June 2nd, 2023

Deep within the ancient, creaking halls of the Sonozaki estate, shenanigans were afoot. Thick futons hissed as they were dragged over the hardwood floors, and furniture scraped and creaked as they were pulled into position on the groaning timbers.

Mion, you see, had declared that they build a pillow fort.

And what the club president declared, the rest of the club would do.

All the couches and armchairs in the room had been briskly assessed for height and sturdiness –as well as texture, since the slipperiness or lack thereof would be key in pinning blankets or tucking them under heavy pillows to cement their position. Then, under the guidance of Satoko, they began pushing, pulling, and dragging them into various positions.

Using her practical knowledge of physics and architecture, Satoko had declared that they should put and armchair with its back against the wall, then put a long couch about a meter away, also parallel to the wall. While the others continued setting up the chairs, Hanyuu took a long white sheet and tugged the armchair back for a moment, slipping it over the edge before setting it back against the wall, leaving the sheet half-draped over the back. She then took pulled the sheet towards the couch until she could drape the other side of the short end over the back of it, effectively forming an abbreviated curtain.

Then, glancing over her shoulder frequently, she drew the rest of the sheet backwards, laying it over the archin back of the couch and stretching it out as the thin white cloth soared several feet above the ground, forming a rectangular awning between couch, chair, and wall. Unfortunately, one edge –the edge against the wall– sagged, until Mion handed Hanyuu a broom that she could use to wrap the sheet around and prop up against the wall. Then, because this was a very thin pillar indeed, she piled several pillows around the straw base of the broom, propping it up on every side.

They used a high table to form the cornerstone between this passage and the actual wall corner, lifting up its tablecloth to carefully drape over the broom and the edge of the couch –two couches, actually, since Satoko had been carefully directing them to build an L shape in the corner of the room, with another pole-pillar in the form of a mop leaning precariously between the wall and the table's edge.

Across the room, another "wing" of this fortress was being constructed against the opposite wall, this one with a longer roof made out of what once might have been the raw material for a banner, the pale blue sheet stretching wider and longer along the couch and ending in a much-smaller nightstand table and a rolled-up carpet propped against the corner of the two walls.

Clothespins served as a valuable building tool from where Rena sat carefully on the edge of one of the three couches facing inwards, their backs forming the walls of this three-passage fort. She pinned several large square sheets together, end to end, and then approached the corners of the fort, beginning to carefully lay them over the edge of the table and the seats of the couches, working her way to one side. In the corner with the carpet and the nightstand holding up the sheets, she had pinned another, extra patch sticking up out of her awning, and she draped it over the gap between the two couches before continuing to lay the sheets on the arms and pillows of the other couch.

And then, finally, Shion had dragged in a series of hardbacked chairs from the dining room, and Rena draped the final portion of her sheets over them, filling up the center of their double-winged fort and creating a mysterious, cozy entrance. Three entrances did it have: one against each outer wall of the actually room itself, and this final one in the center, leading to the low-draped sheets and the right-hand hole into the higher passages against the wall.

With their fort duly constructed, everyone exchanged giddy grins and dove inside. Rika and Satoko popped through the low central entrance between the couches, wiggling under the sheets that hung less than a handsbreadth above their backs. Rena and Hanyuu ducked their heads, scuttling beneath one of the outer wings and crawling their way along the wall with muffled giggles. Satoshi, slower and quieter, crawled his way along the other, humming in appreciation as he reached the left-hand corner and curled there, careful not to disturb the broom-pillar.

And Mion, Shion, and Keiichi all raced to grab flashlights, before following the others with excited whoops. Keiichi, having been most shamefully deprived of the true glories of blanket fort due to his cramped city living, grinned like a madman as he wiggled on his belly under the center hole, looking at Rika and Satoko, who were small enough that they could army-crawl on their elbows without brushing the sheet-ceiling, as they grinned and giggled back at him.

"All right!" Mion laughed from the center wing of the blanket fort, her flashlight clicking on. "We, the Hinamizawa Club, are now gathered here today for a strategy meeting against the most feared and infamous General Winter! I propose hot chocolate and ghost stories in a rota schedule!"

10.07 AM, USA Central Time