Stealing Spree

Chapter 113: Game Club

The class ended with everyone tired from the previous PE class. Good thing the last subject was something we could breeze through easily. It was purposely put at the end of the class as an additional subject.

Normally, there should only be six periods but here in this school, they added one at the end, cutting a few minutes from the 5th period, 6th period and club activity to still fit the timeframe. It’s something the school board decided to add.

Satsuki and Sakuma already went to their respective clubs while Aya was called by the teacher in Japanese subject to the faculty. She will then go straight to her club from there.

So that leaves me alone again.

I also didn’t have to act with Nami today. After the introduction yesterday and my time with her earlier, there’s no need to reinforce the idea that we were dating.

I saw their circle of friends leaving the classroom together, Imada even asked if I will visit their club again and I just answered to take care of Nami for me.

That girl seems too eager to see us together. Is she shipping us or there’s another motive behind what she’s doing? In the looks department, she’s only behind Mori, a bit plain but still attractive to most.

More importantly, she’s not like the girls in Ogawa’s harem. She’s the real representation of Classmate A or in her case, Friend A.

It’s not that I’m against at what she’s doing, she’s even helping me to steal Nami unknowingly. I just don’t know why she seems too enthusiastic about our supposed relationship.

Nami mentioned that it was also her who suggested giving us time during lunch break, with the impression I gave them yesterday, most of them agreed, especially Izumi-senpai who were gunning for the now freed Ogawa. Mori also agreed even if she knew we were just acting and that Ogawa was her real boyfriend.

Didn’t she think for a second that Ogawa might hold it against her?

But that’s Ogawa, he’ll probably let that slide.

Like with Sakuma, I shouldn’t get him overly suspicious for now so distancing myself like this will be good in the future. I’ll just keep talking to Nami through messenger.

I also left the classroom afterwards and went to the Club Building, Shio reminded everyone who hadn’t chosen a club yet to decide today. It’s mandatory for this school to have a club after all, if we didn’t choose, they will put us in a random club that will be decided by drawing lots.

It was the SC President, Shizu-senpai, who came up with that idea. And the clubs that will be included in that draw were those who lacked the necessary members to keep their clubs afloat for the school year. That means I would be put to a completely new club I haven’t visited yet if that ever happened.

There’s a bit of fun to let it be decided like that but that sounds too troublesome for me.

I went up the stairs of the Club Building and my feet led me to the 3rd floor, right in front of the door of the Game Club.

Well, I could’ve told Hashimoto that I’m not interested in this club but for the sake of having another option and to keep up appearances, my feet led me here.

The Literature Club is located at the other end of this floor and that will be my next destination after here. It has already been more than a week since the trial I took in there. I’m already acquainted with all of them and could be said to be close enough to the two. Kana and Fujii.

Otsuka-senpai was someone really curious about me just that I didn’t want to deal with her curiosity too much while Ishida-senpai was someone I’m not particularly close to. She even came clean about what happened between her and that Kenji. So right now, the picture I took from when I saw her last Sunday couldn’t be used as a material anymore.

After knocking at the door, I waited for someone to open it from the inside. They seem to have been busy preparing something that I could hear a lot of activity inside.

When the door opened I was greeted by a 3rd year senior, the Club President? I determined him to be a 3rd year student because of his uniform, he wore glasses and seemed to be an intellectual type. He had a smile on his face that could be taken as him being friendly to everyone.

“Hello. What brings you here?”

He greeted me. I got a glimpse of what’s inside and there’s a lot of students inside. They’re sitting around a long table.

“I came here to apologize for not showing up yesterday, senpai. I heard from Hashimoto.”

I answered politely.

“Oh? Are you the classmate he invited? For you to come and apologize, I guess I have to reverse what I thought of you.”

So by his words, he already had a bad impression of me because of not showing up yesterday. It’s not like I agreed that I’ll definitely go, you know? But yeah, I told him I’ll try it yesterday, he probably brags about it that he pulled one.

Why do they even need more members when there’s already a lot of them inside there?

“Something just came up yesterday, so I thought maybe I could make up for it today. Is it fine, senpai?”

“Of course! You’re more than welcome to try our club. Come in.”

He opened the door wider for me to enter. His attitude towards me is quite good.

He then introduced himself as Nishimura and he’s really the Game Club’s President.

After entering their clubroom, I got to see how many members this club has. Just from their uniforms, there are 7 first years, 3 second years and 1 third year. If I add Nishimura-senpai then there are only 2 third years among the club members.

With this many club members, I don’t see the point of Hashimoto inviting me here. Did he only want to show me that the Oujo-sama is really a member of this club?

There are only 3 girls in this club, one in each year. The large number of 1st years could be attributed to Himeko’s little sister. Looks like they chased after her here. That elegance and beauty could really attract these horny teens. This was what also happened to Akane’s club. Those guys followed her to her chosen club.

I found Itou Maaya sitting with the other girls, she’s quietly listening to the 2nd year girl explaining something to her. My arrival didn’t even affect their conversation, at least they didn’t ignore me. They both threw me a glance to see who arrived before going back to their conversation.

The 3rd year girl stood up and went next to Nishimura-senpai. By the looks they’re giving to each other, the two were clearly dating.

My desire seemed to have been woken up upon seeing them together.

Ah. I still can’t stop it from seeing potential targets. Finding a potential target doesn’t mean I will immediately go after her, anyway.

She introduced herself as Miura-senpai. Like Nishimura-senpai, she also has that friendly smile on her lips, with glasses on and a fairly attractive face paired by a shoulder-length hair, the two looked good together.

I couldn’t help but imagine if I stole her from him, what will happen to this club?

Err… let’s stop that thought for now. Let’s be civilized here.

I was also introduced to the other first years and second years but those guys, Hashimoto included were all staring at Itou and the 2nd year girl, she’s also a looker but compared to the Ojou-sama or Akane, she paled in comparison. She has this nonchalant demeanor that even with stares directed at them, she could still focus on Itou at her side.

As to what they were talking about, I still don’t get it even if I can already hear what they’re talking about.

Nishimura-senpai brought me a chair to sit onto. Now that I’m here, I guess I could stay for a bit and see what they were about to do as their club activity for the day.

I already noticed the huge board game spread on the table. That was probably what Hashimoto described as the shitty game they played yesterday.

Considering that the board game is so huge, the tiles depicted on it were so small that before you could travel around the board, you’ll be needing a lot of dice rolls.

I read the title that was probably hand-written on top of it, it’s called ‘The Quest for the Lost Kittens’.

The hell is with that title?

After clapping once, Nishimura-senpai took all of our attention. For the sake of the newcomer, which is me, he explained the game again.

Just like most board games, it will be played using dice rolls. It’s just about collecting Lost Kittens that were spread around the board. By how absurd the game is, he already lost me when he even provided a background story about the Planet where the Lost Kittens originated from.

The faces of everyone hearing about it for the 2nd time were all complicated, including Itou who Hashimoto told me was excited about this yesterday.

I guess I’ll really cross this club off. Well, it isn’t bad to visit this again when I’m ready to steal that 3rd year or even that 2nd year and Itou. But there’s no way I will join this club.

Nishimura-senpai and the 3rd year girl enthusiastically explained everything about the game. They made this together. Maybe this was why they couldn’t voice out that there’s something wrong with this game. Their seniors specifically created it for the juniors to enjoy.

The only thing I understood about the mechanics of the game was to successfully bring 100 Lost Kittens back to their planet which was indicated that it could only be accessed at the four corners of the board and next to those tiles were black holes where the player could lose all the kittens they collected. As to how one can collect those kittens, they’re spread out over the board and there were cards they prepared for the events that will be triggered by specific tiles.

I eventually gave up and just went along to play one game with them. Though it’s a bit shitty, with these many players, it became a bit interesting, especially when someone will step on the black hole, losing every kitten they collected.

In the end, Itou finished first and that made her very happy. She even jumped up in celebration, to think that she could act like that. My guess about this club being something she chose to relieve her stress seems to be true.

I finished 2nd and that made her approach me, with an unusual smugness on her face, she patted my shoulder saying have better luck next time. She’s really different from Himeko.

Since we’re the first two who finished the game, I got the time to talk to her. When I mentioned her sister, she was surprised that I’m acquainted with her.

From her words, it seems like she felt sorry for her sister. She knew why she became that introverted so when I told her I met Himeko and befriended her, she was overjoyed about it and asked to tell me news about her sister next time.

When I asked her why she couldn’t ask her own sister, she didn’t answer and just shook her head. Their family seems really complicated, eh?

After the others finished the game, I finally bid farewell to Nishimura, Miura-senpai, Itou and the other club members. Thanking them for the experience.

I guess my visit here was fruitful. I got to talk to Himeko’s little sister and added her to messenger, then there’s that potential target. I still don’t know about the 2nd year girl but I guess meeting her for the first time wouldn’t develop to me instantly liking her. The 3rd year is a different story though, someone’s lover is still a target of my desire after all. That didn’t change even after all the change that happened to me.