I Was Reincarnated as a Mob in a Completed School Rom-Com Manga, and When I Tried My Best to Cheer Up the Broken Losing Heroines, I Realized I Had Surpassed the Original Story - 21

Chapter 21: Moving and the Big Cleanup

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“Alright, let’s get started!”

“But Kirariii~, there’s so much stuff I don’t even know where to begin~!”

The old storage room was located right next to the student council office. This roughly ten-tatami room, packed with shelves and cluttered documents to the point there was barely anywhere to step, was to become the new clubroom for our manga club. On Monday after school, the first day of the new week, we began cleaning and moving into our new clubroom right away.

“But Chadani-san, is it really okay for us to use a room that used to be the storage space for student council documents?”

Apparently, the advisor had successfully accepted the club application that Chadani-san had prepared for us. Come to think of it, I hadn’t met the advisor yet. Who could they possibly be? According to Kirari, until our clubroom was decided, the advisor had been silently allowing us to use my off-campus room as our activity space, so at the very least, they didn’t seem like a strict teacher…

“Yes, of course. From now on, past documents will be stored in the student council office.”

“Sorry if we’re causing you trouble…”

“Not at all. I’m also a member of the manga research club, and it’s more convenient for me when it’s close by, that’s all…”

“Knowing you’re close by makes me feel at ease, Chadani-san.”

“M-me too… I wanted to stay as close to Kurosaki-kun as possible…”

Her face flushed a soft pink, as though she had a fever, and she muttered something in a voice so quiet I could barely hear it. Just as I was about to ask what she had said, Kirari poked only her head through the clubroom door and called my name, catching me as I chatted in front of the student council room.

“Hey, Kazutooo! Quit slacking and come help alreadyyy!”

“O-oh…! Thanks again, Chadani-san. I might ask if there’s something I don’t understand later, though…”

“Yes, I’ll always be waiting. G-good luck, okay?”

Chadani-san still seemed a little out of it, and I started to worry.

“Thanks! You’ve got your student council president duties too, so good luck with that!”

And then, once I stepped into the clubroom, it was a disaster. Moe kept tossing documents from the boxes behind her without even checking what they were. Konno-san spread her arms wide and happily let the resulting snowfall of paper confetti rain down on her entire body. Nazuna had tried to move a whole stack of books at once, tripped, and toppled the bookshelf, causing a full-blown catastrophe. Kirari hovered nearby, worrying whether Nazuna was hurt while at the same time trying desperately to snap a photo of the moment. There was not a shred of cooperation to be found.

“Guys… Are you seriously motivated at all…?”

My inner thoughts slipped out, and Moe’s eyebrows twisted sharply.

“Ugh! I don’t wanna hear that from you when you’re the one slacking, Onii-chan!”

“I was just thanking Chadani-san, that’s all.”

“Heyyy, let’s get Suzu-senpai to help toooo. At this rate we’ll never finish today.”

“Don’t be unreasonable, Moe. She’s already done so much for us, we can’t trouble her any more than this. And Chadani-san has her student council president duties…”

“Kurosaki-kun, you sure take Chadani-san’s side a lot. Is she blackmailing you or something?”

“Yeah, yeah, totallyyy!”

Moe jumped on Konno-san’s accusation. The moment they said “blackmail,” I remembered the very first conversation I’d had with Chadani-san in the classroom, and a strange feeling washed over me.

“N-no way, nothing like that…”

Konno-san slowly approached and stared at me with her usual dead-eyed gaze, as if she was licking my face with her eyes.

“That reaction is suspicious…”

“N-nothing’s going on, seriously…!”

“K-Kazuto-kun is a very sincere person, so I don’t think he’d hide anything from us…!”

Nazuna suddenly spoke up to defend me.

“T-thanks, Nazuna…”

“N-no, I mean, it’s true… Right…?”

Nazuna stared straight at me without a hint of doubt, radiating silent pressure.

“O-of course…”

“But Nazuna-senpai, Onii-chan does have secrets, you know~? Right? O-ni-i-cha-n?”

The image of a nurse-costumed woman flashed into my mind, and I snapped my eyes wide open, silently screaming “Stop it!” at Moe with a frantic stare. Moe responded by raising one finger on her left hand and all five fingers on her right. I immediately realized that was her signal for “strawberry,” meaning: strawberry parfait, 2,480 yen—her hush-money price. I braced myself to pay that gag order fee again and nodded rapidly.

“Hey, Moe, what’s Kazuto’s secret? Now I’m curious.”

“That is~~… I forgot!”

“Ehh~ what’s that supposed to mean~”

Moe played dumb in response to Kirari’s question. It seemed the negotiation had succeeded, and I had narrowly extended my life expectancy.

Two hours passed after we got back to cleaning. We moved the massive amount of documents to the student council office and arranged long tables and chairs in the center of the room. It barely looked like a usable clubroom now.

“Okay, that’s probably good enough for today. We can add manga to the empty shelf space little by little… By the way, Kirari, does this club have a budget or anything?”

“Nope.”

Sitting at the head seat as if it were her natural throne, Kirari answered without hesitation.

“Huh…?”

“The manga research club hasn’t done anything yet, so we’re still treated as a hobby group. There’s no way we’d get funding.”

“So collecting manga and producing work is all… Out of our own pocket…?”

“That’s how it’ll be~”

Her detached, impersonal tone made it sound like someone else’s problem.

“First the clubroom, now the budget… We’ve got problems stacked to the ceiling…”

“Fufufu… But of course, your wise club president already has a plan!”

Her loaded grin filled me with a very bad feeling.

“I’ll ask just to be sure… What is your plan…?”

“This club has this many beautiful girls. And the culture festival is coming up… So obviously, the best way to earn big is for us to become idols!”

“I—idols!?”

I instantly understood her real goal. She just wanted to see Nazuna dressed as an idol. This plan came to light solely because of her personal interest. 

“Moe can be an idol!? I wanna do iiit!”

“I will pass…”

“I’m not good with embarrassing stuff…”

Each girl reacted differently. The first-years were in favor while the second-years were against. It came down to a majority vote. With the five of us present, I essentially held the deciding vote. Knowing Kirari, she had planned everything to reach this outcome. I felt bad for Konno-san glaring at me with dead eyes and Nazuna looking so uneasy, but with Moe—who held my weakness—and Kirari—who always helped me—pressuring me with their stares, I ended up raising my hand for “yes.” Well… Of course I couldn’t say I wasn’t looking forward to everyone’s idol outfits…

“Then starting tomorrow we’ll practice singing and dancing! Oh, and Kazuto, you’re the manager, so please take care of us~!”

“Onii-chan, don’t get jealous just because Moe’s gonna be an idol, okay~?”

As always, the first-years were bouncing with excitement. Meanwhile, the second-years…

“This is 100% going to be my dark past. I’m going to resent you for this for the rest of my life, Kurosaki-kun.”

“If Kazuto-kun decides to do it, I have no choice but to follow… But performing in front of people is way too embarrassing…”

Konno-san muttered curses at me like she was reciting a spell, staring blankly into the distance, while Nazuna crouched down, covering her face with both hands.

“B-but, Konno-san! If we make the idol theme about ninjas or something, you could do ninja cosplay! And I… I’d like to see Nazuna sparkle even more than she already does…!”

“R-really…?”

“Is that true…?”

The moment I desperately added those words, the light in their eyes changed.

“In that case… I guess I could do it.”

“If that’s the case, then I’ll work hard to make Kazuto-kun happy…!”

Just like that, Konno-san and Nazuna were instantly motivated. Later, when we told Chadani-san—who had been absent that day—she fiercely opposed the idea at first, but after nearly an hour of desperate persuasion, she reluctantly agreed. And so, before we could begin any real manga research club activities, our next big goal shifted to performing an idol concert at the culture festival.

At that time, I still didn’t know….That the heroines, who seemed to have regained their brightness, would soon begin casting shadows again and in the end, every single one of them would turn into a yandere heroine…

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