Kono Kikyo Da!

"Is that so?"

Kushida took another step forward, grabbing Makoto's wrist and pulling him close, a strange sensation washing over him.

In every sense of the word.

"You have no designs on me, nor do you have any intention of making me betray my class—I really can't bring myself to trust that~"

"So...?"

"Have you done this sort of thing with Honami yet?"

Kushida pulled back and crossed her arms, her words flowing without pause.

"Not yet, right?"

"The first one won't be Honami, it'll be me, Kikyo!"

Kushida pointed her right thumb at her own chin, wearing such a villainous expression that Makoto suffered a visual hallucination.

Blonde hair, two faces for the public and the private...

Excuse me, when does she turn into a vampire? Waiting online, it's quite urgent.

"...I'd like to remind you of something."

After his brain stalled for a moment, Makoto offered a reminder.

"Fingerprints on clothing don't last long. Perhaps... you should think of another way?"

"Besides, there are surveillance cameras all over the hallway. The school will know it was you who suddenly entered my dorm room in the middle of the night."

"Then what other way is there? You're really making me angry."

Kushida's expression froze, and she spoke sullenly; this was the best method her little brain could come up with.

The other party had absolutely no intentions, so it couldn't be that—

Is he really a good person?

"While I pride myself on being a good person, please be clear about one thing."

Makoto smiled calmly, as if everything were under his control.

"You're the one who needs to find a way. Do you expect me to come up with a way to deal with myself?"

That would be too ridiculous.

It wasn't that he couldn't have dodged earlier; his body just had ideas of its own. He couldn't be blamed for that.

"Can you tell me your purpose for being at this school?"

Kushida, acting as if she had given up, flopped directly onto Makoto's bed. She really wanted to cry.

"To spend these three years of school life happily."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

With an expression of disbelief, Kushida rolled over on the bed.

"You really are a strange person."

"I think I'm a normal person. Students should act like students; spending one's school life happily is a normal way of thinking, isn't it?"

"Can't I bring you a happy school life?"

Kushida asked. It was as if she had discovered a new continent, and a strange feeling welled up in her heart.

"You already have."

"Pfft—I think I might like you a little."

Kushida laughed out loud. She hadn't laughed this heartily in a long time; the person in front of her was just too interesting.

"Don't you need to continue? To be honest, I was quite looking forward to it."

"I will tell Honami exactly what you just said."

Kushida smiled. Although a faint sense of crisis still lingered in her heart, she no longer wanted to pay it any mind.

"...I'll tell her myself."

Makoto, true to his name, had always been a very honest person.

"Do you know? There is someone in this school I absolutely hate."

Without continuing the previous topic and ignoring Makoto's strange expression, Kushida threw her entire body onto the bed and sank deep into it, her voice muffled as it came through the quilt.

"Hey, you aren't getting drool on it, are you?"

Makoto wore an expression of disgust, but the other party clearly had no intention of reading his face, continuing to speak as if to herself.

"She's Horikita Suzune from my class. She thinks she's so cute and keeps putting on airs. Even though I already agreed to help her organize a study group, she doesn't want me to participate."

"Tell me, isn't a person like that annoying?"

Kushida tossed the question to Makoto, wanting to hear his take on the matter.

"Can I choose not to answer?"

Makoto asked weakly. In truth, he had already accepted reality; he was just trying to struggle a little bit now.

"I can't exactly do anything to you, but you just said you were a good person, right?"

Kushida rolled over and sat up straight, staring fixedly at Makoto. The latter's eyelids twitched as he watched her; if he remembered correctly, this bed was supposed to be his, right?

How did it end up feeling like he was the intruder?

"Yeah, that's right. That Horikita is truly annoying."

Makoto nodded, wearing an expression that said she was absolutely right.

"Right? Right? It seems you and I think the same way... though it's not like I approached her out of any good intentions, either."

"You might as well just say what's on your mind."

"I want to get her expelled. Can you help me?"

Kushida threw a straight pitch.

"I seem to recall saying just a moment ago that I wanted to spend my three years of school life happily, right? How did we suddenly end up on a topic as heavy as 'expulsion'?"

"Because that girl just makes me so annoyed."

Faced with Makoto's question, the reason Kushida gave was incredibly simple.

That's right, there weren't that many twists and turns between students; just because of a little annoyance, she wanted to get the other person expelled.

"I don't think it's that simple, is it? My guess is that she might know your true colors, and you wanted to get close to her to confirm that, but you ended up getting the cold shoulder. Am I right?"

However, Makoto had read the script, and he laid out the truth in a single sentence.

"Is this what you call 'just wanting to live a peaceful school life'?"

Kushida's eyes were filled with distrust. If a person like him could live a "peaceful school life," she would eat this bed right now.

"I can't help it. You were the one who just tried to drag me out of my peaceful school life, so I had no choice but to counterattack."

Makoto smiled helplessly. What else could he do? He was helpless too, okay!

"This should be very simple for you, right? I've already heard about it, you know—how you extorted private points from the upperclassmen using club challenges on the day of the entrance ceremony."

Kushida took Makoto's hand once again. In her view, close physical contact could always lower the other person's defenses a little.

"I don't think there's any necessary connection between the two, right? Besides, is something like expulsion really achievable?"

Makoto still wanted to try and bluff his way through it, wondering why Honami hadn't arrived yet. He had sent the message quite a while ago.

He had sent the message while Kushida was lying on the bed with her back to him.

"Home in danger, come quickly."

"Since even failing the midterm exams carries the penalty of expulsion, I don't believe there aren't other ways to do it in this school."

Kushida's tone gradually leveled out.

"Tell me, you aren't planning on refusing to help me, are you?"

"You figured that out too?"

Makoto thought it was great that Kushida had said it herself; he didn't want to get involved in this matter at all.

"And based on what you said, she's the loner type, right? Then isn't it fine to just ignore her?"

"It might have been like that before, but now she's provoked me."

"It's better to be a bit more broad-minded if you want to survive in society."

Makoto said this, but who knew that upon hearing it, Kushida would puff out her chest, looking as if to say, "How much more broad-minded do you want me to be?"

"Click—"

The sound of the lock opening, which Makoto had been longing for, finally rang out at this moment.