Kenkyo, Kenjitsu o Motto ni Ikite Orimasu

The book on acupoints I got from Kaburagi was pretty interesting. The human body suure had a lot of acupoints.

For swelling and water weight was the Water Separation Shuifen Point on your tummy, apparently. I gave it a press. Hmmmmm. Was this working

For leg fatigue and swelling there was the Mountain Support Chengshan Point in the middle of the calf.

Whoa! That hurt! I think it was working!

I was using the rounded end of a pen to push one of the nerves on the sole of my foot. Owowowow…

I had gotten into acupoints so much that the next day I went out and bought some of the stick-on moxibustion kits. I had always been a little curious about this, after all~

Since I was worried about scarring I tried the sole of my foot first.

First was the Gushing Spring Yongquan Point. Whoaa! Hot! It hurt, but it felt like it was working! So this stuff was real!?

When it was done, the skin underneath had gone red. Best not to do this with sensitive or visible skin then.

It wasn’t all that comfortable laying face down, so I changed from the bottom of my feet to my palms. Umm, the one in the palm of your hand was the Toil Palace Laogong Point, right? Got it.

It felt pretty good just pressing on the Fish Border Yuji Point at the base of the thumb. One for there too.

Hmm, and maybe all my fingertips…

While I waited for them to burn with my hands palm up, I stimulated the acupoints on my feet with the foot massager I bought earlier.

It reaaally hurt the arch of my foot! But it was good for me!

I heard a knock on my door.

“Reika, mind if we talk?” asked Oniisama from outside.

I asked him to come in, since I could hardly get the door with moxa on every finger.

When he came in, Oniisama was wide-eyed and speechless.

“I apologise for my appearance, Oniisama. How about you join me?” I offered as I stepped on my foot massager.

Also known as ‘green bamboo’ since apparently that’s what they were before.

“Reika, when work calms down a bit, how about we go and eat somewhere? If you’re worried or something, you can talk to me about it…”

“Wah! Thank you, Oniisama.”

Eating out with Oniisama, huh. Then until then, I needed to keep up with the stomach acupoint.

At first I thought this was ridiculous, but now I was so glad I got this book~

Kuuh~! I can feel it working!

*

*

*

It was finally here; the day of the tea party where the 2nd and 3rd year Pivoine members discussed the next president.

It was discussion mostly in name of course; usually the candidate was already chosen in advance, meaning that the President simply had to announce who it was.

Aah, in the end I failed to refuse… My stomach felt like it had a weight in it.

Could I spend my next year peacefully, do you think? Probably not, huh.

I thought about asking Enjou to do it just in case, but he avoided giving a straight answer with a smile, and even if he did accept I could only see trouble for myself.

Owing a favour to that guy was like owing money to a loan shark.

But I was resigned now. If ever there was some problem that I couldn’t deal with myself, I was resolved to go crying to Oniisama.

Maybe even Imari-sama could help me.

With Oniisama’s smarts, and Imari-sama’s way with women, there weren’t many problems that we couldn’t resolve.

To calm myself down, I pressed on the acupoints on hand.

“Well then, is anybody interested in becoming a candidate for the next president?” began Youko-sama after a round of pleasantries.

Naturally my hands weren’t raised. Even I wouldn’t nominate myself…

“If there isn’t, then I nominate-”

“I’ll do it,” somebody interrupted.

To everyone’s shock, it was the Emperor, Kaburagi Masaya himself.

“Eh…?”

“Kaburagi-sama…?”

I was shocked as well, of course.

Kaburagi trying for the next president!?

Impossible. This was Kaburagi!

He obviously had no interested in working as the president at all!

No freaking way! What the hell was happening!?

“Am I not good enough?” he lorded over us, sending the room into a panic.

“So you’ll be willing to undertake the position, Kaburagi-sama?”

“We could not wish for somebody better, Kaburagi-sama, but…”

“I don’t think any of us think that you’re unsuitable, Kaburagi-sama, but…”

But was he serious?

That was what everybody was asking in their heads.

Starting with Youko-sama, a huge slew of people would have loved Kaburagi as the next president, but they gave up from the start because they knew he would never accept. At least that’s what we thought.

“In other words there are no objections to I, Kaburagi Masaya, as the next President of the Pivoine?”

Everyone nodded in assent.

“I see. Then that’s that,” he said before arrogantly relaxing back into the sofa with tea in hand.

Once the discussions were done, Youko-sama came over to me apologetically.

“Reika-sama, I’m truly sorry about this. I hadn’t even considered that Kaburagi-sama would be interested, and…”

“No, I was shocked as well. But in fact, this is a great weight off my mind.”

“You’re right. Afer all, Kaburagi-sama is the face of Suiran itself, not just our Pivoine. With Kaburagi-sama as the next president, the likes of Mizusaki Arima’s Student Council are as good as rabble.”

“Truly.”

“A Pivoine led by Kaburagi-sama, with you and Enjou-sama supporting him. How wonderful… Isn’t it, Reika-sama? Hohoho,” she laughed happily.

I still wasn’t quite sure what happened, but at least I got out of being president. I wouldn’t have to worry about white hairs now.

Hell yeah! After a storm comes a calm, damnit! Ah, maybe that was the wrong phrase?

Good things come to those who wait? Maybe that wasn’t it either.

Well who cares! Whoooo!

I left the room feeling so euphoric I could skip. Of course, Kaburagi had to stop me.

Eh? What is it now?

Don’t tell me you don’t wanna do it after all? Well too late, buddy!

“Can I help you…?”

“Were you planning on being president?”

“Eh?”

Why was he asking that? Ohh, did he overhear my chat with Youko-sama?

“If there was nobody else then they planned to give it to me, but I myself had no interest. It was a responsibility that I hoped somebody else would take up.”

“I see. Good.”

Huh?

“Masaya was worried he had taken it from you,” explained Enjou who was standing next to him.

Oh, so that was it.

“I had absolutely no aspirations towards the position of president, so please be at ease. I wish you luck as our next president.”

“Yeah.”

Oh, and I almost forgot.

“And Kaburagi-sama, the book you gave me was very interesting. Thank you very much for it. Well then, gokigen’yoh.”

My worries were gone now.

Maybe I’d try some more moxibustion tonight.

I wonder why he suddenly decided to be the next president though.

Ah well, whatever.

*

*

*

After I woke up early that morning, I had my morning bath. Haah, so warm.

Without washing my hair in the morning it was hard to turn my bed hair into my perfect curls after all.

After getting out of the bath, I stood in front of the mirror for some skin care.

Couldn’t be stingy with the facial lotion.

Huh.

“Waaaaaaaahhhh!!”

Gone! My eyebrow was gone!

I gripped the mirror in both hands and stared at my eyebrow. Gone…

Where my right eyebrow should have been was instead just the two ends of it. An eyebrow missing almost the entirety of its middle…

When I looked at my left eyebrow to compare, it was missing a part of it as well. My face looked so weird right now…

No, no, it wasn’t the time for this morbid fascination.

Where the heck had my right eyebrow gone!? And since when!?

I had to do something about this.

At times like this, the most reliable one was…

“Okaaaasamaaaa!”

I covered my eyebrows with one hand and ran for her.

When she saw what had happened to them she screamed as well.

“Reika-san, what have you done to yourself!?”

“I have no idea, Okaasama! When I saw myself in the mirror just now they were already like this!”

“So you didn’t shave them off by mistake?”

“No! Absolutely not. And why would I ever shave off just the middle!?”

“True… Then why… Reika-san, could it be that you plucked them off yourself during your sleep?”

“I doubt that I have the dexterity for that in my sleep.”

“True.”

“What do I do, Okaaasamaaa!”

“Well, we’ll have you take school off for today. Okaasama will take you to the hospital.”

I nodded tearily.

Uooohnnhoo! I didn’t want to go outside with this stupid looking face! What the heck happened to you, eyebrow!? An insect bite!?

Otousama and Oniisama came to see what the fuss was about, but I didn’t want them to see! Especially never Oniisama!

At the hospital I was diagnosed with spot baldness.

Apparently it wasn’t limited to the hair on your scalp. I was careless.

“It’s actually quite common. With men it can happen with their facial hair too.”

I see. My mind had the toughness of a blancmange so I had probably failed in handling the stress…

They prescribed me some medical cream, and Okaasama supported me home. What if I was like this forever…

No, no, I couldn’t stress. I would only get balder.

In front of the mirror I swabbed on some of the medicine. I wasn’t sure how much I needed, but I wanted to be careful about applying it evenly. It would be terrible if only my right eyebrow suddenly grew back.

I hoped I could hide this tomorrow with just an eyebrow liner and my fringe.

“Aaahh…”

I was definitely performing some purification rites come New Year.

And for now, I’d press the acupoint for hair growth.