"..."
This was clearly not normal behavior.
The first update of the day.
Classmate Sakayanagi, if I stole Kamuro from you, would you cry?
That girl was acting strangely.
"What's that girl's name?" Shirogane asked Sakayanagi.
Sakayanagi Arisu sat quietly, but she hadn't taken her eyes off her classmates, so she probably knew which girl Shirogane meant.
"It seems you haven't reached out to her privately these past two days," Sakayanagi said, sounding a little surprised. "After all, she's the girl you mentioned when you reported the incident to the Student Council."
"Two days ago, members of the Student Council came to Class A and gave her a reward for helping report the Shopping District's rule-breaking clerk," Sakayanagi said.
"Oh." Shirogane nodded. "I got that reward, too. It was an anonymous Point Card loaded with 30,000 points. You can use a Point Card like a prepaid card, or store points on it for a while."
"You don't have to go into so much detail to test me," Sakayanagi said. "Kamuro got the same reward as you—a Point Card—but she didn't accept it. She even said she'd never been to the Electronics Store."
"Principled?" Shirogane knew that some people did good deeds without expecting anything in return.
Still, if you deserved praise, Shirogane thought you ought to receive it.
"Indeed. Some of our classmates thought the Student Council had made a mistake, while others thought Kamuro was simply being principled." Sakayanagi Arisu's lips curved into a subtle smile. "I only suspected it before, but just now, she saw us and immediately turned around."
"I thought she didn't want to come near me, but I believe she wanted to avoid seeing you even more."
"That's why she turned and left at once," Sakayanagi said.
As Sakayanagi spoke, she wore a smile.
It was a sweet smile.
But Shirogane had come to know her well enough to recognize it as a sign that she'd made a discovery.
Sakayanagi had probably not only planned to make Kamuro her personal assistant, but had just figured out how she could get her classmate to do it for free.
But what had Sakayanagi just noticed that made her so confident she could bring Kamuro to heel?
Shirogane began to think.
He replayed Sakayanagi's words in his mind.
Kamuro had seen him and turned away. She didn't want to see him.
The key was him.
But before Sakayanagi gave him Kamuro's name, he hadn't even known who she was. Why would she go out of her way to avoid him? They'd only met twice, both times in the Shopping District.
Wait.
Shirogane realized he might have figured something out.
Sakayanagi had said that Kamuro had turned down the reward and recognition she could have received, and even denied being involved in the report... No, she'd denied going to the Electronics Store.
What had she done there?
She'd found a clerk secretly taking photos, then taken the SD card from the camera.
But after leaving the store, she'd dropped it. Shirogane had found it, and everything that followed had happened because of that.
"..."
Shirogane was speechless.
No wonder Sakayanagi was pleased. She'd found leverage over Kamuro and could use it to get her to work for free.
Because...
Kamuro Masumi of First-Year Class A had rejected the school's reward and denied taking the SD card for a very straightforward reason.
She hadn't discovered the clerk breaking the rules and taken the evidence to preserve it. She'd actually been trying to steal the SD card.
In other words, she'd been stealing something at the Electronics Store.
That was why she didn't want anyone to find out.
Accepting the school's reward would have confirmed that she'd stolen it.
So she'd refused.
Shirogane already understood the rules of this school well enough to know that getting caught stealing would cost you a lot of points.
Kamuro was a First-Year Class A student, so the school had probably failed to discover this flaw in her character.
On the other hand, if the school did find out, Kamuro Masumi's evaluation would plummet. It might even affect Class A and cost them points.
"..."
No wonder the Narrator System had said Kamuro was easy to win over. With the evidence of her theft in hand, Sakayanagi could control her.
If Kamuro didn't want to be expelled, she'd have no choice but to obey.
And Sakayanagi had clearly found that leverage.
She wanted Kamuro to behave.
"Classmate Sakayanagi," Shirogane said. "If—just hypothetically—I wanted to steal Kamuro from you, what would you do?"
"I suppose I'd cry," Sakayanagi Arisu replied without hesitation.
"..."
Uh.
Was she going to cry in front of him?
She was supposed to be a major boss, and yet she was resorting to a move like that?
Did she even realize she was cheating?
Shirogane suddenly felt like this was going to be difficult.
So, feeling like this was going to be difficult, Shirogane left.
As soon as he'd gone, two Class A students walked toward the shade of the tree where Sakayanagi was sitting.
They were both boys. One was tall and broad-shouldered, while the other was thin.
The tall boy was bald and named Katsuragi. The thin boy, Totsuka Yahiko, followed him around because he admired him.
When the other students noticed what was happening, some of the Class A students who'd already dispersed gathered again and headed toward Sakayanagi.
Katsuragi had clearly noticed them.
"I mean no harm," Katsuragi said quickly. "I was just curious about the student you were talking to. He's from First-Year Class C, right?"
Today's update is here.
You know what I'm going to say: please give me data, give me data, give me data! Add it to your bookshelf, add it to your bookshelf!
Here's a book by a great author.
Synopsis:
As everyone knows, Gensokyo is a peaceful place with honest folk and plenty of talent—the most healing, tranquil place in the world.
After Lin Yan was sent there, he spent his days running a shop with the help of a system, living a comfortable, retired life.
Then one day, the thing suddenly announced, "Paradise Project initiated," and provided him with a bunch of strange abilities. He immediately realized how serious the situation was.
"I swear on Gensokyo's sense of decency that I absolutely haven't abused my abilities to do anything."
"As for why the black-and-white thief keeps crawling out of my shop, why the maid captain changes her stockings so often, why strange noises come from a certain library late at night, why a famous reporter was imprisoned and left to rot, and why terrifying applause has started echoing through the bamboo forest..."
"None of that has anything to do with me. At the very least, no eyewitness has seen me do any of it!"
"No one follows the rules better than I do. Don't believe those strange rumors."
Reimu Hakurei: That's the culprit's full confession. He just admitted to all of it himself, so we can carry out the sentence now.
[An easygoing, silly slice-of-life novel. No heartache, no angst—enjoy without worry.]
Kamuro Masumi: Why are all the people I can't stand gathering in one place?!
This year's First-Year Class A was different. In previous years, First-Year Class A had only ever followed one leader. To protect their ranking, the students quickly found that leader and obeyed him.
But this year's Class A was different.
It had split into two factions.
One was the Sakayanagi Faction. Since the start of the school year, Classmate Sakayanagi had shown astonishing insight and initiative.
She'd also brought the class information about the true nature of the school and the Behavioral Standards Exam they'd have to take during their first month.
No other class—or even any other year—had managed to do that.
It was astounding. Many students had chosen to follow Sakayanagi Arisu, whose insight and vision they admired.
The other faction was also connected to Sakayanagi. They knew the school's secrets, and reasoned that since their class had gotten the information early, they should use the first month to widen the gap between themselves and the other classes.
And once they'd taken the lead, they would need to hold on to it.
In other words, they wanted to preserve their current advantage, so they thought it would be better to put someone with a talent for maintaining the status quo in charge: Katsuragi.
And so the class had split into two factions, with Katsuragi leading the Katsuragi Faction.
"I mean no harm," Katsuragi said. "I was just curious about the student you were talking to. He's from First-Year Class C, right?"
Katsuragi looked in the direction Shirogane had left, but Shirogane was nowhere to be seen now. He'd clearly noticed him earlier. He just hadn't approached until Shirogane and Sakayanagi had finished talking.
"He is from Class C. I suspect he'll become a major enemy of our class in a month," Sakayanagi replied calmly.
"A major enemy?" Katsuragi pondered the idea.
After confirming that the information Sakayanagi had obtained was accurate, he'd also begun assigning students to gather information about the other classes.
The information they'd gathered suggested that, as in previous years, the abilities of Classes A and B were close, though Class A had the edge. So they had to be wary of Class B.
But Class B clearly hadn't yet discovered the truth about the school, so the class as a whole was still rather disorganized.
Based on the information they'd collected, students in Classes A, B, C, and D were likely ranked according to an overall evaluation standard. The top-ranked students were placed in Classes A and B, while Classes C and D were filled with rejects who couldn't even get into A or B. Class D, in particular, was made up of students who'd been filtered out.
So, did they really need to be wary of those classes?
Of course, though Katsuragi was proud to be in Class A, he was also cautious by nature, so he'd assigned students to investigate Classes C and D as well.
Then, in the past few days, they'd heard that students from Class C had been fighting.
So even if Sakayanagi seemed to think highly of the Class C student they'd just seen, she might have misjudged him.
After all, the first month's test was the Behavioral Standards Exam, and Class C's fighting had already cost the class who knew how many points.
If they were really capable, they should have put a stop to it.
So they probably weren't much of a threat.
Thinking this, Katsuragi shook his head. "Classmate Sakayanagi, I think we still need to talk."
"Oh? You mean you want us to join your faction?" Sakayanagi Arisu smiled, though it was now a humorless smile.
"Your way of thinking is rather extreme. I think our class already has the advantage, so we should take a cautious approach," Katsuragi said. "So if you're planning to do anything reckless—"
"That has nothing to do with you, Katsuragi!"
By then, students from the Sakayanagi Faction had arrived. The one who spoke was a tall, handsome boy with blond hair.
He'd been one of the first students to support Sakayanagi. He was practically her biggest fan.
His name was Hashimoto Masayoshi—a name with quite a ring to it.
"Hashimoto..."
Katsuragi shook his head, then turned to leave.
Without results, he couldn't convince the others. And he was grateful to Sakayanagi for giving them the chance to avoid losing a great many points during their first month.
Before you continue