"B-buy another one?"
"Exactly. If we only have one, clearing the games will take too long."
His words left Airi Sakura even more confused. She turned to look at Keima Katsuragi without thinking, but the moment she saw his profile, she hurriedly turned away again. Her breathing seemed to have grown a little uneven, too.
Volume One, Chapter Eighteen: Want to Go Together? Sakura
Airi Sakura pressed her lips together. Her heart seemed to be beating faster.
If I went with Keima...
Sakura cautiously watched the boy beside her from the corner of her eye.
He was still focused on his handheld console, its cold light falling across his face.
Sakura felt that talking to him didn't put nearly as much pressure on her as talking to other people did.
Maybe... it's because his attention isn't on me?
Either way, if someone went with her, maybe she'd have the courage to buy a camera.
"Mm..."
Her voice was as light as a feather landing on the ground, and it vanished into the air as soon as she spoke.
She panicked, afraid he hadn't heard her, afraid her rare burst of courage would go to waste. In a fluster, she added a slightly more pronounced nod.
To anyone watching, though, it was still just a two-centimeter dip of her chin, and her fine pink hair swayed gently with it.
After receiving Airi Sakura's response, Keima Katsuragi gave an almost imperceptible nod, seeming ready to turn his attention back to the game.
After all, he'd promised Elsie yesterday, and today he'd already made a move.
There was theoretically still plenty of time, but he really did need to make some progress on the "main quest."
Otherwise, Elsie might come up with some other kind of trouble.
At the moment, Airi Sakura was probably the easiest person to win over.
Unlike Suzune Horikita's aloofness or Kushida Kikyo's pretense, Airi Sakura was simply afraid of socializing.
To get closer to her, he only needed to ease her sense of distance from him.
If they interacted often enough, he could break through that barrier.
As for the other targets—
His peripheral vision precisely caught the gaze coming from the other side. For the past few minutes, it had been locked on his face like a searchlight.
Suzune Horikita.
She sat even straighter than before, her textbook open on her desk and a pen in her hand. At first glance, she looked like a model student, diligently studying ahead.
But every so often, her gaze slipped over the edge of her book and toward Keima Katsuragi.
Ever since yesterday's test results had been announced, Suzune Horikita had found herself strangely preoccupied with her odd deskmate.
She'd assumed Keima Katsuragi was just a game-obsessed shut-in whose grades would be a disaster, only to have reality prove her spectacularly wrong.
What on earth is with this guy?
The question had circled through her mind all night. She'd even lost sleep for once, tossing and turning as she replayed the day's events.
Keima Katsuragi casually reciting Teacher Chabashira's lecture while playing a game in the cafeteria; the matter-of-fact look on his face when he handed in his test early; and the infuriating expression he'd worn when he said the word "tsundere"...
And especially the way Elsie had looked at her afterward!
How could a strange word like that possibly have anything to do with her?
Just then, Keima Katsuragi suddenly turned his head without warning.
Their eyes met in midair.
Suzune Horikita froze for a moment, her fingers tightening slightly around her pen.
She hadn't expected him to look over so suddenly. Even less had she expected that she'd really been staring at him for so long—that was completely unlike her.
"You..."
"You've been staring at me for ages."
Keima Katsuragi pushed up his glasses. There was no particular emotion in his eyes behind the lenses.
"If you want to play, just buy a game console. But a friendly tip: beginners should start with Tokimeki Memorial. It's user-friendly and moderately challenging."
"I have no interest in playing something that boring!"
The corners of Suzune Horikita's mouth twitched despite herself.
She grabbed her textbook and flipped to the next page with a rustle.
She forced herself to focus on the dense lines of text...
Don't get involved with this guy!
She repeated it to herself three times.
But the harder she tried to think that way, the less she could concentrate.
The corner of her eye seemed to have a will of its own, constantly drifting toward the person beside her.
Then she saw something even stranger—
Keima Katsuragi had actually put down his handheld console.
The gaming device that seemed to have been attached to his hand since the first day of school now rested gently at the corner of his desk.
In its place was his Student Terminal. He held it in both hands, his fingers flying across the virtual keyboard at a dazzling speed.
She could see long passages of text scrolling across the screen, occasionally interspersed with diagrams that looked like flowcharts.
Had this guy really stopped playing games?
Suzune Horikita felt an absurd sense of curiosity.
Could he have started studying seriously?
No, that couldn't be right.
She immediately quashed the thought.
Whatever he does has nothing to do with me.
Study ahead.
Focus on studying ahead.
But the sound of Keima tapping on the screen seemed to have a magic of its own, worming its way into her ears.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. The rhythm was steady and rapid, like raindrops striking a window. It wasn't loud, but it sounded especially jarring to Suzune Horikita.
One minute. Two minutes.
Suzune Horikita realized she hadn't taken in a single word.
"What on earth are you doing?"
The words slipped out before she knew it, and even she was taken aback.
But she quickly found herself an excuse: his behavior was disrupting her studies. That was right. That was all there was to it!
So she reached out, grabbed Keima Katsuragi by the arm, and gave it a slight twist—
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!"
Keima Katsuragi's body instantly curled up like a cooked shrimp, his face scrunching into a ball.
But his other hand still clutched the terminal tightly, as if his life depended on it.
Suzune Horikita jumped. She really hadn't used much force. She'd only applied a little pressure to make him stop and explain himself.
Was this guy really that physically weak?
When she grabbed him, he'd felt soft, as if he had no muscles at all.
Did this guy never exercise?
A flicker of guilt, so slight it was almost negligible, passed through her mind. She immediately suppressed it.
She let go, turned her face away, and stared out the window for two seconds. Then she turned back, her expression returning to its usual coolness.
"That's what I should be asking you. What are you so busy with this early in the morning? It's rare to see you put down your handheld."
As she spoke, Suzune Horikita leaned slightly toward him and looked over his shoulder at the terminal screen.
Then she froze.
The screen didn't show the study notes she'd expected, or any complicated formulas or charts. Instead, it showed—
Goodbye Youth Love Story: Complete Walkthrough and All Endings
Beneath the title was a line of smaller text:
Author: God
Below that was a dense branching chart: affection triggers, the effects of key choices, how to unlock hidden events... Every detail was explained thoroughly, even including advice on how to approach characters with different personalities.
Suzune Horikita wondered if she was seeing things.
Volume One, Chapter Nineteen: Don't Forget, I'm a God
"This is a walkthrough I'm serializing on the school forum."
Keima Katsuragi spoke calmly, as if he were introducing an academic paper.
"Huh?"
"A walkthrough. Don't you know what that means? It refers to..."
"I know, I know. I just don't understand why you're writing something like this."
Suzune Horikita stared at Keima Katsuragi in astonishment.
"You know our school has a dedicated forum, right?"
As he spoke, he scrolled through the screen to show her the forum interface.
"But strangely, there isn't a gaming section."
"It'd be stranger if there was one!"
Keima Katsuragi completely ignored her complaint. He pushed up his glasses and continued in the same matter-of-fact tone:
"Because I noticed the lack of a gaming section, I posted walkthroughs for games I'd already cleared. I even got a tip yesterday."
"A tip?"
"Not much, just a thousand points, but it proves a few things."
Keima Katsuragi tapped the screen with his fingertip, bringing up a transaction record.
"For example, points can be freely traded between different people. The forum has a built-in point transfer function. It's interesting—the school clearly allows, perhaps even encourages, this kind of resource exchange between individuals."
Suzune Horikita furrowed her brows.
She hadn't carefully looked through every feature of the Student Terminal, and she'd only glanced at the forum.
But if Keima Katsuragi was telling the truth...
"Still, the school forum has a limited number of users, and even fewer people play games."
Keima Katsuragi continued, quickly tapping the screen a few more times to switch to an external website.
"So I also posted my walkthroughs on social media. Look, this is the Summer Love Song walkthrough I posted yesterday. It already has over three hundred replies."
"Wait."
Suzune Horikita's voice turned serious.
"You posted it on social media? You know there's a rule at this school against communicating with the outside world, don't you? The student handbook clearly states: students are forbidden from contacting anyone outside the school in any way, including but not limited to calls, letters, and receiving packages from outside—"
"You didn't know?"
Keima Katsuragi interrupted her, a hint of almost pitying light flashing behind his glasses.
"The rule prohibits 'communication,' meaning a two-way exchange of information. I'm only sharing information one-way and haven't replied to any comments. That doesn't constitute 'communication.'"
He paused, lightly tapping the power button on the side of his terminal.
Before you continue