A Chance Encounter at the Convenience Store

When Kitahara Seiichi arrived at the convenience store, a thought suddenly crossed his mind.

[It seems Kamuro was caught shoplifting by Sakayanagi, which is how she ended up under her control.]

[But I have no idea when exactly that happens.]

[Whatever, even if I don't run into her now, there will be plenty of opportunities later.]

[Hehe, being able to order a beautiful girl around sounds pretty great!]

[Wait, no. Why have I become so shameless?]

"Ahem, forget it."

"Kitahara-kun, what are you spacing out for?" A soft voice drifted into his ears.

Hearing someone call him, Kitahara turned around to see a beautiful girl with pink hair, wearing calf-high socks with her school uniform. In particular, the two prominent mounds on her chest were so eye-catching that even he, usually calm, couldn't help but stare in a daze.

"N-nothing, I was just thinking about something else."

"By the way, how do you know my name?"

"Oh, this... Hoshinomiya-sensei told me. She said that Kitahara-kun from Class 1-D is someone we need to pay special attention to."

"Ah, I see."

[Damn it, how did I end up on her radar? Isn't this just drawing attention away from Ayanokoji?]

"I haven't introduced myself yet, have I?"

"I'm Ichinose Honami, a student from Class B," Ichinose said with a smile.

"Well, although you probably already know my name, let me introduce myself properly."

"I am Kitahara Seiichi of Class 1-D, the man who aspires to become an Asura."

"Ah, what does Asura mean?"

"Nothing, just a low rank in a game."

"Is that so? It seems Kitahara-kun must really like that game."

"Well, I suppose so. But what brings Ichinose-san here?"

"Mm, I'm here to buy some daily necessities as well."

[Ugh, I feel like I just asked a moronic question. Do men really lose their intelligence in front of pretty girls?]

[No, Ayanokoji is a true man.]

"I'm here to buy some too, why don't we go together?"

[Wait, why did I say that so naturally? It didn't feel awkward at all.]

"Sure, that would be great, Kitahara-kun."

As they wandered through the daily necessities section together, they happened to run into Ayanokoji and Horikita Suzune.

"Hi, Ayanokoji-kun, we meet again."

"Uh, Kitahara-kun, nice to see you again."

"Are you here to buy daily necessities with Horikita-san?"

"No, we just happened to run into each other," Horikita answered before Ayanokoji could, her tone still somewhat icy.

"Kitahara-kun, are you with this person next to you..."

"Oh, this is Ichinose-san from Class B. We just happened to run into each other as well."

Following Kitahara's reply, the atmosphere fell into an awkward silence, but it was soon broken by a roar.

Sudo Ken was seen arguing with some others, and in a fit of rage, he turned and kicked a nearby trash can over.

Seeing this, Kitahara couldn't help but mutter to himself:

"No wonder the class points drop to zero next month."

"Good thing I had the foresight, otherwise I'd be stuck eating free vegetable sets next month."

"Ahem, well, we'll be taking our leave now. See you tomorrow."

After parting ways with them, Kitahara quickly gathered his supplies and headed to the checkout counter.

However, there was a conspicuous sign at the counter labeled [Free Emergency Supplies].

[The school really is dropping hints for the students, isn't it? But in the original story, most of the students in Class 1-D didn't notice and just kept spending.]

The beautiful girl standing next to Kitahara had noticed it as well.

"Kitahara-kun, why are there free daily necessities? The school already gave every student 100,000 points, so they shouldn't be short on points, right?"

[Ugh, how do I answer this? I already promised to keep it a secret! Isn't this making things difficult for me?]

"Uh, could it be that 100,000 points isn't enough? Or maybe their points were stolen."

"Kitahara-kun, that's a bit too dismissive, isn't it?" Ichinose said, wearing a slightly helpless expression.

"Ha... haha." Kitahara replied apologetically.

"Forget it, let's put that aside for now and go pay the bill."

After they finished paying, Kitahara and Ichinose went their separate ways.

Walking down the street, Kitahara Seiichi sighed:

"I didn't expect to run into Ichinose instead of Kamuro. It seems the butterfly effect has already begun."

On the other side, Ichinose was constantly analyzing what she had just seen and the words Kitahara had muttered.

[That's right, everything Kitahara said after seeing Sudo's behavior fell into Ichinose's ears. Although their attention was on Sudo at the time, thanks to Hoshinomiya's reminder, Ichinose still kept most of her focus on Kitahara Seiichi.]

"What are class points? Why would he go to eat a free meal set? And what did he mean by relief supplies earlier? It looks like Kitahara-kun knows quite a lot, doesn't it?"

"Could this be the reason Hoshinomiya-sensei told me to pay more attention to him?"

Meanwhile, Kitahara Seiichi was completely unaware of this, and if he knew, he would only say:

"This really isn't my fault. Besides, I didn't mention anything about the 100,000 points; I only talked about class points."

Regardless, because of him, it is now unknown whether Class B will remain the same as in the original story.

At this moment, Kitahara Seiichi was checking the

Student Terminal

on his phone.