This Happened in the Very First Class? (Continued)

Volume One: Chapter Fifteen: A Request from Kushida Kikyo

"An ironclad rule?"

Elsie looked at Keima Katsuragi, puzzled.

Keima Katsuragi suddenly closed his eyes, his face turning utterly serious.

"Just listen closely, and you'll hear it—the literary girl's inner voice."

Keima Katsuragi suddenly opened his eyes and held up a finger to Elsie.

"Literary girls may be quiet, but they have twice as many thoughts in their heads as other people. They're the exact opposite of chatterboxes with empty heads."

Elsie blinked, not realizing that Keima Katsuragi was hinting at her.

"That inner duality is what makes literary girls so charming. Introverted! Intellectual! The age of literary girls is coming!"

Keima Katsuragi suddenly shouted excitedly. A few passersby nearby jumped and instinctively backed away several steps.

He took out his cards, too, and searched through them until he found Shiina Hiyori's.

[Name: Shiina Hiyori]

[Current Affection: 10%]

They hadn't spent much time together, but he'd made a pretty good first impression.

She was the only person so far whose affection had risen noticeably after their first meeting.

Perhaps it was because she'd mistaken Keima Katsuragi for someone who loved reading, too.

Or perhaps it was because she thought Keima Katsuragi was a kindred spirit.

Meanwhile, Elsie still looked confused as she asked,

"But how do you hear someone's inner voice?"

"That's why you're just an amateur. You can hear their inner voice anytime."

Keima Katsuragi pushed up his glasses. As he put the card away, he held his handheld console up in front of Elsie.

"Look. This is what's going on inside a literary girl's head."

On the screen was the inner monologue of a girl wearing glasses.

"But that's in a game..."

"..."

Keima Katsuragi fell silent, then turned and hurried away.

"Then she's impossible to win over."

"God of Conquest! Don't run!"

Elsie hurried after him.

Though he'd said she was impossible to win over, Keima Katsuragi had guessed what was going through Shiina Hiyori's mind just from her conversation with Elsie.

Shiina Hiyori loved reading, and she hoped Elsie could experience the joy of reading, too.

So Keima Katsuragi could tell that Shiina Hiyori had meant what she said at the end.

There weren't many people who accepted his gaming habit.

However...

It seemed like another troublesome situation was about to come along.

"God of Conquest, wait for me! Why did you suddenly start running?"

"I'm running away from trouble."

Keima Katsuragi panted, sweat already beading on his forehead.

"But..."

Elsie pursed her lips and glanced behind them.

"You haven't even run that far."

Keima Katsuragi had only run a dozen or so meters, yet he looked completely spent.

After all, he played games day and night and hardly ever exercised. His body was practically frail.

Even if a small, unsteady girl bumped into him, Keima Katsuragi would probably be the one who got hurt worse.

"And what kind of trouble are you running from?"

Elsie asked, perplexed.

"You'll find out soon enough—"

"Oh! Katsuragi! Elsie! What a coincidence!"

Just then, a cheerful voice came from behind them. Elsie turned around.

Kushida Kikyo was hurrying toward them, her face bright with a sunny smile.

"I was just about to say hello, but you two suddenly sped up as you were walking!"

Kushida Kikyo asked with a laugh.

To her, Keima Katsuragi's all-out sprint looked no different from a brisk walk.

"Big brother was... was exercising!"

For once, Elsie's brain came up with a useful excuse.

"I saw you two in the library earlier, but you seemed to be talking with students from another class, so I didn't want to interrupt!"

Kushida Kikyo's eyes seemed to sparkle, clear and bright as gemstones.

"That looked like Shiina from Class C, right?"

"Huh? Kushida, you've already gotten to know students from other classes?"

"I want to be friends with everyone! I made friends with a few students from Class C yesterday! They're all really nice! But I only heard Shiina's name from them. I haven't had the chance to properly introduce myself yet!"

Kushida Kikyo seemed even happier when she talked about making friends.

In Elsie's eyes, Kushida Kikyo looked like a cheerful, outgoing girl—

But Keima Katsuragi didn't see it that way.

After spending the past two days around her, Keima Katsuragi was becoming more and more certain that Kushida Kikyo was anything but simple.

Earlier that day, when he'd been talking with Suzune Horikita, Keima Katsuragi had been quietly observing Kushida Kikyo.

On the surface, Kushida Kikyo had seemed to be chatting with the classmates beside her. But in reality, she'd kept her eyes on him and Suzune Horikita the entire time.

No one had noticed—

Except Keima Katsuragi.

And just now, when he'd taken Elsie to the library, Kushida Kikyo had followed them.

A coincidence?

No. It wasn't a coincidence.

Kushida Kikyo had deliberately created a chance encounter.

What was her goal?

It most likely had something to do with Suzune Horikita.

Within two days, Kushida Kikyo had gotten on good terms with nearly everyone in their class—everyone except Suzune Horikita.

Suzune Horikita's solitary nature did make her hard to approach, but why was Kushida Kikyo so concerned about her?

In theory, if she really wanted to make friends with everyone as she claimed, there was no need to be so persistent with Suzune Horikita right now.

Unless the two of them had known each other before, or had some connection to a particular incident.

But—

Keima Katsuragi wasn't interested. Whatever had happened between them had nothing to do with him.

They were both targets, sure, but don't waste my gaming time right now!

"I've more or less gotten along with everyone in our class over the past two days! Ah, well, there's one person I haven't."

Kushida Kikyo deliberately sighed and shook her head.

"Who's that?"

Elsie went along with her and asked.

"Horikita. She tends to keep to herself, but I think it's important for our class to get along better as a group. Speaking of which, I've noticed that you seem to be the only one who's close to Horikita, Katsuragi. Could I ask you to help me?"

Kushida Kikyo looked at Keima Katsuragi with utmost seriousness and clasped his hand tightly.

She was sure Keima Katsuragi would help her.

"Sorry, but I have to refuse."

"Thanks so much, Katsuragi... Huh?!"

Volume One: Chapter Sixteen: I Want to Play Games. I'm Busy.

Kushida Kikyo froze.

Had she just...

Been rejected?

Was that right? Had Keima Katsuragi turned her down?

Kushida Kikyo looked at the boy in front of her, confused. Keima Katsuragi had already lowered his head, pulled his hand free, and taken out his handheld console to start playing.

This was the first time Kushida Kikyo had ever met a guy who didn't look her in the eye during a conversation.

Kushida Kikyo was very confident in her looks, figure, and manners. She also knew exactly how to use her strengths to quickly get closer to people.

Most boys blushed and got shy when they spoke to her at close range. No matter what she said, they would usually nod and agree.

That was exactly how Kushida Kikyo had managed to expand her social circle so quickly in just two days.

But Keima Katsuragi was completely different from those boys.

His eyes weren't on her at all. He was simply staring at his game console.

Being ignored like that left Kushida Kikyo utterly baffled.

When she'd first met Keima Katsuragi, he hadn't acted this way.

"Katsuragi, is this inconvenient for you?"

Kushida Kikyo pressed her lips together awkwardly and asked softly.

"Yeah, it's inconvenient. I have something more important to do."

Keima Katsuragi spoke as he played his game.

Kushida Kikyo looked at Keima Katsuragi, completely confused.

He was playing a game. He looked totally relaxed.

"May I ask... what you're doing?"

"Playing games."

"W-what?"

For a moment, Kushida Kikyo thought she'd heard him wrong.

"Playing games is the most important thing to me."

"But... I want to be friends with everyone, and we're going to live together as a group from now on. Getting along is really important... But Horikita doesn't seem very approachable... Katsuragi, you're the first friend I've made at this school, and you seem to be close to Horikita, so I thought I'd ask you to help..."

Kushida Kikyo lowered her head, her face showing a hint of worry and hurt.

If it had been any other boy, he probably would have found it nearly impossible to refuse.

But Keima Katsuragi still hadn't looked at her once.

"This is between the two of you. Besides, Horikita and I aren't that close. She just comes over when she has nothing better to do and makes a couple of sarcastic remarks. If you want to be friends with everyone, why not try talking to someone else first? It's not like you've made friends with every student in the year yet. Wouldn't it be better to save the difficult people for last? I might consider helping with other things, but I'm afraid I can't help you with this."