Headphone Actor (3 page)

Without meeting my questioning gaze, he simply looked down in silence, almost like a criminal in a detective manga that had just been convicted with solid evidence and was about to completely confess about his motives.

“…. Sensei …. you used …. our budget, didn’t you?”

“…. It’s …. It’s 
that guy’s
 
fault …!!”

With passionate bad acting, what Tateyama-sensei said defensively about how “the 40% OFF sale for the rare fish specimen (that guy) started just when the assigned budgets for each class were calculated,” sounded just like the unfound motive for the crime.

…. Although, it wasn’t even like a motive or anything.

Speaking as if he was a victim that had been captivated by the rare fish, I was already past anger or contempt, and was beginning to feel something similar to sympathy.

“So, what are we going to do? In my opinion, umm …. I think something like target shooting would be a good idea ….”

With Tateyama-sensei’s speech already shifted to the theme of “How captivating the rare fish was,” and while I was thinking of how to expose this teacher to the principal, once again, Haruka pushed his opinion about wanting to do a target shooting booth.

“…. You know, for a target shooting booth, we’d need a lot of prizes, and it’s a lot to set up, so matter how you think about it, it’s impossible with just us. And for starters, thanks to this idiot of a teacher, we don’t even have any funds left.”

“Oh … but I thought it was a good idea. I saw what all the other classes are doing, and no one seemed to be doing target shooting.”

Although Haruka said this very off-handedly, it came off sounding like something very surprising. The reason there wasn’t a “target shooting booth” among the other classes probably had to do with the budget. With how the school barely had enough for renovations, I couldn’t imagine that one class would be given even nearly enough to get together many prizes.

However, what mattered more was that Haruka, who was always spacing out with thoughts that I didn’t understand at all, was so concerned about what the other classes were doing for the Culture Festival to the point that he knew all about them.

“…. Could it be that you’re actually really looking forward to the Culture Festival?”

When I asked this, he answered bashfully, “Actually, yeah.” Seeing as how he hadn’t been shy at all about me seeing him half-naked earlier, it would seem that this guy felt embarrassment for different reasons than other people did.

“That’s kind of surprising …. But the other day, when we were talking about how we wouldn’t do anything for the festival, you didn’t even say a word ….”

“Well, that’s because, it’d be a bother if I suddenly collapsed, since my body’s weak; and when I was watching everyone, it seems like a lot of work to set things up, so I thought it couldn’t be helped ….”

Haruka said, and smiled meekly.

I didn’t understand it very well, but it seemed that Haruka had a serious “illness” that was beyond comparison with the “illness” that I had.

It was the type where a sudden attack could cause death.

Tateyama-sensei had told me about this when we’d first enrolled, but perhaps due to the actual person’s optimistic personality, I’d never really realized the seriousness of it.

Because of his experiences up until now, he was probably more than a little aware of it himself.

Possibly, just because I hadn’t really paid any attention until now, he’d been putting up with various burdens at school on his own since enrolling.

“I see. But, you want to do it, right?”

“….. Yeah. I want to. But I’ll just end up causing trouble for you, Takane ….”

Although still being shy, Haruka said this clearly.

Even though we’d already been talking about it this much, I didn’t understand why he was still acting so shy.

“…. You know, how are you so okay with Sensei doing something like that? Anyway, if you want to do something, then just try doing it, and if it doesn’t work out, then we’ll think of what to do when that time comes.”

“Well, that’s true, but, I can’t do it on my own …. And I’ve never really done this kind of thing before, so I don’t know if it’ll work out well ….”

Looking at Haruka who was muttering meekly while rolling the eraser on his desk around, for some reason, I leapt up from my seat, and without thinking, slammed my hands down on the desk.

“—Aaahhhh!!  Just make up your mind already, geez!! You want to do target shooting, right!? Then it’s decided!! I’ll help out too, alright!? You got that!?”

After I’d yelled, Haruka mumbled, “Got it ….” with a frightened expression.

However, I didn’t just leave it at then, and next shot at Tateyama-sensei, “Please prepare us money right this instant! Also, that specimen will be used as the prize! Understood!?”

“Ehh!? No, wait, there’s no way we’re doing that! How much do you think it cost—“

“…. Principal.”

“Alright, got it! We’ll do just as you said! Woah, I’m getting pumped now!”

Tateyama-sensei hastily said this with a refreshing smile. At this point, it wasn’t just me, but even Haruka, that was looking at him and his absurdity with a chilly stare.

——Looking at the clock, it had already been more than half an hour since homeroom had started, and nearing the time that it should end.

In the one week before the Culture Festival, all the usual lessons were cancelled, and instead, each class was assigned to work on preparing their act for the festival, under supervision of the Executive Committee.

Every class had homeroom during the first hour, but starting from the second hour, all the students would begin the preparation work in their respective classrooms.

For Haruka and I, we’d been doing self-study, but since we’d just decided on what we were going to do, we had to start making progress on preparations, too.

“’Target shooting’, huh ….. Where should we even start …?”

Although I’d been all fired up a moment ago and said to Haruka, “Then let’s do it!”, the fact of the matter was that there was only a week left, and with just the two of us, would be even be able to finish the preparations for a “target shooting booth”?

There was the buying of prizes, the lining up of prizes, and along with the necessary work like preparing the cork gun, there was just no end to it.

We would need to use the engineering room or art room to make large props, but the room reservations had already been taken in advance by the other classes.

“U-um …. Since it seems like it’s impossible after all, why don’t we do something else?”

“No! If you say it’s impossible, then it really will be! You’re the one that said you wanted to do it, so help think of something!”

Haruka looked shocked again, and quickly crossed his arms and began thinking.

Although it was originally this guy’s idea, I’d gotten pretty into it, too, wanting to show everyone that “we’re different from those overly-cheery guys that do this just to get all friendly with each other.”

If we were going to do this, I didn’t want to do it half-assed. My motivation built up from my daily online gaming would start being fired up here and now.

“At this point, it’ll be too hard to make any kind of large-scale booth. Sensei, about DIY ….”

“Yeah! Never done it before in my life!”

“—That’s what I thought. Which is why Haruka and I will have to do it by ourselves ….”

“O-oi, oi oi, just wait a minute! I’ve never done anything like DIY, but guess what? I’m pretty good at programming!”

Tateyama-sensei pointed his thumb confidentially at himself, and did that annoying thing that was common among otaku, as if saying, “I’m amazing in other areas, check me out!”

“Ahh … Really? Wow~ Well, since you’ll just get in the way, please go and make a dating sim ga—”

It had become a pain to deal with him, and just when I was brushing him off with that off-hand comment, something that I hadn’t thought of before suddenly came to me.

We were in a situation where we weren’t able to make any large props.

Our only prize was the rare fish specimen.

And our aim was to make the most interesting—“target shooting booth”.

It was a gamble, but we might just be able to pull this off in a week.

When I realized this, once again, I jumped up from my seat with a loud thunk!

“Uwahh! Wait, h-hold on, Takane!! It’s my fault for fooling around, but let’s go about this calmly! Violence won’t solve anything! There has to still be some other way ….!”

Surprised at my sudden movement, Tateyama-sensei had brought his hands up in front of him and was blurting out some speech that sounded like a cheap, desperate attempt at pleading for his life.

Besides me, Haruka, who must have been dozing off while pretending to be thinking, had been startled by me, and suddenly fell out of his chair and onto the floor with a loud clatter.

“I’ve just thought of something! The target shooting booth, we just might be able to pull it off!”

“Eh? Oh, right, target shooting. But even the preparations will be a lot of work, you know? I said it earlier, but I can’t even build a bookshelf ….”  

“Ah, we’re not relying on that in the slightest anymore. What I mean is, you can do programming, right, Sensei ….!?”

Not understanding the meaning behind my wide grin, Tateyama-sensei’s face paled.

“D-did something happen, Takane ….?”

Haruka, who was sitting on the floor behind his chair, spoke to me with drool on his face, but I decided not to mention that.

“Fufufu …. We might just be able to pull off this target shooting thing. You’re good at drawing, right ….?”

“Eek ….!”

Although I was smiling, Haruka looked terrified, as if he’d just been threatened. Why were all the guys here so pathetic?

Well, it didn’t matter right now if they were pathetic.

…. Because I’d work them to the bone after this.

“O-oi, Takane ….. Could the ‘target shooting’ you’re talking about be ….”

Judging from his expression, it seemed that Tateyama-sensei had already figured out what I was thinking of.

At any rate, in order to make this “target shooting” a reality, it would be an incredibly heavy workload for him.

“Fufufu …. That’s right. Even without using a saw or any tools, we can actually make a ‘target shooting game’, right? Haruka can draw all the characters and backgrounds, and we can finish it with just one prize.”

Once I’d explained this, Tateyama-ensei’s shoulders slumped, and he sighed, “Just as I thought ….”

Making a game with one person would be considerably large workload.

However, up until now, he had done some incredibly terrile things. Taking that into account, he hadn’t been giving enough effort at all.

“Eh …. ? We’re making a game!? Starting now!?”

The easygoing Haruka seemed surprised at this, and was reacting more than he usually would. However, unlike Tateyama-sensei, his surprise stemmed more from trying to contain his excitement.

“That’s right! Haruka, you’ll be drawing everything for the game. You can do that, right?”

After I said this, Haruka nodded his head enthusiastically. The expression he had right now was brighter than I’d ever seen from him before, giving off a completely different impression than how he usually was.

“It’ll be a lot of work, but do your best. Well, for the most part, Sensei will work something out for us.”

“What!? Me!? Just how much work do you think it is to make a ga—”

“Principal …..”

“Let’s do our very best and make something good!!”

With the most winning smile, Tateyama-sensei posed with his thumb again.  

This “Principal” spell was incredibly useful.

There was no mistake that my future school life would be indebted to him.

“There’s just one problem. What do you mean by ‘Just one prize is enough’? As expected, we don’t know how many people will be able to clear the game … Are we making it so difficult that not even one person will be able to clear it? Won’t that just drive everyone away?”

“Don’t worry about that. For the game’s format, please make it a ‘point’ system rather than a ‘clear’ system. Also, I want it to be made for 2 players.”

“I can do that, but …. Wait, does this mean ….?”

“Right! I will be the opponent and compete for points with the challengers. If a girl like me is the opponent, all talk about the difficultly and so on will disappear, right?”