Preparing for the School Festival (1)
It had been several weeks since my return from another world, and I was finally settling into my high school life after five long years.
As the class representative, I stood at the teacher’s podium, leading the homeroom session in place of our teacher.
Today’s agenda was to decide on our class’s contribution to the school festival.
“Alright, let’s figure out what our class will do for the school festival.”
My words instantly sparked excitement, especially among the extroverted, festival-loving crowd.
“Ohhh!”
“What should we do?!”
The class buzzed with energy.
But I had some unfortunate news to deliver.
“Sorry to rain on your parade, but this is a regular public high school. We can’t do anything too extravagant. Think of it as just a slightly upgraded version of a middle school festival—it’s probably going to feel like that.”
“Huh?!”
“No way!”
Groans of disappointment rippled through the room like waves.
Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about it; these were the rules.
“Our class doesn’t get much of a budget, so we can’t really pull off anything too big.”
Even as a hero who had once saved another world, there were limits to what I could achieve here.
“What about a haunted house? We could keep the costs pretty low.”
“Oh, that sounds fun!”
“It’s a school festival classic!”
“All we’d need are some blackout curtains for the windows, right?”
“Sorry, haunted houses are banned.”
“Banned?!”
“What?!”
“Why?”
“Hey, Oda-kun, why not?”
“Anything that involves darkening a room, like haunted houses or planetariums, is prohibited. Apparently, there was an incident involving groping in the past.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!”
“Are you serious?!”
“Gropers are the worst!”
“Yeah, like those creepy old men on trains who press up against people!”
“Honestly, people who do that should just disappear!”
“Totally!”
The girls’ blunt and passionate criticism silenced the boys instantly.
After all, no one wanted to risk being accused of anything like that.
“What about food stalls?”
“Oh, that could work!”
“Food is another classic choice.”
“Let’s do a maid café!”
“I want to try a cosplay café too!”
“Waitress uniforms are so cute—I’d love to wear one!”
“Hey, Oda-kun, can we do food stalls or cafés?”
“If you’re okay covering costume costs out of pocket, then it’s possible. The school won’t cover that part.”
“Ugh, we have to pay for that ourselves?”
“I’m already running low on allowance this month…”
“Same here!”
“This school is so stingy!”
“Well, it is a public school.”
“By the way, the school will lend us one large electric griddle, a 2-liter electric kettle, a cooler box, and some smaller items like extension cords—for free.”
“That’s barely the basics.”
“Better than nothing, I guess.”
“Alright, let’s go with food stalls!”
“Agreed!”
“What about a takoyaki stall? I’ve got a big takoyaki maker at home—it can cook 23 at once!”
“Why does your family even have something like that?”
“Both my parents are from Osaka.”
“Ah, takoyaki is completely banned. The guidelines specifically state that it’s forbidden.”
“What?!”
“Huh?”
“Why is takoyaki banned?”
“We’ve got a takoyaki grill ready and everything!”
“Oda-kun, why?”
“Apparently, a long time ago, before proper hygiene standards were in place, there was a salmonella outbreak from takoyaki at our school festival. It caused mass food poisoning, and the incident was all over TV and newspapers nationwide.”
“What?!”
“Seriously? Another mess caused by our predecessors?”
“Unbelievable!”
“The seniors at this school really messed things up, huh?”
“By the way, if you want to bring your own cooking equipment beyond the three items provided by the school, you’ll need to submit an application to the festival committee. Even then, approval is almost never granted.”
“That sounds like such a pain…”
“And they barely ever approve anything? What’s the point?”
“It’s probably because past students messed up so badly that the school doesn’t trust us anymore.”
“Unbelievable!”