He'd had enough.
Since yesterday afternoon, that guy had been attacking him nonstop.
Whether he was eating, shopping, or even using the bathroom, Ryuen Kakeru would show up without mercy and launch an attack.
After being harassed all day, Ishizaki Daichi had dreamed that night that a Ryuen was about to leap out of his dream.
The scariest part was that after waking up and relaxing, he'd just opened his dorm room door to head to class when that bastard Ryuen was already waiting outside. The moment Ishizaki opened the door, he jumped out and attacked him!
Ishizaki was so out of it that he could barely think straight.
He was even beginning to consider just giving in.
But the little bit of pride he had left, the last line he held as a delinquent, kept him from surrendering.
Giving in to such underhanded tactics just felt humiliating.
Still, if even a giant like Yamada Albert had given in, he supposed he could compromise a little, too.
Ishizaki couldn't bear to imagine what state of mind he'd be in if Ryuen kept harassing and ambushing him without sleep for several more days.
At least to that extent, he truly admired Ryuen a little.
"Good. Then remember what you said." Ryuen rose from Ishizaki and spoke coldly.
Yamada Albert was one of the few men who had openly resisted his rule rather than submitting to his violence on the first day.
Although Yamada had chosen to hand over fifty thousand points, just like Ishizaki, he'd done so only because the class teacher had vouched for the deal. He'd paid for the sake of the class.
Ryuen's violence alone wasn't enough to make him submit.
After all, Yamada Albert had an astonishing physique. Just standing there, he seemed to embody violence. They said he was mixed-race, with Black ancestry.
Ryuen was strong, but he couldn't compare to Yamada Albert.
But Ryuen had never taken the most pride in his strength.
What he was proud of was that no matter what kind of enemy he faced, he never felt fear. As Asakusa Toru had put it, he had the tenacity of a "Laipi She"...
Ryuen Kakeru was still finishing the final stages of integrating Class C, while Asakusa Toru had finally been freed from the class.
Ichinose had obediently taken on the public-facing responsibilities without revealing that he was the one who'd provided the information.
...Well, some of the more perceptive students in the class might have already figured it out, but they should know better than to say anything.
Actually, Asakusa Toru could have taken this opportunity to seize the position of Class B leader.
But... what a hassle.
Even if he put his heart and soul into class battles, all he'd get was a little extra spending money each month.
He didn't need the privileges that came with graduating from Class A.
In that respect, Asakusa Toru was actually a lot like Beautiful Brother.
Koenji Rokusuke, known as Beautiful Brother, was in Class 1-D. He had blond hair and a muscular, well-built body.
Most importantly, he was the sole heir to the Koenji Zaibatsu.
A company couldn't be called a zaibatsu unless it had a great deal of money.
It couldn't compare to the Shinomiya Group and Suzuki Zaibatsu, whose figures seemed to have been pulled out of thin air, but it was still the biggest supporter of a certain political party in Japan.
As the heir to a zaibatsu, he naturally had no need to care whether he graduated from Class A, much less whether the school's opinion of him was fair.
As long as he didn't disgrace himself by getting expelled, even if he chose not to take part in a single Special Exam, it wouldn't affect him at all.
...Well, that was true, but Asakusa Toru wasn't about to start acting like Koenji.
He just couldn't be bothered.
At least until he'd fully absorbed all the help he could get from the White Room Membership Card, he didn't have any spare time to waste on class competition.
Making sure he was the strongest came first.
In any case, as compensation for having Ichinose stand in the spotlight for him,
he was treating her to lunch today.
"I never thought I'd end up at the same school as you, Asakusa-kun." Sitting across from him, Ichinose Honami rested her chin in her hands and spoke wistfully. "And in the same class, too."
"This country really is small," Asakusa Toru said with a shrug. "So, what did you want to say?"
"My response to what happened before hasn't changed. If you insist on doing something, then be a good leader for this class."
"Mm, I will." Ichinose Honami nodded lightly.
"But before that, there's something I want to say to you, Asakusa-kun."
"Just think of it as me talking to myself. You don't have to feel burdened." The girl began much as Asakusa Toru often did.
"I'm actually really grateful to you, Asakusa-kun." Without waiting for him to respond, she went on. "I got scolded terribly at the time, and Mrs. Natsuki even called the police. In the end, I missed a day of school, and even my mom gave me a terrible scolding."
"But I'm still really grateful to you, Asakusa-kun."
Just as she'd said, she was only talking to herself.
"Back then, I was really lost."
"Mom had fallen ill, and my little sister was unhappy, but there was nothing I could do."
"I remember thinking, 'If only I had money.'" Ichinose Honami said, "It was such a coincidence that Asakusa-kun was right beside me and said exactly what I'd been thinking."
"Ah, did he somehow hear my thoughts? For some reason, that's what I wondered."
Ichinose gently stirred the iced coffee the server had brought over and spoke in a distant voice.
"If it hadn't been for that, no matter how lost I was at the time, I'd never have followed Asakusa-kun so easily."
She wasn't the sort of girl who could be lured away with just a couple of words.
"Asakusa-kun saw what I was thinking and said what was on my mind. Then he pulled out some money right in front of me," she said. "There was no way I could refuse that ten thousand yen at the time."
"To be honest, I started to regret following him a little. If Asakusa-kun had asked me to do something terrible, I probably wouldn't have been able to resist."
Although Ichinose Honami didn't think she was physically weak, there was still a difference between men and women, and she was on her own, too.
"But I never expected that what Asakusa-kun wanted me to do was tear down someone else's missing-person posters." Ichinose Honami couldn't help smiling. "At first, I thought it was really awful. Their child was already missing, and you still wanted me to do something like that. Was that really okay?"
"It was so heartless. I didn't want to do it, but I couldn't bring myself to let go of the money. All I could see was Mom and my little sister in the hospital."
"...For the first time, I felt like I'd done something wrong."
At first, she'd hesitated. She couldn't bring herself to reach out, afraid that someone would see her and judge her.
But perhaps Asakusa Toru couldn't stand watching her dither and thought she was taking too long. He shot her a look, then briskly reached over, tore down the missing-person poster in front of her, and stuffed it into her hands.
"Keep your eyes on this person's poster while you tear them down," he'd said.
"I thought there must be a reason for it, there had to be a reason. I kept telling myself that as I nervously did as I was told."
"I tore down a lot, but Asakusa-kun tore down even more. He seemed to know exactly where they'd been posted and went from one to the next." Ichinose Honami took a small sip of iced coffee to moisten her throat. "So I wondered if maybe the person on the poster had already been found, and they didn't need the posters anymore. Maybe that was why he wanted them torn down?"
If that was the case, then perhaps she could make up for the tiny bit of guilt she felt.
"Asakusa-kun didn't answer my question. Instead, he kept carrying the missing-person posters that seemed to have all been torn down and rang the doorbell."
Ding-dong. The doorbell rang over and over.
She could clearly see the same surname as the one on the posters beside the door.
Natsuki.
Soon afterward, a man with glasses opened the door. He looked utterly drained, his head hanging down.
It was probably Natsuki-san.
His face was clearly very similar to the one in the photo on the missing-person posters.
"You're here..." Natsuki-san first glanced listlessly at Asakusa Toru, but soon noticed the stack of missing-person posters in his hands.
Hope rose in his eyes.
"Did you... find him?" he couldn't help asking.
Asakusa Toru shoved all the torn-down posters into his hands, then smiled and said:
"We found him. He's in another world, being a simp."
"...?"
"Hm? Was I not clear enough?" Seeing Natsuki-san freeze, Asakusa Toru tilted his head and continued talking to himself. "Your son reincarnated in another world and became a simp."
"He clung to a beautiful girl's leg, sobbing and saying he wanted to be her simp. He wandered around in his tracksuit and died a full four times before learning the beautiful girl's real name. He got killed, came back to life, got killed again, came back to life again, and every time he revived, he stubbornly kept trying to be her simp. He was proud to be a simp, and he took pride in being a simp—"
He rattled off a long string of words. By the time Natsuki-san finally snapped out of it, his expression had turned ugly. He raised a hand, shoved Asakusa Toru away, and slammed the door shut.
"Bang—"
What a lunatic!
He was so desperate to see his son that he'd listened to this man's nonsense.
The stack of missing-person posters in his hands was thick, and almost all of them had been torn unevenly. He might have to spend more time printing and putting them up again.
Inside, Natsuki-san let out a heavy sigh.
But outside, right in front of Ichinose Honami, Asakusa Toru pulled out a megaphone.
"Your son became a simp!" His amplified voice cut through the door and echoed inside the house.
"He spent all day shut in his room playing video games, then ran to the convenience store in the middle of the night to buy instant noodles. Wearing his tracksuit, he got dragged into another world, decided on his own that being reincarnated in another world came with a strength-boosting buff, punched and kicked some punks around, then got so scared by a knife that he dropped to his knees and begged for his life! After a beautiful girl passing by saved him, he fell in love at first sight and swore his loyalty, deciding he'd be her simp. He followed her around like a lackey, got caught up in danger, and was killed on the spot. After reloading his save, he resolved to keep being her simp!"
"The more he died, the more determined he got. The more he lived, the more of a simp he became! Super simp, invincible simp, master of reloading saves!"
With the megaphone amplifying him, Asakusa Toru's already nonstop chatter grew even louder. Even with his ears covered inside, Natsuki-san could probably hear every word clearly.
So Natsuki-san couldn't take it anymore. He opened the door again. The blood cooling inside him grew hot, and in a moment of anger, the words burst out of his mouth.
"You're insane!"
"Do you really think it's fun to rub someone's wounds in their face? If you want to play a prank, you can go do it anywhere!"
Beneath his polite-looking glasses, his expression was terrifyingly twisted.
"What Asakusa-kun did was really awful. Even I could clearly feel how angry Natsuki-san was at the time." A hint of reproach appeared in Ichinose Honami's eyes. "If Asakusa-kun had apologized then, Natsuki-san probably would have accepted it, even though he was angry."
"But Asakusa-kun had no intention of apologizing at all."
"So I had to apologize for him."
She had to apologize. Otherwise, her conscience wouldn't let her rest, and the money in her pocket would feel like it was burning.
Saying something couldn't be undone, and it was hard to make up for what you'd done.
Since Asakusa Toru had no intention of apologizing or making amends, wasn't it up to her, the one who'd taken the money, to apologize on his behalf?
That was what the time bought with ten thousand yen was for, wasn't it?
She stood in front of Asakusa Toru and humbly apologized, hoping she could calm Natsuki-san down.
Behind her, Asakusa Toru poked his head out and kept describing Natsuki-san's son's "Simp Diary."
In front of them, Natsuki-san took the opportunity to open his heart to these strangers, bitterly denouncing Asakusa Toru's outrageous behavior and venting the anxiety and unease that had been weighing on him.
Perhaps because Natsuki-san had opened the door again, Asakusa Toru finally put down his megaphone. He relied on his own lung capacity to try to shout louder than Natsuki-san, leaving her apologies barely audible in the noise.
Asakusa Toru finished talking about the Royal Capital and moved on to the Mansion. After the Mansion came the Royal Selection, then the White Whale, and after the White Whale... the Sanctuary.
As their voices rose and fell, Ichinose Honami suddenly felt that she might understand why Asakusa Toru had done all this.
She could tell from the moment the door first opened that Natsuki-san was in a terrible state of mind.
His hair was disheveled, his glasses were crooked, his eyes were bloodshot, his face was listless, and his whole bearing was lifeless.
His son was missing.
She could also hear the regret in his words.
Before you continue