“No worries! Here, Pon, this is Kaede, the scoundrel who saw you on campus and fell in love at first sight.”
“Whaaaaaaaaat?! Oh jeez, I guess I really am popular with older men!” said Pon-chan, slapping her palms against her cheeks and tilting her head, laughing merrily. I could tell simply by her expression, and the fact that she had gone along with Tousuke’s joke, that she was a good person.
I had not been so jovial in my twenty-one years, so I jabbed at Tousuke, “What’re you saying?” observing her expression afterward.
Still smiling, Pon-chan bowed her head to me, saying, “Ha ha ha, sorry about that. Nice to meet you!”
“You too. I’m Tabata. Anyway, I’m the one who should be apologizing, dragging you out here to help with my thesis when we don’t even know each other.”
“Oh, no, if it’ll help, I’m happy to answer any survey questions you have!”
That had been the excuse we had come up with when I was discussing this with Tousuke. I suddenly felt a little guilty; she had actually seriously believed us and come into this meeting looking to be helpful.
I ordered an iced coffee and then decided to at least preface the main topic. In other words, breaking the ice with Pon-chan, ribbing at Tousuke, and asking about their seminars. She backed me up in bullying Tousuke and gladly told me about the amazing professor who was teaching the seminar she had started this spring. I could tell, at the least from this, that she truly was a really lovely girl.
Once there was an opening, I spread out the official-looking materials we had prepared over the weekend. Even if it was all a ruse, proper preparation was key. I took out a memo pad and asked Pon-chan a number of questions that seemed suitable for a business studies thesis, which of course she answered earnestly—totally unaware that I was interested in something other than her innocent face, or how oddly prominent her chest was for her short height.
“All right, that’s all I’ve got! Thank you. Oh, and feel free to order another drink or some dessert if you like, my treat.”
“Well then, I guess I better take you up on that and have some cake!”
“Go right ahead.”
I watched as Tousuke looked at Pon-chan now and then, eyes soft, and thought that this must be what it was like to actually dote on an underclassman, to be liked by them. Once Pon-chan’s cheesecake and the second coffee I ordered had been delivered, Tousuke moved in to broach the main topic of today’s conversation.
“By the way, Pon, you been going to that club of yours lately?”
“Nah…” As she peeled off the film wrapper around her cheesecake, she continued, “It’s a ghost town in there…which would be perfect if I’d joined a paranormal research club or something. They’re all so busy with their seminars and part-time jobs, and now this year, they have to think about job-seeking, and—Oh! If you seniors have any connections, please introduce me to them!” Her face twisted up into an eerie expression that was wholly at odds with her babyface.
“Er, I mean, if you’re talking about us, you’d definitely be better off looking elsewhere. Maybe you should make use of that one group, the one you were part of for a bit,” Tousuke prompted. Pon-chan’s face twitched.
“Ugh, Moai? They’re all ghosts too, but…hmm.” She paused. “I guess there’s some event coming up. Hmm, it’s kind of awkward though. Their interests are all different from mine, but I guess it would be useful to make use of those guys.”
“Different interests?” I asked, avoiding fading into thin air and leaving everything to Tousuke. I also needed to see clearly for myself exactly what this distaste upon Pon-chan’s face was directed towards. If I stepped out of bounds in questioning or criticizing Moai, I might end up offending her.
I was no Tousuke-senpai, but she prefaced it in the same way.
“I went once or twice to mingle, but I wasn’t really into it.”
“Yeah, I think I get what you mean, but…how come?”
“Oh, good. Yeah, I mean, it’s just kind of trashy, don’t you think?”
It was convenient to find that Pon-chan already had a negative opinion of Moai. It meant that she would tell me, without reservation, the things she knew about the group. That aside, the fact that her opinion was different from what I imagined piqued my interest.
“What’s so trashy about it?”
“I mean, holding events like that in the name of becoming your ‘best self’ like they say they’re all about. That’s a pretty respectable goal, but when I went to one of those events, it was nothing but just people chatting and fawning over businesspeople. That alone was enough to give me a pretty good impression of trashiness, but also, I got the feeling that I simply was not going to become my ideal self at that rate, as Moai puts it. So, like, I dunno if it’s wrong to deny those people though, but…well, I do kinda get it.” Grimacing, she continued, “Maybe I should still go, though.” For the sake of job hunting, she probably meant.
Being someone who already rejected “those people” outright, I had already come to grips with what it was that we were trying to do here. There was something that I had to do. And so, I pressed on.
“Did you think you were going to be attending those events when you first joined?”
Pon-chan shook her head twice, her mouth full of cheesecake. “I just went there at first because this girl I’m good friends with invited me. That friend and I are both dead now as far as Moai is concerned.”
“Friendly ghosts,” said Tousuke, amused.
Pon-chan grinned and exclaimed with a saucy wink, “A funny guy! I like that in a senpai!” I was glad to see the pair got along so well, but it suddenly occurred to me what a painful exchange this must be if Tousuke really was into her in that way somewhere deep down. I prayed that was not the case.
“Wonder what kind of folks are in there from our year,” I said, half to myself. Pon-chan took the bait.
“Well, from your year, there’s the leader, someone named Hiro. I sometimes see lots of girls flocking around her in the cafeteria and whatever.”
“Got a harem, huh?” Tousuke interjected emptily.
“What, you jealous?” Pon-chan shot back. “Apparently,” she continued, “she’s a pretty sharp character with lots of leadership qualities. I dunno if it’s true or not, but supposedly, she remembers things about each and every member.”
A sharp character, huh? I guess everyone had their own impressions.
“I’ve never even said so much as a hello to her, though.”
“Guessing you don’t know much about the other members then, either?”
“Well, I know there’s someone named Ten-san who’s in charge of most of the event coordination and is good enough at communicating to handle that stuff. He’s the one who was our guide when I went to check the group out. I think he’s got a pretty high-ranking position in Moai.”
“Seems like the group ranks are pretty codified. Doubt someone like me or Kaede would ever get promoted.”
“So totally true,” Pon-chan said with a sneer, ribbing her interrupting senpai. “I mean, I have no idea if that’s what you’d actually want, but it does seem like if that group got any bigger, the power struggle would be explosive! Must be nice for you to be in such a tight-knit little seminar group.”
“But you have one too.”
As the two of them chattered, I began to piece together some conclusions from what she was telling us. In some ways, it was because of that power struggle that I had been forced out of the group. No such thing had ever occurred when we were a more intimate group.
“Oh, but also, I mean, not thinking of anyone in particular, but there seem to be a lot of fanatics in that group, which isn’t really my vibe, so it kind of made me want to stop hanging around them.”
“Fanatic? In what way?”
“Well, it was pretty obvious that there were a lot of people who basically worship Hiro-senpai. It’d be one thing to just rely on her, but they’re practically intoxicated by her, it’s creepy. Also, speaking of creepy, I guess this doesn’t really have to do with those people, but when I went to check out the group, they were showing a movie about how great and wonderful Moai was,” Pon-chan said, cringing.
“I mean, that is creepy,” Tousuke agreed. “On that note though, how do you feel about me, Pon? You intoxicated?”
I knew by the way that Pon-chan went along with every bit of Tousuke’s ribbing that she really was a nice girl.
Someone making unreasonable demands of people who were intoxicated with them seemed like the sort of thing you’d hear about with larger organizations. Someone would be elevated to the status of a god or an idol—and sooner or later begin to develop a warped world view.
“That’s really awful. Oh, but hey! What if I was to help you out as your senpai in your job hunt? Help you protect your dignity and all. I could even go to those Moai events with you as your backup.”
Despite all the wisecracking Tousuke had been doing, this was a surprisingly decent proposal from my buddy. I had rudely thought that he might throw things off, but it turned out to be useful to have him here.
“Oh, that’d be nice. If you’re there with me then I should be able to avoid some of the awkwardness. Then again, I get enough awkwardness from you already.”
“He is pretty annoying,” I cut in. Pon-chan laughed.
“Ha ha! That’s just how things are with me and Tousuke. It probably would be pretty useful if you came with me, though. It won’t interfere with your thesis or anything, will it? And also, don’t you hate Moai?”
“If my thesis was so weak that I’d be thrown off by missing just one day of work at this point, then it would be worthless no matter what I did. Also, I’d already decided I hate those people without even seeing what they’re about, so I may as well have well-informed hatred.”
“See, this is what I respect about you.”
“Alrighty then, time to see if I intoxicate you by the time I graduate, Pon.”
“If that ever happens, please end me, Tabata-senpai,” she said to me, her face serious. I let out a laugh. It really felt to me that the relationship between the two of them went far deeper than just senpai and kouhai. I have no idea what that meant to Tousuke, but it made me rather jealous.
Jealous of the fact that he still had a dear friend in this world.
I shouldn’t have been getting so sentimental here, but I couldn’t help it.
And thus, this was how Pon-chan, the one who would guide our ship into the sea of Moai, joined the party.