"Let me go! Let me go!! You two-faced rats — how did I ever believe a word you said!"
At the club recruitment grounds, Imamura's face was being squashed into various shapes by two muscular men holding him firmly from above and below.
Nanaka had apparently been called back to the shop to help out and had left early. In the hands of Kotobuki and Tokita, Imamura — who had at least been capable of some resistance before — was now completely helpless, like a chick being kneaded by a pair of bears.
"Oh my, another lively new recruit. Sebastian, Iori — good work, you two!"
Kotobuki, in the midst of enthusiastically managing the new member, turned his head briefly to offer verbal commendation to the two of them, who were busy examining their new shirts.
"The way this fabric feels against the skin is genuinely reassuring."
Sebastian ran a hand over the shirt that had, until recently, been on Kotobuki's back.
"It really is. Clothing is truly one of the great achievements of human civilization."
Iori echoed this with an expression of deep satisfaction.
"By the way — didn't you mutter something earlier about me not being human?" Sebastian suddenly turned and fixed Iori with a sharp look.
"I have no idea what you're talking about. You must have misheard." Iori denied it with a perfectly straight face, as though it were simply the truth.
"Alright, you two. Looks like recruitment is pretty much wrapped up for this year. Start getting ready for the party."
Tokita, still holding Imamura on his side of the operation, called over to them.
"Is this really how Peek-a-Boo recruits every year? Are you not worried about getting arrested?"
Now that he had a shirt, Sebastian finally had the emotional bandwidth to comment on the bizarre recruitment methods.
"Ha — not at all. The members who are a year above you all joined Peek-a-Boo of their own free will, you know. Anyway — we'll take this new member and get him oriented. You two head over to the party; everyone else should already be there."
"Got it." Sebastian acknowledged, and the two seniors hauled the still-struggling Imamura away from the recruitment grounds.
....
About twenty minutes later, in a small clearing among the trees at the north end of the grounds.
A space that ordinarily saw almost no visitors had been transformed — a long table now stretched across it, covered end to end in bottles and glasses of every variety.
The returning Peek-a-Boo members had all arrived early, eyeing the drinks with unconcealed longing while waiting for Tokita to open the proceedings with a few words.
..
"I have to say — you've gotten remarkably well-behaved all of a sudden."
At the back of the rows of seated members, Sebastian sat cross-legged on the ground and poked Imamura — also cross-legged, directly in front of him — in the backside with a twig he'd picked up.
"Don't talk to me, you scheming snake."
Imamura didn't turn around. He hissed the words back at Sebastian in a low, furious voice.
"Come on, Imamura — you're already here, so you might as well enjoy it."
Iori, sitting beside Sebastian, played the role of the uninvolved peacemaker and offered this consolation.
"Don't pretend to be the reasonable one. You were an accomplice the whole time — don't act innocent now. I curse you to spend all four years of university without a girlfriend!"
"What did you just say?!"
Iori shot to his feet, ready to deal with the person sitting in front of him.
"Easy, easy — we were in the wrong here, so taking a little abuse is fair enough."
Sebastian caught Iori's arm, his expression perfectly mild and conciliatory.
"And Sebastian." Imamura wasn't finished. "I curse you to spend your entire life without a girlfriend."
Imamura, sitting in front, casually tacked on a follow-up to Sebastian's own words.
"Hm?"
The hand gripping the twig gave a small twitch — and then drove it sharply forward.
"AAAAHHH——!!"
A bloodcurdling shriek tore through the entire grove. Even the small woodland creatures in the vicinity fled, clutching their backsides.
"Hey — new members in the back, what's going on? The party hasn't started yet, save the entertainment for the main event!"
Startled by Imamura's scream, the older members seated up front offered this well-intentioned warning.
"Nothing to worry about. Imamura accidentally sat on a twig." Sebastian, channeling Iori, delivered the lie with a perfectly straight face.
"Heh heh heh — Sebastian, you just couldn't wait to start drinking, could you. I get it. Oh, and pull the twig out of Imamura's backside — face-down on the ground with his bottom in the air like that really isn't a good look."
Kotobuki, having finished the setup preparations, strolled over and slung an arm around each of Iori's and Sebastian's necks.
"Fine." Sebastian wrestled free of Kotobuki's considerable embrace, gripped the twig that was still trembling faintly, and pulled.
Pop.
"OWWWWW——!!"
The shriek sent a full-body shudder through Iori, still trapped under Kotobuki's arm, goosebumps erupting across his skin.
"Sebastian... that guy is a monster."
From this moment on, Iori Kitahara made a quiet but solemn vow deep in his heart: for the rest of his life, he would never sit directly in front of the man called Sebastian.
Walking behind him was also out of the question.
Sebastian stood up, casually tossed the twig aside, and kept his expression entirely neutral.
The Sebastian who had untied the knot in his heart at that earlier party had long since shed the last remnants of his past self's scruples.
"I will find a girlfriend. That's my second objective in this world, and there's no way someone like you could fathom that kind of resolve."
Sebastian looked down at Imamura, still in considerable agony, and produced a thin smile.
All the resolve in the world and here I am, still single — I had plenty of resolve in high school too, Iori thought, stealing a sideways glance at Sebastian. He didn't have the nerve to say it out loud.
Meanwhile, the moment Sebastian's hand was free, someone pressed a cup into it — filled with a mysterious brown liquid.
He turned. It was Kotobuki, who met his questioning look with a smile.
"You're all new members. Whatever happened before, you're going to be relying on each other from here on out. Once the party gets going, how about you lot share a drink — call it a clean slate."
He produced several more cups from somewhere unspecified and distributed them to the group.
"Fine by me. It's up to them, really...." Sebastian glanced at Iori.
"I — I don't have any objections either." Iori accepted his cup obediently and held it in both hands.
For some reason, Iori seemed a little afraid of Sebastian now. He couldn't quite bring himself to meet his eyes.
Freed from his ordeal, Imamura finally wobbled upright, lifted his head, and found himself looking directly into Sebastian's sharp, dead-fish eyes.
"#$&@*..." He mumbled something under his breath, almost certainly nothing complimentary.
"What was that? Do you have something to say to me?"
Sebastian bent down, picked up the twig he'd thrown away, and held it level with Imamura's face.
"Nothing at all. I think everything before was just a misunderstanding. Sebastian — I'm sure you'll find a girlfriend who's every bit as warm and kind as you are."
Imamura watched the twig sway gently in front of his face, swallowed, reached out, accepted the cup, and said this in a low, measured tone.
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