Chapter 153: Volume 4.5 Chapter 4 Part 6

The sun was sinking far away below the horizon. It was dusk.

Ichinose was waiting for me at the promised place, looking at the sea.

When I saw her from the side, she looked somehow fleeting. I hesitated to call her name a little.

“Ichinose.”

“Ayanokouji-kun. Good afternoon.”

I lightly gave my greetings and stood in front of her. There wasn’t a mood to cut to the chase right away, so I made just a little small talk.

“Are you still doing that plan to save private points?”

It had nothing to do with the matter at hand, but Ichinose didn’t seem averse at all.

“Yeah. Because there’s no harm in doing it. If I save up so much that I don’t need to anymore, I could return the points everyone lent to me so it’s simple.”

The reason she was able to say that it was simple to continue doing it was because people trusted her.

Just as the person herself has said, as long as she promises to return the amount then it was a good idea to make preparations to move large amounts of money in case of an emergency.

Ichinose’s unique advantage was also a big factor.

“But, the plan to pool money was furnished in case of an emergency. It’s no good if that’s all, is it?”

“If you had just started it would have been a different story, but this is a continuation.”

So it wasn’t a new plan that she had prepared. She was only maintaining it up to the present.

“What do you think we lack?”

“What your class lacks?”

“Yeah. Maybe we don’t look at our surroundings properly… I wonder how our class looks to you.”

“On the island, I spoke with several of your classmates. Aside from being tired, the first thing I felt was, as expected, that there were a lot of students with good personalities.”

This doesn’t need to be said in order to be understood, but it wasn’t something you could take away from them.

But because they fundamentally don’t like to fight, they can’t proactively take class points.

“It might be important to be more firm. I’m not telling you to play foul or do something shady, but I think it’s important to become strong in rough play.”

“Rough play… huh. That’s true. We have to be more firm in order to fight.”

She still isn’t thinking of a concrete plan to solve it.

They were earnestly trying to plunge through the future no one knew. That much was painfully clear.

“The Island Test a few days ago. I’ll give my reply.”

“Ye-yeah… that’s right, we met here for that.”

I gently moved my face to Ichinose’s ears. There was no one around. But even while knowing that, I spoke in a voice so low that it would be hard to hear if it wasn’t focused on intentionally – at that time.

“To meet with Honami alone in a place like this, what are you two talking about?”

Ichinose, surprised at Nagumo, panicked and pulled back. But we were definitely seen when there was almost no distance in between us.

Was she tailed? No, she wasn’t foolish enough to be tailed here unaware.

So was Ichinose marked from the beginning?

No, this is because of the surveillance Nagumo employs with countless eyes.

No matter how much I escape peoples’ eyes, it’s almost impossible to perfectly escape from all of the 3rd years aboard this ship. It would be no wonder even if many people saw us on the way here.

But Nagumo hasn’t shown signs of making contact with me for days.

As if it were orchestrated, he saw us at the time when we should have avoided him the most.

“Good work, Council President Nagumo.”

Ichinose cut through at once and immediately returned to her normal behavior.

She hasn’t been able to wipe out all of her trembling and bewilderment.

But even if she had pretended perfectly, it wouldn’t have meant anything for Nagumo.

“You seem to have met on the last day on the island. But you’re meeting in secret again?”

“Uh-um…”

Suddenly confronted with what happened on the island, IChinose was at a loss for words. Looking at it from his perspective, it seemed like she had inadvertently confessed to me. It wouldn’t be simple to throw him off that trail.

I thought to cut in, but Nagumo stopped me with a gesture.

I felt a strong pressure telling me to not wedge myself in.

“Well, it doesn’t matter. Though – if you might make my fellow Student Council Member Honami cry, then as the President I won’t be able to let it go you know?”

Sure enough, that’s what he was trying to do.

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Ever since I fully understood that Kiriyama was on Nagumo’s side, I’ve been able to guess.

Nagumo then approached us and stood next to Ichinose.

“Cry…?”

“I might be misunderstood, but it’s about Karuizawa.”

He deliberately slowed down and spoke in small amounts in order to let her digest his words.

“Karuizawa-san you say?”

Of course Ichinose didn’t understand why Kei’s name came out at a time like this.

“It seems you haven’t told anyone but your closest friends, but I’ve heard you’ve been going out with Karuizawa for a long time now. Right? Ayanokouji.”

I’m going out with Karuizawa.

Even after hearing those words, Ichinose likely wouldn’t be able to understand right away.

“What? Is it the first time you’ve heard this? You and Honami seem to be quite close, so I thought you had already told her.”

He said that, left some space and continued.

“You couldn’t have possibly been thinking of two-timing them were you?”

I didn’t say anything in reply to Nagumo’s one-sided offensive.

The fact that I’ve been thinking of telling her here that I’d been going out with Kei is meaningless.

Rather, it would obviously only pour salt on her wound.

“Is that… true?”

“Oi Ayanokouji, Honami is asking you. Why not answer? Or was it my misunderstanding and you aren’t going out with Karuizawa? If that’s the case then deny it. I’ll give a heartfelt apology, you know?”

Kiriyama has seen Kei and me together.

But I haven’t given him any evidence to think that we were going out.

Which meant that there was a chance that they were trying to trick me into revealing the truth.

But I can’t say 『that’s not true』 here.

If I do, then if they discover that we had been going out in the future it’ll be obvious that I had lied.

No, in the first place, I should think that Nagumo came here with evidence.

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“I haven’t said it publicly to anyone. Where on earth did you get that information?”

“…!”

Ichinose was clearly shocked by my acknowledgement.

Firstly, without a doubt, even Nagumo had realized that Ichinose had feelings for me.

“You understand that I didn’t just guess from rumors do you?”

Although he showed his teeth happily, he didn’t disclose how he got those facts.

I vividly remembered Kiryuuin’s words, that Nagumo may be the type that’s hard to deal with for me.

“I don’t intend to complain about how other people find love. But just as I’ve said, Honami is a member of the Student Council. In the future, she holds a good chance to become the President. I have to protect her.”

“I can understand quite well that in your eyes Honami and my relationship is unnatural. However, wasn’t it too hasty to step in at this point?”

“Maybe. Unless you were going to trick Honami into going out with you. But from what I see that doesn’t seem to be the case. You might have even been talking about something that had nothing to do with that. But if you come here before dinner at a place with no people all by yourselves, it’s understandable that I’d be suspicious of that isn’t it? Your girlfriend would also definitely be sad if she sees this situation.”

“Indeed, it might cause unnecessary misunderstandings.”

“As the Student Council President… no, as a member of the Student Council, this was only natural for me to do.”

Finally, Nagumo exchanged short looks with Ichinose and came to me.

“Introduce her to me. Your girlfriend. I want to see her at least once.”

With his hand on my shoulder and his mouth at my ear, he whispered.

“You’re free to think whatever you want about my methods. But it hasn’t even started yet you know?”

“It hasn’t even started yet, you say?”

“If you mix in a single lie among 100 truths, no one would notice. You have to decide before it’s too late. If you come to want to fight me, then you can come at any time. If you do even one dogeza, I’ll be your opponent.”

In other words, as long as I don’t agree to fight Nagumo, those unpleasant, persistent eyes will keep looking at me forever.

He’s trying to pull me onto the fighting stage even by force.

“Later.”

With that, he left this place.

It hasn’t even started yet, huh. The overwhelming surveillance and information network only Nagumo has at his disposal.

All of the 3rd years become his hands, feet, eyes and ears.

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For a student living in this school within that perimeter, it’s the same as having all my actions overheard. And one lie in 100 truths.

Right now he’s only discharging the truth, but he’ll start mixing in lies as well.

From another person’s point of view, it was just an extension of unpleasantry. Nagumo was acting in a way that couldn’t not be called childish. But he’s giving me more emotional damage than anyone I’ve ever fought before.

I don’t mind being antagonized by people from the same year because Nagumo keeps sticking to me.

It’s not like he doesn’t think that something of this degree would make me lose trust in him. From the beginning, he never intended to get my trust. He thinks he can restrict me with rules.

Anyway, it’s certain that Nagumo at least holds a reasonable amount of resolve.

He disappeared, leaving us in nothing but silence.

That continued until after we had met. But the atmosphere was never restless, not for a moment.

Only heavy and quiet.

“Ah-ahaha. We kinda got interrupted…”

“Yeah.”

“Umm, that… why-did I call you here again?”

“That’s because -on the island-“

“Ah! That-that thing? That’s… that’s uh… you know…”

After letting out a shout, her voice gradually withered away.

“Could you… forget?”

Ichinose spat, without ever losing her smile.

“Sorry, I don’t know anything. I went and got all excited on my own-and-I said something weird…”

“As Nagumo said, I haven’t spoken about it at all. It’s natural that you don’t know.”

“Right, that’s right isn’t it? That might be right but… in the end, maybe I was being an idiot! Lo- look. You’re kind… amazing, and wonderful… There’s no way you wouldn’t have a girlfriend, right…”

Ichinose wouldn’t stop smiling. It was a display of her strong will. But contrary to that, her eyes moistened and a large amount of tears began to leak. While being quiet, while acting like nothing was wrong, she fought hard for those tears not to fall.

People fall in love with each other. When the person they love turns out to have someone else in their heart, I wonder what kind of emotions they feel?

It’s not something you understand just by hearing about it from books or television.

Though a little different from what I had expected, today I was able to experience that.

“-Goodbye.”

Squeezing out her last words, Ichinose ran off.

Without speaking or stretching out my hand towards her back, I saw her off in silence.

“Nagumo huh. Maybe I’ve made an enemy far more dangerous than I had imagined.”

It’s a bit different from what I had expected, but the path I aim for does not change.

Even while haggardly feeling that the situation was developing more and more against me, something curious swelled up from the bottom of my heart.