Chapter 2:

My Initiation Came with a Requirement from the Student Council President

A Saint’s Guide to Reading Dangerous Fiction


The doorknob rattled a few times before it opened. A slender girl of modest height with a bob of black hair marched inside with a sway of of her hips, with posture that never allowed her shoulders to slump forward. With the exception of the charm shackled to her wrist, which held a few keychains from popular Draftant series, she appeared to be a model student.

"I hope the paperwork is finished, Erina," the girl said.

"Oh hey, Lucy. Thanks again for the help."

"First the club budget and then the Draftant Soul cover-up. If the school faculty catches you, I won't be able to save you."

Lucy surveyed the clubroom, observing all the timely additions Erina managed to supply the summer before. Despite her professional, Spartan sweep of all the bookcases, I noticed that she lingered on some row of books longer than others. On the final bookcase I could vaguely see her perusing the pages of one of the Draftant books before promptly slamming it shut.

"Sorry for the inconvenience, but I swear, this club isn't just for me," Erina said, lifting the Assassin's Lost Edge in hand and scrambling to shelve the problematic Draftant. 

When Erina shifted away from Lucy, the stern girl turned her gaze to me, looking with curious squinted eyes.

"Are you Akira Saint," Lucy asked.

"Uhm, yes. Out of curiosity, what did Erina say about me?"

"Nothing scathing, don't worry. It's unfortunate that you have to take remedial classes because of uncontrollable circumstances. Because of Erina's request, I vouched for rescinding your remedial classes, but it won't happen unless you join an extracurricular club."

"Wait, you have to power to do that. Are you a student council member?"

"Student council president as a matter of fact," she said, placing a hand on her chest and smirking.

"Then I'm in you debt, Ms. Student Council President," I said, bowing ninety degrees. How terrifying. I was a few sentences away from getting too familiar with her.

Erina rejoined me after shelving the active Draftant novel. I now felt a looming pressure as she was waiting for me to sign the club member registration form in triplicate. There was also a glare that resurfaced on Lucy's face as soon as Erina rejoined me.

"Hey, Erina's not coercing you to sign, is she?"

"No not at all, haha. As weird as it sounds, I'm willingly joining the Problem Children's Book Club of my own free will." 

"That's kinda mean of you to say, Akira," Erina said, pouting.

As bizarre as it sounded, I felt more safety than anxiety when I was with her. When our parents weren't in earshot, she would leap to action whenever I was in danger. Of course, a lot of those instances of danger where instigated by Erina in the first place. With a chuckle, I signed the three forms. This action was met with an earful from Erina.

"Hey, what was so funny? Did it warrant punching you?"

"Nah. I was just thinking about the favor I owed you."

Erina shrunk into herself and went silent. Seeing this overly-personal getsure caused Lucy to aggressively clear her throat. I guess it didn't matter. There was plenty of time to talk about the Doorstopper incident in private. As nice as Lucy was, I wanted her to avoid suspecting the two of us and rescinding her kindness.

"Since your both here now, I wanted to clear up the conditions of keeping your club in operation," Lucy said with a scratchy throat.

Erina reigned herself in and kept silent. I followed suit, eager for any chance at redeeming myself for that foolish summer incident.

"Erina, Akira, if you want the Problem Children's Book Club to remain in operation then you need to do two things. First, you need proof your activities are enriching the community."

The student council president pointed at Erina for emphasis.

"Erina, I need signed documents from your future clients."

"Yes, ma'am" Erina said, saluting in deference.

The saluting was completely unnecessary, but at least she was being respectful. But clients? This Problem Children's Book Club already raised a few questions. And I just joined a few minutes ago. Well, I guess we'll have plenty of time to sort everything out. It's not like I have any classes later.

"And what about me," I asked.

"You will need to help her find three other members to meet the minimum club threshold."

Oh, that's right. Erina was so preoccupied with setting up the club, she probably forgot to ask other students to join. Her tunnel vision when it came to certain tasks was pretty scary. 

"Understood, I'll be on the lookout for potential members."

"Last but not least," she continued, pumping her fist in front of her chest. "You must do all this by the end of this month!"

With a nod from both Erina and I, Lucy took the registration forms but stopped herself short after gripping the doorknob. "And remember, you're in the enviable position of studying Draftant novels, don't screw it up." With a casual wave,  she closed the door behind her. 

I stood up from the splintery seat that I warmed for nearly an hour and stretched my limbs. In the time it took to get through most of the introductory club formalities, I hadn't noticed that the natural light that flooded in from the window turned to a shade of reddish orange.

"Well, that was informative, but I can't help but feel we forgot something," I said.

"Like what?"

"Perhaps, maybe, the general mission of this club. What did you tell the school?"

"Oh that's right. You weren't here when I had the meetings with Lucy. You might want to sit down again, this may take a few minutes."

***

I willfully sat down again to listen the goings-on that happened in the clubroom the weeks leading up to the first day of classes. The first meeting between Erina and Lucy began with a proposal to form a new club. Her original objective was to use the club as a means to find strange, dangerous Draftant books, but bringing this level of danger to the academy for youthful, devil-may-care reasons was struck down before Erina elaborated on her reasons. Interestingly, she was rather short with her original reasoning. But afterward I received an interesting tidbit about a rumor that the original author of The Darkworld Tourist series returned to Psychara on personal business. After hearing this bit of news, caused me to consciously gravitate my focus toward her fresh copy of the ten year old novel. 

I didn't want to discourage Erina with any personal line of questioning so I continued to listen to her, but as the conversation went on I began to have my suspicions about why she formed the club. 

To get the club approved, Erina changed her approach for the next meeting. She told Lucy that by collecting these Draftant books, she would also help resolve any issues that arose as a result of their aberrant behavior. And after effectively neutralizing the danger the books posed to Saints as a whole, she would collect the Draftant and research its contents to help benefit Protochara, as well as report any unintentional errors to the original author. 

After hours of fanatical praise of a Draftant book's positive value on Protochara, Lucy eventually relented and granted her a budget and materials to form the club. However, one egregious issue remained that I personally had to tend to.

"You didn't book any clients in advance," I asked, all emotion draining from my face.

"It seemed like an obvious issue at the time, but I still had to secure The Darkworld Tourist."

I've known Erina for nearly as long as we both lived, so I knew she wasn't stupid, but there was something about Draftant books that turned her brain to mush. I seethed out my internal frustration right then and there, realizing it wouldn't serve either Erina or I in this situation. I remembered my dumb request the summer before, and let go of any petty vitriol. Until my duties as a club member were finished, I'd let go of all my personal feelings. It was the only way to repay her for pushing her to help finish the story I long wanted finished. But I couldn't tell her any of this. Knowing how reckless she was, she'd try to personally fix the problem herself.

If I hadn't asked her to help me finish The Darkworld Tourist, she wouldn't have gotten hurt.

"Alright, don't worry about it. I'll take care of it," I said, the words slowly dribbling out.

"Really! Your a lifesaver Akira. Thank you."

The two of us left the clubroom lit by reddish-orange light, some new shadows forming after we finished talking. We took the same path to the bullet shuttle two streets down from Patron Saint's Academy's campus. Within minutes the public transport pod gently catapulted us back to our hometown with the help of the magnetic grid path that connected every city in Protochara back to the academic hearth that was Juvenilia. After we both parted ways and said our goodbyes, I felt this growing dread building in my chest. I tried ignoring it and knocked on the door to be let in by my family. I didn't let them ask any questions and just bolted up the stairs and entered my room and closed the door behind me.

Even as I jettisoned onto my bed after a long day, the feeling ruthlessly struck me again.

"Dammit, I still want to finish it!"

Author's Note

 When I first wrote the first chapter I had the tough choice of either posting one longer chapter that would be four-thousand words, or splitting in into two chapters. Even now I think splitting it was the best option. I apologize for the way the first chapter ends and the overall quality of  chapter two overall. I promise that this is the weakest chapter and every chapter onwards will be stronger than chapter two.  Thanks to everyone who has read up until this point. Please leave a comment and give me your thoughts. Any criticism is welcomed and it helps me develop as a writer!












Briar Rhodes
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swagmc
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