We're Friends, Right? / Were You Really Like This Before?

"Ah, sorry. I almost forgot something." As she spoke, she took a Voice Recorder out of her pocket right in front of Kushida Kikyo.

It was the one she had bought from Asakusa Toru.

The tiny screen glimmered faintly. The Voice Recorder was still recording away.

Horikita Suzune had come in with the recorder on.

"There's no need to keep recording." Right in front of Kushida Kikyo, she gently pressed the button to stop the recording, then chose to delete it.

"..." Kushida Kikyo stared at the Voice Recorder in her hand, her expression stiffening slightly, then let out a heavy sigh.

"You really are sick."

Chapter 77: We're Friends, Right?

Horikita Suzune actually had a very good memory.

When it came to things she needed to remember, such as textbook material, key points for exams, and her brother's words, she could recall them very clearly.

As for things that had nothing to do with her, like other people's gossip, rumors slandering her, or anything else she had no need to remember, she casually tossed them aside.

And obviously, the "Advanced Nurturing Survival Rules" that had once been written in the Diary were something important that she needed to remember.

After deciding to keep a record of her own words and actions, as well as those of the people around her, Horikita Suzune carried a Voice Recorder with her every day. She turned it on in the morning, then routinely stopped the recording and cleared it in the evening.

Although she had bought the Voice Recorder from Asakusa Toru on impulse, without thinking it through, it turned out to be quite useful.

Even after recording continuously for twenty-four hours, it still had plenty of storage space and enough battery life to keep going.

Three thousand points had actually been a great deal.

...Especially since he'd even provided "after-sales service" yesterday.

If she hadn't been short on Private Points, she might have transferred another payment to Asakusa Toru.

That feeling of owing someone a favor bothered her even more than owing them money.

After stopping and deleting the recording in front of Kushida Kikyo, Horikita Suzune paid little attention to Kushida Kikyo's insult and walked toward the entrance.

She was already getting used to being insulted. If anything, it would have been strange if Kushida Kikyo hadn't insulted her.

She didn't know what friends were supposed to be like, but presumably, they were people who could insult each other like this.

After all, Kushida Kikyo understood friendship better than she did.

Hooking up the heel of her shoe, Horikita slipped her sock-covered foot into her leather shoe. She'd come with nothing in her hands, and had no intention of taking anything back with her.

She opened the door without hesitation, and only when she saw the bag sitting quietly outside did she suddenly remember that there was also a gift from another classmate.

"Ah, that's the gift Xiao Mei brought. Bring it in for me." Kushida Kikyo had no intention of getting up to see her out. "I still have to thank her tomorrow. It's probably all useless stuff, but I should take a look."

"...You have hands of your own, don't you?" Horikita Suzune said, exasperated.

But Kushida Kikyo merely gave her the same sweet, charming smile she wore in class and asked softly:

"We're friends, right?"

"..." In silence, Horikita picked up the bag, took her shoes off again, and turned back to carry it into the room.

When she turned to leave once more, Kushida Kikyo put away her adorable expression and shrugged.

"See? That's how you're supposed to use a friend."

Just saying, "We're friends, right?" was enough to make someone do whatever you wanted.

"I'll remember that." Horikita Suzune didn't look back. With her back to Kushida, she spoke softly. "Next time, I won't be fooled by that line."

With that, she crossed the threshold and gently closed the door behind her.

"..." Horikita's parting words had sounded pretty imposing, but Kushida Kikyo only sighed to herself. "...It's not like I can't come up with a different line."

After a few quiet words, the door gently clicked shut.

"Click."

As soft footsteps passed and the motion-activated lights flickered on one after another, the girl gently pressed the elevator button.

"Ding—" Before long, the elevator arrived, then slowly closed its doors.

The hallway's motion-activated lights went out automatically. In the stairwell of the dormitory, Asakusa Toru slowly opened his eyes.

"..."

He held a Voice Recorder connected to a pair of earphones, one of which was in his right ear. The recorder in his hand was calmly playing the audio that Horikita Suzune's recorder had faithfully captured inside the room.

"Hate," "don't understand," "sick," "friends"...

The girls' voices came through the earphone crystal clear.

The corners of Asakusa Toru's mouth had been turned up for quite a while, and they still hadn't come down. That showed just how good his mood was.

Even without seeing their expressions, the information their voices conveyed was more than enough.

Hesitant voices, pauses in their breathing, indistinct words.

He hadn't expected that, after Sakayanagi Arisu had put on such a wonderful show for him yesterday, he'd get to see another excellent performance today.

He really liked Horikita Suzune.

Innocent, naive, obedient, easy to fool.

Every now and then, she'd have a moment of clarity, only to turn around and do something that made people burst out laughing.

That was why he said he really liked Horikita Suzune.

You could even say he favored her.

As for "Archangel" Ichinose, the random girl from the library, and the rest—he didn't know them. Keep them out of it.

"Bzzz—" Suddenly, as if they'd shared some kind of telepathic connection, the Personal Terminal on his body vibrated faintly.

Someone had sent him a message.

[Shiina Hiyori: Are you having another get-together with your classmates today?]

It was only a calm, simple question, but for some reason, Asakusa Toru felt a faint chill creep up his back.

...But his back was against the wall!

Crap. She'd found out he'd been badmouthing her behind her back, calling her some random girl.

Whatever, he'd stop listening for now and listen again later when he got back.

The Plot Index was terrible today anyway. He'd save this juicy bit for later and write it up in the Diary for everyone.

As for why he'd followed them here, it had mostly been a coincidence.

He didn't know whether he should blame how much energy he'd spent after putting on the headband, how long he'd spent in the White Room, or how thoroughly his energy had been drained. After coming out, he'd also swept up some "breakfast" to replenish his energy. Even though his body had rapidly grown stronger in a short time, he still felt a little dazed.

He usually didn't pay much attention in class, merely pretending to listen, but his haziness had been especially bad today.

So after school, he'd thought he might as well go back to the dorm and lie down, maybe even take a nap.

Who could have guessed that this time, he'd see Horikita Suzune enter the dormitory elevator alone—and the elevator would stop at the ninth floor.

Who lived on the ninth floor?

There was only one name that came to mind.

Kushida Kikyo.

Those two, together...

Holy crap, that had to make for a spectacular show.

His grogginess vanished in an instant. Asakusa Toru's mind cleared, and he raced up the stairs to the ninth floor.

No one knew he was here, and no one knew the Voice Recorder in his hand could make a duplicate of the recording.

So even if he swept his hand across the Diary and wrote with great flourish, there was no risk at all.

This was a perfect crime.

Chapter 78: Were You Really Like This Before?

"Rustle."

"Rustle."

The Advanced Nurturing school library wasn't all that quiet to begin with. It had gotten even noisier after the class teachers announced to all the first-years that failing the important exams would result in expulsion.

To get through the ordeal of the exams, students had crowded into the library, which the public generally considered an excellent place to study. They chattered away about all sorts of things, some related to studying and others completely unrelated.

Once the noise shattered the veil of silence, it was hard for the library to return to its usual calm.

Even so, today Asakusa Toru had still shown up as promised...

And sat on the other side.

Shiina Hiyori was reading over there, while Asakusa Toru opened his textbook and study guide on this side.

"How far did Ichinose get with you yesterday?" he quietly asked Shiranami Chihiro beside him.

"...Here." She opened the book to the page she remembered and pointed.

"They've already covered the rest in class... But never mind whether you understand it yet. Let's start with some problems." Asakusa glanced over the page and marked several questions in her workbook.

The best way to check whether you'd mastered something was to do problems.

He was familiar with the drill-and-practice method. First-year material was surprisingly easy; if he paid a little attention, the relevant knowledge would come back to him on its own.

...After all, he'd studied most of it before.

He'd forgotten almost everything after graduation, but once he got into the right frame of mind, he could still recall it pretty quickly.

Probably?

Just as they'd agreed before, Asakusa Toru had come to the library to tutor Shiranami Chihiro and Shibata Hayate.

The reason things had ended up looking like a private date between the two of them was that the other people who should have been there all had their own reasons for being late or absent.

Shibata Hayate had practice with the Soccer Club. His usual training schedule was already packed, and as a newcomer in a club with a clear hierarchy, it wasn't easy for him to keep skipping practice.

Ichinose wasn't in a club, so in theory, she should have had free time.

But she'd deliberately chosen to arrive late.

As for the young gentleman Kanzaki... Honestly, Asakusa Toru had never really understood how his mind worked.

He had no club activities or other friends to socialize with. He simply maintained friendly nodding relationships with all his classmates, then... worked very hard at being Ichinose's sidekick.

Whatever Ichinose did, he did. Whatever Ichinose said, he supported.

So when Ichinose deliberately chose to arrive late, Kanzaki Ryuji naturally slowed down on his way to the library, too.

Asakusa Toru didn't mind.

After all, he had plenty of free time.

Even if he didn't come to tutor Shiranami Chihiro, he spent most of his time completing his daily quest with the library NPC who, though not seated at the same table, happened to be sitting behind him, back to back.

Asakusa Toru didn't dislike reading. It was precisely because he enjoyed it that he'd recognized most of the characters in this world and remembered most of their backstories.

Even after spending more than ten years here, he still hadn't finished reading all the interesting books in this world.

But there was no rush.

"..."

Black and red ink moved back and forth over the page as Shiranami Chihiro obediently wracked her brains, writing out answers to one question after another that he'd selected.

Then he ruthlessly marked them up and corrected her mistakes with a red pen.

As they repeated the process, she unexpectedly found that the nervousness she'd initially felt about being alone with him had faded away.

And so, Miss Shiranami Chihiro began to lose herself in her studies.

Unfortunately, it seemed that this immersion didn't last long.

"Wouldn't just memorizing everything before the exam work? Why come to the library..."