Chapter 23: Looking It Up
A certain day after school.
Kyouya was doing his homework at the clubroom.
“Hey, Shion-san.”
“Do you need something?”
“What was the charge on a copper ion again?”
“1 plus and 2 plus.”
“Thanks.”
He put his mechanical pencil to work.
At times like these, having uppercla.s.smen around was a life saver.
“What about an iron ion?”
“2 plus and 3 plus.”
“Thanks.”
Thanks to the human encyclopedia, he was making progress on his homework. Shion was a genius who wouldn’t forget anything she’d seen or heard.
He was done with chemistry. Next, he opened his loose leaf on the history pages.
“Now listen here, Kyoro.”
Mao said.
“Why don’t you ask me about this stuff?”
“Hey, Shion-san.”
It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard Mao’s voice, but he still asked Shion again.
“At the Sea of j.a.pan naval battle in 1905 (1), how many ships were sunk on the Baltic fleet’s side?”
“I’m sorry; I’ve never read on that, so I don’t know. Do they really teach that at first year?”
“Ah! I know that! That’s about the battle of Tsushima from World History, right? You Tougou Heihachirou(2) fan boy!”
The president slapped her knees laughing.
However, that was no laughing matter for Kyouya. The pressing problem of the next day drew near.
“You know, that guy was all about grandiosity. But you know, the bigger the giant the harder they fall.”
Kyouya directed an annoyed look at Mao, who kept laughing loudly by herself.
“If that’s the problem you could find out just by looking it up, right?”
Shion said to him.
“That’s right.”
Megumi agreed with her, bringing the tea pot in her hands.
“The computer is connected to the Internet.”
Megumi was distributing the tea over everybody’s cup.
She pa.s.sed by everybody’s cup three times, lastly, as she was filling Kyouya’s cup…
“Google it, f.a.ggot.”
She said, facing Kyouya.
“Huh?”
He reflexively asked her to repeat herself, thinking he was hearing things. Wishing so.
“Google it, f.a.ggot.”
Looking at Kyouya’s face, Megumi had definitely said it again. It wasn’t an illusion. He hadn’t misheard her.
“I, uh… er…”
“Google it, f.a.ggot.”
Megumi said it once more with a bright angelic smile.
“O-ok.”
Kyouya said, nodding with an admirable composure.
Had somebody else told him that, he’d lose his temper at them, particularly if it had been Mao.
But Megumi was a different story.
He’d been the one at fault for asking other people about how to do his homework. Kyouya seriously reflected on that.
“I’m sorry. President, I really should look these things up myself.”
“Why are you apologizing like that to me?”
Kyouya stood up and started to go to the computer.
“Google it, f.a.ggot.”
“I get it. Please, that’s enough.”
Kyouya asked Megumi. Having that said to him 4 times, of course he’d lose heart.
“Ah, could it be… you don’t know it?”
Megumi cleared her throat and puffed her chest widely.
“This is a charm to make your search go well.”
“What?”
“This one time I had this charm said to me too… ehehe. Then, when I looked up what I wanted to know I found it really quickly. I hope you can find what you want quickly too.(3)”
With the tea pot in hands, Megumi returned to the little stove.
“Presideeent…”
Kyouya directed a toneless voice at Mao.
Not only Kyouya, but everyone’s demanding gaze concentrated on Mao.
Mao quickly looked the other way.
She blew a soundless whistle.
“A charm?“
SKILL CHART: Shinomiya Kyouya
Clockwise starting from the top:
Power: 3Const.i.tution: 3Intelligence: 3Fighting spirit: 1Luck: 5