Amane and Shiina finished dinner at 7:30 PM.
The delay in between had caused much of the food's deliciousness to dissipate. For this, Amane invited Shiina to her dorm as a guest after they returned, with Amane personally cooking for her as compensation.
Shiina also agreed.
Just before parting, Amane still wanted to ask her last lingering question.
"If it were you, Hiyori, how would you quickly spread a message without being able to use the forum or mass messages?"
Amane had been repeatedly rehearsing scenarios while chatting with Shiina, but the result was that without Nagumo Miyabi's assistance, achieving this step would be quite difficult.
Hearing Amane's question, Shiina gave a playful smile.
"Amane, have you forgotten the simplest tool for spreading messages?"
"The simplest tool for spreading messages?"
Shiina took two small steps and lightly tapped Amane's lips. Amane was initially surprised by Shiina's action, then immediately realized Shiina was referring to spreading by word of mouth.
"How could I not know something so simple? But… to make it widely known in such a short time… it's a bit…"
Amane smiled and shook her head. You can't exactly run down the hallway shouting, can you? And would private word-of-mouth really be that fast?
"It's not very realistic, right?"
Shiina completed Amane's sentence. Amane nodded. Spreading by word of mouth wasn't impossible to make widely known, but the risk of exposure was too great, and it would require a considerable amount of time.
"Exactly. And most importantly, upon hearing such an outrageous piece of news, people would surely try to verify it. Continuing to spread unverified news seems unreasonable."
Amane's words were indeed correct from a rational standpoint, but… "You're wrong, Amane. Everyone is very enthusiastic about gossip and rumors. As for the truthfulness? Oh, right! Amane, have you heard? They're selling strawberry-flavored popcorn at the movie theater!"
Shiina suddenly said with a happy expression.
Amane's eyes also lit up when she heard about strawberry-flavored popcorn.
"Eh? There's actually something like that? Should I go buy some to try?" Amane subconsciously replied, only then realizing she had fallen for Shiina's trick.
If anyone else had told Amane this news, Amane would have only paid slight attention, but Shiina telling her this news directly filtered out the anti-counterfeiting information verification step in her mind.
Moreover, Shiina started with a phrase like, "Have you heard?" which led Amane to subconsciously believe that everyone already knew about this matter.
"People often use similar methods when spreading gossip they're interested in but are unsure of its authenticity. Even if it's exposed later, they'll say they 'just heard about it' to shirk responsibility. On a weekend morning, there's no more explosive gossip than Student Ichinose being a thief. Basically, once one person knows, the whole class will know within ten minutes. Amane, you have to believe in the terrifying speed of gossip's spread, you know?" Shiina finished speaking and waved her small hand at Amane.
"Oh, I forgot to mention, there really is strawberry-flavored popcorn for sale at the movie theater entrance, and it tastes quite good. Amane, you can go try it."
"If I have time, I will."
After sending Shiina off, Amane reviewed the existing information.
Since the missing parts of the mystery had been filled in, and even the person behind it had come to light, she decided to put the matter aside until the other party made their next move.
Next, what she needed to resolve was how to conclude this favored person exam.
Among the remaining five groups—the Rabbit Group, snake group, sheep group, chicken group, and pig group—Class D's strength was actually not weak. This was because the Rabbit Group had Ayanokouji Kiyotaka, the snake group had Amane, and the sheep group also had Matsushita, who possessed hidden strength.
In the chicken group and pig group, the chicken group had Kaneda from Class C. Amane didn't know much about him, but according to Shiina, Ryuuen valued Kaneda highly, so he should be able to suppress Class B. As for the pig group, the entire group seemed quite ordinary. Although there were familiar faces like Yamada Albert and Sakura Airi, unfortunately, their abilities were not worth expecting in this exam.
Class B's offensive had come to an end here; now it was time for them to counterattack.
Amane opened her phone and was surprised to find that Horikita had not sent any messages.
With so many groups suddenly having their exams forcibly ended, and considering the large number of people secretly selling their playing card numbers, Horikita should have been extremely anxious at this point. She would surely have come to her for advice before the situation spiraled out of control. However, to Amane's surprise, Horikita had managed to keep her composure this time.
It was quite a rare occurrence, so Amane proactively called Horikita.
The phone rang behind Amane, and Amane couldn't help but turn around to see Horikita watching her with her arms crossed and a calm expression.
"I thought your next step would be to just roll around in bed together."
Some rather harsh words came out of Horikita's mouth.
Amane shrugged.
"I'm not that kind of person. I was just getting some information from Shiina."
"So, did you get any useful information from her?"
Horikita sat down, then took a bag of strawberry-flavored popcorn from a shopping bag placed on the back seat and tossed it to Amane.
"Hot, hot, hot!!! It's actually warm!" Amane quickly placed the popcorn on the table. She initially thought Horikita had bought the popcorn because she had overheard their conversation, or perhaps she had prepared it beforehand, and Shiina hadn't brought up the popcorn for no reason.
But now it seemed that wasn't the case. If she had just heard the news, there wouldn't have been enough time. And if she had bought it in advance, it wouldn't make sense for Shiina to mention it only because she incidentally saw it, because then the popcorn would definitely be cold. Shiina's gaze had been fixed on Amane throughout their conversation.
Amane was quite certain that Shiina hadn't looked at who was sitting in the back, let alone opened the shopping bag in the back to see what was inside.
This ruled out the possibility that Shiina knew Horikita would give Amane this gift before Amane arrived. So, was it just a coincidence?
"What are you talking about? Popcorn is best eaten hot, right out of the pan. Why would I buy you cold popcorn? Wait... you're not suspecting that I conspired with Shiina in advance, are you?"
Having spent so much time in the same bed as Amane, how could Horikita not know what Amane was thinking?
"How could I? I know Suzune cares about me the most!" Amane happily opened the package and started eating.
Watching Amane eat with a blissful expression, Horikita sighed softly.
"Oh, I knew you liked this kind of thing, but I never see you exercising. Be careful, you might get so fat you can't walk."
"I won't become like that! Suzune, you're so mean!"
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