Kuro Kurogane stands amid chaos—more specifically, the "controlled chaos" of the school festival after two days of fun, food, and festivities.

As he juggles three arranges of different schedules; two event report forms; a Guinness World Records book about to drop; a half-eaten sandwich he forgot he’d been eating for an hour; and many other things, his phone vibrated.

Again. This time he ignored the vibration and didn’t bother checking what it was—he’d learned from previous experience that checking phone messages only revealed bad news at this event.

"Kuro!"

A student was running from one side of the courtyard toward Kuro.

"There’s been a fight between the Football and Gaming Clubs!" the student explained. "They want to use the courtyard for their events at the same time!"

As Kuro looked at the ground, the sky offered him no solution. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

After 5 minutes of mediating between the clubs.

"The courtyard belongs to the sports clubs!" shouted the Football Club president.

"No, it belongs to the Gaming Club!" yelled the Gaming president.

Kuro interjected as he saw that no one could agree.

At this point the clubs fell silent.

In the end they reached a compromise; neither club was happy with the compromise, but Kuro considered it fair.

Kuro received a text message from Mina, .

"Kuro! Did you hear about the Tennis Club ?"

The exhibition for the sport of table tennis has expanded quite considerably.

That is positive.

No.

Clearly it was not.

After arriving at the gym, Kuro knew that the number of people watching had doubled again.

Mina had developed a reputation for accidental winning streaks.

Many students were coming to watch her play.

Some think that she may be a professional, but others have said that she has a lot of luck.

Mina thinks that she will fail.

"I can’t figure out why people want to watch me," she said.

"You are winning," Kuro replied.

"I don’t know how!"

As Mina attempted another serve, a ball hit the top of the net and skipped off of the edge, back into play, and somehow scored a point.

The audience was wild.

Mina looked like she might cry.

Before the craziness could spread to the other side, Kuro left.

There was yet another annoying problem with the music club.

The lead singer lost her voice.

The backup singer was not there.

There was some argument going on between the drummer and the guitarist.

Nobody knew what it was about.

Kuro spent 20 minutes fixing problems that were not his.

When he left, the music club was operating again, mostly.

He figured out why Minami always has headache medicine.

He found her near the front office.

Her usually perfectly coiffed hair and makeup was frizzed out and she looked like she hadn’t slept in three days.

She grasped a bottle of pain relief in one hand while carrying a clipboard holding data in the other.

"S..." She began then glanced down and said: "Sensei."

"Kuro."

"You have no clue as to what is going to happen, like you haven’t seen what horrible state you are in.

"I have no clue as to what horrible state you are in either."

"Fair enough."

Suddenly, a male teacher came over.

"Asakura-sensei!" The teacher said.

Minami exhibited evidence of suffering.

"What has happened?" The male teacher asked.

"The science club submitted an additional proposal."

The male teacher grimaced.

"What was the nature of the proposal?"

The teacher pulled out the science club’s proposed project and began flipping through it.

"Advanced combustion demonstration."

Minami closed her eyes.

"Declined!"

"You haven’t even seen the details yet."

"I don’t have to see detailed information."

Kuro almost laughed.

Almost.

Meanwhile, the Butler Café continued to stay busy throughout the day, its patrons being drawn primarily by the popularity of Rika’s attraction; as such it caused a great deal of disruption.

The line to enter the café extended halfway down the hallway, with patrons constantly arriving.

Students took pictures of Rika and the Butler Café.

A number of students visited regularly for meals.

Rika looked happier than she ever has before...a rather scary thought.

Inside the Butler Café, Akari was providing good service to customers.

"Welcome back."

"You do not work here," Aoi said.

"Yes I do!"

"Professionally," responded Aoi.

Akari gasped dramatically.

A number of customer’s clapped.

Kuro left.

He liked to keep what little sanity he has left.

The day progressed from one emergency situation to another.

Lost wallet.

Broken sign.

Conflict with schedules.

Missing microphone.

Child inside the staff lounge.

All roads led to Kuro.

All answers were Kuro.

All challenges went to Kuro.

By 4p.m., the number on his pedometer was higher than what would be considered medically safe.

His phone was almost dead.

Then, miracles occurred.

For five minutes.

Nothing happened.

No emergency situations.

No disagreements.

No explosions.

No missing principals.

Kuro sat on a bench.

He sat quietly and just breathed.

The festival area looked fantastic in the dusky sunshine.

There were students laughing.

There were visitors enjoying the carnival rides.

There was music playing throughout school.

For the first time Kuro was actually seeing the festival.

Not the issues that needed to be dealt with.

The festival.

Kuro realized that it looked like a lot of fun.

It was a bit of a strange thought.

Then Aoi sat down next to him.

She handed him a bottle of water.

"You forgot to drink again."

Kuro accepted the water.

"Thanks."

"You’re been running all day," was her comment.

"You’ve been running all day."

"That is completely different," she responded.

"No it isn’t," replied Kuro.

Aoi gave him a very small, quiet smile.

For a little while neither of them said anything.

The relaxing quietness was a very nice feeling.

Akari eventually showed up.

As usual.

"There you are!"

At that time the peace immediately went away.

"I’ve been searching all over for you!"

"Why?"

"I forgot."

Kuro just looked at her in shock.

Aoi rolled her eyes.

Some things never change.

The night started to have a noticeably different feel than the day had.

The sun slowly sets.

The campus is bathed in the colours of the festival lights.

The crowds continue to settle down.

Everyone knows there is one last event remaining.

The fireworks.

The end of the festival.

The students begin to reminisce.

The visitors are close to gathering on the field.

The teachers are (finally) looking somewhat optimistic.

Minami is actually looking relaxed too.

Sort of.

The festival is technically not over...

but for the first time everyone can see where the end is.

Kuro looks up at the darkening sky.

The longest day of the festival is coming to a close.

Tomorrow the decorations will all be gone.

The stalls will have all closed.

The school will return to normal.

But tonight -

Tonight there is one more celebration yet to come.

And for once Kuro really hopes that he is not going to have to deal with any emergencies again.

And...

His phone vibrates.

Again.

He slowly looks down at his phone.

And then he sighs.

He must have been too optimistic a little bit.

Despite Kuro being stuck at school with all of his festival calamities the world outside the house was functioning with relative tranquilly.

Most of the day, Shizuka was busy making dinner for everyone. She planned to make each of the children’s favorite dinner items, as well as making enough food to last them throughout the entire evening. While preparing dinner, she would check the time and wonder if Kuro remembered to eat lunch; she has come to realise during the past six months it probably did not happen.

Daichi wrapped up his paperwork at work when he got a break and received a text from Akari bragging about her Butler Café’s success. Moments after, Aoi sent a follow-up text correcting all of her big sister’s inaccuracies.

Daichi couldn’t help but laugh.

"Those two are still just like before."

After work, he stopped at a convenience store to buy snacks and drinks for everyone because he knew the students would be exhausted from hearing Akari talk about the festival.

When Daichi got home, Shizuka was getting the table ready.

"You’re still not home yet?" he said.

Shizuka shook her head.

"Cleanup from the festival is probably taking longer than they thought it would."

Daichi nodded.

Then he grinned.

"Kuro is probably running half the school by himself again."

Softly, Shizuka chuckled. "Worrying for me is exactly this way."

As dusk approached on her neighborhood, Shizuka stared out her window. The streets were growing quieter and the lights of the houses around her were starting to light up one by one.

"I hope he’s not pushing himself too hard," she said softly.

Daichi knew all too well how true that statement was, and there was a tinge of pride in his voice as he replied, "There’s no way. He’s definitely pushing himself too hard."

In the past several months Kuro had slowly started to open up to the people around him, and even though he still acted indifferent towards them, both Shizuka and Daichi knew just how much he cared about them. Because of that, neither of them were surprised to learn that Kuro was one of the students who would be keeping the whole festival running smoothly. But, they both hoped he would continue to remember that he no longer had to carry all the burdens of the world on his shoulders; he still had a home to come back to.