Pervert

"Phew... Hah, your brother got even more handsome."

Early in the morning, Qiuyue washed up in his room. After washing his face, he admired himself in the mirror.

After discussing it in Ayanokoji's room last night, he was going to approach Sakura today.

There was only one thing Qiuyue needed to do. Because of the butterfly effect, he needed to confirm whether the incident with Sakura would still happen.

"Sakura."

Kushida naturally greeted Sakura. Qiuyue, the Idiot Trio, Ayanokoji, and Horikita were all nearby, watching the two of them from the sidelines.

"W-what is it...?"

"There's something I'd like to ask you, Sakura. Is that okay? It's about Sudo."

"S-sorry... Um... I... have something to do."

Sakura was visibly nervous. She clasped her hands tightly together and stammered before preparing to leave.

Seeing this, Kushida quickly took hold of Sakura's hand to stop her from leaving. "It won't take long, okay?"

Sakura turned around with her eyes closed, not daring to face Kushida. Her weak, timid voice turned somewhat shrill.

"I don't know! I don't know anything!"

After saying that, Sakura tried to forcibly pull free of Kushida's grasp, but her physical strength wasn't as great as one might have expected, and she couldn't break loose.

Kushida lost her grip, and Sakura fell forward. The camera in her hand flew several meters away.

"I'm sorry. Are you okay, Sakura?"

Sakura ignored Kushida and hurried to retrieve her camera. She anxiously pressed its buttons over and over, but the screen remained black.

"This can't be... How could it... It won't turn on."

"Sorry, it's my fault..."

"No, I just didn't hold on to it properly."

Sakura said this, then stood up and hurriedly ran away.

"W-wait, Sakura!" Kushida called after her.

Sakura didn't stop. She ran farther and farther away, clutching her camera.

Qiuyue: (...It's the same. The camera's still broken. She still has to go there to get it fixed. No, the main thing is to see whether the repair shop still has that pervert.)

(Sakura's afraid. She's scared of interacting with people. What do you call it? Social anxiety, I guess.)

(It'll be troublesome to approach Sakura directly. Anyway, my goal this time is to find out whether that pervert is still around.)

During a break between classes, Qiuyue went to the teachers' office and knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Qiuyue: (That voice... A male teacher. Is he from Class A or Class C?)

"Teacher Mashima, this is my student."

Qiuyue had just pushed open the door. Before he could look around the teachers' office, he heard someone speak. Following the voice, he saw a woman in a suit with her hair tied in a high ponytail.

Qiuyue walked up to her and said, "Teacher Chabashira, could I be excused from the next class? My stomach hurts, and I need to go to the infirmary."

"...I understand. Go ahead. Don't tell me you're faking it. Ike and Yamauchi have already pulled that trick."

Qiuyue: (...Figures it'd be those two.)

"...Thank you. I'll be going, Teacher Chabashira."

"Mm."

Chabashira gave a quiet hum and paid him no further attention. She picked up her pen and began writing a lesson plan on her desk.

When Qiuyue arrived at the infirmary, he found the school nurse in a white coat and two female students inside.

Qiuyue didn't pay them any mind, figuring they were probably just passersby, and ignored them.

"What's wrong, young man?"

"...Um, ma'am, my symptoms are a little difficult to talk about. Is there a private examination room?"

"Sure. Follow me."

The school nurse led Qiuyue to another spot. Actually, it was still the infirmary; there was just a partitioned-off area. Qiuyue had no idea how soundproof it was.

"I'm not sick."

Qiuyue's sudden statement left the school nurse confused, so he continued to explain:

"To put it simply, ma'am, I don't want to go to class. Could you write me a medical note saying I'm sick? That way I can take a break from class while still being free to move around."

"...Are you joking, young man? That's not funny at all."

"How many points?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, how many points would it take for you to do it?"

"..."

Qiuyue came out of a large pharmacy carrying the medicine he had just bought—digestive tablets—and complained,

"What a rip-off. Two thousand points for a fake note like that. Sigh... Forget it. If I didn't pay some price for this, I wouldn't feel at ease."

Qiuyue arrived at the repair shop. Strangely enough, the school had just about everything, but there was only one repair shop.

Qiuyue glanced around the repair shop.

Qiuyue: (This is troublesome... There are two cameras in a tiny repair shop? If this is too much of a coincidence, the risk of my cover being blown is getting higher and higher.)

"What do you need repaired, young man?"

Qiuyue looked at the repairman who had spoken to him. Without hesitation, he said, "Shizuku."

"What?"

Qiuyue: (It's not him...)

Qiuyue went straight to another repairman, walked up to him, and did the same thing. He successfully identified someone with a flustered expression.

Qiuyue: (He really is here... I'm still not sure, though. Let's test him again.)

"Can you take a look at this?"

Qiuyue held out his phone to the repairman, with the screen facing him.

Just as the repairman reached out to take it, Qiuyue unlocked the screen with his fingerprint. On it was Sakura's online persona, "Shizuku."

The repairman froze for a moment, then wore a leering, piggish expression. A moment later, he recovered and put on a professional smile. "Young man, it looks like there's nothing wrong with your phone."

Qiuyue: (Keep pretending, why don't you? Tch, this is troublesome. Should I help Sakura or not? If I don't, what was the point of this whole operation?)

(Forget it. There's no use overthinking it. I'll keep an eye on things this afternoon.)

"I must've made a mistake. Sorry."

Sakura had actually noticed something was wrong early on, so when she came to the repair shop to get her camera fixed, she also asked Kushida to bring along a male student.

Kushida chose Ayanokoji.

Watching from a distance, Qiuyue saw Sakura hand her camera to that pervert.

The pervert held the camera and warranty card up in front of him, waving them around and blocking the view of the three people standing opposite him.

From the side, Qiuyue could see that the pervert looked like a pig barely able to contain himself.

The pervert's mouth moved as if he were mumbling something, and he stared at Sakura with a lecherous gaze.

Fear was plain on Sakura's face. Ayanokoji took it all in, then glanced to the side, as if looking at something out of the corner of his eye.

Qiuyue: (I'll have evidence soon, too. He's got that camera set up nearby to secretly film her. It seems my butterfly effect hasn't changed what happens to Sakura.)

The pervert handed Sakura a form to fill out. The pen shook in her hand as she held it over the desk, but Ayanokoji didn't move at all.

Qiuyue was puzzled, but Sakura's trembling hand still began to write.

Qiuyue: (Could Ayanokoji have noticed me? So the butterfly effect really did happen after all. That pervert got Sakura's contact information. Things are getting even worse.)

(Now that things have gone this far, should I really just stand by and do nothing?)