One week until the festival itself. The prep period — which had felt long — was, in retrospect, a blur.
Last year’s festival had been miserable; this year, thanks to Reona and Riona, I might actually enjoy parts of it. I would never say that to them, of course.
“Everyone’s in festival mode.”
“Yeah, the surrounding energy is way too high — I cannot keep up.”
“Ryouya-kun doesn’t have any friends, so you don’t have to keep up — am I wrong?”
“Stop using factual arguments to punch loners.”
“Sorry, sorry — saw you, wanted to bully you.”
“Just so you know, I do not have a bully-fetish.”
I was walking the building with Reona, distributing team-spirit fans to other-year classrooms. As class leader, Reona was running deliveries; I was helping.
The festival uses six-grade teams (middle school 1-3 plus high school 1-3). Each team prepares its own custom T-shirts, fans, and banners. Tasks are split by grade — our grade had been fan-making.
The fan-makers were mostly the crew kids without main festival roles, so neither Reona nor I had been heavily involved.
“After the first and third year classrooms, next is the middle school building?”
“Mm-hmm. Been a while since I went — kind of nervous.”
“I barely know where anything is — leading and navigation, all you.”
The middle and high school buildings are on the same campus but separate, and there’s no reason to go to the middle school side ordinarily.
“Right, you’re an outside-applicant, not internal.”
“Yeah, back then the option to take the middle-school entrance exam wasn’t on my radar.”
Amaki splits between internals (from Amaki Middle, like Reona and Riona) and external high-school applicants like me. The internals tend to be high-performing — Mio, for instance, is doing very well academically.
“If Mom and Dad hadn’t pushed me toward it, I wouldn’t have considered it either.”
“Elementary kids generally don’t decide on middle-school entrance exams alone.”
“Yeah, parental push is probably the most common reason.”
Many kids object on the basis of I’d be separated from friends. For an ordinary elementary schooler it’s a high bar.
Mio had taken the entrance exam because her friends were taking it. That she actually passed despite the casual motivation is Mio’s signature impressive move. As I was thinking that, Reona said something unhinged.
“Oh — and just so it’s clear, please don’t get worked up and make a move on a middle-school girl.”
“I would not. Where is this from?”
“In Ryouya-kun’s hidden ero-mag stash there was a JC-genre one, so concerned.”
“You remember that?!”
“Memorized the titles. Want me to read them out loud here?”
“Please don’t.”
I had hoped for memory-decay; no. If Reona remembered, Riona did too.
“Riona and I keep watch on Ryouya-kun so he doesn’t fall off the path. We’ll fully intervene if anything happens.”
“I am not going to fall off any path. And — you’re watching me?”
“Mm-hmm, Riona and I watch your every move.”
“That’s just stalking.”
I tossed it as a joke. There’s no version of stalking me that would be entertaining. Who would even want to.
———
Second half / Chapter 6 begins. Stay with me to the finish.