I’m Spying on the Heroine in an Otome Game World 3829 min read
Volume 3 | Chapter 10: September (Down) – Part 1
Class B got busy at once with the Cultural Festival preparations. Our class split into the costume group, the café group, and ex-play, now ‘movie’ group. All three groups moved to complete their tasks at the same time.
The supervisor of all the groups was Tsuchiya-shounen since he was the Cultural Festival committee member… But he quickly gave up and threw the role completely to Iinchou. Except Iinchou went, “Please take care of this since I’ll be going in your place to the student council,” and threw the duties on to me.
Basically, I was really, really busy.
I’ll sum up the key points that happened in these two weeks.
Yumi-chan fully displayed her skills in sewing in the costume group. They had to make costumes for the waiters, waitresses, and the monsters in the play. Yumi-chan actually became in charge as the general supervisor in the costume department.
“I only had an image of a guy wearing animal ears to be a werewolf or someone wearing a cloak to be a vampire,” I commented with surprise after seeing Yumi-chan’s full-blown costume plans.
“Those are costumes for elementary schoolers. We are high school students, so we have to be more serious. Still, making different costumes for all the floor members of the café group is a little bit impossible. I do want to make a variety of costumes though,” Yumi-chan said.
“…….Is there enough money in the costume budget?”
“Fufufu~ Do you think I volunteer myself without any ideas when I’m always getting by with very little money?” Yumi-chan boasted.
“Okay, well, I’ll leave it all to you!”
There was a limit to how much we can spend for the Cultural Festival preparations in Seika Maria Secondary Academy. The academy made this restriction so that the students don’t go overboard. After all, if someone like Mizusaki-senpai used money from their home, it won’t be a high school festival anymore.
The student council offers a bit of funds to every class. If it wasn’t enough, the class could engage in fundraising until the limit.
Yumi-chan suggested the werewolves be wild guys closer to anime characters. The vampires need to be erotic with fangs, mummies will have bandages all over their body but easy to move in, jack-o’-lantern should have a comical feel, and so on. She was picky as she pointed things after another.
“Witches should have shorter mini-skirts. Or have long, fluttery clothes like a pareo. As long as you can’t see under the skirt, we won’t be going against any regulations. Ah, jeez, fairies need to be more——”
The person who was passionately rambling the above was Designer-kun. He volunteered himself to the costume group because he thought the designs for the girls were missing something. Since he joined in, the cuteness of the witch girl outfits jumped exponentially.
Everyone in Class B contributed to the costume funds, but I fear it will be used up in no time.
However, Yumi-chan said she had connections to cheap fabric shops. She dragged Designer-kun with her after school and during the weekends, working energetically. Designer-kun’s belief is that if you’re going to do something then do it with passion, so this was something he approved of.
The two of them connected with these Cultural Festival preparations and became good friends at once. I can’t help but think that maybe Designer-kun’s affection rate for Yumi-chan was higher than Maria-jou’s?
With such suspicions in my mind, I tried asking Yumi-chan directly one day.
“Be honest. How do you feel about Kamura-kun?”
“Fickle boys are out of my sight. They are okay as friends though,” Yumi-chan answered easily.
I can’t help but feel like the two of them suited each other unexpectedly though.
Now then, the general supervisor for the café group was Iinchou. The rules for the Cultural Festival were actually quite detailed. Iinchou had his eyes out to make sure that none of us went against the regulations and to prevent any sanitary troubles.
Oh yeah, serving customers was an important part of a café, so the waiters and waitresses were properly training. They will be wearing monster costumes on the day of, so it’ll be harder to move around. They are doing their absolute best not to be impolite to the customers, to the point they might even make a manual.
“Niimi-san, thinking of a menu is beyond my scope of knowledge. Please help think of it together with me,” Iinchou called out to me.
“That’s fine with me. But I’m not skilled with cooking or anything, okay?” I warned.
Incidentally, Maria-jou was in charge of taking everyone how to brew tea and coffee. The tea and coffee she made was really delicious. Everyone in the class highly praised her skills; Maria-jou wasn’t displeased with the compliments she got.
“You’re amazing. Is it your hobby to brew tea?” I asked.
“I practised a lot, so it’s my speciality, I guess? …….But I can’t guess where tea leaves are produced though,” Maria-jou answered.
I don’t think there’ll be customers in the Cultural Festival who will ask that far. I don’t think there’s anything to worry about for Maria-jou.
Lastly, Kyouko-jou was supervising the movie group.
In the draft proposal I made, I said we were planning on performing a short skit twice a day. However, we decided to play a movie we filmed instead after discussing it over in the class meeting.
If we showed it on screen instead of a stage then we can reserve more than enough space for the café and avoid any sanitary problems. If we did an actual play, dust might fly around everywhere.
It was also argued if we use CG, we can make it more monster-like. Incidentally, someone had a big brother with a movie creator software. The big brother agreed to lend their computer they used for work to us for a few days. Alright!
Since we were going to film beforehand, the costumes we use for the movie will be recycled for the café during the day of the Cultural Festival. Hopefully with this, we can save up some of the costume funds.
The play — or movie now — was going to be a sweet monster love comedy. The story begins with a girl who wandered her way into a world of monsters. She will be trifled by monsters that appear one after another as she ventures out. The last scene will be her dancing with the demon king.
I will also make an appearance as a minor ghost character. I’ll be wearing a white sheet over my head, so no one could tell it was me either.
We had to finish up the movie before the festival, so the movie group was cooperating with students in the other groups.
The heroine was Maria-jou with Kyouko-jou’s recommendations. Naturally, there’s no way anyone protested with this. The hero was going to be Tsuchiya-shounen.
He was extremely against this and complained even on the day of his costume fitting. Tsuchiya-shounen did try to appeal to Kyouko-jou.
“You haven’t done a single thing to supervise the class. At least do this!” Kyouko-jou yelled.
“Even then! Even then! Who the hell will act this out!? D-Dance a-and kissing her palm too!? Hey!! And what the hell is with this costume!? It’s long and fluttering everywhere!” Tsuchiya-shounen protested.
Itou-kun of Neo Candle called out to Tsuchiya-shounen next. “What’s the big deal? Think of it as a lucky role. We can’t help out on the day of, so we are performing in the movie too.”
“Stop laughing cause it has nothing to do with you, Neo Candle! Your role isn’t a role of jeering me!”
Tsuchiya-shounen’s yells echoed through the class.
That’s right, all the Neo Candle members will be performing in the movie. They wanted to focus on their live on Cultural Festival day and wouldn’t be helping us. Itou-kun was a werewolf, Satou-kun was a wizard, Terakado-kun was Frankenstein, and Hayashi-kun was a glasses-wearing mummy.
“Then are you okay with the male lead being Kamura? I’m pretty sure he’ll gleefully do it,” Itou-kun pointed out.
Tsuchiya-shounen went silent. He couldn’t escape, not unless the scenario gets changed. And I’m sure he doesn’t want to see Maria-jou being kissed by another guy, even if it’s just on her hand. I can’t help but feel we made a right decision to turn this play into a movie with Tsuchiya-shounen’s complete rejection.
If this was a play, there was a high possibility of him quitting in the middle and ruining it.
In other news, Kazu-nii showed up in our class often to offer his opinions for the movie since he acted in a play before. Well, he was our homeroom teacher to begin with though, so he offered advice for the other groups as well.
“It’s more like a demon prince than a king,” Yumi-chan mumbled as she looked at the demon king costume she made with all her might.
Tsuchiya-shounen refused to try it on, so it hung lonely instead. I had to agree with Yumi-chan since Tsuchiya-shounen will look a bit young if he wore it.
“Hibiya-sensei, please wear it!”
I don’t know why, but Kazu-nii became the girls’ next target. He was surrounded by those girls and reluctantly tried it on.
“T-This is…” Kyouko-jou groaned as she rapidly took pictures with her camera.
Kazu-nii was spreading manly sexiness everywhere that even I, his relative, wanted to look another way.
“Hey, why are you taking pictures? Matsuri,” Kazu-nii called out.
“Cause! This is a complete crime. I’m going to turn these pictures to a sign. Let’s hang it in front of the classroom door.”
“Huh?”
“Please see with your own eyes the amount of girls who’ll faint after seeing it. Sensei, your nickname starting tomorrow might be Demon King,” Kyouko-jou declared. She even pointed to the other girls in the class who covered their mouths as they crouched down. Everyone’s faces were bright red.
“…….Please stop. Also don’t make a sign,” Kazu-nii told her with astonishment in his voice.
“Hibiya-sensei! I actually put a lot of effort in this vampire costume too!” Yumi-chan shouted with her eyes sparkling bright as she approached him.
Kazu-nii firmly rejected her.
“Eh~ Why~ Sensei, you’re such a mood killer~ Please cooperate with the class’ festival preparations~”
“No, wait, okay? I’m your teacher and not a student, alright?”
“But you wore the demon king costume. Hmmm? Is there a problem with vampires?” Yumi-chan asked.
“…….”
He had a past record of making a girl faint in his class play during his high school years. However, Kazu-nii continued to keep silent about that.
Everyone was busy with this and that. My role in all of this was——
“Niimi-san, we don’t have enough tape for the interior decorations.”
“Ah, Shiori-chan! Could you buy 20 black and red markers for the menu while you are at it~”
“Niimi, we need vinyl tape here. Colour needs to be red and blue. Ten each.”
“Crap. I don’t think we arranged tablecloths.”
“…….I will go and buy them. I will also have tablecloths arranged for our class,” I told them.
As usual, I was doing odd tasks for everyone.
It was a 15 minute walk from the academy to the shopping district. It’s not far away but it was troublesome with a lot of things.
“Niimi, it’ll be tough all alone, right? I’ll help out,” Tsuchiya-shounen offered. However, I could see his ulterior motives.
“Even if you run, they’ll just chase and capture you later, you know?” I pointed out.
“Shut up. There’s no way I’m embarrassing myself in front of so many people.”
Well, carrying it all by myself is a pain. I decided to thankfully accept his proposal
“Okay, I’m counting on you to carry things then,” I told him.
That was when Tsuchiya-shounen looked like he thought of something. “We might as well bring my bike with us.”
The two of us headed to the bicycle parking lot after his suggestion. His bike didn’t have a basket like a ladies’ bicycle did. It was more like a sports type of bike… I think you call this a mountain bike?
Wait, I think I saw Tsuchiya-shounen ride off on this bike the day I learnt he travelled to school with this. I’ve completely forgotten.
“Your bike can’t really carry things,” I commented.
“It’ll be better than walking around with heavy things in our hands. Come on, you can sit behind me.”
Here I thought he suggested his bike so that we can pile things on top of it. I blinked my eyes repeatedly with confusion.
“What?” He looked at it.
“Are you saying we both ride at the same time?” I asked for clarification.
“Naturally.”
“No, no, don’t naturally me. Ummm, do you know the road traffic laws? It’s prohibited for two people to ride a bike at the same time. Also, it’s dangerous to ride a bike with heavy baggage on it.”
“Jeez, you’re annoying,” Tsuchiya-shounen complained with a frown. He then picked me up lightly. He put his hands under my armpits and held me up like a kid.
“Hyaaaaaa!?” I cried.
Wait, what’s he doing!? Also my feet are swaying in the air! Not touching the ground! This is super scary though!?
“P-Put me down!” I shouted.
“Whoa, you’re light. Niimi, do you eat properly?” Tsuchiya-shounen questioned.
“I do! Ahh! Jeez, let go of me! This is really scary, you know!?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Tsuchiya-shounen let out lightly like he was sick of me. He put me down on the back seat. Except there wasn’t an actual seat in the back seat.
I mean this was a sports type bike. So to be more accurate, he put me on the metal part protruding out from the middle of the tire. As you might expect, I lost my balance. I was on the verge of falling over and had to get Tsuchiya-shounen to rescue me.
“You’re so clumsy……. Guess we have no choice. Let’s walk.”
Th-This bastard. He’s treating me really roughly, probably because he doesn’t think I’m a girl! He definitely wouldn’t be so rude to Maria-jou!
After our trouble in the bicycle parking lot, Tsuchiya-shounen and I walked to the shopping district. This trip will probably take an hour if you add in the 30 minute round trip plus the shopping.
Tsuchiya-shounen ran away from his costume fitting, but he didn’t plan on skipping out on this shopping though.
“What’s the problem with a demon king? It’s just a play, so just think of it as a lucky role and practise your pickup lines,” I said to him.
“Shut up! You guys don’t give a damn cause it doesn’t involve you! In the first place, lines like that…… are words you can say because you’re serious. They aren’t words you can joke around with.”
His answer was surprisingly diligent.
“So you can say them if you’re serious about it? What were the lines again…… ‘Princess, I won’t return you back to your world anymore. Please stay forever at my side’.” I tried reciting the lines and had to agree they were a little embarrassing. Enough to make someone red.
The movie scenario was written by Kyouko-jou and volunteers from our class. Incidentally, those volunteers were made up of all girls. According to the rumours, they have prepared a different script in case Tsuchiya-shounen seriously runs away. Kyouko-jou was thoroughly prepared.
“You got it wrong. It’s ‘Princess, I can’t return you back to your world anymore. Please stay forever at my side’.”
It looks like Tsuchiya-shounen properly remembered his lines. The line he recited strangely lingered in my ears.
“Why do you get stuck when you try to act when you do remember the lines?” I questioned.
“Who knows…….” Tsuchiya-shounen looked perplexed too.
“Hey, is ‘I can’t return you’ and ‘I won’t return you’ different?” It bugged me for some reason, so I tried asking him.
He tilted his head. It felt like both lines forced a girl to do something against her will… But there’s a difference, isn’t there?
“…….The difference, huh,” Tsuchiya-shounen mumbled absentmindedly. “There’s a big difference with ‘I won’t return you’… The demon king meant he wanted to return her when he thought about her feelings but couldn’t bring himself to.”
Now then.
Even when everyone was busy preparing for the Cultural Festival, Maria-jou never once relaxed.
She made plans to date one of her capture targets on the weekend. I knew this since I saw her gathering information from Kyouko-jou.
This said information included the aquarium, movie theatre, zoo, amusement park… Basically, Maria-jou was trying to conquer all the neighbouring date spots.
She would check the latest information on outings and places to play. If there were highlights or events, she would write them down. Once she encounters a capture target, she will nonchalantly ask them out on a date. I can only take off my hat at the sight of her diligence.
Still, shouldn’t there have been date events in the game? I would have thought she’d know everything without needing to check information like this.
I tried asking Kazu-nii about this.
“In the game, the heroine will hear rumours about new date places after fulfilling some requirement. I’m pretty sure there were many season-limited events. But in reality, those establishments already exist and there were probably even more time-limited events, right? Isn’t she collecting information to match the other person’s preferences even closer?
Hm-hmm. So she’s super hardworking.
I mean, she’s going to ask the capture targets out inside school grounds. I’ll be restless and panicky when I observe her. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but wonder if people thought Maria-jou was a fickle girl with many love interests? Yet there’s probably very little people who would know about her asking multiple guys to dates. I’m pretty certain no one will notice anything since everyone is busy with Cultural Festival preparations.
As I prepared what we needed for our café portion with Iinchou, I nonchalantly brought up the topic of weekends. I said something on the lines of: It’s so busy these days that I can’t go out on the weekends. I’m sure no one else could go out to play nowadays either.
Iinchou replied, “Actually, I don’t think it’s as bad as you think it is. Just the other day, Aikawa-san and Kamura-kun went to the aquarium. They chatted about the penguins there afterwards the other day, didn’t they? And that’s how a number of girls went ‘Me, too! Me, too!’ and gathered around Kamura-kun. It sounds like they all plan to go to the aquarium later as a group.”
Judging from the flow of things, the girls from other classes who also participate in Designer-kun’s Sunday meetings will hear about this aquarium gathering.
I checked the number of paper plates we will be using in our café before I nodded to myself. Paper plates are far from being environmentally-friendly; yet I couldn’t deny how much easier they are when you can dispose of them after.
“Plus, even Sasaki-san went out with Kamura-kun to buy supplies for the costumes. Didn’t she mention how their spoils of victory were mountain high on Monday?”
“…….Now that you mention it…” It looks like Iinchou’s sharp ears gathered information about people other than Maria-jou too.
On top of that——
“Niimi-san, I heard you were invited to Class C’s Katsuragi-kun’s house?” Iinchou looked at me with searching eyes.
“Yeah, I did go? With Yumi-chan, that is. We went and played with Katsuragi-kun’s little sister,” I replied.
Incidentally, the details are like this.
It happened the other day on Saturday. I was invited to Katsuragi-kun’s residence again because his little sister wanted to see me. I met her during summer vacation at the pool with Yumi-chan. As such, I decided to invite Yumi-chan too.
Yumi-chan was really busy with the Cultural Festival preparations, so she was pretty reluctant. But when she heard how it felt awkward to go by myself, she decided to accompany me. In the end her schedule became something like Maria-jou’s with Saturday being a home visit to Katsuragi-kun and shopping with Designer-kun on Sunday. I’m sorry, Yumi-chan, for making you come with me.
I heard from Katsuragi-kun in person before that his home was also a dojo.
I had also once before witnessed a certain event involving Maria-jou back in GW on my way to the shopping mall with Yumi-chan. In that event, Katsuragi-kun saved a child who was about to be run over by a train in the railway crossing.
It turns out that Katsuragi-kun’s residence was actually near that said railway crossing.
Yumi-chan and I went to his home at the time we promised. The two of us ended up stiffening when we saw the gate of his home.
“Hey, is this really the place?”
“I think. I mean, the nameplate says ‘Katsuragi’ so……”
The dojo was way bigger than I imagined. The site was wide and was encircled with a tiled roof fence. In the very middle was an old Japanese-styled home — the type you would see in a historical drama.
“Shiori-chan. I suddenly feel like going home.”
“Same here. But we’re already here, so let’s just go in. At the very least, we need to say hi to his little sister,” I said before I held my breath to press the buzzer.
Immediately afterwards, Katsuragi-kun’s little sister jumped out the door. She was wearing a kimono. She’s so cute. Katsuragi-kun came out right after her wearing traditional clothing. It might be that traditional clothing was the standard for this family.
Oh, right, right, the little sister’s name was Aoi-chan.
“Sorry for making you come on a weekend,” Katsuragi-kun said before he guided us inside.
Once you pass the gate, head straight and you would reach the main residence. To the rear right was the dojo. According to Katsuragi-kun’s explanation, their dojo doesn’t recruit disciplines with public notices open to everyone.
The outward appearance of the dojo resembled the dojo we have at school a lot. I could hear banging sounds from there, so I could guess someone was training right now.
“This way,” Katsuragi-kun said. He guided us to his little sister’s room.
We chatted with his little sister in her room for a bit before we decided to play outside. Since a kimono was harder to move around in, she changed to western clothing. The three of us went to the nearby park to have fun.
Katsuragi-kun was going to accompany us. However, someone called out to him when he was about to change his clothing.
“Kyouya! I’ll win against you today for sure!” A guy shouted. It looks like he came from the dojo and had a wooden sword in his hand. His t-shirt was wet with sweat, and he wore ordinary pants. I noted his hair was short, tinted with red.
He seems the same age as us but there was a head’s difference in height compared to Katsuragi-kun. Naturally, Katsuragi-kun was the taller one.
“I have guests,” Katsuragi-kun answered curtly.
The boy’s eyes turn to us. “Girls aren’t invited here. You’re in the way, so get lost!”
“Well, yeah, we didn’t come here to see you to begin with,” I shot back. And to add on that, we didn’t come to see Katsuragi-kun either.
“Ah? You want me to beat you down to death?”
Well, I have to say, he sure is vulgar. Ah, well, I could say the same to myself since I rebutted him in his face. Yumi-chan frowned, taking a step back to hide behind me.
“…….Niimi,” Katsuragi-kun called out quietly to hold me back. He then turned to look at the vulgar boy with exasperation. “Kyousuke, I’ll play with you, so head back to the dojo first.
“Wha…! Don’t fuck with me, you bastard! Don’t get cocky just cause you’re a little bit strong!” Kyousuke-shounen cried and squealed but Katsuragi-kun just lightly sidestepped away.
“Sorry,” Katsuragi-kun apologized for Kyousuke-shounen’s rudeness before telling us where the park was. “I’ll end it quickly and come.”
No, you don’t actually have to come, you know?
So basically that’s how the three of us came to the park. Yumi-chan, little sister, and I played for a while before Katsuragi-kun appeared. He didn’t have a single sweat and looked nonchalant. Judging by how he didn’t even change……. Kyousuke-shounen, did you get killed in seconds?
“Ah! Onii-chan!” Little sister ran to Katsuragi-kun happily.
After that Katsuragi-kun had to help us out with making a sand castle while still in traditional clothing. Hiiiiieee! I can’t help but think how troublesome maintaining and repairing his clothing would be.
Putting that aside, I couldn’t help but be worried. I mean, little sister was in third grade of elementary school. Wouldn’t playing in the park seem too childish for her? But as it turns out, she was smiling brightly from the beginning to the end. I couldn’t help but have lots of fun too.
Incidentally, the most exciting game between us was “The Daruma Fell Over.” Little sister was extremely strong in this game. She could move quite quickly. She could switch between stillness and motion smoothly; her eyes were also sharp.
Yumi-chan and I could barely catch her in movement. On top of that, the two of us couldn’t even take a single step because little sister would always catch us. Damn it!
We played at the park for a couple of hours before returning to Katsuragi-kun’s residence. Little sister was covered in sand, so she went off to change back to her kimono. After that we played leisurely in her room. Mainly, playing with her hair that is.
Her hair was black and silky, so it was fun tying it up. Halfway through, Yumi-chan and little sister started to play with my hair. It was a little troubling. As for Katsuragi-kun, he watched us from a distance. He really didn’t have to stay with us.
Yumi-chan said she’ll teach little sister how to do ponytails and tied up my hair in an upswept hairstyle.
Katsuragi-kun mumbled out when he saw it. “…….Do you tie it up all the time?”
“All the time? I generally tie my hair up during PE classes,” I answered.
“……Hmmm…… It sounds like Class B has fun. Sounds nice.”
Well, Class C is said to have a tense atmosphere because of the girls there. Class B definitely has more fun.
We played like this before saying goodbye at sunset.
On the way home, I peeked at a bookstore with Yumi-chan……. And then Yumi-chan started to stand and read and stopped moving completely. Well, this was normal.
“Katsuragi-kun’s little sister was really cute~ I had fun,” I noted smoothly to which Iinchou smiled tiredly in response.
“The only person I really hang out with is Matsumoto, so I don’t really know but… Don’t girls… get nervous meeting a guy outside of school… or being alone with them?”
“…I think it depends on the person they are hanging out with,” I answered, tilting my head.
When Kazu-nii explained about otome games and their so-called ‘friend dates’, I seriously wondered what that even meant. Yet, in reality, friend dates are possible. Basically it just means if the other person doesn’t hold any special feelings, it will become a friend date. Well, Yumi-chan and little sister were with us though.
That being said, girls will have hopes if they meet a boy outside of school and be alone with them. The said boy will have to be a special person to the girl to begin with though.
“How about you, Iinchou? Do you get nervous being alone with a girl?”
“It depends on the other party,” Iinchou answered flatly. “I will get nervous if I’m even a little bit conscious of her. After all, I don’t want to look bad in front of her.”
“Iinchou, is there even a moment where you let your guard down to look bad? Did you mean something like her finding out that your hobbies lean on sadism?”
“…Just what exactly do you think of me to feel I’ll accidentally reveal I’m a sadist when I’m alone with her?”
We chatted about this and that as we prepared the café part of our booth.
Alrighty, there’s enough paper plates and cups. There’s nothing wrong with the disposable spoons and forks. Iinchou and I collected them all together into a large cardboard box. We wrote the specific number of each item on the box and concluded our tableware preparations.
Next up is the menu. I took out a plastic container with the samples from my cooler bag. Iinchou looked at it with interest in his eyes.
Our café menu will include pumpkin roll cake, bat-shaped cookies (chocolate and plain flavours), pumpkin-shaped and flavoured cookies, and ghost-shaped sweet potato. We collected menu ideas from the whole class and decided on the above. People did suggest Mont Blanc, madeleine, muffins, and so on. The cooking team tried making them all but, in the end, we settled on items we can customize easily with a Halloween theme.
Iinchou checked the item names and cost beforehand but this will be the first time he saw the real thing.
“Are these the samples?”
“Yes, these are the great efforts of our cooking team. The shape of the cookies are slightly distorted but I think it has a homemade feel to it, which is nice. Most importantly, these cookies can be baked at home. There’ll be lots of classes that want to use the ovens in the home economics room on Cultural Festival day, am I right? There will probably be a line-up, so I thought it’ll be best if we prepared beforehand.”
“Is this a baked sweet potato? The idea of making one look like a ghost is amazing. Whose idea was it?”
“It was Aikawa-san’s. I’m really impressed with it too. On top of that, it’s cheap and delicious.”
Long ago Maria-jou tried to make sweet potatoes but she couldn’t make them pretty. She didn’t know what else to do, so she baked them just like that. The final product looked like a ghost, Maria-jou reported depressingly to us. This was an episode from when she was still young, which I couldn’t help but feel was quite heartwarming. Anyways, this baked sweet potato was born from this story.
“Halloween has the image of pumpkins but sweet potatoes seem Halloween-like too.”
“Yeah. Well, originally Halloween didn’t use pumpkins,” Iinchou commented.
“Huh? Really? Then what did they use?”
“Turnips. Jack-o’-Lanterns were also made from carved turnips apparently. But it was easier to get pumpkins in the US, so it switched over to them.”
“I see~”
Iinchou is amazing; he sure knows a lot.
I pressed a pumpkin cookie against Iinchou’s mouth and said, “Here, try it out.” After that, I took a bat-shaped cookie and bit into it. It was soft, chewy, and very delicious. Still, I was concerned whether or not it would become too soft on the day of the festival if we baked the night before. Maybe we should make it more crunchy?
I looked up and saw Iinchou staring at me with a dumbfounded expression.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“…No… nothing…” Iinchou looked up at the ceiling and sighed after he finished his cookie. “I just feel some of your unintentional actions can be crimes.”
Now then, it’s been a busy two weeks. On Friday, I learned Maria-jou’s costume was an undecided mess.
After all, her role in the movie was a ‘normal girl who wandered lost into a world of monsters’.
“I guess it should be Alice in the Wonderland,” Yumi-chan groaned as she crossed her arms.
“I guess so…” Kyouko-jou was in deep thought too.
Speaking of Maria-jou, she was sitting quietly between Yumi-chan and Kyouko-jou.
“The original work of Alice and the anime are famous. It would be easy to prepare the costume and give the feeling of being lost in a mysterious country,” Yumi-chan pointed out with a reluctant expression.
Kyouko-jou also nodded, yet she didn’t seem satisfied with something.
“I do think it’s best if we don’t make it seem like a cosplay…”
“How about gothic loli style?” Designer-kun butted in. “I can lend out my accessories at no cost.”
Kyouko-jou shook her head. “If we do that, she’ll blend into the monsters.”
“It’ll also make her seem like a witch,” Yumi-chan said, agreeing with Kyouko-jou’s opinion. “Shiori-chan, do you have any ideas?” She asked me.
Even if you ask me… I turned my eyes to Maria-jou and tilted my head. “Aikawa-san, do you have a costume you want to wear? Since your role is a ‘normal girl’, I think something close to your normal clothing will be fine.”
“U-Umm…” Maria-jou looked a little troubled. “If we want me to play a ‘normal girl’ then…… isn’t what I’m wearing already fine?”
Hmm? Just like this? What does she mean?
“Umm, I mean, isn’t my school uniform fine as just a normal high school girl…”
“School uniform!” Yumi-chan hit her fist against her palm before Maria-jou finished what she had to say.
Kyouko-jou also nodded strongly. “I see now! We could also go in this direction!”
The two of them started to burn up with passion. Maria-jou was relieved to see them that way.
I’m actually surprised at how this turned out. I mean, I thought Maria-jou liked cosplay. At the same time, I also recalled something I discussed with Kazu-nii in the past.
It was the so-called [flags to trigger an event].
For example, Maria-jou’s first meeting with Mizusaki-senpai and Kaneshiro-senpai required a female classmate to appear at the stairway in the western building. The event went as this: [Help her female classmate who fell down from the stairs at the western building while two capture targets and fan club members are present. Argue with the said capture targets.]
Maybe there was a reason that Maria-jou must wear her school uniform during the movie.
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TL note: Shiori-chan can’t escape work. Again.
