Chapter 74 – The Games Keep Getting Wilder! (Patreon)

Shuchiin Academy.

First-Year Class C.

"Mi-chan, are you heading to the student council again today?"

Kobachi Osaragi, who had been about to invite Miko to eat lunch together, noticed the stack of documents in Miko's hands and asked curiously.

"Yeah, I need to turn these documents in to Fujiwara-senpai..."

Miko paused briefly at the question, then answered with a somewhat forced smile.

Originally, she was supposed to hand these documents directly to Shizuka Hiratsuka-sensei. But ever since she witnessed that scene in Hiratsuka-sensei's office, the image of the outstanding and intellectual teacher she had admired had shattered completely. Even now she didn't know how to face Hiratsuka-sensei.

Just yesterday, Hiratsuka-sensei had told her to come to the office after school on Friday—there was something she wanted to discuss. Miko had a vague sense of what it would be about, and she had no idea how she was supposed to handle it when the time came.

At that moment, Kobachi asked curiously, "Turn them in to Fujiwara-senpai? Isn't the student council president Shinomiya-senpai?"

Miko's faint smile on her petite face grew even more strained. "Giving them to President Shinomiya would work too, but..."

Of course she could give them to Kaguya. In Miko's mind, Kaguya had always been the academy's Ice Queen—an outstanding student excelling in academics, conduct, athletics, and the arts. One of the people Miko admired and aspired to become.

But... last time, she had also walked in on Kaguya's depraved scene with that little boy...

And so, the Kaguya filter had shattered in her heart too.

What tormented Miko the most was that both Kaguya and Shizuka Hiratsuka were her superiors. As their subordinate, she had stumbled upon both of her superiors at their most depraved. In the working world or politics, her path to advancement would already be utterly severed.

Unless she joined in too...

But Miko's father was a judge, her mother worked for an international humanitarian aid organization, and she herself was a member of the disciplinary committee. There was no way she would collude with such corruption! If only she had enough authority right now, she would impeach Kaguya without hesitation, seize the president's seat herself, and purge the academy of these deviant winds!

"Thank goodness Fujiwara-senpai is still in the student council..."

A look of admiration welled up in Miko's eyes.

Chika—during the middle-school cultural festival, that noble figure of hers playing the piano had been deeply imprinted upon Miko's heart. She firmly believed that her idol, Chika, would surely stand on the same side as her! When the time came, they would join forces and sweep away this sho[ta]con-shaped corruption from Shuchiin Academy!

Kobachi watched as Miko's expression grew increasingly complicated at the mention of Kaguya and was silent for a moment.

"It seems the situation in the student council is far more... complicated than I imagined."

Miko took a deep breath. As her heart's aspiration—Chika's figure—surfaced in her mind, the smile on her face became bright and radiant.

"I'll head to the student council first. Let's eat together when I get back!"

With those words, she jogged off toward the student council office.

Soon, she found herself standing before the student council room. Looking at the closed door, Miko pushed it open without a moment's hesitation.

"Fuji—"

The sound had barely left her throat before it cut off abruptly.

Chika's hands and feet were bound by a thin cord. Her figure, far fuller than the average high school girl's, curved into an S-shape as she lay upon the sofa. A familiar little boy sat beside her, smacking her while casually eating bento.

"Fujiwara-senpai's been kidnapped?!"

That was the first thought that surfaced in Miko's mind.

But then the sound of the smacks reached her ears, and Miko saw the flushed yet exhilarated expression on Chika's lovely face. Her brain promptly short-circuited.

As a disciplinary committee member who had viewed countless videos for research purposes, Miko was well aware that people in this world harbored all kinds of kinks. But most of those kinks, she simply could not accept. Among them was the one involving certain... letters of the alphabet.

Adhering to a spirit of earnest, evidence-based investigation, she had watched that particular special disc multiple times. Yet she had always been convinced—just what kind of pervert could possibly enjoy something like this?

Until, that is, the scene in the student council room entered her eyes.

Chika's appearance gradually overlapped with the image of that woman from the disc—the one so thoroughly burned into her memory from watching it over and over for verification.

Miko's fair, petite face instantly burned crimson-hot.

"So Fujiwara-senpai is also..."

Looking at that familiar, beautiful little boy, the infinitely radiant image of Chika in Miko's heart came crashing down.

Worse still—Chika played even wilder games than Kaguya and Shizuka Hiratsuka!

In Miko's mind right now, the student council had fully transformed into an ultra-depraved sho[ta]con den.

"Th-this is illegal..."

The young girl murmured in utter shock.

"In this student council, even Fujiwara-senpai has fallen into depravity..."

"What if..."

Miko's mind suddenly conjured an alternate worldline where she had never discovered any of this. Under the influence of the student council environment, she too would gradually be assimilated, becoming a sho[ta]con herself and engaging in plays even more shameful than Fujiwara-senpai's...

"I-I absolutely don't want to end up like that!"

Having viewed countless videos and possessing a mind brimming with theoretical knowledge, Miko Iino imagined dozens of possible scenarios in that instant. Mortified beyond belief, she clamped her hands over her burning cheeks and fled the student council room as though she had wings.

Leaving behind Kouma, whose expression held a trace of bafflement, and Chika, wholly immersed in her own world and utterly oblivious to everything.

"I think that's... the third time she's walked in on something now..."

Kouma tried to recall and fell briefly silent.

He turned to look at Chika, whose lovely face was now nearly the same shade as her hair color, and felt a bit helpless.

At the start, Chika had been rather bashful, and the games were relatively tame. But as the number of her losses piled up, Chika grew more and more excited. The games kept getting wilder. Kouma could see it clearly now—Chika was a scheming little masochist through and through! No matter how many layers of pretense she stacked on top, in the end, the dagger was always aimed at the same spot.

But seeing how much she was enjoying herself, Kouma couldn't bring himself to refuse, so he simply continued playing along.

...

First-Year Class C. After school.

Kobachi looked at her best friend beside her, who seemed to have turned monochrome as if struck by a devastating blow, and asked with concern.

"Mi-chan, what happened? Ever since you came back from the student council, you've been totally listless. You didn't even eat your lunch..."

Miko Iino shifted from slumped over her desk to leaning back against her chair, her small head tilting back weakly as she stared at the white ceiling.

"The student council... has fallen..."

Hearing her faint, feeble murmur, Kobachi grew even more confused. "Fallen how?"

Miko fell silent. She didn't know how to explain something like this. She couldn't just come right out and tell Kobachi that the current student council, plus Hiratsuka-sensei, were all sho[ta]cons wantonly engaging in depraved activities. And the most critical detail—they were all fixated on the exact same little boy!

Who knew, maybe they even... together...

Miko's mind conjured an image of Kouma. That beautiful, well-behaved face had been seared deeply into her memory. Especially after all the wild imagination she'd indulged in at lunchtime...

Her cheeks flushed faintly, but her eyes remained lost and adrift.

Her original purpose in joining the student council had been to train herself, to learn from Shuchiin's outstanding upperclassmen like Chika and Kaguya, to become a better version of herself.

Now... she had the feeling that staying in the student council any longer would not make her better at all. If anything, she might very well end up assimilated by them.

"Am I... supposed to just quit the student council?"

Miko was tangled in agonizing indecision.

"Sorry, Ko-chan. I think I'll head home early today. I'm leaving the disciplinary committee work to you for now."

Miko spoke listlessly and left the classroom, bag in hand.

She walked toward the school gate, her gaze wandering aimlessly past the students around her.

With her extensive experience cracking down on dating couples back in middle school, a single sweeping glance was enough for her to immediately pick out several pairs of lovey-dovey students. Without her disciplinary committee armband on, the couples didn't bother hiding even when she passed right by them. This was the first time Miko had observed these dating students up close.

Watching the bashful yet joyful smiles on their faces, Miko Iino—who had always maintained a zero-tolerance strike policy toward campus romance—suddenly felt, for the first time, that there was something almost beautiful about it.

"Does dating really make people this happy?"

Confusion and incomprehension bubbled up inside her.

At school, a student's fundamental duty was to study! To enrich one's knowledge, to improve one's abilities! Dating was nothing but a waste of time that would only hinder a bright future!

Romance? Even a dog wouldn't bother with it!

Miko reaffirmed her principles in her heart, and at the same time steeled her resolve!

She would quit the student council!

Then, at the next student council election, she would defeat Kaguya and ascend to the president's seat! She would save Chika!

Miko walked out of Shuchiin's gates and headed toward the station.

"Yo, if it isn't the strictest disciplinary committee member from our middle school days? How come you're not wearing that status-flaunting armband of yours today?"

A frivolous, arrogant voice rang out. Miko looked up to find two guys blocking her path, the words "street punk" practically tattooed across their faces.

"It's you... Weren't you expelled from Shuchiin? What are you doing here?"

Miko's eyes narrowed. She recognized one of them—a thug who had run rampant back in Shuchiin's middle school, someone she had relentlessly pursued as a disciplinary committee member. He had ultimately been forcibly expelled for bullying a classmate.

"And whose fault do you think that is, Miss Disciplinary Committee?!"

The punk snarled viciously.

His family wasn't particularly wealthy or powerful. His father had latched onto a high-ranking official, and since that official's son attended Shuchiin, he had managed to get in as well.

At Shuchiin, he had acted as that official's son's lackey, often borrowing his authority like a fox strutting in a tiger's skin, bullying students who had always seemed so far above him before.

Then one day, everything he'd done was reported to the administration by Miko Iino.

At first, he hadn't taken it seriously. He just needed to ask the official's son for help. With his father's influence, smoothing this over would be effortless.

But the official's son's dismissive tone had struck him like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky.

"You think you're worth my father lifting a finger to help?"

He had been abandoned. And along with him, his father had been abandoned by that official's entire family.

Only then did he see the truth—in others' eyes, they were nothing but insignificant, easily replaceable chess pieces.

From a Shuchiin student to an unemployed street punk overnight, he had come to loathe everyone who held power. But even more than that, he loathed Miko Iino, who had taken everything from him!

After suffering endless abuse and humiliation from society, he had made up his mind—he would make this woman pay.

"My dear disciplinary committee member, I bet you have no idea just how unbearably miserable my life has been since leaving Shuchiin, do you?! This kind of suffering—a rich girl like you has definitely never experienced!"

Ranting hysterically, he and the other punk cornered Miko into an alleyway.

Miko saw the flick-knives gleaming in their hands. Her eyes contracted sharply, panic flickering across her face.

"Do you want to go to prison?"

Her voice trembled slightly.

The two exchanged a glance, derisive smirks tugging at their lips.

"You think this is our first time killing someone? In this world, as long as you handle the cleanup properly, everyone just assumes it was a monster or ghoul attack!"

A cruel grin twisted the corners of his mouth.

Miko's breath caught in her throat. Her face drained of all color.

At that moment, a youthful voice suddenly sounded from beside them.

"Big sister! Fujiwara-senpai needs you for something!"

The two punks whirled around in alarm. Behind them stood a little boy with a school bag on his back.

Instantly, they both relaxed.

"What, already trying to play hero at your age?"

They brandished their knives at the boy, sneering viciously.

The little boy simply looked at one of the punks, fixing him with a steady gaze. After a few seconds of silence, he spoke.

"You know, your girlfriend's been having an affair with your buddy here this whole time."

The boy's words landed in the other punk's ears. He paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"What the hell are you—"

Before the words even finished leaving his mouth, a knife was suddenly driven straight into his body.

Overwhelmed by searing pain, he turned to look, his face a mask of utter shock.

The other punk's eyes were bloodshot, his expression twisted with bottomless hatred as he glared at him.

"You bastard... you were screwing my girlfriend behind my back?!"

"You don't even have a goddamn girlfriend, you psycho! How could I—"

But before the words could finish, the bloodied knife was yanked out and plunged again, stabbed over and over straight into his heart.

In an instant, the alleyway echoed with agonized screams and flying gouts of blood.

And the little boy had long since grabbed the shell-shocked, blank-minded girl and swiftly pulled her away.

...

Not far off, a silver-haired girl with twin-tails holding a camera watched the scene unfold. The corners of her lips curled with intrigued interest.

"Oh? Looks like I found an unexpected little bonus."

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