Chapter 13: This world isn’t one that only cares about appearances!
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: - -
For the remainder of lunch break, Mika and Chiaki took Seiji around to explore the school.
Genhana High School covered a vast amount of ground and had a middle school section as well as a high school section, although the two sections were mostly separated apart from some shared facilities.
"Haha, seeing those tender juicy middle school girls isn’t an easy task, but if you beg me, I can tell you just how to meet them!" Chiaki smiled impishly.
"Stop talking nonsense, Chiaki—what are you saying, tender and juicy…"
"It sounds attractive, but I can’t afford to be thought of as a pervert right now, so let’s talk about it later." Seiji rubbed his chin.
"What!? Seigo?"
"Ha, I was just joking."
Seiji felt that compared to Mika, the slightly devilish Chiaki was easier to have a conversation with.
Mika Uehara was still stuck between her mischievous friend and the otaku that was gradually coming out of his shell, so she found it difficult to keep up with them.
As Chiaki teased Mika, Seiji took a look at the schoolyard, when he suddenly noticed a petite girl looking in their direction.
The girl was wearing a middle school uniform, and she was quite short, with thin, spindly limbs. She had an exquisite face and large eyes with heterochromia—the left eye was green while her right eye was blue. She also wore a pair of huge cat ears which were swaying cutely in the wind, leaving Seiji with a deep impression.
She looked at Seiji, and Seiji wordlessly looked back at her.
Suddenly, she ran off and shrouded herself in the shadows of the nearby trees, disappearing in an instant.
"Was she a first-year middle school student? And the way she was dressed…"
That was how Seiji spent his lunch break.
After the last class in the afternoon, a boy with short pointy blonde hair and sharp features—which made him seem like a cosplayer for a hot-blooded anime—walked up to the podium.
"As everyone already knows, the school festival will be held at the end of this month, so we should decide now on what topic our class will be doing."
As he talked, Seiji asked one of the students beside him and learned that the blonde boy was the class representative, Koji Hoshihara.
"I’ve gathered some of the ideas from the students, and I’ll write them on the blackboard now—if there are any other recommendations, please go ahead and say them now. Afterwards, everyone will decide the topic by voting."
A school festival… this was a classic scene from any manga about school life. Seiji’s interest was piqued by this.
Class Representative Hoshihara then wrote on the blackboard: haunted house, coffee café, confectionary store, play, and miniature theater. Every option seemed ordinary to Seiji, as they were all common options seen at every school festival.
After writing down all the possible projects, the entire class began lively debating which option to choose.
Just as they were coming to a conclusion and the atmosphere was quieting down, a clear voice suddenly rang out.
"Harano-kun, even though you transferred in just today, you shouldn’t remain silent at such a time. Why don’t you let everyone know your opinion as well?
It was Kazufuru Ooike.
He took advantage of the timing, and everyone’s attention instantly focused on Seiji.
Was this assisting him or an attack against him?
Seiji glanced over at his "friend" and smiled.
"Sure. After hearing everyone’s discussions, I have an idea of my own as well." Faced with gazes of the entire class, Seiji’s face did not show a hint of either panic or nervousness and spoke his thoughts eloquently: "I believe that a confectionery store would be a good choice. This seems to be one of the more popular options, but the students against it mostly believe that it’s too difficult to make the sweets due to the lack of equipment and ingredients. As it happens, I have a method to take care of those issues, since I currently work at an outstanding confectionery store.
"We could just obtain our desserts from there, and then give our customers those desserts directly from the store. I can take care of the price negotiations, and I’ll be able to get a discount for us. Besides, we should be able to make the simple desserts ourselves, and our supply will be assured if both sides make the desserts.
"Also, I would recommend turning the confectionery store into a cosplay cafe as well, with the main theme of the anime that’s been hugely popular lately: "Honey Candy Girl." If necessary, I can even contact the creator of this anime and obtain the permission to use the copyright..."
Seiji described his idea with a well-organized thought process.
The entire classroom was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Uh-oh! It seemed that he wasn’t careful and had accidentally used speaking techniques from his previous life as a government worker—did he make it too boring? Seiji felt himself breaking into a cold sweat.
Kazufuru Ooike mentally sighed.
That was excellent improvising! Although he expected that something of this difficulty level wouldn’t be too hard to deal with, it was still...
*Clap clap clap.* As his "friend," Kazufuru gave the brilliant speech his applause.
Soon after, the girls all began clapping, and the boys could only follow the momentum and clap along.
"I think Harano-san’s idea was pretty good," Class Representative Hoshihara agreed and looked around at the whole class, "how about we go with his idea? A cosplay confectionery store!"
The class began heatedly debating again, and the girls strongly indicated their approval for the idea. Due to the girls’ passion, the boys could helplessly agree.
This was mainly because that "Honey Candy Girl" was indeed quite popular these days and was viewed as one of the trademark creations of Sakura Island. It was especially well-known among teenagers.
The full-body costume that Seiji had worn for his first job was a mascot from this anime.
And Store Manager Rika Amami was actually related to the creator of that anime; the creator had even found part of the inspiration for that anime from Rika Amami!
So that was why he was confident that he could obtain the copyright permission from the creator through the store manager. However, since this was only a temporary confectionery shop for the school festival, going through all the formalities probably wouldn’t be necessary.
In the end, when the class went through with the voting, the cosplay confectionery store overwhelmingly won against all the other options, and thus, Year 1 Class 5’s school festival topic was decided upon.
"Now that the discussion is over, we’ll decide on the specific tasks for everyone tomorrow. Everyone can go to their club activities now," the class representative ended the discussion.
The students all got up and left slowly in pairs or small groups, while Mika and Chiaki approached Seiji.
"Seiji, are you going to work?"
"Nah. I want to get to know the clubs at school," Seiji smiled, "could I request the two of you to be my tour guides once more?"
Naturally, the answer he received was "of course."
Seiji also wanted to grab Kazufuru to go along with them, but that guy had used the student council as an excuse to leave again.
Well, there were plenty of chances to train him in the future... no wait, maybe he should say improve Kazufuru’s impression of Seiji instead.
With Mika and Chiaki leading the way, the three of them went to the tennis club first, as this also happened to be the club Mika was a member of.
"Our school’s tennis club is a bit weak—we don’t have the skill to compete nationally... Usually, we just relax and have fun." Mika awkwardly told Seiji about her club, "I just play for fun myself."
"She says she’s only a casual player, but she’s actually the second best player in the club. She’s actually quite competitive, you know?" Chiaki spilled Mika’s secrets again.
"Not... not at all, I... I just play at my own pace!" Mika’s face flushed slightly red.
"The second strongest… that’s great. Then who’s the best? The tennis club captain?" Seiji said.
Mika nodded.
"The captain is by far the strongest—he almost made it to nationals this year."
The tennis club captain’s name was Hideya Aizawa.
He was an above-average good-looking guy with light green hair. In reality, though, his greatest goal wasn’t getting into nationals, but he instead focused his attention on the most beautiful freshman girl in the tennis club, Mika Uehara.
Earlier, when he had heard rumors that the school bully had his eye on Mika, he became quite unhappy, but that was all. Ultimately, he lacked the courage to confront the school bully.
But for some reason unknown to him, the school bully received a stern lecture from the student council president, and then he mysteriously dropped out of school.
Aizawa felt like he still had a chance!
Having caught the attention of the school bully, his underclassman was surely frightened by the experience. If he took good care of her during this time, and then picked a good time to confess to her, he should be able to make her his girlfriend.
But the situation was different from what he had expected. Mika didn’t seem like she was feeling depressed at all during club activities, and she treated him more distantly than before, making him feel like all his previous efforts had gone to waste.
Why was that?
Today, when he saw Mika Uehara leading a boy who was so handsome that it hurt to look at him to school, he understood.
Seigo Harano, the transfer student in Year 1 Class 5, was already acquainted with Mika Uehara before transferring here.
Every girl in the tennis club had sparkles in their eyes after seeing this handsome boy!
And all the boys, including Aizawa, felt an incredible sense of pressure.
For the first time, all the tennis club boys felt like they had a common enemy, and when Mika Uehara borrowed a tennis racket and loaned it to that guy in order to have a practice match with him, their enmity reached a peak!
Why was there a scene from an idol TV drama here at their club!?
Just about all the female members were using their cell phones to film this scene, and all of them were blushing fiercely. Those girls usually liked to act untouchable, but now they were all agog over this one boy—what was up with this!?
Especially Mika Uehara, who was having a practice match with him—that look in her eyes, her body language, and her expression all seemed so flirtatious. Even an idiot could tell that she had feelings for the new student!
This beautiful underclassman of his had never acted like this in tennis club before, but now it was like she was giving herself away for free, trying her utmost to catch that guy’s attention…
What a bitch!
Aizawa’s mind was filled with anger; it was as if he had seen the world for what it truly was and witnessed the cruelty of fate.
No!
He refused to accept, or even admit it.
Who cared if that guy was a supermodel-level handsome guy!?
He was going to use his ability that was almost enough to reach the nationals to let that guy know this world wasn’t only about physical appearances!
"Harano-san, you probably won’t be able to go all out when playing with a girl." Aizawa had a smile on his face as he approached them, "Your footwork is pretty good; I think you could be rather talented—how about practicing a little with me?"