Academy SP 〜An Ex-Mercenary Reincarnated as a Mob in a Gal Game. I Ditched My Bodyguard Job to Enjoy High School Life, but When the Ultra-Rich Heroines Were About to Get Killed, I Stepped In… and Somehow Built a Harem Powerful Enough to Control Japan〜 - Chapter 22 & 23

Chapter 22

After school—the arcade.

“Aaah! Mouu! That drum game is way too hard! Sara’s arms are totally worn out!”

Complaining the whole time, she drank from a carton of banana au lait she’d just bought.

We were taking a break in the arcade’s rest area.

“No, no, Sara-san! You’re definitely getting better little by little! Improving this much in such a short time is impressive! You’ve got real talent!”

“R-Really…? Ehehe… Wakita, you’re actually a pretty nice guy!”

“Well, I am Yuuji’s one and only best friend! If anything ever happens, feel free to rely on me too!”

Wakita, as usual, was laying the flattery on thick for the conglomerate heiress.

Little by little, he was really closing the distance with her.
Dumping all the troublesome stuff on me while playing things smart—he really knew what he was doing.

“……………………”

Then, Sara stared straight at me.

Was it just my imagination, or did her eyes look filled with a mix of unease and impatience?

“Something wrong?”

“…Yuuji. Um… that is… what do you think about Ririko Aketo?”

“Huh?”

Fidgeting with her bangs, she continued in a small, hesitant voice.

“Well… it’s just… somehow… you were looking at Aketo-san a lot… Like, really staring…”

“No, I wasn’t staring or anyth—”

“You totally were!! I mean, yeah, she’s girly and Sara thinks she’s cute too, but… but…!”

“W-What’s with you all of a sudden…? Could it be that you don’t get along with Ririko Aketo, Sara?”

Come to think of it, in the original game, you hardly ever saw the daughters of the Four Great Conglomerates interact.
Once you picked a heroine route, the others basically disappeared.

Normally, you’d expect rival conglomerates to be on bad terms.

“No. It’s true people call us ‘Hagoromo of the East’ and ‘Aketo of the West,’ so the families are rivals… but Sara doesn’t actually dislike Aketo-san. Same with Kirishima-san and Kousaki-san—we just greet each other if we pass in the hallway.”

“Huh. Is that so?”

“It’s just that…”

“Just that…?”

Sara gave a self-deprecating smile.

“Even though Sara looks like this—like a gyaru—she doesn’t really have any friends… Aketo-san looks quiet and reserved, but she actually has a lot of friends. Sara kind of envies that… just a little… haha…”

“W-Well… try to cheer up, okay…”

Not having friends… huh.

Come to think of it, even in the original story there were hints that she wasn’t great at socializing.
Just a little, I felt bad for Sara.

Then, beside me, Wakita poked me in the side.

“…Hey. Why are you making Sara-san worry like that?”

“…I’m not doing anything.”

“…Honestly.”

With a sheesh, Wakita turned his gaze toward Sara.

“It’s fine, Sara-san.”

“Huh?”

“Yuuji is—basically a boob guy!”

“Wha!?”

“He’s the type who can only marry girls with E-cups or bigger!”

“E—Eeeeh!?”

Sara’s face turned bright red as she started flailing in panic.

And me—I grabbed this shit by the collar.

“Y-You bastard! What kind of insane boob-related lies are you spreading!?”

“This is your fault, Yuuji! You were totally about to switch over to Ririko Aketo-san!”

“When did I ever say I was switching to anyone!?”

A completely ridiculous misunderstanding had been born.

I thought about correcting it immediately—but it was already too late.

“…It’s okay. My bra’s been getting tight lately, so I’m still growing… yeah.”

Why was Sara gaining confidence from this!?

“I’ll do my best to become a girl who suits Yuuji even more…!”

With her face completely red, Sara said that so earnestly that I couldn’t say anything back.

I mean… I couldn’t just brush her off like that…

“Man, so jealous… Having a future where you get to fully enjoy that voluptuous gyaru body is basically guaranteed! Gufufufu…”

Alright.

First, I’d walk Sara home—then I’d deal with this guy afterward.

After that, once it got past six in the evening, we wrapped things up and left the arcade.

We were walking toward the spot where the Hagoromo Conglomerate’s bodyguards were waiting when—

“Well, well~? Aren’t you two the members of the Hagoromo faction?”

That mocking tone made my skin crawl.

When I turned around, standing there was… Isoyama—the guy who’d taken Wakita down in seconds.

No, not just him.

Manabu Hirota was there too, and surrounding them were Ririko Aketo and her friends.

It was a big group—like a soccer club heading home after practice.

“Man, looking back at the SP tournament, you guys were just pathetic. We of the Aketo faction basically dominated the top eight. Meanwhile, the Hagoromo faction lost in the first round—and got wiped out in seconds, too. Hahaha. That’s seriously embarrassing.”

At Isoyama’s ridicule, the others covered their mouths and snickered.

Wakita just shrugged and kept a pleasant smile, brushing off the provocation—but Sara puffed out her cheeks.

“Muu!”

“Hey, stop.”

I held her back and tried to calm her down.

This kind of argument was pointless and a total waste of time.

Thankfully, someone else stepped in too.

“Isoyama. Cut the nonsense.”

Chapter 23

“H-Hirota-kun?”

“And what do you think you’re doing, chatting idly during a VIP protection duty? We carry the mission of protecting Ririko Aketo-sama!”

“S-Sorry…”

That dignity of his was as strong as ever.
Strict—maybe even stiff.

This was probably what people meant by the pride of the strongest man in Academy SP.

—Then, Ririko, who had been standing in the center, stepped forward.

“…Hagoromo-san, were you playing at the arcade?”

In her calm Kansai accent, she directed the question at Sara.

“Y-Yeah. I’m really bad at it, but it’s fun. What about you, Aketo-san?”

“…We were having a tea party until just now.”

“I see. A girls’ gathering, then.”

“…Well, Hirota-kun and the others were there too, so it didn’t really feel like a girls-only thing.”

At that moment, Hirota bowed his head to Ririko.

“My apologies. We ended up disturbing your precious after-school time…”

“…No. I should be the one apologizing for troubling you.”

“Still, after what happened before, I believe it’s best to be extra careful. …Come now, your family will be worried.”

“…Yeah, that’s true. Well then, Hagoromo-san—see you tomorrow.”

With that, Ririko returned to the group of Aketo faction SP members led by Hirota, and they all headed home together.

“Think there’s something going on behind the scenes?”

As I said that, Wakita casually pushed his glasses back into place.

“Yeah. Lately, the Aketo faction has been moving a lot more aggressively.”

“Aggressively?”

“Yeah. Like today—you saw it, right? Everyone, including Hirota-kun, was guarding Aketo-san under a super tight security setup. And not just after school. Apparently, they even surround her during lunch break.”

“Huh…? Working even during lunch sounds a bit too overprotective…”

“Hirota also said ‘after what happened,’ remember? So yeah… something must’ve happened.”

Then Sara went, “Ah—that,” and explained.

“Actually… lately, Aketo-san has been receiving threatening letters…”

“Threats?”

“Yeah. Stuff like ‘ugly,’ ‘bitch,’ ‘disappear’— really childish things, like elementary school bullying. They’ve been slipping them into her shoe locker.”

“…Wait. That means—”

Sara let out a quiet sigh.

“…I think the culprit is probably a girl from this school.”

“Why are you so sure?”

“Because Sara’s been through something similar before. Back in middle school…”

Her expression darkened.

What she was about to talk about was the harsh fate that came with being born as a daughter of one of the Four Great Conglomerates.

“The more famous the family name, the more jealousy it attracts. There are people who come close because they want good ties with the Hagoromo Conglomerate… but on the flip side, there are also people who hold grudges. And between girls, that kind of thing happens especially often. Even at this elite girls’ academy, there are young ladies who dislike Sara and the others. I think Aketo-san is being resented in the same way.”

“I… see…”

That never even crossed my mind.

I hadn’t imagined that there could be that kind of mess between girls too.

Well, these were conglomerates that controlled massive wealth and influence across Japan.
There was no way they hadn’t made plenty of enemies along the way.

So even inside the academy…

Thinking about it, there might even be girls here who’d go as far as trying to hurt someone.

If that was the case, then the existence of Academy SP had way more meaning than I’d thought.

“Ugh, I hate this stuff… Girls’ jealousy and fighting… seriously…”

Sara let out a tired sigh.

Seeing that, I couldn’t help but feel a little worried.

“Sara.”

“Hm?”

“…If anything happens, tell me.”

“……………………!?”

She’d already had someone try to kill her once.

That kind of event probably wouldn’t happen again—but if there was even a hint of danger, I wanted to do something.

After all, I’d gone through the trouble of saving her.
I didn’t want to regret it later.

“T-Thank… you…”

She fidgeted with her hands and whispered her thanks.

…Her face was bright red, like a boiled octopus.

“You act all cool, but you always end up charming Sara-san so easily. You sinful man! Take, this!”

“Ow, Wakita! Quit elbowing me!”

〇 

Side: Ririko

“Ririko-sama, good morning.”

“…Mm. Morning.”

I was dropped off by the maid’s car, and when I arrived at the school gate, Hirota-kun and the rest of the Academy SP were already there waiting.

“We’ll escort you to your classroom.”

“…Mm, thanks.”

Even though it was such a short distance, the security was still this tight.

I was grateful for it… but at the same time, it felt a little suffocating.

…Ah, no good. I was kind of sleepy.

“Ririko-sama, are you alright? You seem a little unwell…”

“…N-No, I’m fine. Just didn’t sleep much.”

…Yeah, no.

No matter how I looked at it, the mental stress was definitely getting to me.

In the back of my mind, the image of those letters—written in warped, ugly characters—just wouldn’t go away.

Words like “ugly” and “idiot” were childish and stupid by themselves.

But the real problem was the fact that someone in this school was directing clear malice at me.

I’d talked to the teachers, but it sounded like identifying the culprit would be difficult.

Little by little, I could feel my spirit wearing down.

I didn’t want to sound full of myself, but I’d always been careful about how I interacted with people… or at least, I thought I had.

Letting out a small sigh, I reached out to open my shoe locker—

And that was when I noticed something was wrong.

“…What is this smell…?”

A bad feeling crept up on me.

The source was obviously my shoe locker.

I hesitantly opened it—

“…Kyaa!!”

Even I—someone who rarely raised her voice—let out a scream from deep in my gut.

“Ririko-sama? …T-This is—!”

Hirota-kun noticed something was wrong and rushed over.

The moment he looked inside the locker, his eyes went wide.

Inside was—

A dead rat.

“Hah… hah… hah…”

Shock after shock slammed into me all at once.

My breathing turned ragged, and my body wouldn’t stop shaking.

Why would someone do something this cruel…

Why would they do this to me…?

“Ririko-sama! Please step back!”

Hirota-kun quickly pulled me away from the locker.

“We’ll take care of this.”

“T-Thank you… really… thank you…”