Founding Members (1)
Now that it was all but certain some unknown faction had the Minamoto in their sights, keeping up a game of house like the Public Morals Committee would have been foolish.
"You understand, right? Chise."
"...Yeah."
Back at the dorm, Noah laid the situation out for Chise in a calm, even voice. Chise listened without a word of protest, but halfway through she stopped lifting her head altogether.
"We're dropping the Public Morals Committee."
"That's... a little disappointing."
Chise tried to smile it off, to sound as if it barely mattered, but she couldn't keep the tremor out of her voice.
"A happy high school life... I guess that was too much to ask after all."
A happy high school life. Noah knew how desperately Chise had wanted that. She'd talked about it until her mouth went dry, ever since middle school. Under the pretext of grooming her as the heir, the Fujiwara family had piled an absurd course load and crushing responsibility onto Chise from the time she was small. Maybe that was why she romanticized "ordinary" so fiercely. It was also why Noah went soft when it came to her, and her alone.
But this time, it was impossible. Handing firearms to two-bit yakuza in a country that banned guns meant the enemy was no joke. If they kept running around with something as exposed as the Public Morals Committee, there was no telling what might happen. Hunkering down at school wasn't exactly the right answer either—but it was better than dragging Chise, or anyone else, into the line of fire.
"...You okay, Chise?"
"Hm? Yeah. No. I just... want to rest a little. Sorry, Noah-chan. I'm going to bed first."
Chise crawled into bed. Noah groaned and raked both hands through her hair until it stood on end, then flicked off the lights with a sour look.
"Night."
"Mm..."
Noah watched Chise bury her face in the pillow, worry written all over her, then headed for the bathroom to wash up.
A little later, Noah stepped out with a towel wrapped around her. On any other night, Chise would have been standing there with pajamas in hand and a silly grin on her face. Tonight, she wasn't. Noah rummaged around for a long time before she finally found a pair and pulled them on.
She killed the bathroom light, and perfect darkness settled over the room. Her eyes adjusted almost at once. She eased herself down beside Chise and glanced over, a little guilty. Chise always slept facing her. Tonight, she'd turned her back.
Is she sulking?
A heavy feeling settled in Noah's chest. She let out a long sigh and stared at the ceiling.
Tomorrow I'll get her something she likes.
She started turning over gift ideas—and then it hit her.
...What does she even like?
She realized she had no idea what Chise actually enjoyed.
Come to think of it, I've always been the one receiving.
Ever since they were kids. Noah had always been on the receiving end. She'd given gifts now and then, but they'd been halfhearted. Aside from a hair tie around the time they were ten, everything else had been whatever some underling recommended and then sent off in her name.
Still, this time...
Ten years of friendship meant she knew, on instinct, how this would go. Chise would be down for a while, and it would last.
Damn it. Never thought I'd be losing sleep over a girl's present.
No matter how hard she thought, nothing suitable came to mind. Did Chise even want anything? If she wanted something, she could just have it.
Sniff.
Noah looked over, half-disbelieving. Irregular breathing. Shoulders trembling in thin, uneven shivers. She sat bolt upright and yanked the covers off Chise.
"......"
Chise was curled in on herself, arms over her eyes, crying. The pillow was soaked through.
"D-don't look. It's embarrassing."
Chise sniffled and pulled the blanket back over herself. Noah froze exactly where she was.
...You already know, don't you.
What Chise wanted. She couldn't climb inside the girl's head, but this much she could see. The Public Morals Committee. Keeping it alive. So what was she hesitating for? A girl was crying, and she was doing nothing. That wasn't how a man acted.
Noah made up her mind.
"...I lose."
"Huh?"
Noah irritably snatched the blanket away and lay down.
"We'll keep the Public Morals Committee. So quit crying."
...They're still after me, not her.
If the target had been Chise, there wouldn't have been a conversation. But they were after Noah herself. That, she could handle. In any situation. And so Noah made a man's decision.
"...Really?"
Chise stopped crying and asked. Noah rolled over with a sharp twist.
"Yeah."
"But... it's dangerous."
"Then we recruit the right people. Ones who won't get themselves killed."
"Th-then—"
"Don't make me say it again. It's annoying. We're keeping it. The Public Morals Committee."
Chise blinked a few times. Then her face lit up, and she threw her arms around Noah and squeezed.
"I'm so happy!"
"Ugh—I get it, so stop clinging."
In more ways than one, Noah was weak to Chise.
The way Genji honed his blade at a set hour, Noah serviced her guns on a set cycle. Firearm maintenance came about once every two weeks—except after she'd fired one, in which case she cleaned it that same day. Which was why, early that morning, as she sat down to work on the Mini Air she expected to be using a lot more often, she found a cute little bear doodled on it.
Chise had drawn it a week ago. The gun was already pink enough to look like a kid's toy, and the fact that it had taken her a full week to even notice the drawing needled Noah's pride. She'd blown up over it. Chise had been hurt. She'd only drawn it so Noah could tell her guns apart, since they all looked the same. Of course, Noah was the type who couldn't remember people's names but could rattle off a firearm's serial number without thinking, so she hadn't needed the help. She'd just never bothered to tell Chise to stop, because it was a hassle.
Anyway, Chise was already embarrassed about sobbing her heart out the night before, and she'd woken up with her eyes swollen on top of it. Stressed and out of patience, she hit back. Ordinarily, when Noah got angry, Chise would cling and wheedle until she was forgiven. That balance had just shattered.
"Crybaby Chise."
"Tsundere Noah."
"Crybaby."
"Tsundere."
And so the two of them were fighting!
"What... are you two doing?"
Yuria, who had just walked into the clubroom, blinked.
"This from the girl who sniveled and whined all night."
"This from the girl who wiped those tears and hugged me so gently. You act all tsun every day, but you're actually a total dere."
"Ha. You've got the wrong idea, Chise. I never did that. And you're the one who drew on Ea in the first place."
Chise's lip jutted out. She shoved her chair back and stood.
"You never said a word about it before! If you'd hated it, I wouldn't have done it. You know that better than anyone!"
"We've known each other for ten years. You should've picked up on it! That's what you get for having no girl-sense, Chise."
"Um..."
Yuria, eyes glazed, twitched her fingers up to her own cheek. It was burning.
I'm the one who's embarrassed here...! Are they even fighting right now?
"I-I have no girl-sense? ...That's so mean! You're so mean, No-chan!"
"I told you not to call me that! I told you not to call me that!"
Moisture welled in Chise's eyes. Noah broke out in a cold sweat and shouted.
"She's crying again! Again! Cut it out!"
"I am not crying! This is your fault, Noah! I'm never making you cocoa again!"
Noah shot to her feet and strode toward Chise. Watching from the side, Yuria's eyes went wide.
This is bad!
With Noah's usual temperament, this was where she'd land a hit. She'd body-slammed even a cute, lovable underclassman like Yuria hard enough to crack the floor, hadn't she? Afraid the whole thing was about to explode into a real fight, Yuria started to step in—
Noah caught the hem of Chise's skirt and mumbled, almost timidly,
"...Sorry."
In that instant, Yuria and Chise thought the exact same thing for the first time.
...That's way too cute.
The destructive power of Noah's sorry was staggering.
Cocoa, you see, is a god.
I can't give this up.
Which was why Noah had no choice but to surrender. It was the joy of her life, five cups a day. She took a sip.
Umai.
Chise smiled, blissful. It felt almost too good to be allowed. Not only had she extracted Noah's first historic apology—she was getting to keep the Public Morals Committee too.
I have to work even harder.
She was burning with resolve, swearing herself to absolute support, when Yuria looked at her with a faintly sour expression.
Hmph.
The truth was, Noah and Chise weren't the only ones who'd been in a mood since morning. The one sulking hardest was Yuria. Yesterday's incident was one thing. But that eerie smile Noah had worn when the two of them were alone kept floating back up. Around Noah she was as bright as an angel.
...Does she hate me?
The "don't get involved" still stung, too. Yuria shoved the tangled feeling down and spoke.
"Must be nice, senpai, having nothing to worry about."
"Hm?"
"Don't play dumb! Suzuki-senpai got put through that, and you're sitting here enjoying a tea party. What do you even think the Public Morals Committee is?"
Noah stared hard at Chise. Chise smiled as if to say everything was fine. Confirming that Suzuki's secret was still intact, Noah folded her arms.
"Don't rush me. I was about to start recruiting members anyway."
"Recruiting? Is that true, senpai?"
"Yeah."
That morning, in fact, she'd already called Genji. Tell every young underling and every kid who looks promising to apply to the Public Morals Committee. They could be staring down an all-out war with that unknown faction at any moment. They needed people—people who could gather intel and handle an ambush. They couldn't just grab civilians off the street, so this was the best option they had.
"They should be showing up any minute."
Noah said it and sat back, perfectly at ease. The Minamoto never let their talent pipeline go dry. Suzuki, pervert though he was, was a right-hand man they'd scouted and raised from the age of seven. If people like that started pouring in, this would stop being a game of house and start looking like a miniature yakuza outfit—but that was a problem for later.
Knock, knock.
Right on cue, someone rapped on the door. Visitors to the clubroom weren't unusual. This time, though, Noah assumed it was one of the young underlings.
"Who is it?"
Yuria, who still registered herself as the underclassman no matter how much she grumbled, was the first to stand.
The door slid open, and a man filled the frame. Yuria, rarely, was thrown.
Wh-what is that? That muscle mountain.
Red hair slicked straight back. A face so intense it might as well have had HOT-BLOODED stamped across the forehead. A deep knife scar cut through his brow. The school uniform looked like it had been forced onto a body it was never meant to fit, and it did not suit him. At all. More than anything, he looked ancient.
Noah set her cocoa down with a click. She eyed the musclebound man like something she'd found on the bottom of her shoe.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Good morning, senpai! I'm Fukuda, third year at Saints Middle School!"
He's lying through his teeth!
Yuria was certain. Where, exactly, was this a third-year middle schooler? He thumped his chest with both fists, the undersized uniform split, and his pecs spilled into view. The spoon Chise had been about to feed Noah cake with clattered to the floor.
"T-Takeo? What are you doing here...?"
"Bwahahaha! Why else would I be here, if not to join the Public Morals Committee?"
Chise turned to Noah like a machine that had just seized up. Noah looked faintly nauseated.
"Not a chance. Get out."
For once, Chise found herself in complete agreement with Noah's harsh mouth.