Editing Shinmai Maou no Keiyakusha:Volume 4 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 5===

As the days went by, the operations of the organising committee gradually became more chaotic. The cause was the inter-class girls cheerleading completion — in order to rehearse their routines, Mio and Yuki often couldn’t attend the organising committee on time, and the days that they had to take off gradually increased. Thus, the people in the Mio faction and Yuki faction of the committee began to skip work. Yuki’s faction was fine. Although they would leave when they knew that Yuki wasn’t coming, they were still people who were willing to do things, and at the least, they would finish their assigned jobs according to the schedule.

—The problem stemmed from Donoue’s group who were in the general auxiliary department. They often hung out together, and would simply gather in the audiovisual room and become rowdy, not doing any of their work. If it was only up to this level, then things were still fine. Although there began to be delays in work, Kajiura was able to reorganise people from other departments to help out, and then transition Basara or Tachibana to assist the student council. The jobs and schedule would then be changed, so that the troublesome jobs could be completed successfully.

However, on a certain day one week before the sports festival.

“—What the hell is this!”

After school, the roar of Kajiura Rikka’s voice echoed within the AV classroom which had become the headquarters of the sports festival organising committee. She slammed a piece of paper onto the desk, as she angrily glared at the leader of the Mio faction, Donoue. In fact, today the people of the Mio faction were being noisy and fooling around because Mio was absent, but now the attention of the entire classroom was focused over here.

“S-Senpai…”

said Tachibana worriedly as he followed behind her. Because Sakazaki, who was responsible for supervision was absent from the classroom due to staff meetings, he was afraid that there would be a conflict between Kajiura and the third year Donoue in the classroom.

“Ah? Why are you yelling for no good reason, Vice-President?”

Donoue asked after he looked up from his phone’s LCD as he was playing games with his friends on their phones.

“I’m asking you what this debit invoice is!”

What Kajiura had brought over was a purchase debit invoice that didn’t exist in the records of the accounting department. It had suddenly appeared in the mail today.

“I just called on the phone to ask, it was your purchase, Donoue-senpai.”

That debit invoice was from a fireworks shop — every year, the school used a well-known supplier of fireworks. In order to purchase materials for the sports festival, the person first needed to consult with the accounting department beforehand, and then after getting a receipt for the purchase, they would present the receipt to finish the procedure. If it wasn’t urgent, not even one Yen couldn’t be spent without permission. Thus, since Donoue didn’t get permission from the accounting department, it was already a major violation, and —

“Two hundred thousand… using that much money to buy fireworks, what were you thinking!”

Kajiura’s voice was trembling with anger, yet Donoue still lazily smiled as he said

“I was surprised, I didn’t expect that fireworks were that expensive. But we fire off several fireworks at the evening party after the sports festival every year anyway, so buying a little more for us doesn’t matter, right?”

“Stop saying such stupid things! The fireworks at the evening party have always been the responsibility of a factory which has a long relationship with our school; they sell us their remaining stock from the summer fireworks season at a lower price!”

“Ah? I didn’t know about that thing…since it’s so important, why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“! …In short, please take this invoice and cancel everything immediately!”

“It can’t be cancelled. That shop’s jisan said that it can’t be cancelled.”

“W-Why can’t it be cancelled?”

“Because their shaped fireworks are completely custom-made per order. He said that the kanji for [Mio (漆)] was too complicated, so it needed to be changed to [MIO]; it looks like that famous old shop had nothing that they couldn’t do. They had time to say that they were some pure fireworks masters, so how couldn’t I help myself from trying to make some progress?”

Seeing Donoue in front of her, smiling with contempt, Kajiura’s anger flared up again, and she shouted

“Don’t fuck around! Since you can’t cancel it, you, senpai, will be responsible for paying for it!” “Huh? What kind of reasoning is that…I didn’t understand it at all?”

Donoue stood up, and unrelentingly stared into Kajiura’s eyes as she shrunk back while he said

“Right now, shouldn’t the organising committee president be responsible? I bought it with the good intention of making the sports festival more fun, and yet you’re evading responsibility already? In order to help you prepare this super boring sports festival that you wanted, we’ve stayed back every day for a significant amount of time, put up with your little tantrums, and helped you do your work, ok? Also, this the last sports festival for us third years, so if the result isn’t ok, then it isn’t ok; whatever I say, you disagree to…aren’t you second years too authoritative? Just because you’re a part of the student council, it doesn’t mean all these school activities are for yourselves.”

Donoue’s words, which Kajiura couldn’t understand momentarily, left her stunned speechless. …For ourselves…? As the vice-president, and president of the organising committee, she had to make sure that it was a successful sports festival — Kajiura thought that she was always dedicated and hardworking with this kind of passion, but Donoue’s words completely denied her efforts and passion. Kajiura really wanted to retort, but was unable to speak. It was because she was afraid that it wouldn’t be words which left her mouth, but whimpers. But at that time —

“—Excuse me senpai, can you take back what you just said?”

It was a quiet voice, spoken towards Donoue in Kajiura’s place — the owner of the voice, was already standing in front of Donoue.

Toujou Basara regretted his own judgement. Kajiura had hoped that aside from when he would interact with Mio or Yuki, he would avoid having to get close to Donoue or Hozumi, so as to avoid unnecessary problems. As for this matter, the organising committee president who was responsible for the sports festival should have stepped forward to restrain them, but Kajiura herself had spent a lot of effort just to deal with the third year Donoue, so Basara had held himself back as he observed the situation.

…But I was wrong. I should have known that this would happen; when we were behind the school building before, I should’ve taught them a lesson. If I could’ve stopped them from giving Mio bad ideas back then, Donoue wouldn’t have joined the organising committee, and Kajiura wouldn’t have had to suffer from these hateful insults.

Moreover…Donoue’s stupidity made it difficult not to doubt his mental state. If he really was being manipulated, it could be related to the attack from the other day. The enemy had the ability to manipulate the consciousness of others, and there was also a possibility that they were someone related to Hijirigasaka Academy. Although they only used surveillance to signify their presence since that day, there was no guarantee that they weren’t using Donoue as a trap or to stir up trouble. —Of course, the enemy could also be Donoue. Hasegawa had mentioned before; human jealousy — especially men, could be complicated enough to cause problems. Their favourite Mio was living together with Basara, which was already enough to turn their jealousy into hatred, and they wanted to cause harm to Basara. In any case, in his mind, there was undoubtedly a malice which couldn’t be ignored. So —

“Hey…what kind of nonsense are you saying out of nowhere?”

Basara faced Donoue’s fierce, intimidating glare and said

“Didn’t you hear it properly? — I told you take back what you just said to Kajiura-senpai.”

This caused both Kajiura and Tachibana to gasp, as the atmosphere within the AV classroom suddenly tensed up. While the followers of the Mio faction were all stunned in silence, the sound of laughter erupted within the classroom — it was from Donoue.

“Ha! Haha! Hahahahahaha! Ah, so that’s what it was—”

Donoue suddenly swung his right fist out across the desk. He seemed to have some fighting experience, and planned to strike first, as he aimed a surprise attack at Basara’s face. But—

“!——?”

Basara caught his fist with his left hand, and Donoue’s expression was frozen in surprise. Basara then narrowed his eyes, as he silently gripped Donoue’s fist.

“Uh! Aaahhh! Y-You guys…!”

Donoue’s face suddenly went pale as he groaned in pain, but Basara didn’t loosen his grip, then —

“This damn guy…!” “Very well, Toujou!”

Two people from the Mio faction came at him from the left and right. Basara relaxed his upper body, then evaded the punch coming from his right and swept his foot out — that person instantly tripped past Basara as he flipped around in the air.

“—Ah!”

“Kuhh!”

Then his heel slammed into the shoulder of the person on his left, and the two of them fell onto the ground together. A crowd gathered from all over the place to find out what had happened, and in the process of all this, Toujou Basara’s ice cold eyes didn’t leave Donoue for even a moment. Finally, he said in a low, but clear voice

“—Take it back.”

“Hm…bastard…”

Although his face had reddened from his fist which was being clenched, Donoue still didn’t back down. Suddenly, Sakazaki, who seemed to have finished his meeting, opened the door and walked into the AV classroom.

“Hm — what are you guys doing?”

“……Nothing.”

After saying that, Basara slowly released his hand, with his eyes still fixed on Donoue.

“——!”

Donoue then withdrew his right hand as he glared furiously at Basara, but he didn’t dare to cause trouble in front of Sakazaki, and very quickly led the group of people from the Mio faction out of the AV classroom. Watching them, Sakazaki sighed helplessly, and then reverted to his cheerful smile to say

“All right, quickly get back to work. The sports festival is only in one week, so there’s no time to play!”

This caused the people who were watching on the sidelines to disperse and return to doing their own thing. Sakazaki should have known about what happened, so he turned around —

“Ah…Toujou, could you come over with me?”

With a wry smile, he called Basara.

After exiting the AV classroom, Basara followed Sakazaki up to the rooftop.

“Autumn really has arrived…”

Sakazaki said while his back was against the railing as he turned his head to look out at the distant scenery. In the park next to the school, the maple leaves bathed in the soft light of the setting sun appeared a brighter shade of red. Gazing downwards, the various sports clubs could be seen exercising in each corner of the school, working up a sweat.

—Before leaving the AV classroom, Basara apologised to Kajiura in the stiff atmosphere of the room. Her reply was “Nevermind…” However, Donoue’s words would have been no small blow to her; her expression was miserable, and tears could be seen from the corners of her eyes. Seeing Basara with his head lowered in silence since he came to the rooftop, Sakazaki said with a wry smile

“I didn’t call you over to yell at you. I just saw that you weren’t calm like you usually are, so I wanted to ask why. Did you want to use the opportunity of an argument with Donoue — to sacrifice yourself, and also expel them from the organising committee?”

Basara didn’t have a reply; he remained silent, which caused Sakazaki to sigh.

“Last time when you were surrounded by Donoue and Hozumi in the schoolyard, you remained calm, why did you get fired up this time?”

“I’m sorry…I knew that senpai disliked me, but—”

Basara looked down as he said

“This time, it wasn’t directed against me, but towards other people and the work of the organising committee…although it just looks like another insult at Kajiura-senpai, I couldn’t stand it.”

“Even if that was the case, letting it out like that isn’t the way.”

“It’s because I think that Donoue-senpai and the others won’t understand so easily…”

That’s right, Hasegawa had told me before.

Basara recalled it as he said

“Everything has a limit…there is a line that cannot be crossed. The sports festival is almost here, if they’re allowed to do as they like at such an important time, everyone will just be dragged down by them. Does sensei want me to silently allow them to cause havoc?”

Hearing that, Sakazaki couldn’t help shaking his head and saying

“I’m not saying that, but a confrontation may not necessarily resolve the situation. You stepped forward to help Kajiura, you have a heart which cares for others, and that really should be encouraged, I can’t say that it’s wrong — but under these circumstances, I can’t say what the most correct approach is.”

You can’t?

“If you really fought, a lot of people would have been suspended, including you; if someone was seriously injured, the sports festival may have even been postponed.”

“But I…”

Even if he said that he calculated things very carefully, and things like that wouldn’t happen, he wouldn’t believe it. So—

“…Then what should I have done?”

Sakazaki replied to Basara’s question with a calm expression

“Let them participate, that’s my decision as a teacher. School doesn’t just focus on an individual’s education, it also needs to teach students the importance of community activities; so the matter with Donoue’s custom-made fireworks this time, it’s something that we teachers didn’t supervise well, so neither you nor Kajiura are responsible, and you shouldn’t blame yourselves for it. Using your own ability to resolve problems aren’t a bad thing, but things which are inconvenient for a student to do should be handled by a teacher…teachers exist for the sake of helping students.”

Sakazaki’s words caused Basara to become silent again. Indeed, he may have lost the composure that he should have had at that time. The attack at the station the other day — the target may have been Basara, and it showed that the people near Basara were at risk of getting caught up in it at any time. Also—

…I still haven’t found out who the culprit is.

Under these circumstances, even if the other party really was taking advantage of the fact that Basara was at school or planned take action when the nearby residents would be around for the sports festival, the magnitude of the casualties that would be caused was unknown.

[[Image:SMnK v04 168.jpg|thumb]]

When Basara thought of the worst possible scenario and felt a moment of extreme anxiety —

“—There’s one thing I’ve always been quite concerned about. Toujou, have you been affected by [her]?”

He suddenly heard Sakazaki’s low voice.

“Her…who do you mean, sensei?”

As his thoughts returned to Basara who had replied in front of him, Sakazaki sighed, and quietly said

“You often go to the infirmary. Toujou…be careful of that woman, Hasegawa Chisato.”

“Eh…be careful of Hasegawa-sensei? What do you mean…?”

The unexpected name aroused Basara’s doubts.

“With the position of the infirmary sensei, it often gives her the opportunity to answer the students’ concerns. She has a calm atmosphere, and is also beautiful; there are a lot of people that have been affected by her words…have you ever talked to her about your problems, sought her advice, or anything like that?”

“Hm, I have…”

…Indeed.

Seeing Basara nod, Sakazaki sighed as he said

“Her advice has a very strong influence…it’s already more than helping people solve problems or counselling, it’s strong to a point that it’s almost like hypnosis or brainwashing.”

“That’s too exaggerated…”

Sakazaki immediately replied to Basara who didn’t believe so.

“No, it’s really not an exaggeration. Of the students who have gone to her for advice, some of them have completely changed their personalities, and some of their parents have even asked the school what happened.”

“That…after having their troubles resolved, they became more confident and cheerful; there’s nothing strange about that is there?”

Basara refuted Sakazaki’s words with a slightly dissatisfied tone. —Till now, there were already several occasions where Basara had listened to Hasegawa’s advice and felt more at ease as a result. Thanks to her advice, he was able to protect Mio and Yuki, and in several difficult fights, she was the reason why Basara was able to survive. So speaking ill of Hasegawa really made people feel unpleasant, but…

“If it was a positive change, then parents wouldn’t be so worried that they’d call the school up, right? The students which have made their parents worry all have a few things in common; such as being extremely over-confident, justifying their own actions, trying to do everything on their own, and completely ignoring the words of their family—”

Or—

“—Ignoring everyone around them, and showing an abnormal obsession for some people.”

“Obsession…that still doesn’t mean…”

“Correct…this is something that happened before you transferred here. Donoue and Hozumi have both approached Hasegawa-sensei and asked her for advice. They call Naruse or Nonaka [Princess], and have made an idol group fan club in recent years, which only happened after that.”

“There was such a thing…”

Basara couldn’t help saying that as he was shocked.

“Let me ask you…the previous times that you’ve spoken to her, has anything backfired or been unacceptable? If my guess is correct, I’m afraid there’s none, right?”

Basara answered Sakazaki’s question with silence. The answer was certain. Indeed, for all of Hasegawa’s advice so far, Basara never refused it, and tried it out. Sakazaki then said with a serious tone

“So far, you’ve naturally done as she’s said…which is very strange. No matter how popular a teacher is, they’ll still have experience in dealing with students’ problems, this is a teacher’s fate. After all, our school has so many students, so there’ll definitely be some personality conflicts, and it’s impossible to satisfy everyone.”

Sakazaki continued

“But only Haswgawa-sensei doesn’t have any negative complaints or gossip. Of course, there are actually some people who are loved by everyone, but her beauty is incredible, and her body is good as well…someone as striking as her will surely attract a group of fanatical admirers, and at the same time will also generate a lot of criticism by others, right?”

A god with absolute authority; although each religion worshipped differently, it was impossible for someone to obtain everyone’s favour.

“She’s a little older than you, so she should be quite attractive in your eyes. Attraction in that regard can very easily lead to problems between students and teachers, but Hasegawa-sensei hasn’t had any of these problems. Everyone thinks that she’s a peerless beauty, and also a kind woman who’s willing to help students with their problems; but it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone who has any strong feelings against her.”

Sakazaki adjusted his voice, a continued

“Toujou, the biggest problem is…no one feels that there’s anything strange; it’s almost as if she’s using some kind of magic to prevent anything disadvantageous from happening to herself.”

Basara couldn’t help but gasp. Not allowing anything disadvantageous to happen to Hasegawa — if that was true, he needed to avoid letting the incident where the two of them crossed the boundary between student and teacher at her house from being exposed, as that would prevent her from teaching; Basara would be the problem that she would eliminate first. Also — it was after leaving Hasegawa’s house that day that Basara was attacked.

“………”

Seeing Basara’s face turn pale, Sakazaki scratched his cheek with a wry smile as he said

“Ah, sorry…I didn’t mean to scare you. I carelessly took it too far.”

“……It doesn’t matter. I just did something that made sensei worry, I’m sorry.”

Basara managed to squeeze out a quiet voice as he lowered his head to apologise.

“You don’t need to apologise — it’s just that, Toujou, you’re one of the students in my class; so I want to protect you as a teacher, and I don’t want to see you getting into any unnecessary trouble. I hope you can understand.”

Sakazaki’s hand went *pyak* as he put his hand on the silent Basara’s shoulder, then said

“Leave Donoue and the others to me for now — I definitely won’t let them mess around.”

After saying that, Sakazaki cheerfully smiled again.