Few days after the sports festival,

“Ohaiyo senpais!!” the student council room was greeted by a girl.

As I turned my head towards the entrance of the student council room, a few students are entering the room bringing heaps of papers, to be precise there are four students. Who might they be?

“Oh! You’re the new vice president! Nice to meet you, your idea for the sports festival was fabulous! It became so much fun compared to last year’s! I love group activities so much! Uhh.. sorry for my rudeness, my name is Kuwahara Eri,”

“Uh it’s not that amazing, anyone can come up with that kind of idea”.

“Being humble, I see, so that’s what kind of person you are,” she appeared to be writing something in her small notebook.

“So what makes you come here with these papers?”

“Oh actually these are the sports festival’s feedback forms that have been filed by the students, perhaps you don’t know who we are?”

“I’m afraid so….”

“Well then, it’s my time to shine.”

A guy from the group suddenly walked upfront and started talking,

“We are the ones working under the student council’s command, all the dirty works are handed to us without any complaint or objection, even though our identities are made public, we still have what it needs to take down the dark forces upon this school- uwagh”

As this guy was spouting crap, another girl from the group approached the guy and stepped on him,

“Enough with your nonsense Shintani-kun, we don’t have all day to hear your shit,”

“Yo! I’m Hirose Yumako and the guy standing there is Tajima Jiro, oh and this guy here is Shintani Hajime, we are the student council’s trainees or better known as the apprentices”

“Apprentices, from the meaning of that word it seems that you guys are sort of like the student council’s mentee I suppose?”

“Yes, we are to take over the student council for the next year after you guys graduate”

How does the election system in this school works? But a system like this is not bad at all, I mean just look at the result from having a system like this, all the student council members in this school will already have been polished before they are handed the positions, seems splendid.

“Ah these papers, what should we do with them?” I asked.

“Are you dumb? Feedback letters are supposed to be read to know for sure how the students feel about the matter,” Makino said to me.

Well, that was pretty dumb for me to ask that question.

“Ah is that so, sorry sorry,”

The apprentices then exited the room.

“By the way, how does this school’s election system work?” I asked them.

“For starters, the election in this school is actually being held for the upcoming apprentices, while the positions of the student council are picked by the current members,” Sasaki explained.

“So the four of them are actually competing for the president’s spot?”

“You might think that it’s somehow bad for them to compete like that, but this kind of situation is completely acceptable, from what we experienced ourselves, out of the four apprentices, all of them will eventually realize which one of them is the best for the president’s position, even Kazu-kun, the former vice president agreed with this”

“A complete mutual agreement, fascinating….”

Well, I better start getting through these papers, I can already guess what’s going to be in these though, just some negative comments about me… haha

As I began reading the papers one by one…..

What seems to be written here is not what I expected…

Why is the feedback from the students like this?

My idea to change the school’s tradition in the sports festival, their comments don’t clearly show the meaning, it seems like there is something hidden between the lines here, the patterns of the wordings in the comments are different but somehow, all of them meant the same thing, yes, that’s it…… why….. I thought I was ready for this… but these comments…. I never expected to…… eh? Why are these tears coming out? This feeling, it’s very warm, so that’s what you’re trying to tell me…..

“You’re welcome,” I whispered with a faint smile.

After being treated harshly every second since I started school.

Being excluded from everything my classmates did, treated as if I did not exist in that class…

I don’t actually mind, but why after receiving some appreciation, it made me feel somewhat…happy

Gratitude sure is nice…

…

Today, a report from a student came in,

“Hm? What’s this?”

“A complaint from a student, the letter contains information on a case of bully……” Sasaki said.

Kaichou went silent for a while.

“Bully? In a private school like this?” I started being a bit confused.

“Yes, it’s true, I myself had witnessed it before, hmm not exactly witnessed, more like heard, but I can confirm that from the conversation I heard are bullies,” Makino said.

“Why didn’t you stop them?” I question her.

“Actually I didn’t have a good look on their faces because I need to hurry somewhere at that time,”

I can’t argue with that kind of excuse...

“So, what do we do Kaichou?”

“.……”

She seems to be spacing out since we read the report.

“Kaichou? Is anything wrong?”

“N-Nothing is wrong, bullies can never be tolerated, we will be finding them and give them a lesson, how? you may ask, the thing with bullies is that their victims will remain silent as they are threatened, a way to identify the bullies is to first identify the victims, this reported letter doesn’t seem to give any information about the reporter or the bullies…”

There she is, the calm and collected Kaichou I know.

“How about we identify victims by observation?” I suggested.

“It might be hard to notice any difference in the behavior among the students don’t you think?” Sasaki said.

“Yes, victims will act as if nothing happened, one thing I can tell is that the one acting the most idealistic is most likely the victim, for now, I guess we should keep an eye on any suspicious occurrence,”

The council packed up for the day after finishing up some works, there’s not much work to be done anyway.

“Wanna walk home together?” I asked them.

“Ah sorry bro, I’ve got something to do”

“I’m staying for Kendo practice,”

“Are you free Kaichou?”

“I-I’m afraid yes…”

That answer somehow shows that being with me is a bother to her.

“Doesn’t look like you are though…it’s okay if you don’t want to”

“Did I said anything else?” she said as she seems a bit mad.

“N-no…”

…the situation is getting silent and kinda awkward...

“Then let’s walk home together shall we?” I smiled.

Thinking back, I walked Kaichou home on my first day, but that’s because it was getting late, other than that we usually go home much earlier than that day.

On the way home, I spotted a cafe,

“Kaichou, wanna stop for a drink? It’s on me,”

“Sure, why not,”

I ordered an iced lemon tea while Kaichou ordered an expensive-looking parfait…..my wallet’s gonna be dead, but looking at Kaichou enjoying it felt like I’m ready to die now, her face is so cute eating the parfait like a little kid, I can’t help but stare as she finished half of it, but I need to ask her about the way she reacted just now when we received the bully complaint.

“Uhm, just now when we got that complaint, why were you, mad?”

Yes, even though the expression is faint, at that moment, I sensed a small hint of anger in her.

She stopped eating,

“.…..”

“Kaichou?”

“I’m leaving, thanks for the treat”

She got up from the seat and walked away

“Eh? Wait!”

She just left and I felt that if I went to catch up to her, things would have gone even messier.

The parfait, half-eaten and in a condition that is still presentable, I guess I should have let her finish this before asking that question. Now I feel bad for this, I guess I’ll just bring it home with me then.

Or maybe I can deliver it to her house….I guess I can get her address from Makino or Sasaki.

“Hello? Sasaki-san, do you know Kaichou’s address?……….. Yeah, I have something to give her as soon as possible,……… thanks,”

Sasaki gave me Kaichou’s address after the call via e-mail.

The route is the same as I the day I walked her home, but I didn’t know which one was her house, that’s why I asked Sasaki for her address.

“So this is Kaichou’s house……..whoa”

Her house is like a mansion, so huge, it’s like some royal’s palace straight out of a fairy tale, damn she’s mega-rich….it appears that the entrance was equipped with one of those electronic doorbells that also have a communication system. So do I push this button to talk to someone? A buzzing sound appeared.

“Uhm hello, I’m here to deliver something to Kaichou-I mean Yagami Kori-san,”

“A delivery? Just put it in front of the gate, we will retrieve it soon, thank you,” the person said then hung up.

I place the box in front of the gate and left, I wonder what was making Kaichou uneasy….. could it be that she was bullied? Or is she a bully before? Argh!! both of these possibilities just don’t fit the situation….. either way I’m gonna catch the bully for the sake of the school……after seeing that reaction from Kaichou, for some reason this thing has become somewhat a personal matter to me…..

Sometime after Hitori left, Kaichou seemed to have arrived home when she noticed a box in front of the door wrapped nicely, she opened the box and found the half-eaten strawberry parfait that she left unfinished earlier, her face turned more calmed and collected with a faint smile while bringing it inside.

…

The next day, all members of the student council and their apprentices attend their classes as usual, at the same time we became more vigilant and observant than ever to catch this bully.

A few days passed without anything being discovered,

“This is going nowhere….I can’t keep being vigilant all the time, it’s stressing me out!” Makino complained.

So stressing other people out is better I guess?

“Can’t deny that…..” Sasaki said.

“It’s too soon to give up, I’ll come up with a solution but for now just keep an eye on any suspicious student”.

I hate to admit it but this bully is good, our actions are taking us nowhere….

Or perhaps this tactic is no good at all…

I need to devise a better plan to catch this bully, perhaps thinking of myself as a bully, where would a bully choose as a place to threaten their victims?

Being done with no result for the past days, I decided to ‘track down’ the bullies.

“I’m gonna go patrol around the school for a bit,” Hitori said and left the room.

As I patrolled around the school, I wondered in my head of the places that have the highest possibility of becoming the bully’s base.

A place that is hidden but also accessible in the school, the rooftop?

It’s a possibility, perhaps the toilet? Nah.. too open and this school’s toilet is very close to the classrooms it’s too much of a risk of getting caught.

A place where the students’ normal traffic route doesn’t collide with is pretty much the most cliched place to make a base for bullying I guess.

As I continued to wonder while wandering, I eventually arrived at a place behind the school.

I heard a voice and stopped for a while,

“Oy, what do you mean you don’t have any money,”

“Argh…please, I’ll give you more next time, please don’t hit me….”

I peeked and saw a kid begging on the floor, while the other four laughed their ass off,

“Found you,” with a sinister smile, I said.

Approaching them slowly,

“My, my, what do we have here, the survival of the fittest? Is this what they meant by natural selection, only the ones with the better trait will survive extinction? Hurm??”

“Oh, the vice president, whatcha gonna do to me? You don’t have any evidence to accuse me of this, hahahahahah”

“Why would I accuse you of if I can just PUNISH the culprit myself, right here right now. What do you say?”

Hitori’s face suddenly turned very dark, his eyes are as if he’s a predator that has its eyes locked on the prey. The atmosphere turned very dense that it reeks of darkness.

“Wan-wanna fight? Brin-bring it on!” the boss seems to be sweating non-stop out of fear.

What’s with this guy? The only thing I can sense in him is his killing intent…What the fuck is he going to do??

“.…..”

The Mexican standoff continued for a while,

“Hitori-kun! Hitori-kun!”

After hearing Kaichou’s faint voice coming from somewhere distant,

“Yes!!! Kaichou!!! I’m here!! Seems like I found some rats!!! A huge one too!!” my facial expression immediately turned to a pure smile.

“What is it? Did you found any clues Hitori-kun?” Kaichou asked.

“Better,” I said while pointing at the bullies that are still terrified.

“Well well, mind if you four come with us for a moment?”

“Why should I follow you?! You don’t even have proo-”

The boss stopped talking as soon as he senses the same killing intent from his back.

They silenced and followed Kaichou to the student council room.

“Why is your face like that? Did you saw a ghost or something?” Sasaki asked them in the council room.

They remained silenced with fear still engraved in them.

“Hey, if you turn yourself in, you might get off with just a warning,” I whispered to their ears.

“Do-Don’t screw with me! You have no proof”.

“If this is how they wanna play, maybe we should just kill them Kaichou….easier to be dealt with, drown them and throw them into the sea, then we issue a report that our ‘friends’ got lost in the sea during a trip, then the police is gonna send out a search team, if they manage to find them, by that time the body would have been badly damaged by the seagulls and the small critters will begin to eat out the tissue till there’s not much left, there, case closed, no more bullies, then Kaichou and I can live happily ever after! Hehehe,”

The whole room stayed in silence for a few minutes shocked by my plan to deal with them. Well…it was kind of going overboard.

“So, what’s it gonna be?” I questioned the bullies.

“We’ll admit guilty, please don’t kill us,” the four of them answered as if they’re synchronized.

“Hihihihi…”

…

“So they really did admit guilty huh, I thought they were gonna put up a tougher fight,” I was a little surprised.

“After hearing an evil scheme with a high chance of success like that, I think anyone would have done the same, I didn’t know that you’re capable of acting like that, Hitori-kun,” Sasaki said.

“Haha, I just can’t help but imagine scenarios like that,”

“They did get off with an apology to the victims and a warning letter from the school, but I have a rather unpleasant feeling about this….”

“Well, I guess that settles the bully problem for now”.

“By the way, I noticed that the bullies were already afraid of you even before entering the room, mind telling us the details?” Makino asked.

“Nothing happened, all I can say is that one can only know they’re inferior as they face a superior one,”

I finally get to say it! The line I’ve been practicing all these years, it sounded so cool too, YES!!

“I don’t get it,”

“Don’t overthink it, I just scared them a bit with this armband,”

“I can’t think of a valid reason for them to fear a mere vice president either,” Kaichou joined the dissing on me.

Why are they ganging up on me? Please God, have mercy on this soul….

“Oh yeah, I didn’t even get to know their names,”

“There is no need for you to know of them too,”

“Well, that’s kinda true, at the very least tell me their boss’s name,”

“Genji Kirei,” Kaichou mentioned.

Hitori stopped for a moment,

Genji? Why is that name very familiar? I can’t remember when or where I’ve heard this last name before

……..oh, that guy, no no it can’t be……. there’s no way he’s connected to him….

“What’s the matter? you look, troubled bro,”

“Ah it’s nothing, just a bit tired I guess”.

…