Translator: Tsukii
Editor: Kiro
Read at Watashi wa Sugoi Desu!
Chapter 82
Author Note:
Happy New Year.
Please take care of me this year as well.
The next holiday, we were walking outside.
We finished shopping at Keyaki Mall and were on our way back to the student dorm.
In the park where a cold wind blew through, I saw the person who we were talking about recently.
“Isn’t that Horikita?”
Her figure staring blankly into empty space was painful to watch. As expected, I couldn’t ignore it so I closed the distance.
She noticed our footsteps and looked in my direction, but her eyes lacked focus. Not knowing if she was looking properly or not, she turned to face Arisu-chan who was standing next to me and…
“Ah, Sakayanagi-san.”
“Good afternoon, Horikita-san.”
Horikita’s expression brightened. My body stiffened upon witnessing such an unexpected reaction.
I had no idea what was going on and was confused. Without looking at me, Horikita walked as it was toward Arisu-chan and suddenly embraced her.
“Only you … are you different from other people?”
“Fufu, that’s right. I don’t hate Horikita-san.”
I didn’t know what was happening. Did Arisu-chan do something?
“It makes me happy. It seems I have nobody left but Sakayanagi-san after all.”
It seemed her mind suffered quite a bit. In fact, she seemed scared of me as well.
…Ah~ Nagumo did things to her after all. Was her personality denied thoroughly in the process of breaking her mind?
I had no idea if her fear came from the temporary male phobia or trust issue toward fellow humans. However, the current Horikita could only see Arisu-chan. To put it another way, it was thanks to that she barely managed to maintain herself without being broken apart.
I could see the degree of obsession that made me think she might choose to die if she were pushed away.
“You worked hard. It’s alright. You just need to be a little more patient.”
Arisu-chan stretched her body and stroked Horikita’s head.
“Thank you… I’m sorry…”
“Please rest assured. I’m on your side.”
I couldn’t help but be a little disgusted at Arisu-chan lining up words that were too superficial.
The things she explained to me before and what she actually did were too different. This wasn’t the degree of putting on a façade for hiding her true thoughts. It was fine because she was my ally, but I didn’t think I could win if such a terrible person became my enemy.
“Aah, Sakayanagi-san… From now on, I will move only for your sake. Everything for you, the only person who ‘praises’ me in this entire school…”
Hearing those words from Horikita, I understood the situation.
So Arisu-chan gave Horikita a praise vote, huh
That was all that happened.
This girl had captured Horikita’s heart with just a piece of paper.
“You are a necessary person for this school. You might be hurt now, but if you can overcome this, a bright future awaits you. Please don’t choose to drop out, okay?”
“I’ll receive those words as encouragement and do my best.”
Arisu-chan plastered kindness on her face and continued to give Horikita false encouragement.
Arisu-chan must know that this kind of cheap encouragement would serve as a drug that drove Horikita crazy. If Horikita was in a normal state, she might have felt something wrong…
But considering she currently suffered great damage to her mind, it was only natural that her decision-making ability would be dulled.
“Fufu, please do your best. I have expectations of you.”
Arisu-chan sure said things well. It made me think that she might be able to turn anyone into her pawn if she was serious.
This detail was just my imagination, but I decided to predict what happened.
As Horikita received the lowest rank, she likely requested Nagumo to reveal the ballot paper for her result. Then she got to see the breakdown of her score… 31 criticism votes and a single praise vote.
Within the sea of cruel criticism votes, Arisu-chan’s ballot must have shone brightly for Horikita. She must feel deeply grateful to see there was someone who didn’t abandon her during her downfall.
She made use of that as the stronghold of her heart and barely managed to protect herself.
“Looking back now, Sakayanagi-san had always cared about me.”
I didn’t think Arisu-chan cared for Horikita that much, but it seemed Horikita saw it in a different way. No, she was definitely misunderstood… but not mentioning it here was also a kindness.
I inwardly retorted when Arisu-chan smiled and affirmed Horikita as I watched the two. Now that I think about it, it was also in this park back when it was Kikyou-chan. It was a fond memory.
“Is it okay if I call you Suzune-san from now on?”
“Ah… of course. You are an irreplaceable existence for me after all.”
“Thank you very much. I will leave it to Suzune-san how you will refer to me. If you wish to, you can call me without honorific or with ‘Arisu-chan’.”
“I-I can’t do such a thing. Arisu…-san.”
Perhaps because she wasn’t used to it, it sounded awkward. That was unexpectedly cute.
However, I never thought Arisu-chan would make Horikita fall. This situation would be a big miscalculation on Nagumo’s part. If Arisu-chan knew it would end up like this beforehand, I guess it was understandable she was acting calm and composed.
“Please take care of me from now on, Suzune-san. I’ll give you my contact information, so feel free to talk to me if you have any trouble. Aah, I also welcome idle chat, you know?”
“Thank you. It makes me really, really happy. This is the first time I feel like this since I was born. Perhaps I came to this school for the sake of meeting you.”
Eeh…
I was left behind due to the unexpected development.
But one thing for sure was Arisu-chan had acquired Horikita Suzune as a pawn. The mission of “breaking Horikita’s mind” that Kiyotaka mentioned was done by Nagumo.
Arisu-chan just collected the harvest. It was like eating mocha that was painstakingly made by others on her own… It felt like some sort of warlord.
After parting ways with Horikita, both of us walked home.
Personally, I found that things were going in an interesting direction, but I had one concern.
“…Would Kikyou-chan be okay with it?”
For example, when Horikita visited Arisu-chan in our room, would Kikyou-chan feel bad about it? Wouldn’t Kikyou-chan feel uncomfortable at the passionate gaze that Horikita gave to Arisu-chan? I couldn’t help but worry about that.
“It’s okay. Rather, I won’t be bonded with her, you know?”
Arisu-chan smiled and kissed my cheek.
Judging from the way she spoke, it seemed Arisu-chan only recognized Horikita as a new toy. The goal didn’t seem to help Horikita, but to derail Nagumo’s plan.
However, that wasn’t the important point for me. It was more important how Kikyou-chan would feel if she saw Horikita was kept by Arisu-chan.
“If she ended up dependent on Nagumo instead, things would become even more troublesome from now on. Therefore, I choose to give her a praise vote for the shared ownership of her with Kiyotaka-kun.”
If Horikita ended up dependent on Nagumo… That situation would certainly feel dull.
Her communication skills were horribly low, but her personal ability itself was high after all.
If she became Nagumo’s follower with blind faith in him, she could exert considerable capability.
So in order to prevent that, Arisu-chan acted as her “White Knight,” but I didn’t feel convinced about that.
“But I think Kiyotaka would prefer it if he felled her personally.”
Regarding Horikita, Arisu-chan expected Kiyotaka to make his move, so she took the stance of wait and see.
The reason I didn’t care much about Horikita was because of that premise.
But that premise started to collapse.
“I don’t know anything beyond what I’ve heard before, so I have no idea the actual situation… but that certainly is likely to be the case.”
“So you choose to compromise on that?”
“Rather than compromise, it would be more of a transfer. Personally, if he wished to, I don’t mind betraying Suzune-san anytime. I could wreck her through my strategy then Kiyotaka-kun would save her like a superhero… doing things like that would also be interesting.”
Apparently, it was possible that Horikita would be driven into the depth of despair one more time.
It might be pitiful of her, but I honestly didn’t give a damn.
“Even so, Arisu-chan was gentle despite what you said and done… I think.”
“Fufu, I wonder about that.”
Regardless of what intention she had beneath, it was true that Arisu-chan’s action saved Horikita.
Originally, there was no way a woman with high pride like Horikita could endure becoming Nagumo’s personal property. I didn’t think she had the personality to endure until the end of February… when Nagumo would take over her 20 million point debt.
By making her think Arisu-chan was her ally, she managed to stay on her feet.
It was the logic that no matter how much she suffered, as long as her heart was facing her “god,” she would be able to endure until the day she would be saved. That was exactly the beginning of a cult, the establishment of an absolute master-servant relationship.
In this school dominated by the Honami cult, Horikita became the only person who believed in Arisu-chan as her god. Now that it had become like this, there was no way she would choose to betray her side.
However, that wasn’t the thing I was worried about.
I was grateful that everyone, including Kiyotaka, was entertaining me, but…
In a lot of ways, I don’t wish for Horikita to be saved.
That said, it couldn’t be helped if Arisu-chan wanted to do that.
In fact, it was true that this made events involving Nagumo even more interesting.
The priority of our importance seems different?
It was the day when I felt the difference in our values.1
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