?”
Hatano grabbed to to his head with both hands and Sagami fixed his stare at me without moving his eyes. Huh, what kind of image did you leave among your classmates, Ms. Irohasu. I have to acknowledge it. Even Yuigahama showed a bitter smile on her face. Nevertheless, to defend an underclassman’s fame as an upperclassman, I I have to correct them now.
“Well, the image is almost correct but all the rumors are fake news. Her personality is indeed kind of like *that* but she is in fact a good person.”
However, my explanation didn’t seem convincing to Sagami and Hatano, who shook their bodies simultaneously.
“But she looked at us as if we are trash.”
“No. She didn’t even bother to look, as if we never existed…”
“It was so scary.... Little ghost, there’s little ghost here…”[21]
For some reason even Zaimokuza began trembling as well, mumbling something unconsciously. That’s incorrect guys, it’s actually called ‘little demon’.
“... in that case, you guys *have* no choice but doing it now. Maybe you don’t know it yet but...”
I shook my shoulders as I told them. Yuigahama nodded at me, signaling me to continue with a gentle smile. Therefore, I also decided to put up a smile over one side of my lips, raise my voice up, and properly tell them the good side of Isshiki Iroha.
Hence, I prayed that people’s misunderstandings about her will eventually got cleared up, even just by a little bit.
“.... that scum and hopeless part of her eventually becomes part of her habits, and contrastingly it’s kind of cute of her that way.”
Then, all three Glasses Club members mumbled respectively “his levels are high”, “makes sense”, “understandable”, which are all compliments. Let’s all stand up and high five for being comrades who reached the door to the truth of the new world. The atmosphere turned into tfw ‘I wish you happiness and cheers to celebrate our tight bondings’.
Yet suddenly I sensed a slight chill running down my back.
“Hikki-, you looked so sweet and lenient towards Iroha-chan...”
“Eh?”
My ahoge radar was already beeping in response, but I was too scared to look aside.
5-3
After going through some difficulties, I successfully looted the two from the Game Club aboard.
I had no idea how high I should set my expectations for those two but I cherished the free labor that I managed to obtain in hand. Regardless of whether they are capable or incapable of doing things, as long as I make them work their ass off, my attack power will for sure raise to a considerably high level.
Now here came the real problem.
First we had to create the proposal, and then reach the step where we can argue with it.
So now, bearing in mind that we needed to go against Yukinoshita’s proposal, we finally began to conceive our own proposal.
“Ok. Let’s begin our proposal meetinggggg...Hmm, the idea is that, we need to create a proposal that’s more prominent and flashy than the previous prom proposal.
The air froze immediately and nobody followed me up, only Yuigahama’s aimless handclaps resonated in the room, but it soon disappeared.
I did not put in too much concrete thoughts into my words, but merely trying to grope for a way in the dark fog. After all, nobody here other than Yuigahama is actually interested in the prom proposal.
“First of all, is there anyone here wanting to do anything?”
I bet no too… Hence I asked and the answer was zero as I expected. As I was thinking so, Yuigahama raised her hand high up.
“Here! Here! Here!”
“...Yes, Yugahama-san!”
“Stalls, I hope there are those!”
“Okay, I see”
No objection and denial. I wrote down the suggestions on the whiteboard. ‘Do you know that there’s a thing called brainstorming…’ Tamanawa spoke to me in my imagination.
“Anything else…?”
“Yes! Yes!”
Of course, following my question, Yuigahama raised her hand immediately.
“...... Alright, Yuigahama-san”
“Fireworks! I like both seeing and playing with them.”
“That’s a pass!”
Having agreement and sympathy in mind, I carefully recorded this precious suggestion on the whiteboard. “Preach it!” Orimoto shouted out in my imagination.
“And then…?”
“Yes!”
“................Yuigahama.”
“Like putting up a campfire or something that creates memories!”
“.... are you briefing to us your summer vacation memories? Well whatever, it’s okay.”
I kept writing stuff on the whiteboard anyways, seeing it almost turning into an elementary school kid’s illustrated diary.
As I cast my ‘wet’ eyes to Yuigahama, she played with her hair bun and dodged her eyes away from me, finding and mumbling various excuses.
“... But, as long as I think about fun and enjoyable things they just came up in my mind irresistibly.”
When I saw her getting shy with a flush on her cheeks, I became a little bit embarrassed too. Doing so, all other guys turned their faces to me as if they were about to spit out sugar from their mouths. I can’t bear this.
I cough out loud to seize their attention, and continued our discussion.
“Now Hatano. You seem to have another suggestion.”
“Nope. To begin with I don’t even want the prom to happen… also, what the hell are you trying to show me?”
Hatano muttered while biting his tongue. Hey I can’t hear you bro! Speak out loud with your stomach!
“Sagami the Younger Brother, in other words, something that your sister would like and enjoy.”
“I do not want to think about that.”
After hearing the words that he didn’t want to hear, Sagami Jr. immediately shut his mouth up with his head dangling. Yes, little by little it got easier for me to distinguish the two - the one with a terrible attitude is Hatano; and the one that’s poor with his sister is Sagami.
Let me see what’s left… As I turned my eyes, Zaimokuza stroke a serious pose and said heavily.
“Cosplay.... Is good to go, right?”
“Ah, like a Halloween Cosplay? Sounds sweet!”
“Phmff...”
In reaction to the delightful Yuigahama, Zaimokuza put up a bitter and sorrowful smile. Yep, I bet the impression of cosplay is quite different in Zaimokuza’s mind vs in Yuigahama’s mind. Well, it was not a terribly unreasonable suggestion. I noted it on the whiteboard anyways.
However, as I scanned through all the items on the board, I felt like something was a bit off.
“We are probably still missing something...”
In addition to the suggestions coming from Yuigahama, I also added a couple more ideas from my Hachiman Memo, including “Singing songs”, “Perform a play”, “Make an address”. Still I reckoned something was missing, but importantly ‘can we still call it a prom?’ questions like this came out in my mind.
While I leaned my head a little bit, Sagami and Hatano’s cold giggles stroked my ears.
“It’s meaningless to just recklessly fight against the old prom proposal.”
“Knowing that nobody would do this, we need to first think about why nobody does it.”
“Your remarks are too pertinent…”
Ah come to think of it. These guys were the mean and annoying otaku people. I could sense it vaguely so I wasn’t able to raise any counter-arguments against them. Grrr… was the only voice I can make.
I flipped the whiteboard to the blank side, just a way to switch our mood. I then crossed my arms to try to come up with more ideas…
“Hey, Hikki-”
As I turned around, Yuigahama raised her hand timidly.
“Yes, Yuigahama-san.”
“To put it more blatantly, we all don’t even really know about proms that much. I don’t think we can come up with something more amazing than the Yukinoshita team.”
“...ah, you are right.”
“So, why not make the scale of the event even bigger? Not just within our school but also reaching out to other HS”
Yuigahama raised her arms to embrace the air above her, moving her hands accordingly.
“... I see, I see.”
Both Yuigahama and I know the upper bound of our mobilization within our school. We know the capacity. Knowing this, it’s very hard to conceive and create a prom proposal that falls under the capacity of high schoolers. Both knowledge and common sense are annoying - once internalized them, we ended up getting trapped by them. For these reason, we ended up drawing ideas that fall on the extension lines of things such as school festival, Christmas, Halloween and summer break. Moreover, the Yukinoshita team already filled in more concrete plans on top of the old prom proposal. If we try to even surpass them, it would definitely turn out to be an amalgamation of ridiculous ideas.
“... changing our way of thinking and try another perspective...”
Getting fussed, disoriented, and troubled, it’s about time to go back to the starting line.
In our case, we should return our focus to why we wanted to create this new dummy proposal - one of the reasons being to go against Yukinoshita, but that’s not our end goal.
Our goal is to actualize the prom, and before that we need to eliminate all the barriers that block it.
That is to say, the foes that we need to turn against are the parents.
Hence I wrote down “Anti-parents” on the whiteboard, and tapped it with the back of my fingers.
“This is it. How do we make some of the parents notice our dummy plan, then try to terminate it, and then hopefully yield to the alternative plan? We need to think about this.”
Therefore, we should keep the core of our proposal untouched and unchanged, and then shift to easy ways to upscale the prom by its looking. And then the easiest way to upscale the prom is to bring up the headcount of participation. Yuigahama’s suggestion to bring in the other school would be such a great move.
I kept pondering for a while, and then quickly wrote down “Chiba-Kaihin Area Elementary-Middle-High School Joint Prom Event” on the whiteboard. Zaimokuza tilted his head in ‘umu-umu’ agreement.
“Are we even able to do such a thing?”
“We are not.”
“Ehhh…”
Hearing my immediate response, Zaimokuza voiced in confusion. I waved my finger and laughed with a ‘hmph hmph’.
“It doesn’t matter if we can actually do it. The thing that matters is to convince others that we are going to do it.”
We cannot make our proposal look like a ridiculous joke. It’s important that it needs to tie into reality.
Theremore, we need to blend in some flavors of reality, or reality-like facts to our proposal.
“For now, let’s just put up some ‘Notices’ around other schools nearby. Make it a concrete fact that already happened, and then we naturally guide the parents to put up their guard against it.”
It doesn’t matter if the plan gets realized. In the form of distributing ‘Notices’ or ‘Confirmation of Actions’, we can use them as evidence and then fabricate the hype. It’s the same thing as PRs for those TV animation projects. Bringing up the news doesn’t necessary imply that the project will be actualized. There are TV anime series that were announced but never actually produced or aired! The anime industry is indeed just like a slaughterhouse[22].
“I will let Komachi know at one point, as for other schools…”
I was waiting for follow-ups, and well, nobody wanted to help me out clearly… As I crossed my arms in annoyance, Yuigahama waved her hands openly and made another suggestion.
“What about Kaihin-Sougou HS? Remember we had joint events with them before, which might make them easier to talk to.”
“To properly set up the dialogue might still be difficult. However, it certainly feels more real with some past experience together…”
On one hand, it’s very difficult to establish a constructive conversation with Tamanawa, the President of their Student Council, and that’s not even mentioning moving forward. On the other hand, we are not aiming at actually making the joint prom happen. To make a pose of planning to do so, we just need to show that we indeed carried out conversations with them. Having these in mind, in a way Tamanawa from Kaihin-Sougou is the *best* candidate of all. After all, he was famous for holding conference without any concrete content but just embellishments and decorations from the outside.
“... what about other schools? For example, the middle schools that each of you graduated from… Try talking to them as well?”
“Err… I don’t want to do it.”
Sagami said so clearly without any incentives or motivations, whereas Hatano blatantly put up an unwilling face and as for Zaimokuza…, he just faked that he didn’t hear what I said at all. Ok, I feel you allll. So, I won’t force you guys anymore.
“It won’t be necessary. It’s okay if it’s only just Kaihin-Sougou HS hopping aboard with us. We will only need to lend the names from other schools.”
“He’s talking about borrowing names from others again…”
Yuigahama’s eyes turned a little sharper. Taking her hint, I put up a bitter smile and changed my phrasing.
“Sorry for my bad phrasing. Let’s put up a list of candidate schools that we want to negotiate with. If we keep that list, we could end up negotiating with these schools eventually. We want others to mistakenly think that we are actually carrying out the negotiations.”
The aim of our dummy prom plan is to fish parents’ into treating it as a big problem, and thus creating another chance for the legitimacy of the prom to be questioned. At that time, our Team Stalking Horse (Team Dummy Plan) would leave the parents with an impression of being uncontrollable, which would naturally lead the parents into pessimistically supporting the controllable Yukinoshita’s plan.
As I was talking, Sagami’s face became more serious.
“When you mentioned disseminating the information to attract their attention.... of course it’s going to be over the Internet right?”
“Indeed. By a simple cost benefit analysis, I reckon it’s the best plan.”
In fact, the inception of those protests against the prom took place on those SNS as well. Conversely, it’s not hard to conclude that they also secretly check things online. With regard to the dummy prom plan, we do not need to waste our energy spreading the news to all students. We only need to leak the news to those few lousy parents. In this sense, our labor cost of promotion is actually a lot less than those of Yukinoshita’s team, except that we have to carefully craft our plans to intentionally pick the best timing and way to leak it to the parents. In any case, this is something that we need to think about at a much later stage.
For now, we need to discuss the basic stuff in more detail.
“First of all, we need to create an official SNS account and an official website for our prom plan… and then, I guess we need to decide on an org name for us…”
As I spoke, I wrote down “Seeking for Names?” on the whiteboard.
‘Why the heart mark…’ Yuigahama and the Game Club guys murmured among themselves. Eh, somehow I wanted to have it there… Only Zaimokuza didn’t seem to care about it too much, but only rubbed his chin and leaned his head aside.
“Alright, I guess make it sound like an Anime Production Committee?”[23]
“Yeah, something like that, since we cannot just borrow names from the Student Council… Let’s consider names that sound effective and promising, or we could just parasitize by relying on a signboard that seemingly belongs to the Student Council.”
The most effective way to acquire a sense of practicality from people is to obtain a signed approval from trusting organizations. Given that we cannot act in the name of Student Council, we need a similarly strong alternative - a promising organization to become our secretary or our sponsor team.
“If the Student Council doesn’t work… ah, then how about the Club President Association?”
Yuigahama clapped her hands suddenly as she said so. Hatano cast his eyes at her in surprise.
“Sorry, but what permissions and authority does CPA have?”
“Huh? No, I have no idea… But it certainly sounds like a *big* name.”
“... sure.”
Yuigahama put up a blank look and said so innocently. Hatano twitched his mouth yet couldn’t argue anything against her, and eventually backed off. Amazed by this situation I told myself ‘that’s just like Yuigahama’, I wrapped up my thoughts.
“CPA currently is dissatisfied with the status quo of the prom. Therefore, CPA is considering holding an Oikon[24] jointly among all the school clubs… If it turns out to be a large scale event, it would probably end up being something similar to a prom.
“Heh-, that’s what you’ve been thinking. I see.”
While reaching out to the snacks, Yuigahama said so as if being impressed. However, I replied dispassionately.
“Nah, I actually don’t have any idea.”
“Huh?”
Yuigahama opened her mouth wide, as if saying ‘no idea, I don’t understand you’. Setting that aside, it seems that someone did understand me.
“Ah, is this the so-called reality? This guy really tells too many lies…”
“Well, his words makes sense so it’s possible to be the motivation.”
Hatano and Sagami are halfly galled and halfly speechless. ‘This guy is a retard’, ‘His ethics are weird and twisted’ - both of them mumbled quietly to each other. Zaimokuza sitting aside also nodded and said “agreed”.
“It’s essentially all about how we are going to make sense of it to increase our credibility, especially when others view us from outside. As for the CPA guys, I will find a way to talk to them so that’s not a problem.”
CPA is an organization aimed at facilitating assistance between the school clubs and regularing them… I’m actually not that sure, but just by looking at its name that’s the impression I was given. It’d be great if we can have the CPA lead the prom and thus add more reality into our narratives.
I filled the whiteboard with more lies. I shall work at my best in order to wrap things up zoi! So I encouraged myself.[25]
“Alright, it all looks good to go. Who is the leader of CPA?”
I turned my head to them as I asked. Yuigahama immediately gave me the answer.
“It’s Hatayo-kun.”
“...... I see…… I will try to talk to him tomorrow.”
That fell halfly within my expectation but halfly beyond… Speaking of which, I felt like I’ve heard something relevant before. Nevertheless the fact that I had to negotiate with Hayama makes me turn chicken. Ah, Hayama… Why is there not a coup d’etat that replaces him with Totsuka…
“Sorry… The concept of the proposal looks clear to me, but the actual content of it is still hand-wavy. How could we bring it up to other people like this?”
The atmosphere is still heavy yet Hatano chased and stroke me anyways. Life is tough. Nevertheless, I will do what needs to be done for now.
“As for the content, well, I will come up with something that’s good-looking. For now, could you please set up the official account on the SNS? Get something dope.”
“Okay, you can count on me. I will copy paste some low-quality content from Twitter and Instagram soooo haaard.”
Zaimokuza responded immediately while saying that prolonged ‘soooo hard’ vehemently. Looking at Zaimokuza, Hatano seemed quite gloomy.
“Wow, this guys quickly picked the easy job.”
“Well, it’s fine… Give me some time to do the research.”
After that, Sagami started playing around with his tablet and began his conversation with Hatano.
“... we need to create some HTML?”, “How about using a builder to create a template first?”, “Let’s find an open-source program first”, “Then what about the domain and the server?”, “No idea. Let me Google first.”
Crap. These guys were more capable than I thought… especially that the first reaction is to Google it whenever there’s anything that they didn’t understand. Very excellent with their raised awareness of being worthy otakus. Hatano’s intentions are not bad, and Sagami, unlike his sister, is a pretty serious person. The other guy, what a bad example though, as I sighed deeply. Well, I’m not suggesting Zaimokuza is useless at all. He worked so hard for my sake so I really should express my gratitude to him. I looked at Zaimokuza quietly and thought so.
“Ah, by the way, Zaimokuza, do you have a DSLR camera?”
“Yep, I bought it because I’d look cool with it.”
I can feel him… Thinking it’d be cool to have photograph as one’s hobby, you yearned for it so much that you eventually bought it. However, after that, you ended up not using it at all, but instead your smartphone camera to take photos.
“Could you bring it over tomorrow? To create materials for our website, I’d be great if have a professional camera.”
“Alright. Also along with the camera I bought introductions to photography tutorials. I can bring them too and we can read these still brand new books.”
I can feel that again… these how-to’s. You buy them but never actually read or consume them.
Well, if we are going to use them for photography, we can skim through it as long as they can serve as good references. I thought so as I tapped Zaimokuza’s shoulder.
Three of them were all assigned their job. I was thinking about myself while Yuigahama suddenly tapped my shoulder.
“What about me?”
“You are… the art director!”
“Sounds so cool!”
Looking at her happy face, I also broke out my smile.
“Yep, with your perfect sense of art please supervise our website and give it a shining, exciting and mindless design.
“Your way of speaking!”
Yuigahama shouted vehemently, and her anger lasted a while before it was dissolved. She then leaned her head and asked.
“What about you, Hikki-?”
“I will lay down the basis for the proposal and the design. For now, I need to do some research and write the proposals for our discussions later.”
As I was saying so, I promptly packed up my belongings. The Game Club room is an acceptable place to work, but since there’s no available computer for me, it’d be hard for me to do any research.
As soon as I stood up, Yuigahama also packed her stuff and got prepared to head out. Why is she prepared to go back? I cast my questioning eyes to her. Yuigahama carried her backpack in her back, smiled proudly and said.
“When it comes to connecting dots between the proposal and the design, you need help from the art director right?”
“... you are right.”
I relaxed my face and nodded. Then I looked around the club room. Zaimokuza was fired up collecting information from the SNS. Sagami and Hatano loudly argued their approach to creating the website. Okay, it looked like I can rely on them.
“... so I’m counting on you all next.”
“Good work! See you tomorrow!”
Somehow we felt sorry for leaving the room early, so we said farewell to them quietly. Both Yuigahama and I then left the club room.
After we entered the corridor, Yuigahama, who walked next me, asked me.
“Where shall we work?”
“Wherever there’s equipment fit for our work… Let’s say, an Internet cafe?”
“Can we watch DVD there?”
“Yep. We can borrow the blu-ray player and then we can watch the recordings. By the way there’s also unlimited supply of ice cream.”
“I see. Then let’s go there!”
Yuigahama then picked up her pace immediately. To avoid being left behind, I also fastened my pace.
5-4
We left the school and first stopped by the video rental shop. While I was lingering in between the anime shelves, Yuigahama quickly rented the recordings she wanted. We then headed over to the Internet cafe. I would say the entire process was quite smooth so far.
Yet soon after that, I got stumbled at somewhere unexpected.
"How are we going to pick the seatings?"
"Eh, well... let me see..."
At the reception desk of the cafe, we repeated the dialogue above for about three times. The clerk there only smiled at us, but after the second repetition his smile froze instantly.
"I need to work on a computer so I guess a reclining chair is preferred..."
I pointed at the Room Guide and gently expressed my concerns. Yuigahama agreed with me.
"Right, but if we want to write the proposal and create the design there, wouldn't it be better if we can watch the movie at the same time?"
Yuigahama pointed at a photo of a double-chair room, in which besides a computer, there was also a TV set. It indeed seems more convenient to be able to watch the movie while simultaneously do the work.
"However, it'll be tough if the computer doesn't have Microsoft Office installed."
Word processing software is indispensable for writing articles. I’m not saying a simple text editor doesn't do the job, but when it comes to writing proposals, software such as Word or PowerPoint certainly makes things easier. As I explained it to Yuigahama, she seemed a little bit discouraged.
"I see..."
She breathed out in relief. The nice clerk, who hadn't complained a single word at our exchange of conversations but merely watched over us, finally interrupted us with a smile.
"We do have a double-chair room with a computer that has Microsoft Office preinstalled."
What a god-like interruption! Yuigahama quickly put up a happy face and thanked the clerk.
"Oh that's great! Thank you so much! ... He said we can have all!"
What now then? She asked me. Well, checkmate. I lost the game.
"So, please get us the double-chair room..."
I pointed at the double-chair room photo with my trembling finger.
The clerk gave us a warm smile that even surpassed the temperature of the air-conditioned room. He quickly processed our request, and then walked us to the room. His eyes were so gentle and it even made me feel embarrassed and started scratching myself under my sweated coat.
It's not like I hate the double-chair room. It makes me feel embarrassed, or should I say the confined space makes me feel very uneasy to act or do anything. It's just very troubling for me.
The booth turned out to be only 2 Jo (40 sq ft or 3.6m^2). I was holding a glass of beverage I took from the drink bar, so it took me some effort to get myself seated.
"Just in case, I actually did some research about the prom beforehand."
Yuigahama got seated before I did and promptly started to prepare to play the DVDs she borrowed. She pressed the play button on the remote control. I tried to move to one side of the chair, booted up the computer and started working. While writing down the outline of my proposal, I peeked at the screen and momoed down anything that seize my attention or seem to be usable for the prom.
When the movie was about to enter the prom scene, Yuigahama tapped my shoulder to let me know.
"I don't think we have this kind of building in our school. It seems to a dance hall, I think? Ah, but the one we just saw took place outdoor."
"We didn't decide on a place yet. Since the prom will be jointly held by multiple schools, it might seem more realistic on the proposal to decide on a place that doesn't belong any of the participating schools."
I wrote down my thoughts on the memo as I spoke. Yuigahama seemed quite impressed and nodded a couple times.
"I see... So for example, like Destinyland?"[26]
"That's not financially feasible."
"I know... Just wanted to say it."
Yuigahama pouted her lips unhappily and turned away from me. She took a sip from the cocoa that she was holding. Her reaction was so heartwarming to me, that I stopped typing on the keyboard and couldn't hold but break my smiles.
"Well, at least it does look very Chiba-like."
"Although rest of the world probably thinks it's just very Tokyo-like."
"It is from Chiba!"[27]
"How stubborn!"
Yuigahama covered her smile and exclaimed to my words.
As is expected from the place, our quieter-than-usual conversation came to sound like pillow talks, regardless our topics of discussion. A dark room that got separated from the outside world. Perhaps for this reason, we were able to see each other's appearances slightly more clearly than usual.
Yuigahama tightly hugged a rolled-up blanket, instead of a cushion, along with her knees in front of her.
"Hmmm then, what about Crescent Moon King Palace Hotel?"[28]
"That's so Chiba-like! But not quite prom-like."
"That's not true. I used to have a family trip there."
As soon as she finished speaking she grabbed her smartphone and started looking for the photos. After she scrolling down the screen a couple times with her finger she seemed to find it. She then straightened her waist and slanted towards me.
"See!"
Shown to me was Yuigahama's selfie. In the photo, Yuigahama was wearing a T-shirt and at the top was her face along with a peace gesture (V sign) in front of it. Behind her was a swimming pool at night filled with laser and neon lights in the background. Unfortunately not fully captured in the photo, there was also Yuigahama's mom in swimming suit resting relaxedly on a beach chair. Gahamom, so young... Genes are formidable.[29]
Ah, well, this is not the important thing. The pool is. My point being, the swimming pool really seized attentions for its excessively gorgeous and luxurious decorations surrounding it, even more so than a live concert hall. I looked at the pool in the background again.
"What's up that pool? So lewd... Is it the so-called nightpool? Totally party mood..."
"Not... not lewd at at all!"
Yuigahama's face quickly turned red. She started hitting my feet with her rolled-up blanket. She then rapidly flipped over her smartphone screen and showed me the official website of the hotel - hey look, am I right?
Judging from the front page of the official website, the hotel did look quite wholesome, giving me an impression of beauty and gorgeousness.
"Well at least it seems more financially feasible than the previous one... By the way, is it open outside summer?"
"Yep, seems like it does."
Yuigahama nodded and showed me the smartphone screen. I peeked at the screen briefly and saw '365 days all year round' and stuff... How terrific is King Palace Castle! Makes me really want to go now...
"But just one thing, it's kind of far away from here... I'd like to take the photographs somewhere closer."
As I thought so, I opened my unfinished proposal folder. Speaking of the website design, I really wanted an impactful and impressive image as its background, but unfortunately it seemed that it might take a while to decide on the location and other stuff at this point. So let's set it aside for now.
Yuigahama was also thinking about it. Her voice, however, was mixed with yawns.
"Hmmm, photos... Uhhah, what about by the ocean?"
"Ocean? Where?"
"The one that's close to our school?"
"That's just the Tokyo Bay though..."
It's not even Chiba Bay sadly... Resort land or factory night scene might even be good but just a normal beach in winter doesn't look photogenic at all.
However, Yuigahama didn't seem to agree with me. She used her shoulder to push over my shoulder as if she was little angry at me. She then began explaining slowly.
"It's a good choice in my opinion. Or perhaps I should say it's *that* ocean that makes it a great choice. We can even see it from our school, right?"
"Ah, yeah."
"And then, that scene when it's evening, like usual, the sun sets over the sea... Every time I see it, I always marvel at its beauty, and cherish the fun I have for the day."
She closed her eyes and whispered as if she was dreaming it.
She didn't mention when or where, but despite so, I was quite certain that she was referring to *that* sunset *there*.
Right before the sun disappears at the horizon of the ocean, just for a brief moment, *that* room was filled with sunshine.
Having been seen countless times, it’s definitely not anything special - it’s only an ubiquitous sunset scenery.
I took it for granted, so much, that I forgot what conversations I had, what books I read, but were able to vaguely delineate and casually consume *that* sunset.
"That is..."
The sentence was cut off, and then resumed. The weight on my shoulders had become more concrete and realistic.
"I was thinking… if only days like these can go on forever..."
She said so with such a gentle voice that almost disappeared immediately. I waited until her words completely dissolved in the air, and then nodded my head.
"...yeah, right..."
Perhaps because it was too long of a pause to call it a conversation, she did not respond to me. Instead, only 'suu, suu' peaceful breathing could be heard. My shoulder could feel the soft weight on it.
The movie already reached its climax.
Perhaps it wouldn't be long before the closing credits started rolling. Even if I wanted to skip back, I wouldn't know where to skip to, since I only watched half of the movie and gave up.
Should I let the movie play and keep watching it until it ends?
Or, should I skip back to the very beginning and start it over?
Or even, should I keep what I've been doing - keep pretending that I'm not watching?
I had no time to worry about it, as the closing credits already started rolling.
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