Chapter 8
Part 1
It was a sunny morning in School Garden.
Cicadas had started their daily concert quite early and were now filling up the district with buzzing sounds. White doves were flying around the school courtyards and parks as if patrolling the area. Students were walking around the town, freshly after breakfast.
It was still early summer.
The building of prestigious Tokiwadai Middle School was standing proudly in the rays of sun.
Inside, the classrooms as well as corridors were empty. Regular classes were not occurring due to the summer vacation break, but club activities and clique meetings still had to be practiced on the school's property, so at certain parts of the building, you could find students.
However, it did not change the fact that Tokiwadai was much, much quieter than usual. After all, students were closed in separate rooms placed all-throughout the giant school building, so there were almost no sounds at all. The beautiful courtyard and the Academy City in the distance you could see through the windows seemed more alive than this old, dusty school.
But besides club rooms and clique meeting spots, there was also one particular room that was barely ever left empty.
This place was very important, with special students designated to do work there. And it wasn't a club activity room, nor a clique base.
It was a far more serious and demanding work, but at Tokiwadai Middle School there were plenty of dedicated volunteers doing it.
Somewhere in the north wing, all the way at the back of the campus, in a place designated for administrative offices for the school where only teachers and staff members could be found, at the very back of the wide corridor, there was a modest room with white doors.
Here, where the old European style was abandoned, everything was bright and simple. There were no dark woods, no gold embellishments, no antique chandeliers and no velvet curtains. This part of the school was as plain and simple as a plate of curry. It served its purpose just right, without the additional expense and trouble of making it look stunning.
In the quiet and empty Tokiwadai Middle School, there was surprisingly a lot of noises coming out of the room. With the voices of people inside, the printer working in the background and the banging on the table noticeable even from away, it was safe to say that whatever was happening in the room was serious work, rather than just a club or clique meeting.
What student would have to work in this beautiful sunny morning? And why?
A high-pitched voice of a middle school girl resounded on the other side of the white doors.
"Is the list of participants final?"
"Yes, the applications for the entries closed 2 days ago. I'm now printing the final document."
"Makigami-san, I'm sending you the information I've received from the official Committee."
"Alright, thank you."
Three girls were sitting in a cluttered, cramped space. They shared a big table in the middle of the room, each staring at a different computer screen. Stacks of papers, documents and notebooks were also lying around the room as if they were decorations.
This was a Judgment Office.
A place where volunteering students would meet to handle all kinds of subjects and issues, from reporting student conflicts to helping in managing the school's council. With every school having their own Judgment branch, the organization worked as a big, protective spiderweb to stop criminal activity within each branch's jurisdiction and support the adult military force - Anti Skill.
However, most of the time, the tasks revolved around filing paperwork.
One of the girls sitting in the room had chestnut-colored, curly pigtails tied with red ribbons. She was leaning on her petite hand, as her face was grimacing at the computer screen.
"I'm looking through the declined applications and... there are so many."
Even though she spoke loudly, the sounds of the printer drowned her voice a bit.
The girl sitting across the table had short braided pigtails and a child-like face. Both of them looked young enough to assume that they were first-year students.
"Yeah... This year has definitely been much busier than previously." She sighed. "I think it's because of the rising competition from Nagatenjouki. I've heard some cliques were not happy with another school catching up to us in the rankings."
The chestnut-haired girl rolled her eyes.
"Would that many people really throw themselves into such a demanding and boring event just to prove something?"
"It's Tokiwadai after all. And even though this year's list is completely full, notice how there are barely any individual students that aren't involved with any clique. It's mostly just group projects that are supposed to serve as great advertising." The third girl in the room spoke, with a much lower voice. "Makigami-san, did you get the document?"
"Oh, yes. I will go through it right now."
The girl with curly pigtails looked over at the window.
"Academy City Research Exhibition Assembly, huh...?" She mumbled to herself. "What a pain."
Yes. It was a month away from a big, city-wide event in which top students could present their scientific researches. Generally, the participants were high schoolers or college students with lots of experience and knowledge in their fields, but the students of Tokiwadai were showing a lot of interest in the event as well, despite being just middle schoolers.
After all, the school's curriculum was on such a high level, it allowed them to be able to compete with anyone, college age or not.
This girl, whose chestnut-colored hair was tied with red ribbons, had no interest in the event, however. She was a part of the school's Judgment team, so her duty was to get all the documents, contact the committee, set up a plan for the exhibition and help with security.
A ton of paperwork was yet ahead of her.
She sighed deeply while closing her tired eyes.
(I could be now spending time with my dear Onee-sama... Why am I doing this instead?)
The girl lamented in her thoughts while the cicadas' buzzing played a background song.
How was she able to hear them now?
"?"
The printer had stopped.
She had now realized it.
"Kuroko-san!" The petite girl with short braids passed her a small pile of papers. "Here."
The chestnut-haired girl picked it up and looked at it reluctantly.
"So this is the final document with all of the participants' information?"
"Yes. Check if everything's correct while I e-mail the Committee."
She nodded and proceeded to flip the stitched pages.
The documents all had a similar-looking layout. There were the students' ID photos on the left side, a row of brackets containing their personal information, then the name and address of the facility and/or school they used for their research, as well as their application letter and school ID.
The girl was flipping through familiar faces, as everyone on this list of documents was a Tokiwadai Middle School student. She recalled them by their affiliation to various clubs and cliques and such.
However, something she did not expect had slightly surprised her.
She leaned on her hand again and scoffed quietly.
"Funny. I'm not seeing anyone from Shokuhou's clique." She said with a smirk while flipping the pages. "Maybe they realized everyone was hopping on the trend and they wanted to stand out."
The girl on the opposite side of the table smiled bitterly.
"No, it's for a different reason." She responded with a troubled tone. "Last year, when some of the clique members participated, a huge crowd came to the presentation after they've heard Shokuhou-san was going to be there. So the hall was full, with even an autograph session being held afterwards, but the rest of the presentations got completely outshined and people left as soon as Shokuhou-san had to go. This, of course, did not go unnoticed by the committee, so in the end, the Shokuhou Clique got banned for using a celebrity figure to attract audience, while the rules say that advertising should be solely project-based. And that's why they can't participate ever since."
The pigtails girl raised her eyebrows.
"I doubt it's a big loss for them." She said in a monotone voice. "Someone like Shokuhou Misaki is too big of a deal for a boring little event like that to handle. When a participant is bigger than the establishment, it's just not a fair game, is it?"
She flipped another page and her eyes widened.
"Akiyama Izumi..."
The third Judgment girl, who was wearing glasses and a headband, looked over at her colleague.
"Ah, right! There's been a lot of talk about her project, huh."
"From all of the cliques, she's probably the most anticipated participant."
The pigtails girl raised her eyebrows.
"Really?"
The girl with glasses nodded.
"This project is apparently going to determine her position at Tokiwadai. Some say she could even surpass the Queen in popularity if it ends up being a success."
The chestnut-haired girl grimaced confused.
"Hm? What are you talking about?"
The two other students exchanged an oblivious glance.
"Don't you know, Kuroko-san?"
"Akiyama Izumi used to be in the Big Three of Tokiwadai two years ago."
"For a long time, she was the number 1, too."
"Huuh..."
The pigtails girl did not seem too impressed. She leaned back in her chair and kept looking at the document.
"But she lost all of her power, fame and prestige as soon as the 1st-year Level 5s arrived the next year."
"You see, Akiyama Izumi used to be the strongest electromaster of Tokiwadai, but Misaka-san took her place."
The chestnut-haired girl placed the papers on the table and looked at her colleagues with a surprised face.
"Onee-sama did?"
The girl wearing glasses put a finger up and spoke confidently.
"After losing her title, her clique immediately dropped down from the Top 3, but she was still pretty relevant in the school."
"The worst was yet to happen. A couple weeks after that, the second new Level 5, Shokuhou Misaki, created the clique we know now as the biggest in Tokiwadai. She surpassed everybody in the Big Three in a very short amount of time and is staying on the very top of the hierarchy to this day."
"Akiyama lost everything that year. The Biggest Clique Title, The Strongest Electromaster Title. She was so devastated and her position was so weak that she could not participate in the Research Exhibition Assembly. An event she was famous for winning in."
"Yes, they say she was at her lowest then. However." The girl adjusted her glasses and formed her lips in a tiny smirk. "The following year, two of her biggest clique competitors graduated and also the excitement caused by the Level 5s seemed to have calmed down. In the meantime, her clique grew by a couple of members and her reputation got better. For a couple of weeks now, there has been a huge rumor going around regarding Akiyama Izumi's project."
"Yes, apparently it's going to be something that has never been done before. A scientific wonder, they say."
The chestnut-haired girl sighed exasperated.
"All this blabber... For a person who could not maintain her position for 1 year? Please." She scoffed mockingly. "Of course Onee-sama would outshine someone like that."
A troubled expression painted her colleague's face.
"D-Don't say that. People have high hopes for her, even outside of the school."
"The project is rumored to be so big and ambitious that the clique had to be given an entire power plant, with a huge staff and cutting-edge technology."
The girl with two pigtails tilted her head.
"A power plant?"
She immediately grabbed the papers on the table and took a closer look at the brackets near Akiyama Izumi's photo.
She had to make sure that what she had heard was true.
And...
Her eyes widened.
"Y-You're right. District 7's Nagayama Power Station. They even own the offices for the time being." She uttered surprised. "The stamps all look legitimate, too. But how?"
The other Judgment girl held her chin with her hand as she closed her eyes.
"Hmm... well, I did hear a bunch of rumors, but nobody really knows the answer."
The pigtails girl frowned nervously and leaned on her hand.
"I mean, after a year of nothing but failure and stagnancy? That's very unusual." She said with confidence. "Clearly the clique did not have enough funds or resources. So how?"
The girl with glasses raised her index finger.
"I've heard a rumor saying that her parents got informed about her unsuccessful year and decided to gift her the facility for a second chance."
"Oh, really? I-I guess that makes sense."
"Hmm..."
The chestnut-haired girl put her hand near her mouth and looked down onto the document. As a Judgment member, confusion made her more frustrated than anything.
But.
...
Her colleague's voice reached her ears.
The girl on the opposite side of the table groaned loudly while stretching her arms above her head.
"Hnn, I'm finally done!"
"Did you send the e-mail already?"
"Yes, the Committee just needs to approve some of the requirements our students asked for and I'm done for the day."
The pigtails girl smiled tiredly and closed her eyes.
"I'll quickly finish checking the documents and send them to the student council." She said while closing the stapled documents.
"Are you going to the 177th branch office later, Shirai-san?" The girl with glasses asked casually. "You said you had some business there yesterday."
She received a deep sigh in response.
The chestnut-haired girl slumped her shoulders and grimaced.
"I'm not. The plans have changed and now I have something to do here." She spoke in a tired, monotone voice. "I almost forgot about that."
She placed her wobbly hands on her face as her two colleagues smiled bitterly towards her.
"Wh-What is it, Kuroko-san?"
The pigtails girl groaned and leaned in her chair.
She removed her hands only from the eyes and gave her Judgement partner a dead look.
"Some girls from our school apparently broke the curfew yesterday and got caught." She responded bluntly. "Watanabe-sensei decided to give them our task of getting documents from the clubs."
"For the advertisement stalls? We had to start getting them next week, right?"
"Mhm."
The glasses-wearing girl scratched her cheek.
"But doing it now is a bit early, isn't it? We still haven't gotten the layout and precise locations of the stalls."
"At least they're taking some work off of our shoulders." The short-haired girl said while cleaning her desk from papers. "But what do you have to do with this, Kuroko-san?"
The chestnut-haired girl frowned and looked over at the courtyard in the window.
"A Judgment member has to collect all the documents and information they get from the clubs and cliques and send them to the council. This time, the Judgment member ended up being me."
"Poor girls." The young lady with glasses giggled.
"I'M THE POOR ONE HERE! I HAVE TO WAIT FOR THEM TO FINISH AND I HAVE NO IDEA HOW LONG IT'S GONNA TAKE! I COULD BE STAYING HERE UNTIL DARK! I HAVE TOO MANY DAYS OF SUMMER WASTED ALREADY!"
The pigtails girl screamed frustrated.
She then slumped onto her desk and groaned exhausted.
"Do your best, Shirai-saaan..."
"Don't give uuuup!"
But while banging her head against the wooden table, only one thing was going over her head.
(Onee-sama, where are you?!)
Part 2
"There you go."
"Um..."
Somebody passed a paper to the hands of a middle school girl.
In a lonely courtyard filled with sunlight and the buzzing of cicadas, an elegant-looking lady was standing with her hands resting on her hips.
A group of five Tokiwadai Middle School students in front of her was checking the document they had received.
"I'm sure you've already been told everything earlier today, right?" The woman spoke in a mature voice. "You have a whole day to complete this so I'm sure time won't be an issue. I also made sure to double check if all the clubs and cliques are present today, so you should be able to find them."
The girls she was talking to were not listening.
But not because they were trying to be rude or disrespectful.
Their whole attention was focused on the piece of paper they had been given.
They were carefully analyzing it, while small drops of sweat started to appear on their foreheads and their eyes started to widen.
The lady wearing a navy blue blazer did not seem to care.
She breathed a short sigh and opened her mouth to speak.
"Any more questions?"
Somebody in that group squealed.
"N-No..."
"Great." The older lady smiled. "I'm counting on you."
Part 3
A white piece of paper started to flutter and tremble in the Tokiwadai courtyard.
But not because there was an abnormally strong wind outside or because somebody threw it into the air.
Two petite hands were holding it tightly, while shaking and shivering nervously.
A group of four girls was moving towards the school building, while a trembling, defeated voice started to mutter.
" 'With the annual Academy City Exhibition Research Assembly approaching, the students of our school have started to engage in intense preparations. Various clubs have been asked to help with our students' advertising campaigns for the event and the Committee requires detailed documentation regarding advertisement, as well as all the companies that will be providing services for it. The students who do participate in the Assembly will also have to present their documentation as well as a legal license for the event. Please note that most of the participants from our school are affiliated with unofficial factions, so additional certificate will be required in most cases. The brackets have to be filled by the rightful owner(s) of the project(s) and need to be presented to an appointed Judgment member at the Judgment 003 Branch Office, Tokiwadai Middle School, before today's curfew. Additionally, as your own written task, prepare a detailed description of each project that our students will be presenting at the event. Include important information, such as its use, needed resources, development process and history.' "
The girl's voice was shaking while reading.
She had a pink ribbon tied in her hair and the shiny strands were dancing freely in the wind.
Her head was lowered and her face was twitching anxiously.
"Haa... Haha..."
The blonde-haired girl looked up at the school building as she was walking towards it.
Tokiwadai's highest point was the clocktower.
The girl was squinting because of the sun shining brighter than ever. She put her hand on her eyebrows to give her eyes a shade.
"10 AM..." She muttered.
Another girl in that group scoffed in annoyance.
"This is unacceptable. To make us go around the entire school and collect documents from every single club and clique that participates?! This is going to take ages!"
"Especially since we don't even know where they are."
"And it's not like we're just collecting them. Apparently the documents for the advertisement have not even been printed before and we're the only ones who have them, so they'll have to fill all of them with us."
"And we're going to need to hold an interview with the project owners for the assignment."
Ogura Iori, Minami Himeka, Mizushima Sayuri and Hisakawa Ayako all sighed in unison.
The four girls that had been given this cruel punishment were going back inside from the courtyard.
The group walked under a stone archway and stepped their shoes onto cold marble floor.
Minami Himeka brushed her hair off of her shoulder and grabbed a handle to the door leading inside.
"Had we made it in time yesterday..."
The ribbon-wearing girl pursed her lips in a painful expression.
"I'm sorry, everyone. All of this is my fault." She said quietly while walking through the open doors.
The group arrived inside, at a long school corridor with a very tall ceiling and shining walls.
The wavy-haired girl closed her eyes and rested her hand on her hip.
"Well, we did all agree to come with you, right?"
"Eh?"
"Don't blame yourself, Ogura-san. We were, and are, all in this together."
Ogura Iori's eyes sparkled.
"Minami-san..."
"N-Now, I'm not saying it's not a shameful thing to do!" She spoke nervously as she felt her cheeks getting warmer. "We all did a bad thing, so we will work together to get through the consequences of it!"
Mizushima Sayuri clenched her tiny fists.
"Y-Yes! The sooner we start, the sooner we will finish!"
Hisakawa Ayako nodded.
"Right. Let's not be negative and just get it over with."
Minami Himeka looked at the girls in front of her and smiled.
"Alright, I guess we can start from here. Ogura-san, who's first on the list?"
"Uhm..."
The blonde girl flipped a page and looked at the paper.
There was a set of brackets for each club and clique so it was easy to understand.
On the first page, the headline read...
"Flower Arrangement Club." She responded. "The club I belong to."
Part 4
In Tokiwadai Middle School, there were more classrooms than one would think.
Each having a different subject designated for them, they were varying from antique-looking rooms with wooden floors to all-white laboratory-like spaces. And unlike other schools, students of Tokiwadai did not have to use regular classrooms for their club meeting spots. The school had rooms created exclusively for those.
Though, cliques were a different story, since they were created by students.
A long time ago, cliques used to be just small groups of friends interested in the same fields of science which, with time, had grown into what they were now, but the unofficial treatment of them had never really changed.
Clubs, on the other hand, were treated very seriously in Tokiwadai Middle School. They had classrooms designated specifically for them, equipped with the best tools to help with the students' very ambitious projects.
The group of four girls had entered one of those right now. The Flower Arrangement Club had its base here.
Just the fact that a club like this existed in a middle school alone would make some people amazed, but the way the clubroom itself looked was the real shock.
Located somewhere in the south wing, the club from the corridor's side did not look unusual at all. Its doors were wooden, with a golden plate displaying the club's name. What waited on the other side, however, was something that could be described as any florist's dream.
First of all, the room didn't have any bare walls. Everything was covered with clear, big windows that were reaching all the way up to the tall ceiling. Standing in this room felt like being in a real orangery.
It was incredibly spacious, too, to the point where you could hear your own echo if you spoke loud enough. In the middle of the room, a long wooden table was situated. To the right and to the left, there were two rows of wooden cabinets containing all kinds of flowers - from common meadow flowers to exotic and rare plants.
In the corner of the room, there was a quite large seating area with expensive-looking couches, living chairs and a big coffee table.
Three girls were occupying that area, each holding a white porcelain teacup in their hands.
Ogura Iori gulped loudly as she closed the door behind her.
The sound of a teacup clacking against a porcelain saucer resounded in the room.
"Hn?"
One of the girls sitting on a couch turned around.
"My, good morning." She spoke in a beautiful voice.
"Good morning."
"Ogura-san, are you finally visiting the club to help with our newest assignment? Oh my, are those your friends with you?"
The ribbon-wearing girl looked at her and sighed exhausted.
"If I could pick, I'd rather do that right now. We're all here for something different though."
"My, what happened then?" The girl tilted her head. "You know what, sit down. Girls, make room for Ogura-san and the rest. Come on, scoot over."
Minami Himeka smiled bitterly.
"We're sorry for the inconvenience."
"No, don't worry, don't worry." The young lady at the seating area said calmly.
Ogura Iori brushed her hair off of her shoulder as she was walking towards an unoccupied living chair.
A delicious smell hit her nostrils so her mind immediately drifted away somewhere else.
"Mmn~ are you girls having tea?" She hummed with excitement. "What desserts do you have?"
Another girl, who was sitting right next to Ogura's chair, responded as she sipped on her tea.
"The Boulangerie across the street was packed, so we had to settle for 'Pasticceria'."
"Oh, I see. It's still good though." Ogura shrugged her shoulders and placed her small purse beside her as she was sitting down.
There were all kinds of sweets placed on the wooden coffee table. They weren't traditional afternoon tea desserts, nor were they placed on tiered plates. Those were more like the very filling desserts you would get at a fancy restaurant.
Specifically cake of all sorts dominated on the table.
"Smells delicious in here." Mizushima Sayuri said in a sweet tone as she was sitting down.
"Please, help yourself to the food. Oh, and what tea would you like? We have white, green and oolong."
"I'll take white."
"Oolong, please."
"I'll go with green."
"Me too."
"Very well, we still have all three teapots full."
The girl grabbed the first porcelain teapot that was placed on the table and started pouring tea into everybody's cups.
The third girl, who was sitting across from Ogura, glanced over at all the girls and cleared her throat.
"So what's going on? What business do you have with us?"
The ribbon-wearing girl lifted up her teacup along with the saucer.
"Basically..." She said reluctantly. "The four of us broke the curfew yesterday and got caught by the Dorm Manager."
The other three girls were taken aback by that. They all looked at Ogura with wide open eyes.
"Ogura-san, you got caught staying out late?"
The blonde-haired girl nodded and sipped on her tea.
Minami Himeka flipped her hair at that and spoke.
"So as a punishment, we need to get all the documents regarding the clubs' and cliques' involvement with the Research Assembly filled for today."
All three girls from the club exchanged a confused glance.
A girl with long black hair looked at Minami hesitantly.
"We were told that Judgment would handle this for us and everyone else."
"Well, because they couldn't come up with a different punishment, we're the ones doing it now."
The other girl, who had her hair tied into two pigtails, giggled quietly.
"I'm sure they're happy that their work has been passed onto someone else."
"Do you girls even know what the documents are for?"
Ogura put down her tea and grabbed the purse that was sitting beside her.
She opened it and reached for something inside.
"Umm, I think there was something about the advertisement stalls...?" She said timidly as she pulled out a small stack of papers.
"Ah, yes. That rings a bell."
"Can I see it?" The black-haired girl asked as she extended her hand forward and grabbed the papers.
She began analyzing it and reading the text in the brackets.
She flipped a page and smiled.
"Alright. So we just need to fill this and let you girls go to the next club?"
"Yes."
Minami Himeka put her tea down on a saucer and cleared her throat.
"Um, I wanted to ask you if you could also tell us a little bit about the project you've been assigned to for the event."
"Oh, that's right." Mizushima Sayuri nodded. "We need to know everything for our written assignment. The teacher might ask us questions tomorrow as well."
The girl with long black hair looked at them and smiled politely.
"Of course. So..." She said as she poured some tea into her cup. "As of right now, we're preparing flower decorations for every clique's advertisement stalls. Though, each clique has a different amount of stalls and they're also in different places."
The other girl, who had two pigtails, grabbed a pen from a wooden drawer and scooted herself closer to the document.
"Most of them did reach out to us with details, however some were very vague about the locations."
"What are the locations you do know?"
"Hmm... There's a list somewhere in here." The black-haired girl responded as she rummaged through another drawer next to her.
Another young lady shrugged her shoulders as she was eating her cake.
"Either way, it's easy to guess what places are going to be targeted, isn't it? Since all the cliques are playing the same game, they're going to put their stalls in the same places."
Ogura tilted her head at that statement.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, it's not hard to realize that the best places for advertising are those popular hangout spots outside of School Garden where everybody gathers. Because the students want to appeal to a specific audience, the location is a key factor here." She responded while fixing her hair. "We've had multiple requests for District 5 and District 7. Mostly places like parks, shopping malls and outdoor dining complexes. All in close proximity to elite schools and universities, of course."
Minami looked at the girls in front of her as she sipped her tea.
"So that's it. They need to be strategic with that kind of stuff, huh."
"Found it!" The black-haired girl said loudly as she pulled out a big stack of papers from the drawer.
"Are those the specific locations?"
"Y-Yes... However, as I said..." The Tokiwadai lady said timidly as she passed the documents to Ogura Iori's hands. "This still isn't everything."
The stack felt much heavier in her hands than she had expected. Ogura looked down just to see an ocean of numbers, characters and mini-maps, all crammed into a small, white piece of paper.
The blonde-haired girl's eyes widened.
The page she was looking at was way too busy and cramped to look at. And...
It was just one of them.
"Th-This isn't all?!" She whimpered as she was flipping through the pages. "But there are so many..."
Mizushima suddenly started to look pale.
"H-How many cliques didn't give you the documents?"
"Hmm..." The black-haired girl touched her cheek with her hand as she looked to the side. "Probably like thirty percent?"
Ogura, Mizushima and Minami sighed deeply.
(This is bad.)
(And it's only the first club. There are like six more ahead of us.)
(How are we going to do this before the time runs out?)
"Ah, but!" The girl with long pigtails raised her hand, in which she was holding a white smartphone. "In your documents for the Committee, we also need to list the services that our club will be providing, right? And for that, we do have the details from everyone."
Ogura's eyes sparkled.
"R-Really?"
"That will really save our time."
Minami Himeka grabbed the stack of papers they had been given by the Dorm Mistress.
She flipped a couple pages and spoke to the other ladies.
"There it is. We need to know the name of the transportation company that will take care of bringing the flowers to the stalls." She said confidently while reading the lines on the page. "Ah, also, the source that you used to get the flowers. A-Also... the amount... and weight... s-species of flowers?!"
"It's gonna take a while, isn't it." The black-haired girl smiled bitterly.
Part 5
In a wide, Victorian-looking corridor, a group of three Tokiwadai Middle School students could be seen slowly walking towards their next destination.
Each holding a stack of papers, the young ladies looked like they had just left an office after a 7 hour shift.
A deep sigh came out of the mouth of Minami Himeka.
"That felt like it took ages..."
"B-But we're finally done with the Flower Arrangement Club..." Mizushima Sayuri muttered while rubbing her fists against each other.
"We will be done once the remaining cliques give us the information we need." Ogura responded exasperated. "Thankfully all of them are present today."
Minami stopped as the girls reached a turn in the corridor.
"Ogura-san, how's the time?"
"..."
The blonde-haired girl frowned as she looked at her smartphone.
"If we spend up to 25 minutes in each club and clique room, we should be able to make it in time before the sunset." She muttered. "However..."
"..That does not seem possible, huh." Minami finished her sentence and raised an eyebrow. "Well, there's nothing we can do about it. Let's just try to wrap things up quickly."
Mizushima Sayuri let out a forced giggle.
"W-Well, that might be quite hard."
"Why?"
"You know, our next stop is..." She pointed with her finger at a wooden door which was around the corner.
Ogura Iori gritted her teeth.
"Th-The Art Club...?!"