COTE: Mysterious Siblings(DISCONTINUED)

Volume 3: Internal Conflict

Ayanokouji POV

It was the sixth day, and something in the atmosphere had changed for the worse. During the middle of the night, Toma Shizuko had to retire. Unfortunately, her brother didn't want to tell us why, just that she got injured.

This put Hirata on edge, but he didn't want to touch on the topic because of Toma-kun's expression. He had a look of utter emptiness in his eyes, something I've never seen in him before. 

This is the very first time I've seen him look so defeated and hopeless. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't even have a plan right now.

Seems that Toma-san was his only reason to keep going. However, now that she's not here, it doesn't look like he'll be doing much for the rest of this exam. Then again, we're leaving tomorrow anyway.

"Ayanokouji-kun, do you perhaps have any idea about what happened?" 

Horikita approached me and asked about Toma-kun's situation. 

"No. As close as I am with them, when it comes to stuff like this, they don't trust me." I replied. 

"What could have possibly happened last night then? We were all asleep, so the only logical thing to say is that Toma-san woke up and got in an accident." 

"I suggest you don't try to investigate or talk to him about it. You've seen what he can do when he's mad at you, what would happen if he lost it?" 

"...My own brother is already disappointed in me. I'll take your advice this time and leave him alone. However, what do we do now? We don't have a leader anymore." 

"Oh, we do have one. There's something in th extra rules that you just happened to overlook. We can change leaders if we have a valid reason to do so. Toma-san getting injured and having to retire is valid enough."

"Wait, that would mean..."

"Yeah, only Toma-kun knows who our new leader is. Him and the new leader themselves."

"So he doesn't trust us, I see." Horikita concluded. 

"Exactly, which makes things difficult for all of us. If he won't talk, we can't protect the new leader. There's still a chance Class A could discover it."

"We only have until tomorrow, but you're right. We should make sure everyone's laying low."

"That's not exactly something we'd be able to accomplish, you know?" 

"That's certainly true. However, since it looks like it'll rain soon, I suppose we shouldn't worry too much." 

She was right about that. The clouds have been getting darker and darker ever since this morning. I'll bet in a few hours, it'll start raining. That would make the ground wet, and it'd be easier to detect footsteps and the like. So whoever would be spying on our class, they wouldn't get far before ultimately getting followed. 

That said, Toma-kun not trusting is is the biggest problem. In the event that the leader is discovered and we didn't know, Toma-kun would act alone...again. Since his sister is out of commission, and he is currently dreading that fact, I can only speculate what he'd do.

I've already seen him resort to violence after all, and every single time, it involved his sister being belittled, or being treated as an object. That would render me having a difficult time using them for my plans. They wouldn't necessarily be tools anymore, they'd be associates, doubled-edged associates. 

Even so, I have to keep this up if I truly wanted to repay Toma-sensei for all she's done and tried to do for me. If her kids have problems with their mental health, then so be it, I shall assist them either way. This is the task that I put on myself, with my own free will.