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“What the hell is this…?” Iori asked, incredulously, an incredibly confused look adorning her face.
“Some sort of leaderboard? What are all these names and rankings?” Chinatsu stood next to her, also staring at the board in front of them.
The two were meant to meet up with Ako at a general clubhouse for students of all academies. It was a fairly new location, in the area near Schale, giving every student a place to relax and enjoy themselves with those from other academies without it being an official building like Schale was.
Suddenly someone spoke up right beside them. “It’s our Kivotos-wide competition, the Senseibowl!”
“Ah!” Iori jolted from the girl’s sudden appearance, before blinking as she stared at her. “You’re from Trinity, aren’t you?”
Chinatsu leaned forward to look at the girl. “Senseibowl? You mean it involves Sensei?”
The girl nodded. “Yes I am! Urawa Hanako, from the Remedial Class Club.” Introducing herself with a smile, Hanako then looked over to Chinatsu. “Mhmm, a few of us had been wondering something about him involving all of us, namely…”
She was then interrupted by another girl who approached them. “Who would become his romantic partner.”
Iori and Chinatsu quickly turned to her, eyes wide. “EH!? What do you mean, romantic partner!?” The former asked in shock.
“Natsu’s right! We had been wondering who among us was closer to Sensei, and some from other academies overheard us and gave us their own opinions, so we decided to come up with a competition!” Hanako explained.
“That’s ridiculous! How can you make a competition out of something like that!?” The Prefect Team Captain glared at them.
“At first we didn’t know how to measure it, until the girls from Millennium’s Game Development Department came along.” Natsu responded, before turning to look over to one of the TVs, where the aforementioned girls were playing a game. “Momoi, Midori, can you come over?”
“I’ll go! Alice, take over for me!” Momoi called out to her club partner as she handed her the controller she was using. She then stood up and ran over to the group. “What’s up?” She then looked at Iori and Chinatsu, and then at the board. “Oh! Is this about the Senseibowl?”
Chinatsu placed a hand on Iori’s shoulder to keep her from shouting any further. “Yes, could you explain how exactly this works?”
Momoi let out a proud huff. “Of course! Midori and I decided that the best way to set this up would be with various categories, but we couldn’t pull the same cliché romantic stuff, it’s still a game!” She pointed at the top of the board. “You can see them over there!”
Chinatsu looked up at the board, and proceeded to read the categories. “Overall leader, point score, academy scores, deployment frequency…” She then started to blush as she looked at the next category. “Cl-Closest to sleeping with Sensei..?”
Iori immediately turned to the board as she heard that, her face turning red as well. “What?! Who came up with that?!”
Hanako raised her hand. “I did~ After all, if we're talking about romance, we need to discuss something like that.”
“Wh… No, you don’t! Are you some sort of pervert like him?!”
“Kuhuhu, why are you so embarrassed about that? Is the Prefect Captain that chaste~?” A teasing voice came from behind her.
“Wha?” Iori turned to look at Mutsuki. “Why am I not surprised that someone from Problem Solver is involved here?”
The girl giggled. “Oh, I’m only here to give some info about what Sensei does with Aru~ You should have seen her face when she found out about this!”
Chinatsu looked at her as she spoke, before turning to Natsu and Hanako. “How many people know about this, exactly?”
Hanako tapped her chin with a finger as she pondered her question. “I lost count long ago. There are quite a few from Trinity, even some from the Justice Committee.” The last part caused Chinatsu’s eyes to grow wide.
Momoi added to Hanako’s explanation. “Almost every club at Millennium is interested. Veritas and the Maid Club especially.”
“Oh, are we talking about the Senseibowl?” Nonomi peeked from behind a wall before approaching the group.
“Even Abydos?” Chinatsu looked over to Iori. “I’m starting to think we were the only ones not aware of this.”
“Nonomi was actually one of the founders of the Senseibowl, her info has been very helpful in the rankings.” Momoi explained.
That caused Iori to stare suspiciously at Nonomi. “Have you been stalking Sensei?”
“Stalking is such an ugly word, I’ve just been keeping an eye on him and making sure he’s safe~” Nonomi responded with an ever so innocent smile.
“Right...” The captain didn’t seem convinced by her words at all.
“Well… I guess this is ultimately harmless, right? It’s still gossiping, but it should still be safe… I hope.” Chinatsu commented, receiving a few nods from the other girls. She then started to look at the board once again. “I also can’t say I’m not interested, so why don’t we look at this?”
Iori stared back incredulously at Chinatsu. “Really? You too?” She eventually let out a defeated sigh. “Fine.
They then proceeded to look at the leaderboard, starting from the bottom. It was easy to see that they were including almost every girl in Kivotos in that competition, but many of them were at the bottom with only a question mark on the scoring, due to a lack of info on their relationship with Sensei.
Eventually though they got to the names with actual scores and positions, and one of the first names in that part immediately caused a reaction.
“Why am I almost at the bottom?!” Iori suddenly shouted.
“Huh?” Hanako seemed confused over her question, before looking at the scoring. “Oh, well, from what we know, your academy scores are alright, and you’re deployed by Sensei quite regularly, but well… I guess you’re not that into him?”
“W-What is that supposed to mean?!” Her face was almost fully covered by her blush at this point.
“Oh. Oh my, I didn’t know you were that kind of person, Iori~” Mutsuki suddenly appeared beside her, a wide smirk on her face.
“What? What kind of person?”
“The kind of person to hide their feelings about someone they like.” She giggled. “Always so angry at them, but just a façade!” Her smile grew. “What was that called again…a tsu…tsun…? Oh, yeah, a tsundere!”
Somehow, Iori’s face grew even redder. “What!? You think I’d have feelings for that pervert!?”
“Hahaha! I knew it!” Mutsuki laughed, before smirking as she found herself with a rifle pointed right at her face. “Hey, hey, there’s a rule against fighting in here~”
“Yeah well I’m dragging you back to Gehenna when we leave!” Iori shouted before she was pushed to lower her gun by Chinatsu.
“Calm down. Last thing we want is to raise trouble on our first time here.”
That caused the Prefect Captain to sigh in frustration as she put her gun away. “Fine!”
The two continued to look at the leaderboard, and continued to find familiar names. The girls from Abydos were reasonably high up, with Nonomi ranking at the top of the five. Aru from Problem Solver 68 was up there, but Mutsuki was much higher than her.
“Why am I not surprised that you’re also this high up?” Iori glared towards the explosives expert.
“And such a high rank in… That category, too…” Chinatsu added, her blush having returned.
“I’ve seen how Sensei reacts to my teasing~” Mutsuki replied, that smirk having returned to her face. “It’s such a shame that our dear Aru is so adorable, but can’t muster that much interest.” She let out a sigh that couldn’t sound any faker. “Our grades are what screw us over, though.”
Chinatsu was still reading the leaderboard, on the other hand, and soon started to blush again. “Ah… Here I am.”
Iori looked at her and then at where she was in the rankings. “Geez, are you THAT into him? How did any information about you get here, anyway?”
“Th-That’s not important!” Chinatsu quickly responded. “Besides, there are many more ahead of me, as you can see.” She pointed out the ones immediately ahead of her. “Hasumi and Yuuka… Curiously we were three of the first ones at Schale.”
Iori looked over the names. “Hayase Yuuka… Isn’t that the one managing Schale’s finances?”
“Even that unfeeling accountant has her claws all over Sensei, it’s not fair!” Momoi pouted, her arms crossing. “Somehow, him having to help us fight against her didn’t make him feel differently about her, can you believe it? She wanted to throw out all of our consoles and games!”
Chinatsu chuckled lightly at her. “Ahaha… I’m sure he has his reasons, maybe he talked it over with her afterwards?”
“That doesn’t matter! She still kept coming after us even after we succeeded. Even started saying that the Senseibowl isn’t a valid club activity!” Momoi then tilted her head. “She did stop bothering us ever since she found out, though…”
“Sounds like she is interested in this as well, then.”
“Hey, what the hell?” Iori suddenly interrupted the two before pointing at a name slightly below Chinatsu’s. “Trinity’s Justice Committee’s president is that high!?”
Tsurugi’s name was indeed right there, near the top 10, and the points she had were quite above the average across all categories.
“Ah, I’m guessing you’re not that familiar with Tsurugi.” Hanako spoke up. “I can’t say I’ve seen her much, but whenever I spot her with Sensei, she’s like a completely different person. It’s quite adorable to see~”
“KYAAAAAAAAAK!” The sudden scream caused them all to jump as the running form of Tsurugi suddenly burst out of the clubhouse through the door.
“What… The hell…?” Iori blinked as she stared at the still swaying door.
“Ah, I’m sorry, we overheard your conversation and…that happened.” Hasumi suddenly stepped forward towards them.
Nonomi started to smirk at her. “Oh? I thought you weren’t interested in the Senseibowl, though~”
Hasumi coughed lightly into her hand. “That doesn’t mean anything. I don’t need to know whether I’m closer to Sensei than others or not.”
Chinatsu sighed. “Hasumi, you know I’m here, right? You don’t need to lie like that.”
“Regardless.” The black-winged girl interrupted her. “Don’t mind the president, outbursts like that are not abnormal.”
“If you say so…” Chinatsu responded before looking at the board again, while Hasumi returned to the table she was sitting at. “There are quite a few Trinity girls near the top here, as I can see…” She commented, noticing Hifumi and Azusa’s names. “And then there’s Karin.” That didn’t sound like a surprise to her.
“The situation involving Arius might have caused that. Azusa is deployed very often ever since she applied for Schale, and Sensei helps us at the Remedial Class Club a lot, so it only makes sense~”
“But despite all of that, no one seems to be able to get close to… her .” Natsu added, pointing up to the name at the very top, causing Chinatsu and Iori to finally look at who was in first place…
‘Sorasaki Hina’.
“WHAT?! How is the Head Prefect all the way there?!” Iori’s eyes were wide open as she stared in shock at the board.
“Number 1 in academy scores, top 10 in deployment… E-Even number 1 in that category..?” Chinatsu read over the scores the Head Prefect had in the competition.
“This has to be a joke, how is she in number 1 like that?”
“Well, the president has been in the lead for quite a long time. The recent rise in some of those Trinity girls hasn’t even come close to dethroning her.” The voice of Ako came from a nearby couch, causing Iori and Chinatsu to look over to her.
“A-Ako?! When did you get here?!” The former asked.
“Have you already forgotten we were supposed to meet here? I’ve been here this whole time.”
“Oh, right…” Iori rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment.
“Wait, Ako, have you been aware of this?” Chinatsu pointed towards the board.
“Oh she’s been a part of this ever since she first came here!” Nonomi spoke up. “She’s been the best source of information, especially regarding Hina!”
That caused Iori to turn towards Ako and squint at her. “Ako…”
Chinatsu looked worriedly at the secretary. “Does the Head Prefect know about this..?”
She quickly shook her head. “Oh absolutely not, and if she did, we'd all be in big trouble.”
Iori rested her hands on her hips. “What do you mean? We only just learned about this! You’re the one involved in it!”
“And now that you know about it, you’re also involved. And don’t lie, you both are interested, Chinatsu even said it. Do you really want to risk having to write letters of apology to her…especially for something like this?”
“Urk…” That killed Iori’s argument.
“Still, how is she so far ahead?” Chinatsu asked.
“Well… The president had been spending time with Sensei quite often in the past, even compared to some others.” Ako started.
Then Mutsuki gave her own comment. “I’ve even seen her with him as his bodyguard a few times!”
Ako cleared her throat to get through the interruption. “Yes, that’s also true.” She then continued. “But like the Trinity girls, the situation with Arius benefited her a lot. She did save his life, after all.”
“Now that I think about it…” Chinatsu started to ponder. “She did disappear after that, didn’t she? And reappeared just as suddenly, too.”
"That is better left unmentioned, Chinatsu.” Ako sternly warned. “But yes, I mentioned that the president and Sensei had had a bit of a moment together.”
“You mean Hina unlocked a special cutscene with Sensei?” Alice suddenly called out from the couch she was sitting at with Midori.
“Alice! Don’t just say it like that!” Midori chided the girl, who grew confused at her reaction.
“But isn’t that part of the quest towards Sensei’s heart?”
“It still makes it sound like it’s bigger than what she means!”
Momoi suddenly cut in. “Don’t mind her.” She said before running back to her club partners.
The Prefect Team trio simply stared at the Game Development girls before Iori spoke up again. “Speaking of the president, where is she?”
Ako looked up at her. “What do you mean? Isn’t she at the office?”
The captain shook her head. “No, the office was empty when we went there, and we couldn’t find her anywhere at Gehenna.”
That seemed to intrigue the secretary. “I guess I can try and reach her.” Pulling out her phone and opening MomoTalk, she proceeded to message the Head Prefect.
“Ooh, maybe she’s with Sensei now!” Nonomi commented with a giggle.
“Oh my, with a sudden disappearance, I can only wonder what they’re up to…” Hanako started pondering.
“Making her big move when we’re all here, distracted!” Mutsuki added her own thoughts.
Iori quickly stopped their guessing. “Hey! Don’t start thinking about anything ridiculous! The president has much more to do than what any of you can think of. Maybe she went out on a mission.”
“Huh.” Ako suddenly spoke again as she looked at her phone. “It seems she’s at Schale right now.”
That caused quite a few heads to turn. “What?” Was Iori’s only response.
“But this early? I had left the office with her planning to work late into the night…” Ako was talking more to herself than anything else.
Then a ‘ding’ came from her phone, and she looked at it again, and this time her expression turned serious. “Wh-What?”
Chinatsu started to grow nervous as she looked at the secretary. “Ako? Did something happen? Is it an emergency?” At the same time, Tsurugi had returned to the clubhouse, stumbling towards the table she had left Hasumi alone at.
Ako shook her head. “No… Well, kind of… It’s just…”
She gulped. “It seems…the president…has spent the night at Schale.”
The entire clubhouse suddenly went quiet. If not for the sound of the Game Development trio’s game, and the once again swinging door, one could hear a pin drop, as if in anticipation for what was about to come from almost everyone in the building.
“WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?!”