"Coming."
Asahina rushed with little steps in his slippers to answer the door. How professional, it's as though he faithfully accepted his lowly position as a male maid. How degrading... now what the hell was I talking about?
"Hmm?"
Asahina opened the door and blinked his eyes while raising his eyebrows as if seeing a surprise visitor.
"Please enter...... um... do you want to enter?"
Asahina walked two steps backwards, and for some reason, quickly placed half-clenched fists on his lap beside his crotch. The visitor blushed at this sudden reaction.
"Ah...Erm...I can state my business while simply standing here, thank you."
The visitor's response sounded somewhat anxious. She stuck her head through the open door, as Asahina took two more steps back, and looked around the room.
"Your...'commander'...isn't here......"
Poorly concealing her anxiety within her speech was none other than the leader of the room next to ours, the petite president of the Computer Study Group.
Since no one else said anything, I ended up having to handle the negotiations, despite how awkward it was going to be, talking to the girl I took such indiscriminating photos of during the past incident. Asahina stood there looking slightly awestruck, Koizumi only sat there and smiled at the president with her usual narrow-eyed look, while Nagato simply looked up with his eyes for 2 seconds, then continued reading his book.
I sighed, but then made my tone more proper. "How may we help you?"
Since she was a senpai, despite her young demeanor and stature, I had to be polite to her. I walked out and stood in front of Asahina.
"Eh?"
Behind the Computer Group president, who hadn't even stepped over the door line, stood a bunch of female students that seemed to be her near-lifeless minions. I remembered how odd it was to see an all-female computer club in this school, though this school was strange to begin with.
"...Isn't it still a bit too early to exact revenge?"
Ignoring what I had just said, when the president noticed it was me coming out, she lessened her timid demeanor, but stayed afraid to a certain extent since I was still the person who was photoshooting her with her hand in Mitsuru's pants.
"Here, take this."
I didn't know what she was up to, suddenly handing me a slim black CD case. Regardless of whether I would accept it or not, there was no reason the Computer Study Group would give things to us for free, so naturally, I looked at them suspiciously, then back at the odd illustration of an old man in a navy uniform on the front of the case.
Mostly because it was so easy, I had to make a snark comment. "Sorry, we're not into your old-men yaoi."
"Hey! It's nothing like that!" The president exclaimed, blushing. "It's only game software, okay? An original game created by our study group. We distributed copies during the school festival, don't you remember?"
"Sorry, I don't remember having that much free time then. The only things I could remember from the school festival were the horrible bands at the concerts and being forced to sell cheap yakisoba in that outfit." I pointed my thumb at Asahina's maid getup.
"I see......"
The Computer Group president looked only somewhat dejected, but her brows clearly drooped as she mumbled, "It was only because our location was utter crap......"
"If you came here only to have a chat, then you can leave now before Suzumiya-san gets here and turns this into a big ruckus."
"Of course I came here for a reason, but it's best to keep things simple. Then...here I go!"
The president kept glistening with sweat, and kept on holding back when she was about to say something; her minions behind also nodded their heads with a determined expression.
I sighed again. "Hurry up and say what you want to say."
"We challenge you to a match on this game!" The president said in an oddly manly tone while pointing at the case in my hand.
"Why would we even want to have a match with you? If you're short on playmates, then my best advice is to try your luck with other clubs."
"This isn't just a game!"
Looks like the president wants to struggle on.
"This is a showdown! With stakes involved!"
"Then go talk to Koizumi over here, I'm sure she'll be glad to play with you till sunset. Just be careful if she's about to do something to you afterwards."
Itsuko's eyebrow twitched at my response, the president continued.
"No! We want to have a showdown with all of you!"
"Tch. I beg you, please stop using the word "showdown." It's not like you don't know how things get into that devilish Haruki's ears so quickly, if that overconfident, egotistical bastard suddenly hears you......"
"UURYAAAAAH!!!"
"Iyaaan!"
A dark-teal blur swept across my vision like a human missile in a dropkicking position. It landed gracefully on its feet and put the president into an army-style hold with her standing on her knees and her hands seemingly cuffed behind her lower back.
"Kyaa!" "President!" "Let go of her, you monster!"
The minions could only watch and scream as their president was being subdued. I averted my gaze, closed my eyes, and slapped my palm on my forehead, as the person who I was sure I knew started to speak.
"Well hello there, cutie. We meet again."
Pulling the president's head back by her hair as he neared his head towards her with a perverted face was none other than the human that escaped Hell with his bare hands, Suzumiya Haruki.
"So, the Evil Syndacite has come. You must be the secret group that sees the almighty SOS-Dan as their sworn enemy. I won't show you any mercy, even if your leader is a cute little girl! Because we bear the responsibility of bringing holy light to the putrid darkness and ridding the world of all evil! Utter weaklings will always be weaklings, so hurry up and disappear after making your scene!"
The president blushed hard by the milimeter distance between Haruki's face and hers. With him yelling so loudly in her ear that it was probably garbled speech to her, and with the rest of the club still screaming, I think I was the only one who heard Haruki's edict.
"Haruki, don't take this offensively......"
Ever since I entered high school, I've forgotten how many times I had tried to hold Haruki back.
"You should at least hear what the hell she has to say before trying to make her tap out. Well, thanks to you, I don't even know why she came here. All I know is that she wants to have a showdown with us on some dumb computer game......"