2.1
After the bus had been on the highway for about two hours, the view from the window was completely covered by the mountains.
The bus stopped in front of a different facility than last year, and the students began to get off.
The area in front of the main entrance where the buses were lined up was much more open than I would've imagined.
The building where we would be staying for the camp was built like an old inn—one with a long history.
According to the explanation from the school, it was originally a lodging facility and activity center built during the bubble era.[3]
[TL/N: The bubble era (バブル期) refers to a time of excessive speculation and asset price inflation in Japan from 1986-1991]
Inside, there were classrooms for each activity.
That was probably why there were so many experiential games listed in the previous printout.
"Gather in your assigned groups. From now on, for the next three days, follow your leader's instructions, have discussions, and get along with everyone."
The 20 third-year students who were assigned as leaders for each group spread out.
Directly in front of me stood Kiryūin, hands in her jersey jacket pockets.
"Well, see you later, Kiyotaka."
I watched Kei, who was reluctant to leave, for a moment, and then headed down to Kiryūin.
"I look forward to working with you for the next three days, Kiryūin-senpai."
"I'm counting on you."
The first and second-year members assigned to Kiryūin's group, Group 20, were as follows, totaling 16 people:
[First-year Students]
● Class A Toyohashi Goro, Kosumi Dan
● Class B Yanagi Yasuhisa, Eikura Mani
● Class C Tsubaki Sakurako, Shintoku Taro
● Class D Obokata Yukiki, Jute Misora.
[Second-year Students]
● Class A Hashimoto Masayoshi, Yamamura Miki, Morishita Ai
● Class B Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, Nishimura Ryūko
● Class C Oda Takumi, Shiina Hiyori
● Class D Hatsukawa Maho.
Kiryūin was the leader of the group.
My impression was that there were students who could do sports and students who could study.
It was a balance that would be difficult to achieve in an evenly matched competition, but this was probably only possible because it was a casual exchange meeting centered around games.
Of course, among the second-year students, there were many who I had interacted with, but among the first-year students, I hardly knew anyone other than Tsubaki. In that sense, there must've been a great significance in holding an exchange meeting.
"Hey, I never thought I'd be teaming up with you in this way."
As the group gathered, right from the get-go, Hashimoto casually approached me.
"I agree."
Just the other day, I had many discussions with Hashimoto and the others, but it was strange that the four of us from that day were in the same group.
"I'm both happy and disappointed. I wish we could've been together in some high-stakes special exam."
He seemed to have high expectations for me. I hadn't said a word about whether I could meet those expectations yet, but I'd leave it at that.
"Even if it's just an exchange meeting, I would be grateful to receive a decent amount of money if I can get to the top. At least exchanging contact information with the first-years is a must. I'll invite you to join the group later."
Even without asking, it was a great help to have someone who was willing to take on the coordinating role—a time-consuming job.
"I might delete your name from my contact list next month, though."
"Hey, hey, stop with the Morishita-like unfunny jokes."
I know I was the one who said it, but it might've sounded a little like Morishita.
I wonder if that strange existence is influencing me in unexpected ways. As I was thinking that, a soft voice reached my ear.
"Good morning, Ayanokōji-kun."
Hiyori, who had slowly walked up to the group, called my name.
"Good morning. I'll be counting on you starting from today. It's reassuring to have you here."
"I feel the same way. I was relieved to know that we're in the same group."
I felt like anyone would accept Hiyori right away, unlike me, but the world that she saw was completely different from what others saw.
I was genuinely happy to have a reliable friend join me.
"Hashimoto-kun, I look forward to working with you as well."
Hiyori, who was standing next to me, lightly bowed her head.
"I always welcome cute girls. But you know, you two look good together when you stand side by side."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want you to take it the wrong way, but I think you two look more natural together than when you're with Karuizawa."
Is it because we have things in common, like reading, that makes it different from Kei?
But there was no need to take everything Hashimoto said seriously.
The person who made that claim had already shifted his interest away from us and started to focus on the entire group that had gathered.
Kiryūin was ignoring the group and was staring at the winter mountains.
So Hashimoto must have thought he had to make a move.
"Um, is that everyone? Ah, no, are we one short? One, two, three—"
Hashimoto quickly counted the number of people.
"Fifteen, and sixteen including me. Looks like we're still one short."
One short? I thought everyone was here, was I mistaken?
"There are 17 of us here. Yamamura Miki is also here."
"Oh, really, everyone was here... Sorry, Yamamura."
Hashimoto hastily corrected himself, seeming to have genuinely overlooked her.
"No... I'm sorry."
For some reason, Yamamura apologized, even though she was just forgotten in the count.
Being unnoticed by Kiryūin and overlooked by her classmate Hashimoto, her inconspicuousness was on full display, but recently, it seemed to be even more pronounced.
However, once her presence was recognized, a sudden change occurred where I felt her presence more because I couldn't sense her as much as others. However, that might only apply to me.
When I asked Hiyori about Yamamura, she said she had never had a proper conversation with her before, so I decided to speak to her, introducing Hiyori in the process.
"We seem to be crossing paths a lot lately."
"Yes, that's true. I look forward to... this time as well."
"Nice to meet you, Yamamura-san."
When Hiyori gave her a gentle, enveloping smile, Yamamura stiffened.
"Ah, yes. You're Shiina-san, right...?"
Yamamura greeted Hiyori hesitantly, but she seemed restless, as if she had something on her mind.
"Oh? Do you have something you want to ask me?"
"Ah—that... you're completely different from what I thought..."
"Me?"
When Hiyori tilted her head quizzically, Yamamura muttered in a low voice.
"I thought you were more... indifferent..."
Yamamura, who observed people from afar, seemed to see Hiyori in such a way.
Indeed, I had the same impression of her before. It was only through talking and getting to know her that I realized the difference between what I imagined and reality.
"I'm sorry. I'm not good at talking to people, so I might've said something rude..."
"It's totally fine. I'm not good at talking to people either, so we're comrades."
"Is that... so?"
Even as she answered, Yamamura didn't seem to see it that way; her eyes said so.
"You don't see it? If so, I think it's thanks to Ayanokōji-kun."
"Ayanokōji-kun...?"
Mine?
The same question that Yamamura had was probably floating in my head.
"Yes. Even though I'm not good at it, I've come to love talking with my friends. So I think you will surely come to love talking too."
Hiyori took Yamamura's hand, who was on guard, and reiterated her message.
Hiyori's statement that it was thanks to me was an exaggeration, but I hoped that Yamamura would feel the same way someday.
Anyway, with that, all the members of the Kiryūin group were gathered together.
"Ayanokōji Kiyotaka. Nice to see you."
There she was, Morishita, who called me by my full name without any honorifics but in a polite manner.
"Nice to see you too."
"You're—um... Shiina Hiyori, right? I'm Morishita Ai. Hello, hello."
She bowed her head slightly.
"I'm Shiina. Nice to meet you, Morishita-san."
Starting with Yamamura, the second-year students exchanged light greetings. Then they started to greet the first-year students, who were nervously gathered in one place.
Kiryūin, who had been waiting without intervening in the ongoing conversations, turned around.
"Now that the greetings are over, let's have lunch. Let's disband for now."
"Wait a minute, Kiryūin-senpai. Wouldn't it be better for us to have lunch together to strengthen the camaraderie of the group?"
Hashimoto quickly stepped in to counter Kiryūin's immediate declaration of disbandment.
Indeed, in that situation, Hashimoto's suggestion wasn't a bad one.
In fact, looking around, it seemed that most groups were starting to act as a unit.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Kiryūin accepted Hashimoto's proposal, but at the same time, indicated that she wouldn't be joining them.
Then, she left the group and disappeared into the inn alone.
"Man, seriously? We've got quite a leader here."
Hashimoto sighed in exasperation at the situation where the leader had gone absent.
"We can ignore her. I agree with the group lunch."
It was too much to leave all the decisions to Hashimoto alone, so I lightly backed him up.
"That's right. She said she'd leave it to us, so there's little reason to disband here."
Hashimoto decided that it was detrimental to think too long about the situation, which was confusing the first-year students, and started to act quickly. Even if there were students among the first-years who were reluctant to have a meal with their senpais, given that this was considered an exchange meeting, objections were unlikely except from people with strong personalities like Hōsen.
"Wait a minute, hey! Kōenji!"
Behind Hashimoto, who was explaining to the first-year students, there was a small issue in another group nearby. It seemed that Kōenji, who had been assigned to the sixth group, had left the gathering without following the leader's instructions.
The other second-year students in the same group, who were used to seeing this sort of behavior from Kōenji, didn't say anything to the bewildered first-year students, even though they found it somewhat nostalgic. Even Inogashira, a classmate, seemed anxious, but in the end, she seemed to have no choice but to let it go.
For a moment, Inogashira and I made eye contact, but she quickly turned back to her angry leader's voice.
"I wonder what happened to Kōenji-kun."
Hiyori, who apparently didn't understand, muttered as she watched Kōenji's retreating back.
"He's always acting alone. He probably won't come back."
"Is that so?"
"Kōenji Rokusuke is a person who can't work in a group. It's something we already knew. My condolences."
It seemed that Morishita knew exactly what was going on.
She clasped her hands together as if praying for the sixth group, which was already being hit with a lack of coordination.
"If you had been in the same group, Ayanokōji Kiyotaka, would you have stopped him as a fellow classmate?"
"Because we're in the same class, I would've been sure it was useless to stop him and overlook it."
Whether or not we were in the same group wasn't important. If someone had called out to him and he stopped and listened, it wouldn't have been a problem.
"Alright. All the first-years have agreed. Let's go too."
Hashimoto gave the order, and we, the 20th group, started walking without our leader.
As we entered the inn with our shoes on, a slightly damp smell hit our noses. It might not have been a place that was often frequented. The students walked in a line, heading to the cafeteria.
Since our leader was absent, it seemed inevitable that Hashimoto, who took the initiative, would bear that burden.
While having a lively lunch as a group, Hashimoto took the lead and became the center of the conversation.
He encouraged the first-year students who were still hesitant and the less talkative ones, boosting their spirits without resorting to any foolish commotion, and skillfully broadened the conversation to include them.
Honestly, for students like me who were typically listeners, he was a lifesaver.
"Um... Hashimoto-senpai. It was written in the rules of this exchange meeting, but we don't need everyone to be present for the games, right?"
"Yeah. The number of people participating in one game is up to five, and the same person can participate as many times as they want. It seems pretty flexible."
All we needed was the required number of people plus the leader to be present at the designated time.
"Looking at Kiryūin-senpai, it seems like she's not interested in the exchange meeting, so we can just do whatever we want... but I wish she had at least told us what she'd do."
Since the leader is the one who decides the players, the plan was for Kiryūin to decide as soon as the game content was announced.
Hashimoto seemed to be bothered by the fact that Kiryūin hadn't asked anyone about what they were good at or anything.
"For now, all we can do is to try our best."
"Kiryūin-senpai is amazing, isn't she? Maybe she already knows about us?"
A female student from the first-year Class D, Jitsute, asked Hashimoto.
Even without directly knowing her, it wouldn't be surprising to know about Kiryūin's exceptional abilities.
"That's not possible. There's no way she could know who in this group is good at flower arrangement."
Hashimoto was skeptical, and rightfully so. No one would know about each other's individual strengths and weaknesses at this point.
"There was a reason why I suggested we all eat together. Let's rate our confidence in the game contents written on the printout on a scale of one to five. One means you're not confident."
It was a simple but inevitable decision that the leader should take the initiative to make.
Everyone used their phones to rate their own game-related abilities.
However, the difficult part was that there were many unusual things.
If it was something you had never experienced before, you could only rate it a one, and even if you felt like you could do it, you could only rate it a maximum of two.
Moreover, they didn't even provide a place to practice many of those activities in advance.
Things that required impromptu creativity were particularly difficult.
Everyone used their phones while eating.
There was a considerable amount of activities, so some people finished eating by the time it was completed.
Anyway, this way, we could gather data for everyone as a guide.
And it was immediately shared in the group chat that Hashimoto created.
"...This isn't going to work."
Hashimoto's first words after looking through it were harsh.
As feared, almost all of the students gave a rating of one to two to most of the games, and there were hardly any ratings of four or above. Hashimoto seemed to have given up on the chance of winning.
"Maybe we should just give up on the exchange meeting and just play around."
But it was too early to make that judgment.
This phenomenon was undoubtedly happening in other groups as well.
"I feel like there are fewer groups that are serious about it... Well, for now, I'll show this information to Kiryūin-senpai and let her decide on the plan."
In the end, that was what it all came down to for this exchange meeting.
If Kiryūin was motivated, the kōhais would just follow her lead.
If she wasn't motivated, she'd just participate casually and relax at the training camp.
Personally, I'd like to take it easy.