The timeline is before chapter 1, and the perspective is from the advisor that did not appear in the main story.
This is simply a story of playing under the pretense of Halloween.
“Trick or treat. It can be said to be a very simple yet arrogant and greedy demand, but it is allowed because it is a demand made by children to adults. Socially and economically powerful adults give alms to weaker children or allow mischief, based on a clear difference in power. Therefore, if we, being equals, make such a demand, we should pay an appropriate price, and this is how it came to be.”
…What’s that supposed to mean? Anyway, this was the response I got when I asked President, “What are you guys doing?”
October 31st.
Walking through a fairly large supermarket, one can’t help but notice decorations in pumpkin or witch colors, and at school, some students exchange candies under the guise of the event. It’s that kind of day.
In other words, Halloween, that’s what it’s about.
…Whether it’s enjoying candies, pranks, or even dressing up, do those enjoying Halloween realize it’s equivalent to the Western Bon Festival?
Well, it seems there’s also a meaning of warding off evil spirits by making noise, so in a sense, that might be the correct interpretation. Right?
…But leaving that aside, as usual, in the chemistry laboratory, the club members are gathered around a table, with wicked smiles in full swing.
Their smiles are, in a way, scarier than evil spirits.
For them, Halloween is nothing more than an excuse to play.
They’re not even in costume, and if there’s something that deviates from the Halloween or laboratory vibe… it’s the bags of candies from a certain mom’s recipe that each of them is holding.
Do you guys really like these that much?
And in front of each person is a piece of paper and a pencil.
By the way, President has an electronic dictionary at hand.
…That was the mysterious state of affairs, so I asked for an explanation, and what came back was the opening remark.
“Trick or treat. We are not foolish enough to presume that this right was originally granted to us unconditionally. We are neither too naive to be given such rights unconditionally, nor too old to have to give up exercising them. Therefore, we take the rights by our own hands and exercise them.”
President is more talkative than usual, probably because he’s excited.
They love all kinds of games.
“Then, let’s begin!”
“Duel!”
No, that’s not the right call.
The game they are playing seems to be called “Tahoiya.”
The rules are simple.
The parent looks up a word in the dictionary and declares a certain word.
The children think about the meaning of that word and write it down on paper “in a dictionary-like manner.”
Then, the parent writes the correct meaning.
…After that, the parent collects them and mixes them up before presenting each one.
Children bet points on what they think is the correct meaning.
If they bet on the correct one, the one the parent wrote, they receive that many points from the parent.
On the contrary, if they bet on something written by someone other than the parent, the points go to the person who wrote it.
And, if no one bets on what the parent wrote, the parent takes all the points put into play, without question.
In other words, “the parent chooses as obscure a word as possible” and “the children write as realistic a meaning as they can think of” in this battle of wits.
…These guys are pretty good at brain battles.
After all, they’re the types who love such games.
However… when it comes to vocabulary, it’s… kinda iffy.
“The first word is ‘steppen.'”
As President declares, everyone tilts their heads while writing various things on their papers.
…
“Katori.”
“Yes, I know… please don’t say anything, it’s unfair.”
On Katori’s paper… there was a string of characters that screamed, “You don’t get the game, do you?”
“Steppen.”
“Steppen, yes.”
…If there was a category for jokes, someone might vote for you.
No, I think the flavor text is really good.
But, this isn’t a game about mimicking a certain card, but about mimicking a dictionary…
“Let’s announce them.”
1. “An endemic disease that appeared in South Africa.”
2. “One of the styles of German dance.”
3. “The tip is raw, hence baldness.”
4. “The first thing.”
5. “The very end of a dance.”
6. “A part of a sword. Generally considered splendid.”
7. “A city in Greece.”
8. “The number 11 in German.”
9. “Water attribute, aquatic level 3, attack power 1000, defense power 1000. Penguins that act in groups. They gaze with their round eyes, but attack when they see humans. Be careful!”
…That’s all. Now, let’s move to the voting.
Yeah, President who read the last one without changing his expression is amazing.
“Hey, what’s with the last one?”
“Well, it’s clear it’s not the correct answer, isn’t it? Ahahaha.”
Then, everyone bets casually.
…Ah, I see. The candies with the flavor of a certain mom are used as chips here.
Not using regular coins but these candies for the “Halloween vibe,” I guess.
By the way, to make it easier to understand that each bag of the aforementioned mom’s flavored candies contains 33 pieces, everyone ate 3 to start with 30 points. So, everyone starts with 30 points.
Well, having more chips might make aiming for a comeback more exciting.
“The correct answer is number 4, ‘The first thing.’ In order from number 1, it was Hariu, Kariya, Hagasaki-kun, me, Kadomi-kun, Suzumoto, Maito-san, Toriumi, and then Katori.”
I see… “Steppen” was from “Sutenpen” (the very top).
…Well, it’s clear it’s not something like “penguin.”
By the way, Hagasaki, Toriumi, and Katori got it right. The others bet quite a bit on Kariya and Kadomi.
…Watching from the sidelines, this is pretty interesting.
“The next topic is ‘hashiura.'”
Katori, after much deliberation, came up with this topic.
Hashiura, huh.
Hmm, words like bridge, chopstick, edge come to mind, making it hard to guess the correct answer because you can imagine so much.
“Okay, let’s go.
1. ‘A school of stick fighting that existed from the Muromachi period to the early Edo period.’
2. ‘A Soviet 8-bit computer.'”
“Hey.”
“Yeah… I have things I want to say about that too, but let’s continue for now.
3. ‘A type of Kyoto confectionery.’
4. ‘A method of folding paper.’
5. ‘The underside of a bridge.’
6. ‘The outside of a railing.’
7. ‘A fortune-telling done by listening to the words of people walking on the bridge.’
8. ‘A part of the wood used for bridges.’
9. ‘A street fortune-teller standing on a bridge.'”
It seems 7 and 9 ended up having almost the same meaning.
I wonder if one of them is the correct answer, or if it’s just a coincidence.
“Anyway, there’s no Soviet 8-bit computer.”
“What do you mean by 8-bit? Are you kidding me?”
“No… it might exist, right?”
“Soviet?”
…Probably, “A Soviet 8-bit computer” was written by Kariya…
And then, most of the votes went to 6, 7, and 9, leading to the result announcement.
“Number 1 was President, number 2 was Kariya, number 3 was Hagasaki-kun, number 4 was Hariu, number 5 was Suzumoto, number 6 was Toriumi, number 7 was me, which means it’s the correct answer, number 8 was Kadomi-kun, and number 9 was Maito-san.”
“This is impossible to guess!”
“If you’re not sure, spreading your bets among plausible answers to prevent the parent from sweeping all the points might be a good strategy too?”
“Ah… right. It would be bad if someone got a huge lead in points…”
…Wait, is that how it works?
It seems, at this point, that Toriumi, Hagasaki, and Maito have a lot of points.
Observing, it appears Hagasaki has a high ability to guess the correct answers, Toriumi has a good sense for choosing plausible answers, and Maito has a strong vocabulary.
Conversely, it seems Hariu and Kadomi are struggling to gain points.
Surprisingly, President neither answers correctly nor gets voted on much. Knowledge is his weapon, not necessarily sense or intuition, which may not be the best arena for him here.
Next, Maito was the parent, and the topic was “meie.”
…When it’s in hiragana, it’s tricky to tell if it’s a foreign word or a kanji phrase.
“Alright, let’s announce.
1. ‘A city located in the southwest of Fukui Prefecture.’
2. ‘The appearance or state of having a house right in front.’
3. ‘A river existing in southeast China.’
4. ‘An art style from ancient Greece.’
5. ‘A French linguist.’
6. ‘An old term. A celebration of a girl’s growth.’
7. ‘The maternal grandparents’ home.’
8. ‘…A character who appeared in episode 197 of the anime “Iron Arm ●m.” He was introduced as the boyfriend of the protagonist ●m’s sister, Ura●, and died by self-destructing to defeat the enemy, which led to controversy when a scene of a child self-destructing was broadcast at 7 p.m.’
…And, 9 is blank, so it’s invalid.”
“Who did 8? We’re not doing Wikipedia here!?”
If such an entry were in a dictionary, I’d laugh for sure.
“Anyway, the person who wrote 8 should probably apologize to Kouji-san.”
“Eh… Who’s Kouji-san?”
“The dictionary.”
Ah, “Koujien,” right. Got it.
“…Anyway, 2 seems unlikely. ‘The appearance of having a house right in front’ is too literal, even by any stretch.”
“Hmm, no? You never know? There could be some weird words like that.”
“Right? ‘The maternal grandparents’ home’ sounds plausible, doesn’t it?”
“If you think so, you might as well vote for it.”
…After the voting, most votes went to 6, “A celebration of a girl’s growth,” and 7, “The maternal grandparents’ home.”
One vote, from Katori, went to 8. Yeah, that’s a thank-you-for-the-laugh vote.
Then, the result announcement.
“Haha… My friends, you’re too naive. The correct answer was 5, ‘A French linguist!'”
So, the correct answer seems to have been “A French linguist.”
Meaning, 6 and 7 were too well made… and, astonishingly, no one voted for 5.
“Since no one voted, I take all the points! Mwahaha! …Oh, by the way, 1 was Hagasaki-kun, 2 was President. 3 was Katori, 4 was Kariya, 5 was me, 6 was Hariu, 7 was Toriumi, and the Wikipedia jokester was Suzumoto. Ah, Kadomi-kun left it blank.”
Eh, that Wikipedia-like entry was Suzumoto? That’s surprisingly unexpected.
“I thought I’d get some joke votes.”
“You got one, but it was all swept up.”
“I greatly appreciate that you wrote something like that. But no points from me.”
…So, it seems they completed a round of the game.
When I came back from a staff meeting, they were already settling up.
Let’s see… the candy count is… Suzumoto with 25, Hagasaki with 37, President with 24, Maito with 44, Kadomi with 20, Hariu with 18… 18?! …then, Katori with 30, Toriumi with 45, Kariya with 27.
…It seems everyone was quite conservative with their bets, except for Hariu.
“Now, then, the fun time has come… So, let’s start with… Hariu, shall we? Trick or treat.”
Toriumi put 5 candies in the middle of the table.
…
“5… yeah, okay, I’ll do it! Here!”
Then, Hariu passed 2 candies to Toriumi and placed 3 on the table.
…So, the candies passed to the opponent are half, rounding down any fractions, it seems.
“So, it’s my turn next. Alright, Kadomi-kun, trick or treat!”
Next, Hariu placed three candies in the middle of the desk.
“…If it’s Hariu, I guess it’s fine. Nope, not giving.”
“Uh, then, please provide one piece of embarrassing history!”
Ah, I see.
So, the person who gets “tricked or treated” has to choose either to consume the same number of candies that were put out or to willingly accept a prank.
That’s how it goes, “We, by our own hands, earn and exercise our rights,” huh?
“Ah, by the way, you have to put out at least three candies. There’s no upper limit.”
“…Wait, does that mean if I get more than 14 candies, I can’t avoid it?”
“That’s right. So, everyone! Let’s chip away at Hariu’s armor!”
“Stop! Please be gentle!”
…The rules were quite harsh.
…As I watched, Hariu quickly ran out of ammo and became an easy target, Kadomi, who spent all his candies on defense, ended up in a similar situation, and despite having plenty of ammo, Toriumi chose to attack instead of defending. On the other hand, Hagasaki used all his candies on defense.
From what I observed, Hariu, Toriumi, and Maito were attack-oriented, Kadomi, Katori, and Kariya were balanced, and Suzumoto, Hagasaki were purely defensive.
…The clever one here was President, though.
“Maito-san, trick or treat.”
President approached Maito with three candies.
I mean, it was surprising to see President go on the offensive, and even more so that Maito was the target.
“…President, huh… Yeah. Okay. I’ll accept. Go ahead with your prank.”
And so, Maito didn’t defend.
“Please lend me the headband in your bag, Maito-san. The cutest one you have.”
…That was President’s request.
“…Yeah, ah, darn, a shield, huh? Using my greatest weapon as a shield… Yeah, okay. Here.”
Then, Maito took out… some kind of bunny ear headband from her bag.
A white one. The kind you’d expect a bunny girl to wear. But it seemed to be made of felt or something because it felt fluffy.
I heard later it was handmade. Honestly, I think her dexterity, passion, and perseverance in making this are commendable.
“Thank you. …Now, with this, I can use it for pranks from now on. Now, Maito-san, go ahead.”
See?
In other words, by obtaining the bunny ear headband, President made it a threat that “whoever gets pranked next has to wear this on their head.”
With this, President managed to whittle down everyone’s candies.
Yeah, a brain criminal.
In the end, Hariu was made to wear cat ears, Kadomi a big ribbon, and Kariya bunny ears.
And almost everyone had to provide an embarrassing history, some disclosed their first love, some sang or danced in the middle of the lab, and some came to pat my shoulder.
…Yeah. Seems fun. Yeah. Ah, a bit more to the left. Ah, that’s the spot.
“By the way, what are you guys going to do with all these candies?”
“We’ll keep them in the lab for future provisions.”
“Teacher, can we make this drawer a food storage?”
“Ah, let’s wipe the inside of the drawer first. Just a moment.”
…By the way, the 270 pieces of someone’s mom’s taste candies disappeared in less than a month.
Everyone, you should definitely try “Tahoiya.” (fictionary game, dictionary game)
I’ll be happy if the number of players increases.