Title: Top Secret File

Summary: Iino was a diligent girl, always double-checking everything. Everything except the student council's reports, that was. Until, one day, she did. It was addicting. Start of [Ishigami x Iino], kind of? It is one sided.

A/N: The narrator is in both bold and italics to separate from regular bolded A/N.

Like this.

The student council room was empty today, much to Iino's relief. She really didn't want to deal with the student council's antics today, or any day, really. Especially not so close to the third major test this month. She wasn't sure why, but the student council, contrary to whatever the Mass Media Club might try to say, was the den of evil. A club for boys to take advantage of girls. Sure, they were nice people, but that doesn't excuse the fact that were always goofing off.

She leaned back a bit to catch a glimpse of the shelves above. Everything the student council had deemed important enough to record was recorded in those few boxes for auditing purposes. Whether or not the reports detailed their misadventure was beyond her, but she never really gave it any mind. Until now, that is. How strange was it that the official Auditing Officer has never audited, much less looked at, the student council's daily log.

Maybe she should just take a quick peek at it? Just skim through some files, making sure everything was in order. Not like that would hurt anybody, right? Well, maybe anybody except her, but she was fairly confident she could sacrifice a few precious minutes of studying to satisfy her curiosity.

"Bad girl," she thought to herself. Only a delinquent would prefer satiating a passing interest over the ever practical and infinitely more useful studying. Giving in to mere whims would be unbecoming of her, placing her to the level of Ishigami.

Nevertheless, she grabbed a nearby stool and tippy-toed her way to the top. Her arms stretched slowly, trying so hard to reach the boxes above in spite of the wobbly stool and her short stature. All the while, a single question ran through Iino mind. "Why in the world did the President thought it was okay to place important documents outside of her, the official Auditing Officer, reach."

As if to solidify her thought process, when she had finally latched onto the boxes, the stool gave way and the took her, the box, and the box's buddy down with it. Iino groaned.

The fall wasn't too bad considering how brief and relatively painless it was. The problem was the pile in the middle, a mish-mash of 2 years worth of student council logging that had to be sorted by the end of the year. End of the weekend if she didn't want anyone to realize she goofed up. She thanked the heavens that the seconds years were probably going to go home after today's meeting and that Ishigami was probably already at home playing that console of his.

Dusting herself off and looking toward the pile ahead of her, she calculated how much study time she had lost. It was a horrifyingly large amount. (No duh). Oh well, she wasn't the type to cry over spilled milk. (Liar). She was the hard working and diligent type, the type to persevere through any obstacle. First thing first, she picked up a file and started reading it for clues as to when the detailed event might have happened, willfully ignoring the date on the top of the paper.

As luck would have it, the very first report was something she wrote. She didn't really need to read beyond "being sent to help the Festival Committee," but she did so anyway. It never hurts to be a hundred percent sure, right? (Translate: Miko Iino wants a Nostalgia Trip). The report was an underdog story, of how Iino tried to keep the Festival Committee on task and in line and how hard she worked to get the bonfire ready. Everything was just as she remembered it, down to the ever slightly crooked T that still annoyed her inner perfectionist down to an irrational degree. Maybe she shouldn't have read that.

The next several files were the other student council members' version of the day. As can be expected of Fujiwara-senpai, she really went the extra mile to help President. And as can be expected of the rest of the second years, their reports were a complete and utter bore. Just archery practice, sculpting, and random math equations. Was President really that poor to not be able to afford scratch paper and had to make do with report paper? She had no idea. She also had no idea why a large portion of it seemed to delve into fluid mechanics, the law of cooling, and other miscellaneous and complicated things.

Then came Ishigami's. She didn't even know that Ishigami wrote reports, much less knew he was supposed to, but here it was. Knowing Ishigami, it was probably riddled with errors. She glanced toward the clock, an hour before everyone had to leave. She knew she should start packing up, head home, and spend her weekend studying, but she still had a mountain of files to get through. "One more paper couldn't hurt," she told herself.

Oh how she came to regret that decision. The first time she read through the paper, she was looking with a critical eye. An eye that had a knack for finding any error, no matter how minor, nor technical, nor obscure it was. She found none. What she did find was a sense of bewilderment. Was it really written by Ishigami, the guy Fujiwara-senpai claimed to "[beat] women with logic?" She'd expected libel and got idolization. The story fetishized her, more eloquently put how much of an underdog she was when she got the bonfire event rolling. She had to reread four times just to like that sink in. By the time she was starting her fifth reread, a janitor politely asked her to pack up and leave.

The next time she had a reasonable amount of control over her mind and body, her stomach growled. She hurriedly grabbed a nearby peach and munched on it, careful not to spill any juices on the documents as she continued skimming. She hasn't made dinner, her clothes were still a mess, and the pile had relocated into her bedroom. The reports were just too addicting.

She wasn't even sure why she was reading the reports so voraciously. Maybe it was because it allowed her to get closer to her senpai, or maybe it was because of the humor. It was a treasure trove of good ideas, that's for sure. She giggled crazily at the idea of Ishigami being a love master. She was so on board with his happiness tax proposal. She smiled dumbly when he convinced the student council to play Fujiwara-senpai's game.

Wait, did she just smiled dumbly at Ishigami? The core of the peach left her mouth as she rummaged through the pile of reports she had already gone through. She remembered that there was a simple test to make to see if she had fallen in love or not.

"Imagine him getting it on with another girl." Iino didn't really have to try hard, seeing as Ishigami was already getting on with Tsubame-senpai. Maybe that the reason why their budding relationship didn't really sit well with her? She was jealous? She found the report and confirmed it before scavenging for the other love advice.

Slam the wall next to the girl to get her to fall in love? She didn't have in love with the President, but the idea of Ishigami doing it really got her off her rocker.

Girls loved fast runner? Ishigami was certainly the fastest runner in her year.

Challenge society together? She wasn't ready for that.

Confession should be done as soon as possible? She wasn't sure if she really loved Ishigami or if she was just crushing on him. Besides, Ishigami had already confessed to someone else. It would probably be best if she just encouraged him in the background. That was the type of lover she was, the type that always supported from the background.

Then she read a log about how good Today Will be Sweet was. And what do you know, she just happened to have a copy of it sitting in her bookcase, courtesy of Fujiwara-senpai. Good thing shoujo mentality only lasted for a few days at most and that tomorrow was Saturday. She would die of embarrassment if she ever showed that side of her to the public.

The next morning was a hectic one for Iino. Ever had the feeling that you had to return a good book in a couple of days, but it would take you over a month to finish reading? That was what Iino had felt, and she didn't get to renew her "book." So she was to resort to something drastic.

Photocopy and print out everything, including the one she has already read, all under the guise of fair use. She knew that that argument would never stand in the court of law, or even herself from yesterday morning, but couldn't help it. She needed something to prove she wasn't in the wrong, stealing information from the student council and recording it to peruse for her own pleasure.

And the scene, as obvious as it sounds, was filled to the brim with the whirring of photocopier and printers, in addition to paper. Iino had to refill the printers with papers every few seconds, fix paper jams every few minutes, and replace toners every few hours, but she managed. All the while, she was reading "Today Will be Sweet." Now she understood why all of those trouble making otaku were crying when their manga was confiscated. Both because they had to stop reading and because mangas were way too sad.

She wasn't only doing basic maintenance and reading all morning, of course. She took small, but oddly frequent breaks. Breaks such as coffee breaks, snack breaks, comedy gold breaks, and hours-long restroom breaks. Those were normal, weren't they? (Those are all basically reading breaks!).

When she was done? She would either book bind them the report into a book or start sorting the file by date. Choosing which to do first between the two would be hard, but that was future almost-present Iino problem. Besides, she had already cut studying from the race, however reluctantly. It was shaping up to be a really long weekend.

"Iino, you do realize that you don't have the authorization to look at other students bio, right?" The floor was littered left and right of papers, folders, and pictures.

"So?" President grimaced at her answer as he picked up one of the many folders that littered the ground.

"What brought this along?" He might as well get to the bottom of this. It's not like he has any other choice. Hopefully, Ishigami wouldn't rebel with whatever was about to go down.

Iino merely responded by tossing a folder over her shoulder, never taking her eyes her task.

Student Council: Top Secret*

That certainly mixed things up a bit. Suddenly, the ruined documents on the top shelf didn't seem so random and potentially dangerous anymore. What did was the fact that she managed to get her hands on it. He thought placing the documents there of all places would have been okay. Apparently, he was wrong.

Quickly putting gears into motion, and hoping to resolve the issue as soon as possible, President played one of the dirtiest trick in the book. "You know snooping is illegal, right?"

"Consider this civil disobedience. 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.'"

(Welp, that plan failed.)

"You do realize that the second step of a nonviolent campaign is negotiation, right?" Never was President so happy to have read foreign essays than now.

"Negotiation had already failed the moment you decided to keep this fact away from me," she hissed.

"Technically, I've neverー" A quick look in the eye ended that question. "What about self-purification?"

"What does it look like?" He should have seen that coming.

"You do realize I have to notify your parents about this misdemeanor, right?" President slammed the wall next to her and leaned in, curious to her answer.

"I don't care if you told them this was a felony. I know they are busy people and shouldn't be bothered with a useless girl like me, but this special. It is important to me that Ishigami sees justice!" A tear dropped from Iino's cheek, but President didn't see it. All he saw was the back of a fine future president.

President motioned to Hayasaka to keep the cameras blocked. It was nice to know his subordinates was taking the initiative and sticking to their morals rather than going rogue. The least he could do now was keep her undercover. He just hoped Ishigami didn't find out about it and that the rest of the council would leave him the dark.

A dark …

... haunted mansion...

...dimly lit road…

...labored breathing…

!

"Why are you running away?"

"I'm sorry, I can't think…

...of you as anything…

...other than a delinquent"

"I feel a stabbing pain in my chest...

...whenever I look at her, but…

...is that love?

"No, that's just primal fear!"

Ishigami bolted straight out of the classroom, so consumed in unbridled emotions.

"Okay, what happened?" Iino and Ishigami had been acting strange recently, and Osaragi had a gut feeling why.

"I have no idea," Iino replied dumbly as she slowly picked up the various flowers and notes strewn around the floor.

Osaragi picked a flower and examined it for the briefest of moments before asking Iino a question. "Is this an agapanthus?"

"Yeah, why?" Osaragi groaned at how predictable Iino was. Still, she needed to test her hypothesis.

"Tomorrow was going to be a strawberry flower, right?" Iino gasped slightly before answering the question.

"Yeah, why?"

"Because spelling 'I love you!" in flowers was exactly something you would have done," Osaragi wanted to scream and mentally deadpanned.

"Because that's creepy," was Osaragi calm reply.

"Creepy!?" Iino exasperated. Spelling "I love you" with flowers was a completely normal and anonymous way to confess, wasn't it? (No)

"And this note," Osaragi snatched the folded paper away from Iino, "probably says something along the lines of 'your efforts will be rewarded someday.' Am I right?"

"Please don't let me be right" Osaragi pleaded in her mind.

"And what's wrong with that?" Iino stated out in the open.

"I'm going on a limb here, but Ishigami probably thinks you are going to kill him soon." Osaragi continued upon the sight of a confused Iino. "He knows just how much the letter meant to you. He's the logical and backstage type, preferring to resolve issues from the background. And considering your history with Ishigami, he probably thinks you just realized who gave you that message and plan to kill him for being the one to write it." Iino was stuck on the fact that Ishigami gave her the letter of her life. Somehow, she never put two and two together.

"H-how long have you've known?" Iino was practically gasping for air.

"Since the Athletic Festival." Osaragi wondered what Ishigami was doing now as she slung Iino onto her shoulder.

"Um, Ishigami, what are you doing?" President realized that the gaming console and secret stash of manga belonged to Ishigami, but he didn't want to see them go so soon. They were necessary for his cleansing ritual. How else was he to rid of his weekly stress?

"I am resigning." And it looked like Ishigami was back to his old self. Was all of his character development for nothing?

"I thought you got over that by now! Shinomiya is not going to kill you, period." President did not feel like dealing with this again.

"I wasn't talking about Shinomiya." Ishigami checked his surrounding before continuing. "I was talking about Iino." He practically whispered the last part as he tossed a note and flower for evidence. "She figured it out."

President shook his head. "I don't think she is going to kill you just because she figured out you wrote the letter."

Ishigami picked up his belongings and walked through the door. "You won't understand. I am heading home today to write up my will."

"Wait!" He tossed a folder to Ishigami. Inside it was a four page unofficial report about the recent security breach. It only made Ishigami more resolved in quitting the student council. "Take care."

Old habits die hard.

"Is that all?" Osaragi knew that if she ever needed to help Miko-chan out, it was now. But it was job was starting to get way over her nonexistent pay grade. Okay, she figured that Ishigami wasn't totally to blame for that event in middle school and that the student council were probably in the know about it, but not this crazy. It almost made the laughable idea of the student council having immodest pictures of Fujiwara-senpai believable.

"Koba-chan, what should I do?"

Osaragi had three basic problems she had to solve.

(1) Help Iino decide whether to pursue a man who was already in love with someone else.

(2) Get Iino to stop stalking and scaring Ishigami.

(3) Help Iino get to term with her behavior toward Ishigami.

"Why not start by saying sorry?"

An apology!

An act of redemption. It is necessary not only for the one being apologized to but for the one apologizing as well so that they can both set aside troubles between them. What is important is that there are no lies. If the truth remains hidden, then a grudge will linger forever.

"I can't do that. I get too nervous. More nervous than when I started giving my campaign speech."

"You can't enlist the President help, can you?" Osaragi said, more to herself and to Iino. She grabbed a binocular and looked down the hill. "You better muster up the courage quick. Looks like Tsubame is about to give Ishigami her answer."

That got Iino fired up, but only briefly. She stared at Ishigami's direction. "What if confessing ruins Ishigami chance at happiness?" "What if I just make matters worse?" These questions were eating her from the insides.

"It is respectful to not interfere with Tsubame love affair, but I think you should do so anyway. At least in this case."

"Who do you think I am?" Iino has never prioritized her well being over another, never. Doing such an act was the equivalent of disregarding everything about her life as a lie. Then again, a lot of her life was serving justice, and look at what she did to Ishigami.

"Tsubame is hesitant to accept Ishigami. She is seriously considering Ishigami only because he is sincere and Tsubame is a naturally kind girl. But she has a goal, a dream. Remember, 'the wings of a heart is too free to be bound by one person.' Her heart yearns for gymnastics, not Ishigami. Your heart does." If Iino noticed Osaragi was just making things up right now, she didn't show it.

"But what about Ishigami? His heart yearns for Tsubame."

"His heart yearns to be accepted for who he is. To be believed in. You read the report. Ishigami gave up everything to help the one person who was kind to him." Osaragi plucked a cherry blossom from the tree and tossed it to Iino. "It is now or never. Don't make the choice you will regret."

Iino closed her eyes and started pulling petals. Osaragi simply watched her best friend, waiting for the flower to choose Iino fate.

Iino ran down and slammed a nearby trunk, preventing the couple's escape. She didn't get to confess, but she managed to keep the door open. She has now entered the geniuses' war of love and brain.

A/N:

*: Student council investigation report on Ishigami. Read Athletic Festival Arc for more details.

The section also alludes to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter From Birmingham Jail.