School Festival is the most distinctive school event in Japan and has even become a label of school culture.
It serves many purposes, such as connecting outstanding individuals who have graduated from the school to exercise students' organizational and practical abilities, promote the school, and serve as a recruitment activity, among other things.
It can be said that the school festival is a cultural event that schools have developed to adapt to society and follow trends. Over time, it has become a tradition.
The school festival is generally divided into class exhibitions and club exhibitions, where various activities are carried out by classes and clubs.
Traditional programs at the school festival include snacks, haunted houses, and cafes. Along with the continuous development of various peculiar clubs, the entertainment has become more diverse.
Because of this, the school festival has been able to maintain its vitality.
Similarly, the school festival appears frequently in anime.
"The takoyaki tastes good. Are high school students so skilled these days?" Senichi said while eating the freshly made takoyaki and praising it.
"Hehe, the takoyaki from the neighboring class was made by the son of a takoyaki shop owner." Sonoko explained as she led them around and guided them to buy snacks like apple candy.
"Alright then, you guys have fun. Come watch my play rehearsal later~" After taking the two of them around the school, Sonoko hurriedly bid farewell to them, no longer wanting to be a third wheel.
Waving goodbye to her with a smile, Senichi held Ayako's hand and strolled around the campus.
Amidst the lively laughter and joy, they tasted various snacks and experienced the novel activities planned by the young people.
Of course, they also visited the haunted house, but considering the students' craftsmanship, it was quite rudimentary, and for Senichi, who was used to seeing corpses, it was nothing much.
However, for Ayako who was normal, even in such a rudimentary haunted house, she was occasionally frightened.
Of course, due to the simple craftsmanship, there were also many moments of laughter.
And even if she was scared, with Senichi by her side, Ayako instantly felt incredibly at ease.
"Ah, this is so much fun! It's been a long time since I played like this," Ayako said with a smile after coming out of the haunted house. "Reliving the school festival feels like I've gone back to high school days."
"While it may not compare to regular shops and entertainment places, this kind of DIY setup has its unique charm," Senichi nodded and then looked at his watch. "It's getting late; the performances in the auditorium are about to begin. Let's head there and see Sonoko's class performance."
"Sure, I'm really looking forward to how Sonoko's script performs," Ayako said with anticipation. "These days, she's been talking about her script getting high praise at school, even claiming it's more magnificent than 'Romeo and Juliet.'"
Well, there's a mix of good and bad. Though Sonoko is a big romantic and loves all those melodramatic plots, the adaptation of the play for the school festival turned out pretty good.
It's safe to say that this plot is very suitable for a theatrical performance.
In the play, Black Knight, played by Kudo Yukiko, successfully completed the performance and even improvised the final scene to avoid an awkward moment of kissing her own daughter-in-law.
As the play concluded, enthusiastic applause filled the venue. After taking their bows and thanking the audience, the "Black Knight" (Kudo Yukiko disguised as Kudo Shinichi) and Ran returned backstage.
"Sonoko? Why are you here!?" Ran looked surprised when Sonoko suddenly appeared, then turned to the "Black Knight" with astonishment, "If you're not Sonoko, then who are you?"
"Hehe, originally, I was supposed to be on stage. After all, there's a kissing scene at the end," Sonoko smirked mischievously, "but then I found a more suitable candidate."
With that, Sonoko playfully nudged the "Black Knight" with her elbow and teasingly said, "Why don't you take off your helmet? Scaredy-cat."
In the face of Sonoko's banter, the "Black Knight" remained silent and directly removed the helmet, revealing the familiar face that Ran couldn't stop thinking about.
"Shinichi? How can it be you?"
Seeing (Kudo) Shinichi suddenly appear, Ran was first surprised and then filled with joy, "You're back?"
"Hehe, didn't expect this surprise~" Sonoko approached and then hugged Ran, looking at Shinichi with an intentionally regretful expression. "Unfortunately, some scaredy-cat decided to change the script I had designed."
"Sonoko!"
Upon hearing Sonoko's words, Ran blushed and shyly called out.
"Oh my, shy now?" Sonoko narrowed her eyes, "But I wonder who keeps talking about someone when that someone is not around."
Just as Ran's embarrassment seemed about to explode, Conan, who was preparing to come over from backstage, heard Sonoko's teasing and hurried over to save the situation, "Ran-neechan! Shinichi-niichan! Your performance was fantastic!"
Though the topic was a bit cliché, it didn't matter. As long as it interrupted the delicate atmosphere over there, it was good enough. After all, it was his own mom pretending to be him. If Sonoko continued teasing, he would explode!
What's the difference between this and a public execution, damn it!
Conan screamed internally but had to maintain a normal appearance on the surface and diverted the topic to relieve Ran and himself.
"The performance was good, but I felt the final scene was slightly out of sync. Was it changed last-minute?" With Conan trying to change the topic by swinging his little hands, Senichi inwardly chuckled and smoothly brought the conversation back.
For such a shameless public execution scene, how could they not go all out!
"Yeah, exactly! Brother-in-law, you feel it wasn't as good as before, right?" Sonoko immediately echoed, "Originally, in the original work, there should have been a romantic KISS, but right when the audience was eagerly anticipating it, it got covered up by a cloak. It felt a bit disappointing."
Seeing the topic being dragged back, Conan glared at Senichi fiercely and quickly said, "I actually think the final scene was well done! It leaves the audience with infinite imagination~"
"Hmph, what does this little brat know?" Sonoko poked Conan's head, looking disdainful.
"Alright, the performance is over, let's go eat together."
Kudo Yukiko, who was pretending to be her son, had seen enough of the commotion. She put away her concealed "auntie smile" and interjected to end this lively atmosphere.
As Senichi and Yukiko cooperated to change the subject in a few sentences, Conan, on the side, had a dead fish eye expression, and it felt like a group of grass-mud horses were running wild in his heart...
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