Part Three: Forget the Party!

The day's classes wouldn't start for another two hours, and yet the room Kirari typically used for Student Council meetings was packed.

Kaede, frail and white-haired following his poker game with Yumeko, didn't quite understand what all the fuss was about or why he'd even been called upon after that disaster. He'd been lying in a hospital bed, trying and failing to not think about the debt that had swallowed his life, when all of a sudden his phone had been bombarded with approximately five billion texts, mostly from Kirari, calling an emergency meeting first thing this morning. Apparently he had yet to be dropped from that loop, and while the girl clearly noticed his presence she didn't even try to shoo him out.

For once, Ririka seemed to be the one in charge, and thus, she called order to the room, causing everyone there to silence themselves in an instant, even Runa.

"Thank you all for your attendance," Ririka said. "Now, most of you here probably know why this emergency meeting was called even after the council's disbandment, but just to make sure of that, I'll elaborate on it anyway. There was a party over the weekend that was signed off on and set up by members of the Student Council, however, in hindsight checking off on the alcohol was a bad idea. It led to a nasty brawl, and… well, just look around the room and you'll get the picture."

Kaede looked around the room and got the picture, all right. It was impossible to tell what was going on with Ririka's face due to her mask, but almost everyone else had some kind of noticeable injury: a black eye for Sayaka, a nasty bruise on both cheeks for Kirari, a swollen nose for Runa, and a couple other entries fit for an encyclopedia of pain. Only two people in the room besides him remained untouched. Itsuki was one, and to his bewilderment, Midari was the other. He concluded that whatever had happened at the party was far more brutal than he'd expected for even a Hyakkaou event, at least on a physical level.

Kirari took the stand, at least for a moment. "Based on eyewitness reports, the end result concluded with too many minor injuries to tally and eight hospital visits, which I'm covering myself. Also, I managed to sweep this under the rug, but each student who went to the hospital and a number who didn't were intoxicated, some well above the legal limit. If the local police branch decided to investigate, it wouldn't have taken a genius to follow the paper trail back here."

She took a breath. "This had a high chance of happening, yet I approved it anyway for my own sake. A careless mistake on my part, and one I don't wish to repeat."

Midari stuck her hand up. "Does this mean we're not doing that again? Because I enjoyed that." When everyone else in the room gave her a hard stare or at least an odd look, she grumbled something unintelligible under her breath and turned away from the crowd.

"That seems to be the proper response," Sayaka added.

"Sayaka is right," Kirari said. "If I were to attempt this again for some inexplicable reason, if nothing else the alcoholic drinks would be more strictly monitored if they were present at all. The instigator of the debacle that happened at the party's conclusion had an aggressive personality to begin with and the amount of alcohol she'd drunk that night appeared to remove her inhibitions. Get rid of the stimulant and the problem is mitigated."

Sound logic, at least to Kaede's ears. The room stayed silent after that, so he could only assume that sentiment rang true for everyone else, or at least if it didn't they were smart enough not to show it.

"Thank you for your agreement," Kirari said. "Next, I would like to formally apologize to the Beautification Committee. While I didn't see very much of it, I heard through the grapevine that their initial attempts to break up that brawl went quite poorly."

Midari scoffed a bit. "I've been in communication with Ayame, Naoe, and Nana over the weekend, and from what I've heard, they're fine. They just got overwhelmed, not seriously hurt. None of them are in the hospital and whatever injuries they did get will heal on their own."

"Well, thank you for that clarification, Midari," Kirari said, pursing her lips like she'd just sucked on a lemon. "In addition to that, I would like to thank Yumemi for her services in both performing for the party and just making everyone stop what they were doing."

Yumemi giggled. "Oh, it was nothing. You should have seen what happened the first time I gave out autographs. Made this fight look like a tea party."

Kaede could believe that. Yumemi seemed to attract far more than her fair share of freaks and weirdos to her fanbase.

"One final request before this meeting is adjourned," Kirari said. "I think we'd all be better off if we worked to forget this ever happened. I'm not saying it's possible, but I'm saying I recommend doing it. If you can't, I guess that isn't your fault. But I know it's being forced to the back of my head, if it can take shelter in there at all."

Oh, well. If Kirari wanted everyone to try and forget one of her biggest fuck-ups, sure they could try, but there'd always be the few opposing her feeding the story along, twisting and distending it to their own ends until it became unrecognizable. It didn't matter in the end, though. The idea was what counted.

"I have nothing left to say, and I don't want to waste your time or mine," Kirari said. "Thus, this meeting has been concluded. Thank you for your attendance." With that, everyone began to trickle out in languid waves, slowly making their way to the hall. However, Kaede remained, and that precise moment seemed to be when Kirari finally noticed that he was there.

"Oh," said Kirari. "Are you here about your life plan?"

"Not yet," Kaede said. The fewer reminders about that little caveat, the better. "I just have to ask: was the party really that bad?"

Kirari didn't answer, but her expression said more than enough.

After Kaede left, Kirari and Sayaka stood alone.

Kirari treasured these moments where it was just the two of them. Other people often came out to be nothing more than nuisances or obstacles to be shoved aside, with few exceptions. Sayaka came first and foremost among those exceptions, a paragon that no other Hyakkaou student could possibly hope to match no matter what they tried, even her dear Ririka.

Sayaka turned to leave, but then Kirari spoke a single word. "Wait."

Loyal as always, Sayaka did just that, freezing dead in her tracks like she'd just heard gunshots before turning slowly to face Kirari.

"Sayaka," Kirari said, "I'd like to say a few things to you before we leave, but I thought it most prudent to wait until the others had left. Would you like a seat?"

"Uh, no thank you," Sayaka said. Kirari knew better than to insist on that, so she let it be. Thus, Kirari remained standing as well, making sure to look Sayaka straight in the eye as she did.

Then, she began to speak. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, Kirari. Might I ask why you think I'm not?"

"It's because of what happened to you at the party," Kirari said. "You remember, right?"

"Of course I do," Sayaka replied. "It's something I should have expected going in. A lot of our students were inebriated for the first time and didn't know their limits, and everyone has different reactions to excess alcohol. Having some of them unlock their inner brawlers should have been an outcome I kept an eye out for."

Halfway through Sayaka's response, Kirari let out a little gasp, a staccato beat in the midst of her sonata. Her air of poise and confidence had dropped for but a second. It was still a second more than everyone besides Ririka had ever seen from her.

"Sayaka, I—"

"Whatever you plan to say, there's no need," Sayaka said. "I understand you don't want me hurt. I don't particularly care for getting hurt, either. But it's something I have to undertake if I want to perform my duties for this academy."

Kirari followed along with the speech, a sick combination of mystified and mortified. On one hand, this meant the values of Hyakkaou had instilled themselves so deeply into her brain that nothing could convince her to deviate from them, even injury or possibly risk to her life. On the other hand… well, there was no other hand.

She didn't know what to say there, a rarity in any case, so she just nodded.

"Thank you for your concern, though," Sayaka said. "It's nice to know I have a boss who cares about me. Do you mind if I go now? I have to study for a math test."

Kirari didn't quite buy the excuse. Sayaka's brilliance was frightening in its base state, quite possibly outshining even her own. She could have aced that test blindfolded if she wanted to. The only reason she wasn't running the academy instead of Kirari was because that brilliance largely relegated itself to academia, whereas Kirari considered her own smarts to spread a bit further.

Nevertheless, if Sayaka wanted some time alone, Kirari would give her some time alone. It was only fair.

"Go right ahead. Thank you for staying."

"No problem," Sayaka said, proceeding to walk out the door at the pace of someone who was panicking but trying their damndest not to show it. Even with that weighing her down, though, she didn't forget to close the door behind her.

Now, Kirari was the room's only occupant, and it was a good thing, too. She needed some time to herself as well before school started for the day, maybe then she'd be able to process what had just happened. Time and time again, Sayaka had proven herself to be every bit as capable as Kirari had imagined upon their first meeting, and this time went above and beyond even that.

"Amazing, Sayaka," Kirari said to herself. "Just amazing."

Toshiko Miyata thought she'd seen everything this academy had to offer in the ten years she'd been employed there as a teacher. She'd learned quickly that the best strategy in most instances was to not intervene, for the students could sort their own issues out here. It fit the theme of the academy better, after all.

However, she'd never bore witness to a sight quite like this, and here, that said something.

At least half the students in her room had some kind of noticeable injuries, mostly to their faces. She'd need both hands to count the number of fading black eyes, including two on the same person that she didn't want to learn how theft got there. One student's forehead was wrapped in gauze. Two of them had casts. Almost no one looked untouched.

She should have known better than to ask, but curiosity could be a cruel beast. "My, my. What happened here?"

Ryota, her class representative and one of the few unscathed students, changed his expression to one that looked vaguely queasy. "Trust me, you do not want to know."

"Well, then I guess I won't," she said, tamping down any further questions. Maybe she'd see if she could pull aside some of the injured and get the story out of them later. She'd scratch that itch somehow.

Despite that, though, there was class to get to, not that the students with the most sway here would care. Oh, well. She had a job to do, just like everyone else here.

Thus, she started taking attendance, trying not to look at the injuries, preparing herself to be sucked into the next insane week she'd be having inside the walls of Hyakkaou Private Academy.

Author's Notes:

-Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed, and I hope to be back in this wonderful world soon enough. Happy reading!