Chapter 9: Going to the Student Council (Patreon)

Chapter 9: Heading to the Student Council

...

"He's gone, isn't he."

Watching Satoru Anjouin and his little tail walk off, the purple-haired girl said to the cute silver-haired girl beside her, her feelings a tangled mess.

The silver-haired girl looked adorable enough, but the purple-haired girl found her personality dreadful—basically a little devil.

She'd never imagined that being invited to share this lunch was really just a setup for a challenge.

"Don't you find this fun, Masumi?"

Arisu Sakayanagi called out the purple-haired girl's name affectionately.

"We're not close enough for you to use my first name."

"Eh, I never said you could call me Arisu. Oh, do you want to call me that? You can, you know~"

Arisu Sakayanagi said with a beaming smile.

"I've always wanted a little dog—wait, I mean a friend~"

"Who's a little dog?!"

Masumi Kamuro glared, furious enough to bristle.

"Your personality is just awful!"

In truth, she deeply regretted slipping back into her old shoplifting habit, only to get caught red-handed by Arisu Sakayanagi.

And the moment the other girl had opened with "my father is the chairman," she'd been completely cowed on the spot.

"Thanks~"

Arisu Sakayanagi elegantly sipped hot water poured from her thermos.

Kamuro's venomous words rolled right off her, no more than a spring breeze brushing past her cheek.

Having silently cursed Arisu Sakayanagi up and down in her head, Kamuro turned and asked her something else.

"Is he really worth all this trouble for you?"

"If you used that intel, you could easily win over the class's support—wouldn't that be a chance to get ahead of both him and Katsuragi?"

Kamuro still didn't understand her at all.

"A victory like that would mean nothing. Before my showdown with Kiyotaka Ayanokouji, I need a proper opponent to test my hand against first."

In truth, Arisu Sakayanagi had gone back and forth on whether to help Katsuragi or help Satoru Anjouin.

Especially since the latter had put on an act in front of her before, pretending to be an ordinary student struggling to adjust to Jujutsu High... even telling her he'd "thought about withdrawing."

And clearly being an insider while claiming to be an outsider—that was more than a little mischievous of him.

Seeing Arisu Sakayanagi looking every bit the predator, Kamuro gave up trying to talk her out of it.

"Heh, and besides, he's quite arrogant too."

"Humoring me like he's playing with a little sister—clearly he doesn't take me seriously. All the better. It makes it more of a challenge."

Arisu Sakayanagi grew more and more worked up, and Kamuro started worrying she might accidentally have one of her fits.

"Say, is there a chance... he's got a little sister at home, and he's just genuinely used to playing with her? Look, isn't he always tagging around with Morishita?"

Kamuro had of course noticed the small, petite Ai Morishita, who seemed quite fond of playing little tail to Satoru Anjouin.

"Or, there's also a chance he's got a thing for little girls."

"..."

Hearing that from Kamuro, Arisu Sakayanagi felt all the excitement she'd worked up drain right out of her.

"Shut up and eat."

"Ugh, can't win an argument so now I have to shut up..."

Ordered around by Arisu Sakayanagi, Kamuro silently cursed her out in her head while obediently going back to her meal.

—

Meanwhile, Satoru Anjouin, having already left the private room, was first met in the public dining area by the mournful stare of a middle-aged man.

With his and Ai Morishita's sharp intuition, he easily worked out that this middle-aged man was the very "chairman father" Arisu Sakayanagi had mentioned.

His private room commandeered by his daughter, banished to eat alone in the public area, and then forced to watch his daughter invite some boy to share her lunch...

In his shoes, Ajimu would've been mournful too.

Satoru Anjouin, with his little tail in tow, returned their trays to the designated collection point and hurried out of the cafeteria.

"The chairman's presence is way too oppressive."

"Yeah. A father's love." Ai Morishita nodded repeatedly.

"So, Satoru Anjouin, you really are so pitiful..." Then she let out a heavy sigh.

"???"

Satoru Anjouin looked utterly confused.

"That's a terrifying gluttonous fairy. You'd better be careful, or she'll eat you down to the bone."

Ai Morishita told him this with a perfectly straight face.

First a gluttonous monster, and now a gluttonous fairy had turned up at this school too.

"Sakayanagi is a bit of a little fairy, sure, but I doubt she'd take any interest in me," Satoru Anjouin said, amused.

Hearing him say that, Ai Morishita rose up on her tiptoes and patted his shoulder twice, wearing the expression of someone who thinks he's not long for this world and had better enjoy life while he still can.

Seeing Ai Morishita's parade of expressions, Satoru Anjouin couldn't quite help reaching out to pat her little head a couple of times.

"Right, I'm heading to the student council with Katsuragi—want to come along?"

The words had barely left Satoru Anjouin's mouth when Ai Morishita's head started shaking violently back and forth.

ヽ((°◇°=°◇°))ノ

Her little head shook so fast that the two strands of hair hanging by her shoulders whipped around with it.

Even mooching a meal off Satoru Anjouin had turned into trouble—there was no way she'd dare follow him to the student council on top of that.

An organization like the student council was basically a boss-level challenge every student had to face sooner or later at this school, but she wasn't ready to take on that boss just yet.

"I promised Miki Yamamura we'd go investigate some ants together~"

Though that excuse sounded made up the second she said it, since his little tail didn't want to tag along, Satoru Anjouin didn't push it.

"Go on then. Don't give Yamamura too hard a time."

Miki Yamamura was, in fact, the girl who sat behind and to his right, at the table next to Ai Morishita's—someone with a fairly low presence.

"Yes, sir——!"

Ai Morishita snapped her legs together, stood up perfectly straight, and threw him a military salute.

Then she spun around, flung her arms wide, and jogged off.

She really did look full of energy.

Satoru Anjouin spent a while getting familiar with the area around the cafeteria and checking out the free ingredients on offer, then timed his walk carefully so he'd arrive at the school building right on schedule.

He joined Kohei Katsuragi, who was already waiting for him, and together they headed for the student council office on one of the upper floors.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Katsuragi."

"I only just got here myself, Ajimu."

Kohei Katsuragi answered calmly, though the sweat beading on his forehead gave away that he'd actually been waiting for a while.

"Thanks again for that intel you provided. Now, even if class competitions suddenly break out, Class A won't be caught off guard."

"That's not something I can take credit for alone."

Satoru Anjouin didn't claim the credit for the intel Arisu Sakayanagi had provided.

And because Kohei Katsuragi had a younger sister, he'd seen through Arisu Sakayanagi's true nature earlier than most of the other students—he knew that with her rather self-centered personality running the class, she might well sell out the class's interests for her own benefit.

"That's enough. Let's go."

Kohei Katsuragi raised a hand slightly, stopping Satoru Anjouin from wasting more words on the matter.

"Katsuragi, if it's not too much trouble, remember to set up some kind of reward-and-punishment system down the line. If you're worried Sakayanagi might do whatever she pleases, use the system to keep her in check."

Hearing this, Kohei Katsuragi's eyes lit up at once—even his shaved head seemed to gleam a little brighter.

"Let's do that, then."

"I'll leave the reward-and-punishment system to you—I'm no good at that sort of thing."

"Alright. Just call me Katsuragi from now on."

"In that case, you can just call me Ajimu too."

As the two of them talked, they reached the floor where the student council office sat, and a pretty girl with long golden-pink hair stood not far off.

"That's Class B's Ichinose..."

Kohei Katsuragi recognized her at once.

Of course, he'd also concluded, based on her personality, that she probably wasn't well suited to what this school had become.

On that point—not counting Class B as a rival—he and Arisu Sakayanagi were in agreement, though he was a bit more cautious about it; even with Class B posing no real threat, he still kept an eye on the class closest to Class A.

"No need to be so on guard. We don't even know the competition rules yet—Class B might turn out to be worth winning over."

Satoru Anjouin offered the reminder without quite meaning to.

Noticing the two of them climbing the stairs, Honami Ichinose seemed to visibly relax, while from the student council office not far away, the sound of an argument kept spilling out.

"General Affairs Officer Nagumo, please address me by my title during working hours——!"

That was the student council president who'd left such a strong impression at the entrance ceremony.

That severe tone, paired with a maturity far beyond his peers, had left plenty of unsettling impressions on the student body.

Though at the time, Satoru Anjouin had actually been busy looking at the girls from other classes.

"President Horikita! You'll regret this!"

"I'm the real student council president!"

A moment later, a man with sharply regular features, short light-yellow hair, and an upright build—clearly the type popular with girls at a glance—stormed out looking somewhat ferocious.

Then he slammed the student council office door shut behind him.

Bang——!

As for the three students standing at the door, he didn't even bother keeping up appearances—he just walked straight past them.

That terrifying display startled Honami Ichinose.

Satoru Anjouin, though, was more puzzled than anything by the scene playing out in front of him.

Did I wander onto the wrong set again?

Or has this world stitched something new together?

Why does it always play out so predictably?

Speaking of which... General Affairs Officer Nagumo, huh.

Satoru Anjouin watched the retreating figure and found he wasn't all that surprised by the man's predicament.

In the original story, Nagumo lived by the creed that individual ability came above all else, and his second-year Class A had fewer than thirty students.

That was because he'd forced out anyone who opposed him, promoted the old Class B up to Class A, and made all sorts of promises to the new Class B and the former Classes C and D—consolidating his control over the entire grade in the process.

He did have the talent to back it up, too—a textbook prodigy who never seemed to try especially hard at anything, yet had come in first in both academics and sports since childhood.

But the original Advanced Nurturing High School had wanted the classes to stay in competition with each other, so his methods naturally hadn't gone over well.

Of course, he could never have guessed that Advanced Nurturing High School would suddenly turn into Jujutsu High.

And now the second-years had the fewest students of any grade—and that, damn it, was entirely because he himself had kept expelling them.

On top of that, with Private Points clearly becoming more valuable now, the Classes B, C, and D that had once been willing to follow his orders might well turn against him this new term.

Satoru Anjouin was almost surprised the man hadn't already been stripped of everything.

"Right, the cursed technique he awakened was Blood Manipulation—guess the pull of the Three Great Families still counts for something."

Presumably the school had gone easy on him precisely because the technique he'd awakened belonged to one of the Three Great Families, though a necessary warning had still been unavoidable.

"Come in."

A cold voice came from inside the student council office.

It felt as though the surrounding air had dropped five degrees in an instant.

"Let's go."

Seeing that both Kohei Katsuragi and Honami Ichinose seemed a little unsteady on their feet, Satoru Anjouin took the lead and walked into the student council office.