La Faust Academy Arc: 48 The Ones who Take Action and the One who Wavers

La Faust Academy Arc
48 The Ones who Take Action and the One who Wavers

“…ga-kun, Fuuga-kun.”

When his name was called, Fuuga raised his head in surprise. Surrounding him were the members of his fan club who were in his class, looking at him with worried expressions. Third period had ended without him noticing.

“Fuuga-kun, what’s wrong? You don’t seem very well lately, right?”
“Is that so?”

Fuuga smiled awkwardly when the fangirls reached out.

“Fuuga-kun, you aren’t energetic. I’ll give you one of your favorite candies.”

One of the fangirls took out a candy that Fuuga often had from her pocket.
Seeing that, Fuuga’s eyes opened wide.

 

—Rengetsu-kun.—

 

“Ah…”

Fuuga opened his mouth.
The image of her that unwittingly appeared before him was nowhere to be found.
Fuuga covered his face and sighed.

“Sorry. I…remembered something I have to do.”

Without taking the candy, Fuuga pushd through the surrounding female students and left the classroom.

Going to the bathroom, Fuuga washed his face. He looked at his dripping reflection in the mirror and clenched his fists.

“Seriously, what am I doing…”

Even if Meru wasn’t there, Fuuga was surrounded by girls as usual.

Fuuga was always looking for Meru amidst them. There was no way she would be there. Even when she was at Reiryuu Academy, she never came to his class to meet him.

He knew that.

“But…”

Fuuga raised his head. There was no hesitation left on his face.
With his resolve, Fuuga rushed out of the academy.

 

 

 

Shin was in the library today as well.
Unusually, he was flipping through a book in his hand.

“Ah…”

The paper grazed across and cut the tip of his index finger. Red blood trickled down from the wound.
Shin licked it up.

“First…”

Muttering that, Shin returned the book to the shelf.
As he did, Shin twitched and stopped moving. He felt the presence of another person.

“Geh.”

When he looked over his shoulder, Meru was there.
To Meru who let out that sound at the moment she saw his face, Shin returned his usual smile.

“You came even knowing I’m here?”

When Shin spoke cheerfully, Meru shrugged.

“The library is a place you come to read books.”
“If you want books, the special affairs room also has ‘em.”
“I read all of them.”

Shin was a little surprised.
There were around fifty books on the shelf in the special affairs room. Even if she was in the special affairs room whenever she wasn’t in class with Seiya, a little over a week wasn’t enough time to finish reading all of them.

“Oh?”

Shin looked at Meru with a grin, and getting nothing but bad premonitions from that smile, Meru put herself on guard.

As she did, Meru’s eyes were automatically attracted to Shin’s hand, and she reflexively grabbed it.

“What? Meru-chan, you’re too assertive.”
“Your finger is bleeding.”
“Ahh, it’ll stop eventually.”

Meru sighed at Shin’s irresponsible reply.
She took a handkerchief from her pocket, wiped the blood, and took out a bandaid.

“You do this even though you hate me? You planning something?”
“Don’t lump me in with the likes of you. It’s just that if you touch a book with your injured hand, you’ll get blood on it.”

Meru finished fixing the bandaid in place on Shin’s finger with an “Ok” and turned her back to him.

“Hmm…”

Looking at Meru choosing a book with her back to him, Shin gave a small smile and encircled her by placing his hands against the bookshelf.

“Hey, Minohara-san!”
“I’m not a guy who’s that unreasonable… I’ll give you my thanks.”

 

—Um, what should I do to thank you?—

 

Shin’s words unexpectedly overlapped with Fuuga’s, and Meru’s eyes widened.

“Ah…”

While Meru was thinking about that, Shin pulled the collar of Meru’s blouse toward him. And then he bit down with his all on her collarbone that came into sight.

“That hurts! Cut it out!”

Shin’s usual hateful smile floated on his face as he released his mouth from her collarbone, grabbing her chin and raising it.

“You’re still too feisty. Shall I make it so that you never speak like that to me…or Seiya again?”

Shin took on the same appearance that he had the first time Meru met him, and her shoulders trembled slightly.

“Are you scared?”
“Not in the least.”

Shin’s face gradually came closer. She couldn’t expect that she’d get lucky like she did the previous time. Even though she wanted to do something, when she looked at Shin, Fuuga’s face kept flickering across for some reason. She pushed on Shin’s chest with all her strength. There was no way her strength would rival his. Nonetheless, watching Meru’s full-on resistance humorously, he tutted his tongue in irritation.

“Why are you resisting?”
“Hah?”

Shin chuckled, looking at Meru with her knitted brows.

“At any rate… Those executives did this kinda thing every day, didn’t they? If not, they wouldn’t make someone like you who isn’t especially good-looking and is just a burden their partner. That Rengetsu Fuuga guy gave off the same scent as me. Whatever he says, he thinks the same way I do. I can’t believe that I’m no good if he’s fine.”

 

—Meru-chan.—

 

“You’re wrong…”

Meru said, staring straight at Shin.

“Rengetsu-kun is different from you. He is… They are the important people who accepted me without any compensation or plotting. Don’t speak badly about them.”

Meru glared at Shin.
Disregarding her current situation, Meru defended the executives. She didn’t need to have that sense of duty toward them and they weren’t with her. Despite that, she went against Shin’s words calmly.

Shin glared back into Meru’s eyes through the gaps in her bangs.

“…I seriously hate you. Flirting with those executives…and with Seiya, does it make you happy to be liked? It’s disgusting.”
“Wh…!”

Having had such unreasonable words spoken to her, Meru was going to retort. However, she couldn’t.
Shin looked like he was about to cry.

“…Minohara-san?”

As Meru stretched her hand toward his face, Shin shoved her away.

“Don’t touch me…”

If it was as usual, she would find Shin desestable, but right now, that feeling wasn’t strong..

“…Why do you hate me that much, Minohara-san?”

Shin didn’t reply to that. Meru squinted at him.

“For me…if you didn’t do weird things like this, I think we could have gotten along in our own way.”

Ever since she had met Shin, he had done things like trying to kiss her and suddenly changing his attitude, and Meru herself found it difficult to deal with. But if he was someone she really couldn’t get along with, they wouldn’t have been able to dance like they did.

“I’m saying, that’s why.”

Shin spat that out, passed by Meru’s side, and left the library.

“What’s that supposed to mean…”

Left behind, Meru murmured that helplessly and began to select a book once again.

Walking down the hallway, Shin struck the wall violently.

“An infuriating woman…”

His closed cut opened.
Blood began to soak up into the bandaid affixed to his index finger.

 

 

 

The Reiryuu Academy Student Council room. Inside, Yuuri and Shoutarou, as well as Hayate, were quietly doing their work.

Bang.

Amidst that, the door to the student council room opened with a loud sound. Looking at the figure who opened the door, Hayate was a little surprised.

“Laila. What’s the matter?”

Seeing Laila leaning his weight against the door while panting, Shoutarou and Yuuri stared in surprise.

“It-It’s not good! Earlier, Fuu-chan’s…fan club came late, but… At the station, Fuu-chan…got on a train going the opposite direction…of the academy!”
“What did you say!”

Shoutarou shot up at Laila’s words. Hayate helplessly let out a sigh, and Yuuri spoke while looking at Hayate.

“What are we going to do? It’s likely Rengetsu-kun went to go take Kusuhara-san back.”
“That’s why it would have been better to explain it properly to Fuu-chan, too!”
“Wh…!”

Laila drew close to Shoutarou angrily, and he held his tongue.
Laila was saying that even if Fuuga didn’t listen to them, if they had told them about it, Fuuga might not have gone off to do his own thing.

“No, if Rengetsu-kun heard that, he would have certainly run off even more quickly.”

Yuuri smiled wryly. Hayate also expected that. He picked up a picture on top of the desk and murmured pensively.

“With this we have an excuse to bring her back, but as she has yet to expose herself, it will likely be difficult to persuade her.”
“Hayate!”

When Laila called out in a powerful voice, Hayate chuckled.

“Well, this is Meru’s plan after all.”
“In other words, you’re saying that you have a separate plan?”

Shoutarou pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, giving Hayate a sidelong glance.

“Persuasion is too soft. If we’re going to take her back, we should use brute force.”

Hayate’s eyes glittered.

“As expected.”

Yuuri said and stood up from his seat. Laila and Shoutarou also followed suit.

“Well then, let’s go steal the princess.”

Hayate’s words echoed in the room.

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<TLN>

I like the specification of Shin’s red blood… I guess the author wanted to show that he’s still a human of some sort lol.

Moving into the climax here!

5 chapters left in the La Faust Academy Arc!

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June bonus chapters funded: 0/3 ($15/$30 to the first one!)