Volume 17, Chapter 1: Price of Victory, Part 2

“Ayanokouji-kun. Do you have time after this?”

Right after our lunch break started, Horikita approached me and said.

“Kei and I-“

“We were gonna eat together. Sorry, okay? You caaan’t borrow Kiyotaka.”

Kei came running. She wedged herself between Horikita and I to force her away.

Then she thrusted her hands in a no gesture.

“Actually, asking a boy who has a girlfriend to come with you is kinda-?”

“Yes. But it’s not me who wants to borrow him but someone else. And he’s not a girl. Will you still not give your permission?”

She faced her phone towards us. Kei saw the screen before I did.

“Yagami… Takuya? Who?”

“It doesn’t matter who sent the message. What matters is the content.”

The message Yagami had sent to Horikita seemed to have been sent about an hour ago.

“At lunchtime, can you please call Ayanokouji-senpai to the student council room? The president wishes for him. If you have a difficult time then I will inform her so please contact me.”

That’s what was written.

“I myself have some obligation as a member of the student council. If they tell me that they need something with a classmate then I can’t refuse.”

She at least wanted to convey the message to us.

“Looks like President Nagumo wants to meet with you. What did you do this time?”

“I didn’t do anything.”

Recently anyway, I added in my heart.

“If you refuse, Yagami-kun will come here. If you still refuse… President Nagumo may come. So what should I tell them?”

Horikita was simply the messenger. She’s probably not interested in seeing how I’ll respond.

“Sorry Kei. It’ll be a hassle later on if I ignore an order from the student council president.”

“Tch. Well if it’s the president then there’s nothing we can do… Satou-saaan, wanna eat together-?”

Kei understood that she had to agree in this situation. She went over to Satou and the others immediately.

“Your girlfriend’s mood changes fast.”

She muttered in admiration or exasperation.

“I’ll go now.”

“Then I’ll tell Yagami-kun.”

“If the student council members have each others’ contact information, wouldn’t it be faster for President Nagumo to contact you directly without having to go through Yagami?”

“The only one in the student council I chat with is Yagami-kun because he’s the only one who asked directly.”

I understood and left the classroom. Horikita also came out into the hallway.

“I don’t know why he wants you, but I recommend that you avoid angering him as much as possible.”

After she gives me words of advice, I split with Horikita on the way and reluctantly head to the student council room.

I thought he would come to me directly, but having me come to him would be many times easier.

I arrived in front of the student council room and knocked softly.

After a little while, I heard Nagumo’s voice from within the room and opened the door.

As I expected, the only one I could see in the room was Nagumo.

“Yoo Ayanokouji. Anything new lately?”

He leads with a light jab.

The chaos in my life has been caused by the orders of nobody but the student council president Nagumo himself, who is now before me.

The pressure I get everyday from the gazes the third years lay on me hasn’t lowered at all.

Far from it, the third years who weren’t particularly conscious of me before have engraved me into their memories as if it were a matter of course. For the upperclassmen, I am without a doubt the most notorious underclassman.

Even though they don’t know the details they remember me as the underclassman who defied Nagumo.

“Nothing in particular. That’s what I want to say, but I more or less do have some troubles.”

It would’ve been easy to pretend that I haven’t noticed anything, but if I don’t show him annoyance then this might escalate needlessly.

“As the student council president, you’re free to consult me regarding those troubles, you know?”

“I might just be overthinking it. When I’m really troubled I’ll borrow your help.”

If I improve his mood to an extent, there’s a chance that Nagumo will pull away.

…No, that’s too optimistic. What Nagumo wants is a direct fight with me. Of course he won’t be satisfied with something of this caliber.

As Nagumo gets a defined feel, he switches the topic since the talk wasn’t going to end there.

“You’ve heard of the sports festival rules right? The time where we can have a direct showdown has come, Ayanokouji. There are competitions that don’t segregate by school year within the festival. Fight me there.”

“Are you going to give rough discipline to your junior? I’ve seen your OAA, President Nagumo. As long as it’s not a competition that has a lot to do with luck, I won’t have any chance of winning. The result is clear as day.”

Though I have no choice but to reply humbly, Nagumo wouldn’t accept that.

“You are someone who would answer like that. You think I’ll be satisfied if you talk humbly. No, I guess there’s no helping it. Right now you can only talk as an inferior.”

It seemed that he wasn’t a man who couldn’t see through my shallow thoughts.

“I understand that you’re not getting carried away. I myself would only be wasting my time if I keep you company for long. So if you win just once against me in this sports festival, I’ll let everything up to now be water under the bridge.”

“Just once, you say?”

That was far more lax than I had imagined.

“Are you sure about just one win, is what you seem to be thinking. Would that be easy for you?”

“That is not true. But I think there’s a possibility.”

“You have to win all of them. Or you have to win more than me. It’d be embarrassing for me to give you a condition like that as the student council president.”

I don’t think he’s pulling himself down just because of pride. No, he’s using his pride as a shield as he tries to pull me into the battlefield.

“But I’ll add a condition. Apart from our match, participate in five competitions of my choosing. If you’re absent for even one, it’s your loss.”

“What will happen if I lose? Will you be satisfied with that victory, president?”

“That’d be nice. As long as your worries don’t disappear, I might keep calling you here like this. Or you might get harrassed by your troubles even more often.”

“My class has its own plan. Can I have a little time?”

“Well, you need it. I’ll give you a week. Contact me until next week, monday.”

“Understood. If this talk is over, may I excuse myself?”

“Don’t be so hasty. Or do you have plans after this? You haven’t made any promises even though you were called by me, have you?”

“No, it would seem not. I don’t have plans.”

“That’s a relief.”

Nagumo continues talking as he checks something on his phone from time to time.

It doesn’t seem like he intends to let me go yet.

“Excuse me.”

I heard a voice I hadn’t heard in a long time from beyond the door.

“Eh-“

Ichinose held a plastic bag in her hand.

“…Sorry for the wait, Nagumo-senpai.”

“Sorry for not being able to go with you today.”

“No…”

“Ah, this? Honami and I have lunch everyday at the student council room. Student council work is hectic, so my right hand has been making herself busy.”

I’ve noticed that we’ve been bumping into each other less often during lunch. So that’s what it was.

If she was in the student council room where normal students aren’t allowed to enter then there’s no way I’d see her.

“When we’re together we talk about many of our troubles. Right? Honami.”

“Y-Yes.”

“I told her that we’d have a visitor today. Eat with us Ayanokouji.”

I could see three lunchboxes in the bag.

Though he finished speaking with me, it seemed that he had intended to have me take my lunch here from the very beginning.

It would be easy to refuse. It would be tough on Ichinose emotionally to sit with me right now.

But I was surrounded since I told him I had no plans. There was no way out.

“You mentioned that you have no plans after this, right? Then sit.”

After being surrounded and being ordered by the student council president, I might as well have no right to refuse.

I sat down away from Nagumo.

As if she always ate beside him, Ichinose gave Nagumo the plastic bag and sat to his side. Slightly looking down and away from me, she started unpacking her lunch.

Nagumo must have noticed her acting unnatural. He must be remembering our exchange on the ship.

“The rules are very different from last year’s sports festival.”

“So much so that I’m thankful. If we had a sports festival with the same rules as last year then my victory would’ve been assured.”

According to the rules of last year’s sports festival, the red team was pitted against the white team.

Nagumo held the whole third year. Which means that he could’ve had the students not belonging to his own team lose on purpose.

No matter how hard the first and second years fought, there would be almost no chances of winning.

Finally, the conversation that should’ve been shared between the three of us became a rally between only Nagumo and Ichinose. I ate my lunch in peace and silence.

I finished eating before they were even half-done with their lunch. Then I closed the lid and picked it up.

“What, you’re already done eating? You can put it over there.”

“Thank you very much.”

Despite my reply, Nagumo’s eyes were already pointed at Ichinose, not me.

Ichinose herself continued to face Nagumo as if to ensure that she wouldn’t pay any attention to me.

“Please excuse me.”

There was nothing left to do in this place so I left the student council room.

“A strategy that shows superiority, huh.”

From an outsider’s perspective it could be seen as insulting, but that’s meaningless if I myself haven’t received any emotional damage. If that was his goal, then he should have had more student council members spectate.

If he had done that then he could have established a rhetoric of how pitiful I was around me.

Nevertheless, as far as I could see Nagumo was probably going to continue making contact with Ichinose.

It wouldn’t be strange if an incident that changed the nature of their relationship occurred depending on the situation.

I thought about the effects of that as I started walking.

Joining Nagumo will likely influence Ichinose Honami’s growth.

If all goes well then she might be favored enough to receive the seat of student council president.

Then her self-confidence - no, that’s too naive. If Nagumo’s attachment to Ichinose is caused by me, then he could very well throw her away at the very end. Her heart and body would be spent and she wouldn’t become the student council president. If Horikita, who contributed less than her, is recommended, then her spirit will be crushed within a year.

In that sense I can’t make light of the way Nagumo conducts himself.

I need to be careful about Nagumo, but the thing I must do right now lies somewhere else.

Because although the sports festival is fast approaching, preparations for the cultural festival after that are needed. Those who made the proposal, Satou, Matsush*ta and Maezono, are temporarily suspending it because of the class situation, but employees for the maid cafe must be secured.

Airi’s participation which I originally wanted to count on is gone. Haruka’s participation also seems unlikely at the moment. Even Kushida, one of our stronger cards, has disappeared.

Neither can I foolishly entrust my classmates to even study the basics regarding this field.

If I bring up the maid cafe while a fissure has opened in the class relationships, there’s a risk that I’d be asked, what the hell are you saying, and be considered a nuisance. Then it would be leaked because of that.

“Maid cafe… huh.”

I don’t know my right from my left when it comes to this program, but a big profit can be had for its budget.

A winning plan and research into what kind of programs our rivals will have are also necessary.