Sakura

Qiuyue sighed and walked up to the three of them, greeting them naturally.

"What a coincidence. Are you here to get something repaired, too?"

"Huh? Qiuyue, yes. We're here with Sakura to get her camera fixed."

Kushida was still doing her best to play her part. Sakura looked confused, her social anxiety flaring up again as she edged away. She might only just have heard Qiuyue's name from Kushida.

"What camera? Let me see."

Qiuyue put on his best overly familiar act, picked up the warranty card, and examined the camera model listed on it.

"Oh, this one. I can fix it."

"Huh?"

Qiuyue's words surprised all three of them a little. Meanwhile, he glanced casually at the form Sakura had filled out.

Qiuyue: (She only filled in her name. Good. She only wrote the first three digits of her contact information, too. And a pervert like you doesn't even deserve to know her name.)

"Of course. I've studied how to repair them. I can fix at least this model. So, Sakura, I can repair it for you. It'll be good practice for me, too."

As he spoke, Qiuyue drew their attention and silently thanked his Pickpocket Talent. In that instant, the form had already slipped into his pocket.

"Hey, hey, that camera's hard to repair. Don't bite off more than you can chew. Leave it to professionals like us."

The pervert hurriedly tried to stop Qiuyue, not noticing that the form had vanished from the table. He'd just missed his only chance in life to learn his idol's real name.

"It's fine. If it were a newer model, I really wouldn't know how to fix it. But I know a little about this one. Besides, the damage to her camera isn't that bad."

Qiuyue gave the pervert, who thought he'd hidden his intentions well, a teasing look.

"That's impressive, Qiuyue. But I think it'd be better to leave this to the repair staff, since there's a warranty card.

"Still, it's not my camera that's being repaired, so we should leave it up to Sakura.

"Right, Sakura?"

Kushida said this as if she'd made a reasonable point, but it was essentially the same as saying nothing.

As soon as Sakura heard that Qiuyue was willing to repair it, she'd already made up her mind. Her social anxiety simply kept her from taking that step.

Qiuyue: (Sakura probably doesn't want to get any closer to that pervert. Or maybe she's afraid of me?)

(Sigh... The best way to deal with someone like her is to be a little more assertive.)

Qiuyue picked up the warranty card and camera from the table, then turned to Sakura.

"Sakura, since you're not saying anything, I'll take that as a yes. Don't worry. I should be able to fix it in about three days. I'll bring it straight to you then."

"...Mm... Thank you."

Sakura kept her head lowered, her face slightly flushed.

"Well, if that's all, I'll get going."

"Wait, Qiuyue. Since we happened to run into each other here, do you want to look around together?"

"Um... thank you for today... And... Qiuyue, th-thank you, too."

Sakura said this and bowed from her seat, pressing her ample chest against the table.

"Not at all. I was partly at fault, since your camera broke because of me. It's no trouble at all. I'm happy to help."

"No, I wanted to get some practice in and refresh my memory. If anything, I should be thanking you."

Qiuyue replied.

Qiuyue: (If you're wondering why I'm here, you can ask the Pink-Haired Schemer. I was going to leave, but she grabbed my hand and dragged me along.)

(What? You want to know when I learned to repair cameras? I learned a little from my college roommate in my previous life. He was a camera enthusiast, so I picked up a few things from him.)

(Even if I can't fix this model, there's always the resourceful Chairman. He'd only need a day.)

"Yeah. In fact, I should thank Sakura, too. You didn't get angry at me for breaking your camera, and you even asked me to come with you to get it fixed. Sakura, you really are a kind person.

"And, Sakura, if you don't mind, could you talk to us normally? We're all classmates."

Ayanokoji, who'd been silent for half the chapter, chimed in as well. "Come to think of it, you've been speaking formally this whole time."

"...Uh... Mm... I understand... I'll try."

"You don't have to force yourself."

"It's... It's okay."

"Mm."

"Sorry, I need to use the restroom."

Kushida said this and got up to leave.

After Kushida left, Qiuyue noticed that Sakura seemed to want to say something but couldn't bring herself to.

Qiuyue: (Good grief, has this part of the story not changed either? No, it has changed, hasn't it?)

(Originally, Sakura only said it when she was alone with Ayanokoji. She was still hesitating over Sudo's situation. She wanted to help, but she was scared. But now I'm here.)

(This is where the master of talking people through their problems, Ayanokoji, comes in. I'll leave this chance to earn her affection to you. As a supporting character, I should give the protagonist the spotlight here.)

"I've got something to do, so I'll take the camera with me. Bye, Ayanokoji. Bye, Sakura."

After saying goodbye to Ayanokoji and Sakura,

Room 415.

Qiuyue was trying to repair the camera with the tools he'd just bought. After a long while,

"Whew... It's not as complicated as I thought. I might even be able to finish ahead of schedule. I'll take a break and continue tomorrow."

Qiuyue stretched, picked up the key from the table, and unlocked the drawer. When he took out his phone, he saw something that surprised him.

"Who would contact me? Is this message from Hirata? Ryuen? Ichinose? Or Katsuragi or Sakayanagi?

"Whoever it is, I'll know as soon as I look."

But when Qiuyue opened his phone, a chill ran down his back.

[You there?]

"None of them! Who is this? How did he get my contact information?

"No, calm down. The most important thing is to figure out who he is."

Qiuyue immediately went to his computer and got to work. His Hacker Talent was making him more and more proficient, and the other person hadn't taken any special measures to hide himself. He found out who it was in no time.

"Hideo Sotomura? This is... the 'Professor' from Class D? What's going on?"

Without hesitation, Qiuyue messaged him.

[Speak.]

"No matter how many questions I had, I couldn't let my cool image slip."

The other person replied instantly.

[Bro, you're finally online! I'm begging you, I'm desperate! I got your contact info from Hirata and saved it on my computer. You've got some points, right? Lend me a few, please!]

[Why should I lend you any?]

[I'll give you the stuff on my cloud drive. Want it? I've got all kinds of resources.]

"...Nice..."

Qiuyue was about to reply that he didn't need it, but after thinking it over, he deleted the message.

"No. Advanced Nurturing doesn't raise dead weight. This chubby kid must be great with computers, and he was like that in the original story, too. That's probably why Advanced Nurturing admitted him.

"Isn't this a tool just waiting to be handed to me? Maybe I can have him..."

[I can give you some points, but you have to do something for me.]

[Thank you, boss! I'll bow down to you! Just tell me what to do, as long as I can handle it.]

Qiuyue put his phone in his pocket and headed out again, this time wearing a mask and a baseball cap.

Following the example of making three visits to the thatched cottage, Qiuyue went to the repair shop three times as well. He found the pervert and secretly took a picture of him.

Then he sent it to Sotomura.

Picture.

[This man works at the repair shop on campus. Find a way to hack into his computer and phone, collect some of the stuff on them, and send it to me.]

[What kind of stuff should I collect?]

[You'll know once you hack in.]

"Good grief, now I can resolve Sakura's situation whenever I want. I'll deal with it later, so the butterfly effect doesn't get any worse."

Early morning.

As usual, Qiuyue headed downstairs to go to class and begin another day as an NPC.

On the way down, Qiuyue spotted two familiar figures.

One was a young woman with beautiful pink curls, wearing knee-high socks with her uniform. Her thighs looked wonderfully soft; she'd probably make a great lap pillow. She had a slightly plump figure without looking fat, and even from behind, it was clear she was a stunning beauty.

The man beside her was none other than Ayanokoji, whom Qiuyue knew all too well.