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

Due to Sudo's refusal to cooperate, the class atmosphere plummeted to a critical level, and the mobilization efforts planned by Hirata had to be abandoned.

As the subject teacher arrived, Class D settled into its routine mode for lessons.

After class, Ayanokoji leaned against the corridor wall, his head slightly lowered, his eyes unfocused as they fixed on a 45-degree angle downward, scanning the legs passing by.

Recalling the scene from before class, he became lost in his thoughts.

Before long, a pair of soft, well-proportioned, fair-skinned thighs entered the edge of Ayanokoji's blurred field of vision.

Ayanokoji shifted his gaze upward, reaching the chest area; in Class D, with that size and the initiative to strike up a conversation, it could only be her.

As he lifted his eyes slightly, the face of Kushida Kikyo came into view.

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

Kushida's tone was gentle, and her dark red eyes were moist, reflecting Ayanokoji's face within them.

"Sure."

Ayanokoji didn't hesitate; in truth, you're already talking to me.

"Um, I noticed you seem to have a pretty good relationship with Horikita-san, so I was wondering if you could help us bridge the gap..."

?

Bridge... bridge the gap?

"Bridge the... cough, um... was it Hirata who sent you?"

He had almost slipped up.

"Eh? No, it's just that I personally want to get along well with Horikita-san."

"Look, didn't I say before? I want to be good friends with everyone in the class, so..."

As she said this, Kushida's large eyes grew even brighter, shimmering with light as she gazed at Ayanokoji with a pleading expression.

"Can you do me this favor, Ayanokoji-kun?"

"Sorry, I can't do that."

Ayanokoji replied instantly, the girl's expression not even having had the chance to shift from anticipation to surprise.

That's right, it was surprise.

Kushida had never expected to be rejected so decisively.

If it were an ordinary boy, facing a beautiful girl and social butterfly like Kushida Kikyo, who was asking with such a sincere and slightly enchanting tone, he would surely have set aside the matter itself and agreed on the spot.

But he, Ayanokoji, was no ordinary person.

In his past life, after countless instances of being manipulated by his ex-girlfriend, he had long since developed antibodies, becoming a man who knew how to say no to gold diggers!

Ayanokoji stared at Kushida Kikyo with an indifferent expression for a good while before she finally came to her senses and let out an "Eh?"

"W-why? Isn't this just a small favor for you, Ayanokoji-kun?"

Her eyes filled with confusion and bewilderment, and Kushida leaned a little closer to Ayanokoji, the distance less than a fist's width, allowing Ayanokoji to clearly smell the fragrance on her.

Ayanokoji shifted his gaze downward, feeling that something was obstructing his downward view, which was quite dazzling.

After appreciating it for a moment, he spoke slowly: "Kushida, it's not that I don't want to help you, but the truth is that my relationship with Horikita-san is quite poor; we nearly got into an argument on the very first day of school."

Upon hearing this, a hint of disappointment finally flickered in Kushida's eyes.

"So that's how it is." She bit her lip in frustration, then forced a helpless smile while knitting her brows. "Sorry, Ayanokoji-kun, it was my own presumption; I didn't consider your situation properly~"

Ayanokoji shook his head to indicate it was fine, as he had also seen a bit of a silver lining.

With that, Kushida smiled, exchanged a few polite pleasantries about the intrusion, and returned to the classroom to continue chatting with a few other girls.

Watching Kushida return to the classroom, Ayanokoji's gaze unintentionally fell upon Horikita, and his drifting thoughts flew back to her.

The ice-cold girl's soul-piercing remarks before class had left him feeling somewhat ashamed.

Ayanokoji fell into deep thought.

If he remembered correctly, Horikita wasn't this aggressive in the original story, so why was she making things harder for him?

Leaving behind a mess of problems—was she trying to sabotage him?

And that blond guy, he remembered him being a tough character too, something like Koenji...

He didn't understand, he really didn't understand.

Could it be that his transmigration had altered the trajectory of the plot?

?

What about the corrective force of history? Don't slack off on me, damn it.

Complaining internally, the start of class arrived quietly.

Ayanokoji pulled back his thoughts, returned to his seat, and began the afternoon lessons.

In the evening, Ayanokoji planned to head to the convenience store to buy some bento.

He scoured his memories for the skills he had learned in the White Room, but it seemed that cooking was the only technique he hadn't quite mastered.

There was no helping it; to satisfy his stomach, he would just have to settle for the convenience store.

Of course, he couldn't spend too much, so buying a few affordable bento boxes would suffice, provided he chose them based on the nutritional requirements of the human body.

On the way, the evening breeze blew gently, the silhouettes of students intertwined under the setting sun, and members of various clubs were conducting their daily training on the sports field.

The scent of youth permeated the entire campus, giving Ayanokoji, who had served over a decade of life in the White Room, a feeling of being in another world.

From Ayanokoji's perspective, the youth in his memories seemed entirely white—a vast, monotonous, and pure white, much like the girl walking toward him.

Ayanokoji raised his eyes, his gaze meeting the girl approaching from the front.

Should he call it a coincidence, or was she deliberately waiting for the moment he would cast his gaze toward her? This speculation welled up in Ayanokoji's mind for no apparent reason.

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

She wore a beret on her head, her hair was silver-white, and her demeanor was graceful and refined; her petite frame was not particularly eye-catching on the school path, yet she exuded a unique aura.

Ayanokoji walked a few steps until he reached the girl. As they stood face-to-face, the girl stopped, slightly lifted the hem of her skirt with her free hand, and bowed elegantly.

?

Who?

Ayanokoji nodded in response. Although he didn't know who this silver-haired girl was, nodding was never a mistake.

The two then continued walking forward, passing each other by just like that.

"The quality of students at this school really varies wildly."

There is no harm without comparison; thinking of his classmates in Class D, Ayanokoji felt a sense of lament in his heart.

On the other side, the girl accompanying the silver-haired girl wore a look of confusion, and finally, she couldn't help but ask, "Sakayanagi, who was that just now?"

"I don't know." The silver-haired girl spoke softly, a serene smile on her face. "He must be a graduate from some prestigious middle school~"

?

The already bewildered companion was now even more confused.

Her pretty face, which was already somewhat stern, showed even more displeasure, as if to say that you geniuses just love to be cryptic and tease ordinary people.

The silver-haired girl, however, remained smiling, her mood seemingly exceptionally bright.

In front of the vending machine, Ayanokoji held a bento box in one hand while operating the interface with the other to dispense the drink he wanted.

After completing a few steps, he took the drink and was just about to return to his dormitory when he heard voices coming from a dark alley nearby.

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

The man's voice was rapid and dense, completely drowning out the responses from the other side, and it seemed that violence had already been used, as the other party was in a state of near-compromise in both posture and tone.

There is only one type of person in the world who doesn't like to watch a spectacle, and that is the protagonist who caused it.

Once his curiosity was piqued, Ayanokoji walked toward the dark alley...