At the Cliff's Edge
My eyelids kept drooping shut. I shook my head hard and pinched my thigh, driving the sleep back by force.
It was lunch period. On any other day I would have been taking my time in the student council room, studying at a leisurely pace while I ate. Today, though, the mountain of documents Lee Sae-ah had dumped on me left no room for that kind of luxury.
I'd been promised a drink from Lee Sae-ah for this. That was looking less and less likely.
I flipped a page. Click. In a world brought to a standstill, I read through the documents. I released my ability, made the corrections that needed making, and flipped another page. Repeating that cycle, the mountain of paperwork began to shrink at a visible rate.
A sharp, tingling headache rolled in every time I used my ability, but I endured it without complaint. It was a familiar pain.
Then a common thread among the documents caught my eye.
Every last one of these is about the exchange event.
The exchange event. It had been the stage for a fairly major episode in the original story. Had anything changed? Just in case, I looked through the papers a little more carefully.
Doesn't look like anything's different.
The exchange was a joint affair between Asahi High School and its sister school, Seichi High School. Seichi was a prestigious institution that counted three of Academy City's 5 Great Geniuses among its students.
In the original, this event was what first brought the 5 Great Geniuses into the spotlight, and Hirose ended up forming connections with three of them.
Well. Hirose can handle that on his own.
Whether Hirose hit it off with the 5 Great Geniuses or crashed and burned was none of my business. My interest lay elsewhere — specifically, in one of the exchange event's main attractions: the Quiz Contest. Three people to a team, something like a Golden Bell quiz show. A strong showing would go on your student record, and more importantly, the prize money was nothing to sneeze at.
The student council can enter too. Wouldn't mind giving it a shot as a little side hustle.
Then I sensed someone beside me. I snapped my gaze over.
"…!"
It was Alice. Our eyes met, and she startled so badly she took a full step back. It was honestly pretty cute.
She cleared her throat and approached again, doing her best to look casual. She couldn't hide the embarrassment spreading across her face, though. I suddenly felt like teasing her.
"You feeling okay? You looked pretty rough this morning. Sure you don't need a hospital?"
Alice stopped in her tracks, clenched her fists, and started trembling.
"Th-that's… because you said something weird yesterday, Ryuzaki-kun."
"Strange. I said it perfectly clearly. Are you sure you didn't just hear it wrong, Alice?"
"Urgh…"
She scrunched up her face, her mouth working soundlessly, then finally let out a long sigh. She'd figured out that talking any further would only cost her.
I flipped another page and asked,
"So what's up? What about lunch?"
"Today I just… didn't feel like eating."
"Did the sun rise in the west this morning?"
"Shut up."
She flicked me lightly on the crown of the head. It didn't hurt at all, of course.
"…The student council president came by during first period break today."
"She did."
"So… what's the deal with you two? You looked pretty close."
So that was what she'd come to ask about. There was nothing to hide, so I answered right away. Almost overthought it, too.
"We're in the same student council."
"…Student council?"
"Yeah."
"Who is?"
"Me."
"Since when?"
"A while now. A few weeks, at least."
Alice grabbed both my shoulders and started shaking me for all she was worth.
"That's so mean! Why didn't you tell me?!"
The room was spinning. I couldn't work like this even if I wanted to. I set down my pen and caught both her wrists. She flinched and sucked in a sharp breath, then pulled back like she was fleeing and glared at me with a face flushed bright red. Not telling her I'd joined the student council had apparently hurt her feelings more than a little.
"You never asked."
"…Oh. That's true."
Alice blinked a few times, then nodded. Whether it was because she was so smart or not, her self-awareness was impressively quick at times like this.
"How'd you even get in, though? My friends all tried and every one of them got turned down."
I pointed at my own head without a word. Alice narrowed her eyes at me for a moment, then muttered under her breath.
"Ugh. You're the worst."
"Can't help it if it's true."
"Don't you dare act like that in front of other people, okay? I let it slide because it's me, but if it were anyone else…"
"I only do it in front of you, so don't worry."
"……!"
Alice's face went red in an instant. After that I could hear a flapping, fluttering sound from beside me as she thrashed around on her own, but I pretended not to notice and kept flipping through papers.
A little later, her voice returned after a stretch of silence.
"So… you're just in the same student council, then?"
"Yeah."
"Hmph."
"Does it bother you that much?"
"I-I just… I thought maybe you'd caused another incident and that's why the president came looking for you. So I was checking. In case…"
"So you were worried about me."
"I don't know, you idiot."
Listening to Alice fuss, a thought suddenly occurred to me. The Quiz Contest required teams of three. In that case, wouldn't it be smart to lock Alice in as a teammate now? She might not look it, but she was one of Academy City's 5 Great Geniuses. Better to recruit her now than lose her to another team later.
"Alice."
"Y-yeah?"
"We've got an exchange event with Seichi High School coming up soon."
"We do?"
"There's a Quiz Contest as part of it. Three to a team. Want to do it together?"
Alice blinked a few times, then nodded.
"I don't mind. But I've never even heard of an exchange event, let alone a Quiz Contest. Did a teacher announce it?"
"No."
"Then how do you know about it, Ryuzaki-kun?"
"It's written right here."
I pointed at the documents I was nearly finished with. The color drained from Alice's face.
"…Are you even allowed to tell me that?"
"As long as we don't get caught."
"Uuuugh, abuse of power! Corrupt student council, wake up!"
"Abuse of power? Come on."
Anyone overhearing this would get the wrong idea.
"There's a much nicer way to put it. Student council privilege."
"Wow. You sounded exactly like a yakuza just now."
"Did I?"
I stretched my arms over my head and stacked the finished documents neatly into an envelope.
"You're done already?"
"More or less."
"…Is paperwork normally supposed to go that fast?"
"I'm used to this kind of work."
I shrugged and slipped the envelope into my bag, then pulled out my lunchbox. I opened the lid, and the usual lineup stared back at me. I was starting to get sick of it, honestly.
"…That's your lunch?"
"Hey now. You'll hurt the lunchbox's feelings."
I glanced at Alice. Her eyes were trembling in tiny, rapid shakes. She was looking at my lunch like it was something that had no right to exist in this world.
"Do you… always eat like this?"
"Yeah."
"…Why?"
"It's cheap. Nothing beats it for saving money."
"Th-this is an insult to the very idea of a lunchbox."
She took hold of my wrist.
"We're going to the snack shop."
"I told you, I don't have money."
"I have plenty."
"I already owe you a lot from yesterday."
"Yesterday was yesterday. Today is today. I'm just treating you, so you don't have to pay me back."
"……"
"If it really bothers you… just think of it as an apology. For jumping to conclusions about you yesterday."
Alice hesitated for a moment, then broke into a bright smile and flashed a thumbs-up.
"We're friends, after all. Friends are supposed to help each other out when things get tough!"
Friends.
Strangely enough, that single word sank deep into my chest.
Is that how it is? It's okay because we're friends?
I turned the word over in my mind for a moment, then nodded. Yeah. When she was offering this hard, turning her down would just be rude.
"Then… I guess I'll be in your debt one more time."
"Anytime. Let's go!"
Still holding my wrist, Alice strode forward without the slightest hesitation. The gazes of students passing through the hallway naturally drifted our way, but she didn't seem to care at all, chatting away with a sunny smile.
"The snack shop sells garlic bread, you know? It's seriously crispy and delicious. Oh, and they also have…"
I wasn't paying attention to the stares around us either. Not right now.
"I'm looking forward to it."
Because this ordinary stretch of time — walking to the snack shop with a friend — felt strangely, inexplicably precious.
Time slipped by in a blink, and before I knew it, school was over. I walked the now thoroughly familiar route home in silence, and the fatigue hit me all at once.
Pssht. I cracked open the canned drink I'd stashed in my pocket and took a sip. The drowsiness receded, just a little.
After Alice and I had come back from the snack shop, a canned drink had been sitting on my desk. A sticky note was attached to it, with a brief memo written in a hand I knew well.
The compensation I promised.
It was such a Lee Sae-ah note that a little laugh had slipped out of me.
"…I should rest as soon as I get home."
I hadn't slept properly, and today I was exhausted beyond the usual. I'd play with Hayang-i a little, take a shower, and go straight to bed. I was planning to skip dinner. Alice had stuffed everything in sight into my mouth like a grandmother during the holidays, and I was still full thanks to that.
I sipped the canned drink whenever the drowsiness crept back in, and kept walking. About thirty minutes later, I arrived home.
Yes. I arrived home. I had definitely arrived.
"……?"
My belongings were piled in a mountain in front of the door. More importantly, the door wouldn't open. The passcode had been changed.
I let out a long sigh and scratched my head.
So it's finally happened.
Looks like Ryuzaki Genma's patience had finally run out.
Meow~
Hayang-i's cry came from inside a box.
"Are you okay?!"
I scooped her up in a hurry and checked her over. She didn't seem hurt. I was about to breathe a sigh of relief when the familiar click of heels on pavement carried from somewhere nearby.
The voice was sweet — the kind that could bewitch anyone who heard it. I turned my head on reflex.
"Hello. We're already acquainted, aren't we?"
There stood Beatrice, giving a little wave with one small hand.