It was such an ordinary sentence, yet for some reason, Kasumigaoka heard an inexplicable loneliness in it.
Yukino said, "Then it's my turn to ask a question."
Even though she was the one who'd done something worse at that very moment, the victim simply brushed the matter aside.
She had been forgiven by someone she used to hate more than anything.
Yukino's expression was calm, her back straight as a pine tree. With her hands resting on her knees, she looked at Kasumigaoka with a gaze like snow gently melting in spring.
Kasumigaoka swallowed almost imperceptibly. "...Just so we're clear, I'm not answering anything too outrageous."
Was Yukino telling the truth when she said she liked girls?
And if she was, who was the girl she liked?
Could it be...
"So, Kasumigaoka-senpai, what do you like?"
"I don't like—"
Her cheeks warming, Kasumigaoka was about to loudly declare that there was no way she liked Yukino, when she suddenly realized what Yukino had actually asked.
"...Huh?"
She sat up rather awkwardly. "That's such a broad question. I'll have to give it some serious thought."
"Anything is fine, as long as you like it enough."
After thinking for a moment, she tentatively offered an answer. "Coffee?"
"Liar."
She often needed coffee to keep her company while working on her manuscript.
"I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but I wouldn't call it a lie either... Fine, fine. Sleeping?"
Kasumigaoka was a genius student who spent her nights absorbed in typing away and slept through her classes during the day. Even though she slept through class every day, she still consistently ranked first in every school-wide mock exam.
Yukino glared at her.
Kasumigaoka smiled. "All right, let me think... Oh, I know."
She lightly patted her cheek. "Light novels."
She did enjoy reading light novels, but what she loved most was writing them.
That was right. On the surface, Kasumigaoka's identities were one of Toyogasaki Academy's two Campus Belles, the Literary Club's star, and a top student who had consistently dominated her grade. But in private, she had another identity: a rising light-novel author who had made her debut with a hit series.
Love Metronome was published by Fushikawa Shoten's Fantastic Bunko. Its five volumes had sold over 500,000 copies in total—a remarkable achievement for a newcomer.
[The system has selected the best option for reversing your Negative Image: Have Kasumigaoka give you a light novel]
As expected, the system had generated a quest.
Congratulations, Yukino. You've learned how to exploit bugs to generate quests!
Yukino said, "If you're feeling uneasy about what just happened, give me a light novel you like. Then we can call everything between us water under the bridge."
She was even considering the person who'd harmed her?
Yukino, having turned over a new leaf, was far too kind!
Kasumigaoka leaned lazily over the desk and tilted her head at Yukino with a strange expression. "How about Love Metronome?"
So Kasumigaoka liked that light novel too.
Yukino's expression softened. She nodded. "That works. I don't have volume five yet."
"Then next time, I'll give you the author-signed editions of all five volumes of Love Metronome."
"Don't make ridiculous boasts. The teacher who wrote that book is a man of refined tastes with an old-fashioned air. I heard that after the signing event for the first three volumes, he never held another one. So a signed set of all five volumes is impossible."
For some reason, even after Kasumigaoka had been exposed for boasting, she propped her head up and smiled even more happily.
At the Yukinoshita Residence, Madam Yukinoshita had just hung up the phone when she saw her eldest daughter, Haruno, coming through the door.
"I'm home... Mom?"
Haruno's makeup was immaculate, and her accessories perfectly accentuated her beauty. There wasn't a single thing about her that didn't shine.
She looked somewhat tired, but she still seemed confident and radiant.
She was Madam Yukinoshita's most outstanding daughter and the Yukinoshita Family's finest heir. Even without her other, spoiled daughter to compare her with, Haruno Yukinoshita was still a jewel who wouldn't be overlooked among the country's socialites.
She hadn't yet fully matured, but she was already a young serpent capable of baring her fangs.
The prouder Madam Yukinoshita felt of her eldest daughter, the more disappointed she was in her younger one.
Yukino had once been such an outstanding child, too. Though she hadn't been as good as her older sister, she had been perfectly qualified to serve as the Yukinoshita Family's heir in reserve.
But then, overnight, her daughter rebelled and decided to become a gyaru—a trashy gyaru who had eighty men on the hook and was good for nothing but chasing after romance. Madam Yukinoshita had been so furious she'd nearly fainted.
Perhaps because it was rare to find her mother at home, Haruno Yukinoshita turned around in surprise.
The smile on her face was sweet and friendly, the sort of smile that made people like her and let down their guard. She had perfected it over the years.
"Were you waiting for me? Just a moment, please. I'll change and come right back."
She was still wearing a formal dress with an elaborate skirt. It would indeed be a little strange to talk with her mother dressed like that.
"No need, Haruno."
Madam Yukinoshita asked Haruno to sit down on the sofa opposite her. "There's something I want to ask you."
Haruno obediently sat down. "Did you want to hear about the details of the banquet?"
"The Shinomiya Family's Eldest Miss didn't attend this banquet, but the Shijo Family's young lady did. The national economy has been sluggish lately, so quite a few people have been keeping an eye on the ACG industry. I think this could be a good opportunity, but..."
"Haruno, your sister has started studying properly."
Haruno Yukinoshita's voice abruptly stopped.
After a pause, Haruno's expression remained unchanged, and she continued with a light laugh. "Oh, she must be pursuing some top student, then. That wouldn't be unusual for Yukino~"
After all, this wasn't the first time Yukino Yukinoshita had done something like that. For instance, she'd once tried to pursue a chuunibyou boy in her second year of high school by studying a pile of classic chuunibyou works and even memorizing a bunch of chuunibyou quotes.
Then there was the time she'd tried to pursue an otaku boy, thrown herself headfirst into otaku culture, and bought a pile of otaku games, light novels, and manga. She'd almost even become a cosplayer.
Over the past year, Haruno had been impressed by the sheer determination Yukino Yukinoshita showed when pursuing people.
"That's not it."
Madam Yukinoshita laid out several photos. "Yukino hasn't pursued anyone for two weeks, and she's changed her appearance and studied diligently for two weeks. Even when she was pursuing someone, she'd never worked hard for more than two weeks."
Haruno's expression turned complicated. "Why do these photos look like they were taken secretly?"
Madam Yukinoshita's usually elegant bearing faltered. "...Don't misunderstand. I downloaded and printed them from the Sobu High School Campus Forum."
Haruno smiled sweetly. "It's nice that Yukino wants to study hard. She can do whatever she wants."
Madam Yukinoshita replied, "Yukino is a member of the Yukinoshita Family. Of course I'd be happy if she wanted to improve herself."
The topic was perfectly ordinary, yet there seemed to be an inexplicable current flowing between them.
If Haruno was a young snake that hadn't yet come of age, then Madam Yukinoshita was a fully mature giant serpent, so enormous she blotted out the sky.
She looked like a calm, smiling lady of high society, yet both her smile and her words carried an indescribable sense of pressure.
Madam Yukinoshita said, "Next weekend, Haruno, go pick up your sister and bring her home."
It sounded less like a request and more like a statement of fact delivered as a calm command.
Haruno pressed her lips together, and her smile disappeared completely.
"Do you really have to make me say it, Mom?"
"I will never acknowledge her as my sister."
"Here she comes!"
Onozawa Kaho rushed over to Miura's seat like a whirlwind and whispered in an extremely low voice, "Yukino's here. Yumiko, get ready!"
"What? It's not like I'm the one pursuing her. She's pursuing me, so why should I be so eager..."
Though she complained, Miura quickly pulled out her compact and fixed her hair. Then she took a bag she'd prepared earlier out of her desk.
Her eyes gleamed as she stared at the classroom door.
So when Yukino walked into the classroom with her backpack bouncing behind her, she saw four pairs of eyes fixed intently on her.
Yukino's first reaction was to look at her desk. There were no curses scrawled all over it. She checked her chair next, but there were no thumbtacks on it. Then she looked at the blackboard, where nobody had written "Yukino's a bitch" all over it either.
Yukino: "?"
She slowly typed out a question mark in her mind.
Still puzzled, Yukino had just returned to her seat when someone darted over like a gust of wind and slapped something down on her desk.
Yukino had let her guard down! She hadn't dodged in time!
When she turned around, she only saw Miura dart back to her seat just as quickly, sit down elegantly, and clear her throat without looking her way.
Thinking it was some kind of bomb meant to take them both out, Yukino glanced at the things on her desk and found a pile of notebooks instead. Curiously, she opened one and flipped through it.
They were all the class notes from her first year of high school through the previous week.
The handwriting was elegant, like a girl's.
The bag was full of diligently and thoroughly recorded study notes.
Since Miura also needed her second-year notes, Yukino had been given printed copies of those.
Yukino pressed her lips together, looked over the notes, then picked up the bag of cream tarts she'd brought that morning and carried it to Miura's desk.
Miura folded her arms and tried her hardest to act like she didn't care as she glanced at it. "Cream puffs? They're greasy and make you gain weight. I hate them."
Yukino: "?"
Unscrupulous System, get out here and take your beating.
Didn't you say Miura's favorite was cream puffs?
Junko Kamizawa, seated behind her, leaned forward. "Oh? Cream puffs are my favorite. If Yumiko doesn't like them, give them all to me~"
Onozawa Kaho leaned over from Miura's left. "Me too, me too!"
"Give what to whom?!" Miura snapped, quickly hiding the bag of sweets in her desk. Even the tips of her ears turned red.
"I feel like gaining weight today, okay?!"
The notebooks in front of Yukino covered every subject and every chapter, from the most recent notes back to the start of her first year. They contained everything: summaries of classroom material, collections of difficult questions from homework, and solution ideas.
Miura usually got good grades in class. She wasn't at the top of the grade rankings, but she was among the top three in her class and around the top twenty in her grade.
Yukino had assumed she was a genius student like Kasumigaoka, but it turned out she'd been quietly working hard where no one could see.
Yukino wondered, How could someone like this exist?
She looked like a queen who was impossible to mess with, but in reality, she was a girl who could lose her nerve in a second. She loved cute things, sweets, and getting embarrassed. Her Girlish Heart was overflowing, but she was always too embarrassed to show it.
She seemed highly aggressive, but she was actually terrible at arguing. She was the kind of person Yukino could make cry ten times over in a row.
If someone showed her even a little kindness, she wanted to repay them tenfold.
Even to someone as annoying as Yukino, who could be considered her romantic rival, she could offer sincere concern.
In her sixteen years, Yukino had feared two kinds of people most: first, clever people whose minds were constantly calculating every gain and loss, and second, complete idiots like this.
Especially the latter. She found them incredibly difficult to deal with.
The class bell rang. Yukino turned and glanced at Miura, who was leaning her chin on her hand and smiling at her phone beneath the desk, chatting with someone. She didn't know who.
When Miura noticed Yukino looking her way, she immediately turned fierce. Her forced scowl clearly said, "What are you looking at?!"
But she couldn't keep it up for three seconds. Her face promptly flushed red, and she hurriedly gave a huff before turning away with an arrogant air.
Idiot.
Before you continue