Story 5: The Election Scandal

Natsumi Kuzuryu was rooting around in the school dumpster like she usually did when she had free time and her brother wasn't around. Fuyuhiko didn't like it when Natsumi went dumpster diving, but she found it fun. Besides, she always found the coolest ripped jeans in the trash. It wasn't like she could wear them at school, due to the pesky, boring Reserve Course uniform she was stuck wearing, but on a casual day, a nice pair of ripped jeans or an old, ratty crop top was kind of fun. Of course, she would wash these articles of clothing first. She wasn't that much of a monster.

As Natsumi scored a sweet pair of jean shorts thrown haphazardly into the giant dumpster, she spotted a pile of papers in a neat little stack in the corner. "How weird…" she mused, and she waded through the piles of trash and debris to examine the papers. She recognized them as the ballots from the Reserve Course's class election a couple weeks prior, and she grabbed the stack and flipped through them. She had voted for Hajime, the only person in her class she could consider a friend. She had known Sato since middle school, but Sato seemed more interested in hanging out with her friend Mahiru than Natsumi, so Natsumi didn't interact with her much anymore, except for during class activities. Her class had sixteen students in it, and only about one-fourth of the votes were for…

"If this is how the election went, then how in the hell could he've…" she said to herself, and it dawned on her.

"I have to show these to Komaru and Sato."

.

Ever since the election two weeks ago, Hajime had been coming to lunch less and less. Komaru Naegi wasn't sitting with her usual group today - Makoto, Shuichi, Kaede and occasionally Hajime - but with some students from the Reserve Course for a change. Sato Shimizu and Yuta Asahina were two of her best friends from class. Natsumi usually sat with them as well, but either she was skipping lunch or sitting with someone else.

"So anyway, that's how I found out my mom's friend's dog was pregnant," Yuta said. Komaru hadn't been listening, so she didn't know the context of the situation, but she laughed along with Sato anyway out of politeness. There was something about Hajime's sudden… disappearance, one could say, that didn't quite sit right with her.

"Hey, Komaru, are you alright?" Yuta asked.

"Yeah, I'm alright," Komaru replied. "I was just thinking about Hajime. Has he talked to either of you much lately? He hasn't been at lunch or in class that much this week, and I'm kind of worried he's sick or something."

"I'm sure he's fine," Sato said. "He may just be busy with class president stuff."

"I don't know him that well, but I'm sure he's fine too," Yuta added. "You worry too much sometimes, Komaru."

Komaru sighed and feigned a smile. "Yeah. I guess you guys are right."

Suddenly, Natsumi bursted through the lunchroom doors and made a beeline for Komaru's table. Panting heavily, she slapped a large stack of papers on the table and sat down, trying to catch her breath. Her face was red, and her long, blonde hair was soaked with sweat and filled with… trash? Komaru didn't say anything.

"Papers… look… look at them, Sato…" Natsumi was out of breath. She cleared her throat and breathed in and out, then regained her composure and continued speaking. "I found these in the dumpster outside of the academy. They're the ballots from the election. I knew something was fishy when Hajime won. I voted for him, sure, but I didn't expect him to win because you had more support, Sato."

"Yeah, I definitely voted for Sato," Yuta said. "Let's have a look."

"H-hold on," Komaru said, frowning. "Isn't it kind of… I don't know, dishonorable to look through ballots once an election has been decided?"

"Election fraud is a huge deal," Natsumi said firmly. "I know for sure Hajime didn't win that election fair and square. Look through these. I know you have faith in your friend, and so do I. It's not him that's the problem. I don't think, at least."

Komaru hesitated - after all, she wanted to trust that Hajime was an honest person - but she thumbed through the stack of papers. Sure enough, only a quarter of them had Hajime's name on them. The other three quarters said Sato's name.

"What the hell…" Yuta said as he looked through them as well. "How did he win if he had minority vote?"

"The professor," Sato whispered quietly. As Komaru turned, she saw that Sato's expression was laced with fear. "I sit behind Hajime in class, and I heard the teacher talking to someone on the phone, saying he would make sure Hajime won the election, no matter the cost, and that he would send Hajime to the caller after class. I fear that something bad is going to happen to him if we don't do something quickly."

"It's been two weeks, Sato," Natsumi said. "If someone was going to do something to Hajime, they probably would've done it already."

"No wonder he hasn't been here lately…" Komaru said. "They're doing something to him! We have to find him!"

"Hold your horses," Yuta said, frowning pensively. "We don't know exactly what we'll be getting into. We'll need help, and we'll need to look for clues as to what exactly is going on. I'm sure Hajime won't want to talk about it himself, and I'm pretty sure the professor won't want to either. We'll have to sneak around some shady places, most likely. I'll ask my sister Aoi if she wants to help out."

"Fuyuhiko might be willing too," Natsumi said, nodding.

"Mahiru as well," Sato said. "She's one of my best friends from middle school. If she can get pictures of something scandalous to bring light to the truth, she totally will."

"Then I'll ask Makoto, Shuichi and Kaede to help too," Komaru said. "Maybe we can get that Kiyotaka Ishimaru guy to help out, too. He seemed to like Hajime a lot, and he's Hajime's fellow president. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"Good thinking, Komaru," Natsumi said. "We'll meet in the library in a couple of days' time to think up a plan. Then, we'll confront whoever we have to in order to get some answers."

.

Hajime Hinata's memory hadn't been great as of late. He'd been waking up in strange places, and dreaming about a man in a suit with long, flowing, dark hair and bright red eyes. He was also more lethargic, and a little unde the weather. He had lost motivation to attend classes, so he mostly just sat near the fountain outside to think and get some fresh air. Recently, this cute girl with pink hair and a little spaceship-shaped hairclip would come by and sit with him, fiddling around with a game. Hajime never remembered her name, but he knew she had spoken to him a couple of times. He just… didn't remember.

He looked to the right, and there she was. She wasn't wearing her typical brown uniform today, though. She was in a black hoodie with cat ears and a pale pink uniform shirt. She was playing with a retro gaming system, maybe a GameBoy? Hajime wasn't too familiar with video games.

"Hey there," he said softly.

The girl jumped a little and took out one of her earbuds. "Oh, hello Hajime. It's good to see you again."

"Good to see you too, uh…" Crap. Now wasn't a good time to forget names.

The girl giggled. Hajime could feel his cheeks growing warm as she inched a bit closer to him. "Chiaki. I see your memory is acting up again." Chiaki frowned. "Are you sure you're feeling alright? I can take you to the nurse's office later if you'd like."

"No thanks. I'm alright. It would be too much of a bother," Hajime said. He looked up at the sky, at the beautiful blue sky filled with fluffy clouds… Ah, that was boring. He faced the girl again, and when he did, her nose was buried deep into the bright screen, her face glowing from the light emitting from it. Hajime chuckled.

Apparently Chiaki heard him, because she popped her earbud out again. She handed it to him. "Do you want to listen too? This game has pretty good music for being 8-bit."

"O-oh, sure," Hajime replied. He reached a shaky hand out to take the earbud, and as she placed it in his palm, her fingers brushed his. Hajime's heart began to race, and he looked away as he put the earbud in his ear to avoid Chiaki seeing him blush.

"Ah, these earbuds are a little short," Chiaki said. She inched a little closer to Hajime. "Sorry about that. We'll just have to get a little bit closer so it's more comfortable. Is that okay?"

"Y-yeah, that's fine," Hajime replied. He could barely muster a single word out anymore, he was so flustered. Either Chiaki was oblivious, or she knew what she was doing.

As the two teens quited down a little, Chiaki raised the video game's volume a bit so they could both hear more easily. The game's music was good. It was calming. Chiaki moved her pixelated character around a little grass-filled route, and occasionally the music would change when she entered a new area or encountered a fantasy creature she wanted to fight or catch. Hajime wasn't too into the game, but he liked the music, and he liked being with Chiaki. She was his only friend. Well, that was a lie. He had others, he was sure, but he couldn't quite remember who they were…

"Oh, look at the time," Chiaki said, suddenly shutting down her game system as she looked at her watch. "My break time is over, I have to get back to class. I'll see you later, Hajime!"

"Oh, bye Chiaki," Hajime replied. He handed her back her earbud, and she squeezed his hand before rushing off to class. Hajime's cheeks were extremely hot now.

"Gosh, she's cute…" he said to himself, nearly melting into the fountain. He looked at his watch too. "Ah. I guess I should get to class as well."

As he got up, he looked at his reflection in the fountain water.

For a split second, he thought he saw the man with long, dark hair and red eyes from his dream rather than himself.

But maybe it was just a trick of the light.