How Can You Tell I'm Male or Female?

Service Club.

The great battle was imminent.

Bai Yu was off to the side sharpening his weapons and drilling his troops, determined to take the field in full battle dress and at his best.

Standing by the window, he repeatedly let out low, inexplicable yet fiercely spirited hums toward the outside, like a professional singer warming up before a performance.

"What's the president doing?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who had arrived a step late, glanced toward the window with reverence bordering on awe.

He set his schoolbag down on an empty seat against the wall some distance away, then naturally called out to Shiina Hiyori, who was reading in the middle of the room.

"I don't know. Maybe it has something to do with the School Cheerleading Squad."

Unable to restrain her curiosity, Shiina Hiyori occasionally lifted her gaze from her book to observe the man, who was even more interesting than a novel.

"The School Cheerleading Squad?" Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's expression changed drastically.

"Didn't Ayanokoji-kun know that Bai Yu had joined the Cheerleading Squad?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could not help recalling what Horikita Suzune had said to this man at the tennis court that day, along with some of his behavior over the past two days. His feelings became rather complicated.

What exactly was the president's brain made of?

Sure enough, he could not casually open up unknown territory for him if he wanted any untouched ground to remain.

He cast a dark glance at the man by the window, who was still immersed in his recitation, and casually said, "I remember the School Cheerleading Squad has very strict selection standards. Only two or three new students get picked each year, and they can even represent the school in outside competitions twice a year. You could say it's the only way to come into contact with the outside world..."

"That's not all."

Shiina Hiyori lowered the book she had been holding in front of her face and hit the nail on the head. "The school's Cheerleading Squad has never recruited boys."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could not help becoming solemn with respect. "So the president has overcome his biological barriers and successfully transformed into a transgender person?"

Shiina Hiyori gave an inscrutable smile without confirming or denying it, teasing him with a mystery even she did not know the answer to, as though she found it amusing. "My, my. Is that really the case?"

...It felt like this girl was gradually becoming abnormal too.

For some reason, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka felt rather heavyhearted. He suddenly remembered Hirata, who seemed to have entered the late stages already, and felt that his own resistance to Bai Yu was still slightly stronger... He really hoped someone would develop a vaccine soon. He was ready to be among the first volunteers.

While the two of them engaged in their strange back-and-forth, the man by the window had already completed his rehabilitation training for his former means of making a living.

He turned around with a peaceful smile and greeted them in a clear voice. "Yo, good morning, you two."

"It's afternoon..."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka could not quite stop himself from commenting, then inexplicably noticed that the other man's voice had become somewhat more androgynous, unlike the ordinary teenage voice he usually heard.

He could not help asking curiously, "President, your voice..."

"? Oh, right, wrong one. It should be this."

Bai Yu pinched his throat with his fingers, shook his chin, and coughed. Then he lowered his hand and said, "Good afternoon, Ayanokoji-kun."

"Good afternoon, Shiina-san, but I'm talking to the president right now..."

"...?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka swiftly turned to look at Shiina Hiyori. Just as before, she was watching the two of them with gentle eyes and brows, smiling without a word as though everything had been conveyed in silence.

Voice acting?! The term flashed through his mind at once.

"President, this..."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka unlocked an astonished expression on the spot.

"Ayanokoji, your president here has always forged ahead on roads strewn with thorns."

Bai Yu gazed deeply out at the athletic field beyond the window and said leisurely, "To face unknown challenges, one must always keep sharpening one's edge."

"Please don't say something so out of character in Shiina's voice!"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's retort lacked much of its usual listlessness. Its volume reached an all-time high, and even his dead-fish eyes became sharp and bright.

His mind raced, and he soon thought of something even more terrifying upon reflection. "President, don't tell me you used that skill to join the School Cheerleading Squad?"

Bai Yu smiled but did not answer for a long while.

"So that means..."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's pupils trembled slightly as he boldly voiced his guess. "You pretended to be a girl and infiltrated the School Cheerleading Squad?!"

"Pfft."

The words fell.

Beside them, Shiina shrank her shoulders and covered her mouth, shaking with laughter like a flower in the wind. She had clearly reached her limit.

If she did not laugh now, she would probably suffer internal injuries from holding it in.

Bai Yu clapped and laughed. "Ayanokoji-kun, as they say, truth and falsehood mingle in war, and all is fair in deception. When two rabbits run side by side, how can you tell whether I'm male or female?"

"You bastard..."

For a moment, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka did not know whether to admire him or curse.

But he felt that someone would curse on his behalf later, so he held it in for now.

Then he thought of something else and asked cautiously, "President, how do you plan to handle Shiranami-san's request? Tomorrow is the day you agreed to meet with her."

"Of course, by attacking head-on!"

"Attacking head-on and all that... By the way, can you switch out Shiina's voice first? It sounds weird."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka felt that if he kept listening, he would lose his mind.

Shiina Hiyori, however, smilingly said she had not heard enough yet.

Bai Yu readily agreed. Keeping up the act was a little hard on his throat anyway. He adjusted his voice with two sounds, reined it in, and when he spoke again, it was his usual clear, ordinary teenage voice.

"Dress as a woman and attack head-on!"

His voice was normal, but the content was even more abnormal!

With tremendous willpower, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka suppressed the urge to comment and managed to remain calm as he asked, "Specifically?"

Bai Yu leisurely returned to his seat, picked up a cup of tea Shiina had made some time ago, took a gulp to clear his throat, and began explaining in detail. "Ordinary confession methods will likely have little effect on a woman whose sexual orientation is firmly conventional. No matter how eloquently you speak, the instincts determined by her underlying code will still be difficult to shake."

"Only by stirring up the target's feelings of envy, and letting a strong atmosphere push things along, might there be the slightest chance of success."

"So you want to create an atmosphere that makes Ichinose Honami feel that being with her best friend would not be so bad? And by being together, I mean the kind of together where you think, 'Bro, you smell so good.'"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka voiced his guess.

"Correct. Even then, the odds of winning are minuscule... Ayanokoji, have you ever had those kinds of thoughts about someone of the same sex?"

What kind of god-tier question was that?

"No."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka answered decisively, but a trace of suspicion appeared in Bai Yu's eyes.

"Really, no."

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka calmly repeated himself.

"Then good!" Bai Yu suddenly became lively again. Looking back and forth between the two of them, he asked, "Which of you has time tonight?"

"I do. Is it part of the club activity?"

Shiina Hiyori answered without hesitation.

"That's right. What about you, Ayanokoji?"

Bai Yu repeated the question to the man who had drifted into thought.

"Me? Oh... I suppose I can make it too."

"Good. Meet at Keyaki Mall at eight tonight. For tomorrow's Sunday battle, we still need to make some preparations."

Bai Yu issued the order.