Clash of Ideals

As soon as the first day of school ended, I had already made a name of myself as the 'Loner guy' of the entire classroom.

Knowing this, I knew deep down that I had managed to achieve what I had desired. Be alone for the rest of my school year once more.

"I guess this is a good way end things for the day..."

As I stood up from my seat, for some reason, I glanced over at where Miss Mitsuru was, and a cold gaze pierced my very being.

"Crap... I'm screwed"

"Makoto. I'd like to speak with you in my office"

"I understand..."

As the rest of the students started to exit the classroom, I could hear a few of them whispering to one another about the fact that I had already been called over to her office on the first day.

"Stay out of business. It's none of your concern"

Once they had all left the room, Miss Mitsuru stood up from her seat and simply exited the room. Seeing this, I could immediately tell what it was that she was trying to tell me.

"I'd rather follow her then be dragged around the entire school by her..."

I exited the classroom and hastened my pace to be next to her "It's nice to see you in my classroom again, Makoto"

"It is?"

"Of course, having my favorite student is always a blessing"

"Don't you mean a curse?"

"No, because if you were a curse, I'd want to get rid of you and since I don't want to do that, I consider you a blessing"

"You really do say the strangest of things"

"I try to be honest, that's all"

I had no words to make a comeback with, the only thing I could muster doing was walking alongside her. We stayed in silence for the entire way and upon arriving at her office, she heaved a sigh of relief and threw herself onto the couch that she had.

"Today was a pretty tiresome day..."

"It was?"

"Yeah, I had to deal with that smartass answer of yours"

"I just stated the facts, that's all"

"Is that really the case?"

"Yeah, it was"

"Then... Moving on, what did you think of Katsumi's answer?"

"It was a nice girl answer"

"Nice girl answer?"

"Yes, if you don't mind my next words... It was the answer of someone who simply believes that everything can be alright if they work on it. They believe things can be justified with a reason without thinking on the more in-depth aspect of it"

"Such as?"

"Sure, a human being is capable of changing if they work on their mistakes and what not, but at the same time, they can use a façade to show that they do understand their wrongdoings, but upon noticing a slight gap, they can immediately take off that mask and go back to their old ways"

She heaved a sigh and simply smiled at me "You really are capable of having an answer for everything"

"It's not that I have an answer for everything. I just like to be logical with things"

"You always impress me, Makoto"

"I'm always capable of showing my intelligence and enlighten others with my-"

"Stop the sarcasm"

"..."

"Do you even know why you're here?'

"Because you wanted to catch up with me after the long break that we had?"

"Not in a million years"

"Then I don't know"

She stood up from her couch and slowly made her way towards me and with a smile on her face, she poked my chest and the sudden feeling of fear washed over me.

"This is bad... I don't like this"

"I'm going to have you working with someone"

"Working? How much will I get paid?"

"The pay is any one thing from the vending machine"

"Sold"

"I don't know whether to be glad about this or disappointed that you accepted without even hearing me out"

"I won't be able to get away from it even if I deny it, right?"

"Yeah, you're stuck with it now"

"Then let's get this over with so that I can head home"

Without skipping a beat, we both exited the main school building and started making our way towards the school's club building.

Upon arriving there, we headed up towards the third floor and made our way down the hallway towards a relatively small room.

"What is this?"

"This is going to be your new club"

"I didn't sign up for this"

"You did as soon as you accepted my offer"

"Damn..."

"I told you to read the fine print"

"When in the hell did, I sign a document?"

"Who knows?"

A sigh escaped my breath and as we made our way inside the room, I couldn't help but notice that it was rather... Dusty and clustered to say the least. At the same time, one could tell that the room had been completely forgotten for the reason that they didn't even bother with changing the appliances and what not that were inside.

"This is a big heaping mess of trash"

"Really?"

"Yeah, but I'm used to it"

"That's good to hear"

"You're not even going to question it?"

"No reason to do so"

Upon the both of us entering the room, she pulled out two chairs. One for her and one for me, but for whatever reason, she pulled out a third one with no person to claim it.

"So, what am I doing here?"

"We still have one person left"

"You know that I don't work good in a team. I can handle this by myself"

"Well, this club is something that needs to be handled by two people with... Polar opposite personalities"

"No..."

Before I could even declare that I wanted to quit my job, a cheerful voice called out from the door "Miss Mitsuru, what did you need me here for?"

Upon looking over at the voice, I could very well feel my heart sink down to the very depths of my stomach "Why does it have to be her of all people?"

"Katsumi. Makoto. I have something to tell the both of you"

"Yes?"

"..."

"I want the both of you to run this club, it still doesn't have a name, but the entire purpose of it is to assist people with whatever problems their dealing, understand?"

"Assist them with their problems?"

"Can we make their problems worse?"

"If you do that, Makoto. I'll give you a good old punch to the gut, how does that sound?"

"I'd rather not. I don't eat all that much and if you do that, I feel like I'll end up throwing it all up"

"Then don't tempt me, got it?'

"Sir, yes sir!"

Miss Mitsuru sighed to herself and looked over at Katsumi "Ignoring this idiot over here..."

"I have feelings you know that, right?"

"You two will have to help out people with their problems, find ways for them to solve it or if it comes down to it, the both of you will need to stop it yourselves" 

"The reason that you two were chosen was simple. One of you believes that things can be solved in a respectable and dignified manner while the other believes that by using trickery and stating the things as they are without sugar coating is the best option"

"The both of you will try to either work together or solve the case with your own strategy, simple, isn't it?"

I looked over at Katsumi for a brief moment and when our gazes met, I almost instantly looked away and clicked my tongue "Me? Get along with her? Not in a million years"

"I don't think that'll be possible, Miss Mitsuru"

"It isn't?"

"We have polar opposite personalities. We both have different ideals and on top of that, we both think completely different" "There could be one occasion where she might help someone even if they insist on not needed it while I'll simply let them to die and handle their problems on their own. A team of us two would be impossible"

"I understand where you're coming from with this whole thought of yours, but upon being thrown into the problem itself, those thoughts could very easily change. That's human nature"

"..."

Katsumi stared at me for a bit and then returned her gaze to Miss Mitsuru "I'm assuming that this whole club thing is a guaranteed thing, correct?"

"Yes, us teachers can't be handling every single thing that comes up with all the work that we have to do and thus, was decided that we would have a club that would handle the more or less personal matters of students and the like"

"I see..."

"And to start off this whole thing, I already have a problem for the two of you to handle" She turned towards the door and called for the person to come in.

"Thank you for having me"

A female student made her way inside the clubroom and stood beside Miss Mitsuru who was smiling at the both of us.

"This is Ogawa Miwa, and she will be your first person you have to help out" "Miwa, go ahead"

"Yes..." She took a step forward, introduced herself once more for everyone's sake and started accounting her problem. "I'm here for the reason that one of my best friends, Okada Kyoko has been ignoring me and I feel like there's something that I'm missing that could've made her feel uncomfortable of bothered her in some way"

"Have you tried talking to her?"

She turned her gaze to Katsumi and nodded "Yes, I have. She's responded to me, but immediately cut's me off whenever I try to make an even longer conversation or try to bring up the topic about why she's acting like that"

"Isn't she simply ignoring you?"

"We can't assume it's like that, Makoto"

"What are you talking about? She's clearly ignoring her"

"What if it's just a misunderstanding"

"I really doubt this Kyoko girl is stupid enough to be misinterpreting something without a core reason for doing so"

She let out a sigh and smiled "I knew we would bump heads, but I wasn't expecting it to be this quickly"

I heaved a sigh, stuck my hands into my pockets and looked away "I knew upon laying eyes on you that we would"

A sudden tense atmosphere fell before us, but just like that, Miss Mitsuru laid her hands on tp of both our shoulders and crouched down a bit.

"Now, now. It's no time to be getting mad and rough with our words. I only wanted to tell you both the problem at hand so that the both of you could think up your own ideas for how to handle it" "Starting tomorrow, you both will try to find out the reason for Kyoko's sudden attitude and for the time limit... I'd say two days starting tomorrow, how does that sound?"

"I'll solve it, Miss Mitsuru!"

"Fine by me"

"Perfect, then you're all dismissed"

With that call out, I picked up my things and headed out the clubroom without a second thought. Upon exiting the school and making my way back home, I thought back to the words that Miss Mitsuru had told us.

"Solving other people's problems... What a weird club activity"

I scratched my head for a bit and let out a sigh. Just before arriving at my house, a smile crept up "I already know what to do. I just have to put into action"

"With this, I should be able to solve the whole thing and I'll be able to show that by using dirty tricks and being seen as the bad guy can bring in results regardless of what anyone else says"

"I'll show her that being a just person won't bring in results all the time"

In conclusion... Being the bad guy is the easiest way of getting results that are desired. -By Miyashita Makoto.