Chapter 104

School Festival (Part 1) (の) is the one-hundred and fourth chapter of Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun by AidaIro.

Summary
The chapter begins with an announcement made on the speakers saying that it is now 10 AM, and so the festivities of the 113th Annual Millennium Festival has now commenced. All the while, Yashiro Nene and Akane Aoi are excited for the beginning of the festival, with Yashiro monologuing to the reader that the school festival is finally here. As crowds of both festival attendees and students go around the various fairs and exhibits of the festival, we can see Tsuchigomori with Yako perched on his shoulder showing the people the line to the Gachinko Haunted House. One of the students, who is wearing a sash that identifies him as belonging to the Newspaper Club, asks another student if Tsuchigomori's multiple arms is part of his cosplay. The other student, Satou Yomogi answered that he is cosplaying as a poor monster that is born of a mad doctor's experiments, or so he said possibly referencing Frankenstein.

Meanwhile at the Gachinko Haunted House, Mitsuba Sousuke is not amused with what Minamoto Kou had asked him to, which is to surprise and smack people with the Konjac in particular. Kou tells him to keep quiet, but Mitsuba instead complains that he agreed to go around the school festival, not to perform Kou's dirty work. Kou replies that he wouldn't be doing anything during his shift anyways, to which Mitsuba responds that nobody would be scared by what he's doing. But his complaints were unheard as Kou comes in to surprise a couple of students. After scaring them, Kou seems to hear some kind of noise and looks around, only to get shocked as Hanako and Yashiro Nene barges in from the curtain, screaming that something had smacked them.

As Kou looked at the two, he realizes who they are, while Mitsuba insulted Hanako, saying that no way that the leader of the School Mysteries screamed like a little girl, embarrassing him further. He then mocked him further and hit his cheek with the Konjac, while Kou has a conversation with Yashiro on how the two explored the festival together. Yashiro answered Kou that she and Hanako had decided to start with his haunted house, and being the horror fan that she is, she exclaimed that the haunted house was so realistic that it spooked her. Kou takes the complement and says that his entire class worked hard in putting it all together.

Amidst the other students walking and talking around, Yashiro asked Kou on his role, and he answered that he was the "Mad Doctor of Death", all the while being looked at by Satou and Yokoo Shun, who exclaimed it to be young love. Yokoo then exclaimed to Kou that he should take a break, to which he replies that he's still on duty. But Yokoo insisted, as his shift ends in 5 minutes, and that Yashiro had came to see him all alone. Kou was initially confused by what they said, only to quickly realize that Hanako and Mitsuba, being ghosts, could not be seen by them. This realization shocks the two of them. They, alongside a single Mokke that chewed on Mitsuba's Konjac, leave the still-alive students in embarrassment. Mitsuba then takes one good look at Kou and Yashiro having a conversation, and seems to get an idea.

Just then, Mitsuba approaches Kou, and suggests to him that he go on a date with Yashiro at the School Festival. Kou responds by hitting him with his elbow, and reminds Mitsuba that all four of them are going, including Hanako and Yashiro. Hanako was shocked by what he said and stared at him, and then he asks Yashiro to get him some cotton candy, to which she decides to buy some for him, and making him happy in the process.

The two then go to a cotton candy stand, and then the both of get a rather large piece, with makes Yashiro's eyes gleam. A montage in the form of a pile of images follows, showing the four of them enjoying various stands, including a certain Ikemen Juice Stand that has a certain member missing, a Takoyaki stand, a comedy exhibit hosted by Yamabuki Lemon, a Whack-A-Mole stand, and a Gardening Club Herbal Tea stand hosted by Akane Aoi, as well as doing other funny and fun-filled stuffs in the background.

After enjoying the many stands and exhibits around the festival, the four of them come to a certain stand are are met with something shiny. That shine is coming from a very photogenic stand called the "Minamoto Teru Venue", which also has a very long line of people waiting to enter it. When they finally get a closer look, Yashiro and Kou are praising the stuff that's filled to the brim with Teru's visage, while Mitsuba and Hanako have rather negative views of the place and the person in question (And rightfully so in Hanako's case, he did nearly die to him a few times). A familiar voice shocks the two of them, and they both quickly hid themselves. The voice was coming from the namesake of the Venue, Minamoto Teru, who came in to greet and talk to Kou and Yashiro, seemingly not noticing the ghosts.

Yashiro then excitedly asks Teru if he's gonna go to his own venue, to which he answers that as he and Aoi Akane, who is with him, are Student Council members, they also double as Executive Committee members, and so are too busy to personally enter the venues for fun. Akane himself is disgusted by the venue and wonders how such an "abomination" came to be. Teru himself then answers Akane that it was initially supposed to be a photo exhibit centered around "The everyday beautiful in our day-to-day life", and that it just so happens that Teru himself in his own words, is a "Thing of Beauty". This reply amazes Yashiro and Kou, but further disgusts Akane, who asks him if he has no shame.

Both Teru and Akane then leave the other two at the venue, and while they were walking, Teru asked Akane if he was gonna walk around the festival with Aoi, to which he replied that she said no to him, because she was shy (True enough, the flashback image shows a rather flustered face on Aoi when she said no, showing just how different things are between them compared to before, when she usually makes quick responses). Teru then surprises Akane by saying that she promised to go with him, to which the shocked Akane responds that he hadn't heard anything about it. Teru then says that he's hearing it now. The reality of it however shows Teru making a subtle threat to Aoi to go with them after saying that Akane would be tagging along.

Going back to the four, Yashiro's cellphone blares an alarm, and she picks it up, noting that time flies so fast. The alarm is meant to remind her to go to her rehearsal for the "Wizard of Oz" play, and so she and Hanako split up with Kou and Mitsuba, with Hanako even using that tornadoes have to rehearse their practice, and Yashiro responding that it's harder than he expects. Now going back to Kou and Mitsuba, he tells Mitsuba that it's about time that they begin their next shift. Mitsuba begrudgingly asks Kou if they have to help again, to which responds that it isn't that bad. Just then a familiar voice calls out to him, asking if it's "Minamoto-Kun"? Kou turns around to see Mitsuba's mother, who is excited to see him there. Kou then remembers who she was, as he had visited her house sometime ago.

Kou respectfully bows to her, while exclaiming that it's been a long time since he last saw her. She responds that his costume makes him a part of the haunted house exhibit, and that he seems to have fun. She then tells him that she needed his help as she wanted to find the Photography Club's classroom. Her reason for coming there is because the Photography Club told her that her son's photos are being put on display, and so she wants to see them, she just doesn't know where to go. Kou then tries to help her find the location, only for him to stop a bit as he notices that Mitsuba is hiding and is now in a somber mood. After giving her directions to the Photography Club, Mitsuba approaches him and asks if she's the original Mitsuba's mother, to which Kou answers in the positive (Note: Remember that the Mitsuba we are dealing with is a recreation of the original Mitsuba, and so lacks most of his memories, thus why he asked Kou if the woman was Mitsuba's mom).

Just then Mitsuba begins to walk in her direction, shocking Kou. He tells him that he is now curious about who Mitsuba's mom is. And he dashes off in her direction, with Kou crying out to him to wait, as he has to be back at the Gachinko Haunted House. He mutters that he's not sure about what Mitsuba's decision will work out for him, as he dashes off with her.

In another part of the festival, we now see Minamoto Tiara walking around with an old man, saying that Teru's Venue was super fun. The old man, revealed to be Nagisa Kunishige, is pleased to see how happy she was with the venue, and that he was surprised that she came up unannounced to the Misaki Shrine with the tickets to the venue. He then muses that doing school work isn't the usual type of work that one associates with the Minamoto Clan, but that doing something like it is good once in a while.

Just then, both Tiara and Nagisa stumble into a bunch of people in animal costumes, leading her to ask him what's that. He answers that it must be some kind of performance, while finding the costumes strange. But Tiara tells him that it's not the one she was looking at, and then she points out to a rather tired female student between the animal-costumed performers, calling that student "the thing behind them". Nagisa becomes shocked as the tired student bends around and elongates her limbs, followed by flowers popping out of her body. Suddenly, the entire student hatches into a mysterious supernatural that is seen by everyone around them. Nagisa can only mutter a word of surprise while the other students assumed her transformation to be a flashy event of the festival.

Suddenly, one of the students looking is telekinetically carried by the supernatural and constricted by the supernatural's multiple plant-like appendages. Still assuming the entire event to be a festival highlight, the other students just look in in awe as the supernatural blew numerous petals into the unlucky student, seemingly killing or incapacitating him. Then eventually, the supernatural threw him out, to the shock of the students, who are now realizing what's going on. Sensing the danger that is unfurling, Nagisa grabbed a nearby broom, pasted a talisman on top of it, and held on to Tiara, telling her to stay right next to her as he begins to try and exorcise the student-turned supernatural.

In another corner, several other students have turned into similar supernaturals and have surrounded Mitsuba's mother. Mitsuba, now in School Mystery Number 3 form, tries to tell her to run away, but she is instead held stiff by fear. Mitsuba tries to scream at her to run away and get to safety but his desperate pleas all fall in deaf ears, as she couldn't see, nor less hear him.

As chaos runs amok the School Festival, with several students becoming plant-like supernaturals, a student is scared as she sees a former classmate (Minami-Chan) become one of the supernaturals, who is about to kill her. But before she can be killed, the student-turned supernatural was thrown aside by none other than Minamoto Teru, who is pleased that he had made it in time. He tells her to hurry and evacuate to the roof, which she obliges. Akane then joins Teru in taking down the supernaturals, while asking him on the identity of these supernaturals, and whether the entire school is infected with them, to which Teru answers "Probably". After taking down the supernatural that was about to kill the maid student, it reverted back to Minami-Chan, as well as dropping some of the petals from its supernatural form. Teru picks one up, and rightfully concludes that the petals are the cause behind the attack, and although he could dispose of it, there would be far too many of them to deal with. He then wonders on who would cause something like the attacks from the students being turned into plant supernaturals. Little does Teru know, that he is being observed by one of Yugi Tsukasa's Kokujoudai, which was also the Tsueshiro from earlier.

As the Kokujoudai floats back to Nanamine Sakura, Tsukasa himself comes up and asks her on the progress of the attack and whether it is going according to plan. Sakura answers that the attack is a success and everyone is distracted. Thanks to the success of the attack, everyone is distracted, and they can enact their actual plan into motion. That plan in question involves Hyuuga Natsuhiko, and thanks to the supernatural attacks, he can perform his task without fail or obstacles.

Amidst the attacks, Natsuhiko goes to the large clock in The Sealed Auditorium, where he slowly climbs to the mechanical part of the clock. From there, he takes out a serrated blade, and although he doesn't love what he is about to do, he proceeds to do so anyway. He cuts off a wound in his palm, and lets the blood drip off it into the floor. All the while, he hates that such a task makes him look like the bad guy, but it is something that he had to do, as he seemingly has no say in the matter. He then begins to speak a rumor as the blood on the floor begins to come alive.

"Hey, have you heard the Rumor? The one about the Human who won't die, no matter how many times he gets killed? They say the blood that flows through his veins, is extremely poisonous to supernaturals. As soon as one touches it, their body instantly wastes away. So basically, it should work on you too...The one that controls time within the school...The Clock Keeper's Big Clock!"

- Hyuuga Natsuhiko describing the Rumor of the "Human Who Won't Die" at The Sealed Auditorium's Clock, as he uses his own blood to coat the entire clock in it and threatens to kill the Clock Keepers with it.

With this rumor, Natsuhiko has revealed himself to ultimately be a human being that is immortal and can't truly die, no matter how many times he is killed. In addition, he reveals that his blood is one that is instantly toxic to supernaturals. With it, he uses his blood to threaten to kill off the Clock Keepers, and with it, the chapter ends.

Characters in order of appearance

 * Several unknown festival attendees
 * Several unknown students
 * Yashiro Nene
 * Akane Aoi
 * Tsuchigomori (Cameo)
 * Yako (Cameo)
 * Satou Yomogi
 * Mitsuba Sousuke
 * Minamoto Kou
 * Hanako
 * Yokoo Shun
 * Mokke (Cameo)
 * Yamabuki Lemon (Cameo)
 * Minamoto Teru
 * Aoi Akane
 * Sousuke's Mother
 * Minamoto Tiara
 * Nagisa Kunishige
 * Minami's Friend
 * Minami
 * Nanamine Sakura
 * Yugi Tsukasa
 * Hyuuga Natsuhiko
 * Minamoto Fairy (Release Notice only)