For the second time today, I was in the student council's office, under the gaze of Suijin. Unlike the last time however, I was not in trouble. Thankfully, the cleaning of the 3 rooms in the extracurricular branch went smoothly, if you consider burning all debris in sight to a crisp, smoothly. No, this time, I was in the student council office because today was Kami's first day as an official member of the student council. By extension, I went along with her. She seemed to have cooled down considerably, because she didn't toss me any icy glares or try to slice my head off with a frozen axe. She did, however, ignore me. Despite my pitiful attempts to create conversation by asking her about her wand, Kami wouldn't budge, remaining adamant in ignoring me.
Beforehand, the rest of the student council room had been empty. I had assumed it had been because of matters relating to Wand distribution, and if so, it means that me and Erika's little stunt had caused Suijin to have to pull away from her duties; in order to correct us. Great work, Raiden.
Once we walked in, the members of the student council turned to look at us. All except for Genji Yukimura, who looked away indignantly. Ichijo noticed her reaction and smiled teasingly. "Looks like someone's still a bit salty." He raised the pitch of his voice a few octaves to make it come off as more annoying.
Genji replied with a not very nice term, and Suijin looked appalled.
"Genji!"
"Hey, he started it! Tell him to stop being a-"
Suijin cut Genji off before she could drop another horrible term. "As a member of the student council, I expect you to have a bit more maturity.... Both of you." She tossed a glare at Ichijo who had begun to snicker. He straightened in his seat and wiped the smirk off of his face. Suijin turned to us with a sigh, obviously very ashamed of what had just happened. I wasn't too affected by it, as I found the whole situation to be humorous. I could tell Kami felt the same way, even if she refused to show it.
"Good afternoon, president."
"Good afternoon, Suijin." I almost wanted to chide Kami for referring to the student council president by her first name, however Suijin's gaze stopped me. Kami also shot me an icy glare from the side. I believe that it was the first time that she looked at me since we met up after school, and it was to gang up on me with the student council president.
A long silence ensued in which the eyes of each and every student council member turned towards me. Everyone's eyes were on me, and it seemed like they were all expecting something. I was still a bit confused on what exactly they wanted me to do, when I noticed Riko pointing at Suijin.
"Good afternoon.... Suijin." I finally managed to say.
The student council president smiled. "Good afternoon, Raiden, Kami."
Was that really necessary? I thought to myself.
Suijin seemed to have read my mind because she replied. "Yes, yes I believe it was."
***
After she had finished setting the record straight with me, she turned towards Kami. "Welcome to your first official day as a student council member. I apologize for the inconvenience, however we are starting to get really busy, so I can't give you the proper introduction that I wanted to." Suijin expressed her regret at the fact that Kami would have to be rushed into things, instead of being given the chance to flow into rhythm of student council life.
"Now worries, I can keep up." Kami said confidently.
Suijin smiled at the girl's attitude. "That confidence is definitely the marker of a student council member."
"Do I really have to st-" I cut myself off before Kami or Suijin had the chance too. Suijin smiled at the fact that I seemed to already be catching on.
"How about you guys take a seat?" Suijin gestured to multiple open seats at the table.
Kami gracefully walked over and sat down in seat that was on Suijin's right, directly next to her. I walked over to stand behind Kami's seat, making no move to actually sit down myself. "Raiden, take a seat." Suijin said with a smile on her face.
" Oh no, I'm fine really, I prefer to stand anyway-"
"Oh no, you're a guest here Raiden. It would be completely ridiculous if I let you stand for the entirety of this meeting, which I don't imagine being short in anyway whatsoever." She gestured to the seat by Kami once again. "Take a seat."
I took a seat.
***
"Now, to start of this meeting, I'd first like to ask all of you how your day was." I was a bit shocked. I expected them to get straight to business, seeing how Suijin was forced to forgo slowly introducing Kami into the process of student council meetings. However, Suijin went down the line of every single person sitting at the table, allowing them to tell her how their day went, and even asking questions and sharing reactions to the retellings. I watched the whole thing in awe. It reminded me a bit of the stunt she had pulled a=on the first day of school, creating a different water construct for every single person in the auditorium. Except this time, it was a much more personal act, not for any flair, but just because she truly cared and wanted to. Both felt just as awe inspiring to watch.
When Suijin finally turned her gaze and expecting, warm smile to me, I couldn't bring myself to do anything but tell her about my day. I started with my conversation about justice with Masayoshi and Hikaru. I summarized the key points, mindful to not take any more time than was necessary, however, Suijin didn't let me. Every time I tried to skip out on a detail, she would ask a question that would force me to elaborate. Each time that she sensed something was left out, she would go back and ask me to elaborate. I was hesitant at first. I didn't want to get drawn into the conversation. The voice in the back of my head reminded me, because should you ever forget, then that means you've lost the purpose for your pitiful existence. When I had reached the part of my day about the wand selection, she made sure that I went through the process slowly.
"There really isn't much to it. I couldn't think of anything interesting to make my wand, so I just went for a sword."
"What about the color? You decided to make the blade all black."
"I thought that it would have made it a little easier to conceal."
"Ok, and what about the lightning bolt? The one that is etched unto the very metal of the blade itself?" I froze for a second, as I wondered how she even knew about that. However, I very quickly realized that Riko probably told her.
I paused before I finally answered. "It wasn't something that I had thought up myself. Erika, Erika had told me that she thought it would be, "badass" if I put a lightning bolt on my blade, so I did."
Suijin's smile seemed to widen. "You see, there was more of a reason for the design of your wand." The look on her face was one of triumph, as she managed to get the real meaning behind the choices a made from my wand out of me.
When I looked to Kami, I noticed the happy expression on her face. She was looking at Suijin with a bit of awe, and that made me curious. I would have to ask her when she stopped being mad at me.
"What did you think of the little design that I added?" Suijin asked me.
I didn't want to be rude, so I gave the most respectful answer I could. "Oh, at first, I though it looked a bit out of place, but someone I knew called it cute, so I guess I'm fine with it." That made Suijin and Kami burst out laughing at the same time, and me want to kill myself on the spot. Why the hell was I going into such detail? She didn't even have to press me for it this time!
However, I knew the exact reason that I was going into such detail. I was being drawing into the conversation. Suijin's way with words and her persistent nature in getting information; combined with how well she was able to listen; all of it was dragging me even deeper into this conversation. It felt good to just talk to her about things, to just speak, even if I was embarrassing myself a bit. I even found myself giggling a little with the rest of the student council. She was casting a spell, a magic one, with no mana being used whatsoever. Just her words, her voice, and her smile.
Crack!
When I finally finished telling Suijin about the duel with Erika and our punishment, she had already been laughing so much that her face seemed to remain permanently tinged with pink. By the end of it I had realized that I had felt better, much better than when I had entered.
How? Just how did she manage that?
For a moment, I had forgotten my purpose. And yet I felt better than ever.