The Amazing Little Ran

Yuki had already seen through their cowardice, and couldn't help feeling disappointed.

They really were Class D's defective products. They'd come to threaten her without even having the nerve to burn their bridges?

Did they really think that just showing up would make everyone else surrender without a fight?

If they'd been bullies who refused to see reason, Tsubaki Yuki would have taught them a harsh lesson without hesitation. Judging by Ryuen, violence within a class was tolerated to some extent.

But they were acting neither one way nor the other, leaving Tsubaki unsure what to do for a moment.

If only Yuto were here.

The thought had slipped into her mind before she could stop it, startling her.

Just then, Kei Karuizawa suddenly spoke up. "Are you waiting for someone?"

Tsubaki and Kei met each other's eyes. One of them showed no sense of danger at all, while the other was only pretending to stay calm.

At last, Yuki sighed. "Yeah. I'm waiting for Amasawa Yuto from Class A."

Kei finally found a way out. "Let's go. There's no point dragging this out, and students from other classes will be coming soon."

Sato Maya and Shinohara Satsuki hurriedly chimed in, too. "Oh, right, right!"

And just like that, the three of them left.

Kei hadn't wanted to pick a fight with Tsubaki in the first place, but there were several reasons she'd done so.

First, she hadn't bothered Tsubaki at all in the past month. As a result, the girls she'd been bullying had come to see the kind and beautiful Tsubaki as their savior. They thought Kei was afraid of her and even saw her as their hope of resisting Kei. It was a serious challenge to her position as the girls' "leader."

Second, as she'd said, she'd already squeezed just about all the points she could out of the class's easy targets over the past month. There weren't many points left, and she didn't dare approach girls from other classes on a whim.

Last, and most importantly, she was naturally a domineering person. At first, she'd only acted that way to protect herself, but by now, she'd become addicted to putting others down.

The thrill of controlling everything, of seeing people support her and fear standing up to her even when they knew she was wrong, was simply wonderful.

At last, Kei had calmed down again.

"Let's pretend what happened after school today never happened," Kei said to the two girls behind her.

They had just reached the entrance to the school building when they came face-to-face with two people coming out.

Awkward, wasn't it? They'd just mentioned someone's name, and now they'd run into him.

The two approaching them were Amasawa Yuto and another girl.

"What do you mean by that, Morishita?"

Morishita Ran, her face as expressionless as a poker player's, shot back without hesitation. "I mean you, Class A's traitor, Amasawa Yuto."

"I don't believe I've done anything to betray my class."

Amasawa Yuto met Morishita Ran's gaze without a hint of guilt.

Morishita Ran rarely showed any emotion. She had the standard poker face, delicate features, and long purple hair tied into two little low pigtails. She usually wore thick black tights.

This girl was a headache for Amasawa Yuto in more ways than one.

She sat right in front of him, and she didn't seem to have many friends in class. Morishita was fond of telling strange, deadpan jokes to the classmates sitting around her.

Amasawa Yuto and Sakayanagi Arisu had both received plenty of her "attention."

She was clever and did well in class, but what did she mean by calling him a traitor to their class?

"You're the class traitor," Morishita Ran asserted confidently.

Amasawa Yuto noticed that she'd said "class traitor," not "the traitor Katsuragi calls you."

"What are you trying to say?" he asked calmly. "I haven't done anything to betray my class."

"You're so strong, yet you do absolutely nothing for the class. How is that not being a traitor to your class?" Morishita Ran pointed a finger at him, standing tall and proud like a famous detective in an anime.

Huh?

Amasawa Yuto sighed helplessly. "It seems we have different definitions of 'traitor.'"

"My grandfather was an incredibly famous detective, and I inherited his bloodline. I'm Super Detective Morishita Ran!"

Morishita Ran pulled a magnifying glass from her pocket and held it up as if she could see right through Amasawa Yuto.

"Doesn't getting such a high score count as contributing to the class?" Amasawa Yuto replied casually, no longer interested in arguing with her.

It seemed she hadn't discovered his dealings with Class B. She was only trying to get him to contribute to the class because she was worried Class A would fall behind Class B.

She'd just called him a traitor offhandedly.

"Where are you going?" Morishita Ran asked, hurrying after him when she saw him leave.

"Sorry, Morishita. I have plans to meet someone today, so I can't listen to your jokes."

"Then I'll follow you and see who you're meeting."

The two of them walked out of the school building and ran into Kei Karuizawa and the other two girls.

There was something off about the way they looked at him.

Amasawa Yuto realized it in an instant.

They weren't looking at him the way people looked at a classmate whose name they'd heard before.

Their evasive manner and guilty expressions said it all.

They seemed eager to slip past him, as if he were some kind of plague.

"You..." Amasawa Yuto suddenly spoke as they passed each other.

Kei Karuizawa stopped. "Huh? What do you want? We're in a hurry!"

Her attitude was arrogant and overbearing; there wasn't a trace of the guilt she'd just shown.

She had a powerful presence and was an excellent actress.

He hadn't expected a minor character from the first season to be so capable.

But no matter how hard she tried to put on a show, the two classmates behind her gave everything away.

"Sorry to bother you. I just thought you were in the same class, so I wanted to ask whether you'd seen Tsubaki Yuki."

"Tsubaki... Yuki?" Kei Karuizawa's expression twisted for an instant. "Oh, yeah, I just saw her. I think she's over there!"

She pointed in a direction.

Amasawa Yuto glanced at her and nodded. "Got it. Thanks."

"Is the person you're meeting from Class D?" Morishita Ran suddenly asked. She'd been silent until now.

"Yeah. My childhood friend, Tsubaki Yuki."

"Isn't your childhood friend Sakayanagi Arisu?"

"...There's nothing strange about having more than one childhood friend."

"No, you're a strange man, Amasawa Yuto."

Tsubaki Yuki straightened her clothes. She couldn't let them ruin her good mood.

She spotted Yuto approaching in the distance and was about to greet him when she noticed a purple-haired girl following behind him. He looked rather exasperated with her.

Tsubaki was a little puzzled. "Yuto, is she your classmate?"

Amasawa Yuto nodded. "She wouldn't leave me alone, so I'm a little late. Sorry. This is Morishita Ran from Class A. She's the 18th Successor of Kobiran-ryu Kobudo, and a detective who inherited her famous detective grandfather's bloodline."

Those would've been enough to make an ordinary person want to crawl into a hole, but Morishita Ran accepted them readily. She raised a hand beside her face and flashed a peace sign, her voice as deadpan as ever. "I'm Morishita Ran. Nice to meet you."