Shinjo and Rishinjo

"Please, help yourself."

To highlight his hospitality, Shinjo had actually brought out the tap water and butter cookies he usually couldn't bear to consume himself.

"Whoa... you are way too stingy, you know that?!"

Akane Tachibana stared at the disposable paper cup in front of her, her brows furrowed tight.

"You can't even be bothered to fill the cup with tap water for me?!"

"Well, our positions are different. I'd love to host you properly, but what if someone with ulterior motives sees it and accuses me of bribing a high-ranking member of the Student Council?"

Shinjo sighed with an innocent expression.

"Bribe my foot!! You promised to treat us to tea, so where is it?"

"About that... I didn't expect to run out of disposable tea bags. So, when will the new month's budget be approved?"

Akane Tachibana felt breathless; if not for the fact that Manabu Horikita hadn't shown a shred of dissatisfaction from start to finish, she would have turned around and left long ago.

"You still have the nerve to ask us for a budget?!"

"Tachibana."

"President, this guy is just too much!"

Did Manabu Horikita not know that?

But having long since witnessed how thick-skinned the guy in front of him was, he knew that taking him seriously would only make his own blood pressure skyrocket. Therefore, the best way to deal with him was to simply ignore his bait.

"Your Odd Jobs Agency has been operating for a month now, and you have completed the commissions I gave you on time, so the budget will naturally be approved when it's time."

"The President is wise!"

"Regarding your Odd Jobs Agency, because of the commotion last time, the school has been keeping a close eye on it. You should understand what I mean, right?"

Shinjo shrugged. This was actually within his expectations; after all, when he worked at the Odd Jobs Agency outside, he was often called in for "tea and chats" as well.

"So, will I be summoned by someone in the near future?"

"That remains to be seen. But even if there is a summons, it should be later on. After all, your Odd Jobs Agency has just started operating and hasn't achieved anything significant yet..."

He didn't need to finish the sentence; Manabu Horikita believed Shinjo understood.

Consequently, having no intention of staying, he signaled for Akane Tachibana to leave.

As if determined to vent her frustration, Akane Tachibana drank four cups of tap water and swiped an entire box of butter cookies before leaving, making a face at Shinjo as she walked out:

"Stingy underclassman! You deserve to never make a dime in your life!"

Almost back-to-back, not long after Manabu Horikita left, Suzune Horikita arrived at the Odd Jobs Agency with Ayanokoji to knock on the door.

"You two, please sit. I'm terribly sorry, I only have tap water left; the butter cookies were all eaten by that stingy senior, Akane Tachibana."

Suzune Horikita said nothing, sitting directly in the chair Manabu Horikita had just occupied, and Ayanokoji followed suit, sitting beside her.

The three of them stared at each other blankly. Because he couldn't get a read on his visitors, Shinjo didn't know what to say for a moment.

About five minutes passed.

"Um..."

They spoke almost simultaneously. Hearing the other person had something to say, Shinjo and Horikita both swallowed their words.

"You..."

"Forget it, you are the guests, you go first. By the way, if you're going to say something like 'I never expected you to be the one running the Odd Jobs Agency,' let's skip it. I never intended to keep it a secret, but at this point, saying that doesn't seem very productive."

Suzune Horikita clearly wasn't one for pretense, taking the lead:

"May I ask, is your Odd Jobs Agency really as miraculous as the flyers say? That you'll do anything as long as you're paid?"

While in layman's terms, that description wasn't entirely wrong.

But saying he would do anything for money cast a net that was a bit too wide, wasn't it?

"Um, let me correct that. Our Odd Jobs Agency has four basic principles. Other than those, I suppose we do anything for money."

To avoid explaining it to every single client, Shinjo had recently printed the four principles on a large sheet of white paper and stuck it firmly to the blackboard behind him.

Ayanokoji followed his finger and looked over, but the words written there made the corner of his mouth twitch.

It seems the Odd Jobs Agency is quite a free place. If you don't want to do something... you can just refuse?

"Then, Brother... what did the Student Council President mean when he asked you aside earlier? Could it be that your Odd Jobs Agency has already found some clues that can help Sudo?!"

Are you still going to pretend you have nothing to do with that senior Horikita?

Forget it, it's none of his business anyway. Besides, it takes two to tango; this level of sibling conflict only has one possible cause: both of them are incredibly stubborn.

"I'm sorry, no. The only information I have right now is what I got from Kushida—that our classmate, Sakura, might be a witness. Other than that, there really is nothing."

"I... I see... That makes sense. If you had clues, you wouldn't need us to come and ask you specifically, especially since that guy considers you his partner."

Shinjo fell silent for a moment after hearing this. He felt it was necessary to clarify things with her; otherwise, dragging it out would only make it harder to explain later. Principles were principles.

"Horikita, for the sake of us being classmates, I would like to correct a mistake of yours."

"A mistake?"

Ayanokoji thought back to what Chabashira had said earlier, that Shinjo was Shinjo, and the Odd Jobs Agency was the Odd Jobs Agency.

"Ah, it is common knowledge that Sudo and I are friends. In fact, I don't mind having a friend who is simple-minded and physically gifted, but that is as far as it goes."

"You... what do you mean by that?"

"It's very simple. In my view, the thing humans should do most is take responsibility for themselves. It is one thing if others proactively want to take responsibility for you, but as far as I am concerned, Sudo has not earned that qualification. In other words, I will help him find a witness, but the extent of my effort will be about the same as it would be for Ike or Yamauchi. Do not expect me to hold up a collapsing building for you."

Horikita finally understood, and she quickly asked with a serious expression:

"You... do you mean that even if Sudo is suspended and the class loses points, you truly do not care about any of that at all?!"

"It's not quite that extreme, but my friendship with Sudo is very shallow; at the very least, his importance to me is quite low. Therefore, helping him is equivalent to doing work for the class, and if that is the case, I will only exert the same amount of effort as more than half of the average students. I will absolutely not do anything beyond that."

Ayanokoji thought to himself: As I expected.