Chapter 40: The Imperial Army Asked Me to Bring You a Message (Not)
At Domino High School, there was always one large entertainment event each school year, aimed at helping students relax outside of their studies. That was the Domino High School Cultural Festival.
During this celebration, students would confidently arrange activities as classes, clubs, or free combinations. They could set up Shops in designated areas to sell items, or perform shows on the stage in the School plaza.
Whether it was a fortune-telling booth, a shooting game, a barbecue stall, or a maid cafe; whether it was singing and dancing, composing senryu, martial arts performances, or rakugo and manzai, anyone could showcase their strengths and express themselves at the Cultural Festival, releasing their stress to the maximum.
Although Hayato didn't think that some students, who were used to being lax, would have any stress. Yes, he was talking about Manjoume Shouji, who planned to perform on the Cultural Festival stage and then Confess to "Little Ribbon" Nosaka Miho.
"Damn Manjoume!" Tristan sat in his seat, vigorously writing something on a piece of corrugated cardboard. If you leaned closer to look, you could clearly see a large pile of words like "Shameless," "Bastard," and "Brazen."
Joey Wheeler , however, had an indifferent expression. He patted Tristan 's shoulder and said, "Ultimately, isn't it because you haven't given her the Puzzle yet? If you don't give it to her today, it might be too late, you know?"
"Maybe, 'Little Ribbon' will see that Manjoume Confess to her and, in a rush of emotion, agree. 'Oh, Manjoume-kun is so cool, he actually Confessed to me in public, I'm so shy, but it's so romantic~' Something like that."
"Uh, Hayato, don't be like that, it feels really weird." Joey Wheeler had a constipated expression. "Logically, I should feel disgusted, but why do I feel like you were a little cute just now?"
Shocking, is there a boy next to me? Hayato was a bit startled by Joey Wheeler 's surprising statement and quickly returned to normal. He was just trying to make a joke, good heavens, he almost lost his innocence? No wonder Kujaku Mai always kept her distance from you later on. And thinking about how the simp Valon only thought about you when dueling you, it gets even weirder.
"Instead of thinking about those things, let's finish the work at hand," Téa said, holding a pair of scissors and cutting the corrugated cardboard. "Our group was assigned the Airsoft Gun Game. Although Tristan provided the Guns, the number of cardboard pieces needed for playing the game is not small."
Hayato's Class planned to hold a "Game Carnival" at the Cultural Festival. They chose three games as the main attractions, with a group responsible for each project. Hayato's group was assigned the "Airsoft Gun Game." As the name suggests, it was a game where you used an airsoft Gun to aim and shoot down "target figures" made of corrugated cardboard placed at varying distances, and then win prizes based on your score.
Although the power of the airsoft Guns wasn't great, the targets would inevitably deform if the game was played many times. So, after making enough targets, Hayato and the others still needed to prepare a considerable number of spare replacements. A large stack of corrugated cardboard was placed on the game tables; those were the materials they used to make the targets.
Just as the few of them were gathered around the game desks, cutting cardboard, Tristan suddenly felt something and turned his head to look at the Classroom door. He saw "Little Ribbon" Nosaka Miho with a panicked expression, running into the Classroom and coming up to Téa . Breathing heavily, she said, " Téa -chan, s-s-something terrible happened! Our Class's spot is gone!"
"What!?" As the Cultural Festival Committee Member elected by Class B, Téa immediately stood up from her seat upon hearing this news. "Nosaka-chan, quickly explain what happened."
" Téa , don't be so anxious. Student Nosaka is very tired from running over." Tristan looked at his crush panting heavily with exhaustion, feeling a bit heartbroken, but seeing the strands of hair on her cheeks stuck to her face with sweat, revealing a vulnerable expression, he also felt quite moved.
"It's okay, Tristan -kun." After taking a few deep breaths, Nosaka Miho managed to recover a little. After telling Tristan that she was fine, she began to explain the situation that occurred at the Cultural Festival Field.
According to the Rules of the Cultural Festival, after each Class finished arranging their activities and submitted them to the School, Classes that needed a Field could obtain a plot of land through a lottery to set up their Shops. Since tomorrow was the start of the Cultural Festival, while the groups responsible for game preparation were making the props needed for the games, the other free students went to the Field to start setting up in advance.
Logically, every Class had participated in the lottery, and the space the School allocated for students to hold the Cultural Festival was also very large. It was basically impossible for students to conflict with each other over Field issues. But there was always that small group of people who liked to challenge the Rules.
Just as Nosaka Miho and other students from Class B were setting up the Field for their Class's "Game Carnival," people from Class D suddenly appeared led by their Class's Cultural Festival Committee Member. They claimed that this Field had belonged to Class D for the past three years and, acting extremely aggressively, they broke in and Destroyed the set-up Field before leaving a large, thick iron plate as proof of their occupation of that Field.
After causing a scene and being unreasonable, the guy from Class D named "Pig-Head Goro" didn't stop there. He even demanded that the people from Class B do manual labor for their Cultural Festival Field setup as "compensation for occupying their Field." Several boys refused Pig-Head Goro's unreasonable demand and were severely beaten up as a result.
Hayato couldn't help but feel a little nostalgic for the Demon Prefect Ushio Tetsu, who had gone insane and dropped out of School after being messed with by Yugi. When that guy was at School, the School's discipline was actually quite good. How could trash like Class D's Pig-Head Goro dare to act so arrogantly as they were now?
However, Hayato also knew that the reason Ushio Tetsu could maintain such strict discipline was actually because he himself was the biggest villain in the School at the time. Although he would maintain order, he would extort huge protection fees from those he "protected," so he wasn't a good person either.
But at least he was better than those bastards who took protection fees but did nothing.
"Those hateful guys! Hey Tristan , stop cursing Manjoume and come with me to teach those guys a good lesson." The hot-tempered Joey Wheeler couldn't sit still after hearing that people from his Class were bullied. He immediately stood up and started looking for a suitable weapon, calling out to Tristan .
Honda's face was even more indignant than Joey Wheeler 's. "My fists are already itching." Seeing Nosaka Miho's tearful appearance when talking about how the Field they had worked hard to set up today was Destroyed, Tristan 's anger was already at 1000%.
"Don't be so impulsive, Tristan -kun, Joey Wheeler -kun." Seeing that Tristan and Joey Wheeler had already set their sights on the large metal triangle ruler the Teacher used for class, "Little Ribbon" quickly stopped the impulsive duo. "Pig-Head Goro from Class D said he wanted me to bring a message to everyone in the Class."