Hirame Circle [Medaka Box Quest]

[X] Mana
[X] Style User
[X] Female
[X] Freshman

If you want to succeed, be prepared to tread over other people. This is simply the nature all humans share. In essence, life is nothing more than a zero-sum game. If you want to be happy, make everyone else around you miserable. If you want to be rich, make everyone around you dirt-poor. If you want to succeed, make everyone else fail. If you win, someone else loses.

Those of us that have this mysterious thing called talent are no exception. In fact, they are partly the reason such a twisted system works in the first place. Talented people – even if their talents aren't that impressive – too tread over everyone else, but unlike common rabble, they do so unconsciously. They can't help being better than anyone else.

Because you can't blame them for being born this way, because accepting that someone can be better than you from the moment they were born, because their existence means that the shabby concept of "equality" conceived by second-rate people like you, you can't hate people with hate.

And precisely because you can't hate talented people, you hate them all. It can be hypocritical or contradictory, but people are hypocritical and contradictory creatures by nature. Hating those above you for being so bright and hating those below you because you're so bright is the way we keep living.

Of course, to someone as interesting as a dirty magazine without any erotica inside, to a mediocre existence that isn't important to even be somebody else's shadow, this is simply how things are. If you accept the reality of your situation, you'll surely find happiness. If you deny the facts, the only thing that will be waiting you is absolute despair.

Such a hopeless struggle is something that even a horror manga author will find too hopeless.

"Please, join the Public Morals Committee!"

Undoubtedly, Kurokami Hirame is an incredibly talented individual. For someone who witnessed her incredible eccentricity during your middle school days, those words came as naturally as saying that the sky was blue.

In your mind, neither love nor justice ever prevailed. Kurokami Hirame did.

If she ever participated in something, she was the only one winning. This outrageous girl trampled over friendship, teamwork and bonds like nobody's business. No couples ever formed in your middle school since everyone was hopelessly, one-sidedly in love with Hirame. And since everyone was friends with her, no true friendships were ever formed. It was simply a large group of students that were friends with Kurokami Hirame.

In a way, she was everything you despised about the talented people. Even if she failed in something, she did so in a way that redefined the concept of "losing." A person so bright and colorful she couldn't even lose properly.

You hated her more than anyone else in this world because the fact that she existed made you feel more mediocre than ever. It wouldn't be a hyperbole that the greatest dream of your life was to win against her using any means possible.

"N-No?"

Still, even if you hated her, even if you despised her, even if the way she looked at you with those blue eyes made your stomach churn, you were still an ordinary person. It wasn't that simple for you to brush off a plea so honest and pure.

"No?" she parroted.

"No," you affirmed.

"Do you have something against Public Morals?" she asked.

"Nothing of the sort," you answered.

"Then, are you any clubs already?" she prodded carefully.

"I am not. Besides, didn't the chairman allow people to join as many clubs as they want?" you added.

"Perhaps, you're worried about having to attend? Don't worry: I'll do all the work myself. All I need is your name on the list!" she smiled brightly.

Indeed, such was the twisted logic on which this girl's mind operated. Not even once did she think that she was at fault here. To her, the possibility that I didn't want to join the Public Morals Committee because of her was as good as non-existent. Rather, her mind couldn't even register the prospect of someone hating her guts. Probably, because she never faced someone who did.

"T-This is what I hate about you," you muttered.

Hirame probably heard as you as she suddenly took a step back in shock as if her entire world was turned downside up. It was the first time she was rejected in her life, you surmised.

"What did you say?" she said.

Yet, before she could force you to befriend her or something, you dashed away. Even then, you knew she could easily run circles around you for hours. However…

If she catches me…

You felt someone grab the back of your uniform, but that wasn't important. You had to run. Thus, you quickly took off your top, leaving it in the crazy girl's hands. Modesty wasn't an issue here.

This time, Kurokami Hirame didn't follow you.

This time, her foot was stuck in the broken pavement.

This time, she faced an unlikely incident.

---

"I take it you didn't have a very good time, did you?"

Kazumachi Kazuya was a lot like you. He was modest and kind. He hated standing out and liked peace and quiet. His fish-like eyes didn't carry even a single ounce of life in them. He always had an awful bed-hair as if he didn't care about what he looked like.

Kazuya was also one of your closest friends and your neighbor. You didn't share some kind of a special bond, and there were many things you didn't know about each other, but the relationship you shared was pretty close in an ordinary kind of a way.

He was your friend.

"You do know she won't let that slide. By my estimation, Kurokami will take your actions as a challenge," he said. "So, what are you going to do?"

[] I think I'll play hooky for a few days. That'll shake her off my tail.

[] I can hide. She won't be able to recruit me, if she doesn't find me.

[] How about taking her down face-to-face? I'm pretty sure I can beat her if I try.

"I can hide. If she doesn't find me…"

"Stop," he interrupted you with a strong rebuttal. "I know what you're thinking, and before you do anything stupid, listen to a word of advice from your best friend. Just give up and give in. This girl will find you sooner or later."

"Well," you offered. "It's not like I'm planning to play hide-and-seek with her for a long time. She'll probably get tired after a week or so. Besides, didn't you say I don't have much of a presence in the first place? Given some time, she will forget about me entirely."

"Idiot," your friend flicked your forehead with an annoyed expression on his face. "It's not about you, but about what you did to her. Kurokami never had someone refuse to play along with her. You're literally the first one to do that. What do you know about toreadors?"

"Toreadors?" you asked, rubbing your hurting forehead. "That's the thing they do in Spain, right? Some brightly-dressed guys wave their red capes before a bull's face."

"Correct. For a long time, there existed a false belief that the bulls were enraged by the red color of those capes, but the real reason they got provoked was because of the movements of the cape. Do you understand my analogy?"

"Not really."

"Kurokami is like a bull. The one who opposed her isn't as important as the fact that someone opposed her in the first place. All she cares about is her pride," Kazuya sighed. "You two are much more similar than you think."

Pride? There's no way that girl would care about something as insignificant as pride. Only normal humans can suffer from something minor like pride. To her kind, the way they thought the world worked was the way the world worked in reality.

If someone like her said that the world rotated because of them, they didn't do so out of misguided pride. This was simply the way their brains worked.

Hirame wouldn't go after me because her pride was hurt, but because she couldn't understand me. On some level, she was frightened since her perfect picture of how all things worked was shattered. Sadly, I was only a bug in the system – an exception.

The only person that disliked Kurokami Hirame was me, and even then, I didn't hate her personally.

You thought that with honest conviction in your words. Those thoughts plagued your mind because you understood that you were unfair to that girl. Even if your mind was a bit on the rotten side, your heart was not.

So, you did hide from her through the whole day, which was an impressive accomplishment. For an ordinary person to evade an abnormal, such a thing would be impossible under normal circumstance. You could even call that a genuine miracle, if the circumstances were normal.

If I hide in that trashcan, she won't find me.

If I climb that tree, she won't notice me.

If I stop breathing, she won't sense my presence.

Such a clever trick. The way you used a brand new style to make a fool out of that girl was certainly most impressive. If I understood it completely, all you needed to do was to create a specific condition to solidify a desired result. To paraphrase:

If I do so, so will happen, right?

Impressive. Very impressive, girl. Please, accept my sincerest congratulations for inventing something so outrageously disgusting! Wait, I got things all mixed up. Let me try again.

Please, accept my sincerest congratulations for inventing something so disgustingly outrageous! After all, it's not that easy to surprise someone who is 3,402,193,822,311 years old. Wait, isn't that 3,402,193,822,338 years now?

---

Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate.

In my entire life, I never hated someone as much as that strange girl before me.

I've spent the whole day dodging that girl while trying to keep my secret weapon a secret, only for her to find out about it like nobody's business. What is she doing in a random classroom I choose to hide in?

Who is she, in the first place? If she's one of that girl's buddies, I'm finished. Never mind calling her boss, she'll tell her everything my trump card. Sure, I can use all sorts of cheap tricks, but knowing that girl, she'll probably shrug them all off without a care in the world.

Also, the girl before me… How does she know what I'm thinking? Am I that much of a shallow person that a random nobody knows what's happening inside my head? Is that the statement she's trying to make here?

"I'm making no statements here," the girl says with a laidback smile on her face. "Also, don't call me a random nobody, okay? Honestly, when the old and beloved character get the short end of the stick simply to make place for those hothead upstarts, it's simply the worst."

Hate. Hate. Hate. I hate her so much.

"Stop reading my mind! Are you one of those monsters, too?"

There is no other way to explain it.

"Monsters?" she asks me. "Nothing of the sort."

Until now, she was sitting on the teacher's desk, but once she leaps from it, I notice words written on her indoor shoes. It says… Ajimu?

Well, never minding that…

If I could touch her…

"[] Hit yourself in the face with your right hand.

[] Hit yourself in the face with your left hand."

The hell?! Instantly, my hand moves like a snake and hits me in the face. All without any input from me. It hurts, and my vision starts to swim. Normally, people hold back a bit when they try to hit someone, but this time, the force behind that punch was far more than I apply normally.

Why did that happen?!

"My, my. I see it's working without a hitch!" the crazy girl laughs. "Do you like it? This skill I used on you, I mean. Not sure what to call it, but who cares?"

She comes closer. "Normally, you wouldn't be much of a challenge for Kurokami. You see, the way you're now, there was no way you could take someone as protagonist-like as her. Sure, that fancy style you had would've been quite a challenge, but nothing more. From the start, you were a one-note antagonist to establish the main character. Not even a full-blown villain or an unlikely ally."

Hate. Hate. Hate. Hate.

"But I wanted to try something new this time," she whispers into my ear. "So I asked my old friend to create an entirely new skill for someone like you. Now…"

Slowly, her lips move to mine. But then, she stops… Her laughter creates echoes in the empty classroom.

"Joking. You already have it. A present from me," she smiles at me, but for some reason, I don't like the look in her eyes. "Didn't you try to attack me right now? As far as I know, even someone like can get affected by a style…"

"Hmm, what should you do?" she asks mockingly.

[] Prostate yourself before Anshin'in-san and beg for forgiveness.

[] Ask for mercy on all fours like a good dog.

[] Grovel at her feet.

[] Do nothing.