Chapter 1
“I’ve never loved a person more than you, President!” Igarashi Sayaka declared to the two Bamis with tears in her eyes, as she jumped off the 5-storey tall tower. As she fell, all of her time with Kirari flashed before her eyes. Her greed as she tried to keep Kirari all to herself and Jabami Yumeko, were why she was falling now. Never to see Kirari again, never to make her tea again, never to walk behind her along Hyakkaou Private Academy’s hallways. She would die a stranger to the President. A memory flashed across her mind, when Kirari had hired her as the Student Council Secretary.
“You, I kind of like you.”
That was when her mundane life had ended and she started on a different path, one which she treasured every second of it. There had been a lot of paperwork, but she was Igarashi Sayaka, a pile of documents could never best her. She loved making tea for Kirari when they were alone the most, it would just be the two of them. One seated on a throne while the other admired her from afar. But she never regretted applying for the job, truthfully, her only regret in her time at Hyakkaou was losing to Yumeko. The snake had ruined Kirari’s perfect aquarium. Sayaka had been angry, but the gamble had only proved that she lacked the skill and capabilities to beat her at a gamble. However, she knew that Kirari could beat Yumeko, she would.
As she fell down the storeys, another figure fell towards her too. The white hair looped in braids, her piercing blue eyes and blue lipstick immediately gave the other away. Kirari hugged Sayaka close to her as the ground rushed towards them. Sayaka’s mind raced in confusion and panic. Why was Kirari here with her? They were both going to die now! Her beloved president…no…she couldn’t allow that!
The both of them landed on the ground as flowers littered the sky. In a flurry, Sayaka looked around for Kirari, and found her lying peacefully on the ground, a smile on her face. There wasn’t any blood, there were no broken bones, they were alive! Sayaka felt the safety mat underneath her hands and understanding dawned on her. But a safety mat…why? Why arrange this gamble of life and death if there was a safety mat underneath the flowers all along?
Kirari suddenly started laughing beside her, taking Sayaka by surprise. “I think that’s the biggest jump I’ve made in my life, how fun!” She seemed genuinely content and Sayaka was happy for her, even if she didn’t understand Kirari and her actions.
“Why?” Sayaka couldn’t stop herself from blurting the question out, but Kirari only seemed amused by it. She paused for a few moments, then sat up before replying, “Why did I join you, is that what you mean? Well, the Tower Of Doors is mine, isn’t it?” She turned her head to fully meet Sayaka’s gaze and continued, “I’ve got every right in the world to be the first person to jump off, don’t I? Although if I knew it was this fun, I would’ve done it ages ago!”
Sayaka’s furrowed her brow as she tried to understand what Kirari was thinking. “But…that’s just so dangerous! It doesn’t matter if there is a safety mat or not, it could still cost you your life!” Sayaka argued as she tried to make Kirari see how illogical it was to jump off the tower. Kirari simply shrugged and brushed a lily from her hair. “If that killed me, I would have had it coming anyway,” she said nonchalantly. She looked at Sayaka in the eye and explained, “Besides, I had to be sure that you wouldn’t hurt yourself on the way down.”
“Wha…?” What did Kirari mean? Hurt herself? But why would she care?
“I said it before, Didn’t I? ‘Answer correctly and you will live’,” Kirari stared at Sayaka intensely, almost as if analyzing her. “You chose the door with the number ‘5’ written in Braille. You knew jumping off the tower meant going down five floors, and the door that you chose had the correct answer. If you chose any other door, you would’ve died, and trust me, I wasn’t going to join you for that.”
Kirari was now standing up and towered over Sayaka and watched intently as Sayaka’s eyes widened as she made sense of Kirari’s words. She chuckled and asked the violet haired girl, “You didn’t even notice, did you? You were facing death and weren’t really thinking. But somehow, you still knew…and even now, you still know things without even thinking. Why is that? It’s because you keep things logical to the very end. No matter how small or insignificant, you search for logic in everything, even if you find it hard to accept the results.”
Without warning, Kirari pushed Sayaka down onto the ground, their bodies barely apart from each other. Then, Kirari uttered the same words that she had said a year ago, “You…I kind of like you.” Sayaka blushed from her words and the close proximity of their bodies. Kirari had no intention of stopping there though and gazed into those beautiful, violet eyes. She could be lost in them for hours.
“Igarashi Sayaka, as a complete stranger, I invite you to join the Student Council. Would you like to be my secretary? The position is open.”
“P-President…” Sayaka stuttered as her mind was in shambles. This woman was so confusing. She couldn’t make sense of her.
“Well, how about it? We can discuss the details later,” Kirari offered as she gave Sayaka a light smile.
A part of her wanted to tell her beloved president ‘Yes’ already, but the more rational and logical side of her held her back from doing so. After all, this was completely bewildering. Kirari jumped off the tower to save her after she ordered her to jump. Now she wanted her back as her secretary, but then, what was the point of playing this whole game then? Sayaka didn’t get it, she didn’t get the president, not one bit. It made no sense at all.
Kirari, seeing Sayaka’s troubled face, understood her dilemma at once. She lifted Sayaka’s hair to reveal the wound on Sayaka’s forehead. It was no longer bleeding, but still an angry red. She wanted to reassure Sayaka that everything was alright. “Sayaka,” she called out to her softly. Once she was certain that she had her full attention, she continued, “You probably can’t understand anything at all, you feel that it’s impossible to understand, don’t you? Well, I agree with you. Someone like you, who worships logic even as you’re bound by it…someone who’s willing to shut her mind down at the brink of death, and still forces herself to choose cold logic at the end of it. Hehe…it makes no sense to me at all, you’re my polar opposite in every way…”
Kirari bent her head down and licked Sayaka’s wound on her forehead lightly. She tasted a little blood on her tongue, but that was alright, it didn’t bother her at all. “And I like that, it’s just fine with me,” Kirari whispered to her.
Sayaka’s vision had blurred a little as tears streamed down her face. Kirari had now stood up, she had a hand outstretched to Sayaka. An offer.
“As you wish…” Sayaka slowly stood up as well. It made no sense to her, but perhaps she liked Kirari so much simply because she could never understand her. She knew that her logic could never beat Kirari, she was living on a whole other planet of her own. But even so, she was willing to show her the way. Sayaka always wanted to be her number one, she had an opportunity now, so why not take it? What more could she ask for?
Sayaka clasped Kirari’s hand as she pulled her up from the ground. “Welcome to the Student Council,” Kirari welcomed her with a warm smile, a smile that was reserved for her solely. Sayaka smiled back at her, she wanted to enjoy this moment and all the feelings that accompanied it.
The two of them stood there silently, forgetting all about their worries, simply immersing themselves in the moment, treasuring it.