Chapter 46

Um What do you mean?

The club room after school .

Across the desk, I was facing my junior colleague, I-chan .

On the desk is a simple envelope with the words club resignation notice written in I-chans distinctive round letters .

No Well Im thinking of quitting this club .

I-chan said in a buzzing voice and played with the tip of her hair with her index finger .

No, no! Its just you and me in this club! I managed to get the teacher to put the club on hold and put the cancellation on hold and then we said well do our best next year You know, thats what we were talking about . Mainly in my mind .

You were determined, but you werent talking .

I was self-contained . Its a bad habit of mine .

To be honest, I didnt expect it to be this stubborn, because black magic research? Its not like theyre just going to get together and talk, right? Senpai said something like that before I joined the club, didnt you? This is now the realm of fraud . Cooling-Off will come . The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare is on our side .

I-chan said, pointing to the bookcase in our club .

Its chock full of questionable books that I and Mr . Mountain, had ordered in from overseas .

Incidentally, Mr . Mountain left the club two months ago to study for his exams .

Youre not even serious . Because look, you didnt appear at the national tournament .

For now, Im going to make that talkative mouth shut up .

The persuasion comes after you get rid of the heavy air .

If the atmosphere is broken, you can fool them by saying, Nah, Nah .

No, Im serious . The black magic research department is a very dangerous place to be . Its the source of bad religion . Normally, the school should take the initiative in destroying it .

Since Ive done playing being fool, a certain typical club criticism has started .

Its not working . Shes going to quit altogether .

Ive been slacking off for nearly a year now, but Im not sure if Im going to be able to do it again

Unlike a magic addict like me, shes a perfectly normal person .

At the time I was in high spirits drawing a magic circle, she looks at me with a very cold eye .

Its a bit of a stretch to let them continue with the club after all .

But you shouldnt give up easily .

Something, isnt there some kind of clue .

Why did she suddenly decide to quit the club again?

Lately, the club tends to have a break, but we dont have those .

Normally, if you want to quit, you will slowly stop showing your face .

Its true that it does not fit to this girls skin but she is also rather flippant about some things at times .

At least, thats what it looked like in my eyes .

There may be some decisive factor that led to her decision to quit the club .

If I only know that, I should be able to see room for persuasion .

. . And Senpai, you were so kind when I first joined the club, but recently you said something like I feel like I can do alchemy, Im pretty serious and doing all these weird things, and you didnt pay any attention to me at all No, that has nothing to do with it, but well, how should I put it If you think about it too, we may not have to think about it either . . well .

She says this while muddling through her words .

Lately, Ive been ignoring her when she speaks to me and concentrating on generating pure gold .

Just the other day, she was showing me the screen of her phone so much that I said, Dont distract me for a minute when I said with a straight face, Why dont you do it alone already! then was the time when she yelled at me .

I wondered if that might have been a bad idea so I apologized, but she denied it .

What, so it doesnt matter .

If so, then I have no idea what the cause of the problem is .

There is one thing I can think of .

Come to think of it, Mr . Mountain just quit the club recently, didnt he?

What, does she have feelings for Mr . Mountain?

His right hand is his girlfriend, his left hand is his mistress, and Im an adulterer, is a very uninteresting and trivial thing to say . The springtime of life has finally arrived for Mr . Yama-san, who has been joking around a lot, I guess .

As I recall, I-chan had said things like Youre going to be arrested one day and Sometimes I smell strange, and you have no thoughtfulness physiologically painful and I thought that was an exaggeration, too . Part of it is true, and part of it is that I thought he should be encouraged to improve, but that was the opposite of love .

Oh, that one! Its Mr . Mountain, Mr . Mountain right! You were in love with Mr . Mountain, werent you! Okay, then Ill take care of the middleman

I-chan slammed the desk with a bang and got up from her seat .

Well then, Im going home now .

Her eyes and voice are cold .

I-chan lifted her bag with a flourish and headed straight for the exit .

I knew it wasnt Mr . Mountain . To be honest, I had a feeling that it was, too .

Well, wait! Um, look, whos going to take care of n.o.bunaga!

As I said it, I ran to the window and returned to I-chans front door with a flowerpot in my arms .

This was a plant seed that was sold online under the heading of The Worlds Strangest Talking Plant Seeds .

I left it to I-chan to take care of .

She named it n.o.bunaga because of her love of history .

Hey, really! Oh, G.o.d, I got dirt on my skirt! Senpai, you idiot! Theres no way that things going to talk!

Then, I-chan pushes me .

The momentum causes me to stumble and drop the flowerpot to the floor .

Just ugh!

With a crunch, the flowerpot breaks .

n.o.bunaga was burned to death . d.a.m.n you, Mitsuhide .

I-chan frowned a little apologetically, but quickly turned away and left the club room .

Hey, wait a minute!

I opened the fridge in the club room and took out a plastic bottle, dumped the contents, and washed it well before cutting it in half . Make some small holes in the bottom with a compa.s.s .

Then the dirt scattered on the floor was collected with a broom and a dustpan and put into the bottom half of the plastic bottle .

A simple plant pot was made . I repotted the knotweed in the pot and put it on the balcony .

Of course, I wiped the floor with a rag .

I carefully tucked the notice of withdrawal into a file, closed the window, turned off the lights, locked the door, and returned it to the staff room . Then I went after I-chan .

I was pointlessly methodical in my section .

Now that its over, I think I should have gone after her right away .

I ran after I-chan .

When I finally caught up with her, she was on the sidewalk in front of the school gates . It was pretty close .

For some reason, she stopped in front of the crosswalk, even though the light was green .

Maybe she hadnt noticed the change in the signal . Did that girl forget to weak her contact?

Hey, wait!

Youre late, arent you?

I dont want to be bullied by the student council anymore for forgetting to lock the door .

A few months ago, there was a time the head of the student council, cited the mismanagement of the key as one of the reasons for destroying our black magic research club .

I struggled to get away with it in one way or another, but it added to the scale of the conflict to no avail . The whole school got involved in a barren fight, until they finally beat each other up, crying on the riverbank .

As a result, I and the student body president, both of us suffered no small (social) wounds, and eventually, it has been handed down without a winner but thats not the point now, is it?

In fact, youre only stopping the club because you dont want it to get destroyed, right, senpai? It doesnt even have to be at our house! Is the club that important?

No, but well thats right? Its important, but

Weve been getting along for a year, so Ill miss Iichan when shes gone .

Thats what I thought, but the main reason Im bowing down now is certainly that I dont want the club to be destroyed, so Its hard to deny it .

If I tell a lie here, maybe it would be a nice way to put it together, but its not sincere .

It is an irrevocable truth that the club is important .

Im confident that Ill quit high school if the black magic research club is gone .

In the worst-case scenario, I was thinking of asking them to leave their register, but with this atmosphere, its hard to say that too .

I-chans eyes narrowed when she saw that I was stagnant .

Then, Ive already given you the club resignation letter . Thank you for everything youve done .

H-hey! Wait!

Hmph!

Ignoring my call, I-chan quickens her feet .

Shes not aware of the signal .

Wait! Its really bad!

I reach out and grab her by the shoulder, but she swiftly shakes me off .

I-chan went on and ran off into the crosswalk .

And then a loud horn sounds . I-chan turns her face to the right .

Ah .

The big truck was closing in on I-chan .

The next thing I knew, I was jumping out of the way .

My body received a strong shock and my vision went dark .

Its hot . My whole body is hot .

I manage to open my eyes, but my vision is severely blurred .

Rather than my eyes, it was more like my brain was failing .

The area starts to become noisy . Its so annoying, I thought to myself, as if it were someone elses business .

Someone is hugging me .

Yaaaaaah! Im sorry, Im sorry! Its my fault that

I can hear I-chans voice as it breaks off .

Oh, thank G.o.d . Did she make it?

Its not cool if both of us jumped in and died .

With that thought as my last thought, I lost consciousness .