Day Eight

One week into the apocalypse. And it feels like a year has passed.

I had remained hopeful of a rescue, yet by day 3, with only the sight of distant attack helicopters, I lost all hope. Everyone had been bored out of their minds, especially Kurumi, who continued to stray from the usual request of “Don’t go down to the first floor”.

Despite attempting my ‘time passing’ method of just staring outside into something interesting, I had given up on it after an hour. Not even an attempt to draw in the art room worked since much of the equipment was destroyed.

Yuki had maintained that same dullness ever since the first day of the outbreak, but she had started to smile over time. I wouldn’t give credit to myself though.

A soft and quiet knock came on my door as I got off my couch. Even before I could open it I could tell who it was.

“Ah, morning sensei”

“Good morning Tanaka-kun. Did you have a good sleep last night?”

I couldn’t help but notice that her hair seemed shorter than last time.

“I always do” I patted on the red couch beside me, “How may I help you?”

“Kurumi-san had just finished unlocking the door to the Broadcast Room and would like to meet you there”

I was taken aback by this. One of the few reasons I had for leaving my room was to try and breach into an almost senseless door such as the Broadcast Room, yet by the looks of it, Kurumi managed it just fine.

“Alright, I’ll be down there then"

Before I walked out, a voice came from behind me.

“Can I ask you something Ryu-kun?”

I turned over, looking at Sakura.

“If you don’t mind answering Tanaka-kun, can I ask why you seem so hasty to get something done?”

“...”

“Wouldn’t you be able to have time to do something?”

“Isn’t it efficient?”

“That makes sense… but… sometimes you gotta slow down”

“I’ve slowed down too many times to do something meaningful”

“Hm, I can’t disagree with you” Sakura shrugged, “Oh by the way Ryu-kun. I’m planning to do something fun just for our sake. I’ll meet up with you later”

By the sound of her voice, it seemed as if Sakura had given some thought behind her plans.

“I’m looking forward to it" I smiled towards Sakura.

“See you later” Sakura gestured a small wave before we walked off.

There are better things to do than something fun, but perhaps a balance wouldn’t hurt. Constantly doing pushups and situps every day is killing my brain.

I reached the nearby room, the door thrown off its hinges and filled with shovel dents on all sides. While sliding the door away, the doorknob rolled off, hitting my foot.

Good work Kurumi.

As I entered the broadcasting room, the sight of an untouched speaker and a few computers sparked my mind, provoking me to go through the drawers of the room while ignoring Kurumi who fiddled with a radio.

“Hey Ryu-kun… what are you looking for?”

“Sorry, give me a moment"

The moment I opened a drawer, my eyes widened with excitement as I saw the shape of a small black rectangular object.

Finally, a radio.

I hastily plugged it into the sockets, letting it turn on. Static emitted from the other side of the speaker, muffling out the slides on the nearby drawers Kurumi was searching. I pulled a nearby note from my pocket, planting it on the table.

76.1 MHz.

As I changed the frequency, static returned from the other side.

What is the meaning of this? Wouldn’t an emergency broadcast station have something on a loop for a scenario like this?

I felt Kurumi looking over me as I clenched both hands on my hair out of frustration, as she patted her shoulder over me.

“All good Ryu-kun?”

“... yes”

She glanced over at the table, noticing the scribbled note I had left on my pocket with the words “EMERGENCY BROADCAST”.

“You’ll find someone on the radio eventually"

“Yeah…” I looked down, noticing the steel knee pads Kurumi wore, “They’re not part of school regulations”

“Huh?”

“Just playing with you” I chuckled, “Wouldn’t that slow you down?”

“Nope”

I continued to fiddle around the radio for a while, with mere indiscriminate static coming from the speaker. After playing with it for a moment, I switched it off and placed it back into the drawer.

“Damn it"

“No sign?” Kurumi turned over, resting her shovel over her shoulder.

“I wouldn’t mind contacting someone from outer space to save us"

“Don’t worry about it ”

“Yeah… Hopefully the Defence Force does something"

“Can’t always trust them to get the job done…”

“Hmph…” I nodded

The room remained silent for a moment, as I fiddled with the broadcast station for a moment before turning over to Kurumi.

“Any improvement with Takeya-san?”

“Yuki? Not much to be honest, although she has stopped crying"

I nodded for a moment as I placed a blue button on the broadcast, snapping my fingers as an orange wave emerged from the screen for a split second.

“Alright. Good work on breaking open into the broadcasting room"

“Yep,” Kurumi smiled before leaving the room, holding onto the shovel.

“And by the way, please don’t go running downstairs. We’ll clear it out together”

“You don’t do much though”

“There’s a reason why you didn’t get swarmed instantly last time”

“Alright alright…” Kurumi waved a dismissive gesture.

As she left the room, I stared out the window of the broadcast station. A horde of zombies still loitered around the field. I left shortly.

I continued to wait inside the office, pondering over what Sakura said. Something fun. My thoughts had wandered to even the weirdest and extreme scenarios, although I ignored them, tending to my Chess Board for the time being.

Yesterday, I sat close to what remained of my table at the Teacher’s Lounge, writing in my diary just to keep the time going. We’ve been holding out quite significantly well compared to what I’ve witnessed outside, with the ever-amassing numbers of our former students and teachers on our doorstep.

Yet, I don’t think we’d last long.

It’s pretty much the general agreement that we’ve been quite bored to death recently. Ryu had tried to use Kurumi to break the door lock to the broadcasting room in the hopes of negotiating rescue to no avail.

He’s been self-isolating himself to the point where he wouldn’t even join us with dinner and said that he would make oatmeal for the time being. Kurumi had followed from time to time.

Yuki had remained with her gloomy face as usual, but I had heard from Kurumi and Yuuri that she had won her first Uno game in a long time. It wasn’t significant when you think about it, but the little things matter at this point.

Staring at the half-broken vase Kamiyama once treasured, I turned over, noticing Yuuri who stood close to the door.

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“Hello Wakasa-san"

“Hi Megu-nee"

I didn’t mind Yuuri calling me Megu-nee for some reason.

“Take a seat. You seem excited about something"

“Of course"

Yuuri sat down at a nearby office chair, pushing it close towards me.

“Did you just cut your hair Megu-nee?”

“Yep. Do you like it?”

“Of course! It looks good on you" Yuuri smiled.

“Thanks"

“I kind of liked the old hairstyle though"

“Yeah, I had to ditch it for now. But maybe next time, you’ll see me with something like that. Probably a few months?”

Yuuri nodded in agreement.

“Anyways, what would you like to ask?”

“This may seem weird, but… I’d like to start up a club…”

My eyes widened at the proposition.

“A club?” I responded, “That’s a great idea! Let’s do that!”

“Okay,” Yuuri smiled, “I think it’d be a lot more fun than just living from one day to the next”

It seemed that we had the same sentiment.

“I was thinking about resuming classes, but a club sounds more appealing. What kind of club do you have in mind?”

“Let’s see…” Yuuri placed her hand on her chin, “The club will be spending most of its time at school, so…”

“A School Life Club!” I said, interrupting her ideas.

Yuuri nodded in agreement at the name idea. After all, it reflected our circumstances.

“I suppose we didn’t even have to bounce ideas off each other”

“It looks like we’re on the same page then"

“All right" I opened the drawer at my table, shuffling through the stacks of paper before pulling one out, “Here"

Yuuri looked at the paper, almost surprised at what she was seeing.

“I’ll leave it in your hands” I placed my hand over Yuuri’s shoulder as she looked at the club form, “School Life Club president”

Yuuri looked at me surprised, as if she didn’t expect to become the leader.

“I-I’m the president?”

“I can’t think of anyone more fitting," I winked at her.

“But, what about Tanaka-kun?”

“He’s been quite isolated in his room and it wouldn’t be fair to not acknowledge what you’ve been doing for all of us. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind it since that’d also benefit his role as School President"

Yuuri stared at me, almost unable to comprehend the tremendous role given. Yet after a moment, she smiled.

“Very well. I’ll do my best!”

We had a quick laugh together.

Everything was going according to my plan. All I needed to do was to convince Kurumi, Ryu, and later Yuki.

The door to the rooftop swung open as I dug the spade onto the garden bed. Looking over, I noticed Megu walking outside, staring into the field before turning over to me.

“Afternoon Megu-nee"

“Good afternoon Kurumi-san" Megu smiled,

“So… what’s up?”

“Not much. I just needed to tell you something" Megu placed her hands over the railing, staring outside into the field.

I couldn’t help but notice how short her hair was.

“Huh, did you cut your hair Megu?”

Megu turned over at me while I continued to dig on the garden bed.

“I liked it when you had it long"

“You think so?” Sakura fiddled around, “Well, I am a teacher…”

“What’s that have to do with it?” I turned over.

“I wanted to look like an adult"

Huh?

“Long hair makes you look like a child?” I grabbed onto one of my twin-tails with my left glove.

“Oh, but you should keep yours long," Sakura smiled at me.

“Thanks…”

“So, I’d like to talk to you about this club we’re making"

A club? This isn’t exactly the best time to make a club, even if we were to return to normal.

“Can you tell me again what it is called?” I asked, trying to keep my mind clear.

“The School Life Club. It was Yuuri-san’s idea. I wanted to hear your thoughts on it"

“Sure, sounds good to me"

“It could give our activities purpose. A direction"

“Yup" Sakura nodded.

“Maybe she’ll cheer up and stop crying… right Megu?”

“Right,” Sakura nodded. “But, Ebisuzawa-san, could you please call me–”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s not Megu-nee, it’s Sakura-sensei"

“Come on!” Sakura pouted.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her almost childish response to calling Sakura ‘Megu-nee’. Sakura, after pouting, followed suit, politely covering her mouth with her hand.

After my eighth round, the same soft knock came on my door. I took a glance at my clock as I made my way towards the door. As I opened the door, Sakura went in, her smile being slightly bigger than before.

“I have a good feeling about your plans,” I said as Sakura took a seat in front of me.

“It's nice to see you excited,” Sakura said as she set the pile of paper wrapped in her arms onto the neighboring chair.

She slid the front paper of the pile onto the table, as I flipped it over. A request to make a club.

An interesting move, Sakura.

“This… I think I know where you’re going with this" I slid the paper closer, scanning through the questions.

“Well, if that's the case then, do you approve of it?”

“You and Yuuri missed half the form" I slid the paper back, tapping my finger over the few brief questions across the page.

She stared at the paper for a moment, emitting an embarrassed face before snatching a red pen from a nearby cup.

“If you’re considering me as co-leader, then I really can’t take the role. After all, I’m the school president”

Sakura remained silent, her gaze still focused on the first empty box.

“However… Considering our circumstances, I could take up the position as you desire. May I?” I slid the paper back to my side, filling the boxes.

I looked down at the name of the club, with a feeling of deja vu inside of me.

The School Life Club. Seriously?

“And… approved” I wrote my name at the bottom, before scratching out a few other titles on it.

“Thank you so much Ryu-kun. I was worried you were going to deny it"

“I’m convinced by what you desire to bring to the students. Especially Yuki. Perhaps you are quite different from the other teachers"

“How so?” Sakura looked up, her face intrigued yet smiling.

“While others care for a student’s academic success, you care for how they feel. And that is what sets you apart in a positive way"

“... Thank you, Ryu-kun”

“Don’t thank me. I should be thanking you"

“Why’s that?”

“This is genius. Everything. It makes sense. You aren’t doing it for any irrational reason or insanity. You’re doing it… you’re doing it for Yuki, aren’t you? Not just for her, for all of us"

Sakura nodded, smiling out of satisfaction as if nobody else truly understood her without an explanation.

“Gee, thanks Tanaka-kun”

“Anyways, I can handle the logistics of the club for you, but I’m looking forward to what you plan to bring"

“Perfect. I’ll see you later Ryu-kun”

As I sat down, my entire body relaxed on the couch for a moment. It was genius. What Sakura-sensei had planned. Any trivially negative opinion I had for her disintegrated.

It was as if Sakura had set everything up perfectly.

I approached Yuki-chan quietly as she continued sobbing close to the table, tears still fresh and streaming onto the nearby table. Placing my hand over Yuki’s shoulder as comfort, I got close to her, whispering.

“Yuuri-san and I had an idea”

Yuki’s sobbing stopped, yet her hands remained close to her eyes.

“Yes. It’s going to be a lot of fun"

“How could we have fun now?” Yuki muttered.

I placed my hand over Yuki’s cheek, comforting her as she looked at me.

“Let’s start a club. All of us here. Wakasa-san, Kurumi-san, Tanaka-kun, you, and me”

“A… club?”

Yuki looked at me with a puzzled face, her tears still streaming down her face.

“Yes. We’ll start… the School Life Club"

“The School Life Club?” Yuki sniffled.

“Yes. The club participates in all activities all across the school"

Yuki looked at my face with a perplexed look, her eyes still filled with tears.

“What should we do first then?”

“What we should do is what every club does when they start"

“Are you sure it is necessary?”

“Of course Yuki-chan. Don’t worry”

Yuki-chan nodded, slowly building a smile despite the tears still in her eyes.