Morishita Ai Is the District

The next morning, Kushida Kikyo walked into the classroom with a heart full of trepidation after a restless night.

Feeling that no one was looking at her with strange eyes and that her classmates were greeting her as usual, she finally breathed a tentative sigh of relief.

Last night, after Chihaya Rei had finished rebuking her, he had walked away without looking back, leaving her alone by the lake to endure the cold wind and succumb to endless inner turmoil.

Kushida Kikyo had spent the entire night in a state of fear and anxiety.

Would she wake up the next day and go to class only to find that Chihaya Rei had already revealed her true face to the entire class?

It seemed not.

Yet, the worry in Kushida Kikyo's heart did not diminish in the slightest.

Chihaya Rei held her weakness in his hands; although he hadn't threatened her with anything last night, there was no telling when he might use it against her.

It wouldn't even be strange if he had designs on her body...

Recalling the moment she had actually slammed her chest into Chihaya Rei's fist, a wave of shame and annoyance washed over her, and her cheeks quietly grew hot.

That was the first time her body had made such intimate contact with someone else, and she never expected it to happen in such a way.

His fist had even pressed against a place it shouldn't have, leaving it still aching faintly...

Therefore, in order to avoid future threats from Chihaya Rei, Kushida Kikyo had spent the whole night thinking and had made up her mind: before Chihaya Rei could leak the video, she would first uncover his secrets to use as leverage to keep him quiet—or even force him to delete the video!

Kushida Kikyo pretended to look back carelessly and snuck a peek at Chihaya Rei. Seeing him laughing and chatting with Sakura Airi, she felt an inexplicable irritation.

I lost sleep all night and my chest is still hurting, and here you are flirting with girls in the classroom first thing in the morning?!

"Kikyo-chan, you have dark circles under your eyes! Didn't you sleep well last night?" A female student nearby asked with a smile.

"Last night... I lost track of time playing on my phone and stayed up late." Kushida Kikyo switched to her gentle persona in the blink of an eye.

"So even you stay up late, Kikyo-chan."

"By the way, Kikyo-chan, how did the answer thing go?"

"No problem at all!" Kushida Kikyo flashed a joyful smile, feeling much better. "The questions and answers Classmate Sakayanagi gave us are all correct."

"Yatta!"

The students of Class D were invigorated.

After school, with the exam answers in hand, the midterm was as good as secured, which meant the study sessions were effectively canceled for the students of Class D. This group of students lacked the patience to go to the library and pretend to study.

Watching the state of the class, Horikita Suzune couldn't help but feel that having these answers might not necessarily be a good thing.

They had answers this time, but what about the next? There was no way to guarantee that. The way the students of Class D thought was just too simple; did she really have the ability to lead them to Class A? Horikita Suzune couldn't help but glance over at Chihaya Rei.

Chihaya Rei, meanwhile, was calm and composed, heading to the track field to put Karuizawa Kei through special training. Regardless of whether the study session was held or not, that girl, Karuizawa Kei, could not escape the fate of being tortured by him.

"Hey, Chihaya, is what they're saying true?... Is Sakayanagi Arisu pursuing you?" On the track field, Karuizawa Kei mustered her courage, looked up, and asked this personal question about his feelings.

Yes, one should never overestimate the confidentiality skills of Class D students. In less than two days, rumors had already begun to spread that Sakayanagi Arisu from Class A was pursuing their class's Chihaya Rei, and that she had even provided the midterm answers to Class D. Chihaya Rei hadn't even done anything, yet the rumor had already reached the ears of students in other classes.

"Are you that concerned?" Chihaya Rei examined Karuizawa Kei with a subtle look in his eyes.

He was fairly clear about Karuizawa Kei's personality.

To think she had pried into his private life twice in such a short period.

Could it be that she had developed strange feelings for him during the process of torture?

"No, I don't care at all!"

Karuizawa Kei's fair cheeks flushed instantly, and she hurriedly denied it, her voice rising to a sharper, more defensive tone. "Can't I be a little curious?"

Chihaya Rei revealed a dangerous smile and gave his whip a tug to intimidate her. "I really need to get you under control."

After parting ways with Karuizawa Kei, Chihaya Rei went to the convenience store and bought some oden to fill his stomach.

Walking back to the dormitory alone, he noticed a figure lying on a bench by the side of the road from a distance.

Always one for curiosity, he couldn't help but quicken his pace to investigate.

What appeared before his eyes was a girl with medium-length purple hair, lazily sprawled out on the bench with her eyes closed.

Only after drawing closer did Chihaya Rei realize.

She was sleeping on her stomach, not lying on her back.

To dare face him in such a position—what a golden opportunity... a golden opportunity for torture.

He shifted his gaze to take in the girl's appearance.

The girl's hair was tied into two sections, hanging loosely on either side of her cheeks, the ends naturally wavy.

Her face was a delicate, small oval shape with slender brows and eyes, her expression indifferent and calm.

Beneath her white school skirt, a pair of slender, shapely legs were wrapped in fine-textured black pantyhose, outlining the soft curves of her legs.

"Is she... asleep?"

Chihaya Rei muttered to himself, quite curious.

She looked like she had passed away peacefully.

He recognized this face, too.

Morishita Ai.

On the surface, she was a cute, cold-type beauty.

In reality, she was a genuine eccentric.

The fact that she was sleeping on a bench while it was still daylight was proof enough.

In the original story, Morishita Ai was a character who didn't gradually enter the plot until the end of the second year, near the start of the third.

One could even say she was the final glory of Kinugasa's character conception and development.

He hadn't expected to run into her so soon.

"Even though I'm very cute, if you like looking at me, please give me points."

Morishita Ai suddenly opened her eyes, revealing a pair of cool-toned purple irises.

Looked down upon by Chihaya Rei, she remained sprawled peacefully, turning her cheek to look at him with calm eyes, devoid of much emotion.

"No, no, no."

Hearing Morishita Ai actually demand points from him, Chihaya Rei chuckled inwardly.

"It's just that you're sleeping here, leaving me no place to sit and eat. From a distance, I actually thought you were a maggot."

Chihaya Rei said, lifting the oden in his hand to show Morishita Ai, his excuse quite sufficient.

"Hmph, hmph."

Faced with Chihaya Rei describing her as a maggot, Morishita Ai didn't get angry. Instead, she let out two little hums, her eyes gaining a hint of sharpness as she stared straight at him.

"A mere Class D student, Chihaya Rei, daring to describe me like that—you have courage, and you're quite interesting."

It appeared.

Morishita Ai's unique way of addressing others by their full names.

However, Chihaya Rei generally didn't care how his name was used, as long as it wasn't some cutesy repetitive nickname.

"Class A student, Morishita Ai, you're also quite interesting."

Chihaya Rei casually placed one hand on his waist and looked down at Morishita Ai, his eyes equally filled with intrigue.

Logically, two people who had never interacted before should feel surprised upon calling each other's names accurately at their first meeting, followed by the puzzled question, "Do you know me?"

Yet, neither of them did so.

"Only 'quite interesting'?"

Morishita Ai's purple brows furrowed slightly, as if she were not very satisfied with that evaluation.

"Coming from me, that's already a very high compliment."

Chihaya Rei said with a serious face.

"That's clearly not enough."

Morishita Ai spoke bluntly, her voice calm yet radiating confidence.

She raised her eyes to look at Chihaya Rei, her gaze filled with interest; this person seemed capable of keeping up with her pace.

Morishita Ai said indifferently:

"I know of you because of Sakayanagi Arisu. What about you?"

Morishita Ai had been paying attention to the recent rumors about Sakayanagi Arisu pursuing Chihaya Rei.

And Morishita Ai possessed a curious nature toward anything interesting.

Just how many people knew him because of the Sakayanagi affair?

Chihaya Rei no longer cared.

Even without Sakayanagi Arisu, he often attracted attention due to his modeling.

"It seems the name of Morishita has already spread to other classes."

Before Chihaya Rei could answer, Morishita Ai nodded in affirmation, her tone and expression quite self-satisfied.

"..."

Chihaya Rei was stunned for a moment, the corners of his mouth twitching upward by a few centimeters, his tone shifting into something subtle:

"I heard there's a weirdo in Class A named Morishita Ai."

He paused deliberately, noticing that Morishita Ai was clearly listening intently.

"The class points deducted from Class A in the first month might have been her fault; otherwise, Class A might have made history and reached 1,000 class points."

Chihaya Rei explained with a serious expression, as if it were truly the case.

And he wasn't actually making it up.

Because Morishita Ai was the type of person who would perform many incomprehensible actions regardless of the occasion.

This led the students of Class A to label her a weirdo—someone with bizarre behavior, erratic thinking, and a tendency to say things that no one could understand.

Therefore, there was a perfectly reasonable basis to suspect that Morishita Ai's eccentric behavior had caused Class A to lose points in the first month.

As his words fell, Morishita Ai's light purple pupils contracted slightly, and her lips parted.

She seemed surprised... that such rumors about her even existed.

The next second, she immediately put on a stern little face toward Chihaya Rei, waved her arm, and held her palm out toward him, saying:

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

"The dignified Morishita would never do anything to hold the class back."

"Ah, that's hard to say."

Chihaya Rei teased lightly, wearing an expression of disbelief.

"No." Morishita Ai's expression turned thoughtful. "Perhaps my actions actually added points to the class?"

"That is absolutely impossible."

Chihaya Rei answered instantly.

Then he sighed slightly and said:

"Actually, I wanted to tell you just now, Morishita Ai, lying like that makes it very easy to have a wardrobe malfunction."

Upon hearing this, Morishita Ai blinked rapidly, her lips slightly parted as she asked, "Did you see?"

"What do you think?"

Chihaya Rei swept his gaze over her, giving an ambiguous answer.

"Then let's assume you saw it; please hand over some points."

Morishita Ai said, unceremoniously extending her fair, petite palm toward Chihaya Rei.

"I'm a student in Class D, and everyone is so poor they don't have any points. I was actually hoping Morishita could support me with some points."

Chihaya Rei said, extending his hand as well.

Even though he was a person with millions of points in his pocket.

"You're eating oden, so you definitely have points."

"This wasn't expensive."

After Chihaya Rei answered, he showed a mischievous smile this time and said:

"So, has Morishita-san not had enough of lying down yet?"

"Besides, this behavior of yours is quite bad..."

He sighed slightly, explaining with a righteous tone:

"If everyone were to lie on benches in public places like you, Morishita Ai, it wouldn't be surprising if the school installed uncomfortable bumps in the middle of the chairs one of these days."

"That is how the Beautiful Country deals with the homeless."

"So, Morishita-san, please give up your seat; I intend to eat here."

[Tortured Morishita Ai, gained 1500 Torture Points]

Faced with this remark from Chihaya Rei, Morishita Ai looked slightly stunned. She paused for a few seconds before speaking again:

"Actually... I remembered too."

"Then why didn't you take action?"

Chihaya Rei asked with a puzzled expression, though he quickly guessed the reason, a glint of amusement flashing in his eyes.

"Don't tell me you've been lying down for so long that your body has gone numb?"

"Precisely."

Morishita Ai admitted it with a proud look on her face.

"Typical of you, to actually chat with me for so long like this."

"So please pull me up, and I won't hold you accountable for the points regarding Chihaya Rei watching me sleep and catching a glimpse of my underwear."

"I never agreed to give you any points from the start."

Chihaya Rei corrected her, yet he still reached out with a strong hand and pulled the eccentric girl to her feet.