AN: I'm alive :)

'Thoughts'

Ritsu's true thoughts (italicized, underlined)

Mogami (bold, italicized)


Erythrophobia - Fear of the Color Red


"The velocity is six kilometers per second."

"Correct again, Kageyama. Now, would anyone like to—"

DING-DONG DING-DONG

And with the deep ringing of the funeral bell, the day was over. The class of first years quickly cleaned the room, each of them wanting to get home as soon as possible. Their teacher desperately tried his best to wrap up his lesson before the disinterested students left. But, as usual, Ritsu was the first to collect his things and head out while the teacher was still going on. He couldn't recall a single time the man managed to finish before the final bell nor a single time where he actually cared to stay behind and listen.

He walked alone in the hallway, the chattering of teens too afraid to ask their crush out and a loudmouth boasting about how great he is at football—Loud and proud, that's familiarweren't exactly worth paying attention to.

The empty hallway slowly grew more crowded as more and more students flooded out of their classrooms. While they all made their way out of the school, he and a few others went against the tide of the black and red sea and toward the clubrooms.

Student council met once a week on Mondays after school. Thirty minutes after the bell. Always thirty minutes. Meaning that he, being the Vice President, had to be there twenty-five minutes before that. It didn't help that the meeting room was on the third floor.

The thought spurred him to walk faster down the hallway, people automatically moving around him at the sight of his familiar spiky hair. Ritsu had caused quite a commotion during the second week of school when he, a first year, snagged the position of Vice President from the many upperclassmen vying for it. A routine of older students looking down on him, noticing the deep red band around his arm, and quickly changing their tune had gone on for about a week before most people learned to pick him out by his hair.

Apparently.

Was it weird that he could hardly remember any of that happening?

Turning the corner, he made his way to the second floor which housed the second year classes. One of the classroom doors opened and a short boy with a bowl cut hurried out into the busy hallway and straight into Ritsu.

"Sorry!" The boy, Kageyama, jumped back while Ritsu straightened his own uniform. "I really should have looked—"

Kageyama froze and stared at him. Ritsu couldn't determine whether it was because the second year just realized he bumped into the Vice President or because this was his first time seeing Ritsu since the milk incident a week ago. Something he also hardly remembered.

"Don't worry about it," he said with a practiced, amiable smile. This kid was the punching bag of what had to be the entire second year and the way he carried himself—hunched and as small as possible—showed it. The last thing Ritsu wanted was for him to needlessly panic about getting on the Vice President's bad side.

"A-Alright," Kageyama mumbled, but he continued to stare at him. He had this look of soft admiration that something deep and indescribable within Ritsu found achingly familiar. He wished the boy would stop.

It was only the clicking sound of the door handle to his classroom turning that finally broke Kageyama's stupor and made him scurry off. As Ritsu watched him go, he found it hard to believe that they shared the same last name. Kageyama was far from a unique name, he knew that, but the boy and him were just so different. While Ritsu chose to keep his head down and work as much as possible, Kageyama had no choice in his invisibility. Something that became obvious when Ristu realized that he couldn't even remember the boy's first name.

Shi...?

Shige-nii.

Shin...?

It was no use. He'd never been that good with names anyway.

The door to Kageyama's classroom opened all the way and out came what looked like the rest of the class, walking in one big group. They were all smiling and listening intently to the girl in the center. And the girl? She relished in the attention.

Unfortunately, there were some names Ritsu had the displeasure of actually remembering. For instance, Asagiri Minori.

"Are any of you guys up to go shopping later today?" she asked the crowd around her like the answer wasn't obvious. Asagiri stood out, not just with her dress code-breaking purple hair, but with the way students just seemed to gravitate towards her. And her money.

"I'd love to, but I'm failing math and I have a lot of homework to do..." a boy beside her said while scratching behind his ear.

"Oh come on!" She grabbed onto his arm and playfully shook it. Ritsu could see the steam coming out of the blushing boy's red ears.

"Okay! I'll go!"

Asagiri cheered as she made her way down the hall with her fans. The group moved forward like a wall that made it nearly impossible for students heading in the opposite direction to get past. Not even Ritsu could get them to part when all their attention was focused on the purple star in the center. The best he could do was merge with the crowd and hope that they wouldn't slow him down too much.

He was about halfway through the crowd when someone noticed him. Much to his displeasure, that someone was Asagiri.

"Oh, who's this?" she said, obviously knowing who he was. Ever since the previous week, when he told her to be a decent human being and not pour milk on others, she made it a mission to target him whenever she could.

In the cafeteria? She'd "accidentally" drop some of her food and stain his shoes.

In the library? She'd talk way too much and make it impossible to study.

In the hallways? She'd whisper with her fans and laugh shrilly behind his back.

He understood what she was trying to do. She had been embarrassed in front of all of her fans and the entire cafeteria when he'd confronted her, so she was trying to get back at him. However, he didn't get as far as he had by being quick to anger. Everytime she tried to annoy him, he ignored her.

He continued walking forward. All he had to do was ignore her again.

"Kageyama-san!"

But—with every glance his way, every not-so quiet insult, every time she'd attack students like Kageyama—she was becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

"I'm talking to you." Her voice pierced through the noisy hallway. She had never outright confronted him before. It was so new that he couldn't help but look back. By the way she smiled, he knew that was a mistake.

"So your ears do work!" The students around her snickered but stopped immediately once Ritsu stared them down.

He stopped himself from rolling his eyes, a childish behavior not fit for a member of the Council, and turned to look at the girl. "What do you want Asagiri-san?"

"Asagiri-san," she rolled the name around in her mouth, playing around with it for a bit before spitting out: "I'm your upperclassman, why don't you call me senpai?"

It was a bit harder to stop the look of disgust that flashed across his face. Senpai? He'd rather die.

"If that's all, I'll be going, Asagiri-san."

"Actually, it's not," she said before he could turn away from her. Her face gained this weird...openness as she asked, "Would you like to go to the mall with us?"

Shopping? With Asagiri? Her open expression made sense to him now. She wanted to become acquaintances. Nothing like having money and the Vice President to boost your power. Grouping up would actually raise both of their prestige. A raise he didn't need. He was better than her and her company. It wasn't hubris, it was just a fact. He was better than most of the students—academically and athletically—and Asagiri only had money and the illusion of a big friend group to hold her up.

If she thought he was anything like her, she was wrong.

"Have a good day."

She was silent as he turned his back to her and walked toward the third year classrooms. He had power, and he wasn't looking for more of it. Especially not with Asagiri.


He opened the door to the council room—seven minutes after cleaning—to find the President, Makino Fumiko, writing on the whiteboard.

"You took a long time," Makino said, not tearing her eyes away from the board. "That's new."

Ritsu placed his bag down in his designated seat; right hand corner, next to the head of the table. "It takes a while to walk all the way up here," he said while grabbing his stationary. A weak excuse, he was aware.

"Well, they were likely expecting most—if not all—of us to be third years when they decided to place it here," Makino chuckled to herself before turning to look at Ritsu and raising a brow. "Besides, that's never been a problem before."

"Asagiri-san," the younger boy finally admitted, resisting the urge to slam his notebook or, better yet, head onto the wooden meeting table.

Makino nodded in understanding and turned back to the board, effectively ending her line of questioning. Ritsu was grateful, he'd much rather spend time getting ready for the upcoming meeting than answer questions about Asagiri of all people.

The rest of the Council slowly made their way into the clubroom, the last of the bunch being Sano, as usual. He probably got caught up hanging out with Asagiri, also as usual.

Makino called the meeting to order with a single pound of her gavel. Ritsu listened aptly as the Secretary went over the minutes of the last meeting.

Officer reports, one of his responsibilities, came next.

He turned to the President. "Anything to report?" he asked even though she always had something to report.

"I'd just like to thank everyone for the hard work put into the school clean up." Makino made sure to smile at all of them as she spoke. "Even from the outside, our school looks noticeably cleaner. Congrats."

Everyone clapped politely before he moved on to the next officer.

Sano Kaori, the Treasurer, had nothing to report.

Adachi Tomoko, the Secretary, had nothing to report.

Tsuda Botan, the Public Relations Officer, gushed about the pictures he was able to get during the clean up.

Handa Emiko, the Historian, had nothing to report.

Ritsu, being in charge and thus going last, did have something to report. Something that's been nagging on his mind for the past week. Something with purple hair.

"The student body is stressed out. More than usual." His report, which wasn't about rallies or community service, gained the heightened attention of his peers. "It's getting to the students who have faced many failures, sending them into a depressive state and making them targets for bullies."

The constant scratching of the Secretary's pen stopped for just a moment before continuing on.

"This has been going on for—" he didn't know, just however long ago Asagiri had joined the school—"a couple of months. A restrictive hierarchy has been built in the school and it's getting out of hand. I think that we should take action before things get worse."

"What type of action would you suggest?" Makino asked, twirling the red marker in her hand.

"Another clean up." This has happened before. It didn't end well. "This time to discipline the students that harm the overall student body. Primarily the ones that influence and encourage malicious behavior in their peers."

Makino tilted her head, clearly chipping away at him, trying to uncover his true goal. She then raised her brows in realization.

"These people," she said this with a tinge of knowing sarcasm, "must have a lot of influence if they're able to affect students just like that. It won't be easy to discipline them. Not without evidence."

Maybe plant recorder mouthpieces. Again. Like that worked out so well last time.

That raised a challenge. Asagiri was a lot of things but she wasn't sloppy. She would never leave anything behind to incriminate herself.

"We could place report boxes around the school," Tsuda eventually suggested. "If enough kids report the same type of people often enough, we'll know who to handle."

"That sounds great!" Ritsu replied, a bit more energetic than he planned. It was just that if Asagiri wouldn't incriminate herself, others—mainly her victims—would. He cleared his throat before continuing. "The sooner we're able to identify the main offenders, the sooner we can improve the overall atmosphere of the school."

"Good thinking," Makino said as she added "DISCIPLINARY ACTION" in clean red letters onto the agenda. "We really do have a bright team this year."

The meeting continued on as usual after that. He took diligent notes on the month's budget plan, student performance, and preparation for the upcoming Open House, and spoke when necessary.

At the end of the meeting, there was an almost completely unanimous vote to immediately begin implementing the report boxes around the school. The President then officially closed the meeting and everyone left the room an hour and a half after the last school bell.

Ritsu stepped out into the hallway, waving goodbye to Makino who was busy locking up. He made his way to the stairs but was stopped by a voice calling out to him.

"Kageyama-san, over here!"

Right next to the stairway stood Adachi, the Secretary. One of the two who voted against the report box—the second unsurprisingly being Sano.

Adachi had shoulder length, light brown hair and a constant blush on her round face. Her back was almost as straight as her writing and her big brown eyes were constantly taking in the world around her.

Those same eyes focused on him as she asked, "You're going after Asagiri-san, right? You and Makino aren't as sly as you'd like to think." Then she quickly added, "At least not to me."

"Yes," Ritsu said slowly. It wasn't like he could deny the obvious. There was no need.

"I knew it!" Adachi cheered, pumping her fist. She stepped closer to him and he had to resist stepping back from the bubbly girl who had replaced the orderly secretary he was familiar with. "You're the one who brought it up. You should help me!"

"With what?" He was afraid to ask.

"Catching Asagiri-san in the act?" she replied like she didn't understand what there was to question. "There's no way that report boxes will actually work. That's why she needs to be caught red handed."

"We haven't even implemented them yet," Ritsu countered. He looked down at his faintly stained white shoes. Being the one to catch Asagiri was tempting...

"No," he rid the thought from his mind and tried to give Adachi a relaxing smile. "Don't worry, we just need to wait for reports to come in."

The excitement left Adachi. She then looked him dead in the eye. "I'm not worried. I know that it won't work."

Ritsu just sighed and began walking down the steps. If she didn't agree, it wasn't his job to change her mind.

"Have a good day, Adachi-san."

He could hear her sigh too, defeated.

"Have a good day, Kageyama-san."


Ritsu stared at the stack of paper scraps. That's all he could really think to do.

It was the end of the next day. A day that had started out pretty good if you were to ask him. He woke up early to help Makino set up bright red report boxes in the hallways and next to bathrooms. When he got to class, the first thing his teacher—and presumably the teachers in other classes—did was explain the report system to everyone. At lunch, he overheard some students talking about the boxes and even saw some of them putting in their own reports.

He should've known something was up based on just how many students were putting in reports.

He should've known something was up when he heard Asagiri talking about the boxes.

He should've known something was up when he collected the report boxes and they felt full.

So, he shouldn't have been surprised when he sat down in the clubroom at the end of the day to look at all the reports and find:

•Hagino kidnapped my pet dragon and is holding him for ransom

•Kageyama Shigeo drank all the milk in the cafeteria and I'm scared that he's gonna turn into a cow!

•Asagiri-chan is soooo pretty that it's hard to focus in class!

•The Vice President really needs to replace that stick up his ass with—He closed his eyes. The rest was far too vulgar to read.

The clanking sound of Makino dropping her glasses onto the wooden table pulled his attention away from the slips. She pinched the bridge of her nose, a similar pile of nonsensical reports in front of her.

"Okay," she said in a drawn out whisper. Her red wire glasses found their way back onto her face and she looked up at him from across the table. "We'd better start sorting out the real reports from the fake." She then looked back at her pile and began diligently organizing it into two smaller ones.

Ritsu followed suit. Begrudgingly. There were in fact some genuine reports, but not enough to stop his irritation. With each phony slip he had to endure, his frustration grew. For every real complaint, there had to be ten fake ones to go with it. As the pile decreased, his annoyance increased. How did they even manage to put in so many in one day? He finally had enough when one of the slips gave him a tiny, yet incredibly painful, paper cut.

He stiffly stood from his seat, and wished Makino a good day before exiting the room. Despite it being a long and tiring day, he did not, in fact, head straight home. He headed to the gym.

The doors were unlocked and he easily entered—Will it be that easy to exit? Which made sense considering that a club was currently running. He did his best to keep his footsteps soft and to not visibly gag at the musky atmosphere created by the Martial Arts club. Instead, he focused on trying to find the girl he came there for.

"Great kicks, Adachi!"

Ritsu looked at the kid who had shouted—a shirtless upperclassman with lean muscle and bushy eyebrows—and followed his line of sight to the corner of the gym. There, Adachi, with a low ponytail and a black tank top, was furiously kicking a heavy bag. Ritsu made a beeline toward her.

"Thank you Lee-san!" she grunted out between kicks; very high kicks that went well over her head. With the sound of the bag rocking from the force of every kick mixed with Adachi's laser focus, it was hard to get her attention. Thankfully, a chance came in the period of silence between her switching legs.

"Adachi-san!" Ritsu called out over the loud sounds of the other club members grunting.

Adachi stopped her next kick mere centimeters away from the bag and turned only her head to him. She looked at him for what couldn't have been longer than half a second before going back to kicking the bag. Noticeably harder this time.

"Do you need something, Kageyama-san?"

"I—" Ritsu tried to not get annoyed by the loud whack noise whenever she hit the bag. She obviously didn't want to see him so, to save them both the trouble, he cut to the chase. "You were right."

That stopped her.

She brought her foot all the way down to the ground and fully turned her body toward him. Her face was still closed off, unlike what he'd seen of her last, but it was clear that he had her attention.

"You were right," he repeated as she looked at him expectantly. "The report boxes were hardly effective and I doubt that will change. I'd really appreciate it if you told me more about your plan."

Adachi stared at him for a good, long moment before a bright smile broke out on her face. She made her way over to him in two big steps and nodded. "And I'd really appreciate you listening!" She linked a sweaty arm around Ritsu's and called out to the makeshift dojo. "I'm heading out early! Have a good day everyone!"

With a surprising amount of strength, Adachi dragged him toward the door of the girls' locker room which connected to the gym and entered without him. She soon stepped back out, still in the same outfit as before but with a bag slung over her shoulder and perfume that poorly covered the smell of her sweat.

Once again, she looped her arm through his and they walked out of the gym. He let her take him this way and that through the empty hallways, expecting her to lead them back to the clubroom to talk. When the exit to the school came into view, he just assumed that she wanted to talk outside. But when the two of them were a ways away from the campus with no destination in sight, he put his foot down. Literally.

"Adachi-san," Ritsu said, refusing to continue walking along with her—which was admittedly difficult to do with how hard she pulled. He looked around the unfamiliar pathway she brought him to. "Where are we? Where are you taking me?"

"Gah! Sorry!" Adachi exclaimed, quickly untangling their arms. She bowed slightly. "I was taking you to my place. I already have a plan played out there, but it was wrong of me to not inform you that beforehand."

"Yes, it was," he replied curtly. Something that he only regretted when Adachi's already flushed face reddened in embarrassment. It was him who sought her out for help in the first place, so he quickly gave her a soft smile that he hoped was reassuring. "But you have now, so lead the way."

The embarrassment left Adachi and she continued walking toward her place. She kept her arms to herself. They made their way to the main part of the city with all the big buildings and skyscrapers that did nothing to improve the constantly stale and gloomy weather. He followed her all the way to an apartment complex and up the steps of one of the many buildings until they reached the second floor.

She lives in the same complex as Teruki.

When they reached apartment 229, Adachi reached into her backpack and pulled out a keychain with one key and a couple fancy little trinkets on it. She unlocked the door and opened it with a flourish.

"Welcome to my humble abode, Kageyama-san!" she exclaimed, throwing out her arms to show off the small but homey apartment. She turned to look back at him. "You seem parched, would you like a glass of water?"

"No," he said, taking off his shoes, "but thanks."

She gave him a little nod before taking off her own shoes and placing them neatly by the door. Then she ushered him past a table covered in organized piles of what looked like bills and down a short hallway.

"Please, take a seat!" Adachi said as soon as she opened up the door to her room. The "seat" she motioned to being the edge of her neatly made bed.

He sat down on the pink blanket which mixed nicely with the dark blue walls and watched in wary wonder as Adachi wheeled her whiteboard over to the center of the small room and flipped it over to reveal a corkboard covered in yarn and notes and pictures. Mainly of Asagiri. Pictures that were a mix of photos of the back of her head and of her talking that were taken without her noticing, photos Asagiri probably posted on social media, and one photo of a younger Asagiri looking straight at the camera and smiling with a missing tooth.

Maybe asking Adachi for help was a mistake.

"The plan," the girl began, adjusting the rectangular glasses she wore that didn't really fit her round face, "is to take down the systems of power that are becoming so deeply ingrained within the walls of Salt High!" She pointed at the headshot of Asagiri at the center of the board.

"Aren't we also a part of a system of power that's deeply ingrained in Salt High?" Ritsu asked, having decided that he had already come this far so there was no point in turning back now.

"That is most certainly true, but—" Adachi pointed her finger in the air like she had some grand thought—"we don't use that power to hurt others! Plus, since we're at the top, it's our job to make sure that those below us with less power are safe."

Sounds like something Iida would say.

Ritsu gave her a sardonic look but relented. "Well then, what's your plan to keep those below us safe?"

"Glad you asked! Like I said before, we need to catch her in the act." She pointed to a picture taken from afar of Asagiri pouring milk on Kageyama's head. In the corner of the picture, Ritsu could see a miniature version of himself making his way over to her with a scowl on his face. "Luckily for us, Hell will freeze over before there comes a day where Asagiri-san doesn't bully someone in some way.

"The cafeteria is the area where she most frequently attacks people." He almost scoffed at her words. His shoes already knew that firsthand. "But that's usually the small stuff she can quickly do before she goes off to talk, far too loudly I might add, with her fans. All the big stuff happens here." She pointed to a photo of Asagiri hanging out with a group of kids behind the school. "She hangs out here for around an hour everyday after school except for on Wednesdays. This is where she gets physical with those who are already defenseless. Well...her lackeys do the physical stuff, she just stands there and either laughs or mocks you," she finished bitterly.

It was a bit concerning the amount of detail Adachi had on Asagiri. As Vice President, he should have been concerned with the stalking going on, especially since it was from his own council member.

...replace that stick up his ass with...

But this was Asagiri Minori. Rich, powerful Asagiri Minori. Frankly, Ritsu was done with her. She could act however she wanted at her own mansion, but when she was at school, where he was just trying to work, she needed to get it in line.

"So we catch her in the act." He pointed to the picture of the milk incident. "Haven't you already done that? Why don't you just turn that picture in?"

"It's not that simple," Adachi scoffed and shook her head slightly like she was talking with a little kid. It was irritating to say the least. "After I saw you confront her about it, I presumed that you were going to do more than slap her on the wrist, but you didn't. And when I brought the unsightly picture to a teacher—multiple teachers—they blatantly tried to keep up this facade of ignorance."

Ritsu pushed aside his annoyance because she was right. Asagiri wasn't really known for her subtlety. She should've been caught by now.

An ant crawled along his pant leg.

But you already know why she hasn't. Those in power will denounce the vile and criminal but turn a blind eye as soon as that vile criminal can benefit them. You have the power to nip these cruel people in the bud yourself.

He calmly flicked it off, knowing full well that its tiny size would allow it to live.

"So, if catching her in the act with proof doesn't work, what's your plan?" he asked.

"Now that's simple," Adachi replied with this look of complete determination taking over her face. It was strangely familiar. "If we catch her in the act with a teacher, there'll be no way that they could ignore it! Especially not with the Council Vice President being there to watch it! She'll be—pardon my language—damned!" She accentuated the last part by throwing her fists into the air.

"Language pardoned," Ritsu said and he couldn't help but smile a little. Asagiri was finally going to get what she deserved and he was finally going to get his peace of mind back. He walked up to the board and focused his attention solely on Adachi. "Where do we strike?"


The plan was to stalk—"Following someone around without them knowing is called stalking, Adachi-san"—Kageyama Shigeo. Out of all the people Asagiri and her followers picked on, he was picked on the most. His proximity to the girl and his obvious powerlessness were like a giant target on the back of his shiny bowl cut.

Technically, Adachi would be the only one doing the stalking since she was on the same floor as Kageyama. She would follow him around until Asagiri inevitably decided to attack. All Ritsu had to do was make sure that he was there with a teacher when she did.

DING-DONG DING-DONG

The bell for lunch had everyone jumping out of their seats to get away from the confining walls of history. Even the students that spent more of their time sleeping than writing snapped awake and eagerly made their way to the cafeteria. While they left, Ritsu's pocket buzzed in succession four times.

Adachi Tomoko (The Council)

{I have eyes on both Kageyama-san and Asagiri-san)

{Second floor, main hallway)

{She has this dastardly smile on her face)

{She's definitely going to strike before they reach the stairwell)

He pocketed his phone and waited patiently for the last student, a loudmouthed brunet, to shuffle out of the classroom. Which left only him and the teacher.

"Kageyama," Hamada asked, looking at him from behind her desk. Her voice was soft and had this nurturing air about it. "Is something the matter?"

"Yes, Hamada-sensei." He stood up from his desk but made no effort to get closer to her lest he risk her getting a good look at him. His acting ability only covered being polite to people he'd rather not be polite to, not tricking hungry teachers away from their lunch break. "Could you come with me to the second floor? I need help finding...a room."

A room? What a poor excuse. Couldn't he just ask someone else for help? Or better yet, get a map? He sounded laughably stupid.

Although, this wasn't actually a problem. He could've said anything because even though his acting wasn't the best, he knew how to get what he needed. There was a reason he'd chosen Hamada instead of leaving to find another teacher.

"Of course!" Hamada said with a slightly surprised look on her face. A look that quickly became understanding (even though there was no way she could truly understand) and even honored. "It must have taken a lot of courage to admit that you needed help considering your position and that we're already so far into the school year. I'm glad that you could confide in me."

Miffed but pleased, Ritsu watched Hamada get up from her desk and motion for him to follow behind her out the door.

The thing about Hamada was that she was a special brand of gullible. Trust came very easy to her and she didn't question much (she hadn't even asked for a description of the room yet), which could be just as helpful as it could be frustrating.

They reached the second floor just in time to see Asagiri and her entourage cornering Kageyama. His bag was on the floor, obviously thrown based on the scattered papers. Asagiri was leaning over him, hurling hushed insults at the cowering boy.

In this case, Hamada's gullibility was the former.

Ritsu didn't genuinely smile much, but the urge to do so itched under his skin as Hamada looked back at him once—presumably to make sure she remembered where he was—and marched toward Asagiri.

"What is going on here!?" Her hands were on her hips and she looked expectantly from side to side.

Adachi suddenly appeared to his right. She clenched her phone in one hand and formed a fist with the other as she smiled triumphantly.

"Splendid job, Kageyama-san!" she whispered to him. Then she looked back to the scene unfolding before them and hissed, "This is your comeuppance, Minori!"

Asagiri leaned as far away from Kageyama as possible, perhaps thinking that distance would make her seem more innocent. Ritsu expected her to make up some flimsy excuse to try and hide the obvious blood on her hands. Instead, she just looked at the group of boys surrounding her. Her eyes landed on each and every one of them like they were prey to pick from.

Then she smiled.

"Eguchi-kun went and threw Kageyama-kun's bag on the floor for no reason!" she said with fake concern that anyone with two eyes could see through. "I was just making sure that my classmate was okay."

Neither Kageyama nor Eguchi looked pleased with this fake story. The problem was that neither of them made any effort to deny it. Kageyama because he had the silent but constant threat of Asagiri's minions surrounding him. Eguchi because he was one of those minions and absolutely wrapped around Asagiri's finger.

Proving Ritsu's point, the boy stepped up to slightly block Asagiri from Hamada's sight. "Yes!...I mean, yeah. I didn't like the way he was looking at me," he said with acting skills worse than Ritsu's.

Next to Ritsu, Adachi scoffed. No doubt she was thinking the same thing he was: There was no way Hamada was going to fall for a cover-up that pathetic.

"Oh!" Hamada gasped out. Her eyebrows were almost touching her hairline and she wore an expression that was a mix of absolutely scandalized and something he couldn't quite place. She turned to Asagiri. "Please forgive me for assuming!"

Curse Hamada. Curse her blindness. In a situation like this, where she heard exactly what Asagiri was saying to Kageyama, she wasn't gullible, she was just stupid.

"Thank you for watching out for your fellow classmate," Hamada said with a smile. Then she turned to face Eguchi with a reproachful look. "You. Come with me."

She grabbed his hand and Ritsu could say or do nothing but watch as they left to who knows where. Adachi glared at their retreating forms but kept quiet as well.

"Wow, is she stupid," Asagiri sneered with a wicked smirk on her face. Her fans snickered and giggled, almost on cue. She then set her predatory eyes on the two of them. "Oh, the Council! Pretend you didn't hear me, just like Hamada-sensei!"

Laughter erupted again which Ritsu quickly silenced with a look that let the kids know that he wasn't in the mood. But there was perhaps some benefit to the attention; it allowed Kageyama to scamper off. Adachi, on the other hand, tensed beside him.

It was almost like Asagiri sensed it too because she fixed her attention solely on the Secretary. "Hey Tomo-chan!" she said with phony cheer. "How's the Council going for you? Does being the secretary make you feel important?"

"Tomo-chan" clenched her fists, looking like she was about to do something. Ritsu just hoped she wasn't going to get into a fight. She would win, of course, but it would sully the Council and he would be obligated as Vice President to rescue Asagiri from her reckoning. But Adachi just looked to the ground, fists shaking and her face flushed behind her bangs.

Asagiri rolled her eyes at her silence, but she had a little pleased smile. It wasn't everyday that you could get to a Council member like that. Her eyes then landed on Ritsu, no doubt looking to do the same.

"Kohai*," she jeered. "You hang out with her? I can't believe you turned down going shopping with me to hang out with the help."

It was Ritsu's turn to roll his eyes. Trust someone as blind to the world as Asagiri to not actually know what a secretary does. While he could go through the long process of informing her of just how stupid she sounded, lunch was almost halfway over.

"In case you haven't noticed, I don't like you," he said simply, not worried about or scared of upsetting her.

The students around Asagiri looked at him in surprise and even Adachi lifted her head to stare at him. It wasn't a secret that people didn't like Asagiri. No one had ever said it outright before though. Much less to her face.

"We should go," he told Adachi while her attention was on him and before Asagiri could say something that would only irritate him more.

He turned and walked away. It took a moment for Adachi to do the same but she quickly fell into step with him. In the time it took for them to reach the cafeteria, gone was Adachi's downtrodden demeanor. Now, she was angry.

"It's just so aggravating!" she said, slamming her tray down next to Ritsu; his usual spot by the President taken by Sano. "Asinine Asagiri and her asinine followers!" she said this part just a bit quieter since Asagiri was at the table next to theirs.

He nodded in response. What he truly found aggravating was that Asagiri was still able to run amok. This should've been a one and done deal so that he could get back to focusing on his studies instead of worrying about when the second year wanted to harass him next.

Another thing that was bothering him was Hamada. Specifically the strange look she had on her face. What was it? And why couldn't he let it go?

"Hamada-sensei, even looked at the both of us!" Adachi continued as she stabbed at her food. "I mean, you'd think she'd at least be more alert with us around."

She looked at Adachi?

Then it clicked.

She also looked at Adachi.

"She was relieved," Ritsu mumbled.

"What?"

"You said she looked at both of us right?"

"Yeah, before she went up to Asa—" She briefly paused, collecting her thoughts. Her eyes then became saucers and she gave him this incredulous look. "You're not insinuating that, are you?"

"Would it be that hard to believe?" he said. "Why would she see active bullying and look at us, the only Council members there, before going to stop it?"

"Asagiri," Adachi seethed.

"Asagiri-san," Ritsu agreed with a nod. "That would explain why Hamada was so eager to excuse her with such a lazy excuse. Imagine how much her parents donate. No teacher wants to be the one to risk that."

Adachi's lip curled in disgust. "So they'd rather jeopardize the health of the student body."

"It's unpleasant, but not unsurprising."

"It should be!" the brunette practically shouted, drawing the attention from everyone at the table. She apologized quickly before leaning closer to Ritsu and pulling out her phone. "This isn't over yet. Not if I can help it."

On her screen, there was a photo taken from a distance of the incident. It was before Ritsu had arrived with Hamada, and showed that some other lackey was actually the one to knock Kageyama's bag to the floor. Adachi then swiped to the next picture, which showed Asagiri stomping on the spilled papers. Then another picture of Kageyama pressed against a wall and Asagiri leaning over him with a cruel look on her face.

As he stared at it, he couldn't help but acknowledge the irony. Adachi took pictures of the bullying before going to stop it. Who was she to get mad at Hamada? But, when he thought about it further, what else could she do? Sure, she was strong, but not strong enough to go against Asagiri's posse. Besides, at least Adachi was working to get rid of her, even if it wasn't right then.

"If teachers are willingly ignoring Asagiri's actions, then we'll probably need more pictures," Adachi said tearing Ritsu away from his thoughts. "But these should be—"

"So blurry!"

The two of them snapped their heads toward the loud voice. Standing right behind them, Tsuda looked over their shoulders and directly at Adachi's phone; his face contorted in horror.

If Ritsu were to describe him, he'd have to say that Tsuda was popular for the exact opposite reasons as Asagiri. While Asagiri was rich and cunning, Tsuda was friendly and attractive. The only thing they had in common was that they were both loud.

"It hurts!"

Annoyingly so.

He snatched the phone out of Adachi's hand and brought it up to his face. "The focus, the lighting, the composition! What am I even supposed to look at?!"

"Uhh," Adachi nervously chuckled while reaching out for her phone, "the bullying? What else is there to focus on?"

Something seemed to snap in Tsuda. His eyes gained this sharp look and he glared intensely at them.

"You, with the amateur photography," he said, pointing an accusing finger at Adachi. "And you, who takes notes even though that's the Secretary's job." He pointed at Ritsu. Then Tsuda brought his thumb back to point at himself while puffing out his chest. "If you two need pictures, as the PR Officer, I'm your guy!"

Ritsu furrowed his brows in confusion. "But this isn't related to public relatio—"

"Don't care!" Tsuda exclaimed, starting to walk off back to his seat. "We'll sort out the details after the next meeting!"

"O-okay," Adachi said, barely grabbing her phone back before the third year walked away. "So peculiar."

"Do you want to take up his offer?" Ritsu asked, already getting back to his food.

"I think so." Adachi turned to him. "Come to my place after school, yeah?"

Even though it was presented as a question, she got up to throw her food away before he could respond; as though she expected him to say yes.

She was right, but waiting wouldn't have hurt.


"Okay!"

"Okay?"

They were back at Adachi's place about two hours after school. Since Adachi had Martial Arts club to deal with after the last bell, Ritsu was given enough time to head home, do his homework, and change into casual clothes before heading to her apartment.

When he arrived, he was immediately swept up by the mini storm that was Adachi and plopped onto the edge of the bed while she began wildly gesturing at her whiteboard.

"O-kay!" she repeated with a smile. She was in her own, strange, casual clothes which consisted of black basketball shorts and an oversized blue shirt with the words "BOYS RULE" written in neon yellow. "Here's how we attack Asagiri!"

On the board, there was a big red dot with an angry face drawn on it and "Asagiri" written right above it. A bigger red circle surrounded the dot and written above it was "Guards x4" with a list of names next to it.

"You see it, don't you Kageyama-san?" Adachi's eyes shone with a crazy gleam behind her glasses. "We tear down Asagiri's defense, leaving her vulnerable to just punishment!"

Ritsu simply frowned at the board a bit before pushing himself off the bed and reaching his hand out toward the marker in her hand.

"It's a good plan," he started, the marker now in his hand, "but it's missing a few important pieces."

He uncapped the marker and drew two more circles within the bigger one. The first one he added was labeled "Teachers/Administration" and the next one he labeled "Parents".

"Ohh," Adachi said, coming up closer to him. She grabbed the marker away from him and began to draw more arrows; starting from the outer ring and going all the way toward the first ring. "The students answer to the teachers and the teachers answer to Asagiri-san's dad."

"And they all answer to Asagiri-san."

"Yes, but Asagiri-san's dad is a good man." Adachi added. "Well, he tries to be. If this all goes haywire, we can try to go to him with the pictures we collect. Although it'll be hard to get an audience with him, especially since he lives so far out."

Ritsu gave her a sidelong glance. "How do you know all that?"

"Know what?"

"About Asagiri-san," he elaborated. "Most people don't know that much about people they don't like."

At that, Adachi practically shut down. Her mouth drew into a thin line and her eyes glazed over, lost in thought. The only sign that she was still there was the trembling grip she had on the marker.

"We—" she sighed—"We used to be friends." She looked to the ground, her face burning. Ritsu couldn't tell if she was embarrassed or angry but it felt uncomfortable to stare at her like this. Instead he flicked his eyes toward the one smiling picture of a tiny Asagiri. There was no doubt that Adachi was on the other side of the camera, probably with the same smile on her own face.

A blur of movement reached for the picture and snatched it away from the board. He quickly looked to his side just in time to see Adachi stare regretfully at the new tear on the photo before she glared and slammed it face down on the table.

"Anyway," Adachi said with a wide smile on her face that wasn't fooling anyone, "we used to be friends, but Minori's a selfish, backstabbing person so we're not anymore! I'll get started on some plans and we can talk more tomorrow, yeah?"

"That's not a—"

"Great." Adachi was in no way focused on their conversation. All of her attention was on the navy backpack she was rummaging through.

It annoyed Ritsu. Adachi was the one who came to him for help, not the other way around. Now, she was going ahead, cutting meetings short just because she was embarrassed about a past relationship he really couldn't care less about and wasting his time. She didn't get to tug him this way and that when he had other more important things to do. And she definitely didn't get to go and make plans by herself as if he wasn't right there.

"We're going to frame them."

"What?"

"You said you were going to think of a plan but the answer is obvious," he said, looking at the diagram Adachi drew and knowing that her attention was now on him. Slowly, he raised one finger and pointed to the Guard ring. "We start with getting rid of the weakest pieces, the students. And we do that by framing them."

There was a long stretch of silence between the two of them. Ritsu looked back to Adachi who concentrated on the ring. He couldn't tell what she was thinking but she soon took a deep breath and resolutely marched toward the board.

"If we're doing this, we're doing this right. We start at the bottom and work our way up." The marker was already uncapped and she was writing something next to the Guard ring. "We can use the teachers and the student body against them."

It was easy to see where she was going. Just by looking at her, it was clear that Asagiri was all about image. It didn't take a genius to get a general idea of why she didn't hang out with Adachi anymore. If the school were to turn against one of her followers, Asagiri would turn right with them; anything to keep face.

"Eguchi Michi will be our first target," Adachi declared. His name was written in neat red characters. "He was the one who actually knocked Kageyama's stuff down along with a plethora of other more deplorable things. After all he's done, for all the people he's hurt, he'll finally be getting his just retribution."

Retribution. That's really all this was. Perhaps even justice.

"Well, it really is getting pretty late." Adachi was back at her backpack, pulling out notebooks and a pencil. The clock next to her showed that school ended over three hours ago. "I have homework to do and I presume that you do too, correct?"

"Yes," Ritsu lied, already getting up from her bed and heading toward the door. "Have a good day, Adachi-san."

"Likewise, Kageyama-san!" she called out. "I'll contact you when I think of a plan for Eguchi-san!"


Author's random thoughts they had whilst writing the chapter

*Kohai is used to address a junior. Asagiri was making jab at Ritsu by reminding him about her telling him to call her senpai (basically the opposite of kohai)

Welcome back to Atelophobia! I'm still kicking :)

Okay, before I get into it, everybody say "Hiiii" to my beta reader MarenWithAnM! I'm in love with their mind.

How does it feel to be no longer hanging off a cliff? Lol

Anyway, this chapter was originally gonna cover Ritsu's whole stay in Moga world plus the rest of the Sports Festival but once I hit 12k words and still wasn't even halfway there, I decided to split it into 2. Then 3 when it was still taking too long. Once I hit 14k and still wasn't even halfway done with the Moga world, I decided to split it into 4.

Plan for chapters 16-19

16: Setup, plan to take Asa down

17: The takedowns, that scene, and Open House

18: Full takedown + Moga world falling apart and Rit escaping

19: SP and Moga world aftermath

18 & 19 are just angst lol.

The focus of these next few chapters is going to be on power dynamics and justice. Hence why I capitalize things such as Vice President, Secretary, and Council, even if that isn't grammatically correct. They symbolize power. However, with Asagiri, I made "secretary" lowercase because she doesn't view the position as important or powerful.

I think Ritsu (at least in season one) is a selfish person. Some might say that he isn't because "He cares about Mob!" but that doesn't mean he's not selfish. In season one, the only reason he started cracking down on bullies was to protect Shigeo, someone who directly impacted him, not the countless other kids who surely also faced bullying. Even in this chapter, I made sure to make Ritsu complicit in Asagiri's bullying (btw simply saying "I don't like that person" or "What that person is doing is bad" and not doing anything about it even though you have the power to, is being complicit) until he became a target and it began to affect him. For this Ritsu, I basically wanted the slow descent he was showing in season 1 only this time Mob isn't there to stop him.

More on Ritsu in this world, I had him be cocky like what Mido thought most people with his "quirk" would be like. Not the loud superiority of Bkg, but a quiet superiority that Ritsu already expects everyone to know of. The reason that he isn't loud about it is mainly because he has an image to upkeep.

Also I made Rit a bad actor because nothing can compare to the decade's experience he has in the real world which he spent lying to both Shigeo AND himself.

Don't know if you noticed, but italicized sentences/interjections represent Ritsu's real thoughts. Like, the real Ritsu.

Idk how schools work in Japan ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Like, when it comes to the months school's in session, I'll follow that, but Idk if they use bells or not and in the mp100 manga for the milk scene last chap, it looked like they ate in the classroom.

"Heavy bag", other than describing a bag that's heavy, is also another name for a punching bag.

Changed the bell onomatopoeia because the previous one messed with the tone.

I have a mini gag where Adachi is a casual person in informal settings but has a BIG vocabulary. Oh also, you may have noticed her flip flopping between "Asagiri" and "Asagiri-san," that's because she forgets to add the honorific (which has the benefit of distancing them from more friendly honorifics) when she's pumped up. When she's the most pumped, she refers to her as "Minori."

I kinda find it funny that even though I don't like reading multi-chapter fics with long chapters, that's exactly what I'm writing. Not only that, I tend to mentally check out during things that involve OCs but this whole chapter is literally OCs galore. And just wait until the next chap. Oh, how do you feel about Adachi? There's still more to be revealed about her so stick around for the next chapter!

Okay that's all, I have no rants or anything like that, so until next time!

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