Those insults, delivered one after another without the slightest restraint, felt like she was carving into my heart, one cut at a time, opening up a bloody wound.
That was too much!
What could I do? I was just a weak, pitiful, helpless kid, forced to hide behind a diary and write down curses one stroke at a time.
Just thinking that everyone was secretly badmouthing me behind my back made me feel awful.
Big, fat tears streamed down my face. No matter how many times I wiped them away, they just kept flowing from my eyes.
Actually, that wasn't what upset me most. What upset me most was... why was there so little going on at this stupid Advanced Nurturing school?
I took a good look through the calendar today, and the more I looked, the more I realized... there really wasn't much happening this month.
Nothing happened last month, and nothing was happening this month. Hadn't I come to Advanced Nurturing for nothing?!
Did I have to spend another month lying low?!
What was I supposed to do about my diary?
No, I had to think of something.
Just you wait!]
"Today's reading is complete. Reading Points +1."
Today's diary entry ended there, and just then, the familiar, icy voice announcing the completion of her reading echoed in Horikita Suzune's ears.
"Total Reading Points accumulated: 31. The 'Message Board' feature has been unlocked."
"Free messages remaining: 1"
Of course, there was also the feature mentioned in today's diary... the message board.
"So I can leave messages too?" A trace of surprise appeared in Horikita Suzune's eyes.
She had always thought that the only way to speak to the person behind the diary was to find them, just as they had said.
She hadn't expected that she could leave a message, too—and someone had already met the requirements to post one.
...Did that mean that if more features became available only after reaching a certain number of Reading Points, she'd fall a day behind everyone else because she hadn't read on the first day?
No. Rather than worrying about that, she should check the messages.
Besides, the diary had just said that I could leave a message too, right?
With that thought, Horikita Suzune casually flipped to the back of the diary.
Page after page of blank paper fluttered past before it finally stopped at the last page.
There were only two recent messages.
One was a black question mark covered in red annotations.
The other... was a long, red-and-black jumble of insults attacking everyone.
A thumbs-up icon appeared beneath both messages.
The first had seven likes, while the second had five.
"..."
Wanting to see what the others had written first, Horikita Suzune focused on the messages and began to think.
Today's entry wasn't long, and there wasn't much that required her to read between the lines. Most of it seemed to be making fun of the Little Princess.
So, rather than puzzle over whether the diary's words concealed some deeper meaning, Horikita Suzune decided to look at the messages first.
The first one was the Little Princess's question mark. It had no deeper meaning, so she skipped it.
The second one was probably the important one.
A sea of red-and-black insults.
Even Horikita Suzune could easily tell that the red text had been added by the diary's owner, and that only the black text was likely the message writer's "real" words.
So what was this "Handprint Sister" trying to say with all this?
Was she venting her dissatisfaction with the school? No. She hadn't insulted the school. The red text was what expanded the insults to include the whole school.
If she picked out just the black text, she could easily tell that those names... all belonged to Class D.
In other words, the person was a Class D student, just like her.
She hated Yamauchi Haruki, Kanji Ike, and Horikita Suzune...
"Stupid Horikita Suzune." As she quietly read one of the black passages aloud, Horikita Suzune suddenly remembered her "auditory hallucination" from that morning.
The words were the same.
The insults directed at her—the words that voice had spoken—matched the message in the diary.
And that voice... belonged to Kushida Kikyo.
"I see." A glimmer of understanding flashed in Horikita Suzune's eyes.
...She remembered now.
She knew why Kushida Kikyo had been clinging to her since the start of school, insisting that they become friends.
She also knew who the student called the "Two-Faced Person" in the first diary entry was—the one who had caused a major incident.
And now she understood why Kushida Kikyo had been absent today.
The Two-Faced Person was Kushida Kikyo. Handprint Sister was Kushida Kikyo. The girl who had gone to the same middle school as her and called her stupid was also Kushida Kikyo. ### You Will Strive Toward This Goal Without Relenting ### [Today's entry is complete. This entry's rating: "B." Drawing a reward.]
[Reward drawn successfully. Congratulations, you have received the item "Tenacity Headband."]
As usual, the result announcement sounded, but this time the reward didn't appear in Asakusa Tōru's hand in full view of everyone. Instead, his pocket quietly bulged a little.
Asakusa Tōru wasn't surprised at all. He simply took another spoonful of parfait.
He'd already tested it. If he wrote in his diary in front of other people and then received his reward in front of them, would the diary still make it appear out of thin air in his hand as usual?
The answer was... not necessarily.
It might distort the people nearby's perceptions and openly give it to him. It might send a message to his Personal Terminal, telling him to pick it up from a shop in Keyaki Mall. Or it might quietly slip the reward into his pocket, like it had just done.
So far, Asakusa Tōru hadn't figured out any real pattern.
The only pattern he could see was that rewards with relatively high ratings weren't ones he had to pick up himself. The ones he had to collect were mostly those little trinkets with an E rating.
...Some of them sounded so unappealing that he couldn't be bothered to pick them up. At least not having them delivered directly saved him some storage space in his dorm.
Anyway, first things first: he should take a look at the usual information.
[Name: Tenacity Headband]
[Category: Item]
[Effect: Put it on, then set a goal. You will strive toward it without relenting.]
[Note: "Push yourself! Just one last time!"]
"Mm..." With the ice cream in his mouth, Asakusa Tōru couldn't help blinking.
How should he put it?
It was a little complicated.
As for whether the item was useful, it definitely was.
Not everyone was Horikita Suzune. Plenty of people struggled to make themselves keep working at something, and even the most ambitious of them would quickly lose steam once it was time to act.
But with this headband, all he had to do was put it on, and he could become a work-all-night maniac.
But the problem was, he didn't want to work himself to the bone.
I was born to slack off and coast. If I could get through one day at a time, why the hell would I want to become a try-hard?
He'd already had more than enough of being a try-hard in his previous life. If he had to be one in this life, even with a diary, then what the hell was the point of having a cheat?
If he'd wanted to become a try-hard, he could've taken a day off as soon as he got the White Room Membership Card and spent it grinding through a whole year's worth of time. How had a whole month gone by without him even using up a few months' worth?
Wasn't casually writing a diary every day and drawing rewards with it much better?
Why the hell would I want to work myself to death?
So, although the forced labor effect suited the item's rating, he'd already decided that the thing could gather dust.
...Unless he suddenly lost his mind and decided to start working hard.
Well, whatever.
I'll take it slowly. One day, my Divine Light Stick will show up.
"Is the matcha parfait good?" Just then, Ichinose Honami tilted her head with a smile and asked him softly.
Asakusa Tōru smiled back at her.
"It's good."
Ah, I knew I'd forgotten something.
The group quickly reached a decision about the matter of Private White Wave Chihiro.
After-school tutoring.
There was no need to say anything about paying attention in class—that was up to her. All they could do was set aside time outside of class to tutor Shiraha Chihiro and Shibata Hayate.
Ichinose Honami wasn't worried about the tutoring. Her academic ability, Asakusa Tōru's, and Kanzaki Ryūji's were all pretty good. They were more than capable of tutoring Shiraha Chihiro and Shibata Hayate.
Rather than after-school tutoring, it was more like a regular get-together, organized to help friends they were already close to become even closer.
Still, she'd been thinking about something just now.
The direction Asakusa-kun had been looking in... was it Sakayanagi Arisu?
Wang Meiyu had loudly corrected her about her sexual orientation, which had made almost everyone turn to look. But Asakusa Tōru hadn't started watching Sakayanagi Arisu then; he had been drawn to her gaze much earlier.
It was true that Sakayanagi Arisu's silver-white hair and the girl who was always by her side, like a bodyguard, easily attracted people's attention.
But she thought that probably wasn't why Asakusa Tōru had been paying attention to her.
If it was him...
Her frail body, the cane she carried, her need to be supported by someone else to walk.
Ichinose Honami blinked and buried her doubts deep in her heart.
No matter what, Sakayanagi Arisu was able to attend this fully enclosed school and even drink coffee here. That meant she was healthy enough, and there was no need for others to worry too much.
She wouldn't worry. And she didn't think that certain someone would worry too much, either.
Asakusa Tōru really wasn't worried about Sakayanagi Arisu at all.
Sure, she had that sickly-girl thing going on, and sure, she could only walk properly with a cane.
But, well, if she had a heart condition, why was she drinking coffee every other day? And if she didn't, why did she need a cane?
Besides, she supposedly had a heart condition, yet hadn't had any problems in the years she'd been at school. It was hard to tell whether it was very well managed or just some character trait thrown in to give her extra attack speed and critical hits.
Rather than worry about Sakayanagi Arisu, he'd be better off thinking about Konmoku Yuki, who was still lying in a hospital bed, slowly dying.
...Damn it.
It was this kind of illness, where no one was at fault but no one could be saved, that felt the most sickening.
Lying on his dorm bed, Asakusa Tōru pulled out the headband.
The scarlet silk headband had the golden characters for "strive" printed on it. The design looked pretty cheap, but the fabric felt surprisingly nice.
Still... would a silk headband even stay on?
He didn't know. He wasn't planning to use it anyway.
"..."
Even so, he couldn't help thinking about the headband's description.
Before you continue