Chapter – 09
By the time everyone had finished most of the snacks Iwasaki had brought out, the clubroom door suddenly burst open.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. As promised, I’ve brought back our fourth member.”
Shioi was carrying something tucked under one arm.
No—not something.
Someone.
“H-Hey… please put me down… My back… this position is really killing my back…”
The voice was so quiet it was hard to hear, but judging from how the person flailed their arms and legs trying to escape, they were clearly resisting.
“Senpai… who is that?”
“Oi, why’d you bring a kid here? Where’d you kidnap her from? Call the police. Kazuki, dial 110.”
“Take a closer look,” Shioi said. “She’s wearing the same school uniform as we are. She may be small, but she’s a perfectly legitimate high school student.”
Because she was being carried like a captured animal, it was difficult to tell at first. But sure enough, she was wearing their school’s uniform.
That said, while Shioi was unusually tall with a model-like figure, the height difference between the two of them looked more like an adult carrying an elementary school child.
“There. Introduce yourself.”
Finally set down on the floor, the tiny girl cleared her throat.
“My name is Natsuki Tachibana.”
“…That’s it?” Iwasaki blinked. “Give us a little more. Like your grade or something.”
“Oh… I’m a first-year. Class 1-6.”
Tachibana seemed only capable of answering direct questions. She responded briefly to Iwasaki, then immediately fell silent again.
Now that she was standing, her size was even more striking.
Someone could have told Kazuki she was an elementary school student, and he would have believed it.
Kazuki wasn’t particularly tall himself, yet he still found himself looking down at her.
“This is awkward…” Iwasaki scratched his head. “Uh… are you in any clubs?”
“I’m not.”
Silence settled over the room again.
“Sorry, I can’t do this,” Iwasaki sighed. “Kazuki, you take over.”
“Um… why did you decide to join the Contemporary Art Club?”
“That person threatened me.”
She pointed directly at Shioi.
Shioi folded his arms with an offended look.
“‘Threatened’ makes me sound like the villain. If anything, I’m the victim here.”
“What happened?”
“I shall explain. It all began… about thirty minutes ago.”
“That’s way too recent for a flashback.”
In other words, immediately after Shioi had left the clubroom declaring she would return with another member.
“The ground in the corner of the schoolyard suddenly collapsed.”
“Please don’t lie.”
“But I’m not lying. Well… half of it is true.”
“Which means the other half is a lie.”
“I even have photographic evidence. Take a look.”
She held out her phone.
The picture showed the area behind the equipment shed.
There really was a huge hole in the ground.
“What?! What’s that?!”
Kazuki shouted, causing Iwasaki to lean over from behind to look.
“Damn… what’s wrong with this school’s foundations? Though… if something like this really happened, everyone would be panicking.”
“I thought so too,” Shioi said. “I was just walking when suddenly a giant hole opened beneath my feet. It was so deep I couldn’t even see the bottom. I was so startled I fell flat on my backside.”
Kazuki could vividly imagine the scene.
Considering how Shioi had reacted earlier when he’d accidentally hit her, she’d turned out to be much more fragile than she liked to appear.
“But look more carefully,” Shioi continued. “Notice anything strange?”
Kazuki zoomed in on the photo.
“…The color around the hole is slightly different from the rest of the ground?”
“Exactly. It was a piece of trick art.”
Trick art.
Artwork that exploited optical illusions to create things that didn’t really exist or distort a person’s sense of balance.
“Oh yeah,” Iwasaki nodded. “I’ve seen videos online. It’s the thing that scares people who’re walking while staring at their phones. Though I always figured those videos were fake.”
Kazuki had seen them too—people suddenly noticing what looked like a massive hole beneath them and instinctively jumping back in terror.
He never imagined something similar would appear at school.
“And the person responsible…”
Shioi pointed dramatically.
“…was none other than Tachibana.”
“Hehe…”
Tachibana reacted as though she’d just been complimented.
No one was complimenting her.
“Why’d you make something like that in the schoolyard?”
“…As a hobby.”
“A hobby? You made that all by yourself?”
“Yes.”
“…What the hell? That’s scary.”
Iwasaki quietly stepped behind Kazuki, clearly unnerved.
“It was magnificent,” Shioi admitted. “Even I fell for it. I landed hard on my rear. Under normal circumstances, I’d have cornered the culprit until she could no longer remain at this school.”
She paused.
“But given the situation, I couldn’t return empty-handed after declaring I’d recruit another member. So I proposed a negotiation.”
Apparently Shioi did possess at least a little sense of responsibility.
Kazuki had fully expected her to come back alone.
“I told her I’d forgive the injury she caused me…”
“…if she’d join the Contemporary Art Club.”
“T-That’s not a fair trade…” Tachibana protested quietly. “You only fell on your butt…”
Shioi silenced her with a single glare.
“Trick art and contemporary art aren’t exactly the same thing. But both are forms of new artistic expression—free from rigid rules, driven by imagination. Tachibana has genuine talent as an artist.”
She smiled proudly.
“So isn’t she the perfect recruit?”
“…I tried to run away.”
Tachibana muttered.
“…But she’s really fast.”
Now everything made sense.
Shioi had chased her down, caught her, tucked her under one arm, and carried her back.
More importantly…
If she’d tried to escape, then the negotiation hadn’t succeeded at all.
This was simply kidnapping.
“Now then.”
Shioi produced a club application form.
“Sign it, Tachibana.”
“Uuuu… I don’t want to…”
“Accept your fate. Otherwise I’ll tell your parents that thanks to your trick art…”
“…their daughter’s artwork shattered my tailbone.”
“If your tailbone breaks from falling on your butt,” Kazuki thought, “then your bones are the real problem.”
Unable to withstand Shioi’s intimidation any longer, Tachibana reluctantly signed the application with trembling hands.
“That makes four members!”
“We made it in time!”
Standing before the four of them in the student council room, Student Council President Fukagawa narrowed her eyes with obvious annoyance.
“What is it? I’m busy, so please make it quick.”
“The Contemporary Art Club now has four official members.”
Shioi slammed Iwasaki’s and Tachibana’s membership forms onto the desk.
“That means we won’t be disbanded now, correct?”
“Correct.”
Fukagawa accepted the paperwork without changing her expression.
“We’ll process these.”
“…That’s it?” Shioi frowned. “Don’t you have anything else to say?”
“Yes.”
Fukagawa replied calmly.
“I’ll send you the invoice later for replacing the wallpaper you covered in paint.”
“Ghh…”
Shioi bit her lip in frustration.
Considering she was entirely at fault, it was remarkable she still looked so wronged.
“After the entrance ceremony in April, there will be a joint club recruitment event in the gymnasium.”
Fukagawa adjusted the documents.
“Will the Contemporary Art Club be participating?”
“Of course.”
Shioi answered immediately.
“We need to recruit new first-years. Otherwise, next year Kazuki and Tachibana will suffer exactly what we went through.”
“I won’t,” Fukagawa said flatly.
“If there aren’t enough members, I’ll simply disband the club.”
“I won’t allow it.”
To Kazuki, the Contemporary Art Club without Shioi wouldn’t be worth anything.
In the end, an entire year passed without the club creating a single proper work of art.
The only pieces filling the clubroom were Shioi’s self-proclaimed “contemporary art.”
One balloon with a face drawn on it—made only yesterday—had already begun to deflate.
As a new spring began, first-year students walked through the school gates, their hearts filled with excitement for the youth that awaited them.
From the classroom window, Kazuki and Tachibana looked down upon them.
