The timeline is set just before the first chapter of the main story.
The perspective is from the usual chemistry club advisor.
It seems they are welcoming new students.
“New students aren’t coming.”
Time sure flies, and these guys are already in their second year. The third-year students are starting to prepare for retirement, and the second-year students are working hard to bring in first-year students.
…At this time in April, it’s pretty fatal for a club not to have any new students coming in.
“That ‘We actually set it on fire’ poster must have been a bad idea.”
“I regret it. I don’t regret it.”
“Regret it.”
Yeah. Right.
For some reason, Maito made a poster for the chemistry club and posted one that was ‘half-burned’ in the hallway. It’s like showcasing a specimen from a chemistry experiment, but it ended up giving a grim impression rather than sparking chemical interest. I myself saw freshmen looking at the poster with a half-shocked, half-repulsed expression.
“And why does it say ‘The Ohmu is angry’?”
“It’s cute, isn’t it?”
“Cute, but you burned it?”
“Well, you know, you have to burn the Sea of Decay.”
So, the half-burned poster featured the famous insect from the rotting forest, all dramatically drawn. Yet, it was burning, and the stark contrast with the oddly pop-style font of ‘Chemistry Club’ made it a disastrous piece.
“Well, also, having Kariya handle the freshmen is impossible.”
“Why are you making an introvert handle the freshmen! I’ll sue you!”
And for some reason, Kariya was the one dealing with the freshmen who did come.
He’s not a bad guy, and he’s pretty interesting once you get talking to him, but the time it takes to charge up to that point is too long.
He can handle business matters normally, and I don’t think he’s that bad… but, well, the stiffness and nervousness come across more than friendliness and kindness.
“Then, Kariya, can you do the recruiting?”
“If you say that, isn’t President usually in the background! Switch with me!”
“I don’t mind. I’ll handle both the recruiting and the freshmen.”
President has been working behind the scenes since the first day.
In other words, preparing the chemistry magic for the new students.
…The reason for that is…
“…I think the fact that President handled the new students on the first day is also a cause…”
“Oh, yeah… President, you need to stop looking for hobby friends among the new students.”
On the first day, President was in charge of attracting interest by showing the new students some chemistry magic.
It seems there was a freshman he got along with a bit, and he started talking about his hobbies with great enthusiasm.
…His hobbies are quite niche, and his enthusiasm is overwhelming, so the new students ran away.
“I won’t give up.”
“Then President will continue behind the scenes! He shouldn’t be out front!”
Yeah. I think that’s for the best too.
“Also, can we stop using Suzumoto as bait?”
“Why?”
“The girls drawn in by you are annoying.”
Suzumoto is good at attracting people. His voice carries well, and he doesn’t seem to be that bad at talking.
But, well, whether fortunately or unfortunately, he has that kind of appearance. For recruiting new members, he speaks gently.
And then, somehow… probably unconsciously, his gestures sometimes come off as pretentious.
…Because of that, he attracts girls, and those girls pressure the freshmen who were originally interested in joining the chemistry club, creating a bad cycle.
“That’s not my fault.”
That’s true.
“I’ll punch you!”
Yeah, that’s also true. Go ahead, punch him.
“…So, this is not good as it stands.”
“But there’s nothing we can do, right? Hahaha.”
“It’s no laughing matter.”
That’s right. You guys need to have a bit more sense of urgency.
“Uh, we need at least three members, right? Or was it five?”
“No, it’s three. According to the school’s regulations, a club needs at least three members to continue.”
Our school has such a rule. To keep a club or society running, you need at least three members.
Personally, I want to avoid this club being disbanded or downgraded to a society, but do these guys understand that?
“Well… if we just need three, then we’re safe if we can recruit that many, right? It shouldn’t be too hard since there are nine of us.”
“That’s a bit optimistic. We currently have nine members, but we used to have more. Considering that about a quarter of our members leave within a year, we’d ideally want four or five new members.”
That’s true. A few members, especially some girls other than Maito, have already quit.
Considering that, we need a few more members for the club to continue stably.
“So, it’s time for a strategy meeting.”
Ah, Tsuge immediately said something.
“Oh?”
“A strategy? What kind of ingenious plan will we come up with?”
“Please, no crazy tactics. Let’s stick to something orthodox.”
Everyone gathered and sat around a table. Maito, Toriumi, and Kariya were resting their elbows on the table with their fingers interlocked near their noses, waiting. I can somewhat understand the urge to strike that pose, but still.
“First of all, we need to think about what kind of people typically join the chemistry club.”
Oh.
“Simply put, it’s mostly people with indoor hobbies and introverted personalities.”
“Thanks for the boomerang that hits us all perfectly.”
“My proposal is to focus our recruitment on freshmen who have those kinds of hobbies.”
Diversity is important, but that’s a strategy too, I guess. I’ll respect their autonomy and stay out of it.
“From the start, let’s give up on those who seem likely to join sports clubs, those who want to dedicate their youth to club activities, and those who want to live in the spotlight.”
“Wait. President, wait. I still want to be in a club that can face the sun.”
“Give up.”
“There’s no need to go that underground.”
“It’s my hobby.”
“Cut it out.”
Please, you guys, try to be people who can face the sun honestly…
“Jokes aside.”
So it was a joke. Tsuge has a way of saying jokes with a straight face or his usual Tsuge smile, making it hard to tell. Sometimes he says things more outlandish than jokes seriously.
“So, there are some clubs that are our competition.”
President stood up and wrote something on the blackboard.
Astronomy Club, Biology Club, Computer Society, Literature Club, Library Club…
Yeah. Those are indeed the clubs that attract similar types of students.
“These are likely our main competitors. So, our first strategy is to prevent new students from joining these clubs.”
…Yeah.
You know, I’m a teacher. It feels wrong to stay silent after hearing something like this.
“Prevent them, you mean…?”
“We’ll have chemistry club members wait near the activity areas of these clubs and redirect any freshmen who seem interested in those clubs to the chemistry lab.”
…No, no, no. You know, Tsuge might be serious about this, but I think this is a bit much.
“President, isn’t that going a bit too far? If we make enemies, it’ll just cause more trouble!”
Yeah, yeah, I can understand Kariya’s earnest feelings.
“I don’t think the cultural clubs will change their attitude towards us no matter what we do. At least, the Drama Club and Literature Club are already set in their ways.”
“Even so! Even so!”
…Unfortunately, the chemistry club has a few students who, well, aren’t exactly enemies, but they do have a bit of an aversion.
And probably the one who gets the brunt of it is Maito. She acts like she doesn’t care at all and seems to enjoy herself every day.
But Tsuge, while not caring about his own reputation, does care about how his friends are perceived. Yeah.
“However, it’s clear that other clubs, even though they haven’t harmed us, might attack us if we do something weird. Let’s drop this idea.”
So Tsuge agreed with a nod.
“Let’s not steal new members from other clubs. Even though we might have a decent chance of winning if we compete, it’s best not to make more enemies.”
Yeah, do that. I’m glad you agreed so easily.
“Hey, President, you forgot about the Go-Home Club. That’s who we should be targeting, right? It wouldn’t help to compete and cannibalize each other.”
Cannibalize… that’s when your own products compete and hurt each other’s sales. Right. Speaking of which, Hagasaki is in both the Biology Club and our club. He’d want members for both.
“I see. You’re right. It’s more logical to increase the overall number of potential members rather than splitting the pie among too many clubs.”
“Let’s do this peacefully, peacefully.”
“Kariya, my friend, by joining this club, your definition of peace now aligns with President’s standards. Give up.”
“That’s terrible…”
Well, yeah. This club wasn’t supposed to gather only these kinds of people, but it somehow ended up slightly off-kilter.
And the main cause is probably President.
“By the way, our school rules allow for up to three clubs, so we don’t need to steal members from other clubs.”
Oh, Toriumi is smart as usual.
I agree; it’s definitely better than making unnecessary enemies.
“That’s right! Other cultural clubs often share members, except for the band club…”
“In that case, it might not be a bad idea to recruit freshmen who seem interested in the clubs written on the board. Not by pulling them from the other clubs, but by recruiting them as they come out! That way, we won’t leave a bad impression!”
I just remembered a certain online shopping site’s suggestion: “People who bought this item also bought…”
“…That makes sense.”
Tsuge seems to have thought of something. He’s got his usual Tsuge smile, which makes me a bit worried.
“Alright, let’s go with that.”
Ah, I’m getting worried. Well, my worry is half excitement, though.
“We’ll go with member sharing.”
As I laughed heartily, Tsuge continued his explanation calmly.
“Overlapping club membership is a blind spot. Yes, it’s true. It’s not necessary for them to join only our chemistry club. They can join multiple clubs they’re interested in. Hagasaki is in the Biology Club as well.”
“Though I’m mostly a ghost member there.”
“I know. Additionally, the Chemistry Club is compatible with the Astronomy Club and the Computer Society. In other words, our goal should be to prevent students from joining the Go-Home Club by collectively embracing indoor enthusiasts.”
Collective effort. A collective operation. There’s no word more fitting for Tsuge. Hahaha.
“…So, you’re saying we should collaborate with other clubs and guide freshmen to join multiple clubs, including ours?”
“Exactly. We’ll recommend the Biology Club and the Astronomy Club to the freshmen, and they’ll recommend the Chemistry Club in return.”
Hmm. That’s not a bad idea.
After all, we already have a few members who are part of multiple clubs. (Even though some of them are ghost members in other clubs.)
The idea of collaborating to secure members sounds better than the previous plan.
“So let’s get started immediately. The freshman welcome period is crucial. We need to secure at least four new members during this time.”
“Got it. I’ll reach out to the Astronomy Club. Hagasaki, you handle the Biology Club.”
“Sure, sure. Maito, didn’t you have connections with the Drama Club?”
“I do, but how do you know that, Hagasaki… Anyway, I’ll take care of the Drama Club, Literature Club, and Library Club. It might be tough since they’re mostly humanities. Should we ask Toriumi to handle the Com-b?”
“Com-b?”
“Computer Club. Shortened to Com-b.”
Don’t shorten it like that. It makes it sound like it’s full of glutamic acid.
“The remaining members should stay here and wait. Do the usual when freshmen arrive.”
While the others went off to negotiate with other clubs, the remaining members would handle any freshmen that came by…
“Tsuge. Hey, Tsuge. Where are you going?”
“I’m moving to the back office.”
…Oh, right. He’s the type that shouldn’t be at the front. Despite his knack for orchestrating things, it’s amusing.
Alright then.
Thus, the Chemistry Club recruitment network was established.
Itoigawa, using her extensive connections, expanded this network further by reaching out to other clubs.
However, problems arose.
“…So, it turns out that a club with activities three times a week is too much for indoor enthusiasts.”
“If they’re in multiple clubs, it’s easier to join two clubs that meet once a week each.”
“I didn’t expect all our potential members to flow to our negotiation partners.”
Yeah. Exactly.
…Unfortunately.
The Chemistry Club promoted the cooperative clubs, and in return, those clubs promoted the Chemistry Club, creating a seemingly good relationship. However, the freshmen overwhelmingly chose to join the cooperative clubs instead of the Chemistry Club.
“Damn it! What did we do wrong?”
“Luck.”
“Reputation.”
“Number of activity days.”
“President’s appearance.”
“I stayed behind the scenes the whole time.”
“Then it’s President’s aura.”
“There’s nothing we can do about that, so give up.”
…If you ask what went wrong, to be honest, it was probably something beyond their control.
Sure, the initial mistakes like displaying the burned poster and putting President in the spotlight might have had a lingering effect, but on the flip side, if there were any freshmen who found that amusing, they would have definitely been attracted.
From a marketing perspective aimed at targeting and attracting peculiar individuals, they weren’t wrong. Yeah.
However, it seems there were fewer of those peculiar individuals among this year’s freshmen, or they ended up joining other peculiar clubs… It feels like we lost because of something beyond our control this time.
Even if there are a certain number of peculiar individuals, if they all happen to be in the humanities, they wouldn’t typically join the Chemistry Club. Only someone like Maito or Suzumoto, who is into the humanities but still joins this kind of club, would do that.
“Well, don’t worry about it.”
I tried to encourage the students who worked hard but weren’t rewarded.
Their efforts weren’t wasted. If it led to making friends with students from other clubs, it would widen their social circles and help them grow as individuals.
…But still.
Not seeing the results of their hard work in the expected place must be frustrating.
“…So, we ended up with two new members this year.”
“Surprisingly, we got two.”
“They’re in multiple clubs, though.”
And so, by the time we reached May, when new memberships were likely to be finalized, this was the result.
Two members.
It’s a lot better than zero, but considering there are nine of these guys, plus a similar number of seniors, it’s a bit of a meager number.
“…Well, do your best again next year.”
“Yes…”
“But hey! Look! If we get two more next year, that’ll be four! That’s enough for the club to survive! Right?”
“Unless we get zero next year…”
“Let’s hope none of this year’s freshmen quit…”
Everyone seemed to be feeling down, but I wanted them to stay positive. Yeah.
Despite their efforts, both freshmen ended up quitting before fall.
By then, they had adopted the mindset of, “Even if we get zero this year, let’s aim for ten next year!”
Most importantly, they became good friends and figured they didn’t need anyone else.
“What should our strategy be for next year?”
“How about installing a conveyor belt in front of the club room to physically gather members!”
“Or secretly redirect all the ‘Club Room Here’ posters from other clubs to the chemistry lab?”
“Uh, maybe we should just do it normally?”
“We should aim slightly broader in our marketing. We won’t target those heading straight for sports clubs, but those interested in cultural clubs might have some interest in us if it’s not the band club.”
“Then, let’s make the posters and flyers more appealing. Yeah. And let’s avoid using the Ohmu next year.”
“It would be great if we could attract people with a cultural club mindset but not much interest in science. Is that too difficult?”
“Maybe we could make the exhibits and experiments more visually interesting.”
“…Let’s start by keeping President in the back from the beginning next year.”
…Well, they seemed to be having fun planning. That’s good.
So, keep your spirits up and do your best again next year. I’m looking forward to it.