Propaganda of Love and Hate
Chidori Kaname heard a strange sound on her balcony and opened her eyes. A peeping tom? she wondered, reaching for the alarm clock by her bed. It was her beloved English-made penguin clock, which she’d been using for three years now.
It was just after seven o’clock in the morning, and the morning sun shone bright through the window. Way too early for a peeping tom, right? Kaname thought next. “Geh...” Then she climbed out of bed, rubbed her weary eyelids, and walked to her apartment’s balcony while still in her pajamas.
A local white cat was perched on top of the outdoor air conditioning unit. “Meow.”
“Oh,” she said sleepily. “Morning.”
The cat regarded her for a moment, then departed for the next balcony over.
Kaname took a leisurely shower. The lukewarm water put her in such a haze that she found herself on the verge of falling asleep on her feet. She managed to drag herself to the changing room and, still naked, brushed her back-length black hair until her mind finally woke up. After washing, she picked out her underwear and put on her uniform.
Three minutes later, she glanced at the mirror. Her face was slender, with delicate features. When silent and still, she looked terribly mature, almost cold. “Heh. Ha ha ha...” When she forced herself to smile, she looked charming and girlish. Eh, she told herself. That’s pretty typical, though...
She got breakfast, brushed her teeth, then checked the contents of her bag: wallet, student ID, PHS phone, lipstick, compact, cotton rounds, tissues, handkerchief, band-aids, baby oil, nail file, candy, headache medicine... No issues here.
She pulled a gold watch out of a drawer. Its design seemed far too grown-up for a teenage girl, but she put it on her left wrist.
“Right,” she declared, “all set.” She turned to the picture frame on the table, which held a picture of a smiling woman in her thirties. The woman had features very similar to Kaname’s, and a capable air about her. She was sitting on a beach somewhere, holding a nine-year-old girl in her arms. “See you later, Mom.” Kaname smiled at the photo, then headed down the road to school as usual.
Better hurry! she told herself. Got that classic lit quiz in first period!
Sagara Sousuke heard a strange sound on his balcony and opened his eyes. An enemy? he wondered, reaching for the 9mm pistol by his bed. It was his beloved Austrian-made Glock, which he’d been using for three years now.
He looked at the clock. It was twenty past seven in the morning.
Sousuke crawled out from under his bed, listening closely at the sliding glass door before stepping firmly out onto the balcony. His gun was trained on the culprit: a black cat, which was perched on the outdoor air conditioning unit.
“Meow.”
He stared at it silently.
The cat regarded him for a moment, then departed for the next balcony over.
Time to set out, he told himself.
He ate his breakfast: a slice of ham, a tomato, mineral water, and a pinch of salt and sugar. A luxurious breakfast indeed, he thought. On the battlefields of Central Asia, he’d sometimes gone a week without food or drink. It made him appreciate such things all the more.
He swiftly washed up and brushed his teeth, then glanced at the mirror for exactly three seconds. Severe features, drawn into a sullen expression. Haphazardly cut black hair. A sharp gaze, a stern brow, and a tight frown.
No issues with my complexion, he decided. Internal organs all functioning.
He went through his possessions: automatic pistol, revolver, combat knife, Swiss army knife, throwing knives, hand grenades, stun grenades, plastic explosives, all-purpose digital transceiver, night-vision goggles, special anti-personnel mines, survival kit, spare ammo, various medicines...
“Good. Perfect.” His preparations for the day’s expedition were complete.
He looked at a picture stuck to the wall. It was a faded photo of a line of men in camouflage clothing. They were seated on the arm of a beat-up arm slave, automatic pistols raised. He straightened up to attention. “I’m heading out,” he announced.
Sagara Sousuke then put on his high-collared student uniform, placed his textbooks and notebooks in his bag, and took the morning road to school.
It’s time to steel myself, he thought. I have a classic literature quiz in first period!
●
Kaname got off the train at Sengawa Station, which was on the Keio Line on the outskirts of Tokyo. The area had a large number of girls’ colleges, junior colleges, and high schools, so there were a greater-than-normal number of young women on the station platform. They were roughly equal in proportion to the white-collar workers on their daily commute.
“Chidori-san!”
“Hmm?”
The young man calling to her on the station platform was good-looking. He was a student at Jindai High School, which Kaname also attended.
“Shirai-kun, right? Morning,” Kaname said indifferently, quickly turning away again.
“Wait! Did you think about what I said yesterday?” he pleaded. “I could really use your answer...”
“What was that again?” she questioned.
“I asked if you wanted to go out with me!”
“Oh, that? Nah, pass. Denied. Buzz off.” Kaname punctuated her statement by walking swiftly away.
“W-Wait!” Shirai-whoever said, grabbing her shoulder from behind.
Kaname looked back at him with open displeasure. “Did you not hear me?” she asked coldly. “I said no.”
“Why not?! I’m breaking up with my current girlfriend, so—”
“So what?” Kaname brushed his hand away.
Nevertheless, he persisted. “I said wait!” He grabbed her wrist, this time roughly.
“Ow!” Kaname cried.
“I’m begging you! Really think about it! I’m serious about— Eh?” A sudden cold sensation on Shirai’s neck struck him silent. “Huh?!” Someone had twisted his arm behind his back and pressed a sharpened combat knife to his throat.
“That’s enough, dangerous figure,” commanded the owner of the even-more-dangerous knife.
“Ah, Sousuke. Morning,” Kaname said casually, as she caught a glimpse of the familiar face looming behind Shirai. That sullen expression, that tight frown, that Jindai High uniform—it was her classmate, Sagara Sousuke.
“Chidori,” said Sousuke, “who is this man?”
“Shirai-kun from Class 2,” she told him. “He tried to talk to me after class yesterday. That’s all.”
“Is this correct?” Sousuke whispered into the other man’s ear.
The young man nodded swiftly in response. “Y-Yes.”
“Why are you after her? Is it political? Has someone ordered her kidnapping? Talk.”
“Wh-What are you— Yeek!” The blade, cold as ice, dug a few millimeters into Shirai’s skin.
“I said, talk,” Sousuke snarled.
Kaname, uncomfortable with the sight of a squirming Shirai, tried to talk Sousuke down. “It’s okay, Sousuke,” she said reassuringly. “He’s an ordinary civilian. Let him go.”
Sousuke looked at her dubiously. “You’re certain?”
“Of course I am!”
“You’re not being coerced into saying that?” he pressed. “To protect a hostage, perhaps?”
“Of course not!”
“Hmm...” Sousuke relaxed the pressure on the knife and began to speak slowly to the trembling young man. “Listen to me. The woman you laid your hand on is the vice president of our student council. In other words, the second-highest-ranked person in the school.”
“R-Right...”
“I’ll let you off with a warning this time. But never do this again. Your family will pay the price if you do. Understand?”
“C-Come on...”
“Removal of their fingernails will just be the start,” Sousuke promised. “I’ll inflict unimaginable pain on your wife and children.”
“He doesn’t have a wife and children!” Kaname protested.
Sousuke ignored her and released his quarry. “Have I made myself clear? On your way, then.”
Shirai scrambled away, tearing through the gathered onlookers.
“Honestly... Couldn’t you have found a gentler way to stop him?” Kaname grumbled. “You war-addled man...”
“I wasn’t really serious,” Sousuke admitted.
Kaname genuinely never knew when he was being serious and when he wasn’t. Sousuke had grown up overseas—moreover, in some of the world’s most dangerous war-torn regions—and had only recently transferred to their school. He still didn’t seem to grasp how life worked here in peaceful Japan. So, at last, she just let out a sigh. “Fine, thanks anyway. Now let’s get to school. First period is classic lit.”
“Ah...”
Kaname grabbed Sousuke by the arm and marched him off the platform.
That day at lunch break...
“Can’t shake the feeling that I’m being watched today,” Kaname muttered, reclining in her seat by the window. With her back to the blue sky, she carried on with eating her bland melon roll. A few girls from the same class sat across from her, pecking at their boxed lunches.
“Watched? Like, by a boy?” one of her friends asked, while sipping her Banana Au Lait through a straw.
“Dunno. It’s hard to describe... I just feel all stiff in the shoulder area,” Kaname said, craning her neck around to demonstrate.
“Huh... Is it that guy who tried to ask you out on the way home yesterday? Shirai?”
Kaname suddenly snapped to attention. “Oh, that reminds me! He accosted me on the station platform this morning. Right, Sousuke?”
Sousuke was eating lunch a little ways away, using his combat knife to shave off pieces of some kind of smoked meat and bring them to his mouth. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he denied.
“You know! This morning—”
It was just then that a young man appeared at the classroom door. “Is Chidori-kun here?” asked a calm but penetrating voice.
“Ah, Hayashimizu-senpai...”
He was a tall and lean third-year boy with a quiet but imposing demeanor. He had wire frame glasses and slicked-back hair, and looked like he’d be more at home in a tailored English suit than the school uniform he actually wore. His name was Hayashimizu Atsunobu, and he was their student council president.
“What are you doing in our classroom?” Kaname asked, not bothering to hide her umbrage at his presence.
Hayashimizu replied simply, without pleasantry, “Oh? Am I bothering you?”
“Nah.”
“But your face doesn’t exactly say, ‘Ah, my esteemed superior and wise mentor, Student Council President Hayashimizu Atsunobu, graces me with his presence. I’m the luckiest girl in the East,’ either,” he pointed out.
“Have you been watching N*rth K*rean propaganda?” she asked suspiciously.
“Kindly do not compare me to that particular leader,” Hayashimizu told her loftily. “I have nothing but respect for personal freedoms. I’m even in favor of showing genitalia in X-rated comics.”
“You see why you bother me? It’s because you just say stuff like that!” Kaname shouted, turning red as she felt her classmates’ eyes turn towards her.
“Calm down, Chidori-kun,” he advised, “I merely came to offer you a warning.”
“A warning?”
“Yes. Given your reaction, I assume you haven’t heard... First, look at this.” Hayashimizu handed her an envelope. She dubiously opened it to discover a stack of Polaroids inside.
“Pictures of the bathrooms?” she asked. “What the heck?” There were twenty-two in total, each with the site where it had been taken written in magic marker on the back. The photos themselves were of gray tile walls or stall partitions, each covered in absurd graffiti. It was typical stuff—delinquents’ boasts written in overly complicated kanji, “Looking for a good time? Call Gon in Class 3,” and that sort of thing...
“What about it?” Kaname asked.
“Look at the red markings on the walls,” Hayashimizu pointed out. “The newest additions.”
Kaname’s lips pursed slightly. Each of the walls pictured did indeed contain new graffiti done in red magic marker.
Student Council Vice President C.K. got the election supervisor to pad out her votes to get elected. As a reward, she gave him the panties she was wearing that day.
Chidori Kaname from Class 4 takes younger girls home and rapes them.
Chidori Kaname (2-4) has a sugar daddy who bought her that Cartier watch.
C.K. lives alone and will take up invitations from anyone to spend the night.
Chidori Kaname of Class 2-4 buys uppers from drug dealers in Kabukicho.
It was all that kind of thing.
By this point, her friends had clustered around her to read over her shoulder.
“Wow, that’s not cool...”
“Yeah, that’s just mean,” they said to each other.
“It’s especially prominent in the girls’ and boys’ bathrooms in the north building and on the west side of the south building. I received the report before noon and had a subordinate take pictures,” Hayashimizu explained lightly.
“Um... Did you only take pictures?” Kaname asked pointedly.
“Don’t worry. I hid the graffiti itself behind paper.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Certainly,” said Hayashimizu. “Needless to say, this is baseless slander; anyone with common sense won’t pay it any notice. But I fear that ‘common sense’ isn’t as common as I would like.”
“Nobody’s gonna believe this crap!” Kaname shrieked.
The girls around her nodded in agreement.
“It’s totally made up!”
“Kana-chan’s not that kind of person!”
Hayashimizu stood there quietly as they made their protests, then said, “Your friendship is admirable, but gives people too much credit. A single credulous fool can change everything—in most cases, bad money drives out good.” He was basically saying that the stupid people who believed the lies would drown out the smart people who didn’t.
But... sexual favors and stimulants? Kaname wondered. What kind of idiot would believe that? It was then that she noticed that Sousuke—who had previously been eating lunch on his own a ways away—had joined the group to stare at the Polaroids. She asked, “What’s wrong, Sousuke?”
Clearly taken aback by the content of the graffiti, he turned to Kaname in shock and suspicion. “Chidori. Are you... Are you...”
“Don’t just believe it!” Kaname yelled, and sent Sousuke flying with a full-power kick. He plowed through about eight desks, knocked over a boy eating lunch, and then fell unconscious with said lunch on his head. Kaname watched him, shoulders heaving.
Hayashimizu waited for Kaname to catch her breath, then said, “Well, Chidori-kun? Do you have any idea who might have done this?”
“No,” she told him. “I honestly can’t think of anyone who’d do something this extreme.”
“If you have even the smallest suspicion, please tell me.”
“Well, also... I don’t really want to know,” she confessed.
“No one will hold it against you,” he told her.
Kaname knew President Hayashimizu to be a shrewd man, despite how he sometimes presented himself. He even held sway with the delinquents and teachers. Still, she couldn’t imagine anything he could do making things better for her. It’s not as if punishing whoever did this will make them stop hating me, she thought.
“It’s fine, really. Don’t try to find the culprit,” said Kaname, standing up.
“Ah, Kana-chan. Hey...”
“Sorry. Not feeling well.” She cut off all attempts at discussion and strode out of the classroom. She didn’t even spare a glance at Sousuke, who was still buried under the desks.
Once Kaname was gone, President Hayashimizu gave two five-thousand-yen notes to her classmate Tokiwa Kyoko and told her, “Once school is over, take her out for drinks on the way home. Don’t forget the receipt.”
Kyoko, with her braids and coke-bottle glasses, said uneasily, “Um, I appreciate the sentiment, but we’re still high school students...”
“That’s fine,” he said absently. “Now, excuse me.”
“Wait, Senpai!”
Hayashimizu ignored Kyoko and left the room. While the rest of them just stood there, wondering what to do, Sousuke finished extracting himself from the fallen desks.
“Sagara-kun, you survived that?”
“Yes, although it was quite painful.” He gathered up the pictures that had fallen on the floor and tucked them into his own pocket. Then he made a great show of thinking. “In the places where I was raised, lying and disseminating false orders is a serious offense. Those who disrupt the chain of command and contribute to societal unrest would traditionally be executed by firing squad.”
“Well, I don’t think this is quite that serious...” Kyoko said, while internally lamenting, Ah, I forgot there was someone even weirder than President Hayashimizu in the room...
“Regardless, she seems suspiciously disinterested in pursuing the culprit,” he observed. “I can’t help but feel that there’s something else at play here.”
“Um, like?”
“Perhaps the perpetrator has blackmail material on her,” he said firmly. What if Kaname feared that finding the culprit would be to her disadvantage? What if most of the graffiti was false, but part of it was true? What if the graffiti was a warning: ‘Cross me and next time I’ll tell the students your real secret’?
“It’s possible that Chidori knows who the culprit is and fears what they might do if cornered,” he pointed out. “They might know some terrible secret of hers that she doesn’t want revealed.”
Kyoko, who was somehow still listening to this, was genuinely impressed. “That’s incredible...”
“It was a simple deduction,” he protested.
“Not that part,” she told him flatly. “I mean, it’s incredible that you’re willing to believe such awful things about your own classmate.”
“But it would explain her reticence in pursuing the matter.”
“Yeah? But I think there’s a more obvious reason...”
“What do you mean?” Sousuke asked with a frown.
Kyoko gazed at him despairingly. “Oh, forget it. Poor Kana-chan...”
Yet Sousuke puffed out his chest at this. “No matter how tragic and terrifying Chidori’s secret is, it won’t sway my feelings,” he declared. “Even if she’s a weapons smuggler, a drug dealer... even an assassin for President Gorbachev...”
“She’s not gonna be any of those things!” Kyoko protested.
“Regardless, I must learn her secret,” he continued, completely ignoring her. “If it’s a scandal that could undermine her administration, I could nip it in the bud.” Sousuke pulled a gun from his belt. “Fortunately, I have an idea of who the culprit might be.” He pulled back the slide and checked the bullets in the chamber.
“The culprit... Dare I ask?” Kyoko asked.
“A boy from Class 2 that I met this morning.”
“That Shirai guy? How come?”
“He accosted Chidori at the station and made demands of her,” Sousuke explained. “He told her to ‘really think about it,’ and assured her that he was ‘serious.’”
Kyoko’s glasses slipped sharply down her nose. “I really don’t think that’s it...”
“Of course you don’t. You’re an amateur, after all.”
“No, that’s not what I— Hey, Sagara-kun, where are you going?”
“To see the president,” he declared. “I’m going to advise him to get Shirai to confess Chidori’s secret so that we can formulate a counter-strategy.”
Kyoko watched him go despondently. “Honestly. There’s no way Hayashimizu-senpai is going to allow that...”
Unfortunately, she was wrong.
After class that day...
Someone called to Kaname as she was walking down the hall.
“U-Um, Chidori-san...”
“What is it, Kazama-kun?”
It was a mousy-looking male student, Kazama Shinji, who was in the same class as her. He was gingerly carrying a manila envelope, which he held timidly out to her.
“What’s this?” she asked.
Kazama Shinji replied bashfully, “Um... there’s eight thousand yen in there. I-Is that enough?”
“Huh? For what?”
He took out a digital camera and fidgeted. “Um, I heard you were willing to pose for lewd pictures, two thousand yen apiece...”
Kaname hefted up her bag and smashed it down on Shinji’s head, taking extra care to get him with the corner. “Get the hell out of my face, you gross pervert!” The boy dropped his camera and slammed face-first into the wall. She gave his envelope of money a hard stomp, then strode swiftly off.
Tokiwa Kyoko, who’d been watching passively, quickly followed after her.
“Darn it, that’s the fourth one today!” Kaname exploded. “Why did Hayashimizu-senpai have to be right?!” The graffiti also explained her curious feeling of being watched earlier.
“Hey, Kana-chan, you sure you’re okay?” Kyoko asked, worried.
Kaname waved her off dismissively. “I’m fine. These rumors are no big. Everyone’ll forget them in a day or two. Besides, I’m used to this kind of thing.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It’s kinda been my thing for a while now, y’know?” Kaname said with a laugh.
Kyoko didn’t seem reassured by her clearly forced mirth. She did, however, seem to remember something. “Oh, Kana-chan. During lunch break, Sagara-kun—”
Just then, a shriek rang down the hall.
“Oh?” Kaname mused.
She ran around the corner and saw Sagara Sousuke about ten meters away, dragging a male student along at gunpoint. The student was...
“Shirai-kun,” she said flatly.
Sousuke was trying to pull him into the nearby boys’ bathroom.
“H-Help me!” the boy cried.
“Quiet,” Sousuke ordered. “You’re just making this harder on yourself.”
Poor Shirai wept like a fool as he clung for dear life to the bathroom door frame. “I swear I don’t know anything! It’s true! Please believe me!”
“I told you to be quiet.” Sousuke gave Shirai’s hand a solid rap and finally succeeded in dragging him inside.
“Yeah, this is what I was gonna tell you,” Kyoko said.
“Oh, that idiot...” moaned Kaname, as both girls ran to the boys’ bathroom entrance and looked inside.
Sousuke had just dragged Shirai into a stall and closed the door. They couldn’t see them from their current vantage point, but they could hear threatening noises and Shirai’s pitiful wailing.
“Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me!” Sounds of struggling ensued.
“I won’t kill you. Yet. Whether I do or not eventually depends on how cooperative you are.” This declaration was followed by the sound of handcuffs clicking into place.
“Nooo...” cried Shirai, weeping in a high falsetto.
“Tell me Chidori’s secret and I’ll guarantee you respectful treatment,” Sousuke suggested. “A warm meal and a soft bed too. But if you continue to hide it...” he trailed off suggestively, followed by the sound of a gun being cocked.
“Wagh!” For some reason, this shriek was followed by the sound of a toilet being flushed.
The fact that the girls couldn’t see what was going on made everything that was happening inside the stall seem even more horrifying.
“Ah, this is bad,” Kaname muttered.
“Kana-chan,” Kyoko said urgently. “We have to stop Sagara-kun.”
“You’re right. Ugh... fine, let’s do this.” She’d never been inside the boys’ bathroom before, but Kaname steeled herself and took a step in. The moment her feet hit the tile, she was filled with a feeling of Ah, I’m unclean.
But there’s no time for that now! she reminded herself, striding up to the stall and flinging the door open. “Sousuke!” she cried.
Sousuke had Shirai sitting down on the Western-style toilet. He’d covered the boy’s head in a burlap sack, and he’d also just pulled out his combat knife. “Chidori?” Sousuke said, sounding surprised. “The girls’ bathroom is next door.”
“Yeah, duh!” she scoffed. “What the hell are you doing?!”
Sousuke met Kaname’s gaze unashamedly. “I’m sorry, but I have to find out what he has on you.”
“Huh?” she echoed. “‘Has on me’?”
“There’s no need to hide it,” he told her earnestly. “I already know the broad strokes of the matter.”
“What in the world...”
Sousuke held out a sheaf of papers. Its concise contents read thus:
Sagara Sousuke (Head of School Security and Aide to the Student Council President)
I give you full authority to pursue the matter of slander against Vice President Chidori.
Jindai High School Student Council President, Hayashimizu Atsunobu
“The hell?” Kaname asked incredulously.
Aide to the Student Council President Sagara Sousuke puffed out his chest and said, “It’s a commission from the president. I have full authority on this matter now.”
“This is the absolute craziest—” Kaname started to say dubiously, but he cut her off with a gesture.
“Everyone has elements of their past they don’t want known,” Sousuke told her. “But I must learn them, in the name of school order. No matter how humiliating the secret might be.”
“I bet you’re imagining some really offensive stuff...” she mumbled.
“Ah, you understand, then?”
They seemed to be talking right past each other.
“Chidori-san, save me!” Shirai wept to her.
“Yeah, yeah,” she agreed with a sigh. “Hey, Sousuke. I think you’ve got the wrong idea here. Could you maybe knock it off? Shirai-kun didn’t write that graffiti.”
“Of course you’d say that,” he retorted suspiciously. “You’re afraid of me learning your secrets.”
“I don’t have any freaking secrets!”
“Are you sure about that? There’s not a single thing you’re hiding?”
“Geh...” Memories of a little accident she’d had last fall rose up in Kaname’s mind. She’d started a campfire in the forest behind the school to roast sweet potatoes, which had quickly gotten out of control until the fire department got involved. She and her friends had fled the scene, and they’d never been fingered for the crime.
“As I expected,” he said. “You do have a dark secret.”
“Oh, c-come on... Stop imagining the worst!”
Sousuke waved his hand as if to dismiss any further argument, then turned back to Shirai. “Leave now, Chidori,” he advised her. “What’s about to happen won’t be suitable for women or children to witness. Now, Shirai, was it? Tell me her secrets.” He resumed his bizarre interrogation.
“Cut it out already!” Kaname protested again. “Hey, Sousuke, are you listening to me?” As she tried to move closer—
“Stop it!!” A girl pushed past Kaname and ran into the stall. She was short, with medium-length hair in a bob cut and eyes that were childishly round, yet intense. “What’s wrong with you people?” she demanded. “What are you doing to my Shirai-kun? It’s awful, just awful! Shirai-kun, speak to me!” She threw herself on Shirai (whose head was still in the sack), weeping hysterically.
“Geh... Mizuki? What are you doing here?” Shirai asked.
“I heard Sagara from Class 4 was manhandling you,” she said. “Are you okay?!”
“Yeah, think so...”
The girl named Mizuki heaved a sigh of relief.
Kaname looked at her suspiciously. “And you are...?”
“Shirai-kun’s girlfriend!” Mizuki declared. “We’re totally in love! And you’ll pay for messing with him!”
Hearing this, Sousuke’s eyes glinted. “Girlfriend,” he noted thoughtfully. “In love. You’re Shirai’s woman, then? Perfect. I can use you as leverage—”
As Sousuke reached for Mizuki, Kaname slammed him in the back of the head with her bag. “Just shut up a minute, okay?” she said in disgust, then turned back to Mizuki. “Look, I’m really sorry about all this.”
But Mizuki met her sympathetic gaze with a glare. “You’re Chidori Kaname, aren’t you?”
“Well, yeah...”
“You’re a horrible person. Just because someone’s spreading mean rumors about you is no reason to treat Shirai-kun like a common criminal! And you get this... lackey or boy toy or whatever of yours to assault him!”
“Huh?” Kaname stared in confusion.
But Mizuki continued to lay into her. “Everyone knows what a slut you are. And my father’s friends with the principal! You’d better get ready, because you’re going to pay for this!”
“Hang on a minute. I was just—”
“Shut up, whore!”
Kaname was speechless.
Mizuki continued triumphantly. “You really are disgusting. I’d bet at least half of what they wrote about you was true. Getting a sugar daddy to buy you that watch... It’s definitely way too expensive to— ow!” Mizuki shrieked as a fist conked her on the crown.
Kaname stared in wonder at her fist, curious about how it had moved on its own like that. “Sorry,” she said, “but could you not insult my watch?”
“Y-You hit me!” Mizuki wailed. “My own father never hit me! You’ll pay for this!”
“Um, y’know... I could just hit you again?” Kaname suggested next.
As the tensions between the two women escalated, Sousuke, currently collapsed outside the stall from the earlier bag-slam, stood up abruptly and approached.
“Stay down already. And get away from me; you stink,” Mizuki scoffed at him as he closed in.
“My scent isn’t relevant at the moment,” Sousuke said. “I’m more concerned with you. Mizuki, was it?”
“Don’t you use my first name!” she hissed as she folded her arms defensively. “You can use my surname, Inaba.”
“Inaba Mizuki, then. You were just talking about Chidori’s watch. Who told you about that?”
“Nobody told me,” she denied. “I saw it in the bathroom. It’s written all over. What a laugh!”
“Hmm. Yes, it is indeed humorous...” Sousuke quietly pushed her aside to enter the stall where Shirai had been chained. “Come here, both of you.” He beckoned to Kaname and Mizuki.
“What the heck?”
“What is it, Sousuke?”
They both leaned forward as he reached for the “Please keep the bathrooms clean” notice posted on the stall wall by the student council. “Look at this.” He tore down the newly applied sign. Behind it was the graffiti written in red marker. And it said...
Chidori Kaname (2-4) has a sugar daddy who bought her that Cartier watch.
Inaba Mizuki’s jaw dropped and her face went pale.
“It’s curious,” he continued. “I wonder how you could have seen this graffiti, when it was posted in the boys’ bathroom.”
“Er... ah... well...” Mizuki’s mouth began to flap helplessly.
“The graffiti was written this morning, during class,” he pointed out thoughtfully. “Which means the culprit most likely bowed out of the classroom for an hour or so during that time, using health concerns as an excuse.”
“Y-You can’t prove—”
“An investigation will quickly bring the truth to light,” Sousuke went on. “Attendance records, the suspect’s bag, desk, locker... Your mouth gave you away, Inaba Mizuki.”
Shirai, overhearing their exchange, stared disbelievingly into Mizuki’s panicked face. “Mizuki... you did this? Why?”
“Because she deserved it!” she screamed back with tears in her eyes. “You tried to pick her up at the station! I saw it!”
Now it was Shirai who went pale. “What? I... I didn’t...”
“What, I’m not good enough for you anymore?” Mizuki pushed back. “You creep! I bought you a PC-FX for your birthday. I made you lunch. I bought you tickets to that JB concert!”
Shirai was suddenly rolling his eyes. “Just because you bought me a PC-FX...”
This snippet of conversation was enough to give Kaname a very clear idea about the strained nature of their relationship.
Meanwhile, Sousuke had pulled out a new set of handcuffs. “There have been numerous twists and turns, but we know the true culprit now,” he declared. “Inaba, please tell me Chidori Kaname’s terrible secret.”
“Are you still on that?” Kaname looked at him in disgust, and Sousuke seemed to have his worldview shaken for once.
“So... it wasn’t blackmail?” he asked cautiously.
“I’ve been saying that this whole time!”
Sousuke reluctantly seemed to accept it. “Hmm... But the crime of spreading false rumors remains. Should we refer the case to the staff and have her suspended?”
The word “suspended” sent a shudder through Mizuki.
Kaname made a face. “No, c’mon.”
“Then shall we slander her in the bathrooms in exchange?” he suggested next. “‘Inaba Mizuki is a Communist,’ perhaps?”
“No way,” Kaname denied. “And boy, the punishments you think of are on another level...”
“Then what shall we do?”
“Nothing,” she told him. “Just let it go.”
A faint expression of surprise appeared on Mizuki’s face. “Huh?”
“I’m saying we’re letting it go,” Kaname said easily.
She genuinely understood how Inaba Mizuki felt. The girl must have really and truly loved Shirai... and Kaname honestly found herself a little envious of how honestly she expressed her feelings. So, it was fine.
Yeah... she told herself, deeply lost in thought. Because I can justify it to myself...
But Sousuke doubled down. “Still, it’s necessary to set an example for others,” he insisted. “Some kind of harsh punishment is required.”
Kaname suddenly felt the vein in her forehead throbbing. “For the love of... Don’t you ever think about my feelings, or matters of feminine delicacy?” she asked.
“Eh? What are you talking about?”
She thought about smacking Sousuke one, but swallowed her frustration and said, “Anyway, Inaba-san. Do you feel better? I’m really not interested in dating Shirai-kun. You can rest easy.”
“R-Rest easy?” Mizuki turned her tear-stained eyes to Kaname. “Chidori Kaname! You are truly the most irritating woman, especially at times like this! Just because you’re a little popular with the boys, you act like you’re the queen of the world or something! This isn’t over!”
The girl was the definition of unapologetic defiance. She shoved Kaname away and ran off, as if fleeing.
“Ah, she’s off...” said Kaname.
“We know her identity. We can catch her any time.”
“Uh, that’s not what I meant... And Sousuke, maybe you should apologize to Shirai-kun? He’s innocent, remember?”
“Ahh. Indeed.” Sousuke removed the cuffs from the exhausted Shirai and patted him on the shoulder. “Well done. The president will likely send you a letter of appreciation in the days to follow. Isn’t that nice?”
“‘Nice,’ my ass!” In the end, Kaname did indeed smack Sousuke one.
The next day at lunch break, Kaname was eating her extra-spicy curry bread in the classroom when Kyoko came back from the bathroom and beckoned to her. “Kana-chan, follow me. Right now.” She led Kaname to the girls’ bathroom near their classroom.
“What is it?”
“Look at this.” Kyoko pointed at the graffiti on the wall of a stall. The student council sign had been torn down, and in red letters it said, Chidori Kaname from Class 4 takes younger girls home and rapes them. It was one of the bits of graffiti from the pictures.
“What about it?” asked Kaname.
“Look underneath it.”
In the same red handwriting, the phrase, This was a lie. Chidori Kaname is actually pretty nice. Don’t believe the rumors! was added at the bottom.
“It’s the same in all the other bathrooms,” Kyoko told her.
“Really? Huh...” Kaname folded her arms and said, with a smile, “I guess sometimes, it pays to be kind.”
〈Propaganda of Love and Hate — The End〉
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