During lunch break on the same day.

「Hey, just a minute.」

「Hn……Hinami?」

「This way.」

Without making eye contact, Hinami quickly began walking towards the old school building. She probably means the second Sewing Room. It was rare for Hinami to approach me during school hours while not in a state of feigned friendliness.

While keeping my distance, I followed Hinami in a way to avoid getting attention. Sure enough, our destination was the second Sewing Room

「What's up?」

「I have a slightly urgent mission for you.」

Hinami lightly sat down on a desk. Her skirt, which was already short enough as it was, lifted up just a little. It emphasized her beautiful legs which were practically overflowing with sensuality.

「Eh?」

「But before that, an important announcement. During the student council election period, we won't be meeting here as often.」

「Well, I guess so. You're going to be busy with all sorts of things, after all.」

Still, it really wasn't like her to contact me so hurriedly like this despite knowing way in advance that she would have her election campaign to deal with. I wonder if it's because she never expected Mimimi to stand for election.

「Which brings me to my next point. Do you know what an endorser does?」

H-Here it comes.

「Umm, kind of. I know that they handle speeches and stuff like that.」

「Yes. That's about right. Well, their role is to a.s.sist the candidate with a number of things.」

If she's bringing up a topic like this here, that must mean…… I had a sense of foreboding.

「But, haven't you've already written down your endorser and handed in the form?」

「Right. However, the fact of the matter is that the deadline for changing your endorser is tomorrow morning.」

「S-Seriously? ……Which means, as expected……」

Such an impressive role, and she was going to give it to the jaku-chara me. Hinami's spartanness had reached its peak.

「Hear me out, will you? It's true that I originally intended to make you my endorser, but……I gave up on that idea.」

「Eh? Gave up?」

「I had expected myself to be the only one standing for election, so thought there wouldn't be much pressure, and that it would be just right for your special training. Look, you've been keeping up with your tone of voice practice, and『speaking your exact thoughts』has been your specialty from the beginning, right? So I thought it would work.」

「Well, I guess I could manage the bare minimum of that part of things……」

'Your weapon is『speaking your exact thoughts』'. I guess she had also told me a while back. I had also been practicing my tone of voice, and could feel it gradually taking hold.

「That's why I took the liberty of putting you down as my endorser. I intended to announce it to you later on as a sort of post-event news report……」

「Just what were you planning that prank for?」

It's this kind of enigmatic sadism of hers that makes her scary.

「However, Mimimi is standing for election now, so the situation has changed.」

「……Ahh, so that's what this is about.」

She had thought she would be the only candidate. As it was an existence that wouldn't even matter, she had taken it upon herself to choose me as her endorser for the purposes of training. However, Mimimi had become a candidate.

Since Mimimi was a fairly formidable opponent, it would be unwise to leave it to me, basically.

「Precisely. Rather than becoming my endorser, it would be better training if you became Mimimi's endorser.」

「I see……wait, whaat!?」

I did a double take at those unexpected words, letting out a loud voice.

「So loud. If that's the result of your training, have a bit of control, won't you?」

「No, that's besides the point……so it's nothing to do with you giving up on the idea because Mimimi's your opponent, but rather, you're telling me to become Mimimi's endorser?」

「That's right.」

「No, wait, it's not 'right'. Isn't that way more demanding? I don't know if I can get the okay from Mimimi. And wouldn't I be up against you? Don't you feel uneasy about making me team up with a strong opponent like that? I think choosing me as your endorser would even make for a good handicap.」

Hinami listened to my objection with a composed expression.

「Then, how about I put it this way?」

「Eh?」

She spoke slowly, as if saying something very important.

「If you become my endorser, in the extremely unlikely event that I end up losing, the entirety of the blame will be placed on you.」

「──Ah.」

I see. She had a point. n.o.body expected Hinami to lose. But if it did happen, it would be an abnormal state of affairs. They would begin investigating the cause, and as a result many people would arrive at the conclusion『it's all because of how disgusting that fairly unknown endorser is』. Even I could picture it with ease.

Should that come to pa.s.s, I would become famous to every student in our school. In the negative sense of the word.

「Well, as for me losing, as long as I don't do so on purpose it's simply impossible. Anyway, more importantly, by siding with Mimimi instead of me, you'll be speaking to her more often, which will be good conversation practice. The person you should take away the most from for how to handle conversations is Mimimi, so doing so would be for the best.」

「……I can agree with that part, but is it really okay if instead, Mimimi ends up losing because of me?」

Here, Hinami blinked several times in puzzlement. She then opened her mouth as if having realized something.

「I like Mimimi. There's a lot of things about her that I respect, and she's important to me. However.」

「Y-Yeah.」

Then, with an unchanging expression that didn't so much as twitch, Hinami said the following as if it was only natural.

「She can't win against me.」

Her authoritative att.i.tude sent chills down my spine.

「I-Is that so.」

「That's why, either way, it doesn't matter who her endorser is.」

Since I knew just how much effort this person put in behind the scenes, I couldn't raise a single objection.

「Well, enough of that stuff. It'll be good speaking practice, so follow Mimimi. That's the most important thing I have to say. Basically, I really hadn't expected Mimimi to stand for election, so this is a big chance.」

「O-Okay. So that's the important bit, huh.」

If that's how it is then I can certainly see it being a good idea to become her endorser.

「That's what I called you here for. The deadline for changing endorsers is tomorrow morning, so you are to tell Mimimi『I want to become your endorser』and get her approval right away.」

「Ah, so that's why you went so out of your way to call me out.」However, I still had one question.「How do I persuade her?」

「Figure that kind of thing out by yourself. It's just a question of how to ask her, right?」

「Eh, by myself? W-wait! That's impossi……」

I continued to voice my objections, but Hinami quickly got up and exited the second Sewing Room, leaving me behind. Saying「W-wait up!」, I hurriedly followed suit. Arghh, looks like I have no choice but to do it.

──And so.

In the corridor, as lunch break was just about to end. I caught sight of Mimimi walking out of the cafeteria with Tamchan.

「Mi, Mimimi.」

If you hesitate when saying the name『Mimimi』, it ends up becoming four consecutive 『Mi』s, so being careful is a must.

「Hn, something up, Tomozaki?」

Mimimi gave me a cheerful response.

「Umm, there's something I want to say……」

Lately I'd had the occasional chat with her so I wasn't that nervous, but even so, this was still a little too much for me.

「Eh!? What's this!? Could it be a confession!?」

「I-it's not!!」

Mimimi laughed happily, going *ka ka ka!*

──While continuing to be led around in such a fas.h.i.+on, I told her about wanting to become her endorser.

「Fumu fumu.」

「……In other words, you could say I'm surprisingly not bad with things like that……」

「I see!」Mimimi grinned.「I'm happy you feel that way, but……」

「B-but……?」

While giving me a playful wink, Mimimi said the following.

「You're a little unreliable!」

Complete and utter rejection. Well, of course!!

Then, after school.

「Oi Hinami, what's going on here!?」

When I stepped up to the challenge just like she had told me to, it had ended in complete failure. It was only because of her pus.h.i.+ng me to do it that I had gone ahead, hoping for there to be some chance of success I didn't know about. However, there hadn't been anything of the sort.

「Well, this was to be expected.」

「Oi!」

What is she trying to pull here!

「Calm down. Mimimi would have already had someone else down as her endorser, after all. There was nothing to lose by asking. It would have just been the most efficient way to get you to rack up the experience points while I was busy with the election. Had you managed to become her endorser, then great. If not, then for a while the only option would have been to give you self-study tasks.」

Hmm, well, that makes sense.

「……So that was the reason. If that's the case, I can understand why, but……say that first next time, won't you?」

「There was clear evidence of you not doing a proper job during the shopping trip just the other day, so if I thought that if I didn't at least throw in an explosion of this level, you'd slack off yet again, you know?」

「Gh……」

Having that told to me, I was once again unable to say anything.

「However, since that failed……let's see. In terms of what you can do during your self-study period, I suppose you could be more proactive in conversing with your target heroine Fuukchan, or you could pick up a few skills from speaking with Yuzu or Mizusawa.」

「……That sounds about right.」

「Yes. Well, it'll be a slight a waste of time, but for as long as this election goes on, it's going to have to be self-study. Let me know if anything happens. Also…… I should be free after school on Thursday, so let's schedule the next meeting for then.」

Self-study, huh? Be that as it may, lately I had become able do various things of my own accord even without Coach around, so it probably wouldn't be a complete waste of time.

「Got it.」

「Make sure to report to me before anything troublesome ends up happening. Got it?」

「I told you I got it.」

「……Fine, then.」Hinami spoke somewhat sullenly.「Well, that's all for today.」

「Alright.」

With that, it was time for some self-study.