Shame, anger, irritation... A jumble of emotions clogged her chest, and in an instant, a scorching heat rose to her pretty face. It seemed as though tears of humiliation were about to spill from the corners of her eyes.
But she couldn't cry in front of her brother.
She had said she was no longer the useless person she used to be.
She had grown!
She had to keep growing.
If she cried in front of her brother, wouldn't that prove she hadn't changed at all?!
"...No, it's nothing..." Horikita Suzune gripped her left arm tightly with her right hand and lowered her head. "I didn't say anything."
Watching his sister in silence, he didn't press her about the name. Instead, he quietly made a note of it in his mind and decided to look into it later. Horikita Manabu spoke in a distant tone. "...I heard you got into Class D."
How had things turned out like this?
Why had things turned out like this?
He had intended to use Horikita Suzune's placement in Class D as a reason to order her to withdraw, but just as the words reached his lips, he remembered that today was only the second day of school.
Suzune still didn't know the rules behind the class assignments, nor had she seen through the true nature of this school.
Even when dealing with his own sister, he wasn't allowed to disclose information of his own accord as Student Council President.
"Class D... Is there something wrong with that?" Horikita Suzune lifted her head, completely unaware.
"..." Horikita Manabu pressed a hand to his aching temple and gently rubbed it a few times. "No, it's nothing."
"If you have nothing to say, then we'll leave it at that."
"I have Student Council work to do," he said.
If he'd known it would turn out like this, he should've made that guy stay.
...Come to think of it, I still don't know his name.
"Oh, then... I won't keep you, Brother." Horikita Suzune lowered her head, biting her lower lip as she spoke softly.
"Mm." Horikita Manabu turned around, but just before he left, he paused. "Also, the only reason to buy the Voice Recorder was to make him stop playing that recording."
"You had no reason to buy his Voice Recorder."
With that, Horikita Manabu left without hesitation.
Horikita Suzune stood frozen in place.
"Huh?"
Did that mean... I was wrong?
Looking up at Horikita Manabu's retreating figure, she reached into her pocket and took out the Voice Recorder that Asakusa Toru had practically forced her to buy.
A light blinked on and off across its screen.
The Voice Recorder was recording at that moment.
"Click." Without wondering why the Voice Recorder he'd sold her was recording, Horikita Suzune gently pressed the stop button. She then searched through the options and found the one to delete the recording.
She'd probably just hit the button by accident. All she had to do was delete it.
...Sigh.
If only life were like this, and she could delete her embarrassing past.
Right now, she really wanted to erase the memory of taking that so-called Trial seriously, going to her brother, and asking him for the answer.
She swore that from now on, no matter what she read in the Diary, she wouldn't believe a single word of it!
The Diary's author had completely lost her trust!
Asakusa Toru didn't care whether Horikita Suzune believed him.
He knew only one thing.
It had worked.
As mentioned earlier, the Voice Recorder in his possession could copy recordings from its duplicate.
The duplicate had to stay within a certain distance of the original, so he couldn't steal other people's recordings without limit. But in a way, that restriction also served as a filter, keeping a flood of useless recordings from getting in the way of precise copying.
So as long as he stayed nearby, he could copy the recording made by the one and only Voice Recorder he'd sold to Horikita Suzune with perfect accuracy.
The only problem was the risk of being exposed.
His actions had actually been pretty conspicuous. It wouldn't be impossible to guess it was him based on how active he'd been.
Still, Asakusa Toru had no intention of holding back.
He'd even come up with the code name Recorder Bro for himself. Wasn't it only natural for him to do some God-man stuff?
There were plenty of God-men at Advanced Nurturing. One more wouldn't make a difference, and one less wouldn't either.
Even if Horikita Suzune noticed that the Voice Recorder was recording...
Without knowing what it could do, who would think that an ordinary Voice Recorder like this could share recordings?
Even if she took it apart herself, she wouldn't find a single clue. From every angle, the Infinite Voice Recorder's duplicate looked like nothing more than an ordinary Voice Recorder.
It had no network chip and didn't upload anything to the cloud.
Even if— even if her intuition were maxed out, and she noticed the recording had started, grew a tiny bit suspicious, and stopped the recording in advance, Asakusa Toru wouldn't care.
The Voice Recorder was simply the most convenient method. Even if it didn't come in handy, he could still learn something from Horikita Manabu.
The existence of the Diary couldn't be revealed to others. If Horikita Suzune really was its reader, all she could tell Horikita Manabu was about the "Trial" and the "Pseudo-human."
All she could do was try to confirm the answer to the Trial with Horikita Manabu and hope that she'd earn her brother's approval in the process.
So, although it seemed a little risky, compared with what he stood to gain, it was nothing.
The screen of the Voice Recorder in his hand clearly displayed the recording that had most recently been saved. Asakusa Toru ran his finger across it, lowering the volume until it could only be heard from very close by, then tapped play.
"I've found the answer to the Trial."
"Yes, it was Yamauchi Haruki, right?"
Horikita Suzune's cool voice rang in his ears.
"Win!"
He'd won the bet.
The first reader whose identity had been exposed was Horikita Suzune.
Asakusa Toru Didn't Want to Bite a Lighter
The rose-tinted filter shattered with a snap. If Asakusa Toru had found Horikita Suzune right then, he probably would've seen a Diary bouncing along behind her, waiting for the perfect moment when she might reach out to open it before launching itself into her hands.
Just kidding. The Diary wasn't that tacky.
Even if she really looked at it, she'd probably only see the Diary suddenly appear beside her when she blinked.
Leaving aside the rules behind the Diary's appearances, let's get back to Asakusa Toru. He was in a great mood right now.
Finding a Diary reader on the second day of school was a huge win.
He had to admit, Horikita Suzune was pretty interesting. Sure, she was a little too innocent, but that was exactly what made it great!
He didn't play with anyone who wasn't innocent.
People like her were the most fun to mess with. Just look at how he'd focused on her in yesterday's Diary and managed to milk a White Room Membership Card out of her. The Plot Index had played a part, of course, but Asakusa Toru thought Horikita Suzune's emotional ups and downs had been crucial, too.
However, he didn't plan to keep milking Horikita Suzune today.
Targeting the same person over and over was a bit much. Her emotions needed some time to settle, too, and repeatedly going after the same person would become less effective.
"Heh heh heh heh heh~"
Tossing the Voice Recorder up and down in his hand, Asakusa Toru wasn't in any hurry to return to the dorm and write in the Diary.
He admitted that his hands had been itching badly to keep writing in the Diary at noon, but after Horikita Suzune had put on such a good show for him, he wasn't in as much of a hurry.
...That was actually because he'd just checked today's Plot Index.
"C."
So low.
Honestly, he was a little disappointed.
Asakusa Toru knew the Plot Index couldn't stay high forever, but wasn't it dropping in value a little too quickly?
...Was it because nothing particularly important happened today?
I refuse to accept that. How could Club Orientation not count as an important event?
I really didn't find it interesting, but you could still count it as important!
I wouldn't complain if the Index were a little higher!
There wasn't actually that much difference between B and C, but somehow the gap felt much bigger than the one between A and B.
Still...
"The day before school starts is more important than the first day, and the second day is less important than the day before school starts..."
The Diary clearly had its own way of judging whether a given day's events were important.
There wasn't much data to go on yet, but if he made a bold guess...
Perhaps the C he looked down on now would be the highest point for the rest of the month.
The reason was simple.
Nothing at all happened during the first month at Advanced Nurturing!
As he ran through the plot in his mind, Asakusa Toru suddenly realized this.
After all, high school lasted a full three years. If something happened every day, high school life would be far too exciting.
Aside from Special Exams and holidays, students spent most of their time in class.
There was nothing interesting about simply going to class, let alone anything that could count as a story.
...Could the Plot Index get even lower than C from now on?
Asakusa Toru suddenly had a bad feeling.
No, no, surely not?
Believe. For now, just believe, then believe some more, and finally, believe.
Belief didn't need a reason!
After calming himself down a little, Asakusa Toru went to the cafeteria to refuel and get ready to enter the White Room.
Only then did he leisurely return to his dorm and take out the Diary.
Anyway, first he had to think about what to write.
He'd focused on Kushida the day before yesterday and Horikita yesterday, while casually listing some other names. By rights, he could simply pick one of those names at random today and get by with a halfhearted entry.
After all, a C-level Plot Index really didn't inspire much enthusiasm.
But considering that the Plot Index might not improve much for a long time, he might have to weigh his options.
He had to write in the Diary every day. The Plot Index was only one of the factors affecting his rating, after all. If he didn't put any effort into writing just because the Plot Index was too low, he'd surely miss out on many rewards he could've earned.
Still, that wasn't necessarily true.
After all, you could write anything in a diary, but there was only so much material that could meet all three of these criteria: "interesting," "spoiling the plot," and "stirring up emotions."
There was only so much material to work with. Once he'd used it all up, there'd be nothing left.
Asakusa Toru didn't want to bite a lighter.
So, he needed to confirm one thing.
"Is the Plot Index icing on the cake, a lifeline when things are bleak, or does it multiply the rewards?"
After thinking for a long time, Asakusa Toru picked up his pen and wrote today's Diary.
Before you continue