Assimilation

Stepping out of the café.

Luckily, Star Color was even better at playing dumb, and in the end managed to escape the whirlpool of factional infighting.

Sakayanagi Arisu's condition had been this:

[Please don't get involved in the conflicts between factions, Seishiki Otonashi. Just remain neutral and quietly watch, like you're enjoying a movie at the cinema.]

"Movies aren't that boring."

Star Color gazed up at the sky, then bit at the air. Only a cool breeze flowed into his mouth. It was colorless, tasteless, and formless—completely unappetizing.

"Never mind. I'll buy groceries and cook."

After getting through another week, Star Color had finally reached his favorite time: the holidays. The school term always seemed to drag on forever. The month wasn't even over yet...

How about Chinese food tonight? Yeah, that sounded good.

It was surprisingly difficult to get fresh ingredients at school, so Star Color spent points to ask the kitchen staff at a restaurant to reserve fresh chicken and fish for him.

The school's waterways were actually an artificial lake built for that purpose. It was hard to believe that the beautiful lake scenery was really just seawater passed off as the real thing.

"I heard there are fish in the lake."

So you could fish there?! Star Color's imagination ran wild. Right, why hadn't anyone thought of that?!

As the saying went, experience was the best teacher. He'd find a time to take Little Fist Stone along and see if they could catch anything. If it worked, fish would be free for Star Color from then on.

Having once lived on the streets, Star Color immediately thought of a way to get things for free that an ordinary student would never have come up with.

On his way back, he ran into the social circle led by Koji Machida. Star Color still greeted them politely.

Star Color's social standing in class wasn't low. He fit in perfectly with both the boys and the girls and left people with a favorable impression. But it went no further than that, leaving him in a rather delicate balance.

Someone invited him to work out at the gym. Star Color could barely stand it. Were they trying to make him die in there?

After politely declining with an excuse, Star Color returned to his dorm.

"How about making some authentic Cantonese chicken soup?"

The red dates and goji berries he'd paid a fortune for would come in handy, along with the cordyceps. He hadn't expected people from China to have such a deep understanding of soup.

One of Star Color's coworkers had come from Southern Guangdong, China. She was an eccentric woman, but her obsession with food was astonishing. He'd learned quite a bit about food from her...

As for the fish, he'd steam it, then pour on soy sauce and hot oil. That was the way to eat fish!

Just imagining it made Star Color's mouth water. After all, humans were born to satisfy their appetites for food, beauty, sleep, and sex.

After putting on an apron, he got busy in the kitchenette.

Just as dinner was nearly ready, he contacted three people who, strictly speaking, could be called his friends. He'd wanted to invite Little Fist Stone too, but he was busy.

"S-sorry to bother you."

"Yamamura, the door's unlocked. Just come in."

Miki Yamamura pushed the door open and looked around timidly.

"Dinner will be ready soon, so make yourself comfortable. I've already cleaned the floor."

"Okay."

"Seishiki Otonashi."

There was another knock at the door, and then it opened.

"It smells so good! Is it Chinese food? We get to try your cooking again tonight, Seishiki Otonashi."

Tamiya Emi smiled at Star Color. After greeting Miki Yamamura, she sat down with practiced ease, and the two of them started chatting.

Star Color chose to tune out their conversation. As a gentleman, it was best not to pry into girls' conversations.

But when the two started talking about Sakayanagi Arisu, Star Color decided he wasn't a gentleman after all and perked up his ears to listen.

Apparently, Sakayanagi Arisu had tried to recruit them both. Miki Yamamura and Tamiya Emi had chosen to do the same as Star Color and stay out of the class's factional struggles.

Only hot-blooded, chuunibyou high school boys would think factional infighting was fun. It was actually brutal.

Star Color nodded. Fortunately, neither of them had chosen a side. After all, he'd once talked about political factions with the girls' group led by Nishikawa Ryoko over lunch, calling them a kind of "bloodless battlefield." He'd probably given some of the girls psychological scars.

A quick knock sounded at the door.

"The door's open, Kamuro."

Masumi Kamuro pushed the door open, her expression cool.

"I thought I was the only one..."

She muttered her dissatisfaction so quietly that only she could hear it.

"Sit down. I'll serve the soup."

Star Color poked his head out of the kitchen and spoke to Masumi Kamuro.

"Be nice to each other, okay?"

"I-I know! You don't have to tell me."

Masumi Kamuro sat down, looking a little uncomfortable. Then she said something neither of the other two had expected.

"I... I want to be friends with you."

Lately, Masumi Kamuro had been coming to Star Color's dorm every night.

Because of that, Star Color had decided to correct her "loner mentality."

"Groups put pressure on individual will. If you want to maintain your 'individuality,' you need the strength to match."

"Sometimes, what people call 'individuality' gets crushed by rules. Society is full of unreasonable rules. The fancier the restaurant, the more likely it is to turn away people who aren't dressed properly. You can't discuss politics in public, and there are pointless unspoken rules like letting your boss walk ahead of you."

"With your abilities, Kamuro, you might do very well in society. But when facing the flood that is a group, it's hard to change anything. You might even suffer a backlash."

"Socrates, the father of philosophy, left no writings or essays behind. All he left were his 'words' and his 'dialogues' with others. His disciples recorded his words, and they've been passed down to this day."

"How should we understand things? What should we do? Philosophy is made up of questions like these, and from them came every field of knowledge in the world. Humanity grows through 'dialogue.'"

"To become one with others, we have to go through the painful process of giving up part of ourselves. We have to give up three quarters of who we are."

"Even if you don't want to become one with others, Kamuro, I'll stand by you. The idea that people should be themselves isn't wrong either, as long as they can live happily."

Masumi Kamuro rested her head on Star Color's lap and spoke softly.

"Then I'll give up half."

"Okay, half it is. Keep your 'individuality' and try to sincerely get along with people."

Star Color looked down at her with an indifferent gaze.

For all his skill at philosophy, he was really just a pitiful hypocrite. In any case, the opposite of hypocrisy wasn't evil. He would wear this carefully crafted mask and live out his miserable life.