Tilea's Worries Reika-sama – 197

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Kaburagi discovered graffiti on Wakaba-chan’s desk.

He normally came to school a bit later.

That day he just happened to come early, so he headed to Enjou’s classroom, spotted Wakaba-chan cleaning her desk, and then noticed what she was cleaning off.

‘Ugly!’

‘Disappear!’

When he saw the insults he flew into a rage.

“Who was it!? Who did this!?”

People could hear his voice from down the hallway.

“Speak up! Who wrote this!?”

My friends and I were amongst them, so we left our classroom to investigate.

“What might be going on?”

“Well…”

And that was how I found out what had happened.

Kaburagi glared this way and that, pinning people under his gaze.

“Answer me. Who did this?”

The Emperor of Suiran was truly angry now.

Scary.

Besides my own group, plenty of other people who had come out of curiosity were standing frozen.

Wakaba-chan timidly came up to him, still holding her cleaning rag.

“Kaburagi-sama, um, please calm down…” she tried to stop him, but…

“How am I supposed to calm down!?” he yelled at her instead. “It’s bullshit! Aren’t you angry at all about this!?”

“Ah, I mean…”

“…Don’t tell me this wasn’t the first time?”

Putting the graffiti aside, most of the bullying was done in a way that the boys wouldn’t notice.

Thanks to that, I suppose, Kaburagi hadn’t had much of an idea of what she had to go through.

Well, he still didn’t have one, actually.

The majority of it was insulting her when Kaburagi and Enjou weren’t around, or talking behind her back right in front of her.

And it wasn’t all girls either.

There were the guys jealous of her grades.

“Ummm…”

Her eyes swam and she looked for an excuse, and Kaburagi’s expression grew even harsher.

“Who was it!?”

It wasn’t often that you saw this much emotion from him.

Kaburagi then proceeded to question each and every person there.

Most of them said they didn’t know, but sometimes one would let it slip they didn’t know about today’s incident, which caused them to be questioned further.

In the end, a few people admitted that they had seen Tsuruhana-san’s group or some other girls writing on Wakaba-chan’s desk a few times, causing the girls in question to pale.

“So it was you…”

You could almost see the black rage he was seething with.

“I-It wasn’t us! And look, we only just got to school!”

“It wasn’t us either!”

Despite being afraid of him, they still managed to find excuses.

“You’ve done it before.”

“We…”

“We don’t…”

“So in other words you might have asked someone else to do it today.”

“We didn’t! To begin with, everyone in the school hates Takamichi-san so it’s ridiculous that you’re pinning it all on us!”

“What did you say!?”

That was when Enjou arrived.

He looked a little surprised to see his best friend causing a fuss in his classroom.

“Morning, Masaya. What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What’s wrong!?” Kaburagi bellowed, and pointed at the desk. “Takamichi has been putting up with all this senseless harassment!”

The desk still had some marker ink on it.

It was the first time somebody had used something other than pencil, so it stood out a lot more.

“Ah… I see,” Enjou nodded.

Being that he shared a class with her, he was probably more aware of her plight than Kaburagi.

“Anyway, I’m going to find out who did this.”

“Isn’t that the Student Council President’s job, Masaya?”

Kaburagi frowned at the mention.

“They aren’t even around when they need to be. What can they do?”

“Ummm… The President, Mizusaki-kun, is having a meeting with the teachers about the graduation ceremony next month, so…” Wakaba-chan explained.

She was in the Student Council too, after all.

Kaburagi snorted.

“Takamichi, do you have any idea who did this?”

“Eh? Ah, who knows…”

Probably so many that she didn’t know where to start.

Kaburagi began looking for the culprit again.

Enjou just observed from the side.

Wakaba-chan herself was just ignored, and looked to be at a loss.

It wouldn’t be good to let this drag on.

Still, I loathed getting involved.

“Class is about to start, so shall we just clean up her desk for now?” I said quietly while giving her a glance.

“You’re right,” she agreed, after coming back to herself in a start.

She began cleaning the desk with her rag again.

Some girls from the Student Council brought their own rags to help.

The ink was apparently water-based, so before long it was cleaned away.

Thank goodness it hadn’t been oil-based.

Since people had been arriving at school, the crowd outside the classroom was even bigger now.

“What’s going on?” called a sharp voice.

The crowd parted and revealed Youko-sama and her followers.

Uergh!

The last person I wanted here had appeared.

Youko-sama looked over the classroom.

“I arrive at school in the morning to this huge uproar. Somebody explain this to me.”

The appearance of the former president of the Pivoine had the noisy classroom silent.

One student whispered something in her ear, causing her to let out a huge sigh.

She gave Wakaba-chan a cold glance.

“You again, Takamichi-san?”

“I’m sorry…” she said in a small voice.

“How many times are you going to cause chaos before you’re satisfied?”

“Is that not a little inappropriate?” Kaburagi said protectively. “She is the victim.”

“She may indeed be the victim. But is this not the consequence of her regular behaviour? I have heard much about her history of being problematic.”

To Youko-sama, it was a chance to air her own dissatisfaction.

“Could I ask what problematic behaviour you refer to?”

“You could call it behaving in a manner unbecoming of a student at Suiran.”

“Unbecoming…?”

“Indeed. Takamichi-san? Could it be that in order to have these people protect you, you drew on that desk yourself?”

Ehh!?

She was going that far!?

Kaburagi’s expression changed.

“Okishima-senpai. Isn’t that being a little too cruel? Please apologise to Takamichi-san.”

He was glaring now.

Uwawawawah! She’s your senpai, you know!

Youko-sama on the other hand seemed offended that he would ask for that.

“That’s quite impossible. The heart of the matter is that Wakamichi-san has done unbelievable things, time and time again.”

“Okishima-senpai! If you go any further…” his fists shook as he warned her.

This was looking really bad…

Just when things were about to explode, Enjou stepped between them.

“Okishima-senpai, Masaya has always despised cowardly acts like this, so the blood must have gone to his head. Could you give me some face and back down just this once?” Enjou smiled disarmingly.

Youko-sama’s expression softed after seeing this.

“…Well if *you’re asking, Enjou-sama, then I suppose I must.”

“Thank you very much. Since class is starting soon, please allow me to escort you there.”

And with a smile, Enjou escorted her out of the room.

…S-Scaryyyy!

You did well, Enjou!

I think I speak for everyone when I say that!

The period bell rang, so the peanut gallery all began leaving for their classes.

Kaburagi on the other hand held Wakaba-chan’s shoulders tightly.

“If anything happens, you tell me. I’ll protect you.”

“Eh…!?”

Her face turned red.

Ehh!?

Did her heart really just throb to Kaburagi!?

And Wakaba-chan, your mouth is hanging open!

“Youko-sama was right,” muttered a girl, “Wasn’t all this just a farce to get the Emperor’s attention?”

“Sounds like something she’d do…” muttered another.

From that day onwards, Kaburagi was often spotted at Wakaba-chan’s side.

Chapter end