Editing Denpa Onna to Seishun Otoko:Volume6 Epilogue

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==Epilogue - School Newspaper Extra Edition: Culture Festival Special==
So, everyone, how was this year’s school festival? Did you have fun? Did you get a girlfriend? Did you get rejected? I hope it was a memorable experience, no matter what!

I spent the whole day running around the school. Thanks to that, I’m satisfied with the feeling that I’ll be able to write a good article. I took plenty of photos, so this time the entire page is dedicated to the school festival. I hope you’ll enjoy reading it while reminiscing about your own memories. First, I’d like to talk about the performances.

The ghost club, or rather, the art club, announced its participation for the first time in several years. It seemed to be unexpectedly busy, as you can see from the photos. This meant my carefully prepared comment, “The guests look like ghosts too!”, was obsolete. For a while, I suspected they were planted at the entrance to the art room, but it seems it wasn’t a staged event orchestrated by the art club’s ghost members after all. What a disappointment.

Also, pasted on the front wall were paintings of what appear to be fantasies, or rather, lovers in people’s minds. It was hard to imagine such a collection of beautiful men and women in real life. It was like a flower garden in someone’s head. And there are even some brave souls who have painted themselves next to their lovers and proudly given permission for the pictures to be displayed.

The interesting part was that N-san, a transfer student who was something of a celebrity around school, has his own individual poster. I am really curious to know who requested him as their ideal boyfriend. When I asked the art club president about it later, she just brushed me off. “There’s a confidentiality agreement.” What a shame. I think I heard a girl nearby, her face red, shouting, “Who, I told ya?! Who, I told ya?!” but I’ll just ignore her.

Next, let’s shift our focus from the planning to the food stalls. These were generally well-received by students and guests alike, or to put it another way, they received a safe and unremarkable reception. That was probably because no clubs were working on developing any new or innovative products, resulting in a conservative approach. I question the attitude of treating the school festival as just another ordinary day, but putting aside my personal indignation, the photo shown is of the girls’ basketball club’s stall. A cheerful shopkeeper, who greeted visitors with a high-pitched “Ha-ha!”, was busy cooking giant takoyaki. Ignoring the takoyaki, she’s just giving the peace sign.

Incidentally, this giant takoyaki stand had the lowest sales of all the food stalls this year. Because it took a long time to cook, they couldn’t serve a large number of customers. As for the taste, we asked one of the guests who was eating intently, and they said, “I really wish I had someone to eat with. I think I’ll go call Mako-kun,” so it seemed to be quite popular.

We have received a strong protest from a reader, N-san, regarding this matter, so we will omit further details regarding the subsequent announcements and other related matters. N-san is quite a topic of conversation, isn’t he?

Well, there’s a limit to the number of words that can fit on the page, so I can’t include everything that happened at the school festival in this school newspaper. Also, I don’t have a complete grasp of everything myself. The other newspaper club members were just hanging out and having fun as usual. I was the only one without any friends!

Therefore, I intend to select and highlight only the most carefully chosen content from my interviews. With that in mind, the next topic is, “I stalked a hottie!” This handsome man, who seemed to scatter particles, was frequently spotted at this school festival. There were reports of two different types of handsome men: one was a beautiful boy who looked as if a fairy might live on his head. And the other was an adult man who emitted light blue particles. I tried to follow both of them and make contact with them. To put it bluntly, it was impossible. Their actions were as unpredictable as those of aliens.

I was so frustrated that I didn’t get the chance to interact with a good-looking guy up close! I really needed to express that!

That concludes my attempt to follow handsome men. I really just followed them, so that’s all for my impressions.

There were also reports about the true identity of the card costume and the stupid couple inside, but I got so angry while writing about them that I simply summed it up to “them”. Reading it back, I feel like I want to tie their necks together with string, just kidding.

Now, let’s get to the report about the concert, which was the main event of the school festival and the subject of this article.

Please note that this is a concert review from “my” perspective.

A singing concert was held in the gymnasium, stained with the sweat of the basketball team, with Nijou Owari, whom we all hope will become famous, invited to the venue. Oh, was that an old-fashioned way of saying it? Don’t worry. The concert started at 2 p.m. and was nothing short of a resounding success. To be honest, I can’t tell if everyone was bored or simply curious. Maybe it was half and half. In the arena seats partitioned off in the middle, there were many impromptu couples with their little fingers tied together with string, and the chairman of the cultural festival committee who organised it seemed very pleased. Among the couples were two girls and two boys, and the combination of a male high school student and a middle-aged man was particularly poignant. My only regret is that I forgot to take pictures.

As for the concert that followed, almost all the students were there, so I don’t think it’s necessary to write about the details here. Therefore, in this newspaper, I, Mary Okui, will only comment on the guest who took to the stage, Touwa Erio-san.

I don’t think there’s a student, excluding the first-years, who doesn’t remember her. Even if you haven’t seen her in person, you’ve probably heard a rumour or two about her. Even after she dropped out of school, she’s become a well-known figure in town, having been spotted walking around town wrapped in a futon. Would it offend anyone to say that she was the “main character” of this year’s school festival? But that’s how I felt watching Eri-chan speak haltingly and sing weakly on stage. Who planned it? Or was it just a coincidence? Still, I can’t help but think that this year’s school festival concert was made for Touwa Erio-san.

Last year, when Erio Towa-san caused such a ruckus at school, I couldn’t understand what she was trying to say or what she was thinking. Even as a former friend, I couldn’t understand her. To be honest, I looked down on her.

When I happened to run into her that day, I even played a little prank on her. Yah ha ha ha.

It seems like it actually worked out for the best in the end. The power of Attraction is incredible!

Now, back to the main topic.

I felt that day, from the stage, what she was thinking. That’s how I interpret it. At least at that moment, she used words we could understand. She had the intention to be understood. She stood on that stage not as an alien look-alike, but as a human being.

That’s probably why there weren’t any insults being hurled at her during the concert.

It was not a matter of whether or not to forgive Touwa Erio-san’s actions, but rather whether those around her would accept her as she is now. Will they ignore her when they see her in town, gossip about her behind her back, or push her away? Or will they at least exchange greetings as an acquaintance? It’s up to each individual to decide what will become of Touwa Erio-san’s “existence” from now on.

As a former friend, I pray that Touwa Erio-san’s courageous act of standing on the stage of the school she dropped out of at this cultural festival will become a “superpower” that will change something in the future.

I was a little happy that Eri-chan, an eccentric girl who claimed to be able to use PSI telepathy, finally spoke about her feelings in her own words, so I ended up writing this long article.

…So, what did you think of our feature on the school festival?

Up to this point, I’ve tried a new approach of telling the story of the school festival in novel form, but was it a bit too long? It’s nearly 300 pages long, after all. Wow, just putting it all together resulted in a huge financial loss! It wiped out about two years’ worth of the newspaper club’s annual budget, so I’d almost like to use the same content next year!

But the result is good! It’s not entirely fair because it uses the first person, but I think it captures a part of the school festival in a very immersive way! I’d like to express my heartfelt gratitude to N-san, R-san, M-san, and E-chan and her parents for helping me create this article out of goodwill for Eri-chan, even though they are outsiders! I’m confident that asking them, who are close to Eri-chan, the star of this year’s school festival, to write this report was the right decision!

Well, I have made some minor adjustments and embellishments to the emotional aspects of the story.

Well, to be honest, everyone’s writing is rather bland, or rather, reserved, so I’ve added “quite” a lot of flavour to it. Because if I didn’t, it wouldn’t be interesting at all!

…Ahem. There was some slight rudeness in my language. Sorry about that.

In any case, we’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on their future lives!

And finally, a preview of the next episode.

Next week’s episode of “Okui’s Inner Parlour” will feature a big-name guest and a special segment on how to release particles from your hair. Stay tuned!
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