Classroom of the Elite, Keima Katsuragi's Love Brain Battle

It seems... Keima Katsuragi hasn't discovered my true identity after all.

Yesterday, it really must have been because of Shizuku's charm that Keima Katsuragi paid attention to her.

Thinking of this, Airi Sakura let out a long sigh of relief, yet there seemed to be a faint trace of disappointment in her heart.

It wasn't directed at Keima Katsuragi, but at herself.

"Thank you for last night, Sakura-san."

Just then, Keima Katsuragi suddenly spoke to Airi Sakura, his gaze still fixed on his game.

"Eh? Keima-kun, what are you thanking me for?"

"You followed my account yesterday, Sakura-san, so I followed you back."

"Eh? Eh!"

Airi Sakura's eyes widened, her azure pupils reflecting her astonishment.

"That blogger named Shizuku is you, right, Sakura-san? Although I'm not very familiar with that field, you're really amazing, Sakura-san. You have so many followers."

Keima Katsuragi put down his handheld console and shifted his gaze to Airi Sakura's face.

Volume One: Chapter Thirty-Two: Airi Sakura's Great Dilemma

"Eh? Eh!"

Airi Sakura looked at Keima Katsuragi in disbelief, even turning her head to face him directly.

In that instant, their eyes met, and Airi Sakura hurriedly looked away in embarrassment, her cheeks turning completely red.

Keima-kun, he found out it was me?!

That shouldn't be possible!

I've clearly been trying my best to hide myself in daily life...

And the photos online are clearly vastly different from how I look in reality.

Yet Keima-kun still recognized me?

Should I... deny it?

Airi Sakura quickly dismissed this thought from her mind.

If it were anyone else, Airi Sakura would have absolutely denied it flatly.

But when it came to Keima Katsuragi, Airi Sakura decided to be honest.

"Um... but Keima-kun... may I ask how you were able to recognize me..."

Airi Sakura asked in a small voice.

"It's obvious. This person looks exactly like you, Airi."

Keima Katsuragi said.

"Ah?"

Airi Sakura was stunned for a moment.

He saw it just like that?

No, that's impossible...

But if that wasn't the reason, there's no way Keima Katsuragi could have recognized me.

"Are they... really the same?"

"Yes. You're naturally very pretty, Sakura-san, and you have a unique hair color and bright eyes, so I recognized you at a glance. Besides, you usually wear those flat-rimmed glasses too, right?"

"Um..."

Hearing Keima Katsuragi's words, Airi Sakura's face turned as red as a ripe apple.

This was the first time she had been complimented for being pretty as Airi Sakura, rather than as Shizuku.

So Keima-kun has been paying attention to me too...

And I don't dislike the way Keima-kun looks at me...

It's completely different from the way others look at me...

Airi Sakura felt her body go somewhat limp, as if she were about to slide off her chair.

[Affection: 45%]

[Affection: 48%]

[Affection: 55%]

"Did I cause you any trouble, Sakura-san?"

"No, no, no, no, not at all!"

Airi Sakura raised her voice by a fraction of a decibel while frantically waving her hands.

"You probably don't want others to know your true identity, right? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone."

"Thank you very much..."

Airi Sakura gave a slight nod, and Keima Katsuragi shifted his gaze back to his screen once more.

Airi Sakura pursed her lips, watching Keima Katsuragi out of the corner of her eye.

She opened her mouth slightly, then closed it again, seemingly locked in an intense internal struggle.

After about a minute had passed, Airi Sakura finally gathered her meager courage and, in a voice so quiet only she could hear, said:

"Katsuragi-san... I read the walkthrough you wrote, it was very well done..."

Airi Sakura's voice was almost lost in the air, and Keima Katsuragi, currently focused intently on his game, didn't seem to have heard her.

Didn't he hear me...

"Thank you, Sakura-san."

"Eh?"

"Sakura-san, could it be that you've started to become interested in AVG games as well?"

Keima Katsuragi's head snapped toward Airi Sakura with zero-frame reaction time.

"Eh? I, I don't really know much about those things..."

"AVG stands for Adventure Game. It is a genre of interactive narrative games where text narration is the main component, combined with multimedia elements like images and music. Players influence the plot and ending through command inputs or choices. This genre originated in 1977, and one of its branches combines with beautiful girls to become..."

Keima Katsuragi's eyes seemed filled with vigor as he launched into a lecture for Airi Sakura.

Airi Sakura felt a bit dazed, but seeing how serious he was, she tried her best to understand his words.

"If you're going to get into it, Sakura-san, I suggest starting with Tokimeki Memorial as a beginner. The system is user-friendly and the difficulty is moderate."

"Mm, mm."

"The biggest advantage of this kind of game is that you can play it all by yourself, unlike other social activities where you get bothered by inexplicable people."

Airi Sakura nodded with a bit of force.

Although she had never played a game before, this sort of thing didn't seem to contradict her own nature.

After all, it didn't require interacting with other people...

If there was a chance later, she could certainly give it a try...

Just as Airi Sakura was thinking this, Keima Katsuragi placed his handheld console in front of her—not to let her play, but to explain the meaning of the various icons and text on the screen.

Airi Sakura's gaze was drawn to the character art inside.

It was, it was so beautiful!

Airi Sakura liked taking selfies, and before doing so, she would always try to dress herself up as prettily as possible, especially in various nice outfits.

However, she had never tried this kind of two-dimensional character style before.

Airi Sakura remembered a few beauty influencers in the same niche as her who seemed to dress up as anime characters as well.

Was it called Cosplay?

Those photos were truly super pretty!

Airi Sakura had wanted to take similar photos before, but she didn't really understand the subject, and she lacked the courage to take that step.

Perhaps...

This was an opportunity for her to learn a little bit about it.

There were ten minutes left until the end of the morning classes.

The morning lessons concluded, and the students welcomed a short lunch break.

Students would generally go to the cafeteria for lunch, return to their dorms to rest for a bit, and then continue with their afternoon classes.

Airi Sakura watched Keima Katsuragi out of the corner of her eye, thinking about a very important matter.

--Should she invite Keima Katsuragi to lunch?

Keima Katsuragi had helped her quite a bit yesterday. To others, it might have been a small matter, but to Airi Sakura, the nature of it was completely different. Added to some reasons she couldn't quite put into words, Airi Sakura felt it was absolutely necessary to repay Keima Katsuragi, but having no social experience, she didn't know how to go about it.

So, during class, Airi Sakura had engaged in an intense brainstorming session.

During the break, Airi Sakura had even used her phone to search for a bunch of related questions.

Among them, she saw that idols sometimes give signed photos to fans as a form of appreciation...

As a gravure idol, Airi Sakura had seriously considered this.

Her own signed photo... it should, count as being worth something, right?

But Airi Sakura couldn't possibly do such a thing!

Not to mention that going to the school print shop to print photos would expose her identity, she couldn't even imagine giving her own photos to someone else.

She would, she would die of embarrassment...

Should she give a different gift?

But they had only been in school for a week; what kind of gift would be appropriate...

In the end, after a long period of searching and hesitation, Airi Sakura finally found a simple and reliable plan.

Treat them to a meal!

Volume One: Chapter Thirty-Three: Suzune Horikita: Incomprehensible

When Airi Sakura made up her mind to use this method, the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl upward slightly.

But soon, a bigger problem struck.

She had never treated anyone to a meal before.

During her usual lunch breaks, Airi Sakura always kept to herself, packing her food to eat back in her dorm room.

However...

What reason should she use...

Should she say, "Thanks for accompanying me to go shopping yesterday"...

Would a reason like that be enough?

Then, should she add, "Thank you for keeping my identity a secret"?

That felt like it would be too deliberate!

Just as Airi Sakura was feeling incredibly conflicted inside, the bell for the end of the school day suddenly rang.

Keima Katsuragi stood up from his seat, preparing to call Elsie to go eat.

"Kei..."

The name reached her throat, but Airi Sakura stopped herself abruptly.

Inviting someone to eat together was something she had never done before.

She didn't have the courage to speak up...