4

"Chikaa."

Nozomi looked like she was about to cry and clung to me.

Koizumi-san of the Magic a.s.sociation was the one who stood in the middle of the clubroom. He merely clicked his tongue when I entered. He looked considerably ill-humored.

Haruta appeared in front of us in a haste as if to protect us.

"Could you please tell us what happened, senpai?"

His voice was calm and composed. I wondered if Koizumi-san had his pride flattered by the word senpai as he wasn"t usually called that way, because he turned his face away and muttered as if the menacing look just now was a lie: "This has nothing to do with you."

"If you leave it as it is, the people in the gallery will go notify the teachers."

Haruta shifted his attention to the side of the corridor. When Koizumi-san turned to look, the club members whose faces appeared in the window simultaneously withdrew. What an unfeeling person.

Koizumi-san scowled at Nozomi who was hiding behind my back.

"... Hey. Hurry up and bring out that copper sulfate crystal. Don"t make it any more difficult."

"I- I didn"t steal that kind of scary thing."

"Don"t lie."

"I"m telling the truth."

"Um," I interjected, having been made a shield for Nozomi since a while ago. "I don"t see very well what you"re getting at though."

Koizumi-san kept silent, looking as if it was difficult to talk about it. Nozomi being Nozomi was completely frightened of him.

"The one who put up the threatening letter, is it senpai?"

Haruta"s unwavering words echoed in the clubroom. Koizumi-san made a somewhat surprised face, but he readily admitted it, "Yeah. I did."

Nozomi and I were at a loss for words. I was stunned and said, "I"ll apprehend you."

"Whoa, wait a minute." Koizumi-san hurriedly excused himself. "Wasn"t that obviously a joke? No one in school takes it seriously, let alone that it"s expected for every year. First of all, don"t you know that when the invisible writing on that paper is revealed, the message "Best regards from the Magic a.s.sociation" will come up?

"How could I know about that kind of thing!" I said, unintentionally raising my voice.

"Is that so?" Haruta strangely a.s.sented. "I also thought of that as a joke. Well, it was excessive, but... Nevertheless, I couldn"t hear any joke in what senpai said just now."

Koizumi-san briefly glanced at Nozomi. "Do you mean treating her as the crystal thief?"

"No," Haruta denied. "You said, "Don"t make it any more difficult". Please tell me. If the cultural festival gets cancelled, what will become difficult?"

I stared at Haruta. The conversation had progressed in an unforeseen direction. What in the world was Haruta trying to ask?

Koizumi-san made a fist. As if trying to bear with something, his face eventually became distressed.

"If the cultural festival gets cancelled, there will be cultural clubs that risk being abolished."

"So it was something like that after all. Wouldn"t those be the Flower Arrangement Devotees, the Magic a.s.sociation, the Railroad Research Society, Astronomical Observation club and the Household Club?"

Eh? -- Those were all the cultural clubs that I listed on the music paper.

"You, you really get it huh," Koizumi-san said, as if he saw Haruta in a more positive light. "You"re right. The decline of cultural members has been a seed of worry since a long time for all of us, but the recent increase of students who aren"t part of any club has encouraged that even more. Thanks to that, the first years and second years are thinning out and the phenomenon of "toothlessness" is happening. When the second years lose their edge, the first years are obliged to become leaders, and those club activities often get downgraded."

"Please wait," I interrupted the conversation that I couldn"t follow. "I don"t think a club will be simply abolished just because the amount of club members is insufficient. I think it"s the same for every other cultural club, even the school wouldn"t take such a terrible measure for only that much."

Who"s that hotheaded woman? -- Koizumi-san said.

She"s my friend. Hehehe -- Haruta said.

For some reason those two made eye contact. I got p.i.s.sed.

"Um," from behind my back Nozomi spoke with an una.s.suming voice. "Perhaps the two of you are talking about the tournament achievements?"

"Well, I suppose so," Haruta continued. "Sadly the annual gap between the budget amounts of the sports clubs and the cultural clubs is widening. The ones that get less are of course the cultural clubs. It"s because the activities of the cultural clubs aren"t spectacular on the surface and compared to the sports clubs there are less chances to do PR for the club activities. But it"s different if there is a tournament and an opportunity to receive a certificate of merit at a school a.s.sembly. It"s also okay if there is no fuss over a certificate of merit. As long as you have a track record of continually partic.i.p.ating in tournaments, it"s easier to bring a club"s continuation to attention."

"That"s how it is." This time it was Koizumi-san who opened his mouth. "To cultural clubs who have no official tournaments, the cultural festival becomes the only place to present their activities. The content of their presentations will be examined and given a big contribution in next year"s budget acquisition. If it"s possible to win even a little more budget, they can evade at least the loss of vitality. Even if the club member amount is extremely low, the budget acquisition there will possibly become a single spider"s thread for the sake of the club"s continuation."

Petrified like a terracotta figure I asked Nozomi with a small voice, "Hey. Are you and the others doing fine?"

"Doing fine?"

"Well -- " I shifted my gaze to the club members who were in the corridor. There were only four members in the Pen Drawing Club, Nozomi included.

"Don"t worry. We diligently partic.i.p.ate in an official tournament."

"Official tournament?"

"Manga Koshien."

"... What"s that?"

Haruta and Koizumi-san who were watching our conversation suddenly burst into laughter.

"Chika-chan. It may only be manga, but there"s an official tournament that"s held every year in the Kouchi prefecture. It"s backed by well-known newspaper companies and television channels."

"The Pen Drawing Club is one of the club activities that has found a good means of survival." Koizumi-san said.

"Is that so..."

I didn"t know that at all. Nozomi never once told me about such things. "I"m sorry," I apologized to Nozomi.

"How about the Biology Club, senpai?" Haruta abruptly asked Koizumi-san.

"Biology Club?" Koizumi-san looked bewildered.

"Wasn"t the club president a third year student who changed schools before the summer holiday? Weren"t there only three first years left over?"

"Yeah. The club president and I were friends. He left an achievement of having advanced to the central judging at the j.a.pan Students Science Awards. He was about to reproduce the sea of his native Okinawa inside a water tank. That first year students took over that research and are aiming for this year"s final judging. That will be the centerpiece of the upcoming cultural festival"s exhibition."

"j.a.pan Students Science Awards... Wherever it is, you can find a means of survival, huh." Haruta admired.

I asked Koizumi-san, "Then what about those five cultural clubs Haruta just mentioned?"

"Those are the clubs that haven"t yet found a tournament in which they can officially partic.i.p.ate in. They are also troubled by the toothlessness of the club members and half-hearted advisors. They"re standing on the brink of barely continuing. That"s why the presentations at the cultural festival this year are what we"ve put effort into since the summer holiday. There are even club members who compensated for club activity expenses with their part-time jobs. And yet --"

Seemingly frustrated, Koizumi-san stopped talking. While the club room fell as silent as the grave, Haruta opened his mouth.

"Is someone using senpai"s threatening letters and trying to suspend the cultural festival? In order to corner the five cultural clubs into becoming abolished clubs."

"That"s what I think at least. If that"s the case I won"t forgive them."

"You don"t have any people who have bear a grudge against you, right senpai?"

"I wouldn"t know about it and the same goes for the members of the Magic a.s.sociation. The members of the other four club activities are plain, but they"re all good people. It"s unimaginable that they would make an enemy out of person."

"Humph. You don"t know a person"s heart though." I interrupted with a low voice.

"The h.e.l.l are you saying?" Koizumi-san said. "Are you even a female high-school student? Don"t say things like a divorced mistress of a run-down snack bar!"

"Now, now," Haruta chided. "Let"s go back to where we were. What"s the merit of a crystal theft?"

"If club activities decrease, next year"s budget quota will also increase. I think there are people who wish for that. If they are, it"s someone from the cultural clubs."

"Why?"

"I thought the ones who know that the Chemistry Club will display the copper sulfate crystal this year again and know of the place of safekeeping can only be the people of the cultural clubs who are starting for the preparations of the cultural festival."

"What was the reason for suspecting Nozomi-san of the Pen Drawing Club?" Haruta lowered his voice.

"This morning she wasn"t partic.i.p.ating in the search for the crystal."

"That"s all?"

"Yeah."

Haruta was relieved to hear those words. Unable to keep my mouth shut, I forcefully pushed Haruta"s back and stepped in front of Koizumi-san. The sound of Haruta hitting his head against the podium"s edge could be heard.

"Awful. Aren"t you awful? Nozomi was staying up all night to make the pamphlets. Even Nozomi is wishing for the cultural festival to succeed. She wanted to be of help and did a lot of effort without sleeping, but to do this, to do this is."

Nozomi gasped and grasped the cuff of my uniform.

Koizumi-san had dropped his gaze and took a pamphlet in his hand. "... It"s certainly well made," he whispered and with a small voice he apologized, "I"m sorry for suspecting you."

Haruta rose up as if he had awakened from a bad dream, after he had been groveling on the floor. Looking like he discovered something, he turned his head and staggered out of the cla.s.sroom.

Noticing that, I said, "Nozomi, I"ll leave the rest up to you," and chased after Haruta.

Haruta was in the innermost of the corridor. He stuck his forehead tightly against a window to cool his head.

"... I"m sorry. Did your head hurt?"

"What"s the time limit?" Haruta"s voice overlapped mine.

"The executive committee meeting will happen in two hours."

Haruta stayed silent. I followed his gaze. Near the main gate I saw the figure of a familiar female student. As if carrying a heavy burden, she came from the main gate with an unsteady manner of walking. It was the cla.s.smate of the Biology Club who was with Kusakabe-sensei. She appeared to be in a very bad shape.

"Say. Can you persuade everyone in the executive committee to wait with notifying the teachers until tomorrow?"

"Eh."

"I"m counting on you."

"I can do that probably, but why? Can you get the crystal back?"

"The crystal can no longer be turned back into its original form," Haruta enigmatically said. "I know it. The truth behind the crystal theft."Previous: The Crystal Thief 3Next: The Crystal Thief 5

TRANSLATOR"S NOTES

Manga Koshien: A manga tournament for j.a.panese high schoolers. It is held every year in August in Kouichi prefecture.

j.a.pan Students Science Awards: A science contest for students in j.a.panese middle schools and high schools.

Snack bar: a kind of hostess bar, an alcohol-serving bar that employs female staff that are paid to serve and flirt with male customers.