Chapter 12: A New Week
"Mashiro-san, my head hurts a little, I'll head back and rest first."
[You were able to hold it in that long? Is Sakurai-chan really a boy? This lady is starting to doubt!]
ಠ_ಠ
"Are you really okay? Saki-kun, you can stay over for the night, I still have an empty room."
Faced with her insistence, Sakurai Saki forced a strained smile.
"I'm really sorry for today, for making you worry. I'll come over to hang out with you again next week."
"Umu." The woman gave him another once-over.
Seeing that Sakurai's complexion wasn't as bad as earlier, she was somewhat relieved.
"Be careful on your way home."
"Yes."
Sakurai Saki nodded.
Then left the apartment.
He had endured with great difficulty—if he stayed any longer, even Sakurai wasn't sure whether he could keep holding out.
...
The weekend.
With no plans to go out, Sakurai Saki stayed home and played games for two straight days.
Monday morning.
He rode his bike to school, stopped at the gate, then pushed the bike in.
At the school gate, a member of the disciplinary committee was checking student uniforms.
Sakurai's collar was a bit messy.
The buttons weren't fastened in the correct regulation order either.
But as someone well-known in school, normally no idiot would be tactless enough to call him out for it.
Today was the exception!
A brand-new idiot had appeared in the disciplinary committee.
･°˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°.
Iino Miko, a newly admitted student in the high school division.
She had already served in the disciplinary committee during middle school, and continued in high school.
Her father was a famous judge, her mother an international humanitarian aid worker—being the daughter of the two, it was only natural that she had a strong sense of justice.
"Hey, you there—your uniform is not up to code!" Iino Miko pointed her right index finger, stopping Sakurai in his tracks.
(ᓀ‸ᓂ)
In Sakurai's mind, thoughts were racing nonstop.
Then he quietly pulled a tasty candy stick snack—a biscuit-type snack he usually carried in his pocket—out of his bag.
"Here you go!"
ε(´｡•᎑•`)っ .☘︎ ݁˖
"What! Are you trying to bribe me? Hey Senpai! As the general affairs officer of the student council, this kind of behavior is unacceptable!" Iino Miko raised her hand.
(｡•ˇ‸ˇ•｡)
She firmly rejected his bribe.
Sakurai didn't bother with her, silently shoved the candy into Miko-chan's mouth.
"Ah~" Miko reflexively took a bite.
Delicious.
( ๑ ˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و ♡
Wait, no!
This is supposed to be a moment of serious disciplinary action!
"Please let me off just this once!" Sakurai pleaded.
ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧
"Alright then!" Iino Miko nodded.
Sakurai Saki smiled faintly at her, then pushed his bicycle through the school gates.
Today's supernatural ability—
[Of course you'll choose to forgive him]: as long as you feed the other person, you can gain their forgiveness, no matter how much of an asshole you've been.
Side effect: only works on one person at a time.
,,,
He arrived at the school building and entered Class A.
Noticed that the classroom was already nearly full.
After returning greetings from the students who proactively said hello to him, Sakurai sat down by the window.
There are many kinds of supernatural powers.
But the most dangerous ones are always those with great power and long-lasting duration.
Narrator-chan's ability was a typical example.
Always active, never resting.
And precognitive powers are an especially strong kind of supernatural ability.
That's why Friday's incident got out of control.
Today's power is also quite absurd, but compared to predicting the future, it's merely an appetizer.
"Good morning, Ai-chan~"
(„• ֊ •„)੭
"Sakurai, good morning." Hayasaka Ai was clearly exhausted.
(つ╥﹏╥)つ
Working for the Shinomiya family was seriously tiring.
Especially when Kaguya-sama was a master full of deep thoughts.
She even said she wanted to watch a movie.
Apparently because she overheard a conversation about movie tickets in the student council room on Friday.
Shinomiya Kaguya had never been to a movie theater since childhood and was extremely curious about it.
So Hayasaka Ai had to personally install a home theater setup for her.
And was met with this evaluation: "So movies are only this much, huh."
(•̪ o •̪)
Hayasaka Ai wanted to quit her job.
┻━┻ ︵ヽ(`Д´)ﾉ︵ ┻━┻
After quitting, she would confess to that Sakurai guy, then they'd elope together!
She herself had 40 million yen in savings—living abroad, they could live comfortably for a lifetime.
As for children… they'd have 11 of them!
(▰˘◡˘▰)
"What's wrong? Did you encounter a demon over the weekend?" Sakurai asked curiously.
As he spoke, he glanced out the window.
The disciplinary committee girl from earlier looked like she had lost all faith in life.
O' Kawaii Koto.
"Ran into a Yuki-onna guarding a snow-covered mountain." Hayasaka Ai replied nonchalantly.
"Ai-chan, your house is way up in the snowy mountains? That's rough." Sakurai Saki chuckled softly.
"When you came into school earlier, didn't that overly responsible disciplinary committee girl catch you? Your coat was tied around your waist, and you weren't wearing your uniform properly either."
"My legs are very nimble." Hayasaka Ai replied with a loaded tone.
...
Lunchtime.
Sakurai headed to the student council room.
He found only Shirogane Miyuki inside.
That guy was always the first to arrive.
After all, he was the student council president, with a lot of matters to handle.
Club affairs, disputes, personnel coordination—all fell under his responsibilities.
Like this current round of club member recruitment.
"Oh, Sakurai, you're here."
"Another weekend of part-time work? Judging by how you look, you must've worked quite a few hours." Sakurai Saki said as he sat down on the sofa.
He pulled out a snack stick, tore open the wrapper.
Then popped it into his mouth.
ᓬ(ᵔ⤙ᵔ๑)ᕒ
Corn flavor, slightly sweet.
"Umu, to help with family expenses." Shirogane Miyuki didn't even look up, continuing to review the documents.
"Anyone opposing the idea of putting the cultural clubs in the prime recruitment spot?" Sakurai asked out of curiosity.
Shirogane picked up a few sheets of paper and waved them: "There are already some."
"As expected… that was fast." Sakurai commented.
In order to secure more benefits for their own clubs—
The members of those clubs were already fiercely arguing their cases.
Where there are people, there will be conflict.
Within the small campus of Shuchiin, countless children of politicians and business elites gathered. Having grown up hearing and seeing the harshness of the political and commercial world, of course they were skilled at competing.
A tiger born cannot be a cat, nor a rat.
It can only be a tiger! ฅ՞•ﻌ•՞ฅ
"Secretary Fujiwara wants to increase the budget for the board game club. Sakurai, what do you think?"
"Crush her fantasy completely, for me!" Sakurai Saki said seriously.
( ･•`ツ´•･)┌θ☆(ﾉ´ᗒoᗕ)ﾉ
Shirogane was momentarily stunned, then laughed: "I thought you'd take her side."
"Business is business. As members of the student council, we must set an example." Sakurai responded with sound reasoning.
"Alright." Shirogane wrote "Not approved" on Fujiwara Chika's request form.
"This recruitment matter must be finalized today. My final opinion is to place the cultural clubs' display board right at the entrance—it's quite a visible spot." Shirogane Miyuki sighed.
As an ordinary person, it seemed this was the best he could do.
"Just took office, it's best not to do anything too radical."
Sakurai said as he walked over to him.
He picked up the stack of opposition letters from the sports clubs.
"Soccer club, basketball club, kendo…"
He skimmed through them one by one.
Noticed there was no opposition from the kyudo club.
That was the club Shinomiya Kaguya belonged to.
Seemed like she didn't actually hate the student council as much as she let on.