Round Two, Probing

The four-person group that had been eavesdropping... now openly watching: ...??

Hoshino-kun, what on earth are you saying out of nowhere?

"Besides, you should already have gotten the freshman roster, right? Since the Student Council is in the Special Building, it wouldn't be hard to get a roster with names and photos if you paid enough points."

"From the moment the girls at the table next to us left until the four of them sat down, you looked at your phone more often. I'm guessing you were identifying them by their appearances and checking their names and other personal information recorded in the roster?"

The four of them: ...!!!

Hey, hey, that sounds terrifying!

And Classmate Sakayanagi's expression hadn't changed at all when she heard that. In other words, Hoshino-kun had gotten it all right.

Wait, isn't this a school? Why did we feel like we'd wandered into some kind of spy movie?

"You deliberately said their names because you'd guessed I would figure out what you were thinking, right?"

"Then, based on the information recorded in that roster, how much do you know about me?"

Sakayanagi Arisu: ...

"You really are a genius, Hoshino-kun."

She opened her phone and looked at the information about Hoshino En in the roster. Then she shook her head helplessly.

"To be honest, the information you left in the roster is even less than what I've learned from interacting with you today. Looking at this information alone, it's far too misleading."

The four of them: "You really didn't get your money's worth out of those 100,000 points."

The four of them: ...

100,000 points—an entire month's living expenses, gone just like that?

"And your people—are you going to make them leave on their own, or should I point them out for you?"

"Oh, and there's one with a hair clip in her bangs. You didn't threaten her with some kind of leverage to make her work for you, did you? She's been looking at you with a pretty resentful expression."

Sakayanagi Arisu: ...

She picked up her phone and sent a message. Then two girls stood up from a table for two behind Hoshino En, on his right.

They walked past Shiranami Chihiro, who was gazing longingly at Ichinose Honami, and headed to the counter to pay, under the four-person group's watchful eyes. Then they hurried away.

One of them had waist-length hair, and there were two hair clips in her bangs.

"Kamuro really needs to be more careful. She didn't even realize she'd been spotted... I'll have to keep testing her."

The four of them: ...

"Don't keep throwing out the big stick, you manipulative puppy. She looks like the kind of masochist who says no but means yes, but you still need to give her a carrot now and then."

The four of them: ...

"Of course. I'm paying her 200,000 points a month, after all."

"An obedience test?"

"Oh? You know a thing or two about this, too!"

The four of them: ...

Kushida Kikyo: ...!!

Seriously... what was with these two? How could they discuss such a wicked topic as if no one else were around?

Compared to them, Kushida Kikyo felt like even her true nature seemed rather kind.

Ichinose Honami: ...

I never thought Hoshino-kun would be this kind of person...

Still, I'm a sinner too. I don't have the right to criticize him.

If anything, someone like him, who reached out to a criminal like me with a selfless hand, doesn't need me to correct him.

Karuizawa Kei: ...!!

Hoshino-kun is so cool!!!

Wang Meiyu: ...!!!!!

So scary~ So scary~

First Semester of First Year:

"People probably can't hear us from outside, so there's no need to chase away those two you left outside the shop."

Hoshino En's gaze passed through the coffee shop's glass window, swept over the Blonde Flirtatious Boy and Curly-haired Gloomy Boy lurking outside, then settled on Sakayanagi Arisu in front of him.

Her smile was flawless. She seemed to have expected all along that her followers would be found out.

The casual atmosphere had vanished. It was clear that an important conversation was about to begin.

The four girls at the neighboring table had stopped talking, too, and were watching the clash between Hoshino En and Sakayanagi Arisu intently.

"Let me ask you something first. After spending the afternoon thinking it over, have you figured out how I saw through you?"

Hoshino En looked straight into her eyes, trying to spot a weakness.

However, Sakayanagi Arisu had clearly taken precautions after being outmaneuvered once before.

"After spending the whole afternoon holding Arisu's hand, Boyfriend-kun still has the nerve to ask her something like that. How heartless."

She changed the subject, refusing to answer directly.

Hoshino En: ...

If you won't answer, then I won't hold back.

"After morning homeroom, I went to Class A to gather information about the other classes. I only glanced inside from outside the window, using the corner of my eye, and I didn't see your cane. But I did notice something: your skin is very pale—so pale it looks almost unhealthy."

"Also, from your profile, I didn't see any of the features typical of a white Westerner. You're probably not mixed-race, so your paleness isn't hereditary. That made me guess you'd spent most of your childhood indoors, rarely leaving your room, and had always been physically weak."

Hoshino En's explanation drew the four onlookers' attention to Sakayanagi Arisu's face. Unless they were close friends, girls didn't casually compare things like that, so they'd overlooked it before.

Now that they were comparing Sakayanagi Arisu's skin tone with their own, they could see that she seemed to be a shade paler all over, as if God had turned up her brightness setting when creating her.

As fellow Asians, her complexion was clearly unusual.

Sakayanagi Arisu showed no sign of discomfort at being watched. She was cute, after all, and had long since grown used to such attention.

"Then, in the Special Building, I saw you using a cane. My first thought was that you might have injured your legs, but you were wearing thigh-high stockings. Wearing something that restrictive while recovering from a leg injury would seriously affect your mobility and slow your recovery. I don't think you're the sort of person who'd sacrifice her health just to look good, so I ruled out a leg injury."

The four girls' gazes shifted beneath the table. They looked at the stockings that reached above her knees, leaving only a small strip of thigh between them and her skirt, and nodded in agreement.

That was true. If she had a leg injury and still covered them so tightly, she'd be taking far too little care of her health.

Although they were all girls, this was the first time Sakayanagi Arisu had been stared at like this over her thighs. She shifted awkwardly, pressing her legs together.

"Can't I want to look good and stay healthy? I like wearing thigh-highs. So what?"

She forced herself to ignore her discomfort and glared at Hoshino En as she retorted.

"If that were the case, you wouldn't need just one cane to support yourself when you walked."

Hoshino En didn't spell out the deeper reason, but Sakayanagi Arisu understood.

There was no denying that if she were as willful as she claimed, she probably wouldn't have been able to enroll and enjoy school life. Her father would never have allowed it.

She fell silent, and Hoshino En understood what she meant.

He continued his explanation.

"Since you don't have a leg injury but still need a cane to walk, there are probably only two possible reasons. One: nerve damage in your legs is making it difficult to walk. Two: your leg muscles are too weak to support your body."

"If it were the first, your gait couldn't be so natural and smooth. And one thin cane probably wouldn't be enough, either. So that rules it out. That leaves the second explanation."

"Weak leg muscles. Either you've barely used your legs for a long time, causing the muscles to atrophy, or you aren't getting enough blood flow, so your muscle cells can't get enough oxygen to breathe and produce the energy they need to function normally. Given that you're about sixteen, the latter is more likely."

"The heart keeps blood circulating through the body. If your legs aren't getting enough blood, then there's something wrong with your heart—and something seriously wrong at that. Combine that with my earlier guess that you've been physically weak since childhood, and the answer is clear, isn't it? Miss Sakayanagi Arisu, who unfortunately has congenital heart disease."

The Atmosphere Group: ...

Kushida Kikyo: He's amazing, but he paid such close attention to a girl's body... Hoshino-kun is a little creepy.

Ichinose Honami: Hoshino-kun is incredible.

Karuizawa Kei: Hoshino-kun is so cool!!!

Wang Meiyu: He figured out so much information in one go... How scary.

Sakayanagi Arisu: ...

"So you not only had the upper hand against me earlier, but you also had time to analyze my physical condition?"

Her expression darkened.

Because Hoshino En's final conclusion was almost exactly right, she was all the angrier.

She felt as if he'd looked down on her.

Plenty of people had underestimated her because of her delicate appearance, but they were all mediocre, ordinary people. She didn't think much of them and didn't care.

But Hoshino En was different. He was the man who had caught her off guard at their first meeting, a genius who could match her. She couldn't tolerate him not taking her seriously.

Seeing her expression darken as if it could drip water, Hoshino En quickly explained, "No, no, I wasn't distracted when I was up against you."

After Sakayanagi Arisu's earlier declaration, he'd gotten a general idea of how she thought: she was a girl who cared deeply about being called a genius.

And she had a strict standard for who counted as a genius. Only people she acknowledged were her equals, and worthy opponents she considered worth defeating.

But that also meant she absolutely couldn't tolerate being looked down on by someone she considered her equal.

Hoshino En could guarantee that if he agreed with her assumption, she'd target him for the next three years—maybe not even three—until he broke.

So he had to back down and tell the truth.

"I made our agreement first, and only then analyzed your physical condition. It wasn't the way you described it."

However—

"From the time we made our agreement until you brought this up as we were about to leave, not even a minute had passed. Are you saying you figured out all that complicated information and reached a definite conclusion in less than sixty seconds?"

Sakayanagi Arisu seemed even angrier.

Hoshino En: ...Huh?

Her reaction was beyond what Hoshino En had expected. He didn't know how to answer.

Seeing that he had "nothing to say," Sakayanagi Arisu looked away, too.

She waved over a server and ordered several more expensive desserts from the menu.

After placing her order, she said nothing, staring off into space as she looked at the coffee she hadn't finished.

Faced with this situation, Hoshino En looked toward the Atmosphere Group beside him.

What was going on? Why was she still angry?

Based on what I know about her, she shouldn't still be angry after hearing that answer!

Help me, help me.

The four girls caught Hoshino En's pleading look and blinked in unison.

Then they looked at one another, their gazes connecting like radio waves.

Their eyes met in the quiet corner, full of tension and hesitation. Countless carefully worded suggestions were condensed into simple looks and brief glances.

A few minutes later, Kushida Kikyo, who sat closest to Hoshino En, spoke on behalf of the group and quietly offered him some advice.

"Sakayanagi-san was angry at first because she thought you were looking down on her. You understand that, right?"

"Of course. That's why my next line was meant to clear up that misunderstanding."

"But what you said was way too outrageous. You figured out such complicated logic in a minute? Do you make things up without even thinking them through?"

"But... I was telling the truth."

Kushida Kikyo: ...Huh?

Seeing the serious, innocent expression on Hoshino En's face, Kushida Kikyo froze.

"And doesn't that sentence mean, 'I gave it my all when facing her. I wasn't looking down on her'? Why is she still angry?"

Hoshino En couldn't understand.