Debating...

Susumu is now standing on a podium, placing both hands on it and asking, "Did we really have to use the media room for this debate?"

Mari leans on the opposite podium, "This is officially considered my room since I'm the club leader and all that."

Susumu squints his eyes, "You had to pass by the faculty room to claim ownership of this room, Morishige-san," Mari shrugs and starts whistling, "I can't hear you, sorry~"

She then slams her palm onto the podium before exclaiming, "But seriously, why did you invite your two friends into our private debate, Ishibashi-kun? This is a challenge, not a game show."

Let me immediately pan over to those two... Takashi and Fumio are seen sitting down, they wave at her, and Mari rolls her eyes and returns her gaze to Susumu, who is now fiddling with his phone; he must have a short attention span, huh?

She then clears her throat to get Susumu's attention, but he doesn't hear her, preferring to focus on his phone even more... What is he gazing at that he is so focused on?

I'm not even going to bother checking... Mari then clears her throat even louder, which causes Susumu to nearly toss his phone into the air. Fumio also suffers collateral damage by accidentally kicking the table due to getting startled.

Fumio starts rubbing his foot while Susumu looks at Mari with his brows pointed downward, "What was that for?" Mari rests an arm on her hip, "You took too long to answer."

Susumu then pockets his phone, "Hmph," he then answers straightforwardly, "I invited them because I expected it would get boring extremely fast if it were just the two of us."

Mari raises an eyebrow and rests one of her hands on her hip, "We aren't meant to have fun during a challenge, it's meant to be taken seriously."

Susumu sighs deeply and straightens his back while placing his hands on the podium, "Fine, whatever you say... now, what is it you wanted to debate about again?"

Mari takes a paper from her skirt pocket, "I wanted to talk about whether digital music or physical music was better," she pauses.

She begins to read from her notes, "Beginning on the side of digital music, it is much easier to compose music, it is less demanding on the human body to develop these forms of music."

"Additionally, digital music is more evolved in its musical diversity; you can choose whether you want a guitar, bass, or a keyboard," Mari explains, her yellow eyes fixed on Susumu.

Susumu then retaliates with unrelenting wrath!... That was quite dramatic on my end, to say the least, "What you're saying is somewhat accurate; the fundamental goal of music is to communicate your emotion, and the amount of sensations expressed digitally is definitely less than playing it physically."

"And it even undermines the artists who still play with physical instruments; yeah, it may benefit the next generation, but what about the un-tech-savvy artists? They rely largely on physical instruments because their experience with gadgets is limited."

"Then we can just leave those individuals behind, they can still compose music with their actual instruments if they rely on it that much," Mari says as she pockets her notepad.

"Then the music market would be overwhelmed with new digital music, and the artists pouring their souls out on physical instruments would be left out," Susumu frowns.

"I propose that we completely abandon the digital music industry and return to the physical instruments we use, the majority of most musicians are still using physical instruments, anyways."

Mari raises an eyebrow and slightly opens her mouth, "Hah? Excuse me, what do you mean by abandoning the digital music industry? That's such a ridiculous concept, Ishibashi-kun."

"If you're prepared to accept that, then I propose that we force all people who use physical instruments to use a digital music software to make their music, because it's far easier to use."

Susumu then points at her, saying, "Now that's just downright absurd, Morishige-san!"

Mari then crosses her arms, "Not as absurd as your idea."

The two of them continue arguing, Fumio and Takashi are just sitting there looking perplexed, and Takashi mumbles, "Wait a minute, this is turning into a heated dispute, I thought it would be lighthearted..."

Fumio adds, "Where's Shinsato-chan when you need her? She'd know how to calm these two down..."

Wait a minute... is that Ayano right in front of the media room door? Let me just check on her...

Yeah, that is her... she is currently thinking, "I hope Mari-chan is in here, I've been walking around the entire school, I even had to ask the teachers in the faculty room where she was..."

She sighs and opens the door, she peeks her head through and notices Mari, her eyes widen, and says, "Oh, Mari-chan, there you are! I've been looking all over the school for you—"

She finally notices the three boys in the room, Fumio and Takashi look over their shoulders, the both of them think, "She actually came to stop them!"

The two boys gesture her to enter, Ayano reluctantly steps into the room and closes the door behind her, Susumu and Mari finally notice her, and Mari then ponders, "W—Wait, did Ayano-san see me shouting at Ishibashi-kun?"

Mari then waves at Ayano from across the room, "Hello, Ayano-san!" She then quickly gazes at Susumu, she mouths to him, "Act as if nothing happened."

Susumu reluctantly nods; Mari looks back to Ayano and asks with her bubbly voice, "What were you gonna say? You cut yourself off before you could finish your own sentence, Ayano-san."

Ayano says as he walks up to the two on the podiums. "Ah okay, what I was going to say was I was looking all around the school for you since you and I have always eaten lunch together."

"But you said you were 'going ahead' to our usual lunch area, but when I got there, I didn't see you anywhere, so I figured you went to the bathroom, and that's where I went—"

"Ahha... I think that's enough, Sherlock..." Mari said with an awkward laugh; Ayano exhales through her nose before saying, "Fine," she then says quietly, "But it was getting good..."

Mari then rests her forearms on the podium before saying, "While all of us are here, may I ask you a question, Ayano-san?" Ayano tilts her head, "What is it?"

Mari then turns to Susumu with a smirk, before looking back to her brown-haired friend, "Are you and Ishibashi-san close friends?"

My camera then starts zooming in on each of their faces... wait, my camera is zooming in on each of their faces by itself!? Eh, I should just go with the flow.

Ayano's eyes widen, and she says under her breath, "H--how did she find out?"

Fumio turns to look at Mari in shock, "I thought he stayed away..."

Susumu has an emotionless expression, "I knew this was gonna happen."

Takashi is... sleeping contentedly in his chair, snoring loudly; everyone else is amazed at how quickly he was able to fall asleep; he was wide awake just a minute ago, and now...

The entire room falls silent as Fumio covers his mouth and coughs loudly, startling Takashi, "Wah!" He looks around the room before looking at Fumio with a disdainful expression.

Takashi scowled, "What was that for, Moriyama-san!?" Fumio then gets closer to his ear before whispering, "Shut up... Morishige-san found out..."

Takashi's eyes widen, and he murmurs back, "S—seriously?" Fumio nods, and the two of them stare at the three people standing in front of them.

Ayano looks at Susumu and they make eye contact; Susumu's brows are raised as if he doesn't know what to do; he thinks, "Please answer correctly, Shinsato-san!..."

Ayano nods before looking back at Mari with a warm smile, "You must have misunderstood the situation, Mari-chan."

Mari stares blankly at Ayano... a question mark seems to be floating above her head, as well, "What?" Ayano then shrugs, "That was somebody else, not Ishibashi-san."

Susumu facepalms.

Our silver-haired friend stays frozen as she tries to understand her answer; from the other's perspective, it looks like Ayano's answer fried Mari's brain.

Mari is currently thinking, "Wait, if that isn't Ishibashi-kun, then who was it? There are only three other black-haired people in this school... two of which are boys, and one is a girl, and they seemed really close as well..."

Her eyes widen and her cheeks flush as she realizes, "Don't tell me..." she exclaims, "That was Kitagawa Noboru-senpai from year three!"

"You're right!" says Ayano, but deep down she's thinking, "I still can't believe how trustworthy you are, Mari-chan..."

Mari turns to Susumu, rubbing the back of her silver hair, "Sorry about that, Ishibashi-kun," she giggles, "it appears to me that I made an awful mistake..."

"Now it's time to challenge Kitagawa-senpai..." she continues with gritted teeth, a frightening air surrounding her. Susumu then says while staring blankly at her, "Don't kill him, okay?"

Mari then steps down from the podium and approaches Ayano, saying, "You want to go have lunch now?" Ayano agrees, and the two walk out of the media area.

Susumu approaches his two pals, who are now staring at their phones; Takashi is holding it vertically, while Fumio is holding it horizontally; relaxing music is flowing from his phone, similar to what you'd hear in a visual novel while going about your regular life.

Susumu asks, "You guys want to go eat lunch?" Takashi glances away from his phone and says, "Sure—" his stomach growls; Susumu chuckles and observes, "I suppose your stomach agrees."

Takashi chuckles. The two of them look at Fumio, Susumu asks him who is entirely engrossed in his visual novel. "Are you going to sit there all day or eat as well?"

Fumio says while focusing on his phone, "Let me just save my game," after some button-pressing sound effects, he then pockets his phone and stretches in his chair, "Alright, let's go dine..."

The two of them rise out of their chairs and follow Susumu out of the room; Fumio is the last to depart, thus he is the one who closes the door.

The door is closed, and thus, the Debate Arc has ended!