A few minutes earlier.
Sakayanagi Arisu lay on her bed. Her cute pink nightgown was covered in white paw prints, and its long sleeves hid her arms. Beneath the hem, her slender, fair legs were exposed.
She looked like an innocent little girl from next door.
In reality, she was one of the leaders of Class A of the First Year, secretly gathering people she could use.
But even a leader of Class A needed time to rest.
As she was about to go to sleep, Sakayanagi Arisu reached out and gently picked up the teddy bear beside her pillow, drawing it into her arms.
The white-haired girl closed her eyes, savoring the softness of the bed as she prepared to drift into a sweet dream.
Just then, her Student Terminal began to vibrate, signaling that she had received a message.
"Is it from Masumi?" The short-haired girl with white hair opened her lovely eyes slightly, feeling a little displeased.
Even she would get a little annoyed if her sleep was interrupted.
Still, if Kamuro Masumi had chosen to message her at this hour, the situation must have been urgent.
Today, she had sent Kamuro Masumi to follow Dokuho Kouya of Class 1-B.
She had originally asked her to wait until the next morning to report anything that happened tonight.
Unless the situation was especially urgent.
"Hm?" When she picked up her phone and saw who had sent the message, Sakayanagi Arisu froze for a moment.
The person who had messaged her was Dokuho Kouya, the one being followed, rather than Kamuro Masumi, who was doing the following.
Had she been found out?
Sakayanagi Arisu opened the message. When she saw that it contained a photo of the purple-haired girl, a faint smile appeared on her pretty face.
Then she called Kamuro Masumi.
"Sakayanagi, I..."
"Masumi, you'd look cuter if you smiled when you took pictures."
After teasing her newly recruited subordinate, Sakayanagi Arisu asked, "Could you please hand the phone to Kono? There are a few things I'd like to talk to him about."
"Why don't you just call him yourself?" Kamuro Masumi grumbled from the other end.
But Sakayanagi Arisu knew her well enough to be sure that Kamuro Masumi would hand the phone to the boy beside her.
She was the type who said one thing but did another.
"Hello—"
Sure enough, a boy's voice came from the other end.
"Kono, I didn't expect you to notice Masumi. I underestimated you."
Sakayanagi Arisu shifted into a more comfortable position. Sitting on the bed with her knees against the sheets, she spread her plump thighs apart and folded her legs beneath her.
"There are more people around at noon and after school, and fewer at night. It was easy to spot her," Dokuho Kouya replied from the other end.
"That's a very slippery answer, Kono."
A faint smile curled Sakayanagi Arisu's lips. "You deliberately phrased it in a way that could be misunderstood. You might make us think you noticed Kamuro much earlier, but simply chose not to call her out at the time."
"But only Kono himself knows what really happened."
On the other end of the phone.
After hearing the girl's words.
Dokuho Kouya's expression stayed calm, though he was a little surprised inside.
Well, well.
You caught that.
I really did say it that way on purpose.
Just as Sakayanagi had said, his answer was easy to misinterpret.
If Kamuro Masumi had only followed him at night, she would focus solely on figuring out how she had been exposed.
But since she had followed him at noon and after school too, she would assume that he had noticed her long ago.
That kind of line might work on Kamuro Masumi, but it seemed Sakayanagi was too sharp for it.
Still, since this was a special scene that the audience would get to see later, he might as well say a little more.
"I told you, there were too many people around at those times." Dokuho Kouya left the remark unfinished, leaving the girls to draw their own conclusions.
Kamuro Masumi, standing nearby, was completely baffled.
Sakayanagi Arisu, speaking with him from her dorm room, understood.
"Did you hold back from exposing her because you were considering Masumi's feelings?"
The girl's voice carried a faint smile. "You really are a kind and gentle person, Kono."
That's right. I was trying to cultivate exactly that image.
Dokuho Kouya wished the girl would say a little more.
"Masumi told me you went to the Chess Club after school?" Sakayanagi Arisu moved on to the subject she was interested in.
"I charged them tuition..."
Dokuho Kouya briefly explained how he had been teaching the Shogi Club and the Chess Club.
"I didn't know you were not only skilled at chess, but also a strong shogi player," the girl said admiringly.
"I'm actually very good at Go, too."
Even if he played Go against Kebo, he'd probably be the one giving the winner's speech in the end.
"Heh..." Sakayanagi Arisu chuckled on the other end of the phone. "I'm curious about your teaching skills, Kono."
"Then when we have time, I'll ask the seniors from the Chess Club to play against you," Dokuho Kouya said, understanding what the girl meant.
"I'm looking forward to it."
After chatting for a few more minutes, Sakayanagi Arisu hung up, still wearing a faint smile.
"Kono, no matter how you teach your seniors, they won't be able to defeat a true genius."
Sakayanagi Arisu had once visited the White Room and seen the geniuses it had created.
For the Artificial Genius project, the White Room was secretly raising many children her age, hoping to mold them into geniuses who could be mass-produced.
After seeing children her age subjected to a brutal education, Sakayanagi Arisu had decided she would defeat those fake geniuses and destroy this meaningless educational facility.
With that in mind, Sakayanagi Arisu didn't exactly look down on people who worked hard to improve themselves. She simply felt that it was difficult to bridge the gap between geniuses and ordinary people.
"I really can't wait to face Kono again."
In Sakayanagi Arisu's view, once she defeated Kono's "disciples," their teacher would have to step in himself to restore his reputation.
Competing against Kono at chess was one of the most enjoyable things she had experienced in recent years.
She had tried so hard back then, thinking she had secured the final victory, only to walk right into a trap and have Dokuho Kouya snatch it away from her.
If a hunter could catch prey with a trap, that meant the hunter was far more intelligent than the prey.
By falling into a trap in her own area of expertise, Sakayanagi had seemingly proven that she was not as capable as Dokuho Kouya.
The possibility that someone might be even stronger than her made Sakayanagi Arisu feel a rush of excitement.
For now, she was only playing small games with deception.
After she had put an end to the greatest masterpiece, Kono would be next.
"Haah... I should sleep."
Sakayanagi Arisu felt her eyelids growing heavy. She hugged her teddy bear and slowly closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep.
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