Chapter 6 Manga Club

Chapter 6: Manga Club

"Good afternoon—"

One ordinary Monday afternoon, Hoshino Haruna pushed open the door to the Manga Club's activity room.

"Ah, Haruna, good afternoon!" Miyahara Maki, who was organizing the bookshelf, turned to look at her. "Gathering material from the volleyball club again?"

"Yep!" Hoshino nodded heavily, draped her bag over a chair, and started helping her tidy up. "I even ran into Coach Takeda today! Ah... he's the volleyball club's advisor, you know! He said the group draw for the IH preliminaries is almost out, and I wonder who we'll be up against? I'm so excited..."

As she stacked the manga volumes neatly, Miyahara remarked with a sigh, "Wow, it seems our Haruna has really become a part of the volleyball club. You even went to watch their practice matches before, right?"

"Mm-hmm!" Hoshino nodded repeatedly, recalling happily, "The captain of Aoba Johsai is really amazing! He's super handsome too! If I were at Aoba Johsai, I'd definitely consider him as a reference for the male lead! But since I'm at Karasuno now, I'll have to settle for Tsukishima..."

Then Hoshino took the books Miyahara had sorted and neatly arranged them on the shelves, then continued, "And then there's Nekoma—ah, the team from Tokyo! They're super strong too! We couldn't even win a single set from them... But I did meet a senpai who's amazing at games, and he recommended a bunch of new games! Speaking of which, Tsukishima is good at both academics and sports, but when it comes to games, I'm actually better at games! That guy always acts like he's got everything figured out, but he probably never expected to lose to me in a game, haha..."

...

Realizing that Miyahara hadn't spoken for a while, Hoshino suddenly stopped sorting the books.

"Ah, sorry, senpai! Was I rambling?" Hoshino said sheepishly.

"Hehe, not at all..."

Miyahara waved her hand with a smile.

"It's just that you seem really interested in that Tsukishima guy! You're always talking about him."

Hoshino: Huh?

"Well, duh! That's only natural, right? He's the male lead I chose for my manga." Hoshino said matter-of-factly.

"Hmm..."

Miyahara paused, but was interrupted by the door suddenly opening.

"Oh, Miyahara, and Hoshino! You're both here!"

The newcomer was the tall upperclassman Soda Shu, whom Hoshino had seen standing beside Miyahara on her first day joining the club.

"What's with 'both here'? It's club time, you're the late one!" Miyahara pointed out mercilessly.

"Sorry, sorry, I got held up helping in the teachers' office..." Soda explained lightly.

Hoshino looked from one to the other, then suddenly realized something.

"Come to think of it... since I joined, I haven't seen anyone else besides you two," she said.

...

"Cough."

Miyahara and Soda coughed in unison.

"Actually... it's usually just the two of us," Miyahara said.

Hoshino: ?

"Technically there's a third person, but that guy hardly ever shows up, so just pretend he doesn't exist," Soda added.

Hoshino: ??

"But now with you joining us, our club's permanent membership is back to three," Miyahara said cheerfully.

Hoshino: ???

"Wait," Hoshino finally realized, "so, senpai, you mean... before I joined, the club only had three people total?"

"Yes," Miyahara nodded solemnly.

...

...

...

"How is this club even still running?" Hoshino asked, cutting straight to the heart of it.

"...Don't hit us where it hurts, Hoshino!" Soda clutched his chest theatrically.

"Ah, sorry, I didn't mean it like that..." Hoshino quickly explained.

"So why hasn't this club been disbanded? I'm curious too," Soda asked.

Miyahara: ...

She picked up her sketchbook and smacked him on the head with it.

"Because the minimum to start a club is three people! You're the vice president, so start acting like it!" Miyahara snapped.

"Ow, that hurts... Hey, I only became vice president because Miura never shows up and there was no one else! And in a club with only three people total, why even have a vice president in the first place!" Soda complained while rubbing his head.

"If you know you only got the job because there was no one else, you should be even more responsible! And a three-person club is still a club—even if other people say that, as the vice president, you can't say things like that! Apologize to the Manga Club right now, you idiot!" Miyahara smacked him with the sketchbook again.

"...Hey!"

Hoshino quickly cut in.

"I don't know the details, but now with me, there are four of us, right!" Hoshino pumped her fists in the air. "If we can go from three to four, surely more will join, right?"

Miyahara slowly lowered the sketchbook in her hand, visibly moved.

"Haruna, I'm so glad you joined the club..." Miyahara said, holding her hand emotionally.

"...Don't make recruiting a kouhai sound so poetic!" Soda muttered from the side.

"Really? I'm glad I met you guys!" Hoshino said, completely oblivious to him.

"...You should be complaining about such unreliable senpai, Hoshino!" Soda continued muttering.

But the two girls, completely ignoring his existence, had already started a new topic.

"Speaking of which, with only a few of us in the club, what do we do for events like the cultural festival?" Hoshino asked.

As far as she knew, every year at Karasuno's school cultural festival, each club had to perform or organize some kind of booth activity.

"Good point. Now that you mention it, the cultural festival is coming up soon," Miyahara said thoughtfully. "But we do have activities, you know."

"Eh—really? What kind of activities?" Hoshino asked curiously.

"Cosplay," Miyahara replied.

"Oh—impressive! What kind of characters do you usually cos?" Hoshino asked again.

"Well... high school students."

"Huh?"

"To be precise, high school students from Karasuno High. We randomly show up at various spots around the event venue."

...

"So you're basically just wandering around?" Hoshino pointed out.

"Pfft... just kidding!" Miyahara laughed and explained, "Don't underestimate us just because there's only three of us—we still publish our own fanzines and have a booth!"

"Oh—is that the one you guys have been working on lately? I know about it!" Hoshino said. "Unfortunately, I'm still busy with the Student Council's Publicity Department tasks, so I might not have time to help run the booth..."

"Ah, right, you're in the Publicity Department too." Miyahara nodded understandingly. "No worries, just focus on your Publicity work first! Setting up the booth with just Soda and me is fine."

"Really? Is that okay?" Hoshino wasn't sure.

"Of course!" Miyahara patted Hoshino's shoulder to reassure her. "Running a booth is no big deal—it's the kind of thing we seniors should handle!"

"...Senpai!" Hoshino looked at Miyahara, her eyes shining with admiration.

...

"Hey, Miyahara," Soda, who had been silent until now, finally couldn't hold back, "you just don't want the underclassman to see how pitiful our booth looks with no customers, do you?"

Miyahara Maki smiled and said nothing.

Then she smacked his head with her sketchbook for the third time.

***

On the day of the cultural festival, Karasuno High was bustling, and many visitors from outside also came to join the event. Stage plays, choir performances, haunted houses, themed cafés... posters for the events were plastered everywhere.

...

Ah... I'm so jealous!

Watching the crowds of visitors coming and going, Hoshino sighed quietly to herself.

So many fun activities right in front of her, yet she couldn't participate—all because—

"Hoshino—"

A Student Council senior called out from the entrance of the auditorium.

"What are you dawdling for? The speaker is about to go on stage—hurry over here and take pictures!"

"...Coming, coming!" Hoshino grabbed her camera and ran.

—Because she was a new member of the Student Council's Publicity Department, who was needed everywhere to take photos.

Though she felt a little bummed, once she raised the camera, Hoshino immediately got into the zone, taking several shots of the student on stage as the seniors instructed. However, that student's speech dragged on quite a bit. After finishing her Student Council duties, Hoshino couldn't help but let her mind wander.

Hmm... I wonder if the play next door is over yet? If I go after taking photos, will I still catch it in time?

No, no—according to the Publicity Department's schedule, she still had to take photos for other events later!

But if she only took a few photos at each spot and moved on, she'd never get to watch a whole show!

Sigh... if only there were a show right here...

With that thought, Hoshino's hand, holding the camera, started to drift, the lens shifting from the stage to the audience's heads.

One back of a head... two backs of a head... three backs of a head...

Just as Hoshino counted the sixth head, her view was suddenly blocked by a purple-black.

...

Wait, why is it purple-black?

Realizing her lens was blocked by something, Hoshino lowered the camera and looked up, and they said in unison—

"What are you doing here!"

-TBC-

*

Author's Note:

Hoshino: Looks familiar, not sure, let me look again ()