Our Legendary Volume (Part 1)

1.

What was the first manga I ever read, I wonder? It happened when I was so young that I'll never be truly certain, no matter how many possible titles come to mind. All I warmly remember is how absorbed in it I was.

In my home's living room stood a single bookshelf, and on that bookshelf sat only dust-covered encyclopedias and literary anthologies that I had never even seen so much as taken out of their cases—there was no manga at all. I had my first experience with it because of my aunt, my mother's sister. She had a crude house made of steel, as rough as it was ugly, but it contained bookshelves of dizzying heights, filled to the brim with books, around half of which were volumes of manga from all ages.

It became a daily routine of mine. I would drop off my little backpack at home after returning from a day at elementary school and then immediately go on over to my aunt's house, reading manga until I eventually went home for dinner. Whenever I visited, my aunt, the polar opposite of my mother, would always smile and pat my head, saying, manga maniac Maya-chan's here again!, before leaving me to my own devices. Thinking back on it now, she probably moved the manga with unsafe scenes to the top shelves, beyond my elementary schooler arm's reach.

The turning point came when I was in third grade. As far as I can remember... I had just finished reading "Phoenix," by Osamu Tezuka. It might've actually been "Wild 7" or "Toward the Terra," but at any rate, I was reading, eyes glued to the pages, like I always had been when my aunt unexpectedly walked in and offered me a snacks. I was a light eater as a child, so she normally refrained from feeding me anything that might make me lose my appetite for dinner, but on that day, she had been given some high-quality watermelon and apparently wanted me to try some as well.

"You should have some watermelon too, Maya-chan," she said to me. I feel bad saying it, but I don't remember its taste one bit. What did stay with me, though, was something she said as she talked absentmindedly during our snack.

"Books are strange, aren't they? It doesn't matter the least bit who you are. To think that anyone can write them..."

I have no clue where that thought of hers came from. It could've been that she was talking about how even though driving cars and operating machinery required licenses, it was interesting how writing a book could be done by anyone. With that single phrase, however, something incredible dawned on me.

I see... There's no reason someone like me couldn't draw manga.

As I realized this, the floodgates opened, and I immediately started to draw that very evening. I had never disliked drawing itself, and to add to that, I often got the highest scores possible in my art class. I was certain of it: even I could draw manga! How long did it take for that confidence of mine to crumble, I wonder. Ten minutes? Fifteen? As I look back now on the terrible drawings I did back then, I can't help but cry. At the time, it was so frustrating, so miserable... The words, "It wasn't supposed to be like this," formed behind my clenched teeth. I softly cursed at myself as tears dropped onto the paper below, and then at last, my resolve solidified with a final cry of frustration.

Ever since that day, I've continued to draw unrelentingly.

The monthly manga magazine, La Shin, was originally sold as an extra volume to the similarly purposed Shin Soh. The name apparently derived from the Japanese onomatopoeia for lots of silence, but the contents ended up being pretty different. Unlike the mainly shounen Shin Soh, La Shin was more neutral, or to put it differently, the kind of magazine that seemed to welcome anyone of any age, as long as they liked manga. There were quite a number of magazines out there that I wouldn't mind slapping the "For all manga lovers!" label on, but La Shin specifically didn't really cater to any one niche, I guess, and they generally didn't publish anything too difficult for the average person to get behind. Even if I didn't have the pocket change or the time to read every manga magazine as they came out, I would still make sure to buy the latest issue of La Shin every month without fail on its release day, the 18th.

Like many other magazines, La Shin accepted manga submissions and also offered an award for newcomers called the New World Prize. It is handed out four times a year, and in addition to the chosen work—itself published in that month's issue—the titles of twenty or so other runner-ups each receives an honorable mentions shout-out with a short comment.

The 18th of February fell on a terribly cold Sunday. As snow fell tirelessly and without rest, continuing to bury the city, I headed, scarf wrapped around my ears and covered head-to-toe in cold-resistant clothes, towards the Kobundo bookstore next to the highway. Even I didn't really want to be out on an accident-prone day like this one, but it was for the latest issue of La Shin, after all. That said, even though I bought each issue every month, that didn't necessarily mean I had to get it the very day it came out. The thing was, though, today's March issue was a different story altogether.

I plodded, step-by-step, through the ankle-deep snow, and after I finally arrived at Kobundo—my journey taking five times longer than it usually did—I took a second to relax and deeply inhale the warm interior air. I carefully went over every inch of my clothes to brush off the snow, and once I was certain I wouldn't accidentally get any of the books wet, I went over to the magazine shelf.

From a results perspective, all of my efforts were in vain. The latest La Shin issue hadn't arrived yet. According to the shop employee, the shipments sometimes moved forward or back a day if the official release date fell on a Sunday. There was nothing I could do about that, so I simply had to trudge my way back home.

After school the next day, I managed to get one of my friends to cover for me at the library and left the campus as fast as possible, going to neither the Manga Research Society nor the Classics Club. I ran as quickly as I could along the snow-cleared sidewalks and finally burst into Kobundo. I grabbed an issue of La Shin, tied shut with plastic string to prevent anyone from reading before buying, held it close to my pounding chest, and headed towards the cash register. I'd seen the girl behind the counter here before, and in her usual sweet voice, she asked, "Would you like a bag?"

"Yes, please," I replied, nervously swallowing as I did so.

"Would you like me to cut the string for you?"

My cheeks burned up as I wondered what she must've been thinking of me. Her expression contained nothing out of the ordinary, however, so I replied, "Yeah," and she went to take out some scissors and did just that.

I went outside with the bag and immediately pulled the magazine out. There probably weren't that many people who'd start reading their purchase the second they left the shop. Although a bit concerned about being seen by anyone I knew, I shuffled through the pages.

14th New World Prize winner: "Tanuki Counterattack" by Mamoru Mamiana.

I've never heard of him before. I hope it's good.

I went to look at the other notable selections. Each of them had a single panel published in the magazine, but none of them looked familiar... In other words, mine wasn't chosen.

I looked up at the clear winter sky; the breath that escaped my long sigh turned white.

The participation awards went to... Ichitarou Tasaka, MILULU, Kinsuke Shouda, Satou Georgia, Kaoru Yajima, Kazuru Ihara, Enma Haru...

"Wait, wha..."

A strange noise came from my mouth. A man walking into the store glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, but I didn't feel even a shred of embarrassment.

"No... way..."

Kazuru Ihara! "The Island with the Tower!"

It was published! My story with my drawings was published under my pen name in La Shin!'s March issue.[1]

I closed the magazine and then, trembling, opened it a second time. Maybe it was some kind of mistake, I figured. Maybe, once I opened it again, the contents would change.

But they didn't.

2.

It was a sunny Monday in May, and I headed to the school library after homeroom finished. I belonged to the Manga Society, Classics Club, and Library Committee, and although I normally only worked there on Friday, Monday was when we were training the new recruits that joined in April, so I figured taking care of the returned books was the least I could do. I finished putting all of them away without a hitch, but there was still some time left in the day. I figured it might be a good idea to drop by the Manga Society, but instead I walked to the very end of the special wing's fourth floor, towards the Classics Club.

Upon sliding open the earth sciences lecture room door, I was instantly greeted by familiar, cheery voices.

"Hey, Mayaka! Perfect timing. Come look at this."

Seeing Fuku-chan in the center of the room, beckoning me over with his hand, my mouth subconsciously curved into a smile.

All of the sophomores were here, but it looked like the freshman didn't come today. Satoshi Fukube and Eru Chitanda—Fuku-chan and Chi-chan—were sitting side-by-side, looking at some kind of pamphlet spread open on their desks. Oreki was in a seat some distance away, staring outside the window with a sour face.

"Yeah? What is it?"

I dropped my bag on a nearby desk and walked over to the two, and Chitanda held up the pamphlet for me to see, her face brimming with a wide smile. The cover read "Kamiyama City Book Report Contest Results."

"It's from four years ago, but I happened to come across it as I was cleaning my room yesterday. I opened it up out of curiosity and saw an unexpected name," Chi-chan said. She opened the pages with her slender fingers, and I looked at the contents:

First place: "My Opinions on 'Blue Bird,' by Ami Kojima"

Second place: "My Opinions on 'Salamander,' by Jirou Miyama"

Third place: "My Opinions on 'Run, Melos!' by Houtarou Oreki"[2]

Four years ago meant we were in 6th grade at the time.

"Mayaka-san, you were in the same class as Oreki-san, right?" asked Chi-chan.

Right. As regrettable as it was, I was in the same class as him for all of elementary and middle school, so I vaguely remembered he got an award in some book report contest. I never read his submission, though. I had no idea it'd been recorded in the pamphlet.

"Melos, huh. Doesn't seem like something Oreki would write about."

"Come on, Mayaka. Do you honestly think Oreki would pick a story about friendship like that? It was probably just a topic that was assigned to him," Satoshi said.

Chitanda pondered a little bit and then started to speak.

"When I was in 7th grade, I'm fairly sure I had to read Alex Hacke's Little King December for the summer vacation book report."

Now that she mentioned it, I feel like I had to read the same one.

The three of us fixated our eyes on Oreki at the same time. He turned away but eventually gave into the silence and let out a small sigh before turning back to face us.

"It was one of the recommended books at the library... Besides, it was short."

Oh. It made sense if that was the reason.

Fuku-chan smiled gleefully, clearly having a great time.

"So anyways, Mayaka. This book report is quite the masterpiece, you see. It really brought tears to my eyes; you can definitely imagine it was written by the 7th grade Houtarou."

Chi-chan nodded and also piped in, "I was also very fascinated by it. I could never write something like this."

Hearing them talk about it to that extent made me a little curious as well, but I figured I'd at least ask Oreki about it first.

"Can I?"

Although he looked back with a sullen, dissatisfied expression, he responded, "It's not like that pamphlet belongs to me."

Instead of replying with a simple "I don't want you to," he said it that was public information, even though he might've not liked that fact, and implied that he couldn't say no... I swear, he never changes. I thanked Chi-chan and happily took the pamphlet from her hands.

I'm sure the original was handwritten, but it was converted into print for the pamphlet.

My Opinions on "Run, Melos!"

Houtarou Oreki

I read "Run, Melos." It was interesting. I was glad that Melos was able to save Selinuntius. I was also glad that King Dionys had a change of heart. I thought it would be nice if that change lasted for a long time.

Originally, there was no need for Melos to run at all. His village and the castle were only ten Chinese miles apart—or forty kilometers in today's terms—so even if he walked, it would only take him around ten hours. The reason Melos ran at the start was to force himself to cut ties with his home, so when he was far enough away from the village, he started to walk like normal.

However, there were two reasons why he had to run with everything he had at the end of the story. The first reason being the bridge was washed away due to heavy rains the previous day. The second, and the more pressing reason was he was attacked by bandits. Although he was completely surrounded, he was able to defeat at least four of them and escape. I thought he was very strong. A normal person couldn't do that. Because Melos became very tired from that and fell asleep, however, he had to run to make it in time.

Melos had nothing valuable on him. Not only did he say from the start, "I have nothing with me save for my life," it was probably obvious just by looking at him. What were the bandits trying to achieve, then? They answered that question themselves. When Melos told them, "I have nothing with me save for my life," the bandits responded, "It's that very life we're after!" Essentially, they were less bandits, and more assassins. Weak assassins, granted. As for who ordered the assassination, Melos himself said, "In that case, the king must have demanded it," to which the assassins didn't respond. I thought it was very good of them to not betray their client.

The question is: was Melos correct in assuming it was the king who sent the assassins after him?

I don't think so. No matter who you might think wanted Melos dead, the king was the only person who it absolutely couldn't be.

King Dionys didn't have faith in anyone, so he didn't believe that Melos would return, at all. It was exactly because he thought it wouldn't happen that the shock in seeing Melos return caused such a change of heart in him. There's no way that someone who thought Melos wouldn't return would also send assassins to try and prevent that return.

Then who sent them? Who would've been happy to see the assassins succeed in killing Melos?

Let's try to imagine what would've happened had the assassination gone well. Without Melos arriving before sunset, Selinuntius would've been executed, and the king would have exclaimed with a sad expression, "This is exactly why people can't be trusted."

If Melos' corpse had been discovered after, it would get out that the king executed a man even though the person who was supposed to arrive had been killed by highway robbers. While the king's subjects may have feared him, deep down, they would also chastise his decision. If Melos' body was carefully hidden and never found as a result, the king would continue to believe that Melos had run away according to his expectations. He would've lost his chance to believe in people and continued with the executions, further destroying the country from within.

Essentially, had Melos been assassinated, the country would've suffered regardless of what happened after. Thinking about it like this, the person who sent the assassins must have been someone who didn't want the king to reform himself against all odds through the arrival of Melos, thus earning the support of the people. When Melos did successfully return, I bet he was yelling on the inside.

On another note, when Melos was running back to the castle, he met a man named Philostratos who was Selinuntius' disciple. Even though Selinuntius hadn't actually been executed yet, he told Melos, "You're too late! Please stop running!" Philostratos didn't sound at all like he wanted to save Selinuntius. Wasn't he his disciple?

It's likely that he was sent by the same person who hired the assassins to at least try and talk Melos out of it before he ended up reaching the castle.

In the book, it was written that "King Dionys couldn't trust anyone." I think that distrust was founded. The king had enemies. However now, because of the incident with Melos, it would be even harder for him to figure out who those enemies were. In order to pit the king against his people, the person who targeted Melos would likely continue to go to whatever lengths necessary to prey on his distrust.

I was glad that King Dionys had a change of heart. However, after I finished reading "Run, Melos!" I thought that change may not last for such a long time.

I brought my palm to my forehead.

"Oreki..."

I had no clue he'd submitted a book report like this. I looked back at him and saw he was facing the other direction again. I can imagine how difficult it must've been to have something you wrote four years ago read next to you like that.

Fuku-chan, who had crept up next to me at some point, excitedly said, "The thing that gets me especially is that it represented Kaburaya Middle School in the contest and even got an award, albeit third place. Honestly speaking, when you're assigned a book report, I figured everyone just wrote what they thought the teacher would like the best, not what they actually thought. I've learned the error of my ways! This kind of thing is pretty good too!"

"I'm pretty sure it usually doesn't work out like that. Our Japanese language teacher in 7th grade was Mr. Hanashima, right? He was a little off," I responded.

I could still remember him pretty clearly. He was always really insistent in saying "There's no need to think about the author's intent."

I'm pretty sure he continued like this: "They were probably thinking something unsavory anyways. Even if they were thinking 'I just want to get drunk and fall asleep already' when they wrote their sentences, we can still examine those sentences for meaning. That's what language is. For example, Matsuo Basho wrote, 'The months and days are eternal travelers, and the years, coming and going, similar wayfarers.'[3] If we look at this passage honestly and without preconceptions, we can see that Basho considers the years not as something that simply passes, but as something that comes and goes. Essentially, this points to Basho being a time traveler."

...Yeah, he really was a strange teacher. If we were talking about Mr. Hanashima, I would have no trouble believing he'd submitted Oreki's.

"I wonder what happened to King Dionys after that. What do you think, Oreki-san?" asked Chi-chan, to which Oreki briefly responded, his cheeks somewhat flushed, "Who knows."

I flipped the pamphlet over and noticed something.

"Hey, Oreki. Your's was pretty long, wasn't it?"

"Hmm?"

Thrown off guard, he glanced over at me.

"The other ones are a bit shorter. Isn't yours at the max character limit?"

"Oh, that." A small, uneasy smile formed on Oreki's sullen face. "I thought it said the report had to be more than five pages, so I did exactly five. It turned out that it was actually no more than five pages. It sucks that, even though I tried my best to only do the bare minimum, I actually did more than I needed to. I was thinking about cutting out some parts after."

"Cutting out stuff after finishing it doesn't really sound like doing 'the bare minimum,'" I said, resigned.

Satoshi nodded deeply. "I can understand where you're coming from, though. If it were me, I might've cut out some stuff too."

Not cutting corners in order to cut corners? That makes sense to you? This question showed in my expression as I turned to ask Chi-chan, but she looked equally clueless. Her reaction only made sense. How would anyone have any idea what they were talking about?

Our boys were both all kinds of strange. We exchanged glances and giggled.

Well then... I looked at my watch and then got up from my chair. I couldn't spend too much time here.

"You going home, Mayaka?" asked Satoshi.

"No, I have to go to the Manga Society. I haven't really gone much recently."

As I said this, I noticed Fuku-chan's expression seemed to darken a bit. I nodded once, doing my best to show him I'd be alright, and picked up my bag.

Ever since last year's culture festival, the Kamiyama High School Manga Research Society has been in a state of disrepair.

Thanks to an assortment of incidents all happening around the time of the culture festival, the two factions in the club—those who wanted to try their hands (experienced or not) at drawing manga and those who didn't, instead only wanting to read—began to view each other as enemies. I thought it was pretty simple honestly; if you want to draw manga, then draw it, and if you only want to read, do just that. At this point, though, neither side cared about manga anymore. There was no end in sight.

I was partially to blame. Before, the reading faction was much, much larger, and the drawing faction had no choice but to wait in the shadows. During the culture festival, however, a girl from the reading faction spilled dirty water on me, a member of the drawing faction, and that caused the rest of the drawing faction to come out of the woodwork and get angry at the other side, saying they took things too far. Sure, the girl may have disliked me, but I personally think that it was just an accident. Of course, at that point, what I thought didn't matter at all.

As the new term rolled around and the new student recruitment period also ended, something happened that affected the situation between the two factions. Kouchi-senpai, the actual leader of the reading faction—despite the fact that she drew wonderful manga herself without letting the others know—quit the club earlier than the other seniors normally would. The drawing faction took this as a sign of victory at first, but it quickly became clear that Kouchi-senpai's presence was something like a dam; nothing good came about with her being gone. Back when she was still around, there were lots of times when the factions would say mean things indirectly about each other or only suggest their insults, but now, as we entered the month of May, club members hurling spiteful phrases at the other side became a familiar scene. I'd even be fine with this so long as it was still an argument stemming from a discussion about manga itself, but it only ever started with someone saying something like "you're so annoying" or "stop being so stuck-up."

In the first prep room, the one used by the Manga Society, the reading faction grouped up near the front while the drawing faction gathered at the back. Since there was a door at each side of the room, these were also split up between the factions. I knew everyone saw me as the representative of the drawing faction, but it was all just so ridiculous that I ended up using whichever door was closer. I guess that also came off as me trying to provoke the other side.

That Monday after school, I sat down in my usual seat next to the window and started to jot down some ideas in my notebook for my next manga. Recently, I've only been writing stories that take place in modern Japan, so it probably wasn't a bad idea to switch it up and think of something I don't normally experience. Keeping that in mind, I wrote down some random words as they popped up into my head—things like "steam computer," "big clock (really big)," "automatic egg cooker used by the entire city," and so on. A shadow suddenly appeared over the page, so I looked up and found myself face-to-face with a sophomore, Asanuma-san, standing before me.

"You have a sec?"

I wasn't shy about the fact that I'm planning a new manga considering I was in the Manga Society clubroom, but I closed the notebook out of habit anyways.

"Sure. What is it?"

"So, here's the thing. There's something I wanted to talk with you about." Her voice was a bit hushed.

Asanuma-san had a slim face and narrow eyes, and her voice was a little high-pitched. She also drew manga, probably for a long time now since her strokes were quick and confident like she was really used to it. I got pretty jealous sometimes, because I was so slow in comparison, but on the other hand, part of me imagined the manga itself would probably be happier if she took a little more care with it.

Although I butted heads with Kouchi-senpai during the culture festival, Asanuma-san was the one who took the drawing faction's reins afterward. If I had to guess, it was probably because she wanted to change the Manga Society—a place where even picking up a pen would attract a bunch of cold stares—into an environment where eventually anyone would be able to draw manga to their heart's content. It was something I could never do, since I always tried to avoid dealing with people like that and preferred to create manga by my own rules, so I couldn't help but be impressed by her resolve.

Asanuma-san got straight to the point. "I'm going to self-publish a manga. I wanted to ask you for your help."

I instantly looked around to see if anyone was nearby, but it looked like no one was paying attention. The idea hadn't even occurred to me. Sure, I'd self-published my own manga before, but I had never once paired up with Asanuma-san in the past.

"A manga... what kind?"

Asanuma-san furtively looked around the preparation room like I had and then responded in a bitter tone. "At this rate, we're going to end up only having opinion pieces again for this year's culture festival too. Joining the Manga Society and not being able to write manga is completely stupid, any way you look at it. We might as well just make one ourselves at this point. Don't you think so too?"

"Do you mean creating a separate club?"

She shook her head. "That's not it. There'd be no point in doing that... I'm saying we write a volume in secret, using the Kamiyama High School Manga Society label, and then sell it over summer break. With that, we could show that it's possible to write manga in the— Actually, scratch that. We'll show how the club is essentially meant for creating manga."

I couldn't shake off the feeling that she was saying something dangerous. If she were to use this surprise attack to force her opinion on the club, leveraging it into an advantage for the drawing faction, wouldn't that basically be a coup d'état? Although it's true that this club's sad condition went on 24/7. It had never crossed my mind that simply drawing your own manga could be used as an attack against the reading faction. Thinking about it some more, I guess I could understand how the act of creating a manga alone would look like I was trying to make some kind of point in the current Manga Society... Who am I kidding? "I guess I could understand" is the understatement of the century. It's obvious it'd look like that. Maybe I was being too naive up to this point.

"Who else is going to be in on it?" I asked. She listed some names, folding a finger for every one she mentioned.

"Me, Tai, Nichiyama, Harigaya, and then there's you. I haven't asked the others yet, though."

All of them were in the drawing faction, certainly enough, but as far as I was aware, Asanuma-san was the only one who had actually drawn anything substantial. Tai was a new student, so I didn't know much about her, but I remember her saying she hadn't drawn manga before and she wanted to practice it in the Manga Society. Nishiyama-san and Harigaya-san were both sophomores, and I was pretty sure neither of them had drawn anything outside a panel or two.

"Will they really be able to write something long?" I asked. Asanuma-san lightly chuckled.

"I doubt it, but we don't have to make it that long. Four or five pages are enough. You know, even a two-page spread is fine. The important thing is that we get as many people as we can involved."

It was pretty rude to assume Nishiyama-san and Harigaya-san couldn't draw just because they made next to nothing for the club. I really wanted the answer to be that they would be able to do it. What Asanuma-san said to me showed that she didn't care whether or not they could. Though, to someone who was only thinking about the results, I guess it wasn't that surprising...

Asanuma-san's voice took on a softer tone, maybe noticing how uncomfortable I was getting.

"I'm not going to ask you to do everything yourself. The topic's already decided, so just throw together whatever you can."

Although it might've been too early for an amateur like me to take pride in my work, I wanted to tell her that my manga wasn't something I just "threw together" like that. For someone like Asanuma-san, who I'm sure understood this, to say it like that, I guess it went to show how desperate she was.

I figured I'd at least ask.

"What's the topic?"

"It's going to be be: 'Manga Society.'"

I couldn't help but groan a little. Asanuma-san started to speak more strongly.

"If we don't do something like that, then we won't be able to release the manga. I won't lie and say what we're doing doesn't have any immediate use, but if we graduate before we can take the chance to represent the Kamiyama High School Manga Society name and communicate that to people, then we'll never get another chance. I can't stand thinking about that. Don't you feel the same way, Ibara?"

I didn't really feel up for representing the club's legacy or whatever, but if I was able to get even one or two people to read my work... then I guess I would be happy.

"So? How about it?"

My heart was drawn in two directions. I really didn't like the thought of my manga becoming a tool in the club's faction warfare, but it did boil down to me simply wanting to draw manga and have it be read by others. If I had to say it, I might not even care about the circumstances leading up to it as long as it was read in the end.

Possibly seeing a glimmer of hope in my hesitation, Asanuma-san continued in a more relaxed tone. "If you do accept, tell me how many pages you'll draw beforehand."

"Huh? You want me to decide on the number of pages before I tell you my answer?"

I wasn't expecting that. I didn't have much experience teaming up with others, but it was much more common for groups to first decide on the number of participating members before they decided on a page count, and sometimes they didn't even bother going to the trouble of establishing a page count in the first place. It was the first time, for me at least, to hear about a group that wanted to decide on the number of pages first and foremost.

"Yeah. I need to get an estimate for the club expense form, after all."

"Club expenses? Aren't we going to pay for it ourselves?"

"There'd be no point if we paid out-of-pocket. I'll go talk with the general committee about it and get what we need from the club's budget, even if push comes to shove. I'll need accurate numbers at that point, right?"

Was it really okay to do that, though? The club budget was for the entire club, so everyone—or at the very least, the president, Yuasa-senpai— would have to be on board, or else we'd be basically embezzling the funds. I don't even think the general committee was the group responsible for club fund distribution in the first place.

"You're going to talk to the president, of course. Right?"

Yuasa-senpai had almost nothing to do with any of the antagonism happening in the Manga Research Society, instead flawlessly taking care of the mundane tasks required in running the club, like filling out the club recruitment and expenses forms. Not only did Asanuma-san's plan feel unstable at best, but it'd be a good idea if the president was also involved so we won't make the club's situation even worse.

"Yeah... I guess. I guess I have to tell her," she murmured dissatisfied, her mouth almost completely shut.

This whole thing was a bit scary, but I'll just leave it to her. I had to start thinking about my own manga.

"Yeah, I can't really decide right away on the page number. I'm happy for the opportunity, but I don't know where to go with the topic 'Manga Society' let alone how many pages it would end up being. I'll start by making a rough draft and then use that as the basis for the page count, so would you mind waiting?"

A small frown formed on her lips. "Well, that makes sense, I suppose. How long do you need?"

Today was the 14th, and I still needed to brainstorm some ideas and formulate the plot. If I only needed to gauge the page count, then the rough draft didn't have to be very detailed, which meant...

"Friday, maybe?"

"Got it. Until then, I'll be searching for more girls who're willing to draw." She then made sure to add, "Keep this between us, yeah?"

3.

My parents didn't say much to me about my drawing manga. They were neither disapproving nor supportive of it; as long as I studied hard, they gave me the leeway to do whatever I wanted in my free time. The "as long as I studied hard" part implied that I was free to draw manga only on weekends and holidays. My mom and dad always looked a little worried when they saw me drawing manga on the weekdays, so I stopped doing it. I of course had other plans as well on my days-off, so I often ended up being really pressed for time.

Asanuma-san told me about her plans on Monday, and I needed to get back to her on my decision by Friday. Although it was true I hadn't drawn anything yet, I didn't want to break the unspoken promise with my parents to not draw anything at home on the weekdays, so I decided to work on it at school.

The problem was where. I had to keep Asanuma's scheme a secret, so there was no way I could do anything related to it in the Manga Society clubroom. I wish I could've used the earth sciences lecture room—where the Classics Club met—but I didn't want to drag them into the utter mess that was the Manga Society's problems. I was similarly uncomfortable with using the library room as a member of its staff for something completely unrelated, so with all of those crossed off the list, I had only one more option. I decided to open my notebook in my homeroom, Class 2-C.

I can't speak for others, but at least personally, it's really difficult for me to draw manga with people around. Especially doing so at school, surrounded by classmates, was out of the question. All I was doing at this point was jotting down ideas, so it couldn't have looked like I was doing anything more than studying hard from the side. To add to that, I even had a textbook open to further camouflage my manga brainstorming. It was a disguise so perfect that not even God or Oreki would be able to see through it.

After school on Tuesday, I sat up straight at my desk in classroom 2-C, opened my world history textbook, and started to write down some ideas.

This was my first time ever using a theme from someone else, so I guess I was a bit unsure about what I was doing, but I'm confident it wasn't impossible. While Asanuma-san did say the theme was "the Manga Society," she never specified that it had to take place in Kamiyama High School's Manga Research Society. A group that researches manga... I see. How about a story set in the future? In a world where civilization has collapsed, a group of people come across the ruins of a Manga Research Society and try to figure out what exactly it was. Would that be too convoluted?

I scribbled down ideas like these into my notebook with a mechanical pencil, but my thoughts started to get scattered and I found myself unable to concentrate, the reason being a couple of girls still in the classroom. One of them was Maki Hani, a girl with a name that rolled off the tongue so well that it made me always want to say the entire thing when I called out to her. She looked mellow, despite her bold cosplay choices during the culture festival, and she seemed pretty smart. To top it all off, she was a member of the Manga Society. At the moment, she was happily chatting away with some other girls about their summer vacations.

I usually don't really try to learn every little detail involving the club conflict, but I could tell just by watching that Hani-san was technically with the so-called reading faction. That said, it was pretty clear that she never actively supported them, and when the two sides started to insult each other, she always stayed quiet, even though she sat with the reading faction. It could be that she was like me, and got wrapped up in one of the sides while thinking the whole thing was stupid at the same time. I never talked with her in the clubroom, but our conversations in class were pretty normal.

I was pretty sure Hani-san wouldn't tell anyone anything, even if she did somehow find out about Asanuma-san's plan, but she might be able to figure out I was outlining the plot to a manga by looking at my notes. That would be more embarrassing than anything, so I stayed in constant alert.

I might've just been paranoid, but who was to say for certain? I labored over my notes, constantly writing and rewriting, and then suddenly looked up. Hani-san was facing away from me, talking as carefree as she had been when I'd started.

"What, no way! Our baseball team totally sucks."

Hearing her say this, among other things, meant that she was at least participating in the conversation, I guess, but then why couldn't I shake the feeling that someone was watching me? Even if she did somehow figure out that I was putting together the plot to a manga, what was the point in watching from a distance?

...Though, there was something about Hani-san that bugged me.

She was on really good terms with Kouchi-senpai, who had quit the club. It wasn't the typical senior-junior relationship you'd see in most clubs. I'd noticed them talking really naturally, like they were old friends, tons of times before. Kouchi-senpai was really popular with the other girls as well, so their relationship was a pretty common topic. From the bits that I picked up on, it looked like the two of them lived close by, and they played together a lot as kids. Maybe she was observing me, the possible instigator of a drawing faction coup d'état, as a friend of the reading faction's leader? Well, I guess I couldn't rule out the possibility completely, but it really did sound like something straight out of a manga. But if that wasn't the case, then I really was at a loss. Why would she be watching me?