“I hope you now uand where I’m ing from,” Vi said. “There’s no telling what will happen if we rely on teachers for Ben’s problem. It might make things better, but it might also escate the situation for the worse. It’s a deadly gamble.”

  “I uand,” Yuel said. “I admit, I didn’t sider that dire. I also hought that speaking to the teachers would magically resolve the entire issue. But, now that I think more about it, the teachers’ options are really limited.”

  “Ihey ’t send the bullies to prison, so temporarily expelling them from school is about the best punishment they enact.”

  “I uand. And, just like in your story, the bullies will eventually return to seek revenge.”

  “Yes, they’ll no doubt return, twice as evil. It’s a vicious cycle.”

  “This sure makes things difficult.” Yuel frowned. I feel like a piece of shit for being angry with Ben all this time. I had no idea he had suplicated circumstances.

  None of this was Ben’s fault. The puy found himself in a toxic situation and had no way out. Even if he were to report the bullies directly, there was no telling how that’d pan out. Like in Vi’s story, things might only take a turn for the worse.

  So, it was impossible to bme Ben for any of this. heless, his situation roblem for the club. For one, his frequent abseurned him into an unreliable teammate. But, at this point, that was the lesser issue.

  The real problem was that a fellow club member was bullied outside the club. It was the first time Yuel faced such a difficult situation. He wasn’t particurly close to Ben, mainly because the guy was forced to skip club practice half the time, but a sense of radery existed between them heless.

  They were part of the same team, aiming to win the regionals together. Maybe calling them “friends” would be a stretch, but Ben was an agreeable guy and a det pyer, so Yuel was on good terms with him. Therefore, it ainful to know that such a good guy was harassed on a daily basis. Something had to be done about it.

  “So, when are we going?” Lars asked out of the blue.

  “Going where?” Yuel asked.

  “To solve the problem, duh,” Lars answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

  “Solve it how? You heard Vi’s story. We have to be careful about how we hahis. We ’t just expect the teachers to solve this for us.”

  “Wut? Who was talking about teachers?” Lars cocked his head. “We don’t need no teachers. We solve this ourselves ez.”

  “Easy, you say...” Yuel couldn’t believe this carefree goof. “You do uand it’s bullying we’re talking about, right? There’s nothing ‘easy’ about this topic.”

  “Sounds easy enough to me.” Lars shrugged. “Vince had a real rough experience, but his situation was WAY harder. It’s nothing like this one.”

  “Different?” Vi interjected. “How so?”

  “Well, you said the boy they bullied was a loner, right? He didn’t have anybody to stick up to him, so it was hard to help him out.”

  “Yes, that’s correct.”

  “That’s why it’s totally different,” Lars procimed fidently. “I mean, Ben got all of us, right? He got the whole club w about him. I uand it’s hard as heck to do something about bullying by yourself, but you got us this time, ya know? We ha together!”

  “Oh, I see!” Vi blinked in surprise. He didn’t even realize such a simple fact.

  Back wheried to help the bullied boy in grade school, he was fighting that war all by himself. That’s why his only option was to rely on the system. After all, by himself, he owerless to ge anything.

  But, that wasn’t the case this time! Yuel and Lars were both here, treating this topic with utmost seriousness. And, Kai also tried to resolve this problem before in her own ways. In other words, the entire club was ing together as oe evil! It was a beautiful dispy of the power of friendship!

  “It all sounds nice,” Yuel interrupted the early celebration. “But, do you have an actual pn in mind?”

  “Pn? n?” Lars asked ily. “Let’s just go talk with them bully dudes. That should do it.”

  “You want to iate with terrorists?” Yuel frowned. “What are you going to say to them, exactly?”

  “I just gonna give it to them straight, that they should stop messing our with our dude.”

  “That’s dangerous,” Vi warned. “That trio are quite the savages.”

  “Are they violent?” Yuel asked.

  “Not usually, but they snap if ao tell you the truth, Kai tried to front them after Ms. Stone failed to resolve the issue.”

  “How did it go?”

  “Kai will probably never fet it for the rest of her life. They hit her.”

  “Wha-!?” Yuel gasped. “They’d even raise a hand against a girl? Darn, they sound really nasty.”

  “Admittedly, Kai was almost asking for it,” Vi expined. “She approached them first and started arguing, with as mutimidation as she could muster. I doubt she nning to pick a fight, but that’s how the other party probably saw it. So, they shoved her away in an attempt to get rid of her. In turn, the amazon blew a fuse and Ragnarok broke out.”

  “I sort of imagi.” Yuel frowned. “I guess it didn’t go well?”

  “Of course not. The boys easily overpowered her. She ended up walking away in shame. Ever since, she has been avoiding the subject. Her pride as the club’s captain was in shambles.”

  “I see. That’s why she didn’t want to talk about this. So, Lars, you heard all that?”

  “Hm?” Lars tilted his head. “Heard all what?”

  “These guys aren’t afraid of fighting back. It’s dangerous to front them.”

  “Don’t worry, I ain’t gonna fight them,” Lars promised. “We just gonna talk a little, that’s all.”

  “And, what do you pn to say, exactly?”

  “That they better release our dude from all that crap. He doesn’t deserve it.”

  “And, you think they’re going to agree? Just like that?”

  “No harm in trying,” Lars insisted. “I mean, what do we have to lose here? It’s not like anybody gonna arrest us for talking. These dudes ain’t nobody special. They’re just students like us. No reason to be scared of them.”

  This goof knows no fear. Yuel gulped. In his imagination, these bullies were a bunch of savage criminals who shouldn’t be messed with. Yet, in Lars’s eyes, these guys were run-of-the-mill students. They were just some kids of the same age, so it was natural to try unig with them. It was such a simple and naive, yet oddly ving, line of reasoning.

  “Fine,” Yuel surrendered. “We try meeting them, at least.”

  “Okay, let’s go then!” Lars pumped a fist and marched toward the exit.

  “Wait,” Yuel said. “Do you even know where to find them?”

  “Oh.” Lars stopped in pce for the sed time, with his fist still stretched high into the air. He backpedaled and turo Vi. “Any idea where we gonna find these dudes?”

  “I’m afraid not,” Vi said.

  “Really? I thought that ’Information Bckhole’ thingy of yours knows everything.”

  “Guh!” Vi grimaced. He received an invisible blow to his pride. To think that he, the great Information Bckhole, the one who held access to the Akashic Records, would not know the location of these people of i! It was uable! Nay, it won’t stand! He had to deliver some sort of answer, even if it was imperfect!

  “They... might be in the basketball club,” Vi suggested. “The club ractig today and they’re members, so it stands to reasotended. I suspect practice is over by now, but they might still be in the area.”

  “So, the basket club? Okay, I know where that is. Let’s go!” Lars paced out of the room with fident strides.

  “Are we really doing this?” Vi exged gnces with Yuel.

  “Looks like we are.” Yuel smiled wryly. “It’s almost impossible to stop Lars whes like this. And, holy? I don’t see a reason why we should.”

  “Does that mean you approve of Lars’s reckless pn?”

  “irely, but what else we do? You don’t have aer pns, do you?”

  “It’s usually the Chessmaster’s job to e up with craft ploys.”

  “This isn’t chess or even Cssmancers for that matter,” Yuel said. “I’ve never dealt with this sort of situation before, so there’s no way I’d have a tactic prepared for this. If anything, these types of interpersonal problems are my weakness. I’ve never bee with resolving arguments.”

  “What a humble Chessmaster we have.” Vi smiled meaningfully. “You say you’re not good at it, but you perfectly stopped Kai and Lars when they were arguing over the Carry role during the Taurus scrimmage. That was ariking performance!”

  “I guess I’m getting a little better through experience,” Yuel said. Though, I’d rather not experience such situations in the first pce.

  “So,” Vi started. “Tell me holy. Do you believe Lars’s idea will work?”

  “Who knows,” Yuel gave it straight. “This guy is as uable as they get. He’s the master of pulling random nonsehat ends up w in the end. If it’s him, anything is possible.”

  “Indeed, I feel so too,” Vi agreed. “When he insisted this was ‘easy’, I almost started believing it’s ihat easy. Even though I should be perfectly aware of how difficult this topic is, something about Lars’s unyielding vi almost swayed me.”

  “Yeah, he has that kind of effe people. That’s why I almost believe he actually pull this off.”

  “I’m tempted to believe in him as well, yet my spidey senses are tingling.” Vi gulped. “I have a feeling things will no be so pretty.”

  “Oh, I’m sure they won’t be,” Yuel agreed. “That’s why we o be there too. If the situatios out of hand, we might have to intervene.”

  “I must say, I’m not fident about enlisting as a soldier.”

  “I doubt either of us will be much help in a fistfight, so we should avoid esg things to that point. Our best ons are here.” Yuel poi his temple. “If Lars is going to py the part of the ‘brawn’, then we’ll be the ‘brain’. That’s our role in this match.”

  “Very well.” Vi nodded. “I shall overy brain all the way to infinity and draw out all the existing information that possibly help us emerge victoriously! Meanwhile, the Chessmaster shall use his Mystic Eyes of Weakness Perception to find the vilins’ ots and weave a ploy to strike them down!”

  “I’ll do what I .”

  With these vis, the trio headed toward the basketball club, to face the bullies that have been terrorizing Ben for the past two years. Will they be able to resolve this plicated situation peacefully? Probably not. heless, they braced themselves for the worst and pressed onward, believing in Lars’s ability to create an opportunity that’ll flip this situation on its head!

  DarkestCymore