The Phone Was Gone

Early the next morning, Toru Hasegawa realized as soon as he got out of bed that there was a serious problem.

His body seemed to have undergone some kind of mutation.

As he looked at the phone whose screen he had accidentally smashed while turning off the alarm, Toru fell into thought.

Was I really this strong...?

Then he carefully picked up the phone.

"Crack—"

The phone in Toru's hand seemed to have been subjected to some tremendous force. It split apart.

"Something's wrong. Very, very wrong."

Toru really couldn't keep it together now, so he had no choice but to move even more carefully.

He hadn't expected this to happen at such a crucial moment. Toru already had a suspect in mind.

No, there was no other explanation.

Airi Sakura's affection level must have maxed out. Otherwise, there was no reason for this to be happening to him.

Toru didn't even dare wash up. Barefoot, he paced around the small dorm room, occasionally making a loose fist in the air so he could manage the most basic activities.

At this point, only one thing was certain: he was unnaturally strong, and had lost control of himself for the moment.

Still, after an hour of effort, Toru finally managed to control himself a little.

After nearly breaking every spare toothbrush he had, he finally finished brushing his teeth.

Next came washing his face. Fortunately, he had some experience by now. Aside from tearing the towel a tiny bit, he got through it without any other problems.

Hooray, hooray.

But the urgent matter was dealing with his phone. Fortunately, the student handbook had a section about what to do.

After slowly putting on his shoes and controlling how much force he used to walk, Toru headed to the place on campus that handled these things.

Unfortunately, since it was Saturday, it was closed.

"Damn it, I'm definitely reporting this to the administration." With his hopes dashed, Toru felt a little annoyed.

The handbook the school had distributed hadn't specified the business hours. It wasn't until he got there that he saw the sign on the door: "Open 8:00–16:00. Closed Saturday and Sunday."

In other words, Toru would be without a phone for the next two days.

That wouldn't have been a problem if he had nothing planned. But yesterday, he had gone out of his way to arrange a meeting with several groups.

The bizarre business hours also gave Toru plenty to complain about. He would have preferred the school to open on Saturdays and Sundays and close on the other days. Otherwise, with such long business hours, students would be in class the whole time...

Wouldn't that make the staff a bunch of slackers drawing a paycheck?!

Fortunately, though, students didn't need their phones to pay for things with personal points. Their student IDs worked just fine.

Toru didn't go hungry. He enjoyed a good breakfast, then stood outside his dorm, waiting for someone he recognized to pass by.

"What are you doing here? Waiting before setting off on an adventure?"

As it turned out, he was the one who got approached.

Toru vaguely remembered her. She seemed to be in his class. What was her name again...? Hm? Why did he remember it so clearly?

"I'm waiting here because my phone broke, Morishita."

The girl had a somewhat vacant, world-weary face. Her expression shifted ever so slightly. "You actually know who I am, Toru Hasegawa."

"Your way of speaking... It's certainly unusual." People generally didn't call others by their full names, but she had. Toru was beginning to suspect Class A wasn't as wonderful as he'd imagined.

"Did you notice? Heh heh. No matter what you say, I'm not changing."

"No, I didn't mean it that way. Say whatever you like."

Toru briefly thought back over his memories of Ran Morishita. They had barely interacted. She sat in front of him, so he couldn't observe her during class, and he had only glimpsed her before and after lessons.

All in all, he had nothing to go on.

Wait, how was he doing this? He had never paid attention to her before, yet he could recall all these details...

Toru felt a slight headache coming on.

Hyperthymesia? No, if that were the case, he would have noticed long ago, not just now.

Anyway, he should deal with the problem in front of him first.

"You broke your phone just two weeks into the school year? You're pretty careless."

"Can't be helped. Life is full of accidents." Toru didn't want anyone to see the phone's real condition. He had already disposed of it. "So, you didn't come here just to ask me those questions, did you?"

"That's right. I wanted to ask what you think of yourself as a traitor." Ran Morishita didn't mince words.

A traitor. In other words, a betrayer.

Toru was a little surprised. "You've already figured it out?"

"No. I came to ask because I don't understand. Sakayanagi Arisu is interesting, but she's difficult to deal with. I don't want her to notice me."

"So it's fine if I notice you?" Toru was a little speechless, but still said, "Let's go somewhere else. This isn't a good place to talk. In exchange, I'll need to use your phone later."

"Sure. I'll go with you, suspicious as you are." Ran nodded.

The two of them went behind the dormitory.

Fate was certainly strange. Toru had already been here twice in a single week. Who knew how many more times he'd come here in the future?

"What do you want to ask? Go ahead."

"Shouldn't you, as the traitor, be the one to confess?"

Faced with this rather unreasonable remark, Toru sighed helplessly and decided to start with something a little vague.

"The school divides us into four classes. Class A is the best, and Class D is the worst. Only students who graduate from Class A can receive the rewards the school promised."

That meant a near-100% rate of advancement to higher education and employment.

"I see. So that's how it works."

That brief introduction was enough for the girl to nod as if she understood everything. Then she gave Toru an intrigued look.

She'd set her sights on him.

"Toru understood all that, and still leaked information to Class D. No wonder Sakayanagi Arisu called him a traitor. There'll be all kinds of class competitions later, so it'll be much easier if one class can pull ahead right from the start."

Ran analyzed the situation aloud right in front of Toru, without holding back. That quickly changed how he planned to deal with her.

"That's exactly right. But most people probably wouldn't see things as clearly as you do."

They would simply sense that the information was important and keep it secret, without understanding the deeper reasons behind it, including the class competitions that would come later.

"But you understood all that from the start, didn't you, Toru? I'd really like to hear why you did it."