After settling on a rough direction for the next round of upgrades with Chris, the talk wound down.
Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Kei weren't in any hurry to leave, lingering a while longer to mull over and discuss methods for cultivating Ki. It wasn't until the sky began to dim—the early summer evening breeze carrying a faint, cool dampness—that the three of them headed back to the dorms together.
After parting ways with Karuizawa Kei, who had walked alongside her, at the foot of the stairwell, Shiina Hiyori pushed open the door to her single room. "Click." She eased the door shut behind her.
The girl leaned her back against the door panel and let out a long breath.
She turned her head, gazing at the stacks of newly delivered books piled in the corner, still unopened.
On any other day, she'd have already torn them open without hesitation, flipping through to drink in the unique scent of fresh ink that only new books had.
But right now, Shiina Hiyori was in no such mood.
She simply stayed there, resting quietly against the door, her body sliding slowly down the wood as if all the strength had drained out of her, until at last she was half-crouching, half-sitting on the floor, both arms wrapped around her knees.
'How incredible…'
The girl murmured softly in her heart.
As if she could scarcely believe it.
Everything just now… had actually been something she was capable of doing.
After all, in the girl's own understanding, she had always been someone poor with words, accustomed to hiding behind the pages of a book.
The most she could ever manage—after learning that Chris and the others had run into a BOSS worth a staggering two hundred points and come back from the jaws of death—was to go and watch from a distance. That was already her limit.
That's right. Her original plan had only been to make use of the intel she'd gotten from her senior, Kiryuuin, exploiting the school phone's feature that let you check a friend's location for free once you'd added them…
She'd wanted to catch a glimpse of him from far off, somewhere along a route Chris was bound to take.
To look at him from a distance, in secret.
Just to confirm he was safe and sound, so her own heart could find some peace, and then she'd simply leave on her own…
Yet she'd never imagined she would be sharply sensed by Chris, who'd been attempting to cultivate 'Ki' at that very moment.
Worse still, the panic of being caught red-handed on the spot had sent her brain crashing, and she'd blurted out some ambiguous, flirtatious words that she absolutely should not have spoken at a time like that!
And then, with no idea how to smooth things over, she'd had no choice but to grit her teeth and just throw caution to the wind… "Ngh…"
The girl buried her face against her knees, reaching up to grip the hair at her forehead, silently scolding herself for her impulsiveness and lack of composure.
Because in truth, the progress between her and Chris was nowhere near far enough along to warrant saying something like that!
It was true there was some partial connection to the "hero saving the damsel" scenario Karuizawa Kei had imagined.
But what had really made her come to admire him—made her heart flutter—wasn't actually that moment at all.
The beginning of it all was the bond first forged over a long-out-of-print copy of "Rubik's Cube Mansion".
He was the only person in this entire school who could understand the world inside her books.
And then, after being saved by him, she'd witnessed with her own eyes the kindness hidden beneath his seemingly cold exterior. It was through one gaze after another that she'd slowly been drawn to him.
Even she herself, when she really thought it over, found this welling emotion surprising.
It was like a lover from a past life who, upon witnessing some particular keepsake, suddenly inherited every feeling from that former existence—surging and utterly unreasonable.
But she had to admit, if the Black Sphere exams had never existed…
Given Chris's usual habit of playing the invisible wallflower in Class D, that worldly-indifferent, go-with-the-flow demeanor of his…
Perhaps on some ordinary day in their high school years, they'd still have forged a bond in some corner of the library, and naturally, gradually become reading buddies who could talk about anything…
Only that kind of progress would surely have been many, many times slower than now.
As she thought on and on, Shiina Hiyori suddenly felt her cheeks growing a little hot.
She patted them lightly, troubled by this head of hers that couldn't stop launching into fantasies again. "Phew…"
She drew in a deep breath, rose, walked to her bed, and flopped face-first onto it.
As her body sank into the soft mattress, the girl reached out and pulled the pillow tightly into her embrace.
Resting her chin on the pillow, she stared up at the ceiling and muttered to herself, a little distressed:
"In the stories in my books… the protagonists are always so calm and unhurried when facing their feelings…"
"But when it's my own turn… I can't even hide a single tiny sliver of how I feel."
"…Shiina Hiyori, you really are a hopeless idiot!"
The next day. Chris, who had outwardly returned to ordinary campus life, naturally went back to the classroom for lessons as usual.
Although his top priority now was to go with Ichinose later to spread Dragon Ball's "Ki" cultivation techniques.
But before that, he felt it was still necessary to go check on Wang Meiyu, a fellow hometowner of his.
After all, she was someone he'd spent 20 S-Points to pull back, so the least he could do was get in touch.
As for Wang Meiyu's side—although she'd already gotten a rough idea of all the changes following the midterm exam through Kushida Kikyo yesterday…
When she returned to the classroom this morning and saw the mostly unfamiliar faces filling it, she still couldn't help freezing in place.
Just as several nearby classmates—some familiar, some not—gathered around, curiously bombarding her with questions about what exactly had happened after she'd been swept into another world by that space-time rift back then.
Wang Meiyu happened to catch sight of Chris walking into the classroom.
Already overwhelmed from all the interrogation, Wang Meiyu felt like a prisoner granted amnesty.
She gracefully brushed off her classmates' gossip and went straight over to Chris.
"Chris!"
Suppressing her own timidity, the girl gave him a textbook ninety-degree bow:
"Thank you so, so much for being willing to spend 20 S-Points to save me… Otherwise, I really feel like I would've been eaten by those man-eating giants…"
Seeing this, Chris quickly raised a hand to help her up and said gently:
"We're from the same hometown—there's no need to be so formal."
"But what's this you said… man-eating giants?"
Chris arched an eyebrow, asking with some surprise: "Weren't you originally in the "Chainsaw Man" world, like Student Council President Horikita Manabu and the others?"
Wang Meiyu patted her chest, still shaken as she explained:
"I don't know why it turned out that way either… After I fell in, I was originally transported into a world surrounded by enormous towering walls. Outside the walls were all those Pure Titans that love to eat people—just like the ones we ran into during the midterm exam last time."
"I hadn't been there long when I ran into a giant covered head to toe in armor that smashed a huge hole right through the city gate—"
"I got lucky and was saved by a group of people who called themselves the 'Survey Corps.' But because there were too many people, I still didn't manage to make it onto the steam train evacuating inside the walls."
The girl's eyes reddened slightly: "If you hadn't pulled me out, I really don't know how I would've survived…"
Hearing this, Chris stroked his chin and pondered aloud:
"So you're saying… you were actually wrenched out of the 'Titan world' by the Black Sphere system and dropped into the "Chainsaw Man" world precisely because I spent points to pinpoint your location?"
Wang Meiyu thought about it, then nodded, not entirely certain:
"That's probably it. And classmate Yamada from Class C seems to have shown up in a similar way too."
Chris understood now:
"Looks like, when Ichinose first wished to 'find a world with classmates in it,' because she didn't spend extra points to confirm the actual identities of the people involved, the Black Sphere just directly selected the world President Horikita was in…"
At this point, seeing that important information seemed to be under discussion here, Hirata Yousuke first dispersed the classmates trying to edge closer and eavesdrop, then stepped a few paces nearer.
After listening to Chris's analysis, his brow furrowed slightly:
"But if the Black Sphere originally selected the world the President was in…"
"then your point-grinding causing the Black Sphere to temporarily ramp up the difficulty—logically speaking, that's a bit hard to make sense of, isn't it?"
Chris wasn't the least bit surprised that Hirata Yousuke knew these details.
There was no real competitive relationship between the classes now.
Key figures who served as their respective classes' leaders—people like Katsuragi, Ryuuen, and Hirata—would naturally share information with one another in private.
It was only that he, as the absolute superior, couldn't be bothered with the hassle and had no interest in power.
Otherwise, Hirata Yousuke's current position would probably have been handed over to him long ago.
Chris thought this, but kept his expression unreadable:
"It's not actually a contradiction, Hirata."
"The Chainsaw Man world has plenty of devils to begin with, all of them born from the people of that world fearing some specific concept."
"What I'm thinking is, if the exam difficulty had risen normally… at most we'd have run into a monster worth around eighty or ninety points—something like the 'Bomb Devil,' say."
"The reason a two-hundred-point Darkness Devil popped up directly was, in all likelihood, a temporary adjustment the Black Sphere made to balance out my point-grinding."
"But right now, all of this is just my speculation."
Chris spread his hands:
"Whether it's actually the case or not, we'll have to wait until the upper-years' exam on Friday wraps up, then go feel things out before we can know for sure."
After hearing him out, Hirata Yousuke nodded in agreement:
"That's true—all we can do is wait for Friday."
Then he sighed, his gaze turning toward Horikita Suzune, who was sitting quietly in her seat, and lowered his voice to continue:
"By the way—everyone who took this exam, including the intruders, had one life deducted by the Black Sphere."
"At least our class doesn't have to worry as much about the next exam the way Ryuuen's and Ichinose's classes do. After all, right now Kushida, Kouenji, Matsushita and the others all still have a buffer of at least two lives each…"
"But if the next exam's difficulty is still this absurd, are you… still planning to send Horikita in?"
Faced with Hirata's worry, Chris remained noncommittal:
"What's the point in just hiding in the back the whole time? The special exams have to be faced sooner or later."
"Stepping onto the field early to bank points and grow stronger is far better than cowering in the rear, waiting on the system's uncertain roll call."
Chris glanced at him:
"After all, the Black Sphere's random-selection mechanism is truly random. How many odds do you think an ordinary person—with no Black Sphere equipment to protect them—has of coming back alive after being randomly tossed into an exam?"
Chris thought for a moment, then went on:
"Perhaps that's one of the reasons Ayanokoji wouldn't let you all use the exemption privilege before."
Hirata Yousuke smiled bitterly, his eyes full of helplessness:
"That's exactly right…"
"It's just that I never expected it would instead trigger the Black Sphere's punishment mechanism through you…"
Chris shook his head and stopped him: "It's still not certain that it was because of me."
"Alright, class is about to start. While there's still time before the school day ends, everyone should just enjoy this peaceful campus life for now."
He stretched lazily and joked:
"Once school lets out this afternoon, it's another day of hellish special training in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber."
Hirata Yousuke nodded and silently returned to his seat.
Chris also exchanged a couple more brief words with Wang Meiyu, and then they each went back.
At this moment—because Ayanokoji had voluntarily withdrawn from school, allowing seats to be reshuffled—Nanase Tsubasa happened to be seated right next to Chris.
Seeing Chris take his seat, the girl spoke up of her own accord:
"Senior, how's your practice with the "Ki" technique coming along?"
Nanase Tsubasa knitted her brows slightly, looking somewhat troubled.
"I tried practicing last night using the same method I used for the Ripple before. Even though my body felt warm, something just seemed off."
Hearing this, Horikita Suzune also turned her head toward Chris:
"Same here. Using the Ripple's breathing method to practice, I can sense the flow of 'Ki' inside my body, but it always feels like something's missing."
Chris thought it over. Then slowly raised his right hand.
Under the two girls' gazes, a white orb of light the size of a fava bean condensed at his fingertips.
"The Ripple and Ki are, in essence, both about mobilizing the body's source energy through special breathing—the underlying logic is the same."
"But the emphasis differs. The Ripple trains the qi and blood, letting energy circulate and flow through the body's meridians; whereas "Ki" requires you to, while circulating, also focus your spirit and gather your energy, compressing and concentrating it at the dantian."
"If you only cling to the mindset of 'Ripple flow,' then naturally it won't take form."
Nanase Tsubasa nodded thoughtfully:
"I see. Senior, did you use the Item Illustrated Guide to look up extra information?"
"Otherwise, if you reached this kind of level in a single night purely by feeling it out on your own… wouldn't that be just too terrifying?"
Hearing this probing remark from Nanase Tsubasa.
Chris lowered his eyelids, as if recalling something, or perhaps as if reminded of some extremely important memory that he couldn't, for the life of him, manage to bring to mind.
He furrowed his brow slightly, looking a bit lost:
"It really was something I figured out on my own; I didn't use the Item Illustrated Guide."
"But I do have an inexplicable sense of familiarity… It's like I've done this countless times long, long ago, only for some reason I've temporarily forgotten it."
Hearing this.
Horikita Suzune's heart tightened, and she instinctively asked out of concern:
"As if you've learned it before?"
"Could it be… you really did learn these supernatural powers in the past? Only because you, too, once chose to leave after gathering enough points—just like Ayanokoji Kiyotaka—and had your memory wiped?"
The more she thought about it, the more it made sense: "So that when the Black Sphere descended upon this school, you ended up being selected once again?"
Chris said nothing, as if seriously weighing the truth of such a possibility.
Nanase Tsubasa, following Horikita's line of thought, boldly extended it further:
"After Ayanokoji left the school, he'll be selected by a Black Sphere instance too…"
"I've been wondering as well, Senior Chris—could it be that you were actually selected by the 'presiding god' a very long time ago?"
"You fled the way Senior Ayanokoji did, only your escape failed, or else you discovered that the outside world was just as dangerous."
"So when you tried again, you chose to simply switch to a safe world with no Black Sphere threat and live there in seclusion?"
The girl raised a hand to her chin, a gleam of wisdom showing on her face:
"The current you was only forcibly conscripted again by the presiding god as a 'veteran player' because our world came under invasion!"
"Otherwise, I really don't think Advanced Nurturing has anything special about it that would make the presiding god pick this place as a cultivation dish."
Listening to this increasingly outrageous deduction.
Chris's mouth twitched.
He had to say, a genuine double-faced person really did have a wilder imagination than a fake one!
Her divergent thinking was actually pretty on point?
But just then, seeing that Chabashira Sae had already walked through the front door of the classroom, lesson plans in her arms.
Chris reined in the thoughts behind his eyes:
"Maybe so. I really don't have many memories of the past."
"It feels like they were deliberately erased by someone."
"But even if that's the case, now that I've been selected again, all I can do is accept reality… Alright, let's start class first. If there's anything else, we'll talk about it in the Time Chamber."
Hearing Chris's almost resigned words.
Horikita Suzune opened her mouth, wanting to say something comforting.
But in the end, she didn't make a sound.
She simply turned her head back in silence, lightly stroking her smooth chin with her hand.
Fully immersed in a mental theater of "his past experiences must have been terribly heavy and sorrowful."
Watching her, Chris sighed inwardly, finding it a little amusing.
Who was it that said Horikita Suzune was a low-EQ, robot-like person?
Wasn't her capacity for empathy quite rich after all.
Mm—as long as he could get her, deep in her heart, to slowly replace that shadow of the older brother she'd always been chasing with himself, that shouldn't actually be too hard.
After class. As the teacher left the room.
Before Horikita Suzune—who had only just finished tidying her lesson notes—could even turn around to say the words she'd been carefully turning over in her mind during class.
"Senior!"
A pink head suddenly poked in around the classroom's back door.
Ichinose Honami stood by the doorway, smiling and waving at Chris:
"I've finished photocopying the "Ki" technique manual! Since we've got time now during the long break, shall we go distribute it to the upper-year seniors right away?"
Horikita Suzune, her spell forcibly interrupted, silently closed her mouth.
She looked at Ichinose, then turned to look at Chris, clearly puzzled.
Chris rose and explained:
"Didn't your brother share the Ripple manual without holding anything back before? Returning the favor, I figured I'd go find Senior Tachibana Akane and have her, in the name of the Student Council, help spread this technique around too, to boost everyone's abilities."
"As it turned out, she said that since Ichinose and I now count as members of the Student Council, a good deed like this should just be handed straight to us to handle."
After listening, Nanase Tsubasa blinked thoughtfully:
"The Student Council… Senior, did you join the time you left school that Sunday?"
Horikita Suzune nodded in agreement:
"I recall that only that one time seemed to have any connection to the Student Council…"
Before she could even finish, Chris had already very naturally reached out and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"Alright then, Horikita, Nanase."
"Now, in the name of a Student Council officer, I'm temporarily commandeering the two of you."
"Come on, take a walk with us—consider it a taste of normal campus life."
____
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