Black Sphere Space.
Sudou Ken reached up and touched his own neck. The skin there was smooth and warm. Not a mark on it.
But the memory of that sudden, searing pain was still vivid enough to make his entire body shake.
His knees buckled. He nearly hit the floor.
"I was... decapitated? By a Parasyte?"
The fear of death wasn't the darkness of that instant — it was this. The delayed wave of horror that came crashing in once the danger had passed, once you were still alive and your brain had time to understand just how close it hadn't been.
His mind was still rebooting when blue light flashed around him in rapid succession.
The first to materialize was Kanzaki Ryuuji.
Gone was his usual composure. His face was ashen, his eyes glassy — clearly still drowning in phantom pain, same as Sudou.
Next came Ryuuen Kakeru.
He looked equally rough — but his recovery speed was in a different league from Kanzaki's entirely.
"...Damn it. Down to my last life. Tch."
The complaint snapped Sudou out of his daze. A surge of indignation rose in its place.
"What do you mean 'last life'? Are you telling me you had more than the one the Black Sphere gives everyone?"
"How is that fair?! We all came here together — why do you get special treatment?!"
A vein pulsed at Ryuuen Kakeru's temple.
If he wasn't so uncertain about whether fighting inside the Black Sphere space would trigger some kind of penalty, he would have genuinely considered unscrewing this single-celled organism's head and using it as a kickball.
"Are you actually brain-dead?"
Ryuuen didn't bother softening it. "The extra lives I have? Those are because I'm bound to this stupid sphere regardless of whether my class nominates me or not. Every exam, I get forcibly dragged in to face these things — no choice in the matter!"
"That's the only perk I get out of the deal. If you want to swap positions, say the word — I'll hand it over right now."
"You don't know what you're talking about, so shut up and stop barking."
"...Every exam? You face those things every exam?"
Yeah, no. Absolutely not.
Sudou shuddered.
—
Light continued to pulse and bloom around them.
Chris, Ichinose Honami, Sakayanagi Arisu, and the others returned to the Black Sphere space one by one.
Seeing Chris come back completely unscathed, Sudou immediately sidled over — ready to repeat what Ryuuen had said and get it confirmed.
Chris didn't even get a word in.
"Hold on."
Ichinose cut him off, her voice flat and cold. "There's something more important right now."
Chris caught the look on her face and spread his hands toward Sudou in a quiet not now gesture.
"You saw it yourself. We'll talk later."
Ichinose didn't spare a glance for the mood around her. She walked straight up to the Black Sphere, her voice rough at the edges.
"GANTZ. Tally the results."
Hmmm——
The surface of the Black Sphere rippled with shifting light. Text rose to meet them.
[As you wish.]
[This trial saw a total of three friendly units enter as forced participants. Two were eliminated. One survived.]
[Accordingly: all participants receive a base bonus of +1 point, minus a deduction of 2 points.]
The full scoreboard unrolled beneath it —
[1. Ichinose Honami: 10 points (Cumulative: 22)]
[2. Chris: 8 points (Cumulative: 12)]
[3. Shiina Hiyori / Sakayanagi Arisu: 2 points (Shiina: 0 / Sakayanagi Cumulative: 6)]
[4. Kamuro Masumi, Katsuragi Kohei, Kanzaki Ryuuji, Ryuuen Kakeru, Sudou Ken: −1 point (Cumulative: Katsuragi 1 point / All others: −1)]
...
[Class Rankings and Point Bonuses]
[Class A: 1035 — Unchanged.]
[Class B: 832.4 (732.4 + 10 × 1000%) — All Class B members receive a bonus of 10,000 private points.]
[Class C: 510 (505 + 1 × 500%) — All Class C members receive a bonus of 500 private points.]
[Class D: 210 (150 + 8 × 750%) — All Class D members receive a bonus of 6,000 private points.]
[Note: As this marks the first instance of a qualified participant being eliminated, the associated point deduction will not be reflected in this round's tally. Going forward, it will be applied as standard. Please take note.]
Sudou Ken stared at the note, his psychological bruises still fresh. The words slipped out of him before he'd thought them through.
"Huh... nice of it to go easy on us, I guess. Hey, speaking of which..."
He scratched his head and looked around the room. "Aren't we missing someone? What happened to that girl from Class B — the one who was with Ichinose?"
The temperature in the room dropped to absolute zero.
Sakayanagi Arisu blinked, eyes widening slightly. She genuinely couldn't comprehend it.
A person this stupid... how did he even pass the entrance exam? Is he actually worth cultivating?
Shiina Hiyori was equally lost for words. She stood there for a moment, then quietly moved to Ichinose's side — the girl had gone pale, swaying slightly on her feet — and reached out, gently rubbing slow circles across her back.
Ichinose Honami bit down on her lip. She kept the grief locked inside.
Sudou had died early in the fight. He genuinely didn't know what had happened after. That much could be understood.
But her own generosity didn't extend to everyone else in the room.
Bang.
Sudou Ken stumbled backward several steps, hand flying to his face, eyes wide with shock at the person now standing in front of him.
Kanzaki Ryuuji pulled his fist back slowly. His jaw was tight, his voice low and shaking:
"Shiranami's whereabouts are unknown."
"Are you satisfied now?!"
"..."
Whereabouts unknown. Which meant she was dead.
Sudou opened his mouth. No words came.
This time, finally, he read the room.
He kept his mouth shut.
—
Chris stepped in at the right moment.
"Alright."
"The dead are gone. The living have to keep moving."
He turned to the Black Sphere.
"Looks like I can exchange for equipment again. Ichinose — what are you thinking?"
Ichinose Honami drew in a slow, deep breath. She opened her eyes — the corners faintly red — and stared at her own score on the board.
"I want to..." she murmured. "...save up."
Chris gave a single nod.
"Then I'll try the X-Shot Gun. The standard gun's range is too short — and with the charge delay on top of that, in a situation where the capture guns can get destroyed in one hit, the margin for error is just too thin."
Ichinose was quiet for a moment.
"I'm sorry..."
Chris understood immediately what she was apologizing for.
As one of only two active combatants, her choosing to save points meant giving up on upgrading their immediate firepower — and shifting that weight squarely onto him.
"What's there to be sorry about."
He shrugged, tone easy.
"You don't need anyone's approval for your own choices. And honestly — having someone in the group working toward bringing a teammate back? That's its own kind of comfort for everyone, isn't it?"
At that, Ichinose managed a thin, strained smile.
"Though Chris-kun's point stands — the standard gun really is awkward to work with. Given that we have combat suits... a tachi might actually be more effective."
She shook herself back into focus and began reviewing their performance.
"Our strategy had problems too. We were too fixated on scoring — and completely overlooked how important it was to protect our teammates."
"Even from a pure score perspective: the bonus from keeping people alive far outweighs the points from a single high-value kill. That math doesn't lie."
Katsuragi Kohei added:
"If all three of Ayanokoji's group had survived this time, everyone would've had a base bonus of +3. Ten people, that's 30 points. Convert that into class points — 300. A rising tide lifts all boats."
Ryuuen Kakeru stayed silent. Which, from him, was agreement enough.
Sakayanagi Arisu's attention, as ever, was on a completely different wavelength. Her gaze drifted toward Chris.
"Now that you mention it... didn't Chris-kun say before that he'd never trained in swordsmanship?"
"That string of moves just now looked pretty impressive to me!"
Chris looked up from where he was crouched in front of the Black Sphere, working through the exchange menu. He met the curious stares around him without a flicker of unease.
"Learned it at a summer camp in Hawaii when I was a kid."
"Looks good because the combat suit is doing most of the work. Nothing worth bragging about under normal circumstances."
Sakayanagi smiled and said nothing.
Beside her, Kamuro Masumi — whose attention had landed somewhere equally unexpected — noticed something: the running cumulative score next to Chris's portrait on the Black Sphere's surface had already been deducted.
But there was nothing beside him. No item had appeared.
"Where's your equipment?" Kamuro frowned. "Did the Black Sphere eat it?"
Chris turned to the sphere, expression puzzled. "I was wondering the same thing."
A beat later, text materialized across the Black Sphere's surface:
[Per recommendation from the Advanced Nurturing High School administration — in the interest of maintaining campus security — all regulated bladed weapons and hazardous firearms will only manifest during designated exam periods, and will not be materialized within the school grounds proper.]
[Accordingly, all offensive weapons purchased will be held in automatic storage. At the start of the next exam's weapon selection phase, they will appear as additional options exclusive to the purchaser.]
"Ah. That explains it."
Katsuragi Kohei studied the notification, expression thoughtful.
"So the school does have some degree of influence over the Black Sphere after all. It's not operating entirely outside their control..."
"Tch." Ryuuen clicked his tongue. "Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing is another question entirely."
—
Something seemed to occur to Chris. He turned his head toward Sudou Ken, who was standing off to the side in a daze.
"You know that three consecutive negative scores means permanent elimination, right? You're already in the negatives. What's your plan for next time?"
Sudou Ken went rigid.
He touched his neck again. The ghost of a decapitation reached up and grabbed him right back.
And now there was this — the brutal negative-score elimination mechanic stacked on top of it...
"N-no. No, no, no!"
Sudou waved both hands frantically, shaking his head like a rattle.
"Let Horikita go with you guys instead! I'm way out of my depth here — I'm not getting involved in this anymore!"
Ichinose Honami saw this and started to open her mouth. Running away at a moment like this would just leave the negative score hanging over his head permanently — making him more vulnerable, not less.
But Ryuuen Kakeru let out a cold snort and stopped her with a look.
Don't interfere with other people's decisions. And don't think about forcing anyone.
Frankly, it was rare to have someone willing to serve as a test subject for the question of what actually happens if a negative-score participant skips an exam. Why not let him find out?
If Sudou's strategy of avoidance turned out to carry no penalty, then everyone outside the fixed participants would stand to benefit from knowing that.
Staying quiet right now wasn't a matter of conscience. It was information gathering.
That was Ryuuen's reasoning — and Chris had already guessed it the moment he saw the look.
Though, honestly? He was thinking along the same lines.
Because if Sudou Ken kept occupying Class D's exam slot, then what happened to Horikita Suzune? What about Karuizawa Kei? And Sakura Airi?
To head off any well-meaning interference from Ichinose, Chris spoke up first.
"Oh, Sudou. One thing."
"You were curious before — about why the intel in Hirata's handout was deliberately toned down, right?"
Sudou blinked. "Yeah, why was that?"
Chris's tone was quiet — and carried just enough weight to land.
"I think... it was to make sure you all went in with the right mindset."
"If you saw how many of us were participating and assumed that sheer numbers meant you were safe — you might have walked in recklessly. Ended up throwing your life away for nothing. Just like today."
Sudou Ken's face went white.
"...Message received."
——End of Chapter——
Monster point values: Chimpanzee-Men — 3 points each. Goto — 20 points total, counted as 3 points per individual Parasyte component, with a bonus of 5 points awarded to whoever lands the killing blow on Goto himself.
____
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