Volume 11.5, Chapter 4: From a Brother to a Sister Part 2

Shortly after pouring out her feelings, Horikita stopped crying.

However, because she had not yet recovered her strength, she was still sitting on the ground. I stood by her, quietly waiting for time to pass.

It was extremely fortunate that there was no one nearby, so no one else witnessed this scene.

Thats great.

Whats great about that. You seeing me like this, its extremely humiliating to me

Originally, I planned on comforting her a little, but that wouldnt be so simple.

Well, maybe so.

Thats why she wanted to stay alone before. If I wasnt here, then nobody would see her crying.

Since youve already seen it, Ill just face forward.

Face forward?

You seeing me like this is a great thing. Thats what Ive decided.

Horikita felt relieved from the bottom of her heart and let out a sigh. This was not an expression that looked like she wanted other students to see it unnecessarily.

So Im going to share this scene with Keisei and the others then.

I took out my phone and pointed my camera at her.

Do you want me to kill you?

After seeing the bright red eyes that were glaring at me, I immediately put my phone away.

Im just kidding.

Seeing that you made such a boring joke, I seem to need to teach you what TPO is.

TL note: TPO states for time, place, occasion.

Seeing how she can still talk this much, there shouldnt be a problem now.

This feels like, last year, a similar situation occurred.

Maybe it did.

Although the location was different, I remembered a certain night when we had a conversation between the two of us. Horikita, who had just reunited with her brother, had sunk into a state of loss. Todays situation was clearly the opposite, but there was an unexplainable sense of Deja Vu.

I wonder why I always make blunders when Im with you. I even sit next to you.

She was saying that since the beginning of school, we had some sort of incredible predetermined relationship. It seems like no matter if that was the case, Horikita wasnt too happy with it.

Why not let me see you when you make blunders?

Horikita lamented the unfairness of her fate.

A blunder. Didnt you see it already? I lost against Sakayanagi in our chess match.

Thats not a blunder, thats just simple defeat..

It seemed like this wasnt acceptable to her.

Well, you should look forward to it after we become 2nd-year students.

It seems like thats the only choice. Ill carefully add it to my list of events Im looking forward to in the future.

It seemed that no matter what, she wanted to get revenge on me for seeing her cry today. But even so, it was still extremely shocking, thinking about how Horikita cut her hair short.

If they saw you, everyone would be surprised.

There would be students who wanted to slowly change their image, but they wouldnt go as far as doing this.

They can be as surprised as they want, Im fine with it.

Horikita said the opinions of other people didnt matter, and there was no need to pay attention to it. Sudo will probably immediately be the first to talk about this. There were only a few days of the spring break left, and rumours would probably spread during this time No, if there were witnesses already, it may have already spread.

Talking about this might be a bit eh, but do you still remember the battle we decided on yesterday?

Of course.

About my request for you if I win, Ive thought about it.

Hey I thought you would bring this up later. To try to attack me mentally.

No, I didnt think about it too much, I simply just hadnt thought about it before.

Horikita urged me to quickly tell her what I wanted, even though she was a little suspicious about it.

If I win, you will join the student council.

Weve talked about this matter before.

Previously, I had already asked Horikita if she was interested in joining the student council. Even though I had called the elder Horikita during then, he allowed me to make my own decisions. But in the end, she ended up refusing.

Mhm. Will you accept my request?

Although Im not interested in joining the student council.Fine. As long as I win, therell be no problem.

Horikita said that if she won there would be no problems, and agreed on it.

But I wont guarantee that Ill be allowed to join the student council, okay?

Dont worry. Nagumo is the type to welcome anyone in.

He was very different from Horikita Manabu, who rejected the overwhelming majority of applicants. In addition, since Suzune was Manabus sister, there is no way Nagumo would flat out refuse.

Can you tell me why you want me to join the Student Council.

Thats a secret. Ill wait until you lose.

This is making me uncomfortable, would it even matter if you told me now?

Youre thinking about what will happen when you lose again?

Of course not. Because Ill definitely win, I just wanted to ask in advance. And besides, you wont tell me because you know youll lose.

Deciding on the outcome of the battle, I didnt tell the significance behind my reasoning.

Your brother has been concerned about the matter of Nagumo. Thats why Im doing it.

So youre saying you want me to monitor the student council president?

Exactly.

So brother requested you to do this.

Horikita looked at me with a bit of discontent.

Because his relationship with you back then wasnt so good, so he was forced to request it from me.

If their relationship was good, he would have told Horikita this from the beginning.

Dont act modest. My brother paid the most attention to you out of anyone in this school. If it werent for that, he wouldnt have called you here today when he set off on his new journey. Really why is it always you?

Horikita stood up slowly, complaining about this.

I better not think about this. Ill try to think about something else.

If she didnt do that, her body would be overwhelmed, so Horikita cast it to the corners of her mind.

Horikita, theres one last thing I wanted to confirm with you.

What else do you want, dont tell me youre going to say something strange again?

Its about Kushida. Let me briefly explain my thoughts and the current situation.

Hearing this kind of statement she didnt know anything about, Horikita frowned, her face flabbergasted, eyebrows knit.

Current situation?

In order to prevent Kushida from going out of control, I signed a contract with her. The contents of the contract said that I had to give her half of the personal points I received each month to protect myself from her. That way, Ill be able to remove myself as one of her targets.

Areyou stupid? Recklessly signing such a contract?

I did it to gain her trust.

Even so, this is way too stupid, half of your points every month is way too much.

Because I wouldnt be able to change Kushidas feelings if I hadnt done so. That being said, because you exposed her in public, the trust is gone.

Rather than say she was dissatisfied with me, shed probably reentered a state of suspicion again.

Really Im even starting to doubt whether youre actually powerful or not.

Although I understood she was in no mood to speak, this topic wasnt over yet.

And so, why did you tell me this?

Because I believe that signing this contract will not affect me in the future.

So repeatedly giving away half your points wont affect you?

Because if Kushida drops out of school, the risk would be reduced to 0.

Hearing what I just said, Horikitas hand froze. Then she looked at me, her eyes still slightly red.

Just then, you just calmly said something extremely serious. Is that a joke?

I was planning to get Kushida expelled before. No, even now, I think itd be best for her to be expelled.

Youre notjoking?

Yeah. This summer, I was thinking I would eliminate Kushida.

In reality, it wasnt like there were no opportunities to get rid of her.

ButSince you told me about it, that means that the situation has changed, right?

Mhm, I wanted to leave the decision to you.

I hadnt decided yet, and instead left the decision to Horikita. Thats why I told her about it now.

Are you not clear with this. I dont plan to expel Kushida. Actually, I dont plan to expel any classmate that negligently.

It seems that this ideal of hers was getting increasingly set in stone.

But I dont intend to have naive thoughts like Hirata-kun does. There are indeed classmates that stand on the dividing line of being sacrificed. Of course, future contributions might allow for these people to be replaced by someone else.

In other words, she would make the decision on who will get expelled if something like the Class Vote happened again.

What if Kushida contributed the least?

Then, of course, she will be the candidate for being expelled.

It seems that she wasnt lying.

But the possibility of her falling to the bottom of the class is very low.

I know that. Because from what can be seen, Kushida is contributing a lot.

She was capable academically and physically, and she also stood in the position as a necessary figure in the class. Although she took a certain amount of damage after Yamauchis dropout, the effect was not fatal on her.

I believe that I can leave this to you, thats why I told you about this. However, as you grow and become the core of our class, Kushida will become a troublesome existence.

Knowing about the past Kushida, I couldnt just erase it from my memory.

So you want to get rid of her in advance?

Yeah, thats what I want. After all, she wont be naive enough to cooperate just because by simply persuading her to.

I cant deny that as well. Ive already understood that half-heartedly trying to persuade and talk to her is meaningless..

Knowing that, she still intended to accept Kushida? Before, I would think that she was being naive, but not anymore.

In that case, then I have nothing more to say.

You! Were you planning to set Kushida up during the Class Vote?

That would only make a hash of things. Although she assisted Yamauchi, our classmates still trusted her a lot.

That, that is true. Theres no indication that youre going to move as wellbut since youve told me, its safe to say that I have total control over the matter of Kushida, right?

Mhm. I promise to not do anything.

Ill have to leave it to Horikita to decide what choices should be made in the future.

The reason for you telling me this, is it because youve already overcome that obstacle?

Unfortunately, Im not that optimistic. Im still in the process of figuring out how to get rid of Kushida.

Yes, but why?

After being asked by Horikita, I had no choice but to consider the reasons.

Havent thought about it?

Yeah What Im doing now is not efficient.

If the future was taken into consideration, silently expelling Kushida would definitely be the correct decision. However, I didnt do it. Instead, I left the decision to Horikita. The reason for this was

I want to see how youre going to overcome that obstacle.I guess.

I wasnt confident with the answer I racked my brain to produce, but there was no other reason.

Maybe.

I thought so. Being sceptical of what you say seems to be better.

Horikita, who had fully recovered, took a step forward.

Im heading back, how about you?

I want to stay here for a while.

Horikita simply said goodbye and went in the direction of the dormitory. Perhaps shell remember what happened today and cry during the middle of the night. But for the time being, this wouldnt be a problem.

I thought about yesterdays conversation with Ichinose, the existence of Sakayanagi, and the growth of Ryuen and Horikita.

I looked forward to it, a confrontation between the four classes.

After another year passed, how would it change?

There was a large number of things that could make them grow.

The words left to me by Horikita Manabu still remained in my heart.

Becoming a student remembered by other students.

What a terrible parting gift

The things I could do to remain in the other students memories. That would be to assist other students, and allow them to grow.

Then let these students who had grown compete against each other, and aim towards a higher position as the goal.

As I imagined myself in a scene standing in that position thats right, you can say it would make my heart beat faster.

Ive always felt that this was interesting.

Involuntarily analysing the strength of other classes and having it pop up in my mind.

The results that could be seen after 1 year. Regardless of which class, they were all seeking growth. The weakness of the strong. it created feelings of excitement within me. But on the other hand, I felt my heart rapidly cooling down.

What I seek is to live peacefully day by daythat was originally the case.

Today was the first time I noticed there was a filter installed in my heart. The existence known as my heart had indeed grown beyond expectations during the past year. No, its still growing now.

I have to confirm it myself. I asked myself. But it doesnt work. As if my own convictions didnt connect with myself.

My own superficiality was being shredded to pieces and coming off, or was that all?

I cant help but sense a black substance, something similar to unease.

Will I

Will I still be at this school the same time next year?

The pitch black darkness I couldnt quite describeWrapped around me