[Chapter 11: It's just the student council president.]
Lunch break arrived.
I usually use this time for my inner delusions to roam free, plotting scenarios in my head as I silently eat on the corner. However, I can already see my classmates not giving me peace, making me unable to do so.
They just keep on approaching me and asking questions as if an interrogation was occurring on my desk. Even students from the other class are starting to get curious from the commotion.
Well, guess this is also quite telling that after unequipping my "Phantom attire", I'm no longer being feared and was able to blend in with the class pretty well if they kept approaching me like that.
This does make me feel that I am somewhat one step closer to achieving my goal of being a real shadow hero this time around.
So when I saw the chance, I slipped away from the interrogation, bringing along my lunchbox with me.
It's to avoid encountering questions that might relate me to my shadow hero identity as "Phantom". You'll never know if they'll see through my act or have a slip of the tongue if the placed me on hot seat. Better to be safe than sorry is what people may say.
After escaping from the classroom. I'm now heading to my secret base A.K.A the rooftop.
I started regularly eating there from the moment I found out that the rooftop's lock doesn't work, so it was always open 24/7.
About during the second week or so after school started, I came across to that place, discovering that the doorknob was broken. Since then, I claimed it as my own and has become my special place to kill time away from my enemies(disruption) where I can eat my lunch in peace.
Even though I'm used to people staring, it's still embarrassing for someone watching me eat. Aside from that, I could say that I played the role of a perfect side character quite well.
"Ku ha ha ha, I got them all fooled. They totally bought that I'm just a normal person." [Note: He is a normal person(?)]
"Kukuku, as expected of myself."
Initially, I wanted to eat in the classroom to make it even more perfect. However, my classmates just keep on asking too many questions. I didn't want them asking questions about anything that might relate me "Phantom", the hero who dwells in the shadows. So some sacrifices have to be made because, again, Phantom, as of now is a secret from the masses.' It was for me to play the role of a true shadow hero.
As I was lost in thought thinking how well I roleplayed as a normal student, I climb up the stairs leading to the rooftop.
But, ...there's something ...or should I say someone I didn't expect to be meeting...
As I work my way up the stairs, a figure of a person becomes more and more visible as they come into view.
It was a figure of a girl standing firmly on top of the stairs. With her long silky black hair that extends all the way down to her hips, a book mark looking accessory tied on the side of her hair in thin braids, our eyes accidentally met as I gazed on her midway through the steps, and she gazed down on me as she elegantly stood there at the peak.
Those piercing gaze that she gave with her deep violet eyes, I realized it was a face I all too well recognize.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, as gusts of wind blew on her hair, coming from a broken window on the wall that separates the staircase to the rooftop.
'It's the student council president!'
[Yukiya has encountered a natural enemy.]
Yes, it was the student council president "Shiori Hikaruno".
"Hey, I asked what you are doing here? This place is off limits to students. No one should be allowed to come here."
For now, let's act dumb until I know her motives.
"Ah-, s-sorry!" side character acting on*
'Why is she here..? Did she come here to arrest Phantom!? Why else would anyone wait there in front of my secret base.'
This side of the building is practically abandoned, so there's barely anyone who comes by here. I could only conclude that this being an ambush.
In contrast to shadow heroes that operates in the shadows, the student council are those who operate in the light. They work with the law to deliver justice, while shadow heroes deliver their own sense of justice. In short, we're two sides of the same coin, working towards on goal but with different means and ideals. In other words, my natural enemy. [He's exaggerating.]
"Then state what you have come here for."
She told me, intimidating me with her fierce gazing eyes.
"Um, I came here to eat lunch. See..."
I showed her the lunchbox along with other stuff that I was holding.
'For now let's play it off that I didn't know anything about this place(secret base).'
"Not on the rooftop I assume?" Again, she warned me with intimidation in her eyes.
"Oh, No No No! I came here to eat my lunch just sitting on these stairs, I only came here because it's quiet" [Technically not a lie.]
'That was close, I almost revealed to her I entered the secret base frequently. She might connect it with Phantom.'
"Fine, go ahead. But only on the stairs. And no going to the rooftop. Got that?" She warned me again.
"Y-Yes... Thanks..."
With her permission, I took a seat on the stairs and opened my lunchbox as promised.
'Luckily she let me eat here, I really don't want to go back to eat in the classroom.'
As I sat there, already eating my lunch, I asked senpai a question.
"So senpai, why are you guarding the rooftop?" I asked while munching on my lunch.
'Let's find out her true motives. This could be an ambush to catch me... It's to catch me right? Right?' [He seems excited.]
The reason I called her senpai was, here, in Hokkyokusei High, there's a color coding system to identify which year level we're in. We wear color coded ribbon for the girls and neckties for the boys. The first years have the color blue, while the second years wear the color red, and black for the third years.
Replying to my question, Senpai answered "Actually, before the summer break, we keep getting reports that there was a weirdo that keeps coming in and out of the rooftop during lunch break."
"A weirdo?" I mumbled allowed while still eating.
'So it wasn't me?' I somehow felt disappointed.
"Yes, do you know anything about him?"
I put my hand on my chin, tilted my head thinking deeply about the matter.
'Hm... The only person I know who enters in and out of the rooftop was me so who could that other person be... Is the weirdo actually a spy that was sent to collect information about me, Phantom?!' I thought to myself, lost in my delusions.
Now that I think about it, recently, I felt like I'm being watched by someone, so maybe that's the guy the student council was trying to catch? [The weirdo himself] [Pretending to have a secret stalker/spy/assassin.]
"No... I don't think I do."
"Are you sure? Apparently he wears this strange outfit that seemed to be a very altered version of our school uniform, he has overly grown bangs almost covering all of his face. They said he was pretty hard to miss."
"So there's another?" I mumbled aloud
"What do you mean?" President Shiori inquired.
"Oh, nothing."
Words accidentally slipped out of my mouth from thinking too deeply who could the suspect, but luckily senpai didn't pay much mind to it.