I Promise I Won't Tell Anyone What Happened Tonight

Tatsuya Sakuya slowly walked toward the siblings.

"You were really going to hit her, weren't you? A girl. Your own little sister."

"The school doesn't allow fighting. As Student Council president, you should know the rules better than I do, right?"

"Oh? Are you trying to play the hero?"

Before he finished speaking, Horikita Manabu threw a punch at Tatsuya Sakuya.

"Let's see if you have what it takes."

Whoosh!

The fist came straight at him. There was no wide, showy windup. He heard the rush of displaced air, and the punch was already before his eyes.

Wait.

He was serious?

Wouldn't that punch put someone in the hospital?

Tatsuya Sakuya leaned back on instinct and dodged it.

"President, did you really have to go that hard?"

"I'm just a passing student from Class 1-D. Remember that—hey!"

Horikita Manabu had only meant to scare him off at first, but after being caught in the act, he had lost a little control.

"Have you trained in anything? Your reflexes are pretty quick."

"I practice calligraphy while carrying a piano. No, I mean I've studied piano and calligraphy."

Tatsuya Sakuya remembered that line was supposed to belong to Ayanokoji.

"Is that so?"

Horikita Manabu followed up with a leg sweep and a combination of punches.

He wanted another chance to test the person in front of him.

His strikes came even faster this time.

Tatsuya Sakuya didn't just keep dodging.

He knew that if he did, Horikita Manabu might only push harder.

Horikita Manabu, if I wanted to, I could take you down in ten minutes.

No, ten minutes is too conservative.

If I really went all out, five minutes.

Tatsuya Sakuya kept those arrogant words to himself.

Against Horikita Manabu's combination of punches and kicks, Tatsuya Sakuya answered with a five-A combo.

The best defense was a good offense.

A five-A combo: heavy damage from the left fist, heavy damage from the right. No need to learn it unless you were going pro.

Boom!

It was as if the air had been sucked away in an instant.

There was nothing flashy about Horikita Manabu's attacks. Every move went straight for a vital point!

To defend, he used aikido's redirection techniques against Tatsuya Sakuya's five-A combo.

Thud!

Thud!

Thud!

In the blink of an eye, they traded several blows across the open space.

Fists crossed, each impact ringing through the night.

With his frightening physical ability and fighting instincts, Tatsuya Sakuya fought Horikita Manabu to a standstill.

He had no intention of actually taking him down.

They clashed one last time.

Tatsuya Sakuya's right fist stopped less than three centimeters from Horikita Manabu's gold-rimmed glasses.

Horikita Manabu's joined fingertips rested against Tatsuya Sakuya's throat.

Horikita Suzune, still sitting on the ground, stared in shock.

She had never imagined that her deskmate had the strength to hold his own against her brother.

"Impressive."

Horikita Manabu was the first to break the silence.

He slowly withdrew his hand from Tatsuya Sakuya's throat, then adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.

"You're no ordinary student. What's your name?"

Tatsuya Sakuya withdrew his right fist too, casually shaking out his slightly numb wrist.

"Class 1-D, Tatsuya Sakuya."

"But President, beating up your defenseless little sister in the middle of the night wouldn't look good for someone in your position if word got out, would it?"

Horikita Manabu gave a cold snort.

"What's interesting is that I remember a student who scored exactly forty points in every entrance exam subject. That was you, wasn't it?"

Horikita Manabu looked down at Horikita Suzune on the ground, then slowly disappeared into the darkness.

"At this school, incompetence is the greatest sin. Knowing when to hide your excellence is a talent, too."

"As for Suzune... I never expected you to make a friend like him."

"If you still want to reach Class 1-A, then struggle with everything you've got."

"He... isn't my friend. We're just deskmates."

Horikita Suzune watched Horikita Manabu walk away.

Then only the rustling of wind through the leaves remained.

"When did you get here? Or was this another lucky coincidence?"

Horikita Suzune asked him.

"Uh, how should I put it? Half luck, half coincidence, I guess."

"? That again?"

Horikita Suzune clearly didn't believe him at all.

"Yeah. Ayanokoji can vouch for me. I was having coffee with him earlier."

Tatsuya Sakuya thought of his earlier encounter with Ayanokoji and seized the chance to change the subject.

"Your brother's impressive."

"He used to practice taekwondo and aikido. What about you? What did you train in to fight him on equal terms?"

Horikita Suzune pressed him.

"Didn't I tell you? I'm an athlete. I've trained in piano and calligraphy."

Tatsuya Sakuya started lying.

"When did you tell me you were an athlete?"

Horikita Suzune had caught the flaw in his story and challenged him on it.

"That's not important. What matters is what your brother said to you, and how you plan to reach Class 1-A. Those things matter more."

Tatsuya Sakuya kept changing the subject to stop Horikita Suzune from digging deeper.

"I will reach Class 1-A. I'll prove what I can do to my brother."

It was as if Horikita Suzune were under a spell. Mention her brother or Class 1-A, and she reacted like a robot triggered by a keyword.

"It's getting late. Let's head back, Horikita. It wouldn't look good if someone saw the two of us alone together at night."

"About tonight..."

"I might let what happened tonight slip someday."

Tatsuya Sakuya said it as a joke.

Horikita Suzune slowly pulled a compass from her pocket.

*?*

Wait, seriously?

Why do you carry a compass around?

Are you the Compass Demon?

That thing could actually kill someone!

"I promise I won't tell anyone what happened tonight. I promise."

Tatsuya Sakuya dropped the joking tone. The Compass Demon was no joke.

"The moon is beautiful tonight!"

Horikita Suzune looked up at the moon and sighed.

"And the wind is awfully restless!"

Tatsuya Sakuya joined in, though he had no idea whether Horikita Suzune had meant something more by her words.

Back in Room 217, Tatsuya Sakuya began to process everything that had happened.

Those siblings really were something else.

An older brother who couldn't express himself.

A younger sister so fixated on following in his footsteps that she couldn't see anything else.

All they had to do was talk things through face-to-face.

But he had confirmed one thing: as long as he held the thread connecting her to her brother, getting his deskmate to do what he wanted would be easy.

So much happened today. I'm exhausted.

After washing up, Tatsuya Sakuya fell asleep at once and slept peacefully. (The end, doge)