Loss 3: Early Goodbyes

Loss 3: Early Goodbyes

Loss 3:

Early Goodbyes

I HURRIED TO THE STUDENT COUNCIL ROOM. I HAD to get these photos in before the festival started.

I opened the door, still catching my breath. “Excuse me.”

“Eep!”

A girl in cat ears and a maid outfit stood inside. She froze so perfectly I almost thought she was a statue. Her twitching cheeks gave her away, though.

This was the student council room, right?

On second glance, the cat maid was, in fact, the first-year vice president, Basori Tiara.

“C-can I help you?!” she spat.

“Just, er, turning this in.”

A pair of pale white arms extended from behind Tiara-san and wrapped themselves around her—Shikiya-san in her miniskirt nurse outfit. “Tiara-chan…” she breathed. “You forgot…to say ‘meow.’”

“I am not saying ‘meow,’ Senpai, and you won’t work your tendrils into me this time!”

The senpai leaned against Tiara-san lethargically. “You think the president…has bad ideas?”

“Th-that’s not what I said! You’re sure she’s even going to be in costume? I don’t recall her mentioning that.”

“You doubt the president?”

“Never! I’ll do it!”

“You’ll do it…meow.”

“I’ll do it… meow !” Tiara-san screamed, her face bright red.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to do with myself during this exchange. Wished they’d had it before I showed up.

Tiara-san wrenched her head toward me. The joint was a bit rusty. “S-so how… How can I h-help you…meow.” She was red up to her ears. Shaking. She couldn’t even look me in the eye.

“Uh, I’ve got the photos of our venue here. Is this enough?”

“Yes, that’s plenty.”

“Tiara-chan,” Shikiya-san rasped.

“That’s plenty, meow!”

I couldn’t deal with this right now.

Oh, her costume came with a tail. How was it attached, I wondered…

I pondered that as I left.

“Boy…” Shikiya-san called out with a voice like a mosquito’s buzz.

“Yes?”

She rested her chin on Tiara-san’s shoulder. Her white eyes stared through me. “I’ll be there…”

***

I returned from the student council room to the second-floor classroom in the west annex.

Komari was inside, waiting for me by the wall. “T-took you long enough. It’s starting soon, Nukumizu.”

If she could complain, she was right as rain.

I checked the clock. Ten minutes till showtime. “You were here pretty early, huh?”

“Ts-Tsukinoki-senpai brought me.”

“Where is she? And senpai number two, for that matter?”

“Third-years have an a-assembly first.”

Right. Something about graduation. What a cheery way to start off the festival. Yanami and Yakishio were on duty in class, so it’d be just us for a while.

“We’ll probably be fine,” I said. “Everything’s pretty much set up.”

Komari nodded. She twiddled her fingers around, and I couldn’t tell if she was just shy or angry about something. “N-Nukumizu.”

“Yeah?”

“I, um… I wanted to th…thank you.”

“Huh?” If ears could do a double-listen.

“F-for doing so much with…the s-stuff that I wrote.”

Who was this? Komari was never meek. Not around me anyway.

I scratched at my cheek, a little flustered. “Thank Asagumo-san—er, Yakishio’s friend. She’s the one who came up with the format and everything.”

“O-oh. But i-it’s printed really well, so… For that, then.”

“Actually, it was Prez and a friend of mine who did that. It’s pretty good, right?”

Komari tilted her head. “The d-decorations?”

“Tsukinoki-senpai’s idea. Yanami-san and Yakishio are the ones who got everyone together too.”

“Th-the one time I try to be nice…” She glowered at me through her bangs.

“Hey, I’m all ears. Lay it on me. Let the nicening begin.”

“Y-you’re about to lose your ears.”

That wasn’t very nice.

We quickly ran out of things to talk about. It was quiet out on this part of campus.

“Yanami-san’s got some time later this afternoon. She’ll come sub in for one of us later.”

Komari nodded. “Ts-Tsukinoki-senpai and the president will be here a-after the assembly.”

“Figured as much.”

Out of topics again. But the silence wasn’t so awkward this time.

Shortly after, a speaker on the wall buzzed and hissed. “Good morning, everyone,” someone said on the other end. “This is the student council speaking.”

My guess based on the low timbre was it was the president. Funny how people all turn to face speakers like they’re people whenever announcements play.

“I hope you’ve dotted your i’s and crossed your t’s, because today, our humble school will play host to a plethora of visitors. As such, and in accordance with the philosophy of independence that we espouse, each and every one of you will be his or her own representative of Tsuwabuki. Remember this as you take part in the festivities, and behave with decorum.”

A normal, respectable announcement. That was a relief. At least one person on the student council had their head on straight—when the situation called for it, I supposed. My first impression of her had been mixed, all things considered.

“Was that too pompous?” the speaker went on. “I think I liked the first idea better.”

“You’re good… No one heard.”

“President, the mic is on! Continue! Quickly— meow !”

Spoke too soon.

There was a lot of chaos and bumping of the microphone, and then someone cleared their throat. “Let the 98th Tsuwabuki Fest begin!”

A few confused seconds later came the cheers. Komari and I glanced at each other and hesitantly joined in the scattered applause.

So Tsuwabuki Fest began.

***

For the first fifteen minutes, no one even passed through the hallway except the occasional student carrying something from one place to another. Komari picked anxiously at her nails. The place felt awfully empty with just the two of us.

Our eight posters clung to the wall at four different places around the room, snack baskets and a stamp station at each. We had our sample journals set up by the entrance. I wondered how many would even take one.

I also wondered where those Dazai and Mishima headshots had come from.

“The west annex is pretty far from everything,” I said. “It’ll probably be a while before we get anyone.”

“I-I guess.”

“What I’m saying is relax. Remember, we’re giving cookies to elementary school kids and younger, so get your cards—” While I dug around in my pocket, a little boy no older than five popped in. I plastered on that smile I’d spent all last night practicing. “Hey there. Here. Fill that up with stamps and you’ll get some snacks. Can you do that?”

The kid took the card and zipped off. An older woman that looked to be his mother gave us a polite bow and followed behind him.

They couldn’t have been here much more than three minutes before the kid scampered off with his cookies. Komari waved goodbye.

I handed her some stamp cards. “Here. Keep these on you. And some stickers too.”

“S-stickers?”

“They get a sticker on their card when they get their snacks. It’s also to make it easier to keep track.”

Komari eyed them. “Wh-why Pokémon?”

“Yakishio says kids like Pokémon.”

She liked Pokémon, and I could think of no one better to speak on their behalf.

I marked a couple of tallies in a notebook. Two visitors so far. More trickled in over time until two became ten.

“Th-that last kid r-read some of the picture book pieces,” Komari mentioned.

“Even made a sale.” I was feeling suave and flipped the hundred-yen coin. It flickered in the light.

Clink .

“A-and you lost it.”

“I didn’t lose it. It’s over here…somewhere.” I gave myself a good few minutes before giving up and pulling out my wallet. “You’re pretty good with guests,” I said. “Thought you’d struggle with that.”

“K-kids are fine.” She took the coin from me and dropped it in the cash box.

“Got a sister in her second year at junior high, myself, so same.”

“T-two years isn’t much of an age gap.”

“Hey, she’ll always be a kid to me. That’s how it goes, you know?”

Our luck ran out pretty fast and business slowed. We let our guards down.

And of course, that was when a visitor showed up. A tall girl wearing our school’s uniform stood at the door. “Food and literature. Interesting combination.” Houkobaru Hibari—student council president. Her long hair trailed behind her. “I hope you don’t mind the intrusion. May I?”

“Of course,” I said. “Is this an inspection?”

She puffed a tiny chuckle. “That’s a very formal way of putting it, but you may consider it that if you’d like.”

I noticed she wasn’t in costume. I’d heard she would be. Maybe she’d changed.

“Good. Thoughtful exhibits,” she muttered, arms crossed. “I wish I could stick around to see them all, but duty calls. May I have one of these?” She picked up a bag of cookies.

“Oh, sure. They’re a hundred yen.”

I took her money and couldn’t help but stare.

“Something on my face?” she asked.

“Er, no. I just always had the impression the student council didn’t very much like the lit club. I haven’t seen that myself, though, so I’m just surprised.”

“No one told you?” Her tone took a dramatic shift. The air around her changed. Komari went from simply hiding to plain cowering. “The literature club has been the source of numerous controversies in the past. Too many. One more, and I might just have to, well…” Her eyes sharpened to daggers.

I gulped. “D-disband us?”

The president started to nod but thought about it. “Maybe. But that feels a tad harsh to me. I might consider something along the lines of… relative disbandment.”

“What is ‘relative disbandment’?”

“I’m not actually sure. Maybe a strike system. Three relative disbandments and you’re out. We’ll have to hammer out the details.”

I was beginning to realize our student council president was an acquired taste. Just like the rest of ’em…

Suddenly, a cat maid tumbled in. “President, we have got to get meowving if we want to make it in time for the next inspect— ion ?!” Tiara-san looked ready to self-combust the moment she saw me. “Wh-wh-what are you doing here?! Meow!”

“This is the lit club’s venue,” I said.

“Oh. So it is, meow.”

So it was.

She scowled, put on an extremely forced show of scrutinizing our exhibition, and then took the president by her hand. “My apawlogies for the intrusion. President, the astronomeow club is next.”

“I know, I know. Well then, thank you for your time, both of you.”

Their conversation continued out in the hallway. “By the meow, when do you plan on putting your costume on?”

“My costume? What costume? There’s no costume.”

“Mrow?! But Shikiya-senpai told me you were dressing up as a meowgnificant prince!”

Tiara-san had the whole “meow” thing down pretty good.

Come to think of it, where was Shikiya-san anyway? Hopefully not passed out on the floor somewhere.

“Good…presentation…”

In she shambled from a shadowy corner, all done up in her nurse outfit. How did she always pop out of nowhere like that?

Komari fled with a shriek.

“There you are,” I said. “The president just left.”

Shikiya-san sluggishly handed me a hundred-yen coin. “Give me…your cutest.”

Snacks, I presumed. I gave it some thought and handed her one of our pan castellas.

She nodded, satisfied. “Cute… I like.”

“I’m glad you like. The exit is that way.”

She remained where she was, swaying on her feet. I fought hard and valiantly to keep my eyes away from her open cleavage, a task made extraordinarily difficult by just how open it was. Eyes were made for wandering, okay?

“I noticed the president wasn’t in costume,” I said. Shikiya-senpai parted her lips ever so slightly but made no other visible reaction. “Did you lie to the vice president?”

“Tiara-chan is…fun to mess with.”

And then she shuffled out the door. Thank goodness.

I scanned the room for Komari. She was off in a corner, fiddling with some kind of puzzle ring. “I thought you’d be used to her by now.”

“I-I am when she doesn’t j-jumpscare me.” She peered up at me with teary eyes. “A-are the scary people gone?”

“The scary people are gone.” Granted, you could never be too certain. Truth be told, I was a little freaked out too, but she didn’t need to know that.

I got to thinking about what the president had said about us. What in the world was this hidden past the lit club apparently had that we didn’t know about? What trouble had they gotten into, and how was Tsukinoki-senpai related? I figured it was a safe to assume she had a hand in it, whatever it was.

I put a pin in it for now. I was running out of those.

***

An hour flew by, and we started to get more students showing up. Once we hit our fifth full tally, I stepped out to get drinks.

“Hopefully Komari’s fine with cold tea.”

When I got back, I found old schoolmates Amanatsu-sensei and Konuki-sensei there.

“Nukumizu!” said the short one. “This cherry cake’s pretty good, I gotta say.”

“That’s a hundred yen, Sensei.”

“Well, hello to you too. Here. Take it, ya cheapskate,” said the teacher who’d just tried to dine-and-dash her own student.

“Komari, I brought drinks,” I told her. “You good with tea?”

She trotted over with her arm extended, so I held the bottle out for her. But she went straight past it and grabbed my blazer instead.

“What? Amanatsu-sensei steal your lunch money?” I asked.

“Sh-she talked to me.”

“Now that’s just tragic.”

Genuinely. Amanatsu-sensei was a creature. Komari deserved an apology.

“Konuki-chan, why is everyone so mean to me?” Sensei pouted.

“Now, Konami, a teacher’s duty is to lift up her students’ love lives,” Konuki-sensei proselytized. “Not lift herself up.”

A teacher’s duty was to teach, actually. Fun fact.

Said teacher waved me over. Komari was safe in the comfort of her tea, so I went over. “Yes?”

“I like these peanuts. You make these peanuts?”

“My sister did. And they’re a hundred yen.”

“Right. The inari girl. She was here yesterday, wasn’t she?” She parted with another coin, cocking her head in thought. “She have an older brother?”

“Uh, right here?”

“Not you, twerp. Older. Say, someone in his thirties. Has a steady job. Ring any bells?” Can’t say it did. Why was she even asking? “And not to be picky or anything, but I hope he’s good with cats. See, I just got one, and—”

“I’ll, uh, ask around at the next family reunion.”

She’d gotten a cat recently? Oh. Oh no. Prayers for her.

Konuki-sensei clapped her hands together and beamed. “Oh, do tell me if you find anyone! I’d love to sample the goods…meet the man myself!”

“You’re not getting within arm’s reach of my man,” Sensei snarled. “And you’ll be watching the wedding from your living room.”

“Through frosted glass.”

“I’ll allow it.”

They weren’t going to actually look at any of the exhibits, were they? Hopefully they’d leave soon. They were a bad influence on the children.

***

By early afternoon, I was in the zone. I smiled for the kids, handed out cards, and rewarded them with snacks like a pro. Anyone thinking about picking up a journal, I was there to make the sell.

“It’s so easy talking to people who aren’t my age,” I observed.

The trick was to have a handful of preset phrases to shoot off and to ignore the junior high and high schoolers. Currently, there were only three Tsuwabuki students present, so I was fully immersed in mind-my-business mode.

Komari stopped fiddling with her cards and tugged my sleeve. “L-look out.”

In came Yanami, dressed in her white robes. This time, though, she’d added a hairband to the look. Two springs jutted from both ends of it, on the tips of which dangled cutouts of wispy souls.

She looked like a friggin’ alien.

“How’s it goin’?” she said. “Oh, I see we have visitors.” She plopped into a chair and pulled some mitarashi dango from the bag she’d been carrying. “Check it out. Yagumo. Never thought I’d find that brand at a school festival.”

“Yeah, neat. The heck’s all that on your head?”

“These are the souls I asked you to make. Am I a ghost or what?”

“You’re something, all right.”

“I’m telling you, I’m a genius for coming up with this. The kids love me. I haven’t had this much attention since my parents were throwing me birthday parties.”

I made a mental note to be a little nicer to her from now on.

“That why your clothes are all dirty?” I asked. They looked like they were covered in dirt. Kids tended to have filthy hands and bad senses of personal—“That’s chocolate, isn’t it?”

“See, I’m still trying to figure that one out. The kids I get always have candy all over their hands or crumbs all over their mouths. And they keep trying to give me their food. But Karen-chan gets flowers and four-leaf clovers and stuff. What’s up with that?” I didn’t have an answer for her, but I did have some theories.

“That’s a good question.”

Children could be so cruel.

“Anyway, I’m on break till my next thing,” she said. “C’mere and sit down.”

I did. I watched her going to town on those dango. Curious.

“What? You want some?”

“Just admiring your appetite,” I said.

Yanami gave me a look. “What’s that supposed to mean? You wanna go?”

“No, I mean, Himemiya-san told me a while ago you weren’t eating as much. She was worried about you.”

“Oh, nah, I’m just on a diet. Gotta watch what I eat,” she replied, eating her dango without watching.

“A diet.”

Didn’t look like any diet I’d ever seen.

“Lemme fill you in, Nukumizu-kun. Dieting isn’t about eating less. It’s about distributing the calories. You can eat as much as you want and still lose weight just as long as you do it smart.” She brandished a second stick of dango. “So yes, this is a diet.”

“You realize that means eating less with each meal, right? You’re not just eating more and forgetting that part?”

“I know, I know. I don’t go for seconds, and I stopped getting extra eggs with my ramen. It works, okay? Trust the process.” She looked around the classroom, blissfully unaware of the glaze stuck next to her mouth. “It’s pretty chill in here. You guys should go take a break. I’ll man the fort.”

That was music to my ears. I let Komari know and started to leave.

“And where do you think you’re going?” Yanami demanded.

“To the club room to take a break?”

“And just leave Komari-chan all by herself? Why don’t you show her around a little?”

“‘Around’?”

I was probably the last guy Komari wanted to go ‘around’ with, festival or no festival. Plus, I didn’t know if she already had any… Okay, she definitely didn’t have plans, but still.

“Komari-chan!” Yanami called out. “Where are you off to?”

Komari’s eyes darted up off her phone. She made a noise. “Th-the club room. To read.”

“Oh god, it’s spreading.”

Maybe it was finally getting through to her that school festivals were not for we denizens of the dark. We occupied what was probably the least trafficked area in all of campus, and even that was pushing our social batteries to their limits.

Yanami stood, brandishing her dango stick up high. “You two are hereby banned from the club room! Go see the festival for cryin’ out loud!”

“I left a book I was reading in there,” I complained.

“I’m burning it. It’s gone now.”

We had a tyrant on our hands.

Komari waffled between me and Yanami, unable to decide who better to explain what was going on right now. “Wh-what am I supposed to do?”

“Nukumizu-kun here is going to escort you around Tsuwabuki Fest,” Yanami answered. “He is a guy, technically. That’s his job.”

“B-but I don’t really care about the festival…”

“You’re a lit club girl, Komari-chan. Every educated woman needs a manservant.” She retrieved her third stick of dango and winked at me. “Don’t disappoint.”

***

Off the east gate extended a shaded path of tulip trees. Stalls lined it on either end, and both students and outside visitors alike filled the entire stretch.

Dodging passersby along the way, Komari and I came to the end of the path.

“End of the line,” I said.

“G-guess we should go back then.” Komari stayed glued to my shadow, her eyes never leaving the pamphlet in her hands. The people were getting to her.

I waffled. On the one hand, we could go back and get an earful from Yanami for not staying gone longer. On the other, we could keep drowning in the sea of people.

“Wanna grab something to eat on the way?” I compromised.

“U-udon would be good.”

A decidedly unfestive choice. Very Komari.

We joined the line at the karate club’s udon stand. I studied the menu in the meantime. White Belt Udon, Brown Belt Udon, Black Belt Udon… I did not know what any of that was supposed to mean.

“Huh. Neckbreaker Udon. Limited supply. You want some, Komari?”

“I-if it isn’t out of stock, it’s not worth being limited. Th-that’s a trap if I’ve ever seen one.”

Sharp. We settled for the Brown Belt, since it was middle-of-the-road in terms of price.

“Oh yeah, you good on money?” I asked.

She grinned proudly. “G-got extra allowance for the festival.”

We took our udon, which turned out to just be kitsune udon, and brought our bowls over to an open bench a ways away.

Rising steam carried the savory scent of bonito stock right up to my nose. The noodles looked pretty good too, and they were apparently handmade. It got me thinking about the rest of the menu. White Belt was probably plain, but Black Belt… What was in the Black Belt Udon? I’d caught one of their staff dunking an actual, literal, whole bottle of pepper into one bowl, which was surely the Neckbreaker.

Komari stopped eating. “H-hey.”

“Hm?”

“S-someone asked me earlier i-if they could take pictures.” Her lips spread into a smile she couldn’t hide completely. “Because they wanted to…take their time to read later.”

“Hm. Pretty cool.”

“Y-yeah.” She tried to take a sip of her broth and immediately burnt her tongue.

I people-watched while I slurped. There were just as many visitors from the general Toyohashi area as there were students. It was a strange feeling, seeing families and people not in uniform wander places they’d normally have no business being.

It was obvious now that the lit club was only getting a tiny fraction of the proverbial pie, and this was only one part of campus. But Komari was still proud of what we’d done. And some of the people who did see her work even appreciated it.

Yanami had called it a love letter last night; Komari’s obtuse, roundabout way of putting herself and her feelings out there for the world to see.

“Where do you wanna go next?” There would be time for all that later. Komari’s thoughts and motives were her own.

She apathetically blew on some noodles she’d scooped up. “Wh-wherever you wanna go.”

Class F, Asagumo-san’s, sounded good enough to me. I vaguely recalled them doing something game-themed. Plus, I probably needed to at least say hello after how much help she’d been.

I held a thin fish cake up to the light when a couple in Tsuwabuki uniforms passed us, flirting in that way couples do.

I shook my head. Some people needed to know when to get a room. These festivals weren’t supposed to be all fun and games. They were part of the government-assigned curriculum, dang it. Would you let a girl sit on your lap during class? Well, you shouldn’t. The same went for the folks who walked around using our fine education system as an excuse to go on dates .

“Wh-why are you scowling?”

“Just thinking about the current state of the student body.”

But wait a minute. Komari and I were sitting here eating together—couldn’t that be misconstrued for a date by some unwitting third party?

We couldn’t have that. Personally, I considered her to be more like a sister than anything else.

“Hey,” I said, “I have an idea.”

“Wh-what?”

“You should call me ‘Oniichan.’”

Komari hacked and coughed. And coughed some more. Sounded like she was about to lose a lung.

“Whoa, you okay there?”

“Th-that’s it. You’ve finally lost it.”

“Look, I’m not trying to be weird. There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for my train of thought.”

“Well, g-go on then. Choose your last words carefully.”

I handed her a tissue. She swiped the entire pack.

“I was thinking,” I began. “Us sitting here together. I’m worried we might be the cause of a misunderstanding.”

“Wh-what kind of ‘misunderstanding’?”

“I’m just saying, out of context, it could look like we’re on a date.” More hacking and coughing. “You’re gonna have to go to the hospital if you keep that up.”

“A-and it’ll be your fault.”

Sheesh. Some people just had no self-awareness. At least all the wheezing would throw off anyone who might’ve thought this was anything but platonic.

I downed the last of my broth and immediately choked on all the pepper clumped at the bottom.

***

Class F was on the third floor of the new building. We ducked under a fancy curtain to enter, and we were met with another sea of people. There were games like ring toss, goldfish scooping (except with bouncy balls), and other traditional festival staples inside. They even had students in happi coats manning each event.

Komari and I were overwhelmed by the atmosphere when a small girl, also in a happi, scurried over. “Nukumizu-san! You came!” Asagumo-san twirled on the spot. “What do you think of the happi? We made one for everyone in class. I could probably find one for you too, if you’d like.”

I wasn’t in this class, so… “I’m okay,” I said. “So, um, this is Komari. She’s in my club.”

I turned to her, but she’d either vanished or become a ghost. Neither, turned out. I found her kneeling by a plastic tub full of floating rubber balls.

“Hey, Komari,” I called out to her. “This is Asagumo-san. She helped with the exhibit.”

“Whuh? O-oh, um…”

Asagumo-san approached as she pulled herself to her feet. “So you’re the one I’ve heard so much about. I absolutely loved your paper, Komari-san.”

“Huh? I-I, um…” Komari sputtered. “Th-thank you…for the help.”

Asagumo-san gripped her hand. “It was my pleasure! Really! Your discussion of men’s relationships and the inherent sexuality therein absolutely moved me. You blended the topics beautifully. I knew immediately that you must be a fujoshi!”

Komari croaked and made to flee. But Asagumo-san’s grip was ironclad.

“I’ve never been friends with a fujoshi before,” she went on. “I’m positively fascinated with the culture. Please, you must teach me about BL sometime!” Her eyes bulged like a knowledge-hungry squirrel. She left Komari no room to breathe.

“I… I-I…” Komari looked about ready to faint.

“Take it easy, Asagumo-san,” I cut in. “She doesn’t do so good under pressure.”

“Ah. Then I apologize. Here, Komari-san, please sit.”

Asagumo-san guided us to the shooting gallery. On top of cardboard shelves sat candy and various stuffed animals.

She had Komari sit down in a seat next to it, then twisted a towel around her forehead. “Hey there, gunslinger! Wanna test your aim?!”

Dang, that was smooth. Good business sense.

“Sure, why not? Do I just pick any gun from here?”

There were several rubber band guns made out of chopsticks lined up on the counter. I picked the biggest.

Asagumo-san gave a thumbs-up. “Keen eye ya got there. That, my friend, is my own invention! That puppy could shoot clear through a soda can.”

Then it was probably illegal.

“Why?” I asked. “Why would you make this? Is this a cry for help?”

“It just sort of happened while I was tinkering around, to be honest. Oh, a word of caution: It will break whatever prize you aim for. I would shoot slightly askew.”

And now I felt like an accomplice.

I aimed for a pack of cocoa candy cigarettes, adjusting it to be slightly askew. No sooner than I fired did the back wall rumble, and pretty much everything in the vicinity toppled over.

“Big game hunter over here!” Asagumo-san clapped fervently. This thing belonged in a safe, far away from high school students. “You’ve got two more shots.” She handed me my pile of prizes.

I’d had my taste of power and didn’t like it. While I agonized over how to politely back down, Komari prodded my shoulder. “Th-the senpai are back. They swapped with Yanami. I-I’m gonna go.”

I checked my phone and saw I had a message. I was saved.

“Looks like we’ve been summoned,” I told Asagumo-san. “I’ll just take my pick from the pile.”

“Oh, that’s a shame,” she replied. “Tell everyone I said hello.”

I dug out my cocoa cigarettes and hurried after Komari, who had wasted no time dipping. “Hey, slow down. I’m coming with.”

I checked my phone but was surprised to see the message wasn’t what I thought it’d be. It was from Yakishio. She was apparently stuck with the track team and wanted to know if we could come see her.

“Got something from Yakishio,” I said. “Wanna swing by real quick?”

“I-I got the same thing. There’s just…so many people.” Komari sighed.

I understood. That said, it didn’t feel right to ditch her. “I’ll go see her for the both of us. You can head back to the exhibit.”

We split up, and I started toward the field. Having friends sure was a lot of work.

“Didn’t used to be this busy,” I muttered to no one.

I wasn’t fooling myself, though. I was starting to like it, and I knew it.

***

There were plenty of other clubs aside from the athletic ones out on the field. I kept walking until I found the track team’s booth. A sign there read, “Face the Masked Runner and win fabulous prizes!”

I had a bad feeling about this.

“Nukkun! It just you?”

I turned. Yakishio was in her track uniform, and on her face was a glittery mask like something out of a play. I was, in a word, intimidated.

“ What are you wearing, Yakishio?”

“I do not know of this ‘Yakishio’ you speak of. I am the Masked Runner! Ahem. Please direct your attention to our selection of challenges.” She handed me a flyer.

There was a hundred-meter race with a track team member, handicapped in favor of the challenger. Winning would get you some kind of prize. And then there was a “Masked Runner” challenge for high school boys. No handicap.

“I’m not really in the mood to lose,” I said.

“Hey, you never know till you try. Your legs are longer…er, about the same length as mine. So there’s that.”

I chose to ignore that. “I’ll pass. I run, and I’ll be on my butt for the next three days.”

“Well, I’m game.” A stranger butted into the conversation. A boy in another school’s uniform.

Yakishio’s eyes widened in surprise. “Taka! I didn’t know you were here.” She turned to face me. “You remember him. That’s Takahashi. He was a sprinter on the track team in Momozono just like me. When he wasn’t playing hooky, anyway.”

Why would I have remembered him?

She bumped this “Taka” on his chest. “Long time no see. Still runnin’?”

“Oh yeah. I’m taking it seriously now too. Bet I could give you a run for your money at the hundred meter these days.”

“I like the way you talk! So you’re game, yeah? Think you can win that prize?”

Taka threw his coat off. “It’s not the prize I’m after. If I win this race, I want you to go to the movies with me.”

“The movies?”

Was this guy for real? Girls all around squealed and ooh ’d.

Yakishio recovered from her shock and flashed a toothy grin. “Sure, why not?”

She’d done it now. Yakishio was good, but this guy was, well, a guy. A guy who’d apparently practiced extensively in the exact race they were supposed to be running.

It occurred to me then that I may have been bearing witness to the beginnings of a beautiful new romance. All of a sudden, I was on tenterhooks.

Yakishio started stretching. “All right, whaddya say we crank it up to fifteen hundred meters?”

“What?” Taka whimpered. “Not one hundred?”

“You said it yourself. You could probably beat my time. And a race is no fun if you already know who’s gonna win.”

“Hang on, I thought—”

“Shoes tied? Muscles all warmed up? Good! Ready, get set…”

And so they ran fifteen hundred meters. Hanging in the balance: one measly date.

The only thing I bore witness to was a murder.

***

My thoughts were with dear old Taka on my way back to the west building. “Poor guy’s gonna be traumatized.”

I could only imagine the way he’d felt, running that final half lap after Yakishio had already crossed the finish line. But then again, you had to be prepared for embarrassment when going for a public confession like that. So really Taka had no one to blame but himself. Festival energy could work miracles, but even miracles needed a little more groundwork than he’d laid.

Cheers came from the courtyard. I peeked outside a nearby window and saw a modest crowd around a group of people. Among them Yanami, clad in white, along with some of my other classmates. Class 1-C’s Flash Halloween in action.

I couldn’t make out anything they were saying, but the stars seemed to be Yanami the ghost, Nishikawa playing Captain Okita Souji, and some other guy. Now was a good opportunity to take a look at the fruits of my class’s labor, so a certain someone wouldn’t whine to me about picking favorites again.

I put my elbows on the windowsill and watched.

It seemed to be a tragedy of some kind about two star-crossed lovers. Yanami started to make a tearful exit, but Nishikawa snatched her hand and pulled her close. The story ended as she breathed her final breath.

A ghost. Breathing her final breath.

“Plot holes,” I grumbled. I tried not to think about it and hurried back to the classroom.

Just as it came into view, Tsukinoki-senpai found me first and waved. “There you are! Lend us a hand, will you?”

The place had done a total one-eighty and was packed all of a sudden. Prez was busily handing out snacks to impatient children, and Komari was restlessly clutching her stamp cards with both hands.

She relaxed a little upon seeing me and drifted over. “T-took your time, huh? Hurry up and help.”

“Look, it’s not my fault. She was a ghost . How does she die at the end? How does that make any sense?”

“Sh-shut up, there’s a l-line for the snacks. Go.”

She shoved me toward a growing queue. For a girl like Komari, whose every social interaction was a trial, it must have certainly looked daunting.

I got to work and eventually cleared them out.

Prez came and lifted open the cash box. “Making good money. What is that, about thirty sales?”

“Business is good, for sure. You do some advertising or something?”

“Ayano-kun. He handed out flyers for us. We got tons of hungry kids and tired parents looking for somewhere quiet thanks to him.”

Over by the tatami resting area, children snacked on their mothers’ laps while they enjoyed a bit of respite. Not far away, less docile kids struggled with the stamps, which Komari was quick to help with. All other rug rats flocked to Tsukinoki-senpai for whatever reason. Whatever she’d done, her sermons about the exhibits had reeled them in.

“Picture books aren’t worse because they have pictures, you know,” she preached. “They’re about friendship, and kindness, and adventure, and lots of important stuff. Even I, for all my scientific curiosity, acknowledge that some things are sacred.”

Was she gonna be all right over there? I mentally prepared myself to remove her by force if necessary.

“Had your fill of the festival?” Prez asked.

“I’ve seen enough for all three years, honestly. Don’t you want to be out there with Senpai?”

“I’ll stick around a while longer.” He watched Tsukinoki-senpai give her speech. There was a gentleness in his eyes. He then opened up the cash box, threw a coin in, and opened up a bag of peanuts. “The lit club’s never had much of a festival presence before, so it’s nice that we can go out with a bang like this. Thank you for that, Nukumizu. This was all you guys.” He patted me on the shoulder.

I let that sink in. “It was all Komari, really.”

Fifty thousand characters. Fifty thousand keystrokes, each representing a little piece of her soul. The feelings she felt. All consolidated into this one chaotic day, this one memory.

A little boy holding a flyer poked his head inside. The day wasn’t over yet.

I greeted the boy with a smile and invited him in.

***

Our final visitors, a student couple, left the room, and then it was just me, Komari, Prez, and Senpai. It was ten minutes till four, closing time, and the halls of the west annex were growing sparse.

“That’s all forty snacks sold. We’re cleared out. Do we have any left that we were giving out for free?” Tsukinoki-senpai turned around, clasping shut the coin case.

“Plenty,” I said. “We shouldn’t be getting any more visitors.”

We’d given away over half of our journals too. Not that every single person who took one would actually read it, but it felt good regardless.

We were in the final stretch now. Melancholy mingled with relief. Komari and Senpai spent the last few minutes arguing about the verticality of Souseki and his understudies. How they could get so worked up about such delusions was beyond me.

A whole lot of nothing happened. It was calm. Like an average day in the club room.

A quiet song began to flow from the overhead speakers. It was a classic tune stores would always play around closing time.

I checked the clock. Five till.

“Nothing like ‘Hotaru no Hikari’ to make it feel like the end of the day,” I said.

“H-huh? This is ‘Farewell Waltz,’” Komari argued.

“Uh, no? Didn’t you sing this at graduation? Maybe you called it something different.”

“D-did we?”

Enter Tsukinoki-senpai to settle the debate. “They’re both based on a Scottish folk song. Sort of like how booths selling doujins of the same ship can be in different places at a con based on who’s the bottom.”

I didn’t see how it was in any way like that, personally, but I wasn’t going to take the bait.

We went quiet and let the music play. It had been a long road getting here. And now it was over.

Tsukinoki-senpai cradled Komari’s head in her arms. She leaned into it, resting her head on her shoulder.

“I can’t thank you guys enough.” Prez was the first to speak up. “I’ve never been the most passionate or attentive president. In fact, sometimes it felt like I was more trouble than I was worth.” He bowed low. “But you guys really turned this into something special. Thank you.”

Tsukinoki-senpai clapped. Komari and I followed a few seconds later.

“Aww, Shintarou. Why’d you turn around?” A playful grin spread across Senpai’s face. But it had changed. This wasn’t the same grin she wore when we first met.

“N-no reason. It’s nothing.”

Tsuwabuki Fest Literature Club exhibition, Food for Thought—final numbers: 117 visitors, forty snacks sold, fourteen journals distributed.

It was nothing special. Many of the other clubs could boast far more. In the grand scheme of things, we’d done nothing at all, but we pretended like we’d just changed the world.

At first, it had only been about helping Komari, but I couldn’t claim that anymore. It felt personal now. Like I’d done it for me.

The student council president’s low voice hummed to life over the speakers. “It is now 4 p.m. The 98th Tsuwabuki Fest has officially come to a close.”

***

Tsukinoki-senpai and I waited for the car by the south gate. One of Senpai’s parents was helping return the tatami mats we’d borrowed, and Prez was supposed to help me load.

Speaking of, where was he?

“Hey, have you seen Prez?” I asked.

“He went to get my bag from inside. Left my phone and wallet.”

“Komari’s still there. We could have asked her to bring it down.”

“And make my poor first-year carry that all by herself?”

But it was okay for her boyfriend to carry all that by himself.

The urge to quip was swallowed down by a sudden wave of regret. This would be one of the last times we got to have one of these stupid exchanges. “So you guys are retiring now, huh? It’s gonna be lonely without you.”

I watched cars come and go along the road in silence.

“Wow,” Senpai said. “Never thought I’d hear those words from you. I know, deep down, you’re glad to get rid of us.”

“I wouldn’t admit that in polite conversation.”

“Oooh, someone’s got teeth now.”

We looked at each other and each cracked a smile. Silence again. Small talk only made the elephant in the room angrier.

I poked it anyway. “Komari’s been pretty stressed about being the new president.”

“I can imagine.”

“There’s that meeting next weekend. She’ll have to introduce herself and report on our activities. Nothing she can’t write a script for on a few cue cards, but still.” It wasn’t that simple. “Can’t you guys be there for her for just a little while longer?”

“I’d do it in a heartbeat if I could.” She smiled sadly. “But that’s your job now, Nukumizu-kun. I’m not saying you need to take her hand in holy matrimony or anything, but I can’t helicopter around her forever. It’s just time to move on.”

Our senpai could count the number of things left on their high school to-do lists. It was time to move on. And where they were going, we couldn’t follow.

“I just don’t know how to get through to her,” I confessed.

“I think you get through just fine. Komari-chan relies on you. That’s why we wanted you to be vice president. To take my place and keep an eye on her for me.”

“But I’m… I don’t have what you guys have.” I was making excuses, but this was perhaps the only person qualified to hear them. “Like, look at what happened in just the last week. She shut herself off, did everything by herself, and wouldn’t budge. She doesn’t let anyone in when she gets like that. No one but you and, well…”

I looked back at the building behind us. Prez should’ve been on the second floor right about now. In the empty classroom. All alone with her.

“He’s sure taking a while,” I said. “Should I go check on him?”

Tsukinoki-senpai rolled her eyes at me, smiling. “Gee, why do you ask?”

I stumbled over my words a few times. “It’s just, y’know, them. Up there. Alone.”

She didn’t say anything. Every word that went unsaid weighed heavy in my mind.

I reached into my pocket and felt a box. The cocoa cigarettes I’d won at the shooting gallery. I took one out, stuck it in my mouth, and offered the carton to Senpai. “Take the edge off?”

She laughed. Took one. “It’s all a load of bull. This tough act I put on.”

I answered to let her know I was listening but nothing more. She put the candy cigarette in her mouth like it was real.