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"The student council president election is coming up. I have a great idea." Akari said.
"And what is that idea?" Haruto asked.
"Come on…can't you read my mind?" Akari doubted him, "It's about our mission. We are just not going to take any simple method."
There was a slight pause between them as if they were giving Haruto the time to read Akari's mind.
"THat's your idea? You want to push Delta into the election?" Haruto said in surprise.
"Why not? It's not like she will have to stand as a candidate." Akari cleared.
"Why should we do this? Why shouldn't we just ask her if she wants to return or not with us? Maybe you don't need to play any moves at all." Rina suggested.
Akari, without saying anything, stood up and approached the room's window. "Because that's boring." Akari said without turning back, "Besides, it is a great opportunity for me to become the rank one student of the organization. I am really sick and tired of being second."
Haruto without saying anything stared at Akari for a moment, "Ever since Delta left, Zeta became the best student among us. But the organization still didn't update the ranking and kept Delta on top. Because of Delta running away, he never got the chance to prove his superiority." Haruto narrated in his mind.
"You are still talking about your promotion?" Rina interrupted, standing up, "The mission comes first. We have to bring Delta back no matter what. So forget whatever plan you have!"
A gust of wind entered into the room through the window, flipping papers stacked on a table away.
Akari stood calm, not looking up, "Do you think what I am doing is rivalry?"
"Call it whatever you want, but we all know what this is. You've been chasing the first spot since she left." Rina said.
"Do you… have any idea what it feels like to be second?!" Akari shouted at Rina.
Akari then started to imagine himself at a race track. He was running, leaving other people behind but Shuhi was already ahead of him and crossed the end line. He was imagining his second place in a physical world.
"To see the finish line so close — yet never cross it?"
"Everyone loses sometimes, don't you agree?" Rina tried to counsel Akar in soft manner.
"No. You don't understand. When you're last, you accept it. You're weak, and you move on. But when you're second, you're trapped in the middle. Not the best, not the worst. Every success you achieve — someone else already did it better." Akari said in a trembling voice.
"But you don't understand one thing. If you are second, you have fields to improve unlike Delta who doesn't have any way to go higher."
"Tell me, Rina… how long can you chase someone who's already gone? She's free — and I'm just the number beneath her name." Akari said, laughing bitterly.
Suddenly, Haruto who was listening to their conversation silently interfered, "You think surpassing her will free you?"
"Yes. Because once I do, there'll be no 'second' left. I will be first, and you guys are not gonna change my mind. I can assure you that."
A long silence takes place. The sound of the school bell echoes faintly through the hallway.
"Just don't forget one thing. The higher you climb, the harder the fall.
"Then I'll make sure there's no one left above me to fall from."
"You can count me out," Haruto raised his hand, "I am not gonna get involved with your vengeance or whatever you say it."
"Vengence?", Akari snapped back at him, "And I am the leader, aren't I? Then be a good team member and do whatever I say!"
"And what if I don't? It is your problem anyways. Go execute your plan by yourself."
Akari grabbed a chair and dragged it towards himself. He then sat on the chair in a slightly back bent posture, "Fine, if you don't want to cooperate then I have no other choice but to blackmail you into obeying me." he said with a straight face.
"What is he saying? How can he blackmail me? I have no weakness like that, do I?" Haruto thought.
"What kind of leader are you?!" Rina shouted at Akari, "You want to blackmail him?"
"So yes I want to!" Akari instantly replied to Rina, turning to her.
"What is he thinking? Is he just trying to make me doubt myself?" Haruto thought.
Haruto then focused on Akari, trying to read his mind to know what plan he had to blackmail him. But it was his biggest mistake. When he dove into Akari's mind, he saw many many complex numbers, formulas, equations, graphs, geometry shapes floating out of his mind in the form of black texts.
The writings filled the entire room's walls in no time and were moving constantly. Haruto just stood there at one place, trying to process the vast information. A series of numbers went into his right ear and came outside from his left.
Every second, the mathematics became more and more hard. At one time, he fell to the floor, rolling left and right with his ears blocked by his palms. He was screaming very badly as if he was in severe pain.
"Get me…get me out of this!" Haruto said in pain.
What happened here was basically Akari simulated so much mathematics in his head at a single time that reading his mind caused severe damage to Haruto's mind. On the outside, it seemed nothing happened and Haruto just went crazy all of a sudden.
Dead Logic © 2025 by Muntasib_Ihshan789 is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International