So "Ice Princess" Wasn't a Lie After All...

Could this be an abuse of power?

"Oh—and Kayano, an ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠invitation came in from the red team's cheer squad. What would you like to do?"

I had, of course, meant to refuse it.

"It's just... the seniors said they'd like to meet you in person and talk...."

But because the people asking were seniors, I never made it home. My feet carried me instead toward the science room where they were waiting. If they wanted to recruit me, the ones who needed me ought to have come looking—so why was I the one making the trip? Turn it over as I might, this was an abuse of authority. They called themselves seniors, and they didn't even know you were supposed to come courting three times?

Not that I would have said yes if they'd come thirty times instead of three.

Still, there was one mercy. The meeting place was the science room, not the old science room. If they had occupied my sanctuary—the old science room—without so much as asking, I might not have been able to bear it....

"Haaah...."

Before I knew it I was standing at the science room door. I drew a long breath, then knocked.

"Um, e-excuse me... m-may I c-come in...?"

"Oh, yeah. Come in!"

I hadn't even opened the door, and already the room beyond it was roaring with voices. My head filled with nothing but the wish to go home. If I really turned around now, though, from tomorrow on I would be the delinquent who had ignored her seniors' invitation and fled. A stain of that size was something I—mentally a man in his forties—could probably endure. The trouble was if it became the occasion for a phone call to Mom.

So I would endure it. Just this once. It was absolutely not because I was afraid that running off might get me summoned by a teacher tomorrow. Absolutely not.

"A-ah, h-hello...."

With a rattle, the science room's sliding door opened. Nearly ten students were sitting inside.

"Ah—would you be Kayano Mina from Class 2-A?"

"Ah, yes...."

And the one seated in the very center was none other than—!

Mm. A complete stranger, just as expected. Obvious, really. The only people I knew at this high school were the classmates in my own class. At any rate, the senior in the middle—whose whole style somehow resembled Tateyama, the reigning social butterfly of our class—smiled and scratched her head.

"Sorry for calling you out of nowhere. You must've been startled. We really should have come to you ourselves."

"Ah, i-it's fine...."

"Good. You heard about it in class, right? Want to join the cheer squad for this sports festival?"

"Th-that's...."

I was just about to say I'm sorry, but I'll have to decline when—

"I've heard a lot from Haru. Class 1-A.... No, it's Class 2-A now. They call you the Ice Princess of Class 2-A."

"...Eh?"

"Honestly, from those words alone I figured it was just Haru exaggerating the way she always does.... It wasn't."

Haru.

The only Haru I knew was surely Tateyama, from my own class... wasn't it?

"C-could Haru... b-be Tateyama?"

"Yeah. That's her. A junior I've been close with since middle school. Never thought she'd follow me all the way into high school, though."

At last I understood why the cheer squad had come calling. It had been strange from the start, hadn't it? However much of a conspicuous, ultra-pretty girl I might be, I had no particular friends in class, and the moment lessons ended I went straight home. There was no way my name would ever ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠get around the school. Becoming famous for no better reason than being an ultra-pretty girl was something that happened in novels.

And yet an invitation had arrived out of nowhere, from seniors I had never so much as met? I couldn't make sense of it no matter how I turned it over—and the culprit had been Tateyama....

...Well. That wasn't a particularly important story. Who had gotten me dragged to this spot didn't matter in the least. What mattered was that I was going to refuse the invitation anyway.

Of course, there had been a moment—briefly—when I'd admired the idea of joining the sports-festival cheer squad and making new friends. I'd already realized, though, that it didn't suit me in the slightest. To borrow a line from a certain romantic-comedy manga: you don't join the cheer squad, become one of the popular kids, and thereby make friends. You're one of the popular kids, and that's why you can join the cheer squad and make new friends...!

In other words, joining the cheer squad was beyond me.

"Haaah.... I-I'm s-sorry, but joining the cheer squad is a l-little...."

"Ah—maybe I should start with the perks you get for joining?"

"...Eh?"

There were perks for joining the cheer squad?

...O-of course I had no intention of joining. Still, if there were benefits, it wouldn't hurt to hear them.

"First, the obligation to compete in a sports-festival event goes away. You've got cheer practice on top of everything, and training for events as well would be rough. Oh, if you want to enter something yourself, that's totally fine. You'd still have to join the team events, though."

"I-is that so."

"Yeah. Second, on the day of the festival you get to sit in the very front row. And last, the student council hands snacks out to the cheer squad first."

...The second and the last didn't interest me in the slightest. The first, at least, stirred a little curiosity.

At our high school every student was required to compete in at least one event, and that requirement would simply vanish. Last year I hadn't even wanted to run the obstacle race.... It wasn't a matter of liking or disliking exercise. I hated the feeling of every eye locking onto me while I ran. I'd been fretting this year too, over which event would draw the least attention, and the thought that joining the cheer squad would erase the obligation to compete struck me as a rather attractive perk. I'd still have to take part in team events like tug-of-war and the ball toss, but that much hardly mattered. In a team event, sitting out alone would only pull more eyes.

"Mmm...."

Even so, cheer practice meant staying at school after class, didn't it? And simply being out there with the squad would draw plenty of attention on its own.... This was hard to choose.

While I was still agonizing, the blonde senior in the center spoke again.

"Ah, and this one you could call a privilege just for you, Kayano.... You always go straight home the moment class ends, right? If you join, you don't have to hang around for our practice. You can just head home."

"...Eh? R-really?"

"Yeah. Truth is, we'd already started practice, and I never thought you'd actually show up. So it was more of a just pass the word along to Miyauchi kind of thing. Which means if you join, going straight home is fine, and on the day of the festival all you have to do is wear the outfit we give you and sit in the back."

This couldn't be.

Was the cheer squad... a divine institution?!

"Th-then I'll join...."

With perks like these, refusing would make me a complete idiot.

"Really?! Thank you! Ah—just in case, could I get your LINE ID?"

"Ah, yes...."

And so, after giving my LINE ID to the blonde senior—Hinoshita-senpai—I was free to go straight home.

This cheer squad business is pretty great, I tell you!

I would not learn what that choice was going to bring until the day of the sports festival....

"Haaah.... So Ice Princess wasn't a lie after all...?"

The moment Kayano stepped out, Hinoshita let out a long sigh. The friends and underclassmen seated around her nodded, as if they had been thinking the very same thing.

"I didn't think there was anyone at this school who could talk that boldly, and that coldly, right in front of you, senpai. It almost looked as if she had no idea who you were."

"Haha, Koyama. That's ridiculous. There's no way a high school student around here doesn't know senpai...."

Hinoshita Karen was the most famous student at Shiodome Private High School. Not in a bad sense. She was famous as a student who was always upright, always in pursuit of justice. More than that, she held to the belief that justice without strength was itself a kind of evil, and from aikido she had gone on to master karate, judo, kendo, boxing, kickboxing, jiu-jitsu, and countless other arts besides. Not even the worst delinquent boys could dismiss Hinoshita merely because she was a girl. They had reached the point of avoiding her. Among the local punks a saying had even taken hold: If you run into Hinoshita, run at once.

On top of that, she had joined forces with the police, rounded up every biker gang around the school, and actually succeeded in reforming them. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠She was, in name and in fact, the greatest celebrity Shiodome High had. The feelings in the eyes of the students who looked at her ran from admiration all the way to fear—too many shades to put into words.

And a current student of Shiodome High didn't know that Hinoshita? It was, quite simply, unthinkable.

"Well, that's not the important part, is it?"

Saying so, Hinoshita called back the impression Kayano had left. Her looks—yes. Cute enough that you could fairly call her doll-like. A small stature, and light-brown hair spilling past her waist, soft enough to tell at a glance. Eyes of a mysterious blue, blue enough to make you wonder whether she was mixed. Smooth skin, features cut clean and distinct. Her figure, too, was balanced without an ounce of spare flesh, and a bust that sat oddly large on so small a frame showed off a charm all its own.

On looks alone, she was plainly a cute girl with a soft, warm air. The atmosphere she gave off, though, was nothing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of the sort. From those blue eyes came an indifference that did not care who stood before her, and from her voice a cold that poured out in full. Even Hinoshita, incarnation of justice that she was, had no choice but to shrink a little in front of it.

But as she herself had just said, that was not what mattered. In the end Kayano had come before her, and Kayano had joined the cheer squad. That alone was what mattered.

"YEAHHHHHHH!!!"

Heat rose through the science room. In one corner stood a whiteboard Kayano's eyes had never reached, and written across it were these words.

And beside the words, a great throne had been drawn.

It went without saying that once Tateyama had come to understand Kayano's personality, she had stopped telling Hinoshita anything about her. Even that, Tateyama had decided, would only be a burden—consideration, of a sort. Which meant that inside Hinoshita, everything she knew of Kayano had stopped at last year. And the reason that same Hinoshita had invited Kayano onto the cheer squad, and dreamed up a scheme like this, was—

—thanks to remarks just like those, from Tateyama.

Tateyama herself, meanwhile, had entirely forgotten that she had ever said any such thing last year.