After the brief interlude involving Kiryuuin Fuka, Chris and Horikita Suzune didn't linger long in the library.
Now that Horikita Suzune had just gotten her hands on a method to cheat her way through the midterms, there wasn't much point in sitting around staring into space once she'd finished today's tutoring quota. She'd rather go practice her swordsmanship.
So the two of them said their goodbyes to Shiina Hiyori and set off to find Ichinose Honami — they still had today's final kendo sparring session to get through.
What they didn't expect was this:
Both Horikita's and Chris's messages on Line went completely unanswered, sitting on unread indefinitely.
"That's weird. Ichinose usually replies fast. Did something happen to her?"
Horikita Suzune furrowed her brow, debating whether to head over to Class B and look for her in person.
"Finding someone isn't that complicated," Chris said.
He didn't bother explaining further — he just pulled out his phone right in front of her, navigated to the contacts screen with practiced ease, and tapped into a hidden location-tracking feature.
On the screen, a red dot representing Ichinose was blinking in the direction of the Special Building. Horikita Suzune's eyes widened slightly.
"This... is this a built-in feature on the phone?"
"You're overthinking it."
Chris pocketed his phone. "The school can monitor us around the clock to make sure we're not leaking anything about the Black Sphere to the outside world. And this phone was issued by the school in the first place — tracking a location isn't exactly rocket science."
"...You didn't actually think the phone this school gave us was just for making calls and receiving point-salary notifications, did you?"
Horikita Suzune let out a quiet sigh. "I understand your logic. I just didn't expect the school would hand down something this invasive — the ability to surveil students — to other students."
"I didn't either, at first. But after being 'run into' a few too many times, I started putting the pieces together," Chris said offhandedly.
The two made their way through the corridors and arrived at the ground floor of the Special Building.
As they walked, a series of sounds drifted from the far end of the hall — the sharp, feminine kiais and muffled grunts of girls in the middle of a fight.
Chris went quiet.
Horikita Suzune tensed, her gaze tracking the source of the noise until it landed on a half-open multipurpose training room across the hallway.
She walked briskly toward it and, out of courtesy, knocked twice lightly on the door.
No response came. If anything, the sounds of the scuffle inside only grew more intense.
Stepping into the training room behind Chris, Horikita Suzune's brain briefly short-circuited at the sight before her.
On the open hardwood floor, Ichinose Honami was chasing a red-haired girl around and beating her up — and the petite young woman currently being pinned down was...
"Isn't that the new transfer student from Ichinose's class?"
Chris leaned against the doorframe, watching the girls' wrestling match with unhurried amusement, a slight curve at the corner of his mouth. "Managed to get Ichinose — the most patient person alive — to go this hard on her... hm. Is this about the Black Sphere exam?"
Ichinose's movements faltered for just a moment at the sound of his voice.
"Senpai? Horikita-san? What are you two doing here?"
"Now's my chance!"
That single half-second of distraction was all it took.
"Got you, class rep~"
A sharp gleam flashed in the eyes of Amase Kazuna, who had been on the receiving end of the assault. Like a boneless, venomous snake, she seized on Ichinose's split-second lapse — slapping one hand hard against the wall to push off, then scissoring both legs around Ichinose's waist.
Then she twisted her body, slipping around to Ichinose's back, and moved to lock her forearm across Ichinose's throat.
"Watch out!" Horikita Suzune's expression shifted and she moved to intervene.
But faced with a chokehold that could render a full-grown man unconscious in seconds, Ichinose Honami's face showed surprisingly little panic.
She simply raised her hand, caught the wrist Amase Kazuna had locked across her throat, and twisted it outward.
Simple and clean.
With a crack of joints, Amase Kazuna gritted her teeth — and could only watch in helpless dismay as her arm was wrenched open by sheer force.
In the face of an absolute stat gap, technique became a punchline.
As if finally accepting reality, Amase Kazuna stopped struggling. She went limp and collapsed onto the hardwood floor like a puddle, gasping for breath.
"Ah... class rep, I give up. I surrender."
Amase Kazuna rubbed her slightly reddened wrist, smiling bitterly. "If even you — with a Combat Suit cranking your strength up to monstrous levels — still feel like you don't have a handle on those Black Sphere monsters... then me going in bare-handed really would just be throwing my life away."
Ichinose Honami stood up and looked down at her junior, whose hair was plastered to her cheeks with sweat.
"I'm not sure where you learned those professional combat techniques, Amase-san — but just like how you challenged me just now, we're also the challengers when we face the Decepticons and Parasytes."
"That gap isn't something you can bridge no matter how polished your fighting skills are. It's a difference in physiology — in species."
Horikita Suzune, hearing this, quietly slid a glance toward Chris.
Hard to say about that, she thought.
Chris ignored Horikita's look. "So what exactly happened here?"
"I'm making her face reality," Ichinose said.
She extended a hand and pulled Amase Kazuna up off the floor.
Amase Kazuna took the hand and rose, dusting off her skirt, then looked over at Chris with a helpless shrug of her tongue.
"Senpai, as you can probably tell, my little scheme of pumping you for Black Sphere intel got exposed. The class rep found out, and now I'm being personally hunted down to have that dangerous idea stomped out at the root!"
Ichinose let out a sigh and turned to explain to the two of them:
"Amase-san is genuinely strong. During our sparring just now, if I hadn't been relying on the Combat Suit, my own bare-handed ability absolutely wouldn't have matched her. But that's still far from enough."
Ichinose met Amase's eyes with a serious gaze. "That's why I'm sincerely asking you to wait a little longer. Wait until we've built up enough experience... at least, wait until we can honestly say we're confident we can protect everyone. Joining then isn't too late, is it?"
Chris stroked his chin, weighing in:
"She does have some real skill. It'd be a shame to throw that away for nothing. That said, Amase Kazuna has a point too — if she could rack up some extra S-points and buy even a few decent beginner items for self-defense, that's already better than going in with empty hands."
Horikita Suzune rolled her eyes beside him.
"One second you're praising Ichinose for making her face reality, and now you're encouraging her to go buy items?"
"Senpai..." Ichinose said, looking equally exasperated.
"Alright, my bad. I'll drop it."
Chris shrugged, unbothered.
Anyway, next week's midterm exam would force everyone in regardless — debating whether to participate at this point was already an academic exercise with no practical value.
Amase Kazuna smoothed out her clothes and tugged her skirt hem down to cover her thighs, then looked at Ichinose with a bright smile.
"That said, senpai — the Combat Suit gives you incredible strength and speed, but your countering technique earlier was a little rough around the edges, wasn't it? I've had systematic combat training, you know. For the sessions going forward, do you want me to be your sparring partner?"
The probing she'd done just now had given Amase Kazuna a clear picture of the Combat Suit's enhancement limits on Ichinose Honami.
She'd achieved what she came for — but comparatively, she was now more curious about just where the ceiling of that suit actually was.
After all, when Chris had rescued Karuizawa Kei and Kamuro Masumi earlier, he'd practically been walking on water and air. Ichinose Honami still fell noticeably short of that benchmark.
Ichinose declined the offer, however:
"Close-quarters grappling isn't really my style. That's also why I sought out Chris-senpai to learn swordsmanship — the X-GUN and Y-GUN lack flexibility in certain situations, so I need a weapon to cover the gap in combat range."
Amase Kazuna tilted her head in mock puzzlement.
"Putting it that way, class rep — aren't you getting a bit caught up in the details while missing the bigger picture?"
"I read through the Black Sphere materials Amikura-senpai posted in the group chat. You can use S-points to purchase high-tier weapons through the system, right? I know you're saving up for 100 points to resurrect Shiranami-senpai... but hoarding points like that, leaving your own combat power in a vacuum — what if the next exam throws something stronger at you? Wouldn't that just needlessly raise the risk of a full wipe?"
The remark cut straight to the point, and Ichinose Honami fell into quiet thought.
Horikita Suzune considered it carefully from the side and found she couldn't really argue with it either.
Sensing the mood stalling, Chris stepped in at the right moment.
"She's got a point, but not entirely."
"After the pilot run, the Black Sphere dropped a hint: 1 S-point can be exchanged for 500 item points."
"Since Sakayanagi has already bought the enhanced sniper rifle and I've bought the Controller — Ichinose, given that you can't afford a top-tier weapon right now, it might be smarter to hold your points and keep an eye out. If that so-called 'Mystery Merchant' has something with good value for points, you could just use item points to grab it directly."
"Bottom line: don't put all your eggs in one basket. Keeping a backup option is never wrong."
1 S-point equals 500 item points?
So I'm currently sitting on the purchasing power of 8 S-points worth of items...
I wonder if item points can be converted back into S-points... but for now, getting my own Combat Suit seems like the optimal move.
Amase Kazuna ran the numbers quietly to herself.
"Yeah, Amase-san and senpai are both right," Ichinose said, taking a deep breath. "As the exam difficulty keeps climbing, if I keep stubbornly sitting on all these points instead of converting them into fighting power, that's being selfish toward everyone else. I'll think it over seriously!"
Seeing that Ichinose had come around, Horikita Suzune didn't waste any more time. She walked straight over to the rack of wooden swords along the wall and pointed at them.
"Now that we've sorted that out — are we still doing sword practice?"
Ichinose let out a rueful laugh, walked over, and picked up two wooden swords.
"Of course! Now that I've committed to learning swordsmanship from senpai, I'm not backing out halfway!"
Watching the two of them light up with renewed determination and stride to the center of the floor, Amase Kazuna quietly slipped over to Chris's side.
She tilted slightly toward him, as if completely unaffected by her earlier defeat, and looked up with a sweet, wheedling expression.
"Senpai~ since you're already teaching class rep Ichinose swordsmanship, can I join in too?"
Chris glanced at her.
"Didn't you come out of the same place as Ayanokoji? An elite from that kind of environment — you really need me to teach you?"
Not a single crack in Amase Kazuna's expression.
She looped her arm through Chris's and gave it a gentle, coaxing shake.
"Aww~ I mean, I've dabbled in things before, but it was mostly hand-to-hand, holds and takedowns, and knife techniques. Compared to a professional like senpai, I'm nowhere near the same level!"
"I just want to get stronger! Strong enough to protect everyone, strong enough to... not lose to myself!"
Not far away, Horikita Suzune was warming up with her wooden sword. At those words, her movements paused.
That line... why does it feel strangely, powerfully familiar?
And in the split second she drifted off to think about it —
"Here I come!"
Ichinose's wooden sword came slicing through the air with a sharp whoosh.
Thwack!
A completely unprepared Horikita Suzune took a solid hit to the stomach, let out a pained grunt, and went down.
Rubbing her aching abdomen, Horikita Suzune finally dredged up from her memory the character that Amase Kazuna matched perfectly —
Kushida Kikyo!
Of course. That syrupy-sweet surface with a belly full of schemes — it was practically identical to that woman.
Come to think of it, once Horikita Suzune mentally swapped Amase Kazuna's face for Kushida Kikyo's, she found herself completely unfazed — utterly immune to any amount of honeyed words or manipulation.
She got up, stone-faced, and gripped her wooden sword again.
Chris watched Horikita recalibrate herself with impressive speed and gave a satisfied nod.
Then he turned to Amase Kazuna and declined, with neither particular interest nor hostility:
"My bandwidth is limited. And too many close-combat fighters on one team isn't a good thing."
Amase Kazuna released his arm and bowed her head slightly, her tone carrying a trace of wistfulness.
"What a shame... and here I thought this might be my chance to get senpai to take me in. If you brought me along, I could be a real asset to you, you know~ meow."
Chris wasn't buying it in the slightest. "Sure, I've got equipment, and I can even loan it out to others. But why are you asking about this... didn't you just promise Ichinose you wouldn't go off recklessly? And now you're already plotting behind her back?"
Amase Kazuna shook her head and leaned in close to Chris's ear, whispering in a voice barely audible:
"That's not it~"
"I'm just thinking... if one day the Black Sphere's target pool expands and I get dragged in by force... I'd like to have a safety net lined up in advance, and make sure I'm holding on tight to senpai's coattails."
Chris looked at her with feigned surprise.
"You people really do plan ahead. Thinking about stuff like this — where your life could end at any moment — doesn't that make you anxious?"
Amase Kazuna replied softly:
"Oh, senpai, you're really underestimating me."
"I'm sure senpai, as a permanent member, is also worried about the unknown variables of the future every single moment. But just like what you were all discussing just now..."
The girl stepped back half a pace, hands clasped behind her back, and broke into a meaningful smile:
"Even when you have nothing, prepare for what's coming!"
"Isn't that right?"
Chris pulled his gaze away from Amase Kazuna's retreating figure as she waved a lingering, reluctant goodbye.
Whether she had truly done any preparation in advance, he still wasn't sure.
But her boldness — and her tendency to act in haste — was pretty transparent.
He let his eyes drift almost imperceptibly toward a security camera tucked in the corner of the room, its presence betrayed only by the faintest glint of reflected light.
Chris found himself wondering: once Amase Kazuna got her hands on a Combat Suit, would she hand it over to Tsukishiro?
And having witnessed firsthand the power of the Decepticons and the Combat Suit herself — would she still genuinely fight for the White Room?
Whatever. The day after tomorrow, you can tag along and get a taste of Horikita Manabu's exam.
You want intel? I'll give you the opportunity.
____
👻🔥Read More: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Arknights Endfield: Picked Up a Gugugaga
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone