Chapter 128

The freshmen representative deciding not to join the Student Council was an unthinkable event but, without any other fuss, First High School went into club recruitment week. (Azusa muttered something like 'this year, let there be peace....' which all the second year officers pretended not to hear.)

However without exception each year, trouble to a greater or lesser extent (in this case, 'lesser' might be an unneeded adjective) occurred during new club member recruitment week so there was no way it would end peacefully. The recruitment week started on the second Monday in April and went until Friday the thirteenth, Azusa's prayer of 'may we get through it this year without anything happening' was an impossible dream that would die a noble death.

On this day and every day prior to it, Tatsuya and Miyuki were on stand by after school in the club affairs headquarters. So they could respond instantly when trouble erupted. Last year, Mayumi and Hattori occupied this position. Having two student council vice presidents was an irregular configuration and emptying the student council room of these two vice presidents might be perceived as presenting an easily destroyed battle formation but, doubting Miyuki's magic abilities was an indulgence no one dared attempt and Tatsuya's true strength had been proven beyond doubt in a different dimension than practical skills classes, actual practice (actual combat). If the siblings patrolled as an actual unit, whatever anyone actually thought beneath the surface, no one would oppose it.

In that room, they were on stand by with one of the executives of the club affairs' public safety division. Since before Hattori's inauguration as chairman, a system had been in place where each club sent one member to the public safety division as needed but since he had become chairman the regular system had undergone a change, the scale had expanded. All twenty members in a four shift rotation were stationed in their main office in a battle array, it was the largest force in school exceeding that of the Public Morals and the student council. Although he was undeniably inferior in terms of charisma to the previous chairman, Katsuto; Hattori's abilities as an organizational manager were superior to his predecessor as shown by this action.

Yesterday, the headquarters was stuffed with public safety division members. The members were almost entirely students Tatsuya hadn't had much contact with including the second years. He didn't know much more than their names and faces. However, today, there was a senpai with whom he was more than vaguely familiar with.

"Nevertheless, it's quite strange. I, who clumsily caused an incident last year that nearly got me suspended am one of the people controlling the chaos this year"

"Senpai, is that something you should say about yourself?"

"Kirihara, please don't talk about that too much.... I'd be troubled if someone came in and took it the wrong way"

Tatsuya's response had a 'shocked' tone but Hattori really put on a show with his response: an elbow on the desk, fingers rubbing his forehead and sighing deeply.

"It's probably okay. Since no one's listening"

Currently, there were only four people in the club affairs room: Hattori, Kirihara, Tatsuya and Miyuki. There were four members of the public safety division on duty today but, two of them were making sure that the schedule for the usage of the small gym for demonstrations was kept to by apparently going to watch them and the other two had been patrolling around campus from the beginning.

"Oops, I jinxed it. We'll cut off this conversation here"

However, immediately after Kirihara claimed 'there's no one here', the third year female member of the public safety force came back from the small gym.

"The Kendo club's demonstration has just started"

Behind the female student who was reporting on the status of the small gym to Hattori, Tatsuya checked the clock and as ordered changed the topic.

"Ah. Apparently the Kendo club is adhering to the time limit quite punctually"

Kirihara said this because many clubs went over their time limit for demonstrations.

"You're not going Senpai? You spent more hours practicing with the Kendo club in March"

"You're well informed..."

"I was in the public morals committee last month. Occasionally, I would watch the practices"

"Just when….I was completely unaware of you"

The look Kirihara was sending Tatsuya was tinged with horror and fear. However, seeing Tatsuya's aloof face made Kirihara quickly unclench his shoulders. He recalled that it was all meaningless at this point.

"Certainly, I participated in the practices but, I didn't transfer to the Kendo club. The week after next, the Kendo club has a practice match"

As he spoke Kirihara named the school that was the national high school champion.

"They are taking part"

"So, that's why you have been attending the Kendo club practices?" "That's right. It's a good opportunity, I thought it shouldn't be wasted"

Tatsuya and Kirihara had met in close to the worst possible way but, now they were close enough to chat harmoniously like this.

However, a bulletin chime rang out on Hattori's desk interrupting this calm interval.

The sound of the old fashioned bell signaled Hattori that a report had just been received by the mechanism in the desk. After a short call, he stood up and called over Tatsuya and Miyuki.

"Shiba, Shiba san"

It was a complicated phrasing but this was Hattori's default way of addressing the pair.

"Yes"

Miyuki answered in a calm voice. Tatsuya silently stood up and waited for Hattori's next words.

"Trouble has broken out at the Robot Research club's garage. Go arbitrate it"

Hattori looked at Tatsuya as he gave those directions. There was no deep meaning to it, Tatsuya was simply the easier person to give orders to.

"Understood"

This time Tatsuya was the one to respond vocally, Miyuki showed her agreement with a bow and the pair went to the scene.

◊ ◊ ◊

Activities to recruit freshmen were limited to one week, afterward they were limited to freshmen who voluntarily applied, which was the principle source of conflict between the clubs who took part in magic based sports. Never the less, that definitely didn't mean clubs other than the sports clubs did not clash during recruitment week. Right now, in front of the garage the robot research club used as a clubroom, the Robot research club and the Bike club were glaring at each other with a single freshman caught between them.

The Bike club was not a club for the purpose of riding bikes, their club's activities included making and remodeling bikes and were originally were part of the Robot Research club. It would be okay to say that the Robot Research club had split on movement using legs and movement using wheels. Due to this background, the two clubs were normally at odds. The Bike club which rented a former car maintenance facility nearby could be said to harbor more antagonism to its rival than the Robot Research club who had a garage on campus.

Both clubs had their eyes on an extremely eye catching freshmen with platinum blonde hair, silver eyes and white skin. His slight physique and winsome facial features gave off an impression of cuteness to observers. He was a boy that stirred up desires to 'make him their mascot' in the second and third year girls. The third year girls of both clubs were standing in the front rows of those glaring at each other.

"Give up gracefully. Sumisu kun said he would join the Robot Research club, right"

The name of freshman who had become the prize in their battle was Sumisu Kento. The freshman Tatsuya had found wandering around lost before the admissions ceremony.

"Haven't your ears gotten bad from using the press machine too much? Sumisu kun hasn't said one word about that, right. Because we were the ones to talk to him first, your side has no cause to complain"

"We're not first come first served elementary students. Have you been shaken up like the old fashioned reciprocating engines you try to fix"

"Old fashioned?! Those words are only to be expected from a cutting edge otaku who is hooked on playing with life-sized mechanical dolls"

A pretty large crowd of riff-raff had been drawn to watch the unsightly mudslinging match between girls as spectators. However, the male club members hanging back behind the girls,

"Old-fashioned…..?"

"Otaku….?"

Got pretty revved up, apparently by those keywords. "Uh, I….."

---the original cause of their conflict, Kento was left in a lurch.

Right now, the mood was explosive. The first to arrive at the scene were not student council officers or public morals committee members, they were the members of the public safety division independently patrolling.

"Will the Robot Research club and the Bike club please calm down!"

The first to enter the breech was member of the public safety force, Tomitsuka Hagane, a second year student.

Taking a place next to him was public safety trainee, Shippou Takuma.

For Shippou Takuma, who was apparently recruited by Hattori---or it least it looked that way---to join the public safety division to which he had enthusiastically agreed, this was his first assignment, to assist Tomitsuka in arbitrating any trouble between clubs they happened upon.

Takuma's vigor had pushed Kento out off the battle ring. "Aren't you Kento?"

To meet Tatsuya and Miyuki who had arrived just after Tomitsuka. "Ah, Shiba senpai"

Kento happily turned around to look at Tatsuya. He did not pay attention to Miyuki who was standing beside Tatsuya. This could be called extremely unusual. While he felt somewhat uncomfortable with Miyuki's deeply interested innocent gaze, Tatsuya questioned Kento.

"What happened?"

At this point, Tatsuya had no way of knowing that Kento had anything to do with starting the trouble that was going on before his eyes.

He had caught his eye and Tatsuya had spoken to him only because he actually knew him.

"Ah, um, I'm sorry, Senpai!"

Even if Kento suddenly apologized, Tatsuya had simply no way to know what was going on.

"I haven't decided which club to join yet, I intended to merely take a look around today but, since I went in to hear more about the club, it suddenly got like this afterwards..."

He was probably excited, Kento's statement was almost completely incoherent. While Tatsuya was painstaking working through that difficult to understand explanation, the situation underwent a new change.

"Public Morals Committee!"

Tatsuya heard a quarrelsome note in that familiar voice. The Robot Research club and the Bike club members were proclaiming their own righteousness in high pitched voices, Tomitsuka was raising his voice to be heard above them, so no one was really responding to the person who spoke.

"Eh? That's Kasumi chan, Onii sama. "Ah…"

Tatsuya had not deigned to face the direction that screaming voice had come from but, that really didn't matter much. Even without Miyuki telling him, Tatsuya had recognized that Kasumi had identified herself as a member of the public morals committee.

"Kento"

Kento who had looked over his shoulder with wide-eyes in the direction of Kasumi's excited voice returned his attention to Tatsuya.

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry"

"It's not really something you have to apologize for"

Tatsuya smiled slightly at Kento who was so nervous it was almost pitiful. There was a thick layer of sniggering in that smile but it only appeared like that to Miyuki at his side who knew all his smiles. ---the person it was directed at, Kento didn't notice.

"Yes, I'm sor----ah"

"...alright"

Before an awkward silence could descend over them, Tatsuya continued speaking.

"In short, the Bike club misunderstood your intentions and the Robot Research club managed to get tangled up in that?"

"Umm, yes, maybe…."

"I see….well, that part seems fine, now"

The quarrelsome voices they had heard earlier had been replaced with other voices. And they had not noticed the beginning of a dangerous interchange. There was still the threat of a magic fight starting in the air, while the robot research and bike club members were settling down, the source of that threat---was a confrontational Takuma and Kasumi who were glaring at each other.

"Kento, it's alright for you to go. Leave talking to the robot research and bike clubs to me"

While the thought of the underclassmen who had come here to arbitrate one incident starting one of their own made his head hurt, Tatsuya directed Kento to leave the area.

"Yes….Thank you"

Kento seemed a little hesitant about whether he could allow Tatsuya to settle the matter for him but, in the end, he made a bow to Tatsuya and obeyed his command.

"This matter is already being handled by the club affairs public safety division. So you can leave already, public morals member"

This had been the first thing Takuma had said to start the dispute.

His arrogant way of speaking instantly made Kasumi flinch. However, when she recognized him as a fellow freshmen, she indignantly spoke back to him.

"But, I believe the public morals committee has jurisdiction over disputes between students"

So there's no reason for me to just dolefully leave, Kasumi implicitly informed and tried to bypass Takuma.

"Hey, wait"

Takuma reached out to take hold of Kasumi's arm as she passed him. However, that hand wasn't able to grab hold of anything. Kasumi made a smooth sidestep and evaded Takuma's hand. Takuma was momentarily dumbfounded by his unthinkable failure to grab her, however, seeing Kasumi's triumphant look made his blood boil and rush all to his head.

Naturally, even Takuma was so simple minded as to use that as an excuse for violence.

"Persistent aren't you. Can't you stop getting in the way?"

Nimbly going around Takuma who got in her way again, Kasumi spoke to him in a bored tone.

"I said we're taking care of things, Saegusa. Or can't you understand that, without me speaking more clearly? There's no reason for you to intervene"

"Hmm...Shippou kun. You know who I am?"

Kasumi looked at Takuma with meaningful eyes and attempted to forestall him with words.

"Do you even notice when you're being treated as a hindrance? What a sorry state. You do know that Public Morals members don't have to obey the orders of the public safety division"

Within Kasumi's slightly amused expression, only her eyes were glimmering with the light of battle.

"Saegusa….are you picking a fight?"

Takuma was the opposite within his red faced expression, only his eyes contained a cold light.

"I don't intend to pick a fight. But, I'm always ready to accept one" "Oh….so you're ready to take me on, Saegusa?"

Takuma's left sleeve was tugged back slightly. Revealing the form of a bracelet style CAD. Officially, only members of the student council and public morals committee were permitted to carry CADs on campus, so members of the club affairs public safety division who were not members of those organizations were forbidden to carry them. However, some of the rules against carrying CADs were relaxed during club recruitment week. What glittered on his wrist was not a CAD with safety limits for use in competitions but, his personal one that was suitable for actual combat.

"I see, I'll do my best to give you more of a fight than you expect. Enough that you won't consider picking a fight with me again"

Kasumi also tugged back her left sleeve to reveal her left arm. It sat slightly higher on her wrist than Takuma's, it was on the small size and it was designed to look prettier, however the CAD within was a cutting edge model that was not in any way inferior.

"You don't seem to have anyone with you. You okay with doing it solo?" "What? You want the excuse that you lost because it was two to one?"

Takuma and Kasumi were now already incapable of noticing anything but the adversary right before their eyes. Not even the fact that the dispute between the robot research club and the bike club that they had come to arbitrate was now in the middle of a armistice or that Kento, the one who triggered their dispute had already left the scene.

"Wait a Minute!"

The dispute between the robot research and the bike clubs had drawn a big gallery of spectators, a male student suddenly intervened before they could have what looked like an inevitable and extremely public battle.

"Both of you, settle down!"

This was Tomitsuka who had been stunned by the malice Takuma and Kasumi had been invoking into the atmosphere until now.

"Senpai, please don't interfere" "I said settle down, Shippou!"

"Tomitsuka senpai, are you protecting Shippou kun?" "No way! Saegusa san you settle down as well"

...with Tomitsuka between them the violent mood receded somewhat, but it didn't feel like they were done snarling at each other. Due to this, neither the robot research and bike clubs felt like bringing up the fact that the dispute that had brought them here hadn't been resolved yet.

"Everyone, isn't it time to go back to whatever you were doing?"

So, the voice that called out from the side made them feel like they had been graced with a proclamation from an angel (it was quite convenient).

"Do not make this incident a problem for the student council. I will be the one who talks to the public morals committee and the public safety division"

Tatsuya had followed after Miyuki with an assertion 'to not make this incident a problem' which meant that the robot research club went back to the garage and the bike club went back to their tent gradually to resume recruitment. Tatsuya and Miyuki also went back to club affairs headquarters, all that remained was the gallery of onlookers and the three people who had garnered their attention, Takuma, Kasumi and Tomitsuka.