The Paranormal Club crams their way into an office that clearly isn’t meant to hold so many people at once. The walls of the room are completely stripped of all of the former Dean’s accolades, now barren except for a wall mirror and a picture of Numata and Kairu. Inside is the new Dean, Mr. Numata, who quickly greets them. “Oh hello girls, how have you been? Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Hi Mr. Numata! So my fortune came true!” Kirika puffs her chest out in pride.

He waves to Kirika as Cerys speaks up next. “You’re the one who had us all called here over the PA system. Why did we all have to come instead of just the boys?”

Mr. Numata puts his forehead in his hand as he speaks. “Sorry, can you please just call me Kansaku? Anyway, I only asked them to call the boys here…”

Yuudai looks at the picture intently, then asks Kansaku, “Hey, I didn’t know you were related to Kairu.”

Kansaku ruffles his already messy hair. “Yeah he’s my little brother, no matter how much he tries to deny it. Before you ask, no I won’t let him get away with anything more than anyone else.”

Mayumi looks annoyed, and blurts out, “Alright, enough family talk. Are you gonna tell the students what the last Dean was doing to them?”

Kansaku looks for a moment, then says, “...Close the door.”

Raidou grumbles and quickly closes the door stepping outside as he does. Yuudai looks quizzically “Was that not what you asked us in here for? To talk about us getting the Dean arrested?”

Kansaku stands once the door is closed. “I'm sure you're all still very upset from what happened, but you should know we have the situation under control.”

Kirika shrugs. “Well actually, only Yuudai is upset.”

Cerys adds on, “The rest of us don’t really care. He’s the only one directly affected.” She leans on the wall and continues, “when you gather students with the premise that this school has you just know something like this will happen often.”

Yuudai looks at Cerys with some anger in his eyes. “No one should have expected what happened.”

Akina shrugs. “At least it wasn’t sexual harassment.“ She then blinks and furrows her brow suddenly, “especially with the cheerleaders.”

Mayumi speaks up again. “So, New Dean, what’s the cover story? How you gonna spin this?”

Kansaku shrugs. “Since your clubmates were involved I guess I owe it to you to tell you the whole story. He was acting alone, nobody else in the school knew of what he was doing. We just put out the usual PR of how it doesn’t reflect on the school, and we’ll take whatever we get. However, we can’t let the general public know that it was four students that brought him down, so-”

Yuudai stops him. “Wait, wait. Then who are you gonna say blew the cover off this?”

Kansaku continues, “Well, if you’d let me continue… We were going to say that he got sloppy transporting the betting slips after so long and some of them ended up in the hands of an unnamed staff member, who turned them into the police immediately.”

Yuuri stamps her foot. “W-what!? Are you really not going to give any credit to our boys?”

“Same old shit with these old heads,” Mayumi groans.

Kansaku runs his hand through his hair as he turns towards the mirror. “I-I don’t have any grey hairs, do I?” Mayumi snickers, causing him to remember his place and straighten up. Clearing his throat, he continues. “I'm sure you're upset, but you have to realize our economy is still a far way from how it used to be. We as a school and as a nation can’t afford to be caught having a scandal like this be uncovered by students.”

Cerys crosses her arms and taps her foot angrily. “They uncovered this scandal AND chased the Dean down on their own and you fucks go and give the credit to some flatfoots?”

Yuudai holds his hand out to stop Cerys with a sigh. “It’s fine, if it’s to stop paranoia. At least we stopped him.”

Akina keeps her standoffish pose. “Well, next time we know not to report any wrongdoing.”

Kirkia turns her head to Akina, “Now, now, I’m sure that the school isn’t full of people doing bad things like this!”

Yuudai speaks up full of hope. “Well, since I got rid of the old Dean, does that mean I can join the baseball team?”

Kansaku sits back down and leans back in his chair. “I would if I could. There’s simply no spots. We’d have to wait for someone to stop playing and give up their place on the roster, and we can’t just force them out or we’d be doing to them what the old Dean did to you.”

Yuudai sits in the chair behind him, crestfallen. “So I’m stuck in this craphole club?”

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Kirika suddenly shouts, “Hey! Our club isn’t a… a… a c-craphole! Our club is good! Very good! At everything!”

“I really wish there was something I could do for you,” Kansaku says, leaning forward. “But my hands are absolutely tied. Not that you all are unimportant, but we have several other clubs that all have needs too and I’ve got to keep this school from falling apart while keeping all of them happy.”

Katsuki stares him down. “Can’t you put yourself in his shoes? This all just seems so unfair.”

“Don’t think I didn’t have this exact same talk with my little brother. He played just as much a role in everything as you and your friends did, Yuudai. He understood how important it was for credit to be… misdirected. I hope you can do the same.”

Akina sighs and slams her fist against the wall. “This is going nowhere.” She mumbles barely audibly, “It’d be so much easier if we could just beat up people who annoy us…”

Mayumi isn’t quite so considerate, blurting out, “Man, this school’s leadership ain’t shit. I knew I should have went to Cali with my dad. Could have been looking at guys on the beach and everything.”

Yuuri’s eyes suddenly light up. “Well, there’s beaches here in Japan, you know! We’re even going to one today, remember? You can still come ogle guys with us!”

Kansaku stands up. “Well, it was nice getting this talk with everyone, you’re all free to go now. “

They begin to turn towards the door, but Cerys speaks up first. “One last question. What are you gonna do if we don’t keep our mouths shut?”

Kansaku looks shocked at the question, thinks for a bit, then finally answers. “Well, I suppose there’s nothing we can do. Some of you have powers and we’re just normal humans.” He then thinks for another moment, and finishes by saying, “All we can do is ask that you keep it under wraps to not cause panic.”

Cerys is slackjawed at the earnest response, staring dumbfoundedly before yelling “No! Don't be calm, threaten us or something. You are supposed to represent the shady school that watches us for amusement. FUCK, get it together Kansaku!”

Kansaku chuckles at Cerys’ harsh words. “Ms. Alcott, please remember, this is my first day on the job. I haven’t had time to get jaded just yet.”

Cerys goes to say something more, but she can’t find the words and just stomps off after the rest of the club. Yuudai’s the last to leave, moving somewhat slowly when Kansaku clasps him on the shoulder. “I really am sorry that I can’t do anything for you. Even so, look at how angry your club-mates were on your behalf after only knowing you for a month. You’re in with some good people, Yuudai. Stick with ‘em for the year, and we can see about getting you a slot on the baseball team when the 3rd years graduate.” He chuckles, then looks up at the leaving students. “Hell, maybe you won’t even want to switch by then.” He lets go of Yuudai’s shoulder and returns to his seat, leaving Yuudai to catch up with the rest of the group.

Yuudai closes the door on the way out, quickly catching up with the awaiting club members in the hallway. As he gets there, he catches Mayumi putting a cigarette in her mouth.

Yuuri rolls her eyes at Mayumi. Kirika grabs Mayumi’s shirt sleeve before she can bring the lighter up, saying, “You shouldn’t smoke Mayumi! Daddy says it’s bad for you!”

Mayumi gets her arm free from Kirika’s grasp. “We’re not even at the beach yet, how did you get sand in your vagina already?” She lights it up and takes a puff.

Kirika fumes as Akina speaks nonchalantly, “Well, if the druggie wants to ruin her body, let her. It's her decision.”

Kirika begins angrily shouting “Yeah, well, being religious is my decision too! It’s a perfectly natural exercise that my family has been practicing for many generations! And we’re the best at it!”

Yuuri quickly puts her hand over Kirika’s mouth. “Now now, I’m sure you’re great at it and your family’s been doing it for years, but uh, could we not shout in the middle of the school about your weirdo family and their weirdo cult?”

Once Yuuri removes her hand from Kirika’s mouth “Kirika mumbles out, “I haven’t been taught anything yet…”

Mayumi walks up to Kirika “All the more reason to not fuck with it kid.” She then puts out the cigarette and gets closer to Kirika. “Doing things without knowing what you're getting yourself into is grounds for fucking your life up real bad.”

Mayumi ignores the shameful look Kirika is giving her and continues, “Look kid, I never had to do this before, but I’m trying to give you some life advice, senpai to kouhai. You think you can tame the monster, but ultimately it destroys you.”

Kirika looks at Mayumi with slightly wet eyes. “M-Mayumi…” she suddenly hugs Mayumi around the waist. Yuuri gives a soft “awww” at the scene, while Akina and Cerys fake gag.

Mayumi blushes heavily, obviously thrown off by the sudden affection. “Woah kid, calm down. I don’t get down like that unless you pay fat stacks!” Kirika looks up at Mayumi with confusion. They both blink, but Mayumi sighs and puts her hand on Kirika’s head. “Let’s just say I’m... bad with affection, okay?”

Kirka smiles, “That’s okay senpai, I don’t mind. I can teach you!”

Mayumi laughs, “Hey, you’re alright kid.”

Yuuri claps her hands. “Well, now that we’re all friends again, let’s get ready to go to the beach!” She lets out a cheer as she leads the club back to their dorm room.

Raidou starts to follow the rest out, but before he gets far his phone starts ringing. “Hold on guys, this might be important.” The rest of the club waits patiently as they hear what sounds like an intense bout of shouting coming from Raidou’s phone, while he turns paler and paler. “T-that was my mom, I think I’m gonna be gone for a while. Have fun without me.”

Yuuri pats him on the back and says, “We’ll always be here for you if you need us.” She waves him off, and everyone goes their separate ways.

Katsuki stops him before he leaves. “Hey, since I’m president and all, we should keep in touch. Let me give you my number so we can keep each other up to speed.” Raidou accepts her number with gratitude, then waves her off as he heads towards the school’s entrance.

Yuuri nudges Katsuki as she regroups with the rest of the club. “Is that really why you got his number?” She slides in closer with a smug look on her face.

Katsuki turns away from her. “Shut up.” She then turns back towards Yuuri. “Say, how do you know about this beach anyway?”

“Oh! My family used to go there all the time when I was younger.”

Katsuki looks at her with a strange expression. “How come I was never invited then? We used to hang out all the time…”

Yuuri seizes up. “Uh...I-I was waiting for the perfect opportunity...which is right now! Yeah!” She grabs a hold of her hand and pulls her towards the train station before Katsuki can respond. The rest shrug, and follow along.