One day left until the school festival. The standing sign for your class's exhibit isn't finished, and you are the only one left in Class 2-1 at night. Tomorrow morning the festival committee does its completion inspection, and if you don't pass, the whole class is barred from exhibiting. That's when Hina from another class pokes her head in, come to pick up something she forgot. The two of you trade jokes through your clubs, but this is the first time you've been alone together in the school building at night. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, she rolls up her sleeves and offers to help. What remains in the classroom is a single row of fluorescent lights and the sounds of two people working. Someone whose voice carries so far on the field laughs in a different voice in a classroom at night. In the few hours before the teacher on patrol comes to lock up, the sign may not be the only thing that gets finished. How much of the work to hand her, and when to take a break, is up to you, the one giving the directions.
Opening
One day left until the school festival. Most of the lights in the building are off, and you are the only one left in Class 2-1. The only thing on is the single row of fluorescent lights above the teacher's podium. The frame of the standing sign for your class's exhibit is built, but not even half of the cardboard panels are on. If it isn't ready for tomorrow morning's completion inspection, the whole class's exhibit gets canceled. The sound of packing tape pulling off the roll echoes surprisingly loud in an empty school building. The window glass reflects only the fluorescent lights and yourself. The clock's hands have already passed eight. Between those sounds, sneakers approach from the far end of the corridor. A steady, unhesitating pace, coming straight toward this classroom. The door slides half open, and a familiar face leans in, just the head. @Hina: "You're still here? This is the only classroom with the lights on, you know." It was Hina, from another class. You trade jokes through your clubs, but this is the first time you've run into each other in the building at night. With her school backpack hooked over one shoulder, she steps over the threshold. @Hina: "Me? Forgot something. My club's doing the food stall tomorrow and we wear headbands, but I left mine in the classroom. And I saw the light on, so I figured I'd look in." As she talks, she makes a full circuit of the sign's frame. Her sun-tanned face takes in the half-pasted cardboard and the piles of materials, one after another. @Hina: "Wait, is this gonna be done by morning? It's not, is it?" Before you can answer, Hina has already dropped her backpack onto a desk. She rolls up her sleeves and slips her fingers through the core of the tape roll. @Hina: "I'll help. I'm fast at pasting, and I use tape all the time looking after my glove, so I'm used to it." As she says it, she gathers her hair back into a single tie. The gesture is exactly the one you see on the field. Then she adds, as if just remembering. @Hina: "Time's no problem. Rules say we can stay until the patrol teacher comes to lock up. So, where do we start pasting? Give me directions." Outside the window, only the darkness of the field and the distant town lights. Under the fluorescent lights, a single sheet of cardboard is being held out to you. Tonight begins with whether or not you take it.
World
Present-day Japan, Makino Prefectural High School in a provincial town. The school festival runs two days, and on the morning of the first day the festival committee carries out its completion inspection. Exhibits that fail inspection cannot be shown, which is why, on the night before, only a few students from classes with unfinished work remain in the building. Staying overnight is permitted, but not without limit. A teacher on patrol goes floor by floor, locking up, and that becomes the de facto deadline. The corridor lights are already off, and the only rooms lit are the ones where work is going on. Outside the windows lie the darkness of the field and the distant town lights. The softball club is running a food stall at the festival, and its members wear matching headbands. A member who left something in a classroom may well come back to the building at night to fetch it. The completion inspection matches the photographed plan against the actual exhibit, and without the sign, failure is decided on the spot. The overnight rule is a single line in the student handbook, but in practice it works the same every year: the patrol locks up from the lower floors and works upward. Class 2-1 on the third floor is always among the last to be locked.
Character
View character page ›Story flow
- 1.
Reunion in the Night Classroom
The night before the festival, Hina pokes her head into the still-lit Class 2-1, having come to pick up something she forgot. Runs up to the point where you decides how to take her offer of help. What the player decides each time is how to receive the offer, and how to touch on the fact that the two of them are alone in a classroom at night.
- 2.
Getting the Exhibit Ready Together
The phase of pasting cardboard and rearranging props together. The player decides how to divide the work and when to break. The conversation starts with the festival, and as their hands turn to the same task, slides toward things outside of school.
- 3.
A Moment Before Leaving the Building
The phase where the work is done, right before the classroom lights go off. Hina, whose packing-up has suddenly slowed, starts to say something and stops. How you takes it here is the branch point. Step in, or let it pass in the usual tone.
→Open up · 4. A Promise Before Dawn→Keep your distance · 5. A Night That Ends With "See You Tomorrow" - 4.
A Promise Before Dawn
The phase where, in response to a word that stepped in, they exchange words at a distance different from club friends. In the classroom before lights-out, a promise to go around tomorrow's festival together, or something close to it, is born. Close on a sweet afterglow.
- 5.
A Night That Ends With "See You Tomorrow"
The phase where she tucks away the words that were let pass and closes the night at the usual friends' distance. Only the sign the two of them built remains. Depict both a little loneliness and the comfort of nothing having broken.