Watching Ichinose Honami hold the situation firmly in her grasp, Chris stood at the edge of the crowd and gave a quiet, internal nod.
Not just in recognition of Ichinose's leadership — but also of... Kushida Kikyo.
She hadn't come to him first. He was the one who had been the first to exchange for the combat suit, after all. She could have. Instead, she'd chosen Ichinose.
Granted, it was possible she'd simply decided he wasn't worth the risk of a cold reception — he did have a reputation for being difficult to approach. But credit where it was due: in the chaotic, unsettled climate of Class D, she'd managed to leverage an information gap, quietly elevate her standing in the class without drawing attention, and resist the shortsighted temptation to just sit on what she knew. That counted as genuine cleverness.
His expectations for Kushida had never been particularly high to begin with. And considering how much suffering those two enormous treasure chests of hers were going to spare her in the future... letting her enjoy a few privileges and a little comfort in the meantime was a small price to pay.
Just then.
A trembling hand rose from somewhere in the crowd.
"Um... Ichinose-san."
Nudged along by the girls around her, Karuizawa Kei bit her lip. Her voice was unsteady — but she asked the question that was burning in the hearts of almost everyone there:
"If — hypothetically speaking — someone didn't want to participate in these dangerous exams, but also didn't want to spend every single day terrified of being randomly drafted into one..."
"Is dropping out... our only option?"
The moment it was out, more than a few faces lit up.
Sure, Ichinose's combat suit demonstration had been impressive. Superhuman, even. But that was power you had to bet your life to reach for.
And people, fundamentally, were afraid of dying.
Even if you grinded all the way through to Class A and graduated from this school, the reward was just a guaranteed job placement. Trading your life for a vague, uncertain future? No matter how you looked at it, that math didn't work.
If you couldn't beat them — couldn't you just run?
I'm done playing this game. I'm out. Let me go home and take over the family business. Date someone normal. Live a quiet life. What's wrong with that?
Faced with those desperate, hopeful eyes, Ichinose Honami couldn't hide the bitterness that crossed her face.
She shook her head and sighed.
"I'm sorry... I actually asked Hoshimiya-sensei about this a while back."
"Her answer was... before the Black Sphere appeared, yes, students could withdraw voluntarily. But the rules have changed."
Ichinose paused. Under the weight of everyone's slowly stiffening stares, she made herself continue:
"Yesterday, after Amikura-san and Hirata-kun were pulled into the exam, I went to find sensei again..."
"She said the school has updated the policy."
"Students who would have previously been expelled for failing evaluations — and anyone who, from the next exam onward, attempts to leak information about the Black Sphere to people outside the school — will all be assigned to future Black Sphere trials as... 'consumables.' Left to fend for themselves."
A silence like death began to spread.
A few seconds later, panic erupted like a tide breaking.
"What?!"
"That's insane! That's way over the line!"
"This is illegal detention! I'm calling the police! I'm getting a lawyer!"
Just as the situation teetered on the edge of collapse, Kushida Kikyo — who had been quietly playing the role of background decoration until now — stepped forward.
She raised her voice, letting that infectious warmth of hers fill the space:
"Everyone! Please, just take a breath!"
"If we can't fight it — then all we can do is pull ourselves together and face reality head-on!"
"Yes, the Black Sphere exams are brutal. But I refuse to believe the school hasn't left us any way out!"
Kushida swept her gaze across the crowd. Her eyes were bright, carrying a fierce kind of certainty — and beneath that certainty, a soft, embracing warmth.
"Maybe the school is already drafting new evaluation standards. Perform well enough in future exams, and maybe you earn an exemption slot. Or even the right to graduate early..."
"After all — the school exists to cultivate talent. Not to kill us all off. Right?"
It was, objectively, pure speculation. Not a single word of it was grounded in any actual evidence.
But in a moment of absolute, overwhelming terror — the more someone feared death, the more cowardly they became. And the more cowardly they became, the more desperately they needed a reason to keep going.
When a reason appeared — even one they didn't fully believe — instinct made them reach for it anyway. A lifeline was a lifeline.
The unrest settled, gradually.
Chris gave Kushida Kikyo a mildly surprised glance.
He wasn't sure whether she'd been rattled by Ichinose earlier and was compensating — but this whole saintly, compassionate-savior-of-the-masses act she was putting on... it was convincingly done, he had to admit.
The real question was how long the mask would hold.
If the people she was currently consoling ever discovered her true nature — if they turned on her — would she snap on the spot? Break down right there in front of everyone?
Honestly, Chris was a little curious to see it.
But he had no intention of being the one to tear the mask off.
These things had a way of coming out on their own. There was no point in volunteering to be the villain when the fire would spread itself eventually.
Still — Kushida's suggestion had some actual merit. It was worth filing away. Outside of random participants getting dragged in, you needed to give the others some sense of agency and investment too.
Not far away, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka shared Chris's surprise — though for an entirely different reason.
He hadn't seen through Kushida's true nature. To be fair, her everyday mask was polished enough that that was understandable. What surprised him was simply that Kushida Kikyo — operating in Class D's environment, a class that could be charitably described as people who drool even after the cure — had managed to demonstrate this level of big-picture thinking.
Is it because she spent time selling information to upperclassmen? Did that broaden her perspective?
Ayanokoji filed that away with quiet interest.
At the same moment, on the other side of the crowd.
Koenji Rokusuke — who had just learned from his family that, for the time being, there was absolutely no way to pull any strings to get him out of this, and that they were keeping the matter completely under wraps — finally lowered his phone with a sour expression.
"If I'd known it was going to be like this, I would've taken the broken legs over ever setting foot here... what a disaster."
He sighed, and was just about to fix his hair when his eyes landed on Sudou Ken's phone screen.
It was playing a news interview.
On screen, a creature with a human body and the face of a chimpanzee sat in a television studio, wearing a suit, and was speaking with an air of calm authority.
Koenji raised an eyebrow. "Since when can chimps do press interviews?"
Sudou Ken ignored the quip. He frowned and turned up the volume so more people could hear.
On screen, the chimp-faced being called Charlie looked directly into the camera and spoke in a voice of perfect, unsettling calm:
"I don't understand..."
"Why is it that only humans cannot be killed and eaten?"
"If humans can eat animals — then as animals ourselves, why can't we eat humans?"
"What the—!"
Yamauchi Haruto and Ikebe Koji both looked like they'd swallowed something rancid:
"Where did you even find this freak?"
"This thing is so off its rocker that two bags of glutinous rice wouldn't even put it down — and it's on the news? Are media companies losing their minds?"
Sudou Ken closed the video. But the look in his eyes wasn't fear — it was something sharper. Something that wanted to fight.
"It just showed up on my feed. Apparently he's some kind of spiritual leader for an extremist organization."
He clenched his fist and looked toward Ichinose at the front:
"I was thinking... if the special exam's enemies are things like that..."
"Then yeah. I'll participate."
"There's no way I'm letting some man-eating animal ride over my head and take a dump on me!"
Koenji Rokusuke looked at this hot-headed, impulsive, single-celled organism beside him with a mildly astonished expression.
"Hoh... barbaric as always, and yet — those are words a real man would say."
"Didn't expect you to be this agreeable, Sudou."
Ikebe Koji jumped in right behind him:
"If the special exam is full of anti-human trash like that, I'm in too! Don't anyone try to stop me!"
"What kind of pathetic low-life creature thinks it can challenge humanity's standing while wearing its ambitions on its face like that?"
Watching this cluster of guys who had suddenly caught fire with hot-blooded righteousness — Ayanokoji Kiyotaka threw a bucket of cold water on it.
"Did any of you actually read the report carefully?"
"Compared to a chimp that wears its ambitions in plain sight... something that can quietly parasitize a human host, blend in, live right next to you — a Parasyte — isn't that a lot more terrifying?"
"Monsters aren't scary."
"What's scary is a monster sitting right beside you — and you never knowing."
The air around them dropped a few degrees for no apparent reason.
Chris suppressed a quiet laugh.
Then, turning to Horikita Suzune beside him, he said casually:
"I don't think Ayanokoji fits the profile."
"What?" Horikita Suzune blinked — then immediately understood that Chris was responding to the theory she'd floated back in the Library.
Her expression stayed cool. "Who knows."
"Maybe... he's the one crying wolf to throw everyone off the scent."
Chris smiled. "Fair point. Let's keep watching, then."
____
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