CHAPTER 22: THE AZURE SECRET (part 2)
As soon as they stepped out of the canteen and into the corridor, the usual tension-filled banter began among the Student Council members while they walked.
They were all maintaining their slow, dominant, alpha-like walking pace.
The Student Council Treasurer, Kyousuke Shidou, started complaining like a lunatic, throwing a fake kick in the air as he walked.
His bi-color (red and green) wild hair blew in the wind, and a sad, disappointed, Joker-like smile sat on his lips.
"Oh man! I didn't have any fun at all today, man!"
Kyousuke complained loudly while walking.
"I was thinking I'd break a few of Akuro's teeth with my own shoes.
But Souma Senpai took all the fun for himself!
Match over in just one punch?
Come on Senpai, you should have left a little entertainment for us too!"
"Because watching kings fall is my favorite hobby. Especially when they scream as they fall."
The Discipline Committee Head, Genji Ichimonji, completely lost his patience.
He slightly turned his massive, mountain-like body as he walked and glared at Kyousuke angrily from under his dark black buzz-cut.
"Shut your nonsense now, Joker,"
Genji's deep, rock-shattering voice echoed.
There was a deadly fury in his eyes.
"What Senior Souma did was the absolute right thing for the school."
Kyousuke casually placed both hands behind his head with a psycho smile while walking and said,
"Oh man, why do you take everything so seriously?
Chill out a bit, bro. You're always heating up your head for nothing.
One day your brain is just going to explode like that!"
A thick vein bulged on Genji's forehead.
His fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white, and he leaned a step toward Kyousuke while walking.
"Now Joker, do you want to die by my hands right here?
I will silence your voice forever."
"Alright, alright, stop fighting."
Vice President Tetsu Saedomi stepped between the two with his hands in his pockets, flashing that cheerful, dark pink smile as he walked.
His coral hair was perfectly set in the wind.
"You guys are always at each other's throats like wild dogs.
Try getting along sometimes.
We are all pillars of the same Council."
Genji turned his head away, looking forward in anger.
"Senior, are you telling me
I should get along with this Joker?
That is simply impossible.
I'm better off staying far away from lunatics like him."
Tetsu chuckled lightly.
Then he adjusted his glasses while walking and turned his calculating gaze to the Girl Leader walking continuously right beside him, Satsuki Kiryuin.
Satsuki's absolute elegance was perfectly composed.
There was the distinct pride and arrogance of a queen in her walking style.
"By the way, Satsuki,"
Tetsu asked casually, but with a very deep and analytical tone as they walked.
"I've been noticing...
what exactly did you whisper to that Meiko girl that made her face go so pale while she was laughing?
She was trembling as if she had just seen her own death."
A highly dangerous, cunning, and venomous glint appeared in Satsuki's light purple (mauve) eyes.
A sweet but lethal smile adorned her lips, but her flawless walking speed didn't falter in the slightest.
"I won't tell you that,"
Satsuki replied, keeping her gaze forward and maintaining an icy elegance in her voice.
"That is my secret.
And I will only reveal it when the time is right.
Until then,
you'll just have to wait, Tetsu."
Tetsu laughed.
"Alright, as you wish.
Keep playing your mind games.
I was just asking out of curiosity."
Satsuki slightly turned her head and gave Tetsu an extremely sweet but highly dangerous smile.
Souma Kanzaki was walking ahead of them all.
He showed zero reaction to his members' arguments and banter.
His entire focus was fixed on the incoming storm and maintaining his absolute fear within the school walls.
Just then, the scene shifts.
Sitting completely alone at that dark VIP table in the canteen, Meiko Fujiwara's condition resembled that of a dead, rotting animal.
The biggest manipulator and the 'Queen Bee' of the school was now brutally trapped in a venomous web of her own making.
Both her fair hands were trembling violently.
She was clutching her beautiful head in her hands, and cold sweat dripped from her forehead, landing heavily onto her expensive skirt.
*How...
how did that witch Satsuki find out about this secret?!*
Meiko screamed in her mind, completely consumed by fear and panic.
Her own cunningness and power were now choking her very breath.
*Oh damn it!
Damn it!
DAMN IT!*
Meiko gritted her teeth in pure terror.
She was panting heavily.
*If Satsuki somehow reveals this to Akuro or those two monsters of his (Daizen and Toma)...
my fate will be a thousand times worse than Kenchon's!
Akuro will absolutely not leave me alive.*
Meiko's chest was heaving up and down rapidly in sheer terror.
Horrifying scenes of her own brutal death were playing out on a loop in her mind.
*If Akuro finds out that I was deceiving him by faking being his girlfriend...
and that I've been leaking all of his and The Black Blazers' confidential information to my other boyfriend...
Hajime Arakawa...
the leader of this school's biggest outside rival gang,
'AZURE REAPERS'...
AAAH!*
Meiko pulled aggressively at her own hair in a panic.
*This secret cannot get out!
Not at any cost!
Hajime Arakawa is a psycho outside gangster, and Akuro is the literal devil of Hakuho Academy.
I wanted to manipulate the leaders of both these gangs and make them dance to my tunes!
But now...
The Student Council holds my biggest weapon!*
Wiping away her tears in a mix of fury, frustration, and deep shame, Meiko made a terrifying but desperate decision.
*Now, to save my own life and to keep this AZURE REAPERS secret hidden from Akuro...
I will have to become Satsuki Kiryuin's slave!
I will have to lick that witch's shoes! Why?!
Why does just thinking about this make me so incredibly furious!
AAAH!*
The most cunning girl in the school was now caught like a helpless, insignificant insect in the iron grip of the Student Council.
The canteen was now completely empty.
On the floor, there was only scattered blood, severely broken tables, and Kenta Ishida standing frozen near those tables.
Raizen had also left the area, carrying Renjiro with him.
Just then, the door to the washroom (toilet) creaked open slightly.
A cold, violently trembling hand reached out from behind and touched Kenta's shoulder.
Kenta's breath hitched painfully in his throat.
Terrified, he jerked his head around to look behind him.
Standing there was Shoji Murakami.
His face had gone pale white with fear, and he was panting heavily.
"K-Kenta..."
Shoji whispered in terror, staring at the scattered blood pooling on the canteen floor.
"Is... is the fight over?
Has... has that devil Akuro left?"
Kenta's lingering trauma suddenly morphed into a ferocious, blinding rage.
He violently grabbed Shoji by the collar and screamed in a suppressed, cracked voice,
"You bastard!
Leaving me here completely alone amidst the death...
what the hell were you doing in the toilet for so long?!
Were you shitting yourself out of fear in there?!"
Shoji lowered his head in deep shame and fear.
Just then, Kenta's eyes suddenly darted to Shoji's grey uniform pants.
The front section of Shoji's pants had become slightly wet from sheer terror.
"B-Bro...
I wasn't shitting...
when those Student Council guys arrived..."
Shoji stuttered, crying,
making a pathetic,
futile attempt to hide the small wet stain on his pants with his shaking hands.
"Their President Souma...
just looking into his eyes made my breath stop,
bro...
I couldn't control myself out of fear...
a little bit just came out...
if I had stayed standing there,
I would have died..."
Kenta let go of his collar in deep irritation and pure disgust.
His terror-filled eyes slowly returned to the empty floor of the canteen, exactly where monsters had fought each other just moments ago.
For the very first time, Kenta realized just what massive cowards he and his friends truly were in this school.
What true power and a real devil ultimately looked like was now firmly imprinted in Kenta's soul.
In the dead darkness of that empty canteen, only their cowardice stood beside them.
And right here, the darkest secret behind the upcoming bloody gang war between Hakuho Academy's gang (Black Blazers) and the highly dangerous outside gang (AZURE REAPERS) was on the absolute verge of being exposed.
CHAPTER ENDS