The red text on the large hall screen froze everyone in place.
[Isshiki Iroha: 512 votes.]
[Iino Miko: 488 votes.]
Immediately after, the emcee's voice rang out, barely suppressing its tremor: "The winner of this term's Sobu High School Student Council President election is—first-year student, Isshiki Iroha!"
*👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻!*
A thunderous wave of applause, whistles, and cheers instantly swallowed the small figure standing on the stage. The spotlight swung toward Iroha, blazing hot against her skin. She stood frozen in the circle of light; the "little devil" smile she had rehearsed thousands of times had gone completely numb.
She won? How could she have won?
This wasn't how the scenario was supposed to go. She had only wanted to use this election to hitchhike her way into being acknowledged, and then, before the crushing burden called "Student Council" could land in her hands, she would lose gracefully to Miko, who looked so perfectly competent. Finally, she would carry the tragic aura of "a dignified defeat" and enjoy the ordinary school life of a normal person.
But now? The mountain of administrative paperwork, the mind-numbing meetings, the responsibility of being the scapegoat... all of it had become reality.
"Wh-What is this..."
Iroha's knees buckled, her body tilting uncontrollably to one side. An overwhelming sense of absurdity and dread of the future wiped her mind completely blank. She wanted to run, wanted to fake fainting on the spot, wanted to hurl that damned microphone off the stage.
Just as she was about to collapse in a truly pitiful manner, a hand steadied her elbow with unwavering firmness. Cold, forceful, and utterly unyielding.
Iroha looked up in a panic. Against the blinding glare of the spotlight, she saw an expressionless face: Darius. The lunatic who treated school as a containment facility and club activities as a secret agent organization.
Darius straightened Iroha's posture, then with perfectly natural ease, reached out and shook her right hand. To any onlooker, this was a core campaign team member offering congratulations to the newly elected President. But in the spotlight's blind spot, Darius's fingers were an iron vice, locking Iroha's knuckles in place.
"L-Let go..." Iroha hissed through clenched teeth, the corners of her eyes reddening from pain and horror.
Darius did not let go. Instead, he pulled her half a step closer. They stood side by side, facing the cheering crowd of students. He tilted his head slightly, his voice as calm as someone reading an autopsy report, audible only to the two of them.
"Congratulations, Containment Subject Isshiki Iroha. Or should I call you—Puppet Number One."
Iroha's pupils contracted instantly, her heart skipping a beat.
"Wh-What did you just say?"
"You think you won?" Darius stared straight ahead, his expression politely blank. "I was the one who needed a compliant agent—an external shell to legitimize the 'SCP-Sobu High Branch.' And you, starving for validation yet possessing just a touch of cunning, are the perfect test subject."
A chill crawled up Iroha's spine from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. She wanted to scream, wanted to expose this lunatic for what he was, but Darius's next words extinguished every last flicker of resistance.
"If you collapse right now, or refuse, I will loop the footage of the underhanded tactics you secretly used to fish for votes—complete with your current hideous expression—across that big screen. Continuously."
Darius's fingers pressed slightly, delivering a very real jolt of pain. "Now then. Smile at your people. You may cry, but it must look like tears of joy."
The muscles in Iroha's face began to twitch violently. Fear, grief, pain, and the deep-seated instinct to perform combined to distort her expression into something profoundly strange. Tears streamed down freely, yet the corners of her mouth were forced upward.
Below the stage, the blissfully ignorant students were deeply moved by the sight.
"Look! President Isshiki is crying! She truly wants to dedicate herself to the school! That expression... she really looks just like an angel!"
The wave of sound surged. Somewhere in the crowd, Haruno raised her phone, laughing so hard she could barely stay upright, her finger pressing the shutter with precise timing.
The image froze: Iroha, face drained of all color, drenched in tears yet smiling a forced smile, with Darius standing beside her, expression flat as a man pulling the strings of a marionette.
"A masterpiece." Haruno wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. "So this is what they call 'Game of Thrones'? Darius-kun, you are genuinely fascinating."
In the wings of the stage, Yukino stood with arms folded, watching the absurd scene unfold with a long, drawn-out sigh. "So this was your plan, Darius-kun... To transform the Student Council into your puppet regime and seize complete control of the school's administration."
"Eh? Yukinon, what are you talking about?" Yui pumped her fist with enthusiasm. "Iroha-chan won! And Darius-kun helped her! Doesn't that mean we're totally unstoppable at school from now on?"
"In a certain sense, yes, 'unstoppable.'" Hachiman leaned against the wall, his dead-fish eyes radiating the despair of someone who had already witnessed the end of the world. "It's just that our status has been upgraded from a small-time terrorist organization called the 'Service Club' to a military dictatorship with administrative authority. The future of this school... is already finished."
On the stage, the emcee finally snapped back to attention and stepped forward with the red sash, the symbol of authority. Darius released Iroha's now-numb hand, stepped back half a pace, and gave a gracious "please, go ahead" gesture.
Iroha bowed her head, trembling. The sash was draped over her shoulders.
"Welcome to hell, Madam President." Darius's voice dissolved into the applause, yet it branded itself into Iroha's mind like a curse.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
That evening, in the Student Council room. The personal belongings of the previous officers had been cleared out. The fluorescent light cast a pallid glow. Iroha was slumped in the large President's chair, her eyes vacant, like a broken doll.
*CREAK—!*
The door was shoved open. Darius strode in with imposing authority, followed by Yukino and Yui. Without any preamble, he slammed a thick stack of personnel files onto the desk with a resounding bang.
"Wake up, Puppet Number One. Now is not the time to be daydreaming."
Darius pulled out the chair across from her and sat down, his presence immediately commandeering the entire room. "This is the membership roster for the new Student Council Administration Division—also known as the 'SCP-Sobu High Branch.' I have already approved it on your behalf."
Iroha picked up the document with trembling hands. The moment she saw its contents, she nearly fainted on the spot.
[Strategy Consultant and Armory Manager: Zaimokuza Yoshiteru]
[(Note: Responsible for light weapons maintenance and activation of the Chuunibyou field)]
[Image Ambassador and Special Operations Instructor: Totsuka Saika]
[(Note: To leverage S-rank charm attributes to reduce the SAN value of enemy targets)]
"Wh-What kind of insane roster is this?!" Iroha finally exploded. "Why is that disgusting fatso Zaimokuza in the Student Council?! And why is the little angel Saika-kun a special operations instructor?! What on earth do you actually want?!"
"This is to prepare for the upcoming containment breach." Darius ignored her protest entirely. He produced a planning document from inside his jacket. Printed on its cover in gold lettering: Proposal Regarding a Joint Christmas Exchange Event with Neighboring Schools.
"This is... the social gathering that the previous officers left behind?" Iroha paused for a moment. If it was just about putting on an event, maybe she could still handle it.
*SCRAAATCH—!*
The sharp scrape of a pen nib severed her fantasy. Darius uncapped a red pen and drew a massive red X across the entire event proposal.
Then, he wrote a single line of text that made her hair stand on end.
[Code Name: Winter Solstice Ritual · Operation Capture of Level-K Memetic Contamination Source]
"A Christmas gathering? Far too dull." Darius looked up, his dark eyes glinting with a dangerous light. "Our objective is not to exchange gifts or go on dates. We will use this opportunity to draw out every anomalous phenomenon lurking within the surrounding high schools, and then—eliminate them all in a single net."
He pressed the now-completely-transformed plan against Iroha's chest. "Move, Student Council President. Your first assignment is to issue formal invitations to all neighboring schools in the name of Sobu High."
"Tell them that an unprecedented carnival is to be held here. When in reality, what we are preparing for them is... a magnificent blood sacrifice."
Iroha stared at the document, her stomach lurching with profound nausea. She looked up, eyes finding Yukino, desperately searching for one last ally. But the ice-cold beauty simply held out a bottle of antacids.
"Take these. You'll be needing them frequently from now on."
Outside the window, the night grew ever darker. The buildings of Sobu High stood silent in the blackness, like a monster holding its jaw wide open, waiting to swallow the offerings that would soon arrive.
And Iroha, seated at the pinnacle of power, finally understood one truth: She was not the winner. She was the only normal person in this asylum—and without question, the unluckiest one of all.