Sobu High School's grand hall was packed full. The air was filled with typical teenage restlessness and cheap expectations. For the majority of students, election speeches like this were just a legal excuse to skip one hour of formal classes.
Iroha stood in the darkness backstage, feeling her heart being squeezed by cold hands. Each beat accompanied by suffocating pain.
Several candidates before her took the stage in turn, uttering sentences that used to be very familiar to her, but now felt very alien.
"...I will commit to increasing club activity budgets..."
"...I hope to create a more open and free exchange environment for everyone..."
Clichéd. Boring and empty. But safe.
Iroha looked down at the script in her hand titled [Declaration of the King]. Every word there seemed like hot iron burning her fingertips until numb. She wanted to throw it away, wanted to run to the stage and use her reliable sweet voice to say the nonsense everyone liked.
She still had a chance to turn back. As long as she ran now...
"Next candidate, first year, Isshiki Iroha! Please come to the stage!"
The MC's voice echoed through the microphone throughout the hall, sounding like an irrefutable verdict. The retreat path had been cut off.
Iroha's limbs became stiff. Each step felt like stepping on cotton. She walked onto the stage, and the blinding spotlight instantly made her dizzy. Below were oceans of human heads; hundreds of pairs of eyes focused on her like a bottomless ocean ready to swallow her at any moment.
Her throat was so dry she couldn't make a sound. Her brain was completely empty.
Then, she saw them.
She saw Miko sitting in the Discipline Committee seats; that girl stared straight at her with a serious and probing gaze.
She saw Haruno sitting not far away; that woman was propping her chin with an evil smile at the corner of her lips, as if waiting for an interesting show.
She saw Yukino, who furrowed her brow deeply with a face full of worry.
She saw Yui, that fool was waving enthusiastically while mouthing "Good luck!".
Then, her gaze fell on a figure in the middle of the front row.
Darius.
That man sat silently there without the slightest expression, like a lifeless statue. However, he slowly raised a small white board. There wasn't written the word "Good luck," nor any other encouraging words. There was only a line of cold and clear sentences written with black marker:
[If you don't read it, I'll detonate the cookies.]
Next to that writing, he also drew a small skull emitting smoke.
Iroha's pupils contracted instantly. Her gaze drifted uncontrollably toward Yui sitting beside Darius. That innocent girl was clutching a beautifully packaged gift bag. From the bag's opening protruded several cookie pieces whose color was pitch black—an absolute black that seemed capable of absorbing even light... those cookies.
Yui seemed to sense Iroha's gaze, she even innocently raised that bag and shook it, as if saying: "Look, I brought strategic logistical supplies for you."
Iroha felt the last thread in her brain called logic had completely snapped.
(That man isn't joking. He really will do it. This madman really will detonate that terrifying creation he calls "anti-matter grenades" in this hall containing thousands of people!)
If that happened, Iroha wouldn't just merely fail in the election. She would be recorded in Sobu High's embarrassing history as an accomplice in a terrorist attack, and would never be able to rise again forever.
Fear.
Extreme fear instead gave birth to strange calmness. Or more precisely, despair. Since either way the end was hell, better to choose a more heroic way to die.
Iroha closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When reopening them, the cowardice, cunning, and fear in her eyes had disappeared. What remained was only emptiness that burned from already being drenched.
She approached the microphone. She didn't bow in greeting like the others. She only raised her head.
"Fellow friends! Comrades!"
Her voice radiated clearly through the loudspeaker to every corner of the hall. That was no longer an artificially sweet voice, but a voice that was cold, had metallic texture, and full of penetrating power.
The entire hall instantly fell silent. Everyone was stunned by this opening sentence with a completely different style.
"Raise your heads! Look around you!"
Iroha spread her hands, pointing toward the students below the stage.
"This school has been submerged in false peace and boring routine for too long!"
She suddenly swung her hand down, performing the air-slashing movement she had practiced hundreds of times on the roof. Embarrassment? She no longer felt it. When someone has completely thrown away their embarrassment, all that remains is pure madness.
"I, Iroha Isshiki, stand here not to beg for your votes!"
Her voice suddenly rose, full of inciting power.
"I came to proclaim the coming of a new order!"
Whispers began emerging below the stage.
"What did she say?"
"Is this... an election speech?"
"Did she bring the wrong script? Isn't this theater club dialogue?"
Shizuka sitting in the teacher's seat dropped the cigarette she had just lit from her fingers. She felt her nervous gastritis would relapse again.
Yukino had already covered her face with her hands, unable to watch anymore.
But Yui instead clenched her fists enthusiastically, her eyes sparkling: "Wow... so cool..."
Hachiman sat in the corner, staring at the stage with empty eyes as if watching an apocalypse documentary. Just as expected, it ended up like this.
On the stage, Iroha had fully entered her role. She transformed all her fear and despair into speech fuel.
"We will sweep away bureaucratic rot! We will destroy unchanging rules! The Student Council shouldn't be managers sitting on high, the Student Council must be a sharp sword executing our will!"
"Sweep away?"
"Sharp sword?"
Miko furrowed her brow, she didn't understand at all what the nature of this statement was.
"Follow me!" Iroha spread both arms as if wanting to embrace the entire hall. "You will get entertainment like never before! Your routines will no longer be boring! Every day will be full of surprises and challenges!"
"Oppose me!" Her voice instantly turned cold. "Then you will be discarded mercilessly by the great current of the era called 'Change'!"
"What I promise isn't service, but war! A total war against boredom and falsehood!"
"My name is Iroha Isshiki! Give me your votes, not to elect a president, but to choose a future! A new future, chaotic, and full of fun!"
The speech ended.
Iroha stood on stage panting, sweat soaking her bangs. The entire hall fell into deadly silence for ten seconds. Everyone felt their brains had just been bombarded by high-level mental pollution.
Just then.
*👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻!*
Applause sounded. Sparse, but very clear.
Everyone turned toward the source of the sound, and saw the Theater Club President standing with a face bright red from enthusiasm, clapping forcefully.
"Amazing! This is true expressionism! This postmodern deconstructive-style monologue is full of contempt for authority and deep exploration of existentialism! Bravo!"
His applause seemed to become a signal. Immediately after, more applause was heard.
"Although I don't understand, it feels so cool!"
"Yeah, much more interesting than those sleep-inducing speeches earlier!"
"So cool! Feels like a Demon King descending to the world!"
"I'll vote for her! Don't care what she'll do, it'll definitely be fun!"
The initially sparse applause became dense, until finally merging into a thunderous wave sweeping the entire hall. Students stood up, whistled, and cheered loudly. They didn't consider this an election at all, but rather the most spectacular live rock performance ever.
They gave votes not to elect a student council president. They were buying tickets for this extraordinary "show."
Haruno laughed until bending over the table, her shoulders shaking violently until tears came out. "Interesting... too interesting... Yukino-chan, this club of yours... is truly a treasure..."
Iroha stood frozen in the midst of thunderous applause, seeing the crazed crowd below. She felt as if inside an absurd dream.
She succeeded? In this most impossible way?
Her gaze returned to the front row. Darius had already lowered his board. That man only stared at her calmly, then, almost invisibly, he nodded slightly.
His gaze seemed to say: "Welcome to the crazy new world."
The MC with difficulty climbed onto the stage in the midst of that fanatic atmosphere, then announced with a trembling voice:
"Thank you... thank you to Isshiki-san for her extraordinary speech! Alright, now, please all students take out your phones, scan the QR code on the big screen to enter the voting page!"
"The final voting results will be announced here, in five minutes!"
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