"School topics—school talk for short."
She rattled it off in one breath, then glanced at everyone present, wondering who should get things off to a good start.
Ryo was no good. Once she started talking about something she liked, she would never stop.
Kita... Nijika was still a little scared, worried she might say something earth-shattering again.
Bocchi would probably lead them into another dead end.
Hayato...
Help...
Nijika wailed internally. After praying that he could be a little more normal, she forced a smile and asked Ishikawa Hayato.
"What are you like at school, Hayato-kun?"
"Every day, I check on my classmates' physical and mental health." Ishikawa Hayato smiled brightly and handsomely.
He was not lying. He really did keep an eye on students who might be harmed every day, checking whether they had suffered verbal or physical abuse.
But after getting used to his perverted self-introduction, anyone would somehow take that in a different direction.
"Ahahaha, you're joking, right?" Nijika laughed awkwardly as she wiped away a cold sweat.
Ishikawa Hayato's sunny smile did not change.
"You're joking, right?!"
Nijika lost her smile and asked him, practically on the verge of tears.
Ishikawa Hayato gave a thumbs-up, wearing an inexplicably gleaming smile without saying a word.
Thud.
Nijika collapsed.
After she fell, Ishikawa Hayato took over control of the conversation.
"What about you, Kita?"
Ishikawa Hayato asked Kita Ikuyo.
Kita had been hesitating over whether to explain Ishikawa Hayato's earlier answer, but when she saw his expression, she gave up on the idea.
She then said,
"My... my school life is really boring. Classes, hanging out with friends, and after school too. I never know what to do, so I just wander around with my friends, eat sweets, and play games."
Ishikawa Hayato looked to the side. When Kita Ikuyo first called her life boring, Bocchi's eyes had lit up, and she had leaned forward in anticipation.
It was as though she had found a fellow kindred spirit whose circumstances matched hers in every way, and she was filled with joy.
But after hearing Kita Ikuyo mention hanging out with friends, she was struck by an incoming Lance of Longinus and slammed into her chair, losing all will to live, before being repeatedly impaled by the spears that kept raining down.
Even the soul drifting from her mouth was pierced through by a spear.
Her HP visibly dropped chunk by chunk.
"Kita-chan, stop! Bocchi-chan is going to die!"
Before Ishikawa Hayato could speak, the recovered Nijika noticed Bocchi's condition and hurriedly stopped Kita Ikuyo.
After Bocchi recovered from her near-death state and shakily took a sip of her drink,
Nijika propped her cheeks up with both hands, looked at her gently, and asked,
"What is Bocchi-chan's school life like?"
Bocchi froze. After Kita had spoken, she could not keep talking about her own life.
She had the feeling that if she opened her mouth, she would fall into an irredeemably miserable situation.
After hesitating, not knowing what to say, she carefully turned to Nijika and asked,
"Ah, come... to think of it, Nijika and Ryo are from the same school, right?"
"Yes, Shimokitazawa High. Kita-chan, Hayato-kun, and Bocchi-chan are all from Shuhua High, right?" Nijika said with a slight nod.
Ryo added,
"We all chose it because it was close to home."
Kita nodded, indicating it was the same for her.
Bocchi said in realization,
"Ah, everyone lives in Shimokitazawa."
Nijika noticed the odd phrasing and asked in surprise,
"Doesn't Bocchi live nearby?"
Bocchi lowered her head, her tone forlorn. "Ah, no, my home is outside the prefecture. My commute to school takes two hours."
Nijika was startled, unable to understand why she attended school so far away.
Kita asked blankly, "Why?"
"I wanted to go to a high school where nobody knew me..."
Bocchi's heavy, regret-filled voice was like a falling sky, plunging the atmosphere into despair.
"Stop! That's enough school talk!"
Task
"S-Sorry... I mostly spend my time at school alone too..."
"It's hard to find a topic that makes people happy when chatting."
Bocchi lowered her head and curled into herself, apologizing for ruining the mood just now.
Nijika hurriedly comforted her.
"It's okay, it's okay. Ryo doesn't have many friends either."
Ryo nodded.
"Mm. Just Nijika."
After that brutal incident, Bocchi no longer dared to look at others with the expectation of finding one of her own kind.
But she still looked toward Ryo with a tiny bit of hope.
At the same time, she heard Nijika explain,
"On her days off, Ryo explores ruins by herself or browses secondhand stores."
So she's not one of my kind after all!!
Ryo just liked being alone. She definitely did not have social anxiety—someone with social anxiety would never dare go to a secondhand store!
She had almost fallen into another trap.
Bocchi lowered her head even more gloomily.
And Kita Ikuyo, who had nearly become a murderer just now, still did not dare say anything.
Seeing the mood gradually turn oppressive, Ishikawa Hayato stood up.
"Nijika, can I roll for the next topic?"
"Eh? Sure."
Nijika looked at Ishikawa Hayato in confusion, then handed him the die.
With a serious expression, Ishikawa Hayato walked to the spot opposite Nijika. As the four girls gradually sensed something was wrong, he calmly said,
"Does everyone know the dramatic principle of Chekhov's Gun?"
He held the die, spun it with one hand, and it whirled rapidly at his fingertips. After flicking it a few times, the die spun like a sphere at incredible speed.
The six muted-colored faces of the die blended into a light, soothing orange.
"It goes like this: a gun appears in the first act."
Bad, bad, bad!
Bocchi's sense of danger kept sending out piercing warnings.
But no one could stop him. They could only stare blankly at Ishikawa Hayato, whose expression was stern and serious.
"In the third act."
Ishikawa Hayato turned around, facing away from the four of them. The boy's back was not broad, yet it somehow felt dependable.
He then flicked the die with his finger.
The die flew up, landed steadily on the table, and continued spinning.
"It will be used."
The four girls shifted their eyes from the showboating Ishikawa Hayato to the die.
As if he had calculated everything, the die began slowing down the moment he stopped speaking.
Like the most obedient little baby.
The die spun, slowed, and stopped, all landing on that exact point.
After the cardboard struck the tabletop and a soft thud echoed inside the die,
The four girls stared at its upper face and swallowed in unison.
Written on it were the words:
Bungee Jumping.
Ryo glanced at Ishikawa Hayato, who had not turned around. Just as she cautiously reached out to change the result,
Ishikawa Hayato, still facing away from everyone, said,
"Ryo, you moved it, didn't you?"
"No."
Ryo replied evenly. At the same time, she stared at Ishikawa Hayato's unturned back and sped up her hand, quickly flicking the die.
But Ishikawa Hayato moved like a ghost, suddenly darting over and grabbing Ryo's outstretched hand. Then he smiled at the four of them and said,
"How about we all go bungee jumping together?"
In the eyes of the four girls, that smile looked like the vicious grin of an asura. They hurriedly answered.
Kita: "Absolutely not!"
Bocchi: "N-No... I can't."
Ryo: "Not going."
Nijika: "Let's not."
Seeing the four people seated at the same table all saying different things even in a situation like this, Ishikawa Hayato froze for a moment before laughing.
Nijika reacted a beat later and gave an awkward laugh.
"We're not united at all."
"That's true..."
Kita also smiled helplessly.
Ryo looked at them quietly and said,
"After all, we're Kessoku Band."
Ishikawa Hayato returned to Bocchi's side and sat back down, smiling happily and somewhat smugly.
"Ryo means we should work toward that goal, right?"
"No."
Whether she was being tsundere or genuinely did not mean it, Ryo answered very quickly.
Before you continue