"So, just because it's raining outside, you all came to the art club's classroom to eat?"
Eriri, while eating her own lunch, looked at Shin and the others who were sitting unceremoniously on the art club's chairs, and spoke with a hint of annoyance.
"You're not even members of the art club... And why do you have the key to the art club's room!?"
Since Eriri was inside the classroom earlier, she naturally didn't see how Shin opened the door. Hearing the sound of the lock being opened, she assumed Shin also had a key to the art club.
"That's not important. The art club isn't exclusive to its members," Shin said with a smile, raising an eyebrow—clearly hinting that earlier that morning, someone who wasn't an art club member had done something unusual in this very classroom.
Seeing Shin's playful expression, Eriri's face immediately turned red, clearly recalling what had happened between them earlier that morning.
Fortunately, after their encounter, Shin and Eriri had cleaned up the mess in the art club and opened the windows to air out the room. By lunchtime, the classroom no longer had any strange smells, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If it hadn't been clean, Eriri wouldn't have come here to eat her lunch.
"Actually, when we first started eating on the rooftop, I thought it was quite inconvenient," Ikuyo Kita chimed in while eating her lunch.
"Sometimes the wind on the rooftop is too strong, and sand gets blown into the food. We have to cover our lunch boxes and wait for the wind to die down before we can eat."
Shin had noticed this too when he and Megumi Kato first started eating on the rooftop. Back then, he didn't have all these strange abilities, nor did he have "Black Bird Requiem" to help create a disturbance-free environment. So, the rooftop was pretty much the only option, as it was the only place where they could be sure no one would bother them.
Well, strictly speaking, it wasn't completely free of interruptions—Eriri was someone Shin had "caught" on the rooftop.
"Megumi and I talked about this the first time we ate on the rooftop too," Megumi Kato nodded, looking a bit troubled. "But back then, we really didn't have any other suitable place to go."
"Then why not just use a club classroom like we're doing today?" Hitori Gotou timidly raised her hand, like a good student answering a teacher's question in class.
"Hardly any students come to the club rooms during lunch, right? If we have the key..."
"While it's true that most students don't come to the club rooms during lunch, you can never rule out unexpected situations—like today, for example. Eriri was here, wasn't she?" Megumi Kato shook her head and glanced at Eriri, who, as the star member of the art club, had a key to the room and occasionally came to rest there during lunch.
Thanks to Shin and Eriri knowing each other, there wasn't any awkwardness today, and it was clear Eriri didn't mind Shin using the art club's room for lunch. But what if other art club members showed up in the future? Eriri, as a member, had every right to be there, but Shin and the others weren't art club members.
"In that case, why don't we just create our own club?" Shin immediately came up with an idea—if eating on the rooftop wasn't convenient, why not set up a club classroom specifically for lunch?
There were still some empty classrooms in the building designated for club use. Since they were just sitting idle, why not reserve one for Shin and his group?
"...So, you're going to set up a club classroom just to have a suitable place to eat lunch?" Eriri gave Shin a strange look. "That reason would never get approved, right? A club for eating lunch... The Lunch Club?"
"Of course, we can't use 'eating lunch' as the official reason. We'll just come up with some club activity as an excuse," Shin waved his hand dismissively. With "Black Bird Requiem," he could easily manipulate the outcome, so there was no need to worry about the club application being rejected.
That said, he could also use "Black Bird Requiem" to skip the whole club creation process and just take over an empty classroom. But Megumi Kato and the others might feel uncomfortable with that, so it was better to go through the motions of creating a club.
"But our school requires at least five members to form a club, right? If we don't have enough people, we can only form a hobby group, and we won't get a club room or funding," Ikuyo Kita brought up a more practical issue.
Although she wasn't part of any club, some of her friends were, so she knew the basic requirements for forming a club at their school. And right now, they were short by one person—Shin, Megumi Kato, Ikuyo Kita, and Hitori Gotou only made four.
"What about her?" Hitori Gotou pointed curiously at Eriri, clearly wondering why Kitagawa Utaha hadn't included her.
"I'm part of the art club. You're not expecting me to quit and join your Lunch Club, are you?" Eriri facepalmed, feeling a bit exasperated. After sitting in on their conversations and chatting during lunch, she had already gotten a sense of the personalities of Shin's lunch group.
She knew Hitori Gotou was socially awkward and didn't always read the room well, but she hadn't realized the girl also had a bit of a ditzy side.
"Oh... right, I guess that's true," Hitori Gotou laughed awkwardly after Eriri pointed it out—she had indeed forgotten Eriri was already part of a club.
"Don't worry about the number of members. It'll get approved," Shin shook his head. With "Black Bird Requiem," he could ensure the club application would pass no matter what.
Even if they were short on members, as long as the "result" was determined, the process would naturally adjust itself to align with that outcome. Shin was well aware of this.
"Of course, calling it the Lunch Club would be too obvious. It might attract unwanted attention from the student council," Shin added.
The student council was in charge of managing clubs, and while the private Toyosu Academy's student council wasn't as powerful as Shuchiin's, they could still cause trouble for clubs if they wanted to.
"How about we apply as a club for 'studying paranormal phenomena'?"
The reason for choosing this activity was partly inspired by the evil spirits that Yotsuya Miko could see—in a way, those definitely counted as paranormal phenomena.
"And we'll call it the 'Sealed Club.'"
"Why that name? Shouldn't it be something like the Paranormal Club?" Megumi Kato couldn't help but interject.
To be continued…
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