Chapter 40: The Imperial Army Asked Me to Give You a Message (Not)

At Domino High School, there is a major recreational event held every academic year aimed at helping students relax and unwind away from their studies: the "Domino High School Cultural Festival."

During this celebration, students confidently organize activities in the form of classes, clubs, or independent groups. They either set up shops in designated areas to sell goods or perform programs on the stage in the school plaza.

Whether it is a fortune-telling booth, a shooting gallery, a BBQ stall, or a maid cafe; whether it is singing and dancing, Senryu poetry creation, martial arts demonstrations, or Rakugo Manzai—anyone can showcase their strengths and release their stress to the fullest during the festival.

Although Hayato didn't think the students who were habitually idle had much stress to release. Specifically, he was thinking of Shoji Manjome, who planned to perform on the festival stage and then confess his love to "Little Ribbon" Miho Nosaka.

"Damn you, Manjome!" Honda sat in his seat, writing forcefully on a piece of corrugated cardboard. If one were to lean in and look, it would be clear that the board was covered in words like "shameless," "bastard," and "brazen."

Jonouchi, however, had an indifferent expression as he patted Honda on the shoulder. "In the end, isn't it just because you haven't given her the puzzle yet? If you don't give it to her today, it might be too late."

"Who knows? Maybe 'Little Ribbon' will see Manjome confessing to her, get swept up in the moment, and agree. 'Oh my, Manjome-kun is so cool, confessing to me in public like that... it's so embarrassing, but so romantic~' or something like that."

"Uh, Hayato, don't be like that. It feels weird." Jonouchi had a look of constipation on his face. "Logically, I should find that disgusting, but why do I feel like what you just said was actually kind of cute?"

*Shocking. Is there a boy in a girl's body beside me?* Hayato was somewhat startled by Jonouchi's startling remark and quickly regained his composure. He was just trying to crack a joke; goodness, he almost lost his dignity? No wonder Peacock Dance has always been so hot and cold with you, and when you think about how Lickspittle Baron only thinks of you when you're playing cards, it's even weirder.

"Instead of all that, let's just finish the work at hand," Kyoko said, cutting corrugated cardboard with a pair of scissors in her hand. "Our group was assigned the air gun game. Although Honda provided the air guns, the amount of cardboard needed for the game is quite substantial."

Hayato's class planned to host a "Game Carnival" at the cultural festival, choosing three main games, with a group of people responsible for each. Hayato's group was assigned the "Air Gun Game." As the name suggests, it is a game where players aim at "target humanoids" made of corrugated cardboard placed at varying distances, shooting them with balloons to win prizes based on their score.

Although the power of the air guns wasn't great, as the number of games increased, the targets would inevitably deform. Therefore, after Hayato and the others made a sufficient number of targets, they also had to prepare a significant number of spares. A large stack of corrugated cardboard was placed at the game station; those were the materials for making the targets.

Just as the group was sitting around the classroom desk cutting cardboard, Honda suddenly felt a presence and turned toward the classroom door. He saw "Little Ribbon" Miho Nosaka running into the classroom toward Kyoko with a panicked expression, panting heavily. "Kyoko-san, b-b-big trouble! O-our class's location is gone!"

"What!?" As the elected cultural festival committee member for Class B, Kyoko immediately stood up from her seat upon hearing the news. "Nosaka-chan, hurry and explain what happened."

"Don't be so rushed, Kyoko. Nosaka-chan is exhausted from running over here." Watching his crush panting heavily in exhaustion, Honda felt a pang of heartache, but seeing the way the hair by her cheeks was stuck to her face with sweat and her vulnerable expression, he also felt quite stirred.

"It's okay, Honda-kun." After taking a few deep breaths, Miho Nosaka managed to recover slightly. After assuring Honda that she was alright, she explained the situation occurring at the festival venue to Kyoko.

According to the cultural festival regulations, after each class finished their arrangements and submitted them to the school, classes needing a venue could receive a plot for their shops through a lottery system. Since the festival was set to begin tomorrow, while the groups responsible for preparing game props were working, other students who were free had gone to the venue to begin setting up in advance.

Logically, every class had participated in the lottery, and the space provided by the school for the festival was quite large, making it highly unlikely for students to clash over venue issues. However, there was always a small group of people who loved to challenge the rules.

While Miho Nosaka and the other students of Class B were setting up their "Game Carnival" site, people from Class D suddenly appeared, led by their own class committee members. They claimed that this specific plot had belonged to Class D for the past three years and arrogantly stormed in, destroying the prepared setup before leaving a massive thick iron plate as proof of their occupation.

After their unreasonable behavior, the guy from Class D named "Pig-head Goro" didn't stop there. He demanded that Class B act as manual labor for their festival setup as "compensation for occupying their site." Several boys refused Goro's unreasonable demand and were subsequently given a severe beating.

Hayato couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia for the [Demon Discipline] Tetsuo Ushio, who had dropped out after being driven insane by games. When that guy was at the school, the discipline was actually quite good; how would a piece of trash like Class D's Pig-head Goro dare to act so boisterous now?

However, Hayato also knew that the reason Tetsuo Ushio could maintain such strict discipline was that he himself was the biggest villain in the school at the time. Although he maintained order, he would extort massive protection fees from those he protected; he wasn't exactly a good person either.

But at least he was better than those bastards who took protection money and did absolutely nothing.

"Those damn bastards! Hey, Honda, stop cursing at Manjome and come with me to teach those guys a lesson." The hot-tempered Jonouchi couldn't sit still after hearing that his classmates were being bullied. He stood up immediately to look for a suitable weapon and called out to Honda.

Honda's expression was even more furious than Jonouchi's. "My fists are starving for action." Seeing Miho Nosaka's tearful face as she described how their hard work setting up the venue today had been destroyed, Honda's anger was already at 1000%.

"Don't be so impulsive, Honda-kun, Jonouchi-kun." Seeing that Honda and Jonouchi had already set their sights on the large metal set square used by teachers, "Little Ribbon" hurriedly tried to stop the two impulsive boys. "Pig-head Goro from Class D said to tell my classmates a message."