About the Reckless Girl Who Kept Challenging a Reborn Man Like Me Book 2: Chapter 2 (4)

“Hello!”

As they were having that conversation, another male student entered from the other entrance.

“Hey, Rain? Why are you here?”

“Oh, Flip…”

It was Flip, who was in the sa class as Rain and Touri. Rain had only talked to him a few tis since they had enrolled just two weeks ago. Still, Flip casually approached Rain.

“Are you joining the Science Club too, Rain?”

“Well, I… I don’t know, really…”

As soone who had been brought here against his will, there was no easy way to answer. Flip already seed to be a mber of the Science Club.

“Oh, Tiffy, Yuki, Kasumi. Were you guys interested in the Science Club too? Surprising.”

When Flip spoke to Tiffy and the others, Tiffy frowned and placed her hand on her chin.

“…Who are you?”

“Sorry, but I haven’t matched faces and nas yet!”

“Well, that’s fine.”

Flip shrugged. Kasumi chuckled.

While the mbers of the Science Club were steadily preparing for experints, the teachers and club president continued their conversation.

“Listen, Dustin. Rain was writing sothing like this during class. This kid’s a little weird, don’t you think?”

“Hmm? His notebook, you an?”

“Oh, wait a second. Hold on a minute-“

The teacher took Rain’s notebook out of his bag, opened it to a page filled with chemical formulas, and showed it to the two of them. Yuki and the others peeked in as well. That notebook contained formulas and chemical equations so complex that a normal person wouldn’t be able to understand them. Rain reached out to take back his notebook, but with his frail body he couldn’t do anything against the teacher’s grip.

“…What? These are super complicated”

“…what kind of formulas are these, Teacher?”

“I don’t know either. Dustin, do you understand them?”

“If you don’t understand them, Teacher, there’s no way I would!”

Seeing the incomprehensible chemical formulas in Rain’s notebook that looked like magic spells, everyone knitted their brows. They twisted their necks, pondered carefully, but still no answer ca to mind, so they all turned to look at Rain.

“Rain, what exactly do these formulas represent?”

Everyone tilted their heads and stared at Rain. Sweat poured down his forehead.

He couldn’t say it. If he said “These are new chemical formulas I ca up with using my previous research”, they would surely think he was insane. Rain’s face twisted and the corners of his mouth twitched.

“…Ugh!”

“Ah…”

Rain jerked into action. Since the teacher was showing Rain’s notebook to him, it was oriented his way. Rain hastily snatched it back. Then he vigorously ripped up that page of his notebook.

“Ah!”

“Th-this is, um!”

As he shoved the ripped up page into his pocket, Rain desperately tried to co up with an excuse.

“These are…copies of chemical formulas I saw sowhere before! Not from a thesis…but uh, formulas published in so kinda science magazine. I just happened to rember them even though I don’t really understand the aning…I was recalling them as I wrote them down, that’s all!”

“…………”

“…………”

After spouting so random excuse, everyone stared at Rain with rounded eyes. Even Rain realized his explanation was rather far-fetched, and he shrank back while dripping cold sweat. He absolutely didn’t want to stand out as a middle schooler who ca up with new theories.

But then, the teacher shouted.

“Amazing!”

“Huh…?”

What flew from the teacher’s mouth were not words of doubt, but praise.

“To be able to morize such complex chemical formulas! A middle schooler who hasn’t even learned them yet!?”

“Woah, Rain. You’re a total genius!”

“Tch, how annoying…I-I could morize them without really getting them too if I tried!”

“Um, well…”

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Amazent and praise were directed at Rain’s false statent, and Rain was bewildered. He had wanted to hide the fact that he had started considering the new theory, but from the beginning, no one had even considered such a thing. The surprise of everyone was that this chemical formula was not just a random doodle; it was sothing Rain rembered from a science magazine.

“Trying to morize such a complex chemical formula, you must really be interested in science. And reading science magazines at your age… You’re very suitable for the Science Club.”

“Uh, well…”

Dustin praised Rain’s enthusiasm. It was a lie, though.

“Rain! Please join our Science Club!”

The science teacher grabbed Rain’s hand and enthusiastically recruited him.

“Let’s aim for victory in the National Science Contest together!”

“N-No, thank you!”

Rain didn’t want to stand out. But things didn’t go as planned, and he ended up attracting attention. The mask was easily slipping away.

Rain didn’t want to stand out.

“This club is a collective activity ford by several cultural clubs.”

As they fawned over him, Rain beca flustered and tried to defer humbly, but it was aningless.

Under the cheerful spring sunshine, the great scientist who had produced outstanding achievents in his past life was now treated as a promising new star.

“This science club is made up of various research-focused cultural clubs like the chemistry club, biology club, astronomy club, geology club, physics club, and math research club. Our activities really run the gamut. Sotis we handle chemicals, other tis we run experints to asure impact forces. The astronomy activities are pretty popular with everyone.”

Looking around, Rain saw that the club mbers really were engaged in diverse activities within the chemistry lab. Not only students in lab coats running experints, but also students reading books at tables and groups having discussions.

The chemistry lab at this private combined middle/high school was larger than those at normal schools, allowing for a wide variety of activities to take place inside.

“I was wondering when they introduced the clubs, why do you combine so many clubs into one?”

Rain’s classmate, Flip, lightly raised his hand and asked a question. Rain privately guessed it was probably because the individual clubs didn’t have enough mbers. The issue of youth losing interest in science had been discussed for quite so ti already.

“That’s…so that students can gain broad knowledge and interests by cooperating together across disciplines…at least that’s what it says in the report to the student council. Honestly it’s because we don’t have enough mbers.”

Club president Dustin gave a wry smile as he answered just as Rain had predicted.

“Science isn’t popular!?”

When Yuki said that loudly for no reason, the club mbers flinched.

“There’s nothing unpopular about it! It’s just a minor club activity! It’s a major one at the university where we’re heading!” voices could be heard. The middle school club president couldn’t stop his wry smile.

“It’s true that the club with fewer mbers has beco a makeshift place. A club that couldn’t even reach the minimum of seven mbers might be rged with the Science Club. Until a little while ago, the Film Study Club was also part of this, but they beca independent last year when they secured seven mbers.”

“Maintaining club activities is tough, isn’t it…”

“It is, Rain. For others…the archeology research club was combined with us until their last mber graduated, now they barely do any activities. There was also the fortune telling research club, but their last mber graduated last year too.”

“Eh? What a waste.”

The one who reacted was Kasumi.

“Right now our club has 26 mbers total. Since our school is a combined middle/high, we do activities together with the high school seniors too. I’m the middle school president, and the high school president has a different title from the middle school president, he’s called the ‘chairman’ for so reason.”

“Huh? Why ‘chairman’?”

“Beats ? It’s so kind of old tradition I guess? Makes it sound more important than ‘president’?”

What a aningless reason, Rain thought with exasperation.

“Activities are pretty free, we research a the together or do individual work as we like. We have strong connections with other schools too, we often collaborate with students from there. The research clubs are small everywhere.”

“With that many people it must get pretty crowded…”

Even though it was a combined middle/high school, there were 26 mbers just from this school, plus they collaborated with students from other schools, so their club activities must be on quite a large scale, Rain thought.

The president said,

“That’s right. Since it’s such a large club we get good results at contests and competitions. The National Science Contest held annually is nationwide as the na implies, and our club has won awards there before.”

“Woah…”

Hearing the club president’s explanation, Yuki let out an exclamation of admiration.

“…About this National Science Contest…”

“Oh, sensei.”

At that mont, the teacher approached the explanation table, holding so docunts in hand.

“Could you try taking this test for a mont?”

The docunts were question papers and answer sheets. The teacher grinned.