The Moment of Truth

I grinded my teeth as I was being dragged by Sakurasaki’s Student Council President towards my school. He was treating me roughly, completely betraying that civilized, honor student façade of his. The rest of my men were trudging behind us, guarded tightly by the other Student Council officers. Though those who were grievously injured by the fight were left behind to be treated by Sakurasaki’s school nurse.

“Hey, aren’t you the President? Why are you following that little girl’s orders like a loyal dog?” I shot the President a question, partly to annoy him and partly to confirm my suspicion. “Didn’t you hate her—?”

The President suddenly grabbed my collar and pulled me close, choking me in the process.

“Shut your mouth before I beat you up.” His cold eyes were hiding murderous intent beneath them. “I really want to pay you back for hurting Shiba-kun and Kagura, but I’m doing my best to hold back since I’m a third party here. Don’t make me lose my patience.”

I nodded my head quickly, and only then the President let me go. I coughed violently and tried my best to distance myself from him. This guy was as scary as Kagura Sakuya. He might seem like a proper and diligent Student Council President, but deep down he was a violent beast.

“What…I thought he said he has the Student Council in his grasp. Did he lie to me?” I muttered to myself.

“Hm? He?” The President took interest in my words. “Who are you talking about—”

“President.”

The Vice-President interrupted at that opportune moment.

“Takamine Academy is just ahead, and the school principal is waiting at the front gate.” She informed him.

“Ah, is that so?” The President directed his attention to the school building up ahead. As the Vice President said, the skinny figure of Takamine Academy’s principal was pacing anxiously in front of the gate. “Sorry, but can I leave him to you? I need to go and talk to the principal first.”

“Yes, please leave it to me.” The Vice President gave a crisp bow at him.

“Thank you, Marika. If anything happens, just give me a shout.” The President handed me over to her before approaching the school principal.

I glanced at the Vice President. Somehow, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she purposely interrupted the President so he wouldn’t ask about that person.

“This is a personal warning from me.” The Vice President suddenly said in a low voice. “You better keep your mouth shut about him, else you will get erased.”

“Ha!” I couldn’t help but scoff. “So you’re the one he’s talking about, huh?”

“If you speak another word…” She shot him a sharp glare.

I shook my head. “I won’t. I’m not that stupid to defy a member of the Kagura Family, you know.”

The Vice President eyed me suspiciously. Then she looked away. “Not that it matters now when you’ve lost your usefulness.” She whispered.

Her grim tone sent shivers down my spine. “Hold on. What do you mean—”

“KARASU NATSUHIKO!!!”

A loud, angry yell interrupted my question. Marika stepped away from me upon hearing that shout. I turned towards the speaker, just as he gave me a big slap to my face. I was too stunned to react at that humiliating treatment in front of everyone.

“What in the world do you think you’re doing?!” The school principal, Kaga Kunihito, shouted. His skinny body was trembling from anger and his face beet-red. “Not only did you assault students from another school, you also forced your fellow students to commit the same atrocities! Have you no shame?!”

I internally clicked my tongue. So I was completely made into the scapegoat this time. I swore to find Kagura’s collaborator and dispose of them before making my next move.

“Kaga-sensei, please calm down.”

However, I never expected that the collaborator would show themselves so boldly in front of me like this.

“I’m sure Karasu-kun is capable of reflecting on his mistakes. If you talk to him properly, he’ll definitely listen to you.” A third-year student appeared next to Kaga. He had a good-natured smile plastered on his face, but his cat-like eyes were clearly laughing at me. “It’s unfortunate that I only came to know about this incident after he went on a rampage.” He said sarcastically.

“Shindo Kyoya! You traitor!” I growled at him, the former Takamine Banchou that I had overthrown with Kagura Kikuchi’s help.

Despite my accusation, Kyoya calmly ignored it. “Although it pains me as his friend, I hope that Kaga-sensei gives him the proper punishment so Karasu-kun will not repeat the same mistake.” Kyoya’s honeyed words made me sick.

“Hmm, I will do so. You’ve always been a sensible and splendid student, Shindo-kun.” Kaga nodded in satisfaction. “As you’ve suggested, Karasu Natsuhiko, Kitajima Miki, and Nishiya Hibari will be suspended for the rest of the semester. They will not be permitted to take the final exam, which means they probably will have to repeat a year.”

“Wha—?!” I was shocked by the harsh punishment.

Repeating a year?! Then wouldn’t I graduate at the same time as my useless little brother?!

“Wait a damn minute! That’s not fair—!” I started protesting, right when Kyoya stepped forward and clamped his hand over my mouth.

“It serves you right, my pitiful follower who betrayed me first and overthrew me.” He whispered to my ear. “How does it feel to be thoroughly defeated by Kagura Sakuya? I’ve told you many times that she’s not someone you can mess with, yet you never listened.”

“You…! You’re a boot-licking traitor! You sly coward!” I screamed at him, but it all came out muffled.

“Ah, forgive me, Kaga-sensei. I just didn’t want him to interrupt you any further.” Kyoya apologized to Kaga with a brilliant smile, without removing his hand from my mouth.

“Ahem, I don’t mind, it’s actually quieter this way.” Kaga coughed. “As for the rest of them, since they’re being forced against their will and Shindo-kun also pleads for their innocence, they will be suspended for three days! I hope you all learn your lesson and not repeat this shameful behavior! You’re all dismissed!” After saying his piece, the principal shot a last glare at me before returning to the school.

The delinquents behind me cheered loudly at their reduced punishment. They all flocked toward Kyoya and started thanking him with such fervor, as if he had just saved their lives. Kyoya removed his hand from my mouth to calm them down, deliberately ignoring my death glare.

“Are you trying to steal your position back from me?!” I hissed angrily.

“Hm? What are you saying?” Kyoya shot me an incredulous look. “Is there anyone here who still think of you as the Banchou?”

I flinched at those words. Refusing to believe him, I looked around desperately, but all I saw was delinquents singing Kyoya’s praise as the one who truly cared for them. None of them stood by my side, while my most trusted subordinates were left behind because of their injuries.

Kyoya patted my shoulder with a pitying look. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that my successor is properly educated to never go against Kagura Sakuya.”

You will never be the Banchou, was what he practically said.

I sank to my knees and hung my head. I got out with barely any wounds from fighting against Kagura, yet I lost everything else.

That day, Takamine Academy once again witnessed a change of Banchou.

*****

Two weeks had passed since that incident.

That day, Sakuya who collapsed was urgently sent to the nearest hospital by the panicking Sasaki. The rest of us were sent home by Yuuki and the other Student Council officers.

Sakuya was hospitalized for a week before being discharged, but even after that, she hadn’t come to school.

Because she was suspended by the principal.

Since it was a huge fight with a lot of casualties and many witnesses, the principal had to punish the students involved. Nonetheless, with Sakuya being the only one who fought, she was the only student suspended for the rest of the semester.

Yuuki actually offered to share Sakuya’s punishment, for he ordered the Student Council to assist her in the fight. But the principal refused. He insisted on treating the Student Council’s actions as mediating the fight instead.

On the other hand, the delinquents were blaming themselves for Sakuya’s suspension. Since they couldn’t change the principal’s verdict, they channelled their frustration into studying for the final exam instead. Coupled with the hellish studying they had been doing all this time, I was sure that the delinquents would pass the final exam just fine.

Today was the last day of the final exam, and also the day when the remedial test’s result would be announced. All of the delinquents were gathering in front of the school’s announcement board. They had a rare nervous look and couldn’t stop fidgeting.

“It will be okay, it will be okay, I will definitely pass the test…” Narumi kept muttering to himself as if praying.

“Damn, why did they take so long to announce the results?! I couldn’t sleep for two weeks!” Abe griped while holding his head.

“You guys are so pathetic…stop fretting and just wait resignedly like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.” Kazu said with empty eyes.

Touma stared at the three of them with puzzled look. “If you studied hard, you’d pass the test. Isn’t that obvious?”

All three of them and I also stared back at Touma with an incredulous look.

“Then, why did you have to take the remedial test in the first place?” I asked.

“Because I played around with my girlfriend too much, so I didn’t have time to study.” Touma answered innocently.

“Ugh! All popular guys should just go and explode!” Narumi fell to his knees while crying out and repeatedly hitting the floor. Abe squatted next to him and patted his shoulder comfortingly.

“He’s so pure, huh…” Kazu commented wryly.

“Speaking of which, Sakuya-san has missed the final exam because of the suspension. Will her grades be okay?” I changed the topic.

“Don’t worry, the principal agreed to let her take the final exam from home.” Hiiro popped out of nowhere and nonchalantly answered my question.

“How did you—no, never mind.” I shook my head and gave up asking his source of information.

“Asahi told me, actually.”

Hiiro’s next sentence made me turn to him in shock. The intelligence-gathering team leader had never revealed his source of information before. And yet, now Hiiro was readily telling me about it.

“Apparently Asahi heard about it from the President. Since you’re going to hear about it anyway, I’m telling you in advance.” Hiiro shrugged, as if it was not a big deal.

I laughed. “You’re really dishonest about your feelings, Hiiro. Isn’t that why you haven’t confessed to Sakuya-san?”

“Wha—?!” Hiiro’s face was instantly dyed red. “I don’t want to hear that from the guy who joined the enemy faction just because of a small fight!”

“You…!” My face was also flushed red from embarrassment. “Stop bringing up my dark history—!”

“Be quiet, both of you.” Ouji suddenly cut in and separated the two of us. “They’re going to post the result now.”

“…!”

All of us focused our attention toward the announcement board, where two teachers were posting the remedial test’s result. The hallways instantly turned silent, enough that you could hear a pin drop. I held my breath as the teachers pasted the announcement and stepped back.

Remedial Test Result

Minimum passing mark : 40 points

Number of students with passing marks — 79

Number of students with failing marks — 0

Listed below it were the names of students and their respective scores.

My eyes were fixated to the number of students with failing marks.

Zero.

Which means…

“WE WON THE BET!!!!!!!!”

We cheered so loud that the whole school could hear us.

“We did it! We all passed!”

“Now Kagura-san won’t have to leave school!”

“Summer festival! Beach date! Fireworks! Here I come!”

I turned towards Ouji and Hiiro, who were also grinning like madmen. Without saying a word, we raised our hands and did a high-five.

“We need to tell Sakuya-san about this as soon as possible!” I said happily.

“Yeah, let’s stop by at her house after school! It’s a visiting-your-sick-girlfriend event!” Hiiro spouted some nonsense in his giddiness.

“And I get to keep my title.” Ouji nodded proudly.

At those words, both of us abruptly turned to him.

“ “Huh?” ”

We turned to check the score list.

Mikado Ouji — 90 points (Highest score)

“ “HUH?!” ”

We turned to Ouji again, this time with gaping mouths.

“How?!” “Are you really Ouji-senpai?!”

We pressed him with some rude remarks.

“If it’s for the sake of staying next to Kagura-san, I will spare no efforts.” Ouji crossed his arms and said coolly.

Hiiro and I exchanged shocked glances.

“Hey Hiiro, could it be that Ouji-senpai…” I whispered to him.

“…is actually the most formidable rival?” Hiiro finished my sentence in a whisper.

“What are you two whispering about? Let’s go and buy the juice Kagura-san likes so much.” Ouji called at us.

“Y-Yeah!” We followed him.

*****

It happened on the same day that the delinquents snatched a resounding victory despite the overwhelming odds. Later that night, around the time when most people were asleep and the streets were empty without a single soul in sight, a lone figure walked quickly under the cover of darkness. They wore a hooded jacket that cleverly hid their face and each step was eerily silent.

They stopped in front of a public payphone, a rare object nowadays that nearly went extinct because of smartphones. But for certain people, there was no better method of communication to avoid leaving any tracks than a public payphone.

I impatiently inserted the required coin before furiously punching the number I needed to dial.

“Damn, why do I need to go this far just to report back?!” I cursed under my breath. “I’ve been messaging and calling them so many times, but they haven’t responded at all! Are they serious about capturing her or not?! What a bunch of useless idiots!”

I kept muttering curses as I waited for the call to connect. The number I dialled was a hotline to the family head himself, a number reserved for emergency contact only. I expected him to quickly pick it up—regardless of the ungodly hour I was calling at now. And yet, my attempt was met with the cold, monotone voice of an operator telling me to leave a message.

“Damn it!” I hurled the phone back to its place in frustration. “Why is no one picking up—?!”

“Well, maybe it’s because they’re sleeping right now?”

A playful voice answered me out of nowhere.

I hurriedly turned around, just to have a wooden sword jabbed at my back, preventing me from making any moves.

“Don’t move, okay? I can always knock you out with this, but it’s a hassle to drag your unconscious body around, so I’d rather not.” The threat, delivered with the same playful tone as earlier, sent shivers down my spine. Despite her tone, I knew that she was absolutely serious.

“Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping at home like the good little girl you are?” I glanced back at the person holding the wooden sword. “Ojou-sama?”

Sakuya ignored my attempt at riling her up. “I see you’ve finally become desperate enough, Kikuchi. Honestly, it was quite tiring to wait night after night until you took the bait.”

At her words, I reflexively tried to turn around. Sakuya’s wooden sword smacked my back without any mercy, nearly toppling me off balance.

“What did I tell you? Stay there like a good dog.” Sakuya warned me coldly.

“Never mind that! What are you talking about?! Are you telling me that you’ve been monitoring me this whole time?!” I shouted.

“I suggest you keep your voice down, lest you wake everyone up.” Sakuya glanced around, making sure that no one heard the ruckus.

“I don’t care about that!” I ignored Sakuya’s warning and marched toward her with a terrifying look on my face. “All those ignored calls, text messages, and even letters, are you behind all of them?!”

I was about to grab her shoulder when Sakuya smacked my hands away, snapping me back into my senses.

“Yeah, it was me.” The edge of her lips curled into a victorious smirk. “I did it from the night you came here. You so daringly stepped into my territory, surely you didn’t expect me to stay quiet, did you?”

I was stunned when I heard that. From the day I arrived at this town, I had been sending regular reports every night, be it through messages, mails, or even carrier pigeons. I’d always receive a response from the family, up until the moment I revealed Kagura Sakuya’s presence in this town two weeks ago. Are you telling me that she had been intercepting all of my communications and sent back false responses—thoroughly playing me for a fool this whole time?!

The all-knowing smile on Sakuya’s face had answered my questions.

“Whose fault was it that I collapsed the other day? Care to make a guess?” Sakuya took a step forward and peered closely at me, enjoying the confusion written all over my face.

“I-Impossible…” I blanched when every piece fell perfectly into its place.

So the lack of sleep was caused by monitoring my movement every night, not because of helping those brats study?!

“How did you even intercept the call to family head’s number?! I’ve used the payphone to hide my track!” I slammed my hand on the payphone machine.

“Do you remember where you got that number in the first place?” Sakuya answered carefreely.

“From the letters…you mean that number is a fake?!” I inadvertently stepped back. She wouldn’t have to intercept the call if the phone number was fake in the first place.

“Bingo.” Sakuya grinned. “As expected of the former Sakurasaki Academy Student Council President. Your time overseas surely didn’t disappoint.”

I took a deep breath and forcefully calmed myself down. Even if I’d fallen into her traps, line, hook, and sinker, I still had to do something about it. The family head would cut my throat if he ever heard of this failure!

“Then, what do you want? Why did you bother to wait until tonight to tell me all of this?” I questioned her.

“Yeah, you see…” Sakuya nodded with a serious look on her face. “The number you just called isn’t necessarily a fake one. While it’s true that it’s not the old man’s number, calling that number will alert a particular police detective I knew. Congratulations, you’ve just gotten yourself arrested!” She said it with such a cheerful voice that I was utterly dumbfounded.

“H-Huh?! Arrested?! What the hell are you talking about?!” I shouted.

“You’re going to be arrested for kidnapping and trafficking an underage girl, of course!” Sakuya beamed at me. “You see, you are a part of a human trafficking syndicate, who is disguising himself as a school teacher to find new prey. You’ve even employed common delinquents to terrorize the students and make it easier for you to corner your target.

Alas, when you tried to kidnap your target in the middle of the night, the poor girl managed to escape from you and called the police. What do you think? Do you like this backstory I came up with for you?"

My face went paler and paler the more I listened to Sakuya’s ramblings. If Sakuya showed the police all of my reports about her that she had intercepted up until now, she would have the perfect evidence to frame me as a human trafficker.

“You have nowhere to run, Kikuchi.” Sakuya levelled her wooden sword at me. “Just quietly go to prison and repent for disturbing my peaceful life here. Who knows, maybe the old man would keel over and pass away by the time you got out of prison.”

I gritted my teeth. “Do you really think I’ll quietly let the police catch me? You knew what the family head did to anyone who attracted the police’s attention! Not even his own family member would be able to keep their neck intact!” I shouted indignantly.

“Yeah, I know.” Sakuya’s blazing ruby eyes cooled down in an instant. “Think of this as your just desserts for getting him killed.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “Are you still angry about Kazuya—?”

“Don’t say his name with your filthy mouth!” Sakuya lashed out and swung her wooden sword.

But this was the moment I’d been waiting for.

I caught the sword with one hand and grabbed her arm with the other hand. I easily forced her to let go of the sword by twisting her arm, producing a pained scream from Sakuya. Before she could recover, I pinned her on the ground and threw the sword as far as possible.

Frankly, it was far too easy to disarm her this way. But then again, she had just been discharged from the hospital. There was no way she could recover from her injuries that quickly.

“Maybe you shouldn’t get discharged from the hospital too quickly next time.” I sneered at her. “After all, your body is an important asset, Ojou-sama.”

Sakuya glared at me defiantly. “I won’t go back to that damned house. Your scheme ends here, Kikuchi.”

“Oh, we’ll see about that.” I twisted her arm even further, enjoying her scream of pain. “I’ll have to leave for now, but you can be rest assured that I’ll be back with more reinforcements. Enjoy your remaining time, Ojou—”

“Freeze! This is the police!”

I nearly leapt out of my skin the moment I heard that shout. I turned my head around and saw a shocking sight.

“Impossible! This is too fast!” I cried out.

I was completely surrounded by police officers, who had their guns trained at me. No matter how I thought it over, their arrival was way too fast. It had only been ten minutes since I accidentally called them. How could they pinpoint this location so fast? It was as if they were guided by someone—

I realized something and shot a glare at Sakuya. She was acting like a pitiful victim who was cowering in fear, yet I caught her lips moving to say something.

“Checkmate. Serves you right, Kikuchi.”

Following those words, the night was closed with my arrest.