Shopping and Meeting Horikita Again

Amasawa Yuto opened the door. Sure enough, standing outside was the elegant girl, leaning on her cane with a smile on her face.

"Sakayanagi, is it really okay for you to come to the boys' floor and visit a boy's room alone?"

"As long as it's before ten o'clock, it's fine, isn't it?" Sakayanagi tilted her head slightly. The gesture was adorable, though it was unclear if she was aware of it herself. "Besides, even if it were after ten, as long as neither of us says anything, it could just be our little secret."

"No, before that—how did you even find out which room is mine, Sakayanagi?"

"The mailboxes to the right of the main entrance have everyone's name and room number on them. I found Amasawa-kun's mailbox."

Amasawa Yuto nodded. "Right. So, Sakayanagi-ojousama, since you didn't contact me by phone and came directly to find me, what is it you need?"

"Would you like to go buy some daily necessities together?" Arisu Sakayanagi offered the invitation.

Amasawa Yuto thought for a moment and nodded in agreement. "Wait for me a moment."

"Are you really going to make a cute girl wait outside the whole time?"

"...Come on in, then." Amasawa Yuto opened the door wider.

Arisu Sakayanagi scanned the layout of the room but didn't step inside. Instead, her tone turned apologetic. "I was just joking. With my condition, changing shoes back and forth would be a waste of time. I'll just wait for Amasawa-kun out here."

"It's fine even if you don't change your shoes—though, I suppose I shouldn't say that. Fine, I'll be ready in a second."

This was a good opportunity to learn more about this girl, Arisu Sakayanagi.

Amasawa Yuto took out his phone and quickly sent an email to Tsubaki Yuki, telling her he was going shopping with a classmate, then changed his shoes and headed out.

The two walked side-by-side to the elevator, where they ran straight into a classmate coming out.

"Eh? Amasawa-kun, Sakayanagi-san, what are you two doing?" The long-haired boy looked suspicious. "This is the boys' floor, right?"

"Apologies, Satonaka-kun. I asked Amasawa-kun to come help me with something," Arisu Sakayanagi replied unhurriedly.

"Eh? Does Sakayanagi-san really need help? Is Amasawa-kun enough on his own? Do you need me to help out, too?" Satoshi Satonaka seemed genuinely concerned for his classmate.

Amasawa Yuto noticed the many piercings in his ears.

Piercings were generally considered a symbol of a delinquent, but the handsome, long-haired boy Satoshi Satonaka didn't give that impression at all.

"Amasawa-kun is enough. Actually, Amasawa-kun and I have known each other for a long time." Faced with Satoshi Satonaka's pure kindness and concern, Arisu Sakayanagi unconsciously spoke a bit of the truth. "We are... how should I put it, something like childhood friends."

As she said this, she looked at Amasawa Yuto with a hint of nervousness, wanting to see how he would react to that description.

Amasawa Yuto nodded. With that phrasing, there was no doubt that Sakayanagi had seen him back in the White Room; he just didn't know at what age she had seen him.

Seeing that Amasawa Yuto didn't deny it, Arisu Sakayanagi nodded in satisfaction, returning to her usual calm and elegant demeanor.

"Eh? Is it really that much of a coincidence?" Satoshi Satonaka scratched his cheek with his index finger, revealing a somewhat naive and charming smile.

He was handsome, and his long hair gave him a neutral, bewitching beauty. From the perspective of both men and women, he was someone who easily garnered favor.

"Actually, I have a childhood friend in the class, too. It's Momoe Rokkaku."

Momoe Rokkaku, the girl sitting in the front row with pink hair styled in a bun.

Amasawa Yuto quickly screened the person mentioned in his mind.

"Oh? Is that so?" Arisu Sakayanagi was also a bit surprised; she hadn't expected the classmates to have this kind of connection.

"Our families are neighbors, but we went to different middle schools. We only ended up at the same school again in high school... Ah, sorry. Am I wasting your time by rambling on like this?" Satoshi Satonaka realized he might be holding them up.

"Let's talk more in detail later, Satonaka-kun." Sakayanagi waved her hand with a smile.

After all, it was the first day of school, and many students had come to the shopping mall to pick up supplies.

A boy carrying a large box containing a game console brushed past them, humming to himself, "Genshin, activate! Mi-die, I've come to pay my respects to you!"

There were also girls returning with bags full of cosmetics and clothes.

It seemed not all students were aware of the crisis lurking behind their points.

"Please look over here, Amasawa-kun." Arisu Sakayanagi pointed to a corner of the supermarket.

There were some free daily necessities there—toothbrushes, facial cleansers, soap, laundry detergent, and the like. However, they all looked very cheap, like the disposable amenities provided in hotels.

Despite having 100,000 points, the fact that a full set of low-quality daily necessities was provided for free indicated that the situation of running out of points did indeed exist.

Arisu Sakayanagi's father was the chairman of the school board. She had known the school's rules all along, but she was pointing out clues to Amasawa Yuto to show that she wasn't just relying on nepotism, but that there were actual traces to follow.

Amasawa Yuto was also well aware of the school's rules, but he used these clues to show that he had deduced them, rather than knowing the plot of the first semester in advance.

Two people who didn't want to show off their advantages were acting it out for each other.

"It seems this school isn't as simple as it looks~" "It seems this school really has hidden secrets."

The two actors spoke at the same time.

Amasawa Yuto and Arisu Sakayanagi picked out their toiletries separately. Arisu Sakayanagi placed the items she had chosen into Amasawa Yuto's shopping basket without a second thought.

"I'll transfer the points to you later, Amasawa-kun," she said with a smile.

In the distance, they could see a classmate also shopping—a tall girl with long, deep purple hair styled in a small braid.

She didn't seem to notice them at all. He remembered that during her self-introduction, she had been so cold that she finished after just stating her name.

Masumi Kamuro.

Long before checking the class assignments with Yuki Tsubaki, Yuto Amasawa had already memorized the names of all one hundred and sixty students in the school. All that remained was to match the names to their faces in his mind.

The only strange thing was that she was browsing the freezer section in the cold drinks aisle. Had she already finished buying her toiletries?

Ah, so that was it. Yuto Amasawa understood, and he stopped paying attention.

"Amasawa-kun, would you mind if I excused myself for a moment?" Arisu Sakayanagi said suddenly. "I've spotted something interesting."

"It's fine, go ahead. I'll watch our things."

It seemed Sakayanagi had noticed Kamuro as well. While wandering through the cold drinks section earlier, she had tucked a can of beer inside her school uniform.

In plain terms, she was shoplifting.

Since beer was an item that minors couldn't purchase, she would have been caught immediately if she had tried to use her student ID.

To think that Kamuro was still a minor and yet had a penchant for beer.

Amasawa looked around, but Kamuro was already gone. It seemed she had succeeded and left. Was Sakayanagi going to expose her?

No, given Sakayanagi's personality, it was more likely she intended to use the leverage to blackmail her. That seemed far more probable.

However, while scanning the area, Yuto Amasawa spotted another acquaintance.

A girl with black hair and red eyes was deep in thought while selecting items from the free toiletries display. Suddenly, she looked up sharply and locked eyes with him.

Suzune Horikita frowned. "Why are you staring at me?"