Chapter 25: Welcome To Inari Okami Festival

Fumi hardly ever looked this unkempt. It was rare to see her late. Hanako must have been thinking the same thing as she asked Fumi without blaming her,

"Did something happen?"

"Yes. A little bit. I was having a long conversation with my uncle just now."

What conversation? My curiosity is echoing in my head. I hope you'll elaborate. That said, Fumi continued before I could ask.

"I'll explain later about what conversation we were having."

What's she up to? I have a bad feeling about this.

"Hmm... Oh well, let's get started then."

The reason the Mangaka Club was gathered here early at 4:00 AM in the school was to hold a meeting concerning the publication of the club artbook "The Rebirth of the Mangaka Club", which included the cover design and, how to arrange the panels, and what paper to print on.

Hanako took out a few paper samples from her bag and began speaking.

"This is the highest quality paper that our budget could allow, while this is the cheapest. They're very different, and not just in appearance, but how the ink appears on them..."

"Why don't we use our standard manga papers, then get a different paper if we would waste ink on them," I replied with a sigh not that I am not interested but I lack energy at this hour and I am supposed to be sleeping after using all my power on illustrating character designs.

"Yeah, I agree with Kenji." Yasuyuki felt like a piece of rotting wood on the mountain, yet he still made an effort to listen, so that Hanako wouldn't get mad and put him back in the torture chair.

"Kenji, Yasuyuki." As I thought we got in trouble. "Use your brains, both of you, who would in their right mind sell their raw artwork and lose their very own copy of their work!" Hanako said while giving both of us a stare at death.

"Hehe...You seem energetic at this hour, Hanako. Hehe," Yasuyuki is not hiding his fear of his life.

The editorial meeting was over sooner than expected, just under an hour after it began. Hanako had written down the items which had been approved in her note, which she would then relay to the publishers. She sure had it rough and doing all the hard work, so I praised her before she left,

"Hanako, I feel bad letting you do all the work when I should be representing the club as the president. So thank you for everything you have done so far, I guess I still have so much to learn from being a professional mangaka."

"What are you saying, I'm doing this because we all have the same goal aren't we?"

"Yeah."

Later that day, I was walking around the school campus, as the Inari Okami High School Cultural Festival starts today.

Seeing Yasuyuki Okamura constantly repeating

"Ohh, I'm so looking forward to enjoying this, Kenji I can't wait to see our club room lively again and making a profit..."

Felt compelled to mischievously tell him, "You're not in just for the money right, Yasuyuki?", to which Yasuyuki responded with a frightful smile and slowly shook his head.

"You're half right but not completely right, I'm looking forward to seeing some girls enjoying our manga was what I wanted to say, but you're too naive, Kenji,"

"Oh? How about I tell that to your girlfriend, that you outright cheat on her and tell your best friend about it?" I said as I raised my index finger and swung it left and right as though acting.

"I could still look forward to people giving me their enjoyment!" Yasuyuki gave a broad smile.

Our school looked no different from any other regular high school. However, within its grounds were flourishing all sorts of activities concerning the Cultural Festival. In order to prepare for the festival, classes were suspended since yesterday.

Yasuyuki suddenly raised his voice cheerfully.

"Kenji, isn't that Kozue?"

He pointed to a girl in front of us. She was dressed in a cosplay dress and the character was from the anime Magical Girl Madoka but I couldn't tell whether she was Kozue Aoyama from behind. Though I've known her since elementary school, I've never thought I will see her in a cosplay dress. But if Yasuyuki says it's her, then it has to be.

"Hey, Kozue, Good Morning! So that's the reason why you didn't attend our late-night meeting, huh?"

"Oh, Kenji, Yasu, yeah I went to pick it up from the tailor I commissioned for my cosplay. So, how do I look?"

I looked at her costume from top to bottom. "Well, ah, you look perfect though you're more like the teen version of Madoka-chan."

"So are you guys ready for later, are the printouts prepared?"

"Yes, we are ready. There are already people lining up even though the festival hasn't started yet."

"Early bird catches the worm! Better prepare your hands for signing and handshaking."

"I'm fine with signing but handshaking? I guess I'll pass." Try as I may, upon being reminded of that scene, I just couldn't calm myself down!

"Hey, Yasuyuki... Try not to do anything silly during the Cultural Festival, okay? While you may not find it seriously, I will really beat you up into a pulp and Kenji looks after him for me."

"Right, now that you mentioned it. I remember he was talking about girls coming to buy our art book all day long without a pau-."

I could not finish my sentence, as I could feel a jab into my stomach. Mayaka murmured with a dangerous glimmer in her eyes, "Don't you dare let him go nor lose sight of him, or else you will also take some punishment."

I was shaken and afraid of my dignity. "Heh, guess I'm not trusted at all."

A banner hung from the outside of one of the windows, which read "The 35th Inari Okami High School Cultural Festival." And so it begins.

I was alone at the mangaka club room in the abandoned AV Room attending to our guests as they looked around, or got a copy of our artbook. It seems like the promotion is quite doing well. Yet with the Cultural Festival, we had to consider another factor, the fact that being located in such a far end location of the school means we're doubtful of getting any visitors. On every floor, you would see posters, mascots, and advertising boards in all different shades of color. So after this wave of guests, it is highly unlikely that we will get a second wave of guests.

"Good morning, Kenji," Nami said and bowed deeply, her long grey hair flowing as she did. This was Nami, one of the Mabeyoshi twins, I was curious as to why she is alone in coming here I asked her where is Nagi,

"Good morning, you're all by yourself, where is Nagi?"

"She is still waiting for someone to switch up with her, Fumi, Yasu, and Hanako?"

"Fumi went to pick up my little sister and her friends, also to get some snacks for us. Yasuyuki is giving out flyers, as to Hanako, I don't know what she's up to."

"The day has finally arrived."

"So it seems."

"Let's give it our all!"

"Yeah." I nodded.

And as I was still doubtful of getting visitors after the first wave, I asked but before I was about to utter my words the school broadcasting club made an announcement over the school's telecommunication lines.

"Hello, everyone this is Megurioka Eruma from the broadcasting club welcoming all our visitors from our town, Thank you for visiting our school and attending our 35th Inari Okami High School Cultural Festival, today we will interview one of the club representatives, Hanako Enomoto, from the Mangaka Club promoting their manga and artbook, Enomoto-San if you please?"

"Everyone, greetings I am Hanako Enomoto from the Mangaka Club, I also happen to be a professional mangaka under the pen name of Makaino Joji, and today as part of the mangaka club, we have created a rebirth for its long lost tradition and I do hope everyone will come and visit us at the Old AV Room located at the 3rd floor at the far-end corner of the school, we have banners and directions to our flyers and posters. Thank you!"

The price of "The Rebirth of Mangaka Club" was set at 300 yen.

This was the price decided by everyone after much calculation. As we were expecting to sell them all, the proceeds made along with our own club funding and the sales from our first manga would be just enough to cover the printing costs.

Nagi arrived, so did Fumi, and my little sister together with her friends. Then we started on our assigned task as more and more people are lining up, now the new concern is if our stocks would be enough for the day as the Cultural Festival lasts for about 3 days. I suggested to Nagi to call the publisher just in case,

"Nagi, I think but this is just my intuition. We should call the publisher to make reprints just in case."

"I agree, but calling and asking them to reprint just in case is a bit demanding for them, let's have a threshold for our stocks and the number of people still in line or the number of expected guests tomorrow and the day that will follow."

"Yeah, right. We can't let them guess how many copies we need to reprint. We might go over our budget as well."

Nami added an obvious problem as well, "That's just not it, the club room is a bit cramped, and having all people lining up for too long we need to get them some benches to sit down and rest."

"In other words, we will need to find a more conspicuous place to sell," I spoke up.

Fumi nodded in admiration. "Find a new location to sell. I've been thinking of how to bring customers all the way here. Kenji, that's a really innovative idea."

"But we are already too late for that since we already have decided to set the location here. We settle with the benches, I hope your uncle can provide that for us."

"You're saying that I am abusing too much of my power!"

"I'm just considering options here!" I ambiguously shook my head and facepalmed. "Well, let's have a meeting after this day's end."

"Okay, I'll tell Hanako and Kozue."

Our first day was a bit off the edge, but we luckily survived and thanks to the guests who understood the situation and just decided to come back tomorrow, and that we called the publisher for reprints and asked the school director for the benches. As for the meeting, we re-evaluated our plans and our set up so we can have everything go on smoothly for the next day and the day to follow.