Tokyo Metropolitan Advanced Nurturing High School, tree-lined avenue.
After Amasawa Reigetsu and Ayanokoji Kiyoko finished dinner together, they were full and ready for... well, that. With no time to waste, they headed back to the dorms to get started. They weren't planning to take the usual route, so they went straight through the woods—
*A heated argument
The two stopped in their tracks and instantly slipped into stealth mode, approaching the source of the argument.
In a quiet corner of the campus beneath the night sky, the air seemed frozen. Horikita Manabu adjusted his glasses with one hand as he looked down at his younger sister. His gaze held no warmth, as if he were appraising a defective product.
"Well, well, if it isn't Horikita Suzune. So it's not Horikita Manabu who's a siscon—it's Horikita Suzune who's a brocon!"
"You're still nowhere near good enough to catch up with me. As you are now, you can't do it."
Horikita Manabu's voice was devoid of emotion, as if he were passing judgment on Horikita Suzune.
Suzune was obviously unconvinced. Even though he was the brother she admired most, the one whose footsteps she had always chased, her base programming still made her bristle:
"That's not true! I've already made it into this school, and I'll catch up with you soon! I've grown a lot!"
"Grown? You mean being assigned to Class D, the first class in the school's history to get zero points in its first month? Don't make a fool of yourself!"
Horikita Manabu seemed to find that amusing. He stepped closer, putting even more pressure on Suzune.
"It has to be a mistake in the class assignments! How could I possibly be the same as those defective—"
Horikita Manabu suddenly grabbed Suzune by the wrist, cutting off her struggle, and slammed her against the wall. The dull thud rang out sharply in the silent night. Suzune let out a pained groan but couldn't break free.
"That's enough! Having a sister dumped in Class D is an embarrassment to me."
Horikita Manabu spoke coldly beside his sister's ear. He even raised his fist, ready to bring it down.
"Until you're capable of climbing up, don't let anyone find out you're my sister. At this school, you're nothing but a failure who got into Class D. Get that through your head first."
*Smack!
"So, after all that, he really is a siscon."
Just as Horikita Manabu's hand was about to swing down, a hand reached out of the shadows like a specter and caught his wrist with perfect precision.
The air seemed to freeze in that instant.
Horikita Manabu furrowed his brow. His body, honed by years of karate and aikido, immediately sensed the force behind the newcomer's grip.
He turned his head, and his sharp eyes met a pair of murky gray ones.
"The Student Council president using violence against his own sister in the middle of the night probably wouldn't look good if word got out, would it?"
Amasawa Reigetsu's voice was calm, without a ripple. There was even the faintest hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
Horikita Manabu's eyes sharpened, and he suddenly strained to wrench his wrist free. However, Amasawa Reigetsu didn't try to match his strength head-on. The moment Horikita Manabu's strength surged, Amasawa released his hold and shifted slightly to one side, using the smallest movement to redirect that brute force. Then his fingers slid along the inside of Horikita Manabu's forearm like flowing water. His fingertips touched lightly, pressing precisely on a pressure point.
Horikita Manabu felt a wave of numbness shoot through his entire right arm, and his previously fluid movements stalled for the briefest instant.
"Induction" activated.
A playful glint flashed in Amasawa Reigetsu's gray eyes. With just a single press to a pressure point, Horikita Manabu had been forced off balance.
That feeling of having his movements restricted... It was just like back then...!!
Taking advantage of the brief pause in his opponent's movements, Amasawa Reigetsu darted into Horikita Manabu's guard like a black shadow. He used no flashy techniques, simply placing his palm against the center of Horikita Manabu's chest.
"You've lost your balance, senpai."
Before the words had even left his mouth, an irresistible force burst forth. It wasn't mere muscle power; it combined Horikita Manabu's forward momentum from losing his balance with a short-range burst of force.
Horikita Manabu grunted and stumbled back three steps before managing to steady himself. When he looked up again, another expressionless figure—no, a woman radiating danger—stood between him and Amasawa.
She held a phone in the position of someone recording, watching him without expression.