“Tatsuya-kun.”
Only a little time remained of the noon break. Mari, who had just left the Student Council room and was in a nearby corridor, called out in order to stop Tatsuya, who was on his way back to his classroom.
Tatsuya and Miyuki simultaneously turned around; for some reason Mari wore a slightly bitter smile. The general public might think of them as ‘close siblings’, but that was because they were not always ignoring these little actions.
“Do you need something?”
Tatsuya nodded to Mari to continue, in order to quickly dispose of the matter.
“There’s a matter I wish to have a short discussion with you about. Could you come to headquarters?”
When she said ‘headquarters’, he didn’t have to ask of what; she meant the Public Moral Committee headquarters.
“Right now?”
“It won’t take much time. Oh, yes. If possible, could Shiba also be present?”
Tatsuya and Miyuki's faces, struck by surprise, looked at each other. This was the first time in their memory that Mari had said to Miyuki anything like ‘need you to do something’ or ‘something to discuss’.
“Miyuki, are you okay time wise?”
“Yes. Since fourth period is free, there’s no problem if I’m a little late.”
Free was an abbreviation for ‘free subject’. Science, language, and the like or magic other than actual practice could be studied by terminals for individual study. It was about the same as self study, so being a little late was certainly no problem.
“Is it alright with Onii-sama?”
Tatsuya on the other hand, had a small test on practical skill that was called ‘ability measurement’.
In the first course, an instructor used an instrument to process measurement (naturally, advice was also given), but in the second course, students individually, at their own convenience, used an instrument to process measurement; as long as it was sometime during the period he made the requisite score, it would be counted as a passing grade.
“—It’s okay.”
He nodded to Miyuki and directed an agreement to Mari; Mari said ‘sorry’, outpaced the two of them and advanced on foot to the stairs.
As they went to their committee’s headquarters, they did not use the shortcut that passed by the Student Council room.
Compared to half a year before, she was like a different person; it certainly seemed like a different room after all the cleaning and organizing he’d done. By the receiver set that wasn’t there half a year before, Mari and the siblings sat down facing across from each other. (By the way, the receiver set, as he had found out through cross-examination, had been moved to a storehouse because the room had been filled with so much stuff. It had been returned to its original spot so that they could monitor information frequencies.)
“—Okay, now, since it’s you two siblings, perhaps you have some idea of what this is about.”
At the emphasis made by Mari with her preface, Tatsuya thought “Huh?”
A subtle tension was radiating from her.
Unthinkable; Miyuki’s here so it can’t be that kind of reason. They came face to face in the Student Council room regularly. You couldn’t call the opportunities for them to have words nil; there was no reason for an upperclassman like Mari to feel tense at this point in their relationship.
“…What I want to discuss, it’s Mayumi. The truth is, I, too, am gripped by anxiety from what Tatsuya pointed out earlier.”
“The matter of those who oppose the plan to abolish the rule about Student Council members having to be chosen from Course One students?”
Mari didn’t notice due to her tension, but Tatsuya indicated his understanding.
“That’s right… I, too, think that there are too many people in the opposition party. At the spring assembly, I did not feel that kind of mood from the people opposed when the announcement was made, but I believe I can remember that the people who made emotionally opposing outbursts were… more than a few. Since you’re both first years, you may not think about this kind of thing, but you can’t conduct a sabotage operation peacefully. After all, won’t somebody who runs around using violence always pop out? That is what is called sufficient warning.”
“Most likely.”
The one who thought that was Tatsuya, who was without hesitation or hatred and swiftly directed towards the gloomy faced Mari.
“Mayumi—probably because she is an ojou-sama[6], is unfamiliar with this kind of ‘malice’. That girl probably cannot understand the feeling that is said to make a cornered animal attack.”
Hmmm, Tatsuya agreed that it was a suicidal weakness.
Mari didn’t appear to be the bashful type.
Seen from the sidelines, it was abundantly clear that these two’s playful badgering was proof of how well they got along; from Tatsuya’s perspective, Mari worrying about Mayumi was ‘utterly natural’. However, Mari did not seem to think so.
“What you said just then… Mayumi seems to have not taken it too seriously. Because Mayumi has the special skill ‘Multi Scope’, that girl can guard her perimeter and nobody can take her by surprise, but since that ability is not a passive activation perception ability, when she doesn’t feel the need for vigilance, it’s like a toy trapped in its packaging.”
“…Hmm.”
Well, isn’t it about time Mari tells us what she wants us to do, Tatsuya thought.
“Eh— then, …sorry. I'm chattering without getting to the point…”
Good, Tatsuya didn’t have to say it aloud; Mari was returning to the main issue on her own.
“And so. I want you two to… if you could, leave school with Mayumi today for me?”
“—You mean see the president home?”
“You don’t have to go as far as her home—no, I’d be grateful if you would go that far. I think I don’t have to worry about her inside school grounds. In the classrooms, she’s surrounded by a crowd of groupies; in the Student Council room, there’s Ichihara and Hattori. The time I’m most worried about is when she leaves school. She won’t, for whatever the reason, let her groupies approach her outside of school.”
“Isn’t that because she is a direct descendant of the Ten Master Clans?”
Mari made a face that said ‘until now, I’ve never considered that’ when Tatsuya made his absent-minded assertion.
“…It’s like that?”
“Eh? I’m not a member of the Ten Master Clans; that was but a simple guess.”
“You might be right on the mark… Anyway, Mayumi generally leaves school alone. Even if someone made it look accidental, it would be easier than within school. If it wasn’t this point in time, I’d be talking to Hattori, but after he’s done with the Student Council, it seems that he goes over to the Club Management Group’s area to make various preparations… Under the circumstances, Tatsuya-kun, I’d like to rely on you. Since you possess the strongest anti-magic ‘Gram Demolition’, no matter what sneak attack they contrive, it will be okay, right?”
Tatsuya was gripped by a single doubt; however, he couldn't speak the words. Because, faster than he could open his mouth, Miyuki answered Mari’s question.
“Please leave it to us. If it’s my brother, there will be no slip-ups.”
Mari’s last utterance had not been a question as a formality, however. In actuality, it was a provocation, or perhaps an incitement. The words oddly stirred up Miyuki—they were for the purpose of inciting her to burst into the pause and keep mean-spirited Tatsuya’s questions like ‘Why should I, myself, have to accompany her away from school?’ from being spoken.
Instead, Tatsuya was looking at Mari who had a smirking evil grin.
“Wh-What? Is there something you want to say?”
“No, not particularly.”
“How mean spirited. If that girl got injured now, various things would worsen. In spite of understanding how precarious things are… it’s not as if I’m particularly worried about that girl.”
As he watched Mari make excuses with all her might, Tatsuya thought ‘so is this what is called a tsundere[7]?’ — he wasn’t quite certain.
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