Tiara Basori-san, a second-year at Tsuwabuki High School, was the very picture of moral excellence. Even the faculty, strict as they were, universally recognized her as an exemplary student.

“Is this really okay…?” she whispered.a

Which was why, on a very quiet weekend afternoon shortly before the student council election, she, alone in her room and staring nervously into a full-length mirror, was almost unrecognizable from her norm.

Her usual strictly tied up hair was let down, save for two small, bouncy tufts tied just above her ears in half-up pigtails. The skirt of her uniform had been hiked up to a dangerous height, paired with a set of vertically striped thigh-highs that clung to her legs.

No. I’ve come this far, she thought, steeling herself. I can’t back down now.

Her expression hardening with solemn resolve, Tiara slowly raised both her index fingers. She twirled them in the air with dramatic flair, and declared:

“Chikapyon Beam, straight to your heart!” 

She pointed both fingers squarely at her own reflection.

Flawless.

Just as she was nodding to herself in profound satisfaction, the doorknob suddenly clicked. The door swung wide open.

“Hey, Nee-san, your friend is here to—”

Frozen in the doorway stood her younger brother, Takashi-kun. The two siblings locked eyes.

A suffocatingly awkward silence descended upon the room.

“Hmm. Have I caught you in the middle of something?” a voice called out.

“P-President?!” Tiara shrieked.

From behind the paralyzed Takashi, Tsuwabuki High’s Student Council President, Hibari Houkobaru, stepped into view. The sight seemed to snap the boy out of his trance. Face twisting with a complicated expression, he slowly turned his back to the room. “U-Um… then, please take your time, Houkobaru-san.”

He gave a quick, awkward bow and pulled the door shut behind him.

Now left alone with Tiara, Houkobaru ran a hand through her hair, a wry smile playing on her lips. “I happened to be in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d drop by. Though it seems you were preoccupied.”

“N-No, not at all!” Tiara stammered, her face flushed crimson. “Um… did you hear what I said?”

“Hm? Hear what?”

“No, it’s nothing at all! Here, I’ll go get us some tea and sweets!” Tiara said, already moving towards the door in a desperate bid to escape her embarrassment. a

“No need. I brought some with me.” Houkobaru held out a plastic bag. “I have drinks, too.”

A beat passed. “Thank you for your consideration,” Tiara muttered, defeated. “Please, take a seat.”

Taking a seat opposite her at the small table, Houkobaru studied Tiara’s vibrant getup with keen interest. “Is this what they call a ‘makeover’? That’s certainly quite the bold look.”

“No, well, um, I’m just dressing up as an anime character. Her name’s Chikapyon, and um, well…”

“Ah, so you’re doing that ‘cosplay’ thing, hmm. I never would have guessed you had such a hobby, Basori-kun.”

“It’s not my hobby!” Tiara frantically cried. 

Eyes wide, Houkobaru clapped her hands together in sudden realization. “I see! You’re dressing to your partner’s taste. That makes perfect sense.”

“It does not! I don’t have a partner like that!” she exclaimed in vehement denial. Houkobaru tilted her head.

“But I was under the impression that you and Shikiya were… friends with benefits, I believe they call it? Am I mistaken?”

“We are absolutely not?! I respect Shikiya-senpai immensely, but we are most certainly not in that kind of relationship!”

Hmm, Houkobaru thought to herself. Not a hobby, then. And not for Shikiya, either. So then…

“In that case… is there someone else you have feelings for?” Houkobaru asked.

“H-huh? That’s, um—well—” Tiara’s eyes darted around frantically before landing on the plastic bag. “Oh, look, strawberry mochi! I love these!” she exclaimed, snatching the sweets out of the bag with desperate enthusiasm.

“Yes, they’re from that mochi shop over in Hacchou. My parents are regulars there.”

"Their mochi really is delicious,” Tiara replied. Feeling Houkobaru's lingering and thoroughly uncomfortable gaze on her, she asked, “Um, President? Is there something on my face?"

“Ah, my apologies. I was just thinking that I’d never realized how long your hair was when you let it down.”

"Oh, this is actually a wig I had put on at the salon! Which doesn’t violate school dress code, of course,” Tiara added.

“You don’t need to make excuses,” Houkobaru said, offering a warm, fond smile. “It suits you very well.” 

Tiara bashfully patted the wig, a smile gracing her lips. As their pleasant chitchat hit a lull, she politely cleared her throat and sat up straight before her senior.

“Putting that aside, President... What brings you here so suddenly today?”

“You seem a bit wound up lately, Basori-kun," Houkobaru said. “Consider this a morale boost for a weary soldier.”

“Oh? Won’t you feel guilty for playing favorites with me? What about Sakurai-kun?” Tiara teased, sounding almost a bit pouty.

Houkobaru merely countered with a magnanimous smile. “Hiroto and you are both precious underclassmen to me. I’m cheering for you two equally.”

“...Thank you very much,” Tiara murmured, finding herself disarmed in the face of her President’s sheer earnestness. Her expression softened into a matching smile.

Houkobaru saw this point in time as the perfect one to pose her next question.

“By the way, Basori-kun, there’s something I’d like you to explain to me.”

“Yes? What is it?”

Tiara audibly gulped, instinctively straightening her back as Houkobaru stared her down with a dead-serious gaze.

“That ‘Chikapyon Beam’ from earlier… what exactly is it?”

“You heard me after all?!” Tiara shrieked, her face flaring into a shade of red that put the strawberry mochi to shame.

Her expression still dead serious, Houkobaru ignored Tiara’s protests and pressed on. “Given that you specified you were shooting it ‘straight into one’s heart,’ I can only assume this beam possesses some sort of aphrodisiac property. Therefore, it stands to reason that you are attempting to physically arouse someone, Basori-kun. But if that someone isn’t Shikiya, then—”

“Can we please stop talking about this?!”

And so…d

Tiara Basori’s desperate screams echoed through the old shopping district of Hanazonocho in Toyohashi City, on this quiet weekend afternoon just before the student council elections.

Translator Notes

1.  The title is a parody of “Alice in Wonderland” (Fushigi no Kuni no Alice or 不思議の国のアリス). Instead of fushigi, the author uses hazama (ハザマ), and instead of Alice, uses Tiara-san’s name. Hazama refers to an interstice or a threshold. The implication here is that Tiara-san is caught between two boundaries; stuck in between two things. You may interpret this in a number of ways.