It was as she said earlier, we both still have plenty of time to make up our minds regarding that ridiculous proposal she made, so I decided that until the graduation, there would be plenty of opportunities to dissuade her and turn her down .
But for some unknown reason, I kept feeling a bad premonition in my heart, that premonition kept assaulting me from the second I started to think about shaking hands with her, even though I never doubted my hunch in these kind of matters, I still decided that it was a necessary evil to solve this whole messed up situation once and for all .
After we shook hands, she smiled at me innocently as if she was already seeing me kneeling on one knee before her and asking for her hand in marriage and said :
I will count on you from here on out .
Then she directly walked away, leaving me completely baffled and still unable to comprehend this weird kind of development, in the end I just shook my head and released a deep sigh out of frustration .
Even with the gift of being able to have emotions that was given to me, responding to these emotions were a different matter completely, not to mention that I still had no grasp of what every emotion meant, even after this long period of time had passed .
Realizing that I was still standing in the corridor and weird glances kept coming my way as people passed by me, I recalled that I still have something that I needed to do and it just so happen that it was in my way as well, I was heading to the Public Morals Committee room .
As for the thing with Erika, well, no much gain will come from thinking about it, so I decided that for now at least I will drop the subject completely from my list of priorities, my current goal was to see if I can meet with Watanabe-senpai and know what had actually happened that day with Mibu Sayaka, if possible I would like to ask about the relationship between Erika and her as well .
The two didn't acknowledged each other's existence, but Erika would always glare at Watanabe Mari everytime the two meet, so there should be more to the story and I found myself quite curious to find out about what was going on, even more now after what happened with Erika .
I kept walking towards the office and I just happened to see Tatsuya leading Mibu Sayaka and going somewhere, he seemed to sense my gaze so he gave me a slight nod, I nodded back at him and from how far the distance between us was, I was able to evade her glaring at me .
Someone else decided to still do the role of glaring, but the glare was not pointed at me, but directed at Mibu Sayaka instead, not far from the two of them, Miyuki was following right after the two of them, but like a professional spy, she kept a safe distance between them and her and even used Magic to conceal herself .
But I had no doubt in me that Tatsuya was already aware of what she doing, but he still didn't found the strength in his heart to stop her, she perceived such a gesture as an invitation to continue what she was doing, I saw her and she saw me, but other than waving her hand at me with a solemn and quite silly serious expression on her face, she continued to keep an eye on the two lovebirds, at least that how the two looked from her point of view .
Even though I had already informed her that this was no date and that Tatsuya was doing this for the sake of mission, it seem that she still didn't believe a single word from what I said, at least that what her actions currently indicate .
I wanted to dissuade her from following them, but after some serious contemplation, I ended up deciding to let everything work itself just fine, after leaving the three of them play with one another, as for me, I wished him good luck and continued on my way to the office .
Just as I knocked on the door and asked for a permission to enter, I was surprised and a bit speechless over the fact that the person whom I came her to meet being nowhere in sight, in fact not a single shadow other than my own was in the room .
The room bring empty at this hour wasn't much of a surprise, since there should be a lot of upperclassmen currently patrolling the school grounds for any violation, I hope that they won't be able to run into Miyuki who was currently violating the school rules .
But it wasn't like coming to a dead end or anything like that, I still have a way to contact her and know where she had gone to, as I called her on the communicating device we were given, I heard the sound of a phone ringing from inside the room .
Looking around, I was able to find her communicating device put on one of the drawers in her desk, either she forgot it or she had gone home, returning this device to this place was something like an obligation before heading home .
Not willing to keep guessing randomly like this, I directly searched the whole school for her whereabouts and soon found out that her going home was more close to the truth, calling one of the seniors in the Public Morals Committee, he did mention that she had gone home a bit early today, the reason was related to something happening with her family .
It seem that I will have to just call it a day then, there was also a chance of getting something out of Mibu Sayaka or even confronting her directly, but no matter the scenario I use, I found the results to be either dangerous, unsatisfactory or completely unproductive .
So in the end I decided to take one step at a time, soon the school day came to an end, I met with Juvia and even though her eyes was as bright as always, I saw that she seemed to have been worn out with the workload of the student council .
When I asked her about her day as we were heading out, she almost collapsed and tears even began to accumulate in the corner of her eyes and the reason for all her restlessness was Miyuki being absent and completely throwing all her work on Juvia .
It's no wonder that Juvia was reacting like this, I had seen Juvia sulking numerous times, but this time I really couldn't help with my laughter, just as we stepped out of the gate we were kidnapped by three other acquaintances of ours .
A quite daring and excited Erika locked arms with me and Juvia was also pulled along by a timid Mizuki and Leo was there as well, the three seemed to have been waiting for us right outside the gate, after sharing some greetings, I asked about Tatsuya and Miyuki and was told that they had something in their hands and should be joining us later .
We reached the cafe where we have been meeting occasionally and even though the atmosphere was a little bit tense from right after we sat down between me and Erika, soon the tension ceased to exist as we began conversing with each other .
They asked about the reason I didn't come to the school cafeteria today, I simply said that I was busy working on something, but this was just an excuse, the real reason was because I got involved with the Phantom Lady and spent the whole lunch break between either dealing with her or trying to set things right with Erika .
I really can't tell just by looking at her whether did I succeeded or not, she looked quite normal on the surface, but her legs kept shifting awkwardly under the table and she happened to hit me a few times, but Mizuki had also got hit by her, then Erika said that this was just a coincidence .
But if it truly was a coincidence, then why in the world would I be hit by her more than a dozen of time now, she also kept giving me weird eyes and glances that I couldn't help but frown at .
While Mizuki was still engrossed in talking to Juvia about her enrollment in the same club as her, something that had caught all of our attention and ended up making her feel ashamed, but when she was asked about the reason for the interest, she give me a deep glance and said that it was just curiosity that made her so interested .
And it wasn't like she would be denied from entering other school clubs or leave this one if she didn't like the atmosphere there .
All in all, she seemed to have made up her mind to join, Erika seemed to have noticed something from the way Mizuki looked at me and her face shifted into a frown for a second, but then her smile returned and she was acting as if nothing had ever happened .
Leo then began to talk about how Juvia and Erika missed today's performance, Mizuki one of those who witnessed what happened at the pitch was quite excited to describe what happened with a brightly lit eyes and seeing that what she was saying made her seem a little bit fanatic, she let Leo continue to talk instead .
The two who were absent in the P.E class were a bit surprised at what they were hearing and Erika suddenly pulled out her phone and opened the School website, on the recent uploaded post there was a video uploaded about the mini match we had played earlier with tons of people watching it and tons more who had commented on it .
Most the comments were positive, but a small numbers of them were either filled with malice or denial, anyhow it seemed that in the entire school and even people from outside the school had seen the video and was left in shock .
Juvia and Erika was focusing on the video being played and from time to time the would gasp in surprise, we watched them from the side and Leo, Mizuki and myself were engrossed on a small conversation related to how much I had tired the opponent team and how much talented I was .
I appreciated their kindness, but instead of agreeing with them on this being purely based on talent, I corrected them and said that it was mostly hard work and taking advantage of my physical body prowess, with a little bit of luck involved .
The two nodded their heads and didn't say much anymore, the person who had spoken was Erika who had finished seeing the video and she said :
So you aren't thinking of making a profession out of this, becoming a professional player I mean .
" I won't deny that I had thought about this, but I thought something like that is a pure joke and quite the ridiculous decision to make, at least this early in life, not to mention that with my identity, it might create more troubles than merits .
Leo seemed to have realized the meaning behind my words as he said :
It seem that you want to do something that would leave an impact in the world, but you want to achieve this without getting help from your identity as a member of the Ten Master Clans .
" You are indeed correct, I do yearn to achieve something great, but I want my achievement to be tied to my own self, my own hard work, I don't want it to be attributed completely to who I am and how much easier was it to achieve something great due to my family background and connections .
Mizuki :
But isn't being born to a big family that could make your life easier in a lot of situation, something good ? .
I nodded my head meekly and said :
" Sometimes it can indeed be as you said, but sometimes it could end up being a curse and a sort of chain bounding you in an endless loop of suffering and causing a severe lack of ambitions in that person .
" I'm not saying that being born in a good family is a bad thing, this is not the case at all, I'm saying that as you should have already experienced it in school in the disparity between the two courses, some people got hung up that sense of superiority that their identity gave them to justify how unfairly they were treating others .
As I finished saying this, I noticed that all of their expressions become quite ugly, even Juvia wasn't an exception, but she was the least troubled by what I had said, her situation after all was different than the course 2 students around me, seeing them like this, I hurriedly said :
" You guys, I didn't mean to upset you or anything, I'm just pointing out a problem that all the people in the school might come to face the consequences of ignoring the situation in school sooner than later .
" Treat this issue delicately as the school kept on doing was no longer seem to be the correct method, soon there will be a need of some sort of a revolution to rise, but at that time I hope that you guys would be able to see the situation clearly .
I said this and instantly changed the subject to a mere cheerful one instead, my words weren't meaningless words, they were all part of the chaos that was certain to come soon, but my words were giving them a heads up beforehand, this was all I can do for them, changing one mindset still completely tied with how the person perceived himself and the situation he was in .
As for the other subject I talked to them about was one regarding the future aspirations they have for they own selfs, what they wish to achieve in the future and how can they too create a positive impact on the society .
Mizuki's seemed to be the only one from those present who already had a clear idea regarding what she wanted to do in the future, A Magical Technician, as for the other three present, one was still arranging his thoughts regarding what he wanted to do in the future and the other two girls were silly enough to speak out their minds about what they were currently thinking for their future .
One wanted to marry someone who is capable of honoring and respecting her while the other one just wanted to stay with her Master forever, both of them gave me a headache and as if two headaches weren't enough, Mizuki too joined in the mix .