94 After (1/2)

What happened after that?

Seiji didn’t know.

After all, he left together with Mika and Chiaki.

Hoshi stayed behind.

It was now after school. Seiji had to stay behind and write a self-reflection piece as punishment for skipping classes with no apparent reason.

Mika and Chiaki naturally accompanied him, and both were given the same punishment.

While writing, the two girls secretly snuck looks at Seiji and discovered that he was merely staring out the window in a daze, his pen motionless in his hand.

What a memorable scene of this melancholic, handsome youth… Forget it; just take a picture!

”Chiaki!” Mika scolded her friend when she saw Chiaki taking her cell phone out to snap a picture.

”Sorry, it was just such a nice scene. I couldn’t help it…” Chiaki scratched her head. ”Would you like one?”

Mika’s face reddened slightly as she nodded.

”What… do you think he’s thinking?” Mika asked after she received a copy of the picture.

”He’s probably still thinking about what just happened.”

”Mm, I think so as well, since… Seiji is a gentle person.”

”Mm, yeah.” Chiaki’s eyes flashed as she glanced between the boy and Mika. ”How much of what happened in the dojo did you understand?”

Mika blinked as she displayed a thoughtful expression. ”I can’t really say… I just felt like everything Seiji did was for their sake…”

”I knew you wouldn’t understand, so allow me to explain for you, Uehara-san!” Chiaki faked a coughing fit and posed, acting as if she were a teacher about to give a lecture. ”What you probably care about the most was the second to last scene, where Seiji seemed to turn into a much darker person.”

”That Seiji seemed rather scary, but thinking about it, he was quite cool as well~” Chiaki licked her lips in excitement. ”Let’s just call him ‘Dark Seiji!’”

”Why are you even making up a special nickname!?” Mika questioned forcefully. ”The way he was… I cared a lot about it, because I didn’t like it, but… that was necessary, right?”

”Seiji must have considered it necessary, and I think he didn’t make any mistakes, because I can’t think of anything better,” Chiaki explained. ”In my opinion, Seiji turned into ‘Dark Seiji’ for three purposes!”

”First, to give the twin sisters a huge impact! Second, to act the part of the villain and awaken Hoshi Amami’s inherent goodness! The above two were fairly easy to understand, but as for the third… I bet you didn’t even think of it.” Chiaki chuckled playfully.

”So you’re saying I’m stupid…” Mika pouted.

”After all, those sisters lost their blackmail material, so it’s likely there are many people who seek to take revenge on the twins and bully them. However, after such a performance by Seiji, this possibility was greatly reduced.”

”Oh…” Mika nodded in understanding. ”That sounds… right.”

”Now, if those twin sisters stay at this school, at the very least… they won’t be as bad off as they could have been.”

”So Seiji took that much into consideration…”

”Yeah, but in the very end, his third goal was just tacked on. The main ones were the first and second goals: to cause the sisters to fall into the depths of despair, before letting Hoshi, the person who cares about them the most, come and save them.” Chiaki pretended to crack a whip once more. ”This was the most vicious method at Seiji’s disposal; he was forced to use it after the twins refused adhere to their end of the deal.”

Mika nodded in understanding again. ”I think… that he was probably successful, or else Seiji wouldn’t have left like that.”

”Acting the part of someone so terrible… he probably felt the worst about it.”

”Yeah, but he still did it because he’s a gentle idiot.” Chiaki smiled gently.

While the girls were discussing their thoughts with each other, the boy was pondering over his own actions.

‘Whoa, I almost couldn’t act the part out entirely… Man, I can only do something humiliating for so long.’ Seiji sighed. ‘It’s not easy playing your part at all, Lelouch of the Rebellion!’

His plan could have fallen apart in so many places.

The most obvious one was the location of Rion and Kotomi’s blackmail material. If they stored other copies outside of their room… It would be easy enough to search their house, but if there were more stashed away at a location only they knew, the situation could have turned sour.

But apparently that wasn’t the case.

The twins put slightly too much trust in their room’s defense… Or perhaps they didn’t feel safe hiding the blackmail material outside… Would they feel insecure about it? Was it too bothersome? Or did they feel assured as they had already saved the information on the internet as well, so they didn’t need to put effort into making physical copies?

Or did they unconsciously hope in their inner hearts that someone would…

No matter which it was, the twins were rather naïve about this… If they hadn’t been, Seiji could have taken care of it as well, but it would have been more troublesome.

Luckily, things didn’t go that way, and nothing he worried about ended up happening, so it counted as his success.

As for the effect… it was alright.

Seiji was certain he finally witnessed true regret displayed on Rion and Kotomi’s faces… it was the expression of people who had had finally realized their wrongs!

They would probably change for the better now.

The current problem was their father… and mother.

Of course, the best result was the twins sincerely admitting their mistakes, their parents forgiving them, Hoshi becoming overjoyed, and their family returning to a happy life.

But that was basically impossible.

The relationships within that family had already been completely broken down.

Going back to a normal family… it wasn’t absolutely impossible, but it definitely wouldn’t happen overnight. There needed to be an external factor!