Leisurely Days in May

A moment later, a notification arrived confirming the transfer of 50,000 points.

[Horikita Suzune: I'll find a way to pay you back the rest of the points. I need to check this information with our homeroom teacher. See you.]

[Mikage Touji: See you.]

Mikage Touji stretched and loosened up his muscles. Just as he was about to move on to the next step, the screen lit up again.

[Horikita Suzune: Um...]

[Horikita Suzune: Thank you.]

[Mikage Touji: Don't mention it. We know each other so well, and friends should help each other out.]

A smile tugged at the corner of Mikage Touji's mouth.

No need to thank me... Really...

Actually, you don't have to pay me back...

Horikita-san... Have you ever wondered why, when there are so many people in Class D I could sell information to, I chose you—the cold, hard-to-communicate-with one?

Because you were never my target in the first place!

Hahaha!

Mikage Touji finally let his triumphant grin show. With practiced ease, he switched the chat to Horikita Manabu, sent him a screenshot of the conversation, and started pointing fingers at him.

[Mikage Touji: Just how did you raise your little sister to turn out like this?]

A moment later, Horikita Manabu replied.

[Horikita Manabu: I'll help her pay it back.]

The few words carried a deep weariness, as if Horikita Manabu had finally given up on his airheaded little sister.

[Horikita Manabu: This is indeed my responsibility.]

Mikage Touji tried to stir up Horikita Manabu's guilt.

[Mikage Touji: How can you and your sister have such different personalities? Who did she learn this from?]

[Horikita Manabu: It's my fault. She's always been trying to keep up with me, but before I knew it, she'd strayed from her original path.]

Mikage Touji started laying on the pressure.

[Mikage Touji: So you never tried to put her back on the right track? You just let her race down the wrong road while you came to Advanced Nurturing to enjoy yourself?]

[Horikita Manabu: That's right... I thought that if she stayed away from me, she might change back on her own. I never expected her to keep going further and further down the wrong road. It really is my fault.]

[Ding! 500,000 points received!]

[Horikita Manabu: Don't tell her about this.]

[Mikage Touji: No problem. You're a regular customer, after all. Whatever you say goes! Greedy rubbing hands.jpg]

The plan had worked!

Mikage Touji set his phone down, perfectly satisfied.

Sure enough, compared to that Horikita-imouto, whose Class Points were zero and who wouldn't fetch much even if he sold her, the Student Council President Horikita-nii was a far richer source of income.

Keep it up, Horikita-imouto. Do your best and squeeze every last drop out of that old geezer, your brother.

Of course, the most important thing was...

"Ahaha, Morishita, Yamamura, we've got our food budget for the whole year!"

May's Leisurely Days

The lazy May sun spilled over the campus. The sky was a clear, pale blue, with a few clouds wandering aimlessly across it. As the sun shifted, the shadows of the trees stretched little by little across the ground.

Before anyone knew it, they had entered the third week of May.

While the various study groups in Class A were steadily following their review plans, each first-year class had formed its own study groups and was making its final push for the Midterm Exam.

"So, why are you still here?"

In a corner by the window on the second floor of the library, Kamuro Masumi paused her writing and gave Mikage Touji a searching look. He'd already graduated from remedial lessons ages ago, yet he was still sitting in the library, apparently determined to study her into the ground.

He'd graduated at lightning speed during the very first week of remedial lessons. Starting with a foundation in Japanese Literature that had been far weaker than hers, he'd sped past her like a dump truck, leaving her choking in his exhaust.

Then, shamelessly, he'd circled back and sped past her again, dealing her a second psychological blow.

His absurd rate of improvement had made Kamuro Masumi, who had once dreamed of surpassing Mikage Touji, question her entire existence.

"Aw, buddy, don't be such a stranger. I'm here to keep you company, aren't I? Katsuragi said that anyone who wants to improve their grades can come for remedial lessons, whether they pass or not."

Mikage Touji stuck his pen behind his ear and stared at the problems on his test paper.

He couldn't help it. Since he didn't want to go shopping with his senpai, his only option was to keep grinding away at his grades.

His senpai wasn't as gentle as Mother Shiraishi. She adjusted his goals whenever she came across a mistake, and made them harder each time. If he failed, he'd have to face her punishment over the weekend.

"That's a good thing. Better grades can't hurt, and there'll definitely be Special Exams related to academic ability in the future."

Shiraishi Asuka gathered Mikage Touji's already-marked workbooks and put them into her bag.

"Are we finished?"

Shiraishi Asuka looked up at the book on the table, its pages half-turned and swaying in the air. "After this exam, our study group will disband. I'm a little sad about it." The sunlight fell on her long eyelashes, casting faint shadows.

"About that, I don't plan on disbanding it. Shiraishi-san is right; there'll definitely be exams related to academic ability in the future, so we might as well keep it around. What do you think?"

Shiraishi Asuka clasped her hands together, her eyes glistening as she said happily, "Of course I'm in favor."

"What about you, buddy?" Mikage Touji turned to Kamuro Masumi, who was bent over her workbook.

"Does my opinion even matter?" Kamuro Masumi looked up and glared at him with utter disdain.

Mikage Touji blinked. "How could it not? I'm making sure you feel included, to show that I'm a democratic person."

"You, you..."

Seething with anger, Kamuro Masumi swung a nimble leg, clad in a black knee sock, out from beneath the table and kicked at Mikage Touji.

"Dodged!" Mikage Touji twisted his thigh aside and nimbly avoided the kick. He grinned smugly. "Not good enough, buddy. You use that move every time. I've developed a conditioned reflex."

Her kick missed, and Mikage Touji taunted her. Kamuro Masumi's temper flared, and a faint blush spread across her fair cheeks.

"Let's see you dodge this!"

"If I don't dodge, that's as good as admitting defeat, isn't it?"

"You've ordered me around so much! It's not like one kick would hurt!"

"No way, buddy. That'd be regicide, a treasonous act. In ancient times, you'd have been beheaded. And now you're acting so brazenly—it's downright outrageous. Put that leg away at once!"

"You actually think you're an emperor?!"

A pair of incredibly pale legs blurred beneath the table as she launched a flurry of kicks at Mikage Touji.

"Dodge again! And again! One more—ow!"

Emperor Mikage Touji was struck down by the assassin Kamuro Masumi.

After successfully punishing Mikage Touji, Kamuro Masumi felt a wonderful sense of relief from head to toe. She even felt a little more energetic as she worked on her problems.

As always, Shiraishi Asuka sat quietly nearby, resting her chin on one hand as she watched the two of them tussle, enjoying the peaceful yet entertaining time that belonged to the three of them.

After lying facedown on the table and pretending to be dead for a while, Mikage Touji suddenly raised his head.

"By the way, buddy, how's your assignment going?"

"You actually care about that? I thought you'd completely forgotten about it."

Kamuro Masumi looked displeased. To put it nicely, Mikage Touji had given her as much freedom as possible these past few days. Put less kindly, he'd simply left her to fend for herself.

Last time she'd tried to give him an update, he'd immediately sent her a link. When she opened it, she found a mahjong game that was one player short.

So he'd only brought her in to make up the numbers!

And that wasn't even the most shameless part. He'd actually had the nerve to send her private messages, asking her to play certain tiles to help him out.

"Of course I care about your mental and physical well-being. And haven't I sent you videos every day so you could learn from them?"

"Heh. It'd be nice if you weren't sending me comedy clips," Kamuro Masumi said flatly.

Mikage Touji blinked and asked in disbelief, "Are they not funny?"

"Is that the point?" Kamuro Masumi gritted her teeth.

"Watching them is good for your mental health. Once you've trained your mind enough, you won't care about that sort of thing anymore." Mikage Touji spoke with righteous conviction. "Those are videos I've been saving for ages, and I only send them to you. But if you don't like them, never mind. I'll find you something else."

Kamuro Masumi's eyes flickered. She turned her gaze toward the window, looking a little uneasy. "Do what you want. I just watch them as my daily comedy feed anyway."

"Then I'll keep sending them?"

"I said do what you want!" Kamuro Masumi kicked Mikage Touji again, shooting him an irritated glance. Her cheeks seemed to have turned a little redder.

"..."

What exactly did you girls mean when you said "do what you want"?

"So, what about information on Class D? Anything useful?" Mikage Touji finally remembered the important matter.

"Class D's current... well... I guess you could call him their leader. He's a boy named Hirata Yousuke. He's organized some of the basic activities for Class D, but there are also students who completely ignore him."

"Hirata Yousuke..."

Mikage Touji rubbed his chin and muttered, "Why does that name sound so familiar? Wasn't he second on that absurd hot-guy ranking, ahead of me?"

"The brown-haired boy over there."

Shiraishi Asuka tugged at the sleeve on Mikage Touji's arm, turning his gaze toward the first floor of the library. A few first-year students from Class D were sitting together and studying.

They were the same boys who'd gotten into a conflict with Horikita Suzune before. But Horikita-imouto and Cha Cha weren't there this time. Instead, a sunny-looking, handsome guy whom Mikage Touji had never seen before was with them.

At that moment, Hirata Yousuke wore a gentle smile as he kept talking to the Class D students around him. It looked as if he was trying to persuade them to study seriously.

It seemed that even after learning the correct exam range, Class D was still at risk of expulsion.

His efforts didn't seem to be working at all. The boys' eyes wandered, and they were completely distracted. They looked as if they were working on problems, but hadn't actually done anything—like students who were always stuck on the first word, "abandon," when studying vocabulary.

It felt like having Horikita-imouto teach them would be more effective.

"Being a leader in Class D really is tough," Kamuro Masumi said, looking at the stalemate below with a trace of sympathy.

"I couldn't agree more," Mikage Touji said with a nod.

After watching for a little while longer, Mikage Touji concluded that there was no saving those few people in Class D and sat back down.

Then Kamuro Masumi named a few other capable students in Class D, including Kushida Kikyou, Horikita Suzune, and Kouenji Rokusuke. She even told him about some of their personalities and preferences.

Every detail matched the information he'd obtained from his other sources.

"Not bad, buddy." Mikage Touji looked at Kamuro Masumi in surprise. "I'm impressed. How did you get all this?"

Kamuro Masumi proudly lifted her chest. "A petite, silver-haired girl in Class D told me."

"..."

"Don't tell me that silver-haired girl was Sakayanagi Arisu?" Mikage Touji's mouth twitched.

"You know her too? She seems like a good person. I met her in the corridor and helped her carry her bag. Then she added me as a friend and told me about them."

Mikage Touji fell silent.

If there was any first-year student who could cause Mikage Touji trouble, Sakayanagi Arisu was definitely one of them.

Not for any particular reason. It was just that she looked so frail. He'd been startled by her once before in the open-air area of a convenience store.

Since she seemed liable to collapse at the slightest touch, Mikage Touji thought it best to keep his distance.

After thinking it over for a long time, Mikage Touji spoke. "Buddy, how about I give you a different assignment? I think Class B would be a good choice. You could give them a try. I'm actually pretty close with their leader. We could set up a mixer."

"Was there a problem with how I did the assignment?"

"Not really."

"Then I refuse. I think this assignment suits me."

"Fine." Mikage Touji sighed helplessly.

If she hadn't told you on purpose, I'd let you use my head as a bowl!

Sakayanagi Arisu, what was she trying to do? Had she been driven mad with anger and turned evil, planning to send the sinful Class D straight to hell? Or did she want to put Class D through its paces, like Chabashira Sae? Or was she just someone who enjoyed watching the chaos?

Thinking back over his previous conversations and interactions with Sakayanagi Arisu, it seemed far more likely that she'd turned evil or was just looking for amusement.