/
“Ririna…”
The biggest troublemaker of all had appeared.
From her expression, she was positively raring to go.
No seriously, somebody had practically sharpied ‘Which bitch-ass needs a smackin’?’ onto her face, it was that obvious.
“I know everything, Reika-san! Somebody’s been putting you through hell with slander. Why didn’t you come to me for help!?”
Because if I came to you for help then something like this would happen!
“Well, whatever. So these girls are the enemy, then. I’ll help! Hey, you lot! Pick on somebody your own size!”
I knew it!
Stop!
Stop!
Don’t make this any bigger than it has to be!
My feelings failed to reach a single person, however, and in front of my eyes Ririna donned phantom knuckledusters and a deuce deuce.
“Are you serious!? You have nothing to do with this, you first year!”
“I’m Reika-san’s cousin! If you have a problem with her, tell it to me!”
“I don’t care whose cousin you are! It’s none of your business! Unless of course you were part of her plan!”
“We’ve already told you to stop slandering Reika-sama! Who do you think she is!? She’s a member of the Pivoine!”
“The Student Council doesn’t care if she’s Pivoine or not!”
“And we don’t care about you! The Student Council should mind its own business!”
“You low-bred Externals dare behave like this in front of true-blood Suiran students!?”
“Exactly! You’re just Externals!”
“You think that just because you’re part of the Student Council that you can suddenly forget your place!?”
“‘External, External!’ How does attending a school since primary give you the right to think you’re better than us!?”
“Right!? The Internals are basically all idiots, anyway!”
“What was that!?”
“Hey! Don’t you dare ignore me!”
“What the heck!? Let go of me!”
“Kyaah! You’ve done it now, you bitch!”
“Oww! Don’t pull the hair!”
“Get her! Ririna-san! We need to avenge Reika-sama!”
“Ah!? Tsuruhana-san! Those are piercings! That’s a violation of school regulations!”
“Shut it, External! You don’t have a boyfriend because you dress like that, you ugly bitch!”
“What did you say!?”
A group of rich girls were screaming and shouting, wearing terrifying expressions as they yanked at each others’ hair and clothing.
Hiiiiie!
It was like a vale tudo free-for-all in here!
What happened to Suiran being a good school with good kids!?
“What the hell are you all doing!? Cut that out this instant!” roared Fellow Stalking Horse.
The girls all turned to glare daggers as the crowds parted for him.
Ririna even had a clump of hair in her clenched hand.
When he realised exactly what had been going on, Fellow Stalking Horse’s went as stiff as a board.
He was an exceptional Student Council President, true, but no boy would ever want to butt in on a cat fight like this alone.
They began flooding him and showering him with complaints.
“They were the ones who picked a fight first!”
“Haah!? That was you bitches!”
“As for us, all we did was try to stop a pointless quarrel.”
“Stop playing the goodie-two-shoes! You’re the one who hit me!”
“Reika-san’s enemies are my enemies!” a certain somebody declared.
“Alright! Alright already!” Fellow Stalking Horse shouted. “I get it, so just calm down!”
Each faction regrouped, checking their warriors for harm, and giving them thanks and encouragement.
“So what started all of this?” he asked once they seemed calm enough.
“Tsuruhana-san’s group suddenly picked a fight with Reika-sama.”
“Reika-sama was the one who tried to slander me with false accusations!”
“As part of the Student Council, I was just giving them a warning…”
“We’re supposed to be stopping the trouble,” he sighed. “What good are we if we magnify the issue…?”
There was a pause, and then he turned to Ririna.
“You’re…”
“As Reika-san’s cousin, I couldn’t just ignore her crisis!” Ririna declared grandly.
Fellow Stalking Horse looked at her, and then brought a hand to his forehead.
“Right, it’s time for you to leave…” he said as he chased her off.
“Anyway! If you girls have a problem with each other then talk it out calmly. A group of young ladies getting into a fistfight is ridiculous!”
“President!”
The girls all surrounded him and tried again to bring him to their way of thinking, but another voice interrupted.
“Shut up,” Kaburagi eyed them coldly. “Not only are you an earful, but you’re disgraceful too.”
The cafeteria turned to silence.
The girls in question looked awkward as they flushed in embarrassment.
“We still haven’t discovered the culprit for Takamichi’s locker,” he continued, “so enough causing trouble with your pointless guessing.”
He was overwhelming.
Totally different to the child who threw a tantrum about giving a tiny little blood oath.
“Are we clear?” he asked, prompting.
They all nodded.
Seemingly done with this, Kaburagi turned to leave.
“Please wait!” called Serika-chan.
“U-, Um, Kaburagi-sama!” called Kikuno-chan, as the two of them stood a little fearfully in his way.
“Kaburagi-sama, Reika-sama has never bullied anybody. If you have to believe anything, please believe that!”
“It’s true! Everything with Reika-sama is just a misunderstanding!”
That was surprising…
The pair had been huge fans of Kaburagi as long as I could remember.
They adored everything he had done, as far back as our days in primary.
I’d never have expected them to confront him like that.
They had chosen my side over him.
I was more than a litte touched.
Kaburagi looked at them for a little while before giving his reply.
“I do believe that.”
With that, Kaburagi left the cafeteria again.
There was silence for a while after he left, before the room exploded with the passionate screams of girls.
“Reika-sama! Kaburagi-sama believes you!”
“Isn’t that great, Reika-sama!?”
I was surrounded by my group as they cheered.
“…Yes. Thank you, Serika-san, Kikuno-san. Everybody else, too,” I told them earnestly.
They all smiled brightly at me.
Really, thank you.
*
*
Thanks to Kaburagi’s statement of belief, the last few people who suspected me were convinced as well. As expected of the Emperor.
Back to my other problem though, I wasn’t sure what to do about the tension.
I mean, yes, I had flamed it with my actions, but still…
Wasn’t there some fun topic to help people forget about the locker incident?
That was the only solution I could think of.
Something that both my girls and Tsuruhana-san’s would really care about…
Oh! I know!
I sacrificed Enjou.
“I have heard that Enjou-sama enjoyed a date with somebody on White Day,” I informed them.
As expected, it erupted into a huge scandal.
Good… Good…
It was better for Suiran to be flooded with talks about romance, rather than talks about conspiracies and ploys, so I spread gossip like there was no tomorrow.
One day I was walking down a hallway, happy at how well my plan had gone, when somebody tapped me on the shoulder from behind.
Enjou stood there, smiling.
“Since I have a debt to you, I’ll overlook things just this once, okay?”
The cold sweat wouldn’t stop.
“Anyhow, have a nice day,” he chuckled darkly.
Aaaahhh!
Why won’t spring break come already!?