My 'hidden' influence expands with frightening speed. Every lowlife with a grudge, every wannabe player in the school's underbelly gets mysteriously handed the information they need to further the chaos. Tanaka and Kenji, locked in a desperate struggle for survival, are puppets in a play they didn't even know they were cast in.
Or so I thought.
"Clever, isn't it?" Megumi's voice crackles from the other end of the phone. We've taken to these late-night strategy sessions, a necessity born from the fact that even whispered conversations get overheard at school.
"Taking down one pillar at a time," I agree, trying to project confidence I don't entirely feel. Tanaka's men have been spotted extorting shops way outside their usual territory – a desperate gamble that plays right into our hands.
"Not just clever," Megumi says, and there's a pause that crackles with an energy that has nothing to do with gang wars, "You're... impressive."
There's something different in her tone. I've gotten used to her cold analysis, even grudging admiration for particularly convoluted schemes. But this...this feels uncomfortably close to warmth. I struggle to find the right response, caught between pride and a rising sense of unease.
That unease amplifies when I arrive at our next clandestine meeting spot. Megumi's there, as expected, but so is Sakura. She sits a bit away, her nose buried in a textbook, shoulders hunched. The sight sends guilt coiling in my gut once more.
"Sakura-san? What are you doing here?" I try for casual, but it comes out a bit too sharp.
Sakura stammers out an excuse about an upcoming test, but the hurt in her eyes is clear. Megumi, as always, reads the situation faster than I do.
"Don't mind her," she says, a dismissive wave of her hand, "She just tags along sometimes."
"I-I do not!" Sakura protests, but it's a weak echo in the face of Megumi's intensity.
I spend the rest of the 'study session' with my mind buzzing. This isn't what I wanted. The quiet admiration in Sakura's eyes was a warmer kind of power than anything I'd schemed for. And Megumi... well, it's hard to focus on territorial squabbles when she's tossing around veiled compliments and looking at me in ways that make my practiced indifference falter.
This 'Unsung Overlord' thing, it's getting messy in ways my notebooks never prepared me for.
Then Tanaka pulls something that nearly derails everything. In a last-ditch attempt to reclaim control, he orders his men to target the school itself. At first, it's the usual shakedowns – stealing lunch money from terrified first years. But it escalates.
I get the news from Pops, of all people. He seeks me out, face etched with a fear deeper than when those thugs threatened him.
"They broke into the gym last night," he whispers, "Smashed windows, spray-painted those gang symbols everywhere..." His voice trails off, and he looks about a hundred years older than he did a few months ago.
That does it. This isn't some fun game anymore. My desire for shadowy power, for being the puppet master...it crumbles in the face of Pops' despair and the images my mind conjures of vandalized classrooms and terrified students.
Confronting Tanaka head-on isn't an option. That's suicide. But as I lie in bed that night, the gears in my mind begin to turn. There's a different way to break a man desperate to hold onto power – strip him of that power entirely.
The plan is reckless, audacious, and depends heavily on people far more dangerous than me getting the exact message at the exact time. But isn't that what being a mastermind is all about? Taking those insane longshots, making reality bend to your will?
It'll require both Megumi and Sakura's help, whether they like it or not. And judging from the way Sakura glared at Megumi when they left our last meeting, getting them to work together will be a challenge all its own.