“I’ll turn the AC on,” said Kurumi. “Sit anywhere you like.”
“Thanks. You’ve just reminded me of the first time I visited the Stargazing Club.”
“Ah-ha-ha. You’re right! Oh, will coffee work?”
“Yeah. Anything’s fine.”
Kurumi started bustling about the kitchen, so I took a seat at the counter nearby. There was a rush mat on it, speaking to the care that had gone into the design.
“Natsume! How many syrup pods? Any milk?”
“Nothing. I’ll take it black.”
“Wow, acting like a real grown-up. I’ll take three of each!”
That was clearly too many. But before I could say so, she came back with iced coffee on a wooden tray. She set out some coasters, put the glasses down on top of them, then took a seat next to me.
“Here you are. Thanks for waiting.”
“Thank you. I’m pretty thirsty.”
I took a sip and felt the cold bitterness slide down my throat. I wasn’t a connoisseur by any means, but it tasted good to me. This was a café. Of course, I had no way of knowing if I was drinking the same coffee they served.
I put down my glass and glanced around the empty shop.
“I feel like a high roller who’s rented out the place.”
“We basically have. I’ll be the only one here all summer long.” Kurumi put the glass to her lips, then gasped. “Oh! Hey, Natsume. Since I’ve got the run of the place, wanna make this our summer HQ? The school’s banned us from using clubrooms, so it’s a bit risky to keep meeting up there.”
“True. Especially after yesterday. If you’re down with it, I am.”
“Cool. Might be a bit of a commute, but I’m sure you’ll survive.”
A twenty-minute walk was nothing, and I could easily cover the added fare by scrimping a bit on meals. There was no need for her to worry about that.
“Okay, if this is our new base,” she began, “then let’s get down to brass tacks.”
The biggest problem on our plates—certainly bigger than choosing our base of operations—was Nanaougi.
Kurumi pulled her Notes on Revenge out of her backpack, opened it to a blank page, and straightened up.
“About Nanaougi… What do we do? Right now, we’re just kind of watching and waiting.”
“Yeah. Not sure what else to do. I’ve got no clue what she’ll do next, but it doesn’t sound like she’s planning to turn us in. All we can do is keep an eye on her, then drive her off at the end of summer.”
“I figured. Argh, it’s gonna bother me all summer, festering in the back of my brain!” Kurumi toppled over onto the counter.
I knew where she was coming from. Nanaougi was definitely a thorn in our side.
“Our resistance movement is not a place for top-ranking students to amuse themselves,” Kurumi said firmly.
“Yeah, that’s exactly my problem with her, too,” I grumbled.
Nanaougi had paid lip service to hating this school, but she was fundamentally different from us. We were freedom fighters. She was just a hedonistic hooligan. We weren’t doing this for fun, or because we were bored. We were sticking to our principles against foes who would not listen.
What I’d seen of Nanaougi over the past few days hadn’t indicated so much as a hint of that drive—that emotional core. She was flippant, just here for the lulz. I couldn’t imagine her ever taking this seriously. Her ideals would never align with ours.
My glass was sweating as I tipped it back. The ice cubes shifted audibly.
The irritation I felt toward Nanaougi had given me an idea.
“…Kurumi, let’s keep on attacking the school.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. I never intended to stop.” She blinked at me.
Crap. I got ahead of myself and failed to get across what I meant.
“Sorry, I was trying to suggest that we pour even more energy into our activities.”
“More energy? What would that entail, exactly?”
“Well… How about we try to do something bigger than what Nanaougi has planned.”
That got Kurumi up off the counter. “Aha! Now that’s an idea.”
“Nanaougi said she’s gonna try to impress us. I didn’t really care for that.”
“Nope! It got right under my skin. She clearly has a low opinion of us.” Kurumi pursed her lips and nodded. “So you wanna show her that this is our movement?”
“Yeah. Not just because she pissed me off; I mean, if she’s actually trying to impress us, then she’s gotta be attempting something bigger than what we’ve done so far. That means that if we do something even bigger first, she’s got a higher benchmark to clear.”
“True. We can just say ‘That wasn’t as dramatic as what we did.’”
“Yeah. The terms of our agreement mean that Nanaougi will back off as long as she can’t dispute the results. If our attack outdoes hers, then it should be easier to deny her entry.”
“An excellent point. We don’t want to get into some empty argument about whether her attack was impressive or not; it’d be best if we can demonstrate our superiority with action.”
Outdoing Nanaougi’s attack was both beyond the scope of our resistance and playing right into it. We’d be showing the better students what drove us, what made us scream. We’d make them see we weren’t just playing a game. That was a valid reason to carry out an attack—and a core part of our motivation.
“We genuinely hate this school and want to raise hell here.”
“Yeah, we do. We’re driven by something real.” Kurumi’s lips curled into a smile. “All right, that’s our next goal. We’ll do something bigger than whatever Nanaougi has planned!”
“That settles it. Let’s show her we mean business.”
“Exactly! I can’t wait! Let’s get down to the nitty-gritty.”