The School Festival (1)
And so, after steadily progressing with preparations for the “Unified Color Café (Cosplay Optional)”—officially named “1-5 Strawberry Scarlet Café”—the day of the school festival finally arrived.
Dressed in a red T-shirt, I stood in a makeshift back kitchen, partitioned with blackout curtains in the corner of the classroom, flipping pancakes one after another on a hot plate.
Today, I was entrusted with the important role of kicking things off by preparing pancakes right after the festival’s opening at 10 a.m.
After my shift, I’d take on the responsibility of supervising the entire class.
Though, unless something went wrong, there probably wouldn’t be much for me to do.
By the way, the “1-5” in the café’s name is read as “Ichigo” “strawberry”, tying into the red theme while cleverly representing Class 1-5.
“Scarlet” simply translates to red in English.
The name was suggested by Hasumin and the other girls, and I have to admit, I really like it.
Anyway—
“Pancakes are ready!”
Putting my practice from the day before to good use, I carefully placed a batch of beautifully golden-brown pancakes onto paper plates.
“Alright, ladies, this is where your skills shine—let’s decorate these beautifully!”
The girls got to work, adding whipped cream and fruit to create dazzlingly colorful plates.
“Four orders of mixed fruit pancakes ready to go!”
“Oda-kun, we’ve got two more mixed fruit orders here!”
Additional orders kept coming in rapid succession.
“Got it.”
I flipped another six pancakes, keeping the flow steady—
Rotating shifts with other team members, I baked nonstop for two hours until noon.
At noon, I handed over the pancake station to the next team and stepped out for a break.
Not wanting to get in the way, I moved into the hallway and took a moment to observe 1-5 Strawberry Scarlet Café from outside.
(Yeah, yeah. There’s something really satisfying about everyone coming together to accomplish something.)
A warm sense of achievement filled me.
It wasn’t the same intense, life-or-death triumph I felt after defeating the Demon King Canaan, but a gentler, more peaceful feeling of fulfillment.
On an unrelated note—
During menu discussions, there was a brief debate over whether to call them “pancakes” or “hotcakes.”
Ultimately, the “hotcake” faction won by a narrow margin, arguing that since we were using hotcake mix, it only made sense. Meanwhile, the “pancake” side claimed it sounded trendier and looked better in photos.
But I digress.
About 30% of my classmates had opted to cosplay.
The rest, like me, simply wore red shirts they’d brought from home.
That said, the cosplays included yukata, Chinese dresses, and other outfits, with only three people going all out.
One of them was a super cute shrine maiden in a frilly mini-skirt, while another dressed as a magical girl.
But the one who stood out the most was my best friend, Shibata Tomoya.
Actually, Tomoya didn’t just stand out—he was overwhelmingly popular.
Why, you ask?
Because Tomoya was wearing a full-body cardboard costume of a red robot—the famous Char Aznable’s custom Zaku from Gundam.
This cosplay—more like a “mosplay” (Mobile Suit Play)—was something Tomoya had meticulously crafted for Comiket. Its level of detail was insanely high, right down to the smallest features.
Standing near the entrance with a placard, the high-quality robot Tomoya was drawing customers like a magnet.
Visitors and students walking the hallways couldn’t help but be drawn to 1-5 Strawberry Scarlet Café.
(If there’s an MVP of the festival so far, it’s definitely Tomoya.)
That’s how overwhelmingly effective Tomoya’s robot cosplay was at attracting a crowd.