Matchmaking game. Haunted house. Maze. Curry shop. Karaoke parlor. Manga café. Cosplay café. Couples’ café. Doujinshi shop. Used book shop. Conveyor belt sushi. Izakaya. Lingerie pub. Topless bar—
“Enough already!” Chidori Kaname shouted, slamming her chalk against the blackboard. Prior to that point, she’d been silently writing her classmates’ requests down on it.
It was currently homeroom period in July, during their first school term. The culture festival wouldn’t be held until late September in their second term, but it was getting to the point where they had to submit their class’s project proposal. And so, the group was having a discussion about what they wanted it to be.
“I know the Jindai culture festival rules are pretty lax, but there’s still limits, y’know? Stop yelling out stuff that’s totally nuts!” Kaname declared.
In response, her classmates exchanged glances with their friends nearby.
“Huh? But...”
“You told us to call ideas out as we had them...”
“So that’s what we did...”
They all muttered to themselves, sulking.
Kaname mussed up her hair and groaned. “Okay, look. How exactly are we going to run a topless bar or a lingerie pub?! Do you really think the school would even approve those things?!”
“Kana-chan, I’m equally impressed that you know what those things are...” Tokiwa Kyoko muttered.
Kaname elected to ignore that comment and resumed her entreaties of the class. “C’mon, guys. We’ve really gotta pick here. It was the same thing last year—we ran out of time and submitted a totally random plan that had us all scrambling later. Honestly...”
“Yeah, a topless bar might be a little bit too much to ask,” Kyoko muttered again, “but I think an izakaya might work.”
“We’re underage!” Kaname yelled.
“What about one of the cafés, then? What exactly is a couples café, anyway?”
“No comment. I mean, I think those last existed when your parents were children. Everyone was poor. Yes, the old days. Back before they were even karaoke parlors...” Kaname’s eyes became distant, for some reason.
“You say the strangest things sometimes, Chidori...”
“Question: is it perverted?”
“Perverted?” echoed Kaname.
“Could you tell us exactly what happens there?”
“There’s no need for you to know. Anyway, we don’t have any time to waste, so let’s keep going!” she said, deciding to swerve away from that subject and get them back on track. “We just need something that’s actually feasible. So... um, we can erase this one, this one, this one...” Kaname screwed up her face thoughtfully as she removed one idea after another from the blackboard. One unseemly plan after another vanished before their eyes.
Then one member of the class, a boy with a sullen expression, spoke. “What about a shooting range?”
“Conveyor belt sushi is out, I think...” Kaname mumbled to herself. “Used book shop is out... also needs to piss off and die forever... and then, um...”
“I suggest a shooting range,” Sousuke said insistently.
“I think that’s about it,” Kaname announced, ignoring his suggestion. “If you can think of anything else, tell me right away. We’re gonna vote!”
“Shooting range,” he said again. “We can teach the proper handling of live ammunition to reduce accidents and stigma.”
“Ready, everyone?! No other suggestions?! Okay, we’ll go with a simple majority...”
“Shooting—” Sagara Sousuke, who’d continued insisting on his own idea from his back-row seat, took a hit from Kaname’s blackboard eraser and toppled over.
“Shut up!!!” she snarled. Then she went on as if nothing had happened. “First, matchmaking game. Raise your hands if that’s your choice!”
Five people raised their hands. Kaname silently wrote “Five” on the board.
“Next... Haunted house?”
Eight people raised their hands for this.
“Karaoke parlor?”
After a few minutes, they had their result. The plan chosen by popular vote was... cosplay café.
“Huh? How did that happen?” Kaname slumped over as she cast a sideways glance at the students doing a little dance in celebration. The boys were mostly pleased, and some of the girls seemed enthusiastic, but the others just groaned.
“Um, but... it’s pretty fun,” Kyoko ventured. “We all get to dress up, right?”
“All nurses and mikos and maids and stuff!”
“Awesome! Awesome! Maids! Incidentally, it’s mostly enthusiast magazines that spell it ‘meido’ in Japanese, but apparently proper newspaper style is to write it as ‘meedo’! The chief editor of a manga magazine that has hefty wrestlers cosplaying as maids said so with great admiration. Even though that’s kind of irrelevant here!” a member of their class, Onodera Kotaro, rambled on enthusiastically.
“It sure is...” Kaname said with a sigh after casting a glance at him.