Ichika had gotten her hands on Yagami's spare key card and was ready to make her move. Yagami himself had no intention of getting involved. As far as he was concerned, Ichika could handle Ryunosuke on her own.
In Yagami's eyes, Ryunosuke was nothing more than a small fish, not worth a second glance, let alone serious consideration. He had no idea that this dismissiveness would cost him dearly in the future.
Elsewhere.
Having wrapped up his duties as Student Council President, Ryunosuke was finally heading home. He had gotten his first real taste of what the job actually felt like today, and it was exhausting.
Thank goodness he had managed to pull talented people like Suzune, Hachi, Hiyori, and Asuna into the council. Without them, things would have been impossibly hectic down the line.
Lost in that thought as he walked, Ryunosuke nearly crossed paths with a girl. She had reddish-purple hair tied into twin tails, and her face was strikingly cute and sweet, easily a match for any of his other prospective wives.
She wore black over-the-knee socks, and while her frame was petite and slender, it carried a presence that was hard to overlook. Specifically, her chest, somewhere around B+, perhaps a touch fuller than Suzune's. She stood at around 163 centimeters.
That was the instantaneous assessment Ryunosuke completed in the span of a single breath.
A soft, faint fragrance drifted over as they brushed against each other. Ryunosuke reflexively reached out to steady her, with no ulterior motive whatsoever. But the moment he saw her face clearly, he froze.
It was Ichika. A name that rang very familiar to Ryunosuke.
(Isn't she supposed to be a White Room assassin? What is she doing here?) He couldn't make sense of it. (Is this just a coincidence?)
While Ryunosuke's mind was still turning, Ichika, who had orchestrated the encounter entirely on purpose, let a small, triumphant smile creep across her face. She pressed herself against him with the coy, clinging energy of a fox spirit, then tilted her head up with glistening eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Akasaka-senpai~ It was an accident~"
That helpless expression paired with her disarmingly cute appearance would have made any ordinary guy's heart buckle on the spot. Ryunosuke, however, was not ordinary. He had been around enough beautiful women that his resistance had grown considerably. He also caught the honorific she had used, so he asked directly.
"You're a first-year who just enrolled today, aren't you? How do you know who I am?"
In response, Ichika delivered the answer she had rehearsed countless times in her head, in a perfectly practiced, slightly bashful tone. "Because Akasaka-senpai is so famous~"
She clasped her hands together with a look of earnest anticipation that was entirely manufactured. "Could I add you as a contact? Please?"
She leaned further and further forward until the softness of her chest made contact with him. There was a subtle lilt of invitation in her voice, the whole thing designed to coax him into agreeing to the ridiculous request.
Ryunosuke backed away on instinct as she closed in. He wasn't the same as he used to be. Thirteen girlfriends were watching him now, and he couldn't afford to do anything reckless.
To put an end to her boldness, he agreed to the friend request. The moment it went through, Ichika sprang back nimbly, keeping her distance while holding up her phone with a little shake. His contact information was already saved.
"Well then, Akasaka-senpai, let's keep in touch from now on~"
Before leaving, she even blew him a flying kiss. Honestly, most men would have had a very hard time holding their ground against that, and it took real effort on Ryunosuke's part. He knew she was a White Room assassin, but why was she approaching him? Most likely because of his closeness to Ayanokouji, or so he assumed.
He had no idea that he himself was actually their primary target. Without the perspective of an omniscient narrator, there was simply no way he could have known something that strange.
Once she was far enough away, Ichika let her expression drop back to normal. The reason she had pressed so close was to feel out where Ryunosuke kept his key card. It seemed to be in his left pocket, with two cards sitting right there. She had considered lifting them on the spot, but doing it now would leave too obvious a trail and she would immediately become a suspect.
She needed a scapegoat first, someone to take the blame if things went sideways. If the mission failed, she couldn't afford to be the one left exposed. Ichika operated with meticulous care and left no loose ends. That was the White Room's philosophy of action. If a mission collapsed, the one above you must never be dragged down with it.
◆━⊰✿✧✿⊱━◆
Meanwhile, Housen had witnessed the brief exchange between Ryunosuke and Ryuen at the school gate, and concluded that both of them must be genuinely strong. So he had made his way to the second-year Class D to challenge Ryuen.
Housen was a delinquent who had a deep appreciation for the aesthetics of violence. Upon spotting Ryuen inside the classroom, he rolled his stiff neck and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Ryuen. Fight me."
Ryuen had both feet up on his desk, his gaze dripping with contempt. "Hmph. Still picking fights in this day and age? Where exactly did you leave your brain?"
He had no interest in entertaining someone that dim. Ever since Ryunosuke had played him, Ryuen had sharpened up considerably and wasn't about to throw a punch without thinking. He also knew the full sequence of how Ryunosuke had gotten the entire second year expelled, and had come to understand, in his own roundabout way, the concept of lawful self-defense as it applied to this school. More precisely: if they swing first, you can swing back.
Ryunosuke had used that principle twice. Once against Ryuen, and once against the entire second year. In both cases, his side had been drastically outnumbered, facing odds of more than ten to one. A fight with that kind of disparity would be recognized as legitimate self-defense, and the school would hold no one accountable. After all, if someone is being beaten, it would be absurd for the school to forbid them from fighting back.
Ryunosuke had exploited that loophole twice under the school's watch and walked away clean both times. Ryuen, on the other hand, had been expelled, and if he hadn't taken all the blame onto himself, the rest of Class D likely would have gone down with him.
Nagumo's situation was even more catastrophic. The entire second year had been wiped out, leaving only nine survivors. Ryuen had learned his lesson and sworn off violence. He was a model student now. In this era, only fools settled things with their fists.
That was exactly why he called Housen a brainless fool. If you truly wanted to start something, you could at least do it somewhere out of range of the security cameras so the school wouldn't catch wind of it. Walking straight into frame under a surveillance camera, what kind of thinking was that?
Even so, something flickered in Ryuen's eyes, and the corners of his mouth curled into a sly grin. "You could always try Akasaka Ryunosuke. I'm sure he won't turn you down."
Housen actually took that seriously and went looking for Ryunosuke, especially since it was clear Ryuen had no intention of fighting. That left only one option.
A short while later, Housen had positioned himself squarely in the middle of the path Ryunosuke would have to take.
Akasaka Ryunosuke: (I am truly, deeply grateful to you, Ryuen.)