While walking through the hallway, the two friends came across one of the few foreign students enrolled in the school and the current leader of the Student Council, Xenovia Quarta, "Ah. We finally found you, Hase-san, Kiryuu-san."
"Good afternoon, President and Nakiri-san." Hase greeted them, including the current secretary of Student Council who is a young man with pale-blond slicked back hair, Ouryuu Nakiri, "Do you need us for something?"
"We finished our meeting early and wanted to discuss more urgent issues.", answered Ouryuu, "And that urgent issue happens to be the deteriorating security for our female students. So if you don't mind, we'd like to hear more of your opinion."
Xenovia smiled wryly and added, "I'm sorry. Since we couldn't just ask you to come to the Student Council room without any prior arrangements, we went out in hopes of catching up with either of you. This is also a sensitive topic, so I also understand if you don't want to talk about that incident since you two were victims of it."
Hase and Aika looked at each other and confirmed that they are okay with it, "...If we could help, we don't mind."
"Thank you."
After that, Hase and Aika were invited to the Student Council room to sit. It took about half an hour of discussion to convey everything Hase and Aika wanted to convey. Thanks to Xenovia's gallant aura and the presence of her friend, the timid Hase was able to get everything off her chest, significantly helping her current psyche that had been greatly disturbed during the forceful invitation by some delinquents.
"That's everything. Thank you for your time.", Xenovia arranged her notes, intending to end the sudden meeting there. But Aika was curious and asked, "If you don't mind me asking, what sort of actions are you going to take knowing all of this?"
"We'll discuss everything with the Moral Guidance Department since the manpower that will do most of the patrol would be coming from them. But for now, we will be posting an advisory regarding this and contacting the other schools for this problem. If necessary, we'll also ask for the cooperation of the local law enforcement. Though, I don't want this issue to reach that point since that only causes unnecessary fear, not just for the students, but also for the parents."
Ouryuu, on the other hand, remained silent while looking at his own notes, 'Including them, there are already more than 10 of these kinds of incidents happening. This isn't just an emerging trend, but a sudden spike. Most likely, it was done by someone on that other side. Normally, we would already hand this task over to the Gremory House since this town is their territory, but with so many forces already gathering here, their forces are already stretched thin, so it looks like we'll have to take care of this ourselves.'
'But seriously... Who is this woman?' Ouryuu stopped thinking about the current issue and stole a glance to Aika, 'It wasn't obvious before, but now that I'm sitting with her like this, where is this terrifying aura coming from? The President and Vice President told me to not mind her and don't even bother her, but my curiosity is killing me... Is it really safe or wise to leave someone like this alone?'
Aika caught his glance and asked, "Is something the matter?"
Ouryuu panicked a little bit but immediately shook his head, "No. I'm sorry for staring. I'm just thinking of something."
At this moment, the door to the Student Council Room suddenly swung open and the worn-out Vice President entered, "Ahhhhh... Urahara is too much of a slave driver... I'm sorry that I'm late." It was also only then that he realized that there were other people inside the room and Genshirou immediately rearranged his appearance and greeted them, "Good afternoon to you, Hase-san, Kiryuu-san. I didn't know you were here."
But as soon as he looked at Xenovia's face, who seemed to be reprimanding him, Genshirou realized it, 'Hmm... Kiryuu?... Wait... Kiryuu is here!?' His thought process was revealed through his facial expression, 'Crap... Is it fine to mention Urahara's name here?' he sent a questioning glance at Xenovia but the latter only nervously stared at Aika.
With her heightened detection ability, Aika should have already noticed Xenovia's weird stare but the moment she heard 'Urahara', she shuddered and a sudden and inexplicable rage sprung up from within her. Along with it, however, was the feeling of loneliness and longing. Despite this, she tried her best to maintain her expression and asked, "This is the first time I've seen the Vice President complain about someone so wholeheartedly. Urahara was it? I'm really curious to who that is."
Genshirou managed to reel in his expression and was able to think about his reply properly, "He's a friend who asked me to join one of his projects for the college. I thought it'd be good for my record so I did it, but I'm regretting it now."
"Heh... Sounds like an interesting person. You should introduce me next time."
Genshirou thought that it would be weird to reject her so he nodded his head, "Sure. Next time."
Aika judged that she won't be getting anything out of him anymore and returned her attention to Xenovia and stood up, "I forgot that I still have something to do so I'd like to take my leave first."
Xenovia also stood up and approached her, "I see, then I can't hold you back anymore. Thank you for your time. We were able to learn a lot of things."
"Happy to help~."
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Aika thought that she was walking aimlessly, but before she knew it, she, once again, arrived at the park not very far from her place, 'Looks like this is my go-to place when I'm feeling uncomfortable.'
Finding herself a bench far from the noise, Aika heaved a huge sigh and leaned back while massaging the temple of her head, 'Just what's going on? Who is this Urahara? I'm angry and feeling sad just because I heard a name? That doesn't make any sense.'
Once she'd calmed down, Aika tried to recall the earlier interaction as best as she could to analyze the situation without her uncontrollable emotions hampering her judgment, 'Even though Saji responded with a perfectly normal answer, the expression he had when he mentioned Urahara seemed strange. It's as if he knew he made a mistake after seeing me.'
But no matter how much she wracked her head over this instance, she couldn't think of any plausible conclusions, 'As expected, I won't be able to think of anything without any details. However, I can assume that something is happening involving me without any of my knowledge. Just what did I forget? Haahhh... My head hurts.'
While facing up and having her forearm on her eyes, Aika suddenly heard a familiar voice calling out to her, "You're too young to let out a sigh like that."
Aika fixed her posture and saw a beautiful tall lady with long black hair, wearing a baggy white sweatshirt, tight jeans, and a gray baseball cap, carrying some groceries, "You are..."
The lady smiled and said, "We meet again, high school girl. Right, I forgot to introduce myself last time." Extending her hand, the lady introduced herself, "Nice to meet you again. I'm Urahara Benihime."