"K, could you bring me the thread and needle over there?"
"Yep."
Right now, I was in the gym with Tojo, helping prepare Yumeno and Angie's magic show.
"K... volunteering to help us like this truly warms the heart! Just as I thought, you have the makings of a splendid assistant!"
"D-do I...?"
"Which is why you should stop playing hard to get and become my exclusive assistant at once—"
"I'm a little busy, actually."
"Nyehahaha~! But you've got time to join Angie's student council, right~? You do, don't you~?"
"No, first of all, could somebody explain what this student council even is...?"
That was how it went: Yumeno and Angie harassing me without pause.
"They seriously never stop talking to me... I'm already busy enough keeping an eye on Tojo... huh?"
Come to think of it, this was kind of unfair. Why didn't those two cling to Tojo like this? If they were going to be this persistent, they could at least pester her too and get in her way.
"Um... there's something I'm curious about..."
"What is it that troubles your mind?"
"Say it~!"
"Why don't you say that stuff to Tojo?"
When I asked like I genuinely wanted to know, the two of them looked at each other, then answered.
"Because Tojo already does everything we want for us."
"That's right~! Kirumi is everybody's mom~!"
At Angie's bright, innocent declaration, Tojo—who had been working beside us the whole time—stiffened ever so slightly.
"Ah... right. She said she hates being treated like a mom, didn't she?"
She serves everyone like a mother, yet hates being seen as one... Well, I guess there was something a little messed up about calling a seventeen-year-old high school girl "Mom."
"....."
I glanced at Tojo again, and she was silently continuing her work.
I'd been watching her like a hawk this whole time, wondering if she might try anything suspicious, but I hadn't found a single sign of it.
All I'd discovered was, once again, just how absurdly competent she was.
"Well, even Tojo couldn't exactly set up a trick right here."
If it were just the two of us preparing the magic show, that would be one thing. But Yumeno and Angie were here too.
"Then Angie will go with Yumeno and research the manifestation of magic~!"
"Damn it. Useless to the bitter end."
Humming to themselves, the two of them vanished, leaving me alone in the gym with Tojo.
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"K, could you hold that curtain for me?"
"Mm."
After that, the work went on for quite a while, but nothing really changed.
"....."
No... actually, one thing had changed.
"Hey, Tojo? What are you doing?"
"Ah, sorry. I was thinking about how to express this part more effectively."
"...Really?"
Tojo had started spending more and more time quietly lost in thought, her eyes gone cold.
And thanks to that, I was getting a little scared.
If Ikusaba hadn't been nearby, ready to burst out and pin Tojo down the instant I clapped, I might have given up halfway through and left.
"...K, come to think of it, there's something I'm curious about too."
"Hm?"
"What exactly is the relationship between you and Mukuro?"
"Relationship... huh. Um..."
Come to think of it, I had no idea how to explain this bizarre relationship.
At first, she approached me as "Kirigiri," someone precious to me. Then she suddenly became Kyoko Kirigiri's romantic rival. After that, she abruptly turned into a dog...?
The jump from the second stage to the third was a little questionable, but what was I supposed to do? It was true.
In a place already packed with lunatics, where the unprecedented insanity of a killing game was unfolding, expecting anything normal was probably the truly abnormal thing.
At this point, I should've been getting used to the abnormal.
"...A master-servant relationship?"
"What?"
"I'm terrified it might flip at any moment, but for now, she's blindly loyal to me."
"I see."
"She's probably hiding somewhere even now, and the second I clap, she'll pop out from nowhere like, 'Ta-da!' Pretty cool, right?"
"....."
Crap. I got too excited and said the part I absolutely shouldn't have said.
Originally, the plan had been to lull Tojo into lowering her guard, let her set up the trick, then ambush her in the act. But if I said this, wouldn't that just make her even more cautious?
"Ahaha... I'm kidding. It's not like she's a ninja or anything. No way that'd happen."
"..."
I awkwardly tried to smooth it over, but Tojo fell silent again, and I resumed working in a haze of embarrassment.
At this rate, I at least needed to get closer to Tojo somehow... but what was I supposed to do...?
"K, good work. You can go now."
"Huh?"
"I'll take care of the rest, so you should go get some proper rest."
"No, there's still plenty I can help with—"
Tojo suddenly tried to send me away, and the instant I opened my mouth in a rush—
Bang!!
".....!?"
"Everyone... Gonta would like to... invite you... to Gonta's Insect Meet and Greet..."
Gonta came charging into the gym.
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.
.
"...I can't. I accepted everyone's requests."
"B-but... Oma-kun definitely said everyone..."
"I'm not going anywhere until I finish sewing all these curtains. Even if it's Gokuhara-kun, if you intend to drag me away by force... you'd better be prepared."
"....."
Damn it. That rotten little menace Oma was definitely plotting something again.
According to Gonta, he was currently acting under Oma's orders, kidnapping the students around the school one by one to hold a "fun insect meet and greet."
What the hell... was Oma aiming for?
"Well, no helping it. Tojo's going to Gonta's research lab either way... so for now, I've got no choice but to go along quietly and keep watching her..."
"...All right. If it's everyone's request, then as a gentleman, Gonta will give up."
"What!?"
What was this idiotically nice guy babbling about now?
"...Then, K. Let's go to the insect meet and greet together."
"W-wait!!"
"UOOOOOOOOOO!!"
Ignoring my desperate shout, Gonta suddenly charged straight at me.
"Damn it, why isn't Ikusaba helping at a time like this—... ah, right. We had an agreement."
Worried about Ikusaba doing something reckless, I'd told her that while I was in the gym with Tojo, she wasn't to move unless Tojo was actively trying to kill me. She was only supposed to respond to my signal.
But I never thought she'd really stick to that so literally. Her loyalty was way too much. The fact that she wouldn't allow even a shred of flexibility proved it.
"At this point... I need to give the signal and call Ikusaba—wait, no. If I do that, everything I've done so far goes straight down the drain."
For a split second, I considered calling Ikusaba. But if I did it now, Tojo would realize I'd been wary of her this whole time.
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If that happened, she'd definitely shut me out and start planning the murder even more secretly.
But if I didn't call Ikusaba now, wouldn't that prove I'd really helped her out of genuine goodwill?
Then Tojo's guard would weaken even more, and that would raise my chances of catching her in the act of building the trick—or persuading her before it happened.
"So... I just need to get out of the gym! The second I'm outside, I'll call Ikusaba!"
After all, the gym exit was so close to where I was standing that if I tripped, my face would practically hit it. As long as I got outside first and called Ikusaba immediately, I could avoid total disaster.
Once I'd finished that calculation, I threw myself toward the gym exit, but—
"IN!!!SECTS!!!"
"Ghk!!"
I'd underestimated both my own pathetic stamina and Gonta's monstrous power. The instant I made it through the exit, he slammed into me mid-charge and sent me flying.
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"Ugh... where am I...?"
Clutching my throbbing head, I sat up and found myself staring at a familiar room.
"What? This isn't Gonta's research lab. It's my dorm room."
"Y-you're awake?"
"Hm? Mukuro?"
When I looked beside me, Ikusaba was peering down at me with a worried expression.
"I'm glad you woke up... hehe..."
After a long, exhausting round of persuasion earlier, I'd managed the remarkable feat of getting her to stop calling me things like "Woof-woof" or "Master," and to stop using formal speech too.
That said, she still acted exactly like a dog.
"What happened, Mukuro?"
"Well..."
According to Mukuro, after Gonta sent me flying into the wall, I'd been unconscious the whole time.
When Gonta tried to carry my unconscious body away, she stopped him. And after that, she'd spent the entire time fending him off while he stubbornly kept trying to drag both of us to the insect meet and greet.
Honestly, I knew Mukuro was strong, but I hadn't been sure she could beat Gonta in a straight fight. As of today, that question was settled. The strongest person in Saishu Academy was Mukuro.
"Good job, Mukuro."
"P-pat my head..."
"...Here."
"Hehe..."
As I patted her head while she wore the face of someone who'd attained enlightenment, a thought suddenly hit me, and I jerked in horror before asking her—
"Wait! Mukuro, what time is it right now?"
"Hehe... heh...? It's midnight..."
"...What!?"
This was bad. I'd left Tojo unattended for far too long.
"Mukuro, who got dragged off to the insect meet and greet?"
"Everyone except Hoshi, Momota, Tojo, Harukawa, and the two of us... so six people total..."
"Damn it!!"
I had a very bad feeling about this.
Of all people, Hoshi was one of the ones who hadn't been taken to the insect meet and greet.
"Mukuro, come with me!!"
"O-okay?"
"Hurry!! There's no time!!"
Looks like I needed to find Tojo right now.
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Meanwhile, at that very same time.
"...So, why exactly did you call me here?"
"......"
Tojo silently looked down at Hoshi, who had come to the [research lab] of the [Ultimate Tennis Pro] in response to her summons.