34 – Fans and Trainers
Come out to the playground.
A slightly different atmosphere greeted me.
It’s different, but it feels familiar.
You can feel the gaze all the way down to the playground. While I was sitting on the bench and tying my shoelaces, I felt someone approaching and standing in front of me.
“Did your training go well?”
“… Sayoko. Can I come to school already?”
“Yes. I’m in good shape… The competition is coming soon, so how long can we not rest?”
“But… you….”
Even if the body is fine, the mental shock or stress was unimaginable.
It’s only been a few days, and I couldn’t believe that Sayoko had already shaken it off.
“Really! Am I not that weak?”
“…… Is that so?”
“Yes! Full arms! Eri is like that….”
Sayoko looked around her and said.
“Are you okay? Everyone is looking at you.”
“……… ….”
Several students gathered around the playground.
The members of the newspaper club who said they would finish today at lunchtime… Girls who seem to know their identity. Other than that….
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“Wow, what are those people? Did you get permission to come in?”
“……… It will be quiet soon.”
“No, aren’t you waiting until practice is over?”
Sayoko said worriedly, but she didn’t bother me too much.
Rather than that….
“…… Is it yet?”
“Huh? What?”
“……… Members. I wonder if it’s a little late.”
“You always come out early.”
Sayoko said it as if she was dumbfounded. I had been waiting since lunchtime.
After that, the members who came down approached Sayoko and started talking.
The news that Sakai almost killed her had already spread throughout the school. Sayoko said she must have received many worried questions from many students today.
“It’s nothing! Stop asking now end!”
“I was really worried. Senpai, shouldn’t you be resting today?”
“Don’t overdo it. What, were you so comfortable without me?”
“Senior~!”
She trembled as she received the concerns of the members who had flocked to her body.
That’s right.
I was also worried that Sayoko might have returned too early.
But now, rather than that, he was glancing toward the entrance of the main building.
I saw the manager come out.
Ah, finally.
‘He came to see me briefly during lunch today.’
‘Why? What business did you have?’
‘I wonder if you wanted to have lunch with me.’
A lot of questions come to mind.
The reason he came to see me wasn’t really a big deal, but it was highly likely that it was just a matter related to club activities.
Even so, it kept bothering me.
Come down to the playground and ask if you’ve come this far.
Because he’ll shout out lively greetings as always.
If he greeted me, I accepted it and tried to ask him at the same time.
“Big… big… !”
It was Sayoko who cleared her throat.
Caught among her crew, she waved her hand.
“You… ! You’re late!”
Pushing her squad aside, Sayoko approached him.
The vice-captain, who always ignored and disliked the manager, approached him first.
The members looked at it in bewilderment, and I, who was deprived of the chance to talk to the manager, watched it in a daze.
***
“Ah… Sayoko-senpai!”
“The seniors are all there, but this is missing… !”
“Sorry… !”
When I came down to the playground a little late after school, Sayoko-senpai greeted me first.
That was unexpected, but her attitude was somehow the same as before.
“By the way, senior… Are you okay?”
“I’ve heard that question 5,000 times today alone.”
“So much?”
“Yes!”
Well, I guess so.
Under the judgment that she was okay, she went to school and practiced. It was rude for me to worry more than that.
“Rather than that, do you see the people gathered over there?”
“Yes… There is.”
Unlike usual, students were crowded around the playground.
It’s practice time for the athletics club now. As if it were a spectacle, they were paying attention to this side.
“Leave it because it interferes with practice. Can you?”
“Yes!”
Very lively.
I didn’t expect Sayoko-senpai to change 180 degrees overnight and treat me kindly.
She smiled bitterly at the same appearance as always.
“Then I’ll be back.”
As I was about to turn around and face them, I heard a cough behind me.
Along with that unnatural sound came her voice, which seemed to be somewhat hesitant.
“Oh, and wait a minute.”
“Yes. Is there anything else you want me to do?”
“……… ….”
There, Sayoko-senpai stopped and scratched the back of her neck.
“You… Look at me later after practice.”
“Yes?”
“Come to me after practice. Didn’t you hear?”
“No, that’s fine… why? What’s going on?”
Is there anything else I can do?
She questioned the way she spoke, whether it was an order from her as an ambiguous senior or a recommendation from her.
“Oh, little! Come if you come! What, are you busy with something?”
“……… ….”
“I can’t help it, but….”
“No. There is no such thing.”
She nods.
After making such an incomprehensible appointment, she approached the people around the playground as her senior commanded.
I thought I knew roughly what was going on.
It’s an extension of today’s lunch break.
Over there are members of the newspaper club. They gathered to cover Takase-senpai, as if the distance was still insufficient. On the other hand, many female students. Perhaps the senior’s fan club.
And the rest….
“Really….”
A few adults, not wearing school uniforms, gathered. Watching the crowd at lunchtime, I muttered like a joke that this would be on the news tomorrow morning.
They were reporters who came to cover the soccer club incident. And he came to see Eri Takase, who was rumored to have uncovered their crimes and subdued them alone.
“Haa… ….”
It’s not usually bothersome.
First, I approached a group of female students.
Noticing my approach, one of them stepped in front.
“Excuse me, but I’m interfering with track and field practice… please get out of here….”
“I’ll just watch! I’ll just watch from afar… ! Can’t you look at it?”
As if she was the representative of her fan club, she bowed her head toward me and desperately asked for a favor.
“Are you the manager? The only male member of the track and field team who joined a month ago!”
“Yes… what….”
I knew from the members that I had been in for a long time.
Before I came in, people who claimed to be a fan club often gathered at the playground during practice time to cheer for Takase-senpai, shout, or take pictures.
The senior didn’t mind, but it was extremely intrusive to her team members’ practice.
The former managers and Sayoko-senpai took the lead in kicking them out.
However, things about Takase-senpai made the school go wild, so they got together again.
“We will be really quiet. I won’t do anything, so why don’t you watch it?”
“……… ….”
The name of the fan club is ‘The Prince’s Handmaids’
A senior is a prince. They call themselves ladies-in-waiting and support their seniors.
“Kyaa~~! Senior Takase!”
At that time, the gathered female students shouted in shrill voices and waved.
I looked back after doing something, and among the members who started practicing, Takase-senpai was watching this.
When the senior looked at it, the girls also reacted.
“Senior fighting!”
“I will cheer for the tournament!!”
“So cool!”
No, I want you to ignore this as much as possible.
Because I have to disperse them from now on.
I counted roughly thirty people… It was the number of people who could make a class.
“Even if we look like this, we came out after guessing… Can’t you look at it?”
The representative, a female student, said that she was the number of people who came out of the selection, and she begged me.
She trembled as she realized the popularity of her senior.
The senior staring this way met her eyes.
I don’t know if they saw me or if it was fan service, but their cheers grew even louder.
Dispersing them didn’t seem too difficult.
That’s what previous managers have done. It was proof that it was not a group that did not communicate well.
However, the problem is the rest. The Newspaper Club was a club known for being terrible. To be honest, would they rush into Takase’s classroom right away during lunchtime and gather at the playground after school to keep an eye on them? They were the ones who did not miss the news inside and outside the school and always followed them.
In addition to that, there are reporters from outside. Not even a student at all. It was uncertain whether they would listen to me obediently.
“……… ….”
The only thing I can talk about is the students of this fan club.
“……… All right. Then I will go to the vice-captain in particular and talk to him.”
“Wow! Really?”
“Instead of… There are conditions.”
In that case, wouldn’t it be possible to use them?
“No photography. No fuss. No cheering.”
“Big… Keugh… ! That… !”
“Furthermore, please reduce the number of observers to ten or less. That is my condition.”
“Yeah, but… We’ve already gathered this much….”
Shake your head resolutely.
There is no compromise.
“No. Too many. If there are a lot of people like this, it gets in the way of practice.”
“……… Ugh.”
“In other words, it means that you are getting in the way of Takase-senpai. Do you understand?”
However, as an otaku, I have been a fan of someone for as long as they have.
I knew what these people wanted.
“But if you accept my condition, I will tell Takase-senpai about you.”
“Yes? That… ….”
“So that we can recognize you as an official fan club.”
The female students make a fuss once.
Ordinary people would be dumbfounded about what that is and what it means, but it’s different for fans.
The meaning of a single word is more important to them than anything else.
Receive ‘recognition’ from a star you admire. As ‘formal’.
“As far as I know, there are many other Takase-senpai fan clubs besides this one, right? You are the biggest among them.”
“Yes… ….”
“If you accept my condition, I will tell you. The ones who care for, care for, and support the most senior are the ‘Prince’s ladies-in-waiting’.”
The eyes of the female student who was listening widened.
The chatter among the gathered fans gradually grew.
It’s called training.
It seems that the previous managers and Sayoko-senpai didn’t know about this concept and were just disbanding them.
If you train the fans well, it won’t be bad for the track and field team.
“Well then… yes I will! If only I could be recognized as an ‘official fan club’ by Prince Takase!”
Although the girl who shouted ‘Prince Takase’ so excitedly was she and her classmate, a third year student.
Anyway, he was the representative of this group.
“Oh and one last thing.”
“Yes, yes! Something!”
The rest except for the fan club.
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A gathering of newspaper members and reporters. Pointing to the students watching what was happening along with the commotion.
“Please get rid of all these people. Eri Takase, under the name of ‘Official Fan Club’.”
“Yes! I will!”
I haven’t been recognized yet.
Even Takase-senpai doesn’t even know the concept and doesn’t care.
I drove them as if I were directing them.
Okay, Operation Success.
I looked around her playground feeling proud of myself.
The members gossip about what the hell is going on. When I ran into Takase-senpai, I smiled and bowed her head.
Come to think of it, we haven’t had a conversation today.
Feeling a strange regret.
When I looked up, the senior was already out of sight.
Hmm the big bellied advisor still kinda raising my spidey senses…