And the following Monday, after touring all the clubs, we found ourselves at a café after school, both tilting our heads in puzzlement.
“Wasn’t today’s welcome event a bit weird?”
I nodded at Mizusaki’s observation. There had been several strange things indeed.
In deciding which club to join, resolving the discomfort we’d experienced was essential.
Club activities can potentially occupy most of high school life outside of academics. We needed to judge with our own clear eyes which club suited us.
To fully explain this matter, we need to review the events of that day.
Let’s start by describing the conversation we had that morning,
Monday morning, when I arrived at school, I noticed the classroom was filled with a slightly different atmosphere than usual. There was a restless, buzzing vibe floating around.
“Today’s the day the welcome events are unlocked. Everyone’s talking about clubs.”
Before first period started, Iwama, who’d returned from Kannabi’s direction, explained the reason.
“Shinkan” (新歓) is short for “shinnyūsei kangei katsudō” (新入生歓迎活動, new student welcome activities). Some say it can also be written as “shinkan” (新勧), meaning “shinnyūsei kan’yū” (新入生勧誘, new student recruitment), but in any case, it refers to the period when every club or circle holds events to gather new members.
“I see, so that’s why the atmosphere is so excited.”
I remembered that today was specifically a morning-only class day. I’d thought that meant I didn’t need a lunch, but last night Mizusaki had messaged me: “Let’s decide on clubs this afternoon! Bring lunch.”
Wait. I felt like I’d heard something odd.
“…period? There are rules?”
“It’s kind of like Beaujolais Nouveau, isn’t it? I just heard about it too, but apparently there’s a school rule that you can’t do welcome activities until 1 PM today.”
For a moment, it sounded like Iwama had used another academic term I didn’t know, but it was nothing, just talk about French wine whose release date is set by law.
“Why would there be such a rule?”
“Who knows… Izuta-kun, have you decided which clubs to check out yet?”
“For now, I thought I’d check out the science clubs. Like Chemistry Club, or Biology Club. What about you, Iwama-san?”
“Me? Well, I’m thinking of going to Basketball Club’s trial! A friend from middle school invited me.”
She said this with such an anticipatory expression that for a moment I wondered if I’d misremembered. Iwama had been in the science club in middle school, and wasn’t she interested enough in science that we’d accidentally hit it off?
After agonizing over how to express my doubt, I mumbled:
“Science clubs… on another day?”
There was a brief pause.
“…I’m not sure yet.”
“So you’re not really considering cultural clubs?”
“No, I’m definitely interested in science clubs too, but… sports clubs are hard to give up on… doesn’t a youth devoted to sports sound fun too?!”
What an ambiguous way to put it. But Iwama must have her circumstances. If she wants to devote herself to sports, it would be difficult to join both that and a science club at this school.
After thinking, I realized my own presumptuousness. It shouldn’t matter to me which club Iwama joins.
“Sports… that does seem like you, Iwama-san.”
Words I didn’t mean flew out of my mouth. Perhaps it was some foolish ritual to convince myself that “this person and I have different interests and aptitudes, we live in different worlds.”
But saying “that seems like you” was probably appropriate. Basketball Club, doesn’t that suit a bright, active honor student well?
Iwama didn’t respond. I used taking out my textbook as an excuse to turn back around to face forward.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
The reason for the designated period and time for welcome activities became clear when the morning classes ended, short homeroom was done, and the classroom wall clock pointed to exactly one o’clock.
A noise, likely from someone turning on a switch, crackled from the speaker above the clock.
[It is now 1 PM on Monday, April 15th. Welcome activities are now unlocked. Please conduct recruitment activities with moderation, cleanly and properly, ]
Along with that strange school-wide announcement, dirty footsteps came thundering down from the floor above. We first-years’ classrooms were on the second floor, second-years on the third, third-years on the fourth. The upperclassmen had all started moving at once.
The footsteps that seemed to pierce through the ceiling carried not a trace of moderate, clean, or proper atmosphere.
“Oi, Delta, doesn’t this feel kinda dangerous?”
Mizusaki, who’d been about to spread out his lunch in Iwama’s seat, said this and hurriedly retied the furoshiki wrapping cloth he’d just started to undo. Iwama had probably met up with friends from another class. She was already gone from the classroom.
“Sounds like a zoo with the cages opened.”
I also put my lunchbox back in my bag. I judged it better to be ready to escape at any moment.
And our judgment was accurate.
The sound of the animal stampede approached like a tsunami and quickly reached Class 1-C’s classroom.
“‘Scuse us!”
Possibly I misheard, but probably “excuse us” was right, a male student’s gruff voice echoed from the hallway.
Right behind Mizusaki, the sliding door was flung open with enough force to nearly break it. Without missing a beat, the door at the front of the classroom opened too. I stood up sensing mortal danger, but it was already too late, we had no escape route.
“Anyone wanna exercise?! Anyone wanna break a refreshing sweat with rugby?!”
“We’re doing a concert right now! Anyone interested, come to the audiovisual room!”
“Baking club tasting session in progress! Anyone who wants delicious cookies, follow us!”
The upperclassmen poured into the classroom, each shouting whatever they pleased. Then, like surfactants, they surrounded the helpless first-years and began aggressive recruitment.
“Whoa whoa whoa, it’s like namahage.”
Mizusaki’s comparison was quite accurate. I think there was even a witch from a candy house mixed in. Once you took the bait and ate a cookie, you wouldn’t be let go until you filled out a club application form.
“Mizusaki, let’s run.”
“Roger!”
We exchanged glances and shouldered our bags.
Being seated near the exit was fortunate. The area by the wall was in the blind spot of the upperclassmen rushing into the classroom. We slipped out during a brief moment when the flow stopped.
However,
“Wait, no way…”
Mizusaki stopped. I too was stunned by the scene visible over his shoulder.
The hallway was completely filled with upperclassmen. Not just in uniform, some wore martial arts gi or sports uniforms. Predators in all colors.
“Oh! You guys look athletic! Wanna join the swim team?”
Men wearing swimming goggles on their foreheads for no apparent reason immediately attacked. Despite it being spring, they were all deeply tanned with skin gleaming.
“Ah, I actually can’t swim…”
When Mizusaki tried to escape with a convenient lie, a woman popped out from behind the men.
“It’s fine, it’s fine! I started from not being able to swim too!”
“We totally welcome beginners. Actually, wouldn’t it be better to learn to swim during high school?”
As if following a manual, their instantly deployed logic was well-organized, steadily blocking our escape routes. We were surrounded and driven right up against the wall.
In times like these, I don’t know how to fight. The talkative Mizusaki resisted with all his might.
“Neither of us is really the athletic club type, we want to live peacefully without competing.”
“It’s not just competitive swimming! We actually perform synchronized swimming at the culture festival, and lots of people have their youth through that instead of racing!”
“S-synchronized swimming…?”
Even the great Mizusaki was faltering.
All the tanned swim club members had ridiculously nice smiles, making them hard to brush off coldly. Being physically surrounded meant we couldn’t even bow and back away. Checkmate.
The thought of just checking it out for a bit before escaping briefly crossed my mind. But that was probably exactly their goal. If they could maneuver so skillfully in this hallway, the place they’d take us surely had traps laid out in layers.
“Ah, um, we actually have a condition where we expand dozens of times when immersed in water.”
Mizusaki finally started saying incomprehensible things. What are you, a superabsorbent polymer? I kept that retort to myself.
“Oh, nice! Sounds convenient! Come join us!”
The swim team’s response was equally incomprehensible, but one thing was clear, they had no intention of letting us go no matter what we said.
I could already see many similar victims around us. Some of them were being led away with resigned looks. I didn’t think Mizusaki or I had any more fighting power than they did.
However.
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