You Don't Want to..., Do You, Clerk?

A breeze swept past, sending cherry blossoms dancing through the air. Like a miniature ballroom dance, they bloomed at their most beautiful during that fleeting moment.

On the grass of the athletic field, Kamigami Haruo, who was taking a break, let out a long sigh.

Boring. Dull. If only there were something to help him focus.

His gaze drifted endlessly across the beautiful scenery around him. Suddenly, it stopped on a wildflower beneath the Cherry Blossom Tree.

A blooming wildflower... a flower quietly coming into bloom...

As his thoughts returned, he remembered that he could listen to music.

With that in mind, he hurried to his feet and headed for the electronics store at Keyaki Mall. He planned to buy headphones and listen to music to ease the boredom of exercising.

The electronics store, SIVCAMERA.

Upon arriving at the electronics store, he happened to run into someone he would be seeing quite often in the future.

What a coincidence. Could this be fate?

"Sakura, what a coincidence."

The hand holding her student ID, ready to pay, trembled. Sakura Airi immediately hunched her shoulders.

She turned her slightly trembling body and lifted her eyes toward the newcomer. Then she shut down completely.

"Are you okay, Sakura?"

"I-I'm... fine, Ka-Kamigami..."

Sakura Airi's gaze wandered as she softly uttered the trembling words.

Kamigami Haruo scratched his cheek as if trying to ease the awkwardness, feeling that communicating with her was going to be rather difficult.

The situation reached a deadlock, so he could only turn his gaze toward the clerk at the counter. The clerk who had fallen into a fantasy after learning an idol's real name.

"Clerk?"

After calling several times without getting a response, Kamigami Haruo's brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

He took several steps past the girl and walked over to wave a hand in front of the clerk, finally snapping him out of his fantasy. He looked utterly lecherous; even the breath he exhaled seemed lecherous.

He knocked sharply against the counter with an imposing air, looking for all the world like a difficult customer.

"Do you want to get reported, Clerk?"

"I'm very sorry, Customer."

The beautiful filter was shattered by reality. The clerk, whose job had just been put at risk, panicked and gave a standard ninety-degree bow.

Kamigami Haruo stood resolutely amid the frozen atmosphere, offering no response for a long while.

His behavior left the still-bowing clerk completely at a loss.

In truth, Kamigami Haruo was merely selecting digital products to extort from the clerk.

Since he was already here, and since there was no reason not to take advantage of a bargain, he could not go against his own desires.

Grinning, he informed the clerk that he wanted one pair of headphones and two voice recorders.

"Clerk, you don't want to lose your job over a complaint, do you?"

While paying, he threatened the clerk in a fault-finding tone, turning the lecherous clerk into a meek little bird.

From the other man's silence, Kamigami Haruo got the answer he wanted.

"Give me thirty percent off, and I won't report you."

"No! I'll lose money that way."

"Think carefully. If you lose your job because of my complaint, never mind having to leave this place and part with coworkers you've spent every day with. What if there's someone here you like? You'll never see them again, you know? And after leaving Advanced Nurturing High School, will you even be able to find a job? What if a company that was about to hire you cancels because of your complaint record? Are you going to live off cup noodles every day with those little savings of yours? Or do you want to become homeless and sleep in a park? Answer me!"

"Ugh... stop saying that, Customer... I'll give you thirty percent off. I'll pay the rest myself, so please don't report me. Never seeing the person I like again would absolutely be a no-go!"

Hearing that, Kamigami Haruo coolly took out the student ID he had prepared in advance and efficiently swiped it to pay.

After the thirty-percent discount, he paid only around 4,000 PR.

"Kusuda Shinotsu, I'll remember you. See you tomorrow, Sakura."

After saying something that sounded like a warning, he greeted Sakura Airi and left the store.

She was timid and somewhat difficult to communicate with. Still, since they were desk mates, there would be plenty of time to talk later.

As he passed the convenience store he had visited before once again, Kamigami Haruo's gaze suddenly sharpened. He spotted a suspicious-looking back.

It was not exactly a coincidence. This was already his second visit to the store. Still, he had not expected to run into the Store War God again.

Lightening his steps, he quietly walked up behind the girl.

"You don't want anyone finding out that you stole something, do you?"

"Eek!"

Although she did not feel guilty about doing something bad, Kamuro Masumi was still caught completely off guard by the sudden voice and jumped in fright.

She turned around in a panic, shifting her gaze toward the gloomy boy threatening her.

"What proof do you have that I stole anything?"

After composing herself, Kamuro Masumi put on an unhappy expression and questioned him.

"Then let me see the alcohol in your backpack. Don't make excuses about private belongings or anything."

They were standing by the beer display, somewhere students would never normally visit. A little thought was enough to figure out what she had stolen.

With her theft exposed, Kamuro Masumi gave up resisting.

"So what? Are you going to report me to the school?"

"No, I wasn't planning to report you to the school."

"You said you stole alcohol. Are you planning to drink it?"

"Not exactly."

Kamuro Masumi wore an expression that seemed difficult to put into words.

"Then that settles it. If you needed money, I could understand it, but we just received a hundred thousand points and you're still stealing things. You're one of those people people talk about online, aren't you? The kind who enjoy the thrill and guilty feeling of stealing?"

"Since you know, but aren't going to report me to the school, are you planning to use this to blackmail me?"

Looking at Kamuro Masumi's embarrassed and angry face, it would have been fine if a girl had said it, but hearing it from a boy was rather humiliating.

However, Kamigami Haruo said something that shocked her.

"No, no. I just mean that every time after you steal something, you'll accidentally lose it over there, right? Then every time, I'll accidentally find it."

Pointing toward a surveillance blind spot, Kamigami Haruo gave Kamuro Masumi that hint.

Then he patted the shoulder of Kamuro Masumi, who was staring at him in disbelief, and whispered in her ear.

"Next time, steal some other drinks. But be careful of the people around you when you do it, or if you get caught, you'll never be able to steal whatever you want again."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're so annoying."

Kamuro Masumi was unexpectedly confident about this, though who knew what resentment would come later.

Once Kamigami Haruo saw that his plan had succeeded, he turned and left.

Before leaving, he saw someone unsurprising in the store's glass reflection.

Sakayanagi Arisu.

Sensing Kamigami Haruo's faint gaze, Sakayanagi Arisu gave him a polite smile.

He nodded to Sakayanagi Arisu in greeting, thinking that she had indeed begun suspecting him on the first day of school, though she was probably only observing him for now.

Kamigami Haruo shrugged, walked to a vending machine, bought a bottle of mineral water, twisted off the cap, and drank.

After quenching his thirst, he casually glanced aside and noticed an extra shadow on the ground. He turned to look at the person behind him.

"Oh, you noticed me, huh, classmate?"

"It's you, Ichinose Honami. Long time no see."

When Ichinose saw someone from her memories, her face displayed a very obvious lost-person expression of surprise.

"Oh? It really is you, classmate. I thought I'd mistaken you for someone else."

"Anyway, thanks for the bread a few days ago. If there's anything you need help with, I can help you once."

"You don't need to be so polite. I did it because I wanted to. I just can't stand watching other people suffer. But you don't need to help me in return. I don't help people because I expect something back."

With that, Ichinose raised her right hand and placed her index finger against her lips.

She had only observed Kamigami Haruo from the side for so long because she found him somewhat familiar.

Then she witnessed the commotion just now and understood that they shared the same sin.

After thinking for a while, she asked with a mixture of confusion and panic.

"By the way, why did you let that classmate go just now? Didn't you catch her stealing something?"

"Do you think she was wrong, Ichinose? Ah, do you have paper and a pen? Lend them to me."

"She was... wrong, wasn't she?"

Ichinose nervously took out paper and a pen from her bag, her hands trembling slightly from the force with which she handed them to Kamigami Haruo.

As someone who had become the topic of Class B on the first day, she would certainly participate in class group activities, which was why she always carried her bag around.

"Legally speaking, she was wrong, since she committed theft. Morally speaking, if the person herself has no morals, then she won't think she did anything wrong. It mainly depends on what the person thinks."

"But, Ichinose, have you ever heard the saying, 'To err is human'?"

Kamigami Haruo wrote as he spoke to Ichinose.