Chapter 6: Acts of Convenience

"Everyone, I really appreciate you coming here to ask me of this, unfortunately I have made up my mind. But more importantly, I have a promise I have to keep no matter what."

One of the girls grabbed Mimi's hands with both hands, and held them near her chest.

"What's more important than our team reaching the Inter High tournament? We all made a promise to achieve that goal!

"I believe I was absent when you guys made that promise with each other."

"No, we will not accept any excuses from you!"

Akuma went to where the girls and Mimi were standing. He stood there for a while and closed his eyes without saying anything. The girls all looked at him, anticipating that he would say something. He then finally opened his eyes.

"She's part of my club now, there's no way I'm giving her up to you guys! You hear that?!"

The girls were shocked that they couldn't speak or react immediately. Akuma continued his speech.

"But!!! I am a benevolent person. My mantra is diplomacy is the way to rule."

The girls then started to whisper with each other, saying things like 'Who is this weirdo?' and 'What nonsense is he saying?' to 'He must be a pervert.' He heard all of those remarks but refrained to react violently because, in his mind, 'diplomacy over eradication' was flashing.

"I will choose to ignore those insolent remarks, and give you a chance. If you can beat her in a contest, then she will not leave your club no matter what. But if she wins, then she will join our club and you can't and won't do anything to persuade her otherwise."

Mimi finally looked at Akuma's direction, as if acknowledging that he does exist.

"I don't think you have the right nor the authority to decide what I wish to do."

Akuma moved his face closer to Mimi's face, to make sure his point came across.

"On the contrary, if you really want to join the club, you will have to listen to my orders. This is my first command to you."

The girls went silent, but then started to giggle. And then the giggles turned into laughter. The expressions on their faces changed. Desperation turned to contempt. Despair transformed to disdain. Their sadness earlier became a twisted form of relief.

"Oh, you just made our lives much easier, then."

"Furui-san is not that good to begin with. In fact, she quite honestly sucks. She won't be able to beat any of us, let alone our ace senpai."

"It seems we will be able to keep around our errand girl, then. Thanks, Mr. Creep."

Akuma couldn't hide the shock that was showing in his face. The panic that came after that was so intense that he started sweating heavily.

"B-but you said she was going to be the next ace?!"

"Huh? Of course, we were just saying that! Are you that dumb?"

One of the girls' condescending tone crushed Akuma's spirit even more.

"Well, see you tomorrow. You better not back out or else there'll be consequences."

The girls then left laughing out loud. Things couldn't have gotten better than what they initially planned. Basking in their victory, they disappeared from Akuma and Mimi's sight. Meanwhile, Akuma was speechless and stared into blankness.

"Way to run your mouth, Idiot Demon Lord."

Angelie could only shake her head. Her hands rested on her waist, a sign of exasperation on the rashness of her club's president.

"There is nothing we can do now; I will have to face someone from the Kyudo club. Most likely the current ace of the team—"

He snapped back into reality after hearing the worst possible situation. Akuma faced toward Mimi very closely.

"Argh! Why didn't you stop me earlier!?"

"Are you really THAT Demon Lord? I fail to see the resemblance."

Akuma dropped to his knees, his hands holding his weight against the floor. All he could do was mumble to himself, while staring at the ground.

"Diplomacy is hard."

---

The following day, it was decided that Mimi would face the club's current ace, third-year student Mukeru. They would do it during the club's activities after classes. The match would be held at the Kyudo club's archery range. They would be competing in long distance shooting, using four arrows, with the bull's eye system in play. Despite being called bull's eye, it was irrelevant where the arrow hit the target, as long as it landed. Basically, it was just a game of hit and miss. Whoever had the most hits won the match.

Classes ended for the day and the Kyudo club prepared their archery range by setting up the targets. The participants, Mimi and her senpai, Mukeru, were already dressed in their hakama and were kneeling on the wooden floor of the shooting hall while facing toward the targets. They were about two meters apart. The Kyudo club's ace has short, crimson hair. Her stature was certainly that of an athlete, with lean muscles for her age.

"I can't believe you challenged me, Furui. What were you thinking?"

"I didn't personally challenge you, Senpai. Unfortunately, the one who did wasn't thinking. At all."

Mukeru glanced at Mimi and then laughed.

"I don't hate you or anything, but you are our errand girl, and I love how you diligently do whatever we ask of you. But at your skill level, I'd be surprised if you hit even once."

She then sarcastically smiled at Mimi and then concentrated on the targets in front of them.

The distance of the archers and the targets was about sixty meters, which was the regulation distance used in long distance matches. The targets were circular in shape, with a diameter of about 100 centimeters. The targets were placed outdoors and there were six targets lined up, meaning that up to six archers could shoot at the same time.

The current Kyudo club members, kneeling on the floor as well, were lined up parallelly behind Mukeru. As for the Help club members, Akuma and Angelie were kneeling behind Mimi. Even though Sanaka claimed she was forced being there and had nothing to do with this, she was still kneeling nervously with them.

Angelie, situated between Akuma and Sanaka, whispered to herself as they awaited the start of the match.

"I trust she'll be just fine. I may not know who Furui-san was before, but now that part of her is the elven leader I knew, she'll pull through."

Akuma, who heard her statement, leaned slightly over to Angelie.

"Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"

His voice was hushed.

"Shut up, this is your fault in the first place!"

Angelie couldn't control the volume of her voice that everyone glanced at her.

"I'm sorry, it's because of this idiot."

She gently bowed her head and whispered her apology while she pointed her finger at Akuma.

"Still, we need her to win this. By next week, we need to submit the full list of members to Ms. Kibishii. Or else, my path to world domination is at risk."

Akuma has his arms crossed and eyes closed.

"K-keep quiet, you guys! T-they are starting already."

Sanaka finally was able to speak with her shaking voice.

It was Mukeru's turn first. She picked up her bow from beside her. She then went to her shooting stance step by step until she drew her bow and fired her first arrow. A hit. The arrow landed a bit upper left of the center. The Kyudo club members shouted 'sha!' to signify the hit to the target.

The trio's eyes glanced over to the members of the Kyudo club. A hint of jealousy and uneasiness washed over three observers' faces.

Mukeru then fired her second arrow while the three of them weren't looking at her. The club members shouted 'sha!' again, which meant the ace hit the target once more. Simultaneously, the three looked at the target and saw the arrow hit the lower right of the center, closer to the edge of the target.

The sweat drops from the trio's foreheads were rolling down faster and more intensely. They watched intently as the ace of the Kyudo club drew her bow for her third shot. And it was a miss. It passed by the left side of the target's edge. Irritation could be seen in Mukeru's facial expression when she missed the shot. The three Mimi supporters made a controlled and synchronized fist pump.

For her last shot, Mukeru calmly went into her shooting stance, letting go of the frustration of the last missed shot. Anticipation could be seen from the Kyudo club member's eyes as the bow was being drawn. The arrow was at last released. A celebratory 'sha!' echoed inside the shooting hall. The arrow was just a bit off the center of the target. In total, she hit three times. A good mark, and not an easy one to make.

"Well, good luck on hitting better than that."

Mukeru made sure that Mimi heard that even if she didn't look at her kouhai. The ace then knelt down again in her current position.

"Oh well, we can find other members. It doesn't have to be her, anyway."

Cold sweat was now covering Akuma's face.

"T-there is no r-reason to give up now. Y-you'll see…"

Angelie's confidence in Mimi was betrayed by her cracking voice.

It was then Mimi's turn. She grabbed her bow from beside her. She stood up, went into her shooting stance gracefully, and shot. Bull's eye. Dead center of the target. Everyone inside the shooting hall were shocked that their jaws dropped in disbelief. Before anyone could even react, Mimi shot her second arrow. This one hit the same exact place that the first arrow was split cleanly in half. Even before everyone had time to recover from their first shock, they were further surprised.

Then the third arrow left the bow and once again hit the last arrow and split it in half. At this point, everyone was petrified in place. No one could believe what they were seeing, compared to the expectations set before the match started.

Finally, the last arrow was shot. Same result. Mimi turned around to face the Help club members, made a peace sign with her hand, and smiled.

Everyone's reaction was a thunderous 'HUH???'