That day, I had been sitting on the floor in Akiyoshi’s home, eating tomato-flavored Pretz sticks.
The primary reason I was there was because we had realized that despite us both taking Chinese in different time slots, we had the exact same class exercises—but I soon grew bored of that and started snacking. Incidentally, we had ended up here because I wasn’t looking forward to the idea of cleaning up my own place and because Akiyoshi had asked, “You wanna come over?”
“…Okay, so first off, we need to discuss how we get more members in Moai.”
Akiyoshi, who had been sitting across from me on the other side of the table silently reading her textbook, suddenly declared the start of a group meeting. Apparently, she was also quite finished with study time.
“Still haven’t given up on that?”
“I’d at least like to have enough members to be officially recognized by the school.” She stuck her hand out, and I passed over the box of Pretz. “Thanks!! I don’t actually mind it being just the two of us, though. It might get annoying if we got people whose way of thinking was too different.”
I gave a half-hearted nod and a “Guess so,” as I stared at my textbook, unable to shake the anxious question of what I might do if more people with as radical of ideals as Akiyoshi began to show up. “Wouldn’t that be tough for you?” I added. “You’d have a lot of responsibilities as a leader…”
“Mm, you’re right. If we were a big club, I guess we’d have to select a representative. I mean, you could do it too, though.”
She wasn’t kidding, I realized.
“No thanks, I’m too irresponsible.”
“I don’t think it needs to be either of us, though, if we get someone else with a strong sense of responsibility to join. Long as they aren’t too strict.”
I took back the Pretz that were sitting in front of her.
“A leader who doesn’t care if all we do is eat snacks.”
“Yeah, something like that.”
It was such a silly, fruitless conversation, but even then, I’m sure that I knew that Akiyoshi was the only person who could possibly lead Moai.
✦ ✦ ✦
I’ll handle the disguises, Tousuke had told me confidentially— and so, the day of the networking event, I found myself in a jacket, stole, cap, and some fashion glasses.
“Lookin’ sharp, Kaede! Could see you hangin’ out with all the cool cats in Shimokitazawa.”
“Is that supposed to be a compliment…?” Tousuke, in his sharp suit, laughed and clapped me on the shoulder. I got the feeling it was not a compliment.
Today was a momentous occasion—our very first concrete steps in Operation Moai. We were infiltrating the enemy to see for ourselves just how unjust, how corrupt they were, and what faults they had.
That said, it was actually Tousuke and Pon-chan who would be actively going in. My duty would be to sit outside the venue, eavesdropping on the participants traveling in and out, as there was a chance that my face might still be familiar to some of the members. I had agreed to do this because we felt I might be able to get some valuable information from the unguarded conversations of the Moai members, but Tousuke had playfully insisted that I would also need to wear clothing that I would normally never wear in order to disguise myself, lest I be found out.
The stole I had wrapped around my neck was particularly miserable.
We had only told Pon-chan that Tousuke would be joining her today. I was going to pretend to meet up with them by chance later, but the thought of her seeing me like this made me uneasy. Incidentally, Tousuke would be sending me play by play updates about what was happening inside of the room.
The assembly today was being held in a hall on campus. The meeting would take place from one to five in the afternoon, after which there would be a follow-up dinner, so Tousuke, who was not a member of the group, would only be able to participate in part of the day’s activities. We had gotten the rundown about this from Pon-chan at our previous meeting.
“They really do seem pretty fired up about this, though,” Tousuke muttered as we looked over some materials at a MOS Burger some distance from campus. He was currently reading a pamphlet that Moai had distributed for participants of today’s event. The pamphlet was in full color and neatly bound—it was easy to surmise from the quality that this was not a student production.
“That thing looks pretty pricey.”
“Looks like they have some spots in here where people can buy ads, like Pon mentioned. Oh, yep! Here’s some business names on the back. I’m assuming there was nothing like that when you were with Moai?”
“I mean, who the hell would spend their sponsorship money on a group of two?”
“Good point.”
I was sure that was probably one of the facets of self-improvement that the current Moai espoused, through exchanging and negotiating with professionals, but honestly, at this point it was just a group that existed to produce more professional workers.
That wasn’t Moai.
“I’m sorry to push all this work onto you though.”
“It’s fine. It’s for my kouhai too, and I’m not about to give up over something like this, especially after I was the one to raise the battle flag.”
Tousuke was always saying dramatic things like that.
“I mean, I guess it’d be good if Pon can network with some alumni separately from our agenda here.”
“That’s true. I know that I need to protect her from any malicious working folks, but, well…I hope that I’d be able to distinguish them from the actually helpful professionals.”
“I don’t think there even is such a thing. Just keep an eye on her.”
I still was not yet a working professional myself, so I did not truly know that much of their ways, but I suspected they were neither good nor bad so much as trapped in an endless cycle of depersonalization.
“Okay, I better get going!” said Tousuke as he stood, checking his wristwatch just like a professional. I checked the time as well, seeing that it was, in fact, right around when he and Pon-chan were supposed to be meeting up.
“I’ll text you when we get in. See you later.”
“All right, take care.”
“Don’t get too excited now.”
Grinning, Tousuke picked up his bag and left the burger shop. I headed for the vicinity of the hall shortly after so that no one would make the connection between us. The weather outside was lovely, so much so that it hardly felt like a day where I was disguised and on my way to vanquish a group of evildoers.
Alone now, I sat sipping my vanilla shake as I swiped on my phone. The cold, sweet drink that was sliding down my throat had been Akiyoshi’s favorite. She always wanted to swing by MOS Burger, and whenever we did, she always got a vanilla shake. Before I knew it, I found this cold, sweet drink giving me courage.
I was taking back my ideals.
For Akiyoshi’s sake. I would strengthen my own resolve.
I waited for a while, when suddenly I heard some girls behind me saying, “Well, he’s got a look about him, doesn’t he?” The thought that they might be making fun of me shook some of that newfound resolve, but just then I got a text from Tousuke. It seemed he had met up with Pon-chan, and the two of them had safely made it to the hall. The event would be kicking off in fifteen minutes. All of the Moai movers and shakers would have already been inside, so I decided to wait around outside the hall until then.
In all actuality, there would be hardly any members who knew me, as I was still an enrolled student. It was the professionals who had already graduated and would have been invited to this meeting that I was looking to avoid—the ones who imparted most of the value to this newly enlarged Moai. Cover blown or no, I simply did not wish to speak with them.