Meeting An Annoying Senpai And Dealing With Him Justly

"T-Tsukune-kun," Ichinose instantly stood up, bringing herself away from whatever conversation she was just having, "I...I thought about what you said and I've decided to change me ways!" she said with a determined glint in her eyes.

Before I could say anything, Kurumu stepped in front of me, her arms spread out.

I was unsure whether it was to protect me or to protect Ichinose-senpai.

"And why should he trust you or give you a chance?" Kurumu asked suspiciously yet there was a softness to her tone that made sense. After all, she's the only girl here that would understand Ichinose and how much she probably wants a second chance.

Ichinose looked annoyed at Kurumu's question but seeing that there was some semblance of hope for her to recover the situation through it, she answered it with the same desperation to be trusted as earlier, "Because I'm willing to change! I'm trying to change! I even left the Swimming Club to show that those ways are behind me!" she said, her eyes getting a little teary.

Kurumu dropped her arms a little, obviously disarmed by what was said and she turned to look at me with a complex look.

Sighing, I went to speak but was cut off by the other person in the room.

"If he doesn't want to be with you, Ichinose-san, I'd be more than willing to fill in for him," the guy said and I turned my narrowed eyes toward him.

I guess you could call him a handsome guy, with ink black hair similar to my own, with light green eyes that were alight with less than pure intentions. He seemed pretty tall, though still a few centimeters shorter than me and his overall physique and build were much more slender and lean than mine.

A speedy guy then. Well, that's the feeling I get from him anyway.

"Shut up, this doesn't concern you!" Ichinose snapped at him, her teeth going razor sharp for a second as her entire expression went from desperation and pleading to anger and disdain. But she quickly realized where she was and covered her mouth and closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down.

As she was doing this, the guy who'd been snapped at just smiled with his hands raised before standing up and coming toward me, Kurumu and Moka. He put out a hand to me but didn't take his eyes away from either Kurumu or Moka.

...That annoyed me for some reason. Really, really annoyed me.

Taking his hand, I put enough pressure into my hand to make him look back to me as he raised his eyebrows at me before squeezing back.

I barely even felt it.

Strength and speed weren't the best parts about my physique. Stamina, durability and endurance are. So in a contest of seeing who would squirm and give up first, I was confident that I wouldn't lose.

"Ginei Morioka, nice to meet ya," he said with a friendly smile, though I noticed his slightly grit teeth as I increased the pressure.

Smiling 'innocently', I replied to his greeting, "Tsukune Aono. It's a pleasure," I said before releasing his hand which begun rapidly turning red after the pressure I applied.

What can I say? Hard bones and flesh, used with my strength, was like being gripped by a metal vice.

"Kurumu Kurono," Kurumu stepped away from Ginei after he introduced himself, having knowledge of how he was just staring at her and Moka. Internally, I nodded my head, pleased that she wasn't ignorant to this guys seemingly perverted eyes.

...The same couldn't be said for Moka.

"I'm Moka Akashiya, it's nice to meet you!" she enthusiastically said as she cutely stuck out her hand. Though I felt, I don't know, jealous that she was so passionate about meeting another guy.

But I quickly slapped that feeling over the back of the head - Moka's just excited to get new friends so stop being such a child, Tsukune.

...Though when he took Moka's hand and kissed the back of it, I very nearly gave into my jealousy and hit him. He gets three chances to not push it too far, then I'm gonna string him up by his balls and beat him with a very spiky stick.

I ignored what my feelings of jealousy meant, and just focused back on Ichinose who had composed herself again.

"Tsukune-kun...will you give me another chance?" she asked with pleading eyes.

Whether due to my annoyance with Ginei or because of how Ichinose and the other members of the swimming club had tried to suck those students dry of their life-force, I shrugged, "I'll have to see if you deserve another chance, Ichinose. Stay in the Newspaper Club and we'll see what happens. But if this proves to be some kind of scheme, you'll regret it," I said before turning and sitting at one of the desks.

Moka got away from Ginei and Kurumu followed me, sitting down next to me. Ichinose just looked complicated for a second before she sat down behind me.

"Haha~ Highschool love~" Nekonome-sensei, who I'd frankly forgot was even here, spoke up with her hands on her cheeks and a nostalgic look on her face before she snapped out of it and looked at the clock on the wall, "Ah! I need to go!" she said before rushing to the door and leaving. Though not before turning back and looking at Ginei, "Take care of the rest of the club proceedings, Gin-kun!"

"Leave it to me!" he said with a wide smile before turning back to us with a face that looked...way too fake. It's like he's scheming something.

"So, I should probably explain exactly what we do in the Newspaper Club, right?" Ginei started and he actually looked sincerely serious. Which was good to know - that he wasn't a complete idiot pervert. "Obviously, the goal of this club is to publish the school newspaper but it's main goal is to investigate all sorts of things in the academy. Anything weird happening? We'll usually do some investigating, find out what's happening and then write an article on it. Simple, right?" he said with a smile that showed he was actually pretty enthusiastic about his craft.

"But I'll tell you now, it's not all simple and easy. Some of the weird cases that happen at this school are brought on by monsters who are up to no good and before they let you report your findings, they'll probably try and take you out!" he dramatically spoke and I had to resist rolling my eyes:

It wasn't like we were reporters reporting on a war or some kind of organized crime syndicate.

"He...he seems like a dependable person, right?" Moka whispered to me and I just shrugged.

"Eh, I don't know. He seems a bit dodgy to me," I said and seeing Ginei's lip twitch at what I said, I smiled at him, both of us full-well knowing he heard what we just said. I especially took some joy in disrupting whatever he was planning.

Moka just looked at me, curious about what I meant by what I said but soon looked away, probably thinking I wasn't being serious.

"A-Anyway, how about we stop talking about such serious stuff and have a little fun? This is our poster," he held up a few pieces of paper with Nekonome-sensei's face on them before continuing, "Let's put them up on the wall so the next class in here can see them!" he said before passing the posters to Ichinose, Kurumu, and Moka.

...Though he didn't give one to me.

"What about me? What am I supposed to do?" I asked, motioning to the posters. To which Ginei just shrugged.

"I don't know dude, go to the back of the class, there should be some more posters there," he nonchalantly said but he was obviously just trying to dismiss me. Snorting at his obviousness, I just shook my head at him before walking to the back of the class and finding a stack of the posters.

Looking closely at the poster, it had Nekonome-sensei on it, winking with a peace sign on it - Weird photo but okay - with the words 'If you have the chance, make sure to read Youkai Newspaper - Newspaper Club'.

Turning around with the stacks in hand, I saw Ginei making the girls stand on chairs and put the posters as high as possible.

Obviously I knew exactly what he was doing, and I nearly blew a gasket.

But I kept myself calm. I could beat him up for being an utter pervert, for sure, but what would hurt him more? An apparent womanizing pervert like him? Making the women see him for the pervert he is, of course.

Walking over with what I'm sure was a sadistic and utterly terrifying smile, I placed the stack of posters down nearby before picking up both Kurumu and Moka who seemed to be struggling to get the posters high enough for Ginei's liking. Obviously Ginei saw what I was doing and tried to stop me but I'd already picked them up and put them on the floor.

""Tsukune?!"" the two girls said in embarrassed unison but I just smiled before taking the posters from them and standing on the chair myself.

Sticking it as high as it could go, I turned around and 'smiled' at Ginei, "That should be high enough, right, Ginei-senpai?" I chuckled before stepping down and looking to Moka and Kurumu, "If you two are too short to reach, just ask me. I should put my height to good use, right?" I said and both the girls looked a little embarrassed as they nodded, "Oh," I turned round to Ichinose, "And Ichinose-senpai, Ginei-senpai was looking at your panties while you were stretching to put the poster up," I said this and Ichinose-senpai's soft yellow eyes instantly went cold as she kicked the crouching Ginei right in the face, putting him on his ass.

"Pervert!" she said with an angry blush to her face before she got down in a huff before looking to me, "Tsukune-kun...can you put up my poster for me, please?" she asked nervously.

In a better mood after seeing Ginei get kicked for being a pervert, I nodded with a cheery smile which seemed to daze Ichinose a little before taking the poster from her and doing the same thing I did with the other posters.

Getting off the chair, I squat down next to Ginei and pulled out some tissues before extending them to him, "Gonna stop being a perv against my friends now?" I asked, knowing that because Kurumu, Moka and Ichinose had moved away from Ginei that they could hear what I said to him. Ginei just snatched the tissues before sneering.

"No way," he said with a laugh, "I'm gonna make one of them mine. If they're only your friends, what right do you have to stop me?" he asked in a condescending manner.

Shrugging, I gave him a scathing look while still smiling, "What right do I have? They're my friends. I have the right to stop scumbags from getting near them and hurting them," I slapped him on the shoulder in a 'friendly' manner before standing up.

As I stood up, the girls shuffled a little closer before Kurumu took the lead and coyly spoke, "Did...did you happen to see our p-panties, Tsukune?" she asked and I instantly felt like I was in a field of mines.

...What's the right answer here?

"...I saw a little but not the whole thing?" I lied, having seen that Kurumu was wearing surprisingly pure white panties, Moka was wearing surprisingly sexy black panties and Ichinose-senpai was wearing turquoise panties which matched her hair color. But hearing what I said, Moka instantly went beet red and if it were possible, I knew steam would be coming off the top of her head. The same could be said for Kurumu while Ichinose just smiled before speaking.

"Did you think mine suit me, Tsukune-kun?" she asked with a sweet voice yet I felt I was thrown into yet another mine field but this one.

"Turquoise is definitely your color," I simply said before picking up the stack of posters, "How about we go and put up these posters around the school while we have the time to?" I quickly moved us onto a different subject before I either had my plan backfire on myself or the girls started asking mine-filled questions that I couldn't navigate properly.

Though I guess you can say that I'm lucky I'm not a bumbling fool who doesn't know how to talk with women or deal with embarrassing situations. Otherwise I'd have thrown myself into a pit of misunderstandings just now. That's what my instincts tell me, at least.