When Kitahara arrived at the convenience store, something suddenly occurred to him.
Kamuro must have been caught by Sakayanagi for shoplifting, which gave Sakayanagi a way to control her.
But he had no idea when exactly it happened.
Whatever. Even if I don't run into her now, I'll get another chance eventually.
Heh, being able to order a pretty girl around is great!
Wait, no. How did I become so shameless?
"Ahem. I shouldn't think about that."
"Kitahara, what are you daydreaming about?" a gentle voice asked from beside him.
Hearing someone call his name, Kitahara turned around. He saw a beautiful girl with long pink hair, wearing knee-high socks with her school uniform. Her two most eye-catching features were the mounds on her chest. For a moment, even he, usually so composed, couldn't help staring.
"N-nothing. I was just thinking about something else."
"By the way, how did you know my name?"
"Oh, well... Hoshinomiya-sensei told me. She said we should pay special attention to you, Kitahara from Class 1-D."
"Ah, I see."
Oh no. Why is she paying attention to me? I'm taking some of the attention away from Ayanokoji.
"By the way, I haven't introduced myself yet."
"My name is Ichinose Honami, and I'm a student in Class 1-B," Ichinose said with a smile.
"Right. You probably already know my name, but let me introduce myself anyway."
"I'm Kitahara Seiichi from Class 1-D, and I'm a man destined to become a Shura."
"Ah, what does Shura mean?"
"Nothing much. It's just a low rank in a game."
"Is that so? It sounds like you must really like that game, Kitahara."
"More or less. Anyway, what brings you here, Ichinose?"
"I'm here to buy some household supplies too."
Uh, that was a pretty stupid question. Do guys lose brain cells whenever they're around a pretty girl?
No, Ayanokoji is a real man.
"I came to buy some things too. Want to go together?"
Wait, why did I say that without thinking? It didn't feel awkward at all.
"Sure. Sorry for the trouble, Kitahara."
As they wandered through the household supplies section together, they unexpectedly ran into Ayanokoji and Horikita Suzune.
"Hey, Ayanokoji. Fancy seeing you again."
"Uh, good to see you again, Kitahara."
"Did you come to buy household supplies with Horikita?"
"No, we just happened to run into each other," Horikita answered before Ayanokoji could respond.
Her tone was still a little cold, though.
"Kitahara, are you here with the girl beside you...?"
"Uh, this is Ichinose from Class 1-B. We happened to run into each other too."
After Kitahara answered, the atmosphere grew awkward again. But a sudden shout soon shattered the silence.
Ken Sudō had been arguing with some other students. He turned and kicked over the trash can beside him.
Watching this, Kitahara couldn't help murmuring,
"No wonder the Class Points will drop to zero next month."
"Good thing I saw this coming. Otherwise, I'd be stuck eating free vegetable meals next month."
"Ahem. Well, we'll get going now. See you tomorrow."
After parting ways with them, Kitahara quickly bought the things he needed and headed to the checkout.
There was something conspicuous by the register: a sign that read, "Free Aid Items."
The school really is hinting at something to the students. But in the original story, most of the students in Class D didn't notice. They just kept spending.
The beautiful girl standing beside Kitahara had noticed it too.
"Kitahara, why are there free household supplies? The school gave every student 100,000 points. Surely no one would be short on points."
Uh, how should I answer? I promised to keep it a secret! This is putting me in a tough spot.
"Could it be that 100,000 points just isn't enough? Or maybe someone stole your points."
"That's a bit of a careless answer, Kitahara," Ichinose said, looking mildly exasperated.
"Ha... haha," Kitahara replied apologetically.
"Never mind. Let's not worry about it for now. We should go pay."
After they paid, Kitahara and Ichinose went their separate ways.
As he walked along, Kitahara Seiichi sighed.
"I can't believe I ran into Ichinose instead of Kamuro. Looks like the butterfly effect has already begun."
Meanwhile, Ichinose kept analyzing what she had just seen and the things Kitahara had murmured.
That's right. Everything Kitahara said after seeing Sudō's behavior had reached Ichinose's ears. At the time, everyone's attention was on Sudō, but after Hoshinomiya's reminder, Ichinose had still been keeping most of her attention on Kitahara Seiichi.
"What are Class Points? Why would he have to eat free meals? And what did he mean by aid items? From the look of it, Kitahara seems to know quite a lot."
"Is that why Hoshinomiya-sensei told me to keep an eye on him?"
Meanwhile, Kitahara Seiichi had no idea what was going on. If he had known, he would only have said,
"This really isn't my fault. Besides, I didn't say anything about the 100,000 points. I only mentioned Class Points."
In any case, because of him, it was anyone's guess whether Class B would still follow the original story.
At that moment, Kitahara Seiichi was checking the Student Terminal on his phone.