Kushida's Request, and His First Meeting with the White-Haired Girl

Because Sudo refused to cooperate, the class atmosphere had plummeted to the danger zone, and Hirata's planned pep talk had to be called off.

With the subject teachers arriving, Class D settled into its regular lessons.

During the break, Ayanokoji leaned against the hallway wall, his head slightly bowed. His unfocused gaze fixed at a 45-degree angle toward the floor, sweeping over the calves of students passing by.

His thoughts drifted back to what had happened before class.

Before long, a pair of full but shapely thighs, fair with a pinkish hue, crept into the edge of Ayanokoji's blurry field of vision.

His gaze moved up to chest level. In Class D, at that size, and willing to come talk to him, it could only be her.

He raised his eyes slightly, and Kushida Kikyo's face came into view.

"Ayanokoji-kun, do you have a moment to talk?"

Kushida's voice was gentle. Her moist, deep-red eyes reflected Ayanokoji's face.

"Sure."

Ayanokoji answered without hesitation. To be honest, she was already talking to him.

"Um, I noticed that you and Horikita seem to get along pretty well. Could you introduce us...?"

?

I-introduce... us?

"Introduce... cough, um... did Hirata ask you to come?"

He'd almost stumbled over his words.

"Huh? No, I just want to get along with Horikita."

"See, didn't I tell you? I want to be friends with everyone in the class, so..."

As she spoke, Kushida's big eyes grew brighter, sparkling as she gazed at Ayanokoji with a pleading expression.

"Could you help me out, Ayanokoji-kun?"

"Sorry, I can't."

Ayanokoji answered in an instant, before her hopeful expression could even turn to surprise.

Yes, surprise.

Kushida hadn't expected such a decisive refusal at all.

If it had been an ordinary guy, faced with a beautiful, sociable girl like Kushida Kikyo asking in such an earnest, slightly flirtatious tone, he probably would've agreed on the spot without giving the matter itself a second thought.

But Ayanokoji wasn't an ordinary man.

After enduring countless rounds of psychological manipulation from his ex-girlfriend in his previous life, he'd developed immunity and become a man who knew how to say no to gold diggers!

Ayanokoji stared impassively at Kushida Kikyo for quite some time before she came to her senses and let out a little "Huh?"

"W-why? Isn't this something you could do with hardly any effort, Ayanokoji-kun?"

Her bewildered gaze full of confusion, Kushida leaned a little closer. She was less than a fist's distance away, close enough for Ayanokoji to clearly catch her fragrance.

Ayanokoji lowered his gaze, finding something in the way of his view. It was quite dazzling.

After admiring the view for a while, he slowly spoke. "Kushida, it's not that I don't want to help. The truth is, Horikita and I have a terrible relationship. We nearly got into an argument on the first day of school."

At that, a trace of disappointment finally surfaced in Kushida's eyes.

"I see." She bit her lip, reluctant to give up. Then she furrowed her brows and offered an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Ayanokoji-kun. I got ahead of myself and didn't think about your situation~"

Ayanokoji shook his head to show that it was fine. He'd gotten a little something out of it, too.

Kushida smiled and exchanged a couple of polite words with Ayanokoji before returning to the classroom to chat with a few girls.

As he watched Kushida return to the classroom, Ayanokoji's gaze accidentally fell on Horikita, and his wandering thoughts came back.

That icy girl's soul-piercing remarks before class had left him at a loss for words.

Ayanokoji fell into thought.

If he remembered the original story correctly, Horikita hadn't been this fierce. Why had things gotten more difficult?

She'd left behind a huge mess. Was she trying to drag him into trouble?

And that blond guy was a real tough character, too, if he recalled correctly. His surname was Takasomething...

He didn't understand. He really didn't.

Could his transmigration have changed the course of the story?

?

Where was the timeline's power to correct itself? Don't slack off on me!

As he grumbled to himself, class time arrived before he knew it.

Ayanokoji put his thoughts aside, returned to his seat, and began his afternoon classes.

That evening, Ayanokoji decided to go to the convenience store and buy a boxed meal.

He searched through the skills he'd learned in the White Room, but cooking seemed to be the one thing he wasn't very good at.

There was no helping it. If he wanted to satisfy his appetite, he'd have to rely on the convenience store.

Of course, he couldn't spend too much. A cheap boxed meal would do, as long as he chose one with the nutrients a person's body needed.

A gentle evening breeze blew along the way. Beneath the setting sun, students' shadows mingled, while club members on the sports field went through their daily practice.

The campus was alive with the spirit of youth. For Ayanokoji, who had spent more than a decade confined to the White Room, it felt like he'd entered another world.

From Ayanokoji's perspective, the youth he remembered seemed to be entirely white: a vast, pure expanse of white, just like the girl walking toward him.

Ayanokoji raised his eyes, and his gaze met the girl's.

Was it chance, or had she deliberately waited for the moment he looked her way? The thought came to Ayanokoji for no apparent reason.

The girl walked slowly, not for any particular reason, but simply because she was leaning on a cane with one hand.

She wore a beret over her silver-white hair. Her manner was elegant and refined. Her petite figure didn't stand out on the school path, yet she gave off a distinctive air.

Ayanokoji walked a few steps and soon reached the girl. When they came face-to-face, she stopped, lifted the hem of her skirt with her free hand, and bent forward in an elegant bow.

?

Who?

Ayanokoji nodded in response. He didn't know who the white-haired girl was, but he figured he couldn't go wrong with a nod.

Then they continued on their way, passing each other.

"The students at this school really are worlds apart."

There was no harm without comparison. Thinking of his classmates in Class D, Ayanokoji felt a little wistful.

Meanwhile, the girl walking alongside the white-haired girl wore a puzzled expression. At last, she couldn't help asking, "Sakayanagi, who was that just now?"

"I don't know him," the white-haired girl replied in an unhurried voice, a serene smile on her face. "He was probably a graduate of some prestigious middle school~"

?

The girl who'd already been puzzled was now even more confused.

Her pretty face, already somewhat stern, grew more displeased, as if to say, "You geniuses just love being cryptic and teasing ordinary people."

The white-haired girl, however, still wore a smile, as if she were in especially good spirits.

In front of a vending machine, Ayanokoji held a boxed meal in one hand and worked the controls with the other until the drink he wanted dropped out.

After a few steps, he had the drink in hand. Just as he was about to head back to the dorm, he heard voices from a dark alley nearby.

No—rather than a conversation, it sounded more like an interrogation.

The man's voice came fast and thick, completely drowning out the other person's replies. It seemed he'd already resorted to violence, and the other person was practically speaking in a tone of surrender.

The only person in the world who didn't enjoy watching a commotion was the one causing it.

Curiosity got the better of him, and Ayanokoji headed toward the alley...