138. Volume 2 Start: Accusations

'Hm?'

Reiji, who was staring out the window in a daze as usual, frowned all of a sudden.

His mind started ringing in a quiet, consistent throb that was akin to the sensation he felt whenever he thought about Riku.

But this time, it was different.

If it was more like alarm bells in the past, now it sounded like the flatline noise in hospitals.

Especially since it seemed as if it was fading away, growing quieter by the second until he no longer heard anything.

'.....What the hell?'

He looked over at Riku's empty desk with a complicated expression.

The warning bells used to freak him out before, but why did he feel more at ease this time even though a flatlining sound was obviously much worse?

After all, it represented death.

Something had happened, he was sure of it.

And it was certainly related to Riku.

But his pounding heartbeat from the initial headache ebbed away just as the noise did.

'...I don't know what's going on, but there's no use overthinking it. I just have to be careful.'

Today, after the fiasco, any goodwill or attachment he had remaining for the protagonist of his favorite game had vanished.

It wasn't very high to begin with, because he knew that Riku was capable of both good and bad, yet he'd held out a sliver of hope that he wouldn't be like....this.

Not wanting to go through with the bet was still understandable.

The act of licking your own foot, which would also be recorded, was not an easy task even for the bravest of souls.

But accusing Haruna of cheating, or claiming there was some sort of mistake?

That would be an excuse used only by the trashiest of people.

*DING-A-LING-RIIIIING*

The bell rang to signal the start of lunch, and Reiji stretched his arms above his head with a groan.

He habitually reached for his backpack to take out the boxes of food from it, but before he could do so, the classroom door slid open.

The same girl who had called for Riku and Tooro was standing there with a solemn look, scanning the class slowly.

"Yagami and Yuzuki, please follow me to the Student Council," she announced with her clear voice, breaking through the chatter from the students.

Haruna turned to Reiji with wide, worried eyes, clenching her fists tightly.

'.....Here we go.'

Reiji wasn't surprised by the summons.

Far from it.

Not because Kahawara Sensei had already said he'd been reported, but because this was an event in the game.

It wasn't classified as a main one, since the protagonist wasn't involved as much.

But it was still a major point in the game.

It was at this point that OG Reiji had truly started to notice two out of the three heroines in the game.

Noa and Haruna.

For different reasons of course, but the point was that this was one of the few routes that kick-started the NTR storylines, which he detested.

'Glad I don't have to worry about that shit, at least for Reiji's routes,' he thought.

He stood up indifferently and gestured to Haruna, who was still panicking.

Greeny, Airi, and Hina all looked at them with concern, but he just smiled and shook his head.

"Wh-What do we do? I didn't actually expect them to call us," Haruna whispered as they followed behind the Student Council Member.

"What're you worried about?" Reiji asked, and then gasped comically. "Don't tell me you actually cheated!?"

She twisted his waist with reproach, glaring at him as she hissed back.

"Stop talking nonsense, you know I didn't!"

"Then why are you nervous?"

Haruna fell silent, her small face still scrunched up due to the tension.

Reiji's eyes softened, and he patted the top of her head.

"All we have to do is prove we didn't cheat. If you didn't magically forget everything you learned somehow, then we'll be fine," he reassured.

".....Mhm."

***

"Please wait here, the President and Vice-President will arrive shortly," the girl said.

".....Can't we just meet the Prez? Why does he have to be here?" Reiji groaned.

The girl's mouth twitched with amusement, and she turned around and left the office without responding.

This was the same girl who had guided Reiji last time, so she wasn't unaware of his friction with the sleazy VP.

Reiji sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk roughly.

"....Shouldn't we wait for permission?" Haruna asked.

"You can, if you want to. If they want to make us wait, then I'm not gonna do so while standing."

After a moment's hesitation, she joined him in the other seat.

"Ugh, my tummy hurts," she muttered.

"It's just nerves, bear with it. You haven't done anything wrong."

"I know...."

After a minute of waiting, the door reopened, and two people walked in.

The stern-faced President glanced at them sitting down, locking eyes with Reiji, who was slouching against the table with his hand holding up his head.

Then, another voice rose from behind her.

"How dare you sit down without asking?"

He didn't even need to turn around to know who was yapping.

Reiji ignored him and stared at Noa instead, who looked exasperated.

"Can we get this over with? We're hungry," he sighed with a bored look.

"Do you not hear me??"

Tadano, the VP, now standing next to Noa's chair, was close to popping one of the many bulging veins on his face.

"...Dude, you're a little too deep into roleplaying. It's the 21st Century, and I'm not gonna stand while waiting just so that you can try out some ridiculous power play."

"You!"

"Vice-President, you're making a scene," Noa interjected.

"M-ME?" Tadano's face collapsed with shock. "He's the one showing blatant disrespect!"

"Maybe so, but he's not wrong. We were the ones who were late."

Reiji raised an eyebrow, not expecting her to actually agree with him.

'Is this because of Sora? Nah, it's probably the fact that I have a point.'

Seeing Tadano go pale, Reiji decided to speak again to get this over with.

Originally, both Reiji and Haruna would get accused of cheating with a long, drawn-out sequence where OG Reiji would snap and refuse to go along with their claims because of his pride.

This would lead to Noa's opinion of him falling even further, extending the time taken to clear him of the accusations, and eventually make Reiji so mad that he'd see Noa as a target for various incidents.

As for Haruna, she would be here regardless of whether or not she actually made the Top 10.

Even if she did miss the mark because the player chose the wrong option, her ranking would still grow exponentially from Hina's tutoring, though not as much if Riku was there too.

Either way, her suspicion would be cleared after she answered a pre-prepared test on the spot, which would infuriate OG Reiji since he randomly thought she was doing it to spite him.

'.....How ridiculous.'

It was funny in the game, especially due to the meme-worthy artwork of Reiji's crazed face, but nonsensical in reality.

"Since we've been accused of cheating, I'm sure you have something prepared for us to prove our innocence, so let's just get to the point," Reiji stated, addressing Noa without sparing Tadano a glance.

Noa turned to him, and she no longer had that hint of disdain she used to have in the past.

"...I know you were ranked first in the Entrance Exam, but since the teacher himself has reported you, I hope you understand why we have to do this," she explained before shifting her focus to Haruna. "As for you, you shot up the ranks at an almost unbelievable pace. From near the bottom to 4th in the grade is impressive, but also suspicious."

She opened her desk drawer and pulled out a set of papers.

"These are a small set of exam questions, somewhat similar to what was asked in the midterms. There's 4 questions from each subject, and hopefully you can finish within the hour. You can choose to take it now, or after school, it's up to you."

Reiji reached for the paper and picked up a pen from the cup on her table.

"I have a club session after school, I'll do it now."

"M-Me too. I want to get this over with," Haruna stammered, grabbing one as well.

Noa nodded and leaned back in her chair.

"Alright. After you finish, you may use the period after lunch to eat. I'll sign a slip for you."

"Hmph, don't even try any tricks, I'm watching both of you carefully," Tadano scoffed, moving behind them.

He leaned over their shoulders, monitoring their every move.

After a minute, Reiji couldn't take it anymore and put his pen down.

"Can you take a step back? You're breathing like you've been deprived of oxygen for a week."

Tadano's already red face flushed deeper with anger and embarrassment.

"You can't tal-"

"Vice-President, I'll be the one to monitor them. You can go and have your lunch. Intimidating them while they're writing is counter-productive," Noa cut in again.

Tadano pursed his lips, his already heavy breathing gaining even more weight as he turned around and left without saying another word.

Reiji should've been happy about this.

'.....Hm, will this speed up Noa's event, or will it still be next week? I gotta keep an eye on him."

Tadano's first 'villain' arc was scheduled to happen soon, but now he wasn't sure if his actions had affected that.

He shook his head and leaned back down to continue answering the questions under Noa's intense supervision.

What should've taken an hour to finish took him less than thirty minutes, because the questions had the same structure as the ones used in the midterms, just with slightly different answers to ensure it was solved with their own thoughts.

"Done," he said, handing the paper to Noa.

Noa's eyes widened with surprise.

".....Are you sure? Don't you want to check your answers?"

"Nope."

Haruna rolled her eyes beside him but focused on the exam instead.

"....Then I'll start marking it."

Noa took out the answer sheet from the same drawer and started comparing the answers, holding the papers up so that Haruna couldn't see anything.

10 minutes later, she placed them down and looked at him in surprise.

"...They're all correct."

"Yeah, no shit. Because I didn't cheat," Reiji chuckled.

Haruna also finished her paper at this point.

"H-Here," she said anxiously, handing her paper to Noa.

Noa nodded and repeated the same thing, but after a minute, her eyes narrowed.

"Hm? This..."