Chapter 06 - I Like You The Best
"Ainosuke?" Kei had thought of it deeply until she remembered the happening years ago, she met a young kid named Nishimura Ainosuke, they promised something together, and that promise was something she had forgotten. All she remembers was this cute boy infront of her is the person at fault on why she never fell in love for years, it is because she decided to fall in love with the same person, the man in front of her right now.
--
"Are you sure you really want to join our comedy club?" the comedy club's President, Nakanishi Chiyori, asked Mayu before writing down her name. Mayu was quiet, Chiyori sighed and looked at her. "What do you really want to do? Are you sure you can perform comedic acts very well if you aren't used to the people around you?" She sat on the wooden chair. "Are you sure you'll be okay without your friend?" as soon as those words came out of her mouth, a number of scenes flashed in Mayu's mind.
Ogasawara Mayu remembered how she and Riho grew up together inside the same mansion, the two of them amusing Riho's mother by doing Manzai, and them playing around the mansion. She felt so ashamed that she immediately forgot all about the person who gave her much attention than her parents, it was Riho. She forgot about her because of her jealousy.
"Nakanishi, thank you." She turned her back and went outside the room; she ran to the student council room but when she arrived infront of the room, her courage got down. Mayu was too shy to even knock. She sighed then as she was about to knock, she heard the voice she had forgotten. "Maachun!" it was Riho. She ran towards her then hugged her tight.
"Ogasawara, your armband. Welcome back." Miyuki smiled at her.
"Thank you." Mayu grabbed the armband and placed it on her pocket.
--
In the end, Kei was forced to take Ainosuke as her bodyguard. A nuisance has been added again on her life, now that she had seen him after a few years, things just changed drastically. Like the feelings she held for him through the years, as if it just disappeared on a whim.
"Do you understand me?" Kei sighed, "Don't you ever disturb me in school. Don't stick your nose on whatever I am doing." She added before closing her door to have a good nights rest. As she lays herself on the bed, one word has been passing her mind for quite some time now.
'Promise'
What was that promise he was talking about? Same questions with no answer crossing her mind until she fell asleep.
--
"What? A new student?" Akari glared at Syu who was sitting behind her. "What!?" Syu retorted as she glared back.
"Do you, perhaps, know about this?" She asked as Syu looked away and tried acting as if she was hearing nothing. "Don't ignore me you piece of rotten egg, Yabu-yabuchan!" She then pulled her hair, trying to force her to spill out the transfer student's information. "Yes, yes. I'll spill out!" Syu signaled Akari to stop with her palm. "Just chill, I'm going to open my laptop first, then I'll tell you, okay?" she added then Akari acted as if she will pull her hair again, then she did the same thing then the tall girl stopped.
"Here goes." Syu sighed before looking at her laptop's screen. She knows she'll be doomed once it reaches the president, Watanabe Miyuki, the news that she spilled the information about the transferee. "Nishimura Ainosuke, male, first year gold class." Scared of what punishment might be waiting for her, she only told her the minor information shown on the transferee's profile.
"What? That's all? Boring." Akari rested her head on the table and started playing her phone. She had no choice but to converse with Yabushita Syu since Kondo Rina's been sick and is hospitalized for a few months. Syu's the only one she knows inside the room except for the class-skipper, Kinoshita Momoka, who barely attends any class as far as she knew.
Their homeroom teacher, Umeda Ayaka, entered the room with a small long haired male student, his long hair was tied in a high ponytail, the way any samurai was to tie their hair. He had feminine features, such as his big round eyes, and etc. He really looked like a female, if not only for his male uniform. Also, the way he smiled gives off a feminine vibe.
"C'mon, introduce yourself." The teacher smiled at him and gave him space at the center.
"I am Nishimura Ainosuke, I cameth from Kyoto, t's nice to meeteth all of thee." (I am Nishimura Ainosuke, I came from Kyoto, and it's nice to meet all of you) the youngman who called himself Nishimura Ainosuke tilted his head then smiled at the students inside the room. "Teachest'r, wh're is mast'r Kei?" (Teacher, where is master Kei?) he asked Umeda Ayaka who was standing beside him, the teacher found it hard to understand him.
"Uhm, Yes? Come again?" She forced her smile as she looked at the student.
"I'm asking wh're mine own mast'r Kei is! Beest not such a fooleth!" Ainosuke burst out in anger as he spouted out of the world words from his mouth.
"Ms. Yoshida, by any chance, do you understand her—no, I mean him?" Ayaka pointed at her not so excellent pupil who sits by the window.
"I don't hear anything~" She pretended to close her ears.
"He just told you 'I'm asking where my master Kei is! Don't be such a fool!' that's my translation." For the first time, Kinoshita Momoka awed the class with his straight forward translation.
"The nerve of this kid!" Ayaka tried to hit him but immediately, Ainosuke pulled out his covered odachi then used it to block the teacher's hand. "If 't be true thee tryeth to hitteth me, I'll slash thy armeth into two. So doth not t, good now?" His usual move, he tilted his head and smiled at the teacher, Umeda Ayaka didn't know what that meant but the smile on his face gave her a small hint, as if she will be killed by him.
"Teacher, 'If you try to hit me, I'll slash your arm into two. So don't do it, alright?' that's what he said. Better not mess with him now. Hahaha!" Momoka laughed as he grabbed his sports bag, and walked up to the doorway "Also, that kid's owned by Jonii. If you love your work, then just keep thy mouth shut." He cackled as he creepily looked at the teacher, then left the room.
"Sit beside Yoshida then." Ayaka nervously pointed the vacant seat beside Akari. The tall girl gulped as she heard someone whisper on her ear from the back, it was Syu. "Good luck to you, Yoshi-Yoshichan." She giggled then sat upright on her seat.
"Ah!" Ainosuke began pointing at Syu, as if she had known her from the past. "Yabushita!" He removed the cloth covering her odachi, and the girl felt nervous all of a sudden.
"H-Hey! I don't even know you, how come you know my last name!?" Syu stood up and Ainosuke removed the odachi from its scabbard then pointed it to Syu. "Hey!" She doesn't know what to do, "Good luck, Yabu-Yabuchan, hahaha!" Akari returned what Syu did to her earlier.
"Hey! This isn't good luck! Nishimura, you might be mistaken!" Syu raised her hands and signaled him to stop. "Yabushita, wherefore art thee wearing a girl's unif'rm?"(Yabushita, why are you wearing a girl's uniform?) he went to his battle stance and smiled at Syu. "Has't thee becometh gay? Prithee don't deny me, we're both students of yokoyama!"(Have you become gay? Please don't deny me, we're both students of Yokoyama!) Ainosuke then smirked and looked at her in the eye, "This will tell me that you really are Yabushita!" He was about to attack her and is expecting Syu to dodge it, instead, she grabbed her laptop and used it as a shield. As expected, it was sliced in halves.
"M-My laptop..." She looked wasted as the two parts of her sliced laptop fell on the ground.
"Thee very much art Yabushita! Stand ho crossdressing!"(You really are Yabushita! Stop crossdressing!) he lowered his sword and looked at Syu. "I'm a girl! I don't even know what you're talking about!" She shouted.
"But you showed me your six-pack before... And you even told me that you're the most handsome member of the Shinsengumi troupe." He looked at her with teary eyes.
"six-pack?" Akari started to cackle. "I suddenly remembered that fluffy tummy I got to touch on the camp." She tried stopping her laughter.
"Shut up Yoshida!" Syu sighed, "Look here, I'm a girl." She said as she groped her breasts infront of him.
"I'm not even sure if those are real or not!" He retorted.
Syu started unbuttoning the top buttons of her blouse and showed Ainosuke the real entity.
"AHHH!" He suddenly covered his eyes, you're an imposter!" He raised his sword again and is about to slash her. "After calling me names, then now you're calling me an imposter!?" Syu accepted her fate, she knew she'll die soon, she closed her eyes. Few seconds passed, she still not met her death.
"What the hell? You sure know modern speech but you ain't using it. What're you? A freak?" Akari smirked as she leaned back on her chair.
Syu opened her eyes as she saw a scabbard inches away from her face, and Miru holding it.
"Oi, Nishimura Ainosuke, First year class Gold. Stop this or you'll be reported to the disciplinary committee, and if that happens, I'm sure you'll be ashamed to face your young master, Jonishi Kei." Miru was there, holding the scabbard that Ainosuke threw on the floor earlier. He used it to shield her from the blade coming at her. His eyes widened and he recognized the man's face as one of his comrades from Kyoto.
"S-Shiroma!" He bowed down before the man infront of him. "I'm sorry for the rudeness I did. Please don't tell it to mine lief princess." Dogeza, it is.
"Eh? How come you know my name?" Miru lowered the scabbard and looked at him with a puzzling look. But deep inside, he was definitely lying. He knew who this boy is, he was his junior when he was still studying swordsmanship in Kyoto under Yokoyama Yuizou. In the present time, their teacher works as a manager in Tokyo. Miru tried to hide the fact he doesn't know him, he then tried to swing his sword again. This time, he thought of a plan. He didn't dodge it. The blade made a small horizontal scar on the middle of this nose.
"You are not... Him..." His eyes widened.
"We're the student council." Miyuki entered the room with Sakuya. "Mr. Yamamoto, please confiscate the deadly weapon." As she pointed, he quickly walked towards Ainosuke.
"Mr. Nishimura, mind if I confiscate this?" he swung his blade again.
"Leader Y-Yamamoto!" Ainosuke bowed at him. Sakuya found it as a weird manner of his.
"Hey. This is the first time I saw you, stop doing things like that." He grabbed the Odachi from Ainosuke and its scabbard from Miru, he also picked up the cloth on the ground and went back to Miyuki's side.
Ainosuke was frozen to where he was standing.
"Mr. Shiroma, please proceed to the clinic. Let them treat your nose wound, and Ms. Yabushita, we'll talk about your laptop on our lunch meeting, that's all." They left the room with Miyuki's lead.
--
"Ms. President, what's with that kid? He acts so strange." Sakuya held the cloth-covered odachi on his left hand. He was walking with Miyuki to the Student Council room, the girl took a deep breath and looked at him. "He was brought to this school by Jonishi from the Platinums, though he acts like a nutjob, he actually ranked first in the entrance exams. Bringing him straightly to the Gold section. Nishimura Ainosuke came from Kyoto, and he grew up in some kind of weird Academy—" As she was explaining the student's currently known data, Sakuya cut her off.
"Weird Academy? What was that?" He raised a brow.
"It's the Yokoyama Academy of Sword Arts. They train male students to become a Shinsengumi, though it is not even needed at these times." She sighed and continued to where she was cut off. "Because she grew up on that weird Academy, his speech is different than ours, but he can also manage to speak in modern speech. You heard about it right? The students who reported the happening said that the person who started the commotion speaks in a weird dialect." They were infront of the student council room, Miyuki took out her key and opened the sliding door.
"Sakuya, you have to guard that troublesome kid, which Jonishi might have something up on her sleeves as we are focusing on the little shit she brought here." Miyuki grabbed the odachi from Sakuya's hand and placed it inside the locker labeled as Confiscated Items / Deadly Weapons. When she closed the locker's door, the lockers suddenly shook and is slowly falling.
"Ms. President!" He ran beside Miyuki then pushed her away from the falling locker.
'This is so annoying, why did I even come to save her? Sayaka, you're a girl. She's a person you shouldn't fall for. She's a poisonous flower.
I guess this is the end, I have fallen.'
They were at the corner of the room, Miyuki felt Sakuya's arms around her. She turned red and looked away.
"Ms. President, are you alright?" She saw the worried look on his face, this was the first time she saw the worried expression on his face, and this was also the first time that someone was concerned for her.
"A-Ah yes... I'm alright..." Miyuki was stunned. She then came back to her senses. "I'll have that fixed later, go back to your class." She turned her back and walked out of the room.
'That was so close. But a close contact with Sakuya?' Miyuki turned red when she got far from the room. She covered her face and headed quickly to the comfort room. She looked at the mirror as she remembered what happened a while ago.
--
"Sakunii~" He knew it. He made the wrong decision to skip class and kill time on the rooftop. Someone hugged him from behind, it was Azuma Yuki. The Heiress of the Azuma Photography. Time to time, she has to hide her affection to Sakuya as they were members of two the groups that are kinda like the two sides of the coin.
"Oh, Yuki. What brings you here?" Sakuya tried to answer her calmly. He wants to hide the fact that he went here to calm himself after what happened earlier, of what he realized inside him.
"I don't feel like going to the class." She closed the door and locked it.
Sakuya sat on the floor leaned on the railings. "Is that so?" he sighed and closed his eyes, few minutes of silence passed, he opened his eyes. Yuki was crawling towards him. Sakuya's eyes enlarged and he felt nervous. "Yuki, what are you doing!?" he tried to slide back, but he remembered he was already cornered from the start.
"Y-Yuki!" She kissed him. "Sakunii, I know this is a selfish request, but can I be your girlfriend?" the last words gave him a blow. "H-Huh? What do you mean—" she stopped his lips with her index finger.
"Yes or no?" Yuki added.
--
"Did you hear? Azuma from the Platinums and Vice President Yamamoto are in a relationship!" Rumors welcomed the Student Body president as she entered the school's premises. She felt her blood boil as she heard those senseless rumors from the students, Yamamoto wouldn't do that. He knows I hate the Platinums very much. That won't happen, I know him better than anyone else. Miyuki kept on convincing herself that what she is hearing isn't real.
"Look there they are!" the girl turned to look at the school gate, she saw Sakuya walk out of the car and open the door for Yuki. She was devastated as she saw the girl clung to his arms. That should be me. Miyuki told herself. Her emotions then collapsed, Miru saw her and quickly caught up with her.
"President, are we having the usual morning meetings toda—" He just noticed the sullen look on her face. "President is there something wrong?" Miru asked as she held Miyuki on her shoulders.
"Vice President Shiroma, can you handle the morning meetings today? I think I can't hold them today." She answered with her voice sounding very gloomy.
"Eh? Can you just have Yamamoto-senpai handle it instead of me?" Miru whined and stood erect, letting go of Miyuki's shoulders at once.
"No. Don't even mention his name in front of me." She answered immediately, "Wah, Daebak. Hey, why no—" He finally realized as he saw Sakuya and Yuki walk past them. He sighed and looked at her in the eye. "I understand now, take a rest on your room, and don't even attend the lunch and afternoon meetings. I'll be handling them, and I'll keep you updated through messages. Let me be the president just this one day, give your heart a break, Ms. President." Miru grabbed the President's arm band from her blazer's waist pocket, he placed it on his left arm and smiled at Miyuki as she walked towards the shoe lockers.
(A/N: Daebak – Korean word (대박). Means "big win", "great success" or something awesome.)
He actually found it bothersome, but he also felt sorry for the girl. Miru knew from the start that Miyuki was in love with Sakuya, why? He is an outstanding member of the newspaper club, how can he not notice or even investigate the mysterious bulging love letters on Sakuya's locker when because of its number, it opens the locker by itself and it falls drastically to the floor. He then figured out that it was Watanabe Miyuki who is placing those love letters on his locker earlier in the morning.
Miru then positioned himself on the post where Miyuki always welcome the students. He removed his midnight blue-colored blazer then hung it on his shoulder. "Good day." Countless times, those words went out of his lips. He was getting tired of it already, but he can't stop. There's still ten minutes or more before he can go and start the morning meeting, he is the President today after all. He doesn't even understand why he is helping the President when he is just joined to learn Student Council-only things and place it on the newspaper once he discovers many of them.
"Good day." Miru greeted the last person he knew he'll be greeting, he blinked his eyes before looking at the student, and it was the person who won the idiot award on his world, Yagura Fuuko of the Platinums.
"Ah it's just you," He evaded her look and began looking at his small notepad. "In all of the students in this academy, why's she the one to get my last greeting." He murmured. Miru placed his notepad on his pocket and decided to put on his blazer, he then went to the student council room.
Fuuko heard his murmur, "What's with that annoying guy?" She glared at him as his figure was slowly fading away as he entered the first building's premises.
--
An hour earlier, it was when Sakuya and Yuki entered the Premises.
"Yuki, can you loosen your grip a bit?" Sakuya told her as he soon noticed Miyuki by the gates. He was hurting inside, or rather, she's hurting inside.
"Does it hurt you?" Yuki loosened as she was told. "I'm sorry Sakuya, let's go." She pulled his arm and they walked the path to the first school building. As they were moving further away, Sakuya kept on looking Miyuki, whispering thing inside his mind. I belong to you, I'm crazily in love with you, Miyuki. He'd hate to admit it, but he or she already fell in love with her.
"Miyuki." He quietly murmured. Yuki thought that he called for her. "Yes, what is it, Sakuya?" They stopped for a bit and Sakuya just sighed and looked at her. "Nothing, I'm going to bring you to your group's leisure room." He forced a smile and placed his left arm around her.
--
The Principal's Office door's opened, revealing a proportionally perfect girl entering the room, "Ms. Kamieda." The girl said.
"I said I don't wanna, right!?" when she sat upright, she realized who the unexpected visitor was. She then put on a faked smile and looked at her. "Hola, soy Emika." she quickly responded with her Spanish language skills.
"I'm not in the mood to joke with you, Ms. Kamieda." Jonishi Kei closed the door before coming into close contact with Emika. The Principal sighed and looked at her as if they were playing a game of cards.
"Ms. Jonishi, why is the student you brought here, Nishimura Ainosuke of the first year Gold class, started to wreak havoc all of a sudden. He even destroyed a student's personal item." Emika tapped the table and placed the images caught by the cctv camera's in the first year Gold class' room.
"Move Ainosuke to the Platinum class." She pulled out a billions worth of check from her wallet and placed it on the principal's table.
Emika chuckled and crossed her legs. "First wreaking havoc, now bribing me to transfer your no good freak to the highest class? Looks like you're one desperate person, Ms. Jonishi Kei." She then stood up and looked at the window, she was laughing loudly.
"Let's see if you can laugh again after I take away the donations from my dad's company." Those words made the Principal turned around look at her in suspense. "What do you mean?" Emika asked the girl infront of her. Kei just showed her the head ring on her ring finger. "Because I am the future head of the company, I've been undergoing some training and that includes the rejecting of and pulling out of donations to no-good schools and companies, perhaps you might want this school to get bankrupt." The girl raised a brow and a wicked smile formed on her face.
"So what'll be the Queen's decision? To disregard the case and accept the gold being given, or to keep on fighting as the castle crumbles down." She sat at the office chair with her arms and legs crossed, Emika saw the different glint on her eyes, as Kei pulled out her smartphone from her blazer's waist pocket. "Decide quickly, unless you want the castle to crumble real fast." She was clearly mocking the principal.
"Okay I get it, I get it. I'll transfer him to the Platinum class." Emika nervously answered, "Well then, good day, Ms. Kamieda." She threw a number of ten-thousand yen bills as she walked out of the room.
Outside was Ainosuke waiting for her. "Master, what happened?" he immediately asked as he followed her pace. Kei was leading him to the leisure room. Kei heard how he talked, she was greatly angered.
"You sure know how to talk in modern speech, why hadn't you used that when we met last time?!" She turned around and glared at him.
"I-I thought you can understand..." his face turned sullen. Kei sighed and lifted his chin.
"You should've told me sooner." She kissed him on his left cheek then grabbed his arm to enter the leisure room. Ainosuke felt honored, the girl he likes just kissed him on his cheek. "And congratulations, you made it to the Platinum class, for the meantime, we'll be joining the Gold class' for lessons, once the Platinum classroom's construction's done, we'll have a different class than that of the Golds, got it?" She handed him his new uniform as she explained the current situation to him.
"Y-Yes, I understand. Mine lief princess." He accepted the uniform and got changed on one of the fancy dressing rooms inside the leisure room.
--
Afterschool, almost all of the students have left. Miyuki stood inside the Student Council Meeting room, she was watching the few students leaving the campus. She opened her phone and saw countless messages from Miru, she checked it one by one, and she learned that Sakuya didn't attend any of the meetings. Does this mean, he chose that girl over his duties as the Vice President? She locked her phone and placed it back to her blazer's pocket. "Aah, the school festival's nearing. I wonder how I'll handle our event. Now that someone's loyalty has been taken away from us." Miyuki said as she sat on her chair as the president. She rested her head on the table. She started to cry, she was looking at the orange-colored sky as the tears flow from her eyes.
The sliding door opened, "Watanabe!" it was a familiar voice.
"Yamamoto?" She stood up and wiped her tears.
"Watanabe, no Ms. President." He kneeled infront of her. "My loyalty's already owned by you, Ms. President." This is the only idea that came to his head, he wants to stay beside her, no matter what happens.
"Y-Yamamoto..." Miyuki kneeled to see him face to face. "You don't need to do that, Ms. Azuma's waiting for you at the gates." She forced a smile.
"I'm the Vice President, I should be always by the President's side." He kissed Miyuki's hand. "I've already sworn my loyalty to you the day Ogasawara and the others brought me here." They stood up together as Sakuya's still holding Miyuki's hand.
"Don't worry Ms. President, I won't abandon the Council just because of Yuki. I was just ashamed to show myself to you today because I know you despised the Platinums the most. I'll be attending the meetings again tomorrow." Sakuya smiled at the girl that'll be out of his reach from now.
"Okay, thank you Mr. Yamamoto." Miyuki grabbed her bag, "Let's go to the school gate together? My family's car's been waiting there forever." She chuckled as they exited the room and locked the doors.
--
"Hi, my name is Ota Yuuri, from today on, I'll be joining the Platinum class, its nice meeting you all!" A short-haired girl wearing a white blazer with black edges, golden necktie, black dress shirt, and white black edged skirt, she's a Platinum, no matter where you look at her.
From her seat, Syu felt helpless, she doesn't know how she'll deal with the four members of Platinum Class when she's the only one from Student Council in their classroom. Fuck this, I'm doomed. She whispered. When Ainosuke entered the room wearing a Platinum class' Uniform, now make it five, Syu suddenly wants to commit suicide.