[fieldbox= Kamijou Michio, plum, solid]
[October 23rd, Afternoon / Hisakawa Academy, Campus Grounds]
Upon getting Iori's attention, the maid immediately reassured Michio that she and Sagawa were merely talking with each other and everything was supposed to be a-okay!
That didn't seem to be the case based from what he saw. Even if he didn't catch anything they were saying, the mere fact that Sagawa looked visibly agitated pretty much gave away the fact that the two girls were in quite a predicament.
The fact that Iori was intent on keeping this a secret troubled Michio even further. But then again, he decided not to overthink things for their sake. He had known Iori for quite some time before that certain unfortunate incident that tore their friendship apart. Thus, he knew not to overstep his bounds specially when she's the onr implying it. There must be a good reason why she wanted to keep their problem private. Perhaps it is a "girls' thing" and he naturally isn't allowed to
get any intel about it.
"Michio-kun, do you feel a bit better now?" She said before taking step towards him.
"You've had that spaced out look through much of today. So, I was a little bit worried, you know? But, it looks like you've snapped out of it a bit."
"I'm glad."
He smiled at Sagawa reassuringly before replying in an enthusiastic manner.
"Yeah. Sorry if I spaced out last night. I haven't been getting enough sleep as of late. The stress must have gotten to me or something. Anyways, I'm fine now. Nothing a good bottle of milk tea can't fix."
He was also about to respond to Iori when they heard the familiar sound of a flute getting near where they were signalling his good friend, Yura's arrival.
"Good afternoon." He gestured to every single one of them with a slight bow.
"Ah, was I interrupting your casual talk with my tune? I'm sorry!"
He bowed down once more, this time lower, to express his apology.
"Oh! Yura-kun. It's nice to see you. We haven't been able to talk lately mostly because of my hectic schedule so we should do some catching up sometime."
Michio insisted.
Just then, Sagawa confirmed his suspicions that the topic was off limits to guys since it was in the realm of "girls' talk", albeit in quite a dramatic fashion.
"Yes, you're absolutely right. This was a secret session of girl's talk before Michio-kun and you stopped by." Sagawa then put her finger to her lip, making a 'hush' gesture.
"Girl's talk is bound by an iron will of trust among all of the girl's at school. If anyone breaks it, they have to swallow at least one thousand needles."
That... was certainly extreme. He didn't know about Yura but the white haired boy wss certainly no magician nor masochist to come out of such an experience as swallowing needles unscathed. It seemed both of them were adamant on keepimg their predicament a secret from the two males.
"Well, the truth is, Iori-san and I were talking about work related to school. Together, were were talking about doing this month's report project on...."
"It'll be on.... Guy Anatomy."
Guy Anatomy... whoa, hold up a second? Is this going where he thinks this is going?
"Hey, Michio-san. You don't suppose... if we used a mosaic for the face. Being a model... you wouldn't mind? Or maybe, if we used both Yura-san and you together... it'll decrease the chances of anyone noticing? ....Right? I mean... that whole video about people thinking it's funny to kick people there. Some of us don't realize that... that's actually really bad. So..."
Yep. It seems that Sagawa's project involves her becoming the new Da Vinci and him and Yura turning into her models of the Vitruvian Man. Under normal circumstances, Michio would still be willing to help despite the rather... peculiar request. However, ever since Sagawa uttered the two magic words of their topic, she had started forming incorrigible sentences. It seems even she finds the idea a bit extreme but there was no way she could get herself out of the whole she dug herself in now so she seems to be trying to.... roll with it.
Before he could watch his dear childhood friend dig herself into an even deeper hole, the orange haired, intrepid photographer of the class made her presence known by a warm greeting.
"Hello everyone!" she greeted before inching closer to Sagawa,
"Sagawa-san, are you talking about filming by any chance? I can help you with it, if you want."
Before Michio could say a greeting, Iori immediately interjected in the conversation.
"Actually,"
"Mizunohara-san got the details wrong, thanks to you guys shaking her up just by appearing from out of nowhere."
"We're supposed to do a documentary about prostate cancer. As you can see, the prostate in human male is kind of near to that...guy's thing. Since Mizunohara-san rarely mix with other students, let alone guys in exception of Kamijou-kun, it goes without saying that she gets easily embarrassed with such topics."
"Pro-state? Does that have to do with prosthetic?" Sagawa inquired.
Her side comments weren't exactly helping Iori validate the claim she, herself, stated.
"And that's where I step in! Helping Mizunohara-san to overcome her embarrassment on the topic and getting the report done in time!"
"Yes, Yamagawa-san. Mizunohara-san did said about filming." She said as politely as possible.
"The project required us to prove that lifestyle has an impact on the chance of human males getting prostate cancer, and to do that we have to film a male student's lifestyle and their activities for a day."
The maid then shifted her focus to Sagawa.
"Am I right, Mizunohara-san?"
"But, I don't know anyone who actually has prosthetics. Does that mean we need to go to a hospital?"
Well that was... too much information. Although he had to admit that with Iori Nishimura stepping in and providing those... informative comments made Sagawa's statement a lot more credible than if his childhood friend had explained it all by herself. Since they were going through so much effort either to hide their real predicament or convince them that their explanation was the truth, Michio decided it be better not to press the issue any further.
"Well then, I would advice that you consult the help of a doctor that specializes in that field. As much as I would be willing to help, I don't suppose you'd appreciate it if I would change to my birthday suit and let you examine my posterior, am I right?" Michio replied in a half-nonchalant half-playful tone.
"Yamagawa-chan? What's wrong?"
Upon hearing what Sagawa said, Michio redirected his attention to the orange-haired photographer.
"Hey. Are you okay? Yamagawa-chan?"
No response came from Lisa.
Instead, Yamagawa Lisa turned around, and immediately dashed back into the school building. In the process of doing so, she just dropped what she was holding as if nothing else mattered.
"She... must've forgotten something?"
"No... that's something else... the look on her face... that urgent and desperate look on her face and the way she ran... nobody would act that way except if her very life depended on it."
"...There's something wrong. Yamagawa-chan wouldn't just drop this!"
Sagawa was right. There was no way in bloody hell that Yamagawa Lisa would drop her precious camera... ever. She had let her friendship with Michio become irrelevant just for the sake of her hobby so it was really way out of character for the avid photographer to carelessly let go of her most precious possession.
Sagawa immediately chased after Lisa while Yura and Iori weent in pursuit of thw two girls leaving Michio alone. He also followed suit, seeing as this could escalate into a potential emergency and he seems to be the Social Morals Officer nearest in the area.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
[October 23rd, Afternoon / Hisakawa Academy, Main School Building, Second Floor Hallways]
"You were chasing after her? Would you care to explain to me what is going on here?"
"I will. But, is it necessary to be pinning her down like that?"
"...I only just stopped her from rampaging a moment ago, you know?"
As he was scaling the stairs towards the second floor, he could hear voices of people screaming at each other and one of them seemed to belong to Sagawa. The other... hopefully it didn't belong to "her" or things would get ugly... fast.
But as his luck would have it, he confirmed the other voice belonged to none other than the Student Council President, Kokoro Amane, upon reaching the second floor. He caught her in the act of using... quite unpleasant ways to subdue Lisa Yamagawa by grabbing her by the collar of her uniform. Based on what she said earlier, she must have inferred that Lisa was going to go on some sort of rampage when she suddenly dashed like mad for the second floor.
"Hey... Yamagawa-chan. Can you hear me? You were talking with Michio and the rest of us a second ago. But then..."
Sagawa spoke to Lisa as she approached her and showed her belongings.
"You dropped all of you stuff and ran off."
Then Kokoro stepped in.
"Mizunohara-san, given your technical expertise, might you enlighten me as to what's going on with this girl, here?"
"She's in trouble, and needs help right now!"
"Ah, and so she does. But, before all of that, might you care to explain how you're so brazenly showing up at your own crime scene?"
"My own.... crime scene? Are you saying that I did it!?"
"It looks like even Kokoro thinks of Sagawa as the culprit. This is bad news. She's a hundred times worse than Nozomi. No other Student Council member or Social Morals Officer would dare stand up against her... except for one..."
How come all of these supposed high-ranking, intelligent, leaders of the student body be so goddamn bloody? How could they not give Sagawa the benefit of the doubt in this situation? Must she be persecuted because of her talents like this just because she's the most convenient suspect?
"And what if I said that I did, Mizunohara? Would it make you any less guilty? Were you entertained looking at all of those students who got knocked over, and gleeful finding me after I tackled this girl down at the end of her path of carnage?"
"I don't care about any of those people! It's Yamagawa-san who did...."
Upon hearing those words, Kokoro immediately let go of Lisa while Yura came to his childhood friend's aid.
"No wait! I didn't mean to say that. I..."
"Augh...!"
She then came walking towards Sagawa and grabbed her shirt with both hands before forcibly pulling Sagawa towards her.
"Damn it..."
Michio could only click his tongue in disappointment when he heard Sagawa said that. Her words would only come across in the worst way possible to an specially infuriated Kokoro Amane.
"Unlike Nozomi, it isn't my job to make you feel better about yourself. You're going to put a stop to all of the nonsense that you're pulling all over my school and students. Right now."
"Yo President! What's going on here?"
"I just found our culprit, in the middle of causing mischief."
"I... already told you." Sagawa said, while struggling to free herself from the clutches of Kokoro Amane.
" I didn't... do anything! Let me go..!"
Just then Misheru, and the class' resident grease monkey, Hinomari entered the scene, with Misheru immediatelly attending to Lisa's aid.
"Yura, you'll need to give Lisa some space for air to breathe. Just crowding around her wouldn't do her any good. If it's not something dealing with her health but rather something technical, we can't do much but take her to the infirmary before allowing for a tech person to check on her."
Misheru's analysis immediately brought out the severity of Lisa's situation. She would need immediate help from a tech specialist before it's too late. However, the only tech specialist nearby was currently being harassed by the student council president.
"Yes, Tachibana-san!" Iori spoke with an urgent tone.
"Yamagawa-san needs help immediately as her VR chip is probably getting hacked as we speak!"
Temperance. That was the Virtue Michio's mother instilled in her son. The ability to calmly assess a situation and act in moderation would be what he needed in this situation. Coming directly to Sagawa's aid would only be bad for his childhood friend so he needed to tread the waters carefully. In terms of difficulty, the student council president would already be in the Final Boss tier. And everyone else here seems incapable of standing up to her... or so he thought.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Iori nod at the crowd before her, him included before delivering a speech that could very well be her Death Warrant.
"Amane-san."
"I know it's imperative to solve the hacking crisis at hand, but we should focus on getting Yamagawa-san treated first."
"Seeing that Mizunohara-san has the expertise to help Yamagawa-san, I suggest that she should allowed to help her right now before any irreversible damage can be done to her."
"Under my knowledge, I am pretty sure Sagawa isn't the one that's doing this. "Even though we're bitter rivals, I'm pretty sure Sagawa wouldn't be one to do something like this, especially on a school-wide scale. I could see her maybe pulling this off on a single person as a small prank, but on this large of a scale, it has to be someone else... maybe even a group of people." Hinomari said this time around despite not being on good terms with Sagawa.
"If you're saying that she would pull a prank on one person, then what's to say she wouldn't do this? If you're saying that she would be able to do it then one must assume her as a very viable suspect."
Understandably, there were others like Leo Kane who seem to still be suspicious of Sagawa.
In order to stand up to Kokoro Amane and make it out unscathed you needed to have influence and power. Nozomi was probably the only person who could stand on equal footing with Kokoro but Michio came in a close second. And in this hallway, with Nozomi Yuri out of the question, he was the second most influential person in the student body so he would be the only one present that could try alleviating the situation.
Clearing his throat, Michio calmly walked towards Kokoro Amane with a gentle smile on hiss face. Others would perceive this act as him walking straight to his own demise but he did not care for all that. All he cared about right now was two things, ensuring Lisa Yamagawa's survival and proving Sagawa Mizunohara's innocence.
"Kokoro-san, I believe Miss Nishimura has a pretty valid point. Understandably, we at Social Morals want to apprehend the real culprit as soon as possible to stop this madness plaguing our dear school. However, did you really think it was going to be this easy? While it is understandable that Mizunohara-san would be the primary suspect due to her technological expertise, do you honestly think that she'd be so sloppy as to leave her own name in the code if she could tamper with it as she pleased? From what I see, this is either the workings of somebody outside the school or an inside job. If it is the latter, then someone in the student body has hidden his or her talent with technology from everyone's watchful eye before he or she had struck several days ago."
His smile never once hinted on falling apart as he drew closer to Kokoro Amane with each step he took. His voice was as calm as ever as he tried to reason with the demonic Student Council President.
All around him, students and social morals officers alike watched as Kamijou Michio stared in the eyes of the most feared authority in the school without even breaking a sweat.
"
He or she couldn't just tamper with the system. That would be bloody careless of him or her. He or she needed to have someone put the blame on, and lucky for him or her, Miss Mizunohara displayed her prowess with technology for all to see. She was the perfect scapegoat and it would have been a perfect plan if he or she did not leave Miss Mizunohara's name in the code. It was the work of an amateur who overthought things and carelessly left that clue in place when such a thing could have been avoided. Not that of Miss Mizunohara who was always intricate with her work."
"But enough of that for now, by the looks of it, Miss Yamagawa is in grave danger and the only person present who could save her is currently resting in your clutches. Please allow her to help, before it's too late!"
He fearlessly got closer to Kokoro until he was out of earshot from everyone else.
"Kokoro-san, the way you chose to handle Yamagawa-san and Mizunohara-san is quite extreme, even by my standards. A lot of people saw what you did with these two girls and rumors spread like wildfire in this school. You wouldn't want the entire student body to lose their trust on the Student Council, right? So, if you want to save face, I advice that you let Mizunohara Sagawa go and allow her to help Yamagawa Lisa. If you do not let Mizunohara-san help, then we may very well have a death on our hands inside the campus. And we wouldn't want such travesty to occur here, right?"
He whispered to Kokoro in the same whimsical expression as his smile hinted on. This approach was by far the only thing Michio could do to face Kokoro Amane without Nozomi Yuri's assistance. He just hoped he managed to get across to the president and make her see reason before it was too late.
[/fieldbox]
@Ehb
@Miya
@Weisenhart
@Makomin
@Rithas
@TheTechnologicVampire
