"These past few days, I haven't been in a good place mentally. I keep dreaming about what happened that day, and Kikyo has been getting colder toward me. I'm also the kind of person with a mental cleanliness obsession, so I don't like just finding someone to vent on. So, to make myself give up on women once and for all, I came to you to get yelled at. Please, lay into me as hard as you can and make me lose all interest in women."
"If I yell at you, won't I be falling for your trick?" Suzune asked. "And why should I help you?"
That was right. Why should she help him?
He should've known better than to tell her what he was really thinking. Then he could've gotten it for free.
"If you yell at me, I'll tell you how to earn your brother's approval."
"What?" Suzune grabbed him by the collar. "What exactly do you know?"
"I only know what I know."
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
"Don't worry about that. I'm just asking if you'll yell at me or not."
In all her years, Suzune had never encountered a request like this.
Someone actually wanted her to yell at him. She did feel like yelling at this pervert, but for some reason, the thought made her feel queasy.
Somewhere deep inside, she recoiled from the idea.
But for her brother, she had to—
"No. I can't!" Suzune refused flatly. "I never yell at people."
"Oh, is that so?" Eito replied in a monotone.
"Because I always tell the truth."
"..."
"So, for the sake of my principles, even if it's... my brother, I won't give up. I'll find a way on my own. I don't need you to teach me."
"Oh..." Eito said expressionlessly.
What a cute little sister. He wanted a whole dozen of them.
"Still," Suzune added, "I could find an opportunity to invite her out. Then the two of you could be honest with each other, and that should clear up any misunderstandings."
"Thanks, but there's no need. I've already come to terms with it." Eito smiled.
Suzune was still too naive. If that approach really worked, he would've tried it already. He knew that even if he asked, he wouldn't get any answers, so there was nothing he could do.
Just as you could never talk sense into someone who was pretending to be stupid.
"Really?" Suzune asked suspiciously. "That quickly?"
"Can't be helped. I'm the kind of person who's always on the verge of enlightenment. Ah, what can I say? I'm just that amazing."
"Are you a monk?"
"..."
Just as he'd said, he really had come to terms with it.
He thought he might understand why he'd been feeling this way.
It was a feeling called loneliness—or, to describe it a little more, emptiness.
But talking with Suzune had released all the emotion he'd been holding in.
What he really needed might have been someone to confide in.
And without a doubt, Kikyo was the one who'd made him feel this way.
Kikyo really was good at what she did. She knew how to get people to open up to her, how to play with their feelings and make them devoted to her.
Otherwise, the Three Idiots wouldn't have ignored all the other pretty girls in class and chased after Kikyo instead.
She didn't need friends. She needed to be the center of everyone's attention, to be one of a kind. Her so-called friends were just tools. She had no intention of actually being their friend; she only wanted to use that relationship to pry open their hearts.
Once someone shared their secrets with her, she had hold of their weakness. It wasn't that she would use it to threaten them, but the fact that they'd shared their innermost thoughts with her meant they'd opened up to her. From then on, they'd do anything for her.
In truth, she already had them under her control.
And he'd been lucky enough to become one of her targets. Though that was his own fault. He'd talked to Kikyo too much over the past two weeks, and sometimes he liked to speak his mind, so she'd learned a few things she hadn't expected to hear.
Come to think of it, he'd asked Kikyo to come clean on the way to the movie that day. She might've realized something.
Before, he hadn't considered Kikyo a threat, so he'd let his guard down when he talked to her.
And even now, he still didn't consider Kikyo a threat.
Actually, even if Kikyo really had the ability to get him expelled or make everyone hate him, he wouldn't be afraid.
There was no way he'd get expelled.
If anything, he looked forward to the day he became everyone's enemy.
Just as Suzune had said, only the weak needed to band together for warmth.
Although, like society, this school required people to rely on one another to get by.
He was no longer within the bounds of humanity, so naturally, he had nothing to fear.
The Final Celebration
It was almost the end of the month.
Third period.
This was a class taught by their homeroom teacher, Chabashira Sae.
Come to think of it, Chabashira hadn't spoken to him since that first incident after the school year began. It was as if she'd forgotten about it.
And she still hadn't answered the deal he'd proposed.
He'd only brought it up on a whim and hadn't expected much. Under normal circumstances, a teacher wouldn't easily agree to something like that. Letting a student touch her body would be a problem if anyone found out, and the two of them didn't have any kind of relationship, either.
But from what he knew of Chabashira, she really might agree.
Her obsession with getting into Class A ran so deep that she was willing to do whatever it took. The only reason she hadn't made up her mind yet might be that, in her eyes, he wasn't valuable enough to make her offer her body.
If Chabashira really was willing to agree, then he wouldn't mind helping Class D a little. But until then, it was better to stay put. As far as he was concerned, helping the people in this class wouldn't make much difference anyway. He wasn't a saint; he couldn't go around correcting each and every one of their flaws.
As for this class—
Chabashira said, "Quiet down. I need you to pay a little more attention in class today."
As it turned out, they had a small test at the end of the month.
A lot of people panicked when they heard there was another test.
They'd been enjoying themselves for a whole month, and now they had to take a test? Who'd be happy about that?
Eito certainly wasn't.
But this time, he decided to show Chabashira what he could do.
There was a get-together that afternoon, Yamauchi told him over the phone.
After that day, Yamauchi had become his informant.
When Eito had asked him to investigate Class C, Yamauchi had focused on the girls and reported back a whole bunch of private gossip. It was enough to make Eito blush.
Later, Eito had specifically asked him to investigate Ryuen. To his surprise, Yamauchi had been found out at once and beaten up.
What a loser.
So Eito gave up and told Yamauchi to stay in Class D and keep an eye on Ike and Sudo, that red-haired idiot.
According to Yamauchi's report just now, the people at the get-together would be Hirata and his girlfriend, Karuizawa, along with Karuizawa's friends Matsushita and Mori, Kikyo, Ike, and Yamauchi himself.
Speaking of Kikyo, he'd been too lazy to hang out with her lately. Even when they ran into each other, he only gave her a casual greeting.
He didn't know what Kikyo was thinking, but he didn't feel like asking anymore.
He decided to put the matter of Kikyo aside for now.
Then, just now, Suzune had actually spoken to him first:
"If you're free, come to the school café tonight. I'll be waiting for you there."
Then she left, coolly and without a trace.
So cool.
That was what he thought, though it felt more like they were in a spy movie.
Meet at xx o'clock, at xx location.
Roger that.
So when night came, he put on black clothes, a black hat, and sunglasses, then showed up at the designated spot.
He immediately spotted Suzune, with her flowing long hair and striking presence. He went over and sat across from her.
"Someone's sitting here."
"It's me." Eito lifted the brim of his hat.
Suzune narrowed her eyes and studied him, then fell silent for half a minute.
At last, she said:
"Let's talk about what matters."
"..."
She hadn't even teased him. How boring.
Ignoring his wounded look, Suzune took a book from her backpack and returned it to him. It was the copy of Pride and Prejudice he'd lent her.
"I've read this book three times. I think I understand what you meant."
"What was it?"
Suzune closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if she'd made up her mind. Then she looked him straight in the eye and said:
"From now on, I'll set aside all my old prejudices and look at you without any bias, as if you were a newborn baby."
"All right." It wasn't quite what he'd had in mind, but this was even better.
"However," Suzune said, pausing, "if you're imagining that I'll fall in love with you because of this, you're seriously mistaken."
"Oh." He'd just been rejected out of nowhere.
"Now then..." Suzune looked over his outfit once again. "Why are you dressed like that?"
She was only teasing him about it now?
"What's wrong with it? What I wear is my choice. I can wear whatever I want."
"That's true, but that outfit..." Suzune frowned.
Eito's getup was so strange and conspicuous that people had been staring at them ever since he arrived.
They might think the two of them were meeting to make some shady deal. And since Suzune was so beautiful, it wouldn't take much for some impure-minded kid to get the wrong idea.
She didn't care what other people thought, but having them stare at her strangely the whole time was irritating.
"Fine, I'll take it off."
Eito took off his black clothes, revealing his ordinary school uniform underneath.
"Are you messing with me?"
"No, no."
What the two of them didn't notice was that several girls walked into the café just then.
The girl with golden hair tied in a high ponytail was dressed like a gyaru. She was just as pretty as Suzune, and her name was Karuizawa Kei.
Her two friends and Kikyo were with her.
After splitting up from the boys, they'd agreed to go shopping together, and happened to end up here.
Before you continue