CH 10

They were still elementary schoolers, so they were very young. They looked different in the future, but I could still recognise their faces on sight. Just like how I knew who Ibuki and Enju were in one look, I also knew who these girls were immediately.

“Aaah~! It’s Azami-chan~~~! Kya—! Amazing! It’s the real Azami-chan!”

That girl was Tokudaiji Azami-chan. She was one of the two leaders among Lady Sakuya’s followers. She wouldn’t hesitate to stand at the vanguard for Lady Sakuya’s sake.

Her hair was in twin tails, and a sharp gaze came from her slanted eyes. From looking at her, you’d think she was brash, or perhaps confident, or perhaps with an unyielding will; like her appearance of being quite the strong-willed young miss, she was formidable.

Lady Sakuya had many followers, but there were two leaders who were her closest aides among them. The other leader was the quiet type, but Azami-chan would get furious at anyone: the stupid scary type.

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Azami-chan, someone who’d do anything for Lady Sakuya, was my top character to ship Lady Sakuya with: a very important character. So, I couldn’t have not been deeply affected when she was right in front of me. Of course, that didn’t mean I got excited at elementary schoolers. It was just that I wanted to see Lady Sakuya and Azami-chan laughing and flirting.

The families at the top of the Five Norths club were called the Five Norths families, but of course, that didn’t mean they were the only families part of the group. To put it simply, my brother, a member of the Kujou family, would graduate next year. But what would happen after six years, when I graduated? That kind of thing.

Even if my brother had quickly gotten married and had a kid, it would take at least 10 years before that kid could attend Touka Academy. You could probably understand that after six years when I graduated, there’d be at least a few years before another kid from the Kujou family could attend.

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“Hello to everyone, too.”

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Then, I greeted all the girls currently surrounding me who’d accompanied Azami-chan. They were all girls I knew. They only showed the highschool portion in “Love Flowers”, so everyone here was introduced as Lady Sakuya’s followers. But, there was a time when she’d met everyone for the first time like this. It was probably impossible for people I just met to instantly become Lady Sakuya’s followers, so I had to get closer with them from now on.

“Do… don’t get ahead of yourself!”

“Alright, a friendly handshake. With this, we’re already friends, right?”

After I greeted the other girls, Azami-chan extended her hand. It felt like she was going to slap me, but she was probably jealous that I was paying attention to the other girls. In “Love Flowers”, Azami-chan was so in love with Lady Sakuya that she’d thoroughly and mercilessly eliminated anyone who got between Lady Sakuya’s and Ibuki’s love.

She was oppressive and aggressive towards the other close aides and followers; Lady Sakuya’s closest aide, always by her side, who seemed to know everything. In the original game, Azami-chan was so fixated on Lady Sakuya that I was wondering if they really were in a yuri relationship. So, the Azami-chan in this world must’ve held deep jealousy as well. 

I had paid attention to the other girls, so I made her jealous. That’s why I caught her hand, clasped it, and shook it. I smiled brightly at Azami-chan, not wanting to make her feel too lonely. 

“Let’s go!”

“Ah! Azami-chan!”

“Wait~!”

Then, her face turned red and she hurriedly let go of my hand. She bluntly said that, then left along with everyone else. So cute… did she get embarrassed? That was definitely because Azami-chan was in love with Lady Sakuya. I wasn’t Lady Sakuya, but… still, I wanted to try my best to make sure she didn’t feel lonely, so I did all I could to be Lady Sakuya’s replacement…

Just one thing… If I did have any concerns, it was that if this developed the same way the game “Love Flowers” did, Azami-chan would be pushing for Lady Sakuya and Ibuki to start dating. I didn’t plan to set up any flags with Ibuki in this world. If I paid attention to Ibuki, I wouldn’t have the time to make friends with the other girls, and I’d be heading to destruction flags at full speed. There was nothing good in that.

As I watched Azami-chan and her other followers’ small retreating backs, I noticed that I had to control Lady Sakuya’s followers as well, which made me a little worried about the future.

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～～～～～～～

Once the entrance ceremony had ended, I headed to the classroom. I hadn’t met with my parents or taken commemorative photos after the ceremony, so I had gotten there pretty early. There were only a few other students. And, the student over there was…

“Aah! Saionji Satsuki-chan!”

“Huh…?”

A quiet, meek-looking girl sat quietly in her seat. She had a bob cut and looked Japanese. I knew her very well. Saionji Satsuki-chan… Like Tokudaiji Azami-chan, she was one of Lady Sakuya’s closest aides, the other leader. The young lady of the Saionji family, which was part of the Seven Shining, was also affiliated with Five Norths.

She was a Japanese beauty who looked meek and put-together. Well, she was still young now, so she looked cute rather than beautiful. But, in highschool, she’d grow to become a refined, calm, put-together beauty.

But that was just her appearance. She didn’t normally assert herself, and she didn’t shout. Her personality contrasted Azami-chan’s. But, Satsuki-chan was scary.

If Azami-chan was the impulsive and straightforward type who flared up suddenly, Satsuki was the farsighted type who planned and acted on those plans decisively. She didn’t do anything directly, but instead plotted in the shadows and buried her opponent in darkness. That was her talent.

Because of her personality, Azami-chan was cornered in arguments, and her thoughtless actions got herself and Lady Sakuya in bad situations. But Satsuki-chan was the type not to do anything overt, but instead, trap, look down upon, and destroy her opponent without leaving any evidence.

I hadn’t thought about which one was scarier to get angry. Satsuki-chan was normally very meek and seemed to be a devoted wife to Lady Sakuya, but she held no mercy towards Lady Sakuya’s opponents.

“I’m in the same class as you, Satsuki-chan! That’s great!”

Sakuya x Azami was my number one yuri ship, but Sakuya x Satsuki wasn’t too bad either. It was really lucky I was in the same class as that Satsuki-chan.

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“Um…? Who are you?”

“Ah…”

Oh no… I forgot again. I already knew who Satsuki-chan was, but this was her first time meeting Lady Sakuya. It can’t go like this… anyhow, it looked like I forgot myself after meeting all the cute girls in “Love Flowers”. I didn’t really care when I met Ibuki and Enju, but… rather, I just felt pretty gloomy when I met them…

“I am called Kujou Sakuya. Please take care of me, Saionji Satsuki-san.”

“Oh… you are that… I’ve been hearing rumours about you for a long time, Kujou Sakuya-san.”

Rumours… rumours yet again… although, what rumours were they… it probably wasn’t anything decent anyway. Lady Sakuya’s bad reputation was still going strong even in this world. I hadn’t done anything, but bad rumours were still spreading; it looked like Lady Sakuya was hated a lot by this world.

“Saionji-san, please be my friend.”

“What…?”

Satsuki-chan tilted her head, surprised. Even the way her hair flowed was cute. In “Love Flowers”, Satsuki-chan had become Lady Sakuya’s follower. Therefore, we’d definitely naturally grow closer, right?

I had asked Azami-chan to be friends with me so aggressively, but maybe I should do something different for Satsuki-chan? But what should I do? I couldn’t remove Azami-chan and Satsuki-chan from my laughing and flirting yuri plan.

Even in the original game, the three of them were super close to each other; so close that you’d think “Those three really have a suspicious relationship”. At the very least, I wanted to… further build a relationship with them. No! I’d definitely do that! I’d go and hold hands with the cute Satsuki-chan, go buy stuff, play at her home, and go places with her!

“*cough*… Then, you and I are friends now, Kujou-san.”

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“Aah! Call me Sakuya.”

We shouldn’t be formal. As we got closer, that’d probably steadily change, but, as expected, being friendly from the beginning was best. Right now, maybe just in the way we addressed each other. There were many cases where people were formal from the beginning and had gotten closer until they’d become friends, but their way of address still stayed stiff.

“Understood, Sakuya-san. Then, please call me Satsuki.”

In-game, Lady Sakuya dropped honorifics and called them Azami and Satsuki, and both of them had called her Sakuya-sama. As expected, I didn’t think it was right to immediately drop the honorific, but I didn’t want to call her ‘-sama’. So…

“Nice to meet you, Satsuki-chan.”

“…”

She made another slightly flabbergasted and surprised look. We were first-year elementary schoolers, so it probably wasn’t strange to call friends ‘-chan’. Of course, that might’ve been rare for upper-class families. Everyone used the honorific ‘-sama’. But I didn’t like being that stiff and formal. And also, I didn’t want to call Satsuki ‘Satsuki-sama’, nor did I want to drop the honorific.

So, I acted friendly, exactly like I thought. I had thought about whether Satsuki would like it or not, but…

“Please take care of me, Sakuya… -chan.”

“—ah! Yes!”

Satsuki-chan’s smile when she said that a little shyly was very cute.

～～～～～～～

After the entrance ceremony had ended and we’d all gathered in the classroom, we listened to tips and communications from the teacher. Satsuki-chan wasn’t the only one in this class; Azami-chan was here too. Maybe, even in “Love Flowers”, they had all become friends in elementary because they were in the same class.

In that case, there was one thing I had to do. That was to get closer to Satsuki-chan and Azami-chan, then become best friends forever. No, for my laughing and flirting yuri future, I had to prepare the groundwork.

How could I get closer to those two? As I thought about that, things had finished being distributed, and the teacher had stopped giving advice and communications.

It was dismissal time, so I stood up. I wanted to hurry and talk to Satsuki-chan and Azami-chan, but they had gotten caught up in the wave of people and I lost sight of them. 

If this was the game, they’d probably do the reverse and head straight to Lady Sakuya. But, with my current relationship with Satsuki-chan and Azami-chan, that was impossible.

It wasn’t anything to lament about. We had just met today, after all. No matter how many times I said we had become friends, we had just met today, and it wasn’t like we could become that close in the time the entrance ceremony ended. There were kids whose parents were waiting for them. It was normal for everyone to hurry and get out today.

As I thought about that, the classroom had become almost empty. I was about to leave the classroom, but standing there was…

“Oi, look at me.”

“…”

I ignored him like nothing had happened, and walked right past him…

“Oi! Don’t ignore me! You can hear me, right?!”

The person who I’d avoided and walked past was Ibuki, who coldly blocked my way.

“*sigh*… I have told you that “oi” is not my name, correct?”

I was going to hurry back and head to Master Momochi’s training, and I had to think of how to get closer to Satsuki-chan and Azami-chan. I was really busy, but I had to pay attention to this idiot, huh?

“Ku… kuku… you’re the first person who’s acted like that towards Ibuki. Now I know why he’s so interested in you.”

And, the “Snow White Prince” Enju was beside Ibuki. I wasn’t interested in the male love interests. I didn’t care at all, so I wanted to hurry and pass.

“Now now, please don’t look that annoyed. We just wanted to accompany you a little, Kujou Sakuya-san.”

“Hey! Come with me!”

“*sigh*…”

It looked like I couldn’t avoid this. I gave up, told the both of them that I didn’t have that much time, and walked with them.