I'll Send You 50-Tell Me About It

"Besides, I don't think I lack charm. Why won't you accept my invitation?"

"Or are you playing hard to get? Or... are you gay?"

"Not exactly," Su Wei said, his face darkening.

"Hehe~ I'll take that as a yes. Anyway, this is a privilege only you get to enjoy, Su Wei!"

"So you should be grateful~"

As she spoke, she tilted her face up and asked curiously:

"By the way, that dazed look just now didn't suit you. What were you thinking about?"

Su Wei fell silent for a moment.

"Nothing. I was thinking about what to eat tonight."

To his surprise, Sakayanagi Arisu seemed to agree wholeheartedly. She lowered her eyes as if she were genuinely considering it.

"Yeah, what should we eat~"

Meanwhile, up on the rooftop of the teaching building, Ayanokoji Kiyotaka had been briefly dazed before heading downstairs, where he found Hirata Yosuke healed and his arm grown back.

The kind-hearted boy had regained consciousness and was now staring blankly at his hands, then at the unfamiliar surroundings.

"W-what happened to me?"

"I remember trying to lure those monsters away, and then I was badly injured..."

"What happened after that? Could it be... I was dreaming?"

In response to Hirata Yosuke's questions,

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka pressed his lips together.

Feeling the smooth lining of his mouth, without a single wound, he shook his head.

"I'm not really sure either."

"I only remember that after you passed out, we ran into Ichinose from Class C, Ryuen from Class B..."

"And that so-called Black Sphere Trial."

"The Black Sphere Trial? Is it the one I'm thinking of?" Hirata asked.

"Yeah. I took a picture and sent it to you. You can compare it for yourself."

To confirm his memories and reassure Hirata,

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka took out his phone and opened the album.

His memory was already hazy, but he vaguely recalled making preparations in the chemistry lab to deal with some kind of crisis.

Then,

as he scrolled through the album and saw the most recent photo,

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's usually impassive face finally changed.

The photo had been taken in the chemistry lab.

The composition was simple.

Old lab equipment, somewhat haphazardly arranged desks and chairs, and, in the center, a prepared Molotov cocktail.

...A Molotov cocktail?

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka's pupils contracted as he instantly noticed something was wrong.

I remember making this to defend against zombies.

But...

Where exactly did I use this Molotov cocktail?

Zombies? No. If it was against zombies, why don't I remember anything at all?

Chapter 30: I'll Send You 50—Tell Me About It

So...

My memories have been altered?

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka stared at the phone screen in silence.

Combined with the strange feeling he'd had earlier on the rooftop,

his memories had probably been altered more than once.

What an unpleasant experience.

As someone accustomed to observing others, he naturally felt annoyed when faced with the sensation of being observed by someone perceptive, while he himself could do nothing about it.

But compared to anger, he felt more curious at that moment.

He had to admit,

whatever this school was hiding seemed to run even deeper than the White Room.

So had coming here to experience an "ordinary life" been a mistake?

It was a question that didn't require any thought to answer.

After all, he had chosen to enter this school in the first place to seek something.

Still, he had no intention of taking action right away.

Since he couldn't resist this power for now, the best response was to gather information and plan carefully before making a move.

I'll observe for now.

After a brief moment of thought, Ayanokoji's mind settled.

He swiped across the screen and handed Hirata Yosuke, standing beside him, the compiled information about Ichinose that he'd photographed.

Hirata Yosuke took the phone and glanced over it. He couldn't help giving a wry smile.

"Just as I thought."

"Is my arm back because the 'exam ended' and the survivors were rewarded?"

Ayanokoji Kiyotaka didn't respond. He just put away his phone and calmly asked Hirata, a key figure in Class D:

"What are you going to do now?"

"Go find a teacher, or report this to the school?"

Hirata shook his head, his expression unreadable.

"It's no use, Ayanokoji-kun."

"If an 'exam' on this scale could be held openly at school, and even the teaching building was commandeered..."

"That means the school itself knew about it, and may even have been complicit."

"If we go to a teacher now, all we'll get is a brush-off or a warning. There's no point."

He took a deep breath, his gaze growing resolute.

"The most urgent thing is to find Horikita."

"Since she took part in this exam and even scored so highly, she must know something."

"And why did she shoulder all this responsibility alone instead of telling anyone else in the class...? We need to understand what she's thinking before we can decide what to do."

Ayanokoji neither agreed nor disagreed.

He turned his head and looked at Amikura Mako, who was farther away, holding her phone and telling Ichinose Honami the good news. She waved to them as she left.

She probably just never thought about that.

Horikita Suzune.

She had no friends.

And she was a troublesome woman.

Meanwhile, at a corner in the corridor on the first floor of the teaching building,

Su Wei had just left the Black Sphere Room with Sakayanagi Arisu. They hadn't even taken a few steps when they ran into two familiar faces.

"...Su Wei?"

And Sakayanagi from Class A?

Hirata Yosuke stopped and looked at the scene before him, his expression turning complicated in an instant.

The nobody who usually went unnoticed in class was now walking alongside a prominent figure from Class A, and they seemed unusually close.

Was being kept really that popular these days?

Feeling awkward, Hirata instinctively looked at Ayanokoji, only to find him looking calm.

"Oh, what a coincidence."

Sakayanagi Arisu smiled as she looked at them.

"I didn't expect to run into one of Su Wei-kun's classmates as soon as we came out... What a coincidence~"

Although Hirata Yosuke was full of questions, he had more important matters to deal with at the moment.

So he suppressed his curiosity and stepped forward to ask Su Wei:

"Um, Su Wei."

"This is a bit presumptuous, but do you have Horikita Suzune's contact information?"

"We need to find her urgently, but we couldn't find her in the dorms or the library."

Su Wei raised an eyebrow and immediately shook his head.

"I've only talked to her a few times. Why would I have that?"

"If you're looking for her, why not ask Kushida? She's the only social butterfly in the class who might have Horikita's number."

"Kushida..."

Hirata Yosuke frowned.

Then Ayanokoji Kiyotaka, who had been silent until now, spoke up.

"Horikita doesn't seem like the sort of person who has friends. Looking for her without a plan won't work."

"It's getting late, too."

He glanced at the sky, now completely dark.

"Let's just go to school tomorrow and ask Kushida to pass along a message for us."

Hirata Yosuke considered it for a while, then finally nodded.

"...I guess that's all we can do."

After exchanging a few more words, the two groups passed each other.

Watching Hirata Yosuke's somewhat dejected figure,

Su Wei was a little surprised.

"Looks like Ayanokoji didn't tell him who we are?"

"Hehe~" Sakayanagi Arisu said gleefully. "Could it be that he doesn't want to tip anyone off?"

"Even though he didn't look at you, I have a feeling... Ayanokoji might have a thing for you~"

Su Wei's face darkened. He moved away from her in disgust.

"Don't be gross."

"I don't associate with people who ship guys together."