Boku wa tomodachi ga sukunai:Volume6 Footsteps of Horror (aka The School Festival)

Footsteps of Horror (aka The School Festival)

It was the day after Sena and the rest learned of the fact that Yozora and I used to be friends.

Aside from everyone acting weird towards Yozora shortly after the fact, nothing else worthy of note happened.

We were all in the clubroom today after school, lazing around just as we always have.

Yozora and I were busy reading books.

Yukimura was in her butler uniform, sitting to my right as she spaced out like she always does.

Rika (whose hair was straight down and black today), was sitting to my left, going "Mufufu..." with a creepy smile on her face while watching an anime on her laptop.

I took a look over at it, and saw she was watching an intense battle scene between Ova #01 and a berserk Ova #04, but I have no clue why that would cause her to make that "Mufufu..." giggle.

Maria was busy working today as well, and apparently Kobato has to take supplementary lessons again today.

Sena was playing galge on the clubroom TV as usual.

It was a perfectly normal day at the Neighbors Club, with the sound of the school's brass band's music and sports clubs' shouting coming from afar, the galge music coming from the TV, as well as the occasional creepy laugh from Rika and Sena as our background music.

Then, all of a sudden, the sound of an energetic anime girl going, "And so, we'll be running a maid cafe for the school festival~!" entered my ears.

It should go without saying that it was the voice of a girl from the galge Sena was playing.

Normally I just let it fly in one ear and out the other, but it caught my attention on account of a certain word that was said.

"Oh yeah, it's about time for the school festival, isn't it..."

Upon finishing my sentence, Sena stopped moving her hands along the controller, Rika stopped turning the pages of a book in her hand, Yukimura grabbed the sleeve of my shirt, and Yozora raised her face from her book.

"...Kodaka... You just stepped on a land mine..."

Yozora said while looking at me with one eye half open.

"A-a land mine...!?"

Yozora seemed upset as she averted her eyes, and said,

"...No, it's nothing. There is no school festival, after all. I don't even know what those words mean, after all. Eh? What is that? Some foreign language? Or some kind of yankee slang?"

"No no no no, I know this school has a school festival too!"

I retorted to Yozora, who was saying a bunch of nonsense with a completely straight face.

The other day, during homeroom just a few days after our break after finals had ended, we had a discussion about the school festival.

I'm told that here at St. Chronica Academy, a three day long school festival is held annually.

The first day is an athletics festival, while the second and third are part of a cultural festival, which make up the entirety of what is called the "St. Chronica Academy School Festival".

The athletics festival involves only students of the academy, but the cultural festival is open to the general public, so apparently that's where an overwhelming amount of excitement lies.

The discussion was basically about what our class wanted to do for the cultural festival, and it was decided that we wouldn't be getting anything ready for it.

The freedom allotted regarding the cultural festival at this school is relatively high, allowing for classes, clubs, or even groups of friends to prepare things to do for the big day, and it sounds like anyone who isn't doing anything is free to wander around doing whatever the day of.

I'd bet anything that the only reason our class isn't doing anything, is because everyone is too busy working on other projects with their clubs or friends. When our class rep asked, "Anyone who has a suggestion about what we should do for the cultural festival, please raise your hand," I got the feeling that a bunch of my classmates were all taking glances in my direction, but I'd like to believe that was no more than my imagining things.

By the way, this year's school festival starts in the middle of November, in other words, one month from now.

"...Kodaka."

Yozora said, in a very grave tone of voice.

"Hm?"

"...The school festival is an event made by normals, for normals."

............

"......You're exactly right."

I couldn't help but nod in agreement with her.

"So you get it now?"

"Sigh... our classes aren't really doing anything, and it's true that a big event like this has nothing to do with us, isn't it..."

"Exactly. So don't mention that certain big event anymore."

"What? We can't even mention it?"

Right after I said that, Sena jumped into the conversation.

"Hey! Don't lump me together with you guys! I did all kinds of stuff at the last school festival!"

"Oh, you did?"

I asked, prompting Sena to puff her chest out in pride.

"Heheh, a transfer student like you might not know, Kodaka, but Yozora, you saw me, right? You saw how amazing I was last year, didn't you!?"

"As if. Last year I faked being sick for those three days."

...That's Yozora for you, a diehard anti-social through and through.

"Kh! Useless woman...!"

As Sena was grinding her teeth in frustration, Rika spoke up.

"Ah, Rika saw you last year, Sena-senpai. On the first day of the athletics and cultural festivals."

"Heh?"

I did a double take after hearing Rika's surprising announcement.

"Why were you at the school festival last year? I thought you just enrolled this year."

"Sena-senpai's father gave me the invitation to this school personally, so I decided to take the chance to look around the school."

"Oh yeah, I forgot, but the chairman invited you to enroll here, didn't he?"

"Yes."

Rika, a famous person to those in the know, enrolled after being asked to by the chairman, Pegasus Kashiwazaki, and is a super VIP that even had her own personal room, called the "Rika Room", built for her. She's a total perv though.

"Hence, I watched last year's athletics festival from the guest seats. I got sick from being surrounded by so many people at the cultural festival though, so I spent the whole time resting in the gymnasium."

"Great, so you were there!"

Sena's mouth formed into a giant smile.

"Ok, then you can tell them all about how wonderful I was last year!"

"Uh-huh..."

Rika unenthusiastically nodded with a look of irritation on her face, and said,

"...I believe you participated in a lot of the events at the athletics festival. Back then I only saw "a blond haired girl with huge boobs who seems to really stand out a lot", but I'm pretty sure that was you, Sena-senpai."

"Yep yep, that's gotta be me! I ran in the 200 meter race, the scavenger hunt race, the obstacle race, the bread eating race, the marathon, and helped in the cavalry battle too, right!? I did all the events you could enter by yourself! I got first place in all of them too!"

Sena smiled triumphantly as she rattled off her achievements.

"That is pretty amazing, if it's true..."

"I know, right!?"

Rika then continued talking to Sena, who was getting even more inflated with her own pride.

"If I had to say yes or no, then I'd say yes, it was amazing, but... It was clear you were way more excited than everyone else, which really just made them look at you weird. Honestly, even Rika felt that way."

"Eh...!?"

Sena's face went completely stiff.

"Watching you in the cavalry battle was especially painful. The boys were the horses while the girls were the knights, but you looked like a beast gone mad with hunger as you clearly targeted other people whose horses weren't into it, and then stole their bandanas. There were even some people crying."

Uwaa... I can totally see her doing that.

"T-that's what a battle is, what do you want me to do about it!?"

Yozora then made an exasperated look and said to Sena, who was trying to argue back with tears in the corners of her eyes,

"...It's because this school is generally a more mild-mannered one. I hear that nobody really ever gets that excited for the athletics festival. Everyone thinks that the cultural festival is what the school festival is all about, and chooses to save their strength for that, rather than do something stupid like getting hurt at the athletics festival. I'm guessing Meat here is the only one who actually takes it seriously..."

"Uuuu~~! B-but, everyone got really excited whenever I went out! I know they did!!"

Rika gave a small nod, and added,

"It's true that the boys were really excited about it. Because your boobs were shaking all over the place."

"M-my b-...!?"

Sena's face went deep red.

"...Hmph. Further proof that you're just a lump of meat."

Yozora said while scoffing at Sena, seemingly irritated.

"I-it wasn't just the athletics festival either! I did all kinds of stuff at the cultural festival too!"

In response to Sena's desperate insistence on the greatness of her actions, Rika said,

"Your class did that one play, right? I'm pretty sure it was yours anyway, because the day after I remember thinking how there was a weirdly energetic blond girl in it."

"Yeah, that's it! Wasn't I so cool in it!?"

"I don't remember what it was about, but I do seem to recall you being very active in it. You were cutting down the villains with your sword left and right.

"Yeah, that was me! I was the main character after all!"

"...You were the only one who was all excited about it, and honestly, with how unmotivated the rest of the cast looked, it was painful to watch."

"What!?"

This is apparently the first time someone's told Sena that, because she looks positively shocked.

"B-but, I know the audience was excited!!"

"That's true. The boys in the audience all enjoyed watching your boobs jiggle as you jumped around the stage. You were in a skirt too, so they caught a few glimpses of your panties as well."

"Gyaaahhhh!!"

Sena crouched down and grabbed her head with both hands.

"Uuuu~~ T-they weren't excited because they were bewildered by my incredibly splendid performance...!?"

"...By the way, I feel iffy about saying this, but the play itself wasn't that good either. All I really felt from it was that you seemed to enjoy acting in it."

Rika said, delivering the final blow.

"Uuu~... I never even thought of it like that... I'm so embarrassed..."

"...Well, it's like, doing all that in such a pathetic way is just like you, you know...? You are truly peerless in your patheticness..."

A cold smile rose to Yozora's face as she stared down at Sena, who was now in tears.

"I'm not that pathetic!! ...Ah, s-so wait, am I the reason why when I said I wanted to do a play again this year, not even a single one of the girls raised their hand...!?"

I reaffirmed my belief that Sena really is the kind of girl that all the other girls absolutely loathe.

"...By the way, what's your class doing for the cultural festival anyway, Sena?"

"A display, 'The History of Tohya City'."

"Uwa, that sounds so boring..."

"I know, right!? But my idea for a play was the only other suggestion, and none of the girls wanted to do it! What the hell!? This is so stupid! We could've at least done something that isn't so boring!"

"Most likely, they went with a display because it would limit how much Sena-senpai could go around doing whatever she wanted."

"You mean they hate me that much!?"

Sena moaned in frustration after having Rika point it out for her.

"Ghh...! Fine, I'll stand out, even with our boring display, and show those stupid girls how amazing I am! Oh, I know! How about if I make a display using all the pictures I have of me ever since my birth, complete with my own wonderful explanations!? I mean, this town basically exists solely for me, so it makes sense to say the history of Tohya city is the same as my own personal history, right!?"

"No, it doesn't make sense at all."

Thwack.

Yozora hit Sena on the head with a fly swatter she'd procured without my noticing.

"Fgyah!"

"Give it up already. Everybody hates you, Meat. You're as out of place in the school festival as we are..."

"Uuuuu~~!"

Tears of frustration began to well up in Sena's eyes.

"Hmph. All we can do is quietly endure as the normals dance around like fools for three days."

Yozora then shifted her gaze from Sena to me.

"...S-so, you know, Kodaka, on the day of the festival, you and I should——"

"I know! We can just make something for the cultural festival as the Neighbors Club!"

Sena declared in a booming voice, cutting off Yozora, who was trying to mumble something to me.

"...Meeeeeeaaattt...!!"

"W-why are you glaring at me!?"

Yozora was glaring at Sena with a look that could kill for some reason.

Sena started to tremble in fear with tears in her eyes as she said,

"I-I mean, we allllways think of some club activity to do at times like this, don't we!? This can be practice on how to participate in a cultural festival for when we have friends in the future!"

"...That is pretty much our usual pattern, isn't it..." I added.

Normally, Yozora's the one who thinks of something, but strangely, it was Sena this time.

And I have heard that most things people do for the cultural festival aren't with their class or club, but rather with their friends.

"We might not make it in time for this year's festival, but... in order to make sure we don't mess up when we do something with our friends for next year's festival—— we might as well do some practice...!"

"Heheh, yeah, let's do it!"

A big smile rose to Sena's face.

"Rika has no problems with that."

"Aniki's will is my will."

Rika and Yukimura gave their OK as well.

"...Kodakaaa..."

Yozora was the only one who seemed to be about to burst into tears.

"What's the matter? This is exactly the kind of thing we always do, isn't it?"

Yozora shot a glare at first Sena, then me.

"It's nothing! Kodaka you iiiidiot!"

Yozora let out a small sigh after her insult that sounded like she was sulking.

"...Hmph... Fine... The Neighbors Club will participate in this year's cultural festival. Although it may simply be practice for when we're all normals, there will be no slacking. We'll use our power to send those normals enjoying the festival into the depths of hell!"

"Heheh, of course!" "OK~" "Understood."

Sena, Rika, and Yukimura all agreed with Yozora's declaration.

"...No, we really shouldn't be sending them to hell ya' know."

Sadly, my retort fell on deaf ears.

Thus, the Neighbors Club's next activity was decided.

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