Up You Go (Continued)

She just doesn't want to believe it!

Snort.

Strangely, even though she didn't want to trust the other person, Sakayanagi Arisu would still open this diary every day.

Even if he secretly curses her again, even if she hates him to the core.

Sakayanagi Arisu would still open this diary, letting her fingertips caress the rough edges of the pages, reading every word carefully.

"I'm really asking for trouble," she muttered, turning the page again.

Okay, it's not good to always complain about Alice.

Rather, we should be grateful to Alice; perhaps we should establish an Alice Thanksgiving Day?

I hereby announce that today, June 10th, is ALICE Thanksgiving Day!

Everyone must praise Miss Alice, and I'm going to give her a special lift-up, which is her favorite thing!

Are you happy? Are you excited? Do you like it?

I solemnly promise that I owe Little Princess Alice a lift in the air, and you can come to me anytime to claim it!

I love you~

Sakayanagi Arisu: "..."

I'm not happy.

I don't love you.

I hate you.

The girl, expressionless, turned the page again.

[It's almost time. Let me just say one last thing about the lilies. That's all for today. I have a date with my girlfriend.]

Last time I originally planned to talk about the Mascot confessing to the Archangel, but as I was writing, I realized that the confession should actually happen next month.

Um, it was supposed to be next month.

If the relationship progresses normally and feelings continue to grow, the girl's emotions begin to overflow and become uncontrollable.

Then I should confess my feelings next month.

Three months is almost a hundred days. As the saying goes, "One hundred days are for college entrance exams and for dating. One hundred days are for sprinting for the college entrance exams, and one hundred days are for starting dating."

It's a bit fast, but it's still within the normal range.

However, what's slightly unusual is that I've arrived.

I came! I saw! I conquered!

Who knows, maybe the little mascot will fall for me instead... cough cough

Just kidding.

I don't know if she's fallen for someone else, but I have a feeling she probably won't confess her feelings next month as planned.

What I mean is, you've gone too far, affecting too many things and messing up my vision of the future!

Lose money!

Originally, before the midterm exams, my Little Sister-chan should have been scolded and beaten by her older brother, and ordered to get out of school and stop embarrassing herself.

Originally, Handprint Sister should have been completely taken advantage of and left crying on the bedside after pressing her handprint.

The Little Princess should be in my arms right now, being lifted high in the air by me!

And now...

My Little Sister-chan hasn't dared to go see her brother again, afraid he'll really scold her for not growing up at all!

Now that Handprint Sister has stopped kicking the fence, where am I supposed to find my clattering alarm clock?

The Little Princess was sadly relegated to Class B.

Dragon Boy isn't even bothering Red Hair anymore!

It's all your fault!

Waaaaah... My future, our future, Advanced Nurturing, what will the future Advanced Nurturing become...?

(Sobbing) (wiping away tears) (face full of grief)

"Reading completed for today, Reading Points +1"

The sound of her diary entry ending echoed in her ears, but Horikita Suzune did not close the book as usual.

She simply held a pen in her hand, then her body stiffly fixed her gaze on one of the lines of text.

'My little Little Sister-chan should have been scolded and beaten by her brother before the midterms, and told to get out of school and stop embarrassing herself.'

"Buzz--"

A ringing sound echoed in my ears.

The moment she came to her senses, a bead of sweat trickled down Horikita Suzune's forehead.

Horikita Suzune has no problem understanding words, and there's no need to repeat things that have already been confirmed.

Without even much thought, she could instinctively replace every 'pseudonym' in the diary with which she had already analyzed and judged the outcome.

For example, replacing 'Little Princess' with 'Sakayanagi Arisu', 'Mascot' with 'Shiranami Chihiro', 'Archangel' with 'Ichinose Honami', and... replacing 'Little Sister-chan' with 'Horikita Suzune'.

Ah, of course, there's no need to replace 'older brother' with 'Horikita Manabu' anymore.

She wouldn't call her brother by his name in a rude way.

Therefore, when her real name is instinctively replaced, and her gaze sweeps over the words, Horikita Suzune is able to quickly understand the meaning behind the words.

However, the more she tried to understand, the more blurred her understanding of the words became as she looked at the line above.

Horikita Suzune pressed her lips tightly together; in the quiet room, only her own breathing and heartbeat were clearly audible.

In the long silence, her sluggish brain began to replay the understanding she had already formed in her mind.

Before the midterm exams, I was supposed to be scolded and beaten by my brother and ordered to get out of school so as not to embarrass myself.

Horikita Suzune silently repeated the sentence in her mind.

"...Brother." Then, a soft murmur escaped his lips.

The brother she admired, the one she sought, the one she was so proud of, was the one who least approved of her.

... She already knew about this kind of thing.

But being reminded of it in the Diary again still made her feel a sharp pain in her chest.

It's okay, it's okay.

With her eyes closed, Horikita Suzune repeatedly murmured to herself.

That was something that should have happened before the midterm exams; it didn't happen and will never happen again.

I've changed, I've made some changes. I've made friends, and I have Diary!

Horikita Suzune gripped the pen in her hand tightly.

Yes, she has Diary, and she has changed; what 'should' have happened will no longer happen.

Gradually, Horikita Suzune calmed down again.

She needs to detach herself and not let this affect her emotions.

Only in this way can she complete her work.

'Analyze each diary entry and compile them into text to send to Kushida Kikyo.'

This was something she had promised Kushida Kikyo five days ago; it was a job she had personally agreed to.

So, the girl's trembling hand gripped the pen tip tightly and pressed it against the other prepared notebook.

She wouldn't write any analysis of the diary entries in her Diary, since Kushida Kikyo had already told her that these things would automatically be uploaded as comments as soon as she put pen to paper.

"..."

This time, I wrote too much in my diary.

It wasn't until she came to her senses that she suddenly realized how much information was contained in those cryptic words.

Most importantly, aside from the sentence that concerned me, it was still the Special Exam.

After all, in Advanced Nurturing, the Special Exam directly determines the Private Points each class receives each month.

If she could know the rules of the next Special Exam in advance, the advantage she would gain would be decisive.

Rather, it's more accurate to say that... it's precisely because they knew the rules in advance that classes A, B, and C are now far ahead of Class D.

... but he said he would tell me the day before the exam.

What's the point?

The useful information can be summarized in two keywords: 'check-in' and 'guessing game'.

I can't think of how to test these two points for now, so I'll leave them for later.

He only dabbled in the Diary about the Special Exam information, and almost immediately after revealing everything, he started teasing Sakayanagi Arisu again.

Honestly, Horikita Suzune was starting to doubt whether the other person really liked women like Sakayanagi Arisu.

I've been mentioning my Little Princess every day lately.

Sakayanagi Arisu is indeed quite pretty; she's not bad-looking compared to me.

But she was too small and sickly.

Anyway, Horikita Suzune couldn't understand why he liked Sakayanagi Arisu so much.

But it doesn't matter.

Whether it's Alice's Thanksgiving Day or owing someone a piggyback ride, these are just irrelevant teasing topics.

Just ignore it.

The key point is that seemingly casually mentioned 'should have'.

... Should Kushida Kikyo have been completely devoured?

After a moment's thought, Horikita Suzune frowned.

Of course she knew that "Handprint Sister" was referring to Kushida Kikyo, since she had already figured it out.

But the problem is...

Who can, who would, who dares to touch her?

And what does "take it all and leave it" mean? Private Points? Was she originally going to be extorted for Private Points?

What's the reason?

... Dark history.

As the questions surfaced one after another in her mind, the accurate answers also emerged in Horikita Suzune's heart.

This is all we have.

Besides herself, there are other people in this school who know about Kushida Kikyo's past.

Furthermore, the other party would have used this dark history to completely wipe out Kushida Kikyo's Private Points.

"..."

Silent, Horikita Suzune felt a slight chill run down her spine.

Is there really such a person? And judging from Kushida Kikyo's reaction, she has absolutely no idea that this person exists.

Including herself and her Diary, there were actually three people at this school who were acquaintances of Kushida Kikyo.

... She really had bad luck.

But that was 'should have been'.

In other words, due to some change, she was not ultimately achieved that outcome.

Is it because of myself?