Vol 2 Chapter 35 – The Picnic

We were about to climb a mountain.

Though it was a really low mountain.

Its elevation wasn’t even 300 meters, and you could climb it in about an hour.

There wasn’t anything convenient like a ropeway, but the mountain trail was reasonably well-maintained.

We arrived by bus at the foot of the mountain Segawa-san had researched for us, figuring it was probably for the best.

“Think it’s okay if I buy a wooden sword and a weird pennant on the way back?”

“Buy something decent. You don’t want your little sister to scold you.”

There was Toudou-san, already rummaging through the souvenir shop for suspicious-looking things that only an elementary schooler would enjoy.

And there was President Takahashi, calling her out for it.

I chimed in, too.

“Is that something your sister actually wants?”

“Nah, I think she’d get mad if I actually brought it home. It’d be the first thing she throws out on the next trash day!”

Then don’t look for it.

Give the client what they really want.

I gave her a subtle look of reproach, and Toudou-san returned the weird pennant with slumped shoulders.

“Guess it can’t be helped. I’ll just buy some local specialty snacks to placate her…”

“Let’s do that. It’ll just be something else to carry, so let’s buy them on the way back.”

Nodding at the fact that Toudou-san had given up, I took off my backpack.

Everyone else was setting down their bags and taking a short break.

Anyway, the purpose of this trip was sketching.

It’s just, how do I put it…

“I’m not exactly confident, you know.”

It was a little late to be saying this now that we were already here, but I confessed honestly.

I mean, I’m an otaku, so of course I’ve at least tried to draw my own stuff before.

But that was about it.

“Hm? Everyone’s a beginner at first, you know. No one’s going to laugh if you’re not good at it.”

President Takahashi said cheerfully.

A fitting line from her—an otaku of light who seemed to have come from the Land of Light itself.

The petite girl peered up at me, a cute little backpack dangling from her hand.

“I believe you.”

I do believe her.

There’s no one in this club who would make fun of me like that.

I’d come to trust everyone in the club completely.

But, well, I figured I should put in a little effort myself before today, so I picked up a pencil and tried…

“I did a few sketches, but they’re pretty bad.”

I’d even bought a how-to book.

It was that classic exercise everyone’s done: sketching an apple.

I figured I’d start with the absolute basics.

I took the sketchbook from my backpack to show President Takahashi before we started the climb.

No, everyone had gathered around, looking at my sketchbook with keen interest.

“This is your first time even holding a pencil for drawing, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then this is more than good enough.”

She turned to the second page, and then the third.

They were terrible drawings.

The shading wasn’t done right, the shapes were off, and—after she turned to the tenth page, the rest were blank.

“Yeah, Kajiwara-kun. This trip was decided on ten days ago. You must have bought this sketchbook and drawn one page every day, right? You really stuck with it.”

“Stuck with what?”

“Being consistent.”

She shut the cheap sketchbook with a soft clap and handed it back to me.

“Well, with sketching and drawing, it’s important to understand light and dark, to accurately express the direction of the light and the intensity of the shadows to create a sense of three-dimensionality—and, of course, to be able to properly draw the shapes of simple objects. But more than any of that…”

With a soft hup, the petite President Takahashi opened her own backpack and took out a sketchbook.

For some reason, there were two, and one of them was very old and worn-out.

She opened it and showed it to me.

“I’ll say it again: it’s about consistency. This is the sketchbook I started when I was in elementary school.”

“…”

She flipped through the pages.

It was, well… how do I put it…

It wasn’t that different from mine.

Which made sense, since she had only just started back then.

“I started this in the fourth grade. I thought it’d be a good thing to bring today.”

“You’ve kept it all this time?”

“It’s not like I kept it to constantly remind myself of my bitter beginnings or anything. I just couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. And it turns out, it’s super useful. For encouraging beginners, you see.”

The members of the Modern Culture Research Club all nodded in agreement.

Toudou-san, Segawa-san, and Emma-san were all nodding.

Among them, Emma-san, who had only been drawing for a year, began to speak.

“Um, you know, Kajiwara-kun, she showed me the same sketchbook. I was just like this at first, too. Everyone is. So, if you’re asking how you get better…”

She wasn’t someone who was great at talking.

And since she was trying her absolute best to speak, I listened silently and intently.

“She said it’s all about consistency.”

Emma-san was the second-best artist in this club.

She once lamented to some unseen god that as a middle schooler, she had been an otaku who never created anything.

“Anyone can get good if they just keep at it. What’s not okay is giving up, telling yourself you don’t have any talent. Even a dropout, if they try their damn hardest, can sometimes surpass an elite!”

She sounded like she belonged to some kind of warrior race.

And that same Emma-san was, in fact, getting better and better at drawing.

Because for one year, she never neglected her consistent efforts.

“So, um, it feels weird for someone like me to say this, but… you decided you wanted to do it, you kept at it for ten days, and you came here today to sketch with us. I think you have a talent, too, Kajiwara-kun. The talent for hard work… I don’t think that’s something to look down on.”

“…”

I felt a strange, tingling sensation.

It wasn’t unpleasant.

It was the kind of thing that fired me up, that made me think, Alright, let’s do this.

In other words, it was courage.

“I might have said this before, but anyone can learn to draw if they have the patience to do 30 minutes of croquis every single day. What’s important is the will to keep walking toward the sun.”

Squeeze.

Clenching her small palm into a fist, President Takahashi held it up to the sun.

She was a warrior of light.

It was the kind of gesture you’d make to transform, like Ultraman pushing the button on the Beta Capsule.

“So let’s do our best together.”

“Okay.”

I gave the two of them a smile in response.

That’s right. All that matters is motivation and consistency.

If I keep going, a good result is guaranteed.

It’s not like I was trying to become a pro or anything.

I just wanted to do something as a member of the Modern Culture Research Club.

As a hobby, as an otaku.

And if I was going to do it, I might as well give it everything I had.

They were giving me the push I needed.

“Well then, now that the president’s nice speech is over, let’s get climbing. We’ll sketch at the scenic spot on the summit!”

Vip!

Segawa-san pointed sharply at the peak.

Apparently, there was a rest area at the top, and even a park where we could spread out a picnic sheet.

Yeah.

It seemed like today was going to be another fun day.

“Alright, break’s over, shall we start climbing? Our goal is to reach the summit in one hour!”

Fwish!

President Takahashi energetically swung her arms in circles.

Coming from someone so petite, the gesture naturally put my heart at ease.

“The trail is wide, so I doubt anyone will get mad if we don’t walk in single file. Let’s take it nice and slow, maybe chat while we walk. Kajiwara-kun, you’re next to me.”

Thump.

Just like that, Toudou-san was standing right beside me.

I was, of course, happy to have her there.

“Okay, Kajiwara-kun and Hatsune will lead, Segawa-chan and Emma will be next. As the leader, I’ll take the rear.”

“Are you sure about that?”

That would mean President Takahashi would be walking at the back all by herself.

Worried she might be lonely, I voiced my concern, but…

“Hmph, my greatest joy is watching over all my club members as they have fun walking together.”

President Takahashi really is an absurdly good person.

In this club full of nerds, she’s without a doubt the one person who could live in the normal world without facing any discrimination whatsoever.

She was shining so brightly it could blind you.

“Alright then, let’s move out.”

We slowly started walking up the mountain trail as the incline began.