A Club Orientation for Three

The second day of school.

Kamigami Haruo had overslept. After taking a quick shower, he grabbed a carton of milk and hurried to the classroom.

Half an hour after class had begun, he finally arrived and calmly took his seat.

Along the way, he conveniently achieved the feat of startling Sakura Airi for the day, then promptly fell asleep with his exhausted body.

After all, whether students listened in class was up to them. Even if the teacher noticed, they would not interfere.

They would merely deduct class points.

Class points determined how many points each class's students received every month, at a ratio of one hundred to one. Every class began with one thousand class points.

The first month was part of the class evaluation period. Any violation of classroom rules would immediately be recorded by the two hidden miniature cameras in the room, and class points would be deducted.

However, considering Class D's later situation, their class points would only end up at zero this month.

Class points could not be deducted into the negatives, though.

Although everyone was still somewhat restrained now that school had just started, that state would only last a few hours before they completely sank into a quagmire of point deductions.

So whether he was there or not made no difference. That was what Kamigami Haruo thought.

Kamigami Haruo spent the entire morning sleeping until lunch break.

After the teacher gathered up the lesson materials and left, the students headed off in groups with classmates they had only recently met to get lunch.

This time, he did not wait for Sakura Airi's wake-up service. Having skipped breakfast, Kamigami Haruo woke up on his own.

He had planned to make today's bento last night, but he had gotten so absorbed in exercising that he forgot.

Wiping the nonexistent drool from the corner of his mouth, Kamigami Haruo narrowed his eyes and scanned the classroom.

Only then did he stretch and let out an energetic yawn.

From his earlier observation, only the groups led by Hirata and Karuizawa, along with the two loners, remained in the class.

Ignoring everyone else, Kamigami Haruo got up and headed purposefully toward the student cafeteria.

It was still the same set meal, costing the same number of points.

And still, under everyone's astonished gazes, he carried tray after tray back and forth.

He was still eating with the same people as yesterday, though he only sat down because this was the only table with people he knew relatively well.

He had no idea why Horikita Suzune, who was supposed to buy a sandwich and eat it in the classroom, had appeared in the cafeteria, but he understood the next moment.

"Yo, my cute little sister—hiss!!"

Kamigami Haruo looked at the pinprick left in his arm by a compass.

"Fine, fine. Since hand chops don't work, you carry a compass around to punish me? You even came all the way to the cafeteria for it."

Kamigami Haruo spoke with a look of utter defeat.

"Though I hate to admit it, after punishing you, I realized from your terrible acting that ordinary levels of pain were not enough for you to remember the lesson. So I made use of human wisdom. In short, a weapon."

"Don't say that so seriously. I won't tease you anymore, okay? Let's eat."

Since he had eaten one meal less than last night, he finished before Horikita Suzune.

"Starting at five this afternoon, a club orientation will be held in the First Gymnasium. Students interested in clubs, please gather at the First Gymnasium. I repeat. Today—"

He wondered whether that cute voice belonged to Tachibana Akane.

"Hey, Horikita-san, how about—"

"I'm not interested in clubs."

"I wasn't asking you to join. I mean, Brother will be there."

"Clubs... huh? Let me think... Even if I don't join one, it might be nice to learn about the kinds of clubs the school has."

Horikita Suzune, who had looked completely uninterested, seemed to think of something and then deliberately struck a contemplative pose.

"Not even trying to hide it now? Tsundere brocon. Nope!"

As he said this, Kamigami Haruo was already prepared to dodge.

This time, he retreated perfectly unscathed. As for any retaliation afterward, he had not considered it at all.

"Now that you know the truth, there's no point in denying it."

After thinking for a moment, Horikita Suzune spoke again.

"Hey, would it be okay if we only went for a little while after school? I'll go with you."

"When did I say I wanted you to come with me?"

This time, Kamigami Haruo was unprepared and did not dodge in time, successfully falling victim to Horikita's compass.

"Please come with me to the club orientation!"

Only then did Horikita Suzune put down her compass weapon.

What an honest little girl she was not.

After school.

Unlike that morning, Kamigami Haruo was not asleep now. On the contrary, he looked extremely energetic.

In truth, he had simply slept too much. He had spent the entire afternoon spacing out and daydreaming.

After getting up and stretching, he slung his bag over his shoulder and walked toward Horikita Suzune's seat.

"Let's go, Horikita-san."

Unlike Kamigami Haruo, who had not paid attention in class and therefore had nothing on his desk to tidy up,

Horikita Suzune was packing up her desk. It seemed she had listened attentively and taken notes.

"Let's go."

After finishing up, Horikita Suzune stood. As she did, her hair fell forward.

She reached up to brush it back, and a fragrant breeze wafted over as well.

Kamigami Haruo's sense of smell was sharper than most people's. He did not even need to sniff deeply; an ordinary breath was enough to take in the entire scent.

On the way to the gymnasium.

"Tyrannosaurus."

"Ah, Kamigami-kun, why do you keep calling me Tyrannosaurus?"

"I call you that because I feel like it. Right, Lao Yin? Oh, close one."

Faced with Horikita Suzune's attack, Kamigami Haruo simply pushed Ayanokōji in front of him and stepped back, resolving it perfectly.

That way, she could vent her frustration, while he did not have to suffer a painful blow—a world where only Ayanokōji got hurt.

"How foolish, Ayanokōji-kun, letting someone use you as a shield."

And he still had to get mocked afterward. Even Kamigami Haruo felt compelled to speak up for Ayanokōji.

"Once you've punished him, you can't punish me anymore."

That was truly adding insult to injury.

As Ayanokōji rubbed the sore spot, he suddenly rubbed his nose instead.

It itched so badly that it felt like he would rub it red and swollen.

"There's even more people than I expected."

By the time the three arrived at the gymnasium, most of the new students had already gathered.

Around a hundred people were waiting for the host's speech, followed by a series of club introductions from club representatives.

Just as the introductions were about to end, a figure appeared in one corner of the stage and immediately captivated Horikita Suzune.

Her body trembled, and she looked at the figure onstage with a complicated expression.

That expression contained thirty percent surprise, thirty percent fear, thirty percent joy, and ten percent impatience.

That ten percent impatience came from Kamigami Haruo beside her.

She could ignore Ayanokōji's voice, but she could not ignore Kamigami Haruo's movements.

Kamigami Haruo was currently nudging Horikita Suzune's arm with his elbow. She did not need to think to know he was about to start mouthing off.

After giving him a hand chop and an impatient glare, Kamigami Haruo finally obediently shut his mouth.

Feeling that peace had returned, Horikita Suzune quietly watched the Brother she admired.

The lively atmosphere in the gymnasium continued until Horikita Manabu was the only one left onstage.

The venue suddenly fell silent.

Unlike the over-six-foot Kamigami Haruo, Horikita Manabu was only a little over five foot seven. He was neither muscular nor thin, with typical black hair and glasses.

Kamigami Haruo wondered if he might have looked like Shinpachi when he was younger.

Some freshmen who did not know the Student Council president saw the person standing onstage and assumed he was too nervous to speak, so they began laughing and jeering.

However, the laughter lasted only a moment before it was interrupted by the strange pressure radiating from the silent man onstage.

This caused the freshmen to voice their doubts about him.

Horikita Manabu fixed his gaze on one of the freshmen laughing the hardest.

Only after the gymnasium had sunk into a tense silence did he sweep his gaze across the freshmen, roughly thirty seconds later.

He glanced at the microphone before finally beginning his speech.