Chapter 2

Setsubun, huh… Between you and me, it’s not exactly my favorite holiday.

Ahaha, it’s ‘cause you don’t like soybeans, right?

But you still eat your age in them whenever someone on the student council brings you some for good luck ♪¹

Hmph… It’s not like I can just disregard someone’s kindness. I’m not allergic to soybeans; I can physically eat them.

It’s just that I get a little sick from eating foods I don’t like… On top of that I’m overworked, so I feel a little light-headed.

(Ahaha, the Vice President gets crazy mad just from the sight of beans.)

(But he just put up with it all, probably to avoid making his kouhai uncomfortable.)

(He really is a good person~ Seriously. Keep on keepin’ on, dude ♪)

Well if you’re not feeling well, why not rest in the nurse’s office? I can take care of everything from here ♪

Mm. I can always count on you, Isara.

Wassup~ Anzu! Working hard or hardly working? ♪

Sorry I’m a little late. I was having a hell of a time with some work for the student council~ I’ve even been going out of my way to get work done on my days off, but that pile of work just won’t go down.

Hm? You want me to leave Setsubun Festival to you since I’m busy~?

Nah, there’s no way. Official Dream Fests have to be supervised by someone on the student council—It’s a rule.

S3s are official, so someone has to oversee it.

And besides, just because I’m going through it doesn’t mean you’re not, Producer. So let’s support each other and don’t worry about stuff we don’t have to.

That’s the kinda relationship we’ve got, isn’t it Anzu? ♪

Um, what kinda relationship is that? Are you two dating or something~? ♪

Don’t be stupid.

Wait, you’re the one twin… Yuuta-kun, right? Agh, my bad, you don’t like to be called stuff like “the one twin,” do you?

No worries~ Actually, even I think I was caring too much about something stupid…

But I’ve gotten over that rebellious part of my life.

Even if you say you’ve gotten over it, it’s not that easy to come to terms with it, y’know…? But whatever, let’s just get down to business.

I’ll work hard enough to make up for being late. So what’s going on here? The festival’s already started, right?

Sure has~ They just did their “Ready, set, go! ♪”

I think you probably knew that already though, since we’ve been making announcements over the broadcast in regular intervals.

Yep. We’ve got the full cooperation of the broadcasting committee for Setsubun Festival, and we’re gonna be recording all of the commotion that happens in school.

Pretty sure they’re gonna edit the footage and broadcast it as an in-school TV program later too?

Makoto’s a member of the broadcasting committee, and he was complaining about how hard it is because he’s not used to filming.

Ahaha. Speaking of, I’d gotten used to the radio program stuff they were doing, but ever since the fall they’ve been doing in-school TV programs too.

Like, during lunch break some days.

Yep, apparently they used to do it a bunch in the past, so there are TV monitors in every classroom.

The head of the committee, Nito-senpai, wanted to make use of them, so he decided to revive those in-school programs.

But he doesn’t have the know-how, and he’s not used to all of it, so he’s been having a tough time.

Some way or another he managed to set things up so they could make something good enough, though, so I guess he’s trying to go the whole nine yards.

And that’s what this Setsubun Festival is.

Nito-senpai’s in the same class as Sakuma-senpai, so he asked him for his help and they made it happen.

I remember there were a good number of S3s that were supposed to be seasonal things focused on Setsubun.

But Sakuma-senpai consolidated all of them into one and submitted a proposal under a joint signature…

And the result was a single S3 on an unprecedented scale. That guy’s seriously good at stuff like that, huh.

If he’s the one who set it up, it’s gotta be something everyone will enjoy, with smiles on their faces…

It’ll be a true dream festival, happy ending and all.

Well, I can’t let my guard down yet. I’m pretty sure we’re under-staffed and under-prepared… And we’re trying out a bunch of brand-new things, like that TV program.

Let’s be careful so we don’t run into any trouble, and keep a firm hold over this whole operation.

Anyway, I guess it’s a little late to be asking this, but why are you guys still here in the AV room?

Our base of operations for Setsubun Festival is supposed to be a tent set up in the schoolyard?

I wanted to say hi to you, Anzu, so I got in touch and you said you were here…

It was on the way, so I decided to pop in, but?

Sigh… There was just something that was bothering me.

Setsubun Festival is supposed to be edited into a TV program, just like you said Isara-senpai.

In some of the materials they were using for that… footage from a security camera, there was something really weird.

But the video was grainy, and all the computers at the base were being used, so we had to come here to the AV room to play it back.

I thought I’d be able to figure out what the weird images were using the equipment in here.

It’s just something I was personally curious about; I didn’t mean to drag Anzu-san into it.

But I couldn’t take the video footage without the person in charge, and that happens to be her.

I’m on the staff, but I’m still just a grunt worker who took this up as a part-time job. I don’t have any authority.

But I am good at tinkering with machinery, so I can analyze this footage.