Plans

Hiroto found himself sitting in the middle of a small, but really messy room. Umiko was sitting across from him in the little tea table with her chest puffed out. “Welcome to our clubroom!” She says with a surprising amount of pride in her voice.

The brunet looks around. “Glad to be here?”

Noticing the uncertainty in his voice, the blue-haired teen smiles softly. “I know it’s not that big of a place, but! It has a bit of charm, wouldn’t you say so?”

“I guess.”

“…”

“…”

Well, that's awkward. Now that they were here, the two teens just kind of stared at each other without that much to say.

“Ahem!” The bluenette clears her throat. “We have a lot to discuss, so let’s start by going into our plans!”

Without much choice, Hiroto nods. “Sure, but shouldn’t we wait for the club advisor?”

“Well, about that-“ Scratching the back of her head, the girl explains. “-today I went to ask that old hag about who our advisor is, and he’s a senior teacher.” She sighs while slumping her shoulders. “And as it turns out, he’s rarely at school after classes because of his daughter.”

“So that means?”

“We’re basically on our own.” Getting up, the bluenette shouts. “Argh! Of course that old fart wouldn’t make it easy for me!” Then a fire lit up in her eyes. “But if she thinks that's gonna stop us, then the old age must be finally getting to her! Hahahahaha!”

Even though she was laughing, Hiroto could hear the frustration behind her tone and in a way he could sympathize. ‘We really are in quite the predicament, eh?' He thinks before shaking his head-

-no, Umiko was in quite the predicament, he was just temporarily part of the club. The boy had to remind himself.

“Well, do you have any ideas on how we, uh- you, are going to tackle this?”

Putting on a smile, the blue-haired teen turns around and grabs a piece of white chalk. “Actually, yeah I do have a plan!” She writes something on the blackboard. “Seeing that we have to fight a powerful school that has a long-standing tradition in dueling, it would be a waste of time to get some poor greenhorns that can’t fight for jack and put them up to such a mountain of a challenge.” Turning around to face her companion, the girl continues her explanation. “So we’re gonna have to get some experienced fighters.”

“Makes sense.” The boy replies with a thoughtful expression. “But do we have people like that in our school?”

If so, why weren’t they in the club already?

“We actually do have a couple of really strong people on here.” She sighs while crossing her arms. “In fact, I already invited them to join, but both of them refused before.”

Hiroto did remember her mentioning something in that vein back at headmistress’ room during their meeting. “Yeah, I recall you saying something like that yesterday.” He curiously lifts an eyebrow. “Why exactly didn’t they join?”

Scratching the back of her head, the girl laughs awkwardly. “W-Well, they both had different conditions to join, and I couldn’t exactly fulfill their requirements at the time.” Umiko then smirks and gives him a thumbs up. “But now that you are here, I’m sure both will join in a heartbeat!”

“Okayyyyyy?” That was… peculiar. ‘Should I be worried?’

“W-Well, our first step should be recruiting those two.” Umiko charges towards the door. “First stop, the fashion club!”

“Fashion… club?”

***

The duo stands outside an extremely ornate entrance to the fashion club. There was a big sign with some words that Hiroto believed to be French in bright colors, along with some colorful decorations and a bright golden doorknob.

“They sure are extravagant with their budget.” Whispers to boy to himself.

“Hello! Anyone?” Umiko calls while tapping at the door.

A lot of shuffling comes from inside the room, before someone hurriedly looks out through a magic-eye. “Oh! Umiko-chan!”

“Yo Fukuzawa, I need to have a talk with Izumi. Is she around?”

There’s a bit more shuffling, before the door swings open and the duo is met face-to-chest with a very tall, pig-tailed girl. “Yes. She’s in the back.” Moving to the side, the giant girl smiles warmly and invites them inside.

As they step into the room, Hiroto’s eyes widen at just how different this clubroom was from the dueling club's.

In stark contrast to their room, the fashion club had a large space that looked more like a mini apartment than a clubroom. There was a small kitchen on the left and a bunch of doors on the right, all labeled in French. At the center, there was a small dark wood table with brightly colored pillows on the floor for guests to sit down.

While Hiroto was distracted overanalyzing the clubroom, Umiko went on to speak with some members scattered around.

“Pretty neat, right?” The girl from before asks while approaching the boy.

“Oh! Uh, yeah.” He awkwardly chuckles. “Sorry for gawking, but it just looks so different to our clubroom, it's just a little shocking is all.”

Nodding, Fukuzawa asks. “I take you’ve never been to a workshop before?”

“Workshop?”

“When a club is very popular, they get some benefits that others don’t.” Umiko approaches the two and barges in on the conversation. “Like an increased budget, a larger and more customizable clubroom-“ She puts her hands behind her head. “-they even get to make their own money.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We get commissioned to make designs for a couple of local fashion shows around Sakuhama.” The taller girl smiles with pride.

“I’ve never seen a system like this in my previous schools.” Hiroto comments, making Umiko shake her head.

“Makes sense, it’s a system exclusively used by high-grade schools like Yumehara and Kurohane.” Explains the blue-haired teen with a sigh. “In theory, all clubs can become workshops, but I think you know that’s not exactly true.”

Suddenly the atmosphere becomes a bit somber.

Umiko was right. With all the many obstacles the headmistress had put in their path, it was no wonder that the headmistress would sabotage the dueling club if it ever became a workshop.

But Hiroto couldn’t help but think that he was missing a sizable portion of the story. Why the dueling club specifically?

And while at it, what was the deal with Umiko and the headmistress? That seemed more like a personal matter than just a quarrel between a teacher and student.

Before he could ponder more about it, a pink-haired girl pops out of the upmost left room and shouts. “Izumi-san is free now, you can come in Umiko!”

“Took her long enough!” Grabbing Hiroto’s hand, Umiko drags him towards their destination.

Soon, the duo enters a large room with a lot of mannequins wearing unfinished clothes. At the corner, there was a long table with sewing equipment and many drawings, pencils of all colors, and pieces of cut cloth thrown over it. The girl standing by the table is who Hiroto assumed they were there to meet.

Izumi is a girl who is slightly taller than the boy himself. She has braided crown-styled hair tied into a tight top-knot and in a beautiful silver color. Her eyes are of a striking jet-black color and have the shape of a kite.

Outside the very peculiar hairdo, her most obvious feature was the custom-made school uniform consisting of a tank-top instead of the usual blouse and a slightly shorter skirt.

“Umiko-chan, dearie!” She shouts in a very high-pitched, girly voice.

“Yo, Izumi!” In contrast, Umiko’s voice is a lot rougher, but still feminine in a cute way. “How’ve been?”

After trading a quick hug and kisses on the cheek, the silver-haired girl continues. “Stressed, you know how it is.” She waves her hand in an exaggerated way. “With the parade coming next month, we have been chosen by the city hall to make the costumes this year.”

“Sounds tough.” The bluenette replies as Izumi sits down.

“Indeed it is.” She smirks. “But that isn’t what you came here to discuss, am I correct?”

Her tone was very friendly and Umiko’s chuckle afterwards seemed genuine, so Hiroto assumed the two already knew each other pretty well.

“You got me.” Throwing her hands up in the air, the blue-haired teen replies with a matching smirk. “I came here to ask you to join the dueling club.”

Izumi’s eyes glide across the room until they land on the brunet. “…” Standing up, the taller girl circling  around the boy, studying him up and down. “A couple inches shorter than average height-“  She notes, with her eyes still glued to his body.

A very confused Hiroto watches as she keeps on murmuring to herself while analyzing him like a mad scientist would a poor subject.

“Could you please lift your arms, darling?”

“Uh, okay?”

She continues to look at him for a couple more minutes, even pulling out a sewing tape at some point to measure him. At one point she even murmured something about his eyes. Once she was satisfied, the silver-haired girl taps him on the shoulder, she then sits back down in her chair and crosses her legs.

A couple seconds of tension pass by, until Izumi smirks and replies. “Sure, I’m in!”

Umiko pumps her fist into the air. “Sweet! Now we just need to find one mor-“

“Wait, wait, wait a minute!” Shouts Hiroto, still very confused about what happened. “What’s going on? Why did she just join? Isn’t she a part of another club?” He looks at the two girls that were staring at him like he had grown two-heads. “And what exactly was that extra condition that Umiko was talking about?”

“Well, there is no limit to how many clubs a student can join, it’s up to them how they were gonna divide their time, but anyone can join as many clubs as they want.” Scratching the back of her head, the bluenette finally clarifies one part of the situation. “As for the extra condition-“ Chuckling awkwardly, Umiko continues. “-Izumi would only join if there was a cute boy on the club.”

…

“Excuse me… what?”