The Keyaki Mall was unusually empty today.
Scattered here and there, a handful of students in school uniforms drifted through the corridors. Most moved with hurried, hollow steps — and even those who'd finally gotten their hands on a gaming console or makeup they'd been eyeing for weeks wore none of the joy those things were supposed to bring.
"Hard to say how many of them will actually feel like spending money once the counseling sessions wrap up," Chris murmured, sweeping his gaze over the row of near-empty storefronts on either side.
"Then again, even if they do come out to shop... between what the Black Sphere paid out and what the school added on top, the actual total isn't that impressive."
"A mall this size — how does it even survive without the foot traffic?"
Sakayanagi Arisu walked at his side, her hand resting in his with the ease of long habit.
She no longer needed her cane. Her legs had grown steadily stronger, and with the Combat Suit, she could even scale vertical surfaces — something she'd never dared imagine before. But Sakayanagi Arisu, it seemed, still preferred this. The warmth of his hand around hers. The contact.
"Curious, are you? It's actually quite simple," she said.
"Think about it — even before the Black Sphere arrived, there were only a hundred and sixty students per year level. Add in the faculty and staff, and the entire Advanced Nurturing High School population barely clears a thousand."
"With that little foot traffic, the only reason any of these businesses stay put is because they're receiving substantial dedicated subsidies behind the scenes."
She gave a light, sing-song lilt to the last word.
Chris nodded slowly. "So it's an experimental institution of some kind..."
"What else did you think it was?" Sakayanagi Arisu tilted her pale chin upward, as though the answer were self-evident. "Why would a school pour this many resources into its students for no reason?"
"If you ask me — even the reason the Black Sphere chose this school in particular has something to do with that."
"Because this place is, in itself, the perfect petri dish."
Chris pressed his lips together. "Maybe."
Privately, the real reason was simpler: the character roster at Advanced Nurturing High School happened to be exceptionally good-looking. The rules of the place fit neatly with the framework. And compared to somewhere like the White Room, it wasn't oppressively grim.
If it weren't a good fit, he'd have gone somewhere else entirely. He wasn't exactly short on options. Did anyone really think he was here playing house out of necessity?
Not that the people here weren't capable. But stack them against actual geniuses, and the gap was there.
Still — now that the God Sphere existed as a medium for crossing between worlds, with Advanced Nurturing High School as his anchor point... pulling people in from other worlds during exam runs wasn't entirely out of the question either.
While the thought was still forming, the two of them had already stepped onto the escalator and glided up to the second floor.
The moment Chris set foot on the landing, the wall of women's fashion — racks and displays of colorful, elegant clothing stretching in every direction — hit him immediately. A familiar, unpleasant weight settled behind his eyes. Some memories resurfaced uninvited.
Sakayanagi Arisu caught his expression perfectly and couldn't quite suppress the curve at the corner of her lips.
"My, my. Isn't accompanying a cute girl on a shopping trip every boy's dream?"
She drew one finger lightly across his palm in a slow, teasing stroke.
"Don't tell me that after everything on the uninhabited island, Chris-kun is so thoroughly worn out that he can't even manage to carry a few garments for a lady?"
"Maybe I should wait here while you head back and put on that Combat Suit for the extra stamina?"
Chris exhaled. "You're shopping, not restocking a warehouse. How bad can it be."
"Oh, this is far from casual browsing," Sakayanagi Arisu replied, wagging one finger at him with mock seriousness.
"Didn't the Black Sphere specifically remind us to enjoy ourselves while we can, at the last settlement? I intend to honor that divine directive and present myself accordingly."
"If I end up dying in some exam one day with points left unspent and clothes unbought, that would be a genuine tragedy."
"Fair point," Chris said, nodding.
Even so, as they moved forward, he didn't follow the tug of her hand toward the nearest clothing store. He stopped.
His gaze had drifted toward the open rest area in the atrium not far ahead.
Sakayanagi Arisu followed his line of sight instinctively.
By the vending machines stood Amase Kazuna — wine-red twin tails, arms folded across her chest — apparently in the middle of some kind of exchange with a neatly featured young man.
Sakayanagi Arisu recognized him vaguely. She thought she'd seen him at the newcomer reception earlier. Yagami Takuya, if she recalled correctly.
Fast work.
The two of them seemed to have gotten into an argument. The easygoing smile Amase Kazuna had been wearing was gone, replaced by undisguised impatience. She said something with a furrowed brow — brief, clipped — then raised her wrist and tapped the Black Sphere's watch without ceremony.
The next second.
Amase Kazuna vanished.
What remained was Yagami Takuya, standing frozen in place, and the startled exclamations of a few nearby store clerks.
"Interesting," Sakayanagi Arisu said, eyes bright with curiosity. "Shall we take a look?"
Chris rubbed his chin. "Isn't that the transfer student who just joined Ryuuen's class? He came all the way here to find Amase Kazuna specifically... do they know each other from before?"
"Isn't it obvious?" Sakayanagi Arisu answered lightly, with a short, unimpressed laugh.
"Though even if they came from the same place, they've lived through different things since then. They're not walking the same road anymore."
She gave a quiet, airy hum. "And honestly? People who come out of the White Room tend to be... well. Just like that."
"The White Room?" Chris played along, letting a note of genuine puzzlement color his voice. "Are Ayanokoji and this new girl both from somewhere called the White Room? Sounds like a codename for some secret special-ops organization."
Sakayanagi Arisu laughed — a real one — eyes glimmering with open disdain.
"If it actually produced operatives worth the name, it might at least have some value."
"But no. It's nothing more than a garbage training ground that rounds up a collection of bright children, throws them into a crucible, and tries to artificially manufacture one or two passable imitations of genius through attrition — then has the audacity to call the result 'prodigies.'"
"Strip away the inhumanity and there's nothing remarkable left. Frankly, it doesn't even stack up to a decent youth arts center — let alone a properly run training facility like the ones in Hawaii."
At that, Sakayanagi Arisu paused mid-step, violet eyes fixing on Chris's profile with focused intensity.
"Speaking of which — I'm far less interested in that tedious white room than I am in something else." Her voice dropped half a note, softer and more intent.
"Chris-kun. Your past. The life you had on the other side of the ocean."
She rose slightly onto her toes.
"Tell me about it? I'll trade you one of my own secrets — a real one. Fair exchange."
Chris let out a quiet sigh.
I know you're eager, but hold on.
The information asymmetry here is completely one-sided.
Every secret you have, I already know — including the ones you told me yourself. What's left for us to trade?
"There's not much to tell," he said.
"It was an ordinary school. Nothing special. If I hadn't ended up here as an exchange student, my day-to-day would probably look something like: up at five for morning reading, evening study hall until ten, then drilling practice problems until past midnight. That kind of assembly-line routine."
He spread his hands in a small shrug. "So coming to Advanced Nurturing High School has been more like a vacation, honestly. Setting aside the Black Sphere exams, this place really isn't bad."
Sakayanagi Arisu's mouth pulled to one side — not quite a smile, not quite a frown.
She didn't believe a single punctuation mark of that.
Up at five, in bed by midnight? How could any human being sustain that kind of brutal, inhuman schedule while maintaining such astonishing combat ability and psychological composure? He was obviously making things up.
Not that Chris had told the truth, naturally.
As a dimension-crosser, explaining his actual backstory to her was genuinely impossible. Even the most carefully edited highlights would probably be enough to send Sakayanagi Arisu's hard-won recovery from her heart condition straight into relapse.
It couldn't be helped. That's what came with being involved with a stubborn, sharp-tongued girl like her.
He couldn't entirely be blamed for the omission.
In the middle of their exchange, the two of them arrived at the spot where Amase Kazuna had disappeared. Yagami Takuya was already gone. The store clerks who'd crowded in out of curiosity scattered tactfully the moment Chris and Sakayanagi Arisu approached, giving them space without being asked.
Sakayanagi Arisu stopped, glanced at the time on her wrist.
"Almost three minutes," she said, a smile in her voice. "Looks like Amase-kouhai racked up quite a few S-Points on the uninhabited island."
The words had barely left her mouth.
A pulse of blue light flickered — and Amase Kazuna stepped back into existence at the tail end of the third minute, a universal capsule already in hand.
When she looked up and found Chris and Sakayanagi Arisu standing there watching her, her mouth fell open.
"Chris-senpai? Sakayanagi-senpai? What are you two doing here?"
"Shopping, of course," Sakayanagi Arisu replied pleasantly.
"Though I'll admit I didn't expect the bonus entertainment of watching you demonstrate Black Sphere functions in plain sight of the entire floor, with absolutely no effort to be discreet."
"Rather bold of you."
Amase Kazuna shook her head with a resigned sigh.
"What can I say."
"Once you've seen the open sky and flown free, how are you supposed to quietly accept being tied down by small-time ropes again?"
She tossed the capsule lightly in her palm. "I spent a few minor points, cut ties with my old self, and — as a side benefit — ran a small experiment. That's all."
Sakayanagi Arisu's eyes flicked sideways toward Chris with a faint, knowing tilt of amusement.
The message was obvious.
See? I told you. White Room products are exactly like this.
Ayanokoji couldn't beat me in the exam. And now this new arrival is just as eager to put distance between herself and where she came from.
Chris, however, didn't take the bait. He seemed more interested in what Amase Kazuna had actually said.
"An experiment?"
"Mm. An experiment." Amase Kazuna opened her palm slightly, displaying the metallic universal capsule for them both to see.
"After I got back to school, I noticed that 'Hidari' — the Parasyte living in my left hand — had suddenly lost consciousness. Right after that, it detached from my body on its own and condensed into this capsule."
"I figured the Black Sphere's daily-life rules must have flagged it as a 'hazardous item' since it's technically a Parasyte."
She stuck out her tongue. "I was going to ask a teacher about it, but honestly it didn't seem necessary. And since a certain clingy, insufferable classmate happened to show up right then, I thought I'd test whether I could use Hidari inside the Time Chamber — and use the trip to dodge the nuisance at the same time."
Sakayanagi Arisu's brow creased slightly.
"So Parasytes that have merged with a person's body get forcibly reverted to capsule form on school grounds..."
"In that case, Ayanokoji can't transform into a giant on campus either. If he wants to train, his only real option is to spend points on the Black Sphere's [Time Chamber]?"
Chris confirmed it with a nod. "That's my read."
Amase Kazuna nodded in turn, adopting the air of someone who had fully accepted the natural order of things.
"Well, school is still school at the end of the day — a place for study and daily life. The fact that the Black Sphere lets us walk around in Combat Suits is already pushing the limit of what's allowed."
"If Parasytes and giants were wandering the campus freely, the whole place would fall apart."
"That said —" She shifted her tone. "Even if Hidari can't appear on school grounds, I've found I can still communicate with it mentally through the Black Sphere watch while it's in the capsule. It's not ideal, but it's workable."
"Otherwise, without regular interaction, the supplementary bonuses a Parasyte provides start degrading noticeably."
Chris made a dry sound.
"A Parasyte is only worth two S-Points to begin with. The cost-performance ratio is already solid."
"If you were allowed to use it freely during exams and on campus without restriction, that'd be a bit unfair to everyone else, honestly."
Amase Kazuna tilted her head slightly, cheeks puffing out just a touch in mild protest.
"Is it really, though?"
"We earned those S-Points with our lives on the line in the exam. As existences protected by us, what standing do the weak have to complain?"
Sakayanagi Arisu burst into a laugh at that.
"I actually think the Black Sphere's setup is quite sensible on this point." She tilted her head. "A Parasyte's base value is limited — its ceiling is finite."
"Imagine you encounter a better bloodline ability or a superior item down the line, but you've fully merged with your Parasyte and can't adapt to new equipment. That would be an enormous waste."
Amase Kazuna seemed to find this persuasive and didn't argue further.
She pivoted naturally: "By the way, Senpai — weren't you two planning to shop? I've only been at this school a short while, but I've already done my research on which stores have the best styles and the best service around here."
She raised her hand with cheerful confidence. "Want me to show you around?"
Sakayanagi Arisu saw no reason to turn down free guiding services, and smiled graciously.
"We'd appreciate it, Kouhai."
"Actually — since you mention it, I haven't really had the chance to properly browse a mall before, due to my health. Help us find..." She paused, affecting a thoughtful air. "...a shop nearby that carries maid uniforms. Nice designs. Something that holds up well and actually looks good."
"...Maid uniforms?"
Amase Kazuna's brow went up a fraction.
She took a small step back and immediately subjected Chris to a long, suspicious up-and-down appraisal.
Chris's expression didn't flicker.
"Just lead the way. She's talking big. I don't believe for a second she'd actually wear one in public."
Sakayanagi Arisu let out a soft, unbothered hum.
"Keep your eyes open, then. Let's see just how daring I can be."
Caught between the two of them, Amase Kazuna hesitated and pointed tentatively at herself.
"So... am I also supposed to wear one?"
Chris gave a flat, humorless laugh.
"Don't be ridiculous."
"If I told you to put one on right now, would you actually do it? Don't make me laugh."
Amase Kazuna thought it over for a moment.
The practiced veneer slipped — and what replaced it was something sharper, more genuine. She straightened up.
"Senpai, your reverse psychology is pretty clumsy, honestly..."
"But." A beat. "You did successfully trigger my competitive side."
"Why don't we find out?"
——
At the same time, in Karuizawa Kei's dormitory room.
Karuizawa Kei sat at her vanity, hurriedly touching up her light makeup.
Her original plan had been to use the window of time while most of her classmates were off at counseling sessions — head over to find Chris and make a genuine effort at fulfilling her "girlfriend" obligations.
Because even though Chris acted completely indifferent about it.
Even though he wore that cool, take-it-or-leave-it attitude like a second skin.
As a professional at attaching herself to the right people, she knew better than anyone: if you start taking a host's polite dismissal at face value, you're one step away from being discarded.
Wake up and read the room.
And besides — Chris was objectively not a bad catch.
His voice was pleasant, his face was — she'd admit it privately — genuinely handsome. And his strength placed him at the very top of this school's hierarchy.
Sure, he wasn't the warm, emotionally available type that most girls daydreamed about.
But in front of his overwhelming, absolute capability, that minor shortcoming was easy to overlook.
And honestly, in Karuizawa Kei's eyes — for someone like her, someone whose sense of security had always run on empty — that edge of cool control and quiet possessiveness wasn't even a flaw. It read more like a different kind of tenderness. One reserved for her alone.
She had barely finished applying her lipstick, hadn't even begun to act on her plans, when the knock came.
At the door: Horikita Suzune, expression characteristically cold, was the first to appear.
Behind her came Kushida Kikyo, all warm smiles. And, expression hovering somewhere between mild exasperation and patience, Matsushita Chiaki.
"...Ugh."
Karuizawa Kei let out a quiet, suffering sigh.
Three girls at her door simultaneously. She couldn't explain why, but it gave her the distinct feeling of having been pulled aside for an interrogation — the kind that came with romance-related cross-examination.
Though when she actually thought about it — she was really only close with Matsushita Chiaki out of the three.
Horikita Suzune. Kushida Kikyo.
The two of you are...?
Still, with Chris's earlier instructions in mind — and despite not particularly warming to either of them — Karuizawa Kei relented, stepping back to let all three in.
She poured water for each of them. Then she sat down at her desk, chin in her hand, and looked at the assembled group.
"Alright. What's so important it needed to be said here, in my room?"
"Just so we're clear — if this is about romance or gossip, I have absolutely zero interest."
"Kei-chan, you're too sensitive," Kushida Kikyo said, waving a hand.
"Honestly, I am curious about how things are going between you and Chris-kun. But I know when to read the room, obviously."
She glanced at the other two. "The reason we came today is mainly because Horikita and Matsushita have something important to talk to you about. Once they've said what they need to say, I do actually have one small, rather difficult-to-bring-up personal matter I'd like your advice on..."
Horikita Suzune didn't bother with a preamble.
She reached into her pocket, produced an Item Catalog obtained from the Black Sphere exchange, and placed it directly in front of Karuizawa Kei.
"I've reached a point where I don't quite know what role I should take when I face Chris."
Horikita Suzune kept her gaze lowered, avoiding the questioning look Karuizawa Kei sent her way.
"Please pass this catalog to him for me."
And with that.
Without giving Karuizawa Kei any chance to refuse or ask questions, Horikita Suzune walked out of the dormitory room.
Her steps were as steady as ever, but to everyone left behind watching that retreating figure, there was something unmistakably ragged about it. Like someone trying very hard not to look like they were fleeing.
"What's gotten into Horikita?" Kushida Kikyo asked, staring at the closed door with genuine confusion.
"She looked like she was in a daze even before this. I thought it would pass once the exam ended, but she's still the same."
Matsushita Chiaki took a sip from her glass.
"Looks like she lost something along with her confidence." Her voice was quiet and measured. "That kind of internal damage — only she can work through it, in her own time. No amount of talking from the outside can actually reach her."
Karuizawa Kei slid the catalog into her desk drawer, dusted off her hands, and looked at the remaining two.
"Right. Horikita's done. Is there anything else?"
"If not, I've actually got somewhere to be."
Kushida Kikyo pressed her lips together.
Matsushita Chiaki showed no sign of urgency whatsoever. Kushida watched that for a moment, and something flickered behind her eyes — a brief internal struggle.
She drew a breath. Made a decision.
"Okay, listen — Kei-chan, Chiaki."
"Whatever I'm about to say right now — please don't breathe a word of it to anyone. I'm serious. Keep this between us."
Matsushita Chiaki and Karuizawa Kei exchanged a glance and settled back into their seats.
Matsushita set her cup down, tone even. "That depends on what you're about to say."
Kushida Kikyo paused — visibly organizing her words.
"Okay, so... the thing is."
"As one of the original fixed participants selected by the Black Sphere from the start — Chris and Ichinose and Ryuuen all began with three extra lives compared to the rest of us regular students."
Matsushita Chiaki's expression didn't shift. Her reply was direct.
"They're compulsory participants in every Black Sphere exam. A few extra lives as compensation is reasonable enough. Nothing worth envying."
Karuizawa Kei frowned slightly. "And how does that relate to why you came to find me?"
Kushida's fingers twisted together in her lap, her voice dropping lower.
"You know how the Black Sphere's original selection mechanic included a component that randomly drafted one classmate per fixed participant."
"What I'm trying to say is — as the very first person from our entire year level to be randomly selected into a Black Sphere exam..."
She swallowed.
"In the initial prompt the Black Sphere gave me, it didn't remove my name from the list of privileged participants."
"So I've been wondering... whether there's a chance I might also have the same treatment as Chris and the others — three lives. But I've been too afraid to gamble on it. What if it's just wishful thinking on my part? So I came to you to talk it through."
A beat of silence.
Karuizawa Kei understood immediately.
Back when the atmosphere in Class D was what it used to be — if word had gotten out that Kushida potentially had three lives — there would have been chaos. People would have leaned on her, pressured her with appeals to class unity, pushed her to volunteer herself for trials or take someone else's place in the exam.
But things were different now.
After the midterm exam, most of the students who'd been coasting on optimism had been wiped out. Even the infamous troublesome trio from Class D had been trimmed down to just Sudou Ken, who'd barely made it through by the skin of his teeth — and was still shaking from it.
The current Class D didn't have anyone reckless enough to point fingers and make demands anymore.
After all, nobody could rule out another group exam at the end of the year. And if you'd made enemies, you couldn't exactly expect them to save you then.
Even if Kushida made this public, she didn't actually need to worry about being pressured into anything dangerous.
Karuizawa Kei thought for a moment, then looked at Matsushita Chiaki.
Matsushita Chiaki let out a quiet sigh.
It was transparent, honestly. What Kushida Kikyo was actually after had nothing to do with advice.
She wasn't here to be counseled.
She was here to leverage the possibility that she might have three lives as social capital — to raise her standing within their circle and quietly signal that she was worth more than an ordinary girl.
That said, if what she said was true, then Kushida Kikyo was genuinely someone fortune had smiled on.
Under Karuizawa Kei's prompting look, Matsushita Chiaki sat up straighter.
"Honestly, I think the reason you're tying yourself in knots over this comes down to one thing: you still haven't settled your own place in all of this, Kushida."
"Deep down, you're still holding onto the hope that you can always stay in the back, that you won't ever have to face those monsters head-on."
Matsushita Chiaki's voice was quiet, but each word landed cleanly.
"But everyone has been through the uninhabited island exam now. Do you still not understand?"
"There are no guaranteed safe zones in these exams."
"You can't keep banking on Chris or Ichinose showing up to save you exactly when things go wrong."
"When they're stretched too thin to keep themselves standing — where do you think that leaves you?"
"In the end, surviving comes down to yourself and no one else."
Matsushita turned to look at Karuizawa Kei. "Am I wrong, Kei-chan?"
Karuizawa Kei felt an involuntary wave of awkwardness wash over her.
It really did feel like that last part had been aimed at her specifically...
But she nodded anyway.
"Yeah... I know."
"Nobody gets to depend on someone else forever."
Unless you find a perfect host.
But even then — even as someone who'd made an art of attaching herself to someone stronger in order to survive.
She understood that only when she had her own teeth — her own genuine conditions for value — could she truly take root, rather than being quietly discarded.
____
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