"Why are you here?" First thing in the morning, Lin was faced with Yama emotionless question.
"...Probably because I was invited into the house by you yesterday."
"Oh, then why aren't you dead yet?"
"..." Lin wanted to know how the conversation had jumped from the issue of taking him in to a life-and-death issue. Had she learned her communication skills from Vil-V?
After the conversation ended last night, Yama felt more and more that taking in this guy of unknown origin was a mistake, to the point that seeing this face first thing in the morning made her angry. In her eighteen years of life, she had never been angry. She didn't know why, but seeing Lin made her temper flare, especially when he said weird things with such an innocent look.
"I'm going to school. Get out." Yama drove him away expressionlessly; she didn't want Lin wandering around her home while she was away.
"Wait, I'm going with you." Lin hurriedly followed her.
After a night of thinking, Lin felt the key to breaking the situation lay with Yama. He couldn't search the entire world for clues and the Monkey's Paw, and Yama and he were the only two special people in this bubble world. To use the game metaphor again: if this world was a game that closely approached reality, then he and Yama were the players. The game wouldn't give them a near-infinite range to complete an impossible task.
But... was this right? After seeing Yama carefree appearance, Lin knew this wasn't just a question for Yama, but also for him. What right did he have to end someone else's beautiful dream? He couldn't demand others hold the same views. Interfering with others' choices under the banner of moving forward—wasn't that just... selfishness?
Unexpectedly, upon hearing he wanted to follow, Yama stopped immediately and looked at him coldly: "Pervert."
"..."
"Scum."
"..."
"Bastard."
"..."
"Lecher."
"I'm just going to investigate some things." Lin decided to stop Yama from spouting more increasingly strange words. He spread his hands to explain, "I..."
"Maggot." The cold insult struck Lin face.
"...That's a prejudice."
"It seems your memory is equivalent to a goldfish's." Yama hoisted her bag, looking at him with contempt. "Unless you have a split personality, would that maggot from last night be anyone else?"
"I have a split personality." Lin nodded in agreement.
"..." Yama wasn't wrong in a sense; Lin was very serious most of the time, but because of his personality and emotional defects, his moments of being a jerk far exceeded those of ordinary people. For instance, now, he was able to make his past self—who had little emotional fluctuation—flush with anger.
...
Lin ended up following her anyway, but he didn't enter the school in front of Yama. After all, her gaze—which was already treating him like a worm—warned him not to step into the sanctuary of her school. So Lin had to go around and climb over the wall. Fortunately, he did this a lot; not just in the past few days, but he and Kevin had climbed it plenty of times during school.
To Yama, this was her chosen location, the happiest time in the depths of her heart. Thus, Lin believed there should be a place in the school hiding key information that he hadn't discovered yet. But even narrowing the range to Chiba Academy, it wasn't something that could be found casually... Lin arrived quietly at the rooftop. He looked at the crowd below, thinking about what was different from the original Chiba Academy.
...
"Lin, morning! Going again after school today?" Kevin put his hand on Yama shoulder without any sense of distance. "You almost won yesterday. It's a pity that guy stopped playing. Was he scared?"
"..." Yama wanted to say Lin was definitely scared, but the words wouldn't come out. She felt it wasn't like that. She didn't know where the reason came from, but Yama just felt that while that guy was a jerk—both a pervert and a lecher—he shouldn't be someone who was afraid of others defeating him. Of course, that didn't change the fact that she disliked him.
"Not going." Yama said coldly, which made Kevin freeze. "He won't be going again."
"Eh? How do you know?"
"He slept at my house last night. I said I wanted to settle it with him." At this point, Yama gritted her silver teeth, her eyes burning with fire. "He said that as long as he doesn't accept the challenge, I've never beaten him."
"...Your house?"
"He's homeless."
"I see..."
At that moment, another person in school uniform popped up and joined the conversation helplessly: "What do you mean 'I see'? Have you two not noticed that person is trying to get Lin attention?"
The two turned to look and found it was Vil-V.
"Lin aside—she truly lacks... some things in that regard—but Kevin, what's with you? How did you actually catch Mei?"
Kevin scratched the back of his head in confusion: "I had Lin put in a few words for me with Mei, and then..."
"Alright, that's enough." Vil-V raised her hand in a stop gesture. "Don't you two feel that person's behavior is excessively strange?"
Kevin nodded: "A little..."
"Criminal behavior," Yama stated her view directly.
"Following Lin, then using games to completely beat her at the arcade, then appearing at her doorstep..."
"And wearing a pink dress," Yama added.
"..." Vil-V expression was a bit odd, but she continued, "Wearing a pink dress, then saying he's homeless and needs a place to stay... his behavior is... full of the scent of crime, but he hasn't crossed the line; it's just exceptionally bizarre."
"Suppose there are two doors outside an unknown house. One says there's a hundred dollars inside, and the other says there's a parrot that can swear inside. Which door would more people enter?"
Yama looked at her calmly: "You mean he's using this method to get my attention?"
"More than that. He's also constantly approaching you, making you used to his presence around you." Vil-V curled her lips into a playful smile. "He really is an interesting person."
Vil-V could certainly see the meaning behind Lin actions, as well as the gaze he often used to look at Yama.
"It's not easy." Kevin pressed his hand on Lin shoulder with a sigh of emotion.
"...Don't make that 'you're finally getting married' face of a father character in a TV drama." Yama coldly shook off his hand. "No matter how much you say, it doesn't change the fact that he's a pervert. I just want to stay in school right now and not see him."
Three minutes later, in the classroom.
"Hello everyone. I am the new teacher, Yama."
Lin stood on the podium, holding a textbook with a calm face, looking at Yama, who was filled with murderous intent below.