Seitokai no Ichizon:Volume 1 Chapter 2

“The scariest thing isn't ghosts or monsters! It is man!”

　Kaichou said this with her usual habit of puffing her small chest while reciting mere second-hand opinions.

　Frankly I agree, even though it was obviously too much to say, I placed myself firmly with the tactic of the yes-man.

“Ahh, yeah, that’s right.”

“Really! Ghosts and Monsters, humanity created them after all!”

“Well hold on, explain these questionable spirits…”

　Afraid of humans or whatever it’s called, or is it not what it seems. However, Kaichou was perfectly satisfied with returning to her chair...

However I always think, for what reason is she is probably throwing away her dignity with an obvious rip-off of a wise saying, this person.

　Not only I had thought this, but Chizuru-san, Minatsu, and Mafuyu-chan each had this reaction especially, also employing the tactic of “Well Done!”.

Kaichou started talking like this, ever since recently when the rumors about the 7 wonders of this school started to spread amongst the students. 　

The 7 wonders of this school. They say that if you know all seven of them something bad happens, but somehow I knew 21. Overkill. If the curse activates I'll probably die, and I might just end up taking one or two more unrelated people with me. 　

I can confidently say that the rumors aren’t very unique, considering the current state of affairs within this school, is what I would like to probably conclude at this place… Whatever concerns those 21 individuals it won't matter, but if that curse is true, it wouldn't just affect the school, it would become a whole region of devastation.

“We’re already under pressure from this situation!”

　Kaichou was enthusiastic about this. She wrote on the whiteboard in very thick pen “Today’s discussion・The situation concerning ghost stories”.

I don’t know why, but Kaichou seemed pretty happy about our new situation. By no means do I seriously fear any great biohazard damage.

Minatsu stealthily whispered into my ear,

“(Kaichou-san, why is she so enthusiastic?)”

“(Ah… It’s unexpected, but is she simply just questioning her fears?　It’s probably that sort.)”

“(Oh, it must be extremely influential to her. Which, we should test.)”

　Minatsu informed me of this in a sinister, yet merry tone, and raised her hand as Kaichou turned towards her as she continued her fervent speech.

“Hai, Hai!”

“Yes, Minatsu?”

“Kaichou-san, do you know this story? It’s a story about a girl who went into the girl’s bathroom――”

“Wa, wawawaaa!　What’s with the abrupt stories! Don’t deviate from the topic!”

“I’m not deviating. Look, to deal with this we need to know all the probable details right?”

“Uguuu… Alright! I haven’t heard of it!”

　Kaichou became flustered as she watched over the changing state of affairs.

　All the Student Council members’ eyes gleamed at this mysterious turn of events.

‘Hey this is some interesting new material!’

Even Mafuyu-chan was excited. Hee, Mafuyu-chan, she does look like the type who’d like ghost stories. She’d most probably be the person being made fun of too so this would be a treat for her.

Everyone besides Kaichou pretended to be oblivious to her ‘fear’ and carefully pushed to conversation in the direction that she didn’t want it to go.

First, Chizuru senpai started off.

“Minatsu is right. Yes, of course. I think we have to go over each and every one of the stories that are going around.”

“Ehhhhh?!”

Kaichou’s agitation was clear.

I thought that this was a great chance and agreed with Chizuru senpai.

“Yes. Then it’d be good to tell all the stories that everyone knows.”

“Wa-wai…. Sugisaki! We don’t have to check things like……”

“Ma-Mafuyu thinks that we should too!”

“Even Mafuyu-chan….”

Kaichou become dejected. I decided to land a critical.

“Hmm? Could it be that Kaichou is scared?”

“Wha….”

Chizuru followed up with an extra blow.

“Now way Key-kun. A student body president would never be afraid of things like ghost stories. You shouldn’t look down on people too much. Right, Aka-chan?”

“U..uuuu?”

Then more combos from the Shiina sisters.

“Who’d be afraid of ghost stories at this age?”

“Ma-mafuyu likes ghost stories a lot…. Ever since elementary school.”

“Ukk…”

Kaichou was sweating profusely. Her mouth hung open and her eyes were wet with tears, the overall expression was pitiful. But Kaichou went “Hm, hmph!” and crossed her arms then shouted with her chest out

“A-an adult like me would never me a-afwaid!”

Oh, she messed up on the last word. Uwa, I might have just gotten in touch with my S side. This is fun. Teasing Kaichou is so fun. If I go out with her I might have to see her in a fix everyday to feel satisfied.

I glanced over at Chizuru senpai and she looked completely raptured. …. She’s and S. This person is a deep end S. I can understand why she’s so close to Kaichou even with such different personalities.

It seemed that Kaichou had finished preparing herself as we watched her. She hit the desk with her hand. Chizuru senpai and I started looking forward to this even more as we watched her hand shake violently.

“O-okay, we can just tell ghost stories. Bu-but we don’t have much time so only one each right?”

“Yes! Well I’ll start!”

“E-ehh? Already?”

“The faster the better! Hmm? You scared Kaichou?”

“Minatsu, go.”

Kaicho tried as best as she could to act calm. As we watched this scene warmly Minatsu leaned forward and started her tale.

“I’m the first one up so I’m going to go full throttle. Hope you’re ready.

… Our Home Education classroom doesn’t have any knives. Do you know why? … Yes, it’s because we put them all away in a cupboard in the storage room. But think about it. There are slots where we can put the knives into at our cooking tables. It’s usually normal to put them there.

It’s something that we’d always use during cooking lessons but we always have to go get them from the storage room. It’s really annoying right?

But the reason why the knives are kept there is… it’s because of the tragedy that happened because of the knives in the H.E. room.”

Minatsu lowered her voice and her usual image of a sporty girl had completely disappeared. Because her usual bearing is so bright everyone gets quieter when she gets serious.

Kaichou gulped. She’s been trying to act calm for a while now but her eyes were jumping all over the place, and she’d already crossed and recrossed her arms several times.

Minatsu saw this and smiled. Kaichou saw this and became more afraid.

“A long time ago a student, we’ll call her Kurimu-chan here….”

“Why are we calling her Kurimu-chan!!?”

Kaichou shouted with tears in her eyes. Minatsu took no notice.

“Kurimu-chan was a pretty girl. Her curves and height were a bit lacking but she had a sort of pretty face and was a little popular.”

“… that setting feels bad.”

“But Kurimu-chan, she could only eat half a banana.”

“Feels like she’s from a nursery rhyme, Kurimu-chan.”

“She left something at school that day. She remembered it late at night, but she really needed it and the school was close by so Kurimu-chan decided to go get it.”

School at night was a little scary but Kurimu-chan had done this several times already so she was used to it. That day, Kurimu-chan just went to go get her things like she always did.

The next day

She was found dead.

“Hiii.”

Kaichou jumped at this. She’s really good at stories. Sudden turn of events. We don’t know what happened but we were only sure that something horrible had happened. Minatsu, she’s actually pretty gifted at talking.

The real Kurimu-chan bluffed and said “H-hmph, so?” and made Minatsu continue the story she didn’t really want to hear. Minatsu kept going.

“Kurimu-chan was discovered in the H.E. room. Stabbed all over her body.”

“I-I really don’t like that you’re calling her Kurimu-chan.”

Kurimu-chan(real)’s face paled. But Minatsu completely ignored this one too.

“The murderer was captured. He was just the psychopath that had appeared in the town some time ago. He had been happy that he’d managed to break into the school and just ran into Kurimu-chan. It was just a stroke of luck for him.”

Of course Kurimu-chan had run away but she wasn’t fast enough and had tried to hide in the H.E. room. But that was a bad choice. The psychopath knew that that was the H.E. room and took a knife out of the table and…”

“…”

Kaichou was speechless. She seemed a little out of it so I shook my hand in front of her face and made her come back.

Kaichou coughed a few times and looked at Minatsu.

“Wh-what, that’s it? Putting the knives away because of a murder in the past isn’t really….”

“That’s not it Kaichou. That wasn’t the real reason the knives were put away in the storage room.”

“Hmm?”

“Something happened… not long after the case a student who had stayed in the H.E. room after school…”

“Wha-what?”

Kaichou gulped. The story had finally gone into its climax.

“The student who had remained was killed. This time….”

“This time?”

Minatsu paused for a long time before opening her mouth again.

“With all the knives in the room stabbed into his body.”

“!!”

Kaichou froze. With the mood so heavy we even tensed up a bit. But we all knew.

(There’s no way that’s true.)

Everyone except Kaichou knew. If there had been such a horrible case there’s no way that we hadn’t heard any rumors. But it seemed to be effective on Kaichou. “Who-who was the culprit?” she asked with a serious expression. Huh, it’s all working out as Minatsu planned.

“Of course, it was….”

“It was….?”

“It was….”

Minatsu paused here for a bit and the whole room fell silent.

“YOU!”

“Hiii!”

Minatsu suddenly shouted and pointed at Kaichou. The rest of us had all been a little nervous but we’d all known that it would end like this, so the surprise was a little lost.

But Kaichou….

“….”

Her soul had come out of her mouth. …. This person here was the really horrific one. Everyone just smiled and waited for Kaichou to come back to our world. Kaichou regained consciousness a little later and got angry shouting “Tha-that doesn’t make sense!”

“What do you mean I’m the culprit!? Do you think I’m stupid?”

Minatsu smiled awkwardly at Kaichou’s works.

“No no, it’s not that. I mean that the culprit was Kurimu-chan. The ghost of Kurimu-chan.”

“Uuu…..”

Kaichou became silent again at the mention of ghosts.

Minatsu finished the story.

“However they looked at it, it wasn’t a human that had done it. All the knives had been stabbed in at the same time. As if all the knives had flown at him all at once.

…. After that they didn’t leave knives in the H.E. room and put them away in the storage room. … Kaichou, becareful when you go hom late. If somebody accidently left a knife out in the H.E. room and you go in there for some reason…. I can’t promise that you’ll survive.”

Something white glided out of Kaichou’s mouth. She must have been scared. After travelling in the other world for a good while Kaichou said “It-it was really boring!” and tried to bluff unconvincingly. Kaichou’s reactions are all pretty fun. Kizuru-senpai, Minatsu, Mafuyu, and I all just smiled.

After that we all took turns telling horror stories to Kaichou. Of course, the main character was always called Kurimu-chan. We’re all so kind.

Mufuyu told a story about a ghost who went inside of you and made you commit suicide. She played the ‘it’s inside of you’ angle well and made Kaichou shake in fear. Chizuru senpai used the [tearing the face off] serial killer from a few years ago and twisted it by putting some ghosts and other things in it. Then she made it all make sense and gave it some good backing as well as fantasyesque traits and made Kaichou fall into a pit of fear.

And what I said was

“There was a girl called Kurimu-chan, she was hired as a maid to a boy named Sugisaki Ken. The end.”

“Hiiiiiii!”

I made Kaichou shake the most with just one sentence.

Everyone stared at me as if saying ‘is that it?’ but it didn’t matter.

It was a good chance so I just kept going.

“Kurimu-chan failed English Math and Literature.”

“Hiii!”

“Kurimu-chan made a horrible mistake and got removed as the Student Body President.”

“Huuu!”

“Kurimu-chan didn’t grow at all despite all her wishes.”

“Noooo!!!!”

“Sugisaki Ken licked Kurimu-chan’s toothbrush before putting it back down on her table.”

“Kyaaaa!!!”

“Kurmiu-chan’s last words were ‘That was dangerous’.”

“She let her guard down!”

“Kurimu-chan’s life was actually just a dream.”

“Who’s!?”

“Kurimu-chan never knew that everyone thought that she was ‘a little weird’.”

“That’s mean!”

“Kurimu-chan was actually not Kurimu-chan.”

“That’s the scariest one for some reason!”

At my continuous rant of ‘horror stories’ Kurimu-chan, no, Kaichou was completely knocked down. She even forgot to bluff and pretend to be calm.

For some reason Chizuru senpai and the Shiina sisters were all trembling at my stories. The three said things like “Scary…” or “Ma-Mafuyu can’t stop shaking…” or “I can’t believe he would say such sick things…”. My stories were getting good reaction.

After teasing Kaichou we all decided to rest.

Since Kaichou was broken I started talking with Chizuru senpai.

“But why does everyone like scary stories. If you think about it ‘being scared’ is a negative emotion.

Chizuru senpai smiled while brushing her silky hair back.

“You know about ‘thrill’? Maybe it’s about enjoying danger that’s safe. It’s the same for rollercoasters.”

“But ‘thrill’ is a weird feeling by itself. Even if it’s safe, enjoying something that’s dangerous doesn’t make sense. Even though nobody says anything about it because we all enjoy it, it’s actually kind of strange. If the world was a little more normal we might even see people who enjoy those sort of things as strange.”

Mafuyu-chan nodded at my words and muttered “I think that’s right”. Chizuru senpai let out a “Hmm” and trailed off into thought, and Minatsu crossed her arms and said “Hm, if you think about it, that makes sense too.”

As I stared at Kaichou shaking, I suddenly thought that maybe she’s the really normal one. Most people are afraid of scary things and don’t like them, so then maybe the people who enjoy them are the ones who are somehow distorted?

“If you think about it like that, the situation our school is in feels actually scary.”

“Yes… you might be right.”

Chizuru senpai agreed.

“If people who like horror stories are strange then our school, no the world is full of strange people. Hm, if you look at it in that perspective it all might be very horrifying.”

“Do-don’t think like that, both of you.”

Minatsu became a little scared. But Mafuyu-chan muttered “That’s right…”.

“Mafuyu likes scary stories a lot but can’t explain why. Maybe that’s what’s really scary.”

We all fell silent. … It would be impossible to curb this sort of inexplicable enjoyment. It’ll be hard to change the state our school is in right now.

The person to break this silence was something completely unexpected, it was Kaichou.

“See, I said so didn’t I? Man is scary.”

Kaichou puffed her chest out proudly. We all smiled a little awkwardly, silently agreeing with her.

“Seems people are scary, really.”

Minatsu’s words rang oddly loudly in the student council room.

The result of today’s meeting.

Stopping horror stories is almost impossible.

But even though the result today was put down I still pitied the tired looking Kaichou. … I feel sorry. … We teased her too much. People who don’t like these stories really don’t like them.

And if it’s someone like her the fact that everyone is telling these stories while enjoying them so much might be scarier to her than the stories themselves.

……

A way to stop horror stories……

“All the stories in the classrooms have suddenly stopped. This is because of your president’s greatness!”

Two days after the meeting, Kaichou shouted out happily.

It was the first time in a while that only two of us were in here and I just went along saying “That’s great!”

Kaichou looked energetic. She seems extremely happy that she didn’t have to hear any more scary stories.

“But why did they all suddenly go away? It’s weird.”

“Disappeared huh….”

“?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

I gave a small sigh of relief.

But this is most probably just a temporary pause. The reason I know is, it’s because I’m the one who made this situation. You can’t just stop horror stories with their odd knack of pulling people in just by trying to stop them. The thing that has the power to stop them.

That is.

Horror stories.

“Haa, it’s really all gone well. And there’s more order too.”

“Yes, it’s really all gone well.”

Watching Kaichou’s smile I felt a little conflicted. Is what I did a good thing? Seeing this unfettered smile, it was really hard to say.

That’s because.

I created a new 7 wonders.

Kaichou hummed happily. I was so lost in thought that I let out a huge sigh.

What I did was very simple. Using what I’d learned from the meeting two days ago I just made a new set of 7 wonders that were beneficial to Kaichou.

To put it shortly it was that ‘the 7 wonders did exist and, like other stories, they evolve’. So it was put in that even though you knew all seven and nothing happened, you would be ‘punished’ sometime in the future.

And the final punch line of this story was

“Who says that you’re safe if you know more than seven?”

This was the original story that I created. It had most probably gone around a couple times and become something even scarier. But even with changes like these the basics of the story doesn’t change. ‘The curse of the seven wonders’ ‘even if you know more than seven, you’re not safe, it just gets worse’. If the stories held these two things it doesn’t matter how much it’s changed. As a result, it seemed that a lot of people were afraid of this and the story boom was over very quickly.

And so…..

“Happy stories are the best.”

I looked at our happy Kaichou.

Did I really do the right thing? I did managed to gain Kaichou’s smile but…

“But it’s really strange. There were lots of people who were telling them yesterday.”

I watched as Kaichou innocently cocked her head.

People.

People who want to listen to horror stories.

People who want to tell horror stories.

People who are afraid of horror stories.

People who hate horror stories.

And.

People who, like me, gain something by making horror stories.

“Kaichooooouuu.”

“Hm, what, Sugisaki?”

I stretched out on the desk and smiled.

“As you said, the scariest thing is people. I really learned something.”

“Hm? A-ahem! Right? Sugisaki, now you know!”

Kaichou puffed out her chest and smiled.

Even after making such a scary story.

The stories that Kaichou hates so much.

After stopping people with fear.

Kaichou was smiling at me.

I was smiling at Kaichou.

What is this.

(Ahh, I don’t like this. Roles like this always end up losing. I’ll never do this again.)

In an attempt to change the mood I looked at tomorrow’s timetable. Oh, there’s H.E. tomorrow. We’ll most probably be cooking. Then…

“….”

I remembered Minatsu’s story.

I became a little afraid of holding knives.

But at the same time.

There was a part of me that wanted to leave a knife out before leaving.

…..People are really scary.

Back to Chapter 1

Return to Seitokai no Ichizon

Forward to Chapter 3