The New Council

◆ Tsukasa

“No… No! NO!”

I wake up screaming. I’m lying in a bed that is not mine, on a room I don’t recognize. The soft beep next to me belongs to a cardiac monitor, so I must be in a hospital.

“Kacchan, you’re awake!” Next to me, Chiho exclaims. “Oh, we were so worried!”

“What… what happened?” I croak. Next to her, Tae takes a deep breath.

“In the chaos that followed Nozomigawa-senpai blacking out, you fainted from your illness. If Haibara-senpai hadn’t found you and carried you to the ambulance, you would probably have been trampled alive by the students trying to escape the auditorium, Rainbow-chan.”

A feeling of giddiness immediately floods me. Senpai, he… he saved me! Were it not for him, I would have died. But my knight in shining armor saved me. Oh, Senpai…

“Senpai… where is he?” I ask.

“Mounting guard on the door,” Tae says. “He says that he’s not leaving until he’s sure you’re okay. But damn,” and she whistles, “you should have seen Chihocchi. The moment someone told her you might have been turned into a doormat, she whacked them over the head with her five-ton walking manga library—aka her school suitcase—so hard they nearly fell over.”

“Well, I don’t need anyone telling me Kacchan could have been killed!” Chiho blurts. “My reaction was comprehensible!”

“I understand you, Chiho-chan,” I say, trying to calm her down. “I would have freaked out too if someone said you or Tae could have died.”

She blushes adorably and hides behind a volume of Uzumaki. “Kacchan…” She then starts reciting a Buddhist mantra out of nowhere, one recommended to heal heart pains. But… why, though? I’m alive and kicking.

“I would have said this was cute, but right now I have to deal with a second-year at the door,” Tae coughs, before standing up. “If you’ll excuse me.”

She then goes to the door, opens it—and on the next moment Senpai’s in the room, having dashed right past her in a second’s distraction.

“Aishi-san!” He exclaims, sighing in relief. “Thank goodness you’re awake,” he says. “When I saw you on the ground like that, I nearly fainted myself. The moment I think about what could have happened…” and he shivers. “But I’m so glad you’re okay, Aishi-san.”

I blush, but quickly regain my composure. “I should be the one being glad, Senpai,” I reply, giving him my best smile. “When everyone was running around like they were being chased by ghouls, you risked yourself to find me and carry me to the ambulance… I owe you my life for this, Senpai. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

He lowers his gaze to the ground, cheeks dusted with the slightest of pinks. “Well… it’s what anyone would do.”

I am expecting Tae to be giggling, but she isn’t. Neither Chiho. They’re both staring at me and Senpai like they’ve seen a yōkai appear right in front of their eyes.

What is with them these days? They’re so wary of Senpai it scares me a bit. Do they… No. They can’t. They shouldn’t. They’re my friends; they wouldn’t cheat me like that. Never.

And Senpai… These days, more than ever, I feel like I’m going to lose him. Like he’s going to go for another girl, and shatter everything I’ve so held on to.

But I’m sure he won’t.

Because he’s my soulmate.

And soulmates have to be together for life.

The weekend goes by, and before I know it, I’m standing in front of the student council room. Shakily, I pull out the key given to me by the school board and open the door.

Inside is the little world I’ve so longed to join. In a corner, working on some papers, are the secretary and treasurer, two first-years I vaguely recall being my classmates. And behind the president’s table, smiling warmly, is my darling Senpai.

“Welcome to the student council,” he says, “Vice-President Tsukasa Aishi.”

***

Now I’m the vice-president of the student council after Senpai won the election by a devastating, almost unanimous, majority. Of course, most other candidates retired from the election and the only remaining one has been transferred to a psychiatric facility for treatment along with his vice-president candidate.

Senpai won the election, as fate willed. All required was some of my hard work.

“No! Please! Stop, I don’t want this anymore! NO! NO! NO!!!”

It’s okay, Nozomigawa-senpai, Osaragi-senpai.

It’s for the greater good.

Compared to Senpai, you didn’t serve a purpose in the election.

You were filler, like the heroine’s rivals.

I smile as I adjust some more documents for Senpai to sign.

“Aishi-san,” Shijō-san calls. “There’s some papers I need you to sign.”

I smile my most benevolent smile. “Yes, of course, Shijō-san,” I say. “Wait just a moment.”

Omoikane Shijō, the student council secretary, is holding a pile of documents roughly as thick as a fist. She drops it on the table and it makes enough noise to look like it’s actually a punch instead of a bunch of papers.

“Um, Shijō-san… how many pages is that?” I ask.

“It’s… about 2000 pages,” she says. To my shocked expression, she adds, “It’s a report of what the student council surveillance cameras have filmed during the previous term. The new president and vice-president have to sign it every time a new term begins.”

“The student council has surveillance cameras?!” I gasp.

“Yes,” Shijō-san replies. “They serve to monitor the students instead of the inefficient disciplinary committee. It’s a good thing, isn’t it?”

“Yes, but then you have no privacy at all,” I retort, shocked.

“Privacy for what? It’s not like you plan on doing… indecent activities involving the opposite sex on school grounds, anyway,” Shijō-san says, calmly, but I can feel the catch in her voice when she says this last phrase. “If your heart is clean and your soul is pure, you don’t need privacy.”

“Even in the bathroom?”

“Yes, but it doesn’t see the inside of the cabins. For… the so-called privacy.”

I heave a sigh. “Does, um, Haibara-senpai have to sign this too?”

“Yes. Like I said, both the president and vice-president of the student council have to sign this document.”

I flip through the pages without much interest until I realize something. If these cameras film everything… then they film Senpai too!

If I look at the records, then I can know if he has been talking to other girls recently. Of course, not in a creepy way. It’s not crazy to just… want to know who your soulmate has been talking to. After all, all these other girls must surely be depraved boob appendages trying to get their hands on a sweet innocent angel.

“Okay, Shijō-san,” I tell her, pulling out my pen once I get to the final page, where two dotted lines await signature. “I’ve confirmed.”

Her eyes widen. “You read the whole thing in one minute?”

“Just a skim, but I think I got the gist of it,” I reply. Technically not a lie, but not the truth. I only read whenever Senpai’s name came up. And it appears that, besides me, he didn’t talk to any girl but Shijō-san during the past year.

But I’ve confirmed she’s out of the danger zone. So I don’t have to worry about her chasing Senpai.

I smile as I sign my name on the paper.

Signature of Vice-President:

愛司　彩目

“Here, Shijō-san,” I say, handing her the papers. “You can give those to Senpai to sign.”

She raises her eyebrows at me questionably but then sighs and carries the enormous stack of papers to Senpai’s desk, who appears to be reading from a small notebook.

“Haibara-senpai, could you please sign these?” She asks.

He looks up from whatever he’s reading a bit absent-mindedly. “Okay,” he says, picking up his pen and scrolling through the pages to find the dotted line. I notice his eyes scanning certain pages as he writes something down in the notebook. For a few moments, I’m lost from reality, simply watching the fluid movements of his hands as he simultaneously writes and flips pages in seconds.

Wordlessly he signs the document and hands it to Shijō-san, who staggers away, holding the fist-sized pile.

“Aishi-san,” Shijō-kun calls from the other side of the room. “Could you come here for a second? I need your opinion on something.”

“Sure,” I reply, heading over. Shijō-kun is bent over his laptop, frowning at the screen. I look over his shoulder. It appears to be some sort of table showing how much funding should each club get.

“In my honest opinion, I think we should cut the budget for the board game club,” he says. “I’ve seen their reunions, and, to speak it clearly, they just screw around and play Monopoly. I don’t think why do they even have funding in the first place.”

“You want me to give my opinion?” I ask. He nods and then points to another label.

“The volleyball club needs extra funding because some idiot bore holes in all the volleyballs,” he adds. “What do you think, Aishi-san? Do we cut the budget for the board game club and give it to the volleyball club?”

“Can I see the table?” Suddenly Senpai’s right next to us. “I think there’s a problem with these data, Shijō-kun.”

“Oh, sure, Haibara-senpai…” Shijō-kun pushes his fringe out of his face and then hands the laptop to Senpai. “I can assure that these are recent data, though. I made the table myself yesterday with last term’s expenses.”

For a moment, Senpai stares at the table, and I can almost see the numbers running in his brain. Then, he heaves a sigh.

“Shijō-kun, these numbers don’t match,” he says. “There’s a hole in the accountability worth forty thousand yen. Where did that money go?”

Shijō-kun pales. “What the…” He rechecks the table. “Goddammit, you’re right, Haibara-senpai! Forty thousand yen are missing!” He starts typing at lightning speed. Then he turns around again. “Haibara-senpai, who was the last treasurer before me?”

“I think it was Hakanagi-senpai’s girlfriend, Airi Itō,” I say, suddenly. “She’s in your class, right, Senpai?”

Senpai blinks, then nods. “Yes, Itō-san was the treasurer. I have to talk to her about this,” he says, as he stands up. “Aishi-san, please come with me. Shijō-kun, you and your sister take care of the council matters while we’re out. If someone comes in in the meantime, tell them we’re busy.”

“O-okay!” I exclaim, quickly recovering from the shock and heading out the door with Senpai.

We arrive at class 2-A just in time to catch Itō-senpai leaving with her friends.

“Oh, Haibara-kun! Something up?” She questions oh-so-casually in a way that makes my stomach knot. She’s so close to him. Too close. Makes sense, she’s single now. But not to Senpai. He’s my soulmate, she can go somewhere else. Maybe join her man, for starters. No, Tsukasa, that’s creepy. She didn’t do anything… yet.

“Itō-san, there’s something both of us need to talk to you about,” Senpai says. “Can we go somewhere else?”

Her friends start bubbling, but she doesn’t budge. “Sure. Wait a sec, I forgot something in the classroom.”

She goes inside and quickly returns. “Okay, let’s go,” she says. “But where?”

Senpai pauses for a moment. “The courtyard,” he says, after a moment. “Where the P.E. shed is.”

“Geez, that place where the guy hung himself? That’s creepy, Haibara-kun,” Itō-senpai says, earning a round of laughter from her friends. “But fine. Sanae, Yuki, wait here just a moment. Pause the gossip a while because I have to chat with these two.”

As we walk the halls, I take the time to examine our guest. Airi Itō, seventeen years old, most popular girl in the second year, girlfriend of former student council vice-president and third-year Manabu Hakanagi until he went missing shortly before the election and was never heard of again. Surely, nothing I don’t know of.

But now she’s single. And that means she might pursue Senpai if I look away. Because, well, she’s bolder and more flirty than me, has a wider social circle, and just look at those curves. That’s a complete win over me, who in comparison still looks like a elementary school kid in the cleavage topic.

When we get to the shed, she turns and looks at us. “So?” She asks. “What do you want to talk to me about?”

I take a deep breath. “When we analyzed last term’s club expenses, we found out 40,000 yen were missing. You were the treasurer back then, so you couldn’t have overlooked such a slip. Could you please explain?”

For a moment there’s deadly silence. Then, she chuckles.

“40,000 yen?” She asks. “That’s it? I thought you were going to ask me what happened to Manabu. I don’t know. I embezzled these funds to help him with the damned campaign, and he then calls on that bitch Tachibana to be his vice? I’m supposed to be the girlfriend!” She laughs again, almost hysterically. “Honestly, I’m not surprised if he really just took her and flew off to America. Would’ve been the best thing he could do.”

“Itō-senpai?” I blink, caught off guard by this sudden change in stance. She turns her eyes to me.

“You’re Haibara-kun’s vice, aren’t you?” She asks. “I remember your speech. You were almost falling over sick, but you came and risked your life for a guy who wasn’t even your boyfriend.” She laughs again. “Wish I could’ve done that. Told Manabu I wanted to be more than just for show. That I wanted him to love me like I loved him. But no, he just said, ‘Airi, Tachibana-san will be the vice candidate’. Blah blah blah. And then, he goes missing and I have to pretend I don’t care. F*cking hell!” She curses. Her eyes are wild like a storm. “But I know what really happened. He died. I came knocking at his house the day before the election, and when I came in he was just… dead. Someone stabbed the heck out of him. The house smelled entirely of his blood, and nobody seemed to care!” Her final scream is completely hysterical. “He left a message. In his blood. Just one kanji. Rainbow. Desperately I searched, for who did it. And one day I finally realized.” She laughs. “You did it, didn’t you? Tsukasa Aishi… Rainbow-chan?”

Cold runs down my spine. I glance around for help, but there are no cameras around. Oh no. No no no no no!

“What are you talking about?” I ask, trying to calm her down. She shouldn’t be this perceptive. I should have checked the walls. That guy was smart fitting a third-year. “I would never kill Hakanagi-senpai!”

“I would never kill Hakanagi-senpai!” Itō-senpai mimics my voice in a babyish tone. “Hell, you can’t even hide your face. You hide behind that pretty tongue and cute smile and do everything and anything. And this guy? He doesn’t say anything because you’ve earned him. You’re not the vice-president. You’re a street bitch like Tachibana who rises socially by stepping on others and spreading your legs for your own reasons. My parents are actually rich, while you? I never heard of an Aishi family,” she spits. “You killed Manabu and you think you can get away with it because you’re the prez’s babygirl. Me? I’m left with the scorn because everyone thinks he screwed off with Tachibana to some tax haven or whatever.” She pulls out something from her pocket—a knife, I realize. “I’ll make you taste from your poison, starting by chopping off that baby face of yours.”

She charges at the same time Senpai moves. His arm collides with the blade and it drives deep into his flesh, but stops moving down at me. Without stopping, he drives his other hand in a chop at her solar plexus, knocking her out.

“It’s over,” Senpai whispers, pulling the knife out of his arm and then turning to look at me. “Aishi-san, are you okay?”

My knees are barely holding my weight. My breath begins to come out in shuddering sobs as I realize what’s just happened. Tears begin to stream from my cheeks.

“S-s-s-senpai!!” Without thinking, I shove myself forward. I trip and fall, but he catches me right on time, my face landing on his chest with a soft *thump*.

“Aishi-san…” I know he’s trying to calm me down, but right now it’s too much. I just watched this bitch almost kill Senpai and he wants me to calm down?

“That was so reckless!” I shout, my voice muffled and raspy from crying. “You could’ve… died, Senpai! She had a knife… Stupid!” I collapse in sobs again.

Gently Senpai’s hand strokes my hair. “It’s okay, Aishi-san,” he whispers. “You’re safe now. We’re safe now. Don’t worry.”

“And your arm?”

“I’m fine.” His fingers trace my scalp softly. “Don’t worry, Aishi-san. I’m not hurt. Your safety is more important than my own, for as your senpai I should protect you and keep you safe from all harm.”

I look up, blushing. “Senpai…”

For a moment I’m lost in the hypnotic stare of those brown eyes as he smiles at me reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, Aishi-san,” he says. “I’ll protect you with my life until it is gone.”

Something suddenly shifts within his eyes and he blinks. For a moment, I feel like I’ve actually seen it—the sudden pink gleam, whirling in in the brown of his irises. It only lasts for a flickering instant, but when it vanishes, Senpai’s eyes are still glimmering.

He starts to lean down towards my face when suddenly I hear an incoherent shout from over the wall. Reluctantly breaking from him, I scan our surroundings. Someone’s heard Itō-senpai’s shouting and has called their buddies here.

“Senpai, we have to go,” I tell him. “Or someone will accuse us of hitting Itō-senpai.”

“True,” he says. “We have to go.” Then he glances around. “Aishi-san, could you please carry her to the infirmary? I’ll go to the student council office tell the Shijō about what we got.”

“Okay,” I say. He smiles at me, then takes off, vanishing.

Okay, now let’s take out the trash, Tsukasa.

Smiling, I bend over to look at Itō-senpai. She’s completely unconscious from the blow. Good. That makes my job easier. I carry her into the P.E. shed, where I decide will be a believable setting.

“You’re going to regret what you did, Itō-senpai,” I say, smiling at her. “You called me a bitch and stabbed my darling Senpai. For this, you can join your Manabu in the 9th Dante’s Inferno.”

She looks up with a vague wisp of consciousness and her eyes widen. At the knife in my hand, probably. Eh, who cares. She won’t be seeing anything else soon enough.

“Yes, I killed him,” I continue, still smiling. “Him, and Setsuki-senpai, Bōzuki-san, and their vices, except Tachibana-senpai, because I couldn’t find her anywhere in town. Because they were in Senpai’s way. They were in OUR way. Without getting them out, I could not be Senpai’s vice-president.

“Honestly, after I killed Hakanagi-senpai, I was looking for an excuse to get rid of you,” I tell her. “You called me a bitch but you’re the hooker. You’re every guy’s dream, even when you already were in a relationship. You say he cheated on you, but I’ve heard about ten of your boyfriends even before the election. And because of this, you might end up trying to woo Senpai. But he’s MINE.

“So I hope you’ll forgive me,” I say, raising my knife slowly. “But I need you out of the way, Airi Itō.”

With what strength she has left, she laughs at her own death. “You’re a demon.”

“Legion nomen mihi est, quia multi sumus. I am Legion, for we are many,” I reply. “You’re the demon here. I am merely taking the trash out so that I can be with Senpai forever.”

I slide the knife, over and over, through the veins in her wrists, while she watches in her numb half-consciousness. I also spread cuts over her arms and legs, and, for good measure, take a slice at her jugular. Her head slowly hangs down. She’ll be dead in a few hours if no one finds her. Good. Nobody looks in the P.E. shed until it’s too late, I’ve learned that from Nagahara-kun’s suicide. Nobody thought of looking there until he’d already hung himself.

Okay. Now to get rid of the knife, because Senpai and I might be in trouble if this evidence is found.

I run through the P.E. shed, to where they keep the blowtorch for practical uses. Putting on some rubber gloves after cleaning my hands—and the knife, because I can’t leave any possible traces—from the blood, I use the blowtorch to slowly melt the knife until it’s nothing more than a mass of liquid iron on the floor, which I use a bucket to push into a corner. With this, the crime weapon is gone.

And I’ll burn the gloves at home, so there’s no evidence.

Shoving them into my pocket, I run back to the student council room.

Rival eliminated, now the sweet high school story must go on!

***

“Rainbow-chan, did you hear it?” Tae asks as the three of us take a walk through the cafeteria, looking for a place to sit. “Itō-senpai from class 2-A was found dead in the P.E. shed. Suicide, the forensics called it. Besides her wrists being sliced, she was covered in knife cuts.”

“How horrible,” Chiho-chan says, lowering her eyes to the ground. “It’s the second suicide since the year started. First Nagahara-kun, now Itō-senpai… It’s so terrible.”

“True,” I say, staring at the sky, trying to look lost in the swirling clouds above us. “I don’t understand these teenagers. Right when they’re at the best part of their lives, they choose to take them…”

No, I don’t understand. I don’t care. Airi Itō was only placed here to momentarily hinder me. And to make my bond with Senpai stronger.

He will only trust me. He will only look at me.

No matter how many other girls they put here, I will get them away.

Because Senpai is my soulmate, and soulmates are destined to be with each other.

After all, what’s the point of a romance story if the main couple doesn’t come together in the end?