After a day of observation, she had gained a decent understanding of the trio.
Sudo, with his crude violence and delinquent vibe, could probably be ruled out as a pseudo-human. He had made a poor first impression, but people like that did exist. The key was that he had a clear passion: basketball. He seemed to have played in basketball games back in middle school, and his behavior matched his history. There was clear evidence of a past.
Most importantly, she had interacted with Sudo yesterday afternoon while shopping after school.
Sudo's temper snapped easily. Even a few simple words could provoke his anger and make him want to resort to violence.
If he were a pseudo-human pretending to be human, he probably wouldn't choose a personality so prone to causing conflict.
Want a Voice Recorder?
Kanji Ike, who was always running his mouth and shouting that he wanted to find a girlfriend in high school, was highly suspicious. From bits and pieces of other people's conversations, she learned that the guy had declared, without the slightest hesitation, "I'm looking for a girlfriend," during yesterday's self-introductions.
Horikita Suzune hadn't believed it when she first heard, but after observing him for a day, she was convinced.
That really was something Kanji Ike would say.
Seriously, did anyone think that making a declaration like that on the first day of school would make them seem attractive?
He was highly suspect as a pseudo-human. Perhaps he was so desperate to get a girlfriend because he wanted to use her to fit into the "group."
But compared to Kanji Ike, the most suspicious of all was, as expected, Yamauchi Haruki.
The information had likewise come from other people's conversations. Whenever she needed to prick up her ears and listen closely, Horikita Suzune regretted not sticking around yesterday.
But the past was past. All she could do was focus on the present.
During yesterday's self-introduction, Yamauchi Haruki had claimed he'd made it to the national table tennis tournament in elementary school and been the ace pitcher of his middle school baseball club, but had gotten injured in a high school league and was now recovering.
...It was hard to know what to make of that.
It reeked of someone who had absolutely no common sense.
Aside from a pseudo-human pretending to be human, Horikita Suzune couldn't imagine anyone giving an introduction like that.
If she had to choose between the two, Horikita Suzune thought Yamauchi Haruki seemed more like the pseudo-human.
She didn't have any concrete evidence, but she'd reasoned things out far enough.
So, should she go find her brother?
No, of course she knew the words in the diary hadn't come from her brother.
But what if they were true? What if she told her brother the pseudo-human's name and earned his praise?
With that thought in mind, Horikita Suzune decided to head to the gym first.
Even though she really wasn't interested in clubs and had no intention of joining one.
But if it was a Club Orientation...the Student Council would be there too, right?
"So why did you come along too?" Horikita Suzune stopped and turned around with a sigh.
"I wanted to see the clubs," Ayanokoji Kiyotaka said calmly from behind her.
"No, I don't care whether a friendless guy like you is going to a club to make friends or fit in with a group. I'm asking about this person." She said.
Ayanokoji Kiyotaka wasn't the only one following her.
There was another person too.
Kushida Kikyo.
"Horikita, what's wrong?" The beautiful girl, who seemed to get along with anyone in no time at all, tilted her head and asked in confusion.
She didn't seem to think there was anything strange about being there.
"You, I...never mind." Seeing Kushida Kikyo blink, Horikita Suzune gave up on saying anything.
Those two probably wouldn't listen anyway.
There were lots of students in the gym, and most of them were first-years. At a rough estimate, there were about a hundred of them.
It looked like most of the first-years had come.
They could pick up a booklet when they entered, with detailed introductions to all the clubs.
Horikita Suzune flipped through it for quite a while, but couldn't find any information about the Student Council.
...Did the Student Council not recruit publicly? Or had it just not been included in the booklet with the other clubs?
"First-years, thank you for waiting. The club representatives will now begin their presentations. I'm Tachibana, the Student Council secretary, and I'll be hosting today's orientation. It's a pleasure to meet you."
Just as Horikita Suzune was wondering about it, things began to happen onstage.
The upperclasswoman hosting the event was the Student Council secretary.
...As expected, a president like her brother wouldn't show up at an event like this of his own accord, would he?
She wanted to leave.
She had said from the start that she had no intention of joining a club.
Kushida Kikyo kept trying to find opportunities to talk to her, while Ayanokoji was like a robot and couldn't even take the initiative to help block her off.
No wonder he had no friends!
Every second Horikita Suzune spent sitting there was torture.
Just as she couldn't stand it any longer and was about to get up, the club representatives finally finished their long-winded self-introductions and sales pitches.
Then a familiar, long-admired figure appeared onstage.
It was her brother.
The moment she realized it, Horikita Suzune's body began to stiffen.
She'd thought she had prepared herself long ago, but seeing her brother again today, after the Entrance Ceremony, still made her feel pathetically nervous.
Vaguely, she felt she could understand, just a little, why the diary had said those disappointing things.
Her upper teeth gently caught her lower lip, and Horikita Suzune's gaze grew resolute.
Neat black hair, stylish glasses, and thoughtful eyes.
Her brother stood there silently, looking down at everyone.
Joking voices rose and fell around her. Fools who had no respect for her brother laughed and said stupid things.
But soon, when their laughter reached its peak, the entire gym suddenly fell silent.
A tense atmosphere, along with the pressure her brother exerted, enveloped the room. This was the oppressive presence of the man known as Horikita Manabu—
"Buying fridges, TVs, washing machines, fans, computers, air conditioners, and Personal Terminals at top prices~"
"Wholesale brand-new, undamaged, high-spec, quality Voice Recorders at low prices~"
But that oppressive presence was shattered the next instant by a sudden, booming voice.
Everyone looked toward the sound. At the gym's entrance, a man with both hands raised high strolled in from outside.
Clutched between the fingers of his raised hands were a full eight..."Voice Recorders."
Every single Voice Recorder played the same recording.
"Buying fridges, TVs, washing machines, fans, computers, air conditioners, and Personal Terminals at top prices~"
"Wholesale brand-new, undamaged, high-spec, quality Voice Recorders at low prices~"
"Buy one and you're already making a profit! Don't miss out as you pass by! An essential for every Advanced Nurturing home! Extra-long battery life, huge storage capacity, clear recording of the sounds around you, and crisp playback of recorded audio! Guaranteed to be the lowest price at Advanced Nurturing! If it isn't the lowest price, we'll pay you back three times the difference!"
The recording played over and over, its booming voice echoing through the spacious gym.
The guy walked up to the edge of the stage. While everyone stood stunned and speechless, he switched off the Voice Recorders in his hands one by one.
At that moment, the gym fell quiet again.
He reached out and offered the Voice Recorder in his hand to Horikita Manabu.
"Good afternoon, Student Council president. Want a Voice Recorder?" he asked.
Student Council Recruitment, Student Council Recruitment
That's right. The person trying to sell Voice Recorders to the Student Council president was Asakusa Toru.
The things he'd written in the diary yesterday hadn't just been a warning for Horikita Suzune.
There'd also been a list of names.
There were so many weirdos at Advanced Nurturing that he could rattle off a whole bunch of names without even counting them. Sure, selling information on the first day of school seemed pretty attention-grabbing, but when he thought it through, it wasn't that unreasonable.
After all, no matter how hard someone tried to string together a lifetime's worth of nonsense, it would never beat one weirdo speaking from the heart.
But it still wasn't quite plausible enough.
So he'd given himself a believable identity.
For example, he'd quietly slipped the phrase "Recorder Bro" into the list of names he'd read out.
If First-Year Class D had a Beautiful Brother like Koenji Rokusuke, who only cared about his own beauty, then it was perfectly reasonable that First-Year Class B had a Recorder Bro who handed out Voice Recorders everywhere, right?
Time to kick off the Advanced Nurturing Voice Recorder arms race!
Anyway, with the goals of filling out his persona and confirming whether Horikita Suzune had read the diary, he'd spent a few Private Points to add a handful of Voice Recorder components to his expenses. He'd used them to put a little polish on the story behind the Voice Recorder copies in his possession, prepared a sufficient number of copies, and arrived fashionably late. Now Asakusa Toru was ready to put on a show.
Using a stern expression and silence to get students to settle down and stop fooling around wasn't an uncommon strategy. Usually, though, it was teachers who used it. The fact that Horikita Manabu could wield it so naturally did set him far apart from other students his age.
But he was laying it on too thick.
It was hard to watch.
Come on, you're just a student council president. Why are you putting on such airs?
If you're going to recruit, then recruit. If you're not sincere about it, don't bother.
Who did he think he was fooling?
"..." Horikita Manabu's expression didn't change as he watched the new student who'd disrupted the event.
Asakusa Toru's appearance had been unexpected. He really hadn't thought a first-year would do something like this.
For that matter, why was he buying fridges and TVs?
And what was with wholesaling Voice Recorders?
Was he trying to sell something to me?
No, he couldn't understand this guy's train of thought at all.
In that case, he didn't need to understand.
Just as Horikita Manabu was about to speak again, Asakusa Toru moved.
He tapped his head and made a look of sudden realization.
"Oh, you want to test it out, right?" he said to himself, then took out another Voice Recorder and started recording in front of Horikita Manabu.
Then he opened his mouth. "Student Council Recruitment, Student Council Recruitment. No slackers, no idiots, no part-timers, no disobedient people, no slackers who just kill time—in short, no first-years—"
Asakusa Toru's voice rang through the silent gym, crystal clear. He clicked the button to end the recording.
Then he pressed play.
"Student Council Recruitment, Student Council Recruitment. No slackers, no idiots, no part-timers, no disobedient people, no slackers who just kill time—in short, no first-years—"
His words played on repeat from the Voice Recorder, louder than before.
"..."
"..."
"Pfft—" The first person to break the recording's endless loop and laugh out loud in front of everyone was a girl with golden-pink hair.
Ichinose Honami laughed so happily, so brightly. "Haha, haha, hahaha—"
That really was something he would do.
The other students hadn't dared to say anything, but the moment Ichinose laughed, the tense atmosphere dissolved.
"Whoa, this guy's even more impressive than I thought."
"He's got guts, doing that right in front of the Student Council president."
"What's this guy up to?"
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