"What? Ayanokoji Kiyotaka dropped out?!"
The Student Council Office.
Seated in Horikita Manabu's old chair, mulling things over in his mind, Nagumo Miyabi—upon hearing the report relayed by one of his subordinates—rarely widened his eyes by a fraction. For the moment, no one had been able to provide concrete confirmation.
But Ayanokoji Kiyotaka was now one of the core combat assets of the first-year class, and he shared no shallow connection with Hirata Yousuke, the male leader of Class A.
The instant the exam ended, his disappearance naturally drew the attention of those with their ears to the ground.
Add to that the conjecture that Chris had conveniently endorsed, going along with the current.
This explosive piece of news spread like wildfire—from one mouth to ten, from ten to a hundred.
And so it quickly reached Nagumo Miyabi's ears.
To be honest, at first Nagumo Miyabi hadn't believed it at all. After all, his intuition had always been sharp. That Ayanokoji Kiyotaka—though he usually wore the dead-fish-eyed look of a man without an ounce of motivation—
would actually turn serious and cautious when something came up, never acting without aim.
By rights, a man like that should never be the first coward to voluntarily quit the Black Sphere game and flee from reality.
He simply wasn't the type to cling to life and fear death.
But thinking back carefully...
When the Black Sphere exam had ended and they were about to leave, Ayanokoji did seem to have made moves as if preparing to depart.
Otherwise, given his character of never stirring without profit, there was no way he'd have handed over his kill spoils so readily.
Mulling this over, Nagumo Miyabi reached into his pocket and fished out three Universal Capsules. He spread them across his palm, lining them up one by one.
Setting aside the one in the middle—which had dropped from a kill he'd made himself, granting the terrifying ability to "infinitely evolve simply by devouring the flesh and blood of Nen users"—
the other two were drops Ayanokoji had left behind as he departed, belonging to Shaiapouf and Menthuthuyoupi.
One was a bodily-mutation ability that multiplied a person's Nen in proportion to their rage; the other was "Scale Powder, the Love-Spring," which could use scale powder to form a hidden circle that enveloped enemies to detect their emotions and information.
These were the most central, signature abilities of the Royal Guards.
Still, when it came down to it, the most useful drop this time was probably the spoils belonging to the Cat Woman, Neferpitou.
But after hearing the battle report from the test personnel who'd taken part in the cleanup, Nagumo Miyabi let the thought drop.
That item was in Chris's hands now.
No need to rub a potential future collaborator the wrong way over such a trifle.
It was just...
"You really are a buzzkill, Ayanokoji."
Nagumo Miyabi clenched the capsules back into his fist and let out a rather bored sigh:
"I hope you were just probing the rules, and didn't genuinely believe you could escape this way...
"If you really spent a hundred points to buy some laughable freedom... then that's just too dull."
In Nagumo Miyabi's mind, Ayanokoji had originally rated extremely high—he'd even seen him as prime prey, one who might someday temporarily fill Horikita Manabu's place as a target for his amusement and rivalry, a way to satisfy his obsessive lust for conquest.
But now it seemed...
"Just as I thought..."
Nagumo Miyabi leaned back against the chair, gazing up at the ceiling.
"From beginning to end, are you, Senior Horikita, the only one who could ever match my level of granularity?"
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
The sheer informational shock brought on by the "Ayanokoji possibly dropped out" news made Ichinose Honami—who'd originally meant to linger a while longer with Chris—temporarily lose the heart to stay.
Granted, she really was curious about which girl would be the first to come sidling up to Chris later, so she could make a note of it.
But just as she was about to leave, the girl couldn't help but halt her steps.
She turned around, her blue eyes fixed steadily on Chris:
"Senpai..."
The girl bit her lower lip lightly, anxious over gains and losses: "If we go ask the Black Sphere tomorrow, and it confirms that Ayanokoji really did choose to leave on his own because he'd gathered enough points...
"Then would you... once you've saved up enough points yourself, also want to leave this place?"
Chris looked at the girl's nervous expression, thought for a moment, and spoke candidly:
"It'd be a lie to say I have no desire to leave at all. Who'd want to live on edge day after day in this hellhole where tomorrow's never guaranteed?
"But as 'fixed qualifiers' who were locked in from the very start, we're different from those latecomers who joined midway. Leaving... probably won't be so easy."
At this point, Chris paused, his tone softening a rare degree:
"Besides... if I really did leave, what would all of you do?"
At these words, Ichinose Honami pressed her pale-pink lips together slightly.
'All of you.'
Not simply meaning 'me,' then...
Honestly, as a girl in the throes of adolescence, Ichinose was thoroughly displeased with that pluralized pronoun.
Even at a time like this, couldn't he even toss out a casual little lie like 'I can't bear to part with you,' just to make her happy?
Did he really have to tack on that 'all,' lumping everyone together...
Senpai really is too cunning—and far too oblivious to romance!
But Ichinose knew full well in her heart that Chris was exactly the kind of person who would never compromise easily or hand out false promises.
To force an answer out of him would most likely backfire, only pushing him further away.
After a brief moment's thought, Ichinose pushed down the little pang of bitterness in her heart.
"Senpai."
The girl looked straight into Chris's eyes and declared:
"If it's possible... I hope I can walk alongside you, all the way to the end."
With that, not waiting for Chris to react, Ichinose grabbed the still-dazed Yotsuya Miko beside her and strode off briskly.
Judging by the direction she headed, she was clearly off to find Amikura Mako and get the full rundown on the situation.
Chris paused, as if momentarily lost in thought.
Hirata Yousuke, who'd been silently standing beside him serving as a backdrop, suddenly cleared his throat and spoke:
"Aren't you going to respond at all?
"It's not just Ichinose—there's also Karuizawa and Horikita from our class... Do you intend to just keep stringing them along like this?"
Chris turned his head, shot him a glance, and said flatly:
"Hirata, don't you think that for people in our position right now, indulging in romance is an awfully extravagant thing to do?"
Hirata Yousuke fell silent for a moment.
He sighed:
"From a rational standpoint, that's true.
"But, Chris... that's the composure of the strong talking—you're thinking in the longer term.
"For us ordinary people, though, when facing extreme danger, anxiety, and the suffocating dread of staring death in the face... most people's psychological defenses are extraordinarily fragile.
"To keep from breaking down, humans instinctively seek out the most intense, most primal 'source of pleasure' as a psychological compensation to offset their fear."
Hirata Yousuke looked at Chris, his tone unusually serious:
"If you ask me, you'd better not bottle them up too harshly...
"Easing and soothing them appropriately, whether physically or psychologically, can only do their mental state good, never harm."
Listening to this outrageous speech, Chris waved a hand and brushed him off offhandedly:
"I get it, you don't need to say any more."
Compared to me, you think a softhearted do-gooder like you understands the human heart better than I do?
Don't go throwing off this bro's rhythm.
At that, Hirata Yousuke nodded and, tactfully, said no more.
In truth, given his original character, he absolutely shouldn't—and wouldn't—have broached such a slightly "overstepping" topic.
After all, his personal ties with Chris weren't all that deep.
But with Ayanokoji now vanished...
Chris was both the object of the class's female leader Karuizawa Kei's affections, and himself a fixed exam participant whose strength led the pack by a wide margin.
As someone devoted to protecting the entire class, Hirata had no choice but to take the initiative to grow closer to Chris.
And the kind of private topic that could quickly bring two guys closer...
in Hirata's view, nothing beat the matter of what goes on between men and women.
Of course, he wasn't just spouting nonsense, fabricating things out of thin air to curry favor.
He genuinely believed this "compensation mechanism" was viable!
After all, back before the Black Sphere descended, such a scheme would've been thwarted by social decency and moral constraints.
But now, all those rules had long since bowed beneath the Black Sphere.
Many things that were absolutely off-limits before now had a feasible justification.
Take Karuizawa and Horikita Suzune—Hirata had eyes in his head, and he could plainly see they were quite willing; and he was confident that, given Ichinose's nature of sacrificing everything for her companions, so long as Chris pushed a little harder, she most likely wouldn't hold out to the bitter end either.
The only tricky one... was probably just Sakayanagi Arisu.
After all, from her bearing she was clearly the pampered young lady of a wealthy household—girls like that carried a certain pride in their bones.
She'd never share easily with anyone.
Chris glanced at the faint flicker in Hirata's eyes as he mulled things over.
and couldn't help finding it a little funny.
'Ayanokoji, oh Ayanokoji... you really are guilty of the most heinous crimes.'
'Look at what you've driven a softhearted do-gooder like Hirata Yousuke into—he's practically turned into a brothel madam!'
Chris shook his head and waved Hirata Yousuke off in farewell.
...
Walking alone down the tree-lined path back to the dorm.
He lowered his head to check some Line messages on his phone that he hadn't gotten around to replying to.
After a moment's thought, he swiped a finger and dialed Tachibana Akane.
After a brief few rings of waiting—
"Hello... is that you, Chris?" On the other end, Tachibana Akane's voice sounded a touch weary. "Are you and Ichinose back at school already?"
Chris slowed his pace and said:
"Mm, just got back. I already had Ichinose send you the purchase list from this outing, senpai—you can check whether you've received it."
"I saw it." Tachibana Akane gave a soft hum, then asked, "Besides that, was there anything else you wanted to say, calling me specially like this?"
Chris lowered his voice a notch:
"Actually, I mainly wanted to ask how you're doing, senpai.
"There were too many people at the exam site, so it wasn't convenient to ask in detail. But I remember you didn't look so well... and I thought it'd be better to ask in private."
At this, Tachibana Akane seemed to visibly freeze, her breath catching for a brief instant.
After a good while, as if she'd finally collected herself, she forced a smile and replied:
"I'm fine, really.
"I was just startled for a split second back then, that's all. The exam's over now, and you all wiped out the monsters—how could anything still be wrong with me?"
She pitched her voice higher, feigning ease:
"I am your senpai, after all—don't underestimate me too much, okay! Rest easy, junior!"
Listening to Tachibana Akane's voice—clearly forcing a calm she didn't feel, faintly trembling even—Chris smiled silently.
If she truly were fine, she wouldn't use so many exclamations, much less keep stressing it over and over.
Granted, at the exam site, the Cat Woman's attacks hadn't actually gotten around to targeting Tachibana Akane yet.
But unlike Kars's kind of instant kill—draining victims completely dry after stopping time—
the Cat Woman, to keep the vampires from reviving, had quite literally, right before their eyes, crushed those few students' heads whole before she was satisfied.
Naturally, when such a scene fell into the eyes of an ordinary girl like Tachibana Akane—
its psychological impact was, in fact, far more intense than what Karuizawa and Horikita had gone through yesterday!
That she hadn't screamed and burst into tears on the spot was entirely thanks to the dignity she held as a senpai and Student Council Secretary, propping her up by sheer force of will.
She didn't want to lose face in front of her juniors, much less come across as a useless deadweight dragging everyone down.
Yet even so, deep in her subconscious she was, in fact, scared out of her wits.
Still, Chris had no intention of poking through that paper-thin veneer just yet.
After all, this was barely the beginning—there were still long days ahead.
Boiling a frog in slowly warming water—it had to be done gradually.
By the time those more bizarre, more SAN-draining monsters made their successive appearances—or even when Horikita Manabu truly ran into some unstoppable crisis...
that would be when he, this piece of "driftwood," would truly play his irreplaceable role.
For now, simply planting a seed was enough.
After exchanging a couple more pleasantries with Tachibana Akane, fulfilling his entrusted duty of "looking after the secretary on his big brother-in-law's behalf"—
and carefully measuring his tone so his concern wouldn't come across as too calculated—Chris considerately hung up the phone.
Putting his phone away, he made to head back to the dorm.
But when he looked up, he saw Karuizawa Kei waiting at the entrance of the dorm building, head down, scuffing the toe of her shoe.
Chris couldn't help saying in surprise:
"Why are you waiting here... aren't you afraid someone will see and get the wrong idea?"
Hearing his voice, Karuizawa Kei spun around abruptly.
The instant she saw clearly who it was, her eyes reddened and she threw herself straight into Chris's arms.
Both arms locked tightly around his waist.
"I don't even care if people get the wrong idea anymore..."
She buried her face in Chris's broad chest and said in a muffled voice, "Besides, everyone's so weighed down with worries right now that no one has the spare attention to care about us for the moment."
As she spoke, she drew in a deep breath.
Yet unexpectedly she made no further greedy moves, simply letting go obediently and keeping a hazy, push-and-pull distance between herself and Chris.
She tilted her head up, an undisguisable dread in her eyes:
"Chris—
"If Ayanokoji really did buy his way out with points and left... doesn't that mean... that someday, once you've saved up enough points, there'll come a time when you leave us too, abandoning everything here?"
Faced with this question—identical at its core to the one Ichinose had posed as she left—
Chris rubbed his temples with a slight headache.
"Kei.
"There's no need for you to spin yourself into anxiety over something that can't possibly happen.
"Since I'm one of the original fixed ones... I imagine there's no way I could ever leave this place."
At his words, Karuizawa Kei's taut shoulders relaxed.
But she still kept her head lowered, fiddling with the hem of her uniform skirt, and apologized in a small voice like a child who'd done something wrong:
"I'm sorry... I was being too sensitive.
"Sorry, I just... I just feel so insecure in this environment..."
Chris stroked his chin, sizing her up with a deep gaze:
"A sense of security...
"So what you mean is—only when I truly accept you, branding you as mine both physically and psychologically, can you feel this so-called 'sense of security'?"
Hearing this blunt, naked declaration—
Karuizawa Kei didn't know how to answer.
Her fair cheeks flushed crimson all the way to her ears in an instant, so embarrassed she didn't dare even glance at Chris.
But from the way she bit her lip, lowering her head in silence yet offering no rebuttal, it was plain that Chris had hit the mark exactly.
It made sense, really.
For someone like Karuizawa, who pinned all her hopes entirely on another person—
a mere verbal promise was far too intangible, like a gust of wind, gone the moment it blew past.
She needed a concrete anchor to serve as the contract binding the two of them together.
And the most precious thing the girl could offer right now was nothing other than her very self.
Looking at the girl's ripe-for-the-picking demeanor, Chris thought it over and went with the flow:
"Since you insist so..."
At his words, Karuizawa Kei's dim eyes lit up in an instant, like stars.
Her steps, once heavy with fear, instantly turned light, and she followed close on Chris's heels, full of anticipation, into the elevator.
However.
Heaven does not bend to human wishes.
Fate, it seemed, always loved to play a not-too-big, not-too-small joke at the very moment of one's greatest anticipation.
"Ding—"
As the elevator reached the floor, the metal doors slid open to both sides.
Karuizawa Kei's heart, brimming with sweet fantasies, had them snuffed out the instant she saw clearly who stood beyond the doors.
"Yoo-hoo~"
"The way you two are strolling in side by side... about to go get down to business?"
Beyond the elevator, Sakayanagi Arisu—a bag stamped with a high-end bespoke logo dangling from her hand—was leaning against the wall beside the door to Chris's dorm room.
Karuizawa Kei's expression stiffened slightly, and she felt a jolt to her heart.
She knew her long-laid "freebie plan" was, in all likelihood, about to collapse halfway through once again.
In fact, when she'd first learned of Ayanokoji's disappearance—
Karuizawa had originally intended to go sound out Horikita Suzune.
But upon seeing Horikita Suzune—for whatever reason—looking as if she'd entered "sage mode," still somewhat dazed and blank at the news—
Karuizawa immediately realized this was her golden opportunity!
After all, Ayanokoji's disappearance was bound to set everyone's minds working.
And Ichinose had already spent the whole day out with Chris today; back at school, as class representative, she clearly couldn't just ignore the class's restless mood and barge in to seek out Chris.
The right timing, the right place, the right people—all aligned!
Among all the potential rivals who had their eye on Chris, this heaven-sent opportunity today rightfully belonged to her, Karuizawa Kei, to claim the crown.
But alas, for all her scheming and calculating—
she'd failed to account for one variable alone: Sakayanagi Arisu!
You're the supreme leader of an entire class, with so many people under you living in fear and dread—don't you need to go back and deal with your own classmates?!
Seeing the constipated, pent-up look of frustration on Karuizawa Kei's face—
Sakayanagi Arisu saw through what she was thinking at a glance and, in fine spirits, explained with a smile:
"Hehe, no need to look at me like that.
"The people in my class aren't the kind of overgrown babies who sink so easily into illusory dreamscapes and need a nanny to coddle them every day~
"As for Ayanokoji's disappearance, they'll weigh the pros and cons themselves. Naturally, there's no need for me to waste extra energy mediating."
The girl's eyes curved in a smile, yet her tone was brimming with wicked provocation:
"So... what a real shame.
"I'm afraid Karuizawa-san's little plan is going to fall through today~"
Having her most secret thoughts exposed to her face, Karuizawa went red.
This time it was from anger.
But unwilling to lose face even in defeat, she gritted out a stubborn comeback:
"I... I have no idea what you're even talking about!
"I came to find Chris only to learn what exactly happened at the exam site, to see whether it might affect our test tomorrow—that's all!"
"Hehe, let's just say that's the case, then."
Sakayanagi Arisu didn't call her bluff, merely giving a wave of her free hand.
And there, conspicuously pinched between her slender fingers, was the [Myriad Realm Illustrated Guide] she hadn't returned to Chris yesterday.
"What a coincidence—I'm standing here waiting at your door on official business too.
"I imagine Chris-kun once again shone brilliantly in this intrusion exam?
"Surely you came away with some spoils—something you'll need my help to appraise, hmm~"
Chris looked at these two little wildcats locked in confrontation and couldn't be bothered to expose either of them.
After a moment's thought, he went with the flow:
"Now that you mention it... there is indeed a drop from one of the exam targets that I didn't have time to appraise back then."
And just as Sakayanagi Arisu's lips curled upward, ready to use the pretext of appraisal to waltz right inside—
"Oh my?
"Quite the lively gathering, isn't it?"
A voice, carrying a trace of languor, as though it had been watching the show for a good while, suddenly drifted out from the shadows around the corner of the corridor:
"Since you're appraising equipment—why not, while you're at it, help your senpai appraise this Imperial Arms too?"
At these words—
the group instinctively looked toward the source.
There they saw Kiryuuin Fuka leaning against the corner of the wall.
Her slender fingertips toyed idly with a capsule.
Her long silver-white hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall.
Refracted in the lingering glow of the sunset at the end of the corridor, it looked crisp and neat, yet exuded an eerie, enchanting beauty that one couldn't tear one's eyes from.
Mm—as if a lion lurked within her gaze?