The match with Rin that started around six yesterday dragged on until about three in the morning.
Because I kept winning, he kept shouting, "Again!" like he was on fire, so around midnight I put on my finest acting performance and let him win once.
But that’s the thing about people—if they lose a hundred times and win once, they start thinking it was all thanks to their own skill.
"Hmph. Was that all...?"
"..................??"
Watching him say that after losing over and over was so ridiculous that I gave him another three hours of extra training and shook him like a threshing machine. But for someone like me, who barely ever exercises, pushing myself that hard in the middle of the night naturally led to...
"Ah, I’m dead..."
I was completely wiped out. Now that all the classes were over, I was sprawled in the student council room like a zombie.
If I’d slept during class, maybe I would’ve been a little better off, but there’s no such thing as a student at Shuchiin who sleeps in class.
Besides, I was dead last in the grade. I couldn’t exactly afford to have a bad attitude too.
Thanks to that, all the energy I’d been forcing myself to hold together with sheer willpower was completely drained.
As soon as classes ended, I had no choice but to collapse onto the sofa in the student council room.
Miyuki looked at me with a rather worried expression.
"It’s the first time I’ve seen you this tired. What did you do yesterday?"
"Soccer with my little brother...."
"Soccer? Really...?"
"...I’m not trying to start again or anything. I just played him a match because I was grateful for what he told me yesterday."
He stroked his chin and seemed to think for a moment, then nodded as if he remembered the story he’d heard in the student council room yesterday.
"Ah, that’s what it was. It must’ve been pretty rough after not playing for a while. If you’re tired, just sleep a bit. Someone who comes later will wake you up."
After saying that, Miyuki left the student council room to go to his part-time job.
I barely managed to keep my half-closing eyelids open and answered.
"O-okay...."
And then I drifted off to dreamland.
As I fell asleep, I trusted the people who’d come after me. That trust was the beginning of this incident.
Today, the student council members came in one by one, without overlapping.
The first to enter the student council room was Kaguya.
"Will the president be here...?"
She opened the door with anticipation, but no one was in sight.
Shirogane had gone off to his part-time job a long time ago after talking with Hotaro earlier.
Kaguya let out a long sigh of disappointment and started walking forward, only to witness something unexpected.
"Oh my, Suzuki is here. And he’s asleep, too...."
The president’s close friend, Suzuki Hotaro.
He always held on to last place in the grade, and since he was a transfer student from outside, she’d worried whether he would fit into the student council well. But before long, he had proven himself and was doing his share admirably.
"He can be annoying sometimes, though..."
The long-running psychological battle of love between the president and Kaguya.
Even after Hotaro joined, it kept happening often, and she could sense that he had a strange tendency to side with the president.
Unlike Fujiwara, who was a friend but completely impossible to control, Hotaro was hard to read, and the fact that he leaned toward the president made him a rather irritating presence from Kaguya’s point of view.
"Still, he does help sometimes, oddly enough."
It wasn’t as if Hotaro always sided with the president; he only did so in a rather subtle way. In the end, it often led to outcomes that benefited both sides.
If those results were intentional, then this man was definitely not someone to dismiss. That was Kaguya’s conclusion. For the sake of winning the psychological battle of love, he was a top-priority target for recruitment in the future.
It would’ve been nice to talk about that sort of thing when they were alone, but today, unfortunately, he was sleeping soundly.
"Wait, he’s asleep...?"
And then something flashed through her mind—
"Ah, that’s it...!"
Seeing Hotaro sleeping, an idea struck her like lightning.
"The president is suffering from severe caffeine addiction because he’s been cutting back on sleep and being worn down by studying and work. If I gave him..."
What would happen if she gave him decaf coffee?
He would surely be unable to hold out for long and would drift off into the world of dreams. And if that happened—
"The president, defenseless and asleep, in my hands..."
With that genius brain of hers, Kaguya simulated all the things she could do once the president fell asleep, and let out a soft "Heh heh heh..."
Deciding to begin immediately tonight, she left the student council room.
"Hello~"
Fujiwara Chika burst in with bright energy, flinging the door open. But at first glance, the student council room seemed empty.
"Is no one here? ...Ah!"
After taking a few steps forward, Fujiwara spotted someone lying on the sofa.
It was none other than Suzuki Hotaro, the student council secretary.
Approaching him, she looked around the room, then crouched in front of him and poked his cheek.
"He’s sleeping really deeply...."
Hotaro always looked cool-headed and flawless, so this was the first time Fujiwara had seen him so defenseless.
Since she’d had a few incidents with him recently, there was something about him that kept catching her eye.
And the sturdy, broad back she’d seen in the infirmary still lingered in her mind.
"...It’s only a little bit curious, that’s all!"
Having neatly defined her own feelings, she soon thought of something else.
"Come to think of it, I’ve never played a prank on Suzuki-kun yet...?!"
Anyone who had watched Fujiwara for even a little while knew how mischievous she was.
It was almost impressive that she’d gone this long without getting anyone.
"Hehehe, what should I use...?"
Her eyes sparkling as she looked around, something caught her attention: a board marker.
Picking it up, she walked over to Hotaro and, without hesitation, started drawing lines all over him.
"Heh, Suzuki-kun. You’re going to be so surprised, aren’t you?"
Satisfied, Fujiwara hurriedly ran off before Hotaro could wake up.
"Anyone here...? Hm?"
With not much time left before dismissal, Ishigami stopped by the student council room to look for the game console he’d left behind.
Seeing no one around, he unplugged the charger and the console from the right-hand wall, then headed for the door.
Clack!
Since no one seemed to be there, turning off the lights was a bonus.
/
"Now then, next is the student council room...."
Mr. Ichiro, the veteran security guard who had worked at Shuchiin for decades.
He was faithfully making his rounds through the classrooms today as well. His job was to patrol the school and send home any students who were still there after dismissal.
"Mm, just as expected."
As long as he was on duty, the student council never disappointed him.
They were always perfect about dismissal time, turning off the lights, tidying up, and so on.
So today, too, he left the student council room without any suspicion.
He had, in effect, just walked away from the last line of defense, leaving the soundly sleeping Hotaro behind.
"Phew, that was a good sleep...."
I didn’t know how long I’d slept, but all the fatigue had vanished. Still, something was off.
This wasn’t my bed. And I was still wearing my uniform. And the area around me was pitch-black. Don’t tell me...
"Am I still in the student council room?"
I hurriedly pulled out my phone. When I checked the time...
11:25 p.m.
"I’m screwed..."
It was way past the final dismissal time.
No, seriously, nobody woke me up this whole time?
The messages left on my phone were even worse.
Little brother - [6:50 / If you’re not here in 10 minutes, no dinner]
Little brother - [6:59 / Good work]
And that was the end of it.
What a little bastard. If you’re going to count ten minutes, at least count properly....
For now, I tried contacting the Shirogane guy, who seemed like he’d know the best way to deal with a situation like this—but—
[The number you have dialed is currently switched off. Please leave a message after the tone.]
Damn it. He’d said he turns his phone off during this time because he’s studying hard. What bad luck.
The reason I was feeling so hopeless was Shuchiin’s security system.
For airtight security, they had hundreds of infrared sensors as standard, plus a security team on standby at all times.
If you stayed after dismissal and got caught hiding, the minimum punishment was a disciplinary committee hearing, and if you were unlucky, you could even be expelled.
So was I really supposed to stay in this dark place until dawn?
Just as I was starting to feel there was no hope,
Creeeak—
the student council room door suddenly opened quietly. And through the gap, I could feel something slipping inside.
"W-what the—!"
If it had been a security guard, they’d have come clattering in with a master key, but this presence was faint, almost nonexistent, moving lightly and silently. Like—
"A ghost...?"
In the sudden situation, I held my breath and flattened myself against the sofa. My heart started pounding. A ghost, in this age of advanced science?
I’d never believed in that sort of thing, but I never imagined I’d experience it myself.
I was desperately hoping the ghost wouldn’t notice me and pass by, but something felt wrong.
"...Huh?"
Would a ghost rummage through the drawers and take something out of them?
That was when I became sure. That wasn’t a ghost.
"A thief...!"
I became certain of the intruder’s identity. If that was the case, there was only one thing to do.
"I have to catch them..."
The way I’d gotten in here had been less than ideal, but after spending time here, I’d grown attached to the student council in my own way.
And some masked stranger stealing from the student council? That was unacceptable.
I’d barely ever fought before, but I had no choice.
"I just have to dodge their attacks and land mine..."
Since the room was so dark, it wouldn’t be easy. To avoid being noticed, I carefully stood up from the sofa and crept forward.
The intruder was completely unaware, focused on the drawers.
With only a few steps left, just as I was about to grab them by the neck and knock them out in one move—
Ding—
My foot caught on some kind of can.
Damn it, bad luck.
Whoosh!
"...Ghk!"
A sharp spinning kick came flying at me, so sharp it felt like it could slice me open. I leaned back at the waist to dodge it the moment I heard the sound, but it was powerful.
My eyes had adjusted a little, so I wasn’t completely blind, but with visibility this poor, I had no choice but to rely on instinct.
Thwack! Thud! Thwack! Thwack!
Fists and feet exchanged several blows. I was almost entirely on defense, barely managing to block.
"What, are you wearing night-vision goggles or something...?"
The attacks came at me from all directions with the sharpness of someone who could see perfectly clearly.
At this rate, I’d just keep getting pushed back. So the solution was...
"I have to grab them and throw them down...!"
The moment a powerful high kick came flying at my head, I deflected it slightly with my right hand and
slipped inside the intruder’s guard.
I could feel them flinch, clearly not expecting it. It was a very good opening.
"If I can just grab them and take them down..."
I managed to seize my opponent around the waist and slammed my face hard against their chest. If I kept pushing like this—!
Soft.
"...Huh?"
I felt something very strange against both of my cheeks.
This sensation was definitely—
"Were you a girl...?"
The unexpected turn of events made me lose strength for a split second without meaning to.
And that was a huge mistake.
"...Die."
The cold feeling in the low murmur of that voice.
"...!"
The intruder irritably yanked my upper body forward as if grabbing me by the collar, spun around, and slammed me against their back.
"A shoulder throw...? Wai—!"
I still hadn’t figured out how to deal with that, and my vision flipped 180 degrees.
Crash!
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