Chapter 55: White-Haired Loli, None of Them Are Ordinary!
The first thing Katsuragi Keima did upon waking up was check to see if his handheld consoles were safe and sound. Only after confirming they were fine did he heave a long sigh of relief. Sakayanagi Arisu, meanwhile, walked over to Kamuro Masumi's side and whispered something in a low voice.
"Nii-sama, you really make people worry!" Elsie bowed deeply toward both Sakayanagi and Kamuro. "Thank you so much!"
"You're very welcome, Elsie-san. It's only right for classmates to help one another," Sakayanagi responded simply, her face wearing a meaningful smile, as if she were looking at an interesting object.
After a brief exchange, Keima and Elsie took their leave. Sakayanagi's gaze remained fixed on their retreating backs until they disappeared from sight, at which point she turned to Kamuro with great interest.
"Tell me, Masumi-san, what are your thoughts on those two?"
"Thoughts?" Kamuro didn't understand Sakayanagi's question at all. "The brother seems like a typical gaming otaku, and the sister is a very cute girl, but that's probably about it."
"You've got it all wrong, Masumi-san," Sakayanagi's lips curled upward as she spoke in her crisp voice. "That pair of siblings is likely not as simple as they appear."
"What?"
"Earlier, the sister was able to call out my name directly."
"That shouldn't be too strange, right? After all, Sakayanagi, you're quite famous in this school," Kamuro retorted with a hint of sarcasm.
Sakayanagi didn't seem to mind and simply continued: "It wouldn't matter much if it were just me, but... that girl named Elsie also spoke your name just now."
"What?" Kamuro looked surprised; she had completely overlooked that detail.
Sakayanagi was quite active socially, so it wasn't odd for people to know her name. However, aside from the occasional time spent with Sakayanagi, Kamuro mostly kept to herself and had no friends in her own class, let alone other classes. Why would the other girl know her name?
"It shows they have already investigated us," Sakayanagi tilted her chin up. "As students of Class D, they've investigated us without knowing their place."
"So that's how it is..."
"You did what I asked you to do, right?"
"Yeah," Kamuro nodded, then pulled something out from under her skirt. It was Keima's game cartridge.
Under Sakayanagi's secret instructions earlier, Kamuro had pretended to return everything to Keima, but in reality, she had stolen one of the cartridges back. Kamuro possessed exceptionally high-level thieving skills and was confident she wouldn't be caught.
"Why steal this thing?"
"With this, won't we have a perfect excuse to continue contact with them later? When the time comes, you just have to pretend you forgot and left this cartridge behind. They shouldn't be too suspicious of your reason for approaching them."
"I see..."
Sakayanagi looked up toward the distance, the smile on her face becoming even more radiant. "Perhaps they really will bring me a bit of fun!"
.
.
.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the school.
"I'm telling you, Kami-nii-sama, both of those people were mission targets!"
As Elsie spoke, she pulled the mission cards out of Keima's pocket. These were created using powers transcending Hell; no one except Elsie and Keima could see or touch them, which was why Kamuro hadn't discovered them earlier.
[Name: Sakayanagi Arisu] [Affection Level: 1%]
[Name: Kamuro Masumi] [Affection Level: 0%]
"Huh, strange. Why is Sakayanagi's affection level slightly higher?" Elsie scratched her head in confusion, then turned back to Keima. "Kami-nii-sama, aren't you going to take this chance to get close to her? They seem to be from Class A, and we rarely see Class A students normally."
"No need," Keima replied as he returned to his usual state of playing games at every possible moment. "Because they will take the initiative to come to us on their own later."
After his "coma" (which was really just a nap), Keima's stamina bar had recovered quite a bit.
"Ah? Why, Kami-nii-sama!"
"Because that person named Kamuro Masumi just stole one of my game cartridges."
"What?!" Elsie's eyes widened in shock; she hadn't seen a thing.
"They probably think they were being stealthy, but that was my copy of 'As an Ordinary Salaryman, After Signing That Contract, I Have No Choice but to Start a Dating Sim Project with Five Different Otherworld Goddesses in the Modern City to Decide the Fate of Humanity' that I was planning to clear next!"
"Kami-nii-sama, these titles are getting more and more ridiculous..." Elsie sighed, then quickly asked again, "But Kami-nii-sama, what is her purpose for doing that?"
"It's not certain yet. While I was checking if the handheld was damaged, Sakayanagi whispered something to Kamuro. She was probably giving the order. It's definitely because you did something strange earlier that got us targeted."
"I didn't do anything strange!"
"In any case, it's basically certain now that Sakayanagi is a person with quite a deep mind, and Kamuro is... like the Thief role in a party? Normally, I would discover something is missing after returning to the dorm and would immediately go to ask them if they saw it. That is likely their plan."
"Kami-nii-sama, I don't understand at all," Elsie said with a perfectly blank, dazed expression.
"...Not a surprise. Forget it, just pretend I didn't say anything. All you need to know is that Sakayanagi is likely a troublesome character. You can tell just by looking at her." Keima sighed.
"What do you mean by that?"
"White hair plus 'loli'—none of the characters with those two attributes stacked together are ever ordinary!" Keima suddenly thought of something and turned back to Elsie. "You didn't do anything weird just now, right?"
"Something weird? Not at all!" Elsie looked perfectly innocent.
"Really?" Keima's face was written with doubt.
"Truly! While Ayanokouji-kun was looking for you, I just went to get some ingredients. I'm planning to show off my cooking skills to Kami-nii-sama!" Elsie patted her chest with great confidence.
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