Student Council Run (Part 2)

◆ Yukiteru

I stare at my phone for a few minutes, stumped at this change in attitude. Did…

Did Aishi just tell me she would come here and make the speech even though she’s sick?

Doesn’t she care about her physical integrity?

Observation: Subject Aishi has started to display lack of self-integrity awareness. More data required.

Does she care so much about this election that she’s risking her health in an attempt to make me win it?

My heart rate rises again and I can feel my facial muscles heating up. Is this what people call… being flustered?

It is… not unpleasant, to say the least of this. To think that Aishi, the person I have concluded I love, would do such a careless thing… If normal people who harbor the so-called ‘romantic feelings’ feel this way on a daily basis, I can understand somewhat why romance is such a popular genre. People think that being flustered is a pleasant thing, so should I consider this a valuable data point?

Of course you should, Yukiteru.

If you should act like a normal person in order to approach Subject Aishi, you should consider your own reactions to her as a valuable data point as well.

Just what effect is Tsukasa Aishi truly causing on me?

That is truly something I should figure out, lest ruin my experiment.

“Yukki!” Enomoto appears from the backstage. “I heard Aishi-chan is sick. The school authorities said that I should make the speech in her place. Although… I’m not so sure how I should really do that.”

I ignore the sudden impulse to eliminate him when he uses the improperly intimate honorific before replying, “You’ll have to figure it out on your own, Enomoto. I am not doing anything to help you.”

“Aargh, you’re so brutal, Yukki!” Enomoto pouts. “Do you talk like that to Aishi-chan too?”

“If you keep calling her Aishi-chan I will shut you up the hard way. But no, I do not talk to her like that.”

“Then why do you say these things to me, your longtime friend?”

“Because otherwise I might find you begging me for alms after being fired for incompetence.”

“I’m not THAT dumb!”

Observation: Subject Enomoto displays critical lack of self-awareness on the field of academics.

“Anyway,” I sigh, “Aishi-san told me she was coming regardless of her current state. She was literally screaming over the phone.”

“Over the phone?” Enomoto eyes me dubiously, then his eyes widen. “You have her number?!”

“Yes,” I say. “She gave me one of these days.” The lie comes as easily as breathing. With Enomoto, it’s even easier to lie. “Do you have a problem with that?”

“Uh, no, no,” Enomoto stammers. “It’s just… weird. I mean, she’s only known us for a while. How can she trust you enough?”

“She has her reasons,” I retort.

Hayashida, the council election organizer, peeks through the curtain separating the stage from where me and Enomoto are. “Haibara, your vice’s speech will begin in five minutes,” he says. “Wait, she’s sick today,” he corrects himself, before adding, “I mean, the speech of whoever’s going in her place begins in five minutes. You should tell them to prepare.”

“Okay, Hayashida-san,” I say, and he disappears through the curtain again. I turn to Enomoto.

“Who’s making the speech again?” He asks, and I feel the need to stick my head into the ground for some reason.

“If Aishi-san doesn’t show up in five minutes, you,” I reply. “Prepare yourself.”

He inhales sharply and begins to mutter to himself something that sounds dubiously like a Buddhist mantra. As I glance around, something odd out the window catches my eye.

A taxi leaving the front of the school.

Why would there be a taxi, I wonder?

Just as I deviate my gaze from the window, the door of the backstage behind me blasts open dramatically.

“Sorry I’m late, Senpai!” Aishi gasps as she stands in the doorway, panting like she’s just run forty-two kilometers. “The taxi had to stop to fill up the gasoline tank, so I had to take another to go faster!”

“You took… two taxis to get here?” I blink, caught off guard.

“Yes!” She exclaims. “I told you, Senpai. Even if I had to crawl my way here, even if I fell down coughing blood, I would make the speech and make you win the election. And I always fulfill my promises.” She smiles tiredly with this final sentence.

I feel heat rushing to my face. “Aishi-san…” Thankfully I manage to regain my composure and smile. “Do you have a speech in mind?”

“Yes, Senpai,” she says. “And I assure you, you will win with what I brought.”

She then looks around. “Senpai, where are the other candidates?”

I follow her gaze around the backstage and realize she’s right. “I don’t know,” I tell her. “They didn’t come today. Neither of them. Hakanagi-senpai, Bōzuki-san, Nozomigawa-kun, Setsuki-senpai… all of them, along with their respective vice-presidents. It’s like they vanished into thin air.”

Suddenly I notice someone. It’s Nozomigawa-kun, but something seems to have happened to him. Gone is his earlier confidence in becoming the student council president, replaced with a deathly terror. The same seems to have happened to Osaragi-kun, who is shuddering in fear as well, terrified as if the Shinigami himself has come knocking at his door.

“Correction: Nozomigawa-kun and Osaragi-kun are here, but both of them look like they have been chased by screaming ghouls,” I quickly add. “The rest is gone.”

“They must have dropped out of the election,” Aishi says, with an unusual calmness. “Such things happen. Sometimes, what you think you’re sure that you can do one day can become an Herculean task in your eyes the next day.”

“Indeed,” I say, but something strikes me as off about this situation.

Aishi said she would make me win even if she died making the speech… Would that include disposing of the other candidates and leaving the most mentally weak of them fearing for his life?

I quickly discard that thought, however.

Aishi is not the kind of person who would do this. Her behavioral patterns over the year so far are not that of a psychotic murderer. Clearly, I must be making a miscalculation.

“Senpai, do you think I’m ready for this?” Aishi asks me, smiling hopefully. I take a deep breath.

“Good luck, Aishi-san,” I say. “I’m counting on you.”

Her face lights up with a giddy smile and her cheeks tint with pink. “You got it, Senpai!” She exclaims, just as the microphone outside calls for the vice to make the campaign speech. Still smiling, she turns and walks to the curtain, towards the stage.

Alright, Tsukasa Aishi.

Let’s see what you’re capable of.

***

“First, let us hear the plans of our reelection candidate, Yukiteru Haibara, Class 2-A, from his vice-president candidate, Tsukasa Aishi, Class 1-A.”

The student body claps their hands in unison as Aishi takes the stage. She smiles and bows to the crowd before walking to the podium and beginning to speak, in the confident tone of an experienced orator:

“Good morning, students of Shinkō Academy! My name is Tsukasa Aishi, and I’m the vice-president of Yukiteru Haibara-senpai’s campaign. Today, I come to you all to speak of what he is promising for his second term as student council president.

“As you must know, it was during his time as president that the rate of drop-outs decreased dramatically in comparison to the previous ten years. It was also during his term that the P.E. court and music room were renovated and refurnished for the first time since the Golden Age, when it was still named Kokorogamine Academy.”

A murmur spreads out through the crowd, and next to me, Enomoto’s eyes widen.

“How does this girl know so much of the school’s history and can speak so fluently about it that fast?” He hisses.

“I heard that when she was in middle school, she was student council president AND honor student in oral tests,” I reply to shush him. “Now shut up and listen.”

“How do you know something like that?” Enomoto asks, but I’m not listening. My eyes are focused solely on the girl speaking into the microphone.

“But it isn’t the main thing everyone remembers. It is something else.” She scans the crowd for a moment. “Everyone who attends the extra tutoring sessions, please raise your hand.”

A surprisingly large amount of students raise their hands. Aishi smiles for a moment, then continues:

“It is because of these tutoring sessions that you can keep up with good grades and still be able to pursue other, non-academic dreams. Without them, many of the students we are speaking to today would not be here.”

A wave of agreement rises in the crowd. Enomoto nods in approval; he, too, goes to these sessions.

“The one who desperately petitioned the school board of directors for the institution of these sessions that so have helped you all… was Haibara-senpai, when he first became student council president,” she says. “Because of the tutoring sessions, an estimated 100 students—out of the 270 that today walk the halls of the four divisions of Shinkō Academy—have been prevented from dropping out of school in one year. In another year, how many could possibly be saved from not finishing education, and instead redirected to a brighter future, with a bigger number of possibilities and more opportunities to pursue their dreams?” A hopeful, earnest smile emerges on her face as she beams at the crowd. “We could help shape these raw talents into the next world-rockers.”

Her expression then shifts into concern. “I have heard things in the halls,” she says. “And there are people who want to end the tutoring sessions, most of the other candidates included. If any of them are elected, there is a chance we will never see this goal of achieving higher fulfilled.” She inhales sharply. “Students, all it takes is your votes. One vote for a candidate today… can change the future of thousands in the next ten years. So please…” and she looks at the crowd, “vote for Haibara-senpai so we can keep the tutoring sessions going. So we can prevent people from losing any hope of achieving their dreams. Because, after all, the motto of Shinkō Academy is that we forge the geniuses of tomorrow with the classes of today and let the light of their minds shine bright. Without all the good things Haibara-senpai has done for us, how can we fulfill the promise we make every year to the parents who entrust this school with their children?”

A murmur of approval rises, and the students shift in their seats. Aishi is moving them, clearly.

“So, please, vote for Yukiteru Haibara, and for a school where all students can achieve their dreams!” She finishes. The crowd erupts in applause, and as she raises from her bow, I can see she is smiling with the pride of a job well done. Then she walks back into the backstage under a wave of cheers.

“What a speech, students,” the speaker says. “Next up, the candidate, Yukiteru Haibara.”

Everyone claps their hands as I walk to the podium. I take a deep breath.

Aishi hooked them. Now I have to reel them in.

“Good morning, students,” I say. “My name is Yukiteru Haibara, and as you must know, I am running for reelection this year.”

Everyone murmurs in agreement. Without missing a beat, I continue:

“During the past term, I have come to realize how much we’ve all grown. The first-years of yesterday are now older, and others have come to grow under their watchful gaze. Others have graduated, towards a brighter future, where they will pursue their dreams.

“I myself have matured over the past year. Growing with my fellow students, I have come to know their hopes and weaknesses, and have pushed myself to the limit to help them improve. One of these methods was the institution of extra tutoring sessions, for those who struggle with certain subjects. As of today, like Aishi-san has so well stated, more than 100 students have been prevented from dropping out thanks to these sessions, and still now many benefit from them.

“All of this was done thinking about the students’ wellbeing and dreams. I believe that with the right methods, all can succeed and find happiness. For the students who struggle, extra classes to help them understand. For those with physical difficulties, adaptations in the surroundings so they can grow along with the others.

“For my second term, my intentions will remain the same. I will continue to push for the wellbeing of my fellow students, and to ensure that they can achieve their goals without anything to hinder their growth. My ideal version of the school is one that can forge great minds while helping students with their struggles so that they eventually learn how to fend for themselves and reach their dreams.

“That is my dream for the school, and for my second term. To all of you who agree that this should be cherished, who have benefited from my policies, who have dreams to pursue, vote for me. I will ensure that you all reach your goals.”

And with this, I bow, and walk out the stage under applause.

***

When Nozomigawa-kun’s vice-president comes up to the stage, it’s chaos. He starts out with a calm introduction, but then suddenly breaks down and starts repeatedly screaming “No! No! She’s going to kill me! Stop! Please!” The security guards have to drag him away while he pleads for his life to an imaginary reaper.

“What’s with Osaragi-kun?” Enomoto wonders. “He was always so calm and collected before. Now he looks like he’s been tortured by the devil.”

I look at Aishi, trying to see her reaction to Osaragi-kun’s outburst. She’s startlingly calm, and even talking to herself. When I sharpen my ears to listen, I barely make out the words “et dicit ei: Legio nomen mihi est, quia multi sumus.”

“And he said to him: My name is Legion, for we are many.”

A Bible quote? Why is Aishi quoting the Bible right now?

Is it because Osaragi-kun looks like he was possessed by a demon?

Finally Nozomigawa-kun is called to the stage. He walks in trembling, shaky steps. But just as he gets to the podium, he throws himself on the ground before everyone.

“Please! I beg you! Don’t… don’t kill me!” He shrieks. “Don’t… I don’t want this anymore…” and he suddenly blacks out onstage, his forehead finally hitting the wooden floor with a thud. This is the final trigger for chaos to ensure.

The security guards attempt to control the mass of students, but terror has overtaken them, and they practically trample the guards as they run in all directions. As I watch, suddenly Enomoto grabs my arm.

“Yukki, we gotta run!” He exclaims.

“But where is Aishi-san?” I shout over the cries of the crowd.

“We don’t have time to think about her! We gotta run!” Enomoto shrieks. As I look around, frantically, I find Aishi lying on the ground, unconscious.

Freeing myself from Enomoto’s grasp, I rush in her direction. She’s still breathing, but when I touch her forehead, it’s burning with a fever of approximately 39.5 degrees Celsius. Not actually thinking about what I am doing, I loop an arm around her shoulders and another under her knees, and hoist her up from the ground. My eyes scan the walls until I find the door.

“Yukki?” Enomoto calls, but right now he is irrelevant. I run, carrying Aishi, until I find what I’m looking for—the ambulance parked in front of the auditorium for cases of emergency.

After I explain the situation to the shocked nurses in the ambulance and they lay Aishi out in the stretcher inside, it goes away with sirens blaring, leaving me staring at the road as it disappears in the distance.

I estimate my current heart rate to be roughly 150 beats per minute.

Very well, Yukiteru Haibara.

It seems like we’ve got ourselves a problem.