Card Game Tournament Arc
07 Hypnotism and the Wooden Sword
"Meru-chaaan, I came to pick you up!"
When the end-of-day meeting ended, the one who entered Cla.s.s F was Fuuga. Even though it had become commonplace and the inquisitive eyes had decreased, Hayate"s unexpected statement this morning made it so that it the noise level rose upon Fuuga"s entrance.
"Kusuhara Meru went home!"
"You"re here, aren"t you!"
Fuuga said and threw his arms around Meru. Fuuga was light considering his height, but he was too heavy for Meru"s small stature to support. While feeling her body creaking in complaint, Meru narrowed her eyes.
"Heavy…"
"Meru-chan, hugging you gives the best feeling today, too!"
"I"ll give you a body pillow next time, so could you let go?"
Meru packed her things in her bag with a faraway look. In contrast, Fuuga looked full of contentment. It was to the extent that it wouldn"t be surprising for flowers to bloom in the background.
"I don"t want to. Since Hayate-kun would get mad, I haven"t been able to hug you recently, Meru-chan."
Even though he said he hadn"t been hugging her, Fuuga always hugged Meru once a day–. Meru heaved a heavy sigh.
"…I feel like I want to call Kamishiro-kun over right now."
"Really, before I could notice, you started getting along well with Hayate-kun, too."
"He"s only using me as a gofer."
"But because of that, you can be an executive, so it all equals out!"
Meru"s head drooped powerlessly in the face of Fuuga who seemed to be talking about something completely different. She looked at Maiko who was holding her club equipment and attempted to seek help, but…
"Maiko-chaaan. Save meee."
"Nope. Get along well with your husband."
"Uemura-san, nice!"
Meru was shocked by Fuuga and Maiko who nodded at Fuuga with a thumbs-up.
As expected, she could only resign herself to this. Meru gave Fuuga a sidelong look.
"Ahh, geez, what is it? If you don"t need anything, I"m going home."
"I need something, so don"t go home, ok?"
Meru clicked her tongue and Fuuga yelled, "Why!?", so Meru obediently listened to what he wanted.
"So?"
"Meru-chan! I like you! I like you the most in the wor–"
"Thaaanks. Then, goodbye."
"I"m not done saying it!"
Fuuga protested with teary eyes, but Meru pacified him while looking like it was a pain.
"You"re so mean, Meru-chan."
"Sorry, sorry. So, what do you need?"
"Hayate-kun said to come after school because he has some student council work for you."
"I refuse with everything I have."
Meru bowed to Fuuga and headed toward Cla.s.s F"s door. However, the area by the door was incredibly noisy, and at the same time she had a bad premonition, a noise escaped her mouth.
"Geh."
"That"s the first time a girl has said something like "geh" to me."
Before Meru"s eyes, leaning with his back against the door and his arms crossed, was Hayate.
"Ahaha. Kamishiro-kun. What"s up?"
"Well, you wouldn"t listen to something Fuuga says, right? So I came to get you personally."
He pointed a stunning smile well-suited to his nickname at her and Meru took a deep breath.
"Huh? It isn"t the student council room?"
The place that Meru was half-forcibly brought along to was the audiovisual room on the top floor of the second years" section.
"Ahh, something is happening there right now."
"Eh?"
Meru tilted her head at Hayate"s answer.
Fuuga, who Meru wasn"t paying any attention to, opened the door to the audiovisual room. Inside was various machinery other than the computers originally installed in the room. And in front of them, lit by their pale light and checking all of them, was Laila. Meru admired his ability to concentrate so hard that he didn"t even noticed the door open a little bit.
"Laila-chan"s things, what are they?"
Meru asked Fuuga who was in front of her.
"Laila is an ultra machine maniac. That equipment is all Laila"s."
She wondered where exactly he had procured that mountain of machinery that looked like it"d appear in a police drama. Various questions came to mind, but asking each question one-by-one would take a full day, so she gave up.
"Did you specially bring them here from the student council room?"
Meru asked only that. They did a good job moving all of that, to the level that it was admirable.
"Other than the student council room, pretty much only the audiovisual room can handle the battery load… And also…"
A little hesitant to speak, Fuuga smiled wryly before continuing.
"The student council room is currently in an unthinkable state."
"Unthinkable?"
At the same time Meru asked for clarification, Hayate locked the room and walked up to Laila.
"Laila."
When Hayate called out, Laila"s shoulders jolted.
"Ah, Hayate. Fuu-chan and Ruu-chan, too. I was waiting for you."
Turning his chair to face Meru and the others, Laila smiled sweetly.
"How is it? Were you able to finish preparations?"
"Perfectly."
Laila gave a proud snort and clicked the computer"s mouse.
When he did, the student council room"s image was projected on the audiovisual room"s big screen.
"Huh?"
"This is so we can grasp the actual situation in the student council room. It"s related to you, too, Meru, so look carefully."
Hayate smiled at Meru. Meru had nothing but bad premonitions. However, she could only look at what she was told to look at. Meru shifted her attention to the screen.
"Hmm? Katsuragi-kun and Aidou-kun are in the student council room?"
Shoutarou and Yuuri were displayed on the screen. However, their complexions weren"t good. Shoutarou especially had displeasure frankly written all over his face.
"Laila, can you connect to them?"
"Here"s the transceiver."
Laila handed Hayate a palm-sized machine and, looking at the screen, Hayate spoke into it.
"Shoutarou, Yuuri. Can you hear me?"
When Hayate asked that, a familiar voice came out from the audiovisual room"s audio.
"Why am I the one doing this?"
"There, there. You"re the most suitable one here, aren"t you, Shoutarou-kun?"
When Fuuga faced Hayate"s hand and spoke, Shoutarou pushed his gla.s.ses up on the other side of the screen.
"Empty words. If Kamishiro said one word, this would be over with."
"Yeah, but even I can"t change someone"s opinion they hold in the bottom of their heart. It"ll be bothersome if I have to do this kind of thing over and over again."
Hayate was smiling, but that smile was dark. Exactly what he was smiling in regard to, Meru didn"t have the slightest idea.
"Me too?"
"Yuuri, you"re the last trump card, so you don"t have to do anything in particular. Something like watching Shoutarou so he doesn"t run away would do."
"I understand. As long as Katsuragi-kun is here, this will end without me having to step up."
"Aidou…"
Shoutarou glared at Yuuri. From some time ago, Meru had absolutely no idea what the conversation unfolding between the executives meant. Despite this, why did Hayate say it was related to her? Meru guessed at the doubts she was harboring and Fuuga smiled at her.
"It"s okay."
"…Yeah."
Meru returned her gaze to the screen once again. As she did, Shoutarou opened the door to the student council room.
"What is this…"
On the other side of the opened door…Meru had imagined a wide hallway with countless windows, but what greeted her eyes from through the screen was a crowd of people so large that she couldn"t even begin to guess their numbers.
"State your business and then leave immediately."
Shoutarou announced in a cold voice and instantly, the crowd opened their mouths.
"If you"re recruiting executives, then I"ll do it!"
"I"ll be more useful than that kid!"
"No, I will!"
"Me!"
When the students began to make an uproar like that, Shoutarou clicked his tongue.
"There are more people than I expected."
"They"ve increased since the lunch break."
Yuuri sighed with a worried face and prepared behind Shoutarou"s back. Shoutarou cleared his throat and shifted his attention to the crowd.
"I"ll test if you all are worthy of being executives."
Saying that, Shoutarou took his gla.s.ses off and raised his bangs.
In an instant, the front row of students was rooted to the spot by his eyes. A vacant expression floated on their faces.
"Don"t ever think about wanting to become an executive again and leave this place at once."
It didn"t seem likely that the students who had been making a fuss about wanting to become executives until just a moment ago would simply agree just because he said that. However, when Shoutarou gave them those words, they turned their backs to the student council room and left in unison.
"What"s with that?"
When Meru mumbled that with a blank look while staring at the screen, Hayate opened his mouth.
"Shoutarou"s eyes rob away ordinary human thought. Simply put, he hypnotized them."
That made Meru blink in surprise. Hayate said it with a serious face, so it was probably true.
"Ruu-chan, he did it to you once, too, you know? It seems like it didn"t take effect, though."
Laila chuckled while remembering the incident. Meru looked at the ceiling and thought back to her first interaction with Shoutarou. As she did, she realized that Shoutarou"s behavior when he pushed her down was consistent with how he had acted now.
"Ahh, that"s true."
While they were talking, the event on the other side of the screen was continuing.
"Geez, wanting to enter the student council when their wills can be changed with this, it makes me laugh."
Shoutarou put his gla.s.ses back on sent his cold gaze to the row of students behind them. However, they weren"t looking at his eyes.
"I have a strong will and want to enter the student council…!"
"Me too, I"ve admired the student council since elementary school…!"
Shoutarou sighed as the students began to state their opinions one after another and went to take his gla.s.ses off again. However, Yuuri stopped him.
"Aidou."
"It"s a waste of time. How many rows do you think there are?"
"…But, you want me to stop that guy?"
"Which would you prefer?"
"…I"ll leave it to you."
Shoutarou made a face as though he"d made a bitter choice.
Yuuri pa.s.sed by Shoutarou"s side and appeared in front of the students.
At Yuuri"s appearance, the students unrestrainedly smiled broadly. He was the one famed as the student council"s number one moderate. They probably thought it was a chance to win him over.
"Aidou-kun! Let me join the student council…!"
"Let me!"
"Me!"
BANG–
An explosion resounded at the same time the students began making an uproar.
At the excessively loud explosive sound, Meru plugged her ears and closed her eyes. Wondering if it was an equipment breakdown, Meru slowly opened her eyes and, in the next instant, widened them.
"Aidou-kun…?"
Meru most likely had the same idiotic look on her face as the students projected on the screen. However, that was inevitable.
"Oi, shut up and listen, you"re d.a.m.ned noisy. You ordinary people."
What could be heard from the audio was certainly Yuuri"s voice. That language was surprising, but even more surprising was the slightly crumbling crack in the hallway"s wall. And buried there was the tip of the wooden sword Yuuri was holding in his right hand.
"A-Aidou…kun?"
One of the students called out to Yuuri and was glared back at with normally unthinkable sharp eyes.
"Ahh? What?"
Yuuri pulled the wooden sword out of the wall and shook it left and right. It looked exactly like he was shaking blood off of a katana.
"Um, ah, that… Us, joining the student council…"
"Hah! We don"t need ordinary people like you idiots! If you understand, then get lost! Disgusting! f.u.c.king s.h.i.t! Dammit! This camera"s a nuisance, too!"1
Snap–
The image disappeared with Yuuri raising his sword overhead as the last thing transmitted.
"AhhhhhhhH! Yuu-chan broke my cameraaaaaaAAA!"
Laila slapped the desk with a bang and screamed. Hayate was still gazing at the blank screen, looking entertained.
"I feel sorry for Shoutarou-kun who has to stop that Yuuri-kun."
Next to Meru, Fuuga smiled wryly as he sympathized with Shoutarou.
"Um, is that really Aidou-kun?"
While blinking repeatedly, Meru pointed at the screen. The Yuuri who was formerly projected there was unbelievable.
"That is the genuine Aidou Yuuri-kun."
"No, but… The way he speaks and the wooden sword and the wooden sword and the wooden sword…"
Looking at Meru who had basically lost the ability to think, Hayate laughed.
"I think you know of them too, Meru, but Yuuri is someone from an expert martial arts family, the Aidou family. Furthermore, it seems that he has full mastery over everything in the Aidou school."
"Aidou family…"
The Aidou family was such a famous martial arts family that even Meru knew of them. If she remembered correctly, they were just talking about how a foreign mercenary corps had come to study abroad in order to master the Aidou school the other day on TV when Kei was watching it.
"He says it"s the style of the Aidou school to always have a wooden sword ready."
"Having ready, you say… Where does he always carry it…?"
When Meru asked that with a hoa.r.s.e voice, Hayate answered saying "It"s the sword cane trick," but in her current state, Meru couldn"t understand.
"Yuuri-kun is "an outstanding talent seen once in a hundred years" and underwent strict training, so it seems like he became such that when his switch is flipped, his personality twists."
"A-Ahh…"
Meru thought privately that that was way too drastic of a twist. At least, that Yuuri was a different person from the Yuuri Meru knows.
"Well, I"ll cut Shoutarou"s work in half for a while. More importantly, Laila. Won"t you get ahold of yourself? You still have many other cameras, right?"
Hayate shrugged his shoulders and said to Laila who was still screaming while distraughtly mussing his hair.
"You"re wrong! That"s the cutting-edge P205-S model with a thinness of just over 1 millimeter that I made recently! Its performance is such that a spy would prostrate his or herself before it…!"
"I get it already."
Faced with the fervent speech Laila launched, Hayate lifted one hand as though in surrender.
"Made?"
Meru inquired with a dumbfounded expression in front of Laila who had regained his calmness at Hayate"s stop. It seemed that what interested Meru in Laila"s drawn-out explanation was that.
"Laila orders machines and then modifies them to improve their performance to his own standards. The ones here are all modified."
"…"
Worn out by all the surprises, Meru did nothing but blink. No matter how many times she blinked, the scene didn"t change, so it wasn"t a dream. She thought he was probably a genius, but she was surprised that he was a member with this much of a unique personality.
"How is it? Does this make you want to join the student council a little bit?"
Hayate turned around to face Meru and asked. Meru shook her head side-to-side vigorously.
"Rather than that, I want to join even less."
"That"s unfortunate. But, my philosophy is that once I"ve invited someone, I won"t go back on it or withdraw the invitation."
"That"s a philosophy that really leaves no open path."
Meru lightly warded him off with her retort and Hayate immediately sat in a nearby chair, crossing his arms.
"Besides, you saw too, right, Meru? Since it"s you, I gave you an invitation, but it seems they misunderstood and thought that the student council was recruiting. As you see, it"s a management crisis for the student council."
"Don"t make it sound like it"s my fault."
When Meru turned away with her lips pursed, Hayate called her name again.
"Meru."
"…What."
With an annoyed face, Meru looked over her shoulder at Hayate. She didn"t have a single good premonition.
"I want you, only you, to become an executive. So…"
"So?"
Meru pressed for him to continue and the corners of Hayate"s mouth lifted cheerfully.
"Won"t you play one game with us?"
"…Huh?"
ーーThis incident was the rising of the curtain on a big change in Meru"s life.
1 Yuuri talks in an incredibly rough manner. Like, really rough. And here, he"s just cursing basically from what I can tell??? So I just went with some stuff. You get the idea.
TN Notes feels really redundant. I mean, the TN stands for translator (right? …right??), so technically it"s not, but still. It still feels like ATM Machine. Or something.The last chapter was short, but this one was the longest one yet??? I need a vacation…
Oh wait.
That"s where I am.
I probably need a longer one anyway.
Don"t mind me, I"m really tired at the time I"m setting this up to post, so I felt like rambling a bit. It"s my blog and I do what I want to *cue music*
Anyway, enjoy! See you next week.