Rising Against Fate

The school administration was completely responsible for organizing the first-year ranking tournament. But the responsibility of managing the tension in the atmosphere before and after the event was completely on the student council. And because of that, Kenji's schedule was tight at the moment.

Fortunately, there weren't any major club events near, so he was able to leave most of the responsibility of Club and event management on Kaito's shoulders. The rest of the club members, including him, were assisting the Trust and safety team.

After finishing his part of patrol for the day, he finally had some free time. Though it could hardly be called free since he still had to notify the other members about the new development.

When he entered the student council room, only Akane and Kaito were there. This meant that the rest of the members had already left for the lunch break. He himself would have been here early if he hadn't come across that argument in his way.

It looked like Akane was tired since she was leaning on the sofa with her eyes closed. This was her usual way of relaxing.

As for Kaito, it looked like he was still working in his trans-pad. When he realized that Kenji was here, he paused his work and looked towards him.

"Hey President, how was your day?"

"Not bad. Though it looks like you are still busy."

"Yeah, but I am almost done. Unlike you guys, I can do my month's work in a day."

Kenji walked to the window and looked outside. It was still lunch break so there were few students outside in the garden. He then pulled his chair out and sat on it.

"Akane, I am not sure if it will be to your liking or not, but I have appointed Razak as an advisor."

"Huh?! Are you kidding me?!"—Akane stood up—"Why that guy? He is just a first-year. And why didn't you discuss this matter before?"

Kenji stayed quiet for a brief moment. This was to give Akane some time to calm down.

"I think it's up to me, as president, to decide who I chose to be our advisors."

"And I, as vice president, have the right to object to that decision."

The atmosphere became intense as the two of them started arguing. But this wasn't a rare occurrence considering their personalities and difference in opinion.

"You should stop judging someone just because you think they are unqualified. During the presentation, he showed a remarkable understanding of our policies and goals. You know he is qualified for the task."

"I won't argue in that regard, but the point here is trust. I can't trust someone who has been here for less than a month with that role."

"And may I ask why not? You didn't object when we appointed Asa to the council."

"Well… he is a bit too smart for someone who has been here for less than a month."

Akane flinched a little as she was saying that. This expression was reflexive because she herself was aware that this reasoning wasn't enough. It sounded more like an excuse than a logical argument. This made the atmosphere a little less intense, giving Kaito an opportunity to present his opinion on the matter.

"Akane, I think you should stop." Both Kenji and Akane turned towards Kaito as he started speaking. "I don't think this is as big of an issue as you are making it. It's just the position of an advisor. There is practically nothing they do except be there during the weekly meeting."

Akane sat on the sofa and leaned back. "Fine. Though, I think you should discuss these issues beforehand."

"Yes, I would have done that. But in this case, he only recently agreed for the position… Also, I request that you keep this a secret until the ranking tournament ends."

Akane looked at Kenji while still leaning. "And why's that?"

"That is what he wishes, and I agreed to it."

It wasn't a big deal for the student council to make the announcement late, and in the case of an advisor, no compulsory announcements were instructed in the policy. Though it was somewhat of a custom to announce the advisors like any other members of the student council.

Also, in this kind of tournament, the student council members are naturally expected to do good. And because of that, they are usually under a lot of pressure. So, it wasn't that odd to see someone trying to avoid revealing that position.

Though that made Razak look like a wimp to Akane, both Kaito and Kenji knew that it wasn't the only reason.

Since it looked like the argument was resolved, Kaito tried getting back to his work. But then he realized there was something he wanted to talk about.

"By the way president, did you check the tournament bracket."

"No, I have been a little busy as of recent… Is there anything special this year?"

"Yeah, the preliminary matches are the same, the last two standing out of the ten wins. Though they have introduced two wild cards in the first round."

"I figured they would do that. Last year they were under too much pressure after some students from the clans got eliminated in the preliminaries."

"Though do you think it will look fair this way? They still haven't informed us how they are going to select the wild cards."

Kenji took out his MM and started checking the tournament bracket. As he was looking at the names of the students grouped in the preliminary round, a small smile appeared on his face.

"It does look somewhat unfair. Though I don't think this is something anyone should be concerned about. The ones who are meant to be at the top will always come at the top, one way or another."

"Did you find anything interesting in the bracket?"

It was unusual to see Kenji this excited unless he was battling an equally strong opponent. So, it was natural that Kaito was curious.

"Yes, this year group G's match looks interesting."

Kaito opened a new tab and looked at the list of students in group G. There, a few names caught his eyes. 'Daichi Kyojin, Souta Arasi, and Razak Grace.'

"Yeah, wonder who among these three will be eliminated."