By the time the crowd on the field had mostly dispersed with the coming of nightfall, Chris and Horikita Suzune still hadn't returned to ask Ayanokoji Kiyotaka what the qualifiers planned to do next.
This left Kushida Kikyo — who had been standing in place the entire time, waiting — with a growing itch she just couldn't scratch.
What on earth happened between those two?
As the self-appointed "Horikita Suzune × Chris shipping captain and chief matchmaker," Kushida Kikyo was genuinely going out of her mind right now. After all, given Horikita Suzune's personality, the fact that she'd worn that expression when she left was an absolutely explosive character break — anyone would be dying to know what had happened between those two in private.
Kushida's gaze drifted instinctively sideways, landing on Karuizawa Kei, who had been hovering near Chris just a moment ago and was now moving to rejoin Matsushita Chiaki.
Kushida Kikyo quickly talked herself out of trying to pry from this angle.
Those two brief exchanges just now had earned her nothing but a soft, politely closed door from Karuizawa — the message was unmistakable: I don't want to talk about it. Fishing here? Pretty much a dead end.
Fine. If that route's blocked, I'll just have to go find whoever's the easiest to talk to.
Kushida gave a little mental shrug.
Don't underestimate my intelligence network!
Do you know who I am? I'm the little angel everyone comes running to!
Making up a convenient excuse and carefully maintaining her wholesome "concerned classmate" image in front of Hirata Yousuke, Matsushita Chiaki, and the others, Kushida Kikyo gave a cheerful wave, turned, and headed off in Ichinose Honami's direction.
Even if she couldn't offer Ichinose or Chris any real help when it came to actual fighting, she was one of the original crew — dropping by to offer some warmth and emotional support was completely above reproach.
This was her bread and butter for surviving Advanced Nurturing High School!
Watching Kushida's slightly hurried retreating figure, Matsushita Chiaki pulled her gaze back and turned to look at Karuizawa Kei beside her.
"You two were chatting for a while back there. What did Kushida want?"
Karuizawa Kei frowned for a moment. "Hard to say, honestly... but honestly, she felt kind of like she was just bored and sniffing around for gossip."
"Is that so." Matsushita Chiaki nodded thoughtfully. "I can see that. True to form for a seasoned survivor — even with an exam that could drop on us at any moment, she's got remarkable composure."
Then Matsushita Chiaki's tone shifted:
"By the way, Kei."
"I heard your class cleared a pretty impressive amount of points in the main exam this time around. You should have just enough to buy a Combat Suit by now, right?"
"Any chance we could set aside some time for you to put it on so I can take a close look?" Matsushita Chiaki stated her purpose plainly. "I've got the 5 S-points I earned from the preliminary exam just now, plus one extra life buffer on top of that."
"I want to figure out whether this Combat Suit is actually worth the risk I'd have to take for it."
Karuizawa Kei thought it over, then didn't refuse.
"Sure, I'll put it on for you when we get back to the dorms."
If this had been before the Black Sphere exams.
Faced with a request like this — one that meant squeezing into a form-fitting suit that might expose her secret — Karuizawa Kei would have found a hundred excuses to wriggle out of it.
But now...
Almost without thinking, the girl's fingers drifted across her uniform, resting lightly on her flat, smooth abdomen.
That ugly scar — the one that had branded her with shame and weakness — was completely gone.
She no longer had to worry about Matsushita noticing something, about her catching a glimpse of Karuizawa's sordid past.
And all of that... was thanks to Chris.
If it weren't for him, even with a Combat Suit in her hands right now, she'd probably just be trembling in endless dread, let alone being in any headspace to stand here and chat about this stuff with Matsushita.
Chris...
Karuizawa Kei silently mouthed the name in her heart, and something in her eyes hardened into quiet resolve.
Stay loyal. Absolutely stay loyal.
Meanwhile, on Kushida Kikyo's end.
After carefully fishing out the terrifying details of this Black Sphere exam from Ichinose Honami through a series of roundabout questions, Kushida Kikyo — walking down the tree-lined path back to the dormitories — couldn't help letting out a sharp, involuntary breath.
That was insanely dangerous... thank god I didn't stick my neck out from the start, or I'd have been in serious trouble!
She pressed a hand against her racing heart, a wave of retrospective fear washing over her.
Sure, technically speaking, she probably had the same deal as Chris and Ichinose — two extra lives compared to a regular person.
But that was just speculation.
The Black Sphere had never issued her any official guarantee, had it?
What if it was all just wishful thinking on her part?
And even if it was real... she was still just a girl who couldn't fight her way out of a paper bag.
If it ever came out that she was actually a privileged class getting special treatment, she could figure out with her toes exactly what kind of attitude shift those jealousy-ridden D-Class goons would have toward her.
Human nature was funny like that.
People always tended to pile on the victims while giving the bullies a free pass.
When the time came, nobody would dare trash-talk the Black Sphere — but they'd have no problem tearing Kushida Kikyo apart, would they?!
Why do you get special privileges without lifting a finger? Why aren't you out there dying for us? — That kind of moral blackmail, Kushida Kikyo had seen more than enough of it back in middle school.
That was precisely why she worked so hard to protect her image; that was precisely why she'd originally been so desperate for Horikita Suzune to hurry up and drop out.
Though now, well...
Horikita Suzune was clearly so battered by the Black Sphere that she had her hands full with her own problems — she didn't have the bandwidth to go digging up Kushida's middle school skeletons.
So Kushida Kikyo's one and only goal now was simple: survive, and coast through the remaining three years of high school in comfort.
To that end, keep cultivating her "little angel" persona, and cling tightly to the big fish like Ichinose Honami and Chris. Both were absolutely essential survival strategies.
Right as Kushida was mentally running through her calculations, however.
A voice she didn't recognize drifted to her ear — playful, with a hint of mischief:
"Excuse me — are you Kushida-senpai from Class D?"
Kushida Kikyo immediately flipped on her smile and turned to look.
Standing there was a girl with red twin-tails and a glint of impishness dancing in her eyes.
"Hello, senpai~"
Kushida studied her with mild curiosity. "I'm Kushida, yes... ah, you're the new transfer student in Ichinose's class, right?"
Amase Kazuna seemed slightly surprised. She raised a small hand to her lips in a show of flattered disbelief.
"Oh my, senpai actually knows who I am?"
"Well, it just so happens that I've heard your name too, senpai. I heard you're an incredibly warm person — that when you found out about the Black Sphere exams, something this terrifying, the very first thing you thought of was setting up a group chat so students coming after you could suffer less by sharing information..."
Flattery, as they say, never goes out of style.
Hit right where it felt good, Kushida Kikyo gave her cheek a slightly flustered scratch, looking bashful.
"Haha, it really wasn't anything that dramatic. I just made a group chat — Ichinose-san has been handling all the actual information organizing ever since. Being praised like this... I really don't deserve it."
"No," Amase Kazuna shook her head, her gaze sincere. "The fact that senpai even thought to do it proves how warm your heart is. By the way..."
Kushida Kikyo — who had been inwardly hoping Amase would keep the compliments coming for a few more rounds — instinctively followed the conversational thread. "What is it?"
Amase Kazuna lowered her eyes slightly, and her true intentions slipped into view. "Senpai, you probably know this already — Class B lost the preliminary exam."
She sighed, a note of helplessness bleeding into her voice. "But I got lucky. I found a few high-scoring items on the exam field, so I've got a decent number of item points on hand right now. The problem is... if I actually want to cash in those points, I need to run into that mysterious merchant during the main exam."
"But I've already used up all the extra lives the Black Sphere gave me. Going into the main exam is genuinely dangerous."
Amase Kazuna lifted her head, her dewy eyes fixed on Kushida. "So I thought — would it be possible to hire someone like Chris-senpai? Someone experienced and strong? I'm not being greedy — I just want to spend my item points on something to keep me alive. And if it works out, I'd use some of those points as payment!"
At those words, the smile on Kushida Kikyo's face didn't budge an inch — but her mental abacus was rattling at full speed.
Paying to hire Chris? This girl knows how to pick her targets.
But Kushida didn't agree right away. Instead, she played confused and turned the question back on her. "That's not a bad plan at all. But... doesn't your class have Ichinose-san? And Amikura-san should have a Combat Suit by now, right? Wouldn't it be more convenient to get help from your own classmates?"
Amase Kazuna put on an expression of awkward grievance, her hands twisting together in front of her.
"Actually... Class Rep Ichinose told me not to... She said it was too dangerous and she was worried about my safety. But I really don't want to waste the points I worked so hard to get, so this really is my last resort..."
Watching the girl put on this pitiful display.
Kushida Kikyo mulled it over for a moment, then finally curved her brows into a smile.
"I see... alright then. I'll just help pass the message along — I can't make any promises about whether Chris-san will actually agree, though~"
Amase Kazuna immediately broke into a delighted grin, clapping her hands lightly together in front of her chest.
"Thank you so much, Kushida-senpai!"
After that, there followed the obligatory round of slightly performative compliments and social pleasantries that Japanese girls considered non-negotiable, and the two parted ways with smiles and waves.
However.
The very instant they separated — the moment Kushida confirmed that Amase Kazuna had vanished from sight —
The sweet smile on Kushida Kikyo's face dropped in an instant.
With practiced efficiency, she fished out her phone, tapped open her chat with Chris, and her fingers flew across the screen.
In addition to relaying the whole story — how this transfer student wanted to spend her item points to hire him as a bodyguard — Kushida appended her own assessment at the end of the message:
[Chris-san, even though this transfer student put on a very convincing act of being helpless, I can't shake the feeling that she's far more calculating than she looks — there's something sharp hiding behind those eyes, and she's absolutely not as simple as she appears on the surface. If it's too much trouble, do you want me to just turn her down on your behalf?]
As a top-tier expert at "reading the room" — someone who had once triggered a whole class's worth of mutual destruction back in middle school —
Kushida Kikyo might have been a zero in a fight, but her instincts for identifying people cut from the same cloth as herself were second to none.
Besides, someone with Ichinose Honami's personality — the kind who valued her companions more than her own life — would never just let a newcomer go charging into danger.
This transfer student's story had way too many holes in it.
She'd just transferred in, she was carrying a negative penalty, and yet she'd managed to neatly sidestep her own class leader with uncanny precision, zeroing in on Kushida to set up this connection... and item points, on top of all that?
If someone like this didn't have some hidden agenda, Kushida Kikyo would write her own name backwards.
That said.
What Kushida Kikyo didn't know was this.
On the other end of the world, Amase Kazuna was walking at a light, breezy pace, twirling a strand of red hair idly between her fingers, the corner of her mouth curled upward.
She knew perfectly well, of course, that Kushida Kikyo was full of wariness toward her.
After all, even someone as naively trusting as Ichinose Honami had harbored doubts the very first time they'd met.
Kushida Kikyo — the type who thrived in Class D's social ecosystem, who had been sharp enough to seize the opportunity to create the Black Sphere chat group — wasn't exactly the kind of person who'd be fooled by a handful of sweet words, was she?
But so what?
Amase Kazuna smiled with perfect indifference.
She didn't care at all whether Kushida would badmouth her behind her back. In fact — she was actively counting on Kushida to pass along every last bit of her "suspicious" behavior directly to Chris.
No matter what it was. No matter how hard or easy.
The most important thing had always been, and only ever was, a legitimate opening.
As long as this thread connected, as long as she caught that man's attention, she'd find a way to get close.
"Let me see it for myself, then — the anomaly that made the Black Sphere abandon the White Room's devil and choose someone else instead..."
The girl murmured softly to herself.
____
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