The Cafeteria

They headed to the school cafeteria together. Some students were already eating there.

"What do you want to eat, Kiyona?"

Come to think of it, Hoshino Kanade had usually eaten instant noodles or bread on the rooftop.

He rarely went to the cafeteria. With so many dishes to choose from, he was having a hard time deciding.

"Um... Let's just take a look around first."

"Sounds reasonable."

Steam wafted from the cafeteria entrance, carrying a medley of delicious aromas.

On the left was the Japanese food section. Gleaming slices of eel sashimi were arranged like works of art on crushed ice, beside bowls of rice topped with eel glazed in caramel-colored teriyaki sauce.

The Western food counter was farther away. Pasta with melted cheese and freshly baked garlic bread were stacked like a tower, golden butter seeping from the flaky crust.

The busiest spot was the Chinese food corner. Mapo tofu bubbled in a huge pot, red and white mingling, while thick sauce was poured over snowy-white rice bowls, sending up clouds of steam.

As expected of one of the top high schools in Japan, the cafeteria was first-rate. Prices hadn't been marked up, either; they were about the same as outside.

"But do they have relief meals here, like at the school store?"

"The free meals only come in set combinations, and the ingredients and cooking don't look very appetizing. But they include both meat and vegetables, so they should still provide a balanced diet."

"Want to try one?"

Kiyona seemed a little interested.

"I feel like that would be torture for my taste buds. Let's get something normal."

The free meals came in lots of fixed combinations that rotated on a schedule. There was no way he could try them all, so he'd rather not put himself through that.

Kiyona seemed to have an even worse case of indecision than he did. Would he have to choose for both of them?

"I want mapo tofu."

"Then I'll have mapo tofu too."

Students trickled in to eat, and by the time they had picked up their meals, there were hardly any seats left. Fortunately, they found an empty table in the corner.

"Let's eat." ×2

The first thing to touch his tongue was the smooth, savory sauce, coating neat cubes of tofu like "coffee sugar cubes."

The tofu was tender and silky, with a mild bean flavor. It blended with the slightly spicy miso or sweet bean sauce, creating a sweet-and-salty imitation of mala.

The numbing sensation of Sichuan pepper was almost nonexistent, replaced by the gentle, enveloping thickness of the sauce.

It looked spicy, but it had clearly been adjusted to suit Japanese tastes, with the numbing and spicy flavors toned down. Surprisingly, it tasted pretty good.

But it looked like it would be quite spicy for Kiyona.

As her porcelain spoon touched the red-oil-coated tofu, she swept a stray lock of hair behind her ear. Lowering her gaze, she carefully blew away the steam, her fingers as steady as if she were holding a blade.

The moment she took a bite, her ears turned bright red, tiny beads of sweat appeared on the tip of her nose, and her tongue darted over the spicy residue at the corner of her lips.

She pressed a stifled little groan into a taut line of lips. Even as she tried to endure it, the collapse of her cool, aloof composure was hard to hide.

"Are you okay?"

Hoshino Kanade picked up a tissue. When Kiyona didn't refuse, he gently wiped the tiny beads of sweat from her face.

"I don't eat this kind of food very often. It's delicious."

Bearing the name mapo tofu, it was only natural for it to emerge victorious.

Eating in a corner made it easier to gather information.

Knowing the original story, Hoshino Kanade understood that he was bound to let his guard down and develop a sense of superiority.

Gathering information and keeping an eye out for changes would help him react in time to the effects of his actions.

Take his plan to win over Matsushita Chiaki. Just looking at their respective backgrounds, she was a rich young lady, while he was a poor student struggling to make ends meet. It was a hopeless fantasy, like a toad dreaming of eating swan meat.

The key was figuring out how to turn that fantasy into reality and let go of his sense of superiority.

He would use what he knew about Matsushita Chiaki and the other students, proceed step by step, and turn his "foresight"—or his guise of it—into real ability at this school.

That was how he could climb the social ladder.

People were born unequal.

If he hadn't gotten into this school, the best future Hoshino Kanade could hope for would be to get into a good university and then become a corporate drone, working himself to the bone his entire life, perhaps only to make someone else rich.

But if he seized an opportunity like Miyabi Nagumo, then abused his power at school and acted recklessly, he might end up getting stuffed into a sack and dumped in Tokyo Bay without even knowing how it happened.

"Kanade?"

Kiyona sounded puzzled.

"Sorry, I spaced out just now."

"There's a beautiful girl right in front of you, and you still managed to zone out, Kanade? How insensitive."

After saying that, Kiyona puffed out her cheeks and pretended to be angry. With her cheeks flushed from the spicy food, she looked absolutely adorable.

Hoshino Kanade couldn't resist. He reached out and poked her puffed-up cheek.

"Sorry. It won't happen again. I just thought the reactions of those older students were a little strange."

"What do you mean?"

Kiyona's attention was caught, though she had only been pretending to be upset in the first place.

"Judging by their uniforms, they're third-years. Those few look like regulars at the free meal station." Hoshino Kanade subtly gestured toward them. "It's not obvious, but some of the other third-years look at the students eating free meals with contempt."

Once you knew the answer, it was easy to work backward and pick out the clues that had led to it.

Without the answer, Hoshino Kanade could stare until his eyes went blind and still have no idea what the pie chart in those students' eyes meant.

"That's true. It is strange."

Kiyona only needed one glance to agree with Kanade.

But she suddenly realized that the perceptiveness she was showing was a little unusual.

But if she looked again—

That would be even more unusual.

Fortunately, Kanade didn't seem to notice anything, and Kiyona breathed a sigh of relief.

"But what does that mean? I haven't seen any second-years eating free meals, and the first-years just got 100,000 points. They wouldn't be eating free meals either."

With so little information, there were countless possibilities to consider. For now, Kiyona had no way of guessing the truth.

"Sorry. We agreed to enjoy ourselves first, but I went back to observing all this pointless stuff."

"Why are you apologizing all of a sudden? It's normal to be observant. There really are a lot of unreasonable things about this school."

"Mm."

On the first day of school, once the opening ceremony ended, the rest of the day was free. Classes wouldn't start until the next day.

In other words, they still had half a day to kill.

"I'm going to the library. What about you?"

"Then I'll go too."

He was going to the library to devour books, reading through all of them. Academic ability was part of one's strength, and Hoshino Kanade would be spending a long time in the library from now on.

He might run into Shiina Hiyori there and see whether they could arrange some kind of cooperation with Class C.

But that would probably be a few days from now. Finding out the truth too early would seem strange.

Information he sold needed to have a plausible source, and he also needed evidence to support its accuracy. He'd have to pretend to discover it himself.

Being one step ahead made you a genius; being several steps ahead made you a monster; being countless steps ahead made you a cheater.

Hoshino Kanade wanted to live a few more years.

Just as expected, he ran into the person he'd anticipated seeing at the library.

Shiina Hiyori had silver-white hair and violet eyes. Her locks flowed like moonlight, and her violet gaze held a rational, distant light.

Her slender figure was bent over a book, and the way her fingertips rested on the page gave her a quiet, scholarly air.

Against her plain school uniform, her silver hair and violet eyes made her look like a "blue rose," blooming alone in the quiet library with an air of mysterious elegance.

Hoshino Kanade felt like he'd fallen in love again. Kiyona was wonderful too, but Shiina Hiyori was just unfair.