"You surprised me too. Coming to the boys' dormitory alone this late at night."
Sitting cross-legged on a cushion, Aoyama looked at Horikita across from him with interest.
She must have just taken a shower. Her smooth black hair was loose, draped over her school uniform jacket.
Her delicate, fair, adorable face looked so dewy and supple it seemed it would burst at the slightest touch.
"After all, you wouldn't dare enter the girls' dormitory even if you had ten times the guts, so I had to come here."
"If the school rules didn't forbid it, I think I'd dare."
On his first day in the dormitory, Aoyama had received a booklet of dorm rules. One stated that boys were forbidden from being on the girls' floors after eight o'clock.
Unlike the girls' floors, the boys' floors had no such restriction.
He thought it was discrimination—blatant discrimination against girls. Why shouldn't girls be allowed to sexually harass boys? Was there no justice in this world?
"There's a student in Class D named Sudo..."
Horikita saw no point in trading quips with Aoyama, so she got straight to business.
She explained in exhaustive detail what Sudo had been doing lately and the role Hirata had played in it.
She also mentioned her own attempt to force Sudo to back down through more heavy-handed methods.
"So you're planning to lead Class D to Class A and prove yourself." Aoyama tapped the tabletop with his finger, understanding how Horikita planned to prove herself.
"If the school intends for us to compete with Class A, then Class D shouldn't exist if we don't have even the slightest chance."
"That's fair, but the odds are pretty slim."
Aoyama agreed with Horikita's reasoning.
There were plenty of promising students in Class D. There were even two absolute powerhouses: Horikita Suzune herself and Kushida Kikyo, both among the best girls in terms of ability.
But there were also plenty of hopeless idiots like Sudo and the other two members of the Three Idiots.
"Is there a way to solve this? How many points?" Horikita was willing to try anything at this point. Class D was slowly dying.
Perhaps the brutal truth would finally wake everyone up when they received their drastically reduced personal points on May 1, but by then it would be too late.
"It won't be hard to solve, but I doubt you have even a hundred thousand points saved up, so I want you to pay me another way."
"I don't think you want to find out how good I am at aikido."
Hearing that Aoyama really had a solution, Horikita was pleased at first. Then she grew wary, placing both hands on the table.
"I don't want to end up in prison, honestly." Realizing that what he'd said sounded a lot like a certain kind of story in this country, Aoyama hurriedly waved his hands to show he'd been misunderstood.
He remembered that Horikita was good at cooking. If she paid her debt with meals, he could even use the arrangement to fool Horikita Manabu.
"All you have to do is make me dinner. One meal in exchange for a thousand personal points, up to a total of a hundred thousand."
Seeing that Horikita no longer looked like a cat with its fur standing on end, Aoyama immediately made his request.
When he returned to his dorm room at night, he didn't want to go out again to eat at the school cafeteria.
Chapter 18: The Demon King Kamuro
A thousand points for one meal. A hundred thousand personal points would make a hundred meals.
In terms of time, it would take at least three months.
"Fine, but I can't guarantee you'll like the food." After thinking it over, Horikita decided it was a good deal.
Once she'd learned how important personal points were, she'd started cooking for herself. The unappealing free ingredients sold at the supermarket tasted no worse when cooked.
If she didn't count the value of her own labor, it was an incredible bargain.
"As long as there's plenty of meat, I'm good. Let me know in advance if you can't make it."
Aoyama figured that as long as it was meat, it couldn't taste too bad. And since Horikita had agreed, she could at least cook.
"So what's the solution? If it'll work, I'll get right on it." Horikita was curious about the idea Aoyama had come up with so quickly.
Sudo had such a bad temper that most of Class D were afraid to speak up, even when they were angry with him. Nobody thought they could force him to follow the rules.
And with Hirata protecting him, she couldn't use Sudo to make an example of anyone.
"The solution isn't hard, but that's only for me.
"With your abilities, you might mess things up, so you just need to stand by and keep quiet."
Aoyama rubbed his chin. Given Horikita's prideful nature, he decided to make sure the deal went smoothly.
After all, this was his first customer, and he wanted to get off to a good start.
"...Please hurry."
Horikita stared coldly at Aoyama for a while, knowing that no matter how eloquently she argued, she couldn't change his opinion of her.
After all, she had no impressive accomplishments, and right now she was the one asking for help.
"It'll probably be tomorrow night."
"Before Monday would be even better."
Once they'd settled on a time, Horikita showed no inclination to linger.
Soon, Aoyama was alone in the room. To prepare for the deal the following night, he called a certain upperclassman.
The next morning, outside the dormitory.
The girl wore a pure white, round-necked dress and a light blue cardigan. Perhaps because she was shy, she nervously rubbed the fingers of her slate-blue side ponytail, which hung down to her shoulder.
"You look really cute, Yamamura. It suits you."
As a guy with a normal level of emotional intelligence, Aoyama promptly complimented Yamamura, who had dressed up carefully.
Seeing the girl smile shyly but happily made him smile too.
"Of course, Kamuro's cute too."
"Yeah, yeah. You're handsome too. Can we get going?" Kamuro wore a khaki sweater vest over her white shirt and spoke with an I-don't-really-care expression.
"Then let's go!"
Pointing toward Keyaki Mall with his right hand, Aoyama set off first.
As their first stop, the three of them headed to the arcade on the third floor of Keyaki Mall.
The brightly colored arcade was filled with flashing lights. The music from the games and the students' excited shouts blended together, ringing in their ears.
"Let's go one-on-one, Kamuro."
At the basketball machines, Aoyama put coins into two of them and openly challenged Kamuro.
The basketball machine was a perennial favorite, something practically everyone who visited an arcade had to try.
"You're a guy. How can that be one-on-one?"
"You take on the two of us. How is that not one-on-one?"
Faced with Kamuro's utterly speechless expression, Aoyama patted Yamamura on the shoulder. She was holding a basketball too, and he didn't look the least bit embarrassed.
If they each used a machine, Yamamura, who had far less stamina than the other two, would be guaranteed to lose. Wanting her to enjoy the game, he decided that he and Yamamura would team up against Kamuro.
"Fine, have it your way." Kamuro picked up the ball, and her plan to just mess around vanished.
As soon as the countdown ended, she flicked the ball lightly. It sailed perfectly through the hoop without touching the rim, earning her the first point.
Then came the second, the third, the fourth.
Did she have to be this good? Had she practiced before?
Noticing Kamuro's score shoot up in the corner of his eye, Aoyama started trying harder too. Instead of taking one shot for every one of Yamamura's, he began taking two.
"Kamuro, your key card fell on the floor. It'll be a pain if it gets stepped on."
"My key card's in my bag, idiot."
The corners of Kamuro's mouth curled up without her realizing it. She started shooting even more enthusiastically, and the score on the display climbed rapidly.
When the two-minute timer ran out, the winner was unquestionably Kamuro, who had gone all out from the beginning and had the advantage in skill.
Although there were two people on Aoyama's side, Yamamura had never played before, so she had contributed almost nothing.
"Don't get discouraged, Yamamura. We'll beat the Demon King Kamuro next time." With Kamuro looking very pleased with herself, Aoyama put both hands on Yamamura's shoulders.
Her expression made it clear she felt guilty for holding him back.
Aoyama had been keeping a close eye on both their moods, so he wasn't going to ignore that.
"Ah... I'll do my best..." Feeling the warmth of the hands on her shoulders, Yamamura's guilt was instantly replaced by shyness.
"You'll have to do your very best." Aoyama continued playing the part of a defeated hero. "I believe we can do it."
"Mm!"
Yamamura clenched her little fist to show she'd try her hardest, and Kamuro's competitive spirit flared up too.
They played the bowling game, a VR zombie shooter, and racing games. The three of them competed fiercely, taking turns winning.
Kamuro won the most often.
"Were you a regular at the arcade before, Kamuro?"
After they'd played themselves tired, the three left the arcade and headed for the dessert shop on the second floor of Keyaki Mall. Aoyama turned to Kamuro, whose face still held traces of excitement, and asked her the question.
"I was pretty obsessed with them for a while in middle school." Kamuro readily admitted that she'd once been a regular at the arcade. She hadn't been a model student in every respect.
"So you're not obsessed with them now?"
"...I got over that ages ago."
Something like an arcade game could no longer give her the thrill she wanted.
Out of the corner of her eye, Kamuro watched Aoyama, her feelings complicated.
If Aoyama found out what she was really like, what would he say to her? What would he do? It probably wouldn't be anything kind.
After all, what she'd done was a real crime, with no room for excuses.
"Kamuro, let's... come back and play again sometime."
"I had a really good time with you and Aoyama."
While Kamuro's mind wandered, Yamamura came over to stand beside her.
Yamamura was observant. For some reason, Kamuro's happiness had suddenly faded, so she felt she should make sure Kamuro knew how much fun she'd had.
"You know, you're really easy to please." Looking at Yamamura, who was trying so hard to show how happy she was, Kamuro suddenly felt a little envious.
She thought that if she could be like Yamamura, she might not have fallen so far.
Chapter 19: I'm Expensive, You Know
"Score: 3.0. Kamuro, you're awful."
"You actually sounded pretty good. You just couldn't keep up with the beat."
Under the sunset's fading light, Aoyama cheerfully teased Kamuro, who wore a cold expression.
After having dessert for lunch at the shop, the three of them had gone to karaoke that afternoon.
The karaoke system let you turn on automatic scoring.
"Where do you get off talking? You only got a 4.0, not even half of Yamamura's score."
The maximum score was ten. By the time they finished, the highest score among the three of them belonged to Yamamura, who had initially been too shy to sing until Aoyama encouraged her again and again. She'd scored an astonishing 8.9.
Though Aoyama and Kamuro had scored poorly, that wasn't because they sounded terrible. They were both just half a beat behind the original singers.
It seemed they could only sing along with the original tracks.
"A win by one point is still a win."
"Then how many times did you lose to me at the arcade?"
"A real man doesn't brag about old victories."
"Who's a real man? I'm just a girl."
Before you continue