"I want to hold an election," Kirari announced to the rest of the student council.
"Are you insane?"
"You're going to give up your seat that easily?"
"Sounds exciting!"
"But president, you've secured your seat. Why give it up?"
"You want to question my decisions?" Kirari asked firmly, shutting up the rest of the student council, "that's what I thought. Now let me explain."
The rest of the council nodded as they awaited an explanation. "With Jabami Yumeko here, the workings of this school have been thrown into complete chaos. Not to mention, she's completely humiliated the student council by beating certain members, some even while as a house pet" she explained, "However, chaos can be fun when handled correctly. What's the best way to handle chaos, you ask? You create more of it. What better chaos than electing a new student council president?"
"What kind of explanation is that."
"I simply will not accept this."
"Great minds think alike."
"President, all due respect, this is insane!"
"Silence," Kirari said, causing everyone to be quiet, "The decision has been made. People will bet for the seat. Everyone will have an opportunity. It will be a free-for-all." Kirari smirked evilly as she realized the potential this election had.
"Okay, since we can't change your mind," Runa said, "How will this election work?"
"I'm glad you ask," Kirari smiled, "Everyone will start with a single betting chip. Then, they'll bet with other's to gain more chips, also known as votes. Some people will be appointed to watch over matches and decide whether they count or not. Whoever has the most votes at the end will be president."
Everyone slowly nodded along. Most of them were in the student council because they wanted the opportunity to be student council president, and this would be the perfect opportunity. "However, this is a little more chaos I'm adding to the pot," Kirari smirked. As she was about to explain, someone entered the room.
"We're in the middle of a meeting, you can't be he-" Sayaka began.
"Don't worry, Sayaka," Kirari smiled, "I invited her."
"I've brought the people you requested," she said as she bowed.
"Great, let them in," Kirari smiled. As the knew people walked in, the former girl announced them. Everyone in the student council picked up on one thing and one thing only. Everyone's names ended in "bami".
"And I am Rei Batsubami," the girl introduced herself. She had short hair, and one might assume she was a boy had Kirari not specified her gender, "I'm only here to watch over them, though. I won't be betting."
Everyone in the student council nodded as they looked at the members of the Momobami clan that had entered. "What are we here for?" one of them asked.
"I'll inform you soon, we're just waiting on one more member," Kirari smiled evilly.
A few minutes later, Yumeko arrived. When she saw who filled the room, she almost turned on her heel and ran. Hell, she had tried, but Rei had blocked her way. Rei paused when she saw Yumeko, thinking she looked oddly familiar, but she still blocked the girl from leaving.
"Nice of you to join us, Jabami," Kirari greeted as Yumeko hesitantly entered the room.
"Isn't Atari older than that?"
"I thought she went crazy?"
The clan started muttering amongst themselves. "Silence," Kirari demanded, and everyone went silent, "This is Jabami Yumeko, the technical head of the Jabami family."
"I thought she was dead."
"Didn't the Momobamis kill the Jabamis?"
"I heard the Momobamis owe them money."
"That bitch will pay."
"Anyway, the reason you're all here is because I'm offering up a secondary prize," Kirari explained. When everyone nodded, she continued, "the winner of this election will not only be president, but they'll also be head of the clan."
Everyone gasped in surprise while Yumeko looked mortified. She knew that if any of the clan aside from Kirari and herself became head of the clan, she'd be murdered immediately. All of them wanted her dead for their own reasons, most of which she didn't know or understand. Kirari seemed to sense the fear on Yumeko's face, and she just smiled confidently at the raven-haired girl.
"Momobami, if I may," one of them, a girl in a wheelchair, asked as she slightly raised her hand.
"Go ahead," Kirari said.
"Why are you letting her in on this," she said with an accusatory glance at Yumeko, "She's not even really a bami, and let's not forget, she's been worse than the rest of us since childhood. It's almost unfair to her."
"So that's why she beat you?" Kirari clapped back, causing everyone to go silent as only Kirari, Ririka, Yumeko, and Terano knew what had really happened that day.
Yumeko watched as Kirari fumed. She remembered Kirari mentioning that she thought of her as a sister, but she hadn't expected this level of anger as such a small insult. "Yumeko is an honorary Momobami," Kirari said firmly, causing everyone to gasp, "If you have a problem with her, you have a problem with me, and if you have a problem with me, you have a problem with my family. Got it?"
Everyone groaned as they nodded reluctantly. "If Jabami wins this, I expect all of you to accept it," Kirari said firmly, "understood?"
Everyone reluctantly nodded, knowing that until someone knew as appointed, Kirari was head of the clan, and going against her was practically suicidal. Kirari then dismissed everyone, but Yumeko stayed behind.
"Yes, Yumeko?" Kirari asked.
"Why the hell would you do that?" Yumeko exclaimed. Seeing where this was going, Kirari made a gesture for the student council to give them some space.
"It's the only way they'd accept you as head of the clan. Didn't I tell you that if anyone was to succeed me, I wanted it to be you?" Kirari explained with a genuine smile.
"I don't want that! I don't want to be head of the clan! I just want to live," Yumeko explained distraught.
"Look," Kirari said as she grabbed Yumeko's shoulders, "running from everyone all your life, that's not living. If you really want to live, you have to lead the clan. That's the only way."
"But I don't want that," Yumeko said as tears filled her eyes.
"I'm sorry," Kirari apologized sincerely, "but I'm doing this for you. All you have to do is bring your a-game."
Yumeko blinked away her tears as she just nodded and left. She calmly walked back to her friends before pausing halfway there. She shouldn't hang out with her friends while 20+ people in the school want her dead right now. Instead of meeting her friends, she collected her food and went to the roof of the school.
A while later, she heard the door to the roof open, and she panicked as she saw who it was. The girl in the wheelchair, who she knew was named Terano, appeared. The girl who always followed her around to help her out put her wheelchair down as she helped Terano into the seat.
"You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?" Terano asked angrily.
********
"Everyone, this is Jabami Yumeko," the Momobami parents introduced, "She's going to join the Momobami family indefinitely."
The kids merely nodded, not understanding how insane the concept of a Jabami joining the Momobami family was. "She's going to bet with everyone today, I expect you to treat her with respect."
Everyone began gambling with each other. To the Mombami's surprise, Yumeko lost every match she played. All the kids began picking on her, calling her names and telling them she should just give up.
Eventually, it seemed to strike a cord with her as she said, "Totobami Terano, I challenge you."
Everyone laughed at her, but Terano accepted her challenge, likely as a joke. "We'll go to the roof to play our game," Yumeko explained as she began walking to the roof.
On the roof, Kirari followed the girls to watch their match and make sure everything was played fair. Plus, she had faith that Yumeko could win if she really wanted to.
"We'll play a simple game of rock, paper, scissors, best 3 out of 5," Yumeko explained, "the loser has to jump off the roof."
Terano's face went white as a sheet, but it quickly regained color when she remembered that Yumeko had yet to win a single game.
Yumeko had been conditioned her life to bet big, so something like jumping off a building didn't phase her, and she saw nothing wrong with it. However, she saw how scared Terano was. Still, she kept the bet the same. "You can forfeit at any time, but if one of us wins the game, you have to jump. That's the only time you can't forfeit, after you've already lost that is," Yumeko explained.
"Alright, let's go," Terano said confidently.
After a tense game of rock, paper, scissors, Terano lost. She looked at her hands as if they had betrayed her, and they began shaking. "H-how'd you win?" Terano asked.
"You didn't notice?" Kirari asked as she laughed a little, "The game itself was a bet. You banked on the fact that she'd yet to win a game, but you forgot to incorporate the fact that maybe, just maybe, she'd been downplaying her skills the whole time."
Terano looked mortified as she saw Yumeko smile at Kirari, confirming the girl's theory. "I-I don't want to jump," Terano admitted as she tried to run away. Fortunately, Kirari stopped the girl from running away.
"You accepted the bet, now step up to the plate and take the punishment," Kirari ordered as she blocked the exit.
Terano took a deep, shaky breath as she stepped to the edge of the roof. "I can't jump," Terano said as she shook her head, ready to step down.
Yumeko remembered back to when her sister had lost the bet that she'd bet her arm. Her sister couldn't break it herself, so she'd broken the bone for her. Without much more thought, Yumeko shoved Terano off the roof. She screamed as she lost her footing and fell.
Yumeko watched with a calm face as the girl fell to the ground, landing on her back. Meanwhile, Kirari was staring in horror. "Why'd you do that?" Kirari yelled at her.
"She made the bet," Yumeko shrugged blankly, "If she couldn't do it, I figured I'd do it for her."
Kirari looked terrified as she sprinted down the stairs to the ground to check on Terano. Yumeko followed behind her calmly, not worried at all. To her, this was normal. You lose a bet, you lose a limb. That's what she'd been taught.
******
"I expected you'd come for revenge eventually," Yumeko sighed.
"Seems fitting that we'd end up on a roof again. Poetic, isn't it?" Terano joked.
"I suppose so," Yumeko agreed as she stepped onto the edge of the roof, seeing where this was going.
"What are you doing?" Terano asked.
"Punishment," was all she said as she put her arms out to her side and fell to the ground.
******
"Apologize to your sister!" her mother yelled as she heard the story of Yumeko breaking her sister's arm.
"Dad told me to!" Yumeko defended herself. Her mom slapped her across the face in retaliation.
"Go to your room and don't come out! You're not allowed to hurt your sister! This is punishment!"
******
"Jabami!" Terano yelled in panic. She had wanted revenge, that much was true, but she was just going to challenge the girl to gamble again. They had all been giving their voting chips when they left, and it had been announced to the school. The student council had finally picked out the people who could referee the games, so she could finally challenge Yumeko to a fair gamble. She hadn't expected the girl to, of her own will, jump off the roof so easily.
Meanwhile, on the ground, Yumeko was out cold. The fall had been further than the one Terano took, so it was really no surprise she wouldn't be conscious. The question now was what other problems it would cause. "Quick! Go get someone! Leave me up here!" Terano told the girl who always followed her around.
Following her orders, the girl sprinted down the stairs to the student council room. "Momobami!" she panted out of breath as she opened the doors.
"What do you need?" she asked, sounding bored.
"It's.... Jabami.... She.... hurt... roof," the girl panted as she put her hands on her knees in an attempt to catch her breath.
Kirari put two and two together. The girl who found her is Terano's assistant, and given the two girl's past, it's obvious that they'd met on the roof with some sort of revenge in mind. "Did Terano have anything to do with this," Kirari asked firmly as she grabbed the girl by her shoulders. It was obvious that if the girl said yes, Terano would be severely punished, but the punishment would be worse if she lied.
"Indirectly," the girl admitted sheepishly. Kirari scoffed as she grabbed the girl's wrist.
"Lead the way," Kirari said as she pushed the girl in front of her.
Easily the other girl led Kirari to where Yumeko had fallen. There was a crowd of people around who had obviously seen her fall or had seen that she was unconscious on the floor. "Get to class!" Kirari ordered them, and they quickly scurried away.
"Yumeko?" she asked as she lightly smacked the side of the girl's face, "C'mon, wake up."
Seeing that Yumeko wasn't waking up, Kirari picked her up bridal-style and brought her to the infirmary. Kirari filled the nurse in on what had happened before finally asking what had happened on the roof.
"What was the last thing she said before she fell?" Kirari asked as she was filled in on the rest of the story.
"I think she said 'punishment' before she just fell backwards," the girl explained.
Kirari sighed as she thanked the girl and told her to go fetch Terano. Kirari had also decided to let Terano off the hook after the girl explained Terano's true intentions. She couldn't have known that Yumeko would willingly fall off the room. After a few more seconds of thinking, Kirari ran off to find Mary, Ryota, and Itsuki.
When she finally found them, the second the word "hurt" left her mouth, Mary sprinted to the infirmary. Kirari shook her head in amusement as she filled the other two in on what had happened. "I'll excuse you from classes so you can keep an eye on her," Kirari told them.
"Thank you," Ryota said as he bowed, and Itsuki followed suit. The two then ran after Mary to find Yumeko.
When they arrived, they saw Mary was looking at Yumeko with what could only be described as an angry and sad look. She also had Yumeko's hand in hers, but the other two chose to ignore that fact.
About an hour later, Yumeko groaned as she opened her eyes. She squinted a little as the light hit her eyes, and she groaned at the pain she felt all over. "You're an idiot you know!" Mary exclaimed as she put her face over Yumeko's effectively blocking the light and letting the girl see her.
"Shh," Yumeko whispered, "my brain hurts."
"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Mary continued to yell.
"Shh," Yumeko shushed her again as she brought her hands to her ears, grunted as she felt pain shoot through her muscles.
"Do you know how scared I was?" Mary asked loudly, but Yumeko didn't miss the emotion in her voice. Yumeko remembered when Mary had cornered her in the bathroom, begging for her to be honest, and when Mary's mom revealed that Mary felt something for her.
"I'm sorry," Yumeko apologized sincerely.
"Why would you even do that?" Mary yelled, "If you wanted to die, you didn't have to do it at school!"
"I wasn't trying to die," Yumeko said honestly, coughing a bit as she spoke.
"Then what the hell were you doing?" Mary yelled. Yumeko merely turned her head away, not wanting to explain. Mary decided to turn to Ryota and Itsuki. "Did Kirari tell you what happened after I left?" Mary asked. Ryota nodded as he explained the situation.
"Kirari didn't tell us why Yumeko would've said 'punishment', but it's obvious she knows," Itsuki jumped in.
"I'll be back," Mary said as she patted Yumeko's leg and ran out of the infirmary to find Kirari. When she finally found the girl, she demanded to know what happened that would make Yumeko do what she did.
"How'd I know you'd be the one to show up," Kirari smiled.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Mary asked defensively.
"Nothing. It's just an observation," Kirari said in a tone that made it obvious it was more than an observation.
Kirari then went on to explain what had happened when they were kids. She told Mary everything about that day from Yumeko's introduction to her failure to her win against Terano, even her pushing the girl off the roof.
"Wait, she pushed her off the roof," Mary said with widened eyes.
"You have to understand, Yumeko didn't know any better at the time," Kirari told Mary, seeing the fear in her eyes.
"What do you mean?" Mary asked.
"She had been conditioned to respect the outcome of a bet, so when Terano said she couldn't do it, the only logical thing to do, in her mind, was to do it for her," Kirari explained. She had spent a long time analyzing Yumeko's behavior that day, and that was the conclusion she came to. Mary merely nodded, understanding the answer, before she returned to the infirmary to see Yumeko.
"Do you get it now?" Yumeko asked when Mary returned.
"Not really," Mary admitted.
Yumeko just sighed as she turned her head, groaning as she did. "My head feels like it's been flattened like a pancake," Yumeko complained.
"It's your own fault," Mary huffed.
"Would you stop it?" Yumeko asked firmly.
"I'm just saying..." Mary sighed.
"I know it's my own damn fault, but that doesn't change the fact that it hurt," Yumeko said as a tear fell down her face. By now, Ryota and Itsuki left because they wanted to get a head start on the betting, so it was just Mary and Yumeko in the infirmary.
"I'm sorry, okay," Mary apologized, "I'm just a little upset you did something so reckless."
"You don't even understand why I did it," Yumeko sighed as she wiped her tears away.
"Then tell me," Mary said sincerely.
Taking a deep breath, grunting as she did, Yumeko attempted to explain, "I'm sure Kirari told you I pushed Terano off the roof when we were kids, and that's why she's paralyzed."
"Well she didn't specify the last bit, but I assumed," Mary confirmed.
"Well, I thought it had been temporary, but when I saw her today, still in a wheelchair, I felt so indescribably awful," Yumeko said as she started crying softly. Mary frowned at her as she attempted to wipe away Yumeko's tears for her. "I mean, I'm the reason she can't do certain things anymore. She can't run or walk. She'll never feel the grass against her feet or feel the water around her when she swims again, and it's all my fault."
Mary, unfortunately, couldn't argue with what Yumeko was saying, so she just put her hand in the girl's hair and played with it gently. She was surprised by how soft it was, but she didn't let her mind think about it for too long.
"So, when she reminded me of everything on the roof and said 'You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?' it made me realize she hadn't. Of course she hadn't because I hadn't either, but it made me wonder if she'd forgotten the pain. Did she ever forget the pain she felt? The pain that was my fault," Yumeko continued, "I wondered what that pain felt like, and I thought that maybe if I knew, I wouldn't feel so awful. If I had felt the same pain and felt some kind of punishment, would it make me feel better? Would it make her feel better?"
"Did it... make you feel better?" Mary asked as she continued to play with Yumeko's soft hair.
"No," Yumeko answered honestly.
"Was it worth it?" Mary asked instead.
"...Yes," Yumeko answered honestly. Mary just nodded as she continued playing with Yumeko's hair. "Thank you," Yumeko whispered after a while.
"For what?" Mary asked.
"For being here," Yumeko mumbled as she fell asleep.