CH 31

Title: The Unfamiliar Student Council

It was after school.

Arina and I were led to the student council’s classroom by Tsuru.

“So this is the student council.”

As you could imagine, the room had its desks arranged in a U-shape with a large whiteboard at the front. Other than that, it was an unassuming room.

There were a total of eight people in the room, including the president, vice president, and a group of unknown homo sapiens. I didn’t know whether this amount of people was small or large.

Some of them looked horrified to see us. Of course, they were looking at Arina rather than me.

I decided to introduce myself first. Although the student council wanted help, they didn’t expect me and Arina, and especially Arina, to be here. To get to know each other, I introduced myself first.

Gotta show them I’m not an enemy, since they were wary.

“I’m Sakaki Sui. Sui as in the ‘sui’ in ‘suisei’[1]. I’m in the second year class two, same as Tsuru. I’m a novice when it comes to student council stuff, but I’ll do my best to be of use. I’ll be in your care for a while.”

With a bow, I finished introducing myself.

Now came Arina, the problem.

“Hiwa Arina. Nice to meet you.”

Oh my god, this chick…. I couldn’t help but play the straight man.

“Arina, you… are you going to die or something if you introduce yourself with more than ten words?”

“Oh, shut up. I don’t want to hear that from someone who introduced themselves in one of the most basic ways possible. It’s cold.”

She spat that out and raised up her middle finger.

The act of raising one’s middle finger is an extremely vulgar action. I couldn’t help but grip her middle finger firmly. It was a rare version of her middle finger.

And she slapped me.

I think it was somewhat better than being hit with goo. I was about to faint. I don’t remember if it was with a mechanical pencil or not, but the slap was more gentle than the time I got stabbed. Regardless, the impact still blurred my vision.

“Now then, let’s have us student council members introduce ourselves!”, Tsuru said.

Are you sure? Arina’s like an AI reading out serial numbers. Do you really want to?

“I’m the student council president, Seki. Seki Jun. We don’t really interact since I’m in class four. Thanks for coming!”

He struck me as kind of a hot-headed and straightforward type of guy. He had pure and innocent eyes. What a far cry from the rose next to me.

Just when I was thinking that, she stomped on my foot. Seems like she’s an esper. By all means, go fight head-on with Uri Geller[2]. I’ll bet a dollar.

Although this is rude, the name Seki Jun is pretty interesting. Seki Jun, seki jun, sekijun[3]. It really is interesting.

The vice president, secretary, the school festival officer, the sports festival officer, and so on, and so forth, followed with their own introductions. To be honest, I didn’t remember any of them. I only remembered sekijun[4]— wait, no, the student council president Seki Jun, and Tsuru.

Human memory was like that and their self-introductions only amounted to that much. Self-introductions were very important to any organization or environment. A vivid first impression was strong. If your introduction is boring, it’ll be the only thing to determine what people think of you. Therefore, the more unique, the better.

In that sense, it was probably a good idea to have Arina introduce herself the way she did. People want to get to know the people that stand out. I didn’t know if she herself was aware of that. But it’ll have an effect.

Since Arina and I would be helping out at the festival, we’ll be talking with the school festival officer.

The school festival officer is Saeki Shiho, a student in the same grade as us, who played the role of connecting the student council and the school festival committee.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Saeki Shiho. I just introduced myself. Once again, I’ll be in your care!”

“Same here. I wanna ask a few quick questions, okay?”

“Of course!”

“The festival is in about three weeks, but what can we do right now?”

I was sure all the class and club entries should have been submitted and finished by now, and they should be slowly taking shape. Both of us thought there was nothing for us to do if we followed the school festival officer. There wasn’t really anything for us to interfere with, as the students were still executing their plans.

What would we do then, if that was the case?

“The opening of the festival requires the coordination of the student council, which needs cooperation with the festival committee. The student council is the main organizer with other high schools, the public, and teachers, so the student council will be busy.

I mean, we need to flesh out the festival. So we have a lot to do.”

I couldn’t completely understand Shiho’s explanation in one go, so I glanced at Arina to ask for help with my eyes.

But Arina was listening to Shiho without a single glance. She was very motivated.

She began to speak as if to prove her motivation.

“I’ll help you. We’ll just have to make do with this paperweight.”

“Why are you calling me a paperweight?”

“Because you’re annoying.”

I don’t get it. What do you have against paperweights? I decided to let it slide so the conversation could keep going.

I think I’m starting to get how I should handle Arina. I’ve learned that I’m out of tune whenever I’m having a conversation with her. For example, I might say 1 + 1 = 2, to which she might reply, 1 + 1 = Pteranodon. It sounded impossible, but that was the kind of girl she is. It wasn’t anything to get worked up over.

Saeki Shiho then briefly summarized the schedule and roles that were planned at the moment. That was the end of the first day, so we’ll actually start working in earnest tomorrow.

Honestly, I was still worried since I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. In contrast, Arina, in a resolute manner, was listening from start to finish. I thought she was a different person.

“Did you understand what you’re doing?”, I asked, as we walked together to the gates.

“Pretty much. The student council didn’t give us anything specific, so some parts don’t add up, but I can pretty much imagine.”

“As expected.”

“Guess it’s too hard for an axolotl to understand.”

“At least make me a mammal.”

Notes:

[1] Sui’s name is written with the kanji 彗(sui) from the word 彗星 (suisei), meaning comet

[2] This dude.

[3] The name ‘Seki Jun’ was written in different ways. The first is written with the kanjis 関潤 (what he introduced himself with), the second is written in hiragana as せきじゅん, and the third is written with the kanjis 席順 (translation: seat order)

[4] Sui accidentally used the kanjis 席順 instead of 関潤

T/N: I accidentally deleted everything as I was almost finished with the chapter, so I had to redo the chapter. Pain.