Chapter Twenty-Third: Your Clothes Smell Like Her Perfume

"..."

Kitagawa Ryo finished his evaluation with great seriousness, Shiina Hiyori's somewhat disappointed expression.

"Did Hiyori think I would have caught it with my mouth just now?"

Catching the girl's thoughts in an instant, Kitagawa Ryo tilted his head:

"Is this some kind of scene from a book? But in reality, it's really rude to accept food offered to you by hand with your mouth."

Kitagawa Ryo stood up, pulled out a chair, Shiina Hiyori seemed a little dissatisfied with what had just happened and didn't seem to want to eat. She just puffed out her cheeks and looked at Kitagawa Ryo, looking genuinely unhappy.

"Want to play a little game?"

Kitagawa Ryo had some experience dealing with Shiina Hiyori's little temper tantrums. Looking at the various kinds of rice balls on his plate, he suddenly had an idea:

"We'll take turns saying a mystery novel that we've read and believe the other person hasn't. If the other person hasn't actually read it, they win a round, and the loser has to eat a rice ball in one bite. How about that?"

The moment mystery novels were mentioned, Shiina Hiyori instantly forgot her earlier minor emotional outburst.

"Liang has been busy with class matters lately, so she shouldn't have had much time to read."

"That's not necessarily true."

Kitagawa Ryo propped his head up and scrutinized Shiina Hiyori's slender figure, as if assessing her appetite:

"Shouldn't Hiyori be able to eat a maximum of four?"

"Are you ready to eat ten of them in one go, Liang?"

Faced with Kitagawa Ryo's provocation, Shiina Hiyori retaliated without backing down. Although she usually appears lazy and carefree, Shiina Hiyori's competitive spirit is surprisingly strong when it comes to topics related to Kitagawa Ryo.

"And Then There Were None."

The tense atmosphere was immediately broken by the book title announced by Kitagawa Ryo. Shiina Hiyori looked at Kitagawa Ryo with a strange expression. Even if they weren't mystery novel fans, most people should have heard of this masterpiece by Agatha Christie. Horikita Suzune also seemed to like this book very much.

"Oh, actually I'm just hungry, I'll eat something to tide me over."

Kitagawa Ryo certainly wouldn't think that Shiina Hiyori hadn't read this book. He picked up a rice ball from his plate, chewed it, and looked at Shiina Hiyori:

"It's Hiyori."

"<The Tragedy of X>."

"It's a classic. The author is Ellery Queen, a pair of cousins who are also writers. Just as legendary as their detective novels is their classic tactic of creating alternate accounts to feud with their main accounts in order to boost their popularity."

Kitagawa Ryo commented:

"So writers in the 1920s and 30s already understood the importance of topics, public opinion, and hype, but that doesn't diminish the fact that their works are worth reading."

Shiina Hiyori nodded in agreement:

"At the time, the two published 'The Greek Coffin Mystery' under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and 'The Tragedy of X' under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross. Given that their main pseudonym was already quite well-known, 'The Tragedy of X' even slightly outperformed 'The Greek Coffin Mystery' in comparisons and debates among readers. In fact, in terms of both technique and logical structure, this book is indeed one of the pinnacle works of their careers."

After saying that, Shiina Hiyori also picked up a rice ball and ate it in small bites. Unlike Kitagawa Ryo, who looked hungry and ate in a slightly wild way, Shiina Hiyori seemed to care a lot about whether the rice grains fell on her clothes or the table. She ate very carefully, so Kitagawa Ryo temporarily gave up his plan to tell her that there was a grain of rice stuck to the corner of the girl's mouth.

"<The Human Chair>."

Kitagawa Ryo thought for a moment and then gave the name.

"One of Edogawa Ranpo's representative short stories from his early years."

Shiina Hiyori seemed unsatisfied with her answer and added:

"Actually, this book is more like a horror novel with a lot of suspense than a mystery novel, especially the first-person writing style. The subtle and chilling feeling that comes with the revelation of the suspense at the end is quite well portrayed. Is it a psychological horror novel?"

Recalling the specific details, Shiina Hiyori shifted her body uncomfortably, as if afraid that someone else was hiding in the chair she was sitting in.

"I'm here."

Kitagawa Ryo shook his head with a slight chuckle. The plot of "The Human Chair" was the kind that seemed reasonable at first glance but couldn't be thought about too closely. After all, in reality, no one would actually hide in a chair to spy on others to satisfy their voyeuristic desires.

"Confessions."

Shiina Hiyori felt relieved and handed Kitagawa Ryo a second rice ball while gazing into his dark eyes.

"Kanae Minato's works have youthful titles but dark content; they are considered one of the representative works of social mystery novels."

Kitagawa Ryo took his portion from Shiina Hiyori's hand, and then took out a second portion from the plate for her.

"There are two more."

"..."

Shiina Hiyori glared at Kitagawa Ryo upon hearing this, but in reality, she was enjoying the interaction between the two of them, and even the rice ball in her mouth seemed to taste sweeter.

"Let me think..."

After finishing the two rice balls, Kitagawa Ryo started to get serious, thinking about the types of mystery novels the girl might have overlooked:

"The Daughter of Time."

"Ryo really underestimates me."

Shiina Hiyori sighed softly, then looked up at Kitagawa Ryo with displeasure and protested:

"While I'm not really interested in historical mystery novels, the author of this one is Josephine Tey, who, along with Agatha and Dorothy L. Sayers, is considered one of the three great female mystery writers of the Golden Age."

"The truth is the Daughter of Time," a quote from Francis Bacon.

"..."

Recalling unpleasant memories, Shiina Hiyori remarked somewhat helplessly:

"But now, when I think of Francis Bacon, my first thought is that he summarized inductive reasoning."

In May of that year, Kitagawa Ryo had Shiina Hiyori and Kaneda Satoru create a fake exam answer key based on an incorrect exam scope, and this question was indeed included in it.

"Ahem, thank you for your hard work."

Shiina Hiyori ignored Kitagawa Ryo's words and continued:

"<Crossing the boundary>."

"Kirino Natsuo's representative work, and also the first Japan book to be nominated for the Edgar Award."

Kitagawa Ryo answered quickly, smiling as he looked at Shiina Hiyori, who still had the second rice ball left in her hand.

"It looks like Hiyori won't even be able to finish the four rice balls I expected."

"It doesn't matter anymore..."

Shiina Hiyori muttered something under her breath.

She stuck out her little tongue and licked her lips, but she was still a little short of the grain of rice. Kitamikawa Ryo finally reached out and scraped it off for her.

"The Initiation Love."

"I haven't seen it."

"That's unlikely."

Kitagawa Ryo looked at Shiina Hiyori with some surprise. He had always chosen works by famous authors, and this game was essentially just two people joking around and exchanging their thoughts on the books.

"I haven't seen it, that's all."

Shiina Hiyori and denied it, handing the rice ball in her hand to Kitagawa Ryo:

"Feed me."

"Did we agree on this beforehand?"

"Because if Liang doesn't do this, the punishment measures can't be implemented."

Shiina Hiyori winked playfully at him. Kitagawa Ryo had never seen Shiina Hiyori like this before, and his heart fluttered for a moment. However, since the rice ball was quite large, he simply pinched the right side and slowly fed the left side into the girl's mouth.

Just as Kitagawa Ryo initially imagined, feeding by hand and feeding with chopsticks are completely different experiences.

Both of them unconsciously leaned forward. Kitagawa Ryo could see Shiina Hiyori- white neck, her ears peeking out from among her silver-white hair. Because of the angle, the girl's eyelashes seemed exceptionally long, fluttering and trembling like black butterflies.

The warmth of his mouth gradually approached Kitagawa Ryo's fingers, and Kitagawa Ryo subconsciously pulled his fingers back. Watching Shiina Hiyori leave teeth marks on the rice ball, he tried to imagine the Matoba as when he usually fed Hotaru, but it seemed he couldn't quite do it.

"I'm full. It seems Liang really overestimated me."

Shiina Hiyori stopped just before touching Kitagawa Ryo's fingers, and then sat back down in her seat.

"What books has Hiyori been reading lately?"

Kitagawa Ryo breathed a sigh of relief, put the remaining rice ball back on the plate, and took a new one to eat.

"A work by Keigo Higashino."

Shiina Hiyori looked at Kitagawa Ryo's face, and reached out her finger to scrape off a grain of rice that was also stuck to the corner of Kitagawa Ryo's mouth.

"A Love Story in a Parallel World."

Chapter Twenty-Three: You Smell Her Perfume

"As for Class D, Koenji seems to be quite popular among the upperclassmen girls. I saw him surrounded by several upperclasswomen in the Student Cafeteria the other day. It seems that even though he's a rich kid, he's still a rich kid when he comes to school."

"It's normal for upperclassmen to try and get close to him. Although points can be more important than money in this school, it's only a three-year high school. If you can't graduate from Class A, you won't be able to enjoy the series of guarantees the school promised. Although the school will exchange the students' remaining Private Points for yen at a ratio of 1:2 after graduation, with the strength of the Koenji Conglomerate, it would be easy for them to offer a higher price."

In a secluded, tree-lined path, Kitagawa Ryo and Karuizawa Kei, dressed casually, strolled along, chatting as they went:

"It's more accurate to say that Koenji was actually one of the few people in Class D who first figured out the school's points system. He was the first to think of exchanging money with graduating upperclassmen, so he might actually have the most points in Class D."

"Speaking of points, Class B has already deposited 800,000 points into my account this month."

Karuizawa Kei waved her phone at Kitagawa Ryo; the enormous points displayed on the screen would probably make even the dirt poor Class D students swallow hard.

"Transfer 360,000 first, and you can keep the remaining 440,000 for yourself."

Kitagawa Ryo also took out his phone to complete the point transaction. In fact, without Karuizawa Kei's points from Class B, Class D would probably have continued to struggle to survive this month. After all, their Class Points were only 87, and they could only receive 8,700 Private Points each month.

"Koenji and Ayanokoji's deadline is actually dropping out of school. As long as you don't threaten that, the two of them generally won't hinder your actions. In fact, at certain times, you can use dropping out as leverage to negotiate with them, but it's best not to use that."

Kitagawa Ryo assessed the gap between Karuizawa Kei and the two of them, shook his head, and said:

No rush.

"Um."

Karuizawa Kei nodded, silently keeping Kitagawa Ryo's words in mind. Although she hadn't yet discerned anything special about Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, Kitagawa Ryo's comparison of him to Koenji made Karuizawa Kei a little wary of this boy.

"It seems like nothing's going on in Class D, as for the other classes..."

Karuizawa Kei touched her lips with her right index finger, trying hard to recall:

"It seems like Sakayanagi Arisu from Class 1-A hasn't been feeling well lately; she's been absent for two days."

"Class 1-B had a class meeting a few days ago, but because all the doors and windows were closed, I couldn't see what it was about. However, I heard some girls crying."

"Yes, it's very valuable."

Kitagawa Ryo affirmed Karuizawa Kei's achievements. Since the Midterm Exam in May, Karuizawa Kei has replaced Horikita Suzune as the leader of Class D. However, apart from a few people, no one would have thought that Karuizawa Kei was also Kitagawa Ryo's personal mole.

"Final Exam are coming up soon, how are you doing?"

"Hehe, it's alright, I'm just trying my best to study."

When Kitagawa Ryo asked about her studies, Karuizawa Kei proudly puffed out her chest. If her Midterm Exam results were somewhat questionable, after another month of patient and diligent study, Karuizawa Kei was quite confident about passing the Final Exam.

"The Final Exam aren't the most important thing. There should be Special Exam this summer vacation. If Class D wants to turn things around, this exam is crucial."

"Uninhabited Island?"

Karuizawa Kei had heard Kitagawa Ryo talk about this topic before, and she had also been intentionally learning some knowledge about this type of ticket recently:

"I feel like it's going to be a really tough exam..."

Most girls don't like these kinds of outdoor activities, Karuizawa Kei is no exception.

"I hope I can bring even the most basic sunscreen."

"Although I guessed it would be about surviving on Uninhabited Island, there's no point in guessing before the exam starts."

Kitagawa Ryo wasn't clear on the specific rules of this exam, but the fact that Sakayanagi Arisu herself wasn't participating and that Class D was being led by Karuizawa Kei gave him a lot of confidence. After all, Class B wasn't a concern; all he needed to do was test the mettle of Katsuragi Kohei from Class A.

After finishing their conversation about exams, the two started chatting about everyday life. After Karuizawa Kei recounted some funny stories about the girls in their class, she suddenly asked:

"Does Ryo have Kushida's contact information?"

Yes, there are.

Kitagawa Ryo still had some impression of a girl named Kushida Kikyo from Class D. With her striking looks, figure, and excellent social skills, she wielded considerable influence in Class D and even throughout the First Year. Although Karuizawa Kei was currently the undisputed leader of Class D, from another perspective, Kushida Kikyo's general reputation among the girls was even higher than Karuizawa Kei's. After all, there were many small groups among the girls, and Karuizawa Kei was merely the leader of one small group, Kushida Kikyo could move effortlessly between various groups and even gain widespread popularity.

From this perspective alone, Kushida Kikyo is a girl of considerable value.