The moment the final bell rang, Uesugi Hara slipped his Terminal into his uniform pocket, grabbed his schoolbag, and strode out of the classroom. Behind him, quiet discussion still drifted through Class A—Katsuragi Kohei was going over the details of the daily conduct rules with several classmates, the faint scratch of pen on paper mingling with their voices. None of that concerned him for now. He had only one goal: personal points.
As he crossed the walkway between the school buildings, the sound of a basketball thumping against the ground carried from the open area behind the gym storage shed. Uesugi Hara stood beneath the shade of a tree, watching a boy in a third-year uniform on the court. The explosive strength in his dribbling and the steady wrist behind his shots made it obvious that he was a key player on the basketball team.
He had picked out his target from the anonymous forum on his Terminal: Sato Ken, a third-year and vice president of the basketball team. Someone on the forum had mentioned that Sato had lost points to the team captain last month for misusing club equipment, and was now in a hurry to make up the shortfall.
Uesugi Hara walked onto the court just as the basketball rolled to his feet. He bent to pick it up, twirling it lightly on his fingertips. "Nice touch, Sato-senpai."
Sato turned around, sweat dripping from his jawline onto his collarbone. He regarded Uesugi Hara with a hint of scrutiny. "First-year?" His gaze swept over Uesugi Hara's uniform, his tone a little dismissive.
"Uesugi Hara." He tossed the basketball back. Sato raised a hand and caught it smoothly. "I heard you're the basketball team's ace, senpai. Want to play a game? We can put something on the line."
Sato gave a snort and backed up beyond the three-point line, bouncing the ball. "You want to compete with me? Do you know I won the national tournament's best shooter award last year?"
"So how about we bet fifty thousand points?" Uesugi Hara said calmly, as if he were talking about the weather. "A three-point shootout, ten shots each. Whoever makes more wins. If I win, you give me fifty thousand. If I lose, I'll pay you the same."
Sato's movements stopped. Fifty thousand points would be enough to cover his shortfall and still leave him with a profit. He looked Uesugi Hara up and down. The boy was on the thin side, with a rather gloomy look, and his fingers didn't even have the calluses of someone who played sports. He didn't look like a basketball player at all.
"You sure?" Sato raised an eyebrow. "First-years are all this eager to gamble?"
"I just want to give it a try and see how I measure up to you, senpai." Uesugi Hara spoke with just enough truth to sound convincing, already opening the transfer screen on his Terminal. "Do we need a teacher to witness it?"
"No need." Sato agreed at once. He didn't believe he could lose to a first-year who looked so frail. "Right here. Don't try to wriggle out of it if you lose."
Ten minutes later, Sato stared at the basketball rolling to his feet, his face stiff in the evening sun. Six to four. Uesugi Hara had won. His final shot had even circled halfway around the rim before dropping in, its angle so precise it looked calculated.
"The points." Uesugi Hara gave his Terminal a shake.
Grinding his teeth, Sato transferred fifty thousand points. His eyes were full of frustration. "Who are you, anyway? Have you played basketball before?"
"Just once in a while." Uesugi Hara put away his Terminal, then added, "I'm pretty good at long-distance running, too. I hear Watanabe-senpai from the third-year track team is trying to break the ten-thousand-meter record."
Sato jerked his head up, as if he'd figured something out. But Uesugi Hara was already turning away, leaving him with one last remark. "I hope you'll keep what happened today to yourself, senpai. Losing to a first-year wouldn't look too good."
The comment struck right at Sato's weak spot. He watched Uesugi Hara disappear around the corner of the walkway, then slammed the basketball hard against the backboard. In the end, he said nothing.
For the rest of the afternoon, Uesugi Hara moved around campus like a hunter who never missed.
On the tennis court, he beat a second-year girl on the tennis team with a series of seemingly casual slice shots, winning thirty thousand points. His additional condition was, "Don't let anyone know I beat you." She clearly didn't want the senior she had a crush on to find out she'd lost to a first-year.
At the swimming pool, he beat a third-year breaststroke specialist by eight-tenths of a second, winning a bet of forty thousand points. The other student was a proud sort who volunteered to "take this to the grave" before leaving.
He kept every match close, with bets ranging from thirty thousand to seventy thousand points. That way, his wins wouldn't be so easy that they aroused suspicion, and the stakes wouldn't be so high that his opponents hesitated. More importantly, he always found a reason for them to keep quiet—whether it was their pride or some little secret they'd let slip on the forum. He couldn't help thinking what a useful thing the school forum was. It also reminded him of Kushida Kikyo, who supposedly had dirt on plenty of people.
At five thirty in the afternoon, Uesugi Hara sat beneath the shade of a tree and tallied his points. His Terminal showed a balance of five hundred and thirty thousand, a full four hundred and sixty thousand more than the day before. That figure was well over a tenth of the total personal points currently held by Class A, but after staring at the screen for a few seconds, he still felt it wasn't enough. With points, after all, more was always better.
As he got up and headed for the cafeteria, he ran into Sakayanagi Arisu and Hashimoto Masayoshi at a fork in the path.
"Hey, Uesugi. Just finished working out?" Hashimoto Masayoshi spoke first, his tone exaggeratedly warm as his gaze swept over the bits of grass clinging to Uesugi Hara's trouser leg.
Sakayanagi Arisu lightly tapped her cane against the ground, her ice-blue eyes turned toward him. "You seemed busy this afternoon, Uesugi-kun. I didn't see you in the classroom after school."
"I was just practicing a little on the sports grounds." Uesugi Hara lied without batting an eye. From the corner of his eye, he noticed Hashimoto behind Sakayanagi holding a form with the words "Class Conduct Rules" faintly visible on it.
"Is that so?" Sakayanagi gave a soft laugh, a hint of chill wrapped in her voice. "Then you should replenish your sugar. Palette's strawberry cake is nice, though a little expensive—eight thousand points."
Uesugi Hara's thoughts stirred. An eight-thousand-point cake? This rich girl certainly had money to spare. He tugged at the corner of his mouth. "I'll try it sometime."
As they passed each other, he heard Sakayanagi Arisu murmur to Hashimoto, "Check the usage records for all the sports facilities today, especially those used by the upper years."
Uesugi Hara didn't stop walking, nor did he care. At this rate, everyone would find out sooner or later anyway. Still, a faint smile tugged at his lips. It seemed Sakayanagi Arisu had already brought Hashimoto over to her side.
After dinner, Uesugi Hara returned to his dorm room, and his Terminal buzzed again. This time, the message was from Yamada Naoki—the track team senior Uesugi Hara had beaten. The wording was tentative: "I heard you're looking for someone who's good at sprinting. I know a guy who might be willing to bet against you."
Uesugi Hara raised an eyebrow. It seemed his "hunt" had already spread, and someone was even trying to set up a match. He replied, "Tell him to come to the sports grounds tomorrow afternoon. The bet is seventy thousand."
He turned off his Terminal and looked out at the sky growing dim beyond the window. Lights were coming on one by one in Class A. Katsuragi was still discussing training plans with his classmates, while Sakayanagi had already left the classroom.
Five hundred thousand was only the beginning for him. He had to get as many points as he could before they stopped him.