Vol 2 Chapter 4 (1/2)

Chapter 4

The next day, the Summer a.s.sembly on Iriomote Island finally began.

It began with the most important subject matter right from the start, with the first program on the itinerary being the presentation of the latest investigation results from each school and the introduction of new club members.

The auditorium where the presentations were being held was a typical fan-shaped hall with a podium facing rows of audience seats on a sloped floor. Over one hundred Exploration Club members and officials from every school in the country were gathered on the oblong bench seats, clamoring and jostling amongst each other animatedly.

If it weren’t for the sight of the sea and trees basking in the sun on the other side of the windows, one wouldn’t believe that this was a facility located within the jungle of a nature conservation site.

“……”

It was almost time for the presentations to begin.

Homura was wearing her school uniform and sitting on a hard and stiff seat while filled with a kind of nervousness she’d never experienced before. She frequently readjusted the cord of the ID card hanging from her neck.

Yesterday at the lodging facilities, a commotion had stirred up every time people went to greet each arriving group of Exploration Club members from all over the country, so things had remained bustling and lively until quite late at night… Though of course, it hadn’t been so bad that Homura hadn’t gotten any sleep at all last night.

However, Homura had found it a shame that she hadn’t managed to find the time to leisurely talk all through the night with the familiar faces she had run into within the lodging facilities, since they had all seemed busy with preparatory meetings for their schools.

Today for sure this time, thought Homura, excited for reasons completely different from the main purpose of the SA.

Also, for the last little while, Homura had found her attention grabbed by the girl sitting next to her, who had her face planted on the desk in front of her. Her long black hair was spread out in waves on the desk and covered her face, making her eerily resemble a sea monster.

“……”

Homura was sitting in a row slightly towards the back of the audience. All the Seiran High members were grouped together towards the end of the row with Fujimori-sensei and Misasagi-senpai sitting at the corner seats.

Homura was seated at the other end of their group, and arranged next to her was the familiar group from Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High.

The girl right next to her was also a Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High club member.

Her ID card was hidden by her body, but the name plate in front of her seat read “Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High First Year, Kanae Yuri”.

She looked to have completely fallen sleep, based on her faint breathing. She’d even folded her gla.s.ses and placed them next to her name plate beforehand.

Right, her name is Kanae-san… I haven’t properly talked to her once yet…

After the previous rescue mission, Homura had been introduced to all the Hiyos.h.i.+zaka club members by the club president Kamikoma when they visited the school.

At that time, Kanae had simply stated her name and cut off any further conversation.

Homura had felt like she was being mostly ignored by her, and that impression still persisted even now. Though it was also partially Homura’s own fault for not proactively trying to talk with her…

Homura recalled seeing Kanae uninterestedly respond to Ameno’s unhesitant attempts to talk to her, while Homura herself and Touya had been dealing with the more rowdy club members like Saho.

Kanae was a new club member and female first y

ear student just like Homura. And she even attended Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High, the nearest school to Seiran High.

Therefore, Homura had reasonable justification to forge interpersonal relations with her in order to smoothly conduct club activities hereafter, but—

More than that or anything else, Homura’s primary motivation was her curiosity over just what kind of girl Kanae was, sparked by the mysterious atmosphere she gave off.

This Summer a.s.sembly would surely serve as a chance to get closer to her.

Even if it only lead to embarra.s.sment and fruitless effort. If she could become close to her like how she did with Kujou Orie, and if she could view her small step forward from the person she was yesterday as a good thing…

As she thought of such things and stared at the girl next to her while imagining her hidden sleeping face, her eyes happened to meet those of a male student two seats away from her.

It was another student from Hiyos.h.i.+zaka, a second-year senpai named “Hayase”.

Beside him, Saho, who had recovered from his earlier motion sickness, was off in his own world, having been fiddling enthusiastically with his terminal since this morning.

“Shh.”

Hayase winked at Homura and made a quiet shus.h.i.+ng sound with a finger placed on his lips.

Taking that signal to mean “let Kanae sleep”, Homura nodded back silently, but she soon learned that her conclusions had been too hasty.

…Eh? Wait, what?

Hayase picked up the recyclable drinking cup in front of him, and just when Homura thought he was going to drink the coffee within it, he heartily held it aloft and then threw it straight in her direction.

—Bang!

A crus.h.i.+ng hit! The cup bounced off Kanae Yuri’s head, the sound of impact ringing throughout the hall. The low murmurs throughout the hall instantly turned silent at that instant.

“………Oww…”

Sluggishly lifting up her head, Kanae turned to glare through her bangs at the shocked and frozen Homura, as if she were looking at her parents’ killer.

“Eh? No, you got it wrong…!”

Homura frantically shook her head.

Deep shadows appeared beneath Kanae’s glaring eyes, her anger clearly increasing exponentially.

When Homura turned to look at the culprit Hayase, he was casually facing forward with his chin on his hand as if nothing had happened.

Guh, so cruel… He’s pa.s.sing the blame to me…!

Homura wasn’t given the time to defend herself.

Cruelly enough, the meeting began at that moment, as the huge screen at the front of the room lit up with the UNPIEP j.a.panese Branch logo and several students walked up on the stage.

Kanae cut off her glare from Homura and turned towards the stage like everyone else. With nothing else she could do, Homura also turned her attention towards the stage.

All the club members throughout the hall began whispering to each other at the sight of the slender youth at the forefront of the group on stage.

“It’s Oozore…”

“Oozore-senpai.”

“So that’s the Wizard…”

He was wearing the same school uniform as Tenryuu Kazuma from the plane.

Among the Seiran High seats, Touya leaned forward, his focus completely locked on the young man on stage.

“—Good morning to you all.”

The male student’s greeting resounded from his tiepin mike through the speakers throughout the hall.

Everyone present in the hall responded and greeted him back, their synchronized voices resounding so deafeningly through the hall that it startled Homura. It was completely different from the usual sleepy greetings during morning a.s.sembly at school.

Due to her surprise, Homura was several seconds behind everyone else in calling out “Good morning”. She wanted to hide her face in embarra.s.sment at that moment.

“Now then, as scheduled, I’d like to open the **th Summer a.s.sembly for the year 20**.”

There was a short yet strong applause for the opening of the a.s.sembly.

Yet Oozore’s low and deep voice managed to make itself heard even above the applause. He gave off a stiff image, but his tone was composed and completely devoid of tension.

Homura’s first impression of him was of a “general”.

Homura recalled seeing him stand beside Tenryuu Kazuma during a news program and acting like a silent shadow to the brighter boy as Kazuma answered questions from the interviewer.

“—I am Oozore Misaki, a third year and the Exploration Club vice-president at Osaka Prefectural School Nagumo High. I’ll be serving as the moderator for this year’s SA.”

Oozore turned his gaze towards the female student standing beside him.

“I’ll be serving as the moderating a.s.sistant. I’m N-Nagas.h.i.+no Fuyu, a first year at Nagumo High. I look forward to working with you all.”

Her voice was a bit shrill and nervous, the complete opposite of Oozore’s.

Even when offered applause, she maintained her serious expression from beginning to end, lacking enough composure to smile.

The small-statured Nagas.h.i.+no was tightly gripping a computer tablet in her hands, clearly nervous to everyone who saw her.

But that was only natural in her position. Following her self-introduction, Nagas.h.i.+no turned to bow in greeting in the direction of the VIP seats within the hall, and then began stiffly introducing the various important guests present today, including administrative bureau directors from all sections of government, foreign officials sent from UN headquarters, and the chief of this exhibition facility.

D-Do your best…

Not paying any attention to the names of the various VIPS being introduced, Homura simply felt herself worrying frantically for Nagas.h.i.+no in sympathy as a fellow first year girl.

Once the introductions ended, the main mic was handed back to Oozore.

“We will now give summaries of the investigation results from Nutella this year. To remind everyone, everything announced here is material that has been recorded in pictures and stored in the library here. We will also conduct simultaneous translation for the VIPs here. Therefore, the presenters should try to explain and articulate their results as clearly as possible.”

“It’s fine if they just say the minimum necessary, you know?”

The source of that comment spoken outside the microphone was Tenryuu.

He was sitting on a chair placed in front of the foremost audience seats near the stage with his legs crossed.

“We’re going to hand out doc.u.ments with the same content written on them anyway, right? Besides, the higher-ups only pay attention to the numbers and graphs. In that case, I’d rather they wrack their brains and come up with something interesting so that we don’t end up dozing off down here.”

“…We welcome questions and comments during the allotted time, but please raise your hands first before speaking. Whispering and interruptions from the audience is frowned upon, understood?”

The last of Oozore’s words were a rebuke aimed at Tenryuu.

Homura couldn’t help giggling along with the rest of the audience.

It was easy to guess why the vice-president Oozore was put in charge of the a.s.sembly instead of the Exploration Club representative who was supposed to be the role model for all investigators.

However, when Homura glanced at Kanae, the girl didn’t bother to smile at the funny exchange and was simply leaning languidly against her chair and gazing at the screen up front with a downcast look.

On stage, Nagas.h.i.+no took over from Oozore, obviously still tense but seemingly more relaxed than before. She manipulated the tablet in her hand, causing a bird’s-eye-view map of j.a.pan to appear on the screen above. The map was dotted with the names of the schools of each partic.i.p.ating Exploration Club throughout the country.

“There are no schools absent due to being occupied on Nutella for this year’s SA. All thirteen school clubs from across j.a.pan are present and accounted for. The number of currently active j.a.panese Nutellan investigators by school year is: thirty-five third years, thirty-two second years, and twenty-nine first years, for a total of ninety-six members. Before we begin each school’s presentation, I would first like to introduce the new investigators who are our new comrades.”

Just as recorded in the program schedule, the introduction of new club members began.

They were called in turns, in order of school location from north to south. Homura’s heartbeat sped up as the names were called.

Naturally, the first to be called were the two new members from the Hokkaido school Tomakomai Denpa High, one of which was Himekawa, who Homura had met on the boat deck.

The ceremony consisted of a simple ten-second self-introduction for each new member… or so it should have been, but…

“I’m Himekawa s.h.i.+zune. I look forward to working with you all. My nickname is the Northernmost Woman of Nutella. I’d like to capture lots of the female club members here at Iriomote and bring them back home with me.”

—Himekawa added that extra line at the end of her introduction. It was unclear whether it was in order to get some laughs like Tenryuu suggested or because it really was her sincere wish, but it did end up raising the bar for the new members who came after her.

That was completely unnecessary~, Homura inwardly complained with a slump of her shoulders. However, while Himekawa spoke in her usual dispa.s.sionate tone, Homura was a bit concerned by the faint yet visible blush on her cheeks. Incidentally, the whole “Northernmost Woman” thing was just a joke, since there were other female investigators at higher lat.i.tude schools in Europe and North America.

After two more schools finished the introductions of their new members, it was Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High’s turn next.

For some reason, unusual bouts of jeering came from the crowd during each new member’s introduction. However…

“Kanae Yuri. Nice to meet you.”

The girl next to Homura said only that and then sat back down.

“…Eh, Yuri-chan, that’s it? Really? You’re trying to make yourself a cool character?”

Kanae looked just like a scowling j.a.panese doll, the way she sat unmoving in her seat. Saho tried to persistently question her. However, he was smacked on the head by Hayase-senpai.

“Hey, it’s your turn next, so hurry up and do it.”

Naturally, Saho stood up happily.

“I’m Saho, Saho Akiho! I’m part of the Nutella Native Animal Conservation subcommittee, so please feel free to come see me! But boys don’t need to come! Also—”

As Saho’s introduction looked like it was going to continue for a while, Hayase intervened once again to shut him up.

—And then finally, it was Seiran High’s turn.

I-It’s time!

She stiffly exchanged looks with Touya. In the end, Touya was the first to stand up.

“I’m Touya Tak.u.mi, the first member this year to require a rescue mission on Nutella. I apologize for the inconvenience I caused back then!”

Touya bowed his head in the direction of Kamikoma and Taga-senpai.

“You got that right! Treating us to a worldwide sweets buffet is only the start of what you owe us!” replied Kamikoma, while the audience laughed amicably.

Touya also smiled wryly at that.

“But one good thing came out of that disaster. I came to think that it’s nice to return to Earth every once in a while too.”

With that, Touya bowed again and sat back down, as raucous laughter and applause came up in response.

Only Fujimori-sensei, who had been stuck dealing with the aftermath of that incident, had her arms folded with a sullen expression.

…It’s finally my turn.

It felt like the hall had grown oddly quiet at that moment. Fujimori later told her that she was simply being excessively self-conscious, but that impression still stuck.

“I’m Hinooka Homura. I-I look forward to working with you all—”

Homura was overwhelmed by the pressure and could only speak the words that immediately came to her mind. Naturally, she lack any composure to make jokes.

“—I’ve only been to Nutella a few times so far. T-The truth is, it still doesn’t feel real, the fact that I’m actually exploring a new planet. I always feel like I’m playing a game, knowing that there should have been a better route to take but having forgotten to save beforehand. If possible, I’d like to redo things from the start. Err, sorry for babbling like this… That’s all I have to say…”

With that weak ending, Homura returned to her seat.

The hall was filled with a delicate atmosphere that made her want each second to pa.s.s by faster. But then…

“Me too.”

“It’s the same for me.”

Such short and quiet comments resounded through the hall. They were the murmurs of Exploration Club members from unknown schools whose faces she was seeing for the first time.

“I always make sure to properly save, you know? But I can’t go back to my save point.”

That joke spoken by someone provoked mild laughter.

That laughter was something that Homura hadn’t intentionally aimed for at all.

………Phew…

In the midst of that laughter, she felt as if she was being hit by a sharp gaze.

Was it one of the UN officials in the VIP seats? Or from one of the club presidents? She couldn’t say who for sure, but she felt as if she were being evaluated by someone, which made her s.h.i.+ver slightly.

But that feeling faded away soon after, and the audience’s attention turned away from her as the next new club member was introduced. Well, that was only to be expected.

“Hi, I’m Fujimori Ameno!” The pet.i.te girl jumped up from her seat. “I’m the newest and youngest club member in the country. The truth is… I’m actually a robot.”

As Ameno puffed up her chest proudly, various affected reactions came from the audience, such as “No way that’s true”, “Wow, she watches way too much anime”, “We can’t tell for sure unless she strips down”, and “That aside, she is cute”.

Ameno listened to them all with a deeply moved expression.

“Right!? I also feel that I’m quite human-like… Huh…?”

Ameno tried to clap her hands happily, but one of her wrists suddenly detached and her hand fell to the desk with a clang.

From her severed wrist, there were clearly mechanical tubes and cables peeking out, and even small gears fell out and rolled over the desk. Ameno’s face turned pale at the sight—

Shocked, Homura reflexively leaned away from her. But, after Ameno had fully basked in the tense atmosphere filling the hall, she poked out her real hand from inside her parka’s sleeve.

“It was a sleight of hand. Literally. Ehehe.”

“A-All right, I believe that’s all from Seiran High! Umm, everyone, please try to keep the jokes to a reasonable level. Next is Hamamatsu Central Engineering—wait, why are you wearing masks!?”

On stage, Nagas.h.i.+no, who had constantly been checking her watch, wore a faint expression as she was left at a complete loss.

And with that harmonious atmosphere filling the hall, the new club member introductions eventually came to an end.

The introduced new members were not just limited to first years, but also included a few second year students who had recently joined.

But what really surprised Homura was the existence of Exploration Club members who had no affiliated school. Amongst the audience seats that were organized according to school, the section where these students were gathered stood out.

Following moderator Oozore’s urging, the nine students there all stood up together. They were high school students like everyone else, but they wore various school uniforms and their school years were also diverse.

They were called reserve members.

After finis.h.i.+ng each of their introductions, Oozore offered a supplemental explanation.

“I will explain the reserve member system as simply as possible. Unfortunately, reserve members do not yet have a base to serve their own Exploration Club. Each is enrolled at various different public or private high school inst.i.tutions.

“There are three main reasons for this: there is no school with an Exploration Club in their commuting vicinity; they are unable to find other members with sufficient IE Responses to make a club; or the environment on Nutella that corresponds to their school’s location on Earth is unsuitable for making a base.

“However, due to the reserve member system, applicants can partic.i.p.ate in expeditions by going to other nearby schools. Three reserve members from the Sapporo district partic.i.p.ate at Tomakomai Denpa High, two reserve members from the Sendai district partic.i.p.ate at Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High, and four reserve members from the Kyoto district and the Nara-Wakayama district partic.i.p.ate at Nagumo High. The reserve members provisionally join the Exploration Clubs at these schools and partic.i.p.ate in exploration activities and practical training in joint cooperation with the local club members.

“For all of you who have partic.i.p.ated in exploration activities on Nutella, this goes without saying, but this is a very crucial part of the preparations for them to make their own Exploration Clubs in the future. They may be called reserve members, but they are genuine young investigators just like the rest of us. I’d like for everyone to take the opportunity to freely form and deepen relations.h.i.+ps amongst each other during this year’s SA.”

After those last words by Oozore, loud applause rang out for the nine reserve members.

“……Huh…”

Homura, who of course had failed to follow Oozore’s explanations, constantly asked questions to Touya next to her, and inwardly summarized it to herself.

In other words, they were members who had yet to establish a base camp somewhere and were still left wandering aimlessly. Basically, they were freely doing part-time work until they managed to gather comrades.

“—Something like that, right? Right?”

“Ah? …I guess?”

Though, Touya’s expression was dubious as he responded.

However, to Homura, they were definitely dazzling beings overflowing with pa.s.sion for adventure, just like Misasagi-senpai who had continued to be an investigator even when the Seiran High club’s activities were suspended by going over to Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High (according to what Homura heard from Touya).

“Well, since we have the chance to meet them in person, let’s go ask them what it’s actually like for them.”

“Yeah, why not?”

At last, they moved on to today’s main program, the presentation of every school’s exploration results.

Homura pondered as she looked over the map of every school in j.a.pan on the screen.

“I see… Paired schools, huh…”

It was a term that had been brought up during the introduction of new members.

Homura had already experienced it for herself, but the meeting made her conscious of the concept of paired schools once more. It was a natural, everyday part of the lives of club members, requiring no special explanation.

Paired schools basically referred to schools that operated in the same area on Nutella and were close to each other in j.a.pan on Earth as well.

Seiran High and Hiyos.h.i.+zaka High were an example of this. Other examples included: the Ecchuu Takaoka Industrial Arts School in Toyama Prefecture and Kanazawa Asano High in Is.h.i.+kawa Prefecture; Hamamatsu Central Technical School in s.h.i.+zuoka Prefecture and Mikawakotobuki High in Aichi Prefecture; Osaka Prefectural School Nagumo High and Nadahama High in Hyougo Prefecture; Miyajima High in Hiros.h.i.+ma Prefecture and Tazatani High in Ehime Prefecture; and Nagato Fisheries School in Tamaguchi Prefecture and Hakozaki High in f.u.kuoka Prefecture. Each of these paired schools had a cooperative system with each other.