The Cafeteria

They headed to the school cafeteria together. Some students were already eating there.

"What do you want to eat, Kiyona?"

Come to think of it, Hoshino Kanade had usually eaten instant noodles or chewed on bread up on the rooftop.

She rarely went to the cafeteria. With so many dishes here, she was having a hard time choosing.

"Um... let's just take a look around first."

"Good point."

Steam billowed at the cafeteria entrance, carrying a medley of aromas.

On the left was the Japanese Cuisine Area. Glossy slices of eel sashimi were arranged like works of art on crushed ice, with Eel Donburi topped in caramel-colored teriyaki sauce beside them.

A little farther away was the Western Cuisine Window, where cheese-covered pasta and freshly baked garlic bread were piled up like a tower. Golden butter seeped through the flaky crust.

The busiest spot was the Chinese Cuisine Corner. Red-and-white Mapo Tofu bubbled in a huge pot, while thick sauce poured over the snowy-white rice in the Tianjin Donburi, sending up clouds of steam.

As expected of one of the top high schools in Japan, the cafeteria was top-notch. Prices hadn't been marked up, either; they were about the same as outside.

"But do they have emergency meals here, like at the Convenience Store?"

"The Free Meal Set only comes in fixed combinations, and the ingredients and cooking don't look too promising. But it includes both meat and vegetables, so it should still provide adequate nutrition."

"Want to try one?"

Kiyona seemed a little interested.

"I feel like that would put my taste buds through a trial. Let's just eat something normal."

There were lots of fixed combinations for the Free Meal Set, rotating on a schedule. There was no way they could try them all, so she might as well spare herself the ordeal.

It looked like Kiyona had an even worse case of indecision than she did. Would she have to choose for both of them?

"I want Mapo Tofu."

"Then I'll have Mapo Tofu too."

More and more students came to eat. By the time they'd gotten their food, there were hardly any seats left. Luckily, they found an empty table in a corner.

"Let's eat." ×2

The first thing to touch their tongues was the warm, smooth sauce, coating tofu cubes as neatly shaped as "sugar cubes."

The tofu was firm yet silky, its delicate bean flavor blending with mildly spicy miso or sweet bean sauce to create a faux-spicy taste that was both salty and sweet.

The numbing sensation of Sichuan pepper had nearly vanished, replaced by the comforting, thick sauce coating each bite.

It looked spicy, but it had actually been adjusted for local Japanese tastes, with the numbing and spicy flavors toned down. Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good.

But it probably seemed pretty spicy to Kiyona.

The ceramic spoon touched the tofu slicked with red oil. She brushed a hand past her ear, tucked back a stray lock, then lowered her gaze and focused on blowing away the steam, her fingers steady as a blade.

The moment it entered her mouth, the tips of her ears turned red. Fine beads of sweat appeared on her nose, and her tongue quickly swept across the spicy sauce at the corner of her lips.

She pressed her lips into a stiff line to suppress a soft moan, but even as she tried to hold back, she couldn't hide the way her cool composure was crumbling.

"Are you okay?"

Hoshino Kanade picked up a tissue. When Kiyona didn't refuse, she gently wiped the fine beads of sweat from her face.

"I don't eat this kind of food often. It's really delicious."

With a name like Mapo Tofu to live up to, victory was only natural.

Eating in a corner made it easier to gather information.

Knowing the original story, Hoshino Kanade understood that she would inevitably let her guard down and develop a sense of superiority.

Only by gathering intelligence and watching for the slightest changes could she react in time to the changes she brought about.

Take her plan to win over Matsushita Chiaki. Based on their backgrounds alone, Chiaki was a rich young lady, while she was a poor girl struggling to make ends meet. It was a hopeless fantasy, like a toad dreaming of eating a swan.

Turning that plan into reality meant getting rid of her sense of superiority.

She would use what she knew about Matsushita Chiaki and the other students, moving step by step. At this school, she would turn her "foresight" into real ability—or at least make it look that way.

Only then could she cross the class divide.

People were born unequal.

If she hadn't gotten into this school, the best Hoshino Kanade could have hoped for was to get into a good university, then become a corporate drone and work herself to the bone for the rest of her life—possibly lining someone else's pockets in the process.

But if she were like Miyabi Nagumo, seizing an opportunity only to act recklessly because he'd gained power within the school, she might end up beaten, stuffed into a sack, and dumped into Tokyo Bay without ever knowing what hit her.

"Sou?"

Kiyona sounded puzzled.

"Sorry, I spaced out just now."

"There's a beautiful girl right in front of you, and you still spaced out, Sou? You really don't know how to treat a girl."

After she said that, Kiyona puffed out her cheeks in a sulk. With her cheeks already flushed from the spicy food, she looked ridiculously cute.

She was cute. I was dead.

Hoshino Kanade could barely take it. She reached out and poked Kiyona's puffed-up cheek.

"Sorry. I won't do it again. I just thought the reactions of those older students were a little strange."

"What do you mean?"

Kiyona's attention was drawn to the subject, though she had only been pretending to pout in the first place.

"Judging by their uniforms, they're third-years. Those people look like regulars who eat the Free Meal Set." Hoshino Kanade gestured subtly toward them. "It's not obvious, but some of the other third-years look at them with contempt."

Once you knew the answer, it was easy to work backward and spot the clues that had led to it.

Without knowing what to look for, Hoshino Kanade could stare until her eyes went blind and still not figure out what the pie chart in those students' eyes meant.

"That's true. It is strange."

Kiyona took one look and agreed with Sou.

But then she realized that she'd shown an unusually sharp eye for observation.

Looking again would only make it more obvious.

Luckily, Sou hadn't noticed anything, and Kiyona let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"But what does it mean? I haven't seen any second-years eating the Free Meal Set, and the first-years just got 100,000 points. None of them would eat it either."

With so little information, there were countless possibilities. For now, Kiyona had no way of figuring out the truth.

"Sorry. We agreed to enjoy ourselves first, but I started observing something so meaningless again."

"Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? It's normal to be observant. There are a lot of unreasonable things about this school."

"Yeah."

On the first day of school, after the Opening Ceremony in the morning, the rest of the day was free. Classes wouldn't start until the next day.

That meant they still had half a day to kill.

"I'm going to the library. What about you?"

"I'll come too."

She mainly wanted to skim the books, reading through all of them. Academic Ability was part of one's strength, too, and Hoshino Kanade would be spending a long time in the library from now on.

She might run into Shiina Hiyori and see if she could arrange some cooperation with Class C.

But that would probably be a few days from now. Finding out the truth too early would look suspicious.

Information she sold needed to have a plausible source, as well as evidence to back it up. She needed to put on an act and make it look like she'd figured things out herself.

Being one step ahead made you a genius; being several steps ahead made you a monster; being countless steps ahead made you a cheater.

Hoshino Kanade wanted to live a few more years.

As expected, at the library she ran into the person she'd expected to find.

Shiina Hiyori had silvery-white hair and purple eyes. Her locks flowed like moonlight, and her violet gaze held a cool, rational light.

She had a slender figure, and as she read with her head bowed, the way her fingertips rested on the book gave her a quiet, studious air.

Set against her plain school uniform, her silver hair and violet eyes made her seem like a "blue rose" untouched by the dust of the world, blooming alone in the quiet library with a mysterious, elegant presence.

Hoshino Kanade felt herself falling in love again. Kiyona was wonderful too, but Shiina Hiyori was simply unfair.