“That’s the spirit! Now then, we don’t want anyone spotting us, so hurry up and get in here.”
Kurumi pulled the door all the way open and waved me into the Stargazing Club.
The tour ended as soon as it began. The room was around twelve square meters large and contained one long table and two folding chairs. Some shelves were set up to one side, but there was no club paraphernalia or any member’s personal possessions. From the name, I’d expected a telescope or at least a globe, but there was nothing of that kind to be found. It was just an empty room ready to welcome a club one day, not the base of operations of any active group.
“Go on, make yourself at home,” Kurumi said.
“Mm. Okay, thanks.”
I took one of the chairs. It creaked as I sat down. I could smell dust, reminding me of how old this building was.
I put my backpack down and asked the first question on my mind.
“Kurumi, the door said this was the Stargazing Club… Aren’t there any other members?”
“Oh… Nope, not a one.” She sat down opposite me in the other chair, looking downcast. “There are several members who signed up but never came. They don’t count. There are no active members. No adviser, either. I founded the club, but before it I knew it, it was just me.”
Hmm. Fair enough… Wait a minute.
“You founded the club?”
“Yeah, right after I enrolled here. It’s two months old!”
Aha. No wonder I’ve never heard of it.
So this was a brand-new club already facing extinction. That explained the lack of equipment.
“I planned to take it seriously, too. But almost right away, everyone said they had too much homework and stopped coming.”
She was sounding more and more depressed. Unsure of how to react, I fidgeted for a few seconds, then did my best to console her.
“That’s just how this school works. It was inevitable.”
“…I know. I’m already over it! And since all the other members quit, we’ve got a perfect spot to talk in private.”
She was clearly not over it, but her tone had brightened, at least.
I was glad she was able to be logical about this. Our goal was vengeance; we had no time to worry about the other members or to be depressed about her club’s future. And if Kurumi was planning on dropping out, that stuff didn’t even matter.
“Let’s start scheming!” she said, straightening up. I followed suit.
We were here to get vengeance on the school. What kind of plan would she suggest?
I might have been here under duress, but I still intended to function as her brakes. For instance, if she suggested murdering somebody, I would do everything in my power to stop her. If I knew her plans and did nothing, I’d wind up in jail right beside her. Arrested as an accomplice. One ticket to juvie. And my parents would find out. That would be even worse than the cigarettes. No thank you.
So it was time to determine what scale she was operating on. How big was this vengeance of hers?
Nervously, I waited for her to continue.
“Ta-daa! I thought this might help us plan.” With a slightly ridiculous fanfare, she pulled out a yellow notebook.
“…What’s that? It just looks like a regular notebook.”
“An excellent question. These are my Notes on Revenge.”
Notes on Revenge. I ran the title over in my head. Was she implying that revenge was a school subject? She probably meant it as a sarcastic jab at our prep school and its obsession with schoolwork. Personally, I found it in poor taste.
“Yesterday, I said I hadn’t made my mind up, but I do have several proposals,” she said.
“And you’ve written them down in that notebook?”
“Exactly. I’ve summarized them all here. This should provide us with a basis for action. Um… Hang on a second, let me pick a good one and run it by you.”
She started flipping through the notebook’s pages. She was moving too fast for my eyes to follow, so I propped my chin in my hand and watched her absently.
Notes on Revenge.
A notebook, in this day and age. How quaint. Then again, if you had to eliminate evidence, electronic records could often be recovered, while a physical notebook could easily be burned. Perhaps this was the right choice.
Uh-oh, now she’s infecting my thoughts.
Kurumi moved back and forth through the pages for a while, and then her hands stopped.
“How’s this one? I call it the ‘Student Insult Redistribution Campaign.’”
“…That tells me nothing. Elaborate.”
“Okay, allow me to explain.”
She cleared her throat and corrected her posture, like she was about to recite a passage in Japanese class.
“Natsume, as I’m sure you’re aware, this school’s teachers use red pens to inscribe insults upon low-scoring tests and quizzes.”
“Yeah, I know. They come back with ‘Trash,’ ‘Moron,’ or ‘Did you even try?’ scrawled across the top.”
“Precisely.” Kurumi nodded. “I believe these written insults are a key factor in the vile ‘law’ that holds sway over this school. I propose we hurl a metaphorical stone at this behavior.”
“I see. And what would we be doing, exactly?”
“With our own two hands, we will write insults upon the answer sheets of people with good grades.”
“…Hmm.”
So her plan was to insult the good students, too.
Kurumi spoke with confidence, but honestly, I didn’t find this plan particularly persuasive. Sure, the way the better classes went along with the school’s BS was despicable, and I did hold it against them. I longed to take a hammer to their smug superiority and unshakable confidence, break it into a million pieces, then sweep the shards into a trash bag and hurl it into the incinerator.