Did her sister have a limit?
Yukino thought back over everything and felt that her sister did indeed have a limit.
She knew where to draw the line—it was just that this line was set very, very low.
Recalling what had happened yesterday morning, Yukino gave up on the thought. If her sister had truly had no limits yesterday morning, then she really would have been finished.
She wouldn't even have known how to face Lin Ye anymore.
What her sister had done to her was only that much—it wasn't something she couldn't accept.
Yukino left the classroom and headed for the Service Club, and before long, the Service Club gained a new arrival: Yui Yuigahama.
At this moment, the pink-bun-haired girl looked at Yukino with an expression suffused with a faint sense of worry.
"Yukino, are you okay?"
Unable to set her mind at ease, she asked.
"I'm fine. Let's continue with today's Service Club activities."
If no one came with a request, the Service Club's activities consisted of self-study, of reading, of doing whatever each of them needed to do.
Both of them were already used to it.
In less than fifteen minutes,
a knocking sound—'knock, knock, knock…'—rang out.
"Come in."
'Clatter.'
The door to the Service Club's classroom opened.
A black-haired, black-eyed girl appeared—lively, yet with a hint of timidity. Her eyes swept across the inside of the Service Club, and seeming to find nothing, she let out a great sigh of relief.
"President Shiromeguri,"
Yui Yuigahama called out in surprise.
The Student Council didn't have a very strong presence at Sobu High, but as its president, Meguri Shiromeguri was still known to quite a few people.
"Oh, Student Yuigahama, good afternoon,"
Meguri Shiromeguri greeted her with a wave of her hand.
"And Student Yukinoshita, good afternoon."
"Good afternoon!"
Yukinoshita replied. She harbored a certain amount of doubt about Meguri Shiromeguri's arrival.
Just what was this all about? She found it quite strange.
"Is there something you need, President Shiromeguri?"
"Well…"
"Our Service Club accepts requests and resolves whatever requests we take on. If there's no problem with the content of your request, President Shiromeguri, our Service Club can consider accepting it."
How should she put it!
She had met Meguri Shiromeguri even before she enrolled at Sobu High, because Meguri Shiromeguri was her sister Haruno's junior, and the two were quite close. Her sister had even taken Meguri Shiromeguri out shopping and dining together, so Yukino had known Meguri Shiromeguri since before high school.
And Meguri Shiromeguri had always been quite friendly toward her.
So Yukino felt a little more positively inclined toward her matter.
"I—I understand,"
Meguri Shiromeguri stepped past her own hesitations, walked into the Service Club, and politely closed the door behind her.
Soon,
she sat down in a seat—and that seat happened to be Lin Ye's seat.
But neither Yui Yuigahama nor Yukino Yukinoshita said anything about it.
"President Shiromeguri, what is your request?"
Meguri Shiromeguri was still hesitant,
and Yukino Yukinoshita didn't rush to press her. Instead, she rose and poured a cup of tea, setting it down in front of Meguri Shiromeguri.
"Th-thank you,"
Meguri Shiromeguri said gratefully.
A faint warmth of steam wafted up,
She blew on it, but her heart still wouldn't settle.
She had contacted Sis Haruno, but Sis Haruno hadn't replied, which left her anxious in every way, until at last she thought of Sis Haruno's Sister, Yukino Yukinoshita—and the Service Club that Yukino Yukinoshita had founded was precisely for resolving its clients' troubles. So she decided to come and try, even though she also recalled that Lin Ye was a member of the Service Club,
but if Lin Ye wasn't at the Service Club, she still felt she could come to seek help and find a suitable solution.
After mulling it over for a few minutes,
Meguri Shiromeguri spoke up. "It's like this. My… friend has run into something extremely troubling,"
"Oh! President, what kind of problem has your friend run into?"
"She… is being pestered by a man."
"..."
Yukino Yukinoshita's gaze fixed on Meguri Shiromeguri, and that stare made Meguri Shiromeguri feel as though it pierced right through her—had something been found out?
Her body trembled ever so slightly, and then she calmed herself down again.
"She met a man who's been pestering her to be his girlfriend, but in truth she isn't really willing."
"Wow, how could there be a man like that? This is completely harassment!"
The moment Yui Yuigahama heard it, she felt something was wrong. This had to be stopped; this had to be condemned.
"President, tell your friend that she must firmly resist this kind of thing, must make her stance clear. And if the man still won't let it go, then—then tell Sensei and her parents, call the police, have him arrested."
Yui Yuigahama was indignant.
The thing she hated most in all her life was the sort of person who pestered and harassed girls.
That kind of man was too vile, too despicable.
So she had to firmly resist it.
"She—it's not that she hasn't thought about it, but…"
"But what?"
Yukino Yukinoshita asked.
She now had a thought: was this really about Meguri Shiromeguri's friend? Why did it feel like it was about Meguri Shiromeguri herself?
Yukino Yukinoshita had this premonition.
But in any case, she set aside any deeper speculation for now, and first waited for Meguri Shiromeguri to explain in detail.
"But… she has… something being held over her."
The moment these words came out,
the spacious classroom of the Service Club fell completely silent.
Leverage—this, could this be…
"Your… friend is being threatened?"
"Y-yes,"
Meguri Shiromeguri lowered her head.
"How could this happen? No, no, you absolutely must firmly resist. President Shiromeguri, let's go together, find that man, and make him realize how improper his behavior is. Only then will this threat come to an end,"
Otherwise,
once the threats began, once Meguri Shiromeguri's friend gave in even once, there would be a second time, a third time, and on to countless times.
In the end, she would surely pay an unimaginable price.
And then, tragedy would strike.
Yui Yuigahama absolutely did not want such a thing to happen.
"But…"
"Call the police, call the police right now,"
"We can't call the police—we absolutely can't call the police,"
Meguri Shiromeguri shook her head vigorously in denial. The police could not be called. If that kind of thing got exposed, her reputation would be ruined—and most crucially, Sis Haruno's reputation would be ruined too.
Whatever happened to her was fine, but she could never stand by and watch the Senpai she respected and adored lose her reputation as well. After all, the Yukinoshita family was a prominent family in Chiba, and what prominent families valued most was, more often than not, their reputation.
Therefore, she absolutely could not permit or accept it.
"Then what should we do, Yukinon?"
Yui Yuigahama instinctively looked toward Yukino Yukinoshita, seeking help.
Yukino Yukinoshita didn't offer her own thoughts right away. Instead, she asked Meguri Shiromeguri for her own thoughts. "President, by coming here to seek our help, what outcome are you hoping to achieve?"
"I—I want him to back off from my… friend of his own accord, to give up on his own, and to promise he won't leak the matter of the leverage he's holding."
This was Meguri Shiromeguri's wish.
"And to that end, how far is your friend willing to go?"
Meguri Shiromeguri fell silent.
"I—my friend doesn't know either."
She didn't know how far she herself could go either.
It was too hard; she simply had no idea what to do.
Meguri Shiromeguri felt deeply pained.
That was precisely why she had come to the Service Club for help.
"Suggestion one: find some leverage of his own, and threaten him with it."
This… seemed like it might actually work.
"Suggestion two: a humanitarian elimination—make a man like that vanish from this world. Once he's gone, he won't be able to threaten you at all."
Meguri Shiromeguri: ???
Yui Yuigahama: ???
Could you even do that?
She had to be joking.
"Yu-Yukinon, this… that joke isn't very funny."
"Suggestion three: mutual destruction—lay your cards on the table with the attitude that you'll go down together with him, and see who blinks first."
It would definitely be me who blinks!
It's not just me—there's also your sister, Sis Haruno. If that matter were exposed, Sis Haruno, and even the entire Yukinoshita family, would suffer for it.
This was absolutely something Meguri Shiromeguri did not want to see happen.
"A-are there any other suggestions?"
"There are,"
Yukino continued. "Just give in! Satisfy whatever he wants, and then wait for him to let your… friend go."
Meguri Shiromeguri: ???
This was definitely not the kind of method she wanted.
Meguri Shiromeguri felt wretched.
Did even Yukino Yukinoshita have no suitable solution?
She no longer knew what she should do next.
Just as she'd thought—she'd still have to go to Sis Haruno after all.
"All right, all of the above was a joke."
This single line left both Yui Yuigahama and Meguri Shiromeguri stunned.
"Refusing to accept threats is essential. Once you give in, all you'll get in return is the other party pushing for more, inch by inch."
On this point, Yukino had deep personal experience.
Never mind her sister Haruno—Lin Ye was exactly the same.
Once you let Lin Ye hold your hand, he'd dare to try copping a feel of your backside, your belly, your waist—and the boundaries would only keep getting pushed further and further.
And people who resorted to threats had absolutely no limits or morals—you couldn't count on them to stop at a reasonable point at all.
"Yes, yes, Yukino is right,"
Yui Yuigahama chimed in repeatedly. One must never give in—absolutely not. Once you gave in, what awaited was an abyss, a bottomless abyss.
Just thinking about it was unbearable.
"Then what should I do?"
She had no idea what to do!
Because she'd been caught with leverage held over her, because she'd been threatened, she'd grown weak, and was on the verge of giving in.
"First, find someone to go give him a warning,"
"Who?"
Who else could be sent to deliver a warning?
"The yakuza."
Never mind Meguri Shiromeguri—even Yui Yuigahama's eyes widened in shock.
They truly hadn't expected Yukino Yukinoshita to suggest turning to the yakuza.
"To deal with a man of such a vile nature, this is exactly what you should do,"
Seeing that Meguri Shiromeguri was still hesitant, Yukino Yukinoshita continued. "I have another candidate in mind. I think he'd be willing to help."
In that instant, Meguri Shiromeguri's eyes lit up.
"Who is it, who is it? As thanks, on my friend's behalf, I'll definitely express my gratitude properly,"
Meguri Shiromeguri pinned her hopes on Yukino.
"Lin Ye."
Meguri Shiromeguri: ???
She wondered whether she'd misheard.
Meanwhile, Yukino was thinking:
With that unfathomable ability of Lin Ye's, that power of Hypnosis, resolving the troubles of Meguri Shiromeguri's… friend would be no problem at all.
In fact,
this was also Yukino Yukinoshita testing Meguri Shiromeguri, to see whether things were as she had sensed.
And the result, evidently, was that she had guessed correctly.
It was connected to Lin Ye—no, more precisely, it should be connected to her sister Haruno.
At noon, her sister Haruno had gone to find Meguri Shiromeguri.
That woman really did love stirring up trouble.
But for her sister, who knew all of Meguri Shiromeguri's various sordid secrets, threatening and dealing with Meguri Shiromeguri really couldn't be any easier.
Seeing the state Meguri Shiromeguri was in now, Yukino could tell she'd already been thoroughly handled, and that the moment she gave in was probably not far off.
Her sister—Yukino really wanted to lecture her, to make her sister recognize her own mistakes, but the moment she recalled her sister's way of doing things, she gave up.
As if she could change her sister and make her admit fault?
That was simply impossible.
From childhood to now, she had never once succeeded.
Every concession her sister ever made was based on her own wish to concede.
"Lin Ye is capable."
Yukino said.
Meguri Shiromeguri grew more and more awkward.
Of all the people she could turn to, Lin Ye was the one she couldn't—Lin Ye was the very culprit threatening her.
How could she possibly ask Lin Ye, the one behind it all, to help?
If Lin Ye found out that she'd come to the Service Club for help this time, there was no telling whether he'd use it as grounds for fresh threats and take advantage of her.
Meguri Shiromeguri felt that this was entirely possible.
In fact, the possibility was quite high.
"There's no need to trouble Student Lin Ye. It wouldn't be especially appropriate to let Student Lin Ye know about this. If Student Lin Ye were to find out and, brimming with righteous indignation, did something impulsive, that would really be bad."
Meguri Shiromeguri did her utmost, in her own way, to prevent Lin Ye from learning of this matter.
"Student Lin will stay calm. Please rest assured, President."
Yui said immediately upon hearing this.
In her heart, Lin Ye was very reliable and inspired a great deal of trust—he wasn't the sort to act on rash, impulsive feelings.
Meguri Shiromeguri had a headache.
"Since you put it that way, President, we'll keep it confidential."
This single line from Yukino brought a moved expression to Meguri Shiromeguri's face.
But Yui was puzzled. Wasn't it Yukinon who had suggested asking Lin Ye in the first place? Why was Yukinon now immediately agreeing to Meguri Shiromeguri's request?
She couldn't figure it out.
"President, I've thought of a good method. Our Service Club accepts your request. Please rest assured—we'll resolve it."
This shocked the two of them even more.
Even Meguri Shiromeguri, the one directly involved, had no idea where Yukino Yukinoshita's confidence came from.
And Yui, needless to say, was even more bewildered—there wasn't even enough information; how could this be resolved?
"Student Yukinoshita, this…"
"Just trust me. In a few days, I'll give you good news."
Meguri Shiromeguri half believed, half doubted.
Yui was the same, but she had complete faith in Yukinoshita. "President, since Yukinon has said so, then please trust Yukinon. Yukinon will definitely resolve it—just sit back and wait for the good news!"
The words from the pink-bun-haired girl gave Meguri Shiromeguri's heart a bit of confidence.
Recalling Yukino Yukinoshita's reputation and abilities, she thought it over and felt that Yukino Yukinoshita wasn't one to make empty boasts—she had to have a plan and confidence to make such a promise.
"Thank you."
Meguri Shiromeguri offered her thanks.
It was just that she still had one doubt.
Why would Yukinoshita, who barely understood the situation, have a solution? Was she planning to chat with her privately later to get the details, or… had she already guessed it?
In that moment, Meguri Shiromeguri felt astonished, and at the same time couldn't help but admire her—along with a touch of shame.
Being threatened into becoming someone's girlfriend was hardly glorious any way you looked at it.
Yukinoshita must have taken her sense of shame into consideration, which was why she hadn't spoken of it here.
After all, there was another person present.
How gentle!
Student Yukino was completely different from Sis Haruno.
Meguri Shiromeguri couldn't help but sigh with feeling.
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