Horikita Manabu's Masterful Crowd Control / Chapter 19: The Socially Clueless Upperclassman

Miyake had been about to raise his hand and invite Hirata when a group of girls swarmed over to him.

"Me, me, me!"

"I want to go too!"

Hirata looked at the girls gathering around him, at a loss. This wasn't what he'd wanted.

So he turned to Kanda and Miyake with a pleading look.

But the two of them ignored him completely and just started chatting among themselves.

You've got to be kidding! Who would want to make enemies of those crazy girls? They'd kill you with their glares!

Besides, Kanda wasn't very mobile. If he went with that group, he'd definitely be a nuisance. They might even abandon him halfway there.

Just as Hirata was about to give up and invite some other boys, a girl with a flashy, gyaru-style look grabbed his arm and dragged him away with her.

"Come on, Hirata."

Watching Hirata leave surrounded by girls, Shuichi Kanda shook his head and teased, "Being too popular can be a real headache."

"Looks like the busy Mr. Hirata won't be able to join us for lunch."

Then the two of them exchanged a knowing smile.

They stood up and got ready to go eat, too. Lunch break was limited, after all, and Shuichi Kanda wanted to take a nap.

"Poor thing."

As soon as he stood up, he heard Horikita Suzune's derisive voice beside him.

Kanda turned and saw Kiyotaka Ayanokoji left by himself. It seemed Horikita Suzune had been making fun of Ayanokoji.

Oh, maybe Hirata hadn't just been looking at him and Miyake. He might have been looking at Ayanokoji, too.

But clearly, Ayanokoji had been left on his own—and mocked by his deskmate, no less.

Great. A chance to get back at her had come along so soon!

So Shuichi Kanda didn't hesitate to address Kiyotaka Ayanokoji. "Ayanokoji, would you like to come have lunch with us?"

"Of course!"

Kiyotaka Ayanokoji answered without hesitation, then glanced over at Horikita Suzune.

Now Horikita Suzune was the one in an awkward position—or so Shuichi Kanda had expected.

But Horikita Suzune simply stood up, looked at Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, said, "Well, isn't that nice," and left the classroom.

And so the three of them headed to the Student Cafeteria together.

By the time they arrived, there weren't many people left in line at the counter. Since Shuichi Kanda was a little slower than most, the other two had slowed their pace to match his.

"I'm thinking of getting the pan-fried beef set meal. What about you two?"

Kanda looked at Kiyotaka Ayanokoji and Miyake after saying that.

"Huh? Isn't that expensive?"

"But it's great for getting some nutrition."

"True, but I bought equipment for Kyudo yesterday, so I need to save some points. I'll get fish from the counter next door. What about you, Ayanokoji?"

Miyake turned his head toward him, and Ayanokoji hesitated. "Then I'll try the pan-fried beef, too."

The meals were made to order, so the two of them had to wait a while before they got their food.

As he waited in line behind Shuichi Kanda, Kiyotaka Ayanokoji thought that blending into school life like this wasn't so bad. But Kanda only had ten thousand points left and was still buying such expensive beef. Would he really be all right?

Meanwhile, Shuichi Kanda had no idea that Kiyotaka Ayanokoji had seen his entire balance.

He had noticed, though, that his Private Points appeared automatically on his phone when he paid. That wasn't a good thing. With only ten thousand points in his account, it was easy enough to explain for now, but by this evening his balance would have ballooned to twenty million. It wouldn't be good if anyone saw that.

But when he'd watched the student ahead of him pay, their balance hadn't appeared. So there must be a way to hide it, right? He just didn't know how to set it up. He'd have to look into it later.

Chapter 18: Horikita Manabu's Masterful Crowd Control

After finishing the generously portioned pan-fried beef set meal, Shuichi Kanda felt completely satisfied.

"No wonder it costs a thousand points. It's not only nutritious and well-balanced, it tastes great, too."

"It's just so expensive. Even with a hundred thousand Private Points every month, you couldn't eat it more than a few times a month, could you?" Kiyotaka Ayanokoji nodded in agreement, then voiced his concern about the points.

"True. Even if you ate it twice a day, you'd need sixty thousand points a month." Then Kanda seemed to realize something and looked at Shuichi Kanda. "Kanda, you're not planning to eat this every day, are you?"

"I am. At least for this month, I plan to have it once every day."

While he was recovering, these meals were a necessity. Shuichi Kanda planned to come and eat here every day at lunch.

As for dinner, he'd cook for himself and make sure it was nutritious and well-balanced, too. In short, he'd eat plenty of meat and get his body back to normal. A month should be about enough.

After lunch, the three of them returned to the school building together. They went to the restroom first, then headed to their classroom.

Shuichi Kanda had been hoping to rest with his head on his desk for the last few minutes of lunch break, but the speaker in the classroom startled him.

[The Club Orientation will be held at Gymnasium 1 beginning at five o'clock this afternoon. Students interested in joining a club should gather at Gymnasium 1. I repeat. Today...]

The cute female voice repeated the announcement three times before the broadcast ended.

"Miyake, you're going to join the Archery Club, right?"

Shuichi Kanda spoke with his head on his desk.

"Of course. I already talked to Sato-senpai yesterday and promised I'd join a club today." Miyake turned around to show he intended to keep his promise.

"Lucky you. Should I join the Archery Club, too?"

"If you don't have anything else in mind, you should come along. Sato-senpai seems happy to have someone who can maintain the bows and arrows."

While they were talking, Horikita Suzune and Kiyotaka Ayanokoji seemed to be speaking behind them, too. But since Kanda was lying down, he couldn't hear them clearly. He only knew that neither of them planned to join a club, but it sounded like they were both going to the Club Orientation anyway.

After school, guided by the GPS, Shuichi Kanda and Akito Miyake arrived at Gymnasium 1, the place mentioned in the lunchtime announcement.

At Kanda's pace, they were practically among the last to arrive. A large crowd of first-year students had gathered there—at least a hundred of them.

It seemed that even some students who didn't plan to join a club had come.

Maybe they saw it as an extra place to socialize?

Even so, Shuichi Kanda thought it was a big crowd. There were only a hundred and sixty students in the entire first year, after all.

"So many people are interested in joining clubs? I wonder how many people the Archery Club will get." Miyake was already worrying about the club despite not having joined yet. He really seemed like a future club president.

"Who knows? Maybe everyone's just here to see what happens."

"Don't be so pessimistic."

"But the clubs at this school all seem pretty strong." As he spoke, Kanda flipped through the booklet introducing the clubs.

It had been placed by the entrance before they went into the gymnasium. It seemed to be free for anyone to take, so Kanda had picked one up.

"Really? Let me see."

Miyake turned his attention to the booklet in Kanda's hand.

"The Volleyball Club and Basketball Club seem to be regulars at the National Tournament. What's this? They even have a Golf Club? Isn't that a little extravagant?"

Kanda was speechless at how amazed Miyake looked. Shouldn't you be paying attention to the Archery Club first? Honestly.

The first club listed after he turned the page was the Kyudo Club.

"The Kyudo Club is a regular at the National Tournament. They even won it the year before last. It's practically a national-level club."

"Huh? Really? Sato-senpai never mentioned that."

As soon as the Kyudo Club came up, Miyake immediately forgot about everything else he'd just read.

He really did love Kyudo.

"Besides the sports clubs, they've also got the usual ones, like Calligraphy Club, Tea Ceremony Club, and Cooking Club."

Seeing the Cooking Club's name, Shuichi Kanda was tempted. He wondered if he could get free food by joining.

"It's starting."

As if to prove Kanda right, a girl with striking purple hair styled in two buns walked onto the gymnasium stage. She switched on the microphone, and her voice carried to every corner of the gym.

"Thank you for waiting, first-year students. The club representatives will now begin their presentations. I'm Tachibana, the Student Council secretary, and I'll be hosting today's orientation. It's nice to meet you."

After her brief introduction, the upperclassman named Tachibana stepped aside. The club representatives then lined up on the stage.

The representatives were a varied bunch. There was a muscular upperclassman in a judo uniform, as well as an upperclassman in a kimono.

"My name is Hashigaki, and I'm the captain of the Kyudo Club. I think many students see Kyudo as old-fashioned and plain. But it's very enjoyable, and a sport well worth taking up. We welcome students who are new to the sport, so please join our club."

Hashikura-senpai was a tall woman with her hair tied in a high ponytail. She wasn't as pretty as the upperclasswoman in a kimono beside her, but the large bow strapped to her back gave her a heroic air. She looked very charming.

"So Sato-senpai isn't the one giving the speech?"

"Looks like she's going to be the next club president."

Compared to Shuichi Kanda, Miyake immediately saw what was going on. He thought Hashikura-senpai was probably a second-year student, being given a chance to make a good impression on the new students before the Kyudo Club's leadership was passed on.

After the Kyudo Club opened the presentations, the other clubs gave flashy introductions of their own. At the end, one man was still onstage: a stern-looking student in uniform, with glasses and neat black hair.

By then, the audience had become a chaotic mess after all the club presentations. It seemed people hadn't come to hear about the clubs at all, but to watch a show. So they were all looking forward to the final act.

But the only student still onstage said nothing. He simply looked down at the students with a composed expression.

"Hey, who's that guy?"

"Is he not going to give a speech?"

"Did he forget what he was going to say because he's nervous?"

"Hahahaha!"

"Good luck~~"

The first-years below called out with questions, jeers, and encouragement, but the upperclassman onstage remained unfazed.

Kanda noticed that the representatives who had introduced their clubs earlier now looked solemn. Not one of them dared make a sound.

The laughter swelled to a peak, then abruptly fell silent.

After that, the students in the audience exchanged confused glances, unsure whether there had been some kind of problem with the broadcast.

Even so, the upperclassman onstage remained unmoved. He simply stood there, perfectly still.

Then the lighthearted atmosphere slowly shifted in an unexpected direction. It was like potassium permanganate that had just finished reacting under the influence of a catalyst, going from a boil to silence in an instant.

An almost unbelievable tension and stillness filled the entire gymnasium.

The silence was so terrifying that people felt they couldn't speak, even though nobody had ordered them to be quiet.

Not a single person dared to speak now.

"What a show-off."

Watching this, Shuichi Kanda smiled and muttered under his breath.

At the sound of that, Horikita Suzune, who had been standing right in front of him, suddenly turned around and glared at Shuichi Kanda. He had no idea what he'd done.

Wait, had Horikita Suzune been standing in front of me this whole time? I didn't notice at all.

Chapter 19: The Socially Clueless Upperclassman

After the silence had lasted for about thirty seconds... the upperclassman onstage finally began to slowly survey the students and speak.

"I am Horikita Manabu, the Student Council President."

Horikita Manabu? Horikita?

No wonder she glared at me just now. He's someone important to you, isn't he, Horikita Suzune?

"With the upcoming graduation of the upperclassmen, the Student Council will once again recruit outstanding first-year students to take responsibility for this school's standards and order."

Taking responsibility for the school's standards and order. What a grand claim.

No, perhaps those were exactly the rights and duties of the Student Council at this school.

"So this guy's the man at the very top of this school right now?" Not far away, a cold-faced man with long red hair remarked.