Classroom of the Elite, but It's a Diary Style

Kushida Kikyo wanted to say something, but after glancing at Horikita Suzune, she let out a silent sigh and kept her mouth shut.

Forget it, just go along with it.

She couldn't win against this foolish woman.

Listening to others recount their pasts and express their deep regrets was just a common occurrence, after all.

One more time with Horikita Suzune wouldn't make a difference.

Just be a listener, quiet, wordless, and keep that mouth shut.

"So, as long as it was something my brother said, or something my brother did, I would imitate it, and I would strive for it."

"My studies, sports, and... my long, jet-black hair." Horikita Suzune gently lifted a lock of her hair; it was deep, dark, and incredibly smooth, hair she had spent a long time maintaining. "It's beautiful, isn't it? I think so too."

Kushida Kikyo: "..." How could this woman be so narcissistic?

Lowering the hair in her hand, Horikita Suzune continued:

"I worked hard. I feel like I've already worked as hard as I could, and I achieved the best results I was capable of obtaining."

"Even if I had to do it all over again, I would probably make the same choices."

"The choices I firmly believed were correct led to results I never expected." Her words paused slightly, and she took a deep breath. "I think I must have done something wrong."

"And it was a grave mistake."

Exhaling the stagnant air from her chest, Horikita Suzune lifted her head.

"I can no longer see the path ahead of me clearly, nor can I see myself clearly." Once again, she reached out toward Kushida Kikyo. "I need a mirror. Please be my friend, and become the 'mirror' that can reflect my face clearly."

Kushida Kikyo: "..."

...What a truly shameless request.

After saying all that, in the end, it was just for something like this?

Shameless, messy, and inexplicable.

Stupid woman, foolish woman, awful woman.

However...

She still took hold of the hand Horikita Suzune had extended.

"Ah, ah, ah, my brain must be broken too," Kushida Kikyo couldn't help but curse. "Accepting such nonsense as a reason... staying in this room for too long really must have rotted my head."

Through their tightly clasped hands, she could clearly feel the warmth of the girl's palm, and by lifting her gaze, she could clearly see her eyes.

"It's truly nauseating," she said.

Friend.

A very strange word.

Before today, Horikita Suzune had never had anyone she could call a friend.

But from today on, she was supposed to have her first one.

The only problem was...

"Friends, what do they do?" She suddenly realized something she had been ignoring all along.

A friend, a mirror.

Even though the idea was to outline her own image through the eyes of another, but... how exactly was she supposed to do that?

Should she just ask directly?

'Don't just grab people and ask what they think of you; that's called begging for a blessing.'

As soon as the thought surfaced, Horikita Suzune recalled those words Asakusa Toru had said that day.

After returning home that day, she had actually looked up what "begging for a blessing" meant.

...Although she didn't quite understand it, she clearly remembered that she shouldn't ask directly.

"Talking bad about others, gossiping about the latest news, holding hands and going to the bathroom together while acting all chummy." Sitting back on her bed, she sprawled out casually and stared at the ceiling. "What you do is nothing more than these meaningless, stupid things that somehow make you feel like you possess the other person."

"I'm telling you, you really don't have any friends." She climbed back up and sighed, looking quite helpless.

Horikita Suzune's expression was a bit unnatural:

"...So what if I don't."

"Instead of that, I've said so much already, what about you?" She said, as if trying to change the subject. "At the end of the day, why do you want to be friends with everyone?"

Even though she had started talking on her own accord, since she had already said so much, Kushida Kikyo should at least say something back.

"...I have nothing to say." Kushida Kikyo flopped back down, raising a hand to block the bedroom light that had finally been turned back on a short while ago:

"I just wanted a sense of superiority."

"The Diary already said it, didn't it? Harboring an inferiority complex, craving superiority, a 'defective product' in every sense of the word."

"That is who I am," she said.

Words that perfectly described the existence known as Kushida Kikyo, without a shred of falsehood.

They couldn't have been more appropriate here.

"..."

As the words softly faded, a moment of silence descended upon the room.

Only the sound of breathing could be heard, a sense of tranquility so profound it was incredibly reassuring.

"I'll be back in class tomorrow," Kushida Kikyo said suddenly. "Honestly, even if you hadn't come, I would have returned to normal and gone back to class in a day or two."

"I'm actually much better at soothing myself than you might think."

Chapter 76: You Really Are Sick

"Instead of being curious about me, you should take a look at yourself."

Raising her hand, Kushida Kikyo pulled Horikita Suzune backward, forcing her to fall flat onto the bed.

Then, she turned, grabbing the other girl's pretty face and pulling her fair, delicate skin into an unsightly grimace.

"You look like a fool," she said.

"Ugh—" Suddenly having her face pinched, Horikita Suzune's brain stalled for a moment before the stinging pain in her cheeks made her realize she was being attacked.

"I hate you the most," Kushida Kikyo said while continuing to pinch.

"So stupid."

"So dull."

"I don't know what kind of mess you have going on in that head of yours."

"That's not a thought process a normal person would have."

"Why did you disclose the information?" she asked.

Horikita Suzune replied, her voice muffled and indistinct:

"I don't know what you're talking about—"

"Answer me," Kushida Kikyo said softly. "You just need to answer."

Since she had decided to use her as a mirror, she had to be prepared to answer the Magic Mirror's interrogation.

Clarify the intent, see the self clearly.

And being pinched and toyed with like this was just a small 'price' to pay.

"Ugh—" Just as Kushida Kikyo curled her lips while watching Horikita Suzune's stretched cheeks, Horikita Suzune suddenly propped herself up, pulled the other girl into a sitting position, and immediately reached out to grab Kushida Kikyo's cheeks in retaliation.

It was hard to exert force while lying on her side.

"Because I couldn't afford the price," Horikita Suzune answered Kushida Kikyo's question while returning the favor.

Because she couldn't afford the cost of confirming the specific rules of the special exam on her own, she needed the help of her classmates.

Since the special exam was conducted on a class-wide basis, it was only natural for her to think of seeking out other classmates after receiving that hint from Chabashira Sae.

Disclosing the information was just something she did while she was at it.

Increasing the pressure on her hands slightly, Kushida Kikyo also spoke indistinctly:

"The way you pay for an answer is an answer in itself—"

"The way you quote a price is also a kind of answer," she said, taking a deep breath. "Have you found the Pseudo-human yet?"

The Diary's entry for the next day, the Trial given to the 'little sister' Horikita Suzune, was to find the Pseudo-human in the class.

If Horikita Suzune hadn't exposed so much of herself, she might have even forgotten that the Diary had written such a thing.

But thinking about it now, the idea that there was a 'Pseudo-human' in the class was actually quite terrifying.

"I think it's Yamauchi Haruki, but that's not the brother's Trial, the brother doesn't know about that," Horikita Suzune wanted to shake her head, but since her face was being pinched and she was pinching back, she could only continue to answer indistinctly: "How much longer do we have to do this, ah."

Her cheeks hurt so much from the pinching.

As the words fell, Kushida Kikyo voluntarily released Horikita Suzune's cheeks.

She had pinched enough.

"Right now." Following her movement, Horikita Suzune also let go.

First, she rubbed her own cheeks, feeling the lingering pain, and only then did Kushida Kikyo continue.

"That idiot certainly looks like a Pseudo-human, but doesn't his claim of ignorance mean your answer is wrong?" Kushida Kikyo muttered a complaint about Yamauchi, looking utterly speechless. "Alright, that's enough, don't say any more."

"I know what your fundamental problem is now."

"The Magic Mirror will tell you what kind of person 'Horikita Suzune' is."

Straightening her clothes, which had become disheveled from their scuffle, Kushida Kikyo extended her index finger and pointed it at Horikita Suzune.

"You're just stupid," she said.

"I've finally figured it out. Whether you're chasing your brother or not, whether you complete the Trial or not, whether you understand the clues or not—it all boils down to the fact that you're stupid."

"If you can't see the road ahead and you can't see yourself, doesn't that just mean you're stupid?" Kushida Kikyo let out a long sigh. "What's all this about mirrors? Isn't it just because you think you're stupid, so you can't figure things out on your own and have to ask others?"

Kushida Kikyo could not for the life of her understand why she had always considered a woman like Horikita Suzune to be such a major threat.

If she had known she was this stupid, what was there even to worry about?

"You, I..." Suddenly being pointed at and scolded, and seemingly having no way to refute it, Horikita Suzune rubbed her cheeks, feeling thoroughly uncomfortable.

But she had brought this upon herself; she was the one who had come knocking to be friends with Kushida Kikyo, and she was the one who had come to use Kushida Kikyo as a mirror to reflect her own image.

...So she had no choice but to listen obediently, and could only mutter in a very spineless, low voice:

"Then, then what am I supposed to do..."

"I don't know." Kushida Kikyo shrugged. "I'm just a mirror, not a lighthouse."

"Don't come to me for directions."

Seizing the opportunity to give Horikita Suzune a good, harsh scolding was enough; did she really expect her to play the role of a caring big sister and analyze things for her?

She certainly didn't want to.

Holding someone's hand and pretending to be a good person, pouring your heart out with empathetic words, was just a way to build rapport—why would she bother putting on such an act with Horikita Suzune?

As for which path to take... she didn't even know that herself.

"Alright, get lost." Having scolded Horikita Suzune, and seeing that Horikita Suzune had no way to talk back, plus having pulled on that stupid face of hers—even though she had been pulled on too, the total time spent meant she had pulled longer—Kushida Kikyo felt much better and simply started shooing her away. "You've made your friend, and you've looked in your mirror, so stop loitering in my room."

"I have no intention of spending the night in the same bed as a woman."

Don't make it sound like she was a lesbian.

Her sexual orientation was perfectly normal.

"...It seems it's getting late." Turning her head to glance at the light that had unknowingly grown dim behind the curtains, Horikita Suzune sighed. "I understand."

"Then, see you tomorrow."

Just as Horikita Suzune lifted her leg to leave, she suddenly stopped in her tracks as if she had remembered something.