Chapter 37: Banishment

The three of us stopped in front of the door, shocked, while Kaya-san slowly turned to look at us.
She was absolutely locking on to me.
I could understand that much.

“You! Someone like you!”

As she said that, Kaya-san stomped towards me.
She then lifted her hand.

“*dodge*”

“——agh!”

Oh… I had immediately dodged… Kaya-san lifted her hand right in front of me like she wanted to slap me.
I didn’t think she’d use violence in front of this crowd of Five Norths Association members, and she was a sixth-grader too… I didn’t know what she was going to do… maybe she really was planning to slap me? Why?

From the fragments of conversation I had heard earlier, maybe it was because Kaya-san didn’t permit my presence in this salon.
My fist had met Ibuki’s face and I’d thrown him over my shoulder, and Oogimachisanjou Kaya, part of the Konoe monryuu, seemed to be mad at me for that, so much so that she didn’t want me to lounge around the salon anymore…

But why did Kaya-san use force? That meant she wasn’t trying to say that those who used force, like me, didn’t belong in the Five Norths Association salon.
Didn’t she mean that using force against Konoe Ibuki was inexcusable, but using force against people who weren’t Ibuki was okay?

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“Z-Zsw! Tso’e usw esetl…”

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“R okzz dsv eldu vbyv R bkv Isdsl-pyxy yde vbalo bkx shla xu pbswzela.
Rq psxlsdl zkjl xl obs wple pwnb hkszldv xlvbsep eslp dsv clzsdt kd vbl Wkhl Lsavbp Gppsnkyvksd, R pbyzz zlyhl.”

“T-Txrb! Ps dsv vbkdj vbyv R okzz vyjl rkvu sd usw yde sqqla qsatkhldlpp clnywpl usw yal pyukdt ps dso! Jwv kq usw zlyhl hszwdvyakzu, R okzz sqqla usw y xseknwx sq puxryvbu.”

Once Kaya-san heard what I said, she looked particularly satisfied.
She crossed her arms and acted cocky.
But I didn’t plan to end it there and just walk out.

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“You have said that someone who uses violence does not belong here.
As you have used violence too, Oogimachisanjou-sama, it is acceptable to banish you from the Five Norths Association as well, yes?”

“…what?”

Kaya-san’s mouth hung open, like she didn’t understand what I was saying.
But once she had understood, anger slowly spread across her face.

“I am merely punishing you for attacking Konoe-sama!”

“Are you perhaps saying that if one was counterattacking, you would allow it?”

“Precisely! You have attacked Konoe-sama, so it is a just action!”

Hmm… she was digging her own grave… well, she was a normal sixth-grader, so maybe it would turn out like this.

“I do not know where everyone was watching the incident from, but Konoe-sama sent Azami-chan flying, with no reason whatsoever, and even attempted to attack me.
So, as Oogimachisanjou-sama said, I was merely shaking off Konoe-sama’s evil hands by performing the just action of a counterattack.”

“Wha-…”

“…”

Everyone in the salon, not just Kaya-san, was flustered and looked around.
Their gazes slowly fell on Ibuki.

“I really did send Tokudaiji Azami flying first.
Sorry!”

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Ibuki, who everyone was staring at, walked up to Azami-chan and lowered his head.
It didn’t feel like an apology, but for the “Arrogant Prince” Ibuki to recognise his mistakes and lower his head was something in itself.
The salon members were shaken, unable to hide their surprise.

“I do not mind, so please lift your head.”

Azami-chan calmly told Ibuki to lift his head.
She didn’t seem like the Azami-chan from a while ago.
The previous Azami-chan was… less put-together, or maybe more calculating…

Since Azami-chan’s mother had implanted an obsession with marrying into the Konoe family into her, she would probably be needlessly thinking over how she could use the incident well to marry Ibuki.
But the current Azami-chan wasn’t thinking of those things.
She wasn’t hiding her true feelings and showed her personality.
This was Azami-chan’s charm.

“Wh-What about it!? I will not forgive anyone laying a hand on Konoe-sama! Even if he has laid his hands on the Tokudaiji family!”

Saying that, Kaya-san lifted her hand once again.
Since she had done that much, I didn’t need to hold back.
This time, I wouldn’t dodge and would instead catch her arm and twist it.
If I acted like how Master taught me, I would twist her arm to destroy it, fling us both to the floor when she counterattacked, drive my elbow into her rib cage to break it, and then kick and hit her in her weak points.

Well, that was too much, so I instead lightly twisted her arm and sealed her movements.
I did that carefully so she wouldn’t get injured.

“If attacked, a rat may even bite a cat.
There is a possibility that one who is hit may hit back.
Like this…”

“Kuh!”

I twisted Kaya-san’s arm from behind so she couldn’t move and poked her stomach.
She was much taller than me since she was a sixth-grader, so it’d be hard to punch her face.
It wasn’t like I couldn’t.
I could kick her knees and force her to kneel.
Come to think of it, you usually began restraining someone by making them go down on their hands and knees.

I wouldn’t go that far now, so I just poked her stomach, which was easy to reach.
I wouldn’t, absolutely wouldn’t succumb to this disgusting feeling of touching a girl’s stomach! Absolutely not!

In the first place? Even though she was a girl with a growing chest who was slowly becoming a woman, she was still a sixth-grader, you know? From my perspective, she was just a kid.
I wasn’t a lolicon or a p*dophile, after all.
I wasn’t!

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“If you tell me that a person who uses force against anyone does not belong to the Five Norths Association, I shall readily accept it.
However, that would mean both Konoe-sama, who has used force against Azami-chan, and you, Oogimachisanjou-sama, who has used force against me, do not belong to the Five Norths Association.”

“Konoe-sama is the center of the Five Norths Association! What nonsense are you spouting!”

I was restricting Kaya-san’s movements, but she still confidently said that.

“Let us say that one is merely protecting themselves against Konoe-sama and the Konoe monryuu.
Are you saying that action is impermissible? However, you will allow Konoe-sama and anyone of the Konoe monryuu to attack other monryuu; that is what you are claiming, yes?”

“——argh! That is…”

Kaya-san hesitated to say that.
She probably thought so, though.
She probably thought that the Konoe family and it’s monryuu, who stood above all the rest in numbers, power, and contributions to the school and the Five Norths Association, could do anything.

But what would happen if she were to say that here… Even the angry Kaya-san could understand that.
Her true feelings weren’t connected to anything she’d said previously.
The members of other monryuu, hearing what I’d said, now glared at Kaya-san.
She understood the situation and wasn’t stupid enough to say “that”.

I let go of Kaya-san’s arm and unrestrained her body.
I wanted to touch her stomach more… yeah no.
I wasn’t that perverted and I didn’t really like Kaya-san.
Anyhow, if Azami-chan or Satsuki-chan… no, I would not do such a thing! I was not a lolicon nor a p*dophile!

“Everyone, I have only stayed here for a short while, but I have learned much.
Farewell.”

I said that, lowered my head, and left the Five Norths Association behind.
I didn’t look back.
Because… if I did…

They’d see the huge grin on my face!

Yahoo! I was finally kicked out of the Five Norths Association! They ordered me to stop, too, so I did that no questions asked!

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In my school life, it’d be inconvenient to be seen as “the person who got banished from the Five Norths Association”.
And also, since I did get banished, mom might get mad.
My mom, who hadn’t spoken a word to me after that party, might get even madder.
In the worst-case scenario, I might get disowned.

Then I wouldn’t be able to go to Touka Academy… I wouldn’t be able to see… see everyone… Azami-chan and Satsuki-chan, Akane-chan and Tsubaki-chan too… I wouldn’t be able to meet the other characters who’d appear in “Blooming Flowers in Love” …

Huh… for some reason….
I wasn’t part of the annoying Five Norths Association anymore, but… I should’ve been happy, but… I felt this way for some reason…

As expected, I… loved… “Blooming Flowers in Love”…

I was happy that I could live in the world of “Love Flowers”.
Even though I said that getting involved with Ibuki was annoying or that Enju was more black-hearted than pure as snow, I still had some fun.
Just like the stupid things I got up to in my childhood that were so long ago that I forgot them…

I wouldn’t be able to meet Azami-chan, who’d taught me the true meaning of friendship, anymore.
I wouldn’t have the chance to meet Satsuki-chan, who I got just a little closer to.
I hadn’t become true friends with everyone else either.
Then there was the other love interests and rival ladies who’d be appearing later on, and… the game’s heroine…

I… couldn’t meet them… It was… game over for me…

“Wait!”

I could hear someone running up to me.
I didn’t even need to check whose voice it was.

“Please wait, big sister Sakuya!”

“Azami-chan…”

Azami-chan, who chased after me, circled in front of me and gripped my shoulders tightly.
She looked directly at me.

“If you are leaving the Five Norths Association, Lady Sakuya, I shall leave too!”

“Azami-chan… thank you… But you cannot, right? You have to act for your own self, right? Isn’t that so?”

I didn’t want Azami-chan to get mixed up in my business.
That was why I would be the only one leaving. 

“Sakuya-chan…”

I heard another voice from behind me.
I didn’t need to turn around to check who was speaking either…

“Kujou-san.”

“Sakuya.”

I heard Enju and my brother’s voices.
Everyone… had ran after me… my chest felt full with just that…

“Oi! Who said anything about leaving! Don’t think you can just walk out!”

“Hey, you’re doing it again, Ibuki… if you talk like that, you won’t be popular with girls, you know.”

Mizuki answered, exasperated, to Ibuki’s words.
Mizuki was definitely such a womaniser that he didn’t seem like a sixth-grader, but…

“Everyone…”

When I turned around, I saw… Azami-chan, Satsuki-chan, my brother, Yoshizane-kun, the suspicious Mizuki, Enju who seemed to have a dark side, and… the most annoying, my mortal enemy, Ibuki…

“I won’t let you leave, Sakuya! You haven’t gotten my permission, so don’t even think about it”

“I will merely accompany you, big sister Sakuya.”

“I’ll make sure all the Takatsukasa votes go the way I tell them to.”

“Exactly.
They can’t make an arbitrary decision like this, right? If a vote’s taken, we can get anything to pass with this many factions.”

“The whole Kujou monryuu will obviously resist Sakuya’s banishment.”

“I cannot do much, however… I will not allow them to banish Sakuya-chan.”

“——ah!”

Everyone’s care… pierced through me… I should’ve been hated… I thought that they’d be relieved I was gone, but…

“Thank you very much, everyone… I can… stay there, yes?”

“Of course!”

I obviously didn’t cry.
But… feeling refreshed, I joined everyone’s circle again.