Yukino, who had been ostracized and isolated in all sorts of ways since elementary school, had an incredible amount of experience fighting back in this area.
She could just tell the teacher later and ask to exercise alone.
After all, as long as she didn't feel awkward, everyone else would be the awkward ones.
I, Yukino, had been through countless trials and seen it all.
Just as she was thinking this, a pair of pristine indoor shoes came to a stop beside her. She looked up and saw the awkward expression on the face of Yumiko Miura, the social butterfly queen of their class.
One of Blonde Yukino's victims?
Was this girl here to argue or to fight?
Yumiko Miura folded her arms. She was already tall, and when she looked at someone with her face turned slightly to the side like this, she seemed even more haughty and overbearing.
"I heard you don't have a partner for PE?"
So she was here to mock her?
Miura said, "I-I felt sorry for you, so I'll reluctantly be your partner."
Yukino could tell that Classmate Miura really wanted to put on an air of arrogant generosity, but she was stiff and awkward, and her voice even stuttered a little. A faint blush showed on the side of her face, turned slightly away.
She looked more like the one worried about being rejected.
[The system has selected the best option for turning around your Negative Image: "Classmate Miura, you're actually pretty sweet."]
The option, written in some bafflingly flowery style, made Yukino's teeth ache with its saccharine sweetness.
She had wanted to respond with sarcasm, but Classmate Miura was simply too valuable as a point-farming machine.
"Classmate Miura, you're actually pretty sweet."
Her voice was as soft as a cool breeze. Since her tone had been so awful in the past, she came across as rather gentle now.
Miura blushed. Yukino really might have a crush on her after all. Otherwise, she would have started an argument with her by now.
What should she do? What should she do? Yukino had a crush on her, but she didn't like girls.
Still, it was the first time she'd learned that a girl liked her, and that girl was such a beautiful young woman. Wouldn't rejecting her too bluntly hurt her feelings?
Besides, it was more important to guide the Bad Woman Yukino back onto the right path. That way, at least Yukino's crush on her wouldn't have been for nothing.
While Miura's mind was full of all sorts of nonsense, the warm-up exercises had already begun.
At Japanese high schools, students usually partnered up with someone of the same sex for warm-ups. They did things like carrying each other on their backs or stretching each other's thighs—in short, the exercises were all very intimate.
"Classmate Miura?" Yukino tilted her head.
Miura quickly came back to her senses and saw the PE teacher looking their way, too. "Miura, Yukino, what are you dawdling for? Get started."
"Yes."
Yukino held out her hand. When Miura, her ears burning red, reached out and took it, her heart couldn't help but give a little flutter.
As a natural social butterfly since childhood, Yumiko Miura had friends wherever she went. It wasn't as though she'd never held another girl's hand before, but this felt completely different.
Because this was the hand of a girl who might be in love with her.
Yukino looked cold and hard, but her fingers were soft and warm.
The warmth passed from Yukino's palm into Miura's, making her feel a little dizzy.
She hadn't even noticed that she'd been feeling a little down when Hayama had asked her to go over to Yukino just now. But now, Hayama was completely out of her mind.
"Classmate Miura, watch out!"
Her foot twisted, and pain shot through her ankle. Miura immediately lost her balance, then, in her panic, someone caught her around the waist.
"Are you all right, Classmate Miura?"
A soft, fragrant body, unmistakably that of a young girl, held her.
At such close range, both Yukino's breathtaking beauty and her fresh, sweet scent washed over Miura.
Miura's mind went blank for a moment, then she immediately jumped away.
W-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w-w, no, no, no!
Tomorrow, she absolutely had to warn Yukino not to have a crush on her!!!
Because of her sprained ankle, Yukino quickly—uh, quickly called a teacher for her. The teacher then had her friends Onozawa and Kamizawa take her to the infirmary with Yui Yuigahama.
Onozawa Kaho worriedly touched her ankle with a fingertip. "Are you okay, Yumiko?"
"Relax, relax. The teacher said I haven't hurt a bone. I just twisted it a little. I only need some spray."
Junko Kamizawa looked indignant. "Did Yukino push you, Yumiko? I knew she had no conscience!"
Miura instinctively defended Yukino. "No, I twisted my ankle because I wasn't careful. Yukino even caught me so I wouldn't fall."
Actually, she hadn't caught her. She'd hugged her.
But the panic and nervousness that had suddenly welled up in Miura's heart when she fell into Yukino's arms had stopped her from saying so.
Onozawa Kaho grinned. "Yukino's got that icy, keep-your-distance face these days, but she looked so conflicted and distressed. She must really care about you, Yumiko."
Miura's face reddened.
Then she felt both helpless and strangely smug.
She cleared her throat, folded her arms, and put on an expression that said, "Yukino sure is a handful, and I'm not happy about it at all." She waved her hand as if unconcerned and boasted, "Yukino's just lost her way for a little while. I'll help her get back on the right path."
In truth, she hadn't the slightest idea how to help Yukino "get back on the right path."
Yui, sitting by the bed, was lost in thought.
Earlier, when she'd seen Yukino standing alone outside the crowd, she'd agonized over it for a long time. Just as she was about to take a step in that direction, Yumiko had already strode over to her.
Yui had wanted to ask her about the question she hadn't managed to ask back then.
And why had Yukino transferred into Class 2-F? Had she also wanted to explain something to Yui?
But now, it seemed she was destined never to get that answer.
"What do you think, Yui?"
Yui quickly came back to her senses, and a smile that matched the mood appeared on her face. "Ahaha, you're both totally right~"
Yui Yuigahama, who always instinctively read the room and went along with the group, was the mood-maker of the friend group.
She was incredibly cute, with a youthful, fashionable look and makeup. She was a pretty high school girl at the cutting edge of style.
She looked sweet and delicate, like a potential homewrecker, but she actually had a very, very good temper and was a kind soul who struggled to say no to her friends.
And she had huge boobs! [Emphasis added]
Miura's gaze lingered on Yui's chest for a second.
She'd occasionally heard that before Yukino had butted in and stolen her classmate Hachiman Hikigaya away, Yukino and Yui had gotten along pretty well.
But Yui had said they were just acquaintances, not close.
Yukino had earned another point from Miura. She was still going strong today.
It was the weekend, and Yukino got back to her own apartment early.
As they'd arranged, the tutor she'd hired would come by on the weekend to teach her.
She was a little worried about her Artificially Stupid System.
Current Spirit: +5
What a lot of spirit. She was about to turn into a high-energy social-media girl.
[Can't you show me my character stats like a game status screen? Look at everyone else's systems. Get your act together.]
She even had to make her own list of stats. What a useless system.
Still, at least the Negative Image progress bar system kept updating.
[Negative Image: 95%; possession success rate: 95%]
As expected of the merciless point-farming machine, Classmate Miura. It had dropped to ninety-five percent so quickly. [Expressionless finger heart]
Once she got it down to fifty percent, Yukino would be on equal footing with all those possessors.
But come to think of it, why was this body so appealing to people who wanted to possess it? And why was there still a chance she'd be possessed in the future?
Could it be that she was also some kind of High Popularity Character?
All right, that was just a joke to lighten the mood.
Yukino was a little self-absorbed, but not that self-absorbed.
[But come to think of it, can this system only reward Spirit? Can't it reward anything else?]
Her stamina was pretty poor. She'd even learned aikido because of it, but even then, she was still an offensive powerhouse with low defense. As soon as her energy ran out, she was done for.
If the system could reward her stamina and let her keep building it up, maybe that feeling of her body constantly running out of energy would disappear completely. Maybe one day she could even take down her nasty older sister.
The thought of her sister made Yukino pause.
It had been almost a week since she'd woken up over a year in the future, but neither her family nor her sister had contacted her.
In the past, no matter what, her sister would at least send her some mocking, mean messages on Line and wait for her to fly into a helpless rage.
Had Blonde Yukino fallen out with her family?
Her relationship with her older sister, Haruno Yukinoshita, wasn't great, but they were just ordinary sisters who bickered. She remembered that for a while when she was little, she'd been very clingy with her sister, always following right behind her.
So things definitely hadn't reached the point where they'd cut ties.
She once again summoned Blonde Yukino, grinding her teeth as she whipped the corpse.
Aside from the tutor she'd just added a few days ago, Yukino had deleted everyone from her old Line list. The only friend she'd kept was Haruno. She typed, [Are you there?] in the chat, then thought better of it and deleted it.
[Are you still mad at me?] Deleted.
[Want to go shopping together this week? There's something I want to buy.] Deleted.
She kept typing and deleting on her phone for a long time. At last, Yukino sighed and slumped over her desk.
Yukino had always liked competing with her older sister, Haruno, but right now, the thought of bowing her head to her sister—and over something that wasn't even her fault—was simply unbearable.
Damn this competitive streak of mine!
As she was fretting, the doorbell rang three times.
Was that her tutor?
Yukino found the chat with Eriri Sawamura on Line. "Sawamura-sensei, are you here?"
"Yup, I'm ringing the doorbell right now~"
Yukino straightened her clothes and went to answer the door. Dressed in loungewear, she opened it with a friendly expression. Then she looked up, and her face instantly fell apart.
The girl standing opposite her was tall and quite sexy. A white headband held back her waterfall of black hair. She looked quiet, elegant, and beautiful, with a strong literary air.
Yukino stared at her expressionlessly. "Eriri Sawamura?"
The other girl gave her an insincere smile, looked her up and down, and fell silent for a moment.
"Yui Yuigahama?"
Yukino recognized her right away. The two Campus Belles of Toyogasaki Academy were Utaha Kasumigaoka and the girl Yukino had claimed was Eriri Sawamura.
According to what Yukino had seen in the posts, the two Campus Belles of Toyogasaki Academy seemed to have fallen for the same boy. Just as they were fighting over him, Yukino had swooped in and stolen him away.
Blonde Yukino's Harem Domain had spread to the school next door? How wonderful.
The fact that she'd pulled it off amazed even Yukino. Could that woman have some sort of cheat system that guaranteed confessions would succeed?
Wild speculation [x]
Then, the next day, Yukino dumped the poor boy named Aki again.
Before you continue