"You guys should go," Yamimura said. "I'll keep an eye on this guy until the cops show up."
We all looked down at the fallen serial killer copycat that Kyouko took down with both a lariat and a stomp onto his gut. He was right now pinned down by a ray of psychic energy flowing out of Yamimura's hand.
I looked back up and asked Yamimura, "You sure about that?"
Yamimura nodded and replied, "Yeah. Just go. You guys could get mixed up in more trouble if word gets out that the Community Service Club's sided with me. It was you guys who gave me the idea to use that Psy-Armor thing. If not for that, that guy could have caved my skull in, so I owe you a lot. Just let me deal with all that complicated stuff."
After exchanging looks, me and the girls decided to take up Yamimura's offer without further argument and scurried back home.
Yuna and I didn't say anything to my parents about the incident. As far as they knew, nothing was out of the ordinary. I had expected capture of the Piper copycat to reach the evening news, but there was never any mention of him except for his last attack before Yamimura.
The next day when we met up with the rest of the club again after school was over, me, Yuna and Isaneko told the others what happened.
"Seriously?" Omoyo exclaimed. "Someone actually tried to off Yamimura? Is he okay?"
I shrugged and replied, "Well, he seemed fine when we left him."
"So the time has finally come," Mirai said, leaning forward in his seat, elbows propped on the table and hands together in front of his mouth.
Omoyo scowled disapprovingly at him and snapped, "This is serious, Mirai! Now is so not the time for your nerdy play-pretend."
Mirai frowned back in dismay and said, "I AM being serious. Deep down, we all knew this was going to happen eventually."
"Well, at least it's case closed now," I said. "No more Piper to worry about."
"Don't be too sure about that."
I whirled around in surprise and found a girl standing by the doorway. It was Soushu, our school's student council president. There should be no need to explain, but Soushu's also a member of the Soushu family, one of the town's big three political powers, and a psychic. She was one of the rare Omnikinetics, a psychic with all sorts of powers instead of just one like me and the rest of the Community Service Club.
"What are you doing here, Shoyu?" I asked.
"It's SOUSHU!" she snapped. "Seriously, when will you stop mixing me up with soy sauce?"
The answer to that question: another five years.
"Anyway," Omoyo cut in, "going back to Oota's question, what are you doing here, Soushu? And what did you mean earlier?"
"To answer your first question," said Soushu, "I'm here on student council business. Second, I happened to overhear your conversation about the guy that attacked Yamimura. It turns out, that guy's only a copycat of the Piper copycat. Yamimura was his only target and he was hoping to pin the crime on the actual Piper copycat."
"And how exactly do you know that?" Omoyo asked.
"I happened to overhear my father talk with someone in the police force about it."
"Do you have a habit of spying on your old man or something?" Omoyo asked.
Soushu looked displeased at Omoyo's question and retorted, "I was not spying. It was a complete accident, and it was my dad's fault for not closing the door to his office properly."
Feeling very dejected, I groaned, "Ugh! So it's still not over yet."
With a look of sympathy, Soushu said, "I feel your disappointment. That new Piper has caused the whole town to explode out of control. The only silver lining in this whole mess is that no one's actually died yet. But that can change if he isn't captured soon."
Mirai clapped his hands together and said, "Okay, that's enough with topics too gloomy for the average high schoolers. You said you're here on student council business, Shoyu?"
"Oh, don't you start too!" Soushu snapped.
I could see her veins throbbing on her forehead, but Mirai just laughed her off and said, "Sorry! Sorry!"
The apology did nothing to improve Soushu's mood and she growled, "I swear, if this starts spreading to the whole school, I will kill you, Oota!"
"Me!? What did I do?"
I thought I saw Yuna roll her eyes, but that could just be my imagination.
"Anyway," said Soushu, "about our business, it sort of relates to the Piper."
I sat up, alert.
Mirai's gaze turned sharp and he asked, "Now what could the student council think we could do about the Piper?"
"It's not what you think," Soushu said. "The student council wants to spread some flyers we made with tips on how to stay safe on the streets. I just came to see if you guys could help us with that. The more people we have on this, the faster we can get the word out on what to do and what not to do to everyone in school."
She lifted up a white cardboard box that had been sitting next to her feet and set it on the table with a grunt. The thud it made told me how heavy it must have been.
Omoyo gave the box a look and then said, "Forget asking, it looks like you guys already expected us to help out."
With a shrug, Soushu replied, "Well, it's not like you guys got anything better to do."
"Why're you looking at me while you say that?" I asked.
Her eyes rolled onto the smartphone held sideways in my hand. A simple humorous tone could be heard playing in a loop.
Yuna sent me a text message that read, "Were you seriously playing a video game while we were talking about violent criminals that are popping up right at our doorstep?"
"It's on auto-play," I told her.
"That's no better."
Isaneko lifted the cover off the box and took out one of the posters. After giving it a look, she went, "Aw, that's quite the cute blob monster you drew, Soushu. What is it supposed to be?"
In a strained voice, Soushu replied, "That was supposed to be a bad guy."
I had a feeling that she drew that black blob thing herself.
Omoyo snorted.
Soushu threw her a dirty look and snapped, "Oh, like you could do better!"
"Yeah, I can, actually," Omoyo said.
Mirai cut in and asked Soushu, "When should we start?"
"Right now, if you don't mind," Soushu said. "Just put some up on the bulletin boards around the school. The rest can be passed out tomorrow in the morning or afternoon. Whichever's fine."
"Sure, we can do that," Mirai said. "Just fill out the request form and we'll be good to go."
"Thanks," said Soushu. "Oh, there are also some other errands I'd like you to run for the student council. The stuff's also in the box along with a note that tells you what needs to go where."
Omoyo made a face and asked, "Why don't you or the other council members do any of this yourselves? That's your own job, isn't it?"
"Now, now," Mirai cut in. "We're the Community Service Club, after all. Serving the community is what we do. We'll be happy to take on those errands too. Just add them to the request form."
"Sure," said Soushu.
"Great!" Isaneko exclaimed. She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it over to Soushu. "Just sign on the line at the bottom."
"Okay," said Soushu, pulling out a pen. "Let me just - Hey! This isn't your club's request form. This is an application form to join some kind of shady organization! Did you just try to trick me to sign up for a cult?"
"Oh, no," Isaneko said, shaking her head. "Not at all. It was a simple mistake. Honest."
She took out the correct form and handed it Soushu, who gave her an unconvinced look and said, "Somehow, I doubt it. But whatever."
After quickly filling out the form, Soushu handed it back to Isaneko and gave her phone a glance.
"I got other stuff that need to be done, so I'll be going now."
"Okay," said Mirai. "Stay safe out there."
Soushu replied back, "Sure. Will do."
She turned to leave, but then stopped and looked back.
Mirai gave her an innocent smile and asked, "Yes?"
"It's nothing," Soushu quickly replied. She turned again and this time, walked straight out the door.
"What was that all about?" I wondered aloud. It looked to me like she actually wanted to say something but changed her mind.
"I don't know," said Omoyo. "But something is definitely fishy about this request. The council rarely ever asks us to do anything, especially for errands that they should be handling themselves."
"Well, I'm sure our illustrious president has her reasons," said Mirai. "Anyway, let us adventurers sally forth and complete the quests bestowed upon us. I, the great hero, along with Omoyo the Berserker - "
"Oi, want me to hit you?"
" - I mean, Omoyo the Ranger, will take on the messenger quest and deliver letters to the overlords of our domain."
Translation: "Me and Omoyo will go bring the documents Soushu brought over to the teachers over at the faculty room."
"Oota the Defender, Isaneko the Mage, and Yuna the Cleric will take on the greater task of spreading the Prophet's Words of Doom!"
Translation: "Oota, Isaneko and Yuna, go hang the PSA flyers and posters on the bulletin boards around the school."
With our roles assigned, we all grabbed what we needed and split. While Mirai and Omoyo headed for the faculty room to hand the student council's stuff to the teachers, me and the others went to flyers onto the bulletin boards by the staircases. I did the heavy lifting and carried the box of flyers while the girls hung up the flyers.
We went from floor to floor without talking much. But then, while putting a flyer up on the bulletin board next to the side entrance, Isaneko broke silence and remarked, "It looks like Mirai's right when he said Soushu had her reasons to pawn off student council work on us."
Yuna and I paused. I was holding the sheet of paper to the board while Yuna was midway sticking a pin into a corner.
"What do you mean, Isaneko?" I asked.
Isaneko nodded to the doorway where a trio of boys loitered. I gave them a glance and then quickly turned away before they'd notice.
"Those guys are Yamimura's followers," Isaneko explained. "Our student council president likely wants to avoid any of her own followers running into them as much as possible, which is why any job that involves traveling around the school is being handed over to us."
"How come?" I asked.
Isaneko and Yuna gave me funny looks.
Yeah, thinking about it now, that was really a dumb question.
"Yamimura's underlings are pretty loyal ones," Isaneko said. "It's not obvious on the surface, but he's pretty good at bringing people to his side. You can imagine how upset they'd be if someone were to attack him, right? Let alone that the one who did it was the supporter of a big rival group. I can guarantee if they run into any Soushu supporters, which the student council is full of, there will be violence."
She added before I could say anything, "Worse violence."
I sighed and grumbled, "Just when you think things could not possibly get worse."
Slowly, but surely, the town, my home, continued to spiral out of control. It didn't seem long before it hit rock bottom. And what that'll be like, I dreaded finding out.
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