After Ryuuen Kakeru had left.
As much as Karuizawa Kei wanted to preserve the mood they'd had, to keep greedily basking in Chris's scent and the sense of safety he gave off—
—once an atmosphere is broken and the feeling snaps, with the mind going just a little blank for half a second, opening your mouth again can't help but feel a touch awkward.
Especially so for a girl like Karuizawa Kei, who had long disguised herself as a gyaru and who placed an extreme value on so-called "reading the air."
So after quickly composing herself, Karuizawa tried to pivot the conversation toward business.
She tilted her head up and, riding the momentum, changed the subject.
"Chris, you got dragged into that extra instance together with Tachibana Akane and the others, right?" "In that instance, was there anything worth mentioning?"
Hearing this, Chris thought about it, then said:
"Apart from that rules-type Shinigami, the main thing is that Tachibana Akane, Nanase, and the others—because they entered the extra instance—managed to avoid being brought under the Control Devil's control." "But because they'd had their arms severed by the Darkness Devil right before evacuating, and then suddenly appeared in the instance world… they couldn't get treatment in time, lost too much blood, and in the end still ended up losing one life."
"Other than that, there wasn't really anything especially important…"
Chris trailed off, then—as if something had just clicked—lightly slapped his own forehead:
"Oh, right, there's also Ayanokoji… How could I have forgotten about that guy." "Ayanokoji?"
Karuizawa Kei's face filled with confusion, unable to grasp how he could be connected to someone who'd withdrawn and left the school not long ago.
Chris explained:
"I'm not clear on the exact reason either, but he really did show up inside our instance. There were even a few staff-like people at his side who seemed to know him…"
"I'll find a chance to go ask Sakayanagi Arisu, see whether her information network can pick up anything valuable. I get the feeling she's known Ayanokoji for a while."
Karuizawa Kei pressed her lips together and ventured, testing the waters:
"If someone who's already withdrawn and left can still be selected again by the Black Sphere…"
"then spending item points to escape from the Black Sphere exams kind of loses most of its meaning, doesn't it?"
"So does Kushida Kikyo… know about this?"
Chris spread his hands. "Not sure." "That depends on whether Kamuro Masumi, Nanase Tsubasa, and the others feel like telling her once they're back."
"I went off with Ryuuen and the others to fight the Darkness Devil, and then got held up studying Qi cultivation afterward—completely forgot about the whole matter of him."
Karuizawa Kei nodded in understanding and sighed:
"Actually, now that I think about it, leaving really is possible."
"But the Black Sphere never once promised us that we wouldn't get randomly selected again after leaving…"
"Though, out of all the people in the outside world, to precisely pick out Ayanokoji, who'd already withdrawn… probability-wise that's a bit of a stretch, I'll admit."
"Can't be helped—they're the one who makes the rules. As long as you're within the rules, there's nothing much you can say."
Chris let out a sigh and wrapped up the topic:
"All right, let's not worry about him for now."
"Any interest in coming with me to go see Tachibana Akane?"
"Eh? Go see her?" Karuizawa Kei was puzzled. "Is it because of spreading that "Qi" cultivation method around?"
Even though she didn't really get it—if that was the goal, why look for Tachibana, rather than Nagumo Miyabi, who served as vice president? But since Chris had invited her himself, there was obviously no way she'd refuse.
Chris answered offhandedly: "Something like that. And while we're at it, to check in on her too."
"After all, in this exam, Student Council President Horikita Manabu—because he had only one life left—couldn't offset the Control Devil's control effect, so he wasn't able to come back with us."
"As the person the President entrusted things to before he left, I still have a responsibility to look after his secretary's emotional state."
Only then did it dawn on Karuizawa Kei.
No wonder, the moment she'd seen Horikita Suzune emerge from the Black Sphere Space earlier, she'd headed straight back to the dorm with a cold expression, not even bothering to wait for Chris.
So there'd been this underlying reason all along.
Then she just wouldn't fight Suzune over Chris's time tomorrow. After all, they were sisters in the same camp, more or less.
The Student Council Office.
As an intruder, once her time in the extra instance ended, Tachibana Akane had—after a few scares but no real harm—slipped out of the "Chainsaw Man" exam grounds and returned to the Advanced Nurturing campus.
After getting back, she didn't even have the leisure to soothe the psychological scars from facing round after round of life-or-death scenarios, and instead went straight to seek out Nagumo Miyabi.
Beyond exchanging information about each other's instances—
it was also to discuss, in passing, their countermeasures for the upcoming preliminary test and exam.
Even though Tachibana had never liked Nagumo Miyabi as a person—
and now, because of his almost obsessive, inexplicable feelings toward President Horikita, she found it hard to develop any goodwill toward him—
she had to admit that Nagumo Miyabi had, at least during this period, done a decent job as acting president.
On the matter of maintaining the survival rate of the upper-year students, you really couldn't fault him.
What's more, she'd learned a piece of news from Wang Meiyu, who was likewise an intruder…
Horikita Manabu, because he had only one life left, couldn't deduct from his life count to clear away the Control Devil's control the way the others had, and so for now could only remain in the Chainsaw Man world.
Faced with such an earth-shattering turn of events, she naturally wanted to find someone to help her strategize a countermeasure.
As unwilling as she was to admit it, looking across the entire upper-year cohort, there was probably no one more suitable right now than Nagumo Miyabi.
As for Nagumo Miyabi's side—
upon learning that Horikita Manabu had survived and was merely trapped in another world, there had indeed been a flicker in his eyes, a stirring impulse to rush over and save him at once.
But after hearing that the monster Chris and the others had had to face this time was actually a "Darkness Devil" worth as much as two hundred points, Nagumo Miyabi's reason returned. He kneaded his temples and sank into a brief silence.
By the time Chris brought Karuizawa Kei along, following the friend-locator on his phone to reach the Student Council Office, what greeted his eyes was the heavy scene of these two each propping up their foreheads in silence, like a pair of Thinker statues.
"Knock, knock."
Chris raised a hand and rapped on the open door, breaking the silence: "Senpai, are you busy?"
Tachibana Akane lifted her head, drew in a deep breath, and tried to restore her usual everyday senpai expression:
"We were discussing the matter of Friday's Black Sphere exam…"
Seeing Tachibana so utterly worn out, as if she were about to drop dead from overwork—
Chris thought for a moment and offered some comfort:
"Actually, I think there's really no need for you two to be this anxious."
"Your Friday exam won't necessarily be the same difficulty as ours was this time."
Nagumo Miyabi raised an eyebrow, surprised: "What makes you say that?" Chris didn't pay him any mind at first.
Instead, he walked straight in and explained to Tachibana.
"Do you remember your last Black Sphere exam?"
Tachibana blanked for a moment, then nodded. "The Chimera Ant one?"
Chris continued:
"Back then, didn't I exchange a [Rose of the Destitute] from Shiina Hiyori, and at the final moment, set it off and dropped it inside the Chimera Ant nest?"
"Before this exam started, I checked my S points in the presiding god's space. I had three hundred and something…"
"And I started wondering—could it be that, because I'd farmed points using an item and upset the balance, the presiding god deliberately scaled up the difficulty?"
Hearing this, Nagumo Miyabi stroked his chin thoughtfully:
"If it really is as you say, then there's indeed the possibility of that kind of dynamic balancing."
He furrowed his brows, his tone carrying a hint of frustration:
"A shame I got too carried away fighting back then, and with time being tight, I forgot to check the radar to confirm the Cat Woman's presence. That meant I couldn't leave the Ant King one life…"
"Missed a great chance to use a bomb to clear the field and farm points…"
Chris neither confirmed nor denied it, and simply went on tossing out information on his own:
"So, if you didn't blow all your points after your last exam—"
"then by the time of your Friday exam, the Black Sphere will act as a transit station for the preliminary test, while the presiding god will step in as the replacement for the Black Sphere."
"In the presiding god's space, you can exchange for any and all items from the mystery shops of past sessions."
"That, naturally, includes the mystery items both you and we have encountered before."
Chris paused, his tone turning somewhat grave:
"But there's something to be careful of. If a classmate gets designated as a mystery merchant, then the moment they die on the exam grounds, the item consumed as the price of their revival will not be retained in there. It goes out of print."
Nagumo Miyabi lifted a finger and pinched along his jawline, his eyes flashing with sharp light: "I see…"
"All right. The points I currently have on me—even if I bought that Rose of the Destitute, I'd still have plenty to spare."
"Whether it's to guard against a high-point BOSS that might appear down the line, or to put your point-farming method into practice, I'll go give it a try."
Seeing this, Tachibana couldn't help but glance worriedly at Nagumo Miyabi:
"If it really is as Chris says… aren't you worried that you'll trigger the presiding god's punishment mechanism afterward, and send the exam difficulty soaring?" Chris chimed in from the side:
"In my case it was only because I had pretty good timing on the drop—the monsters in the nest weren't as densely packed anymore. Otherwise I feel like that score could've easily hit four digits…"
"If I'd picked an even more vicious moment back then, the mystery shop might not have ended up stocking the corresponding solution-card for the Darkness Devil at all."
"In which case you all might not even be able to see us right now."
At this, Nagumo Miyabi merely let out a dismissive cold laugh:
"Of course I know that. But that one-time bomb with power equivalent to a hydrogen bomb is worth a mere sixty S points."
"Ordinarily, using it for a regular fight really isn't worth it."
"But when you know you're about to die and you've been driven into a corner… it really is the best choice for a one-for-one trade in the face of despair." "As for farming too many points and raising the difficulty afterward…"
Nagumo Miyabi chuckled lightly: "Just pick a good spot to detonate it."
Hearing this, Chris couldn't help but applaud:
"Wise words, President."
But Nagumo Miyabi waved a hand, his expression turning rarely solemn:
"Don't. President Horikita isn't dead—how could I so casually go around appropriating his title?"
"You, kid—either just call me senpai, or address me by my 'vice president' post."
As much as he wanted to blurt out, "Sure thing, Nagumo the Vegetable,"—
considering that this bunch of outworlders most likely wouldn't get the homophone pun, saying it would just be a waste.
So Chris turned instead to Tachibana and got to the heart of the matter:
"By the way, Tachibana-senpai, you did receive the file I sent you, right?"
"That's the drop from this 200-point BOSS, the Darkness Devil. Like the Ripple Breathing the President first brought back, it's a cultivation method concerning "Qi"." "I'll have to trouble you to help spread it around among the upper years."
Hearing this—
Nagumo Miyabi's gaze sharpened, and he murmured:
"A drop from the Darkness Devil…" He looked up at Chris, somewhat surprised:
"You're actually willing to just hand this thing over outright? How about I add your name to it and give your achievement a proper school-wide promotion?"
Chris politely declined: "No need." "It's not like this is my accomplishment alone."
"And besides, this cultivation method has actually already spread through the first-year class group chats."
"I just figured that, since the Student Council is the Student Council, having you all be the ones to release it might make it easier to circulate, and lend it more credibility too."
"What's more, right now there's fundamentally no conflict of interest between us. Facing the Black Sphere, and even the newly appeared presiding god… it's better to be mutually beneficial and progress together. The fewer people who die, the better."
Hearing these big-picture, magnanimous words—
Tachibana's pupils trembled slightly, and her gaze lingered on Chris for two whole seconds.
It was hard to believe.
But in this underclassman before her, she'd faintly glimpsed the shadow of President Horikita Manabu…
That kind of leaderly aura, of quietly shouldering everything behind the scenes for everyone's sake.
For an instant, it actually made her heart flutter a little.
But Tachibana quickly came back to her senses.
In the end they were different—Chris was Chris, and Horikita Manabu was Horikita Manabu.
She lowered her eyelids and forcibly pushed that ill-timed ripple at the bottom of her heart back down.
Taking all of this in, Nagumo Miyabi rose and straightened the collar of his uniform:
"Since the business is settled, if you've got nothing else urgent, I'll go find Kiriyama to talk over the concrete plans for Friday's exam."
With that, Nagumo Miyabi hummed some nameless little tune and departed with a light, brisk step. Very tactfully, he left the space to this one man and two women.
Even though he knew that, with an iceberg personality like Horikita Manabu's, he clearly wasn't the type to engage in romance—
still, Tachibana was, after all, his closest and most trusted secretary.
If Chris could seize this opportunity to slip in through the gap and win Tachibana over, redirecting her affections elsewhere…
then by the time Horikita Manabu came back, that'd be a good thing, wouldn't it!?
That's right—Nagumo Miyabi had already begun planning for a rainy day, thinking ahead to matters after Horikita Manabu's return to school.
In his eyes, Horikita Manabu was the kind of man who, no matter what dead-end he fell into, would absolutely never kick the bucket so easily.
Holding out until they were qualified to go rescue him would be no problem at all.
Indeed, with his abilities, in a world full of devils—
plus the points accumulated from the midterm Uninhabited Island exam—he'd surely have no small amount.
Once he returned to school, he'd certainly be able to catch up quickly to their current progress.
And by then, the two of them could become comrades fighting shoulder to shoulder, ice-and-fire brothers, a heroic couple of the martial world…
The more he thought about it, the lighter Nagumo Miyabi's steps became.
Meanwhile, the Tachibana left behind in the office—
lifting her eyes to watch the back of Nagumo Miyabi as he hummed his tune and walked away, couldn't help but cock her cheek to one side, her face full of confusion.
What on earth… is this old sis-in-law so happy about?
Still, withdrawing her gaze—
as a third-year senpai and the secretary of the Student Council—
at the very least, in front of Chris, she still had to maintain the reserve and composure befitting her.
Tachibana gave a light cough, fixed her expression, and smiled at Chris:
"Helping fellow students is exactly what the Student Council is supposed to do—leave it to me."
"But, I recall that you and Ichinose Honami had already joined the Student Council a while back, hadn't you…"
Tachibana looked at him and proposed:
"How about the release and promotion work for this file gets handed over to the two of you?"
"Even though the current Student Council—and even the school's rules and regulations—no longer have any real binding force compared to before,"
"now that we have the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, the truth is nobody's short on training time these days."
"If you two could use this to become familiar faces over here among the upper years and build up a bit of prestige… who knows, it might come in handy someday down the road?" Mm. Even though Tachibana herself didn't know what this so-called "come in handy" could concretely point to.
But a person can't always keep wallowing in the oppressive loop of "fight, train, fight again."
Experiencing a bit of campus life as appropriate, getting a taste of power… no, of the joy of helping others—that's a necessary bit of mental relief too!
Watching Tachibana put on this air full of dignity—
Chris and Karuizawa Kei beside him exchanged a knowing glance.
Karuizawa Kei leaned in a little closer and muttered softly:
"I get the feeling… senpai doesn't seem to need us to comfort her at all?"
Although her voice was very quiet, in this silent office it still failed to escape Tachibana's ears.
Tachibana started. "Comfort?"
Chris gave a helpless little laugh and confessed: "Well, the President hasn't come back, after all… I was a little worried you wouldn't be able to hold up on your own, senpai, so I came by to check in."
"But seeing how capable and put-together you look right now, you really don't seem like anything's wrong—I was overthinking it."
Chris paused, his gaze meeting hers sincerely:
"Still, let me go ahead and say one more thing anyway."
"Senpai, you don't have to keep your nerves strung tight all the time, bottling up all your emotions inside. That'll wear you out."
"It's okay to stop and rest once in a while. Trust everyone a little, as appropriate—a trusting heart is your magic."
At these words—
the girl's originally prim lip-line pursed into a wavering curve.
She forced her eyes wide, lashes fluttering lightly, trying to suppress the sourness surging wildly within her eye sockets. She lightly knit her brows and put on a strong front, feigning that she wasn't used to being cared for, and stubbornly retorted:
"Don't… don't suddenly say this kind of mushy, light-novel-line stuff to your senpai…"
"I'm not as fragile as you think."
"I am the secretary of the Student Council, you know!"
Chris nodded with a smile.
He didn't bring up, either, her breakdown earlier outside the shopping mall, when she'd been on the phone with that sob in her voice.
"Mm, I know."
"Then we'll let you get back to work, senpai—we'll head off now."
As for whether, after they'd left, Tachibana would—once she'd confirmed no one was around—sit alone rubbing her eyes, processing files while shedding little pearls of longing…
well, that's a story for another time. —End of Chapter—
____
👻🔥Here: Walnut-chan (P4treon)🔥👻
🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: Rewriting Fate in New Eridu — new on The_Mikudayo
📚 Walnut-chan gets you 40 chapters ahead and helps cover the translation costs of every story I post
We have set new community milestones:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for all readers