[Club activities 16]

In the end, the whole event was cancelled after a stumble on the first day. There was a strict media clampdown on the event, and participants were ordered to keep their mouths shut about anything that happened at the venue. The video and images taken were also restricted, with no exceptions, in cooperation with the companies and network providers involved.

The information was distributed simultaneously not only to the media, but also to a wide variety of industries, including telecommunications, IT vendors and publishing companies. As a result, there was no mention of the event anywhere.

What was frightening was the power that Gabriella's dad boasted in Japan. 

The same day at midnight.

In the upper hall of the hotel where they had stayed yesterday, Nishino, Rose and Gabriella met each other. They had to leave the event hall to escape the gaze of the crowd, and after a short break of half a day, they met up.

It's not that I was contacted by anyone, but I found myself meeting them at the same place. In the end, it was all about this woman.

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His gaze went to Gabriella, who was sitting right next to him. 

Normally, she would have her arms wrapped around her beloved sister's body. Today, however, she sits quietly and does not move at all. Perhaps she is tired, or perhaps she is still reeling from the experience of defecating in front of an audience. 

"There were no deaths, apart from the killer. Shouldn't that be enough?"

Instead of Gabriella, who had nothing to say, Nishino answered.

"Your classmate, I wonder if has a swollen face." 

"Are you concerned about Takeuchi-kun?" 

"Concerned? What do you mean by that?"

The hall, sparsely populated, is a private entrance for guests staying in rooms of a certain rank. The reason why the three of us are in such a place is that, a reservation has been made under each of our names for a number of people.

By the way, the invitation came from a crotchety old lady via Rose's phone. I'm sure she had some business to attend to. 

"It is not difficult to imagine that she will come here when the time is right."

"If she's going to come, she'd better give us a call as soon as possible," Rose thought, wanting to get home as soon as possible. 

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Takeuchi's declaration that he had fucked Rose was still tied to the person in front of him as a definite memory in Nishino's mind.

"By the way, it's been pretty quiet since you left the stage, hasn't it?" he muttered casually, shifting his gaze from Rose to Gabriella. 

She was already past the point of wearing a cheerleader outfit as a stage costume. 

She is wearing a white dress. 

This is the first time I've ever seen this woman wear a white dress, and while the design is reminiscent of the Gothic Lolita of the past, it's a refreshing contrast to her powerful black appearance.

"..... "

Her shoulders shook as she bounced in response to his voice. 

"What's the matter? What's wrong?"

When their gazes met, Gab barked loudly, 

"Nothing, nothing at all."

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At the same time, She hugs Rose's arm tightly, sitting beside her. 

"Don't do that. It's creepy."

Rose's arm moved immediately and squeezed her cheek with the palm of her hand, as if to tell her not to stick around any longer. But Gabriella doesn't seem to mind, and she twines her arms around her insistently. 

"Ah,"

She was pushed back and her hips returned to their original position. 

The response was a little disappointing for Rose, who had pushed back. She felt no more resistance than usual. 

"Is your stomach all right? You look like you're in a lot of pain." 

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm asking you because you shitted yourself earlier." 

" ... "

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Immediately after being pointed out, Gabriella's cheeks turned bright red. She was apparently embarrassed. 

"..."

After watching the exchange, Rose gave her a cold look. Her gaze moves back and forth between the two as they exchange words. The look on Gab's face as she looked at Nishino was something she had never seen before.

Without seeming to notice her sister's eyes on her, Gabriella continued. 

"There is one thing I want to ask you. " 

"What?" 

"Why did you help me?" 

Gabriella asks, staring at the other person's eyes.

Just yesterday, she would have avoided the sight of him as soon as she saw him. Today, however, she is looking at him with an air of trepidation, as if she is trying to figure out his mood. 

With his usual stern, cynical smile, he said. 

"You are already a member of the school."

"What?"

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"If you die, Class 2B will be sad." 

" ...... "

"What is "Class 2B"?" The question suddenly occurred to Gabriella. It took her a few moments to realise that it was the name of the classroom she attended every day at the school where she had recently been enrolled, and that it was the name on the sign.

She didn't think that such a thing is the reason.

"I don't think that affects the way you behave. I do not say that it will be a trauma, but it will be a bad memory, or the destination of a love affair that will never come true." 

"What are you talking about?" 

"What I want is the kind of youth that makes you laugh from the bottom of your heart and reminds you that you're having fun. I only have a year and a bit left. I want to have memories that I can look back on with pleasure for the rest of my life, however short it may be."

"....." 

It was too grim a confession. If any of my classmates in Class 2A heard it, they would have been shocked. I got goosebumps.

I'm sure that the next day, the popularity will be even more wild around the futsumen. I can't bear to be involved in his youth.

But he is still very serious about this.

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It is an essential part of the life of the futsumen, so that he can pass away happy in this world. 

Gabriella's response was straightforward and to the point. 

"You're not going to die, are you? As long as you're alive, I don't have the freedom to choose my own death? I'm not allowed to die in peace, cursing my own misery."

It was a kind of snide remark born of repulsion. The only thing I can say is that the people who answer this are rather desperate.

"That's right." 

" ... " 

Nods deeply. 

It's a real talk without any price. 

"So over the next ten years, I must get to live happily. And when I go to university, or when I get a job, or when I come of age, I don't care. I want them to be the seed for all my friends to get together and talk about the past."

It was an earnest wish. 

"That there was such a lovely girl among our classmates!"

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It's all for the sake of one last happy moment. I know it sounds embarrassing, but I say it with a straight face. You could call it a negotiation. At this moment, the Futsumen is begging Gabriella to give him what he wants.

"There will be a lot of complaining..."

"You just have to smile and live every day."

Gabriella had no words to reply to Nishino's question.

Her eyes widen and she stares at the virgin sitting in front of her. 

Rose is not at peace with this. She turned to her natural enemy, Gabriella. She will not let them talk no more.

She opened her mouth loudly to change the subject. 

"By the way, have you had a good time at home?" 

She looked at me while I was staring at her.

If it had been the chairwoman or Tarosuke, she might have shuddered. However, Rose and Gabriella's power relationship was still one-sided.

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"Oh, yes. No problem there. Don't worry about it." 

"Really? I don't like the idea of being attacked in my sleep." 

"I didn't care what happened, but it seems that your father had the upper hand. He told me that I was safe for the time being. Well, who knows what the future holds, I suppose."

"Why were you targeted?" 

"It's because of my grandfather's will, who died a while ago."

"The will?" 

"I was kidnapped and confined at the time, so I didn't even know that my grandfather had died, but before I knew it, there were all kinds of names mentioned in the will..." 

"It would have been enough to get one or two things that he wore." 

Gab's eyes became distant. I'm sure it was a regrettable goodbye. This is a very unusual reaction, considering the ardent affection she has for Rose on a regular basis. It's a shame that even a woman like her has a little bit of decency left in her, says the person who caught a glimpse of her feelings.

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"Well, I hear it's not going to get any busier. " 

"I'm glad to hear that."

"I'd like to know where your father has gone." 

"He has already left Japan." 

"Well... he's a quick man..."

It's been less than half a day since we parted ways at the event, and I can't help thinking that it would be a good opportunity for him to spend some time together with his daughter. However, the man himself does not seem to be bothered by this.

"By the way, Nishino, it's getting late, would you like to join us for dinner? I hear there's a restaurant in the lounge on the upper floor. I thought I'd take the opportunity to drop in."

Nishino nods his head in agreement to Rose's suggestion. He hadn't been carrying a wallet for some time now, and turning down her offer meant he would miss out on a meal. The fact that he was hungry also helped, and his response was straightforward.

However, just before my back was fully stretched, I heard a voice from somewhere else. times 

"Hmm? Hey, you guys are from Tsunuma High School."

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The tone of voice sounded familiar. 

Hearing the name of the school, all eyes turned in the direction of the voice. 

There was Nanami, their manager. He was accompanied by a man who had met him in the Royal Suite at the same place some time ago, and who was a big name in the industry. 

He looked at the three and said, 

"Are you waiting for me?" 

It was a self-centred guess. His gaze moved naturally to the bodies of Rose and Gabriella. The former in a dress and the latter in a dress are both wearing sexy clothes tonight. It seemed to put the big man in a good mood. It seems to have suited his taste too. 

"You finally understand your place in the world," he says, smiling. 

However, although he was smiling, his words were more forceful than yesterday. He must have been under some stress. 

He walked over to the sofa where Rose and Gabriella were sitting and asked

"I see you are ready to talk. Would you like me to start now?" 

"...." 

However, their smiles do not last long. The reason was the presence of the woman who had accompanied them.

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"What are you doing here?" 

For some reason, Francisca was standing next to Nanami and the big man.

She spotted a familiar face on the entrance sofa and approached him as easily as if she had just met a friend. She was probably dealing with the aftermath of an event, given the magnanimity of the industry's bigwigs.

"What? Do you know each other?" 

The great man's face tensed as he saw this.

"I know them, I know them. Two of them are business partners."

" ...... "

On the other hand, it is Nishino who speaks without any intention.  

"I thought you left Japan." 

"That's just him. I have to stay here and deal with the aftermath." 

"I see."

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"I really wish I wouldn't have to do that. I'm tired." 

"That's your job, isn't it?" 

"Don't mind a bit. Complaining is part of the job."

As usual, the Futsumen and the crotchety old lady were talking lightly to each other. I don't know what they are actually doing, but to the casual observer they look like good friends. It was no different to talking in a bar in the Marquis.

Incidentally, her job until a short while ago was to threaten the two men standing beside her. She is a strong supporter of the organisation to which she belongs. 

He has just been given a drink by a great man with a lot of power. All of the above is the work of terrorists.

"By the way, how do you two know each other?" 

Francisca's gaze leaves Nishino and turns to the great man and the Nanami

It was the one who was being stared at who panicked. He had been accused of child prostitution last night. Moreover, just now he had said something very important in front of Francisca. Thanks to this, the great man's face has gone pale.

"Well, I had a chance to say hello before the show, so..." 

Before the Lolitas had a chance to say anything, the great man rushed to speak.

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He was sweating profusely on his forehead. 

"Oh, really?" 

"Yes, that's right." 

The great man was frightened, and Francisca did not understand the situation. After watching the two of them, Nishino opened his mouth. 

"Don't be so hard on him." 

"I'm not being hard on him. I've learned a few things about the world from you."

This is a man who is cynical at the drop of a hat. He thinks he's helping the big man in the industry he's talking about, which makes him even worse. He still doesn't realise that this is the reason why his classmates avoid him.

Francisca just nodded her head. 

◇ ◆ ◇

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That day, in her room, the chairwoman shuddered with a certain sense of achievement.

In front of the chair on which she sits, on a desk, is a clamshell phone with a chat application running. The timeline buzzes from top to bottom with words of appreciation for the work that has been done.

"Well done, Shimizu. Now you are safe for the time being." 

"Now it's time for the police to do their job."

"If there is a similar story in the UK, can we use the community here?" 

It was the middle of the night on a holiday, and the family had gone to bed.

Finally, the chairperson of the committee has achieved the eradication of JK's Kinky Spaz Dance. 

In the end, it was only a few people who had uploaded the videos of her. It seems that a very small number of people were persistently and repeatedly doing this. 

We have just finished identifying the source of the access and contacting the police. Moderators from all over the world played an active role in the project. The cross-border access analysis meant that what would have taken weeks to complete in the past was completed in just a few days. The results will be communicated to the appropriate departments in each company. As a result, JK's Kinky Spaz Dance has been eradicated.

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At least for now, you won't find her lasciviousness on a public site. 

"Thank you so much for your help," she says, repeatedly typing her thanks into the chat timeline. 

It's the end of a series of battles. No matter how tired I was, I couldn't sleep for the past few days because I was too worried about the JK's Kinky Spaz Dance. Those dark days are finally over at this moment.

Maybe it'll be uploaded again in the future. There may come a day when a video of JK's Kinky Spaz Dance is reposted on the internet. But she has someone to talk to. It was the awareness that she was not alone that made her feel at ease.

The painful feelings that had been lingering in my heart for the past few days slipped away with a warm message on my timeline. It was as if the body, frozen by the winter cold, had been revitalised by the arrival of spring.

"..."

She leans back in his chair with a look of great emotion. In the chat room, which is still active, people are talking to each other. It is in English, Chinese, Russian, etc. 

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It's very international. 

"... I really don't know what I've been doing."

After a few days of putting out fires, the chairwoman of the committee has come to a conclusion. It is the best to work hard and diligently. 

Her inner adolescent desires, such as the fact that she would only be a high school girl once in her life, that she wanted to be pampered like Rose, and that she wanted people to see her for who she really was and not for her exam scores, had all been blown away by this incident.

After all, other people are other people and you are you.

At the same time, the smart chairwoman understood that her efforts in the past had not been in vain through the series of disturbances. If he hadn't taken his studies seriously, the JK's Kinky Spaz Dance video would still be out there.

A smart, pretty girl who has always acted the way people wanted her to. Maybe she didn't start it of her own free will. But this time it helped to save her social life.

254

The chairwoman's eyes once again turn to the chat timeline. Without a dictionary or translation software, it is frustrating to be able to read some of the conversations that flow at a reasonable pace. But there are a few things that are readable, if only briefly. Then she realised. She realized that she could make sense of more of the exchanges than a few days ago.

After stretching her body for a while, Shimizu returned to her original posture. If it were not for the fact that her eyelids were heavy from exhaustion, she would not have been able to see. However, at this moment, the chairwoman's head feels strangely clear. Her heart was beating in his chest, a gentle yet powerful beat. 

"I wonder if I should study English..." says the chairperson of Class 2A, taking out her reference book and starting to study. 

She is not aiming for Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

◇ ◆ ◇

255

That evening, the members of the break-dancing club of Tsunuma High School were sitting down to dinner in a restaurant on the upper floor of the hotel. Joining Nishino at the table were Rose and Gabriella, as well as Takeuchi and Kousaka.

The latter two were the result of an extraordinary interest in the act of contacting a friend from his own device, and the two women who objected to the idea had to be coerced into attending.

In the end, Nishino's device also recorded the call history with his classmates. 

"Ah, Nishino-senpai..."

"What ? Kousaka"

"I should go back to my room..."

How many times has this happened? Kousaka looks extremely embarrassed and hesitant. Since his first visit he has been uncomfortable. He was terrified by the succession of courses being served to him. A meal in an upmarket restaurant can, in fact, run into the tens of thousands of yen per person. From the artistic presentation of the food on the plates to the beautiful waitresses serving and taking away the food, it definitely looked expensive to the untrained eye. 

"The other diners were well-dressed..." he says.

256

Kousaka was very conspicuous in his jersey. He had accepted Nishino's invitation to go out for dinner and had planned to have a bowl of ramen in the neighbourhood.

On the other hand, it is Futsumen that is not afraid of this.

"It doesn't matter. It's what she said she wanted. Ask for what you like." 

This is where Gabriella's eyes are pointing.

"...... I'm sure you're not the only one, so why don't you hold your tongue?"

"Did I offend you? Then I apologize....."

"...."

Whenever a word reaches his ears, Nishino is the kind of creature that makes light of it. And because there is no harm in it, it is difficult to handle.

That is the perception of those who know him. Gabriella, too, was beginning to understand, remembering the past few days. But no matter how much she understood in her head, it was another matter to get used to her own feelings. 

"...It's okay"

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"Thank you" 

" ...... " 

She also returns the gesture surprisingly often, which makes her even more troublesome to deal with. On the other hand, it's Rose who can't stop loving all of this.

"Hey, Nishino-kun. This mashed potato with garnish is very delicious, isn't it ?"

In her mind, it's dinner time for just two people. 

She doesn't have a care in the world, except for the Futsumen sitting beside her. All she can think about is what Nishino is eating and the expression on his face.

"Aren't you used to eating like this?" 

"Oh, I eat poorly when I'm alone, don't I?"

"Isn't that the wrong word for bad food?" Nishino's witticism was right on the money.

Rose smiles as she recalls the taste of the man's underwear that she munched on in the changing room a few nights ago. Such indirect mucosal contact has been her life's work since she started living with him. It is a ritual that she can never do without.

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Of course, Nishino doesn't know. 

"By the way, Rose-chan. That one piece looks great!" 

Takeuchi-kun can't help but lose. He tries to get into the conversation somehow. 

In the school, the right to speak is strongly protected by the hierarchy of caste. Once he opens his mouth, everyone around him keeps their mouths shut and takes his words seriously and positively. However, this did not work properly in the breakdance club.

Therefore, Takeuchi-kun is also desperate to get a say in the matter here.

"Oh yeah ? It's been worn for a long time." 

She was praised and treated appropriately. But the words she wanted were given not by her true love, but by an unimportant gentleman. 

"Yes, it's very pretty. And you look lovely too, Gabriella." 

Takeuchi is working hard to get the initiative in the conversation. He is trying his best to recover from the loss of stock he suffered when talking with the industry's bigwigs. 

"I was surprised to find out that it was such a great restaurant," he said.

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However, you can rest assured that Rose and Gabriella are together. No matter how cheap we are, the two are more elegant than anyone else here. 

The follow-up to Kousaka is also different from that of Nishino. 

"Oh yeah ? Thank you." 

" ... Thank you."

However, the reaction of the two girls who responded was unsettling. If it had been one of the girls from Class 2A, they would have cackled and squealed with delight. 

This fact makes Takeuchi impatient. He has been trying to approach her for several months now, but has not been able to get any results.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Nishino's position as a student, which was at one time in jeopardy, has shown signs of continuing. However, as it turned out, the handsome man was not aware of Nishino's existence as the cause of the problem.

"There is one thing I want to ask you by the way." 

"What? sister." 

"Didn't you say yesterday that you were reluctant to stand next to Nishino-kun?"

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As she points out, the seating position Gabriella is sitting in is different from yesterday. The arrangement of everyone around the round table with the food is clockwise: Nishino, Rose, Takeuchi, Kousaka, Gabriella. Until yesterday, the arrangement of Nishino, Rose and Gabriella had been fixed as an unspoken agreement. 

"Is that so?"

Gabriella responds in a curt manner. Rose's eyes have a stern look in them. 

"What changed your mind?"

"..." 

It was a very frank question. Takeuchi and Kousaka also stopped eating and looked at the two of them. 

The only person who still keeps his hand on the food is Nishino. The mashed potatoes were recommended to me by Rose. He chops it up with a knife in a strangely elegant manner. 

I'm carrying it to my mouth. A voice was delivered from Gabriella under him.

"Nishino, I have something to tell you."

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"...What?" 

He gulped down the potatoes and replied. The mashed potatoes were better than I expected. I'm a little overstuffed, and I'm struggling to swallow because I'm being spoken to so suddenly. He struggles to catch his breath as he answers. I glance at my glass of water, pining for it.

She said in her plain, unruffled tone. 

"I'm interested in you. Would you like to start a relationship with me today?" 

"...." 

"... I've heard that you're going to be an enemy of humanity for the next 18 months"  

For Nishino, this surprise was more powerful than a rifle shot.

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