A Clash! Head-to-Head!

On one hand, it was all for show. The students in the class were living miserable lives, while you spent a whole week's worth of their living expenses on a single meal. Wasn't that a bit much?

Although the students in the class borrowed points from one another, someone had still set their sights on him.

In particular, Hirata, the class's saint, had finally been persuaded by those idiots and wanted to borrow points from the students one by one.

Today, Hirata had his eye on Nakano. Nakano Yuu noticed Hirata following him to the cafeteria, but when Hirata saw him eating the mountain-vegetable set meal, he could only shake his head and leave.

Nakano Yuu didn't dislike Hirata. After all, Hirata hadn't done anything to him; he'd even worried that Nakano was being isolated when he was alone. But Nakano wasn't about to be anyone's sucker, either.

Besides, he usually ate expensive set meals, so trying the free diet meal for a change was a novel experience.

And he had Kouenji Rokusuke to thank for that.

Koenji had actually spent all his points by the twentieth of the first month, then started eating these mountain-vegetable set meals without the slightest complaint. As he put it, wasn't it fun to occasionally try something completely different from what you were used to?

For example, right now, Nakano had come to appreciate the experience of recalling past hardships and savoring the present.

And the lesson was that he absolutely, positively must never go broke. So he'd better ask Ryuuen to meet up and get his hands on the protection money he'd just collected.

Thud.

Just as Nakano-kun was lost in thought, a sound suddenly came from beside him, and he caught the aroma of a deluxe set meal.

"You are..."

Nakano-kun looked at the two girls who had suddenly appeared in front of him.

One was a silver-haired little girl, dressed in white right down to her stockings. The other was tall, with long purple hair, and, rather amusingly, two hair clips pinned to her bangs.

The white-haired girl was incredibly cute, while the purple-haired girl wore a stony expression. She had the air of someone weighed down by a lifetime of grievances.

They sat down right in front of Nakano-kun.

The tall girl held a deluxe set meal in her hands, then placed it on the table.

"No one's sitting here," Nakano-kun said.

He seemed to think the two of them had come to share his table.

But the purple-haired girl pushed the deluxe set meal toward him.

"This is—"

Nakano-kun looked at them in surprise, his expression turning strange.

"How rare. I didn't think I'd ever see you look surprised."

"Are you really that surprised to see me again?" the silver-haired girl asked. "This meal is my treat, Nakano-kun."

Nakano-kun.

That was how she addressed Nakano Yuu.

Usually, students called one another "Classmate XX" or "XX-san." Calling someone "-kun" was generally a sign that they were closer.

For instance, Nakano Yuu's father called his adopted older sister Itsuki "Itsuki-kun."

Now, looking ahead, he could see the silver-haired girl smiling. She really was smiling at him.

"I surrender." Nakano Yuu raised both hands, then named her. "What a chance encounter, Sakayanagi. I never expected to run into you here."

"I'm surprised too," Sakayanagi said. "You actually enrolled at this school—the one where my father is the Chairman."

Sakayanagi made it sound like she was introducing herself.

But...

Heh.

So that was the kind of person you were?

You knew the rules and arrangements at this school perfectly well. The school valued strength above all else, and the pinnacle of student power was the Student Council President, who had special privileges. Above the Student Council President in this hierarchy of strength was the Chairman, who operated behind the scenes but still had a say. And so...

Now you were actually bringing up the fact that your father was the Chairman. Have you no shame, Sakayanagi?

P.S. The next two updates will be posted tomorrow morning at 7.

A little promo.

Synopsis: The good news: Xing Yun transmigrated! And he got a cheat!

The bad news: He'd transmigrated after being hit by a truck, his cheat had arrived three months late, and it was the Cat Family System...

From then on, the myriad worlds gained their most caring, honest merchant!

"Sure, the Interastral Peace Corporation went bankrupt, and you lost your jobs and assets, but you still have me!"

At Pier Point, Xing Yun stood atop the ruins of the company headquarters and opened his arms to the people who had just lost their jobs.

"I can absolutely take the company's place and provide you with jobs!"

At the Five Kage Summit in the Land of Iron, Xing Yun, wearing the Hokage robes of the Fifth Generation, looked down on the other four Kage with his Mangekyou Sharingan.

"From now on, there'll be only one Konoha in the shinobi world. Nobody here has a problem with that, right?"

"What, someone has a problem? Then I declare the Fourth Shinobi World War has begun!"

In Nagazora City, Xing Yun looked at the Herrscher of the Void, who had turned her back on the world, and reached out to her.

"Sirin, your days of opening portals whenever you feel like it are over. Hand over the Herrscher Core!"

At the Shinjuku battlefield, before even a moment had passed since Gojo Satoru's death, Xing Yun had already rushed to the battlefield!

"Hope I don't disappoint you. Just so we're clear, Sukuna, you're the challenger!"

<I'm a Merchant Across the Myriad Worlds, Not a Swindler!>

Chapter 30: Clashing! Locked in a Standoff!

Sakayanagi had brought up her identity as the Chairman's daughter.

And it was true: the Chairman of Ikusei High School was Sakayanagi Arisu's father, Sakayanagi Narimori.

So she really could say that.

"Aren't you worried I'll spread that around?" Nakano-kun asked, his expression unchanged.

"Then I'll spread the news that we used to date, too," Classmate Sakayanagi replied calmly.

Is that so?

But did she really need to spread that? He'd already told Horikita and Kamuro about it, so it wasn't exactly confidential information.

But the fact that she was bringing it up as a bargaining chip showed that Sakayanagi didn't have anything she could use to threaten him for the time being.

Now, the two of them were trading threats on equal footing.

Nakano Yuu had threatened to spread the news that Sakayanagi was the Chairman's daughter. That would raise the question of whether the Chairman had abused his authority by placing her in Class A. In response, Sakayanagi had threatened to reveal that the two of them had once dated. That would raise the question of whether Nakano Yuu had gotten into Ikusei High School without an interview or written exam because the Chairman had pulled strings for him.

So...

Sakayanagi Arisu, you little devil. You actually looked into his entrance exam results, didn't you?

Damn it.

Nakano felt as if he'd finally met his match.

His previous opponents had all been on the level of Ryuuen or Horikita, so he'd let his guard down. But this girl, Sakayanagi, was still here.

So Nakano remained silent.

Sakayanagi turned her gaze toward the purple-haired girl, who quickly spoke up. "My name is Kamuro."

Then, as though they were meeting for the first time, she added,

"You must be having a hard time eating those cheap... no, completely free mountain-vegetable set meals," she said. "After all, your class's evaluation score has dropped straight to zero. So, why not try a deluxe set meal?"

The deluxe set meal.

Kamuro pushed it straight over to Nakano-kun.

So she really had bought it for him?

"I don't quite understand what you mean," Nakano-kun said, but he didn't accept it right away.

Sakayanagi had brought Kamuro along, so the initiative should have been hers. Yet it was Kamuro who was doing the talking.

"There's a problem with this exam. I need the test papers you put together," Kamuro said. "Name your price. Don't bother hiding it—I already know you bought test papers from an upperclassman."

"Class A needs this kind of thing too?" Nakano-kun asked, pretending to be surprised. "Then I want fifty thousand points."

"Ten thousand!" Kamuro said.

"Fifty thousand!" Nakano-kun didn't back down.

"Twenty thousand." Kamuro raised her offer a little.

"Forty thousand." Nakano-kun lowered his price a little, too.

"Twenty thousand!" Kamuro refused to offer more.

At the right moment, Nakano-kun looked at Sakayanagi Arisu.

But Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to have been prepared for this. She simply gave him a sweet smile.

Her already impossibly cute face launched a smile attack.

What a despicable tactic. She was deliberately using her charms, wasn't she?

But Nakano-kun had his own principles. He wasn't about to give in that easily. Sakayanagi!

"Then twenty thousand points," Nakano-kun said, admitting defeat. He got a deluxe set meal, while the test papers he'd bought from an upperclassman were sold to Kamuro of Class A as a bundle at a forty-percent discount.

Once she'd achieved her goal, Sakayanagi immediately left with Kamuro.

But Kamuro Masumi couldn't help herself.

"Why didn't you trade with an upperclassman?"

They were talking about buying the test papers.

"Trading with an upperclassman would get us not just the test papers, but more information, too," Kamuro said.

"But," Sakayanagi sighed softly, "you know it's a transaction. What if someone finds out? If they take a picture and report us with it as evidence, you could be punished, and the class's evaluation score could be docked as well. That's why buying secondhand materials from Class D is the safest option. Class D has nothing left to lose anyway; their score can't go any lower."

"And why do you think we're buying test papers, Kamuro?" Sakayanagi sighed. "It's because our Class A has students like you, who are so bad at studying, that we need to give you a ticket to passing."

Kamuro had no response.

She really was one of the more unusual students in Class A. Her academic ability wasn't good enough; she was a poor student.

Although their homeroom teacher hadn't announced their written exam scores from the entrance exam, Kamuro really did struggle with the lessons.

Now they'd suddenly been told there would be an exam, and anyone who failed would be expelled. Everyone around her was a top student, so the class's passing score would certainly be high. That put her at some risk.

"Wasn't it a little too soon to leave?" Kamuro asked.

"Heh. Do you think I came here to see him?"

Sakayanagi said, "That man from my past doesn't hold much appeal for me."

Is that so?

He didn't hold much appeal for her? Then why, when they'd brought him to the cafeteria, had she first confirmed where he was and prepared to go over, only to notice he was eating a free meal and then specifically sent Kamuro to buy him a deluxe set meal?

And she hadn't just told her to buy anything. She'd picked out the dishes herself.

That suggested the food she'd bought was the sort of thing Nakano Yuu liked.

Calling a man from her past completely unappealing didn't seem quite right.

Still.

Kamuro figured she could remember what she'd bought today. She still owed that guy five hundred thousand points, so she'd definitely have to deal with him again.

And she had to admit, Nakano Yuu was good at reading people. She really didn't have to do anything, and then... Sakayanagi had found her weakness, too.