Public Morals Committee (2)

"I thought I was gonna die."

Noah collapsed face-first onto the desk, looking thoroughly wrung out.

"You okay?"

"I am not okay."

"You really do go limp the second you see Lady Kako, don't you?"

Chise giggled, helplessly fond of the way Noah had gone completely slack.

"Anyway — what do you want to do about buying furniture with our own money? I already got some things ready, just in case."

Noah shook her head with fierce, passionate conviction.

"If we get caught, we die."

"R-right. Yeah."

It wasn't a joke. Death itself was sitting in Noah's eyes.

"We don't do anything that gets on Mama's nerves."

"Hmm. So personal funds are out, then."

Noah nodded.

"We go through official channels for now. And ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Chise — you are not allowed to ask someone to kill a person just because you don't like them."

"Noah… I've never done that."

Chise laughed, a little awkwardly.

Noah propped her chin in her hand and thought it over.

"Wonder how much the club budget even is. Hope it's enough for a sofa."

"Don't worry. I heard most of the student council budget gets allocated to the Public Morals Committee."

Now that was music to her ears.

The Public Morals Committee, huh. She hadn't liked the sound of it at first. But she could skip class as much as she wanted, and the clubroom was secretly pretty cozy. Wasn't this actually a sweet gig?

I'm turning that clubroom into my hideout.

Noah grinned to herself, basking in the thought. She'd deck the place out nice and come crash there whenever she felt like it.

"First things first — let's go collect that budget!"

Noah and Chise came back to the clubroom with a bankbook and a single card.

"A club with Noah. I'm already so excited!"

Chise's eyes were sparkling far too hard. Noah, looking thoroughly put-upon, fished a piece of candy from her pocket and stuck it in her mouth.

A million yen, huh.

The club funds they'd been issued came to a full million yen. Rich-kid school, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠all right — they didn't do anything small.

"Hah—!"

Chise suddenly clapped both hands over her mouth and stared at Noah as if she couldn't believe what she'd just realized.

"What?"

"Th-that's impossible."

She stumbled backward and sat down hard on the floor.

"After school… dorm life. With Noah."

"And that's a problem because…?"

"I'm happy! I'm so happy I could die! Is it even allowed to be this happy? Is it? Is it?"

Noah looked at her with the face of someone who had just lost her appetite.

"Noah… even so, that expression kind of hurts."

"Whatever. Let's just buy the furniture already."

"Ah. Right."

Chise set a tablet down on the floor. A catalog. Pick what you wanted, place the order, and they'd come install it.

"A million yen? That's so stingy."

This is why kids these days… They don't know the value of money.

Noah, who had been a broke commoner in her last life, shot a glare at the thoroughly spoiled Chise and held out her hand.

"A million yen is plenty. Gimme."

She took the tablet. She had years of lived experience from a previous life. Compared to Chise, who didn't know how the world actually worked, she was clearly the one for the job.

Tap. Tap.

Chise watched her concentrate, smiling as bright as a clear sky. The truth was, no one could touch the Fujiwara when it came to money. Even when they grumbled that something was too little, they always found the optimal path and moved with ruthless efficiency. Chise had been planning to spend about half and put the rest to work — there was no rule against it. But what did that matter? If Noah felt even a little satisfied, that was enough.

"Mm. This one's not bad."

"Let me see too!"

"No."

Noah hugged the tablet to her chest like a child who refused to give up a toy. Chise beamed and nodded.

"Okay, okay. I'll trust you and wait, then?"

Some time later, Noah wiped the sweat from her brow and handed the tablet over.

"All done?"

"Barely. But I decided."

"Great. Let's have a look."

Chise took the tablet with a smiling face. Whatever Noah had picked, she intended to buy it without changing a thing — and then praise her to the skies.

Noah acts all tsun-tsun, but she absolutely melts for compliments.

High score, incoming. And then, later, in the dorm…

Ahem. Chise cut off the happy daydream before it could run away with her and looked ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠at the furniture in the catalog. Let's see…

"Huh? You already bought it."

"No reason to hesitate."

Noah worked the candy around in her mouth and shoved her hands into her coat pockets. So very Noah, Chise thought, and opened the purchase history.

"Eh."

A crack ran through her smile. She rubbed her eyes with hands that had started to tremble. The item on the screen did not change.

There was only one line item. And it cost exactly one million yen.

"You're kidding… right?"

"I don't lie."

"Just one question. Why a sofa…?"

"Felt like it."

"…Okay. It was your call. But can you at least tell me why it had to be the million-yen one?"

"Cheap sofas wreck your shoulders. Honestly, even a million-yen sofa is below standard, but whatever. I'll let it slide this once."

Minamoto Noah. The same girl who had been going tsk, tsk, tsk at Chise — kids these days, such spendthrifts, no concept of money! And yet she herself had been born into a wealthy house, and her body simply refused to tolerate anything cheap.

Chise had never wanted to flick that little pink-haired head marching so proudly in front of her quite as badly as she did today. But that was impossible. Behind the innocent face that might as well have had Harmless written across it lurked an automatic-response bomber. And even setting that aside, she couldn't bring herself to scold someone who looked this happy.

Chise hurried a few steps to catch up and took Noah's hand. The soft, squishy warmth settled her a little. This month's club activities were going to be painfully tight — but there was always next month. And today, of all days, was the first time they would go to the dorms together. She wasn't about to rain on a day like that.

"Whoa! The dorms!"

They finished the registration process and were handed a dorm rulebook and two keycards. The dormitory of Japan's most prestigious academy. The facilities inside would be incredible, Noah had assumed — and then her face soured.

"What is this."

From the outside, the design was perfectly fine. The building wasn't even run-down. But the interior was a disaster, on par with the two-hundred-year-old Minamoto estate.

Small. And old.

It was an ordinary studio. Two beds alone ate up half the space. There was a sink and enough room to eat, and living here wouldn't actually be a problem — but Noah, already spoiled by the Fujiwara family's lavish villas and mansions, could not hide her disappointment.

"The beds are so cute! The furniture is ridiculously cute! It even smells like the Minamoto house!"

Chise, of course, was sparkling with unfiltered delight. Noah was not on board at all.

"There's gotta be bigger, nicer dorm rooms than this."

"Ahaha… I wouldn't know. Why they assigned us this one, I mean…"

Chise scratched her cheek and let the question slide. Of course there were better rooms. This was a school for the rich; some of the suites put luxury penthouses to shame. Chise was the one who had chosen this place. She had taken one look at the floor plan and fallen in love on the spot.

I can't believe a room this small actually exists!

Noah just thought of it as a slightly cramped studio. To Chise, this room was something out of myth — the kind of place that made you ask, People can live in a room like this?

Good. This is good… The real thing is even better. I get to live pressed up against Noah.

A frantic morning. Getting ready for school in a room so tight their bodies keep bumping, and then, in a rush—

Just imagining it was the best. This was dangerous.

Chise wiped the corner of her mouth with her sleeve.

"What are you doing?"

"Ah, nothing. Nothing at all."

Noah eyed her with suspicion, then loosened her tie. She kicked her socks off in a heap and flopped onto the bed. Then she slipped a hand inside her clothes, wriggled around, and plucked her bra free in one smooth motion, tossing it vaguely toward the window.

Chise stared, dazed — and then it hit her.

…The room's so small, even changing clothes means facing each other?

Ah. That was it. She was done. There wasn't enough oxygen left in her brain. If she kept thinking about this, she was going to get a nosebleed.

"The bed's hard, too. Let's just order a new one. That much should be fine."

Two small beds sat a modest distance apart. Noah tended to roll all over the place in her sleep. She had a feeling she was going to fall off. She was just about to call Suzuki and issue an order when Chise moved first. She was already on the phone with someone.

Sharing a bed with Noah!

One of Chise's oldest dreams was coming true.

"Is that actually true? The Public Morals Committee chair is a Minamoto?"

"It is… Is there a problem?"

"Of course there is! You know exactly why I picked Saints, Gramps!"

Ichinose Yuria slammed her hands on the izakaya table and shot to her feet.

"Hey, noisy girl! Another soju over here!"

"Y-yes, coming!"

Yuria whipped her apron around, delivered the drink at speed, and came right back, eyes full of grievance.

"The whole reason I bothered choosing that filthy Saints Academy was so nobody would get in the way of Public Morals Committee work! But a Minamoto? A Minamoto…"

"The Minamoto are one of Japan's oldest great houses."

"That's a your generation thing, Gramps! The Minamoto are just a nuisance clan that padded out the history books!"

"Heh heh. A house with that much history and tradition doesn't crumble easily. They're only gathering themselves for now."

That's supposed to make me feel better?!

Yuria's face darkened. Her dream was to become a prosecutor — to protect ordinary people and make sure no one was left to suffer an injustice. That was why she had joined Saints' Public Morals Committee all the way back in middle school. Top students at the sister middle school could choose a seat on the first-, second-, or third-year student council, which had made it possible.

It wasn't her dream itself, but for a little while her heart had raced at getting to do something close. Then she hit the wall of reality. The second-year chair she'd signed up under came from a minor house. The committee she had been so excited for turned out to be kids' play — measuring skirt lengths, checking whether a tie sat crooked. They did some outside work too, but the police treated it like a cute little game and never actually cooperated. Every time she ran into the limits of her authority, she had sworn it: in her third year of middle school, she would pick a proper Public Morals Committee class.

Luckily, rumor said the heir of the famous Fujiwara family was enrolling with this year's class. So she had chosen the first-years without a second thought.

…A Minamoto?

She had wanted to join a Public Morals Committee led by a Fujiwara. Not some dusty relic like a Minamoto.

"This won't do. I'm going over there right now and telling her to resign."

"Heh heh. If it were that simple, someone would already be sitting in that chair, don't you think?"

"Ha! She's just a pampered rich girl. Scare her a little and she'll figure out she doesn't belong."

Yuria rolled her shoulders and started walking out of the izakaya.

"Yuria! If you don't finish your shift, there's no paycheck this month!"

"A-ahem. Then I guess the operation gets postponed until tomorrow…"

Yuria snuck a look at the old man's face and quietly slunk back to work.