"So it really is impossible to materialize a Parasyte inside the school grounds, huh."
In the shade of a secluded tree-lined bench, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stood quietly, studying the all-purpose capsule resting in his palm — the one that contained his Parasyte.
"Can't be helped."
Katsuragi Kohei stood beside him, arms folded across his chest. "If a biological weapon like that could be freely released anywhere on campus, Advanced Nurturing High School would have fallen apart long ago."
Because of the recently concluded Uninhabited Island exam — during which he'd had the good fortune of forming an early alliance with Ayanokoji, Ryuuen Kakeru, and the others — there was a certain bond between them, however thin.
So, even though Katsuragi Kohei had spent much of the time after the airdrop working alongside Hirata Yousuke, Koenji Rokusuke, and their group rather than Ayanokoji's, they'd all weathered the same storm in the end.
And with the Black Sphere exam looming over all their heads like a mountain, class rankings and factional divides had long since ceased to mean anything in the face of life and death.
So, after returning to campus —
Even after the Black Sphere's point settlement had officially elevated Class D — now the overall top scorers — to Class A, while the former Class A had been knocked down to Class B, Katsuragi Kohei had shamelessly wrangled his way into Ayanokoji's little circle.
Hirata Yousuke and Koenji Rokusuke hadn't minded in the slightest. If anything, they seemed quietly pleased about it. After all, Katsuragi Kohei was someone who had managed to stand toe-to-toe with Sakayanagi Arisu within Class A even before the Black Sphere appeared — and even if he hadn't been among those initially selected by the Black Sphere and granted special privileges the way Sakayanagi had, he was undeniably a rare talent.
With the Black Sphere showing no interest in splitting them into factions and having them kill each other — at least for now — and the monsters growing more grotesque by the day, nobody was going to complain about having one more capable person on their side.
That said, Hirata Yousuke shared Katsuragi Kohei's concern on this particular point.
He looked over at Ayanokoji Kiyotaka — expression blank as ever, as though he'd already expected this outcome — and asked:
"Ayanokoji-kun… besides the Parasyte restriction, does that also mean you can't use your titan transformation ability while on school grounds?"
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka gave a small shake of his head. He reached into his pocket and produced the red capsule containing the titan serum, laying it side by side with the Parasyte capsule in his open palm.
"Looks like it."
"The moment you step within the school's boundaries, any biological weapon that falls outside the realm of conventional understanding gets forcibly compressed into capsule form by the system."
"Heh… Hirata-boy, that's entirely to be expected."
Koenji Rokusuke held up the small mirror he carried everywhere, gave his hair a cursory inspection, and let out a soft, amused laugh.
"Even the basic Combat Suits are technically only on loan to us — the system reclaims them into storage automatically once an exam ends. So naturally, something like this" — he gestured vaguely at the capsules — "something that physically merges with the body and could cause catastrophic damage if it ever lost control… it would be strange if precautions weren't taken."
Ayanokoji lowered his gaze, eyes settling on the Parasyte capsule in his palm.
"That said — even though I can't materialize it, I can still hold a mental conversation with the Parasyte inside the capsule through the watch the Black Sphere provided."
"If I had to guess, that's the system's compromise between restriction and convenience."
Katsuragi Kohei rubbed his shaved head, a faint note of worry in his voice.
"But if you can't materialize it, then any time you want to practice actual combat coordination with your Parasyte, doesn't that basically mean spending points to use the Black Sphere's paid [Hyperbolic Time Chamber]?"
Ayanokoji didn't seem particularly bothered. His tone remained flat.
"Being able to maintain basic communication and run theoretical tactical drills is enough for now."
Owing to his innate lack of empathy and his absolute rationality, Ayanokoji had discovered that his compatibility with Parasytes — creatures of pure instinct and logic — was strikingly high.
Even back in the Time Chamber, he hadn't needed anywhere near as much time to achieve synergy as others had.
More often than not, he and his Parasyte operated in a state of wordless, seamless coordination — fighting side by side without needing to exchange a single thought.
Hirata Yousuke thought for a moment, then suddenly spoke up with a suggestion.
"In that case… should we go find Chris and bring him into the discussion? He's the strongest among us right now. He probably has a deeper understanding of the Black Sphere's rules than any of us do."
Before Koenji could even open his mouth, Ayanokoji shook his head and shut the idea down.
"No need. Same as Ryuuen — Chris has his own matters to attend to right now. There's no reason to disturb him." Ayanokoji's flat, impassive eyes drifted toward the distance. "He's the same kind of person I am at heart — pragmatic and efficiency-driven. Even if we don't go looking for him, he'll know when it's time to cooperate."
"Besides… the girls genuinely do need him there to keep things stable."
Koenji Rokusuke tucked his mirror away and gave a nod of agreement.
"Different roles for different people. With him keeping Karuizawa and Horikita steady, at least the girls won't have a breakdown at a critical moment and drag us down."
"Though…" Koenji's tone shifted. "What I'm more curious about right now are those transfer students who just arrived… I do hope there's some moldable talent among them."
Ayanokoji picked up from Hirata Yousuke's earlier thread.
"The transfer students can wait. We'll assess them when the time comes."
Looking at Ryuuen's class as it currently stood — after losing core fighters like Yamada Albert, Ibuki Mio, and several others in quick succession — the gap in their combat strength had become impossible to ignore.
If the situation continued to deteriorate, they'd inevitably have to find a way to exploit loopholes in the school's own rules, identifying people with potential and arranging transfers into Ryuuen's class to shore up the deficit.
Otherwise, letting dead weight continue to muddle through the Black Sphere exams would be more than just disrespectful to everyone else's lives.
In a system like the Black Sphere's — minor exams every three days, major exams every nine —
It would be a luxury they couldn't afford. And a fatal one at that.
—
Keyaki Mall. Second floor. Outside the custom-order clothing boutique.
After Sakayanagi Arisu and Amanatsu Kazuha had each delivered their respective measurements and alteration specifications to a visibly shell-shocked female designer, the two of them instinctively turned around — ready to ask Chris whether he might as well get a butler's outfit tailored while they were at it, to spend a few points and enjoy a little roleplay fun.
Only to find that Chris, who had been standing nearby just moments ago, had already quietly slipped out of the shop.
Which made sense. Chris had never cared much about what he wore — as long as it was functional, that was the end of his interest. His base stats alone were impressive enough that he could make anything look like it belonged on him.
He only ever had opinions about what other people wore —
Nun's habits, yukatas, black thigh-highs paired with swimsuits and so on… ahem, ahem.
So naturally, there was absolutely no way he'd have stood around like a fool, handing two women with more tricks up their sleeves than a beehive has cells the perfect opportunity to take advantage of him.
And besides — isn't this just how fishing works?
Pull, then release. Keep just the right air of mystery.
Leave her never quite sure whether there's bait on the hook this time — and then, driven by sheer curiosity, the fish always ends up biting anyway.
Sure enough.
When Sakayanagi Arisu and Amanatsu Kazuha discovered that Chris had made his exit ahead of them, things unfolded exactly as he'd anticipated — they immediately wrapped up their business inside the shop and came hurrying after him.
Not that Chris had any intention of pausing to wait for them, either.
Because as he was wandering, he happened to run into someone he knew.
Which neatly skipped the "push and pull" step entirely.
"Chris-kun, hi there~"
Shiina Hiyori had just stepped off the escalator. She spotted Chris, and her pale violet eyes brightened just slightly. She came to a stop and gave a small, cheerful wave.
Chris looked at her, mildly puzzled.
"Is the school's counseling session already over…? That was fast."
Shiina Hiyori gave a gentle shake of her head, her soft hair swaying past her ear.
"I was planning to go, but I changed my mind on the way — because of something Morishita-san said."
Chris shifted his gaze to Morishita Ai, who was walking alongside Shiina and currently cradling a cup of milk tea in both hands.
Feeling his eyes on her, Morishita Ai calmly raised her right hand, made a peace sign in front of her face, and delivered solemnly:
"Cherish the present — because there's no guarantee the sun will rise tomorrow!"
Chris's mouth twitched. He gave a slow nod. "And you two were heading to…"
Shiina Hiyori, making no effort to hide it, answered honestly.
"I was planning to convert the spending points I was allocated into books… Because for me, just being around books is enough to feel at ease."
"Morishita-san happened to overhear me talking to myself about it, and offered to come along and help."
"Honestly, I was a little surprised when I first heard she wanted to spend everything on books."
Morishita Ai raised both hands with great gravity and proclaimed:
"It's like holding a naan in my right hand, and another naan in my left."
"Put them together and you get naan-believable!"
"Pretty fitting way to describe how I felt, right~?"
Chris was quiet for two full seconds. Then he let out a resigned sigh.
"You know, there's supposedly a fine for making puns that bad…"
At just that moment —
Sakayanagi Arisu and Amanatsu Kazuha, having finally caught up, spotted Shiina Hiyori and Morishita Ai mid-conversation with Chris. Both of them blinked in surprise.
Sakayanagi Arisu drew closer at a measured pace, pressed her pale pink lips together, and delivered a barbed remark in a sweetly acid tone:
"Oh, so that's why you bolted so fast — you were off starting a new side route."
"But Chris-kun, for someone who's supposed to be an expert at playing all the routes — surely you know you absolutely cannot risk resetting your affection meter on a side route before you've fully cleared the main one?"
Shiina Hiyori flushed immediately and waved her hands in a rapid denial.
"It's not — it's not what you're imagining, Sakayanagi-san… I just happened to run into Chris-kun, that's all…"
Morishita Ai, however, nodded beside her with deep solemnity.
"A meeting written in the stars. A bond woven by fate."
"No matter how many times we're born in different lives, we'll always find our way back to each other in the end!"
Amanatsu Kazuha glanced once at this somewhat otherworldly upperclassman, stifled a laugh behind her hand, then stepped forward in her best well-behaved kouhai manner.
"Senpai~ What are you two here to buy today?"
"If you're shopping for clothes or cosmetics, I've already done a ton of research on this place — I know exactly where the good stuff is. Want me to show you around~?"
Shiina Hiyori parted her lips to respond, but Chris answered for her before she could.
"She's here to buy books. Which makes her purpose considerably more respectable than either of you two."
"Mmm…"
Shiina Hiyori puffed out her cheeks helplessly, her big eyes casting a quietly reproachful look at Chris.
Well, yes, technically he wasn't wrong…
But having it stated that bluntly out loud somehow made her feel like she'd just accumulated a critical amount of hate from people she hadn't intended to provoke.
And she genuinely, truly hadn't been trying to compete with Sakayanagi-san or anyone else for Chris's time — it really had been a coincidence.
Hiyori's nature was reserved and understated. At most, she might quietly glance up at Chris from behind a book if they happened to share space in the library — using the pages as cover, just enough to let herself feel a small, secret flutter of warmth. That was the full extent of it.
Anything more than that.
She didn't just not dare to pursue it — she didn't dare to even think it.
Sakayanagi Arisu, however, only looked at Shiina Hiyori for a moment before generously cutting in.
"Oh, but that works out perfectly. We haven't taken off our Combat Suits yet anyway, so we can help carry things for you, Shiina. And we do happen to have the current strongest person here as well."
"Your class was allocated over two million spending points from the Uninhabited Island exam. Even if you spend every single one of them on books, we can haul the whole lot back to your dorm in one trip."
Amanatsu Kazuha clapped her hands together cheerfully.
"Yes yes, I can help carry books too, Senpai! I've got my Combat Suit on — I'm ridiculously strong right now!"
Shiina Hiyori still hesitated slightly.
But Chris could see the awkwardness beneath her hesitation. He spoke quietly.
"It's fine, Hiyori."
"Spending a bit more time around Sakayanagi and the others — honestly, it'll do you good."
"You have your Combat Suit now, yes — but facing the exams that are bound to come… you haven't really prepared yourself mentally, have you?"
At those words —
Shiina Hiyori deflated like a punctured balloon and let out a quiet sigh.
"It's really not as dramatic as you're all making it sound… I was just planning to buy a few collector's editions for my collection."
"As for spending every last point — never mind that my dorm couldn't physically hold that many books, I still need to eat!"
Morishita Ai nodded beside her with complete conviction. "That's a fair point."
Unfortunately, with things already in motion and Sakayanagi and Amanatsu's "enthusiasm" surrounding her from both sides, Shiina Hiyori no longer had any room left to decline.
If she was being honest with herself, Hiyori was starting to wonder if she was just a little too much of a pushover.
From a rational standpoint, when someone like Sakayanagi extended an olive branch this openly, rejecting it was out of the question — you were supposed to seize the opportunity, strengthen the connection, improve your odds of survival within the group.
But…
Ichinose Honami fought because she felt the weight of protecting everyone around her. Horikita Suzune fought to prove herself.
When Shiina Hiyori looked honestly into her own heart, she knew she wasn't made of that kind of stuff.
Without the Black Sphere forcing her into an exam, she genuinely didn't have the courage to even glance at a monster.
On an actual battlefield, she'd be dead weight — full stop.
Being called out so directly by Chris made the fear that she'd worked so hard to push aside come creeping back up from somewhere deep inside her. Even her footsteps, which had felt light just minutes before, now felt heavy.
Chris noticed the shift in her mood immediately, and spoke quietly.
"Did what I just said… sting a little?"
"I'm sorry — I'm not always the most tactful, and I wasn't trying to hurt you. If it upset you, then I apologize."
The open, obvious favoritism in Chris's tone did not go unnoticed by Sakayanagi Arisu, walking right beside him. She was immediately displeased.
"Excuse me? Your attitude toward me and toward Shiina-san is noticeably different, you know!"
"With me it's sarcasm and teasing, and with Shiina-san it's all soft and gentle?"
Chris spread his hands, completely unapologetic.
"Doesn't that just mean we're closer? Who's polite to the people right beside them?"
"…Fine. I'll accept that."
Sakayanagi Arisu gave a light huff — but the corner of her mouth curved upward despite her best efforts to stop it.
Meanwhile, Shiina Hiyori stopped walking, shook her head earnestly, and explained:
"It's not Chris-kun's fault at all — it's entirely me running away from things and wearing myself down from the inside."
After all, Chris had said it out of consideration for her.
With the Uninhabited Island exam freshly behind them, she really did need to start thinking ahead to the Black Sphere exams.
Even though the Black Sphere had declared at the end of the last settlement that all anomalies in this world had been cleared —
It was obvious the Black Sphere would open new exams. The lingering hooks at the end of the final settlement had already hinted as much.
And even if she wasn't a fixed participant, who was to say she wouldn't end up pulled in as a random intruder one of these days?
If that happened, wouldn't she be back to relying on Chris, Sakayanagi, and the others to protect her anyway?
The girl took a slow, deep breath.
"Besides — I have a Combat Suit now. That puts me in better conditions than the vast majority of my classmates already."
"If I keep running from this and wearing myself down with it, that really isn't fair to them."
"I'll think it over properly — and work on getting myself to adapt."
Chris gave a satisfied nod.
"Good. That's all I could ask for."
After that, the group followed Shiina Hiyori's lead to the largest physical bookstore the school had to offer outside of the actual library, and entered full shopping mode.
With their Combat Suits, hauling stacks of books was trivial.
And then, just as they were helping Shiina Hiyori carry several enormous piles of books back to her dormitory room —
Shiina Hiyori reached into a specially wrapped bag and produced a book for each of them.
For Sakayanagi Arisu: Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca.
For Morishita Ai: Haruki Murakami's Hear the Wind Sing.
For Amanatsu Kazuha: Ito Ogawa's The Kamogawa Food Detectives.
Every choice was a perfect match for its recipient's personality — quietly revealing just how sharp Shiina Hiyori's eye for people truly was.
But when Hiyori turned to pass Chris his, she held out not one book, but two.
Besides Raymond Chandler's classic noir novel Farewell, My Lovely, tucked beneath it was a hardcover edition of The Magic Cube Mansion.
Naturally, being the perceptive soul she was, Shiina Hiyori had waited for the brief window when Sakayanagi and the others had stepped away to put books down — leaving the two of them briefly alone in the doorway — before quietly pressing both books into his hands.
The girl tilted her head down slightly, her voice soft and careful:
"This one" — meaning the Chandler — "has an ending with a really interesting aftertaste. I hope you find it as interesting as I do."
"And this one, The Magic Cube Mansion… I'm lending it to you for now. This one…"
"I love it quite a lot."
"If you have time… would you like to read it?"
Chris was mildly puzzled for a moment at why she hadn't simply gifted both books —
But then he thought about it for half a second and understood perfectly.
Borrow and return, borrow again without trouble.
There was no reason to refuse, so Chris smiled and accepted them both without fuss.
In the brief moment of parting, Sakayanagi Arisu had been ready to rope Chris in as a sparring partner.
But he declined her invitation.
Under her mildly puffed-up expression, Chris raised the copy of Farewell, My Lovely that Shiina Hiyori had given him and gave it a small wave — signaling that he needed to go decompress and let his nerves unwind.
In truth, "relaxing" wasn't quite the right word for what was waiting for him.
Even though Hiyori's books were absolutely worth savoring at leisure —
As far as Chris was concerned, right now, back in his dorm room, there was something far more important waiting for him.
Roughly tallying it up — starting from the last upper-year Black Sphere exam, all the way through to the end of the Uninhabited Island battle royale —
The daily refresh item tickets he'd been accumulating in the system had, at this exact moment, finally reached an even ten.
Ten pulls!
Sure, people talk about saving up for a ten-pull all the time — but in real life, who actually manages to hoard ten tickets without losing their mind and blowing them the second they reach five?
Let's see if pity rate is actually a thing!
Back in his single dorm room, Chris locked the door behind him.
He made a deliberate trip to the bathroom to wash his hands. A brief, solemn ritual of preparation. Then he combed himself presentable and sat upright on the edge of his bed.
And summoned the system.
"O great— ahem!"
"System, activate!"
He opened his inventory.
And looked at the ten items sitting right there.
Chris sharply inhaled a breath that was decidedly not cold air.
[Dragon Ball · Senzu Beans (One Bag)]
[Galaxy-Destroying Bomb]
[Giant God Hill]
[Cosmic Cube · Space Stone]
[Aether Particle · Reality Stone]
[T-Virus Serum]
[Kamen Rider · Odin]
[Icarus · Omnipotent Card]
[Allspark]
[Book of Ages]
[Lord of the Rings · The One Ring]
"Hold on… so pity rate is actually real, bro?!"
____
👻🔥Seek: Walnut-chan🔥👻
🔥 New history: Jujutsu x Mieruko: Oh no, am I a villain too?
Let's hit these goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = 1 extra chapter for the public!