Chapter 6 🎉 School Festival (1)

Towards the end of their final year in middle school, the annual school festival was about to be held. Every class had to prepare a little attraction for the other students, teachers and other visitors. Even some friends, parents or former students would use the opportunity to check out the school. It was open for everyone interested. Though it wasn't mandatory, some clubs also were going to prepare something to entertain the visitors.

What kind of program each class prepares is decided by the students themselves. The class of Hanako and her friends held a discussion to come up with ideas.

It was Marin who moderated the whole discussion and each student was able to give their own proposal.

The first ideas collected and written on the blackboard included a hot dog stand, a manga flea market and a can throwing game to win small prizes.

Thinking about how Hanako could turn this school festival into something that she would make precious memories of, she came up with an idea herself. Dressed up as anime characters, for example her beloved Purinpurin-chan, they could...

"Operating a cosplay ca...--"

"Operating a maid cafe!!" One of the male students suggested loudly, overshadowing Hanako's small voice. Instantly he had the support from all the other male students of his class and the idea was written on the blackboard.

Being interrupted, and since there is a somewhat similar idea up for discussion now, Hanako decided to keep her idea for herself.

After the collection of ideas had ended, Marin let every student write down their preferred choice on a piece of paper. A democratic election.

One by one, she opened the folded paper snippets and added a counting stroke behind each idea that got a vote.

Around half of the votes were split between the hot dog stand, the manga flea market and the can throwing game. With a huge lead and a total of around fifty percent of the votes, the winning idea was the maid cafe. Coincidentally there were around the same number of male students in the class as this idea got voted on.

Some girls started to voice their disapproval, but it was in vain. The decision was made. Marin wrote down the words "Maid Cafe" on the official registration form which would later be handed over to the festival committee.

In the following days, the preparations were in full swing. Every member of the class helped in some way or another after the regular classes had ended. Some students would design posters to distribute around the campus, while some of the students were working out the offered menu items and the pricing. Another group would choose the outfits and where to rent them from. Finally, there was a group of students planning out the personnel for the shifts.

One day before the festival, the preparations were complete. The classroom was decorated accordingly to a cafe with the tables forming multiple little isles for customers to sit around, covered by a simple yet effective tablecloth. There were welcome-signs and a stack of flyers to hand out. Some plants were arranged in a way to improve the atmosphere of the room.

Lastly, a room divider was set up in a way to separate the guest area from the area where the drinks and dishes would be assembled.

Also the costumes would already be available for inspection. They consisted of an black and white, frilly dress with an apron in front. A fitting headband would complete the outfit. Even though the dresses are not as short as Hanako would wear her skirt by now, they still exposed a fair amount of skin - more than the regular school uniform skirt.

Kouhei checked out the planning for the shifts. It had a chart showing each student's assigned roles and timeframe. One part of each shift would serve the customers in the cafe while the other part of the shift would lure in customers by handing out flyers and offering free freshly pressed orange juice on the school yard.

He is in the same shift with Saya, starting at the service in the cafe in the morning. Hanako and Marin are in the school yard shift in the morning. After a lunch break the shifts are swapped, so that Hanako and Marin would move over to the cafe in the afternoon. It seemed to be a fair schedule.

What also took place on the same day before the festival was another mentor meeting between Kouhei and Hanako in the school's library.

Kouhei was running out of advice - or rather challenges - to give to Hanako in order to appeal to an imaginary contractor. There was one more, which he spent the previous night thinking about, while not being able to sleep. It proved to be daring and the chances for success were slim, according to his own prediction. But since the school year would end soon, there were only little chances left.

"Alright, Hanako-chan. There is one more thing that is still missing for you to finally be able to become a magical girl."

"Only one more and I can become a magical girl! What is it!" She requested to know.

"It's teamwork."

This sounded too easy to be true. It was not on the same level of the previous tasks she had to carry out.

"Heh. This will be the easiest one! I think I am good at working in a team!"

"That's good to hear! As you might have noticed, there are some magical girls that fight on their own. Like Purinpurin-chan." He did his research.

"Yes! She is so righteous! Magical Pudding Guardian is my favorite!"

"True. However there are many other magical girls that operate as a group."

"Yes! There are lots of examples I can think of!"

"So your task will be to persuade one of your friends to not wear panties together with you as a team effort. I think tomorrow's festival would be the perfect opportunity."

"...I... don't know..."

"See. What would happen if you are in a pinch and you can't rely on your magical girl teammates. It would be very troublesome. I am convinced that being able to rely on teamwork is a very important factor."

Luckily for Kouhei, his apprentice was rather airheaded. "Yeah... Maybe you are right... In that case..." It looks like Hanako was ready to try to conquer even this challenge, "I think Marin-chan would be the most promising one."

"Great choice! You are on the same shifts tomorrow as well."

Kouhei could never imagine Marin to go pantiless. She is way too pure to do such a thing. But the contrast between being this innocent and still doing it proved to be an incredibly interesting combination for him.

"I can't just ask her to do this, though! She will think I would be naughty!"

Kouhei smilingly assured her "No one would ever think that about you", even though he was seeing her as fairly naughty by now.

""I will never do that! Never ever! Not even in a million years", is what she will say, Kouhei-kun..."

"Now it's your job to get her to do it", he officially entrusted this elite quest to her even though it seemed to be impossible. The XP reward for completing it would be significantly high.

After the meeting, Hanako was able to get a hold of Marin right when she was about to leave the school yard on her way home.

"You know... Marin-chan... People are saying you like this one boy from the neighboring class. Is that true?" It seems like Hanako had a plan in mind.

"Huh!? Y-You mean Seiji-kun? I wouldn't necessarily say like but..." It was common knowledge and evidently her crush. Thinking about him now made her act a bit nervously already.

"Yeah, him. Seiji-kun... Recently I learned that... he is a big fan of girls who are not we- wearing panties. I mean... Probably right!? I heard someone mentioning it. So maybe you sometime should..." Hanako tried to bring her point across, stuttering along the way.

"Huh? What? How would you even know such a thing?" Marin caught onto the suspicious theory which was poorly laid out by Hanako.

"I ...can't tell you the details. Let's just say I know it from a reliable source", she crossed her arms and nodded with proudly closed eyes. Her mind rewinded to the encounter with him at the school's library.

Hanako and Marin were good friends who knew each other since elementary school. They would trust each other on anything. If any other person would have told this story, Marin would never even listen to it. But since it was coming from Hanako...

"Y-You suggest I should show him m-m-m-my...!?"

"N- No! That's not what I meant to say! I wanted to suggest just trying it out for once. Maybe it's even fun? There is no way he will ever realize this if you are doing it just once. You totally don't have to worry about him noticing in the slightest!"

"Do you really think this is a good idea?"

"Yup!!" She affirmed brightly. "Let's try it together for the first time at tomorrow's festival? It's a team effort if it will be the first time for both of us! When doing it together, it is less of a hurdle", somehow Hanako was able to find convincing words. But would it be enough to persuade the all too innocent Marin?