Notes
Hey Reader, this is Worseman here, and here's the seventh chapter of this story.
This chapter will only focus on Kazuhiro and his perspective as he put his skill on the request that was made by his friend in school. This chapter might be honestly confusing like hell and boring so I might add some scenes, rewrite this chapter, or both soon, later, or, not because this chapter might not be to your liking.
Disclaimer
I did not own any characters from Mahoka Kouko no Rettousei series except my OC.
The Recruitment Week was over. No more persuasive recruiters. No more endless and pointless fighting over a freshman student. No more fool who thought that his or her club was better than all of the others. No more action caused the accident. And no more arresting others by the public committee members or its chef. Everything went perfectly normal for Kazuhiro so that he could take a nap during lunchtime but everything was not perfect too as the discrimination between bloom and weed students was still ongoing or permanently stuck forever.
Kazuhiro was now sitting on the bench with his opened grape juice soda can with a surprising individual, Kirihara Takeaki. He first came across Kirihara outside of the building during lunchtime and he was honestly not surprised to see him as he already met him on the first day of their middle school and during the first day of the recruitment week much to Kirihara's irritation. Both of them sat quietly as they had no idea where to start their conversation.
"What do you want to speak about?" asked Kazuhiro, blunt.
"Seriously, you're not saying, 'How are you, Kirihara'?" Kirihara questioned with a little irritation.
"Don't care and we pretty much knew each other since middle school," replied Kazuhiro.
Kirihara groaned in frustration before calming down and asking, "I want to ask: have you talked with Mibu?"
"Not exactly, I have been stuck with Watanabe-Senpai for causing trouble," Kazuhiro replied, taking a quick sip from his soda.
Kirihara sighed in exhaustion and looked at Kazuhiro with a little disappointed look. "What do you do this time?"
"Hitting a bloom student with eggs twice, being chased by the couple of him and his goon, jumped off the building into the pool and took down a few martial art members who tried to hurt me." Kazuhiro counted the number of troubles that he caused during the recruitment week.
"Ugh, you never stay away from trouble, do you?" Kirihara grumbled in a weariness tone with his smile.
"What the hell do you expect from me? You already know about my whole personality, don't you?" Kazuhiro asked with his raised eyebrow.
"I was hoping that you changed a little," explained Kirihara.
"I did change myself," Kazuhiro said as he indicated that Kirihara's state was corrected.
"You're bullshitting me, right?" Kirihara asked in disbelief.
"No, I'm not," Kazuhiro said as he took another sip of his soda before asking, "What about you? Any luck that you have?"
"Not exactly, Kaz. I was not able to talk with Mibu after my incident," Kirihara replied with a blank look.
"You fought with Mibu in the sports hall and you got your ass kicked by Tatsuya-San?" Kazuhiro surmised Kirihara's incident.
"So you heard from gossip… Wait?" Kirihara turned his head around to face Kazuhiro with a shocked face. "You know that guy?"
"Yeah, I saw your display with my own eyes," replied Kazuhiro.
Kirihara looked up to the sky and covered his face with both hands while growling in embarrassment before stopping. He released both his hands and looked back at Kazuhiro to ask. "When did you meet him?"
"Came across Tatsuya-San and Erika-San on the first day of the recruitment week," answered Kazuhiro.
"Damn, you're really lucky to have both as your friends," Kirihara commented with a hint of jealousy.
"Are you jealous?" asked Kazuhiro.
"Honestly, yes," admitted Kirihara.
Kazuhiro chuckled as he began to drink his soda until he stopped and breathed out a sigh of relief from drinking. He asked, "Have you talked with her after school or on the weekend?"
Kirihara shook his head and explained, "Not exactly, I didn't have time to speak with her, she somehow avoided me after the incident, and I called her fifteen times but she never picked it up to call me."
"Have you noticed something wrong with her?" Kazuhiro questioned Kirihara with a little hint of concern.
"... Mibu's sword was corrupted into slaying someone for blood and her skill was somehow decreasing because she was not kenjutsu practitioner but a kendo practitioner whose sword is used to walk the path of kendo," Kirihara answered with his explanation in his serious tone.
Kazuhiro began to think of the theory and said out loud, "You're saying that someone influenced Mibu with bad intentions, but I'm unsure whether it is harmless to turn Mibu into a school delinquent or malicious as you said." He then said, "That doesn't mean that I can't help you with that. I'm going to try to have a conversation with her to see what's wrong with her."
"Really? But I don't think it's a good idea…"
"You came to me to ask for my help, didn't you?"
"Yes."
"Then I will help you whether I can but in return, you have to confess your feelings to Mibu that you like her before someone took her."
"WHAT?!" Kirihara shouted in surprise as his face turned red. He quickly stood up and looked at Kazuhiro before taking a glance around the area where they were and saw no one. He looked back with his scowled face and he grabbed Kazuhiro's collar to pull him towards his face to threaten. "Do you truly want to die, Kaz?!"
"Come on, it's obvious to me that you like her," Kazuhiro stated, not feeling threatened.
"That doesn't mean I like her but it's more like I respect her!" Kirihara denied Kazuhiro's statement in a mixture of embarrassment and fury.
Seeing Kirihara's flushing face, Kazuhiro recollected his memories as a high school student and remembered Kirihara and Mibu were exchanging each other with both friendly and rival arguments. He also bravely made the banter around them that they should either kiss, marry, or wrestle in bed. This led him to be threatened by either of them or both many times while everyone, who was his former classmate or schoolmate, was either laughing or being shy. He almost got beaten up for it but he does not care about it.
Kirihara sighed in irritation before turning serious and releasing Kazuhiro from his grip. "I'm glad that you are going to try your best to help me with your abilities."
"...Don't rely on me only but those whom you see as trusted individuals like your friend, I think," Kazuhiro advised Kirihara.
"Noted," Kirihara accepted Kazuhiro's advice.
"Any more information?" Kazuhiro questioned as he needed more detail to investigate to conclude.
"Sorry, I don't have it," Kirihara shook his head in dismay.
"Oh well," Kazuhiro said as he stood up from the bench and gulped the remaining soda until it was empty. He threw his empty can into the trash bin and it successfully entered inside. He walked away without facing Kirihara from behind and said, "Try not to do anything reckless, or else you will receive more trouble in your hand."
"Give me a break… I'm not a baby!" Kirihara shouted at Kazuhiro with a little hint of irritation.
"Your short-fuse temper said otherwise," Kazuhiro countered loudly.
Kirihara was about to counter too but gave up as he looked down in guilt that Kazuhiro was corrected. He needed to try to fix his temper.
The Following Day
Evening
First High School, Hachioji, Tokyo
Everyone in the school was released from their classroom to go back to their home to rest for tomorrow's study or go to their club to do their activities. Kazuhiro walked through the hallway while carefully planning his question to ask Mibu and recalling a little information from Kirihara at the same time in his thoughts. He needed to examine Mibu's attitude and interrogate her carefully without being detected, making her think that he was having a normal conversation with her.
While walking, Kazuhiro spotted a familiar figure. He slowly walked step by step to take a visual look until it was revealed to be Mibu. She was walking in the opposite direction and called her by her disliked nickname. "Hey, ugly ponytail!"
Mibu stopped at his track and quickly looked in the direction Kazuhiro was in with her scowling face. She was about to ask furiously but paused in shock to see him in person. She recovered from the shock and called Kazuhiro's name, "Kaz…"
[~~~~~]
Kazuhiro and Mibu were now sitting at the table in the school cafeteria with their drinks: Her bubble tea and his black tea which he rarely drank.
"I'm really surprised that you're here, Kaz, but I'm happy to see you here," Mibu said in her happy tone.
"I know, Sayaka," Kazuhiro replied, revealing Mibu's first name as he picked his tea up and drank it.
"So, how is your day at school?" asked Sayaka.
"It's okay except I got into a little trouble during the recruitment week," Kazuhiro replied without hesitation before drinking his tea.
Sayaka sighed in distress, "I'm not surprised because you always attract some trouble towards you, me, and everyone around you…"
"You can't blame me for it and I did try to change myself," said Kazuhiro.
"Yeah, right…" Sayaka replied with her eyes rolling, not believing Kazuhiro's words. She drank her bubble tea and began to say, "So, Kaz, I want to ask you."
Kazuhiro shrugged, "Sure, ahead."
Sayaka breathed out and began to ask, "Kazuhiro, I will say it bluntly: Will you…"
"No."
"Eh, I haven't finished it yet!"
"You're asking me to join your kendo club, aren't you?"
Sayaka bowed her head with a sigh of depression as she knew she was going to fail to recruit Kazuhiro into the Kendo Club because she mostly knew about both his attitude and habits.
Sayaka befriended him back in her middle school year and her impression of him was a mix because he was the sleepy and rude person she ever met but willing to assist people in need which honestly made her admire him.
Since Sayaka failed, she had to give up because he was a difficult person to be persuaded but she wondered about his reason. She quickly recovered from her depression and asked, "Can you tell me your reason?"
"I'm simply not interested in joining any clubs until one club caught my interest," Kazuhiro answered with a dispassionate tone.
"Why am I not surprised…" Mibu commented sarcastically.
"What is your reason to recruit me, Sayaka?" Kazuhiro asked casually.
"I want you to join my club to change the school because those who can't use magic very well are being discriminated against and the magic results are most flavored in this high school. They're mistaken in making magic skills a priority even in club activities," Mibu explained her reason with her serious and frustrated tone as her both hands on her lap curved into a fist tightly.
Despite understanding what Sayaka and her club were trying to do, Kazuhiro was honestly against it because it might backfire on her and her club to be disbanded if it kept continuing. He looked at her face and saw resentment written on her face as if she wanted to overthrow the school. He knew that the magic-oriented clubs were for the sake of the magic high school's publicity and were supported by the school. He cannot allow her to do something reckless that would hurt herself and everyone more than her club's idea. However, he cannot jump to the conclusion straight away to ask her to stop or he could be wrong so he decided to try to be careful to ask casually without raising her suspicion.
"Sayaka, I was wondering how many people agree with this idea?" asked Kazuhiro.
"My captain of the kendo club, Tsukasa Kinoe, and the entire kendo club. He shared the same view as me and he wanted to abolish and replace the rule with the new one so that course two will get treated equally and respectfully as course one," Mibu replied confidently.
"You mean the man with the black hair and glasses?" Kazuhiro guessed, describing Kinoe's appearance from what he saw back in the hall the previous week.
"Yes, that's him," Sayaka replied, confirming Kinoe's appearance.
"Did he recruit you to carry out the idea to club management?" asked Kazuhiro.
"Yes, why do you ask that?" Sayaka raised her eyebrow.
"I just make sure he's not that kind of guy to recruit you for your body…" Kazuhiro answered in a blank tone.
Sayaka became both flushed and disgusted at Kazuhiro's answer as she did not expect a horrible answer from him. "What the fuck do you say, Kazuhiro?!"
Realizing the word that she had said, Sayaka slapped both hands to her mouth in shock and sweatdropped at her cursing. She slowly turned her head around and saw a few students looking at her and Kazuhiro with their mixture of expressions such as shock or simper. She slightly bowed down in apology towards them and turned back to him to continue their conversation.
"Sorry," Kazuhiro apologized.
"That's okay but please don't say anything sexually offensive," Sayaka reminded Kazuhiro about the consequences. She took a sip from the straw of her bubble tea to calm herself down. "Tsukasa-Senpai is the most mature and well-behaved person that I ever met when I first joined the kendo club. He helped me to teach the new recruiter basic techniques due to my national middle school kendo tournament. I'm now helping him and my club to achieve that goal."
"Sound noble," Kazuhiro commented dryly as he was uninterested to hear Sayaka chattering about Kinoe but she gave him one part of the information about him. Nonetheless, he needs to ask another question. "Who is your club's sponsor who provided you the needs for it?"
"I'm not sure, Kaz, but it might be one of Tsukasa-Senpai's friends that I've unfortunately never met," Sayaka answered in dismay
Kazuhiro was disappointed at Sayaka's answer to his question even though he did grasp the identities of her club's sponsor but not the name. He noticed something on Sayaka's wrist and moved his eyes to take a look. It was revealed to be a white bracelet with blue and red stripes. He commented, "Nice tri-colored wristband you have."
"Oh…" Sayaka said in surprise as she lifted her arm to her chest level and looked at her wristband. She looked up to Kazuhiro from it and appreciated, "Thank you for your comment, Kaz."
"Is this like your club thing where you can recognize the wristband on the person, indicating that he or she belongs to your club?" Kazuhiro asked curiously.
"Yes and no, Kaz. Not only our club wears it but a few other schoolmates wore it as well," Sayaka responded.
Kazuhiro began to wonder how far Sayaka and her kendo club would go to abolish the discrimination. She and her club should have attended the club management to get them to approve their idea instead of not recruiting new members to their cause. As if they were trying to persuade as many people to overthrow the school. He knew that Sayaka was not the one who began her crusade but joined the group in the hope to see it through. He had no way to persuade her to stop because she already had a suspicion about him now.
"Why do you ask many questions, Kaz?" Sayaka asked, tilting her head.
"I'm just simply asking out of curiosity, Sayaka," Kazuhiro replied as he drank his tea by sip.
"Knowing you, you will get bored very easily and forget about it," Sayaka sighed in weariness, believing Kazuhiro. "It's nice to speak with you since middle school, Kaz."
"Yeah," Kazuhiro responded before turning his head to see the orange skies outside of the window. He sighed in little satisfaction as it gave him a small piece of tranquility and cleared his mind.
"Let me confirm again: you're not joining the kendo club?" Sayaka verified Kazuhiro with his answer a moment ago.
Kazuhiro turned his head back to Sayaka and nodded his head, making Sayaka sigh in disappointment.
"Well, I did try," Sayaka mumbled before saying with her smile, "It's nice to speak with you, Kaz." She stood up from her chair. "I have to go and see you tomorrow." With that, she walked away from him.
As Sayaka was out of sight, Kazuhiro sighed loudly and drank his remaining tea to finish up. He put down his empty cup on the table and mumbled dryly, "I should have asked a question about her thoughts on the public moral committee…" He shrugged, "...But she will give the same answer as the club."
The Following Day
Afternoon
Shopping District, Hachioji, Tokyo
The street was busier than ever due to the students leaving for home as they have either nothing to do at school or urgent tasks that they were required to do. Kazuhiro was holding a red and pink popsicle, which was third-fourth eaten, in his hand. It tasted like strawberry. As he bit a piece from his food, he slowly chewed due to its coldness until it melted. He swallowed it and breathed out its small cold air, not to freeze inside of his closed mouth. He then suddenly noticed Shizuku and her friends walking cautiously from the other side.
Kazuhiro recognized Honoka as one of her friends except for the new girl who had ruby red wavy and long hair and olive green eyes. They seem to be tailing someone from behind while trying not to stand out. He moved his head in the direction that they were following and saw Kinoe, who was their target. He does not know their reason but he had to follow them in case they might be in trouble with Kinoe or anyone. He put the remaining of his food into his mouth and pulled it out, leaving a stick but he experienced a brain freeze as he continued to chew.
Kazuhiro threw a popsicle stick into the dustbin further away from him and began to walk carefully to follow Shizuku and her friend but he had a better idea.
When Kazuhiro reached the other side, he walked into the alleyway. He turned around while activating his wrist bracelet-shaped CAD. An azure pison constructed and covered his entire body. As his magic sequence finished, he bent his both knees and jumped up into the air. He grabbed the railing and repeated the process until he jumped over it and landed on both feet. He jumped again and grabbed the edge to pull himself up to the rooftop.
Kazuhiro stood up and began to jog as he was a minute late to follow them. He jumped over the building to another but when he reached the edge, he looked down to see Shizuku and her friends suddenly being surrounded by four assailants driving their motorcycle bikes in a circle.
The assailant's group stopped and got off their bikes with their weapon to attack Shizuku's group but they were unfortunately unprepared by sudden magic. Shizuku and her friends managed to escape with their magic but collapsed out of nowhere. Kazuhiro quickly looked to the right and saw one of the assailants pointing at them with his fist. His eyes squeezed to see closely and saw a familiar ring on it. He swiftly took out his stun grenade and pulled its pinout. He dropped the grenade down to them, followed by him before he took his escrima sticks out of his blazer.
The ringed assailant noticed something dropping in the air and looked up to see the falling stun grenade in the air. It exploded, flashing everyone to cover their eyes. Kazuhiro pounded on the ringed assailant and dashed towards the knife-wielding assailant. He struck the assailant's arm to release his knife to his knee to bend down. He swung his sticks at the assailant and hit, smashing his visor twice. He ran towards another assailant, who was trying to whip his weapon out and successfully round-kicked him to his face to send him to collide with his motorcycle. He turned around to the last assailant and saw him already pointing his fist at him. He began to throw his stick straight at the last assailant while running and jumped up. His stick successfully hit the last assailant's helmet, staggering him and it deflected into the air. As the last assailant recovered, he looked up to see Kazuhiro grab his throwing stick and land in front of him. Kazuhiro struck his stick to the assailant's stomach and swung his other stick to his head.
As the last assailant was defeated, Kazuhiro turned around while putting his sticks back inside his blazer and walked towards Shizuku and her friends to check their conditions. Groaning, Shizuku recovered as her nausea slowly disappeared and felt a little better than her consciousness regained. She looked up and widened her eyes to see Kazuhiro walking towards her as she wondered where he came from.
"Kazuhiro…" Shizuku called in shock.
"Are you okay, Shizuku?" Kazuhiro asked with a little hint of wariness as he bent down to Shizuku's level.
"I'm alright, Kazuhiro," Shizuku replied, assuaging Kazuhiro after snapping out of her shock. She suddenly noticed one of the assailants slowly standing up in front of his fallen motorcycle bike and he took out his knife to charge toward them for a stab. She was about to shout to alert Kazuhiro but the assailant flew up in the air and fell to the ground with a loud thud.
"I'm really glad that you're here, Miyuki-San," Kazuhiro said as he grabbed Shizuku's wrist and her back to lift her gently.
Shizuku moved her eyes and saw Miyuki standing with her CAD-shaped phone. As Miyuki dropped her arm down, she hurried to aid Kazuhiro to help Honoka and the ruby-haired girl while Kazuhiro finished lifting Shizuku to her feet.
[~~~~~]
Kazuhiro tied the unconscious assailants with zip ties tightly by their both feet and both hands. As he stood up, he turned around to see only Miyuki as Shizuku, Honoka, the ruby-haired girl, who introduced herself by her full name: Akechi Emie, left the scene due to Miyuki told them that she and he would take care of the mess which was entirely mostly true. While she was calling, he examined the assailants from head to toe and noticed the bronze ring on his hand which was revealed to be forged with antinite. He concluded that the group of assailants belonged to anti-magic supremacists and narrowed down that it was Blanche due to their recent crime for the past month.
Kazuhiro needed to get an answer from one of the assailants who might have awakened but he turned his head away to look at Miyuki who was also looking at him. He admitted that she was both talented and powerful when he saw her utilizing her magic in her practical lesson before lunch. He presumed that she and her brother might belong to a powerful magician family like the Ichijou or Mitsuya family despite both living in different locations far away from Hachioji. She and Tatsuya were on the same level.
"I pretty much guessed that you and your brother are not normal magicians when I first saw you two in close view during the recruitment week so I think you came from the magician family-like ten master clans or hundred families, isn't it?" Kazuhiro bluntly spoke out loudly and noticed Miyuki being tensed by it. He hypothesized that she and Tatsuya were indeed members of their family. However, he does not care about it as they have a good reason to hide it. "... If you think that I might expose yours and your brother's secret, don't worry because I don't care about it. Can you trust me?"
Miyuki does not know how to respond to Kazuhiro because he was very close to finding out that she and Tatsuya were part of the Yotsuba Family but he reassured her that he would not permanently get an answer from her. She relaxed her tense shoulder as she accepted it and presumed that he would not tell anyone including her friends due to the indifference in his words. She noticed one of the assailants suddenly regained consciousness.
"Ugh, what the hell?" The tied-up assailant groaned in pain, making Kazuhiro look down on him.
As Kazuhiro was about to interrogate the tied-up assailant, Miyuki spoke out with her neutral tone, stopping him. "Kazuhiro-San, let me handle it."
Kazuhiro turned to Miyuki with a questioning look. "What do you mean?"
Miyuki bowed slightly while apologizing with a little hint of shame. "I'm very sorry for doing this and please forgive me."
"Wha…"
Kazuhiro suddenly felt a hit in the back of his neck and staggered. He saw Miyuki for the last time before his vision slowly became dark with his eyes closed. He collapsed to the floor and succumbed to his unconsciousness.
[~~~~~]
A few Minutes Later
Groaning, Kazuhiro slowly opened his eyes to see himself lying on the floor with his front body facing down. He used both hands on the floor and slowly stood up with his knee on the floor. As he completely stood straight, he placed his hand on the back of his neck and massaged to ease the pain as it remained. He took a look around to find no sight of Miyuki and the group of assailants and presumed that Miyuki's mystery figure knocked him out. He could not identify that person due to his focus on Miyuki before becoming blurred to black. He sighed in irritation as he made a mistake that he should have noticed from behind.
"Damn it…"
The Following Week
Noon
First High School, Hachioji, Tokyo
Miyuki walked down the stairs to the ground level while thinking about Kazuhiro. She felt guilty about calling Tatsuya's master who taught ninjutsu, Kokonoe Yakumo, and knocking Kazuhiro out cold to prevent him from seemingly calling the police or interrogating the assailant the previous week. She however could not shake a feeling that Kazuhiro was not just a normal student as she saw him and the defeated assailant's group upon arriving to presumably save Shizuku and her friends. Nevertheless, she hoped that he would not take his grudge against her to his heart to be reminded.
As Miyuki reached the floor from the staircase, she turned around but stopped as she encountered Kazuhiro who was leaning against the wall with a white plastic bag in his hand while looking at her. She was surprised to see him here and wondered if he knew her walking path. Is he stalking her?
"If you're thinking about that, I'm not," Kazuhiro clarified to Miyuki about thinking of him as her creepy stalker, shocking her. He moved his upper body forward from the wall and turned around to face her with a serious expression. "What about we should go to the rooftop to discuss last week so that no one will disturb us?"
Knowing what Kazuhiro was implying, Miyuki does not have any choice but to keep denying Kazuhiro the incident. He indeed shredded her and Tatsuya's secret about their family but decided not to reveal it to everyone especially her friends as she was afraid to lose them forever by her Yotsuba name. She nodded in response as she agreed to join him on the rooftop
[~~~~~]
A few Minutes Later
Miyuki and Kazuhiro were now sitting on the bench on the rooftop side by side to have a conversation.
Kazuhiro managed to get some important information upon hearing from Miyuki about the incident and it was related to Sayaka and her kendo club and the abolition of the discrimination between bloom and weed. Mostly, it came from Tatsuya speaking seriously with the student council. He never thought that Tatsuya was the first one approached by Sayaka to recruit him when she met him and Miyuki in the hallway after the recruitment week. To be fair, even being Weed, Tatsuya was able to take down the people with ease.
Miyuki also revealed that Tatsuya concluded that Blanche was responsible for it and Kazuhiro reluctantly agreed even though there was not much evidence to support it. Nevertheless, he placed his confidence in Tatsuya because he could trust his both instinct and intelligence.
As Miyuki finished giving her information, it was her turn. "Kazuhiro-San, do you by any chance have been approached by Mibu-Senpai to join her club some time ago," Miyuki questioned Kazuhiro.
"Not exactly, I went to meet her last week," Kazuhiro answered.
Miyuki tilted her head dumbfounded at Kazuhiro's answer. "Can you elaborate more?"
"Takeaki asked me for my help to check on Sayaka to see if anything weird about her," Kazuhiro explained clearly about his answer.
Miyuki raised her eyebrow and questioned, "Are you referring to Kirihara Takeaki?"
Kazuhiro nodded. "He, Sayaka, and I have been best friends since middle school so I know much about them as well as their backgrounds and personality."
"Don't you think it's a bit too dangerous to act alone, Kazuhiro-san?" Miyuki asked in her concerned tone.
"Don't worry, I'm capable of taking care of myself," Kazuhiro responded firmly before breathing out a sigh and asking. "I was thinking, what did you do with the group that assaulted Shizuku, Mitsui-San, and Akechi-San after your 'friend' knocked me out?"
Miyuki looked away with her guilty face for a second and answered truthfully with her normal expression, "I requested Kokonoe-Sensei to interrogate one of the group but it was still in progress even though I used my magic to make him talk, but it was too effective."
"I hope that you didn't traumatize that person too much, Miyuki-San," Kazuhiro said with a hint of concern as he took a sip from his grape soda before asking. "Is your Sensei, Kokonoe Yakumo, a famous master of ninjutsu that you trained under?"
"Yes, but my older brother is his student, not me," answered Miyuki.
"That's impressive for Tatsuya to train under," Kazuhiro commented on Tatsuya.
"Thank you for saying nice things to my older brother," Miyuki thanked Kazuhiro with a smile. "Almost not everyone complimented him with good words about him, especially course one student."
"I can see why…" muttered Kazuhiro.
"Kazuhiro-San, may I ask you something personal?" Miyuki asked Kazuhiro for his permission.
"Go ahead…" replied Kazuhiro.
"I was wondering which one of a hundred families you came from because from what Tatsuya told me from Mari, you're skillful at fighting hand-to-hand combat?"
Hearing Kazuhiro sigh in response, Miyuki became worried that she overstepped his boundaries and thought of the reason that he wanted to keep his secret to himself as she and Tatsuya do. She hoped that she did not offend him but to her sudden surprise, he began to answer.
"I don't come from a hundred families but a normal adoptive family."
"Adopted?" Miyuki asked in surprise.
"Yeah, because my parents passed away when I was just eight years old and my family's last name is Yasuhiro so my actual full name is Yasuhiro Kazuhiro," Kazuhiro answered firmly about himself and his family. He chuckled, "It's pretty much a tongue twister, don't you agree?"
"Yes, indeed," Miyuki replied, agreeing with Kazuhiro about his full name despite feeling heartbreak for his parents' loss.
"I did learn some martial art skills on my own from both books and the internet. Let's just say that I'm natural, " Kazuhiro continued, shocking Miyuki, and drinking his grape soda.
"What about your magic?" asked Miyuki.
Kazuhiro shrugged, "Sorry, but I can't reveal my magic to you."
Miyuki pouted at Kazuhiro for refusing to answer her question as she was curious to know what variant of magic he was wielding. However, she merely understood that he does not want to stand out to reveal his magic to her or everyone. She began to think that his magic was either very rare and unheard of, that it could be powerful or very weak which made everyone laugh at him for it. Nonetheless, she had to respect his answer as she does not want to lose a friend with him over her curiosity about his magic.
"Miyuki-San, is that all the question that you asked me?" Kazuhiro asked Miyuki as he was waiting for another new question from her.
Miyuki shook her head in response. "No, Kazuhiro-San. I have done asking a question, but…" She asked, "Can we drop our honorific name and address our basic name as we already became friends in the last two weeks, Kaz."
Kazuhiro was quiet for a moment until he replied with a small smile, "Sure, Miyuki."
"Thank you," Miyuki thanked Kazuhiro.
Kazuhiro reached his hand into his plastic bag and grabbed something inside. He took it out, revealing it to be two sandwiches and a coffee can, and handed it to Miyuki. "Here's my treat."
Miyuki was surprised to receive food from Kazuhiro again since he gifted her and Mizuki with pandan cake and muffins as an apology. She was hesitant to accept his treat again to eat but her stomach suddenly grumbled a little, embarrassing her so she had to accept it. As she took it from him, she unwrapped the plastic away from one of the sandwiches and took a bite of it to eat. This may have tasted moderate to her but it did fill her stomach to be full, thanks to him.
[~~~~~]
Evening
Everything went perfectly normal without a single incident from morning to evening. Kazuhiro stretched his arms up while some of his classmates walked out of the classroom as their school day was over. He cracked his neck and turned his head a bit to relax. He took his headphones out of his jacket and plugged them into his phone. As he was about to put it on both ears, a loudspeaker suddenly turned on.
"ATTENTION, FELLOW STUDENTS! WE ARE THE COALITION SEEKING TO ABOLISH THE DISCRIMINATION WITHIN THE SCHOOL! WE ARE DEMANDED TO NEGOTIATE WITH THE STUDENT COUNCIL AND CLUB MANAGEMENT GROUP IN REGARD TO EQUAL STANDING."
Sighing in both weariness and irritation, Kazuhiro knew that his school day went too smoothly. He wondered what caused Sayaka and her coalition to act rashly to do something ignorant or maybe it was the first step of their plan. He, unfortunately, cannot go to the intercom room to both questions and stop them because the public morale committee would be likely to be there, especially Mari and Tatsuya. He would be mistaken as the coalition's member or an interferer to them. He could go to check on Kirihara but knowing him, he had to give him more space to calm himself down.
The Following Day
Noon
First High School, Hachioji, Tokyo
"What the hell is Mibu thinking?"
Kazuhiro and Kirihara were walking in the hallway while having a conversation about yesterday's incident. Kazuhiro was hoping that Kirihara would be self-controlled but he was too anxious for Sayaka and desired to know her intention. Kirihara was so agitated that he could get himself into more trouble other than his incident on the first day of the recruitment week and he might be daring more to do so.
"Don't do anything stupid, Kirihara," Kazuhiro warned Kirihara. "Let the student council or committee do their job. I think they will listen to Sayaka's request."
"You're kidding me, Kaz. I thought you were helping me," Kirihara growled at Kazuhiro.
"I'm helping you, Kirihara, but you might cause some unnecessary trouble to Sayaka, the student council, or anyone related to yesterday's incident," Kazuhiro reassured, correcting Kirihara in his stern tone.
Sighing in irritation, Kirihara wanted to punch Kazuhiro, but he could not. Kazuhiro was corrected that the school council would handle the coalition instead of themselves. He believed that Sayaka was not a halfwit to do anything for her group's intention despite it being honorable. He truly wanted to get an answer from her in person but she and her coalition might be currently preparing themselves to have a showdown with the student council. They stopped in their tracks to see some coalition members trying to persuade as many weed students as they could to support their so-called worthy intentions.
"This is going to be a pain in the ass," Kazuhiro commented at the sight with his disappointed tone.
"Tell me about it," Kirihara agreed with Kazuhiro.
"You two seem close…"
Kazuhiro and Kirihara turned around in the direction of the familiar voice from behind and saw Mari standing in front of them.
"Wanatabe-Senpai," Kirihara greeted Mari.
"Mari-Senpai, How will the student council handle the coalition?" Kazuhiro asked without hesitation, making Kirihara look at him in bewilderment.
"If you're doubting Mayumi's ability, you're wrong because she can easily handle it with and without our help so it will quickly settle down," Mari replied proudly.
"What about Mibu Sayaka?" Kazuhiro questioned again.
"I'm not sure what she is thinking, but if I'm being honest, I don't think she and the coalition would win against the president," Mari answered straightforwardly.
"You seem to know Sayaka's reputation, Mari-Senpai."
"Yes, I know her a bit but I rejected being her sparring partner and gave some helpful words to her too."
Kazuhiro tilted his head at Mari's reply with a blank expression and sighed when tilting his head back to its position. 'I guess this might be one of many factors causing Sayaka's hate towards the school, student council, public committee, and club management. She could be misunderstanding her'
"Why are you sighing?" Mari asked with her curious expression.
"Nothing," replied Kazuhiro.
"Anyway, Kazuhiro-San, you're asking more questions relating to Mibu-Kun. Are you one of the coalition?" Mari questioned Kazuhiro with a serious tone.
"No, I'm not," Kazuhiro answered. "But if I am, I will never go to you because you're a chef of a public committee."
"Huh, that's a good answer, Kazuhiro-Kun, because if you are, I would simply ignore you especially if you might be a reporter," Mari responded with her smirk. She took a quick look around the area to see many students being persuaded by the coalition members, making her frown. She then looked back at both Kazuhiro. "Any more questions to ask?"
"Will the possible fight break out tomorrow?" Kazuhiro bluntly asked with a little hint of seriousness.
Kirihara was surprised at Kazuhiro. 'That's a serious question, Kaz…"
Mari, on the other hand, was a little shocked by Kazuhiro's blunt question. She began to think that he was looking for a fight the following day at the auditorium and wondered what his mind was thinking. She hoped that he would not cause any trouble for the open forum, especially Mayumi because she worked hard with her words for it. Maybe she was overthinking. "I guarantee that the fight will not break out as some of the public committee members will be at the auditorium."
"Okay," Kazuhiro said, accepting Mari's answer.
"I hope you're satisfied with my answer, Kazuhiro-Kun," Mari replied. "I had to go back to the student council room to meet up with the president. So see you later."
Mari walked away from Kazuhiro and Kirihara and as she was out of their sight, they began to have a conversation with Kirihara questioning.
"What the hell do you ask about the fight that is not going to happen?"
"I just want to make sure but I cannot help myself to feel that something bad is going to happen by tomorrow," Kazuhiro answered with a serious tone as he looked at the sight. He was honestly on his edge that he was connecting the dots between his and Miyuki's information and believed that Blanche would assault the school the following day but he was unsure of their timing.
"You're kidding me…" Kirihara mumbled before following Kazuhiro's eye directly to the sight. He could tell that Kazuhiro was onto his guts, thinking that the coalition would become both agitated and aggressive when they might lose to Mayumi and begin their violence by the following day. He turned around to Kazuhiro with his expression filled with both worrisome and grim and said, "I hope that you're wrong, Kaz."
The Following Day
Noon
First High School, Hachioji, Tokyo
Kazuhiro was not bothered to attend the open forum between Mayumi and the coalition at the auditorium so he skipped it. He knew that Mayumi might be a good speaker due to her being a member of the Saegusa family and persuaded the audience to agree with her. He does not know much about her besides her status and family but he sensed that she had a good intention and desire to change the school policy. Despite the same goal that she and the coalition have shared, she knew the effective way to change it.
Kazuhiro walked in the empty pathway outside of the building while avoiding the suspicion from some teachers or school staff members in his sight. Fortunately, few activity clubs did their session although they took open forums as their advantage to teach their recruits basic instruction. He considered this as mere luck to lower the suspicion. He was on guard, preparing the terrorist attack from Blanche but unsure
As Kazuhiro was walking past the building, he saw the unidentified man dropping a white box in front of the building. He noticed that he was not a school staff member and not a student due to his clothing consisting of a working dark gray plain uniform that was similar to the military uniform. As the man placed the box on the ground, he stood up and turned around to run away. Instead of chasing after the man, Kazuhiro decided to walk toward the box despite knowing that it could be dangerous. His guts told him that He carefully slowed down his pace cautiously while activating his wrist bracelet-shaped CAD to cast his defense magic.
Suddenly, Kazuhiro saw a familiar female student walking towards the box. He squinted his eyes to identify her clearly and it turned out to be Kanon, who was both curious and cautious to attempt to open it. Feeling dreadful, he began to rush towards her and managed to grab her by her wrist.
"Eek!" Kanon squealed in shock. She turned her head around to see the culprit, which was Kazuhiro holding her wrist. She wondered about his action and wanted to question him but she was too distracted to see his serious and feared expression. She sensed something wrong in the atmosphere. She was then pulled to his chest and turned around away from the box while being leaped off.
The box exploded.
Extra Note
I made Kazuhiro friends with Kirihara and Mibu because I wanted to expand both of his relationships with them and their characteristics. I tried my best to make their chemistry to be more friendly but chaotic as Kirihara and Mibu dislike Kazuhiro for teasing them a lot, especially pushing them aggressively to confess their love to each other which they falsely denied.
I will reveal his use of his magic in the next chapter as I already reveal two pieces of magic in this chapter but don't get your hopes up as his magic might be boring, bland, and basic. This is because he was a course two student.
Don't worry, the next chapter will be focusing on the three individuals' perspectives in different places during the terrorist attack on the school but I can't promise that I might not be able to write them as I will easily forget about it.
8/3/23
I changed and rewrote this chapter.