The Absurd Cooperation

In the end, seeing that the other person was ignoring her, Kushida Kikyo pouted angrily and could only leave in silence.

"Ding~ Ding~"

The long, drawn-out chimes rang slowly across campus. The new students, having finished their activities for the day, soon gathered on the school's shopping street and began spending wildly.

A quiet corner of a café.

Unlike the others, the boy had lived two lives and returned from hell.

For Rinya, quietly sipping coffee alone and watching the clouds drift slowly across the sky was already more than enough.

But...

Rinya set down his coffee.

Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to catch his reflection in the tabletop, his face hidden beneath his hair.

"Is this really me...?" Rinya murmured.

From the day he was born until the more than ten years he'd spent in the White Room, this was the first time he had truly seen what he looked like.

"Heh. I don't look bad."

Rinya thought it over. Since he'd decided to start his life over, perhaps it was time to get a haircut.

"Bang!"

Just as the boy stood up to head out for a haircut, a loud crash suddenly came from the entrance of the supermarket across the street.

He turned to look. Ken Sudō was confronting three upperclassmen.

But Rinya only gave them a passing glance and paid it no further attention. He knew someone would handle the incident that would later ignite the chain of events. All he needed to do was live his own life.

"Ding~ Welcome!"

Before long, Rinya arrived at a nearby hair salon.

As soon as he entered, he unexpectedly spotted a girl getting a perm in one of the chairs.

"Matsushita Chiaki~"

Her slightly curled hair went well with her Lolita-style uniform. Beneath her pure, beautiful appearance lay the exceptional academic ability of someone from an upper class.

But Rinya didn't want to have much to do with a girl so perceptive. He had only just started to back away when she happened to spot him.

"Hey, are you Rinya?"

"Looks like you're here for a haircut too."

"Come on, come on. I'm all done, so the chair's free for you."

Faced with her direct invitation, Rinya smiled wryly. Knowing he couldn't get out of it, he nodded and walked over.

But the moment he sat down, the faint, feminine fragrance lingering on the chair washed over him.

Even Rinya, with a will as hard as iron, couldn't help looking faintly entranced.

Seeing this, Matsushita smiled smugly, assuming he was just another bashful boy who became completely helpless at the sight of a girl.

She wondered whether she should tease him a little, then watch him embarrass himself.

But the next second, as the messy hair covering the boy's eyes fell away in front of the mirror, Matsushita's thoughts came to an abrupt halt. Her eyes went wide at his breathtaking face...

"So handsome. He's really so handsome..." the girl murmured dreamily, completely forgetting what she'd been thinking.

His features were flawless, with just a touch of something bewitching. Even Keiko, the auntie cutting his hair, couldn't help praising him repeatedly. "I've never seen such a handsome boy."

So, partly to thank the boy for visiting her salon and partly to create the work she'd be proudest of, Keiko decided to bring ten years' worth of experience to bear on his haircut, making sure every last detail was perfect.

Rinya had wanted to refuse, but the woman's enthusiasm bordered on madness. All he could do was sit down obediently, feeling rather glum.

By the time the haircut was finished, the afternoon had slipped away unnoticed, and dusk had arrived.

A flustered, bashful girl and a calm, composed boy stepped out of the salon together.

"R-Rinya, would you like to have dinner together tonight?"

"Sure," Rinya replied flatly.

He did think it sounded like a hassle, but he'd be spending three years here. Some things were bound to come up sooner or later. He'd probably get used to it eventually.

So he followed Matsushita. When they arrived at the place she'd invited him to, Rinya realized, speechless, that she'd brought him to a couples' restaurant.

Fortunately, things weren't too bad when they went in to order. Rinya happened to spot a white-haired girl with a cane sitting at a table by the window.

There was no need to ask who she was.

What puzzled Rinya was that at the table opposite the white-haired girl sat Ryuen Kakeru, Ishizaki, and Yamada.

The two groups were chatting and drinking at their respective tables, but the way their eyes met in passing gave away the tension between them. There was no way it could escape Rinya's notice.

Before long, the two groups left one after the other, heading in the same direction. It was clearly no coincidence.

Rinya didn't want to get involved, but he had agreed to Sakayanagi Arisu's terms. He should at least find out a little about what was going on with her. That way, if trouble arose, he could help limit her losses.

Using a trip to the bathroom as an excuse, Rinya slipped away and quietly followed them. He soon caught up with the group in an alley that lay in a blind spot for the surveillance cameras.

He had to admit, when the time came, Rinya admired Sakayanagi Arisu's nerve.

In a dimly lit place like this, a girl leaning on a cane had dared to meet three burly boys alone.

"Let's hear it. What have you decided about the cooperation I proposed?" Ryuen Kakeru asked without wasting time.

"Hmm, that? Before, I might have pretended to accept, then played the elegant oriole waiting behind the mantis. But now..." Sakayanagi Arisu deliberately drew out her words, speaking in an unhurried tone.

"Oh? Let's hear it."

"That's why our first collaboration is canceled!"

"What! Do you know what happens when you mess with me?" The interest on Ryuen Kakeru's face instantly turned to icy anger.

The two boys behind him moved to either side, cutting off her escape routes.

Even so, not a trace of fear appeared on Sakayanagi Arisu's face. Instead, she wore a look of utter disdain. "Heh. No wonder you were assigned to Class C. The truth really is rather pathetic, isn't it?"

"You'd better explain why you're refusing to cooperate. There are no cameras here." The knuckles on Ryuen Kakeru's hands cracked, as if he might strike a lethal blow at any moment.

"Do you really want me to spell it out? Then, with all due respect, having Class A help you take control of the weakest Class D, and then having you help us control Class B before it's fully established, is a joke from the start, isn't it?"

"I can do it myself. Why should I hand it over to you?"

"Besides, on the first day of school, when I saw that person's name, I knew this already ridiculous cooperation had become even more absurd."

"Heh, is that so? If that's what you think, then I have nothing else to say."

"Ishizaki, teach her a lesson." With that, Ryuen Kakeru turned away, ready to leave.

But Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to have anticipated this. She tapped her cane firmly against the ground several times, and in an instant, several boys waiting nearby, led by Hashimoto Masayoshi, hurried over from all directions.

"Oh? So you had people waiting nearby."

"Otherwise, did you think I'd come alone?"

"Is that so? Then..."

Just as Sakayanagi Arisu thought he would give up, Ryuen Kakeru suddenly spun around without warning. The hook he'd been holding in reserve shot straight toward the girl's stomach.

Sakayanagi Arisu had never expected him to attack with so many people watching. Her reflexes were impressive, but her impaired mobility was still a serious weakness. At this critical moment, even if she could dodge a direct hit to a vital spot, she would still take a blow. There was no way she'd escape uninjured.

"Thud!"

Just as Sakayanagi Arisu twisted aside with all her strength, the other boy's fist about to smash into her arm, she suddenly saw a tiny pebble hurtling over from the distance.

It struck the spot on Ryuen Kakeru's arm where the nerve ran, just as he swung his fist.

A wave of weakness instantly washed over him, and his punching arm went limp.

"Damn it! Who was that?"

Ryuen Kakeru whipped around, but aside from the Class A students who had gathered around, there seemed to be no one in sight beneath the dim lights.

"Hmph, you win this time. Class A, we'll remember this. Let's go!"

Seeing that even the nearby security guards were closing in, Ryuen Kakeru knew he was only in control of Class C for now. To avoid dragging his class into trouble, he left them with a threat and hurried off with Ishizaki and Yamada.

Meanwhile, Sakayanagi Arisu, having only just escaped the jaws of danger, stood rooted to the spot in a daze.

"I didn't arrange for that at all. Who could it have been?"

"Class leader, are you all right?"

Sakayanagi Arisu calmly waved a hand.

Of course, it wasn't as though she'd been unprepared. Her trump card was the latest blast-resistant soft armor, made in the United States, which she wore beneath her clothes. Even if she'd been hit, she wouldn't have been hurt; she could even have used it to threaten the other side.

Still, she couldn't figure out who had stepped in at that crucial moment.