"No, you can't."
The Class President on the podium crossed her arms, making a 'No' gesture: "Considering the cafe's product supply and the need for simple renovations to the classroom, we don't have enough class funds to provide cosplay costumes. The original plan was for everyone to just wear sheets and pretend to be ghosts…"
"In that case, wouldn't it be better to just cancel the cafe setting and make it a traditional haunted house, moving all the catering expenses to costumes?"
Asakura couldn't help but retort.
"But then…"
The Class President's eyes sparkled as she declared loudly: "It wouldn't be fun!"
So you're a fun-maker too.
Asakura stroked his chin and suddenly had an idea.
"What if I can contact an investor, and a specialized dessert shop provides the tea and snacks needed for the cafe?"
"Then we could free up the tea and snack expenses to get some simple cosplay costumes."
The Class President nodded.
"Oh, and since it's an investment, we'll need to promote the dessert shop that provides the investment to a certain extent… for example, when serving on trays, use that shop's promotional poster as a placemat or something."
Asakura continued.
"If it's just this much, everyone seems to have no objections."
The Class President tried to solicit opinions from others, and as expected, most were in agreement.
After all, even for girls, wearing cute cosplay costumes as waitresses clearly feels better than wearing sheets and pretending to be ghosts.
The boys were even more unreserved in expressing their heartfelt gratitude.
"Thank you, Tak… Asakura!"
"Asakura is our king!"
"Asakura, I always thought you were asexual, I'm so sorry!"
"The last guy, step forward."
Asakura's veins throbbed on his forehead as he said with a forced smile.
In any case, at least the meeting proceeded very smoothly.
And Asakura also got what he wanted—compared to being confined to the Toyama Shopping District's small, hard-to-promote area, it was clearly better to make a big name for himself directly at Soubu High School.
After all, as a dessert shop located in the Toyama Shopping District not far from Soubu High School, apart from those who need cakes for birthdays, its main target audience is clearly these Soubu High School students.
The next step was to quickly finalize the promotional poster and the Dot Rabbit Dessert Shop's signboard.
Regarding this, Asakura already had some ideas.
After deciding on the type and direction of operation, the meeting concluded with almost no obstacles, not taking up too much of everyone's lunch break.
And Asakura headed straight to Soubu High School's Manga Club after the meeting.
By the way, Soubu High School actually has a proper Art Club, but because the Manga Club produced a famous shoujo manga artist, Yumeno Sakiko, the Manga Club's reputation far exceeded that of the Art Club, directly leading to a situation where the Manga Club was full of strong artists, while the Art Club had only a few members.
In fact, it seems there are already a few active manga artists in the current Manga Club, though of course, they are not serialized in the most famous manga magazines, but rather in some more niche, easier-for-newcomers-to-debut magazines.
"Excuse me~"
Upon arriving at the entrance of the Manga Club activity room in the club building, Asakura forcefully pulled open the door with an aura similar to Hiratsuka Shizuka.
He found that the large club room was empty.
"Right, it's lunch break after all…"
Asakura scratched his head.
Although Yukinoshita Yukino often eats lunch in the Service Club's activity room, that's entirely because she doesn't have many friends in class, and the Service Club activity room, before being occupied by the Magic Club, was entirely her own club, obviously freer than a classroom or something.
For most people, even if they don't eat lunch in the classroom because they have no friends, they would go to the cafeteria. After all, if they have no friends, wouldn't it be more awkward to spend lunch break in the club activity room and then run into other club members?
"Huh?"
Just as Asakura was about to leave, he suddenly stopped as if he felt something.
Specifically, his Spi… Snake Sense reacted.
'Did I just see something flash by? A pink little animal, perhaps? A Tsuchinoko? Could it be Hitori came to Soubu High School?'
Asakura blinked, and the passive infrared vision of his Curse [Snake] activated. Sure enough, he saw a biological reaction in the corner of the Manga Club activity room, blocked by desks and chairs.
He thought for half a second before a slightly mischievous smile appeared on his face. Like a Snake discovering its prey, he began to silently approach the other party.
The pink little animal probably thought Asakura had left because it hadn't heard any sound for a while, so it cautiously peeked out from under the table.
Then it came face to face with Asakura, who was close by and wearing a wicked grin.
He greeted the other party brightly: "Yahallo~"
"Ah-ba-ba-ba…"
As a result, the other party turned pale and simply fainted, rolling her eyes.
"Ah…"
Asakura couldn't help but scratch his head.
It seems this child's mental resistance is a bit worse than Gotō Hitori's.
If it were Hitori, that scare would at most have only made her twitch in a cyberpunk-style seizure.
Leaving her there seemed a bit pitiful, so Asakura simply grabbed her by the collar and took her to the Service Club activity room.
Yukinoshita Yukino, who was leisurely eating her bento and drinking tea, was startled and choked by Asakura's sudden intrusion.
After gulping down the liquid, which was probably black tea, from her thermos and finally recovering, the girl coldly looked at the little girl Asakura was holding and said.
"Asakura finally couldn't control his inner beastly desires and became a criminal suspect, did he…"
"If you truly believe that, then you should be busy calling the police right now instead of sitting there so calmly, shouldn't you?"
"Because even if I call the police, the incompetent Japanese police will only give Asakura another achievement of 'speedrunning the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department'."
"The laws of most countries presume innocence. To see someone and immediately presume guilt, placing yourself above the law, Yukinoshita is truly high and mighty."
"I was merely making a reasonable deduction based on my personal understanding… Alright, I was a bit excessive."
Yukinoshita Yukino sighed. Her time spent with Asakura (and perhaps the numerous times she was outsmarted) had softened her attitude considerably compared to before. She no longer had that stubborn, world-defying, chuunibyou look she used to have: "So, what's the situation this time?"
"I accidentally scared her unconscious."
Asakura stuck out his tongue, not at all cutely.
"…Indeed, you should commit the crime, I say!"