We had just finished our interviews, and there was only about ten minutes left of lunch. Ichinose and I had agreed on fulfilling my end of the deal tomorrow, during lunch. However, additions had been made to the exchange. First of all, I would now be given an extra favour (to be used at any time) in exchange for why I was chosen to be vice president so early on in the school year. Secondly, she also wanted to know why I had chosen her as my secretary.
These additions to our exchange mostly benefited Ichinose, however I also had a lot that I could potentially gain.
The favour could be used for practically anything that was within the rules and laws of morality.
While I (unfortunately) couldn't ask for something as degenerate as 'please be my sex slave!' I could request for something like an alliance between Class D and Class B.
Additionally, having Ichinose Honami as my secretary was incredibly beneficial. Currently, I had no information on the rest of the classes, but Ichinose seemed to be talented in the field of socialising. This made her the best bet for me to gather intel on the rest of the year level, or even the school.
Of course, Kushida and Hirata had also seen their popularity grow in the past two days, but it would do good for me to not stress my already defective classmates with extra tasks. Ichinose was in Class B, so she was most likely beyond just capable, so I had no doubt that she could easily balance her work as a secretary and her class matters.
As I made my way to my seat and took out a lunch set that I had bought from the convenience store this morning, I saw my seatmate slowly nibbling on a sandwich.
Was Horikita always this cute?
"Ayanokouji-kun, you're staring at me again," she said, pulling me out of my quickly generating fantasies.
Hey, don't judge. I'm still a teenage boy, you know?
"Ah, I'm sorry. I was just going to tell you something but I decided against it." There was no point in telling her that I had become the vice-president, it would be announced later anyway.
"What were you going to tell me, Ayanokouji-kun?" she asked, eyebrows arched and curiosity peaked.
"It's nothing you need to worry about, Horikita."
I tried to drop the topic, but she persisted, "I feel like I do need to worry about it. It's about the student council isn't it?" Horikita was no longer her 'ice queen' demeanour, she was more softly spoken and seemed a lot more like a normal girl than she had been only this morning.
Was this because the topic was linked to her brother?
"You'll know about it later, anyway. They're going to announce whether any of the students were able to secure a spot in the council."
"Fine. It looks like you're not going to tell me, so I'll let it go for now. But, since it would be beneficial for the class to have you in the student council..." she stopped abruptly, seemingly gathering the courage to continue speaking, "I wish you good luck."
A/N: Not being subtle here, I want her progression to be a lot faster than the light novels, but still not too unrealistically paced.
Startled by her unusual behaviour, I stared into her eyes as she reciprocated with a vulnerable look of her own; there were no hints that she was lying. In fact, she seemed a little surprised that she was able to say that herself.
Perhaps Horikita really did have a lot of potential? I mean, I don't know what she is capable of just yet, but she was able to develop quite easily under the influence of me rather than her brother. Was his method really that bad? While mine was straightforward and truthful, Horikita Manabu must have chosen an indirect way that confused and hurt her little sister.
I guess the president doesn't understand the emotions that well, huh? While not an easily exploitable weakness, it was a chink in his armour nonetheless. If he were to stray to the wrong side of the battlefield, I would exploit every little flaw I could identify, so this information was certainly useful.
"Thank you, Horikita. I really appreciate it." I let out a small smile to signify that I was truly grateful for her words, which seemed to surprise her.
"I-it's nothing. Again, it would be beneficial for us to have a student of our class join the student council, that's why I'm hoping you are given a role," said Horikita, frantically trying to justify her uncharacteristic display of vulnerability.
"You know, I prefer it when you're like this. Your 'ice queen' act was really deterring people away from you, including me. But right now, you seem a lot more vulnerable. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, in fact, I believe it's great to be vulnerable at times."
Horikita paused for a few seconds, processing my words. "I have no idea what you're talking about Ayanokouji-kun. I don't believe that I'm currently displaying vulnerability," she denied, although her quickly changing body language betrayed her statement.
"Horikita, I want you to remember one thing. Vulnerability is not a weakness. On the contrary, it is a strength; to be able to open up and act truthfully is a hard thing to do."
The girl turned her head towards me with her eyes widened and facial expression one of deep thinking. "I see... I'll keep that in mind, Ayanokouji-kun."
The first step to unlocking Horikita Suzune's potential was to shatter her defences.
The wall that was her superiority complex and relationship with her brother isolated Horikita from everyone indiscriminately. However, thanks to Chabashira's early intervention, her complex has been wearing down quite quickly. Of course, this was most likely because she recognised me as someone 'superior' to her, which I believe is similar to the case with her and Horikita Manabu.
This would explain president Horikita's seemingly unfavourable opinion of his sister. He had recognised the potential of Horikita Suzune, but found it frustrating that she constantly tried to emulate her older brother. He most likely tried something outlandish such as distancing himself from her, or even severing their relationship entirely.
As a result, younger Horikita has most likely started to even copy her brother's method of isolation, and cut people off before they could form any sort of relationship.
Naturally, this was all speculation, but it was a theory grounded in logic; the behaviour of the Horikita siblings pointed towards an outcome similar to the one I previously described, making it the most rational conclusion I could come up with.
From now until the future, the plan to reveal the younger Horikita's potential were already mapped out within my head:
Step 1) Breaking through her defences.
This, I was already close to achieving. All I needed to do now was to get her to interact with more people.
Step 2) Grow closer to her.
I have to be the person she considers the closest to her, whether it be a friend or... something else, I had to get it done.
Step 3) Break her.
As long as she remains weak, she is useless to me. The only problem with this is that Horikita Manabu would never let me get away with it.
However, beggars can't be choosers, and if I had to sacrifice material to promote a pawn, then so be it.
Step 4) Promotion.
The final step, the one that could only come to fruition if everything else had gone to plan. Breaking her only to rebuild and refine her was a high risk, high reward situation. If she remained useless even after promotion, then I would simply have to move on to bigger and better things.
This plan was vague - it was intentionally so. As Horikita's journey played out I would patiently observe, recording anything noteworthy along the way. Through these added details, I would add more care accordingly to each and every move I make in preparation for completing my objective.
In a sense, this solution I had come up with loosely resembled a scrapbook, an object people commonly use to record significant pictures of moments that they would like to commit to memory.
Horikita's scrapbook had started now, and I was excited to see her growth.
What would be the first thing I put in this so-called 'scrapbook'?
Well, the first moment that I would like to emphasise should play out not too far from now. In fact, it should occur right after the bell rings to signify the end of lunch.
Ahh, there it goes, did you hear that?
You did? That's great, it would be quite unfortunate if you missed it.
What did it sound like to you?
A school bell, you say? Well, you're not wrong, but to me, it sounded more like the brief but potentially world-shattering start of Step 3.
"Good afternoon, students of Advanced Nurturing High School, this is the student council president Horikita Manabu speaking. After careful consideration and thorough deliberation, the student council would like to welcome second vice-president Ayanokouji Kiyotaka from Class 1-D and Ichinose Honami from Class 1-B as Ayanokouji's secretary. We believe that these two students are among the brightest of their year level, and their positions within the council are more than well deserved. I look forward to the future with these two as central figures within this school."
Yes, I had skipped Step 1 and Step 2 for now. Well, to be precise, Step 1 and Step 3 in Horikita's case are one and the same.
Now, it just meant that I would have to go through with Step 3 more than once.
"Wait, did he just say second vice-president?!?" A screaming Ike Kanji dragged me out of my thoughts.
"Tch, I would've been the first vice-president if I applied for the council," claimed Yamauchi Haruki. I guess my warnings could only do so much, and the two mascots of idiocy in Class D would do as the mascots of idiocy wanted to.
It goes without saying that I can't make this remark out loud, as that would jeopardise any chance I had of being friends with those two. While they were idiots, I didn't want to lose their cooperation or potential friendship.
But I digress.
Turning my observant gaze back to Horikita, I noticed that she was almost completely still, not moving a single muscle other than to reciprocate my stare.
In the background, I could hear the noise of my classmates as Chabashira and Hirata attempted to calm them down. But, I never let my eyes wander off of Horikita.
I had to know how she reacted to her precious and esteemed brother acknowledging the abilities of another person she deemed 'superior'.
Would she pass this small obstacle I had thrown in her way?
Or would she break? Would she truly be useless?
I waited, and waited. Patiently, I sat there, never breaking eye contact with the girl to my right. Anticipating the moment that her brain flipped a switch and she had a mental breakdown.
But nothing came.
She had exceeded my expectations.
She displayed almost complete apathy.
She was almost completely unfazed in this strange situation she found herself in. All she did was observe; no unnecessary movements; no unnecessary emotions seeping through her facial expression.
She wasn't useless.
No, she was extraordinary. Her potential really had an incredibly high ceiling.
I thank you, Horikita Manabu, for letting me play with your little sister.
A/N: I like adding chess references in Kiyo's monologues (only slightly inspired by Checkmate by Kiku_6037); I think it adds more depth to his thought process as he thinks of everyone as tools/ pieces in his game. But there is one small problem: I am absolutely shit at chess. So yeah, most of these analogies are going to be really simple. This isn't a high quality story by any means, but it's the best my teenage self can do.
I would also like to address Kiyo's plan with Horikita. It's incredibly unrealistic, I know. But I don't want Horikita to be a useless character, and I have many plans for her in this story. So bear with me for now, all will be revealed with time.