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Ideal and Reality
TL/ED/Proofreader: NaCl
“I’m sorry for having you all gather here during the summer vacation.”
The members of the student council currently gathered in the student council room during the summer vacation. When Touya apologized for holding a sudden meeting, the other assembled student council members shook their heads left and right as if they didn’t mind too much. Masachika then opened his mouth to represent the others.
“No, well, I don’t mind myself, but… is this about the issue of changing the uniform?”
“Hmm? Ahhh, no, because Chisaki and I will handle that….”
“Is the Chairman sure? If there’s anything we can do, we’ll help you, okay?”
“Thank you very much. But that business is really unnecessary. Instead, I would like to ask you guys for help with something….”
“Ask for help with what?”
Touya then looked around at all the members except Chisaki and asked while lowering his eyebrows slightly.
“Approximately… do you guys know about the Seven Mysteries that are currently popular at school?”
“The Seven Mysteries are ….. mysteries that look like Hanako-san’s ghost in the toilet or the model of a
human body that moves on its own?”
“That’s right. Well, although the contents are a little different, anyway…”
Having still not understood what Touya was talking about, Masachika looked at Alisa who was next to him. However, how could Alisa, whose circle of friends was smaller than Masachika, know something that Masachika did not. As the two of them exchanged confused glances, Yuki who was sitting across from them, raised her voice.
“I’ve heard of some of them. If I’m not mistaken ‘The Shadowy Figure that was standing on the roof’, ‘The Upside Down Statue’, and ‘The red schoolgirl figure’…?”
“Suou already knows about those, huh? Indeed, the three things Suou mentioned earlier are included in the Seven Mysteries of this school.”
“Hmm… somehow those are names I don’t recognize.”
“That’s right. Whether it’s the ghost of Hanako-san’s restroom, the piano that plays by itself at night, or the stairs that multiply? That’s not the kind of thing that’s being talked about.”
“Well, if someone is already a high school kid and hears ghost stories, they’ll have a hard time responding… Anyway, what’s the story behind these three mysteries?”
When Masachika asked this question with a wry smile, Yuki replied with a slightly mysterious smile.
“Are you sure you want to hear them? There are some pretty scary stories, you know.”
“Uh, really? By the way, how scary is it?”
“It’s as scary as a small screw falling near the microwave.”
“That’s really scary! Well, doesn’t the meaning of scary become a bit different?”
“Fufu, I’m just kidding, really~”
While chuckling, Yuki started talking about the contents of the Seven Mysteries of Seirei Academy.
‘The shadowy figure standing on the roof’. Occasionally, there was a black figure seen standing on the roof of the school building that was forbidden to enter. For some reason, the silhouette is unclear and its gender is unknown, but the students who witness it all feel a strong powerful gaze of the figure.
The ‘Upside Down Statue’. At midnight, the left and right sides of the stone sculpture in the art room were turned upside down. Although that was the only phenomenon that occurred, there were eyewitness testimonies from several art members, and there is also photographic evidence of how the statue was turned over.
The ‘red schoolgirl figure’. Inside the school building after school, some students met a female student who was suffering from a mysterious wound somewhere on her body. However, none of the students could remember the girl’s face, but within a few days, they would be injured in the same area where the girl was injured.
“Hmm…”
After hearing Yuki’s explanation, Masachika let out a response which showed he was not amused at all. Yuki smiled bitterly at this reaction, which she seemed to be very distrustful of.
“Looks like you’re not too interested, huh?”
“No, after all… it’s just hearsay, isn’t it? Even if you say there is photographic evidence, these days students can edit photos easily.”
“Well, I guess that you have a point.”
Yuki seemed to share the same view as Masachika, she nodded her head and lightly shrugged her shoulders at the same time. From the very beginning, Yuki probably didn’t believe in the Seven Mysteries either. It wasn’t just the two of them, the other members were either smiling, looking expressionless, or disinterested. Except for one person.
“Uuuuu~~… what’s with that story…guh~, I don’t dare to walk by myself around the school building after school anymore…”
“Uh, Masha-san?”
Maria embraced herself with both hands and trembled. There was no smile on her face, and the way she looked around anxiously showed that Maria was extremely frightened. Seeing the overreaction of her best friend, Chisaki who was sitting in front of her, called out to her with a wry smile.
“No, no, Masha, it’s just a rumor, you know. So, don’t be so scared…”
“Uuhh~, but the saying goes that you can’t blame someone for something you don’t suspect, right?”
“Eh? I didn’t hear it wrong, did I? Isn’t it ‘there’s no smoke if there’s no fire?”
“Haha, it seems like a waste of time to say something that isn’t true. …… but the meaning itself almost says the same thing.”
“Hmm?”
“Oh my, Masha! What kind of mistake are you saying…”
Maria blinked in confusion, and Alisa corrected her mistake with a look of embarrassment on her face. Turning her head towards her side, Masachika looked a little surprised at Chisaki and asked.
“Even so, Sarashina-senpai, aren’t you afraid of ghosts?”
“Eh?… Not at all, really. Why is that?”
“I thought Sarashina-senpai was the type of person who would say ‘Ghosts are scary because I can’t hit them!’”
Chisaki tilted her head with a look of astonishment as she uttered the sentence often uttered by muscle-brain type characters in the 2D world.
“What are you talking about? Ghosts can still be hit, right?”
“Eh?”
“Ehh?”
“”””””Ehhhhhhh? “”””””
The gazes of the six people in the room were all focused on Chisaki at once. However, Chisaki gasped in shock as if she could not understand why she was being looked at like that.
“So Chief, what about the other four mysteries?”
“Oh, I want to hear them too.”
“Oh yeah, another story…”
The six of them decided to pretend they hadn’t heard anything. Because if they went any further, they would be looking into an abyss that was incomparable to the seven mysteries of the school. Yes, the fact that she could hit them meant that it wasn’t a ghost, but something else similar, yup let’s just say that it was that.
“Ummm, based on the stories I heard…”
Then Touya began to tell the other four mysteries.
‘The sound of sobbing from the club building’. Well apparently in the club building, the sound of a woman sobbing can be heard from nowhere.
‘Stairs that bring good luck’. If you pull a gacha on the stairs leading to the roof, you have a high chance of getting SSR.
“Excuse me, I need to use the restroom for a moment.”
“That’s fine, but Masachika-kun, you need to leave your smartphone here, okay?”
“Ah, I won’t need the restroom then.”
“You’re really honest, Kuze.”
‘A disembodied cat. Sometimes one can hear a cat meowing in the gymnasium next to the schoolyard. However, no one can actually see it.
‘Crazy cherry blossoms behind the school building’. The cherry blossom tree growing behind the school building sometimes blooms crazily at night. If the flowers are white, good luck will come to the person who sees it; if it is red, bad luck will befall the one who sees it.
“And well, if you add up the ones Suou told me about, there are seven in total.”
Touya closed his mouth after saying this, and Masachika massaged his eyebrows as if his head felt dizzy.
“Ummmm, well, it’s useless to blame the Chairman, but… there are many things I want to comment on. I mean, the gacha is clearly a mystery that was made up in order to fulfill the “seven” mysteries, right?”
“Well, is that so?”
“A woman’s voice… I think it could be just the sound of the wind blowing against the wall… Well, I’m a little worried about the sobbing part, anyway. And the cat’s voice is just probably a cat that wandered in from somewhere else.”
“Well, if you think about it normally, that’s a reasonable explanation.”
“Besides, are the cherry blossoms really going crazy? All of our school’s cherry blossom trees were originally white…… The color difference depends on the variety, so how could the flowers bloom in different colors.”
“It’s true, though. …that’s why it’s called the ‘Seven Mysteries’, isn’t it?”
“Hmmm… even so, I think it’s about the difference between white and pink depending on who’s looking at it …..”
After giving such a negative opinion, Masachika realized that he sounded like he was complaining and cowering.
“I’m sorry, I’ve been saying such negative things.”
“Oh that’s okay, that kind of critical opinion is also important. So, don’t worry about it.”
“Thank you very much. So what does that have to do with the ‘Seven Mysteries’?”
When asked, the look on Touya’s face turned somewhat troubled and he crossed his arms.
“It has to do with that… Recently, it seems that there are many students who secretly sneak into the school building to find out about these Seven Mysteries, even though they have no business being there…”
“Haaa…”
“If it were students who came to the school for club activities only, there would be no problem… but unfortunately, there are some students who try to enter the locked roof, and there are even some students who sneak into the school in the middle of the night.”
“Ehhhh~… even though we’re already high schoolers, there are still people who do that kind of thing?”
Yuki nodded in agreement with Masachika who teased about it, and then she asked a question.
“Sneaking around in the middle of the night… Isn’t that a violation of the rules? I don’t think the school would just let it go… Where did the Chairman get that information?”
“Well… Actually, there seems to be live video footage of the event that has been posted on a SNS site… The student who saw it sent it to me directly the other day.”
“Uwahhhhh… how stupid~. There are people like that everywhere.”
Depending on the case, the contents might be leaked to the general public and might cause an uproar, or even lead to exposing the people involved once the contributors were identified, which made not only Masachika, but also Alisa and Chisaki frown. Apparently, even in a prestigious school like the Academy of Seirei, there were some reckless people with low crisis management skills.
“Hmm, well, I immediately issued a stern warning personally to the person involved in that video. The video seems to have been deleted, so I guess there’s no pressing the issue for now, but… I’m not sure if there are any other students who would do the same. It’s a good thing that this time no teacher has found out about it, but if any teacher does, I’m sure that they’ll be punished.”
“That’s right. It’s a good thing it’s not a big deal.”
Nodding at Yuki’s words, Touya raised his tone of voice slightly.
“That’s why. How about we, the student council, conduct an investigation on the Seven Mysteries to calm down this whole commotion?”
“Investigating… in other words, looking for the origin… and then quietly spreading the information that “It’s all a hoax” and make the students lose interest?”
“That’s exactly right, Suou. To be clear, it doesn’t matter whether the evidence is fake or not. For example, for the sound of a cat meowing in the gymnasium, you can take a picture with a random cat you brought from somewhere else and say that the cat has been found. The purpose of this is not to reveal the true identity of the Seven of Mysteries, but to pretend that we have already solved it. Anyway, I want to end this Seven Mysteries boom as soon as possible.”
“Actually, some Kendo club members are already talking about it… Well, I don’t think that they would trespass, but I’m still a little worried…”
Hearing Chisaki say so, Masachika nodded his head while thinking to himself, “No, it might be partly because Sarashina-senpai made a statement something like ‘ghosts exist’…”.
“Well understood. It’s true that this is an issue in which responsibility should be given to the student council, given that we are in charge of the wellbeing of the student body.”
The other members also verbally agreed with Masachika’s words. Touya felt relieved because it seemed that no one was reluctant to cooperate.
“Thank you very much. I want you guys to investigate immediately… I’m sorry for putting the responsibility on you guys, but Chisaki and I are going to a meeting about the uniform changes…”
“I’m really sorry. Since it’s already noon, I can’t join you guys today……”
Touya and Chisaki lowered their eyebrows in apology, but the other members raised their voices expressing they didn’t mind too much and persuaded the two of them not to worry about it.
“No, no, I don’t mind at all, really. On the contrary, the uniform business that you two are handling is much more difficult. We’ve even been allowed to visit the Chairman’s villa during the training camp, so this little matter is for us to handle.” (Masachika)
“Well, there’s no point in having so many people, so just leave this matter to us.” (Alisa)
“We’ll handle this matter, so please don’t worry too much about it.” (Yuki)
“As everyone has already said. I wish you both good luck.” (Ayano)
“You guys are also doing your best there, huh? I-I too… even though I feel scared, I’ll do my best!” (Masha)
Touya and Chisaki smiled at the words of encouragement they received. After that, they began to discuss the next step.
“Then, let’s investigate separately… But half of the Seven Mysteries have to be investigated after dark, huh?”
“That’s right… sorry, since Ayano and I have a curfew, so…”
“Ah, if that’s the case, it’ll just be me, Alya, and Masha who will do the investigation after dark…?”
“I don’t mind.”
“Y-Yes, fine. I understand.”
“I’ll ask the teacher for permission about it. Let’s hide the fact that a student infiltrated the school, and pretend that we’re investigating the Seven Mysteries because there are students who are worried about the rumors, and that we are trying to conclude them.”
“That sounds good. Please help with the permission.”
After some further discussion, the meeting ended. After a short break, they decided to conduct the actual investigation.
“Ah yes, Kuze-kun.”
“Yes?”
During the break, each person either went to the restroom or to buy drinks, Masachika himself was about to go to the restroom when Chisaki stopped him from behind. Then, Chisaki took out something from inside her bag and held it out to Masachika.
“I’ll lend you this.”
“What is this…”
The thing Chisaki lent him turned out to be… a juzu. This was a real juzu that was strangely made of a series of polished obsidian stones.
(TN: A juzu is Buddhist prayer beads)
(What does it mean to give this to me!?)
Masachika was stunned at the mysterious development of being lent a juzu by his senpai. Perhaps sensing Masachika’s confusion, Chisaki added an explanation.
“Look, just in case the rumors are real. You just use this, okay?”
“Huh? What do you mean by ‘real’?…… uh, don’t tell me there’s a real ghost? But, how do I use it…”
Does he need to hold it between his hands while reciting an exorcist prayer? Masachika imagined something like that as he thought of the exorcism scene performed by an exorcist monk in manga.
“The method, yes…”
Meanwhile, on the other hand, Chisaki looked a little confused and wrapped juzu around her right hand from the index finger to the little finger, similar to holding a brass knuckle.
“It’s wrapped around like this, and then like this.”
“…Hou.”
Then, when she squeezed the juzu wrapped around her fingers and clenched her fist, she suddenly pointed her fist towards the sky.
“After that, this way!”
“Ho~”
In other words, violence. If you don’t have time to chant, you can just punch. After all, muscles are the answer to everything.
“Oh, if it looks too difficult to approach, I suggest taking it apart and using it as finger bullets.”
“Don’t say it as if finger bullets are a mandatory technique. But yeah, I can shoot it, anyway. I’m an otaku after all.”
“Oh, this as well. Please surround the girls with this ‘Lianyang Lotus Sutra’.”
(TN: Well known Buddhist scripture/text)
“This is obviously an item that can only be obtained in the final dungeon? I wonder if it’s not a problem? Do I have sufficient equipment xp?”
“Don’t worry, there’s no need to be so anxious. Even if you don’t have enough, that thing will only suck up a little bit of your lifespan.”
“If that’s how it is~, then I can feel relieved!”
After uttering cheerfully, Masachika carefully accepted the juzu.
(By the way, why is it that this person can make such a sweet smile…)
As usual, Masachika was made to shudder by his Senpai and had no idea how serious her joke was, Masachika then decided that he would never wear it.
◇◇◇◇
“Yoshi, alright. Then, let’s start the investigation!”
“What are you talking about? It’s not like you’ve finished investigating one of the Seven Mysteries.”
Alisa’s tsukkomi echoed up the stairs to the roof with a dumbfounded expression on her face. On the other hand, Masachika responded while turning around with a dangerous smile and dilated pupils.
“Hahahaha, what are you talking about? It’s not like our investigation has just begun.”
“No… I told you, instead of just now on this staircase, you…”
“Nothing happened, really? Yes. It’s just an illusion that the 5,000 gems I collected by watching commercials every day melted in an instant, right?”
“Huh…”
Yuki smiled fearlessly beside Masachika, who was trying hard to escape from reality.
“Fufufu… the experiment is still not enough to say that the rumor is just a hoax. Don’t you think so…?”
“No Yuki-sama, you shouldn’t go that far.”
Ayano calmly stopped Yuki, who was trying to top-up her gacha tickets with a smile and wide-open eyes. The two of them were both unlucky. Let alone SSR, they couldn’t even get SR-level characters. Instead, their gacha pulls were much duller than usual. As soon as the investigation started, two people had their moods decreased by a completely different factor than fear. Seeing that situation, Maria, who normally did not play games, smiled problematically.
“Umm, are you okay? Want me to pet you to cheer you up?”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Uh, is that okay?”
“You don’t need to get provoked either!”
So, after spending a few minutes recovering his mental state, Masachika skillfully ignored Alisa’s cold gaze, and pointed to the end of the stairs with vigor.
“Let’s go to the roof then!”
“Why are you suddenly so excited…”
“No, of course I’ll be excited. The school roof is a romantic place, isn’t it?”
“What’s romantic?”
Alisa furrowed her brows suspiciously, but Maria nodded deeply beside him.
“I totally understand~… the school rooftop is really nice, isn’t it~. It sounds like something wonderful is going to happen, doesn’t it?”
“Fufufu, if I’m not mistaken in shoujo manga, the protagonist and her friends often gather on the roof, right.”
Maria looked excited and raised her voice beamingly, while Yuki laughed elegantly and showed a sense of anticipation as well. Ayano was already blending into the air.
“Well, there you have it. Also, the fact that the rooftop area is usually locked gives it the impression of being like a secret hangout.”
“I see.”
When Masachika turned his gaze to the roof, Alisa let out a light sigh as if to say, ‘I can’t keep up with you’.
“Well, whatever you say, but don’t forget what we came here for, okay?”
“Yes, yes…”
While nodding at Alisa’s suggestion, Masachika climbed the stairs and narrowed his eyes at the roof entrance.
“Hmmm~ There’s no particular problem with the door. It looks like the knob and lock aren’t broken. It’s impossible to break in… right?”
“That’s right~ I don’t think it’s possible for a student to get in there by himself.”
After a cursory examination of the surrounding area, Masachika concluded that it would be impossible to enter without a key.
“Alright, now it’s time for us to go to the roof!”
“Okee~ I’ll open it then~.”
Then, Maria opened the door with the key borrowed from the teachers’ office, and the door leading to the roof was opened.
“Ohh~”
Masachika’s voice was filled with anticipation as the roof area that he had never visited opened. While squinting at the dazzling sunlight, he then……
“It’s so dirty!”
His facial expression immediately contorted at the sight, which was not romantic at all and was actually unsightly.
Well, it wasn’t surprising since the roof had never been cleaned, ….. the area was covered in something black, bird droppings were everywhere, and there was a lot of green moss growing under the railings, so the area is not clean at all.
“Uwaaahh…”
“…It’s pretty horrible.”
“Uhhh… it’s not as beautiful as in shoujo manga…”
The three people who had romantic fantasies about the rooftop were completely disappointed when their illusions were cruelly shattered. Alisa returned the conversation to its original purpose, after giving a disappointed look to Maria, who became very sad.
“So, what are we going to do? As a precautionary measure for the seven mysteries… I think the more rational and best explanation would be to explain that the figure who appeared here is just a human?”
“That’s right, too… I think it would be best to make footprints near the fence on the side of the schoolyard and take a picture of it. Along with the photo, we can spread the information that a contractor entered the roof. As long as there are no students trying to enter this place, there is no other explanation, and conversely, no one can deny the existence of the contractor.”
“Well, I guess that makes sense… or rather, it’s all we can do right now.”
Nodding at Yuki’s suggestion, Masachika suddenly raised his face and realized that all four of them were looking at him.
“…Uh, me?”
“In terms of shoe size, aren’t you the only one who fits?”
“In terms of weight, I think it’s easier to make footprints if you’re heavier. You must feel happy, right, to be able to enter the roof you yearn for.”
The next two student council president candidates surprisingly teamed up to corner Masachika. Although they said reasonable things, it was clear that they did not want to set foot in that area.
“Ehhh~… here, with my shoes?”
However, the same goes for Masachika. After all, who would want to walk to a dirty place and stomp their shoes to leave footprints? When Masachika was about to ask Maria for help to ask if there was another way, but ….
“Uhh~ playing with fireworks on the roof… Lunchtime on vinyl sheets… Hiding and secretly smoking…”
…… Apparently, he’s still trying to catch up with his shattered dreams. After all, cigarettes are not good.
“…Ummm then, how about I do it?”
Once Ayano continued to stare at him after saying that, Masachika had no choice but to say,
“No, let me do it…”
Then, as he went down to the first floor to get his shoes, Masachika sweated under the summer sky and made footprints on the roof.
(I wonder if there is any student council work more pathetic than this…)
Looking down, he could see the athletic club sweating in the schoolyard. When he looked up, he saw birds flying freely in the sky. Oh, how nice it was. But he swore he would never forgive them for dirtying the roof with poop.
“Masachika-kun~? Why have your legs stopped~?”
(You’re the same, you little brat, whose fault is it that I’ve done this?)
(Ahh!! whatever…)
The cruel reality has shattered his fantasy and made him do a miserable job. Masachika, who was frustrated by various things, spontaneously immediately executed the eleventh thing on the list of “Things I want to do on the school roof” After taking a deep breath, he ran towards the fence facing the schoolyard and shouted…
“To hell with youth, bakayarooooo!!!!
“The stupid one is you.”
Masachika managed to carry it out, but was immediately silenced by the cold words of Alisa.
Glucose Translations 
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