Chapter 31 – Reset Era
Two weeks passed.
The clubroom had changed.
Not in layout or decoration—there were still boxes of outdated event posters, a dusty trophy in the corner, and half-drunk tea cups abandoned near the window. But the atmosphere had shifted. Heavier. Focused. The jokes still flew, but they landed differently.
Kotarō walked in and was met with the smell of markers and printed paper. Souta was standing on a chair, drawing a tactical map of debate flow on the whiteboard. Mikako was hunched over a laptop typing line after line of prep notes. Haruka sat cross-legged near the bookshelves, red pen in hand, grading last week's mock rebuttals.
On the whiteboard, written in bold red marker:
NEXT WEEK: SPAR MATCH vs KOGANEI EAST
Mikako looked up. "Welcome to the deep end."
She tossed Kotarō a printout titled: Spar Match Structure & Expectations.
"We're facing one of the best structured teams in the prefecture. WSDC rules. Full recording. Two external judges from K University."
"Filmed?"
Souta landed from the chair with a thud. "And if we survive, next semester we request a spar against Nishihara West. But one tragedy at a time."
Mikako clapped her hands once. "Focus. Here's the plan."
Three full speeches.Rotating roles between matches.Real past WSDC motions.Mock POIs allowed mid-speech, with feedback rounds from judges.
"We're not aiming to win the spar," Mikako said. "We're aiming to bleed, then learn where we bled from."
(Kotarō Internal)
"They talk about being crushed like it's a training drill. No wonder they're still standing."
Halfway through the meeting, Kotarō stared at the name list again. Just four.
"Wasn't there more of you?" he asked suddenly. "Back when I visited... there were at least six or seven people here."
Mikako glanced up, then leaned back.
"There were," she said. "All third-years. Haruka, Souta, and I were the only underclassmen."
Haruka added, "They started stepping back right after the finals. Studying. Interviews. University mock tests. The usual."
Mikako shrugged. "We didn't lose them. They just timed out."
(Kotarō Internal)
"So we're not the next wave.
We're the wave."
"The rest of the club moved on.
Even Ayumu."
Haruka nodded, confirming his thought. "Ayumu too. He's applying to Kokusai University. Language specialization. He hasn't debated since the finals."
Mikako added, "Some of the older members are helping coach middle schools or mentoring debate teams at cram academies. They still drop in sometimes, but they're gone from the roster."
Kotarō stared at the whiteboard for a moment longer. The thought hit him slowly.
"Wait... if the third-years stepped down," he said quietly, "and I'm the only new one who joined..."
Haruka looked over.
He frowned. "We don't have any first-years."
Mikako sighed. "Nope. Zero. Nada. We tried a booth at the club fair. No one bit."
Souta added, "They all joined dance club, music club, or wanted to make YouTube content. None of them liked structured argument unless it involved anime power scaling."
(Kotarō Internal)
"So this is it.
Four people. No successors.
No backups."
Souta tapped the whiteboard.
"Which leaves us four.
And Koganei East is no joke. They made nationals twice. Never placed, but they're clean.
Their second speaker last year got a perfect logic score. And he did it with a cold."
Mikako muttered, "Show-off."
Haruka looked at Kotarō.
"They're precise. Clinical. Think Ayumu, but no flair. Just impact."
"And Nishihara West?" Kotarō asked.
"They're the opposite," Mikako said. "Flamboyant. Aggressive. They take risks. They'll drop an entire point just to land one poetic blow. And it works."
Souta added, "We sparred them once last year. Our reply speaker was so rattled, she tried to rebut her own team by mistake."
Kotarō raised an eyebrow.
"They really lived through all this.
Now it's just us."
Mikako stepped back from the board.
"This is a reset era. We're the rebuild team.
If we make a mark this year, we become the standard for next."
Haruka added, "And if we don't... the club fades for a while. Like it has before."
Souta laid a file labeled "Opponent Strategy Dossier" on the center desk.
"Then let the new age begin," he said grandly. "And may we survive Koganei East with at least one metaphor intact."
Kotarō didn't laugh. But he did reach for the file.
"No more ghosts.
Just four names.
And a scoreboard that hasn't been written yet."
Chapter End