Receiving light from the back

Receiving light from the back is chapter 140 of the Boku wa Tomodachi ga Sukunai light novel series. It is chapter nineteen of volume eleven.

Summary
Each November, St. Chronica's Academy holds a school festival beginning with a sports festival, lasting one day followed by a cultural festival, lasting two days. The sports festival usually acts as an opening for the festival, meaning it isn't very busy, though this year was different. Due to Sena Kashiwazaki's efforts during the previous year's sports festival, and because of Hinata Hidaka's absence, the yellow team had won, while the green team had lost. The red team this year had a high intellect due to Stella Redfield's leadership. Having the mysterious battle strategies handed down through Stella's family, as well as the strength of Yozora Mikazuki, their team was incredibly powerful. Sena was waging war against Hinata, supposedly using all of her strength. Yozora was also more enthusiastic than usual, leading her team to control the others as if they were puppets. During the cheerleading competition, Sena was wearing a boy's uniform and due to the way she had her breast tied down with a cloth, they came loose. Overall, the three teams each did quite well, but it eventually ended with the yellow team's victory. Tenma later scolded his daughter for what had happened with her uniform during the cheerleading competition. Kodaka Hasegawa's white team and Aoi Yusa's blue team both passionately competed for the final spot.

The following day, the cultural festival began. The Neighbor's Club had prepared an even better program than that of the previous year. The meeting they held to decide the program was even more chaotic than last year's. Yozora had suggested they shoot a film, as she wanted to make up for last year's. Sena suggests they establish a band, due to a game she recently played. Rika suggested they put together a haunted house, Maria wanted to prepare food, like a restaurant, Kobato wanted to perform a play and Kodaka suggested they act out a comedy sketch, though that was turned down, much to Kodaka's dissatisfaction. Kodaka thought that they were all great choices, but since this was their final cultural festival, he wanted the choice to be the best one. He didn't want to leave any regrets. Maria proposes they take all of their choices and consolidate them into one, forming the "Movie Costume Band Restaurant by the Neighbor's Club." The plan was to have the movie play in the restaurant, while the servers dressed as characters from said movie, and when the film reached its end, they would perform as a band. This idea would take a lot, and so, the Neighbor's Club requested the help of Tenma, Stella, Hinata and Kate Takayama. They chose to use the science room for this, having Kodaka and Hinata act as servers. Yozora would produce the film, not making the mistakes she previously made with the last film. The title of the film was " Capable but slightly unfortunate youths who sometimes quarrel, who both deepen their bonds and fight vampires to save the princess." A wholesome, adventure, action, comedy, horror film. The film's quality was impressive as Yozora had been working on it since the start of the year. Rika, using her improved skills with special effects, worked on the film as well, making it something that, no matter which part you watched, it'd be enjoyable. The animation was also top-notch, and Yozora had taken music from other movies and games. Rika used her fandom connections in order to get people to help make a song for the film's ending, though the Neighbor's Club wrote the lyrics. The song's title was "Be My Friend." The band roles consisted of Yozora as lead vocals and guitar, Sena as lead vocals and bass, Rika playing the keyboard, Kodaka on drums, Kobato playing the castanets and Maria playing the tambourine. Yozora was the only club member to have any experience with instruments, mainly the guitar. Sena and Rika quickly learned theirs. While practicing, Kodaka thought to himself that he had learned the song to the point where he couldn't possibly screw it up.

Later, after the film, when the credits began to roll, the band started their performance. Everyone dressed up as their movie counterparts, with Yozora wearing a skimpy, magick-witch-girl costume, Sena wearing a revealing, vampire-queen dress, Rika wearing a light adventurer costume, Kobato wearing a pure white princess dress and Maria wearing angel wings with a white school swimsuit. As Kodaka had just come from the kitchen, he didn't have time to switch to his uniform, so he was wearing a chef's hat and apron over his school uniform. Rika would occasionally provide backing vocals, while Maria and Kobato danced about. During the final refrain, everyone sang along. As the performance ended, Yozora and Sena happily raised their hands and gave a cry of excitement, proud of themselves. The "Movie Costume Band Restaurant" had become a topic of discussion even before the festival began, as people found it surprising that Yozora and Sena would be working together. Because of this, the science room had become crowded as soon as they opened. By the time the band's performance began, people were even lined up outside the classroom. Even people from outside the school were coming to watch, so many people that they needed to create a queue. The Neighbor's Club performed and served food from the time the festival began, to the time it ended, where each club member dropped to the floor in exhaustion. Each of the members felt an overwhelming sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, as well as happiness.

Upon bumping fists with Rika, Kodaka didn't feel what he felt before. His heart didn't skip a beat, all he felt was an invigorating sense of friendship. The others clean up some before taking their leave. Kodaka, still lying on the floor, hears someone say "Kodaka-senpai. You did well." As he peered over, he saw Yukimura. Kodaka returns her kind words and asks if she came to see their performance. She replies that, even though she only made it during the final part, she watched the movie, ate the food and observed the band perform. She adds that it was delicious, funny and cool. Kodaka states that his only contribution was the food, while everything else was due to the combined efforts of the club. Yukimura showed a gentle smile, saying that Kodaka looks so much happier now than he ever did when he was with her. She then bowed and left the room.

On the following day of the cultural festival, Kodaka freed himself of his student council work to hang out with Yukimura. They strolled around and danced together at the folk dance. After the dance, the seven members of the club, along with Hinata and Kate, arrived in the Neighbor's Clubroom to hold a small celebration. The "Movie Costume Band Restaurant by the Neighbor’s Club" had won first prize in the "School Festival Brilliant Ideas Competition". Sena, though only due to her breasts being revealed, something she wasn't too happy about, had been awarded the "School festival MVP" award.